Silver Gaze: the Pony Who Would be King

Chapters

Prologue
The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back
The Lure of Power
Deal With the Devil
Long Live the King
Epilogue

Prologue

Prologue

“All right Apple Bloom, let’s try this one more time, this time following the instructions to the letter,” Twilight said patiently, sweeping away the failed potion with a wing.

“Ah’m never gonna get the hang of this alchemy,” the filly complained, though she obediently went to get the ingredients she’d need.

“Sure you will,” Twilight assured her, “You just need to follow the instructions better. The pony who came up with the recipe knew what he was doing; you just have to follow his lead.”

“Who was even able to figure out how to make potions like this?” Apple Bloom asked as she returned with the assorted herbs for her concoction.

“I’m glad you asked,” Twilight said, transitioning into lecture mode, “This potion, like all the others in this book, was created by Silver Gaze, the greatest alchemist of all time. He did for alchemy what Star-Swirl did for unicorn magic, creating hundreds of new potions before disappearing mysteriously about a thousand years ago.”

“Disappearing mysteriously?” Apple Bloom asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “In fact, nopony seems to know what happened to him. In all the history books I’ve read, they just stop mentioning him entirely. Maybe he retired, or maybe he just became less important at that time. His disappearance was shortly before Luna became Nightmare Moon, and I imagine the historians thought that that event was more important to record.”

“Ah guess so,” Apple Bloom said before coming to a sudden realization, “Hey, I bet Princess Celestia might know what happened. She was alive back then, after all.”

“Why didn’t I think of that before?” Twilight asked herself, knocking her hoof against her forehead, “You get started on the potion, and I’ll write a letter to the princess right away. If anypony knows what happened to Silver Gaze, it’ll be Celestia.”

The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

Chapter One: The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back

“Take a tuft of storm cloud, a bright rainbow’s glow, stir with a pegasus feather, nice and slow, serve to two ponies who wish for love’s glow,” Silver Gaze recited the instructions to make the potion he’d just created.

“And you’re certain this will work?” asked Prince Emerald Wave, leader of the Crystal Empire.

“Without a doubt,” Silver Gaze replied, sliding his spectacles back up his nose as he looked up at the sovereign in his crystal throne, “I formulated it to have the same effect as the rare ‘love spell’ that some unicorns are able to cast.”

“So, when I meet with Princess Timely Blossom of the Western Wilds in a few days, if some of this potion were to find its way into our drinks . . .” the Prince trailed off.

“The two of you would instantly fall in love,” Silver Gaze finished.

“Excellent,” Emerald Wave replied, clapping his hooves together, and causing waves of light to cascade through his shimmering green coat, “Silver Gaze, you have outdone yourself.”

“Thanks you, my liege,” the diminutive earth pony said, giving a bow.

“Could I see that potion?” the Prince asked, and Silver Gaze let him take it with his magic, “Fascinating. Love in a bottle.”

“That’s the least I can do,” Silver Gaze said, “Just wait and see what else I can create. I can’t wait to be of further use to you as part of your court.”

“I beg your pardon?” Emerald Wave said, passing the love potion and its instructions over to one of his guards.

“I was just saying that as a part of the Crystal Court I’ll be able to create much more impressive potions than just a brew that causes attraction between two ponies,” Silver Gaze answered.

“And what gave you the idea that you would ever become part of the Crystal Court?” Emerald asked.

“Well, after creating this potion for you-” Silver started to explain himself.

“Why would I even consider making you part of my court?” the Prince cut him off, “You’re not a unicorn or a pegasus; in fact, you’re not even a crystal pony. If I were to allow a common earth pony to mingle with the nobility of the greatest empire in the world, why, I’d become a laughingstock.”

“But we had a deal,” Silver Gaze said, gritting his teeth.

“I don’t recall any deal,” the Prince said nonchalantly.

“You promised me that if I created a potion that would let you win the heart of Princess Timely Blossom, then you would grant me a place in your court,” Silver Gaze said, barely controlling his anger.

“That’s preposterous,” Emerald Wave laughed, “But let’s suppose I did make such a bargain with you. You still would not have a place in my court because you didn’t create that potion, I did.”

“That’s a lie!” Silver Gaze exclaimed.

“Who’s going to take an earth pony peasant’s word over that of the Prince of the Crystal Empire?” Emerald Wave asked, leaning forward on his throne, “Now be gone from my palace at once, while I’m still feeling merciful and don’t banish you for your insolence.”

Silver Gaze glared daggers at the Crystal Prince, and his guards began to lower their spears and point them in the earth pony’s direction. But he’d lost and he knew it, so he turned and left the throne room.

* * *

“Silver!” a very familiar voice caught Silver Gaze’s attention as he grumpily stalked the streets of the Crystal City.

The mare that galloped up to him had a coat of shimmering sapphire so dazzling that it made his grey coat seem even duller than usual. His slump decreased only a little upon seeing her, the only pony in this city that really seemed to care about him. Silver tried to push the events in the throne room out of his mind and cheer up, for her sake.

“Hello Shimmer,” he replied, trying not to sound as dejected as he really was.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, seeing right through his weak disguise, “Things not go well today?”

“Hardly,” Silver snorted, and then waited until after they passed the last of the market stands and their crowds of ponies to elaborate, “You know the secret potion I was working on for Prince Emerald Wave?”

“It didn’t work?” Shimmer asked.

“That’s not it; it should work just fine,” Silver Gaze answered, unlocking the door to his flat when they reached it, “The Prince took my potion to claim for himself, and he’s broken his promise, refusing me a place in the Crystal Court.”

“That’s terrible!” the mare replied, following Silver up the stairs to his apartment.

“Apartment” was perhaps a loose description of the room that greeted them. It was really more of a laboratory, filled with the equipment Silver needed to perfect his art. A small bedroll tucked in the corner was really the only sign that anypony lived here. A few years earlier, after being used and rejected by the nobles of Fillydelphia, Silver Gaze had left Equestria entirely, moving to the Crystal Empire in search of ponies who would appreciate and reward his talents. After a troubling experience in the town of Onyx to the east, he made his way to the Crystal City, capital of the Empire. Shortly after arriving, he began to rent the small apartment from Shimmer, who lived on the floor below.

As he became known throughout the city for his alchemical prowess, he and Shimmer also became very close. She would often pop up to his laboratory to see what he was working on, or he would head downstairs for a friendly chat with her. For a while, the desire to become more than friends had been gnawing at Silver, but through unspoken signals he knew that Shimmer wasn’t yet ready, and he let the matter be for the time being.

“There’s got to be something you can do,” the crystal mare said, sitting down on one of the many stools scattered around the room.

“There’s nothing I can do,” Silver said, shaking his head and pulling up a stool of his own, “It’s my word against his, and nopony would dare speak out against the leader of the Crystal Empire.”

“Well then, forget about him. Cheer up,” Shimmer said, placing her hoof on Silver’s, “You don’t need him to become famous. Keep up your work around here, and soon everypony will know your name.”

“They’ll know I’m just a poor earth pony who knows how to mix ingredients up better than most,” Silver said, standing up, “I was meant for so much more, but so long as I’m a commoner, it seems nopony will take me seriously. This isn’t the first time a noble’s taken advantage of me and then claimed my success as their own.”

“You’re not going to leave, are you, like all those other times?” Shimmer asked.

“No, I’m tired of running,” Silver said, “This time I’m going to stand up to the Prince. I’m not going to let him walk all over me.”

“Oh no,” Shimmer said as he turned around, “I know that look. What you’re planning is far too dangerous.”

“You don’t even know what it is yet,” Silver objected.

“No, but I know that that’s your insanely bad idea look,” Shimmer said, “Whatever you’re planning, reconsider. Is this really worth it?”

Silver Gaze nearly relented. Here was the mare he loved, pleading with him not to undertake the foolish venture he had in his mind. Also, his conversation with her seemed to be replaying inside of his head. She’d been worried he would leave; did that mean she had feelings for him as well, or just that she was concerned about him wandering? He wanted to ask her what it was that had motivated her to ask, but the words caught in his throat.

“Yes, it is,” he said instead, answering her question.

“All right,” she said, giving a sigh, “But whatever you do, be careful.”

She turned and trotted out of Silver’s laboratory, returning to her own home. Silver searched for some parchment and set to work on his plan to get revenge on the Prince for his treachery.

* * *

That night, Silver Gaze returned to the Crystal Palace stealthily. Dark robes were wrapped around him, and he had drunk several potions that would not only make him invisible, but would silence his hoofsteps. He waited in an alleyway near the palace until the changing of the guard and quickly snuck through the door before it was shut. He carried nothing on him except for a few potions and a small piece of parchment concealed within his cloak. On it, he had skillfully written the instructions on how to make the love potion, but with a few minor changes that would have devastating consequences.

