He walked to his home. It had been a long journey, and his body wanted rest, as did his mind, but there was a spell he had to cast first. He ducked under a large bush between two enormous rocks, opened a trap door, and entered his home. He walked through the network of tunnels and caves that he called home, his collections of magical items glistening, humming and sparkling all around him. When he reached his lab's locked door, he bowed his head, and inserted his three horns into the three holes in the door, and it opened wide for him. He stepped through, and the door locked behind him.
He carried on carefully through his lab equipment until he found what he was looking for, a set of eight metal idols. Each of the eight idols had a slot in the top of it's head where a gemstone was supposed to go...But all of the idols were empty. He dug through his bag of gems, finding the ones he deemed most suitable. First was Ruby, representing the element of Fire, which symbolized the most extreme emotions, deemed simply Passion. He caused the Rubies he had bought to float together, and he heated them and compressed them into a single stone, infusing them with magical power, and when he was done, he had a glowing red gemstone that hummed with sheer power. He placed it in the first idol, and smiled slightly when the eyes of the idol glowed red.
He continued on to Emerald, representing Earth and timeless vows, changelessness, Honor. Again he fused them together and placed the finished gem into the idol, this time watching it's eyes glow green. He watched as a thread of light spread from the two finished idols into several of the other idols, seeking completion of the circle of power. He hurried on with Sapphire for Water, growth and Beauty, Quartz for Wind, Thought, Opal for Light, Hope, Obsidian for Shadow, Sacrifice, Topaz for Energy, Curiosity and finally he halted as he lifted the final stones into the air.
He glanced at the idols, noticing the colors of the idols' eyes...Red, Green, Blue, Grey, White, Black and Yellow, all glowing and facing their opposites. The last idol sat empty, gazing hollow toward the idol representing Energy. He sighed. The last stone was Amethyst, The stone of Wisdom, and it represented his element, the one he felt most inclined to, the one he drew power from most easily...Dimension. Time, Space, reality itself. He scowled as memories invaded his thoughts, blocking out everything he was about to do.
* * * * * * *
Her eyes blazed, hatred burning into his soul as he gazed into her eyes. He lay on the ground, weak, limp, bleeding, and the one who had done this to him was the one he had loved most...The bright, beautiful Sun in the sky was now a bloated, power-hungry fiend who burned with greed and malice. Her Cutie Mark now shone with not the sun, but an orb.
The orb was orange, but for one edge of the orb, which bore a crescent of white. The orange was surrounded in a semi-circle of red, the white in blue, so that her mark, was in all, the crescent moon and the blazing sun together. She had truly lived up to her name, controlling not one, but both Celestial bodies....He remembered all to well how she had commanded the Nightmare forces to seed her sister's mind with doubt, giving her a reason to banish Luna to the Moon for a hundred years.
And then Luna had returned, her sister seemingly normal, and she had her own control of the moon back, or it appeared so. She, like so many, was completely unaware that Celestia had stolen her powers over the Moon, and simply channeled that stolen power through Luna, so to all appearances, it seemed Luna rose the moon each night. Celestia had commanded the Elements of Harmony to deal with Discord, on two occasions...A distraction. She had told Chrysalis and her changelings to interfere with Shining Armor and Cadence's wedding...Another distraction. She had resurrected Sombra to assail the Crystal Empire...yet another distraction. None of them saw her deception...All of them were blind.
For she had created the Changelings by corrupting foals that she had kidnapped, beginning with Chrysalis, once a young unicorn named Crystalmoon...Now the Changeling Queen. The others had been different from Chrysalis, as she was the strongest and most empowered of them, the others were simple fodder, made to be disposable. She had no desire to waste any of her precious power on things that would inevitably die anyway.
She had created Sombra from the Dark Magic she commanded, A being of greed and hatred. She had little trouble creating him, as she was the one who had first discovered Dark Magic...Indeed, it runs through her blood itself, she has meddled in it so long. She had created him to enslave the Crystal Empire, making her thievery of foals less obvious to the poor, powerless denizens of that region. Those Crystal Ponies that she had stolen - She had targeted Unicorns in particular - Were to become her personal Guardians...Bred into creatures of immense power.
