//------------------------------// // (Past Chapter 3): Strike the Earth! // Story: The Unique Properties of Dark Magic // by Shadestyle //------------------------------// My first attempts at leadership sucked. For me, that is. Everyone else seemed to be on board with it by the end. "Why not use the view-be-gone assemblage from Trotter's Tome of Reliquary?" one of the ponies argues. Tome Waiver, I think. "Because I firmly believe we should not be trusting any magic that didn't stop Sombra the first time. He might be able to go so far as to detect it, making it a liability," I try to explain to the group of adults who had gathered to discuss keeping our group safe from being... Reacquired. "Furthermore, while his spells may not be able to detect you all when you've got those Black Flame lamps, that just means he'll have to look for signs of our camp instead. Strange structures, smoke, anything could give us away, and it would take him a day's work to do a quick scan of the countryside if he took flight." The ponies look uncomfortable at my statement, just sort of shuffling around a bit. "So yeah. My solution is pretty simple. We do this old school," I say, continuing internally. 'Although, technically, I guess it would just be school...' Shaking out of thought, I explain. "We dig deep, leave no traces on the surface, and split our camp up into cells, each cell having minimal information on the others, and connected via underground railway." A pony from the crowd speaks up loudly "We'd be trapped like rats if Sombra found us then!" I give him my full attention when I answer with what I believe to be the truth. "We'll be trapped like rats if he finds us at all. Whether or not there's tons of rock above our heads." I sweep my gaze over to the others in the group, who are starting to realize the danger they're in, even now. Or maybe that's wishful thinking. "We'll all keep each other fed, warm, and above all else, safe, but from this point forward, we live in darkness." Another naysayer pipes up at this point. "Like the ponies Sombra has in his mines?" she sneers. "Are they?" I question back, confusing them. "Are they really living? Their minds are trapped. Their fates aren't their own," I state with confidence. I take a short walk around the crowd, letting them soak in my words, before I continue. "I'm telling you that we will live in darkness. I won't let you all merely survive there. Our home until Sombra's end will be a realm all our own, a realm of shadows of our own making. We will take back the shadows that monsters have dared to hide in." Glitter Bomb runs into the room, interrupting my ministrations of the crowd. "Everypony, there's a monster outside. Anypony who can fight, come with me now." I get the feeling that this may be one of only a few opportunities to sway these ponies to my side, and follow along, already full of anticipation. I've always been a bit of a thug when it comes to violence. Fighting's my idea of a good time, when I'm ready for it. "This aught to be fun," I say to myself as I follow along with the stouter looking ponies who opt in to defend our camp. If I live for a thousand years, I doubt I'll ever understand it. Looking at the roaring, hairy scorpion the size of a semi, I'm more excited than I've been in years, but a couple of guards had me scared out of my mind? I see a group of crudely armored ponies trying to drive it off with long spears, and have an idea. It's simple physics. Pressure, speed, and sharpness. I decide to make the attempt to imitate what I had seen of Sombra's dark crystals, aiming my horn at the snow in front of me, intending to create a glassy ice spear, to drive it directly into the scorpion like a piston by growing it from the bottom-out. Physics at it's finest. As the magic builds up, and I mentally aim the magic's direction of growth towards the scorpion, I have a curious idea. If we captured it instead, surely we could make good use of it. Having a monster at my disposal would also help keeping the ponies in line. I try to shake the feeling away when I realize what a stupid idea that is, but it persists as I'm forced to finally unleash my building magical energy, firing the spell of crystal growth at the snow. The thin spear, already growing at high speed from the ground distorts, it's sharp point turning blunt as my desire to capture the scorpion overwhelms me, and I'm unable to bring myself to end it's life when I could instead subjugate it, kind of like Pokemon, really. The black ice crashes into the beast, already shaping around it into a collar as it thrashes to break the spear off at the middle. Where the spear struck, however, it continues to grow, the scorpion's thrashing only serving to break the crystalline ice up and