//------------------------------// // 21: Coronation Part 2: I broke my toe and might have to wear a heavy shoe // Story: Dawn of The Ice King // by KingdomBrony16 //------------------------------// Minutes passed and everyone except Fluttershy, Goldy, and I were out of the balcony outside of the throne room, “Well, I guess we’re up next, any last words before all of this?” I asked my fiancee and daughter. “You look good, honey.” Fluttershy said, looking me up and down. I laughed, “Are you oogling me? Not in front of Goldy.” Shy blusshed and looked away quickly, “But thank you, Rarity made this suit for me, and the crown was made by Cadance using Icecalibiran diamonds, exclusively found in the lands around the Crystal Empire. Twilight is going to have a field day when she realizes it too.” Goldy giggled, very clearly knowing her tutor was going to go crazy over it, “I think you look cool daddy.” “Aww, thank you sweet heart, you’re an absolute cutie in that dress and the decorations on your horns are pretty, did you make them?” I asked, leaning down to get a closer look at the charms wrapped around her horns. “I did and Auntie Rarity and Auntie Lyra helped me make them.” She said happily. I took a closer look at the charms, “Oh and they’re formed from your ice magic… Huh haven’t even gotten around to teaching you anything yet and you figured that out, I’m so proud.” “Yeah, but I’m not that good at it, this took a bunch of thinking to do.” She said with a pout. I patted her head, “Its ok, it just takes practice, eventually you’ll be able to things like this.” I pointed my hand up at the ceiling and created a massive and intricate chandelier, where the candles had ice flames burning in them, Goldy looked up in awe. Shy looked up in shock, covering her mount with her hands, “I didn’t know you could do anything like that Chris. I-I mean you  made the pins…. But something like this… it’s beautiful.” “Well… I get bored traveling around all the time so other than cooking I spent ind time working on the crafting side of my magic. I don’t know if you remember or if you could even see it, but during my fight with Sombra my Ice Sword broke only after a few blasts of dark magic hit it, now it's virtually indestructible.” I explained. “O-oh you weren’t fighting too much while you were traveling, were you?” Shy asked, clearly worried. “No, not often, just once or twice.” I said, reassuring her. She breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh good, I wouldn’t want you getting hurt more than what happened back then.” Goldy looked at me, I could tell something was on her mind, “Is that what that was a school the other day, daddy?” I blinked, the what at school, “I’m sorry sweetheart, you’ll have to remind me.” “When you scared the bullies away, was that dark magic? It didn’t look like your normal magic or Auntie Twilight’s or Auntie Rarity’s Magic.” She said, reminding me clearly. Ah shit/+Oh shit.+ Shy looked between us, very much confused, before resting her gaze at me, “What is she talking about Chris?” I looked around nervously, buying time for an excuse, “Uh…. Well you see…” “May we introduce you to my younger brother Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regem Glacies!” Cadance’s voice called out, marking our cue to proceed to the balcony. I sighed in relief before looking to Shy, “I’ll… tell you later ok? I promise.” I held out my hand for her to take. She nodded her head and took my hand as well as taking Goldy’s hand and we walked out of the darker throne room into the blinding light of day. I would love to tell you that there was a deafening cheer and clapping that made the ground rumble but there, sadly, was not. Instead I was greeted with silenced gasps, mumblings, and hushed whispers. I groaned, figuring this would happen, “So, this is the response I get huh?” I asked, luckily, my voice wasn’t amplified for everyone to hear. I shook it off and walked up to the podium, looked out to the crowd, at the banners showing my crest of a dragon entwined with a snowflake, where in the center lied a heart to show my affiliation with Cadance. I then looked behind me at my friends, my family, the ponies and dragon I held dear to my heart. I smiled at them, they smiled at me, I looked back to the crowd and pulled out my flashcards, tapped them lightly against the podium and threw them to the winds. Shocking, really, only  Twilight while everyone else laughed, having the complete expectations that I would pull something like that. I looked back a Twilight, giving her a devilish grin, “Come on Sparklebutt, you know me well enough to know that I would do that….now.”  