Prologue: The Last Crystal Unicorn
The Crystal Empire’s former location, January 9th, Year 1331 of the Equestrian Era, 39 years before the Return of Princess Luna…
In some parts of the world, some creatures would say that there were only two certainties in life.
In others, where the concept of taxation had not been developed for various reasons, some creatures would say that only one thing was certain.
And in yet others, the number of things that was held as certain and uncertain fell outside both of those maxims.
But a common thing to maxims spoken in any place was that even things held as certainties had an uncertain side to them. After all, despite the existence of various seers and soothsayers and other such practitioners of foresight, anycreature with enough knowledge of magic held as true that absolute precognition was borderline impossible at best. It was a fact that some could catch glimpses and hints of the future through powerful magic, or could make educated guesses of what would happen using their knowledge to determine the most likely outcomes, but even to those, the true road to the future was far from clear or certain.
And a being that didn’t escape that rule, although he was far past such philosophical debates in his condition, was the self-titled King Sombra, conqueror of the Crystal Empire and would be destroyer of the world. There were two things he held as certain in the state he’d been reduced to, and there was also a constant certainty as to what he would be enduring until he was free from his confines, but even to him, there was room for the unexpected.
One might say that if he was so inclined, he would remark that unexpected would not be the right word, considering the day of the year, but he was far past having room for such considerations. All the room he could have was taken by the shock that exploded through him, triggered by a familiar presence as it poked through the semi-living hell he'd been enduring for centuries.
He had no face to make an expression with, but he could feel his nonexistent muscles molding themselves into the equivalent of a wide-eyed, open mouthed look at the familiar magical signature that reached his senses.
Half of him wanted to scream that it could not be, that there was no way she would be here again, not after it had been so long since her last visit. Yet, the remainder could not deny the familiar feel of her magical signature, which he'd felt more times than he cared to remember, and which seemed so much stronger when it wasn’t being detected by a physical body.
It was her. He had no eyes or ears to check, but he knew it was her.
A tornado of emotions ravaged him. Shock that she had shown up, bafflement that she chose to keep coming here despite everything that had happened, frustration at the fact he could not actually see her, and for the briefest of moments, rising past all those, relief that she was still alive.
Then the tornado ended, only for a storm to come.
The hell he was enduring returned, haunted screams and accusatory whispers filling his ears and making the familiar anger bubble in his immaterial essence, which in turn seemed to make the magiphysical pain of having every mote in his body torn apart scream even louder. But even the last feeling was nothing compared to the equally familiar hatred that flooded him from the bottom of his soul, every drop of it awakened and expanded by her presence.
It had been centuries since he’d first felt it, but it was still as vivid as before. He hated her, hated her more than anything or anyone else. More than Amore, more than Obsidian Ax, more than the Royal Alicorns of Equestria… none of them held a candle to the hatred he nursed for her.
Old whispered advice about how nursing hatred was not wise and ponies should try to forgive and move on tried to manifest itself in his brain, but he quelled all of it. Even if he was a pony at all, there were things that one couldn’t forgive or move on from. And her betrayal was one of them.
It was true that she was sorry. He could sense it in her aura, could hear her soul weeping for her losses and crying for forgiveness as clearly as if he had actual ears, perhaps even more so given his current state. He couldn’t specifically tell what caused those feelings, but he could notice the feelings themselves, and could estimate the causes.
But nothing about that knowledge caused his feelings to fade, his hatred bubbling just as strong while her presence surrounded him.
And as far as he was concerned, those feelings would not change until the end of time.
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I am Radiant Hope, the last unicorn of the Crystal Empire.
Or, if you want me to be more exact, I am the last living inhabitant of the Crystal Empire, period.
As far as I can tell, that description has fit me for longer than any creature has been alive, other than the older dragons and Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. Yet even now, eleven centuries and a half after that fact became true, it is no less difficult to come to terms with it than it was on the first day. And it’s only made all the more painful by the knowledge of what caused it.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. After all, odds are that you, like most throughout Equestria, have never even heard of the Crystal Empire, and should you be among the few who have, you likely think it’s just a myth, like many nations in the world thought even when the Empire was still around.
Yet I assure you, the Empire was very much real.
