Airy's eyes gazed upon the soul gem hovering on the table, slowly spinning around as she focused on the softly pulsing white light inside. It wasn't a pearl or a diamond shaped soul gem, it was a blue elongated hexagon, like the crystals on those old 2D final fantasy games or more recognizably, the rupees from legend of zelda games. The soft glow wasn't much, only noticeable if you observed it but even her casual glow was brighter in the dark room than the glow of the soul inside the crystal.

Airy turned her gaze away from Glint Hoof's mutilated soul to the letter Princess Luna had send, which gave quite a detailed event of her and Princess Celestia's ascension to Alicornhood. Apparently, the ancient Alicorns and and modern ones were quite different, as Princess Luna and Princess Celestia used to be mere unicorns in a small, distant village called Skyros, which used to be the home of the ancient Alicorns.

The word being "used to be" since by the time they had been born, there had been only one elder Alicorn far past her prime and only a dozen weak unicorns of questionable heritage left, with houses made of wood among the moldy ruins of what was once a mighty city (according to the elder Alicorn anyway: only few outlines remained of where buildings might have been, with the highest remaining piece of wall standing as tall as your average pony).

Either way, when they had been mere fillies, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia had been mere unicorns learning magic from the sickly and elderly Alicorn (they didn't know her name, merely referred her as 'grandma') who had a mane and coat of greyish yellow and a cutie mark which had one half being the moon and other the sun.

When the elder had grown too sick to move the sun and the moon, they had been left hanging in the sky while the rest of the adults had tried (and failed) to use their magic to move them, including a group of traveling unicorns scholars that had included the (recently famous) Star Swirl, so Celestia had taken the so called 'leap of faith' and used her magic on the sun in an attempt to help.

To say that the unicorns and the Alicorn elder had been surprised when the sun actually moved was an understatement, especially when Luna had followed her sister's example and moved the moon. The Sun rose and the Moon sank beneath the horizon, while a whirlwind of magic had taken the twins to a realm made of stars and bestowed them their wings, thus making them Alicorns. Their visit to the realm of order (at least, that's what the elder had called it when they returned) had been brief, as Alicorns weren't gods (despite what others might believe) but rather mere mortals gifted with a spark of order magic.

According to the elder Alicorn, the order magic was what both the ancient and modern Alicorns wielded, a reflection of the chaos magic their natural rivals the Draconequus wielded. Princess Luna added that she and Celestia suspected that unlike the Alicorns, Discord's ability to wield all of the chaos magic of the old Draconequus was due to being the only living one known in the world, while the Alicorns only had a small spark of the order magic despite being only a few left: both of them had plenty of theories why it was like that (Especially considering that the elder Alicorn had been the sole Alicorn in the world for centuries and had never wielded more than any other Alicorn had) but they had no evidence to prove or disprove any theories.

Personally, Airy suspected that Luna was right about the ancient Alicorns creating some sort of... limiter into the realm of order, so that the new Alicorns would only get a spark and not become self-righteous gods, like Discord had been a self-proclaimed god of chaos, even though by nature he was merely a spirit of chaos with unrestricted access to realm of chaos... a fact proven when Celestia and Luna had imprisoned him in stone.

Luna of course went on to explain that the elder had told them many secrets once she had gotten well, including the fact that modern ponies could ascend to Alicornhood with a feat of great magic. They weren't gods nor demigods, mere mortals with great power that the elder Alicorn expected to wield with great responsibility. The elder also explained that she had been an earth pony once, when there had been a great many ponies (from unicorns to pegasi to even a rare few earth ponies) who had ascended to Alicornhood and come to inhabit the city of Skyros.

Airy skimmed over the section of the letter where it had been Star Swirl that had instructed the two new Alicorns on how to raise and lower the sun and the moon properly while the elder Alicorn had gotten over her sickness, before the scholars had returned to Equestria after the two fillies refused to leave their sister and Skyros behind.

Airy was more interested in the realm of order rather than whatever history of the ruined city Luna had spoken on and on in her letter, though she did make a note about a third Alicorn that had ascended mere weeks before the elder Alicorn's death: someone named Opaline, who wielded magical fire and was fiercely jealous of the two sisters, especially when the elder refused to share her secrets with the young and arrogant Alicorn.

