A Princess in Timeby NorsePonyChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6PrologueEpilogueChapter 1The view from Thauma's chambers never failed to catch her eye, particularly on a clear night like this, when the stars above were matched by the soft glow of the city below. Her handmaid knew her habits, and set up her bench close by the window so the princess could gaze out through the transparent crystal while her wings were preened and her hair was brushed. Thauma lost herself in the vista and the gentle tugging at her mane. She only came back to herself when the door to her chamber opened with a quiet click. In the window's reflection, she saw the tall form and familiar silhouette of Sombra. She smiled, relishing the increase in her heartbeat at seeing him. "Good evening, darling." His blue eyes and white smile grew in the reflection as he crossed the room. He bent to nuzzle her neck, making her shiver. "Hello, my dear." He waved her handmaid toward the door. "I will finish brushing her mane. You may have the rest of the night off." She lay the brush down and bowed her way out, giggling. As the door shut behind the girl, Thauma turned to kiss him. Their hungry lips met eagerly. A long while later, they pulled apart. Thauma leaned against him, breathless and enjoying the equally breathless heave of his broad chest. She raised a hoof to touch the amulet around his neck, its gold and ruby striking against his gray coat. "It's lovely. What does it mean?" The amulet bore a stylized unicorn head and pegasus wings above the huge diamond-shaped ruby. He chuckled. "I was hoping to save it for a surprise, but now is as good a time as any to show you, I suppose." The amulet's ruby flared like a torch. Puzzled, not yet concerned, she looked up to ask him what he meant, and froze when she saw his eyes: not the familiar, beloved blue, but red and glowing with an inner fire. He stared down at her as his horn lit with the same red brilliance. His magic had not yet touched her when she found herself across the room, the tingle of teleport magic crackling away from her skin. Forcing herself to shake off her confusion, she shook her head sharply, not taking her eyes off of Sombra. Through gritted teeth, she growled, "Explain yourself." "There is so little to explain, my dear." He circled the room slowly, confidence in every line of his body. "I will make better use of the Crystal Empire than you ever could, so naturally, I should rule." She barked a laugh. "Setting aside that declaration of treason, how do you propose to take the crown? You may be the court wizard, but are you addled enough to have forgotten what I am?" "Yes, yes, the mighty princess of magic, very likely the most powerful being in the known world. Or at least, that was true until today." Thauma hesitated. Her eyes flicked to the amulet. Sombra nodded approvingly. "Have you ever known me to approach a problem unprepared? If one's problem is the alicorn of magic, one creates a way to best her." He touched the amulet. "A work of genius, even if I do say so myself. It took years just to gather the materials." "Years?" Her stomach churned. Days and nights flashed through her mind like nightmares become reality. The remembered taste of his mouth became like ash. Had it all been lies? He saw the question in her face. "I did love you. A part of me still does. You brought out the best in me." His voice was tender. Her cheeks burned like she'd been slapped. "And that best showed me that I am better than you." His horn flared with crimson energy. Quick as thought, her own blue magic lanced out toward him at full force, a killing blow that nothing could resist. An actintic light blazed, and when it faded, Sombra stood casually and unharmed. Her mouth fell open. She struck again, filling the room with the same flash of brilliance. Sombra sneered at her. "I know you better than you do, my dear. I have studied you carefully during our time together. I know what you will do, and without the advantage of surprise, your sad little power is so very easy to turn aside." She was cold inside. What would he not expect? Her horn glowed and a dagger of blue magic raced toward the back of his head. Even before it was deflected by his monstrous shield, she teleported toward the open air beyond the window--but found herself still inside the room, dazed and confused. "Did you think I wouldn't prevent you from teleporting away? Come now, Thauma." Sombra carelessly took his eyes off of her to look back at the door behind him. "Guards, you may enter now. The princess is ready to be taken to her accomodations." The door opened on noiseless hinges. Thauma's heart pounded at the sight of blood in the hallway and on the outside of the door. A dozen palace guards filed in, none she recognized. Several of them were spattered with blood. None of it seemed to be theirs. A hard-eyed sergeant stepped forward and leveled her spear at Thauma. Still fighting the dregs of her knock against the teleport shield, Thauma shook her head. One thought rose from the morass whirling in her brain: Sombra could not succeed. Once she had that thought, more came to buttress it: this Sombra, the real Sombra, would rule with terror. Her people would be mistreated. When she spoke, her voice was so filled with fury that it hurt her throat. "What use will you make of my empire?" He ignored the guards fanning out between them, keeping his alien red eyes locked on hers. "The empire? Merely fodder. The Crystal Heart, now, there is a worthy prize." He smiled at her confusion. "It truly never occurred to you? The Heart is the greatest weapon in the world. Your lack of imagination is one more reason that I am fit to rule and you are not." He broke eye contact and addressed the guards. "I feel that this interview is over. Gentleponies, if you would be so kind?" The sergeant nodded a salute and drew forth an ugly lump of metal from her bag. It took Thauma a moment to realize what it was. When her brain made sense of it, she recoiled. An Equestrian magic collar. Placed over a unicorn's horn, it would prevent the use of magic. Fear filled her throat with acid, but an instant later the fear was replaced with a stony calm. She had let Sombra control this battle until now, but no longer. Despite his boasting, he could not be a match for her, but she had believed him after a single demonstration. There was some way to escape. No defense was perfect. She would put his to the test. Thauma sucked in a breath. Her horn glowed blue, then blue-white as she gathered herself for a supreme effort. Sombra's eyes widened. Her magic burst forth in a dozen directions, a score, two score. The guards were thrown back and pinned against the walls. Sombra slid back across the floor before negating her force, and barely managed to stop the dozen blades and lances and whips of white-hot magic which sought his flesh. She leapt to her hooves and he spared her a glance. His red eyes and mocking smile could take no hold in her heart. Some part of her was glad of that. Her magic took hold of the massive window and yanked. It tore from its seat with a boom. The ton of transparent crystal darted over Thauma's head toward Sombra as though it weighed no more than a feather. His eyes were locked on the window and his horn glowed brilliantly red, and in that instant, Thauma's magic hit the sides of his hooves. He spun in the air and landed heavily on his back. The breath whooshed out of him and his magic winked out for barely the space of a thought. The window struck, shaking the palace and sending up a cloud of dust. Thauma let out the breath she had been holding. She glanced out the empty space where the window had been, but discarded it. There was no telling what traps Sombra had set out there. Her horn's light pulsed once and the floor she stood on vaporized, revealing an empty column of space directly under her all the way down to the ground. She let herself fall down into the vast audience chamber on the ground floor, then spread her wings and flew deeper into the palace. Behind her, a bestial roar from the shaft through the ceiling told her that she had not killed him. Sombra had wanted her alive. That had to mean that he had not turned everyone in the palace. She would find reinforcements. Chapter 2The council chamber at the heart of the Crystal Palace was equipped with a round table, seamlessly grown out of the same crystal that made up the chamber itself and big enough to seat twenty. This was a routine meeting, so only half the seats were filled with various leaders and representatives from the Empire. Princess Thauma, ruler of the Crystal Empire, sat opposite the door. She wore a thin gold tiara with a heart design centered below the creamy sunset red of her horn. Her mane swept back from the tiara, pushed by a breath of invisible wind which sent purple waves scudding across the white field of her hair. She went naked other than the tiara, needing no symbols of wealth or power to establish who she was. To Thauma's right sat Brightwork, the primarch of the crystalworkers' guild. She was an ancient crone, her face more wrinkles than crystal, but her eyes had only grown sharper with age. New councilmembers often took her stooped shoulders for weakness, only to be deftly maneuvered into a disadvantage by her agile tongue and quick wit. Now those sharp eyes met Thauma's blue ones. "Princess Thauma," she began slowly, as was her wont, "I must request an answer. My guild has suffered a loss by the actions of the weavers, and we require redress." Thauma gritted her teeth, gently so that Brightwork would not notice. The weavers had purchased a warehouse that the crystalworkers had their eye on, using underhanded dealings according to the crystalworkers. Thauma had to walk a narrow path in this situation, and had been putting Brightwork off in the hopes that the guilds would come to some arrangement without her. The crystalworkers and the weavers were both powerful guilds, and she could not afford to set either one against her. They would bow to her will, but an offended guild could cause delays and problems throughout the city, and such roadblocks would inevitably cause problems elsewhere, and so on. Thauma had quietly initiated an investigation which had found no evidence of the wrongdoing the crystalworkers