//------------------------------// // Enter The King // Story: The Crystal Human // by PhoenixHorseGuy //------------------------------// “I am so fucked.” was the only thought running through my mind as I stared at the shadow beast in front of me. When he first appeared, he had the decency to remain at eye level with me. Now though? Now he was as tall as the Empire State building. “Now, if you were to encounter Sombra while out on your patrols, your best bet is to retreat back into the protection spell and stay there.” Luna’s voice reminded me from the back of my head. I would be following her advice right now, if it weren’t for the fact that my legs were currently as frozen as the ice my foot went through a couple hours back. The staring match between myself and the king continued for several minutes more, the two of us waiting for the other to make the first move. Well, I was waiting for Sombra to make the first move. He seemed to be studying me, looking up and down my body in all of its five foot ten glory. “But why is he studying me? Is he trying to figure out the fastest way to kill me? Is he trying to figure out what I am? Or maybe he’s trying to figure out if I’m a threat or not?” A million different theories ran through my mind about just what the unicorn king wanted with me, what he wanted to do with me, what he would do to me should he decide he didn’t like what he saw. It was at this moment that I realized something… I was in way over my head. When they told me of the unicorn king, I thought we would be dealing with a charcoal colored stallion about the size of Shining Armor. Someone that, while a user of dark magic, could be dealt with fairly quickly if we were to play our cards right. Sure, he would have plenty of magic tricks up his sleeves, but I was certain a crossbow bolt between the eyes or to the back of the head would kill him, like it would any other mortal. Even if I ended up in Equestria with a 12 gauge, I was now confident that it wouldn’t make a dent in the creature standing before me. It seemed that Sombra had finished his evaluation of me while I was busy with my internal monologue, judging by the fact he was no longer giving me a scrutinizing gaze. That’s when I noticed the long red horn at the top of his head was now covered in a thin veil of pure black, small specks of green and purple scattered about it. I had seen this with the other three horned ponies I had interacted with. He was getting ready to use magic. “Is it the source of the ponies magic, though? Or is it just a medium? A method to channel it and use it to their own benefit? I really should’ve asked them about this last night.” I took a glance down towards my crossbow, still pointed at Sombra. I looked back up to his horn, and an idea came to my mind. “Maybe I could… yeah. Yeah that might work. If I can interrupt the flow of his magic, then I might be able to interrupt whatever spell he’s trying to cast. That would give me a chance to make a run for the border. At the very least, it would buy me some time.” A plan in mind, I raised the crossbow so that I was aiming just above the horn. I put my finger on the trigger, and- “A little to the right. You need to account for the wind.” An unknown voice informed me. “What the-?” I whispered under my breath, briefly lowering my weapon. “Who said that?” The voice refused to elaborate, nor did it respond to my question. It had clearly come from within my own mind, but it wasn’t a voice I remembered. It wasn’t any of my friends or family, and it sure as hell wasn’t Cadance’s, Shining’s or Luna's. Regardless, it had a point. Raising the crossbow once more, and taking into account the voice's advice, I pulled the trigger and watched as the arrow flew through the sky… … and I turned tail before I could see if it hit its target. Regardless of if it hit or not, it would prove be a worthwhile distra- "AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH" The deafening roar of pain and rage sounding out from behind me told me all that I needed to know: I had hit my mark, and I needed to pick up the pace now. Upgrading my run into a full blown sprint, I made my way for the border. With any luck, I would make it there before Sombra recovered. But knowing my luck, I was in for a proper chase scene straight out of a Steven Spielberg film. "Must go faster!" I thought. "Eddy may have been team captain, but I was second only to him on the track team for a reason." Of course, I had nearly failed to account for the fact that I wasn't running on a neatly kept track behind a high school in late spring, but rather an uneven stretch of snow and ice in winter. I had to be careful with my footing, otherwise I would become the victim of the classic "protagonist in horror movie slips and dies to the thing trying to kill them" trope. The boots were not helping things. They weren't designed for running like my sneakers were. Still, it's either this or I gain more speed by taking them off and carrying them while running barefoot. Between those two options, I think I'll stick with the first. "Even if I went with the second option, I doubt Sombra would give me the luxury of time so I could take them off." I briefly looked over my shoulder to see the king had recovered and was now beginning his pursuit. "And it looks like I'm outta time. Now the real chase begins." While I couldn't hear Sombra running after me, I could still feel his presence right on my heels, slowly closing the