White Sun

by The Psychopath

Family

Cadance and Shining Armor awaited on their bi-seated throne carved and polished out of the very crystal that made their tower. The back of their throne was carved with a wave pattern meant to imply that their thrones had been merged together, but it also created the unintentional effect of making those looking at them see a heart. Four leg rests were present on the sides in case either of them wanted to sit on their rear for whatever strange reason and potentially intimidate anypony coming to see them. The walls let in the white light filtered through the gray clouds outside, creating a sparkling effect on the crystal that reminded everypony there of ice. A long, pink carpet ran from the large crystal doors to the base of the throne and was decorated with weavings of the Crystal Heart and the previous ruler of the Crystal Kingdom before Sombra had taken over. The royal purple alicorn was standing over the heart in some spots and holding it above her head in others. Several bits had been sown over for reasons that the current emperor and empress didn't want to talk about.

There were several balconies covered in floral patterns and inlaid with gold overlooking the throne room where several ponies were sitting. The velvety seats and floors made any waiting slightly less irritating for the attendees who were metaphorically foaming at the mouth after hearing of the existence of a necromancer captured beyond the borders of Equestria. Paranoia and rage bled forth from the attendees' mouths as conspiracies ran amok, accusing Equestria of everything from humiliation to attempting to weaken the empire to invade it.

On their side, the two rulers were infuriated that their guards would be so severely wounded. Two were already pronounced dead when they arrived, and the stress of having to announce it to their loved ones was a weight the two didn't want to bear. Unfortunately, the weight of their crown pushed their heads into their shoulders and threatened to shatter their spines. Shining pulled his halberd from its resting place on the side of his throne and slammed the hilt into the ground. It created a resonating echo that put an immediate stop to the brouhaha.

"Bring in the necromancer!" he ordered loudly. "And make sure to restrain her well! We don't want any accidents!"

A guard rushed to the throne to his side to share some information. It turned out that the undead they had restrained and kept in one of the lower floors was already fighting the spells holding it down and several unicorns had already burned out from the effort it took to keep the binding spells in place. Shining was starting to get cramps in his stomach and leaned over to his wife to share the news. She furrowed her brows in response as the heavy doors creaked open, pulled by six armored ponies waiting in the throne room.

Silence remained as the crowd above looked at Shining burning with a hither-to-unseen rage. Three guards escorted the necromancer forward underneath the stallion's glare and pulled roughly several times on the prisoner's chains just to cause further distress.

"Necromancer," Shining started at the top of his lungs. "You have been brought before the Emperor and Empress of the Crystal Empire. You were caught utilizing forbidden magics in the tundra, summoning the dead as your thralls, and employing a dragon wight to savage the garrison of an outpost." He watched as the mare was dragged further forward and started to fight against her bonds. Why did she seem so familiar all of a sudden? "Had they done nothing then it is likely no pony would have been harmed, but a necromancer is a dangerous and disgusting thing, and it comes to no surprise that my wife and I came to the conclusion--"

"That your continued presence would have likely led to the eventual kidnapping and murder of our citizens or any travelers in the region," Cadance continued. The necromancer was thrown violently at the foot of their throne. The alicorn stood up to glare down at the prisoner and apply her magic for intimidation. "Your ilk brings back the dead and torments families by using those corpses as soldiers and servants," the alicorn said in a hushed tone. "Raise their head," Cadance ordered.

The necromancer fought and grunted against the two guards trying to do as they were commanded. Annoying, one grabbed the mare's head and slammed it against the floor, eliciting empathetic gasps from the audience. When her head was raised, the two rulers paled. Cadance fell back in her seat with a hoof to her mouth and eyes wide while Shining's lips pursed and his body grew stiff. The deafening silence started concerning the crowd and the guards who began looking at each other, worried but not confident enough to speak up.

"Twilight?" Shining wheezed. "But...where...how?" He slowly walked down the steps, letting his halberd fall limply to the floor and used a hoof to raise the mare's head more gently. "You vanished years ago..."

Twilight smiled sheepishly, trembling from pain and fear. "H-hi, big brother..." she muttered.

The words 'big brother' caused a storm of outrage from the crowd that broke Shining Armor out of his stupor. Furious, he waved a hoof in the air.

"Guards! Escort these ponies out of here!" he commanded. "You three stay," Shining ordered the soldiers already watching Twilight.

The order reassured said guards as they forcefully expelled everyone from the throne room and closed the doors. Shining dragged a hoof across his face and started pacing about. Cadance was still in shock, but Twilight wasn't sure why.

