Into the Light

I got about a mile from Ponyville before disaster struck.

No, calling it a disaster was the understatement of the century. This was the climax of my wild ride in life, and I was not ready in the slightest.

I had joked about what I would do if Celestia flew down from the sky and landed in front of me, but now that it had happened I was ready to faint.

She had landed a short ways in front of me, and was now walking towards me.

Maybe it had been that librarian, Twatlight Sporkle or whatever her name had been, that had told her my whereabouts. Of course I would come across the one pony in all of Equstria that could send a message directly to Celestia.

Maybe I had been doomed from the beginning. Maybe the universe had it out for me. Maybe I should just give up and go along with her. She hadn't killed me before, so maybe she really did need my help. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe I had actually gone crazy, and this was all some hallucination.

"Silver Lining."

Yeah, no, thanks. I fainted.

Was that how other ponies felt around me? Like there was nothing they could do to oppose me, as if I were invincible and unstoppable? But if I'm not, then maybe she wasn't either. How could I though? Assassins had had several millennium to kill her, but still she sat on the throne. If who knew how many generations of greedy and power hungry ponies hadn't managed it, what chance did I have?

Wait, I was awake. So I wasn't dead. That was good.

I opened my eyes. Slowly, because I was not panicking in the slightest over the fact that I had actually fainted in front of Celestia. I was going to remain calm and collected, because I was safe, and not about to be hit with a star.

Right?

I was looking at the same white ceiling I had seen last time. Well, it looked the same at least. I glanced to my right. The window was intact, so I wasn't sure. I pushed the sheets off of me, and tried to teleport.

I landed in the middle of the room. I was so surprised it had worked I nearly lost my balance.

No suppressor. Did she trust me not to go on a murderous rampage? That was progress toward a truce, at least.

There were several things I could do at this point. The first would be to wait for sompony to come and get me, which, if my last visit was anything to go by, would be in less than a minute.

I could also, theoretically, leave my room and explore the castle. I'd have to leave right now though, or else I'd simply walk into whoever was sent to get me. There were also no doubt guards outside my door, though they wouldn't have the courage to stop me. I felt kind of bad about that, but I that was the way ponies thought of me.

My last option was to run. Again. And not go to that insane town, Ponyville.

That probably wouldn't work out very well for me in the end.

Well, I thought I had about thirty seconds before somepony arrived, so I began walking towards the door. If nothing else, I would see how predictable this place was.

I gripped the handle with my magic, then, right when I thought I heard something, I pulled it open. There in the doorway stood none other than Sparkly (was that her name? It sounded closer), her hoof poised to knock three times.

She seemed surprised. "Oh, uh...hello. If-if you would follow me please." Most ponies calmed down around me once I didn't kill them, or steal their soul, or eat their fouls, or whatever else ponies were convinced I did. Not her though. I mean, each time we've met up till now I was the one running for my life.

She turned and began walking down the hall at a brisk pace, and I followed. The guards that had been at the door began moving as well, bringing up the rear.

I wondered who this Sparkle pony was. She said she lived and worked in the that library, yet this was the second time she had been in the castle, and I was certain she had some way of getting messages to Celestia.

The only method of mail that fast was either teleportation, or dragon fire. Since the only pony I knew of that could teleport that far was Celestia, that meant she had access to a dragon. Where though? In that tree? In a cave nearby? What was with her?

I shook my head, and I heard the guards move suddenly. Were they that jumpy?

Sparkle stopped and turned to a door, and I barely kept from walking into her.
"The princesses await you inside." She said. Then she turned and walked past me, back down the hall we had come from.

This was bad. Princesses?! Ohhh, every time I managed to convince myself I wasn't about to die, something had to happen. Why couldn't I just be left alone?! All I wanted to do was become a medic! It's not my fault my damn cutie mark was a skull!

"Silver Lining." One of the guards spoke in a gruff, even tone. Most ponies wouldn't dare try to order me like that, but I suppose he was spurred but the fact that the most powerful ponies in existence were just beyond the door.

Right, that wasn't a reassuring thought at all.

So I turned to the door, and did my best to calm my nerves. Which just meant I tried not to throw up. It wouldn't matter if I did, I hadn't eaten anything in nearly two centuries. I stepped forward, and pushed open the door.

