Chapters Chapter 1: Getting Drunk (Edited)
Chapter 1: Getting Drunk
Sombra had done the only logical thing that can be done after learning that he would have to constantly move about and do whatever six mares say, because they want to teach him about the magic of friendship; He found the wine cellar and got completely wasted. By the time Twilight found him he was laying on the floor surrounded by empty bottles.
"By Celestia! Sombra, really?" Twilight was somewhere between disgust and pity. Sombra looked like a mess, his eyes were blood shot his jet black mane was everywhere with several locks going across his face, and he was lying on his back surrounded by bottles and covered in spilled wine.
" Yeah, really. I'm getting cross eyed drunk." He took another swig from one of the very few bottles that weren't empty. "And don't worry. I left the ones that are as old or older then me alone. By the way I want the one that was made in 21 B.R.C (Before Rule of Celestia) for reasons."
Twilight rolled her eyes and kicked her way through the bottles to get to the ex-tyrant. "Come on, get up. I'm not having you drink all of my stock." She gave the dark grey unicorn a gentle kick in the ribs to encourage him to move.
"Ow. That's not very nice." The sarcasm dripping off his voice could practically be seen. Then Twilight took an unfortunate sniff of what Sombra's breath smelled like.
"OH CELESTIA!" She covered her muzzle with her wings. "Your breath smells like a brewery. You are going upstairs to take a bath and brush your teeth." She nearly gagged as she spoke, and gave him a much harder kick.
"UUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! Fine..." Sombra rolled on to his stomach and slowly stood up. He took a single step when suddenly he felt a terrible pain in his stomach and keeled over. "There goes my liver." Sombra rolled on the floor holding is stomach in excruciating pain.
Twilight facehoofed. "Well what did you expect? You should be dead from alcohol poisoning." She sighed and shook her head at the pathetic scene she was looking at. "Can you get up?"
"Could use a little help." He began waving for her to come up to him. "Just support me and I'll be fine."
Twilight sighed, steeling herself as she walked over and let him put his left hoof over her neck. He leaned against her as he stood up bringing their faces close together. "When we get to the bathroom you are drinking mouthwash!" Sombra just nodded, struggling to stand, and breath. The two of them slowly and awkwardly limped towards Twilight's bathroom. The only obstacle between them and the bathroom though, was eight flights of stairs. Twilight nearly laughed at the irony as Sombra began sweating buckets and looking like he wanted to die. "What's with that look of despair? I thought you loved stairs."
Sombra spoke in a pained voice between panting breaths. "Stairs.... help me.... think... kind of like.... pacing.... for some ponies... I get my.... best ideas.... while climbing.... stairs."
"Well I hope you get a good idea. Because we have six flights to go."
"Dear Faust, no."
One hour and many stair steps later
Twilight nearly dragged Sombra up the final step. "Here we are."
"Thank bucking Faust!" Sombra looked like he was on the verge of tears, or dying. Suddenly Sombra began to spasm and he fell back down a dozen steps until Twilight was able to catch him with her magic.
All Twilight could do was prevent him from falling further down, and wait for his seizure to end. Fortunately she only had to wait a few seconds, before he became unsettlingly motionless. "Sombra?" after a moment of silence Sombra groaned in pain. Twilight sighed with relief and began walking down to him. "Are you okay? What do you think just happened?"
"I'm just peachy. And I believe that what happened was my liver finally showing up." He stood up easily without any assistance and climbed up to Twilight.
Twilight couldn't help but note two details she hadn't noticed about Sombra; His eyes were no longer filled with pride and anger from when she fought him in the Crystal Empire. Now they made him look broken, like his soul and will had been shattered. Also he actually looked handsome with his hair a bit in his face. She pushed the second observation aside and focused on the task at hand. Twilight pointed to a nearby door. "That's the bathroom, use mouthwash, brush your teeth, and take a shower, and don't forget to use shampoo."
"The buck is Shampoo, and why would I use a brush on my teeth?"
"Wash behind your ears." Twilight shouted from her bed room to Sombra as she heard the shower turn on.
"I am 'mom'!" Twilight rolled her eyes at Sombra's remark and continued to take note of what she had learned about Sombra.
Born in the year 21 B.R.C?
Immortal?
Can heal from fatal injuries.
Not immune to pain.
Handsome.
Alcoholic?
Depression?
Red-Emerald eyes. Why?
Twilight sighed. Her note on what she had learned was practically all theories and questions. And it wasn't like she could just ask him, right? After a few minutes she decided to ask the most innocent of her questions. "Hey Sombra!"
"I'm washing behind my ears!"
"That's good, but I just wanted to ask you a question" A moment of silence followed, making Twilight a little nervous to ask.
"What's your question?"
Now or never. "What's so important about the year 21 B.R.C?"
Surprisingly he answered with no hesitation. "Year I was born. Now leave me alone, unless you want to join me in this shower."
"No thanks!" Twilight blushed having the mental image of them sharing a shower scarred into her brain. "Well when you are done in there your room is across the hall."
"Thank you. I'll try to resist the urge to go into yours." Twilight rolled her eyes at his joke, but locked her door just in case before she climbed into bed and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 2: Nightmare (Edited)
Chapter 2: Nightmare
Sombra went to his new temporary bed and fell asleep immediately. Unfortunately his dream was not as welcoming as the bed.
Sombra stood in a room he did not recognize, a large maroon bed in front of him with an old white unicorn stallion with a black mane laying in the bed. The stallions’ breath was rough and slow, his last breaths were coming soon.
The old stallion spoke in a deep harsh voice. "Sombra, my son. Come closer." Sombra's head reeled. ‘My father? ... What is this!? What is going on?! I don't have a father...do I?'
"Yes father." Sombra's voice spoke without his intention and his body began to move towards the bed.
"What have you done with yourself since the last I saw you."
"W-well father... I became a smithy..." Sombra's body pulled out an elegant silver crown with many beautiful gems placed in it perfectly.
"Let me see that." Sombra's body passed the crown to his "father" who looked at the crown for a few minutes before throwing it across the room. "You are such a disappointment. I spent my entire life bribing, campaigning and crushing my opponents to get on the Crystal council, and you destroyed my life's work. What foal doesn't want to be a noble and would rather be a smithy. I also see you haven't got your mark yet. You were always such a disappointment Sombra. Always..."
Sombra woke with a start sweat dripping from his brow. He sat there panting in his bed slowly calming down. He had forgotten he had a father at all... It had been several life times ago, so he couldn't really be blamed for forgetting the past. In fact he really wished that, that past would remain forgotten. Sombra laid back down on his bed and tried to remember his five year rule as the king of the Crystal Empire. He shot up again and ran to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He looked at his reflection, taking note of his ever greener eyes, and pressed his face and horn against the glass. He couldn't remember anything about his rule. Plans, armament, and how many soldiers he had under his command, what his favorite dish was, all gone. Even the fight with Cadence and Shining Armor was as blurry as a dream. He wanted to hit something and curse Faust for his luck. He was remembering what he wanted to forget, and he was forgetting what he should remember. He also had a sneaking suspicion that what ever was causing his eyes to turn green was also messing with his mind. He sighed and looked at his reflection. "Is this a sign that I should stop drinking, or that I should drink more?"
