From the ashes

“Long time no see…Black Ivory…”

Celestia sat upon her golden throne with golden accents and a sun emblem on the top. The one next to it that was similar, except with blue accents and a moon emblem on top. Behind them were three windows, two on the right and left depicting the same sun and moon, and one above the thrones depicting what looked like a meteor shower.

“I hope you know why you are here.” Celestia questioned with a raised eyebrow, keeping the same serious glare at Cold stone.

Cold stone stayed quiet, mostly due to him being too exhausted to speak, but he was also frantically trying to reach sombra on what to do in this situation. Celestia sighed and her expression turned into one of pity for the bound stallion.

“You are being charged with the pony slaughter of 18 solar guards, massive property damage, and resisting arrest…why?” Celestia went quiet after she finished, which got the attention of Cold stone. Cold’s breathing got ragged for a second before he opened his mouth.

“W-why…WHY!” The guards had to put some force to pull back Cold stone, who was trying to approach the solar princess with a scowl under his blindfold. “Like I'll…answer to anything by the l-like of you!” Cold stopped trying to move and fell back onto his haunches, but the guards were more cautious of him this time. Celestia stared at the scowling stallion for a moment but got up and slowly approached Cold stone.

“That is not what I meant…”Celestia stopped a short distance in front of Cold, who looked like he was going to rip her throat out any moment. “I meant why…why did you allow yourself to become like this?” The second she finished speaking, Cold stone tried to pounce her once again, but the guards strength kept him from doing so.

“WHY…you're the one who caused it you bitch.” Cold stone voice became dry as he went on. “Master said so! You knew and did nothing about it!” Cold stones voice was starting to become rough as a bit of blood ran down the corner of his mouth.

'Well it is obvious he thinks i did something to him…but i didn’t know him until my fight with sombra…’ Celestia stood there in complete confusion as she tried to think what Cold meant by that.

“Y-you let my village burn! My family and friends! They are all gone because of you!” Cold stone yelled at the princes but his legs gave out and he fell flat onto the ground. Celestia's eyes widened a bit at what Cold accused her of and she looked down at Cold who was heavily panting.

“I-”Celestia was about to retort but Commander Sunrise came through the throne room door and trotted up to her. Sunrise glanced over at Cold stone with a hurtful and disgusted expression before he returned his gaze towards the princess.

“Your majesty, the elements have arrived. Should I have them escorted to private rooms or bring them to you?” Sunrise asked with a little bow. Cold stone raised an eyebrow at the mention of these ‘elements’ but that wasn’t important to him right now.

Celestia closed her eyes and took a moment to decide, when she did, she sighed and ordered Sunrise to raise his head.

“Bring them here this instant.” Celestia ordered. ‘I need them just in case.’ Sunrise nodded and rushed off to get the Elements of harmony.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cold stone-1st person

As Celestia watched that guard leave, I took this chance to look for any way to escape. Both of my legs were bound together and there were 2 guards holding me back with rope around my barrel and neck. there was no way i could do anything.

‘I’m too weak to do anything, dammit!’ I mentally berated myself. I gritted my teeth in frustration as I tried to think what sombra would want me to do in this situation.

Ever since I was small, my peers would make most decisions for me, even my parents would help me choose betweeen simple things, even when I was old enough to go to school. That didn’t mean i was stupid, actually i was quite smart for my age, it’s just I was more content with following others when the time was right.

I really want Sombra's guidance right about now.

“Now back to our discussion.” Celestia's voice brought me out of my useless observations as I looked to see her look down at me with…pity. “What you said about me. To be truthful, I haven't got the slightest idea of what you speak of.” Then she knelt down in front of me and put a golden hoof on my cheek.

“I don’t need you pity.” I quickly twisted my head to the side, freeing my cheek from her touch. ”And I don’t need your excuses either. I know you’re lying to me, witch!” I gathered saliva in my mouth and spat it at the solar diarch, successfully landing hitting her square on the muzzle.

That resulted in one of the guards that was holding me down, to hit me in the back of the head really hard. The strike sent a shockwave of pain throughout my skull.

“Control yourself sir!” Celestia's voice boomed with anger surprisingly not at me, but to the guard who wacked me in the head. I looked up in time to see him quickly recoil away from the Princess, but went back to making sure I didn't move just as quickly.

The princess surrounded the saliva in magic and made it poof away, then sighed and started to walk back to her throne.

