Crystal Shards

by Dezmo

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure
Length: 5998

The Crystal city may have been saved, but what of the ponies?

The Heart of stone had finally showed up when all was lost, and the city was saved. Its power cleansed the land of which everypony stood upon. What it didn't clean though, were the ponies themselves. Dark shards seen growing from the ground are starting to show up on some of the crystal ponies. The battle was won that day, but not the war.

Note: For the best results please read on a computer in Serif, Small, Dark. This story is NOT phone friendly.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-15 18:32:47 UTC

Cold Nights

What?

No!

Stop!

A crystal pony woke up with a gasp in the middle of the night, quickly sitting up disturbing the sleeping pony next to him. He frantically looked around himself checking his surroundings. His home was still here, his disgruntled wife was next to him rubbing her eyes, and even that picture frame was still tilting slightly.

"Mmm, darling i love you, i really do, but could you please explain why you decided to wake me up before the sun?" She whispered harshly in hopes of not waking up their child.

"I ... had a bad dream. look I am sorry dear it was-" He was cut off by the other pony hugging him suddenly. Her blue clear mane shining softly against her crystal white body in the moonlight.

"ooohh im sorry dearie, i get cranky in the mornings, don't pay attention to my mood." She stayed there hugging him, burying her head underneath his chin.

"Honey, we've been married for years, i understand." He trailed off looking through the window thinking back to the previous day. First he wakes up in what feels like a couple of decades, then a sudden wave of sadness hits him and soon he doesn't even know the crystal mare next to him. He mumbled a quick 'sorry' and shambled out of the house into the daylight. Much of that day he forgot, at least up until the point where he saw, him.

There he was, riding a black shard to a speck of blue and purple, looking as dangerous as ever. Then from atop of the castle a pink blur whipped past his face taking the falling objects and landing right in front of the crowd. It was a princess! She had commanded them to charge the shard and so they did, automatically ... autonomously, the crowd all bowed down. Some did it for joy, others did it with disgust. He did it with regret.

For when they all bowed, they all became one. Connected. Once connected the memories came back...

The Tyranny                                                                                  Hate                                                                     Murder           Shards of Broken Ponies                                                                    Cold Winds                                 Famine                                                                                                       Tears

Long Nights                                                                            Regret

Never Ending Days                                                                           Depression                                                                                                    Lies

Slaves                                                                                    Death                                                           Starvation

Rape

Blood                                                                                  Betrayal                                                                          Weapons

As one, the whole missing gap was filled, whether or not they wanted it to. All of the memories made by that dark Unicorn.

"Hey you're spacing off again dear, come on, whats wrong?" His wife nudged him looking up at him.

"Sorry it ... was a nightmare. I had a dream about the dark times again." He squeezed his wife to make sure she was really here. He would never let go of her again. Ever.

"Oh darling im so sorry. I really wish they would stop, should we go see a Seer? I hear they give some very good mind healing." She returned to squeeze along with a nuzzle to his chest.

"No its fine honey. You know, i envy that you cant remember anything about that time." He spoke softly looking at the tilted picture once again.

"Hmm yes, every time you describe it i get the chills. At least i remember our marriage and our daughter. My, that would have been horrible to wake up to." She shook her head slightly.

"Heh, what? Waking up next to a handsome stallion in a bed with the cutest daughter is a bad thing?" He chuckled softly and looked down at his wife. She was not amused.

"Don't push it mister, im still cranky. Come on lets go to-" She was cut off by a soft voice.

"Mommy? Daddy? Im cold." A small shadow was at the doorway, sniffing. Quickly and deftly with eased practice the colt got out of bed and went to wrap his forelimbs around the shivering filly. She turned to face her blue father and went to hug his neck. With the little filly attached he lifted up his neck carrying her to the bed where she dropped next to her mother. While the colt walked around to the other side of the bed, her mother pulled the filly into a hug and pecked her forehead with a kiss.