If he wasn't regretting drinking then, he was later that day. His hangover was making plowing the Celestia damned bright and sunny fields a nightmare. He took a small breather and tried to cover his eyes from the painful sun. Though it didn't stop the migraine he was having at least it alleviated it a bit.
"Ah didn't say ya could have a break yet."
"I'm almost done Faust damn it!" Sombra yelled back at the orange mare who had been eyeing him like a hawk all day. What plowing a field had to do with friendship he would never know. He worked through the pain and continued the slow farmers march as he plowed the remainder of the field. Sombra finally finished as the sun began to set. Every muscle on Sombra's body ached and he could tell that this whole thing was going to be worse then he thought possible. Sure he had hauled logs across town during the winter, but he was just sliding them across the snow and it took nowhere near the amount of time of plowing the field. He was going to have to work out if he was going to survive another day of this. He unhooked himself from the plow and headed back to the farmhouse. Applejack stood at the door way with a glass of water and a towel. He growled at her for the hard labor she had put him through and quickly chugged the water in a second flat. He didn't even bother to look at her when he grabbed the towel, used it to wipe of his sweat and placed it back in her hooves. He hoped that his actions had disgusted her for some sort of payback. He walked inside without a word, but with a sly smile on his face. "So where is my room? I am tired and I would like a place to sleep." Instead of an answer he only got silence. "Applejack?" He turned around in time to see her stuff something into her hat before walking towards him.
"Whatchya say?"
"I said. Where is my room? I do hope you have someplace for me to rest." He had to use every bit of his will to not call her a backwater redneck.
"Oh that'd be upstairs third door on da right. I hope you're ready for dinner. It'll be ready in a few minutes." The mare walked by with a skip in her step and a small smile on her face. Oh what he would give to wipe that smile off her face.
"EBON!" Sombra was barely able to turn towards the voice when he was hugged by a yellow filly with a red mane. "I can't believe your here. Why haven't you shown up to any of the crusader meetings? Hey what's with the ring on your horn?"
Sombra couldn't take this space invading annoying filly. "GET OFF OF ME! I SWEAR TO FAUST I'LL-"
"You'll what?" Sombra was caught off guard by a stallion's deep voice. The voice was a perfect preview to the stallion he that was walking down the stairs and looked Sombra defiantly in the eyes. The large red stallion had a red mane and looked very strong. Oh what Sombra would have given for an army of soldiers like him.
The tense moment between the two imposing Stallions was interrupted by the filly between them. "Big Mac you should hoof wrestle Ebon!"
Chapter 3
The wooden table groaned and creaked as it struggled to stand against the titanic forces that were battling on top of it. Big Mac and Sombra were locked in a competition of might and brute force while Apple bloom looked on like it was the most amazing moment in all of history.
"Grubs ready! How are y- What in tarnation?!" Apple Jack had come into the family room to see two very big, and very strong Stallions hoof wrestling. Even though both of them were straining and grunting trying to push the other's hoof down they were only accomplishing a stale mate. However everyone knew that eventually the weakest link would give out. Unfortunately the weakest link turned out to be the table, which shattered into splinters.
Sombra looked up at Big Mac confused. "So what does this mean? Who won? I've never played this game before, so I'm not sure what any of this means..." Big Mac looked just as confused as Sombra scratching his head before looking at Apple Jack to resolve the issue.
The farm mare looked at them and facehoofed so hard her hat came. "Nopony won. Y'all better clean this mess up." Sombra sighed and began to pick up what remained of the table to probably be used as firewood. Apple bloom tried to sneak by her big sister but Apple Jack grabbed her and pulled her back into the family room. "Not so fast. You gotta help as well cause you started this mess."
"How do you know that?" The filly looked up at Apple Jack pleadingly.
"Cause these to lug heads wouldn't come up with an idea like this alone." Apple Jack gave Apple Bloom a scolding look.
"Ugggggh!... okay..." The filly slowly went over to Sombra and Big Mac and helped them clean up the mess.
The rest of the night was uneventful. Dinner was an entire meal made entirely from apples. Sombra was also introduced to Granny Smith but unfortunately the old mare had passed out before she could meet him. It was uncomfortable to think that the old wrinkly mare in front of him was only a tenth of his age. Finally not willing to do anything else for the night, Sombra went to his room and fell asleep exhausted.
Sombra stood over a great and ancient forge built into a volcano. He was hammering away at a piece of metal, shaping it to his desires. As he worked Sombra chanted away repeating the words over and over again.
"Ash girdan durbatulûk, ash girdan gimbatul,
Ash girdan thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul."
He began by creating the shape of a large equilateral triangle. Then he began to cut away an edge creating the image of an alicorn, Sombra then inserted powerful crystals into the amulet. To power the crystals even further and to insure that only he could wield it fully he placed a piece of his soul into the main crystal gem; he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life. Finally he enchanted the amulet to prevent its removal by anyone other then the wearer. He would forever be connected to his amulet and even in the worse case scenario he would survive because of it.
With this amulet he would conquer the world. With it he would become a god.
Sombra awoke in a cold sweat for the second night in a row. "I have to find it."
Chapter 4
A being awoke for the first time in over a thousand years. Something had changed in the nature of the world. A wave of black magic had spread across the land. It was weak, harmless on its own, but meant to be found by only a select few. It was a message, a single wordless command. The desire of the master.
Find the Amulet.
The being spoke in a deep sickly voice that would give foals nightmares and make even the most hardened of soldiers unsettled "We hear thy command our master. Thy will shalt be accomplished." The being stood and walked through a black crystal fortress without any light to guide it. Truly it did not matter to the dark soul whether the halls were filled with light or not. Only the will of the master mattered. Finally it approached the main gate of the fortress, and despite the great weight of the gate it opened it with ease. To any normal pony the light would have been blinding but to The Mouth that did not matter. The Mouth wore a jagged and spiked helmet that covered his eyes with layer after layer of plates of Razor sharp black metal. At the top of the helmet several spikes curved into the air matching the Mouth's protruding curved red horn. However sinister its helmet was The Mouth's exposed name sake was the fuel of nightmares. The Mouth had a jagged maw filled with unnaturally long brown teeth forever in a hideous smile on the Mouth's lipless face. The Mouth also wore a chest plate with a black cloak underneath covering most of his body, but a tan coat could be seen in the few areas area not covered. A blizzard howled outside seemingly in an attempt to destroy the lone foul creature, but The Mouth did acknowledge its existence. The lord of the black tower only cared about serving his master. The Mouth inhaled deeply, and spat out the terrible stench of peace and love. The forces of Equestria must have triumphed, but his master's return was at hand. The Mouth of Sombra looked into the magic of the world and searched for the tools needed to insure his success in retrieving his masters amulet. After only a moment of searching he found what he was searching for. The six had been locked away in a mountain nearby. He grinned in happiness knowing the Girdanguls would rise again.
