Knights of Ice and Crystal

by Leila Drake

Chapter 29: To Arms!

"To Arms! Get the defenses ready!" Shining Armor ordered, sending both Captain Coral Spark and his own officers gallopping out of the Throne room. He turned to Cadence and sighed. "Sombra will probably go after the Heart again - or Flurry. Should we stick together or keep both separate from each other?"

"I will not let Flurry Heart out of my sight," said Cadence coolly. "But we could do what the Elements of Harmony once tried and create a decoy for Sombra to find. As long as the Heart remains in the Palace I can redirect its power to the Heart's chamber. Sombra will think it's still there and we can hide it somewhere else to win us some time."

"But you will need to keep the Heart close for your magic to work," said Shining. "Sombra can follow the stream of magic. And if he gets to you he has both possible targets in hoof's reach."

"Let him try." Cadence set her chin, holding Flurry Heart to her chest. The baby babbled, unable to comprehend what the big ponies were talking about. "The Elements of Harmony are still a train ride away," she sighed. "Twilight could teleport here but not with six other people in her tow, not over this distance. They can be here in four and a half hours."

"We still have the Alicorn of Love," Shining said with a reassuring smile. "We will defeat him before he can steal the Heart again."

---

Eclipse was tired. His parents had told both him and Peridot to stay in their room.

"Sombra is back," White had said, "and he has his powers again. You are not going anywhere until we know the streets are safe again."

Now they were supposed to sleep. But there was such a ruckus on the streets that they could not shut their eyes. Guards kept running up and down the paved roads, ponies barred their doors, some even nailed their windows shut which felt like an excessive and pointless precaution to Eclipse.

"You know what the weird thing is, Peridot?" Eclipse said, looking up from his history book.

"Hm?"

"I have the same powers as Sombra, right?" Eclipse said with his eyes on the ceiling. A few stars were glued to the areas above both of their beds, cut from the dried leaves of a bioluminescent tree. He squinted his eyes; the faintly glowing dots doubled.

"Yeah." Peridot sat up, pushing her blanket away. "Sooo... what?"

"I had the chance to train with my powers. Sombra didn't do anything obvious since his resurrection - until today. How can he be so strong that everypony's going crazy about it?"

"Well..." Peridot turned until she was lying on her belly. "One, he is super powerful in the first place. And he's much older, he could have trained back when he was preparing for his first reign. And three, he is evil. He wants to steal the Crystal Heart again, everypony knows about that. So even if he was only as strong as you it would be a big problem."

Eclipse rubbed his chin, nodding slowly.

"Okay. Thanks, I guess." There was a minute of silence. "Peridot?"

"Yes?"

"Do you believe what Darren said? That there's a pony ghost watching over me?"

"I... I dunno. I think he meant it as a metaphor. Like, the ancestors are looking out for you, that kind of thing," Peridot said quietly.

"Yeah. I mean, ghosts aren't real. Right?"

"Exactly." Peridot turned around with a tired grunt and mumbled, "We should really try to sleep. Good night, Eclipse."

"Good night." Eclipse exhaled slowly.

He closed his eyes but he was still wide awake. This was so annoying! What was it that kept him from calming down? It was as if a sinister cloud was constricting his heart. He was nervous, he was upset without knowing why. His stomach cramped as Eclipse realized that he could feel the dark magic of Sombra apporaching. There was some ugly connection between them, like a thorn in his side. He felt tainted, even more than he had felt before his training. Only this time, he knew it was not his own darkness he felt but somepony else's.

Wasn't there anything he could do? Maybe he could look into Sombra's mind like he had done with Darren. Maybe he could stop him if the sheer force of the guards and the royal family did not work. He could show Sombra his own bad memories and then the guards would be able to take him down. That seemed like a good plan.

Eclipse tried to be very quiet and listened. Peridot was already snoring. Perfect.

He pushed the blanket aside and slid off the mattress. He slowly, slowly pulled his treasure box out from beneath the bed. Then, he emptied his red pair of saddlebags. The school books, the pencil case and his sports towel were all useful to create a bump under his blanket. Eclipse added a scarf and coat for good measure. Now it looked as if he was still sleeping in his bed.

Moving as fast as he could without making any suspicious noise, he packed the saddlebags with his red notebook and his new mana potions. After a moment of consideration, Eclipse wrapped the potions into another scarf. He did not want the glass vials to get crushed or clink around when he was walking. Eclipse put the saddlebags on and took his wooden shield. Now he was ready.

But how should he get outside without his parents noticing? If he opened the bedroom window, Peridot might awaken. Then he had an idea. The bathroom had a window, too. It was small but not too small for a colt.

