> Child Of Grogar
>  by FlutterFan13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1. At least I got a cool cloak. (Rewritten)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere in a frozen tundra.

"Ugh" I groaned as I woke up. 

"Where the fuck am I." I wondered as I looked around seeing nothing but snow covering the landscape. Trying to stand up only ended up with my face being planted in the snow.

"Ah, what the hell" I tried once more, stumbling forward and almost falling on my face once more but managing to catch myself myself with my arms before I got another mouthful of snow. Weirdly enough I felt more comfortable on all fours than when I tried to stand up.

I brought a hand up to rub my face but winced as something hard met my nose.

"Huh.. well that's wei-" I froze when I actually paid attention to myself and realized it wasn't a hand rubbing my face but a hoof.

I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach as I decided to take a good look at myself.

The hoof was attached to an appendage covered in somewhat lilac fur, and I started to twist my head this way and that and noticed that my whole body was covered in fur, I rubbed my head and felt two short protrusions growing out of it.

"What the hell, am I a goat or something" I felt something on my neck and chest area and when I looked down I could see I was wearing some kind of red collar/harness, it also had a multitude of golden spheres around the surprisingly comfortable leather of the collar section, they each had strangely familiar symbols carved into them, all but the one that laid in the middle of my chest.

I made a note to take a good look at myself as soon as I found a mirror and moved on.

'Ok, let's try walking, for now, I can worry about my appearance later when I'm not out in the middle of a frozen wasteland.' I thought to myself as I tried to move forward. It was surprisingly natural to do so and in a few moments, I was going at a steady trot.

I decided to head towards the mountains first, either I find someone or at the very least a good vantage point to take a look around.

While I was walking there I realized that the snow all around me wasn't bothering me at all and even the freezing winds only felt like I had gone out with short sleeves on a windy day. ' Still, I wonder what this warm feeling in my chest is.'



1 hour later

While I was heading to the mountains I realized the warmth coming from my chest wasn't really natural so I closed my eyes and started focusing on it, after a moment I realized it felt fluid in a way and tried to move it with limited success.

What I didn't notice with my eyes closed was that whenever I tried to move it my horns would glow a bright red with flecks of black in it. 

I was broken out of my focus when I bumped into something hard, opening my eyes I realized I had walked into the mountain. 'Damn was I really that distracted'.

I looked at the mountain and started thinking about ways of climbing it when I had a potentially stupid idea. ' Walking seemed to be instinctual to me despite being in a different body and since I'm some kind of goat or ram maybe I can just...'

I decided to test my theory and looked for the nearest protrusion or foothold and prepared to jump. 'Well let's hope it works, otherwise, this will be really embarrassing' I thought to myself before leaping, when I landed my hooves barely touched the ground for a second before I was leaping towards the next one.

Before I knew it I was climbing the mountain at a surprising speed. 'Yup' I thought 'caprinae are the best.'




In a little more than five minutes I was able to see the top, with a final hop I reached it and realized it wasn't the top but what looked like a flat area before a massive cave entrance, looking above it I realized the mountain ended just a few feet above it.

Surprisingly I wasn't even breathing heavily despite walking for an hour and jumping my way up a mountain. I looked into the cave but couldn't see anything after a few feet due to the darkness, still, I got a bad feeling about it and decided against going inside in favor of doing what I came up here for in the first place.

Looking away from the cave I paid attention to the sun's position and realized I walked north, looking into the distance I could see snow everywhere besides the mountain range that stretched to my sides and what seemed to be green at the very edge of what my vision could reach. 

I looked at it for a moment before groaning at the realization that if I walked in the opposite direction to the mountains towards the south I would have probably seen the trees in the distance in a few minutes of walking. I sighed as I realized my mistake "Well there goes an hour of walking wasted."

I decided to not kick myself about it and just sit down and examine the warm feeling again.

I tried to move it once again but was met with failure, I gave a frustrated sigh but when I opened my eyes, for a moment I noticed a red glow 'huh, what was that.

I decided to try moving the warmth again but I kept my eyes open, that's when I noticed a red glow coming from above my eyes 'hmm is it coming from my forehead or my horns?'.

Thinking of how trying to move it was met with failure I decided to try and move it towards my head. 

I tried with my forehead first but wasn't able to so I decided to try my horns next, for a moment nothing happened then suddenly the glow intensified but it didn't seem to bother my eyes as my vision remained unimpaired.

After the glow died down to a more steady shine I felt no different than before but I just knew I could do something with this energy inside me which I was going to call magic unless told otherwise.

I decided to try using it with my imagination first and it worked surprisingly well.

First I tried something simple like making some sparks and I just needed to picture it on my mind for a second and then it happened, I spent a minute just shooting colorful sparks with a stupid smile on my face.

Then I tried moving a couple of rocks and once again I just barely thought about it and it happened, I spent a while moving rocks around but I couldn't tell what my limit was since there were only some small pebbles and the occasional hoof sized stone. 

'Well at least I'm good at multitasking'  I thought to myself as I moved them in intricate patterns around me.

Once I was done with that I decided to try a classic. 'Ok you can do this, it's simple just concentrate and aim.'

My horns glowed brighter for a second then a thin streak of magic shot out into the sky. 'Ok now let's try a bigger one.'

A moment later a pure black beam with a red outline was shot once again into the sky. My face broke into a grin at that 'Bigger' I thought to myself.

A beam as wide as me was shot.

'more' I yelled in my mind.

A beam the size of a car pierced the sky.

'MORE'

A beam the size of a bus followed.

"MORE POWER" I screamed.

My sight was filled with red as a beam the size of a house was shot into the sky and in the distance, I could see it piercing the clouds and going even farther away before dispersing in a catastrophic explosion of black and red energy.

My grin got even wider as I realized that besides having to catch my breath for a few seconds and feeling a little hungry I was still just fine.

Realizing how powerful I was a giggle built in the back of my throat before it transformed into an evil laugh as I screamed to the sky.

"Power"

I started to shoot lightning into the sky for good measure.

"UNLIMITED POWEEER"

I kept at it for a solid minute before I finally stopped my little nerd moment and decided to test something, lifting my hoof I slammed it full force into the ground.

My grin came back as the ground caved in and cracked and the mountaintop shook, I almost started laughing again when I heard a growl behind me.

Turning around I froze as I saw two yellow eyes with red pupils staring at me, but what really froze me was what they were attached to.

It was like someone grabbed a constellation and shaped it like a bear, a bear the size of a small fort that was currently staring at me with what I could only call a hangry look. I belatedly realized I probably woke it up with all the laughing and lightning, and, you know, the localized earthquake.

'Wait' I narrowed my eyes as I paid attention to its color and the eight-pointed star on its forehead 'Is that an ur-' I was cut off as it roared and charged at me.

In my defense I'm pretty sure anyone would panic if they had a building-sized star bear sprinting at them, besides, it's not like anyone was going to notice a random mountaintop was missing right?

And so, an explosion of magic later, the whole mountaintop was blown away along with a little of the mountains to the sides. 

I looked around and the bear was gone, I almost calmed down before I heard some grunts and growls coming from the other side of the explosively created clearing. I headed to the edge and looked down, my panic returned full force when I noticed the bear was clinging to the side of the mountain and was steadily climbing back up while giving me a very murderous look.

In my panicked state of mind when the bear finally reached the edge and was pulling itself over it instead of attacking with any kind of elemental attack or simply blasting it with as much power as I could my body moved on its own and charged headfirst towards it.

Before my mind or the bears could catch up to what I was doing I slammed headfirst into its chest. 

For a moment we were in the air and in the distance I could see what looked like a glowing dome, then gravity caught up to us and suddenly we were falling.

In the back of my mind, I realized that for some reason this side of the mountain ended lower than the other and that instead of snow I could only see a massive ravine with no discernable end only darkness.

I was broken out of my thoughts as a massive paw grazed me and sent me spiraling toward the mountainside, my panic was replaced by rage as despite falling to our (maybe) deaths the bear was still trying to kill me.

"Fuck you, you overgrown carebear!" I screamed, and just before I crashed into the mountain I managed to orient myself to land on its legs first. 

Not even a second later I pushed off it, launching myself toward the bear and once again slamming into it.

As we fell I kicked and punched with all my strength at whatever I could reach, the bear responded in kind and despite its size not allowing it to get a good angle, it managed to hit me a couple of times which surprisingly didn't hurt as much as I expected.

Luckily it seemed my hits were causing it pain, at least, we had been falling for about thirty seconds when the bear was able to grab me.

Before it could try to shove me into its mouth or I could either bite it back or just blast it we hit a slope at the end of the mountain and rolled right into the ravine slamming, then we slammed into the opposite wall before resuming our fall.

The hit caused it to release me and we were separated once again, we were falling into absolute darkness with only the bear's natural glow lighting the walls going past us, I wondered if this is what Gandalf felt like.

I didn't know how far away we were from the bottom so I once again concentrated and shot a pulsing ball of magic past the bear and towards the darkness, as it fell my mind was filled with an image of what the ravine looked like, a minute later it hit the bottom and I got an idea.

Focusing on my magic I surrounded my body with it and shot myself straight into the bear accelerating our fall even more. 

We were about five hundred meters to the bottom when I stopped myself midair, sadly for the bear, it didn't get the same treatment and I watched as it slammed full force into the bottom, I was pretty sure those cracking sounds weren't just from the ground where it landed breaking. 

When the dust cleared I was annoyed to see it was still alive and was even trying to pull itself up.

With a roar I dove down towards it and slammed into its chest, the bear gave a roar of pain but it was still breathing.

I was angry and for some reason hungry as well, when I focused on my hunger a new instinct made itself known as my horns glowed with my magic and a star-colored aura started pouring out of the bear towards my now open mouth.

As it flowed down my throat I felt it mixing with my magic, replenishing what little I had lost and making it even greater.

Along with the sensation of gaining even more power, all the bruises and scratches from the fight disappeared and as I looked down at the bear I noticed the more I absorbed the more of it just flaked away, I didn't care and just kept at it. 

When I finished the only thing left was a patch of star-filled purple fur.

"Well, to the victor goes the spoils," I said to myself as I used my magic to mold the piece of fur into a hooded cloak with two openings for my horns, even if it was only a small piece it was still big enough to cover my whole body.

The moment I put it on any chill I felt before was erased by the warmth the cloak gave out. Looking around I decided there was nothing left for me here so I started to think of a way of getting out of here.

While I could just float myself out, after that fight I thought I was entitled to some theatrics. 

Forming a clear image in my head my magic covered my whole body and where before there was a goat now stood a mass of black starry smoke with horns and two white glowing eyes.

Looking above and seeing the very faint light of the surface in the distance, a boom echoed in the darkness as I shot up and in less than a minute I reached the surface and didn't stop until I was halfway up the mountain.

When I stopped I looked north again to see if I could find that dome I saw earlier, which I did a few seconds later.

A boom was heard as the air parted around me.



10 minutes later.

Even with my speed I still took longer than I expected to reach it and the closer I got the bigger it became, and once close enough realized it was massive and, as I would find out when I crashed into it somewhere around the speed of sound, very very solid.

After I shook my dizziness off I tried looking past the semi-transparent barrier and could see grass and some buildings here and there almost like farms and in the distance, I could see what looked like a massive tower but at this distance looked very small.

I decided to look for a way in and started to follow the dome's curvature to see if I could find one, some minutes later I noticed what looked like two pillars made of a crystal where the dome touched the ground.

When I approached I could see that the barrier between the two pillars was completely see-through and I could see a hallway made of similar material and a light at the end. When I tried to step through I was able to and so I started to walk down the dark hallway.

When I reached the end it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light and when I could see again I looked around and saw that I was in some kind of courtyard with walls surrounding it, the wall looked like your standard-looking medieval wall only made of crystal instead of bricks or stone. 

Looking more closely at how the parapets were facing inward and the towers with what looked to be artillery on them I realized this was built to be a choke point for any attackers. If the dome was as impenetrable as it looked -and felt- anyone trying to attack would be forced to pass through here.

