Obsidian: Shards Of Sombra

by Randimaxis


Sixteen: Plus Three

By Darkness...

"We need to go back, seal this place up, inform the princesses and get as many guards here as possible, right now... and Flurry? I'm not joking," Obsidian replied, stepping away from the room as if she expected it to pounce on her at any moment.

What was this place? Was it simply Onyx's room? Her prepared 'tomb' for her shard-self? Something else entirely? There were so many things she didn't know about her siblings, or her own kind as a shard/artificial pony created by King Sombra - and she didn't want to learn more by getting into dangerous situations like this was turning out to be!

At least once, she'd like to learn something in a peaceful manner...

"Oh, relax already; I've been coming down here for YEARS, and not a single fucking thing has happened during all that time! Fuck, why are you so damned paranoid? Look, whatever has you spooked, I swear you're just freaking out over bullshit!"

She gestured around the black room. "I've been in this one LOTS of times, and nothing has happened to me yet! And it's not gonna, either. So, park your paranoia-cart at the side of the fucking road, Sids - there's nothing here, okay?"

She then smiled. "Besides, I'll show you one where it actually has something on the pedastal! C'mon, chickenshit!" She gave a laugh, started to leave the room... then stopped and turned to face Obsidian.

"Don't, uh... don't take offense to that. Really, I'm just messing with you. I don't mean you're really chickenshit or anything, I just... you're just really being paranoid, and I swear to you, there's nothing here that will hurt us."

She left the chamber and moved to another one across the way. "Here, come see this one - there's actually a really cool crystal on display here!"

Obsidian ran to grab Flurry before it was too late. "Flurry! These crystals are exactly like the one I was freed from!"

If she recalled correctly, Peridot told her that their siblings were slowly gathering strength, so it would be quite possible that her brother/sister would be in a bit of a weakened state. She really, REALLY didn't want to face yet another spawn of her father's Dark Magic right now; damnation, she'd just stopped one - she wanted to at least see her coltfriend before running into another!

Flurry stared at Obsidian. "So, wait... you mean the other three crystals here might be, like, your brothers and sisters? But... but that's awesome! Shit, we can maybe see if we can figure out who they are and stuff - hey, let me go!" She jerked herself away from Obsidian.

"FUCK! Calm the Tartarus down! What, you don't believe me when I say that I've been here literally thousands of times, and nothing's happened to me? You think I'm lying to you?" She shut her eyes, took a deep breath, then looked at Obsidian again. "Look, okay? I helped to save your ass a few hours ago - the least you can do is fucking trust me! There's no way, NO WAY I would lead you somewhere dangerous! Can't you give me some of the benefit of the fucking doubt, girl?"

She made her way towards another chamber, then stopped. "Look... how about this, okay? Just LOOK at the rooms, and if you STILL think you need to ruin my fun by sending Dad down here and shit... well, fuck, we can do that. But I really don't want him to know I even come down here, okay? And if you sqwawk, he will know. So shit, give me some fucking trust and take a damned look, okay?"

Now she looked a bit peeved. "I mean, what, do you think I'm some dumbass or some other shit like that? Just take a LOOK, okay? If you still feel like pissing yourself, we'll go get Dad. Okay? Okay?"

If Flurry was trying to guilt-trip, shame or dare Obsidian into doing something stupid, then she was wasting her time. She was barely able to feel any guilt, her definition of shame was a bit warped, and she really was not in the mood after having to kill her brother.

"Actually, I truly do believe that nothing has happened to you... but you see, that's the problem with my siblings; nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens and then boom - some kind of complication comes up, as if it turned out that the presence of another shard is the only thing necessary to wake them up, revive an army of zombies or unleash a dream plague that could destroy the world. You know, it would be nice to at least eat dinner before another dangerous adventure! Besides, I wouldn't have to tell anyone about your involvement; I wanted to see my old room and stumbled onto this place. That's all," Obsidian shook her head. "And yes, my family makes me very paranoid - and I'm sure you can understand that."

She trotted closer to the doors to at least peek, though - but if there would be anything written about 'Aquamarine', she wouldn't waste one moment of time calling for the guards; she would simply run off and find as many explosives as she possibly could. If Onyx described somepony as 'cruel' and 'self-centered', then chances were good that they were probably not a very nice pony.

