The Story of Everfree - a Narrative Chronicle

by Recon777

13 - A Crystal Merchant Makes a Discovery

4221 years after the Battle of Everfree, a young crystal trader named Sombra was traveling through Everfree to visit the Castle. Sombra's special talent was finding magical crystals. This was a very similar talent as Rarity would eventually have when it came to valuable gems. Crystals were similar to gems except they often had enhanced magical properties that Sombra had learned to manipulate. Sombra's business was in providing useful magical tools that he designed from the crystals he discovered.

While in Everfree, Sombra's horn powerfully suggested that he take a walk off the usual path through the forest. He came upon a rock which looked ordinary in every way, except his horn told him that it had the properties of a powerful magical crystal. Confused, he put the rock in his saddlebags and took it home.

In his workshop, he broke the rock into gravel, searching for the source of the magical energy. Eventually, he narrowed it down to a crystal so small that it could barely be noticed. It was roughly the size of a grain of sand, and yet it had the power of a flawless crystal the size of a pony’s head.

Fascinated by this, Sombra decided to make a return trip to Everfree. He discovered that there were an incredible number of these crystal bits dispersed through the forest. Many of them were buried underground, and it took some effort to find fragments that he could isolate and take home. He collected twenty-five in all, and decided to try and see what he could build with them.

Sombra noticed something very strange about the crystal bits after taking them home. They seemed to grow stronger the farther they were taken from Everfree. Sombra could not explain this because they also grew in strength the more he added to his collection. With his entire collection assembled on a worktable, he applied some exploratory spells against them.

Suddenly, they snapped together like magnets, and all twenty-five grains of crystal formed a tiny tetrahedron that hovered an inch off the table before him. The newly formed crystal was the size of a pebble, but Sombra was surprised at the sheer amount of power that he could sense within it. What was more, is that it seemed to speak to him in whispers too faint to understand.

Sombra spent two months collecting another fifty crystal grains from Everfree. When they were all joined together, he ended up with a crystal the size of a small bean. He also began to get some very unusual thoughts and ideas. Sombra became obsessed with crystals and developed irresistible desires for power and conquest.

In addition to his desires, Sombra found himself growing tremendously in strength and gained several new magical abilities, one of which was to transform himself into black smoke and then reappear at will. He also gained the ability to take a pony's mind captive and fill it with illusion and deception.

Sombra continued to grow in strength, but he knew that he was not powerful enough to take Equestria for himself. Instead, he moved to the mining settlement in the far north so he could capture the power of the unique artifact known as the Crystal Heart. Once he arrived, he used his dark magic to enslave the population and force them into servitude, digging in the frozen mines for more crystals.

These slaves were unique "crystal ponies", who had been saturated by the magic of the Crystal Heart, changing their physiology and appearance. Sombra considered these to be "ideal" ponies, and forced them to be his subjects for the duration of his fifteen-year reign of cruelty.

This reign came to a swift end as Celestia and Luna personally stormed his palace. After a brief battle and a solid attempt to deceive the sisters, Sombra was defeated. This did not happen in the way the sisters expected, however. Sombra was more powerful than they had expected, and in a surprise event, Luna was attacked by the consciousness that had possessed Sombra. Even he did not expect what happened next.

When Sombra was corrupted by the crystals he found in Everfree, it was the Nightmare who had infected him and given him his power. The Nightmare was Hyperion’s failsafe that he created as he was being defeated in battle. When the Nightmare was finally freed from Peri’s restraining influence within Everfree, she set about plotting the slaughter of ponykind.

Encountering Luna was precisely what the Nightmare needed to advance to the next stage. She abandoned Sombra, rapidly infecting Luna instead. Before Luna could react, the Nightmare took hold of her, killed Sombra, and banished the entire Crystal Empire from existence.

Ultimately, the power holding it in banishment would fade, and the Crystal Empire as well as the unthinking vestiges of Sombra would return. The act weakened the Nightmare enough for Luna to contain the parasitic consciousness and lock it away in the back of her mind.

Comments

[PonyDragon]

He collected twenty-five in all, and decided to try and see what he could build with them.

According to every-movie-ever it's probably a bad idea to assemble them back together...

Suddenly, they snapped together like magnets, and all twenty-five grains of crystal formed a tiny tetrahedron that hovered an inch off the table before him.

Maybe now is the right time to get a hint?
...Nah. Let's continue and se where it goes. I mean what's the worst that could possibly happen?!

The act weakened the Nightmare enough for Luna to contain the parasitic consciousness and lock it away in the back of her mind.

Hopefully Luna is mindful enough to try and remove it altogether once they are back home.