Son of Shadow and Light

by Lux Tenebris

Rating: mature
Tags: Sex, Crystal Ponies, Violence, Princess Celestia, Zebra, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Adventure
Length: 44201

The world will be shaped by one birth. The darkness will no longer be suppressed, the crystal throne will no longer be empty and one stallion will become the last warrior holding a crystal blade

(Hiatus due to rewrites, edits, and other writing projects)

The wind carries the cries of ponies in pain. The earth cries as the land it owns are torn apart by selfish goals and hatred. The queen of the sun looks over the empire she now owns, all of this is just the beginning...

The second a certain book is given to the king of the crystal empire events are set in place that will unfold secrets of the past, present, and the future. One mare will carry a child that will make the shadows bow wherever he goes. One ruler will make the world kneel before her no matter what. One long lost weapon will resurface for the crystal prince and one spell will change the world.

All of this from one book, the book that carried with it a curse and a blessing. One warrior and one monster. The darkness will never be the same again.

Published 2017-01-11 15:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-01 13:56:28 UTC

prologue

Autumn Wheat was just laying there on the cold, hard floor. She could hear the sounds of chained crystal ponies and the armour of the guard as they moved around the street. She could hear the sounds of pickaxes hammering away in the crystal mines.
The cell they had thrown her in was mostly empty. The only thing that stood out was the white madras, but she didn't want to go near it after what he had done to her on it. The cell itself was a square shaped room with a barred window and a metal door with a little hatch for food. But she couldn't care less, the stalion she loved was gone and in his place was a husk of darkness and malevolence.
She still remember looking down at the frozen lake as he was pulled down under water, she should have realized that in the same second he was pulled under the water that he had all ready said goodbye. His sad but determined look and heavy hoof steps, the way he tightly hugged her like he didn't want to let go and the way he wrapped the red scarf around her neck. He knew he wasn't coming back and now he was dead.....
All that was once him was now the monster that became the ruler of the crystal empire and the crystal ponies was his slaves. She wondered why he had kept her, probably just to have a personal toy, he had already toyed with her. Thinking about it always sent a shiver down her spine. But deep down she hoped,even if it was false, that he was somewhere in there, still trying to fight against the darkness. A tear rolled down her cheek. Now the empire suffers under his iron hoof and she would have to endure his playtime until she gave birth to a foal. A foal he would have become his heir to the throne, something that he happily proclaimed every time he was done with her and left to put pressure on the crystal ponies.
She slowly got up on her hoves and walked to the cell door. She was thirsty, she hadn't noticed it before now but her throat was killing her and if she was lucky they would give her water, and if she was unlucky... well let's not think about that for now. She kept walk slowly towards the door until she could hear the guards breathing. She started to speak very slowly, her voice cracking after every sentence.

"P-please-e... wa-water-er", she said and going in to a coughing fit.

One of the guards, a unicorn, slowly turned to his cold eyes towards her, the black crystal armor had sharp edges and helmet was made of black and twisted crystal with a small green glow to it. His eyes were a dark yellow and where the eyes should be white they were glowing green.

"Please..., water", she said more desperately this time.

A few months ago the guards would have helped anypony, now however after his mind control spell was the guards just as much slaves as any other crystal pony. The unicorn guard responded to her pleadings with a shock spell. She screamed in pain as the electricity passed trough her body making her fall twitching down on the floor. She couldn't hold back the tears anymore, she sobbed herself to a dreamless sleep.

one day later

Autumn had almost never been more happy than the moment she heard the sound of the little, almost invisible, hatch on the bottom of the door opened and a plate with oats and salad with a large glas of water flouted in with a silver aura and landed in front of her. When you go three days witout food or water you get desperate. She picked the glas up first and poured the heavenly liquid down her troat. She then bagan to eat the food greedily and devoured everything. When she lifted up the plate to lick it from every grain she felt something on the back of the plate quickly flipping it over. It was a note, she blinked.

"How...", she started but was interupted by the servant that had brought her the food.

"Hurry up would you!", he said. "I am needed in the kitchen now!", he more or less shouted.

She quickly hid the note in her mane and pushed the plate and glass towards the hatch and watched as the silver aura coated the items again and they flouted out and closing the hatch behind them. She heard him walk away and made sure that the guards where not looking and opened the note.

"Whoever that wrote this did in haste", autumn thought and tried to decifer it's meaning. After intense looking that would had left a cucitrice wery she managed to read it.

"Dear Autumn Wheat," it began. "during a visit to the crystal empire three months ago I saw what were happening and set out to get help of the rulers of equestria, and now after a few weeks of reacon I can say we are ready to launch an attack on the empire. When you get this note the infiltration unit should had penetrated the walls and be on their way. They shouldn't take more than one hour, one and a half at most. I understand if you got questions and they will all be answered in due time, sincerely a friend."

Autumn was stunned, a rescue unit to save her! But could she trust them?, what if it was all a ruse? To give her hope and then crunch it... She decided to go for it, if it was a chance to get out of here, she would take it. So she waited, and waited, and waited...

three hours later

she had waited for a long while, no one was coming... She was doomed to rot in this cell, being his plaything forever. She started to sob when she suddenly heard two thumps outside from the door. She looked up to see somepony opening the door. She couldn't belive her eyes, the damn door was open. She slowly limped forward to the now open door and looked out from her cell for the first time in three months. On the floor was unconscious body's of two crystal guards and behind them stood three male zebras, one with a scowl on his face that seemed to be on the lookout for other guards, one that were now checking the guards for stuff and finally the last one was smiling and holding out a hoof for her to shake.

"I am Ziccra", he said and his smile got bigger and he stretched his frontleg more forward.

She was about to shake his hoof but nausea and dizziness hit her hard and she stumbled in a embrace from Ziccra and past out.
When she awoke she saw a great light that was rainbow colour hit the front side of the castle and a scream of rage and agony could be heard over the tundra. Autumn realized that she was out on the frozen tundra, but she could barely process that thought a large rift opens in the tundra and a shadow version of him was trowed down in the abyss. But just before ha could not be seen anymore his eyes and horned gloved and a burning tornado of purple flames was created around the empire. When it faded the empire was gone, but she could only think on one thing.

"He's gone...", she though.

If there was any light left in him it was gone now, her beloved was truly gone. A tear fell from her eye and she only knew darkness.

Author's Note

Soooo, my fist story! What do think? Should I continue or quit? It's up to your reviews and like/dislikes that decides! If you find any wrong spelling(wich you will find)please tell me so I can corect it! thank you for wasting your time on this story, bye! :pinkiehappy:

Chapter two: A gift from a shadow

Autum woke up feeling drained and broken, she still had the words ringing in her head... "pregnant"... it was like a headache that wouldn't stop. She got up looked at her belly, was this some curse? To bear the child of a demon using her loved ones body?... She walked deeper into the woods, hoping to find something to eat and get her mind of things. She walked past timber wolfs and other creatures, strangely they didn't pay her any mind and it was like they couldn't see her as she passed by. Was this the child's making? Keeping the predators away from its mother? She shook her head and kept walking, she had to find something eventually.

She walked further into the dark Woods, a fog started to form and it stuck to her fur. She shuttered as a wind blew over her and small water drops turned to ice in her mane and eyelashes. She was freezing, why had the fog appeared? It had came out of nowhere and it was making her even colder by the second. She kept walking, stumbling ever so often from stepping on roots or rocks. Something was strange with the shape of the rocks, they looked like they had been cut and golden carvings was all over them. She continued to walk and more carved rocks appeared until she stood in front of a temple, a old one with it's walls crumbling but still standing. She didn't like it, it felt like something rested within, something dark. She turned around but then she heard it, the sound of something shimmering, or that is at least what she thought she heard. She walked slowly towards the opening and looked inside, only darkness met her eyes. She slowly walked into the temple as the rain got more heavy.

"H-Hello?" She called out and looked around, there was no response. She slowly walked further in and yelled out in suprise as black flamed torches light up the area. She covered and looked around, She recognized these walls.... She wasn't in the temple anymore... The black and gray stone floor and walls was those of the crystal empire's dungeon. She wanted to cry, she had finally left them behind to just be back?! Had it all been one of his mind tricks?! The escape?! the zebras?! She just ran towards the stairs and kicked open the door leading towards the cellar of the castle. She suddenly couldn't move, her legs where stuck onto the floor. The black to perfectly carved floor started to take the form of some sort of black sludge like substance. She yanked and pulled but couldn't get away. She felt a tentacle slip around her throat and started to choke her.

"You thought you were free?~ I will never let you go~" said the cold heartless voice of king Sombra in her ear.
"Please..." she said weakly and was thrown into the wall.
"SILENCE YOU WHORE!" He screamed and she looked into his red soul less eyes as she was thrown into her old cell and passed out.

Crystal empire, 8 months earlier
Autum slowly walked through the garden and smiled at all the flowers and crops bathing in the morning sun. She loved spring in the crystal empire, everything just seemed to wake to life and spread happiness across the empire. She walked down to the lane who held her favorite flowers, white roses. She picked up one and sniffed it.

"I love spring" she said with a happy sigh and walked towards a bench. She sat down and saw to her surprise the prince walking into the garden.

He looked exactly like on all the paintings she had seen of him, the diffrance was that he wasn't wearing his crown or his red cape. He seemed walked around the flowers and crops inspecting them. Would he be happy with them? She had worked really hard on making them as outstanding as possible. He walked to her white roses and picked one up, he smiled and then walked over to her.

"Another good harvest miss Wheat" he said with a gentle smile and she was stunned for a second, he knew her name?

"T-Thank you my lord" she said with a quick bow and a blush.

"I do wonder what you do to make them grow so well, I haven't seen this much talent since our last potion master in the art of gardening" he said with another smile and then gave her the rose.

"T-Thanks" she said with a smile of her own and blushed again.

He walked away chuckling and smiling and her eyes followed him until he walked out of the garden. She sighed happily and walked out to her white roses. She giggled and picked up more of the roses, the prince had talked to her! She squealed and ran around like a filly having her first sugar rush, she stopped and giggled to her silliness. She was so surprised that the prince knew about her and she had never seen him close up before. She walked out of the garden with a smile on her face and a white rose in her mane.

present day
Autum woke up and looked around, she was laying on the temple floor. There was no cell to be seen nor any Sombra to fear. She got up and sighed, that memory... Their first meeting was one of her fondest memories and one of the many that hurt the most. Slowly walked further into the temple, if anything had the storm gotten worse during the time she had been passed out. Autum looked around on the walls of the once grand temple and was amazed by the large carvings into the stone. Huge battles and images of old gods was everywhere. One of the battles depicted Zebras fighting what looked like demon figures, the forms of the twisted creatures sent a shiver down her spine as she walked away from the carving. The next depicted a old god, the pony on the carving was a alicorn with a mane and tail looking to be made out of purest fire and light. The name 'Solaris' was carved beneath the image and she remembered seeing that name in some of Sombra's books. The father of princess Celestia and Luna, the king of light. She gaped at the former god of the sun and bowed.

"Oh great Solaris watcher of mortals hear my plee and tell me this is just a bad dream!" Autum said with a shaky voice.

There was no respone and she just folded her ears, it was a foolish thing to do. Calling out to a long dead leader of a dead people. But she needed something, some kind of hope something that would wake her up out of this nightmare and make her feel her lover hug her tight. He would whisper sweet nothings in her ear and she would finally feel safe. She opened her eyes and she found herself not in her lover's embrace but still in the old temple. She finally just gave up on even her small fantasy she had left, he was gone. It hurt, it hurt so much but she stopped trying to only focus on that pain and she continued her journey into the temple.

After walking into a chamber with torches burning with a red low glow she came across a alter with a book on it. "The book of memories to come" it read and she slowly opened it. A misstake she shouldn't have made as she suddenly found herself on a burning battlefield. She starred in horror as ponies sent spells and spears towards each other, blood flooded the ground like water and the ponies screamed and roared as the two armies clashed. It wasn't until she saw the magnificent city of Canterlot on fire she truly knew what she was looking at, war. That word seemed to scream through every soldier and civilian mind alike as above the battlefield princess Celestia fought something in her golden sun themed armor. In her golden aurora a war hammer lashed out towards a smaller pony wearing a silver mask and a black leather and steel armor. The only thing that had made Autum see them had been their siluetes when a lightning bolt had hit the ground, lighting up the sky. The thing that made her gasp about the one that stood against Celestia was the red curved horn and through the eye holes of the silver mask a yellow light softly glowed with purple whips flowing out next to the eyes. A dark mage, with army big enough to take on the capital?! Autum had never been so afraid in her life, not even with her love being taken from her had she feared the feeling of dark magic in the air as she felt now. She ran and ran away from the sounds of battle but wherever she looked blood and the red crystals similar to the crown Sombra ones wore was everywhere. Suddenly a large light burnt the sky and she looked behind her to see a large ball of fire coming towards her, or rather a smaller sun that quickly expanded. A laugh of pure malice could be heard as ponies screamed in pain as they burned alive by the new sun. She kept running and tears rolled down her cheeks as she could feel the heat coming closer. She looked to the sky to see what could only be princess Celestia, but her mane and tail was made out of pure red fire and the cackle that escaped the new goddess of the sun lips had Autum before referred to as a laugh, but now like it was a mix of enjoyment for the pain and suffering on the ground. She looked to the dark mage, he had fallen to the ground and he whispered something as the fire ball that now had consumed the lands hit him.

"We Tenebris rule over fear, we do not let fear rule over us"

Those words was the last thing he had said before dying and somehow she had heard them. As the fire ball test was more of a dome by now was a few meters from her she said those words, repeated them over and over again and it brought her a comfort, a peace she hadn't felt in a long time. As the fire consumed her she didn't feel pain only a calm and deserved peace.

Autum woke up slowly, the book laying next to her and she got up. She looked at the book, it had shown her something that should haunt her even more than what she already had experienced but only that motto seemed to stick with her, not the promise of doom but of a light in the darkness. Something to remind yourself when your standing at death's door, that you're not going down screaming for someone to hold you but rather stating that you won't fear what awaits us on the other side. She slowly walked out of the temple and smiled at the new dat on the horizon as the sun slowly began peeking over the mountains. She smiled a genuine smile and let the breeze carry her mane and tail as she just enjoyed the peace. Slowly a younger zebra mare walks up to her.

"Miss Wheat, you need to come back with me. You have been missing for over a day" she says and looks at Autum

"I'm coming just let me... enjoy this" Autum said with a smile as the sun finally rose above the mountains.

She followed the zebra mare back to the camp where the chief waited for her.

"You entered the temple of memories" he stated to her.

"Yeah I did, I needed shelter" she said and smiled.

"What did it show you?" The chief asked and eyed her suspiciously.

"That a few words can change the world" she said and the pain and dread in her eyes seemed to be almost entirely.

"I was given a gift from his Shadow, a gift not a curse" she said and stroked her belly gently before walking off towards her wagon.

The chief looked curiously at her as she walked away, her sorrow was not forgotten but now it no longer held her in a iron grip. Whatever she had seen inside that temple had changed her, made her believe in a future where she could raise that child. He smiled and turned to advisors and started to talk about the possible new land they could grow crops on. After a brief talk with Razor Autumn got inside her wagon to be met by another pony, he had a blue coat and two yellow eyes. His cutie mark was a sun with a golden sword and his eyes seemed to hold a glow to them she didn't notice at first.

"W-Who are you?" Autumn said and took a step backwards towards the door.

"My name is Loki deer Autumn Wheat and I have heard and seen some stuff about you that are just delightful!" He said and suddenly stood behind her with a stick of... pink fluff? He pushed it into her mouth and paced around her.

"As you might know did the little Crystal empire incident finally make heads turn to Equestria, seeing the power of the sisters, but did you ever wonder why they seemed to know what was going on fast enough to collect their precious elements of harmony and blast your former lover into the ice below? Well I'm here to tell you!" He said dramtically with a mock bow.

"Why would you just tell me this... What do you expect in return?....." She said half flinching when Sombra was mentioned.

"Why? Maybe because you deserve the truth about who gave your lover to the demon to begin with~" he said with a chuckle.

"...Who and how?...." she asked slowly.

"Do you remember a book?~ A special book that Sombra was given by the Equestrian crown~ A book that Celestia herself had written~" he said with a giggle and Autumn's eyes widened.

"....Are you saying that the princess wanted this to happen?... For what?! Trading contracts with different kingdoms?!" She yells into his face.

"Well that and now the other kingdoms will see Equstria as a force of power, a place where great magical potential lies just waiting. This was the princess way to make her kingdom grow, by tearing down another one" he said with a smirk.

Autumn felt sick, like really really sick. She stumbled slightly and her mind raced. Why?! She had met the princess ones and she had seemed like the word good incarnated into a goddess. She remembered that book very well, Celestia had given it to Sombra during the last crystal fair and had told them about the dark spells within it, she had told them that they could serve the empire. And now... It was all gone... It had all worked out as some sick plan to gain power and fame through out Eques.

"You might wonder how I know all of this" Loki said with a smirk.

"...Yes.." she said and looked at him.

"Because Celestia herself sent me to kill you~" he said and his smirk turned into a cold grinn.

"W-What?..." she said and backed into the wall.

"When we were told about that Sombras lover still lived and was PREGNANT! That's when we needed to act, no child can have the right to the lands of the frozen north and having all that power without control. And what I think is so funny is that Celestia herself wanted you to know the truth before you died. I guess she's more sadistic then she lets on" Loki said and slowly drew a blade.

Autumn screamed for help and Loki tsk at her.

"I made the place soundproof the very same second you stepped in and locked the door. You're not leaving alive..." he said and walked up to her swirling the blade.

Time seemed to slow down for Autumn, every swirl of the blade making a drawn out swishing sound through the air and she gave a sob. Just when she had thouht she finally had safety it was gonna end like this. She tossed a vase towards him in desperation but he quickly destroyed it with a swirl of the blade. She backed into a corner and gave a sob in fear. He smirked and raised the blade and thrust it towards her head. For a second Autumn thought her death was upon her, but suddenly the blade melted and the now burning hot liquid flew into the face of Loki by some magical force and he screamed in pain. His fur caught on fire and he stumbled around screaming to any god that might hear him to end his suffering. Some god must have heard him as a throwing knife flew passed Autumn and inbeded itself in his skull painting the wall red. He fell dead to the floor and Razor hugged the now sobbing Autumn close.

"Shhhh its over" Razor said and petted her mane slowly as some other Zebras ran in to put out the burning body.

But Autumn knew this wasn't over. If the crown of Equstria itself was involved then this wouldn't just go away. This would linger like a plague over her and she could only think of one way to make it all go away. Celestia had to pay for her crimes. The goddess of the sun needed to die......

Author's Note

And that's chapter 2! Love it? Hate it? Thinks it's another one of those unoriginal stories you find online(it probably is but why would I care I'm a new writer:pinkiecrazy:)tell me in the comments and I'm sorry for the long wait on the chapter, school takes all of your time :twilightsheepish:

Chapter three: Heroes aren't born..

Two days, Two days since Loki had tried to kill Autumn. She had rested since the attack but to be honest, She couldn't sleep. His cold grinn and laugh still lingered on her mind. When the chief had heard about the would be assassin he had been furious and sent out scouts to look nearby troops. When none had been found had the large zebra camp calmed for a while, that was until a revelation was made. If Loki knew where they all lived so did Celestia and most likely the royal army. So now they were packing, anything that could be brought was thrown into the wagons and the artifacts in the temple of memories was either hidden or brought with them. Young as old helped to hide any trace of the camp and in the middle of this chaos stood the chief with a grim expression on his face. Autumn wanted to talk to him, tell him that they would be fine, but she was afraid of that cold stare he held. The Zebras had lived here for over 100 years and because of her they had to leave it all behind, the temple, their burial ground, some of their holy places and many things that they couldn't bring with them. No one paid her much mind as she walked through the chaos and up to Razor. He had been scouting the nearby area for any movements in the forest. Ever since Loki's assignation attempt had he been more cautious around the woods and made sure they had as many guards as possible around camp. He turned to her with a smile.

"Autumn, why are you feeling down? I told you that this isn't your fault" He said and started to walk around the camp with Autumn following him.

"He went after me because of this child, they want the bloodline and memory of Sombra viped..." She said silently.

"As long as you stay close to the tribe you'll be safe" he said and helped some of the younger mares moving a large chest onto one of the wagons.

"I did that and Loki still managed to sneak into my wagon and almost kill me..." she muttered.

"That was because we weren't prepared for it, we couldn't expect that Celestia herself had anything to do with this. But now when we do we're not taking any chances, we will keep you and the child safe" he said with a smile and walked off to help with taking down the last of the great campfires.

Autum sighed and walked towards the forest edge. She started to climb up the nearby hill that over looked the area and smiled in awe at the beauty of it all. The large zebra village was in the middle of an opening in the massive forest. She could see the temple just peeking out of the trees further away and long in the distance she looked at the place where the crystal empire should have been but in it's place was now just a cold dead land surrounded by a snowstorm. She looked away towards the south and saw the start of the everfree forest a long way from where the current village laid. She hoped that when they finally managed to find a new home that they would forgive her for bringing so much unhappiness upon them. She walked back to the village and looked at the fillies and colts that ran around playing, still so happy even though they have to leave their home. She smiled softly, they could find joy in a moment like this, a pure warm happy feeling while the world around them seemed to be so cold and threatening. She walked past them and saw some of the elder mares painting pictures of the landscape, one had already drawn a large painting of the temple. They wanted to remember their home, in any way they could. She then came upon a cart loaded with chests and on top of one of them was the book she had "read" in the temple. Autumn picked it up and looked at the now steel lock that had been placed on it. The chief didn't want them to use it, it was probably holy for the tribe she guessed. Autumn put it back and saw her wagon being rebuilt by some of the stallions, the fire had badly burnt one of the walls and they had to tear it down and replace it all. She sighed again at all the work they where doing for her, after everything that had happened they were still ready to help her. She was ever so grateful for their help but they were wasting time when they needed to leave. Autumn's thoughts drifted off to her new goal, killing Celestia. How could she kill someone who was better guarded then the ancient cities of the metal world? And even if she got passed the guards she was still up against a literal goddess of the sun. She mumbled different plans for herself and looked up as she heard her name being called.

"Autum! Get into your wagon we're leaving" Ziccra yelled while walking off with one of the wagons.

"Ok" she yelled back and walked to her wagon.

She walked in and closed the door after her. She had some problem at first moving to the bed with all the stuff everyone had put in the way and tied down but she managed to cuddle up under her blanket and sighed in relief. She was safe under this blanket of warm protection. She silently fell asleep, she needed some rest.

