The Macabre Exaltation

Prologue

Embodied Deception

They were out there. On their threshold. Skulking in the mountains beyond the walls. Ravenous for spirit and flesh. Their weight of their presence was crushing on the empire, slowly destroying them without any physical violence.

The Crystal City was shimmering alone in the orange twilight of another dying day. Shackled by fear and paranoia. No one could be trusted. Not even those you love. They may not be what they appear, and they may tear your throat out in the dead of night, when fitful sleep finally overcomes your exhausted mind.

Such were these lingering and final days of the Crystal Empire, shortly before its tyranny of the sadistic Sombra and its subsequent disappearance, long before its return. Ages before. The changeling threat was grave. Hiding in these mountains, the scum were cutting off all communication with the world beyond. Calling for the aide of Equestria was a prospect failed each time attempted. Unable to by magic, not able to physically. Spells blocked, carrier birds vaporized from the sky, messengers brave enough to venture outside the protection of the walls pounced upon brazenly while still in site of the towers and bastions. Made example of; murdered with great pain and suffering. The changelings made sure their screams echoed throughout the city. So the inhabitants would know their fate in due time.

For a month it had been like this. No one knew if they were waiting to make an attempt on the city, or if they were simply taunting the city. Perhaps they were feeding off of the fear they wrought. The people's spirits were in shambles. And Parliament was more dysfunctional than ever.

It began with the murder of their queen. King Metamorphosis himself impersonated her late suitor and struck her down on the day where she was to announce her engagement to him.

Smiling, she watched her mother study herself in the golden pearl-encrusted mirror with the marvelous glistening dress she wore over her slender frame. Queen Sapphire looked back at Princess Turquoise in the mirror with a return smile. Her daughter lounged gracefully on a long velvet seat in her own dress. Sunlight dazzled the polished diamond floor, making the crystalline statues that adorned the walls stand out. Portraits of family members and former Kings and Queens hung about the room, accompanied by tapestries crafted from regions all around Equestria.

"Be honest, how terrible do I look?" Sapphire asked Turquoise

"If you go out there like that you will embarrass all of the Crystal Empire," she replied promptly, her smile widening. "Worst of all you would humiliate dear Amethyst."

"Dear Amethyst would love me no matter what," Sapphire countered matter-of-factly, turning to face Turquoise. "You would, too, wouldn't you, dear?"

"I would wear the same hideous dress so you wouldn't be alone in the shame," she said back, standing up and stepping to her mother.

"But you are not, are you?" Sapphire quipped back. She lowered her head to nuzzle her daughter tenderly. "Come along, dear," she said, stepping for the exit. Turquoise followed her mother out of the door, where two guards were standing by in wait. They bowed their heads respectfully.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," she said to them. They remained in stoic silence as the two royal ladies passed by. They followed them down the splendorous halls of the Crystal Palace, making their way to the dining hall. They arrived outside the grand doors that lead to the hall where two more guards stood on either side of the door. They bowed once and then opened the door for the royalty. The light of the sun through the massive windows was splendorous on the crystal architecture. It would be like walking in a dream to an outsider, and sometimes even the eldest of the crystal ponies were sent into reveries of the beauty of their empire.

A fanfare played for the queen and princess, and all at the long dining tables stood in respect of their presence. At the end of the hall, upon the stage where the royalty sat above the other tables, stood Amethyst. He smiled at Sapphire and she returned one. Regally the matriarch of the empire came to the stage and stood with her suitor, beaming.

"My dearest queen," he said, his voice smooth as silk as he bowed to her.

"My dearest king-to-be," she returned softly, lowering her head to kiss his brow. He raised his head and the two stood side-by-side, facing those seated below them.

Queen Sapphire, daughter of King Diamond Sun and Queen Amber Moon, the seventy-seventh Queen and one-hundred-thirtieth monarch the Crystal Empire. Long, beautifully braided mane the deepest azure, shining like polished stone. Her coat glimmered like the surface of a blue ocean. With that wondrous dress she was donned in the finest of gold slippers, a chest piece and tiara; studded with jewels. They all noted her new sense of joy. The grace and pride of her posture, the way she stood just a little closer to her suitor than she normally would any other person. This courtly stallion with his coat a subtle hue of cyan and his hair like strings of silver, wrapped in lavish robes of red, white, black and gold.

"My ever beloved subjects," the queen spoke, her voice reaching all corners of the Great Hall. "Citizens, ministresses and ministers of Parliament, brave warriors, my dearest daughter." She turned her head to smile warmly at Turquoise. She smiled back and lowered her gaze humbly. The queen turned to regard the gathered again. "I have something to proclaim on this day. You all know my dearest friend Amethyst." She turned her head to the stallion beside her, smiling wider. He smiled too, but it was not warm. It was not of friendship and love. It was purely an evil grin. Wide, toothy; eyes dark with some black humor. The sight of it put off all who laid eyes on it, including the queen. Her smile died, and whatever she was to speak of next was lost forever.

"Amethyst," he repeated, grinning at all of those gathered in the room. "So says the queen. So I deny."

"What?" she whispered, stunned. He snapped his gaze to her, startling her.

"Your love was sweet and succulent, dear Crystal Queen. And your growing apprehension, turning to fear…" He closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nostrils, as if relishing a rich scent. He licked his chops, and to the horror of all his tongue was long and forked. "Wonderfully sour and moist… like a vinaigrette with salt. How delightful."

"Wait… no…" the queen said in disbelief, finally realizing who, and what, this lying thing in front of her was.

"No, indeed," were the parting words of King Metamorphosis to Queen Sapphire. And from his robe, bathed in a green magic aura, a jagged black dagger did come. The queen gasped as it was driven through her chest plate with startling ease, piercing her heart. Her daughter screamed. The room exploded in an uproar. Guards bolted towards the queen and her attacker. Grinning wickedly still, the imposter revealed his true self with a burst of emerald flames. In this terrible form the guards skidded to a halt, terror stricken. Even Turquoise momentarily forgot about her dying mother when she laid eyes on this abomination of existence. A sickly gray hide, broken by craters and crevices like the surface of some decrepit wasteland. Tendrils of greasy green hair hung from his ugly head. Not just the changeling leader, and not just a changeling. He was the embodiment of a mind-consuming wraith, with an appetite to swallow the life of an entire nation. The one who feasts upon the very souls of the living, the one whose cold touch is what all fear in the night, the one who would devour all souls in the world if he could, and would be satisfied even as he depleted his sustenance and starved to death, with the knowledge he had mercilessly absorbed everything living. This creature was beyond consequence and regret. When it wanted all, it wanted all.

He made exit through teleportation before the guards could react, leaving the daughter to mourn over her mother's corpse, and for the noblemares and stallions and warriors to bustle in a panic.

And so fell the azure queen in the declining months of the Crystal Empire, and where a tale of betrayal, deceit, malevolence, and hypocrisy begins.