//------------------------------// // Sun and Moon and Shadow // Story: Winter Storm // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// Celestia Compared to our initial arrival at the Crystal Empire, our entrance to the Imperial Palace is rather… tame. The blue-white crystal of the building is of course coated in ice and has begun to shift to black, but the process is not nearly complete. The only modification of note is the thick layer of dark crystal grown around the normally open section where the throne room is located. No simple window entrances then. By way of contrast, the front doors, curiously befit of ice, swing open for us. Luna and I share a look before deciding to go in that way. We kick the doors off their hinges of course, as a precaution. No sense in having them slam shut behind us. Nearly the instant Luna and I set hoof inside our ears prick up. Just past threshold is the immediate sound of screaming, coming from a voice I can hardly fail to recognize. “NO! AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Twilight Sparkle’s shrieks echo well in the eerily-deserted palace. “PLEASE!!! AAARRGGGH!!! HAVE MER- GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” I grind my teeth and scrap the ground with a hoof. My first impulse is charge in, mane flaming, magic flying… but I fortunately have long since passed the point of being governed by such things. The screams are indeed echoing quite well. Too well. I can immediately sense the locus of dark magic that can only be King Sombra in the throne room – exactly where I expected he would be – and the acoustics of this place shouldn’t allow such a clear transmition. Obviously Sombra wishes us to charge ahead without thinking, caught up in righteous indignation, and walk right into some trap. I reach out, trying to sense Twilight as well… but nothing. That could mean anything. In this place the aura of dark magic radiating off the ice and the king is so strong that it could easily block off lesser magical signatures, particularly if they’re in bad shape. I can’t sense my niece or nephew or even their remains either, so I’m fairly confident that it’s simply all the darkness shrouding everything else. If Twilight were… well… I would know. I know I would know. Luna and I take a moderate pace through the palace corridors, our eyes open for any sign of attack or trick. Sombra knows we’re here. Even if he didn’t know long before we arrived he could hardly have missed the battle outside. As much as I yearn to rush in and halt the abominable screaming that booms throughout the building I will do no good by getting myself shot in the back. There are so many possible traps: animated statues, force field cages, fear toxins, incorporeal ambushes, warding circles… those last I am especially vigilant for. All they require is the carving of situation-appropriate runes into a circle along with an adequate amount of magical energy. They couldn’t capture us themselves, but be useful enough to hold us still long enough for another trap. In the blue-white crystal of the palace floor, they would be incredibly easy to miss. I remember in my younger days actually being captured in one of those circles by a cabal of sorcerers wanting me to grant them a wish. Not my proudest moment. The halls of the Imperial Palace are dark and cold, and the heart-wrenching screaming is a constant, but beyond that Luna and I simply do not encounter anything between the entrance the door to the throne room. No traps, no illusions, no windigo ambush. If I was on alert before, now my mane is positively standing on end. Why are we being allowed so close? Doesn’t Sombra remember how powerful we are? What ace up his sleeve makes letting us into his very lair worth it? The Sombra I remember is far too clever not understand the peril he’s inviting in – he must have something of incredible potency in store to make it worth the risk. Luna and I stare at the sealed doors to the Crystal Empire’s throne room. “Tread carefully, Tia,” my sister says. “He is up to something.” “And you as well,” I reply. “But whatever he is planning will come to nothing. We are greater than he, and we are in the right.” “Agreed,” she nods. “On three again?” “As you say.” “One…” The two aim our horns. “Two…” My horn glows bright gold, Luna’s blue. “THREE!” We disintegrate the doors. The ash doesn’t even have the slightest chance to settle before we’re inside, shields and magic at the ready. A quick glance reveals that the throne room of the Crystal Empire has been entirely reshaped in the image of its “king”. Dark crystal everywhere, sinister motifs on the tapestries, his sigil on the banners… and of course, the bodies. Speaking of Sombra, he has rather naturally parked his flank atop his stolen throne. Steel armor, barbaric red fur-lined cape, grey coat, curved horn, and unnatural eyes. It’s unmistakably him sitting there, an enormously self-satisfied smirk on his face. And bound with rune-encrusted cold iron chains to the foot of that chair, her body beaten bloody and barely breathing… I eye the unicorn king with a look that promises