The Mask of Despair and the Face of Hope

by Wings of Black Glass

Joyful Consequences

“Sable!” I rushed to his side, pleading to Celestia for him to be alright. The dark purple Unicorn was barely breathing, I feared to touch him. “Sable, say something!”

“I think… I need to lie down.” I brushed the smoldering coat off him using magic, the searing strands of the trap had burned him pretty badly. He shook, still in pain.

“Why did you sacrifice yourself like that?”

“Had to. We were losing the spell.” He coughed. “Couldn’t let everypony down again.” He tried to shrug and grimaced. “Needs of the many, you know how it goes.” I almost laughed, but the situation was far too severe for that. Starlight and Sunburst came over, concern apparent in their faces. Flurry Heart spiraled around them just overhead, curious.

“No jokes, you need to stay still. We’ll get you some help soon.”

“Not… going… anywhere.” He fell unconscious, only the rise and fall of his chest told me he was still alive.

“Sunburst, see if you can find a doctor.” Sunburst nodded and bolted out to find help. By now I could hear Ponies in the city calling out in joy, aware that something had changed. Cadence and Shining Armor flashed in my mind. “I have to find the Princess and my brother. Starlight, stay here with Sable.” Glimmer tried to say something, but it only came out a mess again. She scowled at her inability to speak but nodded anyway. “Flurry, let's go find your parents.” The little Alicorn followed with a gleeful shout.

I galloped back into the palace, heading towards Cadence and Shining Armor’s bedroom, hoping to find one of them quickly. Along the way, I spotted several of the Palace staff starting to wander the corridors, confused but cheerful. Then I heard my brother calling out.

“Cadence! Where are you!” No joy in that voice, only panic and worry. I followed the echoing voice. “Cadence!” This time he got a response.

“Shining Armor!” I burst into the throne room in time to see my brother and my sister-in-law embrace, collapsing to the floor together. Tears were streaming down both their faces. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean anything I said.”

“I know, I know. I would never leave you.” Flurry Heart squealed, leaving my side and soaring to her parents. They looked up, and wide tearful smiles broke out as they took their daughter in their arms. “I would never abandon either of you.” They apologized to each other for several moments longer, barely able to speak through their tears. I smiled as I walked up to them, fighting back my relieved tears. Shining Armor blinked, holding his family tightly, as he finally looked up to see me standing there. “Thank you, Sis.”

“I’m glad to help.” I helped them both stand, and they embraced again. “It’s good to see you two together again.”

“Twilight? What are you even doing here?” Cadence stood right up against Shining Armor’s side, holding Flurry very close. I felt my mark pulsing, and I looked at my flank to confirm.

“Well, I was here to fix a friendship problem, but it looks like everything’s alright now. I’ll tell you all about it.” It took a few more moments before they composed themselves. I explained what happened as I led them back to the Crystal Heart.

We returned to find a small crowd around Sable and Starlight. She apparently couldn’t keep them all at bay, too many were asking questions and pushing closer. I leaped over the herd, landing beside Starlight, trying to keep my wings between Sable’s blank flank and the crowd. I doubted any of them would care at this point, but I still wanted to protect his privacy if I could. Fortunately, Princess Cadence was able to take command of her subjects, and they respectfully backed away. I thanked her with a glance and then turned back towards Sable. He didn’t look any worse, or better. At least he was still breathing.

“Who is this?” Shining Armor stepped up next to me.

“Sable Stardust. A friend I met recently; the map sent us both here.”

“Is that… a blank flank?” Cadence stared in open amazement. Sable’s coat was all but ash; there was no way to hide it from them now.

“Please, don’t announce that so loud.” They looked at me, confused. “He’s sensitive about it.” Cadence nodded, still holding Flurry close, and stepped away to have a nearby pony sent off for a blanket. “Without him, I don’t think we could have fixed this so quickly, or maybe even at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yath, wut?” Starlight was finally regaining some of her speech, and she could focus her eyes again at least. Cadence returned, confused at Starlight’s poor pronunciation.

“He was the one to notice our emotions were being manipulated, and he’s the one who figured out what magic was influencing the Heart. It was pretty disabling, by the time we found Sunburst I was so mad I couldn’t see straight. Sunburst was so terrified that he could barely move.”

