Darkness Remains

The early morning sun's first rays and the chipper chirping of the summer birds awoke the tired princess from her peaceful slumber. She groaned and turned away from the invading light, wishing to return to the wonderful realm that was her dreams. Feeling to tired to bother using any magic and even less able to get up and close the blinds herself, she jumped right to the most obvious answer to her dilemma.

Tell Spike to close them of course.

“Spike” she moaned. “Close the blinds.”

…

No answer. She figured that he was still soundly asleep. But feeling to frustrated by the sun that has so rudely interrupted her sleep she did not think of being bit more gentle and understanding of her young baby dragon. “Spike, close the blinds.” she commanded. Still no response, not even a heavy breathing or a snore.

She groaned and sat up, about to give Spike a piece of her mind for being so inconsiderate of her, hypocritical as she may be. But to her astonishment, he was nowhere to be found.

“That's odd. He is usually still asleep by this time.”

Reluctantly she decided that maybe it was time to wake up anyway. She closed the blinds a little bit to limit the sunlight that got in, barely illuminating the room. She walked up to the mirror and started to brush out her mane, getting it out of its tangled morning state. Her mane was a real work of art this morning. The messy hair was standing out in every direction and some parts was so badly tangled that when she tried to comb them out it felt like she was about to tear her own hair out if she tried.

“Where could Spike be this early?” she asked herself. “Could he be at Rarity's? No, he wouldn't go there this early unless he was invited. I suppose that he is doing his chores then. Maybe he wants to impress me so that I will treat him to something. Or maybe he is just downstairs making break...”

A thought struck her in her dazed morning state. Spike was downstairs. Frigidos was also downstairs. The two of them were downstairs together. Spike was alone with Frigidos.

…

“SPIKE!” She cried out in fear for her baby dragon's wellbeing. Pulled the door open and rushed down the stairs, accidentally slipping on a step, resulting in a very painful tumbling down the stairs until she hit her hard wooden floor.

“Twilight!” a young childish voice called out from the kitchen.

She slowly opened her eyes, wincing in pain from the tumble. Her gaze locked on her number one assistant who was kneeling by her side and fuzzing over her, making sure that she was well.

“Twilight, are you ok?” Spike asked worriedly.

She started to push herself up on her hooves, giving him a comforting smile. “I'm alright, Spike. I'm alright.” she said, not taking her gaze off of Spike.

His gaze softened as his worries faded away. His eyes trailed upwards until they rested on her mane. He started to snort and chuckle while trying to resist laughing.

“What is it, Spike?” she asked.

“*snort* Your mane.” He said.

It was a bit of an interesting sight. Like two sides of one coin. The left half of her mane was clean and combed out and silky smooth. The right side on the other hoof looked like a ravaged battlefield. Tangles in every second inch of her mane swirls and a few porcupine strands.

“Hehe, you look hilarious, Twilig– OUCH!” he cried out in an exaggerated manner.

Twilight looked up from Spike and saw that Frigidos was standing right behind him, with a ladle in his mouth. “Spike, It is rude to comment badly on a lady's appearance” he scolded the young dragon.

“Twilight is not a lady. Ouch!”

“And it is awfully rude to say such a thing.”

“Stop hitting my assistant!” Twilight exclaimed and positioned herself between Spike and Frigidos.

A smirk spread on Frigidos features. “Forgive me, Twilight. It seems that I have stepped out of my boundaries again” He said all while still keeping that grin on him.

She let out a frustrated sigh. “Very well, I'll forgive you for now, but I don't want to hear that you do something like this ever again. Understood?”

“Loud and clear.” he saluted. “So, how about some breakfast?” he said and turned to walk towards the kitchen. Hesitantly, Twilight follow suit, making sure that Spike stayed behind her. On the table stood plates with various foods. It was nothing spectacular, but it was still a bit more than their average breakfast.

They all took a seat and took just a moment to enjoy the smell that filled the room. Spike reached forward to grab a small gem from a bowl until he saw a big feathery limb covering the crystalline goods. “Now now, Spike, what is up with you and your manners.” Said Frigidos.

“What is it now” Spike whined. “I was just going to get something to eat, what is wrong with that?”

“Nothing. As long as you follow proper etiquette and courtesy. First we have to give thanks”

“Oh, ok. Thank you for making the food, Frigidos. Now hand me those gems”

Frigidos chuckled and refused to give them back. “Not to me, silly. We must give thanks to God for this blessing”

Spike froze for a moment and sat down again looking confused. He turned to Twilight, hoping that she could give him an explanation. Twilight didn't even spare him a look. Her gaze was focused completely on Frigidos. She looked at him with a mix of feelings. She was confused, intrigued and just a little bit angry. “Frigidos, I don't want you to teach Spike nonsense.”

