//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Queen Weaver // by TenebrisScholar //------------------------------// As soon as we left the barrier, we heard Sombra howl and saw him emerge from the ice. Grabbing some crystals from my bag I quickly enchanted them to glow like light bulbs and held them up like a wall of light, trying to block Sombra and force him back. He recoiled from the light and hissed in pain but without love mixed in it didn’t really do any significant damage, merely inflicting pain upon him. It was almost like pepper spray I noted to myself. It hurt but it wouldn’t kill anyone.  While Sombra was distracted by the wall of lights we all started running through the snow towards one of the pieces of Queen Amore. Seeing us moving, Sombra forced himself to push through the glowing crystals to chase after us. I tried to keep the wall in front of him but he started shooting the crystals. Each one he shot turned black and slipped out of my telekinetic grasp falling to the snow, now dark. Twilight and I started throwing flashers at him which slowed him down but he roared in a mix of pain and fury and pushed past them too. Twilight turned her head and fired what was essentially a laser at Sombra. A bright beam of condensed light. It seared through him causing him to falter and writhe in agony. He tried to retaliate by shooting Twilight but I held several flashers up to his eyes, disorienting him and making it nigh impossible for him to aim. So the beam of dark magic hit just behind Twilight causing a large black crystalline mass to emerge from the snow where the spell impacted. ‘Love and light… I can make light. I just need to figure out how to project love into my magic and I could actually hurt him!’ I thought to myself in frustration as I cast a few light spells of my own trying to figure out how to mix love in with them. Each time one of my attempts didn’t work, I tried again using a slightly different approach. But it was no use. I couldn’t figure it out. “This guy doesn’t give up! Y’all think he knows where we’re goin’?” Applejack asked as we all ran. I shook my head. “Not yet. For all he knows we could have been trying to find a safe route out of the Empire so we could run and call for help. But let’s not talk about this while he’s right behind us.” “Right, don’t want to tip him off!” Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. He chased us like this for a few more minutes before he finally gave up. Apparently he decided we were too tough of targets to be worth the pain he was being put through. He continued following us from a distance for awhile, I could sense his emotions pursuing us from a consistent distance. Rage, curiosity, and suspicion. So to throw him off I started leading everyone in the direction of the train tracks, in an attempt to make him think we really were just trying to find a safer way out of the city. Finally I felt him grow bored and head back towards the Empire. From there we kept on guard for a few minutes before continuing on our way to the first piece of Queen Amore. We arrived at the first piece within fifteen minutes, not including the detour we took to throw off Sombra. It was a cave at the top of a mountain. Grabbing everyone who couldn’t fly with my telekinesis, I hauled them all up the mountain. We didn’t have time to waste climbing this thing. Entering the cave I fast walked to the location where I felt the piece hidden. “Right here. It’s inside the wall.” Twilight stepped forward and tried to dispel the ward keeping the piece sealed away but her spell went haywire and began bouncing around the cave. I had to drop to the ground to avoid being hit and the rest of the girls had to duck or dodge as well before the spell finally bounced out of the cave. “What the hell was that?!” I demanded, pushing myself back up onto all fours. “Sorry! The ward on this piece is different from the ones in the Empire! I think Cadance’s barrier spell might have been weakening them maybe? Just give me a second, I’ll figure this out.” Twilight got to work trying to figure out how to dispel the ward. After a minute or two of her working I felt a source of blinding rage, hatred, and a faint sense of… betrayal? The betrayal felt old, like a scar that had never fully healed, but it was still there. Regardless, it appeared on the mountain out of nowhere. To me that could only indicate one thing. “Sombra’s here! He must have noticed that first spell and teleported straight here!” I announced, urgently. “What?! No, I need more time!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic. “Twilight, try to pick up the pace! Everyone else, follow me! We’re going to have to hold him off to buy as much time as possible!” I announced before rushing out of the cave. The others followed, drawing their ultra-bright crystal torches. As I scattered a bunch of crystal lights at the entrance of the cave I said, “Fluttershy, try to hang back and avoid the fighting. Only use your torch if you need to get away. You’re the medic. If anyone gets hurt, it's your job to drag them to safety and try to help them as best you can while the rest of us fight. Everyone else, whatever happens we can’t let Sombra reach the cave!” I could feel Fluttershy’s fear and saw how she was cowering. I could tell she wouldn’t be much use as a frontline fighter. So I decided to relegate her to a support role. That way she could still be useful without getting in the way or getting hurt because she hesitated or froze at the wrong moment. “O-okay…” Fluttershy nodded. I could feel relief and gratitude radiating from her. Everyone else prepared themselves as Sombra emerged from the icy ground. “Queen Amore… So that’s your plan… Foals! She can not save you or the Empire!” Instead of responding I sent a swarm of flashers I’d been enchanting ever since I first felt him show up flying towards him. They swirled around the shadowy creature like a tornado or a disorienting whirlwind of brightly blinking lights. Rainbow Dash flew forward, holding onto her ultra-bright torch and flew around him, hitting the shadowy monster with it and flying through him, the torch and the lights that were tied to her causing him indescribable agony making him howl in pain. Applejack rushed forwards with her torch held in her teeth and started swinging it at Sombra, trying to force him further away from the cave. Rarity was casting simple light spells. They weren’t anywhere near as strong as the laser Twilight fired earlier but they were roughly as strong as one of the torches which was still pretty good. Pinkie Pie bounced around Sombra, swinging her torch at him and taunting him. “Yoo hoo! Over here! No wait, right here! Look at me! Ooh, you almost got me! Too slow!”  Sombra fired spells at us but with the light hurting him on top of blinding and disorienting him, his aim was terrible. Plus Pinkie Pie with all her bouncing around and taunting was acting as a surprisingly good distraction. Still, the longer the fight went on the more black crystal formations emerged on the ground, making the terrain steadily more treacherous and further limiting how much room Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity had to move around. I had to keep up a constant stream or rapid enchanting and replacing crystals I’d used as the fast enchantments I was conducting only lasted a few seconds for each crystal before they needed to be re-enchanted. Fortunately, the crystals I had already enchanted didn’t necessarily need any more holes for me to be able to re-enchant them like fresh crystals did for me to enchant them in the first place. So re-enchanting crystals actually took less energy than enchanting crystals to begin with, and it didn’t build up more and more damage until the crystals became useless like I had been worried might be the case. And on the brightside, I was getting plenty of practice in. As the fight dragged on I could feel Sombra’s rage and annoyance steadily growing. He was getting frustrated. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, I had no idea. For all I knew he might have had a trick up his sleeve he just hadn’t used yet. So I wanted to err on the side of caution and say it was a bad thing. I glanced back at the cave. “Damn it, Twilight! Hurry!” I muttered to myself under my breath as I swerved out of the way of a beam that very nearly hit me in the chest. I was flying, of course. The less of us on the ground, the more beams would shoot off into the air and the less of those black crystals would form on the ground. A few minutes later Twilight emerged from the cave. “I have the piece!” She called out. Following the sound of her voice, Sombra shot a beam at her. I grabbed her with my telekinesis and yanked her out of the way. “Eep!” She squeaked in surprise as the sharp black crystal formation erupted from where she had just been standing. “Everyone gather up! I’ll hold this guy back! Twilight, when everyone’s together teleport us out of here!” I shouted, re-enchanting crystals and creating a wall of strobing crystals to try and hold Sombra back. While I was doing this I tried casting light spells directly, hitting him with beams of light. I was still trying to figure out how to mix love in to the spell but nothing I tried seemed to work. ‘Love… Love! God damn it, why isn’t this working?!’ I mentally raged.  While I was doing that, everyone rushed to get around Twilight. “No! You will not escape me!” Sombra roared, redoubling his own efforts. He fired as many beams as he could in rapid succession. One was heading straight for me. There was a flash of purple light and Twilight teleported us away. I could still feel Sombra in my range but we were at least four blocks away and we had a cliff between us. So he could no longer see or hear us, much to his outrage. He teleported away. “Is everyone okay?” I asked, looking around. “I-I-It’s b-b-bucking c-c-cold!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, shivering. I enchanted some crystals to burn and levitated the burning crystals near her to help her try to warm up. She sighed in relief and I could feel her gratitude. “You were flying pretty fast. The extra wind chill on top of the already below freezing temperature must be getting to you. Good job keeping that up as long as you did. The only thing I can do to help is make some fire. Twilight, we need a way to keep Rainbow Dash warm while she’s flying around rather than afterwards. Any ideas?” “I might be able to make some crystals heat up. But we would have to take off some of the lights we have strapped to her. We didn’t pack anything to tie more crystals to ourselves.” Twilight stated, walking over to Rainbow Dash. “Do it. She still has her torch. So better she loses the minor protection of the other lights rather than letting her freeze herself to death because she’s moving too fast.” I stated. It took a couple minutes but Twilight enchanted some crystals to produce heat rather than light and replaced the crystals Rainbow was already wearing. “Oooh yeah… That’s way better…” Rainbow sighed in relief, enjoying the warmth of the crystals. “Anyone else? If the cold is too much, speak up. I don’t want any of you getting hypothermia or frostbite.” I asked, looking around at everyone. We were all wearing appropriate snow gear but I had to make sure. Applejack shook her head. “I’m a bit chilly but it ain’t gonna kill me. This snow gear helps a bunch.” The others voiced their agreements. “Alright then let's get moving. But if any of you need help, say something.” I said before closing my eyes and following a thread of emotion in the direction of another piece. I had to fly down the mountain carrying the ones who couldn’t fly on their own with me. To speed things up, I just kept flying rather than putting anyone down. This was significantly faster than walking or even running. I was getting hungrier the more magic I used, but I had to ignore it and push through. We couldn’t afford to waste time just because I was feeling a bit peckish. We arrived at the next location. “Where’s that brute Sombra? I don’t see him anywhere? I was certain he’d be waiting for us.” Rarity asked, looking around. “Not here. I told you I can’t sense which pieces are closer. I can only sense the direction the ‘threads’ are leading me. So he probably went to the closest one thinking that’s where we;d go next. I might have accidentally led us to one that’s further away.” I explained. “Whatever the case, I’m glad he’s not here. Let’s hurry and get the piece before he figures out where we are.” Twilight said, walking towards the next cave. I led her to the spot where the next piece was hidden and this time she managed to dispel the ward within a few seconds. “That was fast.” I remarked. I couldn’t see if she was smiling under her snow mask, but I could feel pride and happiness radiating from Twilight. “It took me a while the first time because I was figuring out how to undo the spell. Now that I know how, it shouldn’t take me as long for the rest.” I nodded. “Great, that should make things easier.” I lead the group to the next piece, then the next. Sombra wasn’t at either of them either. He was waiting for us at the next piece, however, and he was pissed. Everyone stayed back to hold him off while I led Twilight down into the depths of a giant ravine where the next piece was hidden. Several giant black crystals blocked our path. It seemed Sombra had been busy. “Well… What now?” I asked, looking at Twilight. “I… Uh… Give me a minute to think, please…” Twilight requested as she started to pace back and forth in front of the crystals. After a moment she tried blasting it with a spell. Then a different spell. And a different spell… She even tried teleporting past them, with no luck. I glanced back up at the top of the ravine where the other girls were still fighting. I buzzed my wings nervously. I needed to be up there helping them fight but I couldn’t do that until I showed twilight where the piece was hidden. Seconds ticked by. Then a minute… “You know what? Fuck it.” I morphed into a dragon and began chewing my way through the crystals. They tasted awful and I was pretty sure they were either poisonous or cursed so I made sure to spit out all of the pieces. Surprisingly it was actually difficult. I had perfected my understanding of the jaw structure of dragons so I could chew diamonds like they were candy, but these crystals actually took effort to crush in my jaws meaning they were somehow significantly harder and tougher than diamonds. “Taylor, what are you doing?!” Twilight exclaimed in horror. I spat out more crushed crystal. “Getting us past the crystals. I don’t care if these things are cursed, we don’t have time to waste sitting here trying to figure out a safer way past them!” I took another bite and spat out the rubble. Then another. And another. “Stop! We have no idea what the heck these things are going to do to you!” Twilight shouted. I ignored her and kept going. I didn’t stop until I finally made a path we could actually get through. I felt sick and hungry but it didn’t matter. I’d gotten rid of the crystals. I morphed back into my changeling form. I turned to face her and stumbled, woozy and nauseous. Twilight