Dissonance: A Hidden World

by Braininthejar

Chapter 18: The Fallout

First there was a sense of hurtling through space at great speed. Then something that resembled a rubber band, the feeling of stretching in ways no pony was designed for, Finally, a bright flash and a loud boom. The ponies rolled on the ground like discarded toys.

Rainbow Dash was the first to get up, shaking her head and spitting out some sand. “What happened?” she said, looking around, still slightly dizzy. “Everypony okay?”

She was answered by numerous groans. “I’m okay,” said Applejack weakly from the ground.

“We’ve landed off course,” said Obsidian getting up and looking around. There were snow-covered mountains all around them. “The good news is, we’re not in Canterlot. But this doesn’t look like the Crystal Empire.”

Pinkie Pie jumped up right beside him. “Nope. It isn’t. We were almost there, but then we bounced off.”

“Darling, how do you know that?” asked Rarity, getting up and quickly dusting herself. Behind her, the rest of the team were picking themselves up.

Pinkie Pie looked at Rarity. “I felt it. I was a part of that spell, remember?”

“That… makes sense… I think,” said Twilight with a frown. “But then, what has happened? What does it mean?” She looked around before staring at Obsidian expectantly.

“From what I can tell,” replied Obsidian, “we were blocked by another spell. It didn’t feel like magic the Shattered had assaulted me with. So either there was someone else already there, or the city’s barrier is up. Hopefully the latter is the case.” He turned towards Rainbow Dash. “Would you mind flying up to see where we are?”

Rainbow Dash scowled at Obsidian and looked towards Twilight. Seeing her nod silently, she flapped her wings and shot up into the sky.

“So, what do we do now?” asked Applejack. “We don’t exactly have camping equipment on us or anything, and it’s starting to get late.”

This was true. Though the sky hadn’t yet started to darken, the sun had moved most of its daily path, and even below the line of snow everypony could feel the chill in the air.

Obsidian looked up towards the quickly shrinking cerulean dot. “Well, let’s wait and hear what your friend will have to say when she comes back.”

Everypony followed Obsidian’s gaze, tracing Rainbow Dash’s route through the sky. The pegasus flew in a large circle and then dove back down, spreading her wings at the last moment to slow her descent.

“I can see the Empire,” she said, pointing over the mountain to the east. “You were right, I can’t see much from that far away, but it looks like the barrier is up.”

“How far away do you think we are?” asked Obsidian, looking at the mountain Dash was pointing at.

“I’d say about fifty miles.” answered Dash.

Twilight scratched her chin with a hoof. “We got knocked away to the west. That means we must be somewhere in yak territory.” She turned towards Obsidian. “Can you teleport us again? We need to get there quickly.”

Obsidian twirled his staff, making it hit the ground point-first. The runes upon the wood started glowing faintly. “There’s no leyline here. But now it looks like we’re far enough to use the Elements openly. If you can focus enough to lend me a bit of power, I will fly you there.”

***

Celestia paced impatiently across the main room of the lab. Luna sat in the corner, watching her in silence.

“They should be back by now,” said the solar princess through gritted teeth.”What is taking them so long?”

“Perhaps they were expected? You think our good captain might suspect more than you thought?” asked Luna, only to shrink under Celestia’s gaze.

“They didn’t,” said Enigma. He was standing in the middle of the room, just behind Celestia. “Still, they had some new tricks ready. Including your agent Prism, shooting at me. Do you think he switched sides, or did you just forget to tell him we were coming?”

Celestia gave him a blank stare. “I sent a message to his notebook, just after you left. He was supposed to stay away. He never responded, but that’s impossible-” Her eyes regained focus, glaring at Enigma. “Your task! What about it?”

Enigma shrugged. “A total failure. When we entered the tower, Lightbringer freaked out. He was starting to burn again. I had to kill him or the whole city would have gone.”

The silence that fell was thick enough to be cut with a knife. Celestia slowly walked closer to Enigma. “You... had to kill him? And... what about Shining Armour? What about the princess?”

“Alive, last I saw. I had to retreat and the barrier is already up.” Despite being shorter than Celestia, Enigma somehow managed to look down on her.

