//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: The Empire Falls // Story: Astra (Story 1/9) // by Spikey_Wikey //------------------------------// Chapter 7: The Empire Falls Polaris stumbled forward as the spell threw him forcefully into whatever time period Starswirl had chosen. He turned around and held out a hoof to his sister, who was lying on the ground, not very well acquainted with the jarring turbulence that was a side effect of traveling through time. “Are you okay?” he asked her as she stood up. “Polaris…you need to tell me…what’s going on.” Equina’s broken speech was an indication of how panicked she was, as well as her breaths, which were quickening in pace. “He…he found me and he…there was nopony there…and then you and that…what was that thing…it had wings and it was so big and it just…it flew away and…oh…” She suddenly noticed the markings on Polaris’ flank. “You got your cutie mark…when did that happen…where are we?” Starswirl had heard this and, with some struggle, picked himself up off the ground, coughing as he did so. “You…your Mark? It appeared? I always…wondered…” “Yeah, I don’t really think that’s important right now,” Polaris answered as he looked around, still holding his sister’s hoof. “Are you alright by the way?” he asked him. “I’m fine,” he answered, clearing his throat. “It’s…the spell…it’s only meant…for one pony.” Polaris half-nodded, still surveying their surroundings. They were in an alleyway, but when… At that moment a pony in chains walked by the alley, answering his unspoken question. ‘Something familiar about her, though…’ He quickly shook this thought away and turned his full attention back to his sister. “It’s okay…come here…you’re alright.” Carefully, he helped her sit down against the wall of one of the buildings. “Polaris…what happened…I don’t know...” “I’ll explain everything soon, I promise. Just…try to relax for a bit.” Starswirl was standing at the end of the alley leading to the street, and Polaris now walked over to him. “What next?” he asked. “Your mother and I will be arriving in a few hours,” he answered, staring across the street. “You’ll have some time to console Equina and explain to her what happened, but be careful with what you say. Thankfully, she’s the least involved in all of this, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem…but better safe than sorry.” “That’s…not exactly the answer I was hoping for.” Starswirl shrugged a bit. “I’m sorry to disappoint you.” Polaris let out a half frustrated sigh. “What do we do now? How are we going to defeat Sombra?” “Rather curious, your Mark…cutie mark your mother calls it, correct? Tell me…what was the name of that giant creature?” He was completely ignoring the question. “I don’t know or care right now. What do we do next?” Starswirl looked to the ground behind him. “Equina,” he said, and she looked up. “I don’t believe we’ve properly met. My name is Starswirl the Bearded.” Equina’s eyes widened slightly. “Mom talked about you…but she said…she said that you…died…” Starswirl smiled a little. “Well…yes and no. I time travel, you see. It’s how I was able to get the three of us off of that tower before. I’m simply a younger version that hasn’t…died…yet.” Equina merely nodded as Polaris cut in. “Give me an answer now. What’s going to happen, and why don’t you want to tell me?” His voice had become much sterner. Starswirl again paid him no mind. “And now that we’ve been introduced, I’m afraid I must say goodbye.” “No,” Polaris said. “No, you’re not.” Now Starswirl looked back at him, staring into his eyes. Polaris had been about to ask him his question again, but something caught his attention. At first, Polaris wasn’t sure he was seeing correctly, but there was something very familiar hidden in Starswirl’s gaze, something he had seen before, but that was impossible. The last time this happened to him, he was just a young colt. Surely it…no. This was unmistakable. Though he had sensed this sinister energy in Sombra so many years ago, there was no doubt in his mind that he was seeing it again now. That same energy; dark, malevolent, and angry, though what he was seeing here was by no means as bad as what he had seen with Sombra, for it felt like a mere shell of what it had been… and there was something else as well...something new. Frantic, random, and chaotic; this was certainly unexpected, and not nearly as suppressed as he felt it should have been…and all this coupled with a crushing weight of despair and grief. What exactly had this pony gone through? This sadness he was sensing seemed familiar