• Published 15th Apr 2016
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Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls - thatguyvex



When dangerous supernatural creatures start to stalk the streets of Canterlot City, Sunset Shimmer and the gang become involved in events that will irrevocably change their lives. A crossover series with the Bleach anime/manga

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Episode 83: When All is Said and Done

Episode 83: When All is Said and Done

Adagio stepped back out of Lament’s tower, her bare feet poking out from beneath a thick white robe. This wasn’t exactly the kind of outfit she intended to wear for long, but it’d do to keep the comments and stares to a minimum until she could get something better together. Roka had insisted. Which was disturbing because Roka shouldn’t have been able to even be standing, with the shape she was in, but once the Arrancar girl, along with Fenice and the other orphaned children, had been let out of the basement hideaway and given the all clear, Roka had all but dragged Adagio to get something put on her.

“Such immodesty wouldn't... wouldn’t do around the children and Father,” Roka had said, her face twisted in pain. Honestly Adagio didn’t even know how the young woman was moving around at all. Apparently the Quincy Sternritter that had attacked the tower had done a serious number on Roka. Even as she walked, Roka’s threads and needles were slowly moving about, stitching up wounds across her body. Her eyes all but feverishly burned with a need to correct Adagio's lack of cloths.

Eventually Fenice had to practically sit on her sister to get Roka to sit down.

“Do you know why the Quincy attacked the tower?” Adagio had asked, but Fenice had just shaken her head, muttering something under her breath that Adagio could only barely hear.

“She knew me. I don’t know how, but she knew me...”

Hmm, that stood to reason. Adagio was still unclear on the details, but the description of the woman who’d attacked the tower, combined with Twilight’s mental state upon the woman’s death, was enough confirmation for Adagio that the Sternritter had been Twilight’s mother. Adagio didn't have any particular feelings concerning that, other than a faint twinge of what might have been sympathy for Twilight.

Talk about an absolute mess. Never could Adagio have imagined things turning out that way. What even had that strange Eye thing been? Was Twilight Sparkle even capable of recovering from having her body taken over by such a thing? What was it even doing inside her in the first place? These questions bounced around Adagio’s mind, but ultimately any search for answers was a moot point right now, as Adagio had her own plate full dealing with the aftermath of the battle. She had to confirm certain things, and figure out a plan. Twilight could wait until later.

She found Lament sitting on the bottom steps leading up to his tower. His white duster was even more tattered than it had already been, the sleeve of the right arm all but burned away. For all his power, he looked exhausted now. Yet Adagio still approached him cautiously. This was Lament, after all. He’d already shown himself to be more than a bit unstable. Beside him, his Hollow dog, Winston, was laying, wagging his tail as Lament pet the creature in absent minded fashion.

She went down the steps to stand a few paces away from him, and said, “The children are alright. Fenice is seeing to them, while Roka attends her own wounds. The tower itself has a few extra holes in it, but I imagine it's all repairable, given time.”

He didn’t so much as turn his head towards her, but his voice was steady, if unnervingly flat, “That’s good. I can’t lose any of them. Not the children...”

His hand paused in petting Winston, and the dog let out a small whine of worry. For a moment Lament was like an alabaster statue, a form of utterly still marble. Then he spoke with an intense certainty in his voice, “You knew the Quincy girl.”

It wasn’t a question. And given Adagio knew how much Lament detested lying, she wasn’t about to try to bluff her way through this, and instead nodded, moving so that she came around to the ground, facing Lament with an even stare, “I do. She’s not exactly a friend, but I don’t consider her an enemy either.”

“She nearly destroyed my home. My family,” Lament’s words were like dark ice, cold and level, but Adagio held her ground, planting her trident in the ground at her side.

“Do you honestly believe she was in control of herself while in that state? I have no idea what happened to Twilight Sparkle, but that wasn’t a natural event. Regardless, if you harbor her ill will, that’s none of my business. I’ll only point out that whatever injury she managed to do to you and yours, you did more to her. The Quincy you slew was her mother, after all.”

It was a bit of a gamble to take this track with Lament, but she didn’t need him getting fixated on going after Twilight Sparkle because of this incident with the tower being attacked. It wouldn’t serve Adagio’s purposes to have him distracted like that, nor for the additional complication in the event there was even a remote chance Twilight Sparkle would recover from what happened to her and Adagio could still use her as a potential spy among the Quincy.

Most of all she needed Lament focused on more constructive things, even at the risk of agitating him further.

It was hard to tell just what he was thinking as her words sunk in. He resumed petting Winston, but there was a twitch in his cheek right below his left eye, and his voice became distant.

“A child shouldn’t lose a parent that young. If that woman hadn’t attacked my family I wouldn’t have...” he shook his head, his free hand rubbing at his face like a man waking up with a hangover, “I wasn’t thinking straight. I believe another Quincy used an ability on me that screwed around with my head. Doesn’t matter, I suppose. The result is the result.”

He stopped petting Winston again to stand up, resting one hand on the hilt of his Zanpaktou as he turned to look at Adagio. His expression was as inscrutable as ever, like looking upon a block of carved frost that was hewn into the shape of a dour man’s visage. Adagio tensed her body, just in case. It was impossible to tell if Lament was seconds from violence, or just staring off into space. He was looking her over, but in a way that made her wonder what he was really seeing.

Eventually he said, “A part of me wants to blame you for the danger to my family, because it was your suggestion I join the Espada in their battles. If I hadn’t been out there, fighting, I could have been here, protecting my family. However, you continue to be honest with me. I appreciate that. I appreciate the fact that, come the end, you and your people helped guard my family as well, and so I’ll continue to trust you, Adagio Dazzle. For now. And from that shrewd look of yours, I suspect you have plans?”

She couldn’t help but let out a light, relieved laugh. Freshly evolved to an Arrancar or not, she didn’t think she’d be a match for Lament in a stand-up fight. For now at least he seemed to remain more on the side of reasonable than not, but she couldn’t help but notice his hand didn’t leave his Zanpaktou’s hilt.

“I do, but before I get too ahead of myself I have several things I need to deal with first,” she said, gesturing at herself, “Not that I lack appreciation for Roka allowing me to borrow some robes, but I need to acquire an outfit that suits my style a bit more. And before that, I need to confirm my own subordinates are alive and well. Once I do that, I’ll return here and we can discuss our next move.”

“I believe I saw the two you’d dropped off here for healing retreat in that direction once the battle here got too dicey,” Lament said, nodding off to the east, “I don’t blame them for that. They stayed and fought until I arrived, at which point leaving the area was the smart choice.”

Adagio nodded, noticing the rather gigantic pathway of partially melted desert that trailed off in the distance in one direction, and the prodigious amount of smaller craters and other scorched lines in the sands in various other places. She didn’t blame Gaw and Di Roy for running off either. If either of them had stayed, they’d likely had been killed.

“I knew you were powerful, Lament, but seeing the aftermath of you on a rampage is still rather impressive,” she commented, and he sighed bitterly.

“I don’t take any pride in that power. I lose control of myself when I release it fully.” His eye twitched again, and he looked behind him, up at the top of his tower. His eyes lingered over the damage over the tower, melancholy painting his features as he starred at the top. “I’ll be in my cabin, once you’re ready to talk about your ‘plans’. Do remember to knock, otherwise I might be... jumpy.”

With that, Lament vanished with the swiftness of a nearly impossible to track Sonido, even for Adagio’s improved senses. She knew he’d gone to the top of his tower to go back to his cabin, but it still made her shudder to see how fast he moved. It was important to remember that, powerful ally or not, if she ever made an enemy of that man she’d be in quite a bit of trouble.

