Northern Stars

Chapters

Ch.1 - Of Deafening Silence
Ch.2 - Of a New World
Ch.3 - Of the Sour and the Sweet
Ch.4 - Of Lingering Suspicion
Ch.5 - Of the Past and the Future
Ch.6 - Of Old Nightmares
Ch.7 - Of Forlorn Echoes
Ch.8 - Of the Calm before the Storm
Ch.10 - Of Abdication and Absolution
Ch.11 - Of the Red and the Black
Ch.12 - Of Painful Revelations
Ch.13 - Of Flawed Justice
Finale - Of a Dawn at the Lighthouse
Ch.9 - Of Darkness in Daylight

Ch.1 - Of Deafening Silence

I’m awoken once more. I cannot remember the last time it happened. Not that it matters much. I open my eyes to look around, but I’m only met with darkness. I wish to sigh, but - as my burning lungs remind me - there still isn’t any air in this void I inhabit. With nothing better to do, I continue to stare into the abyss, though I’ve long given up on expecting to see anything.

Sometimes, during these periods of lucidity, I like to delude myself into thinking this is merely a bad dream. That, in just a few moments, I will wake in my bedchambers, surrounded by my beloved Empire. I can’t exactly place all the objects in my room anymore, it’s been far too long. Yet even their blurred lines and vague blotches of color cause a deep yearning in me. One that pains me far more than the torments of this prison.

I run a hoof through my mane. Doing so would perhaps speak volumes about my vanity in any other case, but, in my predicament, it is merely a way to keep myself sane. The tickling of these coarse hairs is one of the very few sources of stimulation I haven’t been forcefully stripped of.

As I raise my hoof again, I accidentally touch my crown. Once a symbol of greatness, it, along with the rest of my armor, now makes me sick to my core.

“I was the legitimate ruler!” I try to yell into the abyss.

The silence reminds me of how I’m stuck in this small personal hell, for all eternity.

For a moment I consider ripping the crown from my head and casting it into the void. To forget that I was ever king. My hoof falls limply to my side. I cannot do it. What even am I without my glory?

I continue to float through the emptiness. Or perhaps I haven’t moved in decades. In such perfect darkness, with not even a speck of dust in sight, the word “movement” completely loses its meaning.

I attempt to take my mind off my burning lungs and my aching eyes by thinking of the past. Despite my centuries of successful rule, my memories always wander back to one specific moment.

Oh, how her face mocks me. She spoke about “understanding” and “friendship,” but still banished me here. The hypocrite! I wonder if she even thinks about me anymore. She and her little friends are probably living on, dancing and prancing, without a care in the world, while I rot here, forgotten.

I scoff and shake my head, making the tiny speck of light in the distance zip around in my field of vision.

Wait... Light?

I find myself gawking at the dot in disbelief. It is an insignificant little thing, hardly even noticeable in the infinite backdrop of black, but to my eyes, it’s the most beautiful thing I could imagine. I blink, several times, not believing what I see. But the speck does indeed disappear whenever I close my eyes and reappears, when I open them.

I forget about my numb pain. I forget about my royal dignity. At this moment, I’m a drowning pony who spotted a lifesaver among the raging tides. I kick and claw my way towards the precious thing.

Of course, my attempts are useless.

With no air and no objects to grasp nearby, my flailing has done nothing but exhaust me further. The dot continues to shine in the distance. Its beautiful halo almost seems to mock me.

I feel anger rising inside me, but the suffocating void silences my frustrated groans. It doesn’t matter, I hardly even notice the protest of my empty lungs. I gather my wrath and channel it into my horn. For a moment my magic comes to life and the void crackles with red energy. However, just as quickly as it came, the magic dissipates. I cannot possibly lift the weight of my ravaged body in such a state.

At the very least the failed spell lifted this blinding anger from my eyes. I force myself to stay calm and I rake my brain, thinking of all the possibilities, but nothing comes to my mind. In frustration, I start playing with my mane again.

As the cool metal of my greaves passes over my neck, it slowly dawns on me what I need to do.

Roused from my subconsciousness, the memory of an old parchment slips into my mind, which I had a fleeting interest in during my scholarly pursuits. For a moment I fondly reminisce of the time I took it upon myself to study all fields of academia in an attempt to become an infallible and all-knowing ruler.

I force the warm memory out of my head, there is no time for my mind to wander. Instead I try to visualize the paper. Though I cannot remember the serpentine math and obtuse jargon proving the hypothesis, the theory’s abstract is still etched into my mind: The author, one Haysack Neighton, proposes that all actions face their own equal, but opposite reaction. If his conjecture is true, then in this perfect void with nothing to slow me down in my path, I should be able to propel myself using whatever I have on me.

I quickly take off the four horseshoes which once trampled my enemies, and with wordless grunts I cast them into the void behind myself. The glint on their tarnished metal surfaces quickly fades as they disappear into the nothingness. Suddenly I feel myself ever so slowly moving. Hope blossoms in my heart as I stare back towards the light.

Almost imperceptibly it begins to grow. From merely a pinprick, to the size of a pinhead, to the size of a pea. My eyes ache from the strain, but I do not want to take them off the glorious sight.

Another eternity later, it is now the size of an apple. Then a pony’s head. Then an entire pony.

I could swear I see things moving inside, but the radiance makes it hard to know if it isn’t just my eyes fooling me.

My revelry is short lived, however. As the orb grows ever bigger, I realize that I have doomed myself in my senseless haste. My aim was ever so slightly off and it does not require clairvoyance to understand that I am about to fly past the mysterious object and soon disappear into the nothingness, never to see it again.

My entire body feels like it’s poked with tiny nails at the same time. I’m panicking. I’m overtaken by the need to scream in anguish, to take a deep breath, to destroy something, anything to calm my racing heart; but it’s just me, the orb, and the darkness.

In a desperate bid, I tear my intricately crafted armor from my body and throw it away. It swings me closer to the light, but my trajectory is still not perfect.

I attempt to use my magic again, but it merely crackles violently and rebounds into my head. For a moment my vision goes an unnatural white, far brighter than even the brilliance beside me. My consciousness almost slips as I’m enveloped in a deep, throbbing pain.

I grasp my head to try to dull the ache and my hoof bumps against my crown again. My eyes go wide.

The sphere is gigantic now. I almost feel like I could touch it, but it’s tantalizingly just out of reach.

A terrifying idea slips into my mind.

With almost mechanical movements I remove the crown and stare at it. I forget about the pain as I stare at its intricate design. This beautiful relic is the last thing that connects me to my past.

What even am I without it?

For a moment I consider putting it back on, closing my eyes, and accepting my fate. Desperation wells up inside me.

My body tenses up and my face contorts into a grimace. I collect my remaining strength and cast my symbol of power into the depths. I feel like I’m murdering a part of myself.

I dare not to look back.

With a silent sigh, I turn back towards the light. What I see banishes the despair out of my heart.

Finally I am heading straight for the sphere.

As I float closer and closer, it completely fills my vision. I feel my body tingle as I pass over some invisible barrier. Suddenly my eyes are assaulted by a maelstrom of colors as the orb disappears and an invisible force yanks me through an impossibly long tunnel. Screeching fills my ears and I feel the same panic as before, but I am powerless to do anything.

I spot another circle of light at the end of the tunnel. It’s approaching rapidly. My consciousness slips and I black out once more.

Ch.2 - Of a New World

I don’t know how long I’ve been out when I wake up again. Not that it matters, because what I find myself in is a world of pain. It feels like someone stabbed burning stakes into my eyes and my ears are assaulted by screams of a wailing thunderstorm. I feel small blades sticking into my body from below and excruciating, white-hot flames scorching my back. A noisome stench violates my nostrils, causing me to gag and gasp for air. My legs refuse to move, as I lay limp in this hell.

In a blind panic, I try to call forth my magic once more, but I feel only a hollow emptiness inside where my magical reserves should be. I grit my teeth and continue to struggle against the elements. Through sheer determination, the maddening sensations slowly begin to lose their edge.

The thunder in my ears calms to a whispering breeze, the blades below me soften to become those of grass, and the smell of rot fades into that of the earth. The heat on my back melts into a pleasant warmth. The blinding light morphs into vague shapes as my eyes slowly adjust and, after a few bleary blinks, I’m finally able to take a look around.

I find myself laying on a patch of grass, in the middle of a clearing in a forest. My limbs are stretched out in odd angles.

With a groan I shuffle to my hooves and, after a few slight stumbles, I’m finally standing once more. I take a deep breath and let it out. That’s when it hits me. I just took a breath. I’m standing on my hooves. Is it really possible?

I force myself to stay calm, though my rapidly beating heart protests heavily, and take a better look around. The picturesque trees, the rolling hills, and the quiet birdsong tell me what I wanted to know.

I am back.

Though my royal dignity would never allow me to admit it, a part of me wants to celebrate. To just jump and kick around, to scream in joy; instead I compose myself and look up. My eyes still burn a little, but there is one more vital thing I have to know.

Just as I expected. The Sun is still in the sky. Seeing how the world is neither a charred desert, nor a frozen wasteland, I must assume at least some of my old enemies must still be around. If that is, indeed, the case, I have to be very careful. My imprisonment sapped me of most of my strength.

Even if I were to find any of them alone, in my current state they would obliterate me.

I shudder at the thought and stroke my mane. As my hoof passes over my head unobstructed, the absence of my crown reminds me of what I just went through to get here in the first place.

Still, it helps me calm a little. I cannot see any points of interest around, so I pick a random direction and start trotting. I should linger as little as possible, while I’m so vulnerable.

Curious, I think to myself as I walk, I may not be as intimately aware of Equestria’s layout as I know my Empire, but I still should have spotted some landmarks already. If nothing else, that loathsome castle on that mountain should still be there, shouldn’t it?

And yet, as I reach the end of the woods, the land I see is one I should know, but looks utterly alien. Not only is the castle nowhere to be seen, I cannot even spot a single city in sight. A sense of unease fills me, as I observe the endless rolling green hills beyond and try to figure out just where I am.

Before I can get lost in my thoughts, however, I hear the rustling of leaves behind myself. I bless my still overly-sensitive ears as I spin towards the noise. I dig my hooves in and slightly bow my head, so that my horn is pointing towards any would-be assassins.

“Show yourself!” I yell, as my eyes dart between the spots I anticipate an attack from.

It’s merely a show. There is a reason why I always relied on my dark crystals and those ingenious helmets. Though my magic is fearsome, now that I’m unable to call on my power, I am unlikely to stand a chance in horn-to-horn combat.

Suddenly a pony trots out from between the trees, humming some inane tune to herself. A unicorn, with a purplish coat and blue mane. To my chagrin, she looks completely unfazed.

“Stay where you are!” I decide to call out to her again and she finally notices me. Perhaps, I was a bit too hasty in my judgment. Her eyes go wide and I can see her mouth dropping slightly.

“Are you... a new unicorn?” she asks with an amazed voice, its volume quickly going from quiet to almost ear-piercingly loud.

I raise my head back up and stare at the mare in front of me. A wave of confusion hits me, followed quickly by a slight tinge of hurt. Does this simpleton not realize the situation she’s in? Does she not know who she’s facing off against?

No, I cannot think like this. I should put my pride aside and consider this an unexpected blessing. If she knew who I was, I could not allow her to leave. Without knowing her strength and without my power, that could prove problematic.

I feel a light poke on my shoulder. Curses, I need to be more careful, I’m too used to getting lost in thought from when I had nothing else to do. I shake my head and look at her.

“Umm, hello? Equestria to Mr. Mysterious Frown, can you hear me?”

Hmm, she seems to be oblivious and naive. Perhaps I can use that to my advantage.

“Ah, forgive me. I was merely lost in thought,” I say as I put on my best apologetic smile. “They call me Crystal Dusk. How may I address you?”

I cannot believe my ears. She almost falls over from laughing at me. I push my anger back. It’s not the time to be petty.

“Sheesh, mister, it’s like you’re straight out of a drama script,” she says between two laughs.

I groan inside. Fine, so my diplomatic style didn’t impress her. I quickly revise my spiel while she calms down a little.

“Sorry, sorry. My name is Izzy,” she finally replies with saccharine cheerfulness. “Nice to meet you!”

Unexpectedly she steps even closer. Her snout is now mere centimeters from mine. I can’t help but wince as she stares deeply into my soul.

“Huh, weird! I can’t sense even a bit of your luminessence!” she whispers to me, with such conviction that I involuntarily take a step back.

“I... must be tired, that’s why it’s not visible,” I try my best to sound convincing.

What is wrong with her? And what in Tartarus is a ‘luminessence?’

I attempt to chart out a plan to get rid of this crazy unicorn without her causing my doom.

Thankfully, before I need to do anything drastic, I notice with a great deal of relief that she seems to have taken the bait. She steps back and her smile morphs into a concerned frown.

“Gee, Mr. Dusk. Loitering around in a forest to the point of exhaustion is a terribly irresponsible thing to do, don’tcha think?”

“Yes, how silly of me,” I manage to push out. She really is getting on my nerves. Ah, if only my magic worked... Perhaps she wouldn’t talk so much with a crystal growing out of her mouth.

“Do you need me to walk you home?” she asks with concern in her voice. “I wouldn’t want you to collapse here alone or anything.”

What does she think I am? A helpless, old stallion?

“That’s alright. My house is very far from here, I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”

This seems to have confused her. One of her ears flops to the side for a second, as she cocks her head. Then she immediately perks back up.

“Oh, I get it now! You must be an adventurer from a distant city!”

Hmm, yes, something like that could actually be a nice cover.

“Something along those lines, yes. I am actually a traveling mineralogist.” My voice is firm and unwavering. Good, despite all this time spent alone, I can still lie fluently. “I am looking for a city made of crystals.”

Her eyes go wide upon hearing this. Just my luck.

“I simply have to show you my town then, Mr. Dusk! It is a city built around crystals!”

I do not sense my Empire nearby, but is it perhaps possible that my nation has expanded? As ridiculous as it may seem, I cannot entirely rule it out. Either way, I need to visit a city soon anyway, so there is no reason I shouldn’t accept her offer.

“Hmm, yes, perhaps a short visit to top myself up wouldn’t be so bad,” I say, feigning disinterest.

“Great! What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!”

And off she goes.

I try my best to gallop after her. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m still weak and I struggle to keep up.

So much for being concerned about a weary traveler.

Ch.3 - Of the Sour and the Sweet

I finally catch up to her just around the edge of the city. Immediately doubts begin to crop up in my mind. Can I be sure that no one else in the village will realize who I am? Are they all this foolish or was I just lucky to meet the village idiot?

I don’t have time to worry about it too much, as she grabs my hoof and practically yanks me inside.

I glean the name of the village from a nearby sign. Bridlewood, as they call this hovel, is disappointing to say the least. The crystals my unusual companion spoke about lie strewn around in haphazard piles and pale in comparison to even the most worthless of rocks one could find in my Empire. I’m convinced this place does not bear our heritage. There is nothing of the splendor of my home here.

Though, at the very least, I don’t have to worry about being discovered. As we walk past them, I notice some of the locals shooting suspecting glances towards me at first, but once they realize who I am with, they merely roll their eyes and go on with their business.

So I really did find the village idiot.

“...and this where we harvest our food, and this is where I almost tripped up as a filly. Hey, Mr. Dusk, are you even listening?”

I suddenly realize that the mare has been talking to me all this while. I think I must have tuned her out when the wild gesticulation began.

“Mh-hm, of course I am! Do go on,” I swiftly reassure her. At least while she’s talking about herself, she won’t ask any dangerous questions. “Say, where are we going now?”

“To my house, I just told you a moment ago, silly!”

This is what I hate the most about these ponies. Even when scolding me, she still speaks with this cloyingly sweet attitude. It makes my skin crawl.

“I have so many things to show you. It’s so rare I get to meet a new friend!”

So she considers me a “friend” already, huh? Good. It seems ponies are still just as easy to trust. Despite her aggravating antics, she has already provided me with a wealth of information. This will make my job easier.

“Lead the way,” I concede.

The trip to her house is fairly uneventful. As uneventful as walking with a hyperactive unicorn can be. One who constantly stops to tell anypony unlucky enough to be stuck with her about some inane piece of trivia, or to get distracted by a butterfly. Were I back in my throne, I would throw her in a dungeon for her lunacy or make her fight in some far away war.

My wishful thinking breaks, as she suddenly stops. I almost bump into her.

“We’re here!” she says, practically screaming. A few of the locals stare at us with open disdain. I feel embarrassed and, for a moment, a longing for the comforting silence of the void creeps into my mind. I chase the thought away as we walk inside.

I have to give it to her. As frivolous as her home looks, built into a tree, it is still far better than the shacks and sheds all the others live in. I take a look at the trinkets and baubles lying in haphazard piles around the house. Childish, but in a way, as much as I hate to admit it, charming as well.

“So! What should we do first? I make some pretty good tea, if I do say so myself! Or we could make some art together? Maybe play some games? I must warn you I’m terrific at bingo.” Her rant washes over me like a torrent. “Oh! You said you’re tired, do you want to lie down?”

The moment she finishes her sentence, my legs begin to feel like solid blocks of lead and the idea of a bed becomes incredibly inviting. I haven’t really slept for who knows how long.

“Yes, I think I should do that,” I tell her with a curt smile.

She nods understandingly and leads me to a bedroom. It is small and unadorned, nothing like the grand royal suite I remember. Yet in this moment, I could not care less. Even a ruler must learn to appreciate the simpler joys of life.

“Sleep well, Mr. Dusk! See you soon!”

She then leaves in silence, much to my appreciation.

I climb into the bed and lie on the soft mattress. As my head sinks into the pillow, I feel my consciousness slip away. This time, however, I’m happy about it.

What I’m less happy about is waking to the sound of loud snoring and an elbow hitting me in the face. I did not expect her to have the audacity to sleep in one bed with me.

No matter. It’s morning anyway. I remove the appendage and lightly shake the mare. No reaction. I groan in exasperation. What was her name? Oh, right.

“Izzy!” I call out to her and in response the snoring stops abruptly.

“Mmm, what? Oh! Good morning, Mr. Dusk! Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, except for the-” I stop myself from stooping so low. Even if I’m in disguise, I have to maintain some dignity. “Nevermind that. Izzy, there is some information I wish to know and I hope you might be able to elucidate me.”

She blearily blinks once or twice before the realization slowly blooms on her face. I brace for the worst.

“Oh! You want to play quiz! Sure! Just wait until I make some breakfast.”

“That’s not really what I meant and breakfast is really not necessary,” I reply quickly. The last thing I want is to be indebted to a pony like her. Yet my grumbling stomach betrays me and asserts its will over mine.

Of course. I never had the chance to eat in the void. No wonder my magic doesn’t work. It’s a miracle in itself that I’m even able to stand on my legs.

“You know what, actually breakfast sounds great.”

Her face lights up as she listens to my words. She jumps out of the bed and hurries off to fulfill my wishes.

Oh, how I envy those who can be made happy with so little! I think to myself, as she disappears from my sight. Alas, some of us have to bear the weight of greatness.

I take some time to make myself presentable before I follow her to the kitchen. As I enter, I’m suddenly hit by the sweet smell of pancakes. I see my host in front of me as she’s preparing the dish with devilish speed. Another grumble of my stomach gives away my presence.

“Ah, there you are! Don’t wait for me, take a seat,” she says while motioning towards a table on the other side of the room.

I oblige and soon I find a heaping pile of pancakes in front of me. She sits on the opposite side with her own stack. I can’t help but wolf down the delicacy. As the sweet taste spreads in my mouth, I find myself admiring her cooking skills. Once I have taken my rightful place, I should pluck her from this backwards place to be my personal confectioner. I would be doing her a favor really.

Soon our plates are empty and she levitates them off the desk to be washed. I feel a low buzz in my horn and a sliver of mana beginning to trickle inside my body. It seems my magic is slowly returning. A smile creeps on my face. It is merely a matter of time before I regain my power.

“So, you wanted to ask me some questions?” she asks, as she works on the dishes. I assume she’s just trying to make small-talk, without even realizing how important of a conversation this will be.

“Yes. Who leads the ponies currently?” I ask. It’s a huge gamble. Such things should be obvious to even a foal, but any other question would likely raise even more suspicion.

Yet, to my surprise, Izzy didn’t even flinch.

“Oh, you mean Alphabittle! He’s the closest thing we have to a leader. If you want, I can introduce you to him. He runs a tea shop nearby. We sometimes hold poetry-nights there, you might enjoy that.”

I suppress a sigh of exasperation.

“You misunderstand me,” I say, putting great effort into keeping my voice low. “Who’s the current royalty?”

She raises a questioning eyebrow at me.

“Royalty? Umm, I guess one of those pegasi in Zephyr Heights is a queen? Also Pipp and Zipp, her daughters are princesses and my friends,” she adds with a dumb smile. “Do you mean them?”

This is ridiculous.

“No, I mean an alicorn.” My words spill out like gravel from my mouth.

“An ali-what-now?”

My hoof wants to slam into my face. Or perhaps hers.

I need to focus.

“You know, a pony with both wings and a horn,” I explain slowly, as I point to my back and head.

“Oh! That sounds exactly like my friend Sunny!” she says as her eyes light up. “Though she’s no queen,” she adds with a chuckle.

This is... unexpected, I think to myself. She didn’t know what an alicorn is? But then who’s moving the Sun and the Moon? And what’s more, there is a young one who’s not a princess?

I put on a kind smile, as I begin plotting. With her help, taking over Equestria should be a breeze. If she’s anything like Izzy, I won’t even need my magic to influence her.

“Fascinating. Would it be possible for me to meet this Sunny?”

Yes! Her face visibly brightens.

“That’s an excellent idea, Mr. Dusk! We should visit her! It’s been a while since I’ve seen her anyways.”

“We should head out as soon as possible then,” I recommend helpfully.

