Chapter 56 Promo! · 4:19am Dec 24th, 2023
In an isolated, abnormally large, hollowed-out tree might not be the typical abode for megalomaniacal n'ere-do-wells. Though, there was a reason both of them had opted for current accommodations over the typical kingdoms and castles, in one form or another. The area was absolutely inundated with dark magic. From the eerie glow that some of the plants gave off, to traces of black aerenth crystals in both the bedrock and sediment; the entire region was saturated.
Coated with enough ambient dark magic to the point that most passersby would get uncanny vibes and wisely turn away, and at any more pressing scouters and surveyors would have a very hard time distinguishing one or two potent dark magic sources amongst all the background noise. The world thought that one of them was dead, but the other was still very much at large and had been for centuries. And Queen Chrysalis hadn't survived the way she had by being careless.
“And you are certain that this works?” King Sombra said dryly as his horn remained a constant shimmering red.
The flow of magic from him linked itself together across the room via a tether which terminated at Chrysalis's own horn, with the magical current shifting from bloody red to emerald green at the middle of the length. Converse to the rules of color fusion, at the epicenter, there was a light that could only be described as black. What almost looked like a black hole in the empty space two meters above the floor. They were situated in a mountainous cave not far from the changeling queen's current hive, both for privacy and perhaps a vague sense of nostalgia. It was an unstated remark by Sombra that Queen Chrysalis' plan had situated him in the exact same place he had been in just over a thousand years ago. Back when two had the company of two more and they received what some might call a mandate of heaven if it were.
The physical testament of that mandate was present as well, with the Tome of Lust opened beneath the dark epicenter of their conjoined magic. This was after all the very place it and its three siblings had been distributed by the will of Grogar and the hand of that dark deity's then-strongest remaining subordinate.
"I can't believe this thing is still standing," Sombra grumbled, telekinetically flicking a bit of swamp scum off of his armor after noticing it, as he loomed over the wooden table parked into the tree itself.
"Our master chose wisely. Not even his enemy tended to look into this region. Not sure why, I didn't really remember asking when his emissary brought me here and he said something about a painful memory for her," Queen Chrysalis huffed back.
Sombra, who had been working a crystal over a map like he was looking for something as he kept himself tethered to Chrysalis with the flow of magic, perked his eyebrow, "You were having a conversation with a god's right hand and you don't remember their exact wording?"
Chrysalis could vividly recall the biting cold of westerly winds when that apparition of a bygone time appeared before the wayward then-princess. She had been journeying to learn and strategize how the hive might react to the newcomers starting to immigrate decade by decade further and further south into what would one day be Equestria. Stability only came with power and power only came to those who sought it, craved it, and were not afraid to always indulge in it. Sake of others regardless.
In another life she might have learned more empathy and course corrected. But in this life, Zephyrus had seen her potential and Lust found its bearer.
Sombra had received the worst kind of guidance more indirectly. Perhaps by design considering wrath differed from the other sins and how it relied less on wanting something regardless of what someone else experienced and more about hating what others had. How potentially poetic, in how such a horrid trait would manifest amongst the very species that bore Harmony's first generation of champions.
He had run away from what should have been a prosperous life as the court magus. Ran upon beating hooves away from what could have been a happy life in a just empire. All because he thought a station admired by so many wasn't enough and that there had been those of lesser quality and breeding being put well above their place. Whereas his cohorts largely saw all equines as the same race, Sombra's obsession with dividing himself from others had resulted in him clinging to past hatreds and fixating on the most minor of inconsequential details.
It had been enough that he could take the plunge accepting the Tome of Wrath when he discovered it out in the snows. It had helped refocus his wrath, strike back at the slight he had lied himself into believing, and for that he remained loyal. The absence of said book was a mildly bitter reminder of how much things had changed. Just because circumstances had allotted them freedom from the yoke of time and age, didn't mean he liked it.
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and moved her own Eldritch book, the Tome of Lust, closer to put it up to the map after this trip down memory lane, "I was a half-dead wandering princess at the time, I didn't even know deities actually existed beyond legend, so my priorities were elsewhere when Zephyrus brought me the book and it led me here."
“This would be much more assured and go by quicker if somebody hadn't lost one of the four most precious items in the world," Queen Chrysalis grumbled and she let her words hang over her cohort’s head, giving him a glance upon hearing a barely restrained snarl.
She perked her brow slightly as if to ask the simple question of 'are we about to go again?'. It would have hardly been the first time they had come to blows. But the very same thing that had kept them from killing each other in those times managed to win through a bruised ego. A measure of success working together. The scrying crystal worked over the map and Tome of Lust had a lock.
Sombra trembled from the power flowing into him, a stream of dark magic tethering Chrysalis’ horn to the Tome of Lust, then to his own horn, and finally to the scrying crystal he was moving across the continental map to try and get a lock. Yes, he smiled slightly, he could feel a pull in a certain direction as the crystal started to guide them towards the center of the continent in a small town to the south of Canterlot.
“Gluttony is…” Sombra leaned in to read the name, before the crystal dangling over the map very abruptly darted in a completely different direction.
