Chapter 3: Crystal Death
Chapter Three: Crystal Death
Everfree, One Month After Sombra Executed Reginald
In the heart of the Kingdom of Equestria sat the arboreal, wooded city of Everfree, located in the giant forest bearing the same name. Hundreds of grand old oak trees surrounded the many stone buildings of the city. They formed a canopy which covered the streets in a consistent shade. Rows of colorful flowers and uniform, thatched-roof cottages lined the many cobblestone streets of the city, streets which crisscrossed the city in a hash-like grid. This was a systematically planned city, unlike the other towns and settlements in Equestria which had sprung up and expanded haphazardly over the years.
Seven hundred years ago, upon banishing Discord and taking the throne of Equestria, the royal pony sisters Luna and Celestia founded the city of Everfree. They called the city “Everfree” because every pony was free to live there, unlike some of the other cities in the kingdom which were segregated by pony race. Cloudsdale, for instance, was an exclusively pegasus city, where Equestria’s weather was managed. Canterlot was an exclusively unicorn city, where the unicorn sorcerers raised the sun and moon. Fillydelphia was an exclusively earth pony city, where ponies grew crops in the surrounding fields. Not all cities were like this: Baltimare and Horseshoe Bay for instance admitted all three races of ponies, but Everfree was the first and most noteworthy of the racially-integrated cities of Equestria.
The grand Everfree River flowed east through the city towards Horseshoe Bay from its tributaries near the Unicorn Range further Northwest. The north side of the city consisted mostly of trading posts where earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns gathered in fellowship to exchange goods. Unlike the sour relations between the three tribes of ponies hundreds of years ago before Celestia deposed Discord and founded Equestria, the three tribes were cordial to one another and conducted business in fellowship and friendship.
The south side of the city was occupied primarily by the giant Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters and its several support structures. In the Equestrian capitol building, Princess Celestia sat in her throne room, busy attending to the day-to-day administration of Equestria. She signed paperwork and managed her court, listening to ponies and their concerns.
As her horn glowed and she wrote with her quill, the doors to the throne room burst open as a shimmering silver stallion in crystal armor ran into the room. He gave a quick bow to the Princess and asked to be heard.
A crystal pony? Celestia pondered. Now what could he possibly want?
“Rise and speak, sir. We shall hear your concerns,” Celestia addressed the stallion with the royal “we,” indicating she was speaking for both herself and her absent sister, Luna. Though this was before the princesses took over the job of raising the sun and moon, Luna was still known as the “Princess of the Night” because she slept during the day and ruled the kingdom at night while Celestia slept.
“Thank you, your highness. I am Arrowmark, the captain of the Crystal Guard. A month ago, a unicorn named Sombra overtook the capital of the Crystal Empire. He has used some form of magic to control and mold the crystal which can be found in the ground of the Crystal Empire. He has made himself unspeakably powerful through use of this spell, which causes his horn to glow black, a color the crystals turn to when he controls them. He has enslaved the denizens of Crystopolis, and forces them to mine crystal for him.
“Our guards have retreated to those small towns in the empire which we still control, but Sombra is far too powerful for us to take on. He surrounds himself in crystal which our lances and arrows cannot penetrate. He has killed our old King and amassed a small cadre of loyalists; they are mostly robbers and thieves from the prison which he demolished. We do not know for sure, but we believe he uses some form of mind control magic to control his followers. One of our spies has witnessed a cult-like ceremony in which he touches his horn to each of the thirty or so of them for about five minutes.
“It's only a matter of time before he and his forces overruns every last corner of the empire. We have thoroughly exhausted all of our own national defense options. As captain of the Crystal Guard, I hereby invoke our mutual treaty of defense and request Equestrian aid immediately.”
Celestia blinked several times. A single unicorn had taken over the entirety of the Crystal Empire? How was this possible? She had known of some incredibly powerful unicorns, but none powerful enough to single-hoofedly take over an entire nation, even one with as small of a population as the Crystal Empire.
“Stallion Stephen,” Celestia motioned towards one of her white pegasus guards and said, “I want you to gather all of the information you can on this unicorn, Sombra.” Stallion Stephen scampered from the room.
"As you have exhausted all of your own national defense options as per the terms of our treaty, we shall assist you in retaking your empire, Arrowmark. However, we need time to prepare a counter-attack for whatever strange spell that this unicorn is using. Please tell us more.”
Arrowmark expounded, “Certainly, your highness. He appears to have the body of a unicorn, but he also has a crystal embodiment which he can move as if it were his own body.”
“He can form this crystal body into nearly any shape. We have seen him form spears and lances, a wheeled cart, tendrils and limbs, a giant ball, even a claw like a dragon's. Though the crystal is brittle, he can still use it to impale ponies who disobey him. We have no idea why he is doing this or what his motivation is, though he appears to derive great joy from acquiring new crystals. He is never quite satisfied.”
Princess Celestia blinked several times, unsure of what to make of this. She inquired, “Now, Arrowmark, we were under the impression that crystal is difficult to shape. How is Sombra able to form it into such shapes at will?”
He responded, “I believe that it has something to do with magic, your highness. Though I have not been able to test it, crystal appears to take on different properties when Sombra manipulates it with his magic versus how it would behave when acted upon by hoof or any other physical object. I have brought a crystal rock with me, if your highness would care to investigate with your own magic.” Arrowmark held out a small rock.
