The Umbral Shard
Chapter 3
“I'm not the only one a little bit horrified by whatever these crystals are, am I?” I asked as I studied one of the crystal slave collars. After Speedy had left, Twinkleshine and I had taken the ponies with the slave collars to Icepeak’s town hall to see if we could free them. That proved to be an even higher order than I thought with the magic absorbing properties of the collars, in addition to their unique construction.
Twinkleshine shook her head, studying the collars alongside of me. “No, not at all. This is some seriously nasty magic.”
“I’m pretty sure a slave collar that drains the magic of its victim to strengthen its suppression of the will of the pony wearing it meets the definition of nasty,” I agreed. “Not even getting into the crystal's other baseline properties.”
“Yeah, I'm seeing at least a dozen illegal parts to it,” Twinkleshine said as she circled the ponies tied up in front of us. All of them gave us nasty glares as we studied the collars. They hadn’t been particularly helpful when we tried to reason with them, and in the end we had been forced to put magic silence bubbles over their mouths to keep them from pointlessly threatening us about their new dark master, Obsidian Tomb. I wouldn’t have found it surprising if Obsidian was giving them commands just to try and distract us from what we were doing. “Shame we can't lock up whoever made this a dozen times.”
“I'm pretty sure King Sombra is dead.” After considering the manner of Sombra’s demise, I added, “Which means he's probably only mostly dead, and given Equestria's record with merely mostly dead nemesi...”
Twinkleshine sighed and nodded. “They always come back for another round.”
“You would think Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would have done him in.” I cast some additional scanning spells on the collars, my old ones having been drained away by the crystals. “But that only seemed to keep Sombra down for a millennium before he came back alongside the rest of the Crystal Empire. I would say that the Crystal Heart got him pretty good, but I can’t be certain that he’s gone forever.”
“Better to be cautious and get a happy surprise than to just be disappointed,” Twinkleshine confirmed. “But it seems like we always get the oddball cases.”
I gave my friend a wry smile. “Just think of it as one of the benefits of the job.”
Twinkleshine’s reply was a flat, “Yaaay...”
I chuckled. “Is that anyway for a pony of my guard to act?”
“Oh, sorry.” She cleared her throat and straightened up like she was on parade ground. “Oh yay, more ancient evils for us to fight!”
“That's more like it!” Despite the current situation, it felt good that we could still joke around. Part of me felt guilty for it since Storm and Masked had evacuated the town, but I wasn’t exactly going to help anypony by just brooding and letting the stress get to me. Still, I returned to my scans and looked at the magical composition of the crystals. “Now we just need to hammer out whatever weaknesses there are to these crystals. No magic is perfect, and we should be able to find some sort of drawback.”
“Agreed.” Twinkleshine wrinkled up her nose in thought. “I guess we could start with the usual things about crystals. I'm sure you've read a book about them at some point.”
I nodded. “Both magical and non-magical. Cadance let me borrow quite a few books from the Crystal Empire’s library, in addition to materials from the Canterlot Royal Library.”
“Well, make with the recitation, O living encyclopedia.” After a moment, she amended, “Er ... Your Highness.”
I rolled my eyes, but grinned. Storm had been rather insistent on maintaining a certain level of decorum within my guard, even when some of them were my friends. It was one of those things we were still trying to find a good balance for. “Crystals are generally highly harmonic with magic. It’s why they're favored for use by a lot of magi and other magical practitioners, and also why the Crystal Empire loves crystals so much. But they aren't perfect; for one, crystals are weak against sound magic.”
“So, obvious starting point number one,” Twinkleshine agreed. “The right frequency can usually break a crystal.”
“Right, the frequencies have to match the harmonic level of the crystal's baseline magical pitch,” I said. “But the frequency is consistent for specific types of crystals.”
“So we could figure out what we need to break these.” Twinkleshine gave me a wry smile. “Time for an experiment?”
“That's what I was thinking.”
“Right.” She rubbed her chin. “Anything else before we unleash the power of sound?”
“There is one thing.” I hefted one of the shards we’d pulled from the bulette we had killed earlier. “I am curious about one of the properties of these crystals. Namely, that they're of an artificial nature.”
“Artificially created crystals are usually a lot more regular than natural ones,” Twinkleshine pointed out. “None of the those little quirks and imperfections.”
“No, and they seem to have some sort of connection with the Shadow Plane, too.” I rotated the shard as I examined it. “It's helping give the crystals some of their magical properties.” The Shadow Realm wasn’t the nicest of extraplanar dimensions out there. Near as anypony could tell, a lot of it was inherently hostile to the material realm. That might explain how the crystals here had the property to drain magic.
“Well, in that case light's the natural counter to shadow,” Twinkleshine said.
“That’s what I was thinking.” I hummed contemplatively as I considered our options. “Do you think a modified thunderflash spell could be the key?”
Twinkleshine shrugged. “Sounds like a good place to start, at least.”
“So, do you want the honors of trying first, or do you want to grant that honor to your princess?”
“Well if it's an honor, you should probably take it,” she pointed out with a wry grin. “You're the boss-mare.”
I couldn’t counter that perfectly good logic. “Why thank you, Captain,” I said with equally serious levity.
I stepped up to one of our glaring prisoners and cast a low level thunderflash spell—though unlike a normal casting, I directed a steady trickle of sound and light to the crystal collar. The result was a small buzzing ball of light that floated near the collar. Twinkleshine watched carefully as I gradually modified the audio frequency and the harmonic level of the light. I grew more confident as the collar didn't absorb my magic like it previously. After a minute’s work of moving through different frequencies, the collar cracked and fell off its victim’s neck.
The newly freed pony blinked and looked around. He mouthed something, but the silence spell kept me from hearing whatever he said.
I smile widely. “There we go! Want to give it a shot yourself, Twinkleshine?”
“Sure.” Twinkleshine replicated the frequency I had used for her own thunderflash spell on one of the other collars to similar results. “There we go. So, bust the rest of these?”
“Sounds like a good idea to me.” If at all possible, I wanted to question these ponies about what had happened to them, and to get them out of Icepeak alongside everypony else. That being the case, the two of us broke the rest of the collars, leaving a circle of confused and tired looking ponies.
We were in the process of breaking the last of the collars when Storm trotted into the townhall. She saluted me before speaking. “Highness. I see you are making progress.”
I nodded, gesturing at one of the broken collars on the floor. “We figured out how to get around the crystal's anti-magic properties. It seems like light and sound are the key to breaking the crystals, though we have to hit them at a specific frequency if we really want to do any damage.”
Storm nodded. “Very good. For more good news, we have finished evacuating most of civilians.”
“That is good news.” That was at least one thing off our plate. I didn’t like having to tell everypony they have to evacuate their homes, but I didn’t want anypony near that crystal fortress if things got worse.
I dropped the silence spells over the freed slaves, and a cream-colored earth pony mare was the first to speak. “W-what's going on?” She winced and rubbed her head. “Ow...”
Storm’s eyes narrowed. “That is what we would like to know.”
One of the other ponies, an earth pony stallion who looked like he belonged on a college campus studying in a library rather than enslaving other ponies, widened his eyes as he got a good look at us. Having a princess with her guards standing over you could be pretty intimidating. “I didn't drink too much again, did I?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” I said.
“What is the last thing you remember?” Storm asked, a little harsher than I would have liked.
“Um,” the mare grimaced as she thought. “We were work on a dig—we thought it was some old military camp dating back to the Crystal Wars. And then Dr. Steady Spade found ... something, right?” She looked to her fellows for confirmation.
“Right.” The stallion nodded. “That ... red crystal thing? He pulled it out of that stream. Remember how we thought he was nuts digging through that ice cold water, but he insisted something was there?”
Twinkleshine looked to me and Storm. “Sounds like our evil artifact.”
