As my day wound past, I found myself feeling a sensation that I loathed; boredom. Now that my castle was repaired, I didn't have anything that I could really do with my time, except make more rainbows and ice sculptures. And one grows tired of rainbows and ice sculptures. So, without anything to do I paid a trip to the mines. I always disliked having the slaves there, so while Sombra wasn't looking, I made sure that the slaves were treated decently. And by 'decently,' I meant, 'actually fucking fed and watered.' Just because I'm technically the second in command of an insane slaver doesn't mean that I'm going to deny them basic rights.
The slaves here were tired and grey, as they always were. A couple of them glanced at me, then turned to the walls. I idly slammed my staff on the floor to get their attention. "Hello, slaves. I'm sorry to tell you this, but today's the day of tribute." A couple of them started getting fearful. I waved a hand. "It's okay; we have an extra day to present tribute. I want each and every one of you guys to put some elbow grease into it, get this job done as quickly as possible. Here, I got some zombies to make it a bit easier to deal with the huge workload." With a wave of my staff, three earth pony zombies shambled in. A couple of crystal ponies seemed about to object, but a glare from my rainbow eyes silenced them. They got to work, pulling precious stones out of the hard rocky ground in order to pay our insane slavemaster's addiction to crystals.
I gripped my staff tighter. My fellow undead should not live in fear of an insane king. Still, I was afraid of him, as was everybody sensible. Nevertheless, I decided that I should no longer be evil. If Sombra objected, well, I was going to throw a Glacier Wave right at his smug face.
Meanwhile, in the Crystal Empire:
Shining Armour looked over at Cadence, his sister and her friends and the two Princesses. Twilight was the first to say something.
"Who is this 'Zante' character?" Celestia and Luna winced.
"Twilight? Don't pronounce Xante with a 'z.' We don't know how he can tell the difference, but he can." Luna nodded, wincing when she moved her left shoulder. Shining Armour shook his head.
"Do all villains have to be so touchy about proper pronunciation of their names?" he asked.
Celestia nodded. "Xante was an exceedingly powerful lich, in fact he was the most powerful lich to have ever, well for want of a better word, 'lived', hence his title 'first among liches.' His skillset includes the manipulation of ice and snow, as well as... rainbows."
Rainbow Dash frowned, arms folded. "Hang on. Rainbows? This guy sounds like a frikken doof! Hell, I bet Spike could take him on!"
Spike frowned at her. "Hey! That's really rude, Rainbow. But I do agree with you. Even Owliocious could take this guy in a fight!" Celestia glared at both of them and they quietened down. "Xante may sound goofy, but then so does Discord." They sobered up quickly, remembering the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.
"My sister and I fought him for three hours, using every spell we had, and though our victory was assured once we wounded him enough times, he would have barely come out on top had it not been for us combining our power and sealing him away for good." Luna glared at the entirety of the room, which had descended into a shocked silence. Luna continued.
"Xante is a cunning sorceror with a huge arsenal of spells, most of which he invented himself. His 'rainbow magic' and ice magic are incredibly adaptable, meaning that there is rarely a situation that he cannot turn to his advantage. Make the mistake of underestimating him, and you'll become one of his minions, consigned to the curse of undeath."
Celestia nodded. "He's charismatic, affable, friendly... and he's also an exceedingly powerful and cunning sorcerer who delayed our fight by five hours, just with his castle traps, and repeatedly demonstrated how versatile and dangerous his rainbow magic actually is. Though he may have been inferior to Sombra's own dark magic, he was still capable of fighting us to a standstill, though beating us is still practically impossible."
Rainbow Castle.
I looked over the small foals from the last slave shipment to the mines out here. If I was going to die, then I was going to make them a bit happier. Unknown to Sombra, I refused to put children in the mines. Instead, I just kept them in the castle. Their parents visited in the night, all was good. I'm not a monster, except when I need to be. I looked at their glum faces. If there's one thing I don't like, it's sad children. It seriously gets me in my non-existent heart.
"Um... hey, who wants a snowball fight?"
"Sir."
"Yes Mario?"
"What are you doing?" I glared at him from the shelter of my snow fort. It'd taken me a fair while to build without resorting to the staff still within my castle, but at least it was a snow fort, not a practically indomitable snow fort that could withstand several high power fire spells. I wanted a game, not ruthless domination.
"I AM BUILDING A SNOW FORT." Just because I'm an ancient undead sorcerer who has lived for several centuries does not mean that I am immune to fun. I looked at my supply of snowballs. "Do you think I have enough?"
"Sir, they're not your kids. Their parents would have a fit if they saw you playing."
