The Epic of Sombra

Original manuscript was retrieved from a cave in the Crystal Mountains, translated by Star Swirl the Second in the First Age of the Steadfast Sky. First Edition is located in the Library of the Crystal City.

Hark!

And that once was shall be once more

The Past and Future King, the ruler of that which shall be

In Lands long forgotten, in lands yet found

Ariow, the deceiver

On the Temple at Senntisten

On the Seventh Day

Of the Seventh Month

Of the Seventh Year

Whereupon Twelve Centuries of the the Year of Creation

Ariow, the Darkness of the Derikhalm

The one who would save, yet doom

Whereupon he who would create, yet destroy

For he once would be

Highest Disciple of the Four Masters

And yet Fumus he learned

And from Glacies he struck

And from Umbra he sought

And thus as Cruor he beseeched

But the Four were One

And as One was shunned

Four turned

And smote down was he

But the Fire within burned brighter than the Fire without

And survived, did he, to return once more

And the Successor, did he return once more

For thus as he did, and thus did he not

Harken! for those words were not heeded

And the Shining City was destroyed, and was no more

But such was the power of the Empty One

And rebuilt was the Third Dome

And Ariow guised as Shades

And the King of Shadow was banished

Apostate of his Lord and God

Fled to the lands of Seren

Great Goddess of Kristal

Great Goddess of the West and North

And to the mountains of the Kristal

There he learned

The might of Crystal, for it was then called

But what once did once more

And he was struck from the Spire of Voice

And cast out of the plane

And Shades guised once more

And Ombre known was he

To a land of the Horse he was found

And here he lay for an Aeon

Until the First Ponies came to the North

Fleeing the wrath of the Sun

They came to our land, the land of the Crystal Mountains

And under his guidance, the ponies of the North prospered and grew

And thus the Great Empire of Crystal was born

And he took our guise

The shape of ponies

And as one befitting of his power

A unicorn

Adept at the Mystic Arts as he

In times forgotten

When the Dragons were young

When the Zebras found the stripes

And Griffons first flew

And so ancient was the Empire of Crystal

But all things have their time

And the power of the Empire waned

And they saw he had not borne the mark of pony

And forged himself a great suit

Armor of Steel and Sorcery

But so clouded had his Empire's Vision become

He feared for his life

And the Life of his Empire

And he consulted the Black Book

The Ildatch

Borne from the beginning of time

And the End

And the Dark Magic within

And the Nightmares of the Past

And So corrupted was he

Like she he would be borne of the Moon

And tried did he

And so little by little

Do single grains of sand become a mountain

Many small concessions

Through so many large years

And the Crystal Empire was no longer free and good

But clouded was his vision

And feared did he

That he saw not.

And thus had become the King of the Crystal Empire,

Years passed.

And slaved away to ponies of the Crystal Empire.

And the power of Ombre was so

They remembered not their long lives

They remembered not how once ponies would live and die

They remembered not the tales of other lands

Or the Heart

They remembered not the time before

They remembered not the power of the Once Crystal Empire

For clouded had his vision become

And thus was the Crystal Empire.

For he feared for his life, and that of his empire.

Overreaction and Underreaction.

And slowly by slowly

Did the Empire crumble to dust

For he feared

And his fear controlled

And corrupted not only he

But the Heart long forgotten.

And so, he left.

And protective wards

And dimensional shields

And smoke and mirrors

And tricks long forgotten and long collecting dust

And so he used them

And hid is Empire

For if he did not

Who knows what cruel force and oppressive Emperor

What immortal king and terrible sight

What would come to his Empire

And corrupt it from within

And enslave its people

And hide it for one thousand years?

And so became

The once mighty Crystal Empire

The First and the Last

The civilization hidden in plain sight.

And so

For One Thousand Years

Did King Ombre

And his once mighty people

Hide and Slave and Sneak

For the preservation of freedom and survival.

For he did not see what had become of his once mighty empire

For clouded had his vision become.

But to the Tribes of the South

Did those who but not fleeing

Instead mastered the power of Sun and Moon

And did two then seek those ancient powers

As ancient as the Empire itself

Those Six Elements

Those powers of those who would combine

Those who would believe in the Principle

That the Whole is greater than the Sum of its parts

And So Two

Whose power would grow as to rival his own

They saw not the past

Only the present

And what they believed what might come to be

And so they saw a threat

A second power that would rival their own

One land united such as theirs

And they acted

And so they journeyed north

Past the land of their own people

To what once was the Mighty Crystal Empire.

And so it came to pass

That again he was smote

By those Six Elements

And imprisoned beneath the Ruins of his Once Great Empire

But he had left one last device

A complex weave of those Mystic Arts

Left from long ago

That if he were to fall, to be struck down

That his mighty Crystal Empire would survive

And so it came to pass

That one whim from long ago

One last, hidden precaution

From a time of unclouded vision

That the Crystal Empire would survive

And those that opposed him would call it a curse

For there is no Good nor Evil

No Right and Wrong

No Curse nor Blessing

Only what you are taught is Right and Wrong

Only you and them

Only the Many and the Few

Only the Majority and the Minority

And thus it had come to pass.

That the once mighty Crystal Empire was lost Forever.