//------------------------------//
// The temple and the imperishable. 
// Story: The Crystal King is playing in the sand. 
// by Black Owl 
//------------------------------//

Also this is extremely fascinating, this mare has been talking to herself every single day, and only stopped talking so she could eat or drink. I think she may be a robot- ok I read too many comics. It's divine luck she isn't a unicorn that know telepathy, that would be horrible. Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration, but this is my mind so I can exaggerate as much as I want. Wait, why am I justifying my thoughts to myself? 

Hmm, were was I? Oh yes, my mind changing along with my horn stuck in the magic overload form. I luckily still have the useful skill of half consciousness, extremely useful in situations like these. Some would consider it extremely impolite, but that skill is a must if you even need to deal with court, especially the ones before the equestrian war. "Your highness! I managed to get to Equestria because I'm a rich bastard and saw how nice it was there. Can we get free shit and copy the equestrians?" "Oh your highness, can we use more gold on buildings that would cover the crystals so they can't be be used to defend the capital?" "Your highness, can we get more imports of stupid shit from the equestrians, even though we've been fighting the rest of the Umbrum which enslaved ice creatures to try and destroy the northern part of the empire?" "Your highness, I know that we are at war and stuff, but can we import silks and carpets from the arabians?" Publicly executing some of the highest ranking nobles probably caused the the start of the second Crystal-Equestrian war. Forcing  the ponies that weren't loyal to me to work in the crystal mines. But hey, what was I supposed to do? Let them stab me in the back at the first chance. Still, I hope there there are still some loyalists left, that would help me a lot.

Worse, my stupid fucking subjects now want to be a part of Equestria. Do you twats have any idea how much I worked to split us into our own country!? Ungrateful bastards, how dare they put those two false royals in power!? But this time I can't just enslave all of them, that would give the princesses a reason to banish me again. No, this time I need to think of a better idea, a kinder way to get rid of them this time.

Wait, why is the ground shacking?





After quickly dismissing the trance spell and doing a quick scan of the surroundings, I ended up with the conclusion that I was falling at great speeds. The light coming from the hole overhead got smaller while a dark figure slowly grew in size, the fanatical flap of wings accompanying it. My thoughts may seem weird, but I merely try to make the boring parts of my days more entertaining by making weird and bad decisions. What? Do you think I'm an idiot? ...Do not answer that.

Now, how was that spell that slowed down your decent called again? Rock's descent? No, that one probably refers to an actual rock instead of the bird. Hmm, I really need to read my magic archive again, but first I need to get my throne back. Along with my collection of stair, not my fault most ponies can't levitate or fly. Wait. Fly... wing... feather! That's it! The spell was called feather fall! Grinning at my thoughts, I quickly envelop my horn with arcane energy and cast the spell, slowing my descent by a great amount.

Me slowing down must have really surprised the dark figure also known as Daring Do. It took a few seconds before she remembered that she needed to fly, making her plummet towards the ground for a few moments before flying in front of me. "How did you..." She mumbled while waving her hand at my slow descent.

"Have you forgotten about my great knowledge of the arcane?" I said before snorting. "I may be weaker in pure power, but my skill is still unobtainable by most."

"I guess? But do you really have to boast while answering me?" She scoffed, annoyance dripping from her mouth. 

"Who wouldn't boast when they hold my skill and intellect?" 'Yeah because you totally remembered that spell right away.' Shut up me, she doesn't know that, and never will. 'And you wonder why you had that many enemies.' I don't wonder, I know exactly why I had so many of them. 'Oh really? Then what's the reason, oh great genius?' They were all jealous of my stunning looks and intellect. 'I seriously hope we get stuck in this hole so maybe you'll finally realize your mistakes.' Ah shut up already, you are just jealous like the rest. 'I'm you, you lunatic!' Oh yeah, kinda forgot that. 'Figured it...'





It took us a while to finally land, and after a series of questions from Daring, I was finally allowed to take in my surroundings. It seems we were in some kind of underground tomb, a certain underground tomb.

