Shards of Hatred

by ChaoticHarmony

Communication

It almost felt like an age had passed before she looked up from her cup of Moonflower tea that she had been staring at for the past ten minutes, topics passing through her mind that no mortal should ever have to think about. One of these topics was how she was going to explain it all to the stallion that was lying on the sitting pillow in front of her. "We should really instruct our guards to be... gentler, in the future." She gave a grudging smile at the soft chuckle that drifted over from the corner before sipping at her tea. Luna had lost count of how many cups she had had, but if her servant's eyes were any indication; she had had a whole barrel's worth of the stuff by now. Another sip revealed to her that she had consumed yet another cup of the delicious liquid.

“M-more tea, your Highness?” Luna looked over to see the meek little mare holding out what was likely the fourth teapot they’ve gone through in the evening, and then looked down at her teacup to notice that her drink was empty yet again. The servant’s voice and face both told her the same thing: She had been idle long enough.

She lifted a hoof to wave away the tea that was being proffered, smiling softly to calm the fearful pony. “It’s okay, Teacup. We have… er…” She cursed herself with her limited knowledge of the common Equestrian slang. “How do you say? Drunk enough tea to quench the thirst of thousands.” Upon noticing the look that she received upon finishing the saying, she cursed her lack of understanding of the common language again. “W-We have had quite enough, thank you.”

“U-Um… Okay, Princess. I-I-I shall return later just in case you require further refreshment.” Of course, the mare’s tone made it clear that she wouldn’t be back for a long while, if she could help it. After all, it’s not every day you’re asked to serve tea for your Princess when she had an unconscious stallion in her room.

When the door was firmly closed behind the servant, Luna sighed. It was time to awaken Shining Armor, for better or worse. “We hope that he will be more… amiable, this time.” She stood up from her large pillow and trotted over to where the stallion lay on the floor, bending down to touch her horn to his forehead. After she pulled away, his eyes were open and alert. “Welcome back to the world of the waking, Shining Armor.” Luna settled back on her haunches and waited, keeping a watchful eye on the stallion lest he go and try to escape; almost as watchful as her two lunar guards behind him in the shadows that were plentiful in her personal chambers.

Shining Armor was slow to rise, no doubt believing there to be more ponies in the room aside from the night princess’s own, though Luna did nothing to affirm or deny his unsaid suspicions. “Luna.” When he was finally on all four hooves, he did a slow sweep of the room with his eyes, turning in all directions to see if they were alone. He gave a small smile when he saw that they weren’t, trying to keep the mixture of bitterness and anxiety from his words lest he have to fight off the two stallions in the corner. “I see you brought your head-banging guards into your room as well.”

She winced, regretting that such a thing had been done in the first place. “Apologies, Shining Armor, but our guards are rather… protective of us.”

Upon finishing his sweep of the room and not finding anything else of note, Shining Armor sat down and looked directly at the princess with a hard stare. He wanted answers. “All right, Princess Luna, I’ll sit like a good little colt and listen to you explain the situation to me, because it’s obvious I’m missing some major pieces of the story.”

Luna had half a mind to reprimand the impudent pony before her, though she figured he did deserve answers after being led on for so long with so little to go off of. What she did do, however, was trot back over to her pillow and sit down on her haunches with a sigh, preparing to explain the situation as well as she could. “Shining Armor, have you ever heard about… hatred magic?”

“Yes, I have.” The neutral tone, above all, is what sent a spine-tingling chill running down her spine, though the passive face that the stallion had assumed wasn’t helping.

After a few moments of silent, disbelieving staring, Luna breathed in deeply and continued. She wasn’t going to let the fact that a soldier knew of something that was supposed to be a closely guarded secret unnerve her. “Are you aware that Twilight Sparkle has been—“

“Possessed by Sombra and using that magic to kill other ponies? Yes.”

They sat there facing each other for a few minutes before Luna stood up and walked over to the window with a sigh. “Well, it appears Celestia has informed you of a few things.”

“A few things, yeah.” The stallion’s voice was far from pleased, however. “But not much else past what I told you.”

“Very well, Shining Armor.” She trotted back over to him, though slower than she had turned away. As she got closer, her horn glowed with the magic she was sculpting into a spell. “We shall show you what has transpired outside of your knowledge, you need only trust us.” She stopped her horn a hoof’s distance away from his forehead, waiting for him to be the one to complete the connection. “Do not fear, Shining Armor. This is simply a spell to convey our thoughts to you, a way much simpler and infinitely more revealing than just talking about the events.”