Celestia levitated the rock towards herself. At first, she was not able to form it into shapes in the same way that Sombra did, but after about a minute of fiddling with it she was able to make it take the shape of a cube, and then a sphere.
The Princess floated the sphere back to Arrowmark and remarked, “This Sombra is in possession of some powerful magic if he is able to shift the shape of this crystal so easily. Even I have a bit of difficulty with it. However, it would appear that you are correct: magic makes it take different shapes than it otherwise would be able to.”
The two conversed for another few hours, discussing military strategies which had been attempted on Sombra and a plan of attack for when the Equestian Army was called up. Princess Celestia offered Arrowmark a room to stay in for the night, which he accepted.
The next day at about midday, Stallion Stephen returned to Celestia’s throne room. “Your Highness, the other guards and I have searched the Royal Census and determined that Sombra is a unicorn who lived in Canterlot. After finding this out, we sent a delegation overnight to Canterlot to gather more information on him.
“Sombra of Canterlot was a craftspony and a graduate of Starswirl’s School. He received high marks in enchantment and in dark magic. His special talent was in casting enchantments on a variety of objects to give them various properties. He owned a small enchantment shop in Canterlot and did modest business enchanting horseshoes, necklaces and the like. However, he started facing financial difficulties and lost his home and his business. According to his neighbors, he left for the Crystal Empire a month ago to seek out new prospects. That indicates he started his rule almost immediately upon arriving in Crystopolis.”
“Thank you, Stephen.” Celestia summoned for Arrowmark and relayed the information to him, “Arrowmark, we believe that Sombra is an exceptionally-powerful enchanter who is able to use his power of enchantment and black magic to manipulate these crystals in the manner which you speak of. It will take powerful magic in order to counteract this. My sister and I will fly to the Crystal Empire as soon as we can and we will fight to the death to restore your Kingdom to its proper leadership.”
“Thank you, your highness,” Arrowmark bowed and exited the throne room.
*****
Under a steel gray sky, Princesses Luna and Celestia soared over the snowy plains of the Crystal Empire towards their destination in Crystopolis. Behind them flew hundreds of pegasi towing chariots full of battalions of earth pony warriors and unicorn magicians.
The two alicorns were far enough ahead of their forces to speak privately amongst each other without anypony hearing.
“Sister, I am quite scared of this pony's power,” Princess Luna said, “He is but a single unicorn, yet he has managed to overthrow the government of our northern neighbor. Although I am a princess, this is troubling even for me.”
Celestia responded, “It troubles me too, sister. I had long suspected that someday a rogue pony, in all probability a unicorn, may be powerful enough to take on entire nations by himself, but I never really believed it until this incident confirmed my fears. We shall have to discuss this further after we have dethroned him. And do not worry, I am confident that we shall.”
*****
Meanwhile, in the Crystal Empire, King Sombra sat upon his Crystal throne. He overlooked his subjects on the ground below, who were busy carting loads of crystal from mine shafts below the city up to the surface. They emptied these carts into giant piles, then returned to mine once more. These ponies were supervised by Sombra's loyalists, who carried whips in their mouths to whip slow ponies.
He heard a knocking on the door, and Lanceforth gazed through the peephole before letting the pony in. It was Hidingway, his scout.
Hidingway spoke, "Your majesty, we have spotted an army from Equestria heading north towards the City. We believe it is Celestia and Luna, acting under the mutual defense treaty that Reginald had with them."
“How nice,” said Sombra, “We will have to send a little surprise their way. Find me any five crystal ponies who have children, and bring them here.”
*****
Celestia's army set up camp for the night in a snowy valley five hundred miles from Crystopolis. Ponies removed tents from their saddlebags and pitched them upon the powdery ground. Cooks fried up eggs on pans over fires, feeding the hungry and tired soldiers who lined up to eat their fill.
At about a quarter till ten, the soldiers were just beginning to go off to bed, when over the hill they could hear the faint sound of hoofbeats.
A pegasus watchpony hovering in the air flew over to investigate and noticed a squad of about a half-dozen or so ponies about two hundred feet from the edge of the camp. They were running towards the camp and closing in. He trained his spyglass upon them. They were crystal ponies. They did not appear to be carrying any weapons that the watchpony could see, though they did have large sacks on their back.
The watchpony flew towards the group and shouted, “Halt! State your business!” The group did not comply; they continued running towards the camp. The watchpony drew his bow back and fired a warning arrow towards the front of the group, but still the rumbling of their hoofbeats became louder and louder as they approached.
By this point, the crystal pony in the lead of the pack had reached the outer edge of the encampment, running in between two large sleeping tents. He opened his sack, drew some flint from it and yelled, “I am so sorry, Equestria! Sombra said he’d kill my family, please forgive me!”
Before the watchpony had time to react to this, the crystal pony struck the flint against a tinderbox. Sparks dropped down into the open bag. At that moment an incredible ball of fire exploded outward.
A thundering boom sounded as a dozen tents burst into flames. The force of the explosion threw several ponies from their tents, as they cried out in confusion and pain. Many ponies began running around on fire. Unicorn wizards cast water spells to douse the flames as thick black smoke billowed into the night sky.