The room was mostly made of crystal which glowed a soft white, with a slight blue tinge to it. The walls, floors and ceiling were beautiful, and had a mosaic pattern that seemed to keep doubling in on itself. Each corner seemed to shine, and the entire room looked as though it were angled towards the altar at the far back end.

There, on top of a rock-chiseled altar, hovered a single shard of crystal. It was dark, but seemed to glow with an aura the same color as the rest of the room. It hung there in mid-air with no support, no holder, nothing; it spun lazily in place, refracting the glow of the room all around it. Underneath, there were letters in Crystallian again, but more of them than the last chamber's altar had. They were just as finely done as before, and read as follows:

D - I - A - M - O - N - D

"There, okay? See? Nothing's jumping out at us, nothing's shaking the floor, nothing's gonna fucking KILL us, okay? It's just... well, I think it's really cool how it just hangs out in the air like that, like it just doesn't give a fuck about gravity! Always has, too - at least since I found it, it has."

Flurry then gasped with an overexaggerated expression. "Oh! And look! NOTHING HAPPENED!" She sighed with irritation, her muzzle now giving the Dark Princess a flat look. "Amazing, I know..."

"In this case... fine, I'll say it - you were right. It's not as dangerous as I was afraid it might be... and it looks really pretty," Obsidian had to admit.

"Okay, yes, it's my brother... as I'd hoped it might be; I don't know very much about him, though. There's always a chance I could look for some information about what sort of stallion he is, so that I might prepare a proper warm welcome for him."

With Onyx's diary (and the family portrait drawing), she could write out a nice, proper report about him. "Then we can think how we might talk about it to your father in a way that won't tip him off to your long-standing presence in the tunnels, okay?"

The cavern was beautiful, truly; Obsidian almost wished she could simply walk inside and admire the entire area more closely. However, she was fairly certain it would most likely turn out to be a bad idea if she didn't think things out first.

"And to be direct, Flurry - ALL of my siblings... except the one that I got to watch die in front of me... have tried to kill me, so far. So I would say that, yes, I'm very properly paranoid. Now, let's move along - I would really rather prefer to check on my old quarters before we leave. And I DO wish to leave."

Though she groaned and rolled her eyes... Flurry nodded and began walking next to Obsidian. "You didn't even see the one in the acid waterfall, or the one that puts out the weird mist stuff... but okay, okay, okay... FINE. If you wanna put a wet blanket on the fun I have in here, I guess I don't really have any fucking choice, do I?"

Crestfallen (and maybe a bit petulant), she and Obsidian made their way back towards the tunnels she knew of. "I guess we'll head over to see your old room, then we'll just GO, okay? I mean, it's not like I ever had the chance to show this shit off before... and now I'll never get to. Thanks." All the same, she still followed.

You know, maybe they wouldn't be besties after all.

In other circumstances, Obsidian would be a bit more curious... but she had already experienced death today, fought for her life and really just didn't want to risk anything more - she'd had her limit for today, thank you very much.

Obsidian groaned; Flurry's complaining was starting to annoy her severely... and besides, finding these crystals in their dormant state actually was useful. Would she really miss out on what she might learn here because she was possibly both paranoid and lazy?

No. No, that would NOT do.

"Oh, fine then! I suppose it would be a smart idea to learn which ones they are, at any rate. Afterwards, I'll prepare a nice, detailed report on all of them and sweep them all up together - the sooner, the better. Peridot told me they were gathering power and might possibly wake up in the near-future... so yes, it IS actually a good thing you've brought me here before they'd managed to free themselves."

Flurry looked at her a bit, then gave a sigh. "Okay, look - I just... I really haven't shared this with anyone at all, because I figured they wouldn't appreciate it. Then you come along, and you practically fucking lived here! I mean, if I was ever excited about showing it all off to anyone, NOW would be the right time to be excited... but just like most of my life, I find something cool, and I'm told it's not a good thing, and steps get taken to wrestle it from my hooves."

She sighed. "When I found the little phoenix? 'No, Flur - it's just a baby'. The time I helped Jynx discover her powers? 'No Flur - she's just gonna cause chaos'. The time I just wanted to see what was locked up in the forbidden vault at Aunt Twily's? 'No Flur - you don't understand anything there.'"

"I just wanted to share this cool stuff with someone who might actually think it was cool, too. But no, I feel like I fucked up again, and now I just feel like I'm being... well..."

