//------------------------------// // 14 // Story: Fallen Queendom // by Zeroraid //------------------------------// “That’s enough.” Gentle was more than happy to stop the exercise. Opening his eyes the young stallion took a much needed breath as he looked at his crystal. It was clear, not shining, but it wasn’t blackened either. After about 3 hours of practice, he could blacken the crystal and wash away the tarish, but that was it. He couldn’t turn it into a shining beacon like Pale Arts yet. Still… “Good god…” He muttered “Yeah…” Sunset agreed as she took a breath and seemed to hold herself. She was shaking. For the love of the Goddess, she was shaking. Learning this Emotion Magic was… kind of rough - After nearly three hours both of them had barely started to get the hang of this form of magic. It wasn’t that it was difficult to learn, it was more… How to put this? “How did it feel?” Pale Arts waited for their answer. “I felt…” Gentle muttered as he shiver. “I… I felt…” “I never ‘felt’ so strongly before in my life…” Sunset muttered. “Were those really feeling?” “Yes.” Pale Art nodded her head. Those were your feelings, amplified by your will and drawn out to the surface.” She looked at the two. “Overwhelming, isn’t it?” “Yeah.” Gentle muttered before falling silent. “We’re supposed to control that?” “Yes” Pale Arts watched both of her student’s look at her. “It will not be easy, but you will learn, in time.” The mare stated. “Nevertheless it seems you’ve both passed your test.” “But we couldn’t get it like yours.” Sunset pointed out. “How could we have passed?” “Your lesson was to taint the crystal and purify it. Though you can not do it to the same degree as me, you both did succeed in doing just that.” Pale Arts admitted with a smile.”I’m proud of both of you.” “I’m proud of you, my little Sunset.” Sunset paused for a moment as she looked at the mare, imagining another figure in her place for a moment as she did. The mare patted her head and Sunset watched her vanish into thin air as Pale Arts returned. “Thank you…” She muttered as she looked down while Pale Arts patted Gentle’s head. “So… what do we do now?” “You will rest for a moment, and then you will join me in your search for the Crystal Heart.” Pale Arts began. “You two will travel down one hall, I will travel down another. I don’t want your feelings to consume you, so as you travel and uncover rooms you two will alternate between who calls upon their craft, and who rests. Is that understood?” “Yes mam.” Sunset said as Gentle nodded. “This will also give you more time to adjust to using this form of magic.” The mare looked at the two for a moment. “And if one of you is overwhelmed by your feelings you have someone there to help you regulate them and bring you back.” “What do you mean?” “Just as you can use Emotion Magic to focus your feelings, you can use them on another to bring certain emotions to the surface.” Pale Arts began as Gentle’s eyes widened. “What?” He croaked out. “We can… we can control how people feel?” “Yes.” Pale Arts sighed. “Directed on another you can make one feel unending love for you, fathomless hate or even seemingly irrational fear and they wouldn’t understand why.” “That… that’s messed up!” Sunset declared as she stomped a hoof on the ground. “I’ve manipulated people back on Earth, but using magic to make people feel what you want them to feel - that is several kinds of fucked up!” “I agree.” Pale Art stared down the pair, her gaze making them seem to shrink in size.”That’s why you two will do no. Such. Thing.” She declared. “You will not twist what I am teaching you to manipulate each other or others.” She sighed as she relaxed her gaze. “And yet… if - and only if - one of you is consumed by your malice the other will bring the other back to a clear mindset.” She stated. “That is as far as you two will go with such an act. Do you understand?” “Y-yeah…” Sunset muttered. “I can get behind that reasoning.” Gentle nodded quickly as he gulped. “Good, know this if you do such a