The yelling and screaming had thankfully died out, and Crystal could remove her hooves from her ears. The cold damp floors and the strange unknown made her shiver like it was a winter day in the snow. Pitch’s embrace was just enough help her feel brave enough to not cry out in fear, but the fear still lingered, drooling with hunger for her. And Crystal was afraid.
Metal on metal rubbed loudly from somewhere far off, and a distorted voice began howling like mad. Crystal held onto Pitch tighter, as she could feel him hold her tighter too. The shouting was quickly coming closer and closer quickly.
As the shouting drew near, something unexplainable happened. Crystal couldn’t think of a word or phrase that would’ve done it justice. The exact experience was new, and somehow gave her a sense of achievement, even wonder.
Through the glow of her empty vision, a something went by. It was wasn’t moving, but moved just the same. “He doesn’t even know what he’s doing anymore, and you both know it!” The shouting continued. “You would get killed in a heartbeat, and he wouldn’t even bat an eye to you! Look, he even throws foals in prison! You still want to do what he says to you!?”
“That’s enough of that.” A second voice commanded. Crystal heard the shimmering sound of magic being used, and the shouting ceased.
The “something” went by and Crystal could no longer see it. The impact of that thought hit her like a rock. Was that sight, something that she could not have? It was beautiful. Had that been color? Would she ever see it again? Tears filled her eyes that she couldn’t help shed.
“Shhhh.” Pitch hushed her and she could feel him stroking her cheek. “It’s okay, they’re gone.” He thought that she was crying from fear. That couldn’t have been any further from the truth.
Her lips barely moved as she slurred the words she spoke to him, like she was reading a manuscript. “It’s not that Pitch. It was just so beautiful. Something I had never seen before, ever seen at all, ever. Is that sight? You had to have seen it, you can see. What did you see?”
“What do you mean, you saw something?” Pitch sounded confused, and rightly so. Crystal knew she can’t see, never could see anything, yet there had been something in the infinite nothing she always saw. “It was just a couple of guards carrying some pony to the cells. He was mouthing off and they shut him up. How could you have seen them?”
“There were three? I only saw one. Is that what ponies look like? I was really off, then.”
“No listen, you’re not thinking this through. You saw a pony, but only one? There were three. And the fact that you could see anything doesn’t bother you in the slightest? Could you see me?” Crystal felt Pitch let her go, but there was nothing. Realization crashed down on her as fast as the glee had pushed the situation away in the first place.
“You’re right.” Crystal fell inward on herself, casting a slight twang of guilt for falling for a simple trick she, herself, had set. Now wasn’t the time, they were in the prison and Crystal had randomly seen something.
“It’s okay.” She felt Pitch draw her into his body once again, and they both sat there in the emptiness of the cold and damp. “We’ll figure it out, but I think it would be best if you don’t tell anypony about this. I don’t know what they would do, or even believe you for that matter.”
Crystal just agreed. She didn’t want to worry about things. Even though there was so much to be worried about at the moment, she couldn’t let it stress her out too much, because she knew that everything had to be okay. When the problems come, she could handle them in stride and in confidence.
When the ponies who ran the prison figure that they shouldn’t be there, they would be let out, no problem.
Yet something nagged at the back of Crystal’s mind that she couldn’t get rid of. Why had the solders thrown them in prison in the first place? She asked this to Pitch, but his only response was, “Don’t worry about it. Just a stupid mistake. A dumb, dumb mistake.” It didn’t sit right with Crystal. It was like every time she thought that somepony was taking advantage of her lack of eyesight.
The slamming of steel resonated once again from down the cell block. Pitch glanced in that direction, but returned his gaze to Crystal. A dumb mistake indeed; what was he thinking? He had ruined everything over a fear of rejection, and in front of others too. He had nothing to fear, yet fear drove him. Now fear kept him from explaining to Crystal what had happened. She would reject him for sure after he had almost gotten her hurt.
Had that massive fight been something of a coincidence? No, it couldn’t be. What would she have done if he hadn’t been there to guide her through the mess of ponies doing what ponies shouldn’t be doing in the first place? He had walked with her to her house one time when her mother hadn’t picked her up from school. She told him the street name, she said her father had told her, and the fight happened on the way there. She would have had no chance if her mother had picked her up on time. Crystal was safe at school waiting, and he had put her in harm’s way out of fear.
“… I don’t know, today’s just a really bad day.” A voice came from the hallway. The two guards turned the corner as Pitch looked back. “I kinda agree with him about Shining though, he hasn’t been himself lately. I’ve noticed that he’s been alone and quiet.”
Pitch listened to this; it was about the stallion who threw them in here. Anything he could learn about him would be helpful in some sort of revenge.
The other guard shook his head. “I don’t think so; Shining’s just new at being the Captain. I’m sure he’ll come around soon.”
They began to pass by Pitch’s cell when one guard looked his way and stopped. “This is the cell Bright was talking about. Shining threw some foals in here.”
“Who’s talking?” Crystal asked curiously. Pitch held her closer to himself.
“No pony, just the guards who imprisoned us.”
“Hey, hey, hey. We had nothing to do with that fight or afterwards, we just got on duty.” Pitch turned his head, not wanting to look at them. The guard was right, though Pitch didn’t like to admit that to himself.
“Of course,” The colt slowly said. “But you work for Shining; I wouldn’t call innocence on that.”
