As The Sun Sets

Cadance sat on the balcony with her horn glowing. Silver was just standing there, watching her.

Not any different than her spying on me. At least I can see her right now.

The sounds of fighting and horn lasers had quieted down. Cadance was now waiting for them to return the Heart. Something that was taking a concerningly long time. Despite the relative safety, the short interaction with that bull still had her heart pounding. The adrenaline response of being ready to jump into the sky at a moment's notice was still flowing through her, but she couldn't, not while pregnant, not after promising not to. Especially after Shining told her not to.

Another breath.

"Steady on there, Little Princess." Silver stood, and walked over towards her. "I can feel your heartbeat through the floor."

Cadance snorted. "That's not weird at all."

She shrugged and sent her a smile. "Give it a few years, your senses will get funky on you too, then you'll stop being judgmental, just you wait." She plopped down right in front of her, also staring out over the railing.

"Is there a reason you're here?" Cadance asked, followed by, "That you'll tell me without nine verbal hoops for me to jump through?"

Silver's mouth closed. She turned back towards the open air. "Looks like they caught most of the changelings."

Cadance frowned.

Right then.

Silver was doing the same thing Celestia was doing, only more... subtle. It was menacing, at a distance. Now that Cadance was so used to it; if she hadn't known Silver's intentions, the 'act' probably would have fooled her again. Though, she wasn't letting it out of her mind that the mare in front of her was dangerous, and definitely her enemy.

"I'm here to make sure you keep that promise." Silver said unprompted, still staring over the railing. "And to keep you safe."

A lot of thinking and a very healthy dose of wariness clued Cadance into the subtle implication woven between the two statements. Maybe it was Cadance reading into it, or maybe the flashes of ocean and the memory of the promise she made to stay safe changed her mood enough to realize what Silver had actually said.

You think this isn't over. You don't think they can handle it. You think you'll need to protect me, and that I wouldn't have been able to because of that promise.

Cadance took another breath and brought the spellform back to the forefront of her mind.

Silver turned towards her, looking over her shoulder. "I can take that, if you'd like."

"The spell?"

Silver stepped away from the railing, and a chilling, black, pointed stick of metal appeared in her hooves from somewhere. "One moment." The pole went into her mouth from her hooves, and she turned her head sideways and pressed the pole into the crystal floor. The scraping noise was horrendous. Shapes worked their way into the ground around Cadance, Silver going around in a few circles for a minute and a half before she hid the pole away again. "There we are. Touch your horn to the base, and then don't look at it. Should keep the spell going for another few hours or so."

Cadance did so. Silver was her foremost expert on magic, and she seemed to take a certain sort of pride in her work, leading Cadance to believe it would do what she said it would. That, and Silver tended to always do what she said it would. The circle of runes lit as she tapped her horn to it, and she averted her gaze and stepped away. It hummed in a way she could sense, Silver made an adjustment before walking back towards the door.

Cadance watched her leaving. "Where are you going?"

Silver's wings ruffled on her back. "Timing. You get a sense for these things when you're older." Silver's brow furrowed, "I genuinely can't explain it, even if I wanted-" She cut herself off and waved a wing. "Just come on."

Cadance almost turned back to the spell circle before remembering not to do that, and then followed Silver.

Everything is going to be fine.

She told herself. Even though she had the sinking feeling that this wasn't over. Now that Silver had put it in her head. At least the wind chill was gone now that they were inside. "So what are we doing?"

"Doing? Not going?" Silver asked with a smile.

"Can you not?" Cadance shot back, "I've already had enough of this attitude with Celestia."

Silver frowned, "She's here already?"

Already?

She waved a wing, "Never mind that, don't worry about her. She's probably just doing what I'm trying to do."

"Mess with me and destroy the Crystal Empire?" Cadance monotoned, only half asking. "I can't believe you... Luna wasn't lying about her. How could I have made that kind of mistake? How could I have not noticed... That before? It's like she's a totally different pony."

Silver snorted in aggravation, "Now that's insulting. You think that Celestia's one pony? She's more than a millennia old. She doesn't flip faces around like I do, she has to remember all of that. All at once. Cut her a little slack. You probably just made her mad and she freaked out a little."

"I'm not sure that's what happened."

It definitely didn't feel like that's what happened...

