During the walk towards the Guard chief's quarters, I learned the names of the now helmetless guards in armor. Their names were Amethyst Flower, because of a blue-furred and mint-green maned stallion of older age who did most of the talking, and his junior partner Dusk Sight, who was clearly a young stallion with dim orange fur and a dim blue mane. They had been Sombra’s bedroom guards semi-surprisingly and had gone investigating when his mind control had been suddenly dispelled soon after Sombra abruptly left his personal bedroom in a hurry.

On that, I had found out that ponies were apparently about the size of large dogs, with heights clearly less than a meter and with lanky tin-can diameter legs that were noticeably taller than their barrels were long, alongside absurdly large eyes that were several times larger than any earth animal, but thankfully weren’t nearly as big as in the show. This unnatural sight certainly disturbed me greatly, but I didn’t let it show noticeably in my facial expressions even though part of my mind was being seriously unsettled by the mere fact that I was having literal conversations with non-human entities.

We arrived at the door of the chief of guards named Emerald Spear. Amethyst Flower knocked at the door after a cue and soon after, the resident opened the door to see the guard duo.

‘’What are you doing here at this hour- ‘’ when his eyes noticed a rather large and looming figure behind them.

‘’What is going on?!’’ was quite a loud response of alarm.

I stepped in and said the following statement in a very precise manner; ‘’I have come here to inform you about the fatal demise of King Sombra, and I personally wish you told the other castle guards they wouldn't come after me. I also request that you start gathering the highest government members for an official meeting to inform them about the current situation as well’’.

I said this because I had realized I would probably have to eventually show up in front of a government panel anyways, so they could receive a factual recount of what had happened, plus they would know what I looked like then. It was the type of move that I felt mostly comfortable at doing due to having strong doubts about anyone here being truly willing to take revenge on Sombra’s behalf, alongside my semi-inability to just leave the castle in favor of the streets.

Emerald Spear's eyes looked on with disbelief and replied, "Have I gone mad!?", but Amethyst's thankfully stepped in "Sir, King Somb-… That monster is now actually dead, and I think we should do as he said!", a very strong undertone of urgency and fear lay within Amethyst voice, which as a vibe his junior partner seemed to be strongly sharing as well.

Emerald Spear looked at us now with completely wide eyes and was seriously unsettled by the utter left-field absurdity of the whole situation. After half a minute, he looked at me ‘’Uhm… What’s your… name, creature?’’.

A question about my name caught me a bit off guard because the guard duo had not asked it before, and I almost immediately shared it until I remembered something.

‘These ponies speak English´ and thought back on some previous conversations in the English language, which I personally held in the past with some foreign people who, for most of the time, were unable to immediately say my name after hearing it and virtually always horribly mispronounced it. After a few seconds, I chose to settle for a compromise and translated my name into a more easily pronounceable version for these anglophone equines.

‘’My name is… Isaac, Isaac Swamp.’’ I said that and saw their ears visibly erecting upwards.

Emerald Spear then semi-calmly stated the following with an unreadable expression to me, ‘’I will then gather the council members you asked for, it will take about fifteen minutes’’, Emerald said, and then looked on for a sign of approval, which I granted using a nod, and he soon proceeded to trot towards the nearest main stairway.

‘I think Amethyst's testimony and the sight of the heart compelled him to believe us and do what was asked’, I thought and was relieved that the military chief didn’t seem to be very likely to desire my death clearly or covertly, as I had seriously feared and prepared some limited plans to make a run for it if things suddenly went ugly.

The guard duo and I moved to different section of the castle and waited in silence about a quarter of an hour while I thought about what to say to them, before breaking the silence, ‘’Where is the conference room?’’

‘’Fourth top floor!’’ was maybe too quick of a reply by them.

“Lead the way then.”, ‘Again!’.

Amethyst did, and we started moving towards our new destination while I personally eyed for signs of a potentially prepared ambush. Thankfully, such a thing didn’t seem to have been arranged, and we arrived at a large door whose frame’s sides were illuminated by bright light within the room.

I was extremely nervous about what was about to occur next as Amethyst opened the door. The guard duo went in first, and I stepped after them. I was very briefly blinded for a duration of half a second by the lights of the first properly lit room since coming here and saw several freshly stiffening ponies who were looking at me with completely focused stares and majorly dilated pupils within their eyes, except Emerald’s own being that of a bit lesser degree.

