In the present,
Blood Diamond walked across the snowy mountainside. His footsteps were the only thing cracking through the silence. The battle was over. He had won. Though it only happened days ago, he still felt the pain. It wasn't the wounds of the battle that tortured but the distrust that had been placed within him during that battle. He looked upon his hand, now healed. The memories are still fresh. Someone else was using his body to fight. They took down the enemy and saved him. Using such incredible power to bring down any opposition.
"Forbidden Spell, Left Hand of the Light!" the words of the spell echoed in his head. His mouth but someone else's words. No, this is not the first time, but this was the strongest moment he could remember in a long time. Blood Diamond was uncertain to be scared or happy. This voice it's saved him, but at what cost.
He bit his lip, knowing what he needed to ask. Taking a big gulp of air, he shouted out to the empty snowy wasteland, "Hollow Prince!!"
There was no answer at first, so he repeated this time more softly. "Please answer me, Hollow Prince. I... I need to know you're okay." he didn't speak with the royal tone saved for the ones that were never close to him. His cousins, his family, even his father never heard this tone before or ever would. "Please answer me," yes there was rage, but it wasn't intense. It was as if he was longing for an answer.
Finally, after enough time had passed, an image appeared in front of him, slowly but surely it fully appeared. Despite the battle they had both shared only but days ago, the image came in perfectly, as if he had never been harmed at all. Hollow Prince's suit was still so fine, as if it got finely pressed. He always believed in looking his best.
The image was silent, as if it didn't want to answer Blood Diamond, but it still appeared to him. This action made Blood Diamond happy. His rage faded to a softer, saddened tone. "After the attack you sent out, I had feared that you were lost forever to Saturn's scythe."
"It'll take much more than that for the titan of death to claim me," Hollow Prince's pride finally shined through his own hesitation. "I'm sorry I needed to take your body to win."
"You should be. Our alliance has lasted for so many millennia because we trust each other." Blood Diamond stepped closer. Now he seemed hesitant to make a move.
"Our alliance." Hollow Prince's words were cold to that line, but he was stopped as Blood Diamond placed his hand on his cheek.
"Don't say it like that. Say it as I do." Blood Diamond smile and stroked the cheek.
Hollow Prince couldn't help himself anymore, falling into Blood Diamond's chest. Blood Diamond took this moment to remove his own hesitation. He wrapped his arm around the image and enjoyed the blissful warmth of the tears. "This must truly look awkward from afar."
"I am the only one that can see you." Blood Diamond pulled him closer. "Touch you and hold you. You are merely a myth to them, much like the other ghosts of the old and forgotten. You exist to me..." Now he couldn't hide his own tears. "Long ago, when I first heard you. You were but an echo in the mind of a child."
"You were just as broken. The defective child born of a dead mother and tyrannical father, suffering the abuse of such a harsh royal family." Hollow Prince didn't mean to make it sound so harsh, but the truth was over them both. "I stayed with you all this time because I wanted to help you." He cleared his throat. "I stepped in during this battle to save you."
"Which is why I felt so hurt that you didn't trust me." This time, Blood Diamond was the bold one.
"Your hand--"
"My hand is healed now, but my heart hurts from your actions," Blood Diamond corrected him. "When you took command of my body, you did it to defeat the enemy and you saved me. However, you also showed you don't trust me to save both of us when you committed that last spell." He pulled Hollow Prince off his chest and looked him in the eyes. "You did wrong, you know that."
"I knew what she was hiding from you. I knew what she was planning to do." Hollow Prince threw his arms out. "We defeated her army and yet she got away. Maybe I should have acted sooner, moved quicker."
"Is your distrust that emboldened?" Blood Diamond's words struck back even harder. "You chose not to trust me with the information. You acted instead of telling me the truth."
"I... I am sorry. I have been an image alone for so long."
Blood Diamond gripped his arm. "You have been wandering for eons, screaming for someone to hear you, until you found me. Just an image unable to be seen by anyone else. You saw kingdoms fall, families grow and die, but had nothing of your own."
"You gave me so much, I just wanted to give you just as much." Hollow Prince sneered in pain.
