I'm a Lich and I know it!

by Dream Seeker

Diplomacy

Winter, Sombra, Twilight, Celestia, Shining Sea and Bright Spark stood just outside the Crystal Empire. The trip was easier this time, as Princess Celestia knew of some more intricate spells designed to protect ponies from extreme cold, heat, allowed them to see without light, and even protected them from the solar radiation. When asked what the spells were originally designed for, Celestia merely sighed, and gazed up at the sky with longing in her eyes.

"Are you all ready to prevent a war?" Twilight asked.

"YES!" Everypony cheered. Together, they stepped towards the barrier, and simultaneously smashed their faces against the surprisingly solid shield.

"Ow..." Twilight muttered. The barrier lit up bright pink, before it turned transparent again. Shining Armor stood on the other side.

"Shining, what happened? Why did you make the barrier solid?" Twilight asked. The border of the Crystal Empire had always been left open for anypony who might need it.

"It's not good, Twilight. They took Cadence. I need the barrier to protect the rest of us," Shining Armor spoke, an eye twitching.

"What?" Twilight asked, confused and a little bit worried for her brother.

"The evil scum of Calypsion kidnapped my beloved Cadence!" Shining Armor snarled. Then he caught sight of Winter and Sombra. "You! What are you doing here? Twilight, run!" Shining Armor lit his horn, intent on destroying them.

"Stand down, Shining Armor," Celestia stated calmly. "There is more going on here than you know."

"You've all been brainwashed by those horrible users of Dark Magic!" Shining Armor's voice rose hysterically.

"What's up with ponies thinking that I can brainwash others?" Winter muttered.

"Shining Armor, stand down!" Celestia said sharply. "You are not thinking straight. Calm down, breathe, and relax. We can sit down and talk about this. There is a lot to be explained, but I cannot begin until you are willing to listen."

"Shiny, please! Listen to me, BBBFF," Twilight pleaded, eyes wide. "We just want to help!"

Shining Armor grew even more erratic. "I'm not going to stand down! You just want me to be brainwashed, too! I can't let the Crystal Empire fall under the power of your Dark Magic! If you've been brainwashed, Princess Celestia, then I'll just have to keep the Crystal Empire for you as the last bastion of uncorrupted ponykind. When we are ready, we will strike to free all of you!"

With that, the barrier turned opaque once more, then grew slightly as Shining Armor added even more magic to his shield.

"Well, that didn't go as planned," Winter said.

Twilight groaned in frustration. "This is very, very bad! Somepony has kidnapped Cadence, Shining Armor thinks we're corrupted, and to top it all off, a war is about to start!"

Celestia's face looked very tired. "Twilight... I'm afraid there isn't much I can do about this. If Shining Armor refuses to listen to our explanations, then we have no chance of reasoning with him. The only pony he would listen to is Cadence, and even then, she would have to prove to him that she's not under mind control somehow..."

Twilight brightened up at that. "Oh, how could I forget? Cadence has a code word with Shining Armor that only they know, with an enchantment designed to delete it and all knowledge of such a system from memory the instant it detects mental tampering!"

"In that case, we must find Cadence immediately," Sombra put in. "However, I am unsure if this is the right set of ponies to bring. After all," Sombra nodded at Shining Sea and Bright Spark, "we do have civilians here."

"Why don't we send a group back to Calypsion?" Winter spoke up.

Celestia nodded. "That does seem like the best idea. I will personally escort both Shining Sea and Bright Spark back to Calypsion. I suppose I shall wait there for your return."

"Wait- put a tracking spell on all of us," Twilight said. "That way, you can always know where we are. Also, we should probably have some sort of enchanted object we can use to tell you if we're in danger."

Celestia chuckled. "Twilight, I set wards up this morning to tell me if any of you needed my assistance, and I put a tracking spell on all of you the moment I met you."

Sombra gave her a disgruntled look. "I didn't even detect that."

"It's a combination of Harmony Magic, Dark Magic, Chaos Magic, and Ordinary Magic. Only a master of those four of the five fields of magic can detect it. I'd be more surprised if you had detected it."

"In that case, I still have a lot to learn," Sombra replied.

"Me, too," Twilight added.

"So, are we agreed?" Celestia asked the group.

"Yes," Shining Sea answered. "Bright Spark and I will be perfectly fine with returning to Calypsion for the time being. Take care, Winter!"

"Don't get hurt, Winter! Come back safwy!" Bright Spark added, with a smile and a wave.

"Then get on my back," Celestia smiled, spreading her wings. "The fastest way back is to fly!"

Bright Spark's eyes lit up. "I get to wide on the back of Pwincess Cewestia!"