"Let's get moving, this is the place we were looking for. Good thing it found us first or else we would have spent who knows how long searching for it.

"Right. Anything I should look out for? You didn't answer any of my questions while we were traveling." Daring asked, pointing out my laziness.

"Mostly normal traps for now, the rest should be magical traps designed by me, so you don't need to worry about those." Stroking your own ego again? Are you that insecure? 'You know what? I got sick of you, I think I'll get rid of you.' What!? You can't do that! 'Oh yes I can, just watch.' In a few seconds, I started filling my horn full with magic, letting it circle my horn and illuminate the room. I kept pushing more and more magic into my horn as the voice keeps screaming at me to stop. 'Oh shut up me, or should I say umbrum? Did you really think you would trick me? Just who in Tartarus do you take me for!? I killed many of yours before, and I'll do it again! DIE FILTH!' After internally screaming at the umbrum hiding in my mind, I released the spell I was charging, enveloping myself with magic and evaporating the hidden umbrum.

Daring was panicking at the sight of me charging my horn and quickly started to fly away, but she calmed down after I released the magic and enveloped myself instead of her. "Scared I was going to shoot you? If I wanted you dead I would have done it in your sleep, I was just dealing with a headache. Now come, we still have a long walk ahead."

"Yeah, I guess..." She mumbled before flying a few meters ahead of me, probably looking for any traps. But is it worth it to kill her? Nah, that would be too much trouble, not like she can stop me after I get the scimitar. She probably thinks I will use that scimitar to instantly attack the Crystal Empire and will tell that to the princesses, thus wasting resources. I did a simple but efficient plan once, and it failed. I will never make that mistake again, because this plan will take a long time to complete, but it will have the best result for me. And since I'm already in Saddle Arabia, I guess I can go and get the Totem of Kalvari from the zebras next...





"Alright, why is this tunnel so long?" I groan while levitating a sleeping Daring behind me. I expected some kind of traps, some drawings or hieroglyphs depicting Sallahudin's achievements and battle, but noooooo, there's nothing! The only thing in this long and grand underground hall are the pillars supporting it. However, there was one thing that kept me from reactivating the trance spell. That thing was the continuous feeling of being watched.

The clopping of my hooves onto stone filled my ears as their echo destroyed any thoughts of trying a more stealthy approach. 'Since I can't hide, I should at least try to find any hidden entities, at least physical ones.' My horn flashed a deep purple as I cast one of my favorite cantrips, Bat ears, which gives me something akin to echolocation. After dispelling my light spell, I walked in a more rhythmic way, listening for the echos. Closing my eyes, I slowly pictured the long hall into my mind, searching for the thing responsible for that weird feeling.

It didn't take long for me to found the entity watching me, or to be exact, entities. Hidden behind the columns were bound lesser demons, probably put there to stop intruders, quite effective if they aren't detected. If I was in a hurry, I would have tried to slip by them unnoticed, but since I'm not, I guess I'll enjoy myself. 'But how should I kill them? Maybe with magic or a more brutal way. Hmm.. I'd say brutal, brutal is fun, oh so much fun.' I couldn't stop myself from licking my lips in anticipation. 'But how should I announce myself? Oh, I know the perfect way to scare them!' Charging most of my remaining mana into my horn, I let the magic surround me before releasing the spell. The hall suddenly lit up in the dark purple light coming form my horn and eyes, briefly revealing the demons, before everything went pitch black. Confusing the demons, who couldn't sense the second 'pony' anymore.

These creatures lived in these shadows their entire timeless lives, they called these shadows home. But now the shadows despise them, thickening so much not even them with their impressive night vision can see trough them, silencing everything they cover, all of this because their king ordered them to. For there is no greater honor for a mindless shadow, than obey the one who not only is alive, but was so strong it devoured the rest of its kind. 

