“... What?” Pointed Gold asks.
“I wasn’t aware I had a grave,” Rainbow repeats.
“Uh, yeah, I heard that.”
“Well then, what what?”
Silence holds for a few seconds before Pointed continues. “So… you mean to tell me that not only is King Sombra’s daughter still alive after all this time, but she’s one of the Element Bearers of Harmony themselves?”
“Yeah.”
She puts a hoof to her forehead. “Oh, by Cadence does this change things…” She sighs. “You’re certain you’re his daughter?”
She nods slowly. “Yeah.”
“Then-! Oh, ponyfeathers.”
She raises an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”
“Then-! Oh, because if- but that’s impossible! And it means-!”
Sigh. “You mean you’re not going to ask me to prove it?”
“Uh… what? Why would I?”
Groan. “Ask Twilight sometime, and she’ll tell you that just anypony could walk in here and claim to be anypony they wanted to. I mean, you do know what she looked like, right?”
Several blinks, and a facehoof. “Yeah.” Shudder. “Nasty shade of green. Rumor has it Sombra kept her disguised while inside so he didn’t have to look at it, either.”
“Green?” she asks, widening her eyes in false surprise. “Yikes.”
“Yeah. Exactly how she got such a nasty shade I have no clue- but at least nowadays, if somepony has a foal of such despicable coloring, there is something that can be done about it.”
“They couldn’t do that back then…?” she asks, even though she knows the Chromatic Reassignment Treatment being referred to was “invented”, by herself, about a hundred and eighty seven years after Sombra was sealed away. As a matter of fact, she had actually designed it just months after his defeat. “Huh. I thought that was just… a thing. Like Equestria.”
A snort of laughter emanates from the unicorn. “Yeah, no. Sure, it’s not exactly recent- it was invented some eight hundred years ago, I hear. But we, here in the Crystal Empire, missed a thousand years.” Sigh. “And I suppose it’s possible your Element of Harmony fooled the anti-unwanted spell as well.” She heaves an even deeper sigh, planting her face in her hooves. “Why can’t anything go right?”
“Something wrong?”
Pointed nods. “Yeah. The thing is… We- the organization of which I’m part, whose name is too secret for me to share with you- aren’t the only shadow magic organization in this town. Nah- we’re one of two, and we’re at war. In secret, because any open shadow- or dark- magic is immediately pounded upon by Cadence’s guards.” She sighs. “We call them the ‘cultists’; we don’t know what they call themselves, but they’re the pro-Sombra faction, his loyal supporters. We’re anti-Sombra, pro-Cadence. It’s thanks to us that they can’t just go open with their shadow magic, storm the castle, and win. Then, there’s enough of them they’d probably be able to drop Celestia and Luna as well, especially now that they’ve had a thousand years to soften up.”
“Luna hasn’t,” Rainbow states. “She’s been on the moon.”
Blink. “Right. So, they might have a challenge- Celestia’s still had that time to soften up and, without her sister, is probably useless at combat right now. Not unlike Cadence. But anyways… That war? We’re losing.”
Blink. “Losing?”
“Yeah. Those signatures in the marketplace were some of our people, placing them specifically to draw Princess Cadence’ attention. So long as we’re still here to fight them, Cadence and her Guards can overpower them- and drive them to defeat. Once that’s done, we can return to our normal lives.” Sigh. “Well… the normal lives we never had.” Shrug. “Meh.”
“Doesn’t that mean she could catch you?”
“Certainly, yes. It ups the stakes- but we knew she’d be looking for us, so the moment our scout returned to report her Guards had spotted the signatures we’d left for them, we went silent. The Cult didn’t; they didn’t know she was looking. A couple of them very nearly got caught. A constant risk even before, but they didn’t realize it was even more of a risk- or that it was happening with increased frequency- until Twilight started storming around with increasing numbers of guards. That’s when they got the hint, and went silent as well. At this rate, we’re more likely to be caught- because unlike us, they aren’t afraid we’ll attack them!” Sigh. “We can’t. For one, we don’t know where they are- and for two, there’s more of them than there are of us.”
