Epilogue
Moons passed, and then years. The Crystal Empire prospered. It was all but unknown to the outside world, hidden safely in its mountain-ringed plain in the chill Frozen North. But it was sufficient to itself, and had no needs or wants that could not be satisfied.
The Yaks visited often to trade, and for the annual Crystal Faire, and other official celebrations. And whenever their boisterous nature prompted them to visit. But otherwise, the Empire shunned outside contact, save for those few like-minded ponies who found their way to it, and decided that the Empire was just the place they'd always longed to be. It was such a pleasant place in fact, so safe and welcoming, that no one who came to it truly wanted to leave.
And with the power of the Crystal Heart drawing on the love and devotion of the Empire's citizens, and projecting back the strange spell that gave them their shimmering, crystalline appearance, they came to think of themselves as an entirely new tribe of ponies. Not unicorns or earth ponies any longer, but Crystal Ponies, citizens of the Crystal Empire. With the passing of years, custom became tradition, tradition became history, and history mingled with the few scattered relics found in the ancient crystal dwellings to become cherished lore and myth. The citizenry simply forgot they'd ever lived anywhere else. They were Crystal Ponies, always had been.
Princess Amore, influenced by the devotion of her subjects and the power of the Heart, grew unusually tall and strong, a giant among unicorns, both in size and in magical prowess. Yet she remained ever and always the kind-hearted, light-hearted Princess she had always been, beloved by her subjects. In the Audience Hall of the Crystal Palace, justice was swift but always fair, disagreements were quickly and satisfactorily reconciled. Her Majesty's attention and care were unflagging, from morn until night.
Save for one thing. One event which always brought the workings of her administration to a complete standstill.
The Royal Sorcerer, as was the way with powerful mages, would sometimes disappear for days or weeks at a time on mysterious errands of her own. Then unexpectedly she would return. The doors of the Audience Hall would crackle with blue electric fire and slam open. And into the Audience Hall, she would stride, the armored, cloaked sorcerer. Powerful, masterful, utterly aloof, as if she owned the place.
Sacanas would march straight up the carpet to the base of the Amethyst Thone. And bow her head, deeply and willingly, to her sovereign. "Your Majesty."
"Sacanas!" Amore would shout, delighted to have her back again.
Throwing aside all other work, the Princess would hurriedly descend from the throne and throw her forehooves around the fiercely proud mage, hugging her with cheerful abandon. And Sacanas would indulge the closeness, holding her tightly with a hoof, with both pride and pleasure.
The Princess's court knew enough to put their agenda on hold as the Princess got caught up with her beloved Regent and friend. There would be no distracting her, while she chattered away with the mage. Petitioners who had to be rescheduled did not begrudge their Princess the disruption. Her Highness was the perfect sovereign otherwise, and none would deny her these reunions, seeing how they brought her so much joy.
Finally, Amore would return to her throne, recomposing herself as the powerful and fair monarch she had become. And Sacanas would take her accustomed place at the base of the throne, as Royal Sorcerer, ready to turn her wits, her power, her craft to the needs of her Princess and her Empire.
Seeing them together like that, everypony in the Empire would breathe a sigh of relief. Somehow, whenever Sacanas returned, whenever the Crystal Princess and her Royal Sorcerer were at each other's side, it seemed as if there was no problem, no issue that could not be overcome, nothing the two of them could not handle together. At such times, the Crystal Empire was truly at its best. It felt to the citizens of the Empire as if nothing could ever change it, nothing at all, not ever...
And Sacanas, in the deep, quiet privacy of her thoughts...
... would smile, coldly and ruthlessly.
Everything was just as she'd planned it. She had her dominion now, to serve as a power base. Had a powerful, beloved sovereign to rule it for her. An easily swayed populace, utterly devoted to their kind and loving Princess. And that Princess in turn was utterly devoted to Sacanas, accepting and trusting her every word, her every suggestion.
And thinking she did it out of pity, out of kindness, out of love for her poor, mad beloved Auntie...
It was exactly as Sacanas had intended, ever since she'd determined that the Princess, not the Prince, was the true path to power amongst the unicorns. And had used rumor and gentle proddings of magic to encourage the Princess to become dissatisfied with life in the Palace of the Unicorns. So that one day she would venture out of it, and need to be rescued from her own curiosity. At which point Sacanas herself could step in, as if by chance. To rescue her, and serve as her guide and her teacher...
... and her friend, her closest friend in all the world. Before whom, she had no others.
Sacanas nodded. It had all worked perfectly.
They were ready now.
