Chapter 10 – What Makes a Shard?
Princess Cadance had been waiting for them at the Crystal Empire train station when they arrived. Twilight had initially been surprised to see the pink princess flanked by no less than six guards, but as they all made their way towards the palace, Cadance explained the reason for the precaution.
“The situation here is growing graver by the day. Just yesterday, when I left to go after the pony you told me about in your letter, I returned to discover that Shards had been spotted just to the west of the empire. Shining Armor had gathered most of the guard to join me in the Crystal Mountains, so it is fortunate that the Shards did not attack the empire then, as we would have been most vulnerable.”
“How did your trip to find the infected pony go?” Twilight asked. “Did you find out anything useful?”
“It’s actually quite an interesting story, but I’ll explain that in more detail soon enough. The biggest piece of information we learned is that the Shards will be amassing an army to attack my empire at some point.” The princess of love scowled. “I will not let that happen.”
Everypony was suitably horrified at this piece of news.
“An army of Shards?” Pinkie grimaced. “I thought three of them was bad enough…”
“So does this change our plan?” Rainbow asked. “We’re still planning to go into the mountains and hunt them down, right?”
Twilight considered this. “I suppose so, but we need to be careful. If we might come across large numbers of Shards then we need to be more prepared.” She turned to Cadance. “Pinkie tells me that my brother has been fighting Shards for a while now. Is that right?”
“Yes, there’d been occasional sightings of them in the mountains for a few weeks before we talked to Pinkie Pie. Now that we know how big a deal it is, I regret not taking a more aggressive approach from the beginning.” Cadance sighed. “Shining is currently still in the cave where I met Star Hunter. I encountered a large number of Shards there, and he and some of the guard are exploring to see if they can learn where the mist that forms them came from. They should be back soon.”
“You met some Shards?”
Cadance shuddered. “Yes. A lot. I had to fight them, but I was woefully unprepared. If it hadn’t been for a most unusual mare I encountered down there, I might not have come out in one piece.”
“Oh, who did you meet?”
The pink alicorn grinned. “You’ll meet her soon enough. I think you’ll find her interesting and exasperating in equal measure Twilight. I intend that we should all meet up and discuss strategy, and how to fight the Shards. As much as it pains me to admit, I think battle is inevitable, and you are right Twilight. We need to be prepared.”
Half an hour later they were gathered in a room in the palace that Twilight was tempted to think of as ‘Crisis Room Mk. 2’. The congregation of ponies around a table certainly reminded her of that time a few days ago when a different group of them had done the same thing in Canterlot. Hopefully this time around they could devise a plan with less devastating consequences. As she thought this, a sickening feeling arose in her stomach as she realised that she would need to pass on the news of Luna’s death to Cadance at some point. Perhaps it should wait until after this meeting.
Apart from the six element bearers and Cadance, there were two empty seats at the table, at either side of the pink princess. Twilight presumed one would be waiting for her brother when he returned, but she was not sure about the other. She did not have to wait long to find out however, because at that moment the door at the side of the room opened and, without fanfare, a mare calmly walked in.
There were several moments of shocked silence, interrupted by a joyful ‘eep’ as a blur of pink rocketed away from the table to intercept the new arrival. The missile that was Pinkie collided with the mare with enough force to level a small building, causing Maud to slide back a few inches before returning the hug.
“What are you doing here Maud!? This is so exciting! You know, I was here in the Crystal Empire a few days ago, and I really wanted to have a chance to see you, but I didn’t get that chance because I was busy, and then I got attacked, and then I had to go back to Canterlot, but now I get to see you anyway, so that’s really great!” Pinkie stepped back and looked her sister up and down. “You look hurt Maud. Have you not been taking care of yourself? You must remember to go home and clean yourself up occasionally, not just stay outside watching the rocks for days on end. Remember our rule? Five hours of rock time means one hour of Maud time.”
By this point Maud had started to continue her journey towards the table, with Pinkie bouncing excitedly in circles around her. “So do you like it here in the Crystal Empire? Huh? Do you? How does Boulder feel about being do far away from home, surrounded by such different rocks?” Pinkie lowered her voice. “Has he got a crush on any crystals?”
In all this time, nopony else at the table had moved, let alone spoken. Finally, as Maud was reaching her seat, Cadance turned to the others questioningly.
“They’re related? I assumed the shared surname was a coincidence…”
Applejack chuckled. “And Ah suppose their similar personalities didn’t tip you off?”
“Wait, so Maud is who you were talking about?” Twilight asked, amazed.
“She is. I could not have imagined you would all know each other.”
