Crystal heart

by A pensive Squirrel

Athwart the waterfall

A few weeks passed and Amber still had not invited her prince to the palace. Salem had his eyes set on the faded mountain on the horizon. He was to attend the peacetime talks held in the citadel of Canterlot. His sweat ran cold however, for his once dear friend Empyrean would be there too.

He planted a kiss on his daughters’ snouts and smiled to his queen before taking a shortcut to the lonely mount. With a flash of rich purple, Sombra appeared in the peaceful grounds of the city state capital of Equestria. He bowed to a couple of passing guard patrols as they performed drills in the early morning. He decided to salute but he wasn’t responded to in kind. He gave a sheepish wave before teleporting away, hopefully this time arriving at his intended destination.

“You’re late.”

An alicorn scolded. She was decedent in her regal attire. She had a coat of fine dark violet, and a mane resembling the night sky, only beautifully so.

“That was my misjudgement. It shan’t happen again.”

“It mustn’t, Sombra. If you give us reason to doubt, then how can you maintain the stability of the northern kingdoms?"

“Again, I beg your forgiveness.”

Salem took his seat at the table. This was most disconcerting for the long serving king, for this was not a function hall, not a drawing room set aside for the deliberations, but the war room. He tried to hide his panic but it was as if one of the two fierce mares on the other side of the table could drag thoughts from his mind.

The paler alicorn picked up on the nervousness of Salem immediately. She had a nose for it. Weakness was not an appreciated odour in the courts of the empresses. They were addressed as princesses but they were of much higher office. Some might have dubbed them as goddesses, in consideration of the incredible power they possessed.

“Do you have anything to disclose, Salem?”

Celestia asked in a sweet yet menacing tone.

“I have. I feel that this change is happening far too quickly. The ponies are accustomed to having separate kingdoms with separate laws and expectations. I run a clean, fair and just civilisation, which is more than can be said for some of the other heads of state.”

“Do you refer to me, King Sombra? I am not amu…”

Sombra turned away from the towering emperor and rubbed his coal hoof against his headdress.

“I keep the peace with the neighbouring principalities and boroughs. I mediate conferences with the barbarian griffon that invade my skies. I won’t be harassed into joining this cooperative. You have said all that’s needed. My decision will not alter.”

Celestia grasped a small wooden mallet in her spell and shoved a few pawns on her tactician board along. She fleered at the sentiment of Salem and cleared her throat in deep disdain.

“My, aren’t we being selfish? I would’ve thought a diplomat would want to resolve this matter intelligently. I appear to have been proven wrong.”

“One doesn’t like being wrong, does one big sister? Watch what you say, shorty.”

The comments bounced off of Sombra’s concrete mind. He was not one to bow to pressure. Respect was given where it was deserved. Being entitled, that meant nothing.

“Your words are true. Yes, I’m a stallion who prides the quill over the sword, but a partnership with this warlord will only lead to disaster.”

“Watch your tone!”

Elijah raged, thrashing his metalled hooves against the board. The pawns were all pegasi for but a moment until they came crashing to the ground, the strategies skewed.

“It shall be a council, much like the one of magic. There is not enough regulation in the north and I don’t want to be proven wrong again.”

“Because you cannot be wrong, isn’t that right sister?”

“Correct. Do continue.”

Emperor Empyrean left his place at the table and made a slow journey to the side of Sombra, his eyes screaming with determination. He pressed his steel hoof on the back of the smaller stallion and stared down at him with the same infuriation of a disappointed father.

“Come-come now Salem, aren’t we forgetting something? You are but a king. You hold the throne for now, but your people will be mine.”

“It’s a cooperative, brother, don’t make this personal. “

Luna sniffed in disapproval.

“Fine…”

He began. He lifted his weight from the lesser being and grumpily made his way back to his sisters. The three of them seemed to be plotting without the use of their mouths. They then looked in unison at Salem and Celestia broke the intense silence.

“If you deny this transformation, this evolution, then you will forfeit your right to the treasury gold and you will no longer be under the protection of the coalition forces. If this is your choice, then we’ll make your name dirt in the almanacs of history. I am not kind, Sombra, I am realistic. An anarchic independent state has no place in my vision…”

“Our vision, remember sister?”

Both Luna and Empyreans added. They were slightly out of sync. The attitude was identical.

“You will be dealt with in time. If you cannot adhere to our way then we have no choice but to proclaim you an enemy to the state, a treasonous criminal, and a wildcard we cannot accommodate. Have you anything to add, dear bother? Sister, do you have a closing statement?” No, I thought not…”

Empyrean teleported to the side of Salem once more and bore his tyrannical teeth so sharp and threatening.

“I have seen your weakness, Salem. It cannot be left this way. It cannot. You fraternise with dragons, our foremost adversaries, the only thing keeping us from conquering the sky, and you even provide them with the gems they seek. Oh I have seen his treachery, his piousness and it will not be allowed to continue.”

He spoke of Sombra as if he wasn’t in the room.

The two sisters pounced upon the table, further dismantling the efforts of the eldest to outthink her imaginary foes. Their horns clashed like sparring sabres, and from their closeness a furious orb of light and inferno grew.

They spoke in total harmony as the cataclysm swelled in the space between their heads.

“If thou doeth protest the doctrine, then thou must be unwelcome in our court, for we are unified under one light, we are humbled by one night! You dare defy the world we have made? Let it be known from now until hereafter that the peasant ponies of the diamond kingdom are forever exiled from our land. Let them not desecrate the pastures new, the dales clean. We will pretend their extinction, and never let them be seen!”

Sombra floated above the ground in a whirlwind of power not of his making. He squirmed and struggle but all efforts were hopeless. He took one last look at Empyrean’s smirking smile before he was sprawled in front of his palace. With what energy he still owned he tried to return but his muscles ached, and his horn burned. It was night once more. It seemed as if most of the day had been stolen from beneath them. His dark horn ignited with flickering, evanescent sparks of power, but the pain was too great a chain for him to carry, too great a weight to lift alone.

Every time he tried to move, the result was weaker, and soon his eyelids plummeted, as did his face.