The Other Side Of History

Chapters

The Past
The Talk
The Truth
The Test
The Princess
The Present

The Past

"Your Majesty, surely you can't be serious!"

"Hold your tongue, Stoic Shield." A grim-faced war commander by the name of Twinkling Glass turns to face King Sombra. Despite her happy-sounding name, the tone of her voice is anything but. "Sir, with all due respect, King Garrote is on his way with a larger battalion of gryphons than we've ever seen before. Every day we lose more soldiers than we gain, and morale is too low to keep the Crystal Heart powered."

A heavy sigh leaves the king being addressed. Lines crease his face that are far beyond his years, but war has a way of aging anypony threefold.

Minutes tick by. The only sound in the room is his heavy breathing as his eyes remain shut and the bated breaths of the other tacticians and sergeants sitting at the table.

Finally, emerald eyes open. There is a maelstrom of emotions swimming within them, but the most prominent ones are love for his subjects, and terrible, terrible regret at what he must do to protect them. Everypony in the room already knows what he's going to say, knew it the second he lifted his head.

"Send out the draft. Everypony of the ages 18 through 50 will be enlisted in the Royal Army under pain of execution." He turns to face Arcane Anvil, the most skilled blacksmith and armor enchanter he's ever had the honor of working with. "Fit..." Everypony in the room is purposefully deaf to the sudden shimmer in their king's eyes and the way his voice breaks before he gathers himself enough to continue speaking, blinking furiously and clearing his throat. "Ahem. Fit every soldier with the new SOM-72s. The full set. I will not lose more subjects than strictly necessary, and if they must take lives without remembering a single second of it, then so be it." He pushes down the awful feeling in his gut; surely it's just worry for his subjects. Yes, he will lose some. There are always casualties in war. But, hopefully - please, please, hopefully - he will save enough that, one day, the living will forgive him for the ones he sacrificed.

Although the sound his hoof makes as it connects with the polished wood of the meeting table is but a soft click, over half of the commanding officers in the room jump as it seems to shatter the precious barrier that had been straining under the weight of the king's orders.

"Go!"

Four ponies sit in a war planning room where there were once fifteen. They're all well-trained to not give in to shell-shock until they're out of the conflict, and one has years of royal training and years of training at the cruel hooves of a gruff, whiskey-laden voice and laughter from a twisted pair of painted lips, for their grief to not show in any way stronger than the way they grip their whiskey tumblers just a little bit too hard.

"That's it, then." The first to break the silence is one of the younger additions to the council. Occulus Targe had been so proud when King Sombra himself had requested that the archer meet him in his private quarters, to be told that he had been accepted onto the war council, and they had shared a hearty laugh at the thought of ever having to actually use the immaculately-kept but never-inhabited room. It had seemed so impossible then. They had smiled so often then.

He wonders if his mother, tears in her eyes from the joy she had felt then, is crying for a different reason now.

'Can ponies feel sad, in Elysium?' He doesn't know if he'd prefer for her to be dead and happy or alive and in this living hell. As if to prove his point, the sound of a cannon followed by the dying shrieks of gryphons and ponies alike pierces his ears from not more than half a mile away.

They all jerk as King Sombra stands, something dark and different and somber in his eyes as he stares down at the floor. He looks so...small. Not broken, but defeated. He would sooner die himself at the hands of their enemies before allow his subjects to suffer further, but it seems he's made a decision to give in to something.

"Get out. Take your families, if you can find them. Destroy the remaining SOM-72s, though I suppose that shall be of little priority. And..." An audible gulp echoes throughout the room. "...I am honored to have served with you all."

None of them are given a chance to respond before he teleports out of the room, and nopony dares to try and follow him. That is the last they see of King Sombra, with his grey spiraled horn and his sparkling green eyes.

It is a stupid, stupid thing that he's about to do. He knows this, and knows it well. But his heart has always bled, and it always will. Emotions will always trump logic, and this horrible war is no different.

With no small amount of effort, King Sombra lifts his gaze to meet Slithar's. To his credit, he does not flinch or show any signs of fear at the demon's appearance.

Four red eyes blink, a light blue membrane retreating in a slightly delayed fashion afterwards horizontally, revealing cris-crossed pupils which narrow as they focus upon the charcoal-coated unicorn. Grotesquely chapped lips curl upwards into a grin, cracking its lips so that black ichor runs down its chin and serrated, yellowed teeth are revealed.

"Youuu...youuur...loyaltyyy..."

Its voice seems to slither across Sombra's very soul, a black oily filth that attempts to rip away innocence from parts he didn't know he had.

"...veryyy...ssstrooong...pooonyyy...should beee...afraiiid..." It leers at him, grinning wider still. The quiet sound of flesh tearing echoes throughout the caves they're in as it lunges at him, but Sombra remains stoic as it crashes into the invisible barrier formed by the edge of the summoning circle.

"I'm not amused. You are aware of what I'm asking for, yes? If not, I can return you and find a more competent demon." His face might as well be carved from stone, for how still it has remained throughout this encounter, but he can't hide the slight tremble in his voice. Despite the terror attempting to rise up in his throat, he stamps it down. Every time the muffled thud of an explosion makes it down to the caves, he is reminded of why he's doing this.

The demon scowls at him, shaking its head furiously and spraying black droplets onto several places on the stone floor. "Nnnooo! I knooow...shhhadooow, yeeesss?" It holds up what may have once been a hoof but is now hopelessly mangled into claw-like appendages, rubbing together two "fingers" in an easy-to-recognize fashion. "Priiice...whaaat pooonyyy paaayyy?"

His heart pounds hard enough to lift his coat slightly.

Stepping forwards close enough for the glowing light of the summoning circle to illuminate his determined emerald eyes, he locks gazes with the demon and utters seven damning words:

"Anything but my love for my subjects."

And with that, he steps in, and as the demon grasps him with its sticky flesh, so hot that it freezes his soul, he screams.

The demon had been kind enough to leave behind just enough of his former self to know that this is not how he should be. Not how he is. Not who he is. Or, perhaps, it was an act of cruelty. But as he swoops down into his beautiful Crystal Empire, and the screams of the gryphon armies grace his ears - distantly, he wonders if his shadowy form even has ears - he decides that both parts of him do not care how much of his original self has been preserved.

Superstitious cries ring out, about demons, about the Shadow Pony, and he can't help but to let out a deep, rumbling chuckle that permeates and vibrates the very air, the very souls of all who hear it.

'What a high honor the gryphons have bestowed upon me in their final moments.'

He is merciless. Fast, efficient. The streets run red with blood and viscera, for although he does not go out of his way to take the goriest route for each death, he also doesn't take care to execute each gryphon cleanly. Every single life he takes only fuels his bloodlust until with one final cry, he rematerializes into his solid form the moment his shadowy form had fully absorbed into a wide-eyed and screaming gryphoness's skull. Several nearby civilians are splattered with bits of skull and brains. One foal collapses after vomiting.

"K-King...King S-Sombra...?"

Black fur slicked with blood, his head turns to try and find who had called his name. A tiny filly taps his hoof, and he turns his gaze downwards.

She screams when she sees his crimson gaze and horn, the way his fangs protrude from his muzzle at the slightest opening. The terror in her eyes is that of a filly that has just seen a monster.

"S-Sombra...what...what h-happened...t-to you...?"

Raising one silver-clad hoof above her head, she flinches violently, preparing for her young life to be cut short, and then...

...he pats the top of her head. Once, twice, as gently as he would have before his terrifying transformation.

"Licorice Vine, it is still me. I...I had to do some very bad things. And I...I'm not the same pony. I'm not the same king. But I still love you." He raises his head, addressing the small crowd that's started to gather. "All of you." He looks back down at Licorice, her terror slowly starting to melt away, replaced with the adoration that he's grown used to and yet was and still is so humbled by. He smiles and leans down to kiss her forehead. She frowns slightly, as the action leaves a bloodied imprint of his lips upon her fur, but the warmth of his care far overpowers the metallic stench permeating the air.

King Sombra walks, tall and proud, knife-sharp horn glinting in the air as blood and gore dry on his fur, all the way up the stairs of his castle. But he doesn't stop at his throne. Instead, he walks out to his balcony, and his horn glows a sinister blackish-green as he casts a voice amplification spell.

"Subjects!"

He pauses, frowns, shakes his head, then speaks again.

"Beloved subjects!"

Already, the formerly dull and lifeless Crystal Heart begins a weak, barely-there thrum of power as the Crystal ponies' bodies begin to glow with love.

"After years of pain, suffering, and death, I have taken...a morally ambiguous path to ensure our victory."

A sigh.

"Neigh. 'Twas wrong, simple and true. However, I have succeeded in the goal I set out to accomplish. While I still failed to save all of you, I cut the war short. And now, I'm going to ensure that nobody is able to harm my beloved Crystal Empire ever. Again."

"Sister!" When the doors fly open, it's unsurprising that they leave an indentation in the solid stone wall. Princess Luna, out of breath from running to Princess Celestia's private studies, had not opened it with much care for what - or who - was in the way.

Oddly enough, though, Celestia's unruffled. In fact, she looks like she had been expecting such an intrusion.

"I know, Luna." Her voice is nearly a whisper. "The..."

"The Crystal Empire...so...'tis true? We thought...we thought it may simply be another one of thine protege's magical surges," but even as she makes a weak attempt to inject humor into the situation, she knows it's pointless.

The Crystal Empire has vanished.

The Talk

Princess Cadance needs our help...her magic will not last forever...

The muffled voices of ponies he can't recognize float down to grace his downturned ears, his heart too sore to muster up so much as a flick to indicate that he can hear the rising instrumentals. Despite the pain he feels, though, he can't help but to feel the tiniest bit of pride, even now, for his kingdom.

Eons ago, when he had visited the solar diarchs, he had witnessed similar phenomena. Sudden musical numbers seem to be something written into ponies' very genetics, and it is a magical quality embedded within Equestria's heart and soul that allows music to rise up, through, and out of the ponies' throats and into the air to bless it with melodies. Equestria's songs are beautiful in their own right, and he had appreciated it plenty, yes.

But within his beautiful Crystal Empire, the arcana that dance throughout the earth, the sky, the waters, and his subjects, they're alive with more than just magic and music. Even if his Crystal ponies themselves are not singing - he can feel it, hear it; he does not recognize anypony currently singing, and his fur bristles at the thought of still more intruders within his empire - the music that flows out of the Crystal Empire to greet the music that flows from the ponies is full of the Crystal Empire's essence itself:

Love.

His eyes slip shut. The back of his neck hurts. Love. He had paid the ultimate price for it, and still it prevails within and throughout his beautiful kingdom.

"Does that mean I succeeded?" There's no point in restricting his thoughts to his own mind. He is alone within these dungeons. He has been for days, now. Probably. With every passing second in a dim stone cube with no windows to the outside to speak of, he has found it more and more difficult to tell how fast time passes.

"Succeeded in what?"

To the king's credit, despite the period of absolute isolation he's been enduring, his only reaction is a shrill but relatively quiet 'eeaugh!' as he stumbles backwards so quickly that the back of his head hits the hard stone of the wall behind him with a thunk loud enough for the other pony to hear. He knows she heard it, because a very soft hiss of empathetic pain leaves her pursed lips as she steps forwards.

Bloodshot eyes meet wide violet ones. The soft blue glow of magic soon illuminates the latter as King Sombra finds his budding headache relieved.

"I've...become quite good at head injury-related spells as of late." Princess Cadance coughs into one hoof with a light pink blush dusting her cheeks. "I may have underestimated my own strength recently...several times." She holds out one wing with a half-smirked smile, like they're sharing a little inside joke.

Despite his confusion, he can't stop a small chuckle from escaping. "I see. Well, thank you, Princess. I doubt you came here just to brag about your healing abilities, though. You don't particularly seem like the arrogant type." His eyes narrow slightly, his gaze sharpening upon her. Not as a threat, but out of curiosity, with more than a hint of suspicion shimmering within. "So...to what do I owe the honor?"

She shuffles her hooves uncomfortably, all hints of levity suddenly evaporating from her expression. "...I'm sorry." She visibly struggles with something within herself for a few, long minutes before speaking once more. "My sister-in-law, Twilight, she- she's very protective of her family, including Shining Armor. Especially Shining Armor. She tends to overreact to ponies and situations that she views as threats before trying a less defensive route." A soft sigh leaves her, the smallest hint of a sad smile gracing her lips. "She has much to learn about being the Princess of Friendship."

He hardly has any time to process the fact that the pony that attacked him - for saving her brother, no less! - is the Princess of Friendship before his horn brace is shattered and the door to his cell swings open, swirling blue sparkles muting what would surely be ear-shattering squeals from the rusted hinges.

"I suggest teleporting out. She probably wouldn't be too happy to see you waltzing out of here like..." And there's another one of those melancholy smiles. "...like you own the place."

Something about the way she looks at him...it's like she knows how all of this is going to play out. How it'll end. He doesn't get a sense of clairvoyance from her; he doubts she can read the future. It's more like she can read him.

"Before I take my leave, Princess, what are you the princess of?"

"King Sombra, I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, the Princess of Love."

And when she looks him in the eye this time, it is like she's peering straight into his soul, and now he knows not what he must do, but what he will do. What he thought was a decision he would make for himself had already been made, deep in his subconscious, long, long ago.

We can save the Crystal ponies with their history~!

He doesn't bother with his physical form for the time being. His heart hurts too much, and he knows that although it's likely only a mental differentiation, his shadowy form makes it easier to cope with. Easier to separate from. A formless heart composed of shadows and dark magic cannot be broken. Not like a flesh and blood heart can be.

And as he swirls around the borders of his beautiful kingdom, every time one of his previously loyal subjects catches a glimpse of him, their joyous celebrations grind to a screeching halt as they cry out an announcement of his arrival. Not with joy, not with admiration, not with love, but with fear, with hatred, with disgust, with all of the terrible black emotions that fuel the larger part of his soul. The part that he gave up so much of his old self for, in a desperate attempt to save the lives of those who once loved him.

He scowls, prompting more screams, before rushing away as the howls of dark snow clouds chase after his trails.

'I will earn their love back. I know what I can do. What I must do. What I WILL do.'

When he had hidden away the Crystal Empire so many years ago, he hadn't just hidden away his kingdom. The source of their power - the reason that accursed war had ever started - had been hidden away too. He knew that, although his subjects would know not to fear him, despite his altered form, any potential intruders would be far too terrified of him to ever think to storm the Crystal Heart's hiding place:

His castle.

'Almost there. I can feel its presence...it's so...weak. I should never have hidden it so far away from my Crystal ponies.'

As he travels to his Crystal Heart, his own thrums in exact synchronicity with the magical artifact. Although at first he hadn't been going particularly quickly, for some reason, his anxiety ticks upwards with every passing second until he's jetting straight through the walls of his castle as fast as he can go. He doesn't know why, but he's learned by now to trust his gut instinct when it comes to matters of the Heart. He doesn't need to think about it, never has. Only feel, and listen.

When he's close, electricity shoots up his spine and jolts the base of his skull, an alarm blaring throughout the castle and sending his heart racing.

'NO!'

Without considering what could come of his actions, he pulls together enough energy for a teleport, prays to whatever gods out there that might still care enough to listen that he didn't miss any parts of his shadows, and forces the rest of his body into the chamber where his precious Crystal Heart rests. Miraculously, he reappears in his physical form, whole and unh-

"Oomph!"

His muzzle makes very rapid and close acquaintances with the crystal floor.

Well, he's whole and mostly unharmed.

Uncaring of the dribble of blood running from his snout, he whips his head around, eyes wild as he furiously searches for the impudent fool who had dared lay their grimy hooves upon his Heart. The black fog emanating from his eyes crackles with acid green as he finds the perpetrator locked within walls of black crystal and pathetically crying out to a panicked green and purple dragon staring at the Crystal Heart now laying on the ground.

Laying on the ground!

Galloping over towards the puny creature, he pays it no mind as he carefully picks up the Crystal Heart with his hooves, examining it first manually, then with his magic, for any signs of imperfection or damage. Several times the intruder - his heart thunders within his ears far too frantically for him to properly identify her as anything other than some vaguely familiar mare - whines too loudly, and he growls out an order for her to 'Shut up!' before continuing his task.

Five minutes pass.

The dragon tries to crawl towards the imprisoned mare, and earns his own, smaller prison for his efforts. Now he's sniffling. He earns a muzzle.

Ten minutes pass.

Both of them have learned that silence will be rewarded with ignorance, and noise will be rewarded with cruelty.

Twenty minutes pass. His heart has stopped racing. His Heart is fine. Its surface is harder than the strongest diamond in Equestria - neigh, on the known planet - and a mere fall would not scratch it. Whatever that intruder had tried to do to his Crystal Heart didn't work.

His horn flares to life as night interspersed with crackles of green surrounds his Heart. One purple eye peeks through the gaps between her rocky bars, panic clear in her stare. As she opens her muzzle, though, Sombra simply rolls his eyes and gifts her the same muzzle he'd given the dragon, albeit slightly larger to accommodate for her size. Seconds later, the Heart vanishes with the familiar bang of rapidly compressing material, then a second bang of the surrounding air rushing to fill the vacuum left behind back in.

