Obsidian: Shards Of Sombra

by Randimaxis

Twelve: It Gets Worse

Obsidian was SO damned tired of her erstwhile siblings trying to kill her... even if they were doing so completely by accident, or because they were already dead.

She could feel her heartbeat getting more and more rapid as panic settled in and made itself at home in her chest. She returned very, very quickly to the main room, looking for Clap.

Dreams... and she'd fallen asleep after she came to Obsidian's house, right? So if Amy was right, then there was still a helpless victim somewhere around them ... or perhaps it had happened during the night? Midnight dreamt about her... and yet she was still walking around freely, with no physical problems.

"Clap?" she said gingerly as she kept doing her best not to panic, "Clappie, it's important - please wake up..."

Cup shushed Siddy as she walked in. "Shhhhhhh! The poor thing just got to sleep a few minutes ago - don't wake her!" he said in a hushed tone as he motioned with his hooves for her to lower her own voice. Sure enough, lying on the couch was a peacefully sleeping Thunderclap Dash.

Obsidian very, very carefully tapped Cup's side with every other word she spoke. "Dreams of the cursed ponies pass it on to other ponies in their own dreams. Wake. Her. Up." She only now noticed that her hoof was shaking a bit; was she just that level of scared, or was it a warning sign of the mysterious curse? She wouldn't be able to finish her research on bringing back dead ponies if she became a dead pony!

Cup gave her a questioning look... but when he noticed her hoof trembling, he nodded, then made his way over to Clap's side.

"Heeeeeeyyyyyy... Clappie? Wakey-wakey. C'mon, girl - we, uh, sh-should try to get some more tea into you."

"... mmmmmMMMMMMRPH," Clap groaned. "Leemee 'lone..."

"C'mon, Clapster, Claparootie, Claparino..."

"MMMMMmmmgh! StoooOOoooOOOOOoooop!"

"Sorry, girly-girl - but we need you awake now, 'kay? Gonna get you all wakeys, so we can give you, uh... m-more medicine!"

THAT made Dash's eyes open wide. "Nuh-uh! I'm not gonna drink dat schtuff nummore! Itdsch NASCHTAY!"

"It's good for you, Clap! C'mon - I'll make some fresh, just for you!"

Wart lifted an eyebrow at Siddy, wondering what in the wide, wide world of Equestria was going on.

It seemed that convincing Clap to drink this terrible stuff was a wise decision, if it could wake her up in such an instant! Obsidian practically jumped towards her with a solidly focused look on her muzzle.

"Clap, Clappy, Dashie, Thundie... I want to ask you something that's very, very important, please... did you happen to dream about anypony while you slept? In the night, after coming to my house, including just now?"

"I... uh..." she still looked a bit drowsy, but Obsidian could see her mental wheels turning. "I... hadda dream, yah," she muttered after a moment, "it wasch aboud disch byoooooooootiful rivah, an' dere wasch birds dere, an' flowers dere, an' treesch... an' me an' Mica had ourschelves a pick-a-nick... id wasch a nische dream..."

Uh-oh.

"During the night, or after I'd brought you here? It's extremely important..."

"No, afder I god here... wen you wasch out geddin' dosch nummy paschtries fer me, you good frien', you! Id wasch shuch a nische dream... bud, I don' geddit. Wasch disch aboud?"

Obsidian spoke hesitantly. "This dream... uh... i-it's connected with your illness, Clappy; it's a special, unwell dreaming. I... just had to know." Obsidian, in quite a bit of distress now, patted her softly then turned away and quickly trotted out of house. She stopped there, waiting for either Cup or Wart to follow her.

Wart instantly was directly behind her, galloping a bit in her exit in order to keep up. "Lady Siddy! What's wrong? You look as though you had seen a ghost! Did you have an epiphany, or is something else going on?"

"This curse spreads through dreams - that's what Amethyst told me. We need to check on Mica as quickly as possible."

