The sounds of the Crystal Empire ranged from moans of those enslaved to the echo of the king's voice as all of the ponies within earshot cowered in fear.
"Wasn't it a glimpse to begin with?" Celestia asked her sister Luna. From their overlook down at the Crystal city and castle within, each structure pained the two diarchs. It was only eleven months ago when they walked through the streets, able to remember how each building looked before Sombra tainted the very framework of each and every block.
"It was more than a glimpse," Luna replied coldly. "...And you were the one who opened his eyes to it."
"It wont stop!" Sombra screamed, "It wont stop! I can't stop it from changing!" His body convulsed as he tried to calm himself with two deep breaths. "Every day I practice, I study, and now it is in my head and it is in my spells!" He thrust his right hoof towards the crystal ball in the center of the room, conjured moments before, but now as both sisters listened to Sombra rant, the crystal was turning black from the core and spreading outwards to the edges.
"Sombra, you must calm yourself." Celestia said for the third time today, she said it dozens more times, but the ruler of the crystal empire was letting stress get the best of him. "This fear is buried deep within yourself, that is why it manifests in such a way within your magic."
"But, Princess, I do not know how to deal with this! When the corruption infects a unicorn's center, I can't channel the energy around me without it turning to fear and hate. I don't know what to do!"
"Fear of fear, dear sister. That is what plagues Sombra; fear that grips at every thought and memory you tried to keep precious. Of what I have observed, the fear strikes hardest in times of rest, unless the pony is equipped to deal with the spawned nightmares. Perhaps We should see what strings are plucked within your heart, dear Sombra, to make you act this way." Luna said, leaning a hoof on his shoulder.
"Come with me." She commanded, leading him to a red velvet couch. Forcing Sombra on his side, Luna sat next to him and placed a hoof on each of his temple's. "Stare here." she said, looking directly into Sombra's pupils. "You don't sleep well, nor..." Luna inhaled through her nose, flaring her nostrils. "...have a means of relaxing. Let us fix that."
Sombra's ears flattened against his head, staring back at the princess's eyes. Luna's horn glowed dark blue, and a cloud of magic hovered above her head until it condensed into a tight knit ball. She ever so carefully lowered it to Sombra's forehead, knocking him unconscious before he even realized it.
For minutes, Sombra and Luna were both frozen to the outside world until the princess of the night finally rose up from the couch and shook her head. The single gesture disheartened Celestia, but her response was already thought out if the situation showed that it would fail.
"What does the king truly fear?" she asked, looking at the slumbering host. Sombra twitched twice and stirred himself to near consciousness.
"Himself. What struck me as an oddity within his dream was the location- it started within a room in the palace, but I've yet to see such a place. A ball room, as it were, one long mirror on the wall from floor to ceiling that reflected Sombra's image many times over." Luna stated, nudging Sombra gently. The contact of her hoof against his skin made him throw open both eyes and try to yell, but the outcry was caught in his throat. Sombra struggled to scream, but coughed instead as all of his sense returned.
"I interviened after he took up a knife after fleeing to the palace kitchens, and placed it to the base of his horn."
"Sombra." The king looked up to Celestia, trying to shake off the dream. "You were willing to go to an extreme that I've never seen occur out of fear. You wanted to find a means to an end, but you must understand that to sever your horn would have split your body and mind, leaving a vulnerable shell that fear would have taken control of instantly once you were no longer able to harness the magic from the world around you." Her eyes pierced into Sombra, still laying on the couch, he tried to avert his gaze but couldn't turn away. "What is this room that my sister speaks of?" She asked, her expression was rigid, flames practically rolling off her mane.
"It is where I first felt the fear." he said, carefully sliding off of the couch. "I...had it sealed. I sealed it." he corrected himself, moving towards the exit. "Sealed because of what I saw-and who I would become."
"Sombra, nothing is true until the moment it happens. No war is lost until every single set of hooves waives a white flag. Even as we stared into the face of Chaos itself, we did not accept defeat. Show us this room, allow us a deeper understanding so that we may help you." Luna said, she tried comforting him again by offering a hoof, but he flinched as it came near. Reluctantly he accepted the offering, leading Celestia and Luna towards the sealed room.
The royal trio of King and Princesses passed by squads of guards, all ready to follow within their hoofprints, but were turned away for privacy's sake as Sombra led them closer to the center of the palace.