As I floated around I could picture it, enemies would run into the courtyard only to be met with a closed gate and archer fire along with whatever artillery was on hand, even if they could break through the first gate there were still at least two more behind it followed by a long hallway that was probably thick enough so that they couldn't just break through its side.

When I floated over the wall I confirmed my suspicions of the hallway being thick and I also saw another smaller courtyard along with walls and a gate.

Deciding to continue onwards towards the tower I flew over what was probably some barracks and then I was passing extensive farmlands with some houses and what were probably barns all made of the same crystal.

I flew for some minutes and stopped when I noticed that around the tower was a massive city with many houses and roads, what I noticed was that besides some important-looking buildings and some parks, everything else seemed to be housing, and while some filled more space than others I could see that all of them didn't go above two floors. 

Floating looking over the city and looking at how all the main roads were in what looked like a web or star formation with the tower at the center I took a closer look at it and it looked like someone built a massive castle with four legs and then added barad-dûr's taller cousin on top of it, the tip was being covered by clouds for fuck's sake.

How the castle tower looked along with the city and the bear he had encountered confirmed his current location and he didn't know if he should be happy or not.

'This must be one of those realistically sized Equis since from what I'd seen the crystal empire looks like an actual empire in size and the dome seemed to be covering the whole lot of it.' 

Seeing as the tower looks black it's probably before cadance was sent here, at least I hope so, I really don't want to wait for more than a thousand years for the plot to start I don't even know if I could live that long.

Looking at the streets they seemed to be black but weirdly enough there seemed to be some green in it as well.

With a flick of my magic, I was invisible and descending, the closer I got to the ground the more green seemed to pop out in the streets and I also noticed how where the city ended the road seemed to spill out in a way.
When I finally got close enough my eyes widened at what I was seeing.

Turns out the roads weren't black but rather it was a massive army covering every nook and cranny of the city and the green I saw was from the helmets they wore, paying attention I noticed how not all were armed and that there seemed to be old ponies and foals here and there.

'Jesus, there must be millions here to clog out every road in the city, this is why I didn't see anyone on the way here, Sombra must have called everyone in the empire to the city, that's probably why so many of them aren't armed or are too old or young' 

Shaking his head he headed towards the tower and that's when he saw Sombra sitting on a balcony with his horn and eyes flaring with magic, behind him he could see more soldiers inside the castle. 

Concentrating on him I could feel that while he was weak he seemed to be slowly recharging his magic by drawing power from something 'the crystal heart most likely'.

He decided he didn't want to take any risks so he floated right up to Sombra and winded his hoof back, then he dispelled his invisibility.

Sombra barely had the chance to widen his eyes before my hoof shattered his horn to pieces.

It seemed that losing his horn broke his control over the helmets, or maybe it just messed with his concentration or magic in general as I could see the soldiers on the inside jerking before the green glow disappeared, it seemingly it took them a moment to realize they could control their own bodies again but when they did the sound of helmets meeting the floor was heard.

Over Sombra's pained screams the same could be heard all over the city.

While some of the ponies in the room broke into sobs or glared murderously at Sombra some of them looked reverently at me.

Some of the ponies started to advance toward Sombra but I raised a hoof toward them "You can have him, just don't kill him yet". While they looked reluctant they gave me a nod. I turned while ignoring the sound of Sombra's screams and of hooves striking flesh.

Looking over the mass of confused but hopeful ponies below me I thought of a way of getting them to hear me before deciding to take a page out of the princess's book. 

Focusing some of my magic I used my very own canterlot voicetm.

"CITIZENS OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE HEAR ME!". Every single head turned towards me.

"FOR YEARS YOU WERE UNDER SOMBRA'S TYRANNY AND CONTROL, BUT NO MORE, IT ENDS TODAY, SOMBRA WILL FACE PUNISHMENT!". Over the crowd, I could see relief, joy, and hope. 

"BRING HIM HERE". When a beaten Sombra was dragged towards me I grabbed him with my magic and floated us down towards the center of the square right above where the crystal heart should be.

When ponies saw him their looks changed to fear and apprehension. "Now for the first part of his punishment, he shall be stripped of the magic he used to cause so much torment." 

Sombra seemed to come into focus at that and started jerking in my grip, his broken horn started shooting some sparks but that was the best he could do with it being broken and pain clouding his mind.

Dragging him towards me I grasped the sides of his head and leaned in to whisper in his ear "Thanks for the meal" 

I opened my mouth and breathed in, black and green energy ripped itself out of his body and went down my throat.

It tasted...sick if I was being honest.

When I was finished I could feel his magic being purified in a way as it mixed with mine, maybe it was because he wasn't at his full power but the addition to my reserves barely felt bigger than the Ursa Major's.

I was broken out of my thoughts by cheering from all around me, as I looked between the limp Sombra the cheering crowd I got an idea, clearing my throat I spoke, "Now, as for the rest of his punishment." I started lowering him towards the crowd.

I smirked at them and spoke, "Well, I think you citizens should have the chance to get some justice yourselves." Sombra seemed to realize what that meant as even in his weakened state he started trashing and screaming, he was a meter away from the crowd-turned-mob when some of them apparently decided he was being lowered too slowly and jumped up grabbing onto his limbs.

I didn't bother holding him up, letting him drop as they wanted.

The last I saw of him was his fearful face before he was completely covered in a pile of ponies all wanting a piece of him, I simply turned around and went back to the balcony, I had barely stepped on it before I was surrounded by hugging and crying ponies.

While I tried to pry myself from the pile of tears and snot I felt Sombra's life fade.  'well' I thought to myself 'All's well that ends well, now to free myself and find the crystal heart.'
> 2 Who am I.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"
'Thinking'


It was taking longer than I would have liked to free myself from the grateful ponies so with a flex of my magic I transformed into my smoke form and started flowing over the ponies towards what I hoped was the center of the castle and the throne room. 

Surprisingly the ponies who saw me were awed instead of terrified, I thought I would remind them of Sombra in this form but either his smoke form came after he was defeated, or adding stars to my own was more effective than I imagined.
Suddenly an idea popped into my head, why didn't I just fly to the top? 

Plan set I flew out of the nearest window and started my ascent but when I reached the clouds I wasn't able to break through, it took me a moment to realize this was probably due to some spell of Sombra's.
While in normal circumstances it would have taken some effort on my part with Sombra dead the spell couldn't hold itself together so it would only take a simple pulse of my magic to break it hell it would probably dissipate by itself in some time. 

Looking down I could see that the city didn't look as packed as before so some ponies must have gone to their homes in the countryside, from the ones that were still in the city most ponies were celebrating some had seen my ascent and were looking at me, within a minute everyone in the ground was cheering towards me.

'Let's hope all this positiveness powers the heart.' I thought to myself and with a push, the spell broke and I was through the clouds, once I reached the top of the tower there it was, floating in the middle of the roof was the crystal heart.

Turning corporeal once again I approached it and was about to grab it with my hooves before I slapped myself for even considering the idea 'Why would I use my hooves when the last thing I need is for it to break I'll just grab it with my magic, it's safer and besides Cadance grabbed it with her magic and nothing happened' thinking this I poured my magic into the heart.

What I didn't know at the time was that there is a very big difference between making your magic telekinetically grab something and just pouring your magic into it.

The last thing I saw before losing consciousness was a flash of light.



-Third person pov-

While our protagonist was flying up the tower the citizens of the crystal empire celebrated. While many returned to their homes in the countryside along with their families the city was still filled to the brim with cheering ponies.
When some of the ponies below saw their savior flying out a window they quickly told the ones closest to them, in less than a minute everypony was looking towards the sky and cheering. 

While some ponies were wondering what his reasons for saving them were and others were suspicious, they all shared the same feeling, gratefulness.
When they saw him fly past the clouds they were confused at what he was doing until suddenly a wave of blue energy expanded from the top of the tower and in just a second covered the entire empire. 

When the ponies could see again the clouds were no more and the crystal shine had returned to the empire and its citizens. 

When ponies saw that they had regained their forms previous to Sombra's reign a new wave of cheering exploded around the empire.
A minute later somepony noticed a light descending from the tower and pointing up yelled to the others nearby "look, at the top of the tower." 

It quickly spread through the crowd and soon everyone was looking at the light slowly descending towards them, the closer it got to them the more of its form they could see until they realized it was their savior.

His body and eyes shining with an inner light and with a cloak made of stars covering him it looked like a god had descended to Equis as if that wasn't enough they could see the crystal heart floating in front of his chest, many ponies simply burst into tears of joy at seeing the empire's sacred artifact had returned. 

A moment later the heart gave a pulse and started to shine more and more until it simply looked like a heart-shaped piece of light.

The ponies stared transfixed as the heart changed its shape before their very eyes slowly twisting and shrinking before turning into a small crystal bell with a heart-shaped clapper which proceeded to attach itself to the front of his collar, then the bell gave a final ring which instead of being a small light one was an echoing gong that was heard across the empire.

Then with a final flash of light, their savior fell unconscious to the ground, instantly many rushed towards him and started carrying him towards the castle amidst the cheering of thousands.




First person pov.

An indeterminate amount of time later.

Once again I awoke with a groan. 

As I groggily opened my eyes I realized I was in bed, taking a moment to shake the sleepiness off I got out of the bed and looked for the bathroom.

Reaching the door I went in to find what looked like a toilet to the side and in front of me, there was a basin of water with a mirror hanging from the wall above it. 

My sleep-addled brain had ignored the completely unfamiliar room and bathroom and the fact that everything but the mattress and the sheets was made of crystal.

When I walked up to the basin and splashed water on my face I looked into the mirror and blinked slowly.

Staring back at me from the reflection was what looked like some kind of goat with red slitted eyes and purple grey fur. A moment later I looked at my hands a realized they weren't hands at all but hooves.

'Interesting' I thought to myself as I stared at what I now knew to be my reflection.

After a minute of staring my memories of what I had done rushed into my head. 

My eyes widening I rushed to the toilet and started dry heaving into it. ' What happened to me, why did everything feel so normal' I thought as tears gathered at the corners of my eyes at the realization of what happened.

'I looked at him right in the eye and then sent him to his death, I can justify that he deserved to die but if that was the case why did I not just kill him earlier, I was right in front of his face and he couldn't detect me it would have been easy to kill him but for some reason I didn't, no instead I just stretched it out and made it painful.' at that point, I had stopped heaving and was simply in shock.

' And even earlier why did I not panic when I woke up in a different body, I turned into a goat for fuck's sake and why was magic the first thing that came to mind when I tried moving the warmth inside me it could have been anything.' I was starting to panic when I heard a voice.

"Pathetic." I stepped away from the toilet and looked around for the source of the voice, looking outside the bathroom, and at the room, I frowned as I saw it was empty.

"Who's there," I asked only to hear a snort from behind me, turning around I was only met with an empty bathroom and my reflection. 

I was looking around trying to find whoever spoke when I looked at the mirror and realized it wasn't my reflection at all.

Staring at me from the mirror was a smoky form not dissimilar from my own but where mine looked like a starlit night he was a pure black that seemed to suck up the light around it.

The other difference was that was my horns were short and pointy his were massive and twisted backward and slightly forward at the end.

"Who are you," I asked him.

"I'm what you were supposed to be" his answer didn't do anything to calm my nerves.

"W-what do you mean" I stuttered out.

The shadow only gave an aggravated sigh before speaking "It means that if everything had gone according to plan I would be standing there and YOU would be nothing but another lost soul wandering limbo for eternity."

"Wait, were you the one who sent me here," I asked with some anger "Why, what do I have that made you pick me instead of someone else, what makes me so special" I demanded.

He just scoffed "Don't flatter yourself, there was nothing special about you, you were just the closest one to me when I was ready to return." That just brought a new wave of anger from me.

"So what" I roared "You just tore me away from my life because it was FUCKING CONVENIENT."

He just ignored my answer and stated "What life, you mean the one you can't even remember most of." His words froze me in place as they registered.

