Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat

by David Silver

75 - We Learn From Each Other

Night tapped Silver on the end of his nose when things seemed to grow quiet. "You naughty stallion. You've corrupted me." She tilted her head. "What would the princesses say?"

Silver squirmed beneath her weight. "What did she say?"

Night flashed her fangs. "An acceptable answer. She was quite proud of my actions, even including the parts I took from your playbook." She leaned in, snouts coming close. "I looked for a peaceful answer, even when I was ready to rip the other party in half."

Silver's eyes wandered, noticing her wing was in a bandage against her side, tight and bound. "Are you alright? I mean, sorry. I'm very proud of you." He smiled. "That doesn't stop me from worrying about my favorite lunar pony in the world."

Night glanced back at her injured wing. "I won't be flying a little while, but I'll be alright." She touched noses then, gently rubbing. "Well, not going to ask?"

Silver's perked his ears sharply. "Huh? Oh! Who did you make peace with?"

Night held out a hoof. "You can come in now."

The door behind her opened as a pony of shadow entered, strange butterfly wings of billowing fog at its side and eyes shining with an alien power and teeth jutting like a grinning skeleton. "Is this wise?"

Silver tensed with reactive surprise and fear, but Night held him gently and firmly. Her presence and ease soon soothed the urge to fight or flee, and he began to look over the pony. "What are you, if you don't mind my asking?"

The stranger dipped his head. "I am your enemy."

Night reached back and swatted the pony on the nose. "You are not."

The shadow pony took a step back, rubbing his foggy nose. "You say that, but the ponies of this place... They are creatures of light."

Silver squirmed and Night let him rise up to his haunches. "Oh, well, nice to meet you, but calling you 'enemy' sounds kind of messed up." He offered a hoof to the unnerving pony. "I'm Silver. Silver Lining, ambassador from Equestria."

The pony hesitated a moment before reaching out and touching hooves with Silver. "General Dark Pass, of the umbrum." He sat up straight. "An ambassador then? Then I can speak to you with authority?"

Silver nodded. "I should think so. Celestia has taken my reports seriously thus far. Please, tell me about you, and your people."

Dark looked between Silver and Night before pointing at Night. "She understands me, as a fellow creature of the night. You..."

"Are in love with her beyond all words." Silver smiled gently. "The night holds many secrets, and some of them are very sweet indeed."

Night moved in beside Silver and threw a leg over him, hugging. "You know we're a couple."

Dark nodded slowly. "To know, and to know..." He let out a slow sigh, fog wisping from his snout. "We were once a proud people, with a nation to call our own. That was long ago, so very long, even I only have the dim stories of my grandsire to work with. The crystal ponies did this to us, destroyed us, crushed us, and left us for dead."

Silver leaned forward a little, looking over the pony with inquisitive eyes. "They didn't strike me as the warring type. When push came to shove, you crushed them and enslaved them, through Sombra. How is it they harmed you?"

Dark raised his forehooves, clopping them thoughtfully. "You know of the Crystal Heart, do you not? It was created in ages past. While benign to crystal ponies, it is death, slow or fast, to our kind. Every time it is activated is like the ringing of our final bell. Its mere presence keeps us locked away underground."

Silver rolled a hoof. "And yet, here you are." He squinted. "There has to be at least two of you."

Dark let out a dry laugh, almost wheezing in sound. "Picked that up? Yes, I have one subordinate remaining... Of course there is also Sombra, but he is destroyed and useless to us."

Night raised a brow. "I suspected but..." She nipped at one of Silver's ears gently. "I like seeing proof that he's clever too."

Dark shook his head. "My wife passed with the last tolling of that glimmering bell. We'd both managed to escape while Sombra lived and hid away, awaiting the day he'd destroy the infernal thing, but he never did. Then it was struck, and she faded from this world." He put a hoof to his chest. "Now I only have my daughter... and I won't let her be killed by it."

Silver scowled, glancing fitfully around the room. "They won't give up the Crystal Heart, but this is wrong. This..." He looked up at Dark. "What if we offered a home away from here? Could you live in peace outside the Frozen North?"

Dark smiled, like a leering skull. "So easily you see our side?" He looked to Night. "It seems I owe you an apology for doubting."

Silver raised a hoof. "Could you? All of you?"

Dark shook his head. "While I would prefer to have my home restored, I would accept it, if peace was to come with it. There is the matter that my people are trapped, dying. While my daughter and my assistant and I could go with you, we would be betraying them all to a miserable death." He brought down a hoof with a clop on the tiles. "I won't do that. My wife would never forgive me."

Silver tilted his head a bit. "Question. Why haven't you attacked the crystal?"

He snorted out a bit of rolling darkness. "Would that it were an option. To come close to it is to know new pain. To touch it, madness. It would also reveal us for what we are, and you can imagine their response to that."

