Truth Behind Harmony: Between Angels and Insects

Sombra stood at the edge of the great Crystal capital, heart of the Crystal Empire and home to the crystal core. To many it was a city of peace and prosperity, but to him it was a city of hatred and bad memories. He lifted himself to his full height, spreading his wings as his magic began to pulse and grow. Dark bolts of lightning shot out from his horn, striking the crystals around him and infecting them. Black ooze began to leak from the crystals; black crystal ponies rising up from the corrupted pools, mindless minions that would server his purpose this night.

He gave them the command, and the army of dark crystal’s charging off toward the city, beginning the assault as Sombra began walking slowly toward the palace. He ignored the screams, the burning buildings and the forms of broken ponies as they began to litter the streets. Occasionally a pony would try and block his path, only to be broken under his hooves, for he planed to slate his blades hunger with another’s blood.

He finally reached the steps, climbing up them as an arc of energy hit one of the towers, causing it to fall as he slowly opened the doors. He walked inside, dispatching the guards as he made his way toward the throne room. He reached the crystal doors, using his magic to break open the doors and walk in, forming his sword as he looked toward the pony rising from the throne.

“Hello mother.”

“Sombra,” whispered Marmora, her eyes showing her disbelief. “No…no I will not believe this, you wouldn’t do this…”

“Wouldn’t I?” asked Sombra, walking toward the throne, his sword glowing bright in response to the enemy it hungered for. “You said you loved me, but at every twist and turn in my life you kept me from what truly made me happy, you kept me from her.”

His voice was cold, and he used like his sword, cutting into the mare who had brought him into this world. “I asked you, I begged you to let me bring the changelings into my city so that I could try and help them. But every time I asked you told me it was folly, that I should just forget her, that she was not worth it!”

“I can’t believe this, you are telling me you’re doing this because of some worthless mare, Sombra I told you there was nothing you could do.”

“I COULD HAVE SAVED HER!” He screamed in rage, the throne room shaking from the force of his voice.

“But at what cost? Sombra look at what you have done in the name of this so called love, you have delved into dark magic, enslaved your people and caused them to vanish, and now you are attacking me. So tell me child, how dose this help save your precious mare?”

“ENOUGH!” Shouted Sombra as he moved his blade in front of him, “I swore I would save her on my honor as an alicorn, and once you are gone I will have no more obstacles in my way. Now…”

“Mom?”

Sombra watched as Marmora’s face paled, and he turned toward the direction of the voice. Standing in an open doorway, rubbing her eyes like she had just woken up, was a pink filly. She had a multi colored mane and tale, the colors going from yellow to hot pink and then a soft colored yellow, just like Marmora’s.

Sombra started to turn when he heard the sound of glass shattering to his left, and then he got tackled and bucked into the adjacent wall.

“Marmora, grab Cadenza and run!”

“But…but Sarah…”

“GO!”

Sombra slowly got up as he heard Marmora run away, and her turned to look at the pony that had bucked him. He was not surprised to see a tall female bat pony standing in front of him, a crystal pendant glowing around her neck, channeling her magic into her own blade.

“Hello father,” said Sombra.

“You don’t have the right to call me that Sombra; you lost that right when you betrayed Marmora’s trust.”

“Well it must be so gratifying to finally know your right,” said Sombra with a malicious grin. “To know that every thing you said about me has finally come true.”

The mare before him shook her head, her face a mask of shame and sorrow. “No Sombra, for once I am not happy that I was proven right in the end. You are a child of Marmora, you…”

“I am a child of RAPE!” Sombra yelled, stamping his hoof down in rage. “I always knew that because everypony was only too quick to remind me of it. They hated me, you hated me…she hated me!”

“She never hated…”

“YES! SHE! DID!” he roared, “she gave me life, and she gave me a comforting home! But when it came to the thing I wanted most, the thing that would have made me happy beyond anything, she chose to keep me from it, because no mare should ever have to mate with a monster like me!”