Sombra woke up gasping from the second nightmare he had that night. He had been so startled by the last dream that he was standing on top of his bed.
"Well then, remind me to not wake ya from now on. Ya wake up crazy like and nearly gave me a heart attack." Apple Jack stood at the doorway to his room tapping her hoof on the floor slowly. She didn't seem very startled to him, more like she was angry about something. Sombra stepped off the bed and walked up to her slowly.
"Well, I’m up, and awake. Is that all you needed to do or are you going to tell me something." He looked defiantly in her eyes hoping she would back off and he could get some dreamless sleep at last.
Apple Jack snorted. "Rarity is here to pick you up." The farm mare turned away from him and began walking back downstairs. She seemed to flick her tail at his face when she turned, and not being an expert of the new time he found himself in, Sombra didn't know if that was an insult or not.
After ensuring his room was in proper order Sombra walked downstairs and outside to meet Rarity. Sombra couldn't help but contemplate the meaning of that last strange dream. It unsettled him but he could not understand it. He shook his head and focused on more important matters like how Rarity seemed to be absolutely thrilled to see him.
"Sombra darling, I've come up with so many designs from that last modeling session we had, and I can’t wait to start. Oh this looks like we will have a fabulous time together!" as the fashion mare continued to talk about all she had planned Sombra began to wonder more and more on just how far he could run before Twilight caught him. Sombra began walking towards Rarity's boutique hoping the mare would get the message that he didn't want to listen to her. Unfortunately it seemed she got the opposite message entirely and talked even more as they walked. He sighed to himself. 'Today is going to be another long day...'
For those wondering what The Mouth of Sombra looks like. Art by FoxinShadow He is based off a character in the third Lord of The Rings book, and can be seen in the third movie in a deleted scene.
Chapter 5
Sombra tried to imagine himself in a better place, but as his legs cramped up again he realized that it was an impossible task. "I swear to Faust, Rarity you must have measured every inch, curve and contour of my body, twice! When are you going to be done with this?" He looked over to the white and purple mare, who was measuring the diameter of his left hind leg rather intrusively. 'At least she isn't underneath me while she measures me...'
"Oh calm down Sombra darling, I'm just making sure I have every single measurement I need. It's not like you are one of my manikins and all your measurements are on a box.“ The mare waved him off, and blushed an even deeper red. "And besides, it's not like I've measured everything."
Sombra looked forward blushing slightly feeling that he was being violated. 'I need an adult.' He looked at the floor trying to go to his happy place only to find Sweetie Belle directly in front of him. He flinched and leaned his head back. 'How had that filly gotten so close without me noticing?!'
"Why is my sister calling you Sombra, I thought your name was Ebon?" The filly turned her head to the side slightly, in what had to be a tactic to be as cute as possible to get the truth. It worked, but Sombra took note that it wouldn't for much longer. The three fillies in the Cutie Mark Crusaders were on the verge to becoming mares, or at the least coming to their maximum height.
Sombra sighed and told her the truth. "I lied."
Sweetie Belle's mouth dropped as if he had committed a heinous crime."Why would you lie about your own name? I thought we were friends."
Sombra had no more patience for this foal, and with a snarl he made it blatantly clear. "I have no friends." Sweetie Belle looked legitimately hurt by his words and ran off. "Good riddance."
"That was mean!" Rarity had backed up and looked him in the face, her front hooves crossed in disappointment. "Go up there and apologize to her." She demanded
Sombra almost laughed at her attempt to be commanding. "Make me." he moved from his standing position for the first time in almost five hours, the movement caused every joint in his legs to pop. "In fact this little fashion thing, is over. I'm going to my room." with that he began to walk towards his makeshift room.
Rarity was completely flabbergasted. "Well... you won't be getting any dinner tonight."
Sombra didn't slow in the slightest. "Good I don't need it." and slammed his room door shut behind him. He made his way to the bed, and prayed to Faust, Celestia, Cadence, and Luna that he would not have any more nightmares. He climbed into the bed and attempted to get some sleep.
Sombra stood in a dark wet cave, there was a small camp fire lit nearby allowing him to see part of the cave wall and about 10 feet away from the fire. Suddenly the sound of an old mare cackling echoed from the darkness. He started to back up towards the fire when a old mare spoke behind him.
"All hail King Sombra!"
Sombra turned to face her. She was a very old Pegasus mare with no hair and a wrinkled brown coat, her cutie mark was hidden n the folds of her skin. Suddenly the mare pulled out her own eye with her hoof and tossed it behind him. It was caught by a near identical old unicorn mare who popped the eye into her head. And with a bow spoke to him.
"All hail King Sombra, Prince of shadows."
Again the mare popped out the eye and tossed it to another old mare this time an earth pony. She placed the eye into one of her empty sockets and bowed.
"All hail Sombra. King of Rags!"
The three mares bursted into cackling laughter and surrounded him. They started circling him and stared with their empty eyes while they continued to pass their single shared eye. Sombra tried to move he wanted to strike these witches down but he could not move, he could not even speak, he could only watch and listen. The three mares chanted and cackled "KING OF RAGS, KING OF RAGS!"
Sombra gasped awake, ran to the bathroom and vomited in the toilet. He then laid down on the bathroom floor and cried. Eventually though sleep came to him again.
Sombra now wore the armor of the crystal guard. He was on an icy battle field guards of the Crystal Empire fought against Diamond Dogs to the death. Suddenly a young mare spoke.
"Captain Sombra! General Stonewall is dead, and most of the fifth legion as well!"
She was a pretty thing with a brown mane, blue eyes, and a yellow coat. She wore the armor of every other guard fighting and was covered in blood. Sombra spoke up. "Who is next in command?"
The mare stood there awkwardly for a moment. "You are sir..."
Sombra stared at her dumbfounded. Suddenly a stallion shouted out. "They have broken through!!"
A Diamond Dog rushed through the ranks charging straight for Sombra. Sombra prepared himself, drawing his sword with his magic he readied it. He would have a very small window of opportunity to kill it. He had to make his strikes count. Sombra Brought the sword into a slash at the dog's stomach just at it prepared to smash his skull in with its great paws.
Sombra woke with a start and vomited again. These dreams were only getting worse...
