Bleak

by Shortstop

Sweet Dreams

"Now that we've reestablished the status quo," Sombra said to the crowd, "It's time to call it a day. Work resumes first thing tomorrow morning. Same time, same place, same thing as always. Now, back to your homes."

The crystal ponies were pulled away from Sombra's speech when the heard several loud hoof steps. Some of them looked to see where it was coming from. All they saw were the overseers moving aside, making a hole for them to pass through.

For a few moments, none of them did anything. They simply stood where they were, their eyes darting around at each other, wondering what to do. A few of them dared to look up, only to be met by Somrba's ever growing angry eyes. It was clear to them that he was getting impatient.

One of them worked up a small amount of courage and walked toward the gap that the overseers formed. As he was about make it out, he looked to one of the overseers, silently asking the question that everyone else was too scared to say. All he was met with was a simple nod in the opposite direction.

Turning his head forward, the lone stallion walked off crestfallen, heading to his home. The rest of the crowd followed suit, not wishing to be around the king or their newest miniature dictator. Even though they knew next to nothing about the dragon Sombra had mentioned, they knew that if he was selected by the king he had to be equally evil.

They all silently walked away, Sombra eying them from above. Sombra gave a half smirk, pleased that the disorder had been taken care of. Once the crystal ponies had gone off to their homes, he took the next step.

"Overseers!" he called out to the golems below. All of the Watchers looked up to their king, their gaze unchanged even to their ruler. "Take up your sentinel positions for the evening. All are to be awake at the hour of five to be given food. Afterwords, everyone will line up at the mine's entrance to report to the foreman. Once all are accounted for, your next guard shift will begin in the mines."

The golems gave no response other than simple nods. Once the last of the citizens were off the streets, they slowly began to disband from the circle they had formed. Sombra and Spike continued to watch the golems, seeing where they were going. The first few took up positions on the corners of the closest streets, simply holding their positions. Many of the other took up similar posts, while the remaining were left to patrol the streets.

Spike continued to look on, still frozen not only from his realization, but from what Sombra had been able to accomplish in such a short time. As impressive as it was to see a pony work so efficiently, it also made him wonder how he was going to run everything else.

"Excellent." Sombra said, a satisfied look on his face. Spike looked up at Sombra, his height almost equal with him standing on the railing. Sombra looked to Spike, his expression unchanged. "Well now, my friend, I'd say it's time we retire for the night. We have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow, and we'll need all the rest we can get."

Sombra turned quickly, then made his way back to the door of the balcony, the crystal golem still silently waiting there. Spike jumped down from the balcony, his mind not fully aware that his body was acting without his consent. It was as if Spike was there, but gone in his own world. A world where he was trying to make sense of the insanity that was going on around him and everyone else.

As the three of them continued to walk down the hallway, they passed by the dungeon door once more. Spike was able to get himself out of his head, finally taking notice as to where he was. He had heard that when someone was in a state of deep anxiety that they sometimes lose focus with the world, but he never believed it until then.

As they passed the door, Spike could have swore that time he had heard the sound of soft voices. Almost like he could hear them talking. He wanted to stop and see if pressing his ear against the door might help with understanding what they were saying, but knew better. With Sombra in front of him, and the golem behind him, stopping would have likely meant more trouble than he was already in.

Spike desperately wanted to know what was going on with his friends. With the way that he left them, they were no doubt disappointed in him. They were probably sitting there, wondering how he could do something so horrible as to abandon them. Wondering how he, as their friend, could just flat out give up on them.

Where as it crushed Spike's heart to think about this, he was only given a brief bit of time to actually grieve. He had to keep his pace with the king, lest he ruin any chance of seeing them again. Which would ruin any chance he had to tell them how sorry he was. He may have said it once, but he knew it wasn't enough.

Finally, the group made it back to the throne room entrance. But they didn't go in, as Spike had expected. Rather, Sombra kept leading them down the hallway. Not far away from the throne room was another door on the adjacent side. "Here we are." Sombra stated simply before pushing the door open.

Sombra stepped inside, Spike following behind him. Once in, Spike turned around to see if the crystal golem had followed them. Surprisingly though, the golem was still outside. Spike looked back at the king, not fully expecting an answer, but he got one regardless.

"The Watchers are not allowed in my personal quarters." Sombra said, almost knowing what Spike was thinking. "He will remain outside the room for the evening. Even though a guard isn't needed, I think it's only fitting that I be safe with everything I do. Please, light the torch on the wall."

Spike assumed he was talking to him, and looked on the wall for the aforementioned torch. It took him a second to find it in the near pitch black room, but he finally found it. He walked up to the wall, inhaled deeply, and blow a shot burst of his fire at the head of the torch.

