The Return of A King

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

Chapter 1

It had been a thousand years since his kingdom had been whisked away. A thousand years since he had made sure that nopony besides he would rule his kingdom. If he had to be a specter, then so shall his empire as well. Yet even after a thousand years, his kingdom was not his. The seat was his, the ponies were his, the land was his, but two ponies had acted quicker than he. A white unicorn and a pink alicorn had walled him out, but could not have done so forever.

He had nearly won as well, just as he had planned, the unicorn was powerless and the alicorn was weakened. Yet somehow, a little purple dragon had found the crystal heart, which should have been impossible for a dragon to do. Knowing its strength would out strip his power if used against him, he struck. Its passive aura of magic dispelling his cloak of immaterial existence as he came closer, he had nearly had it. But the alicorn had somehow found the power to fly faster than he could approach. And so King Sombra was finally dispelled as the piece of history he was.

Or so everyone believed.

Twilight Sparkle stretched her wings as she closed her most recent book on proper wing control and cleaning. She replaced the book on the shelf as she took out her personal copy of The Maltese Phoenix and trotted over to the lounge area of the library as she was interrupted by a knock at the front. A bit peeved that she would have to wait to know why Captain Jacobi had died, she put the book down and answered the door to find Rarity waiting patiently with a picnic basket.

“Hello Rarity, what can I do for you?” Twilight asked.

“Hello Twilight dear, I was wondering if Spike was free for this afternoon.”

Twilight gave a small smile. “I know I don’t have anything for him to do, but I don’t know if he-“

“I’m free for this afternoon!” Spike said excitedly as he hurried down the stairs. He had been dozing in his basket when the knock came and his helper instincts roused him. The sound of Rarity’s voice spurred him on even faster. “What can I do you for, milady?”

Rarity giggled a little at Spike’s usual addressment. “I found that I ran out of emeralds today and decided I needed a new stock. I was wondering if you would help me.”

Twilight frowned at her immediate recollection of the last time this situation occurred. “I don’t know Rarity, the last time the two of you went gem hunting, the Diamond Dogs-“

“You don’t need to ruffle your feathers Twilight, there’s no need to worry about them. We won’t be going near that gem field. I found a nice patch near the south end of Ponyville that can accommodate me for quite some time.” Rarity smiled. The was a brief pause of hesitation, given that the south side of Ponyville lead to more forest rather than any amount of rock, but smiled to trust her friend.

“All right.” She turned to address Spike. “Now Spike, remember what I’ve said about being out late. It doesn’t bode well for you to be out at all the hours of Luna’s night, you need to have your nine hours of sleep.”

“I know Twilight. I need to be back to the library by midnight or earlier, but gem gathering doesn’t take that long, I’m sure we’ll be back before dinner.” Spike smiled a little, knowing that if he weren’t back before dinner, Twilight wouldn’t know she had read past dinner again and suddenly find herself hungry. He grabbed his wagon and headed out the front door, passing by the two mares.

“I’ll be sure to have him back well before midnight Twilight.” Rarity smiled as she picked up her basket. “I’ll see you around then.” She bid farewell as she turned and trotted a bit after the waiting dragon. Twilight’s smile widened a bit as she saw the love struck dragon steal glances at the unicorn, who was very well aware of his looks. She closed the door and headed over to her seat, opening The Maltese Phoenix to where she had left off.

Looking over her shoulder to make sure Twilight had closed the door, Rarity directed Spike in a decidedly northwestern direction.

“Rarity, didn’t you say you found gems to the south? Why are we going to the old place?” Spike questioned. “You know Twilight doesn’t like the Diamond Dogs.”

“Oh Spikey, I’m afraid I’ve had to tell a bit of a white lie.” Rarity admitted. “I don’t know if there are any gems in the southern forest, but it was true that my emeralds had run out. And I want you to promise not to tell Twilight about this until I bring it up to her, all right?”

“I don’t know Rarity.” Spike scratched his head. “They did kidnap you the last time we were there.”

“Well, it is true that the kidnapped me the last time we went there, but-“ Rarity looked away with a little innocent whistle. It took Spike a second to finish the statement in his head.

“You’ve been there by yourself?!” Spike exclaimed, gaining a look or two. Rarity smiled a little in embarrassment and turned to correct the dragon.

“Yes, I have, but you don’t know them like I have come to know them. There was a reason why they took me the first time.”

“Yeah, so they could get some shiny rocks.” Spike rolled his eyes.

“No, so they could get some food, like you.” Rarity snorted at Spike’s assumption, giving herself a covered cough for her unlady-like behavior. “They wanted me to find their gems without the fruitless effort of digging blindly.”

“But Rarity, they’re dogs! They don’t eat gems.” Spike reasoned.

“While that may be true, Diamond Dogs deal with gems as a source of currency more than we do, as well as being decorations to be more impressive for…others.” Rarity stumbled a bit as she tried to eloquently say ‘mates’.

“Well, if they need them so much, what do you get out of it for helping them?”

“I don’t need to get anything out of them, Spike. But I did happen to find that the gem sizes I mainly deal with are to small for them and they let me take them, as well as shavings taken from any of the gems they want me to craft.”

“How long have you been doing this Rarity?” Spike asked, a bit worried that she was just going to be tricked and taken away again.

“I’ve been doing this about twice a month since you… recued me.” Rarity gave a small smile of embarrassment, both for the admittance for how long she had been doing this behind her friend’s backs and admitting she felt like Spike had actually saved her. Spike also blushed a little but looked back in shock when he calculated how long Rarity had been making these dangerous escapades.

“Rarity, they could have taken you away over three dozen times now! We would’ve never even known where you were!”

“Spike, if I did learn one thing from the first time, I learned that I need a way to let somepony know where I am.” With that, Rarity’s horn lit up in its light blue glow and a similarly colored figure came running down through the air and began jumping up and down, waving its arms. Spike smiled when he realized the figure was him. “And he keeps going until he comes back.” Rarity’s magic stemmed but the magic Spike kept on jumping until he ran back and disappeared in Rarity’s fur.

“That’s… That’s very cool Rarity.” Spike commented, running every possibility for why he would be the figure. These possibilities ran from inspiration of what he did the first time to coincidence, being the first one she saw to her secretly loving him, though he gently shook the last one away.

“So there is clearly no need to worry about me Spike. Now, I wanted you to come with me because I thought you could help with the digging and get to know some of the Diamond Dogs better.”

“Rarity, I really don’t think there’s much to get to know. They’re really, ah…simple.”

“Well, yes, they do tend to speak very roughly, they are by no means ‘simple’. Given that taking me did take a bit of coordination, though keeping me was another matter entirely. I have talked to Rover a lot when I visit, he was the one in the red vest, and it seems that he and his two friends had found the abandoned mine to still be fertile, and took it upon themselves to scrape out the rest. All of the others had already given up on the place. Now he has an entire business set on the place.” Rarity recounted. “So I would say there is more there than you give them credit for.”

Spike was going to retort but stopped short when he recognized a Diamond Dog coming straight toward them. Spike dropped the handle of the wagon and jogged in front of Rarity, but the Dog stopped shot of them, breathing heavily.

“Oh my, what’s wrong Spot?” Rarity asked with concern. It was most unusual for the Diamond Dogs to leave their mines to approach Ponyville.

“M-Miss Rarity, thank goodness! I was sent to get you!” Spot panted. “We found an injured pony! You must come now! We don’t know how long he has!”

“Oh dear, we should probably get Twilight or Fluttershy for this.” Rarity quickly began to contemplate.

“No time! He’s weak, very weak, barely breathing, we don’t know what to do!” Spot began jumping up and down impatiently.

“Rarity, it’s probably a trick to take you again!” Spike said over his shoulder as he kept his eye on the Dog.

“May or may not, there’s no reason to not check Spike. Now get in the wagon, I’ll pull you along.”

“But Rarity!” Spike turned to face her.

“No buts mister! In the wagon or I’m going without you.” Spike frowned at the ultimatum, but begrudgingly went back and got in the wagon. Rarity placed her basket in the wagon as well and picked up the wagons handle. “All right Spot, lead the way.”

“Good, good!” Spot said as he turned and began loping back the way he came as Rarity galloped after him. In a minute the soft grassland became rockier and greyer with mounds of dirt piled in seemingly random places. Spike noticed that Spot’s head was turning wildly toward the piles until he seemed to spot the one he needed, and without hesitation ran to a pile of dirt. The Dog shoved the pile aside and took out a rock that kept the dirt from falling into the hole and jumped down. Rarity hesitated a second before she steeled her resolve and jumped in after him, pulling Spike along.

Rarity absolutely detested the dirt that was getting in her coat, but she could deal with that later. As the slide leveled out and Spot kept running, Rarity followed. Zigzagging through the mine gently downward, Spike started to worry that they wouldn’t be able to find their way back out again.

“Here! Down here! We didn’t want to move him!” Spot indicated a rough hole in a three-way intersection.

“Spot! Did you find a pony?” A familiar voice called out.

“Better! I found Miss Rarity!” Spot called down.

Spike got out of the wagon and looked down the hole. It seemed to be a natural cavern with a wide pool in the center with a ring of stone around it. The Diamond Dogs had taken it upon themselves to nail torches to the walls and fashion a ladder down to the bottom. He also saw a group of the Dogs gathered around a dark grey unicorn that had a pillow under its head.

“Well don’t just crowd like that! Give the pony some room to breathe!” Spike shouted as he lowered himself down the ladder. Rarity considered the ladder for a second, seeing as she couldn’t use it, but remembered a little trick from her short stint as Radiance, and made a small set of steps for herself to the bottom while taking her basket with her.

The Dogs backed away from the unicorn and allowed Spike to examine its condition. For one, it was male with an impeccably kept black mane, despite where he was. Second, his breathing was deep, so at worst he was only unconscious. Third, he had a Cutie Mark of three grey crystals that were only a shade lighter than his coat. Spike put his hand on the unicorn’s forehead and concluded he wasn’t feverish; Spike then sat back and scratched his head.

“I don’t know, he seems perfectly fine, just asleep.”

“I hardly doubt he’s been sleeping here by choice dear.” Rarity said as she placed the basket down. “So the question now is, how did he get here?” She looked at the pool and at Rover, the lead Dog. “Do you know anything?”

“No Miss Rarity. We were going to start a new tunnel when it collapsed in here and we found him. We even sent our best swimmer down the pool, but it just goes down further and further.”

“Hmm.” Rarity considered the unconscious unicorn. While she wasn’t sure what she could do for the stallion, she was sure she could do something. “Well, we can’t just leave him here, I suppose we’re going to have to wake him up.”

“But we’ve tried.” Rover sighed. “But he won’t, no matter how much we poke and nudge him.”

“Perhaps a bit more of a rude awakening then?” Rarity postured as obtained a globe of water from the pond. Spike tried to cover a snicker as Rarity hovered the globe over the unconscious stallion. She let the globe go and it fell precisely on the unicorn’s face. Everyone jumped a little when the stallion’s rude awakening caused him to jerk awake and madly look around.

“Who? What? Where?” As his frantic search settled down, he groaned and slowly let his head fall into his hooves. “Very funny.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Rarity asked.

“It… it’s nothing.” He mumbled. “Just tell me which cave system this is.”

Rover took a step forward and proudly announced “This is my mine, Rover’s Gem Mine.” This caused Spike to roll his eyes at the originality, but caused a look of confusion on the stallion.

“I haven’t heard of these ones yet. He must have found them before me.”

“Who found these before you?” Rarity inquired again.

“My brother Cry-“ He suddenly stopped in both confusion and fear. “Cry- Cry- Cry-, I don’t know!” He attempted to get up but only fell forward. “I can’t remember! He’s my brother! White coat, blue mane, star shield mark! I know his name!”

“Calm down dear, just calm down.” Rarity tried to soothe the panicking unicorn. “You seem to have been out for a while, can you tell me your name?”

“My name? Right, yes, of course, I’m Som-“ His eyes went wide again. “Oh Solaris! I don’t know my own name!”

“That’s okay, that’s fine. Just calm down and think very, very slowly. All right?” The grey unicorn nodded slowly. “Let us just check on some comprehension. What am I?”

“A unicorn.” He replied flatly.

“Right, and Spike here?” Rarity directed his attention.

“A… baby dragon?” He said, a bit uncertain.

“Good, and Rover here?” Rarity pointed.

“A dog?”

“A Diamond Dog.” Rover corrected.

“But still a Dog, dear.” Rarity smiled before directing her attention back to the amnesiac stallion. “And can you tell me what you are?”

“I’m a… unicorn. Yes, a unicorn.” He nodded with enthusiasm.

“Good, you can still recognize special differences. Now, think carefully about what you were doing before you woke up, and don’t panic if you don’t remember.”

“I was… reading. Yes, reading in the library. And my… sister? Yes, sister! I have a sister! She wanted… she asked if I was hungry. And then I told her I wasn’t, but… that’s it.”

“That’s good, that’s very good. Can you describe your sister? Like you did your brother?”

“She has a pink coat with a… oh, I can’t explain her mane. It’s violet, but yellow, and magenta, you know?”

“I know the kind, yes.” Rarity nodded. “Is she a younger sister?”

“Yes, so is my brother.”

Rarity could deduce that the coloring of his sister’s mane were more than likely highlights. She smiled and put a hoof on his shoulder. “This can help a lot, thank you. The next best thing we can do is get you out of here.”

“Ok.” He nodded before his stomach decided to protest.

“You must have been here for a long while.” Rarity smiled at his embarrassed retreat. Flipping open her basket, Rarity took out a tomato-lettuce sandwich and offered it to him. He gingerly took it with his hoof and began nibbling on it before taking a big bite out of it. “Help yourself to the rest, I can get more later.” Rarity got up and went over to Rover. “Can we get a pitcher and a few glasses? We should make sure he’s properly hydrated.”

“Sure Miss Rarity.” Rover bobbed his head. “Tom! Riddle!” Rover called causing a bulky grey Dog and a slim female Dog to stand a bit taller. “Pitcher! Three glasses!” The two scampered off as Rover directed his attention back to Rarity. “Will you still be available as usual?”

Rarity glanced at the snacking unicorn and Spike, who was impatiently tapping his foot. “Perhaps only sculpting today Rover. I should make sure that those two are okay.” She tilted her head to the two.

“Of course, I’ll tell the workers that you’re available here.” Rover turned to the remaining Dogs. “Back to work! This tunnel will be rescheduled!” That caused the remaining Dogs to quickly file up the ladder and scatter. “I will find you a way back up to the surface.” Rover said before leaving.

“Does that mean I have to wait down here the entire time?” Spike asked as Rarity lay back down.

“I’m sure you could go exploring and talk to some of the Dogs, though if you don’t help dig I don’t think they’ll be very sociable.” That just made Spike cross his arms and sit down. “So, oh, we need something to call you.” Rarity began to address the unicorn.

“I think you can call me Somber?” He said hesitantly as he finished his second sandwich. “I feel like that’s right, but it feels incomplete.”

“Well then Somber, why did you think your brother put you here? It seems like it wasn’t the first time.”

“Oh, it isn’t. There’s really nothing to do around the palace than study because we’re really not allowed to-“

“Wait, palace?” Rarity interrupted. “You mean to tell me you’re royalty?”

“I-um…” Somber furrowed his brow in confusion.

“Rarity let him finish before you break his train of thought.” Spike said.

“Sorry.” She gave a small smile of embarrassment. “Please, continue, I won’t interrupt again.”

“R-right, so what my brother and I do for fun is prank each other, and one of his favorites is teleporting me to random places when I’m asleep. But, I’ve never forgotten things before because of it.”

“It might just be oxygen deprivation.” Spike suggested. “I mean, you were found in here, a completely shut off cavern for who knows how long.”

“Maybe, but…” Somber tried recalling his brother’s name again, and failed. “My brother always knows where he puts me, and brags about how long I take to get back home. He wouldn’t put me in here like that on purpose, would he?”

“I’m sure it was an accident Somber.” Rarity tried to give a comforting smile. “But you call putting you in random places a prank?”

“It’s not like I can’t find my way home.” Somber shrugged. “I mean, how hard is it to spot a giant crys-“

“Miss Rarity?” A female Diamond Dog called down, garnering the three’s attention. It was the female from before with a pitcher for water, and it was assumed the male was just behind her. “Do you still require water?”

“Yes dear, that would be grand.” Rarity called, prompting the Dog to descend the ladder and place the pitcher next to Rarity. The male followed and placed the three glasses alongside them. “Thank you very much, ah, Tom and Riddle, was it?”

“Yes Miss Rarity.” Tom, the male, answered.

“Very good, you can go.” Rarity waved her hoof dismissively, but the two stayed, glancing at each other, nodding their heads, prompting the other to talk. “Is there anything I can help you two with?”

“Ah, we were wondering, if it wouldn’t be trouble, to fashion a trinket, for us.” Tom asked, finally giving in to Riddle.

“Oh?” Rarity looked between the two and recognized the order. “Oooh. Well, that is sure to be no problem at all; it is what I am here for. What would you like?” Rarity stood, putting on her professional persona.

“We were hoping for a broken heart.” Riddle pulled out a sizable sapphire that she had to hold with both paws. “From this.”

“Oh my.” Rarity took up the sapphire and began to examine it. “Are you sure you want to break this? It must cost a fortune to you.”

Tom shook his head. “No, it’s its purpose. We found it, we decide to what to do with it.”

“Has Rover seen this then?” Rarity raised her eyebrow. She wasn’t against crafting what they wanted, she had had a few before, but they were all half the size these two were asking for.

“Rover’s rules are that personal gems are personal matters.” Riddle stated.

“So I’m going to take that as a no then.” Rarity sighed; a bit conflicted about what to do.

“Could you extrapolate on that rule?” Somber asked, garnering a confused look from the pair. “I mean, explain it a bit more, please?”

Tom cleared his throat. “Any gem found by any Diamond Dog is part of their own. If intended for money, Rover examines for cut price, if for personal use, they may keep.”

“So flawed.” Spike mumbled.

“Not at all.” Riddle replied to Spike’s mumble. “Diamond Dogs work in teams of ten, six of which must attest to a gem to be personal.”

“And seeing as you two have it here now, I assume you had that approval?” Somber asked.

“Yes.” The two said in unison.

“I don’t see a problem here then Miss Rarity.” Somber smiled as he poured himself a glass of water.

“If that’s the case, I’ll see what I can do with it.” Rarity said a bit sheepishly. “Can one of you get the cart from up there, please? And if you could find somepony that has an emerald they want crafted? That would help wonders.”

“No problem at all Miss Rarity.” Tom bobbed hi head in thanks and quickly climbed up the ladder, coming back down with Spike’s wagon.

“Thank you again Miss Rarity.” Riddle bowed in a bit more of a respectable fashion. “When can we expect our trinket?”

“Before we leave I suspect.” Rarity said offhandedly, as she had already began carving off the rough edges into the wagon. Tom and Riddle understood when to leave a worker alone and left without a second word, leaving Somber and Spike to watch Rarity work.

“So is this normal behavior for her?” Somber asked Spike.

“I don’t know, this is the first time I’ve seen her work for the Diamond Dogs.”

“No, I mean, for her to be so business like.”

“Well, yeah, I guess.” Spike shrugged. “She runs her own shop, it’s not surprising that she’s like this a lot.”

“Her own shop!” Somber exclaimed. “She can’t be older than me! How can she run her own shop now?” Spike could only look at Somber with confusion.

“Of course she can run her own shop, it’s not like she’s a helpless filly.”

“But I can’t even be considered for the throne yet, is there that much difference in expectations?” At the mention of ‘the throne’, both Rarity and Spike looked at Somber in surprise.

“So you are royalty.” Rarity mused as she went slower on her work. “Pray tell, where are you royalty of?”

"You’re kidding. You have to be.” Somber looked at the two with a bit of disbelief. Bu the longer he looked between the two, the less confident he felt. “I’m Prince Somber Tones of the Crystal Empire, you can’t have not seen my face before.”

With that proclamation, the three stopped everything and just stared at each other. Somber Tones was smiling because he was remembering so much in such a short time, the others however…

“I’m sorry dear, but you seem to be a bit delusional.” Rarity carefully placed the half sculpted heart in the wagon. “I’m afraid I know the royalty of the Crystal Empire, and you’re not one of them.”

“Preposterous!” Somber stood; angered that somepony wouldn’t recognize him for what he was. “I am the crowned prince of the Crystal Empire and you can’t say differently.” Somber flared.

“All right, all right, easy now.” Spike tried to calm the unicorn down. “Maybe you still have a few things mixed around.” He tried to reason.

