Hostile Intent

by Storm Vector

Ch7: Extraction

Midnight wasn’t certain how long he’d been alone in the darkness, feeling the anxieties swirling around him. He’d let Crystal get taken, laid there blind and helpless while she’d been dragged off for Luna knew what tortures at these monster’s claws. His vision was still blurry, the darkness almost as painful as the light before as it fed his guilt. Crystal had needed him, for once he’d been trying to help her, and he’d let her get yanked away terrified and alone. He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hooves, lying down to reach as he tried to hold himself back from crying.

Despite his hooves being in the way, Midnight could still tell that the lights had come back on, forcing him to tighten his eyelids trying to block out the light. It wasn’t quite enough, but at least he could bear to lift his hooves clear and try to stare into the light, cracking his eyes as he heard one of the creatures approaching him. He wanted to lash out at the creature, furious at what they’d done to him, to Crystal, to the ponies in town they’d terrorized, whatever strain Vlyka and Winter had to be under right now... But he knew it would be pointless. He couldn’t hurt them, not in this state, and any attack might have just made his or Crystal’s situation worse.

“I hope you know I can’t see anything,” Midnight grumbled, trying to be dry and defiant as possible. He felt the creature approach, tried not to flinch as he felt certain he was about to be pounded into the flagstone beneath him. But he felt the shadow fall over him, hearing the claws reach behind him and grab the chain of his collar from the wall. “Your stupid lights are...” he began, only to feel a yank on his collar, shutting him up with a gasp of pain.

“Quiet,” the gruff, rasping voice snapped at him. “Stand.”

The chain was pulled tight against Midnight’s collar, yanking it up his neck and threatening to choke him. Struggling a little to stand with no sight and his chains, Midnight sighed and tried to just listen to the demands. He hated being like this, his safety in jeopardy and a close friend probably already in worse trouble, but he had to just go along with his captors or else... He stood at the creature's order and glanced up at where he thought its face was, eyes still shut in the blinding light. “Just what do you expect me to do with-” he began, only to feel the chain at his neck jerking forwards. Unprepared, Midnight fell forward, crashing back to the ground and gasping in mild pain. “Stand!” the voice rumbled, louder.

Midnight almost snapped in fury, but stood upright again, shifting his shoulder as the pain of smashing into the ground. The ache was bad, but he felt it would be okay if he was careful. His eyes were a bit better adjusted and, carefully, he felt it was safe enough to crack them open. It was still hazy, but he could still tell just how much bigger the monster holding his chain was than he. Chills ran down his spine and the anger he felt was swallowed by fear, as the piercing yellowed eyes of the creature bored into his soul and shook him to his core. They’d been intimidating enough attacking him in town, but now...now he was helpless before them, nowhere to run or hide. They had him pinned... “I can barely see, I hope you’re-”

The chain snapped again, digging the painful nubs into the back of his neck and making him gasp. He lurched forward as the creature half-pulled him out of the room. The light was still a bit too much for Midnight and he shut his eyes again to protect his vision. Of course, the creature seemed to care not a bit for his vision, still leading him by the collar into a slightly dimmer hallway. Midnight tried to keep his eyes attentive as they adjusted, peeking just enough to figure out if he was about to hit something walking. The halls were barren save for the artistic archways raised to the ceiling, making the corners hard to turn when he couldn’t tell if the chain at his neck was pressed against the wall or not. But as his eyes began to properly adjust, Midnight started to hear something beyond the eerie silence of the seemingly abandoned ruins around him, there was something faint coming from further in the broken halls.

“Ah! Stop, please stop!”

Midnight gasped as the words started to become clear. “Crystal,” he muttered, under his breath as the shock hit him. He’d never heard Crys in that kind of pain before, the agony in her voice shaking him worse than the stare of the creature had before. She was screaming in pain, begging for them to let her go, and the creature was dragging him closer and closer to her. The fear of what they would do to him was intense, if they were so blasé about torturing Crystal, but the pain she was in right now drowned out even that intense emotion. He almost broke out into a run towards her, but with his forelegs chained he couldn’t have run, even if the chain at his neck wasn’t pinning him to the monster. It was almost a relief that the creature was pulling him towards her, even as it made the pain in her voice all the more obvious. As they came closer and closer, a light from the hallway ahead grew brighter, along with the groans and whimpers of a pained unicorn, until finally they rounded the last corner and stepped into a new chamber.

The room was massive, circular with high ceilings that had the roof busted in one corner. The other two creatures were already standing in the room, one of them slipping through the hole in the roof from some outside excursion. The other was investigating a massive device sitting in the edge of the room, with cables big as Midnight’s legs attaching it to some larger device in the dead center of the room. It reminded him of a water tank from Cloudsdale, a massive cylinder to store something and dozens of bits and bobs for adjusting one thing or another. But unlike those tanks, the input seemed to be on the bottom...winding down some cables and tubes to a busted-up metal helmet with space for a unicorn’s horn. And, of course, there was only one unicorn who could have been strapped into the device...

