//-------------------------------------------------------// ? -by Gloria Beezus Rose- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// ? //-------------------------------------------------------// ? The crystal spire was long and inescapable, at the top there was a room, that was filled with all that riches could buy. A unicorn mare, with a pale rose coat and a poppy pink mane with bubblegum stripes in it. She was a bird yearning to be free from her nest. She swore if she wasted another second in this room she didn't know what she'd do. Alas, she was trapped. She began to listen, to the clock on the wall. Tick, tock, tick, tock, it was mocking her. It said tick, tock, you're watching the clock go by. She was wasting valuable time here. If he didn't let her go, she didn't know what she'd do. Over the next minutes her stress built and the mare ripped the clock of the wall with her magic and repeatedly smashed it against the grow until it was only a pile of gears and crystal. Then it clicked, why had she been so stupid? she could use her magic to get out! She prepared a teleportation spell and as soon as she cast it she popped back where she was. "Goddamit!" the unicorn mare yelled with frustration. She warmed up another spell, she was going to blast her way out, and right before she cast it, crystals formed on and in her horn  causing her to be incapable of casting any spells. "Always one step ahead," she mumbled to herself combing through her pink mane with her hooves. Then something angrily growled at her, and she looked down at her barrel. She was hungry. 'Now thirst is no problem as there being a bathroom, but on the other hoof, food is,' she thought to herself. She would have to conserve energy, so laying down would be the best idea, especially with the bed so large. So she got up and laid down on top of the covers, they were the finest silk she'd ever felt. Then sleep swiftly took over taking her into the world where the mare's imagination thrived. She was in the forest during her favorite season, fall. The vibrate reds, and oranges, most of the colors she liked. Her favorite is candy red. Then a sudden burst of wind made all of the leaves fell from their trees, it was a beautiful sight them moving to the shape of the wind. Then after the leaves fell down to the ground, there was her best friend, a pegasus by the name of Mystic Sky. She had a baby blue coat and a cool grey main that was smoothed perfectly. The mare was her cousin, she'd trust her life in her hooves. "Why do you looked so shocked, Glori? You look like you've seen a g-g-g-ghost!" she joked, smiling with that grin that made the stoic Gloria B. Rose smile, a rare sight indeed. Gloria was lucky to of have such a friend. When the smile broke, this worried the happy go lucky pegasus. "I ask you, are you really Mystic or just a conjuring of my Imagination?" She asked, and grimaced at the thought she was certain that Mystic would not help her in her endevors. She was anxious to find out, she hasn't s seen her cousin in months. "I was just seeing if my little Glori was doing okay," Mystic said as she  began to fade out of the dream realm back into the reall world. "The spell is temporary me being a pegasus I can't keep it up long, so you be careful now." "Wait I'm trapped in a tower, so," she said sheepishly. "Oh well, I guess I'll come and save your princess butt, it's not like I haven't done it, before," Mystic said using the child hood nick name she made for Gloria. When they were fillies they were constantly getting in trouble, with the royal guards, and actionable  Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight. "Yeah, you got to stop calling me that." "Bye," she said as she completely disappeared from the dream realm and left Gloria to her Imagination. //-------------------------------------------------------// 1 //-------------------------------------------------------// 1 Gloria slowly opened her eyes and notice the window for the first time, wait that was and escape root. she ran up to it and looked down, that was a long drop, wait she could cut her sheets into strips and make a rope! So she looked for anything sharp, luckily she found a pair of clippers. She began her work hastily. Sinp, snip, snip, the sound was almost as annoying as the clock, speaking of the clock where did the gears go? Then she heard he stomach rumble, she needed to get out. I took her about an hour to  finish and now all she needed to do was break the window. She picked up a decorative crystal and through it at the window and it shattered. She quickly tied the end of the sheet rope to the bed and put the rest of it out the window. It was about a fifteen-foot drop to the balcony, the odds of her succeeding with her escape was better this way than any other. She took a firm hold of the makeshift rope and her began to descend she had about thirty more feet to go before she reached the bottom when she heard the load rip of the sheets. The look on her face, it was priceless, well not if you're falling far enough to kill you. Then she felt a magic field wrap around her and she felt like it was smothering her. She started to kick and scream until she felt the magic loosen and the ground beneath her hooves,  she held her head low. "Look up now," she heard a voice say to her, she assumed to be King Sombra's . She hated him she snuck in to steal his magic book but failed miserably. She did not look up. Gloria suddenly felt Sombra's magic forcibly ripping her head up to look at him. She glared at him defiantly. Now a one of my slaves would be at my feet begging for mercy. "Well, I'm better that any earth pony, slave or otherwise. I would not grove to a King just because he's a King," she said, she was a little racist towards earth ponies because they worked in the filth and mud. She nicknamed them mud ponies. "Now you, however, you saved my life, anypony would and should be thankful for that." "You are well spoken," he complimented as he leant a hoof to help her up, which she gladly accepted. "The only reason I didn't kill you was that you have an aptitude towards magic, I thought about it for a while and decided to invite you to become my apprentice," Sombra said opening the door on the balcony which lead into the throne room. "Hmm, " she said putting her hoof to her chin, "First of all I'd like to keep that room in the tower and, I'd like to know what's in it for you." "Smart girl, what in it for me is I have someone to protect the Empire while I'm traveling and a pony that is powerful and loyal to me." "Deal," she said putting out her hoof, which Sombra put out his and the shook hooves.