rushed over to me and tried to catch me. “T-there… ugh… We can get through…” I told her. “Let’s go.” Twilight blocked me. “Taylor, stop! Something’s clearly wrong. I told you that chewing through the crystals was a bad idea! Please tell me you didn’t actually swallow any!” “I didn’t… I spat them all out…” I told her. Forcing my way past her I said, “We don’t have time for this… The piece is over here.” I pointed to a spot on the wall of the cave. I could feel the reluctance and worry radiating from Twilight but she stepped forward and undid the ward. I took the piece out of the hole and stuffed it in my second saddle bag with the rest of the pieces. Twilight and I left the ravine and called everyone to gather up again. Once again I tried to hold off Sombra, and tried to mix love into my spells with no success. My continued failure at this was becoming more and more frustrating to me. After Twilight teleported us away, she rounded on me. “Taylor, we need to have a serious talk. What you did back there was incredibly stupid and dangerous.” “What happened?” Rainbow inquired. “Sombra blocked the path through the ravine with his crystals, so instead of waiting for me to find an actual solution, Taylor turned into a dragon and started chewing through them. I told her not to, but she did it anyway and now she’s sick.” Twilight told everyone. “Actually, I'm already starting to feel better. It made me sick at first but that’s pretty much gone already. Now it just made me hungry, but that’s irrelevant. I can be hungry for a while. Who cares? Besides, the longer we took the more likely it was that one of the others would get hurt. I chose the quickest and most efficient path to getting the piece. That’s all that matters. Anything else can be dealt with later.” I stated. Twilight face-hoofed and sighed. “Then you’re incredibly lucky that you’re a changeling… I think the love inside you is counteracting or neutralizing whatever chewing through the crystals did to you. The problem with that being, the love is expended to fight the crystal particulates or dark magic or whatever it is. So it makes you hungry. That’s my first theory anyway. I can’t know for certain without running tests, which we can’t do here. Regardless, you had no way of knowing what chewing through those crystals would do to you or that your body would be able to counteract it. You could have gotten seriously hurt! You could have died for all you knew!” “We had to do something and that was the best I could come up with on the spot. Sue me. Do you have a better solution?” I asked, annoyed. Honestly she was right, it was dangerous, but I didn’t see much other choice. I had a way of getting past the crystals while Twilight was taking time to think. Was I supposed to just sit there and wait for Sombra to kill everyone or turn them to crystal like Queen Amore? “I… I would have thought of something!” Twilight retorted uncertainly. “Sure. Eventually. And by then, Sombra might have turned one of your friends to crystal…” “Wow… Thanks for the vote of confidence, Skitter…” Rainbow grumbled, crossing her forelegs. “Yeah. We ain’t foals. We can take care of ourselves.” Applejack agreed. “Yeah? For how long? Sombra’s incorporeal. He probably doesn’t get exhausted the same way someone with actual muscles and internal organs does. So he might have been able to wear you down until you were too tired to fight in a war of attrition. Or he could have gotten lucky with a stray shot. The longer a fight drags on, the higher the chances are that he’ll hit one of you eventually. And with his magic, for all we know all he would need is a single shot and you’d be a statue like Queen Amore. All it would take is a single mistake or a bit of bad luck and it would be over.” I told them. Then I sighed and shook my head. “Whatever… We can argue about this later. I don’t know how long Cadance can hold out, so let's get going. We have more pieces to collect.” I grabbed everyone except Rainbow and Fluttershy with my telekinesis and flew off towards yet another piece. Sombra was waiting for us at the next piece too. I had to chew through even more crystals. This time there were even more of them. He was really trying to keep us out. Still I got us through, even if I felt like shit by the time I did. Twilight got the piece, I tried to hold Sombra off so everyone could gather up and I tried, without any success, to mix love into my light spells, and we ran away. We repeated this process several times until there were only two pieces left. My heavy use of magic and having to chew through these disgusting black crystals was taking a serious toll on me. Plus the continued frustration of failing to figure out how to mix love into my magic wasn’t helping any. At this point I was starting to question if it was even possible for me to do, or if only ponies could do it. After Twilight teleported us away this time, my stomach was in agony. I was starving. Plus the rate at which my body was purging whatever these crystals were doing to me was slowing down so I was staying sick for longer. I didn’t think either were going to kill me but it was getting bad. Still I didn’t let myself show any indication of how bad it was getting. If I showed how hungry I was or if I let them know my “immune system” was slowing down, the others might insist I feed on one of them. But all I had to do was lead them to the pieces and chew through some crystals. They were doing all the fighting at this point and Twilight was dispelling the wards. They needed to keep their energy up since they had the hard jobs, whereas I had the easiest job so my hunger and discomfort were irrelevant. I just needed to hold out a bit longer until we got the last two pieces. Just two more pieces and it would be over… Then I could let Twilight and Queen Amore take over figuring out the rest. I could feel concern and worry radiating from Pinkie Pie. Did she notice? I couldn’t exactly ask her to check. So I just ignored it. If she didn’t say anything I certainly wasn’t going to give myself away. Twilight felt worried too, but she hadn’t stopped feeling worried ever since I’d started chewing through the crystals to make paths through them. “Only two left. Let’s go.” I stated, grabbing Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie with my telekinesis and flying off. The telekinesis was a constant drain on me that was steadily making my hunger worse but I ignored it and pushed through. It was just two more pieces. I could hold out. When we arrived at the next piece Sombra was waiting for us again. But something was different. His rage had cooled. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to find where I hid all of the pieces, but this is where it ends… Even if you manage to get past me again and take this piece, it won’t matter. The last piece is somewhere you can never get to it! Hahahaha!” He laughed maliciously, feelings of satisfaction and certainty oozed off of him. “We’ll find it alright, ya big shadowy varmint! And when we do Queen Amore’s gonna help us hog tie you and kick your sorry behind all the way to Appleloosa!” Applejack shouted at him. I looked at her. “Appleloosa?” She shrugged. “Don’t know. It’s far away and I got family there. So it was the first thing that came ta mind.” She then drew her ultra-bright torch from her saddlebag. “Fair enough…” I muttered. “Queen Amore can’t save you… I’ve grown beyond her power!” King Sombra growled. “Enough talking! Let’s get this piece and go get the next!” Rainbow Dash said before flying at Sombra and slamming her torch through his shadowy form. Twilight teleported me and herself past Sombra into the cave he was guarding. Once again there were crystals blocking the path. I grumbled in frustration. With how Sombra had been talking, I’d been hoping he might not have bothered blocking this one off. But I had no such luck. Turning into a dragon I started chewing my way through the crystals. There were a lot of them this time. It was the thickest wall of crystal he’d made so far. It actually took some time for me to crush a path through the crystals with my teeth. I was barely half way through the crystals and my jaw ached horribly and I was already feeling very sick. I wasn’t sure if I was physically capable of vomiting but I certainly wanted to at that moment.a I had to take a break to let my body fight off the sickness before chewing my way through the rest of it. When I was all the way through I spat out the last mouth full, turned back into my changeling form and immediately collapsed on the ground. “Taylor, are you okay?!” Twilight asked, rushing over to my side. “N-no… But, I’m… n-not dying… Hel… ugh… Help me up…” Twilight grabbed me with her telekinesis and levitated me up, helping me get my hooves under me. She let me go and I wobbled, struggling to stay standing. She pressed against me, helping me stabilize me. “The piece… is this way…” I said, walking forward. I had to lean against her to stop myself from collapsing again. I used my horn to point to the spot then sat down so Twilight wouldn’t have to support my weight and could do her thing. She dispelled the ward and put the piece in her own saddle bag. Mine had gotten too full to carry any more after the sixth piece. So Twilight had started filling her own saddle bags. She even had to empty the one she’d filled with crystals for enchanting to carry more. “How are you feeling, Taylor? Is it starting to wear off?” “Yes, it is…” I lied and stood up. “Taylor, stop! I’m not stupid. You’re good at hiding things but I’ve noticed the effects have been lasting longer and longer. I didn’t mention it because I thought you’d tell me when it was getting bad. Right now, it’s obvious that it has and that I should have brought this up earlier. Why are you pushing yourself like this? Why haven’t you let me or the others try to help you?” Twilight demanded. “We have a job to do… An entire city’s on the line… If we don’t get these pieces, Sombra will win… He’ll enslave everyone… Mind control them… So, all that matters is that we win… by any means necessary… My problems are irrelevant… We need to keep going… There’s only one piece left… We can talk more… after we get out of here.” I said as I unsteadily walked back towards the entrance of the cave Twilight clearly wasn’t happy with me or my response but followed after me. However, Sombra noticed us and fired beams at us. Only he wasn’t aiming at us. He was aiming at the ground and the walls. He was sealing off the entrance. I tried to run out but I was too slow. Twilight and I were blocked in and the crystals were getting thicker and denser with each passing second. We actually had to back up to avoid letting the crystals touch us while they were still growing. “That fucking bastard!” I growled furiously. I was pissed. Honestly I should have expected something like this. If anything I was more surprised he hadn’t tried this sooner. I transformed into a dragon again. “Taylor, stop! At least feed on some of my love before you try chewing through more of these crystals. If I’m right, the less love you have the harder it is for your body to fight off whatever these crystals are doing to you. Plus, your magic is fueled by the love you’ve consumed and you’ve been using it practically non-stop since we left the Empire! Combine that with your love being consumed to fight off the magic in Sombra’s crystals, and you have to be starving.” “No. If I feed on you, it’ll drain you. You need energy to fight Sombra and undo the last ward and fix Queen Amore. All I need to do is lead you to the last piece. You take priority.” I said before biting the wall of crystal and starting to tear my way through it. As I was doing that, I felt Sombra’s presence vanish. I guess he’d blocked us into the cave as a last “fuck you” then just left. Mercifully, the crystals weren’t nearly as thick as the wall he made to block off the piece hidden in this cave. But it was still a lot and I still hadn’t fully recovered from chewing through the last wall. I got through within less than a minute, but I was sick again. Did Sombra know what a Changeling was and was making these damn walls just to whittle me down, knowing what it was doing to me? He was sealed away a thousand years ago or something along with the Crystal Empire and Changelings only existed for about a thousand years. So I’d have thought he’d have never heard of us… Or was he just trying to buy time, waiting for Cadance’s barrier to fall so he could attack the Empire without Queen Amore stopping him? Well whatever the case, this sucked either way. I wished I knew how to infuse my magic with love, because if I could then I would make sure to pay him back for putting me through this. I struggled to stay standing as I turned back into my changeling form. The sickness was getting worse on top of lasting longer it seemed. I prayed he hadn’t been lying and genuinely had no idea where the final piece of Queen Amore was. That way I wouldn’t have to chew through anymore of these crystals. I could hold out as long as I didn’t have to do that again. “Are you alright, Skittles? You don’t look so good.” Pinkie Pie asked me. “I’m fine… I’ll recover in a minute…” I told her. Twilight squeezed past me through the opening I had made. “She’s not fine. She’s starving. She’s been pushing herself too hard. All the magic she’s been using has been using up her love and biting through these crystals has been draining it to fight off the effects. But the effects of the crystals are getting worse and are starting to last longer, which means she’s starting to run out of love. She can’t keep this up.” “I’m fine!” I snapped. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I was tired, hungry, sick, and angry at Sombra so I was on edge. I couldn’t let myself take it out on them. “I’m not dying yet, so I can keep going… There’s only one piece left… I can push through one more…” “No you can’t! You collapsed after the last one and the only reason you're standing now is because you’re leaning against something! Stop being so stubborn and let us help you! Please! We’re your friends, Taylor. We don’t like seeing you hurting yourself like this…” Twilight pleaded. I grit my teeth and looked away. “Friends”. What was it with these ponies and “friendship”? We weren’t friends. Acquaintances? Allies? Sure. Maybe. Friends? No… I couldn’t even trust them because for all I knew, they might have been agents planted by Celestia working to get close to me so I’d spill information to them and she could manipulate me through them. I still hadn’t disproven my theory that they had some illusion obscuring their emotions. Though doubts about that were starting to wriggle in the back of my mind. I squashed the doubts. I didn’t have time to worry about if I was wrong or not. Mentally debating what to do, I bit my lower lip. I didn’t bite too hard but my fangs were sharp and still drew blood regardless. I ignored the pain and the taste of my own blood. The black snow mask I was wearing obscured it anyway. Eventually I said, “You guys are doing all the major stuff… Fighting Sombra and undoing the wards… If I fed on any of you like you want, I’d be draining you of energy. Energy you might need to do