It was founded over two-thousand years ago, by a group of ponies who chose to flee into the Frozen North rather than submit to what is now called the Great Separation. Many of them paid the price with their own lives, whether due to the merciless cold or due to the intolerance of ponies who wouldn’t accept their defiance of the Separation Act. But through a combination of luck, teamwork, good leadership and the discovery of a magical artifact called the Crystal Heart, the survivors of the journey managed to settle in a vast empty plain, unclaimed by any race. There, they founded their own nation, led by the late Princess Amore.
At first, the Crystal Empire only held ponies, although they were of what can be called the main three pony races - Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. To my knowledge, that made the Empire worthy of notice by itself, for lack of a better term. Until Equestria was founded and its many cities started being built, only one other pony community had populations of the main three pony races living together.
More than that, however, the Crystal Empire actually had alliances with other races. It was true that it was only races that also lived in the Frozen North, but by the end of its existence, the Crystal Empire had alliances with Amurians, Satyrs, Saigas, Reindeer, Muskoxen, certain individual dragons, and even a changeling hive. We didn't have many permanent residents of any non-pony race, but plenty of individuals were regular visitors, and even stayed for long periods. The only race in the Empire’s vicinity that never wanted anything to do with it was the Yaks, though even today I can only speculate as to why. Thankfully, with one sad exception, we had no problems with them besides minor skirmishes, and I won’t deny that Crystal Ponies started more than one of those. And even with our tensions with the Yaks, I would say that, modesty aside, we were better than the Equestria of back then on the matter of tolerance towards non-pony races.
We were not perfect, though. Each pony in the Crystal Empire was still a sapient being like any other, capable of feeling positive emotions like love, care and friendship, but also negative ones like fear, hatred, and prejudice.
And much to my grief, a good friend of mine bore the brunt of the latter feelings almost daily for years.
On some level, I suppose it was understandable, again for lack of a better term. It seems to be in the nature of all sapient beings to fear what they don’t understand, and my friend was the only being of his race in the whole Empire. More than that, he was from an unknown race, even by my current knowledge. And as if that wasn’t enough, he displayed from early on abilities that could be said easily made him look scarier, due to what they consisted of. However, all sapient beings can choose to try and deal with their fear, to be open-minded about what’s new and extend their hoof or claw or whatever kind of extremity they have in friendship. And had more beings chosen to do that with my friend, he might not have grown to become the tyrant he became.
I know you may be thinking that however much he suffered, he still was the one who made his choices and is still responsible for his actions. I won’t disagree there. But I still hesitate to judge him too harshly, because he almost certainly wouldn’t have made some of those choices if many who surrounded him had been better to him. And though ultimately each of us is responsible for our own actions, the truth is that the Empire would most likely still be around if not for mine.
What do I mean with this, you may wonder? Well, if you want to know, stay with me while my mind travels back to the past. I'll tell you everything you need to know.
And when I finish my story, I’ll leave you to make your opinions on what kind of a pony I am.
Author's Note
So... here is the opening to this story. I hope you all enjoyed it. :)
To explain one thing, I know that much of what was shown here is different from the official comics. However, I had a few problems with some of the concepts and ideas as presented in the ocomics, the most relevant of which for this chapter is the reason that Radiant Hope is still alive in the present day and her relationship with the Umbrum. I will be giving more specific notes once the relevant chapters arrive, but for now, I will say that the reason Radiant Hope is still alive in the present day is drawn from EchoWing's Quiververse, most specifically Reflections - Quiververse Edition, and is being used here with permission.
The Great Separation and the Separation Act, as names go, are names I came up with (although it's possible other authors used them first and I don't know). However, the general idea of the pony races having lived together before segregating themselves is inspired by the (possibly outdaded by now) general fanon concept of G4 being a future of G1, although that concept is not being followed to the letter here.
The brief references to the Crystal Empire's history that Radiant Hope makes are inspired by the Crystal Empire's history as depicted in The Journal Of The Two Sisters, by Amy Keating Rogers, although with a few spins of my own. However, to give credit where credit is due from the get-go, a certain element regarding Amore that was alluded to in this chapter also is inspired by Reflections - Quiververse Edition, and is also being used with permission. I will be more specific on which once the relevant chapter arrives.