In the confusion, another pony from the group managed to set off another bag of explosive black powder. A second boom rang out as the ground shook at this newest bomb, and more tents lit up.
A squad of pegasi flew up into the air. Their leader commanded, “We have to stop this! Round up these ponies immediately!” They flew lightning-fast towards the three remaining bombers, tackled them to the ground and restrained them with ropes.
After the unicorns extinguished the remaining fires and the nurses ensured that the injured ponies were being treated, Celestia and Luna flew towards the captured crystal ponies.
“What is the meaning of this destruction!?” Luna bellowed, “We are not invaders, we are here to free your people from Sombra!”
“We are so dreadfully sorry, your highness,” One of the crystal ponies, a neon green mare, attempted to bow to Celestia but tripped over the rope bonds around her hooves. “Sombra threatened to kill us and our families if we did not complete this mission. We were to attempt to kill as many of you as possible.”
“How would Sombra know if you completed your mission or not? You didn’t have to do this. I realize the threat against your family is terrifying, but terror is how ponies like Sombra manage to obtain power to begin with,” Celestia consoled.
“He has spies everywhere,” the mare fretted. “He has loyal allies from prisoners he freed when he took over. They’ve suppressed any dissent against his rule. They have spied on our homes and our places of gathering and have rounded up anypony who dares speak against Sombra.”
“I see,” Celestia responded, “However, there is one way to fight fear: with hope.”
Celestia undid the bonds on the ponies and commanded them to give a message for Sombra: that his campaign of terror and oppression would soon be over.
“But what of our families, your highness?” One stallion implored.
“Do not trouble yourself with that,” Celestia reassured, “I shall send scouts ahead to their homes to ensure their safety.” With that, the would-be bombers headed back north ahead of the Equestrian army with the message for Sombra.
*****
. Pegasi swooped through the air and into formation in lines, unicorns stood behind earth pony warriors as the Equestrian army massed on the city limits of Crystopolis, right in front of the red crystal gates. They were joined by Arrowmark and the remaining forces of the Crystal Empire guard.
Luna and Celestia had been to this city on business before, but it no longer resembled its once-proud state. Several crystal buildings were crumpled and in ruin from Sombra's rampage when he initially came to power. Huge, ugly black crystal obelisks cluttered the city streets like bins on garbage day, cracking through the crystal streets of the city like tenacious weeds through sidewalk cracks.
In the center of town, mine shafts sunk into the ground and ponies pulled chunks of crystal out in carts. Celestia gazed in disgust at the enslavement of the Empire's citizens, as they trodded along depressingly, driven only by their desire to keep their homes intacts and flanks free of scars. They dumped loads of crystal into huge mounds of red and blue and purple hues. They stopped from their arduous labor and gazed upon the army in front of them. One pony realized what this meant and began applauding, but was immediately struck by a blow from one of Sombra’s loyalists.
Princess Celestia flew through the crystal gates, but stopped in her flight as she saw King Sombra walking down the city street towards the gates. He was flanked by several of his loyalists, who held bows with arrows drawn around them, fending off any would-be assassins.
Sombra was directly under the princess as he gazed upwards at her, grinned, and then his horn glowed as the crystal street below him assembled obediently into a pillar which carried him upward to meet her gaze at eye level.
“Ah, your highness. What business brings you to the Crystal Empire?" he asked.
"You know very well, Sombra of Canterlot! You have overthrown the legitimate government of the Crystal Empire and have replaced it with tyranny! You have also forced some of the crystal ponies to carry out a cowardly suicide attack on my forces," Princess Celestia said.
"You are out of your place, Princess. I AM the legitimate government. I deposed the prior king and I am now the new monarch. As you can see, all of my subjects are quite obedient to me and my rule," he motioned towards the miners, "You have invaded the Crystal Empire, so I rightly ordered my citizens to attack you. Retreat now and I will allow you to go in peace."
Princess Luna flew forwards to stand, or rather hover, beside her sister. She yelled, "You are out of your place, Sombra of Canterlot! You are not even a crystal pony, so how can you inherit the throne legitimately? You can not, and your reign of terror is soon to end! We shall replace you with a new monarch.”
"From where, exactly?" King Sombra asked, "I have killed the old king, and he had no heirs!"
"We shall replace him, and YOU, with an alicorn from Equestria," said Princess Luna.
King Sombra let out a hearty laugh. "That's rich! You accuse me of having no claim to the throne because I am a unicorn from Equestria. Yet who shall you replace me with? The very same type of pony you say can have no legitimate claim upon the throne! I expected an invasion, not a comedy routine!"
"It's different and you know it," said Celestia, "For I have the power to create princesses and alicorns legitimately."
"You say that, but I know the truth; you wish to take advantage of the situation to expand your power and create from the empire a puppet, a vassal state. Never let a crisis go to waste, eh Celestia? HEAR THAT, CRYSTAL PONIES? WHEN YOU ARE SAVED, YOU SHALL BE SUBORDINATE TO EQUESTRIA! NO MORE SELF-RULE!" He yelled out towards the miners, many of whom had stopped working and had walked to the edge of town.
Princess Celestia, tiring of debating with Sombra over the finer points of investiture, commanded, “Wizards, begin your spells! Show this cretin of a king who really rules over these lands!”
