Darkest Before Light

This is a matter of the utmost importance. Princess Crystalia has not seen the error of her ways, and I believe that Major Blood Diamond is here to keep a record of my daily activities.

Well I say, ‘let her’. All I’m going to do is read this tome I hid in one of my drawers. Ah, stored is more like it. There’s no reason to hide such a marvelous book on the art of war, especially when the situation at hoof calls for it.

I peeked at Major Blood Diamond from the corner of my eye, bending down in my desk’s chair so that my horn lined up with the invisible lock on my bottom drawer.

“Is there a problem, Commander?” Her voice was like the act of smithing, physically buffeting the iron of my ears until its clamor rung out into my consciousness.

It’s tiresome.

“Keep quiet, Major. You are at the position of attention, and you will maintain the status quo for such a position.” I responded quickly but without a trace of rudeness in my voice. Her right eye twitched minutely, a gesture only other soldiers would be able to pick up on. Well, soldiers and princesses.

~Click!~

The drawer slid open, revealing to me the hardback tome of ancient battle magics and stratagems. This tome was the secret to my success in ascending the ranks as a Crystal Sentry, and I made sure to hide its existence from the princess. I know she doesn’t approve of such literature, but the power is necessary in order to protect this great nation.

I will see my oath fulfilled to the fullest.

Levitating the hefty, dusty tome, I quickly brought it to bare against the crystal structure of my desktop. I had counted the amount of pages in this tome, which revealed to be along the lines of some two-thousand, and every page was filled with delicious knowledge of forbidden magics that pertain to the art of warfare.

Curious enough, the tome’s name happened to be that of ‘White Rabbit’, even though the name draws a blank for me in terms of powerful unicorns or alicorns. Regardless, I can not begin to describe the amount of spells that would prove to be the undoing of any assault the griffins may launch.

I’ve predicted that if it was just me fighting. the chance of defeating the griffins would be a staggering 95%! This method took a lot of brain crunching, and I doubt non-unicorns/alicorns would be able to understand the complexity of such algorithms!

“You seem a little happy, Commander. Mind telling me what has your ship-a-sailing?”

“Be...quiet.” I snapped coldly, affixing both my eyes to peer at the mare who was no less than twenty feet away from me.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and snapped back to attention, although she never kept her eyes off of me. At least she’s loyal to the princess’s words.

Sighing to alleviate my anger, I quickly remembered the chant needed to open the tome’s magical restriction lock.

“An oath of protection to those I love, and a threat of destruction to those I loathe.” I spoke like I rehearsed the lines for a play, a smile on my face as I felt my horn charge up with the energy needed to offer the tome.

The magic funneled from my horn, the pull very noticeable, as the brown tome with silver-plated edges glowed my aura color...which is green, before dwindling down to its original color scheme.

The book gracefully opened and flipped its pages to where I left off, which was about one-thousand-three-hundred-seventy-four pages in. A bold header adorned the entirety of page one-thousand-three-hundred-seventy-five, which was read as “The Art of Corruption.”

Ignoring the many fancy and archaic symbols, I quickly brought my eyes to rest upon the next page. This page had the workings of some spells that had my attention immediately. Apparently, it was possible to attune your magical aura to darkness, and use it to further enhance your capabilities of magical warfare.

White Rabbit also states, as it’s written, “This is a step to be used only in the most dire of situations. Tampering in the dark arts is frowned upon by the generic masses, and thou will be hanged under the assumption of conspiring with Demons.”

I was intrigued by the promise of more power to protect my country more than anything.

My eyes wandered over to the various but masterfully crafted illustrations of a unicorn mare with green and purple eyes, a red pupil accenting the whole ensemble as her horn glowed a sickly black.

From there, White Rabbit illustrated this mare erupting shards of blackened crystal from the ground and stretching them into spires or towers of varying length and thickness. The next illustration took me awhile to figure out, but I eventually pegged it as a type of mind-altering/destroying spell.

Then, as if it couldn’t get any better, the next spell depicted the art of ‘Hellfire Rays’. The illustration literally showed a row of ponies be hit with this amalgamation of purple, green and black, then having nothing but their ashes fall from the aftermath. These spells are in every way contradictory to my beliefs, but the power associated with this knowledge cannot and will not go untouched by me.