Now it was Frigidos' turn to look confused. “Nonsense? You mean that you usually don't do things like this.” he asked

“Twilight, what is a god?” Spike asked.

Frigidos turned to Spike and then to Twilight and then back to Spike again. He closed his eyes and let out an understanding and sad sigh. “Why did I not expect this?”

“Expect what?” Asked Twilight.

“That you do not believe in a God or the fact that you wouldn't even teach your son about such a thing.”

“She is not my mom!” Spike protested.

“He is not my son!”

Frigidos waved a hoof, asking them to lower their voices. “Forgive me if I have offended any of you, but it is tradition where I come from to make sure that if anypony wishes to give thanks, then you will let them before anypony starts eating. And I would really like to avoid a debate about the matter, so may I just say my prayer before we start eating?”

Twilight was hesitant. On the one hoof she did not have any love for the idea of a higher power, nor for Frigidos and she didn't want Spike getting any weird ideas. But then again, she should make him feel as comfortable as possible if their plan is going to work. And with that in mind she decided to humor him just this once. She sighed. “Go ahead.”

He gave her a nod of appreciation. He lowered his head and closed his eyes as he brought up his hooves and pressed them against each other. He then started to mumble something in a language she did not understand, nor recognize. After a short while he was done and he gestured for Spike that it was now okay to eat. Spike didn't miss a beat as he dug in ravenously into the gems in the bowl.

“If I may ask, Twilight. Why do you indulge his desire for gems? It is not exactly cheap to get your hooves on some of these.” Frigidos asked with concern.

“Oh, that is no problem at all. Our friend Rarity is a master at finding gems of every kind and uses them for her dress-making. Any gems that has too many impurities, flaws or just the leftovers from her gem-cutting she leaves to me and Spike for him to enjoy.” said Twilight.

“Really now? How generous of her.”

Spike then shot up as if he had just remembered something. “Shoot, I promised Rarity that I would be there by morning.” He said. He grabbed the bowl and poured all the gems into his mouth, giving him the appearance of a chipmunk with it's cheeks stuffed. “Bye, Twilight. Cya later, Frigidos.”

The two ponies waved goodbye as Spike exited the library.

The tension in the room grew thick. Twilight didn't know what she would or could say next. On the one hoof she would really like to explore more about his history and maybe get an answer to as to why he hold belief in something so ludicrous as a god.

But what she really wanted to find out about was how skilled in magic he was and how much he actually knew. He seemed rather skilled with the little he had told her about what he could do but she stood curious as to how far that skill reached, and most importantly, where he learned to use magic to begin with. But first, there was something else he needed to talk to him about.

“Frigidos?” she said, trying to get his attention.

He looked up from his pancakes and apple slices in cinnamon. “Yes, Twilight?”

“I just wanted to ask... What did you and Spike talk about?”

“Heh, getting worried about your little dragon, eh? Do not worry yourself, Twilight, I haven't said anything to him that could be considered harmful.” he said with a slight hint of humor in his voice as he munched on another slice of apple.

“And I suppose that you don't consider religion to be a harmful subject?”

Frigidos stopped mid-bite. He looked up at Twilight once again, every last drop of friendliness and humor had been drained out of him like water in an unplugged bathtub. “Do you consider it to be?”

Too late did Twilight realize that she had stepped on a sore point so she figured that she might as well continue this argument as she saw no other way out of it. “Yes, I consider it to be harmful, especially to someone so young.”

“And why is that?”

Twilight was about to retort, she had a whole line up of arguments as to why she considered religion to be a bad influence for children, or just about anyone for that matter, but before she could make as much as a sound, Frigidos raised his hoof to halt her. “Actually, you know what? Forget it. I do not want to argue about this, so for now let us just agree to disagree and move on. I did not tell him anything harmful in either of our perspectives.”

“How would you know whether I would find your topic inappropriate or not?”

“We were talking about dragons. Is that unfitting for a child to hear?”

Twilight ears twitched. Did she hear that right? “You... You were talking about dragons?”

He shrugged. “Well, to be more specific, I talked and he listened. It all started as a curiosity question on my part and it eventually evolved into a full blown questions and answers session.”

“So... would you consider yourself learned on dragons?”

“Learned?” he scoffed in a humorous way. “I would go as far as to consider myself the leading pony expert on dragon culture, social behavior, history and all there is in-between.”

