Author's Note

For reference, this is what Cold Stone pov looks like if you guys were wondering.

Prologue ll: A warrior is born

(Cold Stone-3rd person)

Cold Stone, King Sombra, and his legion, went down a long and snow cleared path surrounded by trees as Cold Stone sat in the back of a supply cart pulled by soldiers. He had his face covered up in spare bandages from the cart he sat in, and they were irritating on his face.

After Cold Stone properly introduced himself, Sombra explained to him that they were heading back to one of his temporary strong holds a few miles out. Of course Cold Stone would be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling a bit nervous, but thinking back to what happened to his home and especially who caused it, it made his blood boil. He still could not understand why Celestia would do that sort of thing, but at this point he didn't care. 'I mean I haven't heard much about her because of how isolated my home was, but from what little other ponies told me, she wont do that...right?'.

Eventually, Cold stone and co. finally reached the strong hold and ,on the outside, it didn't look special in any way to Cold. The perimeter consisted of dark gray cobblestone perimeter in the shape of a square with a tiled roof covering a walkway, four cylinder shaped guard towers on each corner made sure no intruders would get close, and a tall door that acted as the entrance. From what he could see from the outside, there was a monolithic tower that , he guessed, reached around 50 meters tall and was made of a strange material that for a reason made Cold stones vision the tower in a dark purple mist instead of the usual white he had been accustomed to at this point.

Approaching the oversized entrance, the sound of a mechanism could be heard as the Door slowly opened to reveal the front courtyard. Cold stone felt the cart move as Sombra and his small legion eventually went through the doorway. Once inside, Cold stone look around to see multiple guards either patrolling on top or inside of the perimeter, or soldiers training with wooden weapons and Cold Stone was a little amazed at the soldiers combat skills as they fought. Cold stone's observations were cut short as Sombra ordered 2 guards that were patrolling to escort his 'newest recruit' to his living quarters.

During his escorted trot to his new room, Cold stone took the chance to peek into rooms along the way. Some were what one would expect to find in a fortress such as an armory, indoor training rooms, an expansive dining hall, a room that confused him that was called a ‘personal treatment’ bath, and finally the entrance to the soldiers living quarters, which is where he was entering. Eventually Cold stone and the two guards reached an room which would soon become his.

"Here ya go kid, your new home. get comfy." Said one of the guards in a condescending tone. Entering his room, Cold Stone took notice of the more major additions to his new room that consisted of a bookshelf with book of various topics, a small study table with a quill and ink on top, some candle holders along the wall with a unlit oil lantern hanging by the door, and finally a big bed in the middle of the far wall that looked like it could fit 3 ponies in. To him, it was surprisingly empty but Cold stone would take anything he could get right now

Cold Stone headed towards the to test its comfortability when he stopped, noticing a door on the left side of his messed up peripheral vision. He walked over, and Opening it was like walking through a portal to some unknown realm to him. The walls were made of polished stone painted white, in the center of the room was a big wooden tub shaped contraption with short metal pipes attached to the back, length wise, with red and blue knobs attached to them. On the left side of the small white room was a smaller contraption, compared to the bigger one, that Cold Stone knew a bit about. The fabled toilet, an advanced waste disposal machine future that are owned by royals or filthy rich.

Cold stone was amazed by the contraction of legends. In his village, if he wanted to answer nature's call, he would have to use an outhouse or make his own ‘toilet’ out in the forest. The curious stallion was about to test the famed contraption but was stopped when a knock came from the door which made him, reluctantly, leave the bathroom.

“Um… you can come in.” He said hesitantly. The door opens to reveal to him, a young looking unicorn mare adorn in nurse attire carrying a box in her magic. Unrevealed to him however, The mare had a light pink coat with a fire red main with ] a cutie mark that depicted a staff with two snakes wrapping around it. The mare trotted to the bed, placing the box onto the bed and went up to Cold Stone. Upon seeing The bandage face of Cold Stone, get gave the young cot a sympathetic look as she guided him onto the bed.

