//------------------------------//
// Prologue: The Discovery 
// Story: The Great Dictator: Times of Swift Rise 
// by Time Reaper 
//------------------------------//

Text in green is a link to music so you can have ambience




The Distant Past




The Crystal Ponies have been assembled in front of the Crystal Palace. Its white shining walls and its wide entrance used to be majestic to watch, but time, and a lack of interest to keep it in good shape, turned it into a reflection of the Crystal Kingdom: a decaying, fractured relic of the past, destroyed by corruption and that was just trying to survive as long as possible before its population either died or left it in the search of something better.

But the citizens of the Crystal Kingdom wouldn't leave for now. The guards wouldn't allow it since the new King, Sombra, ordered to close the borders and now, what once was an open and vibrant  kingdom, has become a national prison. What once was a kingdom in a bad shape, has now become a livid nightmare from which there is no way to escape, Sombra brought a level of terror never seen before in this poor and decaying kingdom.

Every once in awhile, the King would gather the citizens in front of the Palace so they could listen to one of his speeches, much to the citizens grievances. For any problem the kingdom had to face under his rule, he would always blame the rebels (even though they were few and too disorganized to be an actual threat), Discord (even though he concentrated his actions in Equestria) or the previous king's corrupt administration (even though Sombra himself was more corrupt than the previous king he has mercilessly executed) while making a huge show to keep the impression of his formidable power to anyone who dared to challenge him.

The Crystal Ponies were already used to Sombra's speeches by now, and all they wanted was for somepony to take him out or to just die so they didn't have to endure him anymore. Sadly, death would elude them all. The crystal ponies would have to endure King Sombra, as he started to plan a new group in the Crystal Army, specialised to ensure the citizens of the kingdom would behave in the way he wanted them to behave.

There was an opposition against his tyranny, like the daughter of the previous king, and a few nobles who didn't liked Sombra's reign in any way or sense, but, as stated, they weren't organized nor united in their rebellion for either personal ambitions or too much distrust among each other. So, instead, they lived hidden in the dark to avoid Sombra's forces.

To make it all worse, Sombra placed his most loyal followers in control of all the strategic positions (advisors, generals, administrators, etc) and while there were rumors of discomfort among Sombra's followers, they were just that, rumors. The only hope was for the new princesses of Equestria, who were fighting Discord to restore Harmony in not only Equestria, but the whole world as well, but they wouldn't be able to do much until Discord was finally defeated and nopony knew when that would happen.

And today, in the 3rd anniversary of his coming to power, Sombra gathered once more his citizens in front of the decayed Crystal Palace, so he could show them something new he came up with, probably to keep the population distracted fromhis mistakes. He came down with his personal guards and generals and, after a few minutes of waiting and enjoying the power he now held, he decided to start the most important speech he would ever do in the history of the kingdom.

He adjusted his voice with the use of a spell that would amplify it and, with a resounding voice, he started his speech:

"Citizens of the kingdom. I've called you here, in front of our beautiful Crystal Palace, because I've heard that among you, even after I've saved you from Discord and the crisis that the previous, incapable ruler created, there has been thoughts of escaping our beautiful kingdom and to defy me. I've heard that some of you are even trying to instigate a revolt, to call for help to other kingdoms or even hire mercenaries to invade us and destroy the beautiful land we've created."

The ponies wore scared faces, either for actual fear or just to fake emotions and not getting arrested by Sombra's guards.

"But fear not my loyal citizens, They have no chance to stop, neither our might or progress. And to prove it, I announce to you that I'm not only working on a spell that will me grant eternal life, so I can protect you for all eternity, but that I'm also, as a proof of how powerful I am, going to summon a creature from another world and change it into one of us. I'm certain that this will give you enough proof of not only my power to keep you safe, but also that nothing can stop me nor the transformation of the kingdom to a glory never seen before".