She sighed. "... like I'm being a fucking brat. And if I am, then fine, tell me and we can go, I'll show you to the Inn, and you can make your reports or whatever. And I'll just... go home." Flurry Heart shook her head. "I don't mean to be a brat... but I know I have the potential to be one, so... yeah. If I'm being that way, just tell me. No big deal."

But her expression told Obsidian that it apparenlty was a big deal... however, she seemed genuine, and looked as though she was realizing what she was doing was wrong. At least, in this case it was.

"I'm sorry, okay? Let's just... go see your room. Then we can go."

Obsidian really didn't like the idea of checking on the rest of her siblings... especially when nopony knew they were here in the first place, and they had zero support. Flurry seemed to realize that it wasn't the best idea as well, for many reasons - good. However, Flurry apparently needed some cheering up, so Obsidian trotted forward to give her a light hug.

"It's fine, Flurry. Just, you know... not today, not that. Share with me anything else you want to, and I'm going to be interested - you have my word. But, when it comes to my family..."

She lowered her voice a few notches. "Let's say that I'd prefer to return here with at least a small army; you've seen what one brother was capable of, already. I'd rather not experience any of the others firsthoof."

Siddy stepped back and regarded her kindly. "Anyway, I most certainly would like to hang out a bit more with you; you have a very interesting vocabulary. Just... not here, please?" She looked behind her at Diamond's floating crystal... and shuddered a bit. "To be honest, the fact that I was transformed into a crystal shard like that just creeps me out."

Flurry accepted the hug well enough... but she didn't seem to even register it. "Sure. Yeah. Okay," was all she said as she headed for the tunnel entrance. "Well, let's go, then - you're room's not gonna show itself off."

There was decidedly less enthusiasm as she walked along, and she didn't talk about the crystals anymore. "Dad and a few of his people did a lot of exploring down here at first, but they sorta left it alone after he got the basic layout. Sealed up a lot of the entrance-ways and stuff. There used to be more ways down here, but... well, not anymore."

She looked around at the walls a bit, then the ceiling, then the floor... seemingly anywhere but at Obsidian. "Then Auntie Twily came down here to study some of the crystal formations... and I'm pretty sure that's when they found you. I wasn't told anything about it, though - I found out after the whole thing with Ponyville happened, like anyone else did."

They reached the tunnels Obsidian knew well once again, and Flurry simply turned the corner and headed for the direction they'd been travelling in to begin with. "Word spread pretty fast; a lot of the citizens here were pretty worried when they heard that Sombra had a daughter, but when they heard about how you beat his-... I mean, how you beat him, they kinda lightened up a bit. There's still some who'd probably turn their muzzles up at you, but there's also those who would probably thank you, too."

... yes, okay... maybe that idea of guilt-tripping Obsidian would work anyway, despite the fact that she knew it was absolutely stupid that she sort of felt bad for letting Flurry down; she just couldn't stand to see her like this.

"Well, the ponies who seem to think they outclass me or anything like that... at worst, they merely amuse me. You really should have seen Rainbow Dash react when she realized that her daughter was cursed too..."

Gratitude was always nice to receive, though. "... alright; let's say that I could possibly try to convince your father to come here to inspect the situation before he acts on it. Would you wish for me to suggest to him that you could come along too?"
She tried to at least salvage something good from this rather worrisome situation.

Flurry shrugged half-heartedly. "I don't know why it would matter - it'd be another reason for him to tell me 'No Flur'. Besides, I'm used to not having anything fun to do, so it's not that big a deal. And hey, he'll just cordon off the whole section anyway, so..."

She stopped, then hung her head. "I'm doing it again, right? Well, shi-... I mean, great."

She turned and started to head back the way they first came in. "Look, you don't need me here for going to check on your old room - just go get a look, and I'll... I'll wait for you by the boulders, alright? Take whatever time you need; I don't have anywhere at all to be."

She started walking back. "Besides, I just want to get back home, okay? I feel... feel like I could use a nap or something. I just don't want to f-... to mess up anymore today."

Darkness and damnation, did all young princesses behave this way? Perhaps Obsidian was an exception to the rule or something.

"Flurry, wait... what if I could talk with Princess Twilight about this? Or even your mother - I've heard she has a few different opinions than your father does; perhaps she would be interested in dealing with this situation a bit... differently? And if not, then perhaps Princess Twilight could intervene - we just saved her child, after all."

