Diary of a Mad King

Tonight was the first night Relic and his team would spend in the Empire. Something about being the only ones in a completely abandoned place with thousands of abandoned buildings would give most ponies the creeps, but Relic and his team had gotten used to this sort of scenario. Gathered around a warm camp fire they ate their soup while chatting about the days finding. All of them that is, except Relic. He was being unusally quiet and nopony seemed to notice, which was fine by him. His mind was too preocupied, too distracted by what was still in his saddlebag. Whenever he tried to pay attention to what his friends were saying his acquisitive thoughts kept returning to the diary of King Sombra. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. Quake Sphere, who had joined the team shortly after Relic and Amber, was in the middle of explaining how he had unearthed an ancient blade when Relic decided it was time to excuse himself.

Standing up, he announced the first excuse that came to his head, "I'm sorry for the interruption Quake, but I'm feeling kind of tired so I think I'll get some shut-eye now. Thanks for that soup Granite, as always you surprise us with your freaky cooking skills."

"Are you feeling OK Relic? You've been kind of quiet this whole time and seemed to have your head in the clouds." asked Lime Stone, a unicorn with a tender heart and a degree in medicine.

"Yeah I'm fine, thanks for the concern though. Night everyone." With a convincing yawn, Relic started to retreat to the solace of his tent. Once inside he eagerly looked for his saddlebag. Spotting it across the tent, he began rummaging through it until at last he found it. The diary. Looking for a source of light he grabbed an oil lantern and was pleased to see there was plenty of fuel left. With his back facing the entrance of the tent, he was about to turn it on when he heard the flap of the tent swing open. Crud. Closing the diary rapidly, he put it back into his saddlebag and turned around to face the intruder. It was Amber. Relic felt frustrated, all he wanted to do was continue reading the King’s diary, he needed to know what happened next. He locked eyes with her and that frustration was replaced by guilt. He could see the concern in her eyes, she really cared for him, and here he was getting mad at her presence.

“Relic, what’s wrong? I know you well enough to know when something is bothering you. You’ve been acting weird ever since we returned from the King’s castle.” Walking closer to him, she noticed he was avoiding her gaze, with a hoof, she turned his head towards hers and whispered, “You can tell me anything, remember?”

Relic looked into her eyes, she was right, he could tell her anything. He trusted this mare more than anyone else, just being this close to her filled him with joy, being able to tell her anything felt good. Grabbing her hoof with his, he gently placed it on the ground and hugged her, “You’re right, there is something I need to tell you, or rather, show you.” Distancing himself ever so slightly from her he whispered, “But you can’t tell the others, at least not yet. Promise?”

“Of course.” she whispered back, curiosity aroused.

Reaching once more for his saddlebag, he took out the diary of the king. Locking eyes with Amber he handed the book to her. “I found this in a room located up the stairs I went up. It’s…It’s a diary written by the King himself, after a war that apparently took place with the Crystal Empire.”

Amber simply stared at the book she now held in her hoofs. This sounded huge, she felt slightly irritated that he hadn't told her earlier, “Why didn’t you tell me about it when we were in the castle?”

“I don’t know…I guess I was still trying to process what I had read, I think it would be best if you read it. I should go outside and talk to the others, so they don’t think I’m ill or something.” Moving the flap of the tent to step into the icy night, he stopped. Turning around he looked at Amber, “And thanks, I should have never kept this a secret from you, my love.”

Amber flinched at those last two words. Turning around, she saw Relic staring at her with a smile. She couldn’t remember him ever saying that, he sounded so serious, so sincere, it exited her. With her heart pounding, the only thing she could do was turn away, blushing.

Relic stepped outside, the cold wind immediately biting into his coat. Looking around, he saw everyone had retreated into their tents, except for Quake and Lime Stone, who were busy cleaning the dishes. Walking to them he noticed they were looking at him. “Everything alright guys?”

“I guess so, you definitely seem a lot better, did Amber work her ‘magic’ on you?” Quake said and laughed, Lime Stone giggled next to him.

“If by ‘magic’ you mean a nice conversation, then yeah.”

“What was bothering you anyways? You’re usually so talkative, so cheerful, don’t tell me, big brave Relic Wonder is afraid of the cold,” teased Quake. As if on cue, a gust of chilly air swept down and spread throughout the camp, it felt like thousands of small needles striking their coats.

“As if,” started Relic, “But we should really get something to cover ourselves with, our coats can only provide so much warmth and it’s getting colder. I don’t want to catch a cold while on such an important expedition.”

“Way ahead of you,” said Lime Stone. Extracting three thick blankets from his tent he covered himself and his friends. With his eyes closed and a grin on his face, he proudly said, “It is important to always bring proper equipment when venturing to somewhere possibly hostile, I would also advice we move closer together so we may preserve body heat.”

Looking at each other, Relic and Quake burst into laughter. Lime opened his eyes and stared at the pair, blushing, he looked down.

“We’re sorry Lime,” said Relic when they had settled down, “We can always count on you, and you know that. Forgive us for that sudden outburst,”

“Let’s change the topic shall we?” proposed Quake, “What sort of atrocities do you guys think King Sombra imposed on his kingdom? I’ve heard that he could strike down an entire family and not lose any sleep over it.”

Relic tensed at the mention of the King.

Lime Stone seemed to also be interested in this topic, “From the few archives I found in the library of the Crystal Empire, I imagine him to have been quite the fearsome ruler, not capable of feeling love, non-forgiving, always expecting things to go his way.”

The gears in Relic’s head began to turn again. Why is it that all the stories we’ve heard depict him as such a monster? That’s not at all what he sounded like in his diary, especially when he spoke about  Queen Umbra. “Hey, did you guys know the King was married?”

