//------------------------------// // Bones in the deep // Story: Kindness and the Seed of Shadow // by Raven-Flight //------------------------------// It turned out Princess Cadence had a good lead. She had detected a few underground tunnels and even an entrance to one right there in her castle, but there was never a good time to investigate them herself. “I’d have sent some of my guard, but the crystal ponies can still be a little jumpy, and I just didn’t see the need to stir up any old fears. I have no objection to you two going down there if you want, especially if it really is a matter of national security. Just promise me you’ll come out for backup at the first sign of danger, okay Twilight?” “Of course. Pinkie and I will be careful. If we don’t come back by an hour before sundown, would you send somepony to look for us? I don’t anticipate getting into trouble, but I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to track time passing, and I’ll need to come back up to raise the moon anyway.” “Sure thing. Good luck!” Twilight closed her eyes and recited an incantation that made her horn bubble with black shadow and purple flames burst from her eyes. The cracked slab of stone in the floor slowly rose from its ancient resting place. It ground up dust that made all three ponies cough, but when it cleared and Twilight released the dark magic, there was an ominous stairway before them, descending deep into the gloom. Her horn now lit with a soft light, Twilight lead the way down. Pinkie Pie gulped and followed. When they had vanished from her sight, Princess Cadence motioned two guard ponies over to stand at the entrance and fought off a shiver as she tried not to think about what Twilight and Pinkie Pie might find. ~*~*~*~ Twilight felt Pinkie Pie’s sharp inhale behind her and hastily shoved a wing over her friend’s mouth. “I agree: it’s amazing. But let’s not shout about it until we’re absolutely certain there’s nopony else here.” “Right,” Pinkie Pie whispered when the wing was removed. The two ponies kept to the shadows as they crept deeper into a great cavern and the subterranean town inside it. Twilight even extinguished her horn, both to make them less visible and because enough sunlight filtered through the crystal-packed fissures in the distant ceiling that they could find their way around by it. After an hour of tense exploration where the only sound they heard was their own hoofsteps and heartbeats, Twilight finally sighed. “Alright, I think we’ve determined we’re alone.” Twilight heard the same sharp inhale as before and once again lifted her wing to stifle the coming shout. “But, just to be safe, let’s keep our volume down to a reasonably quiet level, Pinkie.” Pinkie Pie let out the breath she’d just taken and proceeded in her normal speaking voice. “Wow! This place is so neat! It looks like there were a bunch of ponies living down here, and for who knows how long!” “Shadow ponies,” Twilight corrected. “The Crystal Heart has probably driven them all extinct by now, but it sure looks like they had something of a civilization. Maybe we can find a library or archive.” “Ooh! Let’s try over there!” Pinkie Pie started bouncing down the darkest street toward the largest building. Then there was a loud, hollow clunk that echoed throughout the village and she stopped in her tracks. “Uh, Twilight?” The alicorn trotted up, pursed her lips, and gently lifted Pinkie Pie up in her magic and set her down a few hoofsteps away. Her friend had landed herself in what looked like a unicorn skeleton. Twilight noted with a knot in her stomach that the skull was stained purple and black around the horn, and a little ways down the spine too. “...I’d say it’s pretty certain by now that there’s nopony else down here. Nopony alive, anyway. Let’s keep moving.” Pinkie nodded, and they proceeded cautiously toward the building, watching their steps to avoid any more surprises. Once they’d turned their backs, the skeleton slowly lifted its head and watched them go with barren, vacant eye sockets. ~*~*~*~ Soon enough, Twilight was settled and comfortable. The room they had found certainly looked like a library, and of course, that was her native element. Even if this one was dark, half-disintegrated, and choked with cobwebs. She thought there might be a few more skeletons in here too, but she forced herself not to look too closely. They were here for the books, and that was all. “Okay, Pinkie, try to look for anything that says ‘archive’, ‘history’, or ‘records’, any of that sort of thing. They might not use the same organization