Down below the castle balcony, the Heart rests comfortably in-between two thin black crystal spires, beginning to rotate slightly.

King Sombra turns to his angrily mumbling prisoner, and raises his brows in shock.

"The Princess of Friendship is a lowly thief?" He shakes his head, tutting condescendingly. "For shame, Princess Twilight Sparkle." His horn glows again as he prepares to teleport the three of them to his dungeons when Twilight's muzzle explodes off of her face. If she feels the smoldering debris brush against her face, singeing her cheek fur, she does not show it. Hm. He had forgotten that his emergency shields only block teleportation magic from those trapped within.

"You would DARE call me a thief when you're the disgusting TYRANT that stole that priceless relic from HIS OWN SUBJECTS?! And in their time of need no less?!" Despite her herbivorous nature, the snarl she's currently displaying wouldn't be unfitting on the face of a meat-eater.

He blinks, genuinely caught off-guard.

"What?"

A disgusted sneer curls across her lips as she turns and sits with a pointed huff. "Don't play dumb with me, King Sombra. Princess Celestia told me all about your past, and what you did to your 'precious Crystal ponies'. A real king wouldn't have done what you did."

Leveraging years of emotional regulation training, he stomps down the anger starting to well up within his chest, instead stepping closer to Twilight Sparkle and tapping a hoof against one of her stony imprisonments. "And what, exactly, are the events that I'm being accused of by you and Princess Celestia?"

She scoffs. "Please. I know you're strong enough to warp minds to your own will. I studied those helmets we found buried with those ponies you so heartlessly ensl- GRK!"

The magical ring constricting her throat is only just loose enough to keep from collapsing her trachea as it slowly turns her reddening visage to face King Sombra's own cold glare.

"'Heartlessly. Enslaved.'" He eases his grip slightly, enough to let her take in one desperate, wheezing breath. Not nearly enough for her to speak. He tightens it once more before leaning in so that their noses are less than an inch apart and he can see his scowl reflected within her teary, terrified eyes. "Do not assume that your precious Princess's words are as accurate as you believe. You and your fellow intruders did something to my subjects. They never feared me before you barged into my kingdom as if you had any right to be here. NOPONY invited you in. So have the decency to act like a guest, and a royal guest at that, Princess." With the "p" of the last word, a tiny drop of spittle lands on the tip of her muzzle as he releases her throat and tosses her to the ground.

Twilight spends several minutes coughing and massaging at her bruising neck, blinking away tears and sniffling as she hyperventilates to re-oxygenate her starved brain. As her senses and thoughts slowly start to come back online, she registers Spike's worried screams, faintly, but they might as well be background noise as she starts to analyze not only King Sombra's words, but how he had said them.

She's seen mind-controlled ponies before. Corrupted ones too. They're never really quite there; they're half-sentient at best, and their emotions are restricted. Flat. Their anger is directionless, without purpose, and simply for the sake of being angry. They hurt others because they can, because they have been ordered to by their masters, masters who wish to see others get hurt because it amuses them to see suffering for the sake of it. But the rage that she had seen through her rapidly deteriorating vision in King Sombra's crimson glare...that was real. It was real, righteous rage. And for the first time since she had heard of him, she feels a crack run through what was once such a sure lens of "King Sombra is an evil shadow pony."

...but she's still suspicious. Doubtful.

"How d-" Twilight pauses to cough, horn glowing once more as she casts a healing spell upon her sore throat. She tries again. "How do I know you're not lying?"

The change in her tone is remarkably different. The dark part of him, the part that Slithar had granted him, tells him that violence makes ponies obey, but he tamps that down and locks it away in the box of thoughts he deals with late at night. Something about his words convinced her to listen.

"If you wish to hear my story, then you will sit and listen to my entire story. I am able to cast a temporary spell that prevents teleportation and teleportation only. I assume you're a competent enough mage to recognize if I were to attempt anything other than such." He fixes her with a critical stare. "Do you trust me?" He pauses. "In return, I shall trust you to cast Veritus upon me."

"Y-You-" A hoof comes up to her open mouth as she gasps.

'Veritus?!'

Princess Celestia had taught it to her once, yes, during a free study lesson. She had wanted to tackle something particularly difficult, and Celestia had encouraged her to pick any tome from within her own personal library.

The Princess's smile had quickly gone from light and amused to a thin-lipped grimace, and at first Twilight - still lanky and awkward and nervous - had tripped and nearly sent the book flying towards her mentor's head.

"Puh- Princess Celestia, I'm sorry! I-I just- did I do something wrong? I can pick another spell!"

Celestia, regal as ever, shakes her head gently, picking the heavy spellbook up and setting it down upon the table in-between them before ruffling Twilight's mane tenderly.

"No, my faithful student. But as you are aware, I told you when we started these "free study lessons" that you are to learn the history of every single extra spell that I teach you. All of the history."

The young unicorn cocks her head, confused.

"Well, yeah, of course! I love learning history, Princess!"

She holds in a sigh, briefly wondering if she can still recall a time when she still possessed such a level of naivety. Gesturing her student over with one hoof, she flips the tome back open to the spell that Twilight had requested.

"Veritus, the Spell of Truth. Ahem! The caster must be of sufficient magical adequacy to cast this spell. If an inadequate mage attempts to cast this spell, the magical burnout will drain their powers for life. Please refer to section A49-C22 for a list of recommended practice spells before proceeding. The victim-"

She pauses her, brow furrowing as she cranes her head to look up at Celestia, confusion written clear across her face.

"'Victim'?"

"Keep reading, Twilight."

Apprehensive now, she gulps, then nods.

"The, um...the victim of Veritus will respond to any and all questions and statements directed towards them with the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The truth shall so come forth, even if the victim is unaware of it at the time. Warning: Must obtain a Royal Warrant from both princesses before casting. Failure to do so will result in ex-"

Her face goes several shades paler. She doesn't need to look up at Celestia to know that she needs to continue.

"-e-ex...execu...tion."

Now she looks up.

"Princess Celestia...?" Her voice is but a tiny whisper, shaking much like her entire body is now. "W-Why- why would a pony be- b-be...be killed...for just...just wanting honesty?"

The Princess stands up before sitting next to her student, wrapping one sun-warm wing around the small unicorn and shushing her softly.

"Dearest Twilight, you must consider what a pony would do to lose their bodily autonomy like that." The curious, teary glance from her student brings the smallest smile to her lips. "If you wished to lie to me, Twilight, it would be your right as a pony to do so. Even though you are my star pupil, you're still a pony. All ponies deserve the right to act and speak as they desire, so long as they don't harm one other or themselves." Her face darkens slightly as memories flash through her mind's eye. "A pony...a pony must do something truly reprehensible in order to lose both solar diarchs' trusts to such an extent that we cannot simply allow them to speak their piece. This spell could be easily abused, Twilight Sparkle." Her wing tightens slightly around her student's back before she presses a motherly kiss to the younger mare's forehead, just below her horn. "The magical component of this spell isn't the most important part of this lesson. Can you tell me what is?"

Her heart warms, slowing from its slightly frantic pace at the show of affection from her second maternal figure. "It's...it's the history around it, isn't it? How we can't let anypony make the same mistakes." She glances down at the floor, briefly, before looking back up at Celestia. "It's why we keep written records of all parts of pony history, even the sad parts, because the sad parts happened for reasons that ponies caused. And if we erase it, then we erase how ponies messed up, and we're just gonna let it all happen again."

The proud smile and nod she receives in response sends another happy pulse through her heart.

The confidence with which the dark king nods sends another shattering tremor through the lens with which she had been viewing the Crystal Empire's history with up til this point.

'Either King Sombra has a poker face to kill for, or...or Princess Celestia's wrong. Or I'M wrong.'

She starts to agree, then stops. "WAIT!" She gets a raised brow from the king in response. "Spike. The- the dragon. Please. At least take his muzzle off. I don't think dragon flames can burn through your crystals, right?"

After examining Spike for a few long seconds, he hums in agreement and removes the dragon's muzzle, placing him within Twilight's crystal prison immediately after. "I trust that you'll keep him from attacking me before I've told my story. What you do after I'm finished is up to you."

Now she nods, a resolute expression on her face.

The moment she does, King Sombra's horn glows, and the crystals surrounding her simply melt back down into the floor. She feels the familiar buzz of magic surrounding her horn, though the aura is vastly different from her own. When she glances up, she catches a glimpse of black and green before looking back at King Sombra, giving one small nod of consent.

The shield he puts around her horn is just as he had promised. She won't be teleporting anywhere for two hours, or until he cancels it. Whichever comes first.

The spell she'll be casting is going to be significantly harder.

Heart racing, her horn begins to spark, Spike clinging to her leg - though whether it's to support her or because he needs her support, she doesn't know - as she charges up. All of her focus is pulled into ensuring that her magenta magic is pulled into the proper leylines among the countless microscopic grooves indented into her horn, and once she feels everything 'click' into place, her eyes open, shimmering white from the near-overload of power, before she unleashes the spell upon King Sombra.

The Truth

As Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle's energy tears through him, he grits his teeth but lays himself bare, his magical and physical defenses entirely lowered as the powerful magic of Veritus wraps itself around every cell of his being. He feels it pooling within his body, most significantly at the base of his horn, throughout the folds of his mind as a new and unpleasant sensation, inside every single cell of his vocal folds, and his heart. His fur still bristles with residual arcana as Twilight collapses onto her belly once the spell is cast, panting heavily from exertion and several beads of sweat rolling down her face. A wince crosses over her visage, briefly, as salt stings at the burn on her cheek.

Surprisingly enough, she hadn't limited his ability to teleport. While he likely could overpower such a spell with enough time - the magic of a teleportation cancellation spell is not as ancient and binding as Veritus; he has no hope of removing Veritus without the blessing of the original caster - she could disable his ability for long enough to incapacitate and imprison him. It seems she truly is interested in hearing what he has to say.

The dragon procures a handkerchief from the same magical pocket dimension that ponies keep their bits within, carefully wiping the sweat away from Twilight's face and patting her uninjured cheek gently.

"Twilight? A-Are you okay?" His voice is even higher than Sombra had originally thought. A small pang of guilt strikes through him at the thought that he had muzzled such a young creature.

Eventually, she regains her stamina enough to pull herself up into a sitting position, forelegs wobbling slightly before she locks her knees upright. She gives Spike a small, comforting smile, nuzzling into the claw petting her cheek with a nod.

"I'm fine, Spike. Just...sit and rest, alright? We've both been through a lot so far today. It's time for us to listen to why we've been through a lot."

He perks up slightly, whipping out a blank scroll and a freshly-inked quill. "Should I take notes?"

She smiles fondly. "Yes please, my Number One Assistant!"

Her expression eases into one of apprehensive interest as she looks back towards King Sombra, who looks somewhat surprised and only a little bit shaken by the powerful magic that she had just unleashed upon him.

"I assume you'll be wanting to test Veritus' effectiveness upon a pony like me."

There's no accusation in his tone, but the phrase 'pony like me' still brings an apologetic wince to her face. "Y-Yes." A pause. "I'm...I'm sor-"

"Stop."

She blinks.

"Do not apologize to me. Not before you've heard what I have to say. You seem to be under the impression that Princess Celestia's recollection of my kingdom's history is entirely incorrect, or mostly so. I shall allow you to draw that conclusion for yourself, but until I have given my perspective on things, don't assume that I am not a monster. I have continuously refused to deny your accusations for that reason, Princess Twilight."

As she wracks her brain for evidence of his statements, she finds that he's right. Though he had been amused, confused, and even angered by her words, he had not once refuted her claims. She's beginning to think that, perhaps, casting Veritus might not have even been necessary.

"...fair enough. I'm still going to apologize for attacking you before saying a single word to you. Whether you're a monster or not, I should have made that judgment before blasting you." She chances a small smile, and receives one in return. "Now, let's start with a simple question: Where are we? Be specific."

"We are at the top of the Crystal Empire's castle, which is located in the center of the empire. This is a gravity-flipped dimension, only accessible via an hours-long trek or a short slide when combined with the use of a gravity spell. This is where I hid the Crystal Heart away when I cast the spell to hide the Crystal Empire over one thousand years ago." The sharp green tingle of Veritus vibrates along his vocal folds and echoes throughout his voice as he speaks, throat glowing with the magic.

She nods. Certain parts of Celestia's retelling of the empire's history were objective facts, and this seems to be one of them. Now for something a bit less certain.

"What is your full name?"

He cocks his head at her, somewhat surprised, but answers willingly; Veritus causes untold agonies for anypony foolish enough to attempt resistance - not that it stopped past criminals from trying - but he consented and will continue to do so. He has no reason not to.

"King Sombra Umbral Obsidian." His muzzle quirks up into a sardonic smile. "It is a bit of a tongue twister. You can see why I cut it down to simply 'King Sombra.'"

Another nod, along with a polite smile in return. "If it's any consolation, I know the feeling. It's a good lead into my next question: What is my full name?"

"Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship."

Satisfied, and feeling restored enough, now, to unlock her knees, she shakes the feeling back into the lower parts of her forelegs before folding them so that she can lay herself upon the crystal ground, horn glowing as she casts a warming spell so that her underbelly doesn't freeze. She tilts her head towards King Sombra to invite him to do the same.

"I suspect the retelling of an entire empire's history will take quite some time. Royalty to royalty, I think it would be in both of our best interests to get as comfortable as possible."

He nods in response, following suit and laying down on his stomach. The cold doesn't seem to affect him.

"Veritus' effect on your throat didn't sound too pleasant, but I recall from my lessons with Princess Celestia that if you attempt to lie or withhold the truth, it...it won't be pleasant, so I don't think I need to demand that you begin to speak. Whenever you're ready, you can begin."

A smirk crosses his face. She's found a clever loophole for the spell; by allowing him to choose when to speak the truth, Veritus won't buzz through the cells of his throat with every syllable he utters. The expression quickly fades, though, as he begins to sort through his memories and prepares to relive them for the Princess of Friendship.

The Crystal Empire was once a beautiful, thriving kingdom. If you think it's beautiful now, try to imagine it as it was in its prime. Crystal Berry bushes were planted in nearly every garden of every house, Crystal ponies pranced about in the streets with their foals, and laughter rang through the air alongside the birds' songs in the sweetest melodies you could ever imagine.

There was a reason for this, naturally. Several reasons, of course, for an empire's success rests not upon a single ruler, nor a single citizen, but upon the citizens as a whole and how well their ruler leads them with compassion and kindness. My love for them was reflected back towards me a thousandfold, perhaps more, and I cherished it with all of my heart and soul. I knew that I had to return it in some way.

That's where the Crystal Heart comes in. As you may or may not know, the Crystal Heart's main purpose was and still is to absorb, amplify, and return all of the love and light within the Crystal Empire. It was...it was magnificent, in its prime. It glowed so brightly that nopony could stand to look at it for longer than a few moments without special darkened glasses, and those were always in short supply, despite my best attempts to dispense them at top speed, because all of my subjects desired to look upon it as often for as long as possible.

Soon, our glorious kingdom's happiness and wealth became known far and wide. When I say that the love our kingdom was soaked in was the source of envy for many other kingdoms, I say this not merely from vanity, but from genuine pride for how strong and how well my subjects had embraced unity. We were as one in our contentment, and that contentment was our downfall.

King Garrote was the ruler of the largest military gryphon kingdom at the time, and he had heard of the Crystal Empire and how prosperous we were. He cared not for our happiness; he knew only that we had good trade relations with other kingdoms - never wondering what contributed to our large production abilities or how we had forged such strong alliances - and he wanted our wealth for himself. He had heard of our Crystal Heart, for we were, of course, proud of our Heart. How could we not be? It was and still is such a beautiful thing. Its abilities to not only take in and make use of such a pure and powerful source of energy, but to amplify it and return it still amaze me to this day, over one thousand years later, and though we did not brag about it, we happily told those who asked about the source of our happiness.

It took him but a few months to amass enough soldiers from neighboring gryphon kingdoms to an amount that was easily double, if not triple my empire's entire population. Many of my ponies had never known war, or fighting beyond the occasional tavern scuffle, schoolyard fight, or play wrestle. Even my royal guard only had weapons because I felt they deserved the honor of wielding such symbols of power, of strength.

We were woefully unprepared, and it showed when the first wave of soldiers landed. They crushed the Crystal Heart's shield easily, and I watched as my first beloved Crystal pony was eviscerated before my very eyes. Sometimes I can still taste that tiny colt's blood, when my nightmares are worst and my mental defenses are weakest. His name was Honeysuckle Nectar. He was a wonderful gardener.

...

Ahem. Soon after, I went up to my balcony, and announced that we were at war. We needed soldiers, and fast. All of my subjects were fearful, but they were loyal, and many of the able-bodied younger ponies were quick to approach the castle and ask me for instructions. I was only able to give them the briefest of training, with my royal guard assisting the groups I could not personally see to, but they were effective enough for the first, smallest group.