This confused the dumb creatures, startling them from their usual identical days. The silence was soon replaced by a hissing voice, an angry hissing voice. MY VOICE. "Tresspassersss..."The brave demon was given a reward for being braver than his brethren, that reward was a quick death from the jaws of the Shadow King. 'Mmm, blueberry. Not my favorite flavor, would have preferred chocolate, but I'm not going to be picky.' Turning around, I quickly spotted the other five demons leaving their covers, panicking to casting light spells so they won't get devoured by what they though was a shadow.

While the demons were trying to cast their light spells, I hurled my shadowy body with my jaws wide open towards the demon. As I got into range, I snapped my jaws close at the demon. Said demon shoved his left side towards me, desperately trying to survive for as long as he could. I missed his hearth, but took his left arm along with his entire shoulder and wing, making him plummet to the ground bleeding and screaming. Snorting at screaming fiend, I quickly rushed back to finish the wounded creature, devouring it completely. This, however, gave the others enough time for all of then to cast Fell Fire at me. Said spells hurled green flames in a cone, I swiftly moved out of the way of two of the cones, but the others hit my sides. At first I was slightly worried how much damage those flames would do, but I was pleasantly surprised at how pathetically weak those flames were. 

The demons, however, though that their flames were quite effective so they all cast the same spell again. But this time I didn't bother to dodge, letting my body be engulfed by the spells. I decided to employ one of my favorite tactics and waited for the flames to die down and let the shadows take back their lost territory. I silently slithered towards two demons flying closer to each other, probably finding comfort in numbers.

I made sure to not be detected as I got behind the two cheering demons. Quickly, I morphed two claws from my misty body and infused them with my magic before slamming the two demons into each other, ripping them apart in the process, before absorbing their bodies. The other two demons screeched in before flying away from me in a panic, terrified for their lives. Seeing them behave like that made a grin cut its way onto my face, as I quickly dashed after them like a wild animal while laughing a wicked laugh. 'This is so much fun! My excitement just keeps growing. I can taste the terror seeping from them, and it was delicious. Now I know why the other umbrum let themselves fall into primal desires.

The demons were fast, but not fast enough. While I didn't catch up to them immediately, I was slowly closing the gap between us, taking my sweet time savoring the terror seeping from them. After opening my jaws wide, I threw a shadow tentacle after the demon on the left, grabbing it by the tail. The fiend started screaming and hauling, desperately trying to get away without any success. After letting it tire itself out, I shoved the demon into my awaiting jaws, crushing bones and ripping flesh as my jaws closed onto him. I wasted no time chewing and just swallowed the thing whole before turning my attention towards the last fiend. 

Anger quickly rose into me when I saw the demon try to cast a teleportation spell. Snarling, I quickly slammed into the last demon, interrupting his casting and sending him flying into one of the columns, breaking said column in two. My laugh quickly turned into a scowl when I saw that the corpse of the fiend was buried under the broken column. Groaning, I started to slowly clear away the debris with my tentacles. After a while, I finally managed to remove the debris and gulped down the corpse of the demon. 'And with that, I'll be able to use one of my strongest spells at least once, but I feel like I forgot something... Wait a minute... I forgot about that mare didn't I? ...shit.'





As Daring woke up, she found herself alone in complete darkness. "Sombra?" She spoke in a confused tone with small hints of fear. 'Where did he go?' She thought before searching through her saddlebags for a light crystal. It took her a while, but she managed to activate the crystal and illuminate the hall. While the crystal's glow was small when compared to a torch, it couldn't be put out by rogue winds. "Where in Tartarus did he go?" Daring mumbled to herself before starting to slowly walk forward.

She didn't know for how long she was walking. The path seemed like a labyrinth, all the walls were identical so it would be extremely hard for anypony to tell how long they walked. This place was lost to time, yet it looked like it was built recently. However, what sent chills down her spine was the unsettling sensation she had. There was something out there, and it was watching her. She was sure of it. 

Then, she heard them. Screams, they were like the wails of young children, completely devoid of any other emotion beside fear. "What kind of a mess did I get myself into this time?" She couldn't stop herself from saying her thoughts out loud as she continued to move forward.