A few hours later Autum woke up with a yawn. She noticed the wagon was not moving and she could hear muffled voices and laughs as well as the crackle of bonfires. She got out of the wagon and was greated by the sight of a smaller camp surrounded by the wagons as a protective wall. Autum walked up to the bonfire and warmed herself having been freezing in the cold February air.

"How did you sleep?" Zap asked her as she approached and sat down to warm herself.

"Better than I have in a long time" she answered with a small smile and sighed as the warmth of the fire washed over her.

"So far we're on schedule to meet up with another tribe who lives in the east. If we're lucky they'll lend us a hoof if the army or Celestia herself attacks" Ziccra said, suddenly sitting next to them.

"How did you?.." Autum started but stopped herself, weird was the new normal around here.

"Did the scouts see any soilders close by?" Zap asked him and he shook his head.

"No, we have made them lose our tracks for now, but our luck won't help us forever. That's why we need to get to the other tribe as soon as possible" Ziccra answered and looked into the bonfire.

Autum thought about all of this, to get to that tribe they would have to pass villages or cities guarded by ponies from the royal army who would be looking for them. The trip would be dangerous and in case they took the way around all settlements they would lose valuable time and possibly running into bandit camps. She looked around a sighed, most Zebras of the tribe was no warriors and those who were used spears or rosty war hammers, they wouldn't stand a chance against well armed and well trained soldiers. So they needed to move, fast. Autum got up and walked to her wagon to rest until dawn when they were most likely to get moving. She laid down on the bed and pulled the blanket over her. She had barely woken up but she needed more sleep, all of this was flouting around in her mind and she just needed it to be gone for a moment.

She woke up four hours later feeling that the wagon was moving again. She looked out of the window and saw trees passing them, so they were still in the forest then. She got up and opened a nearby sack full with apples. She took three and ate them in silence as she looked at trees passing through the window. She could her birds tweeting and the sounds of the different Zebras pulling the wagons talking. She jumped out of her wagon and walked up to Zap who was pulling her wagon with Razor.

"Where exactly are we?" She asked them and looked around the lush forest.

"Everfree, we managed to travel a long way while you were sleeping" Zap said and Razor nodded.

"With the chief knowing some shortcuts and tunnels we got out of the north pretty quickly" he said and looked around.

"Everfree.. Doesn't the royal sisters live here?.." she said and watched her back for potential golden dressed soldiers.

"Yeah.. The chief have put up wards so we won't be noticed but being this close to the threat is scary" Zap said and Razor scoffed.

"We'll be out of their land before they can even gather what happened, they don't control the magic in these woods, the entire place is a reminder of how Euqestria was before the ponies conolized it" he said with a shiver.

"Yeah.. The land was chaos without Discords help long before he even made his home here. Of course he lived here long before the ponies and technically ruled these lands but that didn't matter to the princesses. Boom rainbow blast and he was turned to stone" he said with a mutter.

"I've only heard bad things about discord, yet you sound like you idolize him" Autum said looking at Zap.

"Well he was a literal god watching over these lands, sure he played with the environment but as long as his magic had effect no one died from disease or animal attacks. He played with us who lived here yes but he never EVER killed anyone. That's the difference between him and Celestia, he does it the way he wants it and makes sure that no one is hurt while she kills anyone who stands between her and her so called "perfect world" He said in disgust.

"I'm guessing Celestia did something to your tribe?" She asked Razor while Zap muttered angerly.

"Rather our once great kingdom" he responded with a sigh and Zap nodded.

"The holy land.." Zap mumbled and looked forward.

"Many years ago after Celestia and Luna turned discord to stone made Celestia preparations to take a large part of the zebra kingdom, this part being everfree and what would become the crystal empire for example" Razor said and flicked his eyes across the sky to make sure that no Pegasi was watching them.

"I'm guessing your king wasn't happy about that" she said looking at the concentrated face of Razor.

"No he wasn't, however he was not a stallion of war and managed to get a meeting with Celestia at the border of the two kingdoms to negotiate peace. He brought protection in the form of his best soldiers of corse but this proved futile as he and his guard was cut down at arrival. This was not expected and the royal army flooded the capital before they even understood what was happening. The once great kingdom was gone in less than four days..." he said with a sigh.

"Why didn't I know this before now?.. I've read a lot of history books but none even talk about a zebra kingdom" she said and Zap growled.

"Because Celestia erased it from the history books! She burned all we had into the ground, the cities, the temples, the monuments etc! She wanted to make sure that no generation that came after would know about her crimes, that's why Discord is discribed as a murderous monster in the history books and why Sombra will be written down as someone who turned to dark magic to take control of the empire!" Zap said with a growl and Autum flinched.

"Why does she wanna give dark magic bad reputation?.. I understand why she will turn my.. lover into something to fear but why give dark magic part of the blame?.. It works just as any other magic" she said and Razor turned to her.

"Because Celestia wants a scapegoat and a weapon in one, what magic does princess Luna practice?" He asked her and she looked confused.

"Dark magic, but what does that have to do with anything?" She asked him.

"And what kind of book did she give Sombra that opened up his mind and body for a demon?" He asked her.

"It was on dark magic, but what does.." she started finally starting to put it all together.

"So what could she blame on if Luna suddenly went mad and left her as the ONLY ruler of Euqestria?" He asked her one last time.

"Dark magic..." she said and her eyes widened.

"Celestia has been planning this for years" he said and kept dragging the wagon with Zap while Autum trailed behind.

All of it, the slow corruption, the enslavment of the crystal ponies, the empire sending waves of hatred and fear across Euqestria. It had all been planned out years in advanced. This was never about the crystal kingdom or its land, this was all just preparations for the bigger plan, to remove princess Luna from power and letting Celestia rule over Euqestria on her own. Celestia had used her, her lover and their people as pawns to get more power. Autum felt as the world came crashing down, she had been nothing more than a pawn, and it was in that moment she realized why she felt watched and why the chief had chosen to lead them through everfree. They were on their way to the royal castle, they were on their way to stop Celestia. She prayed to whatever goddess could hear her that they would not be to late.

Author's Note

And there you have. Chapter three is done. As always leave a comment about what I did good and what I did bad so I can fix it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you whenever school allows me writing time. Bye :twilightsmile:

Chapter four: Yli sol draigen

Autumn ran past her two arguing saviors and headed up towards the largest wagon, she needed to stop this, this was suicude.

"Stop! Chief!" She called to the wagon and it suddenly stopped in it's tracks.

The golden doors opened and the chief looked at her with a curious expression. His advisors walked past them chatting on about something and then seemed confused to why the royal wagon had stopped. Autumn looked at him before motioning him to walk back inside so they could talk in private. He nodded and walked back into the wagon with Autumn following him. She closed the doors and looked at him.

"Tell me the truth, this isn't a short cut is it? This way goes straight to the damn royal castle" she said with a growl and glared at him.

"..." he sighed and looked out the window as the wagon started rolling again.

"Talk to me!" She said and walked in front of him.

"..Fine" he said with a sigh and walked up to a map.

"That must show where we are" Autumn thought for herself and followed him.

"You see the symbol of two alicorns? That's the castle, we're going to save princess Luna before Celestia can put her plan into motion" he said and walked over to a display case containing a red crystal sword.

"That reminds of Sombra.." she said and looked at the sword with a frown.

"Maybe because he made it" the chief said and looked out the window.

The realization that something her loved had made was left froze Autumn in her steps. She remembered how much he loved building things out of crystals and how crystal swords and war hammers had been his favorite choice of weapon. She touched the display case in awe before shaking of the memories. She needed to focus on the task at hand.

"So you are ok with just sending the entire tribe into certain death?.." she asked him and looked at the map.

"Of course I'm not ok with it, we will make sure that the children and mares will stay behind with the wagons" He said and looked at the birds flying past the window.

"And then what? You'll just march into the castle expecting that the guards will just let you in?" she asked him and looked closer at the map, Equestria was so much bigger than she could have ever imagined.

"No, we will sneak into the castle through the old tunnels under it, I have planned this very carefully Autumn" The chief told her as above the tree tops they could see the towers of the castle in the distance and suddenly the sounds of all animals stopped. Autumn looked confused at why the sudden peaceful sounds had stopped and looked out at the forest to see that the trees had taken a darker color and that yellow eyes seemingly lured in the shadows. She shivered and looked at the chief.

"Why would anyone choose to stay here?.." She asked the zebra leader and he looked at the forest with a frown.
"It isn't supposed to look like this.." He mumbled and walked to the door and opened it. He called for Zicra and the stallion came running.

"Chief something is wrong with the forest!" Zicra yelled and the woods around them seemed to groan.

"It has to be Luna's doing! Celestia must be influencing her somehow!" The chief yelled and Zicra nodded before spurring on the other wagons, they needed to hurry.

The sound of hooves thundering across the ground echoed across Everfree and the stallions panted at the heavy load they were forced to carry. Autumn looked at the quickly approaching towers of the castle with a shudder and she looked at Razor that came running from the back. He picked up different weapons along the way and tossed them to some of the stallions. He told them they had to fight of any guards along the way and if they didn't make it to the tunnels in time they would have to fight through the entire castle. This seemed to spur on the stallions dragging the wagons and soon a small patrol of guards approached the wagons. Razor grabbed a nearby spear and rushed the guards with a battle-cry he jumped the first guard and used the handle to wack the guard in the head knocking him out. The other guards quickly reacted and tried to stab Zicra but he gracefully dodged their heavy strikes with their swords and spears. He blocked one of the swords with his spear and punched the guard in the face knocking him out also. The third and last guard growled and tried to stab Zicra with his spear only for the chief to grab it and easily breaking it. The guard paled and tried to run only for Zicra to punch him, sending him onto the ground unconscious.

"Ok they are knocked out! Drag them to the side and bind them!" The chief yelled and the guards was quickly dragged into thew bushes after their legs had been bound.

"Chief if they are all the way out here we need to stop the wagons. We would be putting all the mares and children at risk" Zicra said and the chief just stared at the castle.

"If we don't move quickly it will be to late, so order the others to stop here and if we don't return they have to run" Zicra said to the tribe leader who was still looking into space.

"Everyone who can fight come with us! The rest of you will stay behind and hide from the guards!" The chief yelled and the wagons was quickly hidden among the trees.

The chief and most of the tribe's stallions ran towards the castle while the older mares kept tabs on the colts and fillies. The few stallions that had stayed walked around the camp keeping the forest's beasts at bay and no one noticed among the small chaos and fear that Autumn was no longer among them. She had silently moved away from camp and followed the chief and his warriors towards the castle. She saw them quickly take down any guards who got in their way and hide them in the bushes. Autumn looked on as they dug up the old tunnel that would lead them into castle without getting detected by the guards. She moved as sielently as she could, if she was gonna be honest with herself she didn't know why she wanted to follow them. It was not only dangerous for her but also her unborn child, but deep down she knew why she wanted to follow them, revenge. Celestia had taken everything from her and she was going to make her pay for it, no matter what. Autumn waited on the zebras to get down into the tunnel before she followed them, making as little sound as possible. She made sure to stay far behind enough so they wouldn't notice her but never far enough to lose track of them. Soon the pregnant mare heard them fiddle with a old door, seemingly not having been opened for centuries. When she heard them breaking up the door and their voices becoming a distant whisper. Autumn walked to the now open door and beyond it laid something she did not expect to find under the castle. A great cave laid beyond the gate, large crystal shards on the ceiling, on the walls and on the ground. But what stood out most about it was the great stone fortress that stood in the middle of the great cave, a large spiral stair leading up to the cave's ceiling was in the middle of the fotress. A faint light could be seen from the top of the stairs, that must be the way out. The mare made her way towards the fortress, looking at the stone structure she wondered why it was here and who had built it. Celestia? And if so why? Was it used to store weapons or food? But if so why would it be in the form of a fortress? Autumn shook her head and continued walking towards the structure, she would see when she arrived. As she walked closer she could hear the voices of the zebras and she could see them walking up the stairs towards the ceiling. She made sure to be as quiet as possible when she entered the fortress in case the chief or any of the others would listen for anyone that could possible have followe them. When Autumn was sure they were out of hearing distance she took a good look around and to her suprise the entire fortress was a big library. Books upon books adored shelves in the fortess and every single one had to be extremly rare, possibly were many of them the only copy of its kind. She saw one book on a pedistal in the middle of the great fortress that was just in front of the stairs and she walked up to it. The book had a dark red crystal moon on it's cover and Autumn looked at it with amazment, this had to belong to Luna herself! The mare looked around before she grabbed the book and stored it onto her back, this would possibly be of help further down the line seeing how the child in her belly was.. special. After taking the book she climbed up the stairs and soon was in a small room lit by torches, a door were open in the end of the room and she walked over to it, looking out in the gigantic hallway. No one was seen but she could have sworne she could have heard something. She walked out and to her amusment was camoflauged agaisnt the brown wodden wall that lead into the rrom with a sign above it that said "Private studies". She quircked and eyebrow at it, why would celestia wanna keep that library so secret? She now wished she had investigated the other books but after Luna was saved and Celestia defeated she could look through the libary all she wanted. Though the book she had picked up had made her felt so atracted to it, like it was telling her that not only could she help her child with it but also herself. She finally heard the sounds of a fight and hurried over seeing Zicra hit a guard's forehead with the blunt side os a spare.

"The throne room is closeby!" Zicra yelled and looked suddenly saw Autumn and frooze.

"Good then let's save princess Luna" Autumn said ignoring the zebra stallions atempts at stopping her from walking past her.

"You are putting yourself in a lot of danger Autumn.." The chief said and looked at her.

"And you are putting the entire tribe in danger by coming here so I don't think you can tell me what to do" She said looking at the zebra leader. She felt rather bold for some reason.

The chief looked he was about to rant when they heard angry yells from further into the castle and they looked at each other before running, hoping they weren't to late. As they ran Zicra took down any guard that got close to them using the spare to injure them before knocking them out with the spear handle. All of this made a lot of noise, enough noise for the guards in the castle to finally understand that something was going on and they flodded the before empty hallways. The zebra warriors were better fighters but in the end the sheer amount of guards were to much for them and they focused on getting to the throne room as quickly as possible. Autumn ducked from anything the guards threw at her, oh how she wished she knew how to fight. As the pregnant mare ran she was suddenly jumped by a group of guards and screamed in shook and suprise. The guards tried to hold her down before suddenly black tendrils picked them up and threw them into the walls. Autumn got up and as soon as they appered the black tendrils disappered. Was this the work of her child? Could it truly already protect her before it was even born? She didn't have time to think about this to long though as the guards kept jumping them and made their way to the throne room harder and harder. Zicra finally saw a chance for them to get away from the guards and he quickly started drawing runes on the ground, the other zebras seeing what he was doing and they covered him so he could work without getting interupted. Autumn was first confused to what he was doing until a large gray rock golem was summoned and sent to deal with the guards and Zicra orderd the beast to keep them busy. The creature made a grumbling sound as a way tomsay it had understood it's order and it threw itself at the guards. Zicra signaled to them all to move and they ran for the throne room and the second they saw the two large golden they gates kicked them open and saw the chaos inside. There were dead guards everywhere and Celestia herself stood above the smaller alicorn princess of the moon with a cold stare being everything she showed the younger immortal.

"They are all dead because of you Luna.. Look around yourself and be happy about the destruction you make no matter where you go or whatever you touch.. Know that every life you have taken only proves that you are exactly what I always knew you were.. evil" Celestia said with the coldest voice Autumn have ever heard.

"Celestia, step away from princess Luna now or face the true consequences of your actions" The cheif said and took out out the red crystal sword that earlier Autumn had seen in his waggon, a weapon made by her beloved.

"I'm afraid you are to late, the only one that will face the consequences for their actions today are all of you" The princess of the sun said and they could hear a quiet laughther coming from Luna.

"Princess Luna?.. Are you ok? We have come to help yo.." Started one of the zebra stallions that approached the dark blue princess only for a smokey purple tendril to suddenly wrap around his body and they all heard bones snap and the stallion screamed in agonizing pain.

When the screams stopped the smoke like substance dropped the now dead body on the floor, having twisted and folded all his limps so horribly that he was nothing but a pile of bloddy flesh and bones when the smoke was done with him. Celestia started to grin as the body of princess Luna rised from the ground and her body now looked taller and her cuitemark was changed along with her wings, fur, tail and mane. Her cutiemark that had once been a white cresant moon had now took a blue-ish color to it and her once small blue wings had grown in both size and lenght as well as taken a black color them. Her entire body was mostly black now, mirroring the blackness of the night sky. Her once beautiful blue mane that had looked like it contained all the stars in the night sky were now, along with her tail, a smoke like substance that almost seemed to have a mind of it's own. What stood before them was nothing short out of a nightmare, a demon that could only have been created from the depths of someones madness.

"How?.." Autumn whispered and what had once been Luna just laughed madly as the moon itself seemingly had a malicious light coming from it.

"You see my little pony" Celestia started with a grin threatning to swallow the world.

"With enough pain anyone will breake and the pain sometimes not only breakes you but it creates something new inside you, something so dark history itself will never wanna remeber it's name" The grinning immortal said as the new entity slowly walked towards them all with a mad look in her eyes, seeimgly her entire mind was just one chatoic pain filled plain of existence that only she could see.

"The world will know my darkness and nothing will stop it!" The nightmare said with another mad laugh, memories fleeting from her head but the once filled with pain she remebered, she would never forget them.

Five weeks earlier, Luna's POV

Luna ducked from another powerful dark magic spell Sombra shot her way, the mad unicorn king laughing as she growled at him. She didn't know why he had done all of this but she was not gonna rest until he paid for everything he had done to the crystal ponies. The princess of the night flew down towards the king of shadows in amazing speed and with a battlecry she slashed him with her crystal scyte. The injury staggered the unicorn and Luna took this opportunity to keep attacking the evil king and she smirked as he was hit by a light spell sent from Celestia's horn. Her sister was wearing a stylish golden armor holding some of the most powerful light magic enchantments on the planet. Luna had always thought her sisters armor was impractical, having sacrificed mobilty to look better. Her own black crystal armor was very crude compared to Celestia's armor but it kept her more safe and she didn't have to sacrifice mobility. The enchantments were made out of dark magic of course and becuase of this had most spells Sombra sent towrads her little to no effect, however she needed to be careful with that strange green magic she had seen him using to change living ponies into statues or weapons. She ducked from another spell he sent towards her and growled, she needed to stop this before it was to late to save the crystal ponies. The black armoured mare shot towards Sombra again and this time she teleported behind him before he could conjur up a shield. With another battlecry she sent the blade of her crystal scyte into his back and the monster screamed in pain. Sombra pushed her away with a powerful magical shookwave and his horn glowed a mighty blue all of a sudden, the empire's crystals imitating the glow. He didn't get more time to do anything when suddenly a great rainbow colored beam shot from Celestia's horn and sent him out the throne room window. King Sombra screamed in pain as he was shot out from the empire and the frozen tundra itself seemed to open up to swallow him. With a final scream of anger he was shut under the ice, gone for good. Luna panted and looked at her sister.

"You were right, that spell worked just as good as the elements" The princess of the night said and looked at the crystal empire, it was finaly free.

"Of course it worked, Starswirl himself created it" Celestia said and looked at Luna as the entire empire suddenly started to shake.

"What is happening!?" Luna yelled and flew out the great window to get a look of the empire.

"I don't know!" Celestia yelled back and flew after her.

The same second they were flying above the empire they saw the crystal streets and the crystal palace glowing a great blue that blinded them both for a second before they noticed that the entire empire and all inhabitans with it was gone, nothing to pointing towards what had happeded. Celestia looked at the scene in horror before her eyes showed nothing but anger and she slowly flew off.

"We're done here.." The solar ruler said and headed towards everfree, that anger never leaving her eyes.

Luna looked at the place where the crystal empire once stood, tears trailed down her eyes. All of those innocent ponies were dead?.. But.. They had tried to save them. They had defeated the evil behind everything but yet they had all died?.. Luna slowly followed her sister, feeling sick and fysically weak after seeing the entire empire being ereased from existence. When she caught up to Celestia they didn't say anything to each other, both of them focusing on getting back to the castle they called home.

A week, a week had passed since all of the crystal empire had died becuase they had failed to save it. Luna had barely goten out of her bed, her eyes always filled with sadness and her movements slow. Whenever she dared to go outside her door she could hear the servants speaking about her, about her dark magic.. She never thought that her specialization in magic would become so hated. Ever since everyone had heard what the dark magic had done to Sombra all dark mages across Euqestria had been hated and refused everything from homes to food. All of this made her doubt herself, was she really in control or was she simply a pupet controled by the magic she loved? Luna sighed and walked into the throne room and sat down on her throne next to Celestia, her own sister seemed to show a bit of distain every time she sat down next to her but it only lasted for a second, but a second was all Luna needed to notice it. The more days passed the more reports of dark mages that were trying to follow in Sombra's footsteps popped up and Luna felt more and more miserable. Soon she started to even notice snarky remakes coming from Celestia about her dark magic, had her mane lost it's stars?.. wonder why..

Luna's thoughts were becoming more and more fuzzy for every day that came and went, soon had three weeks passed and ponies of Euqestria were calling for her to be investigated for possible magical corruption that could threaten the entire nation. She wondered what Celestia thought of it but whenever she tried to get emtional suport from her sister she wasn't there. The princess of the night was feeling weaker and weaker every day, she couldn't even lower the moon anymore when she tried and in the end left that responsabilty to Celestia. Luna was now hearing about something called "The church of light", a group of ponies that apparently followed some pricipals and moral codes her sister had created but sje didn't really care anymore about that. Everyday there was more and more ponies calling for her to be dethroned and everytime she didn't have the streght to face them, making them leaving even more angry than when they arrived. Soon five weeks had past and Luna had been asked by Celestia to meet her in the throne room, she didn't know why but had walked to the grand room waiting on her sister. If Luna had enough streght she would have noticed the magic poking her mind, trying to find a way inside, but she was to weak to resist or even dedect what was happening. She first heard a small whisper, barely audioble, then she heard it.

"Kill. Them. All."

Without even hesitating the lunar princess summoned her scyte and screamed in anger as she slashed and bite the the guards, blood covering her body as she slaughtered them all, the day outside turning to night.. When she woke up from this mad rage she looked around in horror, the entire room was filled with blood and she was covered in it. With a fear and sorrow filled scream she fell to the floor and washed away the blood from her body using her magic, but the blood splattered on her mind couldn't be washed away. Celestia entered the room with a shooked expression on her face.

"Why Luna?.." She said walking towards the Lunar princess.

"I.. I.. I didn't want to kill them!" Luna said and sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"From all the evidece I'm seeing that's all you wanted to do" Celestia said and walked towards the covering blue coated mare.

