//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2. Where am I? 
// Story: Possession in the Crystal Empire 
// by Askre 
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Chapter 2

Private grunted and lay down. Nothing was happening, it was just him and Sombra in this empty brownish space. Occasionally he could have sworn he heard voices and at one point the Unicorn had felt much warmer and more comfortable.

The king didn’t do much either, just sat there and had his eyes closed, he seemed to be concentrating but Private couldn’t be sure. With a sigh the Unicorn glanced around, this was his mind so shouldn’t he be able to do more than just be bored to tears in an empty space? He glanced at the dark Unicorn again and raised an eyebrow, the cape, crown and armor were gone.

“Weren’t you wearing something?” he asked though not really sure why. Sombra opened one eye to look at him.

“The apparel I am known for, though aesthetically pleasing, does require power I’m better off reserving. I’m already regretting that little show I put on for you earlier when it first registered with your mind that you were not alone,” the dark Unicorn grunted.

“By the way, the Crystal Empire arrived months ago, which means you were defeated months ago. Why did those sleeper spells not kick in until now?” Private wondered, he might as well try and fish out some answers from the spirit while he was there.

“The sleeper spells were already active, they just needed a signal from me to home in on before compelling you to seek me out. It did take me a little while to activate that signal,” Sombra told him and lay down. “Now that I have answered your inquiries, how about you indulge me with some answers.”

“Whatever,” Private grunted, knowing he had little say in the matter.

“How many princesses are there? When I returned there was a new princess protecting the empire from me.” Sombra asked.

“Four, aside from the two sisters, there is Princess Cadance and recently crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Private sighed, he hadn’t actually intended to respond properly to that question, but he had immediately thought the answer and thus it came out audibly.

“Four?” Sombra looked concerned when hearing that. Then he began rubbing his muzzle as if considering something.

“Hey wait a minute, you’re thinking, why can’t I hear it?” Private narrowed his eyes on the unwanted house guest.

“We are inside your mind, not mine, my thoughts are my own,” Sombra sighed and rolled his eyes. “I would have thought that was obvious even for someone of your low intelligence.”

Private grumbled and looked away, forced to concede that point. Suddenly he felt a pull and looked up. He glanced at Sombra who was still mulling over something and ignored his host. Suddenly the unicorn saw he was slowly turning transparent.

“W-what’s going on?” he asked frightened.

“Nothing, you’re waking up,” he heard the faint voice of the dark king say.





Flash Sentry glanced up from his book when hearing the soft groan coming from the bed. The Pegasus put it away and walked over and saw that the Unicorn on the bed was slowly stirring. He quickly pushed the emergency call button that would summon nurse in.

“Hey, I think he’s waking up,” Flash said the moment a sapphire colored Crystal Mare came in.

The nurse immediately went over to the bed to check on the Unicorn, she put a hoof on his forehead and nodded before removing it. Then all she and Flash could really do was wait for the patient to fully regain consciousness.

“Hey there,” she gently addressed the stallion with a warm smile. He stared at her with a confused expression, then his eyes shifted to the guard.

“You have been out for two days now, you had a fever which has broken and the bump on your head has already subsided, though you will probably still feel it for few more days,” the nurse began explaining gently to the gray pony.

“W-where am I?” the Unicorn whispered, he still eyed Flash Sentry.

“Crystal Center Hospital, in the Crystal Empire,” the nurse told him. “You were found two days ago on the peak of Little Crystal, which is a small mountain just outside the city proper.”

“Sir, if it isn’t too much bother, could we have your name? We didn’t find any identification on you.” Flash Sentry stepped forward. Much to his surprise the Unicorn fell silent and after a moment had passed, the guard realized that he wasn’t going to answer.

“Look, I realize this has been quite an ordeal for you, but we need you to tell us your name and where you come from so we can notify your kin or a friend to let them know you are safe,” he said. Still just silence from the bed.

“Why do you not tell them your name, Private?”

“If they know my name, they will track down where I come from. If they track down where I come from, they will find out who my friends and family are. And while YOU are stuck in my head, I’m not letting them come anywhere near me.”

“Ah, I have underestimated you, Private. You do use that mind of yours after all, clever.”

“Wait a minute, why didn’t you know already, you’re inside my head.”

“It seems that while you are conscious, there are parts of your mind I cannot hear without force and right now I am too weak. Enjoy that while it lasts.”