The next wave was three times as large, and they were armed with their own brand of magic. I had never seen anything like it. They spoke in a language I didn't know, and laughed as my beloved subjects choked to death on the poisonous green gas that leaked from their open beaks. I know, now, that it was the work of runes and sigils they had painted onto their feathers; a rawer, more physical form of magic than the type that we ponies possess. We had no chance of countering it, for it was too foreign and new for us to study and deflect so rapidly.

The war went on for years. My soldiers fought bravely, but the gryphons' weapons grew more and more advanced with every increasingly large wave. Every new contraption brought more destruction, more death, more of my beautiful subjects' blood staining the streets, and as my most trusted advisor pushed my last-resort tactic upon me during a particularly horrible battle...

...

...I gave in.

Those helmets that you studied are called SOM-72s, and they were devised so that my Crystal Ponies could take lives by the hundreds without ever having to remember it. The armor should have protected them from anypony's weapons, and that was my fatal flaw. Any pony's weapons.

They would have been safe if gryphons hadn't been attacking us.

The SOM-72s failed, as I'm sure you can deduce. While the more advanced armor gave my ponies a stronger, fighting chance - it even seemed like they might prevail against all odds, for a short while - the gryphons beat them down eventually. Whether it was through sheer force of numbers or because I was woefully unprepared, I will never know and if I had the chance to go back and find out for myself, I would not take it.

Our numbers were dwindling. I could feel the fear and grief infecting my Crystal Heart. I could feel my ponies growing desperate and more afraid with every death wail that bounced off of the bloodstained crystal surfaces of my once-gorgeous kingdom. So I made a decision that would affect me for the rest of a life which was once mortal.

Its name was Slithar, and it was the most wretched creature I had ever seen. To this day, I doubt that I will ever see anything more or quite as revolting as it.

I saw the way that you looked at me, when you first saw me. Don't look so ashamed of yourself, for I reacted in a much worse way when I first examined my new form in a mirror. I screamed like a mare. No, more like a little filly. One that just saw a massive, hairy spider.

I look like this because I sold a part of myself that should never be sold. Not for riches, not for fame, not for victory, and not even for love.

Sometimes, though, when I think back upon when I made that deal with it, I think that there might be another universe where I didn't specify what I was willing to give up for my beloved subjects. I told that disgusting creature that, in exchange for powers that would allow me to crush my enemies with forces so terrifying that they would never dare even consider attacking us again, I would give up anything.

Anything...but my love for my subjects.

I know that pondering "what if"s is a slippery slope and at the bottom lay the sharp rocks of rumination and downwards mental spirals, but it soothes the guilt, sometimes, to know that I specified that. I was willing to do anything for my subjects, even sacrifice most of my soul, because I loved them. What good would that have been if I stopped loving them due to my sacrifice?

The war ended quickly after that. I destroyed every single remaining gryphon within my kingdom, save for one. I allowed one to survive, and instructed her to fly back to her king, to not stop for anything, and to tell him what she had seen. What she had seen me do, and what I was capable of. I let her leave with one less limb and one less eye than when she arrived. I do not regret taking any of the lives or body parts that I did.

The reason I hid away my empire for so long was, in part, to allow for us to recuperate without any chance for outside forces to intrude upon my damaged and healing kingdom. We needed time to rebuild, to recover, to support each other and power the Heart with our love and light, and we could not do that if we spent all of our time constantly looking to the skies and over our shoulders, terrified out of our wits over who would be next to attempt a genocide of my beautiful ponies.

But once the dead had been buried, and the buildings had been rebuilt, and my citizens had not moved on, but at least processed most of the events and had been told everything that I had done - I have always believed in a ruler being honest with his subjects, for a dishonest ruler is no ruler at all - we realized that...isolation suited us just fine. Nopony asked me to release the vanishing spell, and I admit, I was still afraid of what may lurk outside in those seemingly innocent green fields.

Yes, Princess, the Frozen North hasn't always been frozen, nor was my kingdom always restricted to this small section. War kills more than just ponies and gryphons.

I still don't know why my kingdom reappeared so suddenly. What I do know is that the sudden dissolution of my spell led to widespread amnesia amongst my citizens, and it left their minds weak and open to suggestion. Anything that you and your other...visitors...may have told them, they would have immediately accepted it as the honest truth. I do not say this out of anger or to incite guilt; I am merely stating that the magic at work within my empire is stronger and older than even you, Princess Twilight.

And so...that is what happened to my Crystal Empire.

When he finishes, Twilight's horn glows green with the buzz of Veritus Expellus, a stream of it jolting towards King Sombra before the energy diffuses throughout his whole form, canceling out Veritus' effects upon the king's body. Tears stream down her cheeks as she stares down at the floor, a small puddle there showing that she had started crying quite some time ago.

For a time, neither of them speak. King Sombra's breaths are uneven but soft, ragged with restrained emotion as he struggles to keep flashes of images from his past from replaying in his mind's eye. He has finished reliving events from over one thousand years ago; now he must focus on not reliving them.

"...now, I'm sorry," she whispers.

His head snaps up, blinking away the beginnings of tears as surprise begins to show. "You- you still wish to apologize?" He pauses, blinking again, this time out of confusion. "...you heard the part where I said that I was not sorry for committing mass murder, correct?"

A trembling laugh bursts forth from her chest, and she stands on wobbly legs before collapsing half on top of King Sombra.

He's prepared for an attack, whole body tensing, before he realizes that her forelegs are wrapped around his neck not in a chokehold, but...but in a hug. Tears and snot dribble into the top of his mane as Princess Twilight hugs him as though her life depends on it.

Spike walks over, clasping his claws together anxiously, before looking at the two of them with a clear, unspoken question in his eyes.

'Can I join?'

With an incredulous look still on his face, he nods slowly, prompting the dragon to walk over and wrap one arm around the king's chest as the other wraps around Twilight's back.

"Yes, King Sombra Umbral Obsidian. I, Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle, am sorry. I misjudged you. I grossly, grossly misjudged you."

The Test

"Princess Celestia!"

This time, when the doors to the Canterlot throne room are thrown open with such force that the walls are indented, the sun princess is not expecting the pony standing where the doors once did. With her legs spread slightly beneath her and her head lowered slightly, the only reason she doesn't take up a defensive stance against her own student is the wide-eyed and pleading look in Princess Twilight's gaze.

"I need to talk to you! It- It's about King Sombra!"

The guards flanking her shudder. They've been trained to remain stoic in the face of many things, but mentions of the Shadow King's very name are enough to shatter those facades like the thinnest of glass. Whether it's out of the sympathetic goodness of her heart or because she senses that the conversation they're about to have is not for prying, mortal ears, she dismisses all guards in the room with an order that they're all too happy to obey.

Adjusting her stance slightly - she had stiffened in shock, first, upon Twilight's sudden entrance, then slumped in relief - in order to better prepare herself, she then beckons the other closer with a golden-clad hoof.

"Of course, Princess Twilight. I see that you're unharmed, and you haven't attacked me...yet." She allows herself a small titter, attempting to keep the mood light, and receives a hard stare in return. She gets the distinct feeling that she's done something wrong. Clearing her throat, she continues. "So, what did you want to discuss?"

"Spike?" The baby dragon comes running up from where he'd been examining the palace walls, and taps her flank to get her attention. "Yeesh, Twilight. Talk about a dramatic arrival. Anyways, did you want me to read it out loud?" After a brief period of consideration, she nods once. "Ahem! The history of the Crystal Empire, as narrated by King Sombra Umbral Obsidian. 'The Crystal Empire was once a beautiful, thriving kingdom...'"

And so, he reads aloud King Sombra's entire recollection of the Crystal Empire's history, his voice echoing slightly throughout the vast chambers of the solar diarchs' throne room. As he speaks, a range of restricted emotions flash over Princess Celestia's face; a hint of happiness, a touch of empathetic grief, a glimmer of doubt, and as Spike finishes, her visage settles back into its unreadable slight smile, if not just a little bit grimmer than usual.

For a few minutes, there is silence in the room as Princess Celestia processes the tale she's been told and Princess Twilight gives her time to do so. Then, she speaks.

"And you believe King Sombra's word over mine?" As accusatory as the words may be, her tone betrays nothing of the sort; her vague smile remains, and her gaze is steady and judgment-free as it stays locked with Twilight's.

Although part of her wants to shrink away from those intense violet-pink eyes, the much larger part of her demands that she keep the contact and meet it with her own, much fiercer, much more determined one. "Yes, Princess. Especially since he asked me to cast Veritus upon him to make sure that I trusted his words."

And now Princess Celestia's shield breaks, a gasp of shock leaving her as, for just a moment in her mind's eye, the Princess of Friendship in front of her morphs into that tiny filly on the verge of tears, terrified at the thought of what sort of disgusting crimes a pony must commit to have that spell forced upon them, struggling to cast it because she could never really make herself focus hard enough, make herself want to cast it enough to do it properly. She shakes her head slightly, the flow of her mane interrupted by the motion before it resumes once more. The Twilight in front of her has returned to being an adult, alicorn princess. "He- He asked you to?" Her voice shakes slightly, doubt still tingeing her words.

She truly never thought she'd live to see the day where she grew impatient with her own mentor. "Princess Celestia, at the risk of stepping over my bounds, it's clear that you don't believe me, and that you won't believe me either until we've argued for hours, possibly weeks or months or years on end, or until you've literally read my mind." She sets her jaw, narrowing her eyes slightly as the implication of her words hangs heavy in the air between them. "I'm not asking you to do this. I'm giving you an ultimatum. Prove to me right here, right now, that King Sombra hasn't manipulated me, nor my memories, nor my magical abilities to effectively cast Veritus to its full power, or I'm walking out and neither of us know when or if I'll be back."

Her jaw drops. Despite herself, though, she must hold back the tiny, sad smile that threatens to break through the grief beginning to show in her eyes; this situation reminds her of the time Twilight threatened to run away because Princess Celestia refused to let her have an entire tub of ice cream for dessert, knowing full well the filly would come crying to her, begging to learn "the tummy better spell" that she used whenever her protégé got sick.

"Very well. I don't think I need to remind you to keep your defenses lowered as I-" She grits her teeth as she speaks the words she's spoken to so many criminals before, and that she must speak now to- to the student that she's had for so many years, to the student she views as practically her daughter. "-as I search your soul."

Horn glowing with a golden light, she rises from her throne and touches the tip of the glowing bone to Princess Twilight's own, both ponies' eyes opening wide and reflecting brief flashes of memories as Princess Celestia flips through them. They remain locked like this for some time, long enough that Spike eventually stops staring and sits down a few feet away, starting to doodle on a blank piece of parchment.

'Maybe I can draw King Sombra a picture of himself! The guy seems like he needs some cheering up...'

Finally, they break apart with a sound not unlike a particularly loud static electrical shock, both princesses slumping onto their haunches on the ground and panting slightly from exertion.

When Princess Twilight looks up at her mentor, the self-satisfied and triumphant grin that makes its way onto her face is only half as wide as it wants to be. She knows what that look on Celestia's face means, and she's ready for the incoming apology, and for the scroll with King Sombra's official pardon.

...okay, maybe that last bit is a bit optimistic, but she lets herself hope. The Princess is usually pretty forgivi-

"Princess Twilight. Although I found no manipulations of your magic, memories, or your ability to tell such, there is no known spell for detecting the kind of manipulation that the Shadow King was so well-known for. His words were like poisoned honey, and his subjects were loyal to the death - deaths which they found at his hooves, whether indirectly or directly." Even as she speaks, though, something feels wrong. She knows that Twilight is smart, and that she'd certainly be smart enough to tell whether she's being manipulated or not...but she's already said it and she's too stubborn to back down now. "The only pony that can tell you whether you're being poisoned by his words or not is you, Twilight. Your path is your own, and although I will always be here to guide you, I- Twilight!"

The first few words that Celestia had spoken had filled her with such joy, but then everything went downhill from there. As Princess Celestia continues to speak, rambling on and on about some fate or something, all she can hear is 'Twilight, I know my magic said you're not being influenced, but you're obviously too stupid to tell whether King Sombra's really evil or not, and I know better than you, so even if YOU say he's not evil, I say he is, so listen to what I'M saying' and her eyes grow wide as she begins to slowly back away. Tears begin to blur her vision as she backs up faster and faster until she bumps into Spike and, without glancing back at Princess Celestia, she levitates him onto her back and trots away like the very fires of Tartarus itself are upon her heels.

Back in the throne room, her mouth hangs open from where she'd last called out for her student, uncertainty painted all over her royal visage.

'...did I...should I have...'

"No. Celestia, you must retain your confidence in yourself; an insecure ruler is unfit to watch over so much as an ant, let alone all of Equestria." Her voice firms up as she gives herself this little pep talk, then sighs, wilting slightly in her throne, shaking her head. "I'm...I'm sure that Twilight will make the right choice. I will give her time to come back to me. She has and always will keep Equestria's best interests at heart."

On the train ride back to the Crystal Empire, Princess Twilight books a private car for herself and Spike, unwilling and unable to deal with the masses of overzealous princess fanponies right now. She can't even talk to Spike; she can't remember the last time she was this upset.

Speaking of Spike...she glances over at her Number One Assistant, meeting nervous green eyes with her own teary purple ones. She manages a weak, wobbly-lipped smile, unfolding her right wing and wrapping it around him to pull him in for a hug, one feather reaching up to poke at his cheek playfully.

The giggle she gets in return is more than enough to pull the corners of her mouth up into a more genuine smile, small as it may be.

"...so, do you...do you wanna, um...talk about what happened, Twi? I-I mean, I know I'm not a princess or anything, and maybe I can't really give advice on it, but you know," and here he puffs out his chest exaggeratedly, holding both his arms out and flexing his biceps, "I'm da man! And da man is always gonna listen to his favorite librarian and best friend."

When her body begins to shake against him, he worries that she's begun to sob again, but when he looks at her, she's silently laughing, and her eyes are still a bit teary but he doesn't think she's really stopped crying since they left the palace; at least her crying's slowed down.

'Wait. Why isn't she laughing out loud?'

"Um, Twilight?"

She looks at him, head cocked.

"...oh, jeez. You really are messed up about this, huh?" His voice is much softer this time, and he presses his cheek to her chest fluff, wrapping his arms around her neck.

Her chest heaves and warm air tickles against his back spines as she sighs in confirmation, returning the hug with one foreleg and nuzzling at the top of his head with her chin.

"Do you wanna write stuff while I talk? Or do you feel awkward with just me talking?" He offers her a comforting smile, just as judgment-free as the last time she'd gone nonverbal. "'Cause y'know, I'm a pretty fast writer!" He pulls out several fresh blank scrolls, a quill, and a pot of ink.

One side of her muzzle quirks up in thought, and after a moment of contemplation, she holds up one hoof: Option One. Her horn glows as she takes one sheet of parchment, the quill, and the ink pot, dipping the quill into the ink then starting to write.

'𝒮𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎, 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜𝑜.'

He frowns, giving her an exaggerated glare and huffing smoke from his nostrils just to complete the dramatic mini-tantrum. "Hey hey hey! We made a deal, missy! Don't you remember what it was?"

She winces slightly, nodding apologetically.

'𝑅𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉, 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉. 𝒜𝒽𝑒𝓂: "𝑅𝓊𝓁𝑒 𝓃𝓊𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝓃𝑒: 𝒩𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓅𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝒾𝓏𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓃𝑜𝓃𝓋𝑒𝓇𝒷𝒶𝓁, 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒯𝓌𝒾𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒮𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓁𝑒'𝓈 𝒻𝒶𝓊𝓁𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒷𝑒𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝓈."'

The smile returns to her lips as she continues writing.

'"𝐼𝓃 𝒶𝒹𝒹𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒯𝓌𝒾𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒮𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓁𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓃𝒾𝓆𝓊𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉, 𝑜𝓇 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝒷𝒿𝑒𝒸𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝒸𝓊𝒹𝒹𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝓉𝓉𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝑒𝓇𝑜𝒸𝒾𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑜𝓃 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝒸𝒽 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑜𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓈 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒩𝓊𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝒪𝓃𝑒 𝒜𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝓉, 𝒜.𝒦.𝒜., 𝒮𝓅𝒾𝓀𝑒!"'

And the moment that Spike finishes reading that, he giggles and does just that, smooshing his face into her chest and hugging her, scritching at her mane with his claws just enough to give her a relaxing massage and never once scraping or injuring her. "Haha, I forgot about that part, but I'm glad you remembered!" He steps back slightly and taps her nose with an index claw as punishment, though. "But I'll never forget the part about you being wonderful and never needing to be sorry for how you are, even if you're quiet sometimes."

She giggles silently through the cuddle attack, the tension in her body easing up somewhat at her assistant's antics before she nods at his words.

'𝐼𝓉'𝓈 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒶 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑒, 𝒮𝓅𝒾𝓀𝑒. 𝐼 𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝐼 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝐼 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉...𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓉, 𝐼 𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈.'

He hums, then sits cross-legged next to her, leaning against her side and pulling her wing over himself like a blanket, earning a playful glare from the mare.

"Well, it has been a long time since this happened, but...I dunno, I don't know much about stuff like this, but I don't think things like this ever really just go away, y'know? All you can really do is cope with it and do your best to not beat yourself up over it, and keep good friends around that'll help you to not be mad at yourself too." He smiles up at her, and gets a teary, grateful one in return. She leans down and kisses his forehead, settling onto her belly and yawning, using her left wing to wipe her face.

'𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼 𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝓋𝑜𝒾𝒹 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓂𝓎 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓂𝓈, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓈𝓈'𝓈 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑜𝓇, 𝐼 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝓂 𝓉𝒾𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝑜𝒹𝒶𝓎'𝓈...𝑒𝓍𝒸𝒾𝓉𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉. 𝑀𝒶𝓎𝒷𝑒 𝓌𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓃𝒶𝓅 𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓁 𝓌𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒞𝓇𝓎𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓁 𝐸𝓂𝓅𝒾𝓇𝑒?'

When she receives a skeptical look from her adopted baby brother, she rolls her eyes affectionately and goes through the motions of a Pinkie Promise, mouthing the words along with them. A faint, ominous whisper echoes from nowhere and everywhere the second she finishes.

Or else...

'𝐼 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝐼'𝓂 𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝑒𝓍𝒽𝒶𝓊𝓈𝓉𝑒𝒹. 𝐼'𝓁𝓁 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝒷𝒶𝒷𝓁𝓎 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁𝓈 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝓉𝑜𝑜, 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓉...'

Satisfied with her promise, Spike settles down into a little ball of a dragon by her side, adamantly refusing to stop protecting her even as they sleep. Soon, however, he's snoring, off in dreamland.

Twilight smiles and conjures up a blanket, draping it over Spike and tucking in the edges. She titters.

'He looks like a little blue bun!'

Yawning once more, she settles herself onto her belly, resting her chin down onto her crossed forehooves as she begins to doze off...

"Twiiiliiight...Twiiiliiight...TWILIGHT!"

"DAUGH!" With one of her trademark yelps, she wakes up, eyes darting around wildly and her horn beginning to power up. "Spike, what's wrong, who's attacking us?!"

One hand places itself on her cheek, another flicking at her horn to jolt her out of firing off any potentially destructive spells. "Hey, calm down, Twi! Nothing's wrong, you were just REALLY asleep. I guess you were more tired than you thought!"

The familiar smile of her assistant brings her racing heartbeat back down to a much more normal pace, and she offers him a sheepish grin of her own, cheeks heating up. "Oh, uh, s-sorry. So, um, are we here, then?"

As if on cue, the conductor knocks on the door twice, then calls through it to announce that they have, indeed, arrived at the Crystal Empire, and that the train will be returning to Canterlot in five minutes.

She stands up, stretching her legs, then the rest of her body in a distinctly cat-like series of motions, before shaking herself loose and sighing contentedly. "Ahh...I really do feel much better, though, Spike! C'mon, we gotta go talk to the girls now." When she walks onto the train station's platform, though, she finds King Sombra waiting for her, holding a golden tiara with obsidian and amethyst pieces masterfully set into the jewelry. In addition, floating in his black and green levitation field just below it is a royal purple cloak, complete with a black faux fur trim.

"Hello, Princess Twilight! I figured I would meet you here to give you the good news." His grin is wide, showing off his fangs, but the excitement in his voice and face is so genuine that she can't find it in herself to feel threatened at all. "I've decided to crown YOU as my heir to the Crystal Empire's throne! Think of it as being my protégé, if you will. I shall train you in my most potent of magics, and-"

Suddenly, a ray of golden magic so bright that it sears the retinas of all who saw it for a good few seconds shatters the tiara and incinerates the robes within seconds, and the very core of the earth shakes as Princess Celestia lands with a furious growl.

"HALT, FOUL BEAST! MY student would NEVER succumb to your EVIL SCHEMES and treacheries!" She turns to Twilight and gives her the same motherly smile that she's grown up with for years before turning back to King Sombra with a murderous glare. "If I must DESTROY you to save my poor filly's innocence, then SO BE IT!" Rising to the air, she begins shooting destructive golden beams towards King Sombra, blasting apart the train station at every fiery-hot point impact.

"FILLY?! HA! You truly have lost your MIND, Princess Celestia! Princess Twilight Sparkle is a mature and BRIGHT alicorn princess, and she has the mind of a TRUE leader." Rising to the air as well, his body transforms into black smog as his head remains in its solid form, tendrils of shadow lashing out in attempts to pierce through Celestia's body. "She deserves BETTER than some OLD COW like YOU!" Crackling green lightning strikes down towards Celestia, narrowly missing the spot where she stood not more than one second ago.

"EEENOUGH!"

Horn glowing with strain, she forms the strongest shield she knows how to - silently thanking Shining Armor for developing and teaching her the spell - before stepping in-between the two, wings flapping as she blasts both of them with her own purple magic, temporarily disabling their abilities to use their arcana.

"Neither of you asked what I want! Does that not matter to you two?!"

Both of them float to be next to each other, eyes locking with her own as their mouths open and they speak in synchronicity:

"No."

And with that, one shadowy limb reaches out to wrap around her waist as another solidified tendril of golden magic grips her waist just above King Sombra's hold on her. She feels the breath yanked from her lungs, choking as her face goes redder and redder, and she desperately wants to beg them to stop, but their foci are no longer on her, intensely glaring at each other, and all she can do is gasp and wheeze and-

It feels like it happens in slow motion. First, her internal organs rupture. It feels like very thick balloons are popping within her. Then, her spine cracks. It's muted, and she doesn't think outside spectators really heard it that much, but she feels it more than hears it and it echoes throughout her skull so loudly that it hurts. Finally, her skin tears. She doesn't hear that part; her ears are ringing too much it's so loud and who's screaming oh she's screaming. Everything hurts so much, she just wants this all to be over with already. If she's dead, she won't have to choose, and she won't have to face her crazy teacher and she won't have to face the crazy king, and-

The world goes black. Not figuratively. Everything quite literally vanishes, and she finds herself whole once more, all pain gone and the air restored to her lungs. She gasps for breath anyways, because she desperately wants to feel normal again. Once she's panicking less, she screams again.

"What is going ON?!"

When Princess Luna appears in front of her, though, everything clicks into place, and she slumps in relief.

'A dream. Of course it was a dream.'

The lunar diarch bows her head slightly, before forming a pleasant meadow around them, a stream quietly burbling as it surrounds the pair in a perfect circle, the occasional, comfortably cool breeze flittering through the branches of the cherry blossom trees placed throughout the clearing.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle. We- I hope you will excuse my question, but...what was that monstrosity of a dream?"

The glare she levels upon Princess Luna could destroy cities. It lasts for exactly three point zero seven seconds before her expression crumbles and she collapses onto the ground, sobbing so hard that she gags occasionally, tears and snot dribbling down her face and wings covering her head as she shivers and rocks back and forth slightly.

"D- Duh- Doh- Dohohon't ma- muh- make mm- m-mme ch- chuh- choohoose t-tooo!"

She understands nothing, but Twilight Sparkle has never had any reason to express animosity towards her, and she feels that the other isn't...exactly a threat right now. So, she clops over, drapes a wing over the smaller princess, and pulls her head in until a damp purple muzzle is against her own broad indigo chest and the Princess of Friendship is free to bawl her eyes out for as long as she needs to.

It comes in waves. She shushes Twilight comfortingly, wipes her tears when she begins to calm, pulls her face back to her chest when she begins to wail out into the shade of the tree above once more, and pets her mane when she falls into whimpering spells. Eventually, though, Princess Twilight calms down enough to lift a trembling wing so that she can smear away snot and tears from her face. Luna can't help but to smile at the sight.

"I must remind you, Twilight Sparkle, that we are in a dream. Thou- you can simply wish for an infinitely absorbent handkerchief and it shall come forth to you."

When the smaller alicorn looks back up at her, her eyes are red-rimmed and still damp, but she offers the tiniest of grateful smiles, and she really does look like she may be ready to talk now. A pink hankie appears in front of her, and after a meek request for Luna to look away, she blows her nose so loudly that the honk echoes throughout the clearing before she wipes her tears away for - hopefully - the last time. All the same, she keeps it clutched firmly in-between her hooves, wringing them slightly as she nudges Princess Luna slightly.

"So, um...I-I guess I have to, talk to you about that dream, huh?" Her voice cracks as she talks, and Luna conjures up some honey ginger tea in a mug shaped like her own head. A laugh leaves her at the sight, but she sips at the tea all the same.

"You do not have to do anything, Twilight Sparkle, but we- I feel that it would benefit you greatly to at least unload your troubles upon somepony who wouldst fail to judge you for anything you are feeling, whether it be conscious or not." She pauses, a sardonic little smile coming to her lips. "Although...perhaps it could be argued that it is now, indeed, conscious." Her head tilts as she gazes down at Twilight. "Before you begin, however...whatever did you mean by 'choose', Twilight Sparkle? We- I did indeed catch the tail end of your dream, and while I believe we can both agree that it was symbolic of two sides, I do not see how I would play any part in this struggle for...possession of you, I assume?"

A soft sigh leaves her at the wording. "'Possession' is right. I feel like I can't do anything without hurting at least one pony, Luna." She sips at her tea again, chewing on a ginger slice and letting the sting of the root ground her more firmly. "I spoke with King Sombra, and...basically, he's not as evil as Princess Celestia told me he was. Not even close." When she looks back up at the lunar princess, she's somewhat confused at the absolute lack of a rebuttal.

"You're...you're not going to argue against that or something?"

She snorts and stomps one hoof gently. "Princess Twilight, after all you have done for the citizens of Equestria, not to mention me, it would be a grave insult to the both of us if I were to imply that you were unable to judge any pony's character. Whether that be a commoner or King Sombra himself, it is still your judgment and we- I trust it."

Twilight nods gratefully, continuing. "Well, after Sombra and I talked and I realized that he isn't evil, I decided that I had to come talk to Princess Celestia and tell her. We were sent there to protect the Crystal Empire, and looking back, I think she told me that history because she believed he was evil, which means we had to protect it from King Sombra. Since he's...well, I don't know if I'd say good, but he's not bad. Anyways, since he's not bad, she could just...I don't know. At least let my friends and I be friends with him." She takes a deep, shuddering breath, tears threatening to spring up again. She swallows the bit of ginger in her mouth, washes it down with more tea, then chews on another slice.

"But when I told her what King Sombra had told me - his 'version' of the Crystal Empire's history - she didn't- she WOULDN'T believe me!" Her hooves shake as they hold the mug, a scowl crossing over her face. "So I snapped at her, and- and I told her that the King asked me to cast Veritus on him. The history he told me was true. All of it was true. And then I told her to read my mind. To read all of it." She chuckles mirthlessly. "I guess I got that idea from King Sombra. Anyways, she did, and found no trace of dark magic or his influence in my mind." A snort of irritation. "As if I wouldn't be able to tell."

"...then...th-then she...basically said that I was being manipulated. How does that even- augh! Manipulated by WHAT, Princess Luna?! By the TRUTH?!"

As Twilight speaks, Princess Luna's face had slowly grown more and more irritated until, with Twilight's final words, she stomps again, much harder, and growling with anger. "That. STUBBORN. FOOL!"

If not for the fact that the first time she had met Princess Luna, the mare had used her Royal Canterlot Voice, she might have fallen over backwards. As it were, though, she simply jumps slightly, nearly inhaling ginger and coughing as spicy spit attempts to make its way into her lungs.

The taller alicorn stands and begins to pace around the clearing, wings flared and flapping occasionally as she rants. "That idiotic, bull-headed, stubborn, cake-addicted, nosy, power-hungry, holier-than-thou, bratty know-it-all SOW!"

The force of her yell sends the leaves and petals flying off of the tree that was unfortunate enough to be nearest to her. She pays it no mind, instead turning to Twilight, inhaling deeply before huffing out a breath in an attempt to calm herself.

"We apologize, Twilight Sparkle. This is...well, we- I thought it was-" She presses a forehoof to the space in-between her eyes, gently, before setting it back down. A tiny speck of mud clings to the fur there. "It is unusual behavior for my sister. At least, I wish to believe that it is. Your time together, with her as your mentor and you as her student, has taught her to be much more selfless and caring, less egocentric, and I thought that would teach her to stop self-aggrandizing. It seems I was wrong. At least, to an extent."

She sets her mug down and walks over to Luna, one purple feather flicking away the mud on the lunar diarch's forehead as she smiles weakly, still a bit shaken by the sheer volume with which Luna had screamed. "Well, at least it changed her enough that this caught us both by surprise, right?" The smile soon melts into a contemplative frown once more. "...so what do I do, Princess Luna?"

A midnight blue wing comes down to wrap around her shoulders, the coolness of the night comforting her as she's pulled closer to Luna, close enough for a gentle nuzzle. "I cannot tell you who to pick, Twilight Sparkle, nor can I be so bold as to simply suggest one over the other. However, what I will say is that the path that will hurt you the least is the one where you follow your heart." She smirks lightly. "This is a rare situation where I will say that it truly does not matter, right here and now, who your decision hurts. As long as your pain is minimal, that is all that matters."

Despite the pain that rises in her heart when she thinks of her teacher, though, Twilight sniffles and huddles closer to Luna. When she speaks, her voice comes out as nearly a whisper. "...b-but, Luna...I...I don't want to...I don't want to lose my- my mentor..."

Her wing tightens gently around Twilight's barrel in another hug. "Dearest Twilight, let us- me tell you of a lesson that I learned a long time ago the hard way: 'If thou loveth something, allow it to leave. If it doth not return, it simply was not meant to be.' I believe that it is time for my sister to learn the same lesson the hard way." She wipes away the single tear balancing on Twilight's lower lid with a cool feather.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, she unfolds one wing to return the hug before stepping away from Princess Luna, giving her a grateful bow. "I...I'll keep that in mind. I-I think I have some thinking to do, so, um..."

Luna smiles and nods, returning the bow before rising into the sky.

"Twiiiliiight...Twiiiliiight...TWILIGHT!"

"DAUGH!" With one of her trademark yelps, she wakes up, eyes darting around wildly and her horn beginning to power up. "Spike, what's wrong, who's attacking us?!"

One hand places itself on her cheek, another flicking at her horn to jolt her out of firing off any potentially destructive spells. "Hey, calm down, Twi! Nothing's wrong, you were just really asleep. I guess you were more tired than you thought!"

'Hasn't this happened bef-'

"Hello, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Do you plan on getting off of the train any time soon?"

"GAH!" But when her frantically searching gaze finally lands on the source of that voice, she finds her big brother, face halfway between a cheeky grin and a pained wince, one hoof clutching at the back of his head as Cadance folds her wing. She gives Twilight a wink as the purple alicorn walks over to the couple.

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybug's awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

Both mares giggle as they dance through their fillyhood hoofshake before hugging tightly. When they pull apart, however, Cadance grabs Twilight's face in both hooves, squishing her cheeks slightly and examining the bags under her eyes, her sleep-mussed mane, the red rims of her eyes, and the bit of dried snot that she missed with her wings before passing out.

"Oh- Twilight, what happened to you?!" She conjures up a warm, wet washcloth before starting to scrub at her sister-in-law's face, ignoring her dramatic cries for help - "Hewp mwe, she's towtuwing mweee!" - and examining her, carefully cleaning off the tips of her primary wing feathers until she's satisfied with Twilight's state. With another poof of magic, the washcloth is gone.

Red-faced and glaring indignantly at Princess Cadance, the expression lasts for maybe three seconds before she giggles, leaning against the other mare gratefully. "...thank you, Cadance. And I'll explain everything once we're back at the castle. It's...it's been quite a day."

Shining Armor walks up and gives Twilight a gentle noogie - Cadance shoots him a dirty look as he ruins the hard work she'd put in to straightening her mane - in greeting. "You and me both, sis."

"Excuse me! You're not the only one that's been talking to the citizens of the Crystal Empire all day, Prince Shining Armor."

He gulps, and turns to his wife with a sheepish grin. Full name. He's in hot water. "O-Of course, dear! It- I was joking. To make Twilight, uh, happier. Yeah!"

A giggle from behind the three of them pulls their attention to a snorting Spike, who looks to be on the verge of falling to the ground laughing as he keeps both claws clasped over his mouth. With a roll of her eyes, Twilight picks him up in her magic and plops him down onto her back, looking pointedly towards the Crystal Castle.

"So. Shall we?"

"So, what did you mean when you said you were talking to all the Crystal ponies?"

The wave of relief that had washed over her was very, very visible in the way her body had instantly relaxed upon the sight of her best friends waiting in the Crystal Castle's meeting room, all already seated and sipping at their various beverages. Twilight had elected to conjure up another cup of honey ginger tea. She has the strangest feeling that it's going to become one of her favorite drinks from now on.

A flash of regret runs over the faces of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, and they sigh heavily as they slump in their chairs somewhat. "We've...been talki-"

"We've been givin' those memory-wiped Crystals a whole lotta talkin', but they haven't given us squat to work with!"

She looks over to Rainbow Dash, tilting a brow in confusion. "What do you mean? I thought King Sombra-"

"Darling, that's just the issue. None of them want to remember that...dreadful creature," and she doesn't notice the way Twilight visibly flinches at the name-calling, "and it's been putting a halt to every single potential lead we've gained!"

When Cadance opens her mouth to interject, though, Pinkie Pie decides to cut her off, and nopony's stupid enough to try and interrupt Pinkie Pie.