Sombra's breath came faster as he finally clenched his eyes shut and lead the way by memory alone. The two sisters watched as he finally stopped and motioned to a blank wall with a twitch of his head.
"There." he said, taking a step backwards. "We need you to open it." Luna begged, his horn took a dark brown glow as the crystal wall was envolped in his magic, shattering to reveal an entire ballroom a mirror that once spanned the entire length, smashed into thousands of fragments that still remained on the floor.
With coaxing from both sisters, he crossed the threshold into the ballroom, avoiding larger pieces of mirror and tensely opened his eyes.
"How did this happen?" Celestia asked, scanning the room.
"It... overcame me like a wave. I was... almost exactly where Luna is standing when the horrific thought of every single pony that was in this room were bound by chains.
Imagine this if you will. One single moment, everything is fine- the borders of your nation are secure, your castle walls hold strong, and the guards at your ready are incorruptible. Surrounded in this very room are members of high society that are finally sated with their position and aren't at each other's necks over the peasants bits, when your eyes twitch- only for a moment, I remind you." Sombra moved across the dance floor, disregarding the crunch of mirror beneath his hooves.
"That twitch, was it a chill? A gust of air? Or something darker? Could this moment of peace be too good to be true? Of course it was." He answered himself.
"There is never lasting peace such like that, only fantasy and a blissful craving for it to last. Like an addict to it's high, I was wary of the ponies around me that night. Who would possibly want to ruin such a moment of harmony? Minutes passed as I scanned each face for buried animosity, a shroud of grief or a hint of contempt- but there was none!" Sombra looked to the blank wall where the mirror once stood. "So why was did I feel that way? Perhaps I "love the abuse"? That I wanted somepony to make a drunken comment, to lunge after a married mare, or to throw wine in my face-if only to break the tension and validate my suspicions."
"And then the thought dawned on me like an offensive joke- enslave them all." He turned to the princesses, watching their contempt silently flare. "You in chains, him in the stocks, the couple split and sent to different parts of the kingdom." Sombra gestured around the empty room. He shuddered, wincing at another vile thought. "And her wings-clipped. If she were to raise a voice against my demand, rip them off."
Sombra tried to face his equals to see their faces of shock, but couldn't open his eyes. Instead he resolved to look at their reflections in a small chunk of mirror. "That night I looked to this mirror, and saw myself as a monster. No, something worse than that-a pony who wanted to become one."
"If anything decides your final opinion of me, let it be known, I've tried absolving myself and my thoughts of this plague tainting my mind by shattering the projections, and...contemplating...what to do should I fail." Another cold chill made Sombra shake as he waited for Celestia and Luna's response.
"Fear not," Celestia said, pausing as he turned his head towards her. "King Sombra, your resolve alone shows how deeply you care for the well being of your little ponies. To admit these thoughts openly is to liberate yourself from them. There will be a time when dark thoughts well up, and a time when they will pass. I know that in your heart you wish for nothing but the best, and will never submit your sanity to the darkness. There is one thing I must have you do, a difficult task that is more taxing on the body and mind than fighting it, you must wait."
Sombra felt like he had been slapped in the face, turning red he shouted, "I saw a future that placed me as the forerunner for destruction and death! One where I ruled over every pony and it was because of the magic I tried to inhibit, but that only succeeded in making it stronger! It overwhelmed me, forcing tendrils of it's power into every fiber of my being. Forcing me to breathe, smile, and enjoy my own self destruction as I went about trying to stop it. That is why I took up a knife in my dreams, for I reasoned the only way to prevent myself from becoming that thing, was to stop it from gaining any power!"
"I wish for you to..." Celestia began, approaching him. Her eyes studied his, looking for traces of something that was never there. Resigning the thought, she started again.
"I believe that the only thing saving you right now is your magic, Sombra. To which end I realize that you are exhausting yourself and must rely on the fear just to keep your mind awake. I urge that you do not take that path Sombra, instead, let me offer you a choice of new magic if this fear inside is truly corrupting yours." Celestia said.
"What is this new magic then?" He said, raising his eyes to the chance of hope.
"Watch carefully." Celestia said, she closed her eyes and focused, Sombra and Luna watched as the glow from Celestia's horn turned from yellow to black. A beam charged out of her horn and struck the wall, spreading across like mercury.
