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// Chapter 6 In the Dark Where the Shadows Run From Themselves... 
// Story: Growth 
// by Mister E 
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I opened my eyes. How long was I out? I remember Sombra, a black crystal prison that burned to the touch, being teleported somewhere, and a burst of intense pain, like I had been forced trough a barrier of some kind. That must have been when I passed out.

By the Sky Stallion my head hurts. And I’m still in this crystal. I hear voices, Sombra and Chrysalis?

“Ah, our guest is stirring again, are you sure this plan is wise? We’ve had little time to confer.” The voice of Chrysalis says.

“Twilight Sparkle presents a unique opportunity.” Sombra declared in response. “Depending upon the results of the next few minutes, she will either become a weapon, or a corpse!”

Well THAT doesn’t sound good. I need to figure a way out of this crystal prison…

“Twilight Sparkle. Listen well, in a moment I will set you free...”

Wow, that was easy…

“But, if you attempt to escape,” Sombra continues, “we will slay you on the spot.”

Oops. Not so easy then.

“Nod if you understand.”

I nod.

“Excellent.” Sombra says, his horn then emitting a brief glow.

The crystal surrounding me vanishes. I say nothing at first, my eyes adjusting to the dim light as I take in my surroundings.
I’m in a vast cavern. The walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with the same black crystals that I was imprisoned in moments before. I see dozens of Diamond Dogs, and Minotaurs busily laboring everywhere, excavating, building, and hauling away debris. Judging by the sheer magnitude and scope of the operation, it must have taken them decades, no, far longer, to have achieved what they have. 

What I’m looking at is nothing short of an underground city, complete with a castle of pure black crystal.

Sombra notices the look of awe on my face.

“Impressive isn’t it?” He declares with no small measure of pride in his voice. “And yet it still pales in comparison to my original empire,” he adds bitterly. “Something I lost once again, thanks to you and your annoying friends.”

“As have I,” Chrysalis says, moving up beside him. “I too had a kingdom, safe from Discord as well, until your protegee Starlight Glimmer destroyed it.”

“And don’t you think you both deserved it?” I say defiantly. “Each of you were trying to take over Equestria!”

“Of course we were trying to take over Equestria, you simpleton!” Sombra retorts. “How else could we save it from Discord!”

Wait, what?!?

“You remain alive solely due to the possibility that you can be made to see the truth, and will then join our cause.” Sombra states, ignoring my incredulity at his ludicrous statement. Save the world from Discord? We did that years ago… well mostly Fluttershy did, but the rest of us did help.

“Pay attention!” Sombra snaps. “It’s not just your own life that hangs in the balance, but the fate of the entire planet as well.”

Sombra’s horn glows briefly, and three throne-like crystal chairs rise form the floor. Mine is clear for some reason, while both his and Chrysalis’s are black. As I sit, a Diamond Dog comes over with a large decanter of water, and three crystal glasses. He fills all three, and then placing them on a newly formed crystal table, he departs wordlessly. 

I noticed for the first time how parched I have become. I try to take one with my magic, but there is almost zero amount of Rot here, and my personal amount of chaos is completely depleted. Chrysalis notices this and smirks, as she floats a filled glass over to me.

“Listen well Twilight Sparkle, for we have much to discuss.” Sombra begins, pausing only long enough to sip at his own glass.

“Firstly we need to clear up some misconceptions that I’m sure that Discord has deluded you into believing. Let me see if any of this sounds familiar. ‘Order is stillness and death, Chaos is life, the universe wants you dead’, any of this ring a bell?” Sombra asks almost causally.

“Yes,” I finally admit. “Almost word for word. Are you telling me that Discord lied to me?”

“That all depends on your interpretation. You see, I do not doubt that Discord BELIEVES these things to be true. I’m sure his entire ‘race’, if you can call it that, believes it to be true. But believing it does not make it so. For him and his kind, chaos is more like a religion than anything else. 

But consider, if ‘life’ is so chaotic, why do our bodies possess symmetry? Why are our offspring made in our image? Why do the various processes of nature work together? If there was no order, and only chaos none of this would be so. The very fundamentals of our existence depend on order. Natural order.

Am I taking the opposite view of Discord? Of course not. I merely state the obvious. And that is the fact that we need both order and chaos to survive. We exist balanced on the very edge of the cosmic knife. Too much order leads to stagnation and stasis. Too much chaos and everything falls apart. Our existence depends on balance. And that fool Draconequues threatens to destroy everything, just to watch it happen!”

Sombra’s words filled me with unease. Ever since my curiosity about Discord got the better of me, I had been blindly following his lead. Taking him at his word, and never doubting that he knew what he was talking about. After all, he had access to knowledge that I could only dream about. It was natural for me to assume that he had it all figured out.

But what he said made sense. Order was all around me, every day, and everywhere. It was the structures of order that allowed our bodies to function, our society to exist, our very world to exist. Why had I not considered any of this until now? Had Discord done something to me? To my mind?

“Listen to him Sparkle,” Chrysalis says, her words pulling me out of my thoughts. “Other than myself, Sombra has proven to be the only one of Discord’s failure's to have survived. I should add that, until yourself, he has had no successes.”

“Exactly!” Sombra interjects, “and that is precisely why you are here. You are in a unique position Twilight Sparkle. Discord’s fumblings have finally created another like himself. But as yet you have not been fully corrupted by his teachings. There is yet time for you to turn from him. Moreover, with your powers added to our own, we may actually be able to stop him and save our very world!”

“Today must be a Tuesday. I never could get the hang of Tuesdays. It’s too far from Friday to hope for the weekend, and yet it’s not a Monday bane of both my existence as well as orange and black cats. I think if we could just eliminate Tuesdays from the week th-”

“By the Sky Stallion!” Sombra roars. “Would you put your chaotic thoughts in order long enough for just ONE serious conversation!?!”

“O-okay.” I say, mollified by the sheer intensity of his voice. “It’s not an easy thing to do anymore, but I will do my best.”

“Good!” He says, as he begins pacing the floor. “There are things I need to tell you Sparkle. Things you need to know. And we aren’t gifted with a great deal of time. Sooner or later that idiot will figure out where we are, and although he cannot get IN, it doesn’t mean that he won’t try to destroy us from without.”

“Well THAT’S not good...” I say, before catching myself.

Sombra glares at me, his face contorted with rage. For a moment the cold wind of fear crawls up my back, then his face softens.

“No,” he says calmly. “No it’s not. Just listen Sparkle. Just sit and listen for a time.”

By the Sky Stallion! Did I just break King Sombra? His muzzle, his eyes, even his ears are sagging. He looks tired. No, he looks exhausted. I consider saying something, but he goes on.

“I was born over thirteen hundred years ago.” He begins, well, somberly. “My parents were of unicorn peerage, and thus I was raised into luxury and decadence. I was an only child, and wanted for nothing."

It became apparent from a very early age that I was gifted with a great intellect. As other fillies and colts were playing with dolls and toy swords, I was constructing intricate and complex structures and towers in my parents garden.

I had a passion for symmetry. The more complex the better. I enlisted the aid of my maids to help gather all manner of materials to allow me to craft my creations. My maids you see, were my only companions. More parents than servants really, as my real parents only saw me during meals, or to occasionally check on my progress at mastering magic. By contrast, my maids encouraged me to follow my own desires whenever I could. Looking back I'm sure they must have felt sorry for me, but at the time I never noticed.

However these personal activities did not please my parents. I was a unicorn. My studies should be focused on my magic. For you see, during that period of history, a unicorn’s status was based on there magical aptitude. Unfortunately, although my intellect was near genius, my magical abilities were quite poor.

When it became apparent that my skills could not be improved, my parents shipped me away to live with my aunt and uncle in what is now called the Crystal Empire. It wouldn’t do, you see, for me to be a source of embarrassment for them. At the time, I felt hurt and angry that my parents would place status above their only child. But, as I was later to discover, it was that decision that led to the happiest time of my life.

In contrast to my parents, my new family proved to be both warm, and accepting. My uncle, a unicorn, had himself become a major embarrassment to the family when he decided to marry an earth pony. But my uncle, Piercing Glare, and my aunt, Autumn Breeze, were young, and in love, and the politics of society meant nothing to them. Shorty after their marriage, my uncle converted his share of the family holdings into bits, and he and my aunt left Canterlot. They planned to move as far away as they could go, and still be living in a civilized country.

Back in the days of my exile, the Crystal Empire was a loose collection of hamlets known as the Crystal Burroughs. I was given a tour by by uncle on our way to my new home. I recall being fascinated by what I saw. Earth ponies, pegasi, and the occasional unicorn, all living in the same community. The houses were all single story, made of stone, wood, and thatch. A few of the businesses were two story affairs made entirely of stone, but these were the tallest structures that could be seen.

My parents would have recoiled in horror at the very idea of being forced to actually live there. But whereas they would have been filled with disdain, I felt only curiosity, and a growing sense of wonder. For you see, despite their rural living conditions, despite their obvious lack of wealth, every pony I saw, without exception, were happy.

I passed ponies hauling huge loads on carts, selling wares in the hot sun, drawing water from wells, WELLS! And they were all smiling. They talked and laughed, foals played happily in the street. I saw joy. For the first time I saw joy, and I immediately wanted to be a part of this world.

