Crystalline

Sunburst’s legs felt weak, the strangely euphoric feeling that was usually caused by impressive amounts of magic slowly draining from his body. Trying desperately to open his eyes, the light orange unicorn adjusted his glasses as darkness slowly faded into slightly recognizable shapes, and vision slowly returned to his dazed eyes.

Looking around, it seemed that he was lying smack on the floor of the castle in the Crystal Empire, albeit lacking in its usual pastel splendor - in fact, the whole castle seemed to radiate with a slightly sinister, sunset-colored yet sickly glow. The millions of books and scrolls that had fallen into the portal that he and his metaphorical sister, Starlight Glimmer, had conjured up in a futile attempt to simply glimpse into the past, seemed to be missing, along with said light pink unicorn. It seemed that every time she’d suggested with dabbling in forbidden magic, something had gone terribly wrong.

That was probably why the magic was forbidden, now that Sunburst thought about it. He most likely wouldn’t have even attempted it if he hadn’t been around the mare who seemed to think that the many warnings and laws against dangerous magic and spells were just simple suggestions. Recalling that fact, Sunburst also noted that he was relieved that he’d put a slight “buffer” on this particular spell before they’d attempted it - if either one of them ran the risk of altering the future too heavily, they’d be weakened and sent back as soon as possible.

With a sigh, Sunburst adjusted himself and picked himself up from the ground with a bit of a struggle. He tapped a hoof on the ground to make sure it was indeed solid, as well as making sure that he wasn’t glowing in that magic-time-travel sort of way.

Nope. He was somehow, for no explainable reason, in the Crystal Empire. At sunset. Alone. And there wasn’t much the unicorn could do about it, since spells of such caliber were difficult to recreate and often left the user’s magic weakened and nearly useless.

With a slightly unnerved sigh, Sunburst began to trot over to the window to make sure everything wasn’t falling apart around him, but was cut short by a voice, low and slightly annoyed, from behind him.

“Who are you, and what are you doing in my throne room? I do believe I had said that I was the only one allowed in here.” the voice said, sounding unamused and regal. Sunburst might have pegged it for Shining Armor, but the voice’s low grumble, combined with the unwelcoming emotion it held, cleared that thought from the stallion’s mind.

Turning around to see who the voice belonged to, Sunburst let out a small, though not unnoticable, gasp. The owner of the voice was a dark grey stallion, standing upright and proud, looking down his muzzle at the stunned unicorn. His shadowy mane was held back by a small, circular crown, and his small beard practically waved in the nonexistent breeze. Deep purple smoke poured from his deep red eyes in a cascade as he lit up his horn, then let it dim when he noted Sunburst’s immediate shift to a more submissive posture. His well-toned muscles rippled beneath his bright red cape as he slowly took a step towards Sunburst, mouth forming an unamused frown. “You don’t look like any of my soldiers, and all of my subjects have been sent to the crystal mines. So unless you want to join my less obedient peons in the dungeons, I suggest you tell me who you are.” The stallion growled, his voice unwavering and commanding.

This stallion was none other than King Sombra. King Sombra, who had already been defeated by the Elements of Harmony - twice. So why wasn’t he dead? Shaking his head, the unicorn tried to register what was going on, taking a moment to look at the king, the light making him look almost ethereal and majestic. Suddenly, Sunburst felt a warm rush across his face, combined with the feeling that his legs might give out once again.

Seeing the king’s waiting gaze, he realized he needed to respond. “Oh- um, m-my name is Sunburst! I’m the royal Crystaller, or at least I was, but, ah-” he stammered, trying to create a coherent sentence and failing miserably. Sunburst didn’t quite know why he was so uncomposed, but he chalked it up to shock from having seemingly time traveled only minutes before.

“Royal Crystaller?” Sombra mused, noting Sunburst’s sudden blush with a slight smirk, the sound of his voice sending shivers down the crystaller’s spine. “I do believe I’ve never heard of such a thing.” He raised an eyebrow in suspicion, smirk falling.

“O-oh, of course! Since you’ve uh, taken the Crystal Heart, I’d assume you don’t do them anymore- Crystallings, that is. They used to happen all the time before you took over - in fact, some of the books about how ponies carried out the process during your rule were incredibly fascinating, and-” Sunburst suddenly realized what he was saying, smacking a hoof over his mouth and blushing even more profusely.

Sombra looked at him confusedly for a second, then nodded with a small smile (which caused Sunburst to notice the fact that he had a small, pointed fang that poked out of his mouth), then gestured to a previously unnoticed symbol that was burned into the ground where Sunburst had landed. It looked exactly like the spelling circle the unicorn had used to get here in the first place. “A time travel spell, hmm? Looking at you, I wouldn't have pegged you for the dark magic type. A kindred spirit, I see.” He smiled slightly, his red eyes looking warm. Sunburst found himself getting lost in them, noticing how they seemed to make him look like less of a threatening ruler and more sympathetic, almost inviting him in.

Sombra seemed to pick up on this, as his smile became ever-so-slightly devious. As tempting as it was to think that keeping a time-traveler prisoner and potentially gain information to prevent his supposed defeat, something about the shy unicorn was slightly endearing, and it was a little more than obvious that the sun-toned pony was smitten. Perhaps there was indeed a way to both keep the pony from returning to his world and allow his admitted interest in the stallion to be acceptable. And after all, Sombra had no queen to share his throne with - at least, not yet.

