-=[ ????? ]=-
It was... quiet. And cold. And... and...
And that was pretty much it.
Obsidian couldn't see, couldn't hear, and couldn't interact; so THIS was why shards often slept? It made sense; this could be either extremely unnerving... or as boring as could be.
But she could still feel energies; there was a calm and methodical sensation nearby... and one that was just barely holding back a flood of pure rage - Amy and Tourmy, most likely. Curious, as she didn't remember anything like this during her first time turning into a shard. Did King Sombra put her into some sort of coma when he cast the spell? She couldn't think of any other reason something like this might happen.
She tried to reach out to Sister Amy, trying to calm her down. That brazen bitch Amber was able to use her skills so diversely, so perhaps...
And besides, if not... then it was apparently sleep time! Maybe meeting with Sister Onyx or Ruby! Yeah!
Damnation... hopefully they would figure out how to get her out of this shard form quickly.
There was a tingle... and then, something muffled came through! She couldn't make out the words, but she could hear someone speaking! Then, the angry energies suddenly shifted, and Obsidian felt... warm?
"- ---- ---------... --.. -- --- ---- ---- -----!"
"---... --- ---'- -- --ard form; how can you think that she's communicating from in there?"
That was Tourmaline! She could hear!
"I don't know, dammit! I never did anything like this before!"
Amy! Blessed Amethyst! They were both HERE!
"Sorry, sorry... I'm just... what can we do with her? I have zero ideas as to how to reach an alicorn to let her out. Supposedly, any of us should be able to restore her, but... it's not working."
"You don't think... Amber could have cursed her into the shard?"
"Oh, shit... I hope to Tartarus NOT!"
"Well... as soon as we find the others, we can figure out what to do to get her back from there."
"Amethyst?"
"What?"
"... are you... okay?"
There was a light sigh. "NONE of us are 'okay', Tourm - that's why we NEED her; she brings us balance, and she adds that 'affection' thing she's so good at..."
"Is THAT why you made a Mare-Do-Well costume?"
"I didn't make it, dummy... I found it, hiding in the bottom of that ridiculous dresser I bought; there was this hidden compartment in the bottom drawer, so I bought it and brought it home to check out what I'd found... and it was the damned suit!"
"So... that dresser..?"
"Probably belonged to whoever this Mare-Do-Well before was."
May Harmony bless whoever had owned this dresser before Amethyst - Obsidian's bet, of course, was on Miss Rarity. Okay, she could hear them and apparently throw some sort of affect at them a bit. She concentrated her focus and reached out to Tourmaline to let him feel the sensation as well.
Can you hear me? Can you hear me at all?
"Wait..."
"What?"
"Did... d-did you feel something... warm?"
"She's trying to talk to you too!"
"I... I don't kn-know - I'm new to this too, y'know."
"Well, DO something!"
"What - you expect me to do what, exactly?"
"I... I don't fucking know! Just... anything!"
There was a pause, then... "... Obsidian? Is that weird sensation you?"
Perhaps she could communicate with them using... well, for lack of a better term, mental boops? She tried reaching out to him again, then stopped. Reached to him, then stopped again after a longer moment. Short. Long. Short.
"... now it just feels weird."
"You're not doing it right, then! Dammit, give her back to me!"
Again, cold, then warm. "Obsidian! You're still alive in there? GOOD - I didn't want to have to come in there and drag you out! We got out of the tunnels, but... well, there was some, uh... weird shit that happened..."
"And all we got were a bunch of colored stones-"
"AND our freedom, don't forget that."
Bunch of colored stones? What, did they find some ancient treasure chest full of gems? She tried the same with Amy; short, long, short. Perhaps she could figure out that Obsidian was trying to find a way to communicate with them.
"Whoa... wait."
"What, she sending at you again?"
"I think so, yeah... but, in bursts."
"Bursts?"
"Yeah... a little one, then a BIG one, then little again..."
"She IS trying to communicate! Oh you're ALIVE and AWARE in there!"
"Oh, fuck..."
"What?"
"How do we know she's not in pain?"
Silence for a moment, then... "Obsidian... if you can hear my voice, try for two bursts..."
Short short.
"AAAH! I FELT IT! I FELT IT!"
"Sweet Darkness, YES! Oh, I'm SO glad you're alive in there!"
"We both are!"
"Yeah! So... if this is going to be ANY part of helpful, we need to establish some guidelines - one burst for yes, two for no, can you do that?"
Oh, for crying out loud... Whistlewhite's voice rolled through her thoughts, and she felt something... shift... within her. There - a parting gift. Enjoy!
"Obsidian? One for yes, two for no?"
Enjoy? Enjoy what exactly?, Obsidian thought with a touch of confusion. Then, she simply decided to see if there were changes made which she could actually use.
She thought at them: Can I... Can I think to you now? Guys?
