A Ruler Undone
"What's going on?" Vinyl walked in lock step with the two stallions, his training as Shining Armor coming easily to the fore. The hallways were all familiar to him, and he took them in stride. Out of the royal suites, they made their way down. The lower guest rooms were no less opulent than the royal ones, but they were smaller. Nearly all the rooms had windows, except for three.
Drawing up out the front of one such set of rooms, Vinyl recognized Buzzaloo and Scootaloo at the door. Two little nymphs who chirped their wings excitedly to see the form Vinyl wore.
"Vinyl!" Scootaloo bounced in place excitedly. "We did everything to secure her that we could, and kept a lot of energy left over." Her bright carapace rubbed her wings again, eliciting another chirp.
"Vinyl?" Both Royal Guard turned to look at Shining at the same time. One of them continued, "We asked for Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard."
"He is Vinyl Scratch, acting Captain of the Royal Guard and chief confidant of Shining Armor." Rattling off the almost-but-not-quite-a-lie was easy for Buzzaloo. "And is the twin brother to Shining Armor."
"Oh…" Looking directly at Vinyl, the guard held his stare for a few moments. "Shining was busy, wasn't he?" When Vinyl nodded, he sighed. "You're a changeling too, best pick something that doesn't look exactly like him."
Almost giggling at the thought, Vinyl remembered what Shining liked to disguise as of late. "Sure." With barely a trickle of green fire, Vinyl took the figure of her DJ self. She did add some cool armor, however, and boosted her size to be almost the same height as the two stallions. "This okay?"
Vinyl, better than Shining, knew when a stallion was checking a mare out. She had performed at so many raves, clubs, and dives that she knew when a stallion's eyes were looking over her with more than just friendship on their brain. It tickled part of her that they both knew she was a changeling, but could still appreciate her in that way. "So, what do they have two of the cutest nymphs in Equestria guarding?"
"Mean ol' Chrysalis. She got really angry, but then Princess Celestia cast a big bubble over her, and showed us how to make sure the bubble still worked. So then we cast a bubble around that." Scootaloo beamed from ear to ear. "She won't be getting out!"
"That is what we are here for, Sir." The guard on Vinyl's left used his horn to open the door. "Not that we don't trust… her guards."
"Scootaloo and Buzzaloo are really good with shields. Almost as good at forming a barrier as Shining Armor is." Vinyl stepped in through the door and was staring at Chrysalis. A shimmering emerald sphere covered a golden sphere, and they both held the changeling and a couch. "Queen Chrysalis." Anything beyond the spheres was lost to their glow.
"Ha!" Chrysalis lifted her head and snarled a little. "You would bow and scrape now? Forget it."
"And now we see she is just as hostile to others." Thorax was sitting on the other side of the spheres (and their prisoner) from Vinyl, and the opacity was such that they couldn't see each other. "Please, come in Vinyl Scratch, your opinion is welcome here."
"I would like to meet the pony who is my bravest guardian's twin sister." Princess Celestia, seated beside Thorax, sounded mildly perturbed. "We were just hearing about how when Queen Chrysalis escapes, she will obliterate us…"
Realizing she was in the presence of royalty she actually admired, Vinyl snapped to attention and marched around the spheres. Behind them, she saw Thorax and Celestia sitting down together, with a tea set out, cakes, the entire show. "Your Highness! Your Majesty!"
"I stole every one of your promising apprentices. Even now, Twilight Sparkle has one of my children growing inside her." Chrysalis spat the words out, but there was something wrong. The pure, unsullied anger she had for Celestia was muted, dull. "She will become a drone, just like the rest, and when I break free I will steal everything good about her. I will reforge your prized student into a drooling, unthinking moron."
"No you won't. Twilight is okay, we stopped the parasite before it got to her." Vinyl looked to Thorax, and got a wink and a nod back from the queen. "So just can it. Why did you invade? You had to know Equestria wouldn't fall. It has never fallen." Leaning on her knowledge as Shining Armor, Vinyl remembered that the best way to get an evil bad guy to talk was to either compliment them, or challenge their intelligence."
Chrysalis reached for her boundless anger, her fury at Princess Celestia, but still it seemed missing. Rallying her thoughts, she lifted the corner of her mouth to sneer at Celestia. "You will be nothing but food for my drones. I had thought to convert you, to make a wonderful and amazing pair of changelings I could ruin, but now… now you will learn to suffer."
"And the whole hive followed this?" Vinyl looked to Thorax for assistance. "Don't get me wrong, malevolent she certainly is, but listen to this, there isn't a brain cell in that mare's head!" She pointed at Chrysalis with a hoof.
"You don't know what it was like!" Spitting the words out, Chrysalis jumped to her hooves. "I was happy, content. My hive wasn't big, but then I found out about Equestria. I remembered what it had done to me, and I felt rage."
"Rage you don't feel now?" Thorax looked pointedly at Chrysalis. "Excuse a new queen for asking, but you don't seem that furious." She extended her own magic at the other queen, but the magical barriers were so perfect that she couldn't even pierce that of the two nymphs, let alone Princess Celestia's.
"How do you—" Chrysalis bit down on her ill thought out reply. "You don't know anything!" But the words had sparked a stray thought in Chrysalis. She turned her gaze on Princess Celestia, and rather than the all consuming hate, there was only mild ambivalence. "You don't know anything at all!"
"So tell us." Vinyl had seen the reaction Chrysalis was having before, and reached a hoof out, holding it barely an inch from the green barrier.
