In the coldest part of the Frozen North, there lies a great Empire. This Empire, known as the Crystal Empire, is the place I live in. My home, ruled by the royal family, was a great place to live. The Crystal Ponies, my tribe, were the only residents. We lived and prospered, in the shelter of our great Queen, Glacia Amora the III. The Crystal Heart was the heart of our kingdom, the Queen and her family protected it. The magic of the heart runs through us all, uniting us, keeping us strong.
Then one day, our world fell. A unicorn known as Sombra claimed to have killed the royal family, and that anyone who challenged him, would fall. We accepted, and he became King Sombra. I could have skipped to his tyranny, but you'd be mistaken if he was a bad leader at first. He, in truth, ruled fairly and just. He respected the traditions we had upheld for millenia, and kept the law as it had been.
Two years passed, he kindly ruled, showing compassion and charity. But throughout the two years, the Crystal Heart chipped away at his kindness, it changed him. You see, the Crystal heart is not only influenced by the ponies' feelings, but it also lets the current ruler feel all the pain and cheer the ponies feel. Our Queen had been killed, even if it was two years ago, all the grief we felt still must have been too much for him. His mind being consumed by the thought of the royals must have made him insane, because he started becoming obsessed with conquest.
He began disregarding the rituals needed to maintain the Empire, he used the Crystal Heart to control ponies. Luckily, he left the young ones alone, only calling the adults. The Empire's colours began to fade. The palace durned a deep charred black. Our homes, our houses, everything we once had turned crooked and twisted. His kingdom became ruled by hate.
He sent groups of ponies to the border, to start his conquest. I saw them marching away, their faces completely blank, staring into the void, as they marched onward, out of the Empire. Their eyes however... Their eyes held the deepest sadness that you could imagine. Some of them were even crying as they marched onward. Their tears flowing down their crystal coat, and dripping onto the road.
I watched all of this, from the window in my home. A small orphanage at the edge of the Empire. I was only fourteen. To see all the crystal ponies marching helplessly against their will, some of them I even knew. The old hairdresser, the local madpony, the ice charmer! I would have helped them... But I knew I couldn't. The crystal heart's magic would bend my mind, making me just like them. I'd become a mindless idiot, and walk back to the orphanage.
One of my friends tried to stop them two weeks ago. He walked back, obeying anything and everything we told him. We expected it to wear off, so we played around with it for a while... He's sitting in the basement now. He has been for the past week. Staring blankly at the door no doubt, waiting for orders.
Then one day the nice lady who owns the orphanage, and one of the few ponies sombra hasn't used yet, miss Fair Foster, she tells us that the princesses from equestria are coming to banish Sombra to tartarus! I didn't know it, but Sombra had already made a backup plan, in case they did show up. A curse that would only activate when he left the throne. The whole empire would be displaced a random period of time into the future, along with any Ponies living there.
Only the Ponies.
My cold body lies beneath the soft white ground. Asleep, and shivering. Snow drifts onto my coat, slowly burying me deeper in a blanket that would freeze me. I wake up, sputtering and coughing because of the snow that had drifted into my mouth. I dig my way out, in complete darkness, knowing only which way is up. I hold my breath, feeling the cold snow still in my mouth melt on my tongue. At last, after what seems like an eternity, and just before I would have run out of breath, I reach the surface. I flick my ears to rid me of the snow in them. I would have tried to remember what happened last night, but first priority for anyone in a snowstorm is to find shelter. I look around, spotting a cave in the distance. I march towards it, trudging my way through the snow, which luckily, even though I almost died of suffocation in it, wasn't too high for me to walk on.
I realise that I'm in a crater, a snowy crater, not too noticeable, but you can tell. If you look around, you'd notice that the snow in the crater is around one foot less deep than the snow around it. The mark left by the Empire. I don't have time to wonder about it though.
I reach the cave that I saw, at the centre of the crater. The snow is falling in the opposite direction that the entrance to the cave is facing. Meaning, there isn't much snow, at least compared to the outside. The cave slope isn't too steep, it's gentle enough for me to walk down it easily. The cave is made of crystal, pink and blue, reminding me of the old Empire. To think it was only two years ago.
I look at my shining reflection in the crystal, a dark outline of my form is all I can see though. You can only just see the bright crystal blue of my coat and the glistening dark blue of my mane. My eyes, if you could see them, would have been the same shade as my coat. My nickname at the orphanage was Monotone. They didn't mean to be rude, but it is a fitting nickname. It doesn't describe my personality, mainly my colours. I like it though... Even if it seems mean to call anyone Monotone.
