Dark Days of the Unforgiven

by HeatseekerX51

Prologue: Some Kind of Monster

PROLOGUE

“SOME KIND OF MONSTER”

THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE,
The Night it Fell

If a city could scream in terror, it surely was now.

Tremors shook the glorious crystal palace as Queen Amore took refuge in her bedchamber, bits of ceiling tumbling loose and shattering on the floor with each shuddering blow. Outside where panic gripped her subjects and filled the air with anguished cries, was also the sound of hatred and rage rising every now and then to drown out the wails and bellow in fury. The stained-glass windows of the room, normally shining with all the brilliance of the realm, were now darkened with shadow and smoke.

But she was not alone. With her was one of her loyal imperial guards, a white Pegasus who had come to the Empire one day as part of a retinue from Canterlot and decided to stay. It had been strange for him to make the city-state his home, being the only Pegasus among them, but his reason for doing so was of the most compelling nature. Valiant Charge had never thought himself to be the bravest pony, nor one of particular destiny, but as he stood there, he knew that bravery was the only path left to him now. Destiny, just on the other side of the threshold.

Amore and Valiant Charge brought their gaze down from the ceiling and onto each other, tears in both their eyes. There were no words that need be spoken that could not be communicated between them in the moment through their fearful expressions. The whole city had been swallowed-up by a storm of darkness, a tempest of fear more biting than the northern winds. It had swept over them without mercy, coming suddenly and without warning. Now the imperial palace was the last redoubt, the last prize she knew to be claimed once all opposition had been crushed.

The dread was interrupted however by the mewling of gentle coos, drawing both of their attention to the swaddled foal that lay in the cradle held aloft in her magic. A pair of soft lavender irises looking up at them in contemplation.

As Valiant looked down at the filly, his otherwise grim façade broke, the corners of his mouth dropping, forehead furrowing. A single tear wound its way through the fur of his cheek and fell onto the blankets of the babe. Queen Amore clenched her eyes shut.

Then came a quaking of the palace greater than before, both of their heads snapping upwards, eyes wide open and ears alert as they stared at the double doors of the chamber. It was coming, they realized, coming for them, coming for… her.

With one final heaving sob of her chest, Amore thrust herself at Valiant Charge, kissing him like she would never kiss him again. When they broke apart, they kept their foreheads together, muttering a few last intimate vows.

Valiant tore himself away with a gasp, looking away to the ceiling to reign in his emotions. Taking one final look at the filly in the cradle, he leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I love you more than life itself.” He whispered.

The palace shook once more, this time by a sonorous bellow.

Amore took the filly to her side as Valiant seized his helmet and spear from where he had set them aside, donning them as if for war. He placed a hoof on the door handle, glancing back one last time to her. “You know what to do.” With a firm nod he opened the door and fluttered out, shutting it behind him.

The queen could not control the sob that escaped her then, nearly losing her balance and using a hoof to cover her mouth as she wept. But from the corner of her sight, she saw the tiny form moving under the blanket, and she remembered the importance of her task.

Lifting the cradle in her magic she set it on the bed. On the bedside table was an envelope, sealed with her emblem in wax. She tucked it into one of the folds of the blanket. “Don’t you lose that.” She said, voice breaking.

Next, she reached her magic over to the mirrored dresser, where there lay a beautifully ornate jewel box of gold and marble and took hold of it. Drawing it close, she opened it to extract a present given to her by her friend, to be used in times of great need. It was a necklace, from which hung an amulet. Constructed of white-gold and citrine crystal, it resembled an upside-down triangle with a citrine gem in the middle. From the top of it however, was the likeness of a unicorn flanked on either side by a pair of wings.

She held the amulet before her and above the infant and began concentrating on a spell as her horn gleamed brighter and brighter.

On the other side of the threshold, Valiant Charge nodded to the two Crystal ponies who remained at their post just outside the door. Brave enough to remain at their station or just unlucky enough to get stuck here, it did not matter to Charge. “Right, this is the last line, we are all that stands between them and that thing.”

The one to his left put a hoof on his shoulder, meeting his resolute gaze. “We are with you, sir.” He stated definitively.

“Aye, sir.” Said the other.

