A Vium Salutis

by IwuvWoona

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Dark, Sad
Length: 4597

Sombra was a shadow that became who he was because of Celestia and Luna. But how could his origins be related to me? What no pony knows about me is that Sombra started and ended with a filly. My name is Dinky, and no pony truly knows who I am.

My name is Dinky Doo.

I was already inconceivably smart and influential, but when I turned six, my magic abilities and understanding of said subject seemed to sextuple.

Mom says I must've unlocked my own potential through my age.

Just as history says that Sombra was simply the greed of the Changelings.

Both are wrong.

The shadow that every pony had feared so long ago, started with me.

And he ended with me.

And I begin this story with a question:

How far would you go to protect your mother?
——————————————————————————————————————————–

A prologue to an upcoming story series My Little TARDIS, Adventures are Magic.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-23 17:10:01 UTC

Journal

Derpy and the Doctor were cleaning Dinky's room.

"Thank you for helping, Doctor! Dinky will love what we've done what we've done with her room when she gets home from Summer Camp!" Derpy smiled and hugged him.

"Well, I'm not going to say no to a pregnant…and, well…" The Doctor shivered, "Violent mare."

"Uhg, I haven't even picked a name. Well anyway, I think I'll order a pizza tonight. Sparkler and Dinky will be home in two hours, and it's too late to make a real dinner. Keep cleaning, I'll be only ten minutes. Why don't you clean the bookshelf?" The mare ran into the living room.

The Doctor sighed.

Throughout his life, he had one daughter. It kind of hurt having two, and he could only imagine another baby, especially his own, would  likely make him go through regeneration process.

Of course, there was a pleasant side to being a…father. Dinky was his greatest admirer. The foal was absolutely in love with her new dad. She would often ask for help with impossibly difficult things.

"How is the TARDIS alive? What is the meaning of life? What does structural density have to do with the construction of Canterlot Castle when it's hanging off the edge of a completely stable cliffside?"

Fascinated with everything, from the magic around them all, to the technology of planets far beyond.

But something about the filly was..strange.

Derpy had told him that she was almost too smart to be a simple foal ever since she could read.

Then she turned six.

Her magic level amped and multiplied. Her intelligence was second to nothing, not even the Monarchy that ruled over this land.

She also seemed…troubled.

Still, the foal was amazing company for any pony.

He turned to the bookshelf and robbed it of all its contents, then started re-shelving them by alphabet.

On one the stacks of books, a story that was set lopsidedly fell from its place.

The Doctor picked up and examined the cover of the nameless tome.

"Derpy? What's this book? It looks old."

The mare popped her head into the room. "Oh, that? It's Dinky's supposed "Joural of Celestia"," she giggled, "She spent all night reading it when she first got it. I wouldn't read it, though, she said there was a few spare pages she was writing in."

The pegasus left.

The Doctor gazed at the book once more. Well, now I HAVE to read it, he thought.

He flipped through the pages until he noticed that the ink writing became pencil.

Dinky's entry began thusly,

Dear journal,

I cannot describe all the honors that this privilege of writing in such a legendary journal provides me. But I cannot discuss any of them.

Let me start off with this simple comment, those with the mind to read this must turn back now, for what you are about to read is not a filly's daily life, but an account of a real event that only two creatures will ever know of.

My name is Dinky Do, and ever since I was littler, I had knowledge far beyond my years.

When I turned six, every quality of me, my knowledge, my magic, it sextupled.

Mother assumed that it was my natural potential developing with my age, but that isn't true.

Turning from that, I doubt the reader of this journal knows about king Sombra.

A being made of darkness, he took over the formerly grand empire of the Crystal Ponies.

Still fillies, Princesses Celestia and Luna used their combined magics to turn him to shadow, and banned him into the frozen wasteland. Sadly, he took the empire with him.

No one knew how he appeared.

But I know, and it's a tale that will forever haunt me.

