Coercion
--—Shards of Hatred ----
---- Chapter XII: Coercion ----
She had to blink away the blood, shining crimson red in the sickening light that was cast from the being before her, which was dripping down from a gash in her forehead just under her horn where a jagged chunk of crystal had whizzed past her. Her gaze drifted away from the terrifying cloud of smoke for a brief moment to rest on the soldier who had been at her side a few seconds before. “Swift Spear?” Despite his name being uttered, said pony did not stir from his place on the broken and cracked tiles, the chunk of black crystal that had been aimed at her now nestled inside the stallion’s ribs.
Without giving the princess proper time to mourn, the cloud began to convulse and twitch, glowing with some sort of sickening mixture of black, green and purple light. At the same time, an echoing laugh issued from the depths of the evil creature, sounding as if boulders were being crushed together. “Oh, look at the Crystal Princess.” Cadence backed away from the cloud as it began to move forward, growing smaller and more condensed until it vaguely resembled a large stallion. “How beautiful you are. I haven’t seen you since you were just a little tiny pony, back when your cousins stole you away from this place for fear that I would have taken power. How right they were, I might add.”
“Sombra! Why are you doing this?”
“Oh come, Princess. Surely you don’t need to ask such a foolish question.” The dark form shook with laughter. “I’m obviously doing this because it is my empire you rule. It’s nothing personal, I assure you.” A pair of eyes appeared from within the smoke, glowing red and green with power, a light of amusement sparking from within them. “Well, perhaps it is a little personal, considering that you were named successor to the throne instead of me. I, Sombra, the general of Emperor Emerald’s armies during the Griffon War was shunted aside from his rightful place on the throne by a mere child.”
The cloud slowly began to drift towards Cadance, stopping only when she sent a bolt of blue magic to singe the ground in warning. With a snort, he erupted in a column of black, which then arced through the air and landed next to the stallion who he had felled with his attack that had been meant for Cadence. “Hm, a pity. I was aiming for you but then he just had to get in the way. Such troublesome things, these crystal ponies.” His hoof reached out to kick the head of Swift Spear, sending the dead pony’s skull into a sickening sort of bob back and forth.
That is, until her second bolt of magic struck true against the side of the cloud, sending it into roar that shook the entire palace to its rooms underground. “Leave him alone!” She snarled the words as she leapt over to where her comrade and old friend had fallen, crouching protectively over the body.
“Oh? This mare has a bit of bite still in her. All the more fun to crush it out later.” He paused for a moment, striking a mocking pose as if to show that he was thinking. “Hmm, I suppose I could let you see me in all of my power, as you will be enslaved to my glorious image it is best that you get used to it. Besides, I do tire of this form.” The light inside the smoke-pony began to swirl faster and grow even brighter until it became as blinding as the sun, at which point Cadence shielded her eyes with a hoof. When the glow had disappeared, she was greeted with a sight that made her stomach churn.
The red and green eyes peered at her with a hungry light in their depths, looking out from behind the metal of the armor that encased the pony they belonged to. Teeth that looked almost as if they had been sharpened into the fangs that they were looked foreign on a pony, locked together in the sort of smile that never reached a pony’s eyes. “Hello, dear Princess. If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking back my empire now.”
“Let me through!” Shining Armor tugged against the magical grips around his hooves, bashing his forehead into the barrier that was erected before him. On any side of him were at least two guards and even at those odds they had to struggle to control him. “I have to get out of here! Now!”
One of the stallions stepped forward with an apologetic look on his face, clearing his throat self-importantly before speaking. “I’m sorry, Captai- er, Prince Armor. We have been ordered to keep you restrained inside of the castle.”
“What?!” The guard that had stepped forward now found himself stepping back in fear from the shout of sheer disbelief that Shining had produced. “On whose orders?!” Silence, apart from the fading echoes of his struggles from before, greeted his question. “Soldier,” Shining Armor began in a deathly quiet voice, “if you don’t tell me who ordered you to keep me here, I will beat you into the ground until you cannot stand for weeks.” Despite the magic holding him in place, he took a threatening step forward and snorted angrily. “Tell. Me. Who. Ordered. You. To. Keep. Me. Here.” He accentuated each of his words with another step forward until the pony who he was addressing was pressed up against the wall with a look of sheer terror on his face in place of the apologetic one from before. “Tell me wh-”
“That would be me, Prince Armor.” A bright flash of golden light caused everypony present to shut their eyes and shield them with a hoof or, in Shining’s case, turn away in a desperate attempt to shut out the light as he couldn’t lift his hooves up past his chest. When it finally stopped blinding him, Shining turned to see his sister’s mentor and his princess, Princess Celestia herself walking towards him. “I would have figured that you would have been of much more patience than that, Shining Armor.”
“Yeah? Well you didn’t just find out that the kingdom where your wife is at has been destroyed while you’re too far away to do a damn thing!” Despite himself, Shining found himself taking a step towards the calm ruler in anger only to find himself facing another several faces of royal guards who were just about ready to lock him in the dungeons.
“What? The Crystal Empire has fallen?” Despite the urgency of the news, the ruler’s voice wasn’t urgent; it was only weary. After pausing for a moment and turning away to gaze out of the window that looked towards where the top of the Crystal Palace could be seen from just over the hills, Celestia let out a sigh before turning back to the guards surrounding Shining Armor. “Release him and return to your posts, I require time alone with Prince Armor.” A few seconds passed before anypony moved, and when somepony did it was the guard that Shining had previously driving up against the wall.
