From the Shadows

Rarity was pulled out of a dream a she felt her sheets being gently tugged on.

"Opalescence, not now. I've let you out three times already," she groaned as she pulled back on the blankets, reclaiming them from their would be thief.

A few moments passed before she felt the sheets being pulled again, still gently, but stronger than the first time.

"Opalescence, no," she said a second time, and the force on the sheets disappeared.

She'd begun to fall back asleep in the silence of the night, the first trickles of a dream teasing at her tired mind, when she felt another singular pull on the sheets, the strongest so far.

"Hmmmm," she groaned, pulling back again to readjust her sleeping position.

She quickly reclaimed the dream, and images of splendid jewels were beginning to take a form when, still as gently and as slowly as before, her sheets were pulled at again, only this time, they were completely removed, leaving her bare and uncovered on her mattress.

She immediately shivered and curled up against the loss of warmth, and her eyes lazily fluttered open.

"Alright," she succumbed, "I'll let you out."

She began to roll over and out of the fetal position when she heard a faint coo from the other side of the room.

*Meow*

She saw the cat perched on the dresser to her right, looking in her direction with an arched back and hair standing on edge.

The sheets were drawn off to the side of the bed opposite the cat's perch, and she looked at the feline confused as it took another step backwards on the ledge it already occupied, yowling now instead of meowing.

"Opalescence?" she said, beginning to sit up on her mattress.

Suddenly, the cat hissed, baring its needle-like teeth once, then took off downstairs in haste.

"Opalescence, what's wro..."

Rarity stopped short of completing her sentence as she heard a faint, brittle, crinkling sound off to her left, very near, as if coming from under the bed. She held as still as possible, trying not to make any noise as she listened for the sound. There was definitely something there, and it was eerily familiar.

Suddenly, Rarity realized where she'd heard the sound, and she gasped, but the influx of air was choked off by a crimson ring constricting her throat.

It tingled the way magic does, until she felt herself being pulled around by the ring, which was encircling the entirety of her neck; she couldn't breathe, and she clawed at it until it put an end to her resistance.

Suddenly, she was violently slammed down into the mattress. She was thrown onto her back, and she lay writhing on the bed, trying to escape, but to no avail. She couldn't even move in its grasp, let alone breathe.

She reached for the wooden column at the corner of her bed, trying to get a hold of it to pull back, and perhaps defeat the entity around her neck, but as she extended her forelimb, the sound grew louder, and a trio of opaque crystals launched up through the floor, intersecting each other around her wrist and effectively trapping it in place.

The ring around her neck suddenly vanished, and though the strangulation had brought tears to her eyes, she eyed the stones imprisoning her hoof with horror and confusion. She pulled with all her might, even using her other limbs to provide leverage, but she was stuck fast; her hoof would not budge from the crystalline snare. Not even magic helped in loosening the jagged bond. With each movement, she felt the ragged edges of the rock bite into her skin, and it wasn't long before its sting convinced her to stop thrashing.

She eased up a bit to avoid being cut by the seemingly serrated edges of the crystals, but once she did, another crimson ring formed around her free forelimb. It handled her by the wrist, and drew it to the other corner of the bed, and another trio of crystals shot up to pin the hoof to the headboard, just as the first one.

She began to breathe frantically, trying to pull herself free again, but immediately, her other two legs, her hindquarters, were seized as well, and pinned as the others.

Rarity found herself prostrate to the ceiling, seized and drawn over her own bed, and no matter how much she struggled, she simply could not break free. The bonds had her spread out so tightly that she could barely move at all.

She whimpered in panic as she tried to think of what to do, but before any plans hatched in her mind, she heard a low, growling laugh off to her right.

Her head snapped to the sound, and suddenly, Sombra's head materialized into her face from below her plane of view with a snarl.

"Huh," she squeaked, and the king's bared teeth slowly turned into a devious smile.

