//------------------------------// // — Prologue — // Story: The King's Student // by That_brony_guy //------------------------------// Crystal gleamed and shadows shun their own black sun over the shadow realm, the place in which the crystal empire was frozen in time following the defeat of King Sombra. Ponies screamed as they were about to be slain by invisible enemies, screams that did not sound nor did they move. Frozen in time with the only one capable of moving being the minuscule fragment of Sombra's being. That fragment would have to do for the time being. Sombra opened his eyes for the first time since the princesses of Equestria forced him to fall back into shadows. He searched around the throne room, devoid of any motionless alicorn mares for him to torture. So the spell didn't work as well as he had hoped it would. Sombra stretched a hoof forward and connected it with the ground once more, that single click of his armoured hoof shrieked through the silence around him. He knew he wasn't whole, if he were in the physical world he'd be nothing but shadow and eyes. His soul was partial, broken, but he would regain the rest in time. Everything was frozen in place, not a decibel of sound and not a single hairs worth of movement was made. He moved through the throne room and simply looked around with grimace on his face. The magic of the two sisters seemed to have caused the damage to the empire to repair itself, he specifically remembered sending Celestia through a wall that shouldn't be standing currently. Crystal walls intact and not even a scrape's worth of damage anywhere around him. That magic of harmony sure was a good cleaning service, he'd have to invest in some of it after his global domination and his revenge was had. Several stallions stood in place, mouths agape and eyes wide. They weren't adorned with the weapons and armour he'd forced his minions to use, and the effects of his dark magic were apparent to the eye. Okay, harmonic magic maid would not be used in his new empire after all. He simply continued walking, resisting the urge to slice through the stallions he passed by as he approached the doors. His horn ignited and forced the doors open as he trotted outside to see the light, or lack there of in this case. There was barely enough brightness produced by his horn and the lanterns around the empire for Sombra to see several feet in front of him. He scanned around the blackened night, eyes darting from lantern to lantern as he eyed the barely visible forms of petrified ponies. Gritting his teeth, screwing his eyes shut, memories of the princesses trapping most of his being in the ice floating his mind. Then he screamed. Sombra roared out in rage and sent a random pulse of dark magic out somewhere in the empire, paying not a moment of mind to the sound of destruction it made as he turned back to the palace doors. "No, no, no!" Sombra roared, moving back into the castle and sending his horn through a stallions neck like a hot knife through butter. Crimson slowly dampened the stallion's neck and chest from the force Sombra's horn had entered with, but not a drop hit the ground. The dark time space magic wouldn't allow a single drop to fall below the wound. Sombra didn't know if the stallion could feel anything, but it'd be a long and tortuous death if he could, not that the crystal king cared in the slightest. "I'll have those princesses in chains for what they've done! Centre Tartarus around them!" Sombra barged back into the throne room and looked around, pacing around the room as he tried to get a fragment of thought about what his next move would be. He was stuck here until he summoned his own return, but when would be the right time? Celestia and Luna would most certainly be on edge for a while after the war they'd waged on him, so he'd have to wait for a while. But how long? He couldn't just sit back and wait while Equestria changed around him, unknowing of its current state, and then just pop back up in the middle of a country controlled by those prissy pony princesses. He didn't have any way of seeing how things were going. Wait! He did! Sombra looked up to his throne, eyes shooting up to the crystal hanging over it. Eyes and horn ignited a mixture of green, black and purple, Sombra shot a blast of his magic up and hit the crystal square in its centre. Trotting backwards as the rippling effect tore the floor open into a perfect squared spiral staircase leading deep, deep down below the surface of the empire. Hopefully it had been taken through with the empire and hadn't been left behind. Moving down the stairs with almost snake like speed, Sombra's mind formed a the outer etchings of a web as his plan came together. He just needed to confirm some details before a true game of revenge could be played. Games aren't very fun without rules after all. Far, far down below the throne room the stairs went. Twisting and leading straight downwards all the way down to the bottom where two doors sat, the second one only liquefying into existence upon Sombra's hoof passing the final step. The first door, the one that had remained there the whole time, wasn't important right now. There wasn't much he could do with the heart right now. Not even a place as dark as this could destroy that beacon of love. He'd be destroyed all over again. So for now, his direction turned to the second door, the one that had appeared upon sensing his presence. The contents of this door would either make or break Sombra's entire game plan. Casting his spell at the crystal atop the door, Sombra walking through the doorway as his personal study came into view. A warm crimson carpet and slightly darker shaded walls circled around bookcases and tables of ancient relics which Sombra had acquired from neighbouring nations. Crystal balls and crystal shards, armours and weapons, tomes and scrolls, all of these and more filled the