Author's Note

This is the product of staying up very late with little sleep. I wrote like 2000 words of this in one sitting and despite going over it several times, still am unsatisfied with how this came out. Please comment on the errors in here and everything else you think is wrong with this chapter. There's bound to be something wrong.

The Crystals

“They are like me.”

The voice cut through the silence like a knife. The queen had long since fell asleep on my lap, so I knew that it was not her. Not that it sounded anything like her. This voice was darker than hers. That much was certain.

I looked up to see a dark coated stallion standing atop a mountain of corpses. He was silhouetted in wispy purple fog. I noticed he had a tinted steel armor on as well as a king’s red surcoat. I could make out a dark helmet of some sort on his head. He had a red and black horn on his head, but it seemed like it was more attached to the metal helmet than himself. It also appeared different compared to the other unicorns I’ve seen. Even the rare males in their community didn’t have that kind of horn. He began to descend from the corpses. I gently laid the queen down as I stood to meet him halfway.

“You’re the voice in my head,” I deadpanned. “You called yourself the Crystal King.” The almost ethereal figure stopped several feet away from me. He had an exotic pair of red eyes with lime green sclera. The purple haze seemed to constantly pour from the corners of his eyes.

“I was ruler of the Crystal Kingdom at a time,” he stated with a mixture of sadness and defeat, “but that was centuries ago. I am now called Sombra, the Unicorn with the blackened heart.” He frowned as he practically spit the title from his mouth.

“Centuries, eh?” I observed him up and down. “How’d you manage that?” I’d already predicted his answer.

“Magic.”

“Of course,” I scoffed. Chrysalis shifted in her sleep behind me. I cast her a glance before turning to the tunnel that she led me through. “Let’s take this conversation elsewhere,” I stated.

As I took a step towards the exit, I felt a sudden rush of energy through my systems. The next thing I knew, we were standing outside on top of the massive Changeling hive. That familiar purple fog was flowing from my eye and I had a slight head ache to go with it. I frowned as the fallen king watched me with interest.

“You’ve developed a large amount of dark magic in your body,” he noted. “It seems to have made your eye it’s focal point.” I gave him a dangerous look as I removed my bow from my back and loaded it with an arrow.

“What does that mean? What is this magic crap that everyone here keeps talking about? And why’s it affecting me?” I demanded. He observed my actions, but he shook his head.

“Magic is not crap, as you put it,” he stated authoritatively. “Magic is alive and it does as it wishes.” I frowned as I lowered my bow.

“It’s alive? What does that mean?” I was surprised when he actually started smiling, his eyes brightening up.

“It means just that,” he said. “My years of research on the subject has yielded me with one common factor: magic is a living spontaneous entity that acts on the living and nonliving. It is a form of manipulative energy that is also alive.” I frowned and sat down. I set both my bags down as well, I but kept my bow and arrow out. Sombra sat down with me.

“That makes about as much sense as the rest of the stuff on this godforsaken rock,” I mumbled to Sombra. I met his gaze. “What were you saying about my eye being a focal point? What does that mean?”

“It means that your eye has become a channel for magic. I don’t know how this is possible though.” He observed my eyepatch as if he could see through it to my eye. “Magic like this tends to be corruptive and driven by hatred. It normally takes over the entire host and corrupts them to a shell of their former self to a point that they are nothing but hatred, thus nothing but black magic. I do not know how you have tamely managed to concentrate it into a single part of your own body like you have.” He looked at me expectantly. I sighed and shook my head.

“You say this black magic or whatever is driven by hatred.” I tapped my eyepatch. “It makes some sense now that you say that. I hate my eye more than anything. That’s probably why this living dark magic or whatever has taken a liking for it.” I was honestly getting a headache talking about this magic stuff. It was difficult to completely grasp such a broad and apparently still under study concept.

“Hmm…” He brought an armored hoof up to his chin. “I was not aware that magic could be swayed like that…” He appeared to be deep in thought. I shook my head at him. I unnotched the arrow and returned it to my quiver. I slung my compound bow back over my shoulder.

“You said they were like you? The Changelings?” He snapped out of his moment of thought to look at me. “What did you mean by that? Did you mean they were like you because they were weakened?” He blinked a few times before shaking his head.

