Midnight's body groaned as he slowly regained consciousness, every piece of him complaining as he regained sensation in it. It took his addled mind a minute or two for his memories to return, and for him to remember they weren't a dream or hallucination: The shadows, the creatures, their dive towards Ponyville, running... Midnight shuddered as he felt the talons close around him, his struggle for what had to be miles, eyes clamped shut in the brilliant sunlight for all but the briefest moments. There was a desert, a grumbling, shadows moving, a crash, a fight, all to darkness.
Head still spinning from his recovery, Midnight strained to nurse his aches as he cracked his eyes slowly. But it did him no good, as the room around him was nearly pitched black: There was so little light even his sensitive night vision made him strain to see his hooves in front of his face. He didn't need his eyes to tell where his hooves were though, as when he moved his hooves there was a loud, heavy rattling between them. His eyes mostly adjusted to the gloom, letting him see exactly what he was afraid to think: his hooves were chained, a heavy iron shackle wrapped around each foreleg. As he tugged experimentally on the chains he gasped with pain, feeling the metal bite into his hooves. It was like there were small teeth on the inside of the shackle, biting into him with each struggle. As he struggled to stand, he felt another iron band around his neck, a chain heavier than the first running somewhere up to the nearby wall, surely to keep him from trying to slip away. There was a band around his barrel too, also toothed as he gasped sharply when he failed to unfurl his wings and was bit for his efforts.
The pain subsided after a moment of standing motionless, allowing Midnight to reopen his eyes to glance around. The darkness was oppressive, but as his eyes adapted ever so slightly a figure began to emerge in the darkness. A figure with a green coat...
"Crystal!" he gasped, and lurched forwards to check on her. He remembered hearing her get smashed into a wall, and he hadn't hears anything from her the entire trip...was she okay? She couldn't have been dead, could she? But as he reached out to try and touch Crystal, the chain attached to his neck snapped taut, the teeth of the collar digging into his neck and making him gasp in pain as he recoiled. He tried to adjust the collar to be less painful, but it predictably refused to budge and he sighed with frustration, laying down as close to Crystal as he could manage. There didn't seem to be any blood on her head, but he couldn't reach out to check properly for any injuries or bruises because he couldn't get near enough to touch her. He could only sit, in silent panic, until a minute later she stirred. "Crys?" he murmured, shifting to reach for her despite her still being out of reach.
As the mare groaned, shifting slowly with her ears twisted back, Midnight watched her carefully. She seemed okay, if very dazed and still waking up from being knocked out. "Stormy?" she groaned, grogginess starting to fade from her voice. "Midnight what happ..." But as soon as Crystal opened her eyes, she jolted in shock, her eyes darting frantically at their surroundings. "What happened? Where...where's the light? Where did the light go?!" Crystal jerked to her hooves, only to jerk again at the sting of the chains bit her as well. "What's happening?!"
"Crystal, Crys take it easy!" Midnight cried. "It's okay, it's alright! I'm right here, I promise I'm here!"
Crystal's eyes were shrunken with fear, but her ear shifted forward to hear Midnight's voice. She looked frantically for any sign of him, but it was obvious she couldn't see him in the slightest. Midnight winced, but shifted his hooves forward. Crys jumped frantically at the rattling chains as Midnight tried to take her hoof gently, only worsened as she heard her own chains rattle with her movements, biting into her skin. “Why isn’t my magic working?!” she shrieked, causing Midnight to wince. “I can’t…I can’t light my horn, what’s happening!!?”
“Crystal please, it’s alright,” Midnight urged her. “Close your eyes, it’s going to be okay…”
“Close my eyes, close my eyes…” Crystal muttered, screwing her eyeballs shut. Midnight watched fearfully as she took several slow, deep breaths, her eyes pressed tightly shut to help her zone out of the pitched blackness around her.
“Crystal, it’s only me. We’re alone here, I promise you it’s only me,” he said, as Crystal nodded in understanding, but Midnight could still see her shaking. "They have us chained up, I can't get any closer. Can you inch closer to my voice?" he asked gently, and Crystal nodded in reply. She carefully shifted her body closer to him, hearing the chain of her leash pull itself taut as she just reached Midnight's outstretched hooves. He grabbed her hoof and squeezed it comfortingly as he could.
"Where...where are we?" Crystal murmured, clinging to Midnight's hooves as she kept her eyes shut. Reflexively he shook his head, but knew that Crystal's panic at the pitched blackness prevented her from seeing his response.
"I don't know Crys..." he replied hesitantly. His uncertainty only made Crystal look worse, more stressed, prompting him to try and fill her in. "We're chained to the wall right now...there's a door on the other side of a flagstone room, that's all I can see."
Crystal shivered a little, glancing in the direction Midnight had indicated, but her straining to ser anything was obvious enough for him to pick up on. "Why can't I use my magic? What...my light, it's not working..." Crystal squeaked with fear. "What's happening to me?"
"It's okay Crystal, it's alright I promise," Midnight whispered, but his own voice was shaking. He wished he was better at hiding his panic, being unbreakable and supportive as Crys normally was, but it was no good for him to try and hide his emotions now. "They've got some kind of cap locked on your horn, I can just see it...I can't reach though."
Crystal glanced upwards and raised her hooves carefully, chain clattering as it folded between her hooves closer and closer. Crystal grasped the cap carefully and twisted at it, the chain smacking her un the face and making her yelp in fear, then again in pain when the cap refused to move. She tried again, but only gasped as it remained locked in place. She let her hooves fall to the ground, tears welling in her eyes as she shook her head. Midnight reached out carefully to grab her hoof, causing her to jerk her hoof back as she heard him move. But after a second she reached out to him and took his hoof clumsily, still straining to see in the darkness. Midnight pressed his hoof to hers. “We…we’re trapped here,” she whimpered. “What do they want with us?”
“I wish I knew,” he answered, patting her hoof tenderly. "But I know they won't get away with it. The princesses won't allow it, Vlyka and Winter absolutely won't."
“Yeah, right, Winter and Vlyka will handle this…” Crystal muttered, nodding her head absently. Midnight could see her straining to remain calm and encourage herself. Hr didn't know what he could possibly do to help her stay calm. He stroked her hoof as she shook, straining not to cry as she whimpered. “I want to go home…”