The Unicorn and the Syrc

Rocky stayed there for a long time, hugging his mother's body. He didn't know what to do. He didn't do anything. He couldn't do anything. If you could function after going through so much in a single day...you weren't pony.

There was a knock at the front door. Rocky decided against answering it, but there was nopony who wouldnt simply knock it down if he refused to open it. He stood up numbly. Opening the door slowly, he saw an old, brown stallion in a black suit, with a black top hat. A Crystal undertaker.

"I am here to collect Ms Opal Spirit." he said, in an emotionless voice. Was it because he was talking to Rocky? Because it was his mother? Or just part of his professionalism? The first two were considerably more likely. Rocky led the stallion into the living room. He was followed by two, notably younger stallions - one red, one orange-y - who carried a stretcher between them. There was an professional, cold silence between the four male ponies in the room, as Opal Spirit was carefully moved onto the stretcher. The two younger stallions then picked the stretcher up between them , and carried her out.

"Will you be paying for a funeral?" asked the undertaker. Rocky shook his head, and instead gave the wizened old stallion an envelope. Inside he would find a will, a note dictating what she wanted written on her gravestone, and payment for the coffin, headstone and grave-plot. Rocky usually would have felt concerned at how old the envelope looked, but now he felt nothing as the undertaker took the envelope, and followed his two young assistants out of the door. Rocky watched as they carefully pulled a white cloth over her body.

"Wait." he said, holding up a hoof. The two stallions stopped, and stepped back. They had seen this happen before - the final farewell of the griefstricken. Rocky approached his mother's body. her once vibrant, round, happy face was no longer crystalline, or smiling, or even round. She had gotten thinner in the past few weeks, but only now did Rocky really notice. He bent down and kissed his mother's forehead for the last time. Then he stepped back, allowed the two stallions to finish covering her with the cloth, close the hearse, and then hitch themselves to the hearse, walking soberly behind their employer down the street.

Rocky watched them from the doorway of his mother's bakery. Though he knew it was technically his now, it didn;t feel his.

Because it wasn't. Not really.

He continued staring into oblivion long after the hearse and undertakers had traveled beyond his line of sight. Now he truly felt it. Or rather, didn't feel it. All he felt was numb and cold.

It was only an hour or so later when Rocky heard a knock on the door. He didn't move to answer it, only continued packing his saddlebag. But when the polite knocking turned to a brutal drumming, Rocky found himself grudgingly walking down the stairs and opening the door.

To his immense surprise it was Luminescence. But that was all he felt, a mild surprise. No relief, or regret, just mild confusion as to why she was there.

And yet, all he wanted to do was cry to her.

No! he thought savagely, she did nothing to help you. Nothing.

And yet, some part of him still cared for her - a friendship can burn up quickly, but never all at once.

"Lumi..." he said.

"Don't." she said, her violet eyes were red ringed with tears, and her mouth set in a not-that-firm line. As if she were forcing herself not to cry, "Please. Just...just don't."

"Don't what?" Rocky asked,

"Don't call me 'Lumi'." she replied, "Only Rocky called me that."

"I am Rocky."

"No." she said, "No. You're not. Rocky was kind, and gentle, and fun. He didn't try to kill guards. He was my friend."

"If you're not my friend, then why are you here?" he asked

"I don't know." she said, "I guess I just...I just had to see it."

"See what?"

"What you've become." she answered sadly, "I don't know who you are now. I don't know your thoughts. it's been happening more and more lately...but...you've changed."

"No I haven't." he said indignantly,

"Rocky..." she said softly, "Can't you see-?" she began, but Rocky cut her off,

"Can't you see?" he asked angrily, "You're the one who's changed! I'm the same I always was!" he paused for a moment, "I just realised that you don't care."

Lumi's teary eyes cleared instantly, "What?" she asked, her tone icy and very similar to her mother's.

