Chapter 11
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
— Confucius
The Frozen North, Outpost Frostbite
Twilight couldn’t believe it. She was actually staring onto the face she once believed had been vaporized, wiped off the face of Equestria and never to be seen again. It was the last she and her friends had seen of him after all, the last time King Sombra was still walking and breathing in the flesh.
But he was not of flesh. He was of spirit and dark magic, the coils of red, purple, and green cloaked in blackness swirling around his image, his limbs, his eyes and his infernal smile. It only affirmed to the Princess of Friendship that he was not entirely present. It was not entirely Sombra. But his presence still radiated that haunting, dominating power, as if he truly was there.
Everypony flinched backwards in shock and horror as the image appeared to them all. The confines of the cavern were illuminated in that flow of dark magic pulsating from the crystal tower, the veins of darkness also shimmering and glowing and spreading further within the ice. As if the illusion of Sombra had actually fueled the crystal around the mist with rejuvenated life.
Shining Armor protected his wife from that dreaded image regardless if it was real or not. He saw it. She saw it. Everypony saw it and reacted accordingly to the former tyrant of the Crystal Empire, and bane to all of Equestria. They either cowered behind one another like Fluttershy behind Rainbow Dash, crowded together and glared down the monster like Bon Bon and her T.I.T.A.N. agents, or faced the mist head-on with incredulous, shell-shocked expressions.
Celestia, Luna, and Twilight shared that particular look. Alongside the Council with Spike and Rainbow hoisting Fluttershy back to all four hooves. Assuring Fluttershy that they were with her, and that nothing would stop them as long as they were together. And Fluttershy, finding that truth, also found the courage she desperately sought and stood with them.
In unity, in friendship, together and stronger than ever before, they eyed the fallen king of the Crystal Empire just as his fangs opened and his mouth fell. A void of rancid red breath seethed from his shadowy mouth, a dark and laboring voice fully consumed in death, in darkness, and in shadows echoing throughout the cavern.
“Sooo... you have done it...”
The voice was not flesh. It sounded much darker, trapped in another plane of existence between the living and the dead. When he spoke, he did not stare to a specific pony. He did not acknowledge their movements, their voices, their interrupting presence. Almost as if he was just an illusion, just a trick to haunt everypony present. But Twilight understood better. She looked through the mists, through the vapors, through the shadows of confusion and knew what it was.
It was a message… magically recorded and concealed over a thousand years ago.
What Sombra said only affirmed her hypothesis, the fallen king sneering, “You have found my little... domain. Or perhaps... ‘prison’... would be a more appropriate title. Scouring the Frozen North since my defeat by your hooves has led me here... in this icy tomb... with my fellow monster... forsaken and trapped. Doomed to an eternal confinement in this frozen hell.”
Shortly after, Sombra’s smile returned, the creature’s glowing red eyes disappearing within the shadows of his eyelids. He chuckled softly. That laughter alone pierced and pulsed throughout everypony’s hearts and made their bones quake.
“But no more,” Sombra declared, opening his eyes and filling the cavern with that horrifying, hellish crimson light. “Discovering this tomb and activating its magic has given me the final piece. You... have given me the final piece to my vengeance.”
Though he did not look to them, Twilight made the connection and lifted her eyes to the former rulers of Equestria. Soon enough, everypony joined the Alicorn’s movements and stared to Celestia and Luna. Knowing they fell within the spotlight of Sombra’s dark cloud, the sisters kept their focus centered on the mass of shadows hanging before them. And for a brief moment, they could have sworn they saw the image flicker its eyes down to them specifically.
“Discovering these crystals is no coincidence... princesses. Yeeesss... it was always meant to be you to find me. Though my banishment to the wastes of the Frozen North was meant to be an eternal endeavor, I vowed to conceal the Crystal Ponies from the earth. Just as I have vanished from their midst, so will the Empire vanish from the world. A fitting fate for us both.”
Twilight breathed out a gust of frozen air. Her hypothesis was becoming clearer, becoming truth. What they were witnessing had to have been a magically recorded message, back during Sombra’s first defeat and the disappearance of the Crystal Empire. The sisters seemed to share her sentiments, her thoughts, all the pieces coming together to unveil King Sombra’s hidden intentions.
“The Crystal Empire and its false kings and queens will not reign a day longer. Not without me on its throne... and I am certain you have come to understand the Crystal Empire’s disappearance by now. It is why you are here now... led by your confusion... your worries... your fear...”
Sombra’s shadow lifted his eyes and stared to them. Smiled at them with his long, razor fangs.
“Yet you remain untouched. You and your worthless sister... sitting in your cradle of power... drinking the wine of victory and breathing the splendor of the majesty you so falsely acclaim to be. Of which the fools of the earth have willfully surrendered to believe.”
Celestia and Luna both gasped. Stared to the coils of red mist slithering out of Sombra’s mouth.
“You understand now... that I could not let that go unpunished.”
“Celestia,” Twilight rapidly interrupted, her voice trembling and breath shivering. The Council and the two sisters turned to her, seeing only the fear laced in Twilight’s pupils. She shook her head, managed to hyperventilate, “Sombra was defeated. He can’t have any power here… or anywhere else. What’s going on?”
