A Lost Soul Returns: The King of Monsters

by Dark Star the Crazed

Crystal Crisis.

Fang and Soul were on a train bound for the Crystal Empire. At the moment they were talking about their plan to help Fang collect the signs of the Black Zodiac. “We are after the First Born Son, right?” Fang nodded. “Ok... Question... Why are we going to the Crystal Empire? Wouldn't it be easier to check and see if any colts had died in Ponyville?”

“With how Sombra treated the ponies he ruled over? I think there will be more than a few spirits who would meet the needs of the first sign.” Soul just looked at him. He was right but at the moment he was scared for his friend’s safety. He knew that the black alicorn had practiced black magic for centuries, in fact Fang was probably one of the only things that stood between the living world, and old ones who had been trapped thousands of years ago. Many of the seals that held those dangerous demons in place were of Fang's own design.

“But is it really safe for you to go to the Crystal Empire? I mean the crystal ponies can smell black magic from miles away... So don't be shocked if we get off the train and there is an angry mob with torches and pitchforks.” They heard a cough from beside them and turned to see an orange mare with cornflower blue eyes and a light golden mane. She was wearing a mulberry suit and a light magenta polo neck.

“Excuse me? Would you by any chance happen to be King Crimson Fang?” Soul stood up and glared at the mare.

“That information depends on who is asking.” The mare stumbled back and landed on the seat across from them.

“E-excuse me!?” Fang chuckled.

“Soul I hardly doubt that she is an assassin or working for Lepus... She doesn't seem like a pony who would be able to handle taking a life.” Soul gave Fang and the mare a sheepish smile and sat back down. “Now... Yes I would happen to be Crimson Fang, and you are?”

The mare stood back up and kept the grumpy demeanor that she had before Soul had scared her. “I am Mrs. Harshwhinny and I am the inspector for the Equestria Games.”

“Is this about you coming to inspect my kingdom to see if it is 'worthy' of hosting the games?" The mare was taken by surprise but nodded in response. “Do not warn me when you are coming to inspect my kingdom.”

“I'm sorry what?” Fang sighed.

“Don't tell me when you are coming to inspect my kingdom. It is a very big mistake on your part.” Mrs. Harshwhinny looked confused. She had never been told that she made a mistake by informing the city or kingdom she was visiting, that she was going to inspect it to see if it was worthy to hold the Equestria Games. “Cadence told me about what happened three years ago. They thought somepony else was you and you were basically treated like just another pony, am I correct?” The mare nodded. "Don't tell us when you are coming. That way you will get to see a city's true colors. If you tell them beforehoof then they will put on a show. A fake. A façade.”

The mare sat down in the seat across from them. “I've never been told something like that before, let alone be given good reasoning behind it... Ok... I won't inform you when to expect me... But I have to ask... Why are you on this train? Shouldn't you be attending to your pregnant wife?”

Fang sighed. “Yes I should... But I have something very important to do... For not only my sake, my wife's sake, or my country's sake. But possibly the sake of the entire world. I just hope I'll be able to do it in time.”

“Oh. Well. I wish you the best of luck in all of your endeavors. I cannot wait to see how many medals your country will win.” With that the mare stood up and walked off as the train pulled into the station. The shade and the vampony stood up and exited the train.

Half of the crystal ponies who saw Fang started to growl and glare at him, while the other half of them ran away, because he reeked of black magic just like Sombra had. That all changed when Cadence and Armor walked up to the two ponies. The crystal ponies started to calm down. If their rulers thought that the black alicorn could be trusted, then maybe they should give him a chance.

“Hello Fang. Hello Soul. I assume you are here for the spirit I found who can represent the First Born Son?” Fang and Soul both nodded. Cadence smiled and turned around. “Well if you follow me to the castle then I will show you where he hangs out on a map.” Fang and Soul nodded and followed the crystal royals. “We'll be glad when he is gone. He has been trying to start a revolution to overthrow us. We don't even know why though. We haven't acted anything like Sombra.”

As they were walking down the street towards the crystal palace when the sudden sound of drumming caught their attention. Looking up they saw a lot of fillies and colts with drums around their necks. A sudden humming from one of the colts, a blue, crystal unicorn, caught their attention.

Cadence, Armor, and Soul began to look around confused as to why the colt had just started singing. “Huh? What's going on here?” Some of the mares and stallions in the crowds stood up and glared at the group of four.

“The first phase of a rebellion... Of a revolution...” Armor and Cadence's eyes went wide when they heard Fang and went to run off when a few guards ran up to the mares, stallions, even the little ones, and tried to stop them. Then a few more ponies stood up while most remained in a bowing position and began to look at the bowing ponies.

