The pitched blackness of the room made Crystal shiver with each glance around her. She had never been great at handling the dark like this, even when she was deep in a mine hunting for the purest gemstones for her shop. She'd always had her magic to back her up there, a spell to light the way for her if her lamps ever failed deep in the mountain caves.
"Crys, it'll be ok..." Midnight whispered, jerking Crystal out of her panicked staring into the inky blackness engulfing her. She saw a shape shifting dangerously close to her hoof, the clink of a chain shifting instead of the nervous tinkling of her own chains rattling as she shook with fear. Midnight's body was nearly impossible to see in the dark, even giving her eyes time to adjust. She reached her hoof out towards his, barely grazing his hoof and causing her to breathe deeply.
"It's really childish, isn't it?" she sighed, her voice still quavering a little bit. "Basically a miner and I'm still afraid of the dark. Got a nocturnal friend like you..."
"Well, we aren't all perfect," Midnight tried to joke, laughing slightly until Crystal nudged his hoof again. He tried to grab her hoof with both of his, and she returned the gesture with a soft smile she hoped he could see it with his better eyes. "I'm starting to see...well, not see, why the dark makes you so afraid."
Crys smiled again, a weak giggle working up her throat and desperate to come out to lighten the moment. Her nerves swallowed the joy, however, and her smile faded in moments. She tried to stop herself from shaking again, trying to follow her many breathing suggestions to Midnight himself for his general anxiety. The shock that she was so rattled only made her feel worse, knowing Midnight would be scared too and would need her usual supportive attitude to cling to...but she was too rattled to provide it yet. "I can't even remember what happened..." she muttered, glancing at the chains around her hooves and finding them by the rattle as she shook. "Midnight? What happened in Ponyville?"
The chains near her shifted as Midnight jerked in the darkness just beyond her. "Crys," he muttered, "are you sure that you..."
"Please." Crystal whimpered, shaking her head. "I can't remember, it's making me so scared...I don't know how I got here, it's like a black spot. I'm missing..."
"Shh..." Midnight whispered. "Shh Crystal it's okay." She heard Midnight shifting closer to her...at least as long as the chain around his neck allowed. "It's alright Crys." She shuddered and nodded, trying her hardest to stay calm. "Do you really think that you're ok to..."
Midnight trailed off for a moment, surely seeing the begging look in Crystal's eyes. She knew she was hurting him, worrying him, and in any other situation she felt certain this would never have happened. "It still doesn't have to," she thought, taking a slow deep breath to try and calm herself down. Midnight needed support too, he didn't need to worry about her panic. "I think it will help me, please."
Midnight gave out a long sigh, but Crys eventually saw his form nod in the shadows. "Well...you remember that we spotted those creatures headed towards Canterlot?"
"Yes, that's clear enough," Crystal replied. "We ran into Winter and tried to warn the town, then..."
"...you got knocked out, I heard it behind me," Midnight said after a pause. "And Winter got knocked down after. Oh Luna I hope she's..." Crystal reached for Midnight's hoof and brushed it, making him sigh and continue. "They knocked me down and I lost my glasses, it was too bright for me to see but I could feel it. They grabbed me and flew off. I kept trying to break free but their talons..."
"Well they're big as a house, so I don't blame you for losing a fight against three of them." Her words spilled forth before Crystal even thought of it, hearing the self-depreciation in Midnight's voice and instinctively moving to counter it. "You tried to keep them off us. You were wonderful."
"Well, I'm too worried about what they might do to us to fight you on that," he replied with a slightly worried chuckle. Crystal laughed weakly too, shaking her head with a faint smile on her face. It fell a few moments later, as Midnight continued. "They started flying somewhere, I think southeast of Ponyville but I can't be sure. I just know they flew over a desert. Then they started fighting, something about their raid and why it failed. I should have paid more attention to them talking..." Crystal batted at Midnight's hoof again, an effort to turn his mind again before it went self-destructive again. She succeeded. "I was thinking how to get us out, I finally saw you in their talons as the one holding you slammed into the one holding me. They went at each other, but they were both too fast and dodged. Until I timed the other one's attack, I kicked mine to distract it and he got clobbered. He dropped me...my wings were stiff and I barely landed safely in the sand."