“Up yours.”

“I heard that.”

“I know.”

“I… can’t…. remember my name,” the Unicorn finally said in a low whisper.

“He had a rather nasty bump, temporary amnesia is not unlikely,” the nurse told Flash who had raised his eyebrow at the answer he finally received.

Flash Sentry nodded though he wasn’t quite sure he believed the stallion. Something was off, he just couldn’t say what it was, also the long silence had been far more reminiscent to someone who didn’t want to answer instead of not remembering.

“Well, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor did want to meet you when you woke up, I better go tell them that you are,” the Pegasus said and turned to leave. The nurse and Private watched him exit the room, before the mare looked at the stallion.

“I’ll alert a doctor that you are awake, one of them will want to tell you how long you’ll be staying here,” she said with a smile and left.

Private Iceland sighed and glanced around, the walls and some of the furniture were made of crystals, but the bed looked like a normal hospital bed. He was currently the only patient in the room, but there was another bed further inside.

“Alright, so you weren’t a nightmare. How long was I actually there?” Private frowned as he decided to question his unwanted house guest a little bit more.

“About seven days passed before you were returned back to your own time,” the dark voice inside his head responded.

“I was there for seven days? Nice,” the Unicorn grunted and eyed the window.

“So why did you send me back and why me?” Private narrowed his eyes when met with nothing but silence.

“No seriously, first you pull me back through time, keep my prisoner for a week where you tormented and tortured me and then just poof, I’m sent back home. My parents had to send me to therapy for a whole year because I was a wreck after this,” the Unicorn growled in frustration.

“Time magic is quite volatile. As I already told you, you were not the only one I pulled from the comfort of their own homes and time, you were one of many I chose to serve as my various contingency plans in case something happened to me,” Sombra finally spoke, sounding mildly annoyed. “Due to the nature of the spell, you were only in my company for a week before you were pulled back to your proper time.”

“Great, so even if I get rid of you, there is somepony else that will just replace me.” Private shuddered to think that others had endured what he did.

“If it makes you feel any better, I wasn’t exactly thrilled that my spell brought me a child. I half expected you to perish before the first day was done,” the spirit said, there was still some irritation in his voice.

“No that does not make me feel any better,” the Unicorn snorted and glanced at the door when it began to open.

A Unicorn walked in, a mare wearing a doctor’s coat. She didn’t have the same crystalline appearance as the nurse and on her flank was a stethoscope. She carried a clipboard and smiled at Private when walking closer and seeing that he was in fact awake.

“You’re not a Crystal Pony,” Private couldn’t help it, he somehow expected all the staff in the hospital to be natives of the empire.

“It’s that obvious?” The doctor chuckled and glanced at her normal light gray coat. “No I’m Doctor Scope, I’m actually from Vanhoover and am part of the crew that’s training the Crystal Ponies in modern medical equipment and medicine, they are a bit behind after all.”

“Makes sense,” the Unicorn grunted.

“So the good news is, your fever has gone down, the bump on your head has subsided. You’re mostly fine otherwise, though I’m told you don’t remember your name?” Scope looked at her clipboard.

“It’s fuzzy,” the stallion muttered.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to go for long on that lie,” Sombra said with a hint of mock in the voice.

“Shut up.” Private couldn’t think of anything else to respond with.

“That’s perfectly understandable, hopefully your name will come back to you soon, we can always try and find your information based on your cutie mark,” Doctor Scope said and gave Private a reassuring smile. The stallion had to really resist hoofing his face.

“It seems your brilliant plan is already falling apart,” the dark king laughed.

“Heh… of course,” Private tried his best to smile too but it was nervous and uncertain.





Shining Armor scowled a bit as he considered the information just given to him by Flash Sentry. Although it wasn’t unusual that someone who suffered head trauma might have memory problems, something didn’t add up based on what little they already did know. He found himself agreeing with Flash’s assessment that this sounded a little suspicious.

The Unicorn hadn’t really had time to do much about the mystery pony at the hospital for the past two days, the stallion had simply hoped when the patient woke up he would tell his name and where he came from and that was that, maybe rest of a little bit before heading home. Flash had taken it up on himself to regularly go to the hospital until that happened.

“Are you sure he simply wasn’t trying to remember his name when he fell silent?” Shining asked the guard, easing his scowl.