The second the flame made contact, the entire room was lit up. All of the other torches that lined the rest of the walls were aglow with the flame as well. With the room now well lit, Spike could see everything that was inside.

The room itself was fairly large, even by the standards that Spike had seen through out the castle. In the center of the room was a very large bed, a steel gray spread over the top of it. To the left was a small table and a good sized book shelf, several hundred books all neatly placed and organized. To the right was a simple dresser made of some sort of dark wood. Two doors were on either side of the room, one of which Spike assumed was the wash room.

"I'll have your own room prepared for you soon enough." Sombra told Spike, getting the young dragons attention once more. "For the time being you will reside in here with me. I have no other beds, but there are plenty of linens in the closet."

Spike saw the gem that Sombra was still levitating in his magic, watching as it went higher up. He continued to follow the heart, finally seeing where it was headed. Above the head board of Sombra's bed was a glass orb, just big enough to house the crystal.

The heart was placed on the small pedestal inside of the glass sphere, Sombra's aura now off of it. Sombra then closed the small door on the glass ball, a small locking sound being heard after it shut. Now for the final touch. Sombra thought to himself. A small flash of his magic went over the now encased heart, sealing it in with the aura.

"It'll do for the night." Sombra said. Just then he felt a sudden, sharp pain surge through his head. He resisted the urge to rub his hoof against his head, and simply gritted his teeth. He then looked at the heart again, his brow furrowing from pent up anger.

These flaws in my magic are becoming intolerable. Sombra thought, I can't believe that time in the ice took this much out of me. I need to reintegrate my training in the morning. If I don't get my mental focus straight again, these surges of pain are going to get the better of me.

Sombra cast his gaze back down to Spike, who was still looking over the room. Using his magic, Sombra slowly closed the door, a few creaks coming from the hinges. Once Spike heard the latch lock, he turned back to the door. It didn't go unnoticed by Sombra, who simply rolled his eyes at the young dragons jumpiness.

"Your constant nervousness is beginning to irritate me." Sombra said to him, getting Spike's attention. "I can understand that this is all something very new for you to take in, but I have already told you that you have nothing to fear. And I don't think it would be very becoming of you to act that way around the slaves tomorrow."

All Spike could do was nod, his voice now lost to him. Where as he didn't want to admit it, Sombra was right. He had already said several times that no harm would come to him. But it did little to calm his nerves.

"Now then," Sombra went on, "Through that door there is the linen closet. Take what you will-" Before he could finish his sentence, Sombra was interrupted by a loud, shrill scream. Both he and Spike looked to the direction of where the scream came from.

At first both of them wore looks of confusion, but Sombra's was quickly replaced with that of amusement. He then gave a low, throaty laugh, fully realizing what it was he heard. "It's sounds like someone didn't take my advice." he said after his short chuckle.

Spike didn't need to be told where that came from. He would have recognized that high feminine scream anywhere.

Rarity, he thought to himself somberly.

---

As the bright flash slowly faded away, Rarity was still left holding her head tightly in her hooves. The pain going through her was unbearable.

She had woken up not but a second ago, heavily shocked when she saw just where she was. Her mind immediately went into panic mode, and she went to the door without any thought. He friends, who had been for the most part quiet the entire time she was out, tried to warn her, but were too late.

Before they could get her attention, Rarity tried to see if she could some how force the door open. But the result was far from what she was expecting. Her aura that was surrounding the door switched to its opposite color, and then shot itself back at her horn.

Once the reversed magic made contact with her, Rarity's mind became nothing but a sea of pain.

She continued lying there on the floor, still screaming in agony. Her friends couldn't do anything except look at her, some grimacing from the thought of the pain she must have been going through, others simply feeling bad for her.

"OW, OW, OW! It feels like my skull's being split open!" Rarity screamed, squeezing her head tightly in her hooves as the tears streamed down her face.

"Sorry Rare." Applejack apologized across from her, "We tried warnin' ya, but you moved too fast for any of us to get a word out."

Adjacent from Rarity's cell, Shining Armor continued to watch the mare writhe in agony. Where as he was worried about her, he admittedly was more concerned with the well being of his wife. She hadn't moved at all since she was forcibly thrown into her cell like the rest of them.

He pulled his gaze away from Rarity, focusing on Cadence once more. It was the first time that he truly got a good look at how badly she had been injured. The most prominent one being the giant bruise where the blast of energy had first struck her.

Before he could further look over her body, he noticed the smallest of movements from her. Slowly her eyes fluttered open as she groaned in discomfort. She tried picking herself up from the floor, but stopped as she felt her body become wracked with pain from her movement. She sucked in air through her teeth, trying to keep herself from shouting out.

