Shards of Darkness

by BlueBastard

Chapter 3 – Viva Las Pegasus

Shards of Darkness

03 – Viva Las Pegasus

Razz found herself waking up in unusual circumstances. This was most certainly not her cozy room at the Traveler’s Retreat, nor was it anything she’d ever seen before in her life. Despite there being no obvious light source, she could easily make out a field of large crystals of purple coloration. There was a discernible path that led both in front of her as well as behind, but the vaulted ceiling couldn’t be seen at its most upper reaches and without any sort of flight, she couldn’t ascend elevation herself.

“Hello?” she called out, her voice faintly echoing before vanishing. “Any pony there? Heliodor?” No response. That only reaffirmed two realities of the situation for her: first being that this had to be a dream of some sort as she didn’t recall ever coming here, and her loyal pet wouldn’t have dared let her venture alone into such a place, and the other being the nagging feeling being identical to the last time she’d found herself in a field full of purple crystals. Though in the case of the latter, those crystals were of a far deeper shade of purple as they’d been true dark crystal, rooted from her own out-of-control dark magic that had encased the majority of the population of Lonesome Dove, her hometown. While she’d emerged much more sure of herself after that incident, finally silencing the demons within her own mind stemming from who she had been, of who she now was, she didn’t like thinking of the few days leading up to that resolution. But, without anything else better to do, she decided to just go forward and see where the path led.

For what could have been five minutes or five centuries, Razz walked alone in silence. Even though the light level meant she could see where she was going, it was still low enough that she felt the need to ignite her own horn in light to illuminate the surroundings. Unfortunately, because of both her special talent and the damage done to her when her father sawed off her original horn in a drunken rage, the only kind of light casting magic she could do was dark magic – ironically. And as if that contradiction wasn’t enough, the kind of light that was thus produced was blacklight.

“Yeah, because if there’s one other job I should be good at with my special gifts, it’s being the light source at a rave party,” groaned Razz. “Bet Vinyl would hire me in an instant just for that.”

“It makes you very easy to find, however,” chuckled a new voice. As Razz looked up, she wasn’t that surprised to see she was now joined by Princess Luna. “I must admit, it was odd coming into this dream and not being able to identify whose it was at first, but your light made that a trivial matter.”

“What, you couldn’t tell it was my dream from the copious amounts of purple crystals everywhere?” joked Razz, rearing and gesturing to all the crystals that surrounded them.

“Well, no, because these are natural crystals, much like the ones in the caverns beneath Canterlot. Yours, no offense, are darker in shade and still have that tiniest tinge of foreboding around them.”

“Yeah, but at least they aren’t inexplicably pointy like I am in my true physical form.” Razz then changed topics slightly. “But you said this is like the caverns under Canterlot…I’ve never been there.”

“Then I must conclude this is not a dream, but a vision,” said Luna, forebodingly. “But if it involves you and the caverns under the castle, then I fear it is not a good one.”

“Or, just to play changeling’s advocate here, this isn’t the caverns under the castle and it’s just some random cavern full of large crystals.”

“I’m an alicorn with the power to intervene with the dreams of ponies – including my own after the whole Tantabus affair,” deadpanned Luna, “so I think I know my shit when it comes to predicting bad dreams.”

Just then the crystals started to crack, uncomfortably similar to what was seen with the crystal tree back in Coltumbus. Only those had been small gems compared to these spars, the size of two-story houses.

“Yeah, I’ll change my vote to your idea!” hastily blurted Razz. Any other course of action proved impossible as the gems then exploded, sending razor sharp points right through Razz’s body.

“AAAAAH!” screamed Razz, waking up with a jolt. Breathing heavily, she slowly regained her senses and remembered it had only been a dream. Especially since the strands of hair over her eyes were the telltale black and red of her true, corrupted form – she still needed to find a way to let herself sleep in her preferred colors – while her forelegs were coated in the associated dark raspberry fur.

A cacophony of noise then drew her attention to the right. With bright green and gold wings unfurled, ready to leap into action, a worried Heliodor looked at his mistress with distress.

“Oh, it’s alright, Heelee,” soothed Razz, getting out of bed and petting her beloved friend on the head. “Just a bad and rather violent dream.” He cooed, still with concern in his voice, to which she chuckled. “No, we’re not going to leave, you’re just being silly now. It was just a dream, not the entire town like you’re thinking of. We never have to worry about losing our home ever again.”

But as Razz comforted her pet, she couldn’t help but wonder what she should be worried about. After all, Luna said it was some kind of vision…is this thing with my dark crystal forgeries much worse than anypony believed?

Following a successful attempt at getting back to sleep and not encountering the same dream, Razz woke up in a much better mood and went through her daily regimen of self-care. She was just about ready to get some of her mother’s coffee and start her shift on the bed and breakfast’s front desk, when there was knocking at the door.

“Just a second!” Razz called out, the sounds of the shower going around her dying off simultaneously. After casting a quick instant-dry spell on herself as to not keep the pony at the door waiting, she hurriedly opened it to find her mother, along with a wheeled tray with a cup of steam-wafting coffee.