Love Potion

Take a tuft of cloud,
A bright rainbow’s glow,
Stir with a pegasus feather,
Fast, not slow,
Serve to two ponies who aren’t in the know

If things worked out as he expected they would, this new concoction would turned out to be a love poison instead of a potion. Now, all that was left to do was to replace the instructions the Prince already had with this fraudulent copy. He had no idea where Emerald Wave would store the potion, but he suspected it would be in the royal treasure room, wherever it was.

Keeping to the shadows, Silver Gaze snuck through the passages of the Crystal Palace, keeping out of sight of the guards and their sweeping beams of magical light. Hours passed as he cautiously made his way through the hallways, searching for the Empire’s storehouse of wealth. At last, he found something promising, a large set of doors at the end of a hallway deep beneath the palace. Two guards were posted in front of the door, one standing on either side, their magic probing the hallway in front of them.

Silver Gaze drank down one of the potions he’d brought with him and blinked his eyes repeatedly as flashing lights passed across his vision. Peeking back down the hallway, he could now see the various magical traps protecting the room, marked out by floating runes. Pulling the vials with the matching runes off his belt, Silver drank down a drop of each of the potions, making himself invisible to the traps. Making himself invisible again, he trotted down the hall until he was between the two guards. Drinking a drop from another vial, he uncorked the phial attached to it, the fumes knocking the guards unconscious but leaving Silver unaffected.

The lock on the door looked complex, but Silver poured another potion down it, and the tumblers fell into place in instants. The doors unlocked with a very satisfying click. Silver Gaze pushed the doors open and stepped into the room beyond before shutting them carefully. He became visible again as he trotted to the table in the center of the treasure room, upon which sat the love potion and recipe he’d given the Prince earlier that day. The small parchment he took from the phial and tucked in his cloak before pulling out the false copy.

“Halt!” a voice suddenly ordered, as he was about to place the instructions by the bottle, and he froze in place.

Silver Gaze turned around to face the door, and his short, black tail knocked the potion from the table. He grimaced at the sound of shattering glass, and the potion he’d worked on tirelessly for the past few weeks ran across the floor. But it was a loss necessary for his plan to work. There was still a chance, however slim, that he’d get away with this.

“You thought you could steal from me?” Prince Emerald Wave asked as he stepped between the guards standing within the treasure room’s doorway, “Give me that!”

With his magic, the Prince pulled the fake instructions from between Silver’s teeth. As the crystal unicorn paced around the alchemist, the palace guards formed a circle, their spears pointed inward.

“When will you learn your place?” Emerald asked, stopping in front of Silver and using his magic to force the earth pony to look him in the eye, “You’re a peasant, a low-class earth pony, and that’s all you’ll ever be. Stop trying to be something you’re not.”

The Prince released Silver’s head and trotted around behind him, placing the instructions on the table where the potion had been.

“You’ve found the limit of my patience. You tried to steal from me, and now you have to be punished,” Emerald said, “You are henceforth banished from my city. Throw him out.”

The crystal guards roughly grabbed Silver Gaze and dragged him through the palace hallways. Past the gently glowing Crystal Heart and through the empty streets of the Crystal City the guards shoved him, until he was on the outskirts of the city. Lifting him with their magic, they threw the alchemist out of the town and sent him sliding through the bare earth.

“And stay out!” one of them yelled at Silver as he stood and began to dust himself off.

Thunder cracked overhead, and rain began to pour down as he turned away from the lights of the city and headed out into the wilderness.

The Lure of Power

Chapter Two: The Lure of Power

Through the night, Silver Gaze traveled through the storm, seeking shelter, but finding none. He followed the westward road as best as he could, but the dirt path soon turned to mud in the falling rain. He was in the wilderness that separated the towns of the Crystal Empire, with only a few farmsteads in between, and he often heard the howls of wolves and the roars of manticores both close and in the distance. Unfortunately, in this brutal territory, nopony was willing to open their doors and let the bedraggled earth pony in.

Silver was soaked and thoroughly miserable by the time the downpour slowed to a drizzle, and the sun began to peek through the clouds. Shortly after the storm subsided, he reached the town of Beryl. Silver wandered through the maze of crystalline buildings, searching for an inn where he could get dry and hopefully get something to eat. He’d had the presence of mind to carry a coin purse filled with Crystal Empire Shards with him when he’d broken into the palace, but it was far less than his full wealth (which was meager to start with) and would only get him the necessities.

He eventually managed to find an inn and spent half his Shards on a meal to fill his stomach while he sat shivering in front of the fire. His cloak he removed and hung up to dry while he ate. The crystal ponies within the inn gave him strange looks, though it seemed that it was more due to the belt of potions strapped around his midsection than the fact that he was a non-crystal earth pony. After all, Beryl was the closest town to the Equestrian border, and there was a fair share of non-crystal ponies wandering the streets.

After his immediate concerns for his health were taken care of, Silver’s mind turned to other matters. His plan to get back at Emerald Wave had backfired spectacularly. Not only was he still not respected throughout the Crystal Empire, but now he was forbidden from returning to the Crystal City. He’d lost all the equipment and ingredients in his flat, things he’d spent years accumulating, and to top it all off he’d most likely never see Shimmer again. He had enough Shards to buy himself maybe one more meal before he had to begin scrounging for ingredients and brewing potions to sell again. Maybe he’d make enough money before dark to afford a room in an inn, or he might not. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to huddle in a doorway and wrap his cloak around him while he slept.

But this time was different. Instead of running, this time he’d tried to stand up to the Prince, and had in fact succeeded. He pulled the damp parchment containing the true recipe for the love potion from his cloak and threw it into the fire, watching as it crumpled and burned. He was sick of running, sick of letting other ponies push him around just because he was a feeble earth pony. He was Silver Gaze, after all, and nopony could brew potions like him, could feel out the strengths of each ingredient and weave them together in unimaginable ways. It was time for him to stop running and start standing up for himself.

But the problem still remained that he was banished from the Crystal City and separated from all his equipment and the notes he’d accumulated over the years. In that inn, waiting for the fire to bring warmth back into his limbs, he found the solution, or at least the beginning of one. In one move he would return to the Crystal City and reclaim his possessions, as well as enact his revenge on the Prince and ensure that nopony ever looked down on him again.

* * *

After finishing his meal, Silver headed off immediately to Beryl’s library. While not as expansive as the Crystal City’s, it was still one of the larger storehouses for books in the Crystal Empire. But it was sadly lacking in the one kind of book Silver was searching for: ancient tomes of power. As an earth pony, it seemed nopony would respect him, but perhaps if he had some magic of his own he would receive the respect he deserved. He’d heard rumors and legends about earth ponies using unicorn magic, but there seemed to be almost no mention of such things in the Beryl library.

A promising lead was found regarding the Crystal Empire’s founder, who had been an earth pony able to grow crystals from nothing. However, further reading revealed that his powers had come from being conceived during Discord’s defeat. Since nothing like that seemed likely to happen again any time in the near future, Silver moved on, looking for other legends. Here and there stories could be found regarding earth ponies that had managed to use unicorn magic, but there was never any indication of how they’d managed to obtain such powers. The more and more Silver read, the more and more it seemed like a lost cause.

“Ugh, how does an earth pony use magic?” Silver asked himself a bit louder than he should have as he slammed his head down on the book he had been looking through last.

“Are you talking about Frozen Heart?” a pony at the table next to his whispered.

“Frozen who?” Silver asked, removing his head from the dusty tome.

“Frozen Heart, the necromancer,” the shimmering yellow earth pony said, scooting his chair closer to Silver Gaze so he wouldn’t have to speak quite as loud, “He’s sort of a town fable, the pony that wouldn’t die.”

“What do you mean he wouldn’t die?” Silver asked, staring at the crystal pony with his silvery eyes.

“They say that a few decades ago, an earth pony calling himself Frozen Heart entered this town,” the crystal pony explained, “He acted very oddly and claimed to be an agent of a force more powerful than anypony could imagine. Then he started practicing necromancy, using spells to raise the dead. Well, the townsponies captured him and put an end to that, but when they tried to kill him for his crimes, they found him magically protected and unable to die, so they banished him instead.”

“Does anypony know where he went?” Silver asked.

“Not that I know of,” the crystal pony replied, shaking his head, “You’d have to check the official town records to know for sure. Why, are you a bounty hunter out to get him?”

“Not exactly,” Silver replied, already rising to search for Beryl’s town records, “I want that power he had.”

