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// 17 - In Darkness 
// Story: Not Always Hugs 
// by David Silver 
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From above, it was still. Rubble, trees and rocks littering where once foals had learned and played.

One rock wobbled and fell as if thumped. The ground beneath shuddered faintly. With a muffled cry, the ground exploded upwards, revealing a panting purple-pink filly, heaving for breath that had only just been returned to her. Next to her, Little Hop rose from her position of trying to shield all her classmates. It was a laughable attempt, as she was not that much larger than any single one of them. "Everyone alright?"

"No," came Diamond Tiara's quick reply. "What..." She trailed off, looking around. She only then saw what had happened, and she was not alone in struggling to comprehend what she was seeing. "What...?" she repeated, weakly, one hoof raising, wobbling in the air before it fell, too heavy for her to hold.

Apple Bloom scaled up the closest bit of debris to get a better view. "This is horrible! We have to rescue anypony we can!"

"Where do we even start?" argued Scootaloo. "Not against the idea, but, what, just dig random holes and hope for the best?"

Sweetie grabbed Scootaloo, a hoof on either shoulder, her eyes brimming with tears. "If we were stuck under there, you'd want someone to be digging holes. Dig holes all day long! Maybe they'd find you, maybe not, but you keep right on digging!"

Several of the foals gathered looked towards Little Hop. Silver Spoon smiled. "They're not wrong. You're the best digger. I mean, like, you saved us!" The other foals nodded, quickly muttering their recollection of those final moments. Little Hop had dug like a creature possessed, creating a crude burrow and rushing them into it barely in time, going in last herself to plug up the hole and try to protect them all.

The foals were not unified in thought, some just crying, as young people, or even older people, did in the face of such calamity. Others were crowding close to Little, praising her, as if their compliments could make the situation better.

"Miss Cheerilee," insisted Pipsqueak, pointing into the debris. "She couldn't be too far. We have to try to find her!" The thought of their teacher, buried, maybe hurt, maybe more, caused a new wave of dismay.

But Little Hop was not one of them. "Lost one, not another," she grunted. "Not on my watch. Not today!" She grabbed a stone and tossed it aside, finding looser dirt under it. She attacked it with her claws, starting to dig as quickly as she could. "Wait for me! Be safe in there!" She was but one little tsuki, but she would do all she could.





Cadance reeled back, licks of dark magic flickering from her eyes. Her soul felt dirty, her mind reeled, but she had done it. "You'd... better get that message." Wobbling on her hooves, she staggered back towards the pitched sounds of battle. Her people could not wait a moment longer to have her and what little direct assistance she could offer.

Elsewhere, Sombra's left ear twitched upwards. "Your majesty?" Quick Stroke flowed into shape beside him. "Is something wrong?"

"Your understanding of me is uncanny at times." He had said nothing, barely a motion, and yet, there he was, eager to serve. "I heard a scream of pain, a wail of agony." He licked over his lips. "And I didn't cause it. It felt like somepony stupid enough to fall into one of my traps, but I felt certain they would have gotten rid of those..." His brows fell in a scowl. "There was an intent behind it, and a... familiarity. Mmm."

"I felt a shudder," agreed Quick. "But little more than that."

"The cry, female... pink."

"Cadance?" proposed Quick, knowing of few other pink females, or too many living ponies really other than crystal ones.

"Princess Cadance, yes," roared Sombra with a wicked smile. "That is exactly who it was. She reeked of desperation." He leveled a hoof at Quick. "She is begging for help, pathetic fool."

"Pathetic indeed."

"And we will provide."

Quick raised a brow, looking confused. "We will?"

"Of course. The world will know how the tables have turned, how it is my nation that stands with strength while hers grovels for aid." He raised a hoof to his chest. "Go. I will dispatch soldiers to aid you, but you are far faster. Be there, now."

"Before you even ask." He faded into shadow, traveling at the speed of darkness itself, arguably faster than even light, or at least equal to it. It was not time for him to consider such ephemeral things. It was time to move, and he swept across the snowy fields that seperated the tsuki lands from the Crystal Empire.

What could have driven the call? Something petty, likely. He would crush whatever it was and earn the adulations that Lord Sombra so rightly deserved.





"What?" A common thought for the day. Twilight squinted through the snow, spotting something out of place in the distance. "Is that smoke?"

Rainbow Dash lifted on flapping wings. "I'll go check it out!" She didn't wait for confirmation, taking off with a contrail of rainbows. With a great set of two thuds, two tsuki took after her in great leaps, though even Toby and Celene had little hope of keeping up with Rainbow at full speed.