“Are you kidding!?” Pinkie jumped onto the table and spun around happily. “We’re all the bestest of best friends! This is just so amazing I can’t believe it!”
Cadance smiled. “I suppose that saves some time then. I met Maud in the cave network underneath the Crystal Mountains, where it seems most of the Shard activity has been located. If it would not be too much trouble,” she said softly, turning to Maud. “Could you recount your experiences with the Infection and the Shards?”
“You mean when my team died?”
“Uh,” Cadance stuttered, taken aback by her bluntness. “Yes.”
Maud nodded.
“Okay…”
---
The group of four ponies trotted through the long tunnel, their hoofsteps echoing into the distance. White Beacon was leading the way, allowing the spotlight he was emitting from his horn to reveal their passage. Maud and the others did all have lanterns of their own, but there was no sense wasting fuel while the crystal unicorn could do the work for them. Beacon was very talented at creating illumination, as his cutie mark of a ball of light in a jar demonstrated. He had actually offered to provide the others with some of his patented ‘Jars of Light’, but as they were not unicorns, it seemed more prudent to use gas-lit lanterns that they could operate themselves.
Azure Prism walked beside the unicorn, chatting away as always. The two of them had known each other since they were young and did everything together, as far as Maud could tell. She was grateful that she had found them. Azure had known Pinkie, it turned out, and he had suggested that Beacon would be a useful addition to any trip into the tunnels, as was proving to be the case.
The final member of their team was Deep Miner, the only other pony who was actually interested in the caves themselves. He had his own goals, and was intending to catalogue the different gems he could find in a recently identified crystal deposit deeper into the tunnels. Maud had never been that fascinated by precious gemstones, but she could appreciate that his interests may deviate from her own. Unfortunately, he kept bothering her with inane questions, which she was beginning to find irritating. She answered them all the same, but they seemed so irrelevant to the work at hand. Questions like: “Where do you come from?” or “How old are you?” or even “Do you have a special somepony?” It was almost as though he was more interested in her than the amazing cavern structure around them.
And it was a captivating cavern they had just arrived in. The stalactites high up on the ceiling, only barely illuminated by Beacon’s brilliant floodlights, were longer and more finely shaped than any Maud had ever seen. She wished there were a way she could watch them slowly form, but unfortunately she knew that she would not live long enough to witness the finest wonders of nature. Ponies were so ephemeral when compared to the motion of the earth.
“What’s that?” Azure asked, interrupting Maud’s daydreaming.
The other ponies turned to look in the direction the crystal pony was gesturing. It was obvious what had caught his attention. A short distance away from them, a strange haze was gathered just above the ground, and it seemed to be absorbing all of the light that fell upon it. Beacon pointed his horn towards it, with the aim of illuminating it more clearly, but it had no effect.
“You ever seen anything like this, DM?”
“Nu-uh.”
Beacon started walking towards it, almost as though he were compelled, like a moth to a flame.
“Um, Beacon, buddy, are you sure you should be doing that?”
“What? It’s just some mist.” He continued his approach, eyes wide as if in wonder. “It’s intriguing. It’s absorbing all of the light I can pump at it. I wonder how it’s formed.”
“Beacon, please, I don’t like it.” Azure hadn’t stepped any closer, clearly unnerved by the shadowy fog.
“Nonsense.” Beacon finally reached the edge of the mist and peered into its depths. “I’m sure it’s harmless.”
As though waiting for the most ironic moment, the mist suddenly spilled towards the crystal unicorn, and in an instant he had been completely enveloped. Azure screamed in horror, and took a few steps towards his friend, before stepping back, and then forward, clearly unsure what to do. Deep Miner seemed petrified, and Maud was not sure he would be able to move even if his life depended on it. She turned back to the mist, watching warily.
After a few seconds there was the sound of splintering, and the mist dispersed, revealing that White Beacon had simply gone, with nothing but a pile of crystalline fragments where he had been standing. The dispersed mist then started forming into the shape of the unicorn, and, to another horrified yell from Azure Prism, became solid.
Maud shifted her legs slightly, ready to move the instant as it became clear what the best option was. The shadowy construct of Beacon that had just been created had not yet moved, but it was staring at the three of them with glowing eyes. And then, abruptly, the dark mockery of a unicorn ducked his head, pointing his jagged horn at the three of them, and let loose a crackling blast of red magic.
In an instant Maud sprinted to the immobile Deep Miner and threw him across her back. A flash of light and the sound of tearing earth told her that the spell had connected with the ground where she had just been standing, and she made a split-second decision to flee back up the tunnel they had just come down. As she ran, she glanced over her shoulder to see whether Azure was following her, and noticed that he seemed to be fumbling around wildly. The loss of Beacon had had a side-effect of darkening the cave. Perhaps Azure was not so adept at navigating in such little light.
