Chapter 13
“What are you doing here again?” Amber Waves appeared not to believe it when seeing Dew Doe walk hesitantly into the throne room. The blue mare looked warily around as if she feared seeing King Sombra around.
“Abusing my privilege of being able to walk around freely.” Dew smiled and relaxed a bit when seeing no sign of the tyrant and approached the platform.
“L-look I appreciate what you did before… showing me some kindness, saying my name… but he won’t tolerate it forever, he doesn’t want me to be too hopeful,” Amber whispered and nervously looked at the entrance to the throne room.
“Why not?” the pegasus asked as she sat down in front of the crystal pony.
“When I’m hopeful, or happy or content… it shows on my coat, it shines. All crystal ponies are like that, we show our mood rather obviously by shining like crystals, it’s our innate magic…” the chained mare relented to explain and glanced at her drab looking purplish coat.
“But when we are in fear, terror, despair, then we are like we are now and that’s how the King wants us to be… it fuels his evil magic, the more despair we feel the more powerful he is…”
Dew Doe felt ill hearing that, it sounded just too horrible, that someone would deliberately want a whole population to feel nothing but fear and despair so it fueled his power. This just made her wish even more that she could do something to help.
“So uh… why are you specifically his… pet?” Dew asked, hating to refer to the mare like that.
Amber looked down and sighed deeply. Dew could almost swear her coat became even darker as the crystal pony contemplated how to answer.
“Beware making deals with the King, he always ensures they are completely in his favor.” The crystal pony shuddered.
“Few years ago my entire family were to be sent to the mines, me, my little sister, my little brother, our mother, all of us. I… I couldn’t bear the thought of them slaving away in the mines… our mother wouldn’t have lasted a week and my siblings… I had to protect them… somehow.” Amber winched and Dew figured it was because of the memories. A tear started to crawl down her cheek.
“I was desperate… because there are very few options if you are to be sent to the mines. So I pleaded to the King… and told him that… if he spared my family the cruel fate… I was his to do with as he pleased.” The mare looked down.
“And he took you up on that offer.” Dew finished feeling even more disgust towards King Sombra. Predictably, Amber nodded in response.
Right so she is tied here to protect her family, she might even be willing to stay here as long as it means they are safe, the blue pony thought as she pondered this.
Dew Doe had to admit not having expected this to be the reason Amber was chained to the platform. She thought the crystal pony was from some random selection of mares the King had chosen to be his personal love slave. That Amber had chosen to subject herself to this to save her family hadn’t even occurred to her and now the pegasus felt a little dumb for assuming.
“What are their names?” she asked, deciding for now to give the chained pony at least a friendly conversation and who knows, maybe she had met a member of her family.
“My mother’s name is Reflective Quartz, my sister is Emerald Shine and then there is Rubinstein,” Amber told her and smiled a little. Dew definitely saw her coat lighten up slightly but barely paid attention to it as two of the names did ring a bell.
“Uh, your sister was assigned to me and my sister Foxy as a personal servant and your brother is serving my friend Private Iceland,” Dew said and frowned as she remembered the old mare who had told her Amber’s name. “And I think it was your mother who groomed my sister and I.”
“H-how are they?” the crystal pony whispered, looking rather startled that Dew had in fact met her entire family.
“Emerald is doing fine I think, Foxy and I haven’t had her do too much. We just can’t bear the thought of having her wait on us. Rubinstein is doing good too, Private tolerates him,” Dew told her, not really wanting to tell about how Sombra tortured the Crystal Stallion in front of them.
“The King told me he had punished Rubinstein for a loose tongue, do you know what happened?” Amber asked nervously causing Dew to hesitate.
The blue pegasus sighed, she still felt partly responsible for the torture. It was her who had sent Foxy to try and question Rubinstein. She still shuddered how the poor pony had been tortured in front of them, even if he hadn’t really said anything of use. Punished just for talking at all.
“Please understand that my friends and I are prisoners, even if we have been allowed to walk freely. We were trying to get information about our location and King Sombra. I asked my sister to try and find something out by talking to your brother. Rubinstein hadn’t really told us anything of note when the King caught us in the act, but he clearly spoke enough,” Dew Doe told her finally and was relieved that Amber just nodded and seemed to understand. Then something occurred to her about what the crystal pony told her.
“Wait, Private told us your brother was only recently moved to the castle to work and used to be in the mines,” she looked at Amber confused.
“I… what?” The chained pony didn’t look confused, she looked more alarmed. “Uh… I mean… that can’t be right. I have been here for years… I… he told me…”
“Your brother only remembers what I allow him to remember,” a dark voice addressed them, causing both Dew and Amber to freeze. Slowly they glanced towards the entrance of the throne room. King Sombra stood there, smirking at the two shocked mares.
“Your brother was already in the mines when you pleaded for him and the rest of your family, in fact you didn’t start pleading for your family until we were going to send your mother down there. Are you sure you’ve been giving Dew Doe your story straight?” the king asked and casually walked closer to the steps of the throne. As he fully entered the throne room, Foxy Stripes became visible behind him, her eyes still green and red.
