Possession in the Crystal Empire

by Askre

Chapter 7. When did you say he woke up?

Chapter 7

Shining Armor turned swiftly around preparing for the incoming black cloud of smoke. His only thought was to delay that monster if only for few minutes so his sister and her friends could reach the safety of Cadance’s shield. He stared defiantly at the black smoke and shadow, its menacing green and red eyes staring down at him with nothing but malice shining in them.

The unicorn fired a blast but the monster shifted its form away to avoid the shot. The beast then lunged down towards the stallion who grimly lit up his horn again and charged. The two collided and the black smoke immediately enveloped the captain pitching him into blackness.

“Ahhh!” Shining felt something hit him, he tried to fire away but his shot just vanished into the blackness. Then he saw the eyes again, with a frown he tried to shoot again but the eyes moved away. Then blast of magic hit his own horn.

The blast was so forceful that Shining was thrown back, he landed outside the black smoke and could see the city and the blue shield again. The Unicorn looked up and gasped, the beast was heading for him again. Then a voice started to echo all around him.

“Shiny, wake up!”

Shining Armor blinked awake and found himself in bed, he was being gently shook by Cadance who looked down at him with a concerned frown. The Unicorn rose to sit, it was still dark outside, then he realized he was all wet from sweating.

“Are you alright? You were struggling in your sleep,” his wife asked and scooted closer and put both wing and a leg around him.

“I…” Shining wasn’t sure how to respond, he would hardly qualify his dream as a nightmare. It had of course been the memory of his brief battle with King Sombra’s more bestial smoke form but that had never really bothered him before.

“I dreamt when I fought King Sombra, you remember, when Twily and her friends came to help us protect the Empire,” he then simply told her. “Though it wasn’t much of a fight, he disabled my horn very shortly afterwards.”

“That was a while ago, you’ve never said it affected you any,” Cadance said, wondering if something had happened that stirred her husband’s memory.

“It didn’t, seriously, what Chrysalis did to me bothered me far more than that,” Shining chuckled weakly, recalling the nightmares he had the first few days after their wedding. Fortunately, Cadance had helped him work through them. At least Sombra had just plain fought him, though the battle could hardly have been called fair with how quickly the dark king had disabled his horn.

“So why are you having a nightmare about that battle?” his wife asked. “Alright you weren’t struggling like your life depended on it, but you were definitely uncomfortable.”

Shining wished he could answer that question. He really truly was not bothered by that battle however brief it had been. The unicorn had been on duty and with his duty came the chance of losing a fight. Chrysalis had used underhanded tactics and manipulation, attacked his personal life and even had him turn on his own sister.

“And why would you even be dreaming about that, it’s not like King Sombra is back or anything,” Cadance said but not in a serious tone and this time chuckled.

“I don’t know, then again it was a dream, when do they ever make sense when they pop up?” Shining shook his head with a smile. “How about we just go back to bed.”

Cadance couldn’t argue about that, especially since her husband showed no sign of discomfort so this clearly wasn’t bothering him. But then there was a knock on their door, very loud and a hurried voice spoke:

“Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor!”

Shining arched his brow, but his wife was already rising up and jumped off the bed. She hurried to the chamber door and opened it slightly. Peeking out she saw one of the castle guards there, he immediately bowed for the princess.

“Pardon me for waking you up, Princess. But Princess Twilight Sparkle has just arrived at the castle, she looked to be in a hurry and told me she needed to see both of you right away,” the guard said hurriedly.

“Shining, your sister is here,” Cadance told her husband who sprang from his bed and hurried over.

“That’s odd, it’s not like her to come unannounced.” Shining Armor frowned and got a little worried, something must have happened.

The royal couple left their bedchamber and followed the guard to the throne room. In there they found Twilight nervously paging back and forth. When the purple alicorn saw them arrive she hurried to them, after a brief greeting hug, she immediately began speaking.

