After the emergence of the Crystal empire and the defeat of their Tyrant King. It's at this time, Sunburst leaves Princess Celestia's school to live in the Crystal Empire.
After the emergence of the Crystal empire and the defeat of their Tyrant King. It's at this time, Sunburst leaves Princess Celestia's school to live in the Crystal Empire. Although, Sunburst stubbles upon what seem to be a broken horn. So in the name of knowledge, he takes it for research purposes. What could possibly go wrong...
In one of the many moving train car's sat a orange coat stallion with his nose in a book, his blue eyes reading through what appeared to be a history book of the Crystal Empire. "Fascinating..." He said to himself, So engrossed into the history book that he didn't even notice some ponies were trying to make small talk with him. It soon got to the point that he hadn't realized that the train had stopped and didn't look away from his readings until the conductor announced they were leaving for "Ponyville."
Sunburst had finally looked up from his book and the words started to process in his head. "Huh, what, I thought we were heading for the Crystal Empire?" Confused, he looked out the train window, seeing a crystal castle. Staring at the structure a moment longer before it finally clicked, making him get on his hooves and run towards the exit, slipping the book he was reading into the bag on his back. As he ran, he saw the conductor closing the exit door. "Wait! Don't close it-" As the door was closed, Sunburst had ran into the door at full speed, making him fall onto the floor and his glassed come off his face. "Yet." The conductor starred at the stallion with a surprised look and opened the door back up, gesturing for him to go.
So Sunburst did, getting up and placing his glasses back on his face with magic before getting off the train as he chuckled awkwardly to the conductor. He whispered "Sorry" to the train pony but they just rolled their eyes and shut the door. He sighed and left the train station, heading to go see the crystal heart. From what he read about it, it's an extremely old relic that protects the Crystal Empire, but there's another fact about it that made him want to visit it first.
Walking from the station to the castle was quite the experience, Sunburst was just in awe from sight of almost everything being made of crystal. While the architecture was amazing on its own, now it was time for the center piece. "The crystal heart..." Sunburst said in amazement. "I can't believe I'm seeing it in person. Its been around for over a millennia and it's in perfect condition, should it really be out in the open like this." The stallion inspected every inch of the heart.
"Of course it is." He turned around to see a pink alicorn, standing in front of him with a beautiful flowing mane.
"Y-your princess Cadance." Not sure how to address the princess and act, he just bowed. "Your Highness." Surprised by his actions, she chuckled.
"There's no need for that, just call me Cadance."
Sunburst stood back up and readjusted his glasses, wearing an awkward smile again. "Oh, right, hehe." The stallion turned back to the heart. "So your Hig-I mean, princess Cadance, you said that the heart should be out like this. Why?" While he was still formal towards her, she didn't mind it and answered his question.
"Well you see, the Crystal heart is the embodiment of the crystal ponies positive emotions, serving as our guardian and monument of being freed from their tyrant king." He nodded, this information confirming the history behind it and why it would be out in the open.
"I read that the heart has the power to show the reflection of someone's future, is that true?"
"It does, though it would be much more believable if you see it for yourself." The princess gestured to go ahead and look, and look he did. Sunburst's reflection wasn't much different from his present self, the only difference being the grown out beard. It was normal until a pair of glowing green eyes opened up behind his reflection, making him look behind himself only see the princess. So he looked back at the crystal heart and only saw the eyes, this time making him fall back and scream. This caught Cadance's attention as she went to his side. "What happened, what did you see?"
"I-I don't know, everything was fine and then a pair of glowing eyes opened up. So I thought someone was pulling some kind of joke and when I looked to see who it was, no one was there and when I looked back, all I could see were those eyes." Sunburst was hyperventilating, not understanding what just happened. Was that his future, was he gonna turn evil. His rampant thoughts were soon calmed by the princess of love.
"Calm down, take deep breaths." She started to inhale and exhale, showing him what to do. And he listened, copying the princess.
When Sunburst was back on his feet and calm, Cadance asked him again what he saw. "I saw a pair of glowing eyes. What does this mean princess, am I gonna turn evil someday." Before he could start freaking out again, she took another deep breath with him.
"No, I don't think your gonna turn evil but even if you were, you can still change your future." He nodded at what she said, feeling more reassured than before. Then Cadance was curious about the eyes. "What color were they." Sunburst was confused by the question.
"Color of what?" A moment passed before he finally caught on. "Oh, you mean the eyes. They were red and was glowing green, why do you ask?"
"Just curious, why don't you head home and rest." She suggested
"Yah, I guess I should. It was a long train ride here, it was a nice meeting you princess." Sunburst waved bye to Cadance and she did the same. When he was out of sight, she rushed into her castle, looking frantically for her husband. Finally, finding him patrolling one of the hallways.
