//------------------------------//
// Thirty Two: The Nightmare Spell 
// Story: Obsidian: Daughter of Sombra 
// by Randimaxis 
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The collar around Obsidian's neck was heavy and cold.

The chains around her limbs were even heavier and colder. 

But the smile on Onyx's muzzle was the heaviest, coldest thing in the entire room. 

Obsidian was collared, chained and locked in a cell that was covered with runes against magic.  There was a single, high window, and only a dull, red glare came through it - there was no other light in the room, save for Onyx's glowing red eyes, and the matching glow from the amulet on her chest. 

"Wakey-wakey, dear sister.  Aren't you eager to see where you'll be spending the rest of your existence?"  She smiled smugly. "And don't give me that look; I'd say I did an excellent job of improvising so much since you stepped into play; I daresay I deserve a medal, when this is done.  But that shall be at Father's discretion - if he wants to, then he will, and if not, he shall not.  I was not created for praise, after all..." 

Onyx wore a resplendent royal robe of inky black and red velvet, with a set of jet-black steel boots to accent the sharp angles of the outfit.  She also looked as if she were... taller, somehow?  Bigger?  She most certainly looked more substantial at any rate, seated on the cushy chair outside of Siddy's cell. 

Well, that wasn't good. 

Obsidian really didn't like getting her firepower reduced again - unsurprisingly, after meeting for the second time with Onyx. But who would think that she would prepare so strong a spell, that she would just avoid all of their defenses and knock them ALL down with a single strike?  Obsidian surely hadn't thought that - otherwise, she would have been a bit better prepared, and would've been dancing on Onyx's grave by now!

It was especially annoying as her sister didn't even use her amulet...

"But I admit, I'm curious to see what he has in store for you, dear sister - I'm certain it'll be rather interesting!  After all, you operated perfectly according to my plans - I'm almost disappointed you didn't deviate in the slightest." She chuckled.  "Now, do you care to guess why I was so happy to see you again?"

She gave Onyx a deadpan look. "It's just a guess, but... you needed a second shard of Darkheart, filled with light... and I brought it straight to you.  Is that the reason?  Or did you have something more sadistic in mind?"

Onyx clapped her hooves together gleefully.  "Oh, I'm so glad to see you're a smart cookie!  Yes, my dear - that is exactly what I needed!" 

She stood up, walking close to the bars as she began to speak. "You see, the spell Father wanted to use for his ressurrection wasn't a Dark Magic spell OR a Light Magic spell - it was Grey Magic, which spans the gap between the two.  In order for any significant effort to return to be successful, he needed to ensure that it couldn't be countered by either kind of magic... therefore, to activate it, there had to be shards charged from each side of the magical spectrum, used in conjunction with the right Grey Magic rituals, to perform the act." 

"The act," she smirked, "which I shall be performing tonight, in that painfully bright and happy little town these foolish Equestrians seem to love so much!  Ponyville will act as the stage I set... then, I'll use this amulet AND its' counterpart - which BOTH are operating at peak efficiency, thanks to you - and perform the ritual that will mark our glorious Father's return!  Oh, I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you for the favor of doing SO much of Ruby's dirty work for me!"

"She'd been useful, but too quick to trust whatever I told her... including about that other Darkheart shard!  She told you it would be 'the way to stop wicked, naughty Onyx', I'll bet!  Oh, that mare would buy oceanfront property in the Everfree, if you asked her!" Onyx's laugh was jeering and cruel... but when she finished, she knelt down to look at Obsidian on an even level. 

Obsidian shook her head; so she'd been right about that one, eh?  And Ruby, apparently unknowingly, had convinced her to bring this little artifact of doom straight into Onyx's hooves. To be completely fair, Obsidian was actually relieved to hear that Ruby didn't know anything about it and was just manipulated... like she herself had been.  

"But you... you, Obsidian, performed exactly as I'd planned for you to.  You even brought me dinner!  How thoughtful; I'll be sure to feast on them tonight, after Father returns.  With everything I need finally in my hooves after so long of watching, waiting and planning... oh, it feels so wonderful, being this close to finishing my long-lasting mission!" 

She stood up again.  "Now, I have a moment or two... if you want to beg for your or your friends' lives, I have a minute to listen to you plead.  Or, if you would rather throw more useless bravado at me, I'll be happy to tell Father all about it over dinner tonight..." 

