Chapter 6. Breakfast and a History Lesson.
The harsh light of morning leaked through the blinds of a nearby window, allowing the morning rays to land on the invisible eyelids of a weakened lord of darkness.
Consciousness returned to Skeletor at a snail’s pace as the beams of light stirred him from his deep slumber. The first thing Skeletor noticed was a damp rag resting on the frontal bone of his skull.
His stiff arm moved up so the palm of his hands could blindly dig into his temples before he took the rag off of his head.
“M-my lord, you’re awake?” A vaguely familiar feminine voice asked him.
The sudden noise in the relatively quiet room pushed Skeletor further into the realm of consciousness. He opened his invisible eyelids and was greeted to the sight of a tapestry of colors above him. He stared at the intricate patterns that were designed into the ceiling for a long time, taking in the mural of spring time flowers and that interwove into a river of greens, purples, and blues.
“Where… Where am I?” Skeletor weakly asked as he slowly rose from the confides of his blankets.
“You’re in the infirmary, my lord. How are you feeling?” The green mare asked him. Skeletor turned his head to the right of his bed to get a better look at the pony, blinking his invisible eyelids to clear his vision.
“Like crap... What happened?”
As his vision began to clear he noticed her green coat had a noticeable shine to it, as if each individual hair on her body was kissed by the frost of winter. Her raven black mane was combed back and braided into a beautiful half updo. Her eyes were also more lifelike, a stoic fire of pride and happiness burning behind her once dull green irises. Beneath those passionate eyes laid a genuine smile on her muzzle as she looked at her lord, something that Skeletor hadn’t seen at all since arriving at the Crystal Empire.
“You returned the Crystal Heart, my lord. Once we placed it at the center of the castle’s plaza we heard you screaming from the tower. When we galloped to the stairs, we found you lying unconscious a flight away from the top of the tower. You were unconscious for a day, my lord, and all of us were terrified that… Well, no use in worrying about that now that you’re awake,” she quickly explained.
Skeletor only nodded dumbly as his eyes drifted down to the two demonic feet that poked out from under the covers at the base of his bed, one of which was heavily wrapped in pink tinted bandages.
“It’s… It’s real…” Skeletor mumbled under his breath.
“Pardon, my lord?”
“I… I’m sorry, what?”
“I asked what you said, my lord.”
“Lord?… Right. Right. Right. I’m uh… I’m just thirsty… Could you get me a glass of water?” Skeletor asked before his stomach decided to voice its own desires with a loud growl. “And uh, something to eat too?”
“Of course, my lord. I’ll go to the kitchens and tell them to prepare a meal for you. I’m sure they’ll be ecstatic to hear about your recovery!” Emerald Secret beamed as she happily trotted out of the room with a prominent pep in her step.
Skeletor stared at the door that Emerald Secret had left through, praying that a real human doctor would walk through the doors at any given moment to tell him he was hallucinating. As the seconds ticked by and turned into minutes, Skeletor slowly brought a hand to up to his face to feel the rough edges of his skull.
“It’s real… oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” He panicked as he clutched the sides of his skull with both hands.
“This can’t be real, this can’t be real… I’m… I’m hallucinating! Wait, no I’m…. I’m not hallucinating, I’m-I’m dreaming, I’m… Oh fuck me! What the fuck is going on!?” Skeletor exclaimed as he attempted to bite his lower lip, a nervous tick from his past life that failed to work in his demonic body.
Skeletor winced in pain as one of his new large fangs chipped his lower jaw. “Ow! Fuck!” He shouted as he quickly held a hand to his jaw.
“Oh god, I-I’m not dreaming, am I? B-but this can’t be real right?” Skeletor rhetorically asked himself as he pulled himself out of bed.
As he stood up, he noticed that his skin was covered in a strawberry scented salve and wrapped in bandages that left little to the imagination. The only piece of clothing left on him was a black pair of underwear on his crotch and every other article of clothing was placed on a pile next to the bed. Skeletor quickly redressed himself once he saw his clothes, using the purple cloak and hood to cover as much of his exposed body as possible, as if not letting other see him would allow him to deny the existence of his monstrous feet or disproportionately sized muscles.