“Oh,” the crystal pony said, his face transitioning into a frown.

He scampered off through the library as Silver Gaze set out to look for the town records. With a bit of help from the librarian, he located the massive tomes and hauled the earlier ones over to the desk he’d been sitting at before. Flipping them open and sending dust scattering everywhere, he flipped through the accounts of everything that had happened in Beryl since its founding. At last he found what he was looking for, information on Frozen Heart’s trial and sentencing.

“Crime: necromancy. Punishment: execution by decapitation,” Silver read aloud as he ran his hoof under the print, “Punishment: execution by magical cremation. Punishment: eternal banishment.”

So it was true. It seemed that the citizens of Beryl had tried several different ways to kill Frozen Heart, and none of them had worked. So, instead, they’d let him go, but forbidden him from ever entering the town again. If they couldn’t harm him, there was a possibility that he was still alive, and if he was then he could share his secrets. All Silver needed now was his location.

“Last seen traveling down western road in direction of Chrysolite,” he read in the notes beneath Frozen Heart’s file, “I wonder if the ponies in Chrysolite know anything.”

“He’s right over here,” called the crystal pony who’d been talking to Silver earlier, causing his ears to prick up.

He turned to see the yellow pony leading a group of guards around the bookshelves to where he was sitting.

“Quartz Trust here says you’ve been looking into things you shouldn’t be,” the guard captain said to Silver before grabbing him in his magic, “We don’t want any necromancers in our town.”

Before Silver Gaze could protest, the guard lifted him in his magic and began to drag him out of the library. The other guards followed close behind, their spears at the ready in case the suspected necromancer tried to escape. Silver protested his innocence all the way to the outskirts of Beryl, but the guards ignored him and tossed him onto the still muddy path with a warning not to return. As he picked himself up out of the mud, he looked scornfully back at the town. Once he had his power, this place would pay for how it had treated him. He wiped the mud from his cloak and pulled it tighter around him before trudging through the drizzle toward Chrysolite.

* * *

A long and miserable trek later, Silver Gaze reached the gates to the dull green crystalline city of Chrysolite. Rain still dripped from the sky, and thunder sounded across the heavens as the earth pony traveled through the town. His first thought was to find the library and search the town records for any mention of Frozen Heart, but it turned out that Chrysolite didn’t have a library; the records instead were kept within the keep, and only select ponies were allowed to read them.

He wasn’t willing to give up his search so easily, and instead tried to ask the townsponies about the mysterious pony who wouldn’t die. Few seemed to want to speak to him, shunning him as an outsider. Among those who did talk to him, many had no idea who Frozen Heart was, and the rest refused to speak to him after he mentioned the necromancer’s name. It seemed likely that Frozen Heart had been here, but getting any information about him was proving to be nearly impossible.

Eventually, he found his way into the more impoverished part of the small town, drawn to a small alchemy shop tucked tightly between two other buildings. A small bell rang as he pushed the door open. Within the shop were shelves piled high with ingredients Silver recognized at a glance. A small stove in the center of the room glowed a dull red, projecting heat that soon dried the moisture that still clung to the earth pony. Behind a counter at the far end of the shop sat a wizened crystal pony with a dull sapphire coat.

“Greetings, traveler,” she called out to Silver, “What can I help you with today?”

“I’m just passing through,” he said as he examined the satchels and phials spilling off the shelves that lined the walls before picking up a mortar and pestle, “How much for these?”

He currently had only a limited amount of Shards, maybe enough for another meal, and he knew he shouldn’t waste them. Still, if he could get a bit of alchemy equipment for a good price now, that would mean he’d need to scrounge for less later, and the potions he made would be better, ensuring higher prices would be paid. It wouldn’t be long before he’d have to start mixing up and selling potions to survive.

“Let’s have a look,” the apothecary said, gesturing for Silver to bring his alchemy equipment over to her, “So, what brings you to Chrysolite?”

“I’m searching for a necromancer,” Silver Gaze replied without thinking while the elderly alchemist examined the mortar and pestle.

“You must mean Frozen Heart,” she said, surprising the earth pony, “I can sell that to you for twelve Shards, no less.”

“Wait, you know about Frozen Heart?” Silver asked, leaning over the counter.

“Yes, the undying one lived here for quite a while,” she replied, sliding the mortar and pestle back across the counter, “In fact-”

She was interrupted by the ringing of the bell inside her shop’s door. Silver looked over his shoulder to see two guards wearing the town’s armor and a diminutive crystal pony who he’d talked to earlier. He quickly turned back around, praying to every deity he could think of that the guards weren’t there for him.

“What can I help you with today?” the elderly mare behind the counter asked, looking around Silver at the guards.

“This fellow been asking you questions about Frozen Heart too?” one of the guards asked abruptly.

“Yes, what’s the harm in that?” the mare asked, though the guard stopped paying attention to her after she’d confirmed that Silver had indeed been asking questions.

“You’re awful curious, aren’t you?” the guard asked, grabbing Silver and spinning him around, “You’ve been asking an awful lot of ponies questions about that necromancer. Why?”

“Well,” Silver said, swallowing forcefully and trying to come up with an excuse but finding none, “I want to meet him.”

“Wrong answer,” the guard said, “The last thing we need in this town is another necromancer. You’re coming with us.”

“Where are we going?” Silver asked as the guard roughly bound his hooves.

“The dungeons,” the guard replied, marching him out of the shop, “Then the count will decide what to do with you.”

* * *

The cell Silver was thrown in was small, damp, and dark, the walls made of roughly cut stone instead of the crystal the castle above was constructed from. After marching him through Chrysolite, the guards had removed all his possessions, including the last of his potions, his remaining Shards, and even his cloak. Now he was naked and alone in a small cell.

“Hello?” a weak voice spoke from the darkness, causing Silver to jump involuntarily.

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t alone after all. Slowly his eyes adjusted to the darkness until he could make out the form of a silvery gray crystal mare cowering in the corner of the cell. She looked like she’d been here awhile, the color drained from her coat due to her lack of sunlight or fresh air. In fact, she didn’t seem to shimmer like other crystal ponies, proving that she had been broken emotionally by either this place or the jailers.

“Hi,” Silver responded, not sure how to proceed, but not wanting to be rude to his cellmate.

“I’m . . . Resplendent Glory,” she introduced herself, scooting out of the corner a bit.

“Silver Gaze,” Silver responded, introducing himself as well.

“I haven’t seen anypony thrown into this cell in a long time,” Glory said, uncurling a bit more, “What did you do to get sent down here?”

“I asked too many questions,” Silver said, sitting down on the cold stone, “The guards didn’t like me poking around and asking about Frozen Heart.”

“That’s why?” the mare said, her ears pricking up at the mention of the necromancer, “How long did they say you’d be here?”

“Until the count decides what to do with me.”

“That’s what they told me a year ago,” Glory said, her eyes falling to stare at the floor.

“Oh,” Silver said, his hopes that he’d be out soon dashed, “So, why are you here?”

“It started generations ago,” Glory began to explain, sharing her story, “My great-great grandmother took in a weary traveler who’d been injured badly. She allowed him to stay in one of the rooms in her inn while he recovered. She didn’t know that he was Frozen Heart, fleeing from Beryl. He never made any trouble, so he was allowed to stay for years, all the way up to the time I took over the inn from my mother. Then somepony figured out who the mysterious stranger upstairs truly was, and the town tried to capture him. When they couldn’t kill him, they banished him from the town and locked me up here for sheltering him.”

“Do you know where he went?” Silver asked desperately.

“Oh yes, we were very close,” Glory said, nodding her head, “He said that if he ever had to leave town he’d be heading to Embershard. He has a friend there named . . . Pleasant Meadows, I think, who would take him in.”

Silver sat back and exhaled deeply as he processed the information. He now knew where Frozen Heart was, or at least where he had gone a year ago. With luck, he’d still be in Embershard. But as helpful as this information was, Silver was unable to use it locked up in prison. Judging by the mare sitting across from him, his condition wasn’t likely to change any time soon.

“Why are you looking for Frozen Heart anyway?” Glory asked.

“That power he has,” Silver said, his attention returning to the present, “I want it.”

“Oh,” Glory said, frowning, “I don’t think-”

She stopped talking as the lock on the door clicked, and scurried back into the corner as the door opened, allowing light to spill into the room, blinding Silver. As his vision adjusted, he could make out the silhouettes of a few of Chrysolite’s guards.

“Get up,” one of them ordered, roughly dragging Silver to his hooves, “Looks like you get out early after all.”

“Wh-why?” Silver asked as the guards marched him through the dungeons.