“We don’t work for Shining Armor; we swear allegiance to, her majesty, Princess Celestia.” The second guard proudly said of the Princess.
Pitch went silent after that. His insults and accusations did nothing to the pair. “Princess Celestia?” Crystal asked curiously. Pitch shushed her again. He needed to think about this.
“Yes, miss. The Princess of the Sun.”
“Oh, you know she doesn’t like being called that, you dope. She barely likes being called Princess.”
“Well, if I was in her position, I would force ponies to call me my true title.”
Crystal felt happy inside for once. The Princess Celestia. She would get this all sorted out. Her mother had told her stories of how powerful and kind the ruler of Equestria was. Crystal just knew that everything was going to be alright. Faust created Celestia; there was no way Faust would have Celestia not help some pony who really needed the help.
“Does she know we’re here?” Crystal asked, making Pitch jump out of his own hold on her. She jumped up on her hooves and slowly walked in the direction she had heard the guards’ voices. “Has any pony told her? Oof!” Crystal felt cold, hard steel smack into her face. She fell to the stone ground.
“Crystal!” Pitch shouted, and Crystal’s ears folded down at his volume. His hooves clipped along the ground over to her and he picked her up. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Okay, Pitch, just please let me go. I can take care of myself.” His hooves released their hold on her body so she could stand on her own once again. “Does she know were here?”
“Are you blind?” The first guard’s voice asked incredulously.
“Of course she is, she ran into the bars.” Pitch mumbled, and Crystal kicked her hoof into his side.
“Shining’s put, not just foals in prison, but a blind filly. Okay, that’s the last straw for this stallion. That’s not okay in my book.” His voice got a little distant as it moved away from Crystal.
“Hey wait, listen. Maybe he didn’t know that she was blind. We’ll just go talk to him and ask him what to do. I’m certainly not going to Soul for this; he’ll turn this into a whole fiasco.”
“I think he was going to a meeting with Soul and Princess Celestia in the throne room. Come on.” Their hooves became distant and the metal sounding door slammed shut.
“Do you think it was smart to try and get the Princess involved?” Pitch asked, unsure.
“Of course I’m sure. What pony better?” Crystal spoke with an unknown amount of confidence.
~~~~~
The large library door was difficult for Spike to push open with his little body. His clawed feet clicked and slid on the tile floor as he forced everything he had into opening the door. At last, he got it open enough to walk into the atmosphere of old leather and dusty paper.
The vaulted ceiling stood high above the tall shelves of books that circled alongside the water stained stone walls. This was one of the tallest rooms in the entire castle. The books were all sizes, ranging from a small notebook size, to a book only readable on a special reading desk built for it because it was so monstrous. It sat in the corner with a built up layer of dust over its leather-bound cover, and rust that stained and ate away at the metal buckles that held the treasure together.
Spike, the little dragon, immediately made his way over the spell book section. The smell of age was particularly prominent here. He searched for where he had found the book Twilight wanted so badly.
He shook his head softly at his thought of Twilight, he loved her like a mother, and in so many ways she was, but she would act like she had blinders over her eyes so often. He knew that this was one of those times, and it worried him too much for his little self. Twilight was messing with Celestia, and everypony- and dragon- knew not to mess with the Princess, ever.
“The book’s not there.” Spike groaned as he rubbed his claws across his face. “Where’s the return cart, it’s could be there, if it’s here at all.”
A door shut across the room and it reverberated up to the ceiling and around the library. Spike peered through the books at the vacant front desk to the right, and the empty reading tables to the left. But the sound of hooves was still there, seemingly a giant’s from how they echoed everywhere throughout the room.
A pair of eyes popped up out of nowhere and stared right back at Spike. The small dragon gasped in shock, before he pushed himself back away from the shelf, his back slamming against the tomes behind him.
Looking towards where the door was, the shelf stretched all the way down like a corridor. He slowly moved down between the books the blocked his view of the pony that frightened him. Their hooves still clicked right beside him on the other side.
When he made it to the corner he looked around carefully only to be met with deep red eyes that seemed to emit powerful magic into the air. It was the librarian… maybe. Spike couldn’t tell, the pony was surrounded by this dark, black veil that withered and expanded all around them. A grin seemed plastered on with sharp white teeth gleaming at his small, shaking form. They growled a sound that no pony should be able to make. Like the horn of a carriage on full blast and tuned to be really low and menacing.
With that, Spike took off down the corridor of books once again, but books shot out across the way like blades trying to cut him up. He didn’t stop or look over his shoulder…he just kept putting one foot in front of the other. This thing was obviously not friendly; he had to get out of there.
Rounding the second corner, he was met with those red eyes yet again. Skidding to a slight stop Spike took off in the opposite direction. The pony was laughing behind him, like this was some game. Its sound didn’t match at all and echoed all throughout the room. The chairs at the tables lifted up like some staircase: there was nowhere to go but up.
Spike climbed up, hopping from one chair to the next until he came up to a decorative ledge. The minute he stepped up, all the chairs dropped behind him. The game continued.
The pony still grinned up at him from far below. Of course, he had fallen into a trap. Hook, line, and sinker. Looking all around the room, there was nowhere else to go in either direction.
The sound of magic filled to world, and the pony was suddenly right next to the little dragon. Spike fell to the stone in paralyzing fear as the red eyes clouded his vision.