I stared at the floor as I entered. I at least wanted to be in the room if I collapsed again. The door shut behind me, then it was deadly silent. I was almost tempted to look up to see if I was alone, and this was all some elaborate prank.

I didn't move though, just listened for movement. Wings rustled as somepony shifted.

"Silver Lining, you needn't fear us." That was her voice. The last thing I had heard before I had passed out these last few days. I was really considering a third nap right then.

"Please, Silver, we need your help." Who was that? That was a knew voice. It wasn't Princess Luna, I'd heard her before.

The Princesses await you

There were three Princesses in total. Celestia, Luna, and Mi Amore Cadenza. Was that Mi Amore? But she governed the Crystal Empire, she shouldn't have been in Equestria.

Celestia should also have been in court that day, right?

So something was actually happening. Something was going on, something to do with the Crystal Empire. How did I have anything to do with this? Why had they gone to such lengths to get me?

"Sister, do you think she's all right?" A third voice said. My head snapped up. There were indeed all three Princesses in front of me.

"They." I said. Each of them looked taken aback. I'm sure I had surprised them with my sudden movement. "I do not identify as male or female." Right, now I was definitely going to be sent to another plane of existence.

Cadance spoke. "All right. Silver, I know you are very upset and frightened of us. But please believe me when I say that we don't want to hurt you." I clenched my teeth. It took all my self control not to sneer at her. "The reason we ask for your help is because of an ability you posses." You mean the fact that I can heal virtually any wound, and bring ponies back ponies from the dead? What I've been trying to do for four hundred and fifty years, impeded at every step by you three?

"If you want me to resurrect somepony," I snapped, "you're much too late."

Now Luna spoke. "Prince Shining Armor, Cadance's husband, has been missing for little under two weeks. He went missing somewhere in the fields near the Crystal Empire. Though search parties have been looking tirelessly since his disappearance, the area is huge, and the weather is treacherous."

I understood now.

"So you want me to find him." I said. "If he's been missing for two weeks in one of the coldest places ever inhabited, do honestly think he's still alive?"

"He is." Cadance said. "I can't find him, not the way you can, but I can feel his love for me. He is alive."

If anypony else had said that, I would have told them they were delusional. But she was an alicorn, so it was possible she really could feel him.

And now I felt terrible. I was possibly the last hope she had of finding her husband, and I had spent the last five days running from Canterlot. Nearly half the time he had been missing.

I sighed slowly. "If you believe he is alive, I'll look for him."

Her eyes brightened. I suppose she was expecting me to refuse to help. If Celestia had told me her husband was missing, or even Luna, I'd have told her to get over it. But I had nothing against Cadance.

"Thank you." she said. My eyes snapped to her. I still didn't trust her.

Cadance drew my attention again. "If you'd be willing, we could leave for the Crystal Empire immediately."

"Fine." I said. I looked back at Celestia. "If he's in a grave enough condition, I'm going to need my vials."

"Your belongings will await you at the train." She replied. Cadance stood, clearly eager to get thing moving.

"I have a few things to collect before we leave, but I won't be long." She said, confirming my belief. "One of the guards outside will escort you to the train." With that she teleported away, leaving me with Celestia and Luna.

"Thank you for agreeing to help, Silver." Celestia said.

I turned and left the room, niceties be damned.

I couldn't remember the last time I had been on a train. They were bumpy, and loud, and just generally annoying. But in situations like this, looking outside the window at the powerful storm raging just beyond the glass, I could see the appeal.

Celestia had kept her word though, and I now had my dagger and vials back. I had decided I didn't want the old cloak though. That thing was nearly forty years old. I liked the new one I had gotten from Rarity better.

We should be just a few minutes from the Empire now, but I couldn't see more than a few hooves through the snow. I was told it was a sight to behold though, and I wished I could have seen it.

I was also starting to doubt that Shining Armor was still alive. They said that this storm had started just after he disappeared, and hadn't let up in the slightest since then.

Maybe there was a connection between the two occurrences.

What? What the hell was I even thinking?

I shook my head. The train whistle blew, indicating we were arriving. I opened the window and stuck my head out, squinting against the wind. Just as I'd thought, I couldn't see a damned thing.

I pulled myself back in and shut the window. There was snow all over the cabin now, but that wasn't my problem.

I opened the door and stepped out to the corridor. There was nopony else. Aside from the staff, Cadance and I were the only ones, not even any guards. Which was odd. Even if they trusted me, the guards should have been standard procedure.