She paused, mind whirring. The shadowy unicorn was clearly aiming to kill; that spell would have been lethal if it connected. If she ran back into the cavern, they might all be in danger. But could she just leave Azure behind?
Making up her mind, she pulled her lantern out of her saddlebags and lit it, then threw it against the wall, creating a bright flash. Hopefully that would be enough to firstly give Azure enough light to see by, and secondly draw the attention of the beast away from the crystal pony and onto herself.
She didn’t pause to see whether it had worked though, continuing her sprint along the tunnel. After a few moments she heard pounding footsteps behind her, and then saw a ray of red magic pass overhead, colliding with the ceiling a distance ahead of her and causing the tunnel to start collapsing.
“Hurry up, Maud!” came a desperate voice from on her back, as the collapsing roof started to block the tunnel. She didn’t speed up though. Calculating the distance to the rockfall and comparing it to the rate at which she was running, she realised she would not make it in time. Not while carrying an earth pony on her back anyway. She dropped Deep Miner.
“What? No, don’t leave me!”
Maud ignored him and instead spun around to face the pursuing unicorn. She identified that he was charging up his horn just in time to push Deep Miner out of the way. The blast of magic hit the ground between them, launching her bodily against one of the walls of the tunnel.
Her vision blurred for a moment, and when she recovered she saw that the jagged crystalline creature had reached them, and was holding a thrashing Deep Miner in its spiky forelegs.
“Let go of me! Let go of me right now!”
Rather than attack the earth pony, as Maud had been expecting the unicorn would, he instead opened his mouth, and the same mist from earlier started to emanate from him. Maud leapt to her hooves, but was not able to reach them before the mist had clouded around Deep Miner’s head, causing him to start choking. The Beacon-shaped construct turned its head towards the approaching mare and let loose another beam of magic, but Maud sidestepped it and continued her approach, before smashing him across the face with all her strength. To her surprise, he was not launched across the tunnel, instead simply disintegrating into fragments.
Maud turned her attention to the choking stallion, and noticed that there were still some remnants of the mist surrounding him, so she grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The motion caused the haze to dissipate, so Maud crouched down to examine Deep Miner, trying to identify what effect the mist had had.
Immediately she could sense something was wrong. There seemed to be a corruption spreading through him, and fast. Instinctively Maud placed a hoof on his chest. She could feel the movement of the corruption, and focussed, trying to force it back. She didn’t question how or why she was able to sense what to do, but for a second at least, it seemed to be working.
Deep Miner however, must have completely misinterpreted her actions. After being thrown onto his back and having a mare crouch over and affectionately press up against him, he turned his head towards hers and started to lean in for a kiss.
The mare’s shocked response was to jump away, and as soon as she had done so, and her hoof had left his body, she saw the corruption surge forwards in full force. Within seconds the normally brown stallion’s body was coated black, and his legs, and then torso, started crystallising. Maud reached out to try and correct her mistake, but just as she did so, the crystals spread over his face, and the life in his eyes faded. At her touch, just like the unicorn before him, he disintegrated into a thousand pieces.
---
“…I couldn’t find Azure Prism, so I decided to do my research alone. Later I saw a Shard shaped like him, so I knew he must have died too.”
There was silence as Maud finished her story. Pinkie in particular seemed unusually reserved.
“Wow,” Rainbow said, breaking the hush. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say so many words.”
Fluttershy frowned at the cyan pegasus, who had the grace to look abashed.
“I hope you don’t blame yourself for their deaths, darling,” Rarity said, concern etched in her features.
“I don’t.”
“Oh, well… good.”
Twilight couldn’t hold back any longer. “So you can sense the effect of the Infection on ponies? And stop it?”
“I can’t stop it. I can slow it down.”
“That’s still incredible! How do you do it?”
“I just look at them and then touch them.”
Twilight nodded glumly. “Of course you do.” It was going to be like trying to understand Pinkie Sense all over again.
“Do any of y’all realise just how close Zecora got to becomin’ a Shard?” Applejack suddenly asked. “Remember when we were in her hut, before she disappeared? That Shard breathed mist at her. If RD hadn’t flapped her wings at it, she’d’ve been infected, sure as sugar.”
Rainbow beamed and puffed her chest out, but beside her, Fluttershy sunk down in her seat.
“Oh, I don’t like that. It would be so easy for any of us to get infected if all it takes is for a Shard to breathe on us…”
“Not if you kill ‘em first.”
