The Arrival
Well, it’s time to start working on The Arrival. Let’s see how it turns out.
The younger sister stood before a bygone era, her wings flared in challenge. It would be another thousand years before the conflict would truly be over—but to Luna, her arrival signalled an end. One way or another.
They had freed most of the enslaved, and Sombra—without innocent lives to cower behind—had retreated to his stolen fortress. Celestia had tasked Luna with helping the traumatized crystal ponies before pursuing the tyrant on her own.
She had… not been able to fully succeed. While some nightmares were easily dispelled, others ran deep—and Sombra’s touch was pervasive. The clock was ticking, and faced with no other option, Luna was forced to simply disassociate those memories. It was only a temporary protection; Luna would be back to help each of them confront it, at their own pace and without the threat still looming over their shoulders.
But what she needed to do now was to find her sister.
Before she could take flight once more to search the barren fields, a dark essence flowed out from the castle walls. Bile immediately rose within her throat. It seemed that she would not have to search long after all.
It was time to end this.
The darkness slowly expanded, before forming into a grey unicorn. The silvery peytral was cracked, the once-fine velvet cloak tattered and torn, several scorch marks having found their way onto the clothing. And his red eyes were on his target.
A wall of black crystals sprang up around Luna, but she stood her ground. She would not be intimidated by such simple tricks.
I wonder, will the younger put up a better fight? he said, words dripping with condescension. Your sister’s attempts were pitiful. I expected more.
If you thought she was trying, Luna replied, then you were fooled.
Without warning, Luna let loose a bolt of magic. It was not intended to find its mark, though the cold within could freeze the sun.
Sombra’s form began to dissipate, something that Luna had anticipated. The bolt instead hit one of the crystals, shattering it. A few shadowy tendrils crept forward, threatening to replace what had just been destroyed. Luna cast a basic spell to seal them away.
Both were stalling. Both were waiting for the third combatant.
But as Sombra’s form faded into shadow, it suddenly enveloped the entire field, smothering everything in a black mist.
Oops. Let’s try that again. Switch up the order.
The younger sister stood before a bygone era, her wings flared in challenge. Black crystals littered the scene before her, no doubt remnants of a battle that had yet to be finished. The tall spire-like structure in the background was once a symbol of the light and beauty which had pervaded the Empire, but the infestation of dark crystals had made it a bastion of fear. Snowy mountains towered in the distance, and the permafrost extended to—
Wait, no. That’s not right. Despite being surrounded by the snow and ice, the Crystal Empire was always free from the cold. Even with Sombra’s occupation, the ground remained bare—though the once-green meadows were now stripped of life. The skies took on a reddish hue, as if the air were filled with ash.
A dark shadow approached Luna from the distance, pursued by another alicorn.
Luna! Celestia shouted.
But she was prepared—or so she thought. Luna fired a bolt of magic at the oncoming shadow, who veered to the side and took on his corporeal form.
Sombra could not unleash his most powerful magic without a physical focus. He was exposing himself by becoming a target—but that also meant he was dangerous.
Luna gritted her teeth. All the better for her and her sister to purge Equestria of this evil. Yet when she was about to strike again, she paused.
He was smiling. Luna felt a small chill. Facing against the two of the most powerful ponies of this realm, Sombra had managed to smile. Despite having lost his army, despite being outnumbered and outmatched, he had no fear in his eyes. There was only confidence.
Who was this pony?
Her moment’s hesitation was all Sombra needed, and black crystals spiked up from the ground. Several appeared directly under her hooves, forcing her to move, while the others blocked off any easy escape. Luna was forced to take an awkward position, halfway in the air, wings barely getting her away from the path of the growing spikes.
Luna felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Though she had avoided the dark crystals, those were only a distraction. Physical attacks were easily avoided, but against the careless pony, they could pave the way for a more powerful spell to land.
Sombra’s horn was already glowing. Without preparation, Luna would not be able to match the inevitable blast with one of her own. Teleportation would take too long; a hastily-thrown shield would just be shattered.
She had made a single mistake. It was all he needed.
She closed her eyes.
But a bright flash made Luna open them again. Her ears ringing from the shock of a magical impact, she saw another golden blast shoot towards Sombra.
Bless you, sister, Luna thought.
But the second blast of yellow magic was wrong. It was too wide, and its colour was too intense. Everything was consumed by sunlight.
Let’s try something different. Maybe somewhere different. Fill the canvas with dark paint, and then slowly lighten it with water.