I was waiting by the exit, watching the storm as the the train slowed when I heard hoofsteps behind me.

"Silver." Cadance said. My ear turned to her. "Thank you for doing this."

"You're absolutely certain he's alive." I said. This was one of the worst blizzards I'd ever seen. It was kind of scary, and I didn't even feel the cold.

"Yes." She said, standing next to me now. It was odd, she wasn't scared of me at all.

The train lurched to a halt. The door opened, and the snow hit us like a wall.

I stepped out onto the platform, and nearly fell on my face when I sunk up to my knee in snow. Cadance followed me, but was either expecting the snow or had learned from my mistake, because she had no such trouble.

"Follow me." She shouted over the wind, and began walking. I had no idea how she knew where she was going, but wasn't about to question it.

I began to think about her as we walked. We had talked some on the way here, and I had learned a bit about her, and her, me. She had, apparently, been a pegasus before "ascending" to an alicorn. Then, her wedding was attacked by a race of shape-changers that fed on emotion, who had been previously unknown. I was going to have to verify some of that. Aside from those wild stories, she was a nice pony, and didn't seem to be at all afraid of me. That was probably the best thing about her. She treated me like any other pony.

It had definitely been nice.

I was beginning to wonder if we really were lost when something appeared out of the storm. It was...a bubble shield? Is that how the Empire survived these storms? A permanent shield? I couldn't imagine how hard that was to sustain.

Canance walked right through it onto a road. There seemed to be no snow on the other side.

I walked into a wall though. Cadance was still walking, apparently oblivious to my absence. I knocked on the shield. I couldn't hear anything over the wind, but maybe it was quieter on the on the other side.

It would seem not, since she continued to walk without me. Okay. I was literally being left out in the cold. Well, she would eventually notice I wasn't with her.

I turned away from the shield. I had been brought here to find a pony lost in the snow so...the sooner the better?

I reached out, and was surprised I couldn't feel past the shield. Whatever that thing was, it was extremely powerful and selective with who, and what, it let through. I could feel the hearts of hundreds of small animals, but nothing that felt like a pony. It would seem the train had left already as well.

The fact that I hadn't found him immediately wasn't concerning. I had been told the fields around the Empire were huge, so it was possible he was simply beyond my reach, or even on the other side of the city.

So I began walking. I was sure Cadance would be upset when she came back and couldn't find me, but I didn't want to sit around and do nothing. Actually, it probably wouldn't be too long, but I was already walking. Might as well keep going.

I decided that once I had made my way all the way around the shield, or at least when I though I had, since there were no real landmarks I could see, I would begin walking in a larger circle. It was possible he had been lost further out, and had taken refuge in a cave in the mountains that surrounded the Empire.

I was actually glad the shield blocked my senses. It would have been significantly harder to find him if I had the background noise of tens of thousands of other ponies. Telling the difference between a pony and an animal was much easier.

Around I went, never feeling anything but the animals beneath the snow. Honestly I was surprised there were any, given what was considered normal weather, but if they survived then who was I to judge. I also vaguely wondered where the search parties Luna had talked about were.

I don't know how long I walked. It could have been twenty minutes, or an hour. Eventually I felt a pony. No, three. I lit my horn; it was probably a group sent to find me. So I stopped walking and waited for them.

It was Cadance and two guards. "Where have you been?" She shouted over the wind.

"Looking for Shining Armor." I replied. "The shield wouldn't let me in, and you didn't seem to notice I wasn't with you, so I decided to start searching for him."

She looked upset at that. "What do you mean the shield wouldn't left you through?"

"Exactly what I said. You walked right through it, I hit it like a wall." I said. "Come on. Do you want to find him or not?" I turned around and continued walking the same way I had.

"Wait!" She yelled. "We know the general area he was lost in." I turned back to her. That would have probably been a better place to start. I knew I should have just waited for her.

Her horn lit, and the world went white. Well, more white. Then we landed in the snow again. I stumbled. I had never teleported with my senses extended, and it had been extremely disorienting. I had felt...something. Like millions of ponies. More than that. So many it had been overwhelming. What had happened?

"Are you all right?" Cadance asked. She was much closer than she had been. When did that happen?

"Uhh..." I started. "I think. I was reaching out to feel for hearts when you teleported us. I'm just...kinda dizzy."

