Our Empire of Darkness

“Somepony around here must know something!” Twilight said as she and her trusty assistant walked to the next house on the street. Everything so far had been a bust. Not a single household or passerby they encountered had any information related to the Crystal Empire or King Sombra. It was a complete mystery what happened to the empire so long ago or what they used to defend themselves.

“I’m sure they’re just scared.” Spike tried reassuring her, not convinced himself. After knocking on the next door, Twilight took a quick look around. They were in the northern section of the Crystal Empire along one of the side streets. The entire city was a marvel to behold, with houses all at least two stories tall made of the same crystals as everything else in the empire. The streets themselves reflected some of the light illuminated on them, the lamp-posts providing ample visibility for the night whenever it fell upon the city.

Everything from the curtains to the shrubs to the streets were gorgeous. It wasn’t what Twilight expected after being under the rule of the tyrannical King Sombra, but perhaps Princesses Celestia and Luna reversed the damage the monster had done before the empire disappeared.

The door opening returned Twilight’s attention to the homeowner, a light blue mare with a purple mane who glanced between the two with baggy eyes. Like all the other crystal ponies, her mane and coat lacked the sparkle that was expected of them.

“Hello there!” Twilight donned a huge smile, hoping to boost the mare’s solemn mood. “I’m Twilight Sparkle! You wouldn’t happen to know anything about what the Crystal Empire was like before its disappearance, would you?” She asked, hoping to perk up the mare’s memory for how much of a long-shot it was.

“I’m sorry. I can’t remember anything about what things were like.” She shook her head, Twilight’s smile falling.

“Are you sure? Absolutely sure?”

“I’m sorry. I wish I could help you. But I... can’t seem to remember anything before King Sombra came to power.” She thought for a second. “And I can only remember bits and pieces afterwards, but nothing that would help.”

Twilight raised a brow. That was new. She briefly leaned down to whisper her thoughts to Spike. “King Sombra’s spell must be why their coats aren’t... crystally, and why they can’t remember anything.”

“Have we really been gone a thousand years?” The mare asked.

“Yes.”

“It feels like it was only yesterday when my husband and I were talking about starting our family...” she said, the corners of her mouth turning up as if she wanted to smile.

“If you think of anything, even the smallest thing...” Twilight gave one last reassuring smile back.

“Of course.” She nodded, closing the door behind her.

Spike hopped down the steps and began walking away. “Well, that was a total bust.”

“Hmm... Maybe not.” Twilight considered as she followed him, trotting down the steps to catch up. “Maybe the others are having better luck.”

The light blue barrier of magic that separated his rightful domain from himself was an aggravation. Who were they to deny him his place on the throne? For over a thousand years, they kept him locked away.

And after a thousand years, they still denied him his rightful seat! The foolish sisters of the south hadn’t learned a single thing. They still were enemies, enemies which needed to be eliminated for him to fulfill his destiny.

Sombra moved around in the snowy wastes outside the empire’s shield, keeping close to the direct path to and from the unusual mechanical transport system. It was a modern invention he would have to familiarize himself with later, perhaps even improve with the use of crystals and magic. However, until he could heal his form, none of it would matter.

His attention returned to the shield as it dropped from the top down, turning up his grin. As it dropped to the ground, he gazed upon his glorious empire once more, a mere fraction of the size he had planned for it. Those old maps needed to be brought out from storage once his home was secure, but for now there was the matter of his body to correct.

His shadowy form glided across the wastes toward the city, anticipating stepping a hoof onto its grassy fields once more. Before he could reach those fields, the light blue barrier reformed. Sombra attempted to charge himself over the barrier, getting close before he had to halt in place to prevent impacting it head on. His horn got inside before the barrier raised high enough for the ‘light’ magic to cut off the tip. He growled as he backed off, cursing himself for not moving sooner to enter.

It wouldn’t matter in the end. As long as he resumed his legitimate seat on the throne, all would work out. They couldn’t keep him out forever. His subjects needed him, and he wouldn’t let them down.

“Of course!” Twilight exclaimed, realizing the solution as she stood in the throne room of the Crystal Spire.

Spike wobbled on his feet one last time from when he ran into Twilight, rubbing his head. “Argh. What? Did you find it?”

“No. Because this isn’t King Sombra’s castle.” Twilight said, checking the rest of the chamber. Other than the city map above her, the main throne room lacked decoration. Would the king forgo artistry and valuables? She didn’t think so.

