End of the Elements

“Why can’t we fight him now?”

“Because we cannot fight him alone,”

“Why not? The elements of harmony -”

“The elements of harmony do not work within the premises of the city. That wall stops our magic” Celestia reminded.

“Then we destroy the wall,”

“With what?”

“Magic,” Celestia sighed.

“But our harmonic magic is useless near the wall.”

“Then what should we do?” asked Luna, frustrated.

“We need to…”Celestia paused, thinking

The two were pacing across the a small field half a mile away from the limits of the City, made by the wall. They looked at the tall gray spire of the Crystal Palace...gray?

“Luna...what color was the Crystal Palace when we got here?”

“White, it was a bright…” Luna turned. Her mouth fell open. “What...what is he doing?”

“He’s using his Dark magic against the light magic embodied in the building itself.” said Celestia, the more scholarly of the two.

“We can’t let him get away with that,”

“We need a plan! We can’t just barge in there and-”

“ Why not?”

“Look. Sombra’s men were able to take on the Crystal Guards, and killed the Crystal King, who was adept at the exact opposite of the magic Sombra advocates Now, they have magical defenses…” Luna sighed.

“Do you have a plan,”

“We need to contact Daffodil and our own army.”

“And lay siege to the city!”

“No! I want to do this quietly. Listen.” She leaned close to her, and whispered in her ears for a few moments. Luna’s eyes lit up.

A week later, the palace of Sombra would be subjected to the final stage of its transformation. The once shining capitol building, one of the finest pieces of architecture in the world, was now a dark gray. It had been subjected every hour, on the hour, to a dose of powerful dark magic. Now, it had changed. It had taken much longer than he thought, the building must have had far more powerful enchantments than he had thought, but at last, it was done. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the source of dark magic itself...hatred. He had been hated, by his mother, a reminder of the affair she’d never meant to have, his stepfather had hated him, hated him so much he’d thrown him out. He had been forced to live on the streets of the Crystal Empire. He’d grown up hating, hating his parents, hating the thugs on the street, who he’d had to fight off for years, until he became the thugs, he had a group, but he would not rule the alleyways in the night, oh no, he would take on the government, and he had, and he had won. He would rule the world from this, a capital of hatred, and dark magic. His eyes opened, glowing with dark essentia, a bright purple, as a bolt of black magic shot out of his horn, hitting the high vaulted roof and finally, it changed. No longer was it a sickly gray, but a beautiful obsidian black. The black spot extended, covering the roof, sloping down through the walls. The once glowing throne was now as dark as the rest of the room. Sombra laugh, a dark, evil laugh. He heard screams from outside, the citizens were panicking. Sombra trotted out, still chuckling.

“Crystal Ponies!” he shouted down from the balcony to the gathering crowd. “Some time ago, I conquered this empire from the insipid and useless Crystal King.” There was muttering in the crowd, but no one dared speak out. “Now, you might have noted the changes we’ve been making. The wall, and,” he looked up at the dark castle. “The Castle’s renovation” he said, smiling. “These are the signs of a complete turnaround for this empire. We have been for centuries an empire of light. Now, we will change. Darkness is more powerful than light. For proof, look at who rules you, and who he took over from.” More muttering. “Anyone who disagrees...says so to me!” His guards moved forward, surrounding the crowd. They would kill the first to voice disagreement. A figure stepped forward. Whoever he was, his head was covered by a robe. “I say so,” said a strong, feminine voice. Two guards approached, drawing out steel axes. Both swung, and the figure, with greater talent than Sombra would have guessed, dodged both. The axes clanged against each other, and tangled together. The figure threw her robe off, and, by the translucent mane, the dark wings, and the long horn, Sombra gathered the Luna had made her way into the crowd. She had a long sword, and, at the sight of it, the two soldiers abandoned their attempts at untangling axes, and fled. More figures threw off robes to reveal leather, golden, and dark iron armor. Sombra stared, transfixed, as Celestia flew up towards him. He snarled, unable to meet her in air, and sent a blast of dark magic at her, which she dodged.

“Surrender now Sombra!” she called out.

“Why? I am surprised you acted, yet, but that does not mean that you can stop me...you can’t use your harmonic magic.”

“We don’t need our harmonic magic.”

“We can cause enough chaos-”

“I’m surprised you’d dare, but chaotic magic doesn’t work around here either!” snarled Sombra.

“We can cause enough chaos with simple magic,”

“Prove it” he shouted at the Alicorns. The two smiled and their horns lit up with a magical glow. Sombra’s eyes widened as the moon rose up blocking out the sun. Darkness filled the air, as ponies screamed. His guards were running out of control, bumping into each other and tripping over pebbles. The only ponies unfazed by this were the Equestrian troops, who continued towards the palace, up towards the throne room...his throne room. Sombra roared in anger, pulling out a few spears and throwing them with his magic out of the balcony, hopelessly trying to hit Celestia and Luna.