"Twilight, you look terrible," Shining lamented.

The unicorn didn't see herself as anything particular. She had all the food she got from Flarolina's undercity, drank mostly water with the occasional fruit juice, and kept herself active. While she didn't really go outside much, she worked on the corpses, and the need for precision cuts and surgical procedures was an exhausting experience. Twilight never ate much and didn't have time to enjoy any sweets like pastries or hard candy. Her purpose in life was too important to waste on luxuries that wouldn't help her purpose.

Shining and Cadance saw the reality of the situation, however: Twilight was an emaciated wreck. She had large bags under her eyes and her mane, tail, and fur were in shambles. Her once smooth, flowing mane and tail were now clumped up, knotted messes, and her fur was stained all over. Her hooves, especially, had been worn down from the years of traveling and digging and were cracked and misshapen in several spots. It was obvious she tried to chisel them herself and was doing a very poor job.

The two rulers were further perturbed by the amount of magic flowing through her and trying to burst the lock around her horn.

"Soldier," Shining shouted. "Why is that medallion still around her neck? You were meant to confiscate everything on her!"

"Th-that's...We can't take it off. Four guards have tried already and came out comatose."

Ignoring the warning, Shining grabbed hold of the amulet and found himself floating in front of an entity that took up the entirety of his vision. Orange rectangles fading in and out of existence seemed to grow in size with every second that passed. It felt like he was being held in place by some unknowable force, but while his body was locked in place, his mind wasn't. Using his willpower, the stallion managed to let go of the medallion and be pushed backward. Several tiny black rectangles followed him a few centimeters from the medallion's surface before fading back into the metal.

The stallion was looking at his hoof and staring at Twilight's 'jewelry', panting heavily from the effort. Seeing that he was too stunned to say anything, Cadance stepped forward.

"Guards, take her to a guest room and keep her under watch. Make sure to erect more barriers around it to prevent any physical means of escape," the alicorn ordered.

"Are you sure?" one of the guards asked. "She's a necromancer and killed two of us."

Cadance sighed. "I know, but I know her personally and want to know exactly why she has done everything she has." She leaned forward and tried to make eye contact with the unicorn but Twilight would constantly look away, embarrassed. The alicorn felt some form of disgust, pity, confusion, and relief to see Twilight again. "She's obviously been through a lot already. I doubt the discomfort of the dungeons would affect her tone."

The guards shrugged. "Alright," one of them said. "If you're sure and you're still assigning us to watch her."

Twilight was shoved into a small guest room and left to her own devices once she heard the clicking of the lock. It was a modest room with a vanity mirror on the left of the single window decorated by two, plain, blue curtains. A bathroom was through the door immediately to the right of the entrance, and a plain bed rested against the wall opposite the vanity mirror. It was covered with a comforter that had the same colors as the curtains and hid half of two massive white pillows. The soft, pink carpet covering the whole floor was something of a relief to the battered mare who didn't have to feel the toughness of the crystal floors underneath her. Today had been a very long, very exhausting day, so she slowly waddled to the bed, pulled the comforters back with her magic, then laid down in it with her head resting comfortably on the pillows.

Her eyes shot open in shock. She hadn't felt this comfortable in ages. The mare suddenly realized she missed all of the creature comforts that had made her life so easy in the past when she was still Princess Celestia's personal student. She missed the beds. She missed the food. She missed the tremendous libraries full of books. She missed her magical research. Worst of all, Twilight started to think that she missed her family. All these years of avoiding the Crystal Empire just to prevent this scenario. The memories of what was and what could have been flooded her mind and made her start sobbing quietly in the room. Her tears eventually made her fall fast asleep relatively quickly, leaving the pillows stained with her saliva and tears.

The throne room was less relaxed, however.

"Twilight! It's Twilight!" Shining shouted in disbelief. "She vanished years ago after Celestia was executed by those idiots!"

"Shining" Cadance chastised. "Getting angry and pacing about is just going to stress you out even further!" She lied down, dropping her head onto the seat of the throne. "We haven't seen her and I also thought she might have been..." The alicorn cleared her throat. "Or that she had fled overseas, but she stayed behind. Why?"

"That's what I want to know," Shining said. "I haven't heard a peep of her since she fled Canterlot. Nothing. No pony had even seen her, and then she pops up out of nowhere as a necromancer of all things!"

Cadance rubbed her chin. "Well, she has always been a practical pony. If she became a necromancer she must have a good reason for it."

Shining grunted in agreement. "The reports are a bit contradicting in telling what she did." He looked at his wife in bemusement. "A lot of bias in there, but they all have one thing in common."