Shining Sea just smiled at Celestia as she helped Bright Spark on to her back, before climbing up herself. Celestia created magical seatbelts to keep them from falling off, before she took off.

"It's up to us now," Twilight said determinedly. "We have to find Cadance!"

---

Twilight flopped to the ground, exhausted. "Argh! It's been hours! I'm starting to feel like we'll never find a trace of her magic!"

"Then let's take a break and try to think of other ways to find her," Sombra replied logically.

The three sat in silence for a few minutes, before Winter raised a hoof.

"Yes, Winter?" Sombra smiled.

"I was thinking, maybe if whoever kidnapped Cadence hid her magic, what if they forgot to hide their own? It's just a thought..." Winter meekly added as the two stared at her.

"Winter, you're a genius!" Twilight cried, lighting her horn back up. "Let's see... Nothing on Dark, nothing on Chaos, nothing on Ordinary, we already tried Harmony..."

Twilight put out her horn and stared at the ground. "There's nothing. Nothing at all."

"What about Changelings?" Sombra asked. "Maybe Chrysalis decided to come back for a round two?"

Twilight sighed. "Changelings use a mixture of Dark and Ordinary magic, though, so my scan should have caught them."

"Unless they disguised as something that uses no detectable magic, or detectable magic of another kind?"

"But there are only five fields of magic!" Twilight said, frustrated at her inability to find a solution. "And even if they are disguised as creatures that don't use magic, we're no closer to finding them!"

"What if we don't find them," Winter spoke. "What if we find their home base? If they wanted to stay around here for any amount of time, they're sure to have a base of operations set up somewhere within the vicinity."

"That sounds like a good idea... For tomorrow," Sombra replied, pointing at the sun as it began to set over the horizon.

"No!" Twilight shouted. "We have to find her immediately!" She couldn't stand to think about what would happen if they couldn't find Cadence because they'd opted to take a rest instead of pressing on.

Sombra looked at her softly. "Twilight, don't worry. We'll find her, and she'll be just fine. But, even if we found her during the night, you'd be exhausted and unable to make a good plan to free her. Would you rather find her today, and lose her just as fast, or wait until tomorrow and rescue her safely?"

Twilight sighed at Sombra's logic. "I guess you're right. Anyway, how will we make sure whoever kidnapped Cadence don't creep up on us during the night?"

"I'll take watch," Winter said immediately. "I can't sleep as a skeleton, anyway."

"I'll take second watch," Sombra insisted after hearing Winter. "You may not be able to sleep, but nopony can concentrate through the entire night. You'd end up bored, and something would go wrong, I just know it. Wake me up when it's time for my watch."

With that, everypony prepared for the night, Winter keeping watch as Twilight set up enchantments to keep those who could still feel comfortable despite the cold wind and snow. Winter shivered as a gust of wind blew snowflakes between her bones, the uncomfortable sensation was still new to her. It was going to be a long night.

Author's Note:

I think I just shoved so many unique characters in here that I can't use them all simultaneously, so I'll just include specific groups of them designed for specific situations, with the others having their own adventures in their own locations.

My ideas for the war are ever-expanding: The mess now has a total of... 6 unique groups with different goals, arranged into 4 combatting sides, I believe, but I'm toying with the idea of adding two groups and at least one more side. This is going to be one heck of a fight.

Nobody has offered to preread yet; the opportunity's still open!

Comments

[Lord Of Dorkness]

Love the new cover.

[Dream Seeker]

6405699 Thank you! This cover was also drawn by Pixel_Spark. I thought it was awesome too!

[PVCmech]

New cover is great. Is thins going to turn into a LotR battle of the five armies type thing?

[Dream Seeker]

6405978 Bugze is from The Life of a Wanted Changeling: Comment Driven Story by DWC (Down With Chrysalis)

Sound familiar?

[Dream Seeker]

6405937 I like the new cover art too! Yes, I'm going for an awesome, battle-of-five-armies sort of thing. I hope I can pull it off!

[GildedSteel]

I just realized. There really aren't too many stories tagged Tragedy, Dark, Comedy.

[Dream Seeker]

6407229 It is kind of a funny combination isn't it? I did a check, because your comment made me curious, and there's actually roughly 14 million words of tragedy-dark-comedy. More than I expected.

[GildedSteel]

6407761 Indeed, that is more than I would have expected as well. Welp, this is the first one I'm reading!

[Rennoc215]

Cute. Very cute. I've enjoyed this ride, dear author, and I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Liked n' faved, awaiting that which comes next.

[Dream Seeker]

6414262 Thank you!

[Brony God]

I love the new cover art