"SHADES ALIVE!"
"FUCKING SHIT!"
Silence for a moment, then...
"Obsidian? Was that... you?"
"How could THAT be possible? The only one of us who could ever do anything like that was Amber!"
"Yeah... but don't forget - Obsidian's special."
Apparently, Whistlewhite gave her the gift of gab as a shard.
"Yes indeed, special - but this is apparently a parting gift from a being so ancient that I can barely wrap my head around it. We had a nice, long talk - got a quest to kill The Umbra. Are you sure you can't free me from this shard? All I had to do with Diamond was envelop him with magic and, um... follow the flow."
"Following the flow? What do you mean, 'follow the flow'? WHAT flow?"
"Amy - calm down. We'll figure this out, don't worry... now..."
She felt her weight shift a bit. "... what in Tartarus was all that stuff you just said?"
"Apparently, it's my duty to destroy The Umbra - the parasite which possesses our father. Oh, and I also saw our creations... every single one of us. Overall, I've seen quite a lot." And heard a lot, too.
For murdering Princess Cadance in front of Flurry Heart... for setting The Siddy Six against her... for her blatant disregard of anything and everything good and just... Amber. Would. PAY.
After Obsidian's words, it was quiet for a moment. Then:
"I TOLD you not to drop her!"
"I was TRYING not to drop her! Besides, you had her too, at one point! Why did YOU drop her!?"
"I was running for my life, Tourmaline!"
"We BOTH were, Amethyst! That and when RUBY showed up-..."
Then it got quiet. Very quiet.
"... I thought we weren't going to mention that to her, because it was too weird."
More silence, now. However, there was a strange sensation going on, as Obsidian began to 'see' a subtle shifting of what looked like light. Even more strange was the fact that it was coming from around her, as if her eyes now had perfect 360 degree sight - but they were just being used for the first time. She couldn't make out much more than shades of light and not-light, but did it mean she was going to be able to see, eventually?
At this rate, Obsidian was going to be able to hear and see her surroundings... and even talk with others! The next step would be returning access to her magic; then she would be pretty content with sitting here, just like this, for a long time.
Well... except for the fact that she wouldn't be able to snuggle with Cup.
"Er... what did you say about dropping me? And what's this about Ruby?" Siddy asked, genuinely concerned.
Again, an awkward silence for a moment while light was beginning to show a slight touch of color; she could tell either they were outside, or someplace very bright.
"We... h-had to escape, but we were waiting for you. When the blast hit you, we thought you were... w-were..."
"DEAD, okay? We thought she was DEAD, Tourmy."
"Yeah, but when we saw the shard, I grabbed you up and we ran."
"Shit, the tunnels under that place; they seemed to go on forever!"
"And we, uhm... got trapped. By the harnesses..."
"Yeah, seems they had more than just the hole to get down there from, so they were coming at us from almost every angle! And-"
There was a little spark that jumped through Obsidian's 'vision', and she got a single picture: Amy and Tourmy, in what looked like a massive cavern, surrounded on all sides by incoming Umbral Harnesses. But it was fleeting, and it vanished almost as quickly as it had come.
"And then, YOU dropped her."
"I'd been hit with a boulder, Amy! I'm glad she didn't shatter when it struck us!"
By Darkness - what boulder? "Okay, go on - I think I'm starting to see something as well. Are we outside, perchance?"
There was a pause, and she saw light shapes moving around each other, at both her sides; beneath her was only black, and above was all the bright.
"See something? You mean... you're using receptive telepathy?"
"Night of the WHAT?"
"It means she might be able to see our thoughts, if we think them at her!"
"Oh, what, like..."
Now there was a flash of a picture of Amethyst, snarking off at Obsidian in the kitchen.
"Like..? Oh, you're trying to..."
Now, it was like she was seeing a double exposure; on top of Amy and Siddy in the kitchen, there was now a second image overlapping the first, of Tourmaline doing yard work at their house. The sight was weird, and it made Obsidian feel like she was being flooded with TOO MUCH information.
It was like having a completely new sense; she was starting to feel overloaded with information. Did Peridot feel like this, except all the time? It would certainly explain his mindset. "Yes, I apparently do. But don't think too much at me - I seem to be having one or two issues with figuring out how it works. Tell me, what happened after you were struck with this boulder you mentioned?"
"Okay, only ONE of us? Well... Amy, you mind if I..?"
"Go ahead; I have no damned clue what to do with that stuff."
"Okay then - if you can keep an eye out, I'll let her know what happened."
"Fine by me."
"Okay, great... and, uh, Amy?"
"What?"
It was quiet for a moment. "Thank you."
Amy didn't reply, but Obsidan could now make out that she might have been the blur a few steps away, while the blur next to her was Tourmaline, most likely.
"Yeah," she replied softly, then the distant blob moved away.
