Our Empire of Darkness

Snow filled the sight ahead of them to the horizon, a sight getting far too common. While the rare hill would break up the snowy plains, the white remained the most prevalent. The worst part was that this wasn’t the ‘arctic wasteland,’ this was only a preview of what would come.

“Pinkie Pie, can you please stop wandering off?” Rarity spoke from behind the two leading the group, Rainbow Dash and Applejack both focusing on getting to their resting point in the tundra to the north before settling in for the night.

“But the snow is soooo deep!” Their friend jumped ahead, sinking into the snow that covered to their muzzles. “Hey, there’s ice under here!”

“Yes?” Fluttershy flew forward to help her from the drop, both leads stopping.

It was a pit. Pinkie had sunk two ponies down into the ground, the last two of their group stopping on the other side of Applejack to stare down at their pink and yellow friends.

“One sec.” Rainbow flew up, circling above before returning. “Okay, it’s the same height. Probably just a deeper spot.”

Applejack slid down into the rut to push through the fluffy, air-filled snow. Something seemed wrong about this far north. Not only did the snow feel lighter, but it would sometimes float back into the air, as if returning to the clouds above. They could hear the distant sounds of roars or whistles no matter how far they traveled, an eerie ambiance that consumed their ears whenever Pinkie wasn’t going on about building a hundred snow forts.

The dim light provided by the glow-stick strapped to her vest illuminated something hard to her left, passing by what looked to be a tusk. How would creatures survive in this temperature, with nearly no vegetation?

“Oh dear.” Fluttershy commented from behind, the sound of Rarity sighing telling both leaders what it was about.

“Fluttershy, it’s prob’ly sleepin’. Leave it alone.” Applejack turned around and squinted down the dim tunnel. Flutters couldn’t exactly be seen since they took a slight turn, but the shadows moving from behind the corner showed she had stopped and was doing something.

Fluttershy cleared the snow from more of the creature before putting her ear to it. “Um...”

“Don’t tell me it’s dead.” Rainbow facehoofed.

“N-No. It’s...” She breathed shallow, the rest getting the gist. “O-Oh no...”

“We... should get goin’.” Applejack kept pushing, finding more tusks sticking out, including one right in their path. It attached to what looked to be a helmet. Then she pushed further until there was a bony leg that stuck from the ground, the others staying quiet as they traversed not a den... but a graveyard. A skull or fifteen, legs, broken spears and swords, for hundreds of poni did they travel without an end in sight to the ancient carnage.

“W-What happened here?” Rainbow asked as quietly as she could. “W-Why didn’t Celestia and Luna tell us about this?”

“I’ve never seen anythin’ like it. There must be thousands of ponies buried here.” Applejack stopped as she pushed through a snow wall, a curved tunnel running further down with more half-decayed corpses plainly visible by the dim light. “Rarity, you studied the northern history, what happened?”

“I-I never read anything like this.” She got to the chamber Applejack was now walking, her and Spike following it down.

Applejack took a turn to the right to continue their forward progress, pushing through more of the airy snow until she hit another chamber, this time giving them a good view of one pony, its face shriveled up and gray, wearing armor emblazoned with a pegasus on the front and lined in leather. Its dead eyes stared at them as they passed through to keep going. Spike took one look at it as he passed, a chill running through his body as the eyes followed him.

“I-I think we’re n-not alone here.” He jogged up to huddle close to Rarity, Fluttershy ahead having stayed quiet up to this point, trembling in her own silence.

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked while pushing into another, this time showing a pony with yellow armor and a sun and moon based cutie mark on their chest with a spear through the neck of another that had a unicorn emblazoned on them. They filed into the chamber, the rest seeing the eyes track them, mouths shutting up.

They kept traveling, finding six more chambers with varying levels of undead before another stretch where they lessened, and then finally, the upward slope. Once Applejack pushed from the top, she breathed a sigh of relief, the others soon following. Ahead of them was a single tree accompanied by rocky hills. On the last push through, they all gathered on the marker tree with ribbons hanging from the branches, taking a breather.