The idea of the Crystal Ponies having alliances with other races is one that, as far as I can tell, I had myself, but it's possible that other authors had it and I don't know. As for the specific races mentioned, besides those specifically named in the series, Satyrs are (far as I can tell) the 'commonly assumed race' of a certain canon character. Muskoxen and Saigas, however, are drawn from two real world animals. As for Amurians, while the exact specifics of the race are made up by me, they are both inspired by a specific real world animal and 'close cousins' of a race that is canon to the franchise. More on them will be revealed later on.
Thank you for reading. Again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Best regards, and take care. :)
Chapter 1: A Different Morning
"Whatever lies ahead, it will come from the biggest gamble I made in centuries. I only hope that when all is said and done, I won’t regret taking this risk.”
Excerpt of a letter from Princess Amore to her first husband, Prince Adamantius,
later found to have been dated from November 20th, Year 138 of the Equestrian Era
If you were to ask anyone what they think is the best place to start a story, odds are that most would say it’s the beginning. In fact, I would go one step further and guess you also would say so.
To make one thing clear, I’m not trying to refute or deride that opinion. I don’t even disagree with it as a general rule. But at the same time, if I absolutely had to follow the most literal form of that principle when it comes to this particular story, I couldn’t tell it at all, because even today I don’t know when my friend’s story actually began.
I know, that seems weird, but in my defense, my friend didn’t know it either, at least for most of his life. He may have learned it before he died, but even on the last days we were still on good terms, we were giving more importance to other matters, and after we had our falling out, the story of his origins was among the last things on my mind, and also in his’ if I had to guess.
Point being, as I said, I can’t start this story at its true beginning. The closest time I can choose is the time when my friend’s life in the Crystal Empire began.
It may have been almost twelve centuries ago - on November 20th of Year 138 of the Equestrian Era, if you want me to be specific - but I remember it like it was yesterday. In a sense, perhaps it couldn’t be any other way, given how momentous that day ultimately turned out. However, like many days that become historically significant, that one had an ordinary start, at least by the standards of the Crystal Empire’s general situation at the time. There was nothing in the air suggesting a great change, no foreboding feeling running through everycreature, no visibly obvious warning of any sort. If that day showed any single, specific sign of what was to come, I don’t know anyone who noticed it.
Even for me, it was an ordinary day overall. If anything, it was a slightly better one than all in the previous weeks. I had actually gone out of my own volition, and willingly went on a walk through the city and tried to have fun, though only with my imaginary friends rather than with the real ones that most adults in my life wanted me to make. To my amazement at the time, I actually succeeded, and even found it in myself to be grateful that it wasn’t a school day, because it meant I had more time to play. I even got engrossed enough in my fun that I completely missed some very important news.
However, it was a short-lived success. While my joy overall remained present as I kept on engaging in my games, my sadness returned as I noticed the day had come to an end and went back to the place where I lived.
Namely, the Crystal Heart Foal Center.
I realize the term may sound unusual for anyone who doesn’t know about how the Crystal Empire worked - which I guess at this point in history, is only myself - so please allow me to explain. ‘Foal center’ was the term used in the Crystal Empire for a home that cares for children when their families cannot. I’m not sure how the term came about, but some theories suggest that the term ‘orphanage’ was considered too harsh, so whoever founded the first foal center wanted a softer one.
That said, a foal center was similar to an orphanage in that it looked after children for prolonged periods, but rather than only take in children with no families, it also took care of children whose families weren’t available for all sorts of reasons and for all durations, whether because the child’s parents were working late one night and had no one else to look after them, or were on a diplomatic mission to another nation and had the same problem, and in some (thankfully rare) cases, children whose families had been deemed unfit to care for them.
And to whoever may be wondering, despite the name, foal centers in the Crystal Empire did accept children of races other than ponies, despite never looking after many, as the Empire always had an overwhelming pony population, even more so than Equestria today.
That said… the key word here is ‘also’ in both circumstances, and not only were most of the residents foals, most of the permanent residents were children without families.
A group that I admit included myself.