gap. He was getting closer and closer, and my best bet was to pick up the pace once more, with the main caveat being the heightened risk of losing my footing and falling to the ground. A mistake that would surely cost me my life. "Is it worth the risk? More speed in exchange for a greater risk of failure? No, I can't risk it. Not when I'm this close to the border. If he gets too close, I'll just have to find another way to distract him. To slow him down a little. I doubt that the arrow to the horn trick will work again. Not when he's prepared for it. I'm surprised he didn't try to dodge or block the first arrow. Maybe he was distracted with whatever spell he was trying to cast? Did I catch him off guard?" "It doesn't matter now. What matters right now is getting out of here. Secure my continued existence in the land of the living first, theorize about Sombra and his actions later." A beam of green and purple flew past me, striking the ground a little ways ahead and to the left. Snow was blasted up from the impact sight, leaving a small crater in its wake. "Either he tried to hit me and it went wide, or he's trying to do… something else. But what?" Another blast, once again ahead of me. This time to the right. "What would he be trying to accomplish by striking the ground in front… of… me… Of course! He's making the terrain more uneven! He's trying to make me trip!" Making a mental note to be even more careful with my footing, I put my focus back on the snow in front of me. "On the other hand, if he is trying to hit me with a spell, I need to start taking evasive actions. Stop running in a perfectly straight line." Another blast to the right, another idea comes to my head. "What if I turn into the craters created by blasts? I think he would be expecting me to avoid them, not run into them." … "Screw it, let's try it. Just gotta remember to be careful." Adjusting my course so that I was moving to the right, I managed to avoid the first of the craters in front of me… … and trip on the lip of the second. I managed to catch myself and continue moving, but it no doubt slowed me down slightly. And I'm certain that Sombra noticed, if the increased frequency of his attacks was any indication. "Right. Not the smartest plan. That could've ended up much worse." Course correcting back towards the center path I had been running along, I began racking my brain for any more ideas. "What's that mobile game with the adventurer who steals an idol and has to run from a bunch of monkeys? Temple Run, I think? Yeah, this is what this feels like." Ok, maybe that previous explanation of my current thought process wasn't the most accurate. "God, I fucking loved that game when I was a kid. Used to steal my mom's phone to play it all the time. Pretty sure I've got it on my phone now, actually. Sometimes I would intentionally kill myself just so I could see the death animations. Good times." … "Wait… the death animations…" … "Time for my dumbest plan yet." I took a quick glance at my surroundings and found that I wasn't far from the border. Another half a mile at most. If this works out, I should be able to run in with time to spare. Maybe. I hope. I allowed myself to fall to the ground after tripping on the edge of another crater, and I quickly positioned myself so that my back was on the ground and the front of my body was facing my pursuer. The unloaded crossbow in one hand and an arrow from the quiver on my back in the other, I frantically started to reload my weapon as Sombra slowed to a stop and started charging his horn. "I know not whom or what you are, creature, nor where you hail from." The king began. "But you have angered me greatly with that little stunt of yours." Couldn't understand a word of what he was saying, but his tone of voice was enough for me to tell that he was fucking livid. "I shall take great joy in enacting your punishment." I had managed to reload my crossbow and aim it straight for Sombra's horn. If I could just get another hit… Sombra was quicker on the draw than I was, launching a beam of magic straight for me before I could even pull the trigger. I watched as it got closer and closer, still holding my weapon out as if I was going to return fire, even if I had given up on the idea entirely at this point. I closed my eyes and prepared to pull the trigger anyways. If I did survive the first blast, I at least wanted to give Sombra one final middle finger before I die. The blast of magic hit… … and I opened my eyes, seeing that I was left almost completely unharmed. I looked to my hands and found that my crossbow wasn't so lucky, having been turned into nothing but scattered splinters of wood in the snow around me. A few had embedded themselves into my clothes and what little portions of exposed skin that they could lodge themselves into, but other than that, I was fine. I looked at the item that I was still clutching in my left hand and found that it was the trigger for the now non-existent crossbow. "That's one hell of a souvenir." As I looked back at the shadow creature before me, he seemed just as confused as I was that my crossbow somehow managed to block the blast completely. He shook off his surprise faster than I could and launched another beam of magic at me… Only for it to be stopped by the pink half-dome shield that had appeared above me. Looking to my right, I saw my savior. One Shining Armor, former Captain of the E.U.P and husband to the alicorn of love. His horn was ablaze