Pushing that thought aside, she went about searching for Gaw and Di Roy. They weren’t remarkably hard to find. After all, a hundred foot tall Hollow-dinosaur is kind of easy to spot, even in a place as large as Las Noches.

“Holy crapbaskets on buttered toast, boss lady, you don’t do anything by halves, do you?” exclaimed Di Roy, looking Adagio up and down after she’d flagged the pair down and brought them up to speed on events. “You bag a Sternritter and a Espada all in one battle, while also going toe-to-toe with a freakin’ Soul Reaper Captain!? What are you trying to do, fill out some kind of ‘life achievement’ list? Want to tackle the Soul Queen, next?”

Adagio sighed, giving Di Roy a flat stare, “Technically we didn’t ‘bag’ the Sternritter. Garble, and it’s only with the utmost begrudging respect I say this, sacrificed himself to temporarily stop Prim Hemline. And let’s not make a habit of talking about Squirk, hmm? He died by my hand, yes, but only after he’d been exhausted fighting other opponents, and I rather got the drop on him. As for that damnable Soul Reaper Captain, all I could do was land one scratch on her, which hardly stopped her from taking Ember away...”

Really if she looked at it logically, she may have achieved her objectives and survived the battle, but Adagio hardly felt like she’d come out of this one on top. Evolved, yes. In a good position to further her plans, somewhat. But Ember was taken, and she had no idea how Torch would respond to that.

Or rather she feared she knew exactly how he’d respond to it, and she had to find a way to forestall such ill-advised action until she could formulate a better plan for recovering Ember.

Indeed Adagio’s mind was swirling with plans, but she also needed more information. She needed to see how the battle had shaped up for the rest of Las Noches, whether or not Dumbbell and the boys had accomplished their mission, and then see just how Lament and Torch would both respond to her next intended move.

Gaw, standing above Di Roy, let out a sharp, attention grabbing bark that seemed to say ‘Stop thinking so hard’, as the large saurian lowered her head and snorted at Adagio in an almost affectionate manner. Adagio looked up at Gaw and let out a quick chuckle, patting Gaw’s snout.

“Right, one thing at a time. Di Roy, Gaw, I want you both to return to Lament’s tower and focus on recovering. You were already wounded, and scuffling with the Quincy hasn’t helped in that regard.”

Di Roy laughed, then winced in pain as he clutched at his still stitched up stomach, “Don’t need to tell me twice, boss lady. Last time I plan to go head-to-head with a Sternritter if I can help it. C’mon Gaw, carry me back to the tower and the sweet, tender embrace of Roka!”

Gaw looked down at him, huffed out an amused breath, and proceeded to start walking back to the tower without him. Di Roy blanched, turning with a loud, “Heeeey! Don’t be like that Gaw! I’m injured! Carrrry me!”

As he chased after Gaw, Adagio watched the pair for a moment, just to make sure that, injured or not, they seemed able to reach Lament’s tower. She then headed off in the direction of her home territory.

In doing so she got a good look at the damage done to Las Noches. She saw the rubble strewn around from a large portion of shattered inner wall, likely form one of Lament’s attacks if she looked back along the trail of destruction. Multiple holes were punched in the ceiling as well, from the explosions of power from either transformations, or blasts gone off course. Then there were at least two massive openings in the outer wall itself, which shocked Adagio, because she knew full well just how thick that outer walls was! On both the east and south walls there were colossal holes blown open, with huge piles of rock and rubble piled around them. Dust still rose in streams from the hole in the south wall, and it made Adagio feel a tad chill to note that the hole was perhaps five hundred meters from the portion of the south wall containing her claimed territory. A bit of bad luck and she’d have lost her home.

Was it an Espada or a Sternritter responsible for the blast that did that much damage? From what she’d witnessed, it could go either way.

Arrancar were returning to Las Noches’ interior now. Adagio could see them either coming in through side entrances and tunnels, or filtering in through the freshly made holes. Some made their own personal Gargantas, but none were coming in through the large, coordinated Garganta portals Squirk had made. For obvious reasons. By now Lord Tirek must know Squirk was dead, or at least suspect something was wrong, given Squirk wasn't around. The question of whether he’d learn how the Ninth Espada had met his end was paramount in Adagio’s mind.

She hadn’t left any evidence of her presence in Squirk’s palace, but that wasn’t really important, since she wasn’t certain she should hide the fact she was there. Instead, since it seemed likely Tirek would learn of the fight between Squirk, that pink Quincy Sternritter, and Captain Luna, then Adagio had to play her lie as one tied up deeply with the truth. She was there, with Ember, and tried to “save” Squirk. Sadly the Soul Reaper Captain had followed them through Squirk’s Garganta with strange shadow powers of her own, and despite a hard fought battle, Squirk was killed by Luna, and Ember captured.

Adagio only survived through virtue of evolving into an Arrancar and striking a painful blow to the Captain. Sadly not enough to save Ember, but a valiant effort nonetheless.

Yes, enough truth in the lie to be believable. If she could explain why she and Ember were inside Las Noches and not outside fighting in the battle in the first place. Adagio had to think a bit more on that part of the story, but imagined she had some time before it’d be necessary. Right now Las Noches was licking its wounds and taking stock. For all Adagio knew, Chrysalis already had a story to concoct for Tirek’s ears concerning Squirk’s death.

Or Chrysalis was going to hang Adagio out to dry... but no, Adagio didn’t think so. Chrysalis was certainly capable of that, but the woman struck Adagio was not one to dispose of a new toy so soon. Which is clearly how Chrysalis saw Adagio.

That one is probably the most dangerous person in Las Noches, possibly even more so than Lord Tirek.

To Adagio’s shock, among those returning to Las Noches she saw Torch, and what surprised her was the state of the Fifth Espada. He was gigantic, for one, obviously still in the state of Resurreccion, but his body was heavily damaged. Blackened, charred scales marked his body, and his back was a burned and bleeding mass of red. Even his face showed signs of damage, with one eye burned white.

It was a disheartening sight, for a few moments at least. But if there were Sternritter who could give Lament a fight, it made sense there were those who could severely injure Torch. At first she was discouraged by the thought, but it occurred to her this might play into her hands better than if Torch had come through the battle unscathed.

An injured Torch would be easier to manage than one that was hale and hearty. Also, desperate. Desperate was easier to manipulate. And if that failed and Torch was still too belligerent to see things her way... well... Adagio wasn’t exactly sure how powerful she’d become now that she was an Arrancar, but she was fairly certain she was strong enough to challenge for a position among the Espada.

Who knew what rank she’d obtain? Squirk was dead, but it was possible other Espada had fallen in the battle. Clearly they hadn’t lost the battle, otherwise the place might be flooding with Quincy right now, but at the moment, regardless of how many Espada had survived it was a fair certain bet most of them were wounded and weakened.

If she was going to make a move, it had to be soon, within the next couple of days, perhaps even the next twenty four hours, before any of the injured Espada had time to recover too much strength.

Turning her mind away from those thoughts, she reached a window that led into the hallways connection to the rooms of her territory, and she quickly made her way to her bedchamber, already considering clothing options.

