//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Eclipse // by Fullmetal_Pony //------------------------------// The Crystal Empire, once a lush green place, now a winter wasteland with black crystal buildings and its ponies enslaved. It’s been this way ever since King Sombra’s rise to power. While he held up in his palace the slaves toiled away in the mines. Most of the crystal ponies succumb to their fate but one was having none of it. Her name was Sapphire, she had a blue mane and tail with a white coat and her cutie mark was a sapphire gem stone. Those that knew her would describe her as mean spirited and one to always get her way. Today she had enough of being a slave. “I can’t take this anymore. I’m filing a complaint.” “Shhh Sapphire, you don’t want the guards to hear you say such things,” said a follow slave in a hushed voice. “No I do, I’m tired of this. I’m not cutout for manual labor.” Sapphire then turned to face a couple of guards a few feet away. “Guards come here!” The guards made their way over to her. “Why aren’t you working slave?” “I demand an audience with the king at once!” Everypony within earshot stopped what they were doing and looked at her. “You don’t get to make such demands slave.” The other guard decided to chime in. “Now hold on a second, a word.” The two guards tuned away from her and whispered to each other. “I don’t know maybe we should take her to the king, it might be amusing to see what he does to her.” “Maybe your right, let’s do it.” They turned back to face her again. “You come with us.” King Sombra sat at his throne when a guard entered the room. “Your majesty there is a slave here that wanted, no demanded an audience with you.” “Is that so, send them in.” “Bring her in!” The other guard and Sapphire entered. “Who do you think you are slave, making demands like that?” “Oh please call me Sapphire your majesty and the fact that I’m standing here right now means I can get away with making suck demands.” Hmmm this one’s got moxie. “Why is it you’ve come to me?” “I’m not cutout to be a slave. I want a better position.” “Oh really, and what pray tell would you rather do?” She had a sly smile on her face and started advancing toward Sombra. “I can think of a few things.” She came up and leaned against the right side of the throne. “But perhaps we should get to know each other a little more intimately first, if you catch my drift.” “Ooooh, you naughty girl. Do you do this with every king you come across?” “What can I say, I find myself attracted to powerful stallions such as yourself,” she said in a seductive tone while sensually rubbing his chest with her hoof. Sombra began to chuckle. The two guards just looked at each other dumbfounded. They didn’t expect them to start flirting with each other. “Guards leave us. But before you go send in one of the servants on your way out.” “Yes sir.” The guards left and a minute later a mare entered. “You there take Miss Sapphire here to my private chambers and bring her whatever she may need.” He then turned his attention to Sapphire. “I’ll join you later.” “Looking forward to it.” She then walked away swaying her hips seductively. Sapphire and the servant made their way through the palace until they came to the king’s bed chambers and stepped inside. It was a good size room with a king size bed and its own private bath. “Here we are. I’ll be back later with dinner. Should you need anything just flag down one of the palace staff or guards and ask for me, my name is Autumn Breeze. I will inform the others that you are a guest in the palace.” Autumn then left and Sapphire settled in. First she took a nice long hot bath. After she got herself cleaned up she went about brushing her mane and tail, and made herself more presentable. After dinner she laid down on the bed and waited for Sombra to arrive. Night rolled around and Sombra returned to his bed room for the night, when he entered he saw Sapphire laid out on the bed patiently waiting for him. “Hmmm what kept you?” she said in a soft tone. “An empire does not run itself my dear. You look ravishing by the way.” “Tell me something I don’t know.” She then beckoned him with her hoof. He removed his cape and armor, and made his way onto the bed with a grin. Sapphire rolled onto her back and Sombra laid on top of her. She cooed “Take me my king” while wrapping her hooves around him and leaned in to kiss him. Sombra then used his magic to pull the sheets over their heads right before their lips met. The next morning Sapphire awoke and momentarily wondered where she was until the memory of yesterday and especially last night came flooding back to her. She then rolled over and saw Sombra still asleep next to her facing away. She propped herself up a little, draped her left foreleg around him, and just above a whisper said, “Good morning” into his ear. He began to stir and replied, “Good morning to you too.” He then rolled onto his back. She then cuddled up close to him. “Mmmm last night was something else. I sure hope that this wasn’t a onetime deal.” “Perhaps not, let’s see where things go from here. Join me for breakfast and we can get to know each other better.” “Sounds good.” Autumn then entered the room. “Your majesty it’s almost time for breakfast.” “Very good, Sapphire will be joining me so have another place set for her. Also slave-” “It’s Autumn Breeze,” she said in a low voice. Sombra narrowed his eye’s at her. She started to panic a little. “Your majesty, I-I-I did not mean to interrupt, it just slipped out. Please forgive me.” “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood so I’ll let it slide this time. As I was saying Autumn you are now Sapphire’s personal aide, obey her as if it were me.” “Yes your majesty.” “I’ve had to boss around others before but I’ve never had another pony at my beck and call. This should be fun. Well what are you waiting for, go prepare my seat at the table at once!” “Yes ma'am.” She then scurried out the room. Breakfast started out fine until the staff brought their food out and Sapphire began to compline about her meal. “You call these eggs over easy and this fresh squeezed! Make it again and this time do it right!” She then threw her plate and glass at one of the staff. He ducked having it smash against the wall behind him. He then ran back to the kitchen. “It’s so hard to find good help these days.” Sombra chuckled. “You know