Foxy? Dew looked towards her sister worried, but she didn’t dare move from her spot since that would mean going past Sombra and she wasn’t sure if he would let her.
“I… I…” Amber gulped. “I didn’t think… think she needed all the details… it’s not like she can do anything.”
“You’re right, she can’t,” Sombra stated, never taking his eyes off the frightened crystal pony.
“Also your sense of time is a little out of it, it’s not been years, it’s been months. But I suppose you can’t be faulted for that since you’ve had nothing to count the time with,” the dark unicorn shrugged and glanced at Dew Doe who kept looking at her sister.
“It…. uh…. felt like years…” Amber looked down, cringing a bit.
“What have you done with my sister?” Dew Doe whispered and rose up, she was face to face with King Sombra now. Foxy had halted at the bottom of the steps.
Sombra casually glanced back at the maroon mare and smiled. The blue pegasus gasped when seeing her sister do the same in response to him. The king turned his attention back to Dew Doe, his smile changing back into a smirk.
“Much like with your friend Private, I have now full control of your lovely sister. She is so desperate for someone to love her, that when I presented her with the opportunity, she took it,” the king said and grinned when Dew Doe started to look incensed and shoot him a death glare.
“What did you tell her! What did you do?” the blue pegasus snapped, knowing full well how vulnerable her sister was in the matters of love. She knew of every bad relationship, had been there for her for every breakup and every time when a stallion had used her.
What Dew Doe didn’t realize was that this was exactly what King Sombra had hoped for, the blue pegasus was full of hate and anger towards him and now that she was in full eye contact, his eyes turned green and he instantly locked her in his hypnotic gaze.
“Ah so much hate, you really love your sister and hate anypony who tries to take advantage of her,” the king whispered softly as he tried to find a way deep into Dew’s mind.
“I admit, Dew Doe, that you puzzled me a bit. Your fears are not very strong. Yes you have a great need to help ponies and fear being unable to, yet you understand that you never can truly help everypony. You can even live with it if Private Iceland will never be yours. I realized that it would be a waste of my time to use your fears against you,” he continued and could feel the mare’s mind struggle against his will. “Frankly, you are a very boring mare, so little inner conflict, no deep rooted fears. You’re a hopeless romantic, pining for a stallion who is too introverted to even know how to return your affections. Luckily for me, my powers don’t just run on fear.”
Dew Doe felt torn, deep in her mind she realized Sombra had tricked her but another part was just becoming angrier and angrier that he had used her sister’s deepest and darkest fears against her. She so wanted to rip into the King right there and now and voices in her head were telling her to do it, just give in, attack.
“Embrace your hate!” the voice egged on.
Sombra frowned, this was actually harder than he had initially thought. Dew was actually struggling against his prodding. The dark unicorn activated his horn and extended his powers so that he would still have access to Dew’s mind as he glanced back at Foxy. The maroon pony didn’t seem to notice what was going on, just kept staring at Sombra with a smile on her face.
The king grinned as he realized that Dew needed a certain type of final push. He wouldn’t even need to conjure up images in her head. He pulled back everything, leaving the mare dazed and wobbly. Sombra turned away and started back down the steps.
“W-wha….” Dew Doe blinked as she regained her senses. The mare saw that Amber was just looking away, trying not to watch what was going on. Then Dew looked at Sombra and what she witnessed filled her heart with rage.
King Sombra had gone to Foxy and wrapped one leg around her as he very sensually kissed the maroon mare on the mouth. The pegasus very eagerly returned it and was clearly enjoying the attention from the dark stallion.
“LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE YOU BASTARD!” Dew Doe screamed and raced down the steps. As she leaped for Sombra, the mare didn’t notice his horn activate and his tail started to produce shadowy tendrils that caught and engulfed her completely.
Dew Doe screamed, raged and struggled fiercely but could do nothing. She was stuck in inky blackness and could barely think straight. All she wanted to do was stomp Sombra into paste. The mare paid no attention to the dark echoing laughter around her, in fact Dew barely even heard it.
“Yes, embrace it, let all the rage course through you,” the dark voice of King Sombra whispered in her head. “Let it burn your very essence.”
Oh Dew Doe, if only you knew what games I had in store for you. I was always going to twist you under my control last, let you see your sister and beloved buck and bow to my every whim while you could do nothing, forcing you to come kneeling to me and beg me to release them. Sadly, the Princesses have forced my hoof and I must act soon to counter whatever plans they have, the king thought to himself as he continued to feed off Dew’s hate and slowly crept further and further into her mind. It was time soon to change gears.
“Dew Doe, think rationally. I never forced your sister into anything. I gave her a choice, she chose. However, she would never have chosen if she hadn’t come here in the first place,” Sombra spoke now softer and friendlier. “Focus your hate, who brought you here, who forced this situation that your sister had to go desperate measures to finally find what she always wanted.”