Quake and Lime turned to him, curiosity plain in their faces. “How did you find out? Now that I think about it, you and Amber haven’t told us about what you found in the King’s castle.”

“We haven’t? Well there was nothing really major like what you guys found,” lied Relic, “Mostly just old, worn out, walls and whatnot, but we did see various portraits when we walked in. They were of King Sombra and a good portion of them showed a mare. I could tell she was from this kingdom because of the way she looked and…don’t take this the wrong way, she was beautiful.”

“Hmm, I’ve never heard of a Queen, what about you Quake?”

“Nuh uh. As intriguing as that is, it’s getting late, I’ll see you fellas tomorrow,” said the brown earth pony, getting down from the chair and walking across the snow covered ground to his tent.

“He’s right, good night Relic, can’t wait to hear about what else you and Amber discover.”

“Good night, and don’t worry, we’ll keep you guys…informed.” Getting lost in his thoughts again, Relic didn’t even notice Lime walk away, when he finally snapped out of it he was sitting alone, under the treacherous wind. “Sheesh, we need to put up something to protect us from this forsaken weather. Maybe magic?” Relic told himself as he strolled back to his tent. Stepping inside, he saw Amber sitting, with Sombra’s diary on the ground next to her. “…How much did you read?”

“…Only the first entry, I couldn’t bear to read any further,” she locked eyes with Relic, “Could the crystal ponies really do something so horrendous? And if so, why haven’t we ever heard about any of this?”

“I don’t know, but I haven’t finished reading the first entry.” The tent floor was covered in warm blankets; Amber made room for Relic to sit and stayed silent. Reaching for the King’s diary he braced himself for whatever he was about to read. Opening it, he looked for the place where he had left off.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I was furious but you managed to calm me…with your company, your voice, your reasoning. We returned that day humiliated and I tried to forget the whole thing. But that night…that same night that group of crystal bastards started it all! When they hurt our subjects! Was it not enough to ostracize us from their territory? Was it not enough to hate us? They could have left us alone if they despised our kind so much. Why then, did they decide to take up arms? They called us barbarians, yet there they were, they had followed us and waited until our defenses were down to strike. What cowardice! What unreasonable malice! They broke down our Kingdom doors, charged in; iron raised high, started fires, struck down fathers and mothers who tried to protect their families…a small group of cretins they were, and soon they were overwhelmed. But just like the flames that scorched our kingdom that night, the flames of war they ignited in me would burn for the next three years. And I’ll admit it…it felt good to kill…no, what am I saying? Where are these feelings coming from?

I remember the first battle, it was a victory for us, but…it felt so empty. I had never been to an actual bloodshed before. I had never before taken another’s life, leaving their families and friends without a loved one…but why should I care? Why should I care for them when they didn’t care about us? Why should I feel bad about killing the oppressors who wouldn’t accept our hoof in comradeship? Why should I care about the hypocrites who never once looked at us with compassion and understanding!?

Our kingdoms warriors were mighty, and we would have won the war had it not been for their damned princesses. Did they hate us too? They always spoke about harmony and understanding, yet here they were in full battle armor felling soldier after soldier. They didn’t seem intent in stopping the fighting once it began. They didn’t seem inclined to offer an apology to mend the wounds their dogs had opened. Or was it perhaps…that they were scared? Were they afraid of the dark power our land holds? That same power we know nothing about, that we DON’T want to know anything about. Is that it? Did they decide we were a possible threat and sought it fit to exterminate us? Damn them! I would never dream of conjuring up that vile power trapped in the depths of our kingdom. No one has used that power in centuries, millennia! Our ancestors might have been savages, but they weren’t brain dead fools, they knew what happened last time one of the rulers of this kingdom tried to conquer that evil magic, they knew how it almost destroyed our kingdom...

As I sit here, writing this, tears strolling down my face, I wonder what awaits me. There is nowhere I can go…no one to love…nothing…maybe the shadows speak the truth. Maybe the best thing for me to do is give in, that way, I can right this injustice. An eye for an eye right? NO! fool, what am I thinking? That’s the last thing you would want. Oh Umbra, why have you been taken from me? I don’t know what to do, your soothing voice isn’t here to calm me anymore, your company is no longer here to give me joy in utter darkness, and your reason isn’t here to guide me. I should

…I have decided to end this entry here, a guard has advised me ponies are rallying outside the castle. Umbra, let your wisdom guide me, let me be like you and carry on, even in these times were everything seems lost. Let me be more like you, resilient, wise, strong…until the end.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Exhausted, Relic closed the diary, that seemed like a good place to stop. It must be pretty late and the others would question him if he overslept. He could tell them he stayed up late doing something but that could easily be misinterpreted when you share a tent with your marefriend. Speaking of marefriend, he turned his head to were Amber had been sitting and noticed she had fallen sleep. He stared at her, thinking of what life would be like if she suddenly passed away. He quickly seized those thoughts, no, don’t even think of that, it’s too painful. Moving closer to her he gently moved her hair, which had fallen over her face, and moved in closer to kiss her. He realized how just being this close to her made his heart beat faster. Good night…my love. With a kiss, the day seemed to have reached a proper end. Lying down, he thought about what it must have been like for Sombra when Queen Umbra was killed, he couldn’t imagine, or rather didn’t wish to imagine what he must have gone through. Thinking about loosing Amber made him feel pity for the king and what he had endured.

Just before he fell asleep, a new thought crossed his mind. Sombra mentioned a dark power under the castle, could it be these ‘shadows’ he spoke of? Are we treading in forbidden land? These realizations gave him an uneasy feeling, and the weariness he had felt a second ago was replaced by fear.