//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The Umbral Shard // by Ponibius //------------------------------// The Umbral Shard: Chapter 2 “So, any suggestions on what our next move should be?” I asked everyone. The crystal keep loomed large as we drew close enough to make out the details. While they had looked black from a distance, the crystalline fortifications and walls were an extremely dark shade of red. The battlements cast long shadows over the surrounding area. It was possible that the fortress was somehow benign, but something about it made my hair stand on end. It just felt wrong to me, even if I couldn't put specific words to my feelings. Speedy tightened the straps to his steel talons. “We don't know anywhere near enough about what's goin' on here for my liking.” “Our lack of intel on what we're dealing with is a problem,” Masked agreed. “The only way to figure out our best course of action is to find out more.” Storm nodded. “Obtaining additional information is the obvious next step.” She pointed down to the town of Icepeak. “I would suggest speaking to one of the local officials.” “That sounds like a good idea to me,” I said. Chances were they had a much better idea about what was going on, and it would be good to make sure everyone in the town was okay. “Let’s land in town and see what we can find out.” We set down in the town square where there was plenty of room for us to land my balloon. My hooves touched the ground, and I pulled my saddlebags out of the balloon basket. I swiveled my head this way and that to see if there was anypony to talk, but there was nopony in sight. I frowned, not liking the silence at all. “So is it just me, or does there seem to be nopony around?” It was possible everypony was hiding, what with the new giant, evil-looking fortress hanging over their heads now, but I would have figured the arrival of a princess with accompanying guards would have prompted somepony to come out of their hiding spot. Twinkleshine climbed out of the balloon and glanced around. “Have to admit, it feels like a ghost town.” She turned to the buildings and called out. “Hey! Is anypony out there!? We’re here to help!” If anypony heard her they didn't make themselves known. Speedy frowned and loosened his greatsword from the scabbard on his back. “I don't see anyone here, and I didn't see anyone on the way in, either.” Storm turned to me with an inquiring glance. “A detection spell might be called for, perhaps?” “I'll give it a shot.” Twinkleshine’s horn glowed. Her head pivoted slowly as she scanned the town. “I'm not finding any ponies nearby.” Speedy frowned. “Well they have to have gone somewhere.” Masked walked up to one of the nearby houses and, with a serious lack of concern for the privacy of others, tested the door handle. The door opened easily. “This home isn't locked up. Either these ponies are very trusting or they had some other reason for leaving it open.” “Plenty of ponies don't lock their doors in Ponyville,” I said. “It kinda comes naturally when everypony knows and trusts one another.” “Perhaps,” Masked mused, not sounding convinced. He walked to three more houses and opened the front door of each of them without issue. “This is beginning to look like a pattern.” Before anyone could say anything, he stepped into one of the houses. Probably to see if anyone was inside, I told myself. If that wasn't the case, I'd have to have a talk with Masked about ponies' right to their privacy after we got back home. Storm frowned deeply, her head turning to look around us. “This is ... highly irregular. Highness, can you detect any sort of spells over the area?” “Let me check.” I cast a couple different magic detection spells and concentrated to feel out for magic in the area. My brow furrowed. It was as though there was something lacking in the atmosphere around us, though it was hard to describe in so many words. “I'm feeling ... something.” I trotted and followed the sensation, and the others followed me. We arrived at the edge of town and stopped, stunned. Before us was a farm with its farmhouse and barn, but we all looked past them at the fields. The crops, all of them, seemed to be drying up and dying as though the farm was suffering a drought. Even the trees on the property looked on the cusp of death with their withered leaves.The sense of something missing from the land felt all the stronger here. It was like some gnawing emptiness that sought more substance. “This doesn't feel right,” I said, trying to pin down exactly what was going on with my magical senses. Twinkleshine cast her own detection spell and shivered at what she felt. “Ugh, you’re right. It's like there's something missing from the area.” “Nothing looks right either,” Storm said. “The farms are abandoned. No farmer would leave behind their crops to wither in the field unless circumstances were truly dire.” “Near as I can tell, all of the houses were suddenly abandoned,” Masked said, nearly causing me to jump as he walked up from directly behind us. “In two homes the occupants were even in the middle of making meals. Whatever happened did so suddenly and without warning.” Speedy flapped his wings and took off. “I'm gonna head up high to keep an eye out for any nasty surprises. I'd rather not have whatever happened to the ponies of this village happen to us.” I nodded to him, agreeing with