Pony Variants: Crystal Ponies

Please remember that these blogs explain details and information exclusive to my won story-canon

Crystal Ponies

The Crystal Ponies are a Variant of any kind of pony although the majority of them are indeed Earth Ponies by nature. Ages ago, after going his own way, Sombra sought a place to call his own and found his way to the Frozen North. While most would have seen a frozen wasteland, he saw a blank canvas with a greater implication for potential. For several years, he worked on making a temperate environment and used his own natural and honed proficiency in Crystal Magic to create a perimeter that stayed the cold and took in sunlight through the freezing overcast. During his isolation, he discovered the land of the Frozen North was actually rich with many veins and deposits of minerals, geodes, and of course, crystals. He experimented on combining these raw materials into stronger and more powerful crystals. In time, he forged what he would henceforth regard as his magnum opus - The Crystal Heart!

The Crystal Heart spread Sombra’s sphere of influence further than he could have done on his own, allowing him to have a plot of land that was isolated yet warm and safe. Due to his love and compassion for Earth Ponies, who were mistreated and harshly segregated in those days, he invited them to his land where they would live fair and equal lives. Many Earth Ponies took his offer, along with a few like-minded Pegasi and Unicorns.

Under Sombra’s leadership, these ponies worked together to create a new community, a city, and as they settled into their daily routines, it wasn’t long before a change was worked upon them. Constant exposure to Sombra’s crystal magic left its influence on these ponies, bestowing inspiration, artistry, and a greater sense of empathy, all the while weaving into their very beings, turning these ponies into the first Crystal Ponies!

In only a decade, the city was thriving and hailed Sombra not only as their savior and protector but soon called him their king. At first Sombra was reluctant to wear a crown but due to circumstances stemming from his past, he accepted it and continued his work in making what he soon named The Crystal Empire into a proud and mighty civilization. He used the main roads and the perimeter of the empire to form possibly the largest Magic Circle ever created, and set the Crystal Heart at its very center. The Empire was a body, the main roads its system, the Crystal Ponies themselves akin to “white blood cells” and the Crystal Heart its beating heart, and King Sombra the head. Further work and experimentation revealed a grand discovery that the Crystal Ponies’ high spirits, joy, love, and hope were gently soaked up into the Crystal Heart, providing it power to spread its protective magic.

In time, King Sombra grew close to a Crystal Pony mare on his council by the name of Autumn Wheat. She was in charge of agriculture in the empire. Although he grew close with her, Sombra never truly forgot the first pony who captured his heart and of the terrible circumstances that broke them apart. Bitterness lingered in him, something whispered to him, and Sombra soon took a morbid interest in darker magicks. He looked back on notebooks he’d written on shadow magic and wondered if a blend of shadow and darkness would yield a greater power.

The consequences instead resulted in a dark and wicked doppleganger of Sombra himself, which stole the Crystal Heart, leaving the Empire vulnerable. He set out to regain his relic, stopping when Autumn Wheat caught up and begged him not to go. He shared with her an intimacy before gifting her his beloved red scarf and promised to return.

He soon found his wicked double attempting to corrupt the Crystal Heart, but thankfully it had been fueled by years of the Crystal Ponies’ positive emotions. The King and his imposter soon faced each other in a fierce duel that regrettably ended with the darkness that made up the imposter seizing Sombra’s heart and soul, and in doing so created a pony who would become a horrific tyrant...

King Sombra returned with the Crystal Heart but instead of restoring it to its pedestal he vowed to his subjects that they would never see the Heart and hid it away. He enslaved the minds of his soldiers and imposed martial law. The Crystal Ponies resisted and were quickly put in their place. And in chains. One managed to send a message to Dog mercenaries, asking for help, and when they tried they were forever corrupted by King Sombra’s dark crystals, transforming these mercenaries into the first Diamond Dogs.

A mysterious unicorn managed to sneak in and help Autumn Wheat escape to seek help from the Royal Sisters of Equestria. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna led a force of their guardsponies to the Empire, trying diplomacy at first bu Sombra made it clear he would never relinquish his empire or his slaves. It soon came to a final battle between him and the Sisters. It ended in his defeat, but Sombra had the last laugh as a curse he had already placed upon the Empire caused it and every Crystal Pony to vanish completely.

Millenia later, the Empire returned and was soon liberated and Sombra restored to good, while Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor became the new rulers of the Crystal Empire.

Living Generators of Positive Magical Energy
Crystal Ponies are able to generate considerable magical energy via their positive emotions and this energy can be willfully shared in order to fuel magic via a crystal conduit. Crystal Pony who experiences negative emotions, like depression, sadness, despair, misery, or even fear, anger, or hate, will become dull and opaque in body and their magic will weaken.

Crystal Empowerment
Crystal Ponies can imbue what they make with mild properties of their crystal magic, such as their crops, their armor and weapons, or even objects and wares they make with their own hooves. The armor and weapons they make behold varying amounts of magical resistance.

Positive Emotional Empowerment
A Crystal Pony is at his or her strongest, physically and magically, when his or her spirits are high and his or her positive emotions burn brightly