Ch.4 - Of Lingering Suspicion

“So, what exactly is the place called again?” I ask Izzy, as we walk past a massive tree in an empty field.

“Maretime Bay. Isn’t it a fun name?” she says with excitement, before continuing to hum.

“Yes, I suppose,” I reply flatly.

I don’t see what’s so fun about it.

The rest of the trip passes by in a blink. I’m sure there are a lot of things she said to me during our journey, but I hardly remember anything.

As we get closer to the city, she suddenly stops me with a hoof.

“There is one thing I must ask you first, Mr. Dusk.” Her voice is surprisingly subdued and serious. I decide it is probably for the best if I listen to her this time. “Maretime Bay is first and foremost an earth pony city. You are okay with meeting them, right? "

I try my best to look impassive, but inside I’m feeling deeply confused.

What sort of answer does she expect? Is this some kind of trick question? I look at her trying to gauge her expression, but the only thing I see on her face is worry. It doesn’t seem like she has any ulterior motives. I suppose it is for the best if I approach this situation honestly before it ruins me in the long run.

“Where I come from there is no distinction made between the three tribes. Is it perhaps different here?”

She whistles a little in amazement.

“Wow! And here I thought I’d need to give you a pep-talk! That’s a relief,” she says with the usual cheer in her voice. A moment later her enthusiasm evaporates as quickly as it came and she slightly hangs her head, her hoof awkwardly digging at the ground. “Around here until very recently the idea of different kinds of ponies becoming friends was unheard of. Until Sunny was able to convince the tribes to put their differences aside and magic returned as a result, almost everypony used to believe the others were out for them. And now that we all realized this was a lie, some of us are having a harder time adjusting than others. Most ponies won’t mind us, but these things take time.” She then looks me in the eyes with genuine concern. “If you get a few frowns or weird faces, please don’t take it as anything personal.”

I nod and mumble an agreement. At the same time my mind struggles to make sense of her words.

Disharmony among the tribes? The ‘return’ of magic? That’s quite unusual, even to my ears. If such a crisis really did happen, where are the Windigos?

These are deeply troubling revelations, especially since Izzy’s biggest concern seems to be a few undignified looks. Does she not know? Did Equestria forget those old horrors? Just what happened to this world?

I’ll need to investigate this, but not here, not now, and especially not with her help. Perhaps this ‘Sunny’ will know more.

We trot into the city. I’m surprised by just how small it is. My Empire had homes that numbered in the thousands, yet here I can hardly see a few hundred around me. The architecture of these houses is also nothing like what I’m used to. Especially that massive building in the distance.

’CanterLogic,’ I read on a nearby sign. I wouldn’t admit this to anypony, but it takes some effort to spell out the name. Writing seems to have advanced somewhat during my imprisonment. What an odd name. Is it an institute of mathematics perhaps? But no, surely not. The ponies around us don’t really seem like the brightest bunch.

My attention turns to the citizens, as we continue our walk. Izzy wasn’t exaggerating. I see only one or two pairs of wings or horns. Everyone else is an earth pony. I notice that while some, especially the foals, ignore us or even cheerfully wave, I’m also catching a lot of malicious sideways-glances.

“Can we please hurry a little,” I whisper to Izzy, with a subtle nod towards the crowd. She doesn’t say anything, but she picks up the pace. I’m glad to see her hurry. It’s not the crowd I fear, of course. Their disdain won’t mean anything soon. I merely don’t want to be lynched by a banal mob, before I can assume my rightful place once again.

Just when I think we might reach our destination without any trouble, a custard-yellow earth pony trots in our way. He sports a cocky smile and I see a badge on his chest. A constable? This doesn’t bode well. I shoot a questioning glance towards Izzy, but she doesn’t even bother to look at me.

“Hitch! It’s so good to see you!” she yells, overjoyed.

Oh, brilliant. A friend. My tail flicks in frustration, but thankfully neither of them notice.

“Hey, Izzy! Long time no see,” he says as the two fly into each others’ hooves in a short hug.

Then he turns to me.

“And you are?”

That’s funny. His previously warm demeanor is immediately ice cold, even though I’ve done nothing to bring out anyone’s ire.

“The name is Crystal Dusk,” I reply coolly. Who does he think he is?

“I’m Hitch, Maretime Bay’s sheriff. I’m currently off-duty and, for your sake, I hope we won’t need to meet in a more formal way.”

“Hitch!” Izzy shoots him a stinging look, as she steps between us. “He is a friend of mine, what’s wrong with you?”

“Is that so?” he says while measuring me up. Then he turns to the mare. “Look, Izzy, I know what we accomplished and all. I’m the first in line to admit I was wrong and that we should all sing and dance together being friends. But until everypony else thinks so as well, I’d really appreciate if you at least told me in advance or something, before you drop in with a unicorn who looks this-” he pauses for a second, searching for the right word, before leaning in towards her and lowering his voice, “-suspicious.”

I look at him with wild bemusement. Of everyone I’ve met since my return, this little earth pony came closest to realizing who he’s dealing with.

“What!” Izzy gasps in shock. “Hitch, I can’t believe you’re saying this! Mr. Dusk has been nothing but nice to me and you’re accusing him of being suspicious based on his... looks?”

I acknowledge his frown and his ears flopping with an almost imperceptible smirk.

“I... You know that’s not what I meant,” he stammers. “It’s merely my job to keep things calm and safe.”

“Mr. Dusk, let’s move on. See you, Hitch.”

Izzy starts trotting away. As I walk past him, I turn my head towards the destitute pony.

“It was nice to meet you, Sheriff.”

He looks a bit dazed as we leave him. Things could not have worked out better for me. He’s now doubting himself, and likely won’t cause any further issue.

No one else bothers to stop us afterwards and we quickly reach the lighthouse at the end of the town. I open my mouth to ask why we even came here, but she turns to me before I can say a word.

“This is her house!” Izzy says as she waves her hoof in a wide arc.

An alicorn living in a lighthouse. Sounds like the punchline to a bad joke. But then, I am with the unicorn who lives inside a tree.

I stand back as she walks up to the door to knock. A moment of silence later I can hear a latch slide out of its place and the door opens to an orange pony. I can’t help but feel shocked. She looks like an earth pony, but there are two translucent wings draped on her back and a similarly ghostly horn sitting atop her head. She’s clearly not an alicorn, but I have never seen such a thing as her before.

“Izzy! I didn’t expect you to drop by,” she says emphatically as the two mares embrace each other. After an awfully long hug, she asks, “Are the others with you?”

“Nope, just us two.”

“Two?”

Then she notices me. Her eyes widen slightly and recognition flashes on her face. This is bad.

Then she shakes her head slightly and takes a step closer.

“Oh. Sorry, I thought you were somepony I know,” she tells me with an apologetic smile. “Have we seen each other before?”

“He’s a friend! I met him recently,” Izzy chimes in. Bless her simple heart.

“I’m Crystal Dusk. And you must be Sunny, right? Nice to meet you.” I give her my most winning smile.

“Yup, Sunny Starscout. Come in, let’s talk somewhere more comfortable.”

We follow her inside. Unlike what I expected from the unassuming outside look of the lighthouse, I am taken aback by the sight of the treasures that we find inside. Artifacts from my time litter the room, some familiar, some less so.

Sunny points us towards a couch and she sits in front of us herself.

“So why the visit?”

This is it. My chance.

Ch.5 - Of the Past and the Future

“So why the visit?” I ask the two unicorns in front of me. I’m really happy to see Izzy, but the stallion next to her gives me bad vibes. He reminds me of somepony, but I just can’t place him.

His dark gray coat, piercing red eyes, and crimson horn send a shiver down my spine. Have I seen this pony before? I feel some faint memories trying to resurface, but that’s ridiculous. I haven’t known the unicorns for that long and I’d surely remember somepony like him. Maybe one of Dad’s stories had a character similar to him?

At least his smile is reassuring enough.

“I’m a traveling mineralogist,” he explains, “and I’m looking for a city of crystals. Legends say a pony with both a horn and wings ruled over it. An alicorn, I believe they’re called. When Izzy told me about you, I figured perhaps you may be... a relative of theirs?”

Did I notice an odd pause in his voice? No, he’s surely just not used to seeing a pony like me.

“Sorry, I’m a city pony and definitely not the relative of royals,” I tell him with an awkward chuckle. “I also haven’t really been to that many places either. The library might provide more information than I could.”

There is one place I can think of, but surely that’s not what he’s looking for.

“Please,” he says with a pleading voice. “Anything would help.”

I take another look at him. Although I still feel a bit uneasy, he does seem genuine. If he wasn’t, I’m sure Izzy would have already smelled him out.

Dad taught me not to judge a book by its cover. He never would have turned away a stranger in need.

I sigh.

Alright, Sunny, here goes nothing.

“I might have an idea, but I don’t think you will like my answer very much.”

Oh, his ears are perking up and he leans forward on the couch. I use this as an opportunity to sneak a peek at his cutie mark. It’s a dark crystal, hardly visible on his gray coat. Not very surprising considering he’s a mineralogist, but for some reason seeing it adds to my unease. A voice in my head whispers I probably shouldn’t continue.

I’m so silly.

“My father gave me a journal that talks about an ancient city like this. It was called the ‘Crystal Empire’ and before it was liberated, an evil unicorn king ruled over it. The journal mentions how its author, a princess called Twilight, with the help of her sister-in-law, defeated the king and brought Harmony to the city.”

Just as I worried, it seems like he’s not very happy with my answer. He’s frowning now.

“I’m sorry, the journal doesn’t say much about the place afterwards.”

I can tell that he likes this even less. I notice his frown deepening. He seems to be deep in thought, as he tugs at his mane.

We sit wordlessly for a few seconds. I’m not sure what else to say. At least Izzy doesn’t seem to be bothered. Her beaming smile puts me at ease a little. Still, where did she even meet a pony like him? She never fails to surprise me.

“Do you think it would be possible for me to look at that journal?” His words cut through the silence like a knife. “Perhaps I could find something in there that you missed.”

There is a hint of greed in his eyes, yet his voice is smooth like silk. The same voice in my head now objects much, much more loudly.

“I’m... I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“Oh come on, Sunny!” Izzy interjects. “Don’t you love showing it off to us? I’m sure Mr. Dusk could figure out something interesting from it.”

“I also dabble in archaeology,” he concurs. I shoot a questioning glance towards him and he quickly continues. “For instance, that flag on your wall,” he says as he points towards a faded tapestry of two alicorns chasing each other, “represents the Kingdom of Equestria and its two rulers. Celestia and Luna.”

He names several other objects without breaking a sweat. Some of them I wasn’t even aware of. I have no idea where he got his information from, but everything he says lines up with the Princess’s journal.

Oh Stars, he actually isn’t bluffing, I think to myself as I become more and more excited. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn even more about the old world! Dad, if you sent me this miracle, thank you so much!

“Well, alright,” I finally tell him, after finding my jaw on the floor. “I’ll show it to you. But I must warn you to be careful with it. It is an old and precious artifact.”

“Perish the thought! I’ll be extremely careful.”

His theatrics are odd, but I can’t help but smirk at his eager reply. As a fellow historian, I understand what he must be feeling. I trot over to a nearby shelf and open it. The journal lies there, as beautiful as it was the day my father gave it to me.

It takes me some effort not to reel back upon seeing the loathsome emblem on the journal. It’s her cutie mark. As I continue to stare, the room around it dissolves into blotches of colors, which then bleed away into nothing. I feel the suffocating darkness of my empty prison collapse on me and my vision fades to black. I struggle as the air attempts to flee from my lungs once more.

I cannot feel anything under my hooves anymore. The pain of becoming incorporeal wracks my body and my ears are assaulted by a thousand mocking voices recalling my failures amid cackling laughter.

“Mr. Dusk? Are you alright?”

As if a match was struck, the void recedes. The voices disappear and the air returns. I feel solid ground below myself. I’m back in the room. I am still alive.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I manage to say with some effort. “My mind just wandered off for a second. This truly seems like a remarkable relic.” My voice rings with very real awe.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” she chides me playfully. We trot over to a nearby desk and she gingerly opens the book before placing it in front of me.

If only you knew how true your words are.

As I glance down to the table, I notice with a bit of annoyance that she opened up the book at the appropriate page, robbing me of an excuse to skim through the entirety of it. Oh well, it won’t matter soon anyway. I feel my horn tingle with power. Just a little more.

I begin reading. I can’t help but chuckle a little. If there is one thing I can’t fault in her, it’s her preciseness. Despite the unusual format for a historical document, the text does not spare detail. True to Sunny’s words, the section detailing the beginnings of my Empire features my reign as well. King Sombra, ‘the Tyrant.’

Right, I scoff inside. Believe that if you want.

I decide to skip forward. I really don’t need to be reminded of my failings again. I had plenty of time to ruminate over them. I also don’t want them to accidentally see any pictures that could give away my identity.

As I reach a new chapter, my eyes fall on an image depicting a young alicorn mare in battle-armor. She is standing in front of an army of thousands. Her pastel-colored, curly mane betrays her ice-cold stare. What’s this? I hum to myself silently. That little gremlin grew up to be such a warrior? Good on her, she could have been a great commander under me.

I turn a few more pages. Reforms, celebrations, the names of utterly insignificant nobles. My excitement gives way to frustration. This isn’t what I need. I need answers! I skip over larger and larger amounts of pointless trivia.

Suddenly my eyes fall upon a faded image. It depicts an aged, yellow pegasus, whose pink mane is tied up into a neat knot. She is tending to some animals in what appears to be a cottage of sorts, with an unbearably tender and loving smile. Unlike her I can hardly even force a neutral expression on my own face. I bite down on my cheeks as the rage boils inside me. I don’t remember her name anymore or even what her voice was like, but I know her. I could never forget her face. She was one of them. One of the Six.

So they all really went on to live happy and fulfilling lives, while I... while I- The thought is interrupted by an echo of the void collapsing down on me. The room begins to darken, but I quickly push back and it recedes. I cannot show weakness. Not now.

After composing myself, I take a better look at the picture. As I lean closer I notice another figure lurking in the background and I suddenly forget about my anger towards the pegasus. No wonder I hardly even noticed him. It is only a small, blurry silhouette, but there can be no mistake. Those unnatural features, those mocking yellow eyes. There is only a single being who looks like this!

That damned Snake! He survived! I scream inside, struggling to keep myself from slamming my hooves into the table or tearing the journal to shreds. I cannot believe it! Even this one accomplishment of mine turns out to be a farce!

I slowly realize that I’m slightly shaking. As I force stillness on my body, I silently pray the other two haven’t noticed my narrowly-avoided outburst. My patience has long ran out, but I cannot allow myself to act rashly. I still know far too little about the current state of the world. Any slips on my part could hurt me greatly in the long run.

I must focus.

In an attempt to calm myself, I turn my attention inwards and tap into my magical reserves. This time there is no rebound. That trickling flow of mana has since swelled into a torrent in me, filling my horn with newfound power.

I glance up at the others. Their faces speak of anxiety and anticipation. Perhaps a more direct approach will lend me more information.

“So, tell me, what happened to the author of this book?”

“I have no idea, sadly. The only thing I know is that this journal has been passed down for several generations in my family. It used to be my father’s.”

Her inflection and downcast eyes make it clear what she means, but I’m more interested in how that accursed upstart in a princess’s trappings seems to be gone.

“And what about the other alicorns?”

“As far as we know, they are all gone as well. The journal doesn’t say why. I’m probably the only pony who still knows who they even were,” she adds with a sad chuckle.

My entire body feels like it’s burning as magic courses through my veins. I can hardly restrain myself anymore, but there is one more thing I have to make sure of.

“Are they all dead?” I ask quietly.

“That’s the most likely explanation. I’m sorry.” Her voice is subdued and empathetic.

In a split second the mask breaks.

I throw my head back as laughter erupts from me. The others watch me in shock, but I don’t care.

“That’s just what I was hoping to hear!” I yell between two laughs. “And here I was thinking I’d need to use subtlety and manipulation to achieve my goals! It might have taken me an eternity, but finally I win!”

I step back from the desk and allow my power to finally come forth in all of its glory. The room visibly darkens several shades, despite the bright sunlight pouring in from outside. My eyes light up with their familiar purple flames. With a flick of my horn the journal lands squarely between my hooves.

“Oh, how I longed for this moment!” I bellow, before turning to Sunny.

“I am deeply offended you didn’t even realize it was me! Perhaps you should have read that little book of yours a bit more carefully,” I tell her with blatantly feigned hurt in my voice. “Alas, you won’t have the chance to do so again.”

“What?” she asks me flatly, still in shock. I watch with glee as her eyes slowly go wide and terror creeps on her face from the realization. “No... It cannot be possible.”

My gloating is interrupted by Izzy’s trembling voice.

“Mr. Dusk, what are you doing?” she asks with disbelief. “Why is your luminessence so black?”

I glare at the unicorn in front of me. As her eyes meet mine, they begin to quiver from fear. I, however, merely feel immense relief that I won’t have to listen to her inane ramblings anymore.

“’Mr. Dusk?’ Oh please, it was obviously just an alias. My real name is King Sombra,” I correct her. “Now, if you’ll forgive me, there will be a crowning in the North soon. I simply must attend.”

This breaks Sunny out of her stupor.

“No... No! You can’t do this!” she screams as tears begin to fall from her eyes. “That journal is the most important memory of my father! You can’t take it!”

“And what exactly do you plan to do about it?”

My challenge doesn’t go unanswered. I can see Sunny’s body tense up. Her face contorts into a scowl, as she pounces. A desperate attempt to tackle the journal from my hooves.

What a noble, but foolish idea.

Before she can do as much as lay a hoof on me, my magic envelops her for a second and I effortlessly fling her away. I hear her crash into the chair she sat in before, but I don’t bother to check.

I glance at Izzy. The poor, poor mare is shaking from terror.

As she should be.

“So, tell me, are you going to try to be a hero as well?” I ask her.

She gives me no answer, just takes a step back. Good.

“Don’t feel too bad,” I call out to the room. “I will be back for you soon, and then for the entirety of Equestria.”

Having given my goodbye, I cast a teleportation spell. Shadows envelop me and I’m whisked away to a faraway land.

Ch.6 - Of Old Nightmares

The shadows yield and I find myself far from the lighthouse. I try to look around, but a blizzard rages around me, limiting my vision severely. Unusual. The realm may be one of frost and cold, but my Empire should still be protected from the elements by that accursed Heart.

What concerns me even more is that I cannot sense my home. It used to always call to me. Perhaps my power hasn't fully returned.

I trot further into the raging snowstorm. The marks I leave in the knee-deep snow quickly start filling back up. I pay it no heed. Now that I have my magic, the cold has no power over me.

I try to count the minutes as I walk, yet as they keep ticking by, I still cannot see anything. I don't understand, my spell should have brought me to the edge of my Empire. It should be in front of me already. Blasted storm, did I walk in the wrong direction?

As I continue to avoid the large mounds of snow around me, I suddenly spot a blotch of darkness through the gloom. Finally! I break into a gallop, letting the wind rush past me as the form slowly begins to gain details. The storm starts dying down, giving me a chance to take a better look. My newfound enthusiasm snaps in a blink.

There is no city in front of me. What I approach is a faded monument, sunk slanted in the snow. Below a thick blanket of frost I can see the faintest memories of etchings that once adorned its surface.

It can't be.

The snowfall stops completely and as the flakes finally settle, a massive building reveals itself in the distance. I run even faster in the silence, until I reach the ancient structure. Its top ends in a jagged edge, its peak lies broken off somewhat further away, almost completely covered. A single, arched hole stands in the middle of it, with a small platform jutting out, both far out of my reach. Due to the sinking, it too leans slightly to the right.

With my magic's help, I fly up to the hole and enter. A familiar darkness envelops me for a moment, before my eyes adjust to the gloom. What I see makes me wish for the darkness once more.

It's no question. I am in my old room. What remains of the ages old furniture is different from what I remember, but the layout is unmistakable. A gaping hole has been blown into the wall on the other end of the room, revealing another endless field of snow beyond. I ignore it. I ignore everything. My horn glows for a little while.

In front of my eyes the room morphs into a lavish bedroom. The chilling cold melts into pleasant warmth. I glance back and the hole behind me is no more. The faded and torn carpet blooms into a radiant red under my steps, befit a ruler. I posture myself as a king should. With my head held high, I trot up to the balcony, just like the old days. I observe my domain. Cloying nostalgia overtakes me as I stare out at the wasteland in front of me. This time there is no Empire to greet me back.

The illusion behind me breaks apart. The shining furniture molds and rots away to how it was. The carpet's color bleeds away as it frays and shrivels. The gash on the wall opens up once more, yawning like a mortal wound. The warmth dissipates and frost begins to mar my coat again. None of it matters. There is no amount of magic or trickery that could bring back what's truly missing.

What is a king without an empire?

I feel my legs giving out, so I quickly search for support on a frozen sofa.

What's the next step of my brilliant master plan? I ask myself with a bitter chuckle.

The frost-bitten frame of the sofa groans and buckles under my weight, but I pay it no heed. I stare at the nothing in front of me. My mind feels completely blank and numb.

I was prepared to fight. I even made peace with being forgotten and having to prove myself again. But this? This is torment beyond anything I have faced before.

I stare into the still whiteness outside for a while.

Then I slowly realize there is one more thing I can do. My horn flickers for a second as I raise a hoof and tear into space itself, opening a dark gash that hangs in the air. I reach inside and yank out the journal. I flip to the chapter about my Empire again.

I must have missed something! There has to be a throwaway sentence. Or a clue. Or a single word. They cannot be all gone!

As my eyes dash over line after line, I desperately cling into the tiny island of hope in my soul, fighting against the massive, black waves that threaten to suffocate me alive.

Nothing.

There is nothing here that would help me.

In a desperate bid, I flip to the very last page. Most of it is just pointless drivel about friendship.

