The Powers That Be

by Anthri

Fate And Destiny

It was a warm day in the Crystal Empire and filly Luna would wander the castle in order to keep her mind occupied. The staff and guards treated her well but she had no real friends besides her sister and Princess Platinum. Celestia on the other hoof was loved by all and Luna understood that Celestia didn't mean for everyone to care more about her so she often suffered alienation alone. Both sisters grew up in the Empire, under the guardianship of Platinum because Lauren's lifestyle was not stable enough to raise kids in the atmosphere they needed. Now that the ponies had been united again, the princess and Lauren were back on closer terms.

As the years went by, Celestia and Luna would attend class with Starswirl and occasionally Sombra to learn more about magic. Sombra did know some things about magic that Starswirl didn't bother touching. The dark unicorn saw that Luna was the underdog of the two and felt compassion for her situation. He would teach her diverse spells that Celestia did not know, such as bringing inanimate objects to life for a short period of time. Celestia noticed the time spent between the teacher and her sister but felt that it must have been making Luna happy to have another friend.

Luna had read about the attack on the Crystal Empire before she was born, by the dragons and she asked Starswirl how he had achieved such greatness being able to beat off a powerful dragon by himself.

“It's not as interesting as it sounds, little Luna.” he told her. Starswirl protested against telling her but after he saw Luna's pleading face, he couldn't help but tell her. “Alright, but keep it a secret!” he demanded.

“Okay.” Luna smiled.

“It wasn't a permanent power but I utilized the energy of the heart to boost my magic for a time.” He showed her a diagram of the Crystal Heart and how one could use magic endowed minerals to amplify one's power.

“How?” Luna asked him, wanting to understand just in case one day she would be called to do the same.

“The Crystal Heart is a stone formed from unique conditions, some objects exist like that in this world.” he confessed.

Realizing that he was getting to deep into the subject, he told her nothing more about it to her disappointment.

Luna wanted his friendship but Starswirl was very... eccentric. He didn't really have time for friends because of his latest work. He told the princess that he could develop a spell to turn one into an alicorn but he needed time to complete it. Sombra found out about this and hurried his efforts to surpass him.

As a teen, Luna would witness Sombra's rants while she spent time with him in his office that resided in the castle. Feeling sorry for her friend, she decided to tell him about the heart. He knew that it could amplify magic but didn't realize that it was what Starswirl did.

"How does the heart bring happiness to every-pony anyways?" Luna asked Sombra one day.

"Who ever controls the heart, in this case the princess, can exert their will on every-pony in the area by using the amplifier."

"Amplifier?" she asked curiously.

"The Crystal Palace itself." Sombra said while staring out the window from the very same palace.

"That doesn't make sense." Luna pouted. "Because it's shaped like a tower, you think it broadcast?"

"Oh, I know it does, little princess." Sombra laughed. "Ponies forget that this very building is made of magic enhanced crystal. So the palace is one huge enchanted rock!"

Luna's eyed opened wide at this realization. She always thought it was for looks. After telling her this though, Sombra began to pace around the room. The look in his eye's told Luna he may be up to something but she didn't ask. "Thank you Luna." he said.

She smiled at him, feeling glad to help some-pony. Afterwards she saw less and less of him as he too, had a huge project he was working on. It was all a race to be Platinum's student and to be handed down one of the most powerful spells in the magical arsenal, the sealing spell.

Eventually, Princess Platinum decided to take on Starswirl as her student because of his contributions and that was the final straw for Sombra. He gathered what he needed and left the city without saying goodbye to any-pony. Luna partially understood his reasons but she desperately wanted to go with him. She went into his abandoned office and searched his room for any sign of him, any clue to help her find him. There was no trace and despair fell on the young princess. She cried because she had lost her only true friend.

Princess Celestia tried to comfort her but she rejected her sisters warm embraces. Luna believed that Celestia was only her friend because she was related and would not have anything to do with her had she not been. Celestia was hurt by this but told her sister that they would be by each others side for the rest of their long lives.

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Luna finished her story and Craig picked it back up.

“Sombra went off to find minerals with special properties.”

“Why didn't he use the heart then?” Twilight asked Craig.

“Because it was far to big to carry around. You see, he was looking for something to put into an accessory.” he explained.

“The heart would have lost its power had he chipped away at it.” Celestia told her.

Lauren saw where this was going. “It was perfectly fine that he went to look for more power. But what he found would change the Empire for the next 1000 years.”

“Sombra went to the only place he knew to find any gem he needed, the dragon city of Skadholm. When he got there, he found Av and the dragon struck a deal with him. Av had my horn and he figured out that it had power. Av gave it to Sombra telling him that the bone had more power than any gem in existence.” Craig said proudly.

“Uh-oh.” Twilight responded.

“That white dragon was still bitter that he lost, although he followed my 'orders', he has gone behind my back several times to betray my will.” Craig said. "Dragons collect gems and gold as you know. Once the Earth is ours, we would have all the gold and all the power. Gems could challenge our power, thats why we horded them."

"I bet that's why Rarity has the ability to find them!" Twilight realized.

"And if she falls in love with Spike and the two manage to somehow, have offspring, these dragons will be able to find them on their own probably." Craig told her.

Twilight blushed at this. "Is that possible Lauren?"

Lauren giggled because she knew the truth but decided to tease Twilight, "You will have to wait to find out." she winked.

Luna and Celestia laughed as Twilight's mouth opened in protest. "What? You can't leave me in the dark like that! I guess I'll have to play match maker with the two!" she thought about what she was saying and she was saying and blushed again uncontrollably.

