The Lords of Harmony

by Whinifree

Act 2 - The First Seed, part 2

Having grown used to it now, Celestia waited patiently for the feeling in her body to return and for her vision to clear. She didn't wait more than a minute before she felt solid ground beneath her hooves again and the world returned to clarity. However, upon first sight of it, she let out a loud gasp.

The Crystal Empire wasn't whole anymore. The roads were cracked and chipped with large chunks of stone and gem fragments littering the streets from one end to the other. All of the houses were either collapsed completely, or in the process of crumbling apart. The streetlamps were bent at various angles or fallen completely, the bushes and trees were dead, and the ponds were all dried up. The area was still lit as if it was the middle of the day, but there was still no sun in the sky or warmth in the air.

A pit formed in Celestia's heart, but spreading her wings and lifting high into the air, it deepened substantially.

The entire Crystal Empire seemed to be on a single span of earth that was just floating in void. Chunks of the landmass of various sizes drifted within the space. Some of them were simply chunks of solid earth, while others had pony dwellings and trees or sections of road on them. Some hovered in place, others floated in endless rings around the mainland, and some drifted about in seemingly random directions. The mainland was cracked like glass, with the cracks getting larger the further away from the palace they were. The very edge of the landmass looked as if it could break into countless hunks of rock that would drift off and join the others that were already off on their own.

Amidst everything, only the palace itself looked whole.

Celestia lost track of time as she hovered in place and took in the sights. Casting her gaze upon the palace, the pit within her heart widened even more and it felt like her heart would collapse completely. Part of her wanted to believe that Sombra had Luna imprisoned here in this other-worldly version of at least the remnants of the Crystal Empire. The rest of her was not so certain, as the memory of the darkened world from her visions slowly crept back in from the depths of her mind. It wasn't until she heard the familiar voice of Twilight calling from below that she was pulled out of her stupor.

“Princess Celestia!”

She looked down, and spotted Twilight and the others standing in the middle of the street. With a sigh, she hovered down to the ground and rejoined the group. Turning her attention to Cadance and Shining Armor, she frowned upon seeing their sullen demeanors.

“Even in other dimensions Sombra mocks us,” said Cadance as she sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes.

Shining Armor sat down on his hindquarters and wrapped his forelegs around Cadance.

The others joined in, forming a great big group hug. With Cadance's muffled sobs as the only sound around, the ponies maintained the embrace.

A couple moments passed by, and then a voice called out on the air—a familiar, feminine voice.

“Somepony help! Anypony...!”

Celestia's eyes shot open. She took a couple steps back from the others and glanced all around.

Twilight and the others all did the same.

“Luna?!” cried everypony in unison.

A reply did not come.

Celestia swallowed hard, her breath quickened, and sweat streamed down her brow. “Luna!” Her voice resounded throughout the ruined city as Luna's had, but when the sound faded and again there was only silence, Celestia's eyes began to water. She hung her head and the tears poured from her like a great waterfall.

With frowns on their faces and tears in their own eyes, Twilight and the others surrounded Celestia and embraced her.

Several more moments passed by, but then another voice spoke up—dark and powerful, and it sounded nearby.

“Don't bother.”

The group hug broke immediately. Celestia's eyes flew open again, and she whipped around in the direction the new voice had come from. The sorrow within her was quickly mixed with unbridled fury as she narrowed her eyes, staring at the new arrival while her tears continued to fall.

About half a dozen yards away from the ponies, with the Alicorn Amulet firmly around his neck, stood King Sombra. The dark alicorn wore a slight sneer as he stared back at them. “She can't hear you where she is.”

“Where is she?!” barked Twilight, giving Sombra the same venomous look her friends were. “Where is Luna?!”

“She has returned to the place where things go to disappear.”

Twilight shuddered slightly, but kept up her aggressive posture.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “That don't answer the question! What do y'all mean by 'returned to the place where things go to disappear'?”

Sombra planted his gaze squarely on Celestia.

The look the dark alicorn was giving her seemed to punch a hole in Celestia's already struggling resolve. With sweat still pouring from her, the princess gasped under her breath and took a single step back, staring back into Sombra's sinister, telling eyes. Suddenly, the final cry of defeat her sister gave out over a thousand years prior invaded Celestia's psyche. The princess's eyes widened as every second of the events of that terrible day replayed in her mind over and over again.