She grinned wickedly.  "Maybe we'll share a Cupcake over it!"

"I'll admit," Obsidian said dispiritedly, "it was clever. I had no idea about this whole 'Grey Magic' thing, so I was furious since I learned about the Light Amulet that you'd risked our most honourable Father's entire plan for - only because you didn't care about reaching out to me earlier. Now everything makes sense, though - antagonizing me was a far quicker way of gathering Light Magic than waiting for Ruby to accomplish the deed." 

She rubbed her chin (unfortunately, her chains were making rubbing her temples difficult) and thought for a moment before speaking again. "How is Amethyst, by the way?  She was complaining rather loudly that by taking away her magic, I was killing her.  Is she alright?"  

The look on Amy's face when Obsidian threatened her with friendship was priceless... she could almost giggle at the memory.

Almost.

Onyx chuckled.  "Amethyst?  Oh, she'll be fine, I'm certain... of course, with no magic at all anymore, she's probably useless to Father; most likely, she'll end up as another slave.  But such is the way of things, don't you know?" 

She leaned forward, pressing her cheeks to the bars. "You know, plotting everything out at a moment's notice was SO difficult to do; if we'd have stuck to my original plan, you wouldn't have been free for another decade, at least.  Ruby would have eventually been the 'good sister' to take and charge the Light amulet, and I would have 'recruited' you to get it back.  So you see?  If Twilight Sparkle hadn't stumbled across you, you would have been eagerly dispatching with Ruby, right before Father's triumphant return!" 

She sighed. "Though I have to admit... you're smarter than Tourmaline, more calm and collected than Amethyst, and not as naive as Ruby; you were a sister I could've possibly learned to get along with... maybe even liked, one day.  More's the pity." 

She now stood back from the bars.  "Ah, well - no use crying over spilt blood, right?"

Obsidian shrugged. "Probably.  I'd like to re-re-REstate that things might have been different if you'd just reached out to me in the first place... but I suppose I'm on the wrong side of bars to criticize your plans."

So... what now?  Father returns, probably gets rather angry over many things - unfortunately, plenty of them done by Obsidian herself - and wreaks havoc on all of Equestria?  It was surprising to learn that Onyx herself didn't know how to reverse the sealing off of Amy's Dark Magic - one could think that she'd already found a way to counteract it. 

Well... at least Amethyst wasn't dying, not yet.  Now she had to wonder if Onyx's sadistic talking was just a part of her plot as well - at the beginning, she needed it to get more Dark Magic from Obsidian... now, it was just plain mean-spirited.  "Well, all I can is hope for is that our most honourable Father will return in a good mood."  She shrugged slightly again with resignation.

Onyx lifted an eyebrow... then simply scoffed. "You've grown to be no fun anymore.  No tears, no anger, no begging... how disappointing."  She shrugged.  "But at least soon, I won't even have to worry about you at all.  You'll be stuck here for the rest of your life, knowing you brought about the end of Equestria, of your friends, of your 'sweetheart' sister... ALL of it." 

She turned and opened the steel door behind her, stepping through and taking one last glance back at her. "Honestly?  Familiarity breeds contempt - I'm glad we didn't get to bond.  And now, I'll never have to.  Au revoir, mon petite morte." 

With that, she slid out of the steel door, its' shutting being a thunderous, final boom... then nothing but her chains, her cell... and herself.  

Obsidian smirked - tears?  Begging?  It was far too obvious that Onyx would enjoy that far too much, and it would give Siddy literally nothing in return.  Anger, though?  Now that was something she would gladly use - but couldn't, due to her complete lack of Dark Magic. 

Luckily, she was taught to be pretty calm when she had to; none of the threats used by Onyx were new enough or harsh enough to get under her skin.  At best, Obsidian could despair... but she would be damned if she would do it in front of her sister, even (or, maybe, 'especially') if she wasn't as brain-dead as Obsidian had initially thought.

"... about time that cow shut up!" 

Who was that?  She started to look around. Outside... or maybe hidden?  Invisible?

"Yo, genius... down here." 

In Obsidian's lap was a tiny, willowy-looking pony with large, butterfly-like wings and weird little antennae.  She had tiny black and red stripes, and a very long and luxurious tail; her mane, however, was short and neat, almost a crewcut.  She looked at Obsidian with an annoyed expression. 