The princess pressed closer towards the stallion until he shifted, reappearing behind her. She turned towards him angrily. “You had to retreat? You HAD to?! You had one task to complete, one objective all of Equestria depended on. And you HAD to retreat without completing it ?!”

The noise attracted Evening Embrace, who emerged from a staircase leading below and looked at the two arguing ponies, mumbling something incomprehensible under her breath.

“The tower started to power up,” explained Enigma. “Its magic interfered with my abilities. I had to retreat while I still could.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the greatest assassin in the world?” sneered Luna from the corner. Both Celestia and Enigma turned their heads.

“I was, and I still am,” said Enigma. “I would’ve completed my task before they knew what hit them if our glorious leader hadn’t dropped her unstable baby brother on me to foalsit.”

Evening Embrace covered her muzzle with her forelegs. Luna stared in stunned silence. Celestia’s mane stopped flowing, as if she were turned into a statue. Enigma faced her again, looking at her through squinting eyes.

“I could have done it alone. And after all the mess from the last time, you should’ve known better than to send Lightbringer to the Empire,” he said. “So, why did you do it? You couldn’t trust me with a simple job? So much that you had to send him with me, despite the risk?”

As he finished speaking, Celestia didn’t respond at first. She stood looking at the ground, visibly struggling to compose herself, breathing slow, controlled breaths. Finally, she looked the stallion straight in the eyes. “You cannot be trusted,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Come again?” he answered with a smirk, though his eyes remained cold. “That’s rich coming from you.”

“You cannot be trusted,” repeated Celestia in a louder voice. “You abandoned us. Your family. You turned your back on us, and left when we needed you. What happened to Lightbringer was your fault. It should have been you to go there, not him.”

Enigma shook his head. “So, now it’s my fault for not taking part in one of your crazy schemes? They were the reason I left in the first place. What you all did, disgusted me. And as for “family”, I know for certain that I still have some actual living relatives despite the world burning time after time because of your failures. Whatever happened to Lightbringer was your fault alone. If you see it differently, you are really as blind as your namesake... Arrogance.”

The solar princess inhaled sharply, almost hissing. “Don’t call me that!”

“I will call you what I will!” shouted back Enigma. “I will call you a bloody hypocrite too! A loving princess of a bright and beautiful land, so worried about any harm coming to her subjects, keeping a terminally ill girl alive but uncured, always one step from death, just so she can dangle her life over my head, breaking the deal we had, because I AM THE ONE WHO CANNOT BE TRUSTED!?”

Celestia tensed, her nostrils flaring, her usual charm completely gone. “You. Will. Never. Leave. Us. Do you understand?”

Enigma shot her a look of utter contempt. “She won’t live forever, you know.”

“Then I will have Eve make her live forever. I will think of something. Equestria’s fate is now at stake and I won’t let-”

“Equestria!?” shouted the stallion, interrupting her. “You built Equestria upon a foundation of lies and now it is crumbling to pieces, no good for anything but kindling. I will stay with you and watch it burn. Until then... you know where to find me.”

And with that, he was gone, disappeared without a sound, as if he were never there. The three ponies were left staring at the spot where he had stood. Surprisingly, it was Eve who spoke first.

“You know... insulting as he... he did make a couple of good points...”

Celestia turned towards her with a glare, then towards Luna, who was too slow in hiding a smirk. The white alicorn stood stiff and closed her eyes. “Get out of here. Both of you. I will solve this problem myself.”

***

On the other end of the floor, locked inside her room, Tourmaline listened for a few seconds more, before turning off the spying gadget. Taking it off her wall, she pushed it back into its hiding place behind the books on the shelf. Then she slumped to her bed and turned off the light. She was left in complete darkness and in silence that would be complete if not for the filly’s own racing heartbeat.

***

“Why are we doing this again?” asked Rainbow Dash, looking askance at Obsidian.

She was standing around him along with the other girls, their Elements glowing faintly. The multicolored light spiralled slowly into his staff and then into the ground - a circle of earth about two yards across and seemingly far too thin to support the weight of non-pegasi. And yet it was flying, surrounded by a translucent bubble that shielded its passengers from the whipping wind.