“This is why,” one of them said, shoving a poster with Silver’s likeness sketched on it in his face, “Prince Emerald Wave’s banished you from the Empire, so we can’t keep you here.”

The sun had already sunk below the horizon, and rain was beginning to pour from the clouds overhead as the guards led him out of Chrysolite’s castle. A few of the town’s residents looked up in alarm as they saw the guards forcing the earth pony to march through the streets, but they were wise enough to return to their business and not get involved. Eventually, they reached the city gates, which were closed for the night. After a brief and unpleasant exchange between the guards and the gatekeeper, they were allowed to pass. As soon as the guards threw Silver out of the town, the gates were shut behind him, locking him out in the rain, alone with not even a cloak to protect him from the elements. Glaring back at the town, Silver trudged his away from Chrysolite, heading northwest toward Embershard.

Deal With the Devil

Chapter Three: Deal With the Devil

During the night, the pounding rain changed to snow, the flakes settling on Silver’s sopping wet back and making him even more miserable. In just two days, he’d been thrown out of three separate towns and lost absolutely everything, which helped his mood not the slightest. Once in Embershard, he’d need to find Frozen Heart fast, before starvation got to him and he would be sidetracked by creating and selling potions just to survive.

At last, Embershard came in sight, the sun glinting off the onyx and ruby buildings that rose above the town’s walls. As the city gates opened, the weary earth pony slipped inside, searching for a fire that he could warm up at. Posters with his face on them adorned the bulletin posts of the town, and he grabbed a few as he trotted down the street, tossing them into the first fire he saw. The beggars standing around the fire gave Silver a look as he burned the papers, but kept to themselves and didn’t ask him any questions.

Once Silver was warm and fairly dry, he left the fire and searched the town for Frozen Heart. The last thing he wanted was to raise any ruckus here, especially after what had happened in the last few towns, so he was hesitant to ask anypony about the necromancer. Resplendent Glory had said that Frozen Heart was planning on meeting a pony named Pleasant Meadows here in Embershard. Hopefully asking questions about Frozen’s friend wouldn’t draw too much attention to himself.

Pleasant Meadows didn’t seem to be under suspicion for harboring the necromancer, as several ponies were happy to point out exactly where his alchemy shop was located. Silver trotted through the more wealthy part of town as he searched for the shop, warily glancing at the posters declaring his banishment that he spied every so often. Eventually, he reached the towering crystal structure that Pleasant Meadows ran a shop out of and stepped inside.

Within, things were very familiar to Silver Gaze. Alchemy equipment covered tables, and bins of rare ingredients covered the walls and floor. At the back of the room was a dozing crystal unicorn with a dull blue coat. Behind him, Silver could make out a room that looked very much like the laboratory he’d had set up in the Crystal City. After he finished soaking in the sights of his profession, Silver rang the small bell on the sales counter to get the unicorn’s attention.

“Huh?” the stallion snorted in surprise as he woke up from his nap, “Oh, guess I dozed off there. What can I get for you today?”

“I need to speak to Frozen Heart,” Silver stated bluntly.

“I don’t think I have any of those,” Pleasant Meadows said, pretending badly to have misunderstood Silver’s request, “I could check in the back.”

“The necromancer, Frozen Heart, I need to talk to him,” Silver repeated, undeterred.

“Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Meadows said with a frown, “I don’t know who this Frozen Heart is, but-”

“Resplendent Glory told me he’d be here,” Silver cut the alchemist off.

“You talked to Resplendent Glory?” Meadows asked, apparently recognizing the name.

“In the Chrysolite prisons, yes,” Silver replied.

“Well, she was wrong,” Pleasant Meadows said, “I don’t know where she’d get that idea, or why she’d tell it to you in the first place. Let me guess, you’re a bounty hunter come to track down the great necromancer and bring him to justice?”

“No,” Silver said, “I want to learn from him.”

Meadows cocked an eyebrow at hearing that. Silver took his silence as an invitation to explain further.

“Somehow he, an earth pony, found a way to use magic,” Silver said, “I want to do the same, to have that power, and to teach everypony a lesson who’s looked down on me because of my low status.”

Something changed in the crystal pony’s demeanor as Silver explained his intentions, but he seemed more worried than relieved to hear the plans the earth pony had.

“I don’t know,” Meadows said with a sigh, “He doesn’t like to be disturbed, but I’ll ask him.”

Silver waited as Meadows headed into the back of his shop, looking nervously over his shoulder at the door, expecting Embershard’s guards to burst through at any moment and throw him out of town. Nothing happened until the crystal unicorn returned and beckoned for Silver to follow him. Stepping around the counter, he followed Meadows through his laboratory and up the stairs to the upper level of the building. At the end of an empty hallway, Meadows opened a plain-looking door and allowed Silver to step through.

“So, you’ve been looking for me,” an eerie voice spoke from off to Silver’s right.

As Meadows closed the door behind him, Silver Gaze turned to look at the speaker. A pony that surely had to be Frozen Heart sat at a small table, his entire body wrapped in cloths. He motioned for Silver to sit across from him, and he did so, accepting the plate of food that was pushed across the table to him.

“So, why all this trouble to find me?” the bundle of cloths asked as Silver began to eat.

“You know what happened?” Silver asked.

“Not exactly,” Frozen Heart admitted, “But you look as if you’ve been through a harrowing journey, and judging by how fast you’re consuming that food, you haven’t eaten in a while.”

“I want to learn how to use magic and have power like yours,” Silver said, staring at the eyes that peered from between the layers of cloth.

“I see,” the necromancer replied, “Is there some reason for this?”

“I’m a skilled alchemist, but I never get any respect from others because I’m an earth pony,” Silver said.

“This is not an uncommon problem,” Frozen Heart said, leaning back in his chair, “In fact, it was a very similar situation that led me to seek out the great powers.”

“How did you do it?” Silver asked, leaning forward, “How did you gain the ability to use magic?”

The necromancer sat in silence for a minute, pondering whether or not to share the secret of his power with this diminutive earth pony who reminded him so much of himself all those centuries ago. Eventually, he decided that his story had to be shared, but not for the reasons that Silver desired.

“When I was much younger, I too was often shunned and looked down upon as a powerless earth pony,” Frozen narrated his personal history, “I turned to necromancy, an art that I could accomplish using runes and chants instead of traditional magic. But, even among necromancers I was disrespected, and I sought another source of power. I searched the ancient tomes and rituals of necromancy and eventually discovered the source of power necromancers long ago had used.”

“There is a realm separate from our own known as the Soul Cairn. The rare soul gems that necromancers sometimes use were once common, and their use powered the Soul Cairn. Occasionally, when a necromancer wanted greater power than could be afforded through the natural ways, they would enter the Soul Cairn and strike a bargain with the lords of the realm, immensely powerful beings known as the Ideal Masters. The Ideal Masters could grant any wish that a necromancer could desire, in exchange for the souls that they needed to feed on to survive.”

“Needless to say, I found something like that to be very promising. An old shrine to the Ideal Masters was built within the land the Crystal Empire now covers, so I followed the aged map there and performed the ritual detailed in the ancient tomes. I entered the Soul Cairn and met with the Ideal Masters, selling my soul for immortality. That is how I was able to gain this power you now envy.”

“Do you still have the instructions for the ritual around?” Silver asked when it appeared the necromancer had finished his story.

“I do, but I will not give them to you,” Frozen Heart replied.

“Why not?” Silver demanded.

“The Ideal Masters are crooked beings who will twist your wish around on you,” Frozen said, rising from his seat, “They cannot be trusted, and any power they grant you is tainted. I do not wish for you to become like me.”

Frozen began unraveling the cloths that covered him until his bare flesh was exposed. Silver’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he gazed at the necromancer and his stomach flipped, threatening to return the meal he’d just eaten. Magical burns covered Frozen’s flesh entirely, still fresh and refusing to scab over. In addition, gouges, cuts, and stab marks covered his body. The necromancer removed his head entirely, holding it in a hoof as he stared back at Silver before placing it back on his mutilated stump of a neck.

“I asked for immortality, and the Ideal Masters granted me the inability to die,” Frozen said, beginning to wrap himself back up, “But, they didn’t tell me that I could still be injured, and I could still feel pain. My injuries will never heal, but they will not kill me. I am afflicted by pain every waking moment because I made an ill-considered deal with the Ideal Masters. I will not allow you to make the same mistake.”

“I’ll be careful,” Silver promised, trying to wipe the image of what was left of Frozen Heart from his mind, “I’ll make sure the deal is fair, and I won’t let myself be fooled.”

“You think yourself clever,” Frozen scoffed, “But the Ideal Masters are craftier still. There can be no fair bargaining with them. My word is final; now get out of here before I become angry.”

