Obsidian: Shards Of Sombra

by Randimaxis

Thirteen: Introducing Peridot

He did it.

He actually did it; somehow, he managed to be here in this dream, despite the death of his physical body. It seemed to be a far more elegant solution than their father's pathetic attempt to restore himself in a manner which brought about his quick downfall. Peridot's knowledge could put her research on the right track.

"I'm quite pleased to meet you, brother; Amethyst says she misses you," she stated kindly. "I find the fact that you are here... exceedingly interesting."

"Amethyst..." he said contemplatively as a small, meek smile crept across his features before he turned to look at Obsidian. "I do miss her - quite a bit, actually. She made me feel like I was free to be myself, like I didn't have to hide myself from doing what needed to be done..."

The smile faded until he wore the same distracted and distant look he'd had in the drawing.

"Yes, I agree; exceedingly interesting... I suppose it would be. To be perfectly honest with you, I'm simply glad that I could finally begin gaining a hoofhold on the alicorn; I've been more or less trapped inside his mind... at least, until the pegasus mare showed up, that was. That provided the proper trigger to set the rest of my work into motion; from there, I just kept learning more and more..."

He now faced Obsidian, though his eyes seemed to be a bit off to the right, instead of looking directly at her. "I've been wanting to meet you ever since I learned you were alive... which, admittedly, was not very long ago. It was from the mind of Thunderclap Dash that I first saw an image of you - until then, I had only ever heard Father's brief description of you."

He blinked once. "His description didn't do you justice, of course." Well, it was disappointing that she only got only a dry and basic description; Obsidian didn't actually learn very much about their father's opinion of her... though it probably wasn't so positive, as he wasn't really known to be a doting parent.

So, Peridot's Curse was allowing him to settle in the minds of other ponies? He could potentially turn into a country all by himself! That wasn't just a method to defeat death, but also a good way to assert control... of course, she didn't know any of the details yet, either.

"Oh? May I ask what he said about me?" It just didn't feel fair that her siblings apparently knew about her, but she had never learned about them. It could possibly be some sort of mistake or oversight on their father's part, perhaps?

"He said you were becoming more suited to your magics, that you were a mare, and that you were the last resort; otherwise, he kept mostly quiet about you. In fact, the only reason he told me anything at all was due to the fact that I had calculated the chances of there being another sibling... and at an accuracy of 98.8%, my results told me you existed."

He turned and began to walk back into the palace proper. "Please... walk with me." Slowly, she followed along.

His gait was slow and small; he didn't step like a conqueror, nor did he hold himself like one. In fact, except for his accomplishments in curses, this unicorn stallion seemed more suited to teach at the academy than to be the son of Sombra.

"Questions - I know you have them, as I have calculated an 87.3% chance that you're here to learn what to do about the effects of the Curse. But I'm not just speaking about that, Obsidian; I hold a LOT of answers... and since it has been long and long since I last had the opportunity to speak at all, please feel free to ask me whatever you wish. I have no reason to lie to you, and I would be quite glad for the conversation - a true rarity for me."

Even when he turned to face her, he still never quite looked her in the eye.

So he had a lot of answers, did he? Well, good - she had lot of questions. "How did you manage to link yourself to this curse? Do you have access to every pony affected by it?"

"I do, yes. I was beginning my research into Amber's mental compliance magics, and had discovered a way to link aspects of some of her spells to my own curses. Combined, I could effectively take over another creature's mind, supplanting my own lifeforce into their shell... something I am currently in the process of doing with the alicorn, Midnight Star. I am actually somewhat looking forward to having an alicorn's body and power... and admittedly, it was the last body I ever calculated I'd end up inside of - only a 7.16% chance, in all."

He looked around the throne room as he went on. "Combining the spells was easy... but leaving a delayed reaction trigger in the middle of my notebook was a challenge. I died, still uncertain it had worked at all... until the day Midnight found and read it in the pursuit of his studies - that event was 3 years, 2 months, 20 days, 4 hours and 47 seconds back, for the record. I spent all that time, locked away inside his head."

