Kindness and the Heart of Shadow

by Raven-Flight

Royal Summit

“You are all well aware of the urgency of this meeting. We were deceived into defending the wrong cities and in our error have lost Manehatten. Princess Luna and I have questioned our informant and determined that he is innocent. It was the pony who had informed him that was culpable for the misinformation, and that pony was none other than… Cozy Glow.”

Five Element-bearers and one Princess of the Crystal Empire gave a collective gasp. Twilight started breathing hard and Applejack briefly left the room to locate a paper bag for her friend.

“Sombra and Chrysalis working together is bad enough, but Cozy Glow too?” Twilight’s eyes suddenly bulged. “If Cozy Glow has escaped from Tartarus, then—”

There was a flash of light in the middle of the room and a “Twilight!” Starlight fell into a kneel as soon as she appeared, both in deference to the Princesses and in exhaustion from the long-range teleportation.

Seeing her friend in such a state immediately reset Twilight to a calmer mindset. “Starlight, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer right away because she was busy breathing into the paper bag that Applejack had just given to her, since Twilight no longer needed it. When her breathing had slowed down again, Starlight spoke. “Please pardon my intrusion, Princesses.”

Celestia, Luna, and Cadance merely nodded.

“Twilight, I just went to my old village to make sure everypony was okay. And they’re not! Every single one of them has had their magic drained away!” The unicorn paused to take another shaky breath and fight back her tears. “They said Tirek was there, a week ago, and Cozy Glow was there too! She locked them all up in a cellar to starve!” Finally, she collapsed to the ground sobbing, overcome by the memory of her suffering, empty friends.

“Oh no!” “Good heavens!” “What in tarnation?”

“All of Equestria’s greatest foes,” mused Luna. “But why would they have banded together all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know, sister, but Equestria is in dire straights. With every train track out of Equestria blocked by impervious black crystals, every road guarded by brainwashed civilians, and the weather too violent and unpredictable to send up aerial messengers, I haven’t been able to get a word out to our allies!” Celestia’s voice had rose and rose in agitation until the end of her sentence came out almost as a wail. She sighed, and finished in a whisper. “I sure hope Shining Armor and his vessel succeeds, for he is our last hope of receiving aid.”

Princess Cadance finally chimed in, filling in as Chief of Defense in the absence of her husband. “Equestria’s citizens flee the countryside and flock to Canterlot by the thousands every day. I’m hoping more than anypony that Shining Armor returns to us in success, but this is our final stronghold, and we must be prepared to battle with what resources we have left.”

“But, excuse my asking, Princesses, what resources do we have left?”

Celestia’s only response to Rarity was to look from her to the other side of the round table. “Starswirl?”

The ancient unicorn levitated open a scroll. “We know for certain that the Staff of Sacanas, Yksler’s Helm, and the Amulet of Aurora have all been stolen by one or another of those ruffians.”

At the listing of the latter two, Twilight and Starlight shared a glance of surprise. Then Twilight spoke up. “The helm and the amulet were both on display in my school! I’m so sorry I didn’t keep better guard of them!”

“It is too late to dwell on such matters.” Luna’s voice was stern. “Whether or not you can be blamed for the loss, Twilight Sparkle, is not important at this moment.”

Twilight pressed her ears back and nodded, then turned back to Starswirl. “But how did you know those artifacts were stolen when I hadn’t even noticed?”

“Simple, young princess. They were not stolen until you left to come here. I only knew they were missing because Princess Celestia bade me go and gather up all known magical devices for our own use. It is a shame that I was too late to recover three of the five most powerful.”

“Not exactly, Starswirl,” Celestia won the room’s attention. “This just arrived back to us an hour ago.” She levitated a charm into view.

“Why, the Amulet of Aurora! But that was most assuredly gone only two days ago!”

“A San Franciscolt police chief braved a great storm in order to return this to us. She reported that Queen Chrysalis was seen fleeing the city with this amulet. When they gave pursuit, she dropped it and fled into a network of sea caves below a cliff. Further investigations have revealed evidence that our villains may be based out of that cave system.”

“Then let us take the offensive!” Cadence stood, excited.

“Yeah! Lemme at ‘em!” Rainbow Dash joined her.

“Wait,” admonished Twilight. “We can’t waste any time getting ponies lost in an uncharted cave system. Besides, sea caves are especially dangerous if you get trapped by the tides! It’s just too risky to try to chase them out or battle them inside.”

“What about that doohickey, then?” Applejack pointed to the Amulet. “Doesn’t it have power over the tides?”

Now Starlight spoke up, tears staining her cheeks but no longer flowing. “She’s right. We could send a crew into the caves and post somepony with the Amulet outside, where they can keep reversing the tides to ensure a safe exit!”

“Wait, I thought the Amulet of Aurora summoned tsunamis!” Rarity glanced from face to face in confusion. Twilight returned the glance, and her face lit up.

“Yes, it can do that too! Why don’t we circumvent the issue of getting lost and just create a tsunami to flush our villains out? Literally!”