shelves of Sombra's trophy collection. So his study did survive the spell. Sombra's smirk grew as he looked around. Amongst the ancient tomes and powerful armours, Sombra's eyes glared around in search. Had to be here somewhere. The spell had left everything above ground intact, but his study was a mess. It took him a short while to find it among all the scattered objects, but his grin nearly sliced his face in two when he did find it. A large black cauldron with winding serpents headed with pony skulls enamelled into the sides was levitated up from the mess, which Sombra then slammed down firmly in the centre of the study. He then took a large glass container taller than he and filled the cauldron up with the viscous black ooze that slowly slid its way out. An extremely thick tome and stand then came from the king's levitation spell and landed beside the cauldron, the book opening to a specific page as Sombra pulled out the ingredients listed within. Dark alchemy was another of Sombra's talents in terms of the dark arts, one he was thanking Grogar that he'd actually studied it before his defeat. "Eyes of colt, eyes of mare, eyes of filly..." Sombra listed off as he levitated three icy cold boxes up, opening them up and throwing the eyes within down into the ooze, sitting on the surface as Sombra continued. "Crystals of north, sands of east, grass of south and leaf of west. I give thee eyes in all directions and of all states of age, I ask in return for thine mighty gift of sight and effect in Equestria's entirety." Sombra then finished dumping his ingredients into the cauldron and ignited his horn, lighting a purple fire beneath, running itself around the basin and not burning anything around it. As though in response, the cauldron gurgled vulgarly as the ooze swallowed the ingredients it'd been fed. Bubbling and spitting in a way that Sombra had to take a step back, the temperature of the cauldron's contents increased as a single large bubble swelled bigger and bigger as it began to bulge out of the cauldron. Seeing it as a sign the brew was done already, Sombra approached and jabbed at the swelling mass of oily black with his horn. Like a balloon it burst upon contact with the king's horn, black turning colourless as every last bit of ooze cleared of all colour and calmed itself down greatly. It was like staring down into a bowl of water, though as the spell took effect it was more like a window. Through this window he saw Canterlot, the gardens by the looks of things. Nothing out of the ordinary thus far. It was dark with the moon high above. Then he saw her. Celestia trotted through the gardens and stopping once she'd reached the highest point of the gardens. She was talking to... herself? This did intrigue Sombra. Had she gone mad without the king's assistance? He listened in on what Celestia said, every word yielding wealthy information. "Sister, I believe I may have found a way to bring you back to me. Back to your normal self once more." said Celestia, a sadness in her voice that Sombra could only dream of feeding from. "I have decided to take up a student, tomorrow I shall head down to my school for gifted unicorns and observe the newest students entering the school. Surely one of them could be magic. They'll channel the element of magic and free you, I just know they will." Sombra's brow furrowed slightly. Celestia was saying something else but it didn't sound too important to the king, merely about the love and loss Celestia felt. Bring her sister back from where? What did Celestia mean by 'normal self'? Why was Celestia's eyes to the sky during the whole time she spoke? Curious, Sombra guided his window of vision toward the sky and he saw it instantly. There seemed to be a mare's head in the moon. It didn't take an intelligence like Sombra's to put the pieces together, and the king began to laugh. He was fortunate the princess he was watching couldn't hear him, but in that moment he didn't care. Luna had actually been stuck inside of the moon, and judging by Celestia's words she had gone bad. Sombra's bellowing laughs echoed before silencing immediately. Forget the plan he had before, he had a new idea. A better idea. One that would destroy Celestia if it went off perfectly. So she wanted a student, eh? Well, he would give her one. Sombra, ignited his horn and his line of vision began moving, shooting away from the foolishly hopeful princess and heading towards a school. Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Through the window and down the halls, through some doors and a desk came into view. A list of all the unicorn fillies who'd be trying to get into the school was laid out before him. He didn't even have to search through the drawer. Reading the list, he was stumped to find only one name. Seriously, one name? Was this the one day of the year that students didn't flock to the school in hordes? Back in his youth hundreds of unicorn colts and fillies wanted to get into this school. Well, that was back when it was 'Platinum's Prestigious School for the Academically and Magically Powerful'. What had happened to the education system? He could already feel the presence of morons in this new Equestria. Well, it didn't matter. He would have to take a chance with this 'Twilight Sparkle'. Hopefully she's a good enough unicorn that she catches the princesses eye. Hopefully she'd be able to hatch the dragon egg in order to gain entry, otherwise this next part wouldn't work. Sombra turned to his alchemy stores and levitated a single item over to where he was. An egg no bigger than an eyeball, an eye which he tapped with his magically glowing horn. The egg shook and cracked, at the same time Sombra spoke to it. "Hatch, creature, hatch into a second shell and steal the fate of the scaled flesh you awake beside," Sombra told the shaking egg, "you will guide the mare who sheds light upon you in the way