Author's Note
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE THE STORY
Thank you for reading this, and before you go I just wanted to let all the readers know; I did what research I could on Sombra and the way he ruled. The reoccurring thing that I got was that his 'heart was black as night'. So I gathered that his ruling was probably one of the worst things that I could think of.
Just wanted to let people know I did what research I could and I also came with this on my own. I didn't steal the idea so if there is one out there, sorry.
LN
Sombra's Crystal Empire
Today was a special day for Twilight; today one of the Crystal Ponies agreed to retell the story of Sombra’s rise to power and the defeat of the Crystal Ponies. The pony that agree to it decided that it would be healthy for the books to know and that Twilight was the one to do it.
Ever since she had been a part of the saving of the Crystal Empire Twilight had wanted to know more about their history. She’d asked and asked and asked and finally she was getting to hear it. She would have had spike write down what was being said while she was just there to listen, but this pony only wanted her to hear what was being said and to write it down. Twilight was the only one that she trusted. Her name was Rosie Cheeks.
Twilight got off of the train and was greeted by Rosie, “Hello Twilight. How was the journey?” The brightly colored pony asked, her mane in curls and swished around in the wind.
“I’m great,” Twilight said, a smile on her face, “I’ve brought lots of paper and ink and quills. Are we to go to your house?” she asked.
“Yes,” Came the reply, “I have also brought somepony along, he is going to cast a spell so that we are back in that time in our minds. Don’t worry though; we can’t alter what has happened. You won’t need to scribe anything either, he will do that as well.”
“Who is it? If I may ask?” Twilight probed, wanting to know who this particular pony was. That was when she noticed that there was a unicorn stallion behind Rosie; he was significantly shorter than both of the ponies, but had his Cutie Mark and his mane suggested that he was full grown.
“My name is Blazing Wish, I am Rosie’s friend. I was visiting the Crystal Empire when it was attacked and captured by Sombra. When it was freed I was here, I know what you did for us and I would like to say only one thing but it can’t be said.” The stallion then bowed low to the ground, to show his respect and revere towards this particular princess.
Twilight smiled and bent down and picked his head up, “Thank you Blazing. I know how much talking about this subject and hurt you and I thank you for letting me know about it. For letting Equestria know about it.”
Blazing and Rosie looked at each other, and then spoke together, “We are ready for Equestria to know.” They turned and stared to walk away while Twilight was able to follow and gather her thoughts on the situation.
These ponies were from over 1,000 years ago and they had no idea that it had even been remotely that long. This was one of the most interesting things to happen in Equestrian history ever. What were they going to talk about? The things that the Empire used to produce? What their battle tactics were like? Oh there was just so much to think about and she couldn’t wait to hear it, all of it, from the beginning.
The cottage that they were going to have the meeting at was at the outskirts of town, near a river that flowed into the empire. The sound of the running water tapping against the stone was peaceful. It would be great for the ensuing conversation, peaceful against the horrid and unimaginable. The door to the cottage looked ancient, having not been open in many years one would expect that, but what was really stunning was the inside, it was marble floors with bright, vivacious colors. There was a beautiful center table surrounded by a long couch wrapping around the table that was blue hued.
The table was lifted up and set to the side to reveal Rosie’s Cutie Mark, a rose with pedals of red and pink. Twilight and Rosie sat down on the couch, while Blazing sat on the ground in front of them.
“Twilight,” Rosie said in a solemn voice, “What you are about to see is that history that I saw, while not in my perspective it will be grave. You are the first pony to see this history in a thousand years and the first to see it who isn’t a Crystal Pony that wasn’t there.” With that she nodded her head to Blazing and they were surrounded by a bright light that swiftly mixed with black, blacker than night itself. The light swirled and then Twilight was dropped to the ground and heard the crack of a whip.
Ω
She opened her eyes and saw the menacing look of the entry gate that led into the city. They were a dark and uninviting grey with a band of black crystals stretching between the two pillars.
“Welcome,” Said Rosie, “To the crystal empire I remember.” She started to walk through the gate but paused, “If you don’t want to enter now that you see what it truly is, I understand, but-“
“I am coming.” Twilight said, boldly, but in her heart that wasn’t how she felt. She was frightened inside; she wanted her friends to be here.
“This way, Princess.” Said Blazing, following his cousin. Twilight stepped up to follow; this was going to be much different that the Crystal Empire she knew. This was going to be Sombra’s Empire.
The lashing out of guards came quickly after the cracks of whips; there was never any warning. There would be a crack, a cry of pain, and the rebuke of a guard.
CRACK!
AHHH!
FASTER!
CRACK!
With every single crack of a whip, Rosie winced; she had received many of those when she was a slave for Sombra. Nothing would come close to comparing to the pain and ache that accumulated over time when she was a slave. Not to mention the crushing pain that came with the hopelessness of never leaving this cursed place. With every crack Blazing would stiffen his back, preparing for the next blow, he had been one of the worst that Sombra had, he organized rebellions that would fail, then he would plan them again after the Cat of Nine Tails.
With every cry that rang out, it reminded both Rosie and Blazing alike of the pool of tears that collected at the end of every day. Only to be chastised by their ruler, the dark unicorn that had the power and willingness to do anything that he saw fit for anything other than absolute submission. The tears would get them 5 lashes, the complaints would get them 10, rebellion… until you passed out or bled out.
