Psycho Pony Killer

Sombra was in the library yet again, doing research like always. He always said that knowledge is power and that the past repeats itself, so why wouldn't he want to learn all that he can? He was a good ruler, beloved by his subjects, the crystal ponies, and never once tried to bother the neighboring kingdom where two new princesses reigned. He was revered as one of the strongest unicorns, which didn't really matter all that much to him since he has never even been in a fight. However, as the sole protector of The Crystal Empire it was important that he be prepared for anything, so he did extensive research at the library every night while most ponies slept and during the daylight hours he would split his time between royal duties and physical training so he could stay in top shape in case brawns was what his empire ever needed.

Yes, things were good in The Crystal Empire. More than good even, things were perfect. His ponies always wore a smile and he couldn't be more proud of a place than the one he called home. That is, until tonight... During one of his study sessions in the late hours of the night, he came upon something in an old tome that made him stop. He just sat there, staring at the words on the page. His eyes were wide with shock, but narrowed in anger. He had no idea what some ponies were capable of apparently.

At the top of the page was a picture, this is what had originally caught his eye. It was of his father, the king who ruled The Crystal Empire before him, but the image and the text were all wrong. Or, at least they should be because they go against everything he had ever been taught, ever believed in. The words on the page were not altered by any magic though, he would be able to detect the faint remaining traces of it were that the case. No, these bold black words told something he had never seen before: the truth. The truth of how The Crystal Empire was founded, the truth of its first king, the truth of how all the heirs to come after were to trot down the same dark path...

His father, King Elias, wasn't a king at all, but a dictator. He had marched the crystal ponies on a long and hard journey from where they lived before, a place called Equine Paradise to what would be The Crystal Empire. Many a pony had died on the long and arduous walk. There were few rests and barely any food to go around, but finally the survivors had made the long trek and arrived at a new land where they could start over, create a new kingdom. The Crystal Empire was easy to name, just leave out the originality, and that just left who would rule, but as he read before this wasn't a group of ponies with democracy but a hardened, cold dictator at the reigns of the herd.

The following years were pure hell, still. If the king didn't like something that was done he would throw the pony he thought was responsible into his dungeon where they were left to rot away. His prisoners were not fed or given any water; they were locked up and left to fend for themselves. If they survived long enough to see their cage longer than four months it wasn't out of any mercy on the king's behalf, it was out of pure determination, stubbornness, and cannibalism.

Dark magic was fizzing like crazy off the tip of Sombra's horn as he read on, through all of the horrible atrocities his father had wrought upon the ponies he was supposed to care for. There is something strange with his family tree, he reads, discovering the abnormal life span its members have. Elias had ruled over the crystal ponies for a little over two and a half thousand years. At the end of the segment it says that Elias' wife is currently pregnant and the future of the crystal ponies are doomed, as anypony born of this lineage will be evil incarnate and only wreak pain and agony upon his or her ponies.

Sombra's head jerks up as things begin exploding around the room; it takes him a moment before he realizes it's him. He has too much anger and hurt in his heart and it's all coming forth through his horn casting pitch black blasts of dangerous magic all over the book laden library. In trying to calm himself down he just gets all the more upset, angry with his father and the lies he'd told him, angry with the home he was so proud of up till now, and angry with himself for being alive.

He strains as something comes over him, something totally foreign and unknown. The hatred washes over him, taking a firm hold in his mind. Fresh fears form as he struggles helplessly against himself, his eyes changing color and burning with a dark aura. Will he be like his father now? Is that what this is? He wants to finish himself and save his ponies, do one last good thing in this cruel, ironic world...but the light fades and he slips into unconsciousness.

He wakes, jumping to his feet ready to flee, but with what he wants to escape from trapped forever more inside his head. The candle drops off the side of the table, and he sees him as the light falls. It's his face but with the changed eyes, the anger and the hatred and the fear that burn inside him like a wildfire, that's who the newcomer is. All of these things embodied, he doesn't know what he's done but his inner demon is out. The candle reaches the wooden floor and flames rise up, spreading quickly over the scattered books he'd previously been reading. Neither move while the library goes up in bright hot flames around them.

The dark one charges, rushing at the king with sharp teeth set in a grim snarl. Sombra makes his weapon of choice appear, The Crystal Sword, and gets ready for the fight of his life. Can he defeat his darkness and continue protecting his home and all of the ponies counting on him? What remains of his ponanity, is it still intact?