For years, the name Queen Morganite has been tossed around in many kinds of Crystal Empire folklore. From the mysterious and kind Lady of the Dark, to the bitter wind blowing through your mane, it is unknown what her true identity is, or if she was ever a real pony at all. Some say that she was made purely for telling tales of the days of King Sombra. Others have different theories.
The search for any evidence of there ever being a pony named Morganite remains today. There was only one recorded queen of the Crystal Empire, and she existed before Sombra took control and threw her over. Her name was not Morganite, though, nor did she have the peach colored coat that was described in Morganite’s myths.
A small percentage of the disputers have a different approach, and a rather peculiar one at that. Perhaps King Sombra had a queen at his side, but not for very long. They believe that she somehow went against his all powerful word, so she was locked away from civilization until the day she died, when the Crystal Empire vanished.
Of course, there’s no evidence of there being a queen at that time, either. So which is the right answer? Nopony would take an ancient fairy tale so seriously, and if she was ever real, would somepony have said something about her to Twilight? Or is she one of Equestria’s mysteries, never to be truly discovered.
Not anymore.
You see, a spell was cast upon the entire empire. Not the vanishing spell, mind you, but one much earlier. A spell that forbade ponies to remember her, or be able to speak of her existence. Kind Sombra refused to be reminded of her again, even though his heart continued to beat for her. And, as we all know, spells wear off at some point.
Hm? You never thought his “black as night” heart could ever hold the feeling of love and care, you say? I’ll get back to that later.
Everypony secretly loved Queen Morganite, and even that is a terrible understatement. She yearned for the freedom of the Crystal ponies, but her voice was never heard through the dark reign her husband brought forth. Morganite tried for years to break the shackles and chains around her subjects, but every time she did, it only angered Sombra further.
I imagine this will get difficult to understand if I go any longer in this direction so I’ll start from the beginning, when Sombra was only but an outcast, and Morganite was a lovely maiden of the Crystal Empire.
“Mom, I’m going to the marketplace!” the young mare called through the house, her voice chipper and light. “I’ll be sure to get the berries, okay?”
Another mare, with a wise yet cautious tone, replied, “Thank you, Morgan. And please be careful! Sombra might be out today.”
Morganite, or Morgan in case you wanted to repeat her whole name every time, rolled her eyes before walking out the door. She knew that Sombra would be out that day. That was one of the main purposes of her walk that morning, besides shopping for her mother.
Every morning, Morgan would go out into town and buy more food for her and her mom. Her father had died not too long after she was born; Morgan didn’t take it as hard, since she never knew him too well. But her mother got so depressed she needed medicine for it, and hardly went outside unless it was for the Crystal Fair. It seemed to be the only thing that made her really happy anymore.
Morgan finally made it to town. She was lucky she always went in the morning where there wasn’t as much of a crowd. If the square was much more full, there were awkward moments next to each other and a whole lot of pushing and shoving. Morgan wasn’t one for social interactions, so she was perfectly fine when it was nearly empty.
Around her were stands for all sorts of things. Books, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and other novelty things that Morgan deemed useless for her.
“Crystal berries, crystal berries, crystal berries...” Morgan repeated to herself, her eyes darting every which way. Usually she’d know exactly where they were, but her mind was focused on the one thing that mattered to her.
Morgan’s sight landed on the berry stand. An assortment of berries laid across the table, but she didn’t have any time to search for them herself. She was already running late. Looking up at the rather unamused stand keeper, she asked politely, “Can I have a box of crystal berries?”
The mare, whose dark blue mane was wrapped in pink ribbons, glanced over from her book, then picked up a box and put it across the counter. Morgan tried to ignore the embarrassing fact that the box was extremely close to her as she pulled out three bits and tossed them back to the stand keeper. “Thanks!” she added, then turned and left. The mare didn’t seem to care.
It was a few days ago when Sombra had insisted that she go and see him that morning. He sounded so urgent that she thought it must have been important. Was something the matter? Or was there something exciting. Then again, you can never know with Sombra, she concluded in her mind while almost galloping to the library.