She was clearly concerned, but didn't say anything. I shock my head, which was a mistake. I fell into the snow. Cadance said something, though I didn't hear it clearly.

I wondered if I was going to faint. What had happened? Why was I so nauseous? I just lied in the snow. I would just wait till it passed. Hopefully.

"Silver?" She said. I looked up at her. She looked worried. I guess that was understandable. She was so close to finding her husband, and the only pony who could help was laying on the ground.

"Hold on." I said. I slowly got up onto my haunches, and shut my eyes. Then I reached out, slowly. I could feel the three around me. Further. Nothing.

I reached as far as I could. I felt a blind spot at the edge of my senses. That must have been the Empire. There was something else though. It...well it felt like death. Like the shroud that fell over a pony when they died. I had felt it before. But it was only upon a pony for an instant, then it would vanish, along with them.

This wasn't vanishing though. That shouldn't be possible. That would be a pony in a state of permanent death. But if they were alive, that could mean they couldn't die, since they were dead.

Wow, calm down.

I opened my eyes. "Can you still feel him?" I asked.

"Yes." She said. "Why? Can you not find anything?"

I shook my head. Didn't fall this time. "It's not that. I can feel something, but I don't know what it is." I stood and turned toward the thing. "It's this way."

We walked in silence. Well, relative silence. The wind was still howling, the blizzard giving no indication of relenting any time soon.

It was directly below us now, deep under the snow. I turned to Cadance. "There is something directly below us. It might be Shining Armor, but I'm not sure. If it is, I'm going to ask you don't embrace him immediately. He could be gravely injured. If it's not, I ask that you help me contain it."

She seemed upset at that. "What do you mean you don't know what it is? You can tell the difference between ponies and animals, right?"

I sighed. "Yes. That's not the problem. I'm going to teleport it six hooves in that direction," I nodded to my right. "And just above the snow." I turned to the point I would teleport it to. I reached out to the thing. I could tell roughly how big it was thanks to the shroud.

Gathering power, I said, "Are your guards ready?"

"Yes!" Two voices replied. Excellent.

I released the spell. With a flash, something fell into the snow. Something white.

"Shining!" Cadance shouted. She began to move, but one the guards held her back by the shoulder. That was the most useful thing I'd seen a guard do in a long time.

I walked closer to it. The feeling of death was overwhelming. I retracted my senses, but I could still feel it, like a nasty taste on my tongue. Nasty and delicious, like a cake with way too much sugar in it. I only hated it because I told myself to.

It was a unicorn. White coat, blue mane. Male, from the looks of it. He had a shield for a cutie make. This fitted the description that Cadance had given me. He had a large gash on the back of his head, and his back left leg was twisted unnaturally.

Thinking of Cadance, she was next to me now. "Oh Shining." I grabbed her before she could get closer.

"Wait, please. This thing, I... I don't think this is Shining Armor."

She whipped around to face me. "What? How could it not be?"

"It's covered in a shroud of death. I only feel something like this when a pony dies, and even then it's fleeting, and gone within seconds. Just being near it is making me feel sick."

She looked back at it. "I...let's get back back to the Empire, and we'll see what's wrong with him."

I wasn't able to heal Shining Armor. I was afraid of the reason that might be. We had decided that it would be best to get him to a hospital at that point.

Apparently the reason I hadn't been able to enter the shield was because the Crystal Heart, which powered the shield, and was in turn powered by the love of the ponies within the Empire, had identified me as a necromancer. It seems it had considered that to be dark magic, and wouldn't allow me through. Once Cadance had made me a citizen of the Empire though, it had let me in.

I was kind of disappointed I had become all sparkly and stuff, but I guess that wasn't really important.

Once we had gotten Shining to the hospital, the doctors had done everything they could, but he didn't wake. They eventually declared that he was stable. After that, Cadance had been next to him for a while, crying the whole time. I had waited outside. I could still feel him through the walls. Distance seemed to be the only thing that diminished the effects.

Now though, I was sitting on the floor next to him, staring at a vial. One of the vials from my belt. It had a black substance in it. It flowed like a liquid, but took up the whole container like a gas.

It was his soul.

I had never seen such a dark and twisted soul.

Some ponies, in rare and extreme cases, could not be healed. In those cases, I could contain their soul in one of my vials, and use it to resurrect the pony when they died. It was unpleasant for them, but they usually forgave me since they were alive and well.