“No! I know this for a fact!” Somber turned his back on the two. “I know…for a fact.” He said with a bit less anger. He turned back with doubt in his eyes. “You said you know who the royalty of the Crystal Empire is now, who are they?”

Rarity was a bit hesitant before she answered. “Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor are the rulers of the Crystal Empire.” That only made Somber furrow his brow in confusion.

“I know neither of them.” He turned and walked over to the pond. “There has to be a mistake. It has to be. Who could have overthrown my parents?”

“I assure you, there was no overthrowing of any proper set ruler.” Rarity affirmed. She glanced at Spike to keep quiet about the Sombra incident, in which he immediately nodded in agreement.

“No, you are right, the citizens would never stand for a usurper for a ruler. But then… I have to wonder.” He looked at the two expectantly. “How long have I been here?”

“I can’t say Somber.” Rarity shook her head. “I believe the Diamond Dogs only found you here today, and you were deep asleep.”

“I also see another problem.” Spike interjected. “If you’re royalty of the Crystal Empire, what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean?” Somber asked. “Are we not in the Crystal Mountains?”

“Hardly.” Spike snorted. “The Crystal Mountains are a good nine hours north, by train.”

“Train? Why would you waist time training on a travel?” Somber asked in all seriousness.

“Oh dear.” Rarity held hoof up to her mouth. “I think this is far beyond a prank by your brother Somber.”

“Well, that has become fairly obvious by now.” Somber snorted at the obvious.

“No, I mean, are absolutely serious that you don’t know what a train is?” Rarity began to confirm her worries.

“I have no idea what this ‘train’ thing is that refer of. What kind of carriage is it?”

“Spike, can recollect how old train travel is?”

“Uh, it’s somewhere around 100-150 years I think?”

It was then when Somber began to realize what Rarity was insinuating. “How long have I been here?” He muttered as he sat on his flank. “To be here for over a hundred years. With no food, or water, or exercise.” He looked at his fore-hooves. “But I feel completely fine, normal even.”

Spike started to pity the unicorn and looked to Rarity. “I think he should at least know what happened Rarity.”

“Happened to what?” Somber asked, dispirited.

“I don’t think that will do him any good Spike.” Rarity said, believing she knew what Spike was referring to.

“What are you two referring to?” Somber asked with more conviction.

Spike and Rarity continued to look at each other until Rarity sighed in defeat. “Until three years ago, the Crystal Empire didn’t exist.”

“What!” Somber jumped up in fright. “But then my people are…!”

“They’re fine, the entire Empire is fine Somber.” Rarity tried to remain calm and collected. “The empire had just been under a suspension spell.”

“A suspension spell… on the entire empire?” Somber pondered. ”But if that were true, then my siblings would still be there! And this Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor shouldn’t be ruling! How can you explain that?!” Somber stomped his hoof in defiance.

“I don’t know!” Rarity snapped, causing Spike to jump in fright. “I don’t know why your brother and sister wouldn’t step up for the thrown, but as it stands, Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor are running the Empire without a fuss! You on the other hoof are a complete mystery to all of us!” Rarity took a few deep breaths and composed herself. “Now, as much as I would love to help you in this dilemma, I cannot, and I have some business to attend to here. When we head back to Ponyville, the first place we’ll be stopping is my friend Twilight, and I am sure she can help settle this. Until then, I would prefer to work in silence.” Thusly, Rarity returned to her sapphire heart work.

Somber looked between her and Spike before deciding to turn and lay in front of the pool to contemplate this matter, and see if he could properly recall his siblings names.

Spike decided to sit next to a wall and start scratching pictures into the walls.

Author's Note

I honestly have no idea where i can have this lead. I thought the idea of Sombra being dead/gone or still evil was to simple an idea, so I thought him coming back as someone 'else' would be neat. Like a puppet persona or as such. Comments are appreciated to get this brain child moving.

Thank you for your time,
-Zarmflamekin

Chapter 2

Nothing was said between the three while Rarity worked, Somber pondered, and Spike doodled in the rock. Tom and Riddle were able to keep their word and quite a few Diamond Dogs with emerald requests came in, some for sculpting, others for some shining. Others came in as well, and before long the wagon was filling up with the gem scraps.

As Spike continued scratching into the wall, he found a deposit of small rubies. Checking behind himself to make sure there were no Dogs around to complain, he began crunching on them. As he looked, however, he saw just how pensive Somber was looking into the pool, and knowing the look of utter disappointment, decided to see if the grey unicorn needed a pep talk.

“Hey.” Spike began as he walked over to Somber. There was only a glance of recognition before Somber went back to staring into the pool. “Ruby for your thoughts?” Spike offered one of the chunks he hadn’t eaten yet. Somber took the ruby in his hoof and examined it without saying a word. “Nothing’s going to change if you don’t share you know.” Spike once again prompted.

Somber turned the ruby over in his hoof as he sighed. “I just don’t know what to think, that’s all. This all seems to be a bit much for me. I just cannot fathom a world out there that’s a thousand years older than the one I knew.”

“Well, you’ve got us for a start.” Spike tried to put the grim situation in a bit more positive light.

“I suppose.” Somber gave a half smile that quickly faded. “But this just doesn’t feel right. I can remember so much now, the castle halls, my daily schedule, and everypony who came in and out. But no matter how much I try, I just can’t remember their names.”

“You mean your siblings?”

Somber shook his head. “Not just them, anypony. The head chef, the royal librarian, the service staff, even my parents, I can recall all of them, but I can’t put a name to any of them. The closer I feel to a name, something stops me, distracts me, and I come back to square one.”

“But does that mean you know how you got here?”

Again, Somber shook his head. “No, the last thing I can recall is going to the pond in winter to…to… agh, I can’t even remember why I was going. “ Somber sighed as he put the ruby down. “But before I came over the hill, it stops. The next thing I know, I’m being woken up here.”

“Do you think you were meeting somepony at the lake?” Spike asked, trying to turn over such a vague situation.

“More than likely.” Somber lay his head down. “But I just can’t remember, and the frustrating part is that I won’t find anypony to remember for me.”

“The ponies of the Crystal Empire were suspended for a thousand years, I’m sure we’ll find somepony to help”

“But that’s just a speculation. What if I’ve been in here longer than a thousand years, hmm? What then? What if the reason neither my brother nor my sister was there to rule was because they had already aged and died before the suspension? That would put me well out of the mind of anypony in the Crystal Empire.”

“But then wouldn’t you have aged in the same amount of time?” Spike asked, a bit confused. “Just because you were asleep here, that doesn’t mean you would stop ageing. But then you probably also wouldn’t have been a part of the suspension spell. I’m going to suggest that you were put to sleep here shortly before the suspension spell, that way you were still asleep, but also suspended, and with those two consciousness inhibitors, you had temporary memory loss.”

Somber raised an eyebrow at Spike’s theory. “And how does a baby dragon such as yourself pose such magic theory? I would peg this to be far beyond dragon knowledge.”

“I’ve had to help Twilight with more than one magic theory paper in my time, I just pieced a few things together.” Spike shrugged.

Somber considered Spike’s proposal for a second before he dismissed it. “If what you suggest was so, then we would be in the Crystal Mountains, and not wherever we are now. But we can leave that debate for later, for now, I am quite curious of this Twilight now. Why would a mare, of what I assume to be Miss Rarity’s age, be doing dabbling in magic theory? None but the most fanatical mages of the Empire even touched the subject.”

“It’s just kind of been her thing since she was a filly, that’s all.” Spike shrugged again.

“’Her thing’? You mean to tell me, that since her time of foalhood, she has dabbled in experimental magics? That’s extremely dangerous! What did her parents have to say of such activities?” Somber said aghast.

“Well it’s not like she did what she felt like unchecked.” Spike rolled his eyes. “Princess Celestia made sure to make her a personal student to make sure everything was ok.”

“Princess Celestia?” Somber put his hoof to his chin. “That name rings a bell. Can you give me a description?”

“Uh, yeah. She’s white alicorn that’s about a head or two taller than anypony I know, with this wavy tri-colored mane that always seem to move despite any wind, and a sun cutie mark.” Spike described off the top of his head.

“I-I feel like I know of whom you speak of.” Somber muttered. “But I can’t say I’ve met her. But what do you mean of alicorn? Surely those are only myths.”

Rarity and Spike couldn’t help but chuckle at Somber’s ignorance. “I assure you Somber, alicorns are real, and Twilight can help prove it, seeing as she is one.” Spike smiled, making Somber’s eyes grow wide and subsequently putting his hooves over his eyes.

“I feel like I should just stop making assumptions before I make myself look even more of a fool.” He sighed as he lay back down.

“Don’t get down on yourself now, Somber, it was an honest mistake.” Spike tried to soothe Somber’s bruised pride. “How about you bounce some ideas about what happened to you off of me while we wait? That usually helps Twilight.”

Somber moved one of his hooves to peak up at Spike’s honest eyes and sighed as he sat up properly. “Well, I guess we can start with this pool.” Somber gestured. “Does it not seem off for where we are?”

“A little I guess.” Spike answered. “We are still near the plains, so we could just be low enough to meet the water table.”

“But until this chamber was found, this was completely sealed off, how could this entire place form?”

“Whoever put you here made it, I suppose.”

“That’s another thing that is bothering me, who put me here, and why? And how for another matter, if I am so far away by a method I’ve never heard of, that has to mean I’m even further away than I can conceptualize right now.”

“Maybe the pool has to do with it?” Spike suggested.

“I keep coming to the same conclusion, but I can’t fathom how. I mean, it’s just a pool.”

“You’d be surprised what ‘just a pool’ can do.” Spike looked up at Somber with a look of contempt, remembering the mirror pool incident with Pinkie Pie. “And I am more than certain that this is more than a simple pool, seeing as Rover was considerate enough to investigate how deep it goes.”

“And?” Somber raised an eyebrow.

“They couldn’t get to the bottom.”

“Oh.” Somber considered the pool for a second. “Well, I know I’m not the best swimmer, so I’ll take their word for it, and perhaps we can investigate it later?”

“Uh…” Spike had the thought of how to introduce Somber Tones to the rest of their friends if Rarity didn’t want to tell them she was still coming here. He took a nervous glance to the back of the white unicorn, and as if she could tell he was having trouble, Rarity answered for him.

“I suppose we could come back later to investigate.” She said without stopping her crafting. “I guess sooner is better than later in this situation.”

“Right.” Spike nodded, more for himself than for confirmation. “I’m sure we can find something with Twilight’s magic.” That made Somber frown. “And what now?”

“That’s another point I seem to be having trouble with.” Somber said as he picked up the ruby again. “I can’t seem to use magic.”

“Maybe you just need more time.”

“No, this is different than my memory. It’s been basic practice to do most of my activities by magic, manipulation, conjuring, teleportation, but now I can’t even lift this ruby.” Spike could only frown at Somber’s predicament. For however long he had lived and practiced with Twilight, the simple inability of a unicorn to use magic had never come up.

“I can’t help on that point Somber.”

“I suppose you wouldn’t, but suppose this is yet another condition of my imprisonment.”

“Well now-“

“And don’t try to call it anything else.” Somber snapped lightly. “I know imprisonment when I can see it. Left unconscious in a far away land without the use of one of my most prominent resources? What else would this be?”

Spike was silent as he wrung his claws. “W-well, what did you use your magic for, specifically, for your talent?”

“My hobby, as it were, was gem craft, as was similar to many of the Crystal Empire. Where I shined was the finer details in the gem, making the crystals near opaque and lifelike.” Somber began to smile as he reminisced. “I remember one of my best works was a full set of spiders with socketed legs, scared the daylights out of the castle.” Somber chuckled. “It had everypony checking every corner of a room for months.”

“But if your talent is in crafts, why would it need to be taken away to lock you up?”

“I was not limited to simple craft work, I was capable of fashioning the sturdiest tools the castle had seen. I’m sure I could have found these rubies and dug myself out if necessary.” Somber gave a sigh. “And there are my three conundrums. My memory lapse, my magic, and my location, and it just doesn’t seem like I can find any answers here.”

“And I’m sure you’re right.” Rarity said definitively as she stood. “I’m done here for today, and as soon as Tom or Riddle come back for their ‘trinket’, we can be going.” She didn’t turn to face the duo, but instead took her time to walk up to the hole above them searching for one of the two.

Spike and Somber went to examine the day’s earning and neither were disappointed. To Spike, he was impressed at the amount and size of the collection Rarity was able to make just by her simple carving job and had to wonder if he needed to invest in a bigger wagon. Somber was more impressed with the cuts and packaging, the dusts had been packaged into compressed cubes as to not be scattered and the larger shears were all at decisively cut as to be further refined at a later date. But what caught both of their attentions at the same time was the ‘trinket’ Rarity had mentioned.

It was a beautifully shaped heart of a deep sapphire that Spike doubted he could have carried comfortably without dropping it, and yet, there was a distinct zigzag crack down its center that would be impossible to see unless the two pieces were closely inspected. Spike had to stop himself from salivating over it, while Somber had to back away from it. When Spike looked, Somber had his eyes closed and shaking his head.

“What’s wrong Somber?” Spike asked, feeling like a broken record at this point.

“I-I don’t like it.”

“What? The heart? It’s not like it’s yours, but I don’t think Rarity would like to hear that of her work.”

“No, no, it’s fine, but it’s not. I- argh!” Somber put his hoof to his forehead and began tapping rapidly. “It’s there! It’s right there! I was at the pond for it…it was stolen, and I needed to get it back! The Heart! The Crystal Heart! I needed it back for…for…” Somber was trying to find the right words for what he had gone through and Spike clenched his claws in anticipation, knowing to never interfere with a struggling process.

“Yes, I’m going to need a ramp to get the cart back out of there and an easier way for Somber to leave.” Rarity’s voice broke Somber’s concentration and Spike’s anticipation, making both of them sigh in aggravation.

“Rarity!” Spike cried out.

“What?” She poked her head in to see Spike glaring at her, of all ponies, and Somber as dreadful as ever. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Rarity asked quickly as she stepped back down.

“I almost had it!” Somber cried. “I almost had it and you made me lose concentration!” Somber began advancing on Rarity. “The wind, the snow, I could taste it! But you had to come back and spout off your petty-!”

“Who, whoa! Hold on now!” Spike ran to get between the two, garnering the glare of the aggravated unicorn. “There’s no need to bite anypony’s head off, it was an unfortunate happenstance. Just, just calm down and take a deep breath.” Spike demonstrated, and with a few tentative seconds Somber took a deep breath.

“I-I’m sorry, Miss Rarity.” Somber bowed his head in shame. “I was…just so close.”

“I can understand dear.” Rarity said with pity in her eyes, but not stepping around Spike to comfort him. “I know what it’s like to be on a streak and have it ruined, and it’s not a pretty sight when it happens to me either.”

“I guess I found a reason why somepony wanted me gone now.” Somber said as he sat, crestfallen.

“Now listen here Somber Tones.” Rarity said sternly as she marched over to the unicorn. “Just because of one little outburst is no reason to believe that. Now, what made you so close to remembering?”

“It…It was that heart.” Somber gestured to the wagon.

“Our heart?” A curious Dog called from the hole. Spike looked to see it was Riddle peaking over the side, with a tiny bit of fear in her eyes. “Why would our heart make you crazy?”

“It’s not because of your heart.” Somber called before readdressing Rarity. “It was the Crystal Heart. Somepony had stolen it, and I had tracked them to the pond, but again, that’s where I lose track of my memory. I just remember that I had to get it back.”

Rarity gave a soft smile and placed a hoof on the sad pony’s shoulder. “Well, you must have gotten it back, because the Heart is safe and sound in the Empire.”

“It is?” Somber looked up with hope being present in his eyes for the first time since he had come around. “You’re sure? You’re sure that it’s not some well crafted replica?”

“Trust me, we nearly made a mistake with it when the Empire came back.” Rarity smiled at the near disaster that had nearly cost them the Empire to Sombra. “We’re sure.”

“That’s great.” Somber smiled in honest relief before his frown slowly reemerged. “But then that means there’s even a bigger gap in my memory than I thought.”

“Now stop that.” Rarity glared Somber down. “We already have a bad situation, we need you to stop making it worse. We know we have problems, let’s keep from delving into them until there is something we can do about it, all right?”

After a few more seconds of glaring, Somber gave a resolute nod. “I will not bring this back up until we can actually do something about it.”

“Good!” Rarity said in a much happier tone. “Riddle?” Rarity called.

“Yes Miss Rarity?” Riddle poked her head into view, having prepared to cover her ears if Miss Rarity began ‘whining’ again.

“Can I please get a ramp? And grab Tom, he’ll want his half of the heart.”

“Right.” Riddle nodded before loping off into the tunnels to find Rover and Tom.

“Now,” Rarity put on her polite smile. “What would you like for dinner?”

Twilight was getting worried. It was already eight and Spike wasn’t back home yet. She had finished her book and written a fully detailed review for if she ever wanted to publish it anywhere and had even stopped by Zecora’s for an in depth herbology book from her homeland to see if it had any differing knowledge on local and exotic plant life. She usually didn’t bother looking at the clock, but with her nerves about Spike, she couldn’t focus.

When she heard the telltale squeak of his wagon, she nearly flew out the front door to get him, but stopped halfway there. She slowly fluttered onto the stairs and took a calming breath. When she did, she picked up three voices slightly above the squeaking. One was Spike, the second was defiantly Rarity, but she couldn’t place the third one, but it was defiantly male. What was peculiar was the fact that Spike should have left the gems at Rarity’s and possibly come back on his own, if he didn’t insist on Rarity’s company. As Twilight approached the door, she could begin to pick up the conversation a bit clearer.

“I really don’t think telling her out right will have the best effect, she should get to know him before we tell her.” Spike said.

“But we need to tell her so that we can get on this problem immediately.” Rarity said, making Twilight frown at the mention of a problem.

“Usually getting somepony to know you before telling them your problems is the better way of confirming help.” The unknown male said, making Twilight assume it was defiantly his problem they were probably coming to see her to resolve. She gave a little sigh, not wanting to solve everypony’s problems for them, but if Rarity and Spike thought he needed her help, she was willing to listen. With one last deep breath, Twilight opened the front door to greet the trio.

The three were still a few paces away and Twilight noticed two distinct things right away. One was the very obvious stranger of Ponyville as he was half a head taller than Rarity and locals did not have that sort of cobalt black mane or charcoal coat. The second was the still full gem wagon behind Spike, telling her that they came straight here from their trip. This told her there was quite a bit of urgency to the stranger’s plight.

“Twilight!” Spike began to wave, directing the two unicorn’s attentions in her direction.

“It’s nice to see you home Spike.” Twilight smiled as the dragon jogged a bit closer to give her a hug. “And who’s your new friend?” She inquired as she looked up at the male, who seemed to have quite wider eyes than he did a second before.

“You were actually serious.” He muttered before quickly shaking his head. “My name is Somber Tones, and I happened to be a bit lost, and these two were generous enough to tell me you might be able to help.”

“I see.” Twilight said a bit flatly as she directed her attention to Rarity. “And this had to happen today, or more rather, tonight?”

“Twilight dear, he is quite lost, more than you can know right now.” Rarity said outright, but Twilight could detect a hint when it was that obvious.

“Well, come on into the library Somber, you too Rarity.” Twilight added as she began to see her friend’s eye’s wander away.

“Right, of course.” Rarity gave a bit of a guilty smile.

“Spike, if you could head inside and heat up some tea as we get settled in, I would greatly appreciate it.”

“Yes ma’am.” Spike saluted before jogging inside with his cart.

“I’ve been a bit busy and haven’t eaten yet, is there something either of you would prefer?” Twilight asked.

“Anything’s fine by me right now.” Somber replied.

“I would not mind for some heavily croutoned salad, along with some mushroom alfredo.” Rarity perked on the opportunity. Twilight chuckled lightly.

“I’ll see if we have any to prepare.” Twilight said as she lead the two inside. As Somber saw the inside of the library his head moved in nearly every direction to see this fable like library. As Spike and Rarity had said, it was a very healthy living tree and yet it had been so expertly hollowed out. What surprised him was a fireplace with two chairs and a couch facing it, as this was the most flammable place he ever knew. His ear swiveled as he hear the tinkle of glasses on a tray, and his eyes came back to a doorway in which he saw a well kept kitchen with the dragon currently laying out the dishware. Deciding on no better action, Somber headed toward the couch.

Rarity was about to follow before Twilight lightly pulled her aside.

“Please tell me he’s not here because he talked you into it.” Twilight lightly begged, hoping beyond hope this wasn’t a ploy for somepony to get close to her for ill reasons.