My hoof freezes suddenly. Just after the lectures, all painstakingly horn-written, my eyes fall on the print of an article, written in Crystalese-script. My Empire's writing system.

The text is succinct and dry. It is a tally of population and wealth. Seeing how great and prosperous my Empire became in my absence gives me bittersweet feelings. I read on and my eyes go wide.

"Due to the recent events, by the grace of the Sun and the Moon, We, the Ruler of the Kingdom of Equestria and Protector of the Crystal Empire, declare the latter's general evacuation, abandonment and dissolution; effective immediately. All citizens are to leave the Empire as soon as possible, with only as little as necessary for their immediate survival..."

Is it really possible? Despite everything my people and through them my Empire yet survive elsewhere? I feel a rush of adrenaline inside me, as I begin the next paragraph.

"... Considering the challenges posed by the event in terms of our involvement, We and the Ruler of the Crystal Empire, Mi Amore Cadenza, declare our mutual intent to abdicate our respective thrones, also effective immediately. Due to the same circumstances, Princess Flurry Heart declines her claim to the Crown.

"We decree that until fitting successors can be found, the Equestrian Parliament shall rule in Our and the Princess's stead, with hope that their choices and decisions will work towards the betterment and prosperity of all Equestrian citizens. ..."

The rest of the text is merely hollow formalities, that give no indication of the reasons for such an unprecedented turn of events. I feel my island sinking into the darkness, dragging me along. Visions of what could have happened fill my mind, each worse than the last. Immortal royalty does not just abdicate without naming a successor. Especially when there are so many candidates at hoof's length.

My pondering is broken as I notice a slight movement in my peripheral vision. My eyes snap towards it. It came from beyond the hole in the wall. The blizzard stopped, so what could it be?

I carefully place the journal on the sofa and walk to the hole to peek outside. Without the raging elements, the scenery is almost serene. Curiously, the sky is black, even though it should still be early in the afternoon. Then it hits me: The sky is pitch black. I cannot see the Sun, the Moon, or even the Stars.

I stare at the eerie stillness for a while, but I cannot see anything that could have moved. I slowly take a step back and turn away to pick up the journal again, but as my head turns, my eye catches another odd flicker. I still cannot tell what it is, but this time I'm sure it's not just a figment of my imagination. I decide to leave the ruins of my spire. Perhaps whatever I find out there may bring some answers.

I levitate myself down into the snow and slowly start walking forward. My eyes rapidly flick from left to right as I try to find the source of this mysterious phenomenon.

What's this? I suddenly spot another pony in the distance. His coat is entirely white. No wonder I had trouble noticing him. He's turned away from me, I wonder if he even realized I'm here.

What is a pony even doing out here?

"Hey, you!" I call out to him.

No response. Perhaps the distance is greater than I thought. It's hard to tell when everything is so white. I take a peek back to confirm, but the spire is still fairly close.

I trot on.

"Hey!"

Still nothing. What's worse, while I was glancing back, he began moving away from me. I push my body to move even faster. If I lose track of him, I don't think I'll ever be able to find him again.

"Stop! Wait!"

The emptiness in me gives way to fury. I merely wanted to question him and yet he's not even deigning me with a look. Fine. So be it!

My horn flares into life and I project out my magic to incapacitate him. I feel the ethereal grip connect, yet he keeps on moving. This is impossible, I am the strongest spellcaster in Equestria! He should be squirming in my grasp!

I stop in utter confusion. Suddenly, almost at the same moment, he stops as well and slowly turns towards me. I can't really make out his features due to the darkness. His unnaturally white coat glistens in the cold air. We stare at each other for a few seconds.

"Who are you?" I finally ask him.

"Is that truly what interests you?" His accent is odd and his voice has a certain coldness to it.

"Answer the question!"

"I'm someone who may know all the answers to the questions that interest you."

It could be merely a trick of the light, but I could swear his mouth isn't moving.

"What happened to this place? Why is it enveloped in frost?"

"I could tell you, but wouldn't you prefer to see it with your own eyes? Come a bit closer," he says, while beckoning me with a hoof. Some of the words dissolve into a slight crunching noise as he speaks.

I follow him slowly.

"Just a bit more."

He's now only ahead of me by a few meters, yet I'm still unable to see as much as his cutie mark. Before I could catch up to him, he turns around once more and trots forwards. Now that I'm closer to him, I use the opportunity to take a better look. My eyes go wide, as the realization slowly dawns on me and I begin to feel the blood freeze in my veins. His... No, its gait is a complete mockery of the natural order. It is as if its joints are in completely different places than where they should be. As it steps, its thigh slightly buckles in the middle, while its knee remains completely rigid. As its front legs move, its shoulders don't seem to be rotating, instead it is like they are merely sliding inside its body.

I feel terror slowly creep up on my mind, but I push it back. I remain silent and slow down a little. It continues to trot forward and after a little while its body passes over an almost imperceptible barrier, which shimmers with a sickly green light where it is touched.

I stop before the field. Upon noticing that I've stopped, its head turns around in a way that I am certain would break a pony's neck.

"What's the problem? Don't you wish to know what happened?"

I don't budge.

"Tell me here and now."

It doesn't seem to like this. I can see its body tensing up.

"No time. Follow."

"No. You will tell me here."

"Follow. Now."

Its body seems more and more rigid as it continues to wave for me with movements that slowly begin to resemble a puppet being yanked around on strings. What an incredibly obvious trap.

"Follow," it croaks once more.

I make up my mind. I put a hoof forward, right at the edge of the barrier. In the very same moment, the pony explodes into a flurry of snow that violently slams into the field before sliding harmlessly to the ground. I yank my hoof back.

That's when I sense it. I cannot see anything on the other side, but I know something is there. Its ravenous hunger radiates through. It sputters and drools corrosive saliva all over the barrier. Its slavering mouths open and snap shut, gasping for air it cannot truly breathe. My nostrils fill with the nauseating smell of ozone mixed with liquefied, molding flesh. It batters the barrier with an immeasurable amount of spiny appendages and wet tentacles hanging off its pockmarked, bloated body, glistening with colors never meant for pony eyes. My ears are filled with an otherworldly chittering, like a hive of ants burrowed into my brain. A thousand cloudy, dead eyes glare at me. Some of them open like horrifying mockeries of mouths, revealing rows upon rows of rotten teeth yearning for my flesh and soul. The very space distorts and shifts around it.

Yet nothing is there.

I fall back on my haunches. My consciousness flickers like a candle in the wind. In this moment, I'm not King Sombra, I'm a foal who wandered off alone during the night never to be seen again. My mind stirs and in a blind, instinctual panic, I let out a whinny and scramble back to the spire. With a flash of light, I'm inside the old building once more. My magic slams the half-rotten bed against the hole and I lean against it. I close my eyes as I uselessly try to calm my breathing. Blood rushes in my ears, blocking out my raspy breaths. The icy air stabs my lungs.

Minutes pass and I slowly open my eyes. It didn't follow. I'm still not dead. It takes a great deal of effort, but I finally calm down enough to take another look around the room. It is just as barren as before and everything is where I left it. Suddenly I feel another presence in the spire, below me. I feel my blood run cold.

Did it break through?

No. I force some calmness onto myself. No, that barrier holds it outside.

I send a ping from my horn below. Even though it's buried deep in snow, the rest of the spire seems to have stayed hollow just like this room. I carefully carve a hole into the floor and look down. Only darkness greets me.

Wait, no. As I squint, I see a faint glimmer of light.

I float down. The air is stagnant. My landing kicks up a cloud of dust, sending me into a fit of coughs. When it finally clears, I focus my hornlight and look around. My heart pangs as I find myself in my old throneroom. I faintly see myself reflected in the walls, nothing more than a dark spot standing in the middle of even more darkness. Ancient banners, hanging from intricately carved pillars of crystal, declare my Empire's sovereignty. A lavish carpet leads to the throne standing in the middle. My throne. A mockery of everything I wanted.

Atop the throne sits the source of the light. My eyes fall upon an artifact I never expected to see again. The Crystal Heart.

I trot up to it, not daring to look away from it. It shines with the same sick green light as the barrier. I slowly stretch a hoof out and put it on its surface. It pulses and I feel my body forcibly dragged inside.

Ch.7 - Of Forlorn Echoes

“Don’t feel too bad, I will be back for you soon, and then for the entirety of Equestria,” I hear him yell, and a moment later he’s gone. With my journal.

My body aches from the impact. I wince as I crack my eyes open and look down. My body is sprawled out like a discarded rug, propped up by the broken remains of what used to be my chair. As I lie there, small blotches of blood begin to stain my coat. Tears well up in my eyes, but I don’t care about them. There is only a single, overwhelming thought echoing in my mind:

It’s gone!

In my haze, my eyes wander upwards and I notice a blue and purple blotch move slightly in the distance. As I look at it, my ringing ears catch a fleeting, alien noise. It sounds so familiar, but my thoughts continue to hide behind a thick veil of confusion. I continue to stare into the nothing in utter incomprehension. Slowly I shake my head and blink a few times. As my vision clears, the ringing dies down and the noise comes closer, clearing into a sound.

The moment I realize what it is, it breaks me out of my stupor.

I look towards the source again. It is Izzy heaving on the floor.

“Why?” she stammers. “Why did he lie to us?”

Seeing her like that forces my body into action. I attempt to stand up, but my left hindleg buckles under my weight. It feels like it was struck with a white-hot iron. I scream from the pain. For a moment I even forget about the journal.

After the pain subsides a little, I grit my teeth and crawl away from the ruins of the chair. It takes me some effort to reach Izzy, but when I get there I wrap my hooves around her in a tight hug. I burrow my face into her coat. We stay that way for a few seconds. Eventually her breathing slows a little and I feel her body slightly loosen up. My tears continue to flow freely. She silently runs a hoof through my mane.

“We will get it back,” she whispers to me in a low voice.

This just makes me cry even harder.

“How?” I break away from her hug and scream in her face. “Don’t you get it? We’re ants compared to him! He subjugated an entire empire! Alone!”

“Maybe, but unlike him, you’re not alone.”

I look up at her. Izzy is staring into the distance. Her eyes are shining with determination. She looks down at me and they soften a bit.

“Sunny, you’ve shown us we can all be friends. And friends help when you’re in need.”

Can I really believe her? Do we stand a chance?

“If we don’t do anything, then he’ll just come back and there will be no more fun afterwards. I don’t want to see you in chains... or worse,” despite her firm expression, her voice is shaking with fear.

“I... I don’t want to see anything like that happen to you either,” I reply slowly. She gives me another firm hug.

“We must talk to the others. Everyone. There is not a single pony in Equestria who’s safe as long as he’s around.”

I’ve never seen her so serious before. It’s contagious. I feel some of my strength returning.

“You’re right, Izzy. We can’t just sit here. Go home, tell the unicorns what happened and that they should prepare to defend themselves. I will ask Hitch to spread the news here and I’ll go to Zephyr Heights myself. Come back, when you’re done. We’ll decide what to do next when all of us are together.”

“Sunny!” she says forcefully. “You’ll go nowhere! You’re injured.”

“It’s nothing,” I say, but she knows I’m lying. Her frown tells me as much.

“Lie down. Get some rest. I’ll tell Hitch everything and we’ll take care of it.”

I try to protest, but she gently pushes me back.

“You’ve done a lot for us already. You’ve given me hope when I had none. Please, let me try to do the same.”

I try to stand up again, but the pain makes me collapse back to the floor. I relent.

“Go, I’ll be okay.”

She helps me to the couch and gives me a final hug before hurrying out. I climb up and allow my leg to stretch out. The pain dulls a little and I fall into a dreamless sleep.

I find myself in an empty void once more. This time, however, I’m not surrounded by darkness, but a brilliant white light in every direction I can see. I’m also not floating. Despite nothing being under my hooves, I can still walk.

I trot forward. A colorful shape lies in front of me in the distance, but I can’t make out what it is. I can feel it call out to me.

I don’t know how long I walk. As hours or perhaps merely seconds pass, I feel a serene calmness overtake me and I forget about everything that happened to me recently. This seems like a nice place to lie down and give myself to oblivion.

A pleasant tingle passes over my body as it relaxes. I feel my eyelids slowly becoming heavier and heavier.

As I begin to give myself over to rest, suddenly images of the being flash in my mind. I jolt awake, as if I was struck by a lightning bolt.

No. What am I even thinking? That thing is out there. Any moment it could break through!

With the tiredness banished from my body, I decide to gallop on towards the mysterious object.

I can finally see what lies in front of me. A small sphere hangs in the air, its surface radiating the colors of a rainbow shifting and mixing in wondrous patterns.

My hooves freeze to the ground. Hidden behind the glow of the orb I spot a slender figure. Her eyes are closed in focus, as her horn fires a beam of light into the object in front of her.

I know her.

She might have become more akin to her mentors over the years, but other than that it is still just her. The same purple coat. The same blue mane.

She is the one who sent me to the darkness.

Her sight returns the pain to me with renewed fury. Even in this void of complete light I feel the darkness creep up on me. The silence fades as the eons spent alone begin to howl into my ears once more. I stumble a step back and grit my teeth, but it’s no use. I shiver as the laughing chorus of my inner voices slowly tears itself from the cacophony and forces me to relive the feeling of reality stripped away from my body. They remind me how I immediately understood there would be no return.

I am forced to recall every single inconsequential detail. The colors of each of those blasted flowers in the palace. The crystals jutting out of the floor. The gaudy stained glass windows heralding the victories of my enemies. My new throne, the coldness of which was the last thing I ever felt before my utter annihilation.

I remember cherishing my victory before that mismatched Snake tricked me by appearing weak. That accursed trickster... I hope he rots in Tartarus! Oh, the triumph I felt when I thought I defeated him. What a vain and naive fool I was! I should have known I never stood any real chance against him. It should have been so blatantly obvious that he wasn’t seriously hurt! But by then it was too late. My goading and his laughable theatrics were enough to enrage the Six and seal my fate.

And, finally, I can still remember the confident and cocky look on her face. On all of their faces. It was no glorious battle ending in a fair and noble defeat. No, for me it was the beginning of unending torment, but for her and her friends? For them it was just another day.

It is a humiliation beyond what a pony can suffer.

The pain blooms into anger and my vision narrows on her. My thoughts fade as I tap into my deepest reservoirs of magic and prepare the vilest, most malevolent spell I know. A spell I was too soft to use on her back then, thinking even after she caused my demise, she still didn’t deserve it. This time, I have no such reservations. A small dot of complete darkness forms on the tip of my horn, crackling with magic. The very space warps around it as it continues to increase in strength. Even I am not sure how potent this spell is once I release it.

My mind screams at me to attack. To unleash the spell and obliterate her before she even has the chance to notice me. I’ve suffered for far too long, while she prospered. I glare at her in anticipation as a dull ache fills my horn from the overwhelming energy stored inside it.

“Stay your horn, Umbrum.” Her voice suddenly cuts through the silence, yet her mouth doesn’t open. “Whatever be the reason you came here, you’ll find nothing you want. Leave me be and never come back.”

I force the anger and hate into the back of my mind, at least for the time being. I keep the spell primed, but I do not fire. If she’s this confident to threaten me without even looking at me, she is either completely insane or more powerful than what I could hope to fight. Until I figure out which is the case, any rash action could prove to be suicidal. Haste and vanity brought my downfall too many times already. I will never get my justice if I keep committing the same mistakes. I must not fail myself again.

I take a better look. Her body is slightly translucent and pulses with light in a slow rhythm. Even now she continues to keep her eyes closed.

Confusion rises in me.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Is it not obvious? I am protecting Equestria from the being outside.”

I feel a shiver down my spine, as I realize it isn’t just her voice I’m hearing. Echoes of other ponies mix into her speech, too quiet to be recognized, yet too loud to be ignored. I glance around to see if this is some sort of trick or ambush, but she merely continues to stand there, without even opening her eyes.

My caution bursts into flame. Why does she think me below herself still?

“Stop hiding behind your sphere and face me with dignity!”

She shows no reaction. Instead she merely asks, “Is my destruction truly what you desire?”

“Yes!” I yell, slamming my hoof down. It makes no sound as it collides with the solid nothing below. For a moment my grasp on the spell falters and it violently pulses before I get it under my control again. “You and your little friends may have defeated me back then, but I have returned! And I will have my justice!”

“You’re no enemy of mine anymore,” her multitude of voices echo somberly. “The young mare who banished you might as well be dead.”

What?

I take another look at her. The realization slowly dawns on me: She don’t seem exactly... alive, more like a statue. I focus on my horn and allow my spell to collapse on itself. As it blinks out of existence it leaves nary more than a bit of arcane dust that fades away as it falls down.

“What happened?” There is humility in my voice, though I don’t understand why. “Why is that thing haunting my Empire’s border?”

“The truth lies in the past, buried along with everyone I ever cared for. No one knows how and why the being found Equestria. Not that it would change anything. One day my biggest worry was making sure everyone had a friend... The next, preventing the total annihilation of my subjects.”

A pained, hollow laugh rings out from her, echoing a few times in the deafening silence.

“We tried everything. Yet not even our strongest spells could do as much as even scratch the creature, as it continued to devour city after city in blind, senseless carnage.”

She gasps as if to stifle a tear, but her body remains unmoving.

“In desperation we stripped the world of magic, eradicated the Windigos, and formed the barrier to protect Equestria. We sacrificed our subjects’ heritage, the lives of millions of creatures who could not survive without magic. It wasn’t enough. The barrier was too weak. Deep down we all knew it would break after just a few years, even with all those lives fueling it.”

She interrupts her monologue with a ragged sigh. Neither of us speaks for a while, as she tries to compose herself again.

“Finally the other alicorns... My family after my family... They chose me to stay behind and guard this world.” With each word her voice becomes more and more pained and the chorus dissonant. “Celestia, Luna, Cadance, even Flurry, they all gave me their life and magic. And even then, when our combined power came this tantalizingly close to repel the being, it wasn’t enough.”

As her echoes slowly die down, I find myself unable to even say anything. We stand there in silence for a few seconds.

“So you have... their magic?” The question absentmindedly slips from my mouth.

“Yes. And more. I possess all of the magic, be it from the pegasi, the unicorns, or earth ponies,” she replies weakly, before pausing for a moment. “All except yours.”

So this is what Izzy meant.

“Not all of it. Magic has returned, I saw it with my own eyes.”

The alicorn’s face remains set in stone. Yet when she speaks again, her voices tremble with fear and rage.

“You lie!” she sneers.

“Why would I? Didn’t you just say you’re not my enemy?”

Silence falls upon us. Only the sphere hums softly, its colors ever-shifting.

“King Sombra,” she finally says. “Whether what you are saying is true or not, I require your magic.”

“What?” I stare at her in disbelief.

“The dark magic that sustains and strengthens you is the push I need to finally banish the creature. After so many centuries Equestria could finally be saved! My centuries of watch could finally be over! You must help me!”

Her pleading voices do little to soften the blow.

“Never!” I lash back at her audacity. “I didn’t suffer pain and humiliation for so long to become your pawn!”

As rage wells in me, I take another step closer and jab an accusatory hoof in her direction.

“You will find no lackey in me!” A sadistic smirk creeps on my face. “Now that I know the others are dead and you cannot intervene, there is nothing that stands in my way to finally conquer Equestria! I shall rebuild my Empire! And you will be forced to protect me!”

“You would truly become an enemy to everyone just to satiate your ego?” she asks quietly.

“Ego?” I scoff. “This is merely the honor and duty of any ruler!”

My labored breathing is the only sound breaking the silence for a few seconds.

“Go then, King, enjoy your decade of reign.” Her voices lower to a whisper. I could swear her face is scowling at me. Yet when I blink, it is just as serene as before. “I am bound to protect and perhaps, if I’m powerful enough, you might even rule a century. But if what you’re saying is true, time is running out.

“That thing out there is ravenous for magic. We hoped that by sealing all of it away, the creature would lose interest and leave. This proved to be the fantasy of false optimism. Though it ceased its endless attacks, it never moved on. Still it lurks just beyond the barrier, waiting with senseless patience. And if my grip on magic truly is slipping as you say, it will eventually become rabid once more and I will grow too weak to hold it back.

“Will you have the strength in that last moment to look into your subjects’ eyes, knowing your vanity doomed them all?”

As her quiet accusation washes over me, I feel my blood slowly freeze in my veins.

“You’re- You’re bluffing,” is all I manage to reply.

“Am I? You seem to have made up your mind. Leave now, allow me to grieve for this dying world in peace.”

I find no rebuttal. This doesn’t feel like the victory I was coveting.

I slowly turn around. Though her eyes remain closed, I can feel her glare on my back as I walk away. With each step the light grows harsher, until I cannot see anything anymore.

I take a few more steps and suddenly my hoof lands on solid ground. My eye adjusts to the sudden darkness and I find myself back in the throneroom. The Heart lies behind me, still bathed in an ethereal glow. I fly back to the room above. I reel back from the bed-barricade’s sight and avert my eyes. They fall upon the journal. With almost mechanical movements, I take it into my hooves, before trotting out to the balcony once more. I spend some time looking towards the south.

Then my horn flashes and the shadows take me once more.

Author's Note

And so we reach the halfway mark of the story. I hope you're having fun.

Funnily enough this was one of the chapters that received the most changes as far as I remember:
Originally all five alicorns would have been present and they would have collectively pleaded with Sombra for him to give up his power. Eventually, I realized that I couldn't really give any dialogue to Flurry and Cadance, and Celestia and Luna themselves only had one-one line each. This ultimately made me decide to cut all of them, except for Twiggles, which has the added benefit of her fate mirroring Sombra's from Chapter 1.

Ch.8 - Of the Calm before the Storm

Only a few minutes passed after Izzy left, when I hear my door open again. I slowly crack my eyes open. I try to raise myself, but after a surge of stinging pain, I decide otherwise.

A red stallion stands in front of me. He stares at me with his mouth slightly agape.