systems we do, so important information could really be anywhere.” Pinkie Pie saluted and bounced off. It only took 2.28 seconds for her to call back a report. “Hey, how about this? ‘CT: Biographies’. Or or or, there’s this: ‘D: Histories’! Would those help?” Twilight trotted toward her friend’s voice. “Yeah, actually, that’s perfect! How did you find them so quickly?” “Silly Twilight! It’s just in Library of Congress order!” Pinkie Pie bounded into view from the shadows and ran a hoof down her mane to make it as straight as Twilight’s, then struck a regal pose. “As you once told me: ‘There are many excellent ways to organize a library, each with its own unique merits. But the Library of Congress system, Pinkie, well, somehow it always makes me swoon...’” Pinkie Pie’s mane suddenly fluffed back out to its usual mess. “So of course, I immediately went to a library and studied up on the system so I could put a summary of it in your party file! Just in case I would ever need it!” Twilight was so stunned, she hardly noticed Pinkie Pie’s wink. “Wow, that’s… Actually pretty typical for you, come to think of it. Shall we begin? Here’s a scroll and quill. Look through as many books as you can and jot down as much information about the shadow ponies as you think is relevant. I’ll do the same over here, and we’ll compare notes in an hour.” “Okey-dokey-lokey!” When about an hour had passed, the two ponies met up in the central aisle. “Find anything good?” Twilight asked. “Mmhmm!” Pinkie Pie turned her scroll around so Twilight could appreciate how full of notes it was. “You go first!” “Well, to start from the beginning, one history mentioned a band of five unicorns who were expelled from Celestia’s School of Magic. They all came to the Crystal Empire and soon attracted other unicorns out here with some sort of secret congregation.” “Ooh! I wonder if those were the same unicorns whose disciplinary records I found! Breaking into a restricted archive, unauthorized use of lab equipment, theft of sensitive books, and lastly, practice of dark magic on school grounds—all from Celestia’s School of Magic. That last write-up got them expelled.” “Dark magic!” Twilight exclaimed. “Duh! Those ponies got kicked out of Celestia’s school for trying to teach themselves forbidden magic, so they came to the farthest corner of the nation to start a cult! I bet they were the founders of this underground colony.” “More like an underground club! I found reams and reams of minutes for something called ‘The Dark Council’. The first record has five names in it, although different names than those on the disciplinary records...” “They probably took on aliases,” Twilight suggested. “Well listen to this,” Pinkie Pie continued, “Two years after the first meeting, one of them called Nox Invoco said ‘Our facilities have been prepared at last. I move we begin our research toward the ‘Sacred Goal.’ Nopony ever explains what the ‘Sacred Goal’ is, though...” Twilight lifted a hoof to her chin in thought. After a minute, her hoof dropped and so did her ears. “Immortality. Remember what Fluttershy told us? I bet that was their ‘Sacred Goal’.” “No way! What kind of ponies would die to get immortality? That seems pretty backwards to me.” “Maybe they didn’t know it would kill their bodies, but they were still living, in a sense. At least, their memories and personalities were.” “They sure seemed to think they were alive. Look at this packet I found: Shadow Pony Biology. It’s not really a book, though. All the contents are kind of scribbled, and it’s super disorganized. Even for me!” Pinkie Pie held out a bound stack of papers, which Twilight was quick to snatch and examine. “Hey! These look like lab notes!” The alicorn flipped rapidly through the pages, devouring the information like a certain earth pony devours cupcakes and filling her scroll with as many notes as it could hold. Pinkie Pie simply sat down and watched. Though it was rare for her not to be smiling, in those minutes, only a gleam in her eyes betrayed her awe and admiration for her friend’s voracity. When Twilight finally pointed her quill at the scroll but found no room to write, she sighed. “You know, I think we can just take this whole notebook out with us. There’s a lot of valuable knowledge in it, but I’m out of room and I think it’s about time we get back aboveground. Besides, I don’t think there’s anypony here who will mind.” Twilight turned to tuck her writing and the lab notes into her saddlebag, but something caught her eye. “Hey, what’s that?” Pinkie Pie followed Twilight’s gaze to the