After properly covering himself, Skeletor ran a finger across the new imperfection on his jaw and noticed that it had seemingly vanished in the time he used to dress himself. His hand blindly searched his jaw bone for any hint of damage before his attention was taken by the sound of the door opening.
Skeletor turned to see the green pony from earlier trot into the room with the Havoc Staff in one of her fore-hooves. He stared at the hoof for a long moment as he tried to figure out how such a flat limb could grab anything, let alone a large scepter that towered over the pony.
“Here’s your scepter, my lord. The cleaning staff wanted to make sure that it didn’t have any… stains on it from Sombra.”
“Oh… Uh, Thanks…” Skeletor said as accepted the Havoc Staff.
“Not a problem. I went to the kitchens and told them that you’d like a meal and some water, my lord. If you’d please follow me, I can lead you to the dining hall for breakfast.”
“Alright then, thanks uh… I’m sorry, but, what is your name?”
“Emerald Secret, my lord, your royal advisor. Allow me to say that it is a wondrous honor to serve you, my lord.”
“Why do you keep calling me lord?” Skeletor asked as he followed Emerald Secret out of the door and down the corridor. As he stepped out of his room, he noticed that the hall had a plethora of guards lining the walls outside his room, standing at attention waiting for an order. Skeletor felt himself tense up as he looked at the surprisingly stoic looking colorful ponies in battle damaged armor, he never believed something so oddly cute could look so menacing.
“I-I’m sorry sire, I had just assumed you preferred the title of lord since you never corrected that guard who asked for your name. What would you like to be referred to as, you could be a king, a prince, or perhaps emperor would be better.”
“Wait, hold on, why would I be any of those?” Skeletor asked as he stole a glance at one of the many stoic guards. They wore the same iron armor he had seen in the throne room, but instead of spears each of these ponies were armed with a gladius that was sheathed at their right hip. Skeletor could feel the eyes of the guards he passed by stare at the back of his hood, borrowing a hole into the back of his skull with their intense stares as he felt them silently size him up.
“Because you’re the new… Well, we can discuss titles with the rest of the council. After you killed King Sombra, you could call yourself a demigod.”
“Demi—Hold up, I killed your king, right?”
“That was the title he made us use, yes.”
“So… That just makes me the king?”
“If you want. Personally, my lord, I don’t think the title of king holds as much weight as a lord. Not to mention, that even though a majority of the citizens adore you, I’m not too sure how they’d react to having another king,” Emerald Secret advised.
The full weight of his position fell upon him like a bolder at that moment. He shuddered at the sudden power he had accidentally amassed, a great responsibility passed down onto him that he had never rightfully earned, and no idea how to properly wield it. And that was a lot of power to just thrust on someone who wasn't prepared for it. One wrong word or action and it'd be a revolution of tiny colorful equines demanding for his head to be put on a spike.
“And… Everyone is alright with me being king? They’re okay with what I did to the old one?” He asked as he threw a quick glance at one of the many sheathed gladiī, waiting for one of them to pull out their swords and run it through him.
“ ‘Okay?' My lord, forgive my bluntness, but that is a complete understatement. To say they were 'okay' would be like saying the Crystal Heart looks ‘nice’,” Emerald Secret commented jokingly, as if calling the Crystal Heart nice was a grave insult to its angelic beauty.
“... So, you’re perfectly fine with me killing him? There won’t be any repercussions?”
“Of course not. Anypony who wanted to do something stupid like avenge that bastard would have to get through all of the guards first. Nopony here is about to let our new leader come to harm.”
“W-well surely there must be someone else who could take up the mantle of king right?” Skeletor asked, secretly hoping that the immense responsibility of leadership would go to someone else. He'd rather be an alive nobody for a few years than a dead somebody in a few weeks.
“Nope. Thankfully that wretched tyrant never attempted to sire an heir to the throne, so you are fully unopposed in the matter.”
“B-but there must be somebody more qualified,” Skeletor stated.
