The screams never ended. All day and night they went on, incessantly grinding away at the last few bits of sanity she had left. Agonizing, painful howls mixed with animalistic calls and enraged shrieks that threatened to break loose at any moment. Anypony not already insane would soon be.
The white padded walls of her room did little to muffle the cries. It was unsettling that the place she felt safest at was also her cage, the small and simple chamber they locked her in. There was no discernible difference or character to any part of the room. No furniture, no television, no bathroom. The only light came from the small square, double-paned glass that looked out into the dimly lit hallway. Every now and then a flash from a passing caretaker or the flicker of one of the long halogen lights outside would momentarily paint shadows across the walls around her.
“Dinner time.”
The familiar silver bowl rattled through the slit at the bottom of the door, filled with the slop that she was forced to eat everyday just to survive. The crude scrape of the metal panel sliding back into place screeched against her eardrums before the lock clicked shut again. There was no way to tell time anymore. All she had was the word of the caretaker that it was either breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Her heavy wings sagged against her side as she weakly padded up to the dented container, the smell of the vile gruel already burning in her nostrils. It brought a disgusted grimace to her face. She wanted to protest – to cry out – but who was there to hear her? It’d been so long since she had said a word that she wasn’t even sure that she had a voice anymore. She wanted to scream just to know that she was still alive. She was a living, breathing pegasus that deserved to fly amongst the clouds and feel the wind against her face. They had taken everything from her.
“Twilight.” Her voice was hushed at first, echoing through the empty room before eventually dissipating into its icy walls. She said the name again and again, each time growing louder until the bowl shook at her hooves. The chamber was filled with her frantic shouts saturating the air when suddenly she stopped.
“You did this to me.” The words cut through the room like a knife, the gravity of her situation finally weighing down on her more than it ever had before.
“You did this to me.” She repeated wrapping her frayed rainbow tail around herself.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“What’s on the agenda for today, sister?” The lunar princess looked to the other alicorn innately.
“I don’t know. I was going to look over some of my old texts from when I was a filly. Care to join me?”
“Not right now, maybe later though.” She said striding sleepily towards the kitchen.
“Suit yourself. I’ll be in the library. You know where to find me.”
The princess of the night nodded before trudging on to procure her breakfast. To no surprise, the chef greeted her with unbridled enthusiasm the second she entered the kitchen.
“Good morning, princess! I trust you had a good night’s sleep. What can I prepare for you this lovely day?”
The princess sighed at the overeager nature of the earth pony before opening one of the cupboards with her magic.
“Nothing for me today, Pinkie. I’ll just make myself some toast.”
“Oh please, Your Majesty! Let me make something for you! It’s my job to make sure that you’re well fed and have plenty of energy to raise the moon every night!” The pink mare squealed excitedly before snatching the two slices of levitating bread out of the air and rushing over to the toaster.
“Fine…” the princess sighed before mumbling under her breath. “Why does my sister get the quiet cook?”
“Speaking of Applejack!” Pinkie flipped around. “She wanted to know why Twilight didn’t show up for breakfast this morning. She’s usually finished eating before you even get up!”
“Oh she’s in the library. She wanted to read some of her old books or something.”
“That is just like Twilight! Always blowing off important things like eating to go bury her nose in a book!”
“Tell me about it.” The princess of the night groaned pulling back one of the chairs to sit at the table.
“Well I guess that’s why she’s an alicorn now!” The pink mare set the plate of toasted bread on the table in front of her.
“I guess so.” She replied absently. “Thank you for the breakfast Pinkie.”
An appreciative smile crept across the earth pony’s face. “Happy to help. You just call me if you need anything else, Trixie.”
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
The wagon gave a violent jolt as it rattled over the rocks. The two occupants inside were repeatedly thrown against each other until their stomachs churned uneasily and their groans finally drowned out the creaking of the wood.
“What are we going to do?”
The sudden question startled the dragon. The journey had been completely silent up until now and Spike was hesitant to break the gloomy air. He looked at the filthy white unicorn worriedly and shook his head.
“I don’t know,” was all he could muster to say.
“Spike, talk to me. Please. Just say something.” Her voice wavered as the wagon gave another violent jolt, throwing her across to slam into him again.
“What do you want me to say? That everything will be alright? That we’re going to be okay?” the subtle agitation was obvious. It was a tone Rarity could recall using very often herself.
The white unicorn took on a hurt look before using the next bump as an opportunity to move across the wagon. Spike sighed as she leaned against him, nuzzling her cheek into his shoulder.
“Tell me everything is going to be alright.”
There was a long, drawn-out sigh before Spike finally spoke again.
“Everything is going to be alright.”
The wagon teetered on, the two passengers shifting nervously inside. The chains that bound them to the floor rattled and shook with every bump.