Trixie's eyes closed, and she froze, like everyone else was. I wondered how she managed to move at all, but there wasn't time for that. The angry ball of smoke and shadow above needed attention first. I stared up at it, willing it to reveal its secrets to me. It recoiled and twisted as if trying to hide from me, but there wasn't anywhere to go besides away, and it didn't do that. I felt the vision coming...
I was a small thing. I was shadow. I was creeping. I was almost nothing. The goal was in sight, but all these colorful ponies were in the way, having a good time, making merry. I just had to get... what was happening? The heart shaped crystal spun wildly, then there was nothing but pain, then nothing at all. I was gone.
I was deep underground. Water flowed wildly past me and I was so hungry. I suddenly realized, even in this dreamlike state, I was Sweet Tooth. I was formless and so very hungry. A fish would have to do, but I didn't want a fish... My head suddenly pulled free of the goop, black fur exposed. I was breaking free! I could become normal again, instead of some monster... How long had it been? I couldn't even start to remember, but there was a sharp joy at the possible freedom.
A wave of light penetrated the rocky walls and ran right through me. Where it touched was like fire. I drew back with a hiss, and my head was lost below the surface of the goop. What was I doing? Oh yes, fish...
I was Aquator. I couldn't be anyone else, tall, wet, and gazing into the water. I felt introspective. "My son..." That vision didn't last long.
This wasn't like the other times. It was like a storm of images, each rushing by violently. I saw a princess, like Cadance, but, yes, the one Sombra destroyed. She was speaking to a crowd of smiling ponies, giving some kind of stirring speech before she lit the crystal heart thing. When the flash passed, there was Cadance, soaring through the air and slamming the crystal to where it should be. She spoke the stirring words, and the light flashed. Sombra was banished, but not destroyed.
Not destroyed.
I was in a dark place. His eyes opened before me. "Hello outsider. You, who would dare to meddle in affairs you struggle to understand. You have seen our struggle, do you still feel us unjustified for our hatred?" He swirled around me, great fangs on display. "Once, I was among their number. You've seen it."
I tried to speak, but these visions didn't seem to really allow that.
"Now is my turn to speak. We will meet soon... Will you condemn us? Have you sided with the ponies of the light, to protect them from us?" He leaned closed, eyes blazing. "Perhaps it is for their best, but we deserve more than this. Think. You alone have seen most of the playing field. You cannot hide behind ignorance."
He glanced off into the darkness. "Our time draws short. If you have any of their supposed compassion, then forget me, and all the others consigned to misery. Think of your friend." Sweet Tooth appeared, smiling behind her pink glasses, clearly just an image. "Will you sentence her with the rest? Perhaps you would, no better than the rest of them. Mewling sheep, begging to be saved. Make your choice, outsider. As loathe as I am to admit it, you will be the deciding factor."
I awoke with a start, his burning eyes still flashing in a fading afterimage. The shadow above was gone, and time was back. I knew the latter when Flim jumped on me and knocked me over. "Good show! I don't know what you did, but it's calmed down. I need to get the ladder, one moment." He left me there and scrambled off.
Sitting up, I saw Trixie was asleep. Her breathing was even, and she looked comfortable, unlike me. Divested of both jacket and armor, it was getting chilly, even in the factory. I shuddered to imagine how cold it was going to get outside with just my shirt on. Trixie looked like a source of fuzzy warmth and I curled up with her. She was everything I wanted her to be, soft, and not cold.
Falling halfway to sleep, I could dimly hear Flim rushing back and setting down a ladder. I assumed he was rescuing the others. That was nice...
I woke up to Trixie hugging me. "Poor familiar, what happened to your jacket? You're going to get sick on Trixie. She can't have that..."
Flam stood beside his brother, both dressed, dry, and looking more like twins again. "He gave it up to save us--"
"--You shouldn't be too angry."
Trixie squeezed me tighter. If it wasn't warm, I'd complain more. "Trixie's familiar is clever and resourceful, but he will also catch a cold without something to cover him with.
Sweet trotted up to the brothers and leaned in, snatching the hat right off of Flim's head.
"Hey!"
She didn't pay him mind, carrying it over to me and putting it on my head.
Trixie raised a brow. "That's a start. Are you awake? Ah, you are." She lifted me up. "Share with us what you saw while we look for better clothing for you."