To both those who realized what I’m getting at and those who need me to be clear, please forgive me for explaining in such a roundabout way that I was an orphan. In a narration told by somepony other than myself or by an omniscient narrator, I suppose this reveal should have been saved for later, but given all the things I will have to reveal over my story, I feel I should let this one out now.
At the time, my loss had been recent, and I can safely say that the day my friend came to the Crystal Empire also was the day I made my first serious attempt to move on. I can’t tell how successful it was in absolute terms, but at the time I found it good enough that I wasn’t sorry to have done it when I went back home.
Although I almost felt so when I got past the door and immediately ran into the center’s director, Chestnut Falls.
The moment I crossed the door, her gaze fell on me, and for the briefest of instants, my breath caught. Thinking I might be in trouble, I froze up, trying my best to think what I might have done wrong, even though she wasn’t the sort of mare who got angry easily, but to my quick relief, Miss Falls gave me a reassuring look and simply told me I had arrived right on time, because she was gathering all the foals in the canteen to tell them something very important.
Curious about what it might be, I immediately went there. And as soon as I settled down in my spot, Miss Falls explained everything to us.
I will spare you the details of that conversation, but in short, she told us that the center was getting its first permanent non-pony resident, and that she was personally caring for him, and what that would mean for us all. I was less worldwise then than I am now, but I still had questions. While foal centers were open to children of other races, it was the first time for most of us that the Crystal Heart Foal Center received one. Not the first time, period, but the first time many of us could remember. It was even more unusual in that, as we learned from those who had seen his arrival and the explanation Miss Falls gave, he was a child of a completely unknown race. A child who, as Miss Falls explained when she was asked where he came from, had been found in the Frozen North by Captain Smeriglio and the unit that had gone with him.
Most of the foals were puzzled, and I admit, I was too. But more than that, I was scared. I remembered the mission Captain Smeriglio and his guards had gone on, and despite being happy that they were back, not to mention surprised that I had missed the news of their return (which were the important news I mentioned above), I was mostly shaken from recalling the very fact they had gone on their mission. It no longer completely paralyzed me and sent my mind back to the past at the same time, but it had such a chilling effect on me that it robbed me of any questions I might have asked otherwise.
Other foals did ask their questions, but Miss Falls couldn’t answer most of them, although she tried her best. I can’t tell how much time she spent giving answers, but I remember it was a very long conversation, and by the end of it, the only things that were clear were that he had been found alone, that he was very scared, that we had to take things calmly with him, and that it would be better if we tried to stay away from him until he settled in a bit, with the conversation being capped off both by her apologizing for being less present in the coming weeks and reassuring us that she would still do her best to be there for us all.
I can’t speak for how well the other foals understood, much less how well they accepted it. Even I only had a rather vague idea of what she meant regarding how difficult he would be to care for and how much of her attention he would require. But I already knew that for him to have been found alone in the Frozen North, something very bad had to have happened. And because of how difficult it had been for me to lose my parents, I could feel for him. Thus, I was willing to do what Miss Falls asked.
Not to say I was the best foal in the center, mind you. Despite their nervousness, I could tell most of the others were willing to do the same, although a few of the more troublesome ones tried to use that chance to make trouble in the next few weeks.
It didn’t work out very well for them.
Even with so much of her attention now taken up by a difficult task, Miss Falls still stayed on top of both the foals and the center’s other workers. And while she was a kind and warm-hearted mare, she also knew how to be firm. Eventually, after a mix of patient conversations, denied treats, being forbidden from choosing their bedtime story, and serious lectures for one or two particularly severe cases, even the foals who hadn’t grown out of their mischief learned it was wiser to turn it to other pursuits.
Still, things went smoothly enough that we heard little more about my friend for months on end. While his presence in the center was a new thing, and Miss Falls spending more time with him was noticeable at first, things eventually got to the point that he might as well not be there for the most part.
Unfortunately, before then, there were moments where his presence was very noticeable, especially in the first two weeks or so after his arrival, where it seemed he was responsible for some accident every other day. None of them was truly serious, and most were harmless in the grand scheme of things, but even after they became rarer and eventually faded altogether, they did help to ensure that my friend was well known. Not necessarily universally liked - and to be fair, not universally hated either - but he was known.
No matter what each of us thought of him, all of us knew his name.
