The Unicorn and the Syrc

The Northern Border of Equestria was as cold one thousand years ago as it was when the Empire returned. Rocky Spirit may have had a cold heart, but he still shivered a little. Equestria's North had been nicknamed the Icy Unforgiving, much like Rocky himself now was.

He could have traveled for days, weeks or months for all he knew. The storm clouds blocked the sun, the snow was as unrelenting as the bitingly cold wind. The Northern Border was an endless expanse of white, and Rocky, with his nearly-black mane and deep blue coat, stood out like a light in a dark tunnel.

He wasn't sure where he was going, when he would get there, or what he would do when  - if - he did. Would he get a job as a librarian? Would he marry? Would the Crystal Guards be out to hunt him? He couldn't really think why - he hadn't done anything worthy of that.

In a few centuries, when his story was retold, ponies would then add the word yet.

Night fell - not that you could tell by looking, the only clue was that the temperature had plummeted even further - and Rocky began to look for a place to sleep. He made his way to the mountains in the hope of finding a cave to stay in.

Lady Fortune smiled upon him.

She granted his desire, and he came across a grand cavern filled with sparkling crystals. The cave's mouth was small - just big enough to allow him entrance - but the cavern itself was enormous. It was light and warm and perfect.

He despised it.

Rocky could barely stand to look upon the crystals now. The cruelty of Queen Glisten and Lumi...no, Princess Luminescence. Lumi had been his friend. His closest, dearest friend. Luminescence was not that mare. The cruelty of the Empire's Royal family had cost him his own. The greediness of Doctor Red Heart had cost him his only relative. And these shining, iridescent, beautiful crystals were nothing but fanciful lies. False promises of contentedness and joy.

Nonetheless, it was now dangerously cold outside, and this cavern - disgusting as it was - was shelter. Resignedly, Rocky curled up in the least sparkly patch of the cave, and fell into an uneasy slumber of tortured nightmares.

Come to me...Claim your right...Come to me...

Rocky awoke in a panic, drenched in a cold sweat. He had heard a voice...an oddly familiar voice...but there was nopony else there. He looked around the cave, but he truly was alone.

Come to me...Claim your *right*... Rocky jumped. The voice...it was real. It was clearer now, and not a figment of his imagination. It was as real as his own hoof. But where was it coming from? What did it mean, his right? He couldn't wait to find out. He deserved something, after all he had been through.

He stood up, letting his cloak fall to the floor. Even in the brittle, icy embrace of the cave, it was freezing, but suddenly he felt that he didn't need it. He watched it, not really paying attention as it slid off of his back and to the floor with A FLWUMP. The dark, coarse wool contrasting sharply with the pale, glittering ice. Even his own hoof did so, such a dark, subdued blue - even more so now - that against the shimmer of the ice, in the poor light, it looked coal black, as did his mane. He saw his reflection in one of the icy walls, and he thought he looked like an Ice Wraith. A dark spirit that inhabited the old caves and caverns, that preyed on the souls of those who dared entered their domains. They had been stories, old mares' tales, designed to make sure young foals stayed in the safe warmth of the Empire, and not venture out into the North, where there was a multitude of very real predators that would make easy pickings of a Crystal foal.

It was whilst he was looking at himself in the ice, that Rocky noticed it. The dark smudge, deep in the ice. It was not his reflection, but a solid lump deep in the wall of the cave. Immediately, he was intrigued. His horn lit with the dark blue light of his magical aura, and the ice began to melt. He intensified his concentration, carving deeper into the ice with the beam of heat, and slowly, the smudge became clearer. It was a Crystal. A black Crystal.

It was sharp, angular, and seemed to radiate a coldness that carved far deeper into his skin and bones than the mere ice around him. It was a dark, hateful cold. It made you feel ill and confused, it made you bring your darkest thoughts to life, and it made you want to make them real.

And he loved it.

So much so that he reached out with his hooves, and not his magic to take it. He felt the cool, twisted aura against his fur, and breathed in the poisonous magic that surrounded it.

I will give you anything you want... a sweet, high, wonderful voice told him, and Rocky realised that it was the Crystal. I will give you anything you desire and more...all you have to do is ask... this was followed by a tinkling laugh edged with blood.

Rocky thought about this. Anything I want? he wondered, does that mean...could it be? he turned to the Crystal in his hooves with disbelief. He held in his hooves, the thing he had wanted most in the world for the majority of his life.