“I would hardly say so. Spike and I actually came upon him unconscious without him even knowing where he was.” Rarity brushed her friend’s worry aside. She agreed before hand with Spike and Somber to leave where they found him as one of the last things they discussed. Twilight gave a small sigh of relief.

“So if that’s not it, then why is he here, now? You could have easily come back to town earlier in the day to get him some proper help.”

“Well, we had a bit of a time calming him down after we woke him up. It seems he had forgotten pretty much everything.”

“Everything?” Twilight’s brow’s shot up. “Was he hurt? No, wait, he doesn’t seem hurt. Are you sure he wasn’t concussed? Does he still not know? He knows his name, but that might be about it. But then again he could have…”

“Twilight, this is why we brought him here.” Rarity cut Twilight’s train of thought. “He’s regained quite a bit of his memory, but the pieces don’t seem to fit. We were hoping if you could help.”

Twilight’s eyes sparkled at the thought of a complicated puzzle, but were quickly glancing over at the waiting unicorn. “Are you absolutely sure? You’re sure he’s not acting this out?”

Rarity bit her lip and glanced over at Somber, who was now starting to take an interest in the twos conversation. “I am absolutely sure.” Rarity finally nodded in finality. “Twilight, you should have seen him when he realized he had amnesia, he was practically hysterical.”

Twilight sighed in defeat. “All right Rarity, I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not making any promises.”

“Thank you Twilight.” Rarity smiled for reassurance before heading over toward the fireplace. Twilight really did want to help Somber, but every time she looked at him, there was always a brief chill down her neck, and that unsettled her. With a small sigh she headed for the kitchen to see if she could accommodate for Rarity’s tastes, finding Spike pouring the hot water into the teacups.

“Thanks Spike, you can leave mine here, I’ll be seeing to dinner.”

Spike stopped pouring and looked over to Twilight. “Are you sure? You usually have me make everything, maybe I can make it while you talk with Somber and-”

“No Spike, I need a bit of time to think this over, and I think dinner prep will give more than enough.”

“A-All right Twi, I you think it’s what’s best.” Spike took one of the cups off the platter before heading back into the main library.

“And Spike, one thing.” Twilight said, making Spike freeze, because one thing was usually very very bad. “Do you trust Somber?”

Spike just looked up at Twilight in surprise. “Of course I do. He’s just confused and lost, and I think it’s one of my duties as an upstanding dragon to help.”

“Of course.” Twilight smiled. With that, Spike headed over to the waiting unicorns with tea in hand. But as soon as she turned back toward the kitchen, the smile left. While leaving the ingredient finding and dinner prep on an automatic spell, Twilight sat at the table in the middle of the kitchen to ponder.

Rarity and Spike both seemed to completely trust Somber, and it wasn’t surprising for the two to want to help one in a situation like his, but there was just something to off about him that she just couldn’t shake. Using a third spell, Twilight recreated his likeness in a miniature model on the counter and began to look him over. There was no chill when she looked at the stallion here, and there didn’t seem to be any abnormalities about him besides his slightly above average height. Taking a closer look at his head, there were no indications of trauma that could cause amnesia.

It just didn’t sit right with her; here was a perfectly healthy unicorn with amnesia found in the southern forests that didn’t fit with any physical description of the surrounding area. A pony of his size would usually be in the hard physical labor profession around here, yet his build and cutie mark obviously pointed to the contrary. As Twilight took a look at Somber’s cutie mark, she began to hypothesize what the three grey crystals could symbolize. It had never been a specialty of hers to interpret them, but she could make a general guess about them, and from what she could safely speculate, he was a part of some gem-crafting specialty. But as for what he crafted or what they were for was up in the air, she would just have to ask him herself.

As she felt the gather spell stop, Twilight looked up to see that everything was in place and the salad was being prepped and the water was being boiled for the alfredo, but she also found Somber at the door gawking at all of the going ons. With a hurried cancelation, the miniature faded and Twilight turned to face him.

“What can I help you with Somber?” Twilight asked a little flushed.

“I-I was just coming to get some more tea.” Somber held his cup a little higher. Twilight did not fail to notice it was in his hoof rather than the normal holding spell. “Is this all that so effortless to you?” He gestured to the prepping salad.

“Ah, a little bit. The initial enchanting is a bit bothersome, but after that it’s simple input-output.”

“I see.” Somber said as he walked over to the table and placed the cup down. “I figured tasks like this would be simpler for an alicorn, but not so much so.”

“Anypony could do this, they just have to learn the initial setting enchantment and learn how to get what they want in a short fashion.” Twilight said, almost slipping into the finite mechanics of the spell, but a chuckle from Somber stopped her.

“And you find that simple? Do you see how many things you have under a set enchantment? Most ponies I know find it a hard enough time to learn settings for their personal skill, and here you have pots, utensils, and food all working in tandem. If you call this simple, I want to know what you find hard.” He smiled, causing Twilight to shuffle her hooves at the compliment.

“And what about you?” Twilight bounced back. “What do you find easy to set enchantments on?”

Somber’s joyful smile turned to a more cunning one as he noticed what Twilight was digging for. “You don’t need to be so dodgy on your questions. My specialty is in opaque gemcraft of multiple uses.” Somber rested his fore hooves on the table before leaning on them himself. “Any other questions?”

Seeing as her attempts at subtlety had failed, Twilight went into full question mode. “Do you really have amnesia?”

Somber pondered the question before giving a crafted answer. “For now it’s only of names and a bit of lost time. Everything else seems to have come back to me.”

“Where are you from?”

“That’s a hard one for you to believe, but it’s the Crystal Empire.”

Twilight jerked back in surprise at the answer. It didn’t seem like he was lying and had complete faith in the answer, and his cutie mark talent would make a lot more sense there than anywhere else. But for him to be found so far south and out cold were completely suspicious now. And so was another aspect.

“Why can’t you use magic?”

It was Somber’s turn to be surprised; even without saying anything to her she had figured out his disability. With a sigh and slight shrug he answered, “I’m not quite sure. After I woke up I found I couldn’t use it.”

“Do you feel any pain in your head? Something might of hit you and might be blocking the path through your brain.” Twilight suggested, to which Somber shook his head.

“I feel fine. No aches, no pain, I just can’t seem to use magic.”

“Hmm.” Twilight pondered. “There is one last thing before we go back.”

“Ok.”

“Why were you surprised I was an alicorn?”

Somber was stunned again as he was sure he hadn’t been heard by anypony. “We-Well, it’s just not something I had seen before, that’s all.”

“That’s such a poor lie.” Twilight gazed at the nervous stallion. “And one that asks more questions than it answers. Even after the suspension, there’s Princess Cadence, but if you’ve never seen an alicorn before, then that means you haven’t even been to the Crystal Empire. And if that’s really true, that means you’ve never even seen the Royal Sisters in any depictions, which leads me to believe that you’re not even a pony.” Twilight stood.

“Fine!” Somber slammed his hooves on the table to stop Twilight’s accusations. “Do you know why I’ve never seen an alicorn before? It’s because I’m older than the alicorns! Happy?”

“What? No! That’s completely preposterous!” Twilight rebutted. “Nopony is older than Princess Celestia and Luna!”

“Really?” Somber stood. “Then how long was the Crystal Empire and empire before those two?”

“I don’t know, but that doesn’t prove anything.”

“Of course it does! It means that before these sisters, there was a long running line of rulers that ran an empire!”

“But the Empire is just a name!” Twilight shouted.

“…What?” The flame had petered out of Somber’s eyes.

“It’s just the name of a city! It’s not an actual empire!’ Twilight continued on without realizing Somber wasn't rebutting. “When the city was suspended, the rest of the empire had to be folded into Equestria so they wouldn’t be taken by the other nations.” Twilight finally breathed and noticed the defeated look on Somber’s face, as well as Spike and Rarity in the doorway, wanting to know why the two were arguing.

“I guess it really doesn’t matter if I go back then now.” Somber said softly as he turned for the door. The three watched as he made his way back toward the couch and lay down.

“Twilight, what was that about?” Rarity asked.

“I-I just asked him why he was surprised to see I was an alicorn, and that just…happened.” Twilight sat back down, feeling more and more miserable as the seconds passed.

Chapter 3

Spike walked over to Twilight and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay Twilight.”

“No it’s not Spike.” Twilight sighed as she stood up, Spike’s hand slipping away. “I just blew up at him, and upsetting somepony of his stability is never right, he might be out there right now questioning everything he’s thought he’s put together. I might have just done something irreversible.” She took up her tea and took a sip of the now mild drink. “But what he said, it just doesn’t make sense. Sure he could be from the Crystal Empire, and something may be stopping him from using magic, but being here? And never have seeing an alicorn before, those pieces just don’t add up.”

Rarity glanced down at Spike, and he the same. Rarity sighed. “Spike, can you go make sure Somber’s doing all right? I’ll fill Twilight in.”

“Sure.” Spike nodded solemnly as he headed back. Twilight eyed her fashionista friend with doubt.

“I figured there was more to this than you started with. What kind of sob story did he sell you?”

“No sob story Twilight, it's an actual plight.” Rarity sighed again as she sat down at the table across from Twilight. “To start with, we didn’t find Somber in the forest, we found him in the Diamond Dog mines.” And before Twilight could begin to berate her, Rarity held Twilight’s lips together with her magic. “Yes, I know, dangerous and what not, but I’ll talk to you about that later with the others. But we found him in the Diamond Dog mines in a completely sealed off chamber with the exception of a very deep pool. Rover and his workers came across it accidently, where Somber was laying unconscious.” Rarity let her magic fade to let Twilight speak. “Now, if you want to explain to me how a powerless unicorn managed wind up in such a place, I would gladly hear it.”

Twilight was quiet for a moment longer, taking another sip of her tea before replying. “Has he given you a reason?”

“He first thought that his brother had put him there as a practical joke, but as more came to him… the less sense it made even to him.”

“His brother?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“He said it got very boring where he lived, so he and his brother would prank each other from time to time, and he said his brother’s favorite one was letting wake up in various places.”

“So he says.” Twilight said as she downed the rest of her tea. Placing the cup in the sink for washing, she sighed. “I don’t like it Rarity. He says that he’s never seen an alicorn before, which means he’s either lying, or he really is from the time that the Empire was an empire. But even then there had to have been records of Celestia and Luna in their libraries. Even the crystal ponies that were there after the suspension ended knew of them when they came to relieve them of Sombra.”

“That’s another thing. He doesn’t know about Sombra.”

“What?” Twilight looked at Rarity as if she had told her that the sky was always purple. “How can he not know about Sombra? He was the reigning tyrant for more than fifty years before his fall, there’s no possible way he couldn’t know.”

“I thought so too, but when he first started putting the pieces together, the last thing he could recall was that the Crystal Heart had been taken.”

“Which went missing when Sombra took over.” Twilight murmured to herself. “But this makes even less sense now, this would mean Somber is up to over seventy years old, relatively speaking of course.” Twilight looked up and into the distance thinking a few magical statistics over. “Or perhaps not. Prolonged stasis can cause major brain trouble, and if he were in that cave for the entire one thousand year suspension, it wouldn’t be a surprise that he couldn’t use magic anymore, it would have all been exhausted to keep him alive.” Twilight shook her head. “But that still doesn’t help with any of the many inconsistencies in his story.”

“Then maybe talking it out with him will help.” Rarity said as she stood. “Perhaps over dinner?” Twilight looked around and saw that everything was set and was even serving itself out for the three who would be eating it.

“I’ll be out with it in a second then, I should grab something for Spike.” Twilight smiled, and pleased to know Twilight hadn’t given up on Somber, Rarity contently left.

As Twilight set yet another find spell for a decent platter of gems for Spike, she began running over all of the history before Sombra that she could in her head.

The Empire had been expansive in its time, spanning Equestria’s entire current northern border above Canterlot and quite a bit into the Griffon kingdom over the eastern ocean. The Empire also had quite the military streak for their time, always seeming to gain more and more land progressively away from their capital. And if they were feeling kind, making trade agreements with existing nations, such as the young Equestria.

In the time shortly before Sombra, King Sharla Mane had found the Empire to cumbersome to expand further, and the Empire grew the least in his reign. Instead he had turned his attention towards the intellectual and practical, since a majority of his kingdom was unfit toward agriculture. And to her recollection, King Sharla Mane was quite the procreator, with well over 15 foals of multiple mares, it could very likely that Somber could have been one of them. But the contradiction rose from Sombra’s claim to be the only heir left, after his ‘father’ had already passed and the rest had ‘vanished’. Many of the royal lineage’s body’s were found near the edge of Equestria from adventurous colts.

Many, but not all.

Twilight was still pondering her conundrum as she gathered the plates and utensils and headed into the sitting area where the others were comforting Somber. He was laying on the couch with his eyes downcast into the flames of the fireplace while Rarity was sitting in one of the chairs and Spike standing beside him. Spike noticed Twilight coming in and shook Somber lightly.

“It might not fix anything, but some food wouldn’t hurt would it?” Spike prompted as gently nodded his head toward Twilight. Somber looked behind him for a moment and sighed. Twilight lay out the plates in front of their recipients on the coffee table and took the remaining chair. Rarity took her portion and began eating quietly, glancing up to see if Somber would do the same.

After a few minutes of silence (except for the crunching from Spike’s meal), Somber spoke up. “I do appreciate you for trying to help, but from these given facts, I’m piecing together that I have no place to go.” He looked up at Twilight, who had put her plate down to hear him out. “If my possibility to not know an alicorn would rule me out from the suspension, then that means I was probably banished before it. And if that is true, then there really won’t be anypony to help me remember what I’m missing, and I would more than likely have been written out of any historical text. This just doesn’t bode well.”

Giving him a minute to add anything else, Twilight began to respond. “While it may be possible that you were banished, somepony still wanted you alive for some function, otherwise you wouldn’t have been banished, but instead killed. And if I can presume to put two pieces together of your own recollection and our own history, I would have to say you were saved by your brother.”

Somber looked at her confused, as did Rarity, but Spike seemed to know where Twilight was going. “How do you mean?” Somber asked.

“If one of your brother’s favorite pranks was to set you away while you were sleeping, he probably saved you from the coup of King Sombra.”

“Who?”

“King Sombra, the last King of the proper Crystal Empire after King Sharla Mane.”

“I don’t remember any Sombra…then again I don’t really recall anypony’s name. Who was he, and what do you mean coup?”

Twilight took a deep breath to recount the tragedy to Somber. “After King Sharla Mane passed, the kingdom was supposed to be turned over to his oldest son, Curia Mane, but nopony could find him. When they began looking for Sharla Mane’s other children, the only one who stepped forward was Sombra, saying he was one of Sharla Mane’s illegitimate children. He convinced Sharla Mane’s advisors of the fact by radiating the Crystal Heart by himself.”

“That does make sense.” Somber mused. “One of the king’s duties was to use the heart personally in times of dire need.”

“And it worked.” Twilight nodded. “But after that, the heart was never used again until about three years ago.”

“What? How long did Sombra rule the Empire?”

“About fifty years.”

“That’s crazy.” Somber muttered. “How could the empire function for fifty years without a single use of the Heart?”

“Dark magic.” Rarity said, immediately gaining Somber’s glare. “He used dark magic for his whims and needs.”

“But the Empire was founded on understanding and community. Using dark magic to run the empire would be lunacy, suicide even. It would never work.”

“It would if the Crystal Heart was never found.” Twilight said calmly. Somber glanced between the two mares before he began running his last memory in a loop. The more he ran it, the more he examined the holes, the harder he tried, the more solid his conclusion became.

“I failed the Empire.” He muttered in utter horror. “I failed the Empire and lead it to its downfall.” He sunk low in the couch, eyes wide in shock.

“Now Somber, you can’t have known-“ Rarity began.

“Known what!?” Somber snapped, not in rage, but in pain. “Know that my people would suffer from a tyrant? No, I couldn’t! But I did know! I knew something was wrong when the Heart went missing! I knew I had to do something about it, and I went alone, and failed! A whole generation grew up under the tyranny I could have prevented! I-“

“Somber Tones.” Twilight said in a flat, neutral voice. It added nothing to his frustration, but soothed Somber’s panic in an instant. He knew this feeling, the feeling of cowering before a higher power. The tension was stilled welled up inside, but he waited for Twilight’s voice first.

“What happened was unfortunate, but what happened, happened. It is done and gone, and we have learned. We cannot do anything for the generations past, but we can still help you. Now, as I said before, I think your brother saved you, but as he did so, the sort of enchantment he must have placed on you to keep you alive has drained all of your magic.”

“So…” Somber took a deep, steadying breath. “The only reason I can’t use magic is because I’ve been asleep to long?”

“In a sense. Since there’s nothing left of any sort of enchantments, I can’t say for sure, but I think when the Diamond Dogs found the chamber, it was very fortunate for you. If you would allow me, I would like to…” Twilight shuffled her hooves, loosing her regal tone. “Probe your mind.”

“Twilight!” Rarity looked aghast at the mention of her action.

“What?” Somber looked quizzically at Rarity. “It’s a simple mind probe for information.”

“But, but it get’s so private!” Rarity tried to explain to the blank faced stallion. “She could learn anything… everything about you.”

Somber frowned for only a split second before a coy smile. “And wouldn’t that be perfect? I would like a second opinion on my brain.” Somber gave a consenting nod to Twilight. “Do as you must.” He said as he lowered his head. Twilight lowered hers in response and began the spell. The magic emanated from her horn and reached the short distance between the two, and where a normal spark of magic for access was supposed to be, there was nothing. The magenta magic wound itself down his horn and into his head.

As Somber and Twilight were preoccupied, Spike crept his way toward Rarity, who was biting her lip in anxiety as she watched what was usually a very private, if not secret activity.

“What do you think she’s looking for in there?” Spike asked, making Rarity jump a little.

“I-I really don’t know Spike. She could be looking at any number of things right now. How he’s been up until now, how old he is by his last birthday, who his siblings are, who he dated last…” She couldn’t continue to say what she was thinking out loud, but Spike raised an eye at the mare.

“Would you check?”

“W-what, me?” Rarity put a hoof to her chest in innocent defense. “I-I wouldn't even know where to start… the spell that is, it’s so detailed in who you’re reading and how far you need to see. And the specifications for species are extensive, I’m sure only Twilight could do this on a whim.”

“Mmm.” Spike hummed to himself as he stroked his chin. Maybe it wouldn't be such a waste of time to learn a practical spell or two. Before he could ask Rarity about the beginnings of the probe spell, Somber and Twilight sighed as the magenta magic fizzled.

“I’m afraid my theory is correct after all. All of your magic channels are shot and you have slight necrosis in your Memorandum.” Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Whatever was using your magic to keep you asleep started making its way further into your brain. The necrosis must have just started when you were found, thus it only affected the names of the ponies you knew.”

“All right, but what about the time near the lake?” Somber asked. “Why can’t I remember anything past going there?”

Twilight shook her head. “I can’t explain that exactly. For all I can find, your memory jumps straight from there to the cave.” Twilight eyed Rarity for a second, causing her to look down in embarrassment. “But it’s not seamless, I can tell that much. Your waking is perfect, but the scene before is in tatters, as if somepony ripped it out.”

“So doesn't that mean there is some time between then and now that is unaccounted for?” Spike asked.

“I’m afraid so, but there’s nothing we can do about it.” Twilight sighed. “It was so long ago that there’s no way for me to recover it. I’m afraid that it may never come back.”

“I… Thank you Miss Twilight, for everything.” Somber gave a relaxed smile. “I think that puts my worst fears behind me.” Somber stood with resolution. “Like you said, what’s done is done and all I can do now is move forward.” With that, Somber rounded the couch and began heading to the door.

“Whoa whoa whoa, where do you think you’re going?” Spike ran in front of the unicorn.

“I need to get back home and see what’s changed. There’s no time to lose.”

“Oh no you don’t. You are going to sit right back down and eat your dinner and you are then going to have a relaxing conversation.” Spike emphasized by physically turning the stallion around, which shocked Somber. “And I am going to go fix the guest room and you are spending the night here.”

“Surely there are better things for you to attend to.” Somber protested lightly as Spike pushed him back to the bemused mares.

“Nope, right now your care is my business. Because if I know anything about how this works, I’m going to have to set this all up anyways.”

“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed as Rarity giggled at her friend’s blush.

“Now sit.” Spike pointed to the couch, where Somber somberly climbed back onto. Spike took his untouched meal and gave the underside a quick blast of heat and put it back. “Be careful, it’ll be hot for a minute or two.” And with those final words, Spike headed toward the basement where the guest bed was held. After closing the door behind him, he couldn't help but be giddy with what he had just done.

Somber was still staring blankly at the door Spike closed as Rarity continued to giggle and Twilight was slightly embarrassed.

