"Ah, Ponyville, I remember you," Diamond said with a sigh. His voice echoing in his mask. A piece of Minotaur craftsmanship. The front half was a dull and scratched silver with angled rectangular eye slits and a line of square holes near the mouth for breathing. While the back half was of the same material but with gold leaf trimmings. The horns welded to the top of it. The gold spiraling around the bases of the two ivory made horns. Both of which rose from the top of the two piece helmet and jutted forward just over the front of the mask, and tapering off to a fine point as they turned towards the sky once more. A large crack ran down the back of one of the horns, the whole thing was being held together by the gold. His dirt covered yak fur cloak covered his body along with the gear he carried. Protecting him from the cold red winds that tried to claw at his skin.
Looking out over the field of dust and dirt, Diamond stepped atop the mound of dirt and rubble. The wind howling past his helmet as he stared at the colossus in the distance. Where Canterlot had once stood, proud and true, now stood the self-proclaimed god. Standing in a crater, his hooves disappeared below the earth while his horns threatened to tear open the sky.
"All your fault," Diamond muttered. "Would-be heroes that couldn't even stop a single unicorn. Now this." The breath from his words formed in front of his mask, clouding his vision before being lost with the wind. Walking forward, a book levitated from underneath his cloak, encased in a blob of snowy white magic. The magic flickered as it could barely keep the book afloat.
"Final entry, it has been to long since I've seen the surface," Diamond said as he made his way to the massive crater that was once known as Canterlot. "After the Elements of Harmony ceased to exist, an alternate existence came to life. They still come to me, those visions, those words."
Diamond stumbled as a gust of wind pushed at him, the book fell out of his magic and to the ground below with a thud as it shut. Regaining his footing, Diamond shook his body, trying to rid his cloak of the crimson dust that caked the matted fur. He bent over, taking the book in his armored hand before resuming his walk with a sigh. "I'm sorry."
Stepping through the ruins of the world, Diamond walked in silence.
As Diamond and Chrysalis walked through the streets of Ponyville, the whistling wind filled the silence between them. Chrysalis' lips were pulled back in a thin, unsure smile as a lock of her dark cerulean mane dangled off the side of her face.
"And that's when I realized I had made a horrible mistake," Diamond said, bursting into laughter.
Chrysalis chuckled weakly. Looking down the dirt road, she spotted the library that Diamond had told her about. It really is a tree. She thought. She turned back to Diamond as his laughter quieted down, and he spoke once more.
"The whole cave ended up collapsing, leaving me trapped down there. I had to find my way out, but instead I, and get this, found an entire Changeling hive, right under the king's beak. And not just any hive, it was the hive. Beautiful golden cities, they even had their own artificial sun, made up of years of amassed love magic, fueled by every single one of the nation's citizens."
Chrysalis hummed. She had read stories about it, but she had never thought it was real. It was more of a fairy tale her mother had told her. A dream she wanted to make reality, but the plan to make it real fell apart as the wave of love blasted her out of Canterlot. "What happened to it? I've only heard... rumors."
Diamond shrugged. "War, infighting, a whole number of things. The deciding factor was the state of the nation above them. Once that fell apart, there was no steady flow of love, no love meant—"
"I get it. They starved," Chrysalis huffed. Her head turned to face the library that was just ahead of them. The leaves swaying in an unfelt breeze.
Diamond frowned as his gaze fell to the dirt road beneath his feet. A small cloud kicked up with every step. "Look... I'm sorry I wasn't—"
"You have nothing to be sorry about. It was my decision."
Diamond opened his mouth to respond, only managing only a sigh as he turned his gaze to the library. "I have a lot of things to be sorry about. Telling me I shouldn't feel bad doesn't make it hurt any less. Just let me be here for you now. We may barely know each other, but I was in love even before I knew you. Knowing you now, and what you've done, it changes nothing."
Chrysalis' eyes widened. A blush forming on her jet black cheeks, the red faded back to black as Diamond continued talking.
"Young, old, living, dead, I'll love every single soul on this planet like family. Because I know how easy it is... to..." Both Diamond and Chrysalis slowed their pace, staring at the candle painted on the crimson split door, Diamond shook his head. And as quickly as it begun, his shaking stopped. "I may not be by your side when things get tough, when you're in the deepest pit that despair has to offer. But I'll be there at the top, waiting to offer my hand."
Looking to Diamond, Chrysalis stared at the smile of the creature that had saved her life. His arm extended out towards her as his palm faced the sky.
Chrysalis smiled. All the tales of that strange creature, giving his love freely to any and all that needed it. To any and all that would guide him through their world. They may not have been the whole story, but they were all a part his story nonetheless. Why he wanted to learn the world's magic, may remain a mystery. A passion? Is it not unlike–
"Aaaww, Diamond, I had no idea." A voice chimed from behind the door, melodious and motherly. "Who knew you could make such a lovely foal."
