Kiss of the Dark Pt.2

Chapter 4

To say the silence was heavy, following Twilight’s description of just how she had gotten her meager charge of Dark Magic and her second kill immediately afterwards, simply wouldn’t do it justice.

And yet, there was simply no good way to break it. Sombra attempted all the same.

“Well. I have had to do many things… before, but to think you had to do them too, so soon… I had hoped I would be able to shield you from this. At least for a little while.” Twilight’s lip was trembling.

“I never thought… I mean, my life was going so well, I had never thought I would have had to… I know Gryphons and such hunt, but this wasn’t anything like that, I can’t… I can’t even…” She choked off, sobbing. Sombra had taken a seat a short distance away from her, facing her in the bottom of the cave. He couldn’t let her go on like this, he knew that, he was supposed to comfort her, but how?

“Twilight? …Would you like a hug?” It was a tiny thing, but he remembered hugging. Buried in some part of his brain, he could remember being hugged at some point. Even a thousand years and some days spent dead, he could remember hugging, and that it was comforting. He could only hope Twilight thought so too.

She looked back at him, surprised, and almost looked like she would say no… But then she nodded, and scooted closer, until she was hugging him with all her might, like a giant stuffed toy. Awkwardly, Sombra returned the best he could, being as he was slightly out of practice. Twilight’s sniffles slowed, and stopped, and she pulled her hooves back. Sombra only kept his around her a few seconds longer, but they eventually pulled completely apart.

Twilight looked oddly embarrassed now. “Right. Right. Okay. We need a plan.”

“That we do. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m… I’m fine. Come on, let’s put our heads together. We’re a couple of geniuses, I’m pretty sure we can come up with something. What’s our ultimate goal?”

“Well, I would have said revenge against Canterlot, or Princess Celestia specifically, but I know you’re close…”

“No. No, revenge sounds good about now. She killed you. I’m not gonna let that pass. But I did say ultimate goal. What about you? What was your plan a thousand years ago? ‘First the Crystal Empire, and then the world?’”

“Hm. Perhaps eventually. I was more obsessed with power than anything else. Thinking about it now, I really hadn’t planned much further than the Crystal Empire.”

“Well, control of the continent sounds good, at least for now. That means Equestria, the Gryphon Empire, Saddle Arabia, all of it.”

“A lofty goal, my Queen. And how shall we accomplish this?” He could’ve said anything else, but there was a spark in her eyes now. A little prodding, and it would be an inferno, one that would dominate all in it’s way. She was on a roll, and he wanted to see just where she’d roll to.

“Alright. So… We’re near the top of Dragonsbreath mountain. Ponyville is just a ways to the west, almost midway between here and Canterhorn mountain.”

“And we should attack there first?”

“Attack?! No! No, we… No. Maybe invade, certainly, but not attack. I’m not sure I could do with Ponyville being destroyed.” She paused. “All the same though… Attacking that close, and that obviously… Celestia would roll over us in moments. If we do invade, it would have to be stealthily, so much so that almost nopony would notice. We could only afford to be noticed after we had accumulated a strong standing force, one that could resist an attack from Canterlot, maybe even take it outright.”

“Apologies, but could you clarify? Are we, or are we not attacking, pardon, invading Ponyville?”

“Infiltrating! We’ll be infiltrating, nothing else. Only to the extent that we can go get my friends.” That wasn’t quite where he’d thought she would roll to.

“Your friends?”

“Yes, my friends. I think… I think I could convince them to join us.” Now he was downright skeptical.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea…”

“Sombra, they’re my friends. I’ve sent friendship reports. One of those was about trusting them and their choices, and they learned that just as much as me. I know they’re my friends, so they’ll accept you! Right!?” Her hair was curling, like she had accumulated massive amounts of static electricity, and her teeth were making a downright disconcerting grinding noise.

“My Queen… Perhaps there are certain situations wherein those reports are not applicable?”

“That’s crazy talk! I wrote those reports, and Celestia liked them, so that means they must be right! They’re always right!”

“Twilight. Remember who has made themselves our greatest foe. I’m not disagreeing with you, merely stating…” Oh dear, he was probably going to regret this. “…It is a workable plan. But we must plan it out. How shall we reach Ponyville? I’m sure with most of Equestria on high alert, we can hardly approach, even under cover of night.”

Thankfully, she had seemed to become a little less… manic. “Right. And they’ll be watching for magic. So we can’t just mist in. We’ll be walking, and we’ll be doing so down this mountain, which is almost guaranteed to turn us into outright targets for predators, like that Mountain Lion.”

“And the Everfree, close as it huddles to Ponyville, is off-limits for the exact same reasons.” This gave Twilight pause.