"Panic, shock, running around in circles?" Silver rolled his hoof as he listed each. "Then the guards and an angry princess."

"I am not an angry princess." Cadance stepped in around the shadow creature with a wary eye on it. "But there remains a little point." She glared at the creature. "You hurt my Shiny."

Dark said nothing.

Night shook her head. "We killed his wife, and countless others."

Silver nodded quickly in agreement. "Can we start on the road to peace?"

Cadance let out a slow breath, glancing between them. "One thing." She looked to the open door. "Come in." A little form of shadow and horror came bounding in. "Your daughter. Do you truly love her?"

Dark tensed even as she let her vision slip. Though the creature before her was one of shadow and horror, the line between him and his daughter was unmistakable in its intensity. The parental and family love flowed powerfully in both directions even as Under Stone leaped at her father and hugging him around the neck. "Father!" Dark put a leg around her, holding her tight.

Cadance shook her head slowly. "I can't... Even an enraged dragon feels something for their hatchlings." She looked to Night and Silver. "I don't mean to be superficial, but others will be. Look at them. How can there be peace?"

Silver put a hoof at his own chest. "By the power of friendship. Give them some room where ponies aren't using the land, let them recover, and become productive people again. Even if their appearance is unsettling, I'm sure their art, their unique perspective, and their craft will become valued in time."

Dark leered with his grinning skull of a face. "You were right, fellow creature of the night. He is a bad influence."

Cadance rolled her eyes. "There's something we can all agree with." Even as Silver's face became taut and his eyes looked away, she reached for him, stealing him from Night for just long enough to hug him. "We mean it as a compliment." She released him and looked back at Dark. "Your people are still imprisoned, from what I gathered. Harming the Crystal Heart is out of the question. How would they be freed, if we agreed?"

Dark scowled then, placing his daughter on the ground where she began to roam the room, exploring. "Sombra knows how to remove that barrier, even if he never destroyed it. The traitor could be our salvation, if he even existed."

Silver glanced between Night and Cadance, receiving subtle nods. "He exists. We're working on restoring him."

Dark sat up, confusion running over his alien features. "Truly? Why would you assist him? Though he failed at his task, we are certain he is no friend of yours, and he is still one of us, an umbrum..."

"First." Silver rose to his hooves. "We need to get everything above the table here. Can you call your friend? No more hiding."

Cadance nodded easily to the request. "That would put me significantly at ease."

Night fiddled with her glasses a moment. "To be clear, he will not be jailed. You are all basically envoys of your own people." She smiled, exposing her fangs. "That would be almost as rude as arranging somepony's Ambassador to be attacked in the streets."

Dark let out a little cough. "Yes, of course..." He rose to his own hooves and turned for the door. "I'll need to locate her. I will return." He gestured at Under even as she pulled a book free of a bookshelf. "You have a hostage."

Silver tensed. "Please! She's not a hostage, Christ."

"Who?" All the ponies looked curious.

Silver reached out with a hoof and patted Under gently. "Sorry, old saying, but she'll be watched over and cared for. I hope we never reach the point where a child is considered a hostage. That's terrible."

Dark departed, taking on the form of a dark-furred pony before he stepped outside and began to wander.

Cadance looked to the others. "And you're quite certain he's safe?"

Night nodded. "We've come to an understanding, as creatures of the night."

Under Rock tilted her head at Night. "Will I get cool fangs?"

Night smiled at the small shadow filly. "I don't think umbrum get fangs, but I don't get to be made of shadow. We can't get all the cool things at once, I'm afraid."

"Aw."

Silver lifted his shoulders. "I don't get fangs or shadows."

Under stuck out her tongue, roiling shadow as it was. "You're a stupid day pony. You don't get anything."

Silver recoiled at the response even as Under turned her attention back to her book.

Cadance coughed softly into a hoof. "Well, I'll leave her in your care then. I believe Auntie Luna would like to speak with you, Silver, when you have a moment."

Author's Note:

Under Rock is best shadow filly!

Has peace come within sight, or is that just a little typo of fate waiting to come undone?

Comments

[Deadinlight]

Under is wrong. He gets the best pony ever.

[RuneStone]

Will the Shadow Ponies bring new and exciting typos to this story. Only time will tell.

[Gargon94]

Yay, shadow ponies! I like it that you have a new pony type. Can't wait for more!

[Booster Spice]

Under Rock could do with having good freinds living nearby, but could just as easily end up near Ponyville.

Who Lives in a library under a tree, Twilight Sparkle...