Silver fumed with rage. This necromancer had made a bad deal, that was for sure, but he didn’t truly understand. Silver was certain he wouldn’t be fooled as easily, and could get exactly what he wanted with no strings attached. But this old fool thought he knew better, and was denying him access to the power he so desperately needed. Perhaps he was lying, and he really wasn’t in as much pain as he said. Maybe he just wanted to keep the power to himself!

“Looks like you have company,” Frozen observed, pulling aside the curtain on a window, “Best not keep them waiting.”

Before Silver could say anything, he found himself falling through the floor, as if it had suddenly turned to liquid beneath his hooves. He crashed through to the lower floor of the shop, picking himself up as the door to the outside opened. A few guards in Embershard armor strode into Pleasant Meadows’s alchemy shop, immediately fixing their attention on Silver Gaze.

“That’s the one,” one of the guards said, grabbing the earth pony and dragging him outside.

He struggled against the soldiers as they tried to remove him from the shop, desperately trying to get back inside. As he tried to free himself from their grasp, the crystal ponies grew tired of his antics and clubbed him over the head. As his eyes slid shut, Silver managed to catch a glimpse of the poster declaring his banishment held by one of the guards, and then he knew only blackness.

* * *

When he awoke, he found himself lying in the dark outside of Embershard’s gates. A fine layer of snow had settled on him while he was unconscious, but the flakes no longer fell from the sky. As he stood and worked feeling back into his extremities, he looked back at Embershard. Another town had thrown him out, but this time things were different. The past few times he simply moved on from the town he was banished from, but now he really needed to get back into Embershard. Frozen Heart had admitted to still possessing the instructions on how to contact the Ideal Masters; now all Silver had to do was steal them.

Keeping an eye on the patches of torchlight that signified guards, he waited until the right moment to clamber up the gates, his hooves seeking purchase on the wood. After a struggle, he managed to climb over and land within the town, ducking into the shadows as the gatekeeper examined the disturbance. Dodging guards, he slunk through Embershard until Pleasant Meadows’s shop was in view. Climbing up the sides of the other nearby buildings, he managed to reach the roof of the shop and snuck around until he was balancing precariously outside one of its upstairs windows.

With the sound of shattering glass, Silver Gaze entered the building and instantly ran into the shadows to avoid being seen. After a few tense minutes, it appeared that nopony was coming to investigate the break-in, so Silver snuck out of the room he’d broken into and trotted down the silent halls. He passed by the room in which Frozen Heart tossed about in his sleep, hoping that he would not have to enter to find the ritual instructions, but fearing that he would.

The door to the room next to the necromancer’s bedchambers was open just a crack, and Silver pushed it open the rest of the way to reveal a study. After passing through, he closed the door back to its original position and set about searching the room. A thick book sat open upon the desk, an inkwell and quill nearby. As he flipped through the book, Silver realized that it was an autobiography being written by Frozen Heart about his life. Flipping through to the section he was most interested in, he found the story of the necromancer’s rise to power just as he had told it.

Nearby sat a journal filled with less official writings that also told the necromancer’s story, helping him recall the centuries of his life. When it too yielded no useful information, Silver set it down and turned to the desk’s drawers. Prying one open with a nearby letter opener, the earth pony found what he was looking for. Within the drawer was an ancient book bound in oddly colored leather that appeared to be pony flesh. A marker was placed in the tome about halfway through, and Silver flipped to the marked page, discovering instructions on how to enter the Soul Cairn. A piece of parchment fell out of the book, and Silver examined the map, placing the Shrine to the Ideal Masters in the mountains to the west of Horsehead Lake.

The power that Frozen Heart possessed would soon be his.

* * *

Three days later, Silver Gaze stood within the Shrine to the Ideal Masters, drawing complex runes around a circular dip in the floor of the ancient temple. The ancient tome of necromancy sat nearby, and he referenced it from time to time to make sure that he was performing the ritual correctly. After stealing the book and map, the alchemist had stolen saddlebags from Pleasant Meadows’s shop and filled them with everything he could find that would be useful, including a compact alchemy set and food for his journey.

Many of the ingredients he needed for the ritual had been easy to get, either from the alchemy shop, like the Timberwolf toenails, or from himself, like hair from an earth pony’s tail. Other ingredients had been harder to come by, like the pure essence of Deathbell, or the liver of a rabbit. He’d had to travel through the wild north of the Empire in order to find and fabricate such elements before making his way to the well-hidden shrine near Horsehead Lake. Now he was nearly ready to complete the ceremony.

The decanters and alembics set near the doorway hissed and bubbled, brewing the specific mixture Silver would need to open the portal. After he’d finished scrawling the runes and arcane symbols on the stone, he collected the finished potion and poured it out into the grooves that crisscrossed the indentation in the ground.

The effect was spectacular. As the potion filled the cracks completely, a bright blue light began to pulse up from them. The runes surrounding the portal glowed as well, and the rings of stone began to rotate, sinking down into the ground. As they spun about, they eventually formed a makeshift staircase leading down into a swirling hole of utter blackness.

Silver swallowed hard before placing his hooves on the stairs. Now that he was here, he wasn’t so sure about what he was doing. Was entering a realm controlled by powerful supernatural beings really worth the respect he desired? He’d been confident before that he could get a fair deal with them, but Frozen Heart’s warning now echoed in his mind. What if he ended up doing something foolish, like selling his soul?

The memories of all his humiliations echoed through his mind as well, especially the most recent disaster with Prince Emerald Wave. He’d been disgraced because of his position in society as an earth pony, and not for the first time. He couldn’t go on living like this, constantly putting up with the nobles and their attitude toward him. If he wanted any respect, he’d have to take it.

He stepped down the stairs, passing through the darkness and entering the Soul Cairn. As the stairs came to a halt, he found his hooves standing on ash-covered ground that stretched out in all directions. The sky was a dark purple, churning with light and occasionally lightning that would strike the ground below. Twisted and blackened buildings stuck out of the ground in places, as well as floating in the sky, powered by magic Silver couldn’t hope to comprehend.

The stairs behind him ascended into the sky, disappearing and forcing him to continue onward. The only way out now was to speak with the Ideal Masters; no doubt opening the portal had alerted them that a pony wanted their attention. Silver tried to remember what he was supposed to do now that he was within the Soul Cairn, cursing himself for not bringing the book along. He trotted ahead, following the path that necromancers before him had followed, traveling through the twisted landscape until he reached a hulking building seemingly constructed from obsidian. He climbed to the roof until he was standing upon the pedestal used many times in the past to speak to the Ideal Masters.

Lightning crackled across the sky more violently as his hooves touched the ancient stone, and a fierce wind cut through the air. Silver could smell decaying flesh in the wind, as well as the tang of ancient magic. Four banks of clouds began to form columns in front of him, power radiating from their dark centers, until they burst open and the Ideal Masters revealed themselves.

Silver Gaze gaped in amazement as he stared at the mountain-sized creatures standing before him. They appeared to be composed of pure elements, one of ice, another of stone, the third of fire, and the last of storm clouds held together by lightning. It was hard to make out their exact form as the elements they were composed of were constantly shifting and churning about, never staying still for even a moment, but Silver was able to make out their basic shape. Their bodies were similar to a Minotaur’s, except for being narrower in the shoulders and longer in the legs, but their heads were eerily ponyish. Even with their features constantly shifting, Silver could make out the eyes burning in their faces and could feel them staring at him, boring through his flesh and soul.

“EQUINE, WHY HAVE YOU COME TO SPEAK TO US?” the one composed of ice asked, a blizzard blasting from its maw and covering Silver in snow and icicles, “IT HAS BEEN LONG SINCE ONE OF YOUR RACE VISITED THIS PLACE.”

“I-I’m Silver Gaze,” he chattered, feeling very small and insignificant standing before the Ideal Masters, “And I-I came to a-ask for the p-p-power to repay the wrongs that h-have been d-d-done to me.”

“SO WE HAVE NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN BY YOUR WORLD!” the flaming Ideal Master said, heat radiating from its mouth as it spoke, melting the ice and snow covering Silver, “TELL US, DID THE STORIES OF OUR POWER DO US JUSTICE?”

“Most assuredly not,” Silver replied, panting from the sudden heat, “I never imagined the power that you could possess until the moment I beheld you with my own eyes.”

“SO, YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE, AND YOU HAVE COME HERE FOR A PURPOSE,” the stone-creature said, avalanches cascading down its arms as it gestured, “YOU MUST ALSO THEN KNOW HOW WE OPERATE. YOU WISH FOR POWER, BUT YOU MUST REALIZE THAT NOTHING IS WITHOUT COST, ESPECIALLY A GIFT LIKE THIS.”