“Unfortunately… You might be the last,” Emerald Secret said quietly with a tinge of pain resonating in her words. “The sun rose this morning, albeit very oddly, so there’s hope that the Alicorn sisters may be alive. But sire, even if the princesses could lead us, I’m sure there’s nopony else your subjects would want to follow other than you,” Emerald Secret reassured.
Skeletor didn’t quite understand the reference to a sun rising or acorn sisters, so he chose to ignore it and move onto a more important matter.
“Right, subjects… Uh, out of curiosity, what are they?”
“The crystal ponies, my lord. Oh my, I just realized that you probably didn’t even know that. My mistake, I’ll be sure to have Copper Plate prepare a history lesson for you regarding the Empire’s original formation. Oh wait, we could have a play instead! I know that the actors haven’t had much time to rehearse, but I’m sure they’d be thrilled to present a show for you. Not to mention it would do greatly to boost morale of the Empire even more!” Emerald happily chirped as she trotted down the hallway a bit more quickly.
“Oh, it’ll be a lovely addition to the next Crystal Fair. It won’t be ready for this fair, but if we’re lucky the actors and actresses can be ready in a few months and you can watch it then. In the meantime, Copper Plate’s history lesson should be enough to get you started on the basic knowledge you’ll need. Wait, no that might not work though… My lord, pardon me for my question if it offends you, but can you read?”
“Of course, I can read.”
“My humblest apologies for believing otherwise, my lord.”
“It’s alright… So… Where am I exactly?” Skeletor asked as he looked at the crystal walls that made up the interior of the castle. Large monoliths of multifaceted crystals towered over him, allowing the ceiling to rise a few dozen yards above his head. The ceiling was high enough to allow several large candlestick chandeliers to hang over overhead that held brilliantly bright orange flames that danced on blue candlesticks.
“The medical wing of the castle,” Emerald Secret told him. “Track Record and I tried to bring you here as soon as we heard your screams, though it ended up taking a few more guards to come and help move you. N-not that you’re overweight or anything! It’s just that there were a lot of stairs and—"
“I get it, Emerald,” Skeletor interrupted. “I meant more specifically where I am like… Continent wise. Are we somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle or maybe the North Pole? How far away from America are we?”
“I’m not sure where those are. We’re in the Crystal Empire, in the Frozen North of Equestria.”
“Equestria? Damnit, you might as well have said Narnia." Skeletor muttered to himself as he continued to follow Emerald Secret. It took around another minute or so of walking until they reached two elegant doors that reached to the peaks of the ceiling.
Skeletor silently marveled at the intricate carvings that were etched into the massive rectangular sugilites that acted as a pair of doors to the dining room. Although time had worn away most of the carvings, allowing them to nearly disappear with age, he could still see the figure of a tall pony with wings and a horn carved into each door. A pure image of divinity and regality staring into his eye sockets with half lidded eyes and a warm smile on her muzzle.
Emerald Secret pushed the door open with surprising ease. “After you, my lord.”
“Thank you,” Skeletor said as he entered the lavish dining room.
The dining hall was filled with several extraordinarily long tables that barely came up to his knees, covered in white tablecloths that held dozens of plates made of clear crystal plates and platinum silverware.
The velvet colored chairs were much larger and closer to the ground than what he was used to, the legs of the chairs barely letting the chair rise three inches above the floor. The seats of the chairs were also much larger than what was normal for human chairs, allowing a pony to sit comfortably on the chairs with all four limbs touching the seat.
Skeletor walked towards the table with the largest backrest that was placed at the head of the centermost table and took a seat, deciding to sit cross legged in it as he did so. Skeletor waited for Emerald to either leave the room or join him for breakfast, only to notice that Emerald Secret was standing stock still at the entrance like a decorative statue.
“Um… Are you going to take a seat too?” Skeletor asked, feeling awkward that he was the only one sitting at the low table.
“Thank you for the invitation, my lord,” Emerald Secret replied respectfully with a bow before she trotted up to the table and took a seat to Skeletor’s right.