"What is this magic?" He asked, but Celestia wasn't done, another burst of black magic swept out across the ballroom, to every shard of broken mirror, and submerged the pieces into the ground.
Celestia exhaled, dark magic flaring, bits of broken mirror sank into the floorboards before jutting out along the wall when she gave a final push, turning the mirror shards black and seamlessly sealing the pieces back together.
"The fear..." Sombra shuddered, trailing backwards away from the two sisters. "No...no, no, no, NO!" He frantically shouted, fleeing out into the hall.
"Sombra, stop!" Luna yelled after him.
"Guards! Guards!" They appeared instantly, never far away and ready to defend the king for any reason. "The princesses! Celestia has been taken by dark magic, she wields it as if it were her own!" Placing a hoof on one guard's armor, "Go for reinforcements." Sombra commanded. The guard fled to rally more ponies to their position as Sombra turned to face the wielders of dark magic.
"You misunderstand this magic as you misunderstand your fears, Sombra-." Celestia said, guards lowered their halberds, ready to strike.
"My fears are nothing if I let you consume them with it!" he said, taking a defensive stance
"Why would you even come here, why at the end of Discord's reign would you come so far from your kingdom- is his magic still lingering in the depths of your skull?"
The subtext behind Sombra's comment made Celestia snarl. She flared her wings, feathers glowing brighter as her voice retold the ponies gathered of Luna and Celestia's anger.
"Accusing us of agents of Discord?"
" One land in turmoil isn't enough, so let all of the world submit to the glorious rule of the Alicorn Princesses?"
"Sombra, I came here to aid you in a time of need-"
"How did you know of my thoughts, temptress? That the state of my mind is being poisoned by your dark magic!"
"Dark magic is not of her, Sombra." Luna stated, "And oh-so-dear sister puts too much faith into redeeming a pony we've never met before, yet wants nothing more than to see him rise." Luna probed. "How much of the darkness has consumed you, dear sister? So unfitting for a pony who raises the sun."
"Luna, you are not making the situation any better by allowing doubts to cloud his judgment even more-so at this time."
"And how did you know he was in pain? I thought I was the only one who could read minds, but I suppose if you could, it would just be another secret you aren't telling me."
Celestia silently begged for this conversation to take place at another time, a petty squabble infront of Sombra and the guards was something she did not want to happen right now.
"The night is wonderous, King Sombra." Luna said, strutting infront of Celestia, smirking as she passed by. "The night sky is my canvas where all things gather so that they may be brushed up against the stars with my delicate hooves. What do you know of paints?" she asked.
The question only stalled Sombra for a moment, allowing him to indulge her. "Paints?" he spat.
"A simple concept we are trying to allow you to grasp, Sombra. Oil paints, portraits, the one of yourself at your coronation. Many different colors of paint were used create such a masterpiece."
"Stand down, but keep your weapons at the ready." he said, eyes still locked with Luna.
"What of it?"
"Do you know how each color is made? Of the three basic colors there is red, yellow, and blue. As you mix certain amounts of those three, the result is many shades of the rainbow. But. Mix all of them together, and you get black."
Sombra raised an eyebrow, "The only reason black magic is taboo is because one must master and appreciate every shade of magic used to create and wield it, and I do mean all types of magic."
"And how would this help me then? Just another arrow in the quiver, just another pool for this vile creature to drink from?" Sombra argued.
"A challenge to overcome, Sombra. You need to let your fears fade away while before they manifest in worse ways."
"And if not my own fears, then what am I giving into?" Sombra asked,
Celestia deflected or answered all of his questions, but she realized now that there was no use in debating any further- Sombra's mind was made. It was time for action.
"And why would you come all this way? I've yet to receive any explanation as to why you came here when nopony has had contact with Equestria for months, let confessing my fears which I've told one but my aid. So tell me, Princess Celestia. How did you know to come here?" He raised an accusing hoof towards Celestia as his guards aimed their weapons back down towards the princess.
"I'll need to change his mind." Celestia said to Luna.
Celestia's horn glowed black, Luna was pleasantly surprised at her sister immobilizing Sombra's royal guard as the King cried out in terror.
"Fight back!" Celestia yelled, eyes glowing red. A chosen shot glanced Sombra's crown from his head, letting it clatter to the floor. "You must overcome your fears and fight me!"