Both Diamond and Chrysalis turned towards the door, brows raised.
Reaching for the door, Diamond gripped the handle and pushed in. The door creaked as it swung open. Standing around the central table was Twilight, Spike, and another Alicorn. A white coat with a curled pink mane and tail. All of them looking at Aphid with smiles on their faces as the hatchling giggled and batted at the golden magic that emanated from the Alicorn.
"I'm home." Diamond said slowly. "Thanks for watching after Aphid." He said to Twilight without taking his eyes off of the white Alicorn.
"It's no problem. Once Princess Celestia came, i–Aphid was nothing less than well behaved." Twilight looked to Chrysalis, the smile fell. "Ah," was all she said.
"Celestia?" Diamond asked.
The Alicorn turned her head. "Hmm? Yes?" She asked. Her eyes closed with a smile on her face as her horn continued to glow. Aphid still transfixed on the horn even after her parents had returned.
"It's good to see you." He smiled.
"Likewise," Celestia replied.
Both of them looked away, their heads turning to let their gazes fall on the wooden walls of the home. Nobody said a thing as they rest stared at the two.
Chrysalis' brows furrowed into a worried look. "What's happening? D-Did something go on between you two?"
They both looked at her but Diamond was the first to speak up. "No...? It's been centuries since I last saw her. Just weird is all. Like hey, Princess, that kid your parents adopted is back to live in the country you rule over."
"True." Celestia nodded her head. "This time, none of my subjects can fear you."
"Because they don't know I exist."
Twilight coughed into her hoof. "What happened last time you were here? You talked about getting kicked out when you grew back the library but the only time Celestia banished somepony was when..."
Both Celestia and Diamond bowed their heads. "It was a rough time for Equestria," said Diamond. "Nightmare Moon was sent to the moon, and ponies were jumping at shadows. Canterlot had it the worst, there were fights, too many to count. And if you weren't a pony, especially a non-pony who can use magic. Let's just say it's either you leave town or..." Diamond lifted a hand to his neck and drew his thumb from one side to the other.
Twilight looked at him, confusion written across her face.
Diamond sighed. "Kidnapped and tortured, or worse."
"C–Canterlot would never do something like that!" Spike called out.
"Canterlot? Yeah sure. But the nobles of Canterlot? Let's just hope you're not the guest of honor at one of their tea parties." He shrugged. "And ever since the changeling invasion of Canterlot, let's just say that tea isn't the main thing ponies are drinking at those parties." Diamond walked over to Aphid, who was only sitting on the table staring at him as he approached, neither smile nor a frown written on her face. Those giant sky-blue orbs called eyes glistened in the library's light. "How did we start talking about this again?"
"You were talking about why you were kicked out," Twilight said.
"Right, the citizens of Canterlot mostly knew what I was back then, and believe me they did not like it. Being one of the undying is extremely uncommon, even for most Necromancers. So they had two options, get rid of me, or get me banished. And being pseudo-family with the princesses means they can't just toss me, so..." Diamond trailed off, his gaze getting distant before he blinked and shrugged. "It took a while to get me banished. The nobles basically had to turn a friend of the remaining crown into public enemy number one."
None of them knew what to say. What could they say?
"Enough about tha–"
"You said you'd never been to Canterlot," Twilight stated. Looking at Diamond with a raised eyebrow, and chewed her cheek as she stared at him.
"That?" Diamond shrugged and laughed weakly, "That was a lie, easier to say I've never been to Canterlot, you know?"
Celestia's ears perked at this, swiveling towards Twilight.
"I guess, but if you were banished right after Nightmare Moon, why were you here when the Apples were just starting to settle down, was the banishment lifted?" Twilight trailed off as she looked to Celestia who was staring at her with a look of confusion, turning her gaze to Diamond, eyes wide with a single vertical finger pressed against his lips. Twilight watched his lips part into a smile as Celestia turned to him, his hand dropping back to the side.
"Just passing through, nothing more than that. Had some business up north to attend to."
"Business?" Celestia asked.
"Family matters," he replied. "The monastery I had lived in for a while was appointing a new Father and he wanted my blessing."
Celestia sighed. "Are they really still up there?"
Twilight turned to Diamond. "Monastery? Father?" She looked to Chrysalis who only replied with a shrug and a shake of her head.
"Of course they're still up there. The wills of the faithful don't bend so easily." Diamond looked to Twilight with a smile. "The monastery was found by a number of ponies that denounced Celestia and Luna as gods back when they became princesses. They were mainly an opposition to those that did believe Celestia and Luna to be gods."