“Well,” started Obsidian, “since we’re no longer in an awful hurry, there’s no need to strain our resources by teleporting. We can see that the barrier is up, so it really comes down to who’s controlling the city. We will fly there and see. If it’s the enemy, then we will teleport.”

“Can the Elements even run out of power?” asked Twilight, trying not to look down. She was used to flying vehicles, but as far as staying in the air went, this one was the weirdest thing since the cloudwalking spell.

“No.” answered the stallion. “But you can get your mind tired channeling. That’s one of the reasons miss Rainbow’s here with us, instead of flying alongside. I wanted you to have some practice, starting small. Once you learn how to do it, you’ll be able to do more spectacular magic in rapid succession.”

Rainbow Dash looked ahead, her expression sour. “Listening to you is like sitting at school.”

“Well, if you only trusted me a little, I wouldn’t have to explain my every move to you,” replied Obsidian. “Much as I like the sound of my own voice after all these years with nopony to talk to, this is getting tiresome.”

Applejack turned to glare at Obsidian. “Didn’t ya tell us not to trust ya?”

Obsidian closed his eyes. “Touche. And now please prepare to land. We’re almost there and I can feel miss Sparkle starting to lose her nerve.”

“Well, unlike you, I AM in a hurry,” said Twilight from behind Obsidian. “I must find out if my brother is okay.”

The stallion sighed. “Please, control yourself for a moment more. We will land, but maintain the shield, in case of any nasty surprises. If we get attacked, we will teleport to the beacon spell I left in the mountains before we left. But first, we should approach the barrier and get their attention. Where do you think would be the best spot? Besides flying over the city; I’d rather avoid that.”

Twilight took a few seconds to think. “The train station. It is outside the barrier and the road from there leads straight to the city gates. There’s bound to be somepony keeping watch there.”

“Very well,” said Obsidian, and the plate of earth started descending, quickly finding the place Twilight had described. Within moments the girls touched down on solid ground, Obsidian retrieving his staff from the earth.

It looks like nopony’s here,” said Rainbow Dash looking at the train station. The building looked hastily abandoned, open windows moving in the soft wind. A newspaper flew by, sliding off the barrier surrounding the girls.

“Keep channeling,” said Obsidian, turning towards the giant opalescent blue half-sphere looming ahead of them. “Let’s go and introduce ourselves.”

Slowly, trying to keep even distance around Obsidian, the mares started walking. Soon the gates of the Crystal Empire, a pair of large, fuchsia crystal pillars came into view ahead of them.

“They’ve seen us,” said Obsidian. “Somepony’s launched a flare.”

All the mares around him tensed, each in her own way. All except Pinkie Pie. The party pony smiled brightly. “It’s okay girls. The city is safe.”

Applejack turned to look at her. “How do ya know that… oh, right. There’s nothing scary ahead, is there?”

Pinkie Pie beamed at her. “Yup!”

“Halt! Who goes there!?” called a stallion voice from behind the pillars. The ponies tensed a bit more. Then Twilight Sparkle pushed to the front of the group.

“Twilight Sparkle and her friends!” she called loudly. “We’re here to see Shining Armor and Princess Cadence!”

There was some movement behind the gate, and Twilight could swear she heard tense whispers there. Finally, the voice called again. “Do not come any closer! Wait here until we can verify who you are!”

Twilight cast a nervous glance over her shoulder. “Do we wait?” she asked Obsidian.

The stallion nodded. “We do. They’ve obviously informed their superiors of our approach. With any luck, your brother is already on his way here.”

“There they are!” shouted Pinkie excitedly, hopping on the spot and pointing her hoof forward, before stuffing a pair of binoculars back into her mane. Her friends all looked where she was pointing.

And indeed, in the distance beyond the gate, a group of ponies were approaching in full gallop, a dozen of armored crystal ponies, lead by Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. They slowly came to a stop on their side of the barrier. Then they stood there, watching the mares intently.

“Shining!” Called Twilight, pushing forward. Obsidian sighed and released the barrier, allowing the unicorn to move closer to the gate.

