Chapter 8: Hail To The King
“Hhhhnnnggg!” groaned Loré with her eyes wide and pupils strained. Beats of sweat quickly formed and streamed down her forehead by every groan of exertion.
“What is she doing?” asked Namworth with a raised brow.
“Ah’ believe she’s trying to plow,” answered Applejack casually while leaning against a fence. Both Namworth and Applejack were curiously observing Loré as she time and time again attempted to pull a plow from its firm place in the dirt, however, never succeeding in moving it an inch.
“Argh! Move already!” screamed Loré before ripping off the harness, and smacked it against the farm equipment as she glared with fiery eyes.
“Loré, why are you trying to move the plow?” asked Namworth in a hesitant manner.
“I’m obviously trying to plow the fields, you moron!” snarled Loré.
“Yeah, I could figure out that much. What I meant was, why are you doing it?” sighed Namworth.
Loré gave the plow one hard kick with her right hindleg as she went past it to approach Namworth and Applejack at the fence. “Because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? They’ve done a lot of nice things for us, one favor after the other. It’s only right that we do something nice for them. Don’t be rude, Namworth, I thought better of you than to dismiss simple friendship etiquette.” Though Loré was slightly winded, she had enough breath to insult Namworth when given the opportunity.
“Sort of, Loré. Friends are definitely supposed to help each other, but we don’t keep track of it like we’re making a deal or something like that.” Namworth chuckled lightly, amused over the sudden effort Loré had put into this kind of behavior. “Also, I don’t think you’re doing it right. Somepony like you, or me, just aren’t cut out for pulling plows. We aren’t as strong as the ponies in the Apple family here.” He quickly motioned towards Applejack with both forehooves, who was more than happy to agree with that statement.
“Nonsense! I can do anything I put my mind to. There is no such thing as a task that’s impossible for me,” boasted Loré with a confident smirk plastered all over her face.
“Well, at least try to do it the way other ponies do it,” sighed Namworth. “You’re kinda aggressive and stubborn… Not that it’s a bad thing, but sometimes you need to take a different approach to solve problems.”
Loré kept her eyes of contempt on Namworth as she thought about her initial approach to just about anything in life. But before she could give an answer or even a retort, Applejack broke the silence with a much cheerier note.
“Well, it was awfully nice of ya to help, Loré. But, ah’ don’t think ya got what it takes ta pull that thing.” Applejack forced a weak smile at the commendable, yet wasteful effort of Loré. She had been patiently waiting for Loré to give up so she could get on with her chores.
“As much as ah’ appreciate ya help with mah’ chores, ah’ can do them just fine on mah’ own. Why don’t ya go upstairs and relax some before yer trip continues?” Her smile grew and so did the anticipation in Applejack’s eyes as Loré contemplated the suggestion of just relaxing.
“Very well. I shall accept your offer. I believe I’ve done enough as it is. Oh, and Namworth, I don’t wish to be disturbed, I have some very important business to attend to now.” Loré’s usual cocky smirk brimmed from ear to ear as she pranced past the fence, heading towards the farm while being deeply enveloped in her own thoughts.
“Sure thing, Loré. I’ll just hang out with Applejack or something.” Though Namworth talked loudly enough for Loré to hear it, not a word was picked up by his companion.
Loré walked back into the farmhouse and through the kitchen, which was still being cleaned up after the spectacular breakfast that the Apple family had cooked up for their guests. Big Mac gave Loré a glance and a nod as she went by him, but received about the same amount of recognition as Namworth had gotten. Loré felt she’d done her job in repaying the Apples, even if she had done next to nothing. Now the most important moment of her life stood before her: deciphering the book that’d reveal all the answers to any question she’d ever had about King Sombra and his dark powers.
She made sure the door to the guest room was locked, the curtains were drawn in front of the windows, and nopony was hiding under the bed, or within the closet. She was finally alone, and able to practice the spell she’d learned from Twilight. Loré fished out the book from her saddle bag to place it on the bed.
“Now, let’s see. How about we begin from the very start?” she asked herself while opening up the book, keeping it at the first page before taking a step or two back.