With affirmation they each readied their spears and poised where they stood at the end of the long hall, awaiting the inevitable.

The gem at the center of the amulet began to glow with inner light, the construct merely a conduit through which its true power was focused. Below it, the swaddling and the child within began to glow with a sparkling radiance.

As the three sentinels stood ready, the opposite end of the long hall began to darken, as if the light itself was being consumed. Steadily the cloud of shadow progressed, the walls groaning from some ethereal pressure being exerted against them. A new sound filled the space then, a voice, terrible and foreboding called out from somewhere within the approaching shadow. It spoke not a word but loosed a cry that caused the two ponies at Valiant’s side to quiver like children.

“Steady on lads.” He told them, pulling back with his spear, tightening his grip. “No place for him to run now.”

The darkness billowed forward.

Queen Amore opened tear-filled eyes, to see the gems of the amulet aglow with magical might, the stowed magic acting as an accelerant to her own considerable reservoir. The swaddling then began to shine with the same power, becoming saturated with its energy. A happy trill escaped the babe, delighted to feel the warmth and positive emotion enveloping her.

In an instant she ceased to be Queen Amore, Dilectus Meus Rex of the Crystal Empire, stripped of pretense and pomp. She was just a mother, with no thought other than the safety and future of her child, a future she would never get to see.

A roar like a wicked distortion, an unnatural refutation of harmonious music tore through the hall, crashing over the guards. Again, the crystal guards trembled, eyes wide wither terror, mouths quivering.

“Spear forward! Eyes front!” Valiant Charge commanded them, gritting his teeth, his gaze unmoving. “Meet your fate with your head held high!”

The darkness surged forward, consuming all in its path, nothing but a void racing to meet them.

Amore leaned forward, kissing her babe on the forehead and pausing there for a few precious moments.

Valiant roared, dashing forward to assault the oncoming entity, eyes red with passion, his cry filled with anger and pain. The guards on either side a pace behind him, choosing to embrace destiny at full speed rather than have it fall upon them.

The princess in her bundle disappeared in a flash of brilliant golden light just as the screams of the guards erupted, wild and sharp for only a heartbeat before being cut-off abruptly, swallowed by a heavy bellow. Amore turned with a gasp, the doors to the chamber shuddering from impact. The Amulet clattered to the floor, its gem dim and dark, its white-gold now a subdued silver.

She stood there, still quivering from the emotion wracking her from the inside out, staring at the doorway. The gaps along the frame darkened, a steady creaking noise building as she watched the doors begin to bulge. For what reason this dark entity had decided to turn its wrath on the Chrystal Empire she could not fathom, it seemed she alone might have the chance to ask it.

The pressure on the door subsided, leaving her in a palpable silence. But something more subtle then began to occur. A tendril of shadow crept its way between the doors, curled up, and began to fiddle with the lock. Amore could only watch on in incredulity as it deftly turned the latch.

“H… Hello?” She stammered, the tendril slithering back to the other side.

The doors swung open, and there upon the threshold the dark cloud hung in place, coalescing, shrinking down until it took the form of a black unicorn with glowing green eyes that smoked with malefic magic. A sinister visage highlighted by a horn that radiated with infernal crimson as if it were a sword freshly pulled from the coals.

“Let it not be said the hospitality of the Crystal Queen could be found wanting.” The eyes of cruelty smoldered as the last of the shadow was incorporated into his body. Bright with malice and gleaming with delight.

He stalked into the room, favoring Amore with polite nod.

“Your countenance is known to me…” She suddenly realized, expression dropping in shock. “You are Sombra, Principate of the Thulian Guard.”

“I was.” He replied coyly. “I found the station unfulfilling, however, and I have opted for a more prestigious office.”

Amore grimaced. “If you think the Crystal Ponies will bow to you-”

“They will have no choice in the matter.” He scowled. “Your realm is already mine, your subjects have nowhere to run.”

“What have you done with the Crystal Heart?” She demanded. “How did you bypass its protection?”

Sombra smiled, caressing the end of the bed with a hoof. “The relic is in my possession and will remain so until I find a suitable use for it. As for how I defeated its magic… that is not for you to know.”

Shaking her head resolutely, she stood before him, chin raised. “I know of your tradition. You cannot claim to be king without a queen, and I will never marry you.”

