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// Chapter 3. The dungeon 
// Story: The tyrant of fear and hate 
// by Askre 
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Chapter 3

The Doctor had a headache. Though it was not really a proper headache, it was more of a dull sort of feeling in his brain. The time pony didn’t like it, it was interfering with his thinking process. It had started slowly the moment he had arrived in the Crystal Empire, but at first he had just ignored it, but now he really couldn’t.

“Just as arrogant and full of himself as ever,” he muttered and tried the best he could to rub the temples with his hooves. It was very difficult with these chains on.

Another thing the Doctor had noticed was that he couldn’t feel the time stream. As a time pony he was very sensitive to it and could usually tap into it with a mere thought. Now there was nothing, it was as if something was blocking him and the stallion had a feeling he knew who was responsible.

“Can’t say much for the room service here,” he remarked and looked around. His cell was cramped, damp and dimly lit. He had a pile of moldy hay to lay on and nearby was a wooden bucket. The Doctor did not relish the thought of having to use that bucket when it would be necessary. 

“Sounds like you had a run in with old King Smokes, partner,” a voice addressed him.

The Doctor looked out between the bars of his cell. He could just make out another pony in the cell that was opposite his on the other side of the hallway. The other prisoner kept out of what little light there was, but the time pony could tell that his fellow inmate was looking at him.

“You could say that,” the Doctor agreed with a nod. “I take it you had just the same luck?”

“Oooh boy ain’t that the truth, been here a month now, dunno why he ain’t killed me yet. Probably enjoys seeing me suffer,” the other pony spoke, it was a mare judging by how she sounded.

“That certainly sounds like him.” The Doctor shook his head. He rose up and walked closer to the bars. The moment he did the other pony attempted to shuffle further into her cell, it was like she was avoiding being seen.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Apple Core, proud agent of the newly established Equestria Secret Service,” the mare responded and could be seen shaking her head. “And my first mission, I get myself caught like a fly in a honey jar.”

Newly established? Oh right, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna established it shortly after defeating Discord, I believe it was to help combat monsters and other possible threats to Equestria, the Doctor thought and sat down right next to the bars.

“So, what’s your name, partner?” Apple Core asked curiously.

“Just call me the Doctor.” The time pony smiled. “Apple Core, you wouldn’t be a member of a big clan of earth ponies called the Apples?”

“Big?” Apple Core giggled, clearly finding the thought amusing. “I wouldn’t call us big, but yeah I’m in the Apple family. I guess my name was a dead giveaway. Didn’t know we were famous, most of us are just simple farmers.”

The Doctor chuckled, already figuring that this was probably one of the earliest members of the big clan the Apples would one day be; she was probably only a generation or so away from the founders of the family. 

“So why aren’t you a farmer?” he asked curiously, he was finding it delightfully distracting to talk with his fellow inmate. It seemed to keep the dull feeling away from this mind.

“Eh, I tried but the farm life never seemed to go well with me. I wanted excitement, adventure, so I signed up as a palace guard for the royal sisters. When they established the secret service, I jumped at the chance for more excitement,” Apple Core responded and sighed deeply. “But as you can see, I ain’t exactly the top agent on their roster. Captured during my first mission, interrogated and now left to rot in old Smokey’s dungeon.”

“Apple Core, why are you hiding?” the Doctor asked, he could see the silhouette of the mare flinch.

“I… I don’t want to disturb you, partner. I… don’t quite look… good,” she spoke hesitantly.

“You won’t, Apple Core. I promise,” the time pony said reassuringly. “Come on, I want to see my fellow inmate, we are in this together after all.”

There was a shuffling of chains as Apple Core slowly rose up. The Doctor could hear her moan faintly in pain as the mare slowly moved towards the bars of her cell and the light. The time pony had to confess to himself that he had been wrong, what he saw did in fact disturb him. But he didn’t show it outwardly but he also felt great pity for the poor pony and that he showed.

Apple Core had crystal shards embedded into her all over her body, her face, her legs, her haunches, her underbelly, her back. Everywhere black crystals had been jammed into her. Not even her cutie mark of an apple core had been spared. Her strong golden coat had streaks of dried blood on it and her moderate amber mane and tail looked messy and unkempt.

Sombra, you horrible, horrible pony. The Doctor felt even more contempt towards the dark unicorn.

“Doesn’t look good, does it?” Apple Core whispered, gingerly patting a shard stuck in her chest. “I was dressed up as a crystal pony, told to blend in. Figured I was the best fit for it since crystal ponies are just shiny earth ponies after all. Did my coat up all shiny and even painted over my cutie mark with a more crystal pony like one to make it look all authentic.”

“But they saw right through me, we hadn’t realized that the crystal ponies look different when in a sad state and that got me caught. I was interrogated and showing more how inept I am, they cracked me open good like a rotten apple. Then Sombra did this to me, said ‘since you want to be a crystal pony, let me help you with that’ and jammed these into me. Not deep enough to kill me, but enough that it hurts like Tartarus and hurts way too much to pull out.” Apple Core fell silent and looked down at the floor.

