//------------------------------// // ProEX: Dreaded Reference Material // Story: Death by Dragon // by Compendium of Steve //------------------------------// Lost Prologue DREADED REFERENCE MATERIAL A few months before the tragedy, the Crystal Empire was a living, bustling model of modern living. Despite having been hidden away for a millennium, the kingdom took to the national stage of political involvement in just a few short years. As a result, the social norms of the day were quickly adopted, and before you knew it, the Crystal Ponies walked and talked and went about their lives like anyone else in Equestria (except for the inherent shininess). They even followed the same laws and, consequently, they also enjoyed the same unspoken freedom to break said laws. Which was what brought me to those crystalline streets for a very unexpected, yet noteworthy, encounter. It was a far different place than most anywhere in Equestria proper. The buildings were rather simplistic for a city (aside from the obvious crystal tower ones), there wasn’t much in the way of overbearing authoritarianism, and the citizens were actually warm and friendly despite the frigid tundra that surrounded their land’s borders. Yeah, I’ve never been too comfortable being there after becoming Her Majesty’s Vanguard. But a job’s a job, and one of these kindly citizens just had to step on the wrong princess’ hoof (figuratively, of course). I was a bit different back then, as well. A little more cocksure, but steeled enough to do my work without being sloppy. And I was tasked with apprehending a one-time book hoarder. Simple guy: assistant decorator, very quiet and non-confrontational. Just had to grow a little too attached to one particular tome of historical fiction. Also real skittish, given how he bolted after I stopped by his place for a little chat. Not like I was gonna do anything to him if he complied, but of course the guilty always have to run. I just wish this one hadn’t ran so fast. The sky was clear and the buildings gleamed, which made things hell if I turned or looked at them the wrong angle. Luckily the ponies on the street were courteous and swift enough to give me and my pursuee a wide berth (though I wished they at least tried to stop him). It was nearly ten minutes of running through market stalls, down alleyways and through two houses before the guy led me straight to the Crystal Palace. Instead of cornering himself beside the Crystal Heart like any regular fleeing pony, he managed to find a side entrance into the basement. Faint unpleasantness filled me when bustling through those cold, shimmering corridors, but it was quickly replaced by annoyance at how squirrelly the guy was. Guess fear is a great mental boost in the art of escape. Five minutes of stumbling around, listening for echoing hoofsteps, and I finally caught up to him. In some hollow space amidst the crystalline foundations he just sat there on his haunches, back straight and looking ahead as though he conked himself against the wall. I couldn’t believe the guy: gave me a running that I hadn’t had in weeks, only to plop down without a fuss. I was a tad disappointed, as you can imagine. Still I thought, it could be a trap. Easing my way to him, I checked my surroundings, but seeing no wires or springs or magic timebombs, I proceeded to yank his sorry ass and take him in for questioning. As I got closer, I saw the incriminating object nestled beneath a forehoof. Guess he had the urge to read one last paragraph before it was curtains. “Alright,” I grumbled when I got within three feet of him. “You ran enough. You’re coming with—” I paused the moment I got a better look at him. Although the lighting was rather poor, I could tell that his coat wasn’t shimmering like all the other Crystal Ponies. His lower jaw was open and trembling, too, as though struggling to say something, letting out choked breaths. Then there were his eyes: wide, distant-looking, pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and almost entirely green. A dull glowing green. That’s when I looked in the direction of his stare, and saw he hadn’t been staring at nothing. He may have very well been staring at a lot of things. Across from him, set into a blank spot of wall, was a great old door. Rusted metal linings, and thick moldy wooden cover pulled open completely. Inset at the top of the door was a flawless crystal. Flawless as in shape and surface, but its core was cloudy with some dark, seething blotch. There was only blank wall on the other side of the door, but I knew all too well that the poor sod had opened a gateway into his very mind, and his innermost fears. I had thought Twilight and Cadance got rid of all of Sombra’s Fear Doors, as I called them (well, I only saw one get destroyed, and that had been enough of an assurance to me). Pesky bits of arcane magic: can effectively trap anyone stupid enough to open them. Undoubtedly fatal if the victim were alone and went unfound for days. Seems my perp had stumbled onto the last one, and would have very well met that sad fate. But luckily, good ol’ Spike just happened to be around to help. Twi was gonna hear about it, but first things first: lugging that sorry dull sack out of there for his proper comeuppance. I got right next to him and looked down, not softening my gaze despite his predicament. “Serves you right, dumbass.” I reached down to pick him up. “Okay, up you—” The moment I touched him, my claw tips ignited and my mind was flung screaming down a long, howling tunnel of smoke and savagery until everything whited out. When everything came to a stop, I looked around and saw I was still in one piece. However, I also saw I was no longer in some grubby cellar. A vast, jagged expanse of rock and ice surrounded me, dipping and rising off