We eventually arrived at my uncle’s home. It was a wood and stone structure, not grand or ornate in the least. There was a garden in the back, where, my uncle said, he grew wheat, corn, and beans to sell at the town market. To the right of this was a small orchard. This was my aunt’s. She grew apples, apples that were so dark red as to almost be black. She later told me that these were a variety that only grew in northern climes, and were highly sought after in the southern regions.

The interior of the house could best be described as… cozy. It had a small living room with a fireplace, a kitchen that merged with a dining nook, a bathroom, two bedrooms, and an attic. I was told that I would be sleeping in the attic, and they had already cleaned it out, and put in a bed and a wardrobe for my use.

The reason that I would not be using the other bedroom arrived a few moments later.

“Ma! Pa! You're home!” A voice yelled, throwing open the front door.

The voice belonged to the third member of the family, their daughter, Dawn Blossom. She was an earth pony, two summers older than me. Her mane and tail were auburn, tending toward brown, her coat was a pale tan, and her eyes were a deep rich green.

She was unlike any pony my age that I had ever met. She was loud, and brash. She always spoke her mind, and she was endlessly getting into all manner of trouble.  At first I shied away from her. I was quite intimidated you see. But she seemed not to notice my reticence. She didn't like calling me Sombra. She thought the name sounded morbid. Instead she began referring to me as Sparky, as my horn would tend to throw off sparks when I attempted to perform magic. This name, much to my chagrin, stuck. And soon that was how I was referred to wherever I went.”

“Sparky!” I couldn't help but to interrupt. “The most infamous unicorn in all of Equestria is called Sparky! Ha!”

“Shut up Sparkle!” Sombra says with obvious irritation. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Chrysalis trying to suppress a grin… and failing.

“As I was saying,” Sombra says levelly, resuming his tale.

Dawn was quite excited to have another pony in her age group living with us. We lived on a farm you see, and our next door neighbor was almost a mile away, and their children were already fully grown. So whether I liked it or not, I suddenly became her new best friend.

At first I found this to be both informative, and annoying. Like I said before, she was loud and brash, whereas I was reserved, almost shy, and I had learned my speech patterns in Canterlot, which she considered to be 'fancy talk', and would mimic me sarcastically if the mood struck her. But the information she provided me with was invaluable to me in helping me to learn the ways of my new world.

She showed me the proper way to do my chores, chores being something I never had before. She showed me how to care for our few chickens, and how to milk our cow, something that caused her no end of amusement to watch me attempt for the first time. And most importantly she was the one who introduced me to crystals.

It was on a dark cloudy day. We had both completed our daily chores, and as usual my aunt and uncle encouraged us to go and play. This was, upon later reflection, to keep us from being underhoof, as much as it was to allow them some quiet time together, away from the kids.

Dawn had drug me out past the fields to go exploring in the sparse patch of woods that bordered our property to the north. It wasn't long however, before the aforementioned clouds began to produce torrents of rain down upon us. The trees around us provided scarce protection, being the fall and most of the leaves had already fallen. But Dawn said that she knew of a place nearby, and we galloped their as fast as we could.

The place she had referred to turned out to be a cave. It was pitch black inside, but producing light was something even I, despite my meager magical skills, could still manage without difficulty.

Dawn told me that although she knew about this cave, that she never really explored it because of the lack of light. She told me that after the 'chicken incident' that here parents would no longer let her anywhere near a torch. She suggested that now that I was here, and since we were stuck here until the rain ended, that we should go in and see what we could discover. I knew from previous experience that even if I disagreed, that Dawn would eventually get her way, so I reluctantly said yes.

Increasing the light as much as I was able without straining myself, we proceeded into the dark depths before us. For the most part, I found our immediate surroundings to be a disappointment. There was dirt, fungus, and the occasional bat hanging from the ceiling, or crevices in the walls. However that disappointment was soon to vanish as we made our way deeper inside.

After a few minutes the cave floor began to slope downward. Slowly at first, but then the angle began to become steeper, and steeper. It also to began to curve to the right, giving the effect that we were trotting down a long spiral staircase. Just as I was considering asking Dawn for a rest, we rounded yet another curve, and the cave opened up into a vast cavern. 

The sight that met my eyes was breathtaking! I was in the entrance to a huge underground cavern. Mighty stalactites hung from the ceiling like the teeth from some monstrous beast. Stalagmites jutted of from the floor, sparkling with dripping water. Their was a stream feeding in from one side of the cavern pooling into a small lake near the center, before continuing out the other side to be lost in the distance. There was vegetation here. Mosses, ferns, and strange mushrooms, nearly as large as ourselves, in odd, unique colors that I had never seen before. But the most beautiful beautiful thing to be seen by far was the crystals!

They were everywhere! They reflected the light from my horn into dazzling patterns all around the cavern. I stood rock still. Thunderstruck by the beauty of what I was seeing. Dawn stood beside me, silent for the first time since I had met her. Her mind reeling at the sight that met our eyes. It was a magical moment. Something that was shared by only we two. Unconsciously, we had both reached out our hooves, and were holding each other tightly. Reaffirming by touch, that yes, this was real, and yes, we were both sharing this experience together. I have no idea how long we stood that way. Minutes? Hours? It was like an eternity of wonder. A wonder that neither of us wanted to end. So there we stood, basking in awe.

From that day forward, that cavern became 'our place'. And we would go there whenever we could. I quickly became enamored, obsessed even with the large crystals growing there. Here was natural symmetry, beautiful columns of order bursting forth from every surface. I found them to be captivating.

I poured through any books the town possessed on local geology, and sent away by post for books on crystallography. I focused my vast intellect on learning everything I could about them. I learned how crystals were formed, what caused them to grow, what gave them there structure and shape, and various other fascinating details about there formation. These details applied to almost all types of crystals, and I remember wishing that I had begun my study of them sooner. However, I soon found out that the crystals in this particular area had several properties that were completely unique. This discovery was made quite by accident.

I was in the cavern after finishing my daily chores as usual, I had brought with me a lantern which I had attached to a pole to provide light, so that I would not be distracted by my constant us of magic for illumination. Dawn had apparently decided to sneak up behind me and give me a scare. However, as she approached me from behind, before she entered the cone of light provided by my lantern, the crystals nearest her began to glow. I turned around to see what was glowing behind me and caught her redhoofed, preparing to pounce. She immediately became embarrassed, but as she did so, the glow from the crystals around her began to change color. They responded to emotion! Strong emotions in particular.

This led me into an entirely new and unexplored field of study. None of the books that I had read had even hinted at such a thing. These crystals must have been unique. I spent months conducting experiments, taking notes, and testing hypothesis. Inevitably I had to explain to my aunt and uncle where I had been spending all of my time, and what I had been doing.

When I showed them my notes, they were at first surprised, and then elated. No one in the Crystal Burroughs had any idea just how unique and fascinating the crystals in their area actually were. My uncle told me that he knew a professor in Canterlot that used to be one of his old school chums. He said that if I prepared a paper on all of my findings that he was sure that his friend would publish it, and my name would soon be in all the scientific journals.

It had never even occurred to me that after all of the contempt my parents had for me, that I could ever become famous, but with the support of my new family, I quickly agreed to their proposal. And that was how, two weeks later, I found myself on a train returning to Canterlot. 

Unfortunately, I never arrived.

Sombra’s final words were bitter, and filled with regret. I was about to ask what happened, but he quickly filled me in.

“It all began innocently enough. I remember I was in the dining car, pouring over my notes while sipping coffee. I was deeply in thought, then a voice from behind me broke my concentration.

“Excuse me. I couldn’t help reading over your shoulder, are you a scientist?”

“I turned around in my seat. The voice belonged to an earth pony who was siting in the booth behind me. He had a gray coat with a brown mane and his eyes were bright and curious.”

“A scientist? Sorry no, I’m just a researcher, why do you ask?”

“Really? A fellow researcher? What a marvelous coincidence! My name is Distant Cordilleran, It’s a pleasure to me you.”

“Spar- Uhm, Sombra, and the pleasure is mine. You say you are also a researcher? What do you study?”

“I’m glad you asked. My field of research is chaos theory. You see chaos theory is a method of analysis to investigate the behavior of dynamic systems that cannot be explained and predicted by single data relationships.”

“I- I’m not quite sure I follow you.”

“Well you see, a chaotic system may have sequences of values for the evolving variable that exactly repeat themselves. However, such periodic sequences are repelling rather than attracting, meaning that if the evolving variable is outside the sequence, however close, it will not enter the sequence and in fact, will diverge from it. Thus, with the initial conditions altered, the variable evolves chaotically with non-periodic behavior.”

“I think I understand. You are saying that a pattern will repeat in an orderly fashion, but even the most minuscule difference, such as an influence from outside they system, can cause extreme divergences.” 

“Exactly!” He says excitedly. “You have no idea how refreshing it is to converse on an intellectual level with somepony that understands what I’m talking about!”

“It was this meeting, that instigated the chain of events that led to all of us being here today.” Sombra declared.

“He and I began chatting long into the night, taking turns discussing our theories on order and chaos. Although our researches were in completely opposite fields, we were each fascinated by what the other had to say.