A small blue crystal unicorn colt, the same one who started this whole fiasco, ran out in front of the crowd, stopped in front of the group of four, and began to wave a large purple flag with a snow flake on it. The flag of the Crystal Empire. "Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free!”

As more ponies began to stand a guard looked at the royals. “I-I'll go get help!” With that he ran off towards the castle. More and more ponies began to stand and more fillies and colts with flags ran out of the crowd. Cadence and Armor began to back up away from the group of angry young ponies. Soul and Fang stayed still.

More and more ponies began to rise, started to stomp their hooves on the ground, and began to growl at Cadence and Armor. It was obvious that the colt who had started singing brought out their anger at the royalty. They didn't see the current rulers as kind. They saw them as two more Sombra's that had yet to enslave them. And they weren't going to risk it and let them live long enough to do so. Some of the guards stopped trying to arrest the ponies and began to point their spears and swords at the royals and the shade.

The crowd began to close in on the four and Fang sighed to himself. 'Do I have to do everything myself?'

Fang growled and a sudden boom of thunder was heard. Everypony looked up and saw black clouds swirling above them. Then a bolt of black lightning hit Fang and caused a large cloud of black smoke to form. When said smoke cleared all the crystal ponies backed up and began to run away. Cadence and Armor gasped and fell on their flanks. Standing there, where Fang had been, was a dark grey unicorn, with a black mane, and brilliant scarlet eyes. Sombra. The pony gave an evil laugh and looked at the remaining crystal ponies who were shaking now. “Did you really think that you would be rid of me so easily? My crystal slaves? This stallion made the mistake of crossing into the spirit world. I hitched a ride back in his body. He is still in here somewhere, but his body? It belongs to me now. The pink princess and her husband are not evil and are not your enemy… I am!” The evil unicorn's horn began to glow and all the crystal ponies screamed before running away. All was silent for a few minutes.

Then the stallion let out a loud laugh. “And that is how the dog saved the rats from the cats.” The dark gray unicorn sprouted black wings and his fur turned black. His eyes turned a shade of cerulean, and his black mane became a mix of orange and white. It was Fang. He turned around and smiled at Armor and Cadence who were shaking in fear. “It was an illusion... I am not Sombra...”

Cadence growled at the black alicorn. “Fang that wasn't an illusion! That was shape shifting magic! How were you able to do that!? Are you part changeling or something!?” Fang shook his head. “...Did you drink so much changeling blood that you absorbed their ability to shape shift?”

Fang quickly looked to the left and then to the right. “Maybe...?” Cadence just sighed and face hoofed. “Where did Soul go?”

“Ah ha! I got you now!” The three royals turned their heads toward the sound of the shade's voice and saw Soul walking backwards out of an ally with his teeth gripping a pony's tail.

“Let go of my tail!” They watched as Soul backed up until he reached them. The pony he had been dragging was the colt that had incited the riot. He gently threw the colt onto his back and slid him into the center of the circle of ponies. He began to shake in fear at the sight of Shining Armor's eyes. They had murder in them. “Um... I'm sorry, please don't hurt me?”

"I should have you executed for treason you little-" The white unicorn was stopped when he felt a hoof on his shoulder. Looking back he saw his wife with a disappointed look on his face.

"Honey you're scaring him... Besides, you can't kill a ghost." Shining's eyes went wide.

"Wait is he the... Ghost that can represent the... Whatever?" Cadence nodded and got down so that she was eyelevel with the little colt.

"Please... Can you tell us why you were trying to start a rebellion?" The colt snorted like a pig and placed a hoof over his mouth. "I won't tell." The colt sighed and sat up before looking at the ground.

"Because I wanted to protect my friends... I lost my parents, they managed to escape but I got caught... I don't want anypony else to lose their family like I did... While you may have destroyed Sombra..." The colt turned and looked at Fang. "Cool trick by the way." Fang blinked in surprise as the colt turned back towards Cadence. “While you did kill Sombra that is all you have done... You haven't done anything to help the poor or less fortunate..." Cadence raised an eyebrow.

"We've done other things." The colt growled at the crystal princess.

"Do you even know that there are famine and plague in the poor district as we speak!? No of course you don't! And do you know why you don't know!?" Cadence shook her head. "Because all royals are the same! You! You! You don't have us in shackles but you are still the same as Sombra!" The colt stood up and ran off. The royals and the shade quickly followed behind. Soon they entered what could only be described as a slum.

They looked around and all of the crystal ponies started to bow to them, then the husband and wife in the group saw something that they would never forget. A chariot was being pulled past them towards a graveyard. The ponies pulling the chariots were wearing masks that hid their mouths. Cadence stopped them and looked in the cart. It had ten corpses in it. Seven fillies, and three colts. "How long have they?"

