//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: The Empire Part One 
// Story: Strings 
// by naturalbornderpy 
//------------------------------//


CHAPTER ELEVEN:


THE EMPIRE PART ONE


 


1


 

“Seal the gate! Seal the gate!”
                
Celestia was surprised to find another courageous voice in the deafening silence since the body of Spitfire had been carried away. For a long time—far, far too long a time—she had only stared transfixed upon the sky. The thick, dark clouds that blew their way seemed to coat every last inch of color in the distance.
                
Had it felt this big before? she honestly questioned, before remembering that last time Twilight and all her friends had been present and accounted for with defending their world. But that had been years ago. And now it needed to be Celestia who would find the strength inside herself to—
                
“Celestia!”
                
Her executive again, shouting directly in her ear.
                
“What’s your first order? Ponies are already starting to panic!”
                
Celestia regarded her executive with a calm face. “We seal the gate. Now.”
                
Since Spitfire had fallen from grace only moments prior, each and every pony near the large entryway had become deathly still. Celestia did not need to speak loudly for her words to ring clearly.
                
“Seal the gate!”

A voice atop the wall agreed, and then Celestia watched the impossibly tall stone doors slowly start their sluggish swing inwards. It had been only a few years following the first return of King Sombra that tall and thick crystal walls had been erected around the entire city. At the time, many claimed the expenditure of such a project as ridiculous and wasteful. Should the Empire hold true that day, Celestia would have more than a few words to express to those individuals of note.
                
“You think the gate will stop him?”
                
It was her executive again. And by the way his quill and parchment shook most vividly in his hooves, she could tell he was looking for more than a few reassuring words to tide him over this time. Sadly, those words would need to wait.
                
Kicking hard off the ground Celestia took to the air and sprinted to the watcher’s peak at the very center of the gates. Her armor made the flight markedly more fatiguing than it aught to be, and for the second time that day she cursed her silver and gold shell.
                
“What do we know?” she asked, once she’d safely landed beside a guard.
                
The guard lowered his viewfinder. “Nothing yet, Your Highness. Only black clouds circling in all directions.”
                
Celestia had been so preoccupied with the road ahead that she barely took into account the surrounding areas. Truly, the dark screen that had enveloped the far distance had now done the same all the way around the Empire. It almost seemed as if a wall of black had been erected between the earth and the sky.
                
Without the sun, the day grew cold.
                
“This was what it was like before,” Celestia said, more to herself than anyone. “He was more a spirit than a pony last time. Let us hope the rumors of his rebirth to be greatly exaggerated.”
                
Minutes lazily swam by as most guards fiddled with their armor. Most eyes followed the swirling black that circled above them ominously.
                
“What is he—” Celestia began.
                
“He’s here! I see him! I see him!”
                
A pegasus a few meters away trumpeted his find as Celestia levitated her viewfinder. Carefully up the road she scanned until she came upon him. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought oddly, If he hadn’t have been wearing his cape I might have missed him entirely.
                
The dark stallion, complete with bits of silver armor, walked up the long and thin road toward the Empire, and nearly disappeared in the world of black that seemed to follow him in step. Instead of eyeing up the wall that had not existed since he’d last been there, his eyes remained fixed on the gate ahead. Celestia was slightly perturbed to notice he did not smile or appear angry in the slightest. Only focused, as though his time had come.
                
“So it’s true,” she said, and this time it was for her ears only. Maybe to finally convince herself the nightmare was real. And that it was only getting started.
                

2


 

Several meters outside the gate Sombra stopped his march. With flaming green and purple eyes he watched both sections of the doors as if they should suddenly start to move on their own.

Was he expecting us to just let him in?
                
By that point Celestia had already ordered her archers and spear-ponies to the edges of each walkway overlooking the entrance. Each sharpened point was now directed at the single target standing idle by their gates.
                
To some pony just walking onto the scene, it must have looked preposterous.
                
When enough time had passed and Sombra must have realized the gate was not about to bid him welcome, he slowly craned his head up until stopping on Celestia. In reflex she shivered, and then clenched her jaw.
                
“King Sombra!” she bellowed out. “The lives of too many have already been destroyed by you, and this kingdom has already felt as much of your rule as it will take. We have dealt with you under worst circumstances than now and we can do so again. You are outnumbered and you are overpowered. Should you relent this rampage you are so destined to see through, I will personally see to it that you are judged for your actions fairly. If you continue to try to harm and mutilate my subjects, then you will be put down as promptly as you were before. And this time I will make sure another return is never made possible.”
                
Although her words rang out sure and steady, Celestia was startled to find the hoof resting on the walkway jitter and shake. With some effort she forced it to halt.
                