when you first came to me you were nothing like what I expected. You showed no sign of fear towards me. Were you not at all worried about what I may do to you should I not like were the conversation was going?” “I don’t scare that easily and it seems like I always get my way so I wasn’t worried.” “You take to ordering the servants around like a natural. Tell me do you feel at all bad about your fellow ponies’ current situation?” “Not in the slightest. The way I figure it, they don’t want to be slaves then they should have ponied up and did something about it like I did. Instead they want everything spoon fed to them, too afraid to get their hooves dirty and take charge of their own fate.” Sombra clapped his hooves together a couple of times. “Well said, although you my dear are a special exception.” That made her smile. The same pony from before entered the room with Sapphire’s new breakfast. This time she found it to her liking. After breakfast Sombra went to perform his duties for the day while Sapphire returned to the bed room. A few hours had past and Sapphire was sufficiently bored, even bossing around Autumn started to lose its appeal. So she went to see what Sombra was up to in the throne room, although she walked in on a trial in progress. Sombra looked over to see her enter. “What brings you here?” “I got bored so I thought I’d come by and see what you were doing. What’s going on?” “This prisoner is guilty of attacking one of the guards. I was just about to punish him.” “DO YOUR WORST DEMON!” said the prisoner while struggling but the guards kept him in place. “My king if I may have a word with him for a moment.” Sombra was about to say no but decided he was curious to see what she was about to do. “Very well.” Sapphire strode up and stood in front of him. “And just who are you?” said the prisoner. He was then met with a loud slap across the face. “Right now I am your better, worm. So pay attention! Tell me do you have any family or friends?” “What does that have to do with this?” “From what I understand he has a wife and son,” said Sombra. “Really, well in answer to your question you don’t seem like the type that cares about their own wellbeing. There’s no point in punishing you if you’re not going to learn a lesson from it. Now if say something were to happen to your loved ones then-” “Damn it, you leave them alone! They’ve done nothing wrong!” “Doesn’t matter. I willing to bet that you would think twice about acting out if you knew it was somepony close to you that would be punished in your stead.” She then turned her head to look at Sombra. “What do you think?” Sombra sat there with a smile. “I like the way you think. Guards go fetch his wife and son.” “Yes your majesty.” “You bastards!” he said while again trying to get free but the guards held firm. Sapphire walked up next to Sombra and had a chat with him while they waited. A few minutes passed and the guards reentered the throne room with the prisoner’s family. “Dad!” “You two need to get out of here now!” “They’re not going anywhere yet. So who shall it be?” said Sapphire. “Tell you what since this was your idea I’ll let you decide.” “Very well. You there boy, how old are you?” “S-sixteen.” “He’ll do nicely.” “Alright then.” Sombra then addressed the prisoner. “Seeing as you do not care what happens to you, your son will be punished in your place now and in any future instances. For the crime of assaulting one of the guards he is hereby sentenced to twenty lashes. Take him away.” “NO!” said his parents in unison. The guards grabbed the boy and started to drag him away while his parents’ cries fell on deaf ears. “And when it’s done I want him back on his hooves and working again,” said Sombra. “Monsters! You two were definitely made for one another.” “Why thank you,” said Sapphire. She then took a seat on Sombra’s lap and wrapped her left foreleg around his neck. “We do make quiet the pair don’t we.” “My dear I have a feeling this is only the beginning of something beautiful.” Both had a wicked grin on their face. A few months had past and their relationship was in full swing. Sapphire had free reign over the palace and its staff. Sombra had been working on a special project in preparation for today, for today was a special day indeed. Sapphire entered the throne room and noticed a box next to the throne. “You wanted to see me honey.” “Yes, I have a gift for you, but first I need to ask you something.” “Ask away.” He got up and made his way to her. “Sapphire, will you be my queen?” At first she just stared at him, but then she smiled and moved forward wrapping her forelegs around his neck and kissed him passionately, then whispered “Yes” into his ear. He then levitated something out of the box. It looked like a crown much like his except it had a metal synthetic horn coming out of it with the same curvature as his. “This crown is specially enchanted with my dark powers. The one who wears it will be able to wield its magic just like a unicorn.” “Oh Sombra.” She bowed slightly and he placed it on her head. “Rise my queen.” She stood up and opened her eyes. They were filled with dark magic. “Mmmm I can feel the power flowing through me.” “Now then let’s inform our subjects of the good news.” They made their way onto the balcony. Sombra then used his magic to amplify his voice across the empire. “Citizens of the Crystal Empire report to the palace for an important announcement.” Once the crowd had assembled Sombra spoke again. “My subjects rejoice for today is a glorious day indeed. Allow me to introduce your new queen, Sapphire!” There was a collective gasp from the crowd as Sapphire made her way to the edge of the balcony. “Greetings my new subjects. It means so much that you came out to witness my coronation. As your queen I pledge to be just as good a ruler as Sombra. May our land prosper. Now get back to work!” “You heard the queen, get moving!” barked a guard in the crowd. After the crowd started to disperse Sombra approached her. “Very good. Now we can begin your magic training so you can fully utilize your new power.” As fate would have it not even a week later the princesses arrived to liberate the empire. Sapphire was still a novice at magic leaving Sombra to do most of the fighting. In the end the princesses were victorious and Sombra placed a curse on the Crystal Empire causing it to vanish for the next thousand years.