“Oh you poor thing” the mare cooed softly as she opened the box full of medical supplies and starting the process of changing his bandages, only wincing as she saw the burnt tissue.

Cold stone chose to stay silent as the mare to wrap bandages around his half scarred face, and to the mid surprise of Cold, even with the new bandages started to cover his eyes, he could still see in his new vision. ‘ I need to ask Mister Sombra about this later’ he thought to himself as the medical mare finished bandaging his wounds.

“I can’t imagine what you have been through.” The mare said as Cold Stone bandages were finally replaced. “If you need anything, then don’t be hesitant to ask before I leave.” she said with a small smile.

“well there is one thing...” the mare still stood in front of him, waiting for his answer. "You see, my villiage wasn't a very wealthy one, so non of use have ever used a proper toilet before, only out houses and the bushes. So can you tell me how to use one...please?" He awkwardly asked while pointing a hoof in the direction of the bathroom.

The gears in the mare's head were spinning trying to understand what she just heard. When it finally clicked, her eyes slightly grew at this. Instead of immediately responding, she packed up her medical kit and set it by the door. After a silent moment, she gave Cold Stone a kind smile.

“I understand sir.” The mare said with a small smile as she helped Cold Stone from the bed and to the bathroom to begin the long and awkward experience of using the bathroom.

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Celestia- 3rd person

The past 24 hours had been the worst Celestia had experienced in her few centuries of being alive. Two days ago, she was contacted by Queen platinum of the crystal empire, that a powerful dark magic user that went by the named King Sombra was leading an attack on a a military outpost far from the border of the empire and asked for assistance due to a sickness outbreak among her soldiers. Celestia thought about bringing reinforcements with her for assistance, but got cocky and went in alone, believing she could talk to this Sombra character

It took a bit of time to fly all the way out to the snowy north, but when she eventually arrived, she was appalled at what Sombra's forces have done. The outpost was in shambles, tents and huts up in flames, dead crystal empire guards laid out in the snow, and black armored stallions finishing off any survivors. She became enraged by this an took in a deep breath.

“SOMBRA, I DEMAND YOU TO SHOW YOURSELF!” Her voice boomed with the royal voice. As a result, the pony named King sombra Sombra trotted up one of an already burnt hunt to get some high ground. The smug look of the Sombra further enraged the solar princess

“So you are the legendary Princess Celestia, it is nice to see you took the bait so i could be in your presence. Also it’s KING sombra to you.” The dark king welcomed, with a threating tone at the end.

“We have been informed by Queen Platinum of your actions, we came to find out why thou are causing such unnecessary blood shed” Celestia demanded.

“Al this 'unnecessary blood shed' is only a means to an end. these pathetic lives meant nothing in the grand scheme of things ” Sombra asked with venom practically dripping from each word.

“What do thou speaketh of?” Celestia asked while raising an eyebrow, to which, sombra to become irritated.

“Non of this is your concern to you princess and you have no business being involved, leave now or I will end your pathetic existence” Sombra demanded.

“If thou do not wish to talk-” Celestia’s horn glowed with a powerful golden hue “-then we have no choice but to stop you treachery.” She got into a mid air stance ready for Sombra to make the first move. Sombras horn lit up with with a dark red hue as the white of his eyes turned green while purple smoke came out at the edges. Sombra then fired off a powerful blast towards Celestia, but she was easily able to dodge it and the fight began.

Celestia flew through the air dodging magical blast from Sombra and any of the unicorn soldiers of his legion, using Incapacitating spells on any pegasi that flew after her, and avoiding the occasional spear thrown in the air that intended to hit her. For a time, she was holding up pretty well and dispatched a good chunk of Sombra's large legion unconscious, but any attacks she threw at Sombra. Most of Celestia's spells were either blocked, overpowered, or deflected away from the battlefield, and Celestia started to doubt that this would be a short fight. Then, a lucky unicorn soldier shot and offensive spell at Celestia when she was distracted which cut deep into the edge of Celestia's left wing, causing her to fall out of the sky and crash land. The rest of the soldier that were left alive were about to swarm her when Sombra suddenly called out.