I took a deep breath, looked out into the crowd… +Really? You’re really going to do this? You know you’ll scare the crap out of them right?+ ‘Oh I know, I’m hoping to, maybe it’ll shut them up as well.’ I then roared a roar so deafening, so loud that it was said that you could feel it in Appleloosa. The effect was immediate however, everyone in the crowd was deadly silent after that. I laughed and cleared my throat, this time with my voice being amplified, through my own version of the royal voice. The crowd winced, expecting another roar, “Oh calm down, the roar was to just get you all to stop whispering, it’s rude you know?” “Anyways, as am sure my lovely big sister has told you, I am Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regem Glacies, which roughly translates to The King/Lord of Ice. Now, I’m fairly certain you all are observant so you’ve noticed that I am not a pony, heck I doubt any of you actually know what I am. To make a long  story short I am an alien, I come from a different dimension due to a wish I was granted from an Ice Dragon that was an entire body in the grave.” +RUDE!+ “Now, I don’t have time to go into the intricacies of that or even what an Ice Dragon is, but I can tell you one thing I am half Ice Dragon half Human, an entirely new race I call a Drakon.” I paused, took a sip of water I had on the podium, thank you whoever thought of that. “Look, I don’t know what any of you are thinking out there, I can’t read minds, but I can reassure you of a few things. I am not a bad person, I am and will always be out to take care of my family, my friends, my kingdom, and my subjects. If there is ever war I won’t sit idly by, I will rush to your aid and protect you from any threat that comes our way. I will do everything in my power to help anyone who comes to me, if I deem it to be just. However, as I say this, EVERYONE will be treated equally, no matter your status, rank, wealth, or position in life I will treat you the exact same as the next creature who asks for my help.” I looked out to the crowd with an intense and hard look in my eyes, a look filled with determination. I spread my wings wide and flapped them once, make myself leave the balcony and hover a few feet in the air, “I understand that you all may not trust me immediately but I want to make a promise. I swear on my fealty to my sisters The Princess of Love and The Princess of Friendship, my brother The Guard Prince, my aunts The Diarchs of The Sun and Moon, The Elements of Harmony, The country, and most importantly to you; all the various creatures of the great nations of The Crystal Empire and Equestria that I will serve you as your Prince and will do what I can to help us forward into an even better and more peaceful future!” I got loud cheering and clapping at that, ha knew I’d be able to. I looked down to Shy and Goldy, gesturing them to join me in the air. Shy nodded and picked up our daughter, who was holding onto her mother as they joined me in the air, I cleared my throat gaining the crowd’s attention once again, “I’ve another announcement to make regarding The Element of Kindness and the child she is holding. Some of you have already figured this out, but she is my consort and this little one.” I held out my arm for Goldy to come to me and she reached out and I took her in my arms, “Is our daughter, her name is Golden Skies and She’ll be 5 very soon, in fact her birthday is November 13th, so very soon indeed. But that is all I needed to say, but I am willing to take one question.” A whole gaggle of reporter pegasi flew up close to us causing Goldy to move to my back and hide behind my flapping wings and Shy also moved closer behind me, but not as much, she’s gotten so brave over the years. I picked out a chartreuse pony with a black mane, “Yes you uh….” “Quick Quote your highness, with Equestria Dialect.” She said, I looked at the symbol on her badge, her cutie mark, it was a pen with speed lines over what looked like a phrase or a quote…. Apt. “Go ahead but keep it simple please.” She bowed quickly before pulling out a pen and paper, as did every other reporter, “You say that your name means King or Lord of Ice, what does that entail exactly?” Oh….OH, yay I get to show off again. +Just try not to go overboard ok?