"Yeah, hi.  How ya doin'?  Okay stupid, you ready to get the heck outta here already?  Or you want another minute or two to pretend Onyx didn't just piss in your oats?" 

Wow.  This tiny pony was rude.

Obsidian lowered her head, dumbfounded.  It wasn't a snack, was it?  No wait - it was apparently her rescue.  Too bad; for a moment, she was curious to see if eating other living creatures was as satisfying as Onyx seemed to imply. "Er... y-yes - I'm ready to get out of here now, please."

The tiny pony flew up to the collar around her neck, and now Obsidian couldn't see her at all.  However, she could feel movement and shifting around of the restraint she wore, so it may have been safe to assume that the tiny rude pone was doing something useful. 

"Couldn't have just let the Royal Guard take care of things, couldja?  Or the Princess of Friendship?  FEH!  Even your pals could've done the job without you - but nooooooOOOOOOOOooooooo... you just HAD to face her directly, didn't ya?  HAD to try to overpower her, because 'Light is stronger than the Dark', hunh?" 

Her tiny head momentarily appeared within sight, scowling at her.  "How's THAT workin' out for ya, ya idiot!?" 

"Well, the guards were quite busy, and the Princess of Friendship was thoroughly shaken by death of Miss Applejack.  Based on our data, we thought that this amulet was the only weapon that could defeat Onyx," Obsidian admitted.  Honestly, it was a clever ruse, really - there had been no single mention in any of their texts that Dark and Light magic could work together in any meaningful way.

She dipped back below Obsidian's sight line.  "Well, regardless... we don't have a lot of time, if you wanna save your stupid friends.  You DO want to save 'em, right?"

"Of course I want I want to svae them!  There are better uses for Cupcake than turning him into a meal - even a royal meal!"

The jostling below her jawline got more active. "Well then... unf... that means... hnnnnng... that we gotta... rrrgh... get... MO-VING... hnnnnnng..." 

>clink!<  Something gave way, and the heavy collar fell off and into Obsidian's lap. "THERE!  Turd-buckin' thing!  Okay, now to get to the other chains..." 

With that, the little rude pony flitted over to her left hind leg and began to work at it.  Obsidian watched as the little winged pony put her tiny hooves into the lock and began moving them around. 

"Okay, so - first, do you know where you are; second, are you ready to look into other ponies' heads... and third..." 

She suddenly stopped, frowning at Obsidian.  "Never mind - you'll probably just make fun of me for asking." 

Going back to moving her hooves around, she gave Obsidian a glare.  "So, answer the first two and we can go from there, pit-for-brains."

It wasn't Cupcake's sister, Blue Raspberry, turned into an itty-bitty flying creature, was it?  Obsidian had no idea if ponies could be transformed in this manner, but there had to be a finite reservoir of rudeness in the world - so it would make sense. 

"No. Yes. And go ahead and ask this third question; compared to other Equestrian ponies, I'm practically devoid of 'fun' to make."  She encouraged little creature to continue. And ohhhh, it felt so good to have this heavy collar off her neck.  Onyx would regret not sealing off Obsidian's magic in a more permament way!

The little mare stared at her for a minute, then sighed and spoke as she continued to reach around inside the lock. "You're in the Dream Realm, but you're in a version that Luna can't reach; it's a section that's been pulled out of the collective consciousness and given its' own power and existence.  You should be flattered - this is one of Onyx's signature creations; you just fell victim to the Nightmare Spell!  Well... you and your five other feeb friends." 

The lock on her hind leg popped open, and the tiny rude pone moved on to the right rear leg. "I swear, casting a spell like that just for the six of you?  Yeah, you must scare her; she normally only casts a spell like that for when BIG mistakes were made - and not for anyone else; maybe you and your little glee club are onto something, here." 

She glanced up at Obsidian again, then looked back behind her, sighed, and turned to look at Obsidian with a skeptical pout on her muzzle. "You laugh, and I'll leave you here to rot, you got me?  But..." 

She sighed.  "... does my tail look okay?  And don't you lie to me!"

Tail?  Obsidian locked her eyes on it; where had she heard somepony asking her something similar..? 

"Yes, it looks okay, in my humble opinion - very well-cared for.  So, if I may ask, if we are trapped in a nightmare, then who are you?  A construct of our minds, perhaps?" 

