//------------------------------//
// (Past Chapter 4): Greed is Good 
// Story: The Unique Properties of Dark Magic 
// by Shadestyle 
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The first dragon I met was awesome and terrific.  It inspired awe and terror in equal measure.

"So my Millennium Golem is destroyed by your Dark Magician, since it has more attack points, and I take the difference between those two numbers in damage to my own life points,"  I explain, gesturing to the wafer thin sapphire cards that are spread out on the table, a small illusion floating above them of crude still-images of the monsters, powered by the special table I had commissioned for it.

The various fillies, colts and adults who were interested had already seen all of the fun parts of the game, and I went ahead and distributed the cards and rulebooks I made for the game and let them leave so I can dig into the more boring components of my plan.

Fair Cut, the pony I recruited for this, soaks in my words with careful thought.  He had been skeptical at first when I was sent to him seeking math-performing enchanted crystals, and told him it was for a children's game instead of mercantile business, but when I began to explain my plans, his eyes slowly began to light up more and more.  A game of math, rules, and citing obscure documentation?  He was hooked.  I had a feeling he would be when I saw that his cutie mark was a diamond cut into a number symbol.

Of course, and this was more of a secondary goal really, I was really probing his skill and the quality of his products.  Apparently, the most common method of performing math automatically is with an enchanted tool called an "Amber Abacus".  Naturally, I did my best to put the kibosh on that, and inquired if it were possible to make calculating enchantments which did not require moving parts to function, and perhaps could be integrated with other enchantments.

"I could, but that would mean a pony couldn't read it or put forward commands to it,"  Fair Cut says, explaining something that's obvious to him, but obviously a sign of untapped potential to me.

Scratching my chin as if I didn't already have a basic knowledge of user interfaces, I offered him a thought.  "What if you used buttons instead?"

I wave my hoof through the glowing outline of a wizard jutting from the magically charged card to make it fizzle and pop.  "Illusions of numbers and symbols that when touched, give commands.  And those commands inform the crystal to display an illusion of its answer."

Fair Cut shakes their head like they've considered it before.  "The "buttons"... Might work.  But Illusion magic has its limits, each illusion has to be chosen beforehand, and can only appear and disappear.  You would need over fifty crystals for every single symbol that the primary calculating crystal would display, each one enchanted with an illusion."

I smile.  "What if the enchantment only had to display a single dot?  Could it be made to display that dot in a particular place as commanded by the enchantment?"

He looks confused at this.  "It should be possible, but what good would a dot do?"

I pull out a small book I had obtained to doodle in, and open it up to the first page, where I had been practicing my Equestrian writing, each symbol made by just poking the paper until the little ink blots shaped into the character.  I begin to explain it to him, even as his eyes widen with realization at the sight of it.  "A technique from my homeland.  Pointillism, the act of using individual dots of pigment, which, when taken together, form an image."  Thank you Bugs Bunny: Back in Action.

After he just stares at it with his mouth agape for an awkwardly long time, I decide it would be best to give my commands and take my leave.  "I'll expect a working prototype for my Duel Monsters Calculator within the month.  Feel free to inform me, your coworkers or your peers of this project if you require any help."

I had also made sure to write down an abridged rule-set for the game, and a few warnings about the dangers of an eternal format and not occasionally making rule changes for various cards.  Though, I can't help but think Fair Cut might be a bit busy absorbing the fact that his work has just been revolutionized to worry about that for a while.

As I walk out of the room, Priss's pink tuft of mane sticks out of the crowd as she ceases mingling among her peers to accost me.  "Where'd you even get the idea for a nerdy game like that?"

"A story from my homeland,"  I smile, and get my narrating voice ready for the group who looks interested at the answer as well, preparing to begin an abridged and ponyified version of a story I know by heart.

"Legends say that long ago, when the pyramids were still young, ancient princesses played a game of great and terrible power.  But these Shadow Games erupted into a war that threatened to destroy all of Equestria. Until a brave and powerful pharaoh locked the magic away, imprisoning it within the mystical Millennium Items..."






Whittle stops me in the hall a few hours later as I walk out to the mine to see if any new materials have been discovered.