"Yeah! That nasty shadow pony's real good at hiding! I dunno if I'd say he's better than me, but I think I'd at least say that he's as good as me, or maybe at least as good as me? Either way, we gotta make up aaa..." She grabs a SOM-72 out of thin air and puts it on herself, the deactivated helmet causing her voice to echo. "...BATTLE PLAN!"

Purple pupils constrict at the sight of the device. Her heart tightens next.

"Pinkie Pie! Quit foolin' around." Applejack firmly bangs a hoof onto the table, nearly upsetting her glass of apple juice.

Her heart lifts slightly. Maybe her farmer friend-

"Now, y'all, the only thing that Pinkie said that's useful is that we gotta make a plan of some sort t' make sure that we kin capture that savage."

This time, her heart simply shatters. She guesses it's because it tightened too much.

"Ah say we lay down some sorta trap, get the jump on 'im. An' then, when he's all unaware, BAM!" She slams her front hooves together, the loud clop bouncing off of the crystal walls.

For a time, there's silence as Twilight Sparkle's friends watch her, waiting for her plan on how to take down Sombra. Her head is buried within her crossed forelegs, but they've seen her do weirder things while plotting.

"Uhm...Twili- eep!"

Fluttershy quite literally rolls backwards, head over hoof, until she lands against a wall, dazed, as Twilight forms a protective purple shield around herself and begins to sob.

Shining Armor and Cadance exchange looks with each other before Shining nods, his magic surrounding Cadance before sinking into her body. She promptly gives everypony in the room - save for Fluttershy - a good thump to the back of the head before stepping through Twilight's shield. She breathes a sigh of relief; thank goodness his suspicions were correct. Leave it to Twilight Sparkle to use her B.B.B.F.F.'s amazing shield spell when she needs to feel protected.

She doesn't say anything once she's close, though. She simply pulls Twilight out of her chair, then upright enough to hug the purple mare into her chest, wings wrapping around her to cocoon her in a warm blanket of safety.

Shining Armor and Cadance are busy being worried, Fluttershy's busy recovering from her wall trip, and the others are busy being in various states of shock, so it comes as quite the shock when a low voice echoes throughout the Crystal Castle's meeting room.

"...have I come at a bad time?" Just a hint of discomfort flashes over his face as everypony turns to look at him. Twilight jerks so suddenly that Cadance checks her pulse with her magic just to be sure that her sister-in-law isn't suddenly seizing up.

"K- Ki- King Sombra?! Why- I-I mean, you- y-you're- I'm glad to- to see you, but-" Her voice wavers from the residual constrictions of the sobs that had been wracking her throat, but she swallows them back down.

He stares at her, stunned. "I...saw the train from Canterlot arriving from a distance. I was up on the top of the castle, to...think. After our, er, conversation, I needed some time alone to recover. I figured I would greet you here." He shuffles his hooves awkwardly, starting to back away. "...this is my fault, isn't it." The tone of his voice leaves no room for argument; it's not a question, not really.

Too impatient to lower it properly, her shield pops before she walks - wobbles - over to poke a hoof firmly into his chest. "No. This is-" Her voice chokes up again. "This is Princess Celestia's fault." She turns to level a reproachful glare upon her friends. "And my friends' faults too." She turns back to King Sombra. "So don't you dare blame yourself for me crying." A small smile comes to her lips as she summons a cup of honey ginger tea, offering it to the king. "I'd say you've had long enough to do that. Now have some tea. A good friend introduced this to me, and I think you'd like it too."

"Excuse me?!" He takes the cup in his magic, silently noting that it does smell quite nice, but he sets it down on the table before pulling out a chair and nodding towards it before sitting on one himself. "You're saying that Princess Celestia- she- she broke you like this?"

When he raises his voice, the other five mortal ponies in the room bristle, preparing to attack, but a warning glow from the Princess of Love's horn causes them to settle back down.

Twilight sniffles slightly, nodding before sipping at her own tea. "Yes. She...basically said that she doesn't trust my judgment of you, and that..." She grimaces, not wanting to hurt the other but seeing no other way to word things. "...that you're, um...manipulating me...somehow...by telling me the truth!" She growls and slams a hoof down onto the table. "By telling me the TRUTH! How does that even WORK?!"

But much to her surprise, a deep, booming laugh comes forth from King Sombra, and she stares at him quietly for several moments as he does so, before he finally calms down enough to try his own drink. "Mm! This really is quite tasty. Thank you, Princess." He clears his throat. "Rest assured, I am not laughing at you. I'm laughing because the solar diarch is still just as stubborn as she was over one thousand years ago." His horn flares up with magic as it swirls upon the table, not doing anything in particular, simply showing off the way black and acid green interlock with each other. "It seems that some eternal beings either change too much...or not at all." He shakes his head and sighs, the arcane forces dissipating into thin air as the smile leaves his face.

"Regardless...this is a terrible conundrum that you have been presented with, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and one that I never anticipated at that." He traces a hoof over the mug's handle, lips pursed in thought. "...I believe that I still retain the knowledge of the original masking spell. If I were to whisk us away into nothingness once more, you would not have to deci-"

"Absolutely NOT!"

The sheer force with which she speaks causes his hoof to stutter, and he yelps slightly as hot tea spills into his lap. A whisk of magic cleans his coat and heals the slight burn before he looks at Twilight, seeing determination and righteous anger flaming within those violet eyes.

"If...i-if she..." She closes her eyes, clearly struggling to speak. "...if she refuses to see that you tried your best, then she doesn't deserve to see. She doesn't deserve to- to see m-me, to see you, and she doesn't deserve to see the truth." Her eyes reopen, and she meets Sombra's shocked gaze with her own. "I've made my decision, and I'm not backing out." She turns to her friends, leveling that same unwavering, confident glare upon her five friends. "So. You saw and heard what just happened. Are you with me - with us - or against us? I won't fight you guys, but you're going to have to leave if y-"

Five warm bodies smash into her, ten hooves wrapping around her - two pink hooves nearly crush all of the air out of her lungs - in loving hugs.

"Oh Twilight, we could never leave you!"

"Darling, of course we'll support you!"

"Ah reckon you got a darn good reason for sidin' with King Sombra."

"Hey, I'm stickin' with you no matter what!"

"No party's fun without you in it, silly!"

All of the confirmations flood her ears at once, and she feels tears springing to her eyes once more, her heart swelling with love - or maybe she's just crying because she really can't breathe now.

"P-Puh- Pinkie- a-a-air-!"

"Oops! Sorry Twilight!" Everypony quickly climbs up off of her, those same pink hooves pulling her up into a sitting position as she wheezes for air. Eventually, she's breathing normally, and now she definitely knows that she's tearing up out of happiness as her friends all offer her supportive smiles. However, a question remains within all of their eyes: 'Why?'

She turns to King Sombra, gesturing him closer with a hoof. He hesitates, clearly still wary of the other five ponies, but when they all call out to him to come over too, he decides that it's...probably safe. Slowly, he clops over, before eventually sitting on the floor next to her. They form a nice little circle - more of an oval, really - on the meeting room's ground, and he looks to her, head cocked in confusion.

"I figured I should have you here while I, uh...tell your story. If you can't handle hearing it again, though, I won't be offended if you need to leave."

After a brief period of consideration, he shakes his head. "No, I believe that my...period of meditation, if you will, was more than sufficient in allowing me to reprocess the emotions I have surrounding my empire's history." One side of his muzzle quirks up into a smirk, just enough that a fang pokes through. "Although, no promises on whether I will remain silent or not."

"WOAH that's so cool! Mister King Sombra sir, is that a fang! Do you have two? Can I see? Oh wait sorry, is that, like, totally rude? Sorry if that's rude, I just think that's SO super cool!"

The bewilderment on his face is clear as day when he turns to face Pinkie Pie, but she must get that a lot, because no offense shows as she grins brightly at him, expectation for an answer clear in her eyes. He clears his throat awkwardly, then grins widely enough to show off all four fangs, opening his muzzle slightly to let her get a good look. She gasps in awe, and he could swear that her eyes physically grow larger as she examines them, before she nods to confirm that she's gotten her fill.

"WOW thank you thank you THANK YOU King Sombra! That's really neat I didn't know somepony could even HAVE four fangs! OH can I call you Somby? Or maybe Sombry. No, wait, that sounds kinda weird. Unless you like it? Then I can TOTALLY call you that! I've had weirder names than Sombry!"

He blinks in confusion. Helplessly, he turns to Twilight, who simply smirks back at him, shaking her head slightly.

Nope. You gotta deal with this on your own, buddy.

"I- uh...w-well, my, uh..." He clears his throat again, taking a sip of his tea to buy some time. "My comra- er, friends, would just call me Sombra." After a moment of consideration, he adds on, "but, er...my full name is King Sombra Umbral Obsidian, so...if you'd like to make a, uh...a list, I suppose...of nicknames that you might want to call me, then...we could, perhaps, look over it together...?" He allows himself the smallest of smiles. "Also...thank you. Nopony has ever really...appreciated my teeth. It is a nice change of pace to not be treated like a freak."

And suddenly his nostrils are filled with the scent of frosting and sprinkles and sugary bread and there are unbelievably strong forehooves wrapped around him in a hug.

"Aww silly, you're not a monster! You're just a great big teddy bear with a REALLY COOL NAME OHMYGOSH I gotta get started on that list! As soon as Twilight's done telling us about you, I gotta get some paper and a quill and think on what I can call you oh speaking of names mine's Pinkie Pie! Nice to meetcha!" And then she's pulling back and his hoof is in a firm grip that's shaking it so hard that he can feel his brain rattling around. He returns it the best he can, and then she hops back over to her seat.

Finally, Twilight allows herself a snicker. Leave it to Pinkie Pie to be the first of the others to befriend King Sombra. Soon, however, her facial expression and very aura shifts into something much more somber.

"Alright...I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ruin the good mood now. Spike?"

"Yes sir!" He pulls out his notes of King Sombra's recollection, handing them over to Twilight before he hands a rolled-up scroll to Sombra. "Psst! Don't open this 'til you're somewhere private. It's a, uh...well, I guess it's a sorta feel-good gift! To lift your mood a bit after all of this is done." He gives the king a thumbs-up and a wink before taking his place back at Twilight's side, oblivious to her snickers.

'Oh, Spike...you're terrible at whispering.' She sighs. 'But you're a wonderful friend.'

Unrolling the first scroll, she begins to tell them Sombra's side of history, interspersed with the occasional correction, addition, or quip from King Sombra himself. Afterwards, they're all in various states of shock, but when they look at him, it's with a new, respectful light in their eyes.

After a few moments wherein the five mortals in the room gather their thoughts, Princess Twilight Sparkle remembers that she has a brother and sister-in-law. Her eyes widen in apologetic surprise.

"Oh, gosh, I-I'm sorry! I was so-"

They both chuckle, waving her apology off. "It's alright, Twilight," Cadance says with a warm smile. "I can hardly blame you for being just a little bit distracted."

A grateful little smile makes its way across her lips before the corners of her mouth turn down into a contemplative frown. "So, um...I'm guessing you already know what I'm going to ask y-"

She's interrupted by a blue hoof with shaggy white fetlocks pressing into the top of her mane, rubbing into her scalp with fond, brotherly affection as its counterpart wraps around her neck.

"Hush it, Twily. L.S.B.F.F. and B.B.B.F.F.s gotta stick together 'til the end, and that's never gonna change. You're my little sister, and I already learned to trust your judgment above all others' when I married the love of my life - the real love of my life. I don't plan to learn it again." He hugs her close to his chest, finally releasing her disastrously mussed mane with a crooked smirk of a grin before he turns to Princess Cadance, who returns his gaze with her own, pensive one. "Speaking of my gorgeous wife, though...Cadance?"

Pursing her lips, the silence that fills the meeting room rings off of the crystal walls far louder than anything else that's been said thus far as she thinks for several long moments before she walks over to the pair and wraps her wings around the hugging siblings. "As much as I wish this didn't have to be a choice...I am the Princess of Love, and my choice was made before we ever entered this room." She shoots King Sombra a look, and an unspoken conversation passes between them, spanning across eons and yet mere milliseconds, before she turns back to smile warmly at her husband and her sister-in-law. "I truly do believe that Celestia will eventually come around. But, until then, I must remain with the king that prioritized love above all else and the ponies that are willing to sacrifice nearly everything they know to support that king." She turns to face King Sombra fully, bowing low to touch her nose gently to the cold crystal floor before rising, holding herself regal and tall, chest out, head high, and wings flared not in a threat display, but as a show of acknowledgment for their respective, powerful statuses.

"You are the true king of this empire, King Sombra. I wouldn't feel right usurping you from your throne. It was our plan when we first believed you to be a cruel tyrant, but clearly that isn't the case." That small smile is back on her lips, tinged with just a tiny hint of that grief deeper than any mere mortal could know. It grows only slightly as Sombra opens his muzzle to protest at her bow and her words. "Regardless of my status as a Princess of Equestria and as an alicorn, it is not only customary for Equestrians, but a personal belief of mine, that everypony within a ruler's kingdom show that ruler the respect that he is due. And King Sombra, we have quite a bit to make up for."

If the lump in his throat makes itself known in the way his voice is suddenly much hoarser and wobbling due to the tremor in his bottom lip when he next speaks, nopony makes any indication that they hear it.

"I- I-I don't know what to-" He chokes, slightly, a burning making itself known behind his eyes, and he tears his gaze away from Princess Cadance's down to the floor so that he can furiously blink it away before he looks back up at her. He draws himself up, chest out and head held high as his magical aura swirls around his horn and his hooves in a similar display of power, eyes glowing slightly, before he returns her bow with his own, just as deeply. When he rises, he takes a deep, steadying breath, and his eyes still sting slightly, but his shoulders feel just a little bit lighter as his arcana dissipate into the surrounding air and he speaks once more. "I...I don't know what to say, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, except thank you. I will, of course, happily reclaim my throne." Here, he pauses, however, turning his gaze to Shining Armor as one side of his muzzle quirks up into a smirk, one fang flashing in the light. "But...I will need a new Captain of the Guard." He struggles to keep the sadness out of his voice, tries to keep the mood of the room light, and succeeds. Mostly. "Only the best of the best can replace the one who was lost so long ago. I do not plan to ever allow for another bout of senseless violence, but that doesn't mean that I don't wish to keep my empire protected."

Prince Shining Armor rises from his hug from Twilight to stand in a perfect salute, raising one foreleg to hold his hoof across his forehead. "Sir, yes, sir! It would be an honor and a privilege, sir!"

A giggle - a giggle, he can't remember the last time he's giggled - escapes the king, half out of surprise and half out of admiration. During his and Princess Twilight's talks before her train had arrived, she couldn't stop gushing about her big brother, Prince Shining Armor, the Captain of the Royal Guard. He had expected a good, even great guard, but clearly Shining Armor hasn't allowed the prince's life to soften him or erode away any of his training in the slightest. "At ease, Captain." He gives his own salute, grinning wide and proud.

And so it's decided.

Even as his heart races at the thought of the upcoming event, as he watches Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle frantically pace around the meeting room - 'Is there a GROOVE in the floor?!' - and check and recheck and re-recheck the seven-foot-long scroll full of notes on the speech she intends upon giving to the citizens of the Crystal Empire, he's beginning to think that she's about ten times as nervous as he is. When he turns his bewildered gaze upon the other seven ponies and one dragon in the room, however, they all give him the same, knowing smirk:

'This is normal.'

However, as the clock ticks and the public address itself grows nearer, it's as though Twilight goes through a magical transformation: She brushes her mane and it stays laying smooth and flat, her eyes lose their frantic, darting gaze, her voice returns to its bookish tone, and her overall presence begins to gain a royal confidence to it.

He stares at her, then back to her friends and relatives. They give him that knowing smirk again. He shakes his head, absolutely mystified by this mare.

Princess Twilight Sparkle is the first to walk out onto the balcony. Her horn glows with a vocal amplification spell, surrounding her vocal folds and ensuring that her voice is heard throughout the entirety of the Crystal Empire.

"Citizens of the Crystal Empire! Please gather around for an important royal address from Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle and her friends, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Prince Shining Armor, and a very special, final speaker!"

Several trees rustle at the force of her voice, and several more lose a good portion of their leaves. She blushes and lowers the strength of her spell. Still, it did its job; every single Crystal pony stops what they're doing and files into the Crystal Plaza, looking up at the balcony, most of their heads tilted in confusion.

"Ahem. When my friends and I first arrived here, we only knew what I knew. And what I knew was what Princess Celestia told me about this beautiful empire. She told me that, over one thousand years ago, there was an evil king. This evil king was composed of dark shadows and made use of the most vile of magics to create prisons of black crystal and armor to trap and enslave his innocent Crystal ponies. This evil king was named King Sombra."

When a shudder of terror and disgust ripples throughout the crowd beneath her, she grits her teeth but keeps her composure, only a hint of a wobble in her voice as it reverberates throughout the plaza.