I sit down, wiping the snow off my hard crystal skin. The cave almost holds a degree of warmth, melting the snow quickly. I'm shivering, but so glad to be out of the cold. The cave, even if it is hard to see things, is really quite comfortable. I could just sit up against the crystal wall, and fall asleep... In fact, I think... I think... I think I'll just fall asleep right now. Yeah... That...
I wake up, feeling a warm breeze run throughout the cave. The snow outside is still falling, just as heavily as before I started to sleep. The warm breeze is gone already, making me shiver again, the cold seeping into my every bone.
I look around the cave, hoping to find anything that would indicate where the warmth came from. I look deeper into the cave... There's only... Yes! There is! It's faint, but it's something. There's a small glimmer of light deeper in the cave, which means that it's probably where the heat came from! I run towards it, hearing my crystalline hooves clattering against the prink and blue ground.
I take a right, a left, go down a tunnel, wherever the light is clearest, I follow. The crystals are becoming more and more blue, and the air around me feels warm enough for me to walk comfortably. I can tell I'm close to warmth... At least, I think I am. Hopefully. I can't stay in the cold too long, I'd die.
I walk under a crystal archway, entering a gigantic room, this is the source of the heat, I know it... But then, why am I still cold? I'd ask more questions to myself, but I'm taken in by the splendour, and beauty of the room.
Ice blue crystals graze the walls, in spiralling patterns, making the walls look like waves of crystal. Each of the crystals identical in colour, and different in shape. The ceiling is covered in crystals jutting out of the roof, like swords, all the colours from purple to blue. The floor is almost a mirror, its surface being shiny enough for me to see a clear reflection of myself.
And then, in the centre of the room, a pedestal. One of pure... Ice. A mist is radiating off of it, sweeping across the floor, creating a thin layer of cloudy air at my hooves. Atop the icy pedestal is a crown... A magnificent crown... I feel drawn toward it. It feels warm... It feels so wonderful to just walk toward it, to embrace its whispers that tell of the knowledge that I could have. To wear it and receive its majesty, and release the potential sleeping dormant in it. It would be such a waste to leave it here, where no-one could disturb it.
I take a step forward, warmth fills my hooves.
I take another, The walls begin to shine.
I take another, the crown's majestic blue entrances me even more.
Hoof after hoof, I step closer. The crown is almost within my reach.
I reach out, and take the crown from its stand, nothing changes.
I wear the crown, and I can feel the power filling me, the warmth filling me with life! The crown bestows upon me its knowledge, the information, so many random thoughts flood me, drowning me in wisdom! I understand it all, but I cannot piece it together. My mind is in fragments but I know so much more than the puny mortals who came before me. The power filling me could rival even that of the princesses I would dare to bet!
My will is strong, my resolve that everything has a purpose, and I have found mine. I was always meant to be here. The crystal empire was always going to disappear, Sombra would have always gone insane, and there was nothing anypony could do to change it. Even the future is written in stone.
You always know when your time is up. And in that brief moment, where you're in-between death and life, you feel every single life that you affected, all the pain, the heartache, and all the love, and friendship. You feel every consequence for every action you ever made. The pain you caused that one pony, who overheard your conversation about how annoying they are. The jealousy of the ponies who envy your looks or intelligence. The love that your partner felt when you kissed them that first time. Or, the gratitude that foal felt in nursery when you shared your toys.
And yet, upon placing the crown on my head, I felt all those things. I saw everything for a brief moment. Only for it to be cruelly ripped away, as I returned to the world of the living.
I was still in the cave, standing next to the pedestal, it felt like hours had passed since I put the crown on, of course though it had only been a few seconds and in my shock of all this flooding my mind, I tried to throw the crown away.
It would not come off, I looked at the reflective floor, and indeed, the crown was still on my head, but... It had frozen itself onto me. So many things were happening at once, I needed to rest! And, well, the next thing I knew... I passed out. Probably. It's hard to know whether you did or not.
Okay... Well. After waking up, and looking around, I can at least tell that I'm back at the entrance to the cave, the snow doesn't seem like it wants to stop, and the crown still hasn't gone away. I can see its silhouette on the reflective crystal. My mind has, for some reason, only just processed that the entire Crystal Empire has vanished from this freezing tundra, leaving a dent in the otherwise deep snow. How I overlooked the fact that the Empire caused the crater, I have no clue.