“I think so too.” I turned back to those that were answering our questions. “Do any of you remember what happened next?”
The stallion frowned in concentration. “Um, Dr. Spade said he wanted to study the crystal in private in his tent, and then...” His nose scrunched up in concentration. “I don’t remember. I’m sorry, but everything’s just a blank. I don’t even remember how I got here.”
“Does anypony remember anything else?” Storm asked.
The rest of the archaeologists shook their heads.
I frowned as I considered this development. “Short term memory loss can be a symptom of mind control, and they’re acting a lot like the crystal ponies immediately after the Crystal Empire returned. I don’t think they’re going to be much more help. Not unless we want to spend hours working them over with mind magic, which isn’t something I want to rush on considering their minds are probably already weakened thanks to those slave collars.”
Storm nodded. “Let us see them to safety, then.”
I untied the ropes holding the archaeologists in place. “Okay everypony, we're evacuating everyone from the area for your own safety. Follow us and we’ll show you where you need to be heading.”
A murmur ran through the group, but they complied with my instructions as we headed out of the town hall. As Princess Celestia had told me, speaking with authority and acting like you have a plan is often enough to get ponies to follow you in a crisis.
Within half an hour we had the lot of them on the road leading away from Icepeak and following everypony else evacuating the town. I felt reasonably confident that it was safe to let all the archeologists go. It was possible that at least one of them was lying about what they knew about the Umbral Shard and their involvement, but that struck me as unlikely. Even if they had originally been conspiring with Dr. Spade—Obsidian, whatever I was supposed to call him—they had been backstabbed pretty hard when they’d had those slave collars slapped on them. There was also the fact I didn't want to split up my guard when we were looking at assaulting the crystal fortress here as soon as Speedy came back from scouting the place out. Obsidian and the Umbral Shard were the far greater threat, and I couldn't afford to divide what forces I had to watch a hooffull of ponies who might have done something illegal.
“Well that went simply enough,” Twinkleshine said as we watched the archeologists depart.
I decided not to voice my private doubts on the matter. A leader showing too much doubt about what they were doing could be caustic to the morale of those around them. “At least we got those slave collars off of them,” I said, focusing on the positive side of things. “I just wish we could have found out a bit more than we did. I feel like I've been running around blind here.”
“Perhaps Speedy will uncover something,” Storm suggested.
It should make things easier for us if we could get in someplace that wasn't the heavily fortified front gate. “That's my hope. Any sight of him yet?”
“He is on his way back,” Masked said directly behind me. With a start, I spun to face the pony I swore hadn't been there a second ago. He wore that continual bored expression he normally wore as he continued speaking. “Though I think something might be wrong.”
I frowned, pushing my annoyance about nearly jumping out of my skin to the side, the feeling of concern making that task easier than it normally would have been. “What’s wrong?”
“See for yourself.” Masked held up a pair of binoculars and pointed in the general direction of the fortress.
I looked to see what he was pointing at. It wasn't long before I found Speedy flying in our direction. “I see him. He's coming our way.” I frowned as I noticed something about his flight pattern. “Is it just me, or is he having trouble flying? He seems to be favoring his left side.” Had he gotten himself hurt?
Twinkleshine’s eyes glowed with a vision enhancement spell. “I think you're right. And by the looks of it, he's got company.”
I looked further behind Speedy to see a trio of figures hot on his hooves. They seemed to be made of the same red crystals as the fortress and beat bat-like wings. They looked quadrupedal, similar to a dragon, though with a hunched body that reminded me of a gargoyle. “You're right. They look like some sort of crystal golems, if I had to guess. From what I’ve read, the Umbral Shard was able to make some of those.”
Storm’s wings snapped out. “I'm going to help him.” Without another word, she took to the air and flew in Speedy’s direction.
“Storm, wait up!” I took off after her. Even with all of her armor, she still showed how strong of a flier she was. Still, I managed to slowly close the difference with her.
Storm glanced behind her and frowned. “Careful, Highness.” She pumped her wings harder to open the distance back up between us.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that Storm wanted me to stay behind her as we closed with Speedy. She probably wanted to attack the gargoyles well before they could get to me—or at least, she wanted to soften them up first. Part of me was annoyed at the treatment, but she was my bodyguard at the end of the day.
Besides, I saw a more immediate problem: calculating the distances and speeds of everyone currently flying, the gargoyles were going to get to Speedy before we did. That being the case, we needed to take a different approach.
I called up to Storm as I continued flying hard. “Storm, we need to teleport if we’re going to beat those golems to Speedy. Are you ready?”
Storm glanced back at me with a grim look to her eyes. “Can you teleport us behind and above them?”
I re-worked my calculations. One advantage to teleporting in the sky over doing so the ground was that I didn’t have to worry nearly as much about teleporting into a solid object. “I think so. Get ready!”
I concentrated and cast a teleportation spell. We popped back into existence above and behind the gargoyles and facing the right direction. It took Storm only a moment to reorient herself before she dived down on the trio of gargoyles. Not wanting her to get too far away from me, I dove behind her, if at a slower pace.
Storm’s wing blades glowed red-hot as she prepared to strike. As though sensing Storm’s intentions, the gargoyle Storm had been bearing down on flipped itself to face her. Crystalline claws flashed out. Storm ducked and rolled to the side, slashing out a wing as she streaked past. The wing blade cut into the gargoyle’s chest and took a chunk out of it. The gargoyle flailed as it was knocked off-balance and it flapped its wings desperately to regain control.
Seeing that Storm had been slowed down by her attack, the other two gargoyles dove after her, quickly closing the distance. Not liking the idea of Storm facing two-to-one odds, I took aim and shot off a thunderflash spell. It streaked toward the rearmost gargoyle and struck its back, exploding with violent light and sound that sheared off its wings. The gargoyle immediately plummeted towards the ground.
That proved that my magic would be at least somewhat useful against the Umbral Shard’s power. I was restricted primarily to light and sound magic if I wanted to get anything done, but that was better than nothing.
The remaining unharmed gargoyle reached for Storm as it closed on her. It had almost grabbed her when Storm’s armor lit with a nearly blinding light. The armor’s innate ability caused the gargoyle to freeze in place, the light magic a natural counter to its own shadow-based magic. Storm banked sharply to the side as the gargoyle plummeted past her.
Storm made another sharp bank and dove down after the gargoyle as it slowly regained movement. Her wingblade flashed out and cut off the gargoyle’s wing. The ends of the severed wing glowed from the heat of the wing blade and the gargoyle lost control of its flight and fell after its fellow.
The gargoyle wounded in her initial attack had by now recovered, and dove after Storm. Storm was badly positioned to deal with the renewed attack, but I had no intentions of letting it reach her. I had another thunderflash spell charged and fired it. The spell hit its body squarely and blew it to pieces in a flash of light.
Storm spun around to fly back to me, her head swiveling for threats. “Are you alright, Highness?”
“I’m fine, none of them got anywhere near me.” The whole battle had taken no more than a couple of minutes. Everything had happened so quickly I barely had time to really contemplate what I was doing. The whole thing reminded me of the changeling invasion of Canterlot, where I had to just react to circumstances developing around me.
“Then let's catch up with Speedy and see how he’s doing.” Storm’s worry was clear. I hadn’t been wild about sending one of my guards into probable danger, and it was probably even worse for Storm, considering Speedy was her friend.
It didn’t take us long to catch up with Speedy, who was definitely favoring one side as he flew along. He had been flying along slower now that the gargoyles hadn’t been chasing him. “Hey, take it easy,” I said gently. I created a glowing white disk of magic underneath him. “Here, stand on that.” He looked like he was about to drop out of the sky on his own accord, which was about the last thing I wanted him doing.
