Hell's Mercy

“Your diamond dogs are incompetent. They just let Shadow Shield walk on through like he owned the place.” I explained to Kunik, arms crossed.

“I expected no better from them. They were the cheapest I could find. What I’m more interested in is why you didn’t stop them.” He asked. He didn’t seem angry, but with him it was hard to tell these kind of things.

“I was already out of there and back on my way back here. I only know because I headed back when I heard the commotion.” I gritted my teeth as I told my lie, but relaxed when he seemed to buy it.

“Shame you weren’t there. your taste for blood would have been helpful.” As we spoke, a diamond dog approached the office like room we were speaking in.

“Sir, Shadow Shield has escaped with the prisoner.” It spoke as it walked in. I wondered if he drew straws between his friends to see who got to tell the bad news. Kunik had a reputation. Most of it was nasty rumors, and few were true.

“Oh? and who let that happen?” His voice remained steady and calm. Despite this, the diamond dog shuttered when he was done speaking. Kunik wasn’t evil, but he sure as hell was intimidating. I might’ve been intimidated too if we weren’t good friends.

“M-m-m-me sir.” The diamond dog muttered, hardly able to speak. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it.

“Your honesty is… Helpful. I suggest you leave.”

“oh, and-”

“Now it’s an order.”

“Yes sir.”

“You too Chronicks.”

“Sure.” I left the office-like room as instructed, and walked down the hallway. I was looking for Onerra. If there was anyone I could talk to uninhibited, it was her. She was my best friend and she didn’t trust Kunik. Those were some views I needed right about now. I walked into my room, deciding to rest before continuing the search.

“Why’d you lie to him?” I nearly jumped. Spinning around I was glad to see in was Onerra.

“What makes you think that?” I asked, toying with her.

“Well, you yourself did ask me to talk Shining Armor into sending Shadow Shield on the mission.” She had a massive smile on her face. Probably glad I lied to Kunik.

“Oh right, that.”

“I was listening in. I know you were there. What happened?” When she asked that I quit toying with her and sighed.

“Kunik… well he’s sent us on this strange mission.”

“What mission?”

“He wanted us to capture Shadow Shield, someone capable of dark magic, alive and unharmed.”

“hm… That’s weird. What do you think he’s up to?”

“No idea, but I want to find out before just handing over someone like that. He also escaped with a prisoner, who’ll explain the whole thing to him no doubt.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean if Kunik found out…”

“Hey, he wants him alive and unharmed anyway. I’m sure this will only save him the time of explaining it all.” I smirked as I spoke. “Now go to the castle and get to know this guy. I need to find out as much as possible.”

“Alright, if you know what you’re doing...”

“Of course I do.”

*******************************************************

“So… Briefly go over what the whole situation is.” I repeated. I think I asked her at least three or four times to do so, and she explained each time. Her voice did become much less gentle though. She didn’t seem to be the patient type of person. We were approaching the crystal empire, and I really didn’t want to screw anything up.

“Kunik is part of a small group that kidnaps those born with Dark magic and executes them in a foolish gesture to maintain order. Dark Magic is a terrible force that corrupts the mind over time in exchange for its incredible power. Its power slowly deteriorates as the wielder ages, but dark magic can never die. It instead searches for a new vessel after the wielder dies. If the wielder is killed however, it get’s absorbed into the killer regardless of their capabilities. Kunik always sends his pet griffon to kill them, and uses him as a container for all the dark magic they collect. 30 years he’s been doing it. 30 years worth of dark magic and killing has slowly degraded his mind, leaving an extremely unstable griffon only brought down by his age. I’m a dark magic wielder, not by choice of course.”

“Can a pegasis even use dark magic?” I started wondering if it was too late to ask the question in the back of my mind.

“Not in a literal sense, no. But it makes us much stronger and more agile.” Well I might not know her for much longer. Would be a waste of time.

“So when Sombra came into power, did he kill ponies to gain his power?” I started really considering if maybe I should ask.

“Probably. I don’t know much about that personally, but on an educated guess I think the dark magic corrupted his mind” Maybe I could just wait until she maybe mentions it...

“Yeah, er...” I needed to ask it. “what’s your name?” I regretted the question as soon as I asked it.

“Sylwen. This entire time and only now you ask?”

“Sorry about that.”

“You’re fine. just a bit… odd is all.” Relief.

“Well here we are. I’m a regular in this place. I’ll escort you to my room in the castle so we can finally get some rest.”

“I’m afraid I can’t go with you.”

“Why? your eyes have gone back to normal. You can blend right in.”

“I’ve done some things here I regret. Some things that cannot be forgiven.”

“What? What did you do?” She didn’t reply to my question. Her gaze drifted away from mine.

“I’ll be going now. It might be for the best if we never speak again. I don’t want to be caught in the crossfire when you’re captured.” This came as a surprise. It felt like she just suddenly hated me. Maybe it was the two dozen questions.

“But I need you!” I pleaded.

“I told you what I could. I can’t be any more of a help. Goodbye.” And just like that, she walked away and left me behind. I stood there for about half a minute, trying to decide if she was being cowardly or ungrateful, but I couldn’t convince myself of either. With a sigh, I walked towards the castle, I needed fill Shining Armor in on all I knew. I couldn’t waste time.

Once inside, most of the guards seemed to be hurrying to get on their gear. Now I certainly couldn’t waste time.

“Hey, could you hold up a sec?” Came a mare’s voice from my left. She had a blue coat of fur and a silver mane. “I need to talk to you a bit.”

“I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry. Could you tell me where to find Shining Armor?”

“I’m his adviser, Onerra. Just tell me what you need and I’ll run it down to him.”

“This is really a personal matter.” I urged. I really didn’t want more ponies involved than there needed to be.

“...Fine. follow me.” She seemed hesitant. I wondered what she stopped me for. Taking pity, I asked her.

“What did you want by the way?”

“What the information you got from your mission was. It’s rather relevant stuff at the moment.”

“The information? Yeah, that’s what I needed to tell him actually. how did you get involved?”

“I’m his advisor, I’m told everything about missions. So I can ‘Advise’.” Taking a hint from the condescending tone, I moved onto a question I was actually interested in.

“You mentioned that it’s relevant right now. what did you mean?”

“Oh, the diamond dogs are causing trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” Our conversation was interrupted by a castle guard walking up to us. It was Shining Armor.

“There you are Shield.” He spoke with authority in his voice.

“Yes sir. I have plenty the information on the cavern.”

“We can talk all about that later. To arms, we’re being invaded!”