"You know, Weiss, when a pony tells me "You'll be making relics of untold power for me", I usually suspect them of wanting larger crystals, instead of smaller ones,"  She points out, walking alongside me.

I chuckle, stopping to turn an annoyingly large rock in the middle of the tunnel into smooth glass with a puff of black flame, so nobody trips over it later.  "If anyone tells you that bigger is better, you'll know that they're a liar."

She raises an eyebrow.  "Oh?  Is that why your room is practically a padded crate with some shelves?  You know ponies wouldn't mind if you asked for better accommodations."

I raise my own eyebrow at that.  "Why the hell would I want a bigger room?  We've got a perfectly good swimming area, so a personal bath wouldn't do me any good.  Dark Magic makes my bed perfectly clean every night, so walking on it doesn't bother me, and anything that doesn't fit on my shelves belongs in storage or secure storage anyway, so someone else is organizing it."

I try to pick out why she's pointing that out, and test my theory.  "If it's about appearances, I have a solid sapphire office for that."  

An office which I absolutely adore.  Though the solid sapphire chair isn't as comfortable as I thought it would be.

She shrugs.  "As long as it's what you prefer.  Some of us have some rather ordinary ideas about size equating with status, and yet our caped, jewel-armored "Leader" is eating rations and sleeping in a horseshoebox."

I wonder where she's going with this.

"If I can eat cheap tasty food and fit a comfy bed in a shoebox, I will.  It's a sign of the highest quality to be able cut costs without sacrificing necessary qualities.  We just have different ideas about what's good."

Her smile grows at that, confusing me.  "Well, I happen to like your ideas so far.  You know... I couldn't get a straight word out of Fair Cut earlier, he was so excited.  I'm a bit envious, to be frank."

I'm still chewing on her words when we reach the mine, but I feel the need to give some sort of assurance.  "I may have some ideas.  But they won't work until Fair Cut is done with my calculator."

Her confusion is gratifying.  "How is a calculator going to help me with carving crystal?"

"Simple.  I'll teach it how."   I grin, trotting off and leaving her no more enlightened than she was before.





As I barrel down the minecart tracks to the second cell of our collective home about a mile away trapped inside a pitch black box, I find that I can't stop screaming.

Oh Christ I'm going to die.

As the covered minecart slows down far too slowly for my tastes, I regret my decision to have the architects design it to move as fast as is possible while remaining safe.

I finally stumble out of the cart, smashing my nose into the floor while a pair of strong looking ponies drag the cart around and up the ramp to bring it high enough for gravity to take it back to the first cell again.  At the same time, I try desperately not to think too hard about the fact that that entire tunnel is rigged to collapse if a cell is exposed.  It isn't until I reach our primary gem mine that my legs stop shaking and I regain some semblance of coherent, not-prey-animal thought.  I brush myself off, sear my armor clean, and walk in like I own the place.

The first thing I notice is how there are several massive veins of crystal that are completely untouched.  In fact, it's one particular kind of crystal I don't recognize on sight, a vague, grey-blue crystal that both glows, and is paired alongside other, less scintillating crystals of other shades and tints.  Every once in a while, I spot one of the crystals change color.

I hail one of the miners who had been heading out and question them.  "Hey, you, mind if I ask what these are?  Looks like the miners are ignoring them."

The gangly mare gives me a goofy grin.  "Aww, those'r just Againtes, boss says don't mine em up 'er take em outta the mine 'er it can make things go funny."

That... didn't help as much as I had hoped.  But it is sufficient to quell my curiosity for now.  I dismiss the mare.  "Thank you for the help.  Have a nice day."

She broadly nods with a toothy smile and walks off to do whatever it is Crystal Ponies do after their shift.

I continue further into the mine, where Captain Iron Diamond is there for some reason, talking to Foreman Fair Shake.

I let them conclude their business about more diamonds being needed for spearheads, before I talk to Fair Shake myself.

"Greetings, Shakes.  What's new?" I ask him, cutting straight to the point.

He scratches his chin  "You know, asking for weird magic gems doesn't really give me a lot to work off of.  But we did find a vein of orichalcum, if that helps."

