Kiss of the Dark Pt.2

Chapter 8

Another book flew off the shelf. Captain Shining Armor checked the title, flicked through it for a second, and then dumped it onto the reshelving pile, conveniently placed on the reshelving cart. He had been at this for the past four hours, and they had not made any progress whatsoever. He was in the process of flicking through yet another book (A reference guide to carnivorous plants that used all the different forms of mind control to lure prey) when Cadance approached, sparing a glance at the nearly-overloaded cart next to him.

“You know, when Twilight comes back, she’s going to have an out-and-out conniption when she sees the state of her personal library.”

Shining scoffed. “Nah. Reshelving’s what she does when she gets bored. Spike once told me she did it six times in one day, just because she didn’t have anything better to do. It wouldn’t be as bad if she didn’t seem to have a vendetta against the Dewey Decimal system.”

“Still, don’t you think we should at least try to keep them in order?”

Shining hugged his wife, the book on carnivorous plants dropping into the pile as he motioned around them. “Cady, I’m guessing that if Twily’s going to come back conscious and lucid, then she’s going to want something to do while she mulls over everything. Reshelving’s perfect. I’m basically doing her a favour.”

Cadance frowned. “I suppose. It’s just a weird way to-“ She was interrupted by a commotion from outside the door, like the guard on duty was being screeched at.

“How many of you gold-plated asshats, sorry Flutters, do I hafta go through before we can talk to your all-important Emperor? He can’t be that busy, surely he’s got time to talk to a couple of our favorite fugitive’s friends!”

Shining glanced back at Cadance. “You got the transdimensional non-corporeal entities section?” At her nod, he continued. “I’m gonna go check that out. Seems a couple ponies didn’t quite get the whole ‘crime scene’ memo.” Trotting quickly to the door, he poked his head out. “Captain Flash Sentry, is there a problem?”

Standing outside the door, in Twilight’s living room, were two Ponies and a Gryphon. One of the ponies he recognized as Twily’s friend Fluttershy, and the other was his personal Captain of the guard, Flash. He wouldn’t have used such formal terms with his friend normally, but it would be unprofessional to do so in front of civvies. Although, come to think of it, the Gryphon was wearing Gryphon combat plating. He checked to make sure none of her weapons were drawn, and found that he didn’t have to start another diplomatic incident today.

Flash nodded to him. “Captain. These two got past the door guards, I’m making sure they’re not interfering with our operation. Seems they want to speak with you.”

Shining nodded. “Very well. We’ve hit a bit of a standstill anyway.” His voice softened. “Hey Fluttershy. How ya taking all this?”

“Oh… It’s a bit… overwhelming, but I’m doing my best to help.” The Gryphon raised a eyebrow, or whatever the Gryphon term for that was (crest?), at him.

“You know Fluttershy?”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle’s big brother.” The Gryphon whistled.

“Damn, everypony’s better off than I am. Gilda. Corporal Gilda Redbeak.”

“Mm. Friend of a friend?”

“Guess so, yeah.” Shining nodded at this, and turned to Flash.

“They’re cleared for entry, then. Can you go check the door guards? See what the hell they’re playing at?” Gilda cleared her throat, and all three ponies looked at her.

“They displayed hostile, racist, and sexist opinions to us both. Fluttershy here… Neutralized them.”

Shining blinked. “Is that so? Flash, change of plans. Go check on those two idiots. If they’re still conscious, inform them of their demotion, effective immediately. I will not have my guards displaying such attitudes on or off duty.”

Flash grinned, already making for the stairs down. “Consider it done, with extreme pleasure sir.” As the sound of his hoofsteps faded, Shining looked back to the two females.

“So, what are you two planning?” Gilda began sputtering, while Fluttershy looked away.

“We… we weren’t planning anything!”

“Sure you weren’t. Listen, Gilda, or Corporal if you’d like, I want to find my little sis and make sure she’s alright even more than you do. If you’ve got any schemes that have even the slightest chance of working, I want in.”

Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the one to speak up now. “We were going to try and get supplies for Twilight, tell Pinkie and Rarity, and then meet back on Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Supplies?”

“Books.”

“Ah, should’ve guessed. Well there are plenty of those round here. Anything you guys need in particular?”

Fluttershy looked away for a second, before mumbling, “I bet there’s something she’d like in her secret room…And maybe a hint as to where we can find her…”

Shining mouth hung open. “Secret room. She has a- okay, admittedly, that’s not entirely surprising. Where?”