“True, but that’s a good point Fluttershy.” Twilight pulled out her notebook and a quill and started inscribing some notes. “We definitely need to be careful to avoid that. I think keeping your distance until the perfect moment sounds like a good idea.”
“Thanks for recounting that, Maud,” Cadance said warmly, smiling at the mare. “We have a better idea than ever before of what we’re up against.” The princess of the Crystal Empire then turned back to the rest of the table. “I think we need to make some plans. My empire will clearly need some greater defence along the northern borders, and I think we should start training the guard to be ready for Shard encounters.”
“We should train too,” Rainbow said immediately, gesturing at her friends.
Cadance blinked, wide eyed. The suggestion was clearly not one she had considered. “If you want to,” she said, hesitantly. “But don’t you think that your efforts would be better placed in finding the source of the Infection?”
“Actually I think Rainbow’s right,” Twilight said. “However we go about it, it seems inevitable we will be encountering Shards. We can’t afford to be unprepared.”
Cadance nodded. “Do you all agree with that?”
There were nods uniformly across the room until Fluttershy, who bowed her head even further behind her mane.
“Fluttershy?”
“I, um, don’t think I’ll be very helpful.”
“Come on Fluttershy, don’t talk yourself down!”
“No, I…” She drifted off into silence. Rainbow wrapped a wing around her shoulders encouragingly, and before long, the shy pegasus looked up, determination on her face. “No, I should help. I’ve been useless both of the last times we met Shards, but if I train with you all, then I can be just as helpful as anypony else.”
Her friends beamed at her.
“Okay then,” Cadance said. “As for longer term plans, I sent a letter to Canterlot, but I haven’t received a reply yet. I was hoping either Celestia or Luna would be able to find time to join us.”
The good mood in the room vanished.
“Uh, Cadance?” Twilight’s voice was hesitant.
“Yes?”
“There’s something I should tell you, about Luna.”
Before she could continue however, she was interrupted by the door to the room slamming open and a tall white unicorn entering.
“Shining!”
The prince looked around the room at the congregated ponies.
“Twily! Everypony! Good to see you all.”
“Is something wrong?” Cadance asked at once. Twilight had also noticed that his voice did not have the same warmth to it as it usually did.
Shining Armor hesitated. “Maybe it can wait. I don’t want to interrupt whatever you were just talking about.”
“If you’re sure,” Cadance said gently, as her husband took the empty seat beside her. “Twilight, you had some news about Luna?”
Twilight grimaced, her motivation having gone. For some reason, Shining Armor also frowned at these words.
“I think I know what that news might be,” he said hesitantly.
“Oh?”
“Perhaps it’s best if I just tell you all what happened…”
---
“Captain Union, you take your unit up the tunnel to the left. Lieutenant Sentry, you take your unit deeper into the cavern. The rest of you, with me.”
There were a flurry of salutes from the ponies around him, and then they all dispersed. Shining Armor immediately led his unit towards the cavern wall to the right. This was the site that his wife had fought the Shards she had met. He scowled to himself. She was lucky to be alive. He knew he shouldn’t have let her come here alone.
They spent the next half an hour scouring the area. A few times they would find a tell-tale pile of fragments, signifying that a Shard had been destroyed at that location. Other than that though, they found nothing of note.
“I think we need to look deeper into the cavern,” he said eventually. “We can join up with second unit.”
No sooner had he decided that than an orange stallion flew over and landed next to him.
“Your highness,” the pegasus began.
“Please Flash, I’ve said this before. You can call me ‘sir’. At least when my wife isn’t here, anyway.”
The pegasus smirked and nodded. “Okay then sir. We’ve found something you ought to see.”
“Lead the way.”
The ‘something’ was much deeper in the cavern, in an area where the ceiling hung a lot lower. By the time they had caught up with the rest of the guard there, he had received word that first unit were returning empty hoofed too. It looked like this would be their only discovery, whatever it was.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?” he asked, after a few seconds of standing in the dark.
“Just wait until your eyes get used to the blackness.”
“Why aren’t we making any light?”
“We don’t want to attract its attention.”
That was enough to intrigue the white unicorn. Peering into the depths, he was slowly able to detect what Flash had meant. He also understood why the rest of the guard were keeping their distance.
Standing calmly, in the middle of nowhere, was a Shard. This was no ordinary Shard however. It had the same black, crystalline body as he was used to seeing, with jagged spikes erupting from it like the skin of a particularly spiny dragon. It also had the same ominous glowing eyes. What was more unusual was its daunting size, and the presence of both a set of large wings and a spear of a horn on the Shard’s forehead. Shining Armor’s heart sunk as he recognised its shape.