Tourmaline sat down and placed Obsidian in both his hooves, and she could feel him concentrating on her...
And it was as if she was THERE; she saw herself start to make her way down, then get struck by the beam. Her siblings screamed her name and she glowed a distinct red for a second, but it quickly turned white, and with a flash, a crystal shard tinked to the floor as both Amy and Tourmy stared, jaws hanging open.
Then, a barrage of rivets fired down into the hole, and Tourmy grabbed up her shard as the two of them took off into the underground tunnel.
The tunnels looked like part of what must have been a HUGE catacomb of passages, pits, tunnels and natural bridges - as if it had been its' own network before whatever happened had happened. And Tourmy and Amy were dashing for their very lives as the harnesses piled into the hole behind them, all moving to try to catch them. Blasts of rivets and thrown rocks the size of cars whizzed by them as they simply took whatever path was in front of them.
When they came to a split path, they hesitated... and a large boulder flew from behind them and slammed into Tourmy's side - and he grunted in pain as he dropped Obsidian's shard into the dirt. He and Amy were now facing the tunnel they'd come from, where all sorts of mechanical sounds were issuing from.
But Obsidian's shard began to glow... and a ripple of RED energy rolled out in a ring from it as what looked like tiny red gems flowed out from the crystal itself, then whirled around it as they formed themselves up into what looked like a Crystal Pony with a long, luxurious mane and tail.
"... RUBY?" Amethyst asked incredulously.
The red crystal pony turned to them both. "RUN!"
The three of them began to dash down one of the paths, just as the harnesses caught up to them.
So Ruby was getting a bit bolder, it seemed. It would also explain that strange teleportation that moved her away from Stalwart, during Amber's game. In the midst of it all, she didn't really have much time to think about it - being busy dying and so on - but it made sense. After all, the light had been the correct colour.
"I didn't think anything like that was even remotely possible. Good thing that Onyx is now on our side, and that she even learned to hug; otherwise, I would be considerably concerned." Well, uh... all those little stones... did it mean her shard was all crumbly now?
The three of them ran through the tunnels together while being chased by the Umbral Harnesses, barely keeping ahead of the advancing mechanical monstrosities. Shots from the rivet cannons were both coming close and going wild, knocking loose some of the stalactites that fell to the ground, shattering into chunks of stone around them. When it looked as though a pillar of rock was about to fall right on top of them, Ruby's horn flashed and all three of them appeared ahead of it, the collapsing column smashing a few harnesses as it struck where the three of them had once been running.
This happened a few times, with Ruby 'porting them out of trouble with unerring accuracy until they reached a natural bridge that they started pelting across, only to have the harnesses attempt to knock it out from under them. Ruby popped them to the halfway point, and they flat-out scrambled the rest of the way across as it slowly collapsed almost directly out from under their hooves.
Reaching the other side, a hailstorm of rivets greeted them from a side tunnel, where more Umbral Harnesses were waiting for them. Ruby threw up a quick shield, but in mere seconds she said "aw, crap," and the rivets chewed through. Struck with flying steel, her form shattered with her shield, with pieces of red gemstone going everywhere.
The shard fell towards the ground again, but Amy scooped her out of the air with her mouth, and she and Tourmy kept running.
Eventually, they came to a steep incline, and Tourmaline fell to the floor in a heap, gasping for air. He was still sporting the wounds from his fight with Amethyst; he might not make it much farther. Amy tossed the shard to him, then turned around - fully intent on covering his exit...
But instead, a green ripple of energy rolled out from the shard, and now there were little green gems that issued forth from it, swirling around in until a green Crystal Pony stood there with what looked like spectacles on his muzzle.
"This plan has a 43.8% chance of working out - get moving," the green pony said to them as orbs of flaming emerald magic began to form and swirl in a circle around his head.
Tourmy just stared, but Amy grabbed him off the floor as there were now six small, green balls of energy orbiting the crystal pony as he began to follow along behind the two at a steady pace.
As they dashed along through the cavern, one of the spheres dropped out of its' orbit and hit the floor, where it burst and out rolled a veritable carpet of green flames. Anything they touched burned, and it seemed to be especially effective on the harnesses as they scorched quickly, leaving little behind but a crispy chunk of melted steel and Umbral gore.
He ran on, gaining ground until he had Amy and Tourmy right on his heels as he dropped another sphere on occasion behind the three of them, turning the path behind into a green inferno.
When they reached an outcropping, the last sphere was fired off and blazed a trail behind them. But the harnesses had multiple ways in; a single burst of rivets at the green crystal pony and he shattered like Ruby had, with chunks of green jewel flying in every direction.
Tourmaline grabbed up the shard from the ground and the two of them continued on, after sharing a look between themselves that said neither of them understood what was happening... but they were just glad to still be alive.
Okay, this was getting weirder with each passing moment. They never did anything like that before, and while Ruby alone didn't concern her too much (as they'd spent plenty of time together already), Ruby and Peri figuring it out at the same time?
