The Witching Hour - Looking Forward to the Past

by Chaotic Ink


Ch.3 - Properly Store Your Evil-In-A-Can

Jewel Joy hummed to herself as she dusted the throne room. This was the last room she needed to clean before she could call it a day and join in the festivities outside. Like the rest of her people, it was hard to believe that a thousand years had passed since the Equestrian princesses had tried to liberate them from King Sombra’s reign of tyranny, which still only felt like yesterday. She and the others had been wandering the palace, not sure why, when a new alicorn and her unicorn husband arrived in the empire and said they were there to help. While the crystal ponies had been weary of the two at first, not to mention the guard ponies they had brought along with them, Princess Cadance using her own magic to raise the empire’s shield and continuing to do so to the point of exhaustion had convinced most that they were indeed there to help.

Announcing the fair, along with the rumor that the Crystal Heart had been found and was going to be unveiled later, was enough to bring back the shine to most crystal ponies, from what Jewel could see from the palace windows. What was more, apparently the new group of Equestrian guards that had shown up had also encountered what was left of King Sombra out in the frozen wastes and finally destroyed what was left of him! The only crystal ponies to know about that were the palace staff, at the moment at least. In the few hours that it took to spread among them, the fair was also announced and it was presumed that with the unveiling of the Heart would also come the news of the evil king’s final defeat.

With a last sweep of the duster, Jewel looked around and admired her work. The throne room looked spotless and ready for the princess when she returned from the fair. She was about to leave through the staff side door, partially hidden in the corner off to the side of the throne when a glint near said throne caught her eye. Turning, she saw that a jar had been left there, seemingly forgotten by the base. That was odd, not only because it was unexpected, but also because how many ponies had been there throughout the day and no-one had thought to take it away? Maybe the princess liked jam and asked for a jar to be kept available, even by the throne? Curiosity peaked, Jewel went over and picked the jar up.

Whatever was inside was black as night and seemed to be swirling, like a storm cloud. Maybe it was some kind of magic thing used by alicorns and unicorns? Makers knew that magic users where always coming up with weird things in their castles and towers and whatnot. She was just about to chalk it up to a weird magic user thing and put it down when a face smacked against the inside of the glass. Jewel had a brief image of glowing green and red eyes and a mouth with fangs before she let out a shriek and threw the jar high into the air, bolting into the servant passageway she’d originally been leaving through. Running as fast as she could, her hooves loud as could be on the stones of the passage, she never heard the sound of breaking glass back in the throne room. It wasn’t until she came huffing into the kitchens that she finally stopped to catch her breath.

“Oh, Jewel, you silly filly,” she admonished herself when she had a minute or two to think. “Sombra’s defeated; the princess said so! That was probably just some magic user’s version of a history book; makers know that they have to do everything by magic. It’s probably enchanted to be unbreakable as well.” Perfectly willing to believe she knew enough about unicorns to mark that down as fact, she made her way out of the kitchens and towards one of the castle exits, feeling everything would be fine.

NOTHING was FINE.

In fact, this was probably the most opposite of fine as any situation could be! And that was how he, King Sombra, rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire, felt, so it was true! First he’d been challenged and defeated, DEFEATED, by those two prissy princesses from Equestria and in desperation his last act was to banish the empire along with him, to prove to those princesses that what was his would STAY his. Then, after the thousand years the spell was supposed to last, the spell finally broke and both he and the empire came back into existence. He would have taken his rightful throne immediately if he hadn’t come back in the middle of the frozen wastes, and as a magic cloud, the snow and freezing winds battering him constantly and keeping him from returning to his true form. Then ANOTHER of those damned Equestrian princesses showed up and made a barrier around HIS empire! But the arrogance didn’t stop there! Yet another group from Equestria arrived, though these had at least the nerve to face him in battle, a battle he should have won! Instead, they had attacked him with some kind of new magic that had stripped him of his power and left him so dazed and confused that they’d captured him in a jar! He swore that when he regained his power, he’d find who ever had done that and make them BEG for the sweet release of death.

