The Lunar Chalice

by Spirals95

Chapter 37 - Breakthrough

Chapter 37

Being a dead stallion felt extremely weird to Shadow Breeze. He felt warm and safe despite his eyes having gone dark, as if wrapped up in a favorite blanket or the warm embrace of his mother’s hooves. An intoxicating, but strange aroma of sanitized tile and ocean breeze fabric scent tickled his olfactory senses which were no longer connected to a living nose. Death felt like a re visitation of foalhood, a trip back to the safety and good memories of his past. It felt like…

It felt like there was a straw in his throat.

Choking on his breathing tube and feeling piercing light enter his rods and cones again, Shadow Breeze sprung back to life in his hospital bed, the rubber pipe in his larynx going after his gag reflex. His hooves reached up for the plastic air hose down his throat, and tugged at it until it came out covered in pegasus mucus. Gasping and choking up the remainder of the garbage down his windpipe, the explosion survivor cleared his airway and resumed normal breathing.

“I… I’m alive,” he said slowly, the gratitude in his heart making his eyes water, “m-my, my parents don’t have to bury me!”

Shadow checked his surroundings with his teary brown eyes, “This… this must be a hospital.”

The accommodations were quite nice for how quickly he had been admitted. His bed was equipped with a brand new electric reclining system, and fitted with a memory foam mattress with thick and cozy green sheets and blankets. A window that spanned the length of the wall closest to him let the sunlight in, which his eyes were still adjusting to, and the peaceful tune of a morning songbird welcomed his hearing back to the realm of the living as well. The small things in life were so much more sweeter now that he had faced doom from Sombra’s wicked bomb collar.

Of course, not everything was so pleasant now that he was back considering that his pain nerves were still firing at full force. His wings felt broken and constricted from their heavy bandaging, he could tell that his coat had been shaved and cleaned in multiple places, and of course his insides had partially turned to bruised mush from the blast. There was a long, snaking intravenous tube stuck in his left front leg at the knee, and that leg’s fetlock definitely felt loose and broken. Whatever was inside the IV bag felt like a warm bubble bath going into his bloodstream at a steady trickle.

“My body hurts,” he whined, curling up into a ball beneath the blanket, “I guess I barely made it.”

His room’s door swung open, and the doctor assigned to watch over him entered with a clipboard floating next to him. The yellow-coated stallion glared at the badly wounded pegasus with a scornful look from his brown eyes, square and thin glasses hanging at the end of his snout.

“Are you my doctor?” asked Shadow faintly.

“No, just the surgeon who put you back together,” answered the unicorn gruffly, moving his clipboard in front of him, “welcome back to reality, son.”

Shadow cried out, really hating surgery, “Wait, put me back together? Did you have to cut me open?!”

Walking to his IV bag to check it, the surgeon ignored him and took the conversation where he wanted it to go, “You’re very welcome for the medical intervention that saved your life. My name’s Doctor Steady Hoof, by the way.”

“You saved my life?”

“I save anypony’s life who makes it to my table alive,” he continued in a monotone voice while inspecting the emptying bag with a hoof, “but I’m assuming you’re asking me if I was the sole contributor. In that case, the answer’s no, Princess Celestia shielded you from the blast, which is why you are seeing me… and not your ancestors.”

The patient watched his doctor use his magic to detach the bag from the metal IV rig and replace it with a fresh one from a nearby cabinet, filling his veins up again with more painkillers. Shadow Breeze felt like his eyes were going to roll back into his head from the help it was giving him.

“I wish I still found that face funny,” the doctor said, noticing the pleasure.

“Thanks for… for saving me… too. You helped, a lot, you big.. smart, smart guy,” Shadow Breeze giggled, reaching out with his wing for a hug.

“All right, I was wrong. This is way too many drips per second,” answered Steady Hoof, moving a dial on the IV tube.

A few moments passed and Shadow Breeze was able to think coherent thoughts again, “Sorry. My front legs really, really hurt. And my ears won’t stop ringing.”

“That’s probably never going to go away,” Steady responded pessimistically, scratching his brown and graying mane with his left hoof, “tinnitus is the worst, kid, but that’s what an explosion will do to you.”

“I hope it wasn’t too much trouble,” Shadow said.

