//------------------------------// // The Fall // Story: Paradise Sundered // by q97randomguy //------------------------------// “I’ll start at the very beginning.” “It’s a very good place to start.” “We crystal ponies came north centuries ago. The history books say that we split from the earth ponies because we are more in tune with the actual earth than they are. They connect more with the plants and soil than the rocks. Well, actually, some stayed behind, and became... How did Brilliance say it? Petra culture lists?” “Petraculturalists?” Rock growers? “Yeah, that. Anyways, the rest made their way north. The records don’t really say why, just that it felt right somehow. The journey wasn’t hurried, but after years of wandering without knowing where they were wandering to, they started to give up. But then they discovered the Krustallos Gate, and they knew that this was where they were meant to be.” Luna’s look of confusion at the mention of the landmark stopped her retelling of the story. “The Krustallos Gate is what the settlers called the two big spikes of crystal that they found. On their own, they wouldn’t be too exciting, but what’s between them is! Three really big gems — and this may sound crazy, but trust me — that float in mid-air with only earth magic keeping them there.” “That is hard to believe.” Earth magic levitating gems? Some kind of repulsion field? Antigravity? There’s just not enough to go on. “I don’t know how that would work, but I’ll believe you. I just wish I could study them; they sound interesting and unique.” “No need. Most of us aren’t unicorns, but we aren’t slouches when it comes to our type of earth magic.” Her ears flattened against her skull. “I am still one of them, right, even with these?” One of her wings flicked out. Her eyes pulled at Luna’s heart; she remembered when she too had grappled with this same question. “Yes, child, you are. I’ve been this way for many, many years, but, in my heart, I still consider myself an earth pony.” “Wait, you can’t be much older than my mother before...” The strange unicorn that her father, the king, had called Sombra was yelling. Ponies often did that in court, so she only paid attention when he stomped around and started demanded something. “…after all that I’ve done, you should be giving it to me. But you never could appreciate what I’ve done for you, what power I had. What I can do now dwarfs anything you’ve ever seen. Now give me the Crystal Heart!” That was new. Ponies don't usually talk about it, except for around the Crystal Fair, but that was months away. No pony knew exactly how it worked, but, in times of trouble, it would protect them; there was no way that her father would give it to this rude loudmouth. “Sombra, you’ve changed.” Her father’s eyes narrowed. “When you were helping our craftsponies complete the palace years ahead of schedule, I tolerated your abrasive mannerisms. But since you’ve come back from the south, you’ve done nothing but spout unicorn supremacist nonsense. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to have something as valuable to the security of the empire as the Crystal Heart. It stays below the palace in the Glittering Caves, where it belongs.” “Oh, you don’t seem to understand. I’m not asking for the Heart; I’m taking it whether you say so or not.” A terrible, dark aura enswathed his horn, crackling and popping with sickly light. Her mother was trapped in place as onyx crystals sprouted up around her hooves. All around her, guards were rapidly encased by crystals springing from the floor. “Now, you will give me the Heart, or your wife will regret it,” Sombra continued, his voice low. Her mother did her best to keep the terror out of her voice, but it wavered regardless. “Whatever happens, don’t allow him to get his hooves on it. Run! Try to use it before it’s too—” Silencing her with a strike across the face from his armored foreleg, Sombra smiled. “Now don’t go giving him any ideas.” He turned to look at the king. “And don’t even think of running.” His horn blazed once more, a twisted mockery of light, and the throne room doors were swiftly covered in jagged obsidian. The filly huddled in a corner in terror. Her father positioned himself none too subtly between Sombra and herself. “Cadence, I now know why you have those wings. Fly! Fly away, get help, and don’t look back.” But she could not summon the strength of will. The sights from around the room poured into her, and she could do nothing but tremble. Her mother was trapped. The guards — some of them her friends — were locked in crystals. Small but growing pools of blood spread from them. She was paralysed. He laughed once, a harsh bark. “You fools, there’s nowhere you can hide, nowhere you can run, that I can’t reach you. I’ve spent years honing my skills before I returned. I know the land better than any of your pathetic guards or your puny subjects. More than that, I can control it!” While he spoke he conjured more power to his horn