Thankfully, those silly crystal ponies were as skittish as ever and it only took a quick, childish trick to arrange his freedom. The arrogance of the Equestrian ponies would be their undoing.

First, he had to get his own power back.

To his frustration, the small amount of power he did have wasn’t enough to open the staircase hidden right in the middle of the throne room. That was probably for the best, all things considered. The cursed door at the bottom might be too much for him as he was now and it would do him little good to be caught in his own trap to be found and imprisoned all over again. Thankfully, he had a few other plans arranged in case such an unexpected turn of events befell him.

By the time Jewel Joy returned to clean up the broken glass, the small, dark cloud was gone, flitting through the castle and out onto the streets, always sticking to the shadows to avoid detection. The gaseous king almost gagged at the sight of so many decorations and his crystal pony slaves enjoying themselves, as if they had any other purpose other than carrying out his will. He controlled his disgust and set it aside for later. Perhaps he would make examples of a few of them to help hammer home how frivolous such things were once he was back in power.

Once he was clear of the last of the buildings, he raced for the twin crystal towers that acted as the gateway to the empire. What no-one knew was that one of the ways Sombra had gained his power was by bonding with a dark crystal he had discovered early in his climb to being king. By sacrificing some of his power to create more at any given time, he could amplify his powers in a “sacrifice one, get two in return” sort of deal. As he was, he’d only be able to make a crystal barely the size of a bit and would take far too long to aid in his recovery. Even if a pony had uncovered that little trick of his, they still wouldn’t know that he’d infused the gateway towers with some of his dark crystals, making them instant power generators. With their help, he could be strong enough to remake his body in a few hours, rather than a few months on his own.

Taking one last look around as arrived and seeing that the only possible threat was one of the dragons that had attacked him earlier and she was digging in the ground a good distance down the parameter of the shield, he dove into the ground between the towers. Two shadows spread out from the spot he dove into and when they reached the towers, they changed into two pillars of dark crystal, radiating their magic back to him. He could feel the magic running through his small form, which was already growing larger by the second.

Very soon now, he would be the ruler of the Crystal Empire once again. Maybe, even, of all Equestria as well.

-----------------------------

“Anything?” Midnight asked the two gouts of green flame that resolved into changelings.

“Negative, ma’am,” Trill said.

“Not a secret button or lever to be found,” Buzz added.

“Of course,” Midnight said resignedly, motioning for them to move on. She hoped Twilight was right about no one having the guts to try looking in the castle while Sombra was in power; the Heart could just as easily be hidden underneath someone’s cellar or buried just past the edge of the city. Tartarus, Sombra could have just been a smart villain and destroyed the thing and lied that he hid it. All that meant was that the castle was as good a place to look as any other, so she, Umbra, and two of the changelings had followed Twilight and Spike inside to try and narrow the hunt.

Before they had done that, however, they had needed to get everyone on the same page. Heading back out into the city after the unfortunate discovery, Midnight and Twilight had spread the word to their friends and guards about the missing relic and how important it was to keep all the crystal ponies happy and occupied until the Heart could be found. Unsurprisingly, many of the guards wanted to help their captain in the search but Midnight had declined all of them, citing the importance of the faire being fully staffed. The only reason that Umbra, Buzz, and Trill were with her was because Honey had convinced her that a few more eyes and hooves involved in the search would not affect the faire. “And between Umbra’s ability to move through shadows and our ability to change forms means that they can get into places either you or Twilight can’t,” she argued, which was a pretty good point.

Twilight had tried to argue against Midnight or anyone else helping right from the start, again citing what Celestia had told them, but gave in when Cadance told her that Celestia wasn’t here and that protecting the empire took precedent over any test from anyone. Even the betrayed look Twilight had at that couldn’t sway the pink alicorn and she had pointedly asked Midnight to help the unicorn in any way she could. Midnight had been more than happy to agree to the request.