"Honey your freezing!" She wrapped the blankets around her and the shaking filly. "Did you knock off your blanket again?" She asked the little filly. Looking up with her ears down she nodded her head. Just then the bed tilted slightly and a new weight appeared next to them. He looked at the huddled pair of bodies with a small smile. This was nothing new, and so like all the other times he wrapped his forelimbs around the pair and brought them to his chest and hugged them both.

"I swear you two are the greatest things to happen in my life. I love you both." He said softly. His wife gave him a small kiss on the cheek and let her head rest on his shoulder while his daughter slowly drifted off into her dreams now warm and safe.

Dusty Screens

The morning was slow to come for the three sleeping ponies in the bed. Slowly the sun replaced the cold night with its warmth, gently easing the trio awake. The filly was the first one up, gently leaning back and giving a powerful yawn. Next to her the mare cracked her back and gave a small sigh of contempt. They then looked at the colt already sitting up looking out the window.

"Darling? You ok?" The wife asked softly, looking at him in concern. The little filly, with renewed energy, jumped on his back with all of the force of a teddy bear. " Good morning daddy!" she squeaked. Shaken out of his thoughts once more turned with a smile looking at his back to the filly attached to him.

"Well hello there little monkey, and mama chimp." He said, noting his wife's hair was a complete mess. She caught on too and responded by throwing a pillow at his face.

"See if you get any breakfast this morning. Come on little one, lets get you ready for school." She gently got off the bed and motioned the filly to climb on her back. Reluctantly the filly let go of her father and latched onto her mother. They turned and walked off into the hallway towards the bathroom.

With the pair gone the colt once more looked outside, seeing the first of many ponies coming out of their homes. Most were just trying to remember their schedules while others tended to the city. A thousand years of being left alone has made the place quite a mess. A fizz was heard and the crystal mirror across from the bed lit up, humming softly while colors started to pour into the frame.

"Hellooo~?" A male voice came from the makeshift screen. Slowly the colors aligned themselves to show a soft green colt and white mane peering into his room. "Wakey wakey, wheats and eggsys~" The voice grew in volume and if he didn't act soon a song number would pop up any moment from now. Acting with haste he threw the same pillow at the screen signaling he was up.

"Oh hey a pillow! Nice throw by the way. Come on Jim, up and at it." The voiced chimed in response. His name was not really Jim, but Gem Emerald. Since they both sounded the same he ended up sticking with it. With a slight groan Jim trotted up the screen giving a sour face.

"Already Forest? Don't we get a day off to fix up our lives?" Jim spoke while looking through his dresser to find his work items, knowing the answer already.

"Sorry Jimmy, our job with the tech crystals are a priority. We need to fix and recalibrate the signals that way we have communications back up and then we can start organizing the city, oh and were working in the west district today." Forest said while letting his face grow small and a map pop up next to him highlighting the area of work.

"Boss is a being a major dick today so no lunch break until we get at least more than half done. He wants this done, fast." The map fell off the screen and Forest's face replaced it once again. Jim had just finished setting up his glasses and looked up at Forest just in time to see him too, put on his glasses.

"Ive sent the information to your Specs and some other stuff of interest as well. Tools will be there, and hot coffee as well. Don't take to long, and tell your wife i said hi." With that Forest popped out of existence and the mirror returned to its dull reflecting shade. There in the mirror a blue colt with a grey mane, and glasses, looked at himself and sighed. His vision briefly danced with colors and soon words started to spill into his eyes. Out to the side he noticed his wife with a sad look.

Welcome!

Specs v2.03.1982 Booting...                                                               OOO+++++++++++++^+++++++++++++OOO

Files loading...                                                                                            OOO++++++++++++/+++++++++++++OOO

System Loaded                                                                                             OOO++++++++++++|++|+++++++++++OOO

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Now Synching With User                                                                   OOO++++++++++++|++|+++++++++++OOO

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Syncing Assisted Crystal Tools...                                                OOO++++++++++++++/+++++++++++OOO

Synched                                                                                                           OOO+++++++++++++v+++++++++++++OOO

Loading Previous Session...

ERROR Retrying...

Retrying 2...

Retrying 3...