“It took me about three hours to pick all the shrapnel out of you,” he answered while maintaining a scowl and not much else emotionally, “of course, the neck was the most dangerous place to operate on, with all those vital arteries...”

Shadow interrupted him, “Are you ok? Are you a Crystal Pony?”

His surgeon raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, I’m fine, and no, I’m not a Crystal Pony, I’m a legendary surgeon from Canterlot that you’ve never heard of... why do you ask?”

The bedridden stallion frowned at him, “You’re not very happy.”

“Could you please push past the painkillers for a few seconds while I’m talking to you?” he snorted.

“But, you did save my life, and it sounds like it wasn’t easy,” Shadow continued, “it must have been a really hard surgery.”

“Yeah well, that’s why I’m a medical expert and you’re a friend to the Princess,” sighed Steady Hoof, shaking his head, “look, if you’re concerned about my affairs, there’s a lot of ponies who are going to get hurt today. I intend not to lose a single one of them, and I need to finish things with you if you don’t mind.”

Shadow remembered his duty and rapidly pushed himself up onto his hind legs, “Oh my goodness! The golems! Sombra! I have to get back to my friends!”

“You’re in no condition to leave the medical facility,” Steady Hoof grunted, “your legs are more or less broken, you still have stitches in two places, and I’m probably not wrong to guess you’re still a bit giddy from the medicine.”

“I need to get out of here!” begged the pegasus, leaning over the side of the hospital bed, “There are ponies out there who still think I’m dead!”

“If you can walk, then by all means, go,” shrugged the surgeon, “I’m just telling you that you’re in bad shape, but I’m a surgeon, not general practice. Not my job to stop you.”

Shadow Breeze thanked the surgeon again for saving his life, and yanked the IV tube out of his leg with his teeth. Once the needle was fully away, he rolled out of the bed onto all fours on the tile. Already he could feel the pain start to shoot back up his appendages, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying to find his friends. They had to know he was alive! Steady Hoof located a crutch in the room, floating it over to the pegasus and used his magic to slip the tool under Shadow’s right wing. Despite being completely bandaged up on both wings, he was able to limp out of the room under the power of his own limbs.

Steady Hoof watched the determined pegasus turn the corner and had but one comment…

“Idiot.”

---

Morning for the Valley of Shadows brought its own brand of unusual circumstances, at least as far as Midnight was concerned. The unicorn slowly marched down the hallways of what was to soon be his castle, but bore a crabby expression on his face.

“This is weird,”he commented with an annoyed tone, scratching at the red bathrobe tied tightly around his middle, “a bathrobe, this early in the morning. I have other things to take care of during an attack.”

The soft silk robe trapped the heat from his luxurious hot shower he had taken just minutes before, keeping him warm. His mane hair was just beginning to dry and set in place, and the scent of expensive shampoo surrounded him. Midnight thought about what Sombra requested of him shortly after waking up, still ruminating about how mysterious it was.

“You still need one more thing before your coronation. Bathe in as hot of water as you can possibly bear, and clean yourself with the shampoo I have left for you in the washroom. When you are done, don your robe and go to the fourth room on the sixth floor. The red doors.”

“I wonder what that bath had to do with claiming my Empire,” he continued aloud and irritated, “It’s probably to be fitted for my armor. Sombra doesn’t understand how stupid I think those clunky suits look.”

Passing by an intersection in the castle hallways, he trotted right past Tech and Flaming Ivory, who managed to avoid his attention solely because he was too busy brooding and complaining about the bubble bath. The two stallions threw themselves against the wall into the shadows of the hall crossing, and twisted their necks over to peer around the corner. Flaming Ivory took notice that Midnight’s mane and tail were beginning to move on their own, waving as if a draft was flowing through the halls of the castle.

“So, have you noticed yet that Midnight’s, um... changing?”

“You mean besides the razor sharp fangs, sickly green eyes, and waving mane?” Techorse asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, those things,” grunted Flaming, rolling his eyes, “my point’s that I thiiiink Midnight is slowly turning into Sombra.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the dark magic is beginning to take over his body, too,” Techorse agreed, holding up the potion bottle with his saddle’s right arm, “but this potion is supposed to purge him of it. We just have to make sure he drinks it.”

“Right, but we can’t just walk up and ask him to,” Flaming nodded, “because he’s gonna tell it’s poison and then throw us out the nearest window. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to end up splattered… like Shadow.”

