A Second Life

King Quartz moved through his palace, blade at the ready in one hand, and the hand of Queen Viola D'amore. He spoke in a deep voice and with quick words.

"Go to our daughters room, lock the door, and barricade it." He looked to the light pink mare. "I will buy you all the time I can, but if anything happens—"

"Don't talk like that! You will come get me and Cadence..." The mare spoke, her fear resonating in her voice.

"If anything happens, I love you. Now go!" He pointed down the hall as he turned and went down a different hallway. He looked back to see her fight back tears and run the direction he had pointed. He moved through the hall and moved through a large set of doors to the throne room, and spotted a dark furred figure in a long red cloak standing before the throne, one hand beneath a light blue crystal in the shape of a heart.

"I see you have come to submit to your new king." The figure turned to the king. His voice was dark, and it dripped with malice towards the crystal stallion. His eyes were a piercing red, that glowed an eerie green color with black smoke drifting off.

The figure was clad in silver armor, and a silver crown, pointed and cruel just like the stallion that wore it. The king took a step into his throne room and brought his blade to the ready.

"I will not allow you to corrupt this kingdom!" He pointed his blade to the intruder. "Your evil will end today, and my people will be free of you."

The robed figure let out a dark chuckle and his eyes began to smoke. "You will be dead today."

The green stallion charged the grey unicorn and thrust his blade. The dark stallion's magic made the Crystal Heart fade away in dark smoke and it was replaced with a curved blade of pitch black steel. The black blade parried the thrust from the king and they began to clash, each stroke, thrust and clash of the steel blades, there were crashing echos around the room.

"You fight with the knowledge that all of this means nothing." The dark stallion taunted, his silver steel armor glimmering with the flickers of the torches in the room. "You will fall, and with your death, my kingdom will rise."

King Quartz made another slash at the stallion. "This kingdom has survived far worse than you. Many a warlord and bandit king has tried and failed to remove my family. You too will fall."

"Many lacked the drive, and fewer still lacked the willpower to make it happen." The dark pony laughed as he parried blow after blow from the stallion he faced. "Surely you are delaying the inevitable. Death is coming for you, and I am its courier."

The grey stallion made a wide slash at the king, and the elder stallion dodged it. Sensing an opening in the invader’s stance, the king kicked the dark pony in the stomach, knocking him off balance and to his knees, and brought the blade down to end the threat to his family and kingdom. His blow was blocked when a gauntlet-clad hand caught the blade while the dark smoke billowed from his eyes.

"Those others lacked something else as well." The stallion rose up. "Magic, and the strength to use the most powerful forms."

The king felt a searing pain, and looked down to see the dark steel blade piercing his chest. He coughed and tasted his blood spilled from his lips.

"And with the death of King Quartz, the reign of King Sombra begins." The dark stallion twisted the blade and pushed the dying king away from him and watched him collapse on the ground. "Such a shame. That will be a hard mess to clean."

A pool of blood began to form around the stallion slowly, staining the stone deep red. Sombra chuckled as he walked past the former king. He paused for a moment and walked back to the dying stallion. With a wave of his hand the blade in his stomach faded away.

"And now, for your queen."

As the last lights of light faded from the king’s eyes, he muttered out a prayer that the dark stallion ignored.

Sombra stalked through the halls, his mind bent on the last few acts to control the kingdom. All that stood between him now was the queen and her daughter, and both were easy problems to solve. He reached the bedroom of the princess and heard the clatter of something shoved against the door.

He chuckled at the pathetic attempts to bar him from his destiny. His eyes glowed and smoked gently as he reached his hand out towards the door.

"Your majesty, the reign of your husband has ended."

The moment his hand touched the door it burst into purple and green flames around his fingers and began spreading across the surface of the door. In mere moments the door was consumed and so were the chairs propped against it. Sombra strode through the flames to see the pink queen in front of a crib.

Sombra gave the queen a hollow smile and a mocking bow. “A pleasure, your highness.”

"Please! Do what you will with me, but spare my daughter, please..." The mare cried out, tears and terror in her eyes.

Sombra laughed and brought his hand up before him. The queen felt an invisible force around her neck, pressing hard on her throat. Her hands moved to the pressure, trying to claw it away, but found the action futile.

"I will do as I will for you both."

The grey stallion lifted his hand slowly and the mare was lifted into the air. She gasped for breath as the pressure increased, her legs kicking to find ground, but found no purchase.

