The first thing we did upon entering the Empire proper was to seek shelter for the time being. With the shield being out for whatever reason, the cold could and did make a return. We apologized to the pony whose home we were invading, but as I succinctly told the crystal mare, "We really, really need to be out of the cold. Seeing as how we just walked through the tundra to get here and all."
She was a little perturbed by the makeup of our group, but permitted us to rest in her house. And then something happened that didn't bode well at all.
The shield came back. But where before it was a bright blue shield that repelled the cold, this time, it was an oppressive orange, in a shade I recognized. I now knew exactly when we'd arrived. Sombra had probably just overthrown the rulership here, and was about to force these ponies to experience hell under him.
We would have to move quickly, if we were to get involved. And quite frankly, I sort of wanted to. If we could stop Sombra before things got too out of control, imagine the good we could do.
The six of us exited the home and made our way to the large, now-black crystal palace on the horizon. We could see the dark nature of the palace begin to spread out to the houses around it. Our time was growing shorter at an alarming rate. We'd almost made it to the palace when we found we would have to cross into the corrupted zone. With a slight bit of trepidation, I was the first one to cross that line. When nothing happened to me, my friends quickly joined me, and we resumed our previously-frantic pace towards the palace.
We reached the base of the spire, to find a grey unicorn, with a red-tipped horn and a black mane and tail staring at the spot where the Crystal Heart used to be. He seemed to be muttering something to himself, though, and only turned to face us when we approached. "What?" he said, before he took in our appearances. "Bah! Like I have time to waste with would-be heroes! I have a spell to enact!"
That...didn't sound good. I pulled my sword loose, and Sombra lit his horn up. He probably planned something gruesome for us...
And then I ran lightning down my blade, which shocked the dark unicorn. Probably because I could use magic. My allies readied their weapons as well, and Justice beeped as he identified the unicorn before us. "King Sombra. Overthrower of the Crystal Empire, proficient in dark magics."
"One and only chance, Sombra," I said. "Release your hold on the ponies and empire, or we'll make you?"
"You honestly think you could?" he said, before laughing. "Ahahahah! Fools! My dominance is nearly complete! And when it is, the power of this 'empire' shall fuel my greatest spell!"
"Well then," I said. "We'll just have to take you out before you get the chance to do that."
"Like I said," Sombra said as his horn lit up again. "The fact that you think you can amuses me."
Then he paused, and one ear flicked as he listened to...something. "The black winds howl," he said eventually. "Very well then. Come, if it is death you seek!"
Well, that told me volumes. However, we had a plan to make, and very little time to make it in. Assuming he had a similar battle strategy as Magus...we would have to wait for his first spell. The easiest way to make him cast one would be...
"Gregory! Show him the strength of your blade!" I shouted, and the griffon charged, slashing away like a mad bird. I could see Sombra attempting to shield himself, but under the assault of the Masamune, his magics were worthless. He instead opted to push Gregory back with a new barrier spell. One that scorched and felt of heat.
"Copper! You and Justice! Combine your strengths!" I shouted out as Zehan and I worked on distributing a wave of healing power to everyone. The robot and mare got the memo, and in a second, the dark unicorn was eating flaming hooves. This prompted him to change his barrier again, and this time it chilled to the very bone.
"Heal beam online," Justice beeped.
"Good!" I replied. "Justice, keep us healthy! Zehan, Gregory, use your magic! Freeze him right back!"
Griffon and Zebra combined their magics to suspend a chunk of ice in the air above Sombra's head. The bubble carrying the huge chunk hovered for a moment or three longer after it was created, before splashing down and drenching Sombra with ice-cold water and large pieces of ice. Then Justice unleashed a hail of green lasers from his body, coating us all and making us feel...better, somehow. That was about when Sombra unleashed his latest change of barriers, and this time, it shocked us. Quite literally, I could feel the familiar sting of electricity dancing across my skin.
Time to return fire with fire then. I held out my hand and focused my power, causing a storm of lightning to erupt from me and strike the tyrant unicorn king. He howled in agony and panted, clearly not having expected the magnitude of power I possessed. Then the king got up again, and plunged the area into darkness so deep, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.
We still had a weapon for this, though. "Justice! Fire your lasers at the source of this darkness!"
There was a beeping noise from beside me, and then the unicorn howled again as the robot connected with his form. The dark veil dropped, and Zehan and I distributed more healing aura around the area, to keep us all topped up on health. That was when I noticed something alarming.
The city's conversion into its corrupted form was accelerating. I could only assume that this would fuel Sombra's dark magic to the point where he would be able to cast truly terrifying spells at us. "Gregory, show him the might of a griffon knight!" I yelled, readying my own blade as well.
It turned out to not be needed. With a mighty cry, the griffon unleashed the Masamune upon the dark mage, and I saw a wonderful thing happen as he did. For every blow landed, the corruption receded. The half-lion, half-eagle let out another war cry and let out a flurry of blows, before drawing back for one final mighty one. Something I aided him in, adding my own mighty blow to his, mimicking the X-Strike from the game.