Shining Armor approached the gate from his side. As he walked closer, Twilight noticed a hint of bandages visible from under his barding. “Twilight? he said, “Is that really you?”

Twilight smiled. “Yes, I am. I’m so glad I’ve got here in time. What’s happened to you?”

Shining returned her smile. “It’s a long story. But I want to hear yours first. I knew you were alive after all.”

“Sir,” called one of the stallions behind his back. “How do we know it is really her? She could be a changeling... or something…” he finished lamely, wilting under his leader’s gaze.

Shining Armor’s smile disappeared instantaneously. “Twilight? The situation is serious. Very serious. And now I have the Empire to protect too. Is there any…”

“We can test her to make sure she isn’t a changeling,” said Cadence, walking up to her husband’s side. “This won’t take too long.”

Obsidian shook his head. “We’re in a hurry. Applejack?”

The earth pony looked at Obsidian with hesitation before joining Twilight at the front. The gem on her chest lit up briefly. “It’s really us, sugarcube,” she said to the princess.

Everypony stared at Applejack. The silence stretched awkwardly, second after second. Finally, Shining Armor was the first to speak. “You are. But what did you do?” He was even more tense now, visibly struggling with contradictory emotions.

“Apparently, this barrier is not completely impervious,” said Obsidian. “It can’t stop the truth for one thing. Now that you know within your heart that this is really your sister and her friends, will you let us in?”

“And who are you?” asked Shining Armor.

Obsidian cleared his throat. “You shall know me as captain Obsidian of the first bearers, once bearer of Honesty,” he said in a formal tone. “I’m the one who brought your sister here.”

Shining Armor and Cadence looked at each other. Then, slowly, they stepped back from the gate, the barrier in front of them rippling and thinning visibly.
“Come in, Twilight,” said Shining Armor.

Twilight walked through the gate, first hesitantly, then lunging forward to hug her brother. Her friends followed, surrounding the ruling couple, to the visible discomfort of the guards. When the hug finally finished, Shining Armor and Twilight looked at each other with serious faces.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” they started simultaneously.

Obsidian looked over the whole scene and loudly cleared his throat.

“Okay, you first,” said Shining Armor with a sigh.

***

Bluebonnet looked at the pile of boxes in front of her.

“Where did I put it?” she said to herself, opening one after another. The containers were filled with a mix of miscellaneous objects, from toys, to clothes, to old notebooks filled with pages upon pages of scribbled designs. She paused, as she came upon an old photographs album, absentmindedly flipping the pages. There she was, younger and happier, back when she still dyed her mane to match her coat, and tried to look her best for the boys.

There was a rapping on the door. Bluebonnet closed the album and shoved it back into the box, her flashback over before it really started.

“Who is it?” she said aloud.

“It’s me, doctor,” called Pierce from the outside.

“Come in, Pierce,” answered Bluebonnet. “What do you need?”

The unicorn walked inside the room and looked around. “You’re packing?”

Bluebonnet nodded her head. “Dr Stone asked me to be ready to relocate in case of an emergency. But a lot of my things are still in Ponyville. I’m searching for some old clothes I had left here. So, what do you need of me?”

“Dr Stone says she needs you in the lower level. It seems mr Lightbringer requires a new body and it will take her full attention to supervise the process. She needs you to take care of the repairs in the meantime.”

“What about Tourmaline?” asked Bluebonnet. “She shouldn’t be left alone for too long.”

Pierce nodded. “I will keep an eye on her.”

“And what’s with Scootaloo? Weren’t you guarding her?”

“She’s sedated now,” said the stallion. “Dr Stone says we’re too understaffed for the current crisis, and she needs everypony doing something. That and she has no time to take care of her memory now, with the high power lab wrecked, and she doesn’t want the memories to keep accumulating. So she opted to just put her in a sleeping tank.”

“It’s for the best, I guess,” said Bluebonnet. “I wouldn’t think of something like that. But then again, thaumoneurology is not my field. I’m sure Dr Stone knows what she’s doing.”

“Tourmaline is still in her room?” asked Pierce.