Speedy dropped down to the disk with a pained grunt, clutching his left side as his face twisted with pain. His body was drenched with sweat and I could see blood seeping through his talon. “Thanks. Thought I was a goner there for a bit.”
“You just relax for a bit while we get you back to the others,” I told him. “You can tell us what happened once you’ve had a few minutes to catch your breath.”
We flew back to Icepeak and landed where the others were waiting at the edge of town. Storm’s lips pressed together in worry as she looked Speedy over. “Time to give you some medical attention.”
Speedy nodded. “Sounds good.” He grimaced as Twinkleshine and I carefully helped him out of his armor. It didn’t take long to figure out where he was hurt. There was a trio of clawmarks that ran for a few inches along his side. They didn’t look too deep, but the large dent in his armor where one of the gargoyles had managed to slash through told me he had been hit pretty hard. “I was trying to find another entrance into that place besides the gate when some of the damned gargoyles came to life. Nearly took my head off before I got away. Didn’t realize how bad I had been hurt until I was halfway back here.”
Storm pulled out a med-pack from her saddlebags and opened it. “I see.” She pressed a bandage against his side to try and stop the bleeding from his wound.
“Unfortunately,” Speedy continued, “if there’s another way into that fortress, I didn't see it. Those gargoyles were the only defense I saw, but who knows what other nasty stuff the place has.” He winced in pain as Storm cleaned his wound.
The fact that Speedy hadn't discovered anything made me feel all the more guilty for sending him off on his own. If he had found something useful then I could at least have justified sending him on the dangerous task. Now it felt like I had made a bad call letting him go. The logical part of my brain said that I couldn't have known what he would find until he actually went, but that was cold comfort as I looked at Speedy’s injuries.
Twinkleshine stepped up to get a better look at Speedy’s injured side. “I know a couple of spells that can help with your wounds at least.” She first cast a painkiller spell, another to disinfect the wound, and then a final one to speed up coagulation. That done, she pulled out a needle and some thread from her pack to sew his wounds shut.
Speedy tried to not move as Twinkleshine went to work but he still flinched despite the painkiller spell. “I think they might have bruised my ribs. Broken them, even.”
“Let me check.” Twinkleshine cast a medical scanning spell and grimaced. “Four of your ribs have been cracked. I don’t think they’ve punctured your lungs or anything, but there isn’t much I can do about them.”
“I was afraid you'd say that.” Speedy gave us a grimace of a smile that failed to show his usual humor. “Hate getting hurt on the job.”
Storm finished putting on a bandage and made sure it was going to stick. “We can at least get you ready for transport.”
Speedy gingerly pressed a talon against the bandage. “I guess this is your way of saying I'm done for the day?”
Storm smiled dryly. “Don't enjoy your break too much.”
Speedy returned that smile. “Broken ribs will make that hard to do.” He stood up with Storm’s help and took a couple of seconds to steady himself. “Thanks for the save, by the way.”
“The Patrol guards its own,” Storm said, repeating one of the Long Patrol’s mottos.
I bit my lip. “Sorry you got hurt.” Unfortunately, I had to agree with Storm about sending Speedy away. With cracked ribs he wasn't going to be much good for the upcoming fight. My decision to send him scouting the fortress had resulted in us being a guard down and nothing to show for it. That didn't make me feel particularly good.
Speedy waved off my worries. “Risk of the job, Your Highness. It could have been a lot worse, and at least now I can encourage the civvies to keep moving. Even if I'm not exactly going to be moving all that quickly myself.”
“Here, let me give you an update to pass along.” I pulled out some writing supplies and quickly jotted down a report about everything we had discovered about the Obsidian and the Umbral Shard. “I better write a second one to send to the princesses magically while I’m at it.”
“Need some help getting there?” Twinkleshine asked.
“I think I'll manage.” Speedy walked with a limp as he tried a few test steps, but he seemed mobile. “I've gotten this far, at least. Best of luck, everypony. By your leave, Captain—Your Highness.” He saluted us and the other guards saluted back.
Formalities out of the way, Speedy took my report and departed down the road to try and catch up with the evacuating ponies. That left the rest of us to decide what to do next.
“So, I guess we need to figure out what our next move will be,” I stated, using a spell to send the second report I had written to Spike. He would make sure it was forwarded to the other princesses.
Storm nodded. “Our obvious goal is the tower.”
I frowned as I looked up at the fortress looming over us. “And there doesn't seem to be an alternate entrance, which means we either have to find a way through the front gate or through its walls.”
“So ... we have to go the brute force way.” Twinkleshine didn’t sound the least bit happy with the prospect.
“Looks like it,” I said with equal enthusiasm. “Since I don't even want to try teleporting in there blind. There are all sorts of things that could go wrong if I tried.” I remembered the incident where I had been trapped by one of Sombra’s defenses for the Crystal Heart and how useless my teleportation had been. There was a significant chance that fortress would have a similar defense, and it wasn't something I wanted to find out. There was also the not insignificant risk of teleporting into a wall.
“Very well then,” Storm said. “We can certainly apply raw force.”
“It's not my style, but I can do that if I have to.” I checked the time of day and frowned as I realized something. “We better get going. We don't have much sunlight left for the day.”
“And I would rather not face this warlock at night,” Storm agreed.
“Right, he's probably only going to become more powerful then,” I said. “From what we've heard, the fortress grows during the night, and I'm willing to bet that’s when it reaches the apex of its power.”
Twinkleshine frowned and nodded. “It's called the Umbral Shard. I'm gonna bet more shadows makes it stronger.”
“Everypony gather around,” I instructed. “I'm going to teleport us up by the fortress. No time to waste, I want to finish this before anypony else gets hurt.”
Everypony did as I instructed and I cast my teleportation spell.
We popped back into reality near the fortress, exactly where I’d planned for us to. It had been something of a risk to teleport so close to the fortress, but I wanted to give us as much time as possible to deal with Obsidian and get that artifact away from him before nightfall. This also minimized the time Obsidian would have to throw something else at us. There was also the fact that I wanted to finish this crisis quickly so that no one else got hurt, and that there were already too many victims from Obsidian using the Shard.
My guards quickly spread out, keeping a wary eye on our surroundings. When no threat immediately jumped out on us, Twinkleshine flashed me a smile. “I wish I could do that spell.”
“It's not the easiest to learn, unfortunately,” I said as we approached the fortress as a group.
“I guess not. You're the only one I know who can use it.” Twinkleshine stared up at the foreboding spires and jagged crystals jutting from the fortress’ defenses. The place was even less hospitable up close than it was at a distance. The one small comfort I got was that nopony was doing anything like firing crossbows at us from the battlements.
Yet, anyways. There were still plenty of ways for everything to go wrong.
“Princess Celestia only teaches it to her students, and that's just about it,” I said, trying to distract myself from what was ahead of us. “At least as far as I know. You have to be pretty powerful to have the magic to cast it to start with, not to mention how difficult it is to pull off. That and Celestia doesn’t like to have it spread around too much.”
Twinkleshine let out a long sigh. “So much for me ever learning it, then.”
I gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but there are plenty of other spells I can teach you.”
“Alright then.” Twinkleshine grinned appreciatively. “I’d appreciate it. It certainly sounds more interesting than standing around looking stoic around the palace all day, every day.”
Masked cleared his throat to interrupt us. “Perhaps we should concentrate on the little matter of assaulting the fortress before we stop to make lesson plans?”
“That seems wise,” Storm agreed flatly.
“Oh, right.” I pulled my thoughts from the future magical studies to that task at hoof. The gate stood before us, made of the same crystalline material as the rest of the fortress. “So, any last minute clever ideas, or are we going with the brute force method?”
“I think that is our best plan,” Storm said as she took place besides me. “Do you think you can bring the gate down, Highness?”
