Dear Diary - The Dark Lady

Dear Diary…
I am now a magician, but I don’t know how to control it…

The inner chambers of the Crystal Palace had a curious beauty of their own. Unlike the rest of the building, it was made from stone. Solid granite, if I knew my rocks correctly. It was a reminder that however fair the outside, it can be hard on the inside. My thoughts immediately went to Celestia. I remembered what I had heard of her from Sombra and Luna, and how her impostor had looked. Beautiful, yet she had manipulated history.Either self-serving, or self-deluded. As I walked into a lab of sorts, I wondered which one would be worse.

The heat was the first thing to hit me when I entered the room. Then came the smell. It was as if something had slowly met its end in there. There were apparatuses of every shape with bubbling contents along the walls. They resembled everything from liquid flames to howling ice-vapors with diminishing facial features. None of that held my eyes for but a moment. The centerpiece of the lab was a large crystalline heart, soft blue in color, humming with magical energy. I felt stronger, faster just by being near it. Somehow I knew it held the key to what I had to do.

“Ah, you’re here,” a friendly, but unfamiliar voice said from behind. “I was afraid I had to start without you.”

I didn’t turn: somehow I couldn’t. I was supposed to keep my eyes fixed on the heart. Then my blood turned to ice as Sombra casually strolled past me into the lab. I wanted to scream, to tell him to leave my dreams alone for once, but nothing happened. Instead I felt my lips move into a smile.

“My prince,” I said, giving a bow. He snorted in response, turning to me. He was… younger? It was definitely Sombra, with his dark skin and strong jaw, but this was not the adult man I had faced. This was a teenager, maybe 16 years old. His eyes lacked the burning glow of the heart magic and they had a genuine warmth to them.

“Oh, come of it, Blue. I’m not king yet. I’m just Sombra.”

“Just Sombra, who will one day be the greatest of kings this world has seen,” involuntarily I felt myself warm up inside as I put a hand on Sombra’s shoulder. “All of this…” I gestured to the contents of the lab. “… is for your benefit. Your father is a gracious and clever man, dancing at the edge of the wrath of the Heavenly Sisters. But you? You will be a strong king, capable of standing against them. "And here…” I put his hand on the Crystal Heart. “… is the key. You will be the first king to openly challenge the tyranny of the Alicorn. To show the people that their perceived gods are false.”

“But I’m just…”

“… Sombra? No, you are so much more. And you will be so much more. This world needs you to be.”

Sombra went quiet, just staring at the Heart. He seemed older now than when he came into the lab. I knew within myself that I- no, Starswirl, had just put a great burden on this young man’s shoulders. He was to become the world’s salvation; the one to free the world from its self-appointed gods.

**

“Hey, darling,” I woke up, cold inside, from Twilight shifting her weight a bit. I stroked her hair and tried to smile, but didn’t reply right away. “Slept well?”

“Do you ever wonder why Sombra became what he is?” I asked after a few moments spent in silence. She just gave me a puzzled look, waiting for me to elaborate my thoughts. “It’s just… I had this dream, right? Not like the ones with Luna where I am awake within in the dream. An actual dream: I was Starswirl the day he told Sombra he had to end the tyranny of the Alicorn…”

“It’s just a dream, right?” Twilight smiled. A forced smile. She wasn’t comfortable with this topic.

“I dunno,” I began, not sure how to tell her. But I was going to. I wouldn’t keep this, or anything else, secret from her. “When I took what was left of the Shard, I blacked out, but I didn’t really. Starswirl spoke to me. Said I would absorb whatever was left of him.”

“You think your dream was a memory from Starswirl?”

I nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t say it last night. I…”

“You told me now, before something bad happened,” she smiled more genuinely now, kissing my forehead. “Besides, I already knew.” It was my turn to give her a puzzled look. “Luna told me. Said you were conflicted about it and, after the Changeling troubles you’ve had.”

“But I never told Luna,” I objected, but kissed her back. Twilight just shrugged. Who cared, right? The Alicorn princess knew I had the power and I didn’t even find it surprising. Too many odd occurrences since I came here. The very odd occurrence of getting here, wherever here really was.

“Well, I have an appointment to keep,” Twilight sighed and got up from the bed. I replied with a pout. She just smiled in return and levitated her clothes from a neatly folded stack on the night table that I was sure wasn’t there before. “Ah!”

“Twilight!” I jumped after her as she let out a shriek of pain, grabbing her horn.

“Sorry, just…” she began.

