//------------------------------// // Chapter 30: Lies of Truth // Story: Knights of Ice and Crystal // by Leila Drake //------------------------------// Eclipse still had no idea where he was, in terms of where exactly in the castle. But he could feel that he was getting closer to Sombra. The pressure on his chest tightened. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Around that corner up ahead, he could hear guards, their armour clinking. And they were talking. Were they not worried Sombra could avoid them if they were so loud? "He must be around here somewhere," one of them said, and the other one gave off a curt sigh. "Keep going," he said with a gruff voice to which the first one replied, "Yes, Sir." Taking another deep breath, Ecpilse focused his thoughts on the task ahead. His body shimmered and shifted into dark smoke that slid up to the ceiling. No way they would catch him up here. He had to get to Sombra, and fast. The last thing he wanted was for the bad guy to hurt anypony before Eclipse could confront him. Shining Armor's ear twitched when he heard a commotion at the end of the hall. He exchanged a look with Sunburst who visibly tensed up. "Detective!" a vaguely familiar voice called out. Then, Darren Houndslayer came into view at the doors. The two ponies that guarded it with halberds took a step away when the human entered the room. He looked angry, no, make that nervous. Just like the time before, Shining could not help the shiver that ran down his spine. Even though Darren kept being polite and cooperative, there was something unnerving about having a human almost twice a pony's height storming into the room you were in. Darren's blue eyes darted around the room, counting the doors or maybe the guards, then, he bumped his fist against Blaze's outstretched hoof. "So he wasn't here yet?" Darren asked, nodding at Shining and Abs. "Sombra?" "No." Blaze slightly shook his head. "We got a warning that a little colt is running around the castle, though." Darren huffed and his frown deepened. "Yes, I'm looking for him. Would have thought he'd run into a guard eventually. Apparently not. No sign of him?" As Blaze shook his head again, shrugging apologetically, Darren raised a brow. He turned to Shining Armor. "Sir, with your permission," the knight began. Shining nodded. "Alright. Blaze, Abs, you two join him. Find the kid and bring him here. If you encounter Sombra, try your best to lure him here. He'll probably look for the Heart anyway; better to catch him on our own terms." He looked at Sunburst who nodded, a smirk playing around the scholar's mouth. He is rushing through the corridors and halls, his shadow form swift and deadly. The castle is surprisingly void of guards - where is everyone? He would have expected those feeble pony creatures to swarm the palace by now, frantically looking for Sombra. No matter; he is getting closer to the powerful crystal, he can feel it - he materializes into the dark-furred unicorn, catching his breath - Sombra blinked a few times, gasping for air as he leaned against the wall. He shook his head. Everything felt wrong. He was dizzy as Tartarus, and he did not know where he was until he recognized the crystal lamps on the walls. "Oh, Stars..." He leaned over and covered his mouth, feeling ready to puke. He had done something but he was not sure what. The only things he could remember was exploding glass and Abs pointing his glaive at him, his eyes widened in terror... This is all the Heart's fault! he thought, suddenly enraged again. I must - I gotta get out of here - I must destroy it! Once it's gone, I can - He could do nothing. Sombra sank to the floor, holding his head with foth forelegs. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt - it felt as if it was going to explode. It was so tight, so tight... as if something else was trying to take its place inside of it. He was so close to figuring it out - he had to get out, get help - he was weak, he must destroy the Heart - he - He - The shadow returned, dissolving Sombra's shape once again into a dark cloud. "There he is!" Abs shouted, his eyes fixed on the hazy smoke that rushed past them. Darren, Abs and Blaze broke into a sprint, dashing after the cloud. "We're close to the Crystal Heart," Blaze said between two breaths, exchanging a worried look with the other guard. "Damn it!" He lit his horn, opening the portal they were storming towards. Their armor clinked with every step they ran, in stark contrast to Darren's light clothing. The dark shadow had already passed through the cracks of the door, leaving the two ponies and human in the dust. Blaze lit his horn - the portal swung open. Darren unsheathed his sword and they ran after the haze. His eyes