"You see," he sounded as if he honestly were trying to instruct rather than explain, "I had calculated the spell combinations perfectly... but I hadn't factored in the necessity for emotional energy to be able to act as a catalyst for the curse to properly take full effect. And to think, if he had not returned home and discovered a major source of his childhood misery here, I would have remained inside his head until either I was possibly triggered by another, different highly emotional moment... or I would have died along with him, whenever old age takes alicorns."

Okay, the part about taking over Midnight's body didn't sound too good to her, but the rest - it was really, truly fascinating. Obsidian wouldn't complain one iota if she would have had such a knack for math and magical theory!

"It would possibly take a moment, indeed - has any alicorn in the history of ponykind died of old age?" Obsidian shrugged slightly at her own rhetorical question. "It's really an exquisite spell - a masterpiece, even. As far as I've come to understand, it could potentially turn entire nations under your direct control... and it allowed you cheat death in a much cleaner manner than our father's plans."

Of course at the beginning, Obsidian thought that King Sombra's plan was similar - she had honestly expected him to take over Onyx's body... not destroy it in a rather visceral manner and grow his old one back.

"What would happen if your original host would die, but somepony else would find your cursed notebook afterward?" she asked with visible interest.

"Oh, it wouldn't have mattered," he explained, "as my life essence was stored in the single curse; at this point, my notebook is... more or less aside from the information contained therein, completely harmless. The initial curse is what made the transference possible; otherwise, I'd be able to inhabit multiple beings, but my soul would be so fractured and stressed from multiple separations, I wouldn't hold any semblance of control at all. No, the soul is focused on the single spell, and that spell was cast when Midnight read my notebook's pages."

"Though, for what it's worth, I do have access to all the memories and thoughts of those under my curse... which is where I saw you. From there, I simply manipulated a number of resources until I was certain you would end up contacting Luna and entering Midnight's dreams. There was a 14.2% chance you might not have done so, but I was hedging my bets that you would - though it appears you haven't been to the Delvar Libratorium yet. Strange, as I was certain to a percentage of 89.4% that you would have."

He shrugged lightly. "Still... here you are, and I am glad we have this moment to talk for a while. The other parts of Midnight's mind should do well to keep Luna occupied until I decide to throw her out of the alicorn's dreams. And yes, I have that power; Luna is not the be-all, end-all dream master as one would surmise."

"Travel to the Crystal Empire to visit the Libratorium would take a while, and I've only recently learned the place even existed to begin with. I was planning to get there tomorrow morning, but first I wanted to gather as much information as I could here. In fact, I've already booked a meeting with the princess before I'd learned about you," Obsidian admitted.

Hmmm... so he was able to overpower princess Luna in a mind he controlled? Interesting - very interesting. This curse was truly an astonishing invention; too bad there wasn't any fail-safe that would allow Peridot's essence to return to the notebook safely. It would make things pretty easy for her.

"And why am I not affected? Is it your personal choice, or a property we hold as shards?"

"It was my choice," Peridot nodded, "as I didn't want you to be affected, so you were not. However, I did use the curses on your comrades to make sure you came here - but I wasn't going to use the same on my own sister, no. The curse responds to me, to my wishes, and does what I tell it to... at least as far as certain commands go, at any rate."

It made sense - a plague didn't have to behave in an organized or predictable manner if it had sentience. It was hard to figure out any given rules of illness if that illness could make its' own decisions when it came to its' victims.

He stopped in front of the Crystal Throne, regarding it solemnly. "The Libratorium was my favorite place to be in all of the Crystal Empire; it was quiet, had few visitors, and held just about any book on any subject I ever sought out. I was at peace there, quite a number of times, and I learned so much from it's wizened and hallowed halls. As soon as my subjugation of the alicorn is complete, it will be the first stop I make when I return home."

He now faced her again. "You could come with me, Obsidian. You, Amethyst... even Tourmaline, though I doubt he would want to ally himself with us again, as I'm sure he has far too many bad memories with Onyx for him to ever find himself on this side of the balance, more's the pity."

"We could all come back to the Empire, and we would all live in the palace, doing whatever we desired, and enjoying Life to whatever extent we chose. No one would be able to withstand us if we worked together, and there's a 92.8% chance that, no matter what may come, we would possibly live for quite a long time... especially when we gather a few of the others."

