Prince Shining sighed in relief; he was at last done in dealing with the tedious paperwork that had been cramming his desk that day. He hoped he might have the chance to speak with the princesses this evening to see if-
“Shining,” he heard his wife call out. Turning his attention behind him, he saw Cadence, and the colt close by her side.
“Hey, hon,” He turned around, trotting up to nuzzle her, “Sorry about not getting out sooner. I had petitions coming out of my ears for the past hour.”
“It’s quite alright,” Cadence said, as Shining took notice of the young colt.
“I see that you’ve finally got the kid out of his room for once,” Shining said to his wife before turning to Inverno, “How are ya now?”
Inverno shrugged, “Okay, I guess.”
“So, what brings you out here?”
The colt looked at Shining right in the eye when he asked: “Is it true that Papa was bad?” It was a question that caught the Prince off guard, but Inverno continued. “I mean, those other Princesses said that he’d hurt the sla-”
Cadence cleared her throat and gave him a chastising look.
“Ponies,” Inverno corrected himself, “But they wouldn’t tell me why he was so evil. I mean, it can’t be true! Papa was always good and fair to me! That doesn't mean that he was bad... Right?”
“So… Why are you out here?” Shining inquired.
“Well,” Inverno pointed to his wife, “Cadence is going to show me something called ‘the dungeons’ where my Papa supposedly had done these ‘awful things.’” The young unicorn mocked the Princess’ words, “But I know that it’s clearly a lie.”
Shining turned to the pink alicorn, “Sweetheart, are you sure that you want to do this right now?” he questioned, “I mean, the guy has been grieving for days and now you wanted to show him the dungeons now?”
“Believe me,” she responded, “I don’t want to do this either, but I believe that he’s entitled to know what Sombra was really like. For someone who has lived his life in a hidden apartment, he deserves to know what his father has been doing outside of his little world.”
“I don’t know if this is even a good idea. You do know that showing him might scar him for life.”
“But I want to see!” Inverno interrupted, “I want to see if those princesses were telling the truth.”
“Kid, I don’t think-” Shining began to talk, but was quickly cut off.
“So these dungeons don’t exist then!” the colt deduced, “If you’re not going to show me, then that means that they’re not real. And if they’re not real, then that means that those Princesses were liars, including her!”
“Shining,” Cadence said, “Let me show him, for his own good.”
The prince sighed, “Alright, fine. Let me go with you too, then.” And so, the three of them began their descent down to the lower part of the palace, where Cadence led them to a door. Behind it was a staircase, running downwards into darkness. As they walked down, Shining lit the crystal lanterns to illuminate their path.
At the bottom of the staircase, Inverno spotted something on the ground. He picked it up with his magic to examine it closely. “What’s this?” he asked the couple.
Both Cadence and Shining turned around to see the item in question. “It’s a flower,” Cadence answered.
“But, what is it?” the young unicorn asked, “What’s it for?”
“In this place,” Shining said, “Flowers are a symbol of remembrance for the ponies who suffered here.”
“Come, there’s still more to see.” Cadence urged them onward down a dark hallway, the walls hung with crystal lanterns which Shining lit as they walked past. As they traveled, Inverno saw on both sides bars of iron, each set forming the fourth wall to a small room. Every so often, he would see more of these flowers as they passed by. He saw some that had vibrant colors, while others lay decaying. Sometimes he would see only an individual flower, while other times he could see them tied up in bundles.
At the end of the hallway, there stood a simple door at which the couple stopped. “Inverno,” Cadence looked at the young stallion, giving him an apologetic look. “I am so, so sorry for this.”
Before Inverno could ask what he meant, Cadence opened the door while Shining lit his horn to light all the crystal lanterns inside this room.
At first, Inverno wasn’t sure what he was looking at. He stepped right into the room to get a closer look. One of the first things he noticed was, not only all the flowers in the room, but the portraits, long burned out candles, and even stuffed toys that lay scattered on the floor. But amongst the stuff, Inverno also saw strange objects, that sat about the space or dangled from the ceiling. He saw chains with cuffs that hung like chandeliers, a huge tub made out of wood, oddly-shaped tools and sharp looking knives hanging from the walls. There was a table on which he saw cuffs at one end, and a wheel on the other. Ropes hung from the wheel, their frayed ends tied into loops. He even saw cages, adorned with old, rusted spikes that pointed inward menacingly.
“What is this place?” Inverno asked, turning back to the door. He found the couple standing there, looking sadly into the room.
“To ponies in the Crystal Empire,” Shining explained, “This was simultaneously the most terrifying, and the most dangerous place in all of Equestria. During your father’s rule, if a pony wasn’t working hard enough, or was too sick, too old, or too anything for that matter, they would be brought here, the dungeons, to be given pain without mercy.” Inverno looked away, back at the strange objects that littered the huge room. Shining continued, “In fact, when we got to the Empire ourselves, this was one of the first places that we were shown to by a former slave. Inverno, we found ponies in agony here, stallions, mares, even foals, younger than you.”
“Foals?” Inverno whispered.
“Even worse yet,” Cadence said, taking over for her husband, “Was that after your father had died, we received reports from those ponies of what happened down here. Sometimes, Sombra himself would pay a visit here to either torture them himself or simply force another pony that knew one of the prisoners to carry it out while he dined. Watching them scream in agony was his favorite entertainment.”
There was a part of Inverno that wanted to deny what he was hearing. ‘No,’ he thought, ‘That doesn’t sound like Papa at all. He wouldn’t do anything like this.’ Yet, there in his sight was all the solid proof to dismiss that wishful thinking. There before him stood the very instruments of pain. Some were probably used on someone of his age. For how could he deny something, when such evidence was presented to him?
“Papa?” he asked himself, “Why would you do this? Why would you lie to me?”