He told me that he was on his way to the Everfree forest, surely one of the most naturally occurring chaotic ecosystems on the planet, to observe it’s biological divergences. Since it was on the way to Canterlot, he asked me if I would accompany him on a brief expedition. I would only add a few days to my trip he said.

Being reluctant to part so soon with my newfound colleague, I agreed to his proposal. I wasn’t on a timetable, and a few extra days could do no harm. Also, I must admit to a mild curiosity in regards to my friend, and his research. Although chaos was the bane of symmetry and order, my new friend spoke about it with sure passion and zeal. It couldn’t hurt just to observe what he found so fascinating about it.

A few days later we arrived at the nearest train station to the Everfree. We hiked three days until we were finally at it’s borders. 

I had never seen anything like it. 

Everything before me was wildly chaotic, the plants, the animals, even the weather. It was a wild and random place, that I immediately found repellent. My companion on the other hoof was overjoyed.

He quickly found a worn and slightly overgrown path, and began leading me inside. I was quite hesitant to enter such a strange environment, but my friend seemed totally at ease, almost as if he was familiar with our surroundings. Deeper and deeper he led me into this strange place, until finally, after what seemed like hours we emerged into a somewhat large clearing.

At first I was relieved to have some space between me and the oppressive vegetation. But my relief quickly turned to horror at what was before me. All along the edge of the clearing were what appeared to be cocoons made of dark vines. Every one of them were split open from the inside. And sprawled out before each was the corpse of somepony, in various states of decay. Some were putrid, some were only bones, one recently deceased being seemed to be staring right at me with a glassy eyed, yet accusatory glare.

I was shocked. Repulsion and nausea started to overtake me, but the true horror was what stood before me in the center of the clearing. My friend was smiling at me. His face contorted with almost glee. As I watched, his smile grew wider and wider, impossibly wide. His jaw began to split at the sides as his hideous grin continued to grow. What I was seeing was impossible. His smile grew larger and larger, until his body was completely obscured. Then his horrible mouth opened, and from the inside emerged a creature of nightmare.

His head was vaguely pony-like. He has a deer antler on the right side of it, a blue goat horn on the left, his muzzle had one long fang, his eyes had different-sized red pupils set in yellow orbs. He had a snake tongue, a goat beard, and white bushy eyebrows. He had the right arm of a lion, the left claw of an eagle, the right leg of a lizard, and the left leg of a goat. In addition, he has a bat's right wing, a pegasi’s left wing, a pony’s mane, and a dragon-like snake's tail with a white tail tuft. The shape of his overall body resembled that of a snake. As he stepped forth, the enormous mouth vanished, and only this figured remained.

“Ahhh! It’s so good to be back to normal. Honestly, I just DON’T see how you ponies can enjoy being inside such a restrictive shell.” 

The being’s voice seemed to almost sound jovial. He stretched and contorted himself before finally addressing me directly. 

“Now you,” he said pointing a ruler at me, that had somehow appeared from nowhere, along with a teachers attire, “have been a very naughty boy!”

My notes somehow appeared in his claw. “Look at you, about to go spreading this filth throughout Equestria,” he said as my precious notes burst into flame. “Crystals? Symmetry? Order? Oh, you poor misguided fool! My dear Sombra, order is not your friend. Order is stagnation and death! What you see around you? That is life! Beautiful chaotic life. Ever changing, ever growing, fighting ceaselessly against the evil of order and stillness.

But fear not, it’s not to late for you to find your way! There’s still hope for you to become one with the chaos around you.” His garb changed to that of a religious leader. “Yea, I say unto you, it is not too late to see the light! The truth is before you! And the truth shall hold you captive!”

“I-isn’t it, the truth shall set you free?” I stammered.

“Nope!” He replied.

Suddenly more of those thick black vines slithered out of the undergrowth. Before I could react, I was encased inside of a shell of them, just like all the others I had seen. Was I going to die... like them?

“Now little one. Let’s see if we can fix you. Although it is unlikely that a pony such as yourself could manage to evolve into one of my kind, it’s still worth a shot. And even if you don’t, I’m curious to see what emerges this time. So for now, goodbye, I’ll be back after your looks have improved.”

“After he spoke those words, the voice was gone. I could neither see nor hear anything else. I was in darkness. I was about to create light with my magic, and try to find a way out of my confinement, but before I could do so, I felt something move along the side of my head.

It was a tendril of vine, or at least I thought so. It was slithering up my neck, and then it began to burrow its way into my ear. I struggled in vain to free a hoof, to try and rip it off me, but I was held fast. I could feel it making its way deeper inside me. It was a sickening sensation. I felt it pierce through my ear canal and into my skull, it was burrowing into my very brain! Then something happened. 

It was like a voice speaking to me in my mind. I began to see images as the voice whispered to me. It showed me things, secrets, knowledge beyond what I have ever known. And all the while the voice whispered seductively, expounding the virtue of chaos over all else. This was my purpose, this was the reason I existed, this was the one true calling in my life. Foster the chaos, let it grow, spread its love over the entire world. Destroy the bastions of order, of anti-life, free the world from its bonds!

I could not be more repulsed. For all the new knowledge that I was gaining, I despised it for the taint that came with it. I could feel that it was more than my mind that was being attacked. The very cells in my body were being changed against my will. It was the ultimate form of rape, and I couldn’t even scream out in protest.

I was sure that this mental attack was meant to break my spirit. To cause me to willingly give up, and accept what was happening to me. But I refused! Deep down in the depths of my mind, I refused to give up. I filled my mind with thoughts of order and symmetry. I focused on the beauty of a perfect crystal. Flawless and untainted by chaos. I ignored what was happening to my body, and focused on trying to keep my mind untainted.

Time passed. How long was I in there? Days? Weeks? Months? I had no way of knowing. All I knew was that at some point it all ended. The images faded, and the whispers stopped. The vines that had been holding me tight had loosened. My limbs were in agony from misuse, but I somehow clawed my way through the now unresisting vines and into daylight.

Dawn most have just broke. The light was feeble as it slowly poured over the vegetation like molten gold. To me it was blindingly bright, and I blinked the tears from my eyes as my vision adjusted. I weakly pulled my self out of that sickening cocoon, and all but dragged myself to the center of the clearing, fearful that those hideous vines might change there mind and try to drag me back in.

Suddenly, I heard a buzzing sound in the air. Then from over the tops of the trees, I saw her for the first time. It was Chrysalis, flanked by several of her hive. She landed in the clearing. Her drones took defensive positions around the edge, and she approached me, he face contorted with disdain.”

“Allow me Sombra,” Chrysalis interrupted. “This part should be told from my perspective.”

Sombra nodded in agreement, as Chrysalis begins.

“I knew what was happening from the moment my sentries reported seeing two ponies enter the Everfree. I had drones posted all around the perimeter for this very purpose. Discord was hunting you see. He was trying to find a being that he could work his dark arts upon, a being that he could remake into one such as himself. It’s the way his kind reproduce.

When they saw two random ponies enter, I knew that one of them must be Discord, and the other another one of his victims. I knew better than to confront Discord himself, but his potential offspring? That was another matter. I myself arrived several days later, and began my vigil. I knew from past experience that there was no set time for the occupant to emerge. I also knew that simply trying to destroy the cocoon beforehoof would alert Discord that it was being attacked. I had been caught attempting that once before, and was discorperated.”

“Dis- what?” I said.

“Quiet Sparkle, that will be explained later,” Sombra barked.

“As I was saying, I kept my vigil, leaving only long enough to feed and return. As fate would have it I was returning shortly after dawn to see that Discord’s most recent victim had struggled his way out of his birthing pod.

I smiled to myself. Although I knew there was no way for me to kill Discord himself, his newly hatched chicks were still vulnerable, still able to be slain for a time. My drones and I landed, and I approached him. What I saw before me was… unexpected. He was a dark gray unicorn with a black spiky mane and tail. His horn was curved, smooth, and sharp at the tip and it gradients from dark gray to red. He had sharp teeth with two visible fangs unlike other ponies that I had seen, and red-green irises, which had a purple mist emanating from them. He looked far more normal than any other chick that I had encountered. He looked shocked and confused, just like all the rest, but I decided that this time I would have a better look at him before I slew him.

I bound him with my magic, and though I am loathe to use the powers granted to me by that foul draconiquues, I peered deeply into the mind of his latest creation. To say I was surprised at what I found was an understatement. Despite the change that had been wrought upon this pony’s body, his mind, for the most part, remained clear. I saw order inside him, like silver, shining in a dark river. So very much order, encased in a shell of chaos. I was taken aback. None of Discord’s attempts had been successful, but this was a failure beyond all reason. A body of chaos, with a mind mostly of order. I was stunned.

I made a spur of the moment decision.

“What name do you go by?”

“S-Sombra,” he replied weakly.

“I am Queen Chrysalis. Listen to me Sombra. Any time now the being that imprisoned you here will return to check on you. I can protect you and take you someplace safe, but you will have to do exactly as I say.”

“I- yes, yes, please get me out of here.”

“Good. Now I’m going to place a necklace around your neck this will hide your presence from him, but it will make you feel incredibly weak for as long as you wear it. Just endure it for now, and I’ll see about something better later. My drones will carry you back to my hive. Discord’s power will not work there.”

