Cacophony
It was a week before Twilight and company were able to set out, and three days constant travel before they reached Canterlot. It wasn’t any great distance between the cities as the bird flies, but the forests, valleys, and rocky ground made travel slow and difficult.
Twilight Sparkle slowed and allowed Lyra Heartstrings to catch up to her. “You doing alright?”
Lyra sighed as she rubbed one shin with a hoof. “I will be once this tin-plated tyrant is put down, and we can all go back to Ponyville.”
“I’m with you there,” Shining Armor said. “Keep your heads down, Canterlot Mountain is just over that hill.”
Spike sat up on Twilight’s back and shielded his eyes with a claw. “I can’t see the mountain through the trees.”
Applejack shifted her saddlebags to a more comfortable position on her frame. “Ah ain’t looking forwards tah climbin’ up all that way. We usually took the train.”
“Lucky for us,” Rarity piped up, “we won’t be doing much real climbing. You’re sure you remember where you and Cadance came out, Twilight?”
Twilight nodded. “There’s a cave opening about a hundred meters above the ground. We shouldn’t have any trouble climbing up from the inside.” She glanced at Pinkie Pie pronking her way forward. “Or, in Pinkie’s case, bouncing up.”
“You know it!” Pinkie giggled.
Shining held out a hoof and brought it to his lips. His horn glowed, and he pulled aside some of the foliage blocking their path. The company gasped as one when the majestic Canterlot Castle came into view.
It was nearly unrecognizable. The marbled walls were a muted purple, with streaks of black swirling this way and that. Each spire was topped with sinister-looking crystal spikes that glowed with faint lavender light. A thick wall of pure crystal had been erected around the palace, and constant patrols could be seen everywhere. The city was dark, trails of smoke rising occasionally between buildings and from chimneys.
“Here comes the reckoning, Sombra,” Shining Armor snarled.
They set off at a quick trot around the base of the mountain. A few minutes later, the cave mouth that Twilight had described came into view. The mountain wasn’t very steep that low to the ground, and they made short work of the climb upwards. Twilight lit her horn and looked around the cavern.
Her light glinted off of the crystalline walls, brightening the entire room. “This was where Cadance and I escaped the changeling queen. These tunnels go all throughout the mountain.” She turned to them with a grimace. “Even right below the throne room.”
“Well, we certainly won’t be coming out in the throne room,” Rarity muttered. “I have no wish to meet the king personally just yet.”
They walked with careful hoofsteps, their ears swiveling for any sign of discovery. Applejack straightened. “Hay, y’all hear that?”
Pinkie’s curls bobbed as she nodded. “Yeah, like a thousand tiny little itsy-bitsy drums.”
Twilight pushed further ahead. “What is it? It sounds like it’s pony-made.”
Rarity and Spike stiffened. “T-Twi—” Spike choked out. “Twi, it’s the D-Dia—!”
Twilight rounded the corner, and the beat finally became clear.
“Diamond Dogs
Diamond Dogs
Gems we find and
Gems we hog!”
Pickaxes of all shapes and sizes cut against the crystalline walls of the cavern, wielded by an army of Diamond Dogs.
“Mining deep
Digging fast
Stealing gems from
First to last!”
Rarity gave a startled choke and slipped on a smooth outcropping. She was held back by Applejack, but not before she kicked a small stone loose. It fell in the darkness, but the sound of it hitting the floor was swallowed up by the noise of the pickaxes.
They all breathed a sigh of relief. Shining Armor took point, leading the way across the top ledge of the cave. They all kept a wary eye on the digging below them, hoping against hope that the Dogs would simply not look up.
They were halfway across the room before a few Diamond Dog noses began to twitch. First one, then a couple, then several heads turned to look upwards, squinting at the ponies overhead.
Pinkie Pie spoke for the lot. “Oh, shoot!”
A madcap, single-file stampede ensued on the high ledge as the ponies raced for cover. Along the way, they were pelted with thrown pickaxes and rocks. A hefty chunk struck Lyra on the knee, nearly sending her over the edge. Applejack grasped her tail in her teeth, hoisting her back up. Shining Armor crafted a shield from magic and used it to ram through a short crystal wall blocking their way. “In here! Hurry!”
The howls of the Diamond Dogs followed them as they ran. Narrow bridges across chasms, perilous drops into infinity, and dangerous groupings of stalagmites blocked the path at every turn. A spear landed a hoof’s breadth from Twilight’s hoof, and she poured on even more steam.
The next archway led them to a dead end. It was a short ledge opening up into a wide, deep pit. Even with magic lighting, they were unable to see the bottom. They looked around as a screechy, echoing voice pierced their ears. “Know how dogs hunt, ponies!?”