Silver shrugged, "Tell me I'm wrong after she apologizes to you."

Cadance tried to flip her mane out of her vision as she huffed, "That's not the point. Why did she have to be so..." A beat passed where Cadance considered using a certain series of words before settling on, "Dramatic? Why not talk to me normally?"

While rhetorical, Silver still answered, "What'd be the fun in that? This isn't a play, Little Princess."

Wh-

Cadance slapped a wing over her face. "Oh my gosh. That's why you keep saying that."

Silver snortled.

It is a play. A drama. I've immersed myself in poetical political intrigue while making friends with my enemy, fighting my mentor, helping her sister, saving a kingdom, all while pregnant. That's genuinely the description for a terrible romance novel.

"You keep saying that because you've been waiting for me to notice that you're lying." Cadance pointedly stated in Silver's direction. Cadance was ready for her though, as Silver opened her mouth and Cadance mockingly said, "It's not lying if it's blatantly obvious."

Silver's comment died from the 'know it all' smile that split her features. "Got it in one."

"Ugh." She tightened the wing over her muzzle, trying to massage away an incoming headache before it happened, "And I only noticed because you basically told me outright."

"You're welcome." Silver's smile turned slightly more serious. "Play by the rules of Fate, and her little brother may just give you a prize for it."

Cadance turned to sarcastically laugh it up at Silver's dramatics, but she was invisible, and the sound of heavy hoof steps were coming. She also felt... Despair, rage, fear. A deep cocktail of dangerous emotions unique to a few enchantments she'd scoured out of the Spire. Cadance took a few steps to the side, bumping into Silver with a quiet 'oof' and hid around the corner in time for the sensation to reach its peak, and King Sombra to go blurring past on a cloud of smoke, followed by some-

Was that a unicorn?

That thought was followed by,

THAT WAS SOMBRA

The intense flight or fight response Silver had helped her quiet filled her again, and she reared up, mostly on instinct before she felt Silver tug her hoof back down to the ground. "Sorry, I thought you were going to step the ot-"

"Silver! That was Sombra! He's alive?!" Cadance whisper yelled

Silver's invisible face cocked a confused brow, "He never died?"

Cadance's hooves tapped on the ground.

"Chill, what do you want to do?"

Ideas, Ideas, Id-

"I need to send a letter to the-"

A quill and a scroll appeared in front of her.

Cadance took a moment to remember that Silver was standing directly in front of her before taking both and scribbling a quick warning. Before she could send it, Silver yoinked it from her telekinetic aura and sent it herself. "Right. Sorry."

She snarked, "Literally why I'm here. Stop apologizing."

Cadance tilted her head, "Why the invisibility... Actually... nevermind, I have the feeling I don't want to know."

"Aww..."

Cadance chuckled. "So what do we do now?"

"Wait."

"What for?"

A scoff. "What do you want me to say? What makes you think I know what's happening?"

Cadance rolled her eyes and sat back onto her haunches. "So we wait."

"You're not gonna ask?"

Cadance smiled towards the sound of Silver's voice. "Does it bother you when I don't?"

"Honestly? No. I'm bored, today is a write off."

"How so? Can't we still stop the bad guys, save the day, go back to the Solstice?"

Silver rolled her eyes. Cadance could hear it in her voice. "Maybe for you, I plan on being a big damn hero and getting myself hurt or something equally dramatic. I dunno yet. It'll come to me."

"You're taking this very unseriously."

"Unseriously? Didn't you go to school for years? How can you be saying things like that?"

Cadance shrugged. "Well you are."

"Says you. You seem pretty relaxed for the current situation."

Cadance ruffled her wings and took a quick mental stock of herself. "Hmm, well, I am."

"Why's that?"

"Sombra can't get through Twilight, all of her friends, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and an entire flight of Thestral guards can he?"

Silence.

Concern.

"Uh, can he?"

Cadance looked to her side.

Did she leave? Silv- Damnit, she would.

"Silver?"

Her voice returned, sounding confused. "Huh? What."

"Did you just space out?"

"No?"

Cadance sighed deeply, and whined, "How is this my life?" to no one in particular just as the Spire shook. She heard... She thought she heard Silver stand up, but it sounded more like several Silver's standing up. "What was that?"

"Don't worry about it. We should get moving. Follow me."

