Shards of Hatred

by ChaoticHarmony

Assembly

“Ugh, why are we still sitting around in here and doing nothing!?” She blasted across the room again, sending wind gusting over the four ponies and one dragon that were sitting down on the luxurious couch that was centered in her flight path. “Why would the Princess just call us and make us wait in this boring room!?” After her way was blocked by the opposite wall, Rainbow Dash did a complete one eighty and began flying across the room again. “This is stupid!” She flipped through the air and landed hard right in front of the guardspony that was standing by the door. “What’s with all the waiting, huh?”

Much to his credit, the guard didn’t even flinch at the glare that she was giving him, even though it was loaded with enough knives to make a lawn with blades of steel instead of grass. Rainbow Dash, with her ever-present levels of calm, nearly pounced on the stallion before she was suddenly yanked back by her tail. “H-Hey!”

“Hold yer’ horses, RD.” She didn’t have to turn around to know it was Applejack pulling her away, as usual. “Ya can’t jus’ go bargin’ into a meetin’ like that!” Of course, Rainbow Dash wasn’t the kind of pony to simply sit there and listen, so she flipped over to glare at her traitorous friend. Though before she could fire back a retort, Applejack stepped closer to her and gave a glare of her own. “Jus’ cuz you’re all riled up an’ wantin’ to know what’s goin’ on don’t mean that you can just barge in like you’re somepony special!”

“But we ar—“

“Oh please, Darling, quit being so overdramatic.” Rarity stepped over to Applejack’s side and tossed Rainbow a disdainful look. She couldn’t believe her ears; Rarity, of all ponies, telling her not to be dramatic. Whether or not her friend was aware of her own hypocrisy was a question never answered as she plowed on after a moment’s pause. “Surely the Princess would have plans for us to be a part of. Why else would she call upon little ponies like us if she didn’t need them?”

“I dunno!” She yanked her tail out of Applejack’s mouth and jumped up to her hooves before turning around. The guard there didn’t even flinch as she stomped over to him and shoved her face into his own. “But I’m gonna find out, so move it, buster!”

After a few seconds had ticked by, the tension in the room had grown to a nearly tangible level, though it was soon interrupted by the sound of a door opening. Rainbow Dash was the first one to react, though not in the way anypony (least of all herself) expected. From her new spot on the light that hung from the ceiling, she could see the confused guard looking side to side for her. “What’s the big idea?” Rainbow Dash cursed her blushing as the bemused guard cleared his throat and looked at the rest of the ponies (and dragon) below.

“The Princess requests that you join the guard’s meeting.” The stallion backed up a bit and waved his hoof towards the door. “Please, follow me.” It wasn’t a request.

Even though she wanted to get right up in this pony’s face too, Rainbow Dash dropped from the ceiling and stuffed her pride away, pointedly ignoring her friends’ giggles behind her as she stalked out of the room with her head held high. “Finally we get to do something!”

After a short journey down a hallway, the sound of voices tickled their ears as they stood outside a handsomely adorned door to what was obviously a very important room. “…but we can’t just allow six mares into a fully-fledged battlefi—“

“Need I remind you, Captain Grey, that many of your predecessors were mares? Mares who, in times of battle, would fearlessly charge into battle and achieve victory against seemingly impossible odds?”

Of course, Rainbow Dash didn’t wait for the guard escorting them to knock before flying up and crashing into the room with a shout. “Who says mares can’t fight?” Of course, her bravado was met with several spears being angled at her and at least three different magical spells stopping her dead in the air. The entire room’s tension could have been cut in half by a mere butter knife, at least until Celestia started chuckling lightly.

“It is alright, guards. Release her.” Celestia’s light mood, however, didn’t last as long as most ponies would have thought. Her face snapped right back into seriousness as the other four ponies stepped into the room flanked by a dragon and at least two now-highly-alerted guards. “Hello, my little ponies, please sit and Captain Grey will explain the situation to you.”

The seasoned soldier looked up from the paper he had been pondering over and blinked, now finding out that every eye in the room was turned towards him without his being prepared. “Er, yes.” He cleared his throat and pointed at the map that was stretched on a board next to him. “This here is the Crystal Empire, which has been taken over once again by Sombra’s forces.” He ignored the collective gasps of the five ponies and one dragon, having heard it from the other guard commanders in the room once already. “The plan is for the Royal Army to attack the enemy from the train station to the south of the capitol.” He looked over to see if his words were getting understood, though he only saw five ponies looking at him with confusion. “And you five, along with your dragon here, will be teleported in behind enemy lines to strike at Sombra himself with the Elements of Harmony.”

“Back up just a second, how in tarnation are we goin’ t’use the Elements when we don’ got Twilight with her Element of Magic?” The rough-cut pony looked over at Applejack with an appraising glance before he answered.