To her surprise, once she opened the doors she was greeted by the sight of Dumbbell, Score, and Hoops all within her room. The two latter boys nearly jumped in fright at her sudden appearance, both of them having been leaning against the wall on either side of the door. Dumbbell lurched in the chair he was sitting in by her table, his face contorting in pain as he tried to rise. At a glance Adagio could tell that Dumbbell was in terrible shape, his body coated in wounds. There had been some rudimentary first-aid performed on him, and Adagio didn’t have to think hard to guess as to who might have done that. If she ever got the chance to thank Twilight later, she would. Still, first-aid or not, Dumbbell’s injuries were to the point that Adagio was shocked he was still conscious, and most of his bandages were soaked red with blood.

“Miss Adagio,” Dumbbell said, trying to lift something in his hand, “We accomplished the mission you sent us on.”

“Y-yeah,” Score said with a nervous look at Dumbbell, “But Grogar totally had way stronger guards than we thought he’d have! We barely got out alive!”

Despite an undercurrent of immediate concern for Dumbbell’s injured state, Adagio still had to fix Score and Hoops both with a sharp, questioning glance first. “Did you leave any witnesses alive?”

Admittedly there was no doubt Grogar would likely know who had raided his labs, and knowing him he probably would have had the means set up to record video evidence of the attack, but she was still hedging her bets that if all his guards had been taken out, that Grogar might be embarrassed enough about the breach of security that he wouldn’t try to expose her attack. After all, Lord Tirek might favor Grogar, but Las Noches was still ruled by the laws of strength above all. If Grogar lost too much face, it wouldn’t do him any favors.

“We didn’t,” Dumbbell said, grimacing, “I knew you’d want us to get them all, so we didn’t stop until the job was done.”

“Even if we had to drag Dumbbell back here barely alive...” Hoops muttered, but Adagio didn’t comment on that, instead approaching Dumbbell and reaching out to take what was in his hand.

Grogar’s technology held some faint resemblance to the kind she was familiar with from the human world, but it was still very much a thing of Hollow origins. The disc was intact, and more like a circular tablet of bone than a traditional disc, but Adagio knew it contained information that the computers in Grogar’s laboratory could read. By itself it wasn’t very useful to her, but...

“Did you manage to grab the other item as well?” she asked, and Dumbbell nodded.

“It’s in the lounge. Only spot it’d really fit,” he said, sighing in pain as he clutched his side. Adagio frowned.

“Score, Hoops, take Dumbbell to Lament’s tower. Di Roy and Gaw are there, and can introduce you to Roka. See if she’s able and willing to patch Dumbbell up some more.”

The pair looked uncertain, but quickly moved to obey Adagio’s commands, carefully lifting Dumbbell between their arms and helping him to the door. Before they left, Adagio called to them, “And boys... good work. You’ve served me well, and will be rewarded appropriately.”

That seemed to lighten their moods, even Dumbbell managing a smile despite his injured state.

It was useful to ensure the help knew their efforts were valued. Adagio intended to count on those three continuing to be useful errand boys, although she needed to be a bit more careful with sending them out in the future. The raid on Grogar’s lab was a good test of their competence and abilities, since Adagio knew Grogar wouldn’t leave his lab unguarded. If they’d died, well... that only meant they weren’t really strong enough to survive what was coming. But since they had, even if only barely, she supposed they could handle serving an Espada.

With the boys gone, she went to the lounge, and found what she was looking for there. It was one of the smaller computers from Grogar’s lab, one she’d seen him use on occasion, if not as often as the lab’s main terminal. She’d watched Grogar using these devices for hours while he’d experimented on her. She was about as familiar with their operation as he was, probably. They had internal power sources, so hooking them up to anything was unnecessary. Much like computers from the living world, these did have password protections, but Adagio had observed those as well, carefully out of the corner of her eye.

Grogar might have noticed her observations, but perhaps he didn’t care if she had watched him? Grogar’s arrogance was often something that seemed to overshadow his caution.

Or maybe he anticipate she’d do this? Grogar had, time and again, shown little care for her continuous rise to power and defiance of him. He almost seemed to enjoy her struggle against his control. Could he really have predicted she’d get this far?

Adagio shook her head. There was no point in wondering about that too much. This raid was a gamble, but it wasn’t as if her plans hinged on this working. It’d just be a tasty bonus on top of everything else.

Turning the computer on, she smiled as its screen lit up green, and the password prompt appeared.

Moment of truth, she keyed in the password she’d observed Grogar using many a time, a strange password that made her raise an eyebrow when she’d first seen it:

Tambelon.

For some reason the word sounded vaguely familiar, as if Adagio had heard of it once, long, long ago. Shaking the thought off, she let out a pleased laugh as the computer logged on. She doubted she’d be able to access any useful data or systems, since she was fairly sure Grogar’s computers were all hooked up to a laboratory database, and with this one unhooked form that it had no way to access it wirelessly. But that wasn’t what she wanted it for. She wanted it to access the data on the disc, which she’d sent the boys to find and download certain information onto.

Once she inserted the disc it only took a matter of seconds for the information to pop up on the screen, and Adagio let out another happy laugh as she licked her lips and pored over it.

The data on how to create artificial Arrancar.

---------

“Victory?”

Tirek’s voice carried with it a distinct weight of displeasure that would make even another Espada cringe from his glower and fiercely arresting eyes, “Is that what you call it, Guto?”

The Espada were gathered at the base of Las Noche’s monolithic central tower, standing upon the same tall, stone rise that connected to the southern inner wall, which now was missing a sizable chunk form near its center. Not every Espada was present. Smooze was missing, though not presumed dead. Tirek doubted much of anything short of utter annihilation would actually kill Smooze, but the mutated monstrosity’s current whereabouts was a mystery. Grogar was also not present, which irked Tirek but at least Grogar had the presence of mind to send one of his deformed servants with a message that he was cleaning up some sort of damage done to his lab and would report back as soon as he could. As for Squirk, it’d just been confirmed the damned fool had gotten himself killed, after Tirek had sent scouts to confirm all Espada’s locations and they had found the Ninth Espada’s palace a mess and a distinctive remnant aura of death intermixed with Squirk’s reiatsu.

There were other reiatsu present in Squirk’s palace as well, but harder to identify, beyond that several of them were Soul Reapers, of all things. Normally Tirek would have found it all somewhat baffling, but he already suspected he knew what had happened. After all, out of his remaining Espada, only one of them hadn't shown any surprise at Squirk's death.

Torch and Lament were also not present, Torch because he was licking his wounds and searching for his daughter, who apparently had gone missing as well. Tirek knew Torch well enough to know not to bother calling upon the man at the moment. Tirek cared not for matters of family, but knew better than to try to make Torch budge on it. Not because he feared Torch’s power, but because Torch was one of the few Espada worth any real respect, so Tirek allowed the man time to seek his child, and mourn if it turned out shed fallen in battle.

As for Lament, it seemed the Fourth Espada’s tower had been attacked, and the Fourth was dealing with the aftermath of that. From what Tirek had learned at least two Sternritter could be added to the Fourth’s list of kills, which in Tirek’s mind more than earned Lament his keep, and so Tirek would give the Fourth his space for now.

As for those still gathered, Hydia, Guto, Catrina, and Chrysalis, Tirek was not bothering to hide his ire, and Guto’s comment had only sparked it higher.

To his credit, despite his injuries, Guto managed to meet Tirek’s stare without flinching and kept his composure as he stood there in a stance of rigid pride. “Well, Las Noches still stands, does it not, Lord Tirek? We have beaten off the Quincy army, and slaughtered many of their number, despite them unveiling new powers. Indeed their morale must be in shambles, for even with such potent new transformations they were no match for the hordes of Las Noches and we Espada!”