After a moment I realized he was right. 'Come on come on THINK' I told myself 'Your name, what's your name or your mother's.'

I started to hyperventilate when I couldn't remember. 'I remember finishing high school, I remember I had a mother, I loved her with all my heart and I just wanted to make her proud but I just can't remember her face or even her name.'

I grabbed my head as I forced myself to think 'Come on what about your friends or the school you went to or even just your name THINK.' But no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't remember.

"Why can't I remember" I muttered to myself.

"Stop your whining, besides even if you could remember it wouldn't matter." Hearing that I remembered I had company. "What do you mean."

"Didn't you hear me earlier boy, I didn't mention limbo for no reason." He said to me "You were in limbo for a reason, think."

His words caused a cold feeling to crawl up my back.

"I was dead wasn't I" I finally said after a minute of silence.

"Yes you were, and the reason for your memory loss is the fact that you were about to be reincarnated before I interrupted it." He told me.

"What was your plan," I asked still reeling from the revelation.

"I guess there's no point in hiding it seeing as in a few minutes I'll be gone and your mistake of existence will keep going". I was confused by that and asked what he meant.

"If you let me finish" I don't know how a shadow can give you a pointed look but he managed it, I stayed quiet and let him continue.

"Back in the very beginnings of Equestria when the three pony tribes had yet to unite and were still living in huts and small villages I decided I would conquer all and declare myself emperor of the known world" I listened attentively as he continued.

"At the time I created many monsters and creatures that would have drowned Equestria in an endless epoch of evil and darkness" His voice turned angry as he continued "And I would have achieved it if that pest of a unicorn called gusty the great hadn't stolen my bewitching bell and hidden it under a barrier somewhere I couldn't find it." I suddenly realized the one I was speaking to was Grogar Father of all monsters.

"Since I had foolishly stored most of my magic and essence on it when I was separated from it I had been incredibly weakened." He paused for a moment before continuing "At the time I believed the optimistic fool would simply jail me or banish me to some other realm."

He snorted "It honestly caught me by surprise that when she found me again she didn't hesitate to kill me."

"Then how are you here then," I asked him.

"I'm Grogar, something as simple as losing my physical form would not normally inconvenience me, but weakened as I was I wasn't capable of resisting the pull of the afterlife, it took whatever power I had left to anchor myself to limbo." Grogar then seemed to pull himself from the mirror and floated out of the bathroom over to the window.

"And so I waited for thousands of years but no matter how much magic I accumulated I couldn't break the barrier between limbo and Equestria to send myself through." He then started looking out the window.

"You see during my time in limbo I noticed that when the reincarnation process finished "cleansing" a soul a small opening appeared to let the soul through to Equestria, I tried to go through but I was never able to, for some time it felt like the world was mocking me by waving an open door in my face but around two centuries ago I found a way to use the reincarnation process to my advantage." He then turned from the window back to me.

"The plan was that the next time a soul started the reincarnation process I would push it aside in a way and take its place and move through the opening created for it." He sighed "What I didn't expect was for some kind of energy foreign to Equestria to be protecting you so when we came into contact instead of you being pushed aside we started fusing instead."

"Apparently whatever that foreign energy was it was meant to protect you against the cleansing process but my interference caused it to destabilize resulting in the loss of most of your memories." I frowned in confusion.

"But then shouldn't have been reborn into a random newborn or something," I asked him.

"That would be the case normally but the reincarnation process was meant to simply select a random soul to cleanse it then send it to Equestria to be born once again, it wasn't meant to handle two souls in the middle of fusing along with unstable foreign energy, so the result was that we ended up as a soul floating in the middle of nowhere and with nothing to anchor us to the physical world we would be treated as a recently deceased being and be pulled into the afterlife once again." Grogar then turned to look back out the window.

"How did we get this body then," I asked.

Without turning to look at me he continued "Knowing that without a body all of my efforts would be in vain I decided to use the last of my magic to create one final creature, sometime after I finished making it and put us in it you awoke and I was left as nothing but a fragment in the back of your mind." 

"Still, I thought to myself that I could work with this, after all, I was able to manipulate your subconscious to an extent, if I hadn't you would have spent hours just learning how to walk and I wouldn't have it."

"I will admit that when I connected you to your magic I was surprised at its ease of use but it just meant more advantages for me later on".

"So the reason I didn't almost react to anything even when I attacked Sombra was that you were controlling me," I asked him.

"I couldn't control you, just nudge what was already there and give you some of my knowledge, the idea of killing Sombra was already on your mind I just made you take your time with him."

"What were you going to do eventually and earlier why did you say you were going to be gone," I asked.

"My plan was to eventually nudge you into searching for my bell, and if you found it I would have been able to use the magic and essence I had stored in it to erase you and take complete control." He sighed.

"But I didn't expect you to simply bond yourself with a magical artifact without knowing what would happen."

"What do you mean I bonded to a magical artifact" I shouted.

When Grogar simply pointed down I looked at my chest and noticed for the first time that I had what looked to be a small bell made of silvery crystal hanging from the middle of my collar.

"W-what is this," I asked.

"That is what you called the crystal heart" His answer shocked me.

"But, how did I bond with it"

"You bonded with it because you were STUPID enough to not differentiate between telekinesis and just pouring your magic into something." He shouted at me.

He suddenly grunted and his form started flickering.

"What's happening to you," I asked him.

"When you bonded to that blasted trinket it immediately cut off any control I had over you, and now it's simply erasing me completely."

"But won't you just go to the afterlife then?"

"Didn't I just explain what happened, our souls fused with one another and now I'm just a piece of consciousness being slowly erased, when it finishes I will simply cease to exist." As he spoke his form deteriorated more and more until only a semi-transparent blob of shadow remained.

"But then who am I, what is my name," I asked him.

He simply chuckled and answered "As my last creation I would call you Greema, use it or not I don't care". And with those last words, Grogar completely disappeared.

I was left standing to stare at the window and I would stay like that until a knock was heard coming from the door.

"Excuse me your Majesty are you awake." Asked a voice from the other side.

I inhaled and exhaled deeply before answering "Yes, come in."

And so the doors to my new life opened.
> 3 Food, Mares, and Coffee.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Place
Royal chambers
Greema pov

When the doors to the room were opened a pony in armor walked in. Upon seeing me his face seemed to light up with happiness and some relief.

"Ah, it's good to see you awake and out of bed your Majesty" He said happily.

I simply raised an eyebrow "Your Majesty" I asked him.

"Oh, well you see-" he started before I interrupted him.

"Stop" I said, then sighed. "I'll deal with that later after you tell me how long I slept and where I can get something to eat, I'm starving." I told him.

He perked up at that and started walking out of the room." Please follow me, your Majesty."

As we walked he spoke to me "You have been asleep for two days your Majesty, the healers said you were simply sleeping but we were starting to get worried, thankfully you're okay." We were nearing an intersection when he stopped and turned to me.

"Before we continue, would you like to eat in one of the dining rooms or would you prefer eating in the gardens." He asked.

I thought for a moment before telling him I wanted some fresh air, he nodded then motioned to follow him. "This way your Majesty." He said.

As I followed him I decided to ask him some questions.

"Tell me your name soldier" I told him.

"My name is Night Quartz your Majesty" he looked ecstatic that I asked his name.

"So Night Quartz, what can you tell me about the empire." I asked him, after all, I doubt limited information from a tv show was going to cut it here.

"Of course" he exclaimed enthusiastically "what would you like to know about."

I hummed "well, how about you start with how the empire was founded." I had always been curious about how the empire came to be.

"Very well your Majesty, history isn't my strongest subject but I will tell you what I know" as we turned a corner we walked past a guard who bowed to me, I simply nodded to him as Night Quartz started speaking.

"While the exact date was never recorded we do know that it was somewhere around two thousand years, a time when the empire wasn't known as such and was simply a conglomerate of tribes who worked together to survive in the frozen north." As we walked we passed more guards and servants who all bowed to me as well.

Once again I simply nodded and listened as Night Quartz continued speaking.

"Back then the tribes had been in the north for little more than a century but suddenly the snow and cold started getting worse and worse and with it, even the plants that grew in the cold couldn't survive anymore and all the creatures that they used to hunt either died or left, leaving only predators that couldn't be fought safely." As he talked I looked around and saw that most of the paintings we passed were filled with images depicting ponies either fighting monsters or each other.

I expected more friendly or peaceful paintings from an empire that was protected by a love powered crystal.

Wich was currently hanging from my neck.....Yeah, I should probably give it a look when I have the time. 

Night Quartz's voice breaks me out of my thoughts.

"....and so Amethyst Rose decided to embark on a journey to Equestria and find the great sorceress Gusty the Great." He said.

'I really hope I didn't miss anything important.'I thought.

"Overcoming many dangers, either from mother nature or other ponies, she finally reached Equestria, and soon after she would find Gusty." I just listened to him as I didn't want to miss anything else.

"Once she reached Gusty she begged her for the knowledge to help her people." He paused as we turned a corner then continued.

"Gusty, while impressed by the fact that a simple earth pony had come all the way from the end of the world just to get her people help, knew that since she wasn't a unicorn  she wouldn't be able to learn any of her magic." He said.

I just nodded and curiously asked "Then what did she learn from her."

"Gusty, still wanting to grant Amethyst her help, decided to teach her a magical discipline none of her apprentices were able to learn, and so she started teaching Amethyst about the art of enchanting." He stopped as we reached a set of double doors with two guards who opened them and bowed.

What was waiting for us on the other side was a garden the size of a soccer field filled with trees and many flower beds of different kinds, I could see roses, tulips, some flowers that I recognized but couldn't remember the name of and even some which I'm pretty sure don't exist in earth. There were also some gazebos of different sizes here and there.

Night Quartz led me to one of the smaller ones and I saw a simple round table and four chairs. When we got closer I noticed that the chairs didn't really have legs but simply some small stubs, besides that they had cushioned seats and a tall backrest.

Once I sat down Night Quartz spoke. 
"What would you like me to ask the cooks to prepare for you, your Majesty." he asked me.

"Do you have coffee here?" I asked him.

"Yes, would you like it black." He responded.

"No, put some milk in it oh and just two spoonfuls of sugar." He nodded then asked again.

"Would you like eggs and meat, toast, or something else." I raised an eyebrow at the fact that hey had meat but remembered he mentioned they hunted.

I thought for a moment before deciding against a heavy breakfast.

"I'll take the toast" I told him. Seeing him nod and turn around I thought of something and stopped him. 

"Oh and get me a book about the history of the empire and it's laws," I told him.

He simply nodded " I'll have somepony fetch them for you." Then he bowed one final time before leaving.

I spent some time just appreciating the scenery before deciding to focus on the bell.

Looking at the Crystal Bell it looks like it's completely made from, well, crystals.

Aside from its material, there isn't much of a difference with other bells beside the heart-shaped clapper. Deciding to see what it can do I utilize my most advanced technique.

I poke it. 

As expected, there isn't any reaction besides the little ting bells of this size tend to do.

While nodding at my genius deduction I hear the sound of walking and look in its direction finally noticing the stallion in a shirt and a vest carrying a serving tray filled with what is most likely my breakfast.

When he reaches the table I ignore the fact that he is somehow walking on three legs and simply watch as he places the contents of the tray in the table.

"Your breakfast as ordered your Majesty." He says.

Looking at my breakfast I give a hum of appreciation as I see a mug of coffee, six slices of toast along with two small cups of butter and jelly with accompanying butter knife, and on the side is a slice of what looks like Apple pie.

I questioned him about the last one and he answered. "One of the cooks had baked a pie just this morning and thought you may enjoy a slice" I thanked him and he bowed before turning around and leaving.

Well, time to dig in.




30 minutes later.

I hummed to myself as I watered down the last piece of pie with the final sip of coffee.

'This is nice.' I thought to myself as I sighed contentedly with my eyes closed.

*chirp**chirp*

I opened my eyes at the sound and noticed the small bluebird perched on the gazebo's railing. 

