A Broken Crystal

The queen was, well, beautiful. She was the smallest of the alicorns, a bit taller than a normal pony. She was the only princess who had crystal coat, which seemed like a prism, spilling colours and light around. Her cyan mane floated on the wind, the same colour as the clear sky. Her eyes like two big emeralds, calm and ....simply wonderful. Ponies of the Crystal Empire said that, the first time you see the Queen, you almost fall in love with her. Sombra noticed her beauty, but felt nothing. Love was a nonsense to him, and also the worst enemy of the dark magic, along with the Elements. He went out of the chariot, and put the glasses ino his pocket, his eyes were now "normal".

"You must be Sombra. Come in, please", she said and smiled. Her horn glew green as she opened the castle's amethyst gates, with painted silver flowers. The castle looked like a rainbow, every tower differently shaped and coloured. Sombra knew there were seven towers, but he could see only four. Garnet, jade, citrine and celestin, in the exact order. Sombra stood for a moment, but then went after the Queen.

The hallway was marble, with no any special decorations, except torches here and there, just for lighting. Upon an intersection the Queen turned right, and so did Sombra. They were already walking for a while when Sombra started to wonder does this even have an end.the Queen suddenly stopped. Sombra almost bumped into her. They were in front of a wall with a painted orchid. Is it possible the Queen can be lost in her own castle? Her horn glew again, and, so quickly Sombra could barely see it, the wall transformed into a staircase and the  ceiling above them dissapeared. The walls were no longer marble, but crystal, almost transparent. It was a remarkably complicated illusion spell. Sombra started to respect the Queen a bit more....

"At the end of the staircase there is a room. It will be yours during your stay here in the castle. The dinner will be done soon, and if you would like to prepare, be quick please. Your chariot was late." The sentence which would sound unpleasant if said by any other pony was like a caring mother's lullaby said from her mouth. She was simply surrounded by a warm aura, aura of happiness, flowing all around her just like the colors she was spilling. She turned away and left, leaving Sombra alone.

Why would she have a staircase if she can teleport? What is the use? Sombra though and tried to perform the spell. The teleportation spell didn't work at all. Probably she made some safety precautions, and it was too risky to use dark magic while in here.

He'll just have to handle the headaches.

Sombra went up. He was in the Jade Tower, smallest of them all, which meant he won't have to climb very long. First good news today. Sombra smiled when he came in front of the oak door. He could say the apartment was luxury just by looking at the decorations on it. He entered the apartment, and his expectations, as always, weren't wrong. He closed the door and looked around.

The theme color was red, probably because of being in contrast to the color of the castle. In front of Sombra, at the other side of the room, was a balcony, which could be closed with  double doors made of crystal clear glass. On his right there was a shelf with some clothes on it, and on his left - a hatstand made of ebony.

"Wh-what a waste of p-precious wood" Sombra said to himself.

The bed was wide and separated from the rest of the room by thouroughly decorated curtains. Sombra wasn't interested in sleeping at the moment, he needed to get himself ready for the dinner. This evening will determine the future of his manifacture company. He found the bathroom which was, thankfully, a bit simpler. Sombra looked himself in the mirror. He combed his mane with a silver manebrush in the one of the commodes. His suit was clean, breath - not smelly, and as far as he could see, everything was fine.

He went out of the room and locked it, maybe he could look around the castle before the dinner starts.

When he just got in the hallway, the marble-wall spell started to work. Sombra whispered a swear about it.

"That is not how a gentleman behaves", said a squeaky voice.

"Who is that?" asked sombra, his voice echoing the hallway. He shouldn't be suprised. The Queen surely knows he has no idea how to come to the dining room.

A little flying creature came to the torch's light. It was almost looking like a pony, but had wings of a dragonfly and much thinner legs.

"Oh, great, they assign me to a guest who doesn't even know what a Breezie is", she grunted.

"My name is Polen Scent, and I will guide you to the.... wherever you need to go"

"The dining room."

"Oh sure, the dining room. Now come after me" the Breezie said and turned.

Sombra went after her. What else could he do?

The hallway doesn't need any description. Sombra knew it was an illusion, but it was so irritating to know he could break the spell in one moment, and see the full glory of the castle. The problem was, as always, the alicorns.  Because they have emerged from crystals, the purest things on this world, theg can sense any kind of Chaos if it was near them.

Sombra let himself to the flow of his thoughts, hoping the time will pass faster.

He wondered how is the crystal pony doing, if that thing can be called a crystal pony anymore. He used the reversing spell on the pony's mind and body, which should change the pony's behaviour in Sombra's favor. And a nightmare spell, to keep him under control and to fasten the transformation. But once transformed

the pony will become immune to the spell... and many other things.

Love is the worst enemy of dark magic. And who generates the most of it? Crystal ponies.

However, if you take their love away and replace it with fear, they will lose all their memories

and become desireful for love. So desireful they will EAT it.

Speahing of the devil, Breezie stopped in front of a wall. This time there was a picture of a daisy. Polen Scent touched it and the wall opened.

Inside, there was an enormous table for 20 ponies. Runbenius and Gears sat next to eachother, playing with the napkins and laughing. Sombra's eyes narrowed and the napkins dissapeared. Rubenius started to search for them under the table, while good old smart Rusty figured out right away what happened. He didn't seem angry at all.

"Ah, Sombra. How's it going?" He said smiling and then tittered. Sombra rolled his eyes.

"Don't make fools of y-yourselves. The Q-queen will come s-soon", he said and sat next to Rubenius.

As if Sombra summoned her, Crystalis entered the room. She excused for being late and sat at the end of the table. Rubenius and Rusty tittered again. Sombra looked at them sharply, and they shut their muzzles. *What are they planing now?*

"First, cheers!" the Queen said and raised her drink.

"Ch-Cheers!" Sombra said and smiled. The Queen and Sombra drank their drinks and looked at eachother.

At that moment Sombra felt something weird.