and released it in a beam at the throne. The change that came over the crystal was both swift and terrible. The slight hum of magic that came from the crystal vanished, leaving behind an empty nothing. Both her father and mother’s bodies lost their translucence, and their defiant expressions turned first to shock, then abject terror. “Yes, you can see now that I was right. Unicorns are the superior breed; all others deserve to be nothing more than slaves. Now, give me what I want, or she will suffer.” “Why? Why do this? You clearly have the power to take it yourself.” “Oh, I do. It’s just so much more satisfying if you fetch it for me, slave.” A warped smile dominated his face. “Don’t do it! Be strong for our ponies!” He wheeled on her. “That is enough! I will not tolerate an insolent slave. For daring to speak against my will, you die.” His horn’s dark aura once more flared to life, this time much more powerfully than before. Her mother’s retort was cut short. Her words suddenly spilled out at an impossible rate for a few seconds. In five, she went silent. In seven, she slumped over, her heaving sides moving at a freakish blur. By ten seconds, that too had ended. But Sombra’s terrible spell did not end there; no, he let it go on, delighting in the looks of horror and revulsion on the faces of the king and his daughter. Soon, the body that had been Cadence’s mother was a bloated corpse. Sombra watched with grim fascination as the body rapidly desiccated. In little under a minute, all that remained of the queen was a shriveled mummy. Her father, a stallion Cadence had not once seen cry, was weeping. Great wracking sobs shook his frame. “You... You monster! How could you? My sweet Melody...” A wordless howl escaped his throat as he charged the stallion that had just killed his wife in cold blood. He did not make it more than halfway. Sombra caught him within a cage of crystal and laughed; it was a cruel, heartless thing, apt to cause fillies like herself nightmares, a fact that she would soon learn. Once more, he activated his terrible spell, this time within the cage. She heard her father hammering on the walls, a rapid staccato that trailed off to nothing. In the end, it was useless, and he too succumbed to the same fate as his wife. Sombra looked no more tired than when he had stormed into the room. Casting such massive spells seemed to have cost him nothing at all. If anything he looked more energized. He dropped the cage back into the floor, and Cadence’s father, who had died while leaning against the wall, fell to the ground. The shriveled husk burst into a cloud of dust on contact with the floor. Sombra stepped right through it as he leisurely made his way over to the trembling filly. “You certainly are interesting. I’ve only heard of two others of your kind.” The filly could do little more than shuffle backwards away from the terrifying stallion before her. “I’ll make a study of you when I’m done taking over th—” His gaze settled on her cutie mark, and his face contorted. “No! It can’t be your destiny to control the Heart. Its power. Belongs. To. Me! With it, I can do anything! I’ll remake the world in my image, I’ll...” But something he had said was working its way through her mind. Do anything... anything? Even bring back my parents? She dared to hope the Heart could. Reaching out with senses nopony else had, she could feel the citizens in the city. They went about their daily lives unknowing of the drama playing out in the throne room of the palace. More than that, she sensed the connections between them. All the ponies were linked in a vast and powerful web, each one a nexus linked to many others. Above this network hung the Crystal Heart, but it was also somehow her as well. This duality didn’t bother her, not now. She had a job to do; she was going to save her parents. The love and compassion, hope and joy that the ponies shared was an ocean of power just waiting to be used. She had been aware of this resource since soon after her wings had come in, but she had never felt a need to do anything with it. Now that she had motivation to use it, it somehow felt like the most natural thing in the world. Drawing power from the vast array of at her disposal, she took a large measure into herself. “... I will be able to crush any that stand in my way. And as soon as I figure out how to wrest control of the Heart from you, I may even become an alicorn my...self...” He stood stock-still when he turned back to Cadence. Though her wings were still, she floated high over him, and her eyes shone with the radiance of pure magic. Taking the power she had and dividing it in two, she directed it through the Heart into the rapidly fading lines that connected her to her parents. Two beams shot from the Heart. The light passed through soil, rock, and crystal as if it were not even there. The twin beams engulfed her parents’ corpses, and briefly she could feel the connection with them strengthen. But it was not to be. As