I raised an eyebrow at him and spoke "excuse me?" I asked.

It somehow gave me an annoyed expression before chirping at me.

I frowned and responded to his rude words "hey now, no need to be rude, besides I'm a lot bigger than you, of course I need more foo-" I was interrupted by more chirping and a rude wing gesture.

My eyebrows were threatening me with segregation from my face before I closed my eyes and gave an exasperated sigh.

"I'm not having a discussion this early in the morning, least of all with a bird." I said before picking up the leftover crumbs with my magic, getting up and walking over to it.

Reaching the railing I lay the crumbs in a pile next to the bird "there, are you happy now?"

Instead of answering it turned away from me and started pecking at the pile. I just rolled my eyes and turned around while muttering "I hope a hawk eats you."

I was back on my seat when the realization hit me. I just blinked slowly and asked myself "d-did I just have a conversation with a bird?"

I was about to speak to the bird again when I heard a panting voice call out to me.

"Your Majesty" I turned and saw a mare with glasses and a bag on her side trotting towards me. Once she reached the table she took a moment to catch her breath before bowing and speaking.

"I'm really really sorry for the delay your Majesty, it's just, the head librarian was on break and she's the only one who's memorized were every book is so it took me a lot of time to find it and again I'm so sorry for this so plea-" she stopped as I raised a single hoof.

"It's no trouble, besides, I just finished my breakfast so you weren't that late, it's not like I expected to receive them within the minute I asked for." I calmly said.

She seemed to relax at that before perking up and reaching for the bag at her side "ah, here are the books you requested." Saying that she places two books on the table before stepping back.

Looking at them I read the titles.

From tribe to Empire by Moonstone Mustang.
Law & Order by Marble Mystery.

I smiled and spoke to her "this is precisely what I needed, thank you... Ah what Is your name"

"Diamond Quill Your Majesty" she told me.

"Then thank you, Diamond, now it seems you're tired so do take a break." I spoke to her with a smile.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, I will do just that." And with that, she bowed before turning and leaving.

I had laid the book on my lap and was about to start reading when from the corner of my eye I saw her patting down her messy red mane. For some reason, my eye was drawn to the movement of her hoof.

From there my eyes drifted down her slender white neck to her barrel then on past her nicely sized flank all the way to her tail...

As I stared at her until she left my sight I had a moment to furrow my eyes at a weird weird sensation before the book went flying from my lap and landed on the floor with a small thunk.

I stared dumbfounded at it before I looked down... I suddenly started thanking every deity out there for the fact that nopony was there to see me with such an embarrassing "symptom".

I grabbed the book with my magic in lieu of standing up and risking even more exposure.

As I started reading I thanked and cursed Grogar for giving me hormones.


 
Sometime later

Surprisingly it took me less time than I expected to read them completely and I learned some interesting things here and there.

The Empire's founding went like this from were Night Shine left off.

Once Amethyst Rose finished learning under Gusty she said her goodbyes and returned to the northern tribes.

When she returned she helped her people by making sources of heat that weren't reliant on fuel, guarding their houses against the winds and even making traps to hunt the bigger creatures roaming the tundra.

Sadly, while enchanting was endless in its uses, the weakness was that for it to work it needed to be carved into appropriate materials. While Amethyst could carve them directly into the houses and clothes, this meant that they were weaker and lasted a shorter amount of time, sometimes they even backfired and damaged what they were carved into.

During her studies on enchanting, she had found a material that was perfect for holding enchantments, a small piece of crystal she had found back on her homeland, sadly no matter how much she searched she never found more of it.

Out of ideas she prayed for a solution to her problem, apparently, someone heard because soon after she quite literally stumbled into what would be known as the Crystal caves.

The Crystal caves are a massive underground cave system filled to the brim with magical crystals of many kinds.

With this discovery, she was able to truly help her people grow, while there aren't many details about it, at some point, she found a special Crystal which she spent the last twenty years of her life enchanting.

And so the Crystal Heart was created. At the start, the Heart's shield only protected them from the snow and wind and barely covered their small town, but, with time the more ponies lived near it the more love it channeled and the stronger it became until at one point the area inside the shield stayed in a constant state of warmth, allowing them to grow crops to sustain themselves and more.

Time passes and descendants of Amethyst's students realize that eventually, they'll be trapped inside the shield. And so they put their minds together to create a solution, but, even with their combined knowledge of enchanting, they were barely able to make four gates for the four cardinal directions.

Luckily they were able to make them in a way that they moved along with the barrier whenever it expanded.

An so centuries go past, advancements in crystal enchantments grow, and leaders came and went until an absolute monarchy was established.

As for conflicts with other races or nations, there weren't many.

There were some issues here and there with yaks but they tended to be resolved by friendly competition more often than not.

The only real encounter with griffons was when a small tribe of them came looking for a place to live and after some talks, they settled within the barrier.

The Empire never had many interactions with Equestria and the few that they had quickly turned sour due to the unicorns of the time not liking the idea of a kingdom full of magic-using earth ponies, but it seems it never devolved into an armed conflict.

The only time they had an all-out war was when a horde of bugbears suddenly came out of their territory.

Apparently, the northern gate was caught by surprise and overwhelmed, at the time the northern fort wasn't built to handle an army of flying enemies.

Things got worse from there and by the end, the only thing the Empire gained was a pile of corpses and their northern territory being destroyed, it took the empire more than a century to completely repair it.

After that nothing much of importance happened and the book ended with the birth of princess amore the fifth, the last princesses mother.

With that done I read the book of laws and while the laws seemed fairly "standard" besides some for the use of different kinds of crystals I realized the Empire took "Absolute Monarchy" very seriously.

Seriously, the royal family not only had complete control but they also were exempt from practically every law besides the ones regarding the Crystal Heart.

Anypony that purposefully damaged the Heart would be executed without trial, and even if they truly damaged it by accident they would still be heavily punished.

In a way, it was a dictatorship that actually worked to better its citizen's life.

The empire didn't have any nobles either, the closest thing would be the four administrators and the Griffin leader.

Centuries of this meant that the Empire just couldn't hold itself together without a central power figure leading them.

Generations grew up getting used to a powerful figure leading them that the few times they didn't have a leader everything went to hell until someone took control.

'This makes sense, it's twisted, but it makes sense' I thought to myself 'the Empire has been raising their citizens with the idea of a single figure ruling over  everyone that whenever they are left leaderless they quite simply don't know what to do.'

This also explains why they put me in charge just like that. Another fact that I learned is that besides Sombra I'm the first male ruler they've had in centuries.

The sound of a throat clearing breaks me out of my thoughts and I turn to see Night Quartz standing a little ways from me.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty but it's time for the midday court." He said.

"Midday court?" I asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty." He said calmly.

I just sighed before speaking "I want somepony to write my schedule down before tomorrow." I ordered.

He stood straight and responded firmly "Your orders will be done Your Majesty, I'll have a scribe write it down and have it delivered to you before the day ends."

I simply nodded "good, now is there anything we should do before court begins." 

He pondered for a moment before responding "maybe you should wear the royal armor for court, Your Majesty." 

I thought for a moment before deciding to give it a look, and with that, we headed back to my chambers.

Once there some servants were called and a minute later four of them walked in along with a mannequin dresses in some armor and a coat.

Looking at it I realize it was almost like Sombra's with the main difference being that mine was a much more crystalline silver in color and of course, it was made for my size.

They obviously knew what they were doing since within a minute they had dressed me.

Looking in a mirror I realized that I almost looked like Sombra besides some key differences, first of being that instead of a royal coat of red with white fur trim I was wearing my own Ursa fur coat which covered my whole back and sides along with my tail.

For my crown, I had a simple silver circlet that almost went around my head, it had a single white crystal on the front.

The final thing was the armor piece that covered my chest along with my neck and some of my stomach, I had put my collar with the Crystal Bell hanging from it over it.

And so dressed as an Emperor and ready to rule I walked out of my room and was met with Night Quartz and a squad of guards who bowed, I just nodded at them and told Night Shine to take me to the throne room.


 
Crystal Palace
Throne Room

Reaching the throne room I saw that it wasn't much different from the one I could remember besides being a little wider and the throne being higher up.

As I walk towards the throne I noticed that along the walls are stationed many guards and at the foot of the throne stands an aged stallion with a blue coat and a faded white mane holding a small stack of papers.

Once I reached the throne I sat down and everyone bowed to me.

It was here, sitting on the throne watching ponies bowing to me that I fully processed the fact that I was now the leader of a massive empire.

I could only sigh and hope that things wouldn't go wrong.
> 4 A smidgen of world-building.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Empire
Crystal Palace
Throne Room

Looking over the bowing ponies before me I shake off any doubts I had before telling them to rise.

Signaling to the old pony at the foot of the throne I spoke in what I hoped was a regal voice.

"What is your name."

"Onyx Tome, Your Highness, I was princess Amore's personal scribe and now yours." He responded.

"What are your duties then." I asked curiously.

"I mainly write down what happens during court along with any notes or letters you wish me to, help organize whatever you need, and inform you of any major happenings in the Empire." He says.

I hummed. "Very well, what needs to be done in today's Court." I asked.

He cleared his throat and stood straight before speaking. "Not much Your Highness, no ponies have come with complaints or problems to bring before the throne but there's still half an hour where any citizen can enter the court."

'It seems to be a pretty standard medieval court then.'I thought to myself.'Citizens can come and request help with their problems or get me to clear up disputes between them, they could also come to make requests or petitions to the crown.' The sound of Onyx speaking brought me out of my thoughts.

"Since nopony has come yet I should give you this Your Highness." Saying that he presented four neatly folded scrolls. "These are letters from the four administrators declaring their loyalty to the Emperor."

Grabbing them with my magic I brought them closer and noticed that they had wax seals, each had a different letter pertaining to which administrator they came from, South, North, West, and East.

The four administrators as their name implied were four ponies in charge of the communities outside the city, after all even if the royal family had complete control they couldn't manage an Empire on their own so the four administrators were put into place.

And so while the one currently in the throne directly managed the city and its surrounding farmlands the administrators had to send monthly reports about finances, their production rate, funding requests, and also inform the crown of any issues that required their direct involvement.

Each district had a different specialization on what they produced. 

The south district was completely filled with farmlands and was the Empire's breadbasket.

The east district was where the Crystal caves were located and are the Empire's source of magical crystals.

The north much like the east was filled with mines but instead of magical crystals, they were filled with common minerals and gems that they provided the Empire with, a difference it had from the other districts was that the northern fort was much more heavily fortified than the other three, mainly because bugbears straying from their territory towards the Crystal Empire was surprisingly common.

The west district while housing ponies is where the griffons settled and compose the majority of the population there, filled with many rivers fish is in great abundance and it also used to be where trading with the yaks happened and where hunting parties rallied out to cull the yeti population.

Opening the four scrolls I reading through their contents I realized that they all said pretty much the same thing, too busy, sorry they couldn't be there personally, eternal undying loyalty to me and the Empire, apologies again, hints at single-relatives, gifts would be sent, blah blah yadda yadda, the only difference was their names.

The Southern administrator Gold Wheat, the Eastern administrator Mystic Clarity, the Northern administrator was Steel Hoof and finally, the Western administrator who was a Griffon called Ebony Beak.

Nodding to myself I rolled them back up and returned them to Onyx.

"Be sure to send them a message showing my gratitude, and is there anything else."

Onyx stored the scrolls in his satchel before speaking. "Well, your highness, there is the matter of your name, I'm afraid no one knows what it is." Onyx sounded apologetic by the end of it.

"Ah." I blinked as I realized I hadn't, in fact, told anyone my name.

Furrowing my brows I thought for a moment before speaking. 

"My name...is Greema." I spoke.
> 5 Calm breakfast? What's that?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Empire.
Crystal Gardens.
One week after liberation.

I gave a pleased hum as I sipped my coffee and thought about how the last week had gone.