She still didn't mention that Midnight had dreamt about her - she had to confirm it first. It would be strange, though; Midnight dreamt about her earlier, so why wasn't she sick?

They were roughly halfway when the duo met Gypsy headed their direction... and the look of stark panic on the diamond dog's muzzle was not a good sign. As soon as he saw them, he scampered his way over to them, skidding to a halt in the dirt of the road.

"S-S-Sid-S-Sid-d-d-dy! S-s-s-som-s-someth-th-thing-g-g's wr-wr-wr-wrong-g-g w-w-wi-wi-w-with M-M-M-Mi-M-Mi-M-Mic-c-ca!"

Eeyup, he was panicking. Damn.

"Can he walk?" Obsidian asked, deciding she may as well be resigned to her fate.

Gypsy began to sputter another reply, then simply consigned himself to a sad-looking shake of his head. His tail was hanging low, and he gave off a soft whimper as he stood there.

"Damnation! This is dire! We must find a way to contact Luna, so that we may begin this dream-search... the sooner we discover what we can in the dream realm, then perhapsch we can schee to... to..."

In front of Siddy and Gypsy, Wart's eyes began to grow purple bags, and her entire form began to slump slowly down under the weight of her armor.

"... oh... oh Lady Schiddy..." Wart teetered a bit, then fought to steady herself... and won, for the moment. But who could be dreaming about Wart? If Thunderclap was awake and...

... by the shield on my flank, I shall do my utmost to save and protect you from this horrible thing. Lady Obsidian and I will find this curse's source, and we shall eradicate it! You have my solemn vow....

... Midnight! This... oh, this was bad. Very, very bad.

The easiest way to control the infestation would be killing those who were cursed, though Twilight probably wouldn't let them even so much as touch Midnight. And Obsidian, of course, really didn't want to murder her friends.

"Gypsy, is Mica's family with him? Please, please, tell me that he is in the presence of ponies who can take care of him!"
Obsidian really hoped that this Umbral affair would have meant the end of her family problems...

Gypsy nodded vigorously. "T-th-t-they-y-y-y're k-k-kee-k-kee-k-k-keep-p-p-ping-g-g h-hi-h-hi-him aw-w-w-w-wa-a-a-ak-k-ke t-t-to t-t-t-tak-k-k-ke m-me-m-me-m-med-m-med-m-"

"... medischine?" Wart tried to offer helpfully.

The diamond dog looked at Wart, nodded, than pointed at her... and tripped over his tongue so much, he simply let out a bark and kicked at the dirt, slightly shaking with frustration.

"Are you schaying he looked like I do?" the sickly little mare asked.

Gypsy let out a yip, and applauded eagerly.

"Lady Shiddy, we schould ged Prinschessch Loona to help usch schee to disch as schoon asch posschible... and I tink... I need to... get disch armor awf..."

She wanted her Royal Guard armor off? In public? Stalwart Stance was too tired to wear her specially made suit of Royal Guard armor? Oh dear, ohhh dear, oh Darkness...

"Gypsy, I will take Stalwart back with me. You go and tell Mica's family that keeping him awake will prevent more illness, that it spreads only during a victim's sleep. Obviously they can't keep him awake forever, but they can't let him sleep for very long, okay? Will you tell them, please?" Peridot, you sick bastard...

Gypsy nodded rapidly, then turned and literally dove into the dirt, where a hump formed and began zipping rapidly away from them both.

Wart teetered a bit, caught herself, then shook her head as if in a daze. She then looked to Obsidian, and even as worn and sick as her face looked right now, there was still a shining light of courage and pride there, behind the pain and weakness. "I will NOD be carried, Lady Schiddy - if we go back, we go back togevver, and I refusche to burden you wif myschelf... bud, if we are to make id, we will haveta move quickly now; I can feel my energy schapping, and I don' know how musch longer I'll lascht."

Even in the midst of a magical curse, Wart wasn't about to lie down and surrender.

Gypsy went off to do The Thing - good. Now, she just had to deal with Stalwart. "Wart, you do need to save your energy... and carrying you is the easiest way to handle this. It's important," Obsidian really didn't want to argue about it.