"Cadence." she heard from the cell across from her. She looked up, seeing the face of her husband. Even with as much pain as she was in, just seeing the face of the stallion she loved was enough to help ease some of the discomfort away.

"Shining Armor." she responded in a frail voice. It was then she noticed the dried blood on his face. At first she didn't understand what could have caused it, but quickly thought of the answer. Sombra had hurt him, and from the look of all the blood, his nose may have very well been broken.

At the thought, Cadence's heart sank. Not only had she failed in getting the crystal heart and saving the empire, but now her husband was seriously hurt. If only she had been just a bit faster. If only she had been able to defend herself, maybe they wouldn't be in this situation.

"I'm sorry." she said to him in a weak tone, sounding nearly on the verge of tears. "This is my fault. If i had just been-"

"Don't you dare blame yourself for this." he said, cutting her off. "If anything, this is my fault. I willingly put you in harms way. I knew you were exhausted, but I still put you in danger. If anyone should be begging forgiveness it should be me."

"It wasn't all your fault." she said in a whisper, "You knew there was no other way." She took a pause, her shortness of breath making it difficult to speak. "It was just as much my fault as it was yours. Don't shoulder this burden alone."

Shining Armor took a breath and held it, fearing that if he let it out that he wouldn't be able to control himself. He couldn't stand the thought of his wife taking any of the blame for what happened. How could any of it be her fault? But even still, he knew better than to try and argue with her.

"Well..." he said, trying to think of what he could possibly say next. Finally he let out his breath in a long sigh, unable to think of anything.

"Alright." he relented, "Your right. Just please take it slow. I don't know how injured you are, so don't move too fast. And don't try using your magic. These cells have something in them that will hurt you if you try."

Cadence gave the smallest of smiles to him as she nodded. He smiled back, knowing that they were at least at an understanding for the time being. Deep inside he still fully blamed himself, but he wouldn't let her know.

"What are we gonna do now?" Fluttershy asked, her voice heavy with fear.

Shining Armor looked to her direction, trying to come up with something to say. He looked around the room, trying to find something that could be of possible use to them. But came up with nothing. But even he did find anything he had no way of getting to it. Their situation looked completely hopeless.

"I... I don't know." he forced himself to say.

"Guys," Applejack said, getting everyone's attention, "Ah keep tryin' to find some sorta hope to all this, but... there's nothin' at all ah can find."

Everyone's eyes went to Applejack. The tone in her voice was unlike anything they had heard from her before. Usually she was the one to always try and restore their morale when the situation looked grim, but this... this was so unlike her. Even if she was being honest.

"Come on, guys!" Rainbow Dash piped up, "There has to be something we can do. We can't just sit here and do nothing."

"Rainbow." Applejack said, trying to get her friends attention. "What do ya suppose we do?"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to give a response, but nothing came to mind. She quickly closed her mouth and took some time to actually think about her response. Twice more she tried to give her friends a real response, and twice more she was me with the same result. She had no answer for them.

"Okay, just because I can't think of anything doesn't mean that everything's hopeless. I'm sure that one of us can think of something." She then looked to the cell across from her. "Twilight, I know you. You must have something planned, right?" There was a long silence. "...Twilight."

All those who could looked to Twilight, trying to see what it was that had caused Rainbow Dash to call out to her a second time. At first there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Twilight was still sitting at the front of her cell, being as quiet as she was when they first got there. But they quickly realized that was the problem.

Twilight hadn't moved an inch since she had been placed in that prison. She was just sitting there, her large sad eyes glued to the floor. It was difficult to tell if she was even breathing.

None of them had ever seen her like that before. There were times when she would get impulsive and lash out, but she had never been disheartened into silence. None of them could have imagined how much she had on her mind. How heavily she was burdened with the feeling of failure.

"Twilight?" Pinkie said from the cell adjacent to her, "What's wrong?" Twilight gave no response. She didn't even acknowledge her pink friend. She just continued to stare a hole through the floor.

Pinkie thought for a brief moment, trying to come up with a solution to get her to answer them. But Rainbow Dash beat her to the punch.

"Twilight, you can't blame yourself for this." the pegasus said, "You had no way of stopping what happened. You were trapped, what could you have done?"

"Yeah." Pinkie jumped in, trying to back Dash up. "How can this be your fault? All you could do was send Spike with the heart. And if that were the case, we might as well blame him."

"Pinkie! Not helping." Dash hissed at the cell next to her.

"Sorry. Didn't mean it that way." Pinkie apologized.

"Come on, Twilight." Dash resumed, "At least let us know your still alive."