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The Crystal Empire, March 6th, Year 139 of the Equestrian Era…
“Sombra!”
He nearly froze when he heard that word.
It was stupid, he guessed. This had been easy to see coming. He had heard the familiar set of hooves walking up the steps and along the hallway to his bedroom, had heard his door opening and closing, had heard the same hooves approaching his bed. He knew this was likely to happen. And yet, he still froze.
While the was barely whispered, his sharp hearing enabled him to pick it up like it had been spoken at a normal tone, the only difference being how breathy it sounded. And despite it having been said by a voice he was familiar with, and spoken in a calm, tender tone, Sombra still didn’t react. He knew what was coming, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. At all.
“Sombra,” the voice repeated, joined by the speaker’s hoof as it reached up and gently ran over his back, the touch dampened by the layer between his barrel and her hoof, but still easy to sense.
Sombra barely kept his face neutral. He was used to needing more than one call, but the second one typically came five or ten minutes after the first, not right after.
Then again, today wasn’t an ordinary day. Today was different. More, today was the first truly different day he could remember in almost four months.
It didn’t matter. He’d keep pretending he hadn’t heard anything. Maybe if he did, he could get away from what was coming for a bit longer.
“Sombra,” the voice insisted. “Please open your eyes and look at me.”
This time, Sombra didn’t even bother to hold back a pout. The words ‘please open your eyes’ meant ‘I know you’re awake and only pretending to be asleep’. If he just kept pretending, he’d look like he was just throwing a tantrum, and he had learned more than once that tantrums didn’t work, not to mention they never truly made him feel better either.
Still pouting, he shoved away his purple blanket and looked up, his now-open green eyes meeting the brown ones of the sparkling amber-coated mare that gave him a familiar tender smile.
Despite how he felt, both at having to get up and at what was to come, Sombra couldn’t help but let his pout fade. It was difficult not to when he knew how much he was cared for.
“Good morning, Miss Falls.”
“Good morning, Sombra,” his caretaker and favorite mare in the world said. “Did you sleep well?”
His smile turned into a frown.
“So-so.”
He knew it was not a nice answer, but it was the nicest one he could give without lying. He knew he wasn’t sick, or with any other physical problem, but he had taken much longer to fall asleep than usual, and slept less deeply too. He had even woken up during the night, something he almost never did anymore.
From the slight dimming of Miss Falls’ smile, she understood what he meant, but to his relief, all she did was stretch forward and gently run her muzzle across his cheek, something she often did when he was upset.
“I understand. But you know that today I can’t let you sleep any longer.”
Smiling slightly again, Sombra rubbed his cheek into Miss Falls’ muzzle, taking in the comforting gesture. But his frown returned right away once Miss Falls pulled back and trotted over to the window. The gesture was nice, and he knew why he had to get out of bed, but he didn’t have to like it.
“Come on now,” Miss Falls said once she stopped by the closed curtain. “It’s time for you to get up.”
An instant after those words, Miss Falls gripped the purple curtain in her teeth and pulled it back, the loops gently dragging over the strip of fabric that covered the rail with a rustle that, while still loud to him, at least was muted and gentle, not the shrill screech he would hear if the rail was uncovered. She stopped after uncovering only about half of the window, but it was still enough for him to wince from the sudden increase in light, although not as much as he would if the whole window had been uncovered.
His pout still came back as he sat up.
“Does Sombra have to?” he asked, trying to sound calm rather than whiny.
The curtain falling from her mouth, Miss Falls replied, “Yes, you do. You still need to wash up, brush yourself and eat breakfast before you go.”
Sombra’s pout faded a bit again. At least he was used to that. That was always how his day began. Get up, wash up, brush himself, and eat breakfast. But what came next was new. The biggest new thing he’d had since he’d come to live at the Crystal Heart Foal Center. Most new things had been good so far, but a few hadn’t, and he still didn’t know where this one would fall.
And he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.
“Does Sombra really have to go, Miss Falls?” he insisted, mentally kicking himself when he was done, thinking that he sounded whiny rather than calm.
Miss Falls didn’t stop smiling as she walked back over to him, but for the first time, the sparkle in her eyes dimmed, and though it was very faintly despite his sharp senses, he heard her letting out the tiniest sad sigh.