So they were just in a dream - well, more like they were stuck inside a prolonged nightmare; trapped inside their own minds.  In fact, they were most likely still in the same place where they'd fallen, she was willing to bet.  Obsidian wondered how differently time flowed between this nightmare world and the real one.  A 'signature' spell, eh?  A nice trick... especially if the caster of said spell already knew the greatest fears of their victims.  If only Obsidian could know more about how to use it against its' caster... 

But first things first - she had to gather her friends and wake up.

The rude pony scoffed loudly. "HA!  Like your useless imaginations could fathom something as complicated as me!  Don't make me laugh, you big stupe!  Construct of YOUR mind?" She leveled a look at Obsidian. "It's me, stupid - Ruby.  Who'd you think it was, hunh?  I mean, you might think I'm nothing but smiles, sunshine and rainbow farts, but did it ever occur to you that there actually IS a mean side to everyone?" 

>clink!< 

"Yeah.  See, I knew Onyx was keeping stuff from me, and I did NOT like it - not one bit.  So, instead of freaking out and making a dumb mistake like bringing my magic to allow her to charge an amulet or confronting my sister with a fully charged one... I just shunted my Dark Magic side into the hoof mirror I kept in my saddlebags." 

She glanced at Obsidian again as she began working on the next lock.  "At least you weren't stupid enough to break the mirror; that would have really been a loss for you, because you'd be up Piranha Creek without a paddle right now without me!" 

"But yeah - what you saw... um, die... was my Light Side.  And yeah, before you even ask, I can't exist outside of this dream realm - and I don't have long, goofball - without it.  So hey, consider this as getting to meet the side of your sister you never knew, 'kay?" 

>clink!< 

"Now, while I get this last one, you care to tell me which one of your dumb friends you wanna find first?  I mean, it's up to you - it'll be YOU going through their worst nightmares to free 'em, so where would you rather get started?"

Oh. That... well, that kind of made sense.  And to be fair, it was far better than thinking that a dream version of Blue had somehow saved her skin. "To be fair though, you were the one who told me about using this amulet to counter her own, or about gathering as much power as possible to do it."  

Even though she was exceedingly glad for the help, Obsidian just had to mention it. 

She stood up, enjoying her newly-restored freedom of movement. "Cupcake Sprinkles, of course - that's where we should begin."  It should be the easiest of her friends to shake out of his nightmare, and then he would be quite useful with dealing with the rest of the group... that is, assuming he wouldn't just wake up immediately.

The tiny pony flew up in front of Obsidian's muzzle, looking annoyed. "Look, unless you want me going over every single mistake you've made since you woke up, I'll thank you to keep in mind that I'M the Snarkmaster, here - I already told you I knew something was wrong, just not what - are you grateful for me being here, or what?" 

"Oh, I am very grateful; I'd hug you to show how much, but it could be... eh, fatal."  With their size differences, she could easily kill her... or at least heavily dream-damage her, if such a term even existed.

She flitted over to the window, looked, then returned.  "Okay, then we're gonna have to find where the passage to his doorway is; because you dopes share a bond of friendship or some junk like that, you're all connected somehow - but because of her shenanigans, those portals won't be easy to find.  Most likely, they're either hidden in difficult places, or hidden somewhere innocuous..." 

"But simple enough: find the door, enter the dream, find 'em, wake 'em up... hopefully, in a way that they don't end up all depressed and junk.  Y'know... umm... like, not smack 'em in the head or such... I think.  Either way, she's trying to break their spirits, and you gotta make sure that doesn't happen... got it, dinky?" 






Little rude Ruby rolled her tiny eyes.  "Always gotta be told everything..."


"Yes, I get it. I'll be three times more cheerful, friendly and Equestrian than I am normally, just to keep their minds in a preferred state.  Are you going with me in?  Do you want to see their worst nightmares as well?" 

Work, work, work... a somewhat difficult task for a mare who'd learned that something like 'empathy' existed only yesterday.  Finding the doors wouldn't be too hard, hopefully - especially after she got more helpers.  

"Thank you, Ruby - for everything."  Because she most certainly WAS grateful... and knew it would probably be best to acknowledge that fact.

The little pony pouted for a moment... then grumbled. "Yeah, you'd better thank me... if I hadn't been so smart, you'd be screwed right now.  But... yeah.  Okay.  Fine." She flitted over to the cell door and, with her hooves in the lock, began working it like the others. 