The guard mare dropped her steel chestplate at Obsidian's hooves, and her helmet soon followed. "Then carry my armor; id'sch not worff leaving behind, bud I can shtill run wiffoud id... my armor may be a buhrden, but I schall NOD be. Now, inschtead of arguing, letsch GO awreddy!"

With that (and a deep breath to get herself started), Wart began an unsteady trot that slowly changed to a slightly wobbling gallop - she wasn't as bad off as Clap and Midnight had been, but she still didn't look good. Plus, when Stalwart Stance made up her mind, it would take moving a mountain to change her plans. After all, she did give Midnight her solemn vow... and if anypony was serious about that, it would be her.

There was a lot of stubborness in that little body, for certain. Obsidian would gladly argue that a physical burden was less annoying than a mental burden... which she felt a lot of, as she was looking at Stalwart's trot, but it would be just a waste of time. Instead she just took Wart's armor, very carefully checking twice to make sure she got everything and didn't lose any of the pieces, and moved after her petite friend... then she had to raise Tartarus in Twilight's palace.

The two of them made their way back to Obsidian's in record time... though, by the time they arrived, there was a disturbingly loud wheezing coming from the small mare, and she almost fell against the doorframe when they arrived.

"What's going o-... Wart! NO!" Cup yelped when he saw the state she was in.

Wart, however, waved away his concerned words. "No huff time puff for wheeze wordsch..." she managed to get out as she tried to catch her breath.

The stallion looked at Obsidian with alarm as she entered. "Oh, at least it's not both of you, but... what happened?"

Damn it, Wart... if she ended up dying from both the curse and exhaustion, then Obsidian would continue to research her father's process of developing artificial bodies only to raise her from dead and scold her thoroughly for being unreasonable with this 'carrying' issue.

"I am under the assumption that Midnight dreamt about Stalwart... and Clap dreamt about Mica, as he got hit with this curse too. I need to warn Princess Twilight that it's not just a simple curse; it's a plague - and one that can easily hit the most important ponies in the entire country to boot! We need to be both quick and careful, otherwise it will turn out that my siblings got the last laugh after all..."

Ugh, first Onyx, now Peridot. Why Ruby was the only good pony in the whole bunch? For that matter, why was Obsidian herself not affected? "Please take care of Stalwart, okay Cup? I'll go check on my brother, and then I'm leaving for the palace as quickly as possible. I can't afford any more mistakes on my part."

"But, Siddy - what about the meeting with Luna? Are we ditching the whole 'see what's wrong in the dream world' thing? I mean, after all the prep, are we just not doing that anymore?"

Clap groaned. "Pleasche can we do id? I'm SCHO schleepyyyyy..."

Wart tried to get off the wall... and after two attempts, she succeeded. "Lady Schiddy... perhapsch we schoold go to the dream realm, scho dat we can tell Prinschess Loona about dis direc'ly... maybe schee would kno whad to do?"

Cup looked worried, Clap looked exhausted, Wart looked close to collapsing... and Obsidian had a decision to make. By Darkness, it was far too much!

"I have to alert the princess, guys - it's a plague and she has to know, especially as she can fall victim to it as well! After all, Midnight most certainly would be able to dream about his own mother." Or possibly even his unknown father; Obsidian still couldn't understand why she would barely hear about the more masculine parents involved. Her whole world had revolved around her own father - and it was really strange to her that most of the ponies around cared more about their mothers.

"I need to learn the trick to teleportation after this whole mess is over with," she muttered under her breath. "We just need to stall for a little bit - it would be a possible idea to at least send somepony to Princess Twilight, but we're, uh... kind of running out of un-busy individuals."

Maybe Gypsy... but he didn't have the sort of bluster that would let him get to the princess at any cost.

"I can go, Obsidian," came from the basement doorway, where Tourmaline was standing. His muzzle held a firm look, and he made his way towards the door.