alleged, but telling Brightwork outright that she was wrong - or worse, lying - was as good as asking for trouble. But Thauma had arrived at no better ideas as she mulled the situation over, so she would have to deal with the civil problems as they arose. She sighed inwardly, her polite demeanor never failing, and opened her mouth. "Princess Thauma, if I might?" The deep voice crossed the table effortlessly. Thauma glanced over and met a pair of pale blue eyes. Despite their cold color, they always held warmth when they looked at her, and her chest heated in response as it always did. "Yes, Lord Sombra," she said, not letting her relief color her voice. He inclined his head in a bow which included her and Brightwork. "Princess, it seems to me that the crystalworkers are in greater need of the warehouse in question than are the weavers, and the importance of the crystalworkers' guild to the Empire cannot be understated." Brightwork nodded, leaning fractionally forward. "But the weavers are the owners of the warehouse under the law. If the crystalworkers need the warehouse, it benefits the Empire for them to have access to it. So perhaps the weavers might be convinced to rent out the warehouse to the crystalworkers at an advantageous rate." Brightwork leaned back. The corners of her mouth pulled down and she scowled at Sombra. Thauma held her breath. Sombra's solution would give the crystalworkers what they wanted without depriving the weavers of just compensation. It was not what either party wanted, but was judicious enough that neither guild could refuse it outright without being seen as obstructive. At last, Brightwork nodded, a bare flick of the chin. "The crystalworkers' guild agrees to such an arrangement." Thauma shot a grateful glance at Sombra. He replied with a tiny, secret smile meant for her eyes only. "We shall send a messenger to the weavers' guild and bring the necessary documents to your office, Primarch." Brightwork stood with the help of her assistant. "I hope there will be no delays, Princess. Now I must bid the council farewell. There is much business to take care of elsewhere." Thauma ignored the presumptuous phrasing. It was a good sign: it meant that she had no other outlet for her displeasure, which meant that her guild would not interfere in the city. "Farewell, Lady Brightwork. You are dismissed." She turned her attention to the sheaf of documents on the table before her. "Our next item is the disposition of the surplus harvest." The representative from the farmers' guild perked up. He wore a sumptuous robe blazoned with his badge of office, as though trying to ensure that no one mistook him for the farmer he was. He was impolitic and always smelled faintly of fertiliser. His one redeeming quality was his grin, which sparkled as brightly as his coat and which he bestowed liberally. He bowed stiffly, still unaccustomed to the gesture after a year on the council. Thauma addressed him directly. "We have the reports concerning the harvest from your guild, Lord Fallowfield, but I hope you will summarize for me. How much are we at risk of losing to spoilage if action is not taken?" He scratched his chin thoughtfully on the gilt hem of his sleeve. "A good three months' worth, maybe four. We've only so many silos and crofts and the like, after all. Nopony expected such a bumper crop, even after such a perfect spring." Thauma included the chief wheelwright of the wagoneers' guild and the manager of the traders' guild in her glance. "Lady Gildhart, is there a market for such a surplus of grain? Lord Roadworth, could your wagons move that quantity if called to?" Roadworth puffed out his chest and nodded firmly even before Gildhart spoke. She flipped through her notes for a moment and said, "The swamplands of Equestria suffered an unusually hot spring, and much of their harvest died in the fields. They will certainly need to import food before the winter. The High Aeries of the griffin lands customarily import food from the lowlands, but their long period of peace has put a strain on the lowlands' production. Fortunately, I have maintained certain connections in the Aeries against just such an occasion as this. Between those two destinations, we should be able to relieve ourselves of all of our excess inventory." "Very good. Make it so, please." Both of them bowed to her. Thauma checked her papers again. "That appears to be our final item of business, my ladies, my lords." Her train of thought was interrupted by a stodgy cough over her shoulder. She smiled ruefully. "Yes, Primsley?" The chief valet of the palace stared into the middle distance as she spoke. She wasn't uncouth enough to look directly at the princess, despite years of the princess's best efforts. "Princess Thauma, your royal sisters have sent word that they will be attending the Spring Rebirth Festival. They will arrive two weeks from today." Thauma's smile had become genuine. "Wonderful. It has been too long. Thank you for the good tidings, Primsley." "I live to serve, Princess." Across the table, no one noticed Sombra's jaw clench. Chapter 3TWO MONTHS LATER The coded knock sounded through the heavy oak door and echoed around the tiny, bare-walled basement. The door guards readied their spears and one moved forward to push the door open. The door's curve made it swing awkwardly, but it was functional. It had been cobbled together from repurposed wine casks - the resistance had quickly learned that relying on crystal as a building material only served to make them vulnerable to Sombra's ever-growing power. The open door admitted a scout and Thauma's magic embraced him immediately. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the delicate spell which would wipe away the artificial fear that sank into the mind of anyone who went out into the city. Sombra had been as good as his word, and had wasted no time perverting the Crystal Heart to amplify fear instead of love. The more afraid the citizens became, the more the Heart amplified their fear. It was a horrifying feedback loop which had reduced many of the empire's people to barely-conscious shells. Her resistance forces carried talismans she had created which warded off the worst of the Heart's effects, but they were only partially effective. The scout sighed in relief as Thauma's magic faded away, and saluted her as the door swung closed on the heavy gray air outside. The scout used his saluting hoof to wave lantern smoke away from his face. "Princess Thauma. I bring ill news." She nodded for him to continue, and he went on, "The ambush in the market district resulted in a loss. Our forces were nearly wiped out, while we only cost Sombra's forces half their number." Sergeant Pauldron, seated to Thauma's right, cleared her throat. "Princess, this is ill news indeed. She pointed at the map on the table before them. "With that loss, Sombra's traitors have control of the South Road as well as the market. We have lost our lines of communication to our bretheren in the northern part of the city, and it can only be a matter of time until we are discovered here. We must relocate." Her voice was grim, and she left the final word unspoken: "again." Thauma considered the map, frowning. Every relocation carried risk. They had lost good ponies each time, and Sombra's hold over the city was solidifying by the day, despite their best efforts. His growing control over the very crystals which made up the city had made his forces far stronger than their numbers. Fleetingly, she wished that her sisters had arrived as promised. But they had not, and she could only hope that whatever foul trick Sombra had used to keep them away had not put them in danger. "We must do what we must do. Sergeant Pauldron, please arrange a route and send word to our other hideouts that we will be moving north. In the meantime, I will continue refining the camouflage spell." Pauldron saluted and began issuing orders to the guards and armed citizens crowded into the basement with them. Thauma heaved herself up. Doctor Sawbones, the former palace surgeon, rushed to her side solicitously. Thauma grunted. "I'm not that far gone yet, Doctor. Settle down." "I shall do no such thing. There is precious little literature on the subject of alicorn pregnancies, so I am taking nothing for granted. It's bad enough that you're confined in this smoky basement and working on spells at all hours of the day and night. I'm not about to let you have a fall while you're under my care." Despite everything, she chuckled. The doctor's fussing was sweet, in a way. "Very well, do what you will." He escorted her into the basement's other room, where her makeshift magical laboratory was set up. After he helped her settle onto her bench and left her alone, she folded her wings down around her still barely-swollen belly and considered for the thousandth time what this foal would mean to Sombra. He must never find out that an heir to the Crystal Empire was growing in her. She could not predict what extremities that would drive him to, whether it be to take the foal as a hostage in place of Thauma herself, or to raise it as his own heir, or to kill it to keep his rule secure. Whatever his reaction might be, it would be bad for the resistance and the empire. Her wings remained cradling her belly as she turned her attention to her notes. Perhaps the next iteration of her magical countermeasures against Sombra's powers would keep her ponies alive. Chapter 4TWO YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE "Hush little Cadance," Thauma crooned, then hummed wordlessly as she rocked the cradle positioned next to her makeshift throne. The tune disappeared without an echo into the vast space of the resistance base's centtral cavern. The network of defensible caves housed thousands of resistance fighters under hundreds of feet of solid rock without a crystal anywhere in the structure. It had taken months of effort from stonemasons and crystalworkers and Thauma herself to dig the switchbacked tunnel down to the caves, but it was as secure a location as the resistance could hope for, and it had marked the turning point in the resistance's fight. They had been able to rescue many of the Empire's citizens and spirit them away to the caves, and careful tunneling could bring them to the surface anywhere in the city to strike