the idea. Until we had a better idea about what was going on it seemed best to be as cautious as possible. “Go ahead and do that.” Speedy flew higher and started circling above us. While he scouted for us, I returned to studying the unusual magic affecting the land. “I think I know what's happening.” My gaze turned to the fortress looking over us. “That fortress is draining the magic from the local area which must be how it's growing so fast. It's sucking up magic to convert into matter. That takes a lot of energy if you want to make anything permanent, and as I'm sure everyone has noticed, that’s no small beachside sandcastle.” Storm frowned deeply as she took the view of the crystal fortress in. “That cannot be healthy for anything that relies upon magic to live. Such as ... everything.” I shook my head. “No, it really isn’t. Just look at what having the local magic drained has done to this farm.” I hated to think what it would do to the finances of the poor ponies whose crops had been ruined. Thought I hated what the same effect would do to ponies even worse. “Everypony stand still for a second,” I said. “I'm going to cast a spell that should help protect you.” I quickly cast a life force protection ward on everypony around me. “There, that should keep anypony from getting the magic drained out of them. At least for a few hours. But I wouldn't recommend sticking around if we can help it.” Trying to deal with magic draining malignities by using magic was always troublesome at the best of times, but a protective ward was the best I could do in a pinch. A suit of cold iron or a magic circle built to block outside magical forces would work a lot better, but those took time to set up—time we didn’t have if we wanted to jump on this problem. Storm nodded. “It will have to do until we get out of here.” Before we could decide on our next move, Speedy dropped back down to the ground. “I've got a camp of some sort in sight over near the mines.” He pointed at the camp further up the mountain. “I saw some activity up there, but it was hard to see what was going on.” “Did you see anypony?” I asked, casting a protective ward on Speedy while doing so. Speedy shook his head. “Can't say for sure that I saw anypony, but there were definite signs of life.” “Think we should check it out, then?” I looked to Storm to confirm that this was the best course of action. “I'm really not liking any of this.” Storm nodded. “That seems like our best chance to find answers, and answers are what we need right now.” I couldn’t argue with that—doubly so when it probably wasn't healthy to be anywhere near that fortress. I knew I had read about things like this, but I couldn't remember exactly what this fortress might be. That was the one problem about knowing so much, sometimes it could take time to remember the specific piece of data you needed. Pity I didn't have time to do any research quite yet. Making sure everypony was safe was the highest priority at the moment. Hearing no further objections,  I decided on our course of action. “Then let's get going. The sooner we figure out what's happening the sooner we can figure out what needs to be done.” “Just so.” Storm looked to the Long Patrol lieutenant. “I do not want whoever is in that camp to see us coming, so we stick to the ground for now. Speedy, take point. We will see if we can find a position to scout out the camp before approaching it.” Speedy saluted. “Yes, ma'am.” It took us an hour of walking uphill to reach the same plateau the camp was on. When we got close enough, Speedy waved for us to join him at an outcropping of boulders lying against the mountain. I cast an illusory veil over the group to keep us from getting seen as we approached the hiding spot. Thankfully, we reached the outcropping without incident. I cast an eyesight enhancement spell while Storm pulled out a pair of binoculars from her saddlebags to scout out the camp. At first glance, the camp looked like some sort of archeological site, with carefully measured-out boxes in the ground which had been marked by strings, and a layer or two of soil had been removed from each enclosure. A couple of tents had been staked near the site and a pair of tables set up near them. It would have seemed like a normal archeological site if not for the ponies working at the camp. Specifically, how those ponies were being treated. Most of them were in chains, making them look like some kind of press-gang as they dug into the rocky soil with shovels and mining tools. These must have been the missing villagers from Icepeak. Around them were half a dozen ponies directing the villagers as they dug. What was curious about the apparent overseers was that each wore a crystalline necklace. At least at a quick glance, they seemed to be made of the same dark red crystal as the fortress. It didn't strike me as a coincidence. Storm lowered her binoculars to speak to me in a quiet voice. “You see those collars, Highness?” “To state the obvious, they don't look normal,” I said in an equally quiet voice. “And you see how it's only the ponies bossing everypony around that are wearing them?” Storm nodded. “Likely a control device of some sort.” My eyes turned back to the camp as one of the overseers became particularly loud as she barked at one of the villagers. “I wouldn't dismiss the idea, but I would have to study one of them to be