Before Skeletor could attempt to strike up some form of conversation or ask Emerald Secret a few questions, an orange furred stallion with a bright albino colored mane trotted into the room through a smaller door that was tucked away to one of the corners of the room. Skeletor took notice of the comically large chef’s hat perched on top of the stallion’s mane that slightly swayed from side to side whenever the pony would trot on a different hoof. He somewhat admired the balance needed to wear something that clearly wasn’t designed for a pony’s head, and if it were designed for a pony then Skeletor would question why someone would design something so unfit for a creature like the stallion.
He also noticed an image of a frying pan that hovered over a small fire on each of the stallion’s flanks. Skeletor’s invisible eyes flicked over to Emerald Secret’s seat to see if she had an image similar to the one the stallion had. Surely enough, an image of a magnifying glass with a question mark inside of it was on full display on her left flank and, even though he couldn’t see the other one, he would have guessed that a nearly identical image was on her right flank as well.
“Good morning, your highness. It’s an honor to prepare your meal, Lord Skeletor, I’m the head chef, Pan,” the stallion introduced with a respectful bow. “I would also like to apologize for the quality and stock of our food at the moment. We couldn’t find any of the lambs in their pens and the subterranean farms are either so overgrown that we can’t get to the actual crops, or they’re completely dead. What’s even more strange is that the food in the pantries is completely stale or mummified. Thankfully though, we still had plenty of jars of crystalberry jam and used it to make a large amount of stew for the citizens,” Pan said through a clearly nervous smile.
“Wait, stew made of jam?” Skeletor questioned which prompted a response from the green mare sitting to his right.
“Desperate times call for intuitive solutions, my lord. Since you were indisposed of, the new council took up the obligation of keeping the citizens fed and warm while we try to fix the Empire. Don’t worry sire, any big decisions in the future will be left up to you, now that you’re awake,” Emerald Secret reassured.
“Alright…” Skeletor said, before a noticeable growl from his stomach reminded him of his need for food. “So, you only have stew at the moment?” Skeletor asked the stallion.
“Yes. My humblest apologies, your highness.”
“Well, when in Rome, I suppose. Could I get one of those jam stews then?”
“I’m sorry, your highness, but there isn’t any meat in that dish.”
“That’s fine,” Skeletor said with a wave of his hand. “Never really liked soup with meat in int anyway, too soggy for my tastes.”
“You’d be fine with something that wasn’t meat?” Pan asked with a look of pure bafflement on his face.
“Of course, I’m not a picky eater.”
“B-but aren’t you a carnivore?”
“Carnivore? Oooooh, you mean these,” Skeletor said as he tapped a finger against one of his menacingly sharp fangs. “I’m actually an omnivore.”
“A what?”
“Omnivore, it means that I can eat whatever I have on hand. Whatever you prepare for me will be great, Pan,” Skeletor reassured him.
“Thank you for the preemptive praise, Lord Skeletor, I’ll make sure that we can not only meet your standards, but surpass them later on once we have more ingredients on hoof.”
“I’d like that very much, thank you,” Skeletor said, causing Pan to nod in satisfaction and bow before he trotted off back to the kitchen.
“So, I take it that ponies aren’t omnivores?” He asked Emerald Secret.
“No. While we used sheep for meat whenever carnivorous creatures visited the Empire, we mostly used them for getting wool to make blankets and bedding. Though, for some reason, all of the sheep are dried up husks,”
“Really?”
“Yes. It’s strange, a few days ago the pens were full and the farms were perfectly fine. But something happened while Princess Luna placed us under a sleep spell. Some of the council members believe that it happened because Sombra died, but a few of us, myself included, believe he did something during his fight with the princesses.”
“Why would he do that?”
“We’re not sure, but it’s the only explanation that we have,” Emerald Secret answered lamely, as if she were ashamed of her own explanation.
“Alright. What else can you tell me about the Empire?” Skeletor asked as he tapped a finger on his knee.
“Oh, yes. While I may not be as well versed in history as Copper Plate, I believe I can give you a brief history of the Empire while we wait for your food to arrive,” Emerald Secret said before she cleared her throat to prepare for a small lecture to catch her new lord up on the history of the Empire.