The unicorns fired magical blasts towards the crystal pillar which Sombra stood atop. It cracked and fell to the ground. Sombra fell through the air for a few moments, but then he surrounded himself with his protective crystal ball.
“Two can play at this game! Attack these wizards, my followers!” Sombra’s thugs galloped towards the line, aimed their bows, and fired at the unicorns. Some of the arrows hit their mark, but most were stopped by a protective force-field that the wizards projected over themselves. The wizards cast spells at the sympathizers, bringing several of them to the ground.
During this, the pegasi forces charged towards Sombra. He used his magic to extend a wall of crystal immediately in front of the pegasi. Most of them saw the wall in time and veered out of the way, but a few of them hit the wall and fell towards the ground, their wings broken upon impact.
The earth pony warriors swung maces at Sombra's crystal ball, their powerful blows knocking large chunks of crystal out of the pillar. Sombra attempted to repair it as quickly as he could and fended off some of the earth ponies with crystal lances, but presently they reached the center of the orb and Sombra.
His sympathizers fought the earth pony warriors with swords and axes, but were no match against Celestia's superior numbers. The pegasi above sniped at Sombra's sympathizers with arrows, taking out several, and yet others were hit by magic spells. But this gave Sombra enough time to repair his crystal ball.
Back inside of his protective encasement, he extended several crystal lances out from himself, impaling some of the earth pony warriors. This time, however, the earth ponies were joined by the Crystal Ponies of the town, who swung at Sombra's orb with their pickaxes. With most of Sombra's followers dead or wounded, his crystal ball broke apart as two pegasi grabbed Sombra and carried him up into the air to Celestia and Luna.
“Your army has been defeated, Sombra, give up!” Celestia commanded as she levitated a sword towards Sombra's neck. Though he attempted to raise more crystal weapons and defenses, unicorn wizards fought back against the crystals and kept them from springing up from the ground.
“Fine, I suppose that I have been defeated.” Sombra lowered his head in resignation and said, “I will give up my rule over these lands. However, there is one thing which you did not anticipate…”
Luna and Celestia paused for a moment, waiting for Sombra to finish his sentence.
“I'm a unicorn, remember?" In a flash of light, Sombra disappeared from the pegasi's grasp.
"Search the city and find him!" the Princess commanded. The Pegasi fanned out across the city, searching through every alleyway and house.
Back at the Crystal Palace, King Sombra stood in his throne room with his two remaining followers, Pennington and Larceny.
"Sombra, what do we do? They'll put us back on death row for sure!" Pennington asked.
"Yeah, and if they kill you, we can't even enjoy those crystals anymore!" Larceny lamented.
Sombra's head hung low, and he did not speak for about a minute. As he heard hoofbeats coming up the steps, his head sprang up alert.
"If I can't have my crystallllll..."
His two followers looked at him in anticipation.
"THEN NOPONY CAN!"
Sombra fired a spell from his horn, which glowed dark black with power. A loud rumbling rose from the earth as the ground shook.
Two pegasi flew into the throne room as Pennington and Larceny fended them off with swords. The veins from Sombra's forehead bulged, and he yelled in agony as his body dissolved. But the spell was working, and all around the city, houses and buildings crumpled into the ground. Sombra was using his magic to set loose the crystal from the mines below and collapse the city!
Thinking quickly, Celestia and Luna fired protection spells and commanded their unicorn wizards to as well. As the city sunk into the ground, they preserved it. The mages held up the buildings telekinetically to preserve them. They extended force-fields around the crystal ponies to save them from the falling debris. Though the city collapsed into the earth, it was preserved. They cast a stasis spell on the city to preserve it from decay while under the earth. Finally, they cast a spell on Sombra himself, which turned him to shadow.
The soil fell into the cracks between the buildings of the submersed city as it was now entirely buried underground in a sinkhole. Where the city once stood, now there was nothing but the tip of the Crystal Palace spire.
Sombra was defeated, but the kingdom was as well.
*****
Princess Celestia, Luna, and the entire Equestrian army flew back with their heads down. Everypony had despondent looks on their faces. Though they had defeated Sombra in one way, in that he no longer ruled the Crystal Empire, they had lost to him in another way. The great city of Crystopolis was no more.
“I simply cannot believe it,” Luna dismayed, “We had the most elite of the Equestrian army forces here, and he still managed to sink the city into the ground!”
“Do not despair, sister,” Celestia said, “We have cast protection spells on the city and its buildings. None of the residents shall perish during this time. Sombra has been turned into smoky shadow and will no longer be able to terrorize the citizens of Crystopolis while it lies beneath the earth. However, Sombra’s curse ensures that the city shall remain underground: frozen in time until we can find a way to defeat him once and for all."
Luna replied, “I am concerned that Sombra was able to do such a thing. He is but a single unicorn. Even though he had followers, he still was a singularly powerful individual.”
“Yes…” Celestia said, “That is the trouble with unicorns, isn’t it? They have the potential to do so much with those horns of theirs. So much good, yes, but so much evil as well. I foresaw this when we first came to power over Equestria, which is why I took certain steps to prevent evil on behalf of anypony, unicorns in particular. However, I do believe further steps are needed. When we get back, I shall explain.”