He agreed, and I placed the necklace around his neck. His reaction was immediate. He went limp in my arms, and instantly passed out. This was because the necklace I had placed around his neck was made from Orchilium, the same substance that my throne was carved from. It had the power to absorb all magics other than the one it was attuned to, making it the perfect defense for my hive. This necklace I put around him is what I used on all of Discord’s chicks to weaken them enough for my to kill them. This was the first and only time I had ever used it to save somepony.

We quickly made our way back to my hive. I could only image the rage that Discord must feel at the loss of yet another one of his children. I confess the thought of it gave me much joy. I removed the necklace once we had returned. The Orchilium in my throne would still prevent the use of his magic, but unless he was in direct contact with it, he would still be able to function. This would later prove to be a flaw in my design. My throne was primarily designed to protect the hive from Discord. Non chaotic creatures would lose their magic, but were still able to touch it. If I had designed it otherwise, Starlight Glimmer would have collapsed upon contact with it, and I might still have my hive to this day.”

“It does you no good to dwell on past mistakes,” Sombra said, almost gently. “This pony and her companions have been manipulated, almost from the start. But now, at last, we may have a chance at fighting back.”

Sombra resumed his tale.

“I awoke inside a vast open space. A network of tunnels wound their way up and around multiple layers. Thousands of smaller versions of Chrysalis were busy about their tasks. One of these drones saw me awaken, and beckoned me to follow it. It led me into what could only be called a throne room, and upon that throne sat Queen Chrysalis.

She motioned for me to approach, and offered me a place to sit. One of her drones brought me a crude cup carved from stone, filled to the brim with nectar. I took a small sip, and found it to be delicious. I eagerly drank the rest, and as the drone refilled my cup, the queen began to question me.

We spoke for many hours, I told her everything, who I was, where I came from, my research, and the strange being that I met on the train. In turn she explained who she was, the reason for her hatred of Discord, and why she slew his offspring on sight. She then told me that I was different from all the others. I still had my mind mostly intact. She said that in the coming days that she would show me how to use my newfound abilities, but cautioned me that overuse would cause the chaos to spread further in my mind. This frightened me greatly. It already seemed that I could almost hear a whisper at the edge of my hearing. Later I would discover that what I was hearing was the ROT as it broke down everything around me.

I stayed with Chrysalis for many days. She taught me what she could about my new state of being, but told me that each transformation was unique, and that I would probably discover other abilities in time. She also told me to be careful. It would take me nearly a year to fully ‘harden’. And in that time I could still be killed.

I asked her what she meant by ‘harden’. She told me that I was like a crab, that had just molted from my old shell. During this time my body was still adjusting to it’s new state of being. Once completed however, I would be impossible to destroy. I would become a true immortal.

I nearly dropped my cup from shock. Me? An immortal being? Like Celestia and Luna? She saw my surprised and laughed. Yes, she told me. You are cursed now and forever. Your body may become discorperated, but it will eventually always reform. One day, all futures will be laid bare before you. My head reeled at the thought, but this revelation was nothing compared to what came next.

She descended her throne and approached me. I rose, and she held up a small silver key. She turned and held forth the key, and before us a door suddenly appeared. It was a large wooden door, bound in dark iron. There was a symbol on the frame above it. It was a curious symbol, vaguely pony-like.

“Remember this symbol. Etch it into your mind. Because without it you will be lost forever.” She said solemnly. 

I stared at the symbol until I was confident that I wouldn't forget it. Then she opened the door and we stepped through.

“Welcome, she said, “to the Endless Road.”

“Words cannot properly describe what I saw then. I stepped from the doorway onto a vast flat road. The section I was on was made of cobblestone, but I could see further on it changed to stone, then dirt, then to some substance that was jet black. I turned and looked in the opposite direction. Sections of the road were made of glass, metal, and then what appeared to be gold. But despite the road itself, what was even more mind boggling were the doors. Along both side of the road, stretching for as far as the eye could see were doors. And endless amount of doors, each uniquely different from the last. Each with it’s own symbol above it.”

“This is the Endless Road.” Chryslais said from behind me. “Before you stretches gateways to all of the  worlds, in all realities. All the knowledge in all of existence can be found here.” 

She placed the key in my hoof. The moment she lost contact with it, it began to sink into my flesh to eventually disappear.

“Do not worry, this key is now yours, it has bonded itself to you. You can summon it forth at will, and use it to summon a door that leads to this place. All immortals find there way here eventually. Some become lost, unable to find the door that leads back to their world. Some seek refugee in another world. Some travel forever, for the sheer joy of discovery. I come here from time to time, exploring other worlds, other realities, hoping to someday find the tools I need to destroy Discord once and for all. The Orchilium that I use came from another world, one that I discovered out there. I give you this key in the hopes that you too, one day, will aid me in my quest. I have to believe it. You possess far to much order to ever become allies with that foul creature.”

I stood in the doorway for a time. Thinking about what she said. Gazing into eternity, considering all of the knowledge that I could gain, and knowing that I now had an eternity to do so. After awhile I turned and spoke to her.   

“I want to go home.” I said simply.

“So be it.” She said, and so we passed back through the door into Equestria. 

I spent my last few days in the hive refining my control over my new powers. When it was time for me to depart, Chrysalis gifted me with one final thing. A necklace made with a tiny sliver of Orchilium. She had attuned it to my particular magical signature. It wouldn’t harm me to wear it, and it would mask me from Discord’s senses. However it wasn’t powerful enough to protect me, and she cautioned me that any excessive use of my chaotic abilities would certainly be noticed by him.

“My drones will fly you to the edge of the nearest pony settlement. You can make your way home from there.” She said.

“I can never repay all that you have done for me. You saved my life, and have given me so much.”

“You may think that is the case.” She said evenly. “But this was no act of charity. Rather, I see it as an investment in the future. At some point you and Discord will clash against each other. It is inevitable. You remain too orderly. And now you are powerful. Yes, you and he will battle, and you will lose. And after you do so, remember me. Foster your hatred for him, and remember me. When you decide to fight. I will be your ally.”

I thanked her once more, and two of her drones lifted me up and began flying me toward the nearest town. My unspoken thoughts however were that her ‘investment’ would never bear fruit. All I wanted to do was to make my way back to the farm. To live a quiet and peaceful life, and to avoid all contact with Discord. My researches I would keep to myself. I had no intention of doing anything to draw his attention back to me.

Eventually the drones landed at the outskirts of a modest town. I thanked them and they flew off. I used my magic to disguise myself as a regular unicorn, and made my way to the local train station. Loathe as I was to do so, I didn’t have a bit to my name, so I was forced to use mesmerism on the conductor to purchase a ticket. I promised myself to mail him the bits once I returned home.

The ride back to the farm seemed to be the longest of my life, and I had plenty of time to make some difficult decisions. I felt that I could not deceive my aunt and uncle. They should know the truth about what happened to me. But I could not let any pony else know. Word would spread, and it was possible that it would eventually reach Discord. I couldn’t risk that. It would be a small matter to disguise myself as my old pony form while I was out in the public eye. Yes, this is what I would do.

The ride back took several more days. I spent them deep in thought. When the train arrived at the station to the Crystal Burroughs I had been napping in my seat. This was the reason that I was so shocked at what I saw.

It was early June. I knew that it was from my time in the town where I got my train ticket. But as I exited the train all I saw was a thick blanket of snow. This made no sense. Had the pegasi controlling the weather lost their minds? Farmers depend on planting their crops just after the last frost to maximize their growing season. It can be a tricky thing, because if they guess wrong and there is a late freeze, all of their crops will die. That’s why earth ponies coordinate their planting season with the pegasi to be able to maximize their crop yield.

But snow in June? Normally the crops would have been planted in late April. Ponies could end up starving by next winter. What were they thinking?

I changed my appearance back to my former self, and quickly made my way to my uncle’s farm. Needless to say, my sudden appearance was quite a shock. I had been missing for months. The professor that I was supposed to meet, had told them that I had never arrived. No pony knew what had happened to me after I had boarded the train, and eventually the searchers gave up. I had vanished off the face of Equestria.

Explaining what had happened took some time. I told them everything, holding nothing back. I could tell that they had trouble believing all that I had said. Discord? The queen of the changelings? It was all too fantastic. But at last I revieled to them my new form. Dropping my disguise, I stood before them. My aunt dropped her glass. Dawn gasped beside her, and my uncles eyes went wide. I had tried to steel myself for this. Prepare myself for rejection and disgust at what had become of me. Then my uncle began to laugh. 

He laughed and laughed, loud and long. He laughed so hard that tears formed at the corners of his eyes. We looked at him like he had lost his mind. Finally his laughter slowed enough for him to speak.

“C-can you imagine,” he stammered. “Can you imagine the look on your parents faces? Bwaahahaa! T-they sent you away because you were weak, and now you are the most powerful unicorn in Equestria! They could have had the status of royalty! But the pompous bastards sent you away! They would be seething in rage if they knew! Bwaahahaaaa!”

It was true. To them status was everything. They would have exploited my new powers to rise to the upper ranks of unicorn society. Not caring one wit about me, or my own desires. I would have been just an asset. Oh how they would rage if they knew! Uncle’s laughter became infectious, and in moments I was braying along beside him. This was the first time I had laughed since I left here so long ago. It felt good. It felt like I was finally home, and that everything was going to be all right.