Dew Doe stopped raging and stared blankly forward. The Dark King smiled wickedly, knowing that memories were flooding through her right now.
“I swear this is just a short trip around the block,” the voice of the Doctor sounded in her mind. “I just want to test these new devices up in the Crystal Mountains and I want my three friends to help me.”
“I don’t know,” Foxy spoke now. “You tend to have a different definition than us of what a short trip means.”
“Come on, Foxy, it’s been so long since we’ve taken a trip with the Doctor, Private and I are going, why don’t you?” It was Dew Doe’s own voice that spoke up.
“Coal’s birthday is coming up, I much rather go down to Ponyville and join Derpy in planning it,” her sister said, still sounding reluctant.
“The Doctor can drop you off in Ponyville when we are done without any trouble, you know that,” Dew Doe chuckled. “Besides, we could stop in Manehattan and buy her a Mare of Liberty doll, you know she’s always wanted one of those.”
“Alright fine, but only because you two are going,” Foxy grunted.
“Well, that was a twist.” King Sombra was mildly surprised. He had been prepared to direct Dew’s hate to the Doctor for bringing them here, but seeing how it had been Dew Doe who convinced her own sister to come on this trip sounded even better to his dark mind.
“So, you convinced your sister to come on this doomed trip, instead of accepting that she wanted to stay behind and plan the birthday for her daughter?” he asked slyly.
“No… no no no… I didn’t mean… I didn’t oh no… It is my fault. I kept nagging at her to come, she’s always been so reluctant to do much after Coal was born. I just wanted her to have fun again,” Dew protested and grabbed her head with her hooves. She was shaking badly. An iron clad hoof was put gently on her.
“And now she serves me, thanks to you.” King Sombra bent down his head to whisper this into her ear. The darkness disappeared and they were in the throne room again. The tears were streaming down Dew Doe’s eyes as she watched her sister still standing there at the bottom, still under the control of the dark unicorn.
“Yes, that’s it. Just give in and you can join her and Private,” he kept talking and could already feel the mare’s mind crumble. Her eyes were turning green and red.
“You are mine,” King Sombra commanded. “Obey me!”
“Yes… yes I will.” Dew Doe’s eyes now matched her sister’s and she looked down.
“And then they were three.” The dark unicorn laughed, feeling his will now dominating the two pegasi.
“As for you!” His demeanor changed swiftly as he turned to Amber who covered on her platform. King Sombra narrowed his eyes and his horn began glowing with dark magic, an aura surrounded the crystal pony and she began changing into the cyan colt he had agreed earlier today would serve in the castle.
“What was your name again? Bright Smiles?” the king growled as he stalked towards the covering boy. “Not terribly bright are you? Forgetting your lines even if you assured me that you remembered them. I told you that Dew Doe has met my pet’s family, there was going to be a chance of her knowing some of her story already.”
“S-sorry, m-my lord… I just… I panicked,” the colt whispered.
“You had a simple job. Delay Dew Doe if she came here again to talk with my pet. You are fortunate that despite your blunder it worked, but your blunder could have made her suspicious that this was a trap,” King Sombra snapped and slapped the boy hard on the cheek with his right hoof. The only reason the Bright Smiles wasn’t sent flying across the throne room was because of the chains holding him to the platform.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry,” the cyan pony cried and curled up on the platform, nursing his sore cheek.
Sombra snorted but decided this was enough for now, he could always punish him more later. Instead he returned back to Dew Doe who still hadn’t moved where she sat. The king took his time to admire this latest acquisition, then with a flick of his spell he removed the wing restraints from both pegasi.
“Spread those wings, my lovelies, you probably need to preen and groom them by now,” he instructed and smiled when both starting doing that. For a short while he watched as the two worked on their feathery limbs until he suddenly remembered Private.
I almost forgot him, he should still be chained up in the study with the crystal entombed Doctor, he thought and sat down. Concentrating his magic, he started a spell that would give him access to Private’s mind and tell him what he was doing. He half expected the unicorn to be lying bored on the ground by now.
“Hello what is this?” Sombra frowned heavily when seeing that Private was not in the study, he was in a hallway.
“The Doctor? He’s freed the Doctor?” The king rose up with a growl, he almost dissolved himself into smoke to go after them when he realized where in the castle the two stallions were.
Hm, Sombra backed up and sat down in his throne. He looked at the pegasi who were still busy preening their wings. King Sombra smiled as a different plan came to his mind.
“Oh ladies,” he addressed them. Both looked at him immediately, one smiled and the other was more neutral. “Your friends, Private and the Doctor, are heading to the chambers and expect to find you there.”
“Be dears and go fetch them for me. Ask the guards to help you if you need to, oh and Dew Doe, remember to tell Private to obey his king,” he instructed them.
Both mares shrugged and rose up. They stretched their sore wings a little and then trotted out of the throne room. King Sombra watched them go, a devilish smirk on his muzzle and soon he was chortling cruelly.
Oh Doctor, prepare at last to suffer, he thought and his chortle changed into a disturbed evil laugh.
End Chapter 13