That sounded good enough. Granted, he hadn't told the citizens that disease had been killing the kingdom and that he had to give away the fortunes of the kingdom to nearby clans of griffons, diamond dogs and Minotaurs so they wouldn't  invade the kingdom. But the Kingdom didn't have to know, for now, Sombra would keep the facade. At least he would have a great time spending it with his enemies in the dungeons but, before any of that, he had a summoning to do: "and now, behold..."

After ordering to his guards to move aside, He pointed his horn to his left and started to charge the necessary magic to do the summoning. The crystal citizens watched with wonder  at what Sombra had pointed and to see if this 'summoning' would actually work and while, at the beginning, there wasn't much to see, with each second that passed, the ponies could feel more and more of the magic concentrating in his horn.

What they didn't know, was that Sombra was trying to make it look like it was easy: his face showed pure concentration, but in the inside he was close to having a headache as this was taking more energy than calculated, but he couldn't stop, he had to show his magnificence, he had to prove that he deserved to rule this kingdom.

And while this was happening, a few ponies that opposed him were also watching:

One was a mare earth pony of normal height, orange mane and red coat, with emerald eyes and a hoof holding a torch as a cutie mark. Her name was Ruby Flame, she worked as a maid inside the Crystal Palace, but in secret, she was among the most influential among the opposition against Sombra. She was always making sure that the Crystal Ponies didn't forget their heritage, which Sombra was trying to change, and always giving them hope that change would come soon. And since she was inside the palace, she would also work as a spy to funnel important information to the friends she had in the opposition.

The other one was a unicorn Stallion (a bit short compared to other ponies): he had a grey mane, yellow coat, blue eyes and a cutie mark consisting on a scroll with a feather writing in it. His name was Clearing Onyx and he was the main leader of the Opposition, he would always write essays, to show the citizens of the Crystal Kingdom how Sombra was destroying everything that was important to the Crystal Ponies and how horrible Sombra was: he would even say that the kingdom was fine, but he was actually selling the kingdom's treasures to outsiders just to stay in power and that he was allowing the kingdom to die of starvation .

This two ponies were in the front row, watching Sombra's most recent speech and they didn't believe what was going on: Sombra was actually attempting a summon and, from the looks of it, he was succeeding. Something was materializing from all that energy Sombra was gathering and, from what little they could see, it had a bipedal figure (like a Minotaur) but skinnier and with a different type of legs.

They tried to make up what was the poor creature that now had to endure Sombra, but they couldn't get much of his original appearance, because in the moment the spell finished the summon, it started to change him into a pony. They could see how it was changing him from whatever it was into a equine figure, starting with the extremities: they started to take the shape of hooves and his head started to elongate and had a more equine figure. The more it changed, the more it could be heard it's horrifying screams of agony.

Ruby and Onyx were horrified for the suffering that this poor creature was having, and they felt angry for how powerless they felt now, unable to help or stop this atrocity, but they couldn't show that, if they showed their emotions they could get caught by the guards, so all they could do was to stand there and look amazed like everypony else, they didn't wanted to give him the pleasure of having more enemies to torture.

By the time the spell ended Sombra was tired, he could barely stay on his hoofs and he felt that his lungs were too small for the amount of air he needed to breathe but he was making sure that nopony could see that. He would keep his confident face (although it was a bit hard to keep right now) and smile to his audience. Sombra decided to look at his new subject, he was an earth pony, with a brown coat and a dark mane, his eyes were closed from the pain that Sombra quite enjoyed on giving (and was going to keep giving when he got bored in a few hours) and had no cutie mark.

And very soon, by the time he would be done with him, this new stallion would be his most loyal general and the leader of his new army.




Present day




It has been a long day for Cadence.

She had to reform 10 laws that were made during the reign of Sombra, she made a speech to the Crystal Ponies assuring them that neither Sombra nor the KP (whatever that was) were coming back and, lastly, she had recently ended a conference with the Professors of the Crystal Empire regarding the research of the past of the Empire before Sombra came and the mental blocks that he imposed on the citizens of the Empire.