Their was skin made from a type of ultra-hard obsidian crystal called Black Diamonds, and with good reason, for it was as strong as diamond, and black as night, nearly invisible in darkness. They had eyes of deep green, specked with red, reflected the burning envy and hatred within. These things were bred with magic, and so magic runs through their veins...Dark Magic, Nightmare Force and Chaos magic all infused with their very bodies, making them unstoppable. They had wings that allow them to move faster than any known creature, a horn - which is actually a set of two inter-braided horns - Channeling all of the fell power that ran in their blood, strength that could overpower that of a dragon easily, and the endurance of a mountain. These things are hard to fell, and even when you do, they get right back up.
The stallion knew quite well how strong these creatures were...He had been the first try at creating them. He had been adult at the time, and working for Celestia, and he became quite enthralled with her, and it appeared she felt similarly about him. She had told him that he would have to become more powerful if he wished to become her consort, as she had explained, because she was sunlight incarnate, and if her mate was not strong enough, she always ended up inadvertently destroying him. She offered to make him powerful enough to stand by her side, and the stallion had of course agreed, so the experiments began.
She mixed his blood with that of dragons, the strongest demons of Tartarus, and the blood of the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis. His form had warped and twisted, the pain overwhelming, but he had endured it because he cared for her dearly, and he wanted to be able to amount to more than just the Princess's note-taker in his lifetime. Once the experiments on his body had ceased, he was nearly dead, the stress on his body had been great, but Celestia healed him, restoring strength enough to him that he could begin to test out his new body.
He had sprouted wings, his strength had increased twenty-fold, and he grew two more horns, multiplying his magic's potency by three. He found he could travel through walls, shift into any form he desired, breathe a violet torrent of fire, among other miraculous abilities. His greatest power, though, had been that to heal, as he could heal any wound, cure any sickness, even restore the recently dead to life and full health. He was amazed at his own power, and thanked Celestia innumerable times for what she did for him. And so he became her consort, an Alicorn warrior and lover to the ruler of Equestria.
She had been unhappy with her creation. Sure, he had all those wonderful abilities, particularly his ability to heal himself and others...But he had free will, she could not control him. Yes, for now he loved her, and he was not going to become a problem immediately, but eventually he would tire of her or discover her deceptions, and he would shun her, and cause all those around her to do the same.
He was foolish in her mind, having all that power, more than her own, but not taking advantage of it, using it to gain more power and bend those around him to his will. She reminded herself that she would never be so foolish as to let any advantage pass her by like that, no matter if her temporary consort did or did not.
And so there she stood, her horn glowing with dark power, about to banish him for three hundred years...And as the bolt of energy struck him, reality did as well.
* * * * * * *
He snapped out of his nightmarish memories, still holding the Amethyst. The other idols were now alight with magical SpellFire, impatiently awaiting the completion of the ritual spell. He again heated and compressed the crystals together into a single stone, infusing it with the Magic that ran through his veins...Dark, Chaos, Nightmare, Dragon, Demon, Changeling and Alicorn Magic....All coming together in this one ritual. He carefully placed the eighth crystal into it's corresponding idol, and watched the strands of magic flow from it into the other seven, completing the circle. As he watched, he chanted the words of a long-forgotten language, commanding the energies to bend to his will. As he completed the final word of the spell, he closed his eyes in anticipation of what was about to happen.
The Center of the circle, the exact spot at which all eight idols' gazes intersected, erupted into a blinding sphere of multicolored light, which then rose slowly into the air, crackling as it grew in size and intensity, until it finally stopped six feet above the floor, and continued to grow. It finally grew to roughly the size of a beach ball, when it blasted the stallion with all it's might. He howled in pain, the wild sounds of a dragon's roar, a demon's wail, and a horse's scream echoed through the tunnels as his body changed. He grew larger, taller, more muscular until he was much taller than even Celestia herself. His horns and wings grew with him, giving him the power and speed that came with being an ancient Alicorn like the Princesses.
He had completed what Celestia had begun the day she had experimented on him, but he had improved upon her method, thus making himself stronger than every single one of her sinister Guards. He still looked the same, except for the fact that he was much larger and appeared much older...And one, other, tiny detail that most would overlook...His eyes now glowed with a funny little thing called SpellFire.
* * * * * * *