“Yes, I’ve considered it, and I have an offer,” Silver said, trying to restore the confidence that he’d felt before he’d entered the Soul Cairn, “There are many who have wronged me that I seek revenge on, whole towns in fact. If you give me the ability, I will give you their souls in return.”

“IT’SASTARTBUTNOTEXACTLYADEQUATE,” the Ideal Master made of storm clouds said as fast as the lightning that coursed through its body.

“You want my soul,” Silver said.

“IT SEEMS THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO PART WITH IT,” the flame-creature said, once more heating up the entirety of the Soul Cairn, “PERHAPS YOU DO NOT THINK THAT THESE POWERS ARE WORTH IT.”

“Well, no,” Silver admitted, “I don’t think anything is really worth selling my soul.”

“PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FULL EXTENT OF THE POWER WE OFFER YOU,” the stone-creature spoke, and Silver tried to shield himself as chunks of rock went raining down around him.

“WE HAVE AN OFFER FOR YOU, IF YOU STILL WISH TO MAKE A DEAL,” the ice-creature said, apparently speaking for the group, “WE WILL GRANT YOU THE POWERS YOU ASK, SO THAT YOU CAN DECIDE FOR YOURSELF IF THEY ARE WORTH THE PRICE WE REQUEST. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO USE THE FULL POWERS THAT WE GRANT YOU AND WILL SEND US THE SOULS OF EVERYPONY YOU KILL. THEN, SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE, WE WILL ASK AGAIN. IF YOU STILL THINK THAT THE POWERS AREN’T WORTH YOUR SOUL, THEN WE WILL TAKE THEM BACK AND OUR BUSINESS WILL BE CONCLUDED. BUT, IF YOU CHOOSE TO GIVE US YOUR SOUL INSTEAD, WE WILL ALLOW YOU TO KEEP YOUR POWERS.”

Silver thought over the Ideal Masters’ offer. It seemed too good to be true, yet he was strongly tempted to take it. The power they offered, even temporarily, could grant him the respect he deserved. And who knew when they would ask for him to make a decision? It could be hours, it could be decades. When that time came, he’d just have to cut his losses and refuse their offer, getting the better end of the deal with these creatures.

“I accept,” Silver said, a grin spreading across his face.

Long Live the King

Chapter Four: Long Live the King

Silver Gaze found himself lying within the doorway of the Shrine to the Ideal Masters with no idea exactly what had happened or how much time had passed since his encounter with the Ideal Masters. But, he knew that they had kept their end of the bargain at least. He could feel the absolute power crackling beneath the surface of his flesh. When he exercised his power, black and purple magic swirled from his forehead. He checked his reflection in his alchemy equipment and confirmed that there was no horn there; he was still an earth pony. Yet somehow he could now cast magic just like a unicorn could.

But just because he had no horn didn’t mean that his appearance was exactly the same as it was before. His light gray coat seemed a shade darker than what he’d been born with, and his mane was swept back crazily over his skull. As he used his magic, a purple mist seemed to trail from the edges from his eyes, as if he was leaking pure energy. After testing out his powers a bit more and becoming accustomed to them, he left the shrine and headed out toward his first target: Embershard.

* * *

The town looked quite peaceful as Silver approached it, the sun glinting off the crystal towers in the afternoon light. He considered turning back, or at least going around the town. After all, the worst they’d done to him was throwing him out on the orders of Crystal Empire’s ruler. But, he’d made a promise to the Ideal Masters that he would take revenge on those who had wronged him and he would give them their souls. When the Ideal Masters asked for his soul, he would be forced to give up this power, and if they saw him spare this town now, they might ask right away. Silver wanted to be able to use his powers to topple Prince Emerald Wave, and that would never happen if he gave them up so soon. He approached the town gates. If they let him pass through, he’d do nothing, but if they tried to stop him . . .

“Hold it!” the gatekeeper ordered as he checked a poster, comparing the pony sketched upon it to Silver, “I can’t allow you to pass.”

“I just want to go through the town,” Silver said.

“Can’t allow it,” the gatekeeper said, drawing the attention of the nearby guards, “You’ve been banished from the realm, so you’ll just have to turn around and go back the way you came.”

“Stop!” one of the guards said as Silver tried to step through into the town, and thrust his spear up under his chin.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Silver said, looking down at the spear.

“Why?” the guard asked, “What’s an earth pony like you going to do?”

That comment implying he was a helpless earth pony hit a nerve in Silver. Far too many times somepony had done the same thing to him, treating him as inferior because of his race. Within, something just snapped. And now that he had the power to do something, he took the opportunity.

Purple mist billowed from Silver’s eyes and his irises shifted from a steely grey to dull red. The guard looked puzzled at the change in his appearance before a slicing blade of dark gray crystal shot up from the ground and cut him in half. The other guards scrambled to attack Silver, but he turned his gaze on them and mounds of gemstone shot up from the ground, crushing or immobilizing them. As the gatekeeper tried to run away, Silver directed a blast of pure magic at him, causing him to be wracked by agony before his heart stopped and he slumped over.

The nearby townsponies going about their business stopped and stared in shock as the guards were brutally murdered. They turned tail and attempted to run as Silver strode into Embershard, blasting away the walls of crystal he had erected. Jets of magical flame blasted down the street, consuming the town’s residents as they tried to flee. The mist from Silver’s eyes seemed to grow stronger and a green light glowed within them as the townsponies were killed and their souls were sent to the Ideal Masters. The earth pony felt a sudden jolt of energy from within as it happened, unlocking powers he didn’t know he had.

Pouring his energy into his magic, Silver caused jagged mounds of crystal to rise from the ground, shaping them into vaguely ponyish shapes. With a blast of power from his forehead the statues came to life and galloped off through the town to take care of the problems he couldn’t take on personally. As the screams of ponies killed in the distance by his minions reached his ears, Silver trotted confidently up to Pleasant Meadows’s shop.

“Frozen Heart!” he yelled, his voice booming across the town, “Come out!”

When nopony exited the alchemy shop, Silver frowned and tore the whole front of the building off with his magic. The shop began to collapse, the debris crushing Pleasant Meadows as he tried to escape. Frozen Heart slid down the rubble to his friend, the trailing ends of his bandages whipping in the wind that Silver had unknowingly conjured.

“Face me!” Silver demanded, but Frozen Heart ignored him and continued to work on pulling Meadows out from under the collapsed shop.

The green light in Silver’s eyes burned brighter, and his pupils constricted to slits. How dare he ignore him now? A sheet of crystal shot up from the ground, separating Frozen from Meadows and sheering through the cloths covering the necromancer’s face. Focusing his powers, Frozen burned through the crystal, allowing him to reach for his friend again. Before he could, Silver caused crystal to rise up and encase Meadows entirely, his scream silenced as the crystal filled his mouth and burrowed down his throat.

“So, I see you ignored my advice,” Frozen said, fuming and turning to face Silver, “You went to the Ideal Masters anyway. What price did you have to pay for this? Your soul, your mind, or perhaps you sold all the goodness within you!”

“I paid nothing for this power,” Silver said, allowing crystals to rise from the ground and lift him up so that he was looking down on the necromancer, “Only a fool like you would willingly sell his soul.”

“You do not know what you are dealing with,” Frozen said defiantly, “You may not know it yet, but you have sold something. I suspect it truly is the goodness in you. Why else would you attack a defenseless town that has done you no wrong?”

“Done me no wrong?” Silver scoffed, causing the crystal he was standing on to form a ring around the necromancer, entrapping him, “They dragged me from this very shop and threw me out of town! And you! You tried to dissuade me from seeking the Ideal Masters. Am I glad I didn’t listen? If I had, then I’d be poor and starving, trying to eke out a living making and selling potions. Now I could be a king!”

“King? You’re no more than a puppet for the Ideal Masters,” Frozen said, “I tried to keep you from falling into the same trap I did, but you didn’t listen. Now I have to do what is right and destroy you, lest your corruption spreads.”

Before Silver could respond, Frozen sent a blast of green fire shooting out from him in all directions, melting the crystal Silver stood upon. As he leapt into the air, Silver found that crystal instantly jumped up from the ground to meet him. He jumped from pillar to pillar until he was on solid ground again.

He ducked as a blast of flame shot over his head and erected a pillar of crystal to block the next attack from Frozen. Silver sent his own waves of fire around at the necromancer, catching his cloths on fire and burning them off. Frozen countered, blasting pure magic at Silver and breaking his shield into shattered splinters of crystal.