Fluttershy began leading them to Twilight’s bedroom, explaining along the way. “Behind a bookcase, of course. There’s a bust of Celestia, and you pull on the horn.” Opening the door, she moved to the desk, and did just that. With a sound that was a combination of a creak and a grind, a nearby bookcase opened outwards, revealing a doorway.

Shining poked his head inside the room. It seemed to have been about ten feet square, except the outer curve of the library had taken up most of the outside corner. Satisfied his sis hadn’t booby-trapped the room, he stepped inside it fully. Along the two walls that weren’t curved were two shelves, one for books, and the other seemingly for potions and containers of various spellcasting ingredients. A single, dim lightbulb was hanging from the low ceiling.

“Clear.” He stepped inside, and began inspecting the potions and ingredients. Fluttershy began skimming the books, and Gilda stood there, looking awkward as she realized she wasn’t going to fit inside.

“I’ll, uh… I dunno, poke around the kitchen. Maybe talk with that Flash guy.”

“Mm. I’d tell you not to, but I think the most criminal thing she did in that kitchen was try to make evil pancakes. Tell Flash he’s off duty, that’ll get him to open up.” With a nod, Gilda left, and Shining picked up an orange potion, reading the label. Fire resistance. Poisonous to Dragons. So, even Spike likely didn’t know about this room.

He picked up another. Gender-swapping… nope. Nopenopenope. Didn’t wanna know why Twilight had that. Shaking the mental images out of his head, he moved to another. Distillation of… Hydra blood? Hydras were an endangered species, albeit a downright dangerous one, so why did his little sis have this? Where did she even get it? He sat that one down as well, this time picking up a jar. As he read the label, he nearly threw up.

The thump as the jar was set down on the shelf a little too hard caught Fluttershy’s attention. “Erm… Is there something wrong?” Despite Shining shaking his head, Fluttershy checked the shelf for herself. Please don’t find it, please don’t find it…

“A Jar of… Whale oil? Where did she even…?” Her eyes widened, and she gently set the jar down. “Oh. Well… I think we should all have a nice talk with Twilight as soon as she gets back, about what ‘Sanctity of life’ means.” They noticed the piece of paper stuck to the top at nearly the same time, and Shining was the one to blow off the layer of dust. Fluttershy made an adorable sneeze sound as he began reading.

“Note to self: Tests proved conclusive, in that Whale oil could be refined into workable fuel source. However, the process has also made it extremely explosive, and therefore too dangerous for public use. I’m shelving this one. For Celestia’s sake, Spike, if you find this, DO NOT TOUCH IT. Twilight.” Shining paled as he realized how carelessly he had set it back onto the shelf. Was it still…? No, it would have detonated long before if it had been hard enough.

Any further investigation was interrupted by Cadance’s panicked voice. “Shiny? Where did you go? And where’s the guard? Shiny!?” He was back out into the hallway before he realized what he was doing, and turned the corner to find his wife, her eyes darting around in paranoia. She jumped when he bolted around the corner, and yelled, “The Cat’s meow was stolen by the rat!”

Shining paused just in front of her, replying with the other half of the phrase. “But the dog stole it back to give to the cat.” As he finished, she leapt on him, hugging as though he’d leave. “Sorry Cady. I didn’t even realize I was leaving you alone, and I know how much you hate that…”

“It’s alright, just… Just tell me next time. Don’t run off. Please.”

“Wow, you two are weird. And sappy. What the heck was that?” They both turned to find Gilda had flown up to the first floor, and was hanging off the chandelier’s chain.

Cadance glanced back at him, her wings twitching nervously. “Should we tell her?” Shining sighed. “Might as well. We’re changing that one tomorrow anyway.” He turned to the Gryphon, and found that Flash had followed her up, eating a bagel.

“You heard about how our wedding was kind of a disaster, yeah?”

“Wedding… Wedding… Oh! That was you two? You guys made us have to dig up the Changeling protocols from the archives. Anyway, you were saying?”

“Well, Cady here got replaced and I got mind-controlled. She was left in a cave basically to rot, and I barely knew what was going on half the time. Afterwards, we came up with pass-phrases so we could know we were each other, and we change them weekly so they can’t be discovered.”

Flash smacked his lips. “Actually, pretty much everypony he knows got one. Those don’t change nearly as often, thankfully. Mine’s kind of an in-joke, for instance.” Seeing Gilda’s curious look, he explained. “Mine is ‘We have got to stop bumping into each other like this.”