"I'm so sorry....." She said and cried more as Celestia stood above her and pushed her onto her back.

"You have always been a torn in my side.. A wrong I could not right.. You are nothing.." The solar ruler said and her cold stare seemed to carve those words into Luna's soul.

""They are all dead because of you Luna.. Look around yourself and be happy about the destruction you make no matter where you go or whatever you touch.. Know that every life you have taken only proves that you are exactly what I always knew you were.. evil" Celsetia said but Luna couldn't hear her anymore.

The lunar princess didn't even notice the zebras and crystal pony kicking open the door. She could hear them saying something but it was like they were really far away, out of sight. She just felt cold and like her mind was slipping away, her eyes losing their final spark of happiness and life as a zebra stallion walked close to her. She killed him easily in a mad rage, her new mane twisting and crushing him into a fleshy pile of bones and blood. She slowly got up, a laugh starting in her throat before she gave of a kackel, she could see their fear and hear what they were thinking. Yes! She was a nightmare! She was THE nightmare. Her eyes fell upon the other ponies in the room and her head just repeated the same thought over and over again.

"KILL. THEM. ALL."

Present, Autumn's POV

Autumn slowly backed away from the demon that had taken the place of princess Luna, this was not good. She screamed in fear as smoky tendrils shot out and tried to impale her, only for the chief to suddenly stand in front her and cutting of the limbs made out of smoke.

"Yli sol draigen" The cheif said and the red crystal sword glowed, a spell were fused with the weapon!

Any dark limb that shot towards them were quickly cut of by the chief, making sure they all were going towards the great gate they had rushed in from. But soon the tendrils were becoming to many for the cheif to handle, they pierced his shoulder to which he yelled in out pain. Autumn and the other zebras just stood just be their way out, they could't lesve him right? They had to do something! Zicra ran towards the chief until he held up his hoof and suddenly tossed Autumn the sword.

"Run" He said as the tendrils pierced through his head, killing him instanly.

Autumn screamed out in shook as the stallion was dropped on the floor, she had killed him so easily.. Zicra grabbed her and pulled her with him, Autumn clutching the book and sword to her side. He had told them to run and they weren't gonna go against that order as the tendrils grabbed another of the zebra stalions and pulled him back to the demon. Autumn and Zicra ran, Zap and Razor cutting down any guard following them. They sprinted towards the way from which they came and the stone golem was still fighting the guards, distracting them from noticing the fleeing zebras. They looked back and saw the royal sister fighting each other, their spells lighting up the sky as the they both tried to turn the other into dust. Autumn and Zicra ran into the small room leading into the fotress below. She looked back and saw Zap, Razor and a few others of the zebra stallions run into the small room as debrie from the ceiling baricaded the door, there was no other way out now. Autumn ran down the stairs as the cave shook from the violent fighting above as the castle crumbled below the two powerful magic users battle. The pregnant mare ran out of the fotress the second she hit the cold stone floor from the stairs, Zicra following her. Some of the other stallions picked up what books they could, most of them magic or history books as they rushed out of the cave, making it into the tunnels. Autumn's breathing was becoming more and more panicked, they needed to get away before it was to late. The second they climed up from the depths Autumn rushed towards the waggons far away, luckily for them had the zebras that stayed behind already prepared the waggonsa and the same second Autumn was spotted the first waggon were dragged off.

"Get onto the damn waggons!" A stallion said before something grabbed him and pulled him off into dark woods, his scream only lasted a few seconds.

Zap, Razor and Zicra grabbed the ropes to the waggons and the second Autumn and the other stallions got on they dragged them off. The sky flashed with the lights of the great battle until a rainbow coloured flash blinded them all, the only thing they could hear was a scream of anger. As they could see again Autumn recongnised the light and saw a black shape carried by a rainbow coloured beam was carried towards the moon. She gasped as the shape hit the moon and a shookwave seemed to flew at every direction, almost bending the trees. Autumn and the zebras were almost sent flying by it and they then looked at the moon in horror. Where the moon once was white and bare there was now a black shape of a mare's head on in, Luna was truly gone. With a shudder they kept running through the woods, aiming to get out by the morning, they hoped Celestia wouldn't follow them becuase they truly had nowhere to run anymore. Autumn looked up at the moon, the eyes of the princess they had came to save seemed to stare down at her and she knew that this would bring along a change, a change that would tear this contienent apart once and for all.

Author's Note

I'm very sorry this took months to finish, School have started meaning I might not be able to write anything in a good while which sucks but at least I got this out. 16 likes? That's way more than I expected ^_^ Thank you! 20 dislikes? Thats actually lower than I expected, anyways thank you for reading.

Chapter five: The great cleansing

Four days. It had been four days since Autumn and the others ha failed to save princess Luna and now they, along with every zebra and dark mage in Euqeatria, were hunted. They had stayed away from the main road, making sure that any guards that strayed to close were scared off or quickly killed and disposed off. Morals were thrown out the window for survival, something that distrubed everyone in the tribe. But without a leader and most of the warriors having been killed at the former castle of the royal sisters. Autumn had mostly kept herself to her waggon, looking out at the sky to see weird smoke pillars from around what she tought was villages, but she couldn't even care if she tried. The pregnant mare hand out the crystal sword and book in a chest formerly owned by the chief. Just thinking about him made her sad and angry, he had given them enough time to run away from the coming battle and still they bearly made it out. She sighed and opened the door, seeing Zap, Razor and Zicra discussing what they should do next, seeing how they were encamped rather closly to villages and one large nearby town. She walked up to them and they turned to her, Zap noticed her belly already looking a bit bloated.

"We are thinking about setting up a small village in the woods, seeing how we can't move much further without being deteced" Zicra told her and and looked at a map they had picked up from a dead guard.

"They are searching for us, meaning this village have to be defendable and hidden" Razor said taking a look at the map.

"It also needs to be close to clean water, food and other suplies we will need" Zap chimed in and they looked over the map again.

"Then make it next to that river, it looks far in enough to rarly get visisted and seems to have enough forest around it to hide a possible settlement within" Autumn told them pointing on the map.

The map itself looked old, really old. Many villages that had been gone for years was still on it and Euqestria's borders were much smaller than they were today. It was even possible that the river had dried out long before any of them had been born. Autumn looked at the crystal empire marker and fliched slightly, she never knew how much land Celestia had taken from them after the empire had fallen, it made her sick. Even if Sombra had only been a pawn in her game for power Celestia had stilled claimed the land, even if she didn't need it. To say Autumn hated the solar ruler was a understatement, she loathed her. Celestia's list of crimes against other ponies were growing larger for every day that passed and her list of things she had done do Autumn was to long to even count. The mare knew that they would most likly be put in prison and possibly executed if they were cuaght, seeing how they knew to much about what Celestia had done. Autumn looked at herself, her brown coat seemed to become a few shades darker then it was before, the same thing could be said about her mane that had once been a light blue. She wondered what colour her eyes was these days, were they still green or had this changed even that? She understood that this child was special but it grew way faster than it were supposed to, her belly already looking a bit bloated and she thought she had felt a kick the other night. Did half demons grow up faster than normal ponies? Did they live shorter to? But the most important question was probally what part of Sombra he carried. The demon or the pony?

"Autumn are you listening?" Zicra asked her and the mare snapped out of her thoughts.

"Um no sorry what were you saying?" She asked them and Razor pointed to the river on the map.

"This part of the forest mostly have timberwolves in them and we don't have the weapons to deal with them. Not even goelms will be useful as they would be slow and " The large zebra stallion said before Autumn looked thoughtful.

"Have we looked through all the books we took from the castle?" She asked the three stallions and they shoke their heads.

"We haven't had time since we had been keeping off any possible threats from Celestia's guards" Zap said and he looked at the small stacks of books that laid on one of the waggons.

"Then let's check through them for possible answers, they might contain some potion or spell that will scare of the timberwolves" Autumn said and moved up to the waggon.

She picked up one of them and looked at the title, "Alchemy, from the simplets love poison to healing gells" it read and she started reading through it, finding most of it benefical to the tribe in case they got hurt or got sick. Yet for all she read she found nothing to help them with the timber wolves. She looked to the stallions only for them to shake their heads, not one of the books spoke about diffrent ways to get rid of dangerous creatures. Autumn sighed and kept looking through the books, trying to find something to help the others. The mare looked over at Razor that was biting on one of his knives, something that looked both weird and dangerous.

"Cut that out" Zap said to the bulkier stallion that turned to him.

"What? It's not like it's hurting me" Razor responded before the two stallions got into a fight about the decision to chew on one's blade.

Autumn couldn't help but giggle at the two stallions aruging with each other. Sure it was the opposite of what they needed right now but it reminded her about when her younger brothers had argued with each other, it was an appreciated pause from all the pain and the fear. Her eyes widened as she realized that even her entire family had been taken along with her lover, she had been so focused on everything that was happening around her that she didn't realize how much she had actually lost.. The tears tried to break forward but she took deep breaths, she could cry when the tribe was safe, when her child was safe. Zicra had walked between the two stallions and broken up their fight, scolding them for acting like children when the tribe needed them. Autumn looked at the books she had left and knew they didn't contain the information they needed from a quick glance. Her mind went to the book she kept along with the sword in her waggon, if there was one book with the potion they needed that was the one. She trotted over to her blue coloured waggon and walked inside, opening the chest and grabbing the book. She returned to the stallions with it and placed it on the table holding the map. Zicra walked over looking curious and looked it over.

"Is that the book you took from the fortress?" He asked her and she nooded.

"I think it was Luna's, the very book that turned her into the most powerful dark mage in the world" She answered and opened the first page, it was signed by Starswirl the bearded himself, making her curious eyes sparkle with life.

"Wait, that old wizard guy wrote an entire book on dark magic no one knew about?" Zap asked her and Autumn nodded.

"It seems like it, and seeing how this seems to contain very dark spell, potion and schematics for different weapons" She said and Razor seemed more intrested in the conversation now when she said schematics.

"Let me have a good look at them and I could possebly build them" The large stallion said and looked at the weird inventions created to be vielded by dark mages.

Autumn looked at the book and saw the difffrent schematics that seemed to make perfect sense for Razor but for her it seemed like the diffrent parts didn't fit with each other. But if this madness made sense to the bulky stallion then that was great, maybe he could find a weapon to help them repel the timber wolves. While Razor showed Zap the schematics she took the book(earning her the stink eye from the two stallions)and flipped through the rest of the pages and looked at the diffrent spells and potions. They all held intrest but there was one that stood out, "dragon's tongue", which apperently would smell really bad for most creatures yet it would only smell like ash for ponies. Autumn looked at the ingredients for the potion and wrote it down before leaving the book with Zap and Razor. She walked over to Zicra and showed the potion.

"With this we could probally get the timber wolves to leave the patch of forest we wanna use" She said and gave Zicra the recipy.

"From the sound of the name it could possibly get the timber wolves to leave, however these ingredients are rare, very rare. I think we might find some of them in the chiefs.. the royal wagon. Yet many of them will be hard to find out here so I hope you know stuff about plants because I don't, or at least not enough to find them in the wild" Zicra said and walked towards the golden wagon.

"I used to work in the royal garden, I know enough to know where we can find the plants and herbs the book was talking about" She said and entered the wagon with the stallion.

Autumn looked around the wagon, the map of Euqestria had been redrawn by someone, who it was were very unclear but it had probably been the children to entertain themselves during these sad last days. She wondered how the children had handled the fact that so many of their fathers had been killed at the castle of the two sisters, considering that drawings of Celestia on fire was everywhere on the walls were quite telling. The pregnant mare walked over to a cabinet and opened it, finding some herbs and plants in different containers. Most of them were stuff they actually needed while some of it looked like spices. Autumn picked up the herbs and plants before putting them a saddle bag given to her by Zicra. After she made sure everything of importance was in the wagon was still there she walked out and walked over to their old map without drawings of a burning Celestia on it.

"We could probably find the rest of the ingredients in these parts of the woods, if the map still works like it should and the lay of the land hasn't changed. However we might run into different beasts that wants to eat us.." She mumbled to Zicra that nodded and got his spear.

"A simple manticore will be easy to handle while a large pack of timber wolves could easily kill us" Zicra said and looked at the map with her.

"How many warriors are left to guard the camp if we take Zap and Razor with us?" She asked him and she looked over the wagons, eight of them that were holding the families while the ninth wagon were hers and the tenth once belonged to the cheif.

With the wood from all the wagons and the nearby area around the place they had marked on the map they could build a small town. She smiled at the thought of having a home again, someplace she would be safe. Her thoughts turned from a new home to her child. This child had helped her so far whenever it could, so far keeping away predato.. Her face shone up and she internally slapped herself, the child would keep the beasts away from her! She turned to Zicra that looked thoughtful and he looked at her.

"If both of them come with us then we will have five guards left, yet non of them know complex summoning runes or can handle weapons quite well" He said and looked at Autumn that seemed to have a plan.

"There's no need for you to come with me, the child will keep me safe" She told him and the stallion looked at her with a confused expersion.

"What are you talking about? Your child is a few months old, sure it grows faster but it cannot, or rather shouldn't be able to use magic" He told her and looked at her stomach.

"Before we left the outskirts of the frozen north I wandered into the forest and found the book that showed me visions of the future. Non of them seemed to be helpful for me but perhaps they weren't only for me. The child I carry within me keeps the predators away Zicra, it's the reason I could get to the temple without harm. Yet getting there didn't only help me, it hepled my child, or at least I hope so" She told Zicra that shook his head and looked over the camp.

"If your child uses it's darkness to keep you safe then so be it. But the second you feel like you're in danger shot this flare into the air and I'll come running" The stallion told her and gave her a smooth metal cylinder, saddle bags and a small map seeming hidden from the children.

Autumn looked over the cylinder, she had seen it before, being used by the crystal empires military. By saying the spell that had locked the lid to the cylinder it would shoot up a red fire like ball that would signal to those around the pony using it that they were in danger.

"Thank you Zicra" The blue maned mare said to the stallion who nodded back with a smile.

"Be back before nightfall and remember to use the flare if necessary" He said as the pregnant mare started to walk away and headed into thw woods after waving goodbye to the others in the tribe, she had ingredients to collect.

Autumn hated this forest so far. The trees were dressed in thorns and the ground were sticky and wet. She was greatful to her child however that was currently keeping away the beasts she had seen so far. A pack of timber wolves had walked towards her only to run in the other direction. She had considered to just lead the tribe through the woods working as a shield against the monsters of the forest but she didn't know how long the animals would fear the childs power before seeing her as a meal. The potion was something they at least knew how it worked and they knew as long they kept making it the less of a chance there was for the timberwolves to come and hunt them. Autumn kept walking into the woods, setting up markers on trees she passed so she could find her way back when she needed it. She smiled when she found the first ingredient, nightshade. This was the most important part of the potion acording to the recepy. She didn't know why the poisonus plant was so important but it was most likly because of the fact that the plant could kill anything that ate it. If the timber wolves smelled the nightshade mixed with the other ingredients they would run from fear of the smell. So would probally most ponies also do if they had a choice she mused and walked right up to a field of the last prank left by the god of chaos, poison joke. She didn't why the plant had surived when the rest of Discord's magic had been sealed away but it had and it's uses in potion making were great. Why he had made a plant that helped ponies and played pranks on them she would never undertsand but all that mattared was the fact that thing would help her. She oicked a few up with a stick and placed them in her saddle bag, getting out the small map Zicra gave her and marked the place she thought she had found the poison joke. She looked at the map and headed for the closest body of water, wanting to find dragon's tongue before it would get dark.

After walking to the river she searched the water for the plant she needed and she noticed it was getting dark. She smiled as she saw the dragon's tongue in the water and she picked it up before putting it into the saddle bag. Autumn started to walk away from the river when she noticed the large smoke pillar in the sky. Before she could question what was on fire a smell unlike anything she had ever seen hit her. She coughed and the stench in the air couldn't be described, or rather.. she didn't want to know what it was. But even if the smell was scaring her off she pushed on towards the smoke pillars location. Soon she came out of the forest to see a town, just a tiny bit away from the woods they were planning on building a town of their own. Autumn saw how the smoke pillar was coming from the center of the town and she walked into the settlement, sticking close to the houses. As she got close to the town square the stench that had made her sick in the woods were now everywhere around her. The mare looked upon the crowd at the square and all the ponies that had gathered there. She laid her eyes on the origins of the smoke pillar and she quited down a scream of fear as she saw the stake. The chared courpes of ponies of all ages were impaled on the sharp logs and they were so burned you could bearly see that they were ponies. She could see how ponies from the crowd threw books and scrolls into the fire with angry yells and she saw young stallion being dragged towards the stake screaming in fear. The pregnant mare looked at it all and kept hidden by a cart, spotting a unicorn stallion wearing white robes by the burning pile of flesh and books.

"LOOK UPON ANOTHER HARBINGER OF EVIL!" The white robed stallion said as the screaming stallion was dragged up to him and the priest(she asumed he was one)glared at him.

"This is another scum from the depths! Another evil creature that will feed on your children and give your life to the darkness! Look upon this dark mage as he his burned and all the coruption he has spread will be wiped away by the fires light!" He said and picked up the stallion that tried to cast a spell only for one of the villagers to cut of his horn.

His pain filled scream echoed across the town before it turned to more panicked and more painfilled screams as the priest threw him into the fire still holding him with his magic so he couldn't run. Autumn looked on in horror as the stallion screamed and begged for his life before he finally died, the only thing left was a badly burnt corpse.

"Can you feel that in the air? How all the corruption is gone? This is the true work of the church of light! To save the true followers of the sun and cleanse any trace of those that dare to ally themselves with the darkness!" He said and looked over all the corpses.

Autumn finally realized what this was, this was a hunt for anything related to dark magic. Books, scrolls, dark mages. Everything that was conected to dark magic was to be burnt.. But all of those ponies couldn't have been dark mages, they were way to many. This had to be the mages families.. They were burned along side the family mages they had most likely tried to protect. The blue maned mare suddenly heard the sound of armor and she crawled under the cart. She saw soilders walk past her, wearing the typical armor Celestia's army would be wearing. That was how they had managed to capture all the dark mages, brutal force with the army's help. Was it like this everywhere? Was every part of history containing black magic being rewritten or destroyed? Were any artifact or piece of art made by dark mages being thrown into the great fires across Euqestria? She wished that Sombra had never accepted that book, she wished she was home with her family and lover, she wished that she could be tending to the royal garden but she couldn't and never would. This was the world now, a world that no longer accepted dark magic. What if they found out about her child? They would without hesitaion kill it and her along with it.

"Come to the new city of Canterlot to see the main cathedral of our church! The queen herself has given us her blessing to clean our beautiful nation of this pest we call dark magic! Togther we will all join the almighty light and cast out the darkness of our land once and for all!" The priest yelled and the crowd cheered.

It was now Autumn realized that there was foals in the crowd, something that made her even more pale than she already was. They were watching this and just like the grown mares and stallions cheering at the priest's words. They had watched all the executions and cheered as the ponies burnt to death.. The thought of children, some of the most sweet and innocent creatures on Euqes had been so corupted made her feel sick. Sick enough to finally force her to puke from everything she had seen. Autumn knew she needed to head back to camp, staying her wouldn't help her. She got out from under the cart and looked around her, she thought it was much darker before she headed into the village yet she could see just fine. Yet.. the moon was up in the sky and the soilders patrolling the area should have at least seen her once by now. Was this the child's doing? Had it once again given her some help? She moved away from the town and headed towards the camp, she knew that they couldn't go back where they came from and that moving forward would mean bumping into the different priests scattared across the country side. They needed that land close to the river if they wanted to surive. Which meant she needed to head back and help Zicra make the potion. She ran and ran, seemingly knowing when a ingredient she needed would be close just by the smell of them. It was strange she could read smells like a open book for the moment but she wrote it off as another gift from her child, she was getting more attached to it as the days passed and she hadn't even met it yet. Of course then again she was pretty sure a mother should love her child in all forms. After running through the woods for what seemed like an eternity she had finally collected every plant she needed for the potion. Autumn took out her map Zicra had given her and sighed as she realized she was lost. However she could see a fire long in the distance, very long into the distance. The fact she could see it all was strange but she knew this had to be the childs doing, giving her the abilty to see in the dark and see across great distances. She ran towards the fire thanking the unborn child in her head.

Autumn had been running for a long time, she knew she had seen the fire from far away but this was ridicolous. She kept running and saw saw the camp in the distance she felt more safe until she could hear the growls around the camp. She hurried up and saw the two timber wolves stalking around the camp. The warriors had made sure to get everyone inside but they were having a hard time spoting the the timber wolves in the darkness. The brown coated mare ran into the camp and the presence that had made the beasts in the forest leave her alone made the two timber wolves run away in fear.

"Where have you been?!" Zicra yelled and walked up to her and she flinched slightly.

"I became side tracked, I found out what the smoke pillars were all about.." She said and tried not to remember the stench.

"Oh? What was it?" Zicra asked her and she looked uncomfortable.

"They are stakes.. They burn dark mages alive along side their families.. Then they burn any book or scroll related to dark magic on the same fire.. The ones that seem to pull the strings behind this seems to be called "The Church Of Light" and they seem to be on order from Celestia herself to destroy every trace of dark magic in the country" Autumn told Zicra and the rest of the warriors that looked horrifed at the news.

"So they are hunting every dark mage?.. Including the children?.." Zap asked and Autumn turned to the smaller stallion.

"They burn everyone... No one is spared.." She said and Razor kicked away a bucket and yelled anger.

"Bastards! We have to stop this! We move into during the darkness and slit their damn throats!" The large knife vielding stallion yelled before Zicra grabbed him.

"Calm. Down." Zicra said and glared at Razor.

"Calm down!? Why!? They are killing innocents out there!" He yelled and Zicra sighed.

"I get it, you want revenge on the crimes they have commited and I do too. But they have more power then us and more warriors, way more warriors" Zicra told him and Razor looked down at the ground.

"So are we just gonna let them do all of this?.. Can't we just.." Razor started and Zicra growled.

"NO! We can't save anyone! Celestia holds the most powerful army in the world and we can't defeat her or her damn church!" He yelled and Razor along with the other stallions fliched.

Zicra sighed and walked off, getting into the chiefs former wagon. Autumn sighed and looked at the stallions, they all looked defeated. Their leader were dead, most of the other warriors in the tribe were dead and they wouldn't run, only hide. Yet she felt like she had to say something, something to bring back hope into their hearts. The mare got up onto the roof of one waggons and looked down on the stallions.