"But they still had me?" Crystal asked.
"Yes, and I didn't know if you were still alive. I couldn't tell, you were out cold. But even if I'd wanted to run, they were on me too fast and I couldn't see clearly. By the time I stared right at one, it was on top of me. It slammed into me and rammed me against a rock or something. My wing went numb, then I hit my head..."
Crystal gasped in worry and lurched forwards, snapping against her collar and leash and making her yelp, but her own pain was forgotten immediately. "Midnight are you alright? Are you dizzy, are your ears ringing? Oh I wish I could see your head..."
"Crys I'm ok," Midnight replied. "I mean, okay as I can be in here. My wing is a little sore and I can't really stretch it right now, but..." He sighed and set his head down on the ground gently.
"So you...blacked out then...?" Crystal let out a soft whimper at the realization that hit her. "So you don't know where we are..."
"No, I don't," Midnight sighed too. "So how will anypony? How are we going to get out of here?"
Crys bit her lip as Midnight's fear dug into her, straining to keep her nerves steady. Buy one image came straight to her mind and gave her something vital to cling to. "Vlyka...she won't give up."
Midnight shifted his head and looked at her, she heard his breath steady and strengthen just a little. "No...no Vlyka won't. And Winter won't either. And there's the princesses in town, they can't let invaders just steal their subjects, can they?"
Crystal shook her head and smiled shakily at Midnight's reply. "No they won't, and I know Vlyka won't let them forget us even if they didn't care." She smiled and nodded, setting her head down to rest a little bit. She knew already she couldn't break free, she could see nothing around her and her chains were too sturdy to break. She could do nothing for herself, it was all up to the others now. "I hope they aren't too late..." she thought, barely restraining the whimper of fear that accompanied it. She couldn't crash in front of Midnight when he was so shaken, she could sense his panic just under the surface but still trying to help her stay calm. He was trying so hard for her, surely hoping to repay how she did it for him so much more, but now she still needed to be there to help him stay sane.
Crystal felt time passing them by very slowly, the two of them lying as close as their chains allowed. Neither spoke often, only occasionally to ensure the other was still there, still as afraid of the danger they were in and lost to their surroundings. Eventually the silence was too much for Crystal and she sat up, inching close to Midnight. "How is it still so dark in here?" she muttered, only partially kidding in her frustration. "I thought eyes were supposed to adjust to the darkness..."
Midnight chuckled at her, shaking his head. "I don't get it either, I still can only barely see you. Your green is just..." he stammered for a moment as his voice cut out. Crys felt a tad guilty hearing that noise, hearing her friend struggle to stay calm in the face of this awful kidnapping: at least she wasn't alone in feeling completely lost.
"Midnight..." Crystal whispered. "We're going to be ok, right? I mean...we will be ok. They'll save us."
"I know Crys," he said, smiling just enough for Crystal to see. "I know they will." Midnight stood up at that, Crystal following him as he looked around again. "we just need to stay strong, until..."
But just as soon as the two ponies felt their hope returning, the moment was torn violently away from them. A torch on the far wall, out of either of their reach, suddenly flared to life in a flash of an unknown magic. The fire blasted light onto the room, causing both ponies to drop their heads at the sudden blinding light engulfing them both. Crystal yelped in pain and clenched her eyes shut, screwed up tight as the new light burned her retinas even through her eyelids. After a few seconds she blinked, trying to readjust her vision to the light, opening her eyes to glance around her.
The room was barren as Midnight had described, with only a rotted and rusty door on the far wall with the torch on the opposite. Her chains looking rusty as the door's metal, but as she glanced at her hooves she saw what she had felt before: the inside of the metal bands were jagged, almost sharp nubs, and as she shifted her hoof experimentally she felt them dig into her leg painfully. There was a hint of blood on her leg, just enough to make her wish she had her magic available to clean and dress the wounds. But as she glanced up from her own terrors, Crys saw something that instantly worried her more.