“What did he do to you?” he manages to whisper.

“Sprout?” I ask with disbelief. “Is that you?”

“I heard from Hitch that you were in trouble. I, uh, I just had to check on you,” he says as he casts his eyes on the floor. “I knew trusting the unicorns was a mistake,” he mutters.

“Sprout!” I reply, raising my voice. I shuffle slightly on the couch, so that I can look at him better. “He’s not just some unicorn. He is an ancient, evil king!”

“I know, I know, Hitch told me already. I’m just saying, if we hadn’t opened the town this wouldn’t have happened.” He doesn't look into my eyes as he speaks.

Unbelievable.

“If you’re only here to lecture me, I’d rather be left alone.”

His ears flop. He quickly clears his throat.

“No, no, that’s not...” He groans in frustration. “I’m sorry. How do you feel?”

“Well you know, my leg is broken, my father’s legacy is stolen, a powerful wizard is threatening to enslave us all, and somepony who I believed had changed is doing nothing but rubbing it in!”

With each word he shrinks back further away from me. I see tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. He turns away from me and starts to slowly move towards the door.

Stars, what am I doing?

“Wait! Sprout!” I yell after him. He turns back. His expression is blank.

“No, you’re right, Sunny. I’m a terrible friend. I shouldn’t have come here.” His voice is low, subdued.

Before I can say another word, he darts out. I sink deeper into the couch.

Can this day get any worse?

I find no strength to contemplate the question. Sleep overtakes me once more.

Days pass and slowly my pain dulls. While I still can’t move around very fast, I can at least take care of myself now, without needing to rely on somepony else.

It was about time too. I find myself worrying about Izzy far more than myself at this point. The poor girl has been overworking herself since our encounter with the king.

When she’s not out there, dedicating her time to the town, she’s with me, catering to my every need. Even though I’ve told her several times that I’m fine and that it is not necessary.

I can’t help but smile.

If- No, that’s not the right mindset. When this whole thing blows over, we must throw her a massive party, I think to myself.

With a small groan I get out of my couch. We haven’t yet had the time to fix the elevator and I’d still rather not chance the stairs, so I’ve just been living downstairs. Izzy, of course, offered to bring my bed down, but I insisted that she should conserve her magic.

Who knows when he will return.

I glance at the side of the room. My trusty roller-skates beckon me, but I turn my head away. Not a good idea.

Instead, I slowly walk over to the door and open it. The gentle slope that leads to the city is usually very welcoming, but now every step is an obstacle to be conquered. But I cannot laze around anymore. I must do what I can for the others. That’s what the Princess would do as well.

I hurry as much as I can, but it still takes me a long time to get into the city proper. As I’m getting closer, I stare at the barricades erected around the city. A frown creeps on my face. They are made from flimsy planks and whatever other junk the city could salvage. I think a stronger wind could probably knock them over.

What’s worse, I can hardly see anypony around them. Only the barricade closest to me has two ponies posted next to it, the others stand empty, allowing anypony to just waltz in, without us knowing about it.

I think back to the previous few days.

Hitch was, of course, mortified when he heard the news. I don't think I have ever seen him so scared and angry before. He immediately called for a town meeting right next to my house. At first, especially after seeing my sorry state, everypony was eager to help. Though not many wanted to play military after Sprout’s little incident, the city agreed to set up a militia of sorts to protect ourselves against the king.

Though at first it seemed like cool heads may prevail, eventually a collective panic took hold on the others and they began to propose all sorts of wild ideas. I guess this is partly on me. I merely wondered aloud whether we could organize some sort of patrol or watch on a voluntary basis that could alert and buy us some time when he returns. The others were so into the idea that they quickly began to chime in with their own far more far-fetched ones. By the time the meeting ended, everypony’s minds were full of nonsensical plans like compulsory combat training or even repurposing some of Ms. Cloverleaf’s inventions as actual weapons to use against the king.

Though, at the very least, Izzy was able to convince some Bridlewood ponies to come over and bolster our defenses. It’s funny how a crisis can bring us together like that.

My train of thought is derailed by the two guards at the barricade. One of them, a brown stallion with a black mane, salutes me, before his partner, a pink mare with a light green mane, pokes him in the side. They laugh then return to patrolling. Both of them are wearing those ridiculous anti-mind-reading helmets.

I sincerely hope they’re only trying to protect their heads.

I roll my eyes and sigh as I walk past them into the city. As much as I hate to ruin anypony’s fun, this isn’t the time to joke around. My mind picks up the thread where I left it.

While spirits were high in the beginning, as time passed and the town suffered no attack, the ponies slowly became less and less concerned with the situation at hoof.

At first some of the guards decided to take longer naps and turned up late or occasionally forgot their schedule. Annoying, but manageable. But, by the end of the week, they outright didn’t even take their posts. The newest dumb movie was more interesting than staring out of your head at a peaceful meadow for eight to ten hours a day.

A few foals run past me, playing tag. As I look back at them, my eyes meet their parents’. I can see a hint of guilt on their faces before they quickly turn and usher their kids away. Both sides know, this isn’t what we agreed on. Children should not prance around on streets that could become a battlefield at any moment. I see no point in lecturing individuals though, so I continue my walk towards the sheriff’s office.

Hopefully together we might be able to convince folks to take things a bit more seriously.

The guards’ laziness was already a big hit to our security, but then the Bridlewood ponies became homesick as well. Though, I can’t fully blame them. As much as we’ve been trying to encourage the town to be more welcoming towards them, some old tensions still reared their ugly heads. An unsought word here, an accidental insult there and a lot of small conflicts eventually added up. Finally, they found it too much and decided to leave. Poor Izzy tried her hardest to convince them to stay, but she was told to chase butterflies elsewhere.

The rest of our plans didn’t go anywhere either, though I expected as much. We aren’t exactly fighters after all. There was nopony who could teach combat in either Maretime Bay or Bridlewood, and we figured Zephyr Heights was way too far away to be contacted in time.

As for that other brilliant idea? As it turned out, while the splat-a-pults are great at hurling slime at innocent ponies, they are far too frail to throw anything heavy enough to cause much harm. But even if we were to reinforce them, a powerful unicorn like Sombra could probably just swat away anything we threw at him, so this idea too was scrapped.

Other than the barricades, which were deemed to be far too big of a hassle to dismantle for the time being, life has mostly returned to its usual sleepy monotonousness. But, as much as I’d love to be as carefree as the others, I can feel it in my bones that he will come back any day now. And seeing how unprepared the town is, I can’t help but feel a bit terrified.

I am so lost in thought that I almost bump into Hitch, who is just stepping out of his office.

“Sunny, what are you doing out here?” he asks me.

“Hi, Hitch! I figured I’d drop by to see if I could help with something.” I squeeze as much enthusiasm as I can into my voice.

“Sunny, you’re still injured! You should be resting at home. Let us take care of things. Please.”

“And then what? Sleep through when he comes back?” I ask him with a scoff. “Hitch, I appreciate that you’re worried about me, but this is far more important than a sprained ankle.”

I can see it on his face that he’s not happy with my answer. But then he snorts and shakes his head.

“Fine, I know how headstrong you are. Just promise me not to overexert yourself.”

“I’m not the sort to disobey the sheriff’s orders,” I tell him with a smirk. He rolls his eyes, but I can still hear a stifled chuckle escape him.

My voice turns serious, “So, let’s get back to the point, any luck with the others?”

He shrugs and averts his eyes.

“Nah. I was hoping to call another meeting today and maybe find some new guards who’d be willing to work on a laxer schedule or something. I don’t know. This whole situation is a mess. And then there is this.”

He takes a step to the side and points at a poster on the wall. The words ”MISSING PONY” can be read on it in bold letters, below them a familiar red face stares back at me, with a less than amused expression on his face.

I look at the poster, then at Hitch questioningly.

“Yeah, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Nopony has seen Sprout since that king came here and Ms. Cloverleaf is in a complete panic. She has been pestering me to go look for him every single day.” He sighs in exasperation and massages his temple for a second before continuing in a more sympathetic tone. “I understand her concerns and, in any other case, I would’ve gone after him already, but the town’s protection comes first.” He pauses for a second and snorts. “Let’s be honest, he was never exactly the brave type, I bet he just ran off into the forest until this whole thing blows over.”

He shrugs.

“This is probably for the best anyway, he’d just mess things up.”

“Hitch!” I give him a scalding look. “Sprout might have a lot of issues, but he wants the best just as you or I.”

“Yeah,” he says as he flicks his tail. “Last time he ‘wanted the best,’ you were almost killed!”

“Just give him some time. He will be back, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, right.”

As I’m about to give him a retort, I spot Izzy turn a corner and trot towards us. She’s wearing a small pouch, packed to the brim with small round objects. She seems to be lost in thought and doesn’t even seem to notice we’re in her way. As she comes closer, I notice with a frown that her mane is far less puffy than usual and her eyes have dark circles under them.

“Hi Hitch,” she says almost mechanically. Her voice is flat and tired, but as soon as she spots me, she perks up a little and flashes me a wide smile. “Oh, hi Sunny! Didn’t expect you to be here. Shouldn’t you be resting at home?”

“Hi Izzy!” I greet her while giving her a quick hug. “I figured I’d finally stick my nose out. I’ve been lazing around for far too long.”

“Oh okay. I was just about to pass some lunch to those two at the barricades. They really seem to take their job seriously!”

I’m not so sure about that, I think to myself, but I keep my expression positive. The last thing she needs is my doubt.

“I’ll go with you, then we can figure out what to do next.”

“Yeah, I’ll come as well, I wanted to ask them if they’ve seen anything that might help us find Sprout.”

Ch.10 - Of Abdication and Absolution

As the darkness fades, I find myself in that old, familiar room. The bed has since fallen over, likely from the assault of winds and, through the once-again open hole, I glance to the wasteland beyond. Its gentle slopes and virgin snow standing in stark contrast to the dark skies above would delight any artist’s heart, but I merely shudder from the knowledge of the annihilation lurking in plain sight.

The moment I make sure nothing has changed, the last few minutes begin to haunt my mind. I start pacing up and down in the room. Abruptly I stop and stroke my mane.

What a fool I am... My shoulders bounce as I laugh to myself silently. I have seen what this world has decayed into. With that journal taking over everything would be so easy. What has gotten into me?

Of course, I know the answer. It stares me right in the muzzle through that accursed hole. Rage takes over me and I slam the bed against the gash once more. As it crashes loudly into the wall, splinters and rubble scatter around me. The noise echoes in the room a few times, then fades into nothing.

In my moment of victory, fate still robs me blind!

My magic levitates the weathered sofa off the ground and flings it into a corner. With another flick of my horn the remains ignite.

I stare into the mesmerizing dance of the flames. In a way, I see myself in them. Despite being brilliant and untouchable, I’m still destined to burn out when the time comes.

And that time is now.

I curse the cruelty of it all. The feeling of coldness completely fades. My body feels like it too is burning. In a blind rage I slam every other piece of furniture against the ground. And after those are all smashed into pieces, I conjure up crystal after crystal.

Finally the floor itself gives in to my brutal assault. Cracks like spiderwebs spread along the ground, before it suddenly collapses with a deafening crack. I lose my footing and time almost seems to crawl to a halt, as I find myself falling.

The impact, however, never arrives. I instinctually catch myself with my magic mid-flight and slowly float down instead.

Once more I find myself in the throne room. This time though, it’s not merely just dust that greets me, but the repercussions of my destruction. The hanging banners lie scattered across the ground, knocked off by falling debris. The gleaming floor itself is cracked and marred from the chunks of crystals that crashed into it. I struggle to blink the kicked-up cloud of dust out of my eyes. As my vision clears, I notice that the throne itself is chipped and its backrest toppled over onto the seat.

Immediately, my rage is snuffed out and terror fills my heart. I approach the throne with trembling hooves. I find only darkness. I hesitate for a second. Staying ignorant seems so inviting, when a possible outcome is certain doom. I grit my teeth and close my eyes. Cowering in fear is for lesser unicorns. I must face the consequences of my actions.

I light my horn again. Magic envelops the piece of stone and flings it away.

As I open my eyes again, a familiar glow greets me. Immense relief washes over me and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding in. The Heart is still there, likely protected by the same magic that protects the world.

Having confirmed my immediate survival, I turn around and observe the chamber. I realize, with bitter irony, that I accomplished what time wasn’t capable of and destroyed a memento that survived centuries.

I find myself chuckling at the absurdity of the situation. Perhaps a ruined palace befits me, considering what’s about to happen.

I turn back towards the Heart and stare into the faint, ethereal glow. I see tired, hollow eyes look back at me. My own reflection.

I sigh. There are no more excuses to be made.

I touch the crystal and allow myself to be dragged inside by its power.

The moment I come to, I immediately start moving forward. I don’t gawk at the white space inside, I don’t question the impossibility of walking on nothing. I disregard the alluring peace of the void. This time my steps have a purpose to them.

After a minute of walking in silence, I stand in front of the luminescent sphere once more.

Though she continues to be still like a statue, I feel the princess's attention focus on me.

“You have returned,” I hear her choir in my mind. She sounds confused. “Why?”

I take another long look at her before answering. My throat feels sore. For the first time since I came back, I find it hard to speak.

“I had no other choice,” I finally say.

It is now her turn to remain silent for a while. Her ethereal mane continues to flow from a breeze felt only by her kind.

“Are you not aware of what I must do to you?” her voices say in unison eventually. “Perhaps not today, nor tomorrow, but without your magic to sustain you, you will surely die.”

“The same fate awaits me if I refuse, doesn’t it?” I reply with an indignant huff. “Spare me your compassion and let’s not waste any more words.”

“Very well.”

In the same moment the alicorn’s eyes snap open. In her eye-sockets I see the same radiance the sphere emits. The beam from her horn strengthens and the orb itself begins to glow brighter and brighter, before a ray of light erupts from it, striking me true in my chest.

The pain is indescribable.

I howl and scream and throw myself against the nonexistent ground. I claw and writhe as every single cell in my body shrieks in panic. The very essence of immortality is drained from me. I feel the incredibly slow but unstoppable rot that my power held at bay until now gleefully encroach upon me. The purple flames in my eyes evaporate and my crimson horn darkens to a dull black as the magic is torn from my body.

I hardly even have the strength to look up in my half-unconscious state. As I do, I see the princess float above me with wings flared. She is surrounded by the pale apparitions of my former enemies. All of their eyes shine with the same overwhelming glow. As they begin to fly upwards, the orb floats with them, becoming even brighter. With my last strength, I weakly reach up and try to shield my eyes, but it is too late.

In an instant the orb shrinks into a point then explodes into a supernova and, though I’m blinded, I feel my body blown away by an unstoppable force. My instincts scream at me to catch myself with my magic, but I find no strength to do so.

Yet instead of hitting the ground, the whiteness suddenly disappears and I black out.

Stupid journal. And stupid wizard. Or king... Or... Or whatever he is! I think to myself scornfully as I kick a pebble in front of me. It skips once or twice before firmly lodging itself between two patches of grass. I roll my eyes and focus back on the road, hoping it might take my mind off how my legs ache from exhaustion and how I am already bored beyond belief.

But I cannot stop. I have to do this. I think back to Sunny’s face and how devastated and broken she looked. Nopony should feel like that. Especially not her. I will get her journal back. I have to prove myself, prove that I’m better than who she thinks I am.

Who all of them think I am.

On the other hoof, I’ve been walking for almost a week and I haven’t even reached the end of the forest yet. Just how far away is this “Frozen North” anyway? Am I even going towards the north?

I try to remember the rules of the compass, but I think I slept through that class. I figured a sheriff hardly needs to know which direction is which to catch a criminal. Not that I had to ever bother with that, when Mr. Perfect is there to take care of all the little problems.

I roll my eyes and sigh. Focus, Sprout. Focus. If you nail this, even he will have to admit that you did the impossible.

I just wish I knew what I was doing.

My rations are already dwindling and, to be frank, I’m terrified to think what I will do once they run out. Will I need to forage for mushrooms? What if they’re poisonous? I guess I could also eat the grass, if I can’t find anything better, but that would be just awful. Oh well. That’s a problem future-me will have to worry about.

Right now I should pay attention to crossing this little brook in front of me. I could swear I’ve crossed at least five or six of these already. Huh. Who would have guessed Equestria held so much water?

I take a deep breath and wade into the cold water. I shudder as it seeps into my coat and it immediately becomes all wet. Great, more mud, just what I needed. Not that it matters much, I must already stink from walking around for so long without any chance to take a hot bath. What’s a bit more dirt?

I float in darkness. Not a pinprick of light permeates this space as far as I can or, to be more precise, can’t see. What a familiar sensation. Yet, unlike my previous prison, I do not feel myself suffocating, nor are my eyes burning. In a way, this void is almost comforting.

I allow my limbs to relax, though I feel the disgusting skitter of decay on them even now. Is this what mortal minds have to contend with from the moment they are born? How do they take it so well?

My musing is silenced as I spot a translucent mist appear in the distance. It’s a combination of shades of purple and blue. As it floats closer to me, its details become clearer and clearer. As if an artist worked with paint smeared on a black canvas, shapes come into being and I find myself face to face with her.

“Greetings, your majesty,” she says in a disinterested tone. A chill runs down my spine. Something feels off about her, but I cannot tell what.

I scoff and turn my head away.

“’Majesty?’ Have you come back only to humiliate me, Princess?” I ask, giving her a side-look. “If so, please spare me my now very much finite time. Or perhaps are you here to tell me my sacrifice was for naught?”

I feel her magic grab and forcibly turn my face back towards her. I try, but I don’t have the power to resist her.

“You will listen, King Sombra,” she booms at me. Her voice is commanding and regal, reminiscent of the one the former Diarchs used in the past. A voice befit not just a princess, but an unyielding, merciless queen. “While your past atrocities will forever remain a dark blotch on history, no such thing will be done, nor was your sacrifice in vain.”

Her horn flashes and suddenly we find ourselves in a snowy field. I recognize the place immediately. This is where the barrier stands. Without my powers, the freezing cold bites into my flesh and I begin to shiver.

She, however, does not seem to care about either the cold or whether it bothers me. Instead she leaves my side and takes a few measured steps forward, before looking into the distance. The little I can see of her face seems completely impassive and almost bored.

“Can you hear it?” she asks after a few seconds, with her back still turned towards me.

I listen. Only the howling winds break the silence and those are surely not what she means.

“No. I can’t hear anything.”

“And perhaps now?” she asks as her horn flashes again. A pair of faint, pink, ethereal lenses manifest in front of my eyes. As I peer through them, my glance falls upon the maddening shape of the being as it twists and contorts in the snow beyond. The wailing and chittering returns, burrowing into my ears like hungry termites.

I try to close my eyes, but, even though my muscles flex, my eyelids don’t budge. I try to move my legs, but they too refuse me and remain firmly planted in the snow. Utter panic fills my soul as I realize I became a prisoner of my own body. Suddenly my vision is forced towards her. She looks at me from the corner of her eyes, the smallest, contemptuous frown playing on her lips. Her horn is alight.

I struggle against the grasp, but it’s no use. I’m unable to do as much as blink. As I exert myself I inadvertently let out a grunt and realize I still have control over my mouth.

“You conniving whore!” I scream at her in rage. My face contorts into a scowl, but she doesn’t even flinch. The horrifying sight batters on my mind, bending and warping my very consciousness. “Is this betrayal the reward I get for my sacrifice?”

My anger, however, is torn to shreds by what she says next. Her words cut into me harsher than the frost under my hooves. The curses die in my throat.

“Fall silent, fleeting shadow, and bear witness to the obliteration you were spared from,” she says in a low voice, as she steps away from me.

That’s when I realize what was so off.

It is no longer a chorus that speaks from her, but a singular voice. One which is not hers. The tone is completely detached and devoid of emotions. I look up at the princess’s face. Her eyes seem almost lifeless, as she glares right through me. Whoever is talking through this mare right now is not the same being anymore.

“Heed me now. This is the fate of all who threaten whom Harmony had chosen to protect.”

As she speaks, I notice a growing presence emanating from her. Even with my diminished magic I sense a magical vortex inside her that rapidly increases in ferocity.

She flares her wings and her horn blazes alight with a glow which then slowly envelops her whole body. The very air begins to tremble with arcane currents and I feel my hairs stand up on my back. The intensity continues to grow. A radiating pain hits my horn as I struggle to resist just the residual magic filling the air. Even though she hasn’t physically changed, she somehow feels far greater now than before. Like I’m standing next to a giant, who wouldn’t even register my presence.

I feel the maddening aura of the being slowly getting pushed to the side as the princess-thing unleashes her magic.

Five sparks roar into life around her, as the very air screams from having to hold so much magic in one place. Purple, orange, red, blue, and pink. They form a loose pentagram.

I merely stare in horror, as the realization slowly dawns on me.

I know this magic.

A translucent crown manifests on her head, with its own magenta spark. Her eyes slowly fade to white.

It is what banished me.

Suddenly the aura shifts and blackness mixes into the light around her. Her piercing gaze blazes alight in purple flames, as the whites of her eyes turn green. A shifting ball of pure darkness mixed with shining white forms on the tip of her horn, which slowly begins to swell.

And it is combined with the very spell I wanted to use against her, I think in disbelief.

The orb continues to grow, until it reaches the breaking point. The six sparks slowly break off and gather around it. They begin to revolve, spinning faster and faster until, as if a tightly-wound string was cut, the wings of the possessed alicorn snap forwards and the spell abruptly releases.

A terrifying ray of black and white magic shoots out of the sphere, accompanied by a shifting ripple in the air and the roar of a deafening thunderclap. It punches straight through the barrier with fearsome speed. Like a window hit by a stone, the barrier shatters into a billion little green shards of magical energy, which hang in the air for a second, then quickly fizzle into nothingness.