"After all," he spoke, "if I show up there with this silver ring in place, it will most surely attract attention; from there, I should be able to get an audience with the princess quickly. You stay and take care of your friends." He gave her a small, determined grin as he passed her. "And let your big brother take care of the problem."

With that, he made his way out the front door, headed towards the palace at a full gallop. Well, Tourmy was realizing her plea before she was even able to say it aloud. After all, she just wanted to ask him if he'd go in her stead, only to find out that he was going to do so already, saving her the effort. Wonderful - one problem down, and only hundreds more to go, it felt like. But it was at least one less thing to worry about or occupy her attention.

Cup was pacing, but his face seemed as though he were thinking instead of panicking. "Okay, so... I guess I'm supposed to stay awake and keep an eye on everyone? So, in case things go wrong, I can wake you all up?"

She still wasn't sure if the current circumstances would be ideal to try this. Also, there was the matter of her own immunity... but what if one of Onyx's books was protected by a curse as well? She dreamt about Midnight after all, and then he became sick. Did he dream about anypony else since she discovered the books?

Obsidian couldn't trust anypony except her friends and Tourmy - not even herself, it seemed.

"Yes, Cuppie - in this situation I think we can..." she sighed, "...well, we can take a risk and meet with Luna to possibly learn more about the curse from the inside."

Cupcake looked worried, but he made his way over to Obsidian and hugged her tightly. "Okie dokie lokie... but you listen to me, missy - you come back to me safely, you hear me? You and everyone else, okay? You can't leave me here alone now; I'll miss you too much. Just... b-be careful, okay?"

He planted a quick kiss on her lips. "I love you, Siddy."

To be fair, Obsidian was currently just as worried as Cupcake was. Possibly even more, because she knew that Midnight already had a dream about her, and she dreamed about him too... and she really didn't like the implications of it.

"I'll do whatever I can to fix this mess, return home and hopefully have one of those 'normal' lives I keep hearing so much about," she replied instead of the traditional 'I love you too'. She did return hug, though - rather strongly.

Perhaps Sombra's shards were simply immune? Onyx and their Father were probably too clever to just let Peridot run around cursing everything willy-nilly, so maybe he was forced to adapt the spell to avoid targeting any of them by accident, or they received... uh, curse-vaccines of some kind?

Cup brought out the blankets and pillows, and before long Obsidian was lying on the floor, comfortable on the quilts and comforters he'd arranged into a makeshift bed for his sweetheart, with a wall of pillows behind her.

Wart was seated in Cup's favorite comfy chair, occasionally groaning and trying to remain brave in the face of danger.

Clap moaned and griped about having to stay awake for much longer.

Cup simply sat and sipped at a cup of tea, watching Siddy with a small, warm smile.

Though her thoughts were worried, Cup gave her some of his calming tea, and it wasn't long before she felt herself drifting off into Slumberland...

~>-<~

She found herself still lying on the floor in her own living room... but there was nobody else here.

The couch still had blankets where Clap had been lying down, but no Thunderclap. Wart's armor was piled in the floor, but no Wart. There was even a steaming cup of tea and a cute teapot that looked like a strawberry... but no Cuppie. As far as she could see, she was alone. That tea had been simply divine; maybe she should drink it more often? It could do wonders for her mental stability...

Obsidian, Luna's voice echoed throughout the house, step outside; I have been waiting for you.

Moving from the nightmare into the dream proved to be smooth and without any problems. The beginning of the dream was fairly simple, almost boring - she just found herself in the very same place she had just left, only she was now alone. How quaint. With nothing better to do, she left the house, quickly; she wanted answers, she wanted help, and she didn't want to make a princess (who had once kicked her father's plot soundly) wait for very long.

The outside, however, was NOT like she would have thought...

Though Ponyville itself was intact, the sky was all sorts of wrong; instead of fluffy white clouds, there was a greenish fog that seemed to cover the breadth of it, and there were all sorts of scrolls, books and papers that were floating, suspended in mid-air as if they belonged there.