“Here goes nothing…” Loré closed her eyes and narrowed her brow. Magic began to flow through her horn, causing it to glow brightly as she focused all her energy into the spell. Agonizing exertion led her hooves to scrape against the wooden floor with enough pressure to cause clear indentations of her stance. Tears welled up in the corners of Loré’s eyes; her body had begun to shake, and, worst of all, she had pushed herself to the point of fainting.
Loré woke up an hour later lying on her side on the floor. Her vision was blurry, and the feeling in her head could best be described as somepony having drilled a railroad spike through it. She slowly rose up onto her hooves, eyeing the book which had only moved an inch from when she started her spell.
“Nothing… I saw nothing, no visions, no information… ARGH!” yelled Loré as she wobbled over to the bed, giving it a hard kick for good measure. “You stupid, dumb, moronic, terrible, spell!” She repeatedly kicked the bed with every insulting adjective she added to describing the spell. “It did NOTHING, Twilight, nothing at all!”
The red tint permeating her kicking leg was the only thing that stopped her from further damaging the bedpost. She backed off once again, gently rubbing the bruise as she continued cursing the inept spell under her breath.
“No. I must have done something wrong. As much as Twilight is a tool, she knows magic better than anypony else.” Loré let out a calming sigh as she slowly regained her composure. “Let’s try this… one more time… The way Namworth suggested…”
This time she took on a different approach to the spell. Brute force and unyielding stubbornness had not borne her much fruit when it came to magical endeavors, and this particular spell required her to get in sync with the mentality of whoever had written the book. King Sombra had been cold and calculative in the history books which had survived the ages. With this fact in mind, Loré allowed herself to become calm and clear-headed. She took one slow and deep breath after another, eventually easing herself into the mental exercises she had to do to perform the spell itself.
Everything just seemed to flow inside her. The agonizing pain had become a mere tingle, the heavy sense of pressure was nonexistent, and the world seemed to just melt away around her. Her horn, along with the book, began to glow once again. Her eyes suddenly darted open, glowing a bright white color as visions raced across her pupils.
Images of dark shapes, a sense of impending doom, and horrible things that Loré couldn’t even put a hoof on echoed through her very being. Loré was hurled out of her trance as quickly as she had gone into it, almost thrown backwards by what she saw.
“What in... What was that? Was that Sombra? You don’t want me to read your book, hmm?” Despite Loré’s panting, she drew upon a cocky smirk. Little to no information had been retrieved, but she knew why she was kicked out. She had gotten that much from the spell. It worked, and whatever was left of Sombra didn’t want her to see the beginning of his diary.
“Are you scared, Sombra, or is it perhaps embarrassing secrets you’re hiding? It doesn’t matter. I will gain the information I need, you might not want to share the start, but there is something in there you wanted me to see. Why else did you tell me about this book? Now, let us try this one more time.” Loré approached the book once more, turning the pages to about midway through it before going back to her original spell-casting spot.
She once again repeated her improved steps, calming her mind, easing up her body with slow steady breathing, and finally allowing the magic to simply flow through her. She felt the world melt away once more, but this time was different. Her mind wasn’t tossed about like a leaf in a hurricane; there were no foul images or horrible sensations. No, all she felt was cold.
Loré slowly opened her eyes, and much to her own surprise, the cozy home of the Apples was no more. Her breath had become visible in the bone-chillingly cold air which felt as dead and unmoved as the bones of an ancient crypt. Beneath her hooves was compressed snow which stretched out every which way from her. The walls had turned into icy rock contorting its way up into a jagged dome. Loré faced out of the circular room, just one step away from her was a steep chasm leading into a dark abyss. On the other side of the drop was presumably the only exit to this cave. However, the ledge was elevated by several feet, making a jump impossible for a unicorn or an earth pony.
