The Plight of Return

Chapters

Prologue: One last dance for the King
Chapter 1: Stranded
Chapter 2: Fall of a King
Chapter 3: The Pain Stops
Chapter 4: Born Again
Chapter 5: Lost and Scared
Chapter 6: The Unicorn in the room
Chapter 7: Can I Keep Him?
Chapter 8: The Carousel Boutique
Chapter 9: Recover
Chapter 10: Encounter
Chapter 11: Questions
Chapter 12: The Tower
Chapter 14: Pain
Chapter 15: Rage
Chapter 16: Regret
Chapter 17: Memories of a time lost
Chapter 18: Confrontation
Chapter 19: Investigation
Chapter 20: Unanswered Questions
Chapter 21: A Real Nightmare
Chapter 22: An Odd Guest
Chapter 13: The Berserker

Prologue: One last dance for the King

Somber Heart sat upon his crystal throne and waited. He thought over his entire life as he waited for his to end.

He was born the first of a set of fraternal twins. His sister, Maestus was born after him. The doctors had looked upon the newborn children with disgust and hatred when they saw the naturally curving horns and the razor sharp teeth that designated the twins as berserk war-breed Unicorns. They urged the parents to kill them, but Tempest, the mother of the twins, wasn't happy with the doctors, picked up her zweihander and threatened to kill every single doctor in her house if they didn't leave at once.

Sombra reflected on the night he witnessed Luna raise the moon. It was wonderful and inspiring, so much in fact that he let out a burst of magic by accident, causing everypony around him to back away in fear. Then his cutie mark appeared. Ge was five at the time. A few of the unicorns in the audience went to blast Sombra because he interrupted the ceremony. They couldn't channel magic. The few who had the magic seep through had crystals absorb. Luna saw something in this colt that she couldn't place, so she sent a letter asking Celestia if maybe she could take a student once more, when Celestia was told that Luna was taking on a unicorn apprentice instead of a thestral, Celestia was happy for Luna for stepping outside her comfort zone. Luna asked Tempest if it was OK if she took Somber Heart with her back to her castle. After much debating, Tempest agreed to let her first born son go with Luna.

He then reflected on his first encounter with a changeling at 16, his first bit of permanent mental scarring; when he got his fear of changelings and being touched. He was travelling with Luna to one of the many thestral colonies to raise the moon. They were staying in a small town that would latter be named Las Pegasus, and around the time he was about to snuff the candle next to his bed, he heard a knock at the door. He answered the door and saw his twin sister standing in the doorway. He realized that he had sent his mother and sister the travel schedule and this shouldn't have felt odd, but it did. The moment he realized what was wrong, he was hit with a domination spell. The changeling knocked him onto the bed and prepared to have her way with him. Half way through the . . . unpleasant ordeal he was able to knock a vase off the bedside table. That disturbance was cue enough to cause Luna to cut down the door to Sombra's room and stab the changeling and lift it off Sombra, in the proscess drenching him in two gallons of changeling blood. He could never look at his sister the same way again nor would he let anypony touch him. He later suffered panic attacks, so Luna gave him an enchanted locket to help ward them off.

He looked back at his founding of the Mage's College at age 18, and his first apprentice at age 19. He was to be the next Star Swirled the Bearded, and Luna's shining accomplishment that would overshadow many of Celestia's. All of the nobility had sent their children gifted in magic to the college and hopefully compete to gain the spot of Archmage's apprentice. Many of the children, including quite a few thestrals, put up quite the competition, but they all paled in comparison to Midnight Shine. Midnight Shine was the youngest competitor at age 6, she was lavender with a light grey mane, and she was born with an enlarged horn and couldn't aim or channel magic properly. During the competition she couldn't hit a single target with the required arcane bolt spell, as he was about to write the silly filly off, she made a strange request; she wanted an Orichalcum dagger. Everypony laughed at her, what was she going to do? Throw the dagger at the targets? She ignored them and made the request again. And again. She refused to move and let the competition continue until she got the dagger. Sombra obliged her the dagger, and everypony witnessed something painful; she took the dagger to her over-sized horn and started carving it, while screaming in pain. She finished, leaving a horn with an extremely sharp tip and an octangular shaft. She went to use the arcane bolt spell, but her horn's control system wasn't working, she screamed and fired all that she had, creating a continuous arcane bolt that hit every target and then turned on the audience. Sombra jumped down from the stands and managed to get anti-magic crystals on Midnight's horn. The competition was over, Sombra had found his new student.

Finally, He remembered the day he discovered what he had been looking for, he was 29 at the time. He and Midnight were leading the excavation of an ancient tomb, along side two other students, Dawngazer; a unicorn with a white coat and a purple mane, Alveretzalia; a thestral with striking violet eyes. It was there when Sombra found the solution to the changeling problem; the Crystal Empire. The ancient manuscripts said that changelings were attracted to love, and lands without love would be spared. It also stated that the status of the Crystal Empire affects the status of Equestria. So if the Crystal Empire was miserable, changelings would leave Eqestria and go to other lands. It was genius! That night, Sombra gathered the most powerful artifacts he had unearthed and used the only long range teleportation spell book in the entire college. He had even packed his birthday present from Luna; the blade True Light's Flight for the fight. He easily dispatched Prince Crystellum when he got there. With nopony left in the empire to oppose him, he took over.

Sombra awoke from his trip down memory lane to the sound of wings flapping and glass shattering. Then he heard the voice of Celestia "Somber Heart! You have violated multiple equestrian laws and stolen a multitude of artifacts from the diarchy and killed a legitimate monarch! What say you MONGREL? "

Then Luna spoke up "Somber Heart, what has happened to thee? Why dost thou sit on the throne of another? Why dost thou enslave the crystal ponies? Thou hast abandoned thou life's work and pleasures"

Sombra smiled and lifted True Light's Flight "Master, I did it out of fear, of that day that happened when I was 16 happening to my child. I did it for the greater good of Equestria."

Celestia frowned, she knew the elements wouldn't work on him, due to his lawful nature. She closed her eyes and summoned Pyros, her lance, flared her wings outward, and pointed Pyros at Sombra "You have no excuses mongrel, knowing ponies of your warlike nature you probably wanted power of equestria, now coward, you are truly in the shadow of judgement's wingspan."

Sombra tensed and blocked Celestia's sudden charge. There was no way to win with Celestia angered and constantly doing 50 kilometer per second charges. Sombra kept the little scuffle with Celestia up as he blocked and deflected and backed up until he got to the broken window. He realized the moon was out. Right now spells didn't matter anyhow, so he stepped into the moonlight. As he bathed himself in the light, he activated his armor's ability at the same time he let his mental inhibitors go.

The last words he spoke with a clear mind was "This is the end . . . Moon, lend me thine strength!"

He blasted Celestia across the throne room with lunar fire. True Light's Flight reacted to his rage and the blade became larger and serrated. He knew at this moment he could probably kill both princesses without a sweat.

Luna looked over at the beast that was her former student, she knew that only she could put him down at this point. Celestia wasn't immune to the crippling effects of lunar magic and it could kill Celestia. Luna reluctantly drew her crescent blade, Nadir, and said to Sombra "Fare thee well Somber heart, I shall see thee in the void" she screamed as she attacked. She found it much easier to find flaws in his guard to exploit, but the pain wasn't doing much and Luna had realized that wading in to fight Sombra probably was a bad idea.

Then Luna stepped into the moonlight let in by the broken window and spoke her parting words to her beloved student "Somber Heart, Let me show you the moon's true power!" she yelled as she cut through Sombra's guard and watched him drop to the floor.

She walked over to see that Celestia had recovered and she apologized profusely for her failure as a teacher to limit what her student could do. Celestia was about to reassure her when Luna saw Sombra stand up and throw True Light's Flight. She shoved Celestia to the side and managed to take only a glancing blow from the blade. Little did she know that Sombra had applied a corruption spell to it. Celestia immediately used a sealing spell to seal Sombra into the ice. As the spell sealed him, the Crystal Empire dissappeared out from under their hooves, leaving them in the middle of a vast, snowy wasteland.

Author's Note

Woohoo! I love sudden inspiriation. Anyhow, I just came up with this and said to myself "Hey, I saw this awesome picture, I have this great inspiration for a fanfic, I'm going to make it!"

Make sure to leave comments, ya gotta love them.

I'm also looking for a proofreader just in case I make writing a super duper regular thing

Chapter 1: Stranded

Three days before the wedding in canterlot

Sombra awoke to a blast of cold air sweeping over him. He shivered and realized what had happened; the spell Celestia had used was only good for 1000 years! He chided himself for thinking the princesses would ever find a permanent solution to any problem that they had to solve themselves. He checked his surroundings to find that he was in a cave, with no bears or dragons in it. When he approached the mouth of the cave, he saw a dead equestrian explorer, a unicorn in fact. Sombra took the explorer's goggles and coat to keep warm, and thanked the unfortunate soul by burying her and leaving an enchanted grave marker. He decided it was high time to go home to his castle and maybe even see his wife.

On the way to his empire, Sombra was attacked by Windigos. He didn't have time for this! He had to be in the Crystal Empire before Celestia sent anypony who could come up with a permanent solution. The three Windigos charged him and Sombra decided that the best course of action was to dodge them, so he jumped up about twenty feet in the air. As he dodged, he heard something strange from the blizzard spirits "I hate you", "Why did you leave us?", and finally "Help me".

As Sombra fell down to earth he realized the origin of the Windigos, they were three of his royal guard. He knew now that he needed to end their suffering. He decided on the spell he would use, channel sunlight, to end their suffering quickly without pain. The moment he landed he channeled sunlight into the three Windigos and watched them dissipate.

He looked upon them "I'm sorry, my loyal subjects, I shall avenge you."

He continued to make his to the Empire when he saw a strange sight; A team from the Equestrian Vanguard. It consisted of two unicorns, two pegasai, two griffons, and one dragon. He came upon the revelation that they were heading to the Empire, and he need to stop them, lest Celestia get a foothold on his Empire. He teleported himself in front of the Vanguard and summoned multiple weapons of ice.

The Unicorn officer in charge of the Vanguard commanded a full halt, then he yelled "Get the buck out of the way you daft foal!"

Sombra smiled, he just got the provocation needed. "This is my empire, and I'm certainly not daft, now bow your head when you speak to an Archmage!" he said as he threw an icy bastard sword at the officer.

The officer sidestepped only to witness the other unicorn in the group get decapitated. The officer looked upon his dead comrade and realized who it was; his younger brother. He turned towards Sombra and said in anger "Pegesai; ready your javalins, Griffons; provide support fire. I'm going to have this bastard's head on a pike"

The dragon turned towards his commanding officer "What should I do?"

"Provide heavy damage on this bastard"

"Got it"

Sombra found that he had hit the mark; he got the officer to lose his cool. That was the only advantage he needed as he jumped up in the air and used arcane blast on the pegesai to great effect. One of the Griffons aimed his rifle at Sombra and started firing.

Sombra used his time slow spell on the bullets and used a time forward spell on himself and ran across the bullets towards the courageous Griffin, as the other one had began to run. He summoned a halberd and cut the griffin in half using it. Then he heard a shout behind him. Sombra turned and saw the officer charging him.

Sombra decided that he was feeling extra sadistic today and enchanted his hooves with his anti-magic spell. He tackled the officer whilst screaming "UUURRRYYYYY!"

The officer made the mistake of attempting to block Sombra's attack, and he paid dearly. Anti-magic crystals covered his entire body and cut deep into his skin and muscle. Sombra then hit the officer with an uppercut, sending the frozen unicorn into the air. He eyed his falling opponent "Fool! You thought that you could defeat an Archmage? Face the cold embrace of oblivion!" Sombra shouted as he shattered the foolish officer like glass.

He turned towards his final opponents, the cowardly griffin and the dragon. As he went to fight them, he doubled over and vomited blood. "Damned dark magic, I need to finish this quickly. I need my Empire back, the changelings have probobly infiltrated Equestria by now." Sombra muttered as he created ice daggers.

The dragon stared at this supposed 'Archmage', this. . . . abomination in pony form. Maybe he could just overwhelm the stranger with force? No harm in trying he thought as he swung his greatsword at Sombra.

Sombra got up from his doubled over position and kicked the dragon's greatsword away. "Useless!" and the last word the dragon's ears ever caught were "Time slows to a crawl"

He looked around and saw that the griffin that was trying to run away was in throwing dagger range. He smiled with contempt for the cowardly beast and loosed eighteen daggers in it's direction "They say the first one cuts the deepest! And that's plenty of firsts"

He realized that he only had five of his seven seconds left, so he turned his attention to the dragon. Then he thought of something genius and sadistic that wouldn't cause him much strain.

The dragon suddenly heard the sound of his failure of a teammate in pain. Whatever had happened had happened fast. The dragon saw an ice crystal drop past his head, then he dared to look up.

Sombra brought a massive ice crystal with the dragon's greatsword down on the dragon's head. There was a sickening crunch as Sombra walked towards the Crystal Empire, still in his disguise.

Author's Note

Fight Scene translation:
"Muda da"
"MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA"
"Za WURDO!"
"Time stands still!"
*self insert steamroller*
"WRRRYYYYYYYYYY"
Anyhow, it's nice to see this fic doing well after just the prologue was published
Thanks guys & gals!

Chapter 2: Fall of a King

Day of the changeling invasion in Canterlot

A lone figure walked to edge of the Crystal Empire, clad in a coat and goggles, with a purpose in mind. He saw that his barrier still held the cold and windigos out. Smiling, Sombra stepped into his empire.

He needed to find his wife, maybe even see if his spell had actually worked and put the empire in suspended animation. Either way, he was not going to be stopped by anything now, not even the internal damage from the dark magic he had to use. Sombra was then distracted by the serine and even picturesque scenery; the rolling grassy hills, the farmland waiting to be tilled, the natural growing crystals that gave the empire it's name, the Crystal Palace shining like new. It was all so beautiful, even when he had enslaved the crystal ponies, he tried to keep the Empire looking like something out of a storybook.

Not that he had any ill will towards the crystal ponies, they were just the key to keeping changelings out of equestria. He then noticed something odd; none of the shops were open, nopony was taking their plow out to the fields to start tilling the soil, none of the guards donning their armor and going over to protect the palace. No activity. Nopony even preparing the decorations for the festival! Sombra made a face of disgust. Now his subjects were content with forgetting their duties and their heritage!

Angered, Sombra walked into one of the residential areas and looked around. He saw a few crystal ponies moping about near windows or doorways. They seemed depressed or something close to it. Sombra had no time to contemplate their current state, he HAD to get to his wife. Only a few of the crystal ponies even glanced his direction, looking as if they had forgotten everything.

No matter he thought Seeing that they all survived is all that matters.