against Sombra's forces and then fade away, collapsing the tunnels behind them. Long months of such surgical strikes had eliminated a significant fraction of Sombra's military strength, to the point where he did not have sufficient forces to maintain a police presence everywhere in the city. As his grip on the populace loosened, independent pools of resistance were springing up all over the Empire. The clack of shod hooves on stone announced General Pauldron's arrival even before the herald called out her name. She drew up before the throne and bowed to Thauma. "Princess, our intelligence has proved accurate. This morning, Sombra sent criers throughout the city, calling all 'loyal citizens' to the stadium on the morrow. He plans to address them, most likely in an attempt to renew their fear of him and bring them back fully under his control. You are well aware that this will be the first time Sombra has appeared in public in over a year. Between the losses we have inflicted on Sombra's forces and the number of fighters we have at the ready, we will never have a better chance to end his reign than this. We must attack." Thauma's eyes were drawn to the tiny sleeping body in the cradle, but she nodded. "I agree with your assessment, Pauldron. So it's an all or nothing attack, in the end?" She gave the general a tired smile. "Perhaps we can be done with all of this at last." Pauldron let her military demeanor slip for a moment and nodded. "I truly hope so, Princess." "Give the orders, General. I will be in my chambers." Pauldron saluted crisply as Thauma stood and gathered her daughter in her wings. If anyone noticed the tears in her eyes, no one remarked on them. In Thauma's chambers - really just a two-lobed cave large enough for her to have a magical laboratory close by her bed - she sat down on the edge of her bed and held Cadance tight to her chest, tight enough to wake the baby and start her crying. "Shh, shh, I'm sorry, Cadance." She nuzzled the tiny mane and muzzle. "It's alright, I promise." Her voice broke on the last word and tears fell to splash on the stone floor. "I promise," she sobbed, "I promise." She rocked back and forth, crying silently, until Cadance went quiet. Thauma gave a final shuddering sigh, roughly wiped her eyes free of tears and lay Cadance on the bed. She stood and bustled around the room preparing a bottle, then held the baby as she fed her, smiling at each suckle and tiny, contented sigh, staring as though trying to engrave every detail into her memory. When the bottle was empty, Thauma changed Cadance's diaper, causing giggles with the powder and then snores as she fell into a happy sleep. Finally, slowly, Thauma lifted her daughter into the cradle, wrapped the blanket snugly around her, and then enfolded the cradle in a layer of magic, then another and another. Thauma had created the spell shortly after Cadance's birth as a way for her to ensure her daughter's survival even if she herself were at risk of being captured or killed. It would move Cadance into the future, to a time when Sombra's control had been broken and the baby could be raised in peace. She had hoped never to have to cast the spell, but this guerrilla war had taught her never to take success for granted. No matter how good General Pauldron considered this chance, Thauma had to consider the possibility of failure. Her horn brightened as she shaped the spell carefully from memory. She would send Cadance ten years forward. If they succeeded and Sombra was defeated, ten years was not so long to wait for an alicorn. If they failed, she had every confidence that her sisters would have cracked Sombra's defenses before then and brought the full might of Equestria to bear against him. Cadance would return to a Crystal Empire at peace and under the stewardship of her sisters. It would be alright. "I promise," she murmured, more to herself than to Cadance. A blinding flash filled the room, and the cradle and its occupant were gone. Thauma fell onto the bed and sobbed until she fell into an exhausted sleep. She was awakened some hours later by General Pauldron, who tactfully ignored her princess's red-rimmed eyes. "It is almost dawn, Princess. Our troops are in readiness in the tunnels around the stadium. You must take your position." Thauma rose, determined not to look as unsteady as she felt. She carefully did not look at the empty space where the cradle had been. "Lead the way, General." "The sacrifices will be worth it when we succeed, Princess." "I pray you are right." Chapter 5They failed. Chapter 6SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE A warm spring sun shone gently down on the untended fields outside the Crystal Empire's city and gleamed from the helmets and spearpoints of a hundred thousand soldiers. The hooves of Equestria's army crushed down the overgrown crops and the dead crops alike as they advanced toward the hemisphere which surrounded the city. It was a dull, unreflective gray, shot through with black tendrils which writhed across the surface like the shadows of alien birds. Princesses Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance. They were in the vanguard of their army, both their horns blazing brightly enough to outshine the sun. Luna signaled to a lavishly robed unicorn. "Wizard! The protection of the army falls to you now." The wizard bowed and turned to pass the signal on to his legion of unicorns, hundreds strong. As one, their horns lit, casting sharp shadows on faces pinched with concentration. Celestia and Luna allowed their magic to fade out, cautiously gauging their feelings. Satisfied that they remained shielded from the torrent of magical fear flowing out from behind the Empire's shield, Celestia nodded. "So far, so good. Now, Sister, let us smash this accursed shield at long last." It had taken years of study for the princesses and their wizards to understand the nature of the shield. It was a new use of time magic, unlike anything they had read of or experienced. But at last, they had unraveled it: the bubble around the city wasn't a shield, but rather the limit of a zone of slowed time. The city inside was moving more slowly than the world outside, and any living thing which tried to cross into that zone was torn apart cell by cell as the different timestreams acted on them at different rates. Much research and many failures followed as the best minds in Equestria struggled to devise a way to end or defeat the spell from outside the bubble. Years had passed as the waves of fear spread across Equestria and beyond. The effects could be reversed by strong unicorns, but only temporarily. The princesses needed to end it at its source, which they knew full well could only be the Crystal Heart. And with that knowledge came the sure understanding that for the Crystal Heart to be used as a weapon, something terrible had to have happened to their sister Thauma. The princesses' eyes were hard as they assembled their respective parts of the spell which would crack the bubble. Their magic waxed and waned, merged and split, and touched the surface of the bubble almost tenderly. After several minutes, Celestia grunted a command and both princesses leaned forward as though throwing their weight behind the spell. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, but then the black tendrils began disappearing, at first singly and then by the dozens and hundreds, until the bubble was purely gray. The princesses bore down, their horns growing brighter and ever brighter, until there was a scream like tearing metal and in the space between one breath and the next, the bubble was gone and the Crystal Empire lay exposed to the sky for the first time in years. Only then did the princesses let the spell end, panting as though they'd run miles. A powerfully-built pegasus clad all in golden armor flew above them and spun in the air to face the army. She raised her spear, letting the sun-and-moon banner of Equestria affixed to its shaft catch the breeze and unfurl. "FORWARD!" she thundered. The command was repeated by lieutenants and then by sergeants, spreading throughout the ranks of the army in waves. The army's van stepped into motion, marching forward into the enemy city. Scarcely a week later, the army of Equestria had besieged the palace. Opposition in the city had been scattered and unorganized, and most of the city's population proved to be civilians who neither aided nor opposed the Equestrians, but only stared at them with hollow eyes. Day after day, the princesses had received reports containing what little information the shattered populace could be coaxed to give the soldiers. It was through those reports that they learned that their enemy was the former court wizard Sombra, and also learned what had become of their sister. She had led a surprise attack on the usurper, but according to eyewitnesses, Sombra had expected the attack and had had his own forces lying in wait. Thauma's small army had been destroyed to the last fighter, and finally Sombra had publicly executed Thauma in the middle of the city's stadium before the eyes of the entire citizenry. That had gutted what resistance remained in the city, and Sombra had been free to focus on causing terror in his subjects. The princesses had stayed up all night together with a cask of wine after reading that report. The siege of the palace had been easy enough to make the generals itchy. After losing half a division to a sudden blast of magic from the palace, the princesses had arrayed their wizards five deep around its perimeter. They had successfully stopped several other such attacks, and finally the blasts of magic had stopped, and there had been no further signs of resistance from the palace for three days. Inside the command tent positioned behind the siege lines, Luna banged her hoof on the table, scattering maps and field reports across its rough surface, including a drawing of the palace's blackened and twisted exterior, so different from the beautiful structure it had been. "We must take the fight to Sombra!" Celestia's wings flicked, but she gave no other sign of reaction. "You are not wrong, Luna. But I fear we will sacrifice many of our soldiers in the doing." The pegasus general put her hoof atop the golden helmet on the table in front of her. "We are ready to make that sacrifice, my princesses. The safety of Equestria is at stake. For what other reason did we become soldiers?" Celestia frowned, but nodded slowly. "It pains me, but I will accept your counsel. General Skyblaze, issue the orders. We attack at dawn." The next morning, Celestia and Luna rose into the air with five hundred picked pegasi and winged their way toward the highest tower, where Thauma had kept her magical laboratory and library. Below them, the wizards battered open the palace gates and the infantry swarmed through. The clash and scream of battle rose above the wind. Celestia turned her attention away from it and hurried toward the tower. A dozen explosions around the rim of the tower filled it with dust and shrapnel. Pegasi dove through the clouds, looking around for foes even as they skidded to a stop on the polished floor of the laboratory. The princesses followed, horns still fading from punching through the tower wall. Standing on a pedestal at the center of the room was the unicorn who could only be Sombra. His eyes and horn blazed an eerie red, pulsing in time with a gem set in an amulet around his neck. A pegasus behind him launched toward him, spear at the ready. The gem pulsed and the pegasus became an empty suit of armor surrounding a fine mist of blood. Luna stamped a hoof. "Halt, all of you! We shall deal with him!" Sombra smiled. "Will you? Your dear sister was the strongest of you, and she could not best me. What hope do you have?" Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance, and their horns blazed, one light, one dark. The pegasi backed away as flashes and sparks filled the room, magic meeting magic faster than the eye could follow. The sparks flared for one hour, then two, creeping ever closer to Sombra's sweaty coat. The sounds of combat climbed the tower toward them, Equestrian battle cries sounding again and again as they swept the palace clean of opposition. The pegasi closed in behind the magic, spears held ready. Sombra's red eyes were rimmed with white as he watched them approach. Finally, Luna cried out in triumph as an invisible blow knocked the amulet from around Sombra's neck, silencing the red glow of his magic. "You are beaten, traitor! Surrender now and you might yet live." Sombra sagged to his knees. His eyes fell closed, but his teeth showed in a grin. "You know nothing of defeat." Celestia started in alarm and pulled a shield over the two of them just as Sombra's eyes popped open again, glowing an evil green which trailed from the corners like fire. Wings of shadow flared from his shoulders with a shockwave that sent the pegasi thudding into the walls. "The amulet was a crutch, and I have transcended it. Your moment of defeat is nigh, princesses." The wings folded around him and he was gone. Luna growled. "Where?" But even as she spoke the word, a wave of diseased magic set their horns to aching. She gritted her teeth. "The throne room?" Celestia nodded agreement, and they flung themselves out into the air, wings folded, falling toward the roof of the throne room. Twin explosions made holes for them, and they went to a hover just inside. Sombra sat on the throne, his dark wings spread across the breadth of the throne room. His horn glowed green and his eyes mocked them. "We must stop that spell, whatever it is," hissed Luna. "Oh, what's wrong?" taunted Sombra. "Giving up already? At least your sister put up a fight. Then I killed her, of course, so it didn't do her much good, but still, I appreciated the effort." His grin widened as Celestia snarled at him. "Sister!" cried Luna, as Celestia dove toward Sombra, horn outstretched. Sombra laughed and struck at Celestia with a lance of green fire, but his laugh cut short when he hit only air and the flash of light marking Celestia's teleportation. He attacked again as she reappeared, but she teleported again just as quickly. The throne room was illuminated with a silver glow as more and more teleportation flashes appeared. Sombra's eyes widened in surprise. He sucked in a breath, then gurgled and choked. Celestia slowly withdrew her horn from his chest. She watched dispassionately as bright red blood bubbled out of him. He collapsed out of the throne and spilled down the steps, his horn trailing green fire all the way. When he rolled to a stop, he laughed, then coughed, then laughed more. Luna landed beside her. "That was well done, Sister." Sombra managed to speak. "Wrong. The spell is complete, and I will survive without this mortal shell. When my empire returns to the world, Equestria will fall. You have lost utterly." The blood coating his teeth made his grin red. His horn glowed intensely and a wave of power spread from the tip, traveling through the princesses and on through the wall and out into the world. In its wake, the palace disappeared, inch by inch and wall by wall, until moments later, the entire Equestrian army, living, wounded, and dead, found themselves standing in an empty plain where the Crystal Empire had been. General Skyblaze circled down to land by them. Her posture was controlled, but her eyes betrayed confusion. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna... where are we?" Luna's eyebrows shot up. "This is the Crystal Empire." "Pardon me, Princess, but what is that?" She favored Skyblaze with a withering glare. "Naturally, it is..." She turned wide eyes on Celestia. "I can't remember, Sister!" Celestia shook her head. "Nor can I. We came to do battle because our sister's Crystal Empire had fallen to someone named Sombra and was a threat to Equestria." Luna lowered her head. "Our sister, yes." Skyblaze was nodding. "I recall the battle, at least. But I've no idea who we were fighting." Celestia continued, abstractly, "The Crystal Heart... it is something powerful and dangerous, and the Empire will return someday." She shook her head, frowning. "We have to assume Sombra did this to our memories and stole the Empire away. The sheer power needed for such a feat is worrying." Luna muttered, "That is a mild phrasing." "We must keep watch and stand ready, for as long as it takes." ProloguePROLOGUE Darkness had no place in the Crystal Empire. The city was built of gems, quartz streets and diamond walls and princess-cut windows, and each angle and facet emitted a soft light which drove out darkness and drowned shadow, so that even the most secluded alley was a welcoming place. The light pulsed in slow waves which moved from building to building, like the heartbeat of the city. This night, the heartbeat stuttered as a clot walked the streets. Its dark cloak beat back the light and concealed its identity, but could not hide the incautious ring of its hooves against the shining cobbles. The person beneath the cloak did not slow their stride even as the noise snaked out to enter windows and doors. The cloak turned down one side street and another. The buildings on either side leaned in closer as the streets shrank to alleys. Amid the twists of a particular alley, a crystal pony stood beneath a hanging sign. The sign's chipped paint read "The Staff and Crook." The pony nodded at the cloaked figure, checked up and down the alley, and opened the scratched crystal door to reveal a short stairway leading down. The smell of stale beer and poorly-cleaned vomit climbed the stairs as they descended. The pony exchanged nods with the bartender, who pointed with his chin at a hallway leading to the back of the basement. The pony opened the door to a dimly-lit back room half-filled with wooden casks of beer and stood at guard in the hallway. A rat scurried away as the cloaked figure entered. A gray hoof reached up to pull back the cloak's hood, revealing a thick black mane and blue eyes the color of a frozen ocean. The stallion standing against a cask opposite the door lowered his head in a courtly bow. "King Sombra." The gray stallion finished pulling off his cloak and slung it over an empty lantern hook. "That is imprudent, Sundown. The walls might have ears, even here. And I have not earned that title yet. But soon, if you have succeeded in your mission." "Of course, Lord Sombra. I have it here." He held out a cloth-wrapped package. Sombra took it and unwrapped it to reveal a blood-red gem cut into a diamond shape. His lips curled in a smile. "Excellent. Now all is almost in readiness." His smile became a sneer. "I shall have my due. Well done, Sundown." He tossed a pouch which clinked heavily when Sundown caught it. Sundown bowed again. "I remain your faithful servant, Lord Sombra." EpilogueEPILOGUE - 990 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE Warmbough of Walker Unit 19, Third Squadron of the Northern Patrol, stiffened and brushed his fur-lined hood back away from his horn. He cast about as though searching for a scent. The two other walkers who made up his unit stopped to watch him. After a moment, he pointed. "It's over there. Something big." Scarcely ten minutes later, they found it. After they crept carefully up on it, alert for any traps or ambush, Bangtail barked a laugh. " 'Something big,' my granny's hoof! That's a cradle if I've ever seen one. You going senile in your old age there, 'Bough?" Warmbough grumbled, "I'm only two years older than you, and I'm telling you, the amount of power this thing gave off, I've never felt anything like it." Bangtail shook his head, but Evergreen spat thoughtfully and said, "What's a cradle doing out here in the first place?" The other two looked at her, then back at the cradle. At that moment, the cradle gave off a burst of light and a baby's cry split the night. All three walkers started in surprise, but it was Bangtail who rushed to peer in. He stripped off his heavy outer jacket and reached down into the cradle with it. He stood with a bundle nestled in the crook of his arm. "Never mind the cradle. What in the name of Celestia is a baby doing out he--" His jaw snapped shut as a white light shot from his eyes. Warmbough and Evergreen backed up uncertainly, brandishing their weapons. A moment later, the light shut off as quickly as it had started, and Bangtail sagged, barely supporting himself on the cradle. He cleared his throat. "It seems this here is the rightful heir to the Crystal Empire. Her name is Princess Cadance. I think we oughta get her delivered to Princess Celestia as soon as can be."