Every-pony in the room was in tears, laughing at Twilight being crazy. Craig laughed too but decided to get back on topic. "We've been collecting gems for as long as we had things to do it for us."

Twilight was done blushing and got serious again. "Things? What kind of things?"

"Dragons aren't miners, and when Skadholm conquered his city, we knew we needed help getting the gems. Gems for gold, gems for protection, gems for not being attacked by a horde of dragons." Craig told them all. "We lied to Fhil when we told him that Huxio just stumbled onto the diamond dog nation but in truth, we struck a deal with it's master to mine our gems for us. When he got greedy and started holding out on is, we sent a new candidate for the leadership and he impressed us. I saw personally what happened." Craig said bitterly. "So many died that day."

“When Sombra got his hands on Craigs horn, it was explained that it could be reshaped because it was not a mineral so it could be arranged into something else.” Celestia explained. "The blood from the horn had long hardened into a stone like shape inside."

“Twilight Sparkle”, Luna spoke up. “Can you name a certain object that drives its user mad with power?”

“The Alicorn Amulet?” she guessed.

“Correct. The horn was forged into the Alicorn Amulet. Sombra believed he could become an alicorn with it. He was right, but only if he had the power of the heart too.” Luna added.

“So years later, he comes back and his mind is completely somewhere else. He gets into a fight with Starswirl, killing him and then he enslaves every-pony using the palace to do it!” Luna put it bluntly. “I begged him to stop but he said he didn't know me.” she frowned.

“Yes and the princess was pregnant so she had to flee the city.” Celestia said.

“Pregnant?” Twilight asked.

“Yea she started relations with the pegasus commander.” Luna rolled her eyes.

“Anyways, every-pony looked to us to save them but we didn't know how.” Celestia confessed.

Lauren laughed. “This is the crazy part. Celestia had a decent friendship with Starswirl and took Luna to his room to find the magic book he loved so much. Within it they found the sealing spell he learned from Platinum. Both of them learned it but when they confronted him to use it, they ended up sealing away the entire Empire and every-ponies memories of the Empire itself within 1000 miles!”

“Well, yes but we thought it would just seal him away.” Celestia said blushing.

“So that's why the crystal ponies couldn't remember much after re-appearing!” Twilight figured.

“Yes. It didn't affect the casters though.” Celestia said. "That's what we get for reading Starswirl's book, full of problems."

“But why did it appear when it did? The Empire I mean. I know now why it's not in the books but why did it come back?” Twilight asked.

“Well Sombra almost became a alicorn, and was way too powerful to defeat even for Luna and I. We sealed him away when he was split between here and the astral plain. This resulted in his incomplete form which you fought. So me and Luna had to become stronger when we would face him next... so we waited until it was time to unseal the Empire.” Celestia nodded.

“You waited a long time.” Twilight giggled.

“John saw this too and decided he needed to act before it was too late.” Lauren said. “He sent Discord to find the Tree of Harmony and to also be rid of you. After the events of the Empire, I sent both Luna and Celestia to the tree, that is how they found it.” Lauren giggled.

Twilight nodded. “I see. That's why the vines captured them and..”

“They were the seeds of an old hatred.” Lauren confessed. The tree is the avatar of Harmony and its elements are its copies. It did what John did but in smaller controllable doses. The tree expected the sisters to show up, it was bearing their marks already and accepted them. They are after all, my daughters and being both sun and moon, had a piece of Harmony in them already.”

“Is that why they didn't become jewelry?” Twilight asked.

“Yes.” Lauren admitted. “They didn't divide themselves among the two, because the two are one, in the same way they shared blood.”

Luna yawned, “So we went back and stoned Discord. After that we had to rebuild what he did and also we needed a new castle so, we built one above the tree to keep it safe.”

Celestia agreed with a nod. “Then we planned to unseal Sombra and use the Elements on him. But... Luna...” she paused.

“I tried to kill my sister.” Luna said coldly.

They all got quiet. Then Twilight broke the silence. “So it stopped you from doing what you needed to do for the Empire? Because Luna was needed to help unseal the spell right?”

“Yes...” Celestia said sadly. But when she returned, she came straight for me in Ponyville. I told her that I was no threat to her anymore and if she wanted to rule, she would have to defeat you and your friends.”

“You made her come after us?” Twilight frowned.

“I knew you would be safe.” Celestia told her.

“How!?” Twilight yelled, “My friends and I were in danger multiple times! I wasn't even sure if we would survive.”

“Did you ever notice that the tree had your cutie mark on it?” Celestia questioned her.

“Yes but that's because I have the element right?”

“Wrong. The tree doesn't have your mark on it. You have the mark of the tree on you.”

“Well.. yeah I figured that was the symbol of harmony.” Twilight frowned.

"No Twilight, the symbol of Harmony is a Yin-Yang. The starburst was the cutie mark that represented the pony who would bring balance back to the world. No pony will ever have our personal marks." Lauren sternly told Twilight.

Craig nodded. "No one will have my Oroboros, or John's diverting arrows."

“Or my multi-circle." Lauren added.

"Then why is your cutie mark a quill?" Twilight arched her eyebrow.

"I didn't have this at first but decided with Harmony that all my children should have a destiny. So starting with my own mark, Harmony wrote our destinies. I don't have the mark of the multi circle because no living creature can be the gods our true powers are, not even our avatars. Twilight, your mark is a big deal though. The gods of harmony and chaos are fate and destiny, so Harmony intended to bring you to a certain point and that would be the end of it.” Lauren explained.

“You were never in danger.” Celestia said. “When I first saw you after you beat Nightmare Moon, what did I say to you?”

“I knew you could do it...” Twilight said remembering that night.

“I really knew.” Celestia smiled.