“The Crystal Empire was formed by the crystal ponies, thestrals, and ruvas, who had initially refused to settle in Dream Valley with the pegasi, earth ponies, and the unicorns. During their trek towards the north, the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies accidentally summoned spirits called windingos. The windingos brought a terrible storm that made the Frozen North a much more treacherous landscape. While the ponies of Dream Valley were able to chase away the spirits through the power of acceptance and love, our ancestors weren’t as lucky. The storm of the Frozen North made the windings too strong to chase off with our love, so they did the next best thing they could, they survived.
“Inside of the tunnels that would one day make up the foundation of the Crystal Empire, our ancestors found a magical crystal they named the Crystal Heart. With it, they were able to erect a barrier over a good portion of the Frozen North, allowing them to erect the first buildings that would make up the Crystal Empire. Centuries later, Princess Amore found our Empire and became the representative of Dream Valley, eventually becoming the ruler of the Crystal Empire after speaking on behalf of the Empire for nearly a thousand years. Peace and happiness continued to power the Crystal Heart, allowing us to be protected from the storm.
“But then, a power hungry ruva tampered in the dark side of magic and used his newfound abilities to overthrow Princess Amore… … For three years, he made us suffer. He took advantage of our removed freewill, using us as a physical shield to prevent the ponies of Dream Valley from marching towards the Empire. So, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna flew in with heir pegasi and thestrals instead, and Princess Luna used her magic to send many of the crystal ponies to sleep, preventing them from harming themselves or her soldiers. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to send everypony in the Empire into a dream, so a large portion of Sombra’s slaves were still able to fight their forces. Nopony is really sure what happened after that. The slaves that were awake claimed that they blinked and suddenly, all of the thestrals and pegasi were gone and the Empire was on the brink of collapsing.
“Many of us believe that Sombra… That he killed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and that the death of the diarchy of Dream Valley did something to the Empire. But some of us hold out hope since the sun rose this morning, which either means the sisters fled and teleported their army away, or they died and the unicorns of Dream Valley took up the mantle of raising the sun and moon,” Emerald Secret explained.
“Wait, what do you mean raising the sun and moon?” Skeletor questioned.
“You don’t know about the Alicorn sisters? My lord, the sisters raised and lowered the celestial bodies since the Goddess of Chaos severed their ties to Terra’s gravity. At first, the ruva and unicorns took up the job of moving them, causing entire bloodlines to lose their magic by sacrificing it to continue cycles of night and day. It wasn’t until Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrived that the sun and moon began to regularly rise and fall once again.”
“Really?” Skeletor asked with a subtle skepticism that he attempted to disguise as genuine interest.
While he was willing to accept that unicorns, pegasi, and the other creatures she listed were real, Skeletor doubted the validity of the latter half of Emerald Secret’s explanation. It sounded more like a religious story than a historical record, especially since her story involved a God.
“Oh yes, I’m surprised that you don’t know that part. Even the dragons know about Princess Celestia and Luna.”
“Dragons… What do you mean by dragons?” He asked in a suddenly less optimistic tone.
“Dragons, they’re the flying creatures of the Dragon Lands. Do you not know what dragons are, my lord?”
“No, I know about them I just… They’re supposed to be…” Skeletor was about to say ‘fictional’ but, due to him having a conversation with a talking green pony, he realized how dumb that would have sounded. “Sssssupposed to be exceedingly rare, right?”
“Not necessarily. While they don’t leave the Dragon Lands often, they do occasionally send a drake as a representative to discuss peace in exchange for a great sum of gems, rubies, crystals, and other valuables,” Emerald Secret explained to him. “Sombra used quite a few dragons during his reign, but his paranoia eventually got the better of him and he disposed of them. Since he couldn't control them like he could the crystal ponies, he believed that they would turn against him when he least expected it.”
Before Emerald Secret could continue her “small” lecture, the chef came out of the kitchen door balancing a goblet of water and a bowl of steaming lavender sludge on a platinum platter on one of his fore hooves.
“Your meal, your highness,” Pan said with a bow after he placed the platter in front of Skeletor who stared at the bubbling slop with a new sense of hesitation.