Chrysalis reached for the memories, the oldest she had. Normally they hurt more than anything to even touch, but never before had they been this clear to her. "It was an older time, a different time. I was young, and thrust into a job I barely understood. What was worse, I couldn't help all the ponies I wanted to help!"
The words shocked Celestia, Thorax, and Vinyl; but all three kept quiet to let the queen keep talking.
I looked into the mirror. Worry etched the face that stared back at me. "What am I doing? I should call on Celestia or Luna. The mare in the mirror face was pink. Pink fur—soft pink of course—pink mane, but she had piercing orange eyes. I blinked, and she blinked. "He really needs somepony to guide him more, but I can't."
Walking to the edge of the parapet, I looked out over the city. Far away, far to the north, I could feel the malevolent darkness. "Please, help." My power called to the Crystal Heart, far below, and it sang its tune back. A pulse would be all it would take. It would drive back the darkness and force it into the north for another year. But such an act would take a life.
Standing still, the afternoon turned to dusk, and finally night. I held the power of the Crystal Heart within me as I gazed to the north. All I needed to do was unleash it, and a single pony would die, and the darkness would be stopped. I can't even remember how long tears flowed for. It might have been just after nightfall, or it might have been just before dawn. I felt him.
Releasing my hold on the trigger of the Heart, I made my way down through the castle. So many steps, so little time. I reached the bottom and stepped out into the courtyard under the castle just as I felt my bond to the Crystal Heart break completely. I stared in shock as a unicorn tucked it into a bag. "Sombra!"
"Princess Amore!" Sombra's tone held anger and loathing. I could feel his raw emotions as if he were radiating them. It had to be the heart that was transmitting his darkness. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to help you. Please, Sombra, don't do this." I pointed at the empty place where the Crystal Heart should be. "Even now, it isn't too late."
"It is far too late, Princess. I don't need your help. I don't need anypony's help!" The tone of Sombra's voice had a rough edge to it, as if something had eaten away the warm part that was inside him. "I have been shown the way. Would you like to see it?"
I was too late. I could see it now. The happy young colt I couldn't go near without hurting had turned away. "I failed you, Sombra. I am so—"
"Enough!" He cut me off, and flung back his hood. Boiling purple smoke poured from the corners of Sombra's eyes, and his eyes had turned to green, with pinpricks of red. Determination and hate filled him, a combination that boded nothing good. "Enough, Princess."
His magic wrapped around the bag he held the heart in, and I watched the blue crystal lift out. A touch of darkness to it was burned, then another, but the touches kept coming until one made contact and stayed. Blue bled to black, and I felt terror start to grow inside. "Please, don—"
Power shot out of the corrupted Crystal Heart. It slammed into me and poured over me. I was frozen, held in place like a statue, but my fate was not complete. His dark magic started to twist the statue, reshaping its limbs—my limbs—and tearing holes in me. Pain and terror rose, and I tried to scream.
"The diarchs will come, and they will be too powerful for me." Sombra walked around me, slowly, admiring his magic's work. "They will probably use their Elements on me, and blast me away. But I have a plan, Amore."
Each time his magic ripped a piece from me, I felt it as my emotions being pared down. Compassion. Care. Empathy. Calm. They were all ripped out and eaten by the Crystal Heart. But there was one emotion left, and I turned it on him. Shoving Love free, I was looking directly at Sombra when it reached him. Rather than dodge, he turned the dark Heart to my lance.
"Is that all? Is that really all you ever had? That pittance?" Sombra stomped up to me while the Heart ripped out my love. "Then you are nothing but an insect. Another pathetic bug."
The word echoed in my head, and finally the statue of magic that held me still shattered, and launched me away. The Crystal Empire faded away, and I saw Canterlot grow large. Then even the home of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna zoomed past and was gone. I crashed into the desert, broken and alone.
Lifting one black, hole-filled leg, I pushed myself up to my hooves. I couldn't even feel pain anymore; Sombra had stolen everything. The chill air of the desert coiled around and into me, and it took days for my ponies to come. Those days cost me all my strength, and I could barely move. But when they found me, their love rushed into my body and kindled a new fire.
"It was him! It was all him!" Chrysalis was blind to the ponies and changelings around her. "Please. Don't let him come near me again! Don't let him hurt me again…" She curled up into a ball, all the vitriol and acid spent.
"That…" Celestia chose her words carefully. "Explains a lot, and worries me." She turned to look at Queen Thorax. "She was angry before, and when we cut off magic to her she calms."
"Who is this 'Sombra'?" Thorax was scared a little more than she ever wanted to show. That Chrysalis would now babble in fear, and Princess Celestia looked perturbed, was worrying indeed.
"A colt who had a destiny to fulfill." Princess Celestia closed her eyes. "I am sorry, Vinyl, but Shining and Cadance need to hear all of this. Could you go get them?"
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Wow... not sure what else to say to that explanation.
I certainly didn't expect that.
So she just needs her Heart restored, yes?
Actually, we've never seen this AU's changelings approach the Heart. Here's to hoping it's not too bad!
To Cadance: nifty huh?
Keep going! ;)
Sombra. Pure darkness, devoid of light. Makes sense. Too bad he couldn’t have kept fighting that dark nature of his. His story was one of the two official MLP comics that I actually gave a read. I never got around to the others.
Edit:I guess he ended up fighting it!
8622238 Indeed. I used a little of the comics canon here. I agree that was one of the very few comic canon that was good. I mean, from the very same comic they have had to redact the siren origin story (thanks to S7 finale).
Kinda standard Changeling origin, if unique in execution. Neat!
9570797 Thanks! It's never the beginning, or the end, but the journey that's important.