//------------------------------// // Chapter 20: The Treehouse of Harmony // Story: A Tyrant To A King // by ShuTodoroki //------------------------------// They walked towards the Everfree Forest since Yona and Sandbar couldn't fly, Sombra recalling it from when he traveled there to destroy the Tree of Harmony. It was still a long way to the Treehouse of Harmony, however, so Silverstream took the opportunity to tell the entire history of the hippogriffs on the way there, much to Sombra's frustration. Seriously, did the hippogriff ever run out of energy? He thought, before he realized that he hadn't taken the time to learn any of the students' names. Normally, he could care less, but he was under the impression from what he was taught by Discord that learning others' names was the polite and friendly thing to do. "And then once the Storm King was defeated some of us returned to Mount Aris! However, some of us decided to stay in the ocean, so we have this little shard of a magic pearl that allows us to switch between being hippogriffs and sea ponies. My dad lives at Mount Aris while my mom lives in Seaquestria! Ooh, I should tell you about my parents! They-" "Oh, no, no, that's quite alright." Sombra interrupted, deciding to change the subject before Silverstream decided to go on another tangent and bore him to death. "It's come to my attention that I haven't learned any of your names. It would be polite to learn them, I assume." "No, I was actually looking forward to you just knowing me as 'the griffon.'" Gallus said with a smirk, being sarcastic like always while Yona quickly talked over him since she was excited to talk about herself next. "My name Yona! Yona from Yakyakistan, best land in Equestria!" "Smolder, from the Dragon Lands. Obviously." "Silverstream, from Mount Aris! Though you already knew the last part, heh…" "Gallus, regrettably from Griffonstone. I prefer it here better." "Sandbar, from Ponyville." Ocellus stayed quiet a bit before finally responding, not looking Sombra in the eyes. "O-Ocellus. From the Changeling Kingdom." "Hm, well that's certainly a lot of names to remember, but I'll do my best. That reminds me of what I was curious about other than the hip-err…Silverstream. Did the changelings change form when they became good?" "Yes, they did. After Queen Chrysalis was defeated by King Thorax and exiled, we all learned to share love rather than take it forcibly." Ocellus explained, to an amused chuckle from Sombra. "Chrysalis? Exiled? Celestia, that makes being banished into the ice of the Frozen North seem like a blessing! She must be absolutely humiliated to be overthrown by one of her own subjects." "Actually, apparently the changelings were willing to let her lead if she reformed herself, but she refused and left. At least that's what I remember from class." Sandbar chimed in. "They can still do all the cool impressions though! Ocellus would be a master at charades since she can turn into anything!" Silverstream exclaimed. "I try to stay in my normal form, though. It's the polite thing to do." Ocellus clarified quietly, pushing a branch away from her face as they walked towards the Treehouse of Harmony. "I wouldn't say anything. Physically, yes, but Ocellus is too nice to be a griffon." Gallus opined, to an affirmative nod from Smolder. "Trust me, when she became another dragon to blend in on the first day of school, I could already tell from her mannerisms that she wasn't a dragon." "…Thanks?" Ocellus offered weakly, unsure whether what her friends were saying were compliments or not. "That good thing! Changeling should be self! Like Yona proud to be yak!" Yona clarified, while Sombra looked amused by the discussion. "If you could turn into any creature, you could probably turn into me, then." The former tyrant reasoned, Ocellus' eyes going wide in shock while Gallus and Smolder snickered, thinking that would be amusing to witness. "Ooh, Ocellus as you!?! That…I can't really see that, actually." Silverstream said, recalling how distraught she was at becoming Queen Chrysalis, even if it was just a test by the Tree of Harmony. "I mean, I could show you, but I really do prefer to stay in my original form. I've been trying to get better at being myself and not using my transformation power as a crutch." Ocellus said, before a wall of green flame revealed the splitting image of Sombra, the original one looking mildly impressed. "I wouldn't be able to pass as you, though." Ocellus quickly said in Sombra's form before she quickly turned back to herself, looking quite sheepish. "I had forgotten how capable changelings were at mimicking others' forms, though it has been over a thousand years." Sombra mused before they finally arrived at the Treehouse of Harmony, which looked like it had sprouted in front of an ancient ruins of some sort. "Ah, we're here." It again had a crystalline structure which reminded him greatly of the Crystal Empire, except the crystals were in pastel colors which he clashed heavily with. Then again, he was practically the embodiment of dark magic, and he already started to feel a bit apprehensive just standing there. If the Tree of Harmony really was sentient like Discord had told him once during their long conversations during his imprisonment, he highly doubted that the Tree would appreciate him being there. Then again, he was starting to question his sanity if he was fearful over a treehouse. "Pretty sweet, huh? As we said, it sprouted when we tried to make a treehouse from the Tree of Harmony's remains, and it grew from there. It's a great place for the six of us to chill, and I personally think it's a sign that we'll be the new protectors of Equestria when Headmare