Some ponies have interesting internal lives; Obsidian technically counted as FOUR of them. What was next - Onyx?
When they barreled around a corner and found themselves at a dead end, Amy and Tourmy skidded to a halt and turned to leave... but the entire cavern behind them was FILLED with Umbral Harnesses. There was no way out, no way to avoid them, and no possible hope.
Tourmy carefully put the shard down, and turned and stepped up with Amy, at her side. "Looks like this is it," he said to her, "and here we are. Together."
"I never really hated you, you know," Amy said sidelong as she watched the oncoming hordes, "I just HAD to beat you - you'd mocked me one too many times, and I told myself I simply HAD to beat you."
"Just beat? Not kill?" Tourmaline said with a knowing smirk.
Amethyst grinned stoically. "You know me too well, I guess."
They faced their opponents, obviously outgunned and outnumbered, and were ready to die for each other. Then, a purple ripple rolled out from behind them, followed by a sigh. "If you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself, I suppose..."
They turned, and a dark purple crystal pony was indeed there, hovering in mid-air and surrounded by an aura of Dark Magic as her horn pulsed with energy of a decidedly BLACK color.
"Move, you idiots!" she yelled... and, wearing matching dumbfounded looks, they moved.
A MASSIVE blast of Dark Energy practically ROARED out of her horn, sending a column of boiling energy directly at the oncoming horde - and levelling half of it in a single shot! She blasted at them a few more times, then saw the absolute pointlessness of it all and turned to face the wall - then blasted that.
The wall exploded outward, leaving a gaping hole that led to more tunnels. Onyx hovered through the hole, Amy & Tourmy right behind her, as she blasted more walls in front of them, leaving a trail of rubble in their wake as they continued putting distance between themselves and the undead machinations.
Eventually, Onyx blasted a hole in a wall that streamed in daylight once the dust cleared. She stopped and looked back at her siblings... just in time for a thrown boulder to smash into her form from behind, sending shards of purple gemstone all over.
Tourmy again grabbed the falling Obsidian shard and as the cavern entrance collapsed behind them they ran for the hills, the scene fading away into the weird light/dark blurs that made up her surroundings.
"... and that's what happened," Tourmy said as he finished sending his thoughts to her. "Weird, right?"
"Meh - looks like an average day, to me." As soon as Obsidian had seen Onyx appear, she knew that something really strange had happened; she would need to have a nice, long talk with her fallen siblings when she saw them again. In a way, it was kinda awesome; she sort of had the powers of all three of her more powerful siblings!
But did it mean her very soul was safe? Should she risk putting Amber in here too?
"Obsidian... how is that average for you? Granted, until recently, being yelled at and given orders was what was average for ME, but..." He sighed, then she felt him stroke her shard gently. "... you've been through FAR too much, sister; if this is average, YOU need a break. When this is all over with, I'd suggest a vacation - maybe with Cupcake - to someplace where you won't even have to THINK about anything like this being 'average'."
"Hey," Amy's voice broke in as a pony blur came back over the ridge, "I think I saw a means to get us out of here; there's a signpost that says were about five miles from the closest actual place - Ghastly Gorge."
"Well, it's something, I'll give you that." Tour stood up and groaned a bit as he rubbed a sore spot on his side. "Okay, Siddy... shall we hit the road?"
Now that she thought about it, it really was an average day - no sarcasm or irony. Long, drawn out battles? Check. Discovering strange and mind-blowing truths? Check. Realizing that your dead siblings were a bit more active than you originally thought? Check.
"Oh, yes! I wanted to visit Ghastly Gorge with Amy anyway, and I was told we would find somepony there who could help us - Applejack's colt, Washburn Washington. Tell me if you happen to spot a pony missing one leg. And yes, brother - I agree about a vacation. After all of this mess, I think I deserve one."
Tourmaline stared at her shard... at least, it looked like he was doing so; she could now make out his eyes, but just barely, and he seemed to be looking at her...
"Uh, right. Okay. So... Ghastly Gorge, I suppose?"
"Obsidian said we would go hunting there... I guess we are, just not like we'd planned on."
"Well, uhhhh... would you like to hold her, then?"
A pause. "Umm... yeah, okay. Sure."
Movement between them - she could now make out mane colors - then warm went to cool, then back to warm as Amy took her in hoof. "I guess... here we go, then. You okay in there?"
"Oh yes, surprisingly so," Obsidian said cheerfully, "It's almost like being exceedingly lazy to the point that you're having to carry me... but I'd say I have a fairly good excuse. Compared to my last few hours, it's quite pleasant. I'm also starting to see colours! If I could just figure out how to use my magic in this form, you could simply strap me to your chest and we would be able to cause a good bit of mayhem - just like we planned!"