Oddly enough, Midnight was more concerned about finding the Heart than she was about the crystal ponies finding out they hadn’t actually found it. She had found that her guards, at least the ones that came aboard before yesterday, could be very entertaining, whether it be Dandelion with his stories or Wild Mane with his very creative drill ideas. Entertainment had become an even simpler affair once they all realized that the crystal ponies lacked any unicorns or pegasi among themselves, so the guards with horns began putting on little impromptu magic shows and the ones with wings did simple aerial stunts. Midnight had overheard Dandelion talking with Blackberry about using all these things to put on a play about the major things that had happened since they were gone. It was that kind of initiative (she’d only told them to keep the ponies occupied, not how to do so) and creative thinking that let Midnight know how good the quality of her guards were and that, short of a catastrophe happening directly in the middle of the faire, everything would be fine until they found the Heart.

She was also a bit bummed that she couldn’t see the jousting tournament that Wild Mane had dragged a few of them off to join. She couldn’t tell if the look on Spread Eagle’s face was resignation or pleading.

All that said, she’d also made sure that a few guards stayed close to AJ and the fake Heart, just in case a crystal pony or two got a little too curious for everyone’s own good.

She and the changelings were following Twilight, who had just emerged from another room, down the hall towards the throne room when a motion caught Midnight’s eye. Turning, she jumped and let out a small swear as Umbra and Spike popped out of a shadow on the wall.

“Sorry, ma’am,” Umbra apologized, “just reporting that there’s nothing of interest on the north side of this floor, outside of the servants’ passageways.”

“That shadow traveling is so cool!” Spike gushed. “It’s like everything is in shadow, but you can still see perfectly!”

“Fascinating,” Midnight grumped, “and there was nothing in those passageways?”

“Nothing odd that we noticed,” Umbra said, then looked past the kirin and at the distracted unicorn trotting away like nothing had happened. “Ma’am, are you sure we’re doing the right thing? Miss Sparkle did say that the princess told her she needed to do this alone.”

“The princess can tell her whatever she wants,” Midnight snorted, “without that Heart, the entirety of Equestria, including the bearers, are at risk, and our job is to protect the bearers at all costs, even if it conflicts with what Princess Celestia tells the bearers to do.”

“I actually like that,” Spike said, making sure his voice didn’t carry and let Twilight overhear. “Celestia always has Twilight’s best interest in mind, but…”

“But?” Midnight prodded.

“But whenever she’s involved, Twilight gets, well, paranoid.”

“We’ve noticed,” Midnight said.

“Why would she though?” Umbra asked innocently. “I mean, she’s the princess’ direct student; why would she be paranoid around the princess?”

“Well, it kinda has to do with some of her classmates. See, when Celestia made Twilight her personal student, it kinda ruffled a few of the nobles’ feathers,” Spike explained.

Umbra nodded. “I heard about that. Princess Celestia hadn’t taken on a personal student for a good ten years by then if I remember correctly, don’t remember if anyone said why, and suddenly she took a fancy to Twilight. A lot of the noble ponies attending the school were upset that a filly from some middle class family was chosen instead of them.”

“Yeah, and they vented by convincing Twilight that if she made even one mistake, Celestia would drop her like a bag of rotten fish.”

“Celestia didn’t do anything to stop that?” Midnight asked, surprised that such a thing would happen right under Celestia’s muzzle.

“They never said it when she was around and Twilight wouldn’t dream of broaching the subject with her or wanted to be known as a tattletale,” Spike explained. “I didn’t even know until a few months before we moved to Ponyville. They stopped once they saw Twilight wasn’t going anywhere and there were even some foals who didn’t mind that Twilight was Celestia’s personal student but by then the routine was already that. Twilight would study everything she could like crazy, Celestia would quiz her on something, Twilight would pass with flying colors, then she’d go back to studying.”

