//------------------------------// // We've Been Robbed? // Story: My Shining Love // by DraconequusMaximus //------------------------------// Velvet and Night Light had headed back up to the observatory for the time being while Wordplay and the guards briefed Shining, Spike, and Twilight. First Wordplay and the guards were given water and seats at the table, as they were quite tired. Apparently they had run a fair distance to the castle in hopes of finding either Shining or Spike. Once the trio was adequately refreshed, everyone sat at the table together to discuss the news. "Miss Wordplay, you claim the most top-secret and well protected facility in the country has been robbed? How is it you know this? Or even that the Dark Magic Artifacts Vault exists?" Shining questioned, taking on a more professional tone. Wordplay coughed into her hoof, looking a bit embarrassed but nonetheless replied. "As a former journalist, I made it my business to know about all the goings on in the empire. I slipped a guard some bits while the facility was being built and he gave me the scoop. My editor refused to post the story, and until now I just pretended not to know anything. "However, since I'm to be Lord Spike's assistant I wanted to get a jump on my duties. I already completed all the paperwork at the necessary offices, so I decided to familiarize myself with the management at all the important government buildings." Wordplay produced several hefty stacks of paperwork from her saddlebags, using her magic to slide them over to Spike, as she was to report directly to him. Spike looked them over briefly, noticing a remarkably familiar level of organization and attention to detail. Had Twilight not spent the last twelve hours with himself, Shining, and their parents Spike would have accused her of doing Wordplay's papers for her. Once Spike returned his attention to the situation, Wordplay saw fit to continue her story. "Since I had already picked up my credentials, and no doubt every pony in the empire knows me after my shameless display earlier, I decided to finish my excursion at the D.M.A.V. "Unfortunately, the building.... exploded, while I was no more than a hundred yards away. The entire back wall of the above-ground portion of the facility was destroyed in a blast of green and red energy. Once the danger had seemingly ceased, I entered the building and found the security team unconscious but relatively unharmed. "After waking the team, I had one of them perform a cursory examination of the entire facility. Going off of his artifact inventory, I was able to create an itemized list of what was missing. Afterwards, two of the security team escorted me back here to brief you, King Shining, and you, Lord Spike." Wordplay finished. Spike was genuinely impressed with Wordplay, but would praise her at a more appropriate time. There was no doubt in Spike's mind Wordplay was telling the truth. The mare was obviously very tired, and Spike's keen senses could tell she had been running around all day judging by the scent of sweat permeating her, masked to average pony noses by some kind of deodorant. It was looking like Wordplay went all or nothing in her work, no matter what she was doing. Yet another thing the mare seemed to have in common with a certain purple alicorn. Wordplay floated her clipboard over to Spike in her yellow magical aura, allowing him to view the list. Spike read the list, and it became instantly clear to him that something was very wrong. While the list was relatively short, the two items Spike could recognize were disturbing to say the least. "The items stolen from the vault were: One, a full suit of armor with cape, previously worn by the false king, Sombra. Two, a changeling corpse floating in a stasis tube of formaldehyde. Three and four, two nondescript, high-security metal boxes, contents unknown." Spike read out loud. Once finished Spike looked to Shining, and what he saw made his heart sink. All the color had drained from Shining's face and he looked very close to panic. It was apparent that Shining knew full well what was in the boxes. Whatever they were, it was likely bad news. Spike reached out to Shining, placing his hand on the stallion's back. Shining blinked a few times and looked at Spike, seemingly as if he had just woken up from a terrible dream. Spike was becoming increasingly worried, but he was at least happy seeing that Shining was still with them. "You alright there Shining? Hun?" Spike asked out of concern. Shining turned to the others at the table, seeing that they were each rather worried. The guards and Wordplay were looking a bit more frazzled than before as well, hoping that their recently returned king was still alright. Shining cursed himself internally for being shaken, doubly so while he had troops that needed rallying. "I'm fine, just surprised. We need to investigate this matter personally though. Right now." Shining replied, getting up from his seat. Spike nodded, and rose to the occasion. Twilight too readied herself for the coming investigation. Surprisingly enough, Wordplay got up from her seat and walked up to Spike to bow. "I'd like to come along sirs. If my new vocation is to be this exciting then I wish to get my hooves wet, providing you'll allow it." Shining