//------------------------------// // First Dawn: Chaos reckoning // Story: Long live the king // by Msande //------------------------------// "Time moved oddly, with the sun and the moon on the fritz. But we did grow quickly. Discord was never all that active for a while. And my sister and I spent what felt like years trying to find some solution. Luna always kept an eye out for the Elements of Harmony. Sombra remained in the castle. I don't have to much of an idea but he did send messages to me. Directions and spells and other tidbits of magical history. We did a lot of globetrotting, not that it did a lot of good; with everything changing, we ended up in all kinds of places just trying to walk down the street. Discord was making it clear that he needed to be stopped. But outside of my sister's idea of the Elements, neither of us could come up with anything. Until we got a message from Sombra via a green flame." "It seems he found something," Luna commented. Celestia reread the letter and noted the urgency of it. "I wonder if he looked into the Elements." "Luna, I very much doubt it," Celestia said, looking down at her younger sister. "Well, he might have but something has gone down. I don't have a good feeling about all this," she admitted. The two opened their wings up and a red cloud suddenly puffed into existence. Little furry animals began to drop down, landing with a squeak. One landed on Celestia's muzzle as she looked at the animal that seemed to smile at her. "Is that a chinchilla?" Luna asked. Her older sister squeaked out a sneeze and the furry creature flew off her nose. "So it would seem. I have no idea how anypony can function in this world. Something needs to be done," Celestia said as wrinkled her nose. "Maybe something that is an opposite of chaos, perhaps order related?" Luna asked. "Luna, unless we can find some kind of artifact or somehow manage to beat somepony who is capable of doing whatever he wants at a whim, I don't have a lot of hope," she admitted. With that, she took off into the sky. Luna flew up after her sister and the two soared around the unusually colored clouds and objects that littered the air space. "Sister, I think we can do something. I have been having dreams about a tree. It has some markings on it and seems to made out of crystal," Luna said, glancing away. Celestia glanced back at her sister. "Does it show you anything about the tree?" Celestia asked. "I think it may help us; it wouldn't hurt to look into it," Luna said, perking up at her sister's interest. She bit her lip, shifting her eyes as she contemplating the possibility. "We can see if Sombra knows anything. Despite all of our traveling, we still don't know the land. No thanks to Discord," Celestia grumbled. "He did warn us this would likely happen," Luna reminded but her sibling seemed to ignore the comment. The pair spotted Sombra walking out of the castle. The two landed in front of the castle as Sombra walked out with a scroll in his mouth, trotting away. He stopped and looked at them. "Wow perfect timing," he said, glancing at the pair and levitating the scroll away so he could talk. "What do you mean we just - ?" "Wait, when did you get so big? Is this normal, I mean, you have only been gone a few months at best," Sombra interjected. "We have been gone for quite more than that," Luna said. "Many seasons have passed, yet you have remained the same. Why hath thou summoned us?" Luna asked, showing him the scroll. "I just wrote that," he said, revealing the very same scroll. "Give me a second," he said, holding the scroll up to his mouth and a green flame burnt the message before the smoke carried it away. "Well, let me show you something. After you left, I felt the need to look into something that could help get rid of Discord. And Luna got me thinking. So I did some research; I didn't really find much but I did find something in the Tower of Days where I found you. I am not sure what it is but hopefully it will help," Sombra explained as they entered the tower. There were words etched into the wall. Find the Tree of Harmony "Well that's not much of a clue," Celestia replied. "Well, normally you would be right. However, not everything has been written down, but the," he paused to glance over at Luna, "Elements of Harmony are presumed in some very small, very obscure legends to be the means of transporting the Elements of Harmony from the northern Kingdom of the Unicorns. This was all back before the Crystal Empire was even a possibility." "Told you!" Luna cried out as she jumped around, slapping her wings in celebration. "Crystal Empire?" Celestia asked and Sombra sighed. "So full of questions, even if you are bigger then me. The Empire was born from the Earth ponies that had stayed in the north, taking the lesson of the Windigos to heart, thriving on love and the Crystal Heart. They eventually got a coat that became a signature. Most wizards classify them as a subset of Earth pony, but outside of the coat, they are not all that special," he said with a shrug. "So where do we find the Tree and the Elements of Harmony?" Luna asked, cutting off Celestia's string of questions. "Not a clue, but if I were to wager a guess, someplace close to this castle. If it can do even half of what the legends say, it's got to be close and where better to find a tree than in a forest?" Sombra asked. "But I am afraid that is all I found. I figured, since somepony really liked the theory and that, well, it's the best hope we have," he said, shrugging his shoulders as if he didn't really care at all. "After that, it was all just a matter of time. We found the Elements and with them defeated Discord. There was a lot of work getting everything organized afterwards, with the king all but witless and the Royal Family reduced to Sombra, I was put in charge. Sombra took to teaching Luna and I magic full time. He was a very helpful adviser. However, it was about that time Sombra started making requests." "And correct," Sombra said as he set the book aside. "Everything seems to be in order; you've passed your magic evaluation," Sombra said as he closed the book. Celestia pranced in place and giggled at the accomplishment "Well then, now what?" she asked. She looked back, only for a mare to point at the door. "Right, thanks. I appreciate you going through all the work to help test me. Would you like to walk with me?" she offered. Sombra dropped his neck over the arm of the sofa, his eyes looked a bit dull. "Sure," he said, rolling onto the floor. "You okay? You seem to be very inactive," Celestia noted as the two walked through the stone halls. Sombra looked at the mare behind them before he glanced back at her. "There is nothing I feel inclined to do. The military is still in it's infancy and there is little more I can do but run them through drills at this point. And as for the day to day work of ruling a country, that has fallen on your shoulders. Not that I blame anypony, I am not fit for leading anything besides an army. But I have been so bored; no book can hold my attention and now activity can only distract me for long," Sombra replied as he shrugged. "Well if you want, I could send you around to keep the peace and help rebuild some order," Celestia offered. "I think Commander Hurricane has been active and driving some of the ponies here up the wall," she replied. "But um, I do have an alternate motive. I want you to make some friends, so not everypony I am sending is military, okay?" "Okay," Sombra said with a sarcastic tone. "Don't take that tone with me. You have been stuck here for a long time, you need to socialize." she said. "I mean, you only talk to my sister and I. Two ponies do not make a social pony." "Like you're one to talk. You surround yourself with advisers and help, not friends," Sombra said, glancing back at the mare who had shifted trying to use Celestia as a cover from his gaze. "Sombra I am friends with all ponies, and you should do the same. Authority does not make you a different or better pony above others," Celestia replied. Sombra raised an eyebrow at this. "Perhaps you need to take off those rose tinted glasses. By being an authority, you separate yourself from others. And it is not an action that breeds friends. Because what is good for all or some, is not always the same for those who help the few." "I do not believe in something so unbendable," Celestia replied, looking down at him. "If you say so," Sombra grunted in response. "I will take you up on that, all the same. I could use some space and some air." "I knew then that Celestia was on thinner ice then I thought. I knew if her rule was to last, I needed to go out and make damn sure no pony, griffin, or anything else in the world was gathering up some kind of power to take over. I needed to make sure there was not another war and this little friendship mission was my ticket out." "After that, it was all downhill. When he went down that path, he did not come back the same. He appeared to have friends, but he didn't seem to be any happier or better. He did things behind my back, battlements and the like. He seemed to have devolved into paranoia, always expecting the worst, even more so then before."