They were searching the castle. The hallways were shrouded in a black fog, and Luna could barely see.
Celestia lit her horn with a dim light. Any brighter, and it would be harmful rather than helpful; things hidden in the shadows would be washed out, effectively blinding them. Luna knew that her sister wanted to simply flood out the darkness, but that was dangerous. For one, it would alert the enemy.
Luna swore she saw something move from the corner of her eye, and she turned her head towards it. But there were only the swirling shadows.
Unnerved, she too let out a thin beam of cold moonlight. It cut a small slit through the darkness, but still found nothing.
Carefully, the two sisters walked through the castle, Celestia’s horn giving off a weak glow and Luna’s light providing a pinprick of clarity. Luna was constantly sweeping her light from side to side, trying to survey the endless darkness though a single pinhole. But what she was trying to find was something Luna herself did not know.
They stayed together, with Celestia to the right and Luna to the left. Luna was accustomed to moving in the darkness, but Celestia occasionally reached out a wing to brush against Luna.
It was a habit from when they had snuck out as foals in the cover of night, exploring the nearby forests. Filly Luna had enjoyed being the bolder one, guiding her sister instead of the other way around—something seldom experienced by the younger sibling. Though she knew Celestia needed the reassurance, Luna couldn’t help but think that one of these times, those feathers would be replaced by Sombra’s touch, and her sister would be…
They were constantly on high alert, studying the shadows for anything out of the dubious ordinary with nothing to show for their efforts. Time slowed to a crawl, and exhaustion was beginning to set in.
Another movement, and a clatter.
Celestia! Luna said in a harsh whisper. Did you hear that?
Sorry, she heard Celestia say. I reached out, and… you weren’t there.
Fine. Luna paused for a moment. Next time, sister, don’t stumble. You almost gave us a scare.
Good to know that your older sister can still scare you.
Luna snorted, and did not otherwise reply.
After that small exchange, the pressing silence only seemed more overbearing. Every shadow made Luna want to jump. Every click of horseshoe against crystal could be drowning out enemy movements. But teleportation was too dangerous, wingbeats would definitely be worse, and… the only way they were going to find Sombra was to keep going.
So they did, accompanied by phantom movements and echoing hoofbeats. Not to mention a wingtip which was now brushing against Luna’s flank all the more often. The weight beginning to settle on her legs was an indication of how far they’d searched, but the smothering darkness meant that there was no change from each step to the next. It was as if they had stayed in place, merely waiting for the enemy to come to them.
Luna had seen her share of horrors, but this was somehow worse than the most terrifying things that ponies could dream of. Perhaps it was because, here, she knew the danger was real.
It felt like hours before Luna finally found something.
It was almost a relief.
See the way our light reflects here? Luna, turning her head to the right, whispered to Celestia. It is about eighteen paces ahead of us.
The light on Celestia’s horn bobbed up and down.
Luna slowly stepped forward alongside Celestia, light trained on the same location for any sign of change. They soon found themselves before the object of interest.
It seems to be a crystal of dark magic, Luna said. How is it suspended in the air?
It must be Sombra, Celestia replied. Although I am not sure how they are made. It could be something else.
A whisper sounded from Luna’s left. No, you were right. These crystals are made of dark magic.
It was a moment before Luna realized that Celestia stood to her right. She flinched.
Show yourself, tyrant! Luna shouted, keeping most of the panic from her voice. The sound seemed to echo endlessly off of the crystal walls before it was suddenly silenced.
Luna! Celestia said, anger flashing in her eyes. Why did you reveal us?
You actually thought you were hidden. The voice seemed to once again come from right beside Luna’s ears, yet it spoke with a grandiosity that made it sound like some sort of great proclamation given over a distant crowd. You thought you could hide from the shadows.
It chuckled, a mirthless sound which would strike fear into any ordinary pony’s heart.
But who's the one hiding here, Sombra? Celestia said, standing right beside Luna, and yet her voice seemed distant. We will find you.
The darkness spun in a vortex around them. Such arrogance. Such foolishness. You’ve already fallen into my trap.
The dark crystal which the sisters had been inspecting sprang to life, spiking towards Luna. Even though Sombra’s power should have been too dispersed to do any real harm, the crystal somehow pierced into Luna’s chest.
In desperation, Celestia’s horn glowed with blinding brilliance, sending the shadows scurrying to the corners of the canvas, but it was too late.
Admittedly, that was a little ambitious. Not enough control over the medium. And it turns out that just washing out the mistakes doesn’t work. Back to the basics, then.