“We’ve talked about this before, Sombra,” she explained. “I’ve already taught you as well as I can, and can’t give you the time to teach you all you need to learn properly while still taking care of the center.”
Despite knowing it seemed childish, Sombra pouted again. For Miss Falls to tell him that, there was nothing else he could tell her. True, Miss Falls had already explained to him why he had to go five times, and her explanations always made sense, but they never managed to completely crush Sombra’s nerves.
Like she had read his mind, Miss Falls nuzzled him again, as tenderly as before, no sign of any annoyance repressed within her - because he sensed she was indeed feeling none. She was just showing she understood how he felt.
“I know you wish you didn’t have to.” Another tiny sigh left her, like even she wished he didn’t have to do it. “But it’s better if you at least try.”
Again, Sombra rubbed his cheek against her nose - but more slowly, without putting his heart into it, his stomach feeling like a griffon’s claw was trying to grasp it from time to time. And it only became stronger when Miss Falls pulled away, even though she did it gently and kept giving him a reassuring look.
“Come on now. It’s time to get out of bed.”
Sombra’s pout deepened even further, but he did so, sliding along the mattress before landing with a dull tap on the crystalline floor to the right of the bed, still with Miss Falls watching him in a way that suggested she thought he’d just pull the blanket over himself and go back to sleep if she didn’t seem him get up
Then again, he did want to do just that, so odds were she had guessed it, like she seemed to guess so many things about him.
Again, though, Miss Falls just gave him an understanding look.
“Do you want me to help you brush your coat?” she offered.
He took a moment to answer.
“No, thank you. Sombra can do it alone.”
Miss Falls looked at him for a bit longer than usual before answering, like she had to make sure she wouldn’t frown at his answer first.
"Are you sure?"
Sombra thought about it for a bit before he answered.
"Yes."
Again, Miss Falls looked at him. Her expression didn’t change, and he didn’t hear even a tiny sigh, but her breathing seemed to have gotten a bit deeper for a moment, although it was too brief for even him to tell. If she had tried to disguise a sigh again, she had done a great job.
"Alright," she said. “But please, don’t think that what’s truly important will change just because of today. I’m still here for you, and that will always stay the same.”
Saying so, she reached forward and gave him a hug.
For the first time since he’d woken up, Sombra’s nerves faded fully.
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Feeling Sombra nestling into her barrel, Chestnut Falls drew him just a bit further into her hug, sensing how much comfort she needed, and willing to spare all that she could.
Sombra was easily the most challenging child she’d ever raised, and she had raised foals for close to twenty years, but she was by no means sorry to have taken him in, although he had already brought her more challenges than any of the others.
Many ponies, even some workers at the foal center, had told her it was a fool’s errand and she was only setting herself up for suffering, but while Chestnut acknowledged their concerns and tried to listen to the scant relevant points they made, none bore weight in her decision so far. She had opened the Crystal Heart Foal Center to take in children who needed a home. Some said it would be wiser to make an exception for Sombra but she disagreed. He needed a home, and there was no way in the Frozen North she would throw him out.
Especially considering the alternative. Chestnut couldn’t help but think, remembering the alternatives she knew would await Sombra if she hadn’t taken him.
Pushing the thought away before it could take further root, Chestnut ran her hoof over Sombra’s back, drawing a delighted hum from him. Her responsible side reminded her that they didn’t have all the time in the world, but for once, Chestnut quieted it. Timeliness was important, yes, but Sombra feeling reassured was more so, and pushing him away before he was ready to pull out of the hug would go against that.
Of course, Sombra being late could also mean a bad start for the next part of his life in the Crystal Empire, but him feeling abandoned by her would carry the same risk. Between the two options, she’d choose to take the first.
But she wouldn’t have to. After a few more moments, Sombra pulled out of the hug, now with a smile on his face.
Chestnut returned the smile, before assuming a more neutral expression.
“Don’t take too long,” she said. “Your breakfast will be ready soon.”
Sombra’s smile turned playful.
“Sombra knows,” he replied. “And Sombra knows it will be great too.”
As if to punctuate his words, he sniffed.