Rainbow arrived first to find a small farmstead. "Oh... wow..." she muttered, looking over the destruction. The place had been razed, its occupants were still there. Strung up and made into a display for those who found them, but present. "Not cool..." There were no remaining signs of what had done it, not even trails leading off. "How?!"

Celene and Toby arrived, looking around sharply. Toby gasped, seeing the macabre display. "No! Why? Who... Why...?" He timidly approached the slain crystal ponies, arranged so visibly and horribly. "Crystal ponies are so nice, why would anyone hurt one...?"

"Because they are not nice," grunted Celene as if it were obvious. "Tell boss Shield."

"Yeah," muttered Rainbow, looking very unsure a moment before she was gone, carrying her grim news with her.





"We'll take the palace by sundown," laughed one of the griffons, holding their staff high and directing scintillating pain on his enemies. "Don't let up!"

"Wasn't this supposed to be, you know, quick in and out?"

"Coward," shrieked the first at the other. "We are winning. Why would we leave now?"

"Because you would have lived longer," answered a male voice, a pony forming from the shadow with a cruel smirk. "Thank you for not taking that option."

"Get him!" shouted the first, redirecting his staff. The beam was fired true, elemental fury unleashed. Unfortunately for him, he was entirely unaware of how ponies comprised of shadows worked. The beam pierced directly through Quick's chest as they laughed maniacally.

"Is that the best you have?" he asked as he casually closed the hole that had been made. "Such petty magic." He was gone, shadow again even as bolts flew past, lightning and fire racing to strike the pony that wasn't there anymore.

"How boring." He slapped his hooves together around the head of the first, wrenching it cruelly aside. It wasn't a clean kill, but more than enough to send the griffon down, howling in pain and grasping at their neck. "Want to see some of my magic? I've been saving it just for such an occasion."

A sword came down at him and he parried it aside with his crystal limb. "Thank the ponies you are bothering for this lovely thing." He danced around the griffon, slamming it into their side with the sound of creaking bones from the point of impact. "Marvelous thing, I'll give them that. Traitors, the lot of them, but good at their craftponyship."

Elsewhere, Cadance lashed out a hoof at a griffon trying to climb over their crudely assembled blockage of the main door of the palace. "Back off," she hissed, her horn glowing with the promise of magic reprisal. "Are they slowing?"

It was a subtle thing, with them still trying to gain access to the palace, but the rate at which they came had dimmed somewhat. "I think so, your highness," agreed a guard just before they thrust a spear forward, trying to dissuade others from braving the climb over the barrier. "Are they tiring?"

That would have been nice... "Keep it up!" It was all they could do, to buy time. With a bolt of her magic, she caused one of their shields to flare up. Fighting another force that had magic made everything so much harder, and her crystal ponies were all earth ponies, besides their crystal-ness. 

The barrier erupted in a pressure wave that sent the various bits of it flying in all directions. A rough cheer erupted from the invaders, rushing through the gap.





"Not cool, not cool." Spike flew over the land he couldn't even recognize. How had it fallen so far, so fast... He thought of the ponies he knew in Canterlot, so many he'd never even gotten a chance to... "No." He hadn't proven anything. They could be alright. It was too early to assume things.

He laughed a little to himself, a silly mental image of them tumbling out the side of the mess as the rest rolled past them. Boy... that would have been nice...

He darted to the left, barely dodging a rock that had come flying at him far too quickly and suddenly to be comfortable. "What the?" Looking in the direction it came from, a grey pony a yellowish grey pony climbed up into view from below. "Maud!" He ducked down, zooming towards her at full speed. "It's so good to see you!"

Maud looked up towards Spike as he approached. "Hey," she said in her monotone way. "You found us."

"Technically, we weren't lost," added Mud Briar.

"Bad news!" He threw his arms wide. "Everypony is buried! Can you find them? You're, what, the best digger pony I know, by... a lot, really."

Mud Briar nodded in agreement with the assessment. "Her expertise in rock management is second to none in the vicinity."

Maud inclined her head left, then right, then dropped down to put the side of her head to the ground, still a moment. "I see," she spoke in her even way, righting herself. 

Spike grinned with rising hope. "Please... Do your best." He clasped his hands together. "Can I help?"

Mud considered as Maud wandered off. "She is the most trained," he emphasized, as if that was not clear. "We can't do better than her."

