"What are we going to do now, then? Because if I'm honest, sometimes I can't help but feel like it was all in vain."

No pony answered the question Rarity had asked. They couldn't, because deep down they also questioned the reason why they were still there. Her friends, those who were present at that moment, lowered their gaze and withdrew almost unconsciously into their own thoughts, perhaps in search of the answer that nothing and no one could give them at that moment.

It had been a while since Princess Celestia's powerful magic had found what they suspected was a crucial element in unraveling the mystery of Twilight and Spike's whereabouts. A place far from everything they knew, that was what they had found deep within the crystal mountains. An unknown cave full of crystals as strange as the same. A place where a powerful teleportation spell had been performed that not even the princess herself could be able to replicate exactly.

Something had happened in that place, without a doubt. Something that was definitely related to their friend and the little dragon.

And yet, as Rarity had said in her words, discovering that had led them to a dead end that could hardly be avoided. Still, none of them were willing to give up yet.

"Support them," Starlight whispered suddenly, an acclamation that caught the attention of the other girls. She shifted her gaze between them all, and a gleam of determination was seen within it. "For now that's what we can do, support the princesses and the prince in all their effort to rescue our friend and Spike."

Looking at each other with a determined expression, the other ponies agreed with a nod that reflected everything they felt at that moment. Then Fluttershy's soft voice was heard at the simple question she asked.

"Is it long before they come back, Starlight?"

Starlight acted as a denial in response. She knew what she meant: the return of the expeditionary team that had gone deep into the Crystal Mountain Range.

"The princess contacted them and informed them to return as soon as possible," she replied as she looked at her with a comforting expression. "So Applejack and Rainbow should arrive in a few hours."

The rest of the ponies accepted her words with a quiet nod, knowing that the only thing they could do at that moment was wait. Meanwhile, they all returned to continue with the tasks they had left halfway when the unicorn had called them, going in different directions of the Crystal Palace.

Starlight stayed in the middle of the room she was in again, waiting for Princess Celestia and her other friends to arrive. Several minutes later, the door opened again, and let the monarch's majestic presence in. The unicorn greeted her with a slight bow before rising.

"Please, Starlight, you know you don't need to do this," Celestia said with an affable smile as she gently wrapped her in her wing, then she broke away and walked to the table in the center of the room. Starlight followed her very close behind. "Well, as you may already know, the team we have sent to the mountain range managed to find the entrance to a deep cave where we found something very interesting."

Celestia then activated her magic and conjured the expansive holographic map that depicted the Crystal Empire. That vision quickly changed when, once again, the surrounding mountains were visualized as the main point of interest. Starlight paid attention to this and every word the princess began to say.

"It was shown that the magic I had performed on the spot remained, in part, a particular and recognizable signature," Celestia explained with a slight touch of emotion in her voice, which the unicorn soon noticed.

Starlight immediately turned her gaze to the princess when she realized what she had hinted at.

"So that means Twilight...?" She asked, feeling a little hope inside that she couldn't help.

"Yes," Celestia replied with a smile, sharing her excitement. "Now we're much closer to figuring out where she was taken along with Spike."

Suddenly, her gaze changed slightly and she was a little more somber and downcast.

"But unfortunately that's not all," she continued, letting out a sigh of regret and looking back at the map. "We could also notice the remnants of powerful dark magic that was executed in the chamber, and we think that can only mean one thing," Starlight knew immediately what she meant. "After all, Twilight had previously managed to find the King Sombra's horn."

The silence fell for a few seconds.

"Oh for... I just hope Twilight and Spike are okay wherever they are," Starlight whispered, looking down as she pulled a hoof to her chest, feeling the heartbreak for her friends. Then she looked at the princess again. "And in the end, what will happen to the other missing crystal ponies?"

Celestia didn't hold back the sigh that had been wanting to escape her lips. Without answering for a few seconds, she walked to the door of the room and stopped before opening it.

"I have to admit that this case is even more complicated than that of our friends, but there are many clues that point to the fact that they were all concentrated in the same place. But we will not give up their search for everything." Finally, she said goodbye with a friendly gesture. "Have a good afternoon, Starlight."