sure.” I didn't want to get ahead of myself and make assumptions without more proof. Still, sometimes a spade was just a spade. “That would require obtaining one,” Storm pointed out. Masked grunted in disapproval, lowering his own binoculars. “It seems doubtful they will just give us one. At least not in the way we would like.” Storm returned to looking through her binoculars. “I suppose we could try luring one of the overseers away to subdue for questioning and to take a collar. Though that risks them raising the alarm.” Twinkleshine’s eyes narrowed as one of the overseers struck one of the workers, knocking her to the ground. “Maybe we should just cut out the middlemare and deal with all of them at once? I can think of plenty of good reasons to put a stop to this rather than dance around the issue.” “An assault on that level would certainly be noticed,” Storm cautioned, her eyes flicking my way. “Are we going to leave those ponies like that?” Twinkleshine gestured at the camp. “There are children over there.” “If we do free everypony, then at least some of them should have an idea about what is going on.” Masked shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “That’s one argument in favor, anyways.” “That is so.” Storm looked to me. “It is your choice, Highness.” I scowled as I thought the matter over. It might be safer to see if we could get one of the ponies away to ask what’s happening, though there was the chance we would get caught trying that. The overseers seemed to be watching everypony pretty closely, and who knew what they would do if they noticed somepony missing. Especially if it was another overseer. That didn’t even get into what unknown magics might be involved with those crystalline collars they had. I didn’t like it, but it seemed like a more proactive action was the best way to go about this. “I say we put a stop to this,” I declared. “It isn't safe for any of these ponies to remain near that fortress. We need to get them out of here and figure out what’s going on.” “Very well, then.” Storm drew a simple map into the dirt, making a point of marking where all the sentries were. “Naturally, the biggest problem is dealing with all the sentries before they can cause any problems.” My eyes scanned over the map, considering how best to approach the problem. “Maybe we could take out all the sentries at once? I could cast an invisibility spell over everyone here, and augment that with a silence spell so they don’t hear us approach. That should let us get close without being seen, at least. It might also help if I cast a telepathy spell to let us communicate silently.” “I can help with the spellcraft,” Twinkleshine offered. “I also have some spells I could use to disable a pony.” “Speedy and I are skilled with silent takedowns,” Storm said. Masked raised a hoof. “I can help with that too.” Storm nodded. “Our best shot is as many simultaneous takedowns as possible. That cuts down on there being any complications.” “Problem is, there are five guards,” Speedy pointed out. “If we’re going to do this efficiently, we’re going to need everyone here to take down one guard each.” He didn’t look at me, but I could sense that he wasn’t sure I would be up for it. That was the issue, wasn’t it? Everyone around me was a member of the Royal Guard, while I was a princess. True, I had learned a lot of spells that could be used to defend myself, but that wasn’t the same as being a soldier. If I messed up and couldn’t take down the overseer I was assigned... I took a long breath to steady myself. “I can help too. There’s a stun spell I know that should do the job.” Storm considered that for a moment before nodding. “That should be enough.” My mouth felt dry, but I was committed now. “Let’s try and do this without seriously hurting anypony. Chances are those collars are some sort of control devices, so they probably aren’t even in control of their actions.” “We will try and do so, Highness.” Storm gave the ponies of my Guard a telling look. “Speedy, Twinkleshine—you two are to take the guards on the far side. Masked, you take the one on the right of us. Her Highness and I will deal with the two on the left.” We all nodded at the plan. I could guess why Storm had assigned herself to stay with me. In addition to being the head of my guard, Storm did have a pretty powerful set of ancestral armor she wore. Enchanted by Princess Celestia herself, Shadow’s Armor as it was called did have a few nifty features like its ability to absorb magic directed against it and flame-enhanced wingblades. That did probably make her my most powerful protector in the event of a fight. “Any questions?” Storm asked. Nobody had anything to say, so Twinkleshine and I went about casting a series of invisibility spells, globes of silence, and a telepathy spell to allow us to communicate. I also cast a See Invisibility spell on myself to help me see what everyone was doing. That done, we all slowly advanced towards our targets. I followed Storm’s lead, my heart beating faster and harder as we moved from rock to rock to keep hidden. The invisibility spell should’ve kept us all hidden, but Storm seemed to be of the opinion that we were better off being safe than sorry. There were ways to beat invisibility spells, after all. Even the best of such spells didn't render the individual they were cast on completely invisible, and as