Sombra made his way to the end of the residential district, to the house made of green crystals. It had a tree growing out front. He made his way inside. It seemed just as he left it, clean and organized.

He then called out "Willow? Are you here? It's Somber Heart! I'm back from the palace."

Sombra heard a meek voice behind him "Who?"

"Somber Heart, your husband"

"My husband's dead" Said Willow

"You don't remember me?"

"My husband was a soldier, I don't know who you are or why you are here"

"I'm here to see you, but why don't you remember me?"

"You're not my husband" She said in vehement denial

"But-"

"Get out of my house, you're not my husband!" Willow shouted at the top of her lungs.

Sombra felt something shatter inside. Here was his wife, who he had promised 'till death do us part', she hadn't just forgotten him, she thought he had died! He cursed Celestia under his breath; somehow her spell had tampered with his and caused the crystal ponies to fall into a state of depression.

But, Somber Heart didn't care anymore. He couldn't care anymore. Celestia and Luna had taken the most important thing from him. He wandered out of Willow's home, his home, the home he would have given his entire empire to be there. He stumbled towards the blizzard covered wasteland.

A lone figure braved the blizzard, wandering somewhere. The cold sapped its energy. After about three hours into the doomed trek, the figure collapsed into the snow, with no energy left to preserve itself.

A black cloud began to form around the figure. . .

Four days later

Cadence and Shining Armor were making their way from the train station to the newly revealed Crystal Empire. As they trekked through the blizzard, Shining could have sworn he saw a moving figure in the distance.

About the third time he saw it, he pointed it out to Cadence. She stared at the figure for a moment, the she saw the purple mist coming from it's eyes. She turned towards Shining "Get back to the station and wait for Twilight and her friends, I'll go to the empire"

Shining turned the opposite direction and began moving back towards the station. Cadence turned towards the figure.

"So you're the one Celestia warned me about, let's see how much of a threat you are compared to a princess!"

Author's Note

Alright, I hope everyone is ready for a slightly less regular schedule!
Anyways, I kind of felt that this needs some help.
I'd like some feedback on the heartbreak scene and all that jazz so I can make it better
I hope the Prologue didn't merit a mature rating. . . .

Chapter 3: The Pain Stops

Several hours after Cadence and the Mane six make it to the Crystal Empire

Sombra awoke to the feeling of falling. It was strange and alien to him. As he fell he saw the strangest sight; himself. He smiled when he saw the cracks running through his body, that would teach the dark magic to try to posses the mighty King Sombra! But at the same time, he saw Willow. She showed only one emotion; fear, and she was looking right at his dark magic possessed body.

He turned away from his former lover and turned towards the Crystal Palace. He thought he saw Dawngazer on the balcony, but if it was, he was different; instead of multiple shades of purple, his mane was multiple shades of blue, instead of his cutie mark being a blue, crystalline sun, it was a shield. He glanced up at the tower and he thought he saw Midnight Shine

That isn't possible, Midnight Shine was taller and wore armor to prevent others from touching her Sombra thought to himself. Maybe it wasn't Midnight, but yet she looked so similar. Maybe the purple unicorn he saw up there was one of her descendants?

Sombra finally decided to look where he was falling. There was a strange looking pony standing below him with open hooves, ready to catch him. Strange he thought I don't remember how I got here

He stole a glance at himself once more and saw himself shatter, then the realization hit him like a train.

He was dead.

And he remembered who the pony below him was; Absque, caretaker of the fallen, queen of the void, patron of unicorns. She had taken the form of a pitch black pegesus to catch him and take him elsewhere.

When she caught him, Sombra tried to squirm out of her grasp. Despite not feeling anything but comfort from her, Sombra still had his phobia of being touched, and it was causing him pain.

Absque sat there, holding him close, comforting and reassuring him, making sure that this unicorn who had died today felt all the motherly love she had for him. She finally pulled close to his ear and whispered reason to the unfortunate soul after a few hours of trying to get him to sleep "I need you to stop struggling, the more you resist, the more likely you are to go to the Aether rather than come with me to your rightful resting place"

Sombra finally decided that resisting her was a futile gesture, as it seemed she was only trying to get him to pass on, rather than lose everything and convert himself into magic. So he nestled into her forehooves and let the sleep overtake him.

Sombra awoke in what seemed like water, but he realized that he actually couldn't see any of it. He couldn't see much at all. He was in the Abyss, or the Void, or the Plane of Eternal Sleep. Whatever it's real name was.

He heard humming to his left and felt some of the water wash over him. He drowsily turned to the left and saw a pitch black pegesus, and he realized that it was still Absque, and she was. . .washing him? And he heard her say something, but he never picked up on it. She slowly cleaned Sombra as she would any other child of hers, with the utmost care and love.

It was so strange and alien to Sombra, he couldn't fathom the amount of pain that he had been through only to have it all washed away. He felt weak and vulnerable, and Absque was compounding it, but at the same time he felt safe and at home, almost as if he back with his mother. He felt the sensation of her cleaning him and realized that his phobia wasn't acting up. He looked at the spot she was scrubbing at; a dark spot over his heart, and the more she scrubbed at it, the less he remembered of that day.

Eventually the spot was gone, Sombra felt a feeling of tiredness wash over him as Absque pulled him from the 'water' and dried him off. then she carried him to an area where there were multiple unicorns sleeping. She carried him over to a bed and used magic to pull the blankets back. Absque placed Sombra in the bed and pulled the blankets over him and tucked him in for the time being.

She leaned over and whispered "Don't worry Sombra, it's all over, just sleep and forget the pain"

Sombra decided to do just that as he closed his eyes and let the pain and memories slip away.

Author's Note

Two chapters within 24 hours! Probably never going to be this fast ever again.
So. . . .How's the story coming? Constructive criticism is welcome here.
I might have gone overboard with this chapter. . . . .

Chapter 4: Born Again

"He needs to go back"

"What do you mean? He's already dead, I claimed him and cleansed him, he stays with me"

"Did you even check his flank when you were doing that barbaric bathing ritual of yours? Or were you too caught up in the moment you stupid little bitch"

"SHUT UP! He's MINE you ASSHOLE!"

"We'll see about that, He has a destiny to fulfill, and I'm going to see it through"

"No! Stay ba-*SNAP*AGH! My wings!"

"Next it'll be your horn, now let me through"

"F-fine, but he'll be a complete mess in the living world, the cleansing does take a toll"

Sombra had the sudden sensation that he was being lifted from his bed. He attemped to struggle against it but he was so tired. . . All he wanted to do was sleep and forget the pain. He hit the ground with a thump.

He could only see an outline of the figure that had taken him from his bed and eternal sleep. It had a large pair of wings and a horn.

"Wha-What do you want?"

"You to make a choice"

"Why?"

"You have drive, I like that in ponies, I need you to finish your job"

"But that's impossible. . .I already have my cutie mark, my destiny"

"I have bigger plans for you. . .Do you think you just died because you screwed up?"

"Uh"

"Everything happens because I plan it or a plan exists for it, Somber Heart. The rise and fall of empires, of countries, of individual ponies. Don't you understand? It's futile to say no, because you're going to say yes. As I predicted my younger sister banishing me from MY realm of existence. I had no plan for that, thus my influence is limited to mortal beings who delve into dark magic. I'm giving you another shot at life, as yourself, rather than rot in here for eternity"

Sombra was dumbfounded, here was an alicorn claiming to control fate itself. He wanted to say no to the bastard and set the record straight, that Somber Heart was not a cosmic plaything, but at the same time he wanted to see if this 'master of fate' could bring him back to life.

"All you need to do is say 'yes' and I shall whisk you away into a new body to fulfill your destiny."

Sombra decided that it was now or never.

"Yes"

It was 4 o'clock in the morning in Ponyville. Nopony was awake at this godawful hour of the morning. But if they were awake the would have seen a stark white silhouette set down a unicorn with a black mane and a grey coat of fur, the most unusual feature of him was his slightly curved horn. His cutie mark was a set of four black gems pointing in four different directions. He lay asleep in the market square.

Market was to start in four hours.

Author's Note

Enter Tyrannus the Just as Planned incarnate.
There's another reference in the bin.
I just got hooked up to the terrible campus internet and got time to write this out.
Sorry about the delay

Chapter 5: Lost and Scared

He was awoken to a kick in the side. He got up and looked at who kicked him.

It was a strange pony, with no horn and a weird . . . hat on her head, and . . .something attached to her sides. She looked scary and dangerous. Then she spoke, her voice unfamiliar and grating on his nerves "Hey darlin, you're in mah cart's spot"

His eyes got as big as dinner plates. This pony had disturbed his wonderful nap and wanted to talk to him! He wasn't going to stay, she might eat him or something! They made eye contact for a minute. He sat there, frozen in fear.

He began to inhale...

Applejack didn't have time for this. This strange stallion with a curved horn was in her cart's spot, and now he was busy channeling Fluttershy. Just a great way to start a morning, but the worst part was that she recognized him from somewhere. He looked so terribly familiar yet she couldn't place him. She was going to turn to ask Big Mac about the stallion when she heard a godawful noise.

The stallion had started screaming at the top of his lungs and attempted to run, Applejack watched him run in an uncoordinated manor and straight into a pony browsing the market. She stifled a smile; the stallion ran like a little foal who wasn't used to walking by itself. And there he was, staring right at a customer, frozen in fear again. Applejack thought that maybe she should. . .detain him or something before he does anything drastic like use magic.

She unhitched the cart from herself and turned to Big Mac "Ya mind if I detain this silly unicorn before he hurts anypony?"

"Enope"

Applejack trotted up behind the stallion, who was still frozen in fear, raised her forehooves and brought them down on the back of his head.

He felt something hit the back of his head, it knocked him off balance and sent him stumbling. As he fell onto the cobble stone road, he saw the strange pony he had tried to run away from, giving him a funny look. She really was going to try to hurt him!

The nameless stallion got up and let out an inequestrian roar, as if he were a wild animal trapped in a corner, rather than a civilized pony. The crowd backed up as he charged Applejack. He sent an uncoordinated flurry of blows at the strange mare and she dodged every single one of them, but they left small craters in their wake.

Applejack decided that she wasn't letting this fight go any further and threw her hat at the stallion. He took the bait and swatted the hat away, only to find his hooves bound with a lasso. Paying no mind, he charged Applejack. Applejack smirked, and leaped at the the stallion in a form of jump kick, only to be swatted away. The strange stallion bared his razor sharp teeth and was going to charge at her, but the moment that the stallion prepared for a charge, Applejack pulled on a rope by her forehooves and watched the stallion get caught in a snare trap.

Applejack got up and caught her falling hat. She sighed a sigh of relief; her rope tricks had saved her life and helped her protect all of the customers in the market. She walked up to the snared stallion and looked right at him. Applejack noticed he had vibrant red eyes and a curved horn; She realized she was looking right at King Sombra. "Ya have alot of explaining to do when I take ya to Twilight ya damned tyrant!"

Tears welled up in the stallion's eyes "N-no! You're mean and y-you hit me! G-go Away!" then he started bawling like an injured foal.

Applejack didn't know how to respond to this. She had never really dealt with reformed villains, as she didn't handle Discord very well, and despite only seeing King Sombra, this stallion's resemblance was merely coincidence. Applejack sighed, she should take him to Twilight anyways.

"Listen up Sugarcube, I'm gonna take ya to Twilight, she'll sort you out, OK?"

"Wh-why?"

"Yer dangerous, ya seem to flip out without consideration for anypony. You'll hurt somepony, we can't have that now can we sugarcube?"

"N-no, I g-guess I'll g-go w-with y-you"

Applejack undid her snares from her rope tricks and helped the stallion up. He was about as tall as her. Applejack realized that if this were Sombra, He'd be a head taller at least. Applejack dismissed the thought and helped the stallion walk towards the library.

Author's Note

The writer in me: *slap* Bad Wiserodin, stop watching Jimquisition and update your damn story!
Me: Mahh. . . .*flails arms at keyboard*

Oh sweet Jesus(*slap* Don't take the lord's name in vain! OK grandma. . .), my word count is getting smaller!
Is that a bad thing?
I need an opinion! Or two, or three... or four

Chapter 6: The Unicorn in the room

Meanwhile, in the Crystal Empire

Princess Cadence hated her job. Yes she was the 'princess of love' but she also had to handle the cleanup of the Crystal Empire, and it was messy. Some of the crystal ponies had committed suicide or she had to talk them out of it. It was terrible, but what was worse was that she could taste their emotions whilst this was happening, it tasted of bile and phlegm. And she most definetly hated being 'Her highness's little experiment' to see what happened when changelings and ponies had offspring and she turned it into an alicorn.

As she was moving down the street of the residential district, she tasted a different emotion; despair, and it was stale. She grimaced. That was yet another dead crystal pony, this one seemed different though. As she approached, she notieced the dead pony was hanging from a willow tree, by a red ermine cape. The crystal pony's coat was light green and her mane was dark green and hung like willow leaves; her cutie mark, incidentally, was a tree. Cadence undid the makeshift noose with magic and examined the robe. She knew who this belonged to, but why would a crystal pony have it? She inquired further into the residence of said dead crystal pony. . .

Twilight Sparkle heard a sudden knock on the door of the library. Maybe somepony wanted to check out a book? Maybe it was Flash Sentry coming back from running errands so she could continue research on how his overdrive ability works? Then she heard "Twilight ah got somethin ta show ya!" it was Applejack

"What is it Applejack?" she said as she came downstairs "another fruit bat problem? Because I'm not fixing it this ti-" Twilight immediately stopped when she saw the unicorn standing next to Applejack. Curved horn, sharp teeth, black mane, grey coat of fur, deep red eyes. It was King Sombra, but something was wrong. Rather than say, attack her, Sombra was sitting next to Applejack, trembling like a leaf. Then he looked up and saw Twilight and froze in fear of the alicorn. Twilight was confused, she didn't think this was Sombra; she assumed Sombra was a charming, charismatic, master of the dark who looked upon alicorns as he would look upon crystal ponies, and who most certainly wouldn't be caught dead without his crown and cape. Here was a trembling mess of a unicorn who was absolutely terrified of the world around him. "Applejack, that's not Sombra"

"Whadd'ya mean? This unicorn is most definitely Sombra, Ah mean look at him Twi, he's got King Sombra written all over him"

"What I mean Applejack, is that he may look like King Sombra, but it's not him. Sombra commands fear, this unicorn is absolutely afraid of everything. You can't make assumptions based on looks."

"Then we should at least do somethin with him! He's a walking natural disaster! He just about leveled the market when ah tapped him"

"Fine Applejack, I'll get the girls and we'll decide who he stays with while I teach him to control himself and integrate him back into society, but first. . ." Twilight shot 'Sombra' with a sleeping spell.