hell. His smile widens. “Ah, your majesties,” Sombra says in his deep, deceptively-pleasant voice. “Welcome to my palace. I’m so glad you could make it to this little get-together.” “This is not your palace,” Luna growls. “And you will pay for what you have done to this land.” “And here I was so hoping we might become friends,” he says in mock anguish. “After all, what’s a bit of murder and mayhem between old comrades, eh Celestia?” “Shut your filthy mouth, you monster.” “Oh, dear sweet Celestia, watching you work these past years has been a treat,” Sombra takes a step off the throne. “I never knew just how wonderfully dark you could be. We-” “Enough!” I stamp my hoof hard enough to shake the room ever so slightly. “I did not come here to listen to you prattle like some two-bit cliché storybook villain! Surrender this land and my student, or face my wrath!” “Now I ask you: is that any way for a petitioner to come before her king? Especially one who has a gift for her?” Before I get the chance to do or say much of anything else, the Sombra’s magic envelopes one of the bodies spread throughout the throne room and hurls it at me. I immediately raise a shield, but all the thing does is fly through the air and then collapse limply at my hooves. Looking more carefully at it, through the evident scars of torture and what look to be mortal wounds, I recognize Affable Accord, my ambassador to the Crystal Empire. And, naturally, a coordinator of my intelligence network within it. “Your… highness…” I confess that I am as startled as anypony when his lips manage to move and sounds come out. For one, his body is covered in what look to be several fatal wounds. For another, he isn’t breathing. “I’m so… sorry…” I grimace as the realization kicks in. My ambassador is dead – that just hasn’t stopped Sombra from using him as a tool to taunt me. I recognize a soul bound to a corpse when I see one. And the “king” is by all accounts an accomplished necromancer. “I… failed you.” Yes, you did. A major part of your task was to monitor the empire and Mi Amore Cadenza in particular for any taint or hint of dark magical corruption. Considering what’s happened, it is quite safe to say that your observational skills are extremely lacking. Still, there is no point in telling you as much now, is there? “Shhh…” I urge him gently, lowering my head to softly tap his body with my horn. “Pass now with your duties fulfilled, and know that you enter the next life with my blessing.” I step over the corpse of my servant as it is swiftly consumed in flame. The destruction of the body should release his soul – as it should have been for Shining Armor all those years ago – and in any case there is nothing more I can do for him. The dead are beyond my power to heal. “So ready to eliminate one of your own?” Sombra smiles again. “I must say, your care for those under you is truly touching.” “Spare me your lecture.” “I mean it. Your lack of hesitation is almost worthy of myself.” Hardly. My hesitation in the face of clear necessity has almost been my doom on a number of occasions. Nightmare Moon, where I initially refused to fight. Had my maddened sister been a fraction less overconfident, had she been the slightest bit smarter I would have perished there in the Everfree Castle. Soon after, the world would have withered under night eternal. And then there is the case of Cadence and her husband, where I allowed respect and sentiment to stay my hoof for centuries. I am certain that what is happening right now would not have come to pass had I simply done the right thing a long time ago. This entire mess is, in a way, my fault, for being so hesitant to deal with the dark beacon years ago. The lesson to take from all of this is very simple: in a moment of crisis, a ruler must not hesitate. No matter her feelings. And today, I do not mean to. “Sombra, I am going to give one chance,” I tell the false king, fire in my eyes. “Your allies are defeated, your plan in ruins, and your curse shortly to be lifted. Surrender now, undo this madness and submit to justice of your own volition, and I might allow you to live.” “Hmmm…” he taps his chin briefly with one hoof. “Alright then.” I blink. My jaw drops. Behind me, I can hear the unmistakable sound of Luna’s gasp. “What did you just say?” I manage, still unable to control my facial expression. “I said: I surrender,” Sombra repeats himself. “In the face of your superior power, I submit myself into your legal custody to await any charges you wish to bring against me in a court of law.” I confess, this is indisputably the last thing I expected him to do. After going through a multitude of no doubt harrowing experiences to return from the dead, retake the Crystal Empire, capture Twilight, and lure us here, surrendering is absolutely out of character. I simply asked to observe what formalities exist for this sort of situation. Still, I find my voice quickly enough. “Very well then. Begin by releasing Princess Twilight. You will then cast down your armor and weaponry at our hooves and-” I don’t get the chance to say anything else, because that