But just as she got used to the screams, they vanished, leaving her in complete silence. "Why did I follow Sombra of all ponies!?" Daring cried as fear was quickly filling her mind. Even so, she had to continue forward because Sombra, if he was even alive, would be able to help her. And so, her pace started quickening, slowly turning into a run. Even as she felt something coming towards her, she had to continue forward. But she soon found herself exhausted while her light crystal lost its power. She was alone now, with no light, and something moving towards her. She closed her eyes and prayed that it was Sombra.

But soon the only sound she could hear was her breathing, which she slowly got into control. Finally feeling safe, Daring opened her eyes. And to her surprise, and horror, darkness wasn't what appeared in her vision. Instead there was a horrific and twisted creature. A monstrosity that looked to be the perfect balance between something familiar, an equine face, and something unfamiliar. Its curved fangs were twisted into a mocking grin, while its many eyes seemed to laugh at her, laugh at her helplessness. From its forehead, a long and twisted red horn illuminated its ashen face and black mane, the rest of its body seeming to be one with the darkness around it. She did the first thing that came to her terrified mind, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Gone was the fearless mare that was considered a hero by many, in her place was a scared filly in front of a creature that could only be called monster.

But then, as she has lost all hope, a hearty laugh echoed trough the halls, completely muffling her scream.





"AHAHAHAHAHA, MY SIDES! OH, MY SIDES! I CAN'T TAKE IT! I CAN'T! YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE! AHAHAHA!" I was currently rolling on the ground laughing while a terrified mare, Daring Do to be precise, was trying not to faint. 'This is the best laugh I had in a long while! I deserve this for my hard work. Good job, me!' After a few more minutes I managed to get my laughter under control, however I was still out of breath.

"SOMBRA, WHY IN CELESTIA'S NAME DID YOU DO THAT?" Oh, it seems poor Daring finally calmed down. She's so sensitive for an adventurer. 

"Oh please, don't be such a crybaby. It was just a harmless joke." I said calmly before a chuckle escaped my mouth, which only made Daring angrier.

"Just a joke!? JUST A JOKE!? SOMBRA YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!" She said while pushing herself up, her face redder then a tomato.

"That? Just an old trick of 'illusion', nothing special." I lied trough my teeth, but the poor mare took it as truth anyway. 'Can't have her tell my dear Celestia about that part.'

"I'll go ahead, but no more jokes or you'll have to get through the traps yourself!" She snarled before angrily stomping forward. 'Aren't these ponies sensible?' And with a small chuckle, I followed after her.

"Just look for more traditional traps, I already got rid of the magical and living ones." I said before using my magic to pull out one of the expensive cigars that I 'borrowed' from that market I passed trough and lit it with a quick fire spell. 'Oh hey, these are actually really good.' This, however, seemed to anger my 'companion'. 

"Now why in Tartarus are you smoking a cigar, you didn't smoke one when we were searching for this place, so why now, especially since we are IN AN UNDERGROUND TUNNEL!?" She screamed, trying to swipe the cigar from my mouth with a wing.

"Hey, watch it! These are expensive. Besides, I smoke whenever I want, be it outside, underground or a volcano. And you know why? Because I'm the king!" I proudly say before blowing smoke in her direction, making her cough and move faster. As she moved further away, probably where she thought I wouldn't hear her, but I still did. 'I can't believe how somepony can be this irritating!' 

"Wait... you're doing this just to anger me, aren't you?" Oh, it seems she isn't that stupid.

"Yep!" I say with a laugh as she groans and distances away from me.





I waited until she was at quite a distance away before walking again. 'At least I'm getting closer to that damned scimitar, and once I have it I'll go for the other artifacts while Celestia thinks that I'll try my hoof at another sneak attack! I realized that simple and direct plans don't work, so a long and complicated one will surely succeed. But for now I need to be patient, I must keep the rumors of myself to just that, rumors.

