In Sombra Cadum

by Darkryt Orbinautz

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Dark, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 4316

After coming home from the Crystal Empire, Twilight wants to experiment with the spell she learned today...

After coming home from the Crystal Empire, Twilight wants to experiment with the spell she learned today...

Published 2013-06-12 05:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-06-12 21:24:41 UTC

Stone

By Darkryt Orbinautz

In Sombra Cadam

Chapter 1

Stone

The mountains were an impressive sight to behold and wonderful to travel along, no mater how what species was doing the beholding or traveling. Griffon, mule, dragon, pony, human, merloc, zombie, vampire...

Today was an important day in the history of Equestria. The Crystal Empire had resurfaced, after having been buried underneath its own ice blankets by the curse of an unicorn who had grown powerful beyond the capabilities of any regular pony- or...being.

King Sombra. The name meant 'shadow' in some language not normally spoken by ponies. He was a dreaded figure amongst the native Crystal Ponies of aforementioned Crystal Empire, having taken over 1000 years ago.

But all this is really tangential, as he had been defeated- for good, forever, shattered into a thousand pieces...except for maybe his horn, which was seen flying away from the explosion, according to witness reports.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends, Applejack, Rarity, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie were riding on the train back home to Ponyville from Canterlot.

Twilight herself was staring out the window at the world outside. She had passed a test given her to by Princess Celestia. Celestia told her that she to abandon all her previous lessons about the magic of friendship and be the sole helper in the Crystal Ponies' efforts to oust Sombra at last. In truth, it was a test of character to see if Twilight would choose between her own interests or helping others. Twilight passed, as she gave a magical relic called the Crystal Heart to Spike to deliver Princess Cadence, meaning...she had to rely on her friends, but in sacrificing her passing of the test to help the Crystal Ponies, Twilight had in reality passed.

She didn't seem as happy she should've been about this development. She kept staring out the window. As if oblivious to her friends excited chatter about making a future visit to the Empire. It was almost like she was...

Stone.

"Twilight?" Spike asked. "You okay?"

Twilight didn't reply. She just kept staring out.

"Twilight?"

"...Twilight!"

"Hmm?" Twilight said, paying attention at last. "Oh, yeah...what is it, Spike?"

"You don't seem that happy, Twi." Spike said. "You passed the test and saved the Crystal Empire! You should be talking with everypony else and celebrating!"

"I should." Twilight said without a trace of emotion. "I'm sorry, Spike. I just can't stop thinking about..."

"About?"

"Nothing."

"Well, it can't be nothing." Spike reasoned. "If it was nothing, you wouldn't be thinking about it."

Spike was unaccustomed to the wonders of the world, being young. He couldn't have known that 'nothing' was quite the thing to be thinking about, and quite worrisome under the right- or wrong, rather- circumstances.

Not that Twilight was thinking about nothing.

In reality, she was thinking about the many enchantments and traps King Sombra had laid out to prevent his power from being usurped. The torn book page, the staircase hidden inside the castle, and the enchanted door...

The door.

The door.

Twilight couldn't drag her thoughts away from the door. It had been enchanted so that whomever dared to open it would their worst nightmare realized. It was by only luck that Spike had come along against Twilight's wishes, allowing Twilight to break free of the trance.

But still...it was a trance. Twilight wasn't one for spells that involved the controlling, the manipulation of minds, but she had been seeing them more and more recently, between the Changeling Queen and Shadow King.

The train arrived in Ponyville, the home of Twilight and her friends. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie wanted to hang out, but everypony else wanted to go home and rest from their adventure today. A compromise was meant where Dash and Pinkie went to hang out by their own while everypony else got their rest.

Along the way, Twilight made a detour to a market strand where she purchased a prism. A- wait for it- crystal that reflected light easily.

"What do you that for, Twilight?" Spike questioned as Twilight pocketed the prism in the bunches of her tail. "You already have a dozen prisms at home for experiments and study."

"I have another experiment in mind that's going to call for the consumption of a crystal." Twilight explained.

"Consumption?"

"Yes. As in, it's going to be gone when I'm done with it."

Spike wanted to question her further, but Twilight remained silent the remainder of the way home.

In fact, once they got home, it was dark, but Twilight ran straight up the stairs to her bedroom and locked door without even brushing her teeth.

"What kind of experiment is she working on?" Spike questioned, scratching his head at Twilight's abnormal behavior.

While Spike was left downstairs to ponder what was going on, Twilight set the prism down on her desk.

It was true that Twilight had many prisms somewhere in her library home for a variety of purpose, but Twilight wanted this one for a special one.

