Salvation | Rebirth

The proverbial calm before the storm was broken at once when the blizzard surrounding the Crystal Empire receded. Some thought it an improvement, but others could feel their fur standing up, their bodies responding to danger before their minds caught up to it. Even as the sky brightened, a shadowy form seemed to slither in existence from nothing. Shapeless, it spread, growing taller and wider, a blanket of black akin to a starless, moonless night. From within that shadow, a pair of eyes emerged, irises of red within toxic-green sclera. They glared balefully at the Crystal Empire, the anger and hate so thick it felt suffocating. A rip in the shadow heralded the appearance of a mouth, one filled with many sharp teeth, more than one would think possible.

“My new ssslaves,” a voice full of malice whispered, yet it boomed across the land, heard by all in the Crystal Empire. It screeched against their minds, trying to get inside their heads for all that it seemed to be just a sound, “All mine for the taking!”

Shields popped in existence immediately, joining together into multicolored bubbles even as screams of terror arose, horror suffusing the refugee camp as the crystal ponies shrunk on themselves, hiding where they could. Volunteers were directed away from the city, their own terror held at bay by guards barking orders, hurrying everyone along, not giving them time to freeze or panic.

Sombra laughed, savoring the fear, letting them feel the gravity of the situation press down on them. His form swirled, and clouds of black gathered above the Crystal Empire, jagged and malevolent, bursting with violent energy. A flash of baleful light the color of which hurt to comprehend announced a lightning strike, thunder booming after, rolling in but a blink of an eye over the entirety of the Crystal Empire, seemingly shaking the ground as it passed. From the impact site of the lightning, cracks spread along the ground. A nearby building groaned before slowly toppling over, sending shards of crystal and dust in the air.

Somewhere in the city within the clear view on Sombra, Wild was helping a crystal pony climbing from down below while others had already picked up pace to return to the camp, not even noticing the said crystal pony as their cry for help was drowned out by continuous lightning strikes. Wild gritted his teeth and flattened his ears against the onslaught of violent noise, his steps as sure as he could make them, his mind focused entirely on the task. He didn't offer words of kindness or reassurance, only his actions spoke as he checked over the pony for injuries.

Wild sensed his group growing further and further away from him as they hurried to get to the safer place, to the edge of the city. It should have been worrying, but a cold sort of clarity settled on him - he could teleport. There was no need for him to hurry, not when he had someone who needed help more than he needed to get away.

Wild looked up, and the odd tower he and others had been keeping up with magic was now collapsing, the base of it tilted just enough that it could no longer stay upright, not with how the ground was shaking from Sombra's assault. As he tugged the crystal pony towards himself, he quickly looked around, mentally marked a spot, and then quickly went through the sequence of teleportation, winking out of his place a second later, then reappearing where he intended. The tower behind him groaned, falling right on where he had been less than five seconds later. About a fourth of that tower collapsed on a nearby building, making it buckle and, when the strain proved too great, start collapsing as well, raising a wall of sound that would have overwhelmed him were he any closer.

The most direct way to the camp was now blocked. While going around it using teleportation would be trivial, there was a danger in doing so - Sombra, as busy as he was causing chaos and destruction, would surely notice it. Wild decided it would be unwise to attract Sombra's attention, at least not yet. Even if his senses were just on the level of a regular pony, which Wild couldn't assume, teleportation was heralded by a flash of light at the destination, which would be especially noticeable now that dark clouds blocked the sun, casting everything in pseudo-twilight. Wild could not and would not bet on Sombra remaining inattentive.

“He can’t be beat!” the crystal pony whisper-shouted, “Not without the heart! And he stole it!”

Wild dragged them away to hide behind a low decorative wall so that Sombra couldn’t easily see them. He practically tore off his safety garment and tossed the hardhat away - their colors would definitely not help with remaining unnoticeable even as they got covered in dust. Finally, he looked at the one he rescued. Just like other crystal ponies, their colors were dulled, their mane and tail were flat, and there was darkness of sleep deprivation clinging to their face.

“What heart?” Wild couldn’t help but ask, managing to puzzle through their dialect.

“The Crystal Heart,” the pony solemnly answered, but their mood immediately plummeted back to helplessness, “But he stole it, and... no one knows where it is.”

If Princess Luna and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza hadn’t found it in all the time they’d been in the Crystal Empire, Wild doubted he would manage to. He was vaguely aware that it was a powerful artifact, one that would probably be very useful against Sombra, and this certainly explained why he would want to hide it away.

Something tugged at him, nudged just a little bit, but not physically. Wild raised his mental defenses, but it wasn't Sombra who was trying anything. Even with those defenses in place, he could feel a gentle sort of tap, one he could sense the direction of. Perhaps... perhaps, things weren't so dire. At least if he was right about what he was feeling.