"The whole thing was just silly," Celestia muttered.
"They saw the very things that defined them as lies, limitations, so they set out for enlightenment. They wanted the ability to converse with the gods- beings with limitless magic potential- so they vowed to never use magic again."
Twilight was always interested in learning about customs she had never heard of, but what came next was something she wasn't ready for. The smile on her face slowly shrinking as Diamond spoke on.
"The unicorns had their horns broken off, the pegasi removed their wings, the earth ponies had their senses dulled and meditated in an abyss of a room dug into the mountain. They set out to become—"
"What?!" Twilight all but screamed, everybody jumped at the sudden outburst, their eyes wide as they all stared at her. "Why would anypony do that?!" Twilight's face morphed into a look of agony, as if the very thought of breaking off her horn pained her.
"It's painless I assure you that—"
"I don't care if it's painless! It's barbaric!"
"You call it barbaric, they call it enlightening. Their methods and ways of thinking may be different, but they could say the same thing of what you do here." Diamond shrugged, letting a huff creep out. "Nothing you can do about it, and I don't really think you'd want to if you knew the results."
Agony turned to absence. "Results of what? Self-mutilation? What could that possibly accomplish compared to just living your life?"
"Godhood of course. Now, I have my gems, let's get to the summoning spell already."
"They come and go, like pictures in an album, but somebody's flipping through the pages to fast for me to make sense of it all." Diamond muttered, the howling winds drowned him out more than his mask could muffle his voice. "That makes sense right?" Craning his neck to look at the behemoth known as Tirek. Fiery suns stared down at him through the crimson sand.
"I guess," Tirek murmured, his voice cutting through the wind like lightning striking in a calm field.
"You see them too, don't you?" Diamond asked.
The golden lights in the sky vanish for a moment before reappearing. "No."
"All the magic of the world coursing through your veins, and yet you can't even remember."
"Who are you then?" Tirek asked. "Such a pitiful amount of magic, not even worth taking." The winds died as magic began to burn between the spires that were Tirek's horns. Revealing the scarred form of the centaur. The sandstorm having clawed at the exposed skin, but never enough to strip it from the bone as magic healed it faster than it could tear.
"Who am I? I'm no one, a nobody born to pony parents." Diamond shrugged, a gauntlet slipped out from underneath the cloak magic clinging to the metal.
Seeing this, Tirek reared his head back before throwing it forward, launching his magic at Diamond, the air parting to the magic that burned brighter than the sun itself. But before it could reach, the magic faltered and faded, leaving the self proclaimed pony standing before with the wind beginning to pick back up.
"What are you, is what you should have asked. Because who I am, doesn't even matter. I couldn't make sense of it all, but there were parts here and there that spoke to me, like I'm speaking to you right now."
Once again, Tirek let loose a magical beam that shook the dirt beneath them. Only for the beam to sputter and shrink away before it reached Diamond.
"Can't you hear it? Can't you see it? Feel it?!" Diamond yelled.
Throwing his arms out to the sky, Diamond called out. "Beautiful!" He sang. "Disgusting!" He roared. "Agonizing and awe-inspiring! The very life I've lived, a lie told by another! I do the things that I do, not because I can, but because somebody wills it." Diamond fell to his knees, his mask pressing against the sand. His howls echoed through the dead world. Slowly rising back to his feet, clumps of the crimson sand fell from his mask. "That makes sense right?" As the words left his mask, the cloak he wore burned away. Once the last shred of yak fur turned to ash, it was followed the by the gauntlets and boots that adorned his arms and legs. Revealing twisting flesh, what was once pale skin, was now a mass of writhing meat that matched the sands beneath him in color. The shirt and pants he wore were stained and wet, dripping fluids unknown to even him.
Tirek watched as magic began to bubble out from beneath the mask, a bright white ooze that slid down the creature's body, coiling around it. The horns atop his mask turning to ash along with the rest of the helmet. Nothing.
"I couldn't care about what happens anymore!" Diamond called out. "Bless this world, and those who find joy in it." As the magic wrapped around the last of the exposed body, the ground beneath them began to quake. The ground tearing apart as light began to stream out from below. Diamond watched as the world around him was consumed by light. Closing his eyes and letting out one last sigh, he let it take him.
There was no wind, no birds, as if the world's tongue had been cut out. The trees of the Everfree could only stare at the two intruders with branches held high.
A corpse by any other name, the flesh still twisting, trying to hide away from the air it was exposed to.
And a human, standing tall with hands in the pockets of his pants. Steel eyes staring down at the shadowy forest floor where the corpse laid, a small smile adorning his face. "Welcome home," he muttered.