Twilight was adept at magic. There could be no denying that. So it was a surprise to anypony-or wouldn't have, if anypony had been around at the time- how quickly Twilight learned to mimic Sombra's magic after Celestia had shown it to her only once.

It wasn't normal for a pony's spell to stay the same color no matter who used it. Normally, a spell, regardless of origin, would adapt to the pony's natural color when used. Not Sombra's.

Not the spell Twilight preparing to cast. Her eyes turned into the bright green with red irises coloring of Sombra's own. Black shafts of light escaped her horn and beamed into the prism, turning into a twisted black creation of Sombra...Sombranian? Sombric? Oh, forget it. 'Of the same origin as King Sombra'!

Twilight fell onto her back, overwhelmed. Her eyes were expressionless as they glowed. , and she laid there for hours, until the wee morning gave Spike the opportunity to lock pick her door and be horrified at Twilight lying there, motionless, expressionless...like...

Stone.

Author's Note

So, yeah. This was a thing I did awhile go. Based off the totally - wait for it- stoned expression Twilight has when under the door's spell.

On the original Fanfiction posting, there was a different chapter 1, which I did not delete, but instead, I uploaded this chapter as the second chapter as a revision. Makes perfect sense.

Wake Up!

By Darkryt Orbinautz:

In Sombra Cadam

Chapter 2

Wake Up!

Twilight tossed and turned in her sleep. She was having horrible, horrible dreams. They varied a little, but the menacing glare of King Sombra's demonic snout was a consistent.

In the first variation, Twilight was a Crystal Pony peasant, kneeling at Sombra's hooves for him not to increase the tax or whatever evil kings do. He, of course, gave a mocking chuckle in answer to her pleas.

The second was worse, thought. Much worse. In the second, she laid on King Sombra's bed. (Not that she knew what Sombra's bed look like, but whatever...) dressed in any manner of light -blue provocative clothing. Waiting for Sombra to enter the room and take her.

But the third was by far the worst of the lot. In the third one, she sat on a throne besides him, dressed in elaborate black garb with a fancy fringe around her neck- not his victim, not his slave, but his just as dark and just as imposing equal.

Once the unending torrent of nightmares quit trading places with one another, Twilight was confused to wake up in a white room. She looked down at her bedsheets, and from their coloration (plus that she was hooked up to an EKG machine) led to the conclusion she was in the hospital.

But why?

A doctor came into the room to check on her. "Oh! You're up! I bet you might be confused as to why you're here."

Twilight nodded, kneading the covers' edge with her hooves.

"Well, your assistant found you lying on the floor. Your friends didn't know what was going on, so they brought you here. None of our staff could find anything wrong with you, so we're just going to let you go in a minute. Excuse me." He left the room, leaving Twilight alone with only the EKG machine for company.
As the beep-beep-beep of the EKG assailed her eardrums and gave her a headache, Twilight suddenly saw a vision come to her.

The image of the worst nightmare- herself standing imperiously by Sombra's side- but with a small, slight twist. There was no Sombra sitting next to her. Just her and her alone on her throne.

She could do it. She could rule an empire, couldn't she? It was a lot of work for one pony, but she had excellent organization skills.

Beep-beep-beep.

Twilight was starting to wish the EKG's pounding beep would go away. It really was giving her a headache.

Beep-beep-beep.

"Can you be any quieter?" Twilight asked of the machine stupidly. The machine wasn't going to give her an answer!

Beep-beep-beep.

"Be quiet!" Twilight hissed, her patience broken, She fired a spell off at the machine with the intent to shut it up so she could heal from her headache.
As her spell hit her target, Twilight noticed her magic was green instead of it's usual red-to-purple color.

She also noticed the black, jagged crystals that were Sombra's trademark crawling over the machine like the penultimate stage of an infectious disease.

Twilight put her hoof over her mouth in horror. Her immediate thoughts were what he doctor would say if he came back in and saw the mess she made.
Fear of being abandoned and worry over her self-image overrode her better judgement, and she bolted out the covers and dashed out the room, galloping as fast she could for the exit. She narrowly avoided steamrolling a nurse, but she got out.

Now that she was outside the hospital, her mind calmed down a little. She realized that what she just did was probably the worst thing she could've done. Now everypony would wonder what she was hiding.

She thought about what she could do. Just go back inside and try to explain? That seemed the best thing to do, but for some reason, the image of herself as Queen of the Crystal Empire wouldn't leave her mind. She was going to turn around and go back inside- really, she was! But instead, she turned around started on a path towards Rarity's boutique.