Ever since he entered the Crystal Empire, the aura of despair and fear was almost suffocating, drowning out nearly everything else. There was a growing but yet small, truly tiny trickle of relief the longer the ponies were working on making sure the crystal ponies were safe, but it was shattered by Sombra’s arrival. And yet, despite the rising terror and dread, one feeling remained unchanged, one that now seemed to stand out, almost starkly so, despite the horror that was poisoning the air. It was like a dim beacon hidden in the mist, yet it was strong enough to punch through to him. It seemed to become momentarily brighter when the crystal pony he rescued mentioned the Crystal Heart.

Wild could admit he was not the smartest, but this connection was obvious. Still, could he afford to pursue it when he had someone to take care of? He would never forgive himself if he left them somewhere only for them to be squashed by a falling building or burned directly by a lightning strike.

“We will all be slaves again...” the crystal pony closed their eyes, shuddering as they slid to the ground and lay there.

“No,” Wild stated, perhaps stronger than he intended. Still, he would not back down, “Tell me more about the Crystal Heart.”

“What’s the use? It’s gone.”

“I want to hear anyway.”

“...Alright,” the pony sighed, opening their eyes, yet not looking at Wild, “It is- was, um, a wonderful thing. You outsiders don’t really get it, but it’s like... warmth. Like from a fireplace during the coldest winter nights. It’s like... an embrace, too. Not something anyone can really explain, but it’s just... good, that’s what it is. It wards off evil.”

Wild nodded, mentally noting that what he believed was the Crystal Heart was now pulsing steadily, almost in something like Morse code, which he, unfortunately, didn’t know. And even if he did, pony version of it was likely different. Whatever the case was, he couldn’t decipher the message - if it was a message and not just a strengthening signal.

Why he could feel the Crystal Heart - if that was what it was - he had no idea. Why him? Why not either princesses mere hours ago? Why not a crystal pony? There could probably be reasonable answers, and he suspected it might have something to do with his talent, but now was not the time to pursue that.

Thunder boomed once more, yet it had a distinctly different quality to the sound this time. Wild peeked from behind the wall and saw Luna in the air, a ball of oddly-colored smoke between her and the shadowy form of Sombra. The form itself seemed somehow more solid, now shaped to resemble a pony head.

“You are weaker than I remember,” Sombra taunted, “Without your elements, without your sister, you are nothing.”

Even from where Wild stood, he could see the light on Luna’s horn as she cast her spell, and the sky seemed to open as a bunch of rocks - meteorites - fell from it, bursting into flames when they got close to Sombra. With a roar, he released a sharp wave of what could only be described as a dark blade of air, pulverizing the meteorites and turning them to crumbs and dust, which passed harmlessly around him and, in places, even through him.

“You rejected the bitterness, didn’t you?” Sombra continued, “I embraced what I felt, and it gave me power. You? You are an idiot to reject what you feel. Too scared of this much power? I know what you would do with it.”

He then had to defend himself against a barrage of spells, which included giant icicles and a fireball thrice the size of Luna, which seemed to burn as brightly as the sun, momentarily lighting the surroundings. He lashed out with something lightning-like, thin and black with purple edges, branching out from him, hitting mostly the ground, sputtering in the air, and yet more than enough tendrils of it impacted themselves against Luna’s quickly-erected shield.

Wild ignored what Sombra said next, returning to the crystal pony he rescued.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“...Icelyn,” she said slowly.

“Icelyn, I think I know where the Crystal Heart is,” he said, and her eyes widened.

“That’s...” her form deflated again, “That’s... his trap, I think.”

It could very well be, but Wild had a strong feeling that it wasn’t. This feeling, he knew, was not any sort of compulsion, and he was certain he would’ve recognized if it was. The Alicorn Amulet tried to twist him, and yet he saw it coming. The Changeling Princess tried to break his mind, yet he withstood her assault. His mind, he now knew, was strong, stronger than he thought despite the relative ease with which it could be attacked. This feeling he was now receiving felt entirely different compared to any sort of mental invasion. It was somehow... clearer, truer, in some weird way he couldn’t properly describe.

Whatever the case was, he believed he would’ve been able to sense Sombra’s influence if it was aimed at him. From where he stood, Sombra’s spells felt distinctly... unpleasant, and they weren’t even cast at him. It was as if they loudly declared themselves, standing on a metaphorical stage and shouting in a megaphone that they were evil. There was no subtlety, no room left for questioning, it was undeniable in its obviousness.

“It could be, but I don’t think it is,” Wild ended up saying. After some hesitation, he added, “Let’s go.”