Standing in the center of the crossroads was Princess-... sorry, EX-Princess Luna. She was looking directly at Obsidian with a small, sad smile on her muzzle.

"For once," she sighed, "it would be nice to meet with you when there wasn't an issue to face. Twilight tells me you know something about what's plaguing Midnight, her son. Please, what information can you share with me?"

It seemed like there was something a wee bit chaotic going around in Dreamland. It was strange for a dream, really... well, one of HER dreams, at any rate. Obsidian bowed to Luna, of course; she had been taught by the most infamous tyrant in known history to be respectful of royals.

"I share the sentiment, princess... and yes - it's a viral curse, crafted by my late brother Peridot. He was once an expert on this particular topic, working on new types of malicious spells during his studies at the Delvar Libratorium. It spreads from pony to pony during their sleep; each time a cursed pony dreams about someone else, that creature gets cursed too. It makes victims very tired... so they sleep, bringing ore victims into the cycle." It was a rather clever spell, really - it was preparing ground for its own propagation.

Luna returned the bow, then listened intently as Obsidian described the situation. When she'd finished, the alicorn mare wore a grim look, indeed. "A virus, you say? That is quite disturbing... and to know that it comes from Sombra's family line? No offense to you, Obsidian... but I am not thrilled to hear of another such problem cropping up so soon after the last one. You and I may have to speak further on this subject, so that we might prepare for any more unpleasant family visits, so to speak."

Obsidian took no offense from Luna's words to her; she was growing tired of her own family's shenanigans as well. At least the number of potentially dangerous siblings was getting smaller... so as long as she didn't have any crazy aunts or uncles, everything should be fine soon.

She gave a thoughtful look, then gazed at her again. "I do not suppose that you would happen to know where this viral curse originated from, other than who created it? If we knew where the first incident occurred, we might be able to look into the dreams of this victim, and decide for ourselves what is going on. Though I assume Midnight was the first, I will also say that I have heard tale of another who may be afflicted: Thunderclap Dash. Do we know who started this?"

"Well, Midnight admitted that he visited the Crystal Empire, specifically including the Delvar Libratorium. There's a possibility he accidentially activated some kind of trap or defense," Obsidian admitted. "At the moment, I know of only four cursed ponies - aside from Clap and Midnight, Stalwart and Mica - my friends - fell victim to it as well. I should technically be cursed too, as Midnight admitted to dreaming about me... and yet, here I am - fine. Midnight also admitted he'd had a dream visitation from my late brother."

Luna nodded. "Then we will have to venture into Midnight's dreams. Come - I will open the way. If there is anything to learn there, then we should pool our knowledge together to figure out how to put an end to this, once and for all."

Her horn glowed, and a small hole appeared in the middle of town. Slowly, the hole grew until a full-grown alicorn could step through with wings extended to their full wingspan. She went to it... then paused.

"Is there anything else we may wish to know before we venture into his dreams?"

Was there? Obsidian had already told Luna everything she'd learned about the nature of the curse, about its possible origins...

"I had already felt a trace of Dark Magic in Midnight during our first meeting, before he fell ill. I was initially afraid that he just hated Thunderclap so much, as there is supposedly a lot of bad blood between them... but now, I can't help but wonder if it was just an early stage of the curse. I later had a dream about Midnight, similar to the one he had about Peridot, but I feel fine - so it only adds to the overall confusion."

Could Onyx possibly guard her diary with a curse? Maybe she should ask somepony to read the books she'd found and watch the results of such... experiments on ponies, yay!

Luna slowly nodded to Obsidian. "As I feared; his dreams have been... hazy to me lately, and I cannot tell why. Hearing that he may have been affected by Dark Magic is one thing... but if there is hatred there along with it, then I fear that Twilight Sparkle's son may be trying to become a practicioner of Dark Magic."

She nodded. "Very well, then - we should attempt to stay together, and we will confront Midnight directly about what he has been doing, where he has gained such knowledge, and then we can assess as to how to put an end to it." She turned to the portal, squared her shoulders, sighed deeply, then stepped through.