I'm a bit stunned at hearing that that exists here, but shrug it off.  "Is it a durable, magical metal of extreme rarity?" I question.

He looks confused at that.  "It's not that durable or rare, but it is pretty magical.  It holds enchantments like nobody's business."

If joy were heat, my smile could probably melt that metal right now.  "Good work.  Pass it on to any ponies that can refine it, and keep me up to date on any further developments like that."

The rest of our discussion details the amount and quality of the metal, and the other assorted gems they had been digging up.





"So what's with the drawing?" Priss says, startling me from my writing as I snap the Grimoire Weiss shut.

I respond hastily.  "You don't need to be looking too deeply into that tome, Priss.  It's a good thing you can't read it, the knowledge entombed there is not for pony eyes."

Her eyebrows ascend at the revelation I just imparted on her puny, uninitiated mind.  "So what was with the crab drawing?"

I bristle at that.  "It's not a crab, they are blueprints I've been working on for the Heavy Lobster, when it's done, it'll be a giant monster of metal and magic!"

She doesn't look suitably impressed.  "So it's your dumb idea book?"

I nod at that.  "Exactly.  It's called the Dumb Idea Book because Dumb ponies could never think of Ideas like the ones in here."

She deadpans. "So it takes a genius to think of metal crabs?"

I huff indignantly  "Well if you're just here to critique ideas that, yes, require a genius like me to think of, then the door is over there."  I point to the empty doorway, throwing my nose in the air with an aristocratic snort.

Priss giggles.  "Sure thing Genius Noir, I'm just here to tell you my friends want more of those nerdy math cards."

I nod in response.  "I'll work on it.  And it's "Mr. Genius Noir", thank you very much."





Sombra grins down from his throne at the beast he had just finished capturing.  Mind control wouldn't work of course, with its mind so filled with powerful emotion.

But bribery... Well, it's a novel concept, but he's willing to try anything once.

He talks as though he were speaking to an associate instead of a violent monster. "I need you to do me a small favor.  There's been some... Rats.  Scurrying about my kingdom.  I want you to sniff out their surely jewel-encrusted nest, and... Do what comes naturally to your kind."

"They are somehow hiding from my sight somewhere in the frozen wastelands around my empire.  Something I wish remedied."

"I'll free you, of course, and then, if you bring me their leader, I'll pay you generously myself.  And of course, I'll overlook this whole..."  He waves his hoof dismissively.

"Nasty business you attempted,"  He finishes, smiling affably.

The monster shifts under the black chains, smoke snorting from its nostrils.  Its steel grin voices its agreement well enough.





As I drag over a cart of garbage to dump in the hate fire pit and infuse it with more of my magic, I see that ponies have formed another venting circle to rant at one another about their woes, like they have been every other day that I come over to renew it.

As I dump the garbage into the fire and prepare to ignite my horn, I can't help but notice that, for some reason, the fire hasn't dimmed as much as I thought it would.  Which is to say, it's been burning just as strongly as it was when I left.

I feel like questioning this incredibly bizarre occurrence, but before I can, I immediately feel a white-hot burst of violently angry avarice.  The telltale sign that one of my Royal Crystals has been damaged or broken.  This can only mean one of two things.  Either someone's in for the reprimanding of their life...

Or the A-class emergency alarm has been triggered.

I gallop towards the Railway for news as fast as I can, arriving just as a cart is sliding in at the emergency speed from Cell Two, confirming my fears.

Captain Iron Diamond steps out and turns to me with urgency in his tone.  "Dragon Attack at the entrance, I'm gathering soldiers.  Hurry."

With his message delivered, he stomps off with intent to fend off this attack.

I get in the cart, inform the rail manager to activate emergency speed for all carts going out, and grow my thin and pleasant-looking ceremonial armor into a thicker, fully covering form as I burn my cape away to nothing and silently tolerate the mind-numbing speed.





"Hey come on little ponies, let me in, I won't hurt you too bad!  I just want your dumb leader, and all your gems!"  The dragon roars as he worms his green, scaly arm around inside the entrance, trying to fish out ponies while widening the entrance hole.