"And the super-happy crappy?  Yyyyyeeeeaaaahhhh... how about you just be, y'know, yourself?  I mean, after all, did they only start being on your side because you were being nice?  Or did they start with that stuff before your nicey-wicey act?" 

"You got an advantage right now, Obzy; you don't have Light OR Dark in you... but you could have 'em.  BOTH of 'em!  But it's up to you, how you refill your reserves; Light, Dark, whatever... but you get to decide.  What's more, that flexibility will end up being your greatest strength, dipwad... so, with all this wisdom pouring out of me, you'd probably do well to pay attention and stuff, y'know?" 

With a grunt, the door's lock gave, and the cell door creaked slowly open. "Now, I can appear in these other dreams, yeah - but only in a limited capacity, or you'll run my spiritual batteries dead within the hour!  And trust me, once I'm drained, BAM!, no more Ruby, period." 

"But I can see inside your head, and the head of whoever you're looking into... so there's that.  And once you gather the entire Losers Club, I can make that last push to get you out of your stupid heads and back to reality."

"Honestly?"  Obsidian pondered, "I have not a single clue why they started being on my side... but I suppose you're right."  Well, a joke or two about torture and her friends would surely relax... like, what do you call a slave after a long torture session?  A three-dimensional puzzle!  Yup, that would certainly remind them why they liked Obsidian so much!

Being able to use both kinds of magic?  Frankly, she had been enjoying her Light Magic antics... but it was worth a try. 

"Then please, Ruby - don't overburden yourself.  You happen to be my favourite sister, and I don't want you to dissapear," she said while she lowered her voice. "Granted, the rest of our sisters aren't really able to rival with you for the 'favourite' title, of course... but you get the idea, right?" 

Obsidian stepped out of cell and immediately started to look around.  Doors, doors... hidden doors...

Ruby just groaned, "Yeah, yeah - whatever you gotta tell yourself to move yer fat flank.  Just get to it, toots - Equestria's not gonna save itself this time!" 

The room outside of the jail cell was as drab and bland as the inside of the cell was.  Featureless and boring, the only thing that stuck out in this place was the desk in the far corner... and it looked just as dull as the rest of the room. 

"Well?  You expect a hidden door to just jump out and say, 'hey, lookit me, here I be'?  I swear, the brains ran downhill after me..." 

The desk had a single, non-swiveling chair and three drawers. In the opposite corner from it, there was the single door that Onyx had left through; she hadn't seen what was on the other side, so there was no way to know. There was also the window, back in her cell with her chains and collar on the floor.

"I'm looking, dear sister of mine, I'm looking..."  Obsidian trotted to the desk to check the drawers; just how well could hidden doors be hidden?  Did they have to be literal doors in this strange place?  She didn't seem to have many options in that regard.

Inside the desk drawers were a pencil, a rubber band (broken), three push pins... and a colorful flyer for the Flim Flam Brothers Circus, 'the greatest show on Equus'.  

Standing out like a sore hoof, the flyer's colors were nothing like the rest of the place; they were warm, bright and happy.  The flyer showed lions, tigers, an elephant, clowns, trained monkeys... 

And, toward the back of the picture, there was a very familiar-looking cannon... with donut wheels. And a single bite missing from one of them.

Could this be...?  

She reached for the flyer and picked it up.  It was solid in her hooves... but she could feel it almost vibrating in her grasp; it felt alive, and it filled her with feelings of mirth and merriment. 

"... what, you expect it to just whisk you away, like some mare's advertisement for mane shampoo?  No dummy, you have to think of the pony you're looking to find!  Think about... I dunno, his stupid face, or his... whaddyacallit?... charm, or some manure like that?" She had to think of Cupcake? 

"Sometime this year, beets-for-brains!"  Ruby impatiently grumbled.

Ruby could be pretty interesting, even without removing her dark side and placing it in the mirror. Of course, it would probably have ruined her cover as Looking Glass.  In fact, it was really hard to think of her as dead when she was so insistant on chatting with her so often.

And so, Obsidian focused on thoughts of Cupcake Sprinkles... more specifically on the memory of their second day - when he slowly began to realize that they were quite different... he'd made such a face when he thought that she was a changeling only pretending to be Obsidian, and how the mention of her mane made her GLARE at him...

The world around her suddenly just seemed to... melt away...