But her defiance did not dismay him. “You are already despoiled.” In stride he approached the cradle and used a hoof to tip it towards him. Very suddenly his calm demeanor fell way, his face tightened and the smoke fuming from his eyes doubled in intensity. “Where is the girl!” He roared, fangs bared, horn pulsating with such heat that she was forced to flinch.

Aghast, Amore recoiled from the snarling fiend, grasping his true intent. “My daughter? You came for my baby daughter?”

Sombra screamed, battering the cradle across the room with a swing of his hoof. But in its place, he saw the amulet where it had fallen on the carpet. “What’s thissss?” he hissed. Picking it up in his magic, he examined the peculiar ornamentation. “An… Alicorn Amulet?”

In the moment that he was transfixed by the item, Amore, her magic exhausted, attempted to flee past him and charge the open doors. But his reflexes had been sharp before the transformation, now they were supernatural. Just as fast as she had bolted, she was enveloped in a stream of malicious magic. A black river with boiling expulsions of emerald and magenta that seized the queen with a pained gasp.

She tried to pull against its strength, but it could not be fought, dragging her back as she cried.

“You’ve done something with her…” Sombra growled, still staring down at the amulet. He forced her to turn in place despite her efforts to twist her neck away. “Where… is the girl?”

“You…” Amore struggled. “You will never get to her, monster.”

Sombra had always fancied himself a savvy judge of character, able to discern a lie from honesty. As far as he could tell, there as no hint of deception in her defiance, nothing but a certain belief that the princess was out of his reach. The room itself darkened as his posture shifted into something predatory.

“You speak with such conviction for something you will never see fulfilled.” The green sclera of his eyes flashed, and the blood vessels of the red iris throbbed.

A tear slid down the side of Amore’s cheek, a terrible understanding breaking her heart as she began to weep in sporadic coughs. “Mi Amore…”

“Yes…” Sombra whispered gravely, the light in the room dimming until all but his eyes and horn were visible. “I believe you would have been a wonderful mother.”

Outside the palace, the shadow-storm began subsiding, retreating from the city center to the towering shards of obsidian crystal that grew along the barrier. The sky, once a beautiful blue was now saturated in burnt orange and brown.

Slowly creeping out from their various hiding places, the crystal ponies started poking their heads out, bodies shivering from terror, fearfully alert as they scanned for any sign of the roaring cloud that had swallowed their kingdom whole before they could even understand what was happening. Individuals at first, then groups appeared to brave further and further from the safety of their shelters.

“Look!” A stallion exclaimed, pointing a hoof to the sky. Atop the Crystal Palace, a new crown of black shards wreathed the apex, smoke billowing out from the uppermost windows.

“A fire in the Queen’s chamber?” One mare cried.

“Where is the Guard?” Another panicked.

As a wild fear spread among them, a sky-rendering crack of thunder filled the air, stopping everypony in their tracks and silencing all.

One pewter grey stallion with a pale-yellow mane thought he saw movement on the balcony and squinted to focus.

A new surge of commotion rose when activity on the main balcony became clear; a dark figure carrying something large in his magic.

“Who is that?” Worried ponies asked.

Without preamble or precedence, the object was tossed from the balcony. Ponies scattered from its projected impact point, shrieking as those closest dove aside just as it crashed and shattered into dust and fragments.

A nervous few approached the rubble, stunned to find broken bits of a brown rock material in hundreds of pieces. But there was one piece that remained somewhat intact. A mare used her hoof and turned the rough side over to see the other.

She gasped and recoiled, expression twisted in terror to see the left side of Queen Amore’s face staring up at her, a pool of tears fossilized around the bottom of her eye. Others screamed.

“BEHOLD AND TREMBLE!” Standing on the balcony for all to see, Sombra glared down at the populace, a fiendish smile exposing his fangs. “YOUR QUEEN IS NO MORE! I AM YOUR KING NOW! AND YOU BELONG TO ME!” His voice carried out with supernatural power so that it seemed as if he was among them on the ground, the sheer malevolence reverberating them to the core. The image of his cruel face appeared in the surface of the black spires, projecting his baleful gleam to all.