Cadence entered the house, it was clean and seemed very lived in. As she looked around, she noticed a photo on a table in the living room area. It was said on the back "Honeybear and I at the Mage Collage" she turned it over to see a photo of the crystal pony she took down outside with. . .King Sombra, but he looked much different than he did when Cadence saw him, maybe back before he conquered the Crystal Empire?

Cadence saw another photo next to it, the back of it said "Honeybear and I visiting his 'Auntie' Luna" It was a picture of the same crystal pony with Sombra and Luna. That was terribly strange; Luna nor Celestia had any children at the time the photo was dated, maybe Celestia never mentioned Luna adopting a student?

Then Cadence saw the rose in the vase. It was odd, the rose was made completely from obsidian, maybe there was a photo to go with it?

Cadence continued through though the house. She stumbled on another photo with the writing on the back "Honeybear and his apprentices: Midnight Shine & Dawngazer" she turned it over to see a mare that looked like Twilight Sparkle and a stallion that looked like with Sombra. There were distinct difference between 'Midnight Shine' and Twilight; Midnight was taller, had an octagonal horn, had a light grey mane, and wore full plate armor. She also looked over to 'Dawngazer' who almost looked like carbon copy of Shining Armor, though there were a few differences like mane and eye color being different shades of purple, and his cutie mark printed on his cloak was a magic wielding one rather than a shield.

She went up the stairs to a bedroom. The bed was a Double princess size, which means that two ponies probably slept in this bed, and maybe some other things Cadence shouldn't know. She saw another photograph, but somepony else wrote the text "Willow and Somber Heart- Wedding day, beyond proud of you son" Cadence saw Sombra, or Somber Heart, wearing his nicest robes, embossed with Luna's insignia, he was kissing the crystal pony, or 'Willow', she saw in the other photos. Willow was wearing her finest wedding dress. Standing behind them was Luna, who had just finished reading the finial passage of the Rites of Marriage. Cadence didn't know that Luna had ever overseen a wedding before, but the more you know.

Cadence passed two more photos of the honeymoon when she stumbled on something strange. A photo of Willow and 'Somber Heart' with a child in the middle. A unicorn with a white coat that seemed to glow, and a pink and obsidian crystalline mane. The text on the back said "Somber Heart and Willow with their son; Lychinus, Celestia's future student, hoping to outshine my accomplishments with Somber" Cadence was hit with sudden shock; Sombra had a child, who was gifted in magic. But where was the child? Nothing was said about any of it anywhere else. It said in there that he was supposed to go to Canterlot to be taught by Celestia. She decided that she would dig around the archives in Canterlot when she got back. . .

Author's Note

AGH! 1100 words is kind of hard without rambling and or making new plot points

Sorry for the delay though, LOTSA homework (dormwork). And playing Shadowrun Returns *slap* BAD, you are an author first!
and sorry for the 'Detective Cadence' subplot, but it had to happen. The Willow plot-thread needed tying up

HOW AM I DOING? leave constructive criticism in the comments

also: 1111!!!!!!

Chapter 7: Can I Keep Him?

Twilight Sparkle looked around the rooms at her friends. They had formed a small circle in her room around the stallion. Twilight decided that it was time to bring up the unicorn in the room. "There is a reason I called all of you here today, this stallion showed up in the middle of the marketplace, scared, lost, alone and from what Applejack told me about his demeanor, doesn't remember a thing. I'm already going to be working on getting his magical abilities under control, but I need somepony to look after him and maybe help him integrate back into pony society."

Rainbow Dash took a good look at the stallion, who was busy sleeping, and remembered all of what happened in the Crystal Empire. "Nuh uh, Twilight, not taking him. First off, He can't fly. Second off, that's King Sombra lying there! We all saw him shatter into a gazillion pieces. Did you botch a spell and bring him back or something, because I think the moment he wakes up we're all dead without the elements to stop him." Pinkie Pie's mane drooped when she heard 'King Sombra'.

Twilight frowned "Well, thank you for voicing your opinion Rainbow Dash, but like I said he doesn't remember a thing. And I did ask Princess Celestia about why she didn't use the elements, she started saying something about how the elements were a crutch and they needed to fight without them, when she was cut off by Princess Luna, who said and I quote 'Celestia, cut it with hiding things from Twilight, she is your student after all. Twilight, the reason we didn't use the elements was because the elements only work on beings of chaos, like Discord, or Chrysalis, or Smooze, Or Sweet Victory. But if Sombra had won, he would have forced everypony to be miserable and peaceful. No chaos.' it was kind of weird that Luna always acted so straightforward when Sombra was mentioned."

Applejack sat in thought while Twilight went off on a monologue. The stallion would be good for a farm hand, but his. . .berserk tendencies might cause him to wreak the farm, or cause Big Mac to use the Seven Point Reverberating Hoof on the poor stallion. "Ah can't take him Twilight, he may be strong, but lots ah bad things would happen if he went haywire. Besides, He's a magic wielding pony ain't he?"

"Well. . .His cutie mark is one of the few magic based ones, but I did a little reading on it. It would also allow him to learn a spell just by seeing it or reading a description of it, but it wouldn't be as powerful. The crystal part of it represents his natural ability to suppress magic, which is slightly disturbing."

Pinkie Pie sat there, growing angrier by the second. Here was the 'Mighty' King Sombra, the unicorn who caused the Crystal Ponies so much grief, lying here in front of her. Unlike everypony else, she had actually taken a jaunt around the Crystal Empire, she had met a party pony named Surprise, who just so happened to have the exact same cutie mark as her. Pinkie had asked for her full name; it was Surprise Pie; her great-great-great-great grandmother. At that point, Pinkie had noticed the parallel scars along Surprise's back. Surprise didn't remember how she got the scars, but Pinkie knew. Finally, the anger reached a boiling point.

"I'm not having him. You all can rehabilitate him or whatever. I'm not throwing a party for him, I'm not making a SINGLE DAMN PASTRY for that monster! If he comes ANYWHERE near me without one of you, I'll do terrible things to him." Pinkie stormed out of the library.

Everypony sat there stunned, except 'Sombra', who was sound asleep. Rarity spoke up "How very un. . . .Pinkie like."

Twilight shrugged "I think the stress is getting to her. Maybe seeing a pony that took two alicorns to beat can be stressful? Either way, we need to get back to the task at hand. How about you Fluttershy?"

"Uh. . .well, I could take him in. . .but his appearance is going to scare the animals. But I think he needs a new name first. . . .H-how about Sparrow?"

"How about your Rarity? Do you think y-"

"Well, If nopony noticed" Rarity gestured to the necklace that Sombra was wearing "Sparrow here is wearing a royal signet, which means he's either part of a noble family or was a greater noble at one point in his previous life. He should be rehabilitated by somepony who knows nobility. Twilight, I'm sorry, you really don't know much about the social scene as I do. As such, I, Rarity, take full responsibility for the integration and well-being of Sparrow, if that's what we're going to call him."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Rarity may be the element of generosity, but she had never been this generous. Rarity spoke again "And if he went with Fluttershy, he might become a DRUID! That would be embarrassing for somepony of his potential standing."

"Um, okay Rarity, He's all yours. I'll just need to undo the sleeping spell and prepare a suppress emotions spell."

*Clang!*

The sound off Lunar Steel against a Mythral spiked chain echoed through the halls of the Mage Collage

Two stallions were fighting on the balcony of the Archmage's quaters; A thestral and Archmage Somber heart himself

"Damn it Alveretzalia, Put the Amulet down this instance and dispel the nightmare dreamscape at once!"

"No, You fear me becoming too powerful, and you're afraid I'll take away Midnight Shine as my own. Admit it Somber Heart! You love her more than anything in the world."

"You're right, I love her, but for different reasons than your sick, perverted ones! She's like the daughter I never had, and I would give anything in the world to protect her!" Somber Heart yelled as he charged forward

"Ha, foolish attacks get you no where! Attack of opportunity!" Alveretzalia screamed as he swung Errus at his former master. There was a sound of metal hitting flesh as Somber Heart was sent reeling back. The thestral pulled Errus back as he put the alicorn amulet on, he wiped blood on it and tendrils shot out, hitting hidden pressure points withing his body.

Somber Heart knew he had to finish this quickly, lest thing get messy "Argento ferro diem!" His summoned blade; Arondight, glowed with a silver light as he charged the thestral.

Alveretzalia saw the silver light on Arondight, this wasn't going to end well for him if he didn't do something about it right now "Rokudenashi! You think you can defeat me?" he yelled as he swung Errus.

Arondight and Errus clashed, and for a moment it looked like Somber Heart had lost, but Arondight shattered Errus and Somber Heart charged forward.

The stallion awoke in the middle of a room in the library. As he looked around, he saw the purple alicorn and. . .a pure white unicorn with a sapphire blue mane. The alicorn spoke first "Hello, your new name is Sparrow, is that okay with you?"

"Uh. . . .Y-yes that's f-fine"

"Good, I'll be overseeing your magic lessons while you live with Rarity" she said as she gestured towards the white unicorn.

"Your lessons start tomorrow"

Author's Note

Whew, that was hard. I went with one of the more logical suggestions with the vote, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME

I wonder if there are any Jojo or Berserk fans in the audience

Chapter 8: The Carousel Boutique

"Come on Sparrow, I've been away from my shop for far too long today, and I wouldn't want to disappoint any customers by staying away for too long" Rarity said as she began to move towards the door of the library. Sparrow was confused, first the orange pony, Applejack, wanted him to see the purple pony and now the purple pony wanted him to go with Rarity. He decided against throwing a fit and walked out into th-"Agh! Why is it so bright out here?!?!?" Rarity did a 180 and caught him from falling over.

"Sparrow, darling, You have to go out doors slowly, Your eyes probably aren't used to light." She said as she lifted him up

Sparrow tried to get his bearings "Th-thanks R-Rarity" He adjusted himself and looked around at all the ponies. He started to shiver. He wasn't so sure he should have gone with Rarity. The crowds were scaring him. As he was backing up, he felt an invisible, scratch that, light blue, start pulling him along. He struggled against it for a minute, then he decided to give in and walk towards the source of the magic. It was Rarity "Sparrow, you need to stay with me, after all, I'm responsible for you"

"Wh-where are we going, Ms. Rarity?"

"Like I said, to my shop." She looked Sparrow straight in the eyes "You're afraid. . .of me. . . .of everypony in the crowds. . .I have a friend like that" she said as she cast a glamour spell on him. "That should fix it"

"Wh-where did everypony g-go? H-how come I can only see you?" Sparrow managed to stutter out while he was shivering with fear.

"I made it so you can only see me and not the crowds, is that better?"

Sparrow stopped shivering and his heart rate began to return to normal "Y-yes, i-it's much b-better" He managed to keep pace with Rarity throughout the entire walk to The Carousel Boutique. On the way, he found a small, black, rock that seemed to some of itself when he picked it up.

Rarity opened the door to the fashion shop and made sure Sparrow got through the door. She closed the door behind her and turned to see Sparrow fiddling with a lump of coal. "Sparrow, where did you find that?"

"On th-the street"

"Um, You'll need to take it outside, it could ruin the dresses I'm working on"

"O-okay Ms. Rarity"

"Darling, don't call me Ms., it's just Rarity"

"Okay" Sparrow said as he got up. The coal slipped from his hoof and fell towards the floor. Sparrow tried to catch it, but ended up stomping on the coal instead due to his lack of coordination. Rarity looked shocked at first, then she realized that the coal hadn't shattered and gotten everywhere. She sensed something strange from Sparrow, almost. . .something she couldn't put her hoof on. Sparrow's eyes were tearing up, there he was, on the verge of a breakdown.

"Sparrow, it's okay y-"

Then he started bawling his heart out. "I-I'm so sorry! I-I j-just saw this strange r-rock and I *hic* I thought it w-was *hic* something u-useful. . ."

"Sparrow, lift up the forehoof that stepped on the coal"

"*hic* O-okay R-Rarity" he said as he lifted up his forehoof, under it was a gemstone instead of coal.

"Sparrow, you see? It's alright, no mess" she said as she picked up a handkerchief from the sewing table and wiped away Sparrow's tears.

Canterlot Archives

Cadence flipped through a list of students that belonged to Celestia. The records were supposed to be forbidden, sealed, cursed etc. but that didn't stop Cadence from using a scroll of unlocking to bypass the entire setup of magic. The book itself was massive and contained over 1,000 names, all the way up to Twilight Sparkle. The name of each student was followed by any of the following; Missing, Deceased, Success, Failure. Cadence looked through and saw large amounts of the missing and deceased. The most she saw though, was failure. That was extremely distressing, although that explained 85% of the ponies in the statue garden Celestia had.

She even recognized a couple of names, like Butterscotch, whose daughter was the element of kindness, marked: Failure. Or Spectrum Flash, Cadence knew Spectrum very well, he could use magic very well and sometimes dropped by to see her when she was in the tower, although she never really learned what happened to the rainbow maned pegasus, marked: Success. She let out a sigh of relief. Then she saw a photo of a white unicorn with a turquoise mane; Greater Noble Chysalia, Cadence knew exactly who that was, Chrysalis, marked: Missing. Queen-in-waiting Caliphora, Cadence saw a picture of a changeling queen with a grey mane and red eyes, there was something otherworldly about her gaze, marked: Special Case. She kept flipping through the pages, she stopped on one of the two earth ponies in the book; Gilgamesh of Arcadia, white earth pony with a blonde mane, noted as the only earth pony that could use magic from the Aetherial plane, marked: Missing, Deceased. The last earthpony in the book was Dulcis Victoria, an earth pony with a silver coat and a golden mane, marked: Failure.

Cadence finally found the name she was looking for; Lychinus. She looked through the history for him, it noticeably marked him as missing, but still alive. That couldn't have been possible unless he was immortal. Cadence chuckled, only Alicorns and Changelings were truly immortal beings, but she considered that some unicorns could attain immortality through channeling the Aetherial plane. The book said Lychinus's last known residence was the tower. Cadence shuddered, she spent most her childhood in that terrible place, she would have to go back to it. It was where some of the failed students spent the rest of their lives, some of the residents were 'little experiments'. Prince Blueblood was lucky he ever got out of that tower and into the public eye. There was the loud sound of the door to the archives opening. Cadence decided it was high time to put the book back and get gone before Celestia realized she moved it. The tower was now on her list of places to visit. Her to do list kept growing longer and longer. . .