“Where is Sunburst, anyway?” I didn’t have to answer when the orange Unicorn returned with doctors in tow. They lifted Sable onto a stretcher, hurrying him off to the hospital in a hurry. The cluster of crystal ponies murmured among themselves as the wounded pony passed. I watched them go with some trepidation, still worried about him. The others must have seen my worry, as Starlight put a supporting hoof on my shoulder.

“Don’ wrry.” I looked at her and found Starlight stretching out her mouth in annoyance. “He’ll be fine.” She brightened when she spoke normally again. “The doctors here are all top notch.” I glanced around, the herd was still crowding about in the Heart’s courtyard.

“We should clear the courtyard. There’s still something I need to ask Starlight… with less of an audience.”

“I got this.” Shining Armor took command, turning towards the assembled ponies. “All right, everything is under control. The Heart is perfectly fine, Everypony can go home now.” This satisfied most of them, a few hung around, either curious or suspicious.

“It really is alright.” Cadence certified. “The crisis is over. Please return to your families and homes.” The confirmation by the Princess herself satisfied those left, and they all filtered out to go back to their lives. The pony sent off for a blanket returned at that moment, and Cadence wrapped Flurry in it to explain its need before thanking the one who fetched it and sending them on their way.

“Now that we have some privacy, I have one important question for you Starlight.” I turned to the very light purple Unicorn.

“You’re hoping I saw who did this, right?”

“That’s right. As far as I know, you are the only one who got attacked directly. What happened?”

“I got here a couple of days ago at noon, I could tell something was off, but I didn’t figure it out until the next morning.”

“I almost didn’t let her inside when she got to my place.”

“I went to find Princess Cadence, but when I got to the palace, I heard somepony calling my name. They lured me into the kitchen and attacked me from behind.”

“They knew your name? How did they find that out?”

“That’s what I remember, and we aren’t exactly low profile these days.” That much was true, we recently held a ceremony and gave her a medal for helping to save Equestria from Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings.

“Do you remember what they did to you?”

“It was like…” She hesitated, looking in the direction the Doctors took Sable, I silently thanked her for not bringing up the accident in front of uninvolved ponies. “They had me at their mercy, and just reached into my mind and took what they wanted. I’m going to have nightmares about this for a while.” She fixed her eyes on me. “And before you ask, no, I don’t know what they were trying to get out of me.”

“Did you see who it was?” In Cadence’s arms Flurry began to grow restless, she set her daughter free from the blanket, and the infant bounded over to a nearby pile of snow to start playing.

“Not very well. They were dark, nearly black, and they must have been a Unicorn. But beyond that… not really.” Starlight brought a hoof to her mouth, looking side to side as she searched her memory. “Wait, there was one detail. There were these nasty scars all over their face.” She traced lines across her face in no particular pattern. “It was like their whole face was scratched up.”

“At least that will make it easy to identify them if they show up again. What do you think they were trying to do here?”

“Destabilizing the Crystal Empire? Imagine the chaos if this curse had gone on longer.” Shining Armor put an arm around Cadence’s foreleg, drawing her close. “Some things could have been done that can’t be fixed so easily.” The princess leaned into him, taking comfort in his presence. “Some pony could have gotten hurt, or worse.”

“I imagine some variation of this conversation is being had all over the Empire.” Cadence sighed. “I’m going to have to talk to a lot of upset ponies, aren’t I?”

“Probably.”

“Can we head inside now?” Complained Starlight. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast yesterday, and I’m getting hungry.” Everypony laughed a little, and we turned to head inside. Flurry waved at us, and Cadence and I went over to collect her. On the way I looked down at the snow Flurry was playing in, and stopped in my tracks. Flurry had drawn strange shapes in the snow, and they looked familiar.

“Starlight, you should see this.” The other Unicorn came over, obviously curious. I pointed at the shapes in the snow. “Were these the marks on the pony who attacked you?” Starlight looked down, twisting her head around to see the lines from another angle.

“Yeah, that’s them. Flurry must have seen the intruder at some point.” Starlight gave the filly a head rub in thanks, and Flurry giggled. I made a mental note of the pattern, and something dropped in my gut. I didn’t know what to do with this new information. The lines drawn into the snow were distressingly similar to the lightning filigree of Sable’s silver mask.

---

“That is profoundly ominous, for some reason. Is that ominous to you?”

“It is very strange.”

“What did it mean?”

“It meant there was more going on than we realized. If I had only figured it out then, we would have been spared from so much trouble.”