Twilight and her friends retire." Gallus explained, sounding quite proud of himself when he mentioned taking over as protectors of Equestria. "That won't be for a long time, Gallus." Sandbar pointed out, not that the griffon cared. "Still! The Tree picked us for a reason. I mean, we saved Equestria from Cozy Glow, after all." Gallus retorted. "Cozy Glow? That doesn't sound like the name of a villain to me." Sombra opined, the six students shaking their heads in response. "Don't let the name fool you; she was a realll menace! I mean, she looks like a cute filly but she's actually a master at manipulating ponies to do her bidding!" Silverstream explained, shuddering as she recalled what happened. "She turn entire school against us! Bad pony! She in Tartarus now!" Yona added, while the figurative light bulb went off above Sombra's head as he figured out who they were talking about. So that's why there was a filly at Grogar's lair. What a foolish decision. He thought, having forgotten about Grogar's group until this point due to not hearing from them. Should he really warn the princesses about them, especially since Grogar had employed such weak adversaries to do his bidding? "The princesses actually threw a filly into Tartarus for taking over a school?" Ocellus vigorously shook her head, knowing that her peers had left a very important detail out. "No, she did a lot more than that! She was stealing magic from all of Equestria to make herself more powerful. Trust me, they wouldn't have banished her to Tartarus if her crimes weren't comparable to Tirek's." "I guess you were just lucky that the princesses decided that you shouldn't get banished to Tartarus as well, huh?" Smolder said with a bit of a smirk. Sombra resisted the urge to laugh. Tartarus wasn't a place that could hold him, especially since his shadow form could phase through anything that didn't block his magic. Maybe a similar cage to the one he was kept in during his imprisonment would've been able to hold him captive, but it would still be an unwise decision. "They know better than to think that Tartarus can hold me! My options were to get turned into stone like Discord once was, or reform myself." "Wow. Those are such great options." Gallus quipped, Sandbar looking interested by the mention of being turned into stone. "Whoa, so they were going to put you in the Canterlot Gardens?" "Yes, and I have enough common sense to know I would much prefer not to be fully sentient while being unable to move, as ponies ogle at me. Discord told me plenty of times how much of a living hell that was." "Were you conscious while you were banished into the ice of the Frozen North!?!" Silverstream asked. "Thankfully, no. When I awoke after a thousand years with the return of the Crystal Empire, it was as if the day I placed the curse on it was the day before. Though even if I had lived through those thousand years, I would still be here." Sombra explained. "Wait, you're immortal?" Ocellus asked in shock. None of her professors had ever mentioned that! "I kind of figured. I mean, your mane does that wavy thing like Princess Celestia and Luna. They're immortal." Smolder pointed out. "Not exactly. The dark magic inside of me grants immortality along with its power." Sombra stated. "Huh. Well, if Headmare Twilight puts that on the Crystal Empire test, we'll have the inside scoop!" Gallus said triumphantly, while Sombra looked a bit hesitant. Hopefully this didn't mean that more students would approach him looking for information about the Crystal Empire. Unfortunately, after the students at the School of Friendship started to warm up to him (no doubt due to the Young Six), he did start getting more questions, some daring students even getting personal asking why he turned to evil. Of course, he gave a half true answer of "to gain power" without going into why, since he didn't trust anypony nearly enough to talk about him being an orphan. He humored them however because mainly he had nothing better to do, and also because although he was annoyed by incessant questions, he strangely wasn't too bothered by it. Perhaps this was what friendship was, instead of feeling powerful by ordering ponies to do your bidding. As the days went on he spent some time with Twilight's friends as well, even if their interests didn't exactly line up with his own. It was especially painful when Fluttershy wanted him to play with animals in her animal sanctuary, when he really had no interest in doing so since it made him look pathetic and all of the animals were scared of him anyway. One particularly intriguing day was when he attended a trivia competition where Twilight absolutely lost her mind trying to keep her win record, which was apparently a common occurrence when Twilight got extremely stressed. He also got to meet Sunburst that day, who obviously reacted with great terror at seeing the Crystal Empire's former tyrant standing right there, but the bespectacled unicorn slowly grew to tolerate his presence when he made it clear that he was no longer actively trying to take over his former empire. Overall he was making good progress; yes, ponies still feared him (a part of him still liked that, he had mixed feelings about it), but more and more of them were starting to ho about their daily routines, not run into their houses in fear every time he walked the streets of Ponyville. This particular morning he was getting ready to head to Ponyville like he usually did, since he didn't like staying in Canterlot because he associated it with his imprisonment. However, he was interrupted by a knock at the door, a royal guard's voice coming from the other side. "Princess Celestia requests your presence."