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// A Periodic Tale of Elements: Generosity - Chapter Eight (Dark, Adventure) 
// Story: xjuggerscrapsx 
// by xjuggernaughtx 
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Forty-Five Minutes Before the Ritual – Sombra


“You did what?!” Star Swirl shrieked, his eyes bulging wildly.  Before him, the Crystal Empire’s unicorn king stared at the floor, biting his lip.  “I’ve heard a great many things in my life,” the wizard screamed, “but none of them-not one other thing-has been as idiotic as the story that you’ve just told to me!
 
“Star Swirl—” his scrawny apprentice began in a warning tone.
 
“You stay out of this!” the wizard snapped, flicking his eyes to Clover in irritation.  “I’m already suffering through one moron right now.  Let’s not double it!”
 
Somewhere in his chest, Sombra could feel the heat spreading in familiar waves.  Even as a foal, he’d had a reputation as bad-tempered.  “Watch yourself, wizard,” he rumbled, his horn arcing streams of magic.  “I’m willing to admit some mistakes on my part, but you will address me with respect.”
 
Sombra flew into the air and slammed into the stone wall behind him.  Unseen power held him, pressing into with such force that the king could only take small, gasping breaths.  Unable to move his head, Sombra managed to roll his eyes down to the floor where the snarling magician stood.  The mewling assistance seemed to be trying to calm the wizard, but Star Swirl was ignoring him.  Sombra swallowed hard as he caught the gleam in the Star Swirl’s eyes.
 
“You come begging me for favors and dare to dictate terms?!” the wizard yelled up at him.  The wizard’s horn pulsed as he slammed another wave of power into the king, cracking the masonry behind him.  “You, who have angered one of the primal forces of the universe!  You, the idiot stallion who thought to gain from cheating that which is eternal and without limitation!  You have a dangerous habit of…” Star Swirl pulled the shaken king off the wall, only to slam him back several times to punctuate his screaming rant.  “Angering!  Beings!  Of!  Great!  Power!”
 
“Star Swirl, please!” Clover said, attempting a reasonable tone.  “Remember, we haven’t much time!”
 
Star Swirl stopped to think for a moment, shaking with anger.  Finally, he slowly lowered the battered king to the floor.  “You’re correct, Clover,” he said.  Straightening his hat.  “I apologize to you for losing control.  I cannot expect exemplary performance from you if I cannot exhibit it myself.”  He turned back to the king, who was coughing and wheezing as he tried to suck in huge lungfuls of air.  “Even when I’m provoked!” he sneered.
 
Such power! the king thought, shaken.  Sombra had been a runtish foal, but he’d grown into a massive stallion, and he wasn’t used to being ponyhandled in any way.  He threw me around like it was nothing!
 
It was just as he’d feared.  Star Swirl still had no regard for station or protocol.  He’s too unpredictable! Sombra thought, attempting to pick himself up off the floor.  Everything hurt.  But what choice do I have now?  I’m out of options.  Bitterly, he stole a glance to where Star Swirl was conferring with his assistant, their head bowed together as they muttered who knew what to each other.  ’Who-knows what?’ Sombra thought bitterly, spitting out a mouthful of blood.  It’s not too hard to guess.  They think I’m a fool.  No one’s ever good enough for the  Great Star Swirl! 
 
As a foal, he’d been in awe of his brother’s brilliant mind, and had cheered when they’d found out that he was on Star Swirl’s shortlist for pupils.  That had all changed with one visit to the wizard’s tower.  They’d travelled for days to get there, but after a brusque fifteen minute meeting, they’d been thrown out.  Star Swirl had shown them to the door, yelling to a flunky that if that was the best that Crystal City had to offer, the city could remove themselves entirely from consideration.  It was the only time he’d ever seen his brother cry.
 
His father had blustered and yelled, but Star Swirl had just slammed the door in their faces after informed them that they had twenty minutes to leave the tower’s perimeter before the guards were called.
 
Humiliated, the family had walked off with as much dignity as they could muster.  Nobility was simply not treated this way, and they had very little idea how to cope with it.  Sombra had tried to turn his attention to his brother, telling him that Star Swirl was just a vain idiot who didn’t know talent when he saw it, but it had just made his brother more upset.
 