While the first day of my rule had been quite uneventful besides the administrator's letters the second day was quite the opposite as the moment midday court was started the castle became absolutely crowded with ponies and griffons wishing to convey their thanks.

After an hour of gifts ranging from money to family heirlooms and some going from simply covering their thanks vocally to straight-up declaring their love to me, I realized the castle wasn't getting any emptier and ended up politely kicking everyone out.

Soon after I walked into the main balcony and gave the crowd below a simple speech about how they could express their thanks by working hard for the Empire and etc.

Thankfully natural charisma and centuries of conditioning meant I was met with cheers when I finished speaking.

After that, the next days were normal besides me visiting the archives for more specific information about the Empire.

While the books I had read on my first day were useful I wanted to learn more.

That I happened to go there when it was Diamond Quill's shift was mere coincidence.

Although something that had me thinking was a situation my head of the guard -Steel Bolt- had made me aware of when we met this morning.

Apparently a small group of Sombra's "acolytes" we're still on the loose.

While Steel Hoof had sent both guards and griffon hunters to track them down and were surprisingly swift they hadn't found anything yet. 

Which meant that either they were so good at hiding that they could avoid both the sheer number of guards searching for them and creatures who's main skill was tracking and hunting or, they were still in the city.

Both options worried me.

Still, a good part was the fact that there were only thirty-two of them.

As I was deciding whether to make an extensive search around the city for them or simply waiting until they made a move a small flash of light signaled a small group of robed ponies appearing somewhere to my right.

After a moment of thinking on a course of action, I decided to simply set my mug down and stretched against the backrest while giving an exaggerated yawn along with stretching my front legs over my head, all without even glancing in their direction.

Sadly, it seems they didn't appreciate my calm as a moment later the table was destroyed by a blast of magic.

Looking disappointedly at the destroyed remnants of my breakfast I sighed and shook my head before getting off the chair and walking outside the gazebo.

Looking at the ponies before me I frowned as I saw there were only four of them.

"I'll admit I'm surprised, I wasn't expecting visitors today." I spoke, frustration starting to build up inside me. "Least of all some with such bad manners."

After a moment one of them stepped forward and spoke. "Greema, on the name of the Empire and it's people you are under arrest."

As one they took their cloaks off and I took note that the speaker and apparent leader was a unicorn while two others were earth ponies and the last being a pegasus.

With a deceptively calm tone, I responded. "Are you threatening me unicorn." As I spoke my eyes glowed and I took a single step forward.

They simultaneously backed away before seemingly gathering their wits and holding their ground.

Once again the unicorn stepped forward before speaking. "The Empire and those truly loyal to it shall decide your fate." 

"Loyal to the Empire, or to Sombra." I responded, my tone darkening towards the end.

"And, I find myself curious as to how you're planning "to take me in", unless of course you believe yourself capable of defeating me." When I finished speaking the unicorn's horn came alight with magic as a translucent dome covered the area we were in.

Looking at it for a moment Grogar's knowledge plus what I had read up on the subject told me it was a simple enchantment field meant to keep magic and sound in.

What I found curious was that despite it being a "simple" enchantment it wasn't the kind of thing you could just create in a second as the unicorn did.

A field this large needed an equally big enchantment circle, which meant that hey had prepared this area beforehand.

I was broken out of my thoughts by the unicorn speaking again.

"You may have caught King Sombra by surprise while he was weakened by those fake goddesses but we will defeat you and return the Empire to its rightful ruler." Said the surprisingly confident unicorn.

Maybe it was another remnant of Grogar's or maybe simply my own personality but somepony blatantly looking down at me like he was, quickly transformed my frustration to anger.

"I... Am the Emperor." I said with narrowed eyes and gritted teeth as my anger rose.

"You are nothing but a usurper and a false ruler to us, goat." And just like that my anger boiled over.

A second later the unicorn and his trope had to dodge as a sphere of magic was shot towards them.

One of the earth ponies wasn't quite fast enough as he was caught up in the explosion caused by the sphere hitting the ground.

"So, it's treason then."



Meanwhile, in another part of the castle.


A cloaked figure sneaked through the castle while avoiding the patrolling guards as it tried to reach its destination.

Reaching a turn it looked around for any witnesses before approaching a set of big doors.

Opening them the main balcony was revealed, instead of focusing on the scenery, it looked towards the corner where the balcony met the wall.

There, sitting precariously between two balusters was a cracked crimson tipped curved horn.

The figure smiled before pulling a small marble from somewhere in its coat.



Back with Greema 

I dodged the bladed wings of the pegasus before casually swinging my foreleg to the side.

I ignored the cracking sounds coming from my hoof smashing into a charging earth pony as I focused on the pegasus going around for another attack.

As he started flying straight towards me magic gathered between my horns.

A moment later a set of wings fell in front of me and the magic containment field rippled around us as it absorbed the disintegration spell.

I blinked as I felt a small tingling on the back of my head while my vision was momentarily covered in blue.

Turning around I stared at the panting unicorn for a moment before realizing he had just fired a full-powered magic blast at me.

I glared at him as I spoke. "Is that all?"

He gritted his teeth and fired another blast that just like the last one simply washed off me.

As he lay there panting I decided enough was enough as my anger abated.

Before I could do anything I stopped as I sensed the containment field dispersing.

The unicorn suddenly reached into a small satchel on his side and pulled a marble from it.

I frowned as I recognized it as a communication device, a common item used by many civilians to the military.

He started whispering into it but sadly for him, I heard every word he said thanks to my superior hearing.

"Did you find it...good, go to the ritual site and prepare everything, I'll meet you and the rest there." As he finished speaking my anger returned as I realized what happened.

"It was a distraction." I thought.

"I got played like an idiot and I didn't even realize it."I focused back on the unicorn but suddenly a rock smashed to pieces against the side of my head.

While it didn't hurt it certainly caught my attention.

Turning in the direction it came from I saw an earth pony standing on quivering legs just in time for him to cough up blood and collapse.

When I turned my head back around with the idea of adding a horned corpse to the garden's decorations a new wave of anger came over me as the unicorn was nowhere to be seen.

With a snarl, I stomped towards the dying earth pony and flipped him onto his back.

"Where did he go." I demanded.

The only answer I got was a gurgling laugh.

"Answer me." I roared.

A moment later he simply went limp, finally dying.

Situations that invoked my anger happening one after the other accumulated and I raised a hoof into the air as I exploded.

With a roar, I caved his head in along with the surrounding ground.

Rising my hoove I slammed it down again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

When I finally calmed down I looked down at the mess I made and realized that I may just have some very tiny anger issues.

That's how the guards alerted by the sound of my stomping found me, blood covering my whole front and standing over a pulped mass of flesh that could barely be recognized a pony by the remaining flank and hind legs.

Stepping away from the pile of gore my magic flowed as I used two simple spells.

A moment later the blood and bits of pony were washed off me followed by a small burst of flame that instantly dried me.

Turning to the two guards to issue out orders I was interrupted by the feeling of disgustingly dark but strangely familiar magic coming from somewhere in the city.

A moment later the castle alarm started ringing.
> 6 Ruin.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Empire.

The moment the alarm sounded I sent the two guards off before teleporting to my room where a couple of servants were waiting along with my combat armor.

Less than five minutes later I appeared at the top of the tower in a flash of teleportation.

Different from the armor and cape combo I use to wear, the combat armor covered my whole body.

Silvery greaves covered my hooves along with the front of my legs and segmented plate armor ran from my flanks to the front of my chest.

Under all the plate a black scale-like bodysuit covered me all the way to the base of my head protecting anything not covered in the plate.

If anyone were to look closely they would notice something inscribed in each individual "scale".

My head was covered in a helmet that left only my lower jaw free.

I channeled magic through a specific rune on the inside of the helmet a moment later Steel Bolt's slightly panicked voice was heard.

"My Lord." He exclaimed. "The scrying squad has detected a massive source of dark magic coming from the west city sector."

"I know." I said grimly, the moment I had first felt it I barely needed a second to sense where it was coming from.

"What are your orders, my Lord." Asked Steel Bolt.

"Send orders for all districts to evacuate to the castle, but send as many guards as you can to the western district to get the district out of there." After a moment of thinking I spoke again. "Once all the civilians are in the castle activate the barriers, I'll deal with whatever this is."

"Wait, my Lord, please, let us bac-" 

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted as with a flash of light and a massive tremor that was felt even from up here, half the west sector suddenly turned into a massive crater.

A moment later a distorted and echoing laugh reached my ears.

"All civilians to the castle, NOW." I ordered.

"Yes my Lord." This time he didn't question me and a second later the connection was cut.

Looking at the massive crater I ignored the sounds of panic emerging all over the city as I teleported to the center of it.

I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the laughing figure before me.

Towering over me was what I could only call a pony of shadows.

With the wings, the backward-pointing horn, and the completely white eyes I wouldn't have recognized him as Sombra if it weren't for the horn's crimson tip and the green fire flowing around his eyes.

"Ah well if it isn't" I didn't bother listening to him as with a thought a wave of white energy burst from my bell and engulfed him.

I frowned as I didn't hear him make a single noise and when the energy stopped flowing my eyes widened as I saw him standing there completely unharmed.

He started laughing again before speaking. "Fool, I'm being powered by a whole DIMENSION, such a small amount of power will not be able to vanquish me."

My anger started to rise as he laughed but after a moment I calmed down and thought of something.

"Oh." I wondered out loud. 

"Are you saying that I just need to use more then." I asked him as I raised an eyebrow.

Judging by the fact that he stopped laughing and growled at me I was right.

"Very well then." A so spoke the bell shone as I prepared a blast bigger than the last one.

Before I could fire my vision was suddenly filled with black.

My pupils shrank to pinpricks as my instincts screamed at me and I instantly created a shield in front of me, diverting the massive wave of dark magic to my sides.

After the magic stopped I looked behind me and snarled as I saw the two massive trenches going through the city.

They had barely missed the castle.

"Do you take me for an idiot, I will not sit still while you charge the crystal heart you fool."

Turning back to him I spoke. "Then I guess I'll just beat you into the ground and get myself some time."

As he charged his magic I did the same while thinking on how to hold him down long enough to charge the crystal bell to a point it would either kill him or send him back to the abyss.

Sadly I didn't know just how much I would need for it to work, for all I know I'll have to charge it from anywhere from ten seconds to a full minute.

I was broken out if my thoughts by something impacting with my face.

A second later I blinked as I realized I was staring at the sky as I flew through the air.

Then before my brain could catch up to my body I smashed through a building, and the next, and the next.

When I stopped I barely had time to regain my bearings and stand up before a beam of black magic slammed into me, creating an explosion that blew the entire block surrounding the building to pieces.

As I lay in pain among the rubble a black figure landed on the ground in front of me.

"What's the matter little goat." Mocked Sombra.

Before I could say anything he smashed a hoof into my chest.

I could barely let a noise out as the pressure on my chest increases and I started to hear cracking sounds.

"I hope that's the armor." I thought.

"You see, every moment that passes the more powerful I become, eventually there will be none capable of standing in my way."

As he gloated Sombra mistakenly stopped pressing down on me.

Finally being able to breathe I did the fastest thing I could and simply smashed my hoof full force against the side of his leg.

As he backed away with a scream of pain I quickly stood up, a quick glance down showed me that the chest of my armor was cracked.

A moment later I had to duck as a massive hoof swiped the air where my head used to be.

Sombra was sent flying as a blast hit him in the chest, he didn't fly very far and quickly stabilized himself.

As I saw him turn back towards me and charge his magic I quickly formed a shield surrounding me.

An explosion even bigger than the last engulfed me, but, this time I was able to protect myself I didn't receive any damage.

A moment later I flew out of the cloud of dust in a pair of astral wings.

Thankfully Grogar had done this enough times in his life that it wasn't too difficult.

As Sombra tried to charge his magic he was interrupted as I teleported behind him and shot a beam of magic that sent him into the ground.

Looking down at the hole he had been buried into I barely dodged to the side as a sphere of shadows almost as big as a house flew past me.