“Oh, I sure hope so,” replied Bluebonnet. “The poor dear is… very upset. I took away her lock picks, but with the mess she makes of her room, I can never be sure. Perhaps I should have her join me repairing, to keep her mind off things, what do you think?”

Pierce considered the idea. “That would be great. Will you be taking her now?”

“Not just yet,” said Tourmaline. “She’s sleeping now. She really needs it. But please inform me at once when she wakes up.”

“Will do.”

***

“This is unbelievable,” said Shining Armor, looking at his sister.

They were standing in the throne room of the Crystal Tower, a gathering consisting of the Elements, Obsidian, the two rulers of the empire, and a pair of officers; a crystal pony Glitterdust and a teal unicorn named Bling. Everypony was now focused on Twilight, who had just finished recounting her story.

Applejack stepped forward. “I assure, you, this is the-”

Shining Armor silenced her with a gesture. “Please, don’t do that. It’s creepy.”

The farmpony scowled. “How can truth be creepy? It makes things simple. And we don’t have the time for no more complications now.”

“Either way, it’s a lot to take in at once,” said Bling, his tone cold and formal.

Twilight Sparkle sighed. “You don’t need to tell me about it.”

“This is a lot worse than I had suspected,” said Shining Armor. “I’ve done a lot to prepare the empire for trouble, but this…”

“So, you had your suspicions? said Obsidian.

Shining nodded sadly. “Yes, I did. But I never suspected… this.” He paused to look at his wife. “Okay, before I tell you my side of the story, there is something you need to know.” He looked at Twilight. “Our parents are here.”

Twilight stared in surprise, her face stretching into a smile. “They are? That’s wonderful! How did it happen?”

“We’ve been preparing for trouble for months,” said Cadence. “We had time to think of who we’d like to keep here, where it’s safe. We sent some ponies to keep an eye on them. When we heard that you were found-”

“We knew if something is to happen, it would happen now,” finished Shining Armor. “I sent them a message to get our parents on the train to the empire. They arrived just before you did.”

“I need to see them at once,” said Twilight. “They must have been worried sick about me.”

“You can, when we are done here,” said Obsidian. “I assume they weren’t the only ponies you recovered?”

“No, there are more,” said Shining, looking from Twilight to Obsidian with a serious face. “My team in Cloudsdale managed to get Rainbow’s and Fluttershy’s families here. We also have Pinkie’s parents and two sisters. And about a dozen Apples.”

Pinkie’s ears twitched. “What about Maud?” she asked.

Shining looked at her with surprise. “How did you… Ah, right. Maud is out of town, somewhere in the mountains. We’ve had no luck tracking her down.”

“And what about…” started Rarity, her voice breaking before she could finish.

Shining looked at her sadly. “I’m sorry.”

“All the citizens of Ponyville got sweeped in for the quarantine procedure related to the changeling infestation,” said Bling. “They’re currently being held in custody until further notice, officially so their identities can be verified.”

“So, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith too,” said Applejack. Her eyes darted around the room, as if looking for somepony to reassure her. Unfortunately, she soon found herself locking them with Obsidian.

“This is unfortunate,” he said, “but you known as well as I do that they could never save everypony. Each pony they did save has a family too, you do know that? You can never get everypony inside this dome, If you want to protect them all, the best you can do is try to win the war.” He turned towards Shining Armor. “That aside, the number of ponies you did save is quite impressive. How long have you been preparing for that?”

“Half a year,” said Shining. “It all started soon after you six disappeared-”

“Let’s be brief, darling,” said Cadence, pointing at Applejack and Rarity. Shining Armor nodded.

“There was a break-in into the tower’s library. While trying to escape, the culprit fell to her death. I learned nothing initially, but when we investigated the matter, we found her hideout full of coded messages. It looked like what Equestrian spies use.”

Obsidian nodded with a smile. The rest of the group listened intently, trying to keep up.

“There were also books,” continued Shining. “The spy had tried to steal them from my library. I hadn’t known they were there before, the library needs some organising, but the point is, they were history books. And what was inside didn’t match anything I had heard about before.”

“Does that remind you of anything, Twilight?” said Obsidian. He was openly sneering now.