Chapter 1The view from Thauma's chambers never failed to catch her eye, particularly on a clear night like this, when the stars above were matched by the soft glow of the city below. Her handmaid knew her habits, and set up her bench close by the window so the princess could gaze out through the transparent crystal while her wings were preened and her hair was brushed. Thauma lost herself in the vista and the gentle tugging at her mane. She only came back to herself when the door to her chamber opened with a quiet click. In the window's reflection, she saw the tall form and familiar silhouette of Sombra. She smiled, relishing the increase in her heartbeat at seeing him. "Good evening, darling." His blue eyes and white smile grew in the reflection as he crossed the room. He bent to nuzzle her neck, making her shiver. "Hello, my dear." He waved her handmaid toward the door. "I will finish brushing her mane. You may have the rest of the night off." She lay the brush down and bowed her way out, giggling. As the door shut behind the girl, Thauma turned to kiss him. Their hungry lips met eagerly. A long while later, they pulled apart. Thauma leaned against him, breathless and enjoying the equally breathless heave of his broad chest. She raised a hoof to touch the amulet around his neck, its gold and ruby striking against his gray coat. "It's lovely. What does it mean?" The amulet bore a stylized unicorn head and pegasus wings above the huge diamond-shaped ruby. He chuckled. "I was hoping to save it for a surprise, but now is as good a time as any to show you, I suppose." The amulet's ruby flared like a torch. Puzzled, not yet concerned, she looked up to ask him what he meant, and froze when she saw his eyes: not the familiar, beloved blue, but red and glowing with an inner fire. He stared down at her as his horn lit with the same red brilliance. His magic had not yet touched her when she found herself across the room, the tingle of teleport magic crackling away from her skin. Forcing herself to shake off her confusion, she shook her head sharply, not taking her eyes off of Sombra. Through gritted teeth, she growled, "Explain yourself." "There is so little to explain, my dear." He circled the room slowly, confidence in every line of his body. "I will make better use of the Crystal Empire than you ever could, so naturally, I should rule." She barked a laugh. "Setting aside that declaration of treason, how do you propose to take the crown? You may be the court wizard, but are you addled enough to have forgotten what I am?" "Yes, yes, the mighty princess of magic, very likely the most powerful being in the known world. Or at least, that was true until today." Thauma hesitated. Her eyes flicked to the amulet. Sombra nodded approvingly. "Have you ever known me to approach a problem unprepared? If one's problem is the alicorn of magic, one creates a way to best her." He touched the amulet. "A work of genius, even if I do say so myself. It took years just to gather the materials." "Years?" Her stomach churned. Days and nights flashed through her mind like nightmares become reality. The remembered taste of his mouth became like ash. Had it all been lies? He saw the question in her face. "I did love you. A part of me still does. You brought out the best in me." His voice was tender. Her cheeks burned like she'd been slapped. "And that best showed me that I am better than you." His horn flared with crimson energy. Quick as thought, her own blue magic lanced out toward him at full force, a killing blow that nothing could resist. An actintic light blazed, and when it faded, Sombra stood casually and unharmed. Her mouth fell open. She struck again, filling the room with the same flash of brilliance. Sombra sneered at her. "I know you better than you do, my dear. I have studied you carefully during our time together. I know what you will do, and without the advantage of surprise, your sad little power is so very easy to turn aside." She was cold inside. What would he not expect? Her horn glowed and a dagger of blue magic raced toward the back of his head. Even before it was deflected by his monstrous shield, she teleported toward the open air beyond the window--but found herself still inside the room, dazed and confused. "Did you think I wouldn't prevent you from teleporting away? Come now, Thauma." Sombra carelessly took his eyes off of her to look back at the door behind him. "Guards, you may enter now. The princess is ready to be taken to her accomodations." The door opened on noiseless hinges. Thauma's heart pounded at the sight of blood in the hallway and on the outside of the door. A dozen palace guards filed in, none she recognized. Several of them were spattered with blood. None of it seemed to be theirs. A hard-eyed sergeant stepped forward and leveled her spear at Thauma. Still fighting the dregs of her knock against the teleport shield, Thauma shook her head. One thought rose from the morass whirling in her brain: Sombra could not succeed. Once she had that thought, more came to buttress it: this Sombra, the real Sombra, would rule with terror. Her people would be mistreated. When she spoke, her voice was so filled with fury that it hurt her throat. "What use will you make of my empire?" He ignored the guards fanning out between them, keeping his alien red eyes locked on hers. "The empire? Merely fodder. The Crystal Heart, now, there is a worthy prize." He smiled at her confusion. "It truly never occurred to you? The Heart is the greatest weapon in the world. Your lack of imagination is one more reason that I am fit to rule and you are not." He broke eye contact and addressed the guards. "I feel that this interview is over. Gentleponies, if you would be so kind?" The sergeant nodded a salute and drew forth an ugly lump of metal from her bag. It took Thauma a moment to realize what it was. When her brain made sense of it, she recoiled. An Equestrian magic collar. Placed over a unicorn's horn, it would prevent the use of magic. Fear filled her throat with acid, but an instant later the fear was replaced with a stony calm. She had let Sombra control this battle until now, but no longer. Despite his boasting, he could not be a match for her, but she had believed him after a single demonstration. There was some way to escape. No defense was perfect. She would put his to the test. Thauma sucked in a breath. Her horn glowed blue, then blue-white as she gathered herself for a supreme effort. Sombra's eyes widened. Her magic burst forth in a dozen directions, a score, two score. The guards were thrown back and pinned against the walls. Sombra slid back across the floor before negating her force, and barely managed to stop the dozen blades and lances and whips of white-hot magic which sought his flesh. She leapt to her hooves and he spared her a glance. His red eyes and mocking smile could take no hold in her heart. Some part of her was glad of that. Her magic took hold of the massive window and yanked. It tore from its seat with a boom. The ton of transparent crystal darted over Thauma's head toward Sombra as though it weighed no more than a feather. His eyes were locked on the window and his horn glowed brilliantly red, and in that instant, Thauma's magic hit the sides of his hooves. He spun in the air and landed heavily on his back. The breath whooshed out of him and his magic winked out for barely the space of a thought. The window struck, shaking the palace and sending up a cloud of dust. Thauma let out the breath she had been holding. She glanced out the empty space where the window had been, but discarded it. There was no telling what traps Sombra had set out there. Her horn's light pulsed once and the floor she stood on vaporized, revealing an empty column of space directly under her all the way down to the ground. She let herself fall down into the vast audience chamber on the ground floor, then spread her wings and flew deeper into the palace. Behind her, a bestial roar from the shaft through the ceiling told her that she had not killed him. Sombra had wanted her alive. That had to mean that he had not turned everyone in the palace. She would find reinforcements.