“We won’t,” assured his buddy, “he still thinks of us as his friends.”

“I hope you’re right...”

---

Midnight found the red door his adoptive parent had described to him, and was rather impressed. While it was just an oversized plain door with a brass handle, there was a large triangular stone carved with a blue pattern on mounted on the right side of the door that kept it shut tightly. With his experience with magical devices, Midnight recognized immediately what it was.

“An aura signature lock? Whatever’s behind this door must be something important,” he chuckled, “it’s probably even enchanted to prevent teleportation in or out of the room. I’m going to guess this is where he keeps all his money and treasure.”

A sparkling ball of light appeared at the tip of Midnight’s horn, which was pushed into the magical lock. The response was a moving flash of light that traversed the carvings on the stone, confirming that Midnight’s aura matched the pattern inside to open the door. The tumblers could be heard turning, and then the lock slid away, permitting the heavy door to slide open. While the scuffling noise of the moving entryway ground in his ears, he thought carefully about what he might find on the other side.

“What is left for me to learn?”

Techorse and Flaming crept up behind Midnight, hiding behind a marble statue. They could see past their friend, even though his ridiculous bathrobe was a bit distracting. A loud clang sent them behind their cover again, the door slamming into place clumsily. Midnight himself winced, but when he opened his eyes again, a curious smile crept over his face.

Behind the door was a wide, well-lit chamber that was floored with fine blue granite polished and cleaned to the point where someone could eat off of it. The back of the room provided the light through a series of angled windows shuttered with tall, imposing curtains that could be shut at any time with a long silver rope tied to them. A water fountain built into the right side wall provided a bubbling, soothing noise from water cascading down the marble wall into a basin below, and there was a currently unused fireplace on the opposite wall that could provide a good source of heat in the colder months. A beautiful bed set in the corner opposite the fireplace near the fountain, big enough to hold four and covered in sapphire sheets that matched Midnight’s coat color, his cutie mark etched onto it. To round out the beautiful décor of the room, white columns with flowering vines held up a tall ceiling that had its own skylight as well.

But none of the amazing interior decoration meant anything to Midnight. The occupants of the room were what had gotten his attention. Six beautiful mares, two of each type of pony, were sitting around in this room on top of a spread out pile of plush pillows with gemstones sewn into their seams. Each of the ponies were dressed in thin veils over their faces, and a shade of colorful eyeshadow complemented their eyelashes. Legs were draped over pillows in the pony pile placed in the center of this… very private room. Perfume made from fresh roses could be smelled from where Techorse and Flaming Ivory were standing. Their beautiful figures and welcoming eyes enticed Midnight to enter the room slowly, but the dark magic poisoning his brain made it impossible for him to see what Techorse and Flaming Ivory saw: eight terrified mares chained to a stack of pillows who were struggling not to burst into tears.

“King Sombra must want Midnight to… uuugh,” Flaming cringed, trying not to grind his teeth, “look, we gotta get in there and stop Midnight before he does something stupid, Tech.”

After coming up with his plan, he answered, “I’ve got an idea! Play along and we’ll stop this.“

Midnight didn’t quite feel compelled to lose the bathrobe yet, but he was getting there judging by the awkward steps he was taking and the strange growling he was making in his throat. The first mare in the huddled group, a pegasus pony with pleading orange eyes and a pink coat, had remembered Sombra’s instructions to her and her friends clearly. If she refused even a single request from Midnight, she would no longer be the proud owner of an attached head. She was to be polite, and… a prize.

“H… hello Prince Midnight,” she stuttered, “w… welcome to your… private room.”

The unicorn made his way into the stack of pillows and sat down in the middle of the ring of mares, looking the pink pegasus in the eyes first, “Ahhh, thank you. You know how to treat royalty well, sweetheart.”

She felt like she was going to throw up violently, legs wiggling in fear, “S… so, my lovely friends and I are here to… comfort you when you need it!”

Her friend on the other side of Midnight, an earth pony with a light blue coat and tears running from her yellow eyes, finally broke down, “I can’t take it! I can’t do this!”

In response to her rebellion, Sombra’s curse sent her a dark vision. Time froze, and the guillotine from the courtyard teleported over the mare, pinning her down and holding its lethal blade over her head. The mare screamed, believing the illusion to be very real, and could only writhe in terror as the knife was released from its hold. She fell over in the real world, eyes glazed over and mouth running with foam.