spread it further over the beast. It looks like the scorpion is winning against my rapidly draining magical reserves, however, as it's thrashing around removes more ice than it spreads. The ice that's there, however, is more than enough to keep the monster distracted while the rest of the ponies stab it to death with their spears. The corpse is quickly overtaken as the ice encases it fully in it's death throes, like a fly in amber. The ponies are cheering and hollering at their victory and for my help, but despite that, I feel exhausted and ill at what I had nearly done. I offer up a fake smile to the group and complain about the spell taking a bit out of me as I walk back inside slowly, heading for my room and bed. Is that what he feels all the time? That hunger? I failed to cast the spell even once without feeling like I would do anything to have that beast in a cage for my own uses. The spell I attempted was taxing, yes, but the feeling it required to cast was so potent that it overwhelmed my reason, however momentarily. Am I going to go insane if I keep doing this? Instead of sleeping like I want to, I open a drawer, stuff a diamond pen in my mouth, and start slowly writing in my little black book. "Entry #2, Day 4..." I write, deciding to experiment with the smallest forms of the spell that I can muster. It's been roughly a week since I first arrived in the frozen north, and to celebrate this anniversary, I've been recruited to do backbreaking labor. I can hardly wait. The worst part is, mindlessly chewing through rock is, surprisingly, as relaxing in real life as it is in Minecraft, making it incredibly difficult to use Black Flames like I planned. I just keep getting too relaxed while I'm doing the job, and too satisfied when I check my progress. "Sure you wouldn't rather just use a pick?" Glitter Bomb says, dragging a cart filled with red crystalline spheres behind him. Rupture Drops, he calls them. He had been assigned to help me with step one of my plan, digging out the first cell somewhere away from our initial camp. I simply do not know enough about mining to recognize any dangers I might run into, which is something Crystal Ponies are supernaturally capable of. "I wouldn't know where to begin. I can barely pick up a shovel, much less swing a pick," I respond. If I knew how to levitate objects, I might have been more receptive to his idea, but I've been stuck "hoofing it", so to speak, since I got here. After I manage to get upset enough to mine another twenty meters or so, he stops me. "Hold on. There's something here." I take a step back, quench the fires I had going, and let him do his thing, watching carefully to see if I can learn anything. He walks up and down the tract that I dug out, tapping the wall in a few places before hearing something that makes him look pleased. He turns around, rears forward, and bucks a random wall of my tunnel, cracking open what almost looks like a hidden chamber. The only thing that marks it as being a product of nature rather than labor are the massive swaths of gems growing up from the ground, and embedded in the walls, each and every one of them perfectly faceted in a variety of styles. God I hope we end up with enough gems to like, deck everything out in them. These gemstones are downright scintillating, beautiful, even in the weak light of our crystal torches. The feeling only grows as I admire the gems, before I shake my head and let Glitter do his business. He pulls out a Rupture Drop, sets it in the middle of the small chamber, and measures out some thin, fiberglass material. Or maybe it's closer to fiber-optic cable, as it flexes slightly. Screw it, he has a length of crystal wire that he deems suitable, which he somehow fuses to the drop with his bare hooves, before rolling it out into the tunnel, back several meters, and lain on the ground. "So, would you like to do the honors?" he asks me. "What do I do?" I ask in response, looking at the crystal thread on the ground blankly. He answers with a mimed step. "Just stomp on it." Shrugging internally, I walk up and step on the tip of the filament, cracking it. The crack suddenly spreads, turning the wire to dust as it races down it's length, curls around into the cavern, and unleashes an earthshaking boom that has me in a panic. "Fuck! What the hell?!" I say, backing up. Is he going to bring this fucking place down on us? He just laughs at my healthy respect for not setting off high explosives inside a stone tomb waiting to be made, and trots over, calling to me. "Come on, we should probably bring these back. We need lots of good crystal for your wacky plans," He mocks. As I take a seat in Whittle's new workshop, I can't help but question. "So uhh, your husband set off high