your jobs. All I need to do is lead you to the last piece and maybe break through Sombra's barricades, if there are any… My job is easy. Yours isn’t…” “You’ve been doing just as much if not more than any of us. Please. Let us help you.” Twilight pleaded. “Um… Khepri? I haven’t been doing much at all… Nopony has gotten hurt or needed medical attention so I’ve just been sitting off to the side… So… You could feed on me… If you want, that is…” Fluttershy offered. “Maybe not but someone could get hurt. What then? No. You need to keep your energy up too Fluttershy.” I told her. “Taylor, stop that! You need to eat. Neglecting your own health and safety isn’t helping us. If anything it’s putting us more at risk. I know you’re worried. I realize you’re trying to look out for us. But you need to slow down and let us look out for you too. We’re a team here. We’re friends. If you keep going like this, you’re going to hurt yourself. And if you get hurt, that’s one less pony to help us fight Sombra. Plus if you collapse before we get to the last piece, what then? You’re the only one with empathic abilities. We have no way of finding it without you.” “But…” Applejack cut me off. “I’ma kick yours if you don’t knock this nonsense off and eat! What the hay is wrong with you, Weaver? Starvin’ yourself… Not on my watch. Nuh uh! We ain’t leavin’ this spot until you get a grip and stop being so stubborn! We don’t gotta whole lotta time to begin with, so stop wastin’ it!” I sighed. They were right. It was bad enough I couldn’t even stand without leaning against something. I was being too stubborn for my own good… “Fine. Sorry. This whole situation’s been… stressful. I was trying to prioritize everyone else’s well being over my own. It’s a bad habit I got into back on Earth Bet. But between the stress, being on a timer, and having to deal with Sombra I guess I let it go a little bit too far this time. It was stupid of me.” I apologized. I could feel the happiness radiating from Twilight. “It’s okay, Taylor. We forgive you. I’m just glad you were willing to see reason.” I nodded then looked at Fluttershy. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” She nodded. “Alright then…” Taking off my snow mask I fed on some of Fluttershy’s love. Starving half to death as I was, it was exceedingly hard to restrain myself, I very nearly couldn’t. But through sheer force of will I snapped my mouth shut and stopped feeding. I didn’t feed enough to bring me all the way back to my normal levels. Partially because I was worried that if I tried, worse than just draining her energy I was worried I might accidentally hurt Fluttershy. I knew feeding too much could hurt or even kill the ones I was feeding on, which I didn’t want to do. So I only fed enough that I wasn’t starving and I could fight or chew through more crystals without too much issue. When I was done I saw Fluttershy droop slightly and was worried I might have accidentally overdone it. But she picked herself up quickly enough. “Thank you for that. I appreciate it.” I told her. “Of course! I’m happy to help.” Fluttershy stated. My horn glowed and I was about to pick everyone up but Twilight stopped me. “Taylor, no. You just ate. And I doubt you filled yourself up. So you need to conserve your energy.” “Alright, but if I’m not flying us all there are we just going to walk? We have no idea how far away this thing is. We need to hurry or Cadance is going to give out eventually, and me carrying you all is the fastest means of travel we have right now.” “Leave that to me! I still have plenty of energy left so I’ll carry us. I can’t keep it up super long but hopefully I shouldn’t have to.” Twilight stated, grabbing herself and her other land-locked friends with her telekinesis and lifting them all into the air. I rolled my eyes. “You know, this completely defeats the whole purpose of me not feeding on you back in the cave so you could save your energy…” I sighed and shook my head. “Fine, but if we have to travel longer than usual, I’m taking over. You’re the only one here who knows how to undo the wards so if you use up all of your energy carrying everyone, we’re completely screwed.” I closed my eyes and started flying in the direction of the last piece. Twilight and the others all followed after me. We were able to maintain a good pace. After about thirty minutes of flying at relatively high speeds, something entered my range. It wasn’t Sombra but it wasn’t just the piece of Queen Amore either. It was a bunch of different sources of emotions all condensed down into a tiny area. All but two of the sources of emotions felt dark. Anger, hatred, loathing, and a combination of emotions I could only describe as sardonicism but more overtly malicious. One of the two other sources of emotions was blatantly Queen Amore, while the other… I had no idea. It just felt normal. A person who was happy and content. Apparently blissfully ignorant of the pure malice all around them. Looking down I saw a crimson crystal sticking out of the icy ground. King Sombra was nowhere to be seen. I lead everyone down to the crystal. “Here. The piece is inside here somehow. But something’s wrong. There’s more people inside than just Queen Amore.” “There is? Do you think this thing is a mass of pieces of people Sombra turned to crystal and… I don’t know, fused together or something?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying around the crimson crystal, looking at it. I shook my head. “No. If that were the case their emotions would be frozen. Static, like Queen Amore’s are. There are people inside somehow but they’re not statues like Queen Amore. But there’s still something wrong. There’s only one source of emotions inside that’s normal. The rest are all negative or overtly malicious. I mean, there are some positive emotions in them but they’re faint to begin with and are drowned out by all the negative. Whatever’s inside is dangerous. Other than that one person anyway.” “Let me take a look.” Twilight said, stepping closer to the crystal. She didn’t actually touch it but her horn started to glow and a faint purple aura enveloped the crystal. After a moment her eyes widened and she backed away. “I think it’s some sort of prison… I’ve never encountered magic quite like it except maybe King Sombra’s which feels like a twisted mockery of it. I think it's designed to hold dark magic similar to Sombra's inside. I… I think we can go in? It should act almost like a portal letting us come and go as we please but the ‘prisoners’ can’t leave.” “Damn… So that’s why Sombra said we’d never get the final piece. As soon as we go inside the prisoners are going to swarm us and rip us to pieces.” I growled, glaring at the giant ruby red crystal. “Well… Dang… That ain’t good… But what choice do we have? We gotta get that last piece.” Applejack asked. “Well, I have one idea…” Twilight said, taking off her saddlebags. “Taylor, give me the pieces you’re carrying.” I took off my saddle bag full of Queen Amore’s pieces, wondering where this was going. “Alright. Rainbow, Fluttershy? Can you two give me your torches? I want you two to fly Queen Amore’s pieces back to the Crystal Empire as fast as you can. And I think we might end up needing your torches to defend ourselves.” Twilight requested, levitating the saddle bags over to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “Wait, what?! You want us to leave you guys to fight whatever’s in there without us?!” Rainbow asked incredulously. Understanding what Twilight was getting at, I nodded. “She’s right. This is the best option we have right now. If you can get Queen