Once she went from one end of Ponyville to the other and entered the building, Rarity was just finishing up a dress. So wrapped up in it she didn't hear the ring of her store's bell.

"One cut here and voila!" Rarity congratulated herself before noticing Twilight. "Oh! Twilight, darling! I didn't hear you come in. What can I do for you?"

"I have a dress idea I want you to make for me." Twilight answered genuinely.

"Ooh!" Rarity squealed at the idea of her other friends taking interest in fashion the way she did. "What it is, darling?"

"Well..." Twilight then proceeded to guide Rarity through the motions to get the dress that that was in her dream. When it was finished, Rarity displayed it proudly for Twilight's critique on her stitching.

"It looks just like it did in my dre-head." Twilight complimented. "Good work, Rarity."

"Oh, thank you, darling!" Rarity exclaimed. She eyed the dress. "Pardon me, Twilight...but don't you think this dress looks somewhat...evil?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Evil? What do you mean, evil?"

"It's all black and fancy."

"I really have no idea what you're talking about, Rarity. I'd like the dress now, please. How much do I owe you?"

"Oh, nothing!" Rarity dismissed her.

Twilight made a disapproving pout. With her magic, she took the dress from Rarity and forcefully dropped some bits into her opposite's hoof. Before Rarity could object, Twilight left.

Twilight stopped by the library to get some more bits, let Spike know she was okay, and change into her 'evil' dress. She ignored Spike's inquires as to what the dress was for, and where she was going.

Passing Pinkie on her way, Twilight headed for the train station. Ignoring the looks other ponies' gave her, Twilight headed to the conductor.

"Ticket for one to the Crystal Empire, please." Twilight gave him the bits for the ticket and boarded the train.

The gentle churn of the train's wheels were relaxing at first. The conductor made one last call for passengers to the Crystal Empire before the train took off at full-steam. Given how foreign and fantastical a place the Crystal Empire was, nopony on the train questioned Twilight's apparel.

One pony, though, an old beige one with a white beard, came over and gave her a mourning gaze.

Twilight started to feel uncomfortable. "Is something wrong, sir?"

The old pony just shook his head. "I can tell you're a mare who has some demons running around in her, is all."

The old pony left her alone. Twilight rolled her eyes.

Demons. Ha!

Once Twilight was inside the Crystal Empire proper, she talked to a guard and told them her brother was expecting. The guard knew how much Shining loved seeing his sister, so he didn't question it and led her through the streets, to the castle, up the castle, into the throne room. The guard bowed and left her.

Twilight came into the room without knocking. Shining Armor and Cadence were sitting on the throne and were surprised to see her.

"Twiley! What are you doing here?"

"We weren't expecting you! What's with the dress?"

"Mh-hmm." Twilight nodded, not really caring for their petty greetings. "Yes, your majesties...I am here to restore this room to it's true form."

Shining Armor and Cadence exchanged glances. "What do you mean?"

Twilight prepped her horn, her eyes flashing green. A black bolt shot out and struck a desk, turning into a dark spiky version of itself.

Shining and Cadence were mortified. "Twiley, what's wrong with-"

Twilight shot another bolt. This one struck Shining's horn and covered it in black plates.

"Not again!" Shining wailed. "Twiley, I understand you're upset right now, but-"

Cadence put a hoof on Shining's leg. "Shining, don't reason with her right now. Run. Just run."

"But-"

"No!" Cadence snapped, dragging him away and running out the throne room's entrance. Twilight let them go and walked towards the throne. She stopped and admired it for a moment before blasting back into it's Sombra's version of it and sitting in it. Twilight's horn blasted off bolt after bolt around the room until everything but the floor was black and twisted.

"Now..." Twilight rasped to herself, putting her hooves together now that she had established a comfort zone. Another bolt shot out and hit the floor, creating a pool of magic that gave her a bird's-eye view of the Empire.

"Let's get down to business."

Author's Note

Short story, short chapter.

Rehabilitation

By Darkryt Orbinautz

In Sombra Cadam

Chapter 3

Rehabilitation

Twilight had every intention of dragging the Crystal Empire back through a thousand years of history, make no mistake restoring every building, every house and every farm, into the way it was when Sombra ruled all those many years ago.

But before she did that, she was going to fix the sloppy, poor scheduling work of her brother and Cadence. She really did love them both, but this schedule... the schedule held in front of her with magic. It was terrible! Resources were poorly managed, the routes of the Royal Guards on patrol did not afford effective view of all possible trouble spots, tea breaks were at stilted and awkward times, and...oi. The list just goes on and on!