“Bu-But I need to get back to the Empire, and he said it was a long ways away.” Somber said dumbfound to Rarity.

“And he’s right.” Rarity coughed the last of her giggles away. “But you can’t expect to get there by yourself at this late hour.”

“I know how to fend for myself, I’m not a helpless foal.” Somber said with a bit of hurt pride.

“You don’t need to fend for yourself Somber.” Twilight took the joy in seeing somepony else have a bit more naivety then her. “It might be a day or two to make arrangements to get there, but I think a train ride is a lot easier than hoofing it all the way to the Crystal Empire.”

“There that word is again, train. What is it? I’m told that it’s a sort of lo-co-motive was it?” Somber quizzically looked at Rarity, and the sparkle in Twilights eyes shined bright.

“Oh dear.” Rarity said under her hoof.

“You see Somber, after the Apple Famine of Celestial Year 238….”

“…And that’s why Sea Ponies went extinct.” Twilight finished as she collapsed her pointer.

“Aww, I always found those things adorable. Annoying, but adorable.” Somber bemoaned.

Spike had come up to find a strange setting. The couch, chairs, and coffee table had all been moved aside for Twilight’s blackboard and a desk for Somber to sit at. Rarity was fast asleep on the couch with a blanket draped lightly over her as she had fallen asleep halfway through the introduction of crop rotation to the Gryphon settlers for bait.

Somber, much to Spike’s surprise, had diligently taken notes on everything Twilight had lectured to him about. There were stacks of paper next to his desk, that once he had gotten used to writing again, were scrawled with notes and questions which Twilight had gladly answered. Though whether or not Twilight had seen his writing was questionable, since she was absorbed in her passion, as Spike picked up the top sheet and it was barely legible.

“I hope you’re not going to write a letter to anypony soon.” Spike commented, letting the two unicorns realize he had appeared. Somber looked down and saw Spike with his notes in claw and quickly snatched it away, a bit embarrassed.

“I haven’t written by hoof since I learned magic, okay? My penmanship might not be the best.”

Twilight was also quite taken aback by the stack of paper. “It looks like you took notes on everything.” She noted as she began floating the top tenth toward her, regardless of Somber’s flailing to stop her. She smiled as she skimmed over the jumble of ink, seeming to effortlessly decipher the mess. She frowned near the end as she placed all but one page aside. Spike was waiting for her to turn it around to see what Somber had doodled, but that didn't seem to be the case here.

“Somber, why are you making war plans against the Zebra’s?” Twilight looked up, concerned.

“They’re not war plans, they’re ‘what if’s’. Like three quarters down and on the left, what if the eastern settlers moved in winter, could they have lasted longer with better preservatives? Just theories on different branches of history.”

“Well…” Twilight trailed off considering the thought. “It was a close conflict, with only a little longer the settler’s would have outlasted the Zebra’s, but that’s not a very productive train of thought Somber.”

“But if we don’t learn from our past, we’re bound to repeat the same mistakes.”

“But we’re not expanding territories anymore, how would this help?”

“Preparation and timing, that’s how it helps. Learn when the proper time is to strike and what’s necessary to do so, it doesn’t have to be for an invasion. Like noticing a persistent weed in a carrot patch that doesn’t seem to grow arid temperatures, so on the next dry day, make it so the weed stays in the arid climate and then meticulously take it out.”

“Hmmm.” Twilight considered the concept, but couldn't see to far into his thought process, so she sighed in defeat. “If that’s the way you think, that’s the way you think.” Twilight glanced around to the clock that hung next to the kitchen door and noticed that it was already one in the morning. “Oh, well, I think I should see Rarity home.” Twilight said as she went and nudged her friend awake, who mumbled in protest. “Spike, can you see Somber to his arrangements?”

“Uh, I’m sure I can see Rarity home to-“

“Spike.” Twilight cut him off. He knew that she had something to talk to Rarity about that he would get to know as well, only later.

“Right, sure. This way Somber.” Spike waved the unicorn down into the basement area.

“Come on Rarity.” Twilight nudged Rarity a bit harder. “We don’t have time to set you up here.”

“Leave me be.” She mumbled, turning away to face the couch’s back.

“We also don’t have your makeup kit here for the morning.”

“Well what are we waiting around for?” Rarity said as she was suddenly opening the door and patting down her mane, leaving Twilight to blink a few times at the empty space between couch and blanket. It was unlikely anypony would see them at this time of night, but Rarity could never be too careful.

After closing and locking the door behind them, the two headed off to Rarity’s boutique. After a minute, Twilight brought up why she wanted to walk Rarity home.

“So Rarity, how much do you really trust Somber?”

“Twilight, not again, I told you already-“

“I know he needs help, there’s no doubt about that. But how much do you trust him.”

“I-I can only say for how much he can trust himself really. He seems genuine in his confusion, so there are things that need to be questioned from time to time, but over all I trust him.”

“Then tell me, did he ever mention his siblings before he came to the library?”

“Yes, when he was first realizing what he was missing, he tried to cling to his siblings first.”

“So that happened.” Twilight mused under her breath. “Do you remember his description?” She asked directly.

“Um, he said his brother had a white coat, blue mane, and a star shield cutie mark.” Before Twilight could speak, Rarity continued. “Oh! And his sister, she had a pink coat and a tri-colored mane.” That made Twilight frown deeply, which wasn't lost on Rarity. “What’s wrong?”

“I could buy his brother’s description, but his sister’s is just impossible.”

“Why’s that dear?”

Twilight smiled in pity as she had to lecture Rarity on fashion history. “Because tri-colored mane’s didn’t start appearing even unnaturally until 115 years after Somber got suspended. Plus, don’t both of those descriptions fit perfectly with some ponies we both know?”

Rarity thought for a second before the obvious struck her. “Dear, you can’t honestly insinuate-“

“Yes, he was describing my brother and Cadence.”

“But I’m sure there had to have been ponies that looked like us in the last thousand years.”

“And I could believe that if it was only Shining Armor, but with his description of Cadence, that’s just right out. Plus…” Twilight lowered her voice. “I checked.”

“Twilight!”

“I had to!” She defended. “I saw what happened in the cave and I had to double check for myself, and right there was Shining Armor and Cadence walking and talking with him in the Crystal Empire palace.”

“Does that mean they too are…?”

“No, no they can’t. There are photos back at my parent’s home in Canterlot of my mom holding Shining in her hooves.”

“But what about Cadence? She’s the princess of the Crystal Empire now. Maybe something has yet to happen to send her back.”

Twilight bit her lip at the thought of something horrible happening to Cadence to throw her back more than a thousand years, but quickly shook her head of the idea. “Impossible, I was barely able to send myself back in time a week for a few seconds, there’s no possible way to throw somepony back a thousand years for the rest of their lives. And besides, she didn’t have a cutie mark in his memories, and she was a pegasus.”

“But if it’s impossible, what are you saying Twilight?”

“I…I think I’m saying that somepony did more than fracture the last bit of his memory, I think they altered it as well.”

“Then, his name might not even be Somber Tones?”

“No, that’s defiantly true, a majority has to be true to still flow properly, but I think my sibling’s were superimposed over others with a detail or word altered here and there to fit them into his past.”

“So then, what does this mean when we get him back there? He’s going to recognize them as his siblings.”

“I don’t know what to do, which is why I wanted to talk to you about it, and the others.”

“The others?” Rarity gasped, almost in horror. “I don’t know if he’s quite that ready for such diversity. I mean…” Rarity stopped and dragged her hoof in the dirt in a circle. “He already sees what we do as… unusual. I think the others might rattle his cage a bit much.”

Twilight snorted. “He does seem a bit put off by my… prestigious studies, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash might wear him out a bit fast, but I’m sure Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie-“

“Oh, defiantly not Pinkie Pie, she would bombard him with her incessant talking and questions, I doubt she’d give the poor stallion room to breathe.”

“Hmm, granted. But at least Fluttershy needs to know before the others so we have at least an even debate.”

Rarity was silent a moment before nodding in agreement. “I’ll be over around eleven to take him over to see her. After all of the stress he’s had to endure today, a relaxing day among Fluttershy’s friends might be necessary.”

“Right.” Twilight nodded. “And in that time, I’m going to have call Shining Armor and Cadence.”

There was a solemn silence between the two as they kept walking. After two minutes, Rarity broke the silence.

“So, did you see anything else in there I should know about?”

Twilight glanced at her and shook her head. “Nothing else seemed out of place.”

“All right, is there anything I shouldn’t know about?” Rarity grinned as Twilight’s face flushed.

“N-n-no! There isn’t!”

“Your mouth says no, but your face and wings say otherwise.”

Twilight glanced behind her to see her wings were quickly flapping open. “We’re close enough right? Yeah, we’re close enough. See you in the morning Rarity!” Twilight quickly said as she began beating her wings to get off the ground and head back toward the library. Rarity took a moment to bask in the moment before continuing on to her boutique.

Twilight had dashed for two reasons. One was indeed because she had seen things that Somber probably really did not want to be talked about, and the second was because of what might have come out of her mouth if Rarity had persisted her questioning. It was something she herself did not want to get in the middle of.

Somber was already practically head over heels for her, and she did not want to be the instigator. If anything was going to happen between the two, they would have to work that out themselves.

Somber had thanked Spike for his assistance and assured the dragon he knew how to see himself to bed. He took in the room, which was fairly large, as it seemed to house multiple purposes, one of which to be some alchemic lab, and an emergency shelter. The bed he had was smaller than the one he remembered having, but it felt so nice compared to the ground and chairs he had been in all day.

As he curled under the blanket and rest his head on his pillow, Somber ran over his first day in this new time, and noted how different it truly was.

There were no more species wars or land grabbing, there were no more massive food shortages, diseases that were once fatal were now trivial, and he could now possibly look a minotaur in the eye and not fear death to be there in the next minute.

But even all of that faded as his thoughts drifted to the lovely mare that had helped him in his most dire of times. She had been tough but fair, delicate and strong with her words, and go between customer and craft without a beat of hesitation. The more he thought of her, the more and more fitting he saw her sitting beside him on the Crystal throne, and even the bedchambers.

But before that went to far, he recounted how the Empire already had a ruler, and that he was no more than an ancient relic from a time that his subjects probably did not want to remember. Somber rolled onto his back and stared at the high ceiling and wondered what the best course of action was.

Did he want to go back and rule the Empire, even if it was only a city, or stay and pursue a closer, more realistic goal? He couldn’t use magic anymore, so he couldn’t use the Heart if the time called for it, and he was sure that the current ruler could. Even if he went back, he would only be a usurper; the people already had their leader, there would be no point.

But, it was home, and it defiantly only changed a little as it had been suspended. It could possibly be one of the only places he could possibly recognize. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t be their ruler, just knowing it was there could be enough.

The more it sifted in his head, the surer Somber was. He would take Twilight Sparkle up on her offer to take him to the Crystal Empire and see how it was, and then he would come back to pursue Rarity.

Besides, every King needed his Queen.

Chapter 4

Even after making his decision, Somber felt uncomfortable falling asleep, seeing as that’s all he had done for over one thousand years. He tossed and turned, got up and paced the room a little to see if he could tire himself a little bit more. With a sigh of defeat he plopped back down on the bed and closed his eyes and didn’t think of anything. Everything was black and silent.

The first thing he did notice was the figure of Rarity running up to him. She grabbed his hoof and began pulling him forward, and he followed. Neither said a word, just one leading the other one out of the black void and into lush green fields. As she lead him over a hill he could hear the thunder of hooves in motion, when they came over the crest he saw a heard of zebra’s and minotaur running together. He saw gryphon’s and pegasai flying over them going the same way.

Somber looked the way they were running, but there were only fields as far as he could see, but looking the opposite direction, he could see his palace out in the distance. Looking to Rarity, she smiled and nodded and they began running toward his home, and even though it looked so far away, they were there in mere seconds, and the capital looked just like he remembered it.

There were even crystal ponies going among their day with only a passing notice of the two new comers. Somber walked down the streets, smiling in his nostalgia, and smiling to Rarity as he pointed out the library, the hot springs, and his favorite restaurant. With a hesitant glance at the palace, Rarity once again grabbed his hoof and lead him along against little resistance.

As they came closer, Somber was surprised to be met by his siblings, smiling at his return. This confused him in either that they weren’t alive, or that they would be pleased with his return with his failure. There were no words exchanged between the four, instead being lead in a tight embrace with his sister, and then his brother. When he pulled away and looked at his siblings again, he hoped to remember their names here, but they still didn’t come to him.

His sister pulled Rarity aside as his brother did the same with him. Somber expected his brother to say something to him, but instead there was a sly smile and a hearty pat on his back. He had always done this when he had found him with a different mare, but his sister usually never met them. He looked over his shoulder to see the two seeming to have a fun time as the two were laughing.

At least they looked like it, he couldn’t hear any laughter, and in fact he hadn’t heard any sounds aside from the heard in the beginning. He turned back to his brother and opened his mouth to speak, but found no words come out. His brother was still smiling, but it was different, gone were the knowing blue eyes, and in their place were piercing red ones. They unnerved Somber, but he didn’t back away, somehow knowing it was the right stance to take. There was another pat on his back, but there was a staying weight to it this time.

Somber looked again and saw black crystals growing out of his back. He could see Rarity between the spikes and could see her begin to panic, but his sister put her hoof on Rarity’s shoulder with a calm smile, but her purple eyes were replaced with the same red ones his brother had. Somber tried to call out, but his voice still didn’t come, and the crystals on his back were growing, weighing him down.

Somber dropped to his knees, and then his stomach as his brother stood over him. He watched in shock as his brother’s coat turned from white to his own grey, his blue mane to Somber’s black, and strange enough, his brother’s horn curved and burned blood red. All the while smiling with white, razor teeth.

Somber looked on in horror as the new stallion, a seemingly twisted version of himself, leaned down and whispered in his ear.

“Enjoy the dream while it lasts.” He said with an ethereal snarl.

Somber sat bolt upright in his bed, a cold sweat running over his body. He quickly pat his back to make sure there was nothing actually there. Not having been a stranger to horrid nightmares, Somber took deep, slow breaths as his adrenaline receded. Somber began to recount what disturbed him, to assess what was bothering him so he could address it, but screwed his eyes shut as it seemed to have already slipped his mind.

He punched his pillow in frustration. He had been taught that dreams were meant to be a reminder to yourself of what needed to be done and addressed, but if he couldn’t remember a note of it after waking up, he was never going to be able to remember. He pressed his face into the pillow as he tried to recall the dream.

He remembered Rarity being there prominently, he recalled the fields and the myriad of creatures running together, and he remembered showing Rarity around the capital, but the last thing he could call was hugging his brother. He knew what he needed was right after that, but it wouldn’t come to him. Somber beat his face in the pillow multiple times before he pulled another pillow over his head to see if it would help.

As something pushed on his back, Somber sat bolt upright, but was again confused by his own reaction.

“Oh, I see you’re already awake.” Somber heard Spike say. He looked down to see the tiny dragon clasping his claws. “You weren’t answering when we called down for breakfast.”

“Ah, sorry, I was trying to grasp a dream before I lost it.”

“Really?” Spike perked up. “What do you think it was you were looking for?” Spike asked as he ran over to one of the tucked away tables, scrounging a quill and a piece of parchment out. Somber merely raised an eyebrow.

“Is this yet another thing Miss Twilight has looked into?”

“Ah, actually, it’s more a hobby of mine.” Spike admitted. “There are a lot of times that something comes to me and I want to keep it. And there are time’s I catch Twilight sleep talking over her work.” Spike said as he dragged his toe in a circle, but then perked up. “So, tell me what you got.”

“Uhh, well…” Somber went on to recount what he could, taking his own note of how hesitant Spike was to write when he mentioned Rarity as the first thing. There were times Spike didn’t write to listen intently, and other times he held a claw up to stop Somber as he scratched additional notes. When Somber began stuttering with his brother, Spike stopped writing all together.

“And that’s where it starts getting fuzzy I assume? You must have started to wake up then.” Spike said as he rolled the paper up and blew a puff of green flame, the smoke wandering upstairs to his bed. “Come on then, breakfast is getting cold.”

Somber sighed as his uncomfortable feeling of forgetfulness started to ebb and followed Spike up the stairs. They went into the kitchen where they found Twilight sitting sipping a cup of coffee. She peaked up over her cup and smiled as she saw the two come in.

“Did you have a restful night Somber?”

“For…the most part. I have to admit; going to sleep was the hardest part. I thought I would have had enough of that.” He smiled, and Twilight smiled in return.

“Well, at least it won’t last a thousand years again.” She quipped. She felt keeping a light air about Somber would be for the best right now, to let him gain a better sense of self before having to, unfortunately, break it down.

“So, ah, what are we having?” Somber asked as he sat down.

“I don’t know, what are we having today Spike?” Twilight asked as she fetched Somber a cup of coffee of his own with her magic. “Ah, any cream or sugar?”

“Black is fine.” Somber nodded.

“I thought we could accustom Somber to Ponyville’s apples, so it’s pancakes with some apple preserves.” Spike said as he rummaged through the cabinets for said preserves.

“Ah, apples.” Twilight sighed. “Yes, you’re going to find a lot of those around here.”

“Why’s that?” Somber asked, making Spike groan, and Twilight’s grin widen.

“You see, in the founding of Ponyville…”

“…And that’s when the Apple Carrot war began.” Twilight paused to catch her breath, as there was a knock at the door. Twilight looked up at the kitchen clock to see it was 10:57. “Aww, I could have at least fit in the Cake vs. Pie family blood feud in three minutes.”

The two had been talking throughout breakfast and had eaten more in a secondary fashion than paying attention to the plates in front of them. After Spike had finished his own portion with ruby dust, he had taken it upon himself to effectively clean out the preserves jar for its next use. Eating the remainder for himself was just a bonus.

Spike looked back as he filled the sinks for the morning’s dishes, he was a bit baffled to see what Twilight and Somber had done. “And when did you have time to make this an entire study session?”

In the time between breakfast and dishes, Twilight had indeed dragged in the blackboard and papers for Somber Tones. Fortunately for Spike, there was only a small stack of notes on the history of Ponyville. Somber collected his papers as Twilight headed for the door.

“Who would be here at this time?” Somber asked Spike as he began to fill the jar with water.

“Well, we are a library after all, though nopony seems to come by, there are usually two or three a day.” Spike shrugged. Somber’s ear swiveled as he heard Twilight talking with the only somepony he could put a name to.

“Oh, I don’t think it’s a patron right now Spike.” Somber smiled. He turned to address the two mares coming in. “And what can you be here for today Miss Rarity?”

Rarity was a bit taken aback by Somber’s nonchalant address to her before she had even come in the room. She glanced to Twilight who only smiled, and composed herself.

“Well, it wouldn’t do you any good to sit in here all day. Some light could do you some good, and I know for a fact Twilight isn’t the best at doing that herself.” Rarity gave her own smile to her friend, who only pouted in return.

Somber pursed his lips. “While it could do me some good, I think staying here could do me a lot more justice. There’s no telling what I could gleam from all of this.” Somber emphasized his point by waving at his stack of notes. Twilight wanted to smirk at her newfound student, but she knew she needed to get Somber out of the library.

“As that may be, you do need to get out and stretch and build some muscle. And we have a friend who can be more than helpful in some minor physical recovery.” Twilight advised. Rarity smiled as Twilight stuck to the plan, but Spike could only eye Twilight in suspicion. As he raised a claw to give his input, both Rarity and Twilight gave him a sharp glare for him to keep silent, which he reluctantly did.

Somber didn’t notice however, as he was considering going or staying. Staying could mean he could learn more of what he missed and piece together where he could be in this time. But going could make him feel physically better than he had since waking up, and after glancing up at the two a second after they had glared down Spike, he could see they had a look that said he was going, it only depended on how much he wanted to argue.

Somber gave a small sigh and smiled. “I suppose getting out and about could do me some good.” Somber set aside the papers and walked up to the two. “I suppose we would be leaving immediately?”

“Ah…ah…Yes.” Rarity said in a bit of surprise, she honestly thought he would have argued a little bit, she had even been putting together a convincing argument on the way over. “We can go see Fluttershy right away.”

“And will you be coming too?” Somber asked Twilight.

“No, I’m going to see if I can start seeing to our trip to the Empire while you’re out.”

“Oh, well I suppose it’ll just be the two of us then.” Somber smiled, making Rarity blush for a reason unknown to her.

“I can join you two if you wouldn’t mind the-“

“Spike, I’ll need you here to double check the schedules to see nothing overlaps.” Twilight politely interrupted. Spike frowned, but could understand that this was the time for yesterday’s explanation.