“I’m just a worthless Apple, couldn’t even keep secrets I was supposed to keep,” she sniffed after a moment of silence.

“I’ve never met a pony who is worthless,” the Doctor said and smiled warmly.

“Well you have now,” the mare said bitterly.

“I’m not so sure of that. But since you have already spilled the beans about it, what was your mission here exactly?” the time pony wondered, figuring that the only reason Apple Core had spoken so much of who she was, was because she had already told everything when interrogated.

“Determine Sombra’s strength, see if it was possible to maybe defeat him using the elements the sisters found when they defeated Discord.” Apple Core shrugged. “Guess they’ll never know now.”

That might actually work, the Doctor mused but the moment he began thinking actively the dull feeling came over him again. He grunted and decided to focus again on the mare.

“So Doctor, enjoying yourself?” A dark voice however caused his attention to divert to the owner.

King Sombra had just entered the dungeon and was approaching the cell. Apple Core quickly shuffled further back into hers when seeing the unicorn arrive, the Doctor however stayed put, his eyes narrowing on the tyrant.

“Hardly,” the time pony grunted. “Where are my friends?”

“Hopefully enjoying their rooms and the service I have provided them. I certainly don’t think they belong here in my dungeon like a time pony,” Sombra snorted and glanced at the cell Apple Core was in. “Or a spy.”

“No, they don’t.” The Doctor felt slightly relieved to hear this, though he couldn’t help but worry over what the tyrant was up to. This amount of ‘hospitality’ meant the tyrant was up to something. 

“So let me guess, I’m currently finding it difficult to think and I can’t sense the time stream, you are behind that aren’t you?” he looked at his shackles, wondering if they were the root cause.

The tyrant looked at him and grinned. Sombra could see the frustration on his prisoner and it delighted him to no end. He had prepared for this moment and was going to enjoy every single second of it.

“Not enjoying my spell are you, Doctor?” King Sombra laughed and moved closer to the cell, grinning like a maniac. “I made it myself, especially for you.”

“I’m touched,” the Doctor muttered dryly.

“I always knew you would return Doctor, your kind always do, the meddlesome type. So I made sure to prepare for your return. I studied your race, time ponies and I couldn’t say I was overly impressed with what I learned.” The king sneered. “My spell is meant to block your abilities and dull your mind.”

The Doctor frowned and didn’t try to think too hard, he had already realized that caused the spell to work even harder. Then he froze when realizing the implication of what King Sombra had just said.

“Where are they?” he asked sharply.

“Of whom do you refer?” King Sombra pretended not to understand, he knew full well what the Doctor had realized.

“The time ponies you captured, that’s the only way for you to have studied us. We haven’t arrived yet in Equestria in your time period,” the Doctor snapped, glowering now at the king. “In fact I am the first who came here.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Sombra mocked and grinned even wider when hearing his prisoner snort in frustration.

The Doctor took a second to calm himself down. He was currently doing exactly what the king wanted and being angry wasn’t going to help him or his friends. The pony looked at his shackles, they looked pretty standard and made of iron. He could probably easily get them off if he had any of his tools, but they had removed all his clothes before throwing him into his cell.

“I don’t suppose the spell emits from these shackles do they?” The Doctor lifted his chained front legs to show them to the king.

“No, those are just standard restraints, the spell is over my entire empire. You felt its effect the moment my soldiers brought you here.” Sombra frowned a little, he could see that his prisoner was trying to remain calm now.

“Oh right, sorry, as you said yourself, the spell is dulling my mind.” The time pony lowered his legs again.

“Indeed, don’t tell me you have so suddenly resigned yourself to your fate, not so shortly after demanding to know where your fellow time ponies were,” the king snorted.

“I’ve resigned myself to nothing, but what use is a temper tantrum just for your amusement. I’m not here to entertain you,” the Doctor stated and looked away. “In fact I don’t think we have anything more to say to each other, you just want to see me suffer.”

“I do and you will,” King Sombra chuckled darkly.

“I’ve been into their minds, Doctor, I have only tasted but a small sample of their fears but it showed me quite enough. How easily do you think the maroon one would crack? Her mind was quite fragile, mere words put her to tears.” The king smirked when the Doctor looked at him again, frowning.

However, the time pony still said nothing. There was no point in trying to battle with words right now, he needed more time to consider his options. The Doctor could only hope that his friends would heed his warning and not listen to the king They all did have one advantage after all, three of them were not in the dungeon.

“Not saying anything?” The king’s smirk dropped a bit. His horn started glowing and from Apple Core’s cell there came a grunt and suddenly the mare was pulled so close to the bars that she was pressed up against them. She cried out in pain when some of the shards in her body were pushed further in by this process.

The Doctor cringed when there was another cry from the mare. She was pressed so hard up against the iron bars that some of the crystals were really starting to dig further into her flesh. He narrowed his eyes and glared at the king.

“Leave her alone! She is not a part of this,” he demanded but was only rewarded with a devilish grin from Sombra.

