The Other Side Of History

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.