Over dinner that evening we discussed what needed to be done. We needed to come up with an excuse for what happened to me, since everyone in the Crystal Burroughs knew by now of my disappearance. I was amendment that we could not let any pony else know the truth. I didn’t want to risk word finding it’s way back to Discord somehow. We decided that the simplest solution was to say that I had indeed arrived in Canterlot, but that I had been delayed, and that was why the professor sent word that I had never arrived. And after that for some reason we had never received any further correspondence. This was somewhat believable, the postal system of that time was notoriously unreliable. Ponies would sometimes receive mail that was sent months before, if at all. My uncle said he would send word to his friend that I had been found and was fine, but would not be able to make the trip to Canterlot any time soon.

Our story being decided, our discussion then turned toward the weather. My aunt and uncle couldn’t explain it. Neither could the pegasi. According to them the snows were blowing in from the north, and nothing the pegasi did could affect it. It was immune to their magic. They said that the only time they ever heard of anything like it was the weather over the Everfree Forrest.

I shuddered at the memory of that place. So wild and chaotic, it filled me with revulsion. Wait, chaotic? Was it possible that Discord had done this? It made sense in a way. What if he didn’t want to risk somepony else researching into the crystals that grew in this area? The easiest way to do so would be to render this area uninhabitable.

The more that I thought about it, the more it made sense to me. This Discord obviously didn’t care about the ponies living here. If a few of them starved to death, and the rest were forced to abandon the only home they ever had, what was it to him? I began to get angry. My family looked at me startled. 

“What?” I asked.

“You’re eyes are smoldering,” Dawn replied.

“Oh! S-sorry!” I said, the shock bringing me out of my thoughts, and causing the purple glow to fade.

We finished dinner, and I told them that I was going to bed early, that I had had a long trip back and was feeling very tired. They told me that they understood, and my aunt gave me a warm hug, telling me how good it was to have me home.

I made my way up to the attic. Finally alone with my thoughts, I considered what to do next. I had power now. I was unnaturally strong, had vast reserves of magic, and my body was now resistant to most forms of damage. But I had to be careful. Chrysalis had warned me that using too much chaos magic would affect my mind. And I didn’t want to run the risk of letting Discord know where I was. On the other hoof, I didn’t want my family to starve, or be forced to move away. I knew most of the townsponies by now. They were all good people. Was there a way that I could help them with my powers? Could I take that risk?

I thought about these things for hours. I was already of near genius intellect before my transformation, add to that all the knowledge I gained from learning the nature of the universe, of chaos and order… Wait! That was it! I had an idea. A very ‘orderly’ idea.

The next morning I told my family that I had thought of a way to get rid of the snow. I told them I was going to be gone for a couple of weeks, but not to worry. That I was just planning to hike around the borders of the Crystal Burroughs. I told them that if my idea worked then everypony should still be able to get there crops planted, even if it was late in the season.

My aunt and uncle seemed skeptical, but they agreed. Dawn however insisted that she was going to come along.

“You just came back. You were missing for months! Do you have any idea how worried my parents were? I’m not going to let you out of my sight!”

I knew that trying to talk her out of it would do me no good. I looked to my aunt and uncle, expecting them to tell her no. Instead my aunt said that she would pack her a roughsack full of dried apples for the trip, and my uncle said that she could borrow his warmest coat. Apparently they felt the same way about letting me go alone.

We left after breakfast. The sky was a dark gray, and snow was already falling. My plan was to make our way to the outer edges of the furthest farmstead, and make a complete circuit of the entire Burroughs. We hiked until twilight. Dawn said that she would scout around for somewhere that we could take shelter in. I told her that there was no need. My horn flared, and using the tiniest amount of my power I grew the earth up around us into a cozy domed tent. I tried not to smirk, seeing her eyes go wide. She tried to play it off, saying that it was about time I learned how to be useful. But I could tell that she had been impressed. We gathered wood for a fire, and sat munching apples before we bedded down for the night.

The next morning we made our way to the edge of a steep hill that served as a marker to the southern edge of the Crystal Burroughs.  I told her to wait a moment, that I needed to find something. I sat down, and opened my senses to the world around me. At once decay entered my nostrils, the cycle of nature, rot turning order into chaos, then new ordering springing forth from rot. I could hear that whisper, just at the edge of my consciousness. I ignored it, and cast my senses into the ground below us. It was only a matter of moments before I located what I was looking for, and I then began to coax it upwards to where we were.

In a matter of minutes a huge crystal pushed it’s way out of the ground, standing like a pillar before us. It sparkled beautifully in the weak sunlight. This crystal was the same as the ones we had discovered in that cavern in what seemed like years ago. However my understanding of it’s nature had grown tenfold. A slight spark with my horn, and it chimed loudly in resonance. I smiled toward Dawn, and explained to her my plan.

I was going to go around the entire edge of the Burroughs, raising these crystals, tuning each one to myself, and through me to every pony else. These crystals reacted to emotions. That would be their power source. And once fully powered I could use them to project an invisible barrier around the entire Burroughs, keeping out the wild magics, and letting the pegasi fix our weather.

“Well now, color me impressed Sparky! Ain’t you went and become all grown up an strong!” She said. “I reckon I need ta tell mom ta start giving you more chores when we get back.”

I groaned. She would too. This is the thanks I get for saving the day? It figures.

We spent the next week hiking steadily northwards. I raised pillars of crystal, Dawn foraged for firewood and food to give us something to eat beside apples. At night I made us a shelter. This was our daily routine, but one night everything changed.

We had just finished eating, and I had built up the fire for the night. Dawn got up to go and do her ‘nightly business’ before bed. I was laying down, and had just closed my eyes, when I heard the scream. I sat bolt upright. Never in my life had I heard Dawn scream before, but I knew that it was her.

I dashed from my bed yelling her name, but she did not reply. I made a light with my horn, and began following her hoofprints in the snow. They led around a copse of nearby trees. But then the tracks became all chaotic. There were new prints here. Whatever it was it had toes instead of hooves, and there was blood, blood splayed everywhere!

I called out her name once more, over and over, but the forest was silent. I quickly began following the new tracks, this beast moved with loping strides. It was running, and it must be carrying Dawn. I could see blood drops mixed in with the tracks, staining the snow a pinkish red as they melted.

I ran faster and faster, my new body nearly flew across the snow covered ground. The tracks ended at the entrance to a cave. The darkness inside, that was not affected by the moonlight, was absolute. Suddenly a large pair of green eyes flickered open, catching the moonlight as they approached from the caves mouth. I had no idea what coming towards me. It was huge, covered in white fur. It had hands and feet like a simian, and was crouched down on all fours. I had barely time to react as it roared a challenge at me.

I was afraid. This wasn’t a creature that could be reasoned with. It had already attacked Dawn, she must be inside, hurt, or maybe worse. This thing stood in my way, roaring at me, striking the snow with its hands, steam rising from it’s back. Mesmerism wouldn’t work, I could never get close enough before being ripped apart. I needed a weapon.

Not taking my eyes of the beast, I cast my senses around, looking for rocks that I could fling at it with my magic. As my gaze passed over the beast, I could see it in it’s entirety, inside and out. I saw it’s order, and I saw the Rot steadily eating away at it as it does with all living things. Wait, could that be what I need?

I reached out with my powers, almost instinctively. I took hold of the Rot in one of its arms, and tried to speed it up. The reaction was immediate. Before my very eyes, the creatures arm withered and rotted off. It’s scream nearly deafened me. I felt a wave of nausea pass through me. Some kind of backlash at what I had done.

I wasn’t given any time to consider it however, because the beast began charging toward me, it’s jaws wide and frothing. Again I reached out, this time I didn’t just aim for it’s limbs, I accelerated the Rot throughout its entire body.

Abruptly it’s screams cut off as it collapsed into dust at my hooves. Then the backlash hit me. A hundred times worse than before. It felt like my insides were being ripped apart by blades and my head exploded in pain. Weakly I plodded forward as the pain began to slowly recede. By the Sky Stallion! That was something I never wanted to have to do again. My head still throbbed, and I could swear that the whisper at the edge of my senses had grown louder.

I found Dawn at the back of the cave, inside a crude nest made of twigs and sticks. She was sobbing quietly. She turned to face me as the weak light that I created shone down upon her. As she turned, I saw the source of the blood. The creature had gashed the right side of her face. Four long furrows cut deep from her ear to her muzzle, narrowly avoiding her eye. Her pain must be terrible.

There was nothing nearby to make a bandage, and I knew nothing at all about healing magic. I told her that the beast was slain, and that she should rest while I went back to camp for something to bind her wounds. She refused. She said that she didn’t want to spend another moment in this cave. I understood how she felt. This had been a nightmare that we both wanted to get away from as soon as we could.

The side effects of using the Rot had receded enough that I was able to use my magic to levitate her onto my back. She told me that she could walk, but for once I was having none of it. I didn’t want anything to make her blood pump any harder out of her wounded face. My new body was strong and powerful. I told her that she was light as a feather on my back. Together we made our way back to camp as quickly as possible.

My aunt had given us biscuits as well as apples that she had wrapped in a linen cloth in our pack. I took out the cloth, and using melted snow, washed it as best I could. I then tore it into strips, and, still wet, began wrapping them around her wounds. She smiled at me weakly, and told me that she needed to lay down for a bit. Before sleep overcame her I heard her say ‘thank you Sparky’.