"But I will give you some mercy." His eyes glowed green and more smoke billowed from his eyes. "The knowledge that your daughter is mine now, and will live past this day..." He turned his head to the crib. "And a swift death."

His final word was punctuated his fist closing quickly and with a loud crack. The queen went limp in the air and the last breath flowed out of her mouth. Her body fell to the floor in a heap, as his gaze fell to the cradle, and the prize within.

Twilight Sparkle rushed through the halls, her pace kept at a power walk due to her new status. Her coronation had been less than three days ago and today was the first free day she had been granted. Three days of ceremonies, signing documents, talking to nobles, and wearing dresses that were so formal that she was certain they had their own titles, and now, she was able to simply breathe, and be herself.

She wore a button up shirt, and simple pants, a far cry from dresses of the royalty. A staple of her student life, and the sort of clothing she loved most to wear when she went to a library. The newly transformed alicorn smiled and squeed at the thought. She was heading to the Royal Library, and even better than that, she was going to enter a wing she had never been able to see before.

"The Forbidden section." She spoke it out loud, and for a moment looked around, almost expecting one of the guards to appear and tell her to go back to her room for even saying it. She giggled and continued her walk through the familiar halls. She had practically lived in the castle once she became a student to Celestia, and as such she knew the halls like she know the Tree Library in Ponyville.

The alicorn was greeted with the sight of the library doors as she turned a corner and felt her lips turn up into an excited smile. She was so close now, and she felt her heart beat pick up as her hand reached the door knob and opened the door. She walked past the bookshelves that were well used by the mare, and through the aisles that were a second home to her, and came upon the locked door to a room she had never entered.

Twilight read the sign hanging from the top frame. "Princess's only."

She shuffled and swallowed. She knew that the door was enchanted to keep all but the princesses out, as she could feel the energy radiating from the handle, but that did little to calm her nerves. What if they haven't updated the security enchantment... oh this could end badly. The mare shuffled in her place and wrung her hands together. She took in a deep breath and put her hand above the handle on the dark wooden door.

"Here goes nothing."

She placed her palm on the doorknob and braced herself for anything. A moment passed and she heard a click from the door, and it opened slowly for her. Twilight let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding and quickly walked into the room. A series of lamps hung from the ceiling burst to life and lit up the entire room in a gently light.

"Where to start?" The princess danced in place and heard the door shut behind her. She took only a cursory glance back to the door before she began walking up and down the small aisles. "So many books... but they aren't using the normal system..." She inspected a small book that barely fit in her hand.

It appeared to be a small journal of some sort, and every page held bizarre pictures hand written onto them. It wasn't the pictures that worried the mare, but the fact that they hurt to look at. She quickly closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. She looked at a few more, some looking extremely old, and others looking like they were just placed on the shelves moments ago.

"These books must contain all sorts of strange magics..." She bit her lip and walked towards the back of the small room. She could feel energy coming from several of the books as she walked neared them. “Or dangerous ones. No wonder they are in here."

She began browsing the books, some containing the written works of kings of forgotten or distant kingdoms, other’s holding magical diagrams from the greatest minds of long passed centuries. Twilight found one particular journal of Star Swirl the Bearded to be deeply interesting for several minutes. The original. I wonder why it’s here. Twilight found her answer when one page towards the back of the journal was dedicated to several poems about the sun and it’s beauty. Twilight smiled as she read them and placed the book back gently.

“Celestia always did praise him deeply.”

She gazed at a tome that looked promising but became horrified once she got a better look at the binding of the book. She had thought it was some sort of velvet that it was bound in, but it was the cutie mark on the front, and a distinct smell of tanned flesh, that made a shiver ripple through her spine. Repulsed, she placed the book back on the shelf quickly.

The goddess spotted a small tome in the corner as she put some distance between herself and the book. She walked over and gently picked the book up, the experience of the last book making her cautious with touching them.

"Oh thank the goddess... it's normal leather." She looked for a title or a name on the book, but aged leather was all she could see.

She opened the book and braced for something horrifying, but all she saw was simple handwriting, and a few equations. Twilight began reading the page with interest.

"Wait... I know this. That looks like a form of Gally's Equation for Telekinesis. The math is a little rough, and has too many steps though..." The young princess moved to the single table in the middle of the room and sat down with the book. "How old is this book?"