I frowned as I saw Sombra just standing there with a smirk in his face.

Noticing a shadow covering me I turned around.

My eyes barely had the time to widen as the sphere of shadows, now almost the size of the palace exploded.

And then everything I knew was black.





For a minute, all that could be seen of the capital was a twisting mass of darkness.

Above it floated a pony of shadows, laughing as his power grew and grew.

After a moment the shadows receded back into Sombra and the city's condition was revealed.

The palace itself was largely undamaged, the protective shields holding strong despite the multiple cracks along their surface.

The surrounding city wasn't as lucky, anything not simply turned into dust was rubble, not a single building remained standing.

Among the rubble, a figure could be seen panting in panting in pain a sit tried to stand up.

The figure was Greema, his armor completely gone, and calling his current state severe was an understatement.

His body was littered with cuts of various sizes, many even showing the bone underneath.

Various patches of fur were missing and showed the muscle underneath, and his right horn was snapped in half.

The reason he hadn't stood up yet was apparent as his right front leg had several deep cuts that almost severed it, it was barely hanging by some strips of skin and muscle.

But by far the worst injury was on his head.

While the left side was fine besides some deep cuts here and there the right side of his face was a different story entirely.

Not only was his right eye gone but a cut almost as wide as his eye socket cut right through the cranial bone, leaving a gash on his skull that went all the way to his ear.

After a moment he gave up on standing and simply slumped on the ground.





As I lay on the ground in the ruins of what used to be a city I could only think about how much it hurt.

"Damn it, Damn it." I cursed in my mind, too tired and hurt to speak.

The only reason I was still alive despite the blood loss and the fact that my brain was basically exposed was mainly due to my special physiology and my magic working overtime to keep me alive.

And even then it was a close call after all my armor had lasted a surprisingly long time, breaking just before the spell stopped.

For a whole two seconds, I got to experience what it felt like to be inside a tornado that simultaneously tried to turn you into mincemeat and erase your existence.

If the spell had lasted a second longer I would be dead, simple as that.

Hearing explosions I glanced in their direction and noticed Sombra shooting at the palace, slowly but surely I could see it's barriers breaking.

Well, the good news where the bell had charged enough.

The bad news was that with the citizens in the four districts not really knowing what was happening and the one's inside the palace probably thinking I was dead I didn't have enough love to activate the bell.

I could use my own magic to do it but I barely had enough for maybe a high-level spell, and that was if I pushed it.

So in short, I had what was necessary to defeat Sombra but I didn't have enough love or magic to use it...magic.

Magic.

Looking towards Sombra an idea came to me, it had a high chance of killing me but It was also the course of action with the highest chance of success.

I didn't bother trying to stand up as I knew if I put any pressure on my right leg it would just fall to pieces.

I started channeling my magic and a moment later I disappeared in a red flash.

High above Sombra stopped his assault on the castle as I suddenly appeared on his back.

"What are you AAAAGH." He stopped talking as I bit down as hard as I could.

It tasted even worse than the last time but it worked, as I absorbed more of his magic my own was slowly being replenished and instantly being sent into the bell.

I grunted in pain but didn't stop biting as multiple spears made of shadow spouted from him and pierced my body.

Distantly I felt what was probably my lung or heart being destroyed and my right foreleg flying trough the air.

"Not yet." I thought as I felt myself blacking out.

"I just need a little mo-" My thoughts were interrupted as I felt a massive pulse of magic and love coming from the south.

And just like that, I had enough.

I didn't even question the sudden miracle as with renewed energy I activated the bell.

For a moment I felt nothing as my world was bathed in white.

Then everything came back and I could barely hear Sombras final death throes as he simply came apart below me.

Then I was falling as he ceased to exist.

With the damage I had taken catching up to me the impact with the ground sealed the deal and I blacked out.




Around the same time.
Crystal Mountains.

Just a moment after Greema felt the wave of love and magic multiple black blurs could be seen hurling through the air at high speed.

While some flew over the mountains and eventually landed in the snow others weren't as lucky and smashed straight into them, dying instantly.

A blur noticeably bigger than the rest clipped the top of a mountain, breaking it off, before falling towards the snow below.
> 7 Rebuilding and Hangovers.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere south of the Crystal Empire

Trudging through the snow where multiple insect looking equines, they numbered less than a hundred and had a range of injuries from small cracks on their chitin to visibly broken limbs. Together with the cold, this meant that some simply stopped walking and fell to the ground.

Slowly but surely their numbers were dwindling but they still kept a protective circle around a figure currently being carried in the center.

The figure in question was bigger than the others by at least ahead if it were standing and had a dark green mane and tail.

Sadly it's current condition was quite severe, with multiple cracks on its chitin that we're currently oozing with green blood.

The one's carrying it was similar to the rest beside some small differences in color with one having slightly lighter colored eyes and the other one having purple eyes along with a red-colored fin.

There were no words spoken amongst the group for they were not needed, their only objective was getting their queen to a safe place and healing her.

They were heading towards a dome of light in the distance that they could feel a massive source of love emanating from.

They ignored the days of constant traveling, the lack of sleep, and even their injuries.

Nothing would stop them from achieving their objective.



Crystal Empire
Royal Chambers

I was tired, it had been a little over two weeks after my "battle" with Sombra and they had kept me busy.

The first day I spent slipping in and out of consciousness and it was on the second day that I was lucid enough to start healing myself properly.

It still took me almost two days because, surprise, growing a new leg along with multiple organs and half a skull took time and energy.

As soon as I had recovered completely I had started helping with the rebuilding efforts, but I was no architect so I had simply helped remove all the rubble.

After that, I had needed to get more involved in the accounting and managing of everything, when I had split Sombra's attack in two it had missed the castle but sadly the diverted beams tore right through the crowds of ponies trying to get into it, Onyx Tome had been part of the casualties.

I still felt guilty about the ponies that had died due to my lack of foresight.

The casualty list had been finished and around a quarter of the city's population had been lost.

Thankfully specific runic circles and formulae could make crystals grow in the desired size and shape.

With the resource collection and refining skipped it meant ponies could get straight into rebuilding.

Thankfully the main sewer system wasn't severely damaged so it had been quickly fixed and some public toilets had been built. The castle had run out of sleeping space so a great number of tents had been raised right under the castle and its immediate surroundings.

The current estimates said that all the rebuilding would take up to two months until completion. I had ordered them to focus on housing first, so at least the citizens wouldn't be homeless for more than a month.

The four administrators had come to the city and after they gave their oaths of loyalty to me I had multiple meetings with them regarding the city rebuilding efforts, resource distribution, and the current situation in the cardinal districts.

Nothing had happened besides some small panic from the ponies living in the line of sight of the city. I had also given the go-ahead on more aggressive control of the yeti population to Ebony Beak.

Some good news was that the remaining Sombra acolytes had been captured, I was still thinking about how they would be punished. The official list of "punishments for treason" had a variety of execution methods and a single banishment that involved getting completely shaved and being thrown with nothing into the middle of yeti territory.

'Huh, that's pretty dark.'

I winced as my head throbbed In pain.

Yesterday I had decided to have a private dinner with the four administrators so I could get to know them over some food and drinks.

Sadly none of the drinks available we're able to get me even a little tipsy.

Me being the genius that I am decided to use my magic to add a little bit of "oomph" to the alcohol.

I overdid it and the five of us ended completely plastered.

So today I had awoken with a massive hangover, no memory after my second cup, and four missing administrators.

Thankfully after some searching, most of them were found. Sadly a severed talon that had been shoved into an ice bucket was the only part of Ebony Beak that had been found so far.

After waking up and realizing the absence of the four administrators my attention had been pulled upwards by the sound of snoring.

There, sleeping in the chandelier, was Mystic Clarity.

Gold Wheat had somehow ended up on the very top of the tower and had been stuck there, luckily he had only suffered some mild sunburn.

Steel Hoof had been found in the dungeons, apparently, he has been detained for "improper conduct" on the central plaza.

All in all last night was a mess. I don't know what I said exactly but now there's a lot of ponies unhappy with Equestria's princesses.

'It's probably nothing important'

I was broken out of my thoughts by the sound of knocking.

"Come in." At my words, a guard entered the room and bowed.

"My Lord, administrator Ebony Beak was found." My eyes widened at this information. "They have!? Where was he." I asked.

"He was found in the cold storage room, sir." I blinked at his words.

"How the fuck did he end up in the- forget it, I don't care about that right now, were the healers able to reattach his talon." 

"Yes sir, and he is expected to make a full recovery by tomorrow." I gave a relieved sigh at his words.

After dismissing him I teleported to the main balcony and looked over the ruined city.

I could see ponies workers, architects, and rune specialists slowly rebuilding the ruined capital.

I also spotted a variety of civilians and guards helping around and in the sea of tents below me.

*bzzzzzt*

A buzzing sound bought my attention to a small marble attached to my ear like an earring.

With a thought, my magic activated it and I spoke.

"Yes," I asked.

"Your Majesty, an urgent report from the south gate."

CHAPTER END




What if 1: Successfully Failed Resurrection

I hummed as I brushed my mane.

Life as a pony had been interesting, to say the least. Fifteen years in and I could say I didn't have many regrets.

After centuries in limbo, my anger had simmered down but when my chance came I still took it. I knew it was quite likely I would be reincarnated as a pony but I simply thought of it as needing patience.

Just wait until I grew old enough and get back my power, then revenge, simple as that.

Of course, it took me little time to realize that Gusty was already dead, having passed of old age centuries ago.

Something I hadn't foreseen was what reincarnating as a pony would do to me, in my previous life I had been a mass of dark energies and magic that eventually grew strong enough to create a physical body.

Now as a pony I gained not only the ability to actually feel more positive emotions but also obtained empathy.

While at the start I was annoyed by the change I eventually gave up on fighting it when I was two and started crying after stepping on my pet rock.

With a final swipe, I set the brush down and made sure my yellow tie and purple button-up were nice and tidy.

Stepping back and looking myself over I scowled slightly. When I was born some higher being decided that from five siblings only one would take massively after their mother.

And let me give you a hint, it wasn't any of my four sisters.

While my eldest and second eldest sisters were big blocks of muscle and my other two sisters were pretty much the same only slimmer, no matter how much muscle I packed I still looked the same.

Short, soft, curvy, and easily mistaken for a mare.

Thankfully just like my mother, it didn't make me any weaker, I could break boulders in half and overpower my sisters on a bad day.

I sighed.

'From father of all monsters to mare looking stallion.' I thought to myself.

Suddenly my door was almost ripped from its hinges (again) by hard knocking.

"Come on you peacock it's getting late and I want to get back in time for dinner." My eldest sister's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Coming," I called back.

Opening the door I was greeted by the sight of my scowling sibling.

"Finally, now let's get a move on." Without waiting for my answer she started walking away. "The Sapphires and the Quartz have been testy lately and dad wants us to give them a reminder of why we are in charge here."

As walked down the stairs we passed by the kitchen and I noticed my mother preparing something.

"Goodbye mother," I called out to her as we headed out the door. 

"Farewell," she called back. "And remember to be on the lookout for any touchy stallions Octavio."

I sighed. "Yes, mother."

As we walked towards our destination I glared at my laughing sister.

"Shut up Limestone."
> 8 Instincts.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Empire
Southern Fort 

In a flash of magic, I appeared before the fort's gate fully dressed with my now fixed armor.

The guards at the gates had already ordered them open the moment they had seen me, I walked through and was greeted by the sight of the fort's commander.

"Sir." He saluted.

I gave a nod towards him as I spoke. "Where are our "visitors" commander."

The commander saluted again before turning and starting to walk. "This way sir." 

While the forts didn't have dedicated prisons they did have holding cells where captured enemies were held until transport.

As we walked I spoke to him. "What are their conditions, the one who called me said some of them where quite severely hurt if not dead."

The commander nodded as he spoke. "Yes sir, some of them died before medical care could be given but most are now being looked over by our healers."

I gave a thoughtful hum before speaking. "Were there any issues with that?"