Chapter 2The council chamber at the heart of the Crystal Palace was equipped with a round table, seamlessly grown out of the same crystal that made up the chamber itself and big enough to seat twenty. This was a routine meeting, so only half the seats were filled with various leaders and representatives from the Empire. Princess Thauma, ruler of the Crystal Empire, sat opposite the door. She wore a thin gold tiara with a heart design centered below the creamy sunset red of her horn. Her mane swept back from the tiara, pushed by a breath of invisible wind which sent purple waves scudding across the white field of her hair. She went naked other than the tiara, needing no symbols of wealth or power to establish who she was. To Thauma's right sat Brightwork, the primarch of the crystalworkers' guild. She was an ancient crone, her face more wrinkles than crystal, but her eyes had only grown sharper with age. New councilmembers often took her stooped shoulders for weakness, only to be deftly maneuvered into a disadvantage by her agile tongue and quick wit. Now those sharp eyes met Thauma's blue ones. "Princess Thauma," she began slowly, as was her wont, "I must request an answer. My guild has suffered a loss by the actions of the weavers, and we require redress." Thauma gritted her teeth, gently so that Brightwork would not notice. The weavers had purchased a warehouse that the crystalworkers had their eye on, using underhanded dealings according to the crystalworkers. Thauma had to walk a narrow path in this situation, and had been putting Brightwork off in the hopes that the guilds would come to some arrangement without her. The crystalworkers and the weavers were both powerful guilds, and she could not afford to set either one against her. They would bow to her will, but an offended guild could cause delays and problems throughout the city, and such roadblocks would inevitably cause problems elsewhere, and so on. Thauma had quietly initiated an investigation which had found no evidence of the wrongdoing the crystalworkers alleged, but telling Brightwork outright that she was wrong - or worse, lying - was as good as asking for trouble. But Thauma had arrived at no better ideas as she mulled the situation over, so she would have to deal with the civil problems as they arose. She sighed inwardly, her polite demeanor never failing, and opened her mouth. "Princess Thauma, if I might?" The deep voice crossed the table effortlessly. Thauma glanced over and met a pair of pale blue eyes. Despite their cold color, they always held warmth when they looked at her, and her chest heated in response as it always did. "Yes, Lord Sombra," she said, not letting her relief color her voice. He inclined his head in a bow which included her and Brightwork. "Princess, it seems to me that the crystalworkers are in greater need of the warehouse in question than are the weavers, and the importance of the crystalworkers' guild to the Empire cannot be understated." Brightwork nodded, leaning fractionally forward. "But the weavers are the owners of the warehouse under the law. If the crystalworkers need the warehouse, it benefits the Empire for them to have access to it. So perhaps the weavers might be convinced to rent out the warehouse to the crystalworkers at an advantageous rate." Brightwork leaned back. The corners of her mouth pulled down and she scowled at Sombra. Thauma held her breath. Sombra's solution would give the crystalworkers what they wanted without depriving the weavers of just compensation. It was not what either party wanted, but was judicious enough that neither guild could refuse it outright without being seen as obstructive. At last, Brightwork nodded, a bare flick of the chin. "The crystalworkers' guild agrees to such an arrangement." Thauma shot a grateful glance at Sombra. He replied with a tiny, secret smile meant for her eyes only. "We shall send a messenger to the weavers' guild and bring the necessary documents to your office, Primarch." Brightwork stood with the help of her assistant. "I hope there will be no delays, Princess. Now I must bid the council farewell. There is much business to take care of elsewhere." Thauma ignored the presumptuous phrasing. It was a good sign: it meant that she had no other outlet for her displeasure, which meant that her guild would not interfere in the city. "Farewell, Lady Brightwork. You are dismissed." She turned her attention to the sheaf of documents on the table before her. "Our next item is the disposition of the surplus harvest." The representative from the farmers' guild perked up. He wore a sumptuous robe blazoned with his badge of office, as though trying to ensure that no one mistook him for the farmer he was. He was impolitic and always smelled faintly of fertiliser. His one redeeming quality was his grin, which sparkled as brightly as his coat and which he bestowed liberally. He bowed stiffly, still unaccustomed to the gesture after a year on the council. Thauma addressed him directly. "We have the reports concerning the harvest from your guild, Lord Fallowfield, but I hope you will summarize for me. How much are we at risk of losing to spoilage if action is not taken?" He scratched his chin thoughtfully on the gilt hem of his sleeve. "A good three months' worth, maybe four. We've only so many silos and crofts and the like, after all. Nopony expected such a bumper crop, even after such a perfect spring." Thauma included the chief wheelwright of the wagoneers' guild and the manager of the traders' guild in her glance. "Lady Gildhart, is there a market for such a surplus of grain? Lord Roadworth, could your wagons move that quantity if called to?" Roadworth puffed out his chest and nodded firmly even before Gildhart spoke. She flipped through her notes for a moment and said, "The swamplands of Equestria suffered an unusually hot spring, and much of their harvest died in the fields. They will certainly need to import food before the winter. The High Aeries of the griffin lands customarily import food from the lowlands, but their long period of peace has put a strain on the lowlands' production. Fortunately, I have maintained certain connections in the Aeries against just such an occasion as this. Between those two destinations, we should be able to relieve ourselves of all of our excess inventory." "Very good. Make it so, please." Both of them bowed to her. Thauma checked her papers again. "That appears to be our final item of business, my ladies, my lords." Her train of thought was interrupted by a stodgy cough over her shoulder. She smiled ruefully. "Yes, Primsley?" The chief valet of the palace stared into the middle distance as she spoke. She wasn't uncouth enough to look directly at the princess, despite years of the princess's best efforts. "Princess Thauma, your royal sisters have sent word that they will be attending the Spring Rebirth Festival. They will arrive two weeks from today." Thauma's smile had become genuine. "Wonderful. It has been too long. Thank you for the good tidings, Primsley." "I live to serve, Princess." Across the table, no one noticed Sombra's jaw clench.
Chapter 3TWO MONTHS LATER The coded knock sounded through the heavy oak door and echoed around the tiny, bare-walled basement. The door guards readied their spears and one moved forward to push the door open. The door's curve made it swing awkwardly, but it was functional. It had been cobbled together from repurposed wine casks - the resistance had quickly learned that relying on crystal as a building material only served to make them vulnerable to Sombra's ever-growing power. The open door admitted a scout and Thauma's magic embraced him immediately. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the delicate spell which would wipe away the artificial fear that sank into the mind of anyone who went out into the city. Sombra had been as good as his word, and had wasted no time perverting the Crystal Heart to amplify fear instead of love. The more afraid the citizens became, the more the Heart amplified their fear. It was a horrifying feedback loop which had reduced many of the empire's people to barely-conscious shells. Her resistance forces carried talismans she had created which warded off the worst of the Heart's effects, but they were only partially effective. The scout sighed in relief as Thauma's magic faded away, and saluted her as the door swung closed on the heavy gray air outside. The scout used his saluting hoof to wave lantern smoke away from his face. "Princess Thauma. I bring ill news." She nodded for him to continue, and he went on, "The ambush in the market district resulted in a loss. Our forces were nearly wiped out, while we only cost Sombra's forces half their number." Sergeant Pauldron, seated to Thauma's right, cleared her throat. "Princess, this is ill news indeed. She pointed at the map on the table before them. "With that loss, Sombra's traitors have control of the South Road as well as the market. We have lost our lines of communication to our bretheren in the northern part of the city, and it can only be a matter of time until we are discovered here. We must relocate." Her voice was grim, and she left the final word unspoken: "again." Thauma considered the map, frowning. Every relocation carried risk. They had lost good ponies each time, and Sombra's hold over the city was solidifying by the day, despite their best efforts. His growing control over the very crystals which made up the city had made his forces far stronger than their numbers. Fleetingly, she wished that her sisters had arrived as promised. But they had not, and she could only hope that whatever foul trick Sombra had used to keep them away had not put them in danger. "We must do what we must do. Sergeant Pauldron, please arrange a route and send word to our other hideouts that we will be moving north. In the meantime, I will continue refining the camouflage spell." Pauldron saluted and began issuing orders to the guards and armed citizens crowded into the basement with them. Thauma heaved herself up. Doctor Sawbones, the former palace surgeon, rushed to her side solicitously. Thauma grunted. "I'm not that far gone yet, Doctor. Settle down." "I shall do no such thing. There is precious little literature on the subject of alicorn pregnancies, so I am taking nothing for granted. It's bad enough that you're confined in this smoky basement and working on spells at all hours of the day and night. I'm not about to let you have a fall while you're under my care." Despite everything, she chuckled. The doctor's fussing was sweet, in a way. "Very well, do what you will." He escorted her into the basement's other room, where her makeshift magical laboratory was set up. After he helped her settle onto her bench and left her alone, she folded her wings down around her still barely-swollen belly and considered for the thousandth time what this foal would mean to Sombra. He must never find out that an heir to the Crystal Empire was growing in her. She could not predict what extremities that would drive him to, whether it be to take the foal as a hostage in place of Thauma herself, or to raise it as his own heir, or to kill it to keep his rule secure. Whatever his reaction might be, it would be bad for the resistance and the empire. Her wings remained cradling her belly as she turned her attention to her notes. Perhaps the next iteration of her magical countermeasures against Sombra's powers would keep her ponies alive.