“Rover Redvest!” Rarity squeaked.
The ledge rumbled beneath them. “Split ’em up and pick ’em off!”
Spike clung tightly to Twilight’s neck as the ground fell out from under her. They screamed as the ledge crumbled and they found themselves tumbling. The unicorn landed on a smooth surface a moment later, just before a pink mass of fluff landed on top of her.
With the added weight, Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie slid down the smooth surface. “It’s a slide! Hang on!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noted that Rarity and Applejack had landed on a separate slide that led away from the others. Wind whipped past her face as she picked up speed. She strained and caught sight of her brother, whose slide was on the other side of hers. He gritted his teeth and tried to dig his hooves into the nearly-frictionless surface, but to no avail.
A scream from below stole her attention. Lyra slid past on her rump, all four legs flailing. Twilight tried to reach down and grasp her hoof, but Lyra’s descent was too quick. She disappeared down into the darkness on a fourth slide.
Shining Armor landed face-first in a cart-full of gemstones, his purple shield shimmering on impact. He spat out a topaz and shifted himself out of the cart. He shook his head, getting a bearing on his surroundings. It took him a moment to notice the dozen Diamond Dogs pointing spears at him.
Shining squared his shoulders and smirked. “Lucky for you guys, I’m currently accepting surrenders.”
The Dogs tilted their heads almost as one.
“And if you help me look for my sister,” he continued, “I won’t even crack your skulls together.”
The Dogs snarled and lunged, a dozen spears pointed at Shining’s heart. The points ricocheted off of his glowing shield, startling his foes. He bucked one, sending it flying into two of its brethren. Two more Dogs found their spears encased in the lavender glow and yanked out of their grubby paws. The spears spun around Shining Armor, thwacking Dogs on the head as they passed by. A quick magic blast laid low the Diamond Dogs not occupied with his assault.
He dusted off his armor as he surveyed the unconscious bodies. “So that’s a ‘no’ to the surrender?”
He looked at the slide he had arrived on and decided it was too steep to climb. Cart tracks led in the other direction. He rolled his neck and set forth at a run, planning on finding a way out of the caverns.
Rarity and Applejack landed in a crumpled heap. The unicorn of the two raised her head and twitched her nostrils. “My word, there’s no mistaking the pungent Eau de Diamond Dog in the air.”
Applejack shrugged. “Ain’t much worse than what we got on the farm.” She picked her hat up and placed it on her head. “But… given the choice, ah’d rather sleep with the hogs than the Dogs.”
Rarity trotted into the darkness for a ways. “I wouldn’t call that much of a choice, dear.” Her ear twitched. “Do you feel a draft?”
Applejack licked her hoof and lifted it. “Yeah, ah got it. Right over this way.”
Rarity suppressed a gag and followed her friend.
The slide looped up and around and over and through. Twilight Sparkle groaned as her stomach churned. They soon entered another large chamber, huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling like dragon teeth. A spark flashed in her eyes.
“Everypony, hold on!” She gathered up a charge of magical energy, slowly building it to avoid overloading her horn. She took aim, steadied her breathing, and let it fly.
It struck the base of the stalactite, cracking it all the way through. With its support weakened, the spike fell from the ceiling, heading straight for the slide. “Hold on!”
Pinkie Pie dragged her hooves on the sides of the slide as best she could, but even that didn’t slow them by much. Her eyes widened as the sharp crystal construct barreled towards them.
It impacted the slide a mere moment before they reached the same point. Spike, Twilight, and Pinkie crashed into it face-first. The dragon groaned as he peeled himself off of it. “Great, now what?”
“Now we’re not sliding,” Twilight said. “And now we can make some sort of plan.” She climbed onto the flat top of the stalactite and shined her light around the cavern.
She chewed on the end of her mane. “I don’t think these were here last time. I think the Diamond Dogs built the slides to get around, like they did back in the Barrens. They had to have some way of getting to this spot so that they could work on it, right?”
Pinkie brightened up. “Like some sort of scaffolding that might still be lying around because they only just finished creating the slide?”
Twilight nodded absently as she surveyed the room. “Yeah, pretty much.”
Pinkie touched a hoof to her mouth. “Do you think it’s a rope system? Like a harness connected to pulleys and stuff?”
“It could be, if the Diamond Dogs are smart enough to pull that off.” Twilight looked up at the stalactites still hanging from the ceiling. “If nothing else, maybe I can make a bridge out of a few of the bigger…”
The squeaking of wheels reached her ears. “Pinkie, what are you—” She blinked at the sight of Pinkie Pie and Spike pulling themselves along a rope tether, both strapped into a personal harness.