But the question still remains, what am I going to do after I get my hooves on those powerful artifacts? Perhaps I should take back my empire? No, no, that's too predictable. I could try to corrupt the element holders? No, that would probably backfire in ways I wouldn't be able to predict. Then I could try to corrupt the royal sisters? Who am I kidding, I can't do that because I still- because personal reasons. Ahem, it seems Daring is taking care of the traps quite nicely, she truly is a useful servant. But then, something attracted my attention. "Oh, it seems like we're here." I say before looking up at the giant sandstone sphinx in front of me.

"But how do we get it?" Daring mumbles before she started to fly around the structure, trying to find an entrance. "There doesn't seem to be any way to get past it, are you sure this is it?"

"Of course, we just need to defeat the golem to get the entrance to appear." I say before charging magic into my horn.

"Wait, GOLEM!?" Daring screamed as a giant paw almost swapped her out of her flight.

"Well, Sallahudin always liked trials by combat." And with a last shrug, I released the magic, sending a volley of crystals towards the gigantic golem. Most of the shards hit their target, but the sandstone structure was unfazed and slammed its paws towards me. "Oh shit!" I yelped before teleporting away, barely managing to dodge its attack before blasting at its legs with a blast of dark magic. "LOOK FOR GEMS, THEY POWER UP THE GOLEM!" I screamed at Daring while I continued my hit and run tactic, trying to search for some kind of magic it was weak to.

I was quickly running out of options, any spell I used had barely any results, combined with the growing pain from my horn told me that I wouldn't be able to hold out at this pace for much longer. I need to find a weak point, but neither I nor Daring can find any. I quickly started to run through the spells I knew, but all of them were either useless or would make the underground hall collapse. But, before I could get lost into though, Daring's scream broke my concentration. "THE MOUTH! THERE'S A GEM IN ITS MOUTH!"

"GOOD, TRY TO FIND A WAY TO KEEP ITS MOUTH OPEN, I'LL DISTRACT IT UNTIL THEN!" And with a quick spell on Daring to make her relatively invisible, I threw a few crystal bolts at the golem, making it focus on me. 'Now, the hard part.' The construct moved swiftly for its size, slamming its giant paws towards me as I flew out of the way. I would like to say that I gracefully dodge all its attacks, but that would be one of the biggest lies I ever said. The truth is that I did managed to block its paws from hitting me by making a crystal shield in front of me, but I completely forgot about its tail until it slammed me into one of the pillar, breaking it in the process along with some bones from my body. But I had no time to rest, and with a low groan, I got up again. Only to be thrown into yet another pillar, breaking it and a few more bones in the process. 'This golem! I swear I'll rip it apart piece by-' My thoughts were rudely interrupted by being pushed a few centimeters into the ground. 

'Note to self, stop monologuing in battle-' My thoughts were interrupted, again, by the bloody golem. But this time I managed to teleport before getting hit. 'Can that mare do something already?' The 'fight' continued, even though it was more like a minotaur fighting a mosquito, with the golem being the minotaur and me the mosquito. And, like the comparison I made, it couldn't manage to finish me off, nor could I do anything to it except mildly annoy it. "Can you do something already, OR ARE YOU JUST GOING TO STARE LIKE AN IDIOT!?"

"I'm trying!" Daring whined before going back to flying around and wasting air. 

"This is going to take a while..." I groaned before casting a healing spell.



 

After five agonizing hours, Daring finally did her job and kept that golem's mouth open so I could blast the gem inside, finally destroying the construct. If this is the best adventurer around, then I am the god of adventure, I'm pretty sure Celestia has bigger adventures exploring the pantry. Anyway, with the golem destroyed, the giant doors it was guarding started to open. They moved sluggishly as they revealed a smaller hallway lit up by the small crystals inside the walls. Daring quickly moved in to go first, amazed by the many drawings and inscriptions which decorated the walls. Said drawings depicted Sallahudin's and his father's battles along with their achievements. And as we moved deeper, we saw the whole story unfold before our eyes. I already knew about these events, so I didn't care as much about them. They depicted the founding of largest Saddle Arabian empire ever known, as well as their interactions to their closest ally, me. They sure did a good job on that drawing of me. 'I should make a quick copy and reproduce it myself.' And with that thought and a quick spell, I'll have the designs for the drawings as long as I keep pouring magic into it. 'Even so, this is quite... nice. They bring back so many memories.'

