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. :)