"Shining Armor!" She called out to, catching his attention.
"Cadance, What's wrong, are we under attack?" She shook her head. "Then what is it?"
"It's Sombra." This caught him off guard and worried him.
"What, Sombra's back, but how?"
"No, but I have a feeling his return is soon."
This worried Shining armor even more. "Do you know how?"
Cadance nodded this time. "A pony came by to look at their reflection in the crystal heart and saw Sombra's eyes. Its possible he might be the cause of King Sombra's return, but its also possible that he'll be his first victim."
Sunburst was trotting home, trying to keep his mind off what he saw in his reflection. "It's like princess Cadance said, I can change my future." He chuckled to himself, satisficed with his answer. That's what he thought until his mind began to race again, thinking out loud. "What if it can't change, maybe what I'm doing right now is leading to that future." He started to walk faster. "Then if it's leading to that future, then I'm already doomed, and if I'm already doomed, then- Ow!" His rabbling was stopped by whatever he stepped on. Sunburst raising his hoove to eye level, to see if it was tack or something sharp like and then looked down to see a broken horn.
Confused, he used his magic to pick it up and had a closer look. It was black and looked like any other old horn. "A horn, where did this come from?" He wondered if someone had accidentally broken their horn and didn't notice, but that would be almost impossible to miss. "I should probably turn it in somewhere..." Sunburst thought about where he should take it, but then had something else in mind. "I always did wonder if magic was left inside a broken horn. I'll just turn it in tomorrow, no harm in that." He slipped the horn into one of his bags and continued home.
It wasn't too far either, when he saw a large blue crystal building, Sunburst took a right and at the end of the street was his new home. It was small, but he was happy with it. So he walked to the end and opened the door. He entered the cottage before kicking the door closed behind himself. He looked around his home, noticing how empty it was. Though there were plenty of shelfs for his books, but probably not enough for all of them though when they got there. Sunburst decided to worry about it later and went into the next room over, finding a round table next to a fire place. "Alright, lets see if you still have some magic." He took off his saddle bag and pulled out the horn, placing it at the center of the table. "Where do I even start?"
The pony started tapping his chin, thinking. "Maybe channeling some magic into it?" Not sure about the idea, he decided it was worth a shot. So he started channeling energy into his horn and touched tips with the broken one. After a moment, the other horn started reacting to Sunburst's. He smiled at the small success, but his happiness was short lived when he noticed that it was taking more magic than what was originally given. It just kept taking, draining him. He tried to pull away but it kept him there, not letting go. He kept trying until there was a sudden blast, sending him down to the floor. Barely conscious, he opened his eyes and saw one of the lens in his glasses was cracked. Standing up, Sunburst picked up the glasses and tried to used a mending spell, but could barely make a spark. So he just put them on and looked around, finding that the table was flipped. "What in Equestria just happened?" He looked at what was beside the table, finding an unconscious unicorn that wasn't there before.
Though still weak, Sunburst took a step forward and that was it, stopped by the sight of the unicorn stirring awake. When they had open their eyes and looked at the student drop out, that's when Sunburst realized what he had done. The pony he was facing was none other than King Sombra himself. Those red eyes just staring at him, watching him closely. Sunburst's body started shaking, taking a step back out of pure fear. Then, Sombra stood up and took a step forward, remaining silent. The silence was what made it worse, why hadn't he done anything yet. "Pl-please, don't hurt me." Sunburst begged. Expecting the tyrant to laugh in his face, all he got in return was a weird look.
"Why in Princess Amore's name would I hurt?" The stallion said confused, this slightly calmed Sunburst down.
"So, your not gonna hurt me?"
"No, never, Radiant Hope would never forgive me. A matter a fact..." Sombra looked around his surroundings. "How did I get here?" The former king looked at Sunburst for answers. The orange pony now calm and collected, tried to come up with some and there was only one question that would help him do that.
"One question, who rules the Crystal Empire?" That confused Sombra, but he answered anyways.
"Princess Amore." That confirmed Sunburst's suspicion, he has amnesia and doesn't remember what he did.
"I'm sorry to say, but Princess Amore died a long time ago." Sombra looked even more confused. "Not just that, your friend Radiant Hope is..." The stallion started to piece together what he was trying to say, becoming disheartened and teary eyed.
"Your lying!" Sombra roared, showing his fangs to Sunburst. The sudden change of attitude scared the orange pony.
"I-I'm not, really, I'm telling the truth. I can show you." Trying to remain calm, Sunburst used his magic to retrieve the history book he read on the train and brought it over to them. After opening to a specific page, he showed it to Sombra and had him read it.