“Well,” Spike said with a smirk, “are you coming?”
Lyra Heartstrings landed on her back, out of breath due to her screaming fall. She clutched at her side and scrunched up her face in pain. One of her hooves reached behind her and explored her saddlebags for something very precious to her.
She pulled out her lyre, which appeared to be none the worse for wear. She sighed and held it tight to her chest.
There wasn’t much light, save for what she generated with her horn. A cocked ear heard no signs of movement, or worse, Dogs. She gave the instrument a quiet strum and stuck it back into her bag. With nothing else to do, she decided to walk until she hit a dead end.
Her hooves clomped on the crystal floor beneath her feet, and the sound echoed through the tunnel. The darkness surrounding her began to close in, quickening her steps. She forced herself to take in deep breaths. She turned a corner and found herself face-to-face with a swarm of tiny, red-eyed bats.
They were as startled at her appearance as she was at theirs. With little warning, the little rodents swarmed around her, eliciting a scream. Her hooves pounded to answer her need to get far, far away from the cloud of bats.
Her panic led her to a deep cavern that seemed to go down forever.
Her heart caught in her throat as she skidded to a stop just short of plummeting to her death. The bats fluttered into the cavern, brushing past her and scratching at her with their tiny claws. Silence fell as she sobbed on the ledge, shivering with her legs tucked close to her body.
She swallowed and slowly got to her feet. She kicked a rock and watched it drop into the darkness. “S-so much for an adventure, huh?”
“Aw, did the little pony want adventure?”
Lyra screamed as she spun on the source of the voice. A hulking Diamond Dog rounded the corner, followed closely by a midsized Dog in a red vest. The vested creature snarled as it hefted a spiked club. “Little pony all alone. Little pony cry for its friends!”
Lyra’s back leg met empty air as she ran out of room to retreat. “Don’t… um… don’t come any closer.”
“Or what!?” Rover Redvest roared. “You sing at me!? You make stupid little pony whining noises at me!?”
The big Dog grasped her by the throat and lifted her over his head. She yelped as he tossed her back into the tunnel. She landed against the crystal wall and slumped to the ground.
“Fido, make sure no other little ponies interrupt,” Rover said. The hefty Dog lumbered around the corner with a nod.
Rover grasped Lyra’s ear and lifted her to her feet. “Dogs tired of being wussy. Tired of being stupid! We show us not stupid!”
Lyra took a deep breath to inflate her lungs, then let loose with the highest note she was capable of. Rover howled and stumbled back, tearing at his ears. He tripped and fell to his rump, whining all the while. Lyra heaved out a sigh and turned.
Fido’s fist met her face with a whap.
She shook her head as the world spun. Everything was doubled. She struggled to focus on even one thing.
The first thing to come into focus was Rover Redvest, hefting his spiked club.
“Bad idea,” he said.
The last thing that came into focus was the club traveling at a mile a minute towards the side of her head.
Shining Armor walked for quite a ways, tangentially aware that he was going uphill. He came to a fork in the path; one led into an empty cavern, and the other to a staircase leading to the surface. He took the staircase with caution, making sure to ease around corners and avoid contact.
A trap door lay at the top of the stairs, unsealed from either side. It opened up into one of the lower levels of the castle, where the servants lived. Plain walls and plainer rooms were the norm, though they were darkly discolored by Sombra’s influence. He walked slowly through the halls until his ears perked up at a conversation happening on the other side of a thin door.
“Hay. Hay! Hay, Runamuck!”
A snort. “Yeah, what is it?”
Clattering dishes. “The boss wants us to be on watch in the dungeons tonight.”
“What!? Do I gotta listen to Discord flap his gums all night long again?”
Shining ducked around the corner as two pegasus soldiers in full finery trotted out of their room. The black one with a white mane snorted. “Runamuck, either you listen tah Discord’s ramblings, or I listen to the empty sound your skull makes when Sombra plays croquet with it.”
The white one with a black mane shook his head. “Hay, Runabout? Shut up.”
They rounded the corner and came face to face with a smiling Shining Armor. “Gentlecolts.”
He grasped both of their heads, smashing them together with a quick spell. They slumped to the ground and Shining pressed his forehooves on their necks. “Either of you turncoats wanna tell me what you’re doing here?”
“Aw, aw crud!” Runabout gasped. “He’s here for the princesses!”
Shining arched an eyebrow. “The what?”