“Are you rebelling against my father’s orders?” Midnight asked coldly, her seizure continuing, “Or will you obey?”

Not getting an answer from her, Midnight touched his horn to her forehead and sent over a pulse of energy, restoring her mental health. The mare picked herself up, but had an empty, crushed look.

“Yes master… I will serve your needs.”

“Midnight, what are you doing?”

The prince thought he heard his own voice in his head, a desperate cry to stop immediately. It was as if his old personality had found refuge in his mind and was starting to rebel. Midnight Blaze was more than aware of what Sombra intended for him to do with the Crystal Ponies left for him in this room, and he knew that it was what he wanted to do to finish his experiences as a prince. But, Midnight had his own plans, and they didn’t involve being distracted by the mares around him. So, with a smirk on his face, he challenged his conscious with a thought of his own,

“What am I doing? Not what Sombra wants. I’m doing things MY way.”

His horn glowed, and the fetters around the legs of his mares sparked and crumbled away, leaving them free to move about. The unicorns watched their inhibitor rings break away too, and all were very confused about the situation.

Midnight said to them calmly, “That’s better. My father believes that I should be just like him, including his... tastes. But I’ve already won what I want from all of you… your loyalty. Your support in my goals.”

“Oh, thank you,” whimpered the closest earth pony, “thank you, thank you!”

Flaming Ivory looked at Techorse and breathed a sigh of relief, “Yup, Midnight’s still in there. He’s really a great guy when you get to know him.”

“That inhibitor has to go,” Techorse commented.

“Oh shut up Tech, that one was me!”

“Come on out from behind the statue, Techorse, Flaming,” Midnight called to them, “I can see your tails poking out.”

Caught, and still worried about the spells Midnight could throw at them, the two stallions scooted out from behind the statue and walked up to their friends’ pillow pile.

“You two are nosy.”

“We heard screaming,” Flaming Ivory lied, swinging his hoof wide, “thought somepony was in trouble. This is a tad, um… compromising, don’t you think?”

“After what I heard about the Shadow Pony bloodline from my father, I simply couldn’t repeat his mistakes,” Midnight chuckled, leaning back and throwing a hoof around the unicorn mare next to him, “the Crystal Mares are sweet as sugar, my friends, but after Ignitus’s treatment of me for being the son of a king… well, I don’t want to have that happen to a descendant of mine. When the time comes, I’ll be a bit smarter about my choice of queen.”

Flaming Ivory grunted, knowing his friend had only spared them because of his feelings about Sombra’s actions. But, getting a plan in his head, he cleared his throat quickly,

“Heh, couldn’t agree more Midnight. Mares, am I right?”

“Exactly, it’s wise to not make things a habit,” Midnight agreed.

“I’ll drink to that,” joked the pianist, laughing.

Techorse turned his head and gave him a look of disbelief about the loaded language, “Flaming, what are...”

“Let’s pour Midnight a drink, how about it? Go get him one, Tech… champagne’s right there!” he interrupted, winking, “don’t make him wait.”

After a brief moment of obliviousness, Techorse got the message and let Flaming continue to distract Midnight while he walked over to the bucket and the bottle. His saddle opened, and he picked up the bottle with the robotic arms, holding the bottle in one hand… and Rosseth’s potion in the other. After uncorking it with a satisfying pop, he poured half a glass into the closest flute, and topped it off with the contents of the brew. It foamed a little bit more than usual from the addition of the potion, but left no indication that it was tainted.

Tapping the unaware Midnight on the shoulder, he said, “Here you go, Midnight. One glass of champagne.”

The unicorn nodded and took control of the flute using a new, sickly purple aura his friends hadn’t seen yet. He brought the drink under his muzzle, and gave it a quick sniff, swirling the glass a bit to swish the contents.

“Hmmm, you’d better taste this first,” Midnight said, holding it up to Flaming.

He froze in place, “What?”

“I didn’t see Techorse pour the glass,” he answered smugly, “I’m not this dumb, Flaming. If Techorse has done something to my drink, he’ll pay with your life.”

“Give me that you… brilliant tactician,” grunted Flaming Ivory from his inhibitor short circuiting his brain again.