"I don't care, snow fort." With that, the first snowball arched over my defences. I raised an eyebrow.
"It's every lich for himself, Mario." After that little tirade, I picked up a snowball and chucked it over.
"You'll never beat me!" I whooped and laughed at that.
Unfortunately, I lost. It was generally well received, and the kids were a bit sparklier now, so that was a bonus in my book. After that, I retired to my chambers, where I tried to summon the portal yet again; no luck, the fabric of reality wasn't pliant enough. Though the magic of this world was incredibly prolific, there's only so much you can do on your own without the proper regents. And I didn't have the necessary regents, and I didn't know how to adopt the spell for this universe's components. I'd have to find a library or similar if I wanted to get back. I sighed, and made my way to my bed. For one as powerful as I am, to be stuck in this universe is almost... humiliating.
The next day, I woke with the dawn. I looked over my kingdom, listening to the faint clatter of jewels falling into the metallic box that we normally gave tribute in. Today was going to be a difficult day to live through, but I had to firm my resolve and go. I gripped my icy black staff, and pulled on my robes. Right now, today... didn't feel like a good day.
The atmosphere was tense as I gripped the casket. It was barely half the normal quota. I gripped it in my magical aura, carrying it with me. For appearance's sake, I wove a simple music enchantment. There is no such thing as having too much theatricality. Mario hurried after me. "I'm sorry, my Lord, but the amount of gems we can immediately reach in such short notice, even with your help, is simply not enough to fill the quota-"
"It's fine." I paused for a bit.
"Mario. If I don't return by this evening, then get every slave out of here and run. Understand?" My faithful assistant nodded, tears forming. I patted him on the head and walked towards the Bifrost.
One of my more inspired inventions, it appealed both to my sense of theatricality and my sense of practicality. A huge ring of rainbow-coloured ice, it helped me focus on long distance teleportation better. I focused, drawing the rainbow coloured energy around myself in preparation for teleportation. I didn't want to be delayed at all. The light surrounded me, swirling and building a bridge of ice towards my destination.
Crystal Empire
The Elements and the Princesses were currently hidden by a spell in the throne room. The plan was for the Elements to jump out when this 'Xante' character appeared, and then hit him with the Elements or the Crystal Heart. Unfortunately, the main flaw with this plan was that the 'Bifrost' that he apparently used to get here was something that even the guards didn't know about. So all Cadence could do was sit with Shining Armour in the throne room, waiting for Xante.
Suddenly, music started playing as a brilliant rainbow light shone in the heavily fortified room. Cadence shielded her eyes as the chanting started. Straining her eyes, she could barely make out the figure of a six feet tall figure, impossibly skinny, clutching a staff. As the light slowly dimmed to more manageable levels, she noticed that this strangers eyes glowed with a rainbow aura. Xante (well, she assumed it was Xante from its appearance) was dressed in a fine black robe, with delicate white sigils in an unfamiliar language. His tall hat seemed to be there for purely stylistic reasons. She noticed again that he didn't even look at her, instead focusing on the ground.
"Hello, Sombra. Sorry I'm late." Its voice was like an icy knife, devoid of emotion.
Xante flicked his staff, and a huge casket floated through the light. It opened, spilling a veritable fortune in jewels at her feet. She looked at the huge pile of jewels at her feet for a moment, and was about to speak when he started talking again.
"I apologise for the small size of this recent haul, but this was all we could mine on such short notice." Before she could object, or even question the validity of this huge pile of jewels, the entire plan went to hell in a handbasket, and that was caused by Rarity.
I blinked as a white unicorn mare in an indigo dress practically shot out of the scenery and started handling the gems. I mentally sighed, but I had to impress Sombra somewhat, if only due to the small size of the hoard.
"Wench." I directed the full force of my ancient experience and power onto her. The entire room got chillier. The breath of the mare started to frost over. She looked at me, standing there while power built up around me. I continued. "Unhand the King's tribute, or I'll be forced, as is royal law, to hang, draw and quarter you if you don't get your grubby mitts off of there."
I blinked as something appeared behind me. With a simple thought, Aurora Missiles flared into being, reacting as any good self-defense mechanism does- targeting what annoyed me and slamming it with the force of seven sledgehammers to the face. Unfortunately, she barely dodged one of them. I looked at the blue pegasus with the rainbow mane, wearing a blue sports jacket and training shorts. "Back off, bozo! Where do you get off, threatening my friend?"
I quirked an eyebrow. Something about this mare was familiar... maybe it was the FABULOUS rainbow mane? I scratched my chin.
