That night, after Inverno was put into bed, he went off to sleep with the torture chamber still in his memory. He couldn’t help but wonder how his dad could be so just and fair to him, but not to the slaves that once served them.
In the dim light of his room, his eyes forcing themselves to close, he finally fell asleep.
CRACK!
Inverno awoke in shock at the sound of somepony screaming. He opened his eyes, but couldn’t see anything except darkness.
“W-Who’s there!?” he called out. All around him, he heard whimpers, heavy sobbing, and a low voice, mumbling pleas of mercy. “Hello?” Inverno was becoming frightened. What was going on? Who was crying? Why couldn’t he see anything?
“Oh, you’re awake.” That voice! He knew that voice!
“Papa!” Inverno called out, “Oh Papa, I’m so glad you’re here!” He glanced around in the darkness, “But, where are you? I can’t see you.”
“Of course you can’t,” he replied; yet Inverno noticed that he didn’t sound at all like he was pleased to see his son. Rather, he sounded annoyed, disappointed even. Suddenly he felt a hoof on the back of his head to quickly realize that he was wearing a blindfold… Why was he wearing a blindfold?
At first, the unicorn was blinded, but after blinking a few times, he realized, to his horror, where he was. He was back in the vast torture chamber, only instead of the flowers that he saw, it was now cramped with crystal ponies. Young and old, stallions and mares, even foals, were clustered around the room. They were either chained to the walls or ceiling and those who were trapped in the evil devices, their faces contorted in agony and stained with tears.
Yet, scarier still, was his father, standing in front of him and holding in one hoof the black blindfold. Sombra was shaking his head and had a look of great disappointment on his face. Inverno looked up, only to see that his front hooves were chained to the ceiling. Turning his head down, he saw his hind hooves were shackled to iron balls. He couldn’t move if he tried.
“Papa? Papa, what’s going on?”
His father sighed, “You disappointed me, my son.”
“Papa?”
“And here I thought I was raising a such a good colt,” he said, turning to a part of the wall on which hung the wickedly sharp tools. He picked up a few by his magic, examine one before moving onto the next. “Here I thought I had a son that would one day take over my kingdom, and look what I got.”
“P-Papa, w-what are you d-doing?” Inverno’s voice shook.
“You’ve been very bad,” he said. “First leaving your home without my permission, and now you’ve spoken with the wicked Princess of the South… And I thought you were good this whole time.”
“Papa, I-I didn’t I-”
“YOU DIDN’T WHAT?!” his father shouted, “YOU KNEW THE RULES SINCE THE DAY YOU WERE BORN! AND NOW, YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON ME! YOUR OWN PAPA?!”
“B-B-But…” Inverno fought back the tears in his eyes. “It’s not my fault.”
Sombra shook his head, “Inverno, son, in all the time that I’ve had known you, you almost never break the rules that I’ve given you. In all that time, I had given you the privilege to forgive you, something that none of this filth had. But look at you; you’ve taken advantage of it for too long. Sure, I had forgiven you when you’ve forgotten to feed any of your slaves. Or that you’ve hadn't practiced the organ when you should have had. Or that time that you snuck out of your home. But this,” He finally chose a long knife with wickedly curved blade that made Inverno’s eyes widen. “What you had done is inexcusable.”
“P-Papa, please,” he begged, “Don’t do this.”
“But you had been such a naughty colt.”
“Please!”
“And you know perfectly well what happens to colts that break the rules.”
“No Papa! Don’t!”
“But since I still love you,” his father said, levitating the blindfold back over his eyes. “You get to have the one privilege that none of these pigs get to have.”
“Papa, no!” Inverno pleaded, tears soaking the blindfold and starting to down his cheeks.
“At least you won’t be able to see what is about to happen.”
“Papa don’t!” he cried, “I’ll be good! Please! I’ll remember to feed It, I’ll practice on the organ, copy more music, write more often, never leave home again, JUST PLEASE DON’T HURT ME! PAPA! DON’T!”
“Inverno,” This time, a voice called out to him.
“SOMEPONY HELP!”
“Kid, wake up!” He finally did so with a jolt. He found Shining Armor there, along with the warm light of morning seeping into his room.
“Hey, you okay?” the Prince asked.
Inverno shook his head. “I had a really bad dream,” he told him.
“Must be, you’re sweating all over,” Shining pointed out. “Whatever it was, it must have been terrifying,” The young stallion could only nod. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Inverno violently shook his head at the suggestion.
“That bad, huh? Look, don’t worry about it now, you’re awake. And since Princess Luna is still here, I’ll talk to her. She can make sure you won’t get any more nightmares from now on, okay?” The young unicorn didn’t say anything. “Come on, you should get up.” The Prince sniffed the air, “Ugh, when was the last time you bathed?”
“Uh… I don’t know.”
“Actually, why don’t you go take a bath first, then head down to eat breakfast with us.”
“Eat where?”
“In the dining hall,” Shining answered. He was greeted with only a blank stare. “Oh, that’s right… Uh, when you’re done, I’ll have a guard to show you where it is, okay?”
“I guess so,” Inverno said.
After the Prince left, the unicorn got out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. As he turned the water on, his thoughts drifted back to the nightmare he’d awoken from.
‘Must be from the dungeon place,’ he thought. ‘But still, why would Papa do that to me? That wasn’t like him. I might have been given a spanking or maybe less food, but… that? Why? Was that dream trying to tell me something?’
As the water in the shallow tub began to rise, Inverno lowered himself into it, letting the warm water soak in. He picked up a pink bar, that going by the smell he assumed to be soap. ‘And even after waking up, why couldn’t I feel anything but… fear?’