“And Celestia would struggle to figure out what to test or even teach her on, hence the random test times and subjects,” Midnight said, looking at the purple unicorn ahead with a twinge of pity. “I get the feeling that sending her to Ponyville to learn about friendship was her way of saying “I found something you can’t learn about in a book and that I know you know nothing about!”.”

Spike nodded. “It was also because Nightmare Moon was returning and we needed the Elements to beat her but, yeah, I can see her thinking that, too.”

“Of course!” Twilight suddenly shouted, making them all look up to see her running into the throne room. Picking up the pace, they followed her inside.

“What did you find?” Midnight asked as they spread out.

“Was the Heart hidden in here all along?” Spike asked.

“Possibly, but not in this throne room!” Twilight said with a hint of playfulness.

“You taking riddle lessons from Discord now?” Midnight asked her, to which the unicorn snorted at her.

“This is the same castle, but it was different when King Sombra ruled it,” Twilight explained, making her way over to the throne.

As Midnight followed, she noticed something; more appropriately bits of something on the floor, bits of a familiar something. “Recruit Shroud, how strong are those mason jars of yours?”

“As strong as any normal mason jar,” she said, she and everyone else noting the flat, to-the-point tone of the kirin’s voice. “Why, ma’am?”

Midnight scooped up two things off the floor with her wings and held them up for everyone to see. They were the top and bottom of a very broken mason jar.

“Are… those…?” Spike asked.

“Yeah,” Midnight confirmed, throwing the pieces away and looking towards Twilight. “Whatever your idea is, better start working on it.” The unicorn nodded and turned back to the throne as Midnight turned away with a long sigh and closed her eyes. “Son of a buck me running,” she mumbled. Her face pinched in concentration, then she opened her eyes, which were now glowing, and turned back towards the broken glass. “Arina, tell Honey Sombra’s escaped and that she needs to warn the princess and tell the rest of the guards quickly but quietly.” After a few more seconds she blinked and the glow faded.

“What do we do?” Spike asked.

“We find that Heart. He was hit with the Elements of Harmony; he can’t have gone too far or gotten powerful enough in a few hours to do much. That said, that’s too close to “what could possibly go wrong?” for my tastes. Better to get the Heart as soon as possible.”

As soon as she said that, the center of the throne room floor seemed to just melt away, revealing a staircase leading downward.

“Where did that come from?” Trill asked, looking over the edge.

“I figured Sombra would use his dark magic and the property of the crystals found here to hide the way to the Heart,” Twilight said, adopting a lecture tone. “You see, the crystals found here can-”

“Twilight, escaped evil king, missing relic, whole empire at risk?” Midnight said with a raised eyebrow. “How about we learn about the magic properties of crystals as well as worry about how you used dark magic after only seeing Celestia do it once later and you cast that spell that makes things weigh less so I can fly you down?”

Twilight raised her own eyebrow. “Sorry, and how do you know about the Feather Weight spell?”

“You nearly hit me with the bolder you threw into Whitetail Woods that day; scared off the deer I was hunting, too,” Midnight told her flatly.

“Oh… sorry?” she said, cringing and casting the spell on herself.

Midnight waved it off with a flick of her wing, then they all flinched as the sound of distant roaring came through the windows. “And now Shoal is up to something,” Midnight said with a snort. They all went to the windows and looked out past the city toward where the roaring was coming from. In the distance, they could see the large dragon stamping and flaming at things on the ground. “What in the world is she doing?” Midnight wondered aloud.

Trill transformed into a hawk and stared back out at the scene. She quickly turned back, her eyes wide. “She’s, uh, stomping and breathing fire on black crystals that are coming out of the ground,” she reported. “And it looks like for every one she smashes, two more grow.”

They all stared at her for a second.

“Okay, everyone into the dark pit of evil,” Midnight said, hopping into the air, grabbed Twilight, who tried to protest, and dived down the stair case and out of sight. The others went after her, Umbra grabbing Spike and diving into the shadows to follow her captain and the two changelings down.