"Others?" Obsidian asked, "I've heard that the rest of our siblings were all long deceased... or do you have some way to bring them back as well?"

"Dead? No, I would actually assure you that they are not dead - some still exist, but in shard form. They were dormant for quite some time, then Onyx discovered them, used her ability to manipulate magics to effectively 'copy' their powers for herself, woke Tourmaline, Ruby and Amethyst, and did as she wanted with them. Of course, if my calculations are correct, Onyx may have awoken others as well."

"In fact, I would gauge that, to a degree of 79.79% percent that, with you being active in the world, a number of them will eventually return to living status from their shard-forms. As you were the failsafe, the others are slowly beginning to gather strength again, to face the world around them. Though there are a few who might possibly wish not to follow in Father's hoofsteps, the fact remains that not all of them will be particularly pleasant to deal with."

His expression grew grim. "However, I can reassure you that from what I've witnessed, Onyx herself will not be among them."

Obsidian patted her chin. "That makes sense. You are really well-prepared, and you've planned everything with an almost surgical precision - and I feel that it's worth of the highest praise. Oh, and er... Onyx wouldn't be among them anyway, as the last time I saw her, she was busy experiencing a rather messy death."

"Yes - Thunderclap Dash had a complete and direct view of that happening, and it was considerably gruesome... though, in all honesty, not completely undeserved. Though I may have been the smartest of us, she was the most resourceful, the most ambitious... and the most likely to make mistakes, such as not calculating the chances of her survival of Father's return."

"The idea as I've come to understand it was for him to eventually work his way down the line, as necessary... each of us being an opportunity to reform his body and mind, should he have been defeated so many times. Unfortunately for us, there was a 97.2% chance that each of those returns would have been just as... 'explosive'... as his first one was. Him being sealed away as he currently is actually makes it a miracle for us to survive on."

He then gave a light nod. "And I appreciate the sentiment, but praise never was important to me; only results. And here you are, which proves that result in spades."

Obsidian gave a soft sigh of relief. "I'm glad you seem to fully appreciate our father's final fate; I was afraid you wouldn't approve, and plan to attempt a reverse of the this situation." Obsidian herself could think about a few situations where the restoration of their father could be a good idea... but this situation wasn't one of them.

"However, do you truly believe that your plan of taking over Midnight will work? Equestrians usually find a way to deal with situations like that, sooner or later - even when those enemies are united, as shown to us by Chrysalis, Tirek and... uhm... a-and that small pegasus filly."

"Oh, I have every intention of completeing my possession of the alicorn. And no, I have no designs on freeing our Father..."

Peridot, the humbly meek and vastly intelligent brother, went over to the Crystal Throne and sat down in it, looking at Obsidian once he was settled in.

"... because I am going to conquer Equestria. With the power of an alicorn at my beck and call, I will be able to cast more curses than I was ever able to when I was alive. And those curses will spread far and wide, and will affect every kind of creature on this entire planet... which, then, I will deduce who should live and who should not, and I will make it so."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not much of a secret that I don't like the presence of most indviduals... but by my calculations, if I can reduce the planet's population by 95%, then there would only be a 9.27% chance I would ever have to actually meet with anyone I did not wish to meet with, and we can all live our lives in peace... however we choose that peace to be represented."

What a surprise; it turned out Peridot was too intelligent for his own good, really... and perhaps a touch psychopatic, maybe? Come on now, was Ruby really the only pony in the famiiy that didn't want to murder everypony else around them? Or perhaps her favorite sister wanted it too, but hid it incredibly well?

"That's a very extreme and rather wasteful plan, brother; why does every single sibling of mine seem to love wasting a workforce so much?" she asked, sounding somewhat annoyed.

"Workforce? You misunderstand - we wouldn't NEED one, in a world like I have calculated."

His voice was earnest, sincere, and somewhat pleading as he continued on... not at all the voice of an insane being, which made the words all the more creepier. He sat forward in the throne, as if he were pondering strategy. "If there are so few beings left alive, then there would be no need to deplete the planet's resources by mining it; money would be meaningless, and when divided equally, the remaining work that would be required to live would be minimal... as well as keep our bodies in shape. Anything we could want, we can just have, because there would be no more demand for anything at all."