“STAND DOWN ALL OF YOU!” All of the soldiers stopped instantly and backed away from the grounded princess. Celestia took this time to check the damage sustained to her wing. Unfortunately, she found that the damage would mean she wouldn't be able to fly as fast as fast unless she risked injuring it more. her head turned to the sounds of hoofsteps crunching on the snowy ground coming towards her, and looking upto see Sombra approaching her with a victorious smirk.

“Looks like you had a little accident…well…this just makes it easier for me-” Sombras horn shone brighter as his smirk grew into a vicious grin.”-anypony who dares to interfere will die a slow and painful death.” Sombra stated as he fired off a shot, which Celestia barely dodged.

For the next half hour, it was a crude dance between Sombra and Celestia, firing attacks at each other, with Sombra's attacks getting stronger every minute due to Celestias growing exhaustion. Celestia would sometimes get a couple of hits in but due to her dwindling magic reserves, they barely effected The dark king. Eventually, one final attack would hit the solar princess, sending her wounded body to the ground. As she laid there, bloody and worn out, Sombra trotted up to her laughing darkly fashion.

“As I suspected, you are more weak than I imagined. Such a shame ,really, I was expecting more from you but I don't expect much else from a corpse.” Sombras horn lit up once again, manifesting a blade made of pure dark magic that was raised over Celestia neck, ready to end her life.

In a last ditch effort, Celestia gathered the rest of the magic she had left in her, tightly closed her eyes, and set off an explosion of light that blinded everypony, especially sombra, in the immediate area. Taking this chance, Celestia rocketed off into the sky as fast as she could ,ignoring the burning pain in her left wing, as headed off in the direction of the everfree castle.

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As Celestia flew off, the soldiers and Sombras slowly vision returned to them. A soldier spotted the solar princess flying off into the distance and panically called out to his leader.

“Sir! The princess is wounded, but she is retreating, should we finish her off?” Sombra turned his head to see the tiny white silhouette of Celestia fly further off into the distance. Sombra Sighed to himself while canceling his magic, getting rid of his blade and turning to his legion.

“No, do not waste your strength on a weakling. We already accomplished what i set out to do, now it is time for me to collect my earnings” He turned his head to the direction of a small village a few miles out. ”Let's move out and get what I came for. Any that have major injuries will be executed, we have no need for dead weight." he ordered as a small portion of his stallions started to head in the direction of a ascending tower of smoke, as the sound of metal piercing flesh echoed out behind him.

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After a few agonizing minutes of flying, the sight of the castle of the two sisters came into view for Celestia as she approached. Her head was starting to felt lite from the heavy blood loss. This didn't mater to her though, she already had problems to deal and now she added another by overestimating King Sombra.

Soon enough, the castle of the two sisters came into view, and after a bit more sloppy flying, Celestia practically smashed through the glass ceiling of a hallway. The last thing she saw before blacking out was a startled and panicked maid, running off to get help.

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Princess Celestia-1st person

A knock from my chambers door snapped me out of my thinking and turning towards it, I instantly knew it was.

"Thou may enter, dear sister." I replied as my mouth formed a soft smile. The door slowly opened and the dark blue and black head of my sister revealed itself

“Is thou art healing well, sister?” Luna questioned as She opened the door all the way and trotted over to my bedside.

“Other than my body feeling like it was thrown into Tartarus a thousand times, I say I am recovering quite well” I finished with a soft smile. Luna gave a soft giggle and smiled at me, but quickly turned annoyed when she noticed something.

"Thou knows that dialect annoys us greatly sister." She said in an irritated tone. Seeing this, I gave her the ‘shit eating grin’ as some of my guards say from time to time, which only served to Luna giving me a cute angry pout.

“What can I say dear sister, you should try it. It's becoming quite popular these days.” I replied. Luna looked as if she was going to give me a lecture, but instead sighed in defeat, as her irritated glare softened.

“Thou are so...SO!” Suddenly, she flashed me a mischievous look while rubbing her hooves together. “Apparently since our dear sister is in the jesting mood to bother us, we guess as a punishment we’ll have the cooks dispose of your beloved pastries.” Luna stated as she gave me a playful smirk.