Sombra's mind was in shock, his hope in the two sisters was suddenly dashed against the crystal beneath his hooves. The shriek of one of his guard being pulled down into the black abyss made his eyes snap to the frightened stallion's cry. Celestia locked his gaze, waiting for him to strike back.
With a strained pull, Sombra unleashed a blast of magic from his horn. The energy was only swallowed up by the aura surrounding Celestia, her horn pointed directly at him.
"Strike now or let your kingdom fall!" She yelled.
Sombra screamed, letting the dark magic well up inside him as it tried to claw it's way out through every pore. The sensation made him fear for his own life at that moment as well, it was as if his horn was going to burst from the excess energy. His eyelids burned, forcing them open to face the new threat.
"Not my kingdom, and not MY PONIES!" He roared, throwing everything his entire being was able to give with a single bolt of dark energy. The halls quaked, the ceiling rained down crystal bits, and the resulting blast left a crater within the palace as Celestia's magic dispersed. The only thing remaining was a small golden shielded orb that stood in the epicenter of the explosion.
Sombra staggered, losing to the pull of gravity and the spinning sensation within his head. "No, evil, you can't win." he mumbled, shaking his head furiously to remain upright.
"It wont." Celestia beamed, letting the shield disperse. "Your ponies are safe, now rest."
"How very tactful of you, sister. Pushing him like that. It's almost as if you knew threatening the lives of the ponies around them would encourage him to use such magic." Luna said, rolling her eyes from the sleeping form of Sombra to Celestia.
"His guards were in no real danger, I only dropped them through the floor, but I was consciously aware of what needed to be done. His thoughts were so intimately focused on what he would do, what might become of himself, that the outside world was of no concern to him. I resolved that the only way to bring him of his stupor was to make Sombra realize that deep down he cared about the ponies of his kingdom and would do anything to save them from danger."
"By threatening the lives of his guards and, if the situation had worsened, the lives of his citizens as well? I'll be sure to remember that, sister."
"Don't think I haven't noticed your tone, Luna. For years, you've been foreboding and distant, and I want to know why. Now that we've spent more than a few months together for the first time in a long time, you try to undermine every word and tactic I've employed."
"Do you think it's because I'm to accustomed to the castle walls of home, dear sister? What do you think? Not once in the past year have you told me anything of what will happen at the end of the latest disaster. First it was Tirek and his brother Scorpan, then Star Swirl disappears, and before the day was through, I finally roust you from whatever den you've been hiding in to face Discord as he ruins half of Equestria with a snap of his claws! Even then, Celestia, you suddenly decide to drag me north to a place you or I have never seen, to meet a king I've never heard of, and try to save him from his own personal demons he has yet to tell anypony about? How do you know of this sister? When will your glory lust end? When will it be sated? Every time, Celestia, every time we march off the battlefield, it's another statue that goes up in your honor, another eyesore window ready to be placed in the castle."
"The first real outreach in years, and she blames everything on me." Celestia thought.
"…" She stopped at the inhale, reading her sister's expecting eyes and discerning scowl.
"It's complicated."
"It's not my fault."
"You aren't being considerate of the ponies we were tasked to rule over."
"It's not about the glory, it's about keeping Equestria safe."
Every single thought made Celestia cringe at Luna's expected reaction, one that ended with her yelling, blowing out a wall, and storming off without speaking to each other for months.
Show humility.
The breath was sucked back out of her lungs as the realization dawned on her.
"I can't stop, Luna." she said, watching as Luna's stern expression soften.
Lower yourself, show fatigue.
"Every time we do march off the battlefield, out of a cursed reach, a dragons den, a necromancer's lair, or banish a creature of such villainy, I feel those fleeting moments of true peace Sombra described." Celestia slowly allowed herself to sit on the ground, forelegs shaking from exhaustion.
"Are we made to know everything, but harmony? Am I made to know only stress so that when the day comes that everything is finally at peace, I start to expect my own shadow to turn against me and strike?"
Cry.
"I know Sombra, I saw the rest of our lives play out together the moment I saw him. I was willing to do so much to ensure that dream would become a reality." Her eyes moistened around the edges, not enough for a stream of tears, but enough for a glossy look to form.