While technically true, Spike wasn't happy with it, lifting into the air. "Well, you do what you can, I can't give up." He zoomed for one of the few things in sight. Those jagged, broken, crystal lines. The pieces of Twilight's castle thrust up through the ruin. "Please be something in there." Besides all his stuff, knocked over, probably ruined.

But that wasn't important. He had a friend to dig up.

He promised.





"I am a nightmare," he rumbled with a malicious grin. "Your nightmare, if we're terribly specific about it." His body moved, he moved, so quickly, swiftly. His training with Toby had dividends that he could feel, swirling around the combatants, turning their means of attack as if they were moving through tar. Had they not trained? Was that the best they had. "Pathetic."

Pain exploded through his shoulders. A lucky strike, or an accurate one, the difference was hard to tell in the instant. Fury welled in him regardless, twisting around to see where it had come from, a wicked female bird sneering at him, another beam already coming, but he, already moving.

Each bright flare cast deep shadows as bright as the light she was making. Darkness he would flee in and through. She only knew he was coming when he bit her, sinking his teeth into her filthy feathered neck in a way one might not expect a pony to do, but he was no normal pony.

He growled almost soundlessly, but that hen he held could hear it, shuddering through her form, her blood allowed to flow across his teeth, his unnatural fangs parting her flesh. It didn't stop her from screaming, oh no, he relished in the wail she made. He thrilled in the wide eyes, the shuddering arms, and the gaping nothing that her co-soldiers offered. He was everything they did not expect from the ponies.

Good. Just the way he'd have it.

He fed, drank deeply, not of her blood, that was nothing but dirty filth. No, her fear, that was full of power, dark and terrible power. The sort of deliciously sweet power that had drawn him to Sombra in the first place, and he felt it emanating not just from the griffon he held, but every other creature that watched it happen, not acting, too afraid, surrendering themselves to him without even consciously being aware of it. He was their nightmare, and nightmares had all the power you gave them. They gave so much...

One turned to flee. He could feel it, that terror, a specific hint, a flavor? A smell? Whatever it was, he knew the urge to flee, and he seized on it. The fear was reaching an apex, and he rode it. The bit griffon sagged forward, but before she could finish hitting the ground, he was diving on the back of the first to flee, cackling as he drove the griffon down under savagely beating hooves. "You thought you could come and hurt our allies? They have a purpose, to us, and you are getting in their way. Your sentence is decided." He leaned in, face inches from the pinned bird. "Oh yes, very decided. Do you know? You don't?!"

He bent backwards, laughing with his entire torso undulating under the force of it. "Death. Death. You deserve death, and I, your kind host, am here to deliver."





She grunted through clenched teeth as a halberd sank into her side. She didn't cry out, she couldn't. She had to be strong, to lead what remained, to be the leader they deserved. She pushed up and forward, forcing the griffon back a step as blood specked her lips, her very breath seeming specked with the abuse she'd suffered.

A scream echoed through the hallway, all sides slowing, confused. That was not a combat sound. That was not the sound of a pony or griffon dying in pitched battle. That had been the cry of someone losing all hope, of having their very essence torn asunder, of seeing the depths of the abyss and wailing in an unknowable horror as the abyss not only looked back, but tore them lovingly into shreds, wallowing in the gore that resulted.

It had just been a scream, but it communicated so much. The worst part was that it wasn't alone, another cry. "That's Gerold!" squeaked a griffon, trembling in abject terror.

"Something's gone wrong." The one holding the halberd threw it away, wings unfurling. "Get out. We've done enough."

"Don't need to tell me twice." A third griffon took to the air. The battle was broken, forces scattering even as the pony defenses collapsed, unwilling to chase, battered and beaten, but they had won, perhaps?

The screams were getting closer. Laughing. Laughing was accompanying it, as if some cruel jester heralded each death with a wild call to the darkness.

"What... is going on?" asked Cadance, her eyes focused on the door, barely conscious through her injuries and blood loss. "Stay... strong."

The room went dark. Baleful eyes opened in the midst of it, as if there were nothing outside those glaring orbs. They fixed on each pony in turn, the broken bodies of the fallen, And Cadance, still glaring back defiantly. "Still alive?" Quick spoke in a sickly sweet tone. "Good. Lord Sombra sends his regards."

Cadance was not sure how to feel. The crystal guards whimpered, backing away with abject terror. They knew exactly what the dark figure represented, and they had no strength to fight it. "Your assistance is appreciated," spoke Cadance as clearly as she could, which wasn't nearly as clear as she would have wanted it. She knew she would soon collapse, whether she wanted to or not. "What... did you do... to them?"