“I’ve… I’ve been here before,” mumbled Loré while her eyes darted from one protruding feature of the icy walls to another. “I was here in my dream. This means that…” Loré turned around, and just as she suspected, within the middle of the large high ceiling room behind her stood a several feet tall cluster of pitch black crystals. Gray fog crept and coiled around the ominous structure which pulsated into the air above it, tainting the ceiling of the cave to a matching black tint. It was almost as if a powerful presence whispered dark secrets into her ears when she dared to look straight at it. The sensations Loré experienced were quite alarming to her, but not enough to deter her from curiously approaching the fixture.
“This was in my dream as well. King Sombra spoke to me from that thing. He tried to tell me something. He–“ Loré stopped her out-loud pondering as she heard the thud of four hooves simultaneously hitting the snow right behind her. Her head darted to the side, only to see nopony else but King Sombra himself.
Although it was Sombra, he seemed different. He wore no crown or cape, or any other kinds of clothing. His tall, lanky physique bore signs of starvation and numerous bruises. The pitch black mane dangling from his head was messily spread every which way. His eyes were stern and as deep as the ocean, posture regal and noble despite whatever had happened to him, and his resolve absolute as he carefully approached the crystals.
Loré had already spun herself around to face Sombra, almost going into a panic as she had no clue what to do with herself now that he was actually here, in front of her, and rapidly getting closer and closer to her. Moving backwards she cowardly exclaimed with a shaky voice, “K-king Sombra, I thought you were dead, or sort of dead at least, I mean, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, you look kind of horrible right now, I mean, I’m just–“ Sombra walked not only past her, but through her body as if she was nothing more than a shadow to him.
Loré stood dumbfounded in her spot, her eyes rapidly moving from side to side as the gears churned like never before inside her brain. All the things added up to her now. “This isn’t the present. It’s not even an alternate dimension or anything of that sort. It’s just a freaking memory.” Her frame tilted some to the side as she almost allowed herself to fall into the snow while releasing a deeply frustrated groan. “I can’t believe I was scared of a diary excerpt…” She sighed once more and shook her head over the pathetic behavior she had just acted out. “Oh well. I guess all I can do is watch this memory play out. It must be what you’ve wanted to show me.”
Sombra halted right in front of the cluster of crystals, carefully observing them as if looking at them for long enough would reveal some kind of secret to him. He proceeded to slowly walk around it, his eyes still glued to them, and his face stuck in the stern expression he had appeared with.
“Come on, Sombra. Just take the powers from the crystals! It’s why you’re here, right?” groaned Loré. “It’s obvious to a genius like me that those things are just brimming with dark powers. And, judging from the way you look, no purple glow in your eyes, nothing fancy on your body, well, it’s obvious that you don’t have a lick of dark magic, or power for that matter.” She smirked cockily as she mocked him, walking along with Sombra in a circle around the crystal, though a bit further away from them.
Sombra naturally didn’t react to a word she said, he just kept his focus on the crystals, circulating them a few times before taking action. Unlike Loré, it didn’t seem like it took much effort for Sombra to produce one beam of bright white magic after another. He blasted the crystals from every angle, bombarding it furiously again and again until it was clouded in white smoke, and he was left panting from the exertion of repeating the spell a few dozen times.
“What are you doing!?” yelled Loré. “You imbecile! Why would you attack this glorious source of power?! I mean, come on. Surely you of all ponies would know that… Sombra?” It was first halfway through her rant that Loré noticed Sombra’s lips moving, but all she could hear was silence, or when focusing hard enough to hear, distorted sounds.
“What is going on here? You clearly wanted me to see this place, and see this memory of yours. Why don’t you want me to hear your talking, Sombra? You must have some kind of consciousness linked to this book. So answer me already!” Loré glanced around the room for signs of anything abnormal, anything she could pin to being a sentient being that would be able to communicate with her, but she was all alone in there. Well, alone if one didn’t count the memory of Sombra as somepony else.
Her attention was first pulled back to Sombra and the crystals when she saw from the corner of her eyes, another bright glow of magic. A beam flowed from the crystals into Sombra’s horn. His stern facial expression contorted and writhed in unison with his body, and from what Loré could tell, she would be able to her pained groans if she was able to hear him. The dark hue of the crystals grew fainter, and the discoloration of the ceiling vanished completely after a few seconds of the two being interlocked with each other.