into horizons filled with smoking mountains enveloped in darkness, contrasted by the harsh purple and orange of a dying twilit sky. The air above was a swirling mixture of thunder and snow, which cast a shadow over just about everything. Despite the crap visibility, my dragon eyes could still make out the objects that filled the landscape: bent towers of iron and chains, spike-laden stocks, great wooden turnstiles, and the moaning figures of the damned that preoccupied all of them. Gaping mouths, dead-white eyes, flesh either emaciated or outright missing. And all of them Crystal Ponies. My first thought was that there was definitely something different about that door, and my second was where my perpetrator went. A short glance around found him only a few yards away, trotting around timidly and looking scared out of his mind. I could tell he was whimpering, but at least he still had skin on. I made to call to him, but got interrupted by a heavy rumbling. The tremor made the stumbling pony fall flat on his rump with a cry, but I managed to remain standing with some graceless arm waving. The rumbling eventually stopped, and I looked around for incoming trouble. I didn’t wait long. Off on a distant ridge, a mass of billowing smoke arose and grew, spreading out into writhing tendrils. The center of the mass took shape: curved teeth, a grand muzzle, wavy mane of jet black, eyes of cruelest green leaking purple mist, and all topped with one great malicious crimson horn. The Scourge of the Tundra himself: King Sombra. The ol’ phantom certainly pulled all the stops on the fright factor, as attested by the trembling paralysis of his one living pony guest. He lowered then pulled back his massive head to let off what could be described as a combo bellow and deep-chested laugh. The great shadow beast rose up some of its thick tendrils, and I withdrew my sword in response. And so came my third thought: It is so on. The great tendrils shot forth, forming spiked tips as they lanced at the helpless pony. A kick off of the feet sent me flying over to the side, and in the nick of time I swung up my sword and slashed away those pointy tips. “Back off my perp, ya smokey bastard!” The smokey behemoth let out a roar of annoyance, followed by a bone-shaking “SLAAAAAAAAAAAAVES!” I only grinned. “Not today.” Holding my sword to the side, I sprinted off straight at the ridge holding the lard-ass. Tendrils the size of peaks arose by his colossal head, before dropping to slam at me. I was too quick, side-hopping from each thundering impact and giving them a good passing slash. He caught on, and retracted those smoky limbs as he pulled back, dark matter gathering in his mouth. I made for a wide strafe by the time he unleashed a massive fiery blast of darkness. The earth rumbled as it ripped asunder, the blast being so massive that it managed to glance my arm despite my maneuver. For shadow magic it burned like a mother, but I didn’t stop moving. I could feel moisture along with the burns and tattered clothing, and grinned at the fresh opportunity Mr. Big Bad and Nasty just gave me. As he reared back for another charge-up, I whipped my blade around and slid it across my bleeding arm, all the while working up the needed words and fire. By the time he finished his charge so had I, and I slammed a good ol’ Malachite Piston into the ground at an angle. The second shadow blast wave came down while I was launching clear across the field to my left, avoiding the attack by a very wide margin. Touched down and I got back to running, the hype really pumping. Miles blurred past as the mountain drew closer, and Sombra was looking to stop me. Another shadow blast, and another Piston launch to the side, followed by one forward to cover even more ground. Once in spitting distance, the smokey brute mixed things up and slammed down a line of thick tendrils at me. All avoided pretty nicely; they made handy chunky steps to get me up the side of the mountain. Some hops, sweet-ass flips, Piston slams and slashings had me soaring skyward up to the tyrant’s colossal schnoz. I passed by and caught serious air time, and looking down, I saw his fat head look up to snarl at me with those tree-sized teeth. I flashed my own pearly whites as I fell, spinning and bringing my sword forward to plunge into that massive target of a forehead. It’s only a hundred yards away when he finally made an effort to stop me, in the form of an especially pudgy tentacle moving fast over his face. My steel plunged deep into it and I slammed my feet in as well for added impact. Shadowy ichor spewed all around but I kept pushing down, wearing down the resistance. Once it caved in, there’s an infuriated roar as the tentacle exploded and I found myself being blown clear over the field, back in the direction I came from. Miraculously I aligned my feet and hit the ground upright, sliding backward half a mile in a crouch. When I stopped, I stood and noticed the blast had blown a good chunk of my jacket and the shoulders of my shirt, as well as leave a tingling sensation on the parts of me that made contact with the tentacle. There wasn’t time to mourn for my clothes, for the landscape had started rumbling again. Shadows McFatty was shaking with growing rage, and from his seething mass even more tendrils sprouted, only they went skyward and spread out just below the cloud cover, pulsing red and black like roots outta Hell. When they stopped spreading, columns of spiny tendrils burst from underneath to strike the tundra. Unsurprisingly they were aimed in my general direction, so I took the necessary course of hopping back from each impacting column. After dodging the first wave, I noticed that the sod that brought me here had been sitting paralyzed in that same spot the whole time, eyes blank with