Skeletor delicately picked at the purple colored goop in front of him with a spoon, experimentally prodding it before he committed himself to eating the thing that was placed in front of him. As he poked at the crystalberry jam stew he all lost failed to notice the look of longing on Emerald Secret’s face as she stared at the stew. If it weren’t for the sudden rumbling coming from her stomach, he may have missed it entirely.
Once Emerald Secret had realized that the rumbling of her stomach had betrayed her, she sheepishly looked away from his meal. “A-apologies, my lord.” She said as she looked anywhere except where Skeletor sat or his stew was set.
“For what? If you want some, I’m sure you can ask the chef for some.”
“I can’t. T-there are still a lot of ponies that need to eat, and I’m going to have some later anyway,” She stated with a smile which turned into a slight grimace as her stomach began to growl once again.
“Emerald… When was the last time you ate?”
“Yesterday.”
“And how much did you eat?” Skeletor pressed on.
Emerald remained silent for a few moments before she quietly muttered, “Enough.”
With a heavy sigh, Skeletor took his goblet and quickly drained it before he partially filled it with the stew, handing over the rest of the bowl to Emerald Secret.
“M-my lord, I can’t accept this.”
“You can and you will. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine with this,” Skeletor said as he gestured to the steaming sludge in his goblet.
“My lord, I’ll be fine waiting a few hours. You need to eat,” Emerald Secret argued.
“It’s fine, Emerald. Besides, I’m not about to eat something I might not like and probably won’t finish in front of someone who’s practically starving.”
“Really, my lord, I—"
“Please Emerald, just eat a little bit. For me?” Skeletor pleaded.
Emerald Secret looked at the bowl of stew in front of her with a sense of apprehension. While her thoughts argued against the idea of eating some of Skeletor’s food, her stomach made a much louder argument.
“Thank you, my lord,” Emerald replied with a slight nod of her head before she picked up a spoon with one of her hooves.
Skeletor watched the spoon in her hooves with complete bafflement and felt almost tempted to ask her how she was able to hold something with her hooves, but pushed that question away from his thoughts and looked at the unappealing purple mush in his goblet.
Skeletor reluctantly scooped up a small portion of the stew using his own spoon and swallowed thickly as he mentally prepared himself to eat the unappealing stew. The stew had consistency of malases and the texture of a smoothie along with the smell of of a berry pie that had been left in the sun for too long.
As quickly as a viper, Skeletor closed his jaw around the bowl of the spoon, swallowing the stew quickly to avoid letting the taste linger on his tongue for too long. A moment or so later, the small aftertaste of crystalberry jam stew hit him in an instant. While the stew wasn’t absolutely horrendous, he still thought that it was far from pleasant. It certainly wasn’t as bad as the black bread he had eaten at school when a student gave a presentation about the holocaust, allowing the other students to eat what the victims of the Holocaust did in order to explore the subject from a different angle.
He continued eating the stew with a great reluctance, not letting any of it go to waste since food was so scarce. He’d sooner let himself starve to death than let such a limited resource go to waste, even if he absolutely despised the taste and feeling of the unnaturally warm berry mush.
He desperately wished that he still had a goblet of water to wash the bitter taste out of his mouth. As Skeletor tried his best not to gag on the next spoonful of crystalberry jam stew, he heard a satisfied noised coming from Emerald Secret next to him
Emerald Secret was an amazing contrast to Skeletor at that moment. While he absolutely hated the flavor and texture of the stew and did his best to fight it down, Emerald ate it with a feverish gusto, shoveling spoonfuls of stew into her muzzle as if someone else would steal the bowl from her at any moment. It was then that Skeletor noticed just how thin she really was.
If Skeletor stared just hard enough, he could see the barely visible outline of Emerald’s ribcage pressing against her skin, hidden under the shimmering hairs of her thick fur coat. He questioned how he failed to notice it earlier and chastised himself for feeling so reluctant to eat the stew. Emerald Secret and the other ponies in the Crystal Empire were teetering on the edge of starvation, and he wanted to complain about the food not tasting good? He should have been thankful to get anything considering how many ponies were still waiting for their fair share.
