Chapters Miss Brown Quartz put the chalk on her cathedra and turned to the class. The 19 foals seemed to have a headache. Some of them opened their mouth wide and were twitching their eyes, as if they couldn't believe what they have just heard. Miss Quartz frowned, what is so hard to learn about Cloudsdale's culture?! She looked all over the shabby, old room. A grey unicorn colt in the corner seemed uninterested and was doodling something in his notebook.Oh, well then, he thinks he knows everything...
"Hey, you there, what's your name?"she said loudly, almost yelling.
"M-My name i-is Sombra, miss Quartz"said the colt quietly. He looked in the teacher with his eyes red as rubies.
"Well, can you tell us about the foundation of our Crystal Empire and Equestria?"she said and grinned. Maybe after some embarrassment he'll learn not to sleep in yhe class.
The little colt standed up and began to speak:
"Not long before the three tribes' leaders met to discuss about the eternal winter in the Old Lands, some ponies who felt as slaves and unappreciated by the unicorns and pegasi left the Old Lands ans headed southeast. When they came to what we now call the Crystal Empire, they found an enormous field of crystals. The land was fertile and the weather was nice, so they had a lot of food. They started to care about eachother not knowing when the next great winter would come. But Windigos had no food and left the ponies alone. The ponies now were the first ones to discover the magic of love and friendship. they were blessed by the six Ancient crystals, later called the Elements of Harmony , they got crystal coat and the ability to spread friendship wherever they go. That's when the three alicorn princesses were born. Celestia, the princess of the sun, Luna, the princess of the moon, and Crystalis, the princess of love. In the same time the ponies of the Old Lands came. Now Luna and Celestia eased the unicorns' duties and unicorns were more eager to help ponies in the fields. The perfect Harmony was created. Queen Crystalis ruled the Crystal empire, but Celestia and Luna refused to share Equestria, leaving it to the ponies. The six Ancient crystals were moved into the Everfree forest, so some of their magic can exist in Equestria.
The paradise didn't last for long. The two kingdoms became jealous of eachother. The tension grew and Chaos was created. It took an embodyment of a draconiqus called Discord. The Crystal Empire was protected but Equestria suffered the concenquences.Celestia and Luna took the Elements of Harmony from the place they were hidden in, the Everfree forest. With their help they defeated Discord and turned him into stone.
A little later, centaurus Tyrek came, but he was betrayed by his brother and easily defeated." he recited it all as if it was a song. Miss Quartz's eyebrows lifted, suprised by the knowledge of the colt
"Thank you, Sombra. You may sit now".She looked at her sunclock next to the window.
"Today's homework is: workbook pages 55 and 56. Class dismissed" She said and sat on her chair, reading some papers that were on the cathedra. When Sombra started to talk to a filly while leaving the room, Miss Quartz noticed something and called him. Sombra came to the cathedra wondering what's the problem now.
"Do you stutter?" she asked, not bothering to lift her view from the paper.
"Y-yes t-teach-cher, just a b-bit." he answered.
"How did you then recite the whole history of Equestria?"
"I p-practised a lot. I w-would raise my h-hoof if we w-weren't learning a-about the C-Cloudsdale's culture"
Miss Quartz lokked him in suspense, but said: "You may go." Sombra left the room and headed home.
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He lived in something that was close to a slum. No matter how much effort the queen put into helping those ponies, it was just too many of them. In one of the darker streets he was surrounded by three crystal pony colts. The orange one appoached Sombra and kicked him in his face.
"Hi, Shadow, oh I didn't see you, I am so sorry. But is it even a suprise?" he said, afterwhich others laughed. Sombra tightened his saddlebag around his thin waist. He went backwards, while suddendly he was bucked by the blue pony. He sighed in pain, trying to get up and escape. The orange and yellow one were approaching, smiling and laughing. This made Sombra mad. He has the power, so why doesn't he use it then?! He looked around the street when another kick hit his ribs. Luckily, this was the nonpopulated part of the street. He put a silence spell on the street, making sure nopony will hear him....or them.
"Shadow, don't die yet. We just started having sooo much fun" said the yellow pony.
"Oh, you'll h-have fun" he said. His eyes flashed green and purple bubbles appeared around his horn. He summoned black crystals, which immediately grew out of the ground and wrapped around each of the colts, cutting their flesh as they screamed and cried. The crystals were pulling them down, to where they came from. Was it hell? Sombra didn't care. As he was leaving the silence field, another sentence he practised a lot came out of his mouth: "Who are you calling a shadow NOW?!" Sombra completely left the silence field as the echo of the last words those pinies will ever hear echoed in their ears.