Crystal’s eyes were squeezed shut from the pain, straining and twisting her head as the anguish wormed its way onto her face. She looked worse than Midnight had ever seen her, standing with her hooves chained to the floor so she couldn’t try to escape. The helmet seemed to be glowing around the base of her horn, with more than one clear tube reaching out from the helmet’s horn flooded with a familiar pinkish-red glow. It didn’t take a unicorn to tell what they were doing: these creatures were trying to siphon Crystal’s magic away. The device was sucking the magic out of her, by force if Crystal’s anguish was to be believed, for some nefarious purpose. They’d tried to sneak up on Canterlot when Midnight and Crys had spotted them, surely trying to capture some stronger unicorns from the mountain city, if not capture the princesses themselves. Of course, Crystal’s magic was rather strong...and of course Midnight had delivered her straight into their claws.

As the guilt dropped hard on Midnight’s shoulders, he felt something else adding to the weight, only this wasn't metaphorical weight. One of the creatures was behind him, pressing a claw down on his back and forcing his legs to bend slightly. He tried to struggle against their force, strained to stay standing and shake the claw off, but he already knew that escape was pointless. It could slam him into the ground if they wanted, for the moment it was just content to hold him there, head down as he heard Crystal gasp in fear. "Midnight..."

Midnight looked up at the voice, Crystal's quavering, weak and mortified voice, as the mare stared at him with tearful eyes. They locked their gaze for a moment, Crystal’s mouth hanging open with fear as Midnight understood what was happening. Crystal stared between him and the creature holding him, shaking her head in fear, confirming for him what Crystal was expecting out of seeing him. “No, don’t...don’t hurt him! I’ll try and give you my magic, but please don’t hurt him!”

“Crys don’t-” he started, only to feel his knees buckle under the force the monster applied on his back. He barely kept his barrel off the ground as he squeezed his eyes shut. He was a bargaining chip in all this, a warning...a threat. Crystal had either resisted releasing her magic to them, or it hadn’t been going smoothly enough for their liking, so they decided to put another of her kind in the line of pain to try and coax her to be more cooperative. But Crystal had to know, as Midnight suspected, that there could be no benefit to these creatures gaining Equestrian magic of any kind, especially if this was their go-to method of gathering it. And if Midnight played any role, however unwilling, in the procurement of that magic, he would never forgive himself even one consequence of that magic’s use against anypony. He had to stop them, had to get Crystal out of there somehow...but how?!

“Enough games, unicorn,” the creature holding Midnight growled, reaching around him to grab his leash and remove it from his collar. It was an advantage in his favor to have one less restraint, but he couldn’t capitalize on it with the creature’s left claw still pinning him down. “Give us your magic, or else...” The creature’s claw came down and snapped open the shackle on Midnight’s left hoof, grabbing it in its claw and dragging the chain towards a small ring in the floor. Midnight gasped as he saw the next few moments play out ahead of time in his mind; the creature would thread the shackle through the ring, clasp it around his hoof again, and Midnight would be pinned to the ground just like poor Crystal was now. He had to resist now, but how? There was no chance, he was outmatched...

“Stop screwing around!” one of the other creature’s snarled, and suddenly there was the sound of something heavy shifting rapidly. The creature above Midnight ducked, its head almost hitting the ground behind him as it barely avoided a piece of metal or stone whizzing over its head. The right claw disappeared somewhere behind Midnight, leaving the shackle lying loose on the ground. His legs were free now, and the weight of the creature’s claw lifted just slightly from his back. He glanced behind him and his heart lifted too, seeing one single opportunity. Forcing his weight and the remaining weight of the creature onto his forelegs, raising his back legs and tensing them as much as he could, before letting all that energy out straight behind him.

Both his hooves hit the creature square in the snout, slamming hard into the bone even through the thick coat of fur and muscle. Midnight felt the shock travel back up his legs, resisting the need to wince in pain as he kept his legs slammed straight out, feeling the creature’s head recede from his hooves. There was a loud yelp behind him and the claw came off Midnight’s back, but Midnight didn’t have the presence of mind to check behind him to see what the creature was doing; he had to act now. He dropped his hooves and kicked off the ground hard, shifting into a frantic sprint towards Crystal as the mare glanced up at him, mouth agape and eyes wide with surprise. He glanced up at her, drawing strength to cut through the raw panic flooding his system as the adrenaline started to kick in. His focus narrowed on Crys, his goal to get there and get her out however he could manage.

