The Human Pet

Governor Glow carried his beloved daughter Cozy to the underground levels of his fort. These damp, locked dungeons were purely for his special projects. They stopped at one of the sealed doors. The Governor nudged the slot open, and allowed Cozy to stand on his back and peek through. Inside, Cozy could just make out a gagged alicorn in the shadows, chained from all limbs and with a magic suppressor hooked tightly around her horn.

"Say hi, darling!" the Governor chided.

Cozy gave a pretty smile and waved. Her daddy always liked it when she played nice.

"Attagirl. You know who that is? That... is Princess Luna! Princess of the Night! Princess of us all! Yes, she is! She's a mighty creature. Immortal, so they say. Some even worship her as a goddess. But here she is, daddy's prisoner." Excitement creeped into the Governor's voice. An eerie grin twisted his features.

"Da-da!" Cozy shouted happily.

"Mhmh. Take this as a lesson, sweetheart. So long as you're smarter than anypony else, there's nothing you can't do." He smirked at the prisoner. "Inspiring, isn't it? Good, evil, those are distractions. The winner of the game is the pony who doesn't have to pick a side. She knows all the moves, all the plays. And which pony is that?"

The foal nuzzled into her dad's mane. "Meeee!" She only understood about half of what he was saying, but it sounded true enough. Being smart had certainly paid off for her when she broke the cookie jar, and blamed her friend. Nobody shouted at her for it. And she even got her cutie mark that day, earlier than anypony else she knew! That had to be a win.

Governor Glow rubbed against Cozy's cheek. He adored her. "You're my favourite in the whole wide world. What a talent! I couldn't be prouder. You hearing this, Princess? My baby here is smarter than you are! Of course, that's not saying a whole lot. You decided to trust criminals to keep their word. Hehehe."

Princess Luna did not dignify him with a response.

"Not gonna talk? That's fine. You're probably too embarrassed. I would be. Trying to stay ahead of both sides of the law, that I understand. I mean, I do that every day! But to suppress deviancy? Thaaat's where you tripped. Wrongdoers never stop looking for ways to do wrong. And all it takes is one that's smarter than you." He turned back to his daughter. "See, here's another lesson, Cozy. Don't trust ponies. It narrows you down, blinds you to their next move. Some ponies need to be hurt. Some need sugary words. Remember that, sweetie. Always one step ahead."

"Dost thou prefer sugary words, or hurt? Nightmare Moon will give thee neither." Luna said coldly. "Nor Crystal Star, for that matter. Thou shalt meet your end at their hoofs. A daytimer has no place in their reign."

Governor Glow tutted. "You're still expecting me to play by other ponies' rules! You're very slow today, Princess." Cozy blew a raspberry.

Slowly, it dawned on Luna. "Crystal Star is merely a pawn in thy own design..."

"Well, of course she is! I'm an oppurtunist! Every pony who lives is merely pawn in my own design! You see this? A potion of twisted minds." He held up a shining crystal vial, with glowing cyan liquid inside. "Imperceptible in a drink. At one time or another, everypony I want to play with drank this potion without knowing it. Even you! All it takes is a spell, a caster and a powerful source of energy, and all of you will step to attention on my command. If Crystal had managed to deliver the Alicorn Amulet, I'd already have you begging to kiss my hooves. But she did put together a nice little army for me. All in the name of glorious patriotism." He laughed cruelly. "She and Chrysalis dance to my song. They just don't know it yet."

Cozy Glow clapped. "Dance!" She whooped.

28 YEARS EARLIER

A young Crystal Clear stared into the dark mouth of the cave with trepidation.

Although ancient thestral traditions had mostly died out by this time, some of the oldest families still followed them... to the letter. In this case, Crystal Clear's parents - aristocratic, but losing their significance and wealth - had worked very hard to present an image of absolute dedication in order to impress the Star family.

Because there was an old saying: even Nightmare Moon needs its Stars. Their influence in the thestral community was almost unparalleled. And their heir, Gold Star, was ripe for marriage. Naturally, there was competition. Any family joining forces with the Stars would find themselves skyrocketing to the height of the upper class, the creme de la creme.

Lord and Lady Clear would never know this, but they were not chosen for presenting themselves as similarly old-fashioned (anypony could see through that pale attempt at flattery). They were chosen precisely because their strength was diminishing. For the Clears, this marriage was a lifeline, a way to save their dignity and lifestyle, and so they would be permanently in debt to the Stars... and docile. And thus the Stars would not be at risk of being usurped from their position of power.

The agreements were made, hooves were shaked and Crystal Clear was told where she would find her husband-to-be. As per the old ritual, there was no direct ceremony. Weddings back then were an intensely private matter for bats. There were only two attendants: stallion and mare. They would separately enter a hollow mountain, and find one another through singing a certain type of song which aided echolocation.