Chapter 4TWO YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE "Hush little Cadance," Thauma crooned, then hummed wordlessly as she rocked the cradle positioned next to her makeshift throne. The tune disappeared without an echo into the vast space of the resistance base's centtral cavern. The network of defensible caves housed thousands of resistance fighters under hundreds of feet of solid rock without a crystal anywhere in the structure. It had taken months of effort from stonemasons and crystalworkers and Thauma herself to dig the switchbacked tunnel down to the caves, but it was as secure a location as the resistance could hope for, and it had marked the turning point in the resistance's fight. They had been able to rescue many of the Empire's citizens and spirit them away to the caves, and careful tunneling could bring them to the surface anywhere in the city to strike against Sombra's forces and then fade away, collapsing the tunnels behind them. Long months of such surgical strikes had eliminated a significant fraction of Sombra's military strength, to the point where he did not have sufficient forces to maintain a police presence everywhere in the city. As his grip on the populace loosened, independent pools of resistance were springing up all over the Empire. The clack of shod hooves on stone announced General Pauldron's arrival even before the herald called out her name. She drew up before the throne and bowed to Thauma. "Princess, our intelligence has proved accurate. This morning, Sombra sent criers throughout the city, calling all 'loyal citizens' to the stadium on the morrow. He plans to address them, most likely in an attempt to renew their fear of him and bring them back fully under his control. You are well aware that this will be the first time Sombra has appeared in public in over a year. Between the losses we have inflicted on Sombra's forces and the number of fighters we have at the ready, we will never have a better chance to end his reign than this. We must attack." Thauma's eyes were drawn to the tiny sleeping body in the cradle, but she nodded. "I agree with your assessment, Pauldron. So it's an all or nothing attack, in the end?" She gave the general a tired smile. "Perhaps we can be done with all of this at last." Pauldron let her military demeanor slip for a moment and nodded. "I truly hope so, Princess." "Give the orders, General. I will be in my chambers." Pauldron saluted crisply as Thauma stood and gathered her daughter in her wings. If anyone noticed the tears in her eyes, no one remarked on them. In Thauma's chambers - really just a two-lobed cave large enough for her to have a magical laboratory close by her bed - she sat down on the edge of her bed and held Cadance tight to her chest, tight enough to wake the baby and start her crying. "Shh, shh, I'm sorry, Cadance." She nuzzled the tiny mane and muzzle. "It's alright, I promise." Her voice broke on the last word and tears fell to splash on the stone floor. "I promise," she sobbed, "I promise." She rocked back and forth, crying silently, until Cadance went quiet. Thauma gave a final shuddering sigh, roughly wiped her eyes free of tears and lay Cadance on the bed. She stood and bustled around the room preparing a bottle, then held the baby as she fed her, smiling at each suckle and tiny, contented sigh, staring as though trying to engrave every detail into her memory. When the bottle was empty, Thauma changed Cadance's diaper, causing giggles with the powder and then snores as she fell into a happy sleep. Finally, slowly, Thauma lifted her daughter into the cradle, wrapped the blanket snugly around her, and then enfolded the cradle in a layer of magic, then another and another. Thauma had created the spell shortly after Cadance's birth as a way for her to ensure her daughter's survival even if she herself were at risk of being captured or killed. It would move Cadance into the future, to a time when Sombra's control had been broken and the baby could be raised in peace. She had hoped never to have to cast the spell, but this guerrilla war had taught her never to take success for granted. No matter how good General Pauldron considered this chance, Thauma had to consider the possibility of failure. Her horn brightened as she shaped the spell carefully from memory. She would send Cadance ten years forward. If they succeeded and Sombra was defeated, ten years was not so long to wait for an alicorn. If they failed, she had every confidence that her sisters would have cracked Sombra's defenses before then and brought the full might of Equestria to bear against him. Cadance would return to a Crystal Empire at peace and under the stewardship of her sisters. It would be alright. "I promise," she murmured, more to herself than to Cadance. A blinding flash filled the room, and the cradle and its occupant were gone. Thauma fell onto the bed and sobbed until she fell into an exhausted sleep. She was awakened some hours later by General Pauldron, who tactfully ignored her princess's red-rimmed eyes. "It is almost dawn, Princess. Our troops are in readiness in the tunnels around the stadium. You must take your position." Thauma rose, determined not to look as unsteady as she felt. She carefully did not look at the empty space where the cradle had been. "Lead the way, General." "The sacrifices will be worth it when we succeed, Princess." "I pray you are right."
Chapter 6SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE A warm spring sun shone gently down on the untended fields outside the Crystal Empire's city and gleamed from the helmets and spearpoints of a hundred thousand soldiers. The hooves of Equestria's army crushed down the overgrown crops and the dead crops alike as they advanced toward the hemisphere which surrounded the city. It was a dull, unreflective gray, shot through with black tendrils which writhed across the surface like the shadows of alien birds. Princesses Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance. They were in the vanguard of their army, both their horns blazing brightly enough to outshine the sun. Luna signaled to a lavishly robed unicorn. "Wizard! The protection of the army falls to you now." The wizard bowed and turned to pass the signal on to his legion of unicorns, hundreds strong. As one, their horns lit, casting sharp shadows on faces pinched with concentration. Celestia and Luna allowed their magic to fade out, cautiously gauging their feelings. Satisfied that they remained shielded from the torrent of magical fear flowing out from behind the Empire's shield, Celestia nodded. "So far, so good. Now, Sister, let us smash this accursed shield at long last." It had taken years of study for the princesses and their wizards to understand the nature of the shield. It was a new use of time magic, unlike anything they had read of or experienced. But at last, they had unraveled it: the bubble around the city wasn't a shield, but rather the limit of a zone of slowed time. The city inside was moving more slowly than the world outside, and any living thing which tried to cross into that zone was torn apart cell by cell as the different timestreams acted on them at different rates. Much research and many failures followed as the best minds in Equestria struggled to devise a way to end or defeat the spell from outside the bubble. Years had passed as the waves of fear spread across Equestria and beyond. The effects could be reversed by strong unicorns, but only temporarily. The princesses needed to end it at its source, which they knew full well could only be the Crystal Heart. And with that knowledge came the sure understanding that for the Crystal Heart to be used as a weapon, something terrible had to have happened to their sister Thauma. The princesses' eyes were hard as they assembled their respective parts of the spell which would crack the bubble. Their magic waxed and waned, merged and split, and touched the surface of the bubble almost tenderly. After several minutes, Celestia grunted a command and both princesses leaned forward as though throwing their weight behind the spell. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, but then the black tendrils began disappearing, at first singly and then by the dozens and hundreds, until the bubble was purely gray. The princesses bore down, their horns growing brighter and ever brighter, until there was a scream like tearing metal and in the space between one breath and the next, the bubble was gone and the Crystal Empire lay exposed to the sky for the first time in years. Only then did the princesses let the spell end, panting as though they'd run miles. A powerfully-built pegasus clad all in golden armor flew above them and spun in the air to face the army. She raised her spear, letting the sun-and-moon banner of Equestria affixed to its shaft catch the breeze and unfurl. "FORWARD!" she thundered. The command was repeated by lieutenants and then by sergeants, spreading throughout the ranks of the army in waves. The army's van stepped into motion, marching forward into the enemy city. Scarcely a week later, the army of Equestria had besieged the palace. Opposition in the city had been scattered and unorganized, and most of the city's population proved to be civilians who neither aided nor opposed the Equestrians, but only stared at them with hollow eyes. Day after day, the princesses had received reports containing what little information the shattered populace could be coaxed to give the soldiers. It was through those reports that they learned that their enemy was the former court wizard Sombra, and also learned what had become of their sister. She had led a surprise attack on the usurper, but according to eyewitnesses, Sombra had expected the attack and had had his own forces lying in wait. Thauma's small army had been destroyed to the last fighter, and finally Sombra had publicly executed Thauma in the middle of the city's stadium before the eyes of the entire citizenry. That had gutted what resistance remained in the city, and Sombra had been free to focus on causing terror in his subjects. The princesses had stayed up all night together with a cask of wine after reading that report. The siege of the palace had been easy enough to make the generals itchy. After losing half a division to a sudden blast of magic from the palace, the princesses had arrayed their wizards five deep around its perimeter. They had successfully stopped several other such attacks, and finally the blasts of magic had stopped, and there had been no further signs of resistance from the palace for three days. Inside the command tent positioned behind the siege lines, Luna banged her hoof on the table, scattering maps and field reports across its rough