back of the room, but by the time her eyes registered the faint glint of red light, Twilight was already walking toward it. The pink pony’s tail flicked violently to the right and a chill ran up her spine, but she followed. There against the back wall sat a pedestal with a glass case on top that was nearly opaque with age. Twilight lifted the case away in her magic and gasped at what lay underneath. A translucent red crystal, almost as big as her head, with absolutely perfect structure and clarity. At both the top and bottom of its oblong shape was affixed a jewel-encrusted circlet of black metal, giving the impression that the crystal was wearing some sort of crown. Twilight reached out to take the artifact in her hoof. “W-WAIT!” Twilight froze and glanced at her friend with concern. Pinkie Pie’s teeth were inexplicably chattering, and she kept twitching her back legs. When her body finally calmed down (except for the fear in her eyes), she elaborated. “My Pinkie sense is going wild! It’s never been this bad! I don’t know what the signals are trying to tell me, but I think it has something to do with that scary crystal. We really should just leave it alone and get out of here.” The worry on Twilight’s face held for a moment longer, and then a pitying smirk broke through. Her voice was unnervingly smooth. “Oh, Pinkie. No need to be so suspicious; we’re better than that. We came here to learn all we could, remember?” Without further hesitation, Twilight picked up the crystal and held it in her hooves, gazing at it as if in a trance. She didn’t flinch when what looked like murky clouds began to swirl up inside the artifact. Pinkie Pie could only watch in horror. Twilight was aware of nothing but what she held in her hooves. Before the alicorn’s eyes, an angry, half-rotten face appeared out of the clouds and snarled. “EEP!” Twilight flinched and dropped the crystal. She watched it fall as if in slow motion, and dread sank into her stomach as she struggled to get her limbs moving to catch it. Struggled, and failed. CRASH! The horrible sound echoed and echoed, reaching all corners of the cavern and lasting far longer than it should have. Twilight and Pinkie Pie cowered a little deeper with each iteration of the sound until finally silence descended again like a hungry beast waiting to pounce. A red smoke rose from the now-clear shards of crystal and quickly dissipated into the air. “Pinkie,” Twilight whispered, “I think it’s time we got out of here...” Then, the rattling started—first in the library stacks, and soon outside the building too. The sound grew to a roar that permeated the entire subterranean town. Twilight’s blood ran cold. “The skeletons,” Pinkie Pie murmured. Twilight whispered back. “Get ready to run.” She lowered her head and teleported them as far as she could. With the dark magic interference, that was only as far as the edge of the town. Their exit was still a hard gallop across open cavern ahead of them. As soon as she was oriented, Twilight shouted “Now! Come on!” She and Pinkie Pie ran. They could hear a stampede of clacking dead hooves growing behind them, drawing closer and closer, made impossibly fast by some grotesque, unnatural force. Sweat poured down Twilight’s face and neck and a hazy blackness gnawed at her consciousness as her body struggled for oxygen. She worried for Pinkie Pie, but the other mare managed to keep by her side. “Pinkie… get… ahead!” A few paces further and Pinkie complied, getting herself a body-length in front of her friend. The stampede was looming louder and louder and Twilight could hardly even see for the noise, but she knew she would only get one chance to save them and had to focus all her attention and magic on that chance. The dark entryway was just ahead now. Another moment, and they would be through to the staircase. Twilight felt the sensation of teeth snapping at the air right behind her back hooves and tried not to black out. Pinkie made it through. One more frantic breath, and… Twilight cast a forcefield behind her as she cleared the opening, then she promptly crashed into Pinkie Pie. Before even untangling themselves, both ponies’ heads shot up to look back into the cavern behind them. The force field was visible but transparent, and on the other side, they saw… “Nothing. There’s no creature there,” Twilight breathed. “You heard them too, right?” Pinkie Pie was gasping too quickly to speak, but she managed to nod. “Let’s figure it out later. I just want to get out of here!” Twilight shakily extracted her tangle of legs from Pinkie Pie’s and stood up. “Your