“It is good to hear your voice again, Celestia,” Sombra said resoundingly, from all those feet below. “I had been worried I might have missed you somehow, in all those years I was away.”
                
Celestia had not brought her viewfinder back to her eyes, yet still, even from that distance, she could tell a smile have finally found its way to his lips.
                
“I hope you have that unicorn conspirator in there, too, Celestia. I have wanted to see them almost as much as you.”
                
“Twilight Sparkle is not in the Empire, Sombra. But you will be stopped regardless.” Celestia was about to add that Twilight would be arriving at any moment, but she decided not to rely on such a lie. Also, what message would that have sent to the rest of the Guard? That all their fates might rest in the hooves of someone not even in the city?
                
Sombra said, “The purple one is not the pony I seek, Celestia. I make mention of the one you contracted to keep me locked away inside that cave… for those ten long years.”
                
Desperately she tried to fathom just what is was Sombra was trying to make clear to her—her only other recourse was to believe since his re-existence he’d gone completely mad. She continued on all the same. “You have no army Sombra; you have no allies. You are but one pony with magical gifts and a heart most black. Even you, in whatever state you are in, should realize the odds are stacked against you today.”
                
Sombra regarded her tiredly, before changing his view to the many guards standing motionless to both sides of her. Each one he took in. Each one made him appear all the more sickened.
                
“You take my Empire and tell me it is no longer mine,” he nearly growled. “You close its doors in my face and tell me I may not enter. I am the King of this land and now you are denying me my kingdom. All this, Celestia, you have done. But there is one thing you may never take away from me. And that is every Crystal pony that resides in this city. They were mine and they will remain as mine.
                
“You claim I lack an army, Celestia. So now I will show you the full extent that fear can accomplish. An area you seem most tepid to utilize.”
                
A moment later Sombra’s red and warped horn became engulfed in a thin white light. Just as Celestia was about to give the command to loose every weapon primed, a voice cut across the city in a most unnatural way. Sombra’s voice.
                
“To all of my Crystal ponies waiting in fear of whatever outcome this battle may end upon, I, King Sombra—your rightful ruler and lord—come bearing a gift of words.”
                
Across the entire Empire, Sombra’s voice came through as clearly and as loud as though he were standing mere inches from every one of them. In each basement and each hold that ponies crammed themselves together to wait out the battle above, his voice rang most lucid and terrifying. Many Crystal ponies that could remember his voice (and a great many few that still couldn’t) shook with terror and tried to cover their ears from the sound. But it seemed as though nothing could shield them from it.
                
“An alicorn Princess by the name of Celestia has claimed this kingdom as her own,” he continued. “Not only is this fact a fallacy of the highest order, but each and every one of you should realize this as well. This same usurper claims I have no army to call my own. But is that entirely true, my subjects?
                
“When I take back my Empire, each Crystal pony will find themselves punished accordingly to what happens here today. If at the end it means torture and death, is up to you. Should my Crystal ponies rise up now and aid me in my quest today, they will find themselves in a far greater group than those that merely sat by and waited for me to come find them.
                
“I cannot guarantee a lack of punishment for every one of you that have betrayed me, but I can promise it will be a great deal better than any other alternative. So I will ask—only once—for my Crystal ponies to come rise and fight with me today. But mark my words: be it by your own will or by force, you will fight.
                
“So while there is still time, come out and help rid this land of its unwelcome Princess.”
                
Sombra’s horn returned to its neutral colors and the voice digging into many ponies’ ears came to a close. For a time Sombra glared at each guard once more, now more interested in the few Crystal ponies that stood out above the rest.
                
Although Celestia had been trying her best to keep her eyes on the enemy far down below, she too, couldn’t help but glance at the Crystal guards to her sides. Could Sombra’s words really have changed all that much in their minds?
                
From the thickness of a group near the stairs, a single Crystal unicorn made their way to the front. With both forelegs on the edge of the wall, he said, “I will never fight for you!” while every pony in back of him cheered. Then he spat over the side.
                
And that was the linchpin that started the rest of the scorn. One after the other, Crystal ponies of each make and creed came to the edge of the wall to let Sombra know his side was a side no one would be choosing that day.
                
“You’re a monster!”
                
“You should have stayed dead!”
                
“I’d rather die than side with you!”
                
“The Empire was never yours!”
                
Each taunt and each jab Sombra appeared to take in stride. Each time a new face made their way to the edge of the gate, Sombra would view them curiously. If it was merely his way of keeping mental note of each and every Crystal pony that cursed his name, Celestia would never be certain.
                
A dozen or so of these abusive statements later, Celestia raised a hoof to calm her Guard. On reflex, each one returned to their defensive positions. “As you can plainly see, Sombra, the Empire is not for the taking, and neither are its subjects. You have no friends here and you have no place in this city; in this kingdom or anywhere else in Equestria.”
                