I stood still to better evaluate the mood within the room, which was now filled with a great amount of tension, and half-interestingly observed none of them committing any actions besides that. I was somewhat relieved internally, that this meeting didn’t immediately start horribly, and then I started looking for a personal seat.

I noticed the conference table literally being only a quarter meter in height and ponies residing on chairs that were just pillow cushions elevated off the ground by a few centimeters. I spotted an empty miniature throne-like seat residing at the end of the conference table and decided that it was the only real sitting option available to me. I walked towards the new seat of choice and sat down on the seat, whose height only reached halfway up to my knees from the ground (including its cushion) and saw the audience immediately flinching and retracting in fear in an almost exaggerated manner.

‘Okay, that might not have been the best move’ and I couldn’t help but start feeling that this sort of treatment would be awfully common anywhere I went within my time over here.

This constant unbroken silence was seriously starting to unnerve me as nobody had said anything after I sat down, and I realized that I would have to start this meeting myself, which held very serious personal future consequences for me.

‘’Greetings, my name is Isaac Swamp and you have been gathered here for important announcement that concerns the entire Empire’s future’’ they were listening like hawks now.

‘’For those who are uninitiated about the current situation, I inform you that the previous head of the Empire known as King Sombra no longer resides within the books of the living, ..., King Sombra has been confirmed to have died.’’… I was now seriously on edge about their next reaction due to doubting my personal capability of being very successful at escaping if I suddenly needed to fight my way out of this room due the already tense situation detonated into sudden violence.

‘’Impossible!!!, how could he possibly have died!!!’’, was the hysterical shout of one of the table members, whose attitude was that of complete personal worldview breaking levels of disbelief, which then spread to others at the table and, surprisingly after hearing it, two people literally fainted in conjunction.

Amethyst stepped in once more and calmly said the following, ‘’What he has said is true. We found him while looking for King Somb- THAT MONSTER and found him inside the top of the western junior tower. We also found Sombra’s own personal nightcap nearby, which we had seen him run off with from his bedroom due to us being made to guard it.’’

Oppressive silence dominated the room as council members' own brains apparently couldn’t even start processing what they had just heard. Silence continued for two dozen seconds until the gray stallion who had first spoken to me turned to look at me.

‘’It simply can’t b-‘’. Those words died in his throat as he saw the Crystal Heart lying in my lap, which I had just pulled out of the repurposed satchel during the silence, mainly because I had forgotten it was stored there during the meeting, which had been put there during the conference wait for a more comfortable holding. I also realized it might be a good idea to show it as proof of Sombra’s demise and to help calm down the group of now hysterical ponies. His and other’s eyes massively dilated as truth fully set in, and they froze, especially the gray stallion.

I determined I should do the following thing as more ponies gained their senses: "I will go outside the room to give you some time to discuss this between yourselves and out of my presence, thank you!", I rose up and walked towards the door with no one thankfully attempting to stop me.

I stood next to the door trying to listen to the sounds from the room for how long, but realized there was some sort of sound suppression/blocking going on with the room and I could barely make out anything but undecipherable shouts and what might have been sounds from acts of violence, but I chose not to enter until all audible sounds ceased. After about five minutes of silence, I speedily knocked at the door and quickly reentered the conference room.

What I saw was pretty shocking to me, as there were several silently weeping ponies with several just staring into space and on top of it all, a corpse, and I certainly knew that pony was dead because his bowels and bladder had been emptied to the floor! The body was nearly unrecognizable pulp from an utterly savage beating that he must have taken and realized a second later it was the very same gray stallion that had talked to me.

Witnessing this unexpected murder scene ended up greatly disturbing me as I could possibly be next, and then I turned towards the ponies with a very demanding tone, ‘’Who was he and why was he killed!?’’.

This caught the attention of Emerald Spear, who seemed to be the only one willing to answer from the group of very scared ponies who actively employed several attention-avoiding techniques to not be noticed, ‘’He was Misty Evening, Sombra's own personal spymaster who was constantly spying on us all for any sign of anything unwanted, like disloyalty.’’

I nearly facepalmed from the realization that the now deceased stallion named Misty Evening was basically the head of Sombra’s own secret police, and they had enacted lethal payback as their revenge for his deeds under Sombra.

‘Wait, why would he need a secret police officer?’ I realized alongside potentially alarming implications and continued after the situation in the room had normalized somewhat more.

‘’I thought Sombra did not permit any real amount of freewill under him. What was going on with your own mind control then?’’