“Hold on,” said Twilight, “are you referring to—”

“When Luna became convinced that ponies didn't care about the nighttime, and her by extension, the dark seed that lie waiting in her blossomed, and she transformed into a creature of pure malice. Luna was beyond reconciliation at that point, and her power surpassed all. Celestia was left with no other choice but to use the Elements of Harmony. The fallen sister was banished, not just from Equestria, but from the world itself.”

“The story says she was imprisoned inside the moon,” said Twilight.

“Literally inside the moon?” asked Rarity. “That wasn't just a metaphor?”

“Hidden within the very moon you see in the night sky is a whole other dimension,” stated Sombra. “Nightmare Moon—a world bathed in everlasting darkness. This place we're in now is a side realm to that place—my own personal pocket dimension.”

Everypony except Celestia and Twilight gave Sombra a blank stare.

“So...” said Rarity. “Nightmare Moon is a place and not Luna? Or is Nightmare Moon Luna's dark side and a place? I'm so confused...”

“The dark energy that engulfed Luna and caused her to transform into a twisted version of herself... Where do you think that energy came from? What sort of creatures do you think might reside—be born—there?”

“Shadow ponies obviously,” Rainbow remarked.

Twilight trembled slightly. “Would the Headless Horse be one such creature?”

“And d-dark, giant rock creatures that can shoot dark crystals from their claws?” asked Fluttershy, quivering and peeking out from behind Rainbow and Rarity.

“Allow me to clarify...” Maintaining his dark grin, a white aura appeared around Sombra's horn.

The ground in the area suddenly turned dark, and within seconds, an entire horde of shadow ponies had risen and surrounded Celestia and the others. Staring at them with their solid white eyes, the shadowy creatures dug at the ground with their pitch-black hooves and made their usual ghostly whinnying noises. Many of them crouched down in a combative, ready-to-attack stance, but stayed back a couple yards.

Celestia and the others huddled closer together, meeting the stares of the shadow ponies that now had them completely trapped. Fluttershy's terrified whimpers were loud enough that her friends could hear them over the cadence of the shadow ponies.

“I found the shadow ponies...” Applejack let out a nervous chuckle.

“These critters are not actually Animus as my ruse with the changeling queen led you to believe,” said Sombra.

“Called it...” Rainbow groaned.

“They are the Dreadkin—creatures born of pure darkness. But that isn't to say the Animus was a complete deception.”

“Your pet rock?” asked Celestia as the memories of her bout with the rocky behemoth that night by the Everfree Forest replayed in her mind.

Twilight shuddered.

“Entropus is a kind of Animus called a golem,” continued Sombra, “and is the greatest of all the Animus—creatures of organic substance given life by powerful dark energies. You ponies are familiar with timberwolves right?”

“Wait... Don't tell us them things are in league with y'all too!” cried Applejack.

“That's still not all....”

Several moments passed by in tense silence with everypony giving Sombra the same frightened stare.

During that time, Celestia's thoughts raced with everything she could recall, attempting to decipher what Sombra was referring to. Then, slowly but surely, the very last image Celestia had seen since entering this dimension before arriving at its Crystal Empire solidified in her mind.

Snow... Blizzard... Village... she thought. And eyes... glowing pale-cyan...

She let out a soft gasp as the realization came to her. “You mean—”

“Perhaps this will help.” Sombra's horn glowed again.

Celestia, Twilight and the others shivered as a chill started to creep up in the air and they looked up.

Numerous clouds of cerulean mist appeared in the air above everypony. They swirled about slowly, sometimes passing over, under, and around each other. This went on for several minutes, until finally, the clouds all stopped where they were and changed shape into what looked like the front half of a horse. They had horse heads, long flowing manes that ran halfway down their backs, and the forelegs of a horse, but past that point they were just a trail of mist. They stared down at the ponies with their glowing, solid, cyan eyes.

“Say hello to another kind of Dreadkin,” stated Sombra. “You know them as windigos.”

“Windigos?!” cried Applejack, staring straight into one of the creature's eyes. “The things that nearly buried the old tribes in blizzards?”

“The very same, and that brings me to the final revelation I have for you before we get to the really good part.” Sombra's horn glowed once more.