Sombra’s eyes came to her once again. “But about that you are wrong, Celestia. I have always been apart of this Empire. Even when it was first built by my design did I use pieces of myself to help solidify its foundations. And even now those pieces call to me. They want to be near me again.”
                
The idea that the King had gone mad sometime ago entered her mind again.
                
Sombra continued, “The Crystal ponies have made their answer quite clear—they will not fight for me of their own accord.” Already Celestia was feeling uneasy of where this might be headed. “And to them I will only say: pity.”
 

3


 

The Empire candy shop owner Honey Glaze could sadly do nothing more than get close and hug his family as the booming voice of King Sombra somehow filled each one of their ears. In between every pause of his speech, he reassured his children that it was only a voice that was in the room with them, and that the creature that owned that voice would surely never get in.
                
Honey Glaze, together with a few hundred other Crystal ponies and more, sat listening and waiting in one of the Empire’s sprawling basement rooms. Most ponies crammed together were either laborers or specialists—ponies that would more likely get in the way of the Guard than actually help. When Sombra finished his speech requesting the aid of his Crystal ponies, Honey Glaze found himself a tad ashamed to timidly glance around the room, should someone desperate enough very well take up his call.
                
“They wouldn’t,” he whispered, before viewing the wide and alarmed eyes of many other watchers searching the basement. When not a single one stood up to make it known they had subsided, more than a few smiles found their way amidst worn-down faces.
                
It was only a few seconds following that brief moment of positivity that a large series of black rivets from the edges of the woodwork seemed to melt like candle wax. The same thing happened to a lamp on the wall; the heavy iron bars that crisscrossed over the narrow windows up above. Not many ponies took it to mind. And those that did only watched with growing curiosity.
                
The liquid metal—now more like some pitch black tar—slowly slunk its way along the floor, weaving around grooves like some sentient being. When the Crystal pony known as Honey Glaze finally witnessed the odd mixture, it was little too late.
                
“What the hell did I step in?” he said, while giving his back leg a shake.
                
The slick darkened material had enveloped his whole hoof and was now coursing its way up the rest of his leg. If that sight alone was not enough to elicit some yelps of terror, perhaps it was the biting cold that seemed to emit from it—instantly numbing every bit of flesh that it touched.
                
Honey Glaze rose fast and began stomping his partially coated leg against the ground. “Oh Celestia! What is that! Someone help! Someone help!” But as he turned to look for some savior in the bunch, his fright only intensified. It appeared as if it was not just him that was dealing with the blackened tar. Dozens of other Crystal ponies were already screaming and thrashing for the cold material to shake off their bodies, but to no avail. It only climbed and climbed; covered and sealed.
                
A lone Crystal pony standing at the back of the room (probably closest to the rivets that had melted first) had nearly been covered over. The only part of her that remained was her head, which carried the vacant look of someone far beyond the first few stages of fright. It’s almost like she’s accepted what’s happening, Glaze thought numbly. When the dark material sealed away the rest of the Crystal mare’s head, it formed itself into pointed edges—the grotesque death mask of some pony, shaped with diamonds of crimson red where their eyes and mouth should have been. Only Glaze had never known a pony with teeth quite so sharp, or eyes quite so dead. When the armor around the mare hardened and set (was THAT what it was? ARMOR? Glaze thought) the wrapped Crystal pony broke free of her paralysis and lunged toward a shuddering group of earth ponies in the corner.
                
But Glaze would never know just what happened after that.

In his inactivity while viewing the rest of the room, the black mixture coursing up his leg had found its way to his neck, and now onto his face. One last time he wanted to scream—maybe to show the others that this wasn’t by choice—but the cold that had cocooned him took what little air remained. When his vision was overrun with black it was then replaced with a warped faded red. He watched himself move forward, not at all under his own accord.
                
He screamed inside the soundproof suit: “Somebody stop this! I don’t want this! Someone help me!”
                
What dried the words in his throat was when he took a step in the direction of his family.
 

4


 

“Where is he? Where is Sombra?”
                
Celestia had her back turned for the smallest of moments to check on her position, only to find her enemy had vanished from the gate.

She turned to the guards around her and stared daggers at one. “I don’t know!” he eventually stammered out. “He disappeared into the ground! Right into the path!”
                
Celestia returned to the thin road leading in and noted a wispy thread of smoke still clinging to the ground. A few more bits led toward the gate. “If he enters, he will die,” she promised herself.
                
She leapt from the gate and landed gracefully near a throng of earth pony guards. All were posed to strike and all eyes were fixed on the gate. The only problem was Celestia legitimately did not know if the gate area was their sole target anymore.
                