widened as he realized they were already too late. Sombra was floating right next to the Heart. The blue crystal, still rotating above the crowd of ponies, shone its light upon a stock-still Princess Cadence. Her head was lowered as if she was trying to cast a spell against Sombra. Flurry Heart writhed around in her foreleg, almost falling from her frozen mother's grasp. She cried, unable to understand why Mommy was not moving anymore. Captain Coral Spark had also sprung into action, defiance etched into his unmoving face, his hoof raised as he ordered his guards to fight the intruder. It would have looked funny if not for the terror of realizing how powerful Sombra was: All of the guards had been bewitched; they all were unable to lift a hoof, everyone glaring at Sombra or into nothingness in helpless anger. "How did he - we didn't know he could do that!" Blaze panted in shock. "Neither did he," said the Shadow, his red eyes void of any feeling except for cruel joy at the weakness of the guards. "That's - that's not Sombra," whispered Abs. He cleared his throat. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What do you care?" The Shadow laughed, a low rumble that sounded wrong coming from a pony's throat. "You're just a pathetic weakling, unable to even keep your own home safe!" The temperature in the room suddenly dropped, a gust of wind rushing through the hall. Darren raised his sword at the shadow, anger overwhelming him. Oh, how he had missed this...! He curled the fingers of his free hand, trying to use his Death Grip on the shadow and pull him closer. But the shade just kept on laughing. It grew and grew, blotting out the light that fell through the windows, extinguishing the glow that shone from the Crystal Heart. The dark cloud whirled around Darren as if it was alive, black flames assaulted him, swallowed him up - Oh no, not again, he thought - He managed to catch a breather as the winds formed a tight bubble of cold air around him, pushing the shadow back. The blue ice and snow that formed around Darren felt so familiar, the rage that was building inside, the urge to get his hands onto the monster to tear it to shreds - Darren shook his head and tried to focus. He had to knock the shadow unconscious somehow, get to the creature that was possessing the unicorn, for there was no other explanation for his sudden cruel, mad behaviour... "Darren?" That was Blaze. "What are you doing? I can't - I c-can't - Oh Stars, your eyes! You..! No! No! Have mercy!" Blaze's howling cry, filled with cold, naked fear, made Darren's hairs stand on end. Other ponies began to scream as if they were being torn apart. The shadow was using Void Magic on the ponies, that had to be it, he had to hurry before everyone went insane, himself included... Darren swung his blade, trusting his intuition and muscle memory to guide his hands as he hoped to hit the shade. He knew that his sword would not just cut solid things; he was probably the only one who could fight Sombra in his current form if all the unicorns were incapacitated. The screams grew louder as he deflected a black tendril that lunged towards him, dissolving it into smoke... He could hear someone calling his name... Darren screamed with rage and desperation as he kept trying to fend off the assault, his arms getting unusually heavy... Worst of all were the cries of the foal, piercing his heart like needles... he had to fight it off, he had to hold on - if only Jonathan were here, he would have been a tremendous help right now... or Twilight... Hooves are thundering through the streets, a neverending drumming against the stone pavement as the guards are quickly regrouping. In the first ten minutes, Blaze's group has been reduced from a head count of thirty down to six. Abs has been the third to fall, a tendril of shadowy energy erupting from the ground has smashed him against a pillar, snapping his neck. Blaze has had no time to mourn him or even hide the lifeless body from the invaders. He has to keep moving. He pushes his pitifully small group into an alley. Two slide to the ground, gasping for air as if emerging from deep waters. One guard, a female, rips her helmet off and starts sobbing uncontrollably into her hooves. Her neighbour gives her a slap in the face to bring her back to her senses, the fear in his own eyes in stark contrast to the swift movement. "What are those things?!" another guard asks, anxiously looking over his shoulder. "Where did they come from?" "I haven't the slightest," admits Blaze, wiping his brow. He has already lost his own helmet fighting their way out of the castle. The things are supposed to protect you from trauma but they always impair your movement... He peers around the corner, quickly