The mare flipped to the front, but found the front of the book seemed to have suffered water damage, distorting the page, and warping all of the ink writing illegible, but she could see in the lower corner that there was an ancient seal. As the mare places the book on the table she recognized the symbol.

"That's the old Equestian Seal... a moon and a sun." She sat back and rubbed her chin in thought. "That puts this book to over a thousand years old. The author had new ideas on telekinesis three hundred years before the Magus Reformation."

She began flipping through the pages and was amazed at what she saw. Several pages had the beginnings of theories that, while unfinished or rough in form, were hundreds of years ahead of their time. Pyromancy, the theory of transmogrification, conservation of magical energy, and even theories in several fields of science were all in here and well before they became the mainstream thoughts of their respective fields of study.

"This has to be one of the greatest minds to ever exist. Easily an equal to Star Swirl the Bearded... who wrote all of this?"

She continued turning the pages and came across several pages with diagrams, equations and lines of reagents. She studied the text and realized it was a spell. Oh, interesting. This looks pretty complete... but it doesn't say what this spell is for. She turned back a few pages and looked at other spells that were complete, and included what they were for. Fire spells, ice spells, Illusions, and several other types throughout the tome.

"Looks complicated..." She bit her lip. "And needs a few weird reagents. Where would someone find a ruby that large?"

She flipped past the spell and saw that the next few pages were blank. She quickly scanned the rest of the book, and it was empty.

"Well... maybe this spell was untested, and that's why there is no description of its use."

The young unicorn leaned back in her chair and looked at the open tome. The equations and descriptions of energy on the pages were of a form of magic she had never used before mixed with several she had, and some she had never seen. The possibilities of what the spell could be were endless, and the fact she could be the first to perform it and rediscover a possibly lost form of magic thrilled her.

She bit her lip and looked through the spell again. "A few crystals, a few magical herbs and roots, and a large enough table... Weird, but if it works, then it works."

A few hours passed and Twilight found herself in an unused section of the dungeon. She placed the final of the crystals on a large sturdy table, and checked the diagram again. Her hand moved the crystal slightly to the left and nodded. She inspected the table, and was very glad that the Canterlot castle was situated above an abandoned mine, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to find a ruby.

"Okay, the seven crystals are in place, the herbs are where they need to be and a ruby where it needs to be." She checked the book once more. "Now... I need to channel the energy needed..." She sat down and re-read the book for what she was certain was the hundredth time. "That's a lot of magical energy. Must be why they couldn't perform the spell... this must take several unicorns to do it."

For a moment the mare considered getting some volunteers from the University of Magic in the city, but decided against it. After all, the spell could harm them, and she couldn't think of having other get hurt because of her. She ran her hand through her mane, wondering how she could finish the spell, when she came to a simple realization.

"I'm the barer of the Element of Magic, and now the Goddess of Friendship. I should be able to do this."

She summoned a small stand to place the tome on, and began gathering energy into her horn. She felt tingles through her body due to the unknown energy coursing through her body, but it was the effect in the room that drew her attention. The air became stagnant, and cold. The stones began forming a rime of frost on them, and Twilight felt as if she was being watched. The lantern she had lit went out, and she was plunged into pitch darkness.

Keep pushing through... the spell might be worth it, if only to see what it is. She quickly threw up a magical barrier around the room and continued channeling. She was only going to risk herself in this endeavor. Her eyes began glowing bright white as she pooled more energy in herself but they slowly began to turn black, and smoke began drifting from her eyes.

Oh no... She felt her body begin to revolt. Her head began to ache, and she felt her limbs go weak. Twilight had felt this before, when she had casted dark magic. To late to turn back now. She reached her limit and poured the magic into the ritual crystals before her and into the intricate form that the book called for. Exhausted, she collapsed to her knees and took in sharp breaths, her lungs screaming for air painfully.

She coughed for a moment and shivered in the frigid air. Her gaze slowly moved to the table, her eyes widening as the crystals glowed a deep ruby color, and bright streaks of lightning arced between then, and lighting the darkened room for small instances. The mare felt like she was caught in a blizzard, and decided to just wait for it all to end. The lightning continued for several seconds, then abruptly stopped, leaving Twilight alone with the eerie green glow of the crystals.