[cvvvrt]

Hmm, so my mind sparked with some epileptic trees which probably will be jossed by the next chapter:

- Maintaining the barrier is a serious drain on the Heart
- To take down the barrier, two approaches are possible:
(1) Disrupt the barrier directly
- Requires large amounts of power
- Lack of drain increases the Heart's power
- Sudden reflux of barrier energy into the Heart triggers an activation
- Dwarfs the last one
- Likely kills all the imprisoned Umbrum
- Keeps the Umbrum from attempting this (if they know and are powerful enough)
- Alicorns blasting the barrier is counterproductive
(2) Weaken the Heart until the barrier fails, or until (1) becomes feasible
- Say, by spreading misery among the ponies that power it
- What Sombra tried!

So, this would suggest:
1. Have a bunch of Alicorns drain magic from the Heart to achieve (2)
2. Evacuate the Umbrum from the Heart's lethal area of effect
3. Ease off draining

[Mortefleur]

6915983

With magical powers as good as can be, Twilight Sparkle...

[Daremo]

and pat Under - and patted Under

and care for - and cared for
*****
I'm hearing the message loud and clear that Sombra is not the one calling the shots, or at least not the only one.

In fact there seem to be at least three separate parties working against the Crystal Empire.

Sombra - influenced Cadance, attempted the same with Silver.

The Umbrae - small in number, attacked Shining Armor, abducted Night Watch much to their chagrin.

??? - attacked Penny and Stick, may have orchestrated the attack on Silver and Night Watch, may be responsible for other abductions. It's possible that this will turn out to be minions of the Umbrae, but the General's abduction of Night Watch seems to have been more an unexpected opportunity.

What we know:

1. There is one other umbrum operating in the Crystal Empire that the General has admitted to.

2. Penny and Stick have put at least three other shadow creatures down.

3. Then there is the issue of the turncoats. Why are there turncoats at all? How are they being motivated? Who is controlling them?

So the likely explanations are that the General is lying, the General is being truthful but there used to be five umbrae or the umbrae have minion resources, or there is a third player at the table.

If there is a third party involved, the prediction would be that the attacks will continue despite the General's call to cease hostilities.

[David Silver]

6916219 Typos fixed!
6916021
You're both cooking with all burners going! You're interfering with my mind, changing the world! I hope you're both happy with yourself.

[terrycloth]

6916219 I think Sombra is the one organizing the attacks and mind controlling people. He's just lying to Silver and Cadance.

[Daremo]

6916299
Oops.

You're right I forgot to include that in the facts and hypotheses.

Still, you would think the General would know that Sombra was still active and he seems not to.

[No one is home]

Skull faced shadow ponies? I only hate that I couldn't catch enough of a break to read this earlier today at work. Well worth the wait. The shadow ponies should get their own kingdom, with blackjack, and hookers!

[David Silver]

6916878 https://derpibooru.org/tags/umbrum If you want a peek at them. I'm drawing from the only canon source we have on them, just without the 'they are ugly, so they are monsters, and thusly can be dispatched without guilt' thing.

[No one is home]

6916907 Coolest. Thing. I've. Seen. All. Day.

[Not so New Brony]

Under Rock is quite the impish little...er, let's just say filly and stick with that.

[Daremo]

A little form of shadow and horror came bounding in.

If this were not a literally accurate description of Under Rock, it would give the impression that Silver doesn't like foals. Her name is also cute and funny at the same time.

"You look like something your parents found under a rock."

The little abomination proinked about, and her face split into the ghastly display that could only be what passed for a gleeful smile among the umbrum, "Thank you! You're nice!"

[David Silver]

6917217 She's quite the adorable abomination. Peace will not come easily for these people.

[Daremo]

6917317
All silliness on my part aside, Under Rock is the best spokespony the umbrum could wish for. She puts the 'cute' in interlocutor.

[tsaukpaetra]

Cooperation is being gained on two fronts, things are looking snazzy!
Keep going! ;)

[Boulder]

Uggh what is it with typo obsession already? You & Damaged need a visit from old Doctor Siggy 'Put aside the typos for now, lay down on the couch & relax. Soothe yourself, think calm thoughts imagine an open calm lake. Yes that's good, now tell me about your mother, was she a reporter?...a secretary?...a novelist?...a court stenographer?...oh for pity's sake,WAS SHE A TYPIST?' Umm...sniff...snort Ahh oh dear, I think I just fell into a Freudian slip..err sleep there for a moment, now sorry what were we discussing? img10.deviantart.net/c89f/i/2013/078/4/2/saberspark_on_the_couch_by_achenara-d5y9ghl.png
By the way if the pair of you keep this story going, maybe combine the two into one, I think this could really eventuate into something of Tolkien proportions. Now as I only came in on this at Damaged's Penny for your thoughts story, I'll have to go back now and catch up on what I missed of yours, keep slipping up on earlier references too much.

[harts fire]

I am really liking how this story is going.

[sorenxoras]

Under stuck out her tongue, roiling shadow as it was. "You're a stupid day pony. You don't get anything."

Why is it that even though what they know they could say is limited, children are often somehow more brutal than adults? Is it because they're limited that they can only be straightforward?