Unlike Tourmaline, Amethyst laughed out loud. "You wanna be strapped to my barrel, and the two of us go hunt? Obsidian... I had no clue you were such a daredevil!"
Amethyst's magic flashed, and Obsidian was surrounded by it. It felt... different. She could tell it was an ANGRY energy, but it felt tempered with... something... that was keeping that anger in check. It was a hot sensation, but not uncomfortably so; it was almost like being back in the sauna at the spa.
Then, she felt something else touch her - but whatever it was wasn't alive, so it gave off zero energy. There was a weird disorientation, then she was surrounded on three sides by light... and trees! She could see the trees now! In fact, much of her vision was clearing up... and she found herself hanging around Amy's neck on a length of cord, tied around her middle.
"There we go - that should work," Amethyst said.
Obsidian could see her now, and she looked rough... but strangely, she was smiling a little, conservative grin as she walked along. Tourmaline looked like Tartarus warmed-over, but he was keeping up well enough, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
Amethyst glanced down at the Siddy-shard. "So, when we get there... are we going to hunt for animals, or for this Washboard character?"
"Sadly, first things first, Amy. We need to reunite with the others - hopefully at Washington's place - and hunting anything down might give me too much release; I need every single scrap of anger I can manage for Amber, as you can expect."
Being a shard wasn't too bad, in this situation. "I can seeeeeeee youuuuuu..." she playfully called out in a sing-song voice.
Amy looked down at the shard, and gave it a little pat. "Yeah - I see you, too."
She then sighed and looked a bit... forlorn? "Obsidian... what do we really mean to each other? Like, are we just supposed to be friends now? Rivals with a sense of loyalty? Are we supposed to bond and stuff, or are we supposed to work together for this, then go back to ourselves?"
She then looked away. "Because I don't think I wanna be THAT, again - I... I actually like having someone to talk with better. Nobody really ever wanted to talk to me before..." Now, she smirked. "Of course, not like I was trying to be very approachable. But with how HE treated me, I just sort of thought everyone was supposed to hate, so that's what I did..."
She brought a hoof up to touch the shard. "But you... you spoke to me, even when I didn't want to talk. You were so kind, even when I was being a bitch. You even told me you hoped I would be happy someday..."
Amy shrugged. "I'm not sure about 'happy'... but I don't think I'm considering suicide anymore, so that's a good thing, right?"
Oh dear - so she really had been thinking about it; good thing that was over with.
"What do we mean to each other? Well, we're siblings, first and foremost - and we can try this mentality out in a non-umbral version, for the first time in history. I've seen friendly siblings, others with a bit of rivalry... and without a parasite sitting in our father's head and torturing us for its own sick goals, we can actually discover our true selves. Not as tools, not as weapons, but as brothers, sisters, friends and so on... the sky's the limit, sis."
If she could smirk, she would have done so now. "Besides, even if you would, as you put it, 'go back to yourself'... it won't change the fact that I will be myself as well, and you KNOW that I wil continue to pester you."
Amy laughed at that. "Yeah... and really? I'd let you... because it was that picking at me that finally got through."
"When I'd found the suit, I'd just thought I'd made some sort of magical discovery. So, I put it on and went to see what I could figure out... and, well, it did NOTHING magical. That was when you found me in the kitchen, looking busted up; I'd been testing to see if the suit would do anything magical, including fly..."
She now put on a bit of a grump-face. "It didn't do shit, except hide who I was. And when I went looking for anything about it, I came across some kids' book... and there was a mare on the cover, wearing the same suit." She sighed. "That's when I found out she was a hero... and I figured that nobody would EVER give me a chance to do good things, so... I just decided to wear the suit when I followed you and your friends."
"Manehattan was WEIRD... but I had a lot of places to hide, so it worked out well enough. Cincineighti, though... I was pretty sure you'd take care of it, like you did with Quarty, but you actually needed me, back there."
She now blushed, just slightly. "I've never, ever been needed before..."
Amy had been testing to see if she could fly in the Mare-Do-Well suit? The thought of such was kind of hilarious. "I was sure you'd gotten into a brawl. And I've needed you before, sis - I actually hoped for a bit of Dark Magic training, but there's been no time for it lately."
At the words 'Dark Magic training', Amy's eyes lit up. "Wait... you mean, even after all that talk about Light Magic and such, you still want to learn the Dark parts? A-and you want... me... to teach you? I..."
Her smile was something to see, as it was so very rare that it made her entire muzzle pleasant - as if she were a different pony entirely. "... I want to say yes, but... Siddy, I've never taught anyone anything before; I don't even know where to begin! Why would you want ME to teach you, when you have access to Aqua, Peri and Opal right now?"
