//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Secrets in the Dark // by computerneek //------------------------------// Three hours. Then six hours. Then two hours. That’s how long she’d waited.  For nothing to happen. It had taken three hours before everypony else started trickling in.  Twilight had been last, ten minutes after Fluttershy, the first. Then it had taken six hours for Twilight to run test after test after test. Then it had taken two more hours for the discussion on tomorrow’s tactics. In the end, half of the night had been wasted away.  She’d tried to recommend they stick together, but Twilight had overridden, stating that time is of the essence.  Tomorrow- or today, it’s well past midnight- they’ll be heading out… Solitarily again, with three unicorn guards apiece.   Pointed Gold’s scroll had sat, ignored, on her end of the table for the entire meeting. During Twilight’s testing, she’d wondered mildly if the alicorn might actually catch her; after all, she is a very powerful Light caster- and simultaneously capable of shadowcasting.  Unlike Celestia, who had cast shadowmagic through a Light magic spell- and in that form, generally christened ‘dark magic’ or ‘darkcasting’, it truly is incredibly easy to get corrupted by and suckered into it.  Well, for a Light caster; unless Twilight goes crazy with it, her innate shadowcasting abilities will shed the damage with time. Which reminds her, of course, of exactly how she knows Twilight can shadowcast.  She remembers feeling Twilight’s dark spellwork inside the building. She remembers the second one, at the bottom of the pit- the one that had gone awry.  It’d been a good thing the then-unicorn had not engaged in any further darkcasting activities; she’d nearly gone too far on that one.  She remembers meeting Twilight later, and trying to decide how best to cancel the effect without alerting everypony- before noticing the gradual fade of the normally self-feeding effect.  She’d gauged the fade; if she remembers correctly, and unless something has changed, Twilight has rather typical shadowcasting abilities- that is, compared to other ponies with shadowcasting abilities.  Back in the day, shadowcasters were less than one in a thousand. Nowadays, shadowcasting is often mistaken for dangerous darkcasting, so nopony shadowcasts, even if they can. Hence why Twilight doesn’t know she can. She wonders who she got it from- mom, dad, or both?  Given how much time has passed, when combined with Celestia’s agenda, she wouldn’t be surprised if whichever it was is also unaware of any shadowcasting ability…  and for several generations before them as well. She smiles to herself.  They wouldn’t be shadowcasters until and unless they actually used their shadowcasting ability; rather, as her father would have said, they simply have ‘shadowpotential’. He had lacked it.  His wife- her mother- was a weak shadowcaster.  Exactly why she had turned out so strong herself, she doesn’t know. Come to think of it, he did like keeping secrets from her.  One room in particular, he never let her near. She’d never snuck in; he had all sorts of alert magics placed on it, and she hadn’t considered a week’s torture worth the sating of her momentary curiosity.  So, she’d never explored. But he’s dead now.  Even if he isn’t, she’s Twilight’s friend- and, like they’ve been doing ever since they arrived, every one of her friends- including herself- have been wearing their Elements of Harmony everywhere. The Elements of Harmony…  a power so powerful it solves problems not by destroying or blocking, but by correcting.  An action often many times harder than the alternative the Crystal Heart employed.  She lets out a soft chuckle, folding her wings to allow herself to land haphazardly on her bed.  If he’s still alive, her Element alone is probably strong enough to purge him of the corruption- especially alongside her own power!  That done, he’d be… What, just another unicorn?  She’d have to find a way to keep him from darkcasting again, though. Perhaps he kept something in there.  Something she can use to discover the hidden details of her youth. Or her father’s secrets.  It’s always possible he wasn’t hiding something about her youth behind that door. All his alarm spells were personal- they’d notify him and him only.  Not anypony else that might happen to be nearby, and with no regard for distance.  Since he’s dead… She looks over at the door, tilts her head.  Ten minutes. She’ll wait ten minutes, then go explore for that chamber.  That should be more than enough time for everypony to fall asleep at this hour; they’re already headed to bed, with more than a little grumbling about the early morning Twilight’s demanding for tomorrow.  She’d made certain she was one of them. The following morning is uneventful, save for the scramble to find enough guards.  She’d located that secret room, but hadn’t opened it; as expected, the invisible door requires a surge of shadowmagic to open.  A surge, of course, too strong for her to hide from the guards stationed nearby- unless she can remember how she hid her power so long ago. About ten minutes after heading out into the town, she gets an idea- and starts plotting how to ditch her guards. It’s not hard.  