Cadance cleared her throat, catching Gilda’s attention. “I suppose we’ll need one for you too. Shiny?”

In response, Shining had pulled out a notebook, and picked a random page. “How about, ‘Death and Life have their determined appointments’ and the response is, ‘Riches and honour depend upon heaven’?”

Gilda smirked. “Sounds like something out of a Con Mane movie.”

Shining sighed, sliding the book back into his armor. “Yeah, yeah. I pretty much just wrote down whatever I could think of at the time.”

Fluttershy walked in shortly after he had put the notebook away. “Er, is everything alright here?”

Cadance coughed, and said, “Fluttershy, is that a new manestyle?”

Fluttershy grinned, and said, “Oh no, I just had Harry style it for me.”

With a nod, Cadance spoke again. “So, how are you doing? Is there anything you need, or…?”

Shining cringed, and nudged her. “Well, there’s something we need to show you now.”

Rarity was just finishing up the stitching on Fleur’s dress, when her floorboards started to make thumping sounds. She jumped, before hesitantly putting her ear to the floor. Not directly touching it, of course, but close enough to hear through them.

“Crap. Forgot about that.”

“Purple pony forget what? Next pony not have basement?”

“Yeah, Rarity had it filled in. Try… ten metres to the north. That should be where the door is.” Thus started a sound not unlike something tunneling very loudly, and Rarity followed it all the way to her new walk-in closet.

There was another thump. “Oh come on!”

“Pony not plan this part out very well.”

“Shut up.”

“Twilight, I believe I can simply blast a hole upwards, but I’ll want you and the Dogs out of the way. Just in case ponies nowadays make their floors out of sturdier stuff.” Rarity started as she recognized that voice. She’d only heard it say a few words, but she would’ve recognized it anywhere in a heartbeat. That voice had nearly brought the Crystal Empire down for the second time in a thousand years, and had almost kept her from the simply fabulous style of the Crystal Ponies for far! Too! Long!

She also realized just what that voice had said and slammed the door shut, with not a second to spare. There was a muted ‘thump’, followed by the clatter of floorboards. She delicately pushed the door open with her hoof, to find a chillingly-familiar black Unicorn pointing a curved horn… well, not quite at her, as the tip was pointed at the ceiling, but…

Said Unicorn was joined by a familiar purple Alicorn, who grabbed his horn as best she could with her hooves. “Gah! No! Hold fire!” The horn powered down immediately, and she began telling him off. “Sombra, I told you, I don’t like the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ mentality. I know it’s instinct by this point but I will make you relax, or my name isn’t-“

“Twilight?” Is it was certainly her, but Rarity instantly began to pick up little things about her appearance that differed greatly from the Twilight Sparkle she knew and loved. As a friend. Trying to get Twilight to give love back would have been a serious mistake for several reasons.

No, this one’s coat seemed to have darkened, as slight as the difference was. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem like the fur itself had darkened, but it was instead more like… Like Twilight was constantly in shadow, as odd as that sounded. Her horn had curved as well, smoothing out and pointing upwards in a manner almost identical to Sombra’s, and her eyes had taken on a green tinge that simultaneously leaked the barest hint of purple mist. Finally she wore a ragged red and white cloak, which Sombra was completely lacking, and her hooves were covered in a set of metal boots, like battle armor. The whole ensemble was topped off by a tiara that looked almost, but not quite, like the Element of Magic, were it warped by dark energies.

Slowly, this new Twilight turned around to face her. “Twilight?” Rarity repeated, as if to subconsciously make sure it was really her, and not some poor imposter. Twilight slowly grinned that adorkable smile she knew so well, and sat down in front of the new hole in her floor.

“Um. Hey, Rarity. How have you been?”

“Oh, fine, I suppose. Thank you for your concern, Darling.”

They both looked at each other, Rarity’s mind quickly filling with so many questions about where she had gone, or why she was hanging about with that cad Sombra, but all of those came to an abrupt halt as another familiar face popped out of the hole behind them.

“Smelled jewels! Where are- You! Whiny pony!”

“You! You ruffians!” The diminutive Diamond Dog desperately deigned to dig downwards, but was quickly seized by the fashionista’s bright green magical aura and yanked back to the surface fully. She held the Dog by the scruff of its neck as she glared at Twilight. “Darling, why on Arcadia have you decided to associate yourself with these mongrels?” She glanced to the Unicorn again. “Or that monosyllabic madpony behind you?”