The pony watched as her monarch disappeared behind the door and left her alone in a room that only added to the feeling of worry that was inside her. Finally, she also decided to leave there and analyze everything the princess had said while walking through the long corridors of the palace in absolute tranquility.

She had to tell her friends, but she wouldn't until they were all together once again.

The air felt icy around him as he tried to move, causing immediate numbness that stiffened his limbs and creaked his joints as he tried to get up. He failed the first time, but he wasn't going to give up so easily.

Spike had no idea how much time had passed.

He had just woken up and all he could see with his enhanced dragon vision was the same damp and cold cell he had been left in. He was alone, in the darkest corner and away from the space where he had been confined. He hadn't even seen his captors since that first time, and he couldn't remember exactly what they looked like.

"Twilight..."

Spike tried to get up once more, knowing that no one would come to his aid. Her name had only escaped his mouth by reflex, like an unconscious instinct of his being to seek a little comfort. It didn't matter who it was.

He began to crawl slowly, feeling the weakness present in every muscle in his body. It had been so long since he had tasted a single bite that his stomach had already resigned itself to stop growling at him to get him to look for food. It had only survived thanks to the water that, apparently, dripped from a small notch in the wall.

His dragon body was sturdier than any average creature, that was true, but he was still a growing dragon. His energy needs were definitely subject to and dependent on a constant source of protein, but in the midst of that confinement there had been nothing.

He didn't know how much longer he could endure like that.

Finally, Spike reached the end of the barrier that separated him from the exit. Just one step further and he could get out, but he knew that wasn't going to be so easy.

Suddenly, a murmur very close to him alerted him to the presence of someone else who was in the cell in front of him. And then, when the creature encased in it moved, Spike was pleasantly surprised to realize that it was a pony, but not just anypony.

It was a crystal pony.

Spike couldn't believe his eyes. The stallion displayed the characteristic coloration in his coat that set him apart from the other pony breeds in Equestria, but much duller, as he had seen them the first time he had visited the Empire. But at that moment he could only wonder.

What the hell was a crystal pony doing in that place?

Against all odds, Spike tried to attract the attention of the fallen stallion who, like him, was lying very close to the invisible barrier that confined him. Fortunately, it seemed that his voice traveled beyond it.

"Sir...?" The pony blinked in wide confusion as he noticed the silhouette in front of him calling out to him in a strangely muffled voice. "Sir Spike?"

Several minutes after exchanging words, Spike managed to get into the context of what had happened. The pony showed no qualms about telling every detail of what he could remember.

"I was working on the outskirts of the Empire when I felt something, I have no idea what, begin to attract me, as if it had told me where to go." The pony frowned, and from his place Spike noticed it perfectly. "I couldn't resist and everything so that in the end I ended up being dragged away..."

"You have no idea what it was?" He asked without much hope, confirming it when the pony made a gesture of denial.

"Somehow I woke up alone in the middle of a forest," he murmured, and suddenly a heavy fear began to creep into his eyes. "Until those things found us."

"Us?" Spike couldn't help but point out that fact. "You mean more crystal ponies were brought in?"

The stallion looked at him with a deep discouragement in his eyes.

"Oh, Sir Spike, I don't know them, but I know I'm not the only pony."

Spike was about to say something else when a sensation stopped him.

"Shit..."

His scales bristled, his vision turned black, and all he could notice afterwards was an eerie silence that deafened his ears. Heavy and suffocating, that's how it felt.

And the next thing he heard was the scream.

"No..."

A deep scream, of fear and terror.

"No, no, no, no, please, no."

Of a deep dread that shook even the innermost part of him.

"No!"

A scream that had come from that pony for which he could do absolutely nothing.

"NO!!" He cried as he stood up in a way that was as sudden as it was painful.

Spike sat down in his place, very slowly. He felt confused, his heart racing, and, much more important than all that, helpless.

He had not been able to do anything.

"Just... it was just a nightmare," he said to himself to calm himself, like a poor consolation that never really came.

Because nothing could calm what he had felt and was still feeling.

"Twilight..."

For now, he was alone.

Completely alone.

Author's Note

Double update.

Merry Christmas.✨