Twilight turned away from him, a bit too quickly. “What did the books say?” she asked.

“They were a bit sketchy on the details,” said Shining, “it seems the crystal ponies never left their home much. But they claimed Equestria used to be ruled by a bunch of immortal tyrants that made all ponies live in huge cities full of smoking chimneys. Somepony they called the Shattered. I would treat it as nothing more than an oddity if the spy hadn’t tried to steal them.”

“So, what did you do then?” asked Obsidian.

“I did the most logical thing or course,” replied Shining. “I went to Canterlot to ask Princess Celestia about it.”

Awkward silence fell, punctuated, inexplicably by a chirping of a stray cricket. Fluttershy checked herself and found one hiding in her mane.

“She seemed taken aback,” continued Shining, “but explained to me that Equestria did in fact see a lot of evil in its past. She said the ponies were glad to forget it and she allowed them to, because no good could come from remembering past evils. The teachings of friendship and harmony should be enough to keep the history from repeating itself. She also said that the books were wildly inaccurate, and that the old crystal pony historians likely made up things when they lacked the knowledge. She also claimed that the spy wasn’t hers, that she had no reason to send one if she could just ask me about the library.”

“And you believed all that?” said Obsidian, sneering at the unicorn.

Shining Armor responded with a glare. “Of course I did! She was Princess Celestia, for crying out loud. It wasn’t until I returned home that Cadence noticed there was something odd about how I talked. She has been wary of such things since the whole wedding business, so-”

“I tested him and found out he had been mind controlled,” finished Cadence. “He would have ‘misplaced’ the books if I didn’t notice.”

“That looks like a clumsy ploy,” said Obsidian. “Do you think somepony panicked?”

There was a commotion outside the throne room. Everypony’s heads turned towards the door.

“I’ll check what it is,” said Glitterdust.

“You cannot get in,” sounded a guard’s voice from the outside.

“But Twilight is there,” came a reply, in a voice everypony recognised.

“Spike!” shouted Twilight, teleporting to the door, forcing Glitterdust to stop rapidly to avoid colliding with her rump. “You’re okay!” she continued, using her magic to open the massive door, hitting a surprised guard in the process. The tiny dragon ran in and hugged her.

“What do you mean, I’m okay?” he said, holding back tears. “I’m not the one who was missing for months.”

Bling contained a sigh. “While I’m happy at your reunion, this is hardly appropriate for a military council. There shouldn’t be anypony unnecessary in this room.”

Twilight turned towards the officer. “This won’t be a problem. Spike is my trusted assistant.”

The small dragon swelled with pride, hugging Twilight tightly as she turned, before slowly starting to inch towards Rarity. Twilight used her magic to shut the door again.

“Please continue,” said Twilight.

“Since that day I knew something was wrong in Canterlot palace,” continued Shining Armor. “I used my old friends still inside to gather some information, trying to find the culprit without revealing what I knew. I also started preparing the Crystal Empire military. The changeling invasion showed that Canterlot guard just wasn’t strong enough to handle big threats. I wanted my wife’s city to be better prepared.”

“And it saved his life today,” said Cadence. “even if it didn’t do the soldiers themselves much good.” She then pointed around on the walls of the throne room, parts of which were made of crystals of a slightly different hue. “A couple hours ago we were attacked by two powerful intruders. We managed to get out alive, thanks to Shining’s new training and Bling’s timely help, but several of our guards weren’t so fortunate.”

The atmosphere grew colder. Obsidian looked around the room. “Ah, I was wondering why this room smells of blood so. How did you fend them off?”

“This is very weird actually,” said Shining Armor. “It seems they turned upon each other in the end. We found one of them dead right here. The other retreated when our defenses started powering up.”

“Who were they?” asked Obsidian.

“One was an assassin, gifted with some sort of teleporting power,” answered Bling. “He was the one that escaped. The other was a pegasus in ridiculously heavy armor, gifted with insane strength.”

Obsidian nodded. “That would be Guilt and Hate. Perhaps I should give you more credit for surviving the attack. And you say Hate was the one that got killed?”