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, I've had MAS dormwork to do, plus I'm having to set up a tabletop game for my friends

Anyhow. . .this just took time, I needed to re-watch episodes to try and remember how much character development Rarity got

Uh oh. . .Is the Carousel Boutique also Rarity's house? EDIT: it is

Chapter 9: Recover

Crystal Empire

Luna stood over the corpse of the unicorn who was once Somber Heart. His battered frame was emaciated and sickly looking. She had a look of pity. "I'm sorry you had to find dark magic in this life too, my prince. But you will be back, I know it. I knew it since the day I saw you 2000 years ago. I know it today" Luna summoned Nadir and cut open the soft ground. She summoned a coffin made of crystal, and cast a spell on Somber Heart, to remove the physical marring of the dark magic. She set him in the coffin on a bed of dark blue roses. Luna closed her eyes as she set the lid of the coffin on, then she contemplated bringing him back. She could do it. She animated the doll Tyrannus gave her and made a new species out of it. She could just shed a few tears and have him back in her hooves.

It would have been wrong. But it wasn't fair, Celestia had a lover, why couldn't she have hers? It was NEVER FAIR, Celestia was mother's favorite child, everypony loved Celestia, everypony wants to be Celestia's student, Celestia is the supreme diarch, Luna could just vomit at the name Celestia. Here was Luna's crowning achievement, a wizard whose name should be remembered throughout history, but because of his crippling fear of changelings and his desire to keep what happened to him from happening to everypony else, His name was erased from the history books.

Luna stopped herself from crying, it would only make things worse. She remembered the reincarnation spell she put on Somber Heart. She would check the dreamscape to see if it worked for the 5th time. . . .

Sparrow looked at the jewel he had created, it was red all the way through. it seemed to be very dense.

Rarity used a gem identifying spell on it. The jewel was an Ajia, a rare gem that refracts and concentrates light. They were very rare in nature and nearly impossible to recreate. Yet, here was an Ajia, without a single flaw in it, all from Sparrow stepping on a lump of coal. "Sparrow, what kind of magic do you know?"

"Uh. . ." He did remember the spell that the purple alicorn used, he also remembered both spells Rarity used on him. Maybe there was a name for them? "T-telekinesis, Sleep, G-glamour, a-and. . . ." He tried to remember the spell he used, it was a spell that made gems. . . ."G-gem making?"

Rarity smiled "The last spell you used is called compress carbon, Sorry to correct you"

"I-it's alright"

Rarity grabbed the Ajia with telekinesis and held it up to sunlight. If it was a true Ajia of 23 karat or higher value, it should create a beam of concentrated light. It started to focus the light coming through the window. Then, instead of a beam of harmless light, it shot out a beam of concentrated sunlight that blew a mannequin in half.

Sparrow ducked when he heard the small explosion. "R-Rarity, are y-you alright?"

"Yes Sparrow, I was just seeing what type of gemstone you made. It seems that this a 42 karat Ajia. . ."

"I d-don't know wh-what you're talking about"

"It's a rare type of gem that requires an extreme amount of skill to make. They also concentrate and refract light"

Sparrow sat up "But I'm not skilled with magic or anything"

Rarity shrugged "Your cutie mark says otherwise. Do you mind if I make this into a necklace?"

"S-sure, I-I mean y-you can have i-it as a g-gift at th-this point"

Rarity smiled brightly, the she realized that she needed to show Sparrow where he would be staying. "Sparrow, I'm going to need to show you your room"

"O-okay. . .uh. . ."

"Don't worry, I'm only going to have you come with me so I can unlock the guest bedroom."

"Oh"

Rarity and Sparrow headed towards the guest room. Rarity opened the door using magic and ushered Sparrow inside. There was a single bed and a dresser in the room, along with a window.

"This will be your room for your extended rehabilitation. If it's not to your liking just let me know and I can change it" Rarity said with a smile.

"I-it's f-fine, truly"

"Alright darling, whatever you say."

Sparrow fiddled a bit with his signet necklace, so much had happened within a short period of time, it was starting to take its toll. He took one good look at the guest bed and fell right into it, ragged and tired.

Rarity sighed, she still had a few dress orders left to fill out. Sparrow falling asleep in the guest bed didn't help matters. She opened her sewing kit and started working on the next order.

Canterlot, a few hours later

Celestia lowered the sun as she stepped off her throne. She made sure to ring the bell to signify that the day court was over. She had a slight headache for some reason, probably from allergies or something, the ringing of the bell made her wince.

One of the guards noticed "Are you okay princess?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you for your concern" she said as she continued down the hallway to her personal study and bedroom. She opened the door and sat down at her desk. She had to figure out who had gotten into the sealed archives and figure out why they wanted a list of her former students. There had to be a reason behind it. . .

She heard a floor panel creak behind her. Damn, right in my blind spot! Celestia whirled around to confront the intruder as she reached for her emergency blade. She froze when she saw the figure.

"Well hello Celestia, so nice to see you after all 700 of these years. It's a shame to see you so paranoid"

Celestia looked him dead-on. He was bright white, she could see his glow, even in the dark, his mane was pink and obsidian, and refracted the light from her candle like crystal. Then she saw the stitches and scars covering his face, the rest was obscured by a robe.

"Lynchinus, you're supposed to be dead, not even changelings can live past 500 years"

Lynchinus adopted a smug look "You even remember my name? How flattering! But you know exactly how I circumvented that little thing called mortality"

"You were always the crafty student weren't you?"

"Your taste in students dropped after Queen-in-Waiting Caliphora. Face it, you're a poor judge of character, Sunset Shimmer being the best example" He held the smug grin.

"I shouldn't have taught y- "

"But you did, I used to be a little, gifted colt. But you saw my power and ripped my innocence away, taught me how to kill, had me lead your army, kill nobles you didn't like. And you killed my father. Hypocrite"

"You little shit, I was planing to offer you REDEMPTION! I'll strangle you until that body returns to your phylactery!" Celestia screamed as she grabbed the nearby blade with her magic.

Lynchinus's smile changed to a smirk when he saw Celestia lunge. "You've grown rusty, teacher, I expected more. Now witness, Mode of Light!" he said as two shining blades came out of his forelegs. He managed to effortlessly block her lunge.

"I'm not here to kill you Celestia, I'm merely here to say hello. And tell you that somepony is investigating my father's identity, I found evidence of somepony going through my mother's house" he said as he broke off from Celestia and kicked her away. "Tally ho!"

Celestia wasn't expecting the sudden blow to her underbelly, but she managed to catch herself and land in her chair, unscathed. Lynchinus was gone.

There was a sudden knock on the door followed by "Princess, are you okay in there? That was a lot of noise we heard"

Celestia didn't have time for this "Yes, I'm fine, I just tripped and fell"

The guards departed from the door. Lynchinus had just confirmed Celestia's suspicion that somepony was looking for answers to the origin of Somber Heart. She had to find out who . . . .

Author's Note

Whew, sorry that took so long, lots of homework and parties the last weekend.

Anyhow, Hows the story looking? Is it looking fine? Are there any plot holes we can sail a glacier through?

I recommend listening to the music that goes with Lynchinus. It explains his character a lot.

Chapter 10: Encounter

Canterlot

Celestia glanced out the window of her study, it was raining. That isn't right, the weather teams weren't supposed to make it rain.... she thought Unless, Lynchinus used a mass suggestion spell and is using the cover of the rainstorm to escape!

Celestia slammed the door to her study open, alerting two guards to her predicament. "There's an intruder, he's heading towards the palace gates to make his escape. Relay the message and guard the main gate."

She had to stop that abomination from escaping at all cost. . .

Main Gate of the Canterlot Castle

A hooded figure quickly ran for the gate of the castle, trying to escape under the cover of the night and the rain. The figure hadn't noticed the silk covering the walkway set by one of the unicorn royal guard. Royal guard Ivory Gavel smiled, Oh, the poor shmuck, I can't wait to see the look on his face . Ivory spun and lifted up the strings of silk, snaring the hooded criminal. "Now you're trapped, even if you escape, I can predict your movement within a twenty meter radius of the silk. Ready to give up and go to jail?"

"If only, I Lynchinus, student of Celestia, slayer of dragons, killer of the last emperor of the griffons, had a way to get out of a third rate trap made by a mere corporal. Oh WAIT; MODE OF LIGHT!" the stallion shouted as blindingly bright blades came out of his forehooves and shredded the silk bonds. And his hooded robe.

What stood in front of Ivory Gavel was an abomination. He didn't have forehooves, he had the arms and claws of a dragon, a pair of changeling wings grafted onto his back, his smiling mouth filled with rows of razor sharp fangs, and his coat was covered by a mixture of changeling chitin and dragon scales, most of his body was covered in stitches that seemed to hold whatever he was together. Whatever he was, he certainty wasn't JUST a unicorn anymore. Ivory turned to one of the royal guards with him "Get Captain Shining, or anypony that can stop this. . .whatever it is!"

"Yes Corporal!" The guard saluted and began to fly off.

"No matter what you do, no matter who you have it's MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDAMUDAMUDA MUDA! Can a changeling beat an Alicorn?" (Yes) "I think not!" Lynchinus shouted as he shot a solar great-spear from his deformed horn at the guard. It barely nicked the guard's wing, but that was enough to burn the wing to a crisp. The velocity from the spear sent the guard flying.

Ivory was done standing idle "Bring it on asshole! Round 1, FIGHT!" he yelled as he drew multiple throwing daggers from his armor. Lynchinus was taken aback by the unicorn's sudden courage, he then smiled a genuine smile "Foolish unicorn, who fears not death, I applaud thee. I accept thou'st challenge."

Ivory threw ten daggers at Lynchinus Come on, dodge or deflect, asshole. . . Lynchinus deflected the daggers with ease. Gotcha! Ivory Gavel charged multiple arcane blasts. With the silk strands in place again, he could predict the moves his opponent would make. Lynchinus jumped to the side as as Ivory fired the arcane bolts, but the arcane bolts turned mid flight to hit Lynchinus head on.

"Agh!" Ivory Gavel felt a smile emerge when he heard the cry of agony. He pulled the silk strings on the daggers back to him. The World! As he did so, he suddenly felt multiple blunt hits to the gut, followed by "Never let your guard down, not even if you think the enemy is dead." Those were the last words Ivory Gavel heard before hitting a wall hard enough to smash through it.

"How disappointing, THIS is Canterlot's finest?"

"No jackass, This is Canterlot's FINEST! Aubade blast!" Lychinus was hit head on by a beam fired from Aubade, Shining Armor's longspear.

"So, Yet another fool joins the fray, with a mystic weapon. . . this should be interesting"

"You're the one who used the solar great-spear to down that cadet, too bad he landed in my office anyways"

"Fine, looks like I'm not leaving here without fighting you, I'm not holding back anymore. I'm not going to show you a glimpse of the darkness in my heart, I'll show you the Total Eclipse" Lynchinus smiled as darkness formed in front of him, He reached in and drew a longblade. Darkness seemed to radiate off of it.

Shining and Lynchinus charged at each other at the flash of a bolt of lightning. . .

Sparrow looked out at the field, it was full of blades of every shape and size. He looked around him and saw a ruined castle, crumbling from old age and disuse. The tapestries faded, stained windows broken, rusted armor stands with shattered spears. Sparrow glanced at himself, he was wearing a dark red robe, and a. . .crown.

"So you return, prince Seraphim"

Sparrow turned towards the owner of the voice, she was astoundingly beautiful, a mane of the purest night sky, a dark blue coat of fur, and eyes like the brightest of stars. Whoever she was, she was stunning.

Sparrow finally found the courage to speak "Wh-who are you?"

"Princess Luna. . . ."

"Why am I here? Or did you bring me here?"

Luna chuckled "Tis only a dream, Seraphim. I am the princess of the night and ruler of the dreamscape after all. Which is were we are."

"S-so th-this castle i-isn't real, and n-neither is that field of blades?"

"Well. . .it is real if you mean it exists in reality. This is all just a dream. But I'm real, and you're real, this is your castle, those are your blades, Seraphim."

"Wh-why do you keep calling me that? Th-that's not my name"

"Tis a pity then, because that's what I remember your name being, you may have called yourself a different name every time I saw you, but you were Seraphim, the unicorn prince, son of the king of unicorns, more importantly my prince."

Sparrow's head began to spin. Here was a god-like being, who he didn't even know until three minutes ago, claiming to know him, claiming that he was a PRINCE of all things. It was too much for him to comprehend. He pulled the crown off his head and threw it aside. He noticed it had metal face guards and. . . .A curved, bladed, horn covering. Sparrow collapsed from sensory overload.

Luna looked at the crown on the floor, then walked over to Sparrow. She picked him up in her forehooves and held him close. She brushed his mane out of his face and wiped away his tears. "It's okay Seraphim, my love. . . .it will be over soon. I'll figure out where you are and restore your memory. . . .It will all be okay"

There was a sudden knocking in the vast expanse of the dreamscape.

"Seraphim, DON'T wake up. . .not now. . .it's too soon"

Sparrow suddenly awoke in his bed, with questions for the purple pony named Twilight Sparkle. . .

Author's Note

Whew, that was hard to write. . .I might just pull a Killer7 with this plot yet.

How was the chapter? I hope it went well. . . .

Chapter 11: Questions

Rarity knocked on Sparrow's door a second time, trying to get him to wake up faster. She realized that what she was doing wasn't fair to him, as he had forgotten most of his life, whatever it happened to be. Ever since Sparrow showed up, she had started thinking about what it would be like to lose all of one's memories, she shuddered at the thought.

Sparrow suddenly opened the door and walked out with a determined look on his face. Rarity spoke up "Um, Sparrow, before we go to the library, shouldn't we have breakfast first?"

Sparrow's eyes grew wide "What's breakfast?" Rarity stifled laughter.

"The first meal of the day, also the most important. Just head to the dining area, I need to fetch my sister"

As Sparrow walked over to the dining area, he realized he didn't know what a 'sister' was. He went to turn, but suddenly stopped in front of a mirror. He looked nothing like the other ponies he had seen, He was large, intimidating, and frightful looking. He had a flickering image in his mind when he thought of sister: A pony that looked somewhat like him, but it was different, it was alike, maybe even related, but it was female. . . .Sparrow had come to the conclusion that a 'sister' was somepony closely related to somepony else. . .

Sparrow sat down over at a table in near the kitchen, he then heard a sudden squeal. It had come from a filly near Rarity "Oh MY GOSH! He looks just like Prince Seraphim from the Lost World series! All he needs is some armor with a cape and a sword, then he would match!" Sparrow's eyes got fairly large when he heard 'Seraphim'

"I'll have to apologize for my younger sister, Sweetie Belle, she just started watching this cartoon on our new television, and it seems to be her favorite one."

"So you're Rarity's. . .sister. . .p-pleased to meet you. . .I'm Sparrow"

"Well it's nice to meet you Sparrow, I'm Sweetie Bell." she said as she sat down at the table. Rarity got down some Sweet Corn Puffs and three bowls.