explosives in the tunnel we were digging. Is he just crazy, or does he know something I don't?" She just starts laughing as she shoves pieces of gems together, fusing them to one another as though she had glue on them. "You really aren't from around here, are you?" She responds rhetorically, pulling a piece off of a gem crystal as though it were made of Lego, and attaching it elsewhere. "Crystal Pony magic is tied to crystals, of course. But we're still earth ponies. Rupture drops reflect that. When a rupture drop explodes, it also releases a burst of raw energy that fuses like to like, and separates unlike from unlike. Any gems and ores nearby are cracked free, and the stone itself is bonded even tighter together." "A mine made by any self-respecting Crystal Pony would never collapse. And an explosive made by any Crystal Pony would never cause a cave-in. This is just the sort of stuff foals grow up knowing in the Crystal Empire." She finishes her work, tapping the large piece of crystal lightly with a small chisel. The entire giant diamond collapses into tiny little spheres in the bucket she had set it in. "How are marbles supposed to help us again?" She queries, probably wondering just what the hell I'm thinking. I shake my head. "They're ball bearings. Think of them like solid oil. You've seen ponies slip and fall on them, right? Same basic principle. Use ball bearings instead of wheels for the mine-carts, have them mounted to the rails instead of riding on them, and use gravity to push it along instead of pony-power." "Higher speed, safer, easier to ride, and a smoother ride at that. They're not that much more difficult to maintain, either. Just dump the ball bearings out every so often, and check for jams that would indicate if there's broken ones. So easy, even those empty-headed morons who are still against my plans could do it," I explain further. I neglect to mention that I've essentially reinvented a modified roller coaster. While fun, I doubt it would go over well to try and explain that I'm turning what is essentially a giant toy into what will be a large portion of our salvation. The skeptical look she shoots the bucket implies that she believes them to be glorified toys, however, despite my best efforts. That's absolutely fine, though. Her comments on Crystal Pony mines never collapsing gives me some good ideas for traps. All the best deceptions are based on preconceived notions, after all. It might not kill him, but I'd be proud to annoy Sombra if he comes into our little rat hole and experiences the joys of a massive cave-in. "So where are you going to get the materials for miles and miles of railway? It's the furthest thing from cheap that there is, getting that much durable crystal," She criticizes. I just bark out a short laugh. "I've got a few ideas." I look at the bin filled with black chunks of rock with unadulterated greed. "I hope you've got a really good reason for making us waste time to get this worthless stuff," The mining team's captain says to me, tapping his hooves impatiently. He must have spotted something mad in my eyes, because he backs up when I turn to smile at him. "If this doesn't work, I'll gladly owe you all favors. If it does, though..." Laughter starts bubbling up from within my chest. "Our little townstead will become the most technologically advanced place in the world, in one fell swoop." One of them pipes up. "Uhh, how's a bunch of dirty graphite going to do that?" He's met with murmurs from the rest that generally agree. I smile, smaller than before, and with hidden nervousness. "I'll be happy to show you." Pulling out a small chunk of the graphite rock, I toss it on the ground, and charge up Sombra's crystal growth spell, preparing to fire it at the rock. I'm flooded with those same dark urges that appear every other time I cast it, but this time, I'm ready. "They will call us The Ancients, and marvel at our superiority," I hiss, focusing on how I need this rock to bloom into it's full, crystalline form, how I need it to be as strong as I know it can be. The best damn material on earth, the holy grail of material sciences, graphene, a hexagonal crystalline lattice of carbon found in small, microscopic sheets in every hunk of graphite. A strength over two hundred times stronger than even steel, by weight. I focus, harder and harder, both on my desire to grace this world with something utterly beyond anything these cave-ponies have seen before, to lord my genius over them with the results of my beautiful labor, and on every detail that I can remember from old science magazines and internet articles, every minor detail I attribute to single-island graphene, I pour into my magic, before I begin to feel faint, and my horn begins to ache. I