Catrina, curling one dark finger through her shining red hair, managed a soft purr, “I am in agreement with Guto. Certainly we may have taken a few losses, but surely the Quincy’s noses were bloodied more than ours. I’d say we taught those arrogant humans a lesson they won’t soon forget.”

Tirek’s sword slammed into the stone floor, point first, with such force that the stone cracked in multiple directions and made several of the Espada present stumble. His breath came in deep, rumbling gusts as he said, “Our fortress was breached, one of our number assassinated, either by Quincy or Soul Reapers, and we lost nearly a third of our hordes’ numbers.”

“Riffraff,” Guto said with an off hand gesture, “Squirk was a weakling by our standards, and while he had a useful ability, yes, it’s not as if he was critical to our war efforts. As for the rest, what do we care how many lower class warrior die? The Quincy lost far more in terms of overall battle power.”

“Truly?” Tirek said with a voice laden with the tone one uses upon someone missing the obvious, “Those ‘riffraff’ warriors you casually dismiss us losing, do you know how we are going to replace them?”

Guto paused, face pinching in a frown of consternation, “Well... we can eventually find more Arrancar, given...um, time, Lord Tirek.”

“Yes, time. Centuries of time, possibly, given how long it takes Arrancar to evolve naturally, you fool! And weak as Squirk was, his Garganta powers were a tactical advantage we could have used to launch surprise attacks on Quincy and Soul Reaper alike, weakening their forces until we could have a decisive advantage! Something none of the sides in this war have been able to achieve. With him gone, we’re back to square one in how we can move upon our enemies. And in case you weren’t paying attention, while we did kill several Sternritter, the damned Quincy can replace them far faster than we can replace Espada! All Sombra has to do is toss a Schrift on any Quincy he likes. I can hardly turn any idiot into an Espada. They also succeeded in testing out those new transformations, which have reduced our advantage of power over the Quincy.”

At his words Guto shrunk back, but continued to persist, “Y-yes, Lord Tirek, but not so much that they eclipse us in power. By all reports the Fourth Espada alone faced three such transformed Sternritter and handled them ably!”

“Three of their weakest Sternritter, but all reports as well,” Tirek said darkly, grinding his teeth, “Smooze fell to just one. Catrina, you were stalemated by another single opponent. And Guto, all those injuries also came from a single foe, did they not?”

Guto’s head rose pridefully, “One that I defeated, and now is chained within my palace as my personal trophy!”

“Oh, good for you. I’m sure that will assuage your wounded pride after you ran from the other two Sternritter that came after you, after you had your horde retreat from battle due to the casualties they were suffering from the Quincy main army,” Tirek said with a fierce glower. He looked at the other Espada, eyes resting on Hydia, who looked a bit bored, but did have the presence of mind to wince at Tirek’s stare.

“And you, Hydia? Anything to add to this?”

She let out a half-hearted chuckle, shrugging her broad shoulders, her belly jiggling as she laughed, “Nah, Lord Tirek, you kinda got the right of it here. I might’ve gone toe-to-giant toe of one of them Sternritter boys, but unlike Guto here I’m not gonna downplay that Vollstandig. With that power boost, even if a Sternritter isn’t a match for one of us, there’s a lot more of them then there are of us, and while we killed a couple sure... we still lost Squirky-boy, and Smooze is still missing. If you ask me, since one Espada rates more than one Sternritter, us losing two to them losing three still means we came out the worse for it.”

Tirek huffed out a breath with a pressure valve releasing steam, “Finally, one of you shows some brains. This battle was, at best, a draw.”

His lips curled in a frustrated sneer, “Like always. All this battle did was hammer home the stalemate that we’ve been trapped in for so long! We must find a way to break it! I will no longer stand for this war being stuck in an endless mire of battles with no clear victor.”

Especially because Tirek suspected that this battle had triggered something unexpected. He hadn’t discovered exactly why Sombra had left their duel so suddenly, but given the unusual and faint energy Tirek had sensed after breaking free of Sombra's prison dimension, Tirek had an inclining as to what it may have been. And he didn’t like it one bit.

His eyes locked back on his Espada, “Go now. Tend to your hordes and recover your strength. Tomorrow we will meet in the throne room to discuss our next move. We will not remain idle.”

As the Espada bowed to him and turned to leave, he added, “Not you, Chrysalis. Follow me.”

He didn’t give her a moment to respond before turning and marching towards the large opening into the central tower. Chrysalis had been silent during the meeting, but he’d seen her emerald eyes shining with amusement. His heavy feet made loud, echoing stomps upon the floor as he entered the vast entry chamber to Las Noches’ main tower. The chamber was a huge, dark hall, with towering, fifty foot wide pillars of marble rising on either side as the hall moved towards a giant staircase leading to higher levels.

Chrysalis smoothly walked in behind him, her voice affable as she spoke, “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you in such a tizzy. Did your playtime with Sombra not go as usual?”

His hand was around her throat in less than an instant, Tirek’s massive arm wheeling about to slam Chrysalis head first into one of the marble pillars. The stone cracked under the impact, and Chrysalis’ legs dangled a good two feet off the ground as he brought his face up to hers, his eyes burning with yellow light.

“Don’t. Test. Me.,” he said, voice like a boiling furnace.

Chrysalis’ head bled slightly from the impact, but the wound healed in seconds, and she licked the blood trickling down her face with a remarkably long and sensual movement of her tongue. Her eyes positively smoldered as she looked at him, and almost writhed in enjoyment as she let out an ear tickling laugh.

“Oooooh, but I thought you liked it when I give you lip, Tirek. You certainly seem to enjoy it when we’re in the bedroom-”

He slammed her against the pillar again. Not because he thought it actually hurt her. Just to make a point.

“I was bored of your games centuries ago, woman. Your position is based solely upon your strength, and the usefulness of yourself and your brood to me. Nothing more.”

“Aw, but you always seem to have so much fun helping me with the ‘brood’ part of that equation,” Chrysalis said, still smiling, her teeth somehow showing more prominent canines, almost akin to fangs. She raised her slim, onyx arm and gripped Tirek’s hand. She gave it a squeeze, and even Tirek felt the pressure there. Not as strong as his, but strong enough to still grind muscle and bone. “Besides, we both know that if you meant to kill me, I could still make a fight of it, Tirek. Too much of a fight to be worth the trouble. So let’s dispense with the posturing and why don’t you just tell me what has you so upset, hmm? I have things to do.”

He let out a long suffering sigh and with an exceedingly flat look, he dropped her. Chrysalis landed with such smooth ease and grace it was as if Tirek had never smashed her head into a pillar in the first place. She didn’t even have to smooth out her white, silken dress as she placed a hand on her hip and looked at him with patient expectation.

Damnable woman. He hated her as much as he desired her. The only female in all creation who was a match for him, in mind, body, and ambition. He’d have been rid of her ages ago if some small portion of him didn’t think he might actually miss her.

“Have it your way,” he said, “But if I don’t like your answers, never forget that even you still wouldn’t survive my wrath, and your children even less so.”

Chrysalis waved a hand, “Yes, you’re the strongest. Even I don’t deny that. Now what is this about?”

“As if you don’t already know.” His eyes narrowed at her, “Why have you had Squirk killed?”

For a moment he thought she might try to deny it, which might have made him decide to try to kill her then and there, no matter what consequences that action might incur, but instead she just smiled that devilishly attractive smile and crossed her arms under her exquisitely perfect, obsidian bosom.