as well… Starswirl placed a hoof on his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts. Smiling, he stepped back as he began his spell and uttered his goodbye, a goodbye that left Polaris completely speechless. “I’ll see you soon.” *** “Wait…I’m confused…where did the feather and scale come from?” Polaris sighed as he leaned back in the chair he was in. Not a minute after entering the house, he remembered how long it had been since he had last eaten, and Equina, hearing her brother’s protesting stomach, quickly prepared some small sandwiches and tea. The two of them had then sat down in the living room, where a grateful Polaris hastily wolfed down a majority of the sandwiches. Equina waited patiently as her brother ate, and within a few minutes was given an answer as to why he was so hungry in the first place, after which Polaris told her everything that had happened to him – his six months of complete isolation, watching the empire fall apart as the weather and night and day cycles became more and more random, Starswirl finding him and taking him to the castle, the changeling taking the place of their mother, the regrettably brief time he had spent with their father, and his pitiful battle against Sombra. Polaris left out nothing, having decided that whatever was going to happen couldn’t affect anything that had already taken place. For the past few hours of his life he had felt as though he had been tossed around, jumping from this time period to that, twisting and entangling the timeline within itself into one complex, yet perfectly rational knot, and now he, his sister, and his mother had arrived on the other side of it. It was late evening now; Equina had decided to try setting the sun for the first time in many weeks. “I told you. Dad gave me the scale, and the feather…was just sort of there. The…creature took dad back to his own time, and when they disappeared, there was a feather on the floor.” “But…where did dad get the scale from?” Polaris shook his head. “I don’t know exactly. The creature definitely gave it to him, but-” “Would you stop calling it that? It has a name, right?” “He…” “What?” “He…never told anypony what it was.” ‘Or at the very least, he never told dad what it was.’ “He?” Polaris nodded. “That’s how dad referred to him.” “Hmmm…” “Equina?” “Yeah?” “There’s something we need to talk about.” “Alright.” Polaris paused and looked down, contemplating his question. What he was thinking wasn’t a pleasant thought at all, especially not for his sister. There had been a small period of time where she was alone with Sombra and completely unable to defend herself. What if he had… No…for some reason, Polaris couldn’t bring himself to accept that conclusion. Evil and loathsome as he was, Sombra still did love Equina. There was something else, though… ‘It hates everything, even…’ He blinked as the memory of the night the changeling died randomly surface in his mind. He had been about to tell her what he really thought was going on with Sombra but stopped himself when he noticed her staring at him. Even what, though? What had he been about to- ‘itself.’ “What?” ‘It hates everything, even itself.’ Polaris grimaced; self-hate, that was it. Whatever this dark energy was, it hated everything it knew about, including its own existence, and it would never want to make more of itself, assuming that was possible… But how did it come to exist in the first place? And what was it doing here? “I said alright.” His sister’s voice jerked him from his thoughts. “Huh?” “You said ‘what’ and I told you I said alright.” “No I didn’t.” “Yes, you did. What did you want to talk about?” “Uhh, nothing. Never mind.” ‘There’s no sense scaring her over this if it’s not even true.’ “Okay…I guess…” Ordinarily, she would have argued with him, but she was quite exhausted after what she had been through and opted instead to ask him something she thought would be more interesting. “So…what exactly was that ‘beast thing,’ as you put it?” Polaris now looked at her. “I…I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, not even in books.” Equina nodded thoughtfully and took a sip of her tea. “You said that the feather and scale sort of combined together with the magic coming from your horn, right?” “Yes.” “And then there was a huge flash of light, and it was just hovering in the air?” “Yeah, I figured that the scale and feather are what created it…and I guess the spell. I don’t even know how I did that. I was sort of…monologuing.” “Monologuing,” Equina echoed, a small smile on her face. “Just a bit,” Polaris said with