was impressed, as most mares would have shied away from such a disturbing situation. However, Wordplay was Spike's assistant so it was up to Spike to decide. Spike figuratively read Shining's mind, taking the initiative to instruct Wordplay on the matter. "It's better if you stayed here to keep an eye on things for us, Wordplay. The guards will have the castle on lock-down, you make sure things run smoothly and personally check in on Shining's parents from time to time. Whenever they decide to go to bed, have two guards stationed outside their room, and one on either side of the corridor." Spike ordered. Wordplay saluted and used her magic to pull her clipboard back to her. She gave the itemized list to Spike, allowing her to write on a fresh sheet of paper. Within seconds, Wordplay had written down her orders and fully intended to follow them verbatim. "Of course, Sir. I will do everything in my power to ensure the safety of the castle and the ponies residing within it." Wordplay affirmed. Spike nodded, happy to see he could count on Wordplay. "Great, just one more thing." Spike told Wordplay. "Yes?" "Take the stick out of your plot. You've already gotten the job, and we're already impressed. No need to be a cold, calculating machine. I want you to be you, whatever that entails. And just call me Spike. Just because you're working as my assistant doesn't mean I don't wanna be your friend. Okay?" Wordplay smiled, pulling the pencil out of the bun in her mane. Her frizzy white and yellow mane came undone, and Wordplay seemed a lot less rigid than before. Spike smiled, and in a flash of magenta light (courtesy of Twilight), Spike, Shining, and Twilight vanished. Through the wondrous magic of teleportation, the trio was being whisked through time and space at an astonishing speed. Luckily, Twilight Sparkle was an astonishingly competent mage. Otherwise they might have ended up in a wall or in a totally different location than the intended one. In just a moment after their disappearance from the castle, Spike, Shining, and Twilight reappeared in the field just outside the empire. They were still just within the boundaries of the magical weather dome that kept the city-state warm. There was a small, rather unassuming, brick building there. It had no windows, no signs, and only one door. There were two guards stationed on either side of the door, who saluted upon seeing the new arrivals. The only thing remarkable about the building that it was likely the only structure in the empire not made of pure crystal. Twilight faltered a bit once her focus was broken, a common result of experiencing a sudden loss of the bulk of one's mana reserves. "Ugh Spike, I forgot to account for your magical resistance on top of your weight. It's much higher than when you were little. I'm almost completely spent on mana." Twilight complained, her wings drooping from sudden exhaustion. "Sorry. I'll fly us home later. Can you manage some diagnostic spells?" Spike asked in concern. Twilight nodded, knowing her limits well enough to give a confident answer. Shining and company headed to the guards once they were certain it was safe to continue. One of them had a black eye, and there was brick dust in the fur of the both of them. Wordplay's summary of their condition seemed accurate, as little was bruised beyond their pride as guardsponies of the Crystal Empire. Shining stepped forward and saluted his troops in kind, a nonverbal show of thanks and respect for their service. The group walked around the building where another guard stood to the side of a gaping hole in the wall. Not only the bricks had been turned to dust, but there was a hole rusted through what Spike's senses confirmed to be solid steel. It was an odd sight, and to add to the mystery there was no debris, save for the dust. Twilight instantly sprung into action, seeing the magical anomaly. She gingerly touched the borders of the hole with her wingtips, not wanting to endanger her hooves in case there was something corrosive. Looking into the building, it was clear to see that the sub-levels of the facility had been similarly compromised. Spike likewise began employing his reptilian senses to gain any insight. "What kind of wards were in place here? Because I can tell there are a bunch of them still active." Twilight inquired. Shining tapped his hoof on the ground, trying to remember. The facility had been built not long after the initial defeat of Sombra, originally to store the mad tyrant's belongings. The evil dictator was very paranoid, and it still wasn't unheard of to find a secret bunker full of creepy devices. "All the wards Starswirl invented, and all of the basic wards they taught me in the academy, a bunch of other wards I had Equestrian mage specialists lay on it. Like, a hundred in total I think." Shining recalled. Twilight lit her horn with a small spark and focused. Soon the magical spark grew and a hair-width tendril of magic made contact with the remaining wall of the vault building. From there it branched out, and soon there was a complex web of magical tendrils probing the air and building alike. They probed and tugged and wormed their way around each of the invisible wards meant to protect the building, carefully inspecting everything without