The bolt, however, does not stop. It strikes the creature’s grotesque body on the side, tearing a ghastly hole through it, marred by smoldering, blackened flesh. The impact causes the being to collapse back into the snow with a deafening thud.

For a moment nothing happens and it is as if the whole world had frozen in place. Silence falls upon us. I am about to exhale, when the being suddenly screams like a banshee and perches up. This brings me back from the edge in an instant.

“What- What have you done!” I scream at her. “Your spell didn’t work! It’s still alive! The barrier is broken! It will kill us!”

“No,” she answers with the same otherworldly calmness. “It won’t.”

Suddenly the gash flashes and ignites in black flames, which quickly spread all over the being. I watch with wide eyes and my mouth agape as it writhes in pain. Its uncountable tentacles and appendages flail wildly, swatting itself, uselessly trying to extinguish the fire. Its eyes dart around in a mad panic, as they begin to melt from the heat. Its uncountable jaws open and shut in terror as the teeth inside burst open. The pustules on its body erupt from the flames, spilling revolting puddles of rotten pus and curdled blood on the pristine snow. It howls with a million deafening screams and disgusting shrieks, as parts of it begin to char and fall off. I instinctively try to cup my hooves on my ears to block the cacophony, but my legs remain frozen to the ground.

It spasms in agony for several long seconds, but the flames are unrelenting. As more and more ignite, the creature begins to shrivel, its throes slowly becoming more and more rigid. Its shrieks drown under the fluids that flood its many throats. Patches of its burning flesh fall to the ground, where they continue to smoulder and smoke. Soon the movement stops. Only the quiet sounds of sizzling flesh can be heard as the last vestiges of the devourer slowly burn away. Eventually nothing more than a puddle of pus and blood remain, spilled around a blackened, steaming corpse.

The lenses fade away and I find myself able to move my head again. I collapse into the cold snow below, but I hardly even feel the frost biting into my flesh. I just blink a few times into the snow in a daze, as I try to catch my breath. My gaze then slowly shifts towards the princess. I stare at her speechlessly. The magic slowly fades from her body and she lowers her wings. The crown fades and, at the same time, her face softens. Finally life returns into her eyes, granting her a far kinder look than she had before.

Her horn flashes and we’re back inside the void once more. I gasp for air, as I try to calm my racing heart.

“Why,” I stammer weakly. “Why did you do this to me?”

She tips her head to the side in confusion.

“I told you already and you even agreed to it,” she says while furrowing her brows. “Your magic was needed to defeat the creature.”

“That’s not what I mean!” I yell, with a distraught sob. I feel tears forming in the corners of my eyes, which I quickly wipe away. “Why did you force me to watch?”

She shrinks back a little.

“I... I blacked out after you granted me your strength. I have only just regained my senses.” Her face turns worried. “What happened?”

Images of the two beings, one more terrifying than the other, flash in front of my eyes. I snap them shut and take a deep breath. As I exhale and feel my heart calm a bit, I take a better look at her. She genuinely doesn’t seem to be aware of the last few minutes.

Despite everything that might have happened, even she doesn’t deserve this.

I let out a ragged sigh and hang my head.

“I believe it is better if only one of us suffers from this knowledge,” I finally say.

“I don’t know what you witnessed, but I will pry no more,” she slowly says with sympathy after some deliberation. A small sigh escapes her lips. “I sense the being has finally relinquished its grasp on the world. I can only hope it will never return to Equestria. Thanks to you, my duty has ended as well,” she continues with a relieved smile. She exhales deeply. “Finally... after all these years spent alone and imprisoned, I am able to move on and reunite with the others.”

Yet, she doesn’t move. I already know why.

I glance around the void.

“So, is this how my story ends then?” I ask her, slowly regaining my composure. “Let’s see. What would your journal say?” I clear my throat and switch to a tone one would use to narrate a story, “The terrible king, having made the ultimate sacrifice, was left to repent in the darkness he always coveted, forever scarred and defeated?“

I hum, before continuing.

“Perhaps it’s a bit too dramatic for your book, but it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” I add with a raspy laugh.

She merely shakes her head.

“Choosing to relinquish your magic and immortality is the price you’ve paid to wipe the slate clean. I see no further punishment necessary.”

“As if what you forced me to experience for all these years wasn’t torment in and of itself,” I mutter under my breath scornfully. Even if she heard me, she doesn’t show any sign of it. “So what then? Will you kill me on the spot so I can pass on to the next world? You have plenty of experience in that by now.”

She snorts humorlessly.

“Not quite. You see, there is one last service I can offer to thank you. You are still to face a great journey before death can claim you, this much I can guarantee,” she tells me with a smirk. “Farewell now, Ruler of the Crystal Empire, may we meet as friends in the next life.”

Before I could even ask her what she means, she turns around and trots away into the nothingness, her body slowly becoming more and more translucent until she completely disappears. I’m left alone in the darkness. I feel the terror slowly creeping back, but then suddenly the void splits apart below me and a glowing portal opens. I fall into the light.

Author's Note

Though it may not have been the hardest chapter to write, this one was probably the one which saw the most edits content-wise. It is also one of the chapters I'm most fond of.

Originally the creature would have merely flown off into the ether after being seriously wounded by Twilight's spell, instead of actually dying. I figured this would make the struggle seem just a bit more desperate, as even all the magic could only stop, not murder such a being. However, after I decided on the whole "it's not actually Twilight, but something else" angle, I figured if this is the clash of two supernatural forces, it should end in something a bit more bombastic. But I also didn't want things to feel like too much of a victory lap, as the story is not resolved yet, so the experience leaves Sombra both physically and mentally broken.

Ch.11 - Of the Red and the Black

I find myself in a forest once more. As the haze lifts from my mind, I realize I’m laying on the ground, hooves limply stretched out from the sudden teleportation. I slowly raise my head and take a look at myself. My armor and crown are gone. My entire body hurts and I don’t think my magic could float even as much as an apple in my current state. A dull headache throbs in my head. How familiar...

Hardly even a moment after I clamber to my hooves, I hear something move through the underbrush. Before I have any chance of escape, a red pony trots before me, mumbling something to himself, seemingly lost in thought. I clear my throat. His eyes drift towards me for a second, still glazed over, before he suddenly shrinks back and stares at me again. His body immediately tenses up. We stare at each other for a moment.

With nothing left to lose, I decide to call out to him.

“Hello.”

His ears flap backwards and his eyes go wide. He shrieks.

Oh brilliant.

“Hello,” I hear him speak in his vile and horrid voice.

Oh, mommy. How was I so unlucky to run into the monster himself? Is this how I will die?

My eyes dart around, as I look for a way to escape. I feel my heart beating in my throat.

Perhaps if I start running now, he won’t be able to catch me? Or maybe he will take it as an insult and snap my neck with his magic? Oh, what do I do? What do I do?

A shriek slips from my mouth.

He snorts. Is this how unicorns prepare to breathe flame?

“What is your name?” he asks me.

Maybe if I tell him, he’ll leave me alone... I think to myself as I catch another glimpse of him. His red eyes are staring at me intently. No, I shouldn’t tell him. I heard it somewhere that those who know your name have power over you.

“I- I won’t tell you, sorcerer!” My voice is flimsy and weak, but at least I managed to hold my ground. For now. “If- If you hurt me, my town will take revenge!”

“Oh, for the Crystal Heart’s sake!” he groans. I have no idea what that is, but I imagine it is some horrific artifact. “Why do I always have to find the weird ones? I am no sorcerer and I’m certainly not here to hurt you.”

Wait, what? No, it has to be some trick.

“You just want me to drop my guard!”

He sighs.

“Look at me. Do I seem to be in a state where I’m capable of doing whatever harm your cowardly mind imagines? Don’t kid yourself.”

I force some calmness onto myself and take a better look at him. Despite his lustrous dark coat and shining black mane, he does really seem almost broken. His stature is that of a pony who lost everything. As my eyes pass over him, my body slowly relaxes. I feel some confidence return into me. I even allow myself a tiny smirk. For an ancient, evil king, with awesome power, he seems to be a complete pushover.

“I will ask you again, what is your name?” he demands.

“My name is Sprout Cloverleaf and you’ll do good if you remember it. For I will be the pony who defeats you and returns the journal!” I start to believe my own words.

To my immense chagrin, he begins to laugh. He laughs at me uncontrollably for several seconds, before his laughter turns into a fit of raspy coughs.

“Well then, Sprout Cloverleaf, I have to regretfully tell you that you have been too slow on both counts. Not only am I already defeated and my magic forfeit, but I also already returned the journal to your friend.”

His words hit me like a tram. I stumble backwards and sit down. I feel my eyes lose focus.

“This was all pointless? I’ve struggled and feared and endured for this?” I mutter to myself.

He shrugs a little, not showing the least bit of concern.

“Don’t worry about it, kid. I think out of the two of us, you still got off better,” he says with a low chuckle.

This smugness ignites something in me. I feel my despair morph into a vile, dripping anger I haven’t felt since that day. I glare at him, but he looks just as impassive as before. I feel a sharp pain in my chest as my breathing quickens.

How can life be so unfair?

I snap my eyes shut and I feel tears gather behind my eyelids. The scene after my mishap flashes back into my mind.

How shameful and alone I felt... Although she told me she has long forgiven me, the disappointment in my mother’s eyes still hasn’t truly faded. Every time she looks at me, my heart trembles in pain. And she isn’t the only one.

Whenever I walk down the street, I can’t not notice the clear contempt in everypony’s eyes. They are all too eager to point their hooves at me or talk behind my back, as if we didn’t all believe in the same things back then. There wasn’t a single filly or colt who didn’t occasionally wake up, their bed soaked in cold sweat, screaming about not wanting to be abducted by a winged or horned monster. There wasn’t a single mare or stallion who didn’t lock their door twice at night “just to be safe” or, under their cheerful mask, worry, that maybe, just maybe, one of these days this unwritten, flimsy peace would come to an end and the nightmares of their children and their own foalhoods’ would truly become reality. And not a single soul, except for Sunny and her father, ever questioned this. This unease was merely a part of life, a tradition accepted by all. Yet the moment the old beliefs were proven wrong, it suddenly wasn’t everypony’s collective fault, it was only mine alone. The blame was all on me.

It didn’t matter that I’d done everything for the sake of protecting my city. Was I misguided? Obviously. Were my plans rushed and even stupid? I cannot deny it. But I hadn’t thought for a single moment that I wasn’t doing the right thing.

It’s ironic. Even though I’ve caused her the most pain, it was Sunny who understood me the best. She pulled me back from the edge. After they returned the magic and everypony left to figure out how things would work from then on, I somehow found myself alone at the edge of the city’s cliff, my uniform laying next to me in a crumpled pile. I don’t remember how exactly I got there or when I took it off. I stared down the water as it clashed against the rocks and listened to the soft impacts of the waves. I needed something, anything to take my mind off what would happen to me next.

That’s when she found me. I remember how her wings and horn burned into the night, illuminating her face. There was a sad smile playing on her lips. I could not look into her eyes. Not after all that had happened. I turned my back towards her and told her to go away. To just leave me alone, like the rest of them had and enjoy her newfound group of friends, but she didn’t listen. Eventually I lost the strength to even tell her to leave. When that happened she just silently sat next to me and stared off into the distance. We remained there for a while, without saying a word.

”I understand how you feel,” she finally told me. “I know what it’s like to be alone. To be made into the face of ridicule. Even though you did everything with good intentions.” There was nothing accusatory in her voice. It was soft and full of empathy.

My heart almost broke.

I teased her so much. I never even realized how cruel I must have been towards her. I believed that if I poked a bit of fun at her, she would eventually give up her childish beliefs. But, as it turned out, I was the child after all.

I broke down crying then. And yet, instead of leaving me, or rightfully gloating over her victory, or even screaming at me for what I did to her lighthouse, she just trotted over and gave me a hug. As I desperately held onto her, she told me that despite everything I might have done, she was willing to forgive me. That she still wanted to be my friend. After what felt like an eternity, we broke apart and she guided me to the sheriff’s office where I was unceremoniously locked away. I don't remember much from my imprisonment. All I know is that during the next few days she used her newfound fame to get me off the hook with merely a slap on my hooves. After a few days in detention I was a free pony. She even made sure I could keep my job. Things couldn't have worked out for me better than that.

And it is all so wrong!

She forgave me and gave me her full support without me even having the chance to prove that I can be better. That I can change and grow! I didn’t deserve it! I only took and took from her. And now, even after she offered me her friendship on a silver platter, I wasn't there for her. I didn't ask her the right questions. The only thing I managed to do was disappoint her. In her most vulnerable moment I let my big mouth run and hurt her, instead of giving her the support she deserved. It was my only chance to repay her kindness and I messed it all up. Because that’s who I am. Sprout, the mess-up. Sprout, the failure. Sprout, who can never do anything right. The pony who can never change and who will forever live in somepony else’s shadows.

No more.

My mind goes blank. I feel my body tense up in a way it never has before. Every little piece of me screams for the same thing.

I roar and pounce on him.

He doesn’t expect it and I tackle him effortlessly. His head collides with the ground with a violent thud and, before he could do as much as move a muscle, I pin his front legs down.

“This is all your fault!” I scream into his face between two erratic gasps. I feel a drop of sweat roll down from my temple. My vision is still a little blurry from my tears.

He continues to stare at me. His eyes do not waver.

I raise my hoof and aim towards his neck. I ignore that it's slightly shaking.

This will end here. They will know I’m not just full of hot air. I can do this. This is what will set me apart from Hitch. He would never dare to do anything like this. This is something only I could do. My mother will be proud. They will never underestimate me again. Sunny will understand just how much I appreciate her. I’m meant to do this.

“Go on then.”

His unimpressed words douse my fervor like a bucket of cold water. Even though he’s clearly hurt and I’m putting a lot of weight on his chest, a raspy laughs still manages to worm its way out of him.

“Finish it already, if you have the guts. Blame whatever inadequacies you suffer from on me, even though we have never even met before. Just don’t be disappointed when you get what you deserve, not what you’re wishing for. I’ve seen your town and I’ve seen your kin.” He glances towards my hoof. “Do you really think they will look up to you once your coat’s color is mixed with another shade of red?”

I hesitate. I feel a tightness in my chest and my hoof begins to tremble. I look back at him. He weakly tries to push me off himself, but his efforts are pitiful. I slowly feel the red mist lift from my eyes.

Stars above... What am I doing? This is no justice. I am no murderer. I already came far too close to that once.

I make up my mind. It almost feels like I’m dreaming as I slowly let him go and clamber off. I mechanically dust my coat off and wipe my eyes, while he slowly raises himself. He touches the back of his head and hisses from the pain, but when he lowers his hoof and looks me in the eyes, his look is one of cold determination, showing no pain nor fear, just a distance-keeping curiosity.

I take a deep breath and clear my throat.

“King... Umm?”

“Sombra,” he grunts. “As of recently, just Sombra.”

“Right,” I half-heartedly strike a pose I’ve practiced so many times in front of a mirror. This is not how I expected to speak the words I always wanted, but never had the chance to say. My voice still wavers a little, but I ignore this. “Mr. Sombra. Under the jurisdiction of Maretime Bay, I, deputy-sheriff Sprout Cloverleaf, am placing you under arrest for assault and battery, theft of property, and threats of terrorism. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you. You have the ri-”

He raises a hoof and I grind to a halt.

“I was a monarch for longer than you’ve been alive. I am more than aware of criminal law and my rights.”

My face contorts into a frown. I roll my eyes and sigh.

“Right. Let’s just, umm.” I glance around trying to orient myself.

I try not to appear too helpless, but he sees through me like a sieve. He raises his eyebrow at me questioningly. My bravado falters.

I feel myself deflating.

“I just need to figure out how to get back to the city to take you in.”

He buries his face in a hoof.

”Of all ponies, you really had to leave me with an idiot,” I hear him whisper bitterly between his teeth.

“Shut up!” I snap at him.

“Yes, I believe you’ve already made yourself quite clear on that part,” he lashes back, his eyes shining with ire for a moment. He quickly trots closer to a tree and looks around before turning back to me. “Evidently you have been walking towards the south, we should head northwards.”

“H-how did you?”

“The moss,” he says flatly, pointing towards the tree he just examined. “It grows on the north side of the trees. Just how low have you Equestrians fallen, if you don’t even know this?”

The... The south? All this time I’ve been going in the exact opposite direction?

Any rebuttals I try to utter get stuck in my throat.

“Fine! We will head north,” I finally say. “But I will lead.”

I follow behind my unexpected, red-coated companion. He rarely glances back, perhaps out of shame, perhaps out of worry I would humiliate him again with a simple question. I certainly don’t mind that we don’t speak much. Now that he’s not staring at me, I am free to experience the pain his wild thrashing has given me. The back of my head throbs with a sharp pain and I’m aching all over my body.

Damned mudpony. Is this the thanks I deserve?

I silently sigh. It would be pointless to hold this grudge. He is clearly far too immature to properly understand who he is dealing with. And now that I’m this vulnerable, I cannot afford to elaborate in a way he would understand. Still, perhaps I can use this situation to my advantage, I just need to keep my calm.

“So, uh, you were like a king or something back in the day, right?”

Oh, just what I needed. Small talk.

I give him no response. He glances back expectantly, but quickly looks back when he sees my expression.

Another few minutes pass. This part of the forest is so dense and monotonous that the miles melt into each other.

“You know, I’m the son of the town’s de-facto mayor. Technically that makes me a prince or something like that as well.”

We continue to walk.

“Nothing? Okay.”

We eventually find ourselves in front of a small creek. I look to the left, then to the right, but there doesn’t seem to be any way nearby to avoid it. Sprout walks through without hesitation. I’d rather not dirty my coat, so I try to teleport myself past or float, but my darkened horn just sputters a few sparks and gives out. He stares at me dumbly from the other side. With a groan, I wade into the freezing water and follow him.

“There are actually a lot of these little creeks around Equestria,” he tells me like it is the most fascinating fact in the world. “I found at least five while I was, uh, looking for you.”

I stop. My head aches in more ways than one, my legs are drenched in ice cold water, my magic is gone, and I’m forced to listen to his incoherent rambling. I feel my patience slipping. I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. I reach back to stroke my mane, but I stop myself when I see the amount of mud caked on my hoof.

He notices the lack of clopping behind him and turns around.

“What’s wrong?” he asks without the slightest hint of worry in his voice. “You okay?”

That does it.

“Let’s make one thing crystal clear,” I tell him, my voice slowly increasing in volume. “The only reason I’m submitting to you now is because powers you cannot even hope to comprehend have crippled me. If I still had my magic, you would be begging for my mercy right now.”

He shrinks back at my sudden outburst, but I’m not finished. As I speak I slowly walk up to him and jab a hoof into his chest, leaving a wet and muddy spot. I stare deeply into his eyes and they shrink to pinpricks.

“I led an Empire of millions, carving a prosperous dominion into an inhospitable, frozen wasteland. I waged war of untold misery against two beings who were capable of destruction far more terrifying than your wildest imagination could conjure up. I died numerous times only to laugh Death in the face and come back even stronger.”

Another coughing fit assaults me and I stumble a step backwards. The violent spasms send waves of pain all over my body until I finally get a hold of myself. My voice is hoarse as I speak again.

“And now that I found myself in this alien world ripe for the harvest, I chose to sacrifice my power and eternal life instead of conquering it. I did this to protect the likes of you from a horror the mere description of which would drive a simpleton such as yourself mad.” My tail flicks in frustration. “And what thanks do I get? I’m insulted and jerked around by a neurotic and insignificant chinovnik, who has the audacity to believe his little epiphany actually had any meaningful impact on the fate of the world. What makes you think I have any interest in camaraderie with you after this?”

I step back and glare at him. For a moment the only sound that can be heard is the quiet whistling of the wind and my own shallow breaths. He merely stares at the ground, while one of his hooves meekly digs a groove into the soil.

“You’re right. I guess I just wanted to do the right thing once,” he finally mutters. “I’m no emperor. I never fought anypony. When I finally got the chance to prove myself, I messed up big time. I seriously hurt my most important friend.” Tears well up in his eyes and his speech becomes slurred. “I... I hoped by defeating you I’d become a hero and nopony would look down on me anymore. That I could still make things right. But when I realized I was about to commit an atrocity and... and you didn’t even flinch, I thought- I just wanted to move on, to not even think about what I almost did.”

He shudders and slowly wipes his eyes. He looks even more pitiful than before. Finally he turns around and slowly begins to walk.

“You are not innocent either and I am still taking you in for what you did to Sunny, but I am deeply sorry for what I’ve done to you,” he says flatly without looking back. “I will not bother you again.”

“No good deed goes unpunished,” I chuckle to myself, satisfied with his reply.

He keeps his word and we march on in silence for a few more hours. He doesn’t even look back to see if I’m still with him. We both know I have no reason to leave him behind. Eventually the trees begin to thin out and, just as the Sun is about to set, we finally spot the first few buildings in the distance.

“But I... But I’ve been walking for a week,” he whispers to himself in disbelief. I say nothing and, after a moment, he just shakes his head and trots on. We approach the city.

Ch.12 - Of Painful Revelations

I sit alone in my office. Only the clock’s ticking breaks the silence. As the soft click of the shorter hand signals that another hour has passed, it slowly dawns on me that I’ve been looking towards the door for quite some time now, just staring into the dimming reddish-orange hues of the late afternoon spilling in through the window. I guess I was really just hoping he would suddenly walk in and take his place loudly and obtusely as usual. I stretch a cramp out of my neck and glance over at the desk opposite to me. It simply doesn’t feel right for this room to be so empty. Even though his antics are less than tolerable usually, I still miss seeing that clown. Even after what he did.

For a while Izzy kept me company when she occasionally crashed in the office, but after our second run in with the king, Sunny sent her home to relax after all that has happened. Now that she’s gone, there is truly nothing stopping this office from feeling far more desolate than it usually is.