“Sorry I came so unannounced and at this time, but we might have something really serious going on all over Equestria and I have just one question, have any ponies here dropped unconscious and only recently woken up screaming prophetic messages?” she asked in a hurry.

“What? Are you referring to that epidemic we read in the papers?” Cadance asked, recalling the news about ponies dropping down for no apparent reason.

“Yes. The ponies however are waking up, every hour or so. Some scream in terror or cry out cryptic messages, others laugh like lunatics and give what seem like prophetic words, others just lie in quiet terror as they whisper the same. Then they fall asleep again and nothing can wake them, these are some of the things they have been saying.” Twilight produced a scroll from her saddlebag and gave it to Cadance.

The pink alicorn unfurled the paper and began reading. Slowly her expression turned from worried to slight grimace, then she showed the scroll to Shining who scowled when reading what was said there.

“Shadow and fear is coming, Equestria will burn, a host has been found,” he repeated some of the words written. “What does it all mean?”

“We don’t know. All the ponies have it in common that before they fell unconscious, they had all started behaving oddly and then headed off, some made it to trains heading to the Crystal Emprie but when they dropped they were taken off at the next station and put in hospitals there. Some didn’t even make it all the way to any train station,” Twilight explained to them.

“Then Celestia and I realized that none of the reports said ponies here had been doing this, so I flew over here immediately to ask you. Have any ponies here been doing this?” she then asked again.

“No, there have been no reports about it happening here,” Cadance told her sister-in-law.

Twilight sat down, the exhaustion after a long flight finally registering with her. Shining Armor walked over to her and put a comforting hoof on her back, Cadance ordered a nearby guard to have tea brought to the throne room.

“We’re actually in the middle of our own mystery,” Shining told his sister then told her of the stallion he and Cadance had rescued. Twilight listened and then frowned as she heard of their interaction with the stallion.

“When did you say he woke up?” the mare asked and pulled out more papers from her bag, she started to read through them as Shining told her the date. “Hm, no that is the day before…”

“You think this might be related?” her brother asked.

Twilight didn’t respond right away as she poured through the notes she had already made for this strange phenomenon. After speaking with Celestia, the sun princess had given her full charge to investigate it, trusting her to be able to solve it.

“We did manage to find his brother, but the two of them don’t see eye to eye, so not sure how much he will confide in him,” Shining Armor added.

“I am going to have to talk with that pony myself before I am ready to call these two events related,” Twilight concluded, one thing from the cryptic messages the poor ponies had been shouting was flashing through her mind. ‘A host has been found.’

“You can do that in the morning, let’s have some relaxing tea and then go back to bed,” Cadance said just as the guard returned with the tea.

---

Private Iceland glared at King Sombra who was now just sitting in the empty brown space with his eyes closed. The Unicorn knew it wouldn’t bother the spirit too much, but he just felt like glaring at him. He had realized by now that the king had so much control over his mind that he could in fact select what his subconscious was seeing when asleep or just plain unconscious.

“I don’t know what your plan is, but so far it seems to me that it’s crumbling just as much as my attempt to not reveal my name,” the unicorn grunted. That prompted Sombra to open his eyes and he glanced at his host with indifference.

“My initial plan did indeed only count on there being two princesses, I could have perhaps adapted it to three, but with four princesses I must reconsider several things. As for my plan crumbling like your pitiful excuse of an idea to conceal your identity, may I remind you that they still do not know that I am in your body and I’ve put your brother on a very short leash that I can choke him with anytime I wish,” the king snorted and closed his eyes again.

“So what is your plan anyway?” Private asked and didn’t care that Sombra sighed in frustration.

“If you hadn’t noticed I’m not exactly in the habit of revealing everything of what I can do and what I intend to do. Suffice to say, all you need to bother yourself with is keeping silent about my presence. However, I will indulge you with this, I am more powerful and more in control of you than I initially led you to believe,” the dark Unicorn growled and narrowed his eyes on the pony.