It was only Crystal glancing up behind him, staring in shock at something behind him, that widened the scope of Midnight’s senses. His ear twisted back and he heard it, the creature shifting, claws scraping on the ground and lunging forwards towards him. Midnight stopped quickly and bent his legs, pushing off the ground as hard as he could and leaping into the air. Even without his wings, the jump was a familiar enough action that he bounded almost directly upwards, glancing down just in time to see the creature’s nose hit the ground right where he had been. Gravity exerted itself and Midnight fell, smashing his hooves down on the top of its muzzle with enough weight to crash its head into the floor again. Angered, the creature roared, throwing its head in the air again. But Midnight had predicted it and braced himself, using the momentum to jump high again.

By now the other creatures had noticed Midnight’s escape attempt, and one of them had spread its wings to strike at him from the right. It flapped and dashed closer towards him, but with a twist of Midnight’s barrel he sent himself into a spiral. The creature’s nose came close to him, but with his spin Midnight had just barely given himself the momentum enough to roll off it instead of slamming hard into it. As he rolled, the shackle on his right hoof spun with him, Midnight feeling it snap against his leg and made him wince, reflexively pushing his foreleg out to move the shackle away from what had to be a new bruise. It just so happened that he shifted at the right moment, and as Midnight righted himself on the creature’s head the shackle swung wildly off his right leg, slamming straight into the creature’s eye as it turned to focus on him.

The monster shrieked with pain, almost roaring and throwing its head roughly down to the ground. Its right claw came up to cover the injury to its eye, but Midnight was quick enough that he jumped again, soaring just over the claw as it came uncomfortably close to stabbing him in the neck. There was a heavy thump behind him, followed by a second one as the two monsters hit the floor hard. Midnight resisted the urge to look back at the carnage he’d caused, and to look for the third, as he was so desperately close to Crystal he couldn’t afford to lose a moment. Crys seemed dazzled enough by his actions, staring behind him as he reached out to grab the helmet on her head. With one hoof he shifted a strap clinging to Crystal’s jaw, pulling it free of her muzzle and yanking the entire helmet downwards a little too hard.

Crystal gasped in pain and screamed, a long and echoing cry of pain as Midnight yanked her head down a little harder than he had intended. But as he pulled the helmet clear of her, Crystal’s magic misfired, her magic unfocused but flowing without her desire. The raw magic formed into her laser-cutting spell, a spell she had shown Midnight was quite useful for slicing up rocks as she dove into the gem mines for her gem shop. Unlike Crystal’s normal precision with her magic, however, Midnight had to fall backwards as dozens of laser bursts shot from the poor mare’s horn, slashing wildly across the entire room. More than one blast cut across Midnight’s stomach as he fell backwards, covering his face with one hoof to avoid getting shot in the face, but he could already tell that the injuries she left by accident were no more than a light burn. She’d explained to him more than once that the spell was useless at harming an organic being, it was a finely tuned bit of her magic that could only be effective on inorganic things like rock or...metal.

As the lasers died down and Crystal gasped, panting and opening her eyes, Midnight looked down at her forelegs towards the chain that had bound her. Sure enough, three separate scores on the stone floor had intercepted the chain as they’d danced wildly from Crystal’s horn, neatly severing the chains binding her. Crystal was free. Crys looked down following Midnight’s eyes and gasped, looking straight back at him as they held eye contact again, savoring the momentary victory.

“Get them!” The moment didn’t last, as the third creature bellowed its command, extending a claw towards the two free ponies menacingly. Midnight looked back at them, staring upside down as he laid on his back too stunned to move. But as he tried to get up again, he felt Crystal falling onto his stomach, one hoof pressed sternly over his eyes. He didn’t have a second to panic as she covered his eyes almost perfectly, cutting off almost all light from his vision...but still enough to tell that something had just gotten a lot brighter. The fringes of his eyes were filled with a dazzling pink light, forcing him to squeeze his eyes shut and turn his ears back as the sound of magic pulsed brilliantly rather close to him. The three creatures screamed, another three thumps filling the room as they all fell to the ground. By the time Crystal removed her hoof from Midnight's eyes, the creatures were all lying on the floor, writhing in pain and covering their eyes. Realizing how Crystal had taken his earlier torment and turned it against their captors gave Midnight a momentary spot of satisfaction in his heart, smirking as the creatures writhed, but Crystal was quick on her hooves and grabbed his side.

“Come on! Run!” she yelled, helping him turn over and stand up quickly. Midnight didn’t need to be told twice and bolted out of the room, slamming through a door and turning right down the hallway. Crystal was right beside him, eyes speaking for her as her throat was too busy keeping air going for her muscles. “Where do we go?” they asked Midnight, who answered with a similar silent glance.

“Anywhere but here.”

Author's Note:

For those wondering, yes "the creatures" do have a proper name, at least for their species. I've been keeping it unmentioned due to consistency with the narrative: none of my characters know what they are, so their inner thoughts won't know better. But if it's growing too annoying for my readers I'd be happy to change the next few chapters to properly introduce these monsters. Let me know if you want the change: if you'd rather be surprised (by the end of this story, I promise), feel free to remain silent, and see if you get the poorly planned out highly subtle hint as to who they are before the big reveal!