"After the death of the princess, a new ruler came to power and enslaved the crystal ponies..." That sentence alone made the former king tear up but he continued to read. "The king then soon went to war with the two sisters in a long grueling battle, he was then defeated and banished, but at the cost of the Crystal empire disappearing." He cried, sitting down on the floor. "Then how is it still here, how am I still here?"
"It just recently remerged and was returned to its former glory, you're here cause you survived the king's tyranny, but I can't say the same about Hope. I'm sorry for your loss." Sunburst couldn't help but feel sympathy for Sombra. Despite all the pain he caused as a tyrant, he had a heart before whatever drove him to such a destiny. That made the wizard think, what did drive him to it, what made his heart freeze over to enslave the entire Crystal Empire.
"H-Hope, I'm so sorry that I couldn't be there for you." The villain cried out to his precious friend. The orange pony didn't know how to comfort him, so he just started petting Sombra, feeling embarrassed doing so but seemed to work. Whatever happened to Sombra in the past didn't matter now. Sunburst was gonna make sure it doesn't happen again.
"So, do you wanna talk about it?" Sunburst asked the other stallion, nervous of what he might say or do. The two were now sitting down at the table that Sunburst stood back up and pulled out some stools to sit on. Sitting across from Sunburst, Sombra was now calm but still depressed.
"Talk about what?" His voice low and deep, though still filled with sorrow.
"About your situation, about what happened. How do you feel?" The former king then slammed his hooves onto the table, scaring the drop out.
"How I feel, I don't know what to feel! I'm angry because I couldn't stop him! I'm disappointed in myself because I couldn't save her. I feel pain because she's gone!" The pony then put his head down, sheading a tear. "H-Hope, we never got to see the crystal faire together..." That surprised Sunburst, why couldn't he see the faire.
"Wait, you've never been to the faire?" He asked the sad stallion, hearing some sniffling as he responded.
"Y-yeah, I couldn't because I was always sick during that time. Hope would always sit at the edge my bed, never leaving my side for nothing. She never saw the faire either because of me." He sniffled again, causing Sunburst to reached from the other side of the table to pat him on the head in a attempt to comfort the former tyrant.
"It's not your fault, she chose to stay with you because she cared about you. She's the type of friend to stay by your side, like friends are supposed to. Don't beat yourself up for having a true friend, unlike me." Sunburst said the last part with venom that was meant for himself. The words caught Sombra's attention, making him raise his head and look at the orange pony that had a disappointed look.
Curious, the black pony asked. "What do you mean?"
"Uh well, I used to have a friend named Starlight. We did everything together back in my home town. We were inseparable, at least that's how it seemed at the time." Sunburst lowered his head, hating that he couldn't speak to her for being a disappointment. "Ever since I got my cutie mark, everyone said I was destined to be a great and important wizard. I thought that too when I entered Celestia's school." Sombra flinched at the name Celestia. The name sounded familiar to him, and for some reason filled him with great rage that he didn't know he had. The black pony did his best to ignore it and continue to listen to Sunburst's story. "After sometime there, I realized that I wasn't cut out for it and dropped out. Not wanting to disappoint Starlight or my mom, I came here."
"Have you tried talking to her?"
"No, I don't think she'd wanna be friends with a disappointment like me."
"Well, you never know until you try." Sombra said, trying to reassure him. Sunburst in return scratched the back of head, thinking about it. "Yeah, I guess your right. Maybe I'll try sending her a letter sometime, hopefully she's still living with her dad." The orange pony then looked out the window to see that it was dark outside. "Oh gosh, it's dark out already. I must have lost track of time because of all of this."
Sombra nodded, standing up and walking towards the front door. "It appear so. I must thank you for your hospitality, but I should probably get out of your mane now." Just as he started opening the door, Sunburst slammed it back shut with his magic. "NO!" He screamed with a fearful look on his face as Sombra looked back at him with confusion.
"Uhh, you can't." Sunburst said. "You probably don't have a place to stay right?"
The former Tyrant thought about it. "I suppose your right, then what do you suggest?"
"We can stay here."
"I would rather not inconvenience you-" Sunburst cut him off.
"I insist. Really, you wouldn't be a bother at all." Sombra then smiled at the orange pony, feeling like he's made another friend like Radiant Hope. Someone that didn't think he was weird and was probably weird like him too. "Then I'll take you up on your offer."
"I'm glad to hear it." Sunburst nervously smiled back at the shadow pony. "Okay Sunburst, you've gotten this far, now we're in for the long run. Hopefully I don't regret it."