"It wasn't a threat; it was a warning. I'm obliged to give you one before I turn you into an ice sculpture." Rainbow coloured energy started to build around my hands as my magic flared up.
"Sorry, but as long as Sombra's alive, I have to follow through with the Geas. Do not worry, sir," I turned my head in his general direction, careful not to look at him, "I shall defend you from these would-be assassins."
Before we could really gear up for a fight, I heard Sombra speak. "...what?"
I blinked. That wasn't Sombra's voice. That was NOTHING like Sombra's voice. If I didn't know better... I looked at the blue pegasus still fuming and promptly ignored her and her friend. It was time to see who, precisely, I'd been talking to all this time. I turned around, and instead of Sombra, it was a pink mare, with wings and a horn. I absently noticed that she was wearing a very nice purple dress that went well with her colour scheme.
Cadence blinked as Xante turned around, apparently seeing her for the first time. He looked her over, blinked, rubbed his eyes and looked again. For a moment, there was silence. Then, Xante just walked over and hesitantly poked her. When she didn't disappear or something similar, he stopped and decided to ask her politely.
"Excuse me, Ms, but where's King Sombra? I had an appointment, with the tithe and everything? I definitely had one of those." His eyes suddenly widened. "If he isn't here, then I highly recommend you run. He HATES mares getting into his throneroom, especially when he's in one of his, uh, PERSONAL sessions with a slave. I keep telling him, it's okay in another world to be gay you know. Except in America, for some reason." Cadence raised an eyebrow. This Xante fellow kept getting stranger and stranger.
Suddenly, Twilight broke from cover, eyes wide open. "Wait, Sombra was homosexual?"
Xante nodded. "I don't know why you're referring to him in the past tense, but yes, Sombra is a repressed homosexual. He also enjoys wrestling. Now," here his eyes narrowed, "I must urge you to depart again. When Sombra gets back, there's no telling what he'll do to you all-" Twilight finally decided to cut to the chase of the issue.
"Sombra's dead." I turned to the purple mare in trousers and a white shirt. Did she just say those words?
I advanced on her. "Say that again."
My mere aura was so chilly that parts of her clothing were covered in frost. She shakily retreated a step. "S-sombra's... dead?" My mind simply blanked.
Twilight blinked as the lich in front of her just stood there, mouth open slightly. Then, he did something that nopony, not even the Princesses, could have predicted. He grinned wildly. "YES! OH MY GOD YES! WHOO!" He did a strange dance, cackling like a madpony. Rainbow Dash looked at him strangely. "Man, what a weirdo."
"At last, I can be free! It's time to test that."
If Sombra really was dead, then I could do something that he'd previously banned under the Geas: be free with my own body. With a snap of my fingers, appropriate music started playing. With that, I pulled off my shirt, exposing my bony, pale chest. I watched in excitement as the familiar rainbow magic started to glow around my nipples. This was happening! I was about to pull the lower half of my robe down when I heard a familiar voice.
I watched in mild horror as the white mare- Celestia- stepped out of some spell. "What in Tartarus are you doing?" Making sure that I was safe and fully powered up, I explained. "One of the terms of our Geas was that I couldn't strip in the throne room. I don't know why." If you're not comfortable with your own body, then what are you doing in it? Celestia glared at me.
"Xante. I'm afraid that your evil ways will be stopped here-"
I waved my hand at her dismissively. "I'm no longer evil." THAT seemed to throw Celestia. I explained. "You see, all heroes have done for me is fight me, get into my castle, kill my minions so I have to resurect them and wreck my stuff. I've been thinking about this for over a thousand years, and I've decided to screw being evil. Now that Sombra's dead, I'm so unbelievably happy!"
Celestia watched the dread lich Xante dance around the Crystal Palace half naked. He suddenly got right up to her and kissed her full on the mouth before she could react. His lips were freezing cold, and the taste of rotting flesh was on her lips now. "Free! FREE!" The other Elements of Harmony came out, and he shook hands with each and every single one.
"You have no IDEA how good it is to be free from that insane slaver maniac. It's SO GOOD. It's so good, in fact, that I think that I'll have to tell EVERYBODY about how good this is!"
With that, he waved his staff and teleported away in a flash of rainbow light. Celestia wiped her mouth, shuddering, then turned to the Elements. She was speechless, for the first time in five years. "Never in all my life..." Twilight looked up at her mentor.
"Princess, what should we do?" Celestia snapped back into focus. "We stay cautious. This might be a trick, or it might be genuine. In any case, treat Xante as harmless for now, but the instant we see a sign, we attack him."