“What should we do sir?” a voice asked from behind him. “Should we approach it?”
Shining weighed the options in his head. He knew that pegasus Shards could fly, and that unicorn Shards could perform magic. There was no telling what an alicorn Shard could do. Perhaps it would be best to avoid it at all costs. But then, maybe it would be better to face it now, as a large group, when they could potentially have the element of surprise.
“We attack. Get into positions and await my count.” He paused as he heard the scurrying of ponies from behind him as the guard arranged into formation. “Three… Two… One-”
He was cut off by a deafening screech and suddenly the alicorn Shard was in front of him. He instinctively summoned a magical barrier, which was shattered in one punch from the Shard, launching him through the air. As he lay dazed on the ground he was aware of flashes and bangs coming from the direction of the rest of the guard. It was like watching a strange light show.
Shaking his head, he pulled himself to his hooves. There were few unicorns amongst them, and it was clear that his help would be needed. Charging in, he summoned a shield once more around the nearest guards he could see, putting more strength into it this time. The Shard noticed this and turned its attention back to him. As it pushed itself to the air and launched itself towards him, it was tackled ineffectively from the side by a pegasus guard. In one swing of the Shard’s jagged wings the pegasus was sheared in half.
“No…”
Shining Armor put as much magic into his horn as he could and blasted it directly at the alicorn Shard, but it just shrugged it off. It was becoming clear to him that they would not be winning this fight.
“Retreat!” he called out, loud enough that nopony could miss it. That was easy to say though, but the Shard was not going to make it easy to do. It was flitting from one guard to another, as quick as though it were teleporting, smacking them with its jagged hooves. Shining Armor was summoning as many magical shields as he could, but he couldn’t help but notice the occasional spatters of blood. Just how many guards were being crippled? In return, they had done no damage at all to their opponent.
“Your highness,” came a rushed voice from beside him. He turned around to see a turquoise crystal mare.
“Union.”
“Take down the ceiling.”
Shining blinked. “What?”
“Take it down. Collapse it. It’s the only way to separate that thing from us.”
Shining didn’t have long to think. The alicorn-shaped abomination was getting ready for another approach. “Fine. But we need to make sure it stays on the other side.”
“Leave that to me.”
If Shining had paid more attention to what she was saying, he might have refused. But he wasn’t concentrating, instead pouring all his focus into charging up a spell that could cause a cave-in. A few unicorns nearby realised what he was attempting, and joined in.
“Oi, you!”
Shining looked over to see that Union was walking towards the Shard, waving a hoof. The Shard turned away from the ponies charging their spells and looked towards the crystal mare.
“Come and get me.”
No sooner had she finished those words than Shining and the others released their magic. A huge explosion rocked the entire cavern, and almost immediately giant rocks started tumbling from the roof of the cave. By now, all of the remaining guard had retreated past where the collapse was to happen, except for Union, who was still taunting the Shard.
“Captain, get out of there!” Shining Armor called.
The Shard turned at his words, and then looked up at the falling roof. It seemed to put two and two together, and let out another keening wail before launching itself towards the narrowing passageway.
“Oh no, we’re not finished here!” Union spun around and connected a hind leg with the side of the flying Shard, chipping its body for the first time in the entire battle. The reaction was immediate and horrifying. The Shard stopped in its tracks, and black flames erupted from its body as its eyes blazed red. Spinning around to face the crystal mare, it let out a blood-curdling shriek.
Shining Armor could see the terror in Union’s face, but then she turned and caught his gaze. She gave a swift salute, and a final rumble and falling of rocks blocked her from his view.
A few seconds later the rumbling finally stopped and the remaining guard were completely cut off from the other half of the cavern. Shining took a deep breath, shed a single tear, and then turned to face his ponies.
“We need to get out of here.”
As they were all leaving, Flash Sentry flew over and landed next to him.
“Sir?”
Shining Armor nodded, throat dry.
“That Shard. It was an alicorn.”
The prince nodded again.
“It… err… It looked like Princess Luna.”
A third nod.
“I… um.” The orange pegasus hesitated. “I was there when the Element of Laughter was explaining how Shards are formed. I also saw that night when the moon didn’t rise.”
A fourth nod.
“Does that… er…” He took a deep breath. “Does that mean that Princess Luna is dead?”
Shining Armor did not answer immediately, but he knew he could not be silent forever. “Yes, I think it does.”
Flash nodded back. “Sir, I would like to volunteer to plan and lead a mission to take that Shard out.”
The prince of the Crystal Empire grimaced.
“You’ll have to get in line.”