Twilight glared at her in response. “You too, huh? Well, at least that one was creative, if inaccurate. Rarity, it’s great to see you again, but if this is how you’re going to act then-“

Rarity pounced on Twilight within a second, the Dog thumping onto the hardwood floor forgotten, making her tense up until she realized she was being hugged, and the offensive spell shifting back into her background aura. “Perish the thought, Twilight! I’m sure you have a good explanation, it’s quite simply that the facts don’t line up at the moment, and that took me by surprise.” She paused, moving back the slightest bit. “You…do have a good explanation, yes?”

Twilight smiled, nodding. “Hopefully, yes. Although if we could speak somewhere other than your admittedly-spacious closet, that’d be nice. What about the shop?”

Rarity nodded, and stepped back, turning to the door. She found her path blocked by an annoyed canine. “Whiny Pony drop dog on head. Rover not happy.”

She quickly fixed it with a glare that, while it was nothing compared to Fluttershy’s, still managed to threaten pain in the form of whining, very obviously. “You’re smearing dirt all over my clean floors.”

The dog glanced down, seemingly noticing for the first time how long it had been since one of his tunnels had accidentally hit a water pocket. He swallowed. “Rover drop charges of dropping. Whin… whi…White pony have pleasant day.” He carefully stepped around Rarity, giving her a wide berth, before dropping back into the hole.

With a smile, Rarity turned back to Twilight and Sombra, who had watched the exchange with wide eyes. “Well? Come, come, I’m being a rather terrible host. Follow me!” She led the out into the main room of her shop, which was split into three sections. The largest by far was the main room, scattered with equinequins wearing dresses she’d designed, many right outside in plain sight, for appearance’s sake.. They had just exited the walk-in closet, which, through what Twilight suspected was a spatial distortion spell, managed to fit under the stairs to the first floor. To their left was the door to the changing rooms.

Rarity stopped at a couch she had set up in the shop, and sat upon it like a neighgyptian goddess. She politely motioned toward another nearby couch, where Twilight and Sombra sat. As soon as they had settled in, Twilight began explaining. “Right, well. Sombra first, I think. He… approached me, disguised, a little while back. He was, and still is, being much more approachable than last time.”

“Well, I should hope so, Darling.”

“Ha ha. He offered me a book written by Starswirl the Bearded, and we began meeting to discuss the book and the spells within…”

Corporal Hookbeak, Commander of Gamma Division, glared at the pink Pony watching the counter. “What do you mean, ‘you don’t know where she is?’”

Said pink Pony tilted her head and grinned at him. It was thoroughly unnerving. He could do without the grinning. Goddamn soft-snouts. “Well, you said you wanted to know where my friend is, and I’m telling you that I don’t know where my friend is. So, want anything else? Cupcake? Muffin? A ‘welcome to Ponyville mister grumpyGryphon’ party?”

Corporal Hookbeak slammed a claw on the counter, the impact sending a spiderweb of cracks across the plexiglass. The pink mare jumped back, and Hookbeak chuckled at the sight. “Don’t give me that bull. You’re one of those other ‘Elements of Harmony’ things, aren’t you? Then she’d be one of the first ponies she’d go to.”

One of his soldiers snapped his beak at the hoofsteps of an approaching pony. Undeterred, a powder-blue hoof landed on his shoulder. “Hey! She said she didn’t know, leave her-“

Hookbeak spun, punching the pony right in his soft face. It made a satisfying ‘crunch’ sound as he flew backwards, sliding across the tiles after he touched down. As soon as the pink Pony realized what happened, she shrieked, launching herself across the cracked counter. On pure instinct, Hookbeak caught her by the nape of her neck, his talons digging into her fur and penetrating the skin slightly. She squeaked, her hooves windmilling through the air towards the other pony.

The saloon door to the kitchen smacked wide open, revealing a short, portly, and livid mare holding a skillet threateningly. A tall, lanky stallion followed her, his eyes focusing on the pink mare in his grasp. “Pinkie! What’s going on?”

The pink pony wriggled in his grasp as she answered, Hookbeak’s claws digging further into her flesh. “These meanies hurt Pokey! I wanna make sure he’s okay!” A lucky kick slammed into his other foreleg, knocking it out from beneath him, and causing him to fall on the floor. Now freed, the pink Pony galloped to the blue one, holding him up and inspecting his broken snout.

