Chapter 2

Twilight was greeted by a blinding flash and a deafening thunder crack followed by an eerie silence. After her senses returned to her, Twilight was surprised to find herself not in another darkened room at the base of the Crystal Palace but instead outside the Solar throne room in Canterlot.

“What?! How did I get here?” Twilight said aloud half expecting the voice to reply. She was slightly unnerved when it did not, realizing that she was truly alone, Twilight pushed that feeling aside and entered the throne room.

Upon entering Twilight was surprised yet again when instead of seeing a sea of ponies patiently awaiting an audience with the Princess, she instead saw Celestia seated upon her throne with Princess Luna walking towards her.

Despite what the voice had said, Twilight was still relieved to see her mentor. With a cry of joy she rushed forward.

“Princess Celestia!”

No reply came from the Princess.

“Princess Celestia?”

Again no reply, if Celestia heard Twilight she showed no sign of it. Instead all her attention was focused on a scroll levitating in front of her. She studied the scroll intently until Luna spoke.

“Sister, you summoned us?”

Celestia looked over the scroll she was reading and saw her younger sister Luna standing before her.

“Yes, I have just received word from Princess Cadance.” Celestia lowered the scroll as a scowl formed on her face. “Sombra has returned along with the Empire.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed as the same anger was mimicked on her own face. “How can this be?! We watched him destroy himself to protect his pitiful Empire!”

“Either through force of will or whatever dark pact he made in those final moments, he survived though not completely the spirit of Sombra endured. Cadance said upon their arrival into the Crystal City a black fog bearing a ponies face with a curved red horn flowed in from the wastes. They were able to drive it back and Cadance has since erected a barrier around the city to prevent it from entering again.” Celestia paused as her scowl deepened. “However with Cadance keeping the barrier stable and Shining Armor patrolling the wastes for signs of Sombra that leaves neither of them time to secure the Crystal Heart.”

Luna rose up to her full height. “Sister send us, we will claim the Crystal Heart and see to it that Sombra is unable to return a second time!”

Celestia raised her right hoof, signaling for Luna to calm herself. “No Luna, I need you here to begin preparations for the ritual, with the Crystal Empires return we must accelerate our plan.”

Luna looked directly into her elder sisters eyes. “What of the catalyst?”

Celestia’s scowl was slowly replaced by a fiendish smile. “She I will send into the Crystal Empire with the objective to locate the Crystal Heart and prevent Sombra from retaking the city. I will also send the other Elements but will explicitly instruct her that under no other circumstances will any other but her be allowed to find the heart.”

Celestia's smile broadened as she continued. “She’s always so eager to please me that she’ll do it without question and thus will fail without the help of her friends.”

Luna turned slightly away from Celestia as if preparing to take flight. “Shall I send for her then?”

“No need, I have already called for her, she should arrive any minute now.”

Luna bowed her head. “As you say sister, I shall go and see to the preparations.” With that Luna turned fully away and began walking out of the throne room. If Twilight had been watching her leave she would have seen the doors open to reveal herself from the day before.

Twilight did not see that however, she saw nothing after the hideous smile crossed Celestia’s face. Her mind desperately tried to make sense of what she just witnessed.

“No…no…no. This can’t be true, it’s not possible. Celestia would never…”

Yet even has she repeated those words again and again the words spoken by the mysterious voice kept coming back to her.

“You will face your greatest fear. The truth.”

Time seemed to stop for Twilight as memories of her time with Celestia came flooding back.

The day she made Twilight her personal student.

Allowing her to stay in Ponyville to continue her studies.

These memories and more rebelled against what she had seen. Twilight clenched her eyes shut and angrily grabbed her head as her mind fought against itself.

Finally she could take no more, with a mighty cry of anguish she expelled all her confusion and anger in a powerful shockwave that emanated out from her body, instantly the throne room began to crack and splinter as the magic holding it together was destroyed. Pieces that broke away seemed to fall into nothingness and as the floor gave way there was nothing below but blackness.

With tears streaming out from behind her clenched eyelids, Twilight was oblivious to reality seeming to fall apart around her. She lay there for what seemed an eternity until a voice shattered the silence.

“Well done Twilight.”

Jerking upright, Twilight's eyes flew open. No longer was she in the Solar Throne room but was again at the bottom of the stair well across from the black door. This time however the swirling mist was gone and the door was splintered and swung lazily on a broken hinge.

“What… how…how did I get back here?” she said past small sobs.

The voice spoke as if directly next to her. “You never left this room, that door is enchanted with powerful dark magic that shows whomever opens it their greatest fear. For you my dear this was the confirmation that what I said about the Princess was true.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed slightly at this news. “Dark magic is evil, no pony can trust it.”

The voices tone softened as it continued. “Twilight, Dark Magic is terrible and cruel and will use the one thing that hurts the most. Something that can chill a pony to the bone and rot them from the inside out. The crack that destroys the dike, something that can destroy reality and reshape it anew... the truth.”

Twilight looked down at the ground as she considered the voices words, she wanted to believe that what she'd seen was all a lie, on all her studies of dark magic, limited as it was, it all said that Dark Magic was deceitful, but deep down she knew that no lie could hurt this much. Trying to push the pain inside she asked a question if only to distract her.

“If I never left this room where were you?”

“I was with you, once the magic in the door took hold I was able to see and hear everything you did, the magic however prevented me from interfering. You were to face your fears alone and overcome them, and if I might say, the magic you used was quite impressive.”

Despite everything, Twilight managed a small smile at the voices praise.

“Th…thanks. I don’t know where the power came from, I sort of lost control.”

“I do.” The voice said. “Your pain, your confusion, your rage, all these emotions. Having everything you’d ever known caste into doubt by what the magic showed you. Most would have been driven mad by this, you my dear instead wielded it like a sword, lashing out instead of simply accepting it.”

Twilight simply sat staring at the ground as the voice continued. “Celestia spoke of a ritual and the Crystal Heart and Luna called me a catalyst. What were they talking about?”

The voice sighed deeply. “I know not but the Crystal Heart is a relic of almost limitless power, anything they have planned involving the Crystal Heart will inevitably spell doom for this world.”

Twilight finally looked up, tears still in her eyes. “What do you expect me to do?

“Break free of the lies created around you, become more powerful than Celestia and Luna combined and rid this world of their tyranny!”

The anger, which was becoming all too familiar to Twilight began to build up inside her. “How!” she cried. “I’m a single unicorn, a ‘mortal’ unicorn and Celestia and Luna are immortal Alicorns of unbelievable power, yet you tell me to simply rise above them? Even with the Crystal Heart I can’t succeed alone and my friends would never side with me against the Princess, they haven’t seen what I’ve seen! Even if they did Celestia still has her sister and an entire kingdom behind her. What do I have?!”

Twilight finished her rant and having gotten to her hooves during her tirade stood shakily, drawing in short, ragged breathes.

The voice did not speak for several moments but when it did its tone had softened.

“You have me. Once you obtain the Crystal Heart its power can be used to restore my body and together we can accomplish what ‘I’ failed to do those many centuries ago.”

Twilight's mind ground to a halt as a single word caught her attention.

“You said I that means you’re…”

“Yes.” The voice said. “I am Sombra. Once king of the Crystal Empire I sacrificed my body and soul to protect it and to keep the power of the Crystal Heart from falling into the hooves of the Alicorn beasts.”

End Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

Had to rework some aspects of this chapter, got a lot of help from CyberSamurai who pointed out some flaws and gave some sparkling suggestions. Here's to you!