"Three hours... Every one of them has been dead for three hours. The fever got to them." Cadence turned around and saw the blue colt from before. "Now do you understand why you are no better than Sombra? No? Then let me show you some more!" Nopony besides the group of four seemed to be able to see or hear the colt. Then the little one ran off.

"Why doesn't anypony else notice him? They noticed him when he was starting that rebellion..." Fang and Soul both looked at Cadence and sighed.

"Ghosts can make themselves visible and invisible to anypony they choose. Except for ponies like Soul, whos special talent is the ability to see all earthbound spirits." Soul nodded and Cadence let out an 'oh'. They continued to follow the colt and soon they started to see fillies and colts looking through garbage cans.

"The ones you saw before were sick." Cadence and Armor looked up and saw the little colt sitting on a gutter and glaring at them. "These ones are starving. So why would they be digging through the trash for food and not going to buy it from a shop? Simple. It's because they don't have the bits to do so!" The colt ran off again, back to the main street. This time the poor ponies did not bow. Instead they started to glare at the group.

"I think that this colt has a spectral ability that makes him able to bring out the anger and sorrow in a pony's soul." Soul nodded in agreement with his childhood friend. "It seems that his powers cause them to manifest their anger and sorrow in the form of songs."

Cadence looked around her in shock. "I didn't even know that stuff like this was happening in our empire... Oh... I'm a terrible ruler..." Shining walked up to his wife and shook his head.

"No you're not Cadence, there was no way we could have known. Nopony told us about this!" Cadence shook her head.

"No... We could have realized... We never even thought to go anywhere near the slums to see if they were happy... Maybe that colt is right to start a rebellion... We haven't done anything to help these ponies with what is going on... We were too distracted by things like the Equestria Games..." Cadence looked around her once more then to the ground. "I... We need to find that colt!" Cadence's head shot up and there was a fire in her eyes. "We have to let him know that we'll set things right!" The crystal princess looked around and saw the colt smirking at them. She was about to go and tell him that she would fix this, but he ran off before she could.

The group followed him away from the slums and to what looked like a factory. "Isn't this where they make the souvenirs of the Crystal Empire?" Cadence nodded. "Why would he bring us here?" Cadence went over to the doors of the factory, along with the others, and entered the massive building. They went farther into the factory and looked down from the walkway they were standing on. They saw a stallion walking around while other ponies, all of which were mares, made the souvenirs that ponies bought to remember their trip to the empire.

The stallion looked around and smiled at the mares. He saw one fall over and drop one the snow globe she was making, walked over and slapped her. "At the end of the day you get nothing for nothing..." He walked over to a mare who had sat down to take a break for a few seconds and slapped her on the back of her head. "Sitting flat on your bum doesn't buy any bread." The mare nodded, stood up, and got back to work.

One mare looked up from her work and quickly shot back down when she saw the stallion coming. "We have young ones back in town."

Another mare nodded. "And our young ones have to be fed."

One mare, barely a teenager, gave a sigh and looked up. She saw the princess and smiled. "We're lucky to be in a job."

"And in a bed..." The stallion that was walking around placed his hoof on the young mare's flank. She gave a gasp and swatted his hoof away.

With a large sigh the mares took a breath and went back to work. "We're counting our blessings."

One of the mares giggled. "Have you see how the forecolt is fuming today? With his terrible breath and his wandering hooves?"

Another mare nodded and looked at the young mare that the stallion had touched. "It’s because little Citrine won't give him his way." The mare frowned and looked back down at her work. "Can anypony stop this?"

"The princess could!" Cadence looked to the side and saw the colt sitting on one of the conveyer belts that brought the parts to make the souvenirs down to the mares. As the conveyor belt moved him, the mares that he passed sang.

"And the boss, he never knows, that the forecolt is always on the lookout for heat."

"If Citrine doesn't look out, then watch how she goes."

"She'll be pregnant, and out on the street!"

A loud whistle rang throughout the factory and the mares stopped working. They began to walk towards the doors that led outside. As each mare left they got a small bag.

"Do you understand yet?" Cadence looked down to her side and the ghost colt was standing there glaring up at her. "The poor are starving, sick, used, and abused. All while you two sit in your castle and have tea and eat cake..." The colt turned away and trotted off. "While you may be a royal. You are by no means a princess Cadenza." Cadence teleported in front of the colt who just blinked and looked up at her. "Maybe now that you know how your subjects suffer, you'll do something about it..." With that he went to leave when Cadence grabbed him. "What do you want now?"