Amore’s pieces to the Empire, maybe we have enough to put her back together without the last piece. She might need medical attention for a gaping hole somewhere on her, but that’s better than nothing. Though that depends on what piece is missing too. If it's a piece of her heart or something…” I paused for a second and let that thought hang in the air. No one was very pleased with the thought. After a moment I continued. “Either way, at least we won’t run the risk of losing all the pieces we’ve collected so far. If we take them inside and something happens to us or we lose them and have to abandon them in order to escape, they might be gone for good. If we leave them out here, Sombra might take them and hide them again while we’re inside. Then all our work up until this point will have just been one huge waste of time. So you two taking the pieces back to the empire is our best bet.” Using my telekinesis, I took the small piece hanging by a string around my neck off and stuffed it inside one of the saddle bags. Negative emotions radiated from Rainbow and Fluttershy. Neither of them liked this. “Grrr…” Rainbow Dash growled before taking out her torch and dropping it before snatching one of the saddlebags out of the air. “Fine! But as soon as we get the pieces back to the castle, I’m coming straight back! I swear if you guys get hurt while we’re not here to help, I’m gonna be mad!” Fluttershy dropped her own torch and took one of the saddle bags. As she started putting it on she said, “Um… Khepri? If you’re going into a dangerous situation, you might want to eat more…Plus… If I’m going to just go back to the Empire, I won’t need much energy right…? I mean… I’ll just be helping Spike put Queen Amore back together… So… You could feed on me again… You know… So you’ll have more energy to fight while you and the others are in there…? If you want, that is…” I shook my head. “Absolutely not. And this isn’t even me being stubborn. Fluttershy, me feeding too much on one person could hurt them. It can even kill them. I don’t want to accidentally hurt or kill you by taking too much love from you. I’ve had enough. I’m fine now. Seriously.” “Ooh! Ooh! You can feed on me! I have plenty of love!” Pinkie Pie volunteered. “Pinkie, you’re going in with us. You need your energy so you can fight.” I told her. Rainbow Dash sighed. “Ugh… Whatever… Skitter, just take some of mine.” I looked at her in surprise. “What? I thought you didn’t want me feeding on you. I thought the idea of it creeped you out or something.” “Yeah well… Since Fluttershy and I are going back to the Empire to drop off Amore’s pieces and you’ve already fed on Fluttershy earlier, I’m kinda the best choice here for it. Besides, you’re pretty cool. A lot cooler than I thought when I first met you. So just do it. I know you aren’t going to let yourself hurt me or anything.” Rainbow told me. “You don’t have to do this. I’m being honest this time. I seriously do have enough energy to get through this.” I told her. “Weaver ain’t lyin’... Still, if it were me, I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Applejack stated. “You should do it, Taylor. We don’t know what we’re going to be up against in there so its better that you have all the energy you can get.” Twilight told me. “You guys are worrying too much… I guess I got myself into this by not mentioning it earlier though… Rainbow, are you sure you’re cool with this?” I asked. “Yeah. Now hurry it up. We don’t got all night.” Rainbow told me. “Fine, but I’m not taking as much as I did with Fluttershy. I don’t need much more.” I stated before taking off my snow mask again. I quickly fed on Rainbow, only taking what I needed. “Thank you, Rainbow. It helps.” I told her. “Yeah yeah… If you get in a fight in there just make sure to kick some butt for me will ya?” She asked.   I nodded. “Count on it.” “Sweet!” She said as she started to put on her saddlebags. Once Rainbow and Fluttershy finished putting on the saddlebags full of Queen Amore’s pieces they said their goodbyes and flew off in the direction of the Crystal Empire. I grabbed one of the ultra-bright crystal torches they left behind while Twilight grabbed the other. “You think whatever’s inside will be hurt by light like Sombra?” I asked, skeptical of how useful the torches or the lights all of us were wearing would be. “I have no idea. We don’t know what’s in there, only that the crystal is magic and keeps things with similar magic to Sombra inside. So I’m just hoping their magic is similar enough to have the same weaknesses so we aren’t going in completely blind or defenseless.” Twilight said nervously. “If they’re not, then hopefully they can be hurt by normal means. If they can, then I can still fight them and get everyone out safely… Though depending on how bad it gets, you girls might not like the methods I use.” I said, looking straight ahead at the giant crystal prison. “Welp, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Now time’s a wastin’ and we got an Empire to save. So let’s head on in.” Applejack stated before she started walking towards the crystal. We all followed, though I tried to take the lead. If we got jumped immediately, I wanted to be at the front so I could at least try to defend everyone. On the other side we were greeted by a desolate wasteland with stairs leading down somewhere. My senses didn’t detect anything within our immediate vicinity. All the presences I felt outside suddenly felt much further apart. I could still feel the piece of Queen Amore on the very edge of my range but it was moving around. It seemed to be with the source of normal emotions I had felt. But that person was surrounded by the dark and malevolent emotions I sensed. As everyone else finished coming through I said, “Be on your guard. We don’t know what to expect. I’m sure you all know this by now, but I’m going to remind you anyway. Remember not to look directly at the heads of the torches. Or if you have to, don’t look at them for too long. They can damage your vision or even blind you.” With that said, I lead everyone down the stairs, ready to grab my torch or some of the crystals in my one remaining saddle bag at a moment’s notice. As we reached the bottom of the stairs we saw something like a town or city behind a wall. I felt some presence behind the wall notice us and immediately rush away towards the source of normal emotions. After a moment I felt surprise and then panic from the normal person who then started running towards us. I didn’t mention this. I just kept leading everyone towards the town. I wanted to keep up the appearance that we had no idea what was happening inside. I didn’t want to give away any advantage my empathic abilities might give me. The wall didn’t have a gate, rather all it had was a wide open entrance. This made me question why they even had a wall in the first place if they didn’t even have a means of sealing it off. Then again, they were prisoners so they probably didn’t even consider keeping anyone out. Why would they when they were the ones being kept in. As we entered the town we didn’t see anyone but I could certainly sense them. They were all hiding inside the buildings. They weren’t afraid, no. They hated us. I could feel the immense hatred all around us. But that hatred was directed at two different sources. Us, and the lights we were all wearing. In fact they hated our lights more than they hated us. Which I supposed was a good thing. It meant we had something to repel them just like Sombra. “What a dreadful place… Where are these creatures that you felt, Taylor?” Rarity asked. “Hiding. I