with his light rose magic. Putting the trigger in my pocket, I thought of something to say. (Shinings POV) "Welcome to the party, Prince. What took you so long? You missed most of the fun!" Were Jackson's first words to me as he stood up from his position on the ground. He dusted off the snow and splinters on his clothing while caught his breath. "He's clearly exhausted. Guy looks and sounds like he just ran a marathon." I looked up to the creature that had been attacking him, which seemed to be retreating now. "I guess it wasn't expecting backup to arrive." "Come on. Let's get out of here before it comes back." I said with a sense of urgency in my voice. Jack nodded and we made our way back to the Empire. Jack seemed to be keeping a close eye on our surroundings, most likely looking for the creature that had attacked him. As for me, I was trapped in my own thoughts, with one taking dominance over the rest. "Who casted that shield spell before I arrived? There wasn't anypony else there. Not that I could see, anyway." As I was rushing over to help Jack, I had seen a lime green shield briefly flicker into existence over him, mostly protecting him from the creature's first blast before shattering. Judging by the lack of a crossbow in his possession, I think it's safe to assume that it did the rest of the work. "Whoever it was, I'm going to find them and thank them in person. If it weren't for them, that creature would've killed Jack." Now that I think about it, that creature did look awfully familiar. Almost like… … "Oh sweet Celestia. That was Sombra." Ok, I am definitely finding the pony responsible for that shield and giving them a medal once this is all over. As we crossed over the border, Cadance trotted over to us. Once she saw the state Jackson was in, including the small limp that I had somehow failed to notice until now, she looked to me for an explanation. "Sombra." Was the only word I spoke to her. She nodded her head and turned to head back to the palace. As we were walking down the road, I could see the crystal ponies watching us from the windows of their houses. While most still seemed apathetic, some watched Jack with expressions mixed with equal parts curiosity, amazement, and pity. Looking back towards Jack myself, he seemed to either not notice the attention or was actively ignoring it. “He’s trying to put as little weight as possible on his right foot.” I noted. “We’ll need to check him once we get back. Make sure nothings broken.” I walk ahead a little to Cadance and relayed my findings to her. She nods and we continue on, no longer noticing the looks of our soon to be subjects. “He’s very lucky.” I commented, finishing up the scanning spell I was using. “He fought Sombra head on, and he got out of it with nothing more than some splinters, a few bruises, a twisted ankle and a ripped up jacket.” Said jacket was currently hung on a chair next to the desk in the room Jackson had claimed for himself, its pockets emptied of his belongings. A few new holes were scattered about it, indicating where some of the larger pieces of wooden shrapnel had narrowly avoided landing in his arm. “I wouldn’t call twisting his ankle lucky.” Cadance replied as she used an advanced healing spell on Jack’s right ankle. Neither of us were medical professionals, but Cadance had picked up a few healing spells over the years we were dating. She was always worried that I might get pretty badly injured during training. I always thought she was a little too worried, considering the fact that there was always a medical pony on standby just in case something like that did happen. “Considering what Sombra could’ve done to him, I’m certain the damage could’ve been much worse.” I replied. I noticed that Jack seemed to not be paying much attention. Sure, he was cooperative and let us take a look at his ankle, as well as help him get the splinters of wood out of his body, but he hadn’t said a word or made any motions that he was trying to communicate something to us nonverbally. From the usually talkative and expressive human, it was kind of concerning. Cadance was wrapping up her spell when she spoke next. “Best I can tell, he’s gonna be out of action for a bit. He might be able to join you to pick up Twilight and her friends when they get here, but for now you're gonna be patrolling on your own.” “That’s fine. You know I can handle it perfectly fine.” “I know that, honey.” She trotted over and gave me a peck on the cheek. “I’m just worried about you. With everything going on inside the Empire, and with Jack injured… and then there’s Sombra… he’s probably getting ready to start banging on the doors any day now.” “I’m sure we’ll be able to take him down.” I pulled her into a hug. “We defeated Chrysalis, remember? And we were both outnumbered and unprepared then. Now that we know what we’re dealing with, and we have time to prepare, I know we can handle one more tyrant monarch. Together.” Cadance pulled back, still remaining in my embrace. “Yeah… together.” Then the two of us locked lips, enjoying the blissfulness of the moment. “And that’s the power of love.” I heard Jack loudly whisper in a manner that sounded like he was quoting a song. This startled both Cadance and I as we broke the embrace and looked over at the human who was still lying in bed. Judging by the smile on his face, that was very much intentional, and he was very much enjoying the twin glares of beet red embarrassment we were giving him.