"I understand why it feels like everything is falling and burning around us.. I know why it feels like the only thing that we have meet it death and destruction! But we are still here! We still stand proud over those that have hurt us so many times! You sacrificed so much by taking me from the crystal empire but I assure you that I will pay my debt to all of you! So call for every other small tribe that can't surive on their own! Tell them that within these woods we will build a new kingdom! One that will stand tall and take in those that needs the aid!" Autumn yelled and soon the warrors and the rest of the tribe was cheering.

Even Zicra had walked out of his wagon and smiled at Autumn who showed what seemed like natural leadership skills. Maybe Sombra had seen her as a leader long before she ever would? He shook the thoughts of for now, her speech had been good enough to make the tribe gain some hope, he just knew they would be able to build this town if they all tried. It was the part of contacting the other smile tribes in hiding however that concerned him. Sure they could use rune magic but there wasn't a telling if they had a rune mage among themselves considerign seemingly all other magic was dark magic. He sighed and thought, what could they do about this? Sure they could send out one of their warriors as a messenger but that would leave them with even less of a defense against possible threaths. Zicra sighed and realized that the only way they were gonna get the other tribes here were by using rune magic. The pink striped stallion stepped forward and spoke.

"I will send a message to them all! They will come and we will all be safer than before, holding an army of our own" He said and walked up to Autumn as she jumped down from the waggon. For being pregnant with a half demon she was very agile and fast.

"Why haven't you called on the other tribes before? I mean, if you wanted a kingdom you could have taken some fort a long time ago and the land around it" Autumn said and Zicra sighed, it was slowly becoming his thing.

"Differences of opinions and beliefs, most of the tribes follows the old gods while our tribe has rejected them" He said and lead Autumn away from the now more happy zebras.

"But why would they wanna come now then? I thought first that they were just hiding but if they dislike you becuase of your beliefs they might not come.." She said and looked at him in slight despair.

"Well under normal circumstances they would ignore the message but now.. We're hunted. They won't have a choice but to get here, we might be the only once with a safe heaven" Zicra said and started to write a message to the other tribes.

"'l'll head out into the woods and dose the land next to the river with the potion" She said and Zicra shook his head.

"The same second you leave the beasts of the forest will return. I get that you want to get us our new land as soon as possible but we'll go there in the morning" He told her and she nodded before telling him to sleep well and walking back to her waggon.

Zicra POV

Zicra looked through the message he had written for the other tribes. He hoped they would not just throw it away or burn it on arrival but he had to set his faith in luck that they choose to read the message. With a sigh he read the message to make sure that it told everything they would need to know.

"Dear tribes of Euqestria, my name is Zicra Swallow son and I have sent this message to you all becuase I have some hope in these dark days. My tribe, the dark frost as you call us, has seen the events that have changed the world we live in. We saw the crystal king be driven mad by a demon and saved his lover, a lover pregnant with his child. We saw the forest and sky become a battlefield as the princess of the night became a demon driven by a intense madness. We saw this demon kill our chief and we saw it being banished by the now queen of the sun. We have seen the stakes and the hunt for our kind as well as all things related to dark magic. We know that we are outnumbered and that we can't run, yet despite that we have something that could help us all. We have land that is easy to protect and build on, something you all are in need of. But now many of you might not belive me, however what choice do you have? If you stay you will die and if you fight you will die. So come to the location the runes in this message points to if you value your lives" The message said and he placed it on a stone with runes on it that made copies of the note.

As he saw that the copies were coming along he knew this would mark him as the new leader in the other tribes eyes, seeing how it was him calling for them. He wasn't sure if he wanted the leader position but the chiefs eldest daughter were only nine years old, meaning that there was no one else really qualified to run the tribe and the town they would build. As the final copy were finished he drew up different circles, each one would send a message to a different tribe but they would only be able to see it if they had a rune mage. With a nod he placed the letters in the different circles and sent them away, now they had to wait on a response. He put away his writing tools before heading to the royal waggon, he deserved this tonight.

Autumn POV

The next morning Autumn awoke to sounds of the camp being taken down by the zebras, they were gonna move towards the land they had picked out. She got out of the waggon and helped the others pack. She looked at the children that had once been playing and laughing was now sitting by themselves and not saying anything. She hated Celestia so damn much.. She sighed and helped the others pack before they were finally on the move.

It took them two hours getting to their decided plot of land in the woods, they had struggled getting the waggons through the trees. Autumn held the now finished potion in her right hoof, Zap being so kind to mark the places she would have to splash some potion. The same second they had put up the first base of a house, something that took some time, Autumn could finally run around and splash the potion on the marked areas. She noticed how any timber wolf that had been nearby sniffed the air before they ran off sounding afraid. The blue maned mare smirked and ran back to the others that was putting up the walls to what would become town hall.

"It's done, the timber wolves won't bother us anymore" She told them and the mares and stallions looked reliefed as one danger were at least gone.

"Good, that means we can start building this town" Zap said and Razor was sharpening diffrent logs to put up as a wall around the town.

"Once we have put up runes on the walls all creatures will stay away and we won't have to deal with monsters on the attics" Razor said as Zicra helped the other warriors to cut down and removing the stubbs of trees where the town would be.

Autumn walked over and helped them, looking on as they used rune magic to make the earth harder where the houses would stand. She offered them her expertise when it came to the plants and crops, telling them where and how to get the best land to sow. She smiled as two more very basic houses rose from the ground thanks to their hard work. All of this continued for days, the wall rising around their town that got more and more houses to it's name. Soon all the stuff that had been in the chiefs house where put into the town hall, Zicra had taken possession of it and with no one disagreeing he had became the new chief, where it would be stored in what could be called the war room.

Autumn had been given one of the houses in the town, a rather large one as it had two floors and a basement. She loved everything about it even if the only thing in it was a bed and the chest she stored the book and the sword in. The pregnant mare helped the others build more houses for the comming tribes and soon they had an actual town! Ok, it lacked good crops so far and there was no funiture but after living on the road for some time this was a gift Autumn didn't wanna waste. She helped the mares build a small library where they read stories for the children that slowly smiled again, but they would never regain that spark of innocence their eyes had once shown. It had gone three weeks when they finally had built wells in the town and the crops had started to grow with magical help. They had a home now, a place to call their own, things were finally turning in their favor.

A month after they had starting building on the town had now most houses some furniture and Autumn's belly had grown even larger. She often felt the child kick these days and she was never quite sure when the child was gonna be born, but she couldn't wait. This child had helped her long before it could even kick so the same second it was born she was gonna shower it in love. Then one day Razor called for everyone to go the the towns main gate as from the woods the different tribes emerged. All of them looked tired and sick yet they had made it, they had found someplace safe. Autumn saw how Zicra walked out the gate and trotted up to the leaders of each tribe.

"I know you all have traveled far and wild to get here but you finally made it. This town was made for all of us that runs from Celestia and this new enemy, the curch of light. We will be safe here away from those that would want to hurt us, this is the town of Frigidum, the town of the dark frost!" Zicra yelled out to the large crowd that then rushed into their new home.

There was finally safety for all of them and they knew this place where gonna keep them hidden from the watchful eye of the sun queen, or at least that were their hope. Hope, that word seemed to be so strong that day. Hope that the world would finally leave them alone. This were what Autumn saw in the faces of all the zebras, and some dark mages suprisingly enough, hope. She wished that this feeling were gonna stick with them all for the rest of their lives, becuase not much else still stood. Family members were dead, former homes were destroyed, possessions was a thing of the past and freedom had been robbed from them all. Yet these stallions and mares still had hope, and Autumn along with Zicra was gonna make sure no one took that away from them, no matter what.

Author's Note

This is my longest chapter so far and I know it's mostly filler or set-ups for events to come but I'm still happy with the chapter. I hope you all got something out of reading it and yeah I know there are spelling errors and more yet I'm saving the edits for chapter ten. When I hit the tenth chapter I will put the story on a hiatus while I rewrite the first chapters and edit all the chapters. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter, bye :twilightsmile:

Chapter six: The birth of a demon

Silnce and calm, that was a strage thing for Autumn these days. Sure she had been with the tribe for a long time but even then had she never felt truly safe, even if she had tried to convince herself otherwise. But this feeling in her chest was true peace, the feeling of being safe once again with someplace that would protect her against the dark things in the world. The pregnant mare had been woken up by the birds tweeting a sweet tune outside her window, something that had brought a smile on her face. She got up and looked at the town from her bedroom window and smiled at the sight of a few children playing on the streets. Ever since they had built the library that had became the most used place for the children to gather during the day. She had talked with some of the other mares about opening up a school for all the children. Even if they were hidden from the world they would still have to learn how to read and write. Of course that would require rebuilding parts of the library and that would require moving on magical wards and the wall surrouding the town but it would be worth it in the end. She kept poundering over this as she felt the child kick again, something that made her smile. She knew that it wasn't long now until the child was gonna be born, considering just how bloated belly looked. The mare giggled at the thought of having a little one to look after. She had watched and learned from the other mares in town about raising children and she already knew her little one would make great friends with the other children his or her age.

Autumn was brought out of her fantasies and thoughts as there was a knock at her door and she got out of bed. She moved rather quickly for a mare heavy with child but she just assumed that everything good was the childs doing these days, it was her little light in the darkness. She opened the door and was meet by Razor and Zap.

"Hi boys, come on in" She said and moved out of the way, noting she had sounded just like her mother whenever she had adressed the colts in their neighborhood.

"Hi Autumn, we're here to install that magic energy source thing the schematics talked about. It have been working so far with keeping the streets lit up at night so why not install it into the houses" Zap said and Razor looked at her walls before humming.

"If we tear down that wall and get all the crystals and gold wires through the ground we will have an easier way to connect all the different houses to one power supply" Razor said and Zap nodded in agreement.

Autumn was confused, sure she had seen the schematics but she had never understood what exactly what machines they were showing. Of course that meant she would most likely understand what Razor and Zap was doing right now but she could always ask and see if she could at least convince them to not tear down her house for a very old invention.

"Could you explain what this machine will do exactly? I understand that it can light up the streets but I can't understand how it is powerful enough to light up all houses and buildings in the town, there are over two hundred of them" She said and Razor turned to her and pulled out a schmatic he had copied from the book.

"This simple piece of paper contains a revolutionary concept and idea. One large crystal located in the center of a city or town will be surrounded by enchanted silver, something thought impossible considering silver drains magic, that sucks up the natural magic in the air and then it's stored in the crystal. From there the crystal will be hooked up to as many gold vires that you need and those will be lead out to the different here buildings in the town. Then the golden vires are conected to slightly smaller crystals in the houses and from there will gold vires lead from the crystals to glass chambers with gems in them. The gems will glow from the magic and in doing so will create light. We are also planning on adding a kill switch to the magical flow for diffrent lights whenever you would not be using it" Razor told her and Autumn's brain tried to handle all the information.

So they could supply the entire town with light even after the sun had gone down? And it wouldn't require torches that could possibly set a house or the crops on fire? It would most likely also provide more light than a normal torch, which made her wonder why Celestia had kept this away from all the ponies in Euqestria. Was her lust for control and power so great that she would make the ponies and the other races dependent on the sun? Considering all the things Celestia had done against her and so many others it was most likely that she had made them all dependent on her sun. Autumn growled slightly before calming down, she could throw something in anger later.

"Well, I guess I'll go and see what the town is doing this morning while you work, but if I come back and find my house to be a large hole in the ground I'm not gonna be happy" She said and Razor nodded while Zap groaned.

"It happened once! I didn't know that rocks would explode if you used them to store magic!" He said and Autumn giggled at him, the explosion had took out a part of the wall.

"Yeah yeah, just be done by tonight" She said and waved them goodbye as she left her house in her care, something most would go against after Zap blowed up a small rock that still somehow took out a part of the wall keeping them safe from the woodland creatures.

Autumn walked through the town and looked upon the many houses that they had managed to fit into the land that had been chosen for their home. She was still impressed by the eight stone pillars that stood at every enetry point into the towm. They had runes carved over them that glowed a bright green, seemingly pulling power straight out of the air. If she remebered correctly they cloaked the town from above and from the ground, rune magic was truly facinating. She had actually been given a book on it by Zicra but so far she had only manage to memorize a very simple rune the created a flouting ball of light. However it only lasted a few seconds which meant it wasn't a very powerful light source. Yet she had seen zebras from the other tribes use a much brighter version in their rituals, meaning it could most likely be used to blind someone temporarily or light up a dark area to get the layouts of things if you were in a hurry. The blue maned mare kept walking and she bumped into a few children that were playing with flouting gem attached to a string. They appoligised and ran off laughing, Autumn smiling at them as they ran towards the town hall. The town hall were more of a meeting hub as the little market they had were placed outside it. She knew that Zicra had sent out more messages with the help of the scouts they now had and they had brought with them dark mages and other zebras that had been looking for a safe place to live. They had all been happily supprised when they had seen the actual town and seen how many lived there. Becuase of so many joinng the town with different books, plants and crops they had built out a large portion of the woods to have place for the ever growing crops and other things they were sowing. Autumn looked at one mare giving a smaller colt a coin with a sword on one side and a merge between the old zebra nations flag and the crystal empires flag. When Zicra had showed Autumn the new currency she had cried a bit, seeing her friends honor all that had been lost. The coins were called trids, a name that meant nothing for Autumn but it was apparently named after the ancient word for king, trid. She guessed Zicra had wanted to declare the coins better than bits and that was his way to do it, by naming them king of coins.

She soon stood in front of the town hall and she walked inside. greeted by the sounds of zebras and ponies discussing their ever growing town and it's inhabitants. The blue maned mare walked to the large doors leading into the war room and opened them without resistence from the guards standing at either side of the great gate, they knew she had full access to every building in town. The pregnant mare was met by the sight of Zicra and the other tribe leaders talking, or perhaps arguing politly, about what to do with the ever constant flow of dark mages and zebras that were comming to the town.

"If we take in more of them then it's a higher chance Celestia will discover where they are all going! It would mean she would find the town and tear it into shreds!" The purple maned leader for the Zecor tribe yelled and Zicra looked at the world map on the table in concentration.

"We can still make the town bigger, possibly the size of a small city, which means we can take in more ponies and zebras" He said and the leader for the Orgamia tribe rolled her eyes.

"You didn't respond to my fellow leaders argument, we just can't take in more ponies or zebras, it would mean we would be in more danger than we already are in to begin with" The pink maned zebra mare said and the leader of the Ignis tribe sighed.

"We can't leave them out there to die, we would be no better than Celestia if we did so" The green maned zebra stallion said and the leader for the Hilyah tribe spotted Autumn.

"We have company from shadow bearer" The blue striped zebra stallion said and they all turned to Autumn who walked up to stand next to Zicra.

"Shadow bearer" was a nickname she had earned among most of the other zebras since they joined the town. It had just kind of became her name after they found out who was the father for the child. She didn't hate the nickname yet it spoke of memories she'd rather not relive.

"I decided to see how much the plans were proggressing but from what I hear it isn't going to well?" She said and Zicra nodded

"The more we take in the more suddenly disappear from Celestia's watch. Soon she would grow suspicious and send trained mages into the woods to see if they would be able to sense something. The pillars keeping our city hidden away emit a large summ of magic that is easily detecable if someone would be close enough. Meaning if we make the town to big it will be found must quicker than normally" He said and Autumn nodded.

"Well you could always build underground? I know it isn't a great solution but it could work" She said and the other three leaders quietly discussed with each other.

"It could work but it would be time consuming and possibly put the inhabitants on the surface in danger along with the earth dwellers if we dug out to much of the land the town rests on" The leader of the Orgamia tribe said and Zicra poundered over their options.

"We'll let the ponies and zebras here in Frigidum decide, they'll vote and we go from there" He said and the other leaders nodded in agreement before leaving the room.

Autumn looked at the pink striped zebra and he looked out the window, clearly in thought. She didn't wanna bother him and she walked over to the war table, looking over the different things writen on the map. The current cities standing was marked out with Frigidum being rather close to the new capital, Canterlot. Of course Celestia was still miles away but she could still find them if they were unlucky. With the threat of being found clinging to her mind she looked through the different statics the leaders had so far. The most zebras and dark mages had fled from the north, seeing how it was the most hit during this great "cleansing" of the land. They had still recived a great number from the south yet it did pale in comparison of the northen newcomers. So far there was thought to be maybe a thoudsand others on the way, that was a number so big Celestia would have no problem detecting it. The blue maned mare looked out at the town, and sure they could make it a city. But a city was so much harder to hide. However another thought climbed it's way out of the depths of her mind, if there was thousands of dark mages in Euqestria did that mean that those who didn't arrive in Frigidum had been burned alive?.. That was thousands of innocents.. Dead for just their magic.. She shook of the thoughts, they couldn't have killed so many in such short time, it was impossible. Somewhat comforted of the happier thoughts she turned to Zicra, he was undoubtedly thinking the same things as her.

"Autumn, do you think we will survive this? That this town or perhaps city will last long enough to give shelter?" He asked her suddenly and she paused for a moment, thinking.

"I think we will survive. Sure we will perhaps always have to hide but I'd rather be safe in hiding with my child then out there, free but always in danger" She responded and Zicra nodded.

"I hope you're right, because if this place fell that would mean the emnd of all dark magic in Euqestria and perhaps later, the world.." The zebra stallion said and walked up to the window so he could look down upon those living in his city.

"They are safe thanks to us and we will keep them safe, no matter what" Autumn said with a smile and Zicra nodded.

"No matter what.." He mumbled and looked at her before looking away.

"I'll head back and see if Zap and Razor have finished their invention, I'll talk to later" Autumn said and walked out from the war room.

Zicra's POV

Zicra didn't respond when she left the room, his eyes glued to the inhabitants of Frigidum. How was he gonna help them all? Sure they could make the town larger but in the end that could attract atention. He sighed and walked back to the table loking over what they had discussed before Autumn had walked into the room. So far the paper had loose ideas on it, all of them was supposed to be kept away so far away from Autumn as possible for now. He didn't like keeping secrets from her but the ideas for her child's use in their defense were all from good to horrific. He and the other leaders knew that her child would most likely hold powerful abilties not found in the mortal realm. These abilties would be great to use in battle yet they all knew Autumn wouldn't like the idea of them training her child like a soldier. Zicra didn't like the idea himself, hoping there was some other way to increase the city's defenses. But the more he thought about it the more he realized that this child was their ace against Celestia. Not many had known about Autumn's and Sombra's relationship, the only reason he knew about it was because the chief had left out a couple of letters from Sombra. Zicra knew that a half demon fighting alongside them would suprise and shook Celestia. She would never see it coming. Yet if they wanted the child to fight Celestia they would had to train it from a young age. The pink striped zebra stallion didn't want to ruin the childhood of Autumn's child but if that was what he needed to do for everyone's safety, including the child's, then he would do it.

"May you forgive us one day for having your destiny decided for you little one.. But I will protect those I call family, no matter what" He said and with a sigh he left the room to catch some sleep, the weight of leadership and possible future decisions following him.

Autumn's POV

Autumn walked down the street and smiled at the children once again playing with those floating gems, she had to get one for her little one when she or her were born. Feeling the urge to buy one right now in case the child was gonna be born earlier than expected. She had been told by the different tribe healers that the child could either be born in twenty years or tweny minutes depending on what legend you belived about demons. Becuase of this Autumn didn't leave her house that often, ready to call for assistance if she suddenly felt the child wanting to come out into the world. Snapping out of her thoughts as always she walked up to a stand were a mare were handing out the floating gems in different colours to children that paid her one trid. Autumn walked up to her and grabbed a coin pouch from her saddle bag, giving the mare a trid.

"What colour should the gem be?" The mare asked her and Autumn thought about it for a second.

"Red, a deep red" She said and the mare nodded handing her the gem.

"They are very special, by charging them with magic you can not only make them float but also make them record little songs or things you want your child to hear!" The gem selling mare said with a smile.

"This will be perfect, thank you" Autumn said and walked off with the gem floating behind her as she held the string with her mouth.

When she arrived at her houses the place was a mess, Zap and Razor had installed all the small gems and the gold vires but they still hadn't fixed her wall of floor where they had pulled through one large gold cable that connected to all the gold strings. It almost looked like they were disecting her house.

"I see you have cleaned up after yourselves" She said with a smirk as she found the two stallions sitting on two chairs drinking tea.

"You should call us geniuses from now on, you can have light whenever you want whenever it's day or night" Zap said and Razor took a sip from his tea.

"We'll clean up the mess and fix your house, we have to fix three others today if we wanna keep to our schedule" Razor said and got up, walking over to her floor to out back the planks they had moved out of the way.

As Autumn watched them work she hit a small metal button on the wall and a white gem inside a glass jar like thing lit up. So it did work, good to know they hadn't lied about this invention. She almost thought they were just testing out how angry they would get the owners of the different houses by tearing it apart and stuffing it full with gold. Soon the two stallions had finished the floor and started with the wall, or rather walls as she realized they had torn apart those upstairs too. The pregant mare gave them some water as they worked and she walked up to her bedroom, laying down on the bed to rest. She picked out the floating gem and tied the string to the table next to the bed.

"We're soon done Autumn!" Zap yelled and Razor walked up and down the stairs with planks to fix the wall.

"Ok.." She mumbled suddenly feeling nauseous and she felt the child kick, making her groan out. That had been a hard one.

"You ok Autumn?" Razor asked her as she suddenly felt something wet splash against her hind legs, making her eyes shoot open.

"It's the child! Get the healers, it's the child.." She moaned out in pain and Razor rushed into the room, yeling to Zap to get everyone that could help.

"You're gonna be ok Autumn, just focus and wait a little on the healers" The bulky stallion said and Autumn groaned.

"The child doesn't want to wait!" She yelled and laid on her back as Razor looked out the window to see Zap coming back with Zicra and the healers.

"They are here Autumn" Razor said as the healers burts into the room and Zicra walked up to her side.

"I heard you're finally becoming a mom" He said with a small smile and Autumn laughed slightly before groaning again.

"You need to push miss Wheat!" One of the female healers said and Autumn did as told, holding Zicra's hoof in a iron grip.

"Good! I can already see the head! Keep pushing" The same healer said and warm towels along with runes used to heal possible injuries were brought out.

"It hurts so damn much!" The blue maned mare yelled and squezzed Zicra's hoof even tighther, making the stallion hiss in pain.

"Just keep pushing!" The same female healer said and with a final push Autumn suddenly felt so much calmer and lighter.

She could hear the screams of a foal and she healers speaking things to each other before her green eyes were suddenly met by the large yellow ones of a crying foal. She was slowly given the crying infant that slowly calmed down in her grasp. The child cooed and giggled at her, it's small hoof slowly touching her snout. Autumn started to slowly cry in happiness and she put down the child next to her so she could get a good look at her beloved baby.

"It's a boy" Zicra said with a smile and Autumn slowly and carfully lifted on the baby colt's head.