My eyes return to the desk. A map sits on it, showing the general area around Maretime Bay. A number of X-es are neatly drawn onto the page. I run my hooves over my face. We’ve checked almost everywhere. Even as a foal Sprout was never great at hide-and-seek, there should be at least a sign or anything, but there are no leads!

And now even Sunny with her busted leg wants to go after him. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to tell her no.

I groan in frustration. These last few weeks held more surprises than my entire life until this point.

I really wish I could rely on somepony to share the load. I glance over to the empty desk again. Yeah, good luck with that.

Suddenly my ears perk up. I hear weird sounds coming from outside. I kick my chair back and trot up to the door. As I look out its window I see ponies running all over the place, fleeing into their homes and hiding behind furniture.

I rush outside and try to assess the situation. It’s hard to really see what’s happening due to the hysteria and the setting Sun, but as I stare into the distance, I see two figures approaching calmly.

Not again, I groan.

I trot closer in disbelief and my eyes go wide.

I see the king, though he seems far less threatening than before. His eyes are tired and far less piercing as well. His coat is dirty and unkempt. His steps seem almost wobbling. Wasn’t his horn bright red the last time I saw him? Is this even the same unicorn?

I look at the sheepish figure next to him. My heart sinks. I try to convince myself it’s not him. That it’s only a cruel illusion conjured up by that wicked stallion. But no, even from this far, he seems far too weak for such a trick. I cannot read Sprout’s face. He doesn’t seem as terrified as I would expect, but there is a darkness in his eyes.

I break into a sprint. I have to save Sprout. My mind races as I hedge my options.

He already saw me, so would a frontal attack even work? He doesn’t seem to be as powerful as he was before, but maybe that’s just a trick. Perhaps I can distract him somehow until somepony alerts Sunny and then- And then she will wing it! No time to think, I have to act now!

I meet them where the cobblestone path ends. I dig my hooves in, as I prepare to turn around and buck him in the face, when Sprout suddenly screams.

“Stop!”

I already began to swing my body, so I awkwardly fall to the ground and look up at him in confusion.

“What?”

“I said stop. Don’t hurt him,” he says forcefully, though his eyes are still dejected. “He is a suspect. I have arrested him.”

“You did what?”

I blink once or twice as I lay on the ground. I feel an immense amount of relief wash over me mixed with confusion of an extent I wasn’t even aware was possible. As I slowly pick myself up, my eyes dart between him and the unicorn. Ultimately they decide to come to a halt on the latter.

“Hello, Sheriff. It seems like we did have to meet in a more formal manner after all,” he says with a raspy laugh. “It is as he says, however. I submit myself to your authority.”

“What?” I blurt out again, still completely dumbfounded.

“Is this seriously the stallion you could never manage to overcome?” he asks Sprout incredulously, but he just averts his eyes and hangs his head. The king then turns back to me. “Do you expect me to shackle myself?” His voice is more tired than anything.

“I, um, no. We don’t really do shackles,” I stammer. I force some composure on myself. “Please follow me.”

The next few minutes are a blur. I walk back to the office, but my mind is not here. The astonished townsponies stare at the absurd scene from their hiding places in silence, as two simple officers escort an ancient evil to the slammer.

He doesn’t even put up any resistance when I tell him to enter his cell. He just trots inside and looks at us expectantly.

“You too,” I tell Sprout. He looks at me in disbelief. “Until I figure out just exactly what happened, you’re not off the hook either.”

He opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it immediately and slowly nods. While I lock Sombra’s cell, he trots into the next one and just lies on the small bed standing in the corner, and turns towards the wall.

I stare at his back as I lock the cell. It feels terrible to have to put him behind bars again, but I have to make sure this isn’t just an elaborate plan to ruin the town.

I stick around for a few seconds, but I don't find any words to speak. Instead, I quickly trot outside the office. I see Coal walking around with a blissful look on his face, while everyone else is still peeking out from behind their blinders and windows. I call out to him. He eagerly approaches.

“Hi Coal-” I begin, but he immediately interrupts me.

“Oh, hi Hitch, so good to see you!” I’ve never seen him talk this quickly and excitedly. He’s usually so subdued. “Did you hear the news? Cream and I are engaged! We were so terrified of that horrible king that I... Well, I kind of told her I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life without her! And she immediately said yes! Oh, it still feels so incredible to say this.” He stops for a second to take a deep breath. In any other situation I would be impressed he managed to say all this in one go, but right now this the least of my concerns. I open my mouth to continue, but before I could say a single word, he continues his monologue. “I was just coming back from the other end of the city, don’t tell Cream this, but I’ve already spoken with the confectioner. Our wedding will have her favorite cream puffs-”

I open the door behind me and point inside. As his eyes wander over the cells, his enamored expression immediately shatters and he looks at me with a mix of fear and confusion.

“Is- Is that?” he whispers.

“Yes,” I tell him bluntly. “It’s him.”

I see it in his eyes that he’s about to run away. I put a calming hoof on his shoulder.

“Coal, it’s okay,” I tell him in a slow, soothing voice. “Calm down. Take a deep breath. He’s under control.” I’m not honestly sure myself whether this is the case, but I cannot allow him to panic. His body slightly relaxes, but I keep my hoof on him, just in case. “Still with me? Good. Listen, I will keep an eye on him. Please visit Sunny for me and tell her to come immediately. Okay?”

The moment I let him go, he gives me a curt nod, then gallops off without saying another word.

As I leave the lighthouse and begin the painful march towards the city, I gaze up at the sky and watch the slowly-rising Moon shine down upon me with its haunting, ethereal glow.

Coal, of course, offered to come with me, but it was clear from his less than coherent ramble, the way his ears were practically hugging his head, and how he unsuccessfully tried to hide the fact that his hooves were making the sounds of a step-dance from how hard they were shaking, that he was really just trying to act courteous; so I told him that I’d be fine and that he should just go home.

He weakly insisted a few times that it’s no big deal and that he isn’t even scared, but the relieved glint in his eyes betrayed his actual thoughts. Eventually he gave me an earnest thanks, excused himself, and rushed off, leaving me to dare the silence of the early night.

Normally I wouldn’t be afraid to walk alone, of course. I’m a grown mare and the most heinous crime one could fall victim to in Maretime Bay is perhaps a clumsy pony accidentally bumping into you or, on a particularly bad day, a delinquent foal stealing one of your smoothie cups. But now, knowing that it is not impossible for an ancient evil to just fall into our necks from nothing, without any warning? I can’t help but feel on the edge.

Though I never doubted the journal's words, I never expected to actually meet any of its characters.

Who knows what else could be lurking out there? The thought sends a small shiver down my spine.

As I walk down the serpentine dirt path and my hooves reach stone, I notice that the streets are all empty and, with the exception of one, almost all buildings are dark. Even if it is night, there are usually a few stragglers, who still have some extremely important business they need to attend to. I guess the recent events made everypony even jumpier than usual. The only things accompanying me are the soft whistling of the wind and the Moon casting its long shadows on the road before me. My ear flicks a little. I never realized this before, but the city is quite eerie with no one around at night.

But I have more important things to do than worry about such idle daydreams, so I shake these pointless worries out of my head. I pick up some speed and gallop towards the only building with its lights on. Despite my leg’s protests, it takes me almost no time to get to Hitch’s office. Despite the chilly air, he is waiting outside for me. As the dim, neon light of the lamps falls on his face, I can see a mix of confusion and worry on it.

“I came as soon as I could, where is he? What’s going on?”

“Honestly, this is beyond me, Sunny,” he says, shaking his head before waving a hoof towards the door. “You should just see for yourself. I think I need some fresh air and it’s probably for the best if I stay out of your mane, so just yell if you need me.”

I cast a confused look towards him as I enter. As my eyes adjust to the harsh light inside, I shrink back a little upon noticing the two stallions in the room. Yet, as much as the rational part of my mind screams at me to be afraid, I feel an unexpected sense of pity wash over me.

Both of them look absolutely devastated.

It is no question whose cell I visit first.

“Sprout! Oh thank the Stars! We’ve been all so worried about you!”

I practically tear the door to his cell open as I rush inside to embrace him, but as I get close, he roughly shoves me back.

“Don’t bother, Sunny,” he says without even looking at me. “I don’t deserve it.”

My heart sinks.

“Sprout, if you think I’m angry at you for what you’ve said, that’s not the case. I’m sorry, I overreacted. I know you just wanted to help.”

He finally turns around and stares into my eyes. A pained laugh rings out of him. His coat is damp with tears and ridden with dirt.

“That’s real great to hear. Doesn’t make me any less of a failure.”

I try to walk closer to him, but he turns towards the wall.

“Just go,” he says quietly. “Please.”

I stare at him for a few seconds in silence, before walking outside the cell. I cast one last glance at him as I lock the door and trot away.

All the pity I’ve felt for the king evaporates as I approach his chamber. Though his eyes are tired, he stares at me with a cocky smirk.

“What did you do to him?” I hiss before he could even say a word, hardly able to contain my anger.

“Me?” he asks with feigned surprise. “I haven’t laid as much as a hoof on him! I swear it on the Princess’s name!”

“Princess Twilight’s? Who has always been your mortal enemy?” I ask in a less than amused tone.

To my utter frustration his smile goes even wider.

“But not anymore!” he says with triumph. As I raise my eyebrow at him, he quickly continues, “Perhaps it’d be the best if I recounted my tale up until this point.”

“...and so I almost literally fell into your friend’s hooves. After that we...”

“Hold on for just a second!” The words practically burst out of her as she interjects. “Do you seriously expect me to believe an outlandish story like this?” If her raised eyebrows and slanted frown didn’t already give away her glaring skepticism, her tone alone leaves no room for interpretation. “Meeting the princess? Saving the world from a devouring beast? As if a selfish tyrant like you would ever do something like that!”

Funny, though I did omit some details so my story would align with her beliefs about the princess a bit better, I did not outright lie. Though, I suppose, I cannot blame her for not believing me.

I put on a mask of hurt.

“You seem to forget that I’ve returned your precious belonging,” I say slyly. “Do you perhaps think I’m incapable of being virtuous just because of what your journal says about me?”

“You lied to my friends and me. You stole my journal. And you broke my leg,” she counts my sins on my head without any sympathy and points back towards her lower body. It doesn’t take a doctor to see that one of her legs is slightly more bent than the others, likely to ease the weight placed on it.

“Oh, but you attacked me first!” I counter with a grin and she explodes into rage.

“Because, again, you stole my father’s most precious belonging!” With each word she storms closer to the bars. I’ve never seen such fury from an earth pony before. Even if she’s quite a special one. Her ethereal horn, ablaze with magic, is glowing like a small star, forcing me to squint as I look at it. Her eyes are piercing through me and her translucent wings form a halo behind her. The smell of ozone fills the air, as it crackles with power of unexpected potency. A dull ache radiates out of my own horn as it reacts to her overwhelming presence.

Ah, how she reminds me of the Sisters all those years ago, I think to myself with a small smile. It quickly falters. And yet her rage is hardly comparable to that blind fury I was forced to endure.

Instead of angering her further, I decide to wait patiently. As we stare each other down, finally a deep sigh escapes her lips. She falls silent for the next few seconds, focusing only on her breathing. Her wings fold back to her sides and her horn loses its glow. The subjugating aura melts away and the pain fades from my horn. She then continues in a much more subdued manner. “Fine, it doesn’t matter now. What did you do to Sprout?”

“As I’ve said, nothing at all! Quite the contrary, it was he who...”

I stop mid-sentence to value my options. Is it really the best course of action for me to deliver the coup de grace? After all, with a few carefully chosen words, I could easily destroy Sprout’s life. Revealing his murderous tendencies would forever alienate him from the city. Even if they don’t fully believe my words, his actions have already eroded their trust, so all it’d take is one little push. On the other hoof, though seeing his life crumble away would have greatly amused me had I still had my power; I have little to gain from his suffering and quite a lot to lose.

Eventually all possibilities I consider lead to the same answer. I cast my eyes towards the ceiling as the realization dawns on me.

If I don’t want to rot for the rest of my life in this tiny cell, I must play by her book.

Well played, Twilight Sparkle. I concede this one to you, I think to myself with a silent chuckle. Even now that you’re gone, you still manage to have the last laugh.

“He?” she echoes impatiently.

“After he made sure I lost my magic, he arrested me and brought me back,” I say curtly.

Confusion spreads on her face. She seems unsure if she can believe me or not.

“I... You... You’re telling the truth?” she asks.

“The truth and only the whole truth,” I lie. “If you don’t believe I’m without my magic now, feel free to ask that little unicorn to see my- What was it? Ah yes. Ask her to see my ‘luminessence,’ I believe that was the word. I’m sure the result will be satisfactory. I hardly even possess the power of a normal unicorn now.” I tip my head towards the wall separating mine from the other cell. “How else do you think our red-coated friend could have taken me in otherwise?”

She begins to pace around the room. I idly pick at the mud on my hoof. I cannot rush her or else my plan will fail.

She turns to me again.

“Let’s say for a second that I believe you. Does this mean you are not interested in conquering Equestria anymore?”

I reply with an indignant huff and roll my eyes.

“Just what sort of ridiculous question is that? How would a pony like me even do that without magic, after you have made my presence and intentions so clear to the world?” I scoff at her. “If you really need me to humiliate myself, then fine, so be it. I am nothing more at this point than a defeated unicorn, coping with his newfound mortality. My only aspiration is to spend the rest of my days with as much dignity as I’m able to. I regret neither my sacrifice to save this world, nor my previous intentions to conquer it.”

Her face is conflicted as she purses her lips in thought.

“Why is your coat so dirty anyway? I somehow can’t imagine you of all ponies tripping over and falling to the ground.” Her question is obviously just an attempt to buy herself time, yet she inadvertently put me in a corner. I need to think quickly and come up with a plausible lie.

Before I could even think of an answer, a new sound breaks the silence. A scream rings out from the other cell.

“It’s all my fault!” I hear Sprout’s pained wail. The smile freezes on my face.

Tartarus. I was this close to breaking through and securing my future and he must choose the worst possible moment to inconvenience me again. It takes a fair share of discipline to not show just how frustrated I am. I cannot afford to antagonize Sunny.

She rushes away from my cell and into his, but not before making sure mine is securely locked. I get off the bed and trot closer to the bars so that I can hear them better.

“I just wanted to give you a reason to like me, so I... I snuck away to get your journal back,” he rants between two sobs. “And... and then I got lost and he just kind of fell out of the sky. I didn’t know what to do. I really didn’t. So... so I attacked him.”

I hear a soft grunt from the other side. I assume Sunny just gave him a hug.

How very sentimental.

“Sprout, you idiot!” Her voice rings softly with a mix of relief and disapproval. “I like you for who you are. You don’t have to play hero for me!”

I faintly hear him take a deep breath and let out a great, wavering sigh. His sobbing stops.

“You don’t understand. I nearly killed him, Sunny,” he says hollowly. His voice is dry and lifeless. “I really thought I could be better. Instead I almost ended another pony’s life.” He wheezes. “Every word he says is true. He really doesn’t have magic anymore. He couldn’t even defend himself when I... When I...” He cannot finish the sentence. The sobbing begins anew.

Silence falls upon us, broken only by his crying. Slowly the cell door slides open with a screech and Sunny steps out. I take a step back as she stands in front of me. Her face is pained and confused.

“Please tell me he’s lying.” Her voice is almost begging as she speaks. She looks deeply into my eyes. I stay silent. Her voice quickly morphs from pleading to accusing. She smashes her hoof against the bars and screams, “This is your doing, right? You forced him to say this! Tell me, you monster!”

I face her accusations without flinching. I close my eyes and shake my head before speaking.

“My answer will give you no solace, but I’ll give it to you regardless.”

I return her stare.

“Your friend did nearly murder me. You are, indeed, correct; I didn’t merely trip. He tackled me to the ground and almost ended my life.”

The anger evaporates from Sunny’s face as she slowly loses her posture. She takes a step back and sits down on the cold, tiled stone floor. Her ears flop down and her eyes dart around as she desperately tries to find any sign, any hint on my face which could give away a lie, that does not exist. She slowly hangs her head when she realizes I speak the truth.

“Sprout, how could you?” she whispers with quivering lips.

I take a deep breath. This is it. I must play my cards well and choose my next words wisely. I fear, if I lose this gamble, she will never allow me out of here until it is far too late.

“As if you weren’t prepared to do the same thing,” I give her my retort.

“We... We never!” she snaps at me, but the rest of her words get stuck in her throat as she looks into my face.

Even without my magic I can feel my eyes flaring. I take a step closer to the bars and she takes one back.

“Oh really? You never?” I cannot help but laugh at that. “Then what were those childish barricades for? Or your little rousing speech? Or do you believe me so foolish and ignorant as to think you were merely trying to incapacitate me during our standoff?” I snicker. “I’m honestly not sure if you’re trying to fool me or yourself, Sunny Starscout. If you truly want to condemn his actions, you yourself should be locked in a cell as well.”

She gives me no answer. Instead she just continues to take short, shallow breaths and stare into the distance. I decide to press my advantage and continue, though with a softer voice.

“Or you could finally face reality and realize he did the right thing, just like you did during our last encounter. From the moment we met, he merely tried to protect you and this city. It is no question that he is a deeply troubled stallion. However, he ultimately tried to do well based on your very own moral compass, didn’t he?”

Her eyes are blank as she stares into mine. The other cell falls silent.

“Why are you telling me this?” she finally asks. Her voice is broken and desperate.

I just scoff.

“I am painfully aware of how it feels to be cheated out of your legacy by those who believe they are morally superior to you. And I will not participate in it!” She shrinks back a little at my outburst, which, as I quickly realize, came out far more bitter and harsher than I intended.

Tartarus, I’m acting like a foal, I chide myself with a silent groan. I cannot let my emotions get the better of me in such a perilous moment!

I quickly step away from the bars and pace a little, both to calm my own nerves and allow the words some time to sink in. After reaching the end of my cell and back, I turn towards her again, this time speaking in a more sympathetic tone, “And no, before you ask, I am not pressing charges against him, nor am I holding any grudge against you. Putting one’s own life on the line in the defense of their nation is a noble trait.”

A few seconds pass and she stands up, seemingly not knowing what to do next.

She turns towards Sprout’s cell, but after only a moment she turns back to mine. She opens her mouth to say something, but no words come out. A stifled sob escapes her.

“Go now,” I tell her mercifully. “Talk to your friends and rest. Not even a ruler can make good decisions if their mind is clouded by a maelstrom of emotions. I should know,” I add with a thin smile.

She gives me a tiny, indecisive nod and turns around. Her steps are uncertain and wobbling as she leaves us. As the door closes, I feel myself deflating and I finally allow myself to breathe normally. I glance towards the wall separating our cells, but there is still no sound coming from the other side.

As I’m thinking about what just happened, I realize I absentmindedly began to play with my mane again. I groan and try to shake the flakes of dirt out, without too much success. Finally I give up and just trot back to the bed and lie down.

This was far too long of a day.

Ch.13 - Of Flawed Justice

My light sleep is interrupted by the sounds of soft hoofsteps and the scraping of metal. I crack an eye open and see the sheriff tentatively approach me.

“Good morning,” he greets me. “Umm, please make yourself ready, I’ll need you to follow me as soon as possible.”

I blink the tiredness out of my eyes and look at him better. As the early rays of the Sun shine in through the window’s bars and fall upon us, I notice that his ears are slightly twitching and he’s almost imperceptibly biting his lower lip. Telltale signs of nervousness.

“How many more times do I have to assert that I’m in no shape to cause harm to anyone,” I ask him with a groan.

He shuffles a little.

“That’s... um... that’s not it.”

I stretch and stifle a yawn.

“So what then? And where do you want to bring me?”

He clears his throat.

“I am to escort you to CanterLogic for your trial.”

I raise an eyebrow at him.

“My trial? Just like that? Are ponies of this age not entitled to legal counsel anymore?”

His frown deepens.

“Well, you see, yes, ordinarily you would be.” His tone is blatantly irritated. “However, due to some stupid old laws that nopony bothered to challenge yet due to the lack of criminal cases, pegasi and unicorns can technically be sentenced in absentia, without even hearing the charges.”

“You don’t seem to be entirely happy with this fact.”

He slams his hoof against the floor.

“Well, of course I’m not!” he yells. “This is a mockery of law!”

“Well, well.” I tip my head to the side with an amused smirk. “You’re not the first pony I would have expected sympathy from.”

He scoffs.

“Don’t think I’m worried about you. You deserve retribution for what you did to Sunny. But even somepony like you needs to be given a fair trial.” He sighs. “I was able to convince the town to at least have you be present and given the chance to defend yourself. This is why I need you to come with me.”

“How very generous of you,” I tell him coyly.

“If you’re done with your gloating, we really need to get moving. We are risking the trial starting without you.”

I look down at my dirty coat and mud-ridden hooves, before I lightly shake myself and stare at the stirred-up dust particles gleaming in the sunlight.

“You expect me to appear in front of a judge like this? Bring me a comb.”

He balks at me.

“What part of ‘we don’t have time’ do you not understand?”

“You want me to have a fair trial, right? If I walk in there like this, they’ll immediately throw me out for contemning the court. Do it.”

He raises his eyes at the sky in exasperation and rushes out, only to return a few seconds later with a simple wooden brush. I instinctively grab it with my magic, almost immediately dropping it in surprise. This sensation is entirely new. I never actually felt the weight of such small objects before.

Not the time to be astounded.

With some thorough swipes I make myself mostly presentable. My mane and coat lack their usual shine, and without being able to look at myself in a mirror I’m sure I’ve missed some spots, but it will have to make do.

“Satisfied?” he asks now visibly frustrated as I pass him back the comb. “You really don’t seem to be worried about your situation.”

“So why are you?” I ask with feigned innocence. Before he could explode on me, I raise my hoof. “Fine, I understand, let’s move.”