"Well, I need to learn more about Dark Magic, as a part of my Grey Magic studies. I have to admit that I've had issues, er... properly appreciating either kind. Especially considering that the last time I used Light Magic, I destroyed an entire Umbral horde with a single spell - now that was firepower, girl! - but it's even more important now, considering that those Umbral monsters now have Quartz's antimagical suits." Who would have thought that Light Magic was so simple to counter?
"For my Grey Magic, I plan to look for a kirin teacher - but for the Darkness, I need to ask you for help. And as for the sources you mentioned, well... Peri is still dead, officially... I don't really know Opal too well... nor Lapo... and I feel a bit insecure about asking an ancient berserker for lessons. You are the best choice, especially as I trust you won't go easy on me, sis."
Amethyst didn't say anything at first, but with her sight now fully restored, Obsidian could see the beginnings of tears standing in Amethyst's eyes. "The Best Choice... I think I like being the Best Choice; never been that before... not to anyone..."
She paused and reached up, wrapped her forelegs around her own middle - embracing Obsidian's shard - and actually hugged her. "I think I'm gonna like being needed... it makes me feel like I'm important, at least to someone."
It was a long walk, but Obsidian and Amethyst chatted during the trip, so it wasn't so bad. They were bonding, and if you'd have asked Obsidian about such a possibility during her time in the Rarity Suite, she'd have never imagined such a thing would come to pass.
Her new sense of sight, however, was going to take some getting used to. It was like she had eyes, but all over her body... and she didn't blink. But still, she had a perfect 360 degree view of everything around her - and it was a bit disorienting, to say the least.
As the sun was slowly setting, the three of them reached an old, rickety sign that proclaimed that they had finally arrived at Ghastly Gorge.
What a strange day: Hugging Onyx, then hugging Amethyst - only Amber had refused, which was a clear sign that she was thoroughly evil. Damnation, they needed to take care of her as quickly as possible before she could traumatize Flurry even further... not to mention Equestria as a whole.
"... and with all of that in mind, I could use some physical training as well, sis - so if I end up with time to spare, it would be nice to spend it training with you." She would have to ask Quartz for fencing lessons, though - he'd been downright effective with a kitchen knife; if he trained her properly, she'd be just as versatile... though she doubted many sword fights took place in a kitchen.
"Someone wanting to spend time with me?" Amy looked a bit stunned. "The only one who ever wanted to before was Peri, but that was because I could silence those voices in his head. You know... by killing the ones making them..."
She then gave a chuckle. "Of course, if I'm going good now, I don't think I should do that so much anymore. Maybe only once a month, you know? Just a routine to get it out of my system..." Was... was she joking with Obsidian now?
"You could kill Amber once a month - I think I know everything I need to bring back our dead siblings, so she could be my guinea pig... as soon as we drag her out of that blasted shard." It wasn't exactly a show of repentant remorse for wholesale slaughter, but at least Siddy's mass-murdering sister was getting better. By degrees.
"HA! I'd kill her three times a day, before each meal, to work up an appetite!" It was strange, but most of Obsidian's dark humor was lost on her friends... but Amethyst seemed to open right up to it. How could she have known that, out of all the ponies she would meet, her formerly-wicked sister would be the one who got it?
The gorge itself was rocky, barren and mostly featureless - it was almost like another world. The crags and stony outcroppings lent an almost surreal feel to the area, and the only swatch of color to be seen in the entire area was what looked to be a cactus, which was almost as tall as a house.
"Can we stop, please?" Tourmy spoke up. "We've been walking for a while now, and I'm still feeling that beating you gave me earlier."
Amy smirked at him. "Well, then next time, don't let me beat you as much, simple as that!"
However, she found an outcropping that left shade beneath it, and the two ponies and their magical shard sister were resting under it comfortably within minutes. Tourmaline was exhausted, and he was asleep within moments after he laid himself down. Amethyst was still awake, though, and sat there looking out over the rocks as she absentmindedly held Obsidian in her hoof.
"It's weird... I'd never succeeded at anything before, so I was always angry that I couldn't prove myself... even TO myself. Now that I've actually WON at something, I feel... it's weird, but it's like a... not-angry feeling. I'm not sure if it's 'happy', really - though it might be, as I don't know what it is."
She sighed. "I'll bet you didn't have a single problem with adjusting to Equestrian life, did you?"
"Amy... I started out by screaming at Cupcake so harshly that he ran away crying." Hopefully Diamond and the rest were already here somewhere; Tourmy needed help. Perhaps not as much as Obsidian had needed earlier, but Amy didn't exactly tickle him, either.
She laughed. "What? You screamed at him? AND he ran away crying?" Then she quirked an eyebrow. "So... how in the world did you end up getting engaged to him? I mean, did he cast a spell on you, or did he do something that you really liked, or... I mean, how did you end up with the likes of him?"