“Yes,” said Glitterdust. “A stab… through the eye-slit.”

“There are two possible explanations,” said Obsidian. “Either there has been some conflict among the Shattered, or they lost control of Hate. From what I’ve heard, he has grown much worse since the time I knew him. Also, he possesses a power that sets him apart from his teammates… Either way, it was a stroke of luck that we shouldn’t waste. I can begin teaching the Elements in the use of their powers first thing tomorrow. Right now I’m sure they have ponies to see. Better get all the distractions out of the way first. They also need sleep.”

“Aren’t we going ahead of ourselves here?” asked Rarity suddenly. Everypony looked at her.

“What do you mean?” asked Obsidian.

The whole room’s attention focused on her, Rarity hesitated. “Well, we are talking about going against Princess Celestia here. The whole of Equestria will be with her. Everypony will think we are the villains. And even if we win, what about the Sun?”

Everypony looked at each other. Twilight caught a confused and alarmed look Spike was giving her. “I’ll explain everything to you later,” she whispered to the dragon.

“Once you are ready to meet the Shattered in battle,” said Obsidian, “you will have the truth on your side. Proving the righteousness of your cause should not be a problem. And as for the Sun, I have already said this shouldn’t be needed. If it is, the powers of the Elements will be more than sufficient for the task.”

He turned towards Shining Armor. “But the fact remains, that Celestia has had the loyalty of her subjects for centuries. How sure are you of your officers?”

Glitterdust turned red. “With all due respect, sir-”

Obsidian interrupted him. “Respect has nothing to do with it. It’s simply a matter of life or death. So?”

“I can vouch for them both,” said Shining Armor. “I personally picked Glitterdust for this job. He has lived here his whole life. And Cadence saved him along with everypony else when she defeated Sombra.” He then turned towards Bling. “And Bling is from Equestrian military, that’s where I befriended him. But if he weren’t on our side, all he needed to do was stop for a moment. He saved both our lives today.”

“If you don’t trust us, you can test us, can’t you?” said Bling. He didn’t look as angry as Glitterdust, more scornful. He pointed his head at Applejack.

Applejack hesitated. “I can’t do it like that. I mean, I can, but that wouldn’t be right.”

Bling looked her in the eyes. “I insist. It is a matter of life or death after all.” He looked sideways at Obsidian, who was watching him intently.

“So, can we trust ya?” asked Applejack. She looked at Bling with the pools of color that were now her eyes. Honesty started glowing on her chest.

“I’m no Celestia’s spy,” said the officer. “Shining Armor is right, if I were against him, he would have died today. I may be bound by duty, but my duty is to the kin, not to the crown. I will not betray you to the Shattered. You?” he asked, turning towards Glitterdust.

Glitterdust strode purposefully towards Applejack. “I’m Glitterdust, commander of the guard of the Crystal Empire. My rulers and saviours live within this city, as does my family. I will not turn back on them!”

Bling turned back towards Applejack. “Well, what say you?”

Applejack nodded. “It’s the truth. I had you in Honesty’s magic, so you couldn’t lie.”

“Now, that’s reassuring,” said Obsidian. “I assume most of our forces are locals? You may want to repeat the story to them too, Applejack.”

Applejack huffed in annoyance. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Honesty is about trust, not magicking truth at ponies.”

Obsidian gave her a long thoughtful look. “Are you going to lecture the first bearer about how his Element works?”

Applejack met his gaze. “Nope, I’m finished talking.”

Obsidian held her gaze for a moment more, and then smiled. “Concise and to the point. I used to be like that.”

***

Something is not right, thought Twilight Sparkle.

She was standing in the throne room of the Crystal Tower, everypony gathered around her as she recounted the tale of her disappearance, her meeting Obsidian, and the subsequent return to Equestria, culminating in the confrontation in the great hall of Canterlot Castle. Shining Armor and Cadence were listening intently, as were their officers.

“We landed in the Everfree Forest,” she continued her tale. “It turned out Obsidian had a contingency spell set up to get us out. As you can guess, we had to talk through some differences after that.”

Feeling suddenly nervous, she forced a smile. Her audience just kept staring at her.

