//------------------------------// // Chapter 15: Unexpected Occurrence // Story: The Company We Keep // by Ice Star //------------------------------// By the time I had flown over to Mt. Opaline, my breathing was heavy and my legs were weak and threatened to give out. I might as well have been steamrolled if somepony wanted to create an accurate comparison of how I was feeling. How was it Sombra could handle using this magic on a normal basis? He used dark magic more then Twilight read books, so how wasn't he killing himself? He told me that he started using it when he was young too, so how can he possibly handle this? Is he always in pain? The cool and pleasant setting of this mountain was so different from its neighbor. There were no steep slopes which I had to struggle up and no sharp stones to trip over. The snow was light and fluffy and I just wanted to curl up and take a nice long nap until this was- Cadance, stop it! You know that you can't do that, the crystal ponies and Queen Sapphira are depending on you! Quitting isn't in you! You shouldn't even think about napping in snow, either, you dingus! I bit my lip. Why did I have to make such a good point? Sometimes it was positively annoying when I found myself acting overly optimistic, but it was at times like this I was grateful to remain undaunted even when it felt like my happiness was a cracked window on the inside. That spirit was part of what made me a princess. Of course! After a brief stretch of my legs, I activated the magic that I hated so much and another torrent of aura encircled my horn, which was as weary as the rest of me. How I wanted my magic! The kind that didn't hurt, scare, or twist me, the magic I could use with ease! Everything from my special talents to simple teleportation would be better... even if I wasn't the greatest with teleportation. I took off in search of what I wished was not another cave. ... I'm pretty sure Sombra hid this thing in a cave, simply out of spite. Great, not only do I need to be reminded of what happened just a little while ago, I can safely confirm that Sombra is definitely omniscient even though I'm still praying to any and every god that he isn't for the sake of my sanity, which may or may not have deserted me the moment I met him. All those suspicions of whether I should've ever trusted him are bubbling to the surface again. I know I'm a very trusting pony - maybe sometimes too trusting - but it didn't feel wrong after he helped me. I honestly did think he might actually like being my friend under all that anger. I was starting to kinda like being around him, even if it was only a little bit. I let out an aggravated huff, which due to the cold came out as a visible puff of air, and continued to stare at the rock face of another mountain. And I am one-hundred percent sure that this one had a secret door, after all this is where the magic led me... to more rocks... I'm seriously starting to hate rocks, and I live in an empire filled with shiny crystals, so that's saying something. After another deep breath, I push away the thoughts of all the therapy I'm probably going to need, and tell myself that I can control this magic for just a little bit longer... no matter how much it wants to control me. The thick swirls of opaque mist that have become achingly familiar twine around my horn. Each time I use this, horrible feelings rise up inside me and it feels as if my horn is being chipped away inside-out, piece-by-piece... A gate appears from the shadows, a frame of äerint with only darkness for a door. It was probably hiding more horrors. I did the questionable thing and once more stepped inside the very thing I dreaded. ... I shivered when I crossed the threshold. The other side was occupied by a chamber of uncut äerint. Everything was rather shapeless, with only shadows that seemed to leap across the floor and a single eerie flame or green and purple floating in the center of the room. It bobbed above a table of sorts, a monolith maybe? Despite the austere air the place projected it was still spooky, and I tried to stay light on my hooves. I feared that since the room had an airless and stagnant feel even the slightest sound would travel - which probably was not true but, I didn't want to risk the chance of creepy echoes on top of everything else that has been happening. I looked at the ground and shivered again... all of this was just so unwelcoming. I flew quietly over to the strange table. When I got close, I could see it was leaning toward the monolith side, except for a strange lid that was placed right in the center. On the left, directly under my left hoof I noticed a small hinge of some type, like the clasp on the jewelry boxes I had as a filly. I couldn't think of a reason not to open the tiny compartment, which was the exact size as the Ice Star had been as it lay in my hooves back in the castle. At the thought of the artifact I blinked my left eye and wondered how I had ignored the snow and frost it projected over my vision for so long. With a simple click the grey compartment swung open, without even a creak despite its age and revealed a small nook big enough for a pony such as myself to scoop both my hooves into. The inside didn't possess the dull gleam that äerint did, perhaps it was made of something else? I discounted it immediately and just assumed that it was a trick of the light. However, this wasn't what I shouldn't have been asking. It was hardly important, instead I should have been asking the million-bit question, so to speak. Where was the Reflector Star? And if I wanted to go into the bonus rounds to win other goodies and cash prizes, all I had to do was hit the button when I was able to compose the look of pure terror on my face as well as correctly answer the following queries: How could it disappear like that? Wasn't I the only pony who knew about this? Who could bypass the spell to enter? That required dark magic? For a brief moment I thought I heard the slightest bit of movement in the background and immediately tensed up. It could be a threat! "I'm absolutely thrilled to see you finally made it, then again what was I supposed to expect from the Princess of Tardiness?" Oh no. I turned around to see the figure lurking in the shadows I had neglected to notice the entire time. I watched him as he rolled his eyes. "Miss me?" Seventeen remarked dryly.