ERROR Files P:// User Gem/Specs/Loadout/Work/14092 Corrupted

Reloading To Last Saved Point...

Please Wait...

Complete.

Welcome Gem Emerald.

Gems and Crystals

"Your leaving already?" She asked, pawing the ground slightly. She knew it was futile, He had an important job and they needed the income. She sighed at his small smile and started to walk towards him. Jim wrapped his hoof around her and held her close. He knew the question was rhetorical, but it didn't stop him from getting a pang of guilt.

"Hey Mom! Mom! Mommy! The water is gonna overflow! AAAAAAAAAHH A SPIDER!" A voice echoed from down the hallway towards the couple. They both laughed, thankful for something to take their minds off the gloom. With speed the fillies mother went to help with her bath. With another laugh, Jim walked towards his closet preparing himself. In the middle of the closet stood a stand holding a big semi transparent crystal piece. It was the shape of a shoulder pad worn for ponies. An arch showed where the neck went to hold it, while the shoulder part was custom made for each pony to fit on tight. It only covered Jim's right shoulder and half of his neck where it meets his chest. On it was an assortment of gems and crystals. Tubes of light beamed through out the whole piece as Jim got closer.

Shoulder Pad Detected

Reading SPad...

Personal Spad Detected...

Pre Loading Setup...

Please attach your Spad.

Jim got to the stand which was a bit taller than him and crouched under it. Standing up, his neck filled the arch and his shoulder snugly held up the crystal piece. Despite its size it was remarkably light weight, it being mostly air on the inside while having a hard dense cover to protect it on the outside. It was a familiar weight on his right side and immediately he compensated for it by slightly leaning to his left. His Specs lit up once more, happy to be finally used.

Spad Acquired

Loading Settings...

Loaded

Test Firing Photons...

Test Successful

Test Firing Levitation Cys Mark v1...

Test Successful

Test Firing Shield Gm Mark v1...

Test Successful

Slot 3 Empty

Slot 4 Empty

Loading Profile...

Welcome Gem Emerald

Loading Preferences...

Set Up 1 Loaded

WARNING Power Levels Low

With his work tools on he trotted off to the kitchen for a quick breakfast before he left. Passing the bathroom in the hallway he heard his daughter splashing around along with the strain in his wife's voice, but the filly was oblivious to it. Smiling he reached the kitchen and with a thought, he opened the pantry. As he levitated a box of cereal he accidentally knocked over another small box which started to fall towards him. With partial instinct and training he quickly thought of of an unbreakable wall summoning his shield. The box hit a shimmer of energy about 1cm away from his head and bounced off harmlessly to the floor. With a small sigh he thought of the small box and focused it returning to its spot in the pantry. He briefly thought back to his first classes about his work tools.

Since the whole crystal city was run by earth ponies they needed a way to substitute magic. With the help of the Crystal Princess she had enchanted various mines around the town with different spells. Most mines had levitation crystals while other had minor shield gems. Crystals were great for spells that required focus and thought, while Gems exceeded at spells that required less focus and thought. Some mines however contained various other spells as well. During his leadership he enchanted mines with attack spells such as lighting, fire, frozen air, and other deadly spells. The first of the many spells mines were called the v1 series while counting up for every other mine in chronological order. Since they were among the first ones the spells within them got weaker overtime thus making their value drop. Meaning the higher the v count, the better the spell.

Incoming Message From

Forest

Hey buddy, sorry but you seriously need to hurry up, boss is getting impatient. Also bring me some of that cereal your eating too. Hurry!

Jim was startled by the message popping up in his vision. He had forgotten about that. With speed he finished his cereal and packed a small baggy for his friend. Quickly running to the bathroom he kissed both his girls on the cheeks and wished them a good day. Once he got to his door he grabbed his ID Card and stowed it in his many Spad pockets. He opened the door to the sun greeting his face with the glare of its power.

Thoughts and Mares

New Area Detected.

Searching Library For A Map...

Success

Loading Map 1/3...

Loading Map 2/3...

Loading Map 3/3...