“That’s exactly what I was waiting for the Princess to answer. Without Twilight Sparkle the Elements are nothing but a useless band of necklaces, no offense to those who control them.” He added that last bit due to the dagger-filled glance of Rainbow Dash, the second she had given him in particular when her mind had finally worked out that he was the one who said mares couldn’t fight. “That, and how we will address the fact that we do not have any stallion in the guard who is able to transport not only five mares and a dragon, but an escort of guards as well.”

“Do not worry, Captain Grey. All will be answered in due time. Until that time has arrived, however, I ask that you explain the plan in more detail for these ponies so that it is not forgotten.” Celestia looked out of the window as she spoke, her eyes seeking out the tower that her sister now occupied. That time will arrive soon, if Luna has done her task as well as I believe she can.

I hope that she was successful.

Her eyes opened to a room of darkness, able to see only the slivers of bright, blinding light that poked through the curtains that hung on a the wall. Of course, she turned away from those and closed her eyes to keep out the intruding light, trying desperately to remember what she was doing in such a place, or where she even was at the moment. “H-Hello?”

Nothing answered her but silence, which rang deafeningly as she struggled to get to her hooves. After her first failed attempts, she managed to get herself into a standing position, if only one supported with shaky legs. “Hello?” Her voice was stronger this time, but still nothing answered. “Is anypony there?” She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to the lances of light that were cutting through parts of the room, the outlines of many different objects along the walls becoming visible as she stood there. “Hello?” Her call was a shout this time, but for all its volume it was still unable to break the odd silence that pressed down on the room.

After a step (and a stumble) forward, she found herself staring at a door that was just inches away from her muzzle. “A… A door?” Once she had gotten a grasp of the handle and yanked the slab of darkened oak open, she found herself staring into a stairway into a brighter area. “Wh-where does this go?” Her hoof touched on the first stair.

Flash.

She was staring at a purple-and-green egg, trying desperately to use her horn to do something to it, something that she desperately needed to do otherwise everything would be terrible. After everything she tried had failed, her rump collided with the floor in defeat. At least, until a blast of sound and color flooded the room.

Flash.

Before she stepped any further, she reached up and felt along her forehead for the protrusion that she knew was already there. There wasn’t any time to study what it was, she had to keep going.

Flash.

She was delving into the pages of a book that was nearly as big as she was, her horn sending a bright light and a few sparks all over the pages. It would have worried the librarian, if the magical sparks had had any heat, that is. As it was, her spell shrunk the semi-ancient tome to about half its size; one that would better suit being in her library collection.

Flash.

“I’m a librarian?” She shook her head and took a few more steps down into the lit part of the stairway, the sound of voices below tickling the edge of her hearing.

Flash.

“Twilight Sparkle!” She looked up to see a blinding light above, the shape of her mentor, princess, and long time friend silhouetted against it.

Flash.

“I’m… T-Twilight… Sparkle?” By now the voices were right around the corner, her hooves now moving with a purpose as she sought out whatever, or whoever, was around the next bend.

Flash.

“And magic makes it all complete, my most faithful student.”

Flash.

“Twily?” A moment of tense silence passed as she looked into the room, seeing the blurry outlines of a stallion and a bigger pony, who had both wings and a horn. “Twily!” She didn’t get to react as a wall of white suddenly came into focus and tackled her in a nearly deadly hug. “Oh little sis, I thought something terrible had happened to you!”

For a few seconds, she didn’t know what to do. Everything was still flashing for her, memories of the past swirling and merging with her conscious and forcing themselves into her thoughts. They told her things, things that she had thought that she had tossed away and banished from herself to make herself strong. They taught her of magic. They taught her of the friends she held dear. They taught her all that she had forgotten, and more. “Twily?” Her brother’s voice was uncertain, wary of her being like he had been told she was like.

A second’s silence was all it took for her to wrap her hooves around her brother and sob in relief. “Oh BBBFF, I missed you!” A gentle cough sounded out in the room over her sounds of desperate happiness, reminding her of who else she was in the presence of. After pulling away from her brother, Twilight looked over at Luna and bowed low to the floor. “Princess Luna.”

“We hate to interrupt the moment, but there is a pressing matter that needs to be taken care of.” Twilight and Shining Armor both recoiled from the princess’s intensity, but the latter did not relent in her words. “We think that you know who it is that we speak of, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight looked down to see an extended hoof holding out a black, flickering crystal that pulsated in the light.

A flash of anger rose up within her small body, and only a hint of green touched her irises before she reached out and grabbed the thing with her magic. Bringing it close after breaking away from her hug, she glared into its depths, more specifically at the purple-lined eyes that were no doubt lurking inside of the gem’s facets. “Sombra.”