“We’ll show you where they are, Captain Shining Armor!” Runamuck choked. “J-just don’t kill us!”
“You’re disgusting,” Shining Armor sneered. “And it’s Prince Shining Armor, now.”
“Oh, Glory…” Runabout shivered. “Just… they’re in the dungeons. Top level! D-don’t hurt me!”
“You!?” Runamuck growled. “What about me!?”
Shining Armor rolled his eyes and tipped his horn to each in turn. As it touched their foreheads, they fell into a deep sleep. He whisked them back into their room and made his way towards the darker part of the castle.
He glanced out a window at the crystal wall that surrounded the castle. “We’ll meet up at the library, Twilie. Stay safe.”
Twilight Sparkle steadied herself after her ride on the rope harness. “Okay, if I never have to do that ever again, it’ll be too—”
“Twilight,” Spike said, “there’s a ladder over here.”
Twilight walked up to the ladder, which already held Pinkie Pie. The pink pony was testing each step before setting her hooves on it. “Gotta make sure it’s safe, right?”
“Safety’s good,” Twilight muttered, “speed is better. Can you just check every other step?”
They made good time up the ladder, despite the fact that it was made for Diamond Dogs. The steps managed to be just wide enough for their hooves to find purchase, and Pinkie Pie’s balance was eternally excellent.
At the top, they found a trap door. Twilight pushed it up with her head, getting a worm’s eye view of their surroundings. They were in the middle of the Canterlot Castle Gardens, where the once-vibrant plants lay withering under the darkness of the crystal growth.
“It’s only a short walk to the archives from here,” Twilight hissed. “This is gonna be too easy.”
Spike gaped. “You did not just say the magic words. Tell me you didn’t just say the magic words!”
“That’s what I mean, though.” Twilight eased herself into the garden, reaching a hoof down to help Pinkie up. “It’s too easy. There’s gotta be guards, or monsters, or something.”
They tiptoed their way to the building that housed the library and the archives. Twilight’s memory flashed back to the last time the three of them were there, searching for a spell with the power to stop time itself.
She might have been a little crazy at that point.
All was quiet around the library. As surreptitiously as she could, Twilight slid a low-level window open and leaped inside. She was followed soon after by her two friends.
“Okay,” she said. “The Starswirl section ought to be over that way…” She blinked. “Really? Sombra didn’t post a single guard? What kind of evil overlord is he?”
“I’d count my blessings if I was you,” Pinkie warned.
A quick spell opened the door and admitted the three of them. “Alright,” Twilight said, “remember to look for Starswirl’s personal journal. It’s possible it doesn’t have a name on the cover, so go ahead and look through any hoof-bound books.”
Spike gulped. “We could be here all night.”
Twilight shook her head. “Just start in the ‘S’ section. We’ll be real meticulous, yet quick.”
“Can we also be sneaky, yet bold?” Pinkie asked.
“Ha.” Twilight trotted through the aisles. “Hurry. We don’t know what could be waiting…”
She fell silent as a deep, dark voice rumbled through the room. “Windigos feed upon hate and fear, because that is what they are made from.” It came slowly, methodically, and clearly, as if reciting. “They are the dark remains left behind when a pony dies. They are the chaff burned from the wheat. They are the pony which does not become a star.”
Twilight sat down hard, her jaw dropping with her rump, as she stared at the one pony she wanted to see the least. Sombra held a hefty book in his iron-shod hoof, his glowing green-and-red eyes moving along the page. “Their one true weakness is love. The Hearthswarming Spell is, effectively, weaponized love. Three ponies, one from each race, are required to cast this powerful protective spell.”
Sombra lowered the book as a smirk crossed his features. “I don’t suppose you also brought a pegasus, Twilight Sparkle?”
Shining Armor took the stairs two at a time. It was only a moment before he stood in the first level of the dungeon, where Princess Celestia and Luna were being held. He grasped the keys and rushed to the cell doors. “Your Majesties.”
Celestia’s wings spread in surprise. “Shining Armor? What—”
“Twilight’s looking for the journal of Starswirl the Bearded,” Shining explained. “She thinks it’s the answer to Princess Luna’s riddle. I got separated and decided to—”
“Prince Armor,” Luna gasped. “Prince Armor, this cannot be!”
Shining Armor lowered his eyebrows. “What do you mean, Your Highness?”
“Is she not still with the griffons?” she asked. “Did not Lord Gilded Wing have the journal to show to her?”
Shining Armor choked on his own spittle. “It’s with the griffons!?”
Off to the side, in his tidy little cell, the disembodied head of Discord chuckled. “And here I am, with front-row seats to the whole darn thing!”