“I thought it was fine a week ago. What do you mean?”

Sombra bit his lip. “I have not had much time to study it, but something about my presence alone seemed to agitate it. Such was one of the reasons I deigned to construct my castle north, in the mountains. It is a place where, I believe, chaos magic of some sort has been allowed to take root, and settle into an anachronistic rhythm. Controlled chaos.”

Twilight blinked at him. “I knew it was weird, but I didn’t know it was that weird… Chaotic how?”

“Like… It was designed, originally, for a goal, and it was given power, but it lost sight of what that goal was in the process. It felt it needed to defend itself from my presence, and it roused an Ursa Major to do so.”

He fidgeted nervously. Ursas were dangerous when he was at full strength, and fighting it then had been out of the question. He had been forced to run, leaving a half-mile of destroyed jungle in his wake. And it had been angry with him, like it knew of dark magic, and wished to destroy it.

“Crap. I don’t think I could take an Ursa myself… Although… Can you imagine how much power, how much magic we could probably siphon from it?”

“Let’s… hold off on that idea for now.”

“Spoilsport. Alright, approaching on ground, broad daylight, or through the Everfree is out of the question. What about aerial? I have wings.”

“ I do not, and they will likely be watching the sky.”

“Fuck. You’re right. Then what in Tartarus are we left with?” She blinked again, and turned towards him. “Could we-“

“No. I’m sorry, but trust me on this one. Nothing from Tartarus. Such is a canister of worms that none should ever open.”

“But I know Cerberus, and I haven’t any better idea…”

“Trust me, Twilight. No breaking into Tartarus.”

“Fine. Teleporting?”

“That would be like sending up a flare at both ends.”

“Dammit!” She stood, and Sombra could swear he saw smoke curling up from her nostrils. “Dammit!” Her horn was glowing now, and Sombra shifted ever so slightly out of her immediate line of fire. “DAMMIT!” And then, lacking any other target, she released the bolt of magic directly at the cluster of rocks, the only other formation of note in the cave.

With an earsplitting crack, like a hammer a mile long had flattened a mountain, the rocks imploded, scattering gravel across the cave… and revealing a hole behind where the cluster had been. Twilight stopped, staring at what had to have been the outlet for what had previously been an underground lake. “…Dammit?”

Sombra stood, and trotted past the stunned Alicorn, to the hole. Poking his head inside, he inspected the slope, the height, the width, and potential light sources. There was the sound of approaching hooves, and Twilight was next to him.

“Hmm. Twilight, I would assume this cave leads down to ground level, perhaps below. If it’s part of a series of caves, some of those volcanic in nature, it may take us underneath Ponyville.”

“And we’d have our way in.”

“Indeed.”

The cave sloped downwards at an angle that, while not impossible to traverse, was by all definitions precarious by the light of their horns. They had to watch their step most of the way, and in several places where it made hard turns underneath itself when met with a vein of ore, the had to lower each other down gently with their magic.

“If we intend to make this our base of operations, one of the many renovations we shall have to make is adding stairs to this passage.”

“That reminds me actually, what is up with all the stairs (snrk) in all of your castles?”

“Two reasons, Twilight. First, elevators had not been invented yet. Second, no army, no matter how well-trained or disciplined, is going to be in any condition to fight after marching up sixty flights of stairs. And that is if we do not pick them off on the way up.”

“Clever. So you want to make this more easily-accessible, but also much harder?”

“Correct. At least the first part will not be hard. This tunnel is wide enough for a pony twice my height to move around freely, if they do not mind a lack of horizontal movement.”

“Actually, that’s a good point. Surely the river couldn’t have carved this out?”

“And these rocks are jagged, not smooth. Curious.”

“It’s almost like somepony carved out a much a smaller tunnel, so they could get at-“ And then a sound reached her ears, one that made them both get quiet very quickly.

Singing.

More specifically, really bad singing.

Silently, Sombra crept forward, motioning for Twilight to follow. By this point, the tunnels’ slope had mostly flattened out, and had essentially become a corridor. Albeit a particularly natural one. He poked his around one last corridor, and was rewarded with the sight of a tunnel junction, with one of the walls being mined by… Something. Whatever it was, it was a terrible singer.

“Diggy diggy hole…”

“Twilight…” He hissed, just loud enough for her to hear. “What is that creature?” She crept past him, glancing around the corner.

“Hey, it’s a Diamond Dog! We went into their cave systems before, my friends and I, to rescue Rarity! The tunnels must extend under this mountain, I bet to try and steal the Dragon’s hoard really stealthily…” She glanced again. “Looks like it’s just the one. We can take him down, and follow these all the way to Ponyville if we need to.” Sombra nodded, and as one, they began creeping down the tunnel, their already-silent hoofsteps masked by the awful singing.

