In The Twilight of Harmony’s End

by Leonofsweden

Chapter 14 Crystal Conquest

Princess Cadence awoke with a start; something had disturbed her sleep. She couldn't put her horn on it, but she felt something, a presence. Dark and threatening, like King Sombra… only more absolute, as if Sombra had only been a bleak shadow compared to what was watching her now.

Cadence had to fight against the screaming terror just to turn her head towards the arched entrance of her and Shining Armor's bedchamber.

As her eyes fell upon what stood there, they turned to pinpricks. True fear shot up her spine as she beheld the shadow standing there with wings spread wide, pointed teeth glimmering in the darkness as it grinned at her.

Cadence met the shadow’s serpentine eyes, and at that moment, a voice sounded in her head.

“You are mine, Little Princess… I will make you the next nightmare. You thought what Chrysalis could do with love was frightening. When you are done with your husband tonight, tales will be told through the ages of just how much suffering love can truly inflict.”

“Ahhhhhh!” Cadence screamed as she sat up straight in the bed, startling Shining Armor into full wakefulness as well.

Blinking, Cadence looked frantically around herself, but the shadow was gone.

“Honey? Cady? Are you okay? What's wrong?” Shining Armor inquired soothingly while he stroked Cadence reassuringly on her back.

“I… I…” Cadence calmed herself by doing her breathing exercise, “It was a nightmare honey… I'm okay now, it was just really vivid.”

“Was it the caves again?” Shining asked worriedly.

“No… It was, I don't know… Like Sombra’s fear magic, but so much worse.” Cadence answered and drew in a ragged breath.

“Sombra? You've never had a nightmare about him before.” Shining stated.

“No, it wasn't Sombra. It was more like-” Cadence suddenly looked around herself, realizing something ominous. “Why are there no guards here to see if something's wrong?”

When the obvious lack of guards was pointed out to Shining, he frowned and got out of bed, heading towards the exit.

“Gleaming Mirror! Crystal Edge! If you two have fallen asleep on post you’ll both be guarding the railway station for the next two months!” The prince threatened as he walked around the corner to check on why the guards had not responded to his wife's distress.

“What the…” Cadence heard her husband mutter before he gasped loudly.

Cadence immediately followed her husband out of the bedroom. He was standing next to an unconscious Crystal Edge. But his eyes weren't on the crystal guard; they were fixed further down the hall where Cadence caught a glimpse of something disappearing down the stairs towards the throne room.

“Halt!” Shining bellowed and set off after the intruder.

“No wait!” Cadence yelled as she followed her husband.

Shining Armor didn’t listen, too caught up in the chase to hear the fear in Cadence’s voice. Shining almost flew down the stairs, taking several steps at a time, Cadence followed closely behind her husband, gliding down silently on her wings.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs together, they saw the shadowy figure disappear into the throne room. Not wasting a second, Shining once again set off, disregarding any warning his wife tried to voice.

When he entered, he immediately became aware of something that has never been there before. In the center of the throne room, a giant trap door was now open. On closer inspection, Shining Armor realized it was a stairway leading down into darkness.

Although when he heard hoof steps echoing up from below, any second thought about what to do next vanished as he lit his horn and set off after the fleeing intruder.

“Wait!” Cadence called frantically as she followed her husband’s headlong rush down into the gloom.

“We can't hesitate! Whatever it is, it's getting away!” Shining armor called back angrily.

When they reached the bottom, they quickly found their way through an open door and onto a new set of stairs, now leading up in the opposite direction. All throughout the chase, they could both hear the hoof falls just out of sight as they followed them up this spiral staircase.

Finally, they reached the top, Shining Armor covered in sweat and panting heavily, while Cadence looked a little bit better, relying on her earth pony endurance.

“There!” Shining spat as he pointed towards the shadowy figure, then he froze as he realized the shadow had both wings and a horn. Not only that, it was also looming over a little foal curled up in the center of what looked like the top of the crystal tower.

“Welcome!” The shadow said very sweetly, “I hope I'm not disturbing your rest too much. Although you shouldn't worry about that anyway; you’ll both be taking a long nap shortly.” The apparition said and then laughed at the royal couple now facing it.

“Step away from the filly! Or there will be consequences!” Cadence warned as she took up an aggressive stance next to her husband, who was scraping his hoof against the crystal floor in a clearly aggressive manner. Both were glaring as if they could make the shadow disappear with their angry stares alone.

“Oh, do you mean this filly?” The shadow asked mockingly as it levitated the little orange bundle so that both Cadence and Shining Armor could see it clearly, “I picked her up on the way here. I thought it would be more fitting if you knew the filly whose life you would be risking if you oppose me.”

At that statement, both Cadence and Shining understood that they did in fact know who this little filly was. It was one of their flower fillies from their wedding. They had met her on a few occasions, since she was somehow close to the elements of harmony. One in the close-knit group of friends called the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Isn't… Isn't that the little sister of the Element of Generosity, or was it Honesty?” Shining whispered to his wife.

“No… That's a Pegasus; I think she was with Rainbow if I remember correctly.” Cadence answered quietly while they both advanced carefully, keeping a close eye on their opponents.

“Aha, aha, aha…” The shadow warns, sending a shock through the filly who screams out before falling unconscious again, “Play nice, or this will end very badly for this little darling.”

“You monster! You let her go this instant!” Cadence roared at the sight of the filly being hurt.

“Then you better start listening to what I have to say,” the shadow alicorn snarled as it began retreating backwards, still keeping the hovering little Pegasus between itself and the enraged monarchs who both kept advancing on it.

Suddenly, they both stepped onto a big star in the middle of the floor that they’d failed to notice. The star turned dark black before jagged black crystals shot up from the floor, trapping the royal couple within.