Canterlot: Four Hours Earlier

There was a loud sound of metal against metal, Speartip met blade. Shining Armor and Lynchinus both watched in horror as their favorite weapons shattered from the force of their blows. Both unicorns jumped away from each other.

"So, YOU'RE supposed to be Canterlot's finest soldier, don't make me laugh"

Shining smirked "Well, I did shatter your favorite sword, which you said was unbreakable"

"You're one to talk, you have no weapons to defend yourself with, while I, Lynchinus, have these!" His arm blades burst forth from their sheathes.

Shining had to think of a plan, and fast. Those arm blades didn't glow, it was a set of miniature crystal blades that traveled the cutting edge of the blade. They would shred him. Thankfully, Lynchinus was terribly slow, or Shining would be dead. He looked around and only saw a few braziers that had re-lit themselves, maybe fire would work?

"Any last words Shining?" Lynchinus was suddenly lunging at him. He needed something RIGHT NOW.

Inspiration suddenly hit him. Shining put on a smirk, struck a pose and thought of the best way to piss Lynchinus off. "Next you're going to say: Wipe that smug look off your face!"

"Wipe that smug look off your fac-Wha!?"

"Gotcha!" Shining yelled as he made a small barrier around himself that Lynchinus bounced off of. Vines covered in thorns appeared along Shining's right forehoof. They shot out and wrapped around Lynchinus "Amazing! A boobie trap that actually catches boobies! Eat this!" Shining pulled Lynchinus towards him, then retracted the vines and spun, putting his electrical vine covered forehoof through the fire in one of the braziers "Sunrise Orange Overdrive!"

Lynchinus attempted to block the attack. He created an anti-magic barrier in-between his forehoves to try to stop the attack, but the fire was preventing the crystals from gaining a foothold. He panicked and screamed "WRRRYYYYY!!!"

"Pierce THROUGH!" Shining's hoof hit Lynchinus square in the pseudo-carapace, and they both saw the electricity hit, but it didn't go all the way in. Lynchinus hit the ground with a slight "oof" and a snap of a limb. He staggered to his hooves and turned towards Shining Armor "Surely you don't think you've won, this conflict is only the beginning!"

"Oh really? Then looks like I'm ending it early!" Shining yelled as he lunged at Lynchinus. Shining wound up and hit the abomination once, the twice, the continued without mercy "ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARIARI!" Each hit causing a crack to appear on Lynchinus until Shining hit him with a final blow: a buck to the face "Arrivederci!" the final blow sent Lynchinus flying off the side of the bridge screaming in agony.

"N-no. . .not l-like this! I s-still need t-to see if he's alive!" Lynchinus knew the fall wouldn't kill him, the royal guard would catch him and throw him in a cell. He strengthened his resolve, drew one of his arm blades, and stabbed himself in the eye, all the way through the brain.

Canterlot Castle

Discord ~~walked~~ floated around the halls, restless. He had heard a commotion a few hours earlier, it seemed like a massive fight. But he had other things on his mind at the moment. Two days ago, he felt a 'tremor' in reality, something only he knew he could cause. Except. . .Well no, he's deader than a door nail last time I checked. Celestia did drag him into the sun. But. . . Discord still couldn't shake the feeling of dread. He turned the corner and almost ran face first into Luna.

"Oh yes, hello princess Luna, and how are you doing?"

"Just fine Discord, thanks for the concern"

There was something wrong, Discord knew it, for a split second he and Luna made eye contact there was a nightmarish flicker of. . .Discord broke eye contact with Luna.

"Sleep well Luna"

"Okay Discord"

Discord shuddered. He saw something impossible, inconceivable, something that shouldn't be! And he was the lord of what should not be!

Had he really seen. . . .Made In Heaven?

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long, my weekend was packed.
I'll see if I can try to get this out faster, but inspiration doesn't come out whenever I need it

[off topic] I saw a back to school ad the other day. . . .

Leave constructive criticism in the comments section, it would be appreciated

Chapter 12: The Tower

*WARNING* CONTAINS MINOR SQUICK

"Pride goeth before the fall. . ." Tyrannus cackled as he put the card back into the deck.
"And the pieces fall into place"

Canterlot Castle: Tower

Cadence sneaked through the door into the tower. Thankfully, the guards were distracted by the ruckus the intruder had caused and weren't currently patrolling, but at the same time she couldn't afford to leave a trail.

She took a good look around as she closed the door behind her. Two wings; north and south. She remembered all the times she had tried to escape this place, but every time Celestia had caught her. Remembering what she read in the records, Lynchinus's room was in the southern wing. It made sense she kept her students away from the prisoners and experiments. She opened the door with an unlocking spell and opened the door. . . .It lead to a straight drop from about 300 miles above Canterlot. She closed the door, realizing she needed a Celestial Pendant to get through, but she realized that Celestia either had them with her, in a personal pocket dimension, or had destroyed them. Then Cadence remembered, the south wing can be reached from the north wing using the teleportation crystal there.

Cadence opened the door to the north wing and went on through and shut the door behind her. There was a loud click. Crap! One way door! She looked around at the cells, all the doors were either made of cold iron or adamantine. She just needed to make it to the top of the north wing. She looked at each cell, some were empty, in fact; most were. Then Cadence heard a distinct laughing.

"Aw, look who it is! The pretty princess herself! What did you come home for? A 'family' reunion?"

She looked over and saw a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, although pegasus didn't cut it; she had stubs instead of wings due to an incident, and she was most definitely not a full-blood pegasus, maybe half-Thestral? Cadence realized who it was; Butterscotch, Cadence could recognize the steel hiding behind that voice a mile away. "Well. . . Hello, Butterscotch, I thought you killed yourself after the incident with that changeling"

"That wasn't an incident, Celestia dumped queen pheromones on me then let the damn thing into my cell! Ooh, if I could get out of this cell I would strangle you with my bare hooves! It would be more satisfying than making your pretty princess head explode"

Cadence realized she made an error. Butterscotch was a former student of Celestia, which meant that she was dangerous, but second, Butterscotch was Psionic. Cadence hadn't taken the necessary precautions for this!

She tried intimidating her first "Try it bitch, I'll open the door and you'll cower in the corner like the little bitch you are."

"Ha! Remember we shared a cell together! I'm stronger than you, and I can kill you before you enter the cell!"

Time for plan B; Cadence removed a vial from her saddlebag and held it up in the air for a second.

"What the hell is th-that?" Butterscotch stammered in fear.

"Queen pheromone combined with a want-it-need-it spell, I douse you, let Griffith in, and he does the rest for me" Cadence smiled. This was way too easy.

"N-no! Not him, don't let him i-in!" Butterscotch started to curl up in the fetal position. "D-don't l-let him in! I don't want another child f-from that. . .d-damn ch-changeling!"

"Really? His cell is right across from yours, I just open the door, dump the flask on you, then he's on you for the rest of. . ." Cadence thought for a minute "The week most likely. Celestia never comes here anyhow. So I'm the only one keeping you from getting raped for a week by a ruler class changeling."

"F-fine! J-just don't do it!"

"Oh yes, your half-changeling daughter that you declared demon spawn is doing fine, no support from you"

"Don't bring that demon-child into this. . ."

"And better yet, she's the element of kindness, one of the elements YOU tried to destroy. Irony at it's finest" Cadence smirked. Petty revenge was the best kind.

"Shut up you dirty whore! I'll blow your brains from your skull!" The air started crackling with energy as Butterscotch started charging a psionic blast.

Time to act on the threat. Cadence used magic to fling both cells doors open and pulled the cork off the flask "You asked for it!" She poured the entire three pints onto Butterscotch and sidestepped Griffith's door.

"N-no! no no no no NO!" Butterscotch screamed as she saw a large changeling king, at least as tall as Celestia, get up from his cell and walk over to hers. Cadence closed the door behind Griffith "Now who's the dirty whore Butterbitch?"

"You'll pay for this!" There was a loud cha-chunk of Cadence locking the door

"This is what you get, Traitor! And this is also for what you did to me when we shared cells!"

Cadence departed from that section of cells, leaving Butterscotch's screams and the loud squelching noises behind. She had more important things to worry about.

Ponyville: The Carousel Boutique

Sparrow sat next to Sweetie Belle, watching Lost World episode 4. They were at the end of the episode, where Prince Seraphim encounters Rufus, the earthpony dragon-slayer. Seraphim was wearing what was described as 'scale mail' and was a 'bladecaster', but he did look extremely similar to Sparrow. Seraphim protected the downtrodden and tried to stamp out tyranny wherever it may hide. His opponent, Rufus, carried a massive sword-looking weapon called the Dragon Bone Smasher. They clashed blades a few times before they lunged at each other and it cut to a 'To be continued' screen.

"That's it? Only 25 minutes? That's short!" Said Sparrow with a hint of disappointment.

Sweetie Belle smiled "It's meant for fillies and colts to watch before school, not the entire day"

"Oh! I th-think I get it now! Thank you for explaining"

"I have to get ready for school anyways"

"O-okay" Sparrow said as he got out of the way. Rarity tapped him on the shoulder, which made him jump slightly. "I have something I made for you Sparrow, I need you to try it on."

"What is it?"

"Clothing, I just need you to try it on, after that, you'll follow me to take my sister to school, Okay?"

"S-sure, wh-which way to the dressing room?" Sparrow said as he followed Rarity. . .

Author's Note

TAROT SYMBOLISM!
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is where morals become questionable! Have fun figuring out who the good guy is!
I really hope I don't get bumped up to a mature rating because of this. . .

How is it looking so far?

Chapter 14: Pain

Canterlot: Celestia's Royal Chambers

Celestia threw a fifth empty bottle away from her desk. She had raised the sun as usual, but she had called off the day court. Cited it as a 'Health Condition'. She knew that was a lie, Alicorns couldn't get sick with most conditions. But she needed today off. . .She uncorked a sixth bottle of Laudanum, and took a swig. Laudanum potions were technically illegal, but it was the only type of drink that could make Celestia forget.

It seemed everything was going so well, but the moment Luna returned, all the fail-safes she had set up failed. She failed to defeat Discord a second time. She had lost a duel with Chrysalia; whom she knew was weaker than her, Celestia had to botch the first one to make sure everypony got away, then when fighting Chrysalia; Celestia tried to stop time using the power she obtained from her brother Chronos, it failed her; she ended up pinned under an exploding steamroller after Chrysalia stopped time. Somber Heart returned along with the Crystal Empire. . . Luna had begged her to let her go to the Empire to solve the problem, but she told her younger sister no. Tirek returned, only to be defeated by Twilight Sparkle. Ponies started praising Twilight Sparkle as their savior. . . . . And now Lynchinus returns, of all times, forcing more awful memories of her past to the forefront. She took another swig from the bottle. She was going to make herself shit-faced drunk to forget or die trying.

She chuckled at that one, she had already tried to kill herself. . .Multiple times. . .It never worked. . . . .But anything to forget the past was preferable.

Ponyville

The three unicorns didn't look out of place in Ponyville. If Sparrow's coloration weren't grey and black, he wouldn't have drawn as much attention, but most of the ponies were busy with their daily lives to stop and say hello, they were waiting for Pinkie Pie to throw a get-to-meet-the-new-pony-party.

Sweetie Belle continued to hold Sparrow's attention with the prospect of 'school'. It was such a strange and alien concept to him. But when their conversation was just about over, Rarity, who was daydreaming, bumped straight into another pony. Sparrow twisted around and caught Rarity with his forehooves. The pony that Rarity bumped into didn't seem phased by the accident.

Sparrow looked right at him; the pony- or unicorn, had a sort of white color to his coat, his eyes were straight turquoise (whatever color that was), but his mane was strange: it was dark blue, not an odd color, but it seemed to be crystalline in structure and refracted light, and for some reason, the unicorn was wearing a sort of shirt or jacket. Sparrow saw something next to the stallion; a foal, a unicorn, about Sweetie Belle's size, wearing similar garb, the foal had a light blue mane with the same crystalline structure, but no refraction of light, it's eyes were an icy blue color that seemed to see more than most, and finally, it's coat was light grey. Then the foal spoke "Father, I told you this wasn't the way to the school."

Sparrow set Rarity down on her hooves, then they both turned towards the strangers.

The stallion looked over at his foal and tussled its mane "Good deduction skills, Dimante. . .I bet these ponies can point us to th- Rarity?" His eyes widened.

Rarity took one good look at the stallion, then she remembered exactly who it was "Oh! Lord Sapphirus, My apologies! I didn't mean to run face first into you. . .and. . .um. . .I completed the silk over-shirt that you wanted"

Sapphirus just smiled "Oh Rarity. . .You don't need to freak out because you bump into me. I should be the one doing the apologizing, not you."

Rarity turned her attention to the foal "And who is this?"

"Oh? Him? He's my son, Dimante Myalo"

Dimante piped up "Father, don't call me that"

"I'm sorry, kiddo. Call him Diamond Mind, that's the non-stuck up version"

"What brings you to town, Sapphirus?"

"Schooling for kiddo over here. . .Not that he needs the education, mind you, just the socialization"

Rarity tilted her head in curiosity "Similar disorder to Twilight?"

Sapphirus leaned over and whispered into Rarity's ear "Worse"

"Oh no. . . . Well, Sparrow, Sweetie Belle and I were just going over to the school, so you should follow us there"

"Okay then, You hear that kiddo? Lets go!"

Diamond's ears drooped "Fine"

Sweetie Belle walked next to Diamond, she managed to spark a discussion about magic, during that, she noticed the ring on Diamond's horn. She wondered what it was for. . . .

Ponyville School

"Go at'em kiddo! It's just recess, Get to know the other kids or show them some magic tricks or something" Sapphirus was leaning on the fence, shouting encouragement to his anti-social son. Rarity tapped him on the shoulder.

"Just let him socialize and get used to the other ponies, I'm sure they'll grow on him"

On the Playground

Diamond Mind was approached by an earth pony, one who had the gall to wear a diamond tiara in public like she was some sort of noble, like he was. At least he had the modesty to wear a signet necklace like the other young nobles with common sense. She was followed by another earth pony who wore crude looking glasses, the style was about forty-two years old, it should have been dead by now. Then the one with the diamond tiara spoke up "Hey, are you some sort of new kid?"

Diamond was considering just hitting the filly for her tone of voice. That tone was no way to speak to noble, and especially a unicorn noble. "Yes, I'm new here"

She then asked a more pressing question "I'm Diamond Tiara, and just a question: do you have a cutie mark?"

Diamond had heard from his father about this, it was called blank flank discrimination, and it was rampant outside of Canterlot. His expression changed to a frown "Yes I do, but I'm not showing it to filthy commoners such as yourself, and take off that tiara, it insults my presence." Diamond decided that some racial discrimination couldn't hurt, these bullies had to have thick skin "Shouldn't you two hicks be helping harvest the fields instead of attending school, since you have your cutie marks?"