“Oh but she is. Your compassion betrays you Doctor, I can see it in your eyes. You would spring to her rescue if given even the slimmest chance,” the King said and used his magic to press Apple Core even harder to the bars, almost as if he was going to pull her through between the tiny spaces.

“She is suffering, I’m just angry, how is this making me suffer? If she dies, sure I’ll loathe you even more than I already do. I’ll grieve her, she’ll be one of many ponies that I couldn’t save and regret that I couldn’t save, but there have been so many now that she would just go on a very, very long list.” The Doctor rose up to stand on all fours, just about managing to ignore the heavy weight of the chains. 

“You know what happens when a list gets too long, with too many names?” He was scowling now.

“It becomes a statistic and statistics tend to dull the effect a bit. So go ahead, kill her if you really think that will help you sick twisted desires. I’ll be sorry to see her go, she is a very nice pony and from good family but at least I know one thing, she died doing her job. Serving the princesses and for her, a former palace guard and now their top agent, there is no higher honor than that!” The Doctor concluded his speech, still standing and staring hard at King Sombra.

The magic holding Apple Core vanished and the mare crumbled gasping to the ground. Some of her wounds had reopened and bled a bit. She didn’t move much but was breathing, although heavily and with some painful moans escaping her lips.

King Sombra hated to admit it but the Doctor was right. Although he enjoyed torturing the spy it hadn’t really given him the desired effect from the time pony. The tyrant would need to hit harder and something closer to home, not just some worthless spy down in his dungeons. The king glared at the Doctor and snorted, this would be tricky but then again he had always loved a challenge.

“We’ll speak later, Doctor,” King Sombra growled and turned away from the cell.

When the unicorn departed the time pony dropped right back down to his haunches, those chains were really heavy. When the Doctor was certain Sombra was in fact gone, he let out a sigh in relief.

“Phew, didn’t think that would work, fantastic.” He allowed himself to chuckle. The stallion then glanced worriedly to the other cell.

“Apple Core? Are you alright?” the Doctor asked concerned, the mare still just lay there, moaning in pain.

“That was… quite a… speech…” Apple Core groaned and slowly, very slowly rose a bit.

“Well it worked, he stopped torturing you.” The time pony happily pointed out and smiled. Apple Core turned her head to look at him, raising an eyebrow as she did. 

“I don’t want to sound rude, partner, but your speech sounded like you barely cared if he killed me,” she grunted and winced when accidentally disturbing few crystals buried in her body.

“Didn’t care? That’s exactly what I did say I would do, but we must look at few facts here. I’m chained up, stuck in a cell and not with my tools. Sombra was out there using his magic which even I have very little defense against. All I could do was talk and thus…” the Doctor let the sentence hang looking intently at the mare.

Apple Core frowned, she had not paid that much attention to the speech. The mare had been in pain after all. However, she had to admit that King Sombra did stop torturing her after the Doctor was done talking.

“You had him think that my death would do diddly squat against you, it wouldn’t matter since you’ve seen so many die already,” she guessed.

“I’ve seen many ponies die, many and no, they are not just a statistic to me. However, I’ll be damned to Tartarus before I allow my grief for those I failed to save to be used against me by that good for nothing tyrant,” the Doctor said gravely.

“So you needed to diffuse his threat, tell him that it was useless for him to kill a random pony in front of you.” Apple Core’s brow rose a little when the Doctor grinned.

“Apple Core, I think you and I are going to get along just fine,” he said with a chuckle and started to look around. “Now then I’m going to be needing your sharp mind right about now.”

“Wait what?” The mare stared at him confused.

The Doctor didn’t respond right away, he was examining his chains and then started to do the same with the bars on his cell. The stallion frowned little then cringed when the dull feeling started to come all over him again. However, the stallion had already figured out a way around this hampering of his thinking process.

“You may not have heard it, but Sombra has a spell going that prevents me from thinking. The moment I start thinking too much my mind just suddenly slows down and it becomes difficult to proceed with whatever thought I had,” he explained and looked over at Apple Core. “Well, you are not a time pony, you’re an Equestrian earth pony, you are going to need to think for me.”

“Time pony?” Apple Core was really confused now, as far as she could see the stallion was an earth pony just like her.

“It’s a long story and we probably don’t have much time, we need to start thinking about how to get out of here and out of these chains,” the Doctor said and gestured to the chains on his legs.

“How?” the mare asked now utterly confused.

“Good question, how are we going to get out?” he asked right back smiling wide.

“You’re asking me? I asked first,” Apple Core protested.

“That you did, but I already told you I’m a bit disabled in the thinking department right now. We’ll need to work together to find a solution,” the Doctor told her

Apple Core managed to sit up but as she did, the mare still stared unsure at the Doctor. She tilted her head and looked around, but as far as she could tell there was no way out. The door was made of heavy thick iron bars and the walls were thick solid crystals. Now this pony wanted her to think of a way out of a place she had spent a month stuck in.

“You’re completely off your gourd,” she remarked and turned her attention back to the Doctor.

“I am, isn’t it wonderful?” The Doctor chuckled.

End chapter 3