She writhed, her head and neck, being the only part of her that wasn't restrained, thrashing about in a useless struggle against the crystals, set in the wood of her home, unyielding and cold. She pounded her head against the soft mattress in frustration, and her breath came in frightened gasps as the king began to circle around to the foot of the bed, lavender tails coming from his eyes.

"What's the matter, Generosity?" he taunted her as he reached the other side of the bed, removing his blood red cape from around his neck and placing it on the nightstand after violently knocking it clear of picture frames and a flower vase, "Forget to check for monsters under the bed?"

He wore only armor underneath the cape, and now it clinked and jingled metallically with each step he took.

Rarity tried again to free herself; no luck, and Sombra again, stalked around to the left side of the bed. His tongue darted outside of his teeth to wet his lips, and slowly, his eyes moved up and down her body, lying bare and exposed on the mattress.

"Such beauty," he crooned, and he extended a hoof towards her face.

Rarity pulled away, but she could only go so far, and when she reached the end of her reach, Sombra ran the back of his hoof down her cheek and provocatively onto her neck, but the mare didn't approve of the advance.

She snapped at his hoof, biting down on empty air as he pulled back suddenly.

"Fiery and beautiful," he mused, checking to see that his hoof had indeed been unscathed by her teeth.

"Stay away from me," she warned between gasps.

"Or what?" the king asked sarcastically, advancing on her a second time.

Rarity's horn began to glow blue, and Sombra sparked a luminescence from his horn as well, yet, he kept his grin. Rarity fired a sapphire bolt of magic at him, but he deflected the bolt easily, and kept coming closer. She fired again to see the same result, and her diverged shot created a scorch mark in the wall. A third time she fired, but this time, his smile disappearing and his eyes going completely green, Sombra met her ray with a beam of his own. Red met blue in the middle of the room, pushing against each other; it didn't take long for Sombra's magic to overpower Rarity's.

The red bolt pushed itself into Rarity's horn, causing it to fizzle out amidst a loud popping sound upon reaching it. Rarity gasped in a panic again as her horn burned, smoke coming from its tip and black ash corrupting its once ivory surface. And Sombra kept coming.

Again, he stopped at the bedside, and grabbed a small mirror from the nightstand, the one he hadn't cleared.

"Generosity," he said looking into the mirror, pushing his flowing mane into position as he examined his appearance, "I will tell you a truth you would like to hear."

He looked away from his reflection and to her, his eyes stern and his smile gone.

"Rumors of your unrivaled beauty have spread as far as the barren north, from which I hail, as you know. I did not believe them when I first heard them," his eyes wandered from the mare's horrified face to her body again, and again, he wet his lips, "but now I see their words fall utterly short. But, how long will your beauty linger?"

Rarity stopped panicking for a second, staring at the king with wide sapphire eyes. He looked at her likewise, calm and unflinching in his gaze, until again, he looked back into the mirror.

"However," he said as his horn began to glow crimson, "there are many types of beauty. Physical beauty, spiritual beauty...which do you believe in?"

Rarity wasn't sure which she feared more; the Sombra that was violent and assertive, or this one, the one that spoke kindly in tone and intellectually in diction. Both were intimidating, but this side of the king was even more threatening somehow, and her heartbeat quickened. She forgot to respond to the king's question.

"Silence then?" he said, as he looked into the mirror one more time, looking away as a bolt of electricity connected his horn and the glass of the mirror.

The mare still did not answer, which obviously irritated the king. He cocked his head slightly, and the bones in his neck popped.

"To be honest," the king started again, cradling the mirror against his muscular chest, "I've always believed that beauty is on the inside."

He drew closer to her, walking and talking slowly, exotically, menacingly.

"Don't misunderstand, I appreciate physical beauty, beauty such as yours, just as much as any of the other lust-filled stallions in this town. Granted, not as much as you, but I do recognize beauty when I see it, and I must say, you are stunning. But, mortals age; they lose their beauty until all that is left is ugliness."

His hoof clinked against the floor as he drew a step closer to the imprisoned mare.