Occasionally, Twilight would need some relief from correcting all of her brother's poor management skills and would blast something to make it blue and pure again, just so she could corrupt it over again.

"Mmm..."

Twilight scribbled another amendment to the schedule. Afterwards, a nagging feeling ticked at her horn. She looked around the room, seeing all the twisting black crystals just slightly jutting out of the ground.

She was dissatisfied with that. Her horn shimmering with green light in multiple directions, Twilight forced all the crystals upwards with a horrible groaning sound, making them bigger and taller.

The door to the throne room squeaked pathetically, like the inanimate object itself could feel the coming darkness. A Crystal mare stepped into the room. Twilight didn't hear her, still furrowing her eyes over at the schedule.

"T-Tw-Twilight Sparkle?" The Crystal Mare whimpered.

Twilight's eyes widened when she heard her name being called. Dropping the clipboard against the floor, she turned to the peasant. "Oh, good! Could you help me with something?"

The Crystal Pony grimaced, clinging to the door, fearful of undergoing one of Sombra's cruel and unusual tortures by his anger reaching from the grave through Twilight Sparkle, his vessel. "W-W-What do you need help with it?"

Twilight motioned her hoof for the peasant to come over. "Come over here. Look at this."

With a gulp, a sign, and an under the breath prayer for Celestia to watch over her friends and family, the peasant trotted over. "Yes?"

Twilight draped a hoof over the peasant's shoulder and held up the clipboard. "Look at this schedule. It's terrible. I'm trying to rearrange so The Empire runs more efficiently. Now, currently, Guards' tea time is at 2: 04. Now, I can either move it 2:15, before the Guards all change positions, or to 2:30, at the same time the town crier delivers the afternoon news. Which do you think is better?"

"Um...well, I think it's better for the Guards to get a drink and snack in before they have to do all that walking, so...2: 15?"

"Excellent!" Twilight rasped. She magically summoned a quill that was as black and dark as Sombra, with a red tip like the Shadow King's horn, and scribbled it down on the clipboard.

The peasant looked between Twilight and the clipboard. "So, uh...does this mean you're not going to shroud The Empire in darkness and make it like it was a 1000 years ago?"

Twilight laughed heartily, patting the peasant on the back. "Oh, no! No...I'm still going to tax your lands, blight your crystals, darken your skies, and just plain ruin your day..."

Twilight pushed the peasant away and leered at the clipboard. "But not until after I fix this schedule. Mine will be an efficient tyranny."

The peasant's lips quivered, before she started crying softly and galloped out of the room.

Twilight did not care in the slightest. It was only the first few tears of many.

She stood there, coming to a stop about her revisions to the schedule. Half an hour passed before she realized what else she could fix of her brother's poor managing skills.

She continued what she had been doing for some time, alternating between revising the schedule and increasing the throne room's corruption.

At some point, she realized she hadn't been corrupting anywhere but the throne room, so she stuck her head the door and blasted a green laser from one end of the hallway to the other until it, too, was wrapped in onyx crystals. Then she went back to her little schedule.

She didn't hear the door creak open again, much more boldly this time, too.

"What are you doing?" Her uninvited guest asked.

"I'm trying to fix my brother's sloppy schedule." Twilight answered honestly...and brutally.

The intruder chuckled. "It's good to see there are some things not even demons can change."

Twilight's eyes widened. She recognized that laugh...that warm, kind, soft motherly laugh.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed, turning around to face her mentor.

"Hello, my most faithful student." Celestia greeted with mixed feelings, like she was both happy and sad to be here with her student. Happy to see Twilight. Not so keen on seeing her like this, with her evil dress and glowing green eyes...

"I'm so glad you're here!" Twilight exclaimed, rushing up to her mentor and hugging her tightly.

Celestia was...really not expecting that. She was expecting Sombra's magic to power through Twilight's natural instincts and make her attack, locking them into a duel of magic.

Twilight removed herself from her mentor. "So, you may have heard, but I'm taking over the Crystal Empire!"

"Yes...I have." Celestia murmured. She knew what she was going to have to do, but she wanted to see where her student was going with this.

"I...never really run an Empire before," Twilight admitted, "But I can do it! I was hoping I could some tips from you."

"Tips?"

"Well, yes! Since you've been in charge of Equestria for so long..."

Celestia chuckled again. "Well, Twilight, I appreciate your kind words, but are you really sure you're fit to lead a whole Empire?"

Twilight glared, apparently dumbstruck that the Princess would doubt her abilities. "But I have excellent organizational and managing skills!"