“You’re not a monster Somb-” started Sarah.

“Yes I am! I was never meant to be anything but a monster.” he then unleashed a burst of magic, catching Sara off guard and encasing her in black crystal. Sombra turned his back on the trapped mare, figuring an eternity trapped with her thoughts would be a fitting punishment, and went down the hallway Marmora had taken the child.

He blasted open the door, and smiled when he saw Marmora still trapped on the other side, the door sealed shut with black crystals. He sent a blast directed at Marmora, hitting her in the back and causing her to cry out. He watched as she fell to the ground, the filly running over to her as he approached. The filly noticed him, and to his surprise she formed a blade, pointing it at him and causing him to laugh.

“Please,” he said, lifting up his blade to strike. He swung down, but instead of meeting the younger alicorns blade, it met the flesh of his mothers shoulder. She kicked him away, a little of her blood flowing into the blade, making it glow brighter do to its temporary feeding. The blades alicorns and unicorns made were very powerful weapons, sentient things that actually fed off the victims that fell before them, but only the blades of divine alicorns could permanently strengthen themselves through that process. Marmora cringed at the feeling of her strength ebbing, knowing that her own blade would be weakened due to her act. She formed her own blade, putting herself in front of Cadenza as a set of blood red armor formed over her.

“YOU’LL NOT TOUCH HER!!!” she roared, awakening her inner beast. Her feathery wings molted, bones sprouting out and forming leather, becoming large and bat-like. Her eyes developed dragon-like slits, glowing bright orange as fangs formed in her mouth. Then last thing to change was her hooves, claws forming on them and digging into the crystal floor below.

Sombra smiled, “So, you think to defeat me with your beast, well two can play at that game.”

“You know you can never beat me at this Sombra, I hold dominance over Frigg, you cannot best me.”

“Who says I am going to use Frigg,” he said, casing her to look confused. “Taurus, I bid thee, come forth!”

The moment the words left his mouth, her body mutated, black crystals forming over every section of his body. The leather disappeared from his wings, green energy spreading between the gaps and coming of in sparkly flecks. His eyes became red rubies, and his horn became jagged as his main and formed into floating crystals. He looked back at his mother and smiled, his diamond teeth gleaming as he spoke.

“I abandoned Frigg long ago mother, Taurus is my beast now, and he is stronger.”

Marmora growled, and then the leapt at each other. Claws clashed and teeth bit down as the two rolled around the hall, but it soon became evident who would prevail. Sombra’s flesh resisted her claws, and his claws dug deep into her flesh, easily cutting through her defenses. Finally he threw her to the ground, watching with an evil smirk as she shifted back to her original state. He lifted his claw, intending to finish her off then and their, when he stopped, the sound of crystals shattering as an arrow pierced his heart. He glanced down at the shaft protruding from his chest, and then looked up to see the filly, a bow formed with her magic and another arrow knocked, ready to fire.

“A…a girl…?” was all he managed to say, then his vision darkened, and he saw no more.

* * *

Chrysalis’s eyes finally cleared as the vision ended, tears falling from them at what she had seen. She had known he had become obsessed after she had rejected him, but to know that she had been the cause of all that pain, and of Marmora’s death. She shivered, looking around the throne room. She had seen what he had done to Marmora’s mate, and it was unlikely the Dreadlings would have approached this place due to the evil which had lingered, an evil now being purified in her body. She spotted the statue, walking over and gazing into the face of the pony who had helped raise her love. She leaned her head against the statue, then her eyes widened as she detected a pulse.

She placed her horn against the statue, sending in a pulse of magic and breaking the prison. She caught the pony as she fell into her arms, coughing as her lungs began to work for the first time in a thousand years. The mare looked up at her, here eyes showing recognition as she looked into Chrysalis’s eyes. “Chry…Chrysalis?”

“Sarah, it’s been…some time.”