She most certainly was hesitant to get back to her sharded siblings... but also didn't want to leave Flurry feeling low like that. Obsidian really was a big softie, from time to time.

Flurry Heart just turned and looked at her plainly. "Look, no matter WHO you tell, they'll seal up the tunnels... and I'll lose a place I've been coming to and playing in since I was a filly. I'll have NOWHERE to go that I can't be found, and I'll have to try to forget ever having seen so many cool things down here."

"I... get why you're weirded out by it, I do. But..." For a moment, she got a bit of her spark back. "... but all the stuff down here? It's like one HUGE fucking secret, and it's one I got to keep for years! They won't understand what it is like I do... like WE do! They'll say it's too dangerous, and they'll wall it all up! Do you really want that? Never going back to your old room again? Never even knowing if, fuck, if this brother of yours is even evil at all? They won't bargain about it - they'll just do it! 'For the good of Equestria', they'll say - and no, you WON'T be able to talk my Dad or my Aunt out of it!"

She sounded like she was pleading her case, and Obsidian was the judge, jury... and potentially, the executioner.

"Look, okay, look - we don't HAVE to tell any of them, do we? What if, you know, you do your studies or whatever, and when you finish figuring things out, we can come back here and deal with whatever ourselves? I mean, I haven't ever touched those crystals, and I still won't, until we know what's going on with them! We could do that, couldn't we?"

"Wall it all up?" Now that was an option Obsidian didn't consider; it would be a terrible idea, for quite a few reasons, each one worse than the last! There was no way that a simple wall could ever really stop her siblings; it would merely keep all the potential horrors cozy and safe under the Crystal City, giving them time to prepare for a proper assault. There was no way they could be sure that they could cover all the ways into the catacombs, and missing a single one could doom them all anyway.

However, considering that the Equestrians had banished Nightmare Moon for a thousand years, sealed Discord in stone, threw Tirek into Tartarus and so on... they were apparently rather content with just throwing their problems under the rug and hoping that the 'contained' Ancient Evils wouldn't free themselves anytime soon.

"They... th-they can't do that! It makes no sense! They will still be here - just waiting! A single overlooked exit would let them escape... or allow somepony to retrieve them. Besides, I don't want to keep them in stasis; the Equestrians freed me, so why wouldn't they free the rest of them as well? As long as they abide by the rules, of course."

Now it looked as though Flurry was starting to shift her mood back to a hopeful one. "They WILL! Dad will have these tunnels filled with all the concrete he can get his hooves on, and everything down here will STAY down here! Come on, Sids - you can't tell them about this place! They wouldn't understand at all, and it would just keep US from getting down here!"

She walked over and looked Obsidian right in the eye. "They gave you a chance because Anutie Twily found you by accident - what do you think she would have done if she'd have known Sombra's children were down here? Let me clue you in - she wouldn't have fucking come down here to study crystal formations, that's for sure!"

Obsidian facehoofed over the revelation... though she also felt the sting of existential horror; she was only here by mistake, where she could have been simply sealed in and left for good. Damnation, the thought was unnerving...

"I won't let anyone take my siblings... at least, not before learning more about them. Let's go back - but I still want to see my room first. Oh, and just in case we manage to activate some sort of trap or something, we'll have to run away as quickly as possible or teleport... you know how to teleport, right?"

Flurry raised a hoof and wiggled it a bit. "Eh... my teleports aren't exactly all that good yet. I mean, yeah, I can DO it, but... I don't always hit the right mark. Not, like, in walls or anything, but... uh..." She blushed a bit. "More like trying to 'port down the hallway landed me in Manehattan, once."

Obsidian had to learn how to do it herself. "I've heard that's a beautiful city; I don't travel too much normally, but I can make an exception, I suppose. So, is there anything else we have to discuss?"

Flurry looked at Obsidian carefully. "I dunno... are we telling Dad or Auntie Twily about the catacombs?"

"Well, rest assured that I won't allow anypony to just seal my siblings up like that. I will at least check on them first - but to do that, I... probably need to identify the rest of the crystals," Obsidian admitted with a resigned voice. She initially thought that Flurry just didn't want to share her toys... not that those toys would be practically destroyed.

With that, Flurry's mood brightened considerably. "Well then, what the fuck are we waiting for? Look, I'll show you!"