+ “No promises, Well that takes a bit of a demonstration, since I don’t actually have lead rule of a kingdom, I just help with decisions and yadda yadda, anyways…. LUNA!” I called down to her, having her give me a raised eyebrow in response, “I know you know some cool cold spells since ya know… moon magic, think you can help me out?” “I believe we can.” Her horn started to glow and I could feel the temperature drop low, very quickly. I used my tail to tap Goldy’s back, “Sweetheart would you like your first lesson?” That got her attention and make her poke her head up, “My first lesson?” “Yup, I’m not sure if you can even do what I’m going to try to teach you but you are my kid so you should be able to. You feel the cold in the air? You feel how it resonates with the core of our being?” I asked her, having her nod in response, “Good, ok luna let it go!” I called out feel the temperature drop further before small balls of hail started falling from the sky slowly. “Ok now I want you to take as deep a breath as you can, and concentrate on drawing in the cold and the hail into your being.” I instructed. “Won’t that hurt having balls of ice hit me in the mouth?” Goldy asked. I laughed, “Not at all, trust me, I’ll even do it with you, on 3…. 1… 2… 3!” We both inhaled hard, drawing in all the cold and hail before it could reach anyone in the air or on the ground, until it was completely gone. “Good, now do you feel the magic stored in you?” “Yeah but it's making my tummy hurt, i think I ate too much.” She groaned out. “Yeah… it’ll do that at first, ok now we don’t want to hold onto this for too long so we need to release it. Climb up onto my shoulders please.” She did as I asked and leaned down to look at me. “Are we going to create a huge ice sculpture or something?” I shook my head, “No, we’re going to perform attacking magic.” I looked at the reporters, “I suggest you all get behind me with Shy.” They all did exactly that. Speaking of Shy, she placed a hand on my shoulder, “Are you sure she can handle this?” I nodded, “She’ll just be tuckered out for a bit afterwards.” She nodded, gave me a kiss and got behind me as well. “Ok now I want you to stack your hands like you’re making a tunnel in front of your mouth and push all of the magic to your cheeks while saying this, ‘Hyōryū no Hōkō’.” She nodded, put her hands together and opened her mouth to speak, “Hyōryū-AH!” she yelled out, stopping the spell as the magic circle popped up, “W-What was that?!” “That was the magic circle that will allow your spell to properly take form, don’t worry it only happens with the strong ones like that one, now lets do it together. You reporters better look at that lake in the distance. “You mean Lake Everfree, your highness?” Quick Quote asked. “Yep, ok Goldy, together now…. Hyōryū no Hōkō!” Both of our magic circles formed in front of us and for Goldy, her beam popped out first mostly because it had less charge and power, so it was a sall beam that went to the edges  of Canterlot but no further. “Woah, daddy that was so cool… but your spell didn’t-” She was cut off as my spell finally fired a massive white laser of shredding cold that cut through the tops of the trees in the Everfree, turning them to literally tiny ice crystals before it struck the lake, which I might mention was… roughly 6 miles out, it instantly froze the lake in a blinding white explosion, the shockwave shaking Canterlot. Even the ones who knew me best were surprised at this, actually i was too, i haven’t used magic since I got my wings so i didn’t know it was that much of a boost, “Neat.” Was all I said. “I-Is the lake permanently frozen your highness? I fear that might harm the ecosystem, even if it is the Everfree.” Quick Quote said. “Nah, the lake is fine, watch.” I held out my hand and the lake slowly melted, “And that is why i call myself the King of Ice, does that answer your question?” Quick Quote squeaked, forgetting why she was even up here witnessing this event, “Yes it does, thank you for your time your highness.” I felt Goldy slump against my head and immediately being pulled off my back by Shy,“Good, now if you’ll excuse me I need to get me daughter to a place she can lay down.” We both flew down to the balcony and I waved to everyone before disappearing inside. Celestia addressed the crowd quickly before heading inside with everyone, letting the crowd know that an interview is scheduled in the next few days to get the full story from myself and everyone else. “Hey Sapper!” I called out to my guard friend, who dutifully showed up rather quickly. He stood at attention and saluted, “You called sir.” “Yeah, can you take Goldy to my room? Let her lay down and nap this off.” I requested. “As you command Sir, would you like me to stand guard as well?” “Yeah, get Lima too so you won't be bored and if Goldy wakes up you can both entertain her, please?” He scooped up Goldy and made sure he wasn't holding her uncomfortably, “Of course sir.” “Thank you.” He just grunted in return, good guy. “Well there goes all of our planning!” I heard a very annoyed voice call out, i turned around to see that it was, yep, Twilight. “Your planning, I never wanted a planned