• Published 8th Mar 2014
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Pony POV Series Season Seven: Not The Wedding You Remember - Alex Warlorn



It's time for the royal wedding between Princess Cadence and Shining Armor: except events spiral out of control in ways you are not familiar with. Nothing is certain anymore, the future is no longer set, will the future still have a happy ending

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Episode 156: "Birth of King Sombra"

Pony POV Series
Birth of King Sombra
By Alex Warlorn

Once upon a time there was a tribe of ponies, forgotten by time, much as the seaponies, and flutterponies and their breezie cousins would be buried by the sands of time. They were at the time the youngest of the tribes, but they would not be the last pony tribe to come into existence.

They had come into existence at the great disaster that had ended the Age Of Wonders where Ponies had used computer, cell phones, ipads, missiles, artillery, jet-planes, automobiles, and had landed on the moon. The shock wave of the denoted and misused seven pieces of the Rainbow of Light, had killed many, cursed even more, but something happened . . . one of these castles that housed the seven pieces, was built farther north . . .

The heart of Ponyland, the crystal beating core of Ponyland magic, had been moved more than once, kept safe and hidden. Finally it was moved underground to the frozen north.

In the far future, in a dark timeline, the heart would be returned to the earth during the empire's second coming, were a tribe of ponies mutated into dogs-beasts by the lingering spirit of a greedy gem loving wizard would find the jewel, and become enlightened beings from its magic.

In the here and now, the heart of ponyland, in that flash when the castles detonated, its magic awoke and changed, exactly one castle of the seven was spared destruction in the truest sense of the word, and like all ponies who would have died in the northern castle's blast radius, it was completely remade. The rules of magic themselves having shifted slightly from the explosion. But the force of magic released, left most ponies to believe it had been destroyed like the rest. And who was going to brave an Arctic wasteland to check up on them?

The end of the Second Age was a new beginning for these ponies dwelling in the far north.

The shard of the Rainbow of Light that had been in the castle was blasted from the release of magic far, far away indeed. The reborn ponies, primarily former earth ponies, found the heart of crystal, drawn to it like it was now a piece of them, and they were pieces of it. And called it the crystal heart. They set it in the center of their home, as the heart of that place, where its magic could radiate out.

And like a silent teacher that spoke to their hearts rather than their minds, the new living crystalline ponies felt bonded to their crystal heart and each other, and knew as long as their hearts never gave into despair, their new home would always be safe. They were a new tribe, regardless of what they had been before, they were the crystal ponies.

Their leader, which would become a hereditary position, which would become a benign monarchy, realized that keeping themselves utterly happy constantly with no variance or tone would turn their happiness empty and shallow, and this would weaken the heart. And so, the crystal fair was established. A yearly event for the new tribe to embrace the joy of being alive and engage in the most lively or nonsensical of events all for the sake of simple happiness, and this would empower the crystal heart, that they realized now was indeed as much a part of them, as they were now a part of it. The fair became a source of blood to keep the heart beating and their home alive.

The centuries past, technology was lost as it was everywhere else, but the crystal ponies were spared the prejudice and hate of the three tribes, and the strength of their hearts allowed them to create means to provide for themselves. And their home was kept safe by hope that would destroy all evil that dared approach that place.

When the Windigos came, the crystal ponies were utterly invisible to them, like they did not even exist. The crystal tribe did not know hate, that the windigos were drawn to, the crystal heart had purified of them that, but they did know fear. And it had been their companion in the back of their minds. Some wondered if they were the last ponies left alive in the world. Others of their first generation wondered if they'd turn to immobile lifeless crystal if the heart powered down or they wandered from the city state.

Some would claim they had hosted a visit from the first Starswirl the Bearded, or one of his many namesakes, but whether this was history or myth was lost to time. Some feared they would be envied for their tiny paradise, and the other tribes would come and destroy and enslave them, this never happened, but the fear stayed with them.

Then Discord came. They did not surrender to despair. The crystal ponies continued to live their lives in absolute defiance of the mad god. They believed in the Crystal Heart's power to keep them safe.

Discord hated and cursed this city state, the light twin to Tambelon's shadow and machinery. He deathly forbid any mention of it. Death was never the intended end result of his games, simply an unintended side effect that happened a lot. He promised EFFORT in the painful death of any who spread word of this crystal city of hope and light that resisted all attempts for him to enter or effect. Even an attempt to indirectly destroy it such as dropping a meteorite on top, or a flaming flood, or an earthquake, all failed to harm the crystal tribe within. This further enraged the tyrant. The fact their simple statement of 'the Crystal Heart will protect us' was one he could not disprove made his blood boil.