“I think I’ve got something that can do the job.” My horn lit up as I drew deeply on my magic. “Everypony get ready. Anything could be on the other side of the gate, and this might get a bit loud.”
Everypony readied themselves as I poured magic into the biggest thunderflash spell I had ever cast. A glowing white orb shot from my horn and collided with the center of the gate. I closed my eyes and flattened my ears as my senses were overwhelmed by the resulting explosion. I felt more than saw or heard chunks of the gate splinter and break away as they fell, the impact of the large chunks of crystal shaking the ground beneath us.
When I was finally able to blink away the spots in my vision, I saw a large gap in the gate. I smiled at the confirmation that my magic was a match for that of the Umbral Shard. “That seems to have—”
Something flashed within the the fortress, and faster than I could process the sight, a lightning bolt flared from the hole in the gate. My eyes widened as Storm stepped in front of me to take the hit, arcs of electricity shot off of Storm as she was struck and she went rigid from the discharge.
“Storm, are you okay?!” I looked her over as she grimaced with discomfort, her armor smoking from the hit she had taken. She grunted and nodded, but that’s all she managed as a reply. It seemed that her ancestral armor had taken the brunt of the damage, but any kind of electrocution wasn't pleasant to go through.
Before I could examine her, a loud, bestial roar echoed from within the dark depths of the fortress.
Twinkleshine backed a couple steps away from the gate. “That's ... not a good sound."
A barrage of heavy footsteps rumbled from the gate as the creature that had fired the lightning at us emerged. It was long and covered in blue scales, with a large head, fang filled maw, and a pair of curved horns that all reminded me of a dragon. As big as an adult dragon, but it ran along the ground on six pairs of legs and didn’t have any wings. Shards of dark red crystals dotted it exactly how the bulette had been.
“Behir!” Twinkleshine cried, running out of the way of the charging beast.
“Ah!” I grabbed Storm and teleported into the sky and out of the monster’s reach.
Storm shook her head as she regained her senses. “Look out for its mouth—that’s the biggest threat!”
With its first pick of prey now beyond its reach, the behir turned to charge Masked. It snapped its head at him, rows of pointed teeth promising a quick death to anypony caught in that maw. Masked rolled to the side at the last second, and in the same swift moment, chucked a small flask into the behir’s jaws. The smoke potion broke inside its mouth and smoke exploded outward. The behir started coughing violently as the smoke filled its lungs. Masked took the opportunity to run and get more distance from the behir.
Seeing her moment to strike, Storm pulled herself from my grip and dived at the behir, aiming at the back of its neck. She was nearly on it when the behir spun with a speed the belied its size. Its tail whipped out at her. Storm tried to turn, but the tail still hit her with a glancing blow that was still strong enough to send her tumbling. She hit the ground, bouncing twice before rolling to a violent halt.
Rage flashed through me as I saw Storm take the hit. I wasn't going to let this monster get away with hurting my friend! A blue beam shot from my horn and hit the behir’s mouth, causing a solid layer of ice to cover it. The behir shook its head from side to side as it tried to shake the ice off, its forelegs clawing at its face. I was in the middle of casting another ice spell when the behir shot me a baleful glare. Its chest heaved and the ice around its jaw shattered as a lightning bolt blasted out its mouth and right at me.
The unexpected attack forced me to convert my spell into a defensive ice shield. A solid wall of ice intercepted the lightning bolt with a crash as the lightning blast blew away my impromptu shield. Chunks of ice blasted into me and my body went rigid as electricity ran through me. I fell, my cognition and control of my body gone. The next thing I felt was my body plummeting into the ground, and my vision went white.
I just lay there, my whole body hurting from my fall. Around me there were shouts and more roaring, though I couldn't put any of it into context as spots covered my vision. Slowly the spots dissipated and I could start to take in the sights around me: I looked up to see Twinkleshine standing in front of me. She must have been trying to protect me, for the behir was glaring down at us as it moved forward, skitting along on its many legs.
Twinkleshine fired a light enhanced stunbolt that slammed into the face of the behir, and its charge was brought to a halt. But its progress was only momentarily stopped, for it quickly recovered and made a few more steps before Twinkleshine stunned it with another stunbolt. Twice more the scene played out, with Twinkleshine only able to slow the monster down, but unable to fully stop it despite my magus guard pouring forth her magic into one attack after another.
Masked came in along the flank of the behir and fished a gem out of his saddlebags. He threw it and the fire gem exploded against the behir’s scaly hide. The behir jerked at the explosion, but when the smoke cleared it showed that no damage had been done to the monster. The crystals dotting its scales glowed as they absorbed the magic of the fireballs. It didn’t even bother to give Masked any of its attention, instead continuing its advance on me and Twinkleshine.
“Little.” Twinkleshine fired another stunbolt into the behir. “Help. Here?” Twinkleshine’s flanks were covered in sweat, and she panted as tried to get another spell off.
I got my legs under me, my whole body protesting in pain as I forced myself to my hooves. Vertigo seized me and I stumbled a couple of steps before I regained my balance. I needed to help Twinkleshine ... but how? My thoughts felt scattered as I tried to piece together what needed to be done. I wasn’t in much shape to cast anything complicated, but I needed something that could bring this thing down. Taking in my surroundings, I saw that I had landed—crashed near the wall, Storm was still down, and I didn’t know how bad she was hurt. She was moving, but it was clear she was struggling.
The idea that Storm might be hurt burned away much of the fog that had clouded my mind. I needed to stop this fight and now before it got any worse. A nearby tower on the fortress battlement caught my attention and I drew magic into my horn. I might not have been in much shape for finesse at the moment, but brute force could work just fine at the end of the day.
I double-checked my calculations and shot another, massive thunderflash spell at the juncture where the top of the wall and the tower met. Chunks of crystals burst from the wall, and the tower spiderwebbed as its structure was fatally undermined. The tower first tipped and then fell, crumbling under the stress of its weight—right down on top of the behir.
The behir let out a startled roar as it was buried under a pile of crystals. For a moment I thought that had done the monster in, but as the dust settled I saw the behir still squirming under the rubble. It seemed that behir were made of tougher stuff.
I was in the middle of trying to think what my next move should be when Storm got back to her hooves. She turned to face the behir and took to the air, unleashing the lightning blast that had been stored in her ancestral armor as she let out a primal warcry.
Storm flew in a arc, aiming for the monster’s neck, and her wing blade flashed as it slashed into the monster’s scales. The blade bit into flesh as Storm’s momentum lent her blow the extra power needed to cut through the tough scales. Storm’s blade sizzled with blood as she planted her hooves to continue her attack.
The behir jerked as the back of its neck was opened, but the rubble held it in place. It howled as Storm slashed time and again into the opening she had made as she sliced ever deeper into the monster. The behir jerked a final time and collapsed, motionless.
Storm stood at the ready, her wing blades glowing and ready to strike again. When the behir did not stir, she fluttered off its back and landed next to it to study it. “It’s dead,” Storm called out. She had made a good effort to remain stoic, but I could sense the relief in her voice.
I felt a strong urge to sit down and, not seeing a reason to resist that urge, did so.
Twinkleshine turned to me, worry obvious on her face as she looked me over. “Twilight, are you okay? You took a nasty hit there.”
“I'm breathing, at least.” Now that I had a moment to register it, it felt like my whole body had just had an intimate experience with a sledgehammer. I was having trouble seeing out of my right eye and touched a hoof to my eyebrow. The pressure caused me to wince in pain at the nasty swelling. One of the chunks of ice must have gotten me.
Storm was next to start looking me over and she pull her med-kit from her saddlebags. “Please relax, Highness.” Her wings flicked ever so slightly as she withdrew an icepack that she pressed to my forehead. “I am sorry that you were hurt. That should not have happened.”