Silver lowered his head and blasted pure magic at Frozen as well. The two blasts met in midair, pushing against each other and radiating heat from where they met. A groove began to form in the ground as the two energy beams and the ponies that controlled them fought for dominance. Silver felt additional power enter his body, strengthening him, and with a slight pain in his forehead the dark energy began to advance toward Frozen, forcing him to his knees as it pushed his attack back.

“The Ideal Masters have abandoned you!” Silver cackled as the bubbling purple light neared the walking corpse.

“No, I abandoned them, proudly,” Frozen said as his magical attack waned, “Do not wait to do the same until it is too late.”

As he finished speaking, the necromancer dropped his power, and the pure, undiluted magic from Silver crashed into him, burning him away until not even ashes remained. The unkillable pony was finally dead. Silver stared at the small crater in the ground, shocked by what had just happened. He’d actually won, and it was all because of this new power he wielded. With this, he could do anything.

A faint buzz in his head alerted him that his crystalline minions had returned. As he turned around to look at them, he was surprised to see a crystal pony standing between them. He wore a crown upon his head, but his foreleg was broken and his royal robes were scorched, bearing testament to the fact that he could very easily have been dead at this moment.

“What is this?” Silver asked.

“I am the count of this town,” the crystal pony said, prostrating himself, “Embershard surrenders to your might and will do whatever you command.”

“You wish for me to rule over you?” Silver asked, intrigued.

“Y-yes,” the count stammered out, obviously terrified, “You are obviously fit to be our king, if you wish.”

Silver had known he’d been right a few minutes ago, but this was added confirmation. He could be a king now, and he would be. If the ponies of Embershard were willing to serve as his slaves, then he’d allow it.

“Very well, I shall be your king,” Silver Gaze said to the count.

“Of course, your majesty,” the crystal pony said, rising, “If I may ask, what shall we call you?”

“You may call me King Sombra,” Silver said, coming up with a name out of the blue, and it seemed to fit.

* * *

The next day, Silver left the remains of Embershard, a few of the town’s ponies following him. Apparently, seeing everypony else in the town killed had convinced them to stay near to their new king and fight for him. Now they were on the way to Chrysolite, where Silver intended to repeat the successes he’d had at Embershard.

With his newfound powers, he couldn’t see why he wouldn’t. He’d felt his strength increase tenfold in the past day, imbuing him with more power than he ever could have imagined. His physical appearance had changed as well, which he’d noticed the night before in Castle Embershard’s mirrors. His coat had subtly darkened another shade of gray and his mane and tail now seemed to flow in a weak ethereal breeze, like he’d heard Equestria’s Princesses’ did. The purple mist seemed to flow from his eyes nearly constantly now, and he caught flashes of greens in the whites from time to time. He also realized that his vision was now perfect, and he had no need for the glasses that had been correcting his sight for years. A small knob had formed on his forehead, perhaps a precursor to a unicorn’s horn. If one was to appear, Silver hoped it would be permanent, that way he could still use magic even after giving his powers back to the Ideal Masters.

He still knew inside that one day he’d have to make a decision about the power he’d been given, and he’d have to decide to give it back, or else lose his soul. But, he didn’t want to think about it at the moment. Right now, he just wanted to relish the feeling of strength. At last, he no longer had to take the scorn and the ridicule of the races that considered themselves above him. Everypony who’d ever claimed an earth pony like him would never amount to something were wrong, the crown upon his head proved that.

His thoughts ceased their wanderings and returned to the present as he neared the town of Chrysolite. Unlike Embershard, the emerald towers of Chrysolite did not sparkle in the sun. The dark storm clouds that followed Silver Gaze blocked out the light of the day star, shrouding the land in gloom. The dark king strode up to the gates proudly, daring the guards to challenge him.

“Greetings, traveler,” the gatekeeper said, standing and trotting over to Silver as he entered the town, “What has brought you to our humble town, and why are your companions so heavily armed?”

“Do you not recognize me?” Silver asked before turning to a nearby guard that was scratching his head, “Or perhaps you? After all, it was you who helped to throw me from this town into the cold without any of my possessions.”

“Silver Gaze?” the guard asked, fishing through his saddlebags for the banishment poster.

“That’s right,” Silver replied, “I had very little, it’s true, but you took everything from me, and threw me in the dungeon for no more than asking questions.”

Crystal shot up from the ground, lifting the guard into the air and pinning his limbs. The other guards shouted and ran to help, but Silver erected a wall of crystal in their path, keeping them from reaching him.

“Do you deny it?” Silver asked, trotting closer to the immobilized pony.

“N-no,” the guard admitted, “But it was just orders! Please don’t kill me!”

A part of Silver wanted to spare this pony; after all, he had most likely just been following orders. But that rational part of his mind was drowned out by the dark rage surging inside of him. Hatred powered Silver’s abilities, and as he thought of what had happened in this town, it grew, until the crystal restraining the guard crushed him into pulp.

The Embershard ponies took it as a sign to rush around the wall of crystal and attack the remaining guards. As they busied themselves with attacking the guards at the gate, Silver trotted through the town, causing a stack of crystal to raise him up so that he could see over the buildings. His irises turned red and his pupils constricted as he sent waves of flame down the streets, setting the fleeing townsponies afire. Buildings crumbled and melted into sludge as he turned his gaze upon them, reducing Chrysolite into a pile of rubble in a matter of minutes.

One particular building he turned his personal attention to. Propelled by the shafts of crystal sprouting from the ground, Silver made his way over to the alchemy shop in the poorer part of town. The front of the building was torn apart as Silver focused his power on it, and the elderly alchemist within fled as the shop crumbled around her. A falling piece of crystal pinned her hindleg to the ground, and she struggled to pull herself free before looking up at her attacker.

“What did I ever do to you?” she asked, staring directly into Silver’s burning eyes.

“I was in your shop when the guards came after me,” Silver recounted the event, “And what did you do to stop them? Nothing!”

“There was nothing I could do,” the elderly alchemist said, “They would have thrown me in prison too.”

“Excuses,” Silver scoffed, “Everypony always has an excuse for why they won’t help me, but it always comes down to one thing, doesn’t it? You think your hide is worth more than mine because I’m a lowly earth pony. Well, you’ll be making no more excuses for your actions!”

Silver let loose on the alchemist, blasting her with the full extent of his magic. A pain throbbed in his head as the small knob grew and his eyes blazed a green so bright that it seemed white. The alchemist screamed as her blood boiled away and her flesh burned like paper under the magical assault. When Silver ceased his attack, nothing was left of the mare but a scorched crater in the ground.

* * *

Much like in Embershard, after the town had been reduced to practically nothing, the ponies of Chrysolite surrendered and offered themselves as slaves to serve beneath King Sombra. Silver stayed in the town only long enough to have the blacksmith he’d recruited make him a set of armor before setting out for Beryl. He had a few more followers now, more than enough to replace those he’d lost in the last battle, and as he approached Beryl, he approached it as a king leading his troops to war, as he should.

The guards here didn’t waste a moment in questioning the purposes of the ponies marching on their gate. They attacked immediately, determined to defend their town. Silver’s eyes glowed as he sent a wall of flame through the gate, incinerating all the guards. His followers rushed through after the attack, putting the town’s residents to the sword. As Silver Gaze’s rage built, so did his powers, and he found the dark clouds swirling over his head coming down to lift him up. He became one with the haze, looking over the entire town and shooting bolts of lightning down on it.

As he spotted a familiar pony galloping through the streets, he separated himself from the clouds and jumped down. As he sailed through the air, Silver got a good look at Beryl and sent waves of crystal through the town, tearing buildings to bits and trapping future slaves. Crystals jumped up to meet him as he reached the ground, slowing his fall enough that he didn’t splatter. He landed right in front of a yellow-coated crystal pony, causing him to pull up short.

“You!” Silver practically hissed, and realized that his tongue now seemed to be pointed, as were his teeth.

“I don’t know you!” Quartz Trust yelled, “What do you want?”

“What I really want to know is what you wanted,” Silver said, hopping down from his crystals and trotting around the terrified crystal pony, forcing him to keep moving to keep his attacker in sight, “In that library, why did you tell me about Frozen Heart and then report me to the guards for looking up on him? It was as if you wanted me to get in trouble.”

“Wait, you’re that one earth pony that was banished,” Quartz said, realization dawning in his eyes, “Aren’t you?”

“That’s right, but that’s not what I asked,” Silver said, scowling, “Why did you try to get me thrown out of town?”

“I don’t know,” Quartz said, “I guess . . . I thought if I could turn in a necromancer I’d be respected in this town!”