“W-What was that?! Why is there a g-graveyard of undead ponies north of the Crystal Empire?!” Rainbow pointed back the way they came, Pinkie moving next to her to bring her into a shaking hug. “W-Why wouldn’t that be something we would be told?!”

“I-I don’t know when or h-how long they’ve been sitting there.” Rarity took her seat, taking several deep breaths while the rest came to terms with what they witnessed.

“H-How many ponies are here?” Applejack got back to her hooves and looked over the snowy plain they were going under. Where they started under the snow was no longer in sight. “I-I don’t think it’s just t-thousands.”

“I-I heard that one.” Fluttershy curled up against Rarity, shivering. “T-They felt... s-sorry.”

“I-I don’t want to know what they are sorry for.” Rarity wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy. “D-Did they say anything else?”

“N-No. Only that they were s-sorry.”

Spike rubbed his claws together for warmth, taking another look over the field. Was this Sombra’s doing? How many ponies fought in that battle? Applejack was right, it wasn’t a few thousand. It could have been over ten-thousand or a hundred-thousand, all now frozen half-dead, forgotten. He added it to his list of things to talk to Celestia about when they got back.

He walked over to Rarity and the others under the tree; the fashionista ripping a cloth she had brought to add another ribbon to the massive pine. Hundreds of ribbons were left hanging, hundreds of those who traveled the same path. No, none of them would forget the soldiers.

Not anymore.

Twilight floated the wooden logs with her back from the forest, traveling the stony path that led to the harbor. Why King Sombra wanted wood, she didn’t know. Upon arriving at the pile of other logs, she put them down and doused her magic to catch her breath. Her nearest friend returned with more rocks to add to a pile next to the bits of metal he had been gathering. She guessed he would make a furnace to reforge the metal, although the purpose escaped her.

“You are quite strong with magic.” He moved past her, picking up one log in his tendrils to move to the holders on the dock. “Who taught you?”

“Princess Celestia. I attended her school and studied under her for years.” Twilight bit her lip as she watched his tendrils move along the wood, carving symbols into the bark. “What are you writing?”

“I’m enchanting.”

“Wait, you can do that?!” She flicked her eyes between the glowing eyes and wood. “B-But don’t you require special materials to enchant with?”

“No? It’s easier with magically charged substances, but it’s unnecessary.” He turned the log over to continue his work.

“I-I was always was taught that only objects that are permeable like fabric, or already had a charge, could be enchanted directly.” She moved to his other side as he worked his way down the log, examining the thaumaturgic sigils. “I don’t recognize these.”

“How could you not? This has been standard for nearly a millennium.” His eyes turned up to hers, both catching on. “They got rid of the old text, didn’t they?”

“There are several books on enchanting, and none of them contain these as far as I am aware.” She returned to checking out what he was doing. It was masterful, beyond what she had read. While pure thaumaturgy was outside her area of expertise, the structure of the system should have remained the same. It should have, but not this.

“Hmm...” He returned to carving. “I will need your help. I require you to use light magic on this log when I’m finished. Do not worry, I’m marking it to direct it where it needs to go.”

“What are you using this for?”

“To make a fire of several hundreds of degrees that will last the next few days. The furnace needs to be finished before then, however.”

“W-What needs that sort of temperature?” Her question was answered by him pointing a tendril at the chunk of crystal that laid next to the scrap metal. “Oh...”

“Didn’t Tia teach you anything useful?”

“I-I know useful things! Like, I can teleport! Most ponies don’t know how to do that!”

He stopped his carving to turn back to her; the mare shrinking away with ears against her head. “S-Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. It seems knowledge has declined since I last walked.” He moved forward, Twilight backing up a step and him halting. “Do tell me, have you heard of Arch-Enchantress Sinabeak of Yoriff?”

“I-I heard of her, um, kinda...” Twilight rubbed the back of her mane. “She was a historical figure who... I think she enchanted for the royal guard?”

“She did more than that.” He looked to the sky, her gaze following to see a break in the clouds. “She helped build Canterlot, inspired generations of ponies and griffons to study magic, and could press down the scales of politics across four continents by who she traded with. And she was a beautiful friend. Did she pass?”

