The Shadow Of A Broken Heart

by WanderingPony

Chapter 1: Hot Spot

Sombra, King Of The Crystal Empire (forcibly retired), Dark Rider Of The Horde Of Jolfr, and Shadow Lord woke to nearly complete darkness.

The "nearly" part would be owing to the two coals Jolfr charitably called his "eyes" watching over the unicorn, plus a few more pairs of eerily luminescent pupils belonging to the winged Kindred standing nearby. For a cavern, the spot Sombra was resting in seemed surprisingly comfortable, a dusty wallow that smelled faintly of volcanic minerals. Heat soaked through the sand and into his blackened hide, and the entire experience was rather sublime- considering he'd been sleeping off a bad case of mystical exhaustion.

But Gods Below, he itched. Rolling in the sand, he could feel the dried bits of leftover combat, loose scabs from healed-over wounds, sweat and general grunge come loose as he lay on his back, pushing the warm sand into his fur like a masseuse. The volcanic sands scrubbed away the filth like a curry brush and the warlock stood up and shook, sending bits of sand and loosened fuzz off in a cloud.

"Ahhhhhhhhh....", rolled out from between his teeth, half-yawn, half satisfied moan of pleasure...before his stomach awoke and growled a nasty demand to be fed.

"Ah, our little angel of the abyss has awoken for the evening. Just in time for dinner with the guest."

A peppery scent sifted through the dim and dreary cavern, leading Sombra's nose like it'd put a ring through his nostrils and yanked. The sound of a bubbling pot could be heard as something stirred the simmering contents, sending another cloud of spice to push aside the usual scents of the dank hole. But who?

His horn brightened a widening circle as he conjured light from the tip of his horn, but the childishly easy spell collapsed on itself almost as fast as it was summoned, leaving only the relatively dim glow of aura to show...to show...

What it was stirring the pot was as alien a creature as he'd ever seen. To his surprise, it spoke decent, if roughly accented Equestrian.

"Oi! C'mon up and have yourself a pot. Gobbie cooking is good food!"

The creature stood crooked-kneed over it's cast-iron cauldron, clad in blackened metal armor that hid most of it's form. Two long, pointed green ears flopped out from the mask covering most of it's face- only the hint of a pointed chin waggling as it talked and the lively black eyes peering out from beneath the metal. Gripped in one gauntleted fist, a rod made of jade poked and prodded at some unrecognizable lumps as they floated to the surface.

"Hey, stony guy! Pointy over there eats mushrooms, right?"

The swirling nightmare occupying the crystal in the center of the cavern sent a phantom chuckle into the minds of his more material companions.

"They were eating whatever grew off the ground when I last saw the surface, Proferlix.", Jolfr replied.

The creature speared one of the lumps and waved the dripping bit of what turned out to be fungus around.

"Grab a for...oh, loverly. How's he supposed to..."

The mushroom speared on the end of Proferlix's fork floated off into the air and into Sombra's mouth. He chewed on the soggy bit. Sharp accents bit at his tongue as the juices squeezed out, and the flavor seeped deeper in his skull.

Tasty. "Like a civilized being, of course. With my horn. Hooves are for mud ponies and other crude beings."

Proferlix proceeded to make what was a rather crude gesture (for goblins, anyway) and laughed. "I see why you keep him around, Stony. Makes this old cavern seem classy."

Sombra focused on what would be a simple migraine-inducing hex and tossed it through his horn in a fit of temper...only to have the spell disintegrate at the tip of his horn, sending a few sparks harmlessly off the end.

The goblin laughed even harder. "And the pointy ones get all sparkly when you piss em off? That's good gil, Stony!"

"I'd suggest you focus on dinner rather than dread, Sombra. Right now, Proferlix there could fillet you faster than he did the mushrooms." Patting a bronze-and-brass longsword tied to the back of his armor, the goblin nodded and snarfed down three tidbits at once, then belched. "Gotta compliment the cook."

Post mastication and a liberal helping of goblin breath, the dish had done little to improve Proferlix's already low charisma. Sombra looked around for a sufficiently large rock to "compliment" the offensive beast-man.

"And besides, thou shan't drop boulders on our guests, would we Lord Sombra?". Only a few small pebbles fell from the stone the unicorn had been loosening before he stopped, but one *tinged* off the goblin's mask. He looked up just in time to see the reddish glow fade from the pointed, roughly goblin-sized chunk. "Twas sure that one was for the next mendicant that insulted thine decor."

Sombra smiled. Fangs out.

"Eeehh....the deathballs are ready! Heh, heh, heh....". The meal continued, with only fungi for victims.

"Now that thine scabbards have been rattled and your belts loosened, perhaps you'd enjoy a story. It is such a pleasant story." The spirit's tone made it obvious that storytime today was mandatory.

"Once, there was a race of ponies- the proper word be "unicorn" for Lord Sombra, Proferlix - who didst have a glimmer of understanding of the realm around them. With the encouragement of two doltish little spirits, nigh every one of the greater powers found themselves quite charmed with the love and appreciation of the ponies, and the Sun and Moon invited them that they wouldst all dwell in a happy little place that the ponies would keep full of loving thoughts and insipidly cute adoration. Their sweetness, twas as addictive as it be nauseating, and so they agreed. It tainted the elements, giving them the peaceful, ordered world the ponies desired where e'er they settled as long as they didst shower the Heart with the love it craved.

Only two of us refused the foul blandishments of the Sun and Moon, but we watched as the rest settled into their cage, wrought by the power and the craft of the sisters. Mine self, being wise- and Alexandrite, being too busy looking at her own divine reflection or whatever such a vainglorious, self-righteous thing does.

And as soon as the spirits made themselves at home, they fell to the treachery of the sisters- for a bit of their power over the elements became the bailiwick of the Sun and Moon, their "caretakers". A trap, laid with the sweetest of bait! Seeing what had been done, I struck at the "Heart" to free mine fellows from their grasp- but it repulsed me.

"Only when light and darkness agree could this heart be broken!", laughed the Sun. And the Moon, being her merest crony agreed. With proper rage at their foul tricks, I struck at the Moon and cursed her- but together, they shone their thrice-damned light into the Heart and it cast me formless into the deepest parts of the world, unable to pass above until someone would make a home for me to rest in. 'Twould seem that after they defeated me, Alexandrite was soon to follow- for they made her into those trinkets, those "Elements"- hah, what an original name, the elements of an element!"

Proferlix, by this point had mostly managed to block out Jolfr's monologue in favor of fishing for a few last scraps of dinner. Sombra, while more attentive quietly stole the last bit of sobbing fungus out off Proferlix's fork and stuffed it into his cheek.

No, wait. That had been one of the peppers. The very, very, very hot peppers that had been flavoring the rest of the meal secondhand. Eyes bulging, the unicorn whinnied a bit of flame and smoke from between his lips and galloped away in search of a pool of water. A very LARGE pool of water.

"Ah, my dark rider is truly angered by my sad tale. As I did expect." ,spoke Jolfr.

A distant splash, as if a pony diving headlong into said large pool of water.

"Truly? He must have been enraged!"

Proferlix managed to hide the laugh behind his mask and a brief fit of coughing.

"Yeah, you REALLY got him hot and bothered."