A Mentally Unstable and Powerful Changeling...Yeah

by Taken-By-Insanity

Chapter 13: …

The ride to the Crystal Empire was quiet and uneventful. Once snowfall was seen through the windows, everyone switched into snow gear in preparation.

Shade watched the snow with a small smile. ”Been forever since I’ve seen snow.” She wore a pair of snow boots with a fluffy coat.

She momentarily frowned at her thought. ”Wait, no. I got to Equestria from the Frozen North, so it hasn’t been that long. A couple weeks at least.” She shrugged. ”Eh. Still better than most weather.”

“Shade?” Shade turned to Cadence. “When we get to the Empire, we need to be fast with setting up defenses before we’re noticed. What can you do to help?”

“Uh…” Shade pondered for a few moments. ”Let’s see. Shady Drawing, what could she do that could help? Oh!” She clapped her hooves together. “I can put everything in a picture to help transport everything. In fact, I’m going to do it now.”

Shade stood and picked up her bag before she went to the car door. “Be careful,” Cadence said as Shade closed the door behind her. She went to the next car and entered it, finding all the supplies still there.

“Okay…now to figure out how to put all this into a picture…” Shade pulled out a notebook she managed to grab and opened it to an empty page. “I was able to create something from a drawing, so I should easily be able to put something inside one.” The only problem was that Shade had no clue how she managed to bring that drawing into reality.

“I just have to let it come to me.” She waited. And waited. “Anytime now.” After waiting for another minute, she sighed. “Okay, recklessly attempting it is.” She charged magic into her horn and covered the notebook in her magic.

Looking around, she saw a relatively smaller box that held clothing. ”That’s probably for the people in the Empire.” She covered the box in her magic as well and tried imagining the process she wanted.

She closed her eyes and told the steps to herself. “The box becomes two-dimensional. It then goes to the paper and becomes one with it. A limited pocket space is created, storing the box and its contents.” Upon opening her eyes, she found a new box image in the notebook. Looking at where the box was, she found that it was gone.

“Yes!” She repeated this process with other boxes. More clothing, food, spare weaponry. This was all stored within the single page she held it to. Once she was finished, she jumped for joy. “I actually did it!” She clapped her hooves before realizing how she was acting. With a clearing of her throat, she closed the notebook and set it back into her bag.

“Thank goodness no one saw me acting like that,” she mumbled to herself, her face warm and a little red. The blush died quickly as she turned away from the end of the cargo car and headed back to the passenger car holding Cadence and Shining Armor.

She got there in short order and found Shining looking out the window with a serious expression. It looked like he was keeping an eye out for something.

“I’m back,” Shade announced as she closed the door behind her.

“Good.” Shining nodded. “We’re about to arrive.”

Shade tilted her head. “Did I take that long or were we already close when I left?”

“A bit of both.” Cadence admitted. “Did you manage to pack everything?”

“Yep!” Shade pulled out the notebook. “It’s all in here and ready for transport.” The train slowed to a stop and Shining Armor grabbed his spear. The train doors opened and everyone filed out. Once everyone was out, the train was permitted to leave, heading back to Equestria. A gentle snowfall was coming down upon the group, who all had a slight shiver to them. ”Huh.” Shade looked at them all, being the only one who showed no sign of feeling cold. ”Ponies are not great in cold weather. Then again, isn’t it closer to summer in Equestria right now?”

“Alright everypony!” Shining yelled to his troops. “The sooner we get to the Empire proper, the faster we can help the residents so let’s get moving!” Due to the snowfall not being a blizzard, the tower that was the Crystal Empire’s castle was visible from a distance.

The troops stayed in front of the royal couple, leading the way toward the tower, as Shade stayed behind them. She kept an eye on their rear, on the lookout for black smoke. ”The Elements were originally ambushed by Sombra when they got here in the show. Who knows if our group will also get ambushed?”

It was suspiciously quiet as the large group marched to the Crystal Empire. After a few minutes of walking, the group entered the edge of the city, where the crystal buildings started. Shade’s paranoia only increased as time went on, her eyes eventually shifting to black.

The group was left unimpeded until they entered the large clearing that the castle stood in the middle of. As soon as the first guard pony stepped hoof into it, a spike of black crystal came out of the ground and almost impaled him, had he not reacted quickly enough to step back. “Sir!” The soldier yelled to the back. “It looks like the plaza is trapped.”

Shade tilted her head in thought for a moment, wearing a strangely neutral frown. “Black crystal signifies negative emotions affecting it, meaning we’re dealing with dark magic.” She turned to the royal couple. “Cadence, Shining. If you channel your love for each other into your magic, you should be able to temporarily disable the traps, if not destroy them completely. I can attempt to assist, but I don’t have any love in me that’s nearly as powerful.”

The two nodded. “We’re going to the front!” Shining yelled. The soldiers moved out of the way, allowing the three to get to the front.