Among any one who ever reads this, I just hope my mother isn't one of them. It would just kill her if she knew a filly went through this.

Allow me to state that even though I am only seven, almost eight, I have lived through-

"Seventeen years?" The Doctor stated to himself.

"What?" Derpy called.

"Er, nothing!"

He kept reading.

My tale begins with this,

Sparkler got sick.

I just wanted to remedy her.

Incohatum Decepta

Dinky Do was seven years old, but she knew quite a bit about the world around her.

She lived with her mother, her sister, her nanny, Carrot Top, and the Doctor.

It was Saturday, the one day a week she and Sparkler got to play.

But Sparkler was sick.

The mare started out with Hay Fever, which turned into a horrific case of double pneumonia.

She couldn't even be moved to a hospital for better care, so the facility had to bring equipment to the house.

Dinky wasn't supposed to, but she stood outside the room and listened when the doctor had some news to break to the Doctor and Derpy.

She caught bits and pieces, but couldn't hear much over her mother's sobbing. So, it couldn't be good.

She peaked in the keyhole as the doctor told Derpy one final thing. "Sparkler couldn't be cured, and she was going to die."

The foal couldn't take it anymore.

She burst into the door.

"What about a healing spell!? In medieval times, healing spells could cure anything! You're a unicorn, you cou-"

"Little one, it isn't that simple." the doctor tried to tell her.

"How!? I have an entire tome full of incantations. I can find a spell, and my sister will be fi-"

"Healing spells were eradicated by Celestia last millennia. Even if we did manage to find one, no one would be skilled enough to cast it."

Dinky bit her lip in a herculean effort not to cry. She would not show weakness.

"You're wrong! I'll find someone, I will!"

The foal bolted into her room, and sealed herself within.

And finally, she allowed tears to slip from her eyes.

Sparkler was family, she could not die yet.

And she would not, Dinky was sure of it.

No one from today could cast a healing, but her Doctor had told her something once a long time ago.

"People, well, ponies, assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, time is more of a big Ball of wibbly wobbly…timey wimey…stuff."

It wasn't well thought out, but it meant time could be shifted.

She would bring someone from the past, and he could heal Sparkler.

It took a few minutes, but Dinky found it; an incantation to bring a unicorn from the past into the present.

The filly shuddered, the spell was a little dark.

One could easily see it was an ancient spell. As it required the synchronization of voice and magic to work.

Dinky trotted towards her closet, removing an "In case of Thunder" box from the top.

She levitated it down, and removed the top, along with thirteen candles.

As she lit them, the flames only seemed to have made the heat in her room recede.

She exhaled, and fear coursed through Dinky as it came out in a puff of frost.

She sat on her bed cozied in a blanket, and began her spell.

Her horn glowed, and the candles were hoisted into the air.

The candles spun and their flames turned bright green. The light-bulbs within exploded, leaving the flames the sole source of light in her room.

Dinky's words seemed to roll off her tongue, she hated it.

"Vetus Spiritis, do hoc filia in venia. Adduco mihi unum ab antiquus sanguis. Infit quis sedere interm stella. Quisnam donum et regina consilium."

She added a line of her own to the horrible spell.

"Et ad nisi soror mea!"

A prayer to save her sister.

Things in her room floated and swung around without pattern.

Dinky's room flashed with a blinding light.

When the light finally faded, Dinky watched as the fruits of her labor struggled to regain his bearings and stand.

A white stallion with blue eyes and a short, white beard.

Dinky immediately knew who he was.

The stallion was Star Swirl the Bearded.

And Dinky brought him to the present.

The filly dropped from her bed and helped him to his feet.

Their eyes met, and Dinky dropped into a bow.

"There is no need to bow little one. Do you even know you I am?'

His voice and appearance were quite young, suggesting he had just exited adolescence.

"You are Star Swirl. Father of the amniomorphic spell, and he who taught the royal sisters wisdom."

"Well, there is still no need to bow. May ask who you are now? And…where am I?"