“Is he?.. He is! He’s draining the crystals! Wonderful!” Loré jumped about giddily in the snow, almost dancing around the struggling King as he kept on absorbing the crystals’ dark powers. The spell was performed for almost a good solid minute before breaking abruptly and Sombra went on to stumble about in a seemingly aimless and confused haze.
“Woah woah there, are you alright big guy?” Loré had grown more playful by the second with this memory of Sombra. “I know it’s probably quite the rush to take in that much power, but be careful. I said be careful!” Her yell came as Sombra had wandered himself near the ledge of the cave, his head swinging around wildly, and his body shaking and stumbling over itself. Loré was about to jump in to stop him as his forehooves peaked out over the ledge, but it was at that moment Sombra stopped his drunken movements.
His body was hunched over, rapidly puffing out clouds of warm air as he regained his composure. He turned away from the ledge, head held up high, and as he opened his eyes, purple flames burst from his sockets, though they died down to what everypony alive today remembered them as. The stern expression on his face had been replaced with an overly confident smirk, remarkably similar to Loré’s.
“Now that’s the King Sombra I know and adore!” Loré cheered while grinning like an idiot. “Thank you for showing me this place. I’m now certain of what I must do to get your powers. The dark crystals is the key to everything. I just need to figure out how to get to them, but judging from this place I can deduce it’s somewhere near the Crystal Empire. So logically I’ll–“
“SILENCE!” Echoed Sombra’s voice while his glowing eyes stared at Loré. His imposing figure made for quite the threat as he approached her, but this time stopping right in front of her. “You’re a disgrace.”
Loré had already crumbled into a ball in the snow, peering up at Sombra from the crack between her forelegs. “Y-you can see me?! Th-that must mean… I mean… I-I’ve done precisely what you’ve asked me to do! I went back, got the book. I’m even on my way to the Crys–“
“SILENCE!” The room shook from the mere yell of Sombra’s voice. He remained like a statue before her, staring with relentless eyes as he continued. “I’m disappointed with seeing how pathetic and weak you are! I called out to what I thought to be my bloodline, my heir. What I’ve come to see is a sniffling excuse of a unicorn.”
Despite Loré’s tremendous respect, adoration, and fear of Sombra, she couldn’t let such rude comments go by unscathed. She rose from the floor like a bird taking flight, staring right into his eyes as she growled back at him, “I’m a highly accomplished historian! I’ve done plenty of great deeds, I’ve–“
“You’ve accomplished NOTHING of importance! You’re weak in power. Whatever feats you think you’ve accomplished means NOTHING to me. All I see is what you can do, and what you will do.” He pushed her back with a hoof, a mere poke had enough force to send her back a few feet. “A unicorn of your low magical affinity will never be capable of controlling the powers of the dark crystals. They are the source of all my powers. I was a strong unicorn, but even in comparison with what I am now, I was weak. You on the other hoof, are pathetic.”
Loré had yet to recover from having the wind knocked out of her, but she was able to glare up at him while grumbling, “But why did you call for me then? Why… why did you ask for my help?”
His eyes went from her to the crystals. “I misjudged you. I wasn’t able to fully gauge your strengths and weaknesses. I thought you had more in you than… this. You’re the only unicorn in my direct bloodline alive today. You weren’t chosen by me. You were simply the only choice I had. But, I have come to regret this decision.”
With a limp Loré made it back up to Sombra’s personal space, growling deeply from the searing anger that burned beneath the surface. “Misjudged me?! I’m certain you have now. I’m stronger than you think… I have what it takes! I’M JUST LIKE YOU!” Her eyes welled up as she cried out her last sentence. “I’ve always been different, always been strange and incapable of being like anypony else. All I had was my hatred, something I know you had great heaps of as well! I have your burning hatred for everything and everypony, I have a desire for ultimate power, I have–“
“You had it… Your hatred and anger was promising. But… In the last week’s time you’ve grown close to somepony else. You’ve accepted all the kindness and generosity of other ponies. You’ve become warmer, kinder, and friendlier.” Sombra and Loré were like mirrors to each other. Their posture and the hateful reflection in their eyes were identical. Even their tone would have been the same if not for the booming echo in Sombra’s voice. “You’ve become everything I’m not.” Sombra turned away to face the abyss once more.