“I-I’m sorry, there was a short conflict a few decades ago after she, um, went mad.” Twilight gulped back the feeling in her throat. “S-She was that important?”

He stayed silent a few more moments, turning back to his work. “To those who ruled, yes. Entire kingdoms rose or fell by her word. Her texts were the basis of enchanting work since before I was born. Every court of enchanters in the known world looked to her lessons for guidance.” Another pause, one that got Twilight to step forward. “She will be missed.”

“I-I’m sorry. You two must have been close.”

“She knew what it was like to feel true freedom. She may have never innovated from where she was taught, but it was her transcription of those lessons to the developed world that gave many a chance to look past their constraints. I presume I envied how satisfied she was with her little fiefdom and wanted something I could be satisfied with.”

“Where she was taught?”

Sombra halted, turning back to her. “The lands to our south are filled with many secrets. Even those who know don’t want to acknowledge them. The Equestria you see was built on the foundations of another society that came before, one that has left whispers in places unspoken and deep scars across continents. For every pony alive today, there is a mountain of corpses of those who fought battles and waged wars. It is a comforting lie to believe the old stories of Queen Faustinia and her leadership, from the Chillrend Mountains beyond this ocean to where you now call home. A comforting lie that hides many ugly truths along the way.”

Twilight blinked several times as he returned to his work, flipping the log to continue carving. Lies? The Chillrend Mountains? That name, Chillrend... Magic? No, no references there except some frost-related spells. Geology or geography? Nothing to suggest otherwise. Biology?

...

“Wait, the Chillrend Mountains are where the Chillrend Blight is from, isn’t it?”

“It’s where it started, yes. It was named after them.”

“I’ve never heard of the Chillrend Mountains before. The old texts say that the illness predates Equestria, and that it came from our old homeland.”

He stayed silent, letting her fill it in.

“Wait! Our old homeland is across an ocean?!”

“You’ve found a truth the sisters wouldn’t tell others. Where did you think ponies came from?”

“I-I thought they came from the arctic wastelands!” She paced across the dock. “Every textbook says that those frozen wastelands are the old tribes’ ancestral home, and that the Windigos sleep under the ice waiting for the day ponies divide to reemerge.”

“That second half is correct.”

“The Windigos are real?!”

Sombra stayed silent, finishing the final touches before turning back to her. “You have much to learn. Perhaps you can break the lies when you return home. However, I won’t hold my breath for such a resolution.”

“I-I can’t believe I never considered that we could have come from across an ocean! Why would that be something Celestia would want to hide?”

“Not Celestia. Faustinia, and Nightflame. The first rulers of Equestria, its founders, and its greatest liars.” He turned the log again, going down the length, then back before continuing to flip. After examining the full surface, he moved away from the dock to assemble the stones and clay into a furnace, the purple unicorn following along. “Why did you really wish to stay? You seem to miss those left behind. I am a stranger to you, one you had believed was going to kill you only days ago. I understand you want to be my friend, but that doesn’t mean you must trail my every movement.”

Twilight blushed, backing away from him to give him some space. “Sorry?”

“Again, why?”

“I-I thought that... I, you know, didn’t want you to be alone.”

“Is it only that? I told you, I am used to the loneliness. I know you don’t want to fight against me, but you may do so in the company of those you care for.”

“I care about you!”

He turned back to her, a deeper blush flooding her face as she turned away and cleared her throat. “Twilight Sparkle. You can go home. I will win the battle for the empire on my own. You don’t need to make such a sacrifice by assisting me. I am an enemy of your nation. I will not hesitate to kill if I must, and you have a life waiting for you back home with friends and family who already do care about you. You may feel you care about me, but I know when I return for my conquest that will change.”

“W-What if I help you?” She covered her eyes with her foreleg to suppress the gritting of her teeth, taking a breath before turning back to the quizzical tilt of his eyes.

“Pardon? Are you suggesting treason against your own nation?”

