Shards of the Truth

by Disciple of Chrysalis

Chapter 6: Healing Spell and Ruin

Shard starred at the room in shock, it was absolutely trashed, It looked like someone had thrown a party in a twister. "Why in Tartarus would you keep a room like this?!" she shouted at Nix, who she would be staying with til she could leave. "Hey, its not like your staying in this room" Nix responded in a calm and even tone, it was infuriating to Shard at this point, but she had to be a good guest. "Yes, but I have to clean it, thanks to that damnable chief of yours!" She shouted with every single ounce of vocal venom she could muster and Nix looked her dead in the eye once she said it. "Our chief isn't our choice, whoever is strongest becomes chief" Nix said, still calm as ever.

Shard didn't understand this "Strongest? What does that have to do with leadership?" she asked, her tone totally shifted from earlier. "It has nothing to do with leadership, but that is the way the tribe has always been, the chief must be challenged by an individual in combat and the victor rules" Nix said as if he had recited this hundreds of times and it was no new information. Shard contemplated this, in pony society, the ruler was the child of the King or Queen, or said King or Queen, "A strange form of leadership, but why?" she asked. "Because only the strong can survive, it eliminates weakness and keeps us living another day" he said and left the room, indicating the conversation was over and that Shard should start cleaning.

Shard grumbled, she had learned that when she said 'Treat me like one of your own', she had unwillingly turned herself into a maid because the females of the Umbra Tribe had to preform the domestic chores while the males did all the heavy work outside. She used her magic to move trash outside and picked up dirty cloaks for washing. She knew how to wash clothes because Shard's nursemaid had taught her in this type of instance. She was favoring her other three legs because of her broken leg, it was difficult, but she didn't complain, didn't surrender, and most of all, didn't go down.

She was limping under the weight of her body combined with that of the cloaks, so she toke some of the strain on with magic, even though it turned into more of a mental strain. but it wasn't as bad. She founder her way to the laundry room and saw a tub of water and a wash board, so she set to her task. She ran the cloak across the board in the water, and was being careful not to get the gauze on her leg wet.

~Twenty or So Minutes Later~

Shard finished placing the clothes on the wire, she really did hate doing this, but she, as always, didn't get a choice in the matter. She left the room and saw that night had fallen, she looked at the moon and remembered when Luna had saved her and that refueled her determination to get her leg healed and to get out of here. She thought, maybe I could use a healing spell, but she quickly thought against it, it would drain her energy to the point of it taking five days to a week to heal, but it didn't take that much energy to clean this small hut anyway. These thoughts clashed in her head and they made her dizzy to the point of near collapse, but thankfully, Nix appeared, maybe to check on her and he saw her about to fall over. He rushed over and just as she began to fall, he caught her and pulled her up.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his voice full of concern and Shard just nodded, to mentally conflicted by the healing spell debate going on in her head. Shard stood, all the dizziness gone now because she thought she could just figure it out in the morning and she just needed sleep. "Where exactly will I be sleeping?" Shard asked Nix who was a few paces away, he seemed concerned for her right now and slightly nervous "You... You'll be sleeping with me because there are no other beds" He said, sounding incredibly nervous. Shard starred wide eyed, but only for a second til she returned to a tired expression "That shall be fine" Shard said and returned to the room she had clean previously, it was still clean, but there was one new dirty cloak on the ground.

Shard climbed into the rather large bed and crawled under the sheet, it wasn't a few moments later she felt the bed shift and Nix climb into the bed. Due to his large size, he filled the bed rather well and Shard could feel his legs in her back, but she really didn't care. "Um, I hope this isn't awkward for you" Nix said, but Shard didn't respond because she was alrady fast asleep.

~Shard's Dream~

Shard flew over the tundra, but she wasn't using her wings, She was a white cloud like her father's black cloud form. She looked down and saw ruins, they appeared like simple huts and tents and she recognized by the way they looked who made them, Reindeer, but there were no Reindeer in sight and thats when Shard saw it. There were a large group of Reindeer farther away from the village, all of them were males and they were fighting other Reindeer with gray fur and skinnier antlers and they opposing force had both genders among their ranks and that gave them the advantage of numbers over those Shard identified as the Umbra Tribe.

The battle grew bloodier and bloodier until there was only one member of the Umbra Tribe ahead, it was Tarandrus, but he was brought down by a larger Reindeer. She wanted to look away, but her dream self was unable to and Shard saw the enemy force running towards the village, but the worst part of the sight was that a little reindeer child stuck his head out of a tent and was unable to see the enemy force over the ridge, but he could hear something, the hoofbeats of the enemy. The Calf ran out of the tent and clearly thinking the ones approaching were their own people, began to shout "We won, they return now!".

Shard saw the Reindeer leave their huts, most were female, but there were some males that appeared sickly, exit the tents and huts and begin to cheer at their victory, until the enemy broke over the ridge and began to invade the village. Shard wanted to go down and help, but she couldn't move, meanwhile below, the enemy were in the village now, killing the children, the sickly males, some of the females, and some of the enemy even began, much to Shard's utter disgust and dismay, rape some of the females. Shard felt herself moving away from the slaughter and rape and towards a distant pine forest, the trees covered in snow.

Shard's cloud form moved through the branches and towards the ground and when she touched the ground, she reformed into her solid form. She was free to move now, but she couldn't leave the medium sized clearing she was in and ahead, she saw something exit the trees. It was a shape she was familiar with and had seen only once before when she had been saved from her father, Princess Luna. Luna closed the distance between them and stood before her, they were of similar height, give or take a few inches for Shard and Luna also had her beautiful flowing mane and tail. "Luna, whats happening, Te Umbra Tr-" Luna cut Shard off, and Shard somehow felt better being in the presence of this god-like mare.

"Shard, I understand your confusion, but I am trying to help you so please listen" Luna said, Shard had always heard that Luna spoke almost exclusively in the royal canterlot voice and used the traditional We, but she didn't, which concerned Shard. "The Umbra Tribe is technically on Equestrian soil and thats how I was able to reach you and its one of my jobs to protect all Equestrian citizens, even those not equine" Luna said in a soothing voice, it once again put Shard at ease. "But The Umbra Tribe is in great danger from one of their rival tribes who are planning a full scale invasion and thats why I came to you, you hold the power to stop it and save the Umbra Tribe, I will be in our debt" Luna finished and the word 'Debt' helped make the news Shard had just received less awful.

"But, what exactly can I do?" Shard asked, but Luna shook her head "You shall know when the time comes" Luna said "And I shall give you a hoof in your quest" and Luna's horn began to glow and Shard's gauze covered leg began to glow. The gauze magically uncoiled itself and in a long string, flowing into her leg and Shard realized that Luna had just healed her. When the spell was complete, Shard tested the leg and it felt better then ever "Thank You, Princess of the Night" Shard said and looked up from her leg to Luna, who had disappeared and Shard's vision of things to come if her quest wasn't complete melted away and Shard slept on for that night, dreamless.