"Time to get up, sweetheart." A small filly laying on the cold ground in a shaky hut opened her violet eyes at the sound of a soft voice calling to her. She struggled to get to her hooves, her limbs crying out in pain from overuse. A concerned face peered from the doorway that led outside the terrible home. As the filly walked outside, the light from the rising sun reflected off the once beautiful crystals shone light on her coat, bringing a nice glow to her pinkish-red fur and mixed pink, peach, and light yellow wavy mane.
"Hurry up, we have to go." The stern, yet tired voice came from the filly's father. His name was Blaze and his was a big unicorn. Orange coat with spiky yellow and red hair, he was quite a sight to see. Standing next to him was Sparkle, a young looking mare with dull pink fur and a purple wavy mane. Both had chains around their necks, as did their daughter, the young filly who was coming out of their abode named Scarlett Twinkle.
The chains were beginning to glow and started tugging on their necks. Poor Scarlett fell over from the tugging, her face scraping on crystal road. Sparkle helped her daughter up, then Blaze led them all towards the castle. Everypony with chains around their neck, pulling them to the castle. Everyone looked weary and broken.
A single file line was set up outside a shack that was built out of the scary dark crystal that the ruler of the Crystal Empire, King Sombra, could create with his magic. Every family would step up to the shack and check in with the unicorn there. All of King Sombra's guard was made up of members of their own community that thought, "Well we can't fight him, so let's join him." They all turned cruel when they became members of the guard.
"State your names."
"Blaze, Sparkle, and Scarlett Twinkle."
"Ah yes, the troublemaker family. For your last act of aggression over our great ruler, you and your family are assigned to the West Fields behind the castle." Blaze opened his mouth to protest, but after glancing down at his daughter, he gulped and shut it, saying his words with a glare. The chain around their necks was connected to several other ponies who had been waiting off to the side and led them past the castle.
The area that they were being led to was one of the toughest crystal mines in the entire Crystal Empire and anyone who pissed off the King got sent to mine in this field. Blaze was notorious for acting out whenever something went wrong for his family or any of the ponies he knew and now his only daughter was being punished along side him.
"Get to work, slaves!" Another unicorn shouted, cracking the whip he had been carrying around. Every pony on the chain was given a pick-ax and were hauled into a hole that led into the ground. It was dimly lit and Scarlett whimpered. She was scared of the dark. "Shut up!" The unicorn yelled at her, whipping her. The whip left a decent sized cut on her right leg and she let out a cry. Blaze began to use his magic, but the unicorn whipped his as well. "Now get up and get to work!"
Sparkle helped Sacrlett get up and made sure her husband was okay before turning to the wall they had to start digging into. It was hard work and in no time everypony digging into the wall grew tired. Poor Scarlett was trying not to put any weight on her injured leg, but that became hard, since she had to use every ounce of strength to even move the pick-ax.
The day went by so slowly that Scarlett thought they were down in the hole for days. It was only when the ceiling above them began to shake that brought Scarlett back into the real world. The guards around them looked confused and sent a pegasus to go up and check on the situation. Moments later, she came darting down the hole, screaming about the two princess' had come to fight King Sombra. All the guards went back out the hole and the ponies in chains followed.
The sky was bright, as if the sun was 1000 times brighter than normal. Scarlett had to shield her eyes from the light and Sparkle picked the filly up and set her on her back. One of the guards came back and picked out all the unicorns in the group.
"You're coming with us to help King Sombra! All unicorns will use their magic on King Sombra to help him defeat those stupid alicorns." Blaze, being a unicorn, was also selected to go.
"I will not help that tyrant! The sisters will defeat him!" Blaze cried, using his magic to break the chains on everyone's necks. Ponies scattered, Sparkle and Scarlett among them. Sparkle turned back when she realized her husband wasn't following. "Go! I'll hold off these traitors!" A magic battle between him and the unicorn with the whip began, forcing Sparkle and Scarlett to leave.
They raced through the streets, running along with the other crystal ponies who were racing away from the violently shaking castle. Massive blasts of magic erupted from the place, sending crystal flying down on the fleeing ponies. Sparkle, with Scarlett on her back, dodged and weaved through the falling debris, trying to get away and save her daughter. She could feel the blood from her cut from the whip on her back and knew she had to get her somewhere to get help.
A loud cry made everything stop and the ground began shaking much more violently, causing cracks in the ground to begin opening up. Sparkle didn't stop running and saw the old clinic used to treat ponies before King Sombra came into power. Just as she was about to burst through the door, magic, King Sombra's magic, surrounded her and Scarlett. In fact, it surrounded everything. Scarlett cried out in fear as everything was plunged into darkness.
And then it went quiet.