"We have been united for so long. I thought you would have gotten better. Instead, you hurt yourself to save us both." Blood Diamond could sense the torture of the spell it brought upon the image. In fact, from the moment he saw him again after the spell, there was as if there was static over the screen. "I am not injured but you are in grave pain."
"I cannot die--"
"That doesn't matter!!" Blood Diamond screamed back. "Your pure endless immortality gives you no right to make such a move. You have no right to take yourself away from me."
"I... I see... I have overstepped." Hollow Prince's words were filled with sadness. "You are the leader, forgive me." Hollow Prince leaned back in and wrapped his hands around Blood Diamond's head.
Blood Diamond didn't stop the kiss, instead closed his eyes and let emotion take over. The image was always more to him. He could fill every aspect of the breath, moving back and forth between the two. He enjoyed the feeling of his hands running through the image's mane. However, as he gripped ahold of Hollow Prince's arm, he felt them fading. His heart filled with disappointment.
Hollow Prince, despite his fear, kept the embrace for as long as he could until his image was no more. He faded back into the mindscape. Blood diamond is right. He needed time to heal. However, he vowed he would return to Blood Diamond's side soon enough. They needed each other. They are each other's half and together they made each other whole.
******
In the distant future,
The pale mare awoke in a deep sweat. The explosions in the distance had died down in loudness; they had not stopped as their soft quakes shook the icy bed and maroon crystal walls. She gripped tightly to her blanket, hoping in failure it would end, but it never did. A scaly arm reached out to her. She tentatively rubbed her face on it and calmly spoke, "I'm sorry I woke you. It was just a nightmare, one I wished had ended upon waking."
"As selfish as this sounds, it will not end until a choice has been made." the scaly monster reached over and pulled her closer into his embrace. "As much as I don't want to force it, they will make you choose!"
" I don't know what to choose anymore. I've made too many choices already. And I've lost so many things over these millennia as I wander through these dreams." She laughed softly to herself. It was a merry laugh, but a sad one filled with regret. "I remember once when we could have had the chance to have many more millennia to ourselves without choices needing to be made."
"That's not true. You made a choice more brazenly back then." The scaly monster regretted his words. "But if it hadn't been for your brazenness and you and I would have never..."
"No!" she stopped him, "You and I would have been united, eventually." She wrapped his arms around him and smiled at his cooling breath. "As much as Rex wants to fight us now, one thing he cannot challenge is the fate he saw that day." the pale mare couldn't help but tear up at her words. "Despite the choices we made to get to this point, we were always meant to be this from the first moment that our magics collided." As annoyed as she was with the conjuring of choice echoing from outside and within her nightmares. She knew all too true some choices that she made back then were brazen and beyond reason, but some could never be regretted.
The pale mare lifted her dark blue crystal arm upward. The scaly monster did the same with his own maroon red crystal arm. "Our Union is almost complete," the scaly monster answered. "All you need to do is make the choice."
"What is my choice?" The Pale Mare pushed away from the answer. “All I want to do is stay here with you in this darkness. That is the only thing I don't regret at all. Laying here in your icy embrace is the greatest happiness I could have." She couldn't stop her tears now. "You show me so many things. You've brightened my world. You have shined a light in my darkness greater than Thule could have ever estimated."
The scaly monster smiled at her words, "Together we both surpassed him, the great god of rot, and together we can surpass this!!" The scaly monster wrapped his crystal hand around hers and grip tightly. "We will surpass the Shadow Pony, Rex, and even Clover. You shall surpass the alicorns of both light and dark. Once you come to terms with your choice. Once you have made the choice, you desire truly deep in your heart, we will stand over it all as king and queen."
"You dare put such weight upon me."
"I do not dare do such a thing." He corrected himself. "They put the weight upon you. This world has put the weight upon you, Pale Mare." He softened his voice to make his words clear. "I will not force you to choose, but reality is making the choice for you if you do not."
******
In the long distance past...
The snowy day was interrupted as screams echoed in all directions of this once graceful land. The land lied just beyond the Batpony Canyons and the Pegasus Isles. It was once a land of darkness and silence and now it was filled with agony and torment. The only thing that dampened the pain was the raging flames and the only thing that drowned those torches were the flowing blood and the shadow of a mighty, gigantic unknown beast with millions of limbs.