While all of this was going through Twilight’s mind, it hit her that she didn’t know any of this. Then Rosie spoke out, “No, you don’t. I am feeding you this information so that you can remember it. I am giving you all the information that I can remember about these times.” She chocked back tears, “What you are about to see is the public whipping sanction of the city.”
The cries got louder and the whips weren’t doing anything but that. When the came around the corner of the ruins of houses, they saw a pony strapped against a pole sticking out of the ground. There was a shadowy unicorn figure that was wielding a whip and a short sword at his front hip, whipping a stallion that looked like Blazing. The only thing was that this stallion was missing a few things, and his Cutie Mark was different. Through the blood that ran like a river through the stone courtyard and back to the stallion at the stake you could see his Cutie Mark was juristically different than Blazing’s.
Twilight glanced over at Blazing and saw that he was facing away from the whipping; that was his father at the stake. One of his many public whippings, this one was for rebellion and Sombra didn’t intend for this rebel to live past this. He himself came to enjoy this display of pain and suffering.
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
Each and every crack brought Blazing’s father closer to death, and Sombra was watching the life slip through this stallions hands. Each and every crack brought Blazing closer to running towards the punisher and tackling him; that’s exactly what Blazing did. He was standing in the crowd and her ran out and attacked the shadowy unicorn punisher, but jumped right through him. The punisher then switched from beating his father to beating Blazing himself. With each crack, flesh was ripped off of his back, and more blood spilt out.
“We should move on.” Rosie said and walked away. Blazing and Twilight followed her, not knowing what to say or do. They kept walking in silence. The next sight that they came upon was the putting up of the last statues that would depict Sombra’s ‘glory’. There were lines of ponies that were all pulling on 4 separate ropes, pulling the multi ton statue into it’s place. The ponies in the front were taking the most weight, and by the end of the pulling most of their legs had given out or broken in violent SNAPs! The ones with broken legs were killed on sight. The ones who had their legs given out were pulled up and continued to work.
“I remember that statue.” Blazing said, “I cursed it every time that I could.”
“What’s past is past Blazing, let it go.” Rosie said, without turning around. “There’s nothing that we can do now.”
They walked past the statue and went into the tower that was in the center of the Crystal Empire; it was dark and twisted with black. The staircases were cold as ice and burned their hooves as they stepped up towards the balcony so that they could overlook the destruction that ruled the Crystal Empire. When the got to the balcony they stopped dead in their tracks, Sombra was there. He was overlooking the empire with glee, and he spoke to himself in a dark and skewed voice.
“My. Crystal. Ponies,” He paused after each word, enjoying the feeling of triumph, “they will build up my city of darkness and then I will force them to attack Celestia. She will be powerless against me, Luna has already started to think about turning and I will use that to my advantage.” He snickered and turned, looking straight through the three ponies that were in his way. “Now, onward to victory.” He walked through them as though they were fog, not feeling anything.
The ponies though, they felt his mind and his heart as he went through them, and they all dropped to the ground; struck with terror and fear, they shook violently after he walked away from them.
“I n-n-never want to feel that again.” Blazing said through the tears that were coming faster than he could’ve ever expected. “We need to hurry up this journey.”
“Okay,” Twilight said, “Let’s get a look at the city from above.”
They walked up to the balcony railing and Twilight saw a sight that chilled her to the bone. Everywhere they looked, there was fire or blood on the ground, not a single block of the city had been spared Sombra’s wrath. Every single house was in ruins or being pulled to the ground by Sombra’s shadow enforcers. Twilight watched as one pulled a house to the ground and heard cries of fear and agony rise from the fallen stone. Then the Shadow went into the house and the wails stopped; it came back out with 3 fillies on it’s back and dropped them onto the street below, where their blood was pooling.
Twilight gagged at the sight, this was a part of time was understandable wanted to be forgotten.
“We need to go now.” Rosie said, tears welling up. “I can only stand so much of this, and I’ve reached my limit.”
Twilight looked back at Blazing and streams of tears were falling from the sides of his face, “Okay.” Said Blazing in a shaky voice.
He began the spell and the world started to shift slightly; in this moment Twilight looked up and saw the Two Sisters, gathering the Elements to use them against Sombra. They had no idea that their action would stop so much pain and misery. Their simple act of keeping peace would end the horrors and oppression that one stallion was causing. Twilight’s tears were streaking as then spell swirled around the 3 visitors, the swirling gently started slowing down and came to a stop and reveled the soft landscape of grass and water.
Twilight was honestly glad to be out of that hell, back to where the real world was, in cool environment and in the sunlight. She looked back at Rosie and Blazing, “Thank you for showing me that.” She looked ahead, towards the train station, imagining her friends and her home. “I hope you have a good day, I’ll see you later.” Twilight quickly went into the town and slowed down; she needed to get away from that landscape, the images that she saw would never her mind. She sighed and walked the rest of the way to the station. Boarding the train back to Ponyville, she looked out of the window and saw the sun going down. The setting sun that always showed itself now, but never showed itself in Sombra’s Crystal Empire
Ω
The horrors that Twilight saw that day would never be forgotten, and now that the words that you have read are in the history books.
No one will.