“Sombra, just shut up!” his brother had snapped as they’d walked miserably back to the inn they’d stayed at.  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.  Star Swirl can cast spells of true seeing.  When he says I’m not good enough, it’s because he can SEE it!”

~~~

“You mean he can really see how smart you are?” he’d asked later.  Despite his brother’s mood, he’d been unable to leave the idea alone. 
 
“If I tell you, will you shut up and leave me be?!” his brother had half yelled, half-sobbed at him.  He’d been pestering his brother for hours since they’d returned to the inn.  His brother had appealed to their parents for a private room, but his mother, who could usually be relied upon for coddling, seemed to be in shock.  Worse, his dad was suddenly dismissive.  His brother had failed, and was therefore of little use to the family, so he’d ended up in a room with Sombra.
 
“Look,” his brother had sighed, his leg thrown over his eyes as he lay in bed.  “True seeing can reveal the nature of things.  It pierces invisibility and illusions, and it can reveal parts of your fundamental makeup.  But most importantly, it can see through lies!”  His brother had sat up, wrapping his forelegs around his knees and clutching them tightly to his chest.  Sombra waited in silence as his brother lowered his head onto his knees and shook.  “I c-cheated, okay?” his brother had finally said.  “I couldn’t get the h-hang of some of the upper level spells in school, so I paid off the instructor!  I-I didn’t really think it would matter.  I just didn’t have enough time!  I figured I’d catch up with Star Swirl, but… well, you saw.”
 
After that, his brother had rolled over and refused to say anything else.  Sombra had peppered him with several more questions, but nothing stirred his brother.  All the spark had left him.  And it never truly returned.  Once a promising student of magic, his brother now worked as a junior auditor in a counting house, and he rarely spoke.
 
Sombra’s heart had turned to ice when Chrystal began her campaign to call the famed wizard.  He’d known that he’d confused and frustrated his wife with his stubborn refusal, but he’d been sure that there would be some other way to defeat the… thing he’d met.  Crystal City had many fine minds that could be bent to a martial purpose.  He’d ensured they’d trained a military that would have been the envy of all Equestria if they hadn’t been constantly under siege.  The academies of magic had been instructed to place particular emphasis on warfare and combat support.  Discord had surely been vastly overstating his actual power, Sombra had thought.
 
But as the months passed, the beast had made steady progress, and his forces faced defeat after defeat.  Slowly, the beast pushed back the barriers, advancing inch by inch toward the city.  After a year, Crystal had burst into tears in their bedroom, begging him to just call the wizard and end the slaughter.
 
Sombra had felt his heart tearing, day by day.  He’d been caught in a trap of his making.  He couldn’t tell his wife that he as the cause of all of this.  He’d be stripped of his station, and exiled.  None of that would have mattered much to him, but his wife would surely walk away, and Sombra couldn’t bear the thought of that. 
 
His mind had raged at night as he lay in his bed.  He’d screamed silently, uselessly, to his troops and commanders.  He’d begged them to win.  He’d ordered them to hold the line and to find some solution!  They couldn’t hear him, of course, but it was all that was left to him.  He’d spent day after day in meetings with his military council, already knowing that they were hopelessly outclassed by the vicious thing they were fighting.
 
Today, the snapping jaws of the trap Sombra had unwittingly set snapped closed around his neck, and he’d given in.  The weight of tens of thousands of deaths was finally too much.  He slept very rarely, these days, if you could call it sleep.  It was more like hitting the limitation of his body.  After four days awake, it would just refuse to function any longer, and he’d fall wherever he was.  His mind refused to stay focused, and it tumbled down dark hallways of memories.  He’d suddenly look up to find that hours had passed while he’d wandered through the labyrinth of the past’s mistakes.
 
And so, when the exhausted blue soldier had sat, panting, at the foot of the dais, reporting to them that his last, best hope had failed, he’d given in.  He was simple too tired to fight anymore.  His mistakes were too numerous.
 
When Star Swirl had arrived, he’d ordered the king to follow him.  Chrystal and the guards had started after them, but Star Swirl had demanded a private audience.  Sombra hated himself for it, but he found himself relieved.  Chrystal would find out about the terrible mess he’d made of everything at some point, but at least he wouldn’t have to face her now.
 
When they were alone, save for Star Swirl’s nervous-looking assistant, Sombra had thought to try and salvage the situation by taking control and limiting the number of questions the magician could ask, but he’d wilted mid-sentence under Star Swirl’s intense gaze.  Sombra could feel the power and anger radiating from the sorcerer. 
 
When the questions came, he bowed his head and answered them glumly.  As the months had turned into years, his choices hadn’t seemed so bad, but listing them all out for Star Swirl, the full weight what he’d allowed to happen was crushing.  By the end, it was all he could do to keep from breaking down.
 
And then Star Swirl’s anger fell on him, and in his heart, Sombra knew that he deserved it.  He deserved all the wizard could do it him and more.

~~~

“You want to save her, yes?” Star Swirl asked, eyeing the king with distaste.  Behind him, Clover rotated between staring at Star Swirl, wincing at the state the king was in, and watching the door.  He was sure guards would be coming to throw them in a dungeon any second.  “You’re aware that there are no easy paths now?”
 
“I would do anything for her,” Sombra said, straightening.  The mere thought of his beloved was enough to revitalize him.  “I will pay any price to make sure she is safe!”
 