Okay, first up for mind processing. I have found a magical crown, that showed me everything, took it away, and had already started making me hear voices in my head. It also will not come off, because it froze itself to my head.
Second up, the Empire has vanished, but for some reason I was left behind. I am now left completely alone with absolutely nopony to talk to, and I don't know if anypony I know is all right.
Third, I will probably die here, alone, cold, and helpless.
Gee, I'm so cheerful.
Well... Not much to do around here... If the crown won't come off, then it won't there's nothing I can do about that. I look back, into the cave. The light isn't there anymore... But there is... My cutie mark. I got my cutie mark, and I didn't notice. You'll never guess what it is.
It's the crown.
It's a seven spiked, ice blue, crown.
You know... I just realised. I'm standing at the entrance to the cave, where the snow is making everything cold, where I should be either dead or frozen, and I'm not shivering at all. There is snow on my skin, and it feels warm. Whatever it was that crown did to me, at least I know I won't freeze to death.
So, I suppose I have the crown to thank for my life. Even if it did kill me briefly.
The warmth is... It's as though I'm standing out in the sun. It's not too hot, but not too cold either. It's a very odd sensation, knowing you should be freezing but instead feeling just right.
I look out at the snow, staring at its pearly white colour. It's beautiful... I can see every flake intertwining with every other flake in a complex structure that has been imitating itself forever. Water, gathered around dust particles and bacteria in the air that froze on their way down to the earth below, creating a six pointed structure so complex and yet so simple.
Woah... Where did I get that from? I know almost nothing except the essentials to survive, how in tartarus did I end up knowing that? I think... The crown maybe. Maybe it did it... I can remember it showing me lots of stuff... Maybe it stayed behind? Or maybe it just told me about the snow now? Weird.
I look up at the clouds. A sheet of black covering everything, concealing the true colours of the sky... Why are the pegasi are needed in Equestria? The snow here is comforting... Soothing... Just build a roof, and a fire, then you're good. Food isn't a problem since it's so easy to come by, crystals are everywhere.
What? You thought Crystal ponies always ate normal food? No, come on, did you see any farms in the Crystal Empire? Crystals sprout out of the ground randomly, a special group of ponies go round the entire Empire, collecting them, then they distribute four per each person, per day. When Sombra came to power, he only used crystals for rune carving, since most crystals contain their own mana they made for very efficient batteries. The crystals also, using their magic that they store, release it into our crystalline bodies, fusing with us, and strengthening the unity and love in the empire. It's probably the only reason the Empire didn't collapse immediately after Glacia Amora the III's death.
Whoah... Definitely the crown on that one. I... I probably should get used to that, since the crown doesn't seem to want to come off, and my cutie mark says it's my destiny. Now that I think about it, maybe listening to those weird whispers I heard when I saw the crown wasn't such a good idea. If ignorance is bliss, Knowledge is hell.
I take a look at the snow covering the ground, and close my eyes. I don't know why... I just did. I thought of Sombra, then my eyes shot open. And there stood a snowy replica of the monster before me. I jumped back in surprise, and terror, expecting Sombra to try and kill me... But it didn't move. It was unnerving.
"Why aren't you moving?!" I thought out loud.
"Do you want it to?" a voice I didn't recognise replied.
"What? Where are you?" I ask it, if it was hostile, it would've killed me already.
"On your head, where you put me. I swear, the first living thing I get to possess in a million years, and they're an idiot. So, I'm the crown, the royalty of the ice, and the entire northern hemisphere. Wherever ice falls, that is your land, got it?"
I took a moment to process it, before replying with a yes.
"Huh... Most of the creatures I've met wouldn't have understood a word I said there... Well, I'm going back to sleep, g'night!"
...I stood there, slightly disoriented. Apparently, the crown is alive. I mean, I suppose that would make sense, with all the whispers. But... There was still a Sombra ice-sculpture staring at me... Wait, the first thing the crown asked me was if I wanted it to move... Maybe all I have to do is imagine it moving, since that's what happened before it appeared.
I close my eyes, think about Sombra becoming alive, then. Open my eyes, and much to my surprise, he's jumping back in shock. He falls over and I laugh a bit, then the snow Sombra makes a grumpy face, making me laugh more. He gets up, and waves a hoof at me angrily. This ought to be fun...
