King in the North

Chapter Five: War of the Shadow King

Less than two years had cycled past after Queens Celestia and Luna had first traveled to the Crystal Empire in order to seek better relations with Emperor Boreal; now, they led an army twenty thousand strong across the Crystal Mountains into the Kingdom of the North to overthrow King Sombra. It was an unprecedented army, with levies drawn from every corner of Equestria and headed by two sorceress-queens. Still, they didn’t expect to be equally matched with their foes on the Plains of Amon outside of the Crystal City. While Celestia and Luna had been gone, even without the Black Book of K’Rhûr, Sombra had discovered how to corrupt the Crystal Heart and enslave the entirety of the North. With the metal that had been mined and smelt by slaves, he’d forged weapons for an army equal to that of Equestria, filled with soldiers who would fight to the death for him—the king’s sorcery allowed them no other fate.

A dark pall hung over the North, especially deep over the Crystal City where the shadow of the Shadow King could be palpably felt. The armies faced each other across the once-verdant fields, waiting for the order to strike. The leaders of both armies were unseen, but as the day neared evening and knights shifted uncomfortably in their armor, Celestia emerged alone from the royal tent. Celestia cast her eyes skyward as she drew upon her sorcerous power, and great rends opened in the cloud cover, allowing the light of the setting sun to pierce through. King Sombra’s army cringed at the sudden brightness, and the Equestrian army cheered at the display of their monarch’s power.

“Celestia!” Sombra’s voice roared, shaking the battlefield and quieting the celebrating soldiers who hadn’t yet met in battle, “Have you come to surrender yourself and your crown? You, oh cruel queen of the day, who forces your royal sister to cower in your shadow when it should be her standing in your place! Surrender; allow Queen Luna to rule Equestria alone and keep her from me no longer, and I shall allow you to live. Otherwise, I shall have to kill you and all your army!”

“I have not come to surrender to you, tyrant!” Celestia called back, magically amplifying her own voice, and a long laugh carried over the Northern army, “I have come to dethrone you, to save your people from your evil!”

Sombra continued to laugh, which Celestia took as either refusal or madness. Either way works for me. She ordered the Equestrian army to attack, and as the command was relayed, they began to rush the Northern forces. Before the armies met, a long line of jagged black crystals that matched the new appearance of the Crystal City erupted from the ground, slicing through Celestia’s soldiers and flinging bodies and pieces of ponies into the air. Hundreds died in seconds. A battlefield spell? Near enough, at least. If that is how he wants to do things, then I’ll oblige him. A field of fire cut through Sombra’s ranks, burning a wide swath that the rest of the army shied away from.

Celestia deftly reflected a magical attack that would have torn her in half. So, you just wanted to draw me out and determine my location. Sombra attempted to strike at Celestia again, this time his spell absorbed by one of the shields she’d woven around herself before battle. Well, it works both ways, Sombra. As the armies began slaughtering each other, Celestia deflected directed attacks while chanting quickly under her breath. The sun’s light grew brighter, and its rays were directed towards the spot in the enemy army where Celestia knew Sombra stood. Flames burst up all around the alicorn king as he attempted to weather the assault. Ponies around him became torches as they were consumed, only the king surviving within a bubble of protection that continued to shrink.

He sent tendrils of dark crystal snaking through the Equestrian army before teleporting out of the zone of danger. King Sombra took to the sky, dark wings outstretched and lightning sparking between his feathers. Celestia redirected her attacks, but Sombra surrounded himself with a cloud of darkness. Even that could not stop her solar fury for long, but a veil was drawn across the sun’s light, blunting Celestia’s attacks. Dark aurorae flitted across the sky, and some even descended from above to cut through the ranks of Equestrians.

Redirecting her efforts, Celestia reached out with her sorcery and tore up the ground around her. Shards of stone as large as the solar alicorn flew through the air toward where Sombra hovered, piercing his shroud of darkness and putting an end to the attack of the aurorae, though some still remained in the sky to blot out the sun. Sombra released his concealing shield and hurled stones back at Celestia while ducking around or magically crushing those that she was firing at him. The two of them were getting nowhere like this—except that the falling deflected or shattered stones crushed more Equestrian soldiers than Sombra’s—but the alicorn king was the first to change things up. Multiple shards of rock flew toward Celestia, shattering into even more pieces as they neared her.