I had taken Shining Armor's soul as a precaution in case he died suddenly, but now I was sitting here wondering why his soul would look like this. Most ponies had very light silver souls. The worst of "normal" ponies had souls that were slightly darker. Psychopaths, murderers, and ponies that had no empathy had grayish souls.

His was black. It looked like smoke from a fire.

The feeling of death had not relented, no matter what I did. It was euphoric, wonderful, something I had denied myself my whole life. I shook my head, tried to focus. I needed to to focus.

I couldn't heal him. I was afraid that if I tried to kill him and use his soul to resurrect him, it wouldn't work. Or maybe I was just telling myself that.

I didn't believe he was such a twisted pony inside that his soul would be like this. I didn't think that was even possible. I thought that something had attached itself to him, to his soul, and was keeping him alive, but on the brink of death.

I had sent somepony to get Cadance a few minutes ago. I didn't actually know what I was going to tell her.

Yeah, hi, something has attached itself to your husband's soul. So I can't help him, and if he does wake up the thing will probably have complete control of him.

That was basically what I had to tell her. I really hoped I was wrong. But who would know death better than me? She would take anything I said as the truth in this instance, and I didn't want to say something that ended up completely false.

"Silver? You wanted to tell me something?" I looked up. She was on the other side of the bed, eyeing the vial in my magic.

"Yes." I swallowed. "You...do you know what this is?" I shook the vial a bit.

She hesitated. "It's a soul, isn't it? Is it Shining's?" How the hell would she know that?

I looked down. "Yes. Do you know what a normal soul looks like?"

She hesitated. "If that's not normal, then no, I don't." I took a second one from under my cloak, pulling the cork out of it. I whispered Cadance's name, then a string of words in an ancient language that even I didn't understand. I only knew what I had to say.

A silvery-white substance began to leak from Cadance's eyes and mouth, and quickly made its way into the vial. After a second it stopped, and I slammed the cork back into it.

She sputtered for a second, before I said, "Don't worry, I'll give it back in a minute. But look at it. This is your soul. It's relatively light. This is what the majority of ponies' souls look like. The darkest I've ever seen before today was that of a murderer, and his was a grayish color." Aside from mine, I didn't add. I pulled the cork back out, and her soul quickly made its way back to her, entering the same way it had exited.

I put the empty vial back in it's holster. I looked at the black vial. "I...I don't think this is Shining's soul. I think something attached itself to Shining as he died. I can't heal him, and I can't get the shroud off of him. He...as far as I can tell, he's dead, but not really, and I can't help him. If he recovers naturally, I fear that whatever it is that has inhabited his soul will have control."

I looked at Candace. She looked like she was going to start crying again. "I'm sorry Cadance. But that's the only thing I can think of that would explain the state of his body and soul."

She started sobbing, holding onto Shining's foreleg. I wished there was something I could do. Anything. But this was beyond me.

No. There was one thing. "Candace?" I asked quietly. I didn't want to tell her this. She looked up at me though, clearly hoping I could still save him somehow. "I know you won't want to hear this, but in the event that he has been possessed, and whatever it is that has possessed him is malevolent, I would recommend that you get the Elements of Harmony here. They might be able to clean him the way they did Luna." I swallowed. That wasn't the bad part. "In the unlikely event that they can't though...this vial can be used to kill Shining, and whatever it is that has him, no matter how powerful it may be. If you open it far enough away, the soul will be lost, dispersed into the universe. That will simulate the death of the individual, instantly killing him."

I looked down. The last thing I wanted to do was kill him, but if he was beyond help, that would be the best solution.

"Silver." I didn't look up at her. I was afraid of how angry she would be. Angry alicorns were generally bad for your health, even if you couldn't really be killed. "Thank you."

Now I looked up. 'Thank you'? Why was she thanking me? I just told her how to kill her husband if he had an evil spirit in him!

"Thank you for everything you've done." She continued. "And for the warning. But I think we'll be able to deal with it. If you'd like, you can stay in the Crystal Empire, or you can return to Equestria."

I smiled at her. "I guess I'll stay. I'll continue to help if I can, though this is beyond anything I've ever dealt with."

Now she was smiling too. I suppose this wasn't as horrible as it could have been.

I looked back down at Shining Armor. But maybe the horrors had only just begun. For now though, I needed to get the hell away from him before this feeling drove me crazy.