retracting his head again as he witnesses the monstrosities roaming the streets, chasing screaming ponies around the city. They are made of flesh and smoke and darkness, absurd creatures that would belong into the stories of fisherponies from the Dark Sea. They have too many limbs, too many lidless eyes and their snarls are like the howls from a bottomless abyss. Hulking beasts with strong arms of shadow erupt from pitch black tears in the fabric of reality, they literally seem to pop out of nowhere. Black crystals sprout from the ground, the walls, the bodies of fallen ponies. Unicorns, their eyes blank and mindless, are firing bolts of black fire at their fellow citizens, other ponies are trampling down everything in their way. Blaze urges his guards to get a grip. Once again, they dare to press forward, trying to find the others, trying to make sense of everything. If they reunite with the Captains and the Princess, they might have a dim chance of escaping this hell. A shrill scream makes Blaze's fur stand on end. Another one of those shadow creatures has appeared. Reaching forward with dozens of translucent tendrils, the otherwordly thing plucks two more of his ponies off the ground like fruit from a tree. Instinctively, Blaze uses his last strength to summon an unstable shield bubble around him. With a swift strike of the monster's wriggling limbs, the guards are torn apart. Bits of them are bouncing off the shield. Blaze cannot avert his eyes - because behind him, the same thing is happening. He can tell from the sickening smell of blood and innards and also from the fact that the screaming has stopped. In the distance, Blaze hears the Crystal Heart shattering. A shockwave runs through the city, almost tipping him over. Purple explosions erupt from the castle, accompanied by the terrible, long shout of a stallion who has lost everything. He swallows hard and turns around, clutching his blade's hilt like a liferaft. The guard that has been crying is standing stock still, everypony else has been claimed by the darkness. Everypony else he could not protect. As Blaze gazes into the lifeless eyes of his friend, a mad grin slowly spreading on her face, he feels ice cold inside. She opens her mouth and says something in a twisted, hissing, snarling language that he does not understand. His vision is blurring; the world is shrinking down to a tunnel, getting consumed by black fire. As a thousand voices whisper to him, mocking his weakness, Blaze gives in to oblivion. They are everywhere. Creeping, crawling, chittering, clicking, their wings buzzing like a hundred hornet nests... their charcoal hooves, riddled with holes, are stroking her fur, their fangs scraping at her neck so softly and intimately that she cannot stop screaming at them for the intrusion, the violation of countless huge ants crawling over her body. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she tries to remind herself that it is not real, that the changelings that are clinging to her are not there, that Flurry Heart is still in her hooves. Cadence releases a burst of arcane magic to free herself. The black insectile creatures retreat from her, grinning, enjoying her fear. They step aside, making way for the tallest of them, the Chrysalis as she calls herself... As the changeling queen sneers at Cadence, dragging a large green pod beside herself with her green magic, the Alicorn of Love realizes that her husband is in that husk. Chrysalis stops just long enough to let her see who is in her grasp, then the changelings jump at Cadence again. Shaking with helpless fury, Cadence howls in terror and starts running. Abs feels disoriented. He blinks several times, shaking his head. The city is changing around him. Structures are crumbling away, revealing an older version of themselves. The sky is overcast just like is was that day, that fateful day when - "Quickly, form lines. Archers in the back, WIzards in the middle. Join me, my friend." His heart leaps as Abs recognizes her voice. Whisperwind. Abs hurries to join the side of his wife as she is giving her squad orders. They are facing the approaching shadow of Sombra. The gigantic dark cloud is rushing towards them, knocking civilians over that have not made it home before the attack. Whisperwind's eyes shift over to Abs. She smiles softly even though the steel in her eyes is ready to show. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he feels as if this has happened before... Sombra snarls, a deep growl that makes the guards shiver and move together more closely. "Steady," says Whisperwind simply, facing the approaching cloud. She rarely raises her voice. She does not need to. Her movements are so quiet and elegant, her light armour never clanking or creaking. Her mane, woven into a beautiful braid, never rustles in the breeze. Everypony, especially the stallions, tend to grow quieter and calmer around her. She is unbreakable, unwavering, her kind and loyal heart irresistible. She calls Abs her friend but she does it in a tone that leaves no doubt how dear he is to her and what she would do for him. Abs shivers... There is something familiar... in the way her ear is twitching in alarm... As the black crystal sprouts from the ground just beneath Whisperwind's barrel, impaling her heart in an instant, all Abs can do is scream. Mommy is not moving anymore. She is looking at nothing. Flurry Heart wriggles around in her hooves, trying to get her attention. Mommy does nothing. Flurry is sad: She is always nice to her, why is she different now? Flurry whines impatiently. Mommy must be there for her! It is scary that she is not. Her whining turns into crying when Mommy starts shaking. She is shaking so hard that she drops Flurry! The baby flaps her big wings to land safely on the ground. Is she abandoning Flurry? She looks so unlike Mommy, like somepony Flurry does not know. Maybe she is not even Mommy anymore! Flurry feels lonely and scared. She tugs at Mommy's hoof. Mommy cries. Flurry retracts her hoof, confused. Is Mommy hurt? Now Mommy cries louder and makes funny scary movements. All the other ponies, too. Flurry covers her face and sobs, her wailing echoing through the chamber as it easily drowns the cries of everyone else. Darren is still in a settlement but the houses have changed. They are not built of crystal but of stone and wood, the straw-thatched roofs burning. Women and men, standing in a long line from the town fountain to everywhere else, are passing buckets of water from one to the other. Some citizens are running to the fortress to get the mages. Darren has already donned his armour and is running towards town square. Drawing his sword, he joins his comrades in the fight against the approaching undead. The zombies look familiar to him; even though their faces have been distorted by the Plague, swollen and rotting and discoloured, he still recognizes them. The one at the left used to be Brad, a drinking buddy. The one in the middle is a woman who had sold him bread many times, Farina. The next one - His stomach is protesting. Darren's grip around the sword hilt tightens. He tries to keep it abstract, to think of the undead as the puppets that they are. They are not people anymore, just the Scourge wearing masks to demoralize him. A pity that it is working nonetheless. Closing ranks, he and his fellow paladins are calling for the Light, smiting the first row of zombies with golden fire summoned from the ether. Their charred corpses crumble to the ground but are soon replaced by the following Scourge. Darren swings his double-handed sword, the heavy, straight steel blade cutting off the arm of a zombie right next to him. He smashes the side of his fist into their skull for good measure. The zombie groans like a human, giving Darren pause. His eyes widen with shock as he looks at his comrades. They have already fallen, overrun by the endless waves of undead. Even Keagan is lying on the ground, his chestplate pried open, the hammer fallen from his grip. The look that remains in his empty eyes is one of disgust and fear, and directed straight at Darren. Unable to bear seeing such an expression on the face of his best friend, Darren turns away, his gaze inadvertently falling on the bodies again. Townsfolk... soldiers... clerics... children... even the animals: not a single life has been spared. Darren looks around in the hope to find anybody still alive in this chaos. He is feeling numb. His thoughts racing, he parries the strike from a knight. Using the momentum, he twists his blade and stabs the opponent's chest. The knight gurgles, spitting blood on Darren as he drops his own weapon. An accusing frown is lingering on his face as he goes down. Darren retracts his blood-stained sword from the twitching body with a grunt and finds that it is no more made of steel but of blue saronite. The wicked edge is ragged and a line of runes runs along the blood groove. Well done, my warrior. A cold, merciless voice echoes throughout his mind. Shake off this mortal coil! Revel in the blood and death of the weak! Kill them all before they kill you! Darren gasps, his back is cold with sweat, his breath is shortening. He recognizes that voice. It has accompanied him throughout his nightmares and throughout the living nightmare that his death has been. His vision is turning hazy, the faces of the fallen at his feet are blurring into each other. He knows all of them. He knows each and everyone of them... Useless baggage... His