"Hey! Drop the attitude, we run this place! Stop acting like some sort of noblepony!"

"Ah, but you see, I am some sort of noblepony, now trot off before I break that stupid tiara of yours" Then Diamond jumped straight up, onto the roof of the school "and there's your obligatory magic trick, I jumped 15 feet in the air, good for me and all that jazz"

"F-fine, but you're not part of our group!"

Sweetie Belle saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon prowling the playground. Sweetie Belle wished that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom would arrive sooner so she wouldn't have to face the two bullies alone. She turned to go hide when she heard Diamond Tiara "Hey blank flank!"

Sweetie Belle gritted her teeth"Yes?"

"Just who is that ugly stallion flirting with your sister?"

Sweetie Belle looked over at Rarity, she was talking with Sparrow "Oh, Him? That's Sparrow, he's a traveler who suffered a head injury and needed a job to make some bits" Sweetie Belle hated lying.

"To think your sister would lower her standards for a stallion, I thought she was different than you, blank flank"

Sweetie Belle felt tears start to well up "That's not how it is at all, you pervert!"

"Face it Sweetie Belle, your sister is a good for nothing whore"

And like that, Sweetie Belle started crying. . .

Sparrow heard somepony crying in the schoolyard. He turned and saw Sweetie Belle crying, and caught the last snippet of the conversation.

Memories started flooding him as he charged towards the school yard, the red haze of rage entering his vision. . .

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long. . .Got a few finals and the ACT coming up. . . .

Hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter. . .

Celestia's problems go much further in the past than one might imagine. . .

Chapter 15: Rage

"Just Look at his curved horn!"

"Those sharp teeth!"

"Abomination!"

"Monster!"

"Bash the thing's brains out!"

Sparrow charged forward, memories of the bullies from. . . .someplace coming back to him. All the other foals, pointing, laughing, threatening, it never stopped. Not even the teacher stepped in. He saw a unicorn filly with a golden coat standing in front of Sweetie Belle, taunting her. Why now? Why here?. . .

Everypony watched as Sparrow charged straight through the fence, into the playground. Silver Spoon was the first to go, getting batted away into a piece of playground equipment. Diamond Tiara had only started to turn around before Sparrow scooped her up in his mouth, and bit down hard. There was a loud crunching noise as Sparrow tossed Diamond Tiara to the ground. He raised his hoof to deal the death blow, but something stopped him. Sparrow turned to see light blue magic gripping the forehoof he raised for the killing blow. Then he heard a familiar voice "Yare yare daze. . . .if I had known this was going to happen I would have hit her myself. And now I'm stuck dealing with you" Sparrow traced the voice to the rooftop of the school.

Diamond Mind immediately clapped his forehooves together, then sharply inhaled. Lightning danced across his forehooves as he pulled them apart to reveal a strange, soapy substance between them. He did a leaping cartwheel off the roof of the school and landed behind Sparrow. The lightning moved from his forehooves into the soapy substance, then he did a throwing motion, causing the soapy substance to split into individual bubbles that surrounded Sparrow. "Don't try anything, or you'll get hurt. Neither of us want that"

Sapphirus saw what was about to happen, threw his overcoat into the air and began running towards the schoolyard.

Sparrow stabbed one of the bubbles with his horn, the bubble popped and electrocuted him. He let out a roar of pain. Diamond heard the roar and began turn towards Sparrow "I told you, you'd get hurt if you-" Diamond suddenly heard the sound of an oncoming freight train and saw Sparrow charging right at him. Ponyfeathers! How could I have miscalculated? Is he immune to electricity? Diamond attempted to dodge the incoming hit, and almost made it, but he was just barely grazed by Sparrow's incoming forehoof. It was enough to send Diamond careening backwards into a section of fence. He was able to stay conscious long enough to see somepony jump in front of Sparrow, then he blacked out.

Sapphirus landed right in front of Sparrow. At this point, a crowd was gathering around from the commotion, and during the conflict somepony was able to rescue Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Sapphirus didn't care. He would make their respective parents pay for his son's hospital bill, heck, maybe even Sparrow's. But his son's life was on the line, neither of those other ponies mattered. Sapphirus let out a roar as he channeled magic throughout his body, causing the rest of his clothes to shred like paper. He needed to stop Sparrow. He swung with a chop to the left side of the jaw first "ATA!" then two direct hits to the sternum "ATATA-" a hit to the throat "-ATATATA-" a good few hits to the gut for good measure "-ATATATATATATATATATA-" a hit to the right side of the jaw "-ATA-" and for the finale, a good old fashioned uppercut "ATAH!" Sparrow didn't seem moved by those attacks, so Sapphirus decided to repeat the attack pattern again on Sparrow. All the crowd heard was Sapphirus's high pitched battlecry and Sparrow's grunts of pain. The action was too fast for the audiance to keep up with, Sapphirus's forehooves were a blur that kept hitting Sparrow. "ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA! AHTAH!" and like that, Sparrow was out from the last uppercut. . . .

Author's Note

Sorry for the drop in word count, I'll get right on it.
This needed to BE DONE AND OFF THE TABLE. Sorry again.
I partied hard the entire weekend, I barely had enough time to work on this bit by bit.

Constructive criticism would be nice to have on this chapter.
Are the fight scenes overdone? Is anything remotely negative?
Cause 6 down-votes says something is and I'd like to know why.

Chapter 16: Regret

Outskirts of Canterlot: 1 minute until midnight

Alveretzalia waited under a moonlit sky. He checked his watch again There was no way she would be late. . .would there? No, that unicorn had OCD, she wouldn't be late. As if to confirm his belief, right when his watch struck midnight, a phantom appeared. It was of a unicorn who was seemingly made of stars taken from the night sky. Alveretzalia let out a soft chuckle "Midnight Shine, I'm happy to inform you that your body is intact for when you return"

"Good. I sensed a disturbance in the aetherial balance a few days ago around that little backwater druid village, did you ever follow up on it?"

"Not yet, and I think you mean Ponyville"

"It was a backwater druid village in our time. They helped destroy the mage collage and killed Dawngazer on the night of Nightmare Moon's ascension, then they came after me and my children, that was a good enough reason to surround the town with deadly animals on all sides."

"Still feeling a tang of guilt for that?"

"No, they were earth ponies and they deserved every last cockatrice they got. I would have just wiped it off the map, but that would have been too suspicious."

Alveretzalia smiled, he was about to drop a bomb on the situation "Do you know who your great-great granddaughter is?"

Midnight Shine looked over towards Alveretzalia "I don't know, why would I care about a two-bit hack that just so happens to be related to me?"

"Her name is Twilight Sparkle, she isn't a two-bit hack, she's a princess."

"A princess, like an alicorn princess? Because I didn't think you had the courage to lie to me you little [Censored Racist Slur]. Don't spout [Censored] at me."

"She even trained under princess Celestia. I'm not a liar; remember when we studied the elements of harmony? I could activate the element of honesty."

"Don't remind me. . ." She looked at Alveretzalia, maybe she was too hard on him? His mane had even changed due to the stress she placed on him, it was now a shiny, reflective silver, than the deep blue that it had been. A pang of guilt hit Midnight Shine dead on. He even tore his wings out of their sockets to save me and my family, and I still considered him below me because he wasn't a unicorn, was I really that terrible to non-unicorns? she noticed something odd, he had grown a horn. A smaller, curved horn, but one none the less "Alveretzalia, when did you grow a horn?"

"It happened after I saved your family from those druids and the Moonlight Paladins. After we parted ways. . . Thestrals have a weird natural ability to change from flying to straight arcane magic if their wings are completely removed"

"I see. . ." Midnight Shine considered something unusual; she wrapped her forehooves around Alveretzalia and pulled into some sort of reluctant hug.

"Opening up to me? Don't go too fast. . .you might hurt yourself"

Midnight Shine whispered in his ear "Shut up. I need you to go to Ponyville, and find what the disturbed the aether."

"All right then, this seems a bit out of character for you. . .I thought you hated non-unicorns. . ."

"I've spent 982 years hiding in the void so far. I'm just lonely" she brushed his mane back "And besides, you're close enough to a unicorn" she put a hoof to his horn "With this nice horn that you've grown"

The moment she touched Alveretzalia's horn, his eyes shot open and he pulled out of the embrace whilst making a strange noise. He began to blush "D-don't touch my horn, it's a tad sensitive"

Midnight Shine flashed an impish grin as she began to fade "You know what you have to do"

"Yes ma'am"

Ponyville Hospital: 7 AM, Room 8

Sparrow awoke, lying in a bed. He looked at himself, he was covered in bandages and he had a strange. . .thing hooked up to one of his forehooves. He heard a voice next to him "You're awake." He turned to see Rarity sitting next to his bed, behind her was a curtain.

"Where am I?"

"Ponyville hospital, Sapphirus did a number on you"

"I don't remember any of it"

"You wouldn't, you went berserk and you attacked two foals, leaving one crippled for life. Then you were attacked by Diamond Mind, you knocked him into a fence and broke a few of his ribs. Then Sapphirus pummeled you into unconsciousness"

"I really did that?"

"Yes, you did. I decided to research your 'Condition'. It appears that quite the number of years ago, there were different breeds of pony, you are one that has a 'trigger' that causes you to attack anything nearby, or target one thing. It could have been a trigger word."

Sparrow closed his eyes and tried to remember. 'Just who is that ugly stallion flirting with your sister?' 'Face it Sweetie Belle, your sister is a good for nothing whore' He opened his eyes "The one with the diamond tiara called you a whore"

Rarity flinched. Young foals shouldn't know that kind of language "So you attacked her to defend my. . . image? My good name? Why?"

Sparrow was about to think on the situation when they both heard a scream from behind the curtain. Rarity pulled the curtain back to see Diamond Mind. . . .crying, with holes in his mane, fangs in his mouth instead of teeth, and the white of his left eye changing color to match his iris. His coat was beginning to darken, when a dingy white pegasus with a turquoise mane burst through the door, Nurse Redheart following behind her saying "He isn't ready for visitors!"

The pegasus stopped next to Diamond's bed and turned his head towards her own, and looked him straight in the eye "Diamond, you had that dream again, didn't you?" Diamond nodded. "Focus on me, just me." Diamond's left eye began to return to normal. The pegasus took a talisman out from under her wing and began to hum a lullaby, Rarity, Sparrow and Nurse Redheart noticed that Diamond was returning to normal, then his eyes drooped and fell asleep. Nurse Redheart had a look of surprise on her face "What the heck did she just do?" The pegasus turned around hit Nurse Redheart in the side of the head, knocking her out.

Rarity recognized the pegasus's voice and drew her (stylish and ladylike) stiletto knife and pointed at the pegasus "Well hello. . . .Chrysalis"

Author's Note

This chapter's delays were brought to you by: Carpal Tunnel, E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy; which gave me carpal tunnel, Dark Souls ( \o/ ), and Titanfall.
(I will die a happy author if any of my fans understood what the emoticon in the parentheses above means)
I NEED to stop it with the erotic subtext dammit.
Sorry for censoring Midnight Shine, but I found that was a tad bit. . . .uncreative (is that how ya say it?) to use swear words, and her swear words. . . .I can't really write them or pronounce them. (it causes SAN damage)

PLEASE! I NEED CRITICISM!

Chapter 17: Memories of a time lost

Canterlot Castle: Celestia's Royal Chamber, 6 AM

Day court was called off again, Cadence was missing, and Luna was sleeping. Celestia dropped another Laudanum bottle on the floor, it was the 38th one within two days. It wasn't working at all! The memories were flooding back with force this time. This can't be happening! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER! Celestia put her head in her hooves, let out a scream of pain and decided to ride this one out.

Everfree Castle

Celestia had already lowered the sun and was heading to her royal chambers. She was flanked on both sides by two of her best guards, Dragonslayer Lancea; a golden pegasus with a purple mane who carried a strange, winged longspear, and Sunlight Paladin Holy Light, a blinding white earth pony with a blue mane and carried a Meridian Great-hammer. They were accosted by The Court Sorcerer, a unicorn named, Haematites Myalo who had the distinct crystalline mane of his ancestors. He bowed in the presence of the party. Lancea spoke first "What buisness dost thou hast with the princess as to impose on her majesty's free time?"

The Sorcerer addressed them in a plain tone "Tis not of mine knowledge, Sir Dragonslayer, for tis not of mine request. Tis a request of Luna herself, she desires to see Celestia in the throne room. . . .without escorts"

Lancea let out a hearty laugh "Dost thou hear that rubbish, mi'lady? Without escorts? The nerve!"

Celestia smiled at her three servants "Yes. . .That is an odd request, but she must know that I am the eldest and I set the rules" The servants sat in stunned silence for a few moments, staring at her.

"What is the matter?"

Haematites was the first to break the silence "Your majesty, you smiled."

"Is that not normal of me?"

Lancea hesitated for a moment "Well. . .this one seem'd from the bottom of thine heart"

"Well, I am with my three favorite servants, and I am not trying to please any stuck up nobles"

Haematites was the first to point out a fallacy in a joking manor "You realize that I am a noble, but I pride myself on not being stuck up like the rest of the court!"

Lancea, Haematites, and Celestia laughed, Holy Light just cracked a smile. She was a mare of few word and even fewer expressions. But she did find that their company was preferable to the other Sunlight Paladins.

They talked as they continued to the throne room, then Haematites addressed the elephant in the room "So. . .Whatever happened to Archmage Somber Heart, the Hell-hound of the four knight of the crown?"

Lancea answered before Celestia could finish processing the question "Nay pony knows. He disappear'd into the night, then the Crystal Empire disappear'd as well."

The party arrived at the door of the throne room. Haematites realized that he could do Celestia a favor and not delay the meeting "Strange, but I must depart. I need escort young master Lynchinus to his quarters from the archives"

Celestia turned towards Haematites as he departed "Thank you for the favor, kind sorcerer. I shall see that you are justly compensated for your lost time" but Haematites was too far away by that point to hear her.

Holy Light opened the door for Celestia, but Lancea crossed the threshold into the throne room first to keep a keen eye for threats. As they entered, Luna stepped out from behind her throne "Dearest sister, I see that thou hast not approached alone. Tis a shame for the knights in thou service"

Celestia looked upwards to her sister "What is the meaning of this gathering?"

Luna smiled, not a genuine one, but the way a demented pony looks upon it's next victim. She took her blade, Nadir, from her throne, held it above her, and unsheathed the blade; bathing it in moonlight "I am here to proclaim that it shall stay night forever, dearest sister, and that thou shalt not stand in my way. I shalt honor my fallen student with your blood"

"No. . .Luna you fool" Celestia was pushed back by Lancea.