Ticking noises, like soft hooves hitting the title, but in a strange rhythmic pattern led Cadance down towards the throne room. The first thing she felt was the dark magic lingering in the air. She could feel... fear... some twisted sense of violent corruption leaning towards control. Like holding your hoof on a burner to keep yourself from falling after slipping on the kitchen floor. Then the strange skittering noises stopped, and Cadance walked into the throne room.

The place was unused for the most part, but now it had a giant gaping hole in the center of it.

And that crystal unicorn was standing by the window. Frowning up a storm. There was only one mare it could have been, so Cadance took the initiative, knowing that Silver had her flanks.

"You're the mare from Sombra's journals? Hope?" The mare spun around in surprise, and Cadance took several more strides towards her. "You were another one of Celestia's pupils, like I was."

Some flash of recognition flashed through her eyes. Something Cadance couldn't quite grasp. Hope was full of sorrow and regret... and anger. The kind of passionate frustration that could have only come from the world just not being fair.

"Princess Cadance." She said, "You... you look so much like Amore."

"I get that a lot." Cadance added conversationally, "Whatever you're trying to do ends here. Sombra's mission to release the Umbrum won't succeed."

Hope stepped up to her, and circled to her side. "You don't understand. The Umbrum aren't what you've been told. They're magical creatures. Nice! I lived among them and-"

"And they fooled you." A dual toned voice added itself to the fray. Chrysalis came stalking around a corner. "Princess Cadance, exactly the mare I wanted to see."

"You came looking for me?"

She laughed haughtily, the way she liked, "I couldn't just leave without adding your crown to my trophy rack. I'm looking to complete the set."

Lemme try this.

Cadance took off her crown and threw it at the ground near Chrysalis. "There, the Empire is yours. Go away." She turned away from Chrysalis' baffled expression and focused on Hope.

Yup, I understand why Silver does that now.

"You can't free the Umbrum Hope. Even if you were right, I have to stop Sombra..."

If the other princesses are... Oh dear...

The comprehension settled in. Hopefully they were only beaten. Not dead. They couldn't have been. Not Twilight, not-

Shining.

"I'm sorry you feel that way." Hope's horn lit. The inside glowed bright and she poofed to the other side of Cadance already running towards the-

What in the-

Where there was once a gaping hole, now stood a creature reminiscent of the monstrous spider Cadance had fought in Luna's dreams all that time ago. Half pony, sticking up from the base of the thorax. It was Silver, Cadance could tell, but the face and practically everything about them was different.

Hope gasped and slid while trying to stop before bumping straight into... it.

That explains the chittering.

"HeLlO. HoPe." Hope shook, and scrambled backwards as it advanced on her. "I wOuLdN't."

"It would do you good to listen to what the Princess has to say, Hope. Only you have the ties to convince Sombra to stay his hoof in releasing the Umbrum." Chrysalis... somewhat earnestly explained with an attempted air of disinterest.

"How? I saw you shattered-"

"YoU tHiNk DeAtH iS EnOuGh To KiLl Me?"

Cadance stepped forwards, intent on scolding the monster. "Silver, that's enough. You could have just closed the trapdoor."

The monster looked over at Cadance and made an attempt at rolling its shoulders as an 'I'm in the middle of something' gesture. Cadance hardened her look. It... rolled all of its eyes and began to shrink down, legs folding up and in until it was only Silver standing there again.

The mare in question reached a hoof forwards to Hope. "Today I go by Quick Silver. Hi, again. I'm glad you're not dead."

Hope looked back to Cadance in confusion, hoping for answers. Chrysalis snarled, "Can we get on with it please? I don't want to still be here when-"

Cadance smiled her way, "You can go Chrysalis."

"You don't tell me when to leave! I came here to help you! You ungrateful-"

Silver cut her off. "You can go now. Chrysalis."

She grumbled, "That's two." and her wings buzzed in agitation as she made a stomping retreat back the way she came.

Silver turned back to Hope. "You may not trust Chrysalis, but why would Cadance lie? Surely there's something more to the Umbrum that you don't know. At the very least, you could check first."

Hope looked Silver up and down. All Cadance could feel now was disgust and concern flowing from Hope.

Hopefully that was the shock you needed.

"She's right. Surely there's more we can do?"