After a few moments of silence, within which Luna figured Shining was trying to weigh the options in his head, she felt the skin of the stallion on the tip of her horn, the world outside of their two minds growing dark and dull; everything was outside of their thoughts now and as such were insignificant. “Alright, Princess. I’ll see what you have to say.”

“No, not ‘say’, good stallion. We shall be showing you.”

She was cold.

It had been what seemed like hours since she had been thrown back into her cell, though this time her resistance had been practically non-existent save for a few struggling squirms. She didn’t even have the strength to brace herself for the impact upon the floor when they tossed her limp body in. Her limbs sprawled in every direction as she was just too weak to pull them in and curl up into the usual, warmth-conserving ball, however much she wanted to.

It hurt so much.

Her last memory before being taken away to her cell kept replaying in her mind, over and over again like a record player on a loop. But instead of hurting less and less each time it played over, it kept stabbing deeper and deeper into her heart. She could only watch helplessly as one of her servants was tortured. Even in her half-unconscious state she called out for him to stop, to leave her alone and that she didn’t do anything. Nothing ever changed, except the intensity of Sombra’s torturing. An extra second onto the pulling of a limb, a little hotter temperature on the fire, an extra kick added on each time he turned around and bucked.

She couldn’t take it anymore. It was eating her from the inside. She had to let go. Had to let herself go, before her soul was destroyed completely.

“Princess?”

Was that voice real?

“Princess, please rouse yourself.”

No, it couldn’t possibly be real. She was alone, always will be alone.

“Ah, horseapples! I wish these bars would just break already!”

It was a new voice, this time. Gruffer and slightly louder than the one before.

“Quiet! They gotta have guards sittin’ right outside that door!”

There were two of them? Were there really ponies out there who wanted to save her? No. She can’t let herself get hopeful. Sombra would just crush it out of her again. Her imagination was just reacting to the crystal shards embedded into her horn, or rather to their poison that spread through her body and deprived her of the ability to feel happiness or love.

“Almost… there…. Yes!”

The sound of metal breaking jarred her out of her half-awake state and threw her violently into the real world. Cadence’s eyes snapped open and circled around in their sockets, wishing that she could get up to face whoever was surely about to attack her. “Wh-who’s there?” She winced at the crackling sound that her voice made; it had begun to sound like somepony was crumpling paper every time she spoke.

A small chuckle preceded the voice, though it sounded forced. “I’m almost offended that you forgot about your favorite two jesters in all of this commotion, your majesty.”

Before she could respond, the sound of a hoof smacking a skull floated along the air, followed with a pained grunt. “Be a little more serious, Dodger. This isn’t just a simple performance on how to break out of jail. We are very well likely to die at any moment, and you’re here cracking jokes!”

“It’s alright, Jumping Jack.” Cadence smiled a little, still working to find out where the voices were coming from. “Wh-where are you? I can’t see you.”

“Well, if you’d look up, you might find a hint amongst the mossy ceiling crystals.” Her eyes slowly drifted upward to see the smiling (or in the other pony’s case frowning) faces staring down at her through the hole in the ceiling; a hole that was made larger by the fact that the bars that had been affixed over them were now cut and broken in many places, likely held on only by a single part now. “Ah, there’s the Princess’s beautiful eyes again.”

Dodger’s compliment was lost as Jumping cursed loudly. “Dear Crystal Caves! What the bu—“ Of course, a hoof smacked into the stallion’s mouth to silence him.

“Shhh, we have to be quiet, remember?” Cadence couldn’t help but smile again at the twins’ antics; even with their lives on the line they couldn’t help but bicker with each one another. “Okay, Princess, this is the pla—“

They all froze as the sound of hooves picked up from outside the cell’s door, and the two ponies in the vent above began scrambling away when a key was inserted into the lock. Cadence looked up at the two for reassurance that it would be okay, but when she saw nothing a wave of fear swept over her. She was alone again. Alone with Sombra. Except, she wasn’t; just as she turned away a face poked over the edge of the corner and winked at her, the mouth attached to it whispering something that she would hold onto through the following torture that the blackened unicorn was sure to put her through. “We’ll be back!”

As the door opened, Cadence had a smile waiting for him. She wasn’t alone in this fight anymore.

They were going to save her.