“MY CRYSTAL PONIES! MY CRYSTAL EMPIRE! MY CRYSTAL… SLAAAVES!”

The obsidian spires that sprouted along the borders of the empire jerked suddenly as they grew and propagated, shadow spreading out like serpents from them. Everything the shade fell over encrusted with the same material, transforming the gleaming city into a jagged landscape of malignant design. And all the while, Sombra’s mad cackle filled the air.

As he stared down at the ponies screaming and fleeing from the spikes bursting from the ground around them, a savage grin spread across his face, a feeling of elation coming over him as he soaked in their fear. Enthralled as he was by the sounds of terror, the reflection of fire dancing in his eyes, something else perked his attention. Sombra turned away from the city and gazed off into the distance, towards the crystal mountains that crowned the world.

“Yes…” He said to nopony in particular. “I know, there will not be much time.” His ears twitched in the way they might to listen intently, catching the whispers that came to him. “Yes, there is much work to be done…”

With the city quaking he returned to Amore’s chamber, and spying the Alicorn Amulet, held it aloft in his magic.

“How interesting…” Sombra muttered, eying his reflection in the gem. “I shall have to have to make a study of you.”

“And learn much I did. Knowing the Equestrians would come for me, there was precious little time to accomplish what I had come here to do. I had paid a terrible price to gain the power promised to me by Those That Whisper, a bargain from which there is no retraction. But it was a power granted to serve an end, not to squander on vain pursuits.

And with the power of the ancient magic at my command, nopony could defy my will. It was a simple effort to subjugate the populace; for without the Crystal Heart to inspire them their spirit was easily broken. My chains slipped over their necks as if they belonged there, and obediently did they march to labor in the mines.

Long did I toil myself upon my grand design, the need for rest posing no obstacle to my efforts. I carved a place for myself to work and conduct my studies, unlocking the secrets not only of the Crystal Heart, but also the curious amulet; finding it to be a device with which to store a great quantity of power. Though Queen Amore had thwarted my plan to make a prize of her daughter, the amulet proved to be quite useful in its own right.

Despite the urgency of my task, I often found myself thinking on my family. Regretfully, I had not thought to spare the time to bid my father the proper respect before leaving. Nor had I bid my mother the love she was due from a dutiful son. I wondered what considerations my brother was making, as I had parted from him in a state of anger. Would he betray me to those southern usurpers?

I even reflected on my old mentor, Iambic Pentameter, a notion that struck me as somewhat morbid, considering.

The one indulgent hobby I did partake in, was in the completion of a grimoire of my own arrangement and magical theory. The great mages of the unicorn tribe had always composed their own books; it was these tomes that created the basis of all unicorn education. I began compiling mine years before after being keenly interested in the grimoire of Vortigern the Black, whose thesis on conjuration was ahead of its time.

He also inspired a quite ingenious notion for a delightful surprise.

Unfortunately, the work in the quarry was not as productive as I had desired. I sought the guidance of the Whispers, but all they told me was ‘deeper’. My crystal slaves worked day and night on rotation, mares and stallions, children and the elderly alike bent their backs in the pit. But ultimately, I knew they would not reach the end in time. So, I began to put my contingency plan into action.

Then the Alicorns came, just as Those That Whisper told me they would.

“SOMBRA!” Princess Celestia boomed out, her royal voice like the roar of thunder than the kind melody known to most. Aloft in a rust-colored sky, the white alicorn in her golden armor shone like a star, her rainbow radiance beaming in all directions. “SHOW THYSELF, VILE TYRANT! COME FORTH AND FACE THY RECKONING!

Hovering in place above the city, the Princess of the Dawn held her spear Mane Gloriam at the ready, her face grim at the sight of what the once beautiful empire had been brutalized into. Obsidian spires guarded the city’s perimeter and stuck out like weeds throughout at violent dimensions, her fur pricking to their malevolent presence. Despite her power, she did not trust it to protect her from surprise attack, her body no less flesh and blood than any other Equestrian.

Queen Amore was her friend, Celestia had known her since the Crystal monarch was just a filly, and she feared for what this villain might have done with her.