a chuckle. “I’m lucky I was able to speak at all.” Equina nodded. “So what are you going to call it?” “What do you mean?” Equina set her mug down. “Well, obviously, it’s not something anypony has seen before, right? That must mean it’s a new form of life, and since you created it, I think you should name it, too.” “I…guess so…” Polaris said. “But I’ve got no idea what to call it.” Equina put a hoof to her chin. “Well…think about what it looks like or what it does. You said it breathed fire, right?” “Yeah, so…maybe…firebird?” “Firebird.” “That’s not good at all, is it.” “No,” Equina said as she giggled. “That thing is way more dangerous than a plain old bird.” Polaris sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know then. Maybe-” He stopped short when he heard a voice come from the front of the house. “Equina? Polaris?” “Must be mom,” Equina said quietly, and the two of them quickly got up and walked to the front room. Their mother was standing there; she had let herself in. “Mom,” Equina said, her voice weakening as she ran to her. Clover smiled as she returned the tight embrace of her daughter. “I’m so glad you’re safe.” “Polaris saved me after dad left.” “Your father?” Clover asked as Equina let go. “Long story mom,” said Polaris. “You know most of it, but there’s a couple of things I should tell you.” Clover nodded as she looked at her son, taking notice of his cutie mark. “What’s that for?” she asked, pointing at it. “I’m…not sure exactly. Let’s go to the living room.” Thankfully, Polaris just had to tell his mother what happened after the two of them separated, and so it took merely a few short minutes before she was all caught up. “It just flew away, huh?” Clover said when he had finished. “Yeah…I’m a little uneasy about that…not too sure Equestria needs a giant fire-breathing beast flying around in the sky.” “Yes…fire-breathing…” Clover said absently. “I think I…oh, of course!” “What, what is it?” Equina asked. “I’ve seen that kind of creature before! In one of Starswirl’s books!” “In one of…so that means they did exist before the one I made, right?” Polaris asked, but Clover shook her head. “It was in the same book that talked about Windigoes and Changelings…there was no name or description, just a drawing, but that was definitely it. I wondered where he could have seen something like that.” “But mom, he…he didn’t show up until it was gone.” “Hmm…maybe he saw it some other time then. Did you…” Clover stopped talking. She had been about to ask if the creature had a name or not, but a sudden thought had come to her. ‘Should we really just be sitting here talking like this? Something really bad is going to happen soon. Shouldn’t we be preparing ourselves? What are we doing?’ “Did I what mom?” “Oh…never mind,” Clover answered. “I was just thinking about something…I’ll be right back.” With that, she stood up and began walking towards the stairs. She needed a few minutes to organize her thoughts. “Are you alright?” Equina asked her mother, who was now halfway up the stairs. “Yes, I’m alright. I just need to think. I’ll be back in a minute, I promise.” She continued up the steps and turned left into the library where she began pacing, a pastime of hers whenever she was working something out. This time was just a little different however. ‘Why didn’t Starswirl just send them away himself?’ she began. ‘Better yet, why not just bring them out of the Crystal Empire? What happens now? Why are the three of us here?’ She understood that Starswirl couldn’t bring them to a different time period; that might have had serious repercussions on the timeline, but why bring them back home? Unless…oh… They had to say goodbye. He was giving them some time to spend together before they’d never see each other again, and based on what Polaris had told her, she was pretty certain she knew what was going to happen. It had to be Sombra. He was going to find them somehow; she was sure of it. The fact that Starswirl had unintentionally (or perhaps not) made them nearly untraceable by dropping them to random points in time didn’t matter. Somehow, Sombra was still going to show up, but something else didn’t quite make sense either. Where did the enslaved ponies come in? How did that happen to them? She felt a pang of guilt as the realization that the chained-up ponies she had seen outside were the same ones her and her friends had found a safe, new land for all those years ago… With some reluctance, she shook this thought from her head and instead focused on the Crystal Empire’s timeline. From a linear perspective, it would