“No. That is far from what I meant.” He sighed deeply and looked off into the canyon. “What I meant when I said that was that they were unintentionally feared for what they were. They were marked enemies for what they couldn’t help but do. In a sense, they were branded monsters for wanting love, I was branded a monster for losing mine.” I just gave him a blank look. I got a strange feeling of nostalgia from what he just said, but I didn’t acknowledge the feeling.

“So what you're saying,” I began to pinch the bridge of my nose, “is that you...can’t love and others fear you because of this?” Holy shit there was no way of saying that without sounding stupid. I had to keep reminding myself that I was in another world that worked differently from mine, but it was still hard to adjust to their customs and way of thinking.

Sombra shook his head at me. “There is more to it than that. There is always much more to it than that.” I understood those words. Just as the king could relate to the Changelings, I could relate to him as well. He at least understood that there was always more to something.

He looked away from me. He moved his hooves to the sides of his helmet. I watched as he slid the piece of metal completely off with no resistance. My earlier assumptions were correct. The horn was attached to the helmet and not his head. He was just an Earth pony.

“Back before I was a tyrant...before I was a king in general, I wandered the Frozen North as a young colt.” His face was crestfallen as he recalled his memories. “It has been far longer than a millennium since I had wandered the snowy tundras. I never can remember why I was there or why I was alone. All I knew was that I was walking alone for a good while through the ice and snow. I can’t even remember for how long I wandered or how I even stayed alive. I don’t remember ever sleeping and I don’t remember eating. Occasionally I’d eaten snow, but that only made me feel colder.

I don’t remember much besides the cold and the way the wind whistled. The way the wind howled and bit into me with it’s bitter cold like an animal. If the weather wasn’t enough, my growing detest for the cold sealed my fate. My hatred towards the cold attracted Windigos, creatures that feed on bitter emotions. They never outright attacked me. They attacked my psyche. They howled in my ears and brushed against my fur, sending icy spikes against my skin. They made a banquet out of me.

There were at least a dozen of them following me by the time I cracked. I stopped walking and just fell into the snow, letting them scream at me, letting them feed off of me. I gave up and welcomed whatever fate had in store for me. What I didn’t expect, however, was to be rescued by a now long since extinct race. The Snow Deers.”

I held up a hand to get Sombra’s attention. “You have my condolences. Regardless of your past, how does this relate to the topic at hand?” Sombra sighed and shook his head.

“The Snow Deer were magical creatures who were masters at ice and healing magic, though their magic is innate at birth. As they grew older, their magic began to concentrate into focal points on their heads. These focal points became antlers, the exact equivalent to a Unicorn’s horn. While on the topic of horns, do you understand the three basic races of ponies and their magical focus points?” I frowned as I heard that question.

“I know that there are Unicorns, Pegasus, and Earth ponies. I’ve seen Unicorns cast wide varieties of spells with their horns, though I can’t say the same for the other two. However, I’ve seen Pegasus fly.” I shook my head as I recalled the small ponies flying with their odd little wings. “I don’t know if it’s relevant, but they shouldn’t be able to fly naturally. Their wings aren’t proportional to their weights and sizes, nor do they flap fast enough and they don’t correctly move like a bird’s wings. I chalked it up as magic, but wasn’t certain. As for Earth ponies, the most magical thing I’ve seen one do is play the cello. How does that work with hooves?” He nodded his head as I gave brief descriptions of all pony races I’d seen, giving a small smirk at the last thing I asked.

“You are correct on all points. I am surprised you recognized the relationship between magic and a pegasus’ flight. Yes, their wings act as focal points for magic and would be mostly vestigial without it. Their magic further concentrates into feathers, which are what allow their speed and agility in the air. As for Earth ponies, their magic does not have a central focal point; their magic is balanced mostly throughout their bodies, giving them enhanced strength and vitality. The most concentrated points on their bodies would be their hooves. The magic build up in their legs is what allows them more dexterous use of their hooves, and though everypony has this buildup in their legs, the concentration in Earth ponies is strongest. I would even go as far as to say Earth ponies are the second most magical of the ponies, Unicorns being first with the pegasus being last.”

I am glad I learned this. That pony with the cello has been eating me away ever since I’d seen it play that stringed instrument. I’m glad I now that the answer is the same over endorsed answer I keep getting. Magic.