He looked toward Obsidian, yet again, not AT her. "I don't want to destroy them because of some twisted, psychotic passion; I want them gone because I have no need for them in my kingdom. More mouths to feed? More complaints to hear? More wars to fight? If anything, we would be doing our environment a favor by eradicating the drain on natural resources. The world doesn't need so many others doing whatever they want and causing so much trouble; imagine how peaceful the world would be if the total population of sentient beings were reduced to a double-digit sum? We would be able to live easier, simpler, without so many others here to make life difficult."

Well, he had a point. Even a few of them.

Surely a kingdom with no subjects would be pretty easy to manage, and the amount of arguements, conflicts, wars and other unpleasant public things would be greatly reduced. At least until Amy would try to kill Obsidian, or Amber and Diamond would possibly both want the same book and so on. Yes... a dead world, devoid of any life worth living, with nothing to bring any meaningful kind of change, and nothing more than their own companionship - what a Tartarus it would be.

"I think we may have a slight conflict of interests, then... because I would certainly want more ponies around. I don't care about environmental issues or peaceful nations - if anything, it sounds like a soul-crushing, complete and utter application of boredom... and with nopony to see this nature or enjoy this peaceful life, their existence to us would be irrelevant. Even our whims would be meaningless - can you imagine Amethyst just settling on reading books, or perhaps even planting carrots? Or me? I, incidentially, happen to like other ponies... and I'm actually a bit surprised by that, because I've spent most of my life only with our dear father and a few slaves present, which were - let's be honest - merely walking, talking tools."

What worth would anything have? Even their father, as cruel as he was, would hardly enjoy ruling the world with almost nopony to lord over! They could plunder anything, but with nopony to see them even the most beautiful dresses and the greatest riches would be just random scraps of metal and fabric.

Stupid Peridot.

Peridot sat back on the throne and thought for a bit- he didn't seem angry, or rushed, or even concerned. He just pondered her points for a moment, then cleared his throat before speaking again.

"My life, by comparison, has been quite the opposite, Obsidian. I was always surrounded by others, who would argue, push, shove, discourage, mock, yell, beg, connive, waste, yammer, steal, lie, cheat, parade, cry, scream... and I do not enjoy it. All the sheer senselessness of being forced to live among so much noise, from every direction, pounding into my skull... I felt as though the Libratorium was the only refuge I had against them all, and even THAT was packed with other beings at times. There was nowhere to hide from the deluge of others just being alive."

Now, he began to tremble a bit, but the look on his muzzle wasn't one of anger; it was nervous fear.

"ALWAYS talking. ALWAYS laughing. ALWAYS making so much of a din that I couldn't sleep at night. OR in the daytime. So much... much... to deal with, and no end in sight for me at all. How was I supposed to live in a world that was always grating at me? Making me feel like each spoken word, each hoofstep, each existence was driving needles into my skull?"

He sighed. "Do you know why they tore me apart in front of the Delvar Libratorium? Hmmm? Because I dared to speak my mind. I dared to tell them they were overcrowding myself and my family, and that we would be better off if they were all dead. For the sakes of their foal's futures, for the sake of the planet, for the sake of HARMONY... they would all have been better off as fertilizer for plantlife to grow from, rather than continuing thier own warlike and sorrow-filled existences and passing that misery down from generation to generation."

"Tell me, Obsidian," he said, "did you ever feel that? The press of others around you? The helplessness of just being in a sea of beings, with no safe metaphysical dock in sight? Have you ever felt the needles in your head?"

Oh yes, of course - and Amy's stories about going around villages, cursing others and perhaps experimenting on slaves and so on were just a fairy tale, right? Amethyst just wanted to tell her a Bedtime Story before meeting with Luna! What a damned good sister she was!