“DO NOT THINK THE SHADOWS CAN HIDE YOU FROM ME!” She barked once more, sweeping the spear-tip across her field of vision as she proceeded closer to the palace. “DARE YOU DISHONOR YOUR FAMILY FURTHER BY COWERING FROM YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE A SCOLDED COLT?”

Still no answer. Indeed, there had been no sign of the populace either, the city eerily silent as she at last reached the foot of the citadel. It was there she noticed the scattering of rubble on the ground, an odd thing to find in the on the otherwise abandoned streets. Cautiously, she fluttered down to investigate, folding her wings tightly and taking a guarded stance. It looked as if a statue had been shattered, possibly a casualty of a struggle in the palace.

She used the point of her spear to turn aside one of the larger pieces, staring at it for a moment before her eyes widened and she let out a horrified shriek, Mane Gloriam clattering where it fell.

For several seconds Celestia could not speak, only let her mouth tremble and feel the tears well at the base of her eyes.

“Mmmmm… hahahahah…” A dark laughter echoed from all around yet from no discernible origin.

The mocking cackle served to bring Celestia back to the moment with a sharp snort. All at once she felt her breast burst with emotion; pain, rage, and something new that even she did not quite understand. Her spear was retaken in her magic, and with but a slight bend at the knees, she rocketed upwards in a burst of light so furious it left scorch marks on the ground.

Hooves shod in golden greaves slammed down upon the viewing balcony of the Crystal Palace, cracking the material underhoof. Her breaths were protracted, seething between clenched teeth, horn alight.

The curtains that led to the inside of the palace parted, black talons curling over the folds and peeling them aside.

“I see you’ve been reunited with your old friend,” A deep voice from the shadows beyond the threshold spoke. “A pity you had not the care for it sooner.”

“AHHHHH!” A torrent of sunlight magic erupted from her horn as she screamed, sending the beam into the darkness.

An elated laughter was the only reaction to her outburst, fading after a few seconds.

“THOU SHALL PAY FOR WHAT THOU HAST DONE!” She cried, turning about with spear ready. “COME FORTH AND SHOW ME THE QUALITY OF THY TUTOR’S INSTRUCTION!”

She waited, posture low, muscles tensed.

Then the darkness spewed a bullet, streaking at the Princess like a burning comet with a trail of crimson embers. She parried the magic with a flare from her spear, over a hundred years of practice behind the counter.

The voice returned, “My foalhood masters taught me well enough… but it was the masters I found who showed me the nature of true power.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “Masters? What masters bestow such vile arts?”

“The masters who whispered their secrets to me, revealed their truths…” In the center of the shadows was birthed a red horn, piercing the veil like a fang. Below that, a pair of flaming green eyes emerged fuming with purple smoke and burning with crimson irises.

“And if you listen closely… they might whisper to you too.”

As magma erupts from the mouth of the volcano, so did the dark fury of Sombra burst from the threshold, throwing itself upon the alicorn. Celestia braced against the onslaught with the length of her spear, breaking the black tide like a rock against the surf. A sunlight nimbus protected her, forcing the shadows to flow past and reform on the other side.

The great mass of Sombra swelled where it collected, looming over her as if it were about to crash down. She wheeled about and sent a blast of her brilliant magic straight for its gut but struck no target as the blackness opened to allow it passage through. The gap closed just as quickly, and again Sombra threatened to smother her under his sheer dimensions.

But again she shielded herself, and the two forces, light and shadow roiled against one another. Sombra’s façade emerged, and for the first time he and Celestia stared directly into each other’s eyes.

“You’re a monster for what you’ve done to these ponies.” She growled.

Sombra did not respond immediately, his gaze lingering on hers, the fury in his eyes faltering for a moment. “You have no idea what I’ve done.”

The dark unicorn reared back and smashed his horn against her barrier, forcing a separation between them, using the slight reprieve to coalesce his body from the mist. He fired his own torrent of corrupt magic, attempting to burn through her protective shield with brute force. Celestia dug her hooves in, feeling them carve into the crystal as her magical construct was forced back.

“If thee wish to contest thy might to mine,” She bit. “Allow me to demonstrate the disparity!”

Power coiled along Celestia’s horn and detonated in the next second with a thunderous boom that repulsed Sombra’s attack and overtook him instead.