The unicorn slowly stood up and stared at the table. Well... I guess that's all it does... She shuffled and reignited the lantern. Light returned to the room, and the mare walked back to the tome, and inspected the pages. Part of her was worried she had failed, but another deeply glad that it was all over. She didn't like using dark magic, and would hate to hear Celesita lecture her on the dangers of it again.

Twilight let out a small sigh. "I did everything correctly... and I even put more magic into it than I needed to." The mare closed the book and drummed her fingers on it for a moment.

"I suppose this was just a failed spell." Another sigh left the mares lips and she began to pick up the tome when she heard something.

Thu-thump

Twilight looked up from the tome and looked for the source of the noise. Finding the room empty, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"That sounded like a—"

Thu-thump

Her eyes snapped to the table, certain that was where the noise was from. Her gaze scanned the table, and found nothing but the items for the spell sitting there.

Thu-thump

The ruby lying on the table glowed dimly with the noise, and then faded to normal once silence returned. Twilight blinked a few times and gently rubbed her head. I must be imagining things... there's no way that ruby made that noise. She watched it for a moment then jumped as it once more lit up, and the thumping noise filled the air once more.

The gemstone shuddered for a moment as the alicorn blinked. She watched it return to normal and rubbed her eyes. "Okay then... the dark magic must be messin—"

Twilight was knocked off her feet as a sudden blast of wind erupted from the table, creating a small vortex around it and keeping the young goddess pinned to the wall. She watched with wide eyes as the ruby floated into the air, thumping filling her ears, and glowed brightly. Twilight swallowed hard, and after trying to get up, braces herself against the wall and watched the scene before her.

The floating stone began to reshape itself, as if made of a much more pliable substance, and formed a rounded form. It began pulsing in time with the thumping, and Twilight gasped as she recognized the shape. It was a heart, and much to Twilight's rising fear, it was beating.

Twilight's terror rose as she realized the wind that was pinning her to the wall of the dungeon was silent, and the only sound was beating of the heart. As it slowly beat, the crystals around it slowly began breaking apart, and the pieces slowly floating up near the heart, some around it, others forming little clusters connected to the ones around the heart with rows of other crystal fragments.

The fragments began expanding, slowly becoming opaque as they formed new shapes. A skeleton formed from the transforming pieces of crystal, and once they finished, others began moving around it. As with the crystal pieces that formed the bones, the new ones began forming the organs, growing, and changing color, while the heart continued to beat.

Twilight was a captive audience, but that didn’t stop the scientist in her from studying the forming skeleton and watched as the herbs and other reagents moved within the form, and began growing into the organs. A detail she was surprised she spotted was that almost everything that had transformed became perfect in form. The organs were the right color, the skeleton the right texture, but one thing stood out. The heart looked crystalline in form, shimmering and shinning from its own light.

The mare felt her terror begin fading as the body formed itself in the air. She didn't know if she should be terrified, or fascinated by the sight. She felt the wind die down as the blood vessels and muscles of the body finished forming, and she slowly stood up. She took a tentative step towards the floating body as she became aware that the beating of the heart had become muffled. Twilight swallowed nervously as pale skin formed over the body, and she took a moment to scan the body over, taking in the details. It was physically fit, and from what she could see the form was taller than she was.

She slowly approached the table as the wind died down, and the body, now fully furred, touched down on the table and the beating of the heart ceased. She shuffled in her place, and her eyes wandered up and down the body, briefly looking below the waist and seeing the male anatomy. Okay then. I made a stallion. Her eyes moved to the chest of the stallion and saw no movement.

"I guess this was a spell for medical purposes?" She rubbed the back of her neck. "Great... so I have a cadaver now."

Twilight looked over to the tome and then to the body, worried about having to tell Celestia about the body in the dungeon she created. Her worries were banished and replaced with a new one then the body began gasping for air, his hands frantically searching for purchase on the table. His breathing was heavy, his lungs burning as they drew in air. The stallion sat up quickly, his eyes snapping open, bulging as he looked around the room, his gaze settling on the mare a few feet away.

"Who are you?" He asked between ragged breaths. "Where am I?"

Twilight shuffled and made sure her eyes maintained contact with his own. "I am Twilight Sparkle."

The stallion looked to his hands and closed them and opened them. He looked up to the mare and swallowed as he shivered in the cool air. Twilight swallowed as her stomach dropped as the piercing red eyes she hoped to never see again looked back to her. She felt her palms become sweaty as her mind was filled with the memories of her first trip to the Crystal Kingdom.

"And... who am I?"