surface, including a drawing of the palace's blackened and twisted exterior, so different from the beautiful structure it had been. "We must take the fight to Sombra!" Celestia's wings flicked, but she gave no other sign of reaction. "You are not wrong, Luna. But I fear we will sacrifice many of our soldiers in the doing." The pegasus general put her hoof atop the golden helmet on the table in front of her. "We are ready to make that sacrifice, my princesses. The safety of Equestria is at stake. For what other reason did we become soldiers?" Celestia frowned, but nodded slowly. "It pains me, but I will accept your counsel. General Skyblaze, issue the orders. We attack at dawn." The next morning, Celestia and Luna rose into the air with five hundred picked pegasi and winged their way toward the highest tower, where Thauma had kept her magical laboratory and library. Below them, the wizards battered open the palace gates and the infantry swarmed through. The clash and scream of battle rose above the wind. Celestia turned her attention away from it and hurried toward the tower. A dozen explosions around the rim of the tower filled it with dust and shrapnel. Pegasi dove through the clouds, looking around for foes even as they skidded to a stop on the polished floor of the laboratory. The princesses followed, horns still fading from punching through the tower wall. Standing on a pedestal at the center of the room was the unicorn who could only be Sombra. His eyes and horn blazed an eerie red, pulsing in time with a gem set in an amulet around his neck. A pegasus behind him launched toward him, spear at the ready. The gem pulsed and the pegasus became an empty suit of armor surrounding a fine mist of blood. Luna stamped a hoof. "Halt, all of you! We shall deal with him!" Sombra smiled. "Will you? Your dear sister was the strongest of you, and she could not best me. What hope do you have?" Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance, and their horns blazed, one light, one dark. The pegasi backed away as flashes and sparks filled the room, magic meeting magic faster than the eye could follow. The sparks flared for one hour, then two, creeping ever closer to Sombra's sweaty coat. The sounds of combat climbed the tower toward them, Equestrian battle cries sounding again and again as they swept the palace clean of opposition. The pegasi closed in behind the magic, spears held ready. Sombra's red eyes were rimmed with white as he watched them approach. Finally, Luna cried out in triumph as an invisible blow knocked the amulet from around Sombra's neck, silencing the red glow of his magic. "You are beaten, traitor! Surrender now and you might yet live." Sombra sagged to his knees. His eyes fell closed, but his teeth showed in a grin. "You know nothing of defeat." Celestia started in alarm and pulled a shield over the two of them just as Sombra's eyes popped open again, glowing an evil green which trailed from the corners like fire. Wings of shadow flared from his shoulders with a shockwave that sent the pegasi thudding into the walls. "The amulet was a crutch, and I have transcended it. Your moment of defeat is nigh, princesses." The wings folded around him and he was gone. Luna growled. "Where?" But even as she spoke the word, a wave of diseased magic set their horns to aching. She gritted her teeth. "The throne room?" Celestia nodded agreement, and they flung themselves out into the air, wings folded, falling toward the roof of the throne room. Twin explosions made holes for them, and they went to a hover just inside. Sombra sat on the throne, his dark wings spread across the breadth of the throne room. His horn glowed green and his eyes mocked them. "We must stop that spell, whatever it is," hissed Luna. "Oh, what's wrong?" taunted Sombra. "Giving up already? At least your sister put up a fight. Then I killed her, of course, so it didn't do her much good, but still, I appreciated the effort." His grin widened as Celestia snarled at him. "Sister!" cried Luna, as Celestia dove toward Sombra, horn outstretched. Sombra laughed and struck at Celestia with a lance of green fire, but his laugh cut short when he hit only air and the flash of light marking Celestia's teleportation. He attacked again as she reappeared, but she teleported again just as quickly. The throne room was illuminated with a silver glow as more and more teleportation flashes appeared. Sombra's eyes widened in surprise. He sucked in a breath, then gurgled and choked. Celestia slowly withdrew her horn from his chest. She watched dispassionately as bright red blood bubbled out of him. He collapsed out of the throne and spilled down the steps, his horn trailing green fire all the way. When he rolled to a stop, he laughed, then coughed, then laughed more. Luna landed beside her. "That was well done, Sister." Sombra managed to speak. "Wrong. The spell is complete, and I will survive without this mortal shell. When my empire returns to the world, Equestria will fall. You have lost utterly." The blood coating his teeth made his grin red. His horn glowed intensely and a wave of power spread from the tip, traveling through the princesses and on through the wall and out into the world. In its wake, the palace disappeared, inch by inch and wall by wall, until moments later, the entire Equestrian army, living, wounded, and dead, found themselves standing in an empty plain where the Crystal Empire had been. General Skyblaze circled down to land by them. Her posture was controlled, but her eyes betrayed confusion. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna... where are we?" Luna's eyebrows shot up. "This is the Crystal Empire." "Pardon me, Princess, but what is that?" She favored Skyblaze with a withering glare. "Naturally, it is..." She turned wide eyes on Celestia. "I can't remember, Sister!" Celestia shook her head. "Nor can I. We came to do battle because our sister's Crystal Empire had fallen to someone named Sombra and was a threat to Equestria." Luna lowered her head. "Our sister, yes." Skyblaze was nodding. "I recall the battle, at least. But I've no idea who we were fighting." Celestia continued, abstractly, "The Crystal Heart... it is something powerful and dangerous, and the Empire will return someday." She shook her head, frowning. "We have to assume Sombra did this to our memories and stole the Empire away. The sheer power needed for such a feat is worrying." Luna muttered, "That is a mild phrasing." "We must keep watch and stand ready, for as long as it takes."
ProloguePROLOGUE Darkness had no place in the Crystal Empire. The city was built of gems, quartz streets and diamond walls and princess-cut windows, and each angle and facet emitted a soft light which drove out darkness and drowned shadow, so that even the most secluded alley was a welcoming place. The light pulsed in slow waves which moved from building to building, like the heartbeat of the city. This night, the heartbeat stuttered as a clot walked the streets. Its dark cloak beat back the light and concealed its identity, but could not hide the incautious ring of its hooves against the shining cobbles. The person beneath the cloak did not slow their stride even as the noise snaked out to enter windows and doors. The cloak turned down one side street and another. The buildings on either side leaned in closer as the streets shrank to alleys. Amid the twists of a particular alley, a crystal pony stood beneath a hanging sign. The sign's chipped paint read "The Staff and Crook." The pony nodded at the cloaked figure, checked up and down the alley, and opened the scratched crystal door to reveal a short stairway leading down. The smell of stale beer and poorly-cleaned vomit climbed the stairs as they descended. The pony exchanged nods with the bartender, who pointed with his chin at a hallway leading to the back of the basement. The pony opened the door to a dimly-lit back room half-filled with wooden casks of beer and stood at guard in the hallway. A rat scurried away as the cloaked figure entered. A gray hoof reached up to pull back the cloak's hood, revealing a thick black mane and blue eyes the color of a frozen ocean. The stallion standing against a cask opposite the door lowered his head in a courtly bow. "King Sombra." The gray stallion finished pulling off his cloak and slung it over an empty lantern hook. "That is imprudent, Sundown. The walls might have ears, even here. And I have not earned that title yet. But soon, if you have succeeded in your mission." "Of course, Lord Sombra. I have it here." He held out a cloth-wrapped package. Sombra took it and unwrapped it to reveal a blood-red gem cut into a diamond shape. His lips curled in a smile. "Excellent. Now all is almost in readiness." His smile became a sneer. "I shall have my due. Well done, Sundown." He tossed a pouch which clinked heavily when Sundown caught it. Sundown bowed again. "I remain your faithful servant, Lord Sombra."
EpilogueEPILOGUE - 990 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE Warmbough of Walker Unit 19, Third Squadron of the Northern Patrol, stiffened and brushed his fur-lined hood back away from his horn. He cast about as though searching for a scent. The two other walkers who made up his unit stopped to watch him. After a moment, he pointed. "It's over there. Something big." Scarcely ten minutes later, they found it. After they crept carefully up on it, alert for any traps or ambush, Bangtail barked a laugh. " 'Something big,' my granny's hoof! That's a cradle if I've ever seen one. You going senile in your old age there, 'Bough?" Warmbough grumbled, "I'm only two years older than you, and I'm telling you, the amount of power this thing gave off, I've never felt anything like it." Bangtail shook his head, but Evergreen spat thoughtfully and said, "What's a cradle doing out here in the first place?" The other two looked at her, then back at the cradle. At that moment, the cradle gave off a burst of light and a baby's cry split the night. All three walkers started in surprise, but it was Bangtail who rushed to peer in. He stripped off his heavy outer jacket and reached down into the cradle with it. He stood with a bundle nestled in the crook of his arm. "Never mind the cradle. What in the name of Celestia is a baby doing out he--" His jaw snapped shut as a white light shot from his eyes. Warmbough and Evergreen backed up uncertainly, brandishing their weapons. A moment later, the light shut off as quickly as it had started, and Bangtail sagged, barely supporting himself on the cradle. He cleared his throat. "It seems this here is the rightful heir to the Crystal Empire. Her name is Princess Cadance. I think we oughta get her delivered to Princess Celestia as soon as can be."