“But all those poor ponies in San Franciscolt,” Pinkie Pie frowned. “Wouldn’t a tsunami hurt the city?”

“The city might get hurt anyway if we don’t stop these bad guys!” Rainbow Dash mimed a few punches from where she was hovering above everypony’s heads. “At least if it’s us who has to threaten the city, we can give everypony a chance to evacuate!”

“I agree, but that’s still such a terrible thing to have to do to those ponies! Even if they evacuate, they won’t have any homes left to return to!” Rarity moped in sympathy with her imagined scenario.

“We can rebuild ‘em!” suggested Applejack.

“We all have to make sacrifices in these desperate times,” Twilight added.

“That’s easy for you to say—you’re not the one who’s making the sacrifice!” Pinkie stood with her front hooves on the table.

“You think I haven’t made sacrifices?” Twilight mirrored her.

“We’ve all made sacrifices, but who are we to demand that an entire city of innocent ponies sacrifice everything just so we can do things the easy way?” Rarity glared at Twilight.

“What do you mean easy?” “Let’s not be so hasty, here!” “We have to act now!”

Celestia, Luna, and Cadence each tried to interrupt the argument at different points, but as it heated up they couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Finally, Celestia stood abruptly. Her chair’s loud scrape against the floor caught everypony’s attention and silenced them. “This bickering will get us nowhere. The four of us Princesses will hold a council this evening to decide what shall be done with the Amulet of Aurora. We would do well to speak no more of it at this time.”

“But—”

“Take your seat, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia warned. The pegasus obeyed slowly, still eager to fight but unwilling to ignore the order. “And Starswirl, I apologize for the disruption. Please continue with your report.”

“Very well, your Highness, but I had only this left to add. The two most relevant artifacts that remain to us are the Helm of Shadows and the Alicorn Amulet.”

“Both of these lend tremendous power. I wonder why they weren’t taken?” Cadence addressed the question to Starswirl, but the other Princesses answered.

“Perhaps they hadn’t gotten to them yet,” offered Celestia.

“Perhaps they were too afraid of them. Sister, please take my word on this. We cannot trust the helm to be tamed for our use. Anypony who so much as touches it will instantly be driven mad by its power! I know from experience,” Princess Luna shivered at the horror of her own memories. The other ponies stared still and silent, understanding the gravity of Luna’s admonishment.

“I agree, Luna. We will keep the helm under special watch so it does not fall into the hooves of our enemies, but I will see to it that it doesn’t fall into our own hooves either.”

“Seconded,” added Cadence. “Now, what about the Alicorn Amulet?”

The five Element-bearers all inhaled simultaneously to voice their opinions, but Celestia predicted another argument and held up a hoof to silence them before anypony had a chance to begin. “We will address the Alicorn Amulet after we have all had a chance to rest and clear our heads. Starswirl, girls, you are dismissed.”

“No, no, no, wait!” Twilight burst, then flinched. “Oh, my apologies, Princess Celestia.”

Celestia exhaled, then spoke through her teeth. “What is it, dear Twilight?”

“I just remembered that I need all the Element-bearers for something that could help us decide whether or not to use the Amulet of Aurora.”

“Oh?”

“Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash flew back to the center of the room. “Fluttershy!”

“Precisely! Princesses, Starlight developed a spell that can use our inherent magic as Element-bearers to locate any who are missing from among us. We already proved it works by enchanting Rainbow with a cloaking spell and sending her off to a random city.”

“But I just had to pick Whinnyapolis.”

“Right, so when she came back, we all galloped out here right away and forgot to try the spell again to find Fluttershy! Can we do it right now? It might help us figure out once and for all where our villains are hiding.”

“Very well. If Starlight is up for it, that is.”

Starlight stood up. “Thank you, Princess Celestia, but I think I’m recovered. Let’s see; I had originally anchored the spell to the map-table, but I think any map should do. Would any of you be willing to project a map of Equestria onto the floor for us?”

Cadence stepped forward and did so. In a few moments, the pulsing lights connected the friends again and Fluttershy’s cutie mark appeared above Starlight’s head. Everypony but Starlight, who closed her eyes in concentration, stared at the image like the fate of Equestria rested on its motion.

The butterfly trio floated over to Cadence’s projected map, and as before, it began to swing back and forth in pendulum motions. Calibrating. Seeking. But just as the swings narrowed over a particular spot, the arc would widen again and the image would move elsewhere on the map. Beads of sweat dropped from Starlight’s brow as she worked to keep the spell going. The swinging image accelerated. In another moment, it was thrashing so quickly from one border of the map to the next that the three butterflies could hardly be distinguished.

Then the image moved so fast that it vaporized in a puff of smoke, and Starlight fell over. Her friends, suddenly released, rushed to her side.

Celestia had watched the effort in silence, but now a shadow seemed to fall over her eyes. “It looks like the Element of Kindness has ceased to exist. I am sorry, my little ponies.”

Comments

[Coco Candy]

Oh no.... Sombra! What did you do?!
Great writing though, keep it up!