can feel them inside the buildings, watching us. They hate us and want to kill us but they hate the lights we brought with us even more. I guess the torches will be useful after all, Twilight.” I said, glaring at the buildings. “That’s… actually a lot less encouraging than if we could fight them normally…” Twilight muttered quietly so only we could hear. “I kind of wish I’d been wrong in this case…” “So do I, honestly…” I muttered back. At least we’d have a better chance if we fought them normally. We continued walking and the creatures seemed to keep reporting our location to the normal person. That made me suspicious of whoever it was. If they were consorting with these things, they had to be just as bad. Eventually the “normal” person caught up to us and one of the creatures was following them from a distance. “All of you, wait! Stop! You need to turn off your lights!” A feminine voice called out from off to our right. Looking we all saw a purple unicorn with a light blue mane running towards us. I could sense the piece of Queen Amore with her. Behind her was a tiny pony-like thing that seemed to be made of smoke. “Not going to happen. As soon as we turn off the lights we’ll be swarmed and ripped apart. How stupid do you think we are?” I demanded, stepping forward defensively. “Please, you need to listen to me! Whatever you heard or read about the Umbrum is wrong! They’re not evil like the stories say. They’re decent. They’re nice even. They were imprisoned here completely unjustly.” The unicorn pleaded. The small smoke creature cowered behind her, but I could sense its true emotions. “Please… Listen to Radiant Hope… We really are nice! If we weren’t, we wouldn’t have let her live with us for the past thousand years. If we were evil like the stories say, then we would have hurt her by now, right?” I rolled my eyes at the attempt at deception. “If that’s the case, then give us the piece of Queen Amore and we’ll just leave.” Radiant Hope shook her head. “I can’t do that. Queen Amore’s the one who unfairly imprisoned the Umbrum. If you’re looking for it, that means you have to be trying to put her back together. I can’t let you do that, at least until the Umbrum are free. She would try to stop us from freeing them. After they’re free, then I’d be more than happy to help you but until then I can’t. So please… Turn off your lights…” “Do you know what I am?” I asked. “No? I’ve never seen or heard of a pony like you before…” Radiant Hope said, looking at me. “That’s because I’m not a Pony. I’m a Changeling. If you’ve been living here for the past thousand years you wouldn’t know about Changelings because we only came into existence a thousand years ago. Probably shortly after the Crystal Empire disappeared. Well… Funny thing about us, we’re emotivores. But with that little fact, comes another ability. Empathy. Magic empathy.” I let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "I can sense the emotions of everything around me. All the Umbra, hiding in the buildings, and that one hiding behind you. The only emotions I've sensed from them are negative and malicious. Even right now I can sense their anger and their hatred towards us and our lights. I can sense they want to kill us. So, no. They aren't nice or misunderstood or whatever. They are, at the very least, actively malicious even if they somehow aren't evil. So I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say they've been deceiving you this entire time. Isn't that right?" I glared at the umbrum behind Radiant Hope who was glaring back at me. Radiant Hope's emotions were a whirlwind. She didn't believe me. "No, you're lying… I've been with them for a thousand years! Rabia, tell them." "Yeah! Sensing emotions… Ridiculous. What about the rest of you? You can't honestly believe this creature can sense emotions, right? Please, you have to believe us! We really do need your help." The umbrum apparently called "Rabia" pleaded. "I'm the bearer of the Element of Honesty. I'm pretty sure you've probably heard of that at least. Well, I can tell yer full of it! Plus, we've known Weaver for over a month now. We know she can sense emotions." Applejack said glaring at Rabia. She then looked at Radiant Hope more sympathetically. "She's lyin' to ya. All of 'em have been." "Yeah! Weaver's impossible to surprise! Believe me, I've tried… Just you wait, I'm going to find some way to surprise you!" Pinkie said glaring at me playfully. I could tell she meant it jokingly. "One of these days…" 'If we make it out of this alive, maybe…' I thought to myself but I didn't voice this pessimistic thought. "Yeah! We all know Weaver's telling the truth! We aren't going to let you trick us!" Twilight declared, moving to stand by my side. "Heck, we'd never even heard of the Umbrum before you told us what you were called. All we knew was what Weaver's empathy told us while we were tracking the last piece of Queen Amore. And she sensed your malice before we even came in here! So you telling us the 'stories' said the Umbrum were evil, pretty much gave you away from the start." Rabia growled and I could feel her anger and hatred growing. Radiant Hope was in denial. She shook her head. "No… All of you are either lying or you have no idea what you're talking about… I'm not giving you the last piece of Queen Amore. So, please just leave. If you aren't going to help us and you won't turn off your lights you aren't welcome here." Knowing exactly where it was through my empathy, I grabbed the piece of Queen Amore with my telekinesis, ripped it off of Radiant Hope, who had it tied around her neck like a necklace only keeping it hidden under the brown cloak she was wearing, and quickly stuffed it into my remaining saddlebag. It was a small piece. No bigger than two inches long and maybe half an inch thick. But even that tiny piece could have been to something vital. "No!" Radiant Hope cried out. "Give it back!" "No. We're fixing Queen Amore… Also, you might want to look behind you." I told her. She turned her head to look over her shoulder and saw Rabia had gone completely mask off. Rabia had taken a horrifying monstrous form. Shock and fear spiked within Radiant Hope. Grabbing my ultrabright torch with my telekinesis, I took it out and thrust it into Rabia causing the Umbrum to shriek in agony and back away. Once she was far enough away, Rabia hissed, "Sombra said you would come… He was worried because he didn't know where the final piece was. I informed him it was with us and we would keep it safe… We will not allow you to bring back that crystal harlot!" Her once cutesy and friendly voice had become scratchy, dark, and as monstrous as her new form. "Rabia… W-what is…?" Radiant Hope asked, backing away in terror. "Be silent for once in your worthless life, you numbskull! You lost the final piece! We should rip you apart for your failure with the rest of the foals!" More and more monstrous Umbra started to crawl out of their homes. Each of them ready to pounce on us and slaughter us. I grabbed Radiant Hope with my magic and dragged her towards us. She wasn't at fault here. She'd been manipulated and deceived for the past thousand years. "You took advantage of Hope's friendship. You've lied to her for a thousand years." Twilight growled, apparently more upset about that then the fact our lives were presently in very serious danger. "HAHAHAHA! I just gave Hope what she wanted. She wanted Sombra to not be what we are. She wanted me to tell her Sombra was not a monster." "He's not! He's good inside! I know he is!" Radiant Hope objected. "You foal! Sombra's just as much an Umbrum as