“Oh sister, thou are the victor. we take back thine words and apologize” I said while putting my hooves up in a mocking defeat. Luna looked in the air, rubbing her chin with her hoof, deciding my fate. She stopped and gave me a smile.

“Well thou are forgiven.” Luna then got up ,turned around, and headed towards the door. “If thou require anything, then don’t hesitate to call.”

I let out a small laugh as Luna finally closed the door behind her. I shifted deeper into my bed and pull the cover over me as I went to sleep once again.

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Cold stone- 3rd person

The past few hours were certainly an experience for Cold stone. After getting the nurse to help him figure out how the big contraption in the middle of the restroom works, he found out it was actually called a ‘bathtub’. After a couple of minutes of questions from the young colt and the mare helping him clean dirt and blood off him, Cold stone was finally squeaky clean.

Leaving the bathroom and getting comfy in his new bed, Cold stone politely asked the mare if she could get him some food, to which she agreed and left. An hour later, a different mare dressed in maid attire, entered his room with a silver tray of food which consisted of a salad, some freshly made bread rolls, and a glass of water. The maid left and Cold Stone tore into his food like a starving timber wolf and finished his dinner in no time. He then set the silver tray on the table next to him and laid back into the bed.

“That was a pretty good meal, but not as good as…moms…cooking.” At the mention of his mother, his mood instantly sunk. Memories of his family before their deaths played in his head which brought tears to his eyes. All that Cold stone could do was pull the covers over his head and quietly sob himself to sleep, hoping that when he woke up, this would be all a bad dream.

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Cold stone-1st person

I opened my eyes to something my mind couldn’t possibly begin to understand. The first thing I was able to make out, what I thought, were all possible colors in existence, instead of the black and misty white I have become accustomed to. The second and last detail I was able to make out was the smell of burning air all around me.

Suddenly, there was a boom sound approaching me. I tried moving my forelegs, my head, anything in order to escape, but no matter how hard I tried they wouldn’t respond. In my useless attempt to escape, what only I could make was an oversized statue of a pony, but there were features about it that made it feel wrong.

“First one's descendant, the time of ascension will come…prepare. ”The statue informed me as it suddenly moved its arm towards me. The stoney appendage approached where my head was and touched the tip of my forehead. When it did, I felt a spark of unknown energy flow through me and images played in my mind of multiple things.

The first image was of an older me and Sombra battling Celestia and a smaller, midnight and black, alicorn with a starry mane. The next image is of a group of mares ranging from purple, cyan, pink, white, orange, and yellow, and displayed them doing…something?. They were located on a cliff side, presumably talking, talking with somepony shrouded in the dark of night. The final image is of a blind folded stallion fighting a horrible, eldritch monster as the mares from the previous image were left lying on the ground.

I didn't have time to think over these images, as my body was thrusted back at high speeds to the point it felt like the flesh was going to peel right off my bones. The infinite colors of my surroundings flashed past my eyes, making my stomach do flips inside my body making me tightly close my eyes. After a moment, everything came to a stop and I opened my eyes again.

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3rd person

With a jolt and a startled yelp, Cold stone shot up in his bed covered in a cold sweat. He looked around his room and instantly calmed down, knowing he wasn’t in that place anymore. There came a knock and Cold Stone turned to face the opening door to reveal King Sombra.

“Follow me and don’t ask questions, they will be answered soon.” King Sombra ordered as he left the room and waited outside. Getting out of his bed and fixing the bandages on his face, Cold Stone hastily followed after his future king.

Noticing Cold Stone leaving his room, Sombra started to walk down the lengthy corridors with his newest recruit trailing him. Not long after, the pair stopped at a door with a sign saying ‘training hall’. Going through the door, they made their way in and walked down aisles of areas ,sectioned off by thin stone dividers, meant for sparring. Sombra stopped at one of the sparring areas and entered it followed by Cold stone.