Sombra entered the small and smelly restaurant. He just couldn't understand how Rusty Gears could like this place. After the first dinning here with Rusty and Rubenius, he wondered does the staff even wash the dishes. This time he made sure he brought a sprey enchanted for disease protection.
He looked around the room, searching for those two fools. Their table was in the corner, and as expected, they already had a cider or two. He came to the table just in time to hear their laughter over a probably one more nonsense joke. At least they were almost drunk. In that state they were more easily convinced, which made Sombra's bussiness much easier. He was the owner of the whole clothes manifacture. And Rusty always had the best silk. Rubenius was just his not very smart councillor.
"What's s-so funny?" Sombra asked, pretending to be interested.
Rubenius, a pure-blood crystal pony with a deep red coat and navy blue eyes looked at Sombra stupidly. "Wuazzzaaaaaappp?" Then both of them laughed histerycally. Sombra rolled his eyes and sat next to Rusty. He had a light brown and lemon eyes and mane. Rusty was old and worked in a mine before, so that left many scars on his body.
"Rubenius, let's just TRY to talk about something important", Rusty said, "for example, how much foals does your sister have again?" Another histeric laugh and hooves stomping on the table irritated Sombra's ears. The soup the waitress brought him looked ... up most weird. He sprayed it and tasted: it was like dirt.
"No, seriously", Rusty calmed down himself, "let's talk about the thing I called you here today for...
the Queen wants us as her special guests at the castle. The letter says something about "being the most successful manifacture partnership" in the whole Crystal Empire!"
Rubenius choked and spit out the cider he has been drinking. "No.Way" he said.
"Oh. Wow" Sombra smiled "and when do w-we h-have to c-come to the castle?"
Rusty Gears opened his old, shabby bag ( he once said he had some emotional connection with it). He took out the letter, cleaned his throat and started reading:
"We, the Queen of the Crystal Empire, invite you to our castle to talk about investments we are planning to make to help your manifacture partnership grow even more and possibly even spread to Equestria. Our royal chariot will pick you up at the sunset of the 6th day, 2nd spring month.
Guys, that is tommorow! And see, it has the royal seal and everything!"
Sombra finished his apple juice he ordered in the meantime, sighed and said: "Is-s there a-anything else we should t-talk about? If not, I need to g-go, I have a terrible h-headache." The partners said goodbye to eachother, and with that settled, Sombra went home with relief.
~~~~~~~~
Sombra lived in a very old apartment. He didn't bother buying something better, since his childhood he was used to living a poor life, although he was now the richest colt in the Empire.
The first thing he did when he entered the house was freezing some water with dark magic and putting it onto his forehead. Since he started to use it more often, the usage of normal magic would exhaust him. He rested for a couple of minutes, and then closed all the windows and curtains so almost no light could get inside. He had a special room locked with magic, and the door would dissapear or move if it didnt recognize the spell. And of course, it had to be dark magic.
He opened the door. Inside, there was a skinny, tired and starving crystal pony. He looked as if obsessed with something, looking in vain with the face that seemed terrified. His eyes were green, and purple smoke was coming out of them. Sombra already noticed the first symptoms of his goal. His cutiemark dissapeared, his coat was no longer crystal and his mane started to fall off. It's only a matter of days before he will be ready. Sombra changed the pony's nighmare, making it even worse than before. He left the room and closed the door, leaving the pony scream and shake in terror.
Sombra continued to work on his old, rusty metal desk.
He had a very determined way of sorting his papers and projects, on the left side there were books about dark magic, on the right manifacture documents. Currently he was trying to develop a spell which would stop his stuttering. It was so annoying trying to talk normally and always end up with his tongue tangled. He worked troughout the whole night, and the sunrise already began when his head fell on the desk. He fell asleep, exhausted by the whole night's work.
The loud knocks woke him up. Someone was calling him loudly. Sombra stood up, streched and looked trough the peephole. Outside there was a light brown crystal pony mare. She seemed impatient.
"Hello? The chariot is here , sir", she said.
"I am c-coming right a-away", said Sombra and went in his bedroom. He opened the closet and quickly teleported his best suit on himself. He slept trough the whole day! How is that even possible? He surely wasn't THAT tired....