speech in the first place.” I said back. Twilight huffed in response and crossed her arms, “Yes well still, all down the drain all for you to act all flippant about things.” At this point Apple Jack intervened, “I dunno sugarcube, I say he did the right thing, nothing better than being honest after all. ‘Sides he got the crowd going and in his favor anyways, so does it really matter?” Twilight sighed and grabbed the bridge of her nose, “No, I suppose not.” “Yeah and that light show was AWESOME! I didn’t know you had that kind of power big guy! You and me have got to spar or at least race, I’d finally have a challenge!” Rainbow said, getting a glare from Apple Jack which made the pegasus blush, “I-I mean other than Apple Jack of course.” “Darn tootin other than me.” The farm pony said. “Rainbow is right darling you weren’t this strong even up at the Crystal Empire, did Shining Armor’s training do that for you?” Rarity asked. “No… I don’t think so, unless he’s been holding back.” Shining said. I shook my head, “I wasn’t, my most recent icesplosion must’ve boosted more than just my mobility.” Celestia nodded her head, “That would make the most sense, they have boosted your combat capabilities in the past correct? So what’s to say  that this also isn’t the case?” I shrugged, “Fair enough.” Fluttershy gently grabbed my arm, “Oh… right, Can we sit at the table…. All of us, I think it’s time to tell you about something.” They all gave me a questioning look but did what I asked. I sat down last and looked at the table, thinking about how to do this. +Just say it, or ask a question first, lead up to it.+ “Right… so you all know and remember how I got my scar and lost my eye?” “Of course, I couldn’t sleep properly for days after that, that big ol’ jerk Sombra hit you with a bunch of dark magic that mess you up and put you in the hospital, I was…. We were all so scared that you’d never wake up.” Pinkie said, her hair deflating greatly, going nearly straight before poofing back up and having a huge grin on her face, “But you did wake up and when you did and Somba showed up you went BAM! WHAP! POW! Right in the kisser until the crystal heart got rid of him… but you were scary at the end for a little bit.” I blinked, everyone blinked, “Right… thanks for the recap Pinkie, but did the doctor ever tell you why my eye was removed?” “It was tainted by dark magic right?” Spike asked. “Correct, and here's the issue with that.” I reached up the clasp on the back of my head that was holding the eyepatch in place. “Wait, baby brother are you sure? Last time it was off… it took a lot to reel you in…” Cadance said. I nodded, “It’s ok, I’ve got it under control now.” I unclasped the eyepatch and slowly removed it from my eye, everyone that didn’t know what was under it gasped. They were all looking at a pitch black hole in my head which was seeping pure dark magic, having it bubble over with its iconic purple and green smoke, then suddenly a yellow, slitted, iris popped up. “O-Oh my… Chris…” Fluttershy said, caressing my left cheek, just under my tainted eye. “Wait wait wait, hold on, didn’t you not have dark magic pumping from your eye after it was removed? That’s what I was told.” Lyra said, obviously as confused as nearly everyone. My eyes darted over to her making her jump a bit, “You’re right this didn’t happen immediately, in fact it took a year for signs to even start showing that I was corrupted by dark magic, or at least this part of me was.” “Yeah, we actually didn’t find out until he went berserk one day, before we thought he was just cranky, but one day during training he just lost it.” Shining said. “What do you mean ‘lost it’ exactly?” Celestia asked. I sighed and looked away, not exactly proud of this part of my story, “Go ahead Shining, tell them.” ~Three years Prior~ “Come on Chris you can do better than that, are you going to let Sapper beat you into the ground like this?!” Shining yelled out. Chris grunted and picked himself up, his tail lashing out at Sapper quickly, catching the guard off guard and it took out a chunk of his armor. “Woah man, ease up, we aren’t trying to seriously hurt each other, remember?” Sapper said, pulling up his shield to block something like that again. Chris said nothing, just slowly standing up, shadow engulfing his face, obscuring any facial feature or expression. Shining noticed this and his hand moved to his spear and shield, getting ready to take action if need be. At this point Chris started shambling slowly towards Sapper, his movements slow and rigid, which Sapper decided to take advantage of and strike out at Chris with his sword. This was a mistake as Chris dodge it and grabbed his arm and snapped it at