The younger sister stood before a bygone era, her wings flared in challenge. Though it was only a rough sketch with the pencil, the lines showed a being who was determined to stand against her foe.
With a slightly oversized brush made to fit a full-grown muzzle, the skies were painted a reddish hue as if the air were filled with ash. The snowy mountains, distant and unexplored, were obscured by the miasma. A dull and lifeless brown formed the desolate landscape, upon which a paint-soaked feather was pressed to form a few patches of dead shrubbery. A few gusts of dry air allowed this layer to resist any further changes.
Using a technique known as glazing, a wash of semi-transparent blue was added over parts of the sky, combining with the dull red to form a faint purple-grey. With a few more deft movements of the brush, the dark patches formed into swirls of smoke-like clouds.
With the background complete, it was time for the next section. The Crystal Castle had been corrupted by Sombra, which meant a layer of black overlayed the original pastel colours of the crystal. The spires, borders made sharp with a few pieces of well-placed cloth, towered over the rest of the Empire. However, several sections had broken off as a result of the battle. Those hung in the air, never to hit the ground.
The battle.
Sombra’s shadowy form swirled with Celestia’s, a vortex of light and dark. A bit of black pigment here, a little water there, and the shadow once again expanded to dominate the landscape. Celestia was formed from negative space, water washing away the black to reveal a majestic warrior. A few bits of yellow and purple light suggested a clash of mighty powers.
And it was time to return to Luna. A royal blue coat filled in her body, then extended down her legs. Detailed shadows—ones caused by the absence of light, not those of her foe—would help create a dramatic appearance. They would, rather than simply being darker, take on the colour of the ambient light.
Next, a black peytral grew over her chest, and her hooves became adorned with silvery horseshoes. A flowing mane, filled with multitudes of stars, spilled over her back. A black crown finally rested upon her head.
He tried to use the same technique for the tail as he did for her mane. Another dark-blue base, another flowing brushstroke.
But his control slipped. Luna’s tail became way too misty, spreading along the edges of the canvas and making her seem more fog-like than Sombra himself.
A brush hit the ground with a clatter, splashing water-diluted paint onto the pegasus who spat it out. Dewdrop snorted and tried to wipe the paint off his leg with a feather, but that only transferred it onto his wing.
And it’s on a primary, too, he thought. I’ll have to clean it off. He sighed.
He turned to look again at his most recent painting. Luna’s figure was now disintegrating under the excessive water, and the paper itself was becoming soggy.
Dewdrop didn’t care, instead reaching a hoof out to the dark rain cloud which had been providing the paint and water he’d needed. His instincts whispered to him to use the rain cloud again, to try and fix it… but he decided against it. He couldn’t fix these mistakes. (He thought that he didn’t deserve to fix these mistakes.) The prior paintings were evidence for that.
Four is enough, he thought. I deserve a break.
Instead, Dewdrop hopped onto the rain cloud, tucking his legs under himself and jostling until the cloud formed an indentation around him. Dewdrop always liked that feeling. It was comfortable. Secure. Even as the ruined paintings weighed on his mind.
Safe in his impromptu cloud-nest, he began preening, straightening his feathers and oiling them using the glands on his nose. Most of the feathers were in disarray from the hours he had spent painting, and there was nothing to do but to methodically align each of them. Unfortunately, this left him alone with his thoughts.
…it’s too much. Too much black, too much yellow, and too much water. Silly mistakes. I should be way past that by now.
Nevermind that when it came to certain things—in honing his craft, in controlling his emotions, and in growing into an adult pegasus—Dewdrop still had quite a ways to go.
He stopped his preening for a moment to look down past the edge of the cloud. The most recent painting was still directly below, and the previous ones lay in a stack to the side. These four paintings—all with the same working title—were inspired by the stories behind the newly-appeared Crystal Empire.
Failures. The same mistake, over and over. Can’t do anything right, even something I’m supposed to be good at.
He lay back down, too irritated to continue preening. He also failed to notice how his rain cloud began to gather sparks.
This is what earned me my cutie mark. This is my self, my lifeblood. So why do I still screw up? Why?
He slammed his hoof on the cloud with a muffled thud, half an instant before an ear-splitting bang and a flash of light made him jump.
What…
He looked below the cloud again. Bits of what used to be a painting floated in the air as blackened husks.
I… Maybe I should have kept it around. To study?
Well, it was too late now. And Dewdrop still had the other three paintings. He hopped down to pick them up, collected his other materials, and left.