//------------------------------// // 2 // Story: Shadow of the Heart // by TuniPeace //------------------------------// The crystal princess was becoming tired using her hooves all day to pick and pluck. When she thought no one was looking, Quartz took up a berry bush with her magic. Unknown to her there was a worker picking at the bush. He became entangled within it. "Oh dear elements, no! I'm sorry!" He cried. The Princess gasped and shook her head. "No, no, I meant no harm! Truly I was-" "I have a wife and 9 children! Please!" The worker sobbed as Quartzia carefully put him down. She tried to comfort him, almost laying a hoof on his back. He looked at her wide-eyed, kicked dirt in her face and ran. She quickly rubbed her face, taking away the dirt with her heel bulb. Quartzia gasped and cried. The Alicorn then heard angry voices coming her way. When she opened her eyes, they were watery and irritated. The angry farm ponies became very scared and galloped away. "No, no! I just want to love my fellow ponies! No, no, no!" The distraught Princess galloped into the nearby forest, which was cultivated with her family's planning and direction from the first Empress. Those woods was an often place for her to hide, a sanctuary. She would go there at nights and wander the wilds. The critters and flora did not mind her appearance. The alicorn's personal guards recorded their 'annoyance' with having to wait outside the forest for her at times. Quartzia Rose went to her favorite place to lay, going on to her belly, lowered her head down to her crossed front legs and sobbed. "Am I that much feared as this Discord they talk of? My strange wings and long horn. Why was I born this way!" She yelled and demanded from the heavens above. The Princess replaced her face into her crossed legs. Suddenly she felt something, or some pony, stroking her horn. Quartzia immediately arose with her wings open and neck straightened. She spotted a figure behind a tree within the shadow. The Princess squinted her frosty sky blue eyes at it. "Horn, you say?" Said the mysterious pony. "You are not the only one with a horn." The Princess gasped as the mysterious figure stepped forward revealing himself as a silver-grey pony. He had black going down between his eyes, stopping at the beginning of his nostrils. The stallons' mane and tail was voluminous and black. Quartzia also noticed his unusual pointy red horn. "At least your horn is the same color as the rest of you." The stranger said. His green eyes and deep baritone voice instantly pierced her heart. Quartzia Rose felt a cold sweat come over her. Her eyes darted to the bottom left. And she felt her breath quicken. The mysterious pony then stepped forward. She locked her eyes on him, almost becoming dizzy. "I know you. I have watched you." The Princess gasped at this disclosure and forgot the hatred of her magic and wings. Quartzia flew. She flew fast and hard through the trees, cutting and piercing her wings but got through the canopy of thick tree tops. '"No! Wait! I did not mean that I-" Pleaded the unknown unicorn. He lowered his head, sighed and moved his eyes about. Stomping his hoof into the ground, the grey stallion used his horns magic to make a tan hooded cloak for himself. With the hood halfway over his eyes, the mysterious and magical pony went back into the forest shadows. Twilight and Celestia looked at each other. Celestia turned her head away and began to ponder the reading. "You see, I have compiled this binder with recovered diary notes, guard reports, witness accounts and time lines from the Empires library archives and even the Crystal Palaces private book room." Pleaded Twilight Sparkle. "I, I think that the earlier belief that the Crystal Empire was-" "How much have you studied?" Asked The Princess . "All of it." The purple unicorn said as she looked away with despair and worry. Celestia lowered herself to Twilight's level. She put a wing over her beloved student and smiled. "Then you can just tell me what you have discovered, without worry. Everything will work out." Assured The Sun Princess. The little unicorn nodded her head. She breathed deeply and looked at the notes. Twilight was taken aback by the upcoming section of notes. Her heart became heavy and avid. "Princess... These notes were written by princesses Quartzia's very hoof!" "Then we must truly read on." Asserted Celestia. 20th Day, Harvest-berry tide, 210 "Dear Princess log, hold my thoughts, hold my dreams, for no one within the world wants love from me." I fled to the confines of the deep wood that my family had planted for the ponies of this Empire out of love and compassion. After a misunderstanding at the farm, I was crying, sobbing as I usually do. Then this, this pony that I have never seen before came to me as I had my face hidden, crying on top the soil. He touched me. My horn. Frightened, angry and defensive I had become. But then, he came back toward me from the shadows. He revealed himself similar to me. He too had a horn, but no wings! The horn was smaller and red! I think a Unicorn is the type of pony he is. He opened his mouth and told me that he had watched me. That he knew me. His eyes- 22nd day, Harvest-berry tide, 210 My journal writing was interrupted by the balcony doors within my chamber bursting open. It is now two days later. Here is what transgressed; The howling winters winds extinguished the lit candles. Ponies that were attending to my wings looked around. The personal guards got close to my bedside. I looked around the room and then looked upward and saw a tiny flash within the darken ceiling. Squinting my eyes I breathed in deeply. "You can leave my service for the rest of the night." I ordered. "Your injuries, my fair mare." Said a guard. "Since when do you care?" A mysterious voice echoed into the room. A voice that I recognized. "What is this, evil?!" Cried one other guard. "If you wish not to find out, then leave my