His eyes were yellow as she had seen before but what she hadn't seen was tiny purple wisps coming off from the sides of his eyes while where there should have been white in his eyes there was green. This was truly Sombra's AND Malum's son.. She shuddered first but the uncomfortable feeling disapered as the child snuggled into her side. This child had none of the demon in his soul. The next thing she spotted was tiny curved red horn on the colt's head, poking through a dark gray mane. His coat were light gray with two black and red dragon wings resting on his back. Finally he had a cute short dark gray tail that reminded her off a beard. The child looked like an alicorn that had walked through a poratl leading to the demon realm.

"He's beautiful.." Autumn said and the colt looked at her and gigled again, for her it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

"What will you name the child?" Zicra asked her and Autumn thought long and hard until she finally answered.

"He is the little light in my life.. Always keeping me safe from the monsters in the shadows. His first name will be Lux, Luxri because of his title as prince" Autumn stated, Zicra writing it down on a paper remebering to add the royal ri to his name.

"His middle name or names?" Zicra asked her and Autumn answered him immediately.

"Mortem, from Sombra's middle name and Malum.. from the father that gave him his abilities" She said and the colt giggled again.

"And what will his last name be?" Zicra asked her and Autumn smiled.

"He is a Tenebris, through and through" She said and Zicra looked at the paper in his hoof.

"From this day on your child will be known as Luxri Mortem Malum Tenebris, the prince of the crystal empire and the bearer of the dark blood" Zicra said and was supprised as the healers bowed for the child before leaving the room.

"I guess he does deserve that" The pink striped zebra stallion said and bowed along with Zap and Razor.

Autumn looked at the zebras bowing for her son and she felt weird. Luxri hadn't done anything yet, he wasn't a hero or a god. Why were they bowing? To show respect for the next crystal king? She asumed they held her child in high regard considering his bloodline but it still felt.. to formal. She shrugged it off, she had to get used to see ponies bowing for her child, he was royalty after all, something that held high status all over Euqestria.

"We'll have a healer in the house to assist you if it's needed, so help is always nearby" Zicra said and smiled at Luxri.

"Thank you Zicra, but could I please be left alomne with my son? I need sleep and so does he" She said and hugged the foal to her side, he was already half sleeping.

"Of course, and congratulations for getting a son. I see a great future for him here in Frigidum" The leader of the dark frost tribe said and walked out the door, heading down the stairs with Zap and Razor following him.

Autumn just smiled at her baby and kissed his cheek before slowly falling asleep herself, the once terrible nightmares were now replaced with happy dreams that made her smile stick to her face through the night.

Zicra's POV

Zicra wore a grim expression on his face as the other tribe leaders gathered in the war room. He had hoped they would wait maybe a week before summoning everyone for a meeting about Luxri yet they had called for him the second they had heard the child were born. They must have planned some things without him as he saw them erase something from a piece of paper as he entered the room.

"I assume all of you know the specifics about the child? I noted down his appearance and what abilities we know the child to have so far" Zicra said and the other tribe leaders nodded, looking over the description and rough sketch of Luxri they had been given.

"So far everything is going as we planned, yet I fear that the child might not have grown enough to fight Celestia in sixteen years, we need to wait at least twenty years before even considering having this half demon battling the guardian of light" The leader of the Orgamia tribe said and Zicra muttered.

"We had not agreed on anything yet Serah" He said to the mare and she rolled her eyes.

"We all know this kid will be our secret weapon, why even try to hide the fact that he will be our key to defeat Celestia? He will be trained and when the day comes he will battle the queen of the sun. Yet that day won't be in sixteen years as Draigh here suggested" Serah said and looked at the Zecor tribe leader.

"If he does truly hold the power of the void we will use it, and when he is old enough to be called a stallion we will march to the gates of Canterlot and tear those doors from their hinges!" Draigh yelled and the leader of the Hilyah tribe used a spell to close the stallions lips, how he had cast the spell without a rune or horn was up debate but the stallion requsted silence.

"I will teach the young warrior about magic alongside his mother, if you want him being able to kill an alicorn then he needs to know as much about the mystical arts as Starswirl himself" The blue striped zebra stallion said and leader of the ignis tribe sighed.

"I will teach him about the arts in smithing along with the two stallions installing those shining gems in all the houses. However I think mine and Salijah's leassons will have to merge at some point considering how closely related the two arts are to each other" The green maned zebra stallion said and looked to Salijah for conferation about mixing the two classes of magic and smithing, the other stallion just nodded.

"Well you do that Ridrak and I will teach him about strategy, something he will need if you're planning for him to lead an army" Zicra said and the leader of the Ignis tribe nodded in response.

"I'll teach him about the ways of the sword. By the time I'm done with him he will be able to kill any creature on this planet" Draigh said and they all looked at the different things they would have to teach the prince, writing it down on different papers.

"Let's hope Shadow mother will understand that this will help her son" Saliyah said and Zicra nodded slowly.

"If she doesn't we will haav to take Luxri from her by force.. And I don't want that" The pink striped zebra stallion said and the leaders of the Ignis tribe and Hilyah agreed while the other two leaders didn't seem to care about the possible chance of having to steal Autumn's child.

"Forgive me Autumn.. But I will do anything to protect my family, even if it hurts them.." Zicra whispered as the other leaders discussed thir comming tasks, rain slowly starting to hit the great window in the war room.

Autumn's POV

Autumn woke up slowly looking at the rain, smiling as the child next to her nuzzled her chest. She gently pulled Lux closer and kissed the baby's head. The pure love she felt for this child was unlike anything she had ever felt before, not even her love for Sombra had felt like this. The mare smiled and looked at Lux as he opened his large innocent eyes and giggled at her. Autumn picked him up and set him down by her stomach, letting him feed. When the child was done she gently tapped on his back until hr burped. She smiled and put him down next to her as she looked out the window, something felt wrong.. Autumn knew that it most likely was her imagination but the same second Lux was born she had felt like someone was watching her, like someone were planning something. The blue maned mare was snapped out of her thoughts as Lux placed his fore hooves on her chest and looked at her with what the mare only could see as worry.

"Mommy is fine, don't you worry little one" Autumn said and nuzzled the chil to which he giggled and cuddled close, looking like a ball of fur.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you, I promise" She said and smiled at her child, the rain hitting the window harder and harder as the storm started to gain stregth, the calm and quiet had finally been broken.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading, I know there are many grammer misstakes and I will edit my chapters when I reach chapter ten. Anyway I hope you give me some feedback on tjhe chapter so I can become a better writer. But as I said thank you for reading :twilightsmile:

Chapter seven: A demon's first steps

Author's Note

Firstly, thank you for reading this chapter. We're getting closer to chapter ten were I will rewrite the first chapters :twilightsmile:

Secondly, the reason this author's note is on the top for ones is becuase this chapter has clop in it. Yup I finally tried to write a sex scene and I hope it won't the worst thing you have ever seen :twilightsheepish:

Anyway thanks for reading and possibly leaving feedback.

Chapter seven: A demon's first steps

Three months of planning and building, that had Zicra been doing for all the dark mages and zebras seeking refuge in Frigidum. Of course they all provided with labor and skills to grow the city but even if they had their own currency, food production and now a school they were still all in danger. Even with the pillars around the town that hid them from Celestia's watchful eye they could still feel her overbearing presence, waiting on one of them to do a misstake and reveal where every free dark mage and zebra hid in Euqestria. The pink striped stallion hoped that Celestia would assume that what objects and ponies she could't find had feld to the other nations. Zicra wondered if the gryphin empire had followed suit and banned dark magic in their nation, maybe they were even hunting the mages and burning them like the church of light? He banished the thoughts from his mind, they wouldn't help his situation one bit. The zebra stallion looked out the war room window and saw just how large the city was, now sporting eight exits and over five-hundered buildings. They had weapon storages all over the city and watch towers looking out over the woods. If Draigh's numbers had been correct there was three thousand ponies and zebras in Frigidum now, a number that was both impressive and terrafying. That number meant more warriors to protect the city but it also meant they could be discovered so much earlier. The stallion had disscused it with the other leaders and all of them still wanted Luxri to be trained and lead an army against Celestia. However for that to work they would need time, years, years they possibly didn't have.

Zicra sighed and looked back at Zap and Razor working with their gold vires and gems, they han finally started putting up the useful lights in the town hall and so far they had light in the corridors but that was about it. He wondered about what else the scematics could show them, what inventions and concepts lost to time they could bring into the light of day again. He knew that he had seen a device that could help you communicate with someone miles away, yet so far it was more fantasy than actual technology.

"We'll be done in a week I would say" Zap told the leader of the dark frost and he nodded.

"Either we give the town hall it's own power supply or we will have to add a sixth one to the middle of the city that will power the town hall and the magical study" Razor said and Zicra thought about Salijah's own addition to the town hall.

The leader of the Hilyah tribe had added a library like part to the lower floor of the town hall, a place where one could practice or learn all sorts of magic in a safe enviorment. It wasn't a bad idea considering how many magic users lived in Frigidum. However the sheer amount of space the magical practice took from the rest of the town hall was troubling, mostly as the leaders could never get a moment of silence during the day.

Zicra had walked out to the war rook and down into the magical study area. He looked over the different ponies and zebras walking around with old tomes, objects and enchanted weapons. It was orinaized chaos within the city's place of power, Discord would have been proud.

"Zicra, over here!" A voice called to him and he turned to the origin of the voice.

A young mare was the origin of the voice. Her mane was a dark shade of pink and her coat was a dark gray. Her eyes were a light shade of blue and the horn on top of her head had cracks in it.

"What is it? Don't tell me that Draigh has found the wine storage again" Zicra said and the mare shook her head.

"No it's just that I wanted to thank you in person for letting this place be made. Before we couldn't really practice our magic anywhere but now with this place and all the help we can become actual mages" She told him with a smile and he nodded at her.

"It wasn't my idea but if it help you all then I'm glad" Zicra said and she smiled even more.

"You have helped us a lot since we arrived, you have been a true leader of everyone in this city. So I'm just wanted to thank you in my own way" She said and jumped up and kissed his cheek before giggling at him.

"What's your name?" Zicra asked her with a blush, not having expected her sudden act of affection.

"It's Rose" She said with a smile before running to a couple of friends that had yelled after her.

Zicra followed Rose with his eyes until she and her friends disapeared further into the study area. He smiled and walked out of the town hall, or rather city hall now, and took a deep breath out of the late summer air. It wouldn't be to long until winter hit them, they had to be prepared until then with full stocked basements with food and grain.

Zicra was brought out of his thoughts when he saw Autumn walk past him, giving him a smile. The foal in her left foreleg giggled at him and he felt a twitch of guilt. Were they really gonna mercilessly train this child into a killing machine? It hadn't felt right before he was born but looking into his innocent eyes now when he was among them made Zicra sick of himself.

Training this foal would be to destroy his innocence for a mission he was never meant to carry out. But it was either that or destruction at the hooves of Celestia. Zicra knew that they had no choice but to make the child ready to kill, to destroy annything in his path. He just hoped a shred of light would be left in him when they were done.

Autumn's POV

She had never felt this alive. Holding her child close to her as she walked in the last free city on the nation was a feeling hard to describe to anyone. It was like she could battle the world and win every time just by breathing. Autumn wished she always would feel like this.

The child seemed to feel her happiness and giggled, nibbling on a teddy bear she had given him a few weeks before. He had been born with small sharp teeth next to ones that looked similar to teeth found in a normal pony's mouth. Something that had confused but facinated the tribe healers. They were seemingly made to tear flesh apart while the other set of teeth were made for vegetables and plants, which made Autumn feel a bit weird. Did her child feed of meat like one of the predators in the forest?

Autumn quickly sent those thoughts to the back of her mind as she heard her child's laughther. Who cares if he must eat meat to survive, he was not a monster. He was her son and he was the most beautiful things in the entire world. She nuzzled him and looked at the bite marks on the teddy bear, she was lucky it was sturdy enough to somehow survive her child nibbling on it.

Lux started to suddenly cry and Autumn started to hum on a song to calm him down a bit as she found a good and secluded spot to feed the child. She thought it would sting way more than it did when he fed of her but he was rather gentle and barly nibbled. When he did though she would always start to hum on her little song again and he would stop almost immediletly.

The song had been something her mother had sang for her while Autumn was a small filly, it would always make her feel happy and relaxed. Apparently she would always wanna sleep after hearing that song which turned it into her mothers best tool to get her into bed. It seemed to hold the same affect over her own son.

She was brought out of her thoughts as Lux stopped feeding and she picked him up, patting his back a few times so he would burp before getting up and carrying him back towards their house. She noticed how her little demon followed every pony with his large yellow eyes like he was enthralled by their movements. He was altready taking a intrest in the ponies around him.

She kept musing about what her child understood and didn't understand until she was outside her house again and she opened the door. She walked inside and placed Lux in his crib, giving him the teddy bear to play with while she prepared her lunch. The child giggled as he was given the teddy bear and she smiled, noticing how he made the bear flout in a dark purple aurora. He was already showing off the magic fused with his very soul.

Autumn kept working on her lunch, looking at Lux every now and again until she finally saw something that made her confused. Lux's ones tiny dragon like wings were now three tentacles on each side of his body. The appendages were black and looked like they were made out of oil yet they didn't drip anything or seemed to make the teddy bear they were now holding dirty.

She got closer to the child and when he spotted that she was next to him the tenatcles rushed to his side in the shape of black smoke, still attached to his back, and they formed his wings. Autumn grew curious and gently pulled out his left wing until it was it's entire wingspan. It felt solid with bone within it yet she had just seen it be smoke.

As the stove signaled that her food was being over cooked with the smell of something burning she let the thoughts of her child go for just a second. All that mattered right now was that he was safe and sound. The demon stuff she could worry about later when he got older and would climb everywhere with those tentacles. Huh, she was already coming to turns with the fact that her child has tentacles. Autumn just guessed that after everything that had happened she decided to stop question everything.

After she finally had made her lunch and eaten it(much to her dismay as it tasted burned old sock by then)she carried Lux upstairs. She put him down on the bed and gave him the floating gem, to which he laughed and poked the shining stone. The blue maned mare smiled and looked on as he played with the gem. Lux seemed to love it's light and she held it in front of his face.

"This is a gift I bought just for you, is yours little one" She said with a smile and Lux giggled in response.

The child kept poking the gem until Autumn started to hum on her song again, making Lux give of a happy sound and hug the gem to his chest. The gem seemed to respond to her singing by glowing brighter and Lux was soon asleep from the song, tired from the mornings walk and play time.

"Sleep well my little light" Autumn whisped and kissed her forehead before laying down next to him and brinning out the book on dark magic, she wanted to know even more about it now when Lux was born.

Now the book itself didn't actually say exactly who wrote it but it had to be someone that was well practiced in the dark arts so it had most likely been Luna's. The first chapter of the book spoke about how the first dark magic spells had been formed by creatures very similar to Discord a few hundred years ago.

These creatures had been magic lovers and made everythin in their power to birth new life into the world. The result was of course dark magic and the spells that followed were used to create gigant crystal pillars that have sadly disapeared as time have passed. The one thing known about the creatures though is that they all disapeared by the beginning of the sun and the sun queen's rule, seeimgly just having decided to leave the world alone.

The next chapter spoke about dark magic within the invention field and what could possibly be created with the help of this kind of magic. Some of the pages were dedicated to the schematics she had found in the book, a few which had lead to the creation of the city's light system. It also spoke about weapons dark magic could be used on. One idea was a sword that could only be levitated by dark magic another spoke of a shield that would only protect a dark mage.

"Intresting yet it holds no real value to me so much as it does to Zap and Razor" Autumn mumbled to herself as she flipped the pages to the next chapter.

This chapter was rather detailed with what dark magic could do and not do, something that drew her intrest. The book spoke about how children that was trained from a young age with dark magic would surpass children trained the similar lenght in light magic when it comes to raw streght. It seemed that the her child was powerful already.

Autumn was about to pet Lux when shh heard a knock on her door downstairs and she slowly made her way out of bed and sneaked downstairs. She opened the door and was met by the face of the Hilyah tribe's leader, Salijah. He looked calm yet tired, like he had been reading away the night.

"Shadow mother, we need to talk" The strange zebra stallion said and let himself into her house.

Autumn was confused by the stallion's sudden visit, he hadn't told her about it prior to this moment and his manorisms were strange too. He didn't carry himself with the pride and streght he normally did and he had dark bags under his eyes. He looked even more tired now when he was out of sight from the ponies outside.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Autumn asked him and the stallion sighed.

"The future of your child Autumn, the shadow walker's future" Salijah said and looked at her with a sigh.

"What do you mean? He's safe here, right?" She asked him and he shook his head.

"No one is safe here, only hidden for the time being. But what your child will face is training. Merciless and hard training" He said and Autumn looked confused.

"Why would he be trained in such a way and who would train him? I'm not ok with anyone putting my son through hardships" She said with a scoff and the stallion nodded.

"I understand but the training he will be given is from all of us tribe leaders. He must be prepared to face Celestia when the time is right" He told her and Autumn paled.

"You want my child to face off against that monster?.." She whispered and he nodded.

"He is one of the few creatures on this planet that could most likely grow enough power to defeat the queen of the sun. This is the reason why the original cheif of the dark frost saved you shadow mother. Your child is the key to victory" Salijah told her and Autumn growled.

"I will not let you hurt my child! He will be safe with me and he will never battle against Celestia!" She yelled and the zebra sighed.

"We have no choise. This is the only way to bring the truth to the ponies of Euqestria and the only way this city and your child survives. Do you think we can hide here forever? The sun queen will find this place and use her light to burn it to ash" He told her and Autumn flinched.

"But.. I can't let you put him through years of hard training and give him a destiny he was never meant for.." She murmered and Salijah looked out the window.

"We won't brake him, but we won't be gentle either. He will be trained and he will kill the alicorn of light." He said before looking at her.

"Promise me that this is not just for you but also for him.. Promise me that this will in the end save him.." She said and looked back into his eyes.

"We are doing this for him Autumn. He wouldn't stand a chance otherwise" Salijah said and before Autumn could say something he left the house and left her alone with her thoughts.

Was he lying? Did they truly belive that the only way to save Frigidum, and to an extent Lux, her child would have to face Celestia? Everything was so wrong, nothing seemed to brighten her day anymore as those news shook her to the core.

Lux could not fight Celestia, he just couldn't. She wanted to scream, hit something or cry but nothing came out. She just thought harder and harder about the situation she was in. She could refuse them and keep Lux away from them as long as possible. However that would most likely end with her being accused of wanting the city to burn or having them forefully tale Lux from her.

She could run away. It was just to sneak out and avoid and watch towers and she would be long gone. But it would also mean that she would have to hide Lux and herself from others and raise her child on the run. That would never work, she would either be dragged back to Frigidum or killed by Celestia' troops.

There was only one option and she knew it, despite how much she hated the idea. To agree with the training and let her child be trained for years to face the queen of the sun. Autumn hated the idea to allow them basically hurting and stressing her child but if the other option was to let the city die.. What option did she really have?

Autumn heard cries from upstairs and hurried up to comfort her crying child. They wouldn't start to train him until he was older, so she would have a few years to shower him with love until the hardships started.

Six months later, Zicra's POV

Zicra panted and kissed Rose again, her lips felt like clouds and she tasted like strawberries. He just couldn't get enough. The mare giggled at his needy kisses and pushed him down onto the bed, sliding her tongue over his neck to which he shuddered.

He could never had imagined something like this five months ago. Being so close to a mare and showing her every uns of his affection. Zicra was still suprised every time she agreed to go out with him, especially the first time he had asked her out.

She had worn a red dress and her mane had been braided beautifully by her mother before they met up outside the town hall. She had joked and teased him to no end, swishing her tail in his face whenever she could. To say that he had been hot and bothered was a understatment.

When they had arrived at her house she had been quick with letting him inside and showing him around. He had picked up on many tings during that date. She could play the guitar and she sang beautifully, her voice just melted him to a puddle of blushing stallion whenever she sang. Something she knew as sha sang often for him.

Another thing he had picked up on was how neat her home had been, everything orginized to perfection. The books in the bookshelves had been orginized after the first name of the author and even her kitchen tools had been orginized from small to large.

The last thing he noticed just from the surface of her home was her love for the colour pink, every room was painted in some variant of it. Even the paintings of her family had a pink frame along with the carpets that seemed to be a very light shade of pink.

When she had finished making them dinner Rose had started telling Zicra stories from her past. One of them was about how her brother had stole a couple of apples and decided to hide them in the first best barrel he could find. It wasn't until later her brother had realized that the barrel had been full with worms for fishing that had eaten into the apples he had stolen, leaving him with nothing.

Zicra had just sat there with a smile plastered on his face for hours as she told him more stories from her childhood when her family had lived in a small town just outside the gryphin kingdom. She went on and on about what panks she and her brother had played on the different inhabitants of the town and how they gained and repuation of being true trouble makers.

It wasn't until she had asked Zicra about his that he was brought out of his happy dream like state, something she had giggled at. He started with telling her about his first years alive with the tribe. Apparently he had liked playing with wodden swords from a young age, indecating that his path in life was the one of a warrior.

Rose had had the same expression he had been wearing a few moments before as he told her about his youth when he had been trainig along with Zap and Razor to become a warrior. The other two stallions had been his friends since childhood and while he had always obeyed whatever order his mother gave them had Zap and Razor taken every opertonity to disobey their parents. Something that seemed to always end with them being grounded.

He went on about how he had killed his first timber wolf during the first year of traning to become a warrior. The creature was just about to attack one of the zebra foals that was playing with a butterfly when Zicra had spotted it and gotten it's attention by forming a ring of fire around it with a spell.

He had fought off the creature for around twenty minutes when he finally saw his chance and had stabbed it right through it's heart, turning it into a bunch of leaves and sticks. The tribe had cheered for him that day and he had earned the respect from the chief becuase of it.

Rose had been on the edge of her seat throughout the entire story with the timber wolf. She had showered him with praise for his heroic actions and he had blushed in return, smiling at her as he then spoke of how he had met the former crystal king.

Zicra told her how the chief needed to get supplies for the tribe before the true winter hit them. So with some help from Zicra and a few other warriors he had lead hia special warriors that also worked as diplomats, advisiors and personal guard. The jounery was hard at first as they were all forced to walk against the hard wind and snow as they tried to make it to the crystal empire.

When they did finally arrive Sombra had met them at the entrance of the empire and invited them all to the castle, something everyone had agreed on and they had walked to the grand building in the center of the empire. The crystal ponies had greeted them with smiles and waves as they passed, something that had supprised Zicra as he had not often seen kindness from ponies.