“I-I mean, what if I help you recover? N-Not take over. I didn’t mean that.”

“We shall see. If you truly wish to help, can you search the town for anymore metal I missed?”

“You can count on me!” She straightened up and trotted away, biting her lip.

What the hay am I doing?! Get it together, Twilight! Make him see that there’s a better path than conquest! One step at a time!

Here it was.

The six stood on a hill down the path from the great Mount Everhoof, a sight only depicted in pictures with the same clouds wrapping around its layers, suspended in place. Their next stop was on the other side, at one cottage at the base. Spike proceeded down the hill first, followed by the others. None were thrilled with the trek so far. Two days of hiking through a wilderness lacking in civilization entirely or through hazardous territory that threatened them at every turn. The animals were getting harder for Fluttershy to talk to, the winds stronger and colder, the roots more twisted, and the traces of civilization more depressing.

But they were almost there. One last path to the traces of civilization before two straight days of arctic waste traversal.

“So, I was thinking, we should totally make friends with the locals at Mount Everhoof while we stay over! And then when we come back with Twilight, we can introduce her to them too! It’ll be like an early welcome home!”

“Pinkie, we’re only staying the night.” Rainbow flew up, checking the forest ahead before returning. “Ugh. Look out everypony, more ruins ahead.”

“I must say, all these ruins are completely ruining the mood.” Rarity said, Fluttershy leaning against her.

“Ohhh, I know. I don’t think I can see another skeleton without fainting.”

“What I want to know is why we never hear about this part of Equestria.” She stopped a moment to pull her boot on tighter before following along. “We’ve heard of Mount Everhoof, true, but what of the history of this region? It clearly wasn’t uninhabited, and if we find one more graveyard, we’ll be out of hooves to count them on.”

“I don’t like that we’re bein’ sent up here in the dark, either. But would the princess lie to us about this? Maybe she didn’t know either. This is on the edge of Equestria, and it’s not like we receive much news from the southern parts of the country, either.” Applejack halted as they came to another rut dug into the path by a stream, hopping over and walking over to the set of burnt down homes. No skeletons this time, and they gratefully had been more or less reclaimed by nature, with vines crawling up the pillars and rough stone walls. Still, there were graves to the side of the structures, eroded beyond recognition.

Their trek took them another two hours before arriving at a cottage in half-decent repair, a small farm around it in the forested parts to grow mushrooms. Another thirty minutes and they arrived at a set of three homes, including the ‘inn’ they were told about, with the crescent moon on the sign hanging from the wall next to the door. Rainbow knocked as soon as she reached it, the owner yelling out from one window for them to enter.

Each entered inside the cottage to take in the surroundings. It was... moon-themed. Banners of dark blue symbolizing three objects of focus were common, a set of rusted swords hung on the open wall, a shrine with a crescent necklace laid on a piece of velvet cloth... “Is that a banner of Nightmare Moon?” Fluttershy glanced to the others that were too tired to care.

The owner walked from their room, an elderly thestral mare dressed in black robes lined in dark blue. “My, oh my! Visitors! Please, relax, travelers! Luna’s hospitality is yours!”

“Thank you, miss.” Applejack shook hooves with the mare, casting a brief glance to the others, who meandered straight for the table to collapse on. “We’ve been travelin’ for days now. It’ll be nice to sleep in a bed before the long trek.”

“You must be exhausted. Few would travel to the Great Divider on hoof.” She walked over to the other five, them turning to their host’s gentle smile. “We have two rooms with two beds each. I can take another in my room, but I’m afraid one will have to share with another.”

“We got sleeping bags.” Rainbow patted the gear Pinkie had dropped onto the floor next to her. “No worries.”

The mare nodded again, heading back to her room while they all took the time to let their hooves rest. Rarity examined the tapestries on the walls while the rest took the moments to let go the past two days. Her eyes moved along not only the ‘Lunar Trinity’ banners, but the one of the old queen’s cutie mark next to another, representing day and night as two equal halves. The tattered edges and careful patchwork showed its age. A thousand years, perhaps? Was the second cutie mark the regal sister’s father? And what of the Windigo banner against the wall with two...