is the exact moment that black shadow magic coalesces around Sombra’s horn impossibly fast before turning itself on me. Fortunately, I am no slouch in quick draw department either, and the stream of dark energy explodes uselessly against a golden sphere. “Hah hah hah hah hah!” Sombra laughs as his attack dissipates. “You two should have seen the looks on your faces! Hah! Priceless!” Neither Luna nor I answer, moving immediately to the part where we vaporize him. Blue and yellow streams of magic fly back at the unicorn, only for a pony-shaped chunk of dark crystal to throw itself into their path. The sacrificial pawn is immediately shattered into a million pieces, but the monster behind is untouched. “I suppose that it’s time you meet my welcoming party.” And with that simple phrase, the throne room immediately becomes a wild hive of activity. Sections of the walls and floor tear themselves free with loud scrapes of stone on stone, revealing themselves as war golems. Every single carcass littering the ground lurches abruptly to its hooves, witchfire glowing balefully in their eyes. The castle itself shakes when around a quarter of the entire ceiling rips itself out and crashes to the floor below. The thing the enormous mound shapes itself into is not so much a pony as a thirty-foot insectile… thing. Unlike the others, it actually raises its claws high and roars. Lesson learned: next time, don’t offer the villain a chance to surrender. Just shoot him while he’s talking. “Make yourselves useful and kill them.” And then we are beset. Sombra’s zombies and golems are surprisingly quick for dead flesh and hunks of stone. Dozens of the things skitter across the throne room at us, some firing as they go. Even the insect monstrosity is moving at a pace more appropriate to a leaping antelope. Luna and I, by mutual unspoken consent, fall back fluidly through the doorway and slightly beyond. No sense in allowing them to surround us. The quickest of the puppet corpses makes a headlong leap at us, jaw unhinged and teeth bared, only to run directly into a wall of force conjured into the doorway by my sister. The necromantic abomination smashes its head into the magic with enough force to audibly crack the skull. Not seeming to notice, the zombie pounds against it with raw and cracked hooves, soon to be joined by as many of the false king’s minions as can fit around the area. Above, I can hear the much larger one pounding against the wall itself. Of course, the mindless constructs fail to notice that they are lining themselves up like bowling pins. Luna and I hold position for half a second, allowing our magic to build up, then as one we thrust our heads forward. The barrier blocking the door immediately pulses outward in an overwhelming wave of force, sweeping over the horde. Even the largest golem is pushed back, the lesser creatures have no chance. They are hoisted off their hooves and tossed about like clothing in a dryer. Some are torn to pieces, some shatter outright, and some simply lay still against the floor. Only around half manage to pick themselves up again. On his stolen throne, I can make out Sombra grimacing unpleasantly. He vanishes on the spot. Even as his minions commence a second wild charge, a quick flash and Sombra appears out in the hallway with us. He ducks under a double backwards kick from Luna and simultaneously conjures a red wall that absorbs my lance of magic. He stamps his hooves and a half-dozen shards of black crystal thrust upwards at my sister’s chest, but she has little difficulty in rolling aside from them even in her armor. I shatter his little barrier with a single well-placed hoof strike. Together, Luna and I advance on the king. Sombra snarls and sends a solid cone of pitch-black energy at the pair of us. We fight back with counterstrikes of our own magic. The three beams meet in the middle, and we all strain. For a few heartbeats it is a tie, the might of the royal sisters temporarily matched by that of the shadow king. But then his energy starts to fade, his magic slowly giving ground before ours. And then I am jumped by a zombie. What was once a heavy-built minotaur bull slams into me from the side like a hoofball player. I confess to being unprepared and admit I rather deserve to be bowled over. I am suddenly in tangle with three zombies and four golems at once. They bite, kick, stab, scratch, and pound against my flesh and armor, desperate to fulfil their orders and terminate me. But at my age, my skin has roughly the natural durability of well-made steel plate, and the enchantments on my armor only make it stronger. As my hooves wrestle against an abomination each, I look up at one of the zombie ponies, staring straight into the green witchfire that now rests in its eyes. “Burn.” I detonate a fireball on myself. It sweeps across the hall, consuming fabric and flesh alike. My sister and I are quite fireproof, and the crystal golems are relatively resistant, but the zombies have no such luck. Their dead, bloodless flesh is natural tinder to the flame. It burns them to the bone within the blink of eye. I