"Well, their biology seems quite different from ours but basic first aid has proven to be effective so far." I simply nodded at his words as we reached a small flight of stairs.

"If they are what I think they are I may be able to help them." At least I hoped I could. When the guard who called spoke about insect looking ponies only one species came forth from my fractured memories.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs we were greeted by a wide hallway with multiple heavy looking doors to the sides.

The door closest to us was open and I could hear some clamoring coming from the inside.

Going in could see it was a large circular room with multiple cots around the room and even some carved directly inside of the walls. They were currently filled with black shapes that on a closer look confirmed my suspicions of what they were.

Most had bandages and splints on them and only a few seemed to be conscious. Walking around the room and checking on them were ponies dressed in robes that indicated them as healers.

Also standing at attention around the room were multiple guards.

"They are Changelings," I said.

The commander blinked for a moment before speaking. "They are what sir."

"Changelings," I repeated. "Shapeshifters that feed on love, and this bunch looks particularly starved I'd say."

And it was true, while not very apparent physically the bell let me see the small and pitiful amounts of love they had inside them.

Looking at the few conscious ones I started walking towards the closest.

The changeling in question was sitting on his bed and was remarkably different from its brethren, sporting a red fin and purple eyes.

Once I got close enough to him his head snapped in my direction and his eyes locked onto the bell hanging from my neck, a moment later he looked like he was going to attack me.

Thankfully before he could get himself killed by the commander and guards who suddenly looked ready to dogpile him a growl from me froze him as his instincts made him realize he was before a bigger monster.

inferior

With a whimper, he seemed to shrink down on himself as I drew closer, once I got in front of him he was laying on the ground and shaking slightly.

Looking down at him I placed my hoof on the bell, a second later I removed it and a blue wisp was pulled along with it.

The changeling had stopped shaking and was now starting transfixed at it.

With a thought, I sent it floating towards him and I didn't need to say anything as he immediately closed his jaws around it.

He chewed it a couple of times and when he swallowed it he froze, then he suddenly went limp and collapsed on the floor.

Pathetic

Looking expectantly at the changeling's unmoving form I felt curious as to if it was still alive, a moment later I could see his injuries healing and how his body gains a "healthy" sheen.

With a thoughtful hum, I used my magic to pick him up and drop him back on his cot.

Moving towards the nearest changeling I started the process again. Ten minutes later I left behind a room full of unconscious changelings and gave the commander orders to place more guards to keep an eye on them in case they woke up too "energetic".

Walking down the corridor I headed to where the single cells were located, apparently, once the leader had been stabilized she had woken up quite "agitated" and the guards had to strap her to the bed.

As I walked an unfamiliar smell got stronger and stro-TRESPASSER

I stumbled from the sudden feeling but before I could recover more came.

OTHER ALPHA
CHALLENGER
KILL
SUBJUGATE
BANISH
FIGHT

A moment of clarity let me see how my body tore through a steel door to the sight of an empty bed and broken restraints.

Then a black blur leaped at me from the ceiling and I lost all control.




When my consciousness returned I felt surprisingly good, all my stress had seemingly banished and I felt completely at rest.

Looking around the room I noticed cracks and indents all over the walls and even some on the roof, and as I took a sniff I realized there was a heavy musk all over that smelled of me and someone else.

A second look had me notice the fact that I was laying down on what looked like the remains of a bed along with a blanket covering me and a big bulge beside me.

Lifting the blanket revealed to me the form of a sleeping Chrysalis currently pressed against me.

"Huh," I muttered, connecting the dots.

"Fuck it," I said, before laying back down snuggling closer to her and making sure the blanket covered the both of us.

"Future me can deal with this."

CHAPTER END
> 9. Anything for them.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Palace.
Crystal Gardens.
Chrysalis POV.

Chrysalis sighed contentedly as she finished drinking her tea, the hot beverage clearing away any remaining drowsiness and calming her nerves.

She set her cup down before looking at her current company, he had several piles of scrolls on his side of the table and in the time it took her to drink her tea he had only read around three of them from what she had seen. She was somewhat torn on how to feel about him, on one hand, he is the reason she and the remnants of her hive are alive and had even fed them, she hadn't felt this satisfied in years, but on the other hand, well...she shifted slightly on her seat as a certain soreness made itself known once again, right, that situation.

To be honest she was less angry at the act itself and more at the fact that she lost.

Before that little accident, she had regained consciousness low on magic, hurt, and surrounded by ponies, so she feels that her panic at the time was justified, of course, she couldn't do much before some armored ponies -guards, she guessed- entered the room and held her down, the last thing she remembered was a pony wearing some kind of robes approaching her with some kind of crystal sphere on their hoof, the moment it made contact with her head she had immediately passed out.

When she next awoke her wounds were seemingly gone and she was alone, when she had tried to get up and wasn't able to she realized she was strapped down, thanks to her natural flexibility it didn't take much work to twist her neck enough to bite off her restraints.

Her little victory was short-lived however as she suddenly heard the sound of stomping growing louder and her Empathic sense suddenly detected a strangely familiar signature growing closer.

Chrysalis couldn't feel anything else close by so whatever that thing was it was probably heading for her, thinking quickly she leaped onto the roof above the door and waited, as the thing grew closer and she got a better handle on its emotions she realized why it fell so familiar.

It was a monster's out-of-control instincts, it somewhat confused her, after all, monsters only display such a lack of control when they are very young and even then it tends to be only in short bursts, what she felt approaching did not feel like a newborn at all.

She didn't get any more time to think about it as the door was turned into splinters when a figure charged through it.

She only looked at them for a second, noting they seemed to be some kind of goat, a very tall goat, before she jumped at them, landing on their back and biting the side of their neck, everything was kind of a blur for her as they trashed all around the room damaging the walls and even the roof before eventually she slipped and the goat got their jaws around one of her limbs, ripping her off their back and slamming her into the ground momentarily knocking her out.

When her consciousness returned to her she realized she was laying on the ground and the goat was standing over her, staring directly at her face with an intense look on its face.

She tried to get up, but a pair of hooves cracked the ground on either side of her head, and a snarl showed on their face.

Chrysalis instinctively flinched back but she mentally slapped herself and snarled right back at her captor.

"You may try and kill me, beast, but I will not go down quietlyyyy〰h-huh, w-what are you doing." Chrysalis's initially strong words turned into flustered stuttering as the "beast" above her suddenly leaned down and a long snake-like tong slithered out of their mouth to give her a long lick along the side of her neck.

"Stop tha-nngh〰" Chrysalis's words failed her once more as the goat started to give her little nips and kisses in between the licks, Chrysalis was no blushing maiden. Still, the only experience she had was with Shining Armor and some stallions or mares before him that she had used for a quick snack here and there. Even then those situations were more along the line of her using some living, breathing, sex toy than actual sex with an active partner.

Trying to get some manner of control over her current situation she thrust her head forward and smashed her lips against her "captor's", they seemed surprised for a moment before they closed their eyes and leaned into the kiss. Chrysalis tongue darted forward and brushed against their lips and not a moment later an equally long tongue was wrestling against it.

With the combination of their kissing and their body's closeness Chrysalis slowly but surely grew more and more aroused as they continued, her hunger not helping the least.

She suddenly broke the kiss with a yelp at the sensation of something warm poking her stomach, she looked down and blinked owlishly at the suddenly revealed member.

She didn't get any time to think about the fact that her partner was male as he seemingly grew impatient and started kissing her neck before beginning a trail down her body.

Changelings didn't produce any waste as the emotions they ate were turned into energy for them and any solid foods eaten were stored to produce resin, so once he finished his trek and reached the area between her legs he was greeted by unmarred skin, he was confused for a moment but suddenly what looked like a small hole opened.

The weirdness didn't seem to deter him as his tongue darted out and immediately went inside her.

While she was surprised at the sudden intrusion she didn't mind at all and simply enjoyed the feeling of his tongue exploring every inch of her insides. This continued for some time but, eventually, Chrysalis let out a moan much louder than the others, and her insides quivered and clenched around the intruding appendage as she reaches release.

As she pants slightly she looks up at her partner and sees his tongue licking his soaked lips and chin, as he does she notices how his slitted pupils seem to dilate and his breathing grows slightly heavier, looking down at his painfully erect member she doesn't need to wonder what he is planning on doing as he starts moving towards her.

But, before he can reach her she quickly turns around to lay on her belly, looking at him over her shoulder she raised her flanks and flagged her tail, his slightly confused look shifts into one of lust as he quickly gets the message.

Chrysalis looks forward and closes her eyes as she waits, a moment later she feels a pair of limbs hook around her waist and the tip of his member pressing against her entrance for only an instant before it goes in with an almost audible pop. Her partner didn't seem to like it slow as the moment the tip went in the rest quickly followed, in seconds he had completely bottomed out and Chrysalis didn't have a single complaint.

Now with his body completely on top of hers, he didn't give her any time to adjust as he pulled back slightly before ramming back in, he quickly set a fast pace as he sawed in and out of her, Chrysalis meanwhile was getting lost in the pleasure as his member hit the deepest parts of her with every thrust.

She didn't know how long they kept at it but eventually, she reached her limit once more and, with a moan that was probably heard all over the fort, came around his member, the clenching of her walls around him bringing out his own release, jets of virile seed painting her depths white.

Chrysalis, with her mind, clouded not only by her own lust but also her partner's own completely forgot to do a simple action, one that any changeling infiltrator did whenever they slept with a stallion.

Back to the present, a now clear-minded Chrysalis was once again reminded of what she had forgotten to do as she shifted slightly and felt the semen packed in her womb slosh about.

She hadn't gotten any time to flush it out and even if she did, changelings have an almost perfect perception of what happens inside their bodies so she knows it's too late for it to matter, now the problem was how to break it to him.

The door opening caught her attention and she saw a maid walk in with a tray perfectly balanced on her back, out of the corner of her eye she saw Greema (Whose name she had learned only because she heard everyone else say it) make a pained face as he noticed that the tray was filled with even more scrolls.

While she didn't look away from the maid she aimed her Empathy toward the love permeating the room before she could feel the maid's emotions.

Something she had noticed, and even slightly unnerved her, was the emotions of the guards and servants they had crossed on the way here. When she ignored the cloud of pure love that saturated the air around Greema she noticed the sheer devotion, everyone they crossed felt for him, it was almost fanaticism, and while normally such positive emotions would be a banquet for her or any other changeling, feeding off Greema's citizens would be like trying to swallow a can of the sweetest syrup you could find, they could eat it but they would probably feel sick.

Chrysalis certainly felt that way and it was only from feeling them.

So yes, Chrysalis much preferred focusing on the literal love in the air or Greema's own emotions. But, fanatics emotions aside, this land would be perfect for her changelings to settle, even without Greema pouring out love into the surrounding area the love all around was enough for them to feed themselves, and while they may need to feed directly from someone to get enough power to fight they would otherwise be perfectly satiated.

Now, the issue was how to tell him certain news that she had no idea how he would react to and discover what she would need to do for her and her hive to be allowed a place in his Empire.

She had felt Greema's emotions and while she couldn't call him Evil she certainly wouldn't call him a Saint, after all, what kind of Saint talks of thousands of their citizens dying with the same emotion as one who's talking about the weather.

But even with his instincts in control and a clear mind, she could tell his desires hadn't changed a lot so when she finally got the courage to speak she wasn't surprised at his answer.

"What's going to be your price." She didn't need to go into it, he knew exactly what she was referring to.

He simply tilted his as he looked at her. 

"You know what I want." She gritted her teeth at his infuriatingly calm voice before a smirk grew on her face.

"And what if I don't want to do it." Chrysalis had let some of her usual haughtiness seep into her voice to try and get some reaction out of him.

He just raised an eyebrow, while most wouldn't feel threatened or intimidated, most creatures also aren't capable of feeling the emotions behind such a simple gesture, Chrysalis certainly could and she quickly lost her smirk and looked down at her teacup.