Sadly, Luna hadn't gone too far into details about the realm of order (which meant she either didn't know or didn't want to share), other than while they could astral project themselves into it, they couldn't draw upon the raw order magic in there. Luna noted that they had tried when Discord had taken over Equestria, yet they couldn't since only when one ascends do they actually visit the realm of order in flesh to get a tiny spark of the magic to change physically.

Still... if Airy could get even a sample of that magic, she could do great many deals with it... such a shame there hadn't been any other Alicorn ascensions in centuries before the three, especially since Luna mentioned she wasn't sure if there would ever be more Alicorns: the elder had never expected to live to see even one more, yet despite three appearing there had not been any signs in the past decades of more appearing.

Either way, apparently the city of Skyros was abandoned by most when the elder died, with Princess Luna's and Princess Celestia's elder sister taking them to Equestria, which had been established just two years prior as a unified kingdom by Princess Platinum, Chancellor Puddinghead and Commander Hurricane, after their servant's Clover the Great (Platinum's advisor and Star Swirl's former apprentice), Smart Cookie (Puddinghead's secretary) and Private pansy (Hurricane's second-in-command) became friends and used the 'fire of friendship' (whatever that was) to drive the Windigos away.

Airy already learned this part while researching magical artifacts and more, so she barely read it before moving on to Luna's explanation about her and Celestia's official coronation as Princesses of Equestria about twenty years ago, how they named their nephew a Prince once their elder sister died to a sickness and how they had been guided in their early years by Star Swirl who also taught them great deal about magic before he disappeared nearly a decade ago.

Airy barely paid attention to the rest of the detailed personal accounts on the last two years where Luna wrote about the defeats of Discord and Tirek, since most of it was something she already knew... although Luna also noted that when they had left Skyros, the only one who had stayed behind while others had left with them was Opaline, who had spitefully rejected their invitation to join them and boasted that one day, she'd rebuild Skyros to the capital of the world... that had been when Luna and Celestia had last heard of her: when they had visited the city just year ago in order to get her help against Discord, the only to find there was that it had been completely abandoned.

Airy suspected that Opaline was either dead, prisoner or merely wandering the world in false grandeur, so unless she reappeared somewhere then Airy wouldn't have to worry about her. She'd have more to worry about the Elements of Harmony than some missing Alicorn.

Most interesting fact however was that Princess Celestia wanted to take Radiant Hope as student, because she suspected that Radiant had the spark to ascend to Alicornhood: Princess Amore had no spark, her physical change to taller unicorn was because of the raw magic released by the Crystal Heart's activation, a process similar to ascension but without access to realm of order: theoretically she could become Alicorn-like with magical infusion but to become a true Alicorn one needed to actually access the realm of order.

Airy made a note to make some sort of bracelet or other for Radiant to wear, so that if she did indeed ascend like Princess Luna seemed to think, then she might capture a spark of that magic herself. Speaking of magical tools...

Airy turned her gaze on the table, where her plans for the prototype skeleton key were drawn on: A diamond with golden tip and edge, which theoretically could open any and all locks without triggering the protections associated with whatever she was breaking into... A perfect tool to let her break into the relic vault and steal the world tree seeds, as well as the time twirler.

Airy hummed to herself with satisfaction as she waved her hand, with fresh papers and quill levitating to her side as she began designing the next phase of her plans: the replication of the Crystals and the temple monsters to defend the said Crystals.

Quite the irony, that she was going to make the real things after all the time she spend lying about the fictional ones... yet the Crystals would have their uses: once created, she'd have them as objects of worship while they grow in size and power over the centuries to come, so she could wield them as magical batteries and as global weather control system. Ponies in their foolish nature controlled the weather of Equestria, so it would be easy for her to create the means to manipulate the weather worldwide: when the citizens obeyed her commands (Yes, her commands. She no longer had any intention of serving Grogar outside of pretending to, especially now that she was learning how good it felt to have real power), the people of this world would enjoy a paradise of perfect weather.

And if they disobeyed her? Well, the biblical punishments of god would look like a kid using magnifying glass to fry ants in comparison to what she'd do, while the survivors would beg for mercy she wasn't sure she'd even grant, should it be too much fun to just tear the world apart....