But the drawings didn't go forever, and we soon found ourselves in front of a beautifully decorated door, having the Saddle Arabian royal sigil in the middle acting as a lock. Daring was about to say something, but I stopped her with a raised hoof before walking towards the door and touched the sigil. It took around five minutes of me slowly pushing magic and pouring it into the sigil for the lock to open. The doors opened automatically, creaking as it slowly opened and released a pale blue light. The chamber was lit up by enchanted cold fire, made to last forever. The light reflected off the countless gold treasures and the two gold sarcophagi that stood in the middle of the mountains of riches, with one bigger and sturdier than the other one.

"To there would be so many treasures hidden away here, we need to tell others about this, so we can learn more about this ancient kingdom!" Daring exclaimed, skipping from happiness, but it didn't last long.

"Oh, they will learn, but not from you nor the historians. But from someone else." The mare quickly turned towards me before stomping her front hooves into the ground.

"What!? But you told me that if I help you get that scimitar, you'll let me get the rest of the things here!" Right after those words left her mouth, she started running towards me.

"Did I?"

"Yes!"

"Well... I lied." And with those final words, I teleported Daring into the Crystal Empire's castle, hopefully right into those two fake royals. After the mare's departure, I walked moved towards the bigger sarcophagus. After getting close enough, I started casting my strongest dispel spell, sending it into the runes disguised as decorations that filled the entire room. It seemed like hours past by, but it was only half an hour of casting. This spell drained most of my magic, leaving me for just enough to levitate a beautifully crafted scimitar filled with runes from a pedestal. Sallahudin's Scimitar, a powerful weapon which was also the key to his father's tomb, the key to the prison of the undying warlord. Settra's prison. 

A low creaking sound came from the golden prison as its lid opened to reveal a mummified form of a large saddle arabian stallion decorated from head to tail with luxurious accessories. In one of his hooves he was holding a black book with a large golden scarab on the front, while in the other a decorated glaive. On each side of the sarcophagus sat a golden scarab with a sealing rune inscribed into it, keeping the ancient emperor asleep. Using my newly acquired saber, I peeled off the scarabs one by one.

When the last scarab was peeled off, Settra's eyes snap open, radiating a blue glow. The cracking of bones followed his every movement as he stood up for the first time in millennia. Turning towards me, he spoke in a raspy, ragged and dry voice, having an eerie echo to it. "Sombra... It seems you finally managed to convince my stubborn son to release me, now where is he?"

"He did not agree to anything, in fact he refused to follow in your hoofsteps and chose the path of the honorable and abide by the rules of life." I told him, lowering my head to show respect to the ancient horse.

"A pity, I had hoped he would follow in my steps when he got wiser, but it seems he still followed his mother's way." He spoke with a small hint of regret seeping into his voice. Getting up from his sarcophagus, he started to lightly stretch, but stopped once he saw the scimitar in my grasp. "I see that you have already picked your payment for releasing me. Good to see that you haven't changed, my friend."

"Indeed, but sadly times have changed a lot. It will take a while to explain, but to make it short, we both have lost our empires and our influence." My words seem to have peaked his interest, as waved his hoof for me to continue while he equipped his his armor. "And since you still have your undead army buried here with you, I want to borrow at least one hierotitan."

"One? Sombra don't take me for a fool. If I give you only one you'll offer little information in return, I'll give you five for the most important information you have. At least this way I'll know your pride won't let you lie to me." 'The old horse seems to have read me quite well, ah, it can't be helped.' Flashing a quick grin, I shook his outreached hoof before I started to explain the events that have occurred over these past millennia.

'And like this, the first part of my plan is complete. Next stop, Zebrica!'