Chapter 38 Promo - Futures New and Pasts Lost · 2:13am Jun 2nd, 2017
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Just Over 1,000 Years Ago
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A lone pony toiled away in the dark catacombs beneath the crystal palace. The dark chambers beneath, known only to the gray-hued unicorn within them, had been retrofitted into a laboratory. Numerous aerenth constructs littered the tables and shelves, they and the other dark magic experiments being cataloged by magically held quills and parchment spread out across the stations. The incredible magic potential of the laboratory's occupant managing to write pages of notes on each simultaneously with each quill and parchment as he moved from one experiment to another. He was a large unicorn and had grown larger since he began these experiments years ago, but aside from a slight growth in his canine teeth and bend beginning to occur in his horn; he looked perfectly normal sporting a set of green eyes with a slate gray coat and ink-black mane.
The archmage paused his experimentation and moved to the lowest depths of the catacombs, descending down a near-infinite flight of stairs until he stood before a seemingly solid rock wall. He knelt, letting his messy black mane spill onto the floor as he put his horn to it. An incantation was thought and a spurt of green and black dark magic stabbed out from the horn into the floor. The ground shifted, splitting open and revealing a massive tome inscribed with all manner of heinous looking runes and writing. The unicorn controlled his thoughts, focusing on all his master had taught him to use to become strong, to focus his power and foster its growth. He thought of all those for whom he held malice, all those he sought to conquer with brutality, to unrepentantly strip away to nothingness without pause just like the chilling blizzards of the north. Chrysalis was lust for status and bastardization of love, Tirek and Sendak before him were greed for more of what they already possessed, Discord was gluttony for hedonistic excess and indulgence at the expense of others. And Archmage Saros was wrath.
Wrath for Amore. Wrath for Lyric. Wrath for the spawn they'd created. And wrath for the beastly mutt they'd brought to the castle whom dared call himself a king.
He stowed those thoughts to collect the energy and went back to work. Evil made light to Grogar’s tome, opening it. For what seemed like hours, Saros studied the texts, memorizing them over and over again. Upfront he was the weakest of his peers, but the teachings of a god could make even a simple unicorn mighty enough to stand beside the others. Of course, after years of experiments, including numerous ones on himself, one might consider him to have deviated away from a normal unicorn as the use of dark magic was starting to bend his form. And of all of Grogar’s students, Saros was the one most keen to experiment and study. He closed his master’s tome and sealed it away yet again for safe keeping, ascending the stairs to get back to work. Returning to the laboratory, Saros drew up a pen and quill to write down both what he’d seen from Grogar’s tome as well as the fruits of his own experiments; copying them all down into a small spellbook.
The source of his dark magic was too precious and too large to lug around, best to avoid the cumbersomeness of carrying it and the risk of safety or exposure in doing so by just keeping it locked away. Hence the creation of the smaller booklet. Saros regarded it as he filled in the last page, which was packed with notes on dark magic involving a spell he’d come up with by combining the Sendak’s magic draining spell with a magic containment spell he’d devised that blocked a unicorn’s magic through aerenths impacted onto the horn; including some speculation on how such magic might affect a cutiemark if applied there.
-No replacement for the Master’s work, but for its purpose of portable reference; it will suffice.-
The hour for his action drew near. The mutt was leaving the castle soon, Tirek was proving an excellent distraction...
Yet even more details of Ceasars involvement with Equestria's past.
A promo for 38?!
I wasn't honestly expecting this, thought it'd be Eclipse Times?
I'm not complaining or anything, I'm just surprised and confused.
Ooo, an origin story, awesome.
So Sombra's original name was Saros?
I'm happy to see this promo and surprised to learn that it would show a bit about Sombra's past. Hope it comes soon.
4555417
Yep, Archmage Saros. Though this won't be his origin; but rather something he started and what it did.
The name is meant to match how powerful unicorns tend to have celestial themed names (Twilight, Sunset, Starlight, Starswirl, etc.). In this case a "saros" is a time frame used to predict eclipses; doubling as a shadow reference given eclipses by their nature are the shadowing of a celestial.
Thus him assuming the name "King Nuestro Odio Sombra" or "Our hated shadow king" was a renaming on his part given he had fully committed to his hatred and wrath, the dark magic mutating him into something barely resembling a unicorn anymore other than a base descriptor.
4555483 Out of curiosity, will there be one Ghidorah scene in 38 or will it show modern Starlight exploring?
This is a good promo and I love listening to the music that goes along with it.
Also:
comma error
So the disciples of Grogar aren't just the four main villains of MLP, NOR are they simply weilders of Chaos, Deception, Consumption/Power, and Shadow - they also represent deadly sins, too. Guess that makes them the Homonculi to Grogar's Dante' (And yes Dante, seeing as how she didn't create them, only name them, similar to Grogar, i imagine.). I like it.
4555566
Mhm! I've alluded to it before but it was an easy miss. Dark magic in itself is not evil, it just uses darker emotions that when left unchecked and not managed properly, can lead to evil. For instance anger can fuel dark magic but there is a difference between say, being of rational mind and using anger selflessly like being angry over an injustice or ham to a friend; and letting that anger run rampant to the point it develops into wrath, which is rage for the sake of itself and lashing out at others.
That is what makes Grogar's student different then typical dark magic users, they've fostered the growth of their magic based off a sin derived from a certain emotion or response.
Want -> Greed
Love -> Lust
Pleasure -> Gluttony
Anger -> Wrath
4555578 And i've seen plenty of stories (visual or in written form) that touch up on this idea. And the ones i did were done pretty good. In regards to Saros/Sombra, and the other four: i have a feeling Grogar simply raised them up so they would only KNOW these sins as their one and only source of power, and reason for existence. After all, not all of them were evil from the start: circumstances simply guided them down the dark path. And of course, in this case, that circumstance happens to be Grogar. Grogar, who i have no doubt, is simply using his "students" as a means to an end to accomplish his long-term goal: with step one being his escape from his prison.
Cool.
So question: did all of Grogar's students take a new name fitting their Sin? Or was Sombra unique in that regard.
In all honesty reminds me of a Sith Lord taking a new name after being taken as apprentice.
Cool, very interesting. I love seeing more details into this Equestria's past.
So i'm thinking of writting and posting to the group my thoughts on how Sandask and Tirek came to be what they were and why Tirek should have an army. It'll include a bit on Discord and his relationship of Grogar. I've been looking at J.R.R Tokien's work and be using some similar ideas to explain my reasons.
Nice to see a little more of what Bridge! Sombra did prior to Tia and Luna Banishing him. Would you say that he was well respected as a mage prior to becoming one of Grogar's students?
4556154 If he was respected as a mage, WOULD he have become one of Grogar's students?
4556502 Could have, Many respected people still have the potential to fall.
Huh. So I guess Radiant Hope and the Umbrum have been completely written around instead of adjusted. Pity.