setting off a single one. After a few minutes, Twilight's web began to flicker and eventually faded. Twilight looked quite tired, ever more so than before. "There are one hundred and sixteen wards in place, none of which were broken. Whoever did this was impossibly skilled. I could easily dismantle most of these wards and brute force my way through the rest, but it'd take at least twenty-four hours of continued spellwork. Celestia or Luna would have taken at least twelve. I have no idea how this was done." Twilight groused, sounding quite jealous. "I have an idea, but I hate it. I really, really, hope I'm wrong about it." Spike announced. Spike got right up to the wall and sniffed it, flicked his tongue out at the air, and then outright licked the crumbling brick and rusted steel. His expression soured, leading Shining and Twilight to think Spike was right about whatever he wished to be wrong about. "Twi, would any of the wards on the building prevent somepony powerful enough from using some kind of time spell on the wall and floors?" Spike asked, hypothetically. Twilight blinked a few times, letting the information sink in. "No, no they would not. There aren't any wards I know of designed to defend against time magic. Time magic is almost impossible for most ponies. I've only used it once, and besides Starswirl The Bearded who invented the field the only known user is--" Twilight started, but stopped herself short. "King Sombra, who displaced the entire Crystal Empire by a thousand years in the instant before he was sealed away." Shining Armor finished. "That was my first guess." Spike agreed, no small amount of displeasure in his tone. Shining looked to Spike who handed him the list. Even though Shining knew very well what everything itemized on the list was, it was hard for him to speak on the matter. He had thought that everything was over and done with, and that everything in the vault would stay where it belonged. In a deep, dark, pit, far away from the light of day. "The metal security boxes are designed to house dark magic materials too dangerous to risk destroying. One of them contains Sombra's horn, and other bits of him recovered after the explosion." Shining revealed. "So the other box is-" Spike began. "The other box is the fragments of Chrysalis's chitin, her horn, and a vial of whatever changelings have instead of blood. We kept them and the one changeling chameleon-drone's remains to try and come up with anti-illusion protection, but nothing ever came of it. "Once I was fully off my rocker I scrapped all research projects in favor of national security enforcement. Everything was transferred here, which had been built to store all Sombra's questionable belongings." Shining admitted. Shining almost sounded just as downtrodden as he had been just two months prior. It was understandable, having such traumatic memories forcibly brought up to the surface. But this time, Spike and Twilight were here with Shining. Shining slapped himself with his hoof, forcing himself out of the thrall of his depressed thoughts. "Shining?" Spike asked. "I'm okay. I just don't know what to do exactly. We're either dealing with some dark magic cultists, changelings, or the ghost of one, or even two of the worst villains in recent history." Shining surmised. Spike and Twilight agreed, but neither of them had much in the way of a plan to stop the looming threat of the unknown. The only feasible thing that could be done for the moment was to prepare for the worst. "We should put more protection around the crystal heart. I'll call up reinforcements from Equestria as soon as we get back. We're kinda low on magical muscle. There aren't a lot of crystal unicorns, and most of them don't even know self-defense." Spike suggested. "And I'll try and locate whoever is behind all this. If they're as powerful as Sombra or Chrysalis then I should be able to pinpoint their location with some effort. I'm gonna need some time, and some help getting some spell components together." Twilight added. Shining nodded, and from within his outfit he pulled a small pad and a pen. He looked at the paper for a moment before looking back up to Spike in embarrassment. Spike rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. It was comforting that Shining was still himself. "The account number is nine eight eight zero nine zero three. It's your date of birth backwards, year, then day, then month." Spike reminded Shining. "Oh yeah. I knew that." Shining chuckled awkwardly as he wrote out the number. When he was finished he ripped the page from the pad and floated it to Twilight. "Whatever you need, just charge it to that account. I'll be organizing troops and coming up ways to hush this up for the time being. Nopony needs to know about this in great detail until things eventually hit the fan. The crystal ponies would freak if they thought Sombra was coming back." Shining finished. With everything as squared away as possible, Spike carried Shining and Twilight back to the palace in the dead of night. Hopefully, the world's hottest new power-couple could hold things together. Spike and Shining both hoped that the Crystal Empire would remain just as peaceful as it was right now, quietly glittering in the Luna's moonlight like the jewel it was.