Airy happily hummed a tune as she flew across the hallways of the royal castle, considering her future plans before she saw Thunder Shield and Swift Clean walking down the hallway towards her, talking about something before they spotted her. Airy smiled as she flew towards them, stopping in front of them as they came to a stop.

"Good day Thunder, Swift Clean. How are things going after the medical examinations?" Airy asked, watching as Swift Clean pursed her lips with a frown "Disappointingly, since I had to fire three maids and two secretaries. Once the medical inspections were done we did a full survey on the castle staff and while only one of the maids was using light drugs, all three were found to have been stealing items to settle their various debts while the two secretaries were caught embezzling money from the treasury. As for the royal guards, I believe you had to relieve six guards in addition to Glint, four for drug usage and two for accepting bribes if i'm correct?" Swift spoke, addressing the last part to Thunder Shield as she turned her head towards him, receiving a nod in response.

"Yes, son of one of the farmers was secretly growing drugs in the basement of the barn and bribing the two guards to look the other way. The investigation's still going but looks like the rest of the family didn't know anything about it" he answered, pursing his own lips as he too had a frown on his face while thinking about the shame his own guards brought to the royal guard.

Airy on other hand couldn't care less about the narcs as she changed the topic "Speaking of Glint, how's he doing? I know you and Shard visited him couple of days ago but she didn't say anything about it... I was a little concerned because she was so distracted and took a couple of days off" Airy spoke, faking concern with her words and tone of voice as Thunder Shield turned his attention back to her.

"Truthfully, I don't know what happened to him. When we visited his house, there was no sign of him: the whole house had been cleared of anything valuable or personal, leaving only the bare minimum in furniture. My guards are searching the city right now but I suspect he sold everything he had and left the Crystal Empire, because the last anypony saw of him was when he was thrown out of the bar the day he got fired" Thunder answered, watching as Airy nodded her head in understanding "So, if he doesn't return, what happens to his house?" Airy asked him, only to turn towards Swift Clean as she cleared her throat.

"Technically, the house belongs to the royal family" Swift Clean said, pausing for a second before continuing "Glint's father had quite a lot of gambling debts when he died, so the house was sold to the royal family while Glint paid monthly payments to repay the debt. If he doesn't return and pay the next month's payments, the house will be cleaned and sold to a new owner" she explained as Airy put a hand on her chin, pretending to think for a moment before speaking.

"Well... since you're in charge of my finances, if Glint Hoof doesn't return and start paying the payments, could you take the money from my wages and buy the property?" Airy asked, watching as both Thunder Shield and Swift Clean changed their expressions from frowns to surprise, eyebrows raising at her question "You would pay the debt of a former guard who was fired due to drug abuse?" Thunder asked, only for Airy to shake her head in response.

"Not exactly" Airy spoke, pausing for a moment to consider her words "See, if he doesn't return within the due date, then I don't expect him to return at all. I remember hearing from you about the homeless in the Crystal Empire, so while I know there's no such troubles at this moment, I wanted to consider turning that home into an orphanage: no foal should spend their days sleeping on the cold hard streets with their bellies empty" Airy spoke with false empathy, lying quite easily as both Thunder's and Swift's expressions turned to that of compassionate empathy.

"That's.. quite noble of you, Airy. Not many would be willing to spend their own bits to form an orphanage... Alright, I'll see what I can do: if Glint Hoof misses his payments and doesn't return, I'll use the wages you receive to buy the property... though I do hope that there will never be a need to establish another orphanage" Swift Clean spoke softly, watching as Airy nodded her head "I hope so too.. and thank you, Swift Clean" she spoke with false soft tone...

"It's quite interesting. I don't believe we've ever had a private lunch with just the two of us before" Princess Amore commented as the maid placed the salad in front of her, while Airy sat on her pillow snacking on a crystal berry.

"Well, it was bound to happen eventually... Glimmer and Thunder are taking a day off because Daisy caught a cold while Radiant and Sombra decided to skip the lunch to go all the designs and instructions I wrote for the Airship: they want to make sure that everything is safe and correct while also making sure there's nothing that I overlooked... not that I expect them to know if there is something, it's the first airship in the world as far as I'm aware" Airy replied, before pausing for a moment to think.