I sat down exhausted before the fire. Everything had happened so fast. Dawn, her wounds, that creature. I later found out that what I killed was known as a yeti. Apparently the snows had increased their hunting range, and this one had begun nesting closer to our settlement. At the time though, what was going through my mind was that I had killed it.

I had never taken the life of something before. Not even killing ants with magic, like other colts would do. I thought about what I had done. Did I have any other choice? No, I decided. It was the only way for Dawn and I to survive. I didn’t like it. In fact I hated myself for doing it, but if it meant saving Dawn, if it meant saving myself and the Crystal Burroughs, then I knew that I would do it again.

This thought didn’t sit well with me. Chrysalis had said that my mind was ‘mostly’ filled with order. Had the transformation altered my way of thinking? Would there even be any way for me to know? Hmm, perhaps there was. I opened my senses once more. This time I used them to examine my new form. I shuddered at all of the chaos within my new body, but I quickly focused on my own brain. Other than small roots of chaos digging into the outer edges, my brain seemed to be free from taint. But I needed to compare it to another to be sure. I cast my senses into Dawn’s sleeping form. Her brain seemed to be made the same as mine. Different wrinkles, but overall the same. Good. My mind was still my own.

While I was looking, I cast my senses across her body. The rips across her face appeared as an angry red to my inner eye. Also, there was a white area tinged in red attached to the inside of her stomach. A patch of cells there were growing chaotically. I could tell that if they remained unchecked that they would grow and grow until they filled her entire stomach. She could die!

I stared at the chaotic mass, and a memory stirred within me. It was something that the disguised Discord had said to me on the train. ‘If the evolving variable is outside the sequence, however close, it will not enter the sequence and in fact, will diverge from it. Thus, with the initial conditions altered, the variable evolves chaotically with non-periodic behavior.’ That was what was happening. Something had caused the cells instructions to change, and they were growing out of control.

Could I do anything about it? Hmm. If I copied the instructions of the healthy cells around it and overwrote the instructions of the bad cells, would that fix it? At worse I could use the Rot again, but the idea of doing so inside Dawn’s body made me shudder. I decided to try my idea. I overwrote the code of the cell mass, and sure enough in a matter of moments I could see that the instructions had changed. Wild cell growth had stopped! As long as these instructions held, eventually the overgrown cells would atrophy and die, leaving her stomach as good as new. Fascinating!

I wonder, is that how healing magic worked? Could I do the same to the damage to her face? I turned my senses to her face once more. The damaged cells were working fervently to replace themselves using energy and giving off heat. The process however was slow, I could see that it was being regulated by the body, too much growth too fast would produce too much heat and would destroy the new cells as fast as they were being made. Also producing new cells took energy, and that energy came from the nearest red blood cells that were bringing nutrients up through the heart from her lower body. Her heart regulated the flow of these nutrients, and without them the cells would have no energy to reproduce.

Hmm…

What if I provided the energy directly to the cells in charge of reproduction? And while doing so siphoned off the heat with my magic, and directing it somewhere else? There was plenty of snow around us to dump it in. I decided it was worth testing out. I chose a small area of damage at the edge of her hairline next to her ear. I slowly increased the energy to the cells, and magically began transferring the excess heat into a nearby snow bank.

It was working! Cell growth began accelerating right before my eyes! I was healing her! I could do this!

It took me several hours to heal all the damage to her face. While I was at it, I went ahead and checked the rest of her body, healing old scars, and whatever else damage that I could find. By the time that I was done, the snowbank that I had been using was only a mere puddle of water. I stretched out all of my limbs exhausted, and was finally able to sleep.

“Wait, hold on! Are you saying that you taught yourself healing magic? In one night? It takes years of study for a unicorn to grasp the basics of healing! And you cured her cancer? How do you even know what cells are called?” I was incredulous. I had been an alicorn for years, and could still only barely perform minor healing.

“I only used modern pony terms to describe what I did Sparkle!” He retorted. “Of course I didn’t know what ‘cells’ or ‘cancer’ were at the time. All I saw inside her were ‘things’ and ‘other things’. Things that looked well, and things that did not. What I did was based on logic and instinct, nothing more”.

Logic and instinct? I couldn’t have done that! I would have been too afraid to try. As if reading my mind, Chrysalis spoke right next to my ear.

“Oh my! It seems Miss Sparkle may not have been as gifted and special as she believed herself to be, such a shame.”

“If I may continue?” Sombra says, his voice short and impatient.

“But of course,” Chrysalis purrs.

“The next morning after the break of dawn-”  

“You BROKE her?!? I KNEW that you couldn’t master healing magic in one night!”

“By the Sky Stallion Sparkle! If you can’t keep your chaos under control, the next thing I break will be YOU!”

“S-sorry. Please continue,” I said sheepishly. That remark had been petty, and we all knew it.

After SUNRISE… the following morning, Dawn AWOKE to a simple breakfast that I had prepared. I told her that she should be able to remove her bandages now. She was surprised that she she had awoken without pain, and when she raised a hoof to her face, her eyes widened. 

“I can’t feel it at all! Not even a scar! You HEALED me?!?”

I told her what I had done the night before. Explaining as best at could at what I saw, and what I did. She was stunned. She sat there, eating her meal lost in thought. After we had finished eating, we gathered our things, put out the fire, and continued with our quest. Things went well for the next to days, but on the third day, the light snow that had been falling, began to fall harder, and thicker. It was almost as if a miniature blizzard had come crashing down upon us.

There was no way that we could continue on through this. I dug us out a cave, down underground, where the earth was still warmer than the surface. I went out, and gathered as much firewood as I could, having to dig into the rapidly thickening snow to do so. I made a fire pit, and chimney to the surface to carry out the smoke, and cut fir branches, placing them around the top to keep the snow from falling into it.

The storm howled for days. I repeatedly had to go to the entrance, and blast away the snow to allow us access to the surface, and a source of fresh air. We ate as little as we could, not knowing how long we were going to be there. Casting modesty to the side, we huddled together for warmth, keeping our usage of firewood to a minimum. 

It was four more days before the storm finally ended. When we made our way to the surface, what we saw was an endless sea of snow. Everything was buried, all the way to the tops of the trees. All that was before us was a vast plain of smooth white. Even Dawn could tell that this storm had been unnatural. The snow was at least twenty ponies deep. There was no way that the Burroughs could survive these kinds of conditions! We had to finish our task quickly!

We continued along the route I had planned, hurrying as much as we could. I fashioned us crude skis out of tree limbs that I had dug out from the snow. Neither of us had ever skied before, but once standing upright, I used my magic to propel us across the snow. This worked out very well, and as we became accustomed to it, I began increasing our speed faster, and faster.

We were a blur, zooming across the glaring whiteness beneath us. Not having anything to collide with, I pushed us as hard as we could stand. The storms effects which had given us such a sense of urgency, turned out to be a boon, as we finished setting up the rest of the array in little over a week.

The snow was still falling when we returned home. My aunt and uncle came to join me outside, as I quickly activated the array. It took a moment to establish a link between all of the crystals. I had already attuned them to myself. The next step was to open my senses and locate all the ponies that were living inside the perimeter of the array. One by one I linked the crystals to everypony. It took me the better part of an hour to do so. Once completed, I sent a jolt of power into the crystals, to start everything into motion.

The effect was immediate. The storm had ceased. Indeed, the very clouds themselves had been repulsed by the barrier. Why? Was there something inside of them that had reacted to my order shield? This was further evidence that the weather might have been Discord’s doing. If the clouds had been infused with chaos, that would explain why they were repelled.

In any case, with the clouds gone, the sun shone down upon us all for the first time since my return. We basked in it’s warmth, and smiled at each other. Our home was safe. All around the Burroughs I imaged everypony else was doing the same thing. However, this ended up causing a frighteningly unintended consequence.

You see, because of my link, every pony was connected to the array, powering it with their emotions. All at once the array was flooded with positive emotions, as everypony reacted to the storms end. This sudden increase in power caused feedback, which surged back from the crystals to all the ponies it was linked to. Suddenly every single pony in the Burroughs, excepting myself, became crystallized!

“Wait! So YOU were responsible for creating the crystal ponies?” I interject.

“That is correct,” Sombra responds. “An accidental miscalculation on my part. The crystallization did them no physical harm thankfully. As for their mental state however...”

Everypony panicked. My family looked at me wordlessly, expecting an explanation. I was completely taken aback. I quickly opened my senses wide, examining them all the way down to a cellular level. Their transformation could only be described as… magical. All of their cells seemed fine. No, far better than fine! There was almost no cellular decomposition. The outer layers of their skin which appeared to be made of hardened crystal was actually just a projection of energy radiating out from their hair. The feedback from the crystal lattice was filling all the ponies with energy, and the excess was being discharged through the skin, the hairs on their bodies acting like tiny reverse lightning rods. I probed around inside. Rot and chaos inside their bodies were almost nonexistent. Other than the necessary amount needed to function as a biological machine, these ponies were completely orderly! I thought about this for a moment, and what it could mean. Lack of major cellular breakdown and decay, cells being optimized, these ponies, while not immortal, would all live for many, many lifetimes! They would always be healthy, free of disease, and, as a bonus, should be unaffected by Discord and his magics if he were to ever come looking for me. Eventually I would need to return to Chrysalis and inform her of this discovery. It was the least I could do for her for saving me from Discord.