“Stand ready!” she yelled, holding aloft her own white sword with her horn.
                
Again the noise in the courtyard fell to a murmur. Eyes searched the sky and the ground both, anxious to find their enemy. Only a single set of hooves trotted against the dirt, and a moment later Celestia’s executive was by her side.
                
“What are your orders, Your Highness?”
                
Celestia didn’t face the colt, only continued her wide-eyed stare of everything she could glimpse. He could come from anywhere…
                
She hurriedly said, “Nothing. We are waiting.”
                
Then she noted the hint of black dirt by her hooves.
                
The executive said, “Oh. Sounds—” But that was as far as he got, before a thin blackened spike shot from the ground, forcefully driving itself through his neck and pinning him to the rock wall behind. He only twitched for a moment, both hooves still wrapped tight around his quill and parchment; the parchment in question suddenly ruined by the sudden spatter of blood.
                
Celestia wanted to feel sorrow. More so than that, she wanted to feel mad for the pony’s life cut horrifically short. But the growing patch of darkened soil underneath her told her she had to fly. And now.
                
Six feet off the ground she felt something stab at her wing. Another long black shard of glass, barely a glancing blow. A couple white feathers fell to the ground and Celestia cried out, “Everyone off the ground!” while rising a few more meters in the air.
                
Using her magic she grabbed a few earth ponies in the bunch and levitated them to the safety of the stairs. But for every one that made it out of the yard, another few were impaled by the dark spikes that propelled from the earth with hideous accuracy. A few pegasus took to the air only to find a leg stabbed right through, before being pulled back to the ground with another half-dozen spikes through their body.
                
Celestia knew there was nothing that could be done for them.
                
“King Sombra!” she yelled. “This is cowardly, even for you!”
                
Steadily she lowered herself to the ground, while a dozen voices screamed at her to stay in flight.
                
She landed gingerly and carefully watched the color of the dirt. “If you want a fight worthy of you then come and face me!”
                
An area of earth a few meters ahead first became dark before moving toward jet black. Swiftly, a cloud of smoke rose up before drifting away, leaving Sombra in its wake. For a moment he kept his head to the ground, before finding the eyes of Celestia.
                
“You speak of cowardice, Celestia?” he questioned. “I would never lock my enemies away for ten years with nothing more than an idle idiot for company. If our roles were reversed, I would have gladly given you an honorable death in its place.”
                
Celestia pressed her front hooves into the dirt. “Whatever might have happened to you before today, I had no part of. The fight you bring to us is your fight only—started by you.”
                
“I honestly would have been surprised if you had admitted the truth here today, Celestia. I know in front of your guards, your image is of the most importance. Perhaps when the time comes and we speak in a more…. pressing manner, you will finally cleanse yourself of your falsehood.”
                
Celestia spat: “I’m done trying to reason with some mad King.” Then she rushed out to greet him.
                
With all her fury she brought down her sword and felt it connect with soft dirt. A dark vapor was all that remained of him.
                
She whirled around just in time to connect with a blackened spear hurled her way; the horn that controlled that weapon was blood red and curved. “Your battle etiquette could use some readjusting,” he said plainly. “I fondly remember our battle years ago. You, Luna, and I. That was a fair fight. Where is your dear sister now? I was hoping to glimpse her once last time…”
                
While he spoke, Sombra sent his spear hacking and slashing into her, pushing her closer to the rock wall at the other edge of the courtyard. Barely did she manage to connect with each strike—barely did she counter back with any grace at all. Was he always this strong? she wondered, before dimly remembering that the last time they sparred she had had the assistance of another.
                
“We can’t let the Princess fight on her own!”
                
A voice from above.

Celestia turned to watch a pegasus leap out off the ledge, weapon in hoof. He screamed a guttural battle cry and drove his weapon downward onto Sombra. A few inches above his crown was where his weapon came to a halt. The pegasus’ original look of adrenaline was now mixed with sudden dismay.
                
“Excuse me a moment,” Sombra said to her, before disappearing in a huff.
                
Behind the pegasus he reappeared, glaring up at him.
                
“That was impolite,” he said.
                
Sombra barely pointed his horn at the poor pegasus before his helmet spun right around, his head coming along for the ride. His limp body fell to the ground and Sombra eyed it briefly. He hovered his spear by his side and watched the Princess.
                
“Where were we?”
                
As much as Celestia wanted to back away from such unnatural evil, she instead charged forward, her sword creating rushing figure-eights in the air. Only out of the corner of her eye did she see the oddest of sights: A pony clad in dark, glass-like armor. By why would someone ever wear such a thing? Then she saw the other one, and the other behind it. And in the back of her mind she honestly wondered: Where in Equestria is Discord?