chambers! I can handle this, visitor." I Demanded. The guards looked at one another. They told me they would be right outside my bedchamber door. Every pony left me. I arose from bed, closed the balcony doors, pulled the curtains and then re-lit the candles, all with my magic. Turning back to my bed I saw that stranger unicorn! "What is the meaning of this?" I yelled. The stranger unicorn was sitting on top and center of my bed, with his legs curled under him while reading my diary. He then looked forward to me and smiled. The lining of his smile caused me to gulp and turn my head slightly. But still... I kept my eyes on him. The red-horned pony cleared his throat and looked at me with lowered eyelids. "I do know you." He said. "Then why not I know you?" I snapped. The unicorn laughed and then slid off my bed, like silk sliding off melting ice. He walked slowly to me. As princess I stood my ground as this bold, mysterious pony came within inches of my face. We stood there, looking at each other. I looked at him intensely. The unicorn gazed at me calmly. As the night went on, the stranger unicorn and myself, now I knew as 'Sombra', talked with one another, sharing feelings and emotions. I discovered that as a colt, he'd been abandoned by his family for being a Unicorn. He was too a Crystal Pony. They kept him long enough till he could be of schooling age, then dumped him into the forest. This is where Sombra discovered his ability over the shadows. I do not remember when, but I found myself with the unicorn, resting in my bed, holding one another. I was just under his chin wrapping my forearms around his torso. He held me also, rubbing my shoulder as we both looked at the roof being lit by the light of the moon. Quartzia Rose had never been this comfortable with any pony. However, for some invisible reason, there was magnetism. A connection, some sort of completion to my being. He spoke so very freely with me. He even recollected when he first saw me as we lay there entangled within one another's forearms: "Then a few years later, I saw you. You were crying in that spot where you are always. I had heard of you before hoof but had never seen you. You startled me with your unusual wings and horn. However, my shock grew to curiosity when I heard your father call you and saw you first fly." I felt his overpowering green eyes softly looking down at me. Quickly and shyly I looked up and then away from him. He asked me if I was ' frightened' of him. "No, no. I've never been this intimate with any pony. Especially someone as-” I paused, trying to ponder what to say. "Strange and unusual as I be?" He further inquired. "Mesmerizing, enchanting and beautiful..." I had confessed loosely to him feeling heavy mortification. Sombra laughed and dropped his head back. I got defensive and told him that if he was going to laugh, that he could journey away from my bed chambers the same way he came! I released him, sat up and turned away. I then crossed my forearms and looked at him threw the corner of my eyes. Sombra chucked some more and reached toward me. He then stopped and looked out the balcony. I fully looked back at him uncrossing my forearms legs. "What is it?" I asked. Sombra exhaled, "I just may have to leave you, for now." When the sun started to line the horizon, Sombra looked at me, I looked back at him. Like a bat going back to its cave, Sombra revealed his ability to turn to shadow. Turning into a mystical mist, he flew off into the remaining darkness of the morning. Galloping toward the balconies edge I wanted to fly after my new friend but noticed the ponies below, walking about. With a heavy breath, I looked back up as the magical, shadowy mist of my friend disappear. "Oh, oh, no." Disappointingly I cried I lowered my head and started back into my room, sad and lonely but at the same moment; a feeling that I never thought I would feel... love. "What is this that I hear of you getting injured?" My Father said as he burst through my bedroom chambers. "Father, should you not be in bed!" I shouted with concern. "Not when my foal is getting hurt!" He snapped. The King, my father, started to cough and wheeze, falling into my forearms. I screamed for the guards and the nursemaids. The sickly King started to cough up blood onto his hoof. I gasped and started to cry in fright. Holding my father close and started rocking him, I patted the top of his mane with my free hoof, laying my cheek on top of his head. I looked forward at the open balcony as tears dropped from my eyes like slow rain. "Not yet father. Please? Not when I finally found a friend." I pleaded. Please forgive the princess if thou hoof be shaky as a record these events. It is quite emotional for me, but these happenings must be captured. "Oh my dear child; then I can truly be released. You have found what love is and you must rule with it." He spoke weakly to me. "Father, father, Oh, by the stone, no! No." I yelled and demanded. I could almost feel father’s spirit lifted with the sun rising in the sky. For a moment, I hated the dawn. The coming morning was full of loss with my new friend going away, and now my father passing away within my very hooves. However, I decided to please my father’s wishes to rule with love. "Yes father. I shall." I told myself. I have been telling myself for these sleepless hours. The nursemaids and guards rushed into the room. They placed The King on my bed. I walked forward, feeling as light as a feather and so very detached from the surroundings. The young, pink alicorn was left behind in the room. Now I was birthed into the new morning as an Empress of an Empire that resented me. I walked further on to the balcony, looking toward the rising sun, smelling of a promising morning. I reminisced the night with Sombra, and then the current memory of my father’s passing. As if emotionally and spiritually being broken and then repaired for the next chapter in my ever changing life.