“They know where you are?” she asks.
Shake. “No. That’s why they haven’t attacked us- but we can’t lower our detection matrices, in case they attack Cadence. If they fight Cadence and us together, they’ll lose, and they know it. The problem is, we can’t exactly work with Cadence- and if they fight us separately, we’re toast. They know that.”
“Twilight.”
That’s one of Twilight’s problems; once she gets started, nothing can stop her. It’s in force today, though- just like yesterday.
“Twilight.” Fluttershy added her voice to the statement.
Twilight’s been going on about how nopony’s found anything since they arrived, and talking to herself- at the conference table- about exactly how to go forwards.
“Twilight.” Applejack and Pinkie Pie join as well. Rarity and Cadence smile; Shining Armor- who Twilight is allegedly talking to, glances up at her, an eyebrow raised, and looks back at Twilight.
“Twilight.” All three joined in this time.
But Twilight doesn’t respond.
“Twilight.” Even the Guards around the room join in.
Still no response. Twilight is still talking constantly about what different routes everypony should take.
“Twilight!” In the absence of new voices to add, everypony gets just a little louder.
“Twilight!” Even louder, after no response.
“TWILIGHT!” Everypony is yelling this time- but Twilight still doesn’t seem to notice.
Rainbow sighs, and starts filling her lungs. Everypony else glances at her, raises eyebrows, and covers their ears. Oh, but they have no idea.
She dumps some of her power into it, boosting her voice an order of magnitude or so higher than even the Royal Canterlot Voice… and making all that volume a directional directly toward her target. “TWILIGHT!”
Twilight’s ears flatten against the noise but, as the echoes die down and the surprised yelps from everypony else in the room fade to nothing, Twilight’s still ranting to herself about routes as her ears return to their prior position.
She facehooves. “Somepony kick her.”
Rarity, the nearest pony, jabs a hoof into Twilight’s withers. “Twilight!”
No response, save to push Rarity away with her levitation.
Rainbow jumps up onto the table, trotting forwards. “Just so everypony knows, dark magic is actually shadow magic cast through a light magic spell. Shadow magic, used directly, is no more dangerous than light magic.”
Princess Cadence raises an eyebrow. “I don’t think she’s listening,” she states.
Rainbow nods. “Yeah, but you are. To a Light magic user, shadow magic looks like dark magic- but it really isn’t.” She reaches Twilight’s end of the table and, completely without ceremony, holds a hoof into the air, conjuring a shadow magic spear that she slams down on Twilight’s papers, piercing straight through them. Then she sits on the table. “Twilight!” Everypony else is still staring at her slack-jawed.
“... but then if- huh, that’s not supposed to be there- if we go west…” Twilight casually lifts the boiling black spear out of her scroll and sets it on the table as she continues talking, as if uninterrupted.
Several ponies facehoof, including Rainbow. The spear dissolves into nothing.
“That could have been a legitimate attack,” Rainbow mutters, “and she wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Try hitting her with it,” Pinkie suggests.
She shakes her head. “Shadow magic isn’t like light magic, Pinkie. Even one blow to an extremity could prove fatal.” She jumps into the air, digging deeper into her power to summon the ingredients for a cloud into the room, whirling around as she gathers them together above Twilight’s head with her pegasus magic, grinning evilly. “Light magic, though, is almost impossible to deal fatal damage with a single blow.” She builds the thunder cloud above Twilight’s head, then stands on it, looking down over the edge. “Twilight!”
No response.
Nopony else moves, either.
Then she gives the cloud a good stomp.
BOOM!
Thunder echoes through the room as, at the same time as rain starts falling from the cloud, a bolt of lightning lashes out, connecting to the tip of Twilight’s horn.
Cadence winces as Twilight lets out a similarly echoing scream before landing back on her hooves, and looking up.
“Twilight!” everypony yells, all at once.
“What?” Twilight demands.
Rainbow sticks her head off of the cloud, stroking it to stop the rain. “About time you responded,” she states. “I was starting to think I’d have to start shredding books.”