"Princess! Stay with Holy Light! I shalt put thine sister in her place!" The Dragonslayer shouted as he fastened on his helmet, it resembled a fierce lion and covered his face. Lancea drew his great-spear and inhaled, which caused the spear to crackle with lighting.

Luna's crazed smile changed to a disapproving frown "Dragonslayer, thou art not a pawn, surely you can see that mine sister is a liar and evil beyond measure" Lancea's wings flared out as he flew forward with such speed as to create a massive, multi-colored shock wave.

Lancea knew there was no way for Luna to dodge the attack and he flew strait at her. There was a resounding boom that shook the throne room. Lancea's great-spear was lodged in the ceiling of the throne room, the electricity gone from it. The Dragonslayer sat stunned for mere moments that seemed to drag into eternity. "How? That speed isn't possib-"

Then, before he could finish, Luna drove Nadir straight through his heart. His armor crumpled like tinfoil. Luna kicked the once proud knight off her blade, splattering Celestia's throne with his blood, and he fell down the stairs. Celestia came to a sudden realization when she saw Somber Heart's blade by Luna's side. So that is how she beat Lancea, she deflected his spear by hitting the crossguard with that blade. She saw Holy Light gallop over and pick up Lancea. The normally stoic earth pony was crying. . .the fires of outrage burned in Celestia's soul.

Celestia couldn't stand idly by any longer, she summoned her lance to her side "Luna, this fight shall not continue"

"Do not address me as Luna any longer, for I am thou'st worst nightmare. Call me. . . .Nightmare Moon! Just as you were, Solaris, the Tyrant Sun!" Celestia flinched at hearing her old name, and could only watch as dark blue flames covered her sister, transforming her into a monster.

Canterlot Castle: 7 AM

Luna wandered the halls of the castle, she was unable to sleep. Maybe. . . she thought I could speak to Celestia about my recent bouts of sleeplessness.

As Luna went through the castle, she suddenly heard crying. She rounded the corner to see Celestia, covered in bleeding cuts, crying. "Dearest Sister! What hath transpired?"

Celestia looked right at Luna, and grabbed a nearby lance from a suit of armor "I shall vanquish thee, vile NIGHTMARE"

Luna had barley any time to react before Celestia charged straight at her. . .

Author's Note

Sweet Jesus, WiserOdin, you left the previous chapter and this chapter on a cliffhanger!
Well too bad, me. This part is kind of essential to Celestia's character. And I like having pick up points in the plot

Let's play spot the character inspiration for Celestia's two escorts! Ready? GO!

Anyhow. . . .This chapter was a hard one to make, because I had to choose between looking into Celestia's character and condition a bit more or continue with the current plot at hand.

Enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Chapter 18: Confrontation

Ponyville Hospital: Room 8

Rarity leveled her stiletto at Chrysalis "You . . . .monster. . .What are you doing back? I thought Shining's barrier killed you and your kind!"

Chrysalis, despite being in disguise, bared her fangs "Can a changeling not check up on her step-brother without being accosted by a self-righteous pony? I thought your society was built on 'Friendship' and 'Acceptance', not threatening concerned siblings!" Chrysalis reached under one of her wings and drew a mace.

"You kidnapped Princess Cadence, almost stole Twilight's older brother away, and tried to take over Canterlot, ruining the wedding day! But worst of all. . .You insulted my dressmaking and hurt my friends! I'm not forgiving you, you're either turning yourself in to the guard, or. . . .I-I'll exact p-personal j-justice on y-you!"

"Your name is Rarity, right?"

"Why in tarterus are you asking me my name?"

"Because, Rarity, you're not a killer. . . .You've never hurt a soul in your lifetime have you?"

"What does it matter?"

Chrysalis narrowed her gaze at Rarity "You've never had anypony you love killed right in front of you, have you?"

"I see no reason to answer th-"

"Then you can't possibly understand what I went through. . . .Nor the real reason behind the Canterlot invasion. . .Nor do you know that it failed the moment I laid eyes upon Shinning Armor"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I mentioned. . . .*sigh* in my little. . .villain song thing, that I dreamed of watching Canterlot burn since I was a nymph"

Rarity smirked "You said filly in the song"

Chrysalis's eyes suddenly turned red "INTERRUPT ME AGAIN, Rarity, SEE WHAT HAPPENS!" Rarity flinched, then Chrysalis continued "Anyhow, it was more than personal desire for conquest"

"Really? What more could motivate you?"

"Revenge, the slow, burning kind"

Rarity let out a nervous chuckle, Chrysalis obviously had a bit more depth than she let on "I never took you for the vengeful type"

"Well. . . .I was. . .It was over one thousand years ago. . .but I'm sure you don't want to hear it, little miss 'You're-unforgivable', as I'm a criminal with no way to redeem myself in your eyes" Chrysalis said with an air of smugness.

"F-fine I'll hear you out"

Sparrow's eyes dashed back and forth between the two mares. There was something just plain wrong about the pegasus, something he couldn't put his hoof on. He struggled against the restraints on his hospital bed, in a vain attempt to maybe escape or protect Rarity. He attempted to undo the restraints with magic, only to find that he couldn't. "R-Rarity! I'm s-stuck!"

"Don't try to move Sparrow, I'm perfectly capable of handling this situation myself"

Chrysalis refrained from laughing "What situation? You just asked for my life story, now then, where were we?"

"We hadn't started yet"

"Oh? Well. . .I'll make it short. One thousand and two years ago, a magus went looking for her missing master, along the way, she gathered a changeling and an earthpony to help her along the way."

Rarity tilted her head "Magus?"

"Changeling for spellcaster"

"Oh. . ."

"Back to the topic, at one point, the party comes across a cave. They trespass in it and find a changeling hive. The changelings attack in self defense and are slaughtered, but not without capturing the earthpony. The adventurers inquire further to find said earthpony in a cocoon and a changeling queen, the queen requests they leave, but states that they must leave the earthpony to pay for their crimes. The magus agrees and backs down. Only to snap the innocent queen's neck like a twig using magic. . ." Chrysalis paused for dramatic effect "And that's the tale of how I got to see my mother killed right in front of me." Chrysalis said with a tone of disgust.

Rarity was appalled "That's HORRIBLE, what kind of pony would do such a thing?"

"A pony named Midnight Shine. I tried back-tracing her energy signature, but it led me to Canterlot. Her signature coated it"

They both suddenly heard the voice of somepony else "That's enough Chrysalis" The door opened, and a dingy-white mare wearing a black silk dress and a fairly over-sized hat walked through the door. "You've divulged enough Illegal information to this poor mare, let her be Chrysalis. Besides, you need to go home anyhow"

"B-but Starli-"

"Shush Chrysalis, I already took time off to come see my son in the hospital. I don't need you causing a stir. Now hold still" She placed a forehoof on Chrysalis's torso, then she was suddenly surrounded with blood-red magic and she disappeared in a flash of light.

Sparrow looked right at the mare, he knew her from some place. "Hey! Just who are you? And do I know you?"

The mare let out a slight chuckle, she seemed even more smug than Chrysalis "Me? I'm not going to give you my name, but I will let you in on what I am. . .Ahem. . ." her voice suddenly sounded as if two ponies of different voice tones were talking at once "I am what ponies love more than life, fear more than death or mortal strife, what dead ponies have and rich require, I'm what contented mortals desire." her voice then returned to normal "I'll let you figure that one out yourself" she said as she walked over to check on Nurse Redheart.

Sparrow looked over to Rarity "Uh. . .R-Rarity, what's going on?"

"I have no idea, Sparrow. As the element of generosity, I have seen some strange things, but not on that level"

Location Unkown

Lynchinus awoke on his crystalline throne, having fully recovered from the fight with Shinning Armor. He turned and kissed the locket his mother gave him as a child. It was a godsend that it could also act as a phylactery. He looked up at the map on a nearby wall; His spell had worked, he had managed to trace the aetherial disturbance to. . .Ponyville.

He smiled "Ah, Ponyville. . .I'll have to stop by. . .I hear the zap apples are to die for this time of year"

Author's Note

dun Dun DUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*cue dramatic thunder*

Sorry this took so long. I do hope someone figures out who the 'new' mystery character is!

This is gonna get gud!

Chapter 19: Investigation

Ponyville Library

Twilight Sparkle had multiple books open and was using magic to flip through all of them. All the books were old equestrian legends about powerful unicorns using an unnamed reincarnation spell to cause them to live multiple lifetimes. There's NO concrete evidence in here! None of these give any clues to if the spell even exists!

She shut three of the books and set them aside, then grabbed three more books from a nearby stack and opened them. She realized that she was getting nowhere fast, promptly smashed her head on the desk and let out a muffled scream. She heard a voice behind her "Princess! Are you all right?" she realized it was her personal guard assigned to her by Celestia, Flash Sentry. She just HAD to choose the fastest and the most overprotective, at least he follows orders to the letter and is trained in managing archives

"I'm fine, Flash. Go back to looking through the library's catalog of legends and see how many mention reincarnation. and if you find any; bring them back here"

"Yes ma'am!" And in that within the same second he said that, he was gone.

Twilight turned to Spike, who was about to take some more books off of the 'discard' stack "Hey Spike?"

The little dragon perked up "Yes Twilight?"

"Could you please get me some tea? The kind I really like when I'm frustrated" Or going through one of my cycles. . .

"Sure! I'll be back in a few minutes!" Spike said as he ran off to the kitchen.

Twilight lifted her head up again and continued reading. She stopped when one of the books mentioned a city of alicorns. She lifted the book up to look at the cover, it read The Legend of the Midnight Prince, she re-opened the book. Why. The BUCK. Did. I. Get. A. Foal's. Bedtime. STORYBOOK!? Twilight Sparkle could feel her frustration beginning to boil over.

"FLASH SENTRY!!" Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs. She heard a combination of hoofbeats and wings flapping behind her and turned towards the stairs. Yep, fast. . .

"Yes princess?"

"You brought me a foal's storybook"

"Princess. . .If I may speak?"

Twilight sighed, she would have to get that habit out of him "I asked for books containing legends about reincarnation, not for a foal's storybook, and yes, you may speak"

A nervous smile passed across Flash Sentry's face "Um. . .I do remember hearing about how you. . .predicted Nightmare Moon's reappearance and found the elements of harmony. . .or something like that. . .u-using a copy of The Mare in the Moon. . . a very popular. . . um. . . foals storybook. . ."

Twilight sat in thought for a moment. Maybe the metaphorical lighting will strike twice? Children's story books haven't failed me yet She sighed and turned towards Flash Sentry "I think you just found a lead into this investigation. Consider the rest of today your day off, Flash"

Flash Sentry's eyes widened, he had never had a day off in the guard. He bowed to Twilight "Thank you princess" he then departed from the library. Twilight was just glad to have him out. He was like if Rainbow Dash were clingy AND a doormat.

Spike brought Twilight her tea and poured a cup. "Thanks Spike"

"You're welcome" Spike departed and went back to putting books back on the shelves.

Twilight took a sip of her tea and began reading

Once upon a time, there lived a wizard, he lived with his only son. They were content studying the laws of magic. One day, the father and son met four strange wanderers, who were part of all three pony races. The wanderers explained that they were Alicorns, and were the only survivors of a catastrophe.

The wizard asked why they came to Equestria. They said to escape a pony named Tyrannus, who sought to turn them into his slaves. The wizard and his son agreed to give them shelter. The son noticed when the moon rose at night, one of the wanderers was channeling magic at the same time the moon rose. He introduced himself to the Alicorn as Seraphim, and the Alicorn introduced herself as Fengári

Twilight nearly spewed her tea everywhere. Fengári was the Nexian word for Luna! She quickly flipped to the picture of the two; Fengári looked almost exactly like Luna, and Seraphim looked exactly like Sparrow and Sombra! Twilight began taking notes as she continued to read. . . .

Canterlot: Royal Assembly

Prince Shinning Armor stood in front of an assembly of the Equestrian Royal Guard. He wore a face of sadness and his head hung low. He began his address "All of you must wonder why I had you assemble here" Many of the guards nodded. "I had you assemble here today, because a new threat to Equestria has arrived and has almost killed one of our own, Ivory Gavel" there was a few slight murmurs in the crowd. "The good news is that he's in the hooves of the best doctors in Canterlot, the bad news is that he's still in critical condition. If he dies, we must make our solemn vows to avenge him as if he were a member of our own families. He did not sacrifice himself in vain attempting to fight the threat, he managed to give me a description of the threat and the name of the threat."

Many of the guards had quizzical looks on their faces. The curtains behind Shinning Armor moved to reveal a picture of the threat; a unicorn seemingly grafted parts of a dragon, a changeling, and a pegasus onto himself, its mane crystalline "This is Lynchinus, a unicorn who claimed to have been trained by Celestia. He may or may not have been, but that doesn't mean he isn't a threat to the entire country. He could easily kill you if he catches you without any backup. Always travel in groups of three or more. You are all being dispatched to all the major cities in Equestria. Do not hesitate to use lethal force, the public may think we're a joke, but I think we were taken by surprise. And today, is the beginning of OUR COUNTERATTACK! I want THIS BUCKER'S HEAD ON A STICK!" Shinning pointed to the picture of Lynchinus.

All the guards unanimously shouted "Sir Yes SIR!" and saluted to Shinning Armor, who saluted back. The guards departed to the foyer to receive their district assignment. . .

Author's Note

Heyo! Sorry about taking so long, is my constant apology getting annoying?
Anyhow, no Sombra this chapter, sorry.

Hear that noise? It's the Flash Sentry haters coming to crucify me for suggesting Flash Sentry exists.
It's still a stupid movement to hate a character that has the same problems as King Sombra. . .

Has anyone figured out the answer to the riddle yet?

Chapter 20: Unanswered Questions

Author's Note

EDIT: I didn't mean to publish this so early! HAVE A SUB-PLOT CONCLUSION!

Solved the riddle for you guys, sorry 'bout that

Chapter 20: Unanswered Questions

Ponyville Hospital: Room 8

The strange mare checked Nurse Redheart, tapped her on the side of her head and teleported her away. Rarity remained tense as the mare got up, turned towards her, and spoke; lacing each of her words with a form of soul-piercing magic "Put away the stiletto"

Rarity began to shiver, there was something about the mare that was severely off. Rarity found that the hat that the mare was wearing covered its eyes with shadows. she raised her stiletto "No, not until you tell Sparrow and I who you are!"

The mare took her hat off, revealing she had a horn "Then I guess I'll have to recognize your pluck. . .Element of Generosity. . .Threatening to kill me in front of my own child? While I'm attempting to influence you with spellspeach? That takes. . .determination" Rarity looked right at the mare's eyes. N-no! She can't be a pony! Sh-she must be a demon or something!