Emerald Spear hesitated briefly and answered, ‘’He needed some autonomous agents to be able to effectively administrate his own Empire on his behalf and used a special variant of his dark spell on us. The spell dulled some of our independence but allowed most of our thinking faculties and free will to remain, so we could be useful. He forced us to work for him as his higher administrative branch for his legion of mindless puppets and killed anyone that displeased him at the slightest.’’ Emerald and others shuddered particularly at that last part of his speech.

I determined that they had likely been forced to unwillingly partake in some truly horrific actions, like some sort of mass purge of Sombra’s own enemies.

‘’Question: Are any of you from the original administration before Sombra?’’, Emerald and several others turned their heads, with some immediately breaking down in tears. Alarmed, I asked any of them to raise their hoof if yes, none did. 'Okay, this certainly did not bode well for future political stability for the locals alongside my own situation as well.'

I asked if any of them were nobles, and it was the same reaction but a lot worse.

‘They were literally nobodies, I think this country might be utterly fucked now’, I thought.

‘Okay, I need a breathing break from this roller coaster of insanity during these last few hours’, I concluded.

‘’Amethyst and Dusk, please clean up and remove Misty’s body from the room, its smell is starting to get rather unbearable.’’

Both stallions immediately tensed, ‘’Dusk go get some cleaning equipment! I shall remove the corpse.’’

Dusk swiftly left the room and Amethyst began to drag Misty’s body through the door until Dusk arrived with an utterly terrified maid in tow who then cleaned up the excrement and liquid mess at the most impressive speed of any cleaning act I had personally witnessed. Now Misty's body was taken care of for now, during which nobody had decided to say anything.

Turning to look at the council members, I realized I kind of accidentally ended up being the chief speaker for this ‘interim government, uh... provincial council?’ meeting.

‘’I think we should start discussing about the succession of the Empire and who will be in charge due to Sombra being off the throne now.’’ I said that and received only extremely nervous glances.

‘’I would like to know if there exists any nearby register of empire nobles, so we could start looking for a candidate for the next in line for the monarchy’’ that particular line resulted in them giving a look that I could only interpret if I had said one of the worst things of all time.

‘’W- what, going with the nobility then!?’’, I said in alarm.

A new pony with Azur fur and with an indigo-colored mane answered with a voice of strong distress ‘’They are all dead, all dead!!!’’

‘’What!?’’

She continued ‘’THAT abomination exterminated them all, and then actively kept hunting down for all the remaining survivors!’’

‘’What about the younglings!?’’

She gave a look that signaled that she had just been hunted by something from the past ‘’He did not spare any, not even the… foals’’, was the answer provided by her now disquieting voice.

‘Wau, just Wau!’, I personally thought Sombra had certainly committed some truly depraved acts, but nothing of this caliber. This statement seemed to be a new revelation to some and once more they broke down in tears, which had already been mostly exhausted of their energy beforehand.

‘Am I at the epicenter of a civilizational collapse within a nation that is about to disintegrate utterly?’ I thought, and it certainly did not sit well with me.

She continued almost two minutes later, ‘’How did that demon even die, actually?’’

‘’Oh, it was me’’ I retorted without really thinking about it.

Many grasped ‘’You killed the King Sombra?!?’’

‘’Well, yes.’’, I could easily argue about the details, but I think it might have been seriously detrimental to my own safety if I did. I could not help but notice that their acclimation to my presence also suddenly decreased.

The same mare nervously touched her collar and gulped ‘’As you have personally dealt with king Sombra. I ask what you need, uhm… Sir Isaac?’’

I visibly frowned at the gesture and Azur one immediately retracted in major fright.

‘’Sorry about causing displeasure, Your highness!’’

‘Okay, time to call out this farce.’

‘’So, you are saying I’m now The king?’’. They all flinched, and all quickly answered within a unison of a series of Yes’s, which I sensed not being truly sincere due to the fear of finding out what happens to the first pony among them when one decides to say ‘No’.

I called them out, ‘’What are you thinking!? I have no real legitimacy to rule or-‘’ that sentence was cut short as an invasive sound entered my head ‘Yes, you have now’.

I looked down and saw the Crystal Heart having generated a glowing pulse of light, ‘Is it self-aware and did it just seriously ask me to become the king’. The heart pulsed once more, ‘Yes’.

‘’Uh… Please conform if you really wish me to become the reigning... King. Two pulses for Yes and one for No!’’

