Fall of the Crystal Empire

by Blaster Master

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

“MORE POWER!” King Sombra roared over the sounds of the turbines.

Some days later, Sombra stood before a room full of motors, powered by dark crystals spinning to create electrical energy. The energy was siphoned into cables which were snapped onto the Crystal Heart, which stood on a pedestal in the center of the room. The power flowing into the Heart was enormous, but there was still no reaction from the artifact.
“MORE I SAID!” Sombra bellowed again. His laboratory assistants were increasing the power now to dangerous levels. Warning lights began to signal. Alarms began to flare.

Come on… Come on… Open! Sombra thought, straining his very willpower against the Heart, Open for your new master!
The turbines shorted out and exploded, sending sparks and shrapnel everywhere and scattering the assorted assistants. Sombra’s furious roar nearly drowned it all out, his eyes pulsing with angry purple energy.

“Sire, if these turbines couldn’t withstand the energy to open the Crystal Heart, no turbine will!” The head assistant informed the king, clearly terrified to be the bearer of bad news, “Perhaps we’re approaching this the wrong way, my liege…”

“We’re tried everything else!” Sombra fumed, stomping towards the Heart’s pedestal “We’ve tried dozens of rituals, hundreds of enchantments, and thousands of passwords! The Heart will not activate for me!”

“Perhaps what the late King Luzra spoke of, about the Heart being powered by the-”

“The love and light within the Crystal Ponies,” Sombra finished, mocking sarcasm dripping from his inflections, “I have no use for that! I will find another way! And if I cannot, then I will destroy this accursed Heart so that it may never be used against me!”

Sombra gazed into the Crystal Heart, long a subject of his interest. It was an artifact that could rival the Elements of Harmony with its power, and with it his dominion of the land would be absolute. But it denied him at every turn and Sombra hated nothing more than being denied what he felt was his.

“Damn you, Luzra,” Sombra hissed, “I should have kept you alive long enough to tell me your secrets…But I didn’t, and now you’ve defied me one last time by taking those secrets to your grave…”

Sombra closed his eyes briefly, took a breath, and regained his composure. With a flourish of his cape, he whirled around and strutted out of the lab.

“Return the Crystal Heart to its holding tower,” Sombra ordered the sentries at the door. They snapped to his order quickly and efficiently.

Sombra trotted over to one of the Crystal Palace’s many balconies and spied a column of black armored Crystal Guards doing marching maneuvers in the palace courtyard. He placed his front hooves on the railing and took a moment to observe.
It always put the king in a good mood to watch his pawns march to his tune.

***

The pair of guards at the door leading into King Sombra’s study straightened as their Princess approached. Cadance was wearing in a dark dress with adorned with crystal jewelry, which complimented her arrogant expression of bored supremacy. Her uncle had taught her to seem in control at all times, because it made ponies looking at you believe you were in control.

Even if you weren’t.

She had been working on her plan for months, taking as much into consideration as she could. The price if she should fail would doubtlessly be death, and she was determined to get everything right.

“Stand aside, Guards!” Cadance ordered harshly to the two guarding the door.

“My Lady, we cannot,” The one of them said, “Our orders are to let none pass but the King.”

“I come in his will!” Cadance shouted angrily, stomping her hoof for emphasis, “My uncle, your king, wished for me to obtain some books from his study so that I may read them for my lessons. My uncle will be very cross with me if he finds me unprepared for his lessons tomorrow! And I shall inform him of how you failed him and his niece with your negligence!”

“No!” The guard exclaimed, “I would never fail our king! I would lay down my life for him!”

This was a sad lesson Cadance had learned; by playing upon their fears not for their lives, but for their master’s displeasure, they were much more susceptible to coercion. So distraught were their poisoned minds at the idea of displeasing their king, they bent to Cadance’s will with minimal work.

“B-but, my Lady,” The other guard stammered, “Even if we allow you to pass, there are enchantments upon the doors! They can only be opened by the king!”

“My uncle has shown me the spell to allow entry. Stand aside!”

The guards did as they were bid and Cadance stepped forward.

What she had said was not a lie; Sombra had taught her much about magic, even if she was still too weak to preform much of it. She had seen him perform this spell a hundred times and knew how to unravel it from the door.

Her horn glowed darkly as she sent dark energy from her horn into the door frame, bidding it to allow her to pass. The doors opened and Cadance stuck her nose into the air, proceeding into the room haughtily.

Despite becoming the most powerful and feared monarch in the North, Sombra was still Sombra. His study was as messy as ever, with even more artifacts, notes, and books scattered about in a system only the dark king himself could decipher. While casting her eyes around the room, Cadance saw what would be the instrument of her escape: a simple, square, sealed bottle full of greenish liquid. At the prospect of being so close to it, Cadance nearly made a beeline for it, but restrained herself; her story was that she was looking for a book after all.

The next part was going to be tricky.

“Help me find the books I need” Cadance commanded her bodyguards, “The first one is ‘A Comprehensive Guide to Beezlesnatches’.”

Beezlesnatches were creatures Cadance made up when she was younger, and no such book existed in even Sombra’s extensive library. But the guards didn’t know that.

The two bodyguards began to browse the bookshelves and tables, looking in vain for their book. Cadance played it cool, but was starting to sweat slightly, hoping one of the guards would move into the proper position.

After a few minutes of searching, one of the guards came right up next to the table that held bottle and Cadance moved into action.

“Ah!” The princess exclaimed, “There’s another book I need.”

Her horn glowed blue and she levitated a book off the table towards her, ‘accidently’ knocking the book into the bottle and sending it falling off the table.

What if it doesn’t break? Cadance thought for one horrifying second.

He fears were unfounded however, as the glass shattered and splashed the green substance upon the guard’s crystal hoof armor. He recoiled in surprise, but was unharmed.

“My apologies, guard,” Cadance said as she put the book aside.

“That’s quite alright, My Lady…”

“Allow me to make it up to you; I have a spell that should clean that right up!”
Cadance approached the trooper, lowering her horn to point at his moistened hooves.
“Hold still…” Cadance ordered.

Cadance focused, this was the part that she was most afraid of failing at. What she had in mind was very powerful magic, and she had only one chance to make this work, and that time was now. She strained, consolidating what magic her young body possessed. Her horn glowed and hummed. A bead of sweat rolled down her face and Cadance felt dizzy as she squeezed her eyes shut with concentration.

Just as the guard was about to question Cadance, it worked. A bolt of blue magic went from Cadance’s horn onto the fluid, and a moment later the substance burst into spectacular green flame. Cadance’s disguise faltered as she smiled at herself for her accomplishment, but the guard didn’t notice, being far too occupied with his armor being on fire. As the guard let out a shriek, Cadance slipped back into character, screaming and panicking as the other bodyguard and the two door guards ran over to help.

The guards managed to get the flaming armor off of the guard and deposit it upon the floor. One of the guards from the door retrieved a large pot that Sombra had left abandoned on the floor and placed it over the armor, cutting it off from its oxygen. The guards took a moment to breathe, until the guard who had placed the pot yelped in pain and removed his hooves from the pot, which had begun to glow red hot. Very quickly, the heat ate through the pot like it was paper mache and started to spread across the carpet. The guards tried to smother it with rugs and blankets, but nothing worked.

As the quartet fought the fire, not one among them noticed Cadance make her escape from the room, her diversion well on its way.

Comments

[Ese Wey]

Nice chapter as always

I suppose what cadence ignited was an equivalent of greek fire seeing how hot and hard it is to put out.