*****
Celestia sat upon her throne, and Luna sat by her side. It was a rare occurrence when both of them were awake in a non-emergency setting.
At this time, many hundreds of ponies were gathered around in the massive throne room, chatting amongst each other and scribbling on notepads and parchment with quills. This was an important event, and ponies from across the realm had gathered to hear what the Royals had to say. Several stragglers continued to flood into the chamber through the doors. The royal guards briefly frisked them before allowing them entrance to the room.
The Issuance of Decree was an uncommon event in Equestria, happening perhaps once or twice in a decade. Most of the laws were simply handed down over time, based upon the rulings of judges and local councils. Even laws promulgated by Celestia herself were done in a subdued, uneventful manner. Usually new laws were simply passed by parliament and made law unceremoniously with the stroke of her quill and attended by a few witnesses.
This time, however, Celestia had wanted the entirety of the kingdom to be aware of the proclamation she was about to make. Excited murmurs continued among the crowd of ponies.
After a few moments, Celestia was confident that everypony had arrived who was going to arrive. The Princess eyed the guards at the entrance to her chamber and signaled to them. They responded and shut the giant oak doors with a thud. At this thud, the ponies in the room quickly simmered down.
Princess Celestia spoke, her voice booming throughout the chamber, “My faithful subjects, we call you here today with great sadness and despondency. As some of you are aware, our northern neighbor the Crystal Empire has all but vanished. Its main city, containing some three-fourths of its peoples, has descended into the bowels of the earth due to a curse by an evil usurper. When or even if it shall return is uncertain.”
Some audible gasps were heard throughout the room. Most ponies did not gasp, however. Either they had already heard this two-day-old news through the grapevine or they were not the gasping type. Though the magic which Sombra cast was not technically a “curse,” (in fact, Celestia knew such things did not exist) she felt it easier to explain it to magically-unaware ponies in this way.
She continued, “The Crystal Ponies were great friends to Equestria. They helped our nation in our founding days to defeat Discord and recover from his chaos. There one day may come a time when we shall have to come to their aid again, when their capital city rises from the depths of the earth once more. We shall gladly give them this aid, as we came to their aid in the past few days and fought to the bitter end to save Crystopolis.”
She paused for a moment before continuing, “We learned some unfortunate facts about the stallion who came to power over the Crystal Empire. For one, he was not a crystal pony. Rather, he was a unicorn from our very own city of Canterlot.”
Some ponies gasped at this statement as well.
“Sombra used a powerful form of magic to defeat the armed forces of the Crystal Empire by controlling the crystals there and shaping them into weapons and armor. This magic, black magic, is taught in Starswirl the Bearded’s School For Gifted Unicorns as well as other schools. Scrolls in many libraries across this continent also teach about black magic. This magic is incredibly hard to learn and use, nevertheless, Sombra used it. He also used an unknown form of what we believe to be telepathic mind control to secure a small group of loyalists to fight for him.”
Celestia’s statement, like her curse statement, was both a misunderstanding and deliberate miscategorization of the events which actually transpired and are recorded in the preceding text. Celestia did not know that Sombra never used mind control, rather simple telepathy. However, she did know that he would’ve been able to manipulate the crystals with simple telekinesis, not black magic. Black magic simply allowed him to sense the crystals. But nevertheless, Celestia’s statements were used as justification for the following decree,
“Thus, as of this day forward, unicorns may only learn powerful magic in Starswirl the Bearded’s school, and only trusted ponies may learn it. These restricted spells include four categories which are subject to abuse: black magic and mind control are to be restricted, as these were two spells which Sombra used. Additionally, time travel and celestial control will be restricted. Though Sombra never personally used them, I hope we can all agree we can no longer allow any but the most trusted ponies to learn these powerful magicks.
“All of the ancient scrolls giving instructions on how to cast black magic and the other three spells I have mentioned shall be destroyed immediately. The only remaining written knowledge of these spells shall be kept behind lock and key in the Canterlot Library.”
The ponies from across the land jotted down this latest decree on their parchment. As a promulgation with full force of law, it was to take effect immediately.
Celestia continued, “Such spells may not be used outside of an academic setting under penalty of the offending pony being turned to stone. Anypony doing what Sombra did and using these spells to kill another shall himself face the gallows.
“The only academic setting permissible to use these spells is in Starswirl’s School, which I shall now administer personally as it contains such dangerous knowledge. However, to administer this school I shall have to be in close proximity to it. For this reason, I am hereby relocating the capital city from Everfree to Canterlot, effective immediately. As our nation’s new capital, Canterlot shall now be opened to residence by all three races of ponies, rather than exclusively unicorns.”
Ponies began furiously jotting down these notes. Such top-down changes were unprecedented in Equestrian history.
“As part of my royal duties I shall take over the great responsibility of raising the sun, and my sister shall raise the moon. This change is due to my previously stated decree against the usage of spells which control the celestial bodies. Though I appreciate the past work done by our unicorn astrologers and thank them for having kept our skies well lit for eons, this power is simply too great to allow anypony besides my sister and myself to use. Rest assured that the day and night shall remain the same length, as bright and as dark as ever.
“Finally, I also shall be writing additional magical laws and regulations in the future. Rest assured that I will keep the populace informed as I do so.”