Chapter 6
Sombra rolled underneath and to the left of the Diamond Dog's strike; however Sombra's sword found its mark. The saber sliced the Diamond Dog's belly open, causing it's, for lack of a better term, guts to spill out into its arms. The Diamond Dog fell to its knees and tried to keep it's organs inside its body. Sombra couldn't tell if it was male or female but that didn't matter. He walked in front of the dog and readied his blade above him finish the would be assassin. The Diamond Dog started whining, and looked up at him with its eyes full of fear and pain. Sombra hesitated. Was he really going to kill the poor creature in front of him? Was he really going to make this begging Diamond Dog his first kill? He brought the blade down onto the Diamond Dog's head with his magic, nearly splitting its head in two. It would have died anyways, very few survive evisceration. He was doing the Diamond Dog a favor by making its death quick and painless. Sombra turned to the mare who gave him the news of his promotion. "What is the situation? I have the first legion's second and third battalions fortified along this hill. What happened to the rest of the army?" He looked out across the battlefield, surveying his surroundings. The general had been a fool and lead them into a large valley. At the center of the valley was a lake frozen near completely solid, if you moved carefully you could pass across it with relative ease but it made fighting near the center of the valley impossible. The eastern boarder of the valley was made by the base of a mountain and was littered with boulders; it was the perfect place for troops to hold up and defend, or for a trap. Two large oblong hills formed the western border; they were divided by a small drop that leveled out with the rest of the valley probably due to a river. The Northern of the two hills was held by the Diamond Dogs and was most likely where their camp was. The southern hill was the closest to the army when it entered the valley. Although initially held by the Diamond Dogs Sombra lead a charge up the hill with the second battalion, which was under his command, and the third battalion which had combined with the second battalion after their captain had been killed. (Crystal Empire troop structure places ten guards into a squad, 10 squads into a battalion, and 10 battalions into a legion.)
"Sir, the fifth legion charged out onto the ice when the Diamond Dog attack began. It was a slaughter. At least half of the fifth Legion has been killed." She then pointed to the east at a large clump of boulders near the mountain just east of his hill. "The rest of the first legion is fortified in those rocks." She pointed to another formation of rocks to the north. "The second and fourth legions are being overwhelmed over there. The Diamond Dogs have separated the second and fourth legions from the first, if we don't regroup the legions I doubt it will be possible to win this battle sir."
Sombra was visualizing the battle in his head, to believe that in only ten minutes after contact with the enemy over half a legion was killed and the army was in complete disarray. Something didn't add up though. "Where is the third legion?"
The mare pointed behind Sombra towards the capital of the Crystal Empire. "The third legion pulled back to defend the capital when the fighting began."
Sombra knew what those words truly meant. The third legion had pulled back because the commanding officer was a coward. He was going to have whoever was in command of that legion court marshaled and hanged. That is if anypony survived this battle. "How do you know this information?"
"Sir I've been running across this Faust forsaken battlefield searching for whoever is now in charge. I've checked with the other legions, you're it sir." She looked absolutely exhausted, and seeing quite a large amount of blood streaked across her armor he could assume she ran into some unpleasant company along the way.
Sombra looked out across the valley to where the remainder of the first legion was concentrated. An absolutely crazy and risky plan popped into his head. "I think it's time we link back up with the first legion." He smiled realizing that the plan was their best shot of surviving this mess. "Stay here and hold the hill for me." He didn't stay to hear her reply. Sombra ran down the hill past the makeshift entrenchments and made a beeline for the first legion. He would make passing slashes with his saber, or blast a hole in a Diamond Dog as he ran by, but he did not stop until he reached the rocks. He expected the guard to band together and using several boulders as choke points to create a natural fortress. What he found was basically a giant free for all. There was no order in the chaos amongst the rocks, it was soldier against soldier with the occasional small group that worked together. Sombra felt fear sink into his heart, how was he supposed to fix this? He charged into the chaos slashing with his saber and blasting with his magic when that wasn't enough. Every time he found a free moment he yelled out to the desperate guards of the first legion. "Legion to me!" at first the only ones to follow him were those he saved personally, but soon enough the guards began to trickle in and small groups would come to him helping save as many guards as he could. Sombra couldn't tell exactly how many were following him when he charged over to the second and fourth legion, but it was definitely more than six battalions. Now being lead by someone competent the first Legion broke through the Diamond Dog lines and regrouped with the second and fourth legions. The second and fourth faired much better then the first legion had, they had done exactly as expected and used the natural terrain to their advantage. At the center of the second and fourth's impromptu fortress was a small medical area to protect and treat the wounded. Taking stock of the troops available Sombra led most of the three legions in a charge up the Diamond Dog hill. He shouted a command to rally his troops. "SEND THEM BACK TO TARTARUS!" To the guards that fought beside him Sombra seemed to be a god of war, that nothing could stop, but Sombra knew that he had no idea what he was doing. He slipped in the snow twice as he climbed the hill only to dodge an attack by sheer luck. Within minutes he had taken the hill, and the tide of the battle had turned. After linking back up with his original force he led a charge that surrounded the remaining Diamond Dogs and slaughtered them on the ice.
Sombra opened his eyes sharply. These dreams made him feel sick. They didn't feel like dreams anymore, they felt more like he was living them. It felt like the danger was real, and so were the ponies he saw. It felt so real to such an extant that it was jarring for him. It was like being thrown from one reality to the next. His eyes almost spun in his head just thinking about it. He didn't vomit this time when he woke up, but his stomach did give him an unhappy gurgle.
"Sombra, Darling are you in there." Rarity called and knocked on the bathroom door. She probably was there to tell him that it was time to go to Pinkie.
Sombra shuddered. Though as much as he wished he could avoid the pink mare he knew it was unavoidable. He sighed and accepted his fate. "Yeah I am here."
"Well, Pinkie is here. She will feed you breakfast, Mr. No Dinner." She taunted, and walked off.
Sombra groaned, and started cleaning up the bathroom. Cleaning up any bile that failed to make it in the toilet, and washing his mouth out several times. He chanted to himself "Only one more day till Fluttershy." as he was about to leave the bathroom trying to give himself the energy needed to make it through the day.
Sombra choked down the breakfast Pinkie had made for him. He didn't know how or why but everything that the pink pregnant mare ate seemed to be made out of 90% sugar. It couldn't be food cravings since she had only been with foal for a couple of weeks, leaving the only possible explanation being that this is what the mare ate all the time. No wonder she is a live wire, and bouncing off the walls. He pushed his plate away unable to eat any more. "I can't eat another bite..."
She quickly took his plate away and suddenly appeared behind him. "YAY! You're done, now I can teach you how to make cupcakes." He didn't know how but she was grinning ear to ear. She pushed him into the kitchen and she also somehow had an apron on. Suddenly an upbeat music began to play, and Pinkie began to sing. "All you have to do-" only to realize a second later that he was gone. "King Sombrero? Where'd you go?" She checked all over the kitchen, in the pots and pans, cabinets, even the oven and fridge, but he was nowhere to be found. Suddenly she heard Mrs. Cake scream in the back room. Pinkie rushed over to her boss and good friend.
"Oh Pinkie... I have the worse news. Your friend he-... I don't know why... sure he seemed depressed but I didn't think he was that depressed..." Mrs. Cake mumbled trying to say something but Pinkie was more interested in why Mrs. Cake was between her and a supply closet, but whenever she would try to get a good look Mrs. Cake would get in the way. Pinkie got tired of the game they were playing and zipped between Mrs. Cakes legs and looked inside the supply closet. Inside the cramped space was Sombra, he hung from the ceiling with a makeshift noose around his neck. Mrs. Cake spoke up trying to prevent a hysterical Pinkamena "I'm so sorry Pinkie. Let's get the guard and-"
Pinkie hit Sombra and yelled at him. "That's not funny!" Mrs. Cake was horrified and surprised by Pinkie's response.