Finally, Twilight did respond. But not verbally.

Twilight slowly stood up from the floor, her gaze still fixed on the same spot. For a few seconds she simply idled there, her eyes slightly glossy now. She then turned herself away from the cell door, facing away from everyone else. Continuing with her eerily slow movements, Twilight walked over to the small cot that was in the corner of her cell.

She climbed onto the dingy, unkempt bed and curled up into a ball, unable to continue looking at everyone else. And the very fact that they were trying to down play her role in their current situation only made it worse to bare.

This is all my fault she thought to herself, If I had just been quicker... if had just been smart enough to know that there was a trap waiting... but now it doesn't matter. I've destroyed everyone's lives.... Spike's especially. At the thought of her assistant, the tears that had been brimming in her eyes finally fell.

Spike... I'm so sorry. I never wanted anything to happen to you. And now look what I've done. The thought of what Sombra could possibly be doing to the young dragon weighed heavily on Twilight's mind. She covered her face with her hooves, and began to weep softly.

I've failed everyone. My friends, my family, my teacher... everyone. she continued thinking to herself, How could I have let them down like this? How could I allow this to happen? It's all my fault. She continued crying, drowning in her own sea of sadness.

Rainbow Dash was the only one that could see what was going on, and it tore her up just to look. You didn't need to be a genius to figure out that she was beating herself up over the whole thing. But even though Dash was the only one watching, all the others could hear what was going on.

True, it wasn't the most loud or dramatic crying they had ever heard, but it was by far the worst. What made it so hard for them to hear was just the sheer amount of hurt that resonated from it. Never before had they heard anything like that come from Twilight.

Before any of them had a chance to say something to her, the torch lights dimmed. With what little flame was actually left on the torch heads, they might as well have been out. No one in the room could see much farther than their own prison bars.

A few shocked gasps could be heard through the room, which slowly turned into hushed whispers. Almost as if they were afraid someone was listening. Afraid that they were being watched.

---

Sombra deposited the last piece of his armor onto the dresser, a soft metallic clank coming from the plate. It had been centuries since his imprisonment, but even after all that time, it never failed to amaze him how great it always felt just to get it off.

Next to his plate armor and cape were the few articles of clothing he had given Spike. He told the the young dragon he could place his belongings along side his own, and then set about making his bed for the evening.

Across the room, Spike was busy setting up his sleeping area. It wasn't much, but he was able to make something that was mostly like his old bed back at the library. Sombra even had an old basket that he could use.

He put down enough sheets to make a suitable padding for the bottom, and had managed to find an extra blanket. All in all, it would do for the time being.

"Alright," Sombra said, turning to Spike. "Now that everything is taken care of for the evening, let us be off to bed." All Spike did was nod, not wanting to say anything else.

Sombra climbed into his large, immaculate bed, and Spike got himself curled up inside of his basket. As Sombra laid his head into the pillow, his horn began to glow. The torches of the room completely died, plunging the room into near pitch black. The only light remaining coming from the windows, and the ominous glow of the magic barrier surrounding the glass orb that contained the heart.

Sombra gave out a heavy sigh, relaxing for the first time in years. His eyes slowly drifted close, able to truly sleep for once.

But next to him, Spike could not find any way to be at ease. His mind was just swimming with thoughts. And even as he was lying there, begging for sleep to find him, his active mind kept him from drifting off.

Twilight... everyone... I'm sorry. he thought to himself, feeling his eyes begin to glaze over. If I weren't such a screw up, none of us would be in this situation. We might have actually won if it were one of you who took the heart. But now I've made a mistake I can't fix.

He felt the hot tears beginning to fall down his face, but he forced himself not make a sound. Fearing that even a pin dropping would wake the tyrant king. But he couldn't stop his tears, no matter how hard he tried.

What's gonna happen tomorrow? Spike continued thinking, What will happen to them? What's gonna happen to their families? Will they even know where we are? The questions continued to flood Spikes mind, even well after he had started loosing track of them.

With so much on his mind, and so many emotions weighing him down, Spike soon began to feel his exhaustion setting in. His heavy head finally relaxed onto his pillow, which was now stained with his tears. There would be no resting easy for him tonight, nor would there be for any of his friends.

With the promise of a dark tomorrow awaiting them, many wished they could go somewhere else tonight. Somewhere they could be free, not having to worry about waking up. But their dreams would hold nothing for them.

Author's Note:

Just as a side note, I'd like to apologize for not updating this in a long time. But do you know how hard it is to type with splints on your fingers? It is not easy. In any case, the show must go on.

Comments

[Shortstop]

YEAH! My first dislike!

[EmeraIdFIame]

I really love this story