thing I will find out.” Pale Arts paused as she narrowed her eyes at the two. “And when I do… I will kill you myself.” Both youths gulped, the look in Pale Arts eyes telling them that she wasn’t joking in the slightest. She really would kill them if they perverted the technique to use and hurt someone that way. Pale Arts blinked and the steel in her eyes disappeared. Taking a breath the mare turned elsewhere before looking back at two. “Now, I believe we’ve rested enough, shall we begin our search or do you have questions first?” The two ponies looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads. “I see., well, then, let’s get started.” With that the three headed back into the main hall and broke off. Pale Arts heading towards the left while Gentle and Sunset headed towards the right path. “Fuck that was scary…” Gentle nodded at Sunset’s words. “I honestly thought she was going to kill us right then and there.” She admitted. He nodded again and looked at Sunset. She looked at him. She snickered. So did he. They laughed “You know I haven't been that scared since everything happened seven months ago.” Sunset stated as Gentle nodded. “Me too.” Gentle wrote with his magic as he used a hoof to rub his throat. “Sorry.” Sunset’s smile dropped. “Laughing must have hurt your throat.” She muttered. “I don’t know any healing magic so I can’t fix that for you. It kind of sucks cause I finally got my magic back and I can’t use it to help you out a bit.” Gentle shrugged as he adjusted his bag. “Don’t worry about it.” Gentle wrote as the two approached their first room as Sunset took a breath and flared her magic, that familiar miasma coming into existence as Gentle shivered. That magic still made him feel sick for some reason. Looking at the recolored door Gentle pushed the door open as he looked back at Sunset. “You ok?” “Y-yeah just…” Sunset paused. “It feels you know.” She muttered as Gentle nodded. “Feeling something so strongly it’s… it’s overwhelming.” Sunset paused. “It feels good.” “But you don’t like the feeling.” “I shouldn’t feel good drawing upon that part of me.” Sunset muttered as she and Gentle started searching the room. “But I do… even when we were just practicing under Pale Art’s gaze, I liked how good this part of me made me feel.” She stopped searching and looked at Gentle. “You experienced it, you know what I’m talking about.” He did, he’d be a liar to think otherwise. Calling upon the darker aspects of yourself; calling upon your hate and anger, your fear and sadness… It felt surprisingly good. It didn’t just feel good though, it was easy. Too easy. Honestly Gentle couldn’t think of anything as easy as that was less he counted something instinctual like breathing or blinking. Why was it that way? Why did something so… dark feel so easy to call upon? Why did it feel good to do so? Gentle shook his head, trying to get back on track as he looked at Sunset to notice that the mare was already back to searching the room. Not to be left out, he joined her. Elsewhere “Not here either.” Pale muttered as she exit another room, her magic flashing as the door that lead to it returned to normal and the room it led to changed. “Well I wasn’t expecting to find the heart so easily.” She muttered. “If I could feel it, then this would be much easier.” Pale Arts sighed. “When I created the Crystal Heart I chose not to add in a Locator Spell because I felt I wouldn’t need since I was going to give it away, but now I’m actually regretting that decision.” She muttered. “I have but days before the last heir of the Mi Amore line comes and when she does, there’s no doubt that she will inform Celestia of my time here.”  Pale Arts entered another transformed room. “And disregard her and Celestia, I still have Sombra to attend to, don’t I?” The mare questioned.”I swear I’m going to need a beer after this…” She muttered as she checked the room before moving on. Searching room after room Pale Arts seemed to grow lost in thought.  