Hope tilted her head, "I could take you to them?"

"Nope." Silver vetoed. "You see I've met an Umbrum myself. Pregnant Princess isn't going anywhere near that. Shining would wring my neck out."

"Can we go talk to Sombra?"

Silver's face scrunched up at Cadance's suggestion.

Hope turned suspicious, "How do I know you won't hurt him?"

"Oh I wil-"

Cadance interrupted, "No. You won't. Neither of us will. There's a bigger problem at hoof. First strike policy." She took a second to breath, "Something Luna taught me. I'm not... in fighting shape, so I won't try. Not unless Sombra tries to hurt me. Same goes with Silver. Do you think Sombra couldn't handle us?"

Hope side eyed Silver who smiled like she didn't know she was being side eyed but totally did. "I'm... not sure."

"I wouldn't risk it." Silver commented.

Hope came to some silent conclusion, and her ears turned forwards. "Okay. We'll go talk to Sombra." Her horn lit again.

"OoOoO," Silver started, "The Hop-"

-Bamph-

"-e express."

Several things happened at once.

Sombra turned and adopted a fighting pose. "What the-! Hope!?"

Silver swiftly stepped in front of Cadance. Hope tried to do the same, at the same time, and they ended up slamming into each other, Silver's weight sending Hope sprawling. Cadance's wings flared on instinct to the movement as Sombra jumped forwards to get in between all of them.

"Stop!" Cadance screamed in desperation before spells started to fly. "Everybody stop." She said quieter.

Sombra rose slowly, his face creased in concentration. His eyes bled smoke like a faucet, his body barely solid under his cape. "You..."

Silver's ears perked. "You recognize me?"

"I could never forget those eyes, Arbiter of Fate."

Cadance and Hope met eyes between the two of them, neither of them knew.

Silver's voice changed, "Your insanity has left you." Was her question.

"Hope." Was his answer

"Of course."

Silver glanced over her shoulder at Cadance before taking another step towards Sombra. "You know of the monsters."

"Yes." he hissed.

"What?" Hope asked, having collected herself, "What do you mean, yes?"

"The Umbrum. I wish to free them. The Arbiter bids me to stop." He glared, "I will not."

"Sombra-" Sombra's glare flicked to Cadance as soon as she spoke, behind his eyes, she saw her own death. A wave of life flashing before her eyes shook down her spine, a spell, or an emotion. Something so strong that it froze her in place. A moment passed, until she gripped the fear by the root and tore it from her mind. She blinked the smoke from her eyes and returned Sombra's glare. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

Surprise crossed his features. Then resolve. "It doesn't matter." He tapped his hoof twice, and the cavernous hall was filled with the sound of wood scraping on crystal and ice as a bookcase nearby slid to reveal a door. Cadance could feel the magic on it from where she was standing.

Hope gasped, "The door! You..." She looked to Sombra, "You knew- and you couldn't release them... Are they... Are the Umbrum really monsters, Sombra?"

Sombra frowned to himself, staring at the door. "They're as much of a monster as-"

A purple beam of magic crossed between all four of them and struck Sombra in the side. He grunted and spun. Cadance turned too, in time for Shining to step next to her and kneel down, ready to fight.

Oh shit.

Twilight's horn smoked. Her and her friends had piled into the room. She yelled, pointing at Sombra, "You hurt my friends and my family! I'm tired of all of you monsters making a mockery of my life and the things I care about! Not anymore!"

"Twilight no!"

It was too late. Another blast fired across the room, one meant for Sombra. Hope jumped in the way. Cadance saw it all happen in slow motion.

Not enough time to deflect the bolt. I can't move that fast. There's nothing I can do. I... I...

"HOPE"

Sombra wailed. Terror filled his being, and that harrowing depth of despair clawed its way up from where it had been shoved down to and exploded from Sombra's eyes as he turned into smoke. He stared, his face the only thing remaining unchanged by the whirling magic around him. He stared at Hope, groaning and moving on the floor.

She's still alive.

Sombra's gaze turned towards Twilight, only briefly crossing over Cadance. His jaw set with determination.

"You want monsters?"

A crunch of wood followed the door being annihilated in a direction, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. Two moments passed in silence as Sombra rose to his full height, standing defensively over Hope.