Hookbeak scrambled to his feet, his claws digging into the floorboards now, just in time to catch a skillet slamming into his face. He slumped back to the ground, and Sergeant Dagger drew his pistol, pointing it at the stocky mare now standing on the counter. “Stop right there! You and you,” he said pointing the pistol at the skillet-wielding mare and the pink pony respectively, “Are under arrest for assaulting an officer of the Gryphon military!”

Wiping a claw through his beak to clear the blood, Hookbeak growled out, “The nerve of these civvies… We’ll have to make an example. You.” He pointed a blood-stained claw at the lanky stallion. “This business is closed, pending her trial. And I’ll be having words with the Mayor, once we can get her out of her office, about permanently closing this shithole.”

Another one of his soldiers, Private Bluewing, was already cuffing the stocky mare. They were pony cuffs, designed so they could only move their forelegs enough to walk, and slowly at that. With her under the careful watch of Sergeant Dagger, Private Bluewing moved to the pink pony, who was holding a napkin to the blue unicorn’s snout. The lanky stallion gaped at them, his jaw working up and down, though lacking any sound.

“You… You can’t…”

“We have full authority. Back down now, Civvie.” Still shell-shocked, the lanky stallion sat down with a thump. Satisfied, Hookbeak turned to find Bluewing was trying to get close enough to put the cuffs on the pink pony. She was standing atop a table on her hind hooves… somehow, and fighting him off with her forehooves. Every time he got close enough to put the cuffs on, the pink Pony smacked them out of his claws, or pegged him in the nose. Behind her was the blue Unicorn, who had grabbed a salt shaker in his magic.

The Pink mare’s eyes widened as her cotton-candy tail shook. “Twitchy-“ then a chair smacked into the side of her head, knocking her off the table and into dreamland. Hookbeak turned to Dagger, who was brushing off his claws. “Nice throw.”

“Thank you, sir.” Bluewing cuffed the mare, who was starting to come around already, and began herding them out the front door. Dagger continued on as Hookbeak put a claw on Bluewing’s shoulder. “And you, nice effort. I’ll remember that when promotions start rolling around.”

“Thank you, sir!” And just like that, he was following Dagger down the street to the jail. At the same time, another Gryphon was approaching by wing. Hookbeak recognized him as Private Dust Trail.

“Sir! We have a sighting of the fugitive!” That caught his attention.

“Where?”

“Apple farm about a mile down the east road, sir! Local resident reported it!”

Hookbeak thought back to the briefing. There was something about one of the Elements being an apple farmer. “Good! Assemble a squad, I’ll meet them there. If we don’t catch her, then we can at least interrogate another Element.”

“Sir yes sir!” Private Trail leapt back into the sky, streaking towards the jail. Hookbeak turned back, looking down at the blue Unicorn. The lanky Stallion had crossed the shop’s expanse, and was bandaging up his snout with a medical kit. “Have a pleasant day, Sir.”

They both gaped at him as he ran down the street. Pokey staggered to his feet, despite Carrot’s attempts to keep him sitting down. “We haf to go-“

Carrot put a hoof on his shoulder. “Listen, I’m angry too, but there’s nothing we can do! Don’t you work for the mayor’s office?”

Pokey nodded. “Yeah. I wuz wunderin why Mayor Mare told me I wuz off today, and why zhe wouldn’t talk to me faze to faze. Guezz now I know.” He shook his head, to clear the spots from his vision. “Doezn’t matter. I’m gunna go kick that rude zucker’s tail zo far up hiz plot he’ll be cleaning fur outta hiz tonzilz-“

“Wait wait wait! Okay, hang on. He’s a better fighter than you, trained by the-“

“He zucker-punched me, I know if I can juzt get one hit in-“

“You can’t, that’s the point! And listen, for Celestia’s sake! I know how we can help!”

Pokey regarded him with a slightly glassy gaze. “Okay, I’m liztening.”

Carrot pointed down the street, the opposite way from the jail. “There’s a bunch of Royal Guards stationed at the library. They’re not gonna stand for this any more than you are, AND they have the authority to handle it!”

Pokey put a hoof to his snout, where the blood had started soaking through the bandages. “…Fine. But you gotta do the talkin’. I zound ztupid.”

Author's Note

Not much to talk about in this chapter. I don't particularly like the chapter names, now that I look at them again. Maybe I should actually plan those out before the minute I post them.
But anyway, Rarity! And the royal couple! Lemme know if anypony seems out of character, I'm kind of worried about that.
(Edit: Extended the chapter a fair bit, made it slightly less filler-ey.)