"True." Celestia replied. "But ruling an Empire takes more then that, Twilight, much more."

Twilight pouted. "But, but...don't you think I can do it?"

"Perhaps, my most faithful student, but The Crystal Empire isn't yours to rule. It's Cadence's and your brother's."

Twilight snorted and levitated the schedule, waving it around for the Princess to see.

"Yes, Twilight, I know. But you're in current state, you don't remember what else a good leader needs."

Twilight dropped the clipboard into her hoof and looked at it before looking at the Princess. "Like what?"

"Like..." Celestia's horn lit up, and Twilight tensed, expecting an attack. A gold beam of light shot out from the Princess' horn and hit one of the dark crystals in the room. An image of Fluttershy appeared on the crystal's reflection.

"Kindness..."

Another beam of light shot out, causing the same thing to happen, except showing Rainbow Dash.

"Loyalty..."

"Stop." Twilight said, sounding horrified. "Stop what you're doing."

Another beam shot out, putting another one of Twilight's friends in the reflection. "Generosity..."

"I said stop!" Twilight snarled.

"Being able to share a laugh with your subjects..."

"STOP!" Twilight shouted, Sombra's voice overlapping with hers. The purple mists of Sombra's demonic irises blasting out from her own in huge geysers. The clouds huffed and puffed from her eyes furiously.

"HONESTY!"

"STOP! ENOUGH! SILENCE!" Twilight/Sombra screamed in rage. She/he let out an extremely pained howling wail. "ARRRRRRGGH!"

Twilight put her hooves on her head and fell down. With their ear-piercing pain howls echoing around the room, shadows began flying out from Twilight, whisking away from her in an explosion as memories of her friends returned to her. All the crystals in the room became short, friendly and blue again. Once the shadows had all left, Twilight whimpered and cried.

Celestia stepped towards her with no trace of emotion, but she may have just been keeping up appearances.

Twilight lifted one hoof nervously off her eye, still glowing green and red. "P-Princess?"

"Yes...Twilight?"

"C-can you help me?" Twilight whimpered. "I don't want...to be like this anymore, but the spell..." Twilight blasted a purple laser from her horn. "Uhhhn...it feels so good!"

Celestia raised an eyebrow. She sat down near her student. "Do you want to be helped, my little pony? I cannot help somepony who does not want to be helped."

Twilight looked down at the reflecting crystal floor before looking back up at Celestia. "Yes...yes, I do."

Celestia smiled. "I am quite glad to hear that, Twilight. Close your eyes..."

Twilight obeyed. Celestia's horn lit up again, shining brightly like florescent gold, and she touched the tip of her horn to the tip of Twilight's. Twilight shivered and moaned and spasm-ed from the eon-old energies pouring into her. There was a resounding BOOM like an bomb going off before Celestia removed her horn.

Twilight opened her eyes, which had turned back to their normal violet. "Whew! Thank you so much, Princess...I better get going." Twilight stood up. "I have a lot of making up to do if I want Shining Armor to forgive me."

"I'm sure he will." Celestia said. "Go on."

Twilight galloped towards the door, but she stopped halfway there. She lifted her hoof and observed the cloth on it.

"...Princess? Can I keep the dress?"

Celestia snickered. "If you'd like."

"Yes!" Twilight pumped her hoof. "Thank you." Twilight bowed before galloping out for real.

Celestia remained there, confident everything Twilight corrupted would be returned to normal soon. She stood up, an angry expression creasing on her face.

"And as for you..."

Celestia turned around to come face-to-face with a floating, dark grey murky cloud that Sombra's eyes on it. It floated away from her, fearful.

"I thought you and I had an understanding." Celestia growled, getting closer to it. "You understand, now that you're violated the rules.."

The cloud shook its head, like begging to be spared from whatever terrible fate was awaiting it.

Celestia stuck her tongue out in anticipation.

The cloud tried to run away, but how fast it could float wasn't fast enough to escape Celestia's snapping jaw. The Sun Princess bit into it and jerked it like a lion wearing out its prey before eating it.

More like a dragon, or a wolf, than a lion, Celestia jerked her head upwards and began swallowing the cloud, savoring each and every snap of her jaws until she had consumed the entire mist. Her eyes flashed brilliant gold before returning to their normal state.

She then turned around and trotted out the door, looking forward to spending the rest of the day with Twilight and her friends like absolutely nothing strange had happened.

Author's Note

This is what's called a mystery.

What's going between Celestia and Sombra will never be explained.

Ever.