"I hoped I could investigate it without any rush or making a big fuss... but apparently, the idea didn't stick," Obsidian admitted gloomily. At first, she was fairly certain that Midnight just cursed Clap and that was all. In fact, if Clap admitted to dreaming about him in return, Obsidian would have already accepted it as a good explanation for the whole start of this plague. It would be pretty ironic for him to get hit with his own curses... but well, at the moment this theory didn't have any basis in fact.

"Yes, princess," Obsidian said as she followed Luna into Midnight's dream.

However, the very moment she stepped into the portal, even though she knew next to nothing about them, she felt that something was wrong.

Everything swirled and wobbled around her, and she heard Luna's voice drift off into the ether as Obsidian felt like she was falling, falling, falling...

But when the falling stopped, she wasn't in Ponyville. There was no Twilight's Palace here. She wasn't even in the Griffonlands, where Midnight might have imagined himself to be.

Obsidian was in the Crystal Palace, on the throne room balcony, over looking the beautiful city below. There wasn't a single pony in sight again, but she had the extremely distinct feeling she most certainly was not alone. The sky was the same greenish color as Ponyville's had been, and the various writings were still hanging in mid-air. Aside from that, it was almost as if she'd come home, after all.

Now why would Midnight dream about the Crystal Empire? Specifically, the Crystal Palace to boot? She was connected to this place, not him! He was born in Equestria and lived in the homelands of the griffons; why would this place appear there, especially with so much power that it managed to separate Obsidian and Luna?

Unless it wasn't Midnight's dream anymore.

Everything and anything was possible... and her lost brother had shown himself in the alicorn's nightmare already. The Crystal Throne Room - if there was anypony else here, then she should look in the throne room first; perhaps going to the Libratorium would be a more obvious option, yet as she'd never seen it in the older days of the Empire, she had no idea where it was located.

"1,037 years, 8 months, 16 days, 4 hours and 17 seconds... a bit shorter than I'd expected, but you're here, nonetheless."

The voice that spoke up from behind her was soft, a bit nasal, and precise. Each letter was carefully enunciated, even though the words themselves sounded as if the speaker was slightly distracted. The stallion that stepped up next to her on the balcony was a bit taller than she was, but lanky. He appeared to be rather bookish, the kind of stallion you'd see hiding in a library, rather than conquering nations.

However, his grey coat and his black mane were almost perfect color-copies of Sombra's own... though the mane was short, neat and had a braid going down the rear. And his blunt horn had a reddish tint to it, much like Siddy's own. He wore a smart, yet reserved suit vest with spats, and the cutie mark he bore on his flank was of a thick-looking tome with a black Crystal Heart on its' cover.

The final thing that set him apart from his resemblance to Obsidian's father was a very thick-lensed pair of glasses that sat on his face, framing the bright red eyes that sat in the skull behind them. These, he adjusted as he stepped lightly next to her and looked out over the city.

"I'm glad to see you took the bait," he said in a very calm and non-threatening manner, "but I still would rather have met you as soon as I learned you existed. It would have been a 42.16% better chance for Father to be ressurrected by now, and we would all be living here, in his royal palace. Still, at least I get the opportunity to meet you at last, Obsidian."

Author's Note:

A curse that spreads during the victim's sleep, which makes its' victims drowsy as a side effect of the illness. Oh yes, quite a clever curse at that - imagine if such a thing hadn't been caught so quickly?

Poor Gypsy; the more agitated and worried he gets, the harder it is for him to speak. I knew a guy like that, and the experiences I had with him are part of what influenced that reaction. After all, stuttering can be extremely frustrating to those who suffer from it - especially when it's important.

Comments

[Mr cold ghost]

Well that was an interesting turn at the end! Thanks for this story! It’s wonderful!

[Truthseeker]

Dude. That ending scene gave me shivers and not in a good way. Nicely done.