“I’d advise we try it on the trap that’s already been triggered,” Shade suggested. She lit her horn and briefly had her magic cover it before her horn dimmed. “If it crumbles, then we’ll know for certain if my theory is correct.”

Cadence lit her horn and made a ball of her magic. She fired the ball at the black crystal and it quickly fell apart, disappearing into smoke. “Alright. Shining, could you make a shield around us? I’ll supply the power while you maintain the spell.” Shining Armor only gave a nod before lighting his horn, creating a pink shield around the group, even going under their hooves. Cadence lit her horn again and the shield’s hue changed only slightly. The two then started to walk forward, followed by Shade and the soldiers.

Spikes attempted to jab at the group, but they crumbled as they hit the shield, allowing the group a smooth walk to the center of the plaza. Shade lit her horn for a few moments before nodding. “We’re clear!”

Cadence and Shining Armor let down their conjoined spell. Shining looked at Shade with a raised brow. “How do you know that we’re clear?”

“Before we tested that crystal, I scanned it with an analysis spell.” Shade said, briefly motioning in the direction they came from. “I casted another analysis spell here and came up with no results matching the crystal trap.”

“Now.” Shade pointed at a spot in the very middle of the small safe space, where a spike from the ground and a spike from the roof above pointed to an empty space. “That’s where the Crystal Heart should be. We can only assume that King Sombra hid it somewhere, which leaves two objectives. Find Sombra and find the Crystal Heart.”

“Is Sombra even alive?” Cadence questioned. “I mean, wouldn’t we have seen him by now?”

“Dark magic is tricky.” Shining responded. “It can be more unpredictable than regular magic is.”

“Exactly,” Shade nodded. “Sombra could be hiding for all we know, waiting for the right moment to strike. If we’re lucky, he’s just recovering from reappearing with the Crystal Empire or is still in the process of reappearing, along with the crystal pony civilians.”

“What makes you think that?” Shining asked.

“We have yet to see anything outside of ourselves. That means either all the citizens are in hiding or they are appearing later than the buildings have.” Shade shrugged her shoulders. “We don’t know anything about how or why the Crystal Empire disappeared and reappeared like this so anything is possible.”

“That’s true…” Shining shook his head. “Soldiers!” The guards snapped to attention. “Cadence and I shall make a city wide shield, the same as the one we used to get through that minefield. Once we make it, fan out and look for civilians! Understood?!”

“Yes sir!” The guards yelled in unison.

Shining turned to Cadence. “You ready?”

Cadence gave a simple nod before charging her magic. “This won’t be too different from the shield at our wedding. I’m ready when you are.”

As the couple began to cast the spell, Shade slipped away, heading through one of the sets of doors leading into the castle. She closed the doors behind her and began to talk to herself as she started up a staircase. “That shield is proven to ward off dark magic, but our knowledge states it won’t last long enough.” She began to charge her magic, which was black like her eyes instead of purple. “I’ll need to set up my own traps and precautions to make sure nothing goes wrong. This knowledge isn’t reliable enough for us to sit by and do nothing.”

She rested a hoof against one of the crystal walls, sliding it along the wall as pink magic washed over her, signaling the shield spell being cast. “Crystal is extremely conductive with magic, so that spell is likely twice as powerful. It also means my spells will be twice as effective.” Her magic flowed from her horn like a snake, slithering around her neck and down her arm before going into the wall as she walked. “Golems able to build themself with orders to target that source of the magic frequency I got from the trap earlier. Traps ready to go off in a similar manner to those traps in the courtyard. Surveillance spells to alert us when the shield falls and when Sombra enters the city.”

Tendrils of the magic slithered around the Crystal Empire, burrowing themselves deep in the crystal to fester and infect. “And lastly, an attachment to those spells that take in stored magic and further increase each spell’s power.” Shade pulled her hoof away from the wall and cut off her flow of magic. “Now, what point would there be in waiting for the heroes to arrive? Too many unknown variables could make them unable to obtain the Crystal Heart and save the day.”

She paused in her thinking, stopping in her walking. “Although, many future events will become unpredictable if I alter events so drastically…” She shook her head and continued walking. “Bah, the information was becoming stale anyway. Our mere presence isn’t a part of this knowledge and yet here we are. Events are already too altered for us to worry about keeping it on track.”

Shade stopped in front of the throne room and opened the door. “If the information is correct, dark magic must impact the crystal above the throne and the passage will op-“ Shade froze, clutching her head suddenly.

She shut her eyes for a few moments before opening them again, revealing her disguise’s blank eyes being back. She let go of her head and took in her surroundings. “What? How…how did I get here?” Shade walked to one of the throne room’s windows and looked out of it, seeing the pink shield Cadence and Shining had put up. “Wait, how is the shield up already? Did I black out? How long was I out for?”

Comments

[LH45]

Yay!