Success

Showing Map

G=You

XXX=Path

?=Unknown

L=Life Form

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Jim stood there at his front door as he looked at the crude blue map. With a snort, and a thought, the map zipped away from his vision since he already knew where he was going. Remembering the trio of L's on the map he spotted three young colts playing tag off to his left. He smiled at the sight and gave a small nod to one of the colts he knew. His daughter knew him too, but Jim was keeping an eye on them both.

His walk was predominantly uneventful. Like he saw this morning form his window, many of the ponies simply walked around to figure out if they needed to help with something. Until communication was back up the whole city was 'dark'. Jim sighed at the thought, he had to do his job so other ponies could do theirs.

Incoming Transmission From Forest

He blinked. With a thought he accepted the call.

"Hey! I found your Specs on the Grid. Slight detour with the map. Apparently were fixing the systems themselves, not the wires." Forest's voice flowed into his mind. This type of communication was always tedious since the other pony could hear, and see, your exact thoughts.

"Fantastic. You know, i may be an earth pony but i still detest the tunnels down there. How bad is it?" Jim replied with practice. He mentally pulled up his map zooming out enough to find Forest's Specs.

"Hmmm, nothing to bad as far as i can tell. Some standered wire changing, A new Red Cys Mark v4, and Blue too, couple of Gm Cooling Mark v3, the usual." Forest sent along with a 'snap shot' of the damage. "Just old age buddy, which speaking of it, how old are you now? I see your mane is getting grey." Forest giggled at the last part.

"My mane was always grey you ass, now send me the snap shot again, you switched to my hair before i could properly see it." Jim responded smiling. Forest would joke a lot but he made up for it by knowing his job.

"Oh right sorry, jeez they should really ... i dunno upgrade these spells? Oh Luna, imagine speaking to a mare on the job trying so hard not to think of her plot." Forest sent the shot again along with a very detailed plot of the secretary of their building.

"I see the damage. Oh and i noticed you still have a crush on miss Shimmer? You do realize she thinks your a complete creep right?" Jim laughed as both pictures almost fought each other to escape his mind.

"H-hey! shut up. Just get your grey mane down here and help me fix this. Besides, how can you not think of her?" Forest asked while you could subconsciously hear his tools slamming into the crystals.

"Im married remember? Not that hard, and besides talking to my wife through this gives great practice." Jim replied just as he got to the service door to the tunnels.

"Actually ive been meaning to ask about that..." Forest started.

"Ask what?" Jim obliviously asked.

"Have you guys ... ever ... Ya know. Done it via Telepathy?" Forest slowly asked.

"Forest. Shut up." Jim thought.

"I didn't hear a no~!" Forest quipped before his mental call was cut from Jim's side

Connection Lost

New Area Detected

Searching Library For A Map

Success

Loading Map 1/2...

Loading Map 2/2...

Success

Showing Map

Welcome to Cys Cavern 43/179

Dark Shards

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The door behind Jim clanged loudly as it shut, sealing him in the hot damp tunnel. He took a brief glance at the automated map and made it disappear as he found Forest's mark. The humid warm air made him start to sweat as he walked to the two crystal machines near the wall. He heard the clanging of gems getting put into their slots and the tinkling of shattered crystals falling to the floor.

"Hey there Jim, did you bring me the cereal?" Forest said as his voice echoed, without looking up from his work.

"Yeah i got it, how did you know i was eating a bowl anyways?" Jim replied as he thought of the bag floating next to Forest. He set himself up behind him and started to take the covering off the other machine. Their job was fairly simple, take out the bad parts, put in the new ones. The hard part was that it was tedious and slow, and if you made a mistake you could fry the whole system and yourself.

"Pfft, that was easy. Seeing as you greeted me this morning with your wife's pillow i figured you did something to make her mad at you. Thanks by the way." His voice was muffled as his head was inside the machine. Without even looking small chunks of the cereal were floating up into the machine to his mouth.

"Damn his perception." Jim muttered. He looked at the old machine in front of him.