The world around everypony faded, leaving them standing in total darkness. Celestia and the others gasped as everything went dark and quiet, through which Fluttershy's terrified whimpers were still easily discernible.

Sombra, the shadow ponies, and the windigos had all disappeared.

“It's time to tell you all the full, true story behind what you call Hearth's Warming Eve...”

Everypony continued to tremble and looked around as Sombra's voice sounded out.

The total darkness didn't last for long. After a moment, Celestia and the others found themselves back in the desert, with a solitary mountain looming off in the distance.

Sombra's voice rang out again. “This is where they first appeared thousands of years ago—the Dreadkin. From here, they started to make themselves known to the three pony tribes in what came to be known among them as the Dread War. The tribes, who normally kept to themselves, set aside their petty squabbles and stood united against the dark invaders.”

The desert faded and the ponies were standing in darkness again, but the abyss was quickly replaced by the old village the ponies had come to during their trip into the frontier. A solitary mountain loomed off in the distance.

“This quaint little village sat between the main territories of the earth ponies and the unicorns,” continued Sombra. “Both kinds of ponies lived here. As news of Dreadkin attacks increased, the ponies knew it was only a matter of time before the village would be pulled into the conflict.”

“What does any of this have to do with Hearth's Warmin' Eve?” asked Applejack, glancing around. “The tribes were bickerin' because they were bein' selfish.”

“Yes, they were, but it was much more than arguing over food.”

“What was it then?”

“One day, a great wave of negative energy erupted from the mountain between the village and the desert that split the mountain down the middle. You ponies call the phenomena an 'arcane pulse.'”

The talk Celestia had with Twilight and the others on Nightmare Night replayed in her mind. The last major one was just over a thousand years ago, she thought. Before that was when the Crystal Empire disappeared, and I think there was one more before that...

“The Dreadkin suddenly disappeared immediately after. When they did not return, the pony tribes figured the war was over. For a while all was well between them, but old habits die hard. In light of the recent events, some started to say that their tribe contributed the most to the war effort. Soon, that was the standard claim from all three.”

The village faded and the ponies stood in total darkness once more.

“And that's where the story as ponies across Equestria know it begins, with the bickering over the food and all, but by that point the seeds of apprehension were already deeply rooted.”

Numerous pairs of small, glowing orbs—the white eyes of the shadow ponies at the Equestrians' eye level and the pale-cyan of the windigos above them—appeared in the darkness all around Celestia and the others, but the creatures' bodies stayed hidden. There was complete silence for a couple moments save for the Equestrians' heavy breaths, then Sombra's dark voice came again.

“There is one last part to this tale...”

I think I have an idea what this last part of the tale is... thought Celestia. Her suspicion didn't make it any easier to swallow the lump in her throat, nor stem the sweat that rolled down her face.

“In the village there lived an earth pony stallion and a unicorn mare. Having both been born there, and with their town-on-the-outskirts being largely separated from the politics of the main earth pony and unicorn lands, the two were the best of friends growing up, and would eventually fall deeply in love. 'A perfect match,' the villagers always said. But when the Dread War started, the young stallion became so terrified of losing everything and everypony he loved, he would, in secret, create an amulet of great power.”

“The Alicorn Amulet?” muttered Twilight under her breath. “But, how would an earth pony....”

After a moment, the sundered Crystal Empire reappeared around the ponies, with the sky and area lit as if it were mid day just like before.

Standing in the middle of the street of the crumbling ruin, the ponies watched as the shadow ponies and the windigos reappeared fully.

“But what he had created was far beyond his comprehension. He dabbled in powers he did not understand. And I...”

Sombra reappeared, wearing the Alicorn Amulet and floating in the air as if he didn't even need his new wings in order to fly. From his spot about a meter above the line of shadow ponies on the ground, he grinned down at Celestia and her friends. As he started to speak again, his tone became slightly louder and more triumphant.

“I am the result. From the heart of The World That Hides Within did I pierce the veil and fall upon the mountain. For you see... I am the first arcane pulse, and in a way, I am the Alicorn Amulet.”

“But—” Applejack started to say.