“Anyways,” Sombra continued, “other races, using ponies as examples, are naturally born with these focal points in them. Natural development of concentrated magic turning into focal points was unheard of anywhere else. But, it was there. The Snow Deer showed proof of this. Even to this day I still do not fully understand their cycle of development.” He shook his head and picked up his helmet with both hooves. It glowed a bright red before returning to its natural colors.

“After living under the care of the Snow Deers for some time, I found a way to recreate their magical growth. I actually learned this through their deaths. You see, as the Snow Deer grew old and eventually died, they had a tradition of burial. This tradition was to bury their kind in catacombs of crystal beneath the ice mountains. Families and friends would then pass their bodies, uttering their last prayers and mourning words. Over time, crystal would grow over the bodies until their corpses eventually became one with the crystal. The deer saw it as a natural cycle where nature reclaimed their bodies for the land. I learned that there was more to this process than simple tradition.

After extensive study, I learned that there were two different types of crystals that grew over their bodies; either a nearly pitch black crystal, or a pristine almost white crystal. Not only that, but there was a correlation between the corpses and the type of crystal that grew. The white crystal grew over the bodies of the well loved. The dark crystals, however, grew over those who the deer had...indifferent feelings about. What I learned was astounding. The crystal caves were alive and fed through magic. Not just any magic mind you. They were fueled by emotions; love or hate.

I found these crystals fascinating. The crystals were alive. Not only that, but they were heavily concentrated in magic energies and they actually grew from this energy.”

“So the crystals grew like the Snow Deer antlers?” I interjected.

“Surprisingly? No.” I blinked when I heard this. I gestured for him to continue. It took him a few moments to understand my hand motions, but he picked up on their meanings quickly.

“The magic between the crystals and the Snow Deer acted similar in some aspects, but they were completely different. The crystals, though alive with the aid of emotion magic, were only alive because of magic. Without it, they would be crystals alone and wouldn’t grow. The deer didn’t need emotion for their focal points -their antlers- to grow. Their growth happened through a natural almost sponge effect they had on magic in their environments. That is a whole other concept for another time. However, I am getting off track.

As I said, this magic fascinated me. These crystals focused magic in the same way that the antlers of the Snow Deer did. I wanted to see if I could recreate the growth of a magical focus point using the crystals. The final results,” he held up his helmet, “was this. An artificial horn that granted spell casting. My invention, however, is what became my downfall.” He shook his head slowly, likely recalling some bad things.

“The crystals that I used absorbed and split my emotions into shreds. It brought me to the brink of insanity and madness that rivaled Discord himself.”

I wanted to ask who this Discord figure was, but Sombra was having a momentary breakdown.

“With the last bit of my sanity, I sealed my sane emotions in the strongest crystals I could. The crystals in my helmet were left with nothing but my hatred, sadness, and resentment. I can only remember pieces of my insanity, but I can recall some moments of my reign. I used fear and resentment to build a crystal realm in the far north. I kept slave pony settlers to fuel and grow my kingdom of crystal. The crystals that took over me became the king that they know me as.”

“What happened to your sane emotions that you locked away? You didn’t mention them.” He grimaced at my mention.

“My pure emotions...my heart...was locked away in crystal. The crystal that engulfed the other part of me became known as the Crystal Heart. It became a strange artifact that expelled a warm energy. This was one reason my darkness didn’t destroy the Crystal Heart. The other reason was because the Crystal Heart was still a vital part of me. Without it, my body would’ve slowly died and became nothing. The dark crystals actually saw use in the Crystal Heart. It created a barrier of energy surrounding the entire kingdom powered from love, one that expelled powerful force. The crystals even went as far as to brainwash the ponies. It even created fake history and a fake fair to gain love energy to power the heart, despite it’s potential to restore my sanity.”

Sombra exhaled a deep breath. He looked at me for judgement.

I closed my eyes in thought. “While that was quite the story, there’s still pieces missing.” I opened one eyes and met the gaze of the tyrant.

“Your little story left out a few things. How were you overthrown? Furthermore, you claim you weren’t in your right mind when you enslaved a kingdom’s worth of ponies. You seem very sane at the moment, more so than most. Got any explanation for this?” He blinked very slowly before turning from my gaze.

“I fell as many others have.” He met my gaze again. “I was stormed in the night by the sun and moon duo. You know them as Luna and Celestia. They overwhelmed me before I could retaliate. They feared the power of the crystals that they didn’t understand.” I blinked at this new information.