majesty!” It was a stallion’s voice. “We’re here!” Twilight called. “Oh, thank the Heart.” Two crystal guardponies descended into view, a stallion and a mare. “It’s almost time to raise the moon, and Princess Cadence was worried. Are you ladies alright?” Twilight watched Pinkie Pie shake her head, peered back into the empty cavern behind them and its deserted town, then shook her own head. “I don’t know what just happened and I don’t want to make sense of it here. But it’s a long way back up there, isn’t it?” Her ears drooped as she gazed up the murky staircase. The two guardponies bowed as well as they could on the stairs, and then the mare spoke. “Would you allow us to assist you?” Twilight offered a sheepish smile. “Please.” The mare guard was a unicorn and lifted Twilight carefully in her magic. The stallion asked Pinkie Pie’s permission and then shuffled her onto his back. ~*~*~*~ “Twilight?” “Hmm?” Twilight turned her attention from the train window to Pinkie Pie. “Do you really think just watching is going to be enough?” “What do you mean?” “Princess Cadence. She said she’d watch the shadow pony cave, but what can that really do? What if there’s another attack?” Pinkie Pie’s attention was fixed on the floor, and alarmingly, there was not even a hint of a smile on her face. Twilight put an arm around her friend’s shoulders, and Pinkie Pie leaned in until her head was resting on her. “It’s alright, Pinkie. What happened down there was probably just a last pool of dark magic scattering. By now, there’s probably almost none left, and it will all be gone after a few more years’ worth of Crystal Faires. There isn’t really any point in sending other ponies down there to be frightened off like we were.” Twilight felt the fur on her shoulder getting damp in the same moment Pinkie Pie sniffled. “Oh, that really… got to you, didn’t it?” Pinkie Pie buried her wet face deeper into Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s hard to—sniff—giggle at the ghosties when you’re running for your life...” “Hey, hey,” Twilight soothed, wrapping Pinkie Pie into a full embrace, “I’m here. As long as we’re together, there’s nothing that can hurt us.” After a few more moments of sniffling, Pinkie Pie slowly pushed herself back until she could attempt to give Twilight a smile. “I know. Our friendship can overcome anything, and you’re a really pret—sniff—I mean powerful alicorn. But, it’s just...” Twilight searched Pinkie Pie’s eyes, but her friend couldn’t meet her gaze. “It’s just…?” “It’s just, if that’s what a little dark magic can do… I mean, that was reallyreallyreally scary! Can you imagine what Fluttershy was living with for all those moons?” Now Twilight’s gaze dropped too. “I try not to...” “And even worse! What if Fluttershy’s foal turns out to be a shadow pony? What if it has dark magic? I’m gonna want to just smother her cute widdle baby with love and sweets and joy and happiness, but—what if I’m afraid of them? How’s that poor little foal going to feel if everypony is afraid of them?” The sound of the train rushing down its tracks filled the silence while Twilight pondered Pinkie Pie’s worries. Then she took her friend’s hooves in hers. “No, Pinkie. We won’t be afraid. Even if Fluttershy’s foal is a shadow pony, we won’t be afraid. We’re going to learn everything we can about shadow ponies and dark magic so we know what we’re dealing with, and then we’re going to help teach her foal to control its powers and be the sweetest, friendliest creature it can be!” “You’re right, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie held Twilight’s gaze with sparkling intensity while the bounce suddenly returned to her wild mane. “Oh, oh! You grabbed those lab notes, right? Let’s get started learning right away!” “Yes! I like the way you think!” Twilight lifted her saddlebag in her magic and peered inside. Then she released her front left hoof from Pinkie Pie’s right and started physically rummaging around in the bag. After a few seconds, Twilight unceremoniously dropped it back to the floor. “It’s not here! The notebook must have fallen out while we were running! Now what will we do? We can’t go back!” “Hey, wait—didn’t you take notes on the notes that were most… noteworthy?” Up flew the saddlebags again. After another moment of digging: “YES!” Again, the bag fell to the floor, now lighter by one crammed scroll. “Thank you, Pinkie! Shall we begin?” Twilight proceeded to read her notes aloud as the train carried them back toward home. Pinkie Pie listened attentively, and she never let go of Twilight’s other hoof.