Dinky's head went low. "I am but a filly from your future. You are in my home in 2014 AD. Long after you die. B-but, you are here be…because I am in need of dire help. M-my sister is deathly ill, she'll die without a healing spell. Nopony from this time could cast a spell to heal her, and I need help. Please, help me."

Star Swirl looked around, captivated by Dinky's room, but focused himself.

"The future, most interesting. So you brought me here for a spell, don't fear, little one. Your sister will be fine."

Dinky sobbed happily She took Star Swirl by the hoof and dragged

What there was yet Never will be

Zecora was many things.

The elements of Harmony in a nutshell,

Smart beyond most creatures,

But most of all, she was scared.

Three years ago, the young zebra was scared out of Ponyville by the citizens, who refused to have her kind among their's. She needed the supplies Ponyville offered, and so she hid herself. Sneaking to kiosks open in the shade. Never showing her face or body.

At the moment, she needed no supplies from the wretched town.

But she was still there, and for a good reason.

An hour ago, she was trying to meditate, but a vision interrupted her session.

The vision was terrifying.

Black crystals

Ponies screaming and fleeing for their very lives

An entire family, decapitated in a moment.

The very princesses of the land struck down at the hoof of a monster.

But the final image moved her to run into the ponies' town.

The creature struck down most of the Elements of Harmony, killing them.

Yet there was a filly.

Donning her cloak, she fled to the city to find her.

Zecora didn't run, just walked. Careful not to attract any attention to herself.

Chills ran down her back as ponies fled in every direction to escape their fate. The zebra could do nothing but watch as they were encased in black crystal, their dying breaths spent screaming for help.

Her path led her to a destroyed home.

She dared to tread within the crumbing walls, climb the broken staircase, and enter an unstable room.

Stepping over the dead bodies, she trotted to the center of the room.

And there she was, a tiny filly.

She was light lavender, her color paled by loss of her own blood. And light blonde locks held together in strands of sweat. But the most notable feature on her was her wound. A giant black crystal inserted inches away from her heart.

The body trembled. Zecora checked her pulse and breathing. They were both faint, but there.

She picked the fit up, and whisked her away to her home.

"MOMMY!" Dinky called, then screamed in pain.

Waiting until the pain was completely gone, she opened her eyes.

The filly didn't recognize her surroundings.

She wasn't in a bed, rather a sleeping mat in a tiny room. Masks and bottles hung from the ceiling and walls. Enticing scents lingered from the other rooms, and the sounds of pots clanging together mingled in her ears.

Around her chest were snug, red-tinted bandages, covering a scarring hole near her heart.

Where was she?

At the sound of hoof-steps and a shadow approaching her room, Dinky feigned sleep.

A zebra of all things approached her with bandages in hoof.

After she unravelled her old bandages, she wrapped the new ones around her.

Pain ripped through her, and Dinky forced herself to bite down on her lip to prevent crying out.

The zebra left when the bandages were wrapped up, and came back with a tasty-looking soup.

The filly's stomach growled, and her mouth watered, but she remained in her position.

The zebra set the bowl next to her head, along with a spoon.

"Rise, little one, I know your awake. In this soup I insist you partake."

Dinky painfully rose to a sitting position. The zebra's eyes shown with kindness and wisdom. No malicious intention welled within them. Hesitantly, Dinky grabbed the bowl and gulped it down, filling her stomach with warmth.

"Little thing, Do remember anything?" she asked.

"Tsk, no, my turn to say something, miss."

Zecora felt amused by the foal's daring behavior. "Very well. How about this, you ask something, then I'll do the same thing. Is that okay little miss?"

Dinky nodded. "What's your name?"

"My name is Zecora, my little pony."

"Hm, I like that. I'm Dinky, by the way. Why are you helping me?"

Zecora's eyes became serious and sad.

"Little Dinky, a vision had you enlist such aid. Do you remember anything, or have such memories began to fade?"

