Shining took a peek behind the corner, into the corridor where the crystal lizard had slithered. Did lizards slither? Kind of, right? Either way, it was there now, quietly looking around.
Crystal lizards were not the brightest creatures, but not the dumbest either. It knew Shining was following close behind. But it did not have any real concept of how close he actually was. Once past the corner, he was no longer in sight, and so to the lizard it was the same as if he wasn't there. That the pony in question was near, ready to jump out if he so wanted, did not and could not cross the creature's brain.
They were simple creatures like that. Pretty sturdy though. Could take quite a few hits, in terms of blunt damage. But then again, that was why he was carrying a sword, not a mace or a hammer. Not that all hammers were blunt weapons, war hammers in particular were a far cry from construction hammers and their hits were arguably closer to arrows than punches given the spiky bits and pointy ends, and really- And really, he was starting to rant about weapons. Again. Thank goodness Cadence was at least willing to listen to his rambles when he went on one, bless that mare.
So, anyway. He had a sword. Crystal lizards were actually pretty resistant to cuts as well, but that wasn't what the sword was for. Well, it was, generally, but not in that particular context. The sword was there to dislodge the bits making up the lizard's core, which it turned out was the most efficient way to get one to disassemble. Literally. Yes, a pole arm would have been more efficient, but the cracks were thin and the core fairly far in and the corridors not that tall, so a sword was just more convenient. Yes, he could have had some more specific tool built, but the sword was better in case something else showed up. You never knew.
Crystal lizards were more of a nuisance than a real danger. They were sort of like rats, if rats were the size of a large dog and had razor sharp teeth and claws and crystal plating that reflected magic blasts like a mirror. So they weren't really like rats, except for how they ate supplies. They could probably eat a pony too, though. They never had, but on the other hoof, they'd always found supplies. No one was really willing to test out if they were omnivores or not.
The lizard turned its head towards the opposite end of the tunnel. In a blink, Shining stepped behind it, and jammed his sword right past its armour and into the core. Just a sideways push on the blade, and the creature exploded into splinters of rock and crystal. Shining smiled, and began to walk away. That particular one wouldn't give them trouble for a couple of weeks. It would take a while for it to reform, and a while longer before it felt daring enough to come in that direction again.
They were like timberwolves. Crystal instead of wood, a manifestation of the Wall's magic rather than the Everfree's, but essentially the same type of creature. Which was about as fascinating as it was annoying. The Wall did not have the centuries of history the Everfree did, and the confines of where the ponies' territory began and the wild things' ended were not yet defined. Still, so long as it was only lizards coming that close, Shining supposed it wasn't too bad. Not too bad at all.