And from there the new session started. Forgetting all about his previous wrongs, forgetting all about his magical prowess, her full attention turned to the idea of learning more about dragonkind. And, much to her surprise, Frigidos was fully willing to indulge her in her thirst for knowledge. For hours they just sat there at the kitchen table, talking about dragons and their different habits: Social habits, moving habits, mating habits and so much more, all while Twilight sat there and took notes.

“And what about family? Do dragons have families, do they care for their young or do they just leave each other?”

“Dragons can form families but it is far more common that they just shag and then separate as that is a far more efficient way to reproduce. Dragons are few in numbers so they do what they deem to be the best option to keep their numbers growing.”

“And the eggs?”

“The mothers are very protective of their young and would defend them with their lives if it would come down to it. They have to be careful, cause a female only lays a clutch once and then that is it. If that clutch fails, then the female will never know what it is like to raise hatchlings.”

“Thats... really tragic.”

“I suppose so, yes. But luckily that so rarely happens. The females grow much stronger and more powerful after being impregnated, so they can fight off most males who would even dare to come too close. Other females respect an expecting dragon's wish for privacy though.”

“So there is no way that a female would just leave her unhatched child all alone then, right?”

“No way in any of the many hells would that ever happen. The only reason a female would or could be separated from her young would be if she was killed by something. Otherwise, I can't possibly think of any other reason.”

“...Did you tell this to Spike?” she asked, feeling concerned.

He shook his head. “No, I wouldn't say something so grim to someone so young. Especially not on such a beautiful, early morning.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Thats good to hear. I was worried there for a moment.”. She put the notes she had been taking aside. “I think we should end it there for now. But I would love to hear more about the dragons at a later point.”

He smiled gently. “And I would be happy to comply. But since we are already having such a pleasant conversation, is there possibly something else that you would like to talk about?”

She brightened up slightly, this was the perfect opportunity to talk about his magic. “Yes actually. I have been more than a little curious as to how you can perform magic.”

He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Spike never told you how I do it?”

“Uhm, no, I think he may have forgotten to mention that.”

“Oh? I see. Well then, allow me to demonstrate.” he said and stood up from the chair. And stepped to the side so that his entire body was in clear view for Twilight. He spread out his wings and took a deep breath and as he exhaled, the markings appeared all over his body. His grinned as this happened and she took notice of the small changes that happened when they did. His fur became a darker color, his eyes went from golden to the eyes of Sombra, his front row of teeth sunk into his gums before growing back out in a more sharpened shape. “Behold, the power of rune-crafting.”

“Amazing.” she said as she walked up to him and inspected his whole body. She traced her hooves over the markings and felt their icy cold lines. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the lines were not line at all, but small, tiny sentences in a foreign language, possibly the one he had spoken in at the table. “What does these words mean?”

He chuckled. “You will have to be more specific than that, Twilight. There are a lot of words on me.”

“Um... this one.” she said and pointed to a specific piece of text that was a very short sentence. Frigidos looked at it and translated: “Thee who believeth shall never die.”

“Another religious text, huh?” she deadpanned, feeling her interest in the marks fading slightly.

“They are all scriptures from our holy texts. Although the runes does not have to be religious, it is common that they are.”

Her ears perked again. “They don't?”

“No. We crystal ponies are not sure as to where the power is really coming from, but what we do know is that the writing must follow a pattern, and that the text inscribed must be something that the carver holds dear or close to there heart. In the case of writing them on a living creature, the text must be something that connects to the both of us. Religion is something that was a part of both mine and my friends life so it was the perfect subject to write the runes with.”

“Fascinating. I have never heard of this sort of magic before.”

“Well, we crystal ponies do not have any magic of our own so we had to find some other way to compensate for it.”

“Who was this friend of yours?”

Frigidos tensed up for just a second, but it did not go unnoticed by Twilight. “Her name was Ruby Rose. A very dear friend of mine. She helped in creating these runes on my body. She was an expert in rune-crafting.”

“Why did she make them? Did you want them?”

“I honestly had no idea that these marks could help me do what I can do now, or that they would even work to begin with. Sombra simply commanded that I should be the first in a long line of magic using ponies for his army. Let us leave it at that for now.”

She nodded, figuring that there was no point in pushing the subject forward, it could only lead to bad things.

“You mentioned that you traveled the world to learn more about magic. Have you ever tried making a spell of your own?”

He smiled a bright smile, seemingly proud of what he was about to say. “I have, actually. I created a few combat spells of my own, a few utility spells, and my proudest achievement, I invented the art of enchanting words and sentences.”