Luna and Celestia were supposedly goddesses to the inhabitants of this place. They were actually so weary of Sombra that they wouldn’t risk a fair frontal dual with him? How strong was this king’s magic...?

“Before they banished me however,” Sombra continued, “the dark crystals sensed their demise. In a defense mechanic I didn’t know they possessed, the entire kingdom of crystal, the Crystal Heart and slave ponies included, disappeared for over a millennium. However, the magic that it took to hide the entire kingdom slowly drained the crystals of their dark magic, eventually sending them into a period of neutral rest.” I shook my head at the king.

“That explains how you were overthrown, but that didn’t explain to me how you regained your sanity. I thought the sane parts of you were trapped in the Crystal Heart? What happened to that and the rest of the Crystal Kingdom?”

“As I said, the crystals drained themselves of their magic, eventually returning to a mostly neutral state. When they returned to this state, the spell concealing the kingdom dispersed, once again revealing the realm to its rightful place in the north. When this happened, the crystals controlling my body once again were released. They tried to once again claim the kingdom. However, they failed.”

“What stopped the crystal?” I asked. “It couldn’t’ve been Celestia and Luna. You told me of how weary they were to attack you directly. Regardless of your state, I doubt they would’ve risked a frontal assault over a conflict in what was your domain.” He seemed very reluctant about this part of his story. Something big had to have happened.

“I am still not fully clear on what happened the day of my return. From what I inferred, Celestia was indeed of my return. She sent her niece, the Alicorn known as Mi Amore Cadenza, and her husband after me. They formed a powerful shield surrounding the entire kingdom, stalling my actions. However, a spell like that takes much energy, energy that slowly wasted away."

There was that name again. It would seem as though Sombra and Chrysalis had much more in common than they knew.

"Aware of the situation," he continued, "Celestia sent reinforcements; a clever unicorn by the name of Twilight, five of her friends, and a baby dragon. Together, they learned of the fake crystal fair that the dark crystals created; the very same fair that powered the Crystal Heart. Despite the traps before the Crystal Heart, they managed to find the artifact. The crystal ponies poured their love into it, powering the ancient relic. Rapidly, a burst of energy was released, a burst of energy that destroyed my body along with the dark crystals controlling me.”

There was another interesting name: Twilight. This was no doubt that Princess of Friendship I've heard of from both Celestia, Chrysalis, and now this king. I would need to research her and her friends extensively. Their weaknesses and personalities couldn't be too difficult to dissect.

Sombra continued on with his explanation, unaware of my momentary brainstorm.

“When the Crystal Heart’s magic collided with me, it made my mind whole once again. This was short lived. In destroying my body, the magic dispersed my thoughts far and wide, severing me once again, though not as dire. In a sense, I had somehow become one with magic. In connection with magic, I was given a slightly omnipotent sight, being able to see where my magic was. I was still alive in a matter of speaking, though I had no physical body to contain or process my thoughts correctly.

I remained in this stray state until my magic found you. I don’t know what it was about you, but my magic was drawn to you like a magnet. Slowly, as my magic began to conjugate in you, my being was slowly rebuilt in the process. This is why I am now coherent, as is this why I am still here.” He began to look at me in a strange way, while waiting for any more questions I had. I only had two, but these ones were important.

I raised a single finger. “One, you said your magic was in me. Does that mean I can cast magic?” Another finger up. “Two, if you are alive again, why are you still here? Why haven’t you left yet and why have you been so...compliant with me?” He blinked slowly at me. He looked surprised.

“I thought it was obvious that you could cast magic. You teleported us here.” It was my turn to look surprised.

“I thought that you were the one who did that?” He shook his head.

“No. It was you who had done the spell. You are the one who used magic.”

For several moments I didn’t believe him. I looked at my own hands. Was it that simple? Right before we were teleported, I was only thinking of speaking to Sombra outside. Was that all there was too it? To think? I looked back up at Sombra.

“Let’s even say I’m the one who teleported us and let’s say I can cast magic. If this is true, then what are the limits to what I can do?” He gave me a strange look.

“Magic has no limits.”

‘Bullshit.’

My mind called bullshit almost before I could fully process what he had just said. There was no way magic was limitless. There is absolutely no way this world would be intact if a bunch of sentient, crayon colored ponies could do anything with magic. There is no way.