appear as though Polaris had spent six months by himself and then one day later went to the castle to get his sister, but as Clover struggled with this information, something else Polaris had told her presented itself as well; something about… The Crystal Heart. Polaris hadn’t gotten that back from Sombra, who no doubt had used it somehow to enslave everypony. They had to get it back, but Starswirl made it sound like that wasn’t even an option the last time he spoke with her. Clover put the Crystal Heart issue to the side and focused on that conversation instead. Unsure of what exactly she was looking for, she simply chose a random place to start and went from there. “…what did I ask you to do?” “Starswirl, you know I can’t tell you that.” “Well, I’ve got a feeling I probably told you to teach Equina the values of perseverance, and to teach Polaris the importance of love. Am I correct?” “If you already know, then that’s fine, but does this mean you met them in your past…my future?” Could this mean what she thought it meant? Had Starswirl encountered the two of them sometime in the future? It was the only explanation Clover could think of. As if to confirm her theory, another sentence echoed in her mind. "The next version of me you see will be one that Polaris hasn’t met yet." But something about it was just a bit…off. Presumably, the next Starswirl to arrive would be from sometime in Equestria’s future, but what if only a part of that sentence had been referring to the future? In her head she repeated the sentence differently. ‘The next version of me you see will be one that Polaris hasn’t met…yet.’ Now that was interesting. With that extra pause in there, it made much more sense. Starswirl would be showing up at some point, and that particular Starswirl would be one that Polaris, the one downstairs, hadn’t encountered yet, which confirmed what she had been thinking before. ‘That’s why they need to leave.’ Clover stopped pacing and looked at the large collection of books and scrolls in front of her. She sighed heavily. Perhaps it wouldn’t matter that she had to get rid of all of them. If she was going to die, it’s not like she’d miss them. A glass jar sat on the floor next to the shelf closest to the door; the same jar she had used when she first left with Platinum to find a new land. Heavy hearted, she casted a duplication spell on it. Now two empty jars were on the floor. “Mom?” Equina’s voice carried up the staircase. Clover ignored her as her heart sank even further, afraid that any attempts at answering would render her a sobbing mess. The next thing to take care of was Starswirl’s books on time travel. She had hidden them well. With everything she knew how to do, a storage spell was easy to maintain. She ended it now, and several books came into view, falling to the floor with a soft thud. “Mom, are you alright?” Again, Clover ignored her; she was almost done now. The next step was to duplicate the entire book collection, but first it had to be shrunk. Luckily, she had gotten much better at that since the last time, and effortlessly shrunk the books and scrolls to pebble size. The shelves were now empty, and a pile of years’ worth of research, both on her and Starswirl’s part, was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. Clover copied this pile as well and placed one in each of the jars. There was a chance the spell didn’t affect each book, but as long as at least one of everything there existed, she’d be happy. She simply couldn’t risk all of her and Starswirl’s hard work being destroyed. Carrying the two jars with her magic, she made her way back down the staircase. Polaris and Equina had stood up, no doubt having agreed to go and see what their mother was doing. Clover tried not to notice the small looks of confusion on their faces. “Equina, Polaris…these are for you.” “What are they?” Equina asked. “All of our books and scrolls; everything I got from Starswirl, and everything I learned for myself.” Polaris looked perplexed to say the least. “You’re giving these to us? Why?” Clover inhaled through her nose and steadied her voice. “Because…you have to leave. Starswirl told me it’s not safe…and that you two had to go.” “Why, mom? What’s going on?” “I asked him a similar question, Equina,” Polaris answered. “He wouldn’t tell me.” “I figured it out while I was upstairs,” Clover said, keeping her best composure. “Figured what out?” Equina asked. “What’s going to happen?” Polaris thought hard about what it could have been, and almost immediately his mind was a blur of thoughts. In a few seconds