"I'm sorry." The colt looked at Cadence, however instead of anger, he had curiosity in his eyes. The crystal princess had tears in her eyes and hugged the colt. "I'm sorry. Sorry that you lost your parents, sorry that so many ponies have been dying of starvation and sickness while we've stood idly by, sorry for the mares that are used, injured, and abused in this factory. I didn't know that any of this was going on. But I can tell you one thing that I do know." The colt looked at Cadence in wonder. He had never believed that the royalty had feelings besides greed and anger. "I can promise you, this won't last much longer. Even if I go broke and have to shave off and sell my mane for money so that I can fix it. It won't last much longer." Suddenly Cadence felt two hooves wrap around her. She smiled when she saw that the colt was returning the hug she was giving him. "What's your name young one?"

"My name? My name is lost in the sands of time... What the ponies of the empire call me however... They call me Poco Ribelle... It's Bitalian for Little Rebel." The colt looked up at Cadence when he heard her giggle.

"Well Poco. How about we make a deal? If you go with Fang and Soul, the black alicorn and the blue unicorn, back to Fang's kingdom, then me and my husband will do our best to fix this." The colt looked up at Cadence for a second before looking at the other three who were approaching them.

"D-do you promise?" Cadence nodded and the colt thought for a second. "O-ok... I'll go... But if I find out you haven't been doing anything to help the poor..." The colt smiled at the princess. "I will come back and haunt you until you do! Deal?"

Cadence smiled. "Deal."

The next day Fang and Soul awoke on the train, due to Poco jumping on their backs, as it pulled into the Ponyville station. When they got off they were met with the sight of an angry Twilight and Trixie. Half of the buildings they saw had large holes in them. "What happened here?"

"It took you long enough to get back! In short after you left the entire town, as well as Canterlot was covered in thick black vines with blue thorns. I wasn't able to do anything about it because the princesses told me that the thing needed to stop it was called the Tree of Harmony, and that getting to where it was is very dangerous. They didn't want me to take a chance and get myself and our foals hurt. So Trixie went with the girls, almost got eaten by a cragadile, and found out that the tree needed the elements to ward off the black vines. So she teleported back to me, told me she needed the element from my crown, I gave it to her, she teleported back to the others, which almost killed her because she used almost all of her magical power, and they fixed everything." Twilight took a deep breath, glared at Fang and began to poke him with her horn. "And now I want to know why there was a box, under the tree that you planted and that you probably know where the six keys that fit in the locks are!"

Fang blinked and growled at Twilight. "First of all, yes I did plant the Tree of Harmony... I don't remember why... Second of all, I have no idea what box and keys you are talking about. Third of all, I had to help stop a rebellion in the Crystal Empire, had to make myself look like Sombra to save my brother in law and his wife from an angry mob, had to deal with heart songs, and collected one of the most stubborn ghosts I have ever met so he could be one of the signs of the Black Zodiac! I didn't exactly have a good day either!"

"Ha! Not such a perfect relationship now that she is five months pregnant is it Fang?" Trixie walked over to Soul, kissed him, and then slapped the back of his head. "Ok I'll stop teasing him."

Twilight began to cry and hugged her husband. "I'm sorry I yelled at you! I was just so lonely and scared and that's why I was angry at you! I didn't know if you were coming back and I was worried about you!" Fang smiled and nuzzled his wife's neck.

"I'm sorry too Twilight. I shouldn't have gone off and left you alone." Soul felt a tug at his scarf and looked down to see Poco staring at the two alicorns.

"Are they always this... Lovey dovey?" Both Soul and Trixie nodded. "I don't suppose I could just go back to the empire now?" Soul shook his head. "What have I gotten myself into?"

Soul grinded down at the ghost colt. "The ride of your afterlife!"

The doctor looked down at a screen and began to read the universes timeline. "Strange... Twilight and her friends were not supposed to meet Coco Pommel until a few months after they found the tree and Rainbow Dash wasn't supposed to become a wonder bolt for five years after they found the tree... Something or somepony is cutting apart the timeline and reordering it so that it doesn't happen the way it should."

Ginryō, the Sorcerer Dragon, was floating in what seemed to be a void with a pair of silver scissors in one hand, a spool of golden thread and a needle in the other, and was cutting up a long piece of fabric that looked like a star chart. "Tirek will not escape Tartarus alone..." He stitched some back together. "Discord will not get sick." He stitched more back together. "Finally... The remaining keys shall be found while the king and shade are away to find the remaining signs." He fished stitching the cloth together and smiled at his work. "All of us archdemons have a part to play in the grand design." He flew down the fabric until he found the piece he was looking for. It depicted all thirteen arch demons, Soul, and Fang, standing around the Tree of Harmony. Each one of them had a small mist leaving their body, and the tree had a large seal around it. Next to that image was a large, black, four armed, bipedal dragon, screaming in anger as he and what looked like a city were shrouded in darkness. The dragon’s eyes flew to the images of Fang and Soul on the fabric. "You did the right thing by sealing him and his kingdom away."