"Unless their beauty lies within," he said, sitting on his flanks adjacent to the bed.

He stared stoically into her eyes before he continued.

"Shall we see whether your beauty will stay with you when the bite of time claims your splendor?"

He turned the mirror so that the glass faced her, but Rarity shied away. He tried to force the mirror into her face, pushing it up to her snout, but she kept looking away. Eventually, Sombra seized her by the back of her head. She screamed and whimpered, but he forced her eyes to look into the mirror.

What she saw was not her reflection.

An old, wrinkled mare stared back at her, mimicking her movements in perfect timing. Boils covered her face, and age had caused her skin to droop. Her mane was unkempt and unclean, and Rarity was disgusted by the horrid appearance before her. She noticed the royal purple mane, the sapphire eyes, the alabaster hide, and she realized...it was her.

She tried to look away, but Sombra held her head in place until she began to whimper again. Her breathing quickened again, and her chest thumped up and down as she tried to avert her eyes, but the king wouldn't let her.

Sombra held her until he felt the image had sunken in, at which point he released her and again held the mirror to his breast.

He waited for her hyperventilating lungs to relax a bit before he spoke, so that his words might be heard in their entirety.

"This mirror shows the reflection of the soul, not of the flesh."

Rarity's eyes said what she didn't as they grew even larger somehow.

"So, Generosity, which beauty do you believe in?"

His demeanor suddenly changed, and his voice reflected it as he became more fiery.

"I will answer for you, mare, since you continue to ignore me! You believe in physical beauty, the beauty of the body, as well as the shortest lived of the species of beauty. You care more about your face and your flanks than you do about righteousness. You do your make-up before you show contempt for your peers; you groom your mane with unkind words on your tongue. You perfect your body while you corrupt your soul, and it has made you hideous!"

He circled around to the foot of the bed again, the devious smile returning as his teeth glistened in the moonlight. His voice lowered again, and Rarity grew more and more afraid as each second passed.

"But like I said," he said as he threw the mirror across the room in a telekinetic grip, causing it to shatter, "I appreciate your kind of beauty as much as any of the other lust-filled stallions in this kingdom, and like I also said, you look ravishing."

He prowled up to her, coming closer from the foot of the bed, and Rarity began squirming again, trying to let herself free to no avail.

Sombra stepped up onto the bed, one hoof on the mattress while the other three remained planted on the floor.

"It's been centuries since I've seen a mare, let alone one of your beauty."

She continued writhing as the other three of his hooves came onto the mattress. He straddled her, standing above her.

"Your soul may be ugly," he said, as he lowered his muzzle to her belly, and inhaled deeply as he moved up and closer to her neck, "but your body is perfect, Generosity, and tonight, it is mine."

She continued trying to pull away from the king, but the crystals held her tight; she couldn't move, and she was helpless and vulnerable and defenseless. His muzzle kept coming closer to her head, and Rarity felt the pinch of his teeth as they bit onto her neck. Next she felt the wet sensation of his tongue as it caressed her neck as well, and slowly worked its way down her stomach again.

She whimpered and sobbed as he stood up over her again, and she continued thrashing and struggling without being able to move her legs from between the king's cold, armored legs.

He knelt down over her, and leaned closely to her ear, and growled, "Keep struggling, and I promise this will hurt."

Rarity whimpered, tears falling as she held still, giving up, and she felt herself being driven upwards by the first of the king's vicious thrusts, and her head struck the headboard over and over again in rhythm.

****************

Rarity shot up in bed, frantic and breathing heavily as her heart pounded out a rhythm in her chest. She looked down; her sheets were still over her body, and the room was empty.

She sighed; it had just been a dream.

She was so relieved that it had only been a nightmare that she almost missed the bruise on her neck, and the red marks around her wrists and ankles, exactly where the stone bindings had struck her in the dream. Any hope she had deserted her, and as she saw the cluster of crystals at her bedside, she screamed.

It had not been just a dream.