release the beam, and it strikes the hunk of carbon in a scintillating purple, black, and green blast. At first, nothing seems to happen, before something almost like fuzz begins to overtake the graphite piece, like the frills of a dress, or a tutu, in a dark royal purple color that I just adore. Before I can make a fool of myself leaping for joy, a voice cuts through the little world I had myself in focusing on the stone. "So you made rock gossamer? How's that supposed to help us any?" The mining captain sneers at the object that's about to change his dumb little world. "You're telling me you recognize this substance, and you don't realize what I've just done?" I say, confused at how they could already know about graphene, and not be stunned into silence at something as potentially useful as this. He retorts. "Uhh, yeah, you've made decorations? My niece can make it too, that doesn't make the stuff useful. Rock gossamer just tears like tissue paper if you try to do anything with it." How could these ponies be this dumb? I shake my head in amused exasperation as I look to the purple frill covered rock. "Typical of ponies, You just scratch the surface, but never think..." I grab the massive pile of dark magic enhanced graphene, and will it to grow into itself mixed with generic dark crystal, layer after layer around my hooves with some remaining scraps of my magic. "...To look deeper." I watch their expressions slowly change into confusion, and at least a small hint of fear. "The most versatile substance on the planet, and they used it to make confetti," I sneer quietly to myself, walking over to an enchanted spike I had Whittle make for me for the test, and firmly pressing my shoe'd hoof onto it. So far so good. When the mining crew starts to look at me like I'm crazy, I begin to feel practically giddy with excitement as I stomp on the spearpoint and crush it. "Of course it would tear like tissue paper, you idiots. Diamonds and steel that thin would tear like tissue paper. But when you thicken it up a bit..." I just wave my armored hoof around a bit. "So, would anyone else like to debate me on this? No? Just going to stand there like a bunch of pissants?" One of them looks a bit upset, and responds. "You don't have to be such a jerk about it," they say firmly, while the others just looks embarrassed. It's around this point that I realize I'm enjoying myself entirely too much, and try to tone it back. "Right, right. My apologies. I'll attempt to make it up to you all for my behavior," I claim. Shit, why was I saying all that stuff before? It seems I can't even use the spell with an urge to dominate a substance without getting defensive in the face of defiance. I should know better than to piss these ponies off. I can't allow just wanting to be top dog and impress them to turn me into even more of an ass than I already am. Trying my hardest to somehow burn that lesson into my mind, I dismiss the group. "Alright, my little mining dudes, could you take the rest of that cart to the growth specialists? If we can begin producing large amounts of... Rock gossamer, we'll be much better off. God I hate that name," slips from my lips unintentionally. A few laugh, most shrug, and they drag the cart off down the tunnels of our only cell towards where the crystal growers are. I look down to my new, sickass purple horseshoes, and I can sense my old emotional state in it. I'm shocked to find that these crystals just... Feel different than the dark ones. The hunger for control is almost entirely overshadowed by my greed, tainting and distorting that drive to dominate. Something about it just sings to me of it's unique, different nature. A new spell? It certainly feels right. In a way Sombra's Corrupt Crystal Creation simply doesn't. As hard as I try, I can't sense the flame I set to burning directly below me in the Cell's deepest point. Now I just need to put it even deeper, and I'll feel comfortable with it's distance from any pony on the surface. The reason I feel the need to perform this experiment is simple. I'm going to make what is probably this world's largest hate-filled bonfire. A Hatesink, able to produce the heat my charges will need to endure and thrive. Buried as deep as needed, at the bottom of a deep hole, with vents directing the warmth throughout the cells. A steady supply of rubble and trash, along with me tending it, and I'll have all the heat a town could need. "It's deep enough that I can't tell where it is, Glitter Bomb. Tell the miners to measure that out for me, if you would, and make the firepit deeper by ten times that amount," I command. "Are you sure it needs to be that deep, boy?" He responds curiously. I shake my head. "Not at all, but we can't afford to take any