Chestnut laughed. Of course Sombra would know. At most, he had only needed to hug her to realize that.
“It’s a special day after all,” she said. “It deserves a special meal.”
Inwardly, the urge to tense herself pricked at her. She suppressed it then and there before it could grow any further. One thing she had learned with Sombra was that he could detect incredibly small signs of any form of distress. Any of it now would not be good.
It seemed she restrained herself on time. Sombra’s eyes didn’t lose any of their spark, and she could practically see his mouth watering from thinking even more about the breakfast that awaited him.
“But as I said, don’t take too long, or it won’t be freshly made,” she added, giving the gentlest reminder she could that he had a schedule to keep.
Sombra nodded, his face still content.
After some fond chuckles, Chestnut Falls turned around, still feeling the calm that emanated from Sombra while she headed for the door and then opened it. Turning around upon her exit, she spared him one last smile as she closed the door, the crystal door shutting with a faint, yet shrill click.
Knowing both how perceptive Sombra was and the importance of keeping a positive outlook despite how gloomy things could seem, Chestnut Falls calmly trotted away to finish his breakfast, still with an equally calm expression on her face.
But upon thinking of the beginning of Sombra’s time in the foal center and all the complaints related to him that had been brought to her, her expression still fell slightly.
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As the muffled taps of Miss Falls’ hooves faded away, Sombra’s nerves started to return.
The hug had been nice, and so was knowing that breakfast would be so good, but none of those things made an actual difference.
He still had to go. He still had to deal with a huge change to his life. And he still didn’t think he was ready.
But it didn’t matter now. Deep down, he knew. Miss Falls had answered every question he could come up with more than once, and there was nothing he could do to escape what was to come short of throwing a tantrum - which he still didn’t want to do.
Of course, that left him without options. Without thinking of anything to get away, he could only, as Miss Falls said, face the music. So that was what he had to do.
But he didn’t have to like it.
Sighing, Sombra raised his head and started turning left, ready to head to the table at the corner of the room with the pitcher and the water basin he’d use to wash up. Then, halfway through the turn, he froze, catching himself in the full-length mirror placed on the corner to the right of the bed, which he now faced directly.
Again, he frowned, his time in sadness.
The room was still half-dark by ponies’ eyes, but it was more than bright enough for his own to see all they needed to see. And while he saw nothing new, his heart still sank. He knew what he was seeing, and while it was only himself, it only made his chest tighten and his stomach get strangely empty, exactly because he still looked exactly the same as always.
Don’t think about that. You’re a good child, Sombra. That’s always the most important.
Sombra sighed at the recall of those words. Miss Falls had told him that more than once when he was upset about his appearance. He always knew she meant it, and he understood why being a good child was the most important after she explained it, but it still made him sad that all he got from almost everyone else was looks of fear. Whether foals or adults, crystal ponies or not, most were afraid of how he looked, and many didn’t make it a secret that they wanted to stay away from him as much as possible. He could see it in their gazes, could hear it in the way their breathing changed, could smell it in the scent they released.
Unfortunately, starting today, Sombra would be closer to many of them than he ever had before.
Because it was his first day of school.
Like he and Miss Falls had talked about for a few weeks, it was the day he would start going to classes and learning with the other foals.
But like his reflection showed, he wasn’t like the other foals.
Though his heart sank even further at the thought, Sombra turned his side fully to the mirror, only turning his head forward so he could fully take in all of his features, most of them different from every crystal pony he had ever seen.
His face was mostly pony-like, but it had a ridge of dark gray armor-plating that went from his hairline almost to the tip of his nose, vaguely similar to that on the heads of the armadillos in the picture books Miss Falls taught him to read with. His green eyes, while rather pony-like as well, had a strange cat-like quality to them, unusually piercing and with pupils too small and sharp for a pony. His ears were vaguely oval-shaped and longer than a pony’s, with tufts of hair at the tips like a lynx. His black mane, longer and lusher than a pony’s, was half-curled up at the front and wrapped itself around his neck farther back, almost like a lion’s mane. As for his horn, it was curved and slightly thicker than a unicorn’s, red rather than of the same color as his coat, and didn’t have the thin grooves that unicorn horns had.