Without saying another word, he turns around and trots outside the cell. I gingerly step past the layer of dust I removed from myself and follow him. As I step outside, I cast a look towards the other cell.

It’s empty and open.

“So, where is my would-be assassin lurking now?” I ask him half-jokingly.

He continues to walk towards the front door with the same speed as he answers.

“With no charges pressed, nor any evidence presented, there was no reason for me to keep him locked up.”

“Hah, how easy it is for some of us!”

“Can we please get a move on?” He doesn’t wait for an answer, just opens the door and trots outside.

I wince and raise a hoof in front of my eyes as I step into the light. Even just a day spent in that cell got me too used to the darkness.

As my vision adjusts to the brightness, I notice that the street seems a bit emptier than usual. No, that’s not right. I take a better look. The street is completely empty. There isn’t a single pony nearby as far as I can see. Even the homes look completely abandoned.

I turn to ask Hitch, but he already began trotting towards the building in the distance. I gallop after him.

“You know I could really easily just run away.”

That gets a reaction out of him. He stops and turns around.

“Oh, please!” he pleads with me sarcastically after suppressing a curt laugh. “Be my guest to try! But I think we both know why you haven’t done so already. Even if you were able to outrun Maretime Bay’s most athletic pony in your current state, which, mind you, I heavily doubt, where would you even go? The unicorns already know about you and you’d never find Zephyr Heights without a map.”

I answer him with a scoff and move past him. He quickly catches up to me. The rest of our short journey up the small hill passes by without words.

As we get closer to the factory I decide to get a better look at it. Though I have briefly seen it before when I first visited the city, I didn’t bother to pay too much attention to it. The early Sun’s rays reflect from the massive glass panes that make up the bulk of the building’s front side. Behind it the walls bulge out to form the main area of the factory. A massive pair of magenta glasses stare down at us, which, despite their cheerful colors, give the place a slightly oppressive aura. The path leading up to the building is surrounded by tall banners, each proudly advertising the name of the place.

The doors slide open in front of us without us even needing to touch them.

Odd, I feel no magic emanating from them, I think to myself, as we enter into an atrium. The sunlight illuminates a labyrinthine set of tubes, which run in all directions on the walls, each connecting to giant, metal machines placed in a seemingly haphazard fashion. Yet, the more I look at them, the more I see order in the chaos. Though I do not know what exactly their purpose is, in a way I’d almost call the scene elegant.

As we walk past them, the silence is slowly replaced by a soft murmur coming from deeper inside the factory. I raise my eyebrow towards Hitch. He walks up to a corridor.

“Through here,” he beckons. Finally, after a few more minutes spent walking, we find ourselves in front of a large set of double-doors. The murmuring seems to come from beyond.

Without saying another word, he throws open the doors.

Unlike the somewhat cramped, but well-lit atrium, the chamber beyond is gloomy and spacious. More of the various metal devices and cylinders surround its walls, their function just as incomprehensible to me as the ones outside. The room is divided into an elevated stage with a runway and a far larger area meant for the audience. I cannot make out anything on the stage due to the darkness.

The spectators’ area is filled by a massive crowd of ponies, who are all anxiously chatting with each other and exchanging concerned glances. As the doors swing open and they notice us, the room goes silent. Just like an order was given, the crowd slowly parts, forming a small corridor and allowing us passage towards the runway. There is a small portable staircase planted in front of it, allowing ascent onto the stage.

So this is where everyone disappeared to.

I look at Hitch and he tips his head towards the path in front of us. As we walk inside I feel every single gaze in the room aimed at me. A few awkward coughs ring out, but otherwise the only thing that breaks the silence is the quiet clopping of our hooves.

The moment we reach about the halfway point the sound of something snapping into place rings out and two great, ceiling-mounted lamps suddenly spring to life, illuminating the stage. The crowd collectively gasps at the unexpected change and turns towards the stage’s center, where an almost comically small desk stands with a bespectacled mare sitting behind it. Another chair sits in front of the desk, a bit further out on the runway.

Hitch trots besides the staircase and stops there. I climb it and trot up to the chair. As I sit down, I take a better look of the mare sitting in front of me. Unlike what her pink coat, carefully sculpted mane, and gaudy magenta-colored glasses would imply, the eyes staring down at me are icy cold.

Hmm, those glasses are just like the ones I’ve seen perched atop the building. If I had to guess, she’s probably the owner of this factory. How very vain.

I return the gaze, undaunted.

For a few moments neither of us moves. A pin hitting the ground could be heard in the silence.

Finally she clears her throat and speaks.

“Mr. Sombra, you are hereby accused of...” Her voice trails off as she picks up a paper from the desk and quickly skims through. “... Assault of a citizen, theft of property, disturbing peace, and finally sedition.” She takes a moment of pause. “How do you plead?”

This is it? I think to myself with a mix of shock and disappointment. Is this the court they intend to sentence me under?

I lean forward in my chair and stare deeply into her blue eyes.

“And, pray tell, which authority is prosecuting me?” I speak with a quiet voice. One that’s not overtly threatening, but makes my opinion clear. “Or, for an even better question, who are you? Who’s the accuser? What exact actions do my alleged crimes entail? Am I to face judgment from your decision alone or is this crowd behind me acting as a jury? How am I expected to accept justice from a court that keeps me in the dark?”

She is visibly taken aback by my flurry of questions and a slight hint of worry flashes on her expression before she quickly looks off-stage to wave a pony in the audience to herself. Another pink mare wearing a small tie rushes onto the stage and the two begin whispering to each other, while shooting a few conspiring glances towards me. She occasionally blows small bubbles of chewing gum, but this seemingly doesn’t stop her from speaking or paying attention. I hear the audience’s confused murmur behind myself.

Finally the mare with the tie blows one last bubble, then shrugs and walks off. The mare in glasses coughs to grab everyone’s attention before speaking up.

“The prisoner will answer the court’s question.”

“The accused,” I correct her flatly.

“What?”

“Until judgment is passed, I’m the accused,” I explain to her with dejected patience. “Afterwards I’m the convict. Either way, whether I’ve entered here as a free stallion or one in captivity has no relevance in front of the law.”

She sighs in exasperation and massages her temple.

“Fine. Will the accused please answer the question?” she asks me with an insultingly patronizing voice.

I shake my head.

“Not until the court makes its rules and identity clear.”

“I knew agreeing to this was a mistake. Answer the question or I will have you removed from the room!” she orders me with a raised voice. I hear a few ponies gasping in the audience.

“And to that I can only ask the same thing again, Your Honor, on what authority?” I lash back with a similarly raised voice. “I was promised fairness, but what I’m seeing here is less than a show trial!”

I should know with how many I’ve personally presided over during my reign.

I take a moment to look back at the audience to underline my point. Most of them look back at me with slightly fearful eyes, but some of them also seem to be deep in thought.

“Or is this kangaroo-court merely a ploy to appear legitimate before this crowd? A little circus of mimed justice before you stick me in a cell until I die? I demand it adjourned if it is incapable of proper function.”

She doesn’t immediately give me an answer. I’m prepared to go further, but a new voice breaks the silence.

“Mom, I really think you should just answer his questions.”

Wait a minute, I know this voice. I turn around and amid the crowd I spot Sprout. He shrinks back into the crowd as our eyes meet. I turn back, hardly able to mask the surprise I feel. Does this mean then that the mare in front of me is his mother he told me about? I suppose it makes sense, though this really wasn’t exactly the mental image I’ve had in mind.

“Sprout, dear, this is really not the time,” she answers with visible discomfort. “Let me do my job, please.”

But before she could say another word, another voice joins in.

“I, uh, I think he should be given a fair trial too,” says a mare.

“R-right. How can we claim to be any better otherwise?” asks a stallion.

“What sort of town is this if we just stick ponies in prison?” cries another.

“Just tell him already!”

The room’s silence is quickly broken by more and more voices joining, which quickly swells into a torrent of noise, all demanding my justice. It takes quite a bit of effort not to laugh.

Perfect, just perfect. Things have worked out even better than I could have thought. The trial hasn’t even truly began and yet the crowd already supports me.

A series of measured knocks cut through the noise. The crowd quickly falls silent and looks back at the stage towards the mare sitting in front of me.

“Fine,” she replies as she lowers her hoof again. “Let’s have it your way then. My name is Phyllis Cloverleaf, I’m the owner of this factory and more or less I serve as the city’s mayor as well. The court calls upon the town’s authority and you have been accused by none other than Sunny Starscout herself, the victim of two of your crimes. You are accused of inflicting long-term bodily harm on her; appropriating her journal, an object of both great sentimental value to her and great historical value to all ponykind; and, as mentioned before, disturbing peace and sedition. The act of threatening to overthrow the city’s government and assume control constitutes these two charges. Is my answer satisfactory?”

“You still haven’t told me who will ultimately decide the ruling.”

“Ah yes. That would be me and me alone,” she tells me coldly. “The town is only present to ease everypony’s mind and so that you won’t try to do anything clever. Is that all?”

Good, that’s plenty of information to work with, I think to myself, keeping a straight face. Perhaps I could challenge her authority? She’s not really the mayor after all and, seeing how much she fumbles around, I bet she doesn’t actually bear the title of judge. This, combined with the fact that I'm not a citizen of the town, could play into my favor. Once I prove that she has no legal basis to convict me, the court would crumble under its own weight.

I’m about to open my mouth, but instead I take a quick glance at the crowd behind myself. They stare at us with absolute concentration. Their eyes gleam with a mix of wonder, anticipation and fire. I quickly reconsider. One could almost cut the tension in the room.

No, this isn’t the right approach for an audience like this. I’ve seen plenty of these types back in the day. They don’t even know it, but they are out for blood. They need action. Some long legal hurdle would only make them confused and make me lose their support. If they don’t think me guilty, her verdict won’t hold water. I need to keep them on my side, so for now I’ll just see where she takes things from here.

“Yes, Your Honor,” I have no choice but to concur.

“Excellent. Now that we have been able to settle this, I’ll ask you again, how do you plead?”

And so the clock begins to tick on my side again.

Let’s suppose I plead guilty. I speak the truth, which is of course what everypony thinks they want to hear, so even if the crowd is somewhat horrified they will still appreciate my honesty. The judge will likely give me a harsh sentence, but perhaps the crowd’s mood would persuade her to act lenient. Either way, considering the fact that they never even bothered to shackle me, I cannot see them dealing in any cruel or unusual punishments even for something as serious as sedition. I doubt they even understand the concept of a life sentence. It’s a dangerous gamble, but certainly the simpler route.

I quickly cough, buying myself a few more seconds to think.

Or, I could choose to plead innocent. There is little to no physical evidence of my actions and most of my charges have only been witnessed by Sunny and her eccentric friend, whom I don’t think they’d even completely trust and who, as far as I've seen, isn't even present right now. I also returned the book. This definitely helps my case with some of the charges, but there is one I just don’t know what to do with. I fight down the urge to smack my hoof into my face. Why I did have to choose such a bombastic entrance? I chide myself with a silent groan.

Nevermind, too late for regrets. There’s not much time left to think. Let’s see. That sedition charge is probably the one I dread the most. Sunny already planted the seeds of doubt into everyone’s minds. Even if there isn’t any evidence of me actually saying what I’ve said, nopony has any reason to doubt her words. Still, I don’t have a choice. It is the most serious charge and I must try my best not to be convicted of it.

“Well?” I hear Phyllis ask expectantly, breaking my inner monologue.

I take a deep breath and keep it in for a few seconds. Then I very slowly exhale.

I’ve made up my mind.

This is where my guile may turn out to be not enough.

“Your Honor,” I speak slowly as if to delay the inevitable. Deathly silence fills the room. “I plead innocent on the theft and sedition charges and guilty on the rest.”

The chamber explodes into disarray.

“What? He really hurt Sunny!”

“The bastard! And to think I even felt bad for him!”

“Throw him into a cell right now!”

Their words crash against my skull like thunder. The masses are fickle and just like I’ve had their support mere moments ago, now I’m at their waning mercy.

“Order! Order, please!” Phyllis yells, while knocking on the desk. This time the crowd calms far slower. Her own face is shaded red with anger as well, but she still manages to keep her voice calm.

“Noted,” she says with a curt nod before rapping on the desk again. “The court calls Sunny Starscout to testify.”

I choose to remain silent instead of pointing out that during a proper trial the court should first describe the crimes in detail and only then call upon its first witness. I turn around and observe as parts of the audience shuffle around, trying to give way to the summoned mare.

“Sorry! Excuse me!” I hear her apologize as she pushes herself past the others. “Coming through!” Someone yelps. “Oops, sorry! Didn’t see your tail!”

She eventually manages to squeeze through the crowd and trots up the staircase. As she passes my chair an odd emotion passes through her face, one I’m not sure how to interpret.

She sheepishly waves towards the mass in front of her. Phyllis takes her eyes off me and her face immediately becomes softer as she turns to Sunny.

“Dearie, thanks for coming up here. Please tell us what happened.”

“Right,” she says with a nod. “I met Sombra a couple of weeks ago. He posed under a fake identity, claiming he was a traveling mineralogist. He said he was looking for an ancient empire located in the Frozen North. It didn’t take me long to realize my father’s journal had a section about this location and upon telling him this, he became very interested. So I, uhm, thought it would be okay to show it to him. Once he made sure that his old enemies were dead, he revealed his true self to us. He then attacked me and left.”

The crowd once again erupts in shouts of various insults directed at me.

“Order! I will have order! Mr. Sombra, do you deny these allegations?”

I hardly even hear the question. That’s not nearly everything I’ve done or even said. This isn't mere naivety. Did she really just cover for me? Why? My brain is scrambling for an answer, yet I can’t find any.

“N-no.” My voice falters slightly as I finally answer. I take a moment to compose myself. “No, Your Honor. I did in fact attack the victim. My intent, however, wasn’t to cause any serious harm. I was merely used to fighting stronger enemies.”

“I see,” Phyllis replies slowly with a grim look on her face. She opens her mouth to say something else, but then she changes her mind and turns to Sunny instead. “Sunny, previously you mentioned he stole your journal from you. Yet this is noticeably absent from your testimony. Why?”

Sunny seems to be in thought for a second.

“Yes, I did believe he stole my journal. However, as it turned out, the book just got lost during the struggle,” she says with an apologetic smile. “I found it a week later, safe and sound.”

I find myself staring at her with wide eyes. She averts hers. That was a blatant lie.

Phyllis is clearly not happy with the answer, but she sighs and nods.

“I understand. In that case, I hereby dismiss the second charge. This leaves us with sedition. When the town convened at your lighthouse for a meeting, you were adamant in your claims that he expressed a desire to take over Equestria, including Maretime Bay. Yet once again your testimony is completely ignoring this event.”

I feel my heart pumping in my throat. If she doubles down, I have nothing to refute her with. She’s a local hero, a lack of evidence won’t convince anypony that she’s wrong. Especially considering she’s not. A bead of sweat rolls down my temple and I shuffle in my chair.

She stares right into my soul. For the first time since I’ve left the Heart, I feel afraid. There is a strange shine in her eyes.

“After the attack I was in a state of shock,” her words are slow and deliberate. I realize I started playing with my mane again. Everything else fades from my vision as I focus on her face. Her eyes flick towards me for a second before she continues. “I believed he really claimed to be after Equestria. But, as I’ve later realized, I’m unable to properly recount his words, so I probably imagined most of it. I’m sorry.”

For a moment only my short and rapid breaths can be heard, the chamber then completely loses its head. It isn’t merely shouting anymore, ponies are shoving each other, striking the ground with their hooves, and some of them even begin to approach the stage only for Hitch to stand in their way and order them back.

“S-Sunny, dearie,” Phyllis turns to her with a very forced smile. “You are aware of what you are saying, right? You’re ruining your own credibility.”

She hangs her head, seemingly unable to answer.

“I’m sorry,” she finally mumbles.

Even though my mind is blank, I feel my body springing into action.

“Your Honor!” I call out to her loudly and she immediately turns towards me. “Tell me, have you ever faced a unicorn in battle before?”

“Umm, well, not exactly.” Her voice is wavering like she’s admitting to a lie herself. She anxiously adjusts her glasses. “You see I never, uh, actually met any until not so long ago.”

“So then you have no idea what it’s like to stare down a creature who could break all your legs with a mere thought?”

Her ears flop down and panic sets in her eyes. She sinks into her chair.

“N-no.”

“Don’t worry, most unicorns aren’t nearly powerful enough to do anything like that,” I reassure her with a dismissive wave of my hoof. Then with the same momentum, I lean forward in the chair and stare deeply into her eyes. “I, however, was. I wasn’t joking when I said I didn’t intend to cause much harm in her. For me sending a pony flying was like merely swatting a feather away.”

She gulps in fear.

“So, with this in mind, can you-” I turn around to stare down the crowd, who have all fallen silent since I began talking “-or anypony else in this room fault her for not entirely remembering what happened? Or that her first instinct was to protect this town from something she could have reasonably believed could happen?”

“Well,” she stammers. “When you put it that way, I suppose we can forgive her that much.” She lets out a nervous laugh, as her eyes dart between me and Sunny. She adjusts her glasses again. “I- I guess this means the sedition charge is dismissed as well.”

“Excellent!” I lean back and clap my hooves together. “Then I believe you can finally pass your judgment.”

She takes a few calming breaths and then clears her throat.

“Right. Yes. We should absolutely immediately just do that,” she says quickly, before her words trail off. She’s visibly searching for what to say next.

Oh Crystals, she’s not doing what I think she’s doing, is she?

“Is there a problem, Your Honor?” I force myself to ask the question, already fearing for the worst.

“I’m not actually sure what the punishment for your crimes is,” she finally admits flatly.

Oh, I simply cannot believe this, I scream inside as I raise my eyes towards the ceiling. The urge to bury my face into my hooves returns with a vengeance. Like mother, like son!

“I think I can be of help,” says a voice behind me. I turn around to see Hitch climb onto the stage and trot next to Phyllis. He speaks like he’s reading out of a book. “The Maretime Bay Code stipulates that any offender who disturbs peace can be fined up to fifty bits depending on the severity of the offense,” he says as he glances up to me with a smug smirk. “I believe in this case we can easily conclude that it was most severe.” I merely respond with a snort. “Assault, however, can be punished by imprisonment up to a year, depending on the victim’s wishes.”

All eyes slowly turn to Sunny. She looks at me quizzically.

The room goes eerily silent. It is almost as if everyone forgot to even breathe.

My hoof passes through my mane.

“I want him to-” she begins, but her voice buckles a little. Then she shakes her head and furrows her brows. She takes a deep breath, then continues confidently, “I want him to be sentenced to home confinement in my lighthouse for an entire year.”

A moment of mortified silence follows.

“What?” the crowd collectively gasps.

“What?” escapes Phyllis's lips flatly as she stares at her with wide eyes.

“What?!” I echo them, completely dumbfounded.

“Sunny, dear, I don’t think this is what Hitch meant by ‘the victim’s wishes.’”

“But this is what I want,” she asserts. “Is there any rule against it?” she asks, turning to Hitch.

He takes a step back and stares into the distance.

“No, I don’t think there is,” he admits sourly after a few seconds. “But Sunny! You don’t seriously want to take him into your home, do you?” he asks pleadingly.

“Yes, I do. I’ve made up my mind,” she then turns to me. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“N-no, not at all,” I reply quickly, still in shock.

The crowd just stares at us in disbelief. Some of them exchange wide glares and point towards us with their mouths hung agape, as if to convince themselves what they just heard was reality, but no one dares to interject.

“Well,” Phyllis takes back the lead, still stammering a little. “Well, I suppose it is time to wrap things up then. The court finds Mr. Sombra innocent of theft and sedition and guilty of assault and disturbing peace. The court thus sentences him to pay a fine of fifty bits and be confined for a year... at the victim’s home.” She shakes her head before continuing in a less formal tone, “It feels weird to even say this, but if this is what you truly want, dear.”

Sunny gives her a reassuring nod. Phyllis once again knocks on the desk.

“With that, I declare this court closed.”

“Adjourned.” The correction accidentally slips out of my mouth as I’m still trying to process what just happened.

“Right, I declare this court adjourned.”

Author's Note

One more chapter left.

Finale - Of a Dawn at the Lighthouse

Relieved chatter fills the chamber as the trial finally comes to its end. Even though the doors leading to the room are fairly big, it still takes quite some time until the entire population of the town leaves through them. It is almost a miracle they are able to act in such a coordinated fashion for this long.

An awkward silence falls upon the four of us standing on the stage.

“Well,” Phyllis finally says, still anxiously eyeing me. “I suppose I should really just go back to work. We’ll figure it out later how exactly you’ll pay your fine. Too-da-loo.”

With that she quickly abandons her desk and rushes off to mix into the crowd.

We stare after her for a second.

“So, uhm, I guess you’re technically a citizen now?” Hitch asks halfheartedly, turning to me.

“It appears so?” I reply with a similar lack of confidence.

“Well, welcome to Maretime Bay then, I guess,” he says, as his words trail off. Then he winces and shakes his head. “Okay, no. I can’t just forget about everything you did in a second like that.” He takes a step closer to me and jabs a hoof into my chest. As he speaks again, his voice rings deathly low. “You may have gotten off the hook due to Sunny’s kindness, but I swear if I hear a single bad word from her, if she’s as much as inconvenienced by you –" He twirls his hoof around a few times in the air, as he attempts to come up with a third thing to say "– if a single hair on her mane is bent the wrong way, then so help me, I’ll personally drag you back to the station by that creepy horn of yours and you will not leave for a very long time.” He puts a particular emphasis on the last three words.

I swat his hoof away.

“Sheriff, I’d rather you not insinuate that I’m stupid enough to try and squander her kindness in such a way,” I reply in a low growl. “Or I might just be forced to take offense.”

We stare each other down until Sunny steps between us.