Sombra panted, collapsed, and his horn's glow died as the corruption on the entire city receded back to just the palace. That was when I noticed something on his back, under his cloak. A large, heart-shaped object. Apparently, we'd gotten here so quickly, he hadn't had time to hide it yet. I snatched the thing from him, causing him to hiss and charge one final spell. "The magic I have accrued will have to do!" he shouted. "I will deal with you all, here and now! Wrongs will be set right! My vengeance will be had!"
Then I replaced the crystal heart in the spire, banishing the last of the corruption and destabilizing his spell. And a familiar sense of Deja Vu overtook me as I saw a dark hole appear over Sombra's head. One that began to grow...and grow...and grow. It sucked the unicorn in before rapidly expanding, and we all tried to grip onto the base of the castle to anchor ourselves.
But one by one, we all lost our hold on that time, that era. And we were lost to another hole in time itself...
When I came to next time, the first thing I noted was the cold.
The ever-present, constant cold.
The winds whipped around us, carrying snow past our faces and sending ice-cold down into our very cores.
"We need to find shelter!" I shouted, even as I took notice of the Gate that had formed behind me.
"There is a structure approximately one hundred feet in this direction," Justice informed us as he began walking into the eternal blizzard. All of us followed after him, and it wasn't long until we found a small building just sitting in the middle of nowhere. I heaved open the massive doors and everybody rushed inside. I then slipped into the building myself and pulled the door shut after me, which closed with a loud, booming noise.
Inside this small building, it was bleak and bare. The only thing of real note was a large, rune-covered circle in the middle of the room. The six of us drew close, before Justice walked across the border. The circle of runes lit up with a purple light, and the robot vanished.
All of us were slightly panicked at that, and wondered what we could do to bring him back, before the circle lit up again and Justice returned. "Most fascinating," he said. "This would appear to be a system of translocation gates."
"...Did you just say this is a teleporter?" I asked the robot. He merely nodded, and I asked my other question then. "Well, where does the other end come out, then?"
"I am...uncertain if my systems are functioning properly," the robot said. "But it is safe. Perhaps with exterior input I can come to a correct conclusion."
Thus prompted, the rest of us joined him in the circle, and for the briefest of moments, my entire world was bathed in purple light.
And when the light cleared, we saw floating islands in the sky, with gleaming cities of shining crystal refracting the sunlight into all the colors of the rainbow.
Oh, fuck.
This world had a version of Zeal.
nice surprise of sombra pulling the janus card well done
So, how fast can they run to 2300 to train? Because they need game ending skills and spells now. Also, bets on what inhabits the floating city? Is it deer, unicorns, pegasi, or something different? Anyway, you already have your dark magic user, so you can't justify recruiting Sombra with that. So, no Magus style redemption arc.
That question mark makes him sound confused. Not a good way to issue an ultimatum; he wants to sound confident, not questioning whether or not they can even try.
"Let out" is an extremely soft, passive phrase. You "let out" a sigh or a soft breeze. "Letting out" a flurry of blows is basically like saying you "barely touch" the ground hard enough to quake the ground. It's thematically entirely wrong.
Zeal was literally the moment when every single mental alarm I had started going off while playing through that game. I mean, sure, the game was ominous and all before. But there was a general feeling of hope and success, which clashed horribly with the feelings of foreboding that were constant in Zeal.
I hit the distopian frozen tundra, and was just thinking "well. Crud. ... Oh, little building. Let's go see." And then there was the teleporter, which was nifty, and I stepped out and saw everything and just thought " Hoooooly crap, this place is beautiful. Welp. No bets on how badly this all blows up." And then I was right. Twice. And a half.
Also was surprised that Sombra pulled the Janus card. Also mildly confused. Looking forward to seeing where this goes, though. And just who and how 'pony Zeal' gets bucked.
So Sombra is the Magus analogue, neat. Also, the whole being thrown back to the era of Star Swirl was skipped (because they already returned to that time) and sent straight to the time of Zeal.
However, if Sombra was banished, I wonder if Chrono has inadvertently done an early form of the Black Omen where the Crystal Empire never disappears for a thousand years, and so people in the present day and early past will never have known a world where the Crystal Empire wasn't there.
The 'Socks Make People Sexy' blog does a good run-down on Zeal. While you learn about Lavos in 2300 AD, you slowly figure out there's something else behind the scenes. With all the mysterious sealed boxes, the Masamune and the little hint Spekkio throws out about a kingdom of magic users, you're slightly aware there's probably an ancient civilisation that plays a major influence on the events of the present...then you actually get there.
Will there be alt endings like the game?
Hmm...Sombra is Magnus...well you got to figure out how the Chrono Trigger works somehow.
6597956 Yeah, no matter how beautiful Zeal was, the whole time I had this metaphorical pain in my heart knowing how bad their future was, and was creeped out by the populace all at the same time. One of the best bits of world building I can think of in any RPG, honestly. I can't think of a single set piece from a final fantasy or other game that comes close to having that sort of effect on me.
I'm beginning to suspect that the fact that i have never played chrono-trigger is actually to my benefit, since i'm not tied down to trying to determine or predict cross references.
Zeal... damn I love and HATE that place..