I decree correct. Now... go." Sombra then blew the hatching egg and it disappeared into the cauldron in a puff of smoke. Sombra then gasped heavily as he dropped to his knees, clutching his chest and breathing deeply. That had sapped a lot of his strength, he should rest and wait. Lie and wait. Sombra's creature burst from its shell and looked around, only to discover it was in another egg. Its king had spoken truth. It slithered upward to get a good look around and immediately saw the scaled flesh. An ugly shrivelled up purple creature with green spikes forming on its head. Still sleeping in the safety of its egg. Or so the creature thought. It opened it mouth, fangs primed before it lashed forward violently and with the speed of a viper, sinking teeth into scaled flesh. A whisper of a whimper came, but nothing more than an weak attempt to flail limps before stillness came. The throat Leaked red everywhere, which it drank up happily. Tearing chunks of flesh out, some to eat and some to soak up any blood pooling down the inside of the eggshell. Squelching and squeezing meat, crunching and crushing bone and scale, it feasted like his king had ordered him too. Gobbets of sweet scaled meat slipped down its throat. It should be finished eating by morning for sure, just in time to meet the mare who'd shed light on him. Twilight Sparkle was the most excited she had ever felt in her entire life. She was also the most scared she had ever felt in her entire life at the same time. Today was the day of her entrance exam into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. To say the little lilac filly was terrifyingly excited would be a massive understatement. What was there to be scared of? Other than the eyes that would be staring directly at her while she did whatever it was they asked her to do. She should have studied more on the school and what the entrance exam entailed. Too late for that now, stupid. Twilight took several deep breaths, attempting and failing to make herself more calm as she walked into the school's main entrance with her parents. Her mother whispering assurances in one ear and her father talking of how great she would be in the other. Her parents were excited and happy for their daughter having this chance, and her brother had wished her good luck for today and apologised again for not being able to be there to support her. Shining Armour's wish of good luck seemed to mellow Twilight's stress more than her parents' motivation ever did. Twilight herself didn't know how to feel right now, or rather she couldn't describe the mass of feelings swirling around in her stomach like butterflies were swarming around wanting to get out. Quickening in rate as she trotted up the halls and towards the class room she was to either show off her talents as a unicorn or to completely screw up her chances and humiliate herself in front of a group of strangers. Her mother knocked on the door, Twilight too nervous to raise her own hoof. After a short moment a voice from inside the room called, "Twilight Sparkle? Come in." The door opened. Twilight focused herself as she saw the several adult unicorns rather smartly dressed. They eyed her up and now as she nervously trotted into their line of sight. Great blazing eyes burning into her as they levitated their clipboards before now. One of them then spoke, shattering the silence and startling Twilight from the suddenness of the somewhat squeaked voice of the mare standing. "Twilight Sparkle, you are here for your entrance exam into this most highly prestigious of unicorn schools. For your test of entry we ask you to cause this dragon egg to hatch with your magical ability." said the mare who stood, her horn glowing. Pushed along in the mare's magical aura was a cart which wheeled its way to Twilight's side. Straw had been placed on the inside of the cart, and in the centre of the straw was a purple spotted egg. Twilight felt her heartbeat quicken at the revelation of her task. She was to hatch a dragon egg with magic? "Um...like, hatch it now?" Twilight asked the mare, who'd now sat herself back down. "Yes." was the mare's answer, before she already wrote something down on her clipboard. Idiot, Twilight thought to herself before her eyes shifted back to the egg. Hatch an egg, how hard could it really be? She'd just use a weak levitation spell to crack it... no! That would risk the life of the baby dragon. No, she'd obviously have to use an incubation spell. By Celestia, her nerves were numbing her brain. Once she'd seem the supporting smiles of her parents Twilight then ignited her small horn, little sparks and glitter like magic twinkling and shooting towards the egg. Those same sparks of magic then immediately bounced off of the shell again and faded from existence. More writing on clipboards from the ponies watching her. Twilight bit her lip nervously. Why wasn't it working? She'd followed the spell from memory right out of the text book, it should've hatched and there be a baby dragon right there. But no, just an egg. Twilight tried again, growing more nervous as seconds ticked by and another attempt at hatching the egg failed. "Come on, Twilight, you can do this!" Twilight hissed to herself in a whispered tone that nopony else heard, at least she thought they didn't. She then ignited her horn again as she tried to strengthen the spell, pushing of fibre of her small filly body to try and do this. This was her dream, she couldn't let it go so easily. Then, just as a third attempt was about to be made. BOOM! An explosion of rainbow coloured light exploded outwards in a ringed formation. In seconds it made its way across the sky and slammed into the side of the school with force. Twilight was about to turn her head to see, but then the rainbow aura touched her. It seeped into her body, her horn, and her mind. Her eyes lit up un a while white blaze of something. Whatever