Though it was highly discouraged, many ponies shouted questions at Princess Celestia, not unlike a modern-day press conference. These decrees fundamentally changed Equestria, after all. However, Celestia remained silent and simply ordered that the soldiers of the land begin burning the scrolls. She then exited her throne room along with Luna, and they both boarded their chariot and flew off to their new home in Canterlot. Everfree was abandoned almost overnight, and the great castles and stone buildings gradually broke down. Vines and moss grew over them until eventually they were entirely forgotten. Hardly a pony alive remembered that Canterlot had not always been the capital.
Starswirl's school was renamed Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns, and it remained the only place where ponies could legally learn the four categories of restricted magic, all of which were detailed in the Canterlot Archives and kept under lock and key and guard.
When Sombra was finally defeated over 1,000 years later, Celestia made good on her promise and installed Cadance, an alicorn from Equestria in the throne. Though normally, such infringement on their national sovereignty would elicit cries of revolt from the Crystal Ponies, they were so thankful to be free of Sombra that they did not mind the fact that their new Princess was little more than a puppet of Celestia. They also, quite wisely, figured that having an alicorn with magic of her own in power would help stave off any other potential usurpers.
However, Celestia's changes made in response to King Sombra were not well taken by all. Particularly, her magical laws and treatment of the unicorn race as a suspect class would, 1,000 years later, inspire one pony to revolt.
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2768080 Yep. He wasn't always a bad guy; he just was weak enough and had a sucky enough life to fall prey to an addiction and had a large enough sense of entitlement to believe it was his right to have others feed it for him. Only then did he actually start doing villainous things.
2768263 Yeah, I didn't much like that scene myself, but I did need a way to establish Sombra's followers. I also kind of wrote it as a supplement to the story (I added it in after the story was already complete) They weren't ever meant to be major characters.
Oh, the irony.
An good story, overall. I always assumed Sombra ruled longer than just a month, however. I also got the impression that, with rare exceptions like Twilight, a unicorn's magic was very weak. If someone was powerful enough to do those, they'd probably get into Celestia's school anyway, so those restrictions seemed kinda unnecessary.
2768386 I'm glad you enjoyed my story! And thank you so much for the detailed feedback
The way it works in both this story and The Trouble With Unicorns, its sequel, is that unicorns CAN learn a lot more magic than many of them think that they are capable of, but not many of them actually do. But that ultimately changes.
2768436 Ooh. I'm starting on that fic right now, I'll see what happens.
2795472 Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I'll go and check yours out, too.
Done!
As mentioned by another, the only scene that dragged on a bit for me was the establishment of Sombra's followers. It felt like a fade-to-black was warranted at certain points. But otherwise, bravo!
It's interesting finding even more overlap with our headcanon/fanfic continuity and the way in which we differently portray similar ideas.
-In my story, the two castles are mentioned. In fact, chapters 1 and 2 (if/when you've read them) take place in Everfree - obviously, since that's where the Elements of Harmony wind up. Celestia simply leaves them there after defeating NMM. In my headcanon, there have always been two castles (one for Celestia, one for Luna) and they simply switch between them for administrative reasons. However, Everfree itself is only a small village rather than a whole city.
-Sombra's rule is briefly brought up, but all that's really stated is that he's a unicorn from Canterlot who became dissatisfied with his magical potential being "wasted" and, after discovering some texts on dark magic in the library (more on that in a sec), departs to seek providence in the Crystal Empire knowing full well his magic will go mostly unopposed. Your idea for the crystal addiction is sound, though, and my own story makes no mention of it.
-Dark magic itself isn't taught in schools. Rather, it's elaborated on in certain academic texts for the purpose of teaching ponies how to defend against it, like Defence Against the Dark Arts in Harry Potter. Dark magic itself originates from one source and, to crank the spoilers up, that source is the villain; any mention of him in a text allows him to wriggle his way into a reader's mind and imbue them with powerful dark magic in exchange for turning them evil. Sombra was his first, followed by Nightmare Moon, and then a few other OCs in my story that you'll eventually see if you follow it. In fact, the more interesting aspect of my story in this sense is that I go into detail about how the Crystal Empire was formed, who created the Crystal Heart, and for what purpose.
... How the hell did that become a spiel about my own work when we're talking about yours?
Anyway, good story! Besides the loyalist scene, the only other minor gripes I have are-
1. Maybe Sombra's slippery slope is a tad too slippery. Desperation can drive a person to do questionable things (and I kinda feel sorry for him), but the way he suddenly indulges in full-on, almost cartoonish supervillainy was a tad jarring.
2. The final battle. I'm not gonna say it was rushed per se, but it felt like it started off giving a lot of detail (like a war fic would) and then suddenly "Celestia and Luna did this, this and that spell, and it was over."
I'm not trying to sound like a prick. I just want to try and say something that may be of use to you, even if that use happens to be disagreement! Otherwise, I enjoyed it.
It's meeeee!
Dun dun dun!
Okay, so...
This does confirm my suspicion that Celestia in this 'verse is a complete and utter moron. Why is mind control magic legal to begin with? From what I gather, Celestia only made mind control magic and dark magic illegal in the end, right? Well, why wasn't it illegal from its inception? You're telling me that 1. Sombra was the first guy who used it in a bad way or 2. Celestia never foresaw how teaching this magic would go wrong.
