One day in the far distant past, beyond the lives of many mortals and even the oldest of their kind. Back when the Immortals were barely rising to power in their wars with the Titans. There was a child centaur named Ixion.
When he was so young, he wandered away from his mother and father and searched for something he always wanted to see. Looking deep into the ruins of their old castles, seemingly forgotten by all. It was there he found it.
The child centaur approached a rotten and decaying giant figure. The corpse was so gigantic that he could see the top of it. But he knew who this was from the horrible stink alone. His whole body shivered at the sight of the being, but he bowed anyway. He wanted to respect the ancient being. Ixion, the young centaur was there to ask it a question.
"Great Lord... Thule. First son of the void, oldest of all monsters... I wish to learn from you."
A loud crack echoed from the massive corpse. One of its fingers broke open and thousands upon millions of tentacles pulsed out and toward him. They rushed downward at such incredible speed that they reached the child in seconds. They wrapped around the young centaur and pulled him to the ground.
"You wish to speak to me!" The voice was so weak yet echoed so loud that it shook the entire ruins.
"Yes," the young Ixion pleaded. "Father of all naga... Please answer my question!" He twisted in agony as the tentacles squeezed harder.
"Speak quickly, or I will add you to my collection of corpses!"
"I..." Ixion found it hard to breathe as they pushed tighter. "I want to know... What does it mean to be a king?"
The tentacles stopped squeezing but kept the grip strong enough to tip into cracking bones. "What...?" They lifted him into the air.
Ixion took this moment to breathe and repeat. "What does it mean to be a king?!" He gritted his teeth and clarified. "I am a crown prince... I wish to know the truth from the first king of these lands. Progenitor of All Monsters, give me a sign!"
Silence fell over the room for a solid minute and a half, which felt like an eternity. It was so quiet that the young Ixion could hear the sweat drip down his face and to the ground. He wanted an answer more than anything and he knew it was wrong for him to abandon his parents and search for the answer on his own. But he needed to know, now more then ever.
Soon enough the voice returned and grew stronger. "To rule over all!" It echoed with such rage and malice that the giganitic corpse containing it shook violently. "To have influence on all. To have command over everything and everyone. You must be both savior and conquer. In the eyes of your people, you be both their tyrant and their martyr. Beloved and hated by everything that has or ever will exist..."
Ixion's eyes widened. "That is... the price I must pay..." He growled in anger. "That can't be right! That isn't my answer!"
"It is reality's cruel whip!" The tentacles threw him to the ground so hard that his bones cracked. "This is the fate of all rulers! You must stand as the Light in the Darkness."
The child grimaced and turned away "And once I have... then what?"
Deep with the Crystal Empire lay the massive crystal castle. A shining pillar of power, might, and above all peace within the land under their ruler's cold gaze. The crystal ponies are a unique offshoot of the earth pony. They are much like the batponies compared to the pegasus, a sister species, sister tribe, and sister race. However, unlike those two kin, the crystal ponies are so separate from their earth pony kin that they might as well be completely separate entities.
The unique ponies in the far north are blessed by the shining power of the Crystal Heart. Their strength is increased tenfold and their durability is beyond the limits of mortal mortal species. Though they lack the immortality of the alicorns, they are still one of the longest-living species of pony. And above all else, they are seen by many as extremely wise.
However, much like their southern kin, these are still earth ponies by long-distance blood. Thus, they still had the same major weakness of both races. And it's summed up in a single word, stubbornness. And nothing branded that level of ego more than their ruler. Not a crystal pony, or even a base earth pony, but unlike other races, this kingdom is ruled by an alicorn. Truthfully, these lands were his first. This ancient immortal simply looked at the farmlands of earth ponies getting too close and just decided to conquer them. Thus the crystal ponies, while as stubborn as their southern cousin, were born under his brow, and accepted this new life with open and very bold pride.
Their ruler, King Emerald Teal is a powerful alicorn, brother of Helios, and uncle of Celestia and Luna. The crystal ponies know he is not of their race. They know he conquered them, but they accept him with the greatest love because he honors their stubbornness against the other races and even shares in their obvious problem through his cold-hearted soul. And due to their loyalty to their ruler, and his respect of them, the Crystal Empire is such a great nation. However, this united stubbornness is also a double-edged sword that prevents Emerald Teal from showing anything else but absolute intolerance for the other kinds.