The memories pulsed through her mind, and Dinky let herself cry.

"I just wanted to help my sister. She was dying, and no one knew a healing spell that could help her. I-I summoned someone from the past, Star Swirl the bearded, so that he could save her. I l-learned later that healing spells were banned because it attracts demons to the c-caster. S-so as he was healing her, I saw a b-black mass begin to ensnare him. I demanded he stop the spell, but it was too late. He became a dark spirit. I know now why Celestia banned such magic. A-anyway, my mother and the rest of the elements came up, but he-he KILLED them. All of them. Except for me and and my mom. She tried to get to me, tried to protect me, but the spirit restrained with these magic chains. He told me that I needed to be kiled slowly. And he put a crystal in me. And now I-I'm here. I-I don't kn-know w-where my M-mommy is now."

Zecora was clearly upset. "Dinky, I'm sorry but it must be said. I-I believe your mother is...dead."

"No, she can't be dead. I would feel it. I would know it. My mother is alive, but I don't know what he'll do to her. I-I'm so scared. All of those ponies are dead or slaves to him. I've got blood on my hooves. I-I have a hoof in the deaths of foals, of mothers. The princesses. I've killed the most powerful being in the universe. That mad-stallion is here because I didn't do my research." Dinky buried her face into her hooves, crying.

Zecora thought about this. It started with this filly, but could it end with her too?

"You brought it here?"

"That's what I just said…"

Zecora gestured to empty bowl of soup.

"Levitate it."

"Levitation? That's the simplest unicorn spell in the history of spells. What good would levitation do in this situation?"

She pointed at the bowl again.

Dinky sighed and lifted the bowl. Frustrated, she kept having to blow her hair from her face.

"Wait, one thing."

Zecora fled to her own room and fetched a long, red ribbon.

She tied the perfect bow where Dinky's mane parted.

"Try again."

Once more, Dinky lifted the bowl.

Her training started now.

Ten years.

It had been ten years since Zecora found her little filly among the death and destruction of an ending world.

It was Dinky's seventeenth birthday, and the mare was almost ready.

She did have a cutiemark at this point, Five stones of differing colors surrounding a grey heart.

Today was her final exam.

Dinky sat at the dark maw of a gigantic cave. Smoke poured out.

"IGNICULUS!" she called, the name echoing through the cave.

A big, green dragon hulked outside the cave.

Dinky didn't move.

The dragon roared , but the mare was undeterred.

He swung his claw at her, but she agilely dodged the blow.

She shot a white-hot beam at his eye, and he cried out in unimaginable pain.

Clenching his claw around the burnt socket, he spat an inferno at the powerful foe.

It hit directly hit her, but when the inferno ceased, and the smoke cleared, he found her hiding under a shield of stone.

Dinky's horn blazed with a green and purple glow, and the dragon began to disappear, but she couldn't attain her spell. She quickly broke the enchantment, and the dragon reappeared.

She groaned under the strain the spell caused, but mustered the strength to fire a final beam through Igniculus's underbelly and into his heart. The mighty creature roared, but it quickly faded, and the beast fell, dead.

The elder zebra trotted to her little one. She was ready.

It had been ten years.

Ten years since Derpy watched her husband killed beyond regeneration.

Ten years since all her friends were brutally murdered by the being.

Ten years since she watched her daughter's life fade from her body.

Now here she was.

Personal trophy of a tyrannical overlord.

She could breath, her heart beat, but she wasn't alive.

Her eyes could see, but they held only death.

This mare, this once beautiful mare, had been abused and beaten all her life. Yet she had remained the embodiment of all love in the land. But now, everything was taken from her, and she had hardy moved in ages.

The king Sombra approached her. She dared to stare him in his lifeless eyes.

"It has been ten years since I took you here. And it's been eight since I've heard your voice."

He stepped up to her. "You're a wretch, and I don't know why I've kept you alive so long. Ditzy, It's time you die. Would like to tell me your final words?"