Celestia conjured a shield around herself to deflect the attack and batted away some of the larger pieces with other spells. The cores of the original stones were unaffected by her magic and were not stopped by her shield, piercing through as if it was mist. Celestia reeled as five stones circled her, penning her in, and her magic was abruptly dulled. Dimeritium! The magic-blocking stones surrounded her, but they hadn’t cut her off from her ability to do sorcery just yet. Before she could fly or teleport away, however, the soil around the stones shifted toward Celestia, tightening the dimeritium cage until she was completely restrained. No spells she tried to cast would work, and she felt a great emptiness within herself.

Sombra was diving toward Celestia now for the coup de grâce, lips pulled back in a feral grin. The soldiers around her bravely came to her defense, but it was pointless. Arrows flew up at Sombra, but he crushed them into splinters and threw them back into the eyes of his attackers. Their blinded screams ended as he spun a circle of fire through their ranks and turned them to ash.

“I have defeated the great Celestia!” the king announced as he alighted in front of her, “Your reign ends today!”

King Sombra gave a blood-chilling laugh, revealing his pointed teeth, and purple mist fanned out from his eyes. Celestia struggled to break free, but she was totally constricted by the heavy chunks of dimeritium. She tried to dig away at the ground to loosen her confinement, but her armored hooves couldn’t scrape away the soil fast enough. Sombra would arrive before she could escape.

“Stop!” Luna yelled as she ran between the two alicorns. She had finally managed to bring herself to leave the royal tent and face Sombra.

“Luna, my beloved!” Sombra called joyously, unfazed when Luna recoiled, “At last, we can be together!”

“No!” Luna replied emphatically, “You are not yourself! Please, if there is anything left of Boreal in you, then listen to me. Do not do this. Abandon your cruelty and surrender.”

King Sombra seemed to pause for a moment, but then shook his head.

“You are confused, Luna, but you will not be once she is dead,” Sombra said, pointing with a magnificent wing at Celestia, still trapped in her dimeritium prison, “Once she is gone, we can be together. Now, step aside.”

“No,” Luna said.

“Very well,” Sombra growled, and the ground curled up toward Luna, rolling her away.

Sombra advanced on Celestia again, who stared back at him with eyes shining with anger and defiance. The cloud cover tore apart above the two alicorns, revealing the twilight sky, with stars barely visible in the heavens. The moon swung into view, and its light beamed down on Sombra and Celestia. Sombra was frozen in place, and not just because he was shocked that Luna had acted against him. Tears leaked from her eyes as she held him where he was, examining what had become of her dearest one. Perhaps her sister was right and there was no way to save Emperor Boreal, but she had to try. None of the books she’d read during her research had said anything about this, but she attempted to delve into his mind and cure whatever magical sickness had infected him. All she found was darkness, a dense ball of thorny evil and hate. She shifted the ground around Celestia to let her sister break free while continuing to search for something, anything that had not gone wrong in Boreal’s mind. She thought for an instant she could see some light struggling to peak through the center, but it was there one moment and gone the next, along with everything else. King Sombra had teleported away to escape from Celestia, who was now free and furious.

“He went to the castle,” Celestia said as she opened a portal, “Come, sister. Let us end this.”

Luna obediently followed her elder sister through the portal, into the Crystal Castle. The floors, walls, and ceilings no longer shone and sparkled. Like the rest of the Crystal City, the corruption of the Crystal Heart had either turned them to dark obsidian or returned them to their actual stony appearance. The sisters strode into the throne room, where fires blazing around the pillars provided some light to the ominous scene.

Luna’s mind couldn’t dismiss that moment when she thought she’d sensed some good remaining in Sombra’s heart. Had it just been a desperate fantasy, or had it really been there? If it was the latter, then perhaps he wasn’t too far gone after all. He would be soon, and they needed to find him before it was too late. She was about to say as much to Celestia, but a shadow detached itself from the surrounding darkness and launched itself at her sister.