It didn't take long after they had rested at the castle for the chief to starts the negotiations with the crystal king. Zicra had firts assumed the stallion would ask of them large amounts of gems or similar things but he had only asked them to pay back when they could.

Zicra had been supprised while the chief had thanked Sombra and then lead them all to some carts loaded up with supplies for the winter. They had started to drag the carts with them and before they knew it they were back on tribe land and the tribe celebrated their arrival with song and dance.

Rose had smiled at that story and they had both talked about more memories from the past until their convoration turned to more intimate subjects. He still remebered how much he had blushed when she had asked him how many mares he had been with. The first time he had responded had been so quiet she hadn't been able to hear him while he practically screamed out his answer when she asked him the question again. He answered her that he had never been with another mare.

Rose looked suprised at first before laughing. She told him how cute he had looked when he had answered her and before he could ramble on about how sorry he was for telling her something so personal(even if she had asked him for it)she had leaned over the table and kissed him.

Zicra could still in the back of his mind taste that first kiss. It had caused his brain to shut down and made him more turned on than it probally should have. Rose had no intention on stopping however as she pushed him down on the floor and kept kissing him.

It hadn't taken long after that for their kisses to turn more hungry and soon she was trailing her kisses lower and lower down his body, causing him to shudder. He had bit his lower lip to hold back a moan as she finally reached his stiff member and blew a sultury breath over it, causing Zicra to gasp and his cock twitched.

Rose had grinned at him before she took the tip his member into her mouth and sucked on it before taking more and more of him into her mouth. Zicra was drooling at this point and looked at Rose as she worked her way up and down his cock, the pleasure that alone gave him made him groan loudly.

Zicra was just getting used to the pace Rose was using when she suddenly started to speed up and take even more of his member into her mouth. Zicra was squirming under the treatment and he moaned like a mare in heat when she finally swallowed his entire cock, her throat bulging from the cumflesh she was currenly keeping trapped in there.

It was now Rose started to work up and down his lenght with a fast pace, her eyes filled with lust and need as she wanted his warm sticky seed. It didn't take long for Zicra's breath to become ragged and he groaned louder and louder. He tried to tell her that he was close but the pleasure only made moans escape his lips until she finally felt his flare widen and rope after rope rushed down her throat. She moaned and pulled off his lenght, sucking out the last drops of cum before finally letting go of his half errect member.

Zicra was panting and his back legs felt numb from the pleasure he had just endured. He was about to say something when Rose simply lifted the dress of her body and turned around before flicking her tail to the side, revealing her dripping marehood. The message was clear, fuck me.

Without any hesiation he immedietly mounted her and his now stiff member twitched as it awaited him to thrust into her. It took a few seconds for him to mentally prepare himself for what to come before he slowly pushed into her wet snatch, causing them both to moan.

Rose started to hump back into him as he entered her and demanded him to fuck her until she couldn't walk for a week. He had no objections against this and quickly started to thrust in and out of her pussy, groaning in plueasure. Rose moaned loudly and seemed to drool from the ever hardening pounding he was giving to her, something that just made him thrust even harder into her.

Zicra kept thrusting into her with a fast pace until he felt a familiar tingling sensation in his balls. The only reason he had lasted this long was becuase of Rose's amazing blowjob earlier. He groaned out he was close and had gotten a smilar response and a order to cum inside. With those orders in his head he thrust even harder into Rose, wet smacks echoing across the house as Rose's moans became more and more high pitched until she screamed out in pleasure and came, her juices covering Zicra's balls and the floor. He couldn't hold back any longer as her inner walls massaged his member through out her orgasm and he burried himself as deep within her as he could before he came, his seed filling her to the brim.

Zicra pulled out of her panting up a storm and they both laid on the floor before laughing and nuzzling each other. The rest of the night they spent either cuddling or fucking each other, finally falling asleep when the city's clocktower chimed three in the morning.

The following months was spent showering each other other in gifts and affection, often showing up unannounced and the fucking the other's brains out. However it wasn't until Zicra's birthday Rose had truly suprised him, showing up in make up, having her mane in a bun and wearing a pair of laced black panties. To say Zicra had almost fainted at the sight was a understatment.

So now Zicra was busy trying to kiss his birthday into submission, her taste like strawberries and scent like pure lust. Rose moaned his name and giggled at him before rolling them around so she was on top. The mare grinned at her zebra lover and kissed his neck before grinding her pantie covered folds against his hard cock.

"I bet you just wanna tear these panties of me and rut me until your balls are empty~" She purred and Zicra groaned.

"I want my birthday present if that's what you're asking~" He moaned as she grinded against him again.

"Well I wanted to give the birthday boy the ride of his life~ I hope he don't mind~" Rose said and stood up before sliding the panties of her and kicking them off the bed.

Zicra bit his lip in anticipation as she slowly lowerd herself on his cock and she moaned quietly as she took him inside. He groaned in response as she started to ride him slowly and kiss his neck, making him pant and pull her into a deep kiss. Her hips moved slowly at first before she finally started to speed up, moaning louder and louder every time her hips met his.

This went on for a long time, Rose slowing down when they both felt close before speeding up again. However it couldn't last forever as Zicra felt ready to burst at any second, moaning similarly to Rose as they both suddenly came. Zicra's eyes rolled into the back of his head as rope after rope of cum was pumped into her marehood and Rose screamed his name to the skies as her juices covered his stomach and crotch.

They both panted and exchanged slopey kisses before they cuddled close and Zicra embraced Rose with his strong fore legs. She purred at the action and rested her head on his chest as they both rested for the upcoming hours of birthday sex.

"I love you Zicra" Rose said and kissed him.

"I love you too Rose" He said and kissed back.

Autumn's POV

Autumn had been running around the house looking for Lux. She had been right about him using those tentacles to climb on everything. Though he had started much earlier than expected as he now could climb out of his crib and stumble around the house.

She was lucky that she used things to block of the stairs when he was up there with her but when something was in his way he would use his other most beloved trick, travel between shadows. Sure he couldn't travel very far but it was far enough to scare her, something the little foal also loved doing.

However he had escaped yet again, and this time she couldn't find him! She ran around the house looking for him until she finally heard the sound of tiny hooves following her. She slowly turned around and was greeted by the sight of Lux walking behind her while his little wings twitched. Had he followed her the entire time? Wait, was he walking?

Indeed was her little foal walking and running around without a problem, his laughter bringing a smile to her face as she picked him up and nuzzled him.

"Mommy's little light is growing up so fast!" She said and Lux giggled, poking her nose with his hoof before disapearing in a puff of smoke and reapearing next to her in her own shadow. Autumn giggled and started playing hide and seek with the foal, following his sounds to figure out where he was. Today was a good day, today was a very good day indeed.

Chapter eight: The training begins

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter nine: The crystal blade

Lux looked at the blade, unsure how to react to the red crystal sword resting upon the war room's great table. The old artifact had been meant for him since the beginning yet the teen was unsure on why they were giving him the sword now. What had changed that caused them to give up on such a powerful artifact.

"The boy is ready to handle that weapon and all perks it brings. Only your former teacher could handle it before him Zicra, and he was trained in the dark arts by Sombra himself" Ridrak told the their leader and he nodded.

The half demon knew of this old chief from stories Zicra had told him and Blissful, how the old leader of their tribe had sacrificed himself to save the rest of them from the mad lunar princess and the queen of the sun. It was always fun to hear about the old stallion that had befriended his father many years ago, but if the sword had been his why was he being given it and not Zicra or Blissful.

He knew that the sword had been in his mother's "hidden" chest for years but he had never thought he was going to be given it to keep. Lux had always thought of the thing like it was some sort of borrowed book, once he was done with it or when the time ran out he had to return it.

But here it was, being given to him by the tribe leaders, his mother having reluctantly given Salijah the blade when the mage had requested it at their door steps. But now after some discussion in a language he did not understand the five tribal leaders had decided for him to receive the weapon.

The red blade's name had been unknown to him and he had asked Zicra for it's name only to be met by the stallion saying it's past was not important. Which had confused him at the time. Why would the history of a sword his father had made not matter?

"The shadow walker has proven himself to us so far. He has advanced in his magic classes and is slowly learning the fundamentals of enchanting. I think he should learn how to use a sword so clearly connected to his family heritage and his abilities" Salijah told the other leaders who nodded.

Serah looked at the colt before turning to the blade, his teacher of the wild eyeing the blade suspiciously before picking it up with her mouth, handing it to him with a bow. Lux always hated the bows, they made him feel weird to see some ponies twice his size bow down for something he hadn't accomplished yet.

"He has learned what to eat and what to leave alone out there as well as how one hunt smaller game and other predators. As the young one has shown his hunger for meat is partly from an actual need to survive and a bloodthirst from his demonic ancestors" Serah said as the half-breed picked up the blade with a purple aurora.

"He is no master with a sword. But he is good enough to give the military captains a run for their money. I say he should know the power a true crystal blade gives" Draigh said as the other leaders went over Lux's training in their heads.

"He knows a little history and math. He is a decent writer and knows at least the basic language. His overall strategic eye could be better but considering the time we have had to work with he is good enough to at least lead a squad" Zicra said as Ridrak opened his mouth to speak.

"The boy has shown himself capable when it comes to making weapons, or at least when it comes to small daggers and knives. We can forget teaching him about making heavy armor but we can get a few tips in about the lighter versions. His skill with making actual swords could be better, most of them are more like maces, but with the time we have had to teach the theory and practice it's not horrible" Ridrak said and the others nodded.

Lux hated when they spoke of him like he wasn't in the room, it was annoying. He cleared his throat to get their attention and they just kept talking. Some things made him feel pride like when they said he made progress in some hard subject while their talks about his shortcomings made him mutter.

After some time he had enough of their conversation and he gathered energy in his horn before slamming one of his front hooves down onto the ground, a wave of black magic rushing over the room that made the tribe leaders go quiet. Good, they could finally tell him how to use the sword.

"What makes this sword different from any other blade I have held? I know my father made the thing but other than that it does not look that much more impressive" The young half demon stated and Salijah walked over to make sure he was not gonna break the sword somehow.

"That is a crystal blade. So far the only ones that has managed to make it wake from it's slummer is those who wields dark magic" The older mage stated as Lux looked at him in confusion.

"The blade is made using a dark magic spell and smiting technique, or at least that is what the old chief's notes spoke on the matter. Without a written source from Sombra or a Tenebris before him we have no clear information on how to make more of them" He started and the half blood sat down (as did the other leaders) knowing a history lesson woven in with a magic lesson was about to begin.

"The blade itself is dull and heavy when in "hibernation". This means that anyone who is not supposed to use it physically cannot wield the blade. To wake the blade one must be a dark mage, and in this special blade's case be considered a Tenebris" The arch mage of Frigidum said and the teen listened to each word that came out of his mouth.

"The old chief was on very good terms with your father it seems, as he considered him family. That is the reason he could even use the blade to begin with" He continued and took the red crystalline sword from Lux's grasp.

"Once the blade recognizes both dark magic and Tenebris blood or honorary blood it will glow, weigh less and the dull edge becomes one of the most sharpest things in known world" Salijah finished and gave back the sword to Lux.

The young stallion immediately lit his horn and the heavy blade became light as a feather while the glowing started. He was in awe before trying to swing it, his peers backing off to not get their heads cut off. The half-breed looked at the blade seemingly cutting through the very magic in the air before Salijah cleared his throat.

"This sword is even more special however. There as a few known crystal weapons connected to the Tenebris family but this one is only mastered by the one who can say the phrase that made it" The mage explained and Lux once again looked at him in confusion.

"This blade, if one is to believe some of the older paper found in the chiefs collection, was made by uttering a phrase in old speech. This phrase is the key to unlocking the swords true potential and power. You can see it on the cross-guard, it's written in old speech but you should have no problem knowing your native language" The arch mage said and Zicra actually rolled his eyes at the other leader's remark.

Lux looked at the steel cross-guard and the words seemed to almost glow as he read them. Those glowing words seemed to light up the round war room and all papers within it as he read them in his mind. 'Yli Sol Draigen' was those words that made him feel like he held all the power in the world.

"Yli Sol Draigen!" He blurted out and the sword lit up like a beacon, the others in the room having to look away as the sword's blade seemed to have runes being burned into it.

"The sword used to have runes before the chief died. It lost them when the mad princess took his life" Zicra said as the runes were in demon tongue with it's earlier runes having been in basic tongue or old speech.

"It adapts to it's owner, it gives it's runes something that makes it clear who owns and use that blade. The shadow walker is the blades new owner and therefor can choose it's name" Salijah said and Lux looked at the glowing sword with the runes staying in their glowing golden form.

"Mercy" The young stallion said after a while and his demonic crow flew into the room from an opne window and landed on his head.

"What was that young one?" Serah asked him and Lux looked at them all as they eyed the sword as magic burned golden letters in old speech into the blade.

"I name it mercy, for that is the way I hope to take if I have a choice" He informed them and Draigh snorted.

"The kid wants the most ironic name in the world for a sword, bah" The grumpy old stallion muttered but the prince just ignored him.

"The blade has agreed with his choice and we will respect it" Salijah told the older warrior that just huffed in response.

Nathaniel poked the sword with his beak and was rewarded with the sword glowing brighter at where the bird had touched it. Lux found his companions actions funny and petted the crow before placing it on the table. He saw that all eyes were on the sword as the new words on it glowed a bright gold.

"misericordiae" The prince said as the sword once again glowed brightly, acknowledging it's name.

"Mercy it is" Zicra said and looked out the window at Frigidum, hoping that name would serve how Lux would handle battles.

Draigh handed him a sheet for the blade which he hanged from the saddle bags that was also given to him by Salijah. Both of them seemed to look differently at the sword. While Draigh saw it as a tool on the path to destroy the queen of the sun Salijah saw it as an item worth worship. Which way to see that was correct wasn't an easy question to answer, but Lux knew what he saw in the sword, himself and all those who had held it before him.

"Go and train with the blade in the outskirts, I will join you later" Draigh said before all bowed before the crystal prince who left the room in a hurry, wanting to see what the old blade could do.

The outskirts were the only place in the big forest except Frigidum that was safe for the dark mages or the zebra tribes. The small clearing among the tress had miniature poles like the ones protecting Frigidum all around it, using a powerful spell to hide it from the world around it.

If you walked by it wouldn't stand out as anything but a normal clearing in the woods you had no desire to visit (thanks to a spell from Salijah). But if you looked closer and manged to break through the hold this spell held over you then you would walk onto zebra training grounds.

The clearing was filled with training dummies, wooden swords as well as wooden shields along with a circle of runes to practice combat magic. These training grounds were special, not only because here they the trials of all to be warriors was carried out but it now held special environmental traps meant to mimic spells cast by Celestia's battle mages.

Those new additions had been mostly for him of course. His ability to teleport from shadow to shadow was something that made most obstacles obsolete. These runes where meant to force him away from the shadows of the walls and towards the middle where a fight could take place.

Yet even when a magic rune the size of two stallions exploded in his face he could often shake it off easily, quickly regaining his vision and being able to take a swing at his opponent. This was mostly because of the runes themselves not being meant to kill but rater to injure, meaning his evasion of those sorts of attacks had to become quicker.

But even in combat where he was injured from a rune only Draigh stood a chance against the fifteen-year old, his agility along with his wings or tentacles always overwhelmed his opponent. It would either end with all but one falling after a few blows from his sword.

Then again they might also give up early out of respect, the thought made him both annoyed and embarrassed. He hoped that he was just a skilled fighter and not a glorified prince of a dead empire. If the fighters he fought were actually yielding because they had not enough skill to counter his demonic abilities then he was glad.

But after he had knocked down the first opponents Draigh himself would face Lux and give him a run for his money. The young stallion knew that older warrior was the more experienced fighter but that didn't lessen the pain that came with each loss to him. It was always annoying that the old warrior could work past his defenses so quickly he often didn't last five minutes against him, with or without razor sharp tentacles and shadow jumping.

The thing he hated the most was the training with light magic domes. It was a glaring weakness for Lux that he could not call for his inherited powers when a dome of light magic surrounded him. Sure he could still cast spells that was not dark in nature like fireballs, but if he only relied on his abilities in battle and they were easily removed he would not stand a chance.

Because of that Draigh had forced Lux to learn how to fight while holding swords in his mouth. This was because of the possibility of Lux loosing his horn (something that made him shudder) and because very magic he used for most spells was tainted by his demonic blood.

It was way harder to fight with one's mouth then having a fluent relaxed magical grip on the handle but it was not impossible to use it that way. Most zebra warriors he faced was forced to use it that way and they did fine in battle. Of course they had to use it in that way while Lux subconsciously always tried to grip the blade with a magical grasp.

The prince just had a hard time learning this technique however, the sword always seemingly weighing down one side of his body as he moved with it. He had thought about using his wings to counteract this imbalance yet as his wings and tentacles were both partially magic and flesh it meant that half the time he would have them summoned and ready. This meant that if he wasn't ready when the dome would surround him he would have no chance.

This was quite the dilemma for the prince but it was not the only problem he faced as his slashes with the sword was always sluggish and slow, allowing his opponents the time to knock him down or push him back. Because of this he was training hard with Draigh and the other warriors to become a better fighter without using magic.

The young half-breed's martial arts skills were just sad, if one were to believe Draigh (which he did sadly). Without his tentacles to protect his back and keep enemies back or a sword to block incoming attacks Lux was helpless. The best he could do was to evade the attacks or run away.

If he was out into a hoof to hoof combat scenario he always lost, his smaller frame not helping him gain any advantages in the frenzy of combat. Those sorts of duels often ended with Lux face down in the dirt with a black eye and a grinning zebra warrior walking away to brag about his victory over the crystal prince.

Draigh had given him the basics in the art of close combat encounters without melee weapons but the young stallion had about the experience of a new initiate in Celestia's royal army. Which meant he was just shit at punching others. It was his weakness and the reason his personal armor had like ten different pockets for knives.

But he was not allowed to wear the the armor during the hoof to hoof combat training, meaning it often ended in him getting his ass handed to him by the other warriors. It was making him somewhat more of a capable fighter but it was a tough learning curve.

As he approached the outskirts he saw something that was strange, the spell that was keeping the place hidden was down and he could hear shouting and angry screaming. It was all the right signs for him to hide among the trees, teleporting to a shadow he could see in a high branch to get a look at the situation.

"Where are the rest of your tribe!? I know there is more than you five, so speak up!" The voice of a unicorn dressed in golden armor could be heard in the woods.

Lux looked and saw what was clearly a battle mage and four soldiers, a sweeping squad. Dammit! Ever since the dark mages of Equestria had started to seek refuge in Frigidum the squads sent to these woods had increased. The only reason they hadn't been found so far was because of Salijah's spell that made whoever looked at what the magic poles where hiding a huge disinterest of the place.

But he mage they had with them seemed to have been able to work around that spell and one up them all by tearing it down easily. This was a trained adversary and Lux had to be careful on how he handled this. Five warriors were currently bound with magical rings manifested from the unicorn's own horn.

The battle mage was a bulky stallion to say the least, his magic clearly not the only thing he could do. Lux knew that he could perhaps get the jump on them but that could still mean he endangered the warriors they had captured. He could wait for Draigh but who knew when the old stallion would come back from the leaders meeting.

No. He needed to do this himself and quickly. If he just waited around they might kill or torture his fellow fighters and he would not stand for that. With that thought he dropped down and walked slowly towards the training grounds, unsheeting Mercy without a second thought.

The prince spoke the old speech phrase and then the swords name, the blade shining like the sun with the runes that glowed upon it. He felt that rush of power again and grinned, his tentacles summoned and ready to cover his flank in the heat of battle.

"I'm gonna ask one more time before I start killing you! Where are the others of your tribe!?" The mage screamed into one of the zebra warriors stoic faces.

"They didn't think you were worth wasting time on, so they sent me instead" Lux said, appearing behind the four soldiers that had guarded the mage's rear.

The response came almost instantly, the four soldiers turning around to cut the prince down only for him to disappear again, a swirl of black smoke where he once stood. The soldiers and the mage looked around in panic and in confusion before Lux once again reappeared next to the the soldiers, cutting the spear one of them was holding in half before he hit the pony in the head with Mercy's pommel.

The battle mage screamed in anger and let loose a beam of light magic at the prince, sending him backwards onto the dirt, leaving skid-marks in his wake. The half-breed could barely get up before the five enemies rushed him, the three soldiers with working spears all tried to stab at him only for his tentacles to grip the shaft of the long ranged melee weapons, breaking them.

"Demon!" The pony mage said and once again sent a blast at Lux, the bright beam of magic flying at him with incredible speed.

The crystal prince held up his sword and the beam was deflected, the runes and blade glowing brightly as the beam hit the ground instead. The young stallion took this opportunity to slash out at one of the soldiers, the blade piercing his armor and the enemy backing off with a limp as blood poured out of his chest.

The other four opponents were not gonna wait for Lux to cut them down and they all tried to hit him with their hooves or spells, the stallions sheer size making it hard for him to avoid all their attacks. It ended with him blocking another spell from the battle mage but one of the other stallions punching him across the jaw, sending him flying to the side.

He was stunned for a moment which gave the mage enough time to hit him square in the chest with one of his spells, Lux flying back into a boulder used during combat scenarios. The impact forced the air out of his lungs and the patch of skin and fur the spell had hit looked burnt.

Before he could get up the battle mage put up a dome of light magic around them, Lux feeling his own magic suppressed. He couldn't loose Mercy now, without a weapon he only had his hooves and now much weaker tentacles. It would be his death if he had to fight hoof to hoof.

The prince got up and spat some blood on the ground before the four stallions advanced on him, he needed to take out their mage first if he was to stand a chance against them all. Knowing this made the young stallion walk cautiously around them before one of the soldiers pounced on him, hoping to catch him off guard.

The fraction of a second Lux had to react to the stallion coming towards him was enough to instinctively toss Mercy at the soldier, the crystal sword flying through the air before piercing the stallion's chest, sending him crashing down onto the ground. He was dead.

Lux hadn't time to contemplate his first real kill, if he had his mind would probably have had somewhat of a breakdown. The young stallion didn't have time to think about it however, the sword laying under the dead body, trapped by the dead stallion's weight.

'Shit..' Lux thought before another punch forced him to back off, the three stallions that could still fight had decided that now was the moment to strike and they all fell upon him, the half-breed ducking under some of the hits but many hitting him.

After a while Lux stumbled and fell to the ground, a swift kick to his side making him wheeze out in pain before the mage picked him up with a golden aurora, glaring at him. The half demon hoped that they would make it quick, he'd rather not die by being tortured to death.

That is when one of his very tired tentacles gripped something, one of the broken spear shafts he had destroyed earlier. Knowing that this was the only chance he got the young stallion swung the broken spear at the mage's horn, the spear tip wedging itself into the unicorn's horn.