"Not that there should be any issues: I made sure to go over those designs and instructions a dozen times to make sure there was absolutely nothing that I missed, especially considering what I said in the throne room about funding it" Airy finished, taking a bite from the crystal berry while Princess Amore merely nodded her head in reply, chewing her salad.

Airy felt that it was quite pleasant to eat in silence, both of them comfortable at not talking as they enjoyed each other's presence. It wasn't until Princess Amore finished her lunch that Airy spoke once more.

"There's something I wanted to ask you, your highness. However, the matter is somewhat... sensitive" Airy spoke, pausing as she glanced at the maid cleaning up Princess Amore's dishes. Amore took the hint, gesturing to the maid who nodded and left the room, with the guards inside following her out and closing the door behind them.

As Princess Amore turned her attention back to her, Airy decided to speak "As you know, the cryst-fairies are to serve as guides of the vestals... that said, it also means that we have some abilities to identify what kind of individuals we encounter" Airy spoke, pausing for a moment as Princess Amore observed her with a passive expression on her face: clearly she understood that the subject matter was not going to be pleasant.

After a moment, Airy resumed speaking "More specifically, one of those abilities lets us observe the souls of those around us, which is why I wanted to ask... why does Sombra have a soul of an Umbra?" Airy asked, observing as Princess Amore's pupils dilate in response while she pursed her lips, before glancing at the door of the room as she clearly thought about how to response.

The silence hung in the air for a moment, before Princess Amore let out a sigh and stood up from her seat "Please follow me" she spoke, walking towards the door as Airy followed behind her. They passed the maid and the guards as they exited, pausing only for a moment for Princess Amore to gesture that she didn't need them following her before she and Airy walked down the hallways and couple of staircases.

Airy glanced around them as they went higher in the castle, observing that soon enough there was no other activity other than a passing guard who saluted to the Princess before continuing on his way. Eventually, they came to a stop next to a blank wall, before Princess Amore glanced around to make sure they were alone.

Satisfied, Princess Amore turned her attention to the blank wall, before bowing her head so that her horn touched the wall... and caused Airy's eyes to widen as wall was replaced by a wooden door, with the lock clicking as the door slowly swung open by itself. Airy followed Princess Amore inside, before observing as the door closed by itself with a click, before disappearing to become a wall once more.

Turning her attention to the rest of the room, Airy observed the bare room roughly the size of a bedroom, with only a single bed with a table and a chair next to it. The only illumination was the two windows right and left of the bed, which Airy suspected (and confirmed with a simple spell) were enchanted to be invisible from the outside. Sitting on the chair was an older doctor, a mare of pale orange coat and mane (which was starting to turn grey), who merely nodded to them as a greeting.

As Princess Amore walked to the bedside, Airy followed behind her, stopping at the foot of the bed as her eyes widened in surprise at the lone occupant of the bed: a pale green skeletal pony was lying there silently, her butterfly wings twitching every once in a while as her white featureless eyes stared at the ceiling... Airy was more than familiar by now to identify the differences in mares and stallions to tell that the Umbra mare in front of her to identify a serious issue: the body was breathing (and presumably fully capable of doing other bodily functions) but no one was behind those empty eyes.

And as she checked the mare with her soul vision, all she could confirm was that it was merely a soulless husk still breathing.

It was at this time that Princess Amore decided to speak, her eyes never leaving the mare lying in the bed "About two decades ago, a couple of miners encountered a cavern inside the iron mines, where they found a blue crystal with mysterious smoke moving inside it. Instead of alerting the guards or the mine supervisors, they took it home and gathered a group of their friends to determine what it's possible value was" she spoke, pausing as she took a deep breath before releasing it slowly and then continued.

"However, one of the ponies grew concerned about the crystal as the others began to argue among themselves and came to me, informing of the discovery that had been made: I knew at that moment that something dark was involved, so with the royal guard we ventured to the home of the miners who had taken the crystal and attempted to take it before it could cause more harm to my citizens... but during the struggle between the guards and the miners, the crystal was accidentally broken" Princess Amore explained, closing her eyes as a look of shame spread on her face.

