The Song Of Death Is Sweet And Endless

by AnchorsAway

Relic

We sit here, boiling in the nothingness, our mind a fabric of cloth riding the hot winds that contain this place. Nothingness — pure, unadulterated, nothing. That is all that is left of my world, and I preside over this domain as a kernel of the pony I once was. As a King... —S

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Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, ruler of the Crystal Empire, beloved by the crystal citizens, stood before her throne and waited to die.

The breath was caught in her throat, a burning that crept into her core. Her eyes shivered in their sockets, twitching like squirming creatures as she stared at what was brought before her.

The guard approached the gilded throne, his helm of polished crystal tucked under his foreleg. An object wrapped in white cloth lay in his hoof. He held it softly, reverently, yet kept it outstretched, away from his breast.

The throne room withered and writhed in deafening silence; the bustle of the Crystal Empire outside was muffled by the impenetrable walls of the castle.

Finally, the monarch moved, slowly stepping down from the raised throne. Her hooves echoed heavy hoofsteps as if her shimmering horseshoes were made of lead.

She stopped before the guard, their eyes passing each other briefly before falling on the wrapped object together. Cadence gingerly lifted a hoof, reaching for the satin cloth. It trembled ever so slightly and she steadied herself.

Her hoof froze, another of soft lavender holding it back in a firm grip despite its owner's small stature.

Twilight Sparkle slinked forward, the alicorn's voice timid yet forcefully, her words dripping with hidden burden that lay just below the surface.

"Are you sure?" she asked, holding her sister-in-law's hoof tight. It wavered in her grip. "You don't have to."

Cadence nodded firmly, eyes transfixed on the white cloth in the guard's hoof. "I'm sure," she breathed, her tender nostrils flaring. Gingerly, Twilight's hoof let go, the young princess somberly taking a step back.

Cadence lifted her hoof once more, reaching for the cloth before catching herself. She paused, exhaled, and lowered it for a final time. "Show me," she gulped, her voice stern yet cracking.

Obediently, the guard carefully pulled the cloth back, the item delicately cradled in the palm of his hoof. What peeked from beneath the starkly-white cloth: a dull-red horn, sharp like a curved thorn.

"A citizen discovered it beyond the outer boundary, out in the ice fields," the guard spoke, eyes fixated on the remnant. "I was told to bring it directly to you, your Highness."

"Out there," Cadence spoke softly, rewrapping the horn and taking it in her hooves, her hesitation lifting like a curtain. "Waiting for somepony to stumble upon it."

"Your Highness?"

"That will be all," she answered, holding the parcel close as if a newborn foal. "Dismissed," she granted with hardly a furtive glance.

The door to the throne room slid closed with an echoing thud behind him, the stained glass reverberating around the two alicorns. The air buzzed in the presence of the warped object that lay between them, the dancing light of the sun streaming through the colored glass dazzling the relic in a mesmerizing wash of light.

"Is it really his?" Twilight finally spoke. "The Crystal Heart — we watched it destroyed him, annihilate every last atom. How did this survive?"

"It would appear that some pieces are persistent." Cadence slid the cloth away before picking the severed horn up in her bare hoof. She held it to the light, the crystal beams of sunlight reflecting off it like a jewel. A long scar embellished in bright red etched its smooth surface.

Twilight stepped closer, peering at the dismembered horn. "What are you going to do with it?"

Cadence looked from the horn to the floor, her shodden hoof lightly stroking the polished crystal. "I have an idea, something I have to show you, Twilight," she spoke suggestively.

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The walls of the castle squeezed around Twilight as the two descended deeper into the subterranean depths, the ancient foundations like silent guardians of a forbidden realm. Their hornlight was feeble against the omnipresent darkness; it smothered them in the gloom, weighing them down with each step they took down into the bowels of the timeworn fortress.

Twilight shivered, hurrying to keep up with Cadence. "I've seen these passages before," she said, remembering adventures and battles of the past. "But I've never been this deep before. Somepony could get lost down here."

"There are many corridors and passages hidden away within the castle, within even the Empire itself," Cadence sighed, running her hoof along the smooth crystal walls. "And with many locked doors. The castle is old Twilight, ages-old, ancient," she revealed. "Legends and tales speak of it sheltering the first settlers of this land, that it was already here when the three tribes arrived on the continent."

"Like it was waiting for somepony to come along and find it," Twilight breathed, her breath cloudy in the frigid air.

"Waiting until the day Sombra would emerge." Cadence paused long enough to show her pity that she wore. "The citizens of the Empire have suffered enough from the vileness of King Sombra," she spoke somberly. "I cannot sit idly, Twilight. Sombra's secrets still remain locked away down here," she said, twisting her head about the crystal walls. "Those secrets lie down here — somewhere."

"Do you think Sombra knew of all these passages?" Twilight wondered, diligently following.

"I don't think he just knew about them, Twilight," she answered, stopping before a slab of crystal that blocked their path. Cadence felt along the seams of the massive slab with her hoof, eyes searching for a way in. "I think he was the one who locked them all away."

Taking a step forward, Twilight grabbed her hoof. "If it's true, should we really be trying to unlock these doors. Maybe he locked them for a reason."

Cadence paused, producing the horn once more. She turned it over in her hooves, studying it. "That may be true, Twilight. But we must know what he was doing down here. The Empire and her citizen already suffered a thousand years of exile at the hooves of Sombra. I cannot allow it to have been for nothing."

Cadence reached out, touching the horn to the crystal doorway.