From what was researched, some parts could be investigated through the books of the Library, but any attempts of actually remembering the past would be met with a migraine-inducing mental block, that would stop any attempt of remembering anything before Sombra. The researchers and magicians of the Crystal Empire couldn't find a solution to this, not even with the help of Equestria's greatest minds, and it looked like, whatever Sombra did on the Crystal Ponies, it was going to be permanent.

Cadance talked for 5 hours with the most brilliant minds of the Empire to see if they could find a way to eliminate the spell, but nothing could be found. The idea that Sombra would go as far as to erase the memories of the crystal ponies was infuriating.

But, interestingly, the weirdest part of the spell was how selective the mind blocks were: they would allow a few details to be remembered, like the pony's personal life, and the more away from Sombra's reign the memory was, the more it could be remembered in general while the closer it was to Sombra's reign, the more the block would act. The most fascinating thing of the mental block was that the moment of history that was erased the most, was exactly in the middle of Sombra's own reign. Whenever the Ponies tried to remember that period, although they didn't want to in the first place, they would meet a 10 years gap in his rule. Cadance found this very odd, considering that Sombra was a very egocentric pony so, why erase the middle of his own rule?

A theory among historians, like Recording Quartz, was that those memories may be tied with the weird machines, factories and other buildings that could be found all across the Empire. The buildings and houses went even beyond the borders of the Empire reaching the Griffonian Kingdom, the Minotaur Republic and Equestria itself, meanwhile some Journalist, like Firm Marble, theorized that Sombra's rule was so bad that he decided to erase it out of shame, but since any attempt to remember the past would be met with the mental blocks (and the headache that came with it), nopony was sure of what could be the truth. Still, by the end of that conference, Cadance was very tired and she wanted nothing else but a hot tea, a relaxing bath and probably to share a moment of privacy with her husband Shining Armor.

After having a relaxing bath with hot water and finally being in her room, Cadance's maid brought her the tea she wanted. Cadance always found very odd that her maid was working in the Crystal Palace, after all, why would an earth pony with a hoof holding a torch as a cutie mark be a maid? The cutie mark wasn't related to her work at all, but whenever she were asked about it, Ruby Flame would say that she could not remember anything and that everything she knew was being a maid.

Cadance was finally going to rest on her bed when, suddenly, a yellow unicorn came and awoke her:

"Princess, this is urgent."

Her drowsiness hadn't stopped her from recognizing Professor Clearing Onyx and he did look like he had found something very important. He knelt down and spoke:

"Excuse me my Princess, but this is urgent, I found something that I think you would like to know."

Cadance was very tired and she really wanted to sleep, but her patience and love for her ponies was telling her to allow him to speak, so she forced a little smile and with the sweetest voice she could muster and she responded to her faithful subject: "Of course my little pony, what is it?"

Onyx looked up to her Princess, seeing her tired, and he felt a little sad for not allowing her to rest, after all, he was in that conference and he knew how tiresome that was, but he had to show her what had been found:

"Princess, while I was gathering my equipment to leave the Palace, I accidentally stumbled into a bookshelf inside the conference room. This bookshelf in particular didn't fall and no matter how much I tried to, it wouldn't fall. So after investigating it for a while, I found that it actually held the opening to a secret passage that hoarded a lot of books, pieces of historical importance and a weird machine that, if the instructions are trustworthy, would be able to play movies."

This shocked Cadance: "Movies? But that's something that had been developed just a few years ago in Equestria, are you telling me that you found a 1000 year old machine that could do just that?"

At this moment Clearing Onyx was starting to get excited for bringing this news to the Princess. This could mean that somehow, the Empire was technologically ahead of it's time, and while it saddened him that this happened during Sombra's reign, and that for some reason Sombra didn't want it to be known, they would use it for the betterment of the Empire.