She almost skipped down the tunnel again, headed back to where they'd been. "Okay, there's like twelve chambers down here, but only three of them have any sort of crystals on the altar-things; the rest are crystal-free. I guess that would mean that the rest of your brothers... and maybe sisters too?... aren't here. I mean, who knows where they are, but it ain't here."

They passed the Diamond room and two more before she stopped outside another. "This one has the weird crystal and the mist it puts out. I meditate in here sometimes, but I haven't ever tried to smell it or breathe it or anything like that, and I'm pretty sure you shouldn't either - but it's visible from the door, and the mist only reaches about halfway through the room, so you should be okay to look at that shit from here."

Mist... well, at least it didn't sound like Aquamarine. A good thing, as she didn't want to meet him just yet... or possibly ever.

"I just need to read the name..." Hopefully, this wouldn't be a mistake - she didn't want to face another possibly psychotic member of her family, get poisoned or cursed or so on today. It was a simple plan, really - just read the names and go. She just had to focus... so she would look from the doorway, as she didn't want to get too close to that mist. Hopefully she'd be able to read whatever was written there.

The room had an almost orange-ish tint to the walls and floors, and the ceiling was covered in what looked like some sort of moss or fungus. There was a dull glow to it all that gave off just enough light to see where you were going... and when to stop. The mist Flurry had spoken of covered the floor - but only about halfway in, as she had said. It flowed and rolled along, like a cloud come down to earth.

The flow rippled outward from the altar, where there was a small, ceramic-looking bowl in the middle; on it was another shard, just like Diamond's - only this one had a similar yellow-orange aura. The mist seemed to be flowing up from the small bowl, but Obsidian could pick out the small runnels of mist that looked as though they were leaking from the crystal shard itself. The letters underneath were visible, but just barely through the mist:

A - M - B - E - R

Amber; mind control. This might become rather tricky to deal with - yet also potentially useful. She just had to find out how powerful her sharded sister really was. Of course, releasing a pony that could force them to follow her orders with a mere blink or something could be too dangerous to set free... at least for the two of them alone. Maybe Midnight could help; he was an alicorn and he was indebted to both of them, technically speaking. "Okay, I've got this one; let's see the third one."

Flurry led her to the last chamber on the right. "This is the coolest one - and kinda the obviously dangerous one, too. The waterfall in there? It's some kind of acid - it eats through almost anything I've put in it. Almost."

"Almost?" Obsidian asked curiously, "What could possibly have survived contact with this acid, then?"

Perhaps they could identify it? Sadly, without any sort of preparation, Obsidian couldn't take a sample - and even then, it wouldn't do her any good, as she didn't know much about chemistry. She could mayhaps garner some help from the school...

Flur gestured to the chamber opening. "Once you get this one, we can go on to your room - but if you know anything about these crystals, mind if I ask what? I mean, after we get back into the main tunnels, if you want?"

"Indeed, I'll gladly tell you - after all, it would surely come in handy for you to know as much as possible about them, right? But first things first - where's that waterfall?" Obsidian stepped lightly towards the cavern's entrance to check for herself.

The room had a greenish hue to it, but every surface - walls, floor, ceiling - had a glassy sheen to it that made it look as though it were wet or slippery. In the back of the room was a cascading waterfall of what looked like a muddled green liquid; the acidic smell here was fierce, but not a single hole could be seen on any surface - though there was a small pile of half-eaten things nearby, like branches and slivers of metal... probably Flurry's doing.

In the center of that acidfall was the altar, unscarred and whole, with a crystal shard over it, suspended by a metal brace around its' center, with chains going to the four corners of the room that held it in place; the acid washed right over the shard, altar and chains... but none of them looked even the slightest bit damaged. The crystal shard itself was as black as the rest, but the liquid surrounding it suffused its' eerie green glow. The letters beneath were hard to make out, but after some deliberation, it came to her:

J - A - D - E

Jade... thief, invisibility. Her cursed brother. Why there was a damned acidfall over him, though? And where was this acid coming from in the first place? So many questions, so few answers... maybe whoever put this crystal here just wanted to be sure he wouldn't accidentally turn back into a pony without being covered in flesh-melting acid; Obsidian doubted that Jade's skillset would let him survive that.

"Okay, that's all of them - let's go." Obsidian walked just a bit faster than normal to head back to the main tunnel.

The mist coming from Amber could possibly work in a similar manner - but she'd need to find a way to check it somehow, just to be sure. Maybe the mist was knockout gas, or maybe just made someone very sick, or possibly hallucinate?