Smoke billowed from the floor behind the hole, and hissing and clattering and snarling filled the air. Something stepped through, a host of somethings. Monsters twisting in fleshy smoke, separating and splitting off into only vaguely pony shaped entities that gargled and snarled like they were already eating a pony alive. Hundreds of them tried to flow from the hole, only to be blocked by Silver dropping down from the ceiling.

"Big damn hero."

Her wings spread, bolts of arcane electricity ran up her legs from a circle of runes that had sprouted where she'd landed. Her eyes exploded with white, and her mouth opened to scream.

Cadance felt it, and there was a Spark.

Somewhere, a flower bloomed. A star shined a little brighter in the night sky. A mother remembered her children. Water flowed, mountains turned over in their slumber. Air blew, creatures loved one another. Someone refused to give up. Someone stood tall. Someone realized what it was all for. The Sun burned, the world turned, the sky breathed memories into reality. A single point of focus flowed down from Eternity, shook the core of the cavern and filled Cadance with every moment of her life worth living for.

"ALIVE."

The wall came down. Silver exploded raw, pure, Will into the hallway. The monsters reared back and hissed from the blazing white. It tore into them like flame burning through cotton fluff. It pushed them back.

"Hey! It's that nice mare!" Pinkie commented, unaware of what had happened.

"What is she doing!?" Rainbow yelled over the noise.

Cadance jumped forwards. "She's holding them back! Quick, we have to get out of here!"

"None of you are going ANYWHERE!" A wall of black crystal sprouting from the ground accentuated Sombra's point. It covered the wall and sealed the exit.

"Sombra stop!" Hope shouted. She tried to stand, and faltered. The green glow in Sombra's eyes lost some of its luster as he looked down. "She was right! Princess Cadance was right! They're monsters! Look at them!"

Sombra, somehow bidden to do so, turned to look past the still screaming Quick Silver. The monsters roiled against her and some invisible barrier. Sombra tore his gaze away and growled. "OF COURSE THEY ARE." He shouted back.

Hope hurt. "You knew?" She said in a small voice. Not nearly as much of a question as she was hoping it was.

Cadance stepped forwards, and her nose pressed directly into Shining's shield spell. She ducked and got a little closer. Twilight and her friends were trying to break through the black crystal. Shining was tugging at Cadance's mane, trying to get her down against the wind.

"Of course I knew!" He shouted, "I've always known! I've known since I first noticed I was different! I noticed the moment I looked into that damn Heart!"

Hope's eyes went wide, and she pulled the Heart out of her saddle bags.

Cadance's eyes equally went wide.

Twilight and her friends stopped to watch.

Silver's front left leg buckled, and Cadance noticed that the silver mane was beginning to melt. The shadows roiled closer.

"Your vision." Hope clutched the heart close to her chest. Close enough for Sombra to see into it. "What did you see?"

Sombra stared. "This." Came out with finality. "A monster. A demon. A king." He turned to face the monsters. "and there they are. That's proof of it. This was always what I was supposed to be." He shut his eyes tight. "Even the Arbiter could not change my destiny."

Hope narrowed her eyes, "Sombra! You big, dumb, idiot! Don't you remember what I told you I saw?"

Sombra cast away his despair for a moment as Hope insulted him. His ears flattened against his head. "You saw yourself, a Princess."

"Am I a princess right now?!" She yelled sarcastically.

Sombra blinked.

"I chose my own path, Sombra!" Hope shoved the Crystal Heart in his face. "I chose you!" Her head peaked around the side. "That's all it is, it's just a choice."

Silver's screaming became pained, the fur down her chest was beginning to burn. The smoke-monster-ponies were clawing out to reach her.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Sombra took the Heart in his hoof. Still staring at it.

It's a play.

Sombra lifted it over his head with his horn and swept his gaze around the room.

I'm watching a theater production.

Cadance desperately tried to take the situation seriously, mostly failing.

Silver. I hate you.

Sombra yelled, and his hooves planted onto the ground. "Move! We must restore the Heart!"

Twilight lit her horn. "Leave it to me!"

Cadance's eyes widened. "Wa-!" Cadance only got half the word out as Silver fell, the shadows exploded from the doorway and Twilight teleported them up into the fairgrounds at the last possible second.

-Bamph-