The battle mage screamed in pain as his horn cracked, the dome dropping and the once bound Zebra warriors were free. The prince used his sharp tentacle to cut of the Mage's horn entirely before he dropped to the ground, his vision blurry as he could see in the distant how the zebra warriors quickly overpowered the soldiers who were still standing.

Lux got up and with all his magical strength he pulled out Mercy from the dead stallions chest and he limped over to the soldier he had cut across the chest, his yellow eyes glowing with anger as he held his blade at the stallion's throat. He knew that a simple slash would be enough and that the soldier would be dead, just a simple slash.

"Do it you fucker.." His opponent spat out and his own glare met Lux's, both of them never letting the other stop watching.

After a while Lux, took a deep breath and let go of his anger for now. This stallion might have information they needed, mercy was the way to go when you were given a choice. His buddy hadn't given him a choice when he jumped Lux but this stallion wasn't in any shape to attack him again.

The crystal prince lowered his blade and sheeted it, walking away to lean at one of the training dummies as he could see Draigh coming runnig in the distance. He hoped the blade master had a very good reason for being this late. If he didn't Lux would gladly reshape his face with his tentacles.

Of course that would not happen as the young stallion stumbled before darkness greeted him, his body to tired to keep pushing itself had forced him to pass out. The zebra warriors decided to move the prince using a wagon, hoping that they could get him to the healers as soon as possible. The injures he had taken weren't lethal, but they were still pretty bad.

Two days later

Zicra had gathered Salijah, Ridrak, Draigh and Serah to disuses what they were to do with the prisoners and what to do next. Prince Luxri had yet to wake up from the ordeal and so far the light magic spell he had been hit with was making it hard for the healers to work on him.

The effects of the spell had been to supress a demons natural ability to heal quickly, something the crown prince had only inherited parts off. He did heal faster than the average pony or zebra but it didn't mean he healed after one day of rest. The healers had said he needed at least a week before he could get out of the bed, and even more than that if the light magic spell kept him from healing properly.

The pink striped stallion sighed before he turned away from the window that overlooked Frigidum and he walked up to the round war table, the outskirts now marked with a red 'X' as to make it clear the clearing could not be used again by anyone in the city.

"They are coming to close. If they could find the training grounds with a good mage they WILL find our city sooner or later" Draigh said and Serah nodded.

"My scouts are now more on guard but I agree. We are running out of time. We need at least five more years to complete Luxri's training if we want him to face Celestia as prepared as possible, but we don't have years. We have months at tops, if not weeks" The leader of the Orgamia tribe sighed and the others agreed with their own mumbles.

"The shadow walker is not ready to face the queen of light. He barely walked away from a battle with a mage and four soldiers. If he battles with Celestia he will die" Slaijah told them all and Zicra nodded.

"Why didn't he just cast a spell? He relied on his demonic abilities even when he knows he shouldn't do that. If he's this reckless he might die the next time some medium skilled mage finds him" Ridrak said.

"The kid knows how to use his abilities and blade in combat. It's what I've trained with him to do. Yet he needs to incorporate other attacks and spells into his fighting style, I agree" Draigh muttered and sat down on one of the chairs.

After a few more observations the leaders decided to get what info they could from the prisoners before sending them as gift to the succubi hive in the east. They didn't have the resources to keep prisoners and to just kill them when they could use them to get favors was wasteful.

The battle mage's horn would grown back eventually yet that would take years, meaning that the succubi would have plenty of time to make him one of their many mates. The same went for the three other stallions. It would gain them favor with the powerful demonesses and get the prisoners out of their mane without having to slit their throats.

Of course some saw it as almost a reward for the soldiers to be given to the lust demons but Zicra quickly reminded them that the soldiers would loose most of their own free will and thoughts inside the hive, meaning their punishment was to become husks of their former selves. With that out of the way Zicra continued the conversation about Lux.

"We need to speed up the training. I will give him a few more lessons in history and basic math. But we have had ten years to prepare him, let's use what time we have left to make sure he knows the theory of what we have taught him and that he learns more advanced combat tactics" Zicra ordered and the other leaders nodded before most of them walked away.

"The young half-blood knows the basics of enchanting. But I will have to replace that with more combat spells and wards. If he are to survive he needs all the protection he can get" Salijah told Zicra who looked at the pillars protecting the city.

"Increase the spells power if you can. We need to buy ourselves some time if we are to last for at least a few months. His sixteenth birthday is coming closer and closer. If we are to train him we need to have him ready before then" The zebra stallion said.

"You know that is impossible chief.." Salijah told him and the pink striped zebra sighed.

"I know my friend.. I know.." H e answered before looking over Frigidum with a grim expression.

One day later

Lux was woken up by Blissful giving him a hug and the warriors around the healers wing cheering for their crown prince. The half-breed just felt like shit and requested his friend to stop hugging him before he threw him out a window, something a few stallions chuckled at.

Bliss helped him stand after some time and he was grateful for the help, even if he felt a bit weak for limping past the warriors who didn't even flinch when they broke a bone. It was at least not as bad as it could have been. He had seen some of those warriors who lost their eyes to timber wolves and the such.

As the two younger stallions walked out of the healers wing Bliss decided to lead Lux to the hot-springs that had been artificially created by some of the mages that lived in the small city. The two friends easily got into the warm water after being allowed in for free (the perks with being royalty) and they both gave off a relaxed sigh.

"So how did you loose? I heard they kicked your ass so hard the blade master had to drag you back here" Blissful Dreams said with a grin to his best friend who groaned in response.

"They used all my weakness against me ok? But I came out on top in the end, you know, as I cut of that mage's horn" Lux responded with a small smirk.

"They said you fought like a beast at first before they beat you into the ground. So what? You just decided that tearing their heads off was to easy for you? It had to be a hard fight?" Bliss asked and the crown prince shook his head.

"No, it was more that I saw a quick chance to throw them off balance by using the shadows. After that I basically went with instinct, which did me both good and bad" He said with a grimace as he looked at his reflection, a scar at the side of his left eye.

"I'm lucky they didn't blind me considering how hard they hit" He murmured and his friend gave his front leg a light punch.

"You beat them in the end, so see it as a victory. Use that head of yours and actually remember that you can use spells in the next fight and you'll crush your opponents" Blissful told him before bringing over a bowl of peanuts from the side using his magic.

"Yeah you're probably right" Lux said and leaned back before he got up, summoning his wings.

"I need to go see mom, she must be angry I didn't go to her right away" The young stallion said before he flew up into the air and away from the hot-springs, heading towards his mother's house.

As he landed in front of the building with a strained grunt he limped into the home, his mother already embracing him the second he walked through the door. Her hug felt nice after having been in a coma for three days and her worried mesh of words made him smile.

"I'm better mom I promise. It just hurts a bit to walk" He said as the older mare looked over the scar by his eye, growling for herself.

"Those sons of bitches are lucky I have a son to take care of or they would be pudding by now" Autumn spat and Lux chuckled at his mother's choice of words.

"Can we just make something simple to lunch? Squirrel or hare sounds nice after being asleep for three days" He said and the golden maned mare nodded, walking to the kitchen to make her son a strengthening meal.

Lux was given his new schedule for classes by a mail pony just before Autumn finished up the meal. The young stallion was surprised to find that most classes were now gonna be either combat or magic oriented. The attack must have spurred this on, which didn't surprise him at all.

After making sure he understood the new schedule the half-breed joined his mom to eat lunch, she eating a salad while he ate his meat along with some carrots. She was used to the smell of meat these days and she didn't flinch as her son ate the dead animal.

They both spoke about little thing throughout the meal, Autumn questioning Lux about his studies and him turning the question around to ask her about some new weird plants she had put in her garden. The conversation would go on for a few hours before Lux hugged his mother and left for the town hall to study some magic.

Next time he would be prepared. Next time he would not be beaten easily by some soldiers. He was the crystal prince for crying out loud, he needed to be strong and powerful if he ever was to face Celestia. Lux knew that he would try even harder now to live up to the expectations that was put on him. He would not fail his people. He would protect them and this city. He was their warrior of shadow, time to prove himself as one.

Author's Note

Thank you so much for reading chapter nine :twilightsmile: I am one step closer to chapter ten and those edits and rewrites I so often speak about. It's a funny thing how I notice that I've evolved quite a bit since the first chapter I wrote over two years ago. I notice I'm better with grammar and that my story isn't a wall of text anymore.

Wait.. Two years since I wrote the first chapter and I'm not even at chapter ten yet. Awwwww FUUUUUUUUUU this is gonna take some time :twilightsheepish:

Anyway, thanks for reading and possibly leaving a review.

Chapter ten: Fall Of Frigidum

Lux raised his sword and blocked the other blade Draigh swung at him, the sixteen year old pushing his tentacles into the ground to jump back from the older stallion. He grinned at the other pony and swirled Mercy before he thrust the crystal sword at the blade master who parried it easily.

Draigh ran towards him and aimed for his neck, twirling his head back to gain momentum. The half demon quickly ducked under the sword and uppercut the older stallion who was forced to back off, giving Lux a nod of respect for his quick relfexes.

The younger stallion enjoyed these training battles, they always tested how much he had learnt and he had a chance to show off to the mares watching the training grounds from higher up in the dome. It was always a bit of fun knocking someone down and flashing the girls a smile. Of course it often lead to one of his opponents punching him across the face but he could take it.

"You need to disarm me kid, how would you do that?" Draigh asked and planted the his blade into the soft soil below them.

"I would hit the blade from behind. Hitting the front will only push you back and it won't loosen the grip your mouth has on the sword. But hitting it from behind will make you loose that grip and leave you defenseless" The prince said and the blade master nodded.

"Show me then" He said and picked up the sword with his mouth, tilting his head back for the best way to swing.

The half-breed grinned and summoned his wings before he flew up into the air, using the planets gravity to bring him down and deliver a hard blow at the older stallion's blade. Draigh blocked it but was pushed back for a second, allowing Lux to continue his strikes.

The sixteen year-old never let up his assault, waiting for the perfect moment to disarm the blade master. Of course that moment didn't come by itself, he was forced to push the zebra stallion against a wall before he lashed back, the half demon slid under the blade and then delivered a back swing at Draigh.

The zebra blade master's sword went flying into the air and Lux grinned, holding Mercy to his throat. This was a moment of triumph, he had beat his teacher fair and square. Then again, his teacher was fifty-seven, so the fact he was still willing to train with him or the fact that he still could was in itself amazing.

"Good job kid, you are quick on your hooves and your strikes are powerful" Draigh said as Lux lowered the red blade.

"But you still don't protect your stomach in the air. If I decide to suddenly shot a spell at you the crystal blade might not absorb it. So if you jump up into the air use Mercy both as a shield and sword, or you actually use one of those shield spells Salijah forced you to learn" The blade master said and the prince groaned.

"I need to focus really hard to maintain a shield like that, especially if it's a bubble shield!" The young stallion complained and Draigh rolled his eyes.

"You are to impatient then? Should I tell our arch mage to put meditation on the schedule?" The old stallion asked the crown prince who's eyes widened.

"No need! I'll focus! Please don't tell him to do that! It is so freaking boring Draigh!" Lux whined and the stallion chuckled.

"Fine, go and practice some magic we're done for today anyway" He said before leaving Lux to clean up and get to the library.

As Lux left the dome like building and walked back into the town hall he headed to his private room first, using a wet towel to clean himself off. He looked at his yellow eyes in the mirror and he grinned, looking over his body. The prince had built muscle during the years he had been training and he knew the mares liked what they saw.

Lux and Bliss had both been trying to get a marefriend for a long time, neither of them succeeding at their quest for tail. The prince assumed that they would have no problems with finding mares but even with all the flirts they gave during his sparring seasons they all played hard to get. It was annoying both him and Blissful.

So far Lux had met ONE mare that was actually responding to his attempts of courting, but then again that zebra unicorn might be after the queen title more than him. The thought made his ears fall before he shock it off, it was his charm she had fallen for, not a crown he was yet to wear.

With more happier thoughts of a possible marefriend Lux walked out of his room and headed to the library across the hall, his horn lightning up as two mages guarding the entrance bowed for him. He have them a nod before heading towards Salijah's desk in the back of the library.

He wondered if the mage had found some new way to improve the spell that hid the city from the outside world, it was the one thing keeping Frigidum safe from Celestia and her army. Yet knowing the arch mage he could very well be meditating instead.

The mage was looking over a long iron staff with a golden ball at the end of it. The entire thing was covered in runes and it seemed to have been made by very skilled hooves. If Lux didn't know better he would say that the staff was Salijah's masterpiece, but he knew the older mage had more skill than most in him.

"Shadow walker, do you know how the most powerful weapons are made?" He asked the half-breed as he put down the staff.

"No, not really. I get that many of them are infused with magic which grants them power but you haven't really gone into details on how one powers those weapons for a long time" Lux responded and Salijah nodded.

"The powerful enchanted weapons are infused with soul or souls from sentient beings. This is what gives them so much power and why the weapons at times seems to have a mind of their own" The mage told the prince.

"How.. How do you even infuse something with a soul?" He asked Salijah who put away the staff.

"It's a hard and long process Lux. It requires one to bind a soul, something that deserves rest, to an object for all eternity. It is technically outlawed but that doesn't mean that all creatures will refrain from doing it. The gryphons will stop honoring their greatest warriors by putting their soul into a weapon before they die" The zebra said and the stallion nodded.

"So Mercy has souls in it?" The half demon asked and looked at his blade, a bit unsure about using dead ponies for power.

"One soul, Yes. It was of a dragon if I remember correctly, which is why the sword is even more important. That soul gives the weapon a personality fit for war and fighting, something that really helps once you can achieve complete focus in combat" Salijah stated.

Lux thought about it and looked at his sword, the blade glowing softly. This meant he veiled a former dragon, he almost bowed for the sword before shrugging of the feeling. This dragon had for some reason wound up in a crystal sword and that was that, if there was a way to speak with the soul Salijah would have already went over that.

"Celestia's war-hammer, dawn-breaker, has over five unknown souls in it. To infuse that much power into a weapon the thing has to be made out of sky metal or red crystal" The zebra said and pointed to the blade in Lux's magical grip.

"Go and train with some of your combat spells in the woods shadow walker, we have made sure to have scouts nearby these days so no more guards can surprise us. Just make sure to keep the timber wolves off our territory. they stole your meat supply again" The mage mused and the young stallion saw red for a second before stepping into a shadow.

The prince appeared up in a tree, the shadow of the branches having allowed him to teleport there easily. The blue rune on the trunk behind him reminded him of his limited power, the thing acting like a one ticket way gateway if he concentrated enough on the memory of where it was.

Yet he did not know how his magic teacher made them, the runes easily enough to draw but never responding to being filled with mana. After he had been annoyed by the old stallion's secrets he had asked him how one made the rune only for Salijah to say a weird quote. "My secrets are my kingdom. For each one I reveal the more holes appear in the castle gate"

Lux liked Salijah, yet he was always so vauge it hurt his mind. At times the zebra stallion made perfect sense and at other times he spoke like he knew some truth other ponies couldn't see. It was driving the half breed mad if he were to be honest with himself.

He was gonna keep loosing himself in though until his sensitive hearing picked up on movement further away in the forest. He unfolded his wings and sailed through the air towards the noise, his magic ready to draw the now sheeted Mercy at any time.

As Lux finally arrived at the origin of the noise he saw an earth pony stallion yelling at a pack of timer wolves. The creatures had pushed the stallion against a large tree with no way out. He was to become their next dinner if no one did anything about it.

Should he intervene? He risked Frigidum's safety if he saved the pony, and he would never forgive himself if something bad happened to the city. But could he really leave an innocent to die when he had a chance to save him? What was the right thing to do and what was the safe thing to do?

Deciding in a split second Lux stepped between the stallion and the timber wolves, growling loudly and flaring his wings as his sharp teeth showed. This caused the timber wolves to stop dead in their tracks and look at the half demon, eyeing him with caution before they slowly backed away, not wanting to met their end on that day.

"Thank you kindly sir! I thought I was gonna meet my maker!" The stallion said from behind the half breed who turned around and looked at him with curiosity.

The stranger's coat was a dull grey and his mane was a strong red. His blue eyes stood out on him as he eyed Lux with slight fear. The crown prince's red horn, yellow eyes, purple haze and dragon wings scaring him. They should, they weren't there for show.

"Who are you?" Luxri asked him before eyeing the woods for more ponies to barge in.

"Name's Silver Sweep sir" The earth pony said and walked closer to Lux who eyed him.

"Why are you so deep in the woods Silver? Don't you know demons posses these trees?" He said with a slight smirk.

One of the many rumors of the forest Frigidum laid in was that demons possessed anyone brave enough to enter. It didn't keep the soldiers away but it did keep any adventurous villagers out of harms way, or at least until Silver Sweep had walked into them.

"I do not believe in such things young sir" The stallion started before looking over Lux.

"But it's never to late to change ones mind" He then added with a mumble.

Lux looked at the stallion with a coy smile, almost wanting force some made up story down his throat to explain everything. Yet what was the point, he had already seen Lux's wings and other weird looking body parts. Lying wouldn't gain him nothing, if anything it might make Silver Sweep run off.

"I'm.. Styx" Lux said with a smile and looked at the stallion.

The stallion had a silver mane and tail with a white coat to top it off, his cutie mark being a silver brush cleaning a pendant. He seemed to be a cleaner of silver objects then? It seemed strange to have that as procession but who was he to judge, he had enough dark magic in his spit to make his mother feel weird around him.

"Ahh, an old name then. From the time before the queen? Correct?" Silver asked him and Lux nodded, the name having poped up in his mind.

Styx was an old zebrikan legend, a god of darkness and shadows. Zicra had spoken about the name like they should fear it, like just saying it might make the god appear. They had even a few zebras in Frigidum worshiping Lux, thinking he was the reincarnation of the old god.

While the half demon did find it a bit funny that they worshiped him like a god like being it was getting old. He could take them bowing, his title basically required them to do so, but he would not accept crude statues of him stashed on his poor mother's front door. They had a box for offerings in town hall for a reason!

Huffing at the thoughts Lux turned his attention back to Silver Sweep wondering what he was supposed to do. Sure he could kidnap him, but then what? He most likely lived in one of the many villages surrounding the forest, taking him would only lead to search parties, they couldn't handle a possible battle mage among them.

"Are you ok young sir?" The white coated stallion asked him and Lux nodded.

"Yes just lost in thought" He said with a small smile.

"Where do you live Silver?" The crown prince asked and the stallion pointed west.

"In the small village of Manehattan. Yet with the amount of ponies coming to settle down there we'll be a town soon" The silver maned stallion chuckled.

"I see" Was Lux response before noticing a zebra scout in a tree, aiming a crossbow at Silver.

"I think it's time you head home Mr Silver, it was nice meeting you but I have to return to my.. tree" Lux said and the stallion nodded, shaking his hoof.

"Thank you once again Styx, if you're ever in Manehattan just ask for me and I'll have a bed for you" Silver Sweep said before walking away, muttering something about how fascinating it was that demons lived in trees.

Lux smiled as the stallion disappeared among the trees, having made a new friend. Wait.. He had made contact with the outside world! Fuck yeah! He met a stallion that could help him win over one of Celestia's villages! Blissful was gonna be so pissed he had manged to gain new allies before him.

The zebra scout landed with a soft 'thud' looking at Lux with anger and fear. His two green eyes were trained to detect most things in the woods and because of that they were flicking away from the grey furred colt in front of him every other second. His striped wings twitched nervously as he eyed the path Silver Sweep had taken.

"You just risked Frigidum's safety! Why did you intervene!?" The zebra Pegasus huffed and strapped the crossbow to his side.

"Wait.. Were you just watching him!? Is that how we do things!? We just leave ponies to die!?" The half-breed stallion said loudly and the scout growled.

"If it keeps Frigidum safe? Yes! If it's between one random stallion and my people? Then yes! I'd gladly watch them get ripped apart if it means my family lives through another day. Now get back, I'll have Zicra beat you for this. Fucking idiot.. We'll have to deploy scouts in the edges of the forest now" The scout huffed.

"You don't hold and power over me! You can't order me what to do!" The younger stallion screamed.

"Not out here! There is no crystal crown! No crystal throne! You are not of age and therefor as your elder I ORDER you to return to Frigidum" The zebra stallion growled and after a long starring contest Lux looked away.

"Fine" He said and unfolded his wings, flying towards the tree he had arrived by.

His thoughts were a bit of a mess now. He was angry that they easily left ponies behind to die, it angered him that the scout thought he could't keep Frigidum safe, it angered him that he had four more years left to study for a battle he really didn't think he could win.

He had to win right? He couldn't loose, if he did he would loose his home. No! He would not let Celestia hurt those he cared about. He had been born to avenge his father, he had been born to take back his mother's home, he had been born to win over the evil queen of the sun. He would not fail, he would fight.

~Autumn's POV~

Autumn Wheat looked over the small city with a smile on her face as she tended to the flowers in the study room's windows. The mare's golden mane and tail still held their youthful shine after all these years and her soft brown coat was covered in a few patches of dirt from earlier garden work.

She was proud with the small garden she had manged to grow during the years, the side of her house having a patch of land filled with strange flowers and plants. Many of the flowers were gifts from the scouting squad or newly arrived dark mages. It surprised her that ponies still came here after all this time.

As the mare eyed her garden she noticed a flower with red petals and a black stem and white roots. The small thing was a called "demon cherry" and she knew why, the flower producing a red berry among it's petals. She had tasted the berry a few years ago, a sour thing, said to give a pony more energy. Yet she had only been sent into a deep hallucination by the thing, not gained more energy to work more. Lux liked them though, the berry not affecting his mind in any way, he even found it sweet.

As the mare walked around her home she looked at the chest stashed away in her small office. The box containing some of the last things she had left of the crystal empire and her diaries. Yet in the bottom one could also find the old book on dark magic, hidden away for safe keeping.

She had no idea how long it was since Lux (even if he was not allowed to) or herself opened it. The runes in the book had helped her with many things in the house but she actually needed a horn to use most of the spells in the book. Or at least she thought so, Salijah's uncanny ability to suddenly pop up out of nowhere was strange. So was his ability to make random things flout.

As she pondered on how the zebra stallion could do all the things that made him a mage Autumn heard the door downstairs open and closing with a large bang. She could feel her son's anger and frustration from miles away, but when he actually was in the house it was almost overwhelming.

"I'm home mom" Was the only thing her little light (not that little anymore, he was a tiny bit taller than her) said before the mare heard him enter his room.

The mother of the crystal empire's crown prince sighed and hoped her son would talk to her about what had happened. He could be very quiet when he wanted to be and his anger resembled that of his father, or rather his spiritual father. How did demons even pass on their genes once they possessed someone?