He just went to comb his mane when he looked himself in the mirror.
"Horseshit!" he whispered.
His pupils were vertical, his teeth grew and his horn became twisted and red. His cutiemark, a black crystal in red and purple fire, started to fade. That was new.
Anyway, how could he forget to put a new illusion spell?! This day is just getting worse and worse. It will take at least a quarter of a sunhour for the spell to start working. He casted the spell, only to be shaken by another rough and loud sound of the mare's voice calling him. He had much more sensitive ears than other ponies.
"Sir, are you all right? We need to..."
"I'll be there, just give me a few moments...." Sombra interrupted her.
He opened the magical door in a hurry, almost failing the incantation. The pony changed much faster than Sombra expected. His eyes were now completely blue, with no iris or pupils. A small, weirdly shaped horn started to grow from his forehead, and so did the insect-like wings from his back. Green and grey armour grew around his stomach, and the flesh on his hooves melted, leaving empty holes behind. If the crystal pony changes during his visit to the Queen, who knows what he'd be capable of.
Sombra removed the nightmare spell. The pony fell down, starving and exhausted. He won't have to eat food anymore after the transformation, so why bother? Sombra's horn and eyes flashed purple as the green ooze and liquid wrapped around the pony, in a shape of a cacoon. That should slow down the transformation, and the liquid inside would be like air. Once in the cacoon, the pony slowly closed his blue eyes. It was funny, it seemed almost as he was sleeping. The best thing about dark magic was the multiple variations of spells. Dark magic was like a mirror to normal magic. When an unicorn would invent a new normal spell, the same, but a bit stronger, twisted spell would become possible as dark magic. And opposite. The only difference was that while "translating" the dark spell into normal, the result would be weaker.
Sombra went out of the room. He looked himself in the mirror once more. His horn was now staight, but that was all. He took the darkest eyeglasses he had, quickly painted a cutiemark on his flank, and opened the door widely.
"It surely took you long", said the mare, frowning. She had a cyan coat, bright yellow mane and orange eyes. The stubborn look in her eyes frustrated Sombra, he wondered what would ger worst fear be.... It would be such fun listening to her screams...
He got out of his daydreaming when the chariot, pulled by two pegasi, moved and started to bounce. Sombra touched his teeth with his tongue. He used a different spell for changing the their shape, and they were almost fully normalized.
He looked around himself. The chariot was white with golden decorations, the seat was comfortable with three soft pillows, all white as snow. The two windows on the each side of the chariot were wide and clean. Trough them Sombra could see the sky full of clouds. It was the end of autumn and leaves were flying all around, dancing on the last warm winds. Kind of a calming atmosphere. Sombra could let himself fall into slumber. But there were just too many things to worry about, too many plans...
The crystal pony fillies and colts were playing outside. Sombra couldn't be sure if the game was tag or hide-and-seek. Few colts standed aside, passing a colorful, patched ball to eachother. Sombra never got the point of that game.
He just looked outside, with his thoughts far away. They were already in the "Rich Squares". Huge houses with large gardens and many flowers in front of them. Sombra recognized Rubenius's house. It was probably the largest. Rubenius inherited everything from his parents. With his brain, which was the size of an almond, he would never be even close to this. They almost passed the Rich Squares, and the castle wasn't far.
They were now in front of the gates. They led to an enormous garden full of crystal fountains and the most exotic plants. The castle itself was in all colours. It looked like a huge, soft rainbow made of crystals. When the crystal pony guards opened the gates, the garden shone in all its beauty. It seemed like heaven.
In front of the very castle stood the Queen
"Welcome", she said.
If this is heaven, Sombra thought, then she is the God.
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.
Sombra couldn't help himself but to stare at the Queen. What in the world was happening?! He felt paralyzed, but how?
At a moment he succeeded to move his eyes, to the beautifully decorated glass he had just been drinking from.
Oh. That.
He heard the annoying Rubenus's titter. They must have given them some kind of a poison. Oh, those guys are going to pay him BIG TIME.....
He felt his facial muscles relax, forming a stupidly looking grin. He just noticed that the Queen was doing exactly the same.
At least, he thought, she isn't conscious of it either.
His muzzle and mouth started to move, forming words that Sombra never before said in his life.