“And I’d rather if you both calmed down,” she says forcefully. “Hitch, I really appreciate that you worry about me, but I don’t need to be mollycoddled.” She then looks at me, her brows furrowed and eyes piercing. “And you are talking to one of my best friends. Keep that in mind when choosing your tone.”

“Fine,” we both begrudgingly say.

Her face immediately lightens up and she begins to walk towards the exit.

“Great! Let’s go then.”

We share one last grim look behind her back, then trot after her.

By now the entire room has emptied out except for us, so we leave easily and undisturbed. It’s already early in the afternoon by the time we finally see the light of day again. The town outside regained its usual tempo, with ponies scurrying all over the streets like busy ants. We begin descending the hill, still holding the awkward silence.

“Hitch, don’t you have a job to do?” asks Sunny with a chuckle, as we reach and pass by the police station.

“Well, I figured I’d accompany you until the lighthouse. You know, just to make sure of things,” he replies with a very thin smile.

“Hitch,” she says with a low voice, pausing a second for emphasis. “It’s fine.”

“You sure?” He doesn't even attempt to hide the disapproval in his voice.

“Yeah. Besides, I can’t exactly have you hovering around me for the whole next year.” She laughs at the absurd image.

He sighs.

“Alright, I guess I do need to take my post anyway. Sprout too is probably waiting for me already. See you later then, Sunny.” He turns to me. “And you better not forget what I’ve said.”

“Oh, I couldn’t even if I wanted to,” I tell him with my most innocent smile.

He shakes his head and mutters something under his breath as he disappears behind the door, leaving only the two of us.

"Well, we shouldn't tarry either. Let's go before he arrests you for breaking your curfew," Sunny says with a laugh. I just nod and trot after her.

We share few words as we walk through the city. The passersby all eye us with varying levels of worry, but at least they aren’t running off screaming anymore. The only two ponies who don’t seem to mind us are a brown stallion and a pink mare sitting at a nearby table. A bowl of cream puffs sits between them. They are far too busy staring deeply into each other’s eyes, unaware of the world around them or even the passage of time. They seem somewhat familiar, but I can’t exactly place them.

A little while later we finally leave the bustling city behind and reach the hill leading up to the lighthouse. As we climb the road, I stop midway.

Sunny notices the lack of clopping behind herself and turns around. She looks at me expectantly.

“Why?” I ask her.

She tips her head to the side as if she didn’t understand the question.

“Why what?”

“Don’t play innocent with me,” I tell her with a scoff. “Your actions just now made no sense. You brought me to justice, only to save me from the charges that actually matter. Now you've sent away the only pony around who'd be willing to lay down his life for you and you're taking me into your own home, like I was some trusted friend of yours. And for what reason? Don’t you realize I have only caused you harm and I would have caused so much more if I still had my magic?”

She doesn’t answer, instead she waves for me to follow her. I roll my eyes, but oblige. Another minute passes as we circle around the lighthouse and reach the cliff behind it.

The waves are calmly rolling against the shore below. The faint smell of saltwater enters my nostrils as the crashing of the gentle waves plays in my ears. Sunny sits down near the edge and pats the ground next to herself.

I groan and sit next to her. I would otherwise enjoy the serene sight, but her silence annoys me. She stares at a few seagulls as they aimlessly circle in the sky, seemingly forgetting I’m even present.

“Well?” I finally snap, breaking her tranquility.

A small smile spreads onto her lips.

“Not even that long ago I sat here with another pony, one you may be quite familiar with already,” she begins slowly, chuckling a little. “Admittedly his crimes were, at the end of the day, far less severe than what you did, but the underlying theme is the same. Both him and you showed that you’re capable of change.”

“Me?” I ask her incredulously. “Don’t be so naive as to think I’ve had some sort of saccharine epiphany and now I’m suddenly a good stallion.” I shrug a little. “I just know when to cut my losses.”

“And yet you covered for Sprout even though he tried to kill you,” she counters.

“Just as I hid my identity from Izzy and just as I fooled you. What difference does one more lie make?”

“This time you lied for somepony else.”

I snort.

“So, allow me to get this straight. You took pity on me and sabotaged my trial just because I didn’t pursue a pointless vengeance and kept your little friend out of prison?”

She doesn’t answer. We continue to stare into the sea.

“Your story was true, right?” she suddenly turns to me and asks. “The one you told me from your cell. I couldn’t sleep last night. Your words kept echoing in my ears. Princess Twilight...” She leans closer, her eyes gleaming with awe. “You really did meet her, right?”

I shrink back a little and let out a heavy sigh.

“Yes,” I tell her flatly. “Yes, I did.”

She averts her eyes upon noticing my tone.

“What was she like?” The question still bears a tinge of hope, but its edges are marred by worry.

I stay silent for a few seconds, thinking how to answer the question best.

“Majestic and regal as all alicorns are,” I finally answer hesitantly, in an attempt to deflect. Sunny looks back at me. I see it on her face, that she knows I’m not telling her the full story.

After a second of pause, another sigh escapes me.

“Very well. The princess you consider such a shining beacon of Friendship was to me synonymous with death, suffering, and humiliation. I hated her with a burning passion for eons. For all the pain and shame she caused me. For helping to usurp the throne I rightfully claimed. For banishing me to a place of complete darkness for millennia. I wanted nothing more than to subject her to the same punishment she forced me to endure. But I never again even had the chance to prove myself against her.”

A humorless laugh escapes me.

“Whichever force you believe controls the world, be it Fate or Harmony, has a cruel sense of irony. When I finally did meet her again, I was forced to accept the fact that she suffered a similar fate as I, without me ever even lifting a hoof. Knowing that, are my feelings of vengeance even justified anymore? Does it matter that I wasn’t the one who cast her into the pit? Even I don’t know anymore. We both paid a great price for our failings and were ultimately struck from the annals of history.” I shrug. “And now that I’ve lost my immortality, whatever feud we might have had seems so far away and so insignificant.”

I shake my head slowly.

“Ultimately, whether I could be capable of forgiving her or whether I’d pursue her to the end of the world is of no consequence. I’ve been given a checkmate for both options. She forever left this world behind and passed on to the next, but not before showing me a force inconceivably terrifying and powerful. A force I cannot ever hope to comprehend, let alone match. Not even in my prime. " I avert my eyes in shame as I realize I have been rambling on without properly answering her question. “It is probably for the best if I just say that she was nothing like the bright-eyed, young mare I fought so many moons ago.”

She frowns a little and looks away.

“That’s not exactly the picture I had in mind.”

I feel a pang of unexpected guilt.

“Don’t feel so bad. I’m sure if you were the one meeting her, you would have found her quite different.” I stare off into the distance again. “We just had a long history.” I let out a dry chuckle. “One that involved me trying to kill her and her successfully killing me.”

One of the seagulls lets out a shrill cry, which the winds quickly carry away.

Her eyes meet mine again.

“And yet you were willing to help her save the world.”

I just snort.

“As if I really had a choice. If you saw the creature I’ve witnessed, you’d understand why there was no other option. That is if you could still think afterwards,” I add with a shudder.

“Who knows?” she asks musingly, seemingly unaffected by what I just implied or what she is implying. “From the little time I’ve known you for, you seem to a pony who can think quickly on his hooves. Maybe you could have figured something out. Or you could have easily thought the Princess was lying to you. But you didn’t. You trusted her words.”

“I... Despite everything between us, I had to. I wouldn’t have been able to live with the guilt, if it turned out I was wrong.” I take a deep breath and slowly exhale. “Losing my Empire once was already too much.”

Sunny silently stands up and trots over to me. Before I could ask her what she’s doing, the words get stuck in my throat as she envelops me in a hug.

“You were mostly right. I was willing to forgive what you did to me because you stood up for Sprout,” she whispers to me affectionately. “But this is why I’m willing to give you another chance.”

I freeze in place, unsure how to deal with the unexpected sensation.

“But you had no idea about any of this when you saved me,” I manage to say.

“Yup, I didn’t,” comes the quiet reply. “I just had a hunch and hoped for the best.”

I stare off blankly over her shoulder into the depths beyond.

Why is she showing me her most vulnerable side? Is she truly naive enough to think I can change just like that? I ponder. My eyes slide down to her. As I look at her gently breathing form, I feel something stir deep inside me. Something I thought I left behind with my magic. Vile thoughts begin to whisper in my ears. What a ridiculous notion... You could thrust her into her death so easily. The waves continue to wash over the sharp edges below. It would only take a little push. She would never even see it coming. Perhaps, with her gone, the town would finally submit in despair and you could still salvage a victory from this pathetic failure.

The sounds of the sea fade from my ears, as my pounding heart drowns out all other noise.

Sunny’s eyes are still closed, blissfully unaware of the maddened expression on my face.

Another foamy wave hits the rocks.

I hesitate.

Oh, you coward, I hear a voice sneer in my head that is like my own, yet isn’t. It is as malicious as it is patronizing. You wouldn’t dare stoop to their level now, would you? That would be very unbecoming of you.

As I sit there paralyzed, my mind wanders back to the very beginning and everything that has happened flashes in front of my eyes. The voice follows me even there.

Izzy was so willing to help me, despite having only just met me.

Meaningless kindness from a raving lunatic.

Hitch stood up for me, despite his rightful anger and distrust.

A noble worm is still a worm.

Sprout admitted his failure, even though he could have cast all blame on me.

Death would be too kind for him after he dared to raise his hoof against you.

The Princess herself returned me to the world, even though my purpose was already fulfilled.

Our vengeance on her will be legendary. She will face endless suffering for her moment of weakness.

And, finally, the mare I hurt the most is now offering me a new chance.

This “mare?” I see only an insect standing in your way.

Is it really worth throwing all of it away? Just so that I can maybe continue the fight?

And then what ‘fight’ is there even anymore? The alicorns are dead. So is my Empire.

There is only me left.

Yes! And you’re King Sombra! the voice yells while laughing viciously. The world goes dark around me. There is only me, her, and the voice. I feel its presence weigh down upon my soul like a lead blanket. You don’t have second thoughts when you kill insects! You endured millennia of torment, fueled only by your hate and pride! And finally here is your new chance! Is it really worth throwing all of it away?

...

No. It’s not worth it.

Finally! Then what are you waiting for?

Claim back your throne.

End her.

I hold my breath back. My hooves move towards Sunny’s body on their own. Slowly, without making a sound they snake around her. As they touch her coat, I forcefully lean forward.

And I cast these treacherous thoughts into the deepest, darkest pits of my mind, never again to resurface.

I return the hug.

“Thank you,” I whisper, not finding any other words to say.

She remains silent and merely tightens her grasp.

We stay there in silence, as the waves peacefully crash behind us. I allow my head to rest on her back. Her soft coat gently caresses my face. I shut my eyes, as the wind whistles quietly around us. I slowly allow my lungs to fully exhale. A sense of calmness washes over my tired body, as all the tension and hurt I accumulated since I returned begins to leave me. Even the touch of aging feels like it's waning momentarily.

After what feels like an eternity, we separate.

“Besides, there is one more reason why I wanted you to specifically move in here with me,” she says after a while, with a mischievous grin. “You’re a veritable treasure trove when it comes to Equestrian history! What sort of a madmare would pass up an opportunity like that to interrogate you?” She breaks into laughter. “Tell you what, I’ll even pay you, so you can settle your fine! How about that? One hoof washes the other.” She winks at me and playfully prods me in the side.

I find myself chuckling along and eventually I start laughing myself.

“I say, Sunny Starscout, you have showcased a masterful mixture of cunning, selfishness, and mercy. Are you sure you’re not part of some royal family?”

“Nope,” she says cheerfully. “I was merely taught by the two greatest ponies in the world.” Her face turns wistful for a second, before she regains her luster. “Also, we will be spending a lot of time together from now on, so please, you can really just call me Sunny.”

“Well, in that case, Sunny, I look forward to working out the history of Equestria with you,” I reply with a smile, that, for the first time in forever, feels genuine.

“Great! We should probably start with the Crystal Empire then!” She jumps up and offers me her hoof. “Oh, I just can’t wait to know what all those mysterious texts say! If only Dad could see me now!”

I grab it and allow myself to be pulled up. As I look into her eager eyes and think back to everything that happened during these two shorts weeks, I’m reminded of an old saying that was commonly used in my Empire:

”It is during the darkest of Nights, that the Stars shine their brightest.”

Author's Note

Thank you very much for sticking around and I hope you had fun!

May we meet again under some other fic.

Ch.9 - Of Darkness in Daylight

Soon we find ourselves at the barricades again. Despite their flimsiness, they do seem somewhat intimidating from up close, but sadly that is hardly enough against what we’re facing. Behind them, the two guards I passed previously are still making their rounds.

“Hi! The food is here!” Izzy tells them, and they immediately stop their patrol.

“Oh, thank goodness!” the pink mare replies excitedly. If I remember correctly, her name is Cream Puff. “Coal and I thought you’d never come.”

“Haha, sorry, sorry, just got caught up in a few things,” Izzy says as she floats the bag into the mare’s hooves using her magic. As she opens it, the sweet smell of pancakes fills the air.

As Cream digs in, Hitch turns to the stallion.

“So, have you two seen anything odd since my last visit? Any unexpected disturbances or anything? Perhaps a certain red-coated troublemaker?” he adds with slight annoyance in his voice.

“Nope. Just the usual,” Coal replies before accepting a pancake from Cream and biting into it. “Not that I mind though. It’s more time I can spend with Cream.”

The two share a soft look.

“Yeah, we were just talking before you arrived about how much those black crystals remind me of his mane,” she continues with an affectionate chuckle. Even with her pink coat trying its best to hide it, her face still glaringly shows the telltale signs of blushing. “Funny how I only just noticed them being there.”

“Black... crystals?” I stammer as my heart begins to pound. I look at Izzy and Hitch. They are staring back at me in terror, hooves frozen to the ground. “Are you sure?”

A moment passes. It feels like eternity.

“Yup, check them out,” she says cheerfully and points in the distance. “Oh, wow! I could have sworn they were further away. It’s almost like they came closer.”

My eyes follow her hoof and I feel the blood rush out of my face. In the distance I can spot several crystals jutting out of the ground, their blackness contrasting unnaturally with the cheerful green grass and blue sky behind. They are exactly like the ones my dad’s journal spoke about.

This breaks our stupor.

“What are you waiting for? Sound the alarm already!” Hitch yells at them while slamming a hoof down. “That’s the king! We have to get everypony to safety!”

While her expression remains relaxed, Cream’s voice is slightly wavering as she speaks, “Umm, you’re just pulling a prank on me, right? There isn’t actually an evil king, is there?” She chuckles nervously. “I thought the whole thing was just a joke.”

“You might wanna look behind yourself,” I mutter while pointing behind them.

While they weren’t looking a massive dark cloud formed on the horizon, heading straight for the city. Below it a dozen or so new black crystals began to emerge out of the earth. Patches of the cloud’s roiling black surface are eerily illuminated by the muted flashes of lightning bolts. Whenever one of them strikes the ground a new crystal erupts on the spot. The wind brings the faint smell of ozone in our direction.

“Oh horseapples,” she says flatly as her ears flop down.

A moment later, the duo drops their half-eaten pancakes and frantically gallops away towards the city center.

“The king is here! The king is here!” they scream, and the other townsponies break into a panic. They scramble in all directions to find shelter, knocking chairs and tables aside. The screaming banishes the previous quiet.

The alarm suddenly begins to blare as well, further adding to the cacophony.

Trying my best to ignore the chaos, I take another look over the barricade. As the cloud shifts closer, I spot a dark figure walking among the crystals. He is wearing a royal cape, armor, and crown, but otherwise he looks the same.

I’m looking at the pony who has been haunting my dreams since that day.

I glance backwards again. Everypony is falling over each other in a blind hysteria. I struggle to get my own head straight.

Oh, what do I do? What do I do? Just like the crowd, my own thoughts are tripping up on each other. Do I rally them? Tell them to leave the city? Do I join them? Perhaps if I blend in, he won’t notice me. I could get away safely. Maybe he’ll be happy with just this town and he’ll leave the rest alone.

My eyes jump around wildly as I'm looking for the best direction to escape towards, when I suddenly glance at Izzy. She staring at me with wet eyes. The realization slowly dawns upon me: She’s expecting me to take charge. I feel a rush of adrenaline and, though my heart continues to race, the storm in my head calms and I finally know what to do.

“Izzy, Hitch, we’re doing that meeting now!” I yell at them and they merely nod before rushing off to direct the crowd back towards us.

I ignore a wave of nausea as it hits me. Blood rushes in my ears and I feel my hooves tremble, but I force my body to move into the middle of the chaos.

I close my eyes for a second and try to ignore the noise. I take a deep breath.

“Everypony, stop!” I scream, overpowering the chaos.

It takes quite some time to organize them somehow, but finally we herd everypony back to the square.

I clamber up on a nearby box and stare at the crowd in front of me. The townsponies are looking at me with fearful gazes. My throat feels dry. I was never really good with crowds and now I have to improvise on the spot. I take a deep breath and speak up.

“I’m terrified as much as you are, but if we panic, he won’t even have to try. We have to face him to even stand a chance.”

“But he has magic!” somepony yells from the crowd.

“We all have magic and he’s alone. If we face him together, we can defeat him! We can win!”

My voice isn’t exactly as commanding as I’d like, but I have to believe in myself and press on.

“We have to show him that we’re not afraid and that he’ll never enslave us!”

Some faces in the crowd seem just a bit less panicked than before.

Yes, we can do this, I just need to-

“My, my, my. How incredibly touching,” a voice suddenly says behind me, enunciating each word with dripping malice. Despite its charismatic smoothness, I feel a shiver run down my spine.

The ponies who were until now beginning to finally listen to me gaze behind me, and their eyes go wide. They start panicking once more and rush away, leaving Hitch, Izzy, and I to fend for ourselves.

I turn around slowly.

He stands mere meters from me, surrounded by several giant crystals erupting from the pavement. There’s a cocky smirk plastered on his face as his piercing, red eyes burrow deeply into mine. Even in my shock I can't help but marvel a little at the mesmerizing patterns made by the dancing purple flames emanating from the corners of his eyes.

“It appears your little speech was a bit less effective that one could hope for. What a shame,” he says with feigned, mocking sympathy. “Don’t feel too bad though. Even if your whole town threw itself against me, it would’ve been for naught. You need a bit more than a few ponies in silly hats to put someone like me down.”

I involuntarily take a step back and fall off the box. As my hooves hit the pavement below, my hind leg flares with searing pain, but the adrenaline allows me to remain standing. My mind is screaming at me to run, but I endure.

“You’re lying! The Magic of Friendship can overcome even the likes of you!”

“Perhaps, perhaps not,” he says musingly, while tipping his head from one side to the other. “Unfortunately, today isn’t the day we put this to the test.”

It takes several moments until I process what he just said. Confusion hits me.

“What?”

He gives me no answer. Instead, his horn lights up and a a wave of shadows erupts from him towards me. Before I can even do as much as scream, it swallows me completely.

I grit my teeth and shut my eyes tight as I wait for the impact, but it never comes. After a few moments, I tentatively open them once more. Not only am I unharmed, we are still standing in the same place. I can tell it from the faintly visible cobblestone path under my hooves and the knocked-over box beside me. Only now an undulating sphere of pure blackness separates us from the world. I cannot hear a single sound coming from outside. I glance around for an escape, but besides his hornlight and my own ethereal wings and horn bringing some light into the darkness, there is nothing else in here.

Without a word, he makes a slicing motion with his hoof and a dark gash opens in the air next to him. He reaches inside and pulls something out, before the ethereal wound disappears into nothing again. I gasp when the light falls on what he’s holding.

A small book lies between his hooves. One with a familiar six pointed star on it.

My heart begins to pound faster and faster. There is no mistake.

It is my journal.

“Is this your plan?” I scream at him as I feel a wave of despair hit me. “To separate me from my friends and humiliate me?”

He once again says nothing. Instead he seems to be deep in thought. We continue to stare at each other. Despite their menacing purple flames, his eyes don’t seem to be quite as piercing as before. Still, I can’t afford to drop my guard. I take the closest thing I know to a fighter’s stance, ignoring my leg’s protests.

I’m prepared to protect my friends, even if it costs me my life.

“No,” he finally says after a few seconds. He relaxes his pose and holds the book out towards me. “I came here to give this back to you.”

I stare at the book, then at him in disbelief. He makes no other movement. His burning eyes continue to burrow into mine.

Am- Am I dreaming?

“Go on then, take it. It is an outrage to decline a king’s magnanimous present.”

This can’t be real, I think as my mind races for an explanation. There can be no other reason, he’s just toying with me!

“Stop trying to trick me! I’m not stupid, I won’t fall for something this obvious!”

He sighs and rolls his eyes as his horn flashes brightly for a moment. In the blink of an eye, a number of crystals rip out of the sphere stopping mere centimeters from my neck. I let out a whimper.

“Does it seem like I need to resort to tricks?” he asks quietly. “Or have you perhaps forgotten how our last meeting ended?”

The crystals melt into shadows, then disappear.

“Take it, before I change my mind.”

I feel like I’m sleepwalking as I trot up to him. Without taking my eyes off him, I take the journal and step back.

“Why?” I finally manage to ask. “Why are you giving it back?”

He just laughs bitterly.

“Where I’m going, I won’t need it. Call it a royal obligation, if you will.”

“I don’t understand.”

He smiles, but his eyes remain cold.

“Pray that you never will.”

Before I could say another word, the light of his horn goes out and the sphere collapses on us, evaporating into nothing. I yank my hoof in front of my eyes as the sudden light blinds me. I stumble around from the sudden sensation, blinking blearily.

Finally my vision slowly clears and I find my bearings, though I still feel a bit dazed. My mind is full of questions. My eyes snap forwards, but all I see in front of myself are holes in the torn-up pavement where his crystals previously erupted. I hear Izzy and Hitch rush towards me and call out my name, but I pay them no attention. Instead I look down.

My hooves are still clutching the journal.