“He showed no confusion or any expression that indicated he was struggling with his memory, sir,” Flash Sentry told him and shook his head.

Shining scowled again and rose from his desk. He stepped around it and headed out of his office followed by Flash. The Unicorn wasted little time to head out of the castle and went straight to the hospital. He knew Cadance had wanted to see the patient as well when he woke up, but the stallion knew she was busy right now.

In the hospital Flash took the lead since he knew in what room the mystery pony was in. Shining eased down his scowl, not really wanting to jump to any conclusions, but he was still on his guard. When the two stallions entered the room, the patient was not alone, Doctor Scope was there as well.

“Now we do want to keep you for one more day for observation… oh hello Prince Shining Armor.” Scope bowed briefly when she noticed the white Unicorn who nodded to her with a smile.

Shining Armor turned his attention to the Unicorn that lay on the bed, the dark gray pony looked almost bored and disinterested as he looked back at him. Shining had already noticed two days ago that this pony did not have the physical built of someone who would spontaneously go mountain climbing. 

“As you heard, I’m Prince Shining Armor, I’m husband to Princess Cadance, the ruler of the Crystal Empire,” Shining said as he stepped closer to the bed. “I understand from Flash Sentry here that you are having trouble remembering your name. I take it then that you don’t remember either why you were found on top of Little Crystal?”

“Ruler of the Crystal Empire. Bah!” King Sombra growled with a hateful tone.

Private Iceland was so glad that his unwanted guest didn’t have control of his body, or he might just have accidentally shown what the king was feeling right now. Instead he kept his normal bored expression as he slowly shook his head.

“I will enjoy carving them up with their own horns once I am at full power again,” the dark king continued.

“Will you shut up, unless you want them to realize you are inside of me. I of course don’t mind at all that they know, but I assume you still wish to remain secret,” his host said, that seemed to silence the spirit for now.

“Do you remember where you come from?” Shining asked and started to frown when once again the patient shook his head. “Alright, what do you remember?”

Private could smell a trap, he realized that the white pony was trying to trip him up. It would probably not make any sense that he didn’t remember anything at all. The pony decided to just remain silent, staring back at the prince who narrowed his eyes.

“You are not going to answer my question are you?” Shining Armor was now convinced that this was not a memory loss, the pony was just simply refusing to tell.

“Prince Shining Armor, he was just waking up, it might take a while for his senses to come to him, he is probably just disoriented,” Doctor Scope interjected.

That’s not it at all, the white Unicorn thought, his suspicion just growing more as the gray pony refused to talk.

“This ‘Prince’ Shining Armor is not as dumb as he looks. I fear your ruse is crumbling the longer you stay silent. Allow me to speak through you,” Sombra growled.

“The hell, why should I allow that?” Private did not like that idea at all. Suddenly he started to feel a stinging pain in his head, he struggled to keep a normal expression as he realized what was happening.

“Have you forgotten what I told you? I may be weak but I can still make you feel pain. Let me speak,” the dark unicorn snorted.

“Fine, just keep in mind, I don’t speak as formally as you,” Private grunted and suddenly felt like his entire mind was pulled back, it was like he could only see and hear now. Then the weirdest thing of all began to happen, he started speaking yet it wasn’t him who was speaking even if it was his voice.

“Sorry…” King Sombra said through Private, giving a sigh and hanging his head. “I just don’t want to talk about it right now. It’s… painful for me… I am not comfortable talking with strangers.”

“Little less formal and I don’t speak so audibly,” Private grunted and could hear the spirit sigh in frustration.

“Alright.” Shining Armor arched his brow at the sudden change in attitude, still not quite believing the pony. “Are you certain that we can’t have your name?”

“Maybe it will have come back to me tomorrow,” Sombra suggested, he was about to have Private smile but the body’s owner quickly told him that he would just keep the normal bored expression.

“Prince Shining Armor, unless this pony is under arrest, I am going to have to insist the interrogation be halted until he’s feeling better. We’ll be keeping him here for one more day for observation, so perhaps you could wait with the questions until then,” Doctor Scope spoke up again but now with a more insistent tone and frowned a bit.

Shining Armor slowly nodded, realizing that this wasn’t going anywhere right now and the doctor had a good point. Yet this pony in the bed kept bothering him somehow, his demeanor had definitely changed, he had stubbornly refused to talk and then suddenly began speaking.