Airy stayed silent, observing as the princess went through the whatever emotions she felt about the incident. A while passed in silence before Princess Amore opened her eyes and turned her gaze towards Airy, before resuming the story "I feel ashamed to admit it, but at the time I could only watch as seven Umbrum souls emerged from the crystal and struck at the ponies near it: unfortunately all of them were miners, five stallions and two mares. The stallions began to twist and turn, bleeding heavily as their bodies mutated to mixture of crystal pony and Umbra before they perished... the mares however were left unchanged, passing out as soon as the souls entered their bodies" she explained, before turning her gaze on the mare lying on the bed.

"Over the next two days, they remained unconscious as their bodies went through a rabid pregnancy... both died at foalbirth, leaving only their offspring alive: A crystal unicorn colt with a soul of an Umbra and a Umbra filly without a soul. I feared what might happen and as such used my magic to seal most of their magic away, yet as they grew older under observation neither demonstrated anything to be concerned about... Aurora here was the mare who was born without a soul, a Umbra who is naturally resistant to effects of the Crystal Heart... while Sombra demonstrated no memory of who he was in previous life and as such was placed in an orphanage, where he lived quite an average life, no different from any other pony one might encounter on the streets" Princess Amore finished explaining, observing Aurora's gentle breathing.

Airy nodded her head in understanding, thinking things over for awhile before speaking "So, does that mean that both Aurora's and Sombra's magic is sealed? but we've seen Sombra casting spells" Airy asked, glancing at Aurora's horn as Princess Amore shook her head before replying "No, I released my seal on both of their magic long ago... although with Sombra, I had to reseal his most of his magic away after an... foalhood incident. Roughly estimating, he only has a third of the magic he should have, which is comparable to an average unicorn... I do plan to one day release his magic little by little, once I am sure that he can handle it without another accident" Princess Amore replied, turning her attention back to Airy.

"After everything we went to cover up the incident as to not panic the citizens, I would like to request that you keep everything you've learned today a secret... maybe in the future, I will gain the courage to speak of this publicly but for now, I want to avoid panicking the crystal ponies... and Sombra will deserve to hear this from me, once we are both ready" Princess Amore spoke with a soft tone, watching as Airy though about for a moment before nodding.

As she gazed at the lifeless living husk of an Umbra in front of her, a deliciously malicious idea crossed Airy's mind.

"Yes, I think it's best if Sombra and others hear it from you, so I will keep this a secret just between us... would you mind if I visit Aurora here sometimes?" Airy asked, gesturing to the mare lying on the bed "There may be no way of giving her a soul, but... if she is a living Umbra born of a crystal pony, then there's a chance I could create a method of replicating her unique biology and recreate the Umbrum" Airy spoke, causing Princess Amore's eyes to widen in surprise before the old doctor stood up from the chair in shock "You want to resurrect the Umbrum!?" she angrily yelled out in shock, causing both Airy and Princess Amore to turn their attention to her.

"I said recreate, not resurrect" Airy replied dismissively, before turning her attention back to Princess Amore "Your highness, as far as I understand, the evils of the Umbrum were cultural thing: Sombra has a soul of an Umbra, yet he is no different from any other pony around him while Aurora here has the body of an Umbra but her soul ceased to exist... So I would like your permission to study both, so that one day I might find a way to recreate the Umbrum not as the monsters they were but as a race free from the sins of their ancestors" Airy said, watching as conflicted expressions crossed Princess Amore's face.

"But... the Umbrum were unforgiving monsters for centuries before their imprisonment. Even the ones I faced wanted nothing more than revenge and conquest..." Princess Amore said with shaky voice, pausing to think as she looked at Aurora before Airy interrupted her "And as you said yourself, the creator of the Crystal Heart was an half-Umbra herself. From where I come from, you don't blame the young for the sins of the parents or ancestors" Airy said, watching as Princess Amore turned her head towards her.