“Right, you do have quite a lot to plan around.” Spike affirmed, causing Somber to glance over his shoulder in surprise. He was sure Spike would insist to come along, if it were only him and Rarity.

“Well then, shall we go?” Somber asked.

“Yes, lets.” Rarity bowed and turned, leading Somber out the front door. When Spike and Twilight heard its resounding thud, Spike gave a long agitated sigh.

“All right Twilight, what is it with him that we can’t talk about?” Spike said as he turned back to the sink, vigorously cleaning the preserve jar with his slowly building frustration. Somber seemed to be getting a bit too chummy with Rarity for his liking.

Twilight took her seat at the table again, flipping through Somber’s notes again, noting that he took particular interest in the details of the Apple family’s meticulous cultivating. She mused at how Somber could perceive the information’s use, but was snapped back by Spike’s annoyed tapping on the sink.

“Hm? Ah, right, Somber. Well it seems somepony tampered with his memories before his sleep, and put Cadence and Shining Armor over his actual siblings.” Twilight said bluntly. Spike stopped his tapping and took a serious look at her. When he saw her staring back at him, waiting for his response, Spike merely shrugged.

“Well, it wasn’t like he was going to be Dreamy McPerfect from where we found him.” Spike said as he finally decided the jar was as clean as it was going to be, setting it aside to dry, his frustration also subsiding. “So what’s the plan now?”

“Well, step one is to tell Shining Armor and Cadence, step two will be coming up with a step three with them.”

“Really?”

“What?”

“You usually come up with at least three different branch plans, and all you have is calling Cadence and Shining?”

“I need their input on this, they’re obviously an end goal for somepony, so they’re going to need to be in on the plan.” Twilight said as she took one of the blank sheets from Somber’s notes. She took his quill and scrawled out a quick note to her brother. Rolling it up, she fetched a ribbon, her seal, and a candle to quickly wrap the note. After the seal, she quickly handed the note over to Spike, who took a deep breath and burned the note in green flames, sending it all the way to the Crystal Empire. Twilight stood and headed for her room, gesturing for Spike to follow.

“It’ll be easier if we have a face to face conversation.” Twilight said without letting Spike even ask why they were going upstairs. “And to do so we’re using the mirrors.”

“But doesn’t that spell take a lot of magic to work? From both sides?”

Twilight smirked over her shoulder. “Who do you think is talking Spike? The three of us could keep the conversation going overnight.”

“I hope it doesn’t take that long.” Spike mumbled as he wondered what Rarity was doing right now.

As it happened, Rarity had to deal with a neurosis of Somber’s.

“Are you sure I’m okay here?” Somber asked as he kept his head forward, but his gaze jumped all over, seeing only mares and children around.

“For the fifth time Somber, yes. All the other stallions are working right now. I’m sure in an hour or so you would see a lot more for the lunch hour.”

“But I can feel them staring.”

“I’m sure that happened back home as well, you are royalty.”

“Yes, but there I at least knew why I was being stared at. Here is a completely different story.”

“Somber, I assure you, you’re fine. Just relax a little and- oh no.” Rarity braced for the oncoming storm.

“What? What’s wrong?” Somber asked, a bit panicked. His eyes darted everywhere, but the only thing he found out of place was a bouncing pink pony.

“I am so sorry for what’s about to happen.” Rarity looked up at Somber with eyes of pity.

“For what’s going to happen?” Somber began to go into flight mode when he heard a giant intake of air in front of him. His eyes fixed on the pink pony who was suddenly hovering in the air.

Somber was a bit concerned, and confused, as how this was being accomplished, as she was neither a unicorn nor a pegasus. But before he could speak, the pony was replaced with a pink cloud that quickly dissipated. Somber looked around frantically, worried she had been snatched away, but saw her bounding down the street to his left.

“Well that was significantly downplayed.” Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. Somber also began to feel a bit more relieved as he felt the stares stop and a much faster flow of the town began.

“Who, or what, was that, and why is everypony suddenly so relaxed?” Somber asked as the unnatural shift began to get to him.

“That was my friend Pinkie Pie, she’s our resident party pony, and she knows everypony in Ponyville. And now that she knows you’re here, you’re going to have a welcome party.”

“Oh, well, that sounds nice, when do you think that will be?”

“Oh tonight, most defiantly.” Rarity nodded as she began walking again.

“Wait, tonight?” Somber asked in shock as he caught up.

“Oh yes, and expect to be up all night too. Welcome parties are one of her bigger bashes.”

“Who’s going to help her with all of the preparations and set up?”

“She does it by her self, don’t ask me how, but when Pinkie wants something done, it gets done, whether we comprehend how or not.”

“But… to make one thing clear, she is an earth pony, correct?”

“Yes, she is.”

“Then how was she hovering and going so fast?”

Rarity only smiled at a private joke. “Whether we comprehend how or not.” She repeated.

Somber could only bite his lower lip before he finally accepted the answer she gave, for now. ”So, I was wondering about this other friend of yours, Miss Fluttershy, what is she like?“

“Ah, well, she’s very shy, as in she won’t be talking to you for about the first ten minutes you know her. Just be patient and she’ll come around to you.”

“Wow, if she’s so shy, how does she get what she needs?”

“She mostly forages in the Everfree Forest, so her house is on the edge of it. She also takes care of a multitude of animals there, so she collects for them as well.”

“How many is ‘a multitude’?”

“See for yourself up ahead.” Rarity waved as they came to the edge of town and the only thing down the road was the way to Fluttershy’s house, and Somber surely saw.

He saw the chicken coop that was fluttering in its own business, he could see flocks of birds fly this way and that way, he saw bunnies and ferrets running in their packs, and he could see one yellow pegasus tending to each of them without a care in the world.

“Ooo, ooo, shh!” Rarity put her hoof over Somber’s mouth. “It’s such a treat to hear her sing.” She whispered. Somber took her word and concentrated in her direction, and sure enough he could hear such a lovely tune coming from her. As he stopped completely and closed his eyes, he could hear the birds harmonizing with her and some soft percussion as the critters amongst the ground kept a beat. It didn’t even seem like the song had any planned lyrics, just whatever came to her mind.

Both Somber and Rarity were sorely disappointed when Fluttershy quickly stopped with a small “Eep!” The birds flew off and all but one bunny scurried off into the nearby bushes. The remaining bunny taking an uncharacteristic glare at Somber.

“R-Rarity, I wasn’t expecting you.” Fluttershy addressed her friend before taking a bashful look at the imposing stallion next to her. “W-Who’s your friend?” Fluttershy asked as her voice quickly dwindled from its already quiet nature.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you like this Fluttershy, but this is Somber Tones.” Rarity introduced, Somber taking a light bow in accordance. “I happened upon him yesterday in quite a bad position in the forest, I thought he could have a peaceful stay around here while he recuperates.”

“Bad? How bad Rarity? Shouldn’t he go to the hospital if it’s that bad?” Fluttershy said as she began taking nervous glances at Somber, trying to assess any outright problems.

“I assure you Fluttershy, if he was that bad, he would be. He just has a few… problems he needs to work out right now.” Rarity said, still trying to be discreet about Somber’s actual situation until she could properly spell it out for Fluttershy.

“Um, if I may Miss Rarity?” Somber asked, his voice seemingly making Fluttershy hide in her mane, which Somber considered quite a feat. Rarity gave him a doubtful look, but gave a conceding nod. “Miss Fluttershy? I’ve been in accursed sleep approximately a thousand years and have lost the use of my magic.” As Somber gave his slight background, Fluttershy began to peek out from her mane. “I’m not familiar with anything around here, but staying inside all day wouldn’t help that condition. So it seems Miss Rarity and Miss Sparkle find that your… household would help in some recuperation. Would that be alright Miss Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy looked up at the kind grey eyes asking her to visit, and she couldn’t help but want to help him. “I-I’m sure you visiting wouldn’t hurt. A-And there’s plenty of space for you to stretch.”

“I thank you Miss Fluttershy.” Somber bowed slightly again at her acceptance.

“Y-you don’t need to keep adding the ‘miss’, Fluttershy is fine.” Fluttershy said as she hid behind her mane again.

Somber frowned, as his interaction with anypony he didn’t know always had the proper address. But if this was the new way, and if she preferred, he would have to adjust. Somber turned to Rarity. “Would you too prefer me to leave off the ‘miss’ in your address?”

Rarity gave a light chuckle. “It would make me feel less formal about you Somber. It would probably be for the same for anypony you meet in Ponyville. Though you can feel free to check with them first.”

“I’ll… see if I can adjust.” Somber nodded. He looked back into the vast yard Fluttershy owned and had one questioning mind. “Is there anywhere I can’t go?” He directed towards Fluttershy.

“Ah, don’t go into the forest, that’s all you really shouldn’t do. Oh! And make sure to look out for burrows, the tenants can get cranky if to many run over head.” Fluttershy advised.

Somber gave a polite smile. “I’ll make sure to keep myself to a walk then. If you two would excuse me.” Somber gave one last nod before heading off into the field with, unbeknownst to him, a flock of curious mice trailing him.

“He seems nice.” Fluttershy said, regaining a normal composer as Somber left.

“He is such a gentlecolt. Nearly the second he was off the ground he was helping me manage a business decision.”

“Really?” Fluttershy’s eyes went wide at the notion. Rarity rarely took in advice from somepony she didn’t professionally know.

“Well, it more of convincing me to take a job, really. But this is something I wanted to talk to you about Fluttershy.”

“Oh, a-and what would that be?” Fluttershy asked as her ears flattened, she didn’t really like making decisions for other ponies.

“It’s about Somber, dear.” Rarity said as she raised a hoof to Fluttershy’s ear to whisper. “He’s Crystal pony royalty.”

“What!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she backed away from Rarity in shock, though her outburst didn’t leave the vicinity of the two.

“I know! It’s just exciting!” Rarity let herself squee a little at finally being able to share such juicy information.

“B-But Rarity, there hasn’t been any Crystal royalty before Princess Cadence since King Sombra.” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Well, yes, there’s that too.” Rarity said as she came back down to earth. “Twilight says he was put to sleep before Sombra though. But there’s something else besides that, and I think we should sit down before I tell you the rest.”

Fluttershy took a long, worried look at the retreating stallion before nodding nervously to Rarity. “I’ll go put some tea on.”

Somber noted the two retreat into the house as he kept walking toward the field, making sure not to go over to many hills, as he noticed that’s where a majority of the burrows were. He only gave a passing thought to what they may be talking about, but decided that they were only catching up for the last few days, and began looking around at some of the more diverse animals he had only seen in books before.

Somber lay in the middle of the field and looked up at the birds, noting the robins and the cardinals amongst some warblers and buntings, and smiled as the flock made its own melody overhead. It did make him curious, however, that none of them ever seemed to land near him, but always in the trees, and they never seemed to quite look at him.

Somber would have passed it as birds being birds if it weren’t for every other creature seeming to give their distance. The mice he had spotted behind him were still there, but a good seven feet away, staring at him. The ferrets and rabbits he had spotted around Fluttershy were also scampering about, but far away from him, and the only one who seemed to even come close to him was the odd-staring bunny from before.

“And could you tell me why everybody is staying away?” Somber asked, half jokingly, as he figured the rabbit wouldn’t answer. To his surprise, the odd bunny hopped over and bopped him at the base of his horn, making him reel back a little. Somber rubbed the base of his horn as he looked down at the stern bunny. “I-Is it my lack of magic?”

The rabbit shook his head and bopped him at the base of his horn again and jumped on his head and down his back. Somber looked back, confused at the action of the rabbit. He saw it waiting at his flank, patting his grey tri-crystal cutie mark. “Is there something wrong with… I don’t know, my use of magic?” That’s the best connection he could make between his cutie mark and horn. To his surprise, the rabbit tapped his nose in affirmation.

“Well how can that make sense? I can’t use magic anymore.” The rabbit rolled his eyes and hopped back up Somber’s back, this time tapping him on the back of his head.

“Hey now, stop that!” Somber told the rabbit off as he shook his head and stood up, making the rabbit fall on his rump. It glared up at Somber, stood, dusted itself off, and hopped off. “I wonder what his problem is.” Somber pondered as he kept walking through the field.

His thoughts wandered to how and where this Pinkie Pie was going to hold a party for him, and how she could possibly set it up in time. Given her unnatural speed, Somber considered it possible that she could collect and prepare, but his question of where still lingered. He hadn’t been in the town for more than a day and knew nowhere beyond the library and here, and given the inhabitants of Fluttershy’s home, it was highly unlikely to be here.

But a library, honestly? What pony in their right mind would host a party in a library? Although, if addressment could change over a thousand years, who’s to say a party couldn’t? But then who would possibly be there? He didn’t know anypony, who would attend a party for somepony they didn’t know?

What if he had to introduce himself? What was he going to say? He couldn’t possibly introduce himself as an age lost prince, nopony would believe that. Could he even say he was from the Crystal Empire? Where could he say he was from there? What if somepony knew somepony there?

Somber continued to travel down his pointless train of thought as Angel Bunny watched him from a distance and sighed. If the grey unicorn wasn’t going to acknowledge his own pent up anger and aggression, it was his fault if it blew up in his face. With his attempted work done, Angel turned tail to go inside to see if he could convince Fluttershy to make him another salad.

Inside, Rarity had just finished telling Fluttershy everything she knew about Somber Tones, including his tampered memories.

“So what are we going to do?” Fluttershy asked.

“Twilight should be talking to Shining Armor and Cadence now, so what we’re going to need to do is inform Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie if she doesn’t already figure it out. And then we’re going to have to stop Applejack and Rainbow Dash from immediately jumping to the conclusion that he’s dangerous.”

“B-But isn’t he?”

“You talked to him Fluttershy, he’s one of the sweetest stallions you’ll meet around here. He’s not the one who’s dangerous; it’s whoever is playing him like a marinate.”

There was a brief pause before Fluttershy voiced one of her own concern. “Are we going to tell him?”

“That he doesn’t remember his actual siblings and that somepony is using him?” Fluttershy gave a small nod, and Rarity sighed. “I don’t know. I want to tell him, but he’s already fragile as he is. Pulling the rug out from under him as he is would be like pulling a tablecloth out from under fine china, he could come out fine, but more than likely it would shatter him. You have to believe me Fluttershy, I saw him when he was unsure of who he was, and I don’t want to see him like that again.” She shuddered at the memory of him snapping for losing his ‘siblings’ names.

“So, should one of us tell one of the others, or should we go together?” Fluttershy asked.

“I think we should do it together, seeing as neither one of us could stop AJ or Rainbow by ourselves, but the problem lies with Somber. Where could we leave him to tell the others?”

“Can’t we just take him back to the library?”

“Oh no, I’m sure Pinkie Pie is already setting up his welcome party there.” Rarity waved off.

“Oh, so she’s already met him?”

“Well, seen more than meet, she dashed off after she saw him.”

“Ah.” Fluttershy nodded in recognition of Pinkie’s behavior. “Could we… introduce him to them before the party? Like you did with me?”

Rarity mulled the thought over. “I suppose we could, the only hard part about that is catching them at a good time.”

“Well, if we go now, I’m sure we could see AJ in her lunch break.”

“But Granny will insist on us staying, and you know I’m trying to watch my figure Fluttershy.” Rarity complained.

“One Apple meal won’t ruin your figure Rarity, I promise.” Fluttershy smiled at her friend’s conscientious mind. Rarity pouted, but sighed in defeat, at least an Apple meal would be worth it. “But how should we introduce him? You know AJ is going to see right through any half truths that we give her.”

“I know.” Rarity sighed. “Which just means we’re going to have to give her the straight truth.”

Fluttershy grimaced at the thought. “How do you think she’ll react when we say you found him in the Diamond Dog mines?”

“Not well I imagine. But I’m not going to defend my own actions to everypony in town.”

“And you don’t have too. I’m sure she’ll understand if it’s given straight enough.”

Chapter 5

Somber was still wandering around the meadow, feeling some knots that had formed in his back and legs, taking some time to flex them out, all the while seeing if any of the multitude of animals would come anywhere near him. But, like the birds before, nothing was coming more than four feet from him, either out of bravery or ignorance of his presence beforehand. When he walked around the chicken pen, the chickens stayed on the opposite side of the pen. Somber even noticed a bear taking a nap under a tree, both of them giving each other a stink eye. Somber did so because he knew how bears could act if provoked, and the bear acted in kind to make sure the negative pony wasn’t causing any problems.

When the bear glanced at the opening of the cottage’s door, Somber turned to see Fluttershy and Rarity coming outside. Somber frowned slightly as he could see that both mares had an air of a serious conversation amongst them instead of what he thought would be light laughter. Somber wondered if there was a reason for this, thinking back on his time spent until now, and sudden, unpleasant thought struck him.

What if Rarity hadn’t forgiven or forgotten his outburst in the cave? What if she was weary of him and had swayed Fluttershy to the same mindset? How would he convince her otherwise? Rarity was already her friend, so he couldn’t just deny his actions, but if she already saw him in a negative light, turning that image around was going to be difficult.

Somber gave a sharp snort and shook his head. Was he really that paranoid? On a second thought, he had been a prince in a rather tough spot of scrutiny for the longest time. But this was different, this was a new start, and it didn’t involve being the center of attention all the time.

Somber’s brow furrowed as the memory popped up. It was from when he was only a foal, six or seven, and he had just found that he could easily craft crystals and had gotten his cutie mark. It was all he could talk about and everypony seemed proud of him for it, but about the third day, he had noticed ponies started avoiding him. He remembered fuming and sulking that nopony would talk to him about his cutie mark until his brother took him aside.

“Somber, if you want to talk to anypony, you have to stop talking about your cutie mark all the time.” His brother said with a sad look in his eyes.

“Why? Can’t I be proud of what I have?” Somber stamped his hoof and then pointed accusingly. “Ponies won’t stop talking about your cutie mark. I hear about it all the time anywhere I go here.”

“Well, yes, but that’s something different.” Somber’s brother glanced worryingly at his own flank. “But I don’t bring it up all the time myself, now do I?”

“No.” Somber pouted, hating that his point had none.

“It’s okay to be proud, just don’t let that pride be your only characteristic, okay Somber?” Hs brother placed a comforting hoof on his shoulder, making Somber sigh in a bit of dejection.

“Okay Crystal Shield.” Somber smiled.

Somber fell on his flank, his eyes wide as the name just came to him out of nowhere. The mares must have seen his state of shock, because they were quickly approaching with a small level of fear in their eyes.

“Somber! Is everything all right? You didn’t overexert yourself did you?” Rarity asked quickly, but her fear was swiftly replaced with confusion as Somber smiled.

“I remember his name.” Somber whispered more to himself than to the two. “I remember my brother’s name!” He exclaimed as he jumped up, his memory’s smile becoming his own and grabbing both Fluttershy and Rarity in a surprise hug.

Fluttershy shrank in the embrace and gave Rarity a confused look, and Rarity could only look forward in stunned silence. She quickly deduced that right now was going to be a bit toss between telling him the truth right now or keeping to the plan.

“A-And what is his name?” Rarity asked hesitantly as Somber released them from his embrace.

“Crystal Shield! I feel so silly for forgetting his name!” Somber said as he tapped his head. “I wonder if it’ll happen the same way with my sister’s name.”

“And what made you remember your brother’s name?” Fluttershy asked, not unfamiliar with associated action to help some her more panicked critters remember what they wanted to tell her.

“I-I just saw the two of you walking out of your cottage, and I thought you were talking about me, and that not everything is about me, and then I remembered something from when I was just a colt.” Somber babbled off as he tried to think of any significant interactions with his sister, but was paused with a hoof on his shoulder.

“That’s nice Somber, but don’t try to push it.” Rarity smiled. “We don’t need a crash like yesterday.”

Remembering how he had snapped, Somber quickly came down from his hype and took a slow breath. “You’re right, one thing at a time.” Somber gave his head a small shake. ”Crystal Shield.” He said under his breath, just to make sure he wouldn’t forget again.

As he was in his small reprieve, Fluttershy and Rarity shot each other worried glances that would only hold a conversation between close friends.

‘Crystal Shield and Shining Armor have some similarities, do you think it’s another cover?’ Fluttershy asked.

‘I don’t know, it could be, but it’s not a direct comparison, but I don’t know the old lineage.’ Rarity replied. ‘I say we stick with the original plan.’

‘What about Twilight? She should know about this.’

‘There’s no time, we’ll have to update her when head back to the library on the planned time.’

Fluttershy frowned, but nodded in acknowledgement. Both of them quickly reformed their posture as Somber turned his attention back to them, but his giddiness was still noticeable.

“So, I assume there was something to talk to me about?”