"And what would that be?"

"She ran away the moment she encountered the garrison," he said firmly. "Meaning she wasn't trying to actively harm anypony."

"But she did, and two ponies are dead because of her," Cadance said.

Shining exhaled, sat down, and rubbed his temples. "I can't tell what is completely true or not, but after they cuffed her, they were attacked by that undead dragon we spotted several days later." He hummed pensively. "It didn't go away like the other undead, and the danger it posed told me that whomever that body belonged to, they were a terrifying fighter." The stallion paused and then looked at his wife. "That's how that works, right? The undead?" He groaned when Cadance shrugged.

"Regardless, whatever she created, it's trying to tear about the Crystal Empire."

They both sighed in unison, the image of a young, excited filly loving books and teasing the two about their feelings for each other filled their minds. She was now replaced by a necromancer who had killed their soldiers and popped up literally out of nowhere.

"You think we could call the Elements of Harmony?" Cadance wondered. "They aren't bound to anypony, let alone the Council. They might be able to help her."

Shining chuckled. "Yes. I'm sure some random ponies will be able to solve this problem. No. This is a family matter." His stoic exterior melted when he thought about his little sister again. "Oh, Twilight. What happened to you?"

Comments

[DarkSnowGaming]

Ok first off, I hate how Shining Armor and Cadance straight up accusing her without questioning, also they brought it upon themselves, nobody would have been injured or dead if they just minded there own business, Twilight would have been on her way but noooo, something else that makes me upset is what if they didn't know her personally? What, your gonna execute her?

I don't really have any theories on what will happen next chapter besides the obvious that there will be some questioning between Cadance, Shining Armor and Twilight.

I'm gonna guess Twilight will either escape or be let go between chapters 17-20, she still has a goal to accomplish and will to anything to achieve that goal, probably even kill herself in the process to bring back Celestia if she so has to, unless there Shining Armor or Cadance wants to do some catching up with Twilight which than Twilight probably wont escape until around chapter 25 i imagine.

[The Psychopath]

11837429
The guards mentioned it themselves: She would've been dumped into the dungeons to be 'interrogated' for her reasons of being there. There's also bias involved with them not doing that, but they also can't show any favoritism among their own people regardless of how they feel. That can cause issues.

[DarkSnowGaming]

11837432
I'm gonna guess the guards didn't mention anything about her "research" that she talked about having back at home and about Twilight wanting to reserect Celestia? Because Cadance and Shining Armor didn't mention any of that in this chapter so I'm gonna guess the guards didn't bring it up.

[The Psychopath]

11837433
That's right.

[Dormi_san]

"You think we could call the Elements of Harmony?" Cadance wondered. "They aren't bound to anypony, let alone the Council. They might be able to help her."

I'm sure that at least 2 of the 6 elements will not be VERY happy to be reunited with her, this also implies that the elements are not controlled by the council.

Most likely, Shining Armor and Cadance will try to convince Twilight to give up her goal of reviving Celestia and stay with them (obviously that's not going to happen) or at least keep her locked in a "golden cage." for the death of those soldiers.
At some point that medallion should be of some use.
Postscript: Excellent job to the author of this story, I take my hat off to you.

[DarkSnowGaming]

11837483
I'm starting to believe if there even is someone who bears the element of magic, might be possible to use the elements without 1 of the elements, this story doesn't make sense at this point so if there isn't someone who bears the element of magic I probably wouldn't even be surprised.

Obviously I'm talking about the main 6 even having the elements of harmony in the first place with Celestia dead, what did they do? Go into a random forest, found some random rocks, managed to awaken the elements and than turned Nightmare Moon back to Luna? If they have the elements as well than discord probably attacked, although if he did than the bearer's shouldn't have won considering it was thanks to Twilight's leadership skills and friendship reports (thanks to Celestia) that they even defeated discord, but at the same time nothing makes sense anymore so what's the point!

Also I just thought of s theory, what if the ponies that killed Celestia were actually changelings, there has been peace and harmony for 1000 years and now all of a sudden she gets killed for no reason? Unless there was a reason, but they haven't gotten into that if there is one. It would make sense though since with Celestia dead than the Canterlot wedding would have never happened but then that brings the quastion on what ever happened to the changelings and Chrysalis after that? Maybe they secretly rule Equestria without anyone even knowing, could be a possibility.

I love coming up with new theories.

[Blewfire]

I have really enjoyed how Spike has been written. I also am very interested in who he was when he was alive, that made him such a good fighter now. Can't wait to find out more.