friends... he cannot help the tears forming in his eyes - even though he suspects that some foul magic is at play, making him relive this jumble of memories. Darren sets his jaw and runs home. He must know if Grace and the kids are okay... but then he stops as he remembers. They are not at home. They are four alleys away from here... He dashes through the streets, ignoring the whispers, ignoring the fire and the screams and the desperate fighting of the last people still standing... There they are. Grace's right arm is still holding their youngest, Arianna, against her chest, while her other arm cannot be seen anywhere. Her braids are undone, the golden hair spread over her shoulders like a veil, sprinkled with her own blood... Janeck, Brannon, Darcy, Frederick... they are all here, on the ground, still and pale and bloodied... They have tried to run away and leave Andorhal before the rise of the undead. In the end, they have not gotten further than three hundred yards. A crow lands on Janeck's leg with flapping black wings, cawing, ready for a good meal. Darren looks away, he does not want to burn those images of his loved ones into his mind... but it is already too late. He knows that he will never forget them. As a dark shadow rises out of Grace's chest, springing from her heart like an unraveling snake, Darren recoils in terror. He readies his sword but the shadow does not attack him. It just laughs at him with a deep, joyous, mean cackle... Greetings, Darren Childslayer, says the Void Lord smugly. What a pleasure it is. Eclipse is dashing through the corridor as a cloud of black smoke, creeping over walls, floor and ceiling... There, a disturbance at the door up ahead... He glides to the floor and turns back into a pony. "What!" Eclipse gasped as he saw the scene before him: Darren, the Detective, Abrasive Paper, Princess Cadence, Flurry Heart and all the other guards - they were running around screaming or sitting in the corner, sobbing quietly. Some just stood there, gazing into nothingness. Dark shadows encircled them, especially their heads and hearts, all directed by a looming cloud of Void that floated right above them. That had to be Sombra. Eclipse knew he had to act quickly. He was ready! Screaming wildly to encourage himself and trying not to think about what he was doing, he charged at the cloud. He raised his shield, intending to strike the shadow with it. Eclipse had some feeling that he might succeed where other ponies had failed. But before he was even close enough to touch the shade, it spun around - as if it had noticed him just now. The dark tendrils split and multiplied, rushing towards Eclipse. He rotated his foreleg, pushing a few of them aside with his shield, but that left him wide open for the others to seize him. The cloud squeezed Eclipse tightly, lifting him off the ground and laughing. Its many voices shouted at him in a language he had never heard before. It was a hissing, clicking, gurgling sound, sending shivers up hand down his back. Eclipse desperately wiggled around in the Void creature's grip. Even though he was terrified he felt still more angry than scared - his friends were in danger, that was all that mattered. He had to save them, he had to defeat Sombra! But mean voices whispered inside his head. Little child, you failed! They taunted, beckoned and demanded, all of it at once. Your friends are mine, now and forever. There is nothing you can do about it. You are all mine! Just give in, let me in and you will see the Truth! All will bow to beautiful chaos once the Heart is shattered! You are all worthless and weak, be glad to find a greater purpose in getting devoured! "Don't believe him," a faint voice called from afar. It was muffled, as if the speaker was hidden behind a thick curtain. "You liar!" Eclipse screamed at the cloud, his eyes flaring up in fury. He noticed that he saw everything differently again, a sign that he was using his Void powers. Encouraged by the boost of strength, he kept on, "Nopony's worthless! You're just a mean shadow and I don't believe anything you say. So shut up!" Eclipse felt the darkness twisting inside of him but this time he knew what to do without anyone telling him. He released a burst of shadows, pushing the dark tendrils back like a magnet would push away another. Still afloat in the air, he was now in control. The black and purple darkness that rose from his eyes and hooves was his and his alone. He could sense that the Void creature was furious even though it did not say anything. It just snarled at him with a noise that would have sent anypony else running for the hills. Eclipse had no time to be confused about his newfound immunity. He had to put it to good use and save his friends.