I shook my head, immediately regretting doing so after the way that made my head hurt. “You got hurt on my account. You’re about the last pony I’d blame for me getting hit like that. You did take a lightning bolt for me, remember?”
Storm frowned deeply as she considered my points. “I remember, Highness.”
“No broken bones, at least,” Twinkleshine said as she finished scanning me. “Lots of scrapes and bruises, but nothing some time and bed rest won't make better.”
“I'm going to have to veto the bedrest for now. We still have a job to do.” I looked Storm over to see if she had suffered any injuries of her own. “What about you, Storm? You took a nasty hit yourself.”
“I am fine,” Storm said without any inflections. “Shadow’s Armor protected me from the worst of it.”
The neutral way she had answered me made me worry. There were limits to how much protection even the best enchanted armors could give you, and Shadow’s Armor had some ... quirks that most sets of armor didn't.
It seemsed that Obsidian wasn't kidding about controlling other monsters. Given time, he would probably come to dominate even more of them, and who knows where that could end. The idea of him managing to enslave something like a dragon and inflicting it on the neighboring communities wasn't a pleasant idea.
“The behir was probably the last of them, I hope.” Storm glanced the way of the dead monster. “Behirs are not known for getting along well with others, and are intelligent. So it couldn't have been easy to control.”
“Magical mind control isn't easy,” I said, the analytic part of my brain working. “It takes a lot of power, which is probably why the Shard drains the magic from the victims it manages first.”
“As long as you’re willing to ignore the health and psychological damage caused by pulling that.” Twinkleshine applied a bandage. “It’s not something I would recommend ... well, at all, but especially for long term use.”
“I don’t think Sombra really cared about who he hurt as long as he got what he wanted.” He had turned nearly the entirety of the Crystal Empire’s population into slaves, after all. It was a lot of work to turn the Empire back around after it returned and Sombra had been dealt with.
“Can’t disagree with you there, Twilight.” Twinkleshine finished patching me up and nodded at her work. “You good to move around?”
“I’ll have to be.” I grunted and stood. The simple act came with a lot more pain than I liked, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. Still, I was at least mobile.
Storm frowned and there was a tenseness about her as she looked at me. “We can withdraw if you want to, Highness.”
It wasn’t hard for me to hear the unasked question. She was wondering if I could continue after the beating I had taken. Fair enough, she was the captain of my bodyguard and her first job was to keep me alive. Me jumping into danger like this was about as counterintuitive towards that job as you could reasonably get, assuming anything about this situation was reasonable anymore. It was tempting to pack up, get some reinforcements, and come back later. Shame I didn’t think that was a good idea. As we had discussed, this crisis was only going to get worse with time unless we put a stop to it now, and I was determined to see this mission to the end so that nopony else got hurt by Obsidian.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her. I turned to face the broken gate and did my best to ignore the protests of my body. “We need to finish this. We’ve come this far, and I have no intention of giving up now. If we’re ready, we need to get going. I’d rather not give Obsidian anymore time to create more nasty surprises.”
I didn’t get any protests from my guards and we headed into the dark recesses of the crystal fortress.
“Once more unto the breach,” Twinkleshine glowered.
Climbing stairs is pretty awful when you’re beaten up, and we found ourselves climbing a lot of stairs. We had started our exploration of the fortress by combing through its first level to try and find Obsidian. That wasn’t a particularly pleasant task; the fortress was almost pitch dark, forcing Twinkleshine and me to cast light orbs to let us see. The dark red walls seemed to drink in whatever light we produced and the shadows looked like they had a life of their own as we moved within the building’s confines.
What’s more, I could sense the fortress trying to siphon off our magic. My wards against it were holding for now, but it didn’t make the place feel any less hostile. Especially when the place just seemed so lifeless. My own palace had at first struck me as cold and lifeless due to its size and lack of ponies to fill up all that space, but that sensation was a magnitude worse in the crystal fortress. Everything was made of the same dark red crystals, every crevice promised to be hiding some hostile creature within, and I could feel the hostility emanating from the place. My instincts screamed for me to get out and get out now. Shame we had an important job that excluded me screaming and running away in terror.
At least we hadn't been attacked by anymore monsters—yet, anyways. Still, it did give me hope the Umbral Shard might be nearing its limits. It was either that or we were being lured into a trap from which there was no escape, so instead I was going to think on the positive side that didn't involve me and my guard walking into a swift and horrible end.
Not wanting to only listen to the sound of my hooves on steps, I said, “I just want to go on the record of say that the top of the highest floor of your fortress really isn't a convenient place for a throne room.” I took a moment to stretch out a twinge in my leg. The staircases that ran up the side of the tower didn't make it easy to figure out where we were. Signs were sadly lacking in the fortress, as were any windows that might have given us any kind of reference. Whether that was some sort of defense feature, intentionally done by our mad archeologist, or just how the Umbral Shard did things, I couldn't say.
Twinkleshine shrugged. “Obsidian’s types usually go more for dramatic than practical.”
“I suspect it's a mental deviance,” Masked said. “Ponies who go mad with power have certain pathological tendencies.”
“That is one explanation,” Storm said unhappily, her watchful eye turning anywhere where an enemy might jump out of.
“Mine is at the base level of the palace, thankfully,” I said. “I guess the Tree of Harmony agrees with me that something like my palace should be more or less practical in its design.” Even if I still got complaints from ponies about how the castle didn't fit the architecture of the rest of the town, though it wasn’t like I had a say about the matter.
“Though we do have the secondary throne room,” Storm reminded me. “The map room works well enough for some purposes, but a grander throne room for public events would be ideal.”
“You do have a point,” I admitted. The map room was fine for meetings and conferences, but it wouldn’t be as useful when lots ponies wanted to see me for things like court decisions. “The one benefit to the palace having so many rooms is that it lets me turn a lot of them into anything I want. Not that the whole place is exactly conventional to begin with, mind.”
Twinkleshine flashed a smile my way. “You've never been all that conventional.”
“I can't really argue with that.” It was hard to argue that anything about my life was conventional. Really, I considered myself pretty lucky overall, the odd monster or recently released evil demigod-like being aside.
Before we could continue the conversation, Masked held up a hoof to catch our attention and bring us to a halt. “We’re near the top. Likely we’re near our quarry.”
I couldn't tell how Masked knew we were near the top, but I thought it best to trust his instinct for now. It was possible that Obsidian was hiding in some obscure broom closet, fearfully holding himself in the fetal position, but given how the rest of this day was going I doubted we were suddenly going to be that lucky. “Alright, game time.”
We silently ascended the last of the stairs to reach the top of the fortress tower. Imposing support pillars flanked each side of the large room, though the room itself was relatively empty except the throne sitting on a raised platform. Sitting upon that throne was Obsidian Tomb with his crystal throne and a glowing Shard of crystal in his lap.
He scowled deeply as we stepped up to him, each of us ready to leap into action as we did so. “You really are a stubborn lot.”
Twinkleshine shot him an unamused frown. “Let me guess: we underestimate your dark powers of evil darkness?”
Obsidian’s frown turned into seething glare. “Do not mock me!”
I couldn't help but give the would-be tyrant a wry grin. “Sorry, that's a bit hard to do what with your big evil fortress, your silly crystal crown, the monsters, and the enslavement of the local ponies. You realize you've hit just about every stereotype of villainy there in the book, right? And I should know—I've read a book about the subject.”
“You think it's funny to make fun of me?”
Storm grinned also, though hers has an icy edge to it. “No, but one of my friends would, and I want to honor him. If Speedy were here, I believe he suggested a warlock name along the lines of Shadow Crystal McEvilguy.”