It was a sorry sight. It would need a couple of new Gm Cooling v3, A ton of Red Cys mark v4's, and what looks to be a new Photon Light Distributor. Jim looked behind him to find a saddle bag full of gems and crystals of all sizes. With his levitation he shifted through the labeled crystals to find what he needed. As he shifted around he found a random crystal that did not belong in there.

"Crys EMR Mark v9? Hey Forest what the hell is this?" Jim asked as he found another crystal just like it. Forest stopped his steady flow of cereal and shuffled his head out of the machine. Taking the crystals out of Jim's hold he lifted them into the meager light above them to get a better look. His face was curious, then a brief shock, and finally a wide smile.

"Finally! hey man check this out." Forest got to work inserting the crystal into his Spad while floating the other to Jim again. "This is so cool. Ok lets see ... uhh ... EMR stands for Electro Magnetic Radiation, which is a really fancy talk of portable torches!" Forest rambled while Jim noticed Forest's Specs flashing various colors. Soon Jim was nearly blinded by the light that came from Forest chest where the crystal was being held from.

"Pretty neat huh?" Forest asked grinning like a fool.

"It would be if you got it out of my eye." Jim muttered and after Forest moved he could see again. Once his vision was semi normal he began inserting the crystal into his Spad. "Well at least we got something out of this. Could always use a good torch for the dark." Jim's vision started to flash colors.

New Node Detected

Calibrating...

Reading Files...

Located Files

Running Spell...

Test Firing Crys EMR Mark v9...

Test Successful

Finalizing Setup...

Complete

Jim looked around with his new set of light, testing the beam on the ceiling. He could focus the light into a really tight beam to see very far but it would limit what was lit, while on the other hoof he could set it wide and light everything but it had a short distance. He was still playing around with it, getting a feel for his new thoughts when he heard Forest sneeze.

"Bless you." Jim said.

"Bless you." Forest said.

They looked at each other.

The Sneeze

"Uhhh..." Forest looked at Jim with a puzzled look. Jim quickly and quietly waved his hoof to shush him and sent out a thought to call his Specs.

Calling Forest

Connected

Receiving Transmission...

"Why are we talking in here? I thought you sneezed." Forest's thoughts started to jumble into Jim's head making it hard for him to focus.

"Hey, Hey! calm down. The front door is a sealed ID locked version. How did something else get in here?" Jim had to force his thought into Forest to get him to stop rambling. Along with that he sent a picture of the front door he used to confirm his thought.

"I uhh sorry. Yeah that looks like the door type. Dude i know the war is over and all but what the hell is down here with us?" Forest's thoughts were beginning to stray again. Jim's mind were filled with visions of his ruling period and the scenes of what happened in the tunnels started to come back to him.

"Forest! Keep it together, your not helping me thinking about that shit. Calm down, its been well over a couple of decades so everything should be dead down here." Jim once more had to focus his thought into a needle like fashion and pierce through Forest's rambling. Along with doing that he pulled up his map cursing at what he saw. He made his map highlight a certain spot and sent it to Forest. "Hey forest pull up your map and see if it matches with mine. I highlighted it red."

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"Yeah it matches .. Jim what the hell. I swear this place was empty when i got here, i fucking scanned when i called you that's how i found you! This isn't good we should leave, we have to get out of-" Forest was beginning to panic. Memories of what these tunnels were known for were pouring back into his mind flooding into Jims.

"Forest you better pull yourself together or i will knock you out and carry you. Calm. Down." Jim thought long and hard forcing all of the horrible thoughts back into their memory slots. The last thing he needed was a knocked out pony with something in here. He couldn't really blame Forest for his thought process, his parents had their grim fate down here. Forest had seen the pictures.

"I .. I .. j- just tell me what to do. Can we go? please?" Forest's thought were getting wobbly in Jim's head. He took a glance at Forest and he was shaking badly. Jim sent out various thoughts of the tools behind him getting put up in their bags, closing the machines and sealing their frames, and to send a distress signal to their boss. Back during the first days of installing the machines in the tunnels it took a while for the ponies to realize these caverns weren't empty. This signal hasn't been used in years before his rule. Hopefully they still recognize it.