I’d just demonstrated, there were plenty of ways to beat them magically. During a period of time that felt like it could have taken anywhere between a few minutes to over an hour, Storm and I approached the sentries we had been assigned to deal with. We reached a small boulder near the camp undetected. Both of the sentries’ backs were turned to us, their focus solely on the ponies busy digging deeper into the earth for whatever it was they were searching for. Storm pointed to herself and the other overseer closest to us. “I will take care of that one. Can you deal with the other one, Highness?” I looked to the other overseer and didn’t see anything that obstructed me from casting a spell at him. “I think so.” That settled, Storm called out across the telepathic link. “Is everyone in position?” She received a series of affirmations. “Everyone move forward to take out your sentry. Disable them on my mark.” Storm slunk forward towards her designated overseer. My heart continued to beat heavily, but I moved alongside of Storm. I wondered how close I should get to cast my spell? Naturally close enough to hit easily, but how close was that? Was there a book that I could read that would tell me that type of thing? Too late to find out now, either way. Now it was no longer tests or assignments. This was the real deal, and that information didn't make me feel any better as I closed in on my ... target? “Alright everyone, on three,” Storm said, directly behind her sentry, invisible to all but my magically augmented eyes.”One... Two...  Three!” Storm lunged and wrapped her forelegs around the sentry’s neck right above the crystalline collar, cutting off the blood flow with a carefully applied choke. The invisibility spell broke down at the contact, the illusion dropping at the violent action. The sentry went rigid with surprise and tried to struggle against Storm’s hold, but she already held the leverage on him and it wasn't long before he started going limp. Pity that the momentary struggle caught the attention of his fellow sentry, and her head turned to look at the now-visible Storm. The other sentry’s eyes widened. “Wha—” Her protest was cut off when I hit her with a stunbolt spell. To my surprise, instead of going down, she merely staggered a few steps and let out a grunt of pain. Her eyes shot to me, my own invisibility spell canceling out with my attack. My chest lurched and I charged another bolt. She moved to turn my way, but her response was too slow. I hit her dead center with a much stronger bolt, and she dropped to the dirt with a startled gasp. I prepared a third bolt almost by instinct, though held onto the magic as I waited to see if she would get up again. The first bolt should have been enough to knock her out. Had I subconsciously held back on the spell in my desire to not hurt another, potentially innocent, pony? I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Storm carefully laid the pony in her grasp down. She looked over to the pony I had knocked out and then to me, nodding in approval. “Her Highness and I have downed our targets.” Her gaze shifted to around the camp. All around the camp I saw the ponies of my guard standing and none of the overseers. “All targets down. Is everyone okay?” Everyone confirmed that they were over the link. Masked looked around in a measured manner. “No additional hostiles spotted.” I let out a long breath of relief. “Okay, that could have gone a lot worse. Could we find some rope to tie these ponies up? And let's see if any of them have a key for the chains.” “I see some rope in the camp.” Masked trotted into the camp past more than a few stunned onlookers. A couple of minutes later we had all the overseers tied up, and we began the process of unlocking the chains restraining the villagers. Speedy pointed to the pony he had captured. “Mine's got the fanciest collar. Think he's special?” The pony he pointed to did seem to have a larger collar than the rest of them, though I could only guess what significance it held. “I can check.” I stepped up to the group to look them over. They didn’t seem all that dangerous now, being unconscious. More than a little bit of me hoped it was those collars that had made them enslave the villagers of Icepeak, but I was going to need to study them either way. One of the ponies that had just been freed came running over to me. Storm immediately inserted herself between me and the earth pony and shot him a suspicious glare, making him come to a sliding stop before us. “Princess Twilight!?” He bowed before me, a mixture of relief and worry on his face. If I had to guess, the brown-coated pony was of middle age, though with the hard, weathered look of a pony who had lived his life in the unforgiving mountains. “I ... we weren't. Sorry, my name’s Pebble Quarry. I'm the mayor of Icepeak. Thank goodness you're here, we need your help.” His eyes drifted to the crystal fortress. “What's happened here?” I asked, motioning for him to rise. “We got your message that your town needed help, but the pony you sent didn't say it was nearly this bad.” “I'm afraid it got a great deal worse the day after Breezy Day left.” The mayor wiped his brow. “First all our crops started to die—all at once, like some blight swept across our fields. And then...” He shook his head sadly and gestured at the tied up ponies. “Those ponies came down