“He wasn’t ever worthy of being an Espada in the first place, but more importantly, he made the poor choice of deciding to work with Catrina instead of myself. His death is a message to Catrina.”

A deep growl filled Tirek’s chest, “You dispose of one with such a useful power merely to slap Catrina’s useless efforts to supplant you? Isn’t she supposed to be the vain one?”

“Oh, I don’t deny Squirk’s power was handy to have around, but it came attached to a man with less intelligence than a sack of stones, and let’s face it, he barely qualified as an Espada. Guto’s little upstart, Gilda, might have had enough power to defeat him in an open challenge.”

Tirek made a non-committal grunt at that. He’d heard of Guto’s right hand protege, but hadn’t evaluated Gilda’s power for himself yet. If she’d challenged Squirk he wouldn’t have denied her the right to do so, but would have likely preserved Squirk’s life, if only to keep him around for those extremely handy Gargantas of his. He couldn’t deny Chrysalis’ other points. Squirk hadn’t been the brightest of fellows, and minus the proficiency with Gargantas his power wasn’t anything overly remarkable. Higher than the average Arrancar, yes, but if Smooze didn’t insist on remaining number Ten, then Squirk would’ve fit that spot instead.

He eyed Chrysalis, the yellow on black orbs narrowing, “Be that as it may, killing him was a foolish move. His power remained useful. You could have humiliated him, and Catrina, without his death.”

His sneer returned, “There is more to this. I know you, Chrysalis. You have another ploy at work.”

There was no concern on her face, only that wry twinkle of amusement, “Of course I do. I know you dislike it, Tirek, but for the moment I beg your indulgence and let this play out. I promise you’ll enjoy the show.”

“Show?” he asked, intrigued, despite himself.

“I already anticipated everything, my oh-so prickly lover. I didn’t have Squirk dealt with without knowing exactly how it would benefit both of us, and trust me,” Chrysalis winked, “You’ll like what’s coming next.”

He loomed over her, letting just enough of his crushing reiatsu out to make even Chrysalis flinch slightly.

"Perhaps I will. You should hope so, because my displeasure can still cot you much if it turns out this scheme of yours doesn't benefit me more than having Squirk around would have," he said, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

Chrysalis' eyes narrowed as well, her poise unbroken, "I wouldn't worry about it. Before long, we'll have his replacement."

----------

She floated upon an ever shifting ocean of fractured, midnight dreams. Not truly conscious, nor wholly asleep, Twilight Sparkle was barely aware of her own identity as she was pulled along a current of fragmented images, formed from the haze of memories she didn’t think were her own.

She saw a formless landscape that took any shape she desired, with a mere brush of her fingers and a force of will.

But she was alone. So alone. A marrow deep loneliness so prevalent that it left even the most beautiful creation shaped from her hands as dead and gray as ash.

The current of memory floated faster, no sense of connection between sight, smell, and image. Twilight’s barely conscious mind couldn’t fathom it all.

A man, his visage so familiar, yet so alien, her hand entwined with his. One second he was a stranger, clad in gold, the next he was Sombra, formed from a multitude of shadows.

A palace in the sky, stretching to an infinite blue horizon, its spires and halls soaring above her in gold and jade splendor.

The same palace in flames, her chest a spire of heaving pain as a blade was impaled through her from behind. The word ’Traitors’ so thick on her tongue she could drown in its bitter, bile taste.

Her left eye was in agony as she ripped it from herself and threw it into the void, casting it out...

The memories became sharper, gaining a strange shade of color, like watery oils, and she felt her breath in her chest with vivid, painful reality. Yet Twilight’s mind, slowly awakening to more conscious thought, realized she was still trapped in a sea of memory. Memories that most certainly weren’t hers.

Now she was a young girl? Younger than she already was? Springtime, the field of green filling her nose with countless scents of blooming flowers. She was on horseback? Riding alongside a young boy of sooty black skin, and even darker, ashen hair. Sombra.

She saw him age in flashes, her alongside him. There were men in white uniforms and armor, almost like the modern Quincy, but showing the traits of the noble clothing and armor of knights from the middle ages. How long ago was this? The knights knelt to their King, and Twilight saw herself by his side, hand held in his.

Battles. First against monsters in white masks. Hollows. Then later, against ranks of flickering men and women in dark robes. Soul Reapers.

Fields burned. Towns were flattened. Castles fell. Yet the Quincy kept fighting, and Sombra eye’s harsher, save for when he looked at her. Not Twilight, someone else.

Who?

Twilight gasped in the darkness, her consciousness slipping towards some distant surface. Yet her soul was cold. She was afraid. Her heart clenched with the piercing grip of fearful claws. She didn’t want to remember! She didn’t want to wake up! If she did... if she did...

She’d have to face what had happened. She’d have to remember.

No...

Don’t wake up.

”You have to.”

“Midnight...?”

”You have to wake up. We need answers.”

“But... mom...”

”I know. But if we don’t wake up, that thing is going to try and take our soul again. We need answers. Answers from him. Wake up, Twilight.”

Wake up.

She didn’t want to. But she knew she had to. Wake up, and face reality...

----------

Twilight opened her eyes to a dark room, laying in a large bed, covered up to her neck in thick, heavy sheets. Only a little light trickled in past vast curtains covering windows somewhere to her left, leaving much of the room cloaked in shifting shadows. It was warm, stemming from the dying coals and embers of logs that had recently finished burning through in a fireplace across from the bed she lay in.

For a moment Twilight lay there in the dark, staring at nothing.

There was no slow return of memory. No slow wondering what had happened.

She remembered everything. The desperate attempt to save her mother. Her mother’s blood spraying across the ground. That last second of life in Twilight Velvet’s eyes before they’d gone dark. Then the terrible, swift rush of crushing emotions of pain, fear, rage, and confusion as something alien and vastly stronger than Twilight had reached up through the depths of her soul to take hold of her mind and body.

Only Twilight’s near crazed mental state and Midnight’s interference had kept Twilight’s mind intact enough to focus that power on the source of her pain. And even then the Fourth Espada had survived her, until Sombra had appeared to end matters.

She didn’t remember anything after that, but it wasn’t hard to surmise she’d been taken to the Silburn. Even without seeing much of the room she could tell the interior design was similar to what she’d seen of the palace.

She thought she’d start crying the moment she woke up, remembering the painful reality of her mother’s death, but for the second it didn’t feel real. Or rather she was still in too much shock for it to register fully. That or some part of her was refusing to acknowledge it. As long as she lay her, totally still, she didn’t have to acknowledge reality at all.

“Twilight?”

The voice cut through the stillness inside her like a hot knife. She hadn’t even noticed the additional weight on her stomach, so heavy were the sheets and blanket of the bed itself.

“Spike...” she whispered, the small dog raising his head from where he protectively lay over her. His eyes shone with worry in the darkness as he slowly crawled up to her face and gave her cheek a lick.

“I didn’t know when you were gonna wake up,” he said, his voice filled with careful apprehension, guilt, and entire oceans of concern and sympathy. “Twilight, I...”

With awkward slowness she rose, pulling her arms from under the blankets to wrap them around in a tight hug as Spike nuzzled her. She tried to pat his head, and froze as the hand that was supposed to be there, wasn't. She'd almost forgotten she'd lost in in the fight with Lament. Yet she didn't stop holding Spike, and with her still intact, shaking left hand, proceeded to pet him. His small whine carried with it more meaning than any amount of apologies or sympathies could ever manage, and the sound alone broke the dam in Twilight’s heart.