As I see the offending limb swat away one of my guards, I'm filled with fury.

"Everypony, stand back.  Guards, prepare the killcapture room and remove any ponies between here and there,"  My voice is altered by the face-covering mask of my helmet as I speak.

When the guards are all back as far away as possible behind me, I ignite my horn and shoot a small, but violently hateful fireball at the dragon's arm, where it crashes into its claw, singeing it slightly before the dragon snuffs it out by balling their fist.

"Oh that's cute, little ponies think they know fire.  Let old Redhot show you how it's done,"  They grumble, before a loud inhale leaves me and the others no time to evacuate the tunnel.

With a rapid burst of magic, I summon up as many layers of Royal Cloth as I can, and blow a hole in the ceiling between me and the entrance, attempting to redirect the fire, and, if that fails, insulate my guards from the worst of it with a foam of graphene and air.

I barely remember the next few moments after that, as I apparently blacked out for a brief few seconds.

I just remember seeing the dragonfire, and sensing the endless tide of overwhelming greed that filled it as it blasted me back and erased huge chunks of my armor.

I snapped out of it when I heard the dragon's laughter.  "Did I enlighten any of you down there?  I hope I didn't get you too badly now."

My anger returns with contemptuous ease, and I prepare to use my Royal Crystal Growth to attempt what Sombra's crystals could not.

Greed, as an emotion, is perfectly capable of causing harm to one's enemies.

The paste-smeared spear of purple crystal that erupts from my helmet is more than sufficient to pierce the dragon's nose when it pokes it into the hole while trying to worm its way in, and its screams of anger are all-too gratifying as I break the crystal off of my helmet so I can move freely again.

"Oh you're going to get it now, you little ponies," They roar again, slightly more nasally, gripping the hole with both claws and beginning to rip their way through it to get inside.

Thank goodness.  I was worried it would just keep harassing the entrance.

I shout out to the dragon.  "Well come on, Rednose, and bring your new piercing with you, I'll give you a few matching ones!"

Oh yeah, that definitely pissed him off.

Me and my guards are forced to constantly duck into divots in the wall as the dragon periodically erupts into ranting and dragonfire, and Corporal Fair Cop is forced to grab my hoof when I found myself reaching towards the greed-dense fire like some sort of curious child.

Before long, we've all managed to taunt and bait the dragon into a massive chamber, and I ignite all the bright torches to discourage the dragon trying to make its own light.

"Welcome, Tomatoface, to my Boss Room,"  I smile inside my mask as the dragon looks confused.

Around the room is one stone path in or out of the room, and a grid of large stone tiles are embedded in the ceiling, with hollow holes at their corners.  The circular center platform of the room is surrounded by wide pools of freezing cold water, with the clear glow of crystals embedded into the walls of the pool lighting it up, and crystal torches embedded in the walls giving the room a large amount of bright light.  Water pours into the pools from fountains up above, from holes carved to look like flattened, ape-like skulls.

One, less significant detail is the abundance of slits in the walls, though their exact purpose isn't immediately apparent.

"Wait, you're just going to fight me dragon-to-pony?"  Redhot says incredulously when they notice the utter lack of guards and escape route in the room, before laughing loudly.

"I would almost respect that if it weren't so stupid!"

I just shrug in my armor.  "Then step forward, and I'll teach you respect."

This more than manages to piss them off, and when they step fully onto the central platform, the walkway that connected it to the entrance drops into the floor as the archway leading in slams shut with a giant crystal skull door.  As the walkway sinks into the water, a curious layer of frost gathers on it, spikes of crystalline ice growing a small distance out before stopping as it nears the glow of the magic gems embedded in the moat's walls.

The dragon just smirks at this, and looks down at me.  "I hope you don't think a fancy room is going to scare me off or something.  I'm going to toast you, and then I'll take you to that dumb spooky pony, and then I'll get so many gems!"  They salivate.

The mention of a "Dumb Spooky Pony" offering them anything for me gives me pause, before I shake my head internally and remember the plan.