So, me and Snow Sombra got into a snowball fight, he never talked, and when I imagined him talking, he couldn't. I suppose that was helpful anyway, it would get awkward if we had nothing to talk about. Anyway, I discovered that my power was to bring my imaginations to life, in snow form, so I imagined a snow fort for both of us. An actual one, with snow bricks, snow turrets, slit windows, and of course, snow cannons. It was the most fun I'd ever had.
The crown showed up for basically only half an hour each day since then, telling me things that I was now capable of and how to use them. Like, how I could also use the snow and change it into ice, as well as change ice into snow. I also discovered how to disassemble my snow structures, by imagining them getting washed away by the rain. Snow Sombra's snowy eyes widened in fear, shaking his forehooves rapidly, he was nothing like the real Sombra. I explained that I wasn't going to kill Snow Sombra, which made him relaxed.
After a few weeks of messing around, I got really into creating massive beautiful ice- sculptures with my new power. For some reason, I mainly stuck to snakes. I like snakes, they're elegant and graceful, but form such a major threat to everyone. Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it... That's from something. I can't remember what.
One horrible day, I was walking around, just normally. I felt something crunch underneath my hoof, not like snow, like... Like a crystal snapping, and when I asked the crown what it was, it said 'Just ignore it'. I obviously didn't listen, and do you know what I found?
The body of Queen Glacia Amora the III.
The body of King Quartz Empiré.
The body of Prince Blood Amora
And the body of Princess Cadenza Amora.
All four of which, were perfectly preserved in the snow. I imagined the snow burying them, as well as a tombstone of ice, marking where they were. My mind was pretty messed up after that. I started getting darker thoughts.
Eventually, I was so scared that I imagined myself, frozen in ice. It grew over my forelegs, the crown protested, and Snow Sombra looked on in horror. I encased myself in this ice crystal in the cave I found, imagining the snow washing over the cave and burying me. I was so terrified, of dying. And when the ice was over me, it was like I was dreaming. I was the snow and the ice everywhere, I could feel everything that was happening wherever snow was.
After a thousand years of dreaming, I watched the Empire come back, saw the Crystal Heart be placed directly above me, and I could feel it. The unity magic was stronger than ever. I watched another princess take the throne, I never learned their name. They were an alicorn, a representative of 'the three tribes' even though there are four tribes of ponies. I doubt they were even related to a single crystal pony.
I watched the real Sombra fade into darkness, as he died. Really though, he just... Dissapeared? A unicorn powerful enought to survive death... And he was killed by the love? Nah, his horn survived, it landed in a patch of snow just on the border between the frozen lands and Equestria. I felt the magic in the horn, he would regrow... It would just take a bit of time.
Winter became my favourite season... Well, I always liked winter anyway, but now it was because that was when I could see the most in my dream. It was when ponies would play and have snow- fights. When ponies got the most into ice- sculpting.
I lasted through everything, and I kept dreaming. Eventually I forgot I ever did anything but dream. I saw the pink ruler of the Empire die, when Sombra came back. He was so different. His eyes held so much rage at everything. He destroyed anything that got in his way, and killed the alicorn. Apparently, alicorns are ageless, not immortal. They do die, but only from murder. They don't catch diseases, but they do corrupt.
I... I don't know what happened, but one day, my mind snapped. I went mad. I started... Imagining the snow turning into monsters. K... K- killing ponies. Terrifying them. And I enjoyed it. Seeing how ponies reacted when it happened, it made me scared of myself. I kept doing it, ponies started fearing the ice and snow. I became a monster.
And I was proud of myself.
I didn't know how to stop myself, it just felt so great to kill and kill and kill! I became feared, and I relished in that. I became the story parents would tell to their foals at night, to give them the chills. I became the silent murderer that would sneak in your window at night when you left it open in the winter, then take your life.
I kept doing this forever, and ever, finding new ways to terrify ponies. Finding new ways to kill them. Finding new ways to spread my influence, I couldn't help myself, I wanted so badly to kill, to murder, to dissect.
I never regretted it, not even at the very end.
Not even when the snow and ice around me melted, revealing a black curved horn with a red tip, stabbed deep inside my back.
And then, as a bright light shone across Equestria, the child of the ice and snow was released from the darkness holding him captive, freeing him in death.
But names mean nothing, just like the title of King, or Queen. They hide the true pony from sight...