"All I needed was the key."

From beneath them, the crystal depths rumbled in acknowledgment. Twilight stumbled back as the slab slid upward without a squeak, the hundreds of tonnes of crystal disappearing into its recess.

Cadence was already stepping inside.

"Wait!" Twilight called out, running after her.

The two found themselves in a chamber that reached far overhead. Though it was dark, and she couldn't see her hoof in front of her face, Twilight could feel it; the room stretched far above them. She looked around but couldn't see anything. "This place," she whispered. "Is it a tomb?"

Suddenly, a light from above.

Twilight shielded her eyes with a hoof, the beam a portal of intense light that burned at her retinas. What she wasn't expecting was a heart of aquacrystal to descend upon them.

"Is that what I think it is?" Twilight gasped.

"The Crystal Heart," Cadence confirmed. "We must be right below the castle square."

Like a shining jewel, the artifact, an heirloom and source of power for the Empire, slowly spiraled down. Light from the castle square, where it regularly presided for all citizens to partake in its glory, beamed off the Heart's facets. Light erupted around the room, sweeping away the darkness. Things were beginning to stand out.

"This place. There is something here," Twilight breathed.

The Heart arrived at the bottom, pulled by whatever invisible force as the light of the square above disappeared. The Heart spun slowly, supplemented by its own glow.

"This is it," Cadence backed up, eyes searching the darkness. "Here, Twilight. It's all here."

The glow from the Crystal Heart spread, spilling like water down its pedestal and flowing over the floor. It lit up beneath their hooves creeping up the walls, and the rumble returned as if the castle was awakening around them. Faster, the Heart spun, the deep whine below them increasing with every revolution. The room came alive around them, banks of crystal monitors alighted in orderly banks, strings of texts and numbers flying across the mirrored mineral screens. That's when they first heard her.

It was a mare, her words crisp and emphasized, as if they were disjoined.

"Hello — Director — Sombra."

Twilight spun wildly, trying to pinpoint the source. "Who's there?" she called. "Show yourself!"

Her horn throbbed with dangerous energy.

"Request recognized," the voice spoke softly, clearer as if waking up from a long sleep. It drifted from overhead to their ears, sliding down the confines of the room. "I am the operator of this facility. A controller of tightly interlaced crystalline connections. It has been a while since your last report, Director."

"Facility?" Cadence stepped forward to the center of the room. Slowly she paced around the Heart, studying its aura of energy. It had never seemed so alive since her accession to the throne, her rightful place after freeing the citizens from the clutches of the mad king.

"Of course, Sombra. The Empire," the female voice replied from the Crystal Heart. "This round of queries is unusual, Director. Are you feeling any better?"

Cadence shifted a wary eye toward her sister-in-law. "Of course, I feel fine," she played along with the strange voice that emanated from the crystal but also all around them. "Just a little disorientated. Maybe you can help."

"Of course," the voice chirped gladly, as if eager to help. "Perhaps we should run some more tests, see how the effects are progressing."

"Maybe later." Cadence moved to the banks of terminals, the numbers and blinking lights meaningless to her. "Perhaps you can help refresh my memory."

"Checking," the Heart replied serendipitously. "Personal logs partially corrupted. Earliest intact status report stretches back five-thousand eight-hundred twenty-six years, four months, six days. Would you like me to bring it up, Sombra?"

Twilight's hoof appeared on Cadence's shoulder. Her eyes were wide and glistened. She shook her head, tugging at the alicorn to pull her away. Don't, she mouthed.

Cadence studied the dismembered horn in her hoof once more, studying it in the glow of the Heart. "Do it," she ordered the Heart.

The featureless wall before the banks of crystal calculators flickered as the light was drawn from around the room, reformed. It was pulled together before them, materializing, shifting into an image that moved and danced across the smooth crystal.

And a voice that sent shivers up the alicorn's spines echoed around them. It was a deep, serpentous voice that conjected images of a swirling red cape, polished black armor, wicked fangs, and a stallion with a curved horn as red as fire.

"From the Darkness, we are born, and to the Darkness, we shall return," the voice lamented somberly. "Do you remember how Mom always used to tell us that, Seres?" He chuckled. But not a menacing gesture, this was different. The image was clearing.

The pony cast in light before them bore little resemblance to the mad king that had once enslaved the entire Empire beneath his steel horseshoe. A voluptuous dark mane flowed down his neck and over his squared shoulders in tangled, unwashed strands. He rubbed a hoof under his eyes, deep purple bags hanging beneath them like sandbags. Dark stubble speckled his bleary face, and eyes drained of life shifted tiredly. A curved dark horn devoid of red save for a deep red scar protruded from the mess of mane.

He could have looked like anypony.

"I remember when she used to tell us that every night as she tucked us in bed," the replayed image continued, lip wavering. "I guess, now, you can tell her that she was right." He stopped, running his dirty hooves down his face and burying into them. "I'm not even sure who I am leaving this for," he whimpered softly, the shell of a pony heaving beneath an unseen weight.

He looked up and off-screen. "Maybe the ships were able to escape the Continent," he sniffed. "Maybe, one day, long after I'm gone, they'll come back to find this," he croaked, surveying his surroundings, a mirror of the chamber. "Maybe that's why I'm leaving this," he nodded to himself, wiping the wetness from his runny eyes. "Or maybe I'm just leaving it for you — to let you know that I tried, I really did. Perhaps then, you won't see me for what I see myself," he wept quietly, staring into his cracked hooves.

"A monster."

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