from their archeological site and demanded we work for them, or else. All of them wearing those weird collars.” Storm’s eyes narrowed. “I take it the collars are new?” Pebble nodded. “Never seen the likes of them before. We thought something was wrong with them. Last month they came to our town. They said they were from Hoofington University, and asked if they could go around digging for historical artifacts. So we told them we were happy to let them go about it, as long as they didn't mess up any of our farmland or dig anywhere dangerous.” My brow furrowed as I considered this. “So nothing seemed odd about them?” The mayor shook his head. “Nothing odder than them being a bunch of booksmart ponies. You don't see many of their types around here, but they didn’t seem dangerous. Until recently, they were always nice enough to my ponies and didn’t cause any trouble. That’s part of what made their change so scary: I couldn’t imagine that lot harming anypony before that castle sprung up.” My curiosity was thoroughly piqued by this point. “Do you know what they were looking for?” “They didn’t say anything specific—just that something happened around these parts, and that there were some artifacts they were hoping to dig up. I honestly forget what.” Pebble shrugged helplessly. “We’re simple folks up here, Princess. We’re happy to be left well enough alone, and as long as these ponies weren’t bothering us we didn’t care much about what they were up to. Didn’t hurt when they bought food and other supplies from the town, either.” “Curious.” Masked started looking over the tied up archeologists, and I couldn’t help but notice they weren’t exactly the most intimidating bunch. College professors and interns didn’t tend to strike fear into the hearts of ponies. At least when there weren’t grades on the line, in any event. “So a hooffull of academics were able to force you to work for them? You do seem to outnumber them by a fair margin.” Pebble gulped and looked around nervously. “It wasn’t them we were really scared of. It was—” The mayor was cut off as a tremor shook the ground beneath us. The townponies screamed in terror, and some of them immediately started running. Pebble’s eyes widened as the rumbling grew louder. “It's that monster! Everypony run!” Speedy jumped off the ground to get some air. He jabbed a talon to point beyond the camp. “Incoming!” I took off after Speedy to see what he had seen. It wasn't hard to figure out what had caught his attention: a mound of dirt, moving towards us at high speed as what looked like a grey fin sliced its way through the ground. The cries from the ponies around me became more panicked as it hurtled towards us. More ponies ran, but Twinkleshine and Masked hadn’t freed all of the townponies yet, and far too many were still shackled. “Bulette!” Storm cried out, taking position beside me. My heart sank at the disaster unfolding before me. Bulettes were vicious apex predators that could easily run down a healthy adult pony, to say nothing of the young, old, and those still chained. I wasn't wild about it, but my guard and I only had one choice to keep a lot of ponies from getting hurt. “We need to stop it!” I called out. “Keep it from getting into the camp!” Almost as one, Storm and Speedy took off in different directions, each moving to flank the approaching bulette from different angles. Twinkleshine let out a curse and tossed the set of keys she had procured to the mayor. She pointed to the ponies that still hadn't been released. “Keep unlocking those chains! We’ll deal with the monster!” Her horn glowed, and an illusionary Twinkleshine appeared directly in the path of the bulette, standing defiant before the onrushing monster. “Hey you! Got a problem with us?! Take it up with me!” The bulette rushed in on the illusion of Twinkleshine. It burst from the ground, a beast covered in grey plates, speckled with dark red crystal shards, and possessing a large toothy maw. Nearly as long as a train car, there was a boom as it landed on Twinkleshine’s illusion with four extended legs ending in wicked claws. The illusion immediately fizzled on contact, and the bulette flicked its tail balefully as its arrow-like head swiveled to find more prey. “The flesh behind the dorsal crest is a weak point!” Storm called out, trying to position herself to strike at the bulette’s vulnerability. Speedy flew low, pulling out his greatsword as he tried to get the monster’s attention. “Or just trick them into eating a bunch of fire gems.” The bulette turned its head towards Speedy and peeled back its lips to reveal row after row of razor sharp teeth. It charged my hippogryph bodyguard, moving with a speed that belied its bulk. Not wanting the monster anywhere near my guards, I charged my horn and fired the magic as a single bolt of pure magical energy. The magenta bolt struck the bulette full on the head, momentarily halting it. The bulette’s head smoked, but it was otherwise unharmed. My eyes widened at the sight. I hadn’t been holding much back with that strike, and the bolt should have damaged or stunned the creature. Instead, it had done virtually nothing. Was it actually magic resistant? I had never read of a bulette being resistant to magic, but they normally weren’t covered by crystals either. Still, its momentum had been stopped, and Speedy took the momentary distraction to dart in. He