that something was, it made the little filly feel powerful. Like she'd been supercharged or something. Bursts of magic broke free from her horn, out of Twilight's control regardless of how hard she tried to contain it. A smash here, a crack there, whatever she was hitting it definitely was not the egg. This was it, she'd ruined her chances of being accepted. She was going to break everything around her and be referred to as 'that filly who accidentally flayed her teachers before they ever became her teachers'! But then... everything stopped. Twilight opened her eyes upon realising they were shut and then went wide eyed at what she saw. Stood before her, having saved the teachers and Twilight's parents from Twilight's magical surge, princess Celestia herself stood looking down at Twilight. Not with anger or disappointment as Twilight would've thought however. Rather she looked down at Twilight with a smile Twilight could only see as motherly. The same kind of kind and warming smile her own mother would give her whenever she had messed something up. "You're a rather gifted young filly, aren't you?" said the princess, smiling as she trotted close the distance between the alicorn mare and the unicorn filly. Then, before Twilight could even think of a way to respond, the egg in the cart beside princess Celestia shook violent and cracked down its side. Twilight, princess Celestia and everypony else in the room looked to the egg and watched it burst open. She'd done it! Twilight couldn't help but find a small smile form as she realised she had passed the entry test. However, that smile faded when she saw it wasn't a dragon that crawled out... or rather, slithered out. Out of the almost completely clean and broken eggshell emerged a small serpent. A black scaled snake slithered out of the egg, surprising all in the room. The ponies that had been testing Twilight had begun talking with one another, questioning the origin of the snake and about how it was supposed to be a dragon egg. Princess Celestia took a step back from the snake as it slithered out of the egg, then the cart, then finally landing on the ground and staring at Twilight with curious eyes. Twilight was petrified at first, watching the winding serpent eye her small form for a few solid moments. Why was it just staying still? Shouldn't it be attacking? Snakes were violent in nature, why wasn't this one? It moved forward finally, cautiously sidewinding its way toward Twilight with its eyes darting back and forth between Twilight and Celestia, it also seemed to wearily hiss the princess's way as it approached Twilight's side. "Uh... good snake..." Twilight said fearfully as she raised a hoof to make a petting motion to the scaled creature. The snake, in response, suddenly coiled its body around Twilight's hoof loosely. A motion that earned a small surprised gasp from Twilight as the snake made its way over her body. Twilight's eyes darting up to Celestia, who was observing the snake's actions curiously. The way she was positioned suggested she was ready to cast a spell on the creature should it turn violent, an unspoken assurance that eased Twilight somewhat as she turned back to the snake. Now, the snake had coiled around the upper part of her leg and around her body, positioning itself so that it would be looking over Twilight's shoulder alongside her. Twilight and the snake looked at one another, then the snake gave a sound which was the closest thing a snake would ever get to producing a purring sound. "It would seem that he likes you." Celestia commented, ignoring the low hiss—of what Twilight assumed was distrust—that the serpent gave her. "Yeah, but... wasn't a baby dragon suppose to come out?" Twilight asked to no one in particular. "A baby dragon, a baby snake, regardless of what you hatched you still managed to show great skill." Celestia answered with a smile. She hesitated for a moment, as though in thought, before she said, "I was wondering, young miss Sparkle, if maybe you would like to study the mysteries of magic under me personally?" Twilight's eyes widened as she looked up at the princess, wondering if she had heard that correctly. "Wha-what?" Twilight asked, looking at the princess. "I'm asking if you would like to become my personal student." Celestia said, smiling warmly at the young filly. Twilight didn't know what to say. The smile on her face grew as she looked at her parents and then the ponies who'd been testing her, as though they were confirm this all being some bizarre anxiety induced dream or something like that. Her parents smiled proudly at her and nodded their heads in agreement with whatever Twilight wanted to do. The ponies who were testing her merely stared at the filly and princess with wide eyes of shock and whispering to one another to confirm the princess and actually asked this child to become her student. Then finally, she turned to her newly made snake friend. The snake looked to Twilight and then to the princess. And regardless of the snake's disdain toward the princess, the snake turned back to Twilight and nodded its head. Twilight looked up at the princess and nodded profusely so. "Yes! Yes! I-I mean..." Twilight stuttered upon controlling her excited blurting out. The princess didn't seem to find however, just smiling at the young filly's enthusiasm. "I would be honoured to become your personal student." As the princess spoke with Twilight's parents, both to congratulate them on such a gifted daughter and discussing how their tutoring lessons would work, Twilight looked down to her new snake friend and smile. "If I'm going to become the princess's personal student, I'll need an assistant. Would you be interested?" Twilight asked softly to the serpent, feeling more calm now around the creature. The snake gave a scaly grinning smile and then nodded its head, a companionship being forged between a mare and a snake.