Two alicorns. Her eyes moved down to the stallion who was without a doubt an alicorn, next to the classical depiction of Queen Faustinia with her white coat and fiery red mane, both donned in gilded armor if the yellow thread was intentional. In all of pony history, there were only said to have been four alicorns. The three currently living and the old queen. Perhaps the history told wasn’t all that honest.

Intentional or not.

“Yes, you are doing it correctly. Apply pressure down the length to secure it in place.”

Sweat dripped from her forehead as she focused on securing the metal band along the side of the boat partially completed in the makeshift dry-dock. The spikes fitted through the notches with significant effort, both sides curling in sync to ensure one didn’t triumph over the other.

“Now pull them together and merge both ends to the structure through the hole.”

She did as asked, merging them together with a quick spell before taking a deep breath, dousing her magic, Twilight sitting down while the headache came about from overuse. The shadowy King Sombra moved up his vessel and continued the work of securing a steel band along the top of the wooden hull.

“H-How did you learn to make a boat?” She stared up at the top of the structure until the shadow eyes peeked above her.

“I understood the physics at work, general concepts of seafaring, and followed the designs of others. I had to construct a boat to return to Equestria after I completed my studies. Slavers aren’t reliable, and nopony that far out would want to leave through the magic field around the continent except the suicidal or greedy.”

“Continent? A-Are the Chillrend Mountains still inhabited?”

Sombra stayed silent, pondering his answer. She tilted her head at his silence, about to say something when he answered her: “Yes, they should still be inhabited. That is not where my final destination is, however. The world as you know it, Equinia, Griffonia, the Dry Rivers, Zebrica, and the Hivelands, are only five of sixteen inhabited continents. Well, sixteen continents that at least once held intelligent creatures.”

“Woah. I-I never- I mean, I was always taught there were only the five. And, well, some don’t consider the ‘Dry Rivers’ as a continent at all.” His eyes disappeared over the edge again, the mare taking a glance at the horizon. The sun was about to set if its position meant anything. Their current latitude was still a mystery, but if it was anything like northern Equestria, it should only be an hour or two before sunset. “D-Do you need me to help with anything else?”

“Can you gather tinder and reignite the fire? I would much rather not work at night. We will have time to put this together. There is no rush.”

She got back onto her hooves and proceeded through the town. No matter how comfortable she tried making her temporary home, the knowledge that it was a piece of history long forgotten, with ponies long gone, kept her mood somber. How much of Equestria’s history was she not told? A distant homeland, Windigos, sixteen continents... Actually, how did Sombra know this information? Where was he going if not the old homeland?

After gathering a pile of fallen needles and tinder from the empty forests, another thought came to mind. Where were the animals? She had seen the rare squirrel or chipmunk, but not in the same frequency as back home. Oh, was he- Yikes. He was hunting them all for the sails, isn’t he? Her question went without a concrete answer as she returned to their new ‘home’ next to the docks.

Geez, Twilight, you’re talking like you’ve moved in with him. Get it together! Her grumbling went with no external commentary as she started arranging the fire to be lit. He needed a friend. That’s the entire point of staying to chat with him. Even so, she couldn’t deny being curious what else he knew. The Crystal Empire was ancient according to the texts, once a valuable part of Equestria. If he was centuries old, as he said, and he was born in the empire, it must have gone back to the days of the old queen at least.

But the more she thought about it, there was a serious gap in proof of the pre-Equestrian era. What proof was there other than the old stories? Did the dreaded ‘Emperor Grogar’ exist? Gusty the Great could have been a conglomeration of several ponies rather than a single individual. And the founding still left a question of when Queen Faustinia became queen. She ruled for about two thousand years... maybe. Equestria is a little over three thousand. Simple math says that the one and only queen ruled since the beginning.

Then there was the other can of worms: the regal sisters themselves. Any amount of thought put into it only dragged up more questions. Would Celestia and Luna know about the old homeland? Did Star Swirl encourage them to move the celestial bodies to become alicorns? What about their father? Why is he unnamed in the books? A unicorn dad of the old unicorn royalty being dad to two more unicorns that - by sheer happenstance - became alicorns? Was it deeper than that?