“Words? How do you enchant words?”

“It is kind of hard to explain.”

“Can you try?”

“... its kind of like enchanting air, to try and pour magic into something that is intangible, without true physical form. It is near impossible. But then I figured out exactly what it is that makes you able to infuse magic into an object.”

“What is it?”

“Knowledge, understanding. It may sound as basic as it comes but hear me out. As long as you understand what an object is, you can enchant it. For example:” he said and walked up to the wall and put his hoof on it. “What is this?”

“My wall?”

He groaned. “Yes, it is your wall, but what is it made of?”

“Wood.”

He nodded. “Precisely! And where does wood come from?”

“Trees.”

“And where does tree grow?”

“In the ground.” Twilight started to grow restless with his tedious and obvious questions. She silently wished that he would just get to the point.

“What is it in the ground that grows?”

“A seed.”

“And why does the seed grow?”

“(Scientific explanation)”

“And what does a tree do?”

“It makes oxygen.”

“How does it makes oxygen?”

“Through photosynthesis. Is this getting us anywhere!?”

“It is. You see, it is far easier to enchant something that is tangible because it is easier to understand and come to terms with. Your knowledge of the tree does not have to be so thorough in order to control it. But it makes it easier.” he said as he removed his hoof from the surface of the wall. And along the path that he pulled his hoof, a streak of wood followed in its path. “Air is more difficult.” he said and made a gesture with his hoof that made the wood retreat back into the wall. “Air is intangible and thus so much harder to infuse as it is harder for most to understand. Can you describe air? What it looks like and how it feels to hold it? What it tastes like? I do not imagine that you could, so therefore you must understand the true basics of air. And in truth, air is nothing more than a mixture of gases. And once you realize that, you can infuse magic into the very air itself.”

“And how does that help you enchant words?”

He grinned again. “Simple. Can you tell me the definition of a word?”

“Which word?”

“No word, just the word word.”

She sighed, starting to feel that this was all pointless, but her still peaked interest of a new form of magic intrigued her enough to comply. “A unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions.”

He shook his head from side to side for a short bit. “Good enough, spoken like it was taken right from a dictionary. So basically how this works is that you cast a worldwide spell that affects every living, sentient creature, with specific effect at specific times. The more power there is in the spell you want to use, the more enchanted words are needed. I for one used this to combine a teleportation spell together with a dematerialization spell together with a little old nursery rhyme. As for how you enchant the word, you just need to-”

“Wait, wait. Hold on for one little moment here! You mean to tell me that you can cast a spell that has a worldwide effect? That sounds impossible.” she interrupted him, starting to question his legitimacy.

“It is not as hard as one might think. You just need enough concentration, an open surrounding and a lot, and I mean a lot of magical energy to spend. But anyway, as for how you enchant a word, it works like this: First you need to understand the definition of every single word you are going to use. Then you need to bottle up as much magic as you can just possibly muster. Once you got those steps down, you need to repeat those words endlessly through the entire process, as you slowly release the magic into the wide world. This is an extremely tedious process that took me many years to complete and perfect. Now, when anyone speaks the whole nursery rhyme, I can find out exactly where they are, and if they finish the rhyme with an extra, short sentence then I can teleport to them at will and with minimal magical cost.”

Twilight just stood there, staring at him with a deadpan look. Frigidos smile faded from his features. Something was off here. “Twilight? Something the matter?”

“I think you are lying.”

His brow shot up as far as they could go and his eyes were open wide. Then they furrowed and he looked infuriated. “What did you just accuse me of?”

“Lying. I'm accusing you of lying to me to make yourself sound better than you actually are. The sort of magic you describe is just impossible and yet here you stand claiming to be able to do so, and with apparent ease. I am having a hard time believing you.”

He approached her until he was right at her face. “I am many things, Twilight. A murderer, a traitor, a monster and more. But there is one thing that I am not, and that is a liar.”

“And how can I be sure of that? Could you give me a demonstration?”

“How? Do you want me to leave the land and then wait for you to attempt it?”

Twilight agreed, that was a very poor idea. Maybe some other day when they know for sure that they can trust him. So she thought about what they could do. She really wanted to see what he could do, but then again she now had doubts about whether he was actually capable or not. So how could she test him? And then she got an idea. An awfully wonderful idea. If she could somehow force him to show off his best tricks then she could see just to what extent his power goes. Although she had to admit that it all hanged on whether he was the competitive sort or not. Oh well, might as well try, what is the worst thing that can happen?

“Frigidos!” She said loudly. “I challenge you to a magic duel!”