“Very well, we’ll speak tomorrow,” Shining said and allowed himself to smile. “Hope you feel better.”

The only response he received was a grunt, it did sound like a thanks but the white stallion couldn’t be sure. He turned around and left the room along with Flash Sentry, once out on the hallway and they had walked well out of earshot of the room, Shining stopped the guard and looked at him.

“He’s hiding something; this just seems too convenient. I want you to have your eyes and ears peeled for reports about missing ponies. He’s been here for two days, somepony somewhere must be missing him by now, if he has anyone that will miss him,” the Unicorn ordered in a low voice. 

“I will do that, sir,” Flash nodded and saluted.

I’m almost tempted to post a guard here as well but Doctor Scope was right, he’s not under arrest and I would need a good reason to be doing that, Shining thought as they resumed walking.

Shining Armor headed back to the castle, wanting to find Cadance and speak with her. Flash Sentry headed for the barracks as he had no more duties for the rest of the day. Shining found the princess in the throne room with her secretary and massive pile of papers.

“Hello honey, Sharp Quill keeping you busy as usual.” The Unicorn nodding to the Crystal Pony as he stepped up to the throne.

“This isn’t being busy; this is drowning in bureaucracy.” The princess looked up, her eyes twitching a little bit. “This pile is just for the opening ceremony for the Equestria Games. Shiny, I could murder a cake right now, get me cake. Now!”

“Ah, right away, ma’am,” Shining Armor held back a chuckle. 

The Unicorn gave Sharp Quill the secretary a sympathetic look before hurrying out of the throne room and headed to the kitchen. He asked the chef for a slice of cake and was lucky enough that the staff had just finished making few. Shining Armor was positive Cadance had picked up the cake habit from Princess Celestia.

Once the slice was acquired, Shining Armor hurried back to the throne room with it. The moment he entered and was close enough to the throne, a light blue magic aura grabbed the plate and it was pulled to the still working princess. Cadance’s mood lifted a bit as she began eating the delicious pastry.

“Thanks, I needed that,” she smiled at her husband who smiled back.

“I noticed,” he said and glanced at the pile of papers.

“We can take a break, princess. This is a mere formality that isn’t due for another week or so,” Sharp Quill pointed out and smiled a little.

“No, no, best get this over with, Aunt Celestia taught me that much,” Princess Cadance chuckled and grabbed her quill again once the plate was empty.

“By the way, our mystery Unicorn woke up at the hospital,” Shining Armor told her now that his wife’s cake needs had been satisfied.

“Oh wonderful to hear, how is he feeling?” Cadance looked at her husband, she had herself been so busy that she had almost forgotten the pony they had rescued from Little Crystal. She raised her brow when seeing Shining frown.

“The doctor at the hospital said he is fine now, but is are keeping him for one more day for observation,” the Unicorn told her, his eyes narrowed a little.

“But?” the princess knew that look on him.

“He is refusing to tell his name, where he is from and what he was doing on top of the mountain. He claims it’s amnesia, but I don’t know, his body language didn’t match somepony that was suffering memory loss, he looked far more like someone who just didn’t want to tell us,” he explained to her.

“What did the doctor say?” Cadance asked.

“The doctor says he might still just be disoriented and seems to believe it is temporary amnesia,” Shining sighed. His wife reached with a hoof and placed it on his back.

“Shining, let’s not jump to conclusions. The doctor could be right; he might still just be disoriented. If he fell off that peak, he was lucky he landed on that little ledge, for all we know he thought he was going to die when that happened. Maybe he’ll be more ready to talk tomorrow,” she told him reassuringly. 

“Yeah, maybe you’re right, I’m being paranoid,” the unicorn shook his head with a chuckle, Cadance leaned forward to kiss him gently on the cheek.

“You are the commanding officer of the entire Crystal Guard, it’s your job to be paranoid,” she teased and smiled when her husband returned the kiss.

“I’ll let you get back to work,” Shining then said and grinned when Cadance glared at the pile of papers.

Shining Armor started to walk away, pushing the mystery pony at the hospital far back into his mind. He had few other duties that needed tending too and then there was the upcoming practice of the Equestria Game team. That gray Unicorn could wait until tomorrow.

End chapter 2