After a moment, Sunburst spoke up, seemingly realizing the lengthy seconds of silence that had passed. “U-uh, yeah, I have a friend that works with forbidden magic a lot. Though technically, she’s been my sister for a while, since we used to live together as kids when her parents passed away.” He looked a little uncomfortable as he mentioned Starlight, face falling into a mildly frightened frown. “She was always a little unhinged, though, and she was the one who wanted to mess with time magic in the first place.”

“Hmm, I see. It seems that she’s not a very kind pony, if I am not mistaken?” Sombra murmured, tracing the remnants of the magical circle with a hoof. “However, do not think I am as kind as ponies might have made me out to be in your time.” he chuckled, seemingly aware that his reputation in the future was not a pleasant one. “Though I do appreciate your fear of me.”

Sunburst simply nodded, glad for a respite from the clingy and controlling mare for once, and not desiring to discuss the uncomfortable topic at length. Oddly enough, Sombra seemed to be trying to remain at a safe distance from the stallion, and Sunburst chalked it up to the king not wanting to be hit by any untamed magic Sunburst might wield. After a moment, he decided to trot back up to the king, though Sombra seemed much more interested in the spell’s remains than the unicorn himself. As he did so, Sombra noticed the stallion’s interest once again and turned to him, gently lifting Sunburst’s chin to meet his eyes.

“You know, this is truly some impressive magic you have.” Sombra smiled, allowing his heart to swell just a little at the time traveler’s wide-eyed expression and gentle blush. He had to note that for such a scraggly, awkward-looking stallion, Sunburst was somehow ladylike, from the delicate way he trotted to his slightly lashed, innocent eyes.

“Oh, um, thank you.” Sunburst stammered, looking away slightly. However, as he turned back to face the king, he saw that Sombra’s gaze was now half-lidded and almost seductive - which reminded Sunburst that more than a few journals and books from this era had mentioned that the king was a notorious flirt. He could feel Sombra’s hoof steadying him, wrapping slightly around his back, as his own hooves were probably shaking by now - if he could see them.

“Careful now, you don’t want to fall over.” Sombra smirked, sounding less like he was actually concerned and more like he knew exactly why Sunburst was shaking - and he was eating it up. The unicorn in question tried to steady himself, but his front hooves simply flailed around in a decidedly not-elegant manner before falling pathetically onto Sombra’s shoulders. This caused Sombra’s smirk to only widen, and Sunburst’s blush to practically turn his entire face red.

The only thing the flushed unicorn could be sure of now was that things were escalating quickly - and much too quickly for his taste.

With a deciding yet most definitely planned movement, Sombra leaned down and planted a gentle, quick kiss on Sunburst’s lips, letting one of his hooves lightly brush against Sunburst’s cheek, tracing it down his blushing face. As he pulled back from the kiss, he grinned suggestively, letting his forked tongue poke out of his mouth as if it was teasing the wizardly pony.

Sunburst felt his vision start to go blurry as he let himself smile goofily, trying desperately to pull himself up enough to return the kiss, maybe even just feel the king’s warmth envelop him again. However, he couldn’t seem to find the strength. Sombra’s expression turned to shock as Sunburst’s body began to fizzle and glow, almost seeming to disintegrate and fade out of existence. Sunburst didn’t notice this at first, but as his vision filled with a bright light and he felt his body go numb, he remembered.

The spell would send him back if he ended up almost irreversibly changing the future. And here he was, practically about to make out with the king of shadows himself. It wasn’t exactly what he had expected to do in the past, and yet, he didn’t seem to regret it. It was certainly one of the better outcomes he could have come across, that was for sure.

With a sigh, Sunburst felt the world fade into darkness.

Twilight Sparkle paced around the tiny library - one of many tiny libraries in the castle - with annoyance. On one hoof, she could attempt to cast a spell that would bring them back from wherever they were, but since her earlier locater spell hadn’t garnered any results on either of the missing ponies, she figured a returning spell wouldn’t be any more effective.

With a defeated groan, Twilight turned back to a large pile of books. Levitating a few of them off of the pile in annoyance, she opened one up and retreated to her position amongst the books.

“Ah!” Suddenly, Sunburst’s panicked scream caused Twilight to jolt up from her spot. Turning to see the flustered unicorn sprawled out on the ground, she sighed in relief at the fact that he wasn’t completely rearranged - or worse. Luckily, Sunburst looked more or less all in one piece, though definitely more frazzled than usual.

"Sunburst!" Twilight exclaimed happily, trotting over to help the newest time traveler up, holding up a book with her magic. "It's great to see you back safe and sound. But..." she looked around in confusion for a moment before continuing. "Where's Starlight?"

"I don't know!" Sunburst stammered, looking far more relieved than Twilight might have expected. With a panicked smile, he dove for the section on Crystal Empire history and furiously tore through the books looking for any evidence of his escapades in the past.

"Oh! Look what I found!" Twilight chirped, levitating he book towards Sunburst. "You might find it interesting, actually," she winked, noticing his tendency towards that particular section of the shelf.

Sunburst's face turned bright red as he skimmed through the book nervously, looking for some semblance of himself, when his eyes landed upon one particular line that made him breathing shallow as the world began to blur once more.

King Sombra had once found the remains of a time spell circle engraved onto the floor of his castle, as seen in this illustration. Some magic experts speculate that he may have gotten ahold of some very powerful time magic, and might have used it to avert his defeat. Time magic, however, if very complex. We still do not know wether the king will return or not, and the mystery still stands to this day.