She didn't really have to think a lot about it, her changeling's well-being depended on this and she would do anything for them, she sighed disappointedly and looked back at him.

"I will do it." 

Her fate sealed Greema smiled as he levitated his own teacup towards him. "Good."

She frowned for a moment before an idea came to mind, it was petty but she was still a Queen and deserved some manner of revenge.

She cleared her throat to get his attention and spoke.

"By the way..."

He didn't give any sign that he was listening to her as he took a sip of his tea.

"I'm pregnant."

As petty as it was she still got some joy out of the sigh of Greema choking on his tea.

CHAPTER END
> (Extra) The many landings of Greema. Part 1.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The desert was hot.

I did not like the heat.

The wind blowing sand into my face I liked even less.

Still, while I didn't like the heat it wasn't really affecting me much, even after hours of walking I had barely worked out a light sweat, it was curious but I just left it up to whatever my creator/gene donor put in my body.

"It's thanks to the sand wyrm, back in my time the desert didn't need my direct attention so I simply created a monster that could trive in such an environment, I know not if any still live."

I sighed, speak of the demon goat and he shall appear.

When I first woke up I was quite confused, half because I had no Idea where the hell I was and half because I didn't know who I was, while I had some memories they seemed so distant, all the knowledge was there but none of the feeling associated with them was present, not only that but anything related to names was cloudy, blurred over almost.

I don't know how long I walked as I tried to center my thoughts but eventually I came back to my senses when the ground I was walking on changed from grass and dirt to what seemed to be stone, looking upwards I saw a massive ramp that headed higher up the mountain towards what looked like some kind of city with a castle on it.

I didn't make it even halfway up before a pink light exploded out of the city, it not only burned me, but it blinded me long enough that by the time my vision cleared I barely had time to see the pink wall of suddenly solid light before it was literally in my face.

Then, thanks to the angle the "bubble" caught me in I had the distinct experience of being scrapped down the ramp, followed by the ground  and any trees that were in the way, I don't know if I bounced off of something or if whoever cast the spell was being mean but at one point I found myself suddenly flying trough the air.

Eventually I landed on the desert, the multitude of cracked or outright broken bones showing that the sand hadn't softened my fall at all.

The only reason I hadn't turned into a splatter on impact or had my organs turned into mush was once again thanks to my special physiology, according to my creator spending hundreds if not thousands of years in limbo with nothing but darkness and your thoughts for company meant that the only real thing he could do was plan.

One of those was me, well not really me but rather my body, he called it his magnum opus.

While he had been skilled at many things while alive there was one area where he excelled at and wich he was mainly known for, and that was the creation of monsters.

My body was an amalgamation of almost all the monsters he had created throughout his life, anything with a useful trait was added and any weakness or drawback removed, right now I was his strongest creation.

Thankfully for me I didn't have to deal with a crotchety old fuck trying to take over my body since whatever that pink magic was had almost completely erased him , the only thing left of him was a weak consciousness and his memories. If I ever met whoever cast it I would thank them, then punch them for launching me halfway across the bloody continent.

So, I only had to deal with a voice in the back of my head an the memories of one of the most evil beings in this world. Thankfully they also didn't come with any of his emotions attached, not that it made any it any better.

Seeing a peculiar shape coming into sight I perked up, it seems my luck was turning for the better as in the distance I could see what looked to be some kind of town, towers stretching into the skies and blimps parked into them.

Suddenly I stopped, sniffing the air around me, my ears turning this way and that, and my eyes scanning my surroundings.

My senses didn't fail me as after a moment five shapes burst out of the sand around me, laughing filling the air as what looked like very ugly bipedal pigs eyed me up and down like a piece of meat, and judging by the "tools" most of them where carrying it may not be very far from the true.

"Well, well, look what we have here boys, free merchandise." A particularly ugly one spoke, the others letting out those stupid snorting laughs again.

"I want the fur, I bet we get a gold piece at minimum for that quality."

"Oh oh, I want those horns, Prushka pays very well for them."

As the pigs continued their discussion about who would get what part they kept  approaching me with a relaxed air around them, almost as if they didn't consider me a threat.

It annoyed me for some reason.

"Ok boys, let's get star-." The apparent leader didn't get to finish his words as he and his friends froze in place, the reason becoming ovious as a red glow surrounded them, the same glow emitting from my horn's crevices.

"Now, let's have a little chat my friends." 


 
Sometime later.
Kludgetown.

I bit down, the sound of sharp teeth tearing into flesh quickly followed by the cracking of bones, I didn't leave a single piece of food, licking the bowl for good measure.

Putting it down I threw another silver coin to the amused innkeeper.

"Another." I didn't have to wait as the old abyssinian simply turned to the grill behind him and refilled my bowl with a variety of meats before turning to a small cauldron that was set on a fire to the side, a bubbling sauce wich I was growing to love filling it.

Grabbing a laddle I watched as he spread the holy liquid over the meat before setting the bowl down in front of me.

I didn't waste a second and immediately tore into the food.

"You know." Started the Abyssinian, I didn't bother stopping as I looked at him. "Most creatures don't order more than one serving of my special pepper and mushroom sauce and even they barely use a spoonful of the thing."

"Cowards." I grunted out between bites.

He only snorted.

"it's toxic in any amount bigger than that and even if it wasn't it still is the spiciest thing around, wich should explain my surprise when I see...whatever you are come in and eat several servings of food slathered in it, you ate half the bloody cauldron already."

"Tasty." Was my food muffled answer, and it really was, what first drew me here was the smell, and when I actually tasted it I knew I needed to eat more. The only reason I could pay him was thanks to the pigs helpful "donations", truly the generosity of strangers astounded me.

As for his "Whatever you are" coment, I couldn't really fault him for it, I wasn't what you'd call a "normal sight".

In terms of size I stood head to head with most of the bipeds I crossed in this city despite being a quadruped, my fur was a slightly dark blue, as for my eyes, the slacera had a somewhat yellowish tint to it while the pupils where slitted and surrounded by a deep red iris.

All that plus the twisting horns and wings meant that I looked like some kind of demonic fusion of sheep and pegasus.

In the end I only ate a couple of bowls more before deciding enough was enough and left to explore kludgetown some more and hopefully get myself a ride out of here.

Hopefully nothing goes wrong...shit.



Sometime later...again.

I sat silently as I looked out over the clouds, the sight of kludgetown got tinier and tinier as the airship floated further towards the north.

'I should really learn to keep my mouth shut'

A squeak made me look down at the source of my thoughts.

She was a tiny thing, barely the size of my head if not a little bit smaller, the only thing breaking up the pink fur that covered her entire body was the small patch of growing mane on her head.

Grabbing a newborn wasn't really a part of my plans, not by a long shot.

Earlier I had gotten directions towards the more traveling focused airship docks and was heading there when some peculiar squeaks caught my attention. It wasn't the first weird nose my hearing had made me aware of but for some reason something inside me made want to find it.

Before I knew it I was standing in a alley and looking down at a little pink fur ball, aunburn eyes staring at me from the inside of a trash can.

Around an hour later here we are, on a airship heading north, towards Equestria, she was sleeping soundly against my chest, held in a makeshift sling made from a blanket I bought from the first vendor I found.

Feeling her shiver against my chest made me frown.

'Don't you dare...'

But, my body wasn't in an obedient mood and unknown instincts made the feathers on my chest ruffle up and my wings reached foward to cover the pegasus baby. 

"Stupid nesting reflex." I muttered under my breath.

Sadly my "dear" creator couldn't really talk to me very often, the downside of being a chunk of varely concious soul.

Still, the moment the old goat finished his little nap I was going to ask, no, Demand, just how many aerial creatures he used to make me.

But now a different problem came up.

How in tartarus do I feed a baby during the week long travel to Equestria.

I really should have put more thought into this.
> 10. Regrets and Grudges.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot.
Royal Castle.
Cadance POV.

Cadance should be happy, she saved the stallion she loves, saved Equestria from an invasion by starved love-eating creatures, and defeated the desperate monster masquerading as her.

Her happiness didn't last the day.

She had been curious as to why Celestia had opted to teleport Twilight and her friends to ponyville, but she only shook her head and said they weren't ready yet.

Cadance understood what she meant once she left the castle and saw the aftermath of her and Shining's spell.

When Shining's overcharged shield spell pushed Chrysalis and what Changelings had stayed with her in the throne room away, Twilight and her friends had only seen them being blasted off into the distance.

They didn't see what had happened to all the changelings on the ground, the ones with either buildings or the mountain behind them.

The result of the Changeling invasion, besides some ponies feeling a bit sick temporarily from having their emotions absorbed, there were only twenty-three physically injured ponies with the worst injury being a sprained ankle.

On the other side, there were two-thousand three-hundred and twenty-eight dead Changelings, at least, that was the number last time she checked.

She tried to feel happy, she truly did, but every time she tried to think of the good things that had happened on her wedding day her thoughts were quickly overtaken by the image of green blood and scattered pieces of black chitin.

They hadn't gotten the time to officiate their marriage.

Shining's attitude regarding the entire situation didn't make things better.

She had talked to him, once, when the cleaning procedures had begun, and the following "conversation" just showed her a side she had never seen before, by the end of it he made clear that his feelings regarding the Changelings were pretty much the opposite.

They hadn't talked since then.

She didn't know how to deal with the fact that she may have killed an entire species, she was the Alicorn of Love, for Faust's sake.

Thankfully, unlike him, Celestia and Luna cared.

She knew it was a faint hope, an almost impossible one even, that Chrysalis and the Changelings with her had survived. It was more likely that they had either crashed into the ground or even a mountain and died on impact, and even if they had survived it was unlikely they would last long enough for help to arrive.

Even then Celestia sent Luna along with a small squad of royal guards with experience in field medicine to the north.

Cadance hoped, from the bottom of her heart, that Chrysalis would be alive, maybe they would have a chance to talk things through and reach some kind of peaceful agreement.

And if she didn't live...then Cadance hoped she was in a better place.




Crystal Empire.
Crystal Palace.
Chrysalis POV.

Chrysalis was having the time of her life.

Comfy bed, silk sheets, servants standing at the ready to serve her every need.

What was there not to like?

No more making sure every little scrap of love was rationed so that everyling could make it to the next day, now she and her hive could just open their mouths anywhere inside the empire's protective barrier and they could get enough love to last them weeks if they didn't actively use magic.

She also didn't have to struggle each day to make sure her changelings didn't go feral from hunger, just a week here and they were already much better not only mentally but physically as well, their legs were even closing up!

And of course, while she was still Queen of her hive her duties were...less, to say the least.

Her Changelings didn't need her to watch over them constantly, so other than checking on them now and then to see how they were integrating into their new home she just spent her days lazing around being waited on wing and hoof by what she grew increasingly certain was brainwashed fanatics.

Having enough magic to waste on processing solid foods meant she was free to enjoy all the delicacies the castle cooks prepared for her, sometimes she joined Greema and they talked about their day over some nice food.

Speaking of the Emperor, her only real "duty" was to lay under him each night.

Sure, their first meeting had been "rough" and she probably could have been a bit more careful about certain things, as proven by the small, almost imperceptible source of emotions coming from her lower belly. But in her defence, she had gotten lost in the moment.

Honestly for everything she and her hive were gaining, it felt like a steal that the only price was herself, and as much as it stung her pride something fierce to submit to another being she couldn't bring herself to have any regrets, especially considering what the alternatives were.

If they didn't succumb to the cold or their injuries, starvation could have easily done them in, that's if one of the many beasts living in that frozen wasteland didn't find them in their weakened state.

Sex in exchange for all the things her people needed to survive and prosper? 

It wasn't even a question.

Still, there was something she was hoping to bring up with her new mate, but she was having some issues with how to start that conversation.

She would never forget the feeling of her connection to so many of her hive being cut, how her people were reduced from thousands to less than a hundred in a single moment.

She would have her revenge on Cadenza if it was the last thing she did.

Now, she only had to think about what one could do to convince Greema to act against someone he had no quarrel with or even met personally.

CHAPTER END.