And this deep separation from the other species of ponies has led to the nonchalant nature of the growing war within the mainland. As earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasus begin to grow closer to unity or outright genocide, the crystal ponies live in utter bliss. And while the other alicorns deal with the deception of a certain wendigo, King Emerald grows bored of the cost screaming beyond his gaze.
The mighty alicorn could be considered short-tempered, but above all, he desires a swift end and quick bow under his boot. He sent his second son, Blood Diamond to deal with the unicorns, but he came back injured by his own hands. The King's sister, Topaz, told him this wasn't self-inflicted, but refused to accuse any of the mortals of such actions. At first, the King accepted the weakness of his half-breed son, but with the screams of those southern mortals only getting louder, he can't ignore them forever.
Cast in shadows, he watched the wars through a massive crystal. He cares little about the progress of each side. This mysterious wendigo pulling strings is a nuisance and an insult as he had a pony pose of Emerald Teal long ago to spark this bout. Still, the icy beast never turned his gaze toward the real King Emerald Teal. Thus the alicorn originally ignored this fallacy. However, as time went on, it only became clear to the ancient immortal that the wendigo never needed to target him, simply lure his gaze upon him. And it worked because this war was a mere distraction to his eyes for a while. However, this annoyance was becoming an obstacle that the King needed to face.
Thus, in the depths of the palace, King Emerald sat before his council, composed of the strongest and most wise of his crystal ponies and his youngest daughter, a small alicorn mare named Ruby Crystalis Glazous Clevered Amora. While she didn't hold as many titles as her elder brothers, Golden Williams or Blood Diamond, she was still an alicorn by blood and thus a worthy rank in his council. However, could her words sway him?
"Father..." She adjusted her seat and drew his gaze out of the darkness. "I understand the warring below has crackled your slumber enough times. But stepping down to their fight is only a waste of energy." She said calmly and collected. "It is not our problem."
"Ruby Amora, you seek to ignore your brother's pain?" Emerald gestured to the images over his son. He was healing but in a deep sleep.
"You've never cared at all about that half-breed." Ruby Amora rolled her eyes at the image and waved it away from the feeds. "While my older brother, he is a bastard child of a changeling's womb-" She stopped herself, realizing such mockery of her father's previous bride might things worse.
"The queen of the changelings is a foul fiend now, but her offspring is still useful." Emerald never left his shadows once and instead, flowed more images over the crystal feeds. "However, you are right. My growing rage has nothing to do with that child. He will awaken soon enough. However, the wounds he suffers, no matter the pitiful size should be answered eventually."
"That happened months ago!" Ruby stood up as her annoyance reached a peak. "He simply refuses to wake because spending time in the mindscape is far better than dealing with that war outside our borders!" Again, she stopped and adjusted herself. "Your Highness, please, break connections with those fools in the south. Soon enough they will burn each other to utter dust and leave us alone."
"You're say they will never enter our domain," King Emerald Tela couldn't help but laugh at such an idea. "Such a bold assumption that I'm almost proud of you, dear daughter. Such callousness reminds me of my first bride."
"You honor me, father." She bowed her head with a small smile. "However, my word still stands. Turn away from them, father. Take care of our citizens and leave them to die."
"No..." King Emerald's voice grew cold. "The wars have grown too loud again. And now I need to put an end to their foolishness." He raised his hand to the only shiny object in his shadows, a massive golden hilt, adorned with every type of gem imaginable, standing as tall as him with seemingly no blade at all. The mere sight of his hand upon shivered the entire court into place.
"In a way, I have to agree with my dear niece." A voice echoed over the room as Helios's image cast over every crystal. "Hello, older brother."
"Helios..." Emerald Teal smiled and turned his gaze to his youngest brother. "Strange that you would side with her. As the warning is right under your feet." His free hand reached out of the shadows and shifted into a powerful fist. "You are a greater fool than I, standing upon that spiral mountain."