The mare backed away from her, looking around the room, her eyes widening do to the warped look of the place. “I remember…I remember trying to reason with Sombra…then he…,” she stopped, here eyes widening as she remembered why Sombra had arrived. She turned on Chrysalis, here eyes full of fear as she started walking toward her. “Where is my wife and child, where are Marmora and Cadenza?”

Chrysalis hesitated, not really wanting to anger the mare before her, but not wanting to withhold the truth from her either. “Ca…Cadance lives; she is living peacefully in Equestira, and is happily married to a young stallion.”

“And…and my wife?”

“…from…from everything I…I could gather…she died in Equestria, giving Cadance to Celestia…”

Sarah’s eyes filled with tears, her face contorting first in sorrow, then in fury as she glared back at Chrysalis. “What of Sombra, and don’t you dare tell me he is dead, I can smell his sent all over you.”

Chrysalis hesitated once more, but again the urge to tell the truth overrode her fear. “He lives, but-” she said, noting the angry gleam in her eyes. “-he has changed Sarah. He split himself, sending the part he split off here, while he remained in the part of the Crystal Empire he ruled over. He got trapped in ice for a thousand years, then after words he escaped, and got purified by the crystal heart there, you yourself know how powerful those artifacts are.”

Sarah grimaced; remember the feeling from her own “Purification”, the pain never really going away from her body after it was forced to undergo such a painful process. In her time, purification through use of a Crystal Heart was actually forbidden due to the pain it left behind, for it basically ripped the dark emotions from a pony, leaving behind a feeling of pain to remind them what it cost to help them. Sarah had undergone the process herself so that she could be by Marmora’s side, and though she had loved the mare dearly, the pain it had left her with often made her wonder if her love was worth it.

Chrysalis slowly walked up to the mare, noting the pained look in her eyes. “I…I know you may not forgive him for what he did, but he has changed, and is trying to be a better pony. I know he said he did most of it for me…but part of me doubts this. You’re the only pony alive who knew him besides Marmora…I must know if what he said was true…”

Sarah looked at the mare before her, noting the begging look in her eyes. Chrysalis had been one of the few things Sarah had ever disagreed about with Marmora, for she thought Chrysalis was good for Sombra, the only mare in his life that really loved him for him. “Chrysalis, I know from experience that a mare can make a pony do some crazy things…but you were not the reason my son turned on us.”

“Wha…what do you mean?”

“Before you turned him away, Sombra had been trying to distance himself from us. He stopped visiting Marmora, started ignoring her letters to him, and kept mostly to himself before and after you turned him away. It was like…it was like something else was dictating his moves, telling him what to do and what to say…” she stopped as she heard Chrysalis gasp, turning toward her with a knowing look. “You know something about this, don’t you?”

“He…he used to speak of another…a pony he called his true mother, said she…she gave him things you two never did…”

Sarah looked confused for a moment, and then she growled, “Discordia!”

Chrysalis stared at her in shock, “how do you know that name?”

“That bitch seduced me, and she led me away from my post the night Marmora was rapped. That bitch turned me to putty in her hooves, at least till I heard the screams…but by the time I got back the deed had already been done…”

Chrysalis looked horrified, bile rising in her throat as she thought of what that implied. “She…she did that?”

“Yes, and now I can see why, needed something she could use, a pony close so close to us we would never see their betrayal coming till it was too late. Now I must ask, do you know where Sombra is, and if you do can you take me to him.”

“I…I do know where he is…but I have to have your word you will not harm him, he…he is important to me and my people, without him we will starve.”

“What are you talking about…are you saying he…?”

“He created a spell,” said Chrysalis, “he…he managed to create a flame made of love based off of the fire of friendship…he made it just for me…”

Sarah stared at her for a moment, then she sighed. “I cannot promise that I will not harm Sombra, he did after all bring harm to my wife. But if you take me to him, I will give him a chance to prove to me that he is a changed stallion.”

Chrysalis nodded, and then spread her wings along with the bat pony, taking off into the sky as the sun began to climb, scattering the feral beasts below.