The glow dulled a bit in Silver’s eyes. This pony seemed to have the same problem as him, being discounted by his peers, though for a different reason. Did he really have to kill him? In fact, did he really have to kill any of these ponies to prove his point? Maybe, if he showed them how powerful he was in a nonviolent way they’d respect him all the same.

“And you seemed like such an easy target,” Quartz continued to speak, “After all, I don’t know who would stand up for an earth pony.”

With that comment Silver snapped, and all the rage went flooding back into him. Now he knew why he had to kill all these ponies. Even now, when he was destroying complete towns, crowned as a king and wielding the power of a god, ponies still refused to respect him because he was an earth pony. But all that would end soon. When he toppled Prince Emerald Wave and took over the Crystal Empire everypony would respect (or at least fear) Silver Gaze. He barely even noticed as his magic tore Quartz apart, leaving no trace that he had ever existed.

* * *

The Crystal City loomed large in front of Silver Gaze and his makeshift slave army, the Crystal Palace rearing above the other buildings and reaching up to the heavens. The dark clouds that had followed him to Embershard, Chrysolite, and Beryl now seemed to be held back in a barrier outside the city. For some reason, his magic couldn’t yet reach the Crystal City, probably due to the Crystal Heart; all that was about to change.

Sentries had seen their approach, and guards and soldiers of the Empire were ready to push back the attack. As soon as they charged from the city toward Silver Gaze and his army, they were torn apart by jagged shards of crystal rising from the ground. Silver’s magic tore the ponies outside the Crystal Heart’s protection apart, either by literally slicing and dicing them or entrapping them in pillars of gemstone.

The slave army burst through the defenses, hacking at the guards and clearing a path for Silver to enter the city. As he stepped inside, he felt a sudden surge of power from within, and the clouds burst through, shrouding the city in darkness. Pure energy radiated from Silver Gaze, and he sent tendrils of it out through the Crystal City, converting the buildings into gray and twisted forms of themselves. Fire burned in the streets as he directed it with his gaze, and his followers rampaged through the streets, killing anypony who put up a fight and taking prisoner anypony who didn’t.

Silver set his sights on the Crystal Palace, and tendrils of gray crystal began to mar its pristine sapphire surface, taking over the seat of the Empire’s government. He galloped down the streets toward it, eschewing traveling by crystal. He was victorious over Prince Emerald Wave and would soon have his revenge. He wanted this moment to last.

“Silver!” a sapphire crystal pony shouted, running out in front of him.

“Shimmer?” he asked, pulling up short.

“What’s going on?” she asked as she trotted up to Silver Gaze, “What happened to you?”

“Long story,” he said, his rage and desire for revenge mysteriously fading as he stopped to talk to his friend, “The important thing is, I can finally be respected by the other races.”

“Come inside,” she said as a wall of fire rushed over a nearby block, “Maybe you can figure out what’s going on here.”

“What’s going on?” Silver said, “I did this.”

“You?” Shimmer asked, “No, you couldn’t; you wouldn’t. This is terrible; you’d never do anything like this.”

“It was the only way I could force them to respect me,” Silver defended himself.

“Respect? This is fear,” Shimmer said.

“What’s the difference?” Silver asked, “The leaders of great nations are ‘respected’ because other nations are afraid of them. Great warriors and mages are ‘respected’ because ponies are afraid of what might happen if they were to disrespect them. Nopony fears me, an earth pony alchemist, so nopony respects me. But now I’m more than what I was before, and ponies finally have a reason to respect me.”

“There is a difference. Stop this madness,” Shimmer pleaded, trotting closer to Silver, “I respected you, and not because I feared you, but because I appreciated your brilliance. The Silver Gaze I knew, he could make potions that could do anything from practically nothing. But he was a good pony, and he would never do something like this. He would never kill innocent ponies just to make his point, because he knew that one day ponies would respect him for his talents.”

Silver’s gaze softened, and the purple mist evaporated from the corners of his eyes.

“Be that pony,” Shimmer said, coming even closer, “Come back to me.”

The rage and anger within Silver all faded away. He looked around in horror at what he’d done. Homes were destroyed and lives were ruined, all because of his selfishness. This wasn’t him. Shimmer was right; he would never have done something as horrific as this before he’d gotten these powers. The Ideal Masters must’ve tricked him; that was the only explanation. His mind was made up; he would return to Shimmer and be the stallion he was before, and he would make up for all the terror he’d caused.

“Shimmer, get back!” a stallion’s voice interrupted Silver as he was about to speak his confession.

A deep blue crystal unicorn galloped out of Shimmer’s home and placed himself between her and Silver Gaze.

“It’s okay,” Shimmer said, pushing him aside.

“Who is this?” Silver asked, looking at the crystal unicorn.

“Silver, this is Prince Midnight Glow,” Shimmer introduced him, “Something was wrong with that love potion you made for Emerald Wave, and it’s made him and Princess Timely Blossom unable to keep from staring into each others’ eyes. We’ve been searching through your research notes trying to find an antidote, and we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well in that time.”

Silver watched as his world shattered around him. Shimmer was with somepony else? Well, why not? Did he think even for a moment that a crystal pony like her would even consider an earth pony like him? He’d thought she was different, but the sad truth was that she was just like everypony else! Rage burned inside Silver, hotter than before, and the mist returned to his eyes. Crystals popped up through the road as his anger spilled into the world around him.

“So, you’ve abandoned me for him!” Silver said, his voice growing to a roar.

“It’s not like that,” Shimmer said, “I didn’t hear from you for months, I thought you were dead. And then the Empire started falling apart, ponies starving from famine, a dragon destroying Onyx, my focus was on curing the Prince and Princess. Then, one thing just led to another.”

Silver was broken up inside; he felt so utterly betrayed. The one pony he’d thought he could trust, the one pony he could’ve called his queen, had stabbed him in the back. His heart was broken, torn apart like all the bodies he had ripped asunder during his bloody journey to reach this point. Everything became very still, the roar from within Silver drowning everything else out. It was in that moment that four voices whispered in his ear as one.

“So, what is your decision?”

“YES!” Silver practically screamed within, selling his soul to the Ideal Masters.

Darkness consumed Silver Gaze, tearing through his insides and leaving only all-consuming rage behind. His broken heart shriveled and blackened, never to feel pain or fear or rejection again. His coat darkened another shade and his mane disintegrated into darkness, flowing in the breezes of the Soul Cairn instead of his own world. His irises turned blood red, and the whites of his eyes turned permanently green, the purple smoke billowing from the edges becoming a permanent feature. The stump on his forehead grew out into a blood red horn, curved and wickedly sharp.

Power beyond anything he’d ever known surged through him, evaporating the tears remaining in his eyes. Dark magic built up around his new horn and surged out in a beam stronger and more deadly than anything he’d ever cast before. As the beam struck Shimmer, she was consumed instantly, her scream trailing through the air even after her body was reduced to nothingness.

“You just killed her!” Midnight Glow exclaimed, taking a step back from the now-unicorn, “She knew you, Silver Gaze.”

“Silver Gaze is dead,” the dark unicorn proclaimed in a barely comprehensible growl as he advanced on the crystal unicorn, dark magic building over his horn, “I am SOMBRA!”

Epilogue

Epilogue

Celestia stared through the blizzard, searching for any sign of the once great city. Eventually she sighed, giving up. The Crystal Empire was gone, and it was unlikely it would ever return. She and Luna may have defeated King Sombra, but in the end he’d still had his revenge, causing the Empire to vanish. But he hadn’t taken everything. Before everything had disappeared around them, Celestia had managed to recover two items: a single crystal from the throne room and a thick tome filled with recipes for every potion Silver Gaze had ever created.

“Nopony must ever know the truth about King Sombra,” she said to her younger sister, levitating the book, “If so, then all of Silver Gaze’s work will be tainted. Alchemy would be set back centuries.”

“Agreed,” Luna replied, “Silver Gaze must be remembered as a visionary, not a tyrant.”

“My only regret is that we weren’t able to save the Empire’s inhabitants,” Celestia said, “That, and we never figured out what dark magic Sombra used to become more powerful. I guess any hints were destroyed with him, and the world’s safe from that darkness ever rising again.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” Luna replied, but she didn’t tell her sister that she too had recovered a book from the Empire before it disappeared, a book bound in pony hide and written in blood.

* * *

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I’m sorry that I cannot help you in this matter. Silver Gaze was not widely known or renowned until after his death, so there is no record of the later years of his life. Even I have no idea what happened to him, being otherwise occupied at the time. I regret to tell you that nopony may ever know what happened to Silver Gaze, but the most important thing is that his life’s work survived to this day. How he died or what he did in his later years is of no importance when compared to what he accomplished before then for the good of all ponykind.

Your faithful mentor,
Princess Celestia