"Yeah come on, I sent a message to our boss. You lead, ill follow right behind you watching our backs. Thank goodness for these new EMR crystals." Jim thoughts were getting wobbly too, he was terrified but Forest needed the calm mind Jim, not panicky Jim. He had let Forest lead since that would be the less stressful and he purposely left out that the message was actually a distress signal.

Forest merely nodded his head and started to walk to the front door, checking behind him often to make sure Jim was still there. Jim pulled up his map and refreshed it as fast as he could. He almost screamed at what he saw, fighting his own thoughts to not appear into Forest's head.

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Jim was panicking. He couldn't see the one right in front of him! He focused the beam of light and shone it clearly past the blip on his map, he formed a sphere and searched the whole floor for it. And two more popped up. "Hey Forest i need you to trust me ok? Im going to end this call but stick with the plan. Open the door and lets get the hell out of here." Jim hastly thought before his panic could flow into Forest's head.

"But-" Forest stopped and looked behind him at Jim.

"Keep moving and just trust me! Ok?" Jim shoved his back leg into Forest forcing him to keep moving. Forest sped up and before he could reply with a 'yes' the connection was cut.

Connection Lost

Jim was sweating bad. Finally he could scream within his own mind. Swear words alone can not describe what he is feeling. Fear and paranoia were flowing everywhere in him. His back was shivering making his hair stand up. His map was getting more red.

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Forest finally reached the door and with a heart stopping second seemed to have trouble getting it open. With a shove the door finally gave flooding the cavern with sunlight. Jim had been searching nonstop for that one L in front of him and as he stepped out of the door backwards he looked up, seeing a pony crawling on the ceiling of the cavern, its jet black eyes staring at him with its mouth slightly open. A black shard was jutting out of its neck. The heavy door closed with a thump.

New Area Detected.

Searching Library For A Map...

Success

Loading Map 1/3...

Loading Map 2/3...

Loading Map 3/3...

Success

Showing Map

Plan A

Black.

The ponies eyes were black.

Jim continued to stare at the door, imagining the thing breaking down the door to get to them. His breathing was shallow and quick, his ears trained solely on the door. He jumped when he heard his name.

"Hey Jim, what do we do?" Forest asked as he too stared at the door expecting it to do something. With a flinch Forest received a call and answered it quickly leaving Jim to his own thoughts.

Jim was still shivering slightly, his thoughts keep centering around the ponies eyes. How was it climbing? Its head was not right. Those dark eyes even shadowed the cave itself. It had a shard sticking out of its neck. Jim gulped and slowly forced himself to bring up his short term memory and look at the brief shot he got.

A light pink pony, seemingly walking on the ceiling, its head head turned completely facing Jim with its mouth slightly open. Its eyes were open and darker than the cave itself. The body was clean, no scares nor blood, just dull skin and coat. Jim couldn't make out the sex of the pony, not that it mattered right now.

"Hey Jim, that was Cobalt, he said we need to lock this door and to not let any of this out. Class 1 Plan A protocol." Forest said with a slight sigh. "This isn't good, were not the only ones to have this encounter, Cobalt mentioned some other ponies that were working in other caves that won't respond." Forest trembled slightly as he said that.

Jim let out a snort and looked at Forest for the first time, noticing his eyes were getting red with stress. "Ok ill lock this door, you get someone talking and find out what were doing next." With a quick nod from Forest he walked a bit away to get some little peace he could, and from the door.

Welcome Gem Emerald

Input thought Action...

Processing...

Execute System Lock Down on Hvy Tanium Door?

Accepted

Starting Spell...

Locking a door is unfortunately common around here to the point were there is a whole spell dedicated for specific types of doors. Being a member of the City Crystal Company Jim has access to all the spells capable of locking, and unlocking, any door. His thoughts soon entered the matrix of the woven lock spell for the heavy door in front of him. It was a simple 1/0 switch that accepted an ID and denied anything else, all Jim had to do was configure the setting to deny everything making it completely inaccessible to ponies without the unlocking spell.