It simply stood, a light against Discord's darkness, so Discord made sure no pony could reach this piece of salvation, and would make short of all who tried to leave to help others. And Discord's sheer hate of it grew and grew. The ponies inside, innocent and pure, never once touched by his evil, beautiful and sacred.

One place throughout of all of Equestria that he could not touch. Discord was the first to admit it was petty to hate one marble when you had the rest, but no one had ever accused the chaotic tyrant of not being petty. And the idea one thing in the entire world was outside his reach was like a foal who's friend had a toy they couldn't have.

If he could not destroy what he could not possess, Discord would see it corrupted if it was the last thing he did.

So he did the one thing he swore he'd never do. He asked family for help. Not immediate family. Freedom loved the look on his face at the sight of the one city on the planet to defy him, Darwinism saw them thrive in a harsh world without becoming stagnate and thought it good, Imagination saw a beautiful glimmer of hope in a dark world, and Fear saw a place listening to its fears and staying where it was safe. Even if his immediate family would speak to him, they saw no reason to have anything against that place. So he turned to other family even less immediate. . . more like . . . cousins.

---

"My Queen, the fears we crystal ponies hold in our hearts, they are a cancer, a whispering plague, the more we cling to them, the stronger they became, the larger they grow, if we let them, the light inside us that lets us empower the crystal heart will flicker out."

"Obsidian Zephyr my loyal subject, fear is a part of life, it what helps life be wary of danger, and protects us from carelessness. Fear has a place in pony's heart as long as it doesn't become our master."

"Yes my Queen, but please, think of the Crystal Kingdom. The strength of our home is connected to the strength of our hearts. We must protect our hearts from all possible inner demons that could shatter our inner strength, and shatter our protection with it. Especially from Discord who haunts the outside world, and could appear anywhere in Equestria at any time and smash any order or happiness he finds. The Crystal Heart is the only thing protecting us. We must safeguard against fears. For the sake of our people."

" . . . What do you plan?"

"A way to cleanse ourselves of all somber emotions."

And so the entire city had a rune grafted into it, that redirected the fears and nightmares and terrors of the crystal ponies away from them, and downward below. All assuming the sober emotions harmlessly dissolved into ether.

They didn't. They knotted, gathered, slowly coming together, like bits of dirt in a filter. The somber emotions, born of every crystal pony alive over the course of their lifetimes, and bathed with the magic of the life giving crystal heart.

Discord would not get to see the end results of his cousin's labors. He would be long defeated and imprisoned by then.

It would take centuries of nurturing and growth before this beast would become what its instigator desired it to be. As Obsidian Zephyr carefully observed and guided its growth, directing the form it would take, the truths it would realize, and the desires it would have. Chanting in an ancient, alien tongue as a stallion chanted lullabies to his foals.

"Orr'e hupadgh n'ghft wgah'n f lloig, ilyaa yar f' throd syha'h."

Until at last. A heart as black as night began to beat.

"The crystal ponies feared enslavement, they will be your slaves, they feared an end to their beautiful city, you will twist their home into a nightmarish mockery, they feared evil, you will embody evil, they feared helplessness, you will be more powerful than anything they have seen, they feared unicorns would oppress them as they did their earth pony cousins, so that is what you shall be, they feared the unknown, you, their tyrant, will be unreadable and unknowable. Somber emotions have given you life, form and purpose. And it is from their inner shadow you were born from so I name ye, Sombra."

" . . . No . . . King Sombra . . ."

"King Sombra then."

The crystal ponies had no idea where the tyrant came from, he came unannounced, without warning and without mercy. The darkness that had built over the years had erupted into a devil the likes of which they did not know could exist. Made all the more terrifying by the shape it took. The wrongness that a being so evil could appear in the shape of a pony.

Stallions, mares, foals, it didn't matter, all fell like flies as they were force fed their inner worst terrors, many even unaware of their true worst fear before staring it in the face. Warriors, royalty, adults, foals, all becoming whimpering wrecks against this being that was more fiend than pony. He became what they had made him, he became their worst fears.

When asked by his family why he had done this, Discord's cousin passed it off as a tribute to his Uncle Fear. Havoc was flattered and as Fear, was intrigued at the living manifestation of the suppressed fear of an entire city state...and as Tartarus, began keeping a list of the tyrant's crimes and checking it twice, preparing a special place within him for a dark demon's twisted soul. If it had one or would grow one. Weren't the crystal ponies only being enslaved by their own fears?