“What the!? NO!” Cadence shouted in surprise when she realized they had both been trapped.

“Behind me!” Shining armor ordered hurriedly.

Outside of the trap, the shadow alicorn and the little filly were both laughing their tails off.

“Oh, I never thought you would actually fall for that!” the orange Pegasus managed to get out before she continued rolling on the floor laughing. “The look on your faces! By the moon, that was hilarious!”

Both Cadence and Shining Armor were now watching the filly with disbelieving eyes as she continued to laugh while the shadow alicorn stood just behind her with a smug grin across its face.

“You… You were helping her?” Cadence asked, unable to accept what was clear to see in front of her.

“What? Help who?” The little orange Pegasus asked in confusion before looking back at the shadow alicorn.

“Oh, you mean her?” The filly asked with a smirk, “Don’t worry about her; she's not real.”

With that, the shadow seemed to melt into the ground and flow onto the filly. It transformed the little orange Pegasus, who soon stood before them clad in a very good copy of Nightmare Moon’s armor. Although the fake horn protruding from the armor was a clear divergence from the original.

“What is this?” Shining Armor growled through gritted teeth, “Release us this instant young one! I don't know what it is you think you're doing, but this prank has gone on long enough.”

“Prank?” The filly asked raising an eyebrow, “Oh no, this is no joke. You might not take me seriously because of my current diminutive form. But I assure you Prince, this is no prank.”

As Cadence and Shining Armor met the serpentine eyes of the orange filly, they both realized for the first time just how much trouble they were in.

“Who... who are you?” Cadence asked.

“I'm sorry, where are my manners? My name is Void. You might know my filly half better as Scootaloo, the orphan no pony wanted, and my more magical side as the Rainbow of Darkness, although perhaps Nightmare is a better-known name for her.” Void said while she gave a mock bow to the two trapped Royals.

“What do you want?” Shining Armor demanded to know.

“Nothing much,” Void answered as she looked at the once-again enraged Prince, “I just need you two to keep out of the way for a while, and this little enchanted space that my pupil Sombra left here to hide the Crystal Heart is ideal for that purpose. This place might look open from this point of view, but is only accessible through the stairs you used to get here. You can leave it easily enough, but nothing will ever be able to enter or even find it from the outside.”

“Then it seems it's time for us to leave.” Cadence said as she grabbed onto Shining Armor and extended her wings, launching them both upwards towards the open top of their enclosure.

But the moment they were level with the top of the dark crystals, black lightning shot through them, freezing them both in midair as they screamed out in pain. When the lightning stopped, they both fell back to the floor, landing with two loud thuds.

Groaning, Cadence was the first to make it back to her hooves, followed closely behind by Shining. Although he had to sit down in order not to fall over again.

“Well that was stupid; you two really thought it would be that easy to get out of there? Not even Twilight could escape, and she at least has a basic knowledge of black magic, having seen Celestia use it once if I remember her story correctly. Thanks to the taboo the princesses have on learning anything about black magic, neither of you two have the slightest clue of how to get out of there.” Void stated with a pleased chuckle.

“We'll see about that!” Cadence retorted defiantly, “Shining! Use my strength and break this trap!”

With that, the two of them locked their horns together and slowly ascended. They started to glow with immense magical power before a pink bubble exploded out from them.

As the blast passed through the black crystals, they all shattered into thousands of pieces. Void felt herself being pushed a few feet back, but other than that, the pink bubbles seem to leave her completely unharmed. When Void looked up at the shattered black crystals, she could see that they had not fallen apart. They were all severely cracked, but they held together, and what's more they were already starting to mend the cracks that were running through them.

Therefore, when Cadence and Shining Armor looked up expecting to find that they were free and Void flung out into the Arctic wilderness, they instead had the displeasure of seeing the last fractures in the black crystal mend themselves in front of their eyes.

“That's… That's not possible!” Shining shouted, “Not even Chrysalis and her army could stand against that!”

“Well I'm not Chrysalis, as you clearly can see, and that little display of yours has most likely alerted more than a few ponies to the fact that something's wrong. So I'm afraid this little game of ours is over.” Void said as she put her horn against the black crystal prison King Sombra had left.

“Don't worry my little ponies; hopefully you will both survive this.” With that Void altered the properties of the crystals surrounding Cadence and Shining Armor.

“No don-” Cadence hadn’t even fully managed to reach her husband before there was a bright flash.

Void fell over onto her side panting heavily before looking up at the now solid pillar of Crystal which held within it both the Prince and Princess of the Crystal Empire.

With a final huff, Void stood up again, making sure that everything had gone as planned. As she put her horn against the black crystal, she could feel that the two within were now held in suspended animation, unable to do a single thing until she decided to let them go… At least, she hoped she would be able to let them go at some point.

With a careful smile on her face, she silently thanked King Sombra for leaving this trap here for her to expand upon; it would after all have been more or less impossible for Void to pull this off without his spell as a base. The power requirements for her to do this from scratch would just have been too great for her current body to handle.

As Void made her way towards the edge of the tower, she absentmindedly reached out with her magic and broke off two black shards of void Crystal to take with her. Both Luna and Celestia had encountered this magic-absorbing Crystal before, but hopefully the element of surprise she had would create openings where she can use them to maximum effect.

If she was really lucky, Void wouldn't even have to face them together at once. With that happy thought, she spread her wings and jumped out into the cold northern night. She circled the tower once to make sure not even she could find or feel her way back into the hidden chamber which now held Cadence and Shining Armor captive.

Happy in the knowledge that she could not, Void set of back towards Equestria.

Thanks to Cyanhyde - pre-reader/editor