Celestia struck out with her partisan and deflected the swing of Sombra’s double-bill. She knew the attack was coming. Of course she did; they were battling from the moment we entered the throne room. In her concern for whatever was left of Boreal within Sombra, she’d failed to notice that her sister and the Shadow King were throwing spells and counter-spells at each other in an attempt to subdue their opponent.

Luna hesitated on the sidelines. Sombra and Celestia swung their weapons around as they danced back and forth, only infrequently managing to slip past their enemy’s defenses and strike armor. For somepony who hadn’t been an alicorn for very long, it appeared that Sombra had mastered the art of using pole weapons unique to pegasi and alicorns, making use of mouth and wings both to guide and direct his double-bill around in arcs that would have been impossible for his former self. Celestia was forced to retreat more than once to avoid one of the hooked ends of his weapon from cracking a wingbone or penetrating her chin.

“Luna!” Celestia yelled telepathically to her sister, unable to spare her mouth for long enough without compromising her defenses.

Luna was jolted out of her hesitancy by the desperation in Celestia’s call. Surely Boreal was gone for good, and there would be no saving him from Sombra. She rushed to her sister’s aid, spinning her spontoon toward Boreal’s—Sombra’s—back. The King in the North spun around, blocking Luna’s attack with one end of his double-bill while holding off Celestia with the other. He looked emotionally, if not physically wounded by her attack. With a shove, he pushed back both of his opponents.

The three ponies twirled and jumped around, using wings to hover and wield weapons and disorient opponents. They traveled around the throne room, using pillars and the dual thrones set up at the room’s head as cover. Sometimes, a spell would break past defenses and there would be a momentary flash of fire, lightning, or ice before the clashing of blades became the only visible fight. They whirled and wheeled in the empty space where nearly eight decades earlier, Boreal had fought Rap’stuk to save the Crystal Empire from tyranny.

After a rapid series of thrusts, King Sombra caught a hook of his double-bill beneath Luna’s spontoon and yanked it from her grasp. His weapon was poised to run the lunar queen through, but he hesitated; Luna was so stunned that she didn’t move. Celestia’s partisan swung toward Sombra’s head, and he ducked out of the way before knocking Luna over the head with the staff of his weapon. He and Celestia both tried to telekinetically push the disoriented Luna away, and she went flying into a pillar, hitting her head again and knocking her completely unconscious.

“No!” Sombra yelled, and he redoubled his attacks on Celestia.

His rage did him no good, however, and Celestia soon brought her blade down on the shaft of his weapon and split it in half. He tried to fight with the larger broken pieces, but the balance was all off from what he was used to, and several cuts came close to injuring him fatally. He heated the bill’s blade to yellow-hot and flung it at Celestia before propelling himself away with his wings. The solar queen was unfazed, knocking the blade away, but it had given Sombra enough time to pick up Luna’s spontoon.

The dance of blades resumed, but Sombra was at a disadvantage with the unfamiliar weapon, and he sustained several more injuries. He still managed to get in a few hits of his own, including one that gashed Celestia’s cheek and tore a cheekguard off her helmet. It was the last injury he would inflict on her, though, as she blocked his next swing and locked their weapons. Celestia lowered her head and charged forward, driving her armored horn through a gap in his breastplate that had opened up during the fighting, gritting her teeth as the attack jarred her skull.

Sombra staggered back off of Celestia’s horn, dropping Luna’s spontoon. It hadn’t been a fatal blow, but it had been serious. Before he could recover from the shock, Celestia jumped into the air and swung her partisan around. The blade sliced cleanly through bone and flesh, separating Sombra’s wings from his body. Sombra roared as he fell to the ground, clutching at the bloody stumps on his back.

“It’s over,” Celestia proclaimed stonily as she held her blade to his neck.

Luna’s vision was foggy as she regained consciousness, and everything sounded echoey. Her limbs felt numb, but she could still sense where they were; she’d be able to move in a minute, but for now it was best to stay put. She tried raising her head and was struck by a wave of dizziness that confined her to slow movements only. As her vision began to refocus, she could see Sombra, a unicorn once more, and Celestia poised over him. Although her hearing was still muffled, she could make out most of the words that passed between them.