Eclipse did not remember the hedge below the bathroom window to be so... edgy. It did not have thorns but that was the only redeeming thing which could be said about it. The thin, gnarled branches cut his barrel and legs in a few places. Gritting his teeth, Eclipse rolled off the shrub and brushed some leaves off his coat. At least he had been able to slow his fall by stretching his wings. A pity he could not yet fly properly, that would have come in useful. But for the first time in his life, Eclipse was genuinely happy that he had a dark grey coat and a black mane. He picked his shield from the ground and disappeared into the shadows as if he had practiced it.

---

"Darren!"

"Ow!" Darren hit his elbow on the sink, turning around to face the unexpected visitor.

"Oh, sorry, sorry! Are you okay?" Levinia grimaced, rubbing her hoofs against each other in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine," Darren grunted, rubbing his hurting arm and lowering the towel he had been holding. "But it's late. What's wrong?"

"Eclipse is on the streets!" Levinia cried. "He snuck outside just a minute ago."

"Shit!" Darren put his socks and shirt back on in a hurry. "Why?" he asked, reaching for his boots.

"I don't know. But he packed his mana potions, notebook and shield. And he went in the direction of the castle. I think he wants to face Sombra on his own!"

Darren closed his eyes for a moment. If Levinia had been alive, she would have felt very cold; ice flowers formed on the window glass and the water in the sink hardened into a solid block.

"That kid is getting ahead of himself. Probably thinks he can stand a chance now that he's got moderate control over his powers." Darren kept cursing under his breath and grabbed his sword belt. Securing the weapon on his back, he said, "Thank you for telling me. Please go to the Princess and Captains and tell them as well."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Levinia asked, annoyed. "I'm a ghost, remember? Nopony except you ex-undead humans and Mara can see me!"

"Write a note, move some objects... hell, breathe on a window and leave a message on the glass. Never tried to get creative?" Darren snarked, opening the door.

"I'll think of something." Levinia growled, throwing an angry glance at Darren.

Darren hesitated, his hand on the handle. He sighed and looked back at the ghost, regret etched into his face.

"Sorry," he said.

Levinia smiled with her eyes. "I know. You're worried, I get that. Eclipse might be getting himself into grave danger."

"Yes."

"Go ahead, find him and save him before he does anything stupid," Levinia said softly.

Darren nodded, giving her a brief smile.

"And, Darren? Please don't die."

"I'll do my best." Darren shut the door and ran down the hallway while Levinia disappeared in a flash of blue light.

---

"Sh, sh, sh," Cadence tried to calm down Flurry heart. Holding the foal in her magic, she conjured a plush pony and gave it to her daughter to play with. "Flurry is upset, she can feel the tension," she explained apologetically.

"That is to be expected." Captain Coral Spark raised an eyebrow and adjusted the grip on his glaive.

"But if Sombra is close," added a pegasus guard called Flash Sentry, "he would probably feel her magic anyway so a little noise won't make any difference."

The two dozen guards that surrounded them shuffled around uneasily. An eerie, cold wind blew through the throne room. Flurry whimpered and held her plush pony tightly. The cold wind came closer. Cadence could tell where it was by the shiver that made its way through the guards.

Suddenly, one of them lost his weapon - but not the way that somepony lost something when they stumbled. The wind wrung it from his hooves. When he let go, he staggered backwards to regain his balance. He gasped as the halberd rose into the air.

"Who are you? Sombra?!" shouted Cadence, hugging her daughter tightly and lighting her horn - like the Captain and all the other unicorns. Her beautiful curly mane swept around her as she frantically turned her head. "Show yourself!"

The halberd rattled, then spun around and floated to the ground with its tip first. With a terrible screech, it scratched at the crystal floor.

Then, it stopped, clattered and was still. The air remained cold but the chilly spot did not move anymore.

Cadence lowered her hooves from her ears and stepped closer to the lines.

"'Save Eclipse,'" read Spark aloud. "Wait, isn't that -?"

His guard yelped. He had stretched out his hoof to pick up the glaive when it moved once again. It poked at the ground as if to say, "here," then rose above their heads and pointed east.

There was a moment of silence. The guards all looked at their princess, waiting for her decision.

"Split up," Cadence ordered her guards. "There is a little grey colt sneaking around the castle and he needs our help. And don't make the mistake to confuse him with Sombra. The colt is a pegasus with blue eyes. If he uses his powers, try to appear non-threatening and you will be fine. Just tell him that I sent you and that you are not going to arrest him but help him. And please don't arrest him, Captain. You'll thank me later."

Captain Spark saluted, his brow furrowing.

"Ma'am, just to be clear, what powers are we talking?"

Cadence smiled humourlessly, hugging Flurry Heart closer. "Shadow powers."