"I like this sea of beings, Peri. What really makes you think that this silent world of yours would be silent enough? That, sooner or later, you wouldn't regret keeping us, your siblings, around? Or perhaps keeping so many animals, that can roar, sing, cry and otherwise mess with your perfect, organized life? If anything I've heard from Amethyst and Onyx was true, then you had your fair share in their misery as well. Ponies don't have too many wars, last I checked. The most misery I've seen came from our own family, trying to hurt others for their selfish gains. And I'll try to ignore that part about their foal's futures because, come on... there would be no foals if everypony was dead!"

Peridot was insane and his logic was illogical. All of his bright mind was wasted on sheer lunacy, it seemed; what a shame...

"In fact, if everything bothers you so much, why do you insist so much on living?" It wasn't urging him to commit suicide or such nonsense; she was truly curious what excuse he might have for sticking around long after he was supposed to be deceased.

He listened to every word she had to say, his unknowable mind active behind those glasses as he did. When she finished, he closed those eyes and gave a large, slow and sad sigh.

"I never said I didn't cause my share of misery, no - but it's negligible when it's done to those who aren't imprtant to me. I think that will end up being the reason we'll end up fighting each other, Obsidian... the presence of others never bothered you the way it did for me."

"I set my curses on them because there were too many for me to deal with, mentally. Each time I released a life from this world, it was one less disturbance I had to endure, one less being to cause trouble, one less hassle to deal with, one less needle in my brain. And the more of them that died, the better things got for my peace of mind. You don't understand, and... and I'm afraid you never will. In fact, I'd give it a 77.4% chance you're contemplating how to put a stop to me right now."

His eyes opened, and he cast a longing glance out of a nearby window. "The living world is... it's incredible. So much to learn, so many things to see... it's the biggest classroom that ever existed. And it's FULL of classmates who just don't care... and don't care to give you a chance to learn for yourself, either. Certainly, I committed myself to learning, but... but it's hard to focus when the shrieking din of existence is screaming in your mind the entire time."

"If I felt guilty for doing the things I've done, I cant recall it - I always enjoyed making certain that there were fewer living beings around to cause me such grief, and among my siblings, Amethyst seemed to empathize with that mentality the most. Did you know we used to go out and slaughter villages and townships, simply because it was something that helped me deal with the actual, physical pain that others caused me, just by being alive? She called it 'dating', which was cute... but it was always about the body count, to her. Myself? I just wanted peace and quiet, and there was no other way to get it than getting rid of those who made it so awful in the first place."

"Obsidian, I don't want us to be enemies... but I calculate a 98.68% chance that, if you didn't have any issues with me otherwise, you would have them once I inform you that your friends who are infected will not be spared. I won't retract my curse, and I plan to put an end to each life that takes it up. That will include those who you know that have caught it. For what will inevitably be your anger and resistance, I am sorry."

He didn't sound angry, or insane, or even slightly miffed... if anything, his voice held a resigned sorrow to it, as well as what sounded like centuries of exhaustion.

His math was wrong - there was more like a 98% chance she was contemplating how to put stop to him... which rose to 100% as soon as he mentioned not being willing to retract his curse. She could agree with him that the world was incredible, and that there was plenty of things to learn. Bah, she'd love to learn with him - but, sadly, he seemed to be pretty firm on insisting to remove everyone she wanted to learn about there. Even if she would be some insane, Dark-Magic abusing mare - like Onyx or Amy during her old days - she would still prefer all those little ponies around her to live, if only to worship her and work for her glory.

There were simply too many differences between her and all of her siblings.

"I'm telling you now - you shall fail, Peridot. Because for all that power and might that may be hidden in that alicorn body, and for all this incredible brain of yours, the world is not only about math and chances - it's full of surprises, mysteries and secrets, and each single pony is a little world unto their own. You will probably spread a lot of chaos and havoc, maybe even raise a pretty impressive body count... but sooner or later, this wonderful world you want to study will stop you. You weren't able to prevent your body from being torn limb from limb, and the mere fact you'll have more power won't change the fact that you are still the same pony - one who sees the wonder of Life and considers it garbage."

She tried to give him a chance. "Just give up, here and now. I'm sure we'll be able to think up something that won't end with misery, chaos and destruction for everyone around. There are places untouched by pony hoof, there are libraries almost bigger than our father's palace. Are you saying you really can't see a future where you won't have to clean bones away before sitting to read?"