The snap of a twig in her magic startled her from the thoughts with a yelp. Focus, Twilight! You’re overthinking this!

Her magic lit the fire to warm her up. She laid on the cot they had brought up for her, stretching out to receive its warmth. No, things couldn’t be that complicated. Maybe the old homeland was across the ocean and contained secrets, maybe were there sixteen inhabited continents with fantastical unknown creatures. But some grand conspiracy to hide the past stretching back three thousand years? Oh, please. Nopony could hide something big for that long without curious archeologists seeking it out.

Shadows moved across from her, Sombra grabbing several of the whittled branches he had left indoors to bring back out with him. And what if she accused him of lying? They weren’t on the greatest terms for such an accusation. It could break their burgeoning friendship. She could lose him and have to return empty-hooved. While the others would be disappointed, it was that sinking feeling inside her that told her why she was staying.

He was a friend. A... complicated one, who may or may not be trying to manipulate her, but he cared about her. He wouldn’t have carried the cot up and given her the extra blankets if he didn’t.

Yes. He was a good pony deep down.

He only needed more time.

Winds whipped over the snow covered treetops, the howling drowning out all other noises of potential predators for the six creatures pushing through the snowfall. Applejack squinted at the clearing up ahead, knowing it would be the last they see of trees for two full days. Their food supplies were holding according to the plan, but if there wasn’t something to eat on the other side of the wasteland, they would be in for several miserable days waiting on the icebreaker ship.

Beside her, with her wings covered fully, Rainbow Dash pushed forward with as much determination as herself. There would be no flying in the perpetual winter of the arctic plains, no scouting ahead, and no isolating oneself from the group.

“Tell me again why we couldn’t just have a ride fly us to them?” Rarity complained from behind as Applejack and Rainbow pushed through the last of the trees to the field of snow stretching out to the horizon.

“Oh, oh, I know!” Pinkie hopped forward into the snow. “IIIIiiiiiiit’s the Windigos!”

“The creatures we don’t even know are real?” Spike pushed out to stand next to the other two, Rarity and Fluttershy stepping out on the other side.

The howling winds didn’t seem to letup, the clouds darkening the terrain further ahead. “Rarity, Fluttershy. It’s time for those parkas.” Applejack turned to the two that removed their saddlebags, taking out the thick fur and hide. They had already put on their boots and leggings before the snow got too deep, but this would be the last time they would have freedom until they got to their first rest site.

Fluttershy pulled on the parka over her, shivering at the idea. Animals died to give her this. Cute, cuddly bears that now kept them warm, Rainbow Dash opening one of her bags to pass the goggles and scarfs to each of them. Applejack looked over the trek ahead on the map, memorizing every single land-form ahead to make sure they arrived at the cave on time. If the historian was correct, it would drop to negative eight-eight at the deepest point they would get into wastes on the morning of the third day.

“Alright, y’all! I want to remind ya to not overdo yourselves. We can’t stop till we get to our cave. No runnin’ ahead, no jumpin’ around, and no takin’ off your gear!” She strapped on the goggles, wrapping her scarf to cover the rest of her. Each of her friends looked the same, except for Spike. A breath on her scarf activated the magic wards made into their gear, warming them up as they took the first steps to where no pony was ever to return.

Each of them were clipped to at least one other as they pushed forward. There would be no stopping until they rested. Whether it was day or night didn’t matter. As they pushed further, the darker it became and the louder the winds howled. The warmth kept dropping with every step, every breath through the scarf getting colder. The past two days had been leading up to this. It was faster to travel by hoof for six days than to travel the ten by boat through the ice sheets.

And the further they trekked, the more eerie the surroundings became. They arrived at the first landmark, a stone pillar now covered in a lump of snow. Then the hills that once held green forests, now encased under ice. Their glow sticks and compass kept them on track through the darkness. There would be no stopping.

We’re coming, Twilight.