The Story of Ian Camron

by Swordoath

Magic, Cycles, and the Last Straw

I awoke to eerie silence, like that of a graveyard. The wall I'd blown apart was restored. My sweatshirt was a ragged bit of cloth, now barely recognizable as clothing. The disperser was on the bedside table, but it looked like it had been caught in an explosion, which, ironically, it was designed to prevent. But the strangest thing about my awakening was that none of the wounds I'd accumulated as of thus yet had vanished, even from the most recent explosion. Had I been unconscious for that long?

I got up and headed over to the door, which had been left slightly ajar. I saw a flash of movement behind it when I opened it, and saw the mare from before, her back to the door.

I cleared my throat to let her know I was there. "Excuse me-"

She turned around, then said "Please, come with me." She immediately began walking down the hallway, without looking to see whether I was following.

Of course, I didn't exactly have much else I could be doing. I let the mare lead me to another part of the fortress, and opened a door into gigantic room, reminiscent of a gymnasium, or a stadium. I saw targets hung up on the walls across the room, and giant black pillars of crystal lined the walls between them. King Sombra stood by the center, next to a few pony dummies.

"Ah," said the king walking towards me. "So he finally woke up. Tell me, are you ready?"

"For what, exactly?" I asked.

"Training. You broke the disperser, so we must begin immediately, or risk you destroying the castle." he said.

"Oh." I said, bitterly. "Well excuse me for being a little mad at the prospect of a death threat."

"No matter." The king said, walking to the wall furthest away from the dummies, with me following. "Stand here. You are to destroy the dolls without moving from this spot."

"Why?" I asked.

"I require a demonstration of power to see what kind of mess I have to work with. Now, destroy them."

I turned to the dolls. I focused on the one in the middle, imagining it being blown apart just like everything else I hated had. The magic sparked, and the doll blew apart, it's fluff-filled limbs scattering across the room.

"Sloppy, wasteful, loud, and a general failure." The king said. "Do as I do."

The king turned to one of the other dolls, and a silent bolt of black energy streaked from his horn to the doll, incinerating it on the spot.

Holy crap... I thought, gaping at the king in awe. That was crazy, he just cremated it like it was nothing.

"You want me to do that?" I asked.

"That or more, boy." He said.

I turned to the third doll, which had been blown onto it's side by my attack on the first. I tried to envision it turning to ash, a flash of energy like Sombra had used streaking from my horn to the dummy. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then the magic blast came forth, igniting the dummy, but not incinerating it.

"Hm. You lack the focus necessary to destroy it. Disappointing." The king noted. "Very disappointing."

Shut up, I thought angrily. It was my first try.

We moved on to other spells, and most of my attempts failed miserably. I was nowhere near the level of skill the king possessed. He gave me tasks in magic that I preformed on a mediocre level, then was severely outdone as he demonstrated the proper way to do it. The frustration alone was bad enough, but being outdone added insult to injury. The whole lesson was severely draining on me, and I soon was completely out of energy.

The king sent me back to my room when it became apparent that I was unable to produce any more energy than a spark. I stayed there for he remainder of the day, to exhausted to do anything else.

The mare came in shortly with a small plate of bread and a glass of water. I was literally starving. I don't know how long it had been since I last ate. The simple meal was devoured in less than a minute, and she took the platter away before I had a chance to say anything to her.

Dead tired and lacking distractions, I lay down on the bed, and fell into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

Things continued like this for quite a long time. I'd be awoken by the nameless mare, taken to the training chamber where I'd work with the king for countless hours, return to my room to eat an inadequate meal, and collapse on the bed to sleep.

I was tired. More so than I could ever remember being before. I was in pain, in the head and in the heart. I couldn't defy Sombra- he made it clear he would kill me if I did- and doing as he said was just barely better than death.

I'm not going to take the easy way out, I'd think to myself. There's always a chance I could find a way out. Sombra could release me, or I could escape and- and do what?

I had no money, no credentials, and I'd spited the only ponies who'd shown me any compassion. I'd be alone. Nothing left. What drove me to continue? At that point, anything- Vengeance, spite, or some other small glimmer of hope. I still don't know.

It wasn't for a long time that the cycle was broken- there was a single night where I had a dream. A nightmare, possibly. It was the last night I slept in the fortress.

I was in the training room, alone, the only other thing in the room was one of the training dummies. Sombra appeared by my side.

"Destroy it." He said, the thunder of his voice reverberating through the room. "Destroy it, child."

I turned to do so, but it wasn't the same dummy. It... it looked like Lyra. I blinked, then it looked like Twilight. I turned away. What the hell was going on? Turning back, it looked like someone I didn't know.

The new mare looked like a color-inverted version of Celestia. She wore a black crown and shoes, and had a cutie mark of a moon in the night sky, similarly to the starry mane she had. Her coat was navy bluish hue. Her teal-colored eyes held my own in their steely gaze.

"IAN CAMRON!" She said, her voice projecting like a megaphone.

"Present." I said without thinking. (What can I say? She reminded me of my teacher.)

The mare walked up to me. She was taller, so I had to look up to to keep eye contact. "Thou art unharmed?"

I was slightly caught off guard by the weird speech pattern but responded intelligibly. "Yeah... Who are you?"

"I? I am the princess of the night," The mare said. "Princess Luna!"

"Oh goody. Another high and mighty ruler to boss me around." I muttered. "This time without a volume dial."

"Excuse me?!" the princess exclaimed, obviously displeased.

"Oh, nothing your highness."

Her eyes narrowed, but she inquired no further about my rude remark. "Ian Camron, my sister sent me to find thee, and if necessary, rescue thee. Where art thou?"

"Oh, hell if I know. Somewhere north? Not that it matters all that much. I'm better off here than I was in Ponyville." I lied. "I like it here. Sombra teaches me more-"

"Sombra? The tyrant of the Crystal Empire!?" Luna jumped, eyes widening."Ian, quickly, thou mustn't fall under his influence, lest he shall-"

"King. He's. King." I interrupted, something in me finally snapping. "And he's been like a father to me. Granted, a disapproving, overbearing father, but preferable to all you... you..." I sighed in exasperation. "I cannot think of a word that can accurately describe how much I despise you damn ponies."

I was sick of ponies telling me what to do. Celestia, Twilight, and now the negative photo.

"You know what? I'm DONE with all you ponies thinking you can tell me what to do. I am FINISHED with all your rules and restrictions. Sombra is my mentor, my king, my guiding hoof." I ranted, aggression and anger fueling my tirade. "You and Celestia can go to hell for all I care! You know what? I'd ENJOY it to see you there. I don't need you, her, or anyone else- Sombra is my King, and I do as HE says."

I turned my horn at Luna and shot at her with a blast of energy. She exploded into doll limbs and stuffing, and I was awoken, all my shame, disappointment, pain, and guilt igniting into the intense, burning hatred that now was what drove me.

Author's Note:

I may have been exaggerating when I said a few chapters,but this indeed did come of the creative burst.
I do hope you've enjoyed this chapter, or it at least made you want the next one.
Responses are nice. I like feedback.

Comments

[Silver Page]

I really like this story. And not just because the human-turned-unicorn has my name...Oh, who am I kidding, GO ME!