The alley between the library and the old apartments was where they always met. Morgan didn’t understand why, but Sombra wanted to stay in the shadows, and when she suggested they move into a brighter area, he looked somewhat scared and uneasy. She never asked again.
There was a change from light to dark, and the only light was the small piece from above. By that time, she had gotten used to it and was quite comfortable seeing in the lack of light.
He hid himself from the other Crystal ponies, in fear that they would do any harm to him. Instead of a beautiful, glowing coat of jewels, he was born with dark smokey fur, and his hair was as black as night. His eyes were what anypony would define as “pure evil”. Anypony but Morgan, at least. Most ponies insisted that he was born from the darkness itself, but Morgan knew very well that his parents were just two types of ponies, a unicorn mare and a Crystal stallion, and his eyes were just a birth defect.
“Hey, Sombra!” she called, gently putting the bag down at the entrance and walking slowly down the walls. They were dripping with an undefinable liquid. “Where are you?”
“Behind you.”
Morgan shrieked and stumbled over her once graceful hoofsteps, hitting the floor with the hard clank of her crystal exterior. When she flipped over, large and menacing red eyes stared down at him, yet they were filled with laughter. “Are you alright?” he said, extending an arm.
Her face burned. She pulled up to the ground and brushed herself off with a hoof. “I’m fine,” she sniffed. “What did you want me here for?”
The young unicorn shuffled his hoof against the ground. “I have something...” He suddenly became nervous. “I want to ask you.”
“Is it important?” Her eyebrow raised.
“Very.” Sombra’s raised back.
Something random clicked inside Morgan’s mind. “You’re not going to ask me to marry you, are you?!”
His face turned so pink that she could clearly see it through the darkness. It was kind of cute. No, don’t think that! “W-what?! No! It’s completely irrelevant to that! We’re not ready for that!”
Morgan smiled. “Fine, fine. Then what is it?”
Sombra let out a deep breath. He touched her hoof as he said, “I want you to rule this empire with me.”
Morgan’s heart did quite the acrobatic trick. “Rule this empire?” she asked in disbelief, and shirked her hoof away from his. “We already have a queen! We’re just fine as it is! And we’re too young to rule an empire! Why do you want to do-”
The words that spewed out of her mouth quickly melted away with Sombra bringing his lips to hers. At first, she had no clue what he was doing. They hadn’t kissed full on the lips yet. Sure, it had been three years, but neither of them were sure when to do it. But she quickly forgot all of that and returned it. She could feel his growing fangs pinch her skin, but the pain was ignored.
After what felt like hours but was only seven seconds, they pulled away. “I want to do this because the system of this place is out of order,” Sombra said in a lower voice.
She narrowed her eyes, now remembering why she was upset in the first place. “What do you mean? Everypony is treated fairly.”
“Everypony?!” he barked, and she suddenly felt small. “When was the last time you saw me getting treated fairly, hm? Never! They treat me like I’m a monster!”
Morgan sighed. It was another one of his mood swings. One moment he could be going on a make out session, and the next he’d be ranting about everything that existed. And Morgan made the mistake of talking while he was. “You’re not a monster.”
“Then tell the Crystal ponies that!” the unicorn snapped. “They won’t listen to you anyways.” He turned away from her and started walking toward the end of the alleyway. “So I’m going to make them listen.”
There was a silence that neither of them knew how to fill until Morgan talked. “So what are you going to do, overthrow the queen?”
He faced her, his eyes alight with ideas that Morgan should have been scared of. “With your help, yes. We can make a new empire, one where we can make the ponies of this land suffer for their sins. It’ll just be you and me, ruling side by side.” He grabbed her shoulders with a warm touch. “We can have whatever we want, and we can have our revenge.”
“I...” Morgan was at a loss of words.
Sombra stepped back. “I figured you wouldn’t decide immediately. Look, I’ll give you tonight and tomorrow to think about it, and you can come back tomorrow night and tell me your decision. Just... please consider what our future will look like.”
Only one day? That’s not enough! But before she could convey any of her thoughts to him, he sunk into the shadows and was gone in seconds.