What is that odd feeling?

She looked around the throne room in search of anything out of place.

These walls have been repaired with magic recently, she realised, some crystal got broken and replaced...

Twilight walked towards the wall for a closer look. Suddenly she became aware that the whole room was silent, waiting for her to continue. She turned and saw the ponies’ eyes turning towards her. It was an odd movement, all the heads cocked slightly, all moving at the same moment, like some optical illusion that seems to follow the viewer.

Twilight turned her back to the repaired wall, instinctively keeping everypony in her line of sight. “We then went to meet you, but the first time we teleported, the barrier repelled us,” she continued talking, skipping over the crystal tree episode in her haste to get the suddenly creepy attention off her. “It took us several hours to get here by flight.” she finished.

“This is unbelievable,” said Shining Armor, looking at Twilight.

Applejack stepped forward. “I assure you, this is the-”

Shining Armor silenced her with a gesture. “Please, don’t do that. It’s creepy.”

The farmpony scowled. “How can truth be creepy? It makes things simple. And we don’t have the time for no more complications now.”

“Either way, it’s a lot to take in at once,” said Bling, his tone cold and formal.

Twilight Sparkle blinked. “Wait… this has happened before. We’ve had this talk already.”

“This is a lot worse than I had suspected,” said Shining Armor. “I’ve done a lot to prepare the empire for trouble, but this…” he paused and stared into Twilight’s eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve already told you all that,” said Twilight. ”And you told me your part. Of the break in, and the attack,” she pointed at the discolored crystal wall. “Then we decided that’s enough for today. I met my parents and then explained the situation to Spike... “ she paused, the pieces of the puzzle clicking into place in her head. “I went to sleep. This is a dream.”

“And I so hoped to hear what they told you exactly,” said Shining Armor, looking at Twilight with a smile. Then his face melted off, exposing the skull underneath, falling with a wet splat and instantly dissolving into a growing pool of white and blue.

Twilight shrieked, stumbling away in panic. She stepped into something sticky and saw that the other ponies were now surrounding her, their features melting off, yellow-brown skulls and ribs exposed as their flesh turned into a multi-hued pool slowly filling the floor. Twilight tried to struggle free, but the gooey mess held her like glue. When she pulled harder, she found, to her horror, that her own legs were getting soft, bending unnaturally as she struggled. She tried to use magic next, only to see her horn bulge painfully as she summoned her power.

“It’s no use,” said Bling’s skeletal form. “You are already defeated.”

“You will die,” said Cadence.

“And all those you dragged into your little rebellion will die for your folly.” finished Fluttershy on Twilight’s other side.

“Let me go!” shouted Twilight, continuing to struggle. “Show yourself!”

The cadavers seemed to hesitate and then moved away. There was one pony standing behind them, the only one who still had his face.

“There is no escape, little traitor,” said Obsidian.

Twilight glared at him. “What do you think you’re doing!?”

The stallion sneered. “Why, I’m going to break your mind, and then use your body as a puppet, to kill your friends in your sleep. You clearly don’t have the loyalty required to use the Elements.”

Twilight blinked as the words sank in. “Wait… no, you’re playing with me. Obsidian was there with us. He wouldn’t need this. You’re not him.”

Obsidian looked at her in mock disappointment. “Ah, I hoped you’d be too panicked to think straight. Dreams do that to ponies. I should have expected you’d be stronger.”

His face melted away, but there was no bone underneath. Instead, the transformation revealed another coat, one of navy blue. A dark mane twinkling with stars filled the room, surrounding Twilight like a dark cloud.

“That’s all the worse for you,” said Princess Luna. “I’m not as good at the whole forgetting thing as the Void Passage, I’m afraid.To get another go at breaking your mind, I’ll first need to torment you until you can’t think straight anymore.”

The skeletal ponies walked out of the cloud, baring their teeth at Twilight.

“Welcome to your worst nightmare, you ungrateful filly.”

Comments

[Rakdar]

Im mad that i know the entire story is written but i cant continue reading it.

[Braininthejar]

9711773
It gives me a chance to re-read it myself and do some last moment tweaks.