Another self-important throat clearing later, the stallion spoke. “Princess, please, forgive my questioning, but shouldn’t it be better if we accomp-“
“I would like to be alone with Prince Armor.” Celestia directed her glare to the guard that had approached her. “I am sure that I will be able to handle a single unicorn should he want to hurt me, which I am certain that he does not.” Her eyes softened after the pony crouched down in fear, pity flooding through her as she sighed again. “I know that you have the intention of protecting me, my little pony, but I am not without my own power. I do not require an escort at all times, despite what Captain Iron may think.”
A brief silence passed over the room, filling it with tension and indecision that was dispersed only when the group of guards had turned and trotted off, a few of them looking over their shoulders to see if their princess really would be okay with a stallion like Shining. “It’s almost like I wasn’t ever the Captain of the Guard or anything.” The unicorn snorted before directing his attention to the pony who had saved him from a period of dungeon time. “So why did you wan-“ He stopped himself, clamping his teeth down on the semi-sarcastic words that he had been saying when he saw the state that Celestia was in.
She was drooping. Not just a simple slump, but rather the majestic princess was falling to the floor with all of the weight that was pressing onto her back; weight put there by the many different obligations of a ruler. Now that Shining looked, he could also see that her usually white and pristine coat was grubby with dust and even a dark splotchy red in places, as if she had been wounded. “W-w-what happened?” The words left his mouth despite his state of shock and he instantly wanted them back when the pony looked towards him with eyes that shone with a soul that had seen its limit of hardships for an evening.
“I apologize, Shining, but I fear that I will have to speak with you in the morning. It has been… a tiring night.” Suddenly the sun goddess dropped to the floor, her eyes closing and her body crumpling up into a heap upon the floor.
“Princess?!” Before he could take two steps, another voice cut through the room.
“Peace, Shining Armor. She will be well, but my sister requires time to rest.” His head whipped around to see Luna standing only a few feet away, looking down at her sister with concern. “She likes to overexert herself at times. Sometimes it leads to her collapsing.” With a flash of her horn, Celestia disappeared, no doubt sent to her bedchambers with a teleportation spell. “Come, Shining Armor, we have much to discuss together about the events that have transpired tonight.”
“Like stuff besides my kingdom being in danger from Sombra?”
To her credit, the lunar goddess didn’t blink at the sudden news of the Empire to the north being attacked. Instead, she simply sighed and shook her head sadly. “Yes, as these events concern your sister, Twilight Sparkle. Come, I shall tell you in a more private place.” Sweeping past him, Luna began trotting towards a stairway that led further into the castle. “Make haste, Shining Armor, for there is much to tell.”
With a last, desperate look to the window that was directed at the Crystal Empire to the north, Shining Armor began to follow his other former charge down the stairs.
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cool man cool.......
I like it it fits the mood I think.
Read the first chapter and curious to see where you go with it. Liked and faved, 9/10 so far.
But only reason it's not 10 is because I had a bad day, it's no fault of yours.
2425125
1) <If you're sarcastic> Well, the story does have darker elements that dictate a dark tag, e.g. Twilight killing a pony
2) <If you're not> Thanks, I try not to slip into grimdark, though sometimes I find myself deleting whole paragraphs cuz they feel too... Gruesome to me.
2425160 Oh, okay then :)
... It just occurred to me how much Twilight's madness and the dark magic in her head is like the Black Blood in Soul Eater and Crona. It pretty much makes you go batshit insane, like this:
Now, then... ONWARDS!
Unnerving.
Oki doki loki.
As for coverart, I prefered the old one, was the one that got me interested, since twilight looked awesome anger pony. In new one she is damsel in distress locked inside the the cage of hatred or something, which is really boring and cliche IMO.
Oh poor Swift Spear
For the cover art, I prefer the old one. Twilight looks cool and awesome there. Here, she looks meh and doesn't really fit the title all that much.
2426879 But it kinda fits the mood of the story IMO
2426892
Maybe
but I dunno, I just prefer the old one. A little less... spoilerish(?) with a bit of awesomeness attached to it that attracts the crowd? This new one kindda already summarizes that Twilight will lose to the shard, but I dunno, prolly just me and my bad taste in art 
2426892
I agree. Honestly I prefer the new cover art. It fits the story better.
2425327
ches is the only similarity. I was honestly thinking of putting how the two scenarios were rather similar, but then I noticed that the differences are two large.
Although the effects are somewhat similar, there are major differences between the two. For example, Twilight can still feel both fear and pain, and Dark Twilight has no desire to have her tongue cut off. In other words, she is still (somewhat) sane, and is still (mostly) reasonable. However, the fact that they both turned into sadistic b
Also, do you know any good soul eater crossovers? The only one that I have found is called something like "Soul Eater: Soul Goes to Equestria?". I think that's the title, anyway.
2427135I mean they are both morphed to the point of insanity and gain dark powers... Whatever.
(heavy)is good
better then the last one
I think I preferred the last coverart. Seems to fit what's happened to Twilight better - she's not helplessly imprisoned by the dark magic, but being actively controlled/corrupted by it. Twilight in the old art looks capable of dueling her lifelong mentor, Twilight in the new one just looks sad.
This... chapter... was... AWESOME!~
Well, my parents left this up overnight and now I've been online forever!
great chapter!
i like the new cover art.
Cover art is nice. I like it
It's not bad coverart, I just prefer the first one more.
Just finished chapter 12. I will say each chapter seemed to get progressively better. It's a great plot idea, and you're handling everything really well, but I still get the impression you're steam rolling through the plot. Oh well, I anxiously await chapter 13.
edit: oh... and if there was ever a time to link a youtube vid to a comment of a fic, it would be now.
Tell me this doesn't belong in the comments section of this fic:
I can see why Sombra would hate Cadence so much...
Wow! Shining Armor's really in a hurry to get home, huh?
Celestia could use a break every once in a while.