“You may remove his restraints, I don't think he needs them.” Celestia ordered, making the eyes of both guards, and especially mine, to widen. The guards hesitated for a moment as Celestia sat back on her throne. One look from her and the guards untied the rope and unlocked the chains from my body.

The instant they were off, I tried to stand on my hoofs but only resulted in me falling back onto my rump again. My bones felt like they were made of wet paper, and I was so exhausted that i could barely see straight.

I heard the throne room door open and I looked back to see that Sunrise pony sticking his head in the door crack.

“Your majesty, i have brought the elements like you asked” Sunrise opened the door, opened the rest of the way and 6 mares walked through. I
turned my head to see the misty outlines of ponies that consisted of 2 unicorns, an earth pony, and 2 pegasi, one of which was hovering above the ground.

They all have different expressions towards me, both the earth pony and floating pegasus gave me a suspicious stare, the front unicorn gave me a cautious and calculating look, the other unicorn gave me a look of disgust, and the other pegasus hid her face behind her mane.

I raised my eyebrow when I noticed one of the group was absent. I felt sompony grab my shoulders which made me stiff up in surprise.

“HIYA, my name’s Pinkie Pie! what's your’s?” The bubbly sounding earth pony happily yelled in my face causing me to move my head away from the volume.

“Pinkie got away from him! you know what Mr. Sunrise said about him.” The front unicorn berated. The earth pony named Pinkie Pie let go of me and somehow reappeared behind the group.

“H-How” I stuttered out, now in my monotone voice.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No one-3rd person

After Pinkie Pie entrance, Twilight and her friends passed Cold stone, keeping a respectable distance away, and stopped near Celestia.

“Ah’m gonna take a wild guess and say HE is why we’re here.” Applejack asked with a hoof pointed at the blindfolded stallion. The princess nodded and gave her a small smile.

“You are correct on that applejack, I would like all of you to meet Black Ivory” Celestia introduced. Rainbow dash Snickered which got the attention of “black Ivory”.

“What do you find so funny, Rainbow freak?” Cold stone insulted, which instantly got him a glare from the rainbow pegasus as she got up into his face.

“What did ya say punk?! And that’s Rainbow Dash to you!” She angrily yelled in Cold's face. Cold stone kept his stone face, not flinching a bit.

He was about to respond to the rainbow mare with a head butt before applejack bit Rainbow's tail and pulling her back. The two bickered a bit until a look from the princess that made them shut up.

“Now let's get back to our chat before we get off track again.” Celestia said as she gave Cold Stone another serious look. “What Sombra said to you is most likely false, everything that stallion says is a lie.” When Celestia said this, Cold stones stoic face twitched a little as the elements looked at the princess for answers.

“Umm, princess, what does this have to do with Sombra? Didn’t Twilight and Spike defeat him days ago?” Pinkie Pie asked with a questioning look and a hoof under her chin.

This certainly got the attention of Cold Stone, who was trying to keep back a snarl, but the twitching of his face was making it hard to hide it.

‘It was them, They were the ones who made him like this!’ He angrily yelled inside of his head. Cold stone bit his lip to keep from yelling, biting so hard a little blood came out.

“If you must know. A thousand years ago, I had spies planted in the crystal empire to keep an eye on Sombra while me and Luna dealt with Discord. From what they told me, they found out Sombra had a right hoof Stallion who would mostly stay by his side when in public.” Celestia informed. The fact that Cold was around for that long AND was that close Sombra made them stare at them in surprise.

“...Yes it’s true.” Cold stone confirmed. ‘How did I not find out?’ Cold stone felt a bit embarrassed but thankful Sombra wasn’t able to hear any of this.

“When I and Luna fought with Sombra, Black Ivory was there too and was holding off my sister as I battled with Sombra. When the empire disappeared, I never thought that i would have the chance to meet Ivory in the flesh”The solar princess said with a sad look on her face.

“Wait.” Twilight spoke up suddenly. “He went up against Luna?! You didn’t mention we would be meeting somepony who was powerful enough to go against an alicorn!” Twilight frantically but covered her mouth and tried to apologize. Celestia raised a hoof to stop the panicking mare and gave her a comforting smile, a scene that made Cold Stone feel oddly envious.