She sobbed as she hugged her dog. She buried her face in his head and wept.

A hundred memories pricked at her mind. Her mother sitting on a couch in front of the fireplace watching with a smile as she corrected her brother’s homework, one rainy Monday evening. Velvet’s sharp scolding for letting Spike run around the house shaking water off him after he’d escaped a bath. A look of pride in her mother’s eyes after dropping Twilight off for her first day at Crystal Prep. Watching her parents leave home for a ‘business trip’ dozens upon dozens of times, her mother always turning to give a reassuring nod and wave from the driveway before stepping into the car.

There was no counting time amid the wracking sobs of pain and regret as she held onto Spike and let it all flow through her in a heated torrent.

She and her mother had had their differences, yes. She’d felt a sense of anger and betrayal when she’d learned how much her mother and father had kept from her, or their refusal to help her friends when they’d been in need. Yet Twilight had already forgiven Cadence, and had every intention of patching things up with her family once the chance arose.

Now her mother was gone.

“Twilight, um, you’re... kinda squeezing a little tight here. Still injured, remember?” Spike said, his fuzzy face giving a pained wince. Twilight gasped and quickly let go of him, gulping as she wiped at her face, which was stained with tears.

“Oh, I’m... I’m sorry, Spike. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It’s okay, I’m mostly healed up, but still kinda sore,” he said, then flinched at his own words, looking at her with eyes that practically burst at the seams with worry, his gaze lingering on her missing hand, “Is it... okay? I mean, are gonna be...?”

It was a question she couldn’t possibly answer. Twilight wiped at her face some more with her left hand, sniffing as she looked away from him and reached out to scratch his head weakly. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I don’t... I don’t think I’m going to be okay today. Or tomorrow. Not for awhile.”

Her brain was still in a phase of only partially processing events. Her sadness welled up in her like a surging tide, but to her surprise and dismay it was matched almost equally by an even deeper well of anger. It wasn’t a focused anger. It was a clawing, scratching thing, demanding to be set free at some viable target.

The problem was that Twilight had no idea who to direct that anger at. At Sombra, for sending her mother into the battle that killed her. At the Fourth Espada for doing the deed. At herself for failing to save her mother. At her father for not being there to protect his wife. At the Quincy and Hollows in general for perpetuating this stupid, stupid war!

A part of her wanted to keep crying. Another part of her wanted to go find something to destroy.

And another, quieter, analytical part of her mind was telling her she had far more pressing matters that needed addressing. Like what in the world had that Eye been? No, not been. Was. It was still inside her. Somehow, on some deep intuitive level, she knew the Eye was still in her. Along with...

”Midnight...” she asked, casting her voice inward into her mind.

”About time you woke up,” replied her alter-ego, Midnight’s presence in Twilight’s mind rising to the surface in a sluggish manner, as if Midnight herself was still exhausted from the events that had transpired. Her voice had this tired echo to it. ”Spike’s been looking over you the whole day. Others have been through checking up on you. Father. Shining. And Sombra...”

There was a distinct heat of anger and annoyance in Midnight’s voice at mentioning Sombra’s name, and Twilight found her own anger was only a simmer below that point. Sombra had answers he owed her.

“Sombra... what haven’t you told me?” she whispered, causing Spike’s ears to perk up.

“Huh?”

“Oh, um, sorry Spike, I’m talking with Midnight,” Twilight said.

Spike’s apprehension translated into a nervous whine, “Is that a good idea?”

A heavy sigh escaped Twilight as she patted his head, still feeling awkward having to do so with her left hand. “It's either that, or I go back to sobbing. I need something to focus on, or I’m going to break down even more.”

”Which isn’t good for either of us right now,” Midnight said, ”Not to put too fine a point on things, but right now your mind is a mess and I’m working cleanup duty.”

Forcing her thoughts into some kind of rational, logical order, which was several magnitudes harder than it’d ever been in her life, for obvious reasons, Twilight said, “Okay Midnight, do you have any idea at all what happened to us?”

”What, you mean being taken over by a horrific Eye of unknown origins that tried to use our body like a sock puppet? No, I have no faffing clue what that was! It wasn’t magic based, I can tell you that much, but once it got a look at me it was able to instantly understand and control magic as easily as I can. That’s how we were tearing apart reality with portals re-purposed for combat.”

Twilight was silent for a stunned moment. “What?”

”I don’t have any other way to describe them, Twilight. It was like that Eye took the portal spell and instantly rehashed it for combat purposes. Literal rifts torn in reality that could theoretically rip apart just about anything they hit. I’m not even sure I can duplicate them if I tried.

“But... we were using them. To attack the Fourth Espada,” Twilight said, searching over her memories. The experience had been horrible and bizarre, as if she’d had a will, but couldn’t control all her actions, or at least not from moment to moment. The closest she could think to describe the sensation was as if she’d been a video game character with three separate players, all fighting over who got the controller.

Midnight must have picked up on her analogy, because Twilight got the sensation of her alter-ego nodding, ”More or less. I was able to act as a buffer between you and that... that thing. That let your own will guide us for the most part, but the Eye was able to slip some control through. And I was... also a bit out of it. Basically I think we all agreed on the goal of killing Lament, but our body was being yanked about by all three of us.”

Twilight took a shuddering breath and asked the big question, “What do you think the Eye was?”

Midnight took longer to answer than Twilight was comfortable with. ”I don’t know. It was inside that anomaly. When... when mother died, the shockwave our mental state took from that busted the cube clean open, and the Eye came pouring out. Like I said, it's not magical in nature. It’s a spirit entity. But its energy is on a totally different spectrum from what I’m used to seeing from spirit beings so far.

“How different?”

”I don’t think we’re talking about something that’s monstrously more powerful than what we’ve already seen, but it was operating on dimensions beyond the spirit energy we’re familiar with. It’s still spirit energy as far as I can tell, but it's like the difference between...”

There was a long, airy pause, and Twilight couldn’t tell if Midnight was hesitating, or just searching for the right words, but soon enough Midnight’s voice echoed with a sort of uneasy clarity.

”Like the difference between regular magic and what the Elements of Harmony are.”

Before Twilight could question Midnight any further on what she meant by that, she heard muffled footfalls from beyond the door, and within moments they swung open to reveal her father and Shining Armor standing there, brightly back-lit by a large hallway outside.

“I thought I heard voices,” Night Light said, a look of relief on his face that soon became a stormy war of guilt and pain that was quickly overrun by the relief again as he swiftly walked to the side of the bed, “How long have you been awake?”

“Twily...” Shining Armor said, coming over to the bed’s other side. Her brother’s face was even more conflicted than her father’s, and far less masked as he looked at her with equal parts relief at her being awake, and pained apprehension, combined with a barely contained sorrow that was every match to the turmoil that Twilight had been feeling.

She looked between them, feeling tears returning to her eyes swiftly as she tried to speak, and needed a few times to actually get words out past the cold lump in her throat.

“Dad... Shiny... is mom really...?”

Night Light met her eyes, and looked for all the world as if he wanted to be anywhere else and say anything else, but instead he reached out and held her shoulder tightly, in the same manner he had whenever he wanted to comfort her as a child and tell her there weren’t any monsters under the bed.

“I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t as if she didn’t already know that, but somehow hearing it from her father’s lips made it a more concrete, solid reality. She tried very, very hard not to break down again. She lasted maybe ten seconds before the small choking sounds she made turned to fresh tears. This time she had her brother holding her much as she had held Spike minutes earlier. Her father’s hand remained a steady, pillar-like presence on her shoulder, and she knew he’d do so for hours if need be.