Once united, what happened next was entirely up to them. Because the partners in an arranged marriage would have rarely met, this was the oppurtunity to get to know one another. Sometimes one would flee. This was never regarded as an insult, as thestrals were pragmatic in nature and realised that certain ponies were simply not compatible. Regardless of how valuable the marriage could be, a rejection was as sacred as a success. There was also no time limit. The bats were legally allowed to explore one another as long they wished, and folklore speaks of a marriage where a particularly indecisive couple had to be supplied with food and drink for the rest of their lives until finally a very old batmare emerged, shamelessly rejecting her skeleton of a fiancee and calling for a new one.

Crystal Clear was not so impish, however. Although her chest was filled with trepidation, she was pushed on by her ambition and drive to prove herself. And though she knew little of Gold Star, she was aware that he was handsome, mannered and currently serving as the youngest mayor in the history of the Caverns. One little itty-bitty meeting was all that separated her from her destiny as one half of a power couple that would put thestrals back on the map as a pony race to be reckoned with.

She fluttered into the darkness, floating for a while hither and thither through the empty tunnels, mentally preparing herself. Then she began to sing. For a while, only her voice illuminated the cold stone walls around her. But soon enough, a deeper voice joined and the tunnels grew brighter in her mind's eye. A nervous excitement began to spread through Crystal's body as their distant songs entwined. It was only at this moment that it occurred to her to think of her future mate as something other than a business partner. There was magic in the air.

They met in a large underground chamber. There was no floor, merely a huge cold lake covered in over-sized magical flora, which did not require light to exist. Crystal sang louder, focusing the image in her mind and sat inside the petals of the prettiest giant bloom she could hear. Gold Star joined her, held her hooves, and their song grew even greater. The soundwaves bounced off of their faces, giving both a mental impression of what the other looked like. It was the only way they could see here.

Unlike the daytime ponies whose magic frequently compelled them to sing in loud, flamboyant musical numbers, the song that Harmony had granted to the bats was altogether more subtle, and entirely wordless due to its ultrasonic nature. It was an otherworldly and dreamy sound which defied closer description save for the one coined by Princess Luna: "It's the gentle glitter of the moonlight to the sun's radiant rays".

Gradually, as they took their fill of each other's faces, the song dwindled down and they were left sitting in the gently rocking bloom, holding on to each other. Then Gold Star leaned his hoof a little too heavily on the bottom of the pad and the romantic moment was cut short by cold water hitting both of their bottoms simultaneously. "Whoops!" He squeaked as they took to floating in mid-air. "Sometimes a guy just doesn't know his strength..." Gold Star chuckled sheepishly, hoping it would break the ice.

Crystal Clear did not laugh.

"Okay... um, what's your name?" Gold Star asked.

"You don't know my name?"

There was a brief pause. "Yes, I do. Crystal Clear. Uh... I'm sorry, I'm just a bit nervous."

Crystal's head cocked to the side. She was nervous too, of course, but she would have died rather than admit it. "Of what?"

"Well, it's not every day one gets married!"

"You can go out if you like."

"NO!" Gold Star exclaimed, his voice echoing louder than he would have liked. "I mean... no. That's not... that's not what I meant. It's just kind of a big moment, that's all."

"I don't understand. My family is the one who really wants this marriage to happen. You can have anypony you like. So what's there to fear?"

Gold Star took a few deep breaths, calming down. Crystal had a point there. He couldn't possibly humiliate himself. "You're right. That's silly." There was another pause, and Gold sensed that Crystal expected him to talk first. "How badly do you want this marriage? Not your parents, I mean you."

"I'm committed." She said. And she was. She was surprised and slightly disappointed by Gold Star's timidity, but the power offered by the Star family was far too great to even consider refusing.

"Why?"

Crystal's ears flicked around a little as she thought. "I don't like staying in one place. In life, you can either go up or down. I choose up. What about you? Why do you want this?"

"My parents picked." Gold Star shrugged.

"Then fly out."

"I am not going to do that." His voice hardened a little, which made Crystal happier. So he wasn't totally adrift. What Gold Star said next came out a lot slower. He was carefully choosing his words now. "I do want to marry, I just... I want to marry somepony I trust. I don't know if you are that pony, that's why I'm still here."

"Trust?" The word sounded alien to Crystal. "What's trust got to do with it?"

Gold Star frowned. "I'm a simple pony. I don't care about going up or down, because I'm happy where I am. I want to stay where I am. The thing is..." his voice turned from slow to stern. "There's no point in marrying unless there is total trust. Not for me. I'm not saying I want to be the most important person in your life or whatever. We hardly know each other. But what I want... what I need... from you... is knowing that no matter what happens, you got my back. No doublespeak, no innuendos, no big secrets. And obviously, that goes both ways. I want you to know that if you ever need anything, you can come to me. That's it." He released a deep sigh. "That's the deal. That's what I'm looking for."