"I can sleep, but I can't rest. I can sit down, but I can't relax. I can eat and taste the food, but I do not feel nourished. The only thing that keeps me from tearing myself apart is by devoting so much of myself into keeping Equestria, and the ponies within safe, that I..." She turned to look at Sombra. "Collapse from exhaustion, knowing that my soreness and pain were to benefit someone else in need. I do all of this so I can get one night of rest."
"You're selfish."
"I'm selfish." Celestia said, nodding.
"You need to scream."
"If I did, the entire world would shake in fear of my outburst." The words suddenly rolled off her tongue as she convinced herself that the lie was true.
"It will help you cope."
"I'll do it once I find a cave, and roll a large rock over the entrance."
"There's always the crystal catacombs beneath Canterlot."
"I think ponies for centuries to come would call it haunted if I poured my heart out in there."
"Then come here, Celestia." Luna said.
The two sisters embraced each other without a single noise to distract them.
"How did you know he was in this condition?" Luna finally asked.
"'Danger in the north, the ruler's mind in shambles'. the message was written down amongst Star Swirl's things. I silently hoped he would have made his way here."
"But..."
"But, I feel that he his farther away than I will ever know."
"What did you do?" Sombra asked, sitting up from his bed. "What did you do?" he asked with more intensity, throwing off the sheets, he touched a hoof to his horn.
"I gave your mind a distraction." Celestia answered. "It's a wonderful thing, not being endowed by fear, isn't it Sombra? I understand if you hold a certain amount of contempt against me, and but I must insist that you let one of us teach you, a month- so that you can wield it with enough respect as to not delve too deeply into it."
"One month, and then you will leave." he said, his eyes never left Celestia's horn. She smiled a heart felt smile, "Of course!" She beemed.
___
The pair left the crystal empire one month later to the date, returning eleven months later when refugees threw themselves at the doors to Canterlot, asking for Princess Celestia to return and vanquish the evil that now possessed their king.
"And if he hadn't been thrust upon this dark magic, Celestia? What if he were left to his own devices and we never interfered?" Luna asked, walking through the streets of the Empire with her sister leading them.
"Then he would've turned much more quickly, he would've cut off his horn and become a lifeless shell, soon filled with the darkness he sought so hard to keep out."
"So what happened then? What overwhelmed him when you were so sure our guidance would save him?"
"I don't know, perhaps we only delayed the inevitable...perhaps out of all the worlds where we lived without fear of fear, this was the one where we did not." Celestia rused.
The clash of the two sisters against King Sombra was short, as the two sisters had hoped, and history would forever be written and remembered by outsider as an unfortunate outcome for all the crystal ponies trapped within.
To the shard of sanity that wanted nothing more to contain his own evil, and save the crystal ponies from it, the banishment was a failure.
Sombra lost feeling throughout his body, only more so now that every strain chipped away his mind like a pickax on rock. The king stared across his prison, a cage within his own mind built by the fear, at his enemy.
"FEAR!" he shouted the name, cursing it, grinding his teeth at the embodiment that was possessing his life.
"Not my body, not my mind, not my crystals, not my kingdom, and not MY PONIES!" Sombra roared. "Face me now, coward! Fear must now face me! I will have you sealed away! YOU WILL HAVE NOTHING!" Sombra grabbed at the light of his soul, ripping away the black tendrils and forcing it into his magic, casting a banishment spell with such intensity that the entire empire was caught within as Celestia and Luna fled for their safety.
Sombra finally found the peace he was desperately searching for, it came in the form of cycling through a mental breakdown and buildup for the first year of self isolation. Followed by months without uttering a sound, breathing less and less. The desire to move, sleep, or even close his eyes was almost forgotten until an emotion that wasn't his own broke through.
I'm tired.
Sombra turned, the broken form of Luna was on the ground.
As feeling returned to his hooves, he moved to Luna's side.
What happened?
I'm sorry, sister. I couldn't go on.
What happened? Sombra asked again.
Luna fell to her side, eyes glazed over and body still. She remained silent for months in a world where urgency had no meaning, just contemplation.
"I was possessed by hatred, by a lust for power, and I was turned into Nightmare Moon. I wanted to turn into a monster, and I did."
Luna was silent for a year after that, shedding a tear the year following silence that was broken as the drop fell to the ground and rippled across their banishment.
I nearly killed my sister because of my jealousy. I wanted the adoration of ponies who frolicked during the daytime, to be as active and joyful during the night.
Sombra allowed a decade for his response to build,
The fear.