But it wasn’t hours, but likely less than a minute before Twilight started to wrestle herself back to self-control, or at least some semblance of it. Not because she was anywhere near close to “okay”, but because she sensed the presence of two others at the entrance of the room. One of them was Cadence, who looked, if anything, even more miserable than either Shining Armor or her father did. When Twilight met Cadence’s eyes, the other woman’s face conveyed such a sense of guilt, one would have thought she’d been Twilight Velvet’s murderer instead of Lament.

The other one standing in the doorway was Sombra.

Their eyes met. Twilight had seen Sombra be anything from inscrutable to intimidating, but this was the first time she’d seen him look apprehensive, even... afraid? He still wore his kingly bearing, and his facial expression gave no hint of such fear, but his eyes glinted with a uneasy strain as he looked at her. The strain of knowledge. With a single look he conveyed that he knew that she was aware of what had happened to her, that she remembered everything, and that she was going to get answers from him.

She hadn’t felt herself leave the bed, or throw the covers off, along with her brother. Her motions were powered by a heated burst of anger and determination in her chest, almost like a fire stoking itself against the cold of her sadness. Tears could wait.

Now was the time for answers.

“T-Twilight!?” she thought she heard her brother say, and her father say something else which might have been a question. She wasn’t listening.

Cadence, wisely, stepped aside and away from the King.

Twilight would learn later it was because Sombra had told her what would happen here, and asked her not to interfere. Apparently he’d done the same with Night Light and Shining Armor as well, which is why none of them tried to stop her, why her father had taken his hand off her shoulder instead of clamping it in place, along with her.

Twilight Sparkle used her one remaining hand to slap the King of the Quincy across the face with all the strength she could muster... including Blut Arterie.

In response he stood there like an iron statue, his eyes unchanging as he raised a hand, is voice apologetic.

“Your glasses,” he said. Twilight had forgotten she didn’t have them on. Hadn’t asked for them, but Sombra was holding them out for her.

She snatched them out of his hand, calmly put them on. It was harder with one hand than she would've guessed, but she managed. Then she proceeded to slap him again... but this time he caught her hand. She was breathing hard, her legs trembled, half asleep.

“How long...?” she asked, glaring up at him, noticing the way his hand gently held hers, despite having stopped her slap dead cold, “How long have you known that thing was inside me?”

He only hesitated for half a second before saying, in a voice that sounded almost as tired as that of man far older than Sombra appeared, “Since you were born.”

One question down. Countless more to go. With a shaking breath she pulled her hand free of his. He didn’t try to hold her.

“And my mother? Could you have saved her?”

“Twilight, that’s not-” her father began, but went silent as Sombra raised his hand.

The King’s voice was quietly subdued as he said, “I couldn’t have without knowing precisely the danger she’d been in. The only reason I disengaged from my duel with Tirek was because a spiritual tether I had tied to you alerted me to what was happening, and by then it was too late to save your mother.”

“Twilight, please,” said Cadence suddenly, “Don’t blame His Majesty. This was my fault.” Her face contorted with guilt, eyes wet, “I made the decisions that led to this. I let Velvet split from the group, I choose not to go to her aid even though I knew what kind of foe she faced. I...”

Shining Armor went to Cadence, arms wrapping around his fiance’s shoulders as she shuddered and tried to contain her own tears. Sombra looked at her with a solemn sigh.

“You performed your duty. You couldn’t have foreseen the outcome. No blame is to be cast upon you for prioritizing the mission you were given. Velvet would have understood.”

“She would have,” Night Light agreed, though his words held a bitter, sour coating to them as he looked down at the floor, “If anyone deserves blame, it’s me for not anticipating the flow of battle properly.”

His hands clenched tightly at his side and self-reproach and regret clung to her father’s words in a thick cloak as he shook his head, “I should have known the moment the Fourth Espada left the front lines that he would return to Las Noches’ interior, endangering the team we’d sent inside. I was too focused on the fight in front of me. I... I failed, and Velvet...”

“Dad, no,” said Shining Armor, “If I’d been able to take on the Fifth Espada by myself, you wouldn’t have been distracted by helping me. I couldn’t even protect myself, let alone mom.”

“That’s enough! Both of you! All of you!”

All eyes turned back to Twilight, whose voice had cut through the chorus of blame. She was still breathing hard, like she’d run a marathon. Spike jumped from the bed to the floor and padded up to her to give her leg a comforting nuzzle. She took a deep breath and looked around the room.

“I don’t care who’s to blame. I don’t even blame Sombra for this. If I have to blame anyone, I might as well blame myself...” she closed her eyes in a pained grimace, “I rushed headlong into a fight I had no business being in. Mom might have been able to escape if she hadn’t been trying to protect me, because I, like an idiot, acted without thinking.”

She wiped tears that hotly burned past her closed eyes and then looked at Sombra with a hard gaze. “Right now I can’t focus on that. I don’t know how to deal with that. Instead of losing my mind thinking about mom, instead I’d rather tear some answers out of you, Sombra. I need to know what that Eye was, and why it was inside me. You said it was there since birth?”

He nodded with a grave weight, “Yes. In a sense.”

Twilight took in a long, steadying breath, feeling as if her brain wanted to crack open her skull and find a hole to hide in, while her heart was still wrapped up with crying in the corner. She didn’t know where she was finding the strength to even stand, let alone have any mental focus at the moment. Perhaps it was simply because she found seeking answers to be such familiar territory, like eating comfort food. As long as she was concentrating on this, she didn’t have to think about anything else.

Sombra’s answer gave her pause, as she glanced back at her father questioningly. Night Light was giving Sombra a strange look. Reserved, and disquiet.

“You didn’t know about this, did you, dad?” she said, and Night Light continued to fix Sombra with a uneasy stare.

“I didn’t. Neither did your mother. This is something our King apparently decided we didn’t need to know.”

There was resentment and a low, heated anger now in her father’s voice too. Shining Armor didn’t look particularly thrilled either, and even more uneasy with the situation. Cadence and him were holding hands, steadying each other.

Sombra’s face slackened somewhat from its mask to something more approaching apologetic, but his tone was firm, “I’ve already explained to the rest of your family, Twilight, as to why I didn’t share this information. They have understood-”

“But not necessarily agreed,” Night Light interjected, which surprised Twilight. Her father interrupting Sombra wasn’t something she’d have imagined he’d do, but given what had happened, perhaps it was even more impressive Night Light wasn’t going further than that.

Sombra looked at him and nodded solemnly, “Yes, understood, but not agreed with my reasoning. Had I told Night Light or Twilight Velvet what was within you, I feared they’d have treated you differently, growing up. I wanted you to be able to live your life normally, up until the point of your introduction to the Quincy, which happened sooner than I’d anticipated it would. Even then, I wished your integration to our ranks to be as normal and smooth as possible, until you were ready. Unfortunately the Eye was awoken before you were ready for it, and I take full responsibility for that error in judgment.”

“Taking her into battle, when emotional stress was one of the triggers for that thing to wake up, strikes me as more than just an error in judgment,” Shining Armor growled, then after a second added, “My King.”

Sombra sighed, “She had to remain close to me at all times, Shining Armor. What if something had happened to trigger the Eye, and she was here at the Silburn? Or all the way back in Canterlot City? I couldn’t have renewed the Eye’s seals in time to prevent it from taking her body and soul completely.”

