Princess Luna looked upon the ancient city of the Crystal Empire. It was far too soon to talk about recovery, but every person turned into crystal was taken away, and the streets were cleared of debris. Sound of construction was in the air as the destroyed buildings were repaired. The Crystal Empire had survived Sombra surprisingly unscathed in the physical sense, and while there was the issue of nearly-empty food storage, it appeared Sombra was content with leaving most things as they were before his takeover. Thus, recovery efforts would cleanly and efficiently bring the city-state back to working order if not its former glory. So far, the biggest issue with the glory part was the Crystal Palace. It was raised from one crystal, growing almost naturally, and removing the black growths irreparably marred it. Any attempts to fill the resulting empty space ended up looking even worse, and it was clear that the palace would need to be brought down entirely in order for it to look like before again. However, it was obvious no one was willing to go that far. An argument was made that the scars would remind the people of what had transpired, of the horror that they had gone through.

Another side, of course, wanted to forget about all this, to return to how things were, as impossible as it now was. The Crystal Empire had been gone for centuries, all the agreements and treaties were long expired, all friendships and romances between those inside the Empire and outside of it long since extinguished and buried. There was no return to how things were, not anymore.

To help keep some semblance of peace, Princess Cadance was presented to the people of the Crystal Empire. Her reception was lukewarm at best, though none could deny that she was a proper distant many times great-granddaughter of the late ruler of the Crystal Empire, whom Sombra had murdered.

When it came to Sombra himself, it appeared that no one even knew him. One day, he simply took over and put almost every single pony to work as slaves. However, even in his ravenous hatred of them, it appeared he was not completely monstrous. While not kicking newly born foals for fun was a low bar, it appeared he had not sunk as to demand the impossible from either the very young or the very old. From what little Princess Luna managed to gather, Sombra had been surprisingly lenient for a slave master. Casualties due to his actions were... zero. There were injuries, yes, especially those related to long-term constant physical stress, but no one was malnourished. Whether that was the leftovers of his consciousness speaking or some sort of cold calculated efficiency, it was impossible to tell. Sombra was, without a single doubt, mad by the time Celestia and Luna arrived to put a stop to him.

However, more was revealed when a teary-eyed mare approached Luna. Her lower lip wobbled before she burst into sobs, and Luna did her best to comfort the distraught mare as best as she could.

“I-it is m-my fault...” she cried, “It is m-my f-fault...”

“Sombra’s actions are his own,” Luna spoke, her voice steady and reassuring if foreign-sounding as they came from her lips, the Crystal Empire dialect feeling odd after over a thousand years of not speaking it.

“If I saw... but he w-was such a s-sweet colt...” the mare continued to cry, “All he w-wanted... all he wanted w-was to see the F-faire...”

There were quite a few pieces missing. One did not go from the desire to see the Crystal Faire, an annual celebration, to taking over the Empire and turning the citizens into slaves, assuming Luna understood the mare correctly.

She guided the mare to a more private spot, readying herself for a tale she imagined would be quite interesting to hear.

***

Wild was following the developing situation in the Crystal Empire, looking out for possible signs of trouble. He could say he wasn’t the most knowledgeable when it came to those kinds of things, but doing what he did was better than doing absolutely nothing at all. While there was still hope that the situation wouldn’t touch him, he would really rather not rely on luck. He brought Artful into his confidence, explaining all the numerous bad situations he had gotten in since his appearance in Equestria.

“Alright,” Artful told him, “Let’s look at the situation and see where it can get to you. Changelings, well, they came to us, so maybe Sombra would come to us as well. What do we know about him?”

“...nothing much,” Wild replied, a note of frustration in his voice. As infamous as Sombra was, apparently there was precisely nothing beyond the fact that he enslaved the Crystal Empire. There was no origin to discover, no motivation that was apparent. It was as if he appeared and decided to do evil. Wild knew some people were just like that, but the lack of information was still annoying.

“...yeah,” Artful nodded, “But let’s say he... gets here because the princesses are often here. This time, though, the attack probably won’t be sudden.”

“Yes,” Wild agreed, “The Invasion came out of nowhere. Sombra is a... known danger. The princesses know things can happen.”

“Yep, exactly. So, this time, the princesses will be prepared, and they have fought Sombra before and won.”