Sombra stopped on the far left side of the sparring area and turned around and put his hoof up to stop Cold stone from following him.

“I hope you are at least intelligent enough to know why we are here.” Sombra said with an raised eyebrow. But his recruit did respond. Instead Cold stone stood still and stared off into space not showing any sign of hearing the dark king.

Sombra waited for his response but got irritated at his recruits' silence. So he activated his magic and levitated a wooden training sword next to Cold Stone and wacked him in the head ‘lightly’, and sent the newbie into the ground with a THUD.

“OW WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?” Cold stone yelled in pain.

“I know your half bling, but I didn't think you were deaf either. Now get up and listen to me child” Sombra angrily berated. Not wanting to anger him more, Cold Stone got up from the floor and shrugged off the pain in the back of his head and apologized. Cold stone perked up at what sombra said and, under his bandages, gave him a confused look.

“Wait, how did you know I could still see?” He questioned. Sombra closed his eyes and sighed while levitating the wooden sword over to Cold stone, to which he grabbed it in his mouth.

“It was obvious, First of all, you never whined about being blinded.” As Sombra explained, he levitated a small book out from under his cape. ”Second, the way you were looking around when you arrived here, you never randomly looked around, instead you peered into rooms like you were looking into them.” He opened the tiny book and stopped at a seemingly random page. “And finally, from the maid and nurse I sent to your room, they only confirmed my suspicions.” Sombra finally finished as he closed his book and returned it under his cape.

Cold stone stood in stunned silence as he took in what Sombra said. Thinking about it, it did seem a little obvious to him now that he thought about it. Cold stone shook his head and set down the wooden sword that was in his mouth onto the ground.

“You’re right sir, it was idiotic that I didn’t notice. Still though, why did you bring me here?” Cold stone asked curiosity.
Sombra stayed quiet for a second thinking of something to say and instead of immediately responding, he activated his magic and levitated the wooden sword from in front of Cold stone and put it back on the rack.

“I am planning on turning you into one of the most powerful soldier Equestria has ever seen.” Cold Stone opened his mouth to say something but was quickly stopped by Sombra continuing.” As we discussed, your vision isn’t up to par with a normal pony's vision. In fact, it's better.” The confused colt tried to ask what he meant but was stopped once again.” You may not know this but you have the special ability to act as some sort of magic sponge.”

Now rightfully confused, Cold Stone raised his hoof in the air and ,this time, Sombra allowed him to speak.

“What do you mean I’m a ‘magic sponge’?” He questioned. Although this was new sort of information to him, Cold Stone knew something was different with him. When he was 10 winters old, there were two local unicorns who were infamous for being the town bullies and picked on Cold and other fillies their age. One day, they learned offensive spells from somewhere. They weren’t harmful enough to draw blood, but left some bad bruises and even fractured a colt's foreleg.

The only time these 2 unicorns were bullying Cold because of his race, thinking they were superior, but Cold wasn’t reacting to their insults so they got mad. They tried to use their magic on him, but when they did, their attacks barely made him flinch.

Thinking back to those memories, Cold stone always thought that their attacks were too weak to affect them. It was half of the truth but now the other half of it.

“What I'm implying is that, when Celestia’s magic injured you, your ability of course wasn’t strong enough to absorb it all but it may have used some of it to heal your eyes. Now I don't have the slightest idea how your vision is able to work, even wrapped in bandages, but you could use that to your advantage.” Sombra finished off with a triumphant look and a raised hoof. Cold stone looked down at the floor with a crestfallen expression as he signed.

“I know what you want from me sir, but I don't want to become some soldier, I just want to go and see my family” Sombras face turned to one of annoyance, but before he could berate the colt, Cold Stone continued. ”But because of HER, I can't do that, so I have no choice.” Cold Stone looked up at Sombra with an angry and determined look. ”So please, teach me everything you know sir” He begged and finished by bowing to his lord.

Sombra was shocked at the un-expected obedient attitude, but his mouth formed a wide grin, as his plan was finally complete. Now all that is left is to turn this colt into the best warrior Equestria will ever have to displeasure of fearing.