A Dark Knight

Twilight’s eyes opened up, but they saw nothing but darkness. Se could feel some sort of cloth covering her eyes. “Ugh…” she groaned. She looked around and saw nothing, she could feel her hands above her head and something very cold at her feet. ‘A block of ice maybe?’ She shook her head to get the wariness out. Twilight then attempted to move her hands but found them bound together by a very tight rope. She twisted it a few times to see if it would budge. She sighed, ‘It’s no good.’ She tried to stretch her wings only to find them bound together.

She whipped her head around, trying, in vain, to throw the blindfold off. She sighed again, ‘It’s a longshot, but maybe…’ She attempted to light her horn. A sharp pain immediately hit her head; giving her a headache. After a minute of thrashing and cursing herself, the pain went away. A thought suddenly came to her. ‘How did I get here?’ she asked herself. She closed her eyes despite them already being in complete darkness to think. ‘Let’s see, I was at the Crystal Empire with my friends and Princesses… my friends left… then... ‘ The hopelessness of the situation dawned on her. ‘S-Sombra… attacked.’

She found new courage to break free. Twilight struggled at the rope binding her wrists together. ‘I can’t just give up yet. Equestria needs me.’ She told herself. ‘I can still…’ her thoughts died. What could she do? Her brother, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Cadance were all gone, and they were never coming back. She lowered her head as she remembered what had happened mere hours before.

She could still hear Luna’s voice yelling in her head “You need to run!, just as she was cut down. 'I should've run. I should've escaped.' She could still see her corpse cradled against her. Twilight could suddenly feel the stiffness of her clothes; the blood that had stained it so much that it went stiff. She remembered Celestia, and how she had fought King Sombra as he stormed the city. She remembered Shining Armor holding off three of Sombra's officers while he protected his wife only to get stabbed in the back. She remembered Cadance, lost in madness, tearing through Sombra’s troops.

Twilight tried not to think about it, ‘No time for mourning now, I need to find Luna and get out, we’re the last ones.’ Her thoughts paused, she looked over to see Cadance on the ground. She had her mouth open in a silent scream, a giant slash across her chest. Next to her was Celestia’s body, bloodied from fighting with Sombra. Luna was looking over them. She was shaking her head and there were tears in her eyes. Several of the night guards were surrounding her, looking to the princess for guidance.

“PRINCESS LUNA!” a strong voice bellowed, “Face me, one pony to another!” Twilight immediately knew who the voice belonged to. She turned to see where Sombra was, however, Luna looked to see Twilight, she barked orders that Twilight couldn’t hear. Several of her guards ran over and practically shoved Twilight to Luna. She saw in the corner in her eye Sombra taking on the Guards with his own. Luna was yelling at Twilight, but she could only hear muffled cries as if somepony had strapped pillows to her ears. While Luna and the guards were distracted, they all failed to notice how they were being surrounded by Sombra’s minions.

Finally, the muffles went away, she could finally hear Luna’s speech, “-light, the city is surrounded, get out of here!” Twilight blinked, “Luna?” Luna seemed to get annoyed at this. “There is no time for argument, I will cover your escape.” She turned to see the defenses failing; readying her sword at the encroaching horde, she turned back. Twilight hadn’t moved.

Luna rand to her, “Twilight, you must run, the city is lo-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” Luna flopped forward into Twilight’s body, nearly crushing her. She felt the spear poking through Luna’s chest. Twilight felt her warm blood spilled onto Twilight’s clothes, staining them “Twilight.” She heard Luna say, “You need to get o-out o-of h-h-hear.” Twilight looked up to see all the night guards fallen, and one of Sombra’s men slowly recovering from throwing a javelin.

But Twilight didn’t run, instead, she held Luna in her arms as she died. Tears were in Twilight’s eyes, She was barely able to choke out, “I-I’m so s-s-sorry Luna.” Twilight embraced Luna, she could hear her breathing begin to fade; and then, fade out entirely. She was crying beyond whatever she thought possible. ‘We failed.’ She laid Luna down next to her sister. she was already dead, Twilight kept saying “I’m sorry.” Repeatedly. She fell to her knees, tears in her eyes. She covered her eyes with her hands.

She looked at the sight, ‘I can’t believe this.’ Twilight thought, All her peers. Her brother, Cadance, Luna, and Celestia were all dead. ‘I’m a failure.’ was the only thought that she could think, Twilight barely registered the fact that she was surrounded by Sombra’s soldiers; ready to cut her down as they had done to her peers.

Twilight looked up and around the circle around her. The tears in her eyes were blurring her vision. She could only see a sea of dark knights around her with her breathing going faster with each one she saw. Sombra finally came into view in front of her. “I assume you aren’t going to fight?” He said. She couldn’t find words to reply, so she just shook her head. “Good, there has already been too much death today.” He looked up and behind her.

The next moment she was on the ground, her vision fading to black, she could feel her senses slowly going away. “Take her to the dungeon, have Captain Andros….

The futility of her situation finally had its full effect on Twilight. ‘He captured me…’ She thought, If she could crawl up in the fetal position she would; she settled for clenching her eyes, ‘I’m going to die here… aren’t I?’ She began to sniffle. The images of her dead family and fellow princesses flooding her mind.