The Crystal Heart; the prototype of what eventually became her greatest work. An artifact that converted the light of love and hope into limitless power. The more the ponies felt, more power it drew upon. It was something she created to protect, and at the time she never expected that little village in the snow to grow into something so grand. So many souls gathered around her creation… but for all the good her prototype had done it had a weakness. The Crystal Heart needed light and love to be powered. And as it stood there were no such feelings in the hearts of the crystal ponies; she needed to raise their spirits in order to power it. And while her emotion Magic could be used to to force such feelings into the hearts of ponies - doing such left a bad taste in her mouth. And just as she forbade her students from manipulating the hearts of others, so did she forbid herself. It was only right she obeyed the same rule she enforced upon her students after all. “Still, how to go about this?” She muttered as she opened another door and stared ahead , her attention turning to see a mound of crystal that was resting in the back of an empty room. “That looks almost like a minotaurus…” She noted as the crystal’s eyesockets started to glow before its head raised. A crystal golem. “Hm, haven’t seen that in a while.” The golem grabbed its weapon, a large axe, as it started stomping forward, dark magic radiating off its form and -  Pale immediately basked it in light as benevolence overwhelmed it.  Both the dark room and the armor turned to shining crystal as the room was purified and the mare just looked around for a moment, checking the room as the golem slumped over before falling apart. “Let’s see…” Pale ignored the armor for a moment as she continued to look around before walking off. “Nothing in there… well, there's always the next room.” Pale muttered as she continued her search through the castle, shining rooms being replaced by their dark reflection as she brought her malice to the surface. “I wonder if the kids are running into any Golems or something Sombra left behind.” “Run!” Gentle did just that as Sunset followed behind, turning just long enough to fire a volley of magic rays from her horn before taking off while a horde of crystal spiders. Now Gentle had never been afraid of spiders… he’d squished more than a few back when he was a human. But to be fair he’d never had to deal with a horde made of crystal and about the size of his freaking head!” “What the fuck are these things!” He screamed as he continued to run. “Inanimate matter brought to life my Animation! It's a really advanced magic spell, really old too! Princess Celestia used to tell me that the golems that get created used to be used as guardians and sentries to protect certain unicorns and settlements. That said they have incredibly limited -” “Stop talking and run!” “I’m sorry I babble when I’m scared!” Elsewhere “I’m sure they’re fine.” Pale Arts muttered as she walked on. “What’s the worst that could happen to them?” Frozen North This was taking too damn long. That was the thought that ran through the Shade’s mind as it focused its magic, this deep black miasma gathering into a blackened crystal that seemed to have something rest within it. From the outside it looked like it was housing some kind of… dark embryo. Rebuilding a body from scratch certainly wasn’t easy… The Shade had to remind itself. It was going to take time, time it wasn’t certain that it had. There was ‘another’ within the empire, another that was seeking to rule the lands that rightfully belonged to the Shade and one one else. Y̶̮̫̙̩͔̫̲̪̓ͅǫ̴̝͕͙̠̳̋̀ȗ̷͉̖̝̳̰̜͙̪͊̉̀̀̾̕͜͝ ̶̢̼̂́̾́́̃̕w̵̱͚̪͇͐ị̵̗̇̎̿͝l̵̯̬͇̗͚͒̆l̷̡̜̪̼̈́̍̒͐͜ͅ ̶̼̄̀n̸̛̥͎͉̲̤͈̍̏̅͜͜ͅǫ̶̛̥̹̯̞͐̒͑̈̑̈́̀͝t̷̡͚̫̼̙̰̪̲̿͒̏̌͜͝.̵̨͉̮̮̣̼͓̰̀̈́̈̊͛̽̀̃͠.̸̣̺͐͌͌̈́͑̉͝.̵̺͎̾͆̄́̇͝͠ ̶̩́̇̕͠t̷̛͓͚̬̦̠̙̖̍̿̾̀̄̿ͅa̶̭͗̏̾̕ḳ̵̘̼͚͙̣̆́͜ê̸̦̳̪̰̘̜̭͑̓̏̈́̿̏͌̀ ̸̗͎̲̩͖͂͒̎͛̏̕w̸̪͗̋ḥ̴̹̲̣͔͈͌̓å̷͍̙͎̫̓͊ṱ̸̥͙̅̍̒̄̊͘.̶̥̘͑.̴̨̹͖͗͂̄̈́̔̿́̕͠.̵̛̙̎̀̆̀̓́̅͝ ̵̭̲͈̠̗̯̠͊̄̄̆̾̔̀͠͝i̴̘̮̋̈́̀̄̇͒̄s̴̖̹̬̠̀͛̕͝ ̴̻̓͂̆̑͆̆m̶͉̱͙̻̅̾ͅi̵̧̢̥̱̮̹̼͂̂̀̒̐n̶̠̜̗͔̝̎̎̿̏̾̑͝è̸̥̮̋̀̿͌̒͝.̵̡̪͆̽̈̀͛.̸̨̘̜̣̗̻̭͇̱̉͋͒̑̀̕͝.̷̧̤͇̜̮̤̩̬̟͊̈́͌̃͝