Let them come, she would tell herself, in her darkest, blackest heart of hearts. Let the other tribes come and try to challenge us. Them, and those accursed, obscene alicorns! Only they could possibly stand against us. But we have a plan for them. Oh, yes! Don't we, Princess? Don't we just?
Sacanas would look up at Amore, exchanging a smile with her beloved Princess. Who never suspected a thing, never suspected she was being used -- had been used, all along...
And the best part of it? The part that Sacanas found so astonishing and wonderful?
She was still here. Her darling daughter had never been lost, not at all. And she never would be. Sacanas had sworn herself to that.
They will not harm you, the sorcerer would whisper to herself, solemnly, fiercely, viciously. Swearing bitter, merciless vengeance against everyone, everything, that was not unicorn...
Never, she swore to herself. Not while I draw breath. I alone will protect you... from them...
... my little love-song...
... Mi Amore Cadenza.
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Oh boy. This is going to be a rollercoaster, isn't it?
Been looking forward to this story~
"Why was Tempest, while wielding the Staff and its power, so implacably, coldly vicious?"
Did you miss Tempest's backstory? If she was ridiculed for her broken horn after her friends abandoned her. It's not much of a stretch that she does what she does, and the Staff had nothing to do with it.
11269157
I think it's more than that, which is what prompted this story. Compare Tempest before the Storm King betrays her and Twilight rescues her, and then afterwards. Suddenly, she's a totally different pony: reasonable, selflessly loyal, even regretful. And consider some of her lines during the Movie, how she speaks them:
"All this power... wasted on parties... when there are far greater uses..."
"That Princess... is not going to stop me... from getting my horn back!"
"Silly little ponies... trusting strangers? Big mistake... big!"
"I'd like to show everypony what I can really do..."
It seems to me like there's more than mere redemption here. It's almost as if at the end she's thrown off a darker influence (with Twilight's help, of course). Perhaps a lingering influence from the former owner of the Staff and her armor? It's worth exploring, at least...
The heart so bright had filled the broken heart, but the broken heart was twisted, the light it shined was a twisted sickly light, in its own way devoted to the heart it filled the twisted heart held the bright by strings, however it the twisted heart had bound itself to the bright with once shattered chains, once love, now devotion fused by Vengance
11269162
What do you think?
11269422
I just assumed he saw Tempest in action and was like "Yeah! Bring on the power!"
If their entire biology is sustained by magic, I think he would know more about it, not less.
11269425
Knowing of a thing is not the same as knowing about it -- and management likes to keep to the former. After all, they pay underlings to handle the techy details...
11269444
I mean it's your story. I just think it's a odd choice.
It doesn't explain them interacting with physical phenomenon very well, or why Grubber and the Storm King are so different from the rest of their species.
And it's not necessarily going to make the Storm King smashing any less gruesome, whether the guy deserves it or not.
There's a argument that he does, but frankly that holds true for Discord too (at least in the prime universe).
11269472
Grin. I was hoping someone would notice that... Sacanas is evil Mary Poppins, at least at first...
Honestly, the way Sacanas used and "befriended" Palladium/Amore seems awfully familiar somehow... inspired by Rasputin and Tsar Nicholas II perhaps?
11269387
I mean yeah, being frozen in time kinda does that too ya. But with NMM not occurring yet it's still gonna be at least 1000 years chronologically.
11270112
I thought about that myself, and realized it was pretty much spelled out in this one line:
And consider what she tells Princess Amore at the end about this moment. Burning down the town would be way too rational a move at this point...
I was afraid of this.
Did she hire those thugs to attack the princess, too? Or arrange for the griffin attack?
11270135
To me, it made for a more interesting dynamic between the two of them. The Storm King liked to see himself as the swaggering executive type, the guy-in-charge who has "people" (or ponies) to handle the tedious details of making things work. But Tempest is not merely an underling: it almost feels like she's playing him right back. She puts up with him, makes a show of flattery and servitude, merely to get what she wants. Though there's a hint of fanaticism, too, in that she seems to be driven by a darker, more far-reaching purpose, perhaps even not clear to Tempest herself -- which I take to be Sacanas's lingering influence, by way of the artifacts the sorcerer left behind.
11270167
It's not stated explicitly, but I take it as given that she'd give things a nudge in the direction she wanted them to go, if they weren't going that way already...
Hmm...I don't know if I like the implications there at the end. Unless, this is all in her head like she's a powerful sorceress no doubt, but maybe not quite to the God-like ability where she's able to manipulate thousands of ponies/see the future. There's also the possible suggestion that Amore/Palladium was actually the supposedly dead daughter from the prologue...that someone would be so twisted they'd manipulate their flesh and blood child...🥶, unless of course Sarcanas was never a normal flesh and blood Unicorn...so many questions and not very many answers.