“Why did you bother with misleading me anyway, it’s not like I had any say in this,” the smaller pony grunted.

“Simply for my amusement. I figured I would relish in the reaction you would give when revealed just how much I was actually in control.” Sombra’s scowl changed into a wicked grin. “I was not wrong.”

Private held his tongue and thoughts since they would be audible. He sighed and dropped his head, not really wanting to banter, if one could call it banter, any more words with the king. The pony lay down trying his best now to ignore the spirit. It took him a second to realize that Sombra was still staring at him. The unicorn glanced up, the red intent eyes of the king were fixed on him.

“I think it’s time I finally boost my power.” A strange smile crawled over the muzzle of the king. His eye whites turned green and from the corners purple mist begin to form. His eyes locked with Private’s who was unable to look away. Sombra rose up and began to approach the Unicorn.

“So Private, I’ve seen one nightmare, the one you claim made you what you are,” Sombra purred softly and as he came closer his smile turned more and more sinister. His black mane and tail were now flowing despite there was no wind.

“But what do you really and truly fear. I can sense apprehension to being compared to your brother, that you hate the fact that you look like him because of his past actions. But what really dwells deep in your mind? What one fear do you refuse to face?” the king whispered.

Private gasped as everything began to shift. The king started to dissolve into black shadow, for a split second only his eyes remained but then even they disappeared. The Unicorn was now alone in the darkness and he started to hear voices.

“Dad, why did you look at those two guys like that. You don’t like them?”

It was Barricade but he sounded younger. An image flashed before Private’s eyes, of him and his brother in the company of a dark tangeloish gray unicorn stallion with a moderate gold mane and tail. They were walking down a street, he and Barricade looked to be around seven or eight.

Private remembered this, they had passed two stallions who were nuzzling each other. His father had shown a very apprehensive look when seeing this but made no comment. It was a very vivid memory for him.

“Shovel, what’s wrong?”

“Ah nothing, Mirage.”

“Hard Shovel, that’s not, nothing is wrong face, that’s something is bugging me face.”

“Ah fine, it just bothers me to see all those colt cuddlers and filly foolers snuggling each other all over town. We don’t need the boys exposed to this!”

Another image, this time Private saw himself in the corridor that lead to the living room. The voices had come from there, his mother and father had been talking and he overheard them. The Unicorn suddenly realized he wasn’t just seeing the images, he was in them, he was seven years old and listening to this.

What he didn’t know was that Sombra also watched as he dug deeper and deeper into his memories, pulling out the pieces that would lead to his worst fear. The king smiled, already feeling the discomfort from the stallion, but he didn’t want just discomfort, he wanted fear and memories could only do so much.

Now why would these memories bother you, the dark king thought. Let’s see, who do you really care for?

An image started to produce of a blue Pegasus mare. Her mane and tail were white with a red stripe like a candy cane. Her cutie mark was a heart with two lightning bolts shooting out of it. Sombra regarded the memory of this pony carefully, finding from Private’s memories that her name was Dew Doe and she was one of his roommates.

“Ah you care deeply for this mare, but you fear showing real affection to her because you do not want to risk losing her friendship,” the king muttered. “But that is not the fear your previous discomfort was leading too. Why would those remarks made by your father cause you such discomfort?”

He began searching through Private’s memories again, finally finding one where he was in his teens. The pony was sitting alone at a diner, eating a sandwich. Sombra frowned, wondering how this was connected, he was almost prepared to dismiss this when he noticed that the teen was glancing at something, with a hint of admiration. The dark king looked and found to his surprise that Private was stealing a look at a young stallion who was oblivious to this and was in fact leaving the restaurant.

Sombra frowned as he considered this, then saw Private steal another look elsewhere. This time the pony was a mare. The brow on the king rose a bit and now he concentrated on something else, he had to dig deep into his host’s innermost thoughts.