“Enough!” Obsidian’s outburst resonated throughout the throne room, anger burning in his eyes as he stared down at us. “Mock me all you want, but you're not going to stop me here. Not when I have the Umbral Shard.” He held up the artifact in question as its pulsated red. “There is so much I’m going to be able to do with its power. It'll make the last twenty years of my career seem like my pre-graduate years.”
Twinkleshine frowned, the lack of confidence she had in Obsidian’s plan obvious on her face. “You do know the Umbral Shard has a long history of failure, right?”
Obsidian’s eye twitched and there was the slightest bit of hesitation when he next spoke. “Only because the previous fools who used it didn't properly appreciate it!”
“Pretty sure all of them said that,” Twinkleshine countered.
“It does seem to be a consistent theme with these types of things,” I agreed. “You can trust me on that. I’ve read about lots of incidents like this, and I’ve even experienced a few of them.”
“Enough!” Obsidian stomped a hoof. “I won’t be belittled by you!”
If Storm was the least bit unsettled by Obsidian, she didn’t show it as she gave him a level look. “Well then, perhaps we should just capture you.”
“Give up, and I'll be lenient to you.” I stepped forward so that we could better look at one another. “You can still stop this before it goes any further. Enough ponies have been hurt already, so there’s no need to make this any worse than it already is.” I didn’t see it as likely he would just stop because he asked me too, but it was worth a shot.
“When I hold all the cards?” He waved off my offer. “Don't insult me.”
“A little too late for that,” Masked said flatly.
“Fine. If you want to see my full power, then that is what you'll see.” The atmosphere of the room somehow changed as Obsidian stood. He placed the Umbral Shard against his chest and more of the dark red crystals started growing over his chest. Quickly he was covered by an ever-growing layer of crystal. Soon he stood taller than all of us, larger and thicker than even Princess Celestia in his crystalline armor, with only his head exposed.
My guard took up defensive positions around me as Obsidian gestured at the floor. The shadows about us seemed to flow around us as though they were some living, flow cloud with its own nefarious purpose. They coalesced into four figures in front of us, each of them equine in shape. Each one of them was a different pony breed, and upon a second look, I realized they were shadowy mirrors of myself and my guards.
“Oookay, this looks pretty bad,” I said, considering our options as it looked like we were about to get into a fight.
Storm spread her wing blades, her eyes flicking between our opponents. “Yes, it does.”
Obsidian grinned widely as he became pleased with our discomfort. “Witness the true power of the Umbral Shard.” He flicked a hoof at us. “Get them.”
As one, the shadows charged us.
Hoping to counter this latest threat before it could get rolling, I took to the air and fired off a thunderflash spell. To my surprise, a globe of darkness shot from my counterpart’s red glowing horn and intercepted my spell. Instead of a bright flash of light and sound, there was a muffled pop as the two spells countered one another. That really wasn’t good. Not only could my shadow alicorn counterpart cast spells, but it was skilled enough to cast an exact counter to my magic. That was going to make things rough if it could keep that up.
Twinkleshine cast a stunbolt as the shadows closed with us but was countered by her own shadow double as it cast a stunbolt of darkness. Then they were on us. Masked’s double threw a series of quick punches at Masked that forced him back as he threw up his own legs to counter the blows. I dived around a pillar to keep my own shadow from colliding with me while Twinkleshine and her shadow faced one another, horns glowing.
Storm just stood as her shadow charged her. “Clever, but not clever enough.” The shadow slashed out its wingblade, and Storm shot up her hoof to intercept the wing blade. Instead of the clang of metal on metal like I expected, there was a crackle of magical energies and the wing of Shadow-Storm slowly got sucked into Storm’s ancestral armor.
The shadow tried to pull itself away from Storm and dug in its heels, but Shadow’s Armor kept right on sucking it in. The armor dragged in the shadow by its wing until the whole of the shadow was absorbed, leaving nothing left of the magical construct.
“You think you're so clever?” Obsidian growled.
Storm smirked back at him. “Evidently clever enough.”
“Lets see how clever you are when I grind you into the dust.” He roared and charged Storm. His crystal hooves sounding like boulders crashing into the ground as he ran.
"If you grind me into dust.” Storm counter-charged. When they closed, Obsidian swung a trunk-like leg at Storm’s head. She ducked and struck at his other arm with a wingblade. The blade took off a chunk of the crystal armor but did little more as Obsidian rose the leg to strike once again, using pure strength and mass rather than any kind of skill.
With a precision that only a lifetime of martial training could give, Storm stepped a hair’s breadth to the side as the crystal legs slammed down with enough force to send shards of crystal flying. Storm struck with a quick blow from each of her wing blades to break off more of the crystal. She wasn't able to get any more strikes in as Obsidian charged at her in a blind rush that forced her to flap out of the way of the hulking form of the archeologist.
“You fight like an untrained archeologist.” Storm grinned confidently. “Fitting.”
“I don't need to be a great fighter to beat you!” Obsidian swept his leg in another great arc that Storm easily sidestepped. “I have the Umbral Shard!”
“Then why are you losing?” Storm asked as she took another chunk out of the crystal armor’s leg.
“I'm not losing! You can't even hurt me!” He kept up his attack, swing on wild blow after another and all but ignoring the counter strikes she was giving him every time he opened himself up.
I grimaced as I realized he had a point. Storm’s plan to nick away at the armor’s legs until they gave out might work, but then I saw a problem: the crystals on the leg Storm had struck were growing back, with the first blow having already fixed itself. Obsidian wasn't landing any blows, given the gulf of combat skill between an archaeologist and a guard captain, but none of Storm’s hits were anywhere near decisive. Wing blades were intended for quick, slashing strikes against flesh, not for puncturing armor.
I wanted to go to her and give her help, but I had my own problems. My shadow double flew right at me, firing one dark bolt of magic after another my way. I ducked and weaved among the columns of the room, creating a shield to block those blows I couldn't dodge. I fired back, trying to hit my double with bolts of light, but it did exactly what I had done and dodged and blocked the attacks.
I flew behind a column and cast a pair of illusions of myself. My illusions and I all darted out from the column and flew to try and triangulate on the shadow double. The shadow head snapped between the three of us, not sure which of us was real, before it cast it own spell. When it was done it whipped its head my direction and shot another series of bolts at me, forcing me back on the defensive. It must have cast some sort of anti-illusionary spell. Did it know every spell I did, or did the Shard actually have a repository of spells built into it?
Whatever the answer, I returned fire—or tried to, before something grabbed my leg and violently yanked away. My back hit a nearby column and the air was blown out of my lungs. Looking down, I saw a tentacle-like shadow had wound around my leg and was holding me in place as I tried to yank myself free.
My double charged me, and I could feel its malicious glee from having caught me with one of its spells. It raised its hooves to slam into me, but I teleported myself out of danger. The shadow hit the column hard enough to knock off a sizeable chunk of crystal, and made me very happy I had avoided that.
Masked was being pushed back as his shadow attacked with unrelenting aggression, tossing one sharp punch after another. Their legs collided in a series of precise blows as each tried to overcome the other. The shadow got in a blow that struck Masked across the face and sent him staggering back. It stepped in to take advantage of the momentum it had gained, but this time it threw a punch that was too aggressive. Masked caught the shadow’s leg and yanked the shadow forward by taking a quick step back. The shadow imbalanced, Masked twisted the leg and set the shadow to the floor. Holding onto the leg, Masked struck the elbow of the shadow and it broke in an unnatural direction from the blow.
Masked brought his hoof down on the shadow’s head, but as he did so the shadow exploded in a gaseous cloud of shadow around him. It flowed away from him and then reformed, back on its hooves and unharmed.
Masked frowned at his double. “Now that’s just unfair.”
