The True Dark Daughter of the Crystal Empire

by Silver Shadows

An useless search

Fluttershy's POV
I know when my friends are hurting since I hang out with many of my adorable creatures. I keep glancing again Rainbow, who seems to be staring off the space more than usual. The thing that gets me a little worried is the fact that Rainbow isn't hovering in the air. She's actually walking and looking around. I give a smile at her that is hopefully reassuring. I watched as her eyes meet mine and her eyes showing signs of fear and sadness. Since when is Rainbow ever scared though. I hear the chatter of Starlight and Sunburst talking about magic, as I watch Rainbow.

I fly to Rainbow, "Rainbow? Are you feeling all right?"

Rainbow turns to me, a little shocked and quickly manages a fake smile, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Not wanting to press her further or make her feel worse, I nod and trot with her to the castle. The silence is deafening from Rainbow, while the two unicorns remain oblivious to this. We finally reach the castle and the guards look at each other before letting us in. We trot to the living room, where the others are waiting.

Twilight asks, "Any luck?" Her voice is a little sad. Rainbow shakes her head. I sigh since it didn't seem like the others had better luck than we did.

Twilight turned to Sunburst, "Hi Sunburst. Knowing Starlight, she already asked you to join us so yes, you are allowed to search with us. Now, we just need to discuss a plot."

Rarity says, "Darling, I think that you should be the only one that's making a plan. I need to see the new fashion around this empire and hopefully get inspired by it."

Twilight sighs, "Fine. Just come back in two hours." She levitate a few quills and a blackboard to start formulating a plan worthy of Twilight. I trot out with Rainbow, still really worried for my friend.

Rainbow turns around, "Why are you following me?" I pause, unsure if I should tell her.

I decide that honestly will be the best after some thinking, "Rainbow, you said that you're fine but I-I don't believe you."

Rainbow retorts, "Look, Fluttershy. I know that you're worried but I'm just a little... hungry. That's all. I think I'll grab a bite to eat."

I shook my mane, "Didn't you just eat about thirty minutes ago?" Rainbow's eyes widens, knowing that I caught her in a lie.

"Yes... But my stomach is complaining again?"

I sigh, not wanting to make her more uncomfortable, "Rainbow, you can trust me with anything. I pinkie promise to keep it. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Rainbow hesitates, knowing that it was impossible to break a Pinkie promise unless the pony wants the Pinkie revenge.

She finally sighs, "I'll go to your room tonight. For now, I would like some privacy." I smile before trotting away.

Rainbow's POV
I should've known that Fluttershy will be the one to figure it out. Although she isn't good at facing beasts or as willing to charge in battle, she is stubborn when finding out about what is wrong with her friends. She has changed a lot since Twilight came to Ponyville and when we all got Elements. To be honest, I think that the Elements choose us. I trot to my room, formulating plans on how to erase Fluttershy's memory. I wasn't really good at controlling my powers, but I was good at using them. For example, before fath-King Sombra sent me to limbo, he made me torture everypony who didn't like him. I used torture methods from my lessons from him and killed them.

I could never wash off my blood off of my hooves anymore, the damage was already done. I fly to my room and close the door. Plans are such a Twilight thing to do, not Rainbow. Well, my name isn't actually Rainbow. That is my fake name, just in case they manage to find a record saying what my real name is. I stare at myself in the reflection before taking a quick shower. I chip off the paint off my tail, since it can't be washed off, and stare at myself once more. I have a black tail and mane as well as dark blue fur. My eyes remains the same since I hate contacts. I don't have a horn since I generate power from my wings. It's a family trait, passing down from Sombra to me. My first child (who I am never going to have) will have powers like I do, and my father and his family. I relook at myself being walking out as Twilight is just about to walk in. We almost crash but Twilight levitates me out of the way just in time.

Twilight says in excitement, "I think that I found a few leads on whoever the pony is and how to capture them!" It's impossible to get me contained though. Sombra had tried everything to contain me when I got a time out of some sort, either for refusing to kill my friend that I manage to make, doing a magic spell, or anything that ruins his title of being a feared pony. He never succeeded, although magic has really changed. I follow Twilight, certain that she didn't find out about me that much. The others are already there. I sit down on a beanbag, wishing that it's a comfortable cloud instead.

Twilight looks at a board, "There aren't a lot of books on this pony. Her name is apparently Spectrum Crystal. She is commonly known as the hornkoda fellao. It's old Ponish but not even I can translate it. I think that it might even be a lost language. I'll continue to try to find out what it means though." It is a lost language. When I first entered this world after Sombra was banished the first time, I was a little filly who painted herself and went to flight school. I also twisted a few minds to make them think that they're my family and get into flight school. I created the first Sonic Rainboom a few days after with paint on my tails. It will be called a Sonic Shadowboom if I did it without it. Nevertheless, I earned my cutie mark. Hornkoda fellao means The Shadow Killer.

Twilight continues, "We won't be able to catch her on the camera, since her most common skill is blending in the shadows and spying for her father." He stopped becoming my father as soon as he banished me to limbo.