Saving and Faving. Would you terribly mind if I asked a couple VAs I know about doing a dramatic reading of this most intriguing story?
11270260
My take on it is that at the end, Sacanas believes that she's "won", has accomplished everything she set out to do. Yet at the same time, she believes she's somehow "undone" the original tragedy that started all this -- which of course she hasn't. How she views the world is seriously broken, and has been all along. The outcome is positive, for both her and for Palladium/Amore, yet there'll be trouble down the line at some point. Amore won't be a trusting child forever. But that's another story...
By all means, a reading would be great. I'd be really interested to see who you can find to do Sacanas. It would have to be someone who can do Tempest Shadow at her worst: that coldly scheming, yet subtle vindictiveness that seems to drive her throughout most of the Movie.
Well, sad to say, but my opinion is that she's crazy. And not in an interesting way. Just in the plain old self-delusional way, in which she re-contextualizes everything that happens to her, because she can't face her grief, so she's decided to deal with it by claiming to no longer have a heart. Come across a filly in need of help? Well, obviously, that was all part of the plan! She couldn't possibly care for anyone. Break down and admit that you care for her, that you're broken, that you need help? All an act! That couldn't really be true. That would mean that she's never stopped grieving, and people with hearts don't do that.
TL;DR: "Nothing to see here, all part of the plan!"
11270195
Why didn't she also try to indoctrinate the princess with her racist ideology, given how much she was grooming her already?
...OH. I hereby rescind my prior jubilation. Dang it, Sacanas, you were SO CLOSE! You were ALMOST a person!
...Huh, so this is what Klein felt when dealing with Kirito's sociopathy.
11270676
Oh she was... but you might not have noticed it:
And you can tell it's having at least some effect:
This is the insidious thing about racist thought, which can make it difficult to call out, and also difficult to realize you're taking it in. You don't tell someone "be racist" flat out -- instead, you model that kind of thinking, that world-view, and others wind up emulating the example, sometimes even without realizing it.
Wow.
Okay.
First; I have a different take on this.
"The greatest of lies are the ones we tell ourselves..."
I believe Secanas HAS had a change of heart and outlook. But she can't let her change truly permeate her. The loss of her filly, her memory? It would be a betrayal in her mind.
So...she maintains the illusion in her head. She will ALWAYS have the animas, the illusion that what motivates her is having that weapon close to hoof. But it short-circuits; because even if it IS hers, it will not sally forth unless Palladium so wishes it...
It's never going to be glitter-filled rainbow Alicorn facts that smell like vanilla for her. Never. There’s been too much...she would board the ships with the Elves to sail West if it weren’t for a certain Princess. Or rampage unchecked in Canterlot until she died or got a one-way ticket to Moon....
Luna could let hers go. Secanas...never...
This story is so good it made me racist. 10/10. Would read again.
Tragic but heartwarming. I'd like to believe she actually has feelings and cares in her own disturbed way, but that doesn't change her actions.
In the end it really sounds like she did all the right things for all the wrong reasons. A figure of myth, awe and tragedy. Bravo wordsmith, bravo!
11292112
Thanks much! That's the reaction I was shooting for here, so it's reassuring to hear it worked for you. Thanks for reading, and for sharing your thoughts!
Sacanas obviously has deep trauma, which isn't an excuse for her to think and sometimes act like an actual monster, but...I think she's lying to herself, and not just about her daughter, but about her actual reasons for doing what she did. She did have some kindness left, however small, and it's sad that she never realized that. But this is all just my opinion, so. Good story, 10/10 would recommend.
Reading this story almost felt like reading a good fantasy novella, but with ponies. The premise, pacing, characters, execution; all of it was very solid overall and stayed fresh and interesting without dragging, which is tough to manage. Even learned a new word or two, which is always fun.
Overall, good stuff!
11470651
Many thanks! I wanted to do a bit of a historical take here, explore the origins of the Crystal Empire as well as give Sorceror Sacanas an actual backstory, while still keeping it entertaining, MLP style. So it's great to hear it works so well for you.
Thanks for reading!
You could be one of the script writers for pony series in Hasbro.
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!
These happy times won't last forever but in the end perhaps it will be Sacanas' inability to do something about the umbrum that will drive her over the edge into complete madness. I doubt that Sacanas would ever be willling to admit that her refusal to feel love makes her powerless against something. Of Course if Amore decides to be friendly with the alicorns Sacanas would be unhappy about that. Sacanas is very much not sane and this will eventually create problems Amore can't solve.