Ah, in theory, it was a simple question; in practice, it was a bit more difficult to explain. "A lot had changed since our first meeting. In the beginning, I had a head filled with whatever lessons King Sombra had put there. Mica felt outright insulted when I explained to him that things such as 'love', 'mercy' or 'friendship' were useless ideas, fitting only for slaves. I saw Stalwart merely as a useful little mare who, for some reason, was the only pony around who kept treating me in a way that I felt I deserved - she was practically worshipping every royal, myself included."
"The only reason why I chose Cupcake as my liaison was the fact that he had been talking quite a lot, so I'd hoped to get a lot of useful information from him - a decision I regretted, three minutes later. When I started to look around on my own, I read some history books where it seemed as if every single force that came fighting against friendship kept being soundly defeated. But when Tourmy showed up and tried to kill me, it was enough to push me towards the Equestrians' direction. When Onyx, er... exploded, I was changed enough to make my stand against our creator."
"And Cupcake represents the incarnation of everything that I didn't have in my old life. He was just... there, showing me that this world was quite different than my old one." Hunh - she was now a bit curious how Cup himself would reply to this question. However, that was how she saw her first days of modern life - a pragmatic turn that allowed her to taste a bit of friendship... and contrary to Nightmare Moon and the other baddies, she had tasted it in a non-violent, non-rainbow-lasery way.
"Well," Amy said hesitantly, "if you can find someone to be a Special Somepony with, then... then maybe I have a chance at that too, someday? I mean, I've seen you two around the house, and when I'm not busy griping at you or him about how sickly sweet it is..."
She then looked at the shard directly. "... I have to admit, you two seem happy together." She smiled a bit. "It looks like you're both having a lot of fun... and that 'kissing' thing looks interesting, too; what's that like?"
Oh. That may have been an issue that was too difficult to explain; the technical description was simple enough, but the feelings it evoked were not. "Depends on the kiss; it usually feels as if something is starting to pleasantly melt your spine into a very happy puddle of goo." If Obsidian could smirk, she would do it now. "Maybe I should try to introduce you to Prince Midnight...?"
"Prince... err..." She cleared her throat. "After all that's happened, I don't know that he'd be allowed to see the likes of me. You want my honesty, I don't even really know what I want. I mean, I've just... never thought about it before."
With her amazing 360 degree vision, Obsidian could see in all directions at once, which meant she was taking in quite a bit: The sunset, Amy's muzzle, Tourmy's sleeping form, rocks, the one cactus again, a pair of eyes staring at them from a cave, more rocks, a pinkish sky, and occasionally a bug or insect of som- ... pair of eyes?
Yes, in a cavern near where Amethyst was seated, there were a large pair of eyes staring at Amy. They were far too big to be a pony, but perhaps too small for an Ursa Minor. Perhaps.
"Amy? Don't make any sudden movements... there's something in that cave behind us, and I believe it's possibly a bit bigger than a pony," Obsidian said very, very carefully. She had no doubts that her sister would be able to take care of any danger they came across, but it was always better NOT to be surprised by a sudden attack, especially as they still had to take care of Tourmaline.
Amy didn't do anything but blink and nod. "Okay then," she said slowly and methodically, as she carefully laid Obsidian down in the lee of the stone she was sitting on, out of the sunlight, before slowly standing up and casually making her way over to where Tourmy was. Reaching him, she looked him over a bit, nodded, then walked directly towards the cave itself!
The eyes kept looking at Amy, but she didn't look up at them yet; she was focused on the ground beneath her, seemingly seeking something. When she got close enough to the cave, however, Obsidian suddenly saw what looked like a humongous worm with a gaping maw of teeth lurch out of its' hiding place, headed straight at her sister.
Amy slid sideways, then leapt up onto the worm's back as it passed her, as if she were simply stepping onto a slow-moving platform. It shrieked in an ear-piercing wail, and attempted to shake her off by swaying wildly and even rolling over a few times.
And each time, Amy came out of it in control of the situation, still atop the massive worm, still out of reach of it's nasty-looking gullet. After a minute or two of this, the mare simply raised a forehoof and stomped down HARD on its' head; the thing squealed timidly before she leapt in front of it to buck it full in the face. There was the grunt of effort from the mare, a wet crack... and the worm fell over dead, sporting a fresh pair of deep, hoof-shaped impressions imbedded in what could be generously called its' 'forehead'.
By Darkness! Since when were worms ever that huge? It was a good thing that Sister Amethyst reacted with so much speed and experience; otherwise, they could have been in serious trouble. "Have you ever seen anything like that before, sister?" she asked Amy, once it was obvious the current danger was thoroughly and completely dead.
The violent mare looked at the fleshy corpse for a moment. "Nope - but I can kill it; good enough for me."
She walked over to it and began to examine it a bit more. "Hmmmmm... the meat might be viable, but the flesh is awful - can't make leather from it. Not exactly a trophy kill, but a kill is a kill... and this one was going to kill me, so I just pre-empted that."