Spike stood up and walked next to her as she stared up at the throne. “Isn’t this where he lived when he was in power?”

“It is. But it didn’t look like this.” She spread her hooves to prepare for what she was about to do. Her horn aimed at the crystal at the top of the throne, concentrating until sweat began rolling down her forehead. An attempt at making a distinct form of magic without training was trickier than utilizing raw magic, but she knew it had to be done.

As she grimaced with the strain, focusing all the hate she could into her magic and holding it in her horn as she infused them together to make the illegal energy. And as the dark magic gathered, she felt the push-back from her mind, begging her to let it go, but she continued to channel. Purple splotches of dark magic formed around her horn, her eyes generating purple wisps from the monumental effort.

With enough in her horn to cause a headache, she fired it into the crystal at the top of the throne, letting go of the forbidden magic. The crystal at the top of the throne projected an unnatural shadow over the floor in front of the throne, revealing a massive staircase into the magic-formed depths. She expected more backlash from the dark magic, instead everything going back to normal after a short time.

Perhaps it causes long-lasting damage? She mused as she trotted over to the now revealed staircase that led deep below. It was unusually crystalline, much like the rest of the castle. Lights along the edges of the staircase provided lighting all the way to the bottom, which she judged was at least a hundred poni below.

“Woah. When did you learn to do that?” Spike asked in amazement.

“That was a little trick Celestia taught me.” She said with pride, walking into the stairway and only making it a few steps before turning back to Spike. “You stay here.”

“Huh, if you insist.” He shrugged his shoulders, standing at the top while Twilight descended the spiral staircase. As she made her way, she noted the occasional banner and painting on the walls. While the banners were of the Crystal Empire or related, the paintings were another story. The black maned gray stallion with sideburns was depicted in the majority, donned in a red cloak covering his shoulders down to the thighs and a metal peytral on the front to hold it in place.

She tore herself from her thoughts when Spike called down from the top: “Can you see what’s down there yet?”

“I don’t know what this is, but it looks like a museum.” She called back up, checking the nearest painting. It showed Sombra speaking to a group of angry ponies, the crystal guards standing by but otherwise out of the way. The king held his previous image in the paintings as calm and collected compared to the... were they miners? Twilight couldn’t tell what they were, but it looked like the union disputes she had read about from Manehattan. “Spike, can you see outside?”

While she continued to examine the professional artistry of the painting, her faithful assistant checked the outdoors before returning to the top. “It’s not good! Cadance’s magic must be fading faster than before!”

“Can you come down?” She asked before continuing her own trek into the depths. It was bizarre. Did King Sombra force the crystal ponies to make these paintings for him? What kind of twisted idea of his rule did he have? As she walked, Spike came running down next to her.

“Hey, this isn’t so bad.” He said, checking the paintings while they descended.

“This is...” What was it? It didn’t look right. Celestia said King Sombra had a ‘heart as black as night’, but this depicted nothing negative. He looked like a responsible ruler who cared about the citizens. Of course there would be nothing negative! He would want to give himself the impression that he was a good ruler! She thought with the roll of her eyes.

They continued for another few minutes before reaching the bottom, another peculiar sight greeting them. Several tables were setup around the center of the stairwell, with many stacks of papers, diagrams, and models on them, a single door leading elsewhere.

“Uhh, what’s all this?” Spike asked, jogging up to the table and taking a piece of paper from it. It was a bunch of magical mumbo-jumbo to him, but might mean something to Twilight.

Twilight moved up to the table and examined the small models and their associated notes. She checked the two stairway models, one of which being a different scale based on the size of the stairs. From the look of one, it was the current stairwell they were in, but there was a second white one. She read over the notes until she got to the sheets on the door that he had made to access the other stairwell.

‘Dark magic for fears, light magic for entry, raw magic ineffective’ was the general gist of it. She trotted up to the door and tried opening it with her regular magic, but it sped away from her around the stairwell base. “Oh, that’s why it’s ineffective.” She took a deep breath before channeling the other form of magic. Creation of light magic was like dark magic, only involving love instead of hate, which made it easier for her as she thought of her friends, family, and Spike to generate it.

The magic arced from her horn into the top of the door; it opening on its own to reveal a white room beyond. Both creatures stepped forward into the room, Twilight giving a sigh. “He must really like stairs.”

Both climbed the endless stairs, hoping that Cadance could hold out a short time longer.