Rocky glared at her, "You never cared." he repeated, "I was just something to annoy your mother with." he spat, "Something every kid does. Only because you're a princess," he said the work mockingly, like an insult, "You had to make it extra special."

Luminescence was disgusted, "How could your mother have raised you like this?" she exclaimed. She had never seen Opal Spirit show a single flaw.

"MY MOTHER IS DEAD!" Rocky roared, "SHE'D DEAD, AND IT'S ALL THANKS TO YOU!"

Luminescence was no longer sorry for her ex-best friend. Not in the slightest. Perhaps my mother was right, she thought, perhaps Crystal hybrids are cursed, perhaps they are nothing but bad news...

She looked Rocky straight in the eye, looking more like her mother than ever before, "My apologies." she said, her tone dangerously icy and dripping with sarcasm, "I'll refrain from doing so in the future."

"And how," Rocky began, only just stopping himself from spitting at her, "Do you plan to do that?"

"Simple." Luminescence replied, "I won't go near you."

And with that, she left.

Rocky was furious. As soon as Luminescence closed the door, he screamed in frustration. He picked up anything he could with his bare hooves and threw it at the wall. He broke at least one bone, counted numerous scrapes and bruises and cuts, but he didn't care. he trashed his house until he collapsed on the rug, exhausted.

His rage ebbed slowly. Now, only one thought filled Rocky's mind. And that thought was, my mother's gone. He drew a shaky breath, and looked at her though the haze of tears. The one pony who had always loved him, no matter what. Even Lumi had abandoned him now. He had nopony. He was alone.

I am alone.

I am alone.

I am alone.

And just like that. His grief was gone. Crying won't bring her back. he thought. A steely, cold thought.

There is no sadness. No pain. Only weakness.

And as ponies looked back on that day. As they read several texts about the soon-to-be-very-famous Rocky Spirit, they would have perhaps realised, that the Shadow had picked him from the beginning. And that though the events that had yet to come for this young stallion seemed like chance, they probably weren't.

And in the years to come, this would be noted as the day that Rocky Spirit's heart froze. The day his soul died.

The day he started to become Sombra.

After his tantrum, after his mother had been taken away, never to be seen again, Rocky resumed his packing. He was going away.

Permanently.

There was nothing for him here in this merciless, icy, glittering jewel of an Empire. He was going to find a better place, a nicer place, to live. He didn't know where this place was, or how to get there, but he knew that he would.

In his bag were very few items. The last few cinnamon buns that his mother had baked, a scarf, a few bits that he had found in the cash register. Then he picked up his book.

His most precious possession, containing his one purest, dearest dream from his entire life. The eyes that had read it's pages had been full of wonder and hope, the hooves that had stroked the pages had been innocent and careful. This was his single most important childhood memory.

"But what good did you do me?" he asked the book harshly, "What good, did dreaming about the Sehsi Wfolat Syrc do me?" he threw the book on the floor. He pulled his saddlebags onto his back and walked downstairs. he locked the bakery and the house for the final time, leaving the keys, and the deed, under the mat. He walked down the street, away from the Crystal Palace where his once-best friend now resided, as cold and unfeeling as her mother. he walked to the edge of the Empire, and past, breaching the frigid border between the magical warmth of the Empire, and the harsh winter of Equestria's North.

He stopped at the edge, where the lush, plentiful grass ended and the merciless, biting snow began. He looked down, pulled up one hoof, and placed it on the cold snow. It was a sudden temperature change, any other pony would have winced, but not Rocky. Not when his heart was freezing as cold as that of the snow that ow surrounded him.

On the snow, he turned, and took one last, long look at the place where he had lived his entire life. His entire, miserable life. The place where he had had dreams, friends, and happiness, all a facade, all a lie. He looked at the Crystal Palace, imagining Queen Glisten looking out, maybe seeing a dark speck in the snow. He imagined looking her in the eye, showing her all the pain and suffering she had caused.

"Dreams are for foals."