“What, not going to offer me the chance to surrender?” Sombra laughed through a bloody grin, meanwhile trying to staunch the streams of blood from his back and chest, “If I did surrender, would you accept? What fictitious story would you tell my darling Luna? That I’d tried to escape and had unfortunately been killed? Would you keep me in the deep cells beneath the Castle of the Sun?”

Celestia said nothing, but she pressed her blade closer to Sombra’s throat.

“Are you happy now?” Sombra inquired.

“I don’t see why emotion should play into eliminating a creature like you,” Celestia replied.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it? The Crystal Empire for your own?” Sombra asked, “Well, it’s not everything you wanted, but it’ll have to do, won’t it? Except … I have a little surprise for you. It’s amazing the kinds of sorcery one can learn when one really looks. I’ve laid a curse on all my kingdom which I think you’ll find is unbreakable. By vanquishing me, you’ve lost everything you wanted. Yes, everything! The crystal and gold mines, the bountiful fields, the sturdy timber, and me. All is lost to you.”

“You don’t seem lost to me; you’re right here, and so is everything else,” Celestia stated.

“I’ve been lost to you a long time, Celestia, and that is what brought us to this moment,” Sombra said, “Yes, I did not fail to notice how you looked at me during your first embassy here. You desired me for yourself, but instead it was Luna who caught my eye. You’ve never forgiven her for that, have you?”

No. That can’t be true. But when Luna concentrated on Celestia’s face, she thought she could see a begrudging admission there.

“How could you forgive her?” Sombra continued, “You’re the elder sister, the most powerful alicorn, the queen whom everypony adores! How dare Luna upstage you! Our love must have burned you inside, Celestia! So, you lied to Luna; you turned her against me. Face it, everything that has happened here is because of your jealousy!”

Celestia didn’t permit Sombra to speak any longer, and she swung her partisan around, beheading him. As Sombra’s corpse crumpled to the floor, the world turned white and cold. Distantly, the sound of coarse laughter could be heard.

***

Queen Celestia and Queen Luna stood together, battered and bloodied, in the Crystal Mountains, overlooking what had once been the Crystal Empire. Now, there was nothing but a blizzard that stretched as far as the eye could see. That was truly all there was; the alicorns had searched for a time, but the Crystal City—every town, village, and pony—had been replaced by an empty plain of ice and snow. Sombra had made the entirety of the North vanish, along with whatever had been left of the Equestrian army. With so many dead and nothing gained from it, there would be hard times and unrest back home. Well, not quite everything was lost; the bits of land outside of the North that Sombra had ruled, including Vanhuv’r Laht, were now part of the Kingdom of Equestria. Even so, the loss had been catastrophic.

“He really did lay a curse over all the North,” Celestia commented, stating the obvious.

“Did he say anything else?” Luna asked.

After Sombra’s death, the two alicorns had been stranded in the snowstorm, trying to get their bearings. Still disoriented, Luna had relied on Celestia to pull her out. Her elder sister didn’t know she’d been conscious for the final interaction with Sombra, and Luna doubted her own memory sometimes. Had that entire exchange between Celestia and Sombra really happened, or had she imagined it? By now, she was fairly certain that it really had occurred and that Sombra hadn’t been lying. What reason would he have had, not knowing that Luna was able to overhear? She also wondered if it had been Boreal speaking at the end; he sounded almost remorseful about becoming Sombra, though the blame had been pinned on Celestia.

“Nothing else,” Celestia said, “He tried to kill me after that, thinking the revelation of a curse would make me drop my guard, and I was forced to end him instead. I’m sorry, Luna.”

“Thank you, sister,” Luna said, though the words stung her mouth.

Celestia had lied to her. Sombra had been right. He hadn’t been the one to blame for all this pain and suffering at all. Luna should have been looking to the one who’d been to blame for her pain for far longer. For almost six centuries, Celestia and Luna had been queens of Equestria, but her sister had always fancied herself the greater ruler, overshadowing Luna and blocking her out. No more—soon and forevermore, day would submit to night, not the other way around. It would take much effort to bring down her sister, but Luna had plenty of time to plan. She was an alicorn, after all. Perhaps she could even find some help within that book that Sombra had left her …