"Yes my Princess, but not only that, we've also found some movies that could be played as well and one of them was marked as a documentary, but since it didn't have a title, we're not sure if it was about Sombra or not. I think we should watch it for it's historical value, I understand that you may be tired, but at the very least we could see a fragment so we could get an idea of what to do with them in the morning?"

Cadance was now starting to feel a little bit more energetic: she wanted to sleep, but this news brought to her could mean the discovery of the century, it could be the key to restoring  the Crystal Empire from all the damage that Sombra did. No matter how she saw it, this just couldn't be ignored or postponed.

"All right, bring it here." - She said, she then thought: 'At the very least, since it's a Documentary I'll fall asleep anyway.'

After asking her husband to join her (if she wasn't going to sleep, then neither would he) they both went to the conference room and waited for Clearing Onyx to set up the machine.

This machine was, to say the least, weird: it didn't look like the Movie players of Equestria, this one looked more advanced; while the movie players of Equestria looked gigantic and needed film reels to go in, this one was small and it looked like it only needed a small disk. This differences gave Clearing Onyx had a hard time reading the instructions to properly use the machine, but he managed to figure out how the machine worked without a problem and, after a few minutes of waiting, it started to play the movie with the beginning being followed by a haunting song:





Movie


It was in color and sound (much to the surprise of the audience) and it started with the  following text:



   This documentary was made to speak about one of our most critical moments in the history of The Crystal Kingdom and the newly formed Crystal Empire, a moment that while controversial, it needs to be understood so the citizens of the Empire can move forward. The other reason for the existence of this, is to show to our future generations of the horrors that we had to endure before reaching what many argue to be "our best moment in the Crystal Ponies's History".

For this documentary, we will use images, pictures and testimonies of ponies who were there and witnessed firsthoof what happened.



The movie started by showing an announcement:

The fight of the century: Earth Pony versus Minotaur, come here on the 5th day of the 1st month to the Arena next to the Crystal Palace to see who is going to win, if either Brains or Brawn.

Then the movie focused on the date: 5/01/00

The movie went to a Crystal Pony, while the images were now in black and white, it could be seen how his mane and coat were shining like any other Crystal pony would be and he was wearing a cloth with very bright colors, with metal shoulder pads and a light helmet for protection. Then, a narrator started to describe the scene:

"And here it is, our gladiator Black Diamond preparing for the duel of his life, the Nationally famous Crystal Pony has been preparing himself for his first fight against a Minotaur, and while many assume that he is going to lose, many others remember how he, by this point on his gladiatorial career, has defeated pegasi, griffons and unicorns alike while being an Earth Pony himself. If he can win, he will bring glory to the Crystal Kingdom."




Audience


Cadance and Shining Armor were starting to feel uncomfortable, they didn't like where this was going, it was probably about a type of sport that by this point wasn't practiced any longer and was probably related to fighting, what kind of creature would find pleasure in seeing two living beings fight each other?

Cadance wanted to leave, but her husband wanted to keep watching. He told her that, at least they should be watching a little bit more before deciding if it was worth their time and because he wanted to see what kind of fighting tactics were used by earth ponies in those times because, just like today present, whenever an earth pony would fight a Minotaur, it would always end with the earth pony being thrown to the ground and being swept like a mop.




Movie


The fight started: the Earth pony was moving carefully and only attacking whenever he saw an opening, he was giving good strikes with his hoofs and he always avoided the hands of the Minotaur. The fight was looking glorious, the shots that were being shown made it look like the earth pony was going to win, but after a few minutes of fighting, the Minotaur managed to grab him by the neck and begun to throw him to the ground and sweep him like a mop. After showing the healing ponies getting close to Black Diamond to give him first aid, and with the Minotaur celebrating his most recent victory, another narrator started to speak:

"Too bad for our little pony, but he isn't the only one that's having a bad day, the regime was also getting a big hit in their mandate as, just a few days ago, King Sombra was dethroned."