Skeletor took the time to appraise his own body in comparison to Emerald’s. While she was small and thin, he was a towering monolith of muscles. He was at the peak of physical perfection from the neck down, and the mare next to him was a small starving creature.
As Emerald Secret continued to eat the stew that sat in her bowl, Skeletor delicately placed the mostly full goblet of stew in front of her, breaking her out of her food induced trance.
“Here. Take it,” Skeletor quietly said.
“My lord, please, you’re being too generous, I—"
“You’re starving, Emerald, I’m mildly hungry. This isn’t up for debate,” Skeletor stated firmly as he pushed the goblet of stew closer to Emerald before he unfolded his legs and stepped out of his chair.
“Where are you going, my lord?”
“The kitchen. If there’s a way I can help them, I will,” Skeletor promised as he made his way to the door. While helping the ponies would be nice considering that they fed him and took care of him while he was unconscious, his motives for helping were somewhat more selfish than that. He desperately needed something to distract himself so he didn't scream his head off, and if helping in the kitchens could offer him some reprieve from his mental breakdown of sanity then he'd take it.
Emerald Secret sat in silence as she watched Lord Skeletor knock on the kitchen politely door before entering. Once he left the room, she turned her attention to the barely touched goblet of crystalberry jam stew. She gave it a hesitant sniff before she ate a small spoonful of his stew, savoring the flavor as it touched her tongue.
It had been years since she had something actually edible, King Sombra hadn’t allowed anypony either than himself to eat full course meals, only allowing his slaves to survive on the barest minimum to keep them weak against his magic.
Emerald Secret quickly chased away those memories, refusing to allow the tyrant to take residence in her mind and continue to haunt her with memories of the past. Sombra was dead, her new lord had seen to that.
It was all such a strange turn of events; First the Alicorn sisters came to fight Sombra, then they disappeared into the ether, and a demon took up their crusade to put an end to Sombra. Not only that, but it apparently discovered a secret staircase to the tallest tower in the Empire and found the Crystal Heart, giving back to the crystal ponies without hesitation and seemingly oblivious to the painful ramifications that would befall him when they returned the Heart to its pedestal.
It felt as if she was just waiting for the other whorseshoe to drop, for Lord Skeletor to reveal that it was actually all an elaborate ruse. And yet, there he was, leaving Emerald Secret more stew as he went to help the kitchen staff in some capacity.
How is it possible for a demon from Tartarus to have a heart made of honeysuckle? She wondered to herself as she tossed another glance at the kitchen doors. Part of her chastised herself for letting her lord go in unattended while another part of her was overly curious about what he was doing.
Dark magic wasn’t a creative force, so Lord Skeletor most likely wouldn’t be able to use any magic to cook. So, if he couldn’t use magic, how did he expect to help the kitchen staff? It could have been possible that Lord Skeletor’s power wasn’t only limited to dark magic, but having more than one type of magic was considerably rare for ruvas and unicorns. Most ruvas had solely devoted themselves to cooking, medicine, farming, combat, or crystal sculpting.
Sombra was one of the few ponies who knew how to use crystals to amplify his magic, allowing him to dip into forbidden spells and develop an affinity for dark magic. Through his experiments, he was able to create a spell using black quartz to nullify ruva and Alicorn magic, and slaughtered them all so he could rule unopposed.
Emerald Secret pushed the memories of the past with a greater force than before, desperately trying to not let her thoughts linger too long. Loose chains of thought led her down the winding paths of her memories where her dead friends and family lived. Those memories were a constant reminder of what she lost to that monster, of all those who he murdered.
Emerald Secret felt tears building up in her eyes as she failed to avoid recalling the life she had before Sombra. No matter what, nothing would bring them back to her. She had to force herself to move on and forget about them, leave their memories in the past where their smiles and laughter couldn’t haunt her.
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And yet after all this time, these so-called "gods" didn't fix the connection but kept the control tool with them, so others will think that they are essential and if they want, they can do anything
2.
Also wasn't Discord spirit of chaos?
I think he even introduced himself like that
update:
The author updated chapter and replaced Discord with Eris if you are wondering
3.