I tried to open my mouth to retort, but I honestly couldn’t figure out how to word my argument to fit all the bullshit his statement held. Instead, however, I found myself thinking about ‘what if’. What if there was no limit to magic? I was beginning to wonder what I could do on top of what I already can do.

I pulled a single arrow from my quiver. It was a Toxic broadhead. I held it in my palm and stared at it. I wondered if I could make it hover above me. I began to feel that steady flow similar to adrenaline. Purple leaked from under my eyepatch as a dark grey began to cover the arrow. I watched mystified as it began to float out from my hand, stopping after it was leveled with my eyes. I looked back to my quiver. I was now beginning to wonder if I could float all my arrows above me. I watched as that same black started to trail over all the arrows. They slid, one by one, out and into the air, surrounding me in a sphere of various trick arrows and broadheads.

“You are a natural,” Sombra’s voice suddenly cut in. I lost focus for a moment, causing several dozen of my own arrows to fall towards me. My eyes widened as I rolled out of the way, ducking and dodging them. Several pin cushioned the outer hive. I shot the king a look before looking back at my arrows. I watched as they were engulfed in black. One by one they began to slide themselves back into my quiver. It was mystifying as it was simple. Here I am being told magic was limitless and what am I doing? Simple levitation.

I looked at my feet. I suddenly got a very wild thought, causing the purple flow from my eye to increase. I watched as dark fog began to flow from under my feet. I raised one foot as if I were walking up a step. My own eyes widened slightly as I felt myself raise off the ground, standing on an invisible step. I began to take more steps in the sky, climbing higher and higher, black torrents of fog following my feet. It felt as if I were standing on invisible platforms.

I began to move faster, the black clouds under my feet moving with me. Feeling invigorated by adrenaline and the magic in my systems, I began to run. The black fog had begun to thicken, even spreading up to my ankles. I started sprinting faster and faster. I was moving faster than I’d ever moved before. The black clouds had begun to move in small torrents all the way up to my head, making it look as if I were smoking. I wanted to test how boundless this magic was.

I was literally running hundreds of feet high through the sky. I began to wonder if I could move faster. The black clouds completely surrounded me, thickening to the point I looked like a shade running through a rain cloud. The purple from my visage pulsed and brightened, almost looking like a light in the dark. My feet had begun to feel strange. I felt as if there were strong springs beneath my feet bouncing me forward. I could feel the wind whip by me as I began to leap forward in the sky, catching myself on nothing, then propelling myself off nothing even faster. My long hair whipped back and I had to squint to see.

I began to wonder if I could break sound.

I felt as if something grabbed my feet and sent me rocketing forward. The air around me vibrated and I felt an earthquake tremble through the sky. I’d dashed right into a sonic boom, somehow still breathing, somehow still alive. I wondered how I was still alive and still moving fast, but the answer came to me with a smirk.

Magic.

I felt the shadows wrap around my hand as I reached out and grabbed nothing. I grabbed a hold of that nothing, clawing my way to a stop after ten seconds. I was actually panting heavy. I didn’t know when it started, but sweat began to fall off my face in drops. I had an incredible rush still flowing through my body. I ‘walked’ up in the sky several feet to look at the trail of darkness in the sky behind me. I had to do a double take.

Not only did I somehow reach the airspace above Everfree Forest, but I had made a fading black trail all the way from the Changeling hive, all the way through the badlands, stopping above the forest. Not only that, but centered at the midpoint between the hive and Appleloosa was a massive rapidly spreading ring of black smoke in the sky. I wasn’t sure what to think about what I’d just done.

“You are a natural.”

I blinked as Sombra appeared next to me in a burst of smoke. He was standing on faded black clouds like I was, his horned helmet on his head. He observed the clouds I’d made as I broke the sound barrier. Despite magic being ‘limitless’, I felt slightly tired and hungry. I think that I understand his words now. Magic is limitless, though it is only used within the limits of the user’s will.

“I thought that your helmet was what corrupted you.” I deadpanned as I began to spring through the sky back to the hive. Sombra floated in pace near me.

“It is, but this is not my helmet, this is not my body, and I am not physical. I am merely a visage of magic with thought.” He shook his head and looked at me. “I am still here only because I reside in most of the magic within you. My mind and magic will remain within you until my magic is drained from your body.”

A heartstopingly malicious grin made its way on my face.

“If that is the case, we have much to discuss."

I had a feeling things were going to be much easier now.