swung his sword horizontally at the bulette’s knee, but the bulette bore down on him, throwing off Speedy’s swing. The blade skimmed off of the natural armor on its leg, and Speedy flapped his wings to try and open the distance between him and his target. But the bulette was far too quick and it snapped its jaw forward to close on Speedy. Before that tooth-filled maw could close around him, I cast a teleportation spell and pulled my guard out of danger in a burst of magic. Speedy blinked and turned his head to look my way. “Thanks, Highness. I owe you.” “Defeat the monster first, worry about thanking me later,” I replied, reviewing what spells I had available that might get around the bulette’s apparent resistance to magic. Seeing her opening, Storm dove after the monster from its side. She extended her wingblades, which glowed red-hot as they lit with magical flames. The bulette’s dorsal crest sizzled as her blades bit into it and became lodged between the plates of its hide. It shrieked and reached up a claw to try and dislodge Storm, forcing Storm to awkwardly ward off the claw with her free wingblade. Twinkleshine cast another spell, and a small globe of light appeared near the left side of the monster’s head. It flashed right into the bulette’s eye with a blinding light. The monster roared in anger as it flinched away. Storm planted her hooves on the bulette’s back and kicked off of it. Her wingblade came free and she took flight to get away from where the monster could strike at her. Speedy charged back in, his greatsword extended as he leveled its point at the monster’s side. His blade struck between the plates and stabbed into its flesh. In one swift motion, Speedy shifted the grip on his sword and kicked his hooves against the bulette’s plate hide. His sword was wrenched free, and he backflipped to land on his hooves, his wings flapping to pull him back out of the range of the retaliating jaws. Twinkleshine’s orb of light continued to flash into the bulette’s eyes, repeatedly blinding it. The bulette started spinning, clawing, and biting randomly, unsure where the next attack was coming from. Storm took the opportunity to dive on the bulette once again and her fiery blade sliced into the monster’s back, forcing it to switch directions once again. An idea struck me as I watched the exchange. Maybe I couldn’t cast a spell directly against the bulette, but there were plenty of spells that would hinder it, like Twinkleshine’s flashing orb of light. I fired a blue beam of magic, stopping it just short of the bulette. A wall of ice formed as my magic froze the water vapor in the air, shaping the ice into blocks and, freezing the bulette’s legs in place. The bulette roared in pain and anger as it thrashed about in its attempts to free itself. I kept up my spell, freezing the underside of its neck to hold its head in place. Seeing her opportunity, Storm once again folded her wings in a dive. This time her red-hot blade sliced deep into the weak spot behind the dorsal crest, the bulette unable to dodge or attack. The bulette went limp, and slumped as far over as the ice would allow it. Not content to leave it at that, Storm struck at the bulette’s neck twice more, making sure it stayed down. Twinkleshine carefully stepped forward and scanned the beast with a spell. “You got it, Captain.” Speedy circled around, his gaze fixed on the monster and his sword at the ready. “Can't be too careful. But yeah, it looks pretty dead now.” I cautiously stepped forward, frowning. The fact I had helped cause the death of another creature was ... going to take some adjustment. Deep down I knew it was necessary to save the townponies. I wasn't Fluttershy; I couldn't talk down a rampaging manticore, and it was my duty as a princess to protect my subjects. That didn’t mean I had to like killing to protect them. I put such philosophical thoughts aside while I concentrated on more practical matters. They were at least something I could grasp more easily. I studied the carcass carefully as I circled it. “This is weird. You don't normally see a bulette in mountainous terrain. They normally stick to lower elevations.” Storm landed next to me and nodded. “They prefer softer terrain. Usually more prey for them there, too.” Due to her time in the Long Patrol, I trusted her judgement on this. Bulettes were one of those monsters that the Long Patrol had to deal with now and again. They were just too aggressive to live harmoniously alongside ponies, and so they had to be driven off from areas settled by ponies. Not an easy task considering such large predators had very large territories. Twinkleshine joined us in studying the dead bulette, fiddling with one of the crystals jutting off of its natural armor. “And normally they don't have a bunch of crystals growing all over them either. How much you want to bet all of this isn't a coincidence?” “I think that would be a pretty safe bet.” I extended my magical senses to study the crystal. Even at a quick glance I could tell there were multiple spells interwoven into its magical matrix, one of which was the property that allowed it to absorb magic. “Looking this over, I'm pretty sure they're what caused my first spell to fizzle. I think they make the bulette magic resistant. Twinkleshine, did you notice anything odd when you knocked out your archeologist?” Twinkleshine’s muzzle