My immediate concern however, was the panic stricken ponies all over the Burroughs. I told my family what had happened to them and why. They asked if they would go back to normal if I shut down the array. I told them most likely, but if I did, then the snows would immediately return. My uncle thought about this for a time. Finally he decided that since what had happened to them wasn’t harmful, and was actually beneficial, that it was worth the price of their new appearance to not be driven from their homes.

The next order of business was what to tell all the other ponies. I was still very reluctant to reveal myself. If I did so, I would have to tell them everything. I was sure that they would force me to leave, rather than risk garnering the attention of Discord.

My uncle came up with a solution. He said that he would tell everypony that he was the one that had did this. That he had used the research that I had been doing on the local crystals to find a way to stop the snows. And that what had happened was a byproduct of his protection spell.

I was worried that if my uncle did this that he would become hated by everypony in the Burroughs. My aunt however assured me that my uncle was well respected in the community. Not only had he been a pony of status when he arrived, but he was quick to befriend all of his neighbors, and offer help whenever he could. He wouldn’t be attacked out of hoof, they would all at least give him a chance to explain everything.

I reluctantly agreed. My uncle sent word for everypony to gather in what was then the town square. More of an open market really, but it was the best place to use. He told them the story that we had fabricated. As I thought, some ponies were enraged by what ‘he’ had done without being asked. However, the majority of everyone were calm. Many of them asked questions, and my uncle answered them as best he could. I had given him notes on everything I knew about what had happened, and how the array worked.

Once they understood what had been done, and what that meant for their new bodies, many of the ponies became elated! Perfect health? Longevity? AND their homes were saved? It seemed to good to be true! As for the ponies that were unhappy with the situation, my uncle told them that if the left the Burroughs they would return to normal. This would mean moving away, but if the barrier had not been put in place, they would have had to anyway. That or face starvation and a frozen death. They complained for awhile, but in the end, most of them stayed. I was later to find out, that letting any of them leave was a huge mistake.

Life settled down after that. After the last of the snows melted we were able to get our crops planted. The pegasi that lived in the Burroughs told us that they would do everything they could to extend the growing season for as long as possible. All the ponies in the Burroughs were all in perfect health now, and they were able to complete their preparations much faster than before.

Life became almost idyllic, everypony was strong and healthy, no more sickness or disease. For a time, it all seemed like a paradise to me. But all that came to an end in an instant.

It was late in the fall of the third year since I had built my array. Dawn was out in my aunt’s orchard picking apples. My aunt was in the kitchen making preserves for the winter. My uncle came in carrying a large box. He said that the postal pony had just delivered it to him. It was addressed to me, and had the name of his professor friend from Canterlot on it. 

I had been exchanging research notes with him since my return. I told him that I no longer wished to be published, but that I would allow him access to whatever discoveries that I made. I sent him samples of crystals, and he would occasionally send my samples of other crystals that he had found for my analysis. 

This box however was quite larger than any I had seen before. I unwrapped the outer packaging to discover an envelope on top of an inner box packed inside. The inner box had been encased in packing material to keep it’s contents from being damaged. The envelope was attached to the box with a piece of string, presumably to keep it from falling off and getting lost in the packing material.

The envelope was attached really well, and I had to eventually yank it free. When I did so I heard a faint ‘click’. I opened the envelope and read its contents.

“My dear Sombra,” it read, “I see that you are STILL being a very NAUGHTY boy! And when boys won’t stop being naughty, it’s their parents duty to punish them. Consider yourself SPANKED!”

My eyes went wide in terror. Discord! Discord had found me! I looked down at the box in front of me. Whatever was inside filled me with unspeakable dread. Hesitantly, I began to reach for it, my hoof trembling. Then, everything went white…

I never even heard the sound of the explosion. I was discorperated in an instant. My body reduced to ash, and my being dispersed across the countryside. This was the first time that this had ever happened to me. It took me two days to gather my essence together into an ethereal form. At first I was at the mercy of the winds, but gradually I was able to coalesce enough to direct my own movements.

I returned to where my home had been. There was nothing left but a blast crater. There were no signs of life. I hovered there, unable to scream, unable to cry. Wordlessly I wailed and screamed. I stayed that way all night. Just hovering there, not knowing what to do.

At daybreak the next morning, a sole pony made their way to the blast site. It was a female, and she was hobbling. I drifted closer. It was Dawn! She was alive! She made her way to the edge of the crater, knelt down, and placed three flowers on the edge. Tears were streaming down her face in the morning light as she stood up and looked out over where her home had been.

I couldn’t believe it! She was alive! She must have been far enough away that the blast hadn’t taken her. Even so, she was bandaged across her barrel and right leg, and her tail was in tatters.  I floated closer to her, moving in front of her. My form was still almost translucent, but she was able to make it out.

“S-Sombra?” She stammered incredulous. She reached out and tried to touch me, my form dispersing around her hoof. “Am I losing my mind?” 

I shook my head ‘no’. Trying to convey wordlessly that I was real.

“A-are you dead? Are you a ghost?”

I thought about this for a moment. I honestly didn’t know. I shrugged my shoulders in reply.

“You don’t know if you are dead? By the Sky Stallion Sparky! Only you wouldn’t know whether or not you were a ghost. How indecisive could one pony be?!?”

I grinned in reply, pantomiming laughter. She actually smiled for a moment, before her face clouded over once more.

“Do you know what happened?” She asked.

I nodded up and down.

“Was there some kind of accident?”

I shook my head no.

“Are you saying this was done on purpose?!?” She asked, her grief turning into rage.

Sadly, I nodded once more.

“Who? Who did this? Why would anypony want to do this to us?”

I was still unable to speak. I couldn’t even draw in the dirt. I looked around for anything I could use to give her a clue as to what happened, but there was nothing. My shoulders slumped.

“I see,” she said finally. “You want to tell me, but you don’t know how to. It’s okay.” she said sadly. “I’m just happy that you’re still here. I thought I had lost everything. I didn’t know what to do.”

I understood this all to well. I felt the exact same way. I hovered there beside her silently.

“I’m staying with a neighbor until I heal up,” she said eventually. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but having you here with me, I’ve made up my mind.” 

She waved a hoof at the remains of our farm.

“I’m going to stay here. I’m going to rebuild the farm. This was my family’s land, and I don’t want to lose it. Will you… will you stay here with me?” She asked, turning her tear stained face to me.

I nodded solemnly. I moved close to her wrapping my ethereal hooves around her in a hug.

“I-I think, I think I felt that.” She said, fresh tears falling once more.

Dawn’s body healed remarkably fast due to her transformed state. All of her neighbors pitched in to help fill in the crater and to rebuild her home. The orchard and the garden had remained largely untouched by the explosion. She repaid our neighbors with apples and produce, although they all insisted that she keep most of it to sell to provide for herself during the coming winter.

I stayed out of sight from my neighbors while they were here. I could tell that my body was slowly beginning to reform itself. I could touch things now. I still couldn’t speak, or use magic, but I was now confident that it would only be a matter of time.

After the neighbors left for the day, I would use a patch of dirt to write to Dawn. I explained everything that had happened. Before Discord had just been part of a story to her. Now he was a being that she despised. 

She focused all of her anger and grief upon him. Vowing that somehow, someday she would find a way to take revenge for what he had taken away from us. I felt the same way. Up until now, all I had wanted was to forget about him, and keep him from finding me. But now the very thought of him filled me with hate! There must be some way to hurt him! Some way to finally destroy him! 

I promised Dawn that this would be the last time that Discord would ever hurt us. I would find away to protect us all, and eventually destroy him for good! This was the beginning of our double lives.

It took me almost a year for my body to reform. Dawn had been using that time to our advantage. On the surface she was still the kind and compassionate pony that everyone knew. But in our private moments, she released the hatred and rage that had begun to slowly consume us both. We had both decided that the first thing we needed to do was to secure our haven, and to make sure that there was no way that Discord could spy on us. I knew that he himself couldn’t pass through the wards, but that didn’t prevent him from sending in regular ponies as spies.

To that end, Dawn began to speak out against allowing non-crystal ponies into the Burroughs. ‘Who knows’, she said, ‘where that bomb had come from? Who knows who could be next to lose a family member? Why had it been sent in the first place? Was it an attack against her father for creating the crystal ponies? Was is jealously? Was it hatred of us?’

As her words began to stir doubt and fear among the other ponies, I went about the Burroughs leaving messages on doors, and carved into trees. ‘Unnatural’, ‘This is only the beginning’, etc. It wasn’t long before ponies began rallying around her, asking her what they should do to protect their families. It was her father, after all, that had given them these gifts, and it was he and his wife who had been the first to die.

It was shortly after she had been elected mayor that my body had finally reformed. A week after she had been in office, a broken and beaten Sombra weakly pulled himself into the outskirts of town, to be found by a passing pony, who had quickly taken him to his cousin to be nursed back to health. Word spread like wildfire at how, before the explosion he had been kidnapped by unknown ponies. How he had been tortured and experimented on to try and find out the crystal ponies secrets and weaknesses. Then a daring escape, a terror filled night of travel and hunger, and finally arriving safely back home.