“Surrender!” Celestia shouted from behind him. He struck blindly, but felt nothing.

“NEVER!” He shouted, continuing to swing and blast magical bolts across the room to no avail.

“Then we must stop you” Luna said. A loud blast sounded from a distance. By a pain in his magic, he knew what it meant...his wall, his nation’s best defense, had been broken. He focused. He needed light. His horn glowed, and by a poor beam of light, he noted that he was facing the throne. He turned, and there they were. He blasted Luna, then Celestia, but, now able to use harmonic magic, they blocked easily.

“Kill me then,” he said, dropping all pretense. “You have bested me. Rule the Crystal Empire as you see fit.”

“Really?” said Luna.

“No,” said Sombra, annoyed. “I’ve spent years planning this takeover. You didn’t think I had no backup plan if my wall was breached and I could not defeat the attackers.” The sisters took a step back. At the same moment, the doors burst open, and guards poured in. Sombra grinned, and hit the first with a bolt of dark magic. He gasped, and turned to dust. The guards backed away, raising their shields, while the unicorns levitated bits of stone at him, which he repelled easily.

“Stop now Sombra.”Luna shouted. In answer, Sombra shot another bolt of magic at the unicorns. Their eyes turned green, and they started shouted, fearful of something that was not there. Celestia ran towards them, but backed away as a few started to wildly swing their swords in her direction. She turned to Sombra.

“What have you done?”

“Simply bit of dark magic. I’ve made them see their worst fear.” He chuckled at Celestia’s incredulous expression, and, unfortunately, did not notice the build up of energy from Luna’s horn which sent a bolt of magic straight at him. He turned, terrified, his eyes widening in realization that this was the spell he had sent to turn one of the guards to dust earlier...his own magic. His body was sent flying and it landing in the throne, a heap of dust. Celestia turned on Luna.

“What have you done?”

“I defeated him,”

“You used dark magic...that’s unethical.”

“We were in a bad place...we needed to be a little unethical,”

“Luna you can’t just-” she was broken off by laughter...Sombra’s laughter.

“You didn’t really think my own magic would destroy me?”

“Well, you are dust now!”

“A minor setback,”

“If you say so…” Celestia raised a hoof silencing Luna.

“You can’t keep this up for long...I’d give you about five minutes, if you are really powerful,”

“I don’t need five minutes,” the voice was angry now. The dust rearranged itself into a smoky mass, with glowing green eyes.

“I only need one spell,” His horn glowed.

“It’s the vaporization spell!” Celestia screamed, and her huge wings opening, she fled, Luna in hot pursuit. The pegasi, startled, dashed after her, as the wingless ponies eyed Sombra in terror.

There are few accounts of the final moments of the Crystal Empire. Some say the city was completely destroyed, turned to dust like the tyrant king himself. Other’s say it was consumed by dark energy, then sank into the frozen wasteland surrounding it. But the guards, the only survivors who spoke of it, as neither Celestia nor Luna have ever spoken of it, saw the entire episode from inside the throne room. They spoke of the massive walls evaporating, and of the gasps of the Crystal Ponies - they only had time to gasp- as they too turned to dust. The spells power wiped out the entire city but for one object.

Celestia turned. Her army was standing in the snow, an icy wind blowing snow in their faces. The Empire was gone. It had vanished. Well, most of it...almost all of it. All that remained was a single crystal, the finest piece of Crystal magic to ever be created. It had been hidden when Sombra had taken over and had thus been saved from Sombra’s corruption of the castle itself. Lying in the snow, the jewel gleamed brightly, even against the white snow.

“What happened?”

“He vaporized the Crystal Empire,” Celestia said softly. “All of it...the entire city,”

“Why are we still alive?” a guard asked.

“The beam was weak. I think Sombra made it focus exclusively on Crystals and crystal ponies.”

“Then why is this thing still here?” said another guard, gesturing at the Crystal heart.

“It was more powerful than Sombra.”

“What do we do with it?”

“We keep it here,” protests rang through the army.

“Why?”

“Do you not know what it is doing?” Luna asked.

“No,”

“It is rebuilding the Crystal Empire,”

“You mean that it isn’t gone?”

“It is now...but the heart will be able to rebuild that Empire, and all of its inhabitants.”

“Including Sombra?”

“Including Sombra.”

“How long will that take?”

“Centuries...maybe even millennia.”

“What should we do?”

“Remember, and leave” answered Daffodil, who had just trotted over. The troops nodded, and turned from the wasteland, heading back to the mountain ranges that marked the border of Equestria.