The rest of his body was different too. His barrel and legs were also mostly pony-like, but his back was covered in a scaly plate of the same color as the ridge on his nose, also vaguely similar to an armadillo’s. Unusual fetlocks grew from the backs of his hooves, which themselves were of a dark gray that matched his scutes and cloven like a giraffe’s, and tufts of hair grew from the backs of the middle of his legs, matching his coat for his front legs and his mane for his hind legs. His tail was lion-like as well, but with a much thicker tuft of much longer hair that started almost at the tail’s base rather than only at the very end, also matching his mane in both the color and the natural half-curl it formed.
But the weirdest thing about him had to be his wings. Not only they were much bigger and stronger-looking than those of a pegasus his age, but they were webbed like a bat’s while also having feathers along the main wing bones, almost a bat-like version of the wings of the alicorns he had seen when Miss Falls had been teaching him about pony races.
And while it was a smaller difference compared to all the others, he also lacked the glittering sparkles that every other pony he had ever seen had on their coat.
It was a long list of differences, and it only included those that could be noticed at a look. But even those, once put together, showed that he didn’t look like any crystal pony, or like any pony at all, going by the drawings he had seen of ponies from outside the Empire. And while he didn’t know much, he still knew he didn’t look like any pony because he wasn’t a pony. He was… he was…
Sombra’s mind trailed off. He was something, that much was clear, but no one knew what, much less Sombra himself. All that Sombra knew was that a lot of creatures thought he was something bad from the way they looked at him.
And he had no reason to believe it would be different at school.
Holding back a sob, Sombra finished turning around and spread his wings, a strong flap lifting him off the ground and a few more taking him over the bed and towards the table. His hooves skidded slightly along the floor when he landed and he had to spread his wings to steady himself, but he didn’t skid against the floor, although the towel resting to the right of the water basin rippled from his landing.
While nervous and still sad, Sombra smiled a bit.
He was getting better. The first time he had tried something like this, he had knocked over the table, made the towel fall, and broken both the basin and the pitcher while getting water all over the floor.
His small smile grew a bit when he summoned his magic and the pitcher was wrapped in his light blue aura, floating off of the table and leaning over to pour water into the basin. While it went a bit higher than he had wanted it to, it was also better than his first attempt, where he’d lifted the table, the basin and the pitcher so high up and so fast that they had shot to the ceiling and smashed into bits and nearly broken through the ceiling.
But his heart sank again when he set the pitcher back down to the left of the basin, catching his reflection. It was less clear than the view in the mirror, and only showed his face rather than his whole body, but he still couldn’t help to ask a question to no one.
A question that he had asked many times before, but which seemed to cut into his heart whenever he even thought of it, much less asked it. And today it seemed to do so even more, his eyes stinging while he let it out.
“Why is Sombra different?”
Like many times before, no voice answered him. But this time, the silence caused him enough pain that his eyes screwed shut. As he took a breath past the tightness in his throat, a tear squeezed out of his right eye and ran down his cheek, the bit of it that didn’t stick to his coat falling off and splashing on the crystal floor.
Author's Note
So... here is first 'chapter proper' of this story. I hope you all enjoyed it. :)
Chestnut Falls is a character from Sombra's FIENDship is Magic volume, and in it, the Crystal Heart Foal Center is the name of the orphanage/children's home that Sombra ends up living at once he arrives at the Crystal Empire. The idea Chestnut Falls giving some personal education to Sombra also is from that volume, although there Sombra appears to have gone to to school pretty much from the beginning with his lessons with Chestnut Falls interspersed with actual time at school, rather than him only starting school after some months while only getting education from Chestnut Falls at first.
Regarding my description of Sombra's appearance... more relevant details will be revealed down the line (them coming now would be spoilers), but I will say that his current and future presentation is due to a mix of his background from the comics, a relatively obscure but still somewhat widely shared fan theory that arose after Season 8 of the show, and ideas of my own.
Radiant Hope being an orphan comes from the Siege of the Crystal Empire story arc of the main IDW comics.
These are all the explanations I feel are required for now, but should you have more questions, please feel free to ask. Unless the answer is a spoiler, I'll do my best to give it.
Again, thank you all for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Best regards, and take care. :)