Then it pointed in another direction. And then another. And then another. And then started making nonsensical spiral patterns. It almost seemed to be tracing pictures in how it moved in random directions.
Sombra and Chrysalis both lowered their brows for the exact same reason, speaking in deadpanned unison, “Discord…”
Chrysalis huffed and chittered her wings, “Idiot. Hedonist idiot…”
Sombra glanced at the map and the crystal, which was currently doing barrel rolls trying to lock down upon a location of a book that wasn’t even in their current realm.
“He always was too distracted with that void he found. He must’ve stashed the book there.”
“Well he’s also thrown his lot in with the ponies,” Chrysalis shrugged, “We’ll capture the traitor later and skin it out of him if we have to. Tirek was the better first bet anyways.”
“Right then,” Sombra grunted as he casually flung the out-of-control crystal over his shoulder and ignored it as it started doing spirals on the wall. He always kept a backup and soon the process was repeated, only this time looking for a different counterpart to their own dark magic sources.
“Greed is…..”
“…..”
“….You have got to be joking. What does that even mean?!” Chrysalis shrieked in exasperation as she pointed at the map.
The scrying crystal, meant to indicate exact location, was moving around on its own again. In a less erratic and chaotic fashion, granted, but still like it couldn’t make up its own mind. It darted between the Crystal Empire, Canterlot and the surrounding area, and a seemingly random locale marked for airshows. Very briefly it also went to the Everfree Forest and what appeared to be an innocuous location out in the rural “badlands” as the map called it that got Sombra’s attention.
“Wait, that’s near your hive. He couldn’t be there,” Sombra muttered.
“Gee, you always were the smart one of us weren’t you?” Chrysalis deadpanned before going through all the locations in her head.
“There’s a connection to the goddess’ realm in the Everfree. And a portal to our… benefactor, back at the hive,” She rubbed at her chin, “Add in they’d have to have picked up what would’ve been your cold rotting corpse had they not been faster back in the Empire, I think I’m seeing a pattern.”
“Being?” Sombra cocked an eyebrow.
“These are spots where something was moved between realms. You saw the last crystal had a hard time pinning down the entrance to the chaotic void, where Discord no doubt stashed the Tome of Gluttony. It moving around like that? Maybe he was picking up all the places he had appeared in from that place?” Chrysalis hummed as she looked over the map again, “Drag it across again.”
Sombra did so and the results were more or less the same, but the crystal locking on to specific locations.
“My spies told me that old coot Starswirl invented at least two mirror portals. One was broken back in Canterlot, the other is in the Crystal Empire,” She narrowed her eyes in frustration, “Someone wised up however, put wards that disrupt common changeling disguises around the whole castle. Can’t find out anymore after my attempt at the wedding.”
“Yes, such is the pity you cannot attempt to bed-trick another clod of a prince-“ the bolt of magic was aimed right between Sombra’s eyes and it was only dodged by merit of knowing Chrysalis well enough to know a bolt was coming. Turned into a mist-like, shadowy form, Sombra waited the requisite 10 seconds before becoming solid again and casually continued talking like nothing happened, “-So, it appears after getting out of that Tartarus cell his brother threw him in, Tirek has found himself somewhere indeed. And wherever he wound up, his signal is getting scattered around every exit point from one realm to another.”
Chrysalis snorted and weighed the options of hitting him again, but decided to just get on with matters.
“Then we’ll have to find the strongest access point to bring him out, using the link between our magic. Those new pet monsters the Princesses have allied with, they seemed to have been mostly around the center of Equestria. So they, like the mirrors, goddess’ tree, and Empire with Tambelon, can be ruled out,” Sombra continued on as he went over each spot the crystal locked onto, “That idiot centaur owes us for the effort…”
The crystal suddenly snapped onto the map, wrenching itself out of Sombra’s telekinetic grip and stabbing its pointed end into the table. Chrysalis and Sombra glanced at one another before leaning in to see the point it was stuck on.
“... So, I take it that means we’re going there?” The Changeling Queen hummed.
“Seems the dimension tear at the airshow field moved as the realms stabilized. I am unfamiliar with this modern city,” Sombra poised before reading the name aloud, “Las Pegasus?”
Queen Chrysalis’s face was in a deadpan but she shrugged casually, taking it as not the worst place to go, “Alright, been awhile since I was there. I’ll maintain the disguises so nopony recognizes your big face, but you’re buying slot games if I get bored.”
“Slot games? Before? What were you even doing?”
The changeling queen retrieved her book of dark magic and rolled her eyes, “I got bored fifty years ago waiting for you idiots to come back. Won big.”
“And that factors how?”
“Let me introduce you to a saying we have in the modern age about Las Pegasus…”
Art by the ever so lovely Faith-Wolff!
Wow, so we are seeing Sombra and Chrysalis work together. Love their banter and the way they remember getting their tomes. Once again, Faith reminds us of how much if a great artist she is. Love the curious look on Sombra’s face, almost like a colt, and Chrysalis smug smile and sinister green eyes.
I love seeing these 2 again back in the picture planning their conquest of the world while talking about their past. Also Chrysalis gambling at Las Pegasus because she was bored is kinda funny.
Hm, interesting.
IT LIVES!