Twinkleshine was locked in battle with her own shadow. She fired off several bolts at her double that veered in from different angles. In response, the shadow created a group of black orbs around itself that absorbed the incoming bolts. It then launched the orbs at Twinkleshine, who brought up a shield to block the incoming attacks. The two magical forces collided, sending Twinkleshine a couple steps back.
“That's really annoying.” She grimaced and blasted a chunk of crystal loose. She caught it before it could land on the floor and tossed it at her double. The shadow didn’t even blink—if it even could blink—as it caught the chunk of crystal and tossed it back at Twinkleshine. She let out a cry of surprise and her hooves scrambled desperately as she barely dodged out of the way of the incoming crystal. The crystal struck the far wall with enough force to cause it to shatter on impact. “Okay, need something new.”
“That's what I'm trying to figure out!” I said, being made to teleport out of the way of several shadow tendrils reaching out at me from the ceiling. This wasn’t going well. We weren’t landing any hits that were keeping our opponents down, and it was only a matter of time until something went terribly wrong. Twinkleshine’s spells were coming slower with each casting, Masked was fighting against an opponent that didn’t seem to have equine endurance, and Storm was fighting an enemy she couldn’t really hurt but only needed to hit her once. We needed a game changer and quick.
Twinkleshine winced as her shadow threw more shadow orbs into her shield and several cracks formed in its surface. “They've gotta have some sort of weakness!”
I thought quickly and a smile spread across my lips. “You're right! Twinkleshine! Cover me!” I teleported past my shadow and began charging a spell. Twinkleshine’s horn glew brightly and a trio of continuous laser beams streaked out of her horn. One of the beams flew at her double, forcing it to create a shadow orb to absorb it as it continue to fire. The other two beams sought my double. My shadow flew away from it, but the lasers turned at sharp corners to follow it, making it teleport out of the way, only for the lasers to turn once again to go after it.
Knowing that my shadow would only be occupied for a short time, I charged my own spell as I faced the wall of the throne room. Unleashing my magic in another thunderflash spell, the wall shuttered and then exploded outward as its elemental opposite destroyed it. Sunlight from the setting sun poured into the dark chamber temporarily blinding me from the sudden bright light.
I turned to face the throne room, and with a spell that Celestia herself had taught me, I drew in the rays of the sunlight and harnessed them for a new spell. I targeted Masked’s shadow double and a concentrated sunbeam shot from my horn. It struck the shadow and it disintegrated on impact, leaving nothing left of the conjuration. I turned on Twinkleshine’s double next and fired again. The shadow put up the largest shadow orb it had created yet, but soon it melted away exposing the shadow. It threw up a leg in a wholly insufficient defense and a mere moment’s exposure to the sunbeam destroyed it also.
My shadow double fired a stunbolt my way, but Twinkleshine intercepted the attack with a shield. “Get it, Twilight!”
I fired on my double next, but it was far more nimble than the other shadows, and teleported away from my attack, retreating further into the throne room. Seeing what it was doing, Twinkleshine ran to try and triangulate the shadow between us, firing off several light bolts at the shadow to try and hem it it. It dodged and teleported out of the way of our combined attacks. Storm broke off her own battle with Obsidian, beating her wings to dart after the Shadow to keep it moving and to try and angle it into our attacks. She also intercepted several of my missed sunbeams, absorbing them with her armor as she also worked to pin in the shadow.
It kept up this dance for several moments, dodging everything we threw at it with wing and spell, making me wonder if we weren’t going to be able to catch it before I and Twinkleshine ran out of magic. But while its attention was on me, Storm, and Twinkleshine, it had lost track of Masked. He slipped out from behind a column at an opportune moment and threw a ball-like object at the shadow. It hit the shadow just under the wing and a grey adhesive exploded over its side, trapping its wing and sending it plummeting to the ground.
Seeing my moment, I fired a sunbeam, hitting my shadow double squarely and it exploded into nothingness.
Obsidian’s glare turned on each of us as we all looked to face him. “So what, you stopped my shadow doubles. Let the sun set and I'll have the edge again.” His words may have seemed confident, but I could hear a note of worry in his voice. He was breathing heavily from his battle with Storm and sweat beaded down his face.
“Sorry, but this fight isn’t going to take that long,” I told him, and direct the rays of the dying sun his direction. Obsidian raised a leg to block, but the leg shattered when the magical sunbeam struck it.
Obsidian staggered and Masked took the moment of weakness to toss a pepper-bomb into his face. The bag burst on impact and a red dust spread all across his features and he cried out in pain. Storm flew in to flank his other side. Her armor burst into illumination as she channeled the sunbeams she’d absorbed. Those beams sliced into the crystalline armor at near point-blank range. Twinkleshine fired at the remains of Obsidian’s legs while I drew in all the power of the dying sun into me.
I aimed and fired with everything I had. The beam hit Obsidian dead-on and he howled as the light tore away at his armor. He fell to the floor among shattered crystals that smoked from the assault they had been subject to.
The Umbral Shard also fell and clinked as it hit the ground. It slid towards Storm and stopped short of her, glowing weakly as it sat there. Obsidian reached weakly for the Shard from the floor and blinked tear filled eyes, groaning weakly as he did so. “No... It’s m-mine...”
Storm frowned as she stood over both Obsidian and the Shard. “It’s over.” She raised her hoof and brought it down on the Shard.
Only instead of cracking or breaking a weird resonance echoed through the room and I felt a thrum of power as magic coursed through the air. Storm stood there, stock still. That ... didn't look good.
Twinkleshine slowly and cautiously approached Storm. “Uh ... is that a problem, Twilight?”
I landed next to Storm and spoke gently to her. “Storm, are you okay?” I waved a hoof in front of her eyes, and they didn't blink in response. No, instead they stared forward vacantly. This was really starting to worry me now. “Storm? Answer me.”
“Yeah, that's a problem,” Twinkleshine said as she joined my side. She glanced down at the softly glowing Shard, which Storm’s hoof was still firmly planted on. “Big problem.”
Masked slapped some shackles on Obsidian before looking up at us. “Can you figure out what’s happening?”
Fear clenching at my heart, I studied the Shard and the leylines of magic flowing between it and Storm. “It must be the Shard. It's doing something to her.” I recognized the type of magic coming from the artifact and my eyes widened. “Mental control. It's trying to control her mind! I have to stop it!”
I reached for the Shard, but Twinkleshine grabbed my hoof. “No! It'll just get you too!”
The two of us locked gazes and I saw the Twinkleshine’s were full of steely conviction as she held onto my hoof. I shot her a glare that told her I wasn't going to give up on Storm. “I can't let it hurt her!”
“And she would rather die than let it hurt you!” Twinkleshine shot back.
“It is her job,” Masked added. “We all volunteered to sacrifice ourselves rather than see you harmed.”
I yanked my hoof from hers. “Well maybe I'm not okay with that!” I hadn't asked for all of this; to be a princess, to have my own guard, to take on this kind of responsibility, to have the lives of ponies be on the line when I made decisions. “She needs me, and sometimes a princess needs to go into danger too!”
Twinkleshine’s brow furrowed as she refused to back down. “And sometimes she needs to let her guards do their job and keep her safe!”
We continue to lock gazes, and I thought carefully about how to proceed. Twinkleshine made some good points, as reluctant as I was to admit it. A theory did strike me, though. Could the Umbral Shard actually have been the one in control the entire time? There were certainly recorded incidents of sapient artifacts that had seized control of anyone that picked them up. It would explain how some archeologist suddenly got it into his head to take over a chunk of Equestria. He certainly didn’t look anything intimidating as he lied moaning on the floor in shackles.
If only it was as easy as removing Storm’s hoof from the Shard, but I was reasonably sure that wouldn’t break the connection between them. The Shard was powerful enough that maintaining a mental connection with somepony shouldn’t be that hard. Even if that did work, suddenly ending the direct mental connection between them could have more than one nasty side effect.