fear and not even budging from the tremors. There wasn’t time to cuss him out as the next wave of columns dropped, so instead I went over, yanked him up by the scruff of his neck and flung him well out of danger. Once his useless ass was well away, I turned with sword raised at said danger. I sidestepped past the first two to make landfall, then dashed forward in the direction of Lord Somber. More columns came down, but I avoided them all the same and, getting tired of going defensive for that long, I cut through each one I passed by. I got back to my previous speed, yet still they kept dropping, getting more in my way. Five of them formed a freakin’ wall, but that went down to my blade and blurred away as the rest of the scenery. The speed made my ruined jacket tatter more, until it blew off completely by the halfway point to Mountain Mane. Speaking of which, Sombra undoubtedly caught sight of me coming right back at him, because he lowered his massive head and his gargantuan horn started glowing a brighter shade of red. “CRYSTAAAALS.” He threw back his head, pointing his horn straight up. It flared with intense magic, and then the whole world started to shake, bad enough to the point I couldn’t keep moving unless I wanted to trip over myself. I stopped just as a tremendous cracking filled the air, and from beneath Sombra’s earthen perch there burst forth several towering pink—you guessed it—crystal formations. They shot outward like lances to the heavens, and more of them grew out from the surrounding landscape in a wave. In seconds I had spiky crystals jutting up around my feet, almost making me fall back. I kept my balance until a very large one broke through the surface and I found myself getting lifted into the air. I retained my posture, and eventually the crystal stopped growing, leaving me some forty meters above the wasteland amid a sea of other towering crystals. The wind and snow were just as strong, but I still had a clear line of sight to Shadow Matterhorn, who was looking and growling back at me. I hopped forward and resumed my run, jumping and running along crystals instead of cold flat ground. Now there had to have been a reason for the expansive redecorating, and he made it clear when I spotted his inky tendrils twisting around the outlying crystals toward me. Some toward the back began pulling and breaking apart the crystals, then hefted them at me like glimmering, poorly-aimed javelins. I stepped over the tendrils that were reaching me while also batting away whatever projectiles managed to reach me. Nearing the base of the mountain, Sombra pulled off one more surprise by firing off his shadow blasts at me through his crystalline field. Shards went everywhere, much of it tearing at my shirt and limbs all while my footing got torn up with each passing blast. I got to about fifty yards of the mountain, when two massive crystal spires burst out and cross before their creator, blocking off his face as pillars of smoke blast up around me, forming into thick swirling tendrils. They circled and went down at me, forcing me to cut at them while trying to keep my balance. They’re much thicker than the others and my blade doesn’t really do much, and with them closing in around me, I had an idea. Leaping back onto a stable crystal surface, I tore a slit down my right arm and got to incanting. “Emerald Lancer!” A flick of flame and steel and I had myself a bitchin’ flaming sword ready for all comers. And come they did, but against the enchanted flame they withered and separated like parchment. I pressed my attack once more, tearing through the tentacles with flaming gashes and twirling my way passed shadow and crystal alike. I get beneath the the crossing spires and have a good look right up at the tyrant’s grand chin, before one of his main tentacles rose up and swept down, tearing one of his crystal barriers asunder. There’s several tons of shiny rock falling toward me, but I turned around and ran up one of the withering tendrils I left behind. Contact on my feet stung a bit, but I’m only on there briefly before flipping off it and leaving a parting slash. My leap got me over to another tentacle, which I also cut up and bounced off to another and then another. Those acrobatics got me up to the falling crystal, which I landed on and ran the whole length as its tilted upward. From the torn edge I leapt at the tentacle that cut it down, and before it could withdraw to strike, I struck it first. My flaming blade’s planted into it deep, and I ran up along it while dragging my sword right behind. It provided traction as I ran along the meandering appendage, well high up before reaching a crest where another large tentacle awaited. That’s my cue to leap off, executing a spin flip as the other tentacle slammed down. The speed and exertion of my flip made my shades come off, but it allowed me to see the massive look of surprise on Sombra’s face only twenty yards below. Sword still afire, I reoriented myself and spun around, unleashing a Jade Slicer right square at the bridge of his muzzle. It hit and burrowed into his mountainous skull before his entire body erupted in an explosion of black smoke and green fire, obliterating the mountain and crystal field as well in a cataclysmic blast. The smoke and noise cleared by the time I land onto the ground in a kneel, bits of crystal evaporating away into dust around me. Standing up I see, far across a now-empty field, Sombra doing the same, only he’s back down to pony-size. He wore the same red cape and armor as I remembered from our last encounter, and even the same metal crown band thing around his luxurious locks. He appeared dazed, but once he lifted his head in my direction, his brows and teeth took on a look of sheer malice as he snorted and started hoofing at the