“Cadence said you were fine!” I put my hand on her horn as gently as I could. It was warmer to the touch than normal.

“… I- eh, I asked her to let me… let me stay the night with you. Before moving into the medical wing…” she blushed.

“Twilight…” I said, feeling a cold sensation in my gut. I gave her a hug. “I understand.”

“You… you do? You’re not mad I-“

“Endangered yourself? You’re Twilight Sparkle. And you’ve made it this far. Of course you’re going to be fine,” I smiled a sheepish grin, I was sure. “But please, please don’t do it again. I hate worrying about you.”

“I hate worrying about you too,” Twilight poked me in my stomach before she got up and fetched her clothes with her hands. “I’ll see you later,” she beamed as she disappeared out the door.

**

“You’re a very curious creature,” Cadence had me brought to the castle dining hall for breakfast. It was huge, with two long rectangular table going from one end to the other, but we sat on pillows on the floor, resting our backs against the wall. We had pancakes with blueberry jam and sugar, with no silverware. Not what I had expected from a princess, I had to admit, so I had let her take the first bite just to be sure she wasn’t messing with me.

“My scent, right?” I asked through a mouthful. There was something off with the taste compared to what I were used to, but they were good. Really good. She nodded, accidentally painting the tip of her nose purple with the jam.

“No, no… yes,” she giggled. How could she be in such a good mood? “Why so glum?”

There was something unmistakably ‘Pinkie Pie’ about the way she asked the question, right down to the way she tilted her head. Instinctively I tensed up, expecting to be hit in a blind spot by a tackle from hell. I simply raised my eyebrow in reply. Did she really have to ask?

“Look,” she said, giving me a slightly condescending smile. “I know times are bad, but see the light side. You’re safe, we have a plan and you have a few days to rest before it starts. You’ve been chosen by Twilight-fucking-Sparkle and now you’ve become some sort of mage. Did she tell you that she was willing to suffer the horn-pain for a while longer just so she could spend last night with you? She told me about how you saved her from the Changeling ambush, how you outwitted Sombra. So relax. Restitute for a few days before the real world comes knocking on your door again.”

“You have a little something there…” I pointed to her nose, to which she responded by sticking it into the pancake again. My voice died down as I just looked at her with a dumbstruck expression on my face. This was a princess?

“You mean here?” she giggled.

“Eh- never mind. I think it is gone now.”

“Oh, good!” Cadence beamed and jumped to her feet. “Let’s get to it then.” I looked at her, confused. “Oh, they must’ve forgot to mention it. Time to see if you can learn to use your magic.”

**

“Most unicorn are able to use magic through instinct,” Cadence brought me to a smaller room closer to what I believed to be the outer walls of the Crystal Palace. It had a simple wooden table with a few different things placed on it. A few pebbles, a hairbrush and a hand mirror that looked like it was framed with real gold. “But you’re not a unicorn. So let’s see how you do it.”

I nodded, somewhat hesitantly. My magic had produced what I assumed to be very powerful effects, but that was before what was left of Starswirl became part of me. I looked at the pebbles, asking myself what I was supposed to be thinking. Just picturing them levitating in my head was surely not enough, because then all sorts of things would have had happened since last night. I tried it anyway, to predictable results.

“Hmm,” the princess rubbed her forehead. Then she got a devious little smile and walked over to the table.

“Think fast!”

As the mirror came flying towards my face, my first instinct was to put up my arms to shelter my face from the impact. But it never came. I became increasingly aware of a sensation I couldn’t quite describe, but recognized almost instantly: I had felt the same thing as I overpowered the guards that ambushed us at Twilight’s library. It was as if I held the mirror in my hands, but also so much more than that. I felt every little detail of it, even those I would never be able to feel with my fingers.

“Hmm, that was fast,” Cadence said. At first I didn’t understand what she meant, then I lowered my arm and saw that the mirror had barely left her hand before I stopped it. I had to chuckle to myself, before I put it back where it had been. “Now try picking up the brush.”

I did and it responded immediately. I gently placed it in Cadence’s hand. In a sense it didn’t feel much different than moving my body. Hmm, what if… I thought to myself and picked up the pebbles. I tried to throw them at the wall. The result was not as precise as I would have liked, but in the general direction.

“Well, I suppose you can work on it,” Cadence said comforting, but I shook my head and smiled. Then she did too. Seemed like I had absorbed more than just Starswirl’s power; maybe some of his skill too. “Levitation seems to be easy for you. Let’s see if you’ve got the same luck for something a bit more challenging.”