"Tell me, your highness: Is it better to be born good... or to overcome one's evil nature?" Airy asked, watching as Princess Amore opened her mouth to reply, only to close it as she thought about it "Before they were reborn, Aurora and Sombra were no doubt as monstrous as the rest of their people... yet Sombra showed a genuine acceptance of crystal pony values, while Aurora never had the change to" Airy spoke, observing as Princess Amore and the doctor though about what she said before flying forward and landing on the headboard of the bed.

"As long as they are alive, Aurora and Sombra are the last change you or anyone else might ever have to bring them back from brink of annihilation. While my heart burns with desire to save them, I will accept whatever decision you make but you have to ask yourself... Are you willing to accept the responsibility of dooming an entire race to extinction for the sins of their predecessors or will you risk it all for a chance that even one might rise to become an example of a good Umbra?" Airy spoke, gesturing to Aurora with her hand.

Airy felt giddy on the inside as she watched the expressions of the doctor and Princess Amore shift, both thinking deep and hard about the issue at hand: She had offered a chance to rehabilitate an entire race of known monsters, while the other option they had would be to practically perform genocide... or was it xenocide? Technically the Umbrum were a different race, so it might be xenocide after all... Well it didn't matter to her one bit, she knew enough that Princess Amore would fold like a deck of cards and accept her offer: they had no stomach or reason to kill off an entire race after all.

Airy had hard time faking concerned expression, even harder time preventing herself from smiling as Princess Amore exchanging a nod with the doctor before sighing "Very well, Airy... I might one day come to regret this, yet the chance that even one Umbra were to follow Sombra's hoofsteps is far too great to risk letting them go extinct. I will add you to the list of exceptions on the spell that prevents ponies from finding this room, so you may come and go as you please... but I must ask that you reveal this to no one: while they have never encountered Umbrum before, the knowledge that I permitted you to even attempt to restore their race from brink of extinction might send the ponies into panic... and I do not wish to grant them false hope of this benevolent act, should you be unable to restore the Umbrum" Princess Amore spoke, carefully watching Airy while biting her lower lip nervously.

Airy let out a fake sigh of relieve, before speaking in a soft, 'caring' voice "Thank you, your highness. I will begin with examining Sombra's soul before I move on to examining Aurora's body: there would be no point in recreating the body if it cannot bear the fruit of life we call a soul after all" Airy spoke with a gentle tone, watching as Princess Amore nodded in agreement.

And once she was finished with her plans for Sombra and rest of the Crystal empire, there would be plenty of time to build her personal army of Umbrum, born to be absolutely loyal to her every whim... maybe she could even try to find those black bug ponies Princess Amore spoke of that the ancient crystal ponies encountered: if they and the Umbrum were both Alicorn-like with wings and horn, there might be some good in enslaving both to her whims.

One can never have too many backup plans, should one fail after all...

Snow Antler felt annoyed as he walked ahead of the group into the main cavern, glancing around before he spotted the Alchemist. Glancing back at the six earth ponies in chains that were led by the four deer cultists behind him, he nodded his head towards the Alchemist before walking towards him, ignoring the clicking of the chains as it echoed in the cavern.

The Alchemist didn't ignore it however, turning towards them with a wicked grin on his face as he glanced at the earth ponies with glee in his eye "Well done, Snow Antler" he spoke aloud as they stopped in front of him "Such a lovely stock you've brought me for my experiments. Now go on, place them in the cells" The Alchemist instructed the cultists, who nodded and dragged the ponies to one of the small side caverns.

Snow was certain that they'd have to burn the remains once again... a waste of good meat.

"Was there anything else you needed?" Snow Antler asked, voice full of annoyance as he glared at the Alchemist who's eyes stayed glued on the ponies "Nothing right now. The cult leader was looking for you earlier, go bother him for something to do, I have some concoctions to experiment with" the Alchemist replied, waving his hoof dismissively as he walked off, following the ponies as Snow Antler huffed and walked away.

'Honestly, why bother with some silly concoctions when they could break the ponies with their bare hooves?' Snow Antler thought to himself as he glanced at Leader's empty tent, before moving on to search elsewhere....

Author's Note

Just a heads up: the personal stories of Pillars of Equestria, them coming together and the whole Pony of Shadows incident happens within that 11 year gap between Princess Celestia and Luna getting crowned and the pillars disappearing. I will not be telling them, because there won't be any changes to what you see in the show.