That was harder to breakdown... "There were a lot of things, but the theme was clear enough. Every time the heart shaped crystal thing is turned on, it hurts all the shadow and dark things indiscriminately." I suddenly remembered something. "Didn't a pony say Cadance was going to hold the crystal festival early?"
Trixie nodded lightly. "She remembers this." Realization clicked for her. "We have to stop her!"
"Stop her from what?" Sweet tilted her head, looking confused.
"Besides stealing our hats." Flim pouted.
Flam patted him on the shoulder. "We'll get you a new hat, dear brother. This is a small price to pay for being rescued."
I pointed at Sweet. "If she turns on that crystal thing, it'll force you back into just being a blob. You'll lose all the progress you've made."
Sweet began to tremble. "N-no! I don't want to go back to there... Not after coming this far. Please." She put her hooves on my shoulders. "You'll stop her, right? Why would she even do that? I thought she was a nice pony."
Trixie shook her head. "It's not that simple. It banishes the shadow. According to what I read, it's supposed to keep an entire city... of..." She trailed off, looking like she just realized something huge. "Dear Celestia..."
I shook her a little. "What? Tell us."
Trixie took a slow breath. "Right, yes. The crystal is supposed to keep an entire city of shadow ponies at bay, deep beneath the Crystal Empire."
It hit Sweet like lightning. "My city! My child might still be there, being held prisoner by this heart thing." She frowned sharply. "We have to stop her, please!"
There was something missing from this... "Why would they make this defense without a reason? Something had to happen to put this fear into the crystal ponies in the first place, before Sombra, before the crystal heart. Before any of it, something happened."
Flim and Flam exchanged looks. "We don't know exactly what you're talking about--"
"--But we'd like to help."
"You can borrow our mode of transport--"
"--Just leave it in town. It needs magic to work--"
"--But you have Trixie." They went to a tarp and pulled it off, revealing a rather interesting looking car of sorts. "Ah, the SSCS 6000."
"Do take care of it."
Flam hopped up onto it and had a hatch opened in a flash. "Your familiar can rest in here. It gets warm while the machine's running."
Trixie threw me up onto her back and trotted over to the machine, looking it over. "You made this yourselves?" She sounded impressed. "Why aren't you both rich by now?"
They both deflated at that. "Well we may have approached the matter wrong--"
"--a slight miscalculation--"
"--It destroyed our reputation in the cider business. Besides the Apples are the premier source of, well, apples--"
"--and they won't do business with us for any price."
Trixie hopped aboard the machine before offering me a hoof down. I went off into the compartment. It was larger than it had seemed from the outside, with cushioned seating and even some blankets. It looked like a little bedroom.
The machine rocked a little when Sweet hopped on. "Ready! Let's get going before it's too late.
Trixie looked over the machine before she casually closed the door to the compartment, sealing me into my little dark nook. With a low vibration, the machine began to hum, then lurched forward to motion. They were right, it did start to warm up in there. I fumbled around until I found a lantern and tried to figure out how to turn it on in the darkness when a green grin split in the air in front of me. "Hey kiddo!"
I practically threw myself against the opposite wall, as far from it as I could. "Aw, don't be that way... So you met the big S pony. He probably went on and on about this or that. Shadow or crystal, vanilla or chocolate." He suddenly zoomed in at me, his face taking up most of my vision. "I don't really care about that. Both sides are filled with losers, doing things because they're used to doing them. The way I see it, the whole world would be better off without either. I know you're not like them. You can see beyond the moment. You've seen the past, but are you ready to see a future or two? Hmmm? Whattaya say, pal?"
Pal? So far this thing had been anything but a pal. "I don't think I could trust what you showed me."
Its eyes rolled dramatically. "As if you have any reason to believe the rest of what you were fed. And you are being fed, pal. You're gobbling up those breadcrumbs, going where they want you to go."
Was he telling the truth, or just working me? He certainly hadn't made a good impression so far. "Why the hell would you try to kill me, then come promising you can tell me something I want to hear?"
"Water under the bridge pal." His face changed to pious innocence a moment before the grin returned. "So I tried a little something. You got out of that, now we can move on. Don't you want to know what your actions are going to lead to?" He inched closer. "Besides, every other shadow you got a vision from went away. Maybe I will too! Now wouldn't that be nice for you?"
I was pretty sure at that point he was just making things up. He wouldn't do it if it destroyed him in the process. Why would he?