she would learn, some things can't be changed by even the strongest of magics. As the crushing failure became more and more obvious, her resolve faltered, and with it went her connection to the magic. Sombra finally closed his mouth and shook his head as if to clear it. She was engulfed in swirling darkness. As it cleared, she was stunned to find her ability to project magic gone. “Now we can't have any more of that, can we? Somepony could be hurt.” She made a dash for the balcony to try to escape, but just as she took flight, shackles wrapped around her legs and dragged her back to the ground. “I can't have you flying off just yet; I need to study you. Your power is impressive, but you clearly have no idea what to use it for. But I do. Now, let's see just how your magic works.” Luna watched, dumbfounded, as the once hopeful filly's eyes filled with tears, and she degenerated into a quivering wreck. Moon and Stars! What happened to her? Reaching out with a wing, she gently embraced the traumatized filly. Hugging her close, she let Cadence sob into her side for the better part of an hour, soothing her softly all the while. Eventually Cadence’s tears ran out, and Luna finally though it would be safe to speak. “Oh child, what have you been through?” “... Don’t want to talk about it.” “I won’t make you,” Luna whispered, nuzzling the filly’s cheek. Cadence took a deep, shuddering breath. “But I will, for my ponies. It’s what my mother would have wanted. Just... not yet.” “Of course. Take your time.” “Would have wanted”? Is her mother gone? “I think talking about something else might take my mind off it.” She sniffled. “I’ll just, um, pick up where we left off. Where was that again?” “Most of you aren’t unicorns, and you have studied the magic of the Krustallos Gate. How are most of you not unicorns?” “Well, hundreds of years ago, before we left, a few unicorns who really liked gems married into our herd. It didn’t last very long though, so the bloodlines are really thin. In the past hundred years or so, there isn’t usually more than one unicorn alive at a time...” Her face fell. “And sometimes that’s one too many.” So it was a unicorn that did this? I don’t want to make her go through whatever is tormenting her again; I’ve got to get her off the subject. “So, what about the magic of the Gate did you learn?” “Oh, um... Well this isn’t about the Gate exactly. That’s a bit more advanced than I’ve learned about yet, but we know that the magic of the earth is unusually strong here. It took decades to figure out why, but in a geode it’s this: the wind carries water, which contains a small amount of magical energy from the sun, up from the south. It gets left here as snow and ice. But, our researchers tell us that the magic wants a more permanent home. As the snow and ice slowly melt, the magic seeps into the ground. Over time, the buildup has formed huge crystals.” “So, you’re telling me that the crystals are basically solid, unfocused magic,” Luna said, already visualizing what Cadence had told her, seeing the flow of her sister’s aura over the world. “And how many of these are there?” “Well, there are very few like the Gate Stones, but there are tons of more normal ones. Most houses are made of hollowed out crystals, and so is the palace.” Luna’s eyes widened. “That must look very... pretty,” she commented, thinking instead of the amount of magic locked in the walls of their homes. Even if there was very little magic in them, by virtue of mass, it would be dangerous to try using it. It’s a shame I’d have to be crazy to use it; the possibilities would be endless. “It does... It did.” Once more, she seemed to be on the verge of tears. “Hey. Hey. Your auntie is here for you. I won’t let anything happen to you. You trust me, don’t you?” “Yeah... I trust you.” “Are you ready to go on? I won’t push you.” “I guess.” She sighed. “I can do this. I will do this. I’ll make Mom proud...” Cadence swallowed hard. “You remember how I said that there’s usually only one unicorn at a time? Well, that’s how it is now. His name’s Sombra. He left a long time ago, right after the Great Southern Lights.” “The what?” “The Great Southern Lights, you know, gigantic rainbow flash from the south.” She paused. “Actually, it probably covered where you came from.” Rainbow flash, years ago? It must have been the Elements! Wait... How did she know where I came from? “Honey, how did you know where I came from?” “Well, I don’t think much of anything lives north of here...” Luna facehooved at not thinking of something so obvious “... but I could also kind of feel you coming. And speaking of honey...” Her stomach rumbled as if on cue. “Let me get you something to eat.” Luna searched through her saddlebags. “Ah, here they are.” “What’s that?” she asked, looking at the dull brown, lumpy thing in Luna’s hoof. “It’s a banana nut muffin.” Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Riiiight, your food is made from plants.” She grabbed the muffin with her telekinesis, and she dug in with gusto. “Um, what else would it be made of?” “Crystal.” She said between bites. “We can grow them to be soft, and they contain growth magic, just like this.” She gestured with the muffin. “These are good! Are there any more?” Luna hoofed over the rest of what should have been her breakfast. “So, you could feel me coming?” “I’ve always been able to feel lots of ponies to the south, and yesterday I felt you coming north. You’re just so much bigger than other ponies. Not that you’re fat or anything! Maybe deeper?” She munched with a perplexed look on her face. Luna smiled. “It’s okay, little one. I know what you mean.” She waited for her to finish eating. “So, he went south, and...?” “And that’s the last time anypony saw him until about two months ago. He just showed up and barged into the throne room then started ranting. He demanded to be given the Crystal Heart, and then my dad said he’d never give it to him, and then he got really mad, and, and...” She took a few deep, steadying breaths. “And then he k-killed them. He killed all of them. And for what? A stupid rock.” It took Luna a second to register what Cadence had said. Murder? What horrors has this filly been through? She can’t be more than ten. Rage filled her. How dare he do this to her? “This will not stand. Not while I draw breath.” With calmness that belied the inferno within, she got up and walked outside. Confused, Cadence followed her out. Luna looked around, then, when eyes failed her, she turned to magic. She winced as the already glaring landscape doubled in brightness. So much power! I can’t pick out anything in all this. Staring down at the filly at her hooves she asked, “Where?” “Where... what?” Cadence asked, looking up at Luna. “Where is he?” She looked around then pointed. “About sixty miles that way. On the other side of those mountains But—” Luna’s wings flared in preparation for flight. “No, wait! You can’t go now! He’ll... He’ll get you too.” “We’ll see.” Then she took off. “Wait! Don’t! He can draw power from the crystals, all of them! Please!” This new tidbit of information brought Luna up short. If he can use the crystals as a separate source of power and there is this much latent energy just sitting around here... that could have ended badly. She turned back and landed beside the filly. “Tell me what I need to know.” She shrank back and her voice wavered. “Princess, you’re sounding like... him.” Luna took a step back, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to! I just... Forgive me?” Cadence nodded slowly. “You’re just trying to help. But if you go now, you’ll just end up like... like them. Please, please don’t go.” “After what he did to you and what he can still do to everypony else there, I have to,” Luna responded, staring in the direction Sombra lay. Cadence’s mouth went dry. “You have to know what he can do. I won’t let anypony else get killed for my mistakes.” “Killed for your mistakes?” Luna quirked a brow then shook her head and wrapped the filly in a hug. “There is no way that can be true, Cadence.” “It is, though,” she moaned, limply accepting the hug. “I was too slow and too dumb to save them. And I could have done it if I had just thought of the Heart in time.” Giving Cadence a nuzzle, Luna said, “Don’t blame yourself for this. You’re just a foal; it’s Sombra that’s responsible for their deaths. You hear me? It is not your fault.” “Yeah... yeah, sure.” She shivered, though it had little to do with the cold. “So, what do you need to know?” “Anything you think is important first. If I can think of anything specific, I’ll ask.” “I guess you’ll want to know how he... kills.” She shook her head and shuddered. “I’ve seen him do it two ways, by growing crystals around or... through them, or by... by...” She began to hyperventilate, her breaths coming in short, gasping hiccups. Luna wrapped a wing around her too, drawing her closer. “It’s alright. I’m here. You don’t have to say it.” “No, I do... I’m not really... sure what the other thing he did was. But there is no way I can watch it happen to you too. I guess he made time go really fast or something.” The crystals should be easy enough to dodge, but the temporal compression could be problematic. Unless... “Did he have to trap them when he did that?” Cadence nodded. Thank goodness he hasn’t figured out how to bind it to a body along with paralysis. If I can stay mobile, I’ll be safe. “What about defenses? Surely you had some sort of guard who fought back.” “Well, he has armor, but he can kinda turn into smoke...” Luna’s head tilted at the news. “That’s a new one...” Luna’s mind went to work on figuring out this strange concept. Hmm, it’s probably not so much a smoke as an energy field. You can’t strike energy, but contain it, maybe... “I’ve got to talk to somepony. This just got a lot more complicated.” Cadence looked around. “Um, are they invisible? Can you do that?” Luna was suddenly reminded of when she had met the unicorns for