the elbow, breaking his arm, causing the guard to scream out in pain, and then threw him into the wall surrounding the training yard. Chris prepared to run at Sapper to finish him off but Shining teleported in front of him stopping him with his shield. Lima, who was watching off to the side and completely gobsmacked by what was transpiring, finally snapped out of it and rushed to the Guard Prince’s side, “Sir, what is going on?” Shining grunted, straining against the shield, “Not sure, go get Cadance and then a medic, I’ll keep him busy.” “Sir!” Lima turned to check on the unconscious Sapper and then flew as fast as she could to go find Cadance. “Chris, what is going on with you?!” Shining asked. Chris started to laugh as the shadow covering his face finally faded away, showing a deep red eye in place of his blue one and he ripped off the bandages over his missing eye, showing it teeming with dark magic and a yellow slitted iris was glaring a hole into Shining. “Chris isn’t here at the moment, leave a message after the snap” ‘Chris’ Said. “What are you?” Shining asked. ‘Chris tilted his head in thought, “You know… He never gave me a name… call me… WRATH!” He yelled out as he swung his tail at Shining, who then threw up a shield to block it. Shining the dug his feet into the ground and threw Wrath back several feet, he then readied his spear and charged forward preparing to strike stopping right before making contact, remembering that this was his wife’s little brother, even if he did seem possessed. Wrath’s wild smile left his fact and it was replaced with a snarl full of hatred, “WHY DID YOU STOP HUH?! YOU WERE READY TO RUN ME THROUGH!” “That would kill Chris and I can’t kill Cadance’s little brother… or mine!” I said defiantly, Slamming the blade of the spear into the ground and hold his shield with both hands, “And if I can’t get rid of your permanently then I’m going to knock you out!” Wrath screamed in rage, “THIS IS WHY I HATE YOU PONIES, YOU DON’T EVER HAVE THE NERVE TO DO WHAT IT TAKES TO PROTECT THE THINGS YOU CARE ABOUT IF YOU FEEL THERE'S A WAY TO HAVE A GOOD ENDING! IT MAKES ME SICK!” Wrath then slammed his fist into the ground causing it to crack as black ice raced along the ground towards Shining, who promptly jumped out of the way and used his shield to shatter an ice spike that got too close for comfort. Wrath growled, “I hate ice, fire would be so much better to play with. Oh well beggars can't be choosers they say.” He then ran at Shining and threw a quick left jab at him causing Shining to block the blow but Wrath followed up with a strong right hook. Shining figuring this would happen threw up another shield, but unlike last time Wrath’s fist broke throw the shield and landed a heavy blow on Shinging’s side, breaking several ribs and sending him  sliding across the ground. Once Shining stopped moving he got up, albeit shakily, and coughing up blood,  “That all you got, monster?” He said smirking at Wrath. Wrath’s eye twitched as he calmly said, “Ice Dragon’s Shadow Claws.” Black spikes of ice formed at the ends of his fingers. He walked slowly to Shining, rearing his right hand back and as he came upon him and was a about to swing down and end the Guard Prince a blast of pink magic hit him square in the chest and slammed him into the ground gouging out a small divot in the ground as it pushed him towards the far wall. The beam of magic belonged to none other than Cadance, “Get away from my husband and out of my brother!” She landed in front of her husband, “Are you ok?” Shining coughed, more blood being spit up in the process, “I’ve been better, not worse, oh boy… nowhere near worse.” Cadance put a hand gently on his shoulder, “Well go sit down, I’ll handle this.” Shining shook his head, “No, we’ll do this together, one of us needs to distract him while the other brings him down, but be careful, he’s faster and stronger than Chris, I don’t think he’s holding back.” Wrath was back on his feet, blood dripping down multiple deep cuts on his face and arms, although it didn’t seem to bother him at all, “You wish you’d get the chance to catch me off guard, but I’ll guarantee you it won’t happen a second time.” Cadance fired a beam off, Wrath deflected it with his tail easily. “Really, what was that supposed to do?” “Nothing I just really do not like you, now again get out of my brother.” Cadance said, taking a step forward. “Ha, make me, like you even could.” Wrath said with a smirk. “Its funny you think you have a choice.” Cadance retorted with pointing a finger to the air behind Wrath. Said dark Drakon looked behind him only to have a flying hoof to the face, knocking him out cold on the ground. “Thank you Lieutenant