"Hm?" The darkness began to withdraw, becoming the form of a pony once more. "Those griffons?" He huffed softly. "I tore at them with the strength of my lord. They have no business here, save to die, loudly." He licked his bloodied lips, eyeing Cadance. "Which you should not do." His eyes fixed on a pony peeking out from a room. "You, fetch a doctor. Your princess demands it! I shouldn't have to remind you."

He rolled his eyes as the pony scurried. "I swear, finding good help... These are troubles we can agree on."

Cadance forced the faintest smile, but lost control. She wasn't awake when she hit the ground, passing out entirely.





The detachment of soldiers hurried forward, in a forced march home. "Twily... She's alone. We took so many with us. Why did we take so many?" Shining was marching with all his power through the snow, glaring forward as if he could will themselves to move faster. "We rushed out there to do nothing and left them unguarded. If she's hurt..."

"Shining, brother... We have to stay calm," gently encouraged Twilight. "Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good panic time."

Rainbow twirled upside down, flying alongside them, just above Twilight. "Speaking of that, how are you not in full Twilinanas mode right now?"

Twilight rolled her eyes with a little huff. "My sister is relying on me to keep it together. I can panic... later." She took a breath, extending a hoof as she did it, just as Cadance had taught her. "We have no time for 'Twilinanas', or Shinynanas."

"That isn't a thing," noted Shining.

"It isn't," agreed Rainbow. "But it could be." She snickered as she darted away.

Shining rolled his eyes, raising his voice, "We march for home. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you see anything out of place, don't hesitate the pass it along."

Were they marching into a siege, or would things be perfectly normal? Both were entirely possible.

"I didn't get a single new story worth telling," huffed Giselle, glancing aside at the gothic soldier. "You don't look happy neither."

"I didn't really get to help," admitted Moonlight. "I thought I'd be working off my debts, my soul was ready for freedom, a lifting of the dark veil of debt."

Giselle raised a brow. "You don't actually sound that upset."

"That's, like, how I talk." Her voice was largely even, gravely and brooding. It was what she was. "You sound annoyed."

"'Cause I am!" She threw a hand wide. "Ugh, gonna see that little Arnavon and he'll laugh at how little we got done. No way this'll make a decent story."

"Story?" She smiled faintly. "You go to war for stories? That's kind of metal, thinking on it. I like it."

"You say that like it's a good thing." Giselle shook her head with obvious confusion. "Look, let's just get back so I can get this over with. I still miss his stupid face, even if I'll want to punch it when he laughs."

"You must be good friends."

"The best," she agreed in deep sarcastic tones.

"I have a friend like that." She seemed to miss the sarcasm thrown. "We're so not alike, but she is the light that makes my shadow." She raised a hoof to her chest. "Woah, that came out better than I thought it would. I like it..."

"Yeah?" Giselle reached back, holding the grip of her weapon a moment despite not drawing it, holding it there in that awkward stance. "He's a bit like that. Stupid little rabbit, always smiling, always bugging me."

"Yeah," more calmly agreed Moonlight. "Always a big smile, like, woah, everything's just perfect, but you know it's not. And, like, you wonder what you're missing, and they hug you."

"Oh, wow. I didn't even get into the hugs." Giselle suddenly swatted Moonlight on the withers. "We got more in common than I woulda thought. Yer alright, fer a pony."

"You're alright." Moonlight looked Giselle over. "For a friend."

"That was a super pony answer, just so you know."

Moonlight nodded softly at the accusation. "I blame her. It's what she woulda said, and I went with it."

"Don't let them corrupt you." She nudged Moonlight with a chuckle. "We gotta keep it sane and dark around here."

"Like, woah... hey, yeah. It's nice having a fellow sister of the dark." She inclined her head, eyes moving to Luna so far ahead. "Have you met her, the mistress of the dark? She's so, like, totally amazing. Ruler of the night, of dreams. She knows what's inside you, and she isn't scared of it. She knows everything about you, but she still likes you. Tell me that isn't, like, magic."

"Huh." Giselle hadn't thought of it quite that way before. "Kinda creepy, but... sure, yeah, I get it."

"Not entirely." She inclined her head, marching on ahead. "But you will. Just let her in, and she'll help, no matter how big your problems, or small."

"I don't got no problems," huffed out Giselle. "She can save her whatever for ponies."

"No matter how small," assured Moonlight in her even tone. "Just sit and relax. Let the dark moon light bathe you." She considered Giselle a quiet moment. "She's a dark sister too, like, you know, us."

"Dark sister." Giselle hiked a brow doubtfully. "We'll see."