the first time. Her sister had asked a very similar question. Shaking the sudden memory off, she replied, “No, she’s just very far away. I can talk to her mind-to-mind. This won’t take too long, I hope.” She prepared the spell, the enormous distance making it take disproportionately more energy than she was used to. [Celestia, we need to talk.] [So formal, this must be serious. Has something gone wrong?] [It has. I may need to use the Elements.] [I hope it doesn’t get that bad, but if it does, the Elements are yours. And stay safe, Luna,] she added. Luna let the spell end, and grumbled something under her breath. Cadence’s ear flicked. “What’s an inverse square? Is it inside out?” “Never mind that. I have to stop this ‘Sombra’. And I’m going to do it now.” “No. We are going to stop him. Well, maybe you’ll do the stopping mostly, but I’m coming too!” “Is that so? Give me one good reason why I should let you come with me into danger.” “I’m not just a little filly. I’m a princess too, and my ponies need me. Plus, if my ponies see me coming back for them with somepony like you, it could give them enough hope to let me use the Heart right this time.” She paused for a second then burst out, “Ha! That’s two!” Luna laughed. “You’re smart. I’ll give you that, but no, I can’t let you get hurt.” “But...!” “No! Trust me; this is for your own good.” She sighed, her little wings drooping. “Fine.” “Good, I’ll be back when this is all over.” With that Luna leapt into the sky, and with several powerful strokes of her wings, she raced away. The smaller, pink alicorn followed after her once she was out of sight. Luna flew low and fast, the cold wind ripping at her fur. I can’t go at this like I would approach one of Discord’s creatures; this will be more like back when Celestia fought Silver Spear. I’ll need to fight just as smart as he did. I can use time magic to cancel time magic, and flight or teleportation to avoid any physical attacks. And though it may not be an Element, the element of surprise will be a great asset. As she crested a mountain, she got her first glimpse of the once great Crystal Empire. The plane was a desolate wasteland, pockmarked with jagged, black crystals. In the distance, she could see what looked like a line of ponies heading underground, presumably to mine for crystals. Her attention was drawn by the six roads, along which the city was constructed, to the dark spire at its center. The tower practically resonated with power. There’s so much energy stored in that one building that it dwarfs even Celestia’s unicorn magic! Speaking of Celestia... What is she doing? The sun, only up for an hour by now, was speeding across the sky. Suddenly, it appeared to be afternoon. Trap! Panicked, she cast a spell to escape, teleporting backward and up several thousand hooves. The sun’s speed became imperceptible once more. A time dilation bubble? But why? And more importantly, how thick? She formed a long pole out of the snow from the mountain below her then teleported it to where her best guess of where the effect started. Most of the snow on either end fell normally, but towards the middle, it fell slower and slower; at the middle it appeared not to move at all. Satisfied with her answer, Luna teleported inside. I’ll need to be more careful in the future; a mistake like that could cost me badly. She scooped up some of the snow that had fallen inside then set it hovering in a thin ring around her. That ought to do. Now, on to the palace. She set off once more, paying close attention to the roundness of the ring as well as looking for motion from the tower. She was halfway there when a dark stallion leisurely strolled out to the balcony. He seemed to look out into the distance, and Luna put on a burst of speed to take advantage of his momentary confusion. He started going back inside — Did he not see me? — but then turned back. So it begins! I should give him a chance to surrender, though I doubt he’ll take it. She focused her pegasus magic, and when she spoke, her voice echoed back from the surrounding mountains. “Sombra, your reign of terror and oppression is over! Surrender now, or face swift retribution!” She nearly received a crystalline skewer through the neck in reply. “So be it!” She ascended to give herself more time to avoid incoming crystals and directed a beam or ice towards her opponent. The beam encased in a thick shell of ice but he quickly shattered it. The self-proclaimed King threw the glistening shards back at her, and she was forced to bank sharply to avoid them. Well, that didn’t work. I’ll need to do something more…lethal. Gathering her power, she built up a writhing inferno several times wider than herself. As she cast it towards her adversary, she also set an illusion of herself flying off to the right an upwards angle, but she blitzed after the fire. Let’s see if I can take a page from Silver Spear. As she flew behind the firestorm Luna ignored the sweltering heat; she had to concentrate on