“R-Rainbow! Don’t you even joke about that!”
“That wasn’t a joke.”
Blink, before her eyes go wide, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. “Wh-what?”
“Twilight, I just had to hit you with a lightning bolt to get your attention. If that didn’t work, what else could I have done?”
“Uhh…”
“Yeah. The thing is, I found something. And I found it yesterday.”
“Huh? What is it?”
She holds out and drops Pointed Gold’s scroll.
“Wha-huh? You wrote it down?” Twilight asks incredulously, before opening the scroll. “Uh… Oh. Oh. This changes things.”
“Met her again today,” Rainbow states.
Twilight doesn’t seem to hear her, moving to her stabbed scroll once again.
Rainbow taps her cloud, eliciting a rumble of thunder, but no rain.
Twilight screams anyways, though brief, and looks up. “Wha- S-sorry, was I doing it again?”
She nods. “Yeah. I met her again today. And I’ll only tell you what happened if you’ll actually listen to us next time! I don’t want to have to set fire to another library!”
“Another!?”
“Yeah. Tirek did the last one.”
“L-l-last? There were more?”
“Sombra burned several libraries during his reign,” she states calmly. “And because of that, I know exactly how to burn down an entire wing of a crystal castle.”
“Uhh…”
“Um,” Cadence begins.
Rainbow glances up at the pink alicorn’s worried expression. “Don’t worry, this castle is made of Crysteel- much harder to burn down.” She looks at Twilight. “The Castle of Friendship, though, is plain old flammable crystal.”
“Noo!” Twilight yelps.
“Then listen.”
Shudder. “Alright.”
She sighs, dispersing her cloud once again and dropping back to her spot at the table. “Alright. The issue is thus.
“We’re not looking for King Sombra’s daughter. We’re looking for something a lot less dangerous.” She smiles up at everypony. “Out in the streets, there are two entire factions of shadowcasters.”
“Shadowcasters?” Twilight interrupts.
Sigh. “Dark magic is shadow magic cast through a light magic spell,” Rainbow states. “A shadowcaster is capable of casting shadow magic directly- and shadow magic cast directly is as safe as light magic.” Grin. “As a matter of fact, I’m perhaps the most powerful shadowcaster in the world. The only issue with shadow magic is that, to the uneducated Light-magic user, it looks like Dark magic.”
“But- you don’t have a horn!”
“Only light magic cares what body parts you have,” she states. “Shadow magic doesn’t. Shadow magic can and often will heal the caster, even when not being actively used. Anyways.
“Pointed Gold, the author of that scroll, belongs to one of those two factions of shadowcasters. The good one- the pro-Cadence faction, who have been fighting to protect the Crystal Kingdom’s new royal family since Sombra’s defeat. The other faction is the pro-Sombra faction, the real threat. They’re not afraid to use dark magic as well, so they’re stronger.
“Both sides know of this imbalance. They also know that, if they go out into the open, Cadence and her forces will attack them.” Sigh. “If the Sombra faction goes into the open, they know the Cadence faction will also attack them- and they will be defeated. However, they also know that if they fight either army independently, they will win.”
Cadence blinks. “Meaning, we need to team up with the good faction to defeat the bad.”
Twilight nods faintly.
“Exactly,” Rainbow states, turning to Cadence. “Those magic traces Luna’s Night Guards detected- those were actually left intentionally by the good faction. Because if the war between the two factions goes on unchecked for much longer, there won’t be enough of the good left to save us from a frontal assault on the castle.”
Cadence tilts her head. “Then why draw our attention to themselves?”
She shakes her head. “They weren’t. They were drawing your attention to the presence of shadowcasters in the city, with the hopes of making the place more dangerous for the same without the Sombra faction knowing. Since they knew, they went into hiding as soon as they confirmed their traces were seen, but didn’t lower their detection matrices against the Sombra faction’s attacks. The idea being that, at least until they figured out what was going on, many more Sombra-faction casters would be caught than Cadence-faction casters, allowing them to even the fight and potentially make it a clean, silent win. After which, of course, they’d ‘return’ to non-shadowcasting normal lives.”