“It is alright my student, It was my fault that I didn’t specify-” Celestia turned her gaze back to Cold stone.”-But apparently the reason he joined Sombra was because he thinks I purposely destroyed his village.” The elements gasped when Celestia said this.

“And it’s true. I guess you didn’t want to tell the truth to your subjects so you could save face.” Cold stone spat back, venom coming from every word.

“Hey shut it! Princess Celestia would never do something like that!” Rainbow dash retorted, which made Cold stone to darkly chuckle.

“Oh yeah? 6 years before Sombra went to war with the empire. Celestia fought with Sombra as he was trying to liberate a nearby village, he said that he tried to deflect her attack but some of them destroyed my village. He said that she saw her look in the direction of my burning village and didn’t do a thing!” Cold Stone's voice wavered a bit as he spoke.

Celestia’s blood went cold as she looked down, as she remembered that day. Cold story was true in the fact that Sombra was deflecting some of her attacks. But something felt odd about the way he did that she found it strange, but never found out when she had to make a retreat. Now it all made sense to her.

“That bastard…” Celestia cursed under breath. She looked back up at Cold stone with a look of pity. “ Sombra has been lying to you…yes it is true when i fought him, he did deflect some of my attacks. But I didn't know he would do something like that.” She said as her body trembled in silent rage.

Cold stone got what she meant and his stoic face crumbled into one of rage as he shakenly got to his hoof.

“DON’T YOU DARE IMPLY THAT! KING SOMBRA WOULD NEVER DO THAT!” He yelled at the princess, scaring the elements in the process. Faint wisp of smoke started to emanate from under Cold’s blindfold as the anti-magic ring on his horn started to crack.

Seeing this Celestia got up and used her magic to pin Cold stone to the ground as she turned her head towards the elements.

“Twilight, use the elements quickly!” Celestia yelled. Twilight and her friends wasted no time and powered up the elements.

Their eyes started to glow white as they all started to float into the air as a powerful aura surrounded them. A blast of energy in the form of a rainbow shot into the air, and curved back around too hit the raging Cold stone.

Cold stone could only yell in pain when the beam hit him, the sensation made him feel as if the flesh on his face was burning off.

As the beam continued to work its magic, the horn on Cold’s head started to revert back into sombras as it was slowly pulled away from Cold stones head. The horn eventually came off and was accidentally shot out of one of the Throne rooms’ windows, sending it far into the distance. The beam stopped and the elements fell to the ground as Cold stone covered a gaping hole in his forehead, which almost instantly healed.

Cold stone noticed his missing appendage and looked around for it and noticed the hole in the window. He frantically got to his hooves and galloped to the window, and jumped through it, which got the attention of the solar princess. She hastily followed and stopped in front of the window in time to see Cold stone falling and she used her magic to catch him mid fall.

While this happened the element got back up and were clearing their heads, Pinkie Pie rapidly shaking her head side to side at high speed. They looked back at the princess, who was now pulling a crying and hyperventilating Cold stone back through a broken window.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hours later. Fluttershy-3rd person

It was night time when Celestia came into her, and her friends, room.

After Celestia pulled the scary stallion away from the window, he tried to crawl back to it as hard as he could. It got bad enough to where he tried to cut his leg, that was trapped by Celestia's leg, off. Her friends tried to help, as Fluttershy was too scared to assist, but in the end Celestia had to use a sleep spell on Black ivory, which seemed to work as he fell asleep instantly.

Now Fluttershy and her friend were now sitting in a room they were escorted to after the event, and they all talked before Celestia came in. Celestia had a downcast expression as she approached the group as Fluttershy's friends berated her with questions.

“What in the hay happened princess?!”

“What happened between you two?”

“Is he alright?”

“Are you alright princess?”

Celestia raised her hoof to silence Fluttershy's friends. They all stopped talking and sat back, waiting for Celestia to answer their questions.

“I am alright now my subjects, I had some delay as Black Ivory woke up.” Celestia stated. Rainbow Dash trotted closer to the princess with a cocky smirk.

“Did he give you any trouble princess? If so, I'll teach him a lesson if he does.” She proudly stated.

“Fortunately he didn’t. Unfortunately, I tried to talk to him but every time I asked something, all he did was stay silent and hid away from me.” Celestia looked to the floor as she muttered something under her breath.

Fluttershy would be lying if she said she didn’t feel a bit sorry for the stallion. She was about to ask a question, but rarity spoke up before she could.