scrunched up in concentration. “It did take a couple of stunbolts to take him down. At the time I thought it was because I didn't hit him hard enough, but now...” “Crystals on the bulette, crystal collars, and a large crystal fortress,” Storm mused unhappily. “The connection seems clear.” I nodded. “Those collars are probably absorbing magic and setting up some sort of magic resistance field. I would have to study these crystals more, but I'm going to guess that wearing their collars isn't the healthiest thing in the world considering they are almost certainly draining their wearer’s magic—in addition to the mind control.” “Nasty,” Speedy grunted. “So who’s pulling the strings? There must be someone controlling all of this, right?” Before I could answer, there was a crack of magical energies in front of us. A vertical red line of magic formed and then opened up to form a circle. Within the oval was the image of an elderly earth pony stallion sitting on a throne made of dark red crystal. On first impression, he struck me as a pony more comfortable in a university lecture hall than some would-be conqueror. He had a faded tan coat and grey mane, and a handlebar mustache and a neatly trimmed beard of the same color. The stallion adjusted a set of spectacles that contrasted oddly with the crystal crown clinging to his head and his eyes narrowed. “What is the meaning of this?!” he demanded, leaning forward on his throne. “Why has my work been disrupted? Who are you ponies?” Sensing my cue as a princess, I stepped forward to address whoever this was. “I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, and whatever it is you’re doing here has been stopped because forcing ponies to work for you is a teensy-weensy bit illegal in Equestria.” The stallion’s glowing red eyes glared at me, and he sat back against his throne. “Princess Twilight Sparkle? So already I've drawn the attention of royalty to my new realm?” One of my eyebrows quirked. “Your new realm? Mind explaining that?” Speedy rolled his eyes. “Lemme guess, he's Emperor Crystal Badguy Evildude?” The stallion stomped a hoof. “Quiet, fool! I will not be insulted by some minion. I'm Obsidian Tomb the Gravemaster! High Lord of the Umbral Shard and Emperor of Icepeak. And unless you want to suffer my wrath you'll withdraw from my territory immediately, and promise to pay me tribute for your transgressions.” Speedy smirked. “I like my name better.” He might have been amused by this Obsidian Tomb character (whom I highly suspected had given himself that ridiculous name), but my chest tightened at the mention of the Umbral Shard. That name reminded me of something I had read, and it had not been a pleasant read. “Wait, you found one of the Umbral Shards?” “Obviously.” An arrogant grin spread across his lips, and Obsidian picked up what I could only guess was the Umbral Shard itself. At first glance, it didn’t seem all that threatening, merely being a shard of the same dark red crystal the fortress seemed to be made of. “If you've heard about my magnificent artifact, then you know that you've crossed an invincible enemy.” “You should get rid of that thing immediately!” I warned him, my wings snapping out. “It was made by King Sombra, and you have no idea how dangerous it is! Do you know what it’s doing to the countryside around you?” Obsidian scoffed. “Please, I have already mastered the Shard and its power.” He pointed to the carcass of the bulette. “My pet was but a fraction of the power I can bring to bear. Challenge me and you will regret it, Princess Twilight.” Storm leaned in to whisper into my ear. “From what I understand, we must stop him as soon as possible. He will likely learn more about how to use the shard over time, and considering how dangerous he is already...” She let the implications hang in the air. I nodded grimly, keeping my eyes on Obsidian Tomb through the communication spell. “Sorry, but that isn't happening. We can't let you keep such a dangerous artifact. You’ve already hurt the ponies of Icepeak with it, and as a princess of Equestria I have no choice but to stop you.” The madpony huffed derisively. “So be it. Come for me if you dare, but you'll only find your doom.” He grinned in a way that made a shiver run down my spine, and his eyes glowed with red magic once more. “Who knows, it might be nice to have a princess as a slave.” He dismissed the communication spell with a wave, leaving empty air before us. “Well, that was pleasant,” Twinkleshine said with obvious disapproval. Speedy snorted. “Warlocks. Most of them should be in theater with how much they love melodrama.” I cast an anti-scrying spell to keep Obsidian from spying on us. Somehow he had known that we had disrupted work on his dig site, and if it was through magical means I wanted to keep him from knowing what we were going to do next. We needed a game plan, and we needed it now. “This is really bad, everyone.” I pointed to the crystal fortress looming over us. “Back when King Sombra was the ruler of the Crystal Empire, he created the Umbral Shards to help him expand his empire. According to the history books I read, he gave them to his most powerful commanders to help take over a piece of territory by quickly building those crystal fortresses to dominate the area.” My wings flicked as I remembered some of the more unpleasant things I had read about. “They're