It would take Lux a hour of pondering before he walked out of his room (it's walls painted black like he liked it and the corners stashes with weapons) and confronted his mother. His twitching wings and smaller haze had been enough for her to know he was in a bad mood. His yellow eyes seemed to search for something in her eyes before he spoke.

"I saved a pony today, out in the woods" Her son said, his voice holding a hint of uncertainty.

Autumn did a spit take upon hearing that. It was not often she heard from the guards about what Luxri did in the woods but to hear that he had risked the safety of the city? The mere thought of having the queen of Sol on their trail again was enough to make her shiver.

"Lux, you know very well why you cannot do something like that! It puts the entire city at risk! We need to remain hidden for a little while longer or everything we have built during these last sixteen years have been for nothing!" Autumn said loudly to her son who folded his ears against his head.

"I just couldn't let him die mother.. What kind of pony would I be if I could simply walk away and let someone who needed my help die?" Luxri muttered and looked at the floor.

"I understand, you are a good stallion son and that is not a bad thing. But the city must come first, your people must come first" The mare said and nuzzled his head.

"What happens if I fail mom?" Lux asked and looked at his mother with tear filled eyes, reaching out for some type of hope for this great task.

"You won't fail Lux, you won't fail" She said and hugged him close, knowing full well what awaited them if her son could not beat the queen of the sun.

Queen Celestia POV

The white alicorn mare looked into the mirror with a small grin, the lavish silver crown on her head reflecting s bit of sunlight onto the mirror. It was made up a silver ring made to fit her head with blue gems building up three spikes from her front head, giving her the appearance of having three extra horns.

The regalia she wore around her chest was made from silver and gold, the two metals having been mixed expertly by a gryphon smith. The piece resembled a dragon's head, yet it was flat enough to not be in the way during court or battle. The white cape that was attached to the chest piece hang below her flank and sides, covering her sun cutie mark. The solar mare's mane and tail was bound together in pony tails by using white ribbons and her lips was a plumb red.

All in all she looked good, very good even. The queen knew that she could get any stallion she wanted, or mare for that matter. They'd happily eat her out or lay there and take whatever perverted spell her dirty mind could think about. She licked her lips and looked back at the bound stallion on the bed, both gaged and blinded using a piece of cloth.
'
Celestia giggled and walked over to him, her hooves making a gentle clicking sound on the marble floor as she walked over. The stallion had a grey mane and white coat with a cutie mark showing a spell tome. He heard her approach and groaned out something into the gag, making the monarch giggle.

This dark mage was special, one of the few she had taken from the pens before execution. His blue irises had caught her eye and she had gladly taken him as a pet. The young stallion had not had much to say about the decision and simply followed her back to the castle.

When her guards questioned why she had taken the stallion she had simply said that she would purify him, and they had believed her! By Faust she loved being queen. But there had been another reason she had taken this young steed, a currently very hard reason.

The stallion moaned in pleasure as her golden aurora wrapped around his throbbing leaking member, making the appendage spurt out more pre. She just smiled at the sight, the cock putting most stallions she had laid with to shame. He was her pet now, a little dark mage ready to please her in any way she wanted. Celestia did love those mind breaking spells as well, it made getting willing mates so much easier.

Her royal bedchambers were probably one of the most lavish rooms in the castle. She had a wall with several compartments for gold filled chests, her own personal share out of the royal treasury. The only window in the room was one of the walls, overlooking her white and gleaming city. The bed she had her moaning pet tied to was large and had red sheets over it with a small roof above it. From the bed's roof drapes hung to be used for privacy or to keep the early morning sun away.

Her pet groaned in frustration as she blew a husky breath over his throbbing member, having been teased for hours. Yet it was time to end his suffering as she slowly but surely took him inside her mouth, making the young stallion throw his head back and buck up into her mouth. The solar monarch greedily sucked on her treat like it was a lollipop, swirling her tongue around the tip before wrapping it around his member.

Celestia's ministrations continued for several minutes before listening to the whines and shaky breaths coming from her plaything, he was close. She grinned and blew another breath over his cock before letting her tongue slowly drag over his member, the rune glowing on her wet tongue slowly but surely driving him towards the edge.

When her tongue finally touched the tip of his cock the stallion threw his head back and screamed in pleasure as his body spasmed under the intense orgasm tearing through him. His member delivered load after load of warm cum over Celestia's face and his own stomach, making the alicorn mare moan softly.

The erotic moment was interrupted by a female guard walking into the room, freezing up in shock at the cum covered face of her monarch. For a moment the mare just stood there and stared at Celestia before the solar queen finally broke the silence.

"If you don't want to join him for the next five hours of rough fucking I suggest you leave" She said and her pet whimpered at the thought of five hours of fun.

"T-They have found signs of the missing mages my queen. There has been demon reports coming from the hollow forest" The mare whimpered out and Celestia froze before cleaning herself of with a towel, releasing the stallion from the ropes binding his back and front legs to the bed.

"Summon captain Blood and all my guards, we are going to wipe those fucking degenerates out once and for all" The white alicorn mare growled and quickly walked away from her room with the guard running of to gather a small army.

Celestia was marching for Frigidum.

Lux's POV

"You understand that we need to do this without anything going wrong right?" The half demon asked his half zebra friend who grinned back at him.

"Trust me, we will have a herd in no time if we find Salijah's personal spell book" Blissful said as the two young stallions walked through the library.

"Is this really important Bliss? I'm already having shit thrown at me by Draigh for saving that pony last week, I don't need the arch mage to banish me while we're at it" Lux told his friend who punched his side.

"Relax, this will be easy. We'll just use your shadow teleportation thingy and take the book that way. Once we have written down a few lust spells no mare will be safe from us!" The other stallion said with an exaggerated evil laugh to which the crown prince rolled his eyes.

Once the two stallions reached the end of the town hall library (which was empty thanks to the late hours) they saw the the door leading to Salijah's personal collection was locked. Then again, they had expected this, one of them having brought a book on lock picking spells.

"Ok so concentrate on the lock.." Bliss mumbled for himself as his horn lit up, making the keyhole on the door glow.

"Hurry up, he had an uncanny ability of just showing up" The prince mumbled to his friend who nodded and soon the door was unlocked, allowing them to enter the room.

The room was a section of the library no one but Salijah had access to, holding the most rare of tomes and magical artifacts. Lux had been in here before to borrow books on dark magic but he had never stayed long, the zebra mage's eyes always looking at him with such intensity that he felt the need to hold the handle of Mercy.

While Luxri was put on guard duty over the door Bliss looked over the tomes on the shelves, looking for one with a succubus crest on it. It took the young half zebra over twenty minutes to find the damn book but when he brought it back to Lux the half demon couldn't help but feel excitement.

"With this we'll be having any mare in the city, just look at the spells in this thing!" Blissful Dreams said and flipped open a page which showed how to make oneself produce heavy amounts of phermones.

"Are you sure Salijah won't see it's missing? I mean, I borrowed a book and he got mad when I didn't return it the next day" The dark mage said and grabbed a dark magic book from the shelf with his magic, the very thick tome reminding him of the book back at his mother's house.

"Eh, he's to busy with the barrier to care these days" The zebra said and looked out the window, his eyes widening.

"What? Bliss what are you seeing?" Lux asked and walked up to stand next to his friend to spot something horrible, the barrier hiding the city was gone.

All of the pillars that normally shielded Frigidum from the outside world was burning, like someone had lit the magic within them on fire and let it burn to the ground. Screams and the sounds of zebras running towards the pillars could be heard everywhere and one emotion rolled through both of them, fear.

"I need to find father. Now." Bliss said with a serious tone and dropped the tome on lust spells, Lux catching it.

"I'll need to get mother away from the city center, she's to close to the pillars" The half demon said and whistled, his demonic crow flying out from the shadows and landing on his head.

"Find mom, now" He said and the bird nodded, flying out an open window towards the square.

With both having clear objectives Lux and Bliss ran out from the library (the prince carrying the two tomes protectively). Bliss headed towards the fire while Lux summoned his wings and flew towards his mother's house, his mental connection with the crow telling him she was still inside.

Once he touched down on the porch Lux stormed into the house to find his mother downstairs, packing the chest she stored keepsakes in, the book of dark magic being one of them. Lux placed the two new books down into the chest and she packed them without thinking, putting the chest on a rune drawn on the floor, a blue barrier forming around the chest thanks to it.

"Now it'll be safe from the fire, if there is one.." His mother mumbled and looked at him with fear and sadness.

"Mom what is going on? What happened to the pillars?" Lux asked and Autumn looked out the window, her eyes filled with dread.

"The queen of Sol, has arrived" She said as the great gates around the city exploded with balls of fire.

Zicra POV

The zebra stallion hit the ground with a scream of pain his held his hooves over his face, the left side of his face having been burnt badly by the explosion. His fur was black at a few places from the ash and smoke while his left eye had problems seeing. He got up with a groan as his ears adapted to the sounds around him, the screams of battle everywhere.

How had this happened? The pillars had caught fire for no reason before the first wave of soldiers had rushed into the city. Any civilian that had been the way had been cut down by the soldiers, the zebra having to avert his eyes from a dead foal. The leader of Frigidum picked up the sword he dropped when the gate blew and looked at the scouts and warriors defending the broken gate, ponies clad in golden armor rushing in.

With all four gates broken the soldiers stormed into the city without problems, the warriors being overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. Zicra had been leading a team to reactivate the pillars when the gate blew, separating him from the others. Now the buildings across Frigidum was catching on fire, the bell on top of the town-hall sounding out an alarm to the entire city.

They would need to evacuate the civilians while they still could, but that meant breaking through the enemy presence at one of the gates. He would need to gather as many warriors as possible and redirect all citizens to the river, they could get away there.

His thoughts was interrupted as he suddenly saw a unicorn rush him through the smoke, the zebra racing his blade to block the incoming strike. The two blades met and created a line of sparks through the air before the unicorn was suddenly sent flying, Blissful running after the downed unicorn and ending him with a swift stab through the pony's chest.

"What are you doing here!? You were supposed to be with your mother!!!" Zicra yelled and threw his sword at a pegasus who flew over the gate, hitting the mares stomach and seeing her drop out of the sky.

"She's the one who ordered me to come get you!" The younger half breed said as zebra warriors rushed the northern gate only for a great white beam to tear through them all, turning most to ash.

The leader of the hidden city looked at the gate in horror before pushing Blissful towards the middle of the city. Celestia was here! They needed more time but here she was, ready to kill every last one of them. He needed to get Blissful and Lux away from the city before she found them.

"Go to your mother! Find Lux and Autumn as well! I need you to get to the southern gate! The warriors will gather there to help you escape!" Zicra said as he saw Salijah stand on one of the rooftops, glaring into the fire that covered the northern gate.

"What about you!? I'm not gonna leave you with her!" The young stallion said and pointed a hoof at the large body coming towards them through the fire.

"Yes you will! Go! NOW!" Zicra said and pushed his son out of the way as another white beam tore through the house next to them, sending the building down between father and son.

"Dad!" Bliss screamed but the zebra ignored his cries turning to look upon the solar monarch. She was wearing a red and white armor that covered most of her body, the helmet on her head looking to be made out of crystal. So it had come to this? Fine, he was not gonna back down.

Celestia veiled a large white and gold war-hammer, the large thing meant to overpower more than to be an elegant weapon. Saliajh jumped down from the roof with his staff, landing by slamming its end into the ground, creating a great shock-wave.

"Leave fiend of the sun! There is nothing for you in this safe heaven of knowledge" The zebra mage said and Zicra watched Celestia sneer.

"Chaos mage, of course there had to be a chaos mage" The queen of Sol said and launched herself at Salijah.

The two met halfway as the arch mage did the same, their weapons meeting in a large shock-wave of opposing magical forces. Salijah's magic was a deep green while Celestia's was a sickly orange, it was easy to see which one looked the most evil in that moment.

Zicra moved to pick up a sword as the two fought, Salijah zipping around the battlefield without any problems, avoiding the large war-hammer that left craters in its wake. The fight continued for several minutes as Zicra cut down any guard that came running to help their princess, leaving more bodies on the ground than before.

Yet when Celstia cornered Salijah and met his staff with her war-hammer Zicra saw something he didn't think was possible, cracks of blue light where spreading all over the staff Salijah was using. The arch mage cast several spells to force the alicorn off him to no avail, every spell blocked by a barrier or beam Celestia cast.

Their fight came to a stop when the staff exploded and sent Salijah tumbling into a wall, the mage groaning in pain. Zicra saw this and rushed towards him before being cut of by a squad of guards. He yelled to the other tribe leader to get up and soon saw Celestia pick him up with a magical aurora round his neck.

"Heed the day the dark prince cuts you down queen of the sun! The day the darkness finally kills the ligh.." The mage started just to have the solar monarch break his neck, dropping his dead body to the floor.

"NOOOOOOOO!" A voice called out over the burning city over the death of the arch mage, Zicra looking to the sky to see Lux.

'No.. No.. Run Lux!' He thought before a blade sunk into his side, causing him to fall to the floor.

As he looked up he could see the young half demon fly at the queen of Sol with a battle-cry, hitting her and sending them both tumbling to the ground. Zicra swung his blade at one of soldiers that had stabbed him, slitting his throat before taking another sword into his side.

He was picked up from the ground, his blood pouring out from the wounds. He felt lightheaded and looked at Lux, the young stallion running towards him to get to the older stallion out of trouble. With what strength he had left Zicra threw his sword to Lux, the balde sailing through the air and embedding itself into Celestia's shoulder, the mare having been about to crush Lux using her war-hammer.

Then he felt the knife enter his throat, the guards that had grabbed him holding him still as he fought against their grip. Yet all his power flowed out with the blood, and the last thing he saw was Lux being sent through the wall of a building, screaming his name.

Lux's POV

He felt numb, like he had been bathing in ice for years. The feeling spread through his body as he chocked down sobs, using his tentacles to get himself through the burning building. So far he had managed to outpace the large alicorn but that wouldn't last for long.

When he had seen Saliajh murdered in cold blood in front of his eyes he had snapped, throwing himself at Celestia with little to no thought. He had bitten her, clawed at her and even tried to stab Mercy into her eyes but nothing worked. When he saw what was happeining to Zicra he had been quick to throw himself towards the stallion only for him to send a blade towards Celestia that had her weapon raised to end him.

When the knife entered the zebra's throat he had felt such anguish that he screamed in pain before Celestia sent him flying
through the wall of a former house. The burning building had been his way to escape the battle quickly, using Mercy to cut through the burning wood and to get out of the house.

His side hurt but it was nothing compared to the loss of two of his teachers, both stallion bodies left to burn. It hurt him that he couldn't go back and bury them, but with the solders flooding into the town that simply wasn't an option. He needed to find his mom, he needed to find the others.

Running down the burning streets he could see bodies left and right, just following the sounds of battle. Soon he came upon the southern gate, the battle everywhere. Zebras fought against the soldiers at the other side of the gate and tried desperately to push them away to get a safe passage for what was left of Frigidum.

What citizens were left screamed in fear as soldiers rushed into the group of dark mages and zebras, cutting down anything in their path. Lux saw red and with a scream threw himself into battle, his tentacles making short work of the guards unprepared for his attacks. As he tore the ponies to shreds the civilians rushed for the gate once an opening was found, the zebras starting to turn the tide of the battle at the southern gate.

The crown prince blocked, slashed and sent a spell every few seconds at an enemy. Soon he acted more automatically for each pony that met their end at Mercy's blade. The half demon spotted him mother among the ponies running out the gate and he could see Bliss leading a small group after them for protection.

Knowing they were safe for now he turned back to the melee only for a war-hammer to hit his side, sending him into the wall surrounding the city. He stood up on shaky hooves as Celestia stalked her way towards him, her great war-hammer being dragged across the mud.

"I thought Sombra had no children. How wrong I was" She snarled before swinging her weapon at him again, the young stallion dodging it.

The war-hammer hit the wall and an explosion of debris and fallen trees was sent outwards, hitting both zebra and pony soldier alike. Lux escaped though the hole she had made for him, blocking some of her strikes with mercy while backing towards the river, he needed her away from the city.

When a spell from her hit him square in the chest he was sent flying only for him to teleport through the shadows and hit her across the face, sending her helmet flying. The queen snarled and hit him again, making him drop Mercy and land by the edge of a cliff that lead down to the river. His sword flew down into the dark depths of the water and the only thing stopping Celestia from killing him was Nathaniel, the crow scratching at her face.

Yet the bird's attack was stopped by a spell sending it flying, Celestia picking up a sword to cut him to shreds. When she raised the blade and jabbed it down towards him Lux closed his eyes, awaiting the feeling of cold steel in his chest or being crushed by a war-hammer.

Yet the sound of the blade sinking though meat made him open his eyes in horror, looking up at the face of his mother. She coughed up blood as the blade had pierced through her chest, Autumn giving her terrified son her last words. Words that tore through his soul.

"I love you my little light.." She whispered before falling of the blade, dead.

Luxri was stunned, to stunned to move. He could slowly feel a scream tear through his throat as he summoned his wings and threw himself at Celestia, only for the queen of Sol to send a bolt of light through his chest, making him gasp and fly backwards.

He tumbled over the edge and saw nothing, only feeling even more cold once the he hit the water. The last thing he heard before passing out was Bliss calling for him, but then there was only silence, and the dark depths of the river.

Author's Note

Finally. Chapter 10. Now I can start my edits and rewrites

chapter one: A brave new world

"I have to go", he said as he hugged her. The wind howled around them on the little hill over looking the frozen lake.

"No-o, please stay!", she said holding him tighter with her forleg. But no matter how much force she used he still started to slip away.

"Farewell Autumn", he said and was ruffly janked away from her by black tentacles.

"No!", she screamed and ran after him. He was being pulled away from the hill and was dragged on to the ice. He didn't struggle, he just looked..., defeated. Autumn didn't care, she was so close to get him back.

"Just a little more", she said and kept running. She looked ahead to see were the tentacles was comming from and gasped. There, just a few meters ahead, was a hole in the ice. A hole she reconiced...

"Nooo!!!!!! You're not taking him from me!!! ", she yelled and picked up her pace. She was just two meters from him now, if she jumped she could make it. So she did, she jumped and stretched out her hoof to grap him, but she missed with barley a centimetre. She hit the ice hard and she groaned in pain. She quickly got up just to see the tentacles pull him under the ice cold water. She ran towards the hole with all her migth, but when she got close to the hole a shockwave hit her, forcing her to fly backwards on the ice. She looked up to see black smoke rising from the hole, and the normal ice turned a red colour. The smoke started to surround her and she was trapped in a matter of seconds. A chilling laughter could be heard from the smoke. It sounded like it was all around her, waiting to attack. Suddenly a figure came forth from the smoke, a red curved horn was the first thing she noticed, the a crown, armor and a cape was visebly. Then two bloodred eyes stareted to shine and a whisper sounded in the wind.

"Crystals...". Autumn screamed in fear and ran but the smoke had enclosed in a dome like structure. He chuckled darlky and started to walk towards her.

"You think you can run from me Autumn?...", he said getting closer.

"I tamed the crystal empire under a nigth!", he was really close now...

"I enslaved all the crystal ponies under a hour!", just one more stepp ...

"I know every dark spell in existence!", he screamed and used his magic to lift Autumn up in the air.

"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE ME?!", his voice ecoed across the lake and he slamed her down on the ground. She coughed and looked and up at him. His eyes looked like the gates of tarterus them self, the blood red iris and the blackness behind them was consuming her and she did the only thing she could think of, she screamed...

She woke up whit a blood curling scream feeling something on top of her, holding her fore and back-legs down. She trashed around until she fell on a wodden floor. She groaned and got up, she was in a wodden wagon. She looked around and then saw a door to her left, the wagon had many shelves with potions on them and the entire thing screamed "new" or "different". She opend it and stepped out, the light blinded her for a second but she soon layed her eyes on a village, a zebra village to be exact.

"Razor!, she woke up!", a male voice said loudly. One of the three zebra stallions that had saved her walked up to her and smiled.

"Good morning miss Wheat, I'm Zap", he said and stretched his hoof out.

"Where am I?", she asked and moved forward.

"Your in our little Kingdom", he chuckled. "Come on, the chief would want to meet you", he said and walked towards a big tent.

She followed him and loked around the village. Kids where running around and adults where doing everyday activities, it was a long time since she had seen anything so NORMAL. She had missed it.

"The Chief won't bite" he said with a smile. "He isn't even really a chief, he's our king. We just call him chief" he said and entered the king's tent.

"She's here", Zap said and made room for her, the tent itself was much larger on the inside then on the outside.

Autumn was amazed by how the seemingless magical free zebra's could even create something like this in the first place. Book shelves and chests as well as small tables was all around her, in the middle of it all was a large wodden table. A large zebra stallion sat on a wodden throne surrounded by what could be advisor at the wodden table.

"Ahh you must be Autumn Wheat" the king said with a smile and silenced his advisors.

"Y-yes" she squeaked out not entirely sure what to feel about this situation yet.

"You do not need to fear me young one" he said and walked up to her. He was twice the height of Zap and a crown of silver sat upon his head. She nodded slowly and Zap looked at the king like he was gonna say something really bad...

"The king of shadow's are dead... We're terribly sorry for your loss Autumn..." the king said.

Autumn hang her head low. She had expected this but to actually hear that he was dead... A small part of her had hoped he had been taken prisoner, that someone had seen that all of this pain had been the demon's doing not his. But that wasn't reality, reality sucked and seemed to hate her right now... she walked out of the tent followed by Zap.

"Autumn wait.." the king said and followed her.

"What?..." she whispered out

"We had you checked out for your injuries while you was out, and... you're pregnant..." he said and looked at her.

She stopped in her tracks and her mind screamed no over and over again. She was supposed to have a foal with Sombra, not that thing that took him from her. They where gonna teach their foal about dark magic and to not fear it nor darkness. But now this was never gonna happen, all because that demon. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she started to run, she had to get away from it all before she broke down into a crying mess. Zap tried to run after her but was stopped by the king, he knew she needed space and only sent a scout after her so she wouldn't run to far away. She ran and ran, the tears and sobbing growing stronger with each step she took. Soon she found herself in a forest and she colasped onto the ground, to emotionally drained to keep running and she curled up, through the night you could her her sobs until they was replaced by a calm breathing of a sleeping pony.

Author's Note

Ahhh first real chapter! So give me your thoughts please in the comments below. I'm using this story to develop my writing, I hope the more I write the better I'll become. I would like to write up to 3000 words per chapter but now when school have started I really don't got the time. :twilightsheepish: Anyway thanks for reading