The alicorn continues, "We need to talk about false information and try to trap her that way." Yeah, as if I need to do that anymore. I'm standing right here, listening to the conversation. Twilight found out about my real name, my title, and some of my common moves such as shadowing blending.

Twilight uses magic to point to the board as if it is a laser, "We need to talk quietly about a new passageway there is to the castle. Lure her to the throne room through an unlocked window that is usually locked. Make sure that it's really random. Now, Sunburst found something in his books, very vaguely."

Sunburst nods as he reads from a book, "Yes. There's a few paragraphs on this Spectrum Crystal. I'll read it out loud to all of you."

He starts, "Spectrum Crystal is the daughter of the infamous King Sombra. Nopony really knows what she looks like as she travels in the shadows. Whoever sees her draws their last breath as a 'reward'. Only one pony is lucky enough to see her and record images in a few of what seems secret and symbolic messages. The pictures are not recorded but will be talked about. The first picture is a picture of white wings surrounding a black heart with the night sky behind it. The pony obviously is able to fly by levitating herself and has a black heart. She also seems to like the night time and to follow her father." Can this book even be more wrong? I'm a Pegasus, I can levitate but why levitate when I have perfectly good wings. He meant my father by the black heart. I remember this painting.

Memory
A green stallion turned to me, "Spectrum! You're here. Thank goodness."

I had laughed bitterly, "Let's just say that I'm skipping an 'important' meeting to come here. Father is considering to use the mind controlling helmets to have another's battle."

He sighed, "Again? Wasn't there one around five days ago?"

I stared at the ground, "It's not up to me. Say, we've met a lot of times and I still don't know your name."

His eyes widened before going back to his normal size, "I've been meaning to tell you, Spectrum, but I... I can't remember. The Lord-"

"Don't call him that."

"Force of habit. I mean that S-Som-Sombra just calls me Slave 516."

I had thought for some time before saying, "You deserve a name. Let me think... I will simply call you Pega."

He raised an eyebrow, "Pega?"

"Short for Pegasus. I mean, you are one right? So what do you think?"

He bit his lip, "I think it's a really bad name." I knew that he was still a little afraid of me, although he was the only pony that actually knew me.

I said, "It's better than no name. It would be a better place than being constantly reminded that you're a slave. Besides, I'm going to insist on calling you that."

Pega brightened up, "You know what? I'm going to spread that idea around. Maybe it would lift spirits up and power the Heart."

"The heart? It's fake. Father-I mean Sombra would never allow an artifact to be left in a middle. If I had to guess, it would be in his throne room somewhere in secret that's only able to open in dark magic."

"You know what? You are a really good thinker. You really are a pair of bright wings around his black heart, radiating stars to everypony who you don't kill."

I shrugged, "I know, I'm very smart."

Pega chuckled, "Okay Spectrum. Why don't we make another drawing on that together? I know it'll take some time to make, but in case somepony manages to come across it, maybe they'll have a clue about you."

I nodded, "Good idea." I felt my magical senses tingle.

I quickly gulped, "Pega, you must go. Father is coming. There isn't time!" Pega nodded and flew away, knowing how important it was so neither of them were caught.

The next day, I snuck out out of the castle and painted with Pega. It took months to create the perfect painting. We both had signed out names, although I made mine an unlegible scribble so nopony would know that I drew it.

Twilight waves a hoof in front of my face, "Rainbow? Are you listening?"

I shook my mane, smirking, "You already know the answer, Twi." Sometimes, I hated about how stupid I needed to seem so I would contradict my past self. Unknown to Twilight, I read every single book in the Crystal library and just about everywhere in my past. Daring Do was just a new book that was new and not read by me. That's why I had tried to sneak the book from the hospital a few years ago.

Twilight sighs, "I should've expected that. Anyways, you only missed a few passages. I'm going to talk about the plan anyways."

She turns back to Egghead Mode, "We need to cover a lot of ground, and look semi suspicious. I will travel with Rainbow. Fluttershy with Starlight. Sunburst with Applejack. Rarity with Pinkie. You already know your positions, well, besides Rainbow, but she can just follow me. Come back here in a few hours." We all nod, although I knew that this is going to be another useless search. Twilight teleports us to different locations. Twilight and I appear in the middle of a library.

I raise an eyebrow, "Seriously Twi? Of all the places, a library?"

Twilight looked away, embarrassed, "It's a possibility. Let's just sit and read. I hear that they might have Daring Do."

I smile, "Awesome!" I know that they don't have Daring Do as it's mostly non fiction. I fly away and grab the only fiction book in the place and sit next to Twilight before reading.

Twilight looks at me and winks before whispering, "Did you hear about the secret passageway to the palace?"

I decide to play her game and whisper back, "Yeah, I've heard that Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor can't even seal it." We continue talking like this for some time before I skim the pages of the book that I already read in the past.

Comments

[Grey Goat Gal]

This is before after Secrets and Pies but before Shadow Play.

So is this story before or after Secrets and Pies?

[Silver Shadows]

8585009
After.

[xxskittleponyxx]

OMG!!
I Loved IT!!
I can't wait to see the next chappie!!!

[xxskittleponyxx]

UpDATE!!!!!!!!!
PPPPPPLLLLLLLZZZZ!!!!