And why is she still allowing the four categories of magic in the school? Hey Celestia! That's where Sombra learned everything he needed to take over the Empire in the first place, something that you know because you know he was from Canterlot and graduated from the school. So maybe average Joe isn't going to be learning about mind control magic, but guess what? They weren't anyway. Why would, say, a unicorn watchmaker or gem hunter learn about mind control magic? Especially in a place as idyllic as Equestria? You know who would have use for that? Exceptionally powerful unicorns at the school. I wouldn't be surprised if 1. something bad has happened before because they taught this magic at the school and 2. it happens again between now and the show.
And Celestia says that she's never going to let anyone but the most trusted of ponies to learn the magicks. Well, what if they get corrupted somehow? Well, then there's a newly evil pony who knows time travel, mind control, and black magic. Whoops.
Again. Why did she teach this crap at all? Ever? I got the feeling that Sombra just kind of learned it in the same way a guy would take a history course in college. Or at least, it seemed far more open. What the heck are ponies going to do with any of those fur spells except the celestial bodies one? All it takes is one unicorn to screw up with time travel, and things go horribly wrong. Some with black magic and mind control. Oh look, that's the plot of this story. Celestia was too dumb to see this coming? Or Starswirl? Not likely. Not buying it.
Also, why make a giant, sweeping decree about it? She's a smart politician. Wouldn't it be way better for her to just quietly make those spells illegal? That way 95% of the unicorns aren't going to care. They never really knew much about those spells anyway. The 5% that are affected by that may be mad, but if she does it quietly, then any speeches that they make about the subject are going to have a heck of a harder time gaining steam. Why? Because 99% of Equestria has no idea what they're talking about, or why they should care. But if Celestia does exactly what she did, then it's on the minds of the entire nation, and the unicorns who aren't happy can jump on the "this is baloney" train immediately, and since everybody is talking about it, they can force their opinions much easier. I know that the first one is a viable option because you said that that's how Celestia does things 99% of the time anyway!
I did like Sombra's motives and backstory, though. That was good.
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Hey, I'm glad that you're reading the prequels! I'm still pretty proud of them, but please do bear in mind that I wrote them over two years ago and have drastically improved as a writer since then, so don't be too harsh on me
In general, laws are often more reactive than proactive. A lot of laws have unintended or unforseen loopholes that are exploited by clever criminals, and it requires the lawmakers to close in order to prevent further abuse. Very rarely will the law be 100% airtight the first time it is passed. Almost every law that is ever passed is amended and tightened multiple times.
There wasn't a law before that point, because there hadn't ever been a unicorn take over an entire empire by himself with that magic before. Celestia felt that the prior laws were inadequate in light of the incident that occured, so a new law was needed to address that situation. Sure, there had been ponies use those spells for evil before, but nothing like on the scale of Sombra.
Look at all the new counter-terrorism laws that they passed after 9/11. Why weren't those laws always on the books? Because nobody saw a need for them before. Terrorists exploited serious vulnerabilities in our country to pull off an attack. Sure, there had been terrorist attacks in the US before, but nothing like on the scale of 9/11.
Why haven't fire codes, or child labor laws, or civil rights laws, or abortion laws, or smoking laws, or laws against slavery, or pick any sort of laws, always been there since the dawn of time? People's attitudes change, and events (either drastic or gradual) happen that prompt lawmakers to change the laws. The law isn't set in stone and it's not ever perfect. Not even in Equestria is that the case. Celestia is a quite powerful alicorn, but even she can't forsee every circumstance.
Please be careful to avoid hindsight bias, or "the inclination, after an event has occurred, to see the event as having been predictable, despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it, prior to its occurrence."
Celestia can not predict every single event that can go wrong in Equestria. For instance, she didn't predict her sister turning into Nightmare Moon. She didn't predict Discord teaming up with Tirek. That doesn't make her dumb, any more than every single congressman before 9/11 was "dumb" for failing to predict 9/11 and trying to pass appropriate legislation that could have prevented it. There should have always been a law banning overflights over New York City and permanently stationing fighter jets nearby to shoot down any highjacked airplanes before they could be used as missiles to take down buildings.
By your logic, any leader who didn't pass that law was "dumb." No, they weren't dumb, they just were blindsided by a really oddball event. Even brilliant strategists who otherwise are right most of the time, can still be blindsided sometimes.
It is impossible to forsee every circumstance and everything that could go wrong.
You should ask the show writers about that, because Twilight Sparkle is a student of Celestia's school and uses both time travel (It's About Time) and mind control (want it, need it spell from Lesson Zero) in the show. She also used what appeared to be dark magic in the crystal empire episodes, saying that it's "something Celestia taught me." For whatever reason, Celestia saw fit to keep those sorts of advanced spells legal, but under heavy restriction.
This is because the spells could possibly have benign, non-evil uses. For instance, perhaps time travel could be useful for historians, anthropologists, etc. to travel back in time and see how things used to be. Also, it's never really clear if it's possible to alter the flow of time in the show or if it's just set, if Twilight's experiences are anything to go by. For all we know, it's impossible to alter the past, since "you already changed the past."