Icelyn didn’t really have any other choice but to follow him. They moved swiftly, avoiding yawning chasms and fallen rubble alike with Wild focused on reaching the destination he could feel. If only he could teleport straight there, but he had a feeling that it would end up badly even if he knew the exact spot. While his own sense of direction didn’t seem to be leading him to a trap, the Crystal Heart itself was undeniably in a trap of some kind.

***

Princess Luna was focused, her horn almost burning as she cast spell after spell, making sure Sombra was paying attention only to her. She knew there were still some groups making their way back to the refugee camp, and even a few that stayed with the crystal ponies who remained trapped underground, their magic focused on holding the tunnels up to prevent them from collapsing and killing everyone inside. Luna had to keep this fight as far away from the center of the Crystal Empire as possible for as long as she could.

Sombra was vicious, and his pool of power seemed even larger than her own, considering how inefficient his casting was. He threw spells left and right, quicker than he should have, and yet it was effective enough to keep Luna mostly on the defense, making sure that no spells made it past her to hurt the ponies below.

The two of them exchanged no words now as they focused on the fight, the colors of the spells casting peculiar shadows all around as they flew through the air. In a certain way, it could even be called beautiful. Luna remembered her own lessons about Dark Magic - one would perhaps expect the spells to be black, yet only a relatively small number of them were. In truth, Dark Magic spells looked different not because of their exact colors but everything else. There were emotions attached to them, and Luna could feel Sombra’s hate and rage as he infused the spells with them. There was something rotten too, something disgusting to it, something that made her hate even feeling it, and yet Sombra seemed entirely unbothered by it. Was he this far gone? Did he not feel how wrong the magic he used was?

Another black lightning edged in purple shot out from him, and Luna knew what effect it would have if it struck - it would sap her energy, leaving her exhausted beyond reason, perhaps even shut some of her organs down, resembling what would happen if someone galloped until they couldn’t move at all. The dark blade of air he sometimes aimed her way would pass through her, mangling her body yet leaving her alive to die an agonizing and slow death. Every single spell he threw at her was made with the intention to make her suffer. Luna could almost pity him, could almost feel sorry for him - it must be tremendously exhausting to hold onto the emotions he felt like he did, his grasp tight as he pushed them into his spells, fueling them even as the emotions he felt did not decrease in intensity despite his usage of them.

In the corner of her eye, she spotted Cadenza rising up, her husband nested between her wings, a bubble of pink surrounding them. Luna sighed in relief - finally, she wasn’t fighting alone. It also meant that the majority of ponies were now safe - or as safe as they could be while Sombra was still out there. Cadenza and Shining Armor would bring a lot to the fight despite the younger alicorn’s relative lack of combat experience, but she was strong enough to send Sombra reeling if she cast proper spells just right. Her horn lit up, and a blue bolt of lightning shot out of it, racing to Sombra faster than an eye could blink, hitting him and sending him ever so slightly backwards. There was now a tear in his shadowy form, the edges of it fraying. Sombra recovered quickly, however, and turned to Cadenza, and his eyes filled with so much malice Luna could almost drown in its radiation, cringing away for a moment as she weathered the mental assault.

“AMORE!” he screamed, his expression one of thunderous rage, and then black crystals shot out from him, flying fast enough to break the speed of sound.

With a tremendous boom, they impacted the shield, and Luna could see Shining Armor grit his teeth and close his eyes as he weathered the hit, the crystals turning into nothing but black dust.

Sombra snarled and sent a barrage of all sorts of spells at Cadenza and Shining Armor, the colors blurring together and burning into Luna’s retina. Most of them went wide, spiraling out of control before fizzling out, and some of them were dodged, and yet a small amount managed to hit, though this time Shining Armor was fully prepared, and the shield didn’t as much as flash. While he could make strong and massive shields, his smaller shields were powerful as well, so Luna didn’t have to worry overly much about Sombra breaking through, not unless Sombra quickly learned a good measure of focus and precision. His emotions might have given him power, but they had frayed his control, and so he would not - could not - strike as hard or as well as he otherwise could have.

In that moment, she thought of what she heard in Sombra’s scream. There was hate and malice, so much of it that it was hard to believe, yet there was also... pain? A hint of despair as well. It was a crack in his external presentation, a glimpse beyond the evil he projected, almost a hint at the person hidden somewhere underneath the murky darkness that had enveloped him.

However, now was not the time to try to decipher the mystery surrounding Sombra. As much as he was a person with his own fears and wants, he was a danger to everyone around him, and was currently attacking with intent to maim and kill and enslave. Whatever empathy Luna could have for him, she had to disregard it for the sake of protecting others from his wrath. She took a deep breath, waited a couple of heartbeats for her horn to cool a bit and for her mind to refocus on the task, and then went straight back into the fray.