“Ah, well, while we were out, I thought we would go see some of our friends and tell them about the welcome party that Pinkie is throwing.” Rarity explained. ”And I’m pretty sure the first place we’re going to is going to insist on serving us lunch.” Rarity smiled, but Somber could detect a hint of resentment at the last comment.

“And while I don’t mind leaving the animals to Angel’s watch, I-I’m not terribly comfortable leaving other ponies with them.” Fluttershy said in her hushed tone as she rubbed her fore hooves.

“Oh, I understand.” Somber nodded. “We should leave sooner rather than later if we’re going to catch anypony else for lunch. Lead away.”

Fluttershy had to head back to the door to make sure it was locked, but soon the three were off on their way. It was quiet for a minute, as Somber didn’t particularly know what to say, and the mares were being cautious about bringing up Somber’s past. After that uncomfortably quiet minute, Somber finally grasped a talking point.

“Did something happen before with other ponies watching your animals for you?” Somber asked Fluttershy. She was somewhat startled by the sudden comment and took a second to reply.

“Oh, it’s always been a worry of mine that somepony wouldn’t know what to do in an emergency situation. But the animals are a bit skittish right now when I’m not there since last month, the CMC tried corralling.”

“The CMC?” Somber raised an eyebrow at the abbreviation, wondering what sort of group name would be shortened to those three letters. The closest thing he could think of would be the Crystal Marionette Customizer Association, but that seemed quite out of the question. And what did she mean by try?

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders is a club my little sister and her friends made to find their cutie marks, and they go around doing the craziest things.” Rarity explained.

“Like corralling?” Somber smiled at the notion of a group of colts and fillies trying to corral a family of bunnies and just stumbling about.

“And dress making and bowling and zip lining and any number of things I don’t know about.” Rarity sighed in exasperation. “We might actually run into the three at the farm.”

“Farm?” Somber asked. It hadn’t actually occurred to him to ask where they were going. “It wouldn’t be the Apple Farm by chance?”

“Uh, yes, how did you know?” Rarity asked.

“I had a history lesson this morning.”

“Was that what that was?”

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle is very informative on many subjects as I am finding. Did you know that the Apple Family founded the town?”

“Oh yes, it’s one of Granny Smith’s favorite stories.” Fluttershy nodded. “She was there for it.”

“Really?” Somber raised an eyebrow in disbelief. The town was at least a century old, so unless this Granny Smith was barely born when it happened, she would be the oldest pony he had ever known.

Well, technically aside from himself.

“Though I don’t believe as such.” Rarity interjected. “The details she usually gives puts her at least being 120, and I just cannot bring myself to accept that.”

“But Rarity, she’s told the story so many times the same way. I don’t think she’s making it up at all.” Fluttershy defended.

“Her parents could have easily written it down and Granny Smith has just confused the written word for her own memory.” Rarity quickly closed her mouth at the word memory, hoping that it hadn’t sparked anything for Somber, though she shouldn’t have worried. He was already contemplating if he could accurately read one’s age from external and mental factors.

“While old age might fog some memories, I don’t think it could entirely rewrite them.” Somber theorized out loud. “And written logs are mostly about facts and events, so if Granny Smith can describe details and feelings on such events, I would conclude that she was actually there.”

“I told you we were forgetting something!” The trio heard a muffled yell from the growing thicket of apple trees. Rarity and Fluttershy glanced at each other in worry and started heading over to the yell. Somber followed after, but wondered why such a yell was more annoyed than panicked.

When the three arrived, Somber could see two fillies, a white unicorn with a light violet mane and a yellow earth pony with a red mane, standing around a squat barrel with looks of concern and confusion.

“Ah thought we could take it back off again.” The earth filly said with a slight country accent.

“There’s at least fifty nails in here!” Somber heard from the barrel. It seemed to him that the fillies had attempted to make a barrel they could fit inside from two old wooden baskets, while forgetting to make a hatch to get in and out from, which made him chuckle.

“Sweetie Bell, what happened?” Rarity asked as she approach her little sister. Sweetie looked up in a bit of shock seeing Rarity here of all place, but immediately thought that she could help.

“We were thinking of getting our barrel riding cutie marks, but Applejack said we couldn’t use any of the barrels she has because they’re already filled with apples, but she said we could use some of the older collection baskets.”

“Who’s out there?” Scootaloo, the pegasus filly stuck inside the makeshift barrel, asked. “Is that Rarity? Who else is there?”

“It’s jus’ Rarity and Fluttershy.” Apple Bloom replied. “And some other stallion.”

“Ah man.” Scootaloo groaned. She had hoped nopony was going to have to see her like this, and this was not the best way to make a first impression on a complete stranger.

“So do you need help getting out?” Somber asked, making all three (even if they couldn’t see) look down and simultaneously answered “Yes.”

Rarity sighed. “I guess I’ll have to go get Big Mac to pry this open.”

“Um, I don’t think there’s any need.” Fluttershy said as she pointed out Somber’s actions to Rarity.

He was currently circling the makeshift barrel, seeing that the trio had indeed hammered in fifty nails to keep the two baskets together. They were well in there, so there was no pulling them out with the hammer, and the wood still seemed sturdy enough that having to smash it open would endanger the occupant. It was impressive ingenuity that the metal retaining bands had released ever so slightly to allow and overlap of the barrels’ boards. Such ingenuity he was planning on using.

“Can I have the hammer please?” He asked the farm filly, assuming anything here was probably from the farm.

“Uh, sure. But the nails are too deep to dig out.” Apple Bloom warned.

“I can see that, it’s quite impressive.” Somber commented as he took the pry bar side of the hammer and started wedging under the uppermost band.

“Ah did that part! Sweetie Bell was able to get the basket on top-“

“And I’m the one who was supposed to go first.” Scootaloo interrupted. “I don’t see how you two were going to go next.”

“How were you going to get it to the river?” Fluttershy asked, seeming to go along with the crusaders misadventure.

“We were going to roll it over like I was in a hamster ball.” Scootaloo answered.

“Well, that’s perfect.” Somber smiled as he came back down. “I’m going to need you to roll it on its side.”

“Are you sure? There are a lot of nails poking through.” Scootaloo said, unsure of the instruction.

“There are?!” Rarity asked in horror. Somber hadn’t taken into account how long the nails actually were. “Sweetie! What were you thinking? You can get really hurt like that!”

“I didn’t know! I can’t see in there!” Sweetie Belle argued in defense.

“Are they just around where the two baskets are connected?” Somber asked Scootaloo.

“Yeah.” Scootaloo acknowledged.

Somber thought for a moment. “It’s not going to be easy but we’ll get you out. The top ring has been loosened, so a little pressure from inside should pop the boards right out, but I’m going to need to tip the barrel over for you to reach it.”

“All right.” Scootaloo said as a clopping of hooves on wood could be heard. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Ok, I’m going to need help making sure the barrel doesn’t tip to fast so that she stumbles into the nails. Fluttershy, help me push, and the three of you can support it from the other side so it comes down slowly, got it?”

The four nodded in unison and got in position. With a bit of a strain, they were all able to get the barrel on its side without a complaint from Scootaloo, and with a few good knocks from the inside and a bit of assistance from the hammer, Scootaloo walked out completely fine.

“All right guys, next time we need to make a proper door.” Scootaloo addressed her two friends.

“Next time?” Rarity interrupted. “There shouldn’t have been a first time! You really have to think these kinds of things through!”

“We thought we did!” Apple Bloom retorted.

“Now, now.” Somber said as he stepped between the two glaring mares. “It was just an honest mistake on their part, and no harm has come of it. Let’s just put this behind us and continue on to lunch, all right?”

Rarity frowned and looked at Sweetie Belle. “This isn’t over, and we are telling Applejack, is that understood?”

“Yes.” The three said in unison with sad reflection in their voices. Rarity fumed a little as she turned back to the path they had come from with Fluttershy following after her, trying to calm Rarity down from her rightful state of being upset. Somber was about to follow them, but instead found the three fillies standing in front of him, looking up with awe and expectance.

“Thanks a lot mister.” Apple Bloom said. “It was an honest mistake to make and we promise not to make it again.”

“Yeah, we’ll always make sure to put a door on anything we make.” Scootaloo eyed her friends.

“It’s nothing, honestly.” Somber tried not to put himself on too much of a pedestal, he hadn’t particularly liked it when everypony revered him too much to even talk to him.
“So who are you?” Sweetie Belle asked. “My sister seems to know you, but I haven’t heard her mention anypony like you before.”

“I’m new to town, I just arrived yesterday.” Somber explained. “My name is Somber Tones, and by the sound of it, you’re Sweetie Belle, you’re Apple Bloom, and you’re Scootaloo.” He said as he pointed to each in order.

“Yeah.”

“Yup.”

“You got it.”

“And if it isn’t too much trouble, we probably shouldn’t keep them waiting.” Somber nodded towards Fluttershy and Rarity had left.

“Right! We need to ‘splain to Applejack what happened before Rarity!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“Good idea! Win her to our side first!” Scootaloo agreed.

“Then let’s go!” Sweetie Belle said as she was already leading a charge through the grove instead of to the path. Somber could only sigh in exhaustion as he made his own way back to the path. When he made it back, he found a considerably less grumpy Rarity and Fluttershy chatting before they noticed him.

“Where are the girls?” Fluttershy asked.

“They said they were running ahead to explain to Applejack what happed. A more one-sided personal account as I take it.”

“As they would.” Rarity sighed. “I just can’t see why they can’t try more reasonable and less dangerous pursuits. I could understand bowling or even zip-lining, but barrel ridding? Why would that even be on their list?”

Somber could only shrug. “Maybe they’re just having fun with it while they can. I can recall doing an out of place thing here and there before I got my cutie mark.” Somber’s face scrunched. “I feel sorry for those who tasted my first batch of cookies.”

“Oh? What happened?” Fluttershy asked as they began walking toward the farm.

“Well, I had accidentally mistook the salt container for the sugar without even tasting it before. The batter came out looking fine, but there was a serious bought of stomach flu after, myself included.”

Rarity and Fluttershy could only snicker at the childhood mistake. Somber gave a warm smile as the two came to stop of their mirth. This was nice, a stressful situation had turned out to nothing and they could be on their way. Now having to deal with the conflicting views later might cause a stir, but that was later.

“Did you get any better?” Fluttershy asked. Somber blinked a few times as he realized she was addressing him.

“Ah, well, no, not really. I only tried a few times before the chefs wanted their kitchen to not look like a disaster zone every time I left. It wasn’t that much of a loss.” Somber shrugged.

“I wish I had that kind of executive power.” Rarity sighed.

“I’m going to guess Sweetie gets to the kitchen before you do sometimes, doesn’t she?” Somber smirked.

“My, aren’t you perceptive.” Rarity gave a knowing smile back.

“There y’all are!” Somber heard a familiar drawl ring out, yet somewhat deeper. He turned his attention forward to see an orange Earth Pony trotting quickly towards them. “I hope you have a better explanation of what happened to the two collection baskets. The crusaders say they nailed ‘em together down at the clubhouse. Ah can’t believe it, but we kind of need them right now.”

This made Somber and Fluttershy simultaneously shrink back, one out of guilt and one out of natural reaction. Rarity could only cough lightly and look off to the side. Applejack stopped two paces away and actually looked over who she was talking too. Upon seeing the shrinking new stallion, her tone shifted.

“Ah’m sorry for soundin bossy, sir, but we have a bit of overflow that we need the old baskets fer.”

“Ah, well, that might be a problem then. They are quite thoroughly nailed together.” Somber noted.

Applejack gave a heavy sigh. “How deep are they in there? Ah would have to hate to lose too much wood.”

“That’s the other thing. It’s a bit more of a makeshift barrel now… with nails sticking in near the middle.” Applejack raised an eyebrow at Somber’s explanation, which Rarity found the time to step in.

“The girl’s nailed the two tops together with Scootaloo inside, and when they couldn’t figure a way out, we, well, Somber, loosened the, ah, ‘top’, and tilted it over for her.” Rarity giggled nervously as Applejack registered the information. As she did, she gave a deep groan as she massaged the bridge of her snout.

“That’s just great, now how’re we gonna get the extra back without an extra trip? Granny’s already cookin, and you know she don’t like ponies ta be late to a meal.”

Despite her friend’s predicament, this perked Rarity up. “Would it be too much of a hassle for me to help? I’m sure I could float along a basket full or so.” She offered.

Applejack gave a sigh and smile of relief. “That’s mighty kind of you Rarity. I’m sure you know you’ll be stayin for lunch as a thank you.”

“I figured as much.” Rarity smiled, but Somber could still hear a touch of resentment at the fact, which was now baffling him. The Apples couldn’t have possibly made the town thrive if their cooking of their product was too shoddy.

“If y’all pardon us.” Applejack tipped her hat to Somber before turning about and heading the way she came, Rarity quickly following her.

“Is there something I should know about the Apple’s cooking?” Somber asked Fluttershy once he felt the departing mares were far enough out of earshot.

“What? Oh, n-no. Rarity’s just thinking of her figure, that’s all. Granny Smith is a very good cook, but it might not be the most… weight sensitive.”

“Ah.” Somber nodded, knowing how sensitive his sister had been at times. “I honestly don’t think she has anything to worry about.” Somber said as the two made the rest of the way up to the front gate. A little gain wouldn’t hurt her, after all. Somber’s mind began to wonder down imagination lane with the thought of a bit more definition to Rarity.

“Oh I know, she always does so much to make sure she looks the way she does.” Fluttershy gave a somewhat annoyed sigh that grabbed Somber’s attention.

“I take it you disapprove?” Somber asked as he snapped out of the gutter he was getting into.

“What?” Fluttershy asked in utter shock. “I-I-I, n-no! Never, I think she does just fine, and it’s none of my business how she handles herself. Well, that’s not true. If she was a detriment to herself then I would make sure she was all right, but, um, no, no, I just tries to hard sometimes. I’m sorry.” Fluttershy ended her quick ramble with a small squeak, red quickly coming to her face as she visibly began to shrink.

“I didn’t mean to insinuate anything Fluttershy.” Somber gave a concerned smile. “But the best way I can put it was that you sounded annoyed with her.”

“Oh.” Fluttershy whimpered as coward at the front gate, not knowing how she should act now. She had totally blown any semblance of a normal conversation now, and she didn’t know to change the subject after all of that, but she needed to make sure Somber stayed so Applejack could make a proper introduction. But then she also realized she knew next to nothing of the stallion himself to make him stay, and if he was bored, she didn’t know what to do to keep him here.

As Fluttershy silently wished Rarity hadn’t left her in such an unfamiliar situation, Somber was busy looking over the farm with an impressed eye. Produce of the Empire could have never been as vast as this one orchard due to restrictive soil, and a good portion of it had to be bred specifically for their soil. Somber had never in his life would have thought that he could see so many apples in one place, or how one family could manage all of these fields, unless there was quite an extended family currently in residence. As he swept over the scene before him, he noted the three fillies currently kicking about outside of the large barn, assumedly waiting for something or somepony, and smoke coming out from what appeared to be an adjoined house. Somber has a slight pause as he sniffed the air, quickly assured of baking apples, instead of burning ones.

“Can Ah help you?” Came a rather deep bass voice. Somber looked to his right to find a rather larger and brawny red stallion standing a few feet away. How he had not heard his approach somewhat bothered Somber, but he quickly realized how he might look from an outside perspective.

“Ah, um, I’m not quite sure. Fluttershy?” Somber turned to his left to address the yellow ball of fluff. Fluttershy gave a quick glance up to Somber who nodded in the stallion’s direction, and she quickly righted herself.

“Oh, uh, hello Big Mac.” Fluttershy greeted the waiting stallion. “Ah, yes, we, um came to see Applejack.”

“Ok.” Big Mac nodded. “Would reckon she’s out gettin the last cart in right now. She knows it’s lunch.”

“She-She’s already been by, actually. Rarity’s helping with a bit of overflow.” Fluttershy mumbled as she looked at the dirt at Mac’s hooves.

Big Mac raised an eyebrow at that and his gaze drifted over to the waiting fillies. “They took some of the old basket’s for a stunt, didn’t they?”

Somber was honestly surprised at the quick summation. “How could you tell?”

“Simple, AJ asked fer help only cause she needed it, and those three are puttin around guilty like.” Big Mac pointed out as he approached the two. “And Ah haven’t seen you ‘round before. New here or passin?”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Somber cleared his throat. “I’m Somber Tones, I came in yesterday.”

“Mmm, I’m Big Macintosh, but just call me Big Mac. Has Pinkie seen you yet?”

As odd of a question Somber felt that it was, he gave a quick nod. “This morning, actually. We didn’t quite talk though.”

Big Mac chuckled. “Don’t worry about that, I’m more than sure you will.” Big Mac then turned his attention to Fluttershy. “So if’n you’ve seen AJ, why’re ya still up ‘ere?”

“Oh, ah, no reason really. I was just… ah…” Fluttershy still couldn’t quite pick up a proper sentence after her stumble with Somber.

“Letting me look about.” Somber cut in, seeing Fluttershy begin to shrink again. “I heard a bit about the farm before getting here. How many of you run this place?”

Big Mac gave a slight frown at the interruption, but shrugged it off and readdressed Somber. “Me an AJ do the buckin. Granny and Apple Bloom deal with the minor details and such.”

“That’s it?” Somber asked after a second of silence when Mac didn’t add anything more.

“Eeyup.” Big Mac gave a pleased smile at Somber’s pure shock.

“HE WAS WHERE?” Came a sudden shout, making all ponies around cringe. Fluttershy and Somber deduced Rarity had told where she had found him. The crusaders looked in the direction of the scream with confusion and Big Mac was downright concerned. Nothing usually made her that noisy unless it was very dangerous, but he had no context.

“Well that was a bit more violent than I was expecting.” Somber observed, gaining Big Mac’s sharp stare. Taking into account his physical state verses Big Mac’s, Somber began to explain. “So, I’m not quite from around here…”

“Applejack, please. You’ll scare the girls.” Rarity pleaded, not to mention that Big Mac was probably now running this way to find what was wrong.

“No Rarity, what were ya thinkin’? Them Dogs are dangerous!” Applejack scorned, with at least her volume coming down.

Rarity had at least decided to begin explain Somber after the baskets were evened out and Applejack was hitched to the cart so she wouldn’t get violent and harm the apples. She had at least been able to keep Applejack’s retort to the deafening shout.

“They’re not dangerous Applejack, merely direct.”

“Direct? They kept us from gettin to ya when we went to rescue ya!”

“And what would you do if somepony was trying to make off with a cart loaded with apples?”

“That’s completely different and you know it.” Applejack snorted. “You aren’t a tool or product.”

“Not by our standards, no, but at the time all they saw was an easy way to find gems. They hadn’t particularly dealt with ponies before after all.”

“That’s no excuse.”

“And I’m not saying it is, but what I am saying is that I am over it and it has also been a lucrative and mutually beneficial deal. And now if it were not for me, Somber would still be unconscious in a cave with only confused Diamond Dogs to help.”

Some of the wind fell out of Applejack’s sails at the last statement and simply faced back forward. “So what about ‘im? Aside from findin him in the mine?”

“Well, he’s a bit out of place.” Rarity began to beat around the bush, but a quick, annoyed glance from Applejack made her skip it. “He’s from the Crystal Empire more than a thousand years ago and supposedly a part of its royalty.”

“Supposedly?” Applejack raised an eye at Rarity.

“He… thinks he is, and for the most part it seems to check out.” Rarity stated, a bit surprised that Applejack hadn’t also picked up on the Crystal Empire.

“And how has it seemed to ‘check out’?” Applejack continued on.

“Twilight… Twilight probed his mind.” A light flush coming to her face as she looked at the ground.

“Ah.” Applejack nodded. Rarity couldn’t help but look shocked at her blatant disinterest. Applejack caught the look. “Look, if it was really necessary, then I see no problem for Twilight to do what did.”

“B-But the invasion of privacy alone-!”

“Rarity.” Applejack sighed. “It was a time and place where it was needed, and Somber Tones agreed to it. I don’t think you need to think too hard on it.”

Rarity pouted before sighing and leaving the argument behind for the real problem. “But what Twilight did find was that somepony tampered with his memory before putting him to sleep. So he ki~nd of think’s Shining Armor and Cadence are his siblings.” Rarity began to wince for another outburst, but all that happened was Applejack stopping in her tracks. Rarity looked back to see Applejack scanning the ground thoroughly. Rarity waited patiently to deal with Applejack’s delayed reaction, and started a little when the orange earth pony looked her in the eye.

“And he really believes that? Like, he knows that it’s Shining Armor and Cadence?”