If her theory was correct, then Jade and Amber were put there by somepony who really didn't want them to get out. Maybe Onyx? Hadn't Peridot mentioned something about her skill at stealing powers..?

Flurry smiled as she looked at Obsidian with an intesity. "Isn't it cool, though?" She immediately smiled grandly, looking quite happy to have shared this with someone. "Okay, so - we keep these a secret, and when you figure out what the fuck to do, we can go from there, right? I mean, I won't tell anyone else... but if you tell others, it's okay... just not anyone in my family, got it?"

"Got it - just please make sure to check from time to time, to be certain they are still here, okay? Just in case... I don't want any more 'family surprises', really."

Three more siblings... two brothers and a sister; maybe they would actually be nice? Diamond was honestly quite a good artist, and that wasn't something she would immediately attribute to a psychopath. Also, his cell didn't seem to be secured by anything dangerous, as the other two appeared to be. "To my room, then - and afterward, I'm more than eager to check out this 'royal suite' that your father mentioned he'd reserved for my visit. I've spent the entire day running around Ponyville, honestly."

There was no protest from Flurry as she walked along next to Obsidian, headed in the direction the Grey Princess knew so well. "It's weird... you say they're your brothers and sister, and you even say YOU were one of those crystals once? I mean, cool and all, but... that's gotta be fucking hard, hearing that you weren't born, but... grown? Like a spellborn foal, but in crystal form? THAT had to be some sort of head-fuckery to deal with, I'll bet."

"Well, I did kind of... have a mental breakdown when I first heard it - fairly hard one, at that. It didn't help that I already had plenty of difficulty with living in Modern-Day Equestria, as everything seemed to be completely and utterly alien to me.
At least I learned that I don't have to wonder who my mother is..."

Hmmmmm... her room should be up ahead of them; luckily, it seemed that the Equestrians hadn't found it - otherwise, the door would probably be visible by now.

"Wow... I'm sorry that it sucked like that. I can't even imagine what it must've been like for you, with the adjusting and stuff. I guess our Equestria is really, really different from your Equestria, hunh? Still," she smirked, "from saving Ponyville, to dating Cupcake Sprinkles, to helping Stalwart Stance get into the royal guard, all the way to having to beat a possessed alicorn? I'd say you've adjusted pretty fucking well, considering. You oughtta be proud of yourself, gurl! You've really done a decent job of not losing your shit & going all 'vengeful conqueror' on the world."

Flur smirked. "By the by... you and Cuppie? He's cute and all, but he never really had much interest in... well, anyone until you - I'll bet his Mom was really fucking surprised when she heard about it!"

Did the entire world know already?

"A proper conquest needs preparation first; after all, I can't just follow in my father's hoofsteps and personally invade some nice little township, as it would be obviously suicidal at the moment. I don't even have his mind-controlling skills, so I'd have to choose a place with a rather meek and small population to rule over. At best, I could possibly head a small cult city, like Headmare Starlight once did," Obsidian explained while she kept counting some very specific cracks in the wall.

... five... six... seven...

"Besides that, living a normal life is quite enjoyable, actually - I like being able to see the world, learn about it and so on..."

Flurry gave her a look as she spoke of her preparations... then gave a slow smirk. "You're fucking with me, aren't you?" Then, a touch of worry when she repeated, "... aren't you?"

She eventually came to a stop in front of a particular section of wall... which was when it started to physically ripple, eventually dissapearing and exposing a hidden door. Obsidian smiled slightly and cast a little spell that had no other function but to open a specific magical lock.

Her Father had never needed a key - if he wanted her to stay in her room, he just had to order her; she wouldn't have ever dreamed of disobeying him back then.

"Ahhh... home." Obsidian pulled the door open, looking into her quarters.

Actually, it looked more like a prison cell than a normal room - it had a bed that, in Modern Equestria, probably wouldn't be fitting even for a prisoner, a very plain and simple desk with a few neatly organized papers on top of it, a length of stickwood stained with crimson leaning against the door frame, and a single enchanted crystal on the wall to provide some light - and that was all.

The Dark Princess happily trotted inside, looking around fondly. "Whew... it looks so small now! And, ah, I almost forgot!" She reached over to the desktop, taking a single scroll from it, which she carefully opened. "Treatise on The Futility of Self-Rule... yes, I do believe Gypsy would be interested in this, if for the historical value alone."