"Crystal gem of mine, sweety kitty priness, beauty...", Sombra tried to at least shut his ears so he can't hear himself. Those words were embarrassing all by themselves, but being said in front of the QUEEN?
Crystallis also began to speak, in a very similar, if not the same way.
"Sombry-mombry-domry sweetie-pie...", Sombra almost felt like throwing up. Then he heard the titter of Rubenus and Rusty turned into a mocking laughter. It echoed throughout the whole room, building up Sombra's anger even more. Even though he wanted to scream from the very depth of his soul, his mouth continued to repeat those stupid, silly, childlish words....
Sombra imagined taking a deep breath and calmed himself down. He can't possibly think about screaming at those two when there is some more important work to be done now. He better just analyze the situation and find the solution.
So, they have put a potion/poison into his and the Queen's drink. The consequences are paralysis, loss of control over one's body, and constant starring at the eyes of the other pony who drank the potion. Same for the other side, obviously.
But, which potion was it?
Then Sombra remembered a time when he was still in school. He needed to give one stupid unicorn history lessons, and when they were heading to the unicorn's home, the unicorn noticed a filly he was in love with. Sombra thought he was making such a fool of himself while starring at the filly...
So, they must've given them a love potion, yet, Sombra shouldn't be conscious that he is doing this... Is it because he uses dark magic? Probably partially, but assuming their dumbness, especially Rubenus's, he'd say they attempted to make a real love potion and completely misunderstood the recipe.
Now, which spell should he use, if he even can do spells in this condition?
Normal magic? No way. There are three spells unique for both normal and black magic, and love-breaking is one of the dark kind. But, if he uses dark magic in the castle, the princess will feel it. His only hope is memory erasing, but he doesn't know the full normal version, and it would be too weak for what he needs now. Well, he could at least give it a try and make up the story when it's all over...
He put all of his willpower and strength into breaking the wall which kept him from stopping this. It was tough to even get to the "surface", and then, even harder to keep all his anger inside as he tried to catch up with his poisoned emotions, which kept thinking "she is beautiful, pie, hearty crystally......."
Rusty band Rubenus were rolling on the floor, almost choking while laughing to the words Crystallis and Sombra spoke to eachother.
''This. Is. The. Best. Thing. Ever", Rusty said.
"Hahaha... I know, right? I'm laughing so hard my stomach hurts", Rubenus responded .
"I didn't know you even know the MEANING of that word! HAHAHAHA"
Rubenus smiled shrewdly and said: "I challenge you! Let's stand up and watch them. The first one who laughs is the loser!"
"Challenge accepted!" Said Rusty.
They stood up looking at the strange pair, who were still bandying with epithets.
And they both screamed when Sombra's face changed. The stupid grin became filled with rage, his eyes turned completely green and, along with the horn, looked like they were on fire. Purple and green blast filled the room and overturned the table and all the chairs except the one Sombra was sitting on. The Queen was lying on the floor and looked like she was sleeping. Sombra got off the chair and approached to Rubenus and Rusty, with his horn and eyes still on fire.
" You are S-SO lucky I am n-not angry enough to c-cut you into p-pieces and send you b-both to HELL" he said, "but I w-will do it, and a h-hundred times w-worse, if you t-tell ANYPONY w-what happened today.''
Then he calmed down, took a deep breath, and changed to Sombra they knew everyday. He went to the Queen, leaving those two fools shaking in the corner. His horn lit up with fire again as he touched the Queen's forehead with it. Then he turned to Rubenus and Rusty and said: "She will n-now wake u-up. And w-whatever I say n-now, you must a-agree with m-me, understood? Or else..."
They both nodded, still shaking.
The Queen stood up, putting her hoof on her forehead. ''Oh, what happened? I have such a terrible headache..."
"S-somepony enchanted your d-rink with d-dark magic. Luckily, I k-knew the c-counter spell and saved y-you. B-but when I-i removed the s-spell, a m-mysterious blast w-went trough the whole r-room. My f-friends are still i-in shock".
"Allright then, we will delay this conversation for tomorrow, you may go to your chambers now", the Queen said and opened the door,"My servant Breezies will guide you to your rooms" She let them go and closed the door after them. Pollen Scent was already waiting for Sombra. Now he paid more attention on how she looks. She was grey with light blonde mane and blue eyes.
"I heard you had a little incident in there, huh? Now come on you lazy colt", she said and went forward, as Rusty and Rubenus waited for their guides.
