True Friends Stab You In The Front

Sombra rolled about in his bed agitatedly as an incessant tapping noise pulled him from the peace of sleep. He opened his eyes, having no real idea what time it was. It was often difficult to know what time it was in the shadow of a giant castle, and when the weather and mountains were factored it was almost impossible. For now Sombra just assumed it was very early, and assuredly knew he was very upset about that.  Sombra willed himself over to his window and slid it open.

A crystal guard standing outside gave a salute. "Good morning Sombra, acquittance of the prince. Prince Luz would like to request your presence at"— he pulled out a note— "that one place that we used to go to, that one month."

Sombra nodded his head. "Understood. Did he say when?"

The guard looked back to the note. "He says to go at 'his favorite time.'"

Sombra put a hoof to his face. "Of course thats what he wants. Alright then, you're dismissed."

The guard gave another salute and walked away. Sombra waited for him to turn the corner and then jumped out his window. Him and Luz knew they'd have trouble communicating so they set up their own system. First Luz find a guard thats either new enough or dumb enough to follow his order to send a message to Sombra, and then they always make sure to use their own code. Every phrase had its own meaning, so if the message was to go to "that one place we agreed to go to that one time," he knew to go to the last place they agreed to meet at, and the time of the meetings was likewise encoded. This ensured that even if the messenger got found out they'd still have a hard time figuring out where to go. In this case, Sombra was heading to a diner outsider the palace, and Luz's favorite time was obviously "immediately."

Sombra made his way through town, every so often looking over his shoulder in the most casual manner he could manage just to make sure he wasn't being followed. A short while later Sombra found himself scanning the ponies in the diner looking for something that would give Luz away. Crystal ponies usually didn't wear clothes, and those that did usually had some profession or rank to justify it. Therefore it was a pretty safe bet to look for a pony with Luz's coat color that had a big dumb hat and glasses.

Sombra spotted what he was looking for and made his way to the table. "If you woke  me up this early in the day just so I can tell you what a poor sense of fashion you have, I may just commit regicide."

Luz let out a chuckle and stood from his chair. "I won't be taking advice from mister 'I think capes are cool,' thank you very much."

Sombra twisted his expression. "They're warm and regal as all Tartarus. You're father has one and I still say you need to get one."

Luz shook his head. "No capes. Thats not why we're here though, so c'mon, lets go." Luz began to walk away.

Sombra cocked his head. "You told me to immediately come to the diner so that we could not eat here?"

Luz turned back around. "I told you to come here because it close enough to the palace that we won't miss it, but if you keep standing there and talking then we will miss it, so lets go." Luz made his way to the door.

Sombra trotted up next to Luz. "Now you're playing the pronoun game. What're we not going to miss?"

Luz turned to speak as he kept walking. "So you know how there was an excavation mission going on in the caves around the empire? Apparently they found something big."

Sombra raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna have to define 'big' for me."

Luz sat down and spread his front hooves out as far as he could. "I mean BIG. If we believe everything we've heard then that means that we found some sort of tomb out there. You know what that means? Thats the first evidence for there being a society here before us! Tell me that isn't awesome. The team is supposed to be coming back to the palace today with some sort of artifact."

Sombra let out a short whistle in amazement. "Okay you got me, that is pretty cool. Whats the deal with just bringing back an artifact though? Shouldn't the team have been big enough to take back a lot more than that."

Luz shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah they were, but for whatever reason as soon as they found the damn thing they insisted on coming back as soon as possible. Add onto that the crazy miner and we should be happy we're getting anything back."

Sombra showed his confusion. "Crazy miner? Did they have a team member smoking crystal out there or something?"

Luz shook his head. "No not as far as we could tell. He was the first one to actually find the artifact in the caves, and then a little while after he just started picking fights and freaking out. The team says the stress of the job just really got to him. Apparently he tried running off with whatever he found so the team tried restraining him. He ended up getting hurt pretty bad, and you know how it is out there."

Sombra furrowed his brow. "So we won't get to ask him any questions. Thats just great."

Luz barely paid attention as they got to the road leading to the palace. "Yeah yeah. They should be coming in right about now."

The two stood with eyes on the road until the excavation team came into sight. Before long the team was passing right by the two as they looked over the items carried in their cart. Most all of it was mining equipment, but one object clearly wasn't. The object was throughly wrapped in cloth and sitting in the middle of the cart.

Luz jabbed Sombra's side. "Hey, mister magic expert, unwrap that thing before they get away."

Sombra shot an annoyed look to Luz. "You're a unicorn, you can do it yourself."

Luz rolled his eyes. "Yes, but you're more subtle, now go for it."

Sombra sighed and turned his focus to the object. Focusing his magic he began to peel away the layers surrounding the object.

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore."

Sombra shook his head. "What?"

Luz looked to Sombra. "What?"

Sombra looked back to Luz. "What was that noise?"

Luz cocked his head. "Its the sound of our opportunity passing us by."

Sombra opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. Returning his focus to the object he removed the final layers. Underneath a jet black crystal was revealed; large and jagged, the crystal seemed to reach outward like a tree whose branches were trying to grab all that surrounded it. Looking at it Sombra felt his stomach turn, like he was going to be sick. Sombra quickly covered it back up and let out a sharp breath.

Luz let out a sharp whistle. "Well that certainly looked interesting. Bet the nerds at the archive will have a field day with that one." Luz turned to look at Sombra as his expression turned to concern. "Hey buddy, you alright?"

Sombra put a fake smile as quickly as he could. "Yeah I'm fine. I just... I have a really bad feeling about this."