"Princess Celestia told me that my friends and I had to come to the Crystal Empire to protect it. More specifically, I had to come here to find a way to protect it. And after I had heard her side of the Crystal Empire's history, I believed that I had to come and protect it from this evil King Sombra after defeating him once and for all."

This time, the crowd's murmurs are those of confusion, whispers amongst them as they ponder just what she meant by 'side.'

She pays them no mind, instead turning and gesturing towards the other five Element bearers and Spike to come forwards onto the balcony with her. As their cheers of amazed shock (and some coos of adoration at his size) rise up, for once the baby dragon's chest doesn't puff up with pride; his face remains somber and serious as his own throat glows with purple, then begins to speak.

"Um, hello, everypony. My name is Spike the Dragon, but you guys can just call me Spike. So, I'd like to tell you all what Twilight meant when she said that she told all of you Princess Celestia's version of history. I'm sure you're all pretty smart! So, um, that means that you guys have probably figured out that that means that there's more than one perrr...per-speh-ctive...that ponies have of the Crystal Empire's history. I was there when- uh, when somepony that knows King Sombra very well told us about how he sees the empire's history, and I wanna tell it to you now."

And so, for what feels like the millionth time, Spike reads aloud King Sombra's recounting of history to the dead silent crowd of Crystal ponies below him. Were it not for his voice booming out and bouncing off of the many reflective surfaces of the plaza, it would be quiet enough to hear a pin drop throughout the entire tale.

"Thank you, Spike."

She conjures up a glass of water, gently patting the top of his head with a proud smile. "Rest your voice some."

"What Princess Celestia taught me was WRONG, in every sense of the word, Crystal ponies. And, by extension, I was wrong, and I am so, truly sorry for tainting your views of the most loving and worthy leader that you have ever had."

"How do we know we can believe you?!" The tone of the stallion's voice is accusatory, but there's apprehension laying just beneath it in the form of a quiver and the way his scowl fails to meet his eyes. The clouded, biased snippets of memories that Twilight and her friends had brought forth are beginning to take a new flavor in his mind, and he's confused, unsure whether he should trust the fear of King Sombra or the warm trust starting to take root.

Princess Twilight Sparkle smiles at the accusation. King Sombra, still hidden well out of the view of the masses, smiles as well.

Applejack's throat is the first to glow.

"Hay, everypony. Some of y'all might've already met me, but fer those of you that haven't, mah name's Applejack, and Ah bear the Element of Honesty. While Ah ain't perfect at detectin' deceit an' lies, Ah'm pretty dern good at it. Good enough to know when a pony's lyin' about the history of an entire kingdom. When this pony was tellin' King Sombra's view of this here empire's history, I ain't sensed a single. Dang. Drop. Of dishonesty."

Pinkie Pie is next.

"What's up, shinies! I'm Pinkie Pie, and I'm the Element of LAUGHTER!"

In true Pinkie Pie fashion, she pulls a party cannon out of thin air, pulls the trigger, and blasts confetti into the air. As it slowly flutters down, several Crystal ponies' coats glow just a little bit brighter as their smiles grow.

"But right now, I'm gonna get kinda serious, okay? I don't like things that hurt ponies, not even other ponies! And there's a lot of ways to hurt ponies, unfortunately, but the ways I see the most are things that make ponies sad, which is the total opposite of laughter! I've met a looot of total grumpy grumpster grumpypantseses! But Ki- I mean, the pony that told us about King Sombra's history stuff? He was no meanie grumpy pantses at all! And neither was King Sombra. You guys know better than probably every other kingdom out there that love is one of the BIGGEST sources of joy and laughter and happiness in the entire world and universe ever, right? And King Sombra, he did some things that hurt other ponies, and that stuff did make me kinda sad. But what matters is that he's still super duper super full of love, and I can definitely party with a pony like that!"

With another pull of the party cannon's cord and another cheer from some ponies down below, she steps back.

Violet surrounds Rarity's vocal folds. She tosses her mane, then speaks.

"I am Rarity Belle the Unicorn, and I am the bearer of the Element of Generosity. As Pinkie Pie said, King Sombra did some rather...unsavory things...during his reign. However, he also made sacrifices. Many, many sacrifices. And, again, as Pinkie Pie stated, they were all borne from his great love. Specifically, his love for all of you, his dearest Crystal ponies. Generosity stems from empathy, sympathy, a desire to help and give to others, to alleviate suffering and to further elevate those who are doing well, and King Sombra was no different. In fact, I would say that, in the Crystal Empire's prime, he exemplified my Element far better than I do as I stand right here and now. In my eyes, that is a pony worth not only not hating, but a pony worth calling your king."

Several ponies gasp as a flash of gryphon feathers and blood run through their minds, shadows bursting out of her brains and her death squawk echoing through their minds' ears. They go pale for a few precious seconds before the ponies around them hold them up, supporting the weakened Crystal ponies against their own bodies.

When Rainbow Dash steps up, she stomps one forehoof and there's a fire burning in her eyes that rarely makes itself known.

"Sup? I'm Rainbow Dash, and I'm the Element of Loyalty. I'm sure you guys know about Loyalty, at least kinda. I'm sure once you guys get over your weird amnesia stuff or whatever, you'll know what I'm talkin' about. Anyways, the reason I'm up here today, up here right. Now. Is because I heard this Sombra guy's story first-hoof, just like the rest of my fellow Elements did, and the things that King Sombra went through for you guys? He didn't just sacrifice things as your king, he sacrificed things as a fellow pony, alongside you in combat. He was never above you. He stuck by you guys no matter WHAT. And that's the kind of loyalty that not a lotta rulers show. Not in the history books, and not even now. Most ponies think it's easier to just throw in the towel and run away when things look real cruddy than to stick with their subjects through the toughest of toughs."

More ponies shudder as the gryphoness' grisly death replays in their minds, but the first victims gain more than just that. They relive the king's tender interaction with the shaking foal, and how, despite his changed appearance, he hadn't changed at all. Not in any way that mattered to the Crystal ponies. His love still radiated outwards towards them, and they had real, physical proof of it; how else could the Crystal Heart's shield still be spinning, still be guarding their empire with its bubble, stronger than ever?

The whispers grow in number as those still affected by the amnesiac barrier ask if the pale ponies are alright, and then, as the coats of the first ones who had nearly fainted suddenly shine several times brighter, the crystalline structures of their bodies beginning to make themselves known, several small crowds begin to form around them as they mutter amongst themselves, asking how it happened. The memories spread like wildfire amongst the Crystal ponies.

Finally, Fluttershy's throat glows. When she first speaks, she's still just barely audible to only the front half of the crowd. She smiles sheepishly and clears her throat, then tries again, raising her voice.

"Um, hello, everypony. My name's Fluttershy, a-and I hold the Element of Kindness. I'm...not the greatest at public speaking, so, please forgive me if I bumble my words. I was there, too, to hear King Sombra's, um, telling, I guess, of the Crystal Empire's history. And...it was scary. It was really scary at some parts. A lot of parts, actually. But I'm used to being scared; my name is Fluttershy, after all! But, um, the thing that made me a lot less scared was the way King Sombra's actions showed his true kindness. Every time something scary happened to you guys, he was so...sad. It really hurt him a lot. And even though he did some stuff that hurt some ponies, and even more gryphons, I understand a lot, and it came from a place where he was...he was really just trying his hardest in an awful and scary situation. Kindness and Generosity are pretty closely linked. And, if Rarity has such high praise to give King Sombra, then, I-I guess it's no surprise that I also want to say that I'm...I'm so, so proud of him. He always tried to do what was right, because he just wanted the best for you guys. He didn't give up, didn't do the unkind thing."

All five of their throats glow again as the amplification spells are canceled, and Twilight steps back up to speak, but right as her mouth opens, all of the Crystal ponies' bodies pale, several faint, and she gasps, one hoof coming to her mouth.

'Oh no...was this a bad idea?'

Then seven manes are blown back by the sheer force of the blast of energy that the crowd of Crystal ponies exude, their coats reflective as the day before the empire was first invaded and their eyes wide and knowing. They never wanted to forget because they hated King Sombra's SOM-72s; those had just about nothing to do with the amnesia. They didn't want to work to fight against it because of the traumas of war, because, after all of the years of peace within their own, time-frozen bubble of land, to have to face the reality of the past and other life once again combined with the sudden banishment of their king by foreigners was too terrifying to bear.

A relieved smile crosses Twilight's lips. She doesn't need to say anything else. Her horn glows one more time, canceling out the spell on her own throat and casting it upon the pony hidden in the shadows'.

The dark form stepping out onto the balcony is unmistakable. The Crystal ponies remain silent, save for a few, shocked gasps.

"...p-ponies. I...I am so deeply, deeply sorry. I should never have hidden the Crystal Empire away as I did. It was a rash decision, and led to this fate which was so easily preventable. I was only- I-I was so terrified of losing more of you to more of my absolute failures to keep all of my beloved Crystal ponies safe. I should never have allowed so many of you to fall, nor should I have hidden the Heart away. I can only hope that, one day, you will all forgive me enough to truly accept me, once more, as not only your king, but as your beloved King Sombra."

When he dips his head and takes his bottom lip in-between his teeth, gnawing at the skin and unable to look down upon his subjects, though, his ears lay flat down upon his skull as the roar of furious voices rise up towards the balcony. Despite his better judgment, one ear perks up and listens to one of the many infuriated cries, and when he does, his eyes fly open in shock.

"Don't you dare apologize for trying your best, honorable King Sombra!"

Hesitantly, so, so hesitantly, he raises his head from its shamefully bowed position, and looks out over the scowling crowd. He listens, again, to more of their screams of outrage, and finds that with every single shout he hears, his heart is filled with more and more relief and love. His eyes begin to fill with tears, a large, wobbly grin beginning to make its way across his lips, his cheeks aching with the strain of upholding such a massive expression of joy.

"We love you no matter what!"

"You're our king and nothing's gonna change that!"

"Don't apologize! It wasn't your fault, King Sombra!"

"You're not gettin' away from being our great and honorable King Sombra that easy!"

With every single word of encouragement and forgiveness, his horn glows brighter and his flanks do the same. When he raises himself up to his full height, chest puffed out with pride and his jaw set firmly, there's a fire blazing in his eyes that nopony on the balcony has seen within the king since they first met him.

"Beloved Crystal ponies, together, we will restore our glorious Crystal Empire to first how it was in its prime, and then to even greater heights than anypony could ever, EVER imagine! Because yes, I have always done my best for my subjects, but that is because you deserve a ruler that always has your best interests at heart, and a ruler that will love you tirelessly and without end. I am more honored than you could ever imagine to stand here and call myself your beloved King Sombra!"

As he bows his head towards his subjects, one by one, the Crystal ponies do the same. With every single muzzle that touches the ground of the Crystal Plaza, King Sombra's flanks glow brighter and brighter as the Crystal Heart spins faster and faster, bright blue lines racing towards the ancient relic and filling it with more light and love than it has seen in over a millennium. Finally, with an explosion of light and a magical throbbing pulse that leaves the taste of peaches and happiness within the entire empire's population's mouths, a wave of pure love energy pushes outwards from the Crystal Heart and reinforces the shimmering blue shield surrounding the Crystal Empire, washing over all of the ponies within it and leaving their coats pristine and crystalline.

While all of the Crystal ponies below rejoice and begin to dance and sing, the seven ponies up on the balcony with King Sombra stare at the dark king's flanks, their jaws dropped - save for Rarity, who's currently too busy admiring herself in the nearest crystal wall and 'ooh'ing and 'ahh'ing at her own reflection - as they view his cutie mark. Through all of the drama that they've endured surrounding the king and the decisions to be made concerning him, his cutie mark never really came into consideration; it was never a factor that had to be taken into account.

But as they finally take the time to look, now, they see that the colors and shape adorning either side of King Sombra's flanks are very familiar. They're familiar, because they're an exact, mirror copy of the same artifact that's currently, furiously spinning in-between two crystal spires directly below them right now.

King Sombra stands on the balcony, face turned up towards the sun and eyes shut as he revels in the glory of the sounds of his Crystal ponies' joy, but eventually he gets the distinct feeling that several pairs of eyes are staring at him. When he turns, he finds that his new friends are quite interested in his butt. His cheeks go red, at first, but he quickly realizes that they're staring, more specifically, at his cutie mark. He grins.

"Oh, did I never mention that I'm the creator of the Crystal Heart?"

Author's Note

If you find any errors, please let me know! I strive to keep my works as clean and well-flowing as possible.

(In retrospect, maybe I should have broken this up into several chapters, but...yeahhh, not gonna happen. I'm too lazy to come up with more chapter titles.)

The Princess

The darkness that surrounds it is absolute. Nothing but an inky void and the melding of nothingness and the tiny whisper of its own presence are there for it to perceive. Rapidly, however, 'it' begins to form some more solidified distinctions. 'It' is a mare, and her name is Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. She is, in fact, very separate from the seemingly neverending vastness around her, and as she lifts a hoof that was not there moments ago - and yet, has always been there - to just in front of her muzzle, this fact is confirmed.

"Thou hast- er, you have become much better at establishing yourself within the blank slate of the Dreamscape, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight's brows furrow slightly in concentration, and slowly, the lack of reality around them begins to shift into a replica of the Crystal Castle's gardens. Soft, damp grass tickles at the frogs of her hooves as it spirals outwards, and soft sunlight shines down upon her through the various leaves and foliages above her. Soon, Princess Luna comes into view across her, the steady clopping of her hooves replaced with a barely-there thumping as they, too, meet the ever-expanding garden.

"Thank you, Princess." She giggles lightly. "I've certainly improved from the first time. I didn't know it was possible to take four hours just to remember how to have a body!"

Luna's lips curl upwards into an amused smile in response, and she nods to the other, beginning to walk along the multicolored crystal path stretching out ahead of them. "Indeed. Though, we- I wager that you have not called upon me for one of our meetings for a simple flaunting of your skills?"

The Princess of Friendship walks alongside the taller mare, her expression settling back into a more serious, somewhat troubled one. "No, not quite," she says with a shake of her head. "I'm pretty sure you already know what I'm going to ask you, so..." When she pauses to pluck an Amethyst Hyacinthus from its stem, turning to Luna and offering it to her to try before resuming their walk, it's clear that she does so in an attempt to distract herself.

"Alas...my sister is still just as much of a stubborn fool as we- I remember her from over one thousand years ago, Twilight Sparkle." Offering the younger princess a small, empathetic smile, she gives Twilight a brief wing-hug before folding the appendage back to her side. "Fear not, friend. Celestia may be an ass sometimes, but she does always come around...eventually." Her grin is one hundred percent cheek as she eats the flower in one bite. "Thank you for the new treat! We- I should visit the Crystal Empire soon; I doubt that this dream can recreate the real flavors perfectly."

She stumbles, nearly trips over her own hooves, inhales her own spit, then spends the next five minutes hacking and coughing as Princess Luna absolutely howls with laughter and gently thumps her on the back. When she recovers, she gives Luna the most stern, disappointed glare she can manage with her slightly bloodshot, watery eyes. It's not that effective. "L-Luna! Language!" But the lunar princess's words had their desired effect; despite her projected objection, the other's joy is infectious and she finds herself giggling soon after speaking.

Lifting her snout up into the air slightly, she alters her gait slightly so that she's prancing more than trotting down the path, her voice higher and more nasally as she calls out to the heavens, "We wouldst not dare to make use of any such foul, depraved language, Princess Twilight Sparkle! We speak only the truth as it shouldst be told! Now, fetch us some more delicacies from thine beautiful Crystal Empire, post-haste!"

Shaking her head with mock disapproval, she grins and walks ahead of Luna slightly so that she can pluck a Lapis Lily from a lush garden bed full of them, bowing deeply to the other princess and holding it high above her own head within her magical aura. "Of course, my esteemed Princess Luna! My deepest, most sincerest apologies for my accusations! Here is your first delicacy; would it please my princess to flog her subject for such an impudent display?"

They both fail to uphold the charade for any longer, bursting out into laughter for a good few minutes before coming together into a hug as Luna pops the deep blue flower into her mouth. A soft hum of appreciation leaves her, and she sighs after swallowing.

"I meant what I said, though, Twilight Sparkle. Whether you wish for me to visit or not, your gardens will be devoured come my next visit." She gives the lavender mare one more squeeze with her foreleg before releasing her, her grin fading to a simple, pleasant smile. "Speaking of devouring...how are the Crystal Castle's poor chefs doing? Or thine brother, for that matter?"

Twilight snorts and plucks a few Malachite Mint leaves from another garden bed, passing them into Luna's magical field before speaking. "I've placed the chefs on a strict 'do not interact with Cadance no matter how much she begs or cries or wakes you up in the middle of the night' schedule, and have taken over as the head chef. In what is perhaps more shocking news than the story of how King Sombra got his cutie mark, my food didn't turn her off her cravings. Instead..." She turns to give Luna a horrified look. "...I got better at cooking."

The lunar princess places a hoof to her forehead and pretends to faint for a few seconds before resuming her trot, shaking her head with amused amazement. "Well, at the very least, we can all be sure that Princess Cadance's foal will come out very healthy. Perhaps a little bit too healthy, if her diet is to be any indication of what the little one will be like."