he realized that Sombra still had the Crystal Heart and a few short moments later connected that to its absence the first time he had come here with Starswirl, and- Sombra again. Was he coming here? He couldn’t be. From a bystander’s perspective, the three of them were simply popping in and out of existence, especially his mother, but…what if Sombra still knew where to find them? “Mom, what is it?" Equina persisted. "What's going on?” “I’ll tell you what’s going on!” a voice yelled. Clover barely had time to cast a shield spell around the three of them before the front wall of the living room exploded, sending wood and glass flying everywhere. “What’s going on is that you three thought you could hide from me by jumping to random points in time with that old idiot!” Through the dust, Clover could barely make out the unmistakable shape of the pony. It was Sombra of course. He was hovering in the air over the hole he had created in the house. Clover ended her spell as the dust cleared, coughing a bit as she stood up. “Ah, Clover! I was hoping you’d be here! It’s a shame your friend wasn’t smart enough to think of a shield spell when I did the same thing to her barn! Then again, I suppose she couldn’t considering she was just a worthless earth pony!” Clover fought back the bitter memories of the empty casket funeral as the only question she wanted an answer to came tumbling out of her mouth. “How did you find us?” “One of my scouts,” said Sombra as he landed. “She came to me a few days ago and told me that she had been walking down the street when suddenly a very old pony grabbed her, pulled her into an alley, and performed a magic tracing spell on her. She said that this pony was accompanied by another one…without his Mark.” Sombra now glared at Polaris. “But I suppose that’s now been fixed, now, hasn’t it. I told her to inform me if she saw those two ponies again, and it just so happens that she did…today, in fact, and there was a third one with them this time; one with both wings and a horn.” Polaris closed his eyes in anger. The pony he had seen walking by the alley earlier; that’s why she had seemed so familiar. “The three of you really should have been more careful. Did it not once occur to you just how much you would stand out? An old pony, a young pony, and a pony with wings and a horn, none of whom are wearing cuffs or chains of any kind, all just standing around in an alleyway? Did you think nopony would notice?” Polaris’ anger only grew more, and Clover decided to cast an invisibility spell around the three of them. “You two need to go,” she whispered, her voice shaking through held back tears. “Take the jars.” “Don’t think going invisible will save you!” Sombra yelled. “We can’t just leave you, mom,” Equina said as she stored her jar away. “Out the back door. I’ll distract him. Just…go…please,” Clover answered, wiping her wet eyes. Her children pulled her into a hug. “Mom, we don’t have to go,” Polaris said. 'You aren’t going to die, Clover. That’s the whole point. You’re going to live.' Starswirl’s voice echoed in her mind as she hugged her two foals tighter. She didn’t see how she was going to survive this unless she somehow defeated Sombra, and it didn’t look like that was going to happen. If her friends were still with her, she was sure they could have found a way, but by herself… “I’m so sorry Polaris. You do. You have to-” “No, I mean…look.” They let go of each other, and Clover turned around. Standing behind Sombra was- “Is that…” Polaris whispered, and at that moment he suddenly became aware that they were very visible. Sombra had broken the spell, but it looked right now as though the three of them were the least of his problems. “But Polaris, this is what you-” Clover began. “I’m not sure what the two of you are going on about, but you’re welcome to keep talking so long as you die,” Sombra interrupted. “I believe they’re talking about me.” Out of the shadows the figure stepped, and Sombra turned to face him, his short lived expression of disbelief turning to one of…recognition. “I know who you are,” he growled. “Even though you’ve changed, I still know who you are. I can feel it, and…” Sombra looked up at the creature’s face. “Your eyes are still the same.” Clover gasped as she looked at the creature now, noticing all of its mismatched limbs and remembering what Polaris had told her. Her gaze wandered up the creature's serpentine body and stopped when she was met with a pair of amber eyes. “S…Starswirl?” The creature looked at her now as it raised up one of its arms. ‘I’ll see you soon…’ Polaris thought to himself. There was a snapping sound, and Sombra crumpled onto the floor. “How…how did you…do that?” Equina asked, staring at Sombra. “Is he…dead?” The thing that was Starswirl shook his head. “I can fight him, but I can never defeat him.” “Why not?” Polaris asked as he walked over to his mother to help her. “He is a victim…a victim of something I helped create…and unfortunately it isn’t something I can beat…because it also lives within me.” As he finished his sentence he looked at Polaris, who nodded in understanding. “What are you talking ab-” “Clover, I told you to make them leave.” “I was trying to, but then Sombra-” “Okay, what exactly is going on here?” Equina asked. “This is…this is Starswirl,” Polaris answered. “That’s…but what…what happened to you?” Starswirl closed his eyes for a second before answering. “This body…is my fault. It’s what happens when you focus too heavily on if you can do something, rather than if you should. My vanity prevented me from seeing what was going to happen…now I must live with the consequences. Very soon my mind will be lost to it; I don’t have much time.” “What is it?” Clover asked. “Chaos in its physical form. There’s no official name of course; no other creature like it exists…I call it draconequus…just something I threw together. It won’t matter anymore, though. Soon this body will belong to the mind of a-” He stopped short, having noticed that Sombra was no longer on the ground. “Clover-” Too late. From the other side of the house came the unmistakable sound of magical discharge, and a dark blue jet of light flew across the room. Time seemed to slow down as Polaris watched the spell hit his mother square in the chest. She cried out in pain as it knocked her forcefully onto the ground. He barely heard his sister’s scream over his own as he ran to her. She was coughing and breathing heavily, tears in her eyes. He kneeled down next to her, Equina at his side within a second. “Mom, mom…it’s alright…you’re alright. You’re gonna be okay. Help me!” he yelled to Starswirl, but it was no use. He was heavily engaged in a battle with Sombra. “Putting me to sleep? How long did you think that was going to work?” Polaris heard him yell, but he barely paid mind to it. With a great deal of difficulty, Clover reached up with both her shaking hooves and wrapped them around her children, pulling them in close. “Equina…Polaris…I’m so proud of both of you…” “Mom, no…mom, please…you can’t.” Equina pleaded with her desperately. “Just…just stop it now. You can’t! You can’t-” She was silenced with a hoof on her lips. In the background they could hear the sounds of magic spells being fired off. A trickle of blood left Clover’s mouth as she coughed again. “Equina…you have to be strong…remember…to always be strong…and never…give up…” “No…” Equina whispered. “Mom, please…there must be something…” “Polaris…” she started as she let out another cough. “Never forget…to always love…” Polaris had been struggling to speak up to this point. “I can’t…” he barely said as he looked into his mother’s eyes. “I can’t…do this.” His voice cracked a bit as he let out a sob. “Mom…I lost you…once...I can't...again…please...we can…h-help…you…” His broken speech turned to tears as he rested his head on his mother’s dying body. And suddenly, she was gone. Polaris’ head hit the…that didn’t feel like the floor. He sat up and rubbed his wet eyes to clear his vision. He was in a field. There was grass underneath him. His mother, Equina, Starswirl, and Sombra were gone. Slowly he stood, feeling something build within him as a small wind hit his mane. He was completely alone. “No…no, no no no.” He paced around frantically, the knot of anxiety in his stomach as tight as it had ever been. “No…please…please…” His pacing turned into hoof stomping, and after a few more seconds of this, he let go. He fell to his knees and screamed as long and as loud as he could. He didn’t care who heard him; he was pure, unfiltered emotion. He beat the ground with his front hooves again and again, yelling the entire time, until the grass began to wear away, and he started hitting dirt. Tears once again screwed up his vision as his lungs emptied completely. Broken and exhausted, he collapsed on the ground and cried until he finally fell asleep. And many miles away, the first alicorn in existence received a final glimpse from the edge of a forest as an evil, tyrannical pony, enraged by his defeat, casted a spell she had seen used only twice before and removed, right before her teary eyes, himself and her home from existence.