“With the Elements of Harmony,” Wild pointed out. It still baffled him that such things existed. Six powerful artifacts that used the power of Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic to defeat powerful villains and imprison them for centuries. It was something out of a fairy tale, except it was all entirely real. Wild couldn’t quite grasp the whole concept, considering that the elements seemed somewhat subjective and, in some way, naive, but he also was smart enough to recognize that his perspective on it might be seriously skewed because of his own experiences.

It was said that each pony had every single one of those elements in different amounts, but it was rare for any pony to truly display any of the separate quality strongly enough that it could be turned into an actual magical force. Wild knew he had magic, he certainly had loyalty, he was not greedy - although he wasn’t quite sure how generosity would apply to him - he could be kind, he could also be honest, and as for laughter... well, he knew he wasn’t ‘broody’ all that much anymore, and he did laugh sometimes at things, but he was fairly certain it was in no way a strong point for him.

The point was, he was fairly certain he was disqualified from wielding any of the Elements of Harmony. Even magic, which he was probably the strongest in among his qualities. While he was magically powerful and could also grow skillful in time, he didn’t hold much interest in the theoretical and deeper aspects of magic. For him, magic was some odd horn movement that produced things that he used, and that was about it. He was not interested in why it worked or how it worked - he was only interested in the fact that it did, and in what it could do for him.

“Then the princesses can bring the Bearers on this,” Artful said, interrupting Wild’s thoughts, “So, that’s six ponies who can focus on working the Elements, and two alicorns who can kick butt like nobody else. If Sombra’s still alive, he’s not coming out of that unscathed.”

Wild nodded, accepting the point. If things went well, Sombra would never even reach him. However, there was still the possibility that he would. Wild didn’t know any reason for Sombra to seek Wild specifically, but it was better to be ready for it than be caught unawares. In order to be prepared, however, one needed to know what to prepare for, and Sombra’s powers lacked any description aside from ‘dark magic’. Dark magic was, naturally, not something that regular ponies could easily get into. If ponies had internet and it was as unregulated as the internet back on Earth, then without a doubt a lot of information would have been publicly available for Wild to find with just a few keystrokes of effort, but now that was certainly not the case.

“I think he can somehow control minds,” Artful said, “So, we should think of ways to resist that.”

“My... talent helps with that,” Wild admitted, “When the amulet tried to influence me, I noticed it, and I fought it off.”

Artful had already come to learn the circumstances of Wild’s recent increase in magical power. The said discovery was followed by Artful giving Wild a good hug and outpouring plenty of love and empathy. It was a somewhat awkward moment for Wild, but it was also rather sweet too. However, he didn’t want to think about it overly much.

“Okay, but can we learn to notice mental influence and fight it off?” Artful asked, “I know my talent is making paintings, but you can also learn that, if a lot slower. If your talent helps you with mental stuff, then I can probably learn it too.”

“I... do not know,” Wild shrugged uncomfortably, “My talent is... unique. Special circumstances made it appear.”

“...mm, yeah, fair enough,” Artful nodded, and Wild was glad he didn’t turn the conversation towards what happened to Wild to make him gain that talent. It was still one of his most unpleasant memories. Being torn from his body and then almost having his soul forced apart was... it didn’t really rate on any sort of pain scale because it wasn’t quite what he felt in the moment, but it was definitely very unpleasant. He was simply glad that it was past him and that the Nightmare would never be able to hurt him again.

“Luna taught me mental exercises,” Wild said, “They might help.”

“You mean like meditation?”

Wild nodded. According to Luna, simply being aware of himself was a huge help. So, Wild and Artful decided on a shared meditation session, and the first one would be where both of them lay comfortably on sofas, though not physically touching. Wild wasn’t sure he was the best person to teach Artful meditation or, in general, teach anyone anything, but he was willing to try and put some effort into it. The two of them assumed comfortable positions, and Wild began to explain one of the techniques Luna taught him.

“You need to focus on your body,” he said, “On... everything. Skin, the feeling of warmth, heartbeat, breath, all that. Focus on what you can feel. It helps to close eyes for that because things that you see are a, um, distraction.”

Wild could admit that he was already distracted by how Artful looked. Hormones were certainly a hell of a thing, and it definitely was a rare day when the two of them weren’t intimate in one way or another. Wild could not deny that he enjoyed it, and Artful was very receptive, but sometimes it made things... difficult. After all, there was more to life than kisses and sex even though sometimes it almost felt like those two things were all that Wild wanted to do, to get lost in.