It was a fairly long way down and Midnight was sure that it was as deep as the palace was tall. “How did we miss this?” She asked aloud, picturing the outside of the palace and not seeing how they’d missed a pillar this big going into the ground.

“It’s the crystals!” Twilight shouted back with a bit of panic in her voice. Midnight wasn’t flying down as much as she was diving down and Twilight was anticipating the floor any second now. “They-!” She was cut short by the bottom rushing up at them out of the dark and Midnight snapping her wings open to slow their decent, angling so that her dive turned into a tight spiral that bled off their speed until they landed with the same amount of force as if they’d jumped the last five steps. “Maybe next time we can glide down all the way?” Twilight asked wobbly, her stomach catching back up with her.

Midnight only grunted in apology as she looked up. The others were barely halfway down, so maybe she had gone a little fast. “So, where to now?” she asked, looking around. “Oh, wait, I see it,” she said, spotting a single doorway.

“Hold on a second!” Twilight warned but Midnight had already reached out a hoof. Without warning the door shot off to the side, as if avoiding the kirin’s touch.

“What the-?” Midnight said, before jumping at the door, which once again shot away from her.

“King Sombra was a unicorn who ruled over what are basically earth ponies,” Twilight explained, “if somepony got this far, he wouldn’t let it be easy for them.” She charged up her horn. “Hooves won’t work, but magic…” she shot a purple bolt at the door, which made contact with the door and seemed to stun it. “There, see? Not every problem can be solved with-”

Light flashed from the gem at the top of the door, washing over both of them, then the door itself opened.

-----------------------------

“What is she doing?” Wild Mane asked as he and several others watched the distant dragon seemingly throw a tantrum outside the city. Most of the crystal ponies where at the jousting tournament, where it was currently Rainbow Dash against First Lieutenant Windrunner for about the fifth time. Neither could get the better of the other, apparently. That also meant that a number of the guards manning the stalls or who had already lost could take stock of what was transpiring outside the city limits.

“Maybe it’s a dragon thing?” Recruit Amber Armor suggested, making everyone look at Private Long Spine.

“Don’t look at me; dragons don’t flip their lids for no reason. Petty reasons, sure, but not over nothing.”

“You don’t think it’s…” Night Sky looked around to make sure there were no crystal ponies in ear shot, “Sombra, do you? I mean, Mid- the Captain said he’d gotten loose. Maybe Shoal caught him trying to escape?”

“He was a wriggling little dust cloud; how fast can he be to avoid her stepping on him?” Mane asked.

“Hey, does anyone know what’s up with the black crystals slowly spreading towards the city?” Scarlet asked, landing among them.

“Wait, you can see that far?” Blackberry asked.

Scarlet pointed at her eye. “Eagle vision, perfect for catching a snack from cloud height.”

“Black crystals? Just like the ones that sprouted when we fought Sombra out in the snow?” Hazelnut asked, to which Scarlet nodded.

“So, what do we do?” Tight asked.

“We keep the crystal ponies calm, like we were ordered to,” Mane said. “Keep them at the tournament, lure them over to the game stands, shove pies, cakes and drink in their eyeballs, but do not let them see those crystals coming! If they panic, it’s all over! Private Spine, tell Princess Cadance and Queen Honeycomb what’s going on; powerful magic may be all we can use against it. Sergeant Blackberry, take two and head out to Shoal and see if there’s anything we can do to slow down those crystals ourselves. Now get moving!”

Sir, yes sir!” came the reply and the guards began scurrying to follow orders.

“Sergeant Blackberry, First Sergeant Mane, Private Spine, a word,” Hazelnut said, beckoning the three over before they could run off. “Mane, I want you and Spine to go out and help Shoal.”

“Sir, you’ll need us here when things start going south,” Mane protested.

Hazelnut didn’t correct his wording to if. “And if anyone here is strong enough to bash through those crystals, it’s you two. Blackberry, you inform the princess and the queen, make sure Arina lets the captain know what’s going on, then join in keeping the crystals back. We need that Heart a lot sooner than expected.”