This was the capital of the umbrums.
Bodies fell left and right as it ripped everything apart. Slithering through the dirt, sky, and buildings alike as if they were just air to him. His massive jaws shredding through every umbrum like they were paper. Their bodies shredded and minced to pieces.
No one was spared, and no fault was given. None knew at all what brought on this vicious attack or whom to blame, only that it wouldn't stop until they were all dead. As their screams became louder and more frantic, a lone young umbrum colt curled up under some rubble. He kept his tears and whimpers as soft as possible, as everyone he knew and loved was being ripped apart around him. He watched in horror and waited for his chance to escape.
Days passed before all the screaming stopped and the blood soaked deep into the ground. The umbrum child did the best he could to stop his endless shivers as the unknown beast made one last pass. He stared at the monster that had taken everything from him. Rage twisted the child to rush forward and fight the beast, but fear kept him encroached on his prison of horrors until the beast left his sight.
One final rumbling sound echoed out, followed by silence. It took several hours later before the child could stop shivering. He moved his body so slowly, as if fearing it would still return. Finally reaching outside of his prison, he stared in shock, broken to the image of so many dead.
"Is he gone?" an unknown voice echoed out.
“Huh, what was that?” the child questioned.
“Over here, child.”
He followed the voice, hoping to find some sign of life. “Here child,” the voice continued. He found his way to an old burning church. He took a breath and stepped inside. It was dark inside, despite the flames that surrounded everything. All except for the center where a patch untouched by the fire laid.
The colt moved carefully to the center as the old church began to slowly crumble around him. It wasn't as if he couldn't hear the collapsing or that he was truly broken from everything that had happened. Rather, it was as if something was compelling him to enter the circle. It was as if it was the only safety in the entire world.
It was a strange feeling to describe as his eyes came upon the pedestal in the center. A fresh skeleton of his kind laying under it, unable to make it before death, or simply unworthy to receive it. Its hands clutched tightly to the writing. The writing was so clear to the colt's eyes.
"The only one whose blood is soaked in the deaths of millions can speak the words and hear his incredible voice. Those who wield his magic will bend space to their command and make even the greatest darkness bow to them." The child couldn't stop himself from reading it. "Prove yourself and take power."
"Child..." a voice echoed from the object standing on the pedestal.
"I'm here as you asked..." His eyes wandered back to the outside world for but a moment. "Why was it killing us?"
"It wasn't killing you... It was saving you." The more the voice spoke, the more it sounded like it was forcing itself just to breathe.
"Saving me?"
"You umbrum are so unique... many would give anything for your... body."
"I..." the child teared up. "I don't want that, not at all. And yet I don't want to die."
“Then step closer to the pedestal, child," the voice called out. "Complete the circle." The voice became louder. "Release us from our prisons!" Despite the rage of the voice, the child felt no fear even as the church crumbled to complete nothingness around the circle. The voice, no, the presence within the circle, was in such stark contrast with the rest of the world. It was as if the outside were the evilest of devils. Right now, the child felt as if he was standing in the presence of God.
Doing as the voice commanded, he stopped in front of the pedestal and reached out to an amulet floating above it. He felt he could trust this voice. The amulet glowed brightly, as if it was calling to him. He could feel the power of the amulet reaching out to him and enveloping him in red light, wanting him to grab it.
“Reach forth and take what is rightfully yours. Let me save you by saving me!!”
“What is rightfully mine?” the colt questioned as he trembled from the force of the amulet’s great power.
“The right of power, the right of strength, and the right of survival.”
“The right,” the colt’s voice drifted as his hand took hold of the amulet. Unbeknownst to him, upon his touch, the fires were getting darker and darker. It was like the flames were suffocating from the darkness that was now pouring out from him. Soon the flames were gone, and all that was left was the smoke as it drifted with the darkness wrapping around the colt. The colt felt the grasp of the darkness on him and asked, “What are you?”
“I am the Dark Alicorn Amulet. And who are you?”
The colt’s eyes glowed as he brought the amulet to his chest. “My name is…”
******