lash out with two hooves and shatter the head of one golem before it gets the chance to recover, and then disappear in a flash. I reappear directly behind the usurper king, who through these handful of seconds has been locked in heated contest of magic with my sister. This time, I take the expedient route and shoot him when he’s not looking. Hundreds of thousands of volts of summoned electricity race through Sombra’s body, and his concentration is broken. Luna’s blue magic smashes through his own and catches the stallion in the chest. There is a tremendous explosion, and Sombra goes flying backwards over my head, smashing straight through a wall a considerable ways down the hallway. My sister and I have absolutely no chance to celebrate, for at that exact moment the enormous insect-golem finally succeeds in smashing through the throne room wall. In fact, it actually knocks around half of the whole thing over, directly onto our heads. Luna, myself, and several lesser golems are buried in an avalanche of finery and crystalline wall. I will admit that having several tons of rock dumped on one’s head is rather painful, even for somepony like myself. Enough to break skin in a few places. Still, escaping from under it is as simple as a basic teleportation. I materialize again a good distance into the air. Luna is already there, above and behind the vast golem. It is not aware of us, and it appears to actually be digging through the debris for our bodies. That is actually somewhat amusing – the stupid brute really thinks that it has slain us. Luna gestures slightly at its back, and I nod. We level our horns at the golem and gather our magic. Right on cue, twin lances of blue and gold energy shoot through the air towards the back of the insect’s “neck”. As one, they slice straight through it like it were soggy paper. The monstrosity freezes in place for just the slightest fraction of second, as if taking that long to comprehend what has just happened. And then, just like that, cracks begin to form around the two holes in the golem. They spread rapidly through the beast, the false life visibly fading as they do. Very shortly, it crumbles into so much rubble and dust. I immediately scan the throne room further threats, but see nothing but the broken ruins of Sombra’s minions and my precious Twilight. I double check, but get the same result. I shake my head. I must confess that that was… easier than I expected. Significantly easier. Was that it? Was that all you could conjure, Sombra? A low moan immediately draws my attention back to the horrible-looking mare chained to the throne. I do not know if that was all Sombra had up his sleeve, but I do know that this is a perfect chance to get Twilight Sparkle out of here. The last thing she needs is to fall victim to crossfire when Sombra himself returns. He will not flee – his monstrous pride would not allow such a thing. “Lulu,” I instruct my sister. “Keep a watch for me. I’m going to break my student free.” “Aye,” she nods, and we both descend to the ruined floor. I gallop towards Twilight, perhaps a little more quickly than is entirely prudent, but frankly I do not care. I spend so much time caring for the needs of others, I can be forgiven for indulging in love for one of the only ponies I can even begin to regard as a peer. She is my little one, my daughter in all but blood, and the sight of her lying there, so clearly tortured within an inch of her life… frankly, it makes me half wish I was the type of mare who would do that sort of thing herself. Just so I could visit such vengeance on Sombra. He may consider himself very fortunate that all I am going to do today is thoroughly kill him. As I get close, one of Twilight’s ears flicks weakly, and she manages to crack open one eyes. “P... Prin…” a faint hiss emerges from her mouth. Dear gods, her voice is weak. What did that monster do to her?! “Shhh…” I urge Twilight as I finally reach the spot where she is chained. “It’s alright. It’s going to be alright. Help is here,” I shatter one runic chain with a single fierce stamp of my hoof, then another. With as much gentleness as I can muster, I lift her limp body up with magic and place it on my own back. “I won’t let anything else happen to you, I swear!” “Th…” there’s the weak rasp again. “Please, save your strength,” I plead, before shattering another of her bindings. “Lean on me, and I will take care of you.” “Wan… Want to… ugh…” “Just stay still and we’ll have you out of here,” I destroy the last chain that binds my student in place. “We’ll take you to a place of healing and soon you’ll be – urk!” With absolutely no warning, I feel the sensation of something extremely sharp plunging into the gap in my armor around the back of my neck. The lance of pain travels swiftly through me, puncturing my heart and bursting out of my chest within the space of a single heartbeat. It’s a lavender horn. “Suuuupriiiiiiiise!” comes the singsong voice of Twilight Sparkle. Bright green lightning explodes from the horn, wracking my body from the inside out. My world dissolves into pure agony. And then blackness.