keeping the illusion flying believably as well as aim at where she guessed Sombra to be. Whatever defense he’s planning must surely be prepared by now. I just hope it’s not spherical. She broke left and focused as much as she dared on the projection. I’ve got to distract him as much as possible, here’s something he won’t be able to ignore. She added a layer of “magic” around “her horn” and then began to add more. In seconds, there appeared to be four distinct levels of energy surrounding it. As the fireball crashed against the newly formed wall, Luna made a wide beam of pure silver light shoot towards the foul creature. Luna saw a crackling beam of darkness sweep up the “powerful” beam of light. What type of magic is black? It must be some type of death spell! she guessed, and a pit settled in her gut. When the death spell intersected her illusion, Luna played out her “death”. While the projection fell from the sky, she stealthily glided to the balcony behind her enemy. She picked up speed, intent on crushing his neck into the railing to end his wretched life quickly. It’s more than he deserves, she thought grimly. Just before her hooves connected with him, he blurred and became insubstantial. Luna couldn’t stop in time; she crashed into the railing. The force momentarily stunned her, and her fiery onslaught winked out. She cried out in pain then shock. My magic’s being drained! I’ve got to get off of here! Racing against the drain from the tower, she scraped together enough magic to cast her panic spell. The next time she blinked, the palace was in front of and below her. She shook her head, trying to regain her focus. Luna felt, rather than saw, the dark energy as it sliced through the air towards her. She dove and tried to teleport once more, but her normally vast reserves of power were gone, and the beam tracked with her. As darkness took her, her last thought was, I’m sorry Celestia. “I’m sorry, Celestia, I didn’t intend for it to take so long to return… Wait, how did I get here?” Her sister slowly turned to face her. “Honestly, I don’t see why you bothered coming back. I was doing just fine without you. I’ve got what I always wanted; all my little ponies working together, and they love me for it.” Luna reeled. “B-but I put so much work into making this dream a reality too!” “Making my dream a reality. Go play with the moon or something. I don’t care.” How could she say that? We’ve always been inseparable. Tears were streaming down her face as she fled the palace. Luna threw herself into perfecting the night sky. Constellations took shape, meteor showers streaked through the atmosphere, beautiful auroras graced the heavens. But no matter how fantastic the phenomena or how gorgeously she painted the sky with her imagination, nopony cared. Every rejection hurt more than the last, and eventually she stopped even trying. Her one real calling, nopony cared for. What was there for her to do? “Luna! Aunty Luna! Wake up! I need you!” The words came to her while she lay, hopeless, in a forgotten meadow. Somepony needs me? But... nopony needs me. She opened her eyes. There, in front of her, was Cadence. She wasn’t in a meadow; she was still in the far north. But didn’t I stop Sombra then return to... That doesn’t even make sense. That spell must have been some kind of mind trick! She shook her head clear and noticed a black fog billowing up behind Cadence. “Get down!” The filly luckily did as she was bidden, dropping to the ground at Luna’s hooves. Luna reared up on her hind legs. She imbued the air with as much pegasus magic as she could muster then sent a wall of air forward with a flap, pushing the smog away. Out of the inky depths, Sombra condensed. His horn blazed with dark power, and, before she could react, Cadence was surrounded by a similar field. Her eyes went wide as it took hold of her, and she reached out for Luna’s hoof before vanishing with a pop. When her hoof grasped only empty air, Luna felt her blood turn icy. “Cadence, no!” Her glare focused on the dark stallion before her. “What have you done? What have you done?” she screamed. “She became more trouble than she was worth, so I removed her. But you are too weak to be a problem, and soon all your powers will be mine. Without magic left to protect you...” Tears streamed down Luna’s face. She can’t be gone. She was so young. I barely got to know her. How could I let this happen?! Sombra had called her weak, but now she felt anything but powerless. The sorrow and rage she felt at such an injustice filled her; she could use it. There was retribution to be had. Luna barely noticed as her eyes blazed white, vaporizing her tears as she wept. Warnings from the past were the farthest thing from her mind as she harnessed the newfound power. Silver light poured forth from her, obliterating all the darkened crystal for miles around. As Sombra struggled to rebuild his power base, Luna summoned the power of the Elements. This monster will pay for what he’s done.