Crystal carefully considered. It was no small ask - although Crystal had friends, she felt somewhat detached from all of them. And quite a few were significantly more intelligent than Goldie here. But she did sense a reliability from him, at least, and some inner strength, though he obviously loathed to display it. Perhaps she could help with that... and he, with his connections and trust could be useful in ways no other pony had been in her life.

But something was still holding her back. It wasn't Gold Star himself - she could have said yes to his proposal right away - but a feeling inside of her. He had spoken with a sincerity that she couldn't recall ever being faced with in her life. Some part of her that she didn't understand demanded that she returned that sincerity. "How do you feel about... Harmony?"

"Harmony?"

"Yes... the magic of harmony. Friendship... and all that." She waved vaguely with her hoof, feeling intensely embarrassed. "I'm not very good at that. I'm not a very good pony. I just... thought you should know that."

"Oh. Anything serious?" He asked in a half-joking tone.

It was Crystal's turn for her voice to go slow and quiet. "I'm mean. And I enjoy being mean. I mean, I'm not proud of enjoying it, I'm not, but I... do enjoy it. And I like to push ahead of others. And I want things. I want lots of things that aren't mine and shouldn't be mine. I'm not really proud of that one either."

"Well, I'm really lazy. And like you said, I don't really want my life to go anywhere. I could probably be better myself. Better disciplined, better focused, doing better things in general... I just don't want to. I only got to be mayor because they rigged the election." Gold Star scratched the back of his head. "We're gonna be such an amazing couple."

Crystal finally laughed.

"Still..." Gold said with a hint of pride at cracking her up, "we can always go up. If we work as a team. I do like my life, but upwards sounds pretty cool too."

"... you really mean that?"

"Yeah... are we on the same team?"

"Yeah." She replied without hesitation. "Yes."

They started to sing their song again, and this time it was so powerful that for the first and only time, they could somehow percept the colour around them through their ears. They stared into each other's eyes and kissed.

12 YEARS LATER

Crystal Star stared, stonefaced, at the shriveled bony form of her husband on the hospital bed. Gold Star... what was left of him anyway. He was still alive, just about, but an incurable form of wasting disease had reduced him to practically nothing.

Deep inside, Crystal was incandescent with rage. The humiliation of it! Gold Star was no warrior, but he was the patriarch of a proud family. And to wither like this! ...

She could barely contain her wrath. If the disease had to take him, it could have at least had the dignity to do a fast job. Then she could mourn and move on. But to keep her stuck mourning like this... it was a level of cruelty that she would have wished on her worst enemies alone. Their children were at home, and had seen very little of either parent in weeks. Crystal felt a tinge of regret at that, but she felt unable to leave him. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?" She muttered under her breath. "You can let go now."

There was no response. He hadn't spoken in weeks. Just didn't have the energy for it, if he even was awake. But he clinged on, in some halfway point between life and death. Crystal knew exactly why. Goldie had told her, back in the early stages.

"I just really like living." He'd shrugged, with the same carefree charm he always used to get his way. "There's so much to do. You better believe they'll have to drag my soul out with pincers, one inch at a time.."

Crystal snarled, refusing to let herself cry. "I made you too strong..."

She'd asked help from everyone, of course. She'd asked help from Celestia herself. All the white bucker had to say was that she cannot control life and death. Horseapples! Crystal knew the real reason. Celestia got requests like this every dratted day. She simply picked the ones she liked. A searing, burning hate grew inside of the batmare. "He's mine." She said to no one particular.

And then he was dead.

It was all very simple. At a certain point in the night, his heart gave up. No dramatic final words. They just came in, wheeled him down to the morgue and that was that. Crystal felt nothing as she watched him go. She didn't know why. Maybe she was already done grieving. Her only reaction was to go get a cup of coffee. It wasn't until she sat down that she realised something was wrong with her.

Gold Star was dead. She could go home now. There were three foals who had been almost exclusively with a babysitter for weeks now. She should go home now. But something kept her sitting on that plastic hospital chair in the corridor, sipping her coffee. As the hours ticked by, she felt herself floating. Not quite an out-of-body experience, but a wandering mind. She floated above herself, dissecting every memory she'd ever made. What did it all amount to?

They'd kept their promise to each other, becoming two halves of a greater whole, a team. With Goldie's money and influential connections, she'd easily worked her way up to a member of Celestia's government. And in turn, she provided Goldie with the direction and motivation he needed as mayor. Ironically enough, the worst fear of Gold Star's parents came true - somepony else ended up running the family. Crystal's relationship with her own parents became strained after that, as she did not allow them to make any use of this. They were able to keep their dignity, but that's about all.