risks without unreasonable redundancy. I didn't mention this when I was selling my plan to the camp leaders, but I will be commissioning every possible stealth charm, as soon as I fully understand them and am confident in them not being a liability." He looks at me funny. "So you lied to them?" I shake my head again. "No, Glitter. I told the truth. I don't believe we should trust in stealth charms alone to hide us. That's exactly why I'll be putting forth so much of my own effort to understanding them, and why I'll be pushing so hard for ponies to do further research and development on them. I want any spell we trust to be verified beyond any shadow of a doubt." He seems to have accepted that. "Alright. I'll tell the miners to make it deeper. We're going to be having a little celebration tonight after work's done. Do you want in?" "Got any crystal soda?" I question, hoping against reason that crystal ponies just have some weird crystal version of pop. His confusion throws my heart into the depths of despair, and his words crush my every hope and dream. "What's soda?" I harden my heart to this cruel world, and resist the urge to cry. "Don't worry about it. I don't think I'll be showing up. I've got other ways of indulging." He laughs. "Come on, you might make a few friends. I don't know how many friends you'll make doing your weird experiments, or with your nose stuck in that book." "Hmph. Maybe if ponies learned how much fun research and development can be, I very well could," I snark. He just laughs again at my admittedly petulant tone. "Well, drinking or studying, you won't make friends freezing your tail off out here while you're doing it. Let's both go in and get warmed up, boy." The two of us trot down to the hidden entrance and make our way into the warm dark depths below. As I pass by dim crystal torches, and warmly greet the ponies walking by with their light-amplifying goggles on, I see that at some point, some ponies had mined out a large empty space for the foals to play in. I see a lot of them playing with marbles. They must be a few of the ones Whittle has been making for my transportation network. A few of the foals are just sitting near the vents that feed hot air from the hatesink up closer to the surface, getting cozy and rambling about inane little things to one another. I spot an older couple on a bench nearby, just watching fondly from a distance. As we walk down to the mine, I see a few of the miners on break, swapping stories, food and drink as they just sit around waiting for the boss to come pester them. I hear snippets of a mare talking about her sister, who's still in the Empire. I see a trio tossing dice, betting gems since we haven't started minting currency yet. Despite the lack of monetary risk in the gambling, they're having a blast. Maybe I'll introduce card games to these ponies. Really amp up their fun time. In the bottom of the Hatesink, around the central bonfire, I see a bunch of ponies just sitting around the fire, talking to each other. Their bodies were somehow silhouetted against the flame as it draws light towards it, only for it to scatter off of the ponies between it and them. I can sense their hate for Sombra, as dark as the fire they were warmed by. And a few, smaller hatreds as well. It seems after I explained how the Black Flame works, ponies have just started using the Hatesink's flame as a place to vent to one another, talking about missing family members, talking about Sombra's cruelty. Even just talking about stubbed hooves and the time they accidentally drank spoiled milk. The hate passes between them like flowing water, the pressure inside them relieving slowly. The exhaustion that had started to creep up on me, both mental and magical, from near constant use of dark spells after dark spells begins to fade as I watch ponies just... Living. It's around that moment that I realize I'd throw away anything I have to let them keep this for a little while longer. It's a selfless thought, sure... But that's not really what they need, is it? They need me to keep my head on straight, to keep from becoming a liability to them. They need me to keep using dark magic, the one thing Sombra's never faced before. They don't need me to discard things like my sanity and morality, but to hold onto them tightly. And as much as I hate to say it, I'll need some friends to help me do that. Shit, I hope Glitter doesn't fucking say "I told you so" if I agree to go to his stupid party and end up enjoying it. God damn it. "Hey, Glitter. I think I will go to your little shindig. I don't really have anything better to do," I tell him as cool-ly and subtly as I can. "Oh? Finally seeing things my way, boy?" He grins knowingly at me. God damn it all, I grin back.