"I stand here as a guard over the goat's grave, cast by our father." The yellow alicorn was never once covered in shadows and shined as bright as the stars he wielded. "You've done nothing but hide among your crystal citizens... but that stance has proved more useful as of late." He shook his head and sighed. "The mortals are still growing, mistakes will be made by any child, no matter their age."
"They've gone to war over the slightest offenses many times before." Emerald Teal agreed at first but quickly twisted the nail. "However, this recent warring has gotten too loud!" He slammed his fist down onto his armrest. "If that wendigo was so desperate for all of us to be involved, why not placate his demands?"
"The wendigo isn't our concern," Helios stated calmly.
"Exactly!" Ruby Amora agreed with her uncle. "Father, we need to care about our own kind."
"Be as racist as you like, dear niece." Helios corrected the young mare. "However, the problem isn't in your ignorance..." He turned his gaze back to his brother. "If you step forward, brother, it is for only one reason." Anger grew in the alicorn's voice as his bright power shined over the room. This cast away almost every shadow except the ones over the older alicorn's face. "You don't seek an end to this war, you always sought and always will desire absolute silence."
"It's a peaceful wish, younger brother." King Emerald's fist trembled.
"One that will never come true according to your process!" Helios finally shouted. "Because what you are seeking now is utter genocide!"
"No... foolish brother." King Emerald Teal stood and lifted his golden hilt. On cue, all the other ponies, including his daughter raced out of the room. He raised the seemingly bladeless end to the image of Helios and coldly ended the message. "I don't need to seek genocide; I will simply present the option and wait for those fools to accept it." With that, a massive crystal shot forward sliced the image in half.
The Pale mare stood in an empty throne room. She stared at the two thrones with a mix of confusion and displacement. She was still locked in the thoughts and memories of before and even unsure what brought her here. All she knew was that everything had to be ready before the Scaly Monster's return.
Lifting her crystal hand brought forth ice magic which she blasted above. This produced icy pillars in the shape of fingers around the thrones, giving the feeling of absolute dominance. The magic swirled in a circle above the thrones before dispersing back down into lavender snowflakes.
Pulling back, swarmed the pulsing lavender snowflakes over the whole room, gracing her pale face with colors she once wore so boldly. In mere moments, the entire room was painted in her former shape and glow, giving off an eerie feeling of the past.
However, as her magic died down and the last of the lavender snowflakes fell into place, the last one swiftly dissolving in her blue crystal hand, her mind finally began to focus again. As if she was begging to the lavender visage to stay, a fade piece of her lavender spirit, her alicorn soul of friendship. Slowly and surely, it turned into mere drops of water, sliding to the floor and out of sight.
Her gaze returned to the throne and the Pale Mare felt her heart beat again, not as fast, not as slow, not as hard or as light, but it simple beating with enough noise to bring her back to reality and the question that had been disturbing her this whole time. Did she make the right choice?
At the bottom melted snow turned into a crust of icy thorns spreading in such a way to show opposition to any attack. Not to imprison herself from the outside, nor protect herself from those opposition. The crystals had to be large and show the strength of her magic, but it still had to be beautiful and majestic, to give a feeling of safety, comfort, and understanding. Above all, its true purpose was to separate her from the world that dared demand for her to make the right choice.
The Pale Mare bit her lip as her chin quivered, unsure if it felt just right. But she couldn't back down now, not when the truth lay within these memories she kept scanning. This was her decision, and she needed to see the source that led her to this point.
However, the explosions outside only pushed her hopes back into doubt. Was she really doing the right thing? Had she chosen the accurate side in ending all of this? Her eyes drifted up to the prize jewel of their throne room. Encrusted between nine gems of unique shape and size, all floating over the throne room, her beloved Scaling Beast forged for her. A massive artifact of her former life. Her hand reached out to it but stopped at the sight of its crystalized state. The stark horror of her choice was plastered in plain sight for all to see. And yet, she still wondered if this was wrong or right.
The door to the throne room broke down, giving her a new answer she never considered part of her vast calculation. Turning to face the opposite, the Pale Mare only had a single sentence to give the intruder. "Hello, Silver Pear. Why are you here?"
The disheveled formed of the earth pony she once knew stood strong with rage and malice in his heart. He lifted his broken claymore and proudly proclaimed, "I'm here to kill you, Pale Mare."
