//------------------------------// // Book 1: Chapter 8: Prison of Echoing Words // Story: Crystal White // by Lovinlife //------------------------------// Shining jerked his body roughly into the turns, as he carried the fighting foals in his magic down a short flight of dimly lit stairs. His movement was on autopilot, created from honed muscle memory and direct second nature, as he had gone this way many times before. He could feel the strength of his magic pulse wildly from the dance-like wiggling that the two made in vain. Their annoying grunts and groans of struggle distracted him. This, and his cold, had made his job a bit more difficult...but not impossible. Problems pushed aside, Shining walked with a veil of confidence through the halls of the soldier's barracks and down into the holding cells. His every step echoed across the old stone walls and metal cages. Many guards have said the sound had made them weary and scared to go back down here, especially when they were jailing somepony. They usually stuck them in a cell closer to the door. Shining could never see what made them feel this way. He personally would prefer to walk all the way last cell in the block to dispose of the criminals temporarily, but unfortunately the criminals were scarce and mostly too stupid to make a challenge. To him, the echos sounded like the thundering applause of a crowd congratulating him of another job well done. The cameras clicking his poses. Civilians were excitedly shouting for his autograph. "Let us go, now!" Shining's images melted away from his vision. He desperately reached out to cling to it with his magic, but it disappeared completely. Foals should shut up! His head felt clearer for some reason suddenly. No slight strain on his senses. His magic had stopped. Hooves could be heard stomping away quickly down the hallway back towards the doorway. Shining just stood there shocked, not knowing what to think or do. They wouldn't get very far. "What?" A little, quiet voice asked from below him. Shining looked down to see the filly hadn't run off. Instead, she laid there on the cold stone ground, all sprawled out and looking around, as if she were in a daze. "Pitch? Pitch!? Where are you?" How scared she sounded. Her breathing quickened and became shorter. The sound was small, yet the echo it created carried. "Stone blocks?" She continued, most likely talking to herself in a slight whisper, yet Shining could still hear her. "I should've listened to mother." Shining wasn't going to say anything. "Put! Me! Down! I didn't do anything wrong. I'm just being foal handled by those bigger than me and I don't like it." The colt's voice called out from where he had run off to. The filly gasped. "Pitch!?" She began to get up, just as a guard carrying the frantically fighting colt came around the corner before him. In a swift cast, the filly screamed piercingly in his ear as she was brought up alongside her partner. Shining wiggled his ears to get the humming sound out of them, as he motioned for the guard to follow him, and the two made their way further into the depths of the cells. They now stood at the back of the cell block, facing a brick and cement wall covered in mildew. The air was thick and heavy with trapped stale moisture. Shining's throat clenched from his sickness and the mustiness around them, forcing him to cough once again. This hacking was more of a gurgle deep in his gullet that loosened some flem than a bark of air, which he cleared with an ahem and swallowed. "These two cells." He pointed with a hoof and spoke, gurgling a tiny bit more, aheming again to clear the remaining flem. "What about cells?" The filly asked. She sounded scared and confused. "Pitch? What's happening to us? Where are we?" Shining almost stomped his hoof on the stone floor from a burst of light anger, but held that impulse in check. He wasn't talking to ignorant commanders under him, but to civilians. He calmly asked: "You don't know where you are? The big fight? Why do you ask what's going on when you've seen it happen with your own eyes?" He brought the floating filly eye level with him and close enough that she wouldn't have anywhere else to look. He heard the colt mumble something under his breath. Without moving the filly, Shining looked with annoyance at the colt who had a playful, devilish smirk on his lips, yet vengeful anger flashing in his eyes older than the colt was himself. "What did you say?" "I called you stupid. You know why? Of course not, you wouldn't have figured it out, so let me tell you, and make it easier for you." This colt spoke with complete arrogance and confidence, contrasting what Shining had seen before. "Can't you see that Crystal's blind? This is why I never saw what my classmates see in you." That look in his eye never once left. Shining didn't feel an ounce of fright from it, yet he was weary of it. It was the same look that Bright had given him before. One of sightless anger, and of no doubts as to what they wanted at that moment. "That's quite a silver tongue you got there in your mouth. Those with it usually become politicians and natural-born leaders. Knowing which words fit where in a sentence with the greatest effect." Shining paused for a moment. The possible words flew through his mind. "Maybe the two of us are no different." The colt flinched wildly at that thought, shaking his head just as violently as his body. "No...never! I could never be like you! I would never hurt all those ponies! Why would you even think that!?" Shining shrugged. "I don't know. Just thinking out loud." He turned to look at the little filly floating in his telekinetic grip. "I have to admit though. I couldn't tell that you were blind." "Big surprise there." The colt added sarcastically, now off on the sidelines. Shining didn't say anything about that: instead, he spoke to the filly. "So, your name is Crystal?" He asked, trying to start off a conversation, but the attempt sounded forced. Crystal's head slowly nodded anyway. “Crystal! You don’t have to answer anything that he asks!” That colt was just about the most irritating thing Shining has ever seen and heard, and that’s saying something. He was about to tell the disrespectful little brat to be quiet when, surprisingly, the quiet, little filly beat him to the punch. “I can decide that for myself. I told Wheatmire that, and now…I-I’m asking please.” Crystal snapped as she turned sharply in the magic field. She didn’t yell at him, she only sounded slightly peeved. Yet, coming from a seemingly quiet foal, this was a lot more intimidating to Shining than that colt’s expressions had been. From the looks of it, the colt felt the same way. Shining could see him cowering into his shoulders pitifully. “Yeah, you’re right.” He managed to squeak out. “I’m sorry about that. I’m just trying to protect you, I guess.” He spoke, no longer with confidence, but a tone of submission. “I know you are, but I can take care of myself.” A lifting feeling overcame Shining there. He wasn’t new to it, yet at this time and place, it was strange. It was a feeling of respect for this filly named Crystal. Shining had no idea why. The guard stepped forward in front of Shining with large eyes widened. “Sir, shouldn’t we be getting them into the cells now?” He asked unexpectedly, looking around uneasily. Shining looked back behind him at the wall again. The cracks in the plaster and bits of mold were everywhere. “Yes, but not here.” He said quickly, craning his head to the foals. “Let’s return up front. No more talking.” He ended on that note, and the group moved back to the entrance. As they made their way back, another gold dressed guard marched noisily down the stairs towards them. “Sir.” He saluted his officer. “2nd Cap. Flasher is requesting to speak with you. From how he was talking, it sounded like it was important.” “Okay. Just- Just tell him I’m busy right now and have him meet me in my room later.” “Yes sir.” The guard respectfully retreated back up the stairs and out of the room. Shining suddenly felt his magic tremble uncontrollably. He looked at the blind filly to see that she was shaking violently. “Pitch?” She asked, sounding scared once again. “Where are we?” “Um...well.” Pitch looked unsure. “Pitch!” Shining took over and decided to be honest. “You're in Canterlot Castle’s dungeon for your part in the destructive mob that had almost claimed a life.” Crystal reared back in shock at this, and then she began to tremble before visibly starting to panic, to Shining's chagrin “Wait...what!? Mob? W-What mob? Pitch!” She screamed. “Pitch!!! Where did you take me?” “Just put them in this cell together. We’ll interrogate them with the rest when they get here. Doubt she’ll give us anything, though.” Shining ordered the guard who nodded. The door of the cell opened, and the two foals were thrust into the cage. The magic released them onto the floor, and the door closed behind them. Crystal continued to shout out to the colt Pitch, but he didn’t answer her. Instead, he slowly crawled over to where she was, to hug her ever so tightly.