And of course they all believed it. Unity was stronger than ever. Dawn shut our borders to outsiders. Ponies volunteered to join our new police force. Their task was to patrol the borders and keep us safe. The train station was guarded, only allowing travel for crystal ponies. All others were not allowed to disembark. Crystal pony spies were sent out with our traders to recruit ponies that met a ‘certain criteria’ to join us. Slowly I began to expand the borders of our protected area. It was the start of an empire, and Dawn was to be it’s queen.

Together we made sure that the ponies lives were prosperous. We leaked word with our spies how good it was to live in the newly formed ‘Crystal Empire’. Ponies that were curious were screened by my spies, and if they passed, were allowed special permission into the empire to apply for citizenship. Those that were allowed to stay were linked to the array, and became crystal ponies themselves. 

Eventually I grew Dawn a Crystal Castle, fitting of a queen. While she kept the ponies organized, I focused on developing weapons to combat Discord. The greatest of which, before my downfall, was the crystal heart.

“Oh come on!” I interjected. “You really expect me to believe that YOU created the crystal heart? We used it to defeat you! You tried to stop us from taking it from where you had hidden it, you knew it was made to stop you!”

“Don’t be a fool Sparkle! If it was a weapon made to stop me, then why in Tartarus was it kept safely in my palace! If it was meant to be used against me, I would have destroyed it on the spot, instead of trying to keep it safe. Had none of you ponies ever wondered about that before? The reason it was there was to protect the empire from Discord!”

Oh sweet Celestia! It made sense! None of us had ever thought about why the crystal heart was locked away in the palace. Sombra was right, he would have just destroyed it, not locked it away.

“As I was saying,” he said, returning to his narrative.

The crystal heart was the pinnacle of my research at that point. We would no longer need the array to protect us, nor would I need to link each individual pony to it. Once initially attuned, it would radiate its power outward from the center. It could gather emotional power from any pony in the empire, and the more power that was fed into it, the larger an area of protection it would make.

Queen Dawn began to hold fairs periodically in the town square, increasing the power to the heart. More and more ponies began flocking to the borders of the empire, wanted to become it’s citizens.

This was how we would achieve our goal, we decided. We would continue to expand our empire, the more provinces we took over, the more crystal hearts that could be put in place. We would expand our protection across the entirety of Equestria and eventually we would force that vile creature Discord to abandon our world entirely.

We were fools.

Queen Dawn and I had just finished a tour of the empire for her one hundred and fiftieth birthday. We were seated in the middle of the town square on twin thrones, and a sumptuous feast had been prepared for us. Musicians were playing, ponies were dancing, toasts were made, and joy was everywhere to be seen. Dawn had begun opening a huge pile of gifts that were placed on the table before us. Sudden a voice could be heard, it was as loud as thunder, the sound shaking the very ground itself.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWN BLOSSOM! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!” And then after a moment, “GOOD LUCK BLOWING THIS OUT!!!”

Then from above us, faster than any of us could react, a fiery meteor streaked down from the sky. It struck Dawn and myself squarely, and obliterated the town square, killing every pony there.

Again I was discorperated! Again it was days before I could pull myself together enough to return to the scene of the disaster. The center of the impact had melted and fused the cobblestones into a mass of molten rock. The meteor had split upon impact, and in the center, on a slab of some unknown metal was written these words.

“Naughty children should grow up and listen to their elders. Don’t make me spank you again! Hugs & Kisses, Discord.”

My pain and anger were indescribable! The last of whom I considered my family were now gone, and that evil clown played it off as a joke! My rage continued to build as I howled silently into the sky. The crystal heart reacted to my emotions, and the entire crystal castle began to turn black. I was filled with hate! Hate, hate, hate, for that vile creature that had taken everything from me! There would be no more hesitation, there would be no more caution, that had been what cost all those ponies their lives. I would raise my empire to take over all of Equestia! I would drive that vile beast out of my home! And then once I had the means, I would hunt him to his lair, and rip out his sorry excuse for a heart, and crush it in my hooves!

It seemed like an eternity before I reformed. I dropped all pretense of my normal pony body, I gathered all the ponies that had survived the explosion, and declared that this had been yet another attack on the empire. A declaration of war! I told them that I was Sombra son of Piercing Glare! And that I was taking over as their new king. I told them that we would gather together our forces and then strike back against the foes of the empire!

I used my mesmerism to convince everypony of the truth of my words. I levied an army of crystal ponies, and prepared to go to war against all of Equestria, conquering all in my path. But Discord wasn’t done with me yet.

I later learned that he had tracked down the few ponies that had left the Burroughs after I had transformed all the ponies within. He too knew how to take control of ponies minds, and he had been using them to stir up sentiment against me and my growing empire. Unknown to me, after the meteor strike, he had sent them as a group to Canterlot to see Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna.

They apparently told them a story about an evil tyrannical pony called Sombra, who had enslaved ponies against their will, and had plans for world domination. (Ironically true, although they couldn’t have known it at the time). They urged the princesses to act, and act quickly to stop me before it was too late. 

It wasn’t long before the two were at my borders, telling me to surrender, and to release my captives. I tired to reason with them, but they were having none of it. They had witnesses they said. Ponies that had escaped my ‘empire’. And they were not leaving until I had been brought down, and the crystal ponies had been freed.

Unfortunately, since Celestia and Luna were not creatures of chaos, my barrier could not stop them. I tried fighting them myself, but together they were too powerful. I knew that I couldn’t let them destroy everything that I had built. I couldn’t let the lives of my family, and all those other ponies be lost in vain! I secured the crystal heart inside my palace. I then opened my senses to all of existence around me. In desperation I dove within myself to the core of chaos that Discord had grown inside my very being. I cracked it open fully for the first time in my life. Hated chaos filled me, and the whisper of Rot that had been with me always had risen to a scream in my ears. My senses burned as I tried to direct this wild power, to bend it to my will. I seized the entire empire in my magical grasp, and flung it into the far future, before my body exploded in a discharge of chaos that cracked giant furrows in the ice surrounding the empire, and shook the very planet with it's release!

It was years before my body reformed this time. When it finally did, it had changed. My overuse of chaos had further tainted it. This was what allowed you and your friends to use the crystal heart against me a thousand years later.

There was nothing left. Nothing left of my empire, my home, nothing but a barren expanse that had quickly turned white as the snows closed in. I created a small hovel on the edge of what used to be my empire. I wasn’t sure what I would do. I stayed there for years, just existing, alone with my thoughts. 

It was a little over seven years later that a large tribe of minotaurs made there way to where my empire once was. They saw the smoke rising from the chimney of my modest home. Their leader, Big Deal, told me to leave or be slain, that their clan was taking over this entire area.

I instantly flew into a rage. They were telling ME to leave my HOME? They were going to take over MY empire? I felled their leader with one blow, magic augmenting my punch. I stood on top of his unconscious body, and addressed the tribe.

“So, you foolish beasts want to live here, in MY empire? Very well, I will grant your request, but for that you will have to earn your keep!”

I led them down into the caverns underneath where my empire once stood, and put them to work. According to their custom, having bested their leader, I was now considered head of their clan. I had them mine crystals, and make homes for themselves underground, out of sight of prying eyes. A little over sixty years later, a group of Diamond dogs burst through the eastern wall of the caverns looking for treasure. My minotaurs captured them, and forced them to reveal the location of their settlement. We raided it and took them all prisoner, the price for daring to try to steal from me. They too became part of my growing army. I spoke to the representatives of both clans, and told them my intentions. I told them that I would be leaving for a time, but that I would check on them periodically. If I found that my will was not being obeyed, the punishment that I inflicted would be… severe.

After that I left Equestria. I used the key Chrysalis had given me, and wandered the Endless Road. I traveled there on and off for a thousand years. Learning all I could about order and chaos. 

I visited the Eternal city of Tanalorn. There I met Elric of Melniboné, with his cursed sword Stormbringer. And Myshella of Law with her giant metal mount. They taught me much about their war against the demons of chaos, and of her masters the lords of order. I visited the world of Recluse, and witnessed the descendants of the Rationalists wield their chaos against the descendants of the Angels who fought back with black order. There I learned from the Druids, who taught me of the Balance, and the necessities of both chaos and order to survive. I learned how to form bolts of raw chaos, and how to infuse objects with black order, like the crystal that I used to capture you. Later I briefly encountered Thomas Convent the Unbeliever, while visiting his strange world, and learned of the Law of Order and Time, before leaving him to his tragic journey. 

For a thousand years, I traveled to worlds unknown among ponykind. I returned before my final spell had run it’s course, ready to retake my empire, and resume my quest to destroy Discord... 

Only to have your brother to throw his wife at me, and discorperate me all over again!!!

By the Sky Stallion! What is wrong with you ponies?!? It’s like you don’t WANT to survive! At least with Cadence ruling the empire my ponies are safe, but she hasn’t got the slightest clue how to fight against Discord!

“None of us do!” Chrysalis interrupts. “That has always been our biggest problem. Every since he arrived on this planet Discord has been an enigma. One that has yet to be solved.”

“What do you mean ‘arrived on this planet’?” I say confused. “Are you telling me that Discord is some sort of… alien? And anyway, Discord has been around since recorded history, how would you even know?”

“Simple you foolish mare,” Chrysalis replies, “because I was there.”