bad news all around. You’ve already seen how it’s sucking the life out of the land and how it’s capable of mind control, and it only gets worse from there. It can also create crystal golems and give its user a range of magical abilities. From there, historians have only been able to guess what else the Umbral Shards can do.” Masked trotted over from where he had been unlocking the ponies of Icepeak. “By the sounds of it, it would be a bad idea to give him time to fortify his position.” He gestured at the bulette. “If he can control more monsters like that, then we could quickly find ourselves dealing with a nightmare of a threat right in the heart of Equestria.” Storm nodded in agreement. “We need to neutralize him as fast as possible.” “It doesn't sound like we have a choice if we want to keep this from getting any worse.” My glance fell to the dead grass under our hooves. “I don't want to think how bad it could get if we let it keep going.” The Umbral Shard had apparently only been discovered a few days ago, and already things had gotten this bad. My history books had certainly suggested they were very dangerous. After Equestria and the Crystal Empire went to war, it had usually been Princess Celestia and Princess Luna who dealt with the Umbral Shards directly. Everypony had hoped that all of the Umbral Shards had been destroyed during the war, but one of them seemed to crop up again every couple of centuries or so as evil artifacts tend to do. Had these archaeologists stumbled upon one of them during their work? Storm stretched out her wings. “Forward is our only option, then.” “What's our plan of attack?” asked Speedy. “I’ve never stormed a fortress before.” “We need to find a way inside,” Masked said. “After that we need to find Obsidian. If we can capture him and seize the Umbral Shard, then we should be able to shut this problem down.” That plan sounded simple enough. Of course, the execution of said plan was another problem entirely. Twinkleshine frowned as she rubbed her chin. “Anyone want to bet he’s in the tallest tower in the fortress? There should be some sort of throne room in that thing. That sounds like something a guy who calls himself Obsidian Tomb would do.” “Sounds right to me.” Speedy took to the air and turned to face the rest of us. “I'll find the best route to it.” I frowned, not entirely wild about this idea. “Are you sure about going alone? I'm reasonably sure he's watching us, and those fortresses are supposed to have formidable magical defenses.” “Someone needs to scout,” Storm said, and while she supported her friend, her frown suggested she wasn’t happy about the idea. “How about we cast some spells on him to keep him from being seen?” Twinkleshine suggested. “That should give him some protection, at least. Magic is pretty easy to counter if you know what you're dealing, and whatever magic the Umbral Shard is using is going to be dated. It might be powerful, but no way it’s up to date on magical theory. Not to mention this guy is an earth pony, so he’s not going to know much about spellcasting, or at the very least, the practical side of it.” Storm’s frown deepened. “If we are worried about hostile magic, I would be better suited to it.” She tapped on the breastplate of her crimson armor. “Shadow’s Armor is resistant to magic, in addition to other enchantments. That gives me an edge here.” Twinkleshine shook her head. “You're also the captain of the princess' guard, and possibly the best suited to protect her against magic if Crystal Von Evil-Doom decides to try something direct against her. And just saying, I don’t want the first outing of Twilight’s guard to result in her being captured and turned into some creep’s slave. That’s going to look a little bad on our record.” “She's not wrong, captain,” Speedy said. “That fancy new armor of yours belongs right next to the VIP so you can keep her safe.” I bit my lip, not exactly thrilled by this discussion. We were in a really dangerous situation, but like we all agreed, we had to stop Obsidian before he could cause anymore harm. To do that, we needed to know how best to get into that fortress. “Speedy seems like the best option,” I said, unable keep the reluctance out of my tone. “But I want you to be careful. If it looks like it might be too much, you're to come back immediately.” Speedy saluted me. “Relax, I don't plan on dying heroically.” “If you die, I am demoting you,” Storm said with the utmost seriousness. Speedy snickered at the threat. “Well now I definitely have to live. Can't have my parents get the death benefits for a 2nd lieutenant instead of a 1st lieutenant.” Twinkleshine grinned wryly at the gallow-humor. “All the more reason to come back. Besides, you still have your duty to report back to your princess. You can’t do that if you’re dead.” Speedy nodded. “Also true. If I neglect my duties I might get demoted again on top of the demotion for dying, and at that point I won't even be an officer anymore.” I couldn’t help but smile, despite the grimness of the situation. “So you have your orders, lieutenant. We’ll get to work on getting everypony out of Icepeak . If things get ugly, I don’t want anypony near this place. That and I want to study those collars. They might tell me something about the Umbral Shard that I can use against it. But first, let me and Twinkleshine cast what we can to help you out.”