However to Mrs. Cake's even greater surprise Sombra talked back. "Oh I found it hysterical. You should have seen her face. How did you know I wasn't dead?"
"Because King Sombrero Twilight told me how you are immortal also there is no way that the author would kill off the main character."
Both Sombra and Mrs. Cake had the same reaction. "What?!"
"Now come on Mr. Sombrero get down from there." she folded her arms and pouted at him.
"No, I'm taking a nap." Sombra closed his eyes and shifted his body weight so he would face away from her. However Pinkie had other plans. She some how got a hold of a pair of scissors climbed up Sombra's back and cut him lose. He ended up in a pile of cleaning equipment, while Pinkie avoided the whole mess and sat by Mrs. Cake.
"Come on Sombrero we have a whole day to do fun things." She smiled warmly while Sombra blew his hair out of his eyes.
"Oh joy...."
Chapter 7
Sombra sat in Stonewall's old tent as the moon rose high in the night sky, slightly illuminating the near empty tent. Everypony had left behind anything that was not absolutely necessary, and Sombra wasn't the type of stallion who would make his troop do something he didn't do as well. The only things inside the rather large tent were an easily taken apart table, a stool, and a small cot that was intended for a soldier. The lack of any furniture made the tent seem even larger and lonelier. Sombra looked over the map on the table again. He didn't want to believe what had been clearly marked; there was no way for the army to return to the Crystal Empire. When the battle had been won he ordered for a scouting party to search for a suitable route back to the Capital, what they found was that the Diamond Dog Armies had been far larger then anticipated. When the Empire had sent out its invasion force, so had the Diamond Dogs. The difference however was that the Diamond Dogs had sent a force of 50,000. The size of it was mind boggling. The Diamond Dogs had more soldiers in their army then there were citizens in the Capital. The Diamond Dogs had sent a token force to deal with Sombra's army, but the main force had moved past and blocked his withdrawal. He was behind enemy lines with a broken army a tenth of the enemy force with no chance of retreat. Sombra hit his head against the table, his curved horn making it easier for him to do so without getting his horn stuck. He heard the sound of the tent fabric door being opened by somepony and looked up. It turned out to be the orange and brown mare. She saluted him and sat at attention. This was going to take some time to get used to. "At ease....uh.... you never told me your name."
She lowered her salute and walked to the table. "It's Private Evening Ray, Sir."
"Well Evening Ray why have you come to me so late?"
"Sir, I'm here to give you the camp report. If you’re busy I can come back in the morning." Her face was completely emotionless and professional.
Sombra sighed he needed somepony to talk to and not be so devoid of emotion. "No, stay. Give me the report I ... I could also use your help in other matters."
"Very well sir." Evening Ray sat down next to the table, pulled out a scroll and placed it on the table. Sombra took the scroll and began to read its contents Evening Ray gave a summary of its contents even though Sombra hadn't asked her to. "After we made camp a head count was conducted. In total 4039 Soldiers are clear for combat, an additional 47 are wounded and being treated. The majority of our casualties came from the fifth legion with 567 believed dead, the next highest casualties was the first legion with 147, followed by the second legion with 102, the fourth legion with 98, and the third legion which had no reported casualties. Food supplies are in fair stock and should last us two month if-" Sombra had already read the document, he didn't need to be told the same thing twice and besides all that remained was the stocks of food, weapons and medical equipment.
"Thank you, Eve. Do you mind if I call you that?" She looked up at him surprised at just how informal he was being.
"No, sir. Eve is fine."
"Good, now also stop addressing me as sir. Just call me Sombra." Her jaw dropped at his words. It was almost as if he had insulted her mother or something of that nature. He didn't wait for her to respond and went straight to what was troubling him. "Yes I know I'm being informal and blah blah blah, but I'm going to be completely honest, I should not be leading this army."
She shook her head in a double take, her mind managing to process the 'Impossibilities' he was saying. "B-but si-Sombra, you're a hero!
That final word echoed in his head. 'Hero' nopony had ever thrown any such a title onto him. As a foal he had been 'freak' due to his horn's curved birth defect, when he left to be a smithy he was 'disappointment', when he had delved deeper into the dark arts between hammering plows into blades he was 'apprentice', when he left his shop in disarray and joined the guard shortly after his fathers death he was 'maggot'. Now he was 'hero'? It didn't feel right. "You can call me a hero as much you like, but that doesn't make me anymore fit to lead this army. I'm barely even a captain; I got the promotion simply because I got a good word in by Sergeant Slate Pie. I know nothing about how things are supposed to work, or anything. I'm just a smithy who joined the guard to prove to his father that he wasn't a disappointment... You on the other hand know much more then me, you're formal, which I cannot stand to be when I speak to somepony one on one, and you seem to know all the rules and regulations of command. Now why does a private no more about commanding an army then a captain, and why isn't she in charge?"
She starred at him blankly letting his words process in her mind. "Si- Sombra, you just lead a shattered army to victory. You led over a thousand soldiers into battle, within minutes of coming into command. You are more then worthy to command this army, and as to why I know so much. I was an assistant to General Stonewall, I helped him with many of his reports, and I practically memorized the rule book to make it easier for me to help him. I have no abilities in leadership; I couldn't lead a starving stallion to food much less an army." Sombra buried his muzzle in his hooves. He got his answer, but he didn't like how it thrust him back into command.
"... I keep thinking this is a dream... That any moment I'm going to wake up in the barracks back in the Empire... But that's not going to happen... I'm here, and this isn't a dream..." Sombra looked up at Eve. "Here I am responsible with the lives of four thousand eighty two guardponies. We are out numbered over ten to one, a fifth of our force has been killed in our first battle, we are behind enemy lines and I have to find someway to get everypony home..." Sombra looked back at the map covered in markers to represent enemy troops. It looked so hopeless.
"Sombra..." Eve moved close to him and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "I know this looks impossible... but if there is anypony who can lead us to victory, it's you. I'm going to help you run the army, and you just focus on leading this army to victory." She smiled warmly at him, and Sombra couldn't help but nod and smile back. "Now while we are here we might as well pick the new captains, and commanders. We have an entire command structure to rebuild, and troops from the fifth legion being moved everywhere." Sombra groaned at the prospect of the upcoming task but felt much better at the prospect of leading these ponies.
Sombra woke up slowly glad that the last dream did not send him back into consciousness with a pounding heart. He had barely slept at all. He had barely slept the last three nights and it was affecting him. He hoped that the dreams would stop, but that hope was draining fast. He sighed and got ready to leave in anticipation of going to Fluttershy's house, at least no crazy shenanigans would happen there.
"What do you mean you don't sing?!" Pinkie nearly shouted straight into his ear.
"I mean that. I. DON'T. SING." Sombra snarled at her, even walking to Fluttershy's cottage this mare was annoying.