Just in front of her, lying in chains just as rusted and worn, was Midnight. She had just been able to make out his outline in the pitched blackness before, but now she could see his coat and mane were disheveled from rough handling, a nasty looking bruise on his left temple. But right now the biggest worry was that she couldn't see his pale yellow eyes, which were clamped shut thanks to the blinding light around him. Midnight's eyes were adapted to the night for which he was named, and the sudden change to bright light was far worse for him than anypony else. She could see him writhing in pain, the gasp and groan of him straining to cover his with his hooves. Even with his eyes shut, she could see the sudden fear his temporary blindness had brought, Crys feeling his defenselessness even more than her own helplessness now: she could at least see anything coming for her. "Midnight, can you hear me?" she asked.
"Crys?" he replied, glancing in her direction. His voice was shaking, and he glanced around as if begging for another sign of Crystal's presence. She moved her hoof as close to him as he could.
"I'm here, I'm here," she said, offering what little comfort she could. She reached for Midnight's hoof, grazing it as he tried to squirm closer and take it, Crystal smiling at him despite knowing he couldn't see. It helped her focus on him, being supportive for his sake. "It's going to be alright..."
Just then, the door jerked open, slamming hard against the wall. It would have rebounded, if not for the massive claw stretching into the room as it bashed the door open, leaving just enough space in the doorway for the massive shadow to slide into the room. Crystal's gaze fell on the creature as it entered, paralyzed with fear as she started identifying what she was looking at. The creature was enormous, its massive jackal-like head almost as big as the doors on Crystal's house. The dark fur on its face grew thick at the base of the neck, creating a ruff that gave the illusion of a lion's mane when seen from straight on. It's forelegs ended in griffon-like claws, but Crystal could see that their arms were far more than just that: their flight feathers were folded behind the forearms, the whole arm covered in feathers to give them wings to fly. She could only just see the back half of the creature, another set of bird-like talons on its muscular back legs and a feathered tail stuck outside the doorway.
"Crys, what's happening?" asked Midnight, shifting to look at the noise the creature was making. Crystal glanced between her friend and the creature, who's bloodshot eyes narrowed on the gasping pegasus.
Crystal's heart pounded in her chest, panic still flooding her body with the urge to run. But even if she weren't chained down, she couldn't run, not now. With the distance she had on her collar chain Crystal stepped towards the door, trying to put herself between the creature and Midnight. "You won't touch him, you hear me?!" she growled. "Don't you dare!"
The creature growled at her, a low rumbling noise that shook the flagstones beneath Crystal's hooves almost as much as it shook her. She wanted to stand her ground, but the massive size difference, plus the carnivorous fangs that by far put Vlyka's to shame, rattled her to her very core. Then, just to unnerve her further, the creature began to laugh, until it spoke in a deep rasping voice. "You are far better for our needs anyways."
Crystal gasped as the claw lurched forwards, past her to the wall behind her. She was almost buried in its feathers and fur, the rank, musky odor of it causing her eyes to water. She gagged on the stink as the creature's claws grabbed the chain around her neck. It somehow detached the chain from the wall and yanked it almost straight up, snapping the chain and pulling Crystal's collar to the point she was forced to lift her front hooves off the ground.
"No, stop!" Crystal gasped, as the creature pulled the chain taut and scraped itself towards the door. Crystal reached for Midnight, but the chain had already pulled her too far away to even reach him. "Let go, ahh!" Crystal gasped, as the collar dug into the back of her neck. She strained against the chain's pull, but the pain grew too intense for her to bear. Staggering forwards, stumbling when her forelegs got tangled in their own chain, Crystal tried her best to resist the pull again. But it was no good. "No, let go of me! Stop, Midnight!!"
"Crystal!!" Midnight screamed, reaching his hooves out to grab at Crystal. But they were too far away, and as she was yanked out into the hallway, the last thing Crystal saw was Midnight desperately trying to open his eyes. The door slammed shut behind her as she was dragged away, leaving Midnight alone in the cell.