The Sehsi Wfolat Syrc, the Wish Crystal. He held it in his own two hooves, the very thing that could give him all he wanted and more. His wildest dreams could come true at a single sentence. His most bizarre wishes would become corporeal at a moment's thought. His darkest, most demented desires could become real at the slightest whim. All you have to do is ask! The child-like voice laughed, dripping crimson tears.

But it took every ounce of his self control not to hurl it into a wall and watch it shatter.

He knew the magic of the Crystal could not bring back the dead - that was the one magic that was forbidden by all laws. So what use was this magical, fantastical, useless thing? It was nothing but a pointless, worthless piece of stone. It was as icy cold as his heart, and just as compassionate.

"You can't bring back my mother!" he spat at it, "You can't make those who took her from me pay! I don't want pretty trinkets! I don't want riches! I want revenge!"

He snarled at the Crystal, words so foul that to repeat them would be near heresy. He piled abuse upon the seemingly innocent object, not realising that, though his anger was great, it was amplified by the Crystal's magic. Already it was drawing him in, stripping away what was left of his purity and letting his darker self, his Shadow self, come into light. Aready, it was wrapping deceptively beautiful, cold tendrils around his heart.

I am the Shadow. You are the Shadow. We are the Shadow. I am you. We are one. The Crystal's voice was no longer a tinkering laugh, but a dark, deep, rough male's voice. It drummed in the back of Rocky's mind as he verbally abused the Crystal. Rocky barely noticed the Crystal's mantra as it slowly drew him further and further away from light.

I am the Shadow. You are the Shadow. We are the Shadow. I am you. We are one.

I am the Shadow. You are the Shadow. We are the Shadow. I am you. We are one.

I am the Shadow. You are the Shadow. We are the Shadow. I am you. We are one.

"I am the Shadow. You are the Shadow. We are the Shadow. I am you. We are one." Rocky found himself murmuring. He had not even noticed that, though his brain thought he was screaming profanity at the rock, his mouth had been chanting the Crystal's words over and over and over. Something, perhaps his soul's last-ditch attempt to pull away from the dark embrace of the Syrc, had caused him to realise this. But it did nothing to change his begaviour. He liked the way those words sounded in his mouth. He liked the dark call of the Syrc. He liked the Shadows.

"We are one." he cooed softly. His anger was gone, replaced by a cold, sinister delight. he reached out a hoof to touch the Crystal, to feel it's icy darkness against his fur. There was an almost hungry look in his eyes as he did reached out to the stone. And it was then that he realised his coat had changed.

He was still a Unicorn, he still had a horn, but his once dull coat shimmered in the light of the cave, just like that of the Crystal's around him. He was a Crystal Unicorn, a proper one. He was truly one of a kind. And, for a moment, his purity returned. His literal foalhood dream had come true, and some tiny, diamond-hard part of him that had yet to be bastardised by the hardships of the world cried out in joy.

But the rest of him stared in confused wonder. He once again rounded on the darkly beautiful stone before him. For a moment, his anger burned hot enough to force back the icy tentacles of the Syrc's magic.

"I don't want this!" he cried, "I don't want to be a Crystal pony! I want revenge upon them!" he raised a hoof. But this time, it was not to stroke the surface, but to shatter the useless trinket once and for all. But just before living flesh made contact with unfeeling stone, he stopped. And he realised.

What better way to exact revenge than by infiltrating and striking from within?

And so, he began to form a plan. His mind worked deviously and dementedly, slowly coaxing a scheme into existance. The Crystal's magic, fueling his desire for revenge, and the cold grip of the Crystal's dark magic clutched his heart once more. Once more and for all.

Three Weeks Later

Despite her anger at Rocky, Luminescence couldn't help but weep for him. He had had such a hard life, and though his drastic, irrational, crazy actions were by no means excusable, they were understandable. He had changed, that was certain, become darker, almost twisted, angrier, more impulsive...something had hit him hard, hit him in the core. She wept out of grief, she wept for the loss of her friend, because though he was still alive, she had never seen somepony look so dead inside.

In her despair, she once more found herself wandering over to the old bakery that Opal had owned. She sat on the front porch, and she would think about the happy hours she had spent there. Cooking and laughing with Rocky and his mother, with barely a care in the world. Those days seemed so far... A lifetime ago...

Even though she had been furious and disgusted and horrified by and with Rocky and his actions, there had been some tiny, desperate part of her that hoped he would return and maybe he would be okay. But after three days, that part of her had died. There was no way he could still be alive in the frigid embrace of Equestria's North. If he did, he wouldn't be, couldn't be a pony.

All things considered, that should have been her first clue.