"But singing is amazing. Whenever I don't know what to do, or I'm overloaded with thoughts, I sing. It always makes everything make sense and easier." Sombra didn't even look at her but he expected that she had a big smile on her face.
"Good for you. I'm still not singing." Sombra walked faster trying to get to Fluttershy's faster.
"Party pooper." He heard her stick her tongue out at him, but neither looked back nor responded. he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of a response.
They walked in silence for several minutes until suddenly Fluttershy's cottage appeared. He ran straight to her door and knocked, happy to finally be able to relax. Slowly the door opened and a male some what deep voice spoke. "Well if it isn't King Sombra." Standing in the doorway was the mismatched creature known as Discord. The Draconequus scooped Sombra up and gave the ex-king a big hug. "I'm so glad that you have joined the reformation train. I was getting lonely."
Sombra pushed and squirmed against Discord's grasp, but no matter how much he resisted he could not get away. "Unhand me you foul demon!"
Discord dropped Sombra and placed a claw on his heart looking insulted and sad. "Sombra that hurts, I thought we were buddies, pals even." a single tear was the cherry on top of his performance.
Sombra got up from being dropped from four feet in the air and glared at Discord. "We are not friends; in fact I want nothing to do with you. Now tell me, why are you even here!?!" Sombra was shooting daggers with his eyes and was on the verge of trying to kill the mad... thing.
"I'm here because Fluttershy is my good friend and she asked me to come show you what is like to be reformed." Discord smiled ear to ear while Sombra's eye twitched.
"I am in a bad mood Discord. Leave me alone. Because I swear if you try any funny business with me I will mur-" Sombra was interrupted by Discord shushing him with a finger across his mouth.
"Now Sombrero you know I can't understand you when you aren't speaking your native language." Sombra was completely confused by the mad jokester as Equish was his native language. Discord snapped his fingers and moved his other hand away from Sombra's mouth.
Sombra was completely confused by Discord's actions. "Que?!" Sombra's eyes went wide as the perfectly pronounced word rolled of his lips. Discord giggled loudly happy with the deed he had done. "Que hiciste con mi voz?!" No matter how hard Sombra tried to speak in Equish the other language came out instead.
Discord broke out in hysterical laughter. "I have done nothing to your voice Sombrero. Your words on the other hand not so much." Sombra readied himself to rip the god of chaos apart. "I must admit you sound pretty cool speaking Sponish." Sombra launched himself at Discord only for the trickster to dodge out of the way, so that instead Sombra slammed into a wall. "It's been fun Sombra but I must go. TA TA." With that Discord flew out the door and into the sky.
Sombra shouted after him. "Te voy a matar Discord!!" Sending Discord into yet another laughing fit.
Chapter 8
Fluttershy was cowering as Sombra yelled out into the air. She had no idea what was going on, what Sombra had just said, or whether she should trigger the alarm that would send everypony to save her. After a moment of Sombra just standing there, menacingly he finally looked down and noticed her.
"... Hola." Fluttershy had no idea what he just said but with his deep voice and how the word seemed to roll of his lips, it sounded hot. "Fluttershy mas te vale castigar a Discord para esto." Very hot. She couldn't help but blush even though the only things she understood was her name and Discord's. Sombra deadpanned looking at the wide eyed blushing mare and facehoofed. "No me estas entendiendo."
"Uh.... Sombra are you okay? You are saying things I don't understand.... sorry..." Sombra facehoofed again, but was thankful he could understand her at least. "I-I think we should go to Twilight.... maybe she knows what's wrong... or what you’re saying..." Sombra facehoofed knowing exactly what had happened.
Meanwhile in a parallel world
Sombra stared into the piece of the magical mirror that remained hoping to catch a glimpse of his beloved Celestia. Sometimes he would see the eye of his future queen or her beautiful alabaster coat. Each time he saw her, his heart would soar, and his life would be happy again.... but it wasn't enough... no just seeing her would never be enough. He needed to hold her, to make her truly his. Yes! He clawed the snow beneath his feet.
"Soon my love we shall be reunited, and I promise. That I will not let anything separate us again. Not even yourself." He began laughing hysterically with his straight horn glowing orange and his eyes giving of a black smokey aura. Before him a crystal mirror was slowly being completed.
Meanwhile back in the original universe in Canterlot
Celestia woke springing out of her bed. Something had happened. Something terrible had happened. The entire world felt darker due to whatever had just occurred. She sensed somepony she had not sensed this pony in a very long time. Celestia's eyes widened. She nearly flung her bedroom doors off their hinges as she nearly ran out of her room. Several of her guards recognized the concern on their princess's face and followed her.
"Princess Celestia is something wrong?"
"Yes, but I do not have time to explain. Tell the blacksmith that I need my armor refurbished, and prepared for battle. I also need somepony to tell my sister to meet me on the mountain of Girdangul in the Crystal Empire as soon as possible." Celestia did not look back at the guard to see if he had done as she commanded. She was far to focused on the grim task at hand. Celestia took flight from one of Canterlot's many balconies and headed towards the Crystal Empire.
Chapter 9
Celestia approached one of the few places she hoped she would never return to, the mountain tomb of the Girdangul. As she came near she noted the state of disrepair the tomb had fallen into. The stairs that lead up to it had half crumbled away, it would have been very difficult for her to get up to it if she did not have wings. However her blood ran cold when she looked at the condition of the iron gate that sealed the stone entrance, or rather that once sealed the entrance. The gate looked as though some unstoppable force had ripped it open in a blast of power, from the inside. Celestia walked inside and lit her horn to cast away the darkness within the halls. She carefully climbed down a steep slope that lead into the main chamber of the tomb. Originally it had been the main mine shaft for a crystal mine worked by many of Sombra's slaves but after his original defeat it was put to a more important use. Celestia knew the layout of the tomb very well, it was very simplistic. The mine shaft had been divided into four sections, one on top of the other, at each section was a balcony and two small alcoves, except the bottom section which had only one alcove. Celestia could already see what she feared most with even from the entrance of the shaft. Before her the first alcove's grated iron door had been blown open much from inside the alcove. She moved towards the alcove and went inside the small dank room. Inside a stone sarcophagus sat with its lid smashed to pieces. Celestia approached closer still. Although all signs suggested that its contents had left, she had to make sure. She needed to know if he truly lived again. Suddenly she heard a step behind her, and turned around a blast of magic charged to strike her opponent. Luna stood at the door way wincing at the light of Celestia's horn. Celestia sighed "Oh it’s just you." the princess of the day calmly said mainly to herself.
Luna shifted nervously looking at her sister. "Why am I here Tia?"
"Trust me Luna; I would not have called you here without good reason."
"This is not a nice place to meet."
Celestia's look of relief was replaced with a far more serious one. "No. It is not."
Luna backed out of the small room so he sister could exit and peered at the markings above the entry way to the alcove. The largest of the markings was the symbol for the element of magic, below it were many ruins intertwined with spells of sealing. "These are dark spells, Tia. Old and full of hate... Who's buried here?" Celestia exited the room and looked at her sister, a brooding look stretched across her face.