My country will always have need of those with power, no matter what era it’s in. The same could be said for any country at all. Everything wasn’t built by trust, but by force and power. That’s the first thing White Rabbit had on its pages.

I still dream about finding the brilliant compiler of this tome to this day.

Confined to my office until the time of my chat with Princess Crystalia, I began to take notes on these spells and practice the first two.

Discreetly, I began thinking of all the things that get under my skin/make me angry, using their power in order to charge my horn. White Rabbit stated that if this is done enough, then I will no longer have to concern myself with doing it for I will automatically feel the power of darkness within my very being.

Powerful stuff, this tome.

Still, that did nothing to dull the effort it took to actually perform the‘Hell Spire’ spell. It took some straining, but I was able to summon a pretty thick chunk- about the size of my foreleg -from the floor.

I smiled at my accomplishment, feeling a soft tingling in my horn for the remote magic radiating in the black crystal figure to my left.

Hindsight in mind, I should have really thought that out more. I had forgotten that a certain Major was still at attention near my door.

“SWEET HAY CAKES!!!” Major Diamond screamed in surprise as the figure shot back into the ground, leaving nothing but a circular shadow that was the same shape in its wake. That’s actually pretty interesting, and some more tests are going to have to be done in order for me to learn everything about this spell it seems.

“Compose yourself, Major, everything’s under control. You should have more faith in your superiors...” I began as I rose from my seat, levitating the book with me so that it remained in front of my face as I read up on the spell that intrigued me the most.

Conjuring up three spires of crystal in front of Major Diamond, I quickly levitated White Rabbit out of the way in order to practice this next spell. Surprisingly enough, Major Diamond weaved her way out of the formation just in time to avoid my first try.

The ray came out like a roaring furnace, smacking into the crystal spire that stuck out the most. It took half a second for the crystal to be incinerated, a crystal that’s supposedly conjured from the pits of Hell. Amazing!

The green and purple inferno left as soon as it came, and it even jumped to the other crystals! It took one and a half seconds to fully destroy my creations.

“Unbelieveable!” I hastily brought White Rabbit to my face and searched for whoever compiled this. Even if this magic is taboo, its usefulness could possibly know no end! Who was the wise, if not then foolish, individual that singlehoofedly did th-

I dropped the tome, the weight of the picture my eyes fell upon too great for my mind. From my mouth came a stream of orphaned adjectives and broken nouns, all wrapped together by stuttering verbs. I even began to sweat.

It can’t be possible. After everything I’ve heard about her, and how she studies under the most powerful unicorn in existence!

“Commander-” I raised my hoof, effectively cutting off Major Blood Diamond as my face contorted into one of pure horror. never in all my years did I think she was suffering in the shadow of her mentor. I’d have to send for her at once after this whole war is over.

“It’s Clover...Clover the Clever...” I breathed out in disbelief. The surrealness of this movement is capsizing every coherent thought.

“...What about Clover the Clever, Commander?” Major Diamond pushed, making me grimace. I was actually glad that she wasn’t as bright as she looked, which is not bright at all in context.

“Nothing...Nothing at all,” I began as I made my way back to the desk, levitating White Rabbit to me, “Actually, there’s an order for you, Major,” Her eyes never left mine, “I need you to send word to Starswirl the Bearded. Tell him that an audience needs to be held between us as soon as possible.” I ordered as I sat back in my chair, plopping the ancient tome on the desk while continuing to read from it.

“It was done yesterday, Commander.” She dipped her head and exited the room. Her steps were a little too fast for my liking, which immediately alerted me to the premise that she would go and tell Princess Crystalia that I summoned Starswirl. If it comes to that, there is no doubt in my mind that the princess would belay my command.

Most annoying indeed.

“Then I’ll just have to improvise...” I thought as I raised a hoof to my chin and began thinking about all the possible ways I could contact Starswirl.

The first thought was a carrier pigeon, but there are no native birds out here in these lands of ice and snow.

Another thought; this one entertaining the idea of a mail courier, was hastily shut out. For one, the pony would have to travel down to Equestria, which would take at least three days. By then, there is no doubt in my mind that the griffins will launch their assault on the Crystal Kingdom, of that; of that I’m sure.

That left me with nothing. Nothing at all.

I felt something at that moment. It was a small, tingling sensation that turned my head to gaze upon White Rabbit’s tan pages.

A smirk worked its way across my face.