“Hold on, hold on!” Twilight said, “Let’s keep this focused. I still don’t know what this ‘Eye’ even is. Whatever your reasons for not telling my family about it are, that’s a different argument entirely. I want to know what is inside me, and how I can keep it from coming out ever again.”

”Not until we can control its power, at least,” said Midnight darkly, but Twilight ignored her alter-ego, eyes remaining fixed on Sombra.

For a moment she thought perhaps Sombra was going to refuse to tell her, as his eyes gained a darkened cast to them and his whole frame tensed. Yet after a contemplative few seconds he turned and swept is arms to gesture down the hallway, “Come with me, and I’ll explain everything.”

She raised a wary, quizzical eyebrow, “Why?”

“Because I’m tired, and this is going to take a long time. I’d rather do this in a different setting and give you a chance to change into something other than pajamas.”

Twilight blinked and looked down at herself. Given the turmoil of the past few minutes, she hadn’t really paid any attention to her current state of dress. She was barefoot, in a pair of simple, somewhat oversized white pajamas, with pink hearts. Cadence cleared her throat.

“This is my room, Twilight. We agreed it’d be the safest to keep you in, since its right between your brother’s and parent’s quarters. I figured I’d let you borrow some nightclothes until you woke up.”

“I see...” Twilight cleared her throat, suddenly feeling far too drained to argue Sombra’s point. She probably did need to dress, and drink something. Her throat was sandpaper dry, and she probably looked like a mess. If she was going to interrogate the King of the Quincies about mysteries eldritch Eyes, she probably needed to take a minute to arrange herself.

“When you’re ready, we’ll go someplace private and talk,” Sombra said, placing a hand over his heart, “I give you my word I’ll answer any question you have to the best of my knowledge. Just be forewarned... I don’t have all the answers you’re likely seeking, and you may not like all the answers you get, regardless.”

Twilight slowly readjusted her glasses, not taking her hardened eyes off of Sombra, “Fine. Before that, there’s two things I need to check on.”

Amid all the pressure on her mind she was a little shocked she even remembered, but equally embarrassed that it took her this long to think of it, but there were two key matters completely separate from the Eye and her mother that needed addressing. Well, three, but the third one she’d save for much, much later once the rest was dealt with. If it wasn’t for the almost clinical way her mind could sequester information and poke her about it over time, she’d probably have forgotten entirely. Sombra looked at her curiously, but also with some level of understanding.

“I can guess at least one of those issues is the state of your fellow cadets?”

‘Yes,” she said, with a small, bare nod of gratitude that he’d guessed that much, “I left them under... duress, and was hoping they were alright.”


“Leaving the matter of how you escaped the Hollow that captured you aside for now, I can assure you that your cadet friends are alive,” Sombra said, frowning, “Save for the loss of Hacksaw McColt. Both Sour Sweet and Indigo Zap are in the hospital currently undergoing treatment, as their injuries were the most severe of the group, but they are expected to live.”

“You did well, Twilight,” Night Light said with a beam of pride pushing through the regret still tinting his voice, “Your friends reported you fought and defeated the Arrancar that attacked them. I... I think your mother would have been proud.”

She’d have preferred her mother be alive, rather than proud, but Twilight gave her father a downcast nod and with a steadying breath looked back to Sombra, “I’ll assume you’re also aware, from either my friends’ report or Cinch’s, but I was also targeted by the assassin again.”

“We know,” said Night Light, voice heated, “You fought that one off as well.”

“But that’s not all I did,” Twilight said, and while she couldn’t bring herself to smile, she did have a bit of a satisfied look as she glanced at Cadence, “That tracer you taught me. I managed to sneak one onto her.”

Cadence’s eyes widened, “That’s incredible! If you create a duplicate tracer, it will act as a beacon to point you towards the other one, or allow any of us to track it to the source.”

Twilight lifted her finger and produced a second tracer, “Take it, Cadence. While I’m talking with Sombra, you can find out who’s been after me.”

On a trembling hand, Cadence swiftly took the second tracer, eyes closing as she let out an exhausted breath. How long had Cadence been awake, Twilight wondered? Had she slept at all? The guilt still dominated Cadence’s features as she looked at Twilight.

“I’m sorry I didn’t go after your mother, Twilight.”

Twilight just shook her head, taking her hand and clasping it around Cadence’s, “Stop it. I don’t blame you.”

Shining Armor cleared his throat, looking at the tracer, “It’s been a little over a day since the battle. If the assassin was a first class soldat, then they might have noticed the tracer on them by now, or disposed of whatever article of clothing you put it on. But we can still locate where that clothing is, and get some clues, even if we can’t pinpoint who it is. I’m going with you Cadence, to find this bastard.”

“I’d go as well,” said Night Light, “But because of the situation with the McColts and Hooffields, I have to depart soon.”

“What situation?” Twilight asked.

The grimace touching Night Light’s face was a deeply sour one, “Because of Hacksaw McColt’s death, presumably while saving the life of a Hooffield, the tensions between the two families has escalated. There’s a standoff at one of the Hooffield factories that the McColts have seized in retaliation for what they perceived as a Hooffield getting one of their daughters killed in action.”

“That’s... that’s insane,” Twilight breathed, momentarily stunned, “Hacksaw saved Cotton Barrel and her sister’s life! How could her family interpret that as Cotton Barrel trying to get her killed!?”

The dire look on Night Light’s face was only matched by the disdain in his voice, “The Hooffields and McColts are not overburdened with an abundance of common sense. Or any sense at all, save when it comes to engineering new weapons for the war effort. I’m afraid they can easily misinterpret a brave sacrifice as some kind of Hooffield plot to get one of their youngest and brightest killed. Regardless, I stayed here to wait until you woke up so I could ensure you were alright, Twilight, but now I have to go sort this mess out between those families before things devolve into shooting. We can’t afford civil war among our own right now.”

Twilight slowly went over to the bed and turned around, sitting down on it as she ran her hand through her bedraggled hair, “My...my head hurts.”

“Sombra?” Night Light asked, and the King shook his head.

“It's not the Eye. The renewed seals won’t break anytime soon. The only reason I suspect they did before was because they’d had time to weaken, and the shock of events were simply too much for them. For now they shall hold.”

Sombra made no mention of the fact that Night Light had just called him by name, which to Twilight’s remembrance her father hadn’t done before. It seemed there was a different air between the two men now, a loss of something. Trust, likely.

Twilight waved her hand, pausing only when she realized she was waving her stump, and with a red faced grimace waved her left hand instead, “I’m okay. I just, need to think. Sombra’s right, I need a minute to get myself together before we get into this Eye business.”

Her stomach gurgled, in complete ignorance of how little she really wanted to eat. But it’d been a day, and her body didn’t care about her feelings, it needed food.

“I’ll have someone send breakfast,” Sombra said, “And coffee.”

Twilight looked up at him, “Then answers.” Her tone was firm, brooking no argument.

Sombra had none to give, he simply nodded in agreement, “Then answers.”

Author's Note:

The aftermath of a large battle is often as complicated to wrap up as it's set up. Adagio's got plans to enact, and Twilight's got a lot of answers to get out of Sombra, while also dealing with the trauma of all that's happened. If all goes accordingly, next chapter should be the final wrap up for this arc before we return to Sunset and the gals.

Hope you all are still enjoying, and thanks for reading. As always I highly appreciate any and call comments, questions, or critiques you fine folks might have for me. 'Till next time.

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