“Um, sir?” Scarlet called down from where she was hovering. She was pointing towards where the black crystals were growing into the city limits. “New problem.”

-----------------------------

“Whoa!” Spike said as he fell off of Umbra. “That was trippy at the end!”

“Yeah,” Umbra agreed as she wobbled. “Okay, so, that’s why I was told never to do that at night; no clear place to leave.”

“Um, are they okay?” Buzz asked and the two looked over to see the changelings waving their hooves in front of a stationary Midnight and Twilight.

Umbra and Spike went over to them, legs spread wide as to keep their balance until the last of the affects of a seemingly endless void of shadows had on them wore off. Both the kirin and unicorn were facing an open door that lead to nowhere and their eyes were glowing green and red, like Sombra’s had. Twilight was saying things like “I don’t understand” and “The test, my studies?” while Midnight was simply repeating “No, no, no, no” over and over again. Both of them had tears streaming down their cheeks and it looked like a bit of flame was on Midnight’s breath.

“What happened?” Umbra asked.

“We found them this way,” Trill said, “them and that open door.”

“This must be one of Sombra’s traps,” Spike said, moving over to inspect the door. “I’ll bet Midnight or Twilight opened this and it did something to them.”

“What do we do?” Buzz asked, eyeing the flame that the kirin, now slightly hyperventilating, was producing.

“Um, well,” Spike said, eyeing the crystal at the top of the door, “let’s try… this!” Grabbing the door, he slammed it shut into the door frame. The crystal up top shone red for a brief second, then winked out.

“SQUEAKS! SAPPHIRE!” Midnight screamed, a tongue of blue fire shooting out of her mouth.

“PLEASE PRINCESS!” Twilight yelled.

Both their eyes returned to normal but the glow was replaced by wild, intense staring. Twilight recovered first, her pupils dilating back to normal then wider due to the darkness. Midnight’s draconic eyes stayed pinpricks until they landed on the closed door, then they narrowed.

“Captain, are you-?” Buzz asked, before jumping back with the rest of them as Midnight shot a stream of blue flame at the door. It wasn’t just a shot or a dousing of a few seconds; the kirin breathed fire on the door for a full thirty seconds before finally stopping. For whatever reason the door never tried to jump away like it had done before but stayed like it was rooted to the spot, though through the flames it looked to them as if the door was trying to get away, twisting and shaking. When Midnight finally stopped she was breathing hard but shakily. Spike moved to her side and wordlessly placed a comforting claw on her leg. Her eyes snapped down to him but they quickly refocused back to normal.

“Sorry,” she finally breathed out, “it was just… what happened after that door opened…” she turned away, but not before Spike saw her eyes become wet again.

“A doorway that leads to your worst nightmare,” Twilight explained, wiping away what remained of her own tears. “Sombra made sure that even a unicorn wouldn’t make it through; a unicorn using normal magic, anyway.” Even Midnight didn’t say a word as Twilight cast dark magic for a second time, this time at the crystal above the door. The entire door shuddered for a second, then swung open to reveal what looked like a blue-white hall.

Buzz stuck his head carefully around through the doorway. “It’s another staircase,” he reported, “this time going up.”

They all filed through the doorway and looked up… and up. “Alright, I’m calling it: crystal magic is a load, a hack, a cheat,” Midnight snorted, her normal snark beginning to trickle back into her voice. The stairs went so far up they seemed to disappear into the ceiling. Around the outside wall were divots where more of the large pony statues were placed, following the stairway up.

“Just because YOU never studied it-” Twilight mumbled, starting up the stairs, only to become airborne as Midnight picked her up again.

“We don’t have time,” the kirin said with a grunt, “and casting that Feather Weight spell again would be helpful.”

Twilight did so while the changelings got airborne again themselves and Umbra and Spike hopped into the shadow on the underside of the stairs. This time, with the one continuous shadow, there was no chance of getting lost. They all started up, this time everyone keeping pace as they rose through the chamber.