“RHHAAAAAH!” He bellowed as the golden wave lifted him off his hooves and tumbling over the ledge of the balcony, his body smashing through the railing as he went.

Hearing his cry dissipate in the moments after, Celestia warily approached the edge with practiced steps that maintained her defensive posture.

As she did so, twin serpents of black smoke slithered over the sides of the balcony behind her where they silently merged into a single plume. A tendril lifted itself from the mass, and at the tip there hardened a spike of obsidian, poised to take the Princess in the back. Sombra’s eyes manifested, baleful and narrow, focused on where her armor was the most vulnerable.

But just as his dagger seemed ready to strike, it was shattered by a blow from above, the bludgeoning instrument embedding itself in the crystal surrounded by the black shards.

“Sister!” Coming to land between Celestia and Sombra, Princess Luna plucked up her pugil and magically held it at high guard. “Dare thou turn thy back to this fiend? ‘ere he put a lance though it?”

“The lesser light…” Sombra growled.

“The lesser brother.” Luna snapped.

Celestia strode to her sister’s side, striking the butt of Mane Gloriam on the floor. “Stand thee now against the both of us, usurper? Yield thy mad ambition to reason and surrender, Sombra.”

“Or persist in thy folly,” Luna suggested. “And yield to my cudgel.”

The dark magic swelled, enlarging Sombra’s façade to giant proportions until he towered over them both, arcs of red lightning streaked through his form.

“You think you have come to claim victory?” His words seethed with a cruel glee. “You think you can save these ponies?”

The same malefic smoke that burned from his horn now fumed from the corners of his mouth, his eyes blazing with a new intensity. “You can save nothing! …You have already lost.”

The two sides surged screaming towards one another, and the Crystal Empire shuddered.

If the alicorns thought their united power would make quick work of me, they were dreadfully mistaken. But in the end, they were victorious.

Outside the city limits, out in the ice and snow, the royal sisters let their weapons fall to the ground in exhaustion. Catching their breath and removing their battle-scarred helms, Luna collapsed onto her forelegs while Celestia refused to break her gaze. Across from them some dozen paces, Sombra sat in the base of a crater under a net of golden magic glowering right back at her. Only his head remained uncovered, the center of the net about his neck like a collar.

With the great portion of his power spent, Sombra was reduced to his mortal form, the black unicorn smoldering in his rent armor. His mane plastered down over his face, he gave no more indication of his discomfort than the steady but raspy cadence of his breath. But his compliant demeanor belied the glint in his pupils, venomous as a viper and far more devious.

Luna looked to Sombra with a sidelong glance. “How dost thou dark powers serve thee now, pretender?” She mocked.

Sombra did not return the jab at first, instead he ever so slightly shifted his gaze in her direction, but not fully away from Celestia. “They serve me well enough.” A small grin began to curl his lips as his ears pricked to some sound only he could hear.

“Oh?” Celestia raised her head and tossed back her mane. “It would seem the supremacy of thy master’s power has proven a lie. Account now for your defeat.”

One side of Sombra’s mouth lifted higher. “I will tell you something about lies, Celestia, and power too Luna.”

“Spare us thy humor.” The princess of the night snorted.

“I will spare you a truth your mentors neglected to share; it is that all power comes at a price, that innocent power is a lie.”

Luna cocked her head, “Speak for thyself and thine own machinations, fiend.”

“Indeed,” Celestia continued. “I tire of your cruelty, Sombra, it is time to lay our judgement upon thee without further delay.”

The unicorn’s smirk twisted into a sneer.

“For thy heinous crimes, I Princess Celestia-“

“And I Princess Luna.”

“-Do herby banish you.” Taking up Mane Gloriam, Celestia levied it at Sombra. The magical binds tightened around him and pinned his legs to his body. Luna took up her pugil and with a great heave, slammed it into the icy ground to open a fissure that descended beyond the touch of light.

“You won’t destroy me yourself!” He raged, swirls of dark magic fighting under the net’s constriction to escape. “You wouldn’t sully your hooves! But you’ll condemn me to icy tomb for all eternity!”

A spiteful Sombra aimed a spit at their hooves, though the alicorns did not respond. “My brother is a fool to have placed such aspirations upon thy virtue! Too deceived by your own propaganda to realize how much of a threat to Equestria you truly are.”