The whites of the mare's eyes were pitch black, while her actual eye color was a deep, glowing, purple. "I shall award your pluck with the answer to my riddle, I am nothing"

Rarity was at a loss for words "S-surely you can't be nothing! You would be a walking void! You exist, you have to be something! Y-you mentioned you were Diamond's mother, therefore you are something!"

"I am something. . . you're correct about that. . . in response to your question of who I am, Starlight Abyss is my name. . . I am a witch, a daughter, an artist, a wife. . ." she took her hair tie out and let her black mane fall down "And I am a mother." Her eyes began to glow brighter "Now, put down the stiletto"

Rarity felt herself begin to move involuntarily. She couldn't fight the influencing spell that Starlight was using, but it was oddly familiar. Rarity came to a sudden realization. Starlight's using The Stare on me! I thought only Fluttershy could use it! she screamed mentally. She watched herself sheathe her stiletto in her hoofbag and close it. She turned to look at Starlight and saw blood streaming from her eyes and down her face, the close her eyes to end the spell. "I-if you ponies would just listen t-to me when I say to do something, the world would be a much better place, and I wouldn't have to apply my artistry to other ponies. . .If they would just listen. . ." it was almost as if Starlight was crying.

Rarity decided it was time to leave, there was too much to do and so much had already happened, she needed a break. She turned to Sparrow "Sparrow, listen to the nurses, get some rest, no roughhousing, and no magic, at least until you recover, agreed?"

Sparrow nodded, but continued to stare at Starlight. There was something oddly familiar about her. He heard Rarity's voice again "Sparrow, I'll be leaving for the day, they'll have you out in a few days. . ." Sparrow snapped back to reality and back to Rarity "Oh. . .Is this going to cost you anything?"

Starlight sat up, seeming to have recovered "My husband is covering your bill and Diamond's bill, and I think I should let you know he's currently getting Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's insurance revoked"

"That's great that he's covering Sparrow's bill, but why is revoking other ponies insurance? Isn't that unethical or unlawful?"

"Generosity, you don't know my husband, he's very protective of Diamond Mind, he sees Sparrow's rampage as Diamond Tiara's fault. So he's punishing their entire family. Old nobility values and such"

"Well, have a good afternoon Sparrow, Starlight Abyss." Rarity said as she left

Starlight somehow managed to move from Diamond's side of the room over to Sparrow the moment the door shut. She looked him over "You're the one mother had her wings broken over, I don't see what she saw in you"

Sparrow was caught off guard by the mare's speed "I h-have n-n-no idea wh-who you're t-talking about!"

"Figures, the cleansing ritual usually destroys or buries memories. Bringing cleansed ponies back usually has terribly mental repercussions on the pony. Like behavioral imprinting, or memories that aren't theirs"

"W-well now that you m-mention it. . ." Sparrow was cut off by Diamond beginning to wake up.

"I'm terribly sorry, we'll have to continue this talk another time" Starlight said as she put her hat on, flash-stepped across the room, and was sitting down in the chair next to Diamond's bed before he even awoke.

Sparrow decided it was time for some rest himself, and tapped the button to call a nurse in to help him, since he was still restrained. Oh well, these restraints are for the best

Starlight watched from across the room. Mother, what were you thinking, bringing him back into the void? His soul seems to escape no matter what. Whatever Tyrannus has planned for him better not include us. . .

Cadence walked into the southern wing of the tower. She checked every single room as she walked past, all locked and empty. She finally came across an unlocked door, and was shocked at what she saw.

Papers covered the floor, burnt and unreadable, there was a desk that was smashed in two at one end of the room, and a bed that was burnt to a crisp on the other side. Celestia must have done this in a fit of rage. Cadence told herself. She approached the desk and found one piece of paper that wasn't burnt, it was written by Lynchinus. Cadence decided the best course of action was to take the paper and leave, who knew what horrors waited in here for her. . .

Chapter 21: A Real Nightmare

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 22: An Odd Guest

Ponyville: Train Station

The train from Canterlot made its stop at Ponyville, depositing tourists, visitors, and other travelers alike. It also dropped off five platoons of Royal Guards to hunt Lynchinus, but little to their knowledge, their prize was three cars ahead of them the entire time.

Two notable ponies stepped off the train: A hooded pony who wore a cloak despite the time of year, and a horned thestral. Neither garnered much attention, and neither of them noticed each other, but they had similar goals in mind. . .

Ponyville: Library

Twilight Sparkle had just finished reading The Legend of the Midnight Prince and closed her notebook, when she heard somepony behind her. She turned to Celestia approaching her "Hello Twilight, how is life in Ponyville?"

"J-just fine, princess"

"Good, good. Do you know why I'm here?"

That's strange Twilight thought to herself She didn't correct me for calling her princess. . . Something's off

"Is it about the recent Aetherial disturbance?" Twilight said as she looked Celestia up and down for any differences.

"Yes, yes it is. . . I'd like to know if anypony showed up out of nowhere after the disturbance. . ."

Twilight had found two flaws in this 'Celestia', her eyes were a golden color, and her horn seemed a bit too sharp "Listen princess, I'd love to tell you. . .But. . ." Twilight kicked her chair at the impostor "I think you're a changeling today!" The impostor dodged the chair and the disguise fell away, revealing somepony wearing a cloak. "Caught you, Chrysalis! No sudden movements!"

The impostor started laughing, Twilight noted from the tone that the impostor was male "You compare me to a two-bit changeling queen? That's rich, especially coming from you Miss Sparkle!" he shouted as he raised his machine pistol and started firing.

Twilight ran on a nearby wall to avoid the barrage of fire and used it as a springboard to launcher herself at the impostor. He sidestepped. Twilight smirked and kicked a nearby desk at him. The impostor cast a strange spell that cut the desk in half, sending paper flying everywhere.

The paper settled, and Twilight saw the intruder. He looked like a strange crystal pony with a unicorn horn, but what was even stranger to her were his forehooves, or lack thereof. He decided it was time to introduce himself "I'm Lynchinus, former student and assassin under Celestia. I see she isn't a slouch in teaching her new students how to fight"

"If you're a former student of Celestia, why are you here?"

"You and your friends killed somepony close to me, that I never got to know. Terrible isn't it Ms. Sparkle?"

"What do you mean? How could that pony be close to you if you never knew them?"

"Yes. . .I guess you're right, but that still makes you a murderer!" Lynchinus raised his machine pistol and continued firing at Twilight. She cast a barrier between her and the bullets.

I have to figure out who he's talking about, there's no way that my friends and I killed anypony. . .Unless he means. . No Twilight, that can't be right! That monster doesn't have any children! Twilight noticed Lynchinus reaching for a strange weapon strapped to his side. Why is he reaching for another gun? His machine gun bullets are just ricocheting off my shield! Lynchinus leveled the other gun at Twilight. It was single shot, and looked rather large for a Griffon's hunting pistol. Twilight noted the lettering and Celestia's personal insignia in solar iron on the side. Th-the Equalizer? What the-? Lynchinus fired The Equalizer, sending the barrel skyward, the fifteen millimeter bullet flying right on target. It struck Twilight's spell barrier.

There's no way that can pierce! It'll just bounce right off!

At the last possible second, Lynchinus invoked the bullet's name:

Origin Bullet

Twilight's barrier shattered like glass, and the energy from the spell caused her to recoil in pain. She barely had enough time to dodge the bullet before it hit her. It caused a large crack in the wall behind her. She realized what the bullet was meant to do, but she had no time to think it over before Lynchinus opened up again with machine pistol fire. She invoked dark magic to cause her feathers to turn to steel blades and deflected the bullets away.

Time Alter: Double Acceleration! Lynchinus moved like a blur to reload The Equalizer as Twilight dashed towards him to cut him down. He aimed his machine pistol at her and fired again, forcing Twilight to block the shots as he finished reloading. He leveled the Equalizer at the alicorn and fired at her. The blades shattered as she charged forward and raised a forehoof to strike Lynchinus, who hadn't finished recovering from The Equalizer's recoil, his face changed from smug to surprised as Twilight hit him square on. There was a loud crunching noise that came from his torso as he flew backwards into a bookshelf. She turned away from the pseudo-pony's crumpled form.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief "I'm glad that's over with"

A bullet whizzed past her head. She turned to see Lynchinus standing back up, he took aim again and fired at her again. This was getting on Twilight's nerves as she blocked the bullets with her forehooves. Then, before she could prepare to charge at him, he used another invocation. Time Alter: Triple Acceleration

The slide of the machine pistol locked back and he tossed it aside. Twilight Sparkle charged forward to hit him as he reloaded. He sidestepped and loaded the round into The Equalizer, then jumped away from her. She created multiple blade feathers and threw them at him as she charged forward. Lynchinus flipped The Equalizer shut and took aim at the charging alicorn.

'And that. . . was the end of the line for me'

Author's Note

Sorry guys, release schedule is fucked since I'm back in school now.

Just take a guess at who won the fight. . .leave it in the comments even!

Chapter 13: The Berserker

Tyrannus heard a noise behind him, he turned to see that he was in his castle again. Then he saw the unicorn. The unicorn had one eye, the other one cut out with a sword, he had an artificial hoof attached to make up for one he lost in a fight, his mane was long and darker than the night, and he wore scaled armor. Worst of all, the unicorn had fangs and wore the crown of darkness. The blade he carried was about three and a half feet wide, 12 feet in length: The Dragon Bone Smasher.

Tyrannus knew exactly who this was "Seraphim, I thought my soldiers had killed you by now"

"Sorry, Tyrant, I'm not killed so easily"

"Yet you walk alone, prince. Did you fail to protect your friends? Break your promise to them? Let them die?"

Seraphim scowled "Y-you Alicorns. . .Alicorns of concept, so easily corrupted, you fail to realize that mortals are dangerous"

"Hmph, but was is a mortal? A being whose destiny is to die and rot. Just like your friends. . .How is my sister?"

"Better than you! I'll kill you, monster!"

"But you're right, I am a monster. I'll openly admit that. You and I are the same, no?"

"What difference does it make?"

"None, I wanted to see if you had ideals. And. . .I was talking about my other sister"

"Absque? The one you violated and tossed from the highest tower after breaking her wings like worthless trash? You'll get nothing!" Seraphim charged the Alicorn, preparing to swing the Dragon Bone Smasher. He would cleave Tyrannus in two.

Tyrannus summoned both his blades; Eid Brecher and Obtemperatio, and prepared to block the strike. He wasn't prepared for the strength that the unicorn held. The overhead strike hit the blades head on, when Tyrannus blocked though, he didn't have the strength to push the unicorn back. He was pushed out from under the Dragon Bone Smasher into a wall. Tyrannus was quick to gain his bearings, and jumped straight upwards. There was no way Seraphim coul-

Seraphim rebounded off of multiple pillars and flung himself at Tyrannus. He spun the Dragon Bone Smasher, he would finish this in one blow. He swung at Tyrannus, but the alicorn was prepared for the strike and evaded it, then he stabbed Seraphim with both blades, hoping to end the fight.

Seraphim and the Dragon Bone Smasher clattered to the ground. . . Everything started to fade to black for the unicorn prince. Then there was a voice.

"Seraphim NO! You shan't die here!" Seraphim looked up from the ground to see a wall of flame between him and Tyrannus, and controlling the flame was none other than Solarus, princess of sunlight. She turned towards him "Princess Luna's birthday is tomorrow, you have a promise to keep. . ." She began to cast a healing spell to close his wounds.

"Younger sister, surely you didn't think a fire spell could keep me back" Solarus whipped around to face the voice, but she was knocked away by Tyrannus. Solarus fumbled for her lance, but Tyrannus kicked her away from it. Then he turned his attention back to Seraphim. He lifted Seraphim up with magic "I gave you a chance to join me. . .you stubbornly refused. Look at you now, broken, dying, I will give you one more chance, Prince of Unicorns"

A smirk crossed Seraphim's face "You think I would consort with the likes of you? You are the fool.Rook to F-6; Checkmate" Using his fangs, he grabbed a ring hanging from a chord on his artificial forehoof and pulled, causing the 'hoof' to unhinge and reveal an opening. Tyrannus's eyes widened as an explosion emerged from the artificial forehoof and took half his head, one of his wings and split his chest cavity open.

Seraphim swung his artificial hoof shut, picked up the Dragon Bone Smasher, and swung at Tyrannus for the kill. Tyrannus looked Seraphim in the eyes, what He saw wasn't a pony, it was a monster with a craving for blood. . .

"Sparrow, You okay?"

Sparrow snapped to attention "Wha?"

Rarity looked at him with concern "You space out sometimes, it just worries me"

"Oh. . .Uh, it's all right, I'm fine"

"Good, anyways, I thought you were the type of pony who wears a scarf, so I made one for you." She showed Sparrow a red and grey scarf, it was a few feet long "Um. . Could you please try it on?"

"Um. . .okay" Sparrow wrapped the scarf around his neck and admired it's softness, rubbing up against the side of his face. Rarity looked at the scarf, it wasn't the best, but Sparrow seemed to love it. "Th-thank you Rarity!" He hugged Rarity tightly.

Rarity sighed with relief, the scarf's purpose was twofold. one; it was a gift, and two; to hide the signet necklace. Somepony walking around wearing a royal signet necklace was bound to draw attention."Now then Sparrow, I'm going to need you to let go of me"

"Oh! I'm t-terribly sorry" Sparrow let go of Rarity, and started to look towards the floor, ashamed.

Rarity smiled at him "Don't worry Sparrow, it's all right. Hugs are considered a sign of appreciation. Anyhow, we need to take my sister to school and you to the library"

Sparrow immediately perked up "What's a school?"

"Oh don't be silly, Sparrow you shou-" Rarity stopped herself, the spoke again "A school is a place where ponies recieve an education"

"Then why am I going to the library?"

"You have a talent, ponies with talents can't be taught by schools once they have talents. . ." Then she remembered Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara "At least, most ponies"

"Okay, but I'd still like to see this school"

Rarity turned away from Sparrow "Give me a second. . .Sweetie Belle! Are you ready for school?"

Sweetie Belle came bounding into the room with a lunchbox "Yes Rarity, is Sparrow coming with?"

"Why yes he is, He's curious about what a school is" Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Sparrow trotted over to the front door. Sweetie Belle started explaining school more in depth to Sparrow as they left the Carousel Boutique, unaware of the tragedy that would befall the day. . . .

Author's Note

Today's delay was brought to you by the game Dark Souls, Killer7,

And the letter: Ichangedchapter12tomakebutterscotchmorethreataningbutcadenceisstillabitch

Anyhow, can anyone string together this mess of a plot in a coherent manner yet?