Rarity hesitated. “Well, no, he only has the image as the same, and he just remembered his brother’s name to be Crystal Shield, but Twilight thinks something might happen when he meets them.”

Applejack bit her lip in worry, and then kept on her way to the barn. “Ah’ll tell you right now Rarity, I don’t like it, but I’ll give him a chance.” Rarity almost sighed in relief, but Applejack shot her a sharp stare. “But I’m not trusting ‘im. There’s just too many suspicious things ‘bout this that Ah don’t like. And don’t think Ah’ve let ya off the hook ‘bout those mines.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Rarity murmured as she began to feel more than the apples weigh on her mind.

Author's Note

And there we have our farm family introduction to Somber. Computer's in and writing is in progress.
Always feel free to note anything you find off or interesting. This is going by absolutely nobody.

Chapter 6

“And that’s where we currently stand. We should be off in a day or so.” Somber wrapped up to his captive audience. Big Mac was listening intently for anything suspicious and the Crusaders were in awe of his tale of royalty and banishment. Fluttershy was also intent in hearing how Somber saw his predicament so as to know just where his problems were. When the creaking of the cart could be heard, Big Mac stood to see what Rarity had to say about Somber Tones. When she simply unhitched the cart and kept moving, he saw it wasn’t time to interrupt the train and instead directed Rarity to the storage barrels.

The remaining five saw Applejack approaching and awaited the coming storm. Somber and Fluttershy waited wearily while the CMC fidgeted as they awaited their proper beratement. Applejack looked tiredly to the three fillies and sighed.

“You three still look dusty, go wash up ‘fore Granny sees ya.” She shooed the three away, which they were more than happy to oblige. Somber waited patiently as Applejack seemed to appraise him. With a quick glance to see Fluttershy looking back curiously, she sighed. “Quite a predicament yer in ain’t it?” Applejack smiled, but Somber knew a guarded smile, and he knew she was holding her tongue on something.

“I would say I am quite a unique situation right now, yes.” Somber returned the smile in kind.

“And if this is yer first time here, then Ah’m sure we won’t disappoint ya with a meal.” Applejack’s smile gained some pride as she turned to lead the two to the barn.

“I’ve actually been wondering about that.” Somber said as he caught up to walk alongside AJ. “Is it really okay for us to drop in like this? Feeding three more ponies out of the blue usually isn’t that easy.”

Applejack could only chuckle. “It’s a thing of Granny’s, she always seems to know how much to make fer a meal. Don’t ask me how, but there was a time Apple Bloom, Mac, and Ah had our friends over at the same time and we still had leftovers. She might complain about seatin’, but she’ll still happily dish you a plate or three.” It didn’t seem to gain him any ground, but he wasn’t losing any either. Somber felt he could only wait out what Applejack had to say.

They made their way into the barn in short order where a long table was laid out with assortments of bread, cheese, and cut vegetables with a bowl of apples seeming to be placed between every other platter. With a nudge and a nod from Applejack, Somber eyed a wash basin filled about halfway with clear water. Somber raised a quizitive eye to Applejack who rolled hers in response.

“Granny’s picky, even if ya haven’t been workin, it’s polite to wash before a meal.”

Giving it moment of thought, Somber reasoned that cleaning any sort of dirt reduced sickness, though it made more sense to him in the halls of the palace than a barn, but who was he to argue. He went over to the basin to clean up as Applejack pulled Fluttershy to one side.

“Rarity told me pretty much everythin’, is he really ok?” Applejack whispered, not that Rarity wasn’t a good judge on character, but she had been known to be a bit hardheaded on her decisions. Fluttershy was much more likely for her opinion to change.

“I don’t mind him really. By all accounts he seems to be taking this quite well.”

“Yeah, well, maybe a bit too well.” Applejack glanced over to Somber as he was shaking his hooves dry. “If you notice anythin’, you tell me, all right Sugarcube?”

“Uh, sure.” Fluttershy squeaked out hesitantly, not really wanting to think about such a lost pony doing anything dangerous. Applejack gave a curt nod in affirmation as she made her way over to the basin to wash her own hooves. Big Mac and Rarity came into the dining area in silence, having stored the excess apples and washing up in the rinsing bowl. Spotting Somber looking over the spread, Rarity headed to him.

“Is there something wrong Somber?”

“Hm? Oh, nothing at all really, I’m just a bit surprised at all of the apples.”

Rarity chuckled. “Well this is an apple farm dear.”

“I know that, but to have this many apples for themselves, it just seems… I don’t know, selfish somehow.”

“Selfish?” Rarity looked at Somber in surprise.

“Aw, don’t worry yer head over it.” Applejack said, shaking out her hooves. “There’s more than plenty to sell off, squeeze, and store. Heck, what Rarity brought back will probably be goin into waste slop we have so much.”

Applejack missed Somber’s look of pure shock as she chuckled a little and went into the house proper. Eyeing the apples with a bit more suspicion, Somber began to wonder about the qualities of these apples if they were so easily bred and thrown away.

“Now don’t you start judgin’ ‘till you try ‘em.” Big Mac warned, making Somber jump a little from how close he had seemed to have gotten without so much as a rustle of the hay about the floor.

“But how can you have so many without there being something wrong?” Somber asked aloud without thinking about who he was talking to.

“It’s a big farm, and an old farm.” Big Mac’s voice gained an edge.

“What I’m sure Somber means is how you keep such quality with such a big farm, right Somber?” Rarity cut in, foreseeing a not too pleasant future for Somber without her.

“Wha-? Yes! Yes, the Empire never has enough soil for this quality of produce. Just what’s here could feed three families, maybe four.” Somber backed up Rarity’s assertion, just now noticing his own blunder. With that explanation, Big Mac gave a slight huff and took his place on the bench at the table, Fluttershy closely following him. “Sorry for that, thank you.” Somber whispered.

“I’m sure you meant no harm.” Rarity smiled, taking her own seat across from Fluttershy and squarely between two apple bowls and in front of a vegetable platter. Somber sat to her right, decidedly not sitting across from Big Mac.

“But who would the waste slop be for?” Somber asked.

“We keep a few pigs at a time that we raise and sell off to griffins and the sort.” Big Mac spoke up, making Fluttershy glance behind to look at Somber and Rarity.

“Ah.” Somber acknowledged as he took a particular interest in the wood knots in the table. He figured that the griffins would still be around, as they had been one of the Empire’s biggest allies and foes many times through the ages. Now they seemed to be allies again, but he would have to see how long that had been going on to see when the next turn would be.

With a minute of uncomfortable silence between the four, the three fillies bounded in with Applejack in tow. Sweetie took up her sister’s left as the other two sat beside Fluttershy, and Applejack sitting to Somber’s right.

“So after the fritters, what do you two wanna do next?” Apple Bloom asked her friends.

“I think we need to make better plans for the barrel and try it again, seeing as we didn’t do it all.” Scootaloo replied.

“How about you three get those baskets back to the barn so we can take ‘em apart?” Applejack suggested, but Somber knew the tone of an order in the form of a question.

“Yeah, we could do that too.” Scootaloo looked over to the cheese platter, either not noticing the tone or avoiding it, Somber couldn’t tell.

“Th’ fritters are coolin an’ should be done for desert.” An old, frail voice announced behind Somber, making him turn to see the old mare walking towards the head of the table near Big Mac. Somber was actually surprised to see the mare walking with how wobbly she seemed to be on her hooves. He had heard she was old, but this seemed to defy some sort of inherent logic.

“Mmm?” Granny Smith gave an inquisitive noise as she saw Somber. “And who’s this fella?”

“Granny, this is Somber Tones, the guest I told you we had.” Applejack sighed as though she had already explained this three times before.

“He’s the one that got Scootaloo out of the barrel.” Sweetie Bell piped up.

“She was waa?” Granny looked to be in utter surprise that Scootaloo had been stuck in a barrel, making Sweetie sigh in frustration as she was going to explain what happened again, but Granny Smith just chuckled. “I know, I know, but you sure look different from other stallions ‘round here.” Somber was a bit surprised as she suddenly began addressing him.

“Well, I’m-I’m not from around here, ma’am.”

“Sure shows, nopony calls me ‘ma’am’ no more. Granny Smith ‘ll do just fine.” Granny Smith chuckled as Somber still looked to be in utter shock. “Now no more jabbin, let’s start eatin’.” Granny Smith announced as she took a seat at the head of the table next to Applejack and Scootaloo.

There was a regular clamor as the fillies started grabbing everything they wanted at once, as the older ponies waited and reached around the three, plates quickly becoming full with sandwiches and apples, Applejack and Big Mac quickly began peeling their apples and any handed to them by the smaller ones. Somber seemed to be the last one picking his meal as the others already began eating.

Applejack reported that the fourth orchard was cleared out and that the fifth seemed to be coming in with enough time to harvest before they needed to start preserving apples to Granny Smith, while Fluttershy was attempting to find out how the market seemed to be today from Big Mac so she could get anything she needed. Unfortunately between her natural volume and the setting, she wasn’t getting anywhere fast. The crusaders seemed to have deemed their next activity in demolition to be an excellent avenue to explore, and Rarity was eyeing Somber with anticipation as he held an apple in his hooves as she nibbled at her salad.

It had been the only one he had grabbed, and it had been the last thing as well.

“Well?” Rarity finally asked.

“Well what?” Somber asked, slightly startled.

“Aren’t you going to eat it?” Rarity giggled at how this could possibly going over his head. “It’s not poisoned, I assure you that.”

“Oh, you never know, I could have picked just the wrong one with my luck.” Somber gave Rarity a friendly grin as he bit into the skin of the apple.

…

And the world seemed to stand still to Somber. He could still see Applejack assuring they could get one more orchard in, he could see Fluttershy finally get Big Mac’s attention, he could see the crusaders drawing up a schedule, and he could definitely see Rarity’s waiting smile.

But all of his external senses seemed to have amassed on his tongue and chin as the apple’s juice hit each simultaneously. He had eaten since he had woken up, he had had many fruit before, he had even had apples before, but this wasn’t anything like an apple he knew. The juice itself seemed like a rush of energy and a solid substance as it both filled and cooled his stomach, even before swallowing. Taking what felt to be a herculean effort, Somber chewed the bit of apple he had taken, and swallowed with a sad might. When he finally let out a satisfactory sigh, he wasn’t numb to the world around him anymore, but it was still silent.

Glancing about, Somber saw that all of the ponies present were staring at him, and he couldn’t find why. None of them had blinked when he reached with his hooves and not his magic, and they had all seemed content with their own conversations. He wasn’t aware of why they were staring until Rarity spoke up.

“Are you all right Somber? You’re crying.” She said with deep concern.

Somber wiped his left hoof under his eye and indeed found his fur to be wet. He tried to respond but was surprised to find his throat was quite dry. After another quick swallow he answered.

“I-I’m fine. It’s just a really good apple.” Somber tried to smile but found the corners of his mouth to be quite strained.

“Ah know they’re good, but I’ve never seen anypony cry over ‘em.” Apple Bloom stated bluntly.

“Shh.” Granny Smith and Applejack shushed the young Apple simultaneously.

“I mean it, it’s delicious.” Somber’s voice was coming back to him. He looked dubiously down at his apple bite and began wondering if every bite would be like that.

“Maybe the slop’ll be missin the extra apples. I’ll see if I can find a spare sack for ya after lunch.” Applejack said as she popped a few cucumber slices into her mouth.

“Oh, don’t. I don’t have any way of paying for them. Any currency I would have is-“

“Sonny, that reaction right there is what every Apple dreams of seein.” Granny Smith cut Somber off, lazily twirling her fork at him. “That’s plenty payment enough. Now keep eatin, yer plate’s not gonna clear itself.”

“But I-“

“Up!”

Somber sighed. “Thank you ma’am.”

“Better.” Granny Smith smiled as poked a few leafs of lettuce. Somber began nibbling slowly away at the apple, while being peripherally aware of Granny Smith and Applejack whispering.

“So they really don’t have apples like this in the Crystal Empire?” Apple Bloom inquired after Somber had finished the apple. Somber sadly chuckled.

“Not the last time I checked. When I was there, we had to barter for near all of our produce. The only widely successful garden there was the royal greenhouse, which was tended by the best gardeners. Well-“ Somber held up the apple core. “-The best of their time.” That got a giggle out of the filly and a rolling of eyes from Scootaloo. As Scootaloo seemed to say something, her eyes went wide and ears pricked up.

“Did anypony feel that?” Somber immediately snapped into full on threat assessment, quickly scanning for any disturbed scenery or unusual sound. Nothing seemed to have moved and he hadn’t heard anything, but others seemed to have their own reactions.

“Her cloud musta drifted overhead.” Applejack sighed heavily as she got up and headed back into the main house. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t sneak any tastes.” Somber glanced about, getting nods of acknowledgement from the Apples, hopping anticipation from Scootaloo, and, oddly, rigidity from Fluttershy and Rarity.

“Should I know what’s going on?” Somber asked the table.

“Rainbow Dash is coming!” Scootaloo answered barely below shouting.

“Rainbow Dash?”

“She’s only the fastest, coolest, and most awesomest pony there is!” Scootaloo answered again, sounding baffled that Somber didn’t possibly know her idol.
`

“I don’t feel like awesomest is a real word.” Somber said doubtfully.

“It is too a word!”

Before Somber could start to correct the filly on proper verbage, his ears twitched to a new voice from the house.

“I told you, I wasn’t gonna eat all of them.” The new pony whined.

“Yeah, you woulda just eaten most of ‘em.”

“Half of one, at most.” The new voice huffed.

“Not half of one plate Dash!” Applejack berated as she walked in with two wafting plates of apple fritters on her back.

“I was not gonna eat half a plate.” A prismatic pegasus rebutted as she entered the dining area.

“And you were already reachin for it!” Applejack turned to face Dash while sliding the fritters off of her back onto the table.

“I was not!”

“EHEM!” Big Mac interrupted the fight, garnering a glare from both ponies. Big Mac eyed towards the rest of the dining table, making Applejack’s cheeks flush and Rainbow Dash to awkwardly cough and look away. As she was looking anywhere that wasn’t Big Mac or Granny Smith, she locked eyes with the intrigued Somber.

“Somethin the matter?” Rainbow asked brashly.

“How did you get so many colors?” Somber asked aloud, almost completely unware that he had voiced his question. This made Rainbow Dash bustle with pride as she puffed her chest out.

“It’s 100% natural. You gotta spot me in the sky somehow, right?” Rainbow Dash made her way around to Somber, eyeing him up and down as she approached. He, in turn, kept his look of amazement. “And who might you be?”

“This is Somber! He got me out of the barrel!” Scootaloo was all too happy to inform. Rainbow raised an eye at Scootaloo’s answer, as there was obviously a story she was missing out on.

“Well then, Somber, you new to town?” Somber sighed deeply and looked to the table, but was cut off before he even began talking. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. What’cha in town for?”

“That’s actually quite a bit of a story.” Rarity cut in. “And far to long for right now.”

“Suffice to say I’m here for a short time before making my way to the Crystal Empire.” Somber gave a very abridged version of his tale.

“The Crystal Empire, huh? That’s cool.” Rainbow Dash said near dismissively as she rounded the table and nudged Scootaloo over so she could fit on the end of the bench. “Can I please have at least one fritter?” She turned her attention to Applejack who was patiently blowing over the fritters.

“You don’t got a plate to serve.” Applejack said without looking away from the fritters.

“I’ll just use the serving plate then.”

“Rainbow.” Applejack said warningly, only shifting her eyes to look at Rainbow Dash with a glare.

“Oh, let the dear have a fritter Applejack.” Rarity sighed, getting a bit tired of her friends bickering. “If Granny Smith’s portions live up to snuff, there should be plenty.”

Applejack mumbled a little as she took the closest plate, Big Mac’s, and served him a fritter. In response, he deftly took Fluttershy’s now empty plate and handed it over to his sister. A fritter was moved over, and Big Mac put the plate back before Fluttershy could even utter a weak protest, instead being replaced with an equally small “Thank you.” As the plates were handed around, Somber addressed Rarity.

“So what did Applejack mean when she said her cloud drifted over?”

“Oh, Rainbow Dash likes to take midafternoon naps after a morning shift, usually keeping a small cloud for herself from work. She’s a lead on keeping Ponyville’s weather stable.”

“Huh.” Somber said in contemplation as his plate was handed back to him, the fritter being fitted around some cheese he hadn’t finished yet. As he tried to think back to the Crystal Empire, he recalled that pegasi weren’t all that common in the capital. One of the more mundane royal tasks was keeping the sky clear after all, so they weren’t needed all that much, and they rarely seemed to become crafts-ponies. The only real interaction he had had with a pegasus was his sister, and even then she really didn’t seem to do all that much different from an earth pony. Besides fly that was. He had always been a bit envious about that.

“What does she do with the cloud?” Somber asked Rarity.

“Sleep on it, duh.” Rainbow cut in. “What backwater place did you grow up in that didn’t have pegasi?” There was a sharp intake of breath from everybody around the table. “And I’m completely missing something on a touchy subject, got it.” Rainbow quickly clamped up as she furiously nibbled on her fritter.

“Somber, I’m sure Rainbow didn’t-“ Rarity began to apologize.

“Mean anything by it, I know.” Somber chuckled. Somber took the chance to bite into his sweet as everypony seemed to be on edge, savoring the apple preserve in the fritter.

“So about that barrel you were stuck in.” Rainbow Dash said with the least amount of subtlety. “How’d you get stuck squirt?”

“Oh! Uh, yeah! So, we were thinking of getting our cutie marks in barrel riding today and went to see if Applejack had any we could use…” Scootaloo went off on explaining the CMC’s transgressions that day. Everypony else seemed to have the same mindset as Somber and quietly ate their apple fritters.

When Rainbow Dash noticed Rarity had finished hers, Dash quickly popped hers into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed in a speed that made Somber swore he would have to recessitate her.

“Well, it’s good to hear you got out of that all right squirt, but it looks like I need to talk to somepony.” Rainbow Dash ruffled Scootaloo’s mane before hopping off the bench and headed back into the house proper. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity all shortly followed, baffling the remainder of the group on how coordinated the four could possibly be.

“Um, so, is there anywhere to wash these?” Somber asked as the house door shut with a bit more force than necessary.

“Eeyup.” Big Mac confirmed. “’Course the place is inside, and that seems to need some privacy right now. Girls, mind cleanin the table? Somber, let’s go get that barrel of their’s while we wait.”

“O-ok.” Somber said as he eyed the house door. He had never particularly liked to be left out of a conversation that was about him, which seemed this most certainly was, but he also knew to respect privacy. So he quickly trotted after Big Mac when he noticed the stallion hadn’t waited, and prayed that everything was going to be all right.

As the four mares walked into the living room of the Apple’s house, Rainbow Dash made her way to the couch and unceremoniously plopped herself down. “All right, so who’s got that long story?”

Both Applejack and Flutteshy’s eyes differed to Rarity, who softly cleared her throat. “Spike and I found him in the Diamond Dog mines passed out, and when he properly came to, told us that he was the prince of the Crystal Empire, which Twilight confirmed with a… reading.” Rarity still flushed a little at the last part.

Rainbow Dash blinked slowly. “That’s it? That’s nothing!”

“Maybe if you bothered with some details sugarcube?” Applejack nudged Rarity to continue.

“Oh, well, there have been more than a few inconsistencies of when and how he got here, and Twilight has also confirmed that something has tampered with his memory to make him think Cadence and Shining Armor are his younger siblings.”

“Ok, a bit more interesting, so what do we do?” Rainbow Dash asked, sitting up with her wings flapping a bit, ready for action.

“Yeah, we didn’t really get to that point.” Applejack walked over to Rainbow Dash’s side. “What are we going to do?”

“Twilight’s more than likely talking to her siblings right now about it, and I was tasked with telling the rest of you.” Rarity stated. When no further explanation came, all of the wind seemed to fall out of Rainbow Dash’s sails.

“That’s it? Telling us? Not finding who made the rewrites or going to the mines? Just talking?”

“Whoa, who said anything’ about goin’ to those mines?” Applejack’s previous concerns rose. “Those Dogs are a danger and we ain’t takin’ one step near the place.”

“Really now, Applejack. Those assumptions-“

“And you’re not off the hook missy.” Applejack’s gaze darted to Rarity. “How could you go there without tellin’ any of us? At least Spike was there last time to tell us what happened!”

“I think you’re skipping over something.” Fluttershy put out weakly. Applejack’s face became softer as she looked to Fluttershy, as Rarity’s became a questioning one. “I think this is why she didn’t tell us, but if the Diamond Dogs were really all that bad, would they have bothered coming to find somepony for help?”

Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack were confused by her statement, but it made Rarity facehoof.