“Oh, I am a Dog and I’m digging a hole! Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole!” Entering the junction, which was round, with tunnels splitting off in every direction, Sombra kept an eye out for any other Dogs. Twilight was only a few hooves behind the Dog when she felt the ground shake.

Thinking fast, she picked the Dog up in her magic, holding him just far enough above her that he couldn’t reach her with his pickaxe. Only a split second later, the ground exploded all around them, as six Diamond Dogs emerged holding swords and shields. Another half-dozen dropped in from inside the ceiling, and Two wearing much heavier armor popped out directly underneath her and Sombra.

Sombra was grabbed around his barrel, and the Diamond Dog retreated downwards, slamming him onto the cave floor. Such was enough to knock him dizzy and unable to cast anything. Twilight, on the other hoof, now had a hostage. “Stay back! I’ll kill him, don’t think I won’t! Where’s your leader?!”

A tense moment passed, wherein all the armored Dogs glanced at each other. Then a voice, like a high-pitched growl, came from one of the side tunnels.

“So! Pony returns! And she brings friend! Which we told her explicitly to do neither of!” The voice could belong to none other, then… whatever that smaller Diamond Dog’s name had been. Come to think of it, they hadn’t actually asked at any point before. He emerged, flanked by the other two dogs, and crossed his arms while leaning against a cave wall.

“And I apologize. However, we need passage through these tunnels-“

“Diamond Dog tunnels not personal highway! What right do Ponies have to use Dog tunnels like? After threatening pack member?” Sombra spoke up from his position on the floor, having regained his breath.

“Perhaps we can discuss a trade?”

“Fine! Ponies drop Honeydew, and leave way they came.”

“That’s not a trade!”

“In exchange, we do not kill Ponies for trespassing, again!”

“You bipedal tunnel rats couldn’t-“ Sombra began, before Twilight interrupted him.

“Sombra! You can grow crystals, right?”

“Crystals? Dogs have crystals. What else?”

Sombra caught on quickly. “Not just any crystals. Have you ever acquired… Dark Crystals?” The Dog arched a dirty eyebrow.

“What Dark Crystals? Tunnels already plenty dark.”

“Can you construct anything out of your own crystals?”

“No. Crystals fragile. Not good materials.”

“These ones are.”

“Dogs not believe you. Leave now.”

“I can prove it, but you will have to let me up.” The Dog gritted his teeth as his brain chugged along, and growled.

“Grrrrrg… Fine. Steel-toe, let black Pony up.”

“And move your goons back!” Twilight shouted, waving the dog around in her levitation. He was beginning to look slightly sick.

“Pushing it, Pony. Dogs! Back six paces!” The twelve dogs surrounding them moved as one, retreating back exactly six paces. Sombra found himself released, and stood, searching the tunnel. There were a few patches of lichen, just enough for what he needed. His magic reached out, bleeding the life from the organism, and giving him a few sparks of dark magic. The aura would provide the rest.

“Name something you’d build. Something simple, I don’t have much at the moment.”

“Hm. Pickaxe.” Sombra nodded, and went about forming the magic into a crystalline form, which he then grew into the rough shape of a pickaxe, shaving away fragments to be reused or to be turned back into dark magic. When he was finished a minute later, he had a black, glassy pick, admittedly without any soft angles.

“A pick. Take it, as a gift of our goodwill.” He dropped it into the claws of the nearest Diamond Dog, who examined it. He wiggled the head, which, as it was all one piece, didn’t move. He even gave it a few thumps with his fist for good measure. Satisfied, he looked to the shortest dog.

“It’s stronger than our own attempts.”

“Than give, dolt!” He snatched the dark pick out of the claws of the other dog, and walked to a nearby wall. He gave the pickaxe a swing, and struck it with all his tiny might.

The pick didn’t just impact it. It cleaved through, smashing thirty pounds of solid stone from where it had rested for millennia, and revealing a small vein of coal behind it. The Dog looked down at the pick with awe in his eyes, and turned back to Sombra and Twilight.

“If Ponies can make more of these… Where do Ponies need to go on personal highway?”

Author's Note

About the chapter names and the way they jump around like that? That's intentional, don't worry. Also, would you guys like longer chapters? I mean, I know the answer's invariably going to be yes, but say, 5000ish words, 10,000ish? I could certainly do that, but they'd take a lot longer to write, and I'd probably be stretching the quality pretty thin across the whole thing.
Also, how would you guys say I'm doing on this? I know a lot of you wanted to see this story continue, and have I lived up to your expectations so far?