ground. I smiled at his challenge while standing tall, ripping off what remained of my scorched shirt. “Come on!” The caped tyrant broke into a charge, and I held out my sword before doing the same. We sprinted the distance in no time and clashed. My sword met with his horn, and we bounded off each other before dashing to clash again. Sparks flew up to join the falling snow as steel met bone repeatedly. For a fossil he was damn fine a fighter, but he must’ve seen that approach as going nowhere, for he leapt back several dozen yards. Upon landing, red and dark energy zapped up and burst from his horn, forming a pulsating lance of magic which he quickly slammed into the ground before him. The impact created a blastwave that tore through earth in trying to tear through me, but I sidestepped it and ran at him. He slammed down three more in different spots, and I dodged them just the same without losing pace. I reached him and slashed, but he backflipped deftly. A mound of earth rose up to meet his landing, and from atop his little hill he lit up his horn and started firing off a chaotic stream of shadow-imbued orbs. Their dispersal was random, and whatever they touched went up in a violent blast. Made things a practical death maze as I juked, ducked and hopped through the scattering deathmakers. I eventually got close enough to his lordship’s mound to attack, but as I swung upwards he leapt back in a flip, aiming and firing a beam of concentrated black magic at me. I hopped back, but the concussion of the blast threw me off-balance and onto my back. As I struggled back onto my feet, I spotted Sombra conjuring up another crystal from the earth, which he landed upon and rode rode forth in my direction. He lowered his horn, and I barely managed to sidestep to avoid getting my heart pierced. Didn’t step aside enough to avoid the crystal, which bashed my knees and sent me to the ground yet again. The duel had gone on long enough, so I sprang back up and readied my fire once more. “Chartreuse Phoenix.” As Sombra flipped around and brought up another crystal, he got to have a good look at the new flaming green wings I was sporting. He rode his hardened mount at me regardless of my additions, and I responded in kind by kicking off with sword trained. The fiery blast of the incantation brought me to him in a second, but he managed to spot my approach quick enough to make a whole chunk of crystal rise up to meet my blade. I blasted through and shattered it as Sombra leapt away to somewhere behind. I spun around to meet him as he landed, looking to get me in the back with another horn-emitted lance. Pity for him that I was quicker with the sword, for I ran it deep through his side before he could bring his head down. I stepped a ways from him, hearing him stumble and sputter. Looking back, I saw instead of the usual blood or dark matter, a white glow poured from his wound, which began to spread out in cracks along his side and even through his clothing. He just snarled and groaned at the light overtaking him, then managed to utter one last word of vehemence: “Dra…. gon….” “And don’t you forget it.” A cracking noise filled the air as the fissures of light took up more and more of his body, before finally reaching his head. He reared back to roar just as his eyes gave way to blinding light, and then he—along with everything else—exploded in a burst of white and the deafening sound of shattering glass. When my vision cleared, I found myself standing back in the hollow space beneath the Crystal Palace. Took me a moment to readjust to the sheer silence of my surroundings after what I faced, but it didn’t take me long to notice that my shades and clothes were still intact, and that my sword was still sheathed. In fact, my right claw was still on the culprit’s back. Pulling it back, I looked in the direction of the Fear Door. Still looming and decrepit, save for the crystal up top, which had shattered where only its lower third remained embedded. Pieces of it were scattered around the floor, bereft of the sinister luster they once held. The pony was still seated and mumbling incoherencies, but his eyes were no longer dilated  or green (still bugged out, but at least he wasn’t comatose). Guess coming face to face with your life-long oppressor would leave one trembling, and even more so when it was more than some overhyped illusion. There had been more than some of Sombra’s residual magic left in that door; as though a very part of him was kept there for safekeeping, maybe recouping or waiting for a host or something. Would explain how I got sucked into it just by touch, and also the mild numbing in my arms and chest. It was a hell of a tussle regardless of whatever he/that was, but leave it to a dragon to clean up a thousand year old mess (again). With all that said, though, the poor guy before me would undoubtedly be scarred from that head-trip, perhaps for the rest of his life. Given what he’d been through, he had suffered enough; to put him through Her Majesty’s brand of justice along with that would just be excessively cruel (although he was the one who brought me there and was dead weight during the fight, but whatever). That thought in mind, I shrugged and hefted the sorry lug onto my shoulder. “Come on. We’re outta here.” Figured Cadance could take care of this one citizen this time. As I headed back out the way I came, I halted and cursed myself before turning back around. I bent down and with my free hand picked up the novella I about nearly left behind, and then went back to getting the hell out of there. Can’t let a rare show of mercy make me forgetful of the core foundation for my duties, nor the individual who put it there to begin with. That’s one royal authority figure I don’t want to trifle with anytime. To The Beginning...