What’s going on? Why do I feel this way? Is it possible to love both?

Wow, he’s cute. No I better not, he would not be interested in a silent grump like me.

She’s amazing… no why bother, nopony would like a recluse.

Dammit brain, stop confusing me like this. It can’t be, can it? Am I really?

I… I can’t tell them… I can’t take the risk… they would hate me… they would never talk to me again…

King Sombra chuckled as he realized what Private’s fear was, the puzzle pieces all falling into place. Now he could conjure up the worst thing imaginable for the stallion, show him in vivid detail what truly terrified him.

Private looked around in confusion, he was adult now but in the living room of his parents’ house in Trottingham. They were standing in front of him, Hard Shovel, the tangeloish Unicorn and Mirage Rock, a bluish gray mare with a dark azure mane and tail. Both looked at him shocked beyond belief.

“What did you say?” Shovel asked sharply, he sounded angry.

“What?” Private looked at his father confused, he hadn’t said anything as far as he knew.

“P-Private, what do you mean, you’re bisexual?” Mirage whispered, she sounded like she was on verge of tears.

WHAT? Her son froze at what she asked about.

“What… I mean…” Private stammered and took a step back, his father put a leg around his mother but was glaring at his son.

I was never going to tell about that. Why would I do that? he shivered a little as he saw his parents react just like he always pictured they would if he ever confessed his secret. As far as the pony knew, no one, not even his roommates knew of this.

“You truly fear your parent’s reaction, don’t you,” King Sombra whispered from the shadows. “You fear they will hate you for what you can’t help.”

“You have seen your father scoff at the idea of ponies of the same gender loving each other, that has driven your fear that your parents will never accept you for who you are,” he continued and inhaled deeply the feeling of fear coming from his host. Already he could feel his power grow as it consumed more of it.

Private either didn’t hear the voice or was ignoring it as he desperately tried to explain himself to his parents. But his father was really angry now, yelling at him, his mother was crying and Private himself was on verge of tears.

“Please… please don’t hate me, I can’t help this. It’s just who I am!” he pleaded, the lump in his throat growing.

“Ah but can they do anything but hate you? You’ve heard your father before, talking down on those so different to him. Not the most understanding of ponies is he?” the dark king continued to whisper.

“Just get out! Get out! At least your brother is not screwed up!” Hard Shovel shouted.

“Oh and added to that, compared to your brother, the one thing you hate the most and now you’re told he’s better than you. You really do fear they would do this too you don’t you,” Sombra murmured feeling intoxicated by the fear and despair coming from Private.

The king chuckled darkly. He could really twist the knife if he wanted to, but he held back. The dark Unicorn didn’t want to drain his host, just get enough fear to boost his powers some more for the time being. He had to be careful, too much and his victim would die.

Finally, Sombra let go and brought them both back to the brown empty space. Private was on the ground sobbing bitterly, not quite recovered from the nightmare the king had conjured up for him. The Dark Pony inhaled more of the fears that still came from the crying stallion, smiling wide and his eyes glowing bit brighter.

“I will drain you, bit by bit, consume all your fears in time but still keep you alive. For I still need your sorry carcass until I am strong enough to recreate my own body, I can only do so much as a spirit after all,” Sombra sat down and regarded his handy work again. With a satisfied smile the dark Unicorn lay down and closed his eyes again, allowing his powers to fully assimilate all the fear it had just consumed.

End chapter 7

Comments

[Ice Star]

An image started to produce of a blue Pegasus mare. Her mane and tail were white with a red stripe like a candy cane. Her cutie mark was a heart with two lightning bolts shooting out of it. Sombra regarded the memory of this pony carefully, finding from Private’s memories that her name was Dew Doe and she was one of his roommates.

D'aww, Iceland's crush on Dewy rears its head again. His insecurities about finding romance and being bi were the harshest moments of the chapter - until Sombra decided to use that torment him; that was even harsher. Poor Icy boy.