“If we refuse to believe it, then it is only false to us… not to reality,” Luna stated, turning to her sister. “And the reality is that Sombra has left us a message intended only for us. These crystals must be the last of his essence, the last of his influence on our world.”
Celestia met Luna’s gaze and faced away from it, stared onto the cloud of shadows and shook her head to Sombra’s speaking illusion. “His defeat at the Crystal Empire… his banishment to the Frozen North… the disappearance of the Empire… just to lead us here. To lead us to this message. But his crystals should have vanished upon his death. This is beyond even our understanding of Sombra’s dark magic. There is something more here…”
As they pondered aloud and conversed with another, Sombra only continued to speak, bringing forth their undivided attention onto the true horrors still living within the ice.
Sombra’s smile was cloaked under a dark and sinister grin, the shadow uttering, “And sooo... you have found my monster within the hold of the world. Within the ice... lies a demon even I could not fully understand. Nor could I control it. Its magic is beyond me... and beyond any depth of the dark arts. It is beyond the world as we know it... and therefore...”
Twilight Sparkle, the Council of Friendship, and everypony around them shakily turned their eyes onto the gargantuan, hanging claw of Monster Zero. Their breaths grew more audible, quicker and more uncontrolled. Sombra’s grin only widened, the red mist spewing past his fangs.
“Beyond your power.”
The shadow practically erupted like a bursting volcano, Sombra roaring, “So let this discovery be your undoing!”
With every word he uttered, he only grew more and more enraged. Like the cold that pierced his spirit for a thousand years of imprisonment. Like the lonesome tomb of ice and earth he was trapped in and forced to suffer through. Alone. Abandoned. Tortured for so long. All of that pain, all of that torment, all of that rage spilled forth and fueled his message with another level of unholy power.
And they felt it. They felt every ounce of his agony and hatred boiling within the cloud of shadows and exploding outwards from his agape and unnatural jaws. Every word was laced with thrashing, unbridled anger, but also held the triumphant declarations of an abominable king reclaiming his glory. Perhaps not to his throne, but to his enemies. Reclaiming his dominance and power over them to prove again who truly ruled the world.
They were silent to his rage, breathless and shaken by his booming voice.
“Let the earth crumble and the abyss be opened! And from the wretched and unholy fires come the damned Devil himself! For what I cannot control, so too you will never be able to control, nor will you ever come to defeat! If I am not meant to rule the Crystal Empire or this world, then let the Crystal Empire vanish from it! Let the world you know be bathed in an everlasting sea of fire!”
The atmosphere seemed to shift with every word he proclaimed. The ever-present foreboding presence in the air was replaced with pure fire, rage, and terror. Panic flushed between the ponies, even Bon Bon and the T.I.T.A.N. agents displaying signs of fear. Shining Armor and Princess Cadance stood close, stood frozen, and stood undeniably petrified by the false king. The Council of Friendship were already consumed under Sombra’s control, letting fear cloud their emotions, their hindsight, and their reactions.
“W-what’s he talking about?!” Rainbow Dash screamed.
“Ah ain’t likin’ this one bit, Twilight! What do we do?!” Applejack asked.
“Celestia…? Luna?!” Twilight cried, turning to her former mentors for guidance once again.
As for the sisters…
All they could do was stand there, their silence stifling among everypony else. The words unspoken merely strengthened the essence of fear infecting the cavern.
Like the dark crystals infecting the entire icy tomb.
And with that declared, the message was nearly finished. It finally came to an end when the image of King Sombra gazed down to the many insignificant ponies that never should have witnessed his message firsthoof. Preferably, it gazed down to where Sombra assumed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would have been standing… and it was correct.
It smiled. “Since I was made to suffer... your world will be made to suffer in return.”
The dark tower absorbed his mist, his image, his message… and it exploded.
The blast took everypony by surprise, the shock wave managing to knock them all several feet backwards and onto their backs, onto one another, and even into the air for the Pegasi present. Painful yelps and cries filled the cavern. It knocked the wind and breath out of the crowd, the piercing ring following the eruption of dark magic flushing from ear to ear. Shadow and mist filled the cavern, and when the ponies finally started to come to, they noticed something else.
Scattered across the floor, among the chunks of lifeless crystal were fragments of ice. Twilight lifted her head, her eyes, and saw the ice surrounding her hooves. She felt the constant, tremoring eruptions and gazed through the chaos. Passed the haze, beyond the slew of ponies standing up and helping one another to their hooves, and onto the dark tower of crystal embedded within the ice.
But it wasn’t there anymore.
None of the crystals were.
From the blast, an array of domino explosions shot from every crystal, every gem, every unholy creation and extension of King Sombra was destroyed with thundering, explosive force. The eruption of magic flowed from the dark veins and was ignited from that point forward. Unstoppable. Uncontainable. Reaching every crystal within the confines of the underground facility.
And destroying everything it infected. Including the ice. Including…
Princess Twilight Sparkle’s eyes slowly grew. Her heart stopped and fell into a deep, dark abyss as the earth thundered and trembled around her. Because it wouldn’t stop.
Because every quake sounded more and more like the roars of an awakening monster.