With the door now forever shut he turned to see Forest finishing up his thought call. Jim briefly thought back to when Forest was first assigned to him, just shy of three years after Jim became the leader of his group. Being on of the first to work within the crystal jobs, Jim was considered a high ranking official. Though as time passed crystals soon started to branch out into so many fields of work that he had to specialize in one.

"Ok Jim, we have orders. You uhh got the door locked?" Forest still looked a little spooked from the whole ordeal.

"Yeah. Simple deny spell, should stop anything short of breaking down the door." Jim stated as he walked next to Forest, more because he wanted to get away from the door.

"Thanks. Come one we need to move, ill send you our orders but basically its to meet up with the other teams. Seems some of them are still not responding. This is not looking good." Forest said as he started to turn around, facing the direction his map pointed him to. Jim stopped him and gave him a serious look.

"Hey, are you ok? I can say you felt ill and you can go home. I need to speak with Cobalt and the others anyways." Jim asked softly.

"No, no its fine. I mean ill be fine. Its just, i have to- well i want to get over this ya know?" Forest forced out the words while looking anywhere but Jim's face.

"Hey its fine, i understand. come on lets get out of here." Jim softly said while they both turned and trotted to the meeting point. A ball suddenly landed in front of the door, following it was a lone colt. A mere blank flank playing all alone. He looked up at the big ominous door, wondering what secrets it had behind it. Still within his fantasy the colt walked up to the door and knocked on it acting out in his head that he was a knight showing up from his job. A sound was heard from the other side of the door, and the colt dropped his act. Soon a soft thump was coming from the other side, never changing power or missing a beat. Just slowly thumping away.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Black Mind

The pair walked in silence for the most part. Forest deep within his thoughts revolving around his parents while Jim focused back on the thing once more. This wasn't new, in fact there is a plan for this when it would happen. When he was in ruling for his short years this new phenomenon came like a plague. Ponies working so close to the dark shards started to become sick, soon leading to cold shivers and lastly losing their color. It was always a soft pink, with them losing their hair and the eyes slowly darkening until all was left was an endless void.

These things had a name but Jim could not remember it. After a short time the doctors realized that shards were growing on them, effectively making ponies, into living dark shard farms. No matter how many shards you broke off, within the next day they would grow back twice the size.The infected ponies themselves were harmless, slowly walking around like a newborn with no clear goal. It was the shards that were dangerous as when you got close to them they could infect you. The most morally correct way when dealing with these ponies were to clear their body from shards and then put them in a cage to protect everyone else, or you could just outright kill the host of the shards forcing the shards to shatter instantly.

While they knew how to deal with them, they knew very little about them. They would get sick, start to slowly go quiet, shards would form, and soon they were mere foals walking around doing nothing in general. What would make them dangerous were the shards on them forcing others to quarantine them. Few ponies have tried to talk to them, most assumed all brain function was set back to foal status and mere herd like animals, much like their prehistoric predecessors. The ponies had some mental capacity to mimic an action, but after a short while the motion would die out and they would wander again. The most interesting thing everyone seemed to point out was that all of the infected ponies had their mouths slightly open, though many studies showed they breathed in through their nose and exhaled from their mouths. When they exhaled it was a slow and steady flow.

All in all these ponies were harmless, besides the black shards, merely big foals. That did nothing to stop others from getting scared of them. These infected ponies were eerily quiet, softly shuffling anywhere undetected. With their eyes always open and mouths slightly agape they made a quiet but powerful force in a room. Slowly they would turn their heads, watching you, mimicking you, studying you. Eyes never blinking, mouths never closing, sleep was non existent to them. The most disturbing ones they found were the actual baby foals being infected. They acted just likes foal, but soulless. Being so small and quiet, they would scared ponies and make them pass out when they were discovered. A popular story was when the first baby infected foal was found on the back of a pony. Apparently it was there the whole time and when he turned around to get something in his saddle bag his face was level with the baby's face. He passed out and emptied his bladder.

Jim was pulled from his thoughts as Forest pointed out that they were here. Wherever here was.