The agents of the southern tyrants believe they can hold me back from destiny? Sombra laughed in his shadowy form, having regrown his false horn. Using such magic to achieve immortality was unthinkable a thousand years ago, yet he had done so without corruption. If the ‘regal sisters’ truly believed themselves righteous, there would be no redeeming them. They would deny all ponies except themselves transcendence through magic, a selfish crime unforgivable in his eyes.

After he used his regrown horn to manipulate the dissolved energies of his old horn into a dark mana crystal, it was only a matter of time until he reached the Crystal Spire and ended this fraudulent coup. Over the next hour, he manipulated the crystal to cast darkness onto preexisting crystal objects, the hatred within weakening the light magic of the barrier. It was an unfortunate scare for his subjects, but they would come to understand his reasons for filling his love-filled empire with hatred this one time.

Further did his reach move into the city, more regular crystal corrupting as the shadows creeped closer. The barrier was getting weaker and weaker with each passing minute, his power growing as his influence extended closer to the prize he had kept secret since the betrayal.

He was so close. He felt its love, its gentle aura of hope. One day, all would look upon this moment as a footnote, a last desperate attempt by the tyrants of Equestria to deny the truth of ponies.

As the field dropped, the alarm set-off at the top of the Crystal Spire. They had found it! His horn sparked to life, sending a signal through his dark crystals to the spire, hopefully trapping the agent within the warded circle with the Crystal Heart.

Then he remembered what he was doing before his banishment, wincing. He had left the wards as they were when the two sisters approached his empire with their army, far too strong to survive. Whoever they were inside would perish before he reached them to deactivate the trap. They would suffocate inside.

Was an enemy pawn’s permanent removal worth delaying destiny? He could always come back. Perhaps gaining information on the modern day would be beneficial in the long run, a strategic retreat to regain more strength. His enemies would prepare, although he doubted they would know what specifically to do. Not that there was much they could do.

Perhaps the pawn may break from their conditioning to join his side. The truth could set them free.

Twilight looked around her dark prison in panic, only small streams of light being let through the cracks. Her attempt to teleport out only resulted in her being sent right back inside and hitting her head on the wall. She moved to the crack closest to where she had heard Spike speak. A simple peek through the opening and she saw him holding his claws under his armpits, dancing away from dark magic crystals which sprouted from the floor, the Crystal Heart laying on the ground next to him.

“You can move, just not toward me!” she yelled out to him, muttering under her breath: “How could I have been so foolish? I was just so eager to get it! Then when I saw what was going outside, I–“

“You have to get out of there, Twilight!” Spike called to her from his position near the archways, standing only a few steps away from the breathtaking view of the city she wouldn’t be able to take in until after King Sombra couldn’t threaten the empire. “You have to be the one who brings the heart to Princess Cadance! If you don’t, you’ll fail Celestia’s test!”

“King Sombra is already attacking the empire. He could reach the Crystal Ponies at any moment... reach Princess Cadance, my brother, my friends.” She shook her head. “There may not be enough time for me to find a way to escape.” The surrounding crystals thickened. She spared a single glance back to see they were encroaching toward her from the other side of the circle, above being completely covered. As she turned back to the crack in the crystal, she resolved herself to the only solution. “You have to be the one to bring the Crystal Heart to the fair!”

“Me? But Twilight–“

“Go!” she shouted back, staring at him with one eye that peeked between the crystals.

“But–“

“Gooo!” she called out again, the crystals fully encompassing her, plunging her world into darkness. Laying against the ground, all she could hope for was that Spike would succeed. Her horn attempted to spark to life, the dark magic counteracting her spells directly and disallowing anything other than the brief flashes of the interior.

The crystals were getting closer each second. With each flash, she could see them growing larger and closer. On her most recent flash, it was right in front of her face. She kept her eyes shut and brought her entire body to the ground, praying to Celestia that they didn’t start growing beneath her. Over the course of the next minute, she felt them wrap over-top of her body, holding her in place. Her breathing got more labored, as though the air was dwindling in the prison.

“P-Please, Spike. Hurry.” she whispered to the void. Soon enough, there wasn’t even enough air to breathe, her eyes fluttering shut. Her last thoughts weren’t of the test, they were of her friends and family. She had made a mistake, one that would hurt those she loved more than anything. Another few seconds later, even those disappeared, her mind going blank.

