A Thousand Years Apart

The sound of rhythmically perfect marching and rushing wind became white noise to Sombra's ears as he and his mind-controlled army, clad in spiky cobalt-black armor, marched out of the safety of the Crystal Empire and into the Arctic North.

The coming battle would play a pivotal role in deciding whether he would continue to rule the Crystal Empire. If he loses, there is no doubt that the punishment the Celestial Sisters have in mind for his transgressions will be... severe.

The billowing winds around Sombra suddenly stopped, and the fog around him dispersed, revealing the Equestrian army led by the two sisters, marching just a few yards ahead. The Equestrians' armor shone in pure gold and silver, their faces hard and their mouths set in grim lines.

Sombra was first to shake off his surprise, “CHARGE!” he ordered, powering his red horn.

Quickly recomposing themselves, the sisters gave the same order, and the two armies clashed in the middle. Steel clashed against steel, and blood spilled onto the snowy ground as the two armies battled fiercely, their screams of fear and anger echoing across the icy wasteland.

Up above, the sisters dueled with the levitating Sombra. Both sides cast spell after spell, each refusing to give the other an edge. Sombra fired a beam of dark magic at Celestia but had to raise a shield when Luna hurled explosive fireballs at him.

Sombra glanced downward to see how his army was faring, only for his eyes to widen in shock as he witnessed their complete defeat. Most of the crystal ponies had died, and the rest were freed from his mind control once the Equestrian army removed their helmets.

“Thou hast lost, Sombra! Surrender, and thou mayst be spared from a fate worse than death!” Celestia commanded in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

“Never!” Sombra roared, his eyes burning with hatred for the two alicorns.

“Then thou hast left us no choice!”

Celestia and Luna stood side by side, the tips of their horns touching as they began to glow with power. Seeing this, Sombra tripled the power of his shield and prepared for the assault. With a roar, both sisters fired a combined beam of yellow and blue magic, their eyes glowing a pale white.

The beam collided with Sombra’s shield and he was slightly surprised to see that the shield held. His surprise was short-lived, however, as cracks began to form in his shield not even a second later. Sombra growled in anger as he tried to think of something to get him out of this situation. Sombra’s eyes suddenly widened and he put on a toothy grin as he had an epiphany.

If Sombra wasn’t allowed to win, neither were the sisters. Gritting his teeth, Sombra called upon the rest of his dark magic to enact his final gambit. Sombra’s horn darkened as purple boils bubbled from it; his eyes faded to a disgusting green color, and a purple aura began to encompass his body.

A faint purple and green glow began to emanate from the ground around the borders of the Crystal Empire. That glow became brighter as Sombra channeled more magic into his horn. Yes! He was almost finished, now all Sombra needs is a location.

But before Sombra could choose where to teleport the Empire, the combined beam from Celestia and Luna finally broke through his shield. Sombra screeched in agony as he felt his body begin to fall apart and transform. His limbs faded from the physical world first before being followed by the rest of his body until he was nothing more than a shadow. Before Sombra could even think of exploring his new form, he was dragged downward by an unknown force and into the jaws of a massive ice cavern.

Realizing what was happening, Sombra let out one last roar of defiance before being swallowed into the cavern, never to see the light of day again.

Cheers immediately broke out below as the Equestrian army and whatever remained of Sombra’s forces began whooping and shouting joyfully at seeing the tyrant finally defeat. Celestia and Luna shared a glance before smiling at each other and joining the two armies down below.

The two armies ceased their cheers as Celestia and Luna gracefully floated back down to ground level. Once their hooves touched the floor, everypony bowed under their majestic presence.

“Your majesties, what shalt thou’s next course of action be?” one of the soldiers asked.

Celestia opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by a violent quaking beneath her hooves. The sky above the Crystal Empire darkened, and a massive dome of dark magic began to envelop the entire nation. Panic gripped Celestia at this sudden turn of events. She quickly gathered the ponies around her and cast an emergency teleportation spell.

As the spell charged, Celestia looked around in alarm, watching her surroundings blur and fade into nothingness as Sombra’s spell took hold. But just before the blackness could reach them, the group was suddenly whisked away to the edges of Canterlot.

Upon rematerializing, the princesses and their soldiers stood frozen, watching in stunned silence as the dome loomed before them. It was blacker than the darkest night, eclipsing everything the princesses had ever witnessed. The tremors in the ground intensified, before suddenly, with an ear-piercing crack, the dome vanished.

Later, after Celestia ordered some soldiers to the borders of the Empire, their reports would reveal that the Crystal Empire had, for lack of a better term, disappeared. Unconvinced by the many repeated testimonies of soldiers and some civilians alike, Celestia and Luna went to investigate themselves.

They arrived to the sight of a gargantuan chasm that was quickly beginning to fill up with water.

Atlantic Ocean, Earth, Sol System, 1024 A.D.

The waters of the great Atlantic Ocean gently rippled along the surface, as they usually did. Sometimes the waters grew rough, and other times they became unruly; such was the natural order of things. But today would be different. Today, something was about to happen that had never occurred on this planet before.

It began with a sudden rush of wind, followed by dark clouds gathering over the Atlantic. The wind grew stronger and stronger until, suddenly, with a bright flash and a deafening crack, a new landmass materialized in the middle of the Atlantic.

The world shook to its very core as the magic binding the landmass forcefully connected it to the Earth’s crust. All the water that once occupied the space where the landmass now stood was swiftly and forcefully redistributed, forming an 800-foot-tall tsunami that surged in all directions.

Eventually, the waters around the landmass calmed, and the magical connection to the planet’s crust was fully established. The rushing wind died down, and the clouds parted, allowing the sun to shine down on the new continent.

The Crystal Empire had arrived.