“I know what you're thinking,” interjected Sombra. “'Why isn't any of this in the history books?'” The dark alicorn merely grinned again. “It took many months of subtle working in the shadows—”

“You had a hoof in the knowledge being erased,” interjected Cadance, giving him a glare. “I'll bet it was also you who caused the tribes to start bickering. If even half of what you say is true then it's so obvious!”

“How did Her Royal Bugginess get mixed up with you?” Rainbow asked.

“I found Chrysalis not long after her attempt to usurp the the throne was thwarted by you lot.” Sombra glanced at Twilight. “Near death after being blasted away; utterly humiliated; afraid her beloved changelings would see her as a failure...”

“You sweet talked her with promises of power and revenge,” said Twilight. “Didn't you?”

“All she wanted was the strength to be the queen her changelings wanted.”

“But just so long as it still worked in your favor in the end,” stated Shining Armor. “You took advantage of her fear and desperation, the same way you took advantage of Luna's.”

Sombra let out a chuckle. “Well that's true. No act is completely selfless, even if all you're getting out of something is feeling good about yourself for having done it. Now then, the time for history lessons is over. Let's get back to the fun part.”

“Good!” Rainbow cried. “Come on, ponies! Let's give this monster the epic flank kicking he's been asking for for thousands of years!”

Still hovering above the line of shadow ponies, a dark sneer formed on Sombra's countenance one again as he stared down the ponies. “Sorry, but I'm heading back to Equestria. Wouldn't want you to miss me though, so I'll leave you with this!”

Applejack let out a loud groan. “Ugh! I knew this was just another trap!”

Sombra's horn glowed ghostly white, and a bright light erupted from it that engulfed the area.

The ponies all winced and shielded their eyes. The light faded a few moments later, and when they reopened their eyes, their mouth fell open.

Sombra was gone. The windigos were gone, and the entire horde of shadow ponies were engulfed in a ghostly white light that matched their eyes. Before Celestia and the others could move, every Dreadkin in the area slowly rose into the air like they were weightless and being carried on the wind. Their eyes disappeared, leaving only writhing masses of shadow swirling inside the massive aura left by Sombra's magic. Each shadow coalesced into each other. What was hundreds of shadow ponies only moments prior was now one single, tremendous dark cloud inside a ghostly white aura that blotted out the daylight in that block of the city.

“It's transforming into something!” cried Twilight.

“Quick y'all!” shouted Applejack. “We got to blast that thing while we still can and hurry back to Equestria!”

The cloud started spinning around horizontally at a moderate speed; faster and faster it went until it was nigh a blur.

“I don't feel anything!” exclaimed Rarity as she stood tall in the midst of her friends. The Element of Generosity was not lighting up. “Come on, you stupid necklace!”

No... thought Celestia as she stared wide-eyed at the dark cloud. The Elements... They—

After another quick moment, the cloud suddenly sprouted what appeared to be massive wings that fanned out to the side. Its base extended out into two large, four-pronged clawed feet. The portion between the wings jutted forward to a single point, creating a large beak, and two solid, ghostly white orbs appeared just above that. These changes all happened simultaneously, and within ten seconds. Once it was over, the dark cloud was no longer just a cloud, but a colossal black phoenix from the deepest pits of somepony's worst nightmare. Sombra's magical aura turned into white flames that covered the creature's whole backside. Flapping its wings and hovering in place, it stared down at the ponies.

“Bearers to Elements!” said Pinkie, staring down at the Element of Laughter around her neck with panic in her voice. “You can start working anytime now!”

The giant dark phoenix let out a deafening screech that echoed all around.

The ponies winced and covered their ears.

Celestia, however, didn't even seem to be affected by the terrible sound in the slightest. The sight of the creature, coupled with the onslaught of memories ancient and recent, had caused her whole body to go numb to stimuli of any kind. The only thing she felt was a crushing darkness that encapsulated her heart and overwhelmed the rest of her as well, as if the beast itself had wrapped its claws around both her body and spirit. Her ears flattened, tears began to pour from her eyes and she fell to her stomach.

“Princess!” cried the others.

Staring down at the ground, Celestia barely heard them through her own terrible sorrow as the flow of memories continued and her tears stained the ground.

I've doomed us all.

Author's Note:

We're here! The grand finale of Act 1 and 2—the first major arc—is finally upon us!

Comments

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

10217506
Yep.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Well, that was intense! I'm loving the origin story for Sombra.