Wild closed his eyes and focused on his breath first. His ears twitched as he heard Artful’s even breath, and soon enough they were in perfect sync. Usually, the three pony tribes had just slightly different breathing rhythms. Pegasi breathed the fastest, followed by less frequent but deeper breaths of earth ponies, and unicorns seemed to be the slowest breathers of the three. The difference seemed to stem from the physical challenges each of them had to perform, the more intensive it was the more air was needed. Pegasi were never truly fat, at least if they wanted to fly, and pegasi flew very often. Once Artful got comfortable enough around Wild, he took to hovering, and Wild found the sound of flapping wings even somewhat relaxing, though it was also surprising to see that pegasi did not need to flap particularly hard or fast to remain roughly in the same place. Apparently a large part of a pegasus’ flight relied heavily on magic to make it happen as the wings were not anywhere near big enough or physically strong enough to let them fly as things were.

As time slowly passed, Wild went over his body with his mind. He felt the usual warmth of life, then the way his nostrils flared when he inhaled. He felt his eyes in their sockets and the tips of his ears, then the length and tip of his horn. He went down from the said tip to the deep well of magic at his core, which was a sort of ethereal warmth and a sense of life. He felt how his limbs were arranged in relation to his own body, and the biggest sensation was still how different they were to what he felt as a human. While his days of being a human were relatively far behind him, he had over a decade worth of memory of being a human, and it was not going away anytime soon. As natural as his current body was, sometimes he still noticed the differences if he focused, like he was doing now.

After what seemed like hours, Wild emerged from his simple meditation, and his stirring brought Artful out of his own.

“I... think there’s something,” Artful said slowly, “Guess I’ll need to do more of this.”

“It took me time to get to where I am now,” Wild nodded, “I do not- I don’t think it is a fast thing. And you need to learn from someone better than me at it. I will talk to Luna once she’s back, maybe she can teach you.”

Wild sometimes was reminded of how ridiculous his life was. There he was, casually talking about asking a ruler of a nation to teach his lover meditation. He imagined it was probably like asking the president of the USA for firearms lessons. Or, at least, golf lessons or something similar. A completely unrealistic notion on Earth, yet apparently it was not entirely uncommon in Equestria. Princess Celestia ran her own school and mentored people while Princess Luna was in charge of an orphanage and helped a lot of kids personally. Wild briefly wondered what Princess Mi Amore Cadenza did... in general. He wasn’t even sure she ruled over anything aside from the future possibility of ruling over the Crystal Empire. And if more royalty arose, which was apparently a thing because of alicornhood, what would they do? Especially since they would be so much different compared to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, both of whom were literal centuries old and had many lifetimes of experiences, collective wisdom of many generations that they actually personally experienced.

Wild turned his mind back to the present. While the mental exercise part as well as mind defenses were something that was better to be taught by someone other than Wild, there were still self-defense lessons that both of them attended that would, no doubt, benefit them eventually. While they had yet to be attacked, perhaps this Sombra would, for one reason or another, strike at them, and then they would need to defend themselves.

Wild was aware that Sombra would likely strike with that dark magic he was infamous for, and physical defenses would not be a serious obstacle in that case. Artful, for once, was entirely helpless against any sort of serious spellpower coming his way, and while Wild had enough power of his own, he lacked the necessary skill to make him a serious magical threat.

In truth, what Wild needed, were lessons in battle magic. As for Artful, he needed to carry some protective artifacts, maybe something like the Alicorn Amulet but not malicious.

For his own safety and for the safety of everyone Wild cared about, he would look into it.

Author's Note

Sombra's backstory is essentially from the official comic FIENDship is Magic issue 1 with some details altered.

Posted the update a number of hours earlier today because I'll be sleeping during regular posting hours. My sleeping schedule is currently messed up.

I have just noticed that the story is over 400k words long. I think that's the longest story I've ever written, and there's still quite a lot of words to go.

I don't think the story will be finished by the end of the year - there are certainly ple ty of chapters to last a number of months - but I think it will be finished by summer of 2025. To be entirely honest, I want to be done with the story and move on to something else. I'm not going to rush it, no, but I'll move to actually give it a good point to finish on. But that won't be done for dozens of chapters yet.

Either way, this story will be completed, and I'll take a breather afterwards. Then I'll finally switch to a different story, though I can't tell which one just yet.