Derpy leaned close to his evil face with her hateful eyes.

And she spat onto his cheek.

He growled and hit her to the ground, yet she didn't make a sound. There wasn't fear in her eyes.

Sombra roared in anger, grabbed Derpy by the mane, and dragged to the castle window.

"Take a final look, and know you could have stopped me if your foolish spawn let her sister die."

Derpy shivered at the sight of chained mares and foals, but remained expressionless.

She didn't see, but as she turned away, Sombra's magic chains began to detach themselves from the populace.

Derpy dipped her head downward, and waited for Sombra to kill her.

He aimed a focused and powerful beam at her heart, but it never came.

When Derpy opened her eyes, she found that a purple shield had engulfed her body.

The shield dissipated,

and for the first time in a long while, Derpy saw the face of hope.

Dinky.

The mare had teleported within the tower!

Sombra could not shake his surprise, neither could Derpy. How was she alive?

Dinky stared Sombra in the eye fearlessly.

"King Sombra, I challenge you to Magic Duel to the death!"

Her horn shone again, and Derpy found herself in a large field, the last Remnant of Ponyville Park.

Dinky spun around and threw her arms around her mother, letting the depravity and longing of ten years cascade down her face.

It really was the tiny filly Derpy once knew.

She herself cried.

Dinky turned back around to face her foe.

"If you win, you get satisfaction of killing a powerful enemy. And…I'll give you the location of the one being in this Celestia-forsaken land that's still free." Dinky frowned at the thought of betraying Zecora, but she would win, she knew she would.

"And if you win?"

Dinky flashed a smug grin. "If I win, I take your power. And no one will have to worry about you ever again."

Her original plan was for neither to really "win".

She had a spell, a very special spell.

But the amount of sheer talent and practice it took to even hope for a chance to cast it rivaled even the princesses before they were rendered dead.

It was a nothing but a pipe dream. If Dinky couldn't cast it on Igniculus, she definitely couldn't cast it on Sombra.

Sombra struck the first blow, a fireball.

Dinky easily countered it with a shield of ice. It disintegrated on contact with the flame, leaving Dinky wet but unharmed.

Dinky shot a magically spawned sword into the rainclouds.

Unfortunately, Sombra slowed her and her spell with a growth enchantment.

Spiked vines shot up from the ground, impaling the mare's legs.

Dinky cried out, as did Derpy.

Pushing through the pain, Dinky gathered the moisture in the air and freezing it until a sharp sheet of ice surrounded her. Sombra had no time to  counter, and was left shrieking as the bits of ice embedded themselves into his skin.

Confusion mounted Dinky when Sombra appeared to engulf himself in black flame. But the flames grew immensely, and Sombra's cries turned into roars.

The flames dissipated to reveal a giant spider twice as large as a Timberwolf.

But Dinky would not be frightened. She concealed herself in fire, but came out a giant, white Roc.

The battle between bird and arachnid was fierce, each of them retaining wounds that would never fully heal. But in the end, Wings triumphed over legs. Roc Dinky pinned Spider Sombra to the ground , but the spell quickly wore off on the two.

Dinky was still on top of Sombra, and it was clear she'd win.

But Sombra had one final trick.

Recalling Dinky's sword spell, he assembled the final part of the curse.

And with the aid of a magic gail, his spell was complete.

Enchanted daggers rained from the sky.

Right towards Derpy.

Dinky hurled herself off Sombra and into her mother.

She saved her from the storm, but a dozen of the daggers had protruded her skin.

Tingles of agony ripped through Dinky every time she tried removing the daggers with magic of her own.

And When she finally did, Sombra shifted into shadow.

The black magic poured all over Dinky before forcing her downward, slowly constricting the air from her.

Derpy watched in horror as her last breath faded from her child.

Dinky was dead.

Sombra returned to his primal form. He heaved himself into the air, and his chilling laugh echoed throughout the town.