“Then- then!” Twilight stammers, but doesn’t get any further.
“So this whole scare is a set of loyal subjects that are using powers that look like illegal powers, trying to alert me of a set of non-loyal subjects using the same?”
“Yeah. Though the non-loyals aren’t afraid to use the actual illegal powers.”
“And Twilight’s ridiculous search patterns-!”
“HEY!”
“-haven’t exactly helped, have they?”
Shake. “The Sombra-faction has seen it, and figured out what’s going on.”
“How can we remedy that?”
“With cooperation with the Cadence faction. If we slowly ‘disappear’ them into the Castle, then reduce the search efforts to standard post-disaster scans- as if we think we’ve got them all and just want to make sure… They’ll probably think it’s safe to come back out. And if the Cadence faction left in the open is virtually- or completely- nill, they’ll probably stage an attack on the Castle… without having a clue that both their enemies have teamed up.” She looks up from the diagram she’d just made on the back of Twilight’s planning parchment. “Of course, neither party has a clue who I am.”
“Really?” Twilight asks. “Doesn’t everypony that reads the news know?”
She shakes her head. “They know who I pretend to be, my facade, sure. But they don’t know that I actually am Sombra’s daughter.”
Silence scatters through the room. A quill falling on a piece of parchment would be loud.
She nods. “Yeah. Strongest shadowcaster in the world for over a thousand years.” She sighs. “Not that hard to immortalize one’s self with that much power.” She glances up at Cadence. “I still can’t figure out how I ended up so strong when Sombra wasn’t a shadowcaster at all- everything he did was dark magic- and his wife, my mom, was a weak shadowcaster.”
“But-! But-!” Twilight begins.
“Ask anypony in the city,” she continues, turning to Twilight. “They’ll tell you Sombra’s daughter was a pegasus, not a unicorn. They’ll also tell you about my original colors- terrible colors- and a rumor that he kept her disguised around the castle.” Sigh, and she looks at Cadence. “That’s our trump card. Because I’m so strong, magic- light, shadow, dark, whatever- is useless against me. If the Sombra faction comes into the open, I’m plenty strong enough to crush them all in one fell swoop.”
“Well that sounds easy,” Shining Armor states.
She nods. “Yeah, but I’d rather not reveal myself to the world. I mean, imagine the repercussions! I’d never get another peaceful nap again! So, I have a different idea, that should be no more dangerous for anypony involved.” She looks at Twilight again. “I already know Twilight has shadowcasting abilities. If she didn’t, her use of dark magic during the fight with Sombra and retrieval of the Crystal Heart would have corrupted her bad enough for the Element of Magic to refuse her long ago- she messed up one of her spells.” Sigh. “Yeah, I felt it. I also know that the normally self-feeding corruptive influence of that spell residue was being slowly but soundly defeated by her own shadowcasting abilities.
“So my plan is thus. While we do the good-faction-recall thing, I want to find out who, out of all present- Elements, royalty, even the Guard, if you like- has shadowcasting abilities, and how strong they are. Those who are capable, we train up to at least tell the difference between shadow and dark magics. That’s pretty easy, so nothing we can’t do in a day or two. Then, when I designed the Chromatic Reassignment Treatment, I based it on the same spell I used to alter my own colors.
“It’s been over three hundred years since I last shadowcasted, so I’ve forgotten a few things... but that spell matrix contains everything necessary for a shadowcaster to completely eliminate both the active casting signature and all traces… which is not possible with dark magic.” She grins up at Twilight. “So, with Twilight’s help, I’ll pull that detail back out of the spell, probably teach her some combat magic- she’s a quick study, shouldn’t be too hard- and be ready whenever the Sombra faction goes openly hostile.”
“Wait, you designed that?” Twilight asks.
“Yep,” she nods. “Just a few months after Sombra died. Didn’t have reason to share it- neither was it safe to do so- until much, much later, though.”