I take a step back, and look up to make sure I'm directly under one of the blue stone tiles in the ceiling, as opposed to the grey ones that checkerboard the roof around them.

"Then come on, show me you've got what it takes to defeat the Shadow Realm's Final Boss,"  I say, the name slipping out unintentionally as I try to come up with something intimidating to say.

The dragon takes a confident step forward, unafraid of my threats.  This prompts me to quickly and loudly shout "C-B Twenty-One!"

The dragon's confusion turns to pain when a grey stone pillar drops down from the ceiling, pinning its claw to the floor with over a ton of reinforced stone.

As it thrashes to free itself, I take a step forward, ready to dodge if it attempts to use fire on me.

"You can still surrender, Redhot.  You won't be harmed further if you do."

"Oh I'm sure as chip not doing that," They growl, yanking their claw free as the pillar snaps the rest of the way to the ground with a groaning crash.

I step back into the safe zone and shout again.  "Drop em all!"

Redhot's eyes widen as, of the checkerboard of tiles embedded in the ceiling, every single grey one begins to drop down one after the other, forcing them to dodge, smash, and in one case, even melt a pillar before it can bury them in the stone traps.

Their confidence returns when they see me avoiding certain spots on the ground and constantly looking up at the roof, and makes the connection between Blue Tiles on the ceiling and safe zones from the pillars.

They continue to dodge, even as they gaze over to where, over the blue pools of water and past them, there are nothing but blue tiles.

"I've figured out your little game, dumb pony, I just have to go over there and your dumb trick stops working!" They point to the water.

I school my emotions and shout confidently.  "You could, but I know for a fact that dragons shouldn't be able to swim!"  I technically tell the truth.

The dragon's smile proves to me without a shadow of a doubt that they've taken my bait.  "Watch me!" they claim, leaping into the water and doggy paddling over to the flooring on the other side.

"Careful!" I warn.

"The water's a bit nippy!"

It's at exactly this moment that Redhot realizes what I'm implying, as icy crystals begin to form around its limbs, the buoyant frost crawling up their body until they're completely immobilized, an iceberg with half a dragon poking out bobbing gently on the water as they thrash and struggle.

"What the frack, what is this!?" They roar, trying to use dragonfire to melt the ice, but failing as their neck is locked in place by purple crystals thrust up from the ice by me as I trot over the frozen water to them.  It really doesn't help when I also make sure to muzzle them with my next set of crystals, clamping their jaws shut.

"Just a tiny bit of science, and a whole lot of magic,"  I state, standing next to them on the frozen floor.

"Those magic gems down there suppress crystal growth.  This whole pond is already cold enough to freeze, but until someone falls in, it just... Can't quite manage it."

"To be honest, I didn't have too many more ideas to stop you after this one.  I had some holes in the ceiling rigged to spray freezing water everywhere, a few vents in the floor rigged with noxious gas.  And if all else failed, I had some ponies watching the fight in the other room, who would try to use Rupture Drops to fuse some rubble together around you if the fight drew on for too long,"  I state simply.

"I shouldn't be surprised that the hatefire didn't manage to take properly on you, and your mass meant that I didn't put nearly enough intoxicants in your body when I fired that spear at your nose.  It did slow you down a lot though, I noticed."

I shrug.

"Anyway, you're going to go to sleep now.  And when you wake up, we'll have a little talk about what happens to dragons that know too much about The Shadow Realm."

The dragon's increased panic allows it to, very impressively, I might add, crack several of the crystals holding it as I draw out a hoofful of sugar and royal crystal.

With what little remains of my magical energy, I grow them together into a thick purple spike that I jab into the dragon's side, underneath the hardened scales.





"The Shadow Realm, really?" Priss snarks as I limp to the medical chambers.

I have the privilege of hiding my embarrassment behind my armor. "Shush, I was doing a bit.  Please tell me none of the others in the viewing loft heard that."

She giggles.  "Oh it's much worse than that.  Everypony's running with it.  Pinprick told me his dad said the guards are thinking about calling themselves the Shadow Guard now."

My mortification, I can only hope, is hidden extremely well by what remains of my armor.  Priss's continued giggling fails to assure me of that notion.