There was no real point in anything the tyrant that would become known as the Terror of the North commanded of his slaves, he only did as they feared he'd do: they feared they would not know happiness again, so he beat any memories of before his reign out of them. They feared the loss of comforts, so they were denied the finer things in life. They feared the loss of their dignity, so they were paraded before their king like circus animals. They feared being treated like beasts, and were put to labor that served no purpose or goal beyond realizing their fear. They feared no help would ever come, and so no help did. Their fear grew, and grew, and became the deepest despair.

But as his form became more powerful, he became more aware. Instead of merely acting on his instincts, he began to plot and plan. He began to think. The sum of that place's fears would begin to fear one thing himself: that as he had toppled the royalty, so too would he be toppled. Whether it was truly fears of his own or a relic of the fears of the royalty that had lead to his genesis, he feared that possibility more than any other. King Sombra put the cunning mind he had began to form to good use and sealed the now powerless Crystal Heart behind layers and layers of traps and barriers within his dark fortress, the first and chief of which was the terror his slaves held for him. The fear that fed and nurtured him. Perhaps deep down inside, the same fear of becoming lifeless crystal if their power source ran dry beat within the Terror of the North's black heart, and he feared that should his slaves' fear that gave him life ever dissipate, his life would end.

Or maybe all this was what the crystal ponies thought to try and justify or understand this devil that had been born from fear itself and his fear merely mirrored their own fear of death and his cunning a mirror of the untapped potential they were too afraid of him to let rise to the surface. Maybe neither is true and not even the Shadow of the Empire may know himself.

One small crystal pegasus filly, perhaps the last descendant of her original tribe touched by the crystal's magic, would not cower before the shadow given a form of its own. Her body housed the spirit of harmony and music itself. How or why another life was granted, none can truly answer. Perhaps she was sent to counterbalance Discord's cousin's intervention. Perhaps Bright Glow's life was more complex than believed. Perhaps Discord's birth causing a paradoxical tangle in time resulted in a distortion and she fell through the cracks. Whatever the reason, she was there. And her courage, would be the lance that would pierce the fear that no friends would ever come to aid the Crystal Empire, and brought the light of the sun and moon themselves down upon the darkness.

When her end came, she knew no fear, and in her heart of hearts she swore, even if overturned every rule of creation, she'd return here someday, and bring light back to her tribe and banish the darkness from a place it did not belong.

King Sombra knew fear as divine judgement finally descended upon the frozen north, the Royal Pony Sisters swearing upon their sister, the Concept of Justice, the reign of cruelty the Terror of the North had wrought would at last be punished. But he became like the primal beast he was at heart and fought back with the might of centuries of fear given shape and breath. But in the end, it was not enough.

And a small group of crystal ponies were able to escape the nightmarish city as the Sun and the Moon did battle with the Shadow of the Empire, and over the eons their line would lose their crystal forms, but their blood from the north would mix with that of Canterlot's nobility.

In the end the tyrant would throw his city far into the future before he reduced to the mass of living darkness he had always been and sentenced to his frozen prison in a combined cascade of solar and lunar light, the Alicorn sisters unable to bring hope and happiness back to his slaves in the meantime, and when his city returned, the despair and fear of the crystal ponies would give him the strength to escape.

Both would meet again, and have their reckoning, some day.

Author's Note:

If you're reading this, then you now know that yes, I have finally watched the first two episodes to season 3 (since I've finished the wedding arc). And they did not suck. I decided to write this as 'fanfiction fuel' as they say. I wrote this IMMEDIATELY after watching the two episodes. So this is how Sombra's origins and the crystal empire's own origin, are part of the Pony POV Verse.


Previous: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Queen-Chrysalis-Part-3-Crowned-434126239

Next Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Forgotten-Pink-Ponies-438559249

First Chapter: http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/Pony-POV-Series-Fluttershy-FlutterCruel-Pearls-260092460

Trope page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries


Check out the recursive fanfiction and fanart of the Pony POV Series! http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-PonyPOVSeriesFanworks-audio-adaption-2013-349281264 Many of it approved by me as canon.

Be sure to join our Group for a TON of recursive works, many a part of optional canon!!! http://mlp-pony-pov-series.deviantart.com/

AND! Be sure to check season zero and season one's fanlabor pages! PLEASE! THey need lots of work! As does our recap page on TVTropes! Please! Help people who are new to the series get caught up with updating the recap page!!
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization


MLP:FiM copyright Hasbro

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