“Oh, details, details, thank you Fluttershy. Yes, Spike and I were on our way to the mines when Rover came running about having found Somber in the cavern.”

“Ah still don’t appreciate you thinkin’ you had to keep it a secret.” Applejack huffed.

“And I can see now that my rationalizing was a rather self-defeating cycle.” Rarity admitted.

“Great, good, that’s all settled, but what are we gonna do?!” Rainbow Dash asked as she dangled upside-down on the couch. “I’m getting bored from all of this yammerin.”

“Weelll…” Rarity began to think. “He has seemed really interested in learning, and pegasi seemed to be a rare thing in the Empire, so maybe you two could keep him busy while I check in with Twilight?” Rarity asked Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“Eh, teachin’s really not my thing.” Rainbow Dash said dismissively.

“Well, he did seem interested in your job.” Fluttershy pointed out. “You could probably tell him about your day and could keep him busy the rest of the day.”

“Or you could help me an’ Big Mac with our afternoon chores.” Applejack suggested.

“The Wonder Bolts would be a great topic!” Rainbow Dash perked up as she righted herself and dashed out of the room.

“Oh, that might be a bit much!” Fluttershy called out as she quickly followed. Rarity was left blinking from the sudden gust passing by her and Applejack chuckling.

“Ya better get goin’ sugarcube. No tellin’ how long the poor sucker’s gonna last at this rate.”

“R-Right.” Rarity nodded as she hoped she was doing the right thing with leaving Somber to Rainbow Dash’s Wonder Bolt’s rant. She was soon out the front door and on the path back to the Golden Oaks Library.

Somber and Big Mac had managed to successfully roll the makeshift barrel of the Crusaders from the treehouse to the main barn with only minimal stops to put the loose boards from the open end back inside the hollow for transport. In that time, Somber and Big Mac hadn’t said a word aside from ‘stop’ and ‘go’ to pick up a loose board.

This gave Somber some time to think. What sort of plans had Twilight made to get them to the Crystal Empire? Who was ‘them’ going to be? How were they going to prepare for the journey? When was the soonest he’d be back to familiar lands? And why did he want to be back so badly? Most of these were answered with ‘be patient’, but that had never been one of his strong suits.

When they had managed to tip the barrel upright once again, a rainbow blur blew past him, making Somber quickly spin around to see what happened, only to see Rainbow Dash up in the air scanning the orchard.

“So did you discuss what to do with the barrel?” Fluttershy asked from behind, making Somber spin yet again. He had to close his eyes and shake his head to reorientate himself.

“Uh, no, but Big Mac seems to know what he wants to do.” Somber nodded to Big Mac shuffling through a toolbox. “What happened in the house for that?” Somber nodded up to the still searching Dash.

“Oh, we, well, we… uh…” Fluttershy couldn’t quite think of a way to say ‘stall’ in a polite fashion.

“Caught me up to speed.” Rainbow Dash informed as she landed aside Fluttershy. She had spotted Somber at the barn door with Fluttershy after his question. “So you’ve really never seen a pegasus before?” Rainbow gave an inquisitive eye.

“Well, not to say I haven’t, but you seem to work in a capacity… beyond what I’m used to.”

“Can’t blame ya, didn’t see to many pegasi when I was up there last time to be honest.”

“Wait, you’ve been there?” Somber asked, a bit in shock and a bit in excitement.

“Well, yeah. We all have. Twilight got a call to stop Sombra and bam, we’re up there in a flash.”

“You can time travel as well?” Somber cocked his head to the side.

“What? No, we took a-“

“Dash, you’re confusing him.” Fluttershy stopped her prismatic friend before this could become a giant mess. “When the Empire came out of suspension, King Sombra was a specter that haunted the outskirts after Prince Shining Armor put up a barrier around the city.” She explained.

“So, you went and stopped him, how?” Somber asked.

“Eh, Spike and Twilight could tell you better. Suffice to say they found the Crystal Heart and triggered it, making all the dark stuff go away.” Rainbow Dash waved dismissively. “But enough with the history lessons, what you really want to know is how a pegasus in Ponyville spends her day, isn’t it?”

Taking from the phrasing, Somber gave a restrained smile. “And would you be a prime example by chance?”

“You betcha! Now, the first thing you gotta know, is that I’m the fastest. No contest. Second, I’m chief weather pony, so if you need to know how next week’s gonna look, I’m your mare.Third-“

Twilight was not a happy mare at the moment. The first reason had been Pinkie Pie igniting a party cannon in the main room of the library under the logic of “Where else would the new guy know to go?”, and had preemptively closed the library.

The second reason was the news the guard brought back after Cadence had asked for it. Hearing the door jingle, Twilight sighed.

“It’ll at least be nice to see you two when we’re up there.” She smiled warily to the mirror holding her brother and sister-in-law’s image.

“And we’ll make sure to get the time into the guards schedule so we can see you.” Shining Armor promised.

“Be safe Twilight.” Cadence offered.

“You know I will.”

“And I’ve got the backup list to prove it.” Spike pipped up, holding the scroll that was twice as long as he was tall over his head. It made the three chuckle with the lighthearted sendoff. Breathing deeply and letting the spell go, the mirror faded back into a reflection of Twilight’s bedroom.

“Let’s go see who it is Spike.” Twilight sighed. She hoped it was just Pinkie Pie so that she could just come back upstairs and nap before having to deal with all of this, but she knew it wasn’t when she smelled fresh cake coming from the kitchen. Spike rolled up the scroll and put it on the mirror stand and quickly followed.

There was a mutual reaction of surprise when they saw Rarity standing in the library, grimacing at the mishmash of colors the streamers left against the light brown sheen of the wall. Twilight quickly glanced to a clock and saw it was only 1:37.

“Rarity, what’s going on? Where’s Somber?” Twilight asked as she hurriedly descended the stairs with Spike in quick tow.

“He’s back at Sweet Apple Acres and socializing, don’t worry.” Rarity tried to give a calming smile. “I see Pinkie’s already started. Any planned time for it to be done?”

“4:58!” Pinkie Pie called from the kitchen before a concussive sound of bottles falling over was heard. “Uh… Make that 5:17!”

“I don’t even wanna know.” Twilight shook her head. “But you said Sweet Apple Acres? How’d AJ react to Somber?”

“Well, she’s very guarded, but that’s to be expected. Dash also dropped in by desert, and she’s currently keeping him busy with the everyday pegaus.”

“And the mines?” Twilight raised an eyebrow in accusatory questioning.

“They all know now.” Rarity glanced aside, not wanting to meet Twilight’s critical eye. “But enough about me, how was the family conversation?”

“It was… very informative.” Twilight said, this time her turn to look away. “Turns out the royal line of the Empire was very well documented.”

This confused Rarity. “If it’s documented, why is there a problem?”

“Because after Sharla Mane died, everypony handed in their records on who had whose foals. It was still a very cloak and dagger court. The accounts conflict often and they could only be straightened out by counts for and against a claim.”

“And…” Rarity prompted.

“Not one of the accounts has a Somber Tones.”

Author's Note

Whee, what a hiatus.

Chapter 7

Twilight waited patiently as she let Rarity process that last bit of news, and she could see her friend was furiously thinking it over, much in a way she had seen her contemplate an unsatisfactory order a day before it needed to ship. Rarity made her way over to the lounging area of the main floor, and Twilight obligingly followed. As they took seats in the two chairs, leaving Spike to begrudgingly take the couch, Rarity spoke.

“Well something is obviously not right.” Twilight wanted to blurt out a ‘duh’, but Rarity continued. “We defiantly have a confirmation that he’s from the Crystal Empire and that he is from the past, perhaps he was forgotten from a registry, or missed, or wiped.”

Twilight could only shake her head. “It can’t be, none of the records had been moved from the archive since Sombra took over. Trust me, I could still hear some of the coughing. As for being missed, if he had been a single foal, maybe, but he has, presumably, siblings. And if that’s the case, with no tampering, I’m sorry to say Rarity, Somber Tones doesn’t exist in the old Empire.”

Rarity frowned. “All right then, Somber doesn’t have any records, but does that really change anything? Are we still getting him up there?”

“Well, yes and no.” Twilight sighed, glad to have passed this bump with relative ease. “On one hoof, we’re still making the trip up. On the other hoof, we’re going for a completely different reason now.”

“And that would be?”

Twilight grimaced. “Jailing for Royal Fraud.”

“Twilight!”

“I’m sorry! But it has to be done! If we let Somber wander about claiming to be royalty of the Crystal Empire from before the suspension, things might start to crack in the Empire. They’re still getting around to seeing other species in the city, and a lot of the older ponies want to see somepony they know ruling the city.”

“But they have to know that’s absurd! Sombra ruled long past any rebellion. Aren’t Shining Armor and Cadence enough?”

“Well, certainly, the Empire loves them whole heartedly, but some of the things they do seem to rub some ponies the wrong way. The first trade arguments between the zebras was ‘not pretty’, as my brother puts it.”

“And so, somepony saying they still think in these old ways would… weaken the Empire?” Rarity tried to rationalize out loud, gaining a somber nod from Twilight. Rarity groaned. “This is why I hate politics. It seems so, so… ridiculous! But at the same time I can see it as a possibility.”

“But that is that, I’m afraid. So, what did you want to tell me?” Twilight asked.

“Not that I really asked, but I got what I needed to know.” Rarity smiled. “Dash did seem a bit disappointed that all we had in form of a plan was talking however.”

“Yeah, that seems like her.” Twilight chuckled. “But isn’t he going to notice you’re gone? You are the pony he knows best right now.”

“He seems to have warmed up to the others just fine, I think I can be out for a bit without him realizing. Especially if he’s learning.” Rarity took up a slight smirk, which in turn garnered a small snort from Spike and a roll of eyes from Twilight.

The three heard a loud gasp from the kitchen doorway. Looking towards what they expected, Pinkie Pie was hovering in the air with eyes wide with surprise.

“How could I have not gotten that?” She asked to nobody as she landed back on the ground with barely a tap. “Quick, Rarity, what’s his favorite book?”

“Um…” Rarity was caught a bit off guard.

“If anything, something from before a thousand years ago Pinkie.” Twilight answered for her.

“Yes! Perfect! Twilight, I need you to make flash cards.” Pinkie said as she hurried to the alicorn’s side.

“What? Why?” Twilight asked with a vain hope of a straight answer.

“Cause they’re not really a normal party thing now are they? And you’re the best pony I know that could make so many in” Pinkie paused to look at her fetlock “Three hours.”

Twilight blinked. It was rather obvious that flash cards were not a normal thing at any Pinkie Party. “Uh, yeah, sure. What do you need?”

“Any and all meet and greet ideas. You write ‘em up, I’ll make as many copies as I can. If we start now, we can have more than enough for everypony.”

Rarity grimaced at this. “Well, is that a really good idea? We just said we don’t want him telling everypony he’s royalty.”

“Pfft, of course, that’s a boring one. No, we go for favorite prank, favorite color combination, favorite instrument, closest friend, secret crush-“

“Okay Pinkie, I get it, let’s get them done. Spike, mind seeing Rarity back to the farm?” Twilight asked with a slight smile. The dragon promptly popped up on the couch at attention.

“I shall do so diligently.” He saluted.

“Okay, okay, great everypony.” Pinkie said, hopping up and down with impatience. “We need to have these done before-“ There was an audible ding from the kitchen. “Muffins!”

Twilight smiled as she headed back upstairs for her spare cards. “I’ll see you two later then.”

“Of course dear.” Rarity nodded as she got up to leave. Spike was already jogging for the front door, bowing slightly as Rarity passed. “Thank you Spike.”

“Not a problem Rarity.” Spike smiled wide as closed the door behind himself. Quickly catching up, the two started heading for Sweet Apple Acres. Not ten seconds passed before Rarity had to ask.

“Is it really that bad Spike? Does he really have to be locked up for something that’s not his fault?”

Spike was a little jolted by the sudden question, but sighed, scratching behind his right ear. “I-It sort of is. I mean, the way they put it, he’s just gonna be under house arrest while they really sort this all out. So, once he gets to the Empire, he’s not gonna be seeing any of it, but at least he’s getting help.”

“He just seems to be doing fine right now.” Rarity wore a slight frown.

“There are a lot of ponies who seem fine Rarity, doesn’t mean they’re all right.” Spike said with a bit of a dower tone as he began kicking a stone along.

“And what do you mean by that exactly Spike?” Rarity asked with a bit of shock to the dragon’s sudden turn of emotion.

“Well, uh, you see, I’ve picked up a hobby of dream writing. You know, things I’m pretty sure I’ll lose after fully waking up and such.”

“Oh yes, I keep a dream journal too.” Rarity smiled as Spike suddenly perked up. His enthusiasm quickly soured, however.

“Yeah, well, Somber seemed to have… well, not a bad dream, but certainly a perplexing one. He was rolling around for a good five minutes trying to remember it this morning. I was able to look it over while Shining Armor and Cadence were still getting the records.” Rarity felt there was something Spike was having a hard time getting out, so let him try to figure it out as they walked. Spike gave a final punt to the stone he was kicking over the first link of the Apple family fence. “Gotta say Rarity, you sure do make an impression.”

Rarity stopped in her tracks and had to blink several times as the comment hit. Spike had inflected both a very nostalgic, and deeply resentful tone in his words. This was very unlike the Spike she had grown to know, this was far too negative of him for her liking.

“Why do you say that, dear?” Rarity asked as she took three steps to catch up to the dragon.

“’Cause you were pretty much the only thing he dreamed of last night.” A horrible flush came across Rarity’s face, and very relieved that Spike was too low to notice as he continued. “The first thing to pop up was you, the first thing to happen was you leading him to an open field which normally represents a wide field of possibilities. That, compounded by the minotaur, zebra’s, gryphon’s, and pegasi running together, showing a very diverse social acceptance. Did you know most ponies only dream of a max of three sentients in positive situations? Then you took him back home to his siblings. He started waking up about there, but from that, he’s got some pretty high hopes on you there.”

“Spike.”

“Yeah Rarity?” Spike stopped as he noticed Rarity had stopped as well.

“Is your hand all right?”

An odd question to be sure. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it-“ Spike began to dismiss the inquiry wave, but noticed three pinpricks of red in his palm, and quickly looked back to see there was a small trail of blood following him. “Um, yeah, I’m fine, it’s nothing.” He said as he quickly put his hand behind his back.

“That’s not nothing Spike!” Rarity berated. “How could you even do that to yourself?” She approached him and grasped his arm with her magic, taking his hand from behind his back, opening up his palm. They weren’t deep, and she had certainly had worse as a foal learning to properly space her threading, but to not even notice? “Has this happened before?”

“Uh, well, no.” Spike said as he found particular interest in a wood knot to his left. Some heat was coming to his cheeks with Rarity be so focused on him, he promptly forgot why he had been in such a stormy mood. “But, growing drake y'know? Must be something new. Gotta remember to look out for those new claws now, huh?” In honesty, he already knew to take care of his claws, he just hadn’t filled them down in a few days.

“Oh I’m sure, hang on one moment. I hope this doesn’t pinch.” Spike was going to ask what wouldn’t pinch, but he was interrupted by a fit of giggles as Rarity applied a multitude of magical prickles over his hand and claws.

“S-Stop it, that tickles!” He managed to get out, which brought a smile to Rarity’s face to see him snap out of his dower mood. But as Rarity prod the hardness of his claws, finding them to be at least a seven on the Mohs scale, she also triggered her fetch spell for her gem shaver, along with helping heal the small claw marks up. As the holes closed up, the shaver arrived, and Rarity began taking it upon herself to file his claws to a smoother edge.

“Rarity, is this really the time for that?” Spike asked as he finally regained his breath control. “Shouldn’t we get to Somber?”

“I’m sure both he and ourselves can spare ten minutes. These are quite a safety hazard you know.” Rarity said without looking up from her work, both enjoying the work ahead of her, and also dreading to think of what Spike really meant about Somber’s dream.

Somber in the meantime was currently stuck in a roundabout argument with Rainbow Dash that Fluttershy had decided to duck out of to help Big Mac with some of the more stubborn nails in the impromptu barrel.

“They’re completely redundant!” Somber restated.

“They’re completely necessary!” Dash retorted.

“From every instance you’ve described, in detail mind you, the Wonderbolts are only one of five solutions I could think of off the top of my head, and they’re not even the best one!”

“But that’s because you can sit here and think! If it hadn’t been for the Wonderbolts, the entirety of Dodge Junction would have been burned to cinders from the lightning!”

“And if Dodge Junction, and everywhere for that matter, were to have lightning rods, that never would be a problem.”

“But rouge storms are never a problem!”

“Apparently they are!”

While the two were hotly debating whether or not one of the most revered teams in Equestria was necessary for its intended purpose, three fillies were sitting a fair way away, contemplating the scene before them.

“Do ya think we should do somthin’?” Applebloom asked from atop a sealed cider barrel.

“Do you want to get in between that?” Sweetie Belle asked from below.

“I kind of want some popcorn.” Scootaloo sighed as she lay belly in the dirt.

The three had cleared the table in what they considered record time, thankfully noticing nothing happening to their flanks, could not be anywhere near coerced into actually cleaning the dishes, which had already happened, twice. No, they waited for Big Mac and Fluttershy to be done taking apart their mess so they could get through with whatever Apple Bloom’s brother had planned afterward.

“And what is this racket on about?” A posh pony with a dragon assistant asked as she came upon the scene.

“He challenged the Wonderbolts.” Apple Bloom said without turning to see the arrival of Rarity. “It’s been like this near on ten minutes.”

“Oh my.” Rarity lifted a hoof to her mouth in concern. She herself did not quite like fighting, but she could also see that there wasn’t a good way to defuse such an argument. Somber surely had a good head on his shoulders, he had shown that already, both from the Dog negotiation and taking his situation relatively well. He was sure to make a good may points in his argument.

“And then there’s their military strength. The Wonderbolts are just glorified scouts!”

Of course, there was then Rainbow Dash’s steadfast stubbornness to turn around any criticism.

“And what kind of plan is there without information? Being a scout is nothing to snort at! I’d like to see you have the same sort of recon time Soarin has.”

“Scrying spells! For crying out loud, even we had those! Nopony in the field, so there are zero casualties.”

“But scrying needs a focus, what good is scrying a rustling bush? You can’t see what’s behind it ‘cause scrying only covers what scryer knows!”

In the pause between Rainbow Dash’s last comment on some rather specific complex magic machinations and Somber’s stunned silence on her having such knowledge, Spike took it upon himself to step in.

“Well, that sounded like a great debate that Somber can think over later. Dash, I’m sure you can stand your pride down for a second and come back to Equestria? That’d be great.” The two blinked and looked down at the drake between them. The crusaders and Rarity also blinked at just how blatantly stupid a move that had been.

“When did you get here Spike?” Somber was finally able to ask, suddenly feeling the heat in his cheeks from arguing drain away.

“We got back in time to see you two about to have a roll in the dirt.” Spike nodded back to Rarity and the crusaders.

Somber was a bit confused however. “When did she leave?” Spike’s fins perked a bit at his tone, not sure it was being possessive or not.

“She came to see how plans were coming along. We’re set to go tomorrow or the day after to start heading up. Of course, tomorrow is Twilight being far too optimistic. I’m pretty sure the party is going to wipe away any energy for tomorrow.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, party? As in a Pinkie Party? When did you meet her?” Dash asked, all thoughts of the argument quickly leaving her head.

“Uh, a short time after 11 I think? Why?” Somber said, a bit concerned at the sudden shift in her mood.

“So she’s not done yet. I could still get there to help.” Rainbow planned as her wings began to flap in anticipation.

“Help yourself to the cake first you mean?” Spike smirked, garnering a glare from the mare.

“What’s with you and AJ? No, with me there, it’ll go ten- no, twenty percent faster.” Dash said as she took to the air. “And then maybe tomorrow won’t be off the table.” She looked down to Somber and gave a genuine smile. “Don’t worry bud, we’ll see you home.” And with that, Rainbow Dash shot off, leaving a prismatic trail behind her.

Now Somber wasn’t sure if he was stunned with the sudden kindness show from a mare he was yelling at not a minute before hoof, or the rainbow that trailed after the appropriately named mare. He didn’t even see Scootaloo walk right up to him.

“Pretty sure awesomest is a word.”

Somber blinked and chuckled. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”

To Be Added To

Author's Note

I want there to be more to the chapter, but writer's block can't find a way past the argument. Tips and suggestions would not hurt, as I like to keep chapters ~5000 words a piece if not one-shot things, and this is a little over half. Of the three people actually reading this, brainstorms aren't as dangerous as Dash would like to think.