Two minutes later, she uses a yawn as an excuse to stretch her wings, before propelling herself forwards with a powerful downstroke- and pivoting almost instantly into an alleyway.  Six or seven quick pivots later and she’s sure she’s lost the guards; a dodge into an empty alley and a shadow jump halfway across town and she’s certain. She emerges from the empty alley she appeared in, looking up and down the secondary road, before selecting a direction and starting to walk, muttering under her breath.  “Pointed gold, pointed gold, pointed gold.” She feels the tiny surge of energy as the blanket spell activates…  Yes, it’s a shadowmagic spell. She smiles softly as she continues walking. Shortly, a unicorn trots up next to her.  “You called?” She looks over at the unicorn- yep, the same one as yesterday.  “Yes, actually.” She lets out a sigh. “Twilight didn’t listen.  Too busy trying to be as conspicuous as possible today- three guards a piece today.  Little harder to ditch, but nothing significant.” “Shoot.  Um, did she answer, or…?” Shake.  “Never listened to the question.  I did a little digging in the library, though- and is it just me, or isn’t there a third kind of magic?” A raised eyebrow.  “A third kind of magic?  Like what?” “Well, there’s the Light magic of the normal unicorn, pegasus, or whatnot, there’s the Dark magic that Sombra used…  then some of those books seemed to refer to something else as separate from dark magic- calling it ‘shadow magic’.” “Shad-?”  The unicorn glances around at their surroundings.  “Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more private?” She nods.  “Lead the way,” she states. As it turns out, her ‘somewhere more private’ is an indoor restaurant booth. “So, this is more private?” she asks. Pointed nods.  “Yes. And if you can promise not to tell, I can tell you why.” She raises an eyebrow.  “Sure, I can promise.” The unicorn raises an eyebrow in turn, then huffs.  “It’s more private because the whole place is run by my people- and we’ve got a blanket spell on the street to keep anypony else from coming in.” She raises an eyebrow. “Well, from coming in uninvited.  In any case, everypony in here either already knows or is allowed to know everything I’m about to tell you.” She nods.  “Ahh. Makes sense.  Anyways, the ‘shadow magic’?” “Yes.  It’s… Well.  There’s actually only two types of magic- Light magic, and Shadow magic.  Light magic is your typical magic- earth pony, pegasus, unicorn. Anypony can use it. “Shadow magic is a completely different animal.  It’s hereditary, far more powerful than Light magic, and it doesn’t care what breed you are.  It is detectable by Light magic, though to our knowledge, there is no way to find out if somepony is capable of it until and unless they use it.” She tilts her head.  “Then what’s this dark magic?” She nods.  “There is a spell we Unicorns can use to channel shadow magic through our Light magic.  Rather erroneously called the ‘Shadow Technique’. The problem, though… “Shadow magic itself is just as benign, just as safe, as light magic.  When you use it through a Light magic spell, though, it’s very, very easy to accidentally corrupt yourself- so much that shadowmagic cast through a Light magic spell is considered Dark magic.  Unfortunately for shadowcasters- that’s those ponies directly capable of shadow magic- Light magic cannot tell the difference between shadowmagic and dark magic.  We can, since we can actually read the signature, but they can’t. “Thus, even though Celestia’s ban singles out ‘Dark Magic’...  I don’t believe she’s aware that shadowmagic is a different thing- and besides, all her guards mistake it for the dark variant anyways.”  Sigh. “Then of course, even among shadowcasters, there’s a wide variance. From the very weak to the very strong. Sombra himself wasn’t a shadowcaster, instead relying on his strong Unicorn powers and his cunning to manipulate his dark magic.  His wife, as I recall, was a low-level shadowcaster… but his daughter, perhaps the most powerful we’ve ever seen.” Shrug. “No clue why. In any case, you might actually be capable of shadowcasting yourself, I think.” She blinks.  “What-?” Nod.  “That blanket spell is markedly less effective against shadowcasters, particularly the strong ones- and you didn’t even seem to notice it as you walked in, even though I never told it you were invited.” She blinks.  “Oh, yeah. About that…”  She rubs a hoof on the back of her neck.  “I might happen to be descended from Sombra.” Blink.  “What-? His daughter survived?”  She sounds part-worried, part-relieved. She nods. “Did- Do you know if she chose to follow after her father, or to follow the path of good?” “Good, I think.  It’s not every descendent of an evil overlord that can claim to be one of the Element Bearers of Harmony.” Nod.  “True.  So… If you don’t mind me asking, where might I find her grave?” “Her grave?” “Yeah.  It’s a rare pony indeed that can grow up with Sombra and not be evil upon departure.  I’d like to pay my respects, if at all possible.” “Her grave?” she repeats, though without the incredulity.  “I wasn’t aware I had one.”