The heart produced two flashes in quick succession. I looked up and saw the flabbergasted expression on everyone’s faces.

I wasn’t sure what to do now until the Azur pony broke the ice, ‘’The Crystal Heart talked to you personally!?’’

I was silent as she continued, ‘’The heart has only ever to have known to have talked like that to the members of a royal family!’’

I stooped down to look at the heart and asked in an almost convincing fake bored tone ‘’I’m I now legitimately the king?’’ I deeply dreaded the coming answer.

‘’Heart wills it! So, you undoubtedly are now!’’, was a voice of strong enthusiasm that was, however, briefly cut off for a moment by her remembering my non-pony status alongside some others table members.

‘’Well, due to lacking other eligible candidates for the throne and nothing else to do personally, I will then be head of this new government for now.’’ Mare almost beamed with joy and some others gave expressions of relief.

I screamed within my own mind about the whole situation, but my own expression reflected the tried and tested situational philosophy; ‘Don’t show any weakness!’.

‘’What should we do now, uh... King Isaac?’’ said the mare.

‘I must get out’ was the only immediate idea I could think of, ‘’Considering that it’s still before midnight, and we are all obviously exhausted from our day. I think we should start discussing the Empire’s future tomorrow morning. So, we are all at our peak performance for tomorrow’s day!’’ Thankfully there were nods and only silence.

The Azur mare was the first pony to speak, ‘’Actually, what species are you? Your highness.’’.

I seriously wanted this to be over already, ‘’I’m a human. The scientific term is Homo sapiens, and I’m a man or, in other words, a human male.

‘’Oh…’’ was one of the noises of the mare and some other council members while the rest of the council were keenly listening.

‘Abort, before this gets out of hand’. ‘’I think we should get on the sleeping now, before we exhaust too many hours. We have a very long day tomorrow, so you can go now!’’, it was almost a plea.

The ponies then tensed for half a second until a few seconds later they got up and began heading towards the door. I saw the mare and Emerald in a similar mood about having their day made, while on the contrary, I noticed one council member looking not too happy, ‘certainly something to remember and keep an eye on.’

Council members vacated the conference room and until only the guard duo remained. ‘’Amethyst and Dusk, what are your opinion on this more than strange situation?’’

Both were caught off guard and stuttered ‘’I think it’s wonderful, Sir. Undoubtedly a huge improvement over the last few hours. I have all my faith in you, if the heart also has, King Isaac!’’.

I wasn’t sure what to even make out of such a statement, but his slight smile on his muzzle showed he might actually be genuine, as hard as it was to believe, or they had become very talented at deception under Sombra.

‘’I will say the same, Sir’’ said Dusk, with a similar smile.

‘’Then we can retire for the night.’’

‘What the hell have I gotten myself into? Like seriously a king? Only this is no less absurd than some black guy managing to become the King of Cambodia by killing a super-powered Pol Pot.’ I thought in a barely fitting bed, which was meant for a yak.

I couldn’t stop worrying about how to even pull off such an insanely harebrained scheme that I personally couldn’t interpret as anything else than complete madness! ‘Like what is the heart possible thinking process for me or the situation if it genuinely decided to back a non-pony of all beings for the throne?’ Unlike someone more reasonable choice, like Emerald Spear.

I looked sideways towards the satchel with the Crystal Heart in it.

I then remembered my lightly arching body, plus the injuries. Sleep eventually came to me surprisingly fast (despite my mind storming about these events), because of those scrapes alongside extreme mental and physical fatigue, which even enabled my mind to fall asleep in such an anxious situation.

‘I hope Amethyst wakes me up tomorrow morning or better. This was just a dream.’

Author's Note

• Ponies in this story look like they are drawn by a (Derpibooru; artist: mrscroup) due to most of the easily visible artwork for the mod coming from him, plus there is consensus among EaW artists that ponies look like that. Pony height comes from his EaW 2022 Christmas picture featuring Richard Nixon.

• I don’t personally enjoy making OC and prefer to use others' own, but due to lack of information about this period, I had to create some and plan them to have character arcs. Note: That OC’s may be subject to change later within the story.

• I know this chapter has been published a lot rawer than most authors (to the point of starting to damage my credibility as an author), so I certainly must perform fairly through editing for the sake of quality control after the first arch is fully published.

• Expect the next chapter to come out in two or three weeks.

• Edit log: (Major rewrites and Grammar: 4.3.2024), (Minor rewrites and Grammar: 5.3.2024)