Obsidian knew it wouldn't end well, but she still didn't want to simply give up on her brother... especially with such a brilliant mind at stake! Especially especially as he could still end up murdering plenty of ponies before finally being stopped. Because his ideal stood against everything she wanted, both good and bad.

Peridot sighed again, then slowly stood up. "No. I won't surrender. You should already have understood that when I spoke of what my plans were. But I also understand that you don't feel what I feel. You don't see the way I see. It doesn't hurt you like it does me. So, regardless of whatever arguments may come, I do believe we will never quite see eye to eye on this subject." He looked down. "More's the pity."

Now, he looked back up. "But for what it's worth, it was good to finally meet you... and frankly, if you do manage to best me, then I believe you will have a grand future ahead of you, and I am certain your friends will be happy to have known you. I will not speak ill on that; if you win, you deserve to be happy."

He stood there for a moment, quiet. Then, when he spoke again, she could almost hear his pain. "Obsidian? I will make sure to put both you and Luna out of these dreams safely... but may I ask a single, solitary favor of you before you go? May I... may I have a hug first? I promise you, no tricks, no backstabbing, no treachery; just a single embrace between the sister who has it all, and her brother who wants it all to go away. Would you, please?"

He now looked up at her - actually AT her - and gave the saddest smile she'd ever seen. "I want to remember you like this... not... however things end up afterwards."

"I don't want to fight with you either, brother. We could do so much together..." Obsidian said with a resigned voice as she moved forward to give him the hug he wanted so much. It was obvious that he wouldn't listen to any reason; he was like a foal that got plenty of toys and just wanted to destroy them all, because they were taking up room for the ones he liked more.

Still, she did hug him. Funny... just a few weeks ago she was utterly confused and almost scared to death by her first hug.

He hugged her back; his coat was warm, his hooves were careful, and he gave her a slight nuzzle as he did. "Thank you, Obsidian. I am truly sorry that the world won't stop hurting me long enough to be a better brother to you."

Though it seemed as though he never wanted to let go, he eventualy did, stepped back, and looked down once more. "Please, tell Amethyst that she is still the best date I ever had. And try not to hate me too much... because the world you speak of does sound nice..."

He looked up at her with obvious pain in his sorrowful stare. "... it's just not one I can live in. Farewell, my sister."

With that, Peridot lifted a single hoof, and the Crystal Palace swam and rolled out of focus. It was disconcerting, but not painful. But she could swear she felt a streak of pure misery roll out around her before she lost complete focus, and it wasn't her own.

~>O<~

Author's Note:

Nobody can really know how someone thinks for certain, can they? There are those who might agree with Obsidian, in that Peridot is a psychopath and a monster. There are possibly also those who sympathize with him, even if they don't agree with his methods. The question would be how one chooses to see Peridot, of course.

Next Chapter: Siddy gets an unexpected ally in her quest to stop her brother - one who has some very, er... colorful language. Reader discretion advised.

Comments

[Truthseeker]

I honestly feel really bad for Peridot. He obviously has a mental disorder that was never diagnosed, treated, or healed. I would venture he has a severe form of Asperger's syndrome. If that could be treated, he would be a wonderful person to have around. Obviously he would want to be left alone to do his research, but Obsidian missed an absolute gem of a chance to help him stay his hoof. All she had to do was to appeal to his logic, because it has a flaw, a BIG one. Knowledge for knowledge sake is empty. If knowledge and understanding cannot be USED, there is no point to it.

Peridot does not seem like he WANTS to kill everything, but more like he feels that he HAS to because his illness pains him because of a hypersensitivity to noise, which can be treated. And I will bet that nobody knew about any treatments for sound sensitivity back when he was alive.

I am truly sorry that the world won't stop hurting me long enough to be a better brother to you.

These are not the words of a heartless psychopath. These are the words of someone who has been in pain for so long, he just wants it to end in whatever way possible.

[Reclusive]

" Obsidian? I will make sure to put both you and Luna out of these dreams safely... "

Dammit. For all his number crunching, he sure doesn't seem to notice the fat "99% chance of success if I curse Obsidian into brainmush" cheque.