Orange magic particles seized the glass and brought it to him, “You really think your own friends are gonna poison you? Fine, watch.”

He swallowed a sizable first sip out of the cup, feeling the cold liquor travel down his throat. A good amount of time passed with no clear ill effects.

“See? Perfectly fine,” answered Flaming Ivory, secretly thanking his lucky stars he didn’t convulse from the potion in the cup, “you really ought to trust us a bit more.”

Midnight took the glass back, and stood up, raising it above him, “To my friends… whom I can now trust.”

Chugging the rest of the champagne, the prince felt a very different experience from Flaming Ivory. It felt like burning napalm going down his throat, and expanding outwards inside of him, scorching his insides. Somehow, his friends had poisoned him after all.

"AAAARGH!" he wailed, making the mares scream when he dropped to the floor, "HOOOW?! FLAMING DIDN’T GET POISONED!"

“That’s right, because the poison only affects Shadow Ponies!” Techorse said, grabbing Midnight by his barrel and pinning him on his back, facing him upside-down, “Whatever you are, you’re about to be destroyed! We’re getting the old Midnight back, and he’s going home to his real father!”

Midnight Blaze’s mouth foamed red and purple, bubbles and slime gushing out. His eyes were turning back to a cyan color, and the movement of his mane and tail stopped, returning it to their normal form. But the fangs in his jaws were not retracting, and there were still red, lava-like veins running through his horn.

“I… I’ll end you,” growled the suffering unicorn, “you weak Earth Pony! You can’t even use spells, let alone comprehend how powerful dark magic is! I am more than what my idiotic birth father thought I could be.”

Techorse felt like he was watching him die, and could only let out a pitiful sigh, “Midnight… you already were more than what Ignitus thought you could be, we told you that. You just couldn’t accept it without him seeing it first.”

Tears ran down Midnight’s face, but he smiled through the pain as the potion tore him apart internally, “Ha… hahaha. Techorse. Always preaching, always seeking justice for the weak…”

Midnight’s eyes glazed over, and his body stopped convulsing as it dropped to the ground, limp. Techorse felt his heart skip a beat in panic.

“Oh… oh no!” Flaming gasped, “the potion was too strong!”

“N… no!” cried Tech, moving around to Midnight’s side and placing his ear on his chest, “Midnight, no! Stay with me!”

Right in front of him, the “corpse” dissolved into a puddle of sapphire blue, like a big wax crayon melting on the floor.

Realizing it was all a trick, Techorse looked up just in time to see Midnight at the doorway to the room, firing a wave of cyan energy. It smacked into him and Flaming, tossing them backwards.

Just as Flaming predicted, they were flung backwards and sent out the solid glass of the window at the back of the room, shattering it. But as his friends fell out of view, Midnight felt something break through the influence of the shadows, and acted as quickly as he could.

When Techorse and Flaming Ivory reached the ground a comfortable mattress, clearly the one that had been on the bed in the private chamber was placed for them to land on. The two stallions bounced up again into the air, and landed on their sides, prompting them to look up. They caught sight of Midnight sticking his head out the window, his eyes, horn, and mane having fully returned to normal. He gave them both a conflicted stare from six stories up, and then disappeared back into the tower.

Glad to not be a pancake, Flaming Ivory turned to Techorse, “What just happened? I thought were were goners.”

“I think the potion partially worked,” the green stallion answered thoughtfully, “Rosseth’s potion removed most of Sombra’s influence over Midnight just in time for him to think to save us. But… I don’t think he’s completely cured yet.”

“Because I had to drink some of it,” Flaming frowned, his ears sinking back, “that explains why it took so long to work too, he only got so much of it in him. I shouldn’t have taken such a big sip.”

“He wouldn’t have drank it at all if you hadn’t,” his friend assured him, smiling, “but now it’s up to Midnight. He’s got to decide to give up on King Sombra’s magic.”

“So what do we do now?” Flaming asked, sighing.

“We go back in the castle and try to stall for time again,” Techorse answered, “I’ve got to stall my own missile from being launched, and you need to keep your eye on Midnight to make sure he doesn’t talk about this! If Sombra undoes what that potion did, or he launches that weapon… we’ve lost.”

Agreeing to the plan, Flaming and his friend found the closest door back into the Shadow Pony fortress, and went their separate ways again. The race to save their friend and the Crystal Empire was just beginning.