I shook my head, forcing my thoughts back to the matter at hoof. “I need to make a decision on which is more important this time. Storm may be my guard, but she’s also my friend and the Shard is hurting her. So I’m going to help her.”
Twinkleshine held my gaze for a long moment before she broke it and sighed. “Alright, but you’re not doing this alone. I’m helping you, and you can’t stop me.” She grinned with a savage edge. “Not only am I your guard, but I’m also your friend. So you can’t say you’re helping a friend despite what anypony else says and then turn around and say I can’t help, Ms. Princess of Friendship.”
I returned her grin, it making feel a bit better to have Twinkleshine by my side. “Well, technically I could cite you with insubordination, but for some reason I just can’t bring myself to do it. Being the Princess of Friendship and all.”
Masked sighed and stepped near us. “I suppose I’ll be joining you too. Maybe more ponies will allow us to overwhelm the Shard. And besides, I don’t want to be the only one to have to explain to everypony what happened to the princess I was supposed to protect. That would be far too much paperwork.”
Part of me didn't want them to join me in the danger of going into a battle of wills with the Shard. Especially as I looked my guards’ faces. Deep bags hung under Twinkleshine’s eyes and her shoulders sagged from all the spellcasting she had done today. Masked wasn't looking any better. His lip had been split and a nasty bruise surrounded one of his eyes from where he had been hit by his shadow double, and I had a feeling he was keeping up a brave face with that unreadable mask of his.
There were plenty of things that could go wrong if we went into a mental battle with the Shard, and far too many unknowns for my liking. But I sensed I wouldn't be able to convince them not to help, and there wasn't time to argue. Storm’s face was white with concentration, and despite the apparent passiveness in her frame, I could feel an underlying tension to her body. She was fighting, and who could say how that battle was going to go given time.
“Everypony ready?” They all nodded to me, and I placed a hoof above the Shard. “Get ready. Touch the Shard on three. One. Two. Three!”
I pressed my hoof against the Umbral Shard and a wall of psychic force slammed into me. The attack was so sudden and brutal that I nearly lost the contest of wills as soon as it started. The Shard pressed its will against my own like an unending wave crashing over me. It was all I could do not to drown under that relentless pressure and I threw up my mental defenses to push right back.
I could feel the desires of the Umbral Shard. It wanted to dominate, control, and conquer—pushing and pushing until all fell under its sway. It was an almost unthinking, blind impulse. Like the base urge of a shark to feed on whatever run across its path. There was no goal or motive behind the desire, no purpose, no plan for what came after it achieved its aims, there was only the desire to conquer for its own sake. And right at that moment, what it wanted most was me, an alicorn to bring under its dominion and use to further its goal of unending conquest.
That knowledge made me push back all the harder, and for a moment that seemed to drag on for an eternity, we fought in perfect balance to one another with neither gaining an advantage over the other. The outside world was irrelevant to me, my world was the struggle against the Shard as I mustered every fiber of my being to fight.
Having weathered the opening assault, I drew on all my lessons for how to win battles such as these. I fortified my will with the knowledge of what would happen if the Shard should win, and about how many ponies would be hurt. Fire fueled my belly when I remembered how Speedy had been hurt, how Storm had been drawn into this same conflict and needed to be saved. I thought of my friends, my family, Celestia, and everyone else that depended on me.
Slowly but surely, I pushed the Shard back, its will buckling against the pressure of mine. Its desperation grew and it tried to regain the momentum. Images of Canterlot falling, of ponies fleeing its might, and my fellow princess’ enslaved were used to try and fill me with despair. Instead, I took those images and used them to feed my own determination to stop it. I battered it down, broke it down, and brought its will under my own until I made it submit.
My breath came in ragged gasps and sweat had matted my coat. I was exhausted, but I had done it, I had won. That just left me with the question of what to do with the Shard now that the threat was over. Now that I had it, I was suddenly quite curious about it. What could we learn from studying its construction? While a lot of the magic it used was illegal, there should be something useful that could be glimpsed with careful study. Plenty of forbidden spells and artifacts had been studied and beneficial information gained in the past. Why not now?
Certainly a self-building fortress would be useful if some work-around could be found for the excessive magic draining it did to the land. Magic had come a long way in the millennium since Sombra had ruled. Who knew how many ways I could improve upon the Shard’s design for the benefit of ponykind? I could always test it in the Everfree Forest once I fully studied it and made whatever modifications needed to be done. Not like the complete loss of the Everfree would be a loss even if something unexpected catastrophe struck.
Then if it worked... Yes, there were several potential benefits. I could even leave my mark on the field of magic with a discovery like this. I bet even Princess Celestia would congratulate me and—
NO!
I clamped down on my will and guarded my thoughts against the subtle suggestions of the Shard. I counted to ten as the Shard fought against me with renewed vigor, taking the time to re-gather and make sure they really were mine. That had been way too close. The Shard had been such a blunt instrument up until now that I hadn't expected to try something tricky like use my desires to undermine my will, but now I knew what to watch out for. How many others had fallen for the trick in the past? Best to worry about little details like that until after the Shard had been disabled.
I beat back the Shard’s will once again and its power waned against my offense. With the Shard on the defense, I began the really tricky part. Careful not to draw too much of my attention away from the Shard, I started casting a stasis spell to contain the artifact. Fatigue and the Shard’s frantic struggles slowed the task, but I felt Twinkleshine join me in helping to cast the spell, and slowly, very slowly the spell started coming together.
Desperation flowed from the Shard, and I felt it beg and plead for me to stop, sending me images of what it could do for me. I ignored it, remembering all it had done and would do if it got he chance.
Finally, it offered me its friendship. Promising to redeem itself if only given a chance. I was tempted to take that offer, but deep down I knew the offer was a lie. This thing wasn’t really sapient, nothing like a pony, anyways. It would use whatever methods it had to enslave everyone around it for its dark master, and it would pretend to be my friend to accomplish that goal. I wasn’t going to give it the chance to hurt the people I cared about again.
I completed the stasis spell and a white orb of light wrapped itself around the Umbral Shard to trap it.
“I think that should hold it.” I let out a long breath of relief now that I could relax. The Shard was safely contained, at least for now. The stasis spell was only a temporary measure at the end of the day. I looked to the others and asked, “Are you all okay?”
Storm shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times. “I ... think so.”
Twinkleshine rubbed her and scrunched her eyes shut. “I could use something for this pounding headache, but I think I’ll survive.”
“I’m fine,” Masked said simply. If he was suffering any of the strain the rest of us were feeling he was doing a good job of hiding it.
Before I could take full stock of everything that had just happened, the fortress shuddered. Cracks worked their way up and down the nearby walls and pillars as a tremors ran through the structure.
I grimaced as I realized what was probably coming. “Um, I think there might have been some side effects to containing the Shard.”
Twinkleshine nodded, giving the crumbling walls a nervous look. “Yes. We should go. Now.”
I quickly cast a spell to creating a large, magenta disk of magic and waved to everypony. “Anypony that can't fly, jump on!” Everypony did as I said, though I had to levitate Obsidian and Storm onto the sphere. The former being in no shape to move, and Storm still not looking like she was fully with it yet. “Let's get out of here!”
The tremors were becoming worse with every second and flecks of crystal were falling from the ceiling. I beat my wings and flew towards the hole I had created in the wall as fast as I could. Soon we were outside as the last rays of the sun fell past the horizon. Not slowing down in the least, I glanced back to see one of the towers of the fortress break from its foundations and fall, crashing into the main keep. A chain reaction was set off as every structure of the crystal fortress collapsed, scattering broken crystals all about as the willpower holding it together was cut off.
Soon all that was left was a utter ruin—the legacy of the Umbral Shard.