---

There were a few advantages of being undead. One of them was that you did not breathe. Thus, you could not run out of breath. But on the other hand, Darren reflected as he leaned against a fence and held his side, you needed to make sure you did not lose any body parts along the way. He liked his current condition better. At least he knew where all of his entrails were.

He cleared his throat and looked ahead. There, only one more block and then he could argue with some guards that he really, really needed to see the Princess even though she was extremely busy defending her castle. He would have to do his best Paladin impression.

---

Indigo Blaze could not believe it. The best pony in his squad kept fidgeting around like a newbie. He tried not to show it but Blaze had known Abs for long enough to recognize when the stallion was shaken. He walked over to the armed guard and poked his side.

"Dude, what the hay is going on?"

Abs twitched, something Blaze had only seen him do four times during his service.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Blaze asked in a low voice.

"Yeah." Abs nodded, shifting around on the spot. "I really do. He fucking broke my home from the inside out. You should see my son, he's..." He angrily chewed on his tongue. "Sombra will not get away with this."

"Alright," said Blaze, frowning, "but make sure to keep your emotions in check. That's an order."

"Yessir." Abs straightened up even more and fixed his eyes on the Crystal Heart that slowly rotated before them.

A few steps away, Shining Armor was in a hushed conversation with Sunburst. They talked quickly and Blaze could not make out what they were saying.

Everypony shivered as a gust of cold wind brushed past them.

---

A tiny cloud of shadow, barely more than a whiff of darkness, slid through a castle window. The shade dropped to the carpeted floor of a hallway and twisted around itself. It grew and grew until it had the size and shape of a pegasus colt.

"Whoa," said Eclipse, rubbing his foreleg. That had felt weird. He had not expected it to be this easy to turn to shadow completely. His legs and ears were itching all over and a funny feeling of power had taken hold of him. Eclipse felt for his saddlebags and shield - they were still with him, right where they belonged.

Now he was inside the castle. He had never been in this wing so he had no idea where to head next. How was he supposed to find Sombra? He thought about that for a moment. Sombra would probably want to steal the Crystal Heart again. Or he would want to destroy it, which was even worse. So he would go and look for the Heart first. And then he would fight against the Guard. That made sense.

So if Eclipse managed to find the Heart, he would most likely meet Sombra, too. He frowned. He could still feel the vague presence of Sombra's evil magic which was - there was a sharp sting in his gut - so similar to his own. He should just head towards the dark magic and he would find Sombra.

Eclipse swallowed hard, readjusted the grip on his shield and began to run.

---

The castle's portal was heavily guarded - no less than a dozen ponies stood there, four of them unicorns, equipped with crystal wands. These battlemages had the same focused and stern expression as their comrades even though they wore just light robes. Darren remembered faintly that it was easier to enchant cloth because it was organic material. Enchanting iron was rather difficult and only the most experienced smiths of magic were able to do it. Blessing armour and weapons to empower their bearers against the Undead and demons was easy in comparison.

The portal itself was closed and the faint pink shimmer of an arcane barrier discouraged from touching its surface.

Darren slowed down and approached the guards at a hurried but steady pace. He kept his sword sheathed so he would not appear hostile.

The two guards at the front crossed their halberds to block his path.

"No one is allowed to enter the castle," one of them, a stout earth pony, declared.

"My student - is in there, and he wants to - fight Sombra," said Darren, still slightly out of breath. "He's a nine year old colt."

The guard started, then curtly shook his head. "Your student?"

"How would he have gotten in there in the first place?" the other guard, also an earth pony, chimed in. "And wouldn't the Princess know?"

"She probably does by now," Darren said. "I sent someone ahead to warn her. Please, I need to find him before he finds Sombra!" He could not keep the urgency out of his voice.

The first guard shivered a little. "I'm gonna check," he said. "Stay right here." He turned on his heels and cantered towards the portal, then, he started a hushed conversation with one of the mages. The unicorn cast a spell, their eyes closed, and the guard nodded.

Darren tried his best to appear patient. As he struggled to keep a straight face even though every second counted, he reminded himself that striking down the guards would be counterproductive. It would have been so easy to just plough his way through them. Though the sheer number of them would probably be a match even for him. His stomach turned as Darren felt a rising urge to rip the runeblade out of its scabbard - and the guard's heart out of their ribcage. He clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. And another. And another.

The pony before him was well-trained. Darren noticed the drop of sweat running down on her forehead as she tried not to look into eyes of the human that towered over her. Were his eyes aglow with cold magic right now? Darren had no idea.

Quickly, the first guard returned and said, "You may pass. Stairs on the left will lead you to the Heart's Wing."

"Thank you, Sir," said Darren, already running again. "Sorry about the cold!" he called over his shoulder.

The guards shook their barrels and a thin layer of ice sprang off their barding.

"What the hay?" said one of the mages, exchanging a confused look with his neighbour.