The moment the field fell, he launched himself into the city with haste, several of his subjects running from the shadow that moved along the ground toward the spire, screaming as they scurried their way toward the Crystal Heart. There wasn’t time to waste. Every second was invaluable. He aimed for the dark crystals which sprouted up the spire, preparing the spell he would need to make it in time.

Upon reaching the growth, he unleashed the spell; the crystals growing upwards at a sped up pace toward the top of the spire with him atop them. A quick look to the Crystal Heart revealed the agent had sacrificed themself to release it, carried by another smaller bipedal dragon that ejected flames toward any additional outcropping of dark crystal.

It spotted his rapid encroachment and slipped; the heart falling into the city. It pained the king to see it so close yet so far, but there would be time for reunions later. The creature jumped after it as the king arrived at the top, seeing the entire warded circle consumed by dark crystals. While he couldn’t use light magic in his current form, he could shatter crystals easily enough.

The tendrils made short work smashing through the crystal, finding the form of the purple unicorn agent he encountered as they had arrived from the transportation station. A quick check over her body showed her breathing had indeed stopped.

Grabbing her into his shadowy tendrils, he carried her out of the warded circle and to the edge of the spire’s peak. There wouldn’t be time to resuscitate her here. They would activate the heart and his form would dispel. Rapidly moving down the spire with the unconscious unicorn in his grasp, he used the dark crystals to amplify his speed. He reached the bottom as the new alicorn princess landed, her eyes filled with the same hatred he held toward her. Rushing northward, he used the crystalline city streets to further increase his speed.

When the light shone from the very streets themselves, filled with the love of his subjects, he dashed out of the city bounds, traveling into the northern plains covered with snow. He kept pushing on. He refused to die today. As the heart began activating far behind, he had reached the hills to the north, out of the danger zone, but kept moving past them. It wasn’t until he surpassed his own curse did he stop.

As one last measure, he focused on the purple unicorn. His magic wrapped around her heart, moving it to get it pumping again. She soon enough would awake, but he needed her unconscious until they reached their destination. A quick sleep spell would work, one he cast on her form as soon as the thought came to him. The first natural heart beat came as the spire unleashed a burst of light magic across the valley.

Sombra felt his body and soul punctured by the light, sending pain through every fiber of his being, but the distance was indeed enough to prevent complete dissolution. He took one last look at the empire’s light; the aurora spreading out from the spire he called home for decades. The fields lacked the strife of struggle, peaceful, an example of what he wished upon the rest of Equus. “I shall return, my subjects. I shall free you.” He resolved to himself, grabbing the unicorn in his shadows before moving toward the mountains away from home.

The fair was in full swing with the defeat of the evil king, crystal ponies celebrating with crystal corn. Many of the braver ones signed up for jousting, and a few of the more musically inclined ponies picked up their flugelhorns to provide musical entertainment. Compared to only ten minutes prior, it was like a completely different city.

The Elements of Harmony and Spike gathered with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor in the throne room, minus two, who went to retrieve Twilight from the top of the spire.

“Please tell me this is permanent.” Rarity beamed in wonder at her reflection in the mirror that several crystal ponies provided as a thank you. “It is absolutely gorgeous! I look positively regal, don’t you think?”

“Hehe, ya sure do.” Applejack replied, readjusting her stetson. All was not well, as was what Princess Cadance wished to discuss, but everything seemed to be fine for the time being.

As the confused and concerned Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew back into the hall, Pinkie played her flugelhorn while wearing a jester’s outfit, one she was more than happy to have kept wearing throughout the entire fair.

Cadance raised a brow at their expressions as they landed. “Is something wrong? Where’s Twilight?”

“We couldn’t find her anywhere!” Rainbow exclaimed. “There were a ton of stairs, but I checked every single one and she wasn’t there!”

“What about the other stairs beneath us?” Spike asked. “Did you check those?”

“I couldn’t get in! The door at the bottom led to a wall!”

“What other stairs?” Shining asked Spike.

“Twilight used her magic on that crystal at the top of the throne and a bunch of stairs revealed themselves right here.” He stomped his foot on the floor in front of the throne.

Cadance got down from the throne and looked up at the crystal in question, casting her magic on it. She saw it glow brightly, but that was about it. “Do you know what she did?” She turned back to Spike.

“It was dark magic, or something.” He shrugged.

“I... don’t know how to do that.” Cadance admitted. “I’ll write to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Maybe they know how?”