She then sighed and gave the side of the worm a meaty thump with a forehoof. "... if I still had my Foci Dagger..."
She sighed again and came back to the rock and sat down, picking Siddy's shard up with care. "You know, that dagger was the only thing I ever cared about for a long time. It didn't yell at me, or hate me, or find me stupid... it just helped me to shed blood. But I LOVED it, like family to me."
She then gave a rueful chuckle. "Even though I traded it for our freedom... I miss it already."
"To be fair, sister, we have a technological genius in our family, as well as a research genius AND a just-plain genius; I'm sure we would be able to make a suitable replacement for you." It might not fill the dagger-shaped void in Amy's heart, but it was all that Obsidian could do right now.
Amy considered it for a moment, then shook her head. "No - no she couldn't... not one like THAT."
Amy sat back on the rock and watched the sunset for a moment... then looked sideways at the corpse of the worm and grinned lightly. "You know... dead things have a tendency to attract more animals. We could either wait here and let me grab us some dinner... or we need to move on before something else shows up."
Obsidian thought about it: Tourmaline was in rather bad shape, so she had to consider that. There was no guarantee that the worm wouldn't be poisonous...
"Let's go - somewhere around here, there must be a nice, civilized hut waiting for us. The sooner we get there, the sooner we'll be able to eat something that we can be certain won't kill us, and perhaps Tourmy can get some medical attention."
Amy stood up and put the cord holding Obsidian around her neck. "Alright... lemme get him up."
She came over to Tourmaline and nudged him with a hoof. "Hey... wake up, stu-..." She checked herself. "... Tourmaline. Up time."
Tourmaline groaned, and slowly sat up. "Did you even let me get an hour of WHAT THE TARTARUS IS THAT!?"
"Something that tried to eat me; I think it learned its' lesson. C'mon, we gotta go before other things show up to eat it."
Tourmaline stared at the worm for a bit, then shivered a bit before getting up, stretching lightly (due to still stiff and bruised muscles) and joining them both as they continued onward through the rocky canyon.
They walked on for a while more, crossing the gorge little by little. There was a moment when Amy almost found a pitfall the hard way, and the (many) times Tourmaline asked to sit for a few minutes... but otherwise, most of it was just travel. Occasionally, they came across another singular cactus or scrub bush... but otherwise, the gorge was almost completely barren of any other plantlife.
Hours later, after Tourmaline swore he was going to die on his hooves for the sixteenth time, they finally found a shallow cavern that wasn't already occupied by something living... or didn't smell as if it once had. Tourmaline built and lit a small fire while Amy sought out kindling. It took some doing, but they eventually managed to set up a decent little camp, where her brother went right to sleep at the far end of the cave and Amethyst sat up a bit longer.
She'd relocated to right outside of the cave, and was lying on her back - Obsidian imbedded in her chest fluff - looking up at the stars. It was warm and soothing to be here like this; as angry as she had been, this side of Amethyst was certainly much better. And a lot safer, too.
Okay, confession time: while travelling in shard form was much less taxing, it was also pretty boring.
"Too bad we can't turn Tourmy into a shard," she mused with no hostility or irony in her voice. As far as she was aware, Amy didn't seem to show any signs of being tired of her company. Shards were a pretty efficient way to move ponies around; putting criminals in this form could be useful too, as Princess Twilight had implied. A shard was considerably smaller than a statue, after all.
"Admittedly, I thought that finding Mister Washington would be a little easier than it's turned out to be," Obsidian sighed.
"Hey, if he's been living out here for so long, he's probably a master of staying hidden; you saw the size of that worm - imagine living with it near you." Amy shrugged non-committedly. "What am I supposed to do with my life now, hunh? I'm not under anyone's hoof, really... and I've never really known that before. It's freedom, yeah... but it's... kinda scary, too. No experience with this aspect of being free... I mean, I was used to being... well, being a tool for others to use. Now that I'm on my own... I don't know what to do with my life."
"Well, if you're asking me, I think that you were pretty good back there as Mare Do-Well," Obsidian noted. "The fact that somepony had helped us and I didn't know who it was had been driving me mad. I'm glad it turned out to be you... I'm so, so glad it turned out to be you."
Amy gave a small grin. "Yeah? Well... maybe I should keep doing it, then? Like, a vigilante and stuff? Righting wrongs and saving lives?" She was quiet for a moment, then, "It doesn't sound boring, I'll give you that."
Her silence stretched out for a while after that... until Obsidian realized she'd fallen asleep looking at the stars. From the angle she was at, Amy looked kind of cute while she was sleeping.
Also from the angle she was at, she could see the one lone cactus outside suddenly wiggle, then tilt to the right... and from underneath it came some sort of form; it was too shadowy out there to see what it was, but once it was free of the hole it came from, it began to slink it's way slowly towards the cave they were at.
Oh, shit.