“And that’s how you make a crystal bloom. They’re tasteless, but that doesn’t matter for what we use them for.” The mare smiled warmly at her son as she passed off the foal to an nursemaid, who began heading for its cot, where the foal would sleep. The colt smiled at his mother, and concentrated, lowering his horn to the ground as sparks flew off his horn. After a moment, a very small crystal rose from the floor.
“Ma, I did it!” The colt beamed as his mother blinked in shock, and then smiled warmly, shaking her head as she poked him where he was ticklish.
“Well aren’t you the little prodigy, you remind me so much of my sister, your auntie.” The mother chuckled as the colt breathed in, and began to poke her as he tried to get her attention.
“I have an auntie? Will I ever get to meet her?” The colt beamed, before glancing toward the door where his father had walked in, and was glaring openly at the mother.
“No, you will never meet her, she lives far far away my son, and your father does not like her very much.” The mother winced slightly under the father’s gaze, before he turned and marched away.
“Why doesn’t he like her ma?” The colt tilted his head, and giggled as the mother poked him once more, shaking her head as the smile returned to her face.
“You’ll understand when you’re older dear, would you like to practice more of the special language?” The mother chuckled as the son began to bounce around the room, before plopping down in front of her.
“Yes! Luna loves it when I teach her about the special language, she say’s I’m a very profwesional teacher.” The colt stood up tall and proud, and the mother winced slightly.
“That’s very nice dear, would you like to learn her name in the special language?”
“Father, where’s Mother?” The colt approached his father, using the proper terms as his father had ordered upon completion of his first time seeing what war was like. The father turned, and the older brother took over the paperwork as he approached the younger son.
“You mother has passed away, Changelings came in during the night and assasinated her.” The father crouched down and brought his son into a hug, face devoid of emotion. The young colt’s eyes widened, and slowly began to leak moisture.
“B-But Ma said that-” The colt was cut off as he was shoved away, and shrunk under his father’s gaze.
“You will address her as Mother! You are far too old for those pathetic nicknames. We were at peace with the Changelings, yes. However this action demands we now declare war on them, and capture any Changelings in our city as prisoners of war.” The father loomed over his son, before relaxing and turning away, snatching the paperwork from the prince. The prince walked over to the colt, and brought him into a hug.
“I know, but you’ve gotta understand brother, Father can’t show emotion in front of anypony now. A King must be strong, and never show weakness. Go hang out with those two Equestrians, I can’t spare the time to console you right now, father’s putting me in charge of the advance team being sent out to the border.” The prince stood up, and gently nudged the colt, who nodded and left the room.
Pausing on his way to his friends, he snuck past the guards and into his mother’s old room, widening his eyes as he found her body still there. It was likely there so the father could mourn before her burial. Stepping over, fresh tears began to fall, the colt breathed in, and they stopped. He had to stay strong, like his father and brother.
The body was sucked dry, gray and devoid of the life that had once flowed through his mothers veins. The colt looked sadly to the horn, where the changelings would have drained the life out of his mother, however something caught his eye. Just under the chin, hidden by the scarf normally worn by his mother, was some sort of mark.
Breathing in, he leaned down and carefully pulled the scarf away, revealing two bite marks. Inhaling sharply, the colt glanced to the door, relieved to see he hadn’t been caught, and quickly covered up the mark. Sneaking out once more, the colt paused on the path to his friends house, staring at nothing in the distance.
“Sombra! What’s wrong?” A small filly with a white coat and pink mane approached the colt, a smaller filly with a dark blue coat coming to stand beside her. The colt blinked, and shook his head rapidly, and breathed in, turning to his friends as he bit his lip.
“My Mother just died to-Changelings.” The colt was relieved that the two didn’t notice his hesitation, and quickly consoled him. The colt closed his eyes and let fresh tears spring onto his face. This was the very first lie he had ever told to his best friends, guilt sprung up in the wake of his newfound greif.
Sombra put down the pen and closed his eyes, sighing as he rubbed his forehead. It was the crack of dawn, and it was obvious his body was begging for sleep. Sombra jerked upright, and shook his head, levitating the papers he had just been working on into the desk.
Levitating over another blank piece of paper, he continued writing. Pulling out a piece of paper with an alchemy drawing on it, he narrowed his eyes and nodded.
’It is quite possible I may regain my full power through the use of echoes. The amount of magic that I have regained is enough I should return to full power, given enough time, however time is of the essence here, so I must resort to alchemy. If I fuse a grown crystal that I can create with ease with the materials that would turn it into a gem-like quality, and then use an earth pony to activate a gravity sigil, it should result in a high quality crystal, at the cost of minimal magic.
There are two possible recruits, the pink one and the orange one. While the pink one is out of the question due to her being the one I want to murder the most in this town, the orange one might attack me if I get too close to her sister. I should have enough magic to subdue her, however that will set me back if I have to use magic.
Would it be wise to converse with the Twilight one? She is aware of my desire to regain full power, and she does know the orange one well. At the very least, it reduces the chances of it dissolving into a fight. I have compiled an alchemy book from memory, which I intend to use as a trade for this help.
Changes of success are high, I expect-
“Sombra, I brought you breakfast. Have you been up all night?” Twilight tilted her head as Sombra took the food and quickly ate it.
“Of course not,” he lied, levitating over a drink of chocolate milk and gulping it down, placing the piece of paper he had been working on into the drawer.