With a sigh Celestia responded. "If he had a name, then it has long since been lost.... He would have been known only, as a servant of evil. One of a number,-" Celestia looked down into the mine shaft the light of he horn revealing similar rooms as the one they had exited, each with their door blown open from the inside. "One of six."
In the Canterlot war room one hour later.
Luna paced in font of her elder sister. "Why now Tia? I don't understand."
"The Amulet Wraiths have been summoned. There is little to not understand." Celestia took a sip of tea, as she silently thought of how to deal with this threat.
Luna stopped in front of her sister. "But it cannot be Sombra. He was destroyed years ago."
Celestia looked up from her tea and stared Luna in the eyes. "Who said he was destroyed?.... The six only answer to one master. We've been blind Luna, and in our blindness our enemy has returned... He is summoning his servants.... Sombra walks among us!"
Meanwhile in Ponyville
Twilight stared at Sombra completely confused. "Yeah.... Fluttershy, I have no idea what he is saying."
Sombra walked over to a nearby wall and repeatedly slammed his forehead against it in frustration.
Sombra had officially given up on life. He was sitting at one of the many tables in Twilight's castle, but instead of sitting in his chair like a normal pony he had laid his head down onto it. Twilight had used every single translation spell in her arsenal, and nothing happened. He was still speaking a language nopony understood. Now the entire colorful gang had arrived to think of some way to figure out what was going on. This was the most frustrating.... no.... second most frustrating situation he had ever been in. He was frustrated and worse of all it was Discord's perfect crime. He was sick and tired of these crazy mares, then he realized he didn't have to keep his annoyance confined to his head. "Viejas locas!" Sombra smiled as the mares gave him confused looks.
"Si!" Pinkie shouted back to him bouncing with a big smile on her face.
Sombra was caught completely off guard. His smile vanished and he just stared at the crazy pink mare. "Que?" (What?)
Twilight was just as shocked. "Wait... Pinkie you can understand him?"
"Yup." The sound of six collective facehoofs sounded throughout the castle.
"Well... can you ask him why he is talking like this?" Twilight looked like her sanity was hanging on by a single thread.
"sure thing Twilight." Pinkie did a cheerful trot over to Sombra and asked. "Que te paso Señor Sombrero?" (What happened to you Mr. Sombrero?)
When she finally gives birth he was going to punch her for every time she called him Sombrero. "Discord."
Pinkie turned back around. "Discord happened." she happily announced.
Another set of facehoofs echoed. "Come on, lets go find Discord." Twilight told her friends.
Finding Discord turned out to be much easier then Sombra thought possible. A pink cotton candy cloud raining chocolate milk over the Everfree is about as subtle as a fireworks display that spells out 'Here I am!' In the sky.
Twilight looked up at the pink abomination in the sky. "DISCORD! Get down here and fix Sombra."
The Draconequis in question woke up from his nap, looked over the edge, and smiled gleefully at the results of his prank. suddenly he teleported in front of Twilight with a pocket watch in his hand. "Two hours forty seven minutes. Well done, personally I was betting it would take three hours for you to figure it out."
Twilight opened her mouth to tell the mad prankster to stop being so proud and change Sombra back already, when Sombra pushed her aside, walked up to Discord and yelled "Pinche carbon!"
Discord's eyes bulged with shock and everypony looked to Pinkie who looked just as shocked by Sombra's words. "I am not translating that!" With that everypony turned back to Discord and Sombra who were glaring at each other.
Discord bounced on his hind legs and held his clawed arms in fists. "Them be fighting words, come on put up. Give me your best shot." He faked ducked and weaved and through a couple of practice punches treating this situation like a joke.
Sombra watched Discord's little performance with an unchanging expression for a few moments. The former king then brought his front hooves to his head and twisted it to pop his neck. Then He did something no one expected he stood up in his hind legs and punched Discord with his right hoof. Discord's head flew clean off his body and was imbedded in a tree, though instead of seeing an decapitated spine the place where his head used to be was covered in brown fur as though a head was never there. Sombra finished the extremely one-sided fight by quickly turning around back onto all fours and kicking Discord's body, which also flew into a tree and made a squeaking noise as if it was a dogs chew toy. All in all the "fight" lasted 2.7 seconds.
Everypony stared at Sombra completely stunned at seeing the strength the stallion possessed. Discord broke the silence. "That was a pretty good hit...." his mismatched body got up from being a crumpled heap on the ground pulled his head from the tree and placed it back where it belonged.
Twilight returned to her senses and decided to intervene and prevent round 2 from happening. "Okay. Discord you have had your fun change Sombra's voice back to normal already."
Discord rolled his eyes and grumbled. "Alright, miss bossy." he snapped his fingers and folded his arms.
Sombra looked at Discord not exactly sure if that meant everything was backed to normal or not. "Does this mean I can speak and write as I please now?" he was a little shocked to hear his voice speak like that again but at least the first part of his question was answered.
"Yeah, yeah. By sunbutt you can't take a joke can you?" Discord stuck his tongue out at Sombra at looked away like an angry foal, only to find himself face to face with a disappointed Fluttershy. "You can't seriously be taking his side on this!"The yellow pegasus folded her front hooves and glared at him. "Oh come on, it was just a harmless joke!" Fluttershy pointed towards her cottage sternly. Discord sighed and looked down at the ground defeated. "Fine..." he grumbled and flew off.
Sombra was completely stunned by what he just saw. Fluttershy had just ordered Chaos incarnate to basically go to his room without saying a word, but she couldn't prevent a bunny from taking advantage of her. He kept his questions to himself for the moment, and started walking off towards her cottage. He didn't care if Twilight or one of the others said something to him he just wanted to relax and ask a favor of Fluttershy. After a few minutes of walking Sombra happened to notice that the small yellow Pegasus was walking beside him.
Fluttershy took that acknowledgement of her existence as permission for her to speak to him. "Uhhh... Sombra... I was just wondering... Where did you learn to fight like that?...you know standing on your back hooves... If your okay with answering.... sorry..."
Sombra hated to admit it but he had a soft spot for the little Pegasus, she showed him kindness when he did not deserve it and she acted like the most loyal of slaves. She was respectful, did as she was asked and would only ask for clarification, and would then apologize for her ignorance. He decided there was no harm in letting her know and answered her. "From the Diamond Dog wars. I was a general for the Crystal Empire, I lead an army against the much larger Diamond Dog force. We had many casualties, but under my command and using that fighting style you saw back there I was able to lead my troops all the way to the Diamond Dogs capital. It was a great fortress made from a hollowed out mountain, I destroyed the city by causing a massive cave in and secured peace for my people." His memory began to flow with his words letting him remember more and more. He broke his trance and looked back to the path hoping she was content with his answer. Nothing more was said, as they walked back to the cottage.
Sombra drank the anti-dream potion Fluttershy had gotten him and made sure that the rest of the anti-dream charms were in place, before he laid back down on his couch. Fluttershy had gone to bed already and Discord had gone to Canterlot after swearing to not tell anypony about him. Now Sombra could take pride knowing that tonight he would finally get a good night's sleep.