Eventually, their stroll must come to an end, and as Twilight's Dreamscape begins to melt away around them, they hug for one last time.

"It was a pleasure, as always, Twilight Sparkle. Do keep in touch with us- me, and I will, of course, let you know when my sister decides to remove her head from her rear."

When Twilight opens her mouth to express her shock at Princess Luna's language once more, however, she finds the void around her rapidly giving way to the bright sunlight of reality, and as she wakes up, she's scowling but giggling into the sheets.

She catches Spike staring at her, concerned, and she leans over to pat the top of his head affectionately. "I just had another chat with Luna, Spike. I swear, that mare's going to give me grey hairs one day!"

Tall, jagged pillars of shimmering midnight crystal rise up around her, far too quickly for her to even hope to run out without getting impaled by one. Her horn glows with its characteristic warm glow, only for the agony of a migraine to split through her skull as a crackle of green-imbued black magic strikes her horn, a ring of sparkling raven rock encasing the base of her horn and effectively both cutting off her arcana and forcing what had been building up back down into her body. She cries out and staggers, nearly falling to her belly, before she rights herself, wide eyes frantically darting about to try and find the source of the deep laughter permeating every single one of her senses.

"K-King Sombra?" She curses herself for the stammer. "SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD!"

That laughter rises in volume, maliciousness curling and twisting throughout every new chuckle. The voice that greets her is, however, not his, and does not, in fact, even belong to a stallion at all.

Narrowed red eyes meet her own, the black fog surrounding her hooves rising up to cause the gorgeous, royal purple mantle to flutter about her haunches. Occasionally, Celestia catches a glimpse of a dark purple six-pointed star surrounded by five, smaller black ones, as the luxurious fabric rises up high enough.

A lavender hoof reaches through the bars of her prison to cup her chin, and Princess Twilight Sparkle - somehow now the same height as Princess Celestia now - grins a grin more befitting a carnivore than the herbivore that she is.

"You're so fucking pitiful, Celestia. Look at you now." She draws her hoof back, slapping her former mentor across the face so hard that she feels something crunch beneath the force of her strike before beginning to circle around her like a bird of prey. "You could have had yet another alicorn slave- sorry, I mean another alicorn 'friiieeend' at your disposal, and yet, here you are now..." She licks her lips, and revels in the full-body shudder that runs over Celestia as she catches a glimpse of the deadly-sharp fangs now residing within Twilight's muzzle.

With a flash of black and green magic, she pops into Princess Celestia's prison, still grinning that cruel, predatory smile. "This is your fault. I want you to remember that as I take you apart, bit by hypocritical bit, you COW."

Her upper lip curls back into a snarl, and now Celestia gets a proper look at just how sharp those teeth are, gets a proper feel of how sharp they are, and all she can do is scream as they tear into her flesh and pain becomes her whole world, but she's lived for millennia and has certainly lived through worse as a prisoner of war.

What she hasn't lived through is the feeling of betrayal by someone that she's betrayed, the feeling of having failed, the feeling of deserving it she deserves this Twilight's right to be hurting her and now she can't breathe and all she can taste is blood and her intestines are strewn about the cold cold ground and she can't tell if the sound of meat ripping is really that loud or-

When she wakes up, she's still screaming at the top of her lungs, back ramrod straight and throat hoarse and tasting faintly of blood from how hard she'd been wailing within the dream. It takes her several long, eons-long minutes to catch her breath, for her chest to stop rising and falling quite so quickly, for her heart to stop thrumming within her breast so hard that she fears that it may burst out from her rib cage.

Faintly, she thanks her past self for having had the foresight to cast that soundproofing spell before she had drifted off. It seems to have become a part of her nightly routine at this point.

She gulps down metal-tinted saliva and flops back down onto her bed, uncaring of the distinctly gross feeling of cooling sweat against her fur, skin, and mane. It seems to have become a part of her nightly routine at this point.

As badly as she wants to hate King Sombra for the dreams, however, she hates herself more. She's not so stupid that she would ignore the blatant symbolism ingrained within them. It's clear that she fears that her protégé will be lost to the same dark forces that took King Sombra, that she fears that King Sombra will force Twilight Sparkle to trot that same path, that she fears that...

...and here she must gulp again, grimacing as her dry throat makes itself known, because this one is always the hardest truth to face, because what she fears most is that...

...that neither of the previous scenarios were even remotely possible. That Twilight Sparkle will simply forget her for all of eternity of her own volition, because Princess Celestia had been too stubborn to give in to her student, the same student that had displayed wisdom far beyond her years time and time again.

Luna's words echo within her mind once more, so clearly that it is as if she were truly within the solar diarch's mind. She doesn't scream and whip around, attempting to find her sister, as she had the first time. It seems to have become a part of her nightly routine at this point.

'Do not take gambles upon that which you cannot bear to lose, dear sister.'

She had only ever seen that unknown, melancholy emotion with such intensity swirling about within those beautiful aquamarine eyes once before: The brief period of clarity she'd had right before Celestia had blasted her to the moon with the Elements, where she had managed to beat back The Nightmare for just long enough to give Celestia that look which still haunts the sun princess even now.

The screams and threats that the lunar diarch had leveled upon her - all whilst making use of that archaic language and The Royal Canterlot Voice - had been terrifying and humbling in their own right, yes, and they had certainly drawn the attention of nearly the entire barracks' populations, but those final words that she had spoken at the end, combined with that...that look...

Princess Celestia feels something in her mind suddenly click as she ruminates upon that final encounter. She can't put words to it - she doesn't think she, nor anypony else, ever could - but she understands now. She knows what that look in Luna's eyes had meant.

Hooves shaking furiously, it takes her nearly ten tries to finally get her desk drawer open with clammy hooves - she doesn't dare trust her magic right now - before she begins to rifle through the absolute disaster of parchments, quills, and sealed ink pots. Most are letters that Twilight had written to her, back when she had been her student, but some are letters that Celestia had written to her.

'Twilight, I DEMAND that you come back and...'

'Twilight, I know that you're a reasonable pony. Come to Canterlot so...'

'Twilight, please, let's just talk about...'

'Twilight, you must understand where I'm coming from...'

Blinking away tears, she crumples up every single letter she comes across that she had written before she finally locates a blank piece of parchment. With trembling hooves, she scrambles to open a pot of ink - finding it empty, she hurls it towards the trash bin in the corner of her room, uncaring when she misses it by four feet - before opening a new one, getting ink all over her pristine, alabaster coat in the process.

'Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Please...I pray that this letter reaches you, for it has been quite some time since we last spoke. I've realized that I was - no, that I AM - a fool. I would apologize, but I fear I cannot do so properly through a letter. Please, come to Canterlot so that we may talk in person.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

Taking a deep breath, her horn comes alight with a golden glow, illuminating her sallow, tear-streaked face, before she surrounds the sealed scroll with her magic, directing the letter towards Twilight Sparkle.

As it vanishes, her heart soars with joy-

-only for that joy to be crushed into a tiny black speck as the scroll is promptly spat back out into her face, along with the achingly familiar red glow of the spell's "failed to find target" response.

Robotically, she places the letter upon her desk before, with stiff limbs, she carries herself back over to her bed, stumbles into it, and buries her face into her forelegs, ink staining her face as the first note of her sorrowful song carries throughout her bedroom.

Sometimes, as King Sombra teaches her new spells, she still reminisces upon the first time he had taught her in his own unique way.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, you are well aware of the ways that I told you in which I teach, correct? While I have not had a pupil for quite some time, my methods have not changed a single speck, for they have remained more effective than any others I've seen in all the time I've lived."

She nods resolutely, hooves planted firmly against the shimmering blue grass of the Crystal Castle's gardens as she meets King Sombra's gaze with her own, steady one. "I'm sure, King Sombra. It's new to me, and while it's...I won't lie, it's a little bit scary to think about. But I love new things, and I love learning. Plus, I have zero reason to distrust you." She offers him a small smile.

He returns it with a low chuckle, lowering his head slightly as his horn glows with the sinister-looking arcana that he's so (in)famous for. "Very well. Keep your defenses lowered and your mind open, please, and let me know if it hurts. It shouldn't, but...you'll see what I mean when I say that sometimes it can feel dangerously close to doing so."

The king's words send a shudder of apprehension up her spine, but she keeps herself open, lowering her head in response so that their horns are at an equal level. A jet of black magic streams from the king's horn and encases her own within its light-leeching cloud, sinking into every single groove and permeating the microscopic pores of the magical conduit. Her mind positively explodes with the knowledge; it is though he's beaming the experience of casting the spell directly into her brain, into her soul, and it's...breathtaking. Beautiful in its own right, even as her body tingles and she must strain to keep herself from raising her defenses. The magic within her doesn't know that she consented to such an invasive procedure, after all; all it knows is that she's being attacked.

After several minutes of the energy exchange, King Sombra's magic tapers off into nothingness, and as the green-speckled black loses the steady feed, it, too, dissipates into the air surrounding her horn. It's at this time that she realizes that she'd scarcely been breathing, so enamored with the feeling of learning so...so directly.

It leaves behind a strange feeling. Not as though she's been violated, of course - she doubts that King Sombra could ever make her feel such a way - but...almost as though their arcana had melded together for those minutes, like the lines between them had simply vanished.

She grins.

Her horn glows with purple, and if she notices that, as a stream of magic jets out, it's just a few shades darker, nearly magenta, she either doesn't notice or doesn't care. Several seconds later, the fur on the back of her neck still standing from the distinctly strange and wonderfully new sensation of making use of knowledge that she has absorbed from another mind, her eyes move to find that she's transformed the tiny, ceramic mouse figurine in front of her into a...

Twilight's brows furrow into a deep frown as King Sombra's hearty laugh booms throughout the gardens.

The mouse is now a live, cat-sized manticore.

"Twilight, all I did was give you the knowledge. It takes experience and knowledge to be able to cast a transfiguration spell of such a magnitude, remember?"

The miniature monster growls - though, really, at that size, it's more of a squeak - and chases its own tail before beginning to stalk after a butterfly.

"Try it just a few more times. I'm sure you felt the energy drain; the magical reserves within you are much like your physical muscles in that they must be exercised and trained to be strengthened." Remembering the story of how she got her cutie mark, he gives her a teasing smirk. "The difference between a weight-lifter's biceps and your magic is that you must also train your magic for precision."

Her cheeks go red and she flicks his ear with her magic before giggling in response, nodding and powering up her horn once more. "Alright. I've got this."

As her knees wobble and she pants to catch her breath, ears flattened and sweat dripping down her left temple, King Sombra gently wraps a hoof around her barrel to encourage her to lean against him. Her cheeks flush with irritation at herself and her perceived thaumaturgic incompetence at her inability to cast the latest spell that she's decided to attempt.

"Dammit!" She hisses out from in-between gritted teeth, her voice airy as she wheezes every now and then, horn still sparking from the near-overload of magic that had been forced through it.

"Twilight," he says, a warning low in his voice, "do not allow your anger to overcome you. It is both unnecessary and a hindrance to your education." He tilts her head so that she's facing him, and gives her a small, caring smile, those eyes encouraging her while still retaining just a hint of that scolding aura. "The mages that I taught this spell to were well into their senior years before they could cast it, and they found that writing about it was much easier than actually doing the deed." Feeling that she's well enough to stand on her own now, he gives her one last pat on the back before stepping away, nodding to her. "One more time, and don't strain yourself. This is not a race. If I find reason to believe that you're overexerting yourself, we're stopping your training for a month. The point of my position as your teacher is to push you, not kill you."

She blanches at the threatened punishment, and nods, conjuring up a glass of water to sip at to further gather her strength. The approving look in King Sombra's eyes makes her chuckle; obviously, he was hoping to get her to cast that spell with the statement.

After taking a few more minutes to catch her breath and rest up, she feels ready to attempt the spell one last time. With one more, final deep breath, her horn glows, steadily increasing in luminescence until it streams out towards a seemingly unremarkable patch of recently-overturned earth. Under the steady attentions from the alicorn's arcana, several bright green sprouts slowly, slowly push up through the dirt, unfurling as the plants grow before the ponies' very eyes. They continue to mature, the first, tender leaves shriveling up and falling off as larger, broader leaves uncurl, neon green flowers blooming soon after. The flowers fall off, and tiny turquoise snap pea pods have just started to form before Twilight cuts off her magic, knowing that she's reached her limit.

The princess is still breathless, but she's not about to pass out this time, and as she worriedly glances over to King Sombra, he gives her a wide, approving grin, trotting over to nuzzle her before leaning down to view the plants still glistening with residual magic. As he speaks, however, he is careful to keep his tone even. "Princess Twilight, you and I both know that your magical skills are beyond those of any creatures upon this planet - don't give me that modest look, you know it's true - and that this is a feat that nopony your age could ever hope to accomplish."

She sighs. She knows what's coming next. "But...?"

He stands back up, coming over to Twilight's side and sitting down, nudging her with his shoulder to suggest that she do the same, which she does.

"But, I know that you could have done better. I'm not reprimanding you for what you've done today; it was wonderful, and I am proud. However, something has been troubling you. I've seen you struggle to cast spells before. You have, in fact, struggled much worse with several other spells, and you haven't gotten as upset as you did today." He turns to look at her with that piercing look in his eyes, seeming to stare into her soul. "What's wrong, Twilight?"

A heavy sigh leaves the mare, and she leans against the dark unicorn, wings drooping down against her sides as she stares down at the ground. "...you know how mothers have that 'mother's instinct', where they always know when something's wrong with their foals?" She feels his neck muscles flex as he nods. "Well, I've got the same thing, and I'm pretty sure that that's true for most other sons and daughters. For instance, back when I lived in Canterlot, I knew that my mother had banged her hoof into the kitchen counter so hard that it fractured when I was at the grocery store several miles away. I felt something wrong about my mother, dropped all of the groceries I'd been holding, and teleported right back to the house to find her laying on the ground, clutching her hoof, and screaming her lungs out." Despite the grisly details, she giggles. "But when I got there, she immediately stopped, because she saw my worried face, and the fact that I had no groceries, and asked me both if I was okay and where the eggs were."

King Sombra lets loose a low laugh of his own, shaking his head softly. "It seems like something that both you and any mother would do, yes." He pauses, already aware of where this conversation is leading, and when he next speaks, his voice is soft. "...I know that Celestia was just as much of a second mother as she was a mentor to you."

She nods, blinking furiously to keep the sudden burning behind her eyes at bay. "Yes. And...I-I can feel her hurting. I've felt it since I left, but...it's been getting worse with every passing day, Sombra. It got so, so bad last night." Her voice drops to nearly a whisper. "Spike can feel it, every time she tries to send me a letter, you know. He doesn't tell me, but his body shakes a little bit, like it used to right before he'd burp out a scroll. He did it last night. I saw, because I-" She gulps, audibly, in another attempt to keep from crying. "-I-I couldn't sleep. I felt her hurting so badly."

Sombra wraps a foreleg around the base of her neck, pulling her in for a gentle hug as he rests his chin atop her head. The position is a little bit awkward, now that Twilight's grown a few inches and he's remained the same height, but the gesture's comforting for the both of them all the same. "...do you think that you're ready to see her, Twilight?"

It takes her several long moments of contemplation, and she's still really only half-sure when she replies, but she nods shakily, voice trembling as she chokes out, "Y-Yes, I...I think I am." Her voice firms up slightly as she steels her resolve. "At the very least, I'm willing to try." She pauses, then looks up at him, tears shimmering along her lower eyelids. "...c-could you come with me, please?"

He gives her a small, supportive smile, and nods, nuzzling her one last time before pulling away so that they're sitting comfortably side-by-side once more. "Of course, Twilight Sparkle. Nothing would please me more."

After they've had time to eat - Twilight in particular finds that she needs a glass or two of Crystal Berry wine to prepare herself for the request she's going to make of Spike later - they both return to their respective bedrooms to wind down for the night. When Twilight sits down at her desk rather than upon her bed, however, Spike rolls out of his own bed and walks over to her, tugging on one of her wings gently.

"Twilight?"

She looks down to find him looking up at her. His face has gotten a little bit sharper, the baby fat starting to melt away, and his voice has lowered slightly, but she'll always see him as her adorable baby brother. "Yes, Spike, I'm...I'm alright." She gulps, allowing the vague warmth running through her veins from the alcohol to embolden her for her next words. "...but, um...I-I think..." She groans and faceplants onto her desk, voice muffled as she continues. "I want to send a letter to Princess Celestia. I want to talk to her."

He yelps at the action, and immediately scrambles up - using her body as a jungle gym to do so - to pick her head up off of the desk before he sits on the wooden surface and gives her a hard stare. Not judging or glaring, but an intense gaze all the same. "Twilight, are you sure?"

Twilight hesitates, then nods. "Yeah, I'm- I'm sure. It's been long enough, and...I think she's changed. I don't need Luna to tell me, either. I just know." She gives Spike a small smile, which he returns with an understanding nod.

Her horn glows with the cancellation spell for the letter rejection spell she'd cast upon him what feels like so many years ago, and it surrounds him before sinking into his skin. They both pause for a few moments afterwards, almost as if they expect for Princess Celestia to suddenly develop omnipotence then flood the room with letters, but nothing happens.