“Well that is unfortunate. But that doesn’t answer the question of what happened between you two.” Rarity spoke up. She and the rest of Fluttershy's friend stared at the princess, waiting for an answer.

Celestia sighed before she started to speak.

“What he said was partly true. A long time ago, I was sent a request by the queen of the crystal empire about a dark magic user who was destroying military outposts outside the borders of the empire. I was foolish and went by my lonesome thinking I could take them on by myself. When I got there, I tried to talk to Sombra but it was apparent that he wouldn’t listen and we started to battle.” As Celestia spoke, she sat down and was followed by the rest, Pinkie Pie with popcorn on the hoof.

“During our fight I sent some attacks at Sombra, which he deflected in a way that was weird to me. At first, he sent them flying in random directions, but after a while he seemed to be deflecting them in a specific spot. I didn’t have time to think about it and eventually I was bested by sombra-”Pinkie Pie dramatically gasped.”-and to this day I never figured out what truly happened until now.” Celestia finally finished and everypony stayed silent for a minute before Twilight spoke up.

“What are you saying Princess? Are you saying that-” Twilight was about to finish, but Celestia nodded and spoke first.

“I don’t have a solid idea on what happened, but the most likely answer is that it was a coincidence that my stray attacks hit Black Ivory’s village and Sombra took him away and put the blame on me. That still leaves a lot of questions, but it’s the best I've got.” Celestia looked down with a frustrated expression.

“I still don’t trust the creep…but that’s kinda messed up.” Rainbow Dash surprisingly admitted. Everypony else sat in place to take in that information, but FLuttershy got an odd feeling of determination in her heart.

“Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy’s voice broke the silence, somewhat surprising her friend as she stood up. “I-Is Mr.Ivory still awake?” Fluttershy asked in her usual timid tone.

“Yes, I think he still is. Why do you ask?” Celestia asked with a questioning look.

“I-I would like to try and talk with him.” Fluttershy answered with a firm tone. This got everypony’s attention as rarity retorted.

“But darling, you can’t possibly suggest you go and talk to him?! It’s too dangerous.” Rarity warned.

“I know, b-but I know he’s hurting right now and he needs somepony to talk to. I can’t imagine what Sombra did to the poor thing.” Fluttershy looked away with a sad expression. She then turned her head towards Celestia with a determined look. “So please let me talk to him. You can send as many guards as you want, but I just want to talk.”

Celestia looked at Fluttershy for a moment, but then closed her eyes and sighed and opened her eyes again.

“I’ll allow it.” Celestia answered, surprising everypony.

“But Princess, Don’t ya think it’s too dangerous to send her by herself? Ah mean, from what that Sunrise feller told us about what Ivory did, he doesn't seem to be the safest to be around.” Applejack tried to reason. In response the princess cracked a small smile as she stood back up.

“You're right about it being too dangerous, that is why I'm sending all of you with Fluttershy just in case. Now come along.” Celestia then turned around and walked out the door, closely followed by Fluttershy and the rest of the elements.

“Ah, I still don’t feel right about this,” Applejack said to herself. All but Pinkie Pie heard and she wrapped a foreleg around AJ’s shoulders.

“I think we should trust Fluttershy. Even if he is a big meanie pants, everypony deserves to smile no matter who they are!” Pinkie tried to reason. Applejack had a faint smile at the pink mares words.

“Ah hope your right Pinkie” The apple farm said as she and the rest walked towards Cold stones room.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cold stone-3rd person

Cold stone laid in his new bed with the zero light on in the room, mostly because he broke all them in a fit of rage.

He was tied to the bed with rope tied around his left foreleg, the rope tightly secured to one of the beds posts. The room itself was fantasy by his standards, cold accents line the edges of the wall and a purple rug covered the entire floor. Of course it had a separate bathroom that was useless due to him being tied down.

As he laid in his bed, all he could think about was how weak he was to do anything to stop Celestia, how pathetic he must look like right now. Cold stone was now captured by the enemy and had no pony to help him, everypony was against him now.

‘What if what they said was true…’ Cold stones eyes widened when the sudden question popped into his head. Of course those were lies, trying to fool him into spilling answers or something, there’s no way Sombra would go out of his way to destroy my village…right.

He shook the ridiculous thought from his head as the door to his room suddenly opened. Cold stone didn’t bother to look to see who it was, he just pulled the covers over his head as he heard the door close.