“Thought you might want some, dear,” said Cashmere, smiling as her adoptive daughter took the cup of brown goodness in her magic and brought it to her nostrils. “Sounds like you’re going to have a busy day.”

“Busy day?” asked Razz, her heart sinking. “Don’t tell me, there’s a guard here for me.”

“No, there isn’t a guard.”

“Phew, thank good-“

“It’s Princess Luna.”

“The princess?” gawked Razz. In hindsight, she should have expected this, given how that dream had gone, but still, this was yet again another instance where her expertise in dark magic would prevent her from helping out at the Retreat.

“Are you all worked up because you can’t work the desk again?” asked Cashmere, “Because you should know better than that, dear.”

“Know what, Mom, that I should just be a deadbeat taking up the former guest room in your house-slash-business who doesn’t do anything to help?”

“Raspberry, you’re family – don’t feel like you need to do anything around here when you’re needed elsewhere. Your father and I can get along just fine with the help of Light Fixture as well as Spic and Span, and while you helping at the desk is a great boon at times, well…” the elderly mare sighed, “you refuse payment because of your salary as Equestria’s Archmagus of Dark Magic and the stipend you get for being a princess. It’s great that you hold supporting the family business so high in your personal priorities, but at the end of the day we’re only running a bed and breakfast – and you’re a pony with a unique gift of helping protect the entire country.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Razz said, approaching and then hugging Cashmere. “I just want to underscore how important this place is, given it’s the only real home I’ve ever had.”

“And it’ll always be here – unlike Princess Luna, who I think may be getting a little impatient.”

---

“Ah, Raspberry, good to see both you and your loyal phoenix are doing well,” greeted Luna who was still waiting at the front desk. Flanking her were two of her batpony night guards, both doing their hardest to stay awake given the domain of the night had given way to that of the day several hours prior.

“Good morning to you, too, Luna,” greeted Razz in kind. “Would your guards like some coffee?”

“Yes, I do think that would be appropriate – I’ve asked these two stallions to work far longer than their shift detailed.”

“I’ll handle it, dear,” said Cashmere, who promptly turned and trotted off to the kitchen to fetch more coffee.

“Anyway, I feel I must apologize for what happened last night as well as my inaction,” morosely said Luna. “But your dream was collapsing at the same time the crystals were erupting, and my magic within dreams is limited in that situation. If I did not escape, I would have been trapped in your mind and, through absolutely no fault of your own, your mind is privy to incredible levels of dark knowledge, and the last time I was exposed to overwhelming amounts of dark magic of any kind, well…”

“You threw a temper tantrum out of jealousy and declared your intent to murder everything on the face of the planet by denying them solar energy?” joked Razz.

Luna shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“The important thing is you got over it, your highness,” remarked Cashmere, who returned with a tray hosting two piping-hot cups of coffee. The two bat guards eagerly took one cup each and thanked the matron.

“Yes, with help admittedly, but I’d like to think we’re all past living Nightmare Night as a horrifying reality. But the reason I am here is more than just to apologize for my inaction in your dream, Razz.”

“I got impaled by dark crystal,” shrugged Razz. “It isn’t like I’m a stranger to horrifying pain like that even in my dreams if I’m honest.”

“I thought as much, but what kind of a friend would I be if I didn’t apologize?” Luna sighed before continuing, “However, more importantly, there’s been an incident with the national recall of any suspicious gems to try and get as many of your forgeries as we can – a guardhouse in Las Pegasus has been consumed in dark crystal.”

“Oh no…” gasped Razz. “How many did-“

“None, thankfully, the volatile gems were inexplicably slow in growth so while nopony could stop the growth before it destroyed the building, everypony was able to get out safely. This only happened a scant few hours ago, however, so time is of the essence.”

“Then I suppose I’ll just have breakfast there then – let me grab Heliodor and we’ll be off.”

Razz had expected to travel to Las Pegasus by pegasus chariot, which was usually the means by which transport was achieved for royal duties. However, Princess Luna had evidently decided on a much faster method and the moment Razz had returned to the main room with her bird mounted on her horn, she teleported them all right outside the Las Pegasus Guardhouse that was no longer a house.

“Oh, my,” gasped Cashmere, “I didn’t know you intended for me to come along, too!”

“Ah! Uh, no, I didn’t,” bashfully confessed Luna. “Sorry, I’ll send you back.” With another bright flash, Cashmere was gone, presumably back home.

Razz, in the meantime, was too busy getting to work. “Heelee, if you would, please?”

The bird chirped in acknowledgement and lifted off, soaring over to a nearby normal tree and taking his perch. Most of the time, his mistress didn’t mind him on her horn, which ever since he’d been a chick he’d favored when the duo were in unfamiliar places. Since the day they’d first met, when she’d rescued him not even several hours old from the paws of angry diamond dogs, that horn was a perch of sanctuary to the young phoenix. However, he understood that Raspberry’s role in the world had become greater than ever, and there were times she needed to focus. And having a ten-pound bird of prey attached to her forehead did not help with that, so he reasoned as long as he was within eyesight, he could protect she who had always protected him.