Flurry stepped inside cautiously and stared around the room for a moment, taking everything in as she did - especially the stick.

Especially the stick.

"This... is your room? I mean... this is your room? I'd have thought you had a nice room like I did - fuck, I'd have thought you'd have a room that was, you know, comfortable! This looks more like a fucking prison cell than a bedroom!"

She now looked at Siddy with a bit of conciliation. "Yo, I don't mean to sound rude or anything - I'm sorry if it does, but... I mean..."

She spoke quietly. "You deserved better than this, Obsidian. This is the kind of shit that criminals, hardened ones, would be forced to sleep in. And to think that you lived here... it makes me kinda mad, and I'm not really fucking sure what else to say, other than you should have been treated better than this bullshit."

"I've noticed you are using this world 'fuck' in many different combinations. I wasn't even aware that it was possible to use a single word for so many things... and I kind of have to guess what you mean from context, sometimes. I assume you asked if I was joking about those preparations; yes, I don't intend to conquer the world. It would be nice to repeat Princess Twilight's career and find wings on my own back one day... but I'm not really interested in any sort of military subjugation," Obsidian calmed Flurry - or at least she hoped it would calm her.

Obsidian looked around... well, okay yeah - it was a bit rough. "Unfortunately for me, my father wasn't a nice pony. Luckily, right now I do have better conditions; in fact, I'm overwhelmingly satisfied with where I am now. I wonder... what about the rest of my siblings? I was isolated from them, but they seemed to have enjoyed a bit more freedom than I did."

She giggled. "And to think, during our first meeting, Cup called me 'spoiled' - can you imagine that?"

Flur chuckled. "Well, if he does it again, call him a 'meanie'; it's the closest thing to a swear word his Mom's ever said, and it even makes him cry. But only use that shit in emergencies... because it really DOES make him cry, and a crying Cupcake is kinda heartbreaking."

She looked at Obsidian with a grin. "But seriously, I'm glad you're getting better treatment now. Now that you see how it can be, I hope you realize that life is better than... than, uh..."

She leaned forward a bit. "Okay, what the fuck is on the stick? Is that blood? It's blood, isn't it?"

"I did - I did exactly that. And yes, he ran away crying; you could imagine my shock, I'm certain," Obsidian giggled once again... which, in the middle of this ghastly room, might have come across as a wee bit creepy.

"Sids," she deadpanned, "explain the stick, girl. I mean, as far as it goes, the rest of this room seems downright fucking miserable... but if you tell me the blood on that stick is yours? I'm gonna break it into fucking splinters."

Obsidian looked at the stick. "Well, there are really two options here: it can be mine, or it can be my Father's. And can you imagine me striking my father?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Actually, destroying it would probably be a wise call - not only does he not need it as a statue, nor will I allow him to touch me ever again... but it's also not exactly the wisest call to keep a blood-coated stick around when most of my siblings know Dark Magic."

Flurry Heart's horn glowed, and her magical aura surrounded the stick... and it stattered into tiny pieces, mere splinters (as she'd threatened) before she balled it up into a small chunk of particle-wood, then it caught fire and smouldered into ash as the alicorn princess stared at it with such intensity, Obsidian may have felt a bit sorry for the thing...

Okay, really, no she didn't. But that stare...

"So, anyway," Flur said as the ash blew away into the tunnel hallway, dispersed completely and thoroughly, "now that we got to see your room from the past, let's get you into your modern suite, shall we?"

She seemed much more chipper than earlier, and possibly Obsidian had bonded a bit with her over their shared secret now, too. Maybe not besties overnight, no... but still, possibly later. Possibly.

"Yes indeed - as I said, I can hardly wait to see that 'royal suite'. My father kept telling me that luxuries can spoil a pony... but I think I deserve some spoiling today."

Obsidian trotted out of the room, and as soon as Flurry left it as well, she closed the door and locked it with magic. After a moment, the illusory wall reappeared, covering the doorway completely. "I can at least take a souvenir with me," she said as she thought about the scroll in her saddlebags.

The two of them made their way out of the tunnels, and slipped quietly out of the hidden access area. It wasn't a long walk to The Crystal Inn, and Flurry promised to watch over the crystals until Obsidian could study things further. With that (and a goodbye hug), she left the Grey Princess to herself.