Lima.” Cadance said, giving a short nodded to the pegasus guard, “Now, what to do about this…” ~Back in the Present~ Everyone was giving me mixed looks, ones I expected be honest, all concern, some confusion, and some underlying fear, “Yeah… I don’t really remember it all too well.” I said with a sigh. “And we are assuming there was healthy amount of fear of loss of control due to this corruption?” Luna asked. “Yes, which is why we had R&D make his eye patch. It is composed of and infused with magic and crystals designed to absorb and destroy the magic they are attuned with. In this case, dark magic, which we got a sample of fro a dark crystal leftover from sombra in the Frozen Wastes.” Cadance explained, more so for Twilight since she knew her sister in law would ask. “I see and does they eye patch prevent loss of control?” Twilight asked, she always has questions after all. I shook my head, “Not exactly, it lessens the chances of it happening, though as long as I wasn’t overly stressed or pushed into a life or death situation I would never lose control to begin with but the eye patch helped some.” At this point Pinkie moved closer and poked a finger in the center of the dark mass of my eye, “Ooooh, tingly!” “Pinkie! That’s quite rude, and Christopher, doesn’t that hurt?” Rarity asked, as Pinkie kept poking at it. “Nah, I don’t feel anything I still don’t have an actual physical eye there, though I can see out of it, everything is in like a weird… thaumological vision.” I explained. “Wait so you can see the magical energies of everything?” Twilight asked. “Mmm yeah pretty much, there’s a lot too it but I don’t like relying on it for anything… or I didn’t still won’t I don’t actually like this ya know?” I gestured to my eye, obviously, who would like this? Spike raised his hand, and I nodded for him to go ahead, “Ok I have a few questions but one is bothering me the most, we knew you had some problems with your past but never a dark half.” “Right, I never talked about it, I suppose I didn’t until I got to Equestria… actually that’s not true… I’ve always had a little voice in my head that berated me and wanted to hurt those i cared about, but I was acutely aware that I made that up myself, I made that so I could have something to blame for my… less than ok actions. However, when coming to this world and being fused with ice dragon magic as well as Equis’ ever permeating magic it made that part that I created into its own separate entity in my mind. And then getting hit with Sombra’s dark magic just made it stronger and able to take over.” I explained. “And yet you’re currently not wearing the eyepatch aren’t you worried you might lose control now?” Bon Bon asked. “It would be rather hard for that to happen. Luna would you care to explain?” I asked the Lunar Princess. She nodded in response, “As Sir Chris was saying, it would be rather hard for him to lose control at this point as he, Lady Ixis and I locked the creature away deep in his mind, trapped behind a door of his light.” “His light, Princess?” Shy asked. Luna had a wide and warm smile adorning her face, “Indeed, he and Lady Ixis were constructing a door made of his most cherished memories, love, hopes, dreams and wants. These all composed of us, his friends and his family, he locked the door and sent it away never to be opened again, I pray.” I picked up the eyepatch and put it back on, after swatting pinkie’s hand away, making her pout, “Well I don’t ever plan on opening it so yeah should be fine. I just hope you all won’t ever think think any less of me for this.” Shy once again put her hand against my left cheek and turned my head to look at her, “Chris, we would never think any less of you for something you had no control over, we all love you the same and we always will.” Everyone at the table nodded, agreeing with Shy. +Look at you worried over nothing, told you so.+ ‘Yeah yeah, shut up.’ Twilight clapped, “Well I have some good news if everyone would like a change of subject?” Getting no opposition she continued, “So as some of you know, I keep a portal in the form of a mirror to another world within my castle, it’s a lot to go into, so for those of you who don’t know, here is a small booklet detailing what I am talking about.” She handed them out and let us read it over for a bit, “Ok, now that you are caught up, you all know I also forcibly opened the portal using the book the Sunset uses to talk to me and vice versa. Now Spike gave me this idea so you can thank hi for this, but I figured, if I could do that for that world what's to say i can’t do that for Chris’?” At this nearly everyone in the room gasped and she looked directly at me, “Chris, you can go home.”