“Stop…” She croaked out, trying to make the images go away. They didn’t have any effect, they kept attacking her psyche. “I said stop.” She said slightly louder. ‘Please…’ She mentally added. She was now sobbing uncontrollably. “STOP! PLEASE!” her eyes opening up made the images go away. She was huffing laboriously. Whatever was holding her wings down made it hard to draw a full breath.

She timidly closed her eyes again, nothing. The rest of the day she spent crying herself in and out of consciousness. The coldness at her feet only now beginning to bother her, ‘just don’t think about it Twilight, think about nothing…’

Twilight awoke to the sound of the door opening. She could only assume that she was about to be interrogated. She tried to put on a brave face, though the tear streaks running down her face made it slightly hard. A gruff laugh was heard by Twilight, it was a fake one, obviously.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle…” The voice bellowed in a mocking tone, “I have been put in charge of interrogating you for his highness, King Sombra of the Crystal Empire.” The sound of clanking armor sounded as he moved toward her. “Let me make your position clear princess.” He said, practically spitting out the word Princess. “You are in one of the best prisons ever made, or worst depending on how you look at it.” Twilight felt his hands on her face, she attempted to throw them off by whipping her face back and forth, earning herself a hard slap across the cheek. He made a “Hmph” and began circling her. “There is no rescue, no bright light at the end of the journey, and no happy ending for you…” Her ears flopped back, but she still tried to keep up her brave persona. “...Unless… you and I… make progress.” He paused, finishing his circle around her.

He pulled something in front of her. ‘A chair maybe?’ She could feel his breath on her muzzle; it was hot and smelled terrible. He was no standing over her, she felt one of his hands rubbing her left shoulder, the other one was on her face; rubbing the bottom of her chin. She moved her face away from his hand. Both hands moved away. He slapped her again hard across her face.

“If you disobey me,” He jumped off the chair, “displease me, or if I am in a bad mood, I will punish you.” He circled around her again, this time, his hands began moving around her skirt and back. She immediately tensed up, her brain rushing on what he plans to do. Meanwhile, his hands began making their way around her waist.

He again finished circling her. “You must be thirsty.” He stated. Twilight realized her mouth was as dry as a desert. She nodded. “Well, I want to hear that nice angelic voice of yours…” Her head went up, ‘I’m too thirsty. I need water to live.’ She licked her lips and timidly spoke. “M-may I-i h-have some w-water?” It came out more like a croak than speech. He heard the guard make another “Hmph” And walked over to her, “On second thought,” He said. Twilight heard him get on the chair. “I don’t like it.” She felt her muzzle get clamped closed. The rope began going around it. All the while she was squirming, attempting to move her head, but his grip was too strong. She couldn’t kick him off, otherwise, she would fall down and her hands would be cut off.

He again jumped off the chair and walked over to another part of the cell. “Here is your water,” She felt a cold splash hit her. It was icy, wet, and smelly, and now all over her. “Princess.” He laughed. She shook off as much as she could but was freezing, tired, cold, and thirsty by the time he walked out a few seconds later.

A few days later…

Twilight heard the familiar sound of footsteps and clanking armor. Soon enough the door was opened, “‘ello princess…” He said, his speech was slightly slurred. Twilight raised an eyebrow “You ‘n I are gonna *hic* a really good time *hic*. ‘He’s drunk!’ Twilight thought, ‘maybe I can get him to let me down.’ She heard the familiar sound of a chair being dragged across the stone floor. ‘But what if I can’t. He might just try… to…’ He grabbed her right breast hard, prodding it and fondling it. In her thoughts, he had also taken off the rope on her muzzle.

Her natural fight or flight instincts kicked in and given that she couldn’t do the latter, she fought. Twilight headbutted the stallion. She instantly regretted it. “YOU BITCH!” He screamed. “I’ll take your tail off the next time you pull that kind of stunt!” He said. She would’ve talked back, but didn’t want him to realize that he took it off. “I lost my appetite.” He slurred and walked out.

She sighed and moved her head downward. ‘I hope they’re alright.’ She thought as she drifted into unconsciousness. Before she could fully accept the darkness, she heard something stir in her cell, ‘What… is… that…?’ Twilight thought, The sound of armor clanking could be heard walking in her cell. She pinpointed it to behind her and to the left. It was accompanied by heavy breathing. “Who’s there?” She said without thinking.

“...” The pony behind her didn’t talk instead they just stood there, breathing and sometimes walking. The gruff sound of the breathing made Twilight assume that the pony was a male. ‘ Another guard perhaps?’ She questioned herself. “Who are you?!” She half-yelled and half-asked.

After what felt like an hour of silence followed by moving and breathing, he was finally in front of her. He finally spoke, “Hello Princess.” She could never forget that voice. “Sombra…” She growled. “What do you want?” Despite her supposed anger, she knew she was defenseless and at his complete mercy., but she attacked him verbally anyway. He replied, “I was going to ask you a question, but It seems you still need more… time to come around. I will be back in a month.” Twilight felt a wave of energy pass through her following the king’s talk.

After a few minutes of waiting she deemed him to be gone and moved to leave the waking world behind again. ‘I’ll be fine Twilight, I’ll… be… fine…’ She went limp in the rope and chains, passing out from the day’s pain and sorrow.

Behind her, the king observed the sleeping mare in his shadow form; feeding on her fear of him. He casually thought, ‘She would make a beautiful queen of mine...’ He turned and left.