Razz, making sure her sometimes mischievous bird was within eyesight, then turned to fully focus on the damage in front of her. The Las Pegasus guardhouse, despite the attempt to make it blend in through use of similar building materials and style, stood out from the glitz and glam of the rest of the block, let alone city, by virtue of not having one iota of neon signage on it. Though ironically, given the more eccentric locale hotspots like The Colten Nugget or even the minotaur-owned Bullagio, a giant, gaudy-as-hell dark purple tree bursting from inside the two-story structure and through its roof actually made it fit in a bit more.

“Alright, who’s the pony in charge here?” said Razz, getting right to work.

“That would be me,” said an off-white pegasus stallion, who approached Razz. “Sergeant Diamondplate, at your service.”

“A pleasure, Sergeant,” greeted the mare in turn, “I’m Archmagus Beryl, though you probably already know why I’ve been called in.”

“Yeah, it’s your mess we’re cleaning up isn’t it?” he chuckled. When all he got in reply was a hard stare from the unicorn, his chuckling got a little less enthusiastic. “Easy now, just kidding – everypony knows you were just a poor kid tryin’ to make a buck and didn’t mean no harm. Plus, the crown is giving out compensation for any fake gems so no harm, no foul, right?”

“I suppose,” said Razz, shrugging, “but I don’t like being associated with potentially lethal disasters like this,” she gestured to the ruined guardhouse, “simply because several years ago I needed to eat.”

“Well, fortunately for you, I don’t think this was one of your forgeries.”

Razz blinked. “Come again?”

“We took photos of each and every gem turned in and there was a particular set that seemed really off the mark. Of course, that was shortly before they exploded into this, but we saved the pics if you wanna see them.”

“As soon as possible, if you would be so kind.” She then turned to her pet and motioned for him to return.

“Leaving so soon?” asked Luna, who was busy delegating with a few other guards.

“Yeah, I’ll check back in with you later,” the archmage replied, before Heliodor resumed perching on her horn and together the duo headed into what was left of the guard house.

The immediate state of the guardhouse’s interior looked like the inverse of Twilight’s home – both the original Golden Oaks Library as well as the Crystal Tree Castle. Where the purple pony’s home was like a tree hollowed out in order to accommodate living space, here it looked like the living space had been forcefully hollowed out to make way for an evil crystal tree growth. Several guards were already at work trying to chip away at the tree, but they were having little to no success as it appeared the hardness of the crystal approached that of diamonds.

“Unfortunately,” said Diamondplate, “the photos are still in the developing room, which is on the other side of…this thing.”

“Yeah, well, let me see if I can’t bore a hole through this,” said Razz, with Heliodor again taking off to find a safe perch to give her space.

“Pardon me asking, but…how?”

“Simple. Well, actually, it’s anything but as far as the actual process is concerned, but essentially I sync my magic frequency with that corresponding to the dark magical connections holding the crystalline structure together and I simply carve my way through it like butter.” Firing up her dark aura, Razz gestured for the other guardsponies to step back, before she blasted the closest ‘branch’ of the tree with her power. She was only at it for a couple of seconds before she stopped, a look of surprise in her eyes. “Okay…that’s not what I was expecting.”

“Why, what’s the problem? Is it not actually dark crystal?”

“No, it is. But…the structure is far more haphazard and downright chaotic, as if the seed gems were carelessly or ineptly thrown together. Even my earliest work wasn’t this clumsy or unstable.” As if to prove a point, Razz then fired up her magic again and summoned a small dark crystal stalagmite of her own making right next to the larger trunk. Surprisingly, hers – which under a microscope or supersensory telekinetic spell would prove to be far more geometric and thus ‘stronger’ in structure – was in fact more of a royal purple, as opposed to the giant gnarled crystal mass which was far darker, bordering on black – closer to true, raw dark magic left to its own devices.

Like what was seen during Sombra’s brief return when the Crystal Empire resurfaced.

But he’s dead, so…are there other ponies trying to recreate his crystal pillars? Razz blanched at the thought, partly because of how much work it was going to be to root out a bunch of misbehaving ponies, but also the idea that this was happening at the same time her original forgery gems were blowing up.

Unless they’re connected somehow?

“Sorry to interrupt your train of thought,” Diamondplate cut in, “but are you able to remove this…thing? We can’t get to the pictures with the tree still in the building, after all.

“Yeah, I think I can…it’s gonna take me all day though, this is unrefined dark crystal. Much more potent so I suggest you evacuate the building. Again.”

“Again?”

“Yes,” Razz said, charging up her horn again. “Studies show that being around exploding dark crystals is bad for your health.”

“Exploding?”

She gave him a smile. “If we’re lucky, only that.”

Comments

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

Hmmmm, okay, the crystals in Las Pegasus aren't Razz's original ones.

I'm smelling some idiot Sombra cultists behind these things.

[Flynt Coal]

8887894
Stupid is as stupid does, ma'am

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

8889573 This is true, sadly.