“We are Equestria’s guardians!” Rebuked Luna. “As we have been and always shall be!”

“As Amore protected her daughter from you,” Celestia said as she ascended into the air. “So we now protect all.”

It was at the mention of the foal that Sombra’s eyes lifted with a resurgent lust. “You think the girl is safe…” He began with a shake. “I will claim what was denied to me.” His voice dropped to a slithering rasp. “I will find her… I will find her, Celestia.”

Luna likewise flew to join her sister, horns brimming with power, their very eyes transformed to a blinding radiance.

Sensing the inescapable, Sombra swelled against his restraints with every bit of strength he could still muster. Clenching his teeth, he loosed a final defiant cry.

“I WILL FIND HER!”

And so Luna and Celestia unleashed their magical might and destroyed my mortal form, casting my spirit into the frozen pit. And there I was to remain, sealed away, the menace of my shadows defeated once and for all.

Or so they must have thought… Mmmm, mahahahaha…

The chasm below slammed shut with a satisfying crack, but it was another noise that suddenly drew their attention. The boom of an explosion sounded from the Crystal Palace, both sisters turning to see the trail of an object streaking away from the city and disappearing over the horizon. Trading suspicious glances, they set wing towards the defiled capital.

But they would never make it.

With the resounding crescendo of accumulating magic, the city was absorbed in a blinding light, halting the alicorns at the perimeter and forcing them to shield their eyes. They felt the wind rush past them in the next moment, opening their eyes to find a barren crater where the shining jewel of the north once sat.

Celestia flapped there for several moments, face wide with shock and jaw fallen, Mane Gloriam tumbling to the ground. Gobsmacked herself, Luna turned to her sister and saw the tears beginning to slip down her cheeks, pupils searching.

“What has he done?” She choked.

Luna’s hooves crunched over the permafrost soil as she strode the waste, the snow already knee deep now that the barrier of the Crystal Heart no longer held the arctic storm at bay.

Her hoof recoiled when it struck an object hidden just barely under the surface, jostling it from where it lay and disturbing the frosting of snow. She glanced down and recognized the outline of a book knocked askew from where it had been left. An errant gust blew the flakes away, revealing a curious tome.

Seeming to have been bound between two slabs of stone was the second most interesting feature, that being the circle of spikes sticking out from the cover, surrounding a sigil of a burst star.

Knowing perfectly well what this was, Luna scowled as she wrapped Sombra’s grimoire in a dark cloth.

And for a many year’s time, I did not hear Those That Whisper, and I slumbered in my prison.

Until they spoke to me once more, and for a short time I was free. But though my destiny had not yet come, my brief liberation did serve a purpose. Just like the Whispers promised me.

My name is ßombra Ultima, second son of King Rubicon and Queen Eras of the Carolingian bloodline. I am brother to Prince Æeclypse the Valiant, Principate of the Kingdom of Thule, and heir to the throne. It was he who named me Principate of the Thulian Guard.

I am the descendant of kings and queens going back to the foundations of the Unicorn Tribe. And for a brief time, I was myself, a conqueror. A title I am rather fond of.

I have supped from the waters of death and returned from the event horizon of oblivion. I have transcended mortality and become the instrument of a destiny only the gods themselves may comprehend.

I am King Sombra, and this is my story.

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Author's Note:

[evil laughter intensifies]

Hello everyone. sorry for the super long wait for the beginning of Dark Days. Aside from all the regular life stuff, I was also trying to get some Godzilla/Marvel stuff done. Though more pertinently, the original plan was to have both this prologue and the first chapter put up at the same time.
-But, seeing as I haven't published anything in months, I decided to just toss this out there and get the ball rolling on the 2nd of the 4 Unforgiven stories.
-To sate your curiosity, yes, chapter 1 is already partially written, several thousand words down. So that is not too far away.
-Dark Days has a huge advantage over PATH, in that it has had years for the story to coalesce and form into something that I hope will be really, really good, and set the table nicely for the next Unforgiven.

Leave all comments, good, bad, indifferent.
~Crush 'em.

Comments

[Mlp_Starry_Night]

I'm intrigued. Can't wait for the next chapter!

[bob1234567]

Let's goo