Luna nodded,
It took hold?
It tricked me into thinking it was anger, jealousy, and spite, but now...
Drifting off to sleep, an entire century passed with Sombra at Luna's side so that they may finish the conversation when she woke up.
Feeling those emotions that strongly wasn't worth it.
Are they gone? Is the fear gone? Sombra asked,
Luna looked up, No, just dormant.
Sombra felt sadness for a dozen years at Luna's answer,
What do we do?
wait.
For what?
To return, so that when the day comes, we can fight against our fears and possibly win this time.
Sombra laid down at Luna's side, finally speaking the day Luna felt a shift in the world around them,
"I'm afraid of fighting my fear."
"Then be afraid, but do not let it stop you from reaching your potential."
"And if it does?"
"Then wither away in silence."
Sombra nodded, watching Luna disappear as if she had never even been there for the past thousand years as he laid there in purgatory, waiting for his own enchantment to end and allow his fear, his ponies, and himself to break free.
"I must do more."
His kingdom and palace rose from the ground around them, he watched as every detail reformed the city around him. Sprinting up the steps, he panted, only moving faster the stronger his resolve felt. Running through the corridors, the walls built themselves as Sombra raced forward. Finally tearing the fabrics of purgatory apart and gazing into the real world for the first time.
His throne room, the hidden stairs, he charged down them finally coming to a stop a crystal planted above the door.
Sombra seethed with anger, blasting the crystal with dark magic, allowing the door to open.
He shouted at the top of his lungs,
"What's say you, monster? What's say you now?!"
As he charged through the door, the scene was all to familiar. It was the first dark magic training session he had with Celestia. The only difference was that he couldn't hear the words coming out of her mouth.
"What did you say?"
Celestia looked at him, speaking louder, but the words didn't fit to the shape of her mouth, everything sounded distorted.
Shaking his head, he tried to clear away any haze that was looming over his head.
"There will be a day when fear will embody not just one, but six forms to try and take this land from you. You must fight them, draw your strength in from your magic of crystals and entomb them for as long as you can! It is the only way to save your kingdom and the ponies within."
"Crystals...ponies..."
Crystals, ponies.
"CRYSTALS!" He yelled, "PONIES!"
The room melted away, leaving him in the recesses of the barren artic. The sound of grinding metal directed his attention towards a large iron horse with wheels, pulling ten carriages behind the front car, the second filled with coal.
From the metal carriage, six ponies and a small dragon stepped down and into view.
"No." his mind told him, look closer. His eyes burned as he looked through the ponies to see the embodiment of fear hiding within them, just as Celestia had told him.
Yelling out in primal rage, the dark magic aided him in chasing six monsters until a seventh appeared to challenge him. The seventh, he saw, was wrapped in dark tendrils the six had conjured through lies and deceit.
This stallion must only serve as a means of distraction while the six steal my crystal heart, and take away my kingdom! Be liberated stallion! Let me save you from the fear!
The white stallion conjured a powerful shield as Sombra tried to intervene, shouting back a retort saying he would never allow him to enter the Crystal Empire. For a moment the tendrils of fear he saw around the stallion disappear as he slammed into it, as if he had said it on his own free will. His eyes burned again, and the tendrils returned.
This stallion was fighting him, if that was the case, then the death of one would not be a stain on my return to power when I finally cast off the eliminate the fear that enters my kingdom, plagues my mind, and possesses ponies to do its bidding. I might even carve a likeness of him and list all the others who fell to the fear when I claim my throne again.
With his senses regained, Sombra launched himself at Shining Armor again in an attempt to liberate the stallion from the strings of fear the six ponies crafted to control him.
Author's Note
A one shot of Sombra's perspective on his own downfall, I imagined that such an pony could only turn evil if every sense told him that the things he saw and heard were corrupted beyond reasoning by fear. Fear tricked Sombra into fighting the Mane six one thousand years later with his own free will, that way it would be easier to control him.
I was very considerate of Celestia and Luna's deteriorating relationship, most of this story was based off the dialogue between Starswirl, Celestia, and good Sombra throughout issues 16-20 of the comics where Starswirl mentions they've never heard of a Sombra in their own universe which prompted Celestia to search for him- along with Celestia saying Luna is acting distant. Celestia's moment of humility was meant to be an explanation as to how the coming of Nightmare Moon was held off for a few more years