“Nice of you to offer!” Star Swirl snapped.  “It seems everypony else in the Crystal Empire already gotten a turn to foot that bill, so why not you?”
 
Sombra flushed, but refused to look away.  “I-I can’t say that I’ve been honorable—”
 
Star Swirl coughed out a barking laugh and rolled his eyes.
 
Sombra’s lip curled back in a snarl.  “As if you know anything about it!” he growled.  “As if you have any idea what it’s like to be driven by your heart!”
 
Star Swirl snapped his head around, flushing an ugly crimson.  “How dare you!” he said in a voice that cause the floor to quake.  “You know nothing…”
 
“I know plenty!” Sombra cut in, refusing to be cowed.  “I know that you use ponies and toss them away when you’re done, like you’ll toss him away,” he said, pointing at Clover, who was doing his best to remain quiet and unseen, “once you’ve taken what you want from him!”  Sombra advanced on the wizard, past the point of caring.  “I’ve watched you for years.  There’s been quite a line of battered, broken ponies that have exited your tower.  They came in rich and influential.  They left as shells of themselves.”  He stopped before Star Swirl, towering over him.  Slowly, he lowered his head until his eyes were just slightly higher than the wizard’s.  “You take what you want, and so do I.  The only difference is, you haven’t paid the price yet.  But you will, one day.  So let’s do away with this lily white, holier-than-thou routine you’ve been trying to display.  Saving the Crystal Empire will ultimately benefit you.  You know that, and you crave it, or you wouldn’t be here.  You’d have ignored the summons.  But here you are.  So tell me what you need me to do to fix this, and I’ll sing your praises across all of Equestria, but here, between the three of us, your hooves are as stained as mine!”
 
Clover shook slightly where he stood, ready a bolt of pure magical power to smite the king, but it didn’t fall.  He gasped as Star Swirl turned to examine him out of the corner of his eye.  He’s frightened! Clover thought, amazed and disturbed.  Well, maybe not quite frightened, but he didn’t expect that from the king.  He doesn’t like it when people watch him.  Clover swallowed hard as the magician turned back to the king.  He’s worried about my loyalties now.
 
“Since you’re so very eager, I’ll get right to the, ah, heart of the matter!” the wizard said, chuckling darkly.  “Because that is the center of this all, isn’t it?  You were so captivated by the princess that you went and did the single stupidest thing any pony has ever done.  Ah-ah!” he said as Sombra opened his mouth to spit out a retort.  “You’ve had your say.  Now I’m going to tell you how to fix this whole mess, but it’s going to cost you…”  He tapped the massive unicorn on the chest “… this!”
 
“You mean, you’re going to cut my heart out?!” Sombra said, reflexively pulling away from the wizard.
 
“Well, in a manor of speaking, yes,” Star Swirl said, beginning to pace as he often did during a lecture.  “The barrier spell that Discord and the others erected has been effective for eons, but by bringing a piece of the entity through, you’ve weakened it.  We’ll use your heart to create a new barrier.”  Star Swirl paused, thinking.  “And your wife’s love, of course.” he continued, flipping a hoof out dismissively.
 
“Absolutely not!” Sombra said, snorting.  “I’ll gladly pay with my life, but Chrystal is to remain unharmed!  I will not comply with anything that endangers here.”
 
“Oh, calm down, mighty hero,” Star Swirl said, shaking his head.  “She’ll be fine.  She hasn’t made the same mistakes you have, so it would be wrong to have her pay the price.  Besides, the Empire will still need a ruler, yes?”  Star Swirl tugged at his beard, narrowing his eyes.  “I think the turmoil surrounding the king’s death and the near destruction of the city will probably be more easily managed if the brave little queen is still here as an emotional touchstone.”  Star Swirl snapped his attention back to the king, who was beginning to sweat.  “But that’s not important for you, is it?” he said, sneering.  “What I want from you is a promise!  You love your wife with all of your heart, yes?”

The king nodded, his expression firming.
 
“What about your family?  What about the Empire?  You’ve done significant damage to both now.  Do you love them?”
 
“I don’t see—” Sombra said, his eyebrows bunching together.
 
“DO YOU LOVE THEM?! Star Swirl roared, his veins standing out on his neck.
 
“Yes!” Sombra said, “Heaven help me, I’ve always loved them, even when they’ve hurt me!”
 
Star Swirl stared at the king for a moment before nodding.  “It’s good that you do,” he finally said, “because it’s the empire’s only hope.”  Star Swirl returned to his pacing.  “When the ritual begins, Clover here will call upon you to remember that love.  Visualize it!  Feel it!  It must be clear and it must not waver!”  Star Swirl stopped, and seemed to sagged a bit, as if a great weight was setting on him.  “You’ve done more damage than you know, Sombra.  The world may never be the same again.  This is the heaviest price a pony can pay, but through this, you can protect all that you love.  Remember that when the pain begins.”