Derpy shrieked and galloped at full speed to her child, checking for any signs of life, but there was none.

Her ears flopped downward and the pegasus sobbed profusely.

But sadness was replaced with a burning rage,…but then…nothing.

She stared at her laughing king with awe-some contempt, and she knew.

She felt nothing for the tyrant. Her daughter could still win.

She would have to make a sacrifice only a mother would do for her foal.

Derpy stood and wiped the tears from her eyes.

She conjured up all the memories of love and friendship offered to her throughout life.

From simple things like Octavia helping her up the day she met her,

To her second wedding with the most amazing stallion she had ever met.

A bright pink glow welled up inside her heart.

She turned back to Dinky, and started crying again.

"I love you," she whispered.

Placing her hoof against her heart, she ripped out the energy.

She weakly set the glow onto Dinky, before collapsing beside her.

Both bodies remained still for a long while, until a faint aura started emanating from Dinky's chest.

She burst into the sky like lightning, eyes glowing with a bright shade of pink.

"You haven't won, Sombra! Not while my heart beats! NOT WHILE I BREATHE!"

Both dropped to the ground, and Dinky charged.

When she was just a few feet away, Sombra fired a beam at her, but she teleported under him, firing him into the air with a fiery inferno.

She teleported back to her side of the battlefield.

And there they were.

On their separate sides. Sombra, immobile and flesh searing.

He watched as Dinky's horn glowed a final time.

The earth spun around him, and when he looked back at his aggressor, she looked much more youthful, and she was getting younger.

When the spell was done, Dinky looked only six, and she had no cutiemark.

His burns were gone, and he lacked all his armor.

The world around them was bright and colorful, though it was nighttime.

Dinky's horn brightened like a star, and beads of sweat dripped from her forehead.

Sombra watched himself fade away, The building turned into tall crystals, and all at once, he was in the ancient crystal empire.

Dinky huffed.

It was over.

She was the reason that Sombra was in the crystal empire, but it had to be done.

The princesses, despite their youth when it happens, would be able to defeat him in his weakened state.

She was home. In fact, she had reversed the time to a year before her mother even met the doctor.

She hoped it would give her enough time to figure out what to do when Sparkler got sick again. But she knew she could fix it.

Alas, such a magical strain on such a tiny filly does cause extreme lethargy.

Dinky fainted onto the cool grass.

At the same time, Derpy was searching for her missing child, finally seeing her in the grass.

She picked up the filly and started taking her home, grateful no one had taken her.

Dinky opened her eyes to see her mother. Tears welled up in her eyes and she thresher tiny arms around her mother's neck.

Derpy was so confused, but glad she was okay.

____________________________________________________________

I end my story with this; what happens to these pages is up to you.

You can share it, make sure no pony repeats my mistake and has to endure my fate.

Or destroy it. Throw my pages into the fire. Make sure no one even knows this spell even exists and hope no cults get a hold of it.

Everything in this story happened, and only two beings will ever remember it.

You may not understand, but the Doctor would.

Maybe you know him.

The Doctor set the journal neatly in the bookcase.

"Never have I felt such an odd mixture of concern and awe towards someone else…" He whispered to himself.

"MOM, I'M HOME!" The faint cry came from outside the front door.

Derpy sped up the stairs.

"Forget about the room, I'll send her to Firelock's house next weekend and we can do it then!"

Dinky hugged her mother an ran up the stairs to her room.

Just as she entered the room, she found the Doctor exiting.

He smiled and hugged her.

"Dinky, just know that I…am really proud of you."

She glanced past him, and saw her book out of place on her shelf.

Dinky returned his smile.

"Now, shoo, shoo!" she gently pushed him out of the room, and locked the door behind him.

Dinky hopped up on her bed and lifted her pillow.

From under the pillow, she removed a long, red ribbon.

She hugged it close.

"Don't worry, Zecora. I got a speech on racial discrepancies in a few months. One day, I'll see you again."