any of us! When he was just a young colt, we came up with a plan. Our powers kept us from crossing through the Crystal. So we had to seal the darkness away in him. We had to make him look and seem like a pony, so he could pass through. When the ponies took him in, they wouldn't know what he really was. It was hidden, even from him, until he was strong enough. But you kept him from releasing us then. We've waited thousands of years and we won't let you stop us again." Rabia monologued. "Hm. Interesting. Unfortunately for you, you've been monologuing." I said before tossing freshly enchanted crystal flashers in every direction. While she was monologuing I'd been busy enchanting crystals in my saddle bag. So I had time to make plenty of them. How she didn't notice the green glow around my horn, I had no idea. The umbra screeched as the bright strobing lights caused them pain. Several weren't caught in the attack and immediately charged us. All of us started swinging our torches at them, trying to force them back. "We're surrounded!" Applejack called out. "Yeah, we've noticed! We're gonna have to fight our way out of here!" I shouted back as I tried to start moving back the way we came. I felt more and more Umbra coming towards us with each passing second. Word was apparently spreading fast. "More are coming. We have to move or we're going to be completely overrun!" "We're trying, darling! These brutes are quite stubborn!" Rarity called out swinging her torch at a few Umbra that were trying to get closer. They hissed and wailed in pain but refused to back away. They were trying to press forward despite the pain making it difficult for them "Guys! I don't think the lights are stopping them!" Pinkie said nervously as two umbra slowly marched forward despite their pain. I grit my teeth. "Twilight, teleport us out! Now!" "Right!" Twilight exclaimed. Her horn glowed for a moment before the spell fizzled out. Her eyes widened in surprise and fear. "I can't! It's just like Sombra's crystals! Something's stopping me from teleporting!" "Did you really think it would be so easy? We've spent thousands of years in this prison. Did you think we wouldn't have put spells in place to prevent intruders from escaping us so easily? Especially when Sombra came to us asking about the final piece of Amore?" Rabia hissed mockingly. I threw more and more flashers and held some in the air. I could sense quite a few umbra above us. They could fly too or I'd just grab everyone and fly us out. My ideas for how we could escape were rapidly dwindling. "I can't believe this… The past thousand years… I know there's good in all of you! I've seen it myself! Please, all of you are my friends! Let's talk this out!" Radiant Hope pleaded, stepping forward. "What the hell are you doing?! Get back here you idiot!" I shouted at her as she kept walking. She continued to plead and try to convince the umbra surrounding us, only to get swarmed as soon as she was far enough away from our lights. Four separate umbrum pounced on her and started tearing into her. She screamed and I could sense her fear, pain, and betrayal. Without even thinking I rushed forward and started swinging my torch and throwing flashers forcing the umbra off of her. She was in bad shape. They'd torn chunks out of her. I honestly wasn't sure if she was going to survive. Still I levitated her onto my back, positioning her so she wouldn't get in the way of my wings. I guess my time in the Wards had left its mark on me and that little girl who looked up to the heroes was still in there somewhere. Because logically, I knew I shouldn't have bothered. The situation was too dangerous for me to care about one suicidal idiot. And my unfortunate bout of heroism cost me… My rushing to her aid left a gap in our defenses and the Umbrum were quick to exploit it. They rushed into the gap I left and immediately started attacking the others. "No!" I shouted. I tried to beat them off with my torch and flashers, and to their credit the girls tried fighting back, but it was all useless. The light was hurting them, but it wasn't doing any real damage. And without dealing any damage they were able to push through the pain to stay where they were and keep attacking. I needed to do something but what?! I thought hard… Love and light. I needed to mix the light with love somehow! But I had been trying ever since we left the Empire and I hadn't had any luck. The simple fact was that I didn't know how to infuse my magic with love. I didn't even know if it was possible for a changeling to infuse their magic with love. For all I knew it could have been an intake only kind of system. I grit my teeth. I didn't have a choice. I had to at least try or we were all going to die. If it didn't work… Well… This was the end… It was do or die. Closing my eyes I focused hard on everyone I loved. My mom, my dad, Brian, Lisa, Aisha, Rachel, Alec… Not knowing what else to do I tried to use my love for each of them and focus it through my horn. Since I was great at multitasking I also tried my absolute hardest to forcibly drag the love I had consumed out of me and focus that through my horn too. Essentially I was throwing everything left that I could possibly think of against the wall to see if something, anything, would stick. I had to kill these monsters… They needed to die or they were going to kill us… But, just as if not more importantly, I needed to save the others. Their lives mattered more than hurting or killing these things. Suddenly there was a blindingly bright flash of light and I could feel myself getting hungry exceedingly fast. I was using up all the love I'd consumed from Rainbow and Fluttershy way too fast. It was agony. I legitimately felt like I was starting to die from starvation, but I was also pretty sure I had finally done it. But there was a problem. It felt wrong, somehow. Almost like the love energy itself was somehow rejecting the way I was using it. I didn't fully understand why it was fighting me, but I was able to sort of force it to do what I wanted, only this cost me more of my already desperately dwindling energy. The howls and screeching of the Umbrum up until this point could not compare to the unholy cacophony that resulted from what I had just done. I felt several of their presences disappear as the ones closest to me were incinerated and died. The ones just outside the kill radius collapsed in critical condition and the ones even further away were injured to varying degrees depending on their proximity to me. For all intents and purposes it was almost as if I'd detonated a bomb. When it was over I felt light headed. My vision blurred and I almost collapsed. However, I knew that if I collapsed now, we were all going to die and what I just did would have been for nothing. It was difficult. Very difficult but I remained standing. Grabbing everyone with my telekinesis I flew with every ounce of my strength, dragging them all along behind me with what very little energy I had left. I flew past the Umbra that had been further away or had been kept safe behind buildings. Even as I felt them bite and tear into my carapace. I didn't stop. I just kept flying until I was out of the city. Then I didn't stop until I had reached the exit. Then I threw everyone out before flying through myself. Once I was outside with all of them, I grabbed them again and kept flying. I could hear voices calling out to me but I was too exhausted to listen. I needed to get us back to the Empire or we would all die. Either the Umbrum or Sombra would kill us… I had to keep going… I had to… I… I… Everything went black.