As for mind control, I can see at least a few legitimate uses for it, such as psychotherapy, controlling dangerous criminals, etc. I mean, there had to be some reason that Twilight knew the Want It, Need It Spell, and I doubt that it was just so she could fuck with everypony and get her homework done on time.
Again, I just fill in the details as a fanfic writer, but those questions do eventually come down to the show writers themselves. Why do you think that Twilight knows the want-it, need-it spell? Surely there must be legitimate reasons for her to know it. That, or the show writers didn't really think that bit through and they were just phoning it in as a gag for Lesson Zero, which was already a very wacky episode, and now I'm here left to try to make sense of it all.
In the context of the show, it is kind of a plot hole in and of itself. Why would a nice pony like Twilight bother to learn a spell to make somepony desperately want something against their will? Isn't that really evil and manipulative of her? What was she using it for, before? She even says when she casts it, and I quote "The want-it, need-it spell, works every time."
What other times? When had she used it before, and for what? How did she know the spell and why?
Normally, that is what she would do, as pointed out in the story. But bear in mind that an entire empire had just been buried to the north of Equestria. Not just any empire, but one that was a true friend and ally to Equestria the same way that Canada and the US are linked. I mean, imagine if Canada just disappeared tomorrow in a series of nuclear blasts, caused by some rogue nuclear scientist from the USA.
Would the president just quietly issue an executive order or "memorandum" tightening restrictions on nuclear scientists and hope that he could just sweep it all under the rug, or would he go onto the TV and explain what happened and why people weren't in any danger here in America? I have a feeling that he would try to reassure people, tell them what happened to lead to Canada's destruction, and how America was planning on keeping itself safe from similar attacks. If he didn't do so, people would freak and panic and lose faith in his ability to lead. In the same way, Celestia did exactly what she felt that she had to, in order to prevent a panic, and to restore the public's faith in her leadership.
Thanks!
2831436 Where can I read this story?
Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.
5553867
My story?
It's here (and it's on EqD too).
Celestia is really a piece of shit in this story.
What part of ¨defence treaty¨ don't you understand? It certainly does not involve the annexation of the country you are supposed to defend. ¨tiring of debating with Sombra over the finer points of investiture,¨ This simple choice of words shows that she is a bitch, you don't talk (or even think, like in this case) about the fate of an entire nation like that.
She then goes on to destroy valuable knowledge. Lock it all up and don't destroy a thing you dumbass! destroying knowledge does not destroy what that knowledge was about. If someone learns it by themselves and uses it for bad, congratulation, you just destroyed the scrolls that could have helped you.
She then pretty much goes on a repression on the unicorn race. There are still Earth Ponies and Pegasus cities, but fuck you Unicorns you can no longer have a home, when a race have nowhere to call home, it dies off, Its pretty simple, especially if the others are still protected.
And she is a freaking huge hypocrite at that, Alicorns like her are more powerful than Unicorns, Yet they rule Ponykind, if having great potential equals having to be kept in line, then she should resign, get a new leader for Equestria and put a ring to supress her magic. Yet she doesn't do it, even after her sister proved her that Alicorns weren't infallible.
Not only that, she actively tries to create more Alicorns! So there goes the argument ¨she trust herself¨
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Yeah, I basically wrote her to be the world's biggest asshole. At the time I wrote this story, around S3, there were several inconsistencies in the show as to how unicorns were portrayed, vs. the other two pony races (there still are, but now we know more about them). I kind of explained it as, Celestia laid down the law after how powerful she saw the unicorns were becoming. She knew that even a single ultra-powerful unicorn could threaten her rule--as later happened again with Starlight Glimmer.
Back in 2013, I was almost hoping that the progression of the show would make some of this story non-canon, which it kind of does, but not in the way I was hoping. If, say, we'd seen some super-powerful earth ponies or pegasi threaten Equestria, then Celestia's focus on unicorns would seem too narrow and myopic... but that's the opposite. FIM introduces crazy new unicorn spells every new season, and pegasi and earth ponies... still control the weather and grow crops, for the most part. They're clearly not threatening, which I think is sad, frankly. I mean, EARTH ponies, if properly trained, should be able to create earthquakes, build golems, control plants and animals to make giant monsters, use magnetic propulsion to fly, and do all sorts of cool earth/plant-related stuff. But nooooo, all they get is farming and allegedly enhanced strength. I don't see it, Applejack admitted in one episode that Twilight Sparkle could do a better job cleaning a bunch of weeds from the land than she could. Maud Pie can break boulders pretty well, but Twilight or Starlight could just do that with an energy beam. And Pinkie is... Pinkie.
Maybe instead of introducing a bunch of random new non-pony characters and locations, the show could spend some time developing the ponies and locations that have already been introduced. Instead of seeing earth ponies do some cool shit, we get to see... yakyakistan and the kirin. Like, come on!
Now with this story, I could've perhaps put more emphasis on Celestia's heart being in the right place, because it would be more consistent with her character in the show. Her approach here comes off as heavy-handed, but she's also the same pony who banished her own sister to the moon for a thousand years. Which, as we see in a flashback, was a snap decision and not a well-considered response. Were I ruling Equestria, and I had to guess who the next villain or terrorist would be, my money would be on a unicorn. Of course, I wouldn't use the exact same approach to deal with it that Celestia did.