“U-um hello?” A quiet and timid voice reached his ears, the voice was so quiet that Cold was barely able to pick it up.

“Are you awake? If so, I would l-like to talk.” The voice asked quietly. Cold stone stayed quiet, hoping they would go away, but unfortunately the shifting of the cover made that impossible. There was some silence for a moment before the voice spoke up again but a little louder this time.

“I-I just wanted to talk, I know you’re hurting right now, so I wanted to let you know that i’m here to listen” The voice said in a soft and kind tone Cold stone hadn’t heard in years.

“I’m not giving you answers…so just go…”Cold stone weakly said. Despite his words, he found himself uncovering his head a bit.

The voice was silent for a bit, but the sound of a door closing and approaching hoof steps made Cold feel somewhat anxious. Then Cold felt the mattress move as the voice's body sat on the bed.

“I can’t do that. Even if I found you scary, I know that under your tough exterior, is a pony who needs a true friend.” The voice calmly said. This made Cold stones eye widen a bit at such a idiotic statement. He didn’t need anypony, he made it this far without ‘friends’, he. Was. fine.

“Isn’t it obvious why I'm hurting?” Cold stone started out. ”I just lost somepony who was there for me at my lowest, AGAIN. Then I get told he might have been the reason everypony i knew was dead, and I don't even know what to do with myself because at the end of the day I'm just that same snot-nose cry baby who can’t do anything right!” The muffled voice of cold yelled out as tears started to form in the corners of his damaged eyes.

“I can’t even decide on a simple thing without help…I'm so pathetic.” Cold stone's voice went quiet as the bed covers fully covered him again.

The feeling of a hoof wrapping around his body made Cold Stone stiffen up a bit.

“I know that feeling as well, those moments when you feel completely useless and worthless. Those moments where you question why you were even born, I know that as well.-” Another hoof placed itself on top of where Cold’s head would be, forming an awkward hug. “But it’s ok, you can have those that can pick you up when you are at your lowest, those that don’t expect you to do everything. There is no need to carry the entire weight of the world on your shoulders. It’s ok to cry.” The voice went silent as Cold Stone took in her words.

Tears were pouring down his cheeks by now, and for a moment he thought his mother was on the other side of the cover. When he pushed back the bed covers, he was surprised to see the timid, yellow pegasus that he considered cowardly, sitting there with a warm smile.

Cold stone didn’t care though, he couldn’t hold it back any longer as he caught the pegasus in a tight hug as he quietly wept.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fluttershy-1st person

It took a while, but Black ivory stopped crying and let go of me, letting me see the tear streak stain on his cheeks.

“P-please don’t tell anypony about this…please?” The blindfolded asked while looking away with a faint blush on his face. This caused me to giggle, which made Black Ivory look back at me with a brighter blush.

“W-Why are you laughing !?” Black ivory raised his voice a bit. I stopped my giggling and also blushed at embarrassment at what I was doing.

“I’m s-sorry. It’s just that, compared to when I first saw you, you’re like a completely different pony.” I flashed him a small smile when i finished.
“I could say the same thing about you too, using your mane to hide” Black Ivory deadpanned. “Also, I never got to know your name.” Ivory stated, which made my eyes widen in surprise.

“Oh I-Im sorry, my name is Fluttershy. It’s nice to meet you Black Ivory” I held my mane close to my face.

“Actually, Black Ivory isn’t my real name” The blindfolded stallion stated. “It’s actually Cold stone.” Cold stone revealed. I gave him a warm smile as I got off the bed.

“Well I think that is a wonderful name.” I Complimented as I started to trot away but Cold stone made a coughing sound which made me stop and look back at him.

“You kinda remind me of my mother.” Cold stone suddenly said. The statement surprised me a bit, but when I waited for him to continue, he lied back down and didn’t answer.

I decided to leave him rest for now as I left his room, only to be berated with questions by my friends.

“Did he do anything to you right?”

“Did he tell you anything important?”

“Ya kept your distance right?”

“What flavor of cake does he like?”

“I don’t want the ruffian was yelling about in there”

Those and many more questions came at me at a million miles per minute, which made me recoil a bit from the sudden volume change. I then put a hoof to my lips, that made my friends go quiet as the guards on each side of Cold stones room.

“You all should quiet down, he’s asleep right now.” I responded with a smile as I trotted off with my confused friend staring at me.