They both slump down with a sigh.

Then Twilight straightens her back somewhat, picking up a quill and dipping it into a pot of ink before beginning to write out a letter to Princess Celestia.

'Dear Princess Celestia,

I apologize for the late hour at which I'm sending this, so I won't take offense if you don't respond until tomorrow. I realize that it has been years, but if you would still like to talk, I'd be happy like to come visit you in Canterlot so that we may discuss the topic which split us apart during our last meeting. I suppose I also wouldn't say no to some tea, for old times' sakes. I must inform you, however, that I do plan to bring along King Sombra.

Respectfully yours,

Princess Twilight Sparkle'

She levitates a black candle over, lights it, allows a few fat globs of wax to drip down upon the center of the edge of the rolled scroll, then presses the elaborately carved toe of her left horseshoe into the almost-hardened but still-malleable wax of the seal. Once finished, she holds the letter out to Spike with a hesitant smile. He takes it, holds her hoof with a firm claw and a reassuring smile of his own, then turns his head to the side and lights the letter aflame.

They're both about to call it a night when Spike's throat rumbles and he suddenly belches out a letter, just barely avoiding leaving a scorch mark upon Twilight's face in the process. When he holds up the letter, Princess Celestia's royal seal lays upon the red wax.

Twilight blinks. "Well. That was fast."

'My dearest Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

You've absolutely no need to apologize for the timing. I am so glad grateful for the second chance to talk that you're extending. King Sombra is, of course, welcome to come visit too. I'd love to talk absolutely any and all times whenever you're free. As you can imagine, being the co-ruler of Equestria leaves me with quite a few responsibilities, but I'm sure Luna won't mind picking up my 'shift' for however long our meeting lasts. Please visit soon

Respectfully yours,

Princess Celestia'

At exactly 6PM on the dot, two clouds of dark magenta magic interspersed with small crackles of black begin to form within a space about ten feet away from the princesses' thrones. A few seconds later, with the sharp bang of rapidly expanding air as it's displaced by two beings, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Spike appear where the clouds had been. A moment later, King Sombra pops in just a few feet behind Twilight, following a cloud of his own viridescent-speckled obsidian arcana.

The only pony to witness this is Princess Celestia. She had ordered everypony else to stay out of the throne room under pain of imprisonment, even her own royal guards. As she notices that her former student's aura has darkened and taken on several traits of King Sombra's own arcana, she must bite back the beginnings of tears. She has - for the most part - dispensed of the notions that she knows by now are silly that King Sombra might have somehow 'tainted' or otherwise 'ruined' Twilight. No, she struggles to rein in her emotions because she recalls that, under her own tutelage, Twilight Sparkle's magic had begun to take on faint streaks of gold as a result of her constant interaction with Princess Celestia's own energies.

It stings, greatly, to know what the strong presence of those black sparks means.

Taking a moment to adjust her crown upon her head (not to mention check on Spike, who stumbles a bit dizzily but seems otherwise fine), she finally meets eyes with Princess Celestia, lips pursed into a straight line as her face remains unreadable. She gives the other alicorn a curt, formal nod, the action imbued with a frosty coldness that freezes Celestia's bones even from so far away.

The solar diarch takes a deep, shuddering breath, wings tensing against her sides.

'I can do this.'

"P- Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. I- uh- th-thank y-" Her face crumples, and any dignity or composure she may have possessed completely shatters as tears begin to stream from her eyes, forelegs wobbling before she collapses onto her belly on her throne, wings falling limp. "Oh Twilight, I-I- I'm so- snff- I'm so, so sor- hic!- sorry! I-I doubted it, a-at first, b-be-because I- I-I only knew the- th-the biased- h-his- snff!- history books, b-but I knew you were right f-fruh- from the second I scanned you, a-and I- I-I shouldn't have doubted you from then on, I should- sh-should've just listened, oh Twilight, I-I'm so very sorry! I was so wrong!" It takes her several minutes to be able to breathe enough from her heaving sobs to continue, but despite the snot dribbling from her nose, she is, at least, now able to speak a little bit more clearly. "I-I should have trusted your judgment, Twuh- Twilight," she stammers out, voice wobbling as she drags a foreleg over her face, smearing tears and snot everywhere. Princess Celestia is not a pretty crier. "I should have trusted you."

Throughout Princess Celestia's entire, sobbed-out apology, Twilight had remained stone-faced and silent, allowing her to speak uninterrupted. When it finally seems that the solar diarch is finished and has gone silent save for a steady series of sniffles and wiping away the weakened but still-constant stream of tears running down her pink cheeks, the purple alicorn turns to King Sombra, their eyes locking. They seem to have a wordless communication, an entire conversation taking place within the span of a few seconds, before he nods once. With that, Twilight walks over to Celestia, squeezes herself into the throne beside her, opening a wing, and wrapping it around her barrel for a hug. After several years, she's now only a little less than a head shorter than her ex mentor, and her wing is now large enough to give the other mare a proper wing hug.

"Princess Celestia...I forgive you."

She lets out another wail before turning and burying her face within Twilight's neck, nuzzling her and wrapping her forehooves so tightly around her ex student's neck that, for a few moments, she struggles to breathe. The shorter alicorn doesn't stop her - she's dealt with waaay more choke-y hugs than this from Pinkie Pie - and sooner or later, Celestia's grip eases up enough that she can take a few quick, deep breaths before returning the action (albeit with less force).

None of the creatures in the room are sure, exactly, of how long it takes for Princess Celestia to stop crying - and it takes even longer for her to stop death-gripping Twilight - but enough time passes that Princess Luna must take it upon herself to lower the sun before she raises her beautiful moon. As the stark white light begins to shine through the stained glass windows, Celestia and Twilight seem to snap out of their cuddle-daze, and they look at each other before breaking off into a series of giggles. They look over to Sombra and Spike, finding them exchanging sketches of each other. A loud and indignant 'HEY! I am NOT that tall!' from King Sombra forces a snort out of Twilight, and Sombra looks over at her with an overexaggerated glare as he holds up the offending drawing in question.

"Excuse me, Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle! I have every right to be upset about this! This is a mockery of my royal beauty!" At first, she doesn't really see the issue with it, until the paper unfolds - still not that bad - then unfolds again...then a final time. The final picture is a four-foot-long drawing of King Sombra with disproportionately long forelegs and hind limbs, his head and neck looking comically small and short as a result.

Twilight Sparkle bursts out laughing, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes as she takes the parchment from Sombra and holds it up to the moonlight to get a better view. "Now this is art! I think we should frame this."

Spike nods, standing up and putting his claws on his hips with pride as he juts his chin up into the air. "Agreed! It is some of my finest work."

King Sombra just groans and presses his face into the marble floor of the castle, mumbling something about evil alicorns and evil dragons.

A soft snicker from Princess Twilight's side draws the attention of the other two ponies and one dragon to her, and a light pink flush comes to her cheeks - distantly, she's made aware of the dampness upon them and lifts the wing furthest away from Twilight up to dry her face - before she clears her throat and offers them all a small smile. "So, uhm...would you all care for some honey lemon tea? I believe the chefs have just finished baking a fresh batch of orange-cranberry scones, too."

As they nod and her horn glows to signal the kitchens, her chest glows with the distinct feeling that, although things aren't back to the way they were before - she's well-aware that they never really will be again - they will, at least, be alright.

Author's Note

This story's pretty much wrapped up! I do plan to write some bonus chapters, but I'm marking it as complete since the main story arc's finished now. I hope you've all enjoyed reading just as much as I've enjoyed writing it! :yay:

The Present

His heart aches.

He failed.

He...he FAILED!

'How did my spell fail? It should NEVER have faded!'

...it's no use deliberating over questions not worth taking the time to answer right now. He must protect his subjects. They must be disoriented after so long shut away from the outside world. He never planned for this. He never planned for having to adjust to a world they had been frozen out of. That he chose to freeze them out of.

Guilt pulls at his shadowy heart once more.

'Did...did I...did I make the right choice...?'

With a toss of his mane, the determined King Sombra transforms into shadow and rushes into the Crystal Empire, smiling at first when he hears screams.

'Even with the time amnesia, they must remember who I-'

"I-It's- it's him!"

The sheer terror and disgust in the stallion's voice drives a dagger into the center of his heart and twists. Glowing red eyes swivel to find the source, and the stallion in question looks to be in danger of urinating himself from fear, knees knocking together and sweat beading at his temples.

"...Daffodil Druid?"

He hits the shimmering floor with a muffled thump, eyes rolling back in their sockets. A scowling pink alicorn and a bulky white unicorn run over, panic clear on their faces. The alicorn gets to work checking Daffodil's vital signs and ensuring that he won't choke on his own spit as the unicorn stomps over to King Sombra, a scowl on his face.

"What did you do to him you MONSTER?!" He nearly screams the question, an accusatory hoof thrust out towards Sombra as his horn glows pink, presumably preparing a spell in case the king decides to attack.

Confusion twists his face, a hint of anger beginning to simmer within his breast.

"I said his name, unicorn. If we're asking questions, what are you doing in my empire?" And now it's his turn to point a hoof, the limb materializing from the shadows he's composed of, quickly followed by the rest of his body. He towers over the blue-maned unicorn, and as the alicorn stands upright - having noticed the interaction growing heated - he silently notes that he's only a few inches taller than her, too. She must be a newly-transformed princess.

He bows halfway, nodding slightly, in the direction of the alicorn and the alicorn alone.

"Hello, Princess...?"

The alicorn's befuddlement at his behavior couldn't be any more obvious, and she stares, open-mouthed, at him before returning the bow with her own awkwardly bow-legged one.

"I- uh- P-Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. But, please, call me Princess Cadance." Once risen from her bow, she shoots a look towards Shining Armor that portrays her current "what do we do now?!" state of mind.

"King Sombra, though I'm sure you've heard of me. Judging by your reactions, you weren't expecting a disgusting monster like me to act like a pony, were you?" He'd be lying if he said he didn't take just the smallest bit of amusement from seeing their cheeks go pink and the way they awkwardly squirm at the accusations. Hmph. Good. See how they like being insulted out of hoof.

It is at this time that Princess Cadance unfolds the wing closest to the unicorn and hits him in the back of the head hard enough that little golden stars dance around his head for a good twenty seconds. Once he comes out of his daze, he only glares at her for a second before returning his gaze to King Sombra and frowning apologetically. He offers his own bow, nearly touching his nose to the ground, then rises once more, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof.

"I-I'm Prince Shining Armor. I'm...I'm sorry for, uh...judging a book by its cover." That earns him another wing thump. "Alright, I get it! Sheesh." He clears his throat awkwardly. "So, uh...friends?"

He cocks his head to one side, a hint of suspicion entering his gaze, but he nods, slowly. He can forgive a bad first impression, and these ponies seem nice enough. Prince Shining Armor starts to close the distance between them with the intent to shake the other's hoof, not noticing an uneven crystal on the path in his trajectory, and...

King Sombra acts upon pure reflex. With a wooshing sound, he rushes forwards to catch his new friend(?), arms wrapped around his barrel underneath his armpits and muzzle buried within the crook of his neck. It would be sweet, or perhaps embarrassing, if it weren't for the fact that he'd underestimated his own strength.

"C-Can't...breathe...K-King...Sombra...loosen...grip...please..."

He's just about to respect the wheezing stallion's wishes and apologize when a blast of purple magic shocks his senses and knocks him clear off of Shining Armor.

'Huh...weird...shouldn't...Crystal...Heart...stop...snowing...?'

His bleary eyes struggle to focus upon the gorgeous snowy skies before the rapidly-encroaching darkness overwhelms his vision.

The first thing he notices upon waking is that his head hurts. No, scratch that, his brain hurts. It's like that one time he fiddled a little too much with the toast stuck in the toaster and he'd received a powerful magical shock from the socket powering the device, but magnified by one thousand. Maybe one million.

The second thing he notices is that his horn hurts. For some reason that makes sense in his still-groggy mind, attempting to cast a light spell in the dark area - 'Room?' - that he's in seems like a good idea. He gets another wave of agony for his efforts, and the realization that there's a tight presence at the base of his bladed horn. The first cold fingers of dread run down his spine. It has been years since he last had one put on him - even now, a mirthless smile curls his lips as he's reminded of his childhood - but he remembers the feeling well.

He's been fitted with a magic suppression ring, and one forged by a powerful mage at that. He didn't know it was possible to suppress both his unicorn magic and his shadow magic.

The third thing he realizes, in the minutes that it takes for his slitted pupils to adjust to the darkness, is that he is in a prison cell. A brief flash of panic runs through him before he spots the locks on the bars. Stamped with the Crystal Empire's signature trio of crystals, he knows that he is, at the very least, still in his empire. A small sigh of relief leaves him.

He begins to run his hooves over his body to assess any possible damage, speaking out loud to better ground himself.

"Ahem. Damage assessment. Horn: Unchipped and whole. Magical suppression ring is locked and presumably magically attuned to whomever fitted me with it. Brute force is likely impossible and a highly inadvisable course of action to take for removal. Coat and skin: Free of blood, injuries, and piercings. Light level is insufficient to view for new tattoos, but lack of scabs leads me to assume that there are none, unless they have been magically healed. Hooves: Uncracked, still shoed, regalia has been removed. Muzzle: Teeth are all remaining, fangs are not filed down or removed, all five senses seem to be functioning adequately. All five limbs and extremities seem to be functioning adequately."

Once finished, he sits back down, releasing a soft sigh. He feels...betrayed. By his Crystal Ponies, by those two new ponies, by- by everything.

'Is this the price for selling myself to a demon?'

Muffled arguments break him out of his ruminations. The voices are too incoherent for him to distinguish from one another at first, but as they grow nearer, he can make out two separate mares and one stallion. He recognizes two parties; Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance sound upset, but the other, unknown mare sounds particularly furious.

The quiet shimmering of magic and that same purple arcane hue is all the warning he gets before the dungeon door is abruptly slammed open, so hard that the handle simply snaps off. The unknown purple mare doesn't notice or care. He suspects it's the latter. His poker face remains unchanged.

Shining Armor and Cadance hurriedly follow after her, but they're unable to stop the new alicorn before she's at Sombra's cell and screaming in his face in a fiery rage, "WHAT did you do to my brother and sister-in-law?!"

Without bothering to acknowledge the verbal assault, he turns his head to face the two red-faced ponies beside her, and calmly asks, "Do nonsensical accusations run in your family, Prince Shining Armor?"

Another wing thump, followed by Shining Armor smashing a hoof into his own face so hard that the thunk of keratin against bone bounces off of the cold stone walls.

Sombra nods in respect for a well-executed facehoof. One must suffer for their art. Cadance fusses over her husband as he now winces and gently grasps at the black eye starting to form as a result of his actions.

This doesn't please the purple alicorn in the slightest. She raps a hoof against the bars, hard, then speaks again in a barely-restrained tone simmering with anger.

"Ahem. King Sombra, was it?"

He finally decides to give the new alicorn his attention, red eyes locking onto narrowed violet ones. To her credit, she only gasps slightly before resuming her glare.

"Yes, Princess...?" He pauses before turning the rest of his body to face her. "You'll forgive me if I don't bow. The magical concussion you gave me was quite powerful, and I'd rather not risk another fainting spell in the middle of our conversation." He can't help himself; one corner of his mouth curls upwards into a snarky little grin, one pearly white fang poking out.

A visible shudder runs down her back, and she backs up a few steps before realizing she even did it. Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, she steps back up to the bars, forcing a smile that looks so pained that Sombra is briefly reminded of Slithar. He must resist grinning wider, and succeeds. Mostly.

"Twilight. Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. But I'm known to most as Princess Twilight."

"Excellent. Now that we've properly greeted each other, you may resume your screaming session. Let me make this clear, though, Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. I do not listen to those who disrespect me. I listen to those who converse with me. It is my right as a king to be treated as an equal, especially when I am amongst fellow royalty."

With every passing second of his speech, Twilight had grown more and more red in the face, shaking with fury, until the last word causes her to snap.

"'FELLOW ROYALTY'?! You're lucky Princess Celestia's too busy to be dealing with scum like you! You- y-you-" Suddenly she finds herself at a loss for words, shocked at just how far this stallion has fallen from the unicorn he once was. She thought she might be prepared, especially after Celestia told her what Sombra had done - she came into these dungeons knowing full well that she'd be facing a pony mad enough to lock away his entire kingdom - but the...the utter lack of remorse, it's like he believes he's done nothing wrong!

She shakes her head, turning away from the cell.

"I'll find a way to undo your dark magic from my brother and sister-in-law, you freak. And then...I'm going to ask Celestia if we have a punishment worse than the Stone Sleep Spell. And once we find a spell ten times worse than that...that's what we'll cast on you." She snorts out a frustrated huff of air before grasping Cadance and Shining Armors' heads and dragging them out of the dungeons.

If she had bothered to look back, she would have seen the proud King Sombra with his head hung low, tears pattering down onto the cold stone floor, body shaking with silent sobs as he pondered whether it was worth loving his Crystal Ponies if they and all of Equestria hated him for what he'd done for them.