“Well, we need to get her out of there before she starves.” Shining thought a bit more before moving to the center of the floor. He charged his horn and unleashed a beam of energy into the crystal. After a few seconds of no effect, he halted it and scrunched his brows toward Cadance. “A little help?”

“You probably can’t get in that way. If it requires dark magic, it may be an activated space.” She sighed, rubbing her head.

“Um, what did you want to talk to us about?” Fluttershy asked from her reassembled group of friends at the center of the room.

“King Sombra escaped.” Cadance said with annoyance, sitting back down on the throne. “I don’t know why he didn’t try claiming the Crystal Heart, but he isn’t defeated yet. Whatever he’s planning, we need to put an end to it or he will only return stronger.”

While the others asked questions about the king, Spike scratched his head. The king had traveled straight up the spire toward him. He was so close to grabbing the Crystal Heart but didn’t. He didn’t chase him or the heart; the king didn’t even try. Then he runs away? None of it made sense.

Going for the top of the spire where he and Twilight were. Disregarded the Crystal Heart. Ran away. Twilight’s missing...

...

TWILIGHT’S MISSING!

“HE FOALNAPPED TWILIGHT!?” Spike’s screech interrupted the questions from the other elements. Each of them began thinking it through, going through the same thought process Spike did, their faces forming into terror at the idea.

“No. No, why would he even do that?” Shining asked. “What reason would he have to foalnap Twilight? He’s a power-hungry monster Tartarus-bent on enslaving all of Equestria for Celestia’s sake!”

Cadance rubbed her eyes as she considered it. It made no sense! King Sombra had climbed the spire to get the Crystal Heart... Right? Why would he foalnap Twilight when he could have taken back the artifact?

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Rainbow flew into the air, determined and angry. “We’ve got to save her!”

“Hold on now! We don’t even know where he’s takin’ her.” Applejack objected. “We can’t just go wanderin’ north aimlessly.”

“While I hate to agree, Applejack’s right.” Rarity chimed in. “He could be taking her anywhere.”

“Oh, I hope she’s alright!” Fluttershy added.

“I’ll send a letter to Princess Celestia requesting the Royal Guard be mobilized to comb the north.” Cadance turned to her husband. “If you will accept such a drastic measure.”

“I’ll do anything to save Twily.” He stated, his anger rising as it all sunk in. “That monster will regret the day he messed with my family!”

It had been almost two days of traversing the northern weather. Snow swirled around Sombra as he floated onward, the pony in his grip insulated from the worst of it. There was only one more set of hills before everything calmed down.

The trees had returned, a welcome sight from the seemingly endless wastes past Mount Everhoof. His old prison had been in those wastes, far enough away from his home to give the tyrants time to secure the city.

As he crossed over the last hills between two mountains, the snow and wind let up. His smile turned up at the ocean between northern Equinia and the old home of ponykind, a tranquil barrier separating two frozen lands. Moving into the forests between him and his destination, the old pathways from a thousand years prior revealed themselves by the unbroken crystals that denoted them. There used to be a town this far north, filled with ponies who stood watch over the most heinous criminals ever seen in the empire.

He floated into the remains of the village, trees and other vegetation having taken hold where once there was civilization. Sombra traveled through the town, making haste to the large rock and crystal structure built into a hill. He entered and broke the doors leading further into the complex, picking up the keys left in the security office to make his way even deeper.

The deeper he went, the darker it became. Soon enough, there was no more light, only the eerie darkness of the maximum security wing. Unlocking one door, he entered and moved the skeletal remains from the room out into the hall. He took a few moments to memorize the directions to this chamber, ensuring he wouldn’t get lost while he made a few more trips. Sombra placed the unconscious pony onto the bed that was still in decent condition, pulling the blanket over her before applying dark mana crystals to her horn and locking the door to the cell.

Upon his return to the surface, he checked on the rest of the town. It was well and truly abandoned. While some preserved jars remained in the cupboards of a few residents, they must have taken most when they stopped receiving supplies from the ‘south’. Fortunately, there were potatoes. Lots of potatoes. An entire section of the town had potatoes growing all over it, being concentrated in the former backyard of one particular resident.

He grabbed what prepared food he could from the houses and ferried them back to the prison before moving back up into the frozen hills. He ferried over two ponies worth of snow back into the town, placing it in an old bathtub close to the prison. While he waited for it to melt, he traveled into the woods and gathered burnable materials of tinder and needles.

He wouldn’t let his prisoner suffer or die without excellent reason, no matter what they were guilty of.