I really hope Skeletor with his staff can fix the connection of sun and moon, these shouldn't be controlled by anyone, especially by 2 horses with probable god complexes
Unfortunately, I have seen only one author had balls to make the main character do that because character thought in a realistic and logical way and saw the problem, and he didn't care if alicorns fanboys/worshippers will have a problem with that
This is really good
Great! Can't Wait For More.
Nice
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Celestia might've tried to downplay Discord, and replace a nomenclature that was used in the past. Best not make the populace think anything's amiss. It's much scarier having a God encased in stone in your backyard than a measly spirit. Plus, Discord might just be going along with it, because to him it seems like a way to humble himself. Really let him connect to ponies on a deeper level.
That's that big oof
[Nods in approval]
This guy is a real generous and kind person. Good on him!
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But when he isn't completely chaotic he fades away sooooo
His title of a god is very thin and close to being a spirit
Maybe he is some low level God or something like that, I don't remeber any hierarchy of gods at the moment
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I call BS on the disappearing thing. Discord was drained of his magic entirely, and he didn't disappear. Not to mention he's a known liar.
He probably faked the disappearing act to make it so he had an excuse to do chaos without too many restrictions. Also there was probably a thinly veiled, "friendship lesson" for accepting people for who they are otherwise they'll lose what makes them special and then they'll be gone from your life.
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But there is a thing
Fluttershy didn't have a problem if his dimension was chaotic for their (if I remember correctly) first there tea party
It was Discord who overreacted and tried to be orderly
Maybe the point of him disappearing when not chaotic is his mental state
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Oh, right. I forgot about that. Got that episode mixed up with the one where he's sick.
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There he was having fun
Also, he probably wanted to see if anyone who wasn't Fluttershy would care if he was sick that
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i.imgflip.com/14kqu0.jpg
Well, it simply has to do with the fact that the one controlling the body is a rather decent guy rather than the genuine article. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with the new boss.
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Your so GOOD, its evil! 👍
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Great to read and I can hardly wait for the next chapter.
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What is the name of the author? If I can ask.
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Author is Urimas Ebonheart
Story name is "Godly"
I'm not posting the direct link to that story because I don't know if the author of this story(Hotel_Chicken) will have a problem with that
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Update:
The author agreed so here is the link
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/373113/godly
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Generally, the main character can change into gods from Smite
So he used these gods to take away control of the sun and moon from sisters
But Luna could still dream walk if I remember correctly
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Thank you. :)
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What was the story with the main character fixing the sun and moon? You have piqued my interest.
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Shoot, didn't notice you already commented it. Thanks.
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I'm fine with posting links to other stories.
Interesting!!!!!
So, a triarch, perhaps? Or do you have other ideas?
Cant wait to read more. P.s I hope you dont go too into displacement stuff cause it sours the story a bit.
"Celestia and Luna move the sun and moon but a group of unicorns used to do it. Why? Don't ask questions just accept this universe story/plot element and move on."
I rather enjoy when stories provide some form of explanation for why this happens.
That's a new one.
Discord broke gravity.
Theres not many displaced stories i find great and ive been reading this thinking its really good so i went to ur profile and noticed you wrote the bizarro displaced i loved. (Still reading it) but now i know this story is going to be great and cant wait to read the next chapter
Man these ponies are in dire straits. Only the ponies themselves transported. Leaving most of their resources to age and decay. They have a long road ahead of them
love it, looking forward to more
Can't wait for more in your next update
Good chapter as always!
Hmm, I expected a storm of misunderstandings, like in Angel Densetsu. I guess he need at least one pony who trust him.
Evil incarnate outside but kindness itself in his heart...
By Celestias flaming boobys i love the story already!
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We need a army of mental and physical therapy experts for the Citizen. Sombra sure did a number on them...
Emerald Secret is anonfilly. She even has question mark as her cutiemark!
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Nope, they just need anti depression pills and avocado toast to be happy.
Cadance and Shining lost the easy solution to subtigate the citizens for Equestria, bringing in large amounts of food, medication and pony power might do the trick though.
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Avocado toast? That a new one... I preferred actually working solutions, unless they are magical Avocados with enchantment on the toast