But now... no more Goldie. She felt herself become cold, calculating, curious. It was as if her mind instantly reverted to who and what she'd been as a young mare, the moment he passed. The summer had passed and it was time to get back to real work. On her own, pushing upwards, letting nopony get in her way. For the foals if nothing else.

She went for another coffee. As she filled the cup, someone bumped into her. "Oh, I'm sorry." It was a red earth pony stallion, with a slicked blue mane. "Tough day, huh?"

Crystal's eyes narrowed. What was a stupid daytimer doing in the Caverns?

"You lose someone too?" He asked.

"My husband." She said curtly, in a buck-off-and-leave-me-alone voice. She trotted back to her chair.

The stallion followed her, taking the next one. "Wife for me. Two weeks ago, actually."

"So why are you still here?" Crystal sounded close to snapping.

"Well, I've had to do a lot of thinking." He said grimly. "About the future. About why this happened to me and what I could've done to change that. You see, it's my firm belief - you may call it naive if you wish - that there is always a way. I was just too stupid, too bound up in myself to find it. Too limited. It's only now that she's gone... that I am free to think. It's a cruel thing to say, but she's not hanging over me anymore. The panic, the dread. It's gone and I can really think. I can think about what killed her. Who killed her. Who could have intervened." He leaned closer. "I did everything I could. I was limited, but I tried. There are ponies who did not. Those ponies are whom I hold responsible. And something tells me we have the same ponies in mind."

"I thought Celestia could help."

"Of course she could have. Some magic doohickey, or an amulet. There could've been something out there that might have helped. She didn't put in the effort you did. Only my personal opinion."

Crystal gave the stallion a quizzical look. "You are very strange for a daytimer."

"As I said, I've had a lot of time to think about this. Name's Glow. Governor Glow." He extended his hoof, and she shook it.

"Crystal Star."

He smirked. "Beautiful name. Anyway... after I came to the same realization as you did, that's when I began to hang around the hospital. Ponies die here, a lot of ponies. And in very unnecessary ways. Disease, accidents, genetic malformations... it's no way to go. Not like a warrior. Not even like prey! Celestia could fix all that, I believe, if she really wanted to. She's a goddess, isn't she? But she's got her own ways..."

Crystal's grinded her teeth together.

"There was another Princess, who was known for being very generous to her loyalists..."

"The Nightmare is long gone." Crystal grumbled. "And her kin grow weaker and smaller every day."

He hummed vaguely in agreement. "But if she did come back...?"

"If she did come back... I'd set things right. Make sure all ponies got the treatment they deserved. No one should be hurt like this." said Crystal flatly, and meant every word.

PRESENT DAY

Rainbow Dash grunted in pain as Crystal Star's dagger pierced the tip of her wing. She'd been pinned to the wall, and the deranged thestral had decided to start their little torture session by throwing knives at her.

The batmare chuckled sadistically. "Hold still now. My aim isn't as good as it used to be!" She threw another blade, which landed only a few millimeters from the blue pegasus' neck. Several rainbow-colored hairs drifted to the floor. "Oh! Now, miss Dash, unless you want me to get out my scissors and really clip those wings, I'd better hear some whimpering coming my way."

"Buck you."

She threw another knife, which landed right next to Rainbow's left ear. "You know what? I'm feeling generous today. I won't clip your wings at all. Instead..." She opened a suitcase, in which were several very delicate brown feathers. "I got this off a griffon. Gilda was her name. There, that sounds almost like a song, doesn't it? I found it... thematically appropriate." The batmare began tickling Rainbow Dash with the feathers, causing the latter to howl uncontrollably. "Well, I think we're getting closer. Believe you me, when I'm done with you, you'll beg me to send you to the funny farm, to preen for all the nice stallions!"

"Don't... threaten me with a good time." spat Rainbow.

Crystal Star slapped her, getting weary of Dash's unbreakable attitude. What good was it tormenting somepony when they didn't cry??

Rainbow dribbled a few drops of blood. "When did you become a henchpony here, anyway?" She asked. "I thought it was all about you. But you're just a grunt."

"You really are stupid. You think this operation could have happened without me?" Crystal's eyes flashed dangerously. "You think that cockroach Chrysalis could snuck in the middle of Ponyville and teleported away half the realm without me?" She slapped the blue pegasus again. "You think we could have gathered the Tradestones without me?? You think these half-wits could have thought of kidnapping you... without me?! You're a very special guest, Rainbow Dash. Anypony tries to step against us, all we have to do is make you squeal a little. That is, if they can find us."

Suddenly, a large metal grill dropped on her head, knocking her out instantly. Dash looked up, her jaw agape as she saw two furry faces look back at her from within the ventilation shaft. Trixie and Nurse Redheart waved. "Rainbow Dash! We found you!"