Loré was lost for words. She couldn’t believe what Sombra had said, but somewhere in her cold concrete heart she knew it to be true. A myriad of emotions broke forth to her face, being as transparent as stainless glass to Sombra. She shifted from heartbroken, to unforgiving fury, to inconsumable despair. She had come this far, forsaken her duties for this once in a lifetime chance. She was not going to take a no from Sombra, not now, not ever.
“I can change back! I still have hate burning inside me. It’s never gone away, not even for a moment. I gave up everything for this… I can become stronger. There must be a way.” She stubbornly walked up beside Sombra, staring him down as if it would accomplish something on its own.
“If, and only if you grow stronger, if you can get back in touch with who you were born to be. Perhaps there’ll be hope for you then.” His eyes drifted back upon Loré’s furious expression. “If you can figure out a way to empower yourself, then contact me again once you’ve reached the Crystal Empire. It shouldn’t be difficult for you then, especially when you are within my reach.”
“What is your alternative if not me huh?” Loré’s confidence had quickly found footing once more with the change of tone in Sombra’s voice. “You said it yourself. I’m the only unicorn of your direct bloodline currently alive.”
“Loré. I’m an incorporeal echo of Sombra. I have eternity at my disposal. You have two brothers and a sister, and along with yourself, there’s plenty of opportunity for any one of you parenting a new unicorn, a new pony for me to reach out to.” His voice was as cold and uncaring as could be, and his eyes moved their focal point away from her once more. “That being said, I would very much prefer somepony of my own kind coming along to reclaim my powers, and finish my work now, rather than several decades from today.”
Loré remained silent for several minutes as she went over everything they had said to each other. She removed herself from his side and strolled through the snow, glancing up at the now grayish crystals. They felt so lifeless compared to earlier. He had definitely taken in all their powers, powers which could be hers if she could just figure out a way to get stronger.
“I can do it, Sombra. I’ll figure out a way, and when I do, I’ll contact you once more.” She glanced over her left shoulder at him. “You have my word on it. I will reclaim your powers, and I will fulfill my destiny.” Her grin brimmed with a sinister confidence.
“Good,” was all Sombra said before Loré’s world disappeared around her. She found herself back in the room she had performed the spell in. Her body laid spread out on the floor, and judging from the orange glow in the room, it had become early evening. Being lost inside a memory seemed to have only warped her perception of time, and not stopped it.
“Loré? Are you okay? Would you please open the door already…” came the shrill voice of Namworth from the hallway. He gently tapped at the door, hoping that his eighth time would be the charm, and as fortune would have it, it was. The door was opened by Loré who was pale and shaky in her stance.
“I told you that didn’t wish to be disturbed while performing the spell…” Grumbled Loré as Namworth slowly slinked past her into the room.
“I know that, but… I was beginning to get worried. You haven’t been out of the room for almost the entire day. You didn’t say anything whenever I knocked or asked if you were okay. So I just kept on checking up with you every hour.” Namworth watched Loré with a great deal of worry as she crawled onto the bed in a manner that could best be described as pathetic. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine… I just, I succeeded. I broke the code and found my answers, sort of at least.” Loré had spread herself out on the bed, all for legs spread out evenly. Her eyes were focused at the ceiling as she continued to mumble, “I have to get stronger, and I think I know how to do it.”
“Stronger? What happened, Loré?” Namworth approached the bed, resting his head at the edge of it as his big eyes flickered in the soft evening glow.
Loré tried to stay quiet, trying to ignore her ‘friend’. She’d taken the words of Sombra to heart. What to do with it was still something she had left to decide, but she knew he was right about her. “I got answers, Namworth. I’m too weak to fulfill my mission. I need to get stronger. There’s only one place where I can achieve this… Canterlot.”