Sombra was in a small snow covered school Yard. He was reading Starswirl the bearded's 5th book. He loved Starsswirl's boalwayshe famed mage was his idol. Magic had always been difficult for Sombra but due to Starswirl's books Sombra was finally able to use magic when he turned five. He was smarter then any of his classmates and excelled at all subjects in school. Although he had earned the respect of his teachers his fellow classmates was another story. A snow ball slammed into his face, the snow melting and sending cold shivers down his spine. He looked up to see a blue crystal colt.
"If it isn't the blank flank freak, Sombra. What are you doing here so late after school? Your father finally disown you?" The Colt mocked.
Sombra tried to remain calm, he closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "Leave me alone Shale..." A chunck of ice slammed into Sombra's muzzle, and he felt warm blood slide down his nose. That's it, he wasn't going to take this abuse anymore. He let his rage fill him up and he struck back. With a black aura and purple smoke drifting from his eyes he gripped Shale's throat with his magic. He lifted the struggling colt into the air, Shale could do nothing to stop him. Sombra was the powerful one now, but he wasn't done yet, no, he was going to insure that Shale never bothered him ever again. He tightened his hold on Shale's throat like a snake strangling it's pray, tighter and tighter. "Crack!!!" Shale went limp, and finally stopped struggling, Sombra tossed the limp colt into a large snow drift and walked back into the school. He grabbed a peice of chalk from a nearby class room and locked himself into a supply closet. He knew exactly what he was going to do. He drew a circle and pentagram within it, he then let the anger that he felt when he choked Shale fill him up again, and with that anger he formed the spell to speak with a being in Tartarus. The circle glowed and a shadowy image appeared in the air before Sombra, it was a pair of red eyes with purple smoke trailing from them. Sombra bowed. "Hello Master Grogar, today I learned how to kill."
Twilight stared at the door in front of her, conflicted on whether she should go through with her plan or not. She debated every possible outcome in her head, but eventually she saw the futility of doing that. she took a deep breath and knocked on Princess Luna's bedroom door.
The door opened slowly and a curious dark blue mare with a mane that seemed to be made of the night sky poked her head out her room. "Twilight? It is good to see thee once more my friend, but why art thou up so late? Is there something thou wishes to speak of?"
Twilight awkwardly rubbed her left fore hoof. "Yeah.... I wanted to talk about Sombra..." Luna's face filled with a mixture of surprise embarrassment and fear.
"Come into our bedchambers, young princess... These are matters best not spoken in public." Luna let Twilight inside and closed the door quickly behind her. Luna stood in front of the doors her head pressing against it. Twilight could not understand why Luna was acting like this. "What did thou learn of, that brought thee here tonight?"
"Well that's the thing... I haven't been able to learn anything about him.... it's like he was erased from history... not even the Crystal Empire has any information about him..... but I did learn that before you and your sister defeated him that you went to the crystal empire for negotiations for five months... I was wondering if you could tell me anything about him..." Twilight nearly closed her eyes in fear of the rejection she would receive.
"Certainly... What sort of things would thou wish to know?"
Twilight opened her eyes surprised to get such a casual response. "Uh... What was he like, day to day, hobbies, favorite things...."
Luna looked happily surprised by Twilight's request. "It is not often that somepony asks about Sombra's personal life... Wait on our bed we need to get something for this." Luna ran trotted off to her closet while a very confused Twilight climbed onto the night monarchs bed. after a few moments of rummaging in her closet Luna quickly hopped onto her bed and set down an old wooden in front of Twilight. Twilight watched as Luna opened the box to reveal a collection of manuscripts and small paintings. "Many ponies assume that Sombra was a big mindless brute, however he wasn't always like that, at least not at first..."
Twilight flipped through several papers of notes with advanced calculations on magic. "Luna... what are these?"
Luna gently took the papers from Twilight's magical grasp and pulled a single page out from the stack. "These, dear Twilight, are the notes and equations for magical theories Sombra created. Majority of them are based on Starswirl's work. He was just as fanatic about Starswirl as you are."
Twilight popped her head up surprised and looked over the page of notes Luna had pulled out. "Really?" The majority of the page was illegible and seemed to serve no purpose other then to prove a point that magic and energy are one and the same, however at the very bottom a tiny equation was triple underlined and circled. E = M (C squared).
"Oh yes. He owned just about every Starswirl book edition ever published. He knew each by art and could recite them like poetry. I swear if it weren't for the fact that he wanted to keep appearances he would have grown a Starswirl beard." Luna looked back at the notes Twilight was deciphering, a sad smile growing across her face. "He was a genius you know... possibly one of the greatest minds the world will ever see... That paper was the last thing he worked on before he began losing his sanity... He said it solved everything by connecting magic to matter. Personally I didn't understand any of it, but I do know for certain he was amazing at chess."
Twilight looked up at her curious. "How good, exactly?"
"I had over five hundred games with him. I did not win a single one."
Sombra sat on the couch holding his knees against his chest. It was decided if anti dream charms and potions couldn't stop this then he would just have to stop sleeping. Some knocking at Fluttershy's door Startled him off the couch in a flailing of limbs. after recovering whatever was left of his dignity Sombra answered the door expecting to find Rainbow Dash on the other side.
"Good morning Sombra." Twilight spoke in a cheery voice.
"Twilight? What are you doing here?" Sombra was confused and very tired.
"Well i'm here to take you to my Castle as Rainbow is off being a Wonderbolt. And don't worry I have something very special planned for you." and with that she winked at the former tyrant leaving him utterly clueless.
Chapter 12
Sombra closed his eyes tightly focusing on the exhausting activity at hoof. Sweat trickled off of him, soaking his dark grey coat.
"Sombra, push harder, you are so close!" Twilight called out to him.
"What do you think I'm doing?! I'm going as hard and as fast as I can!" he replied back.
"Well push harder, just a little more." Twilight nearly pleaded. Sombra grunted loudly and put everything he had into his task. Twilight nearly shouted at him in response. "Yes. Yes! YES! YES! ... You did it Sombra! "
Sombra opened his eyes, he was sitting across a small wooden table from Twilight who was smiling with joy. floating an inch above the table was one of her purple feathers being held up by Sombra's maroon magic. Sombra stared at the feather in amazement for a few minutes before he bursted into laughter. As insignificant as this accomplishment would seem to most, it meant everything to him. He could still use magic, though very difficult and when the inhibitor ring was removed. Speaking of which, he heard the gentle click of the ring being locked back onto his horn by Twilight, he didn't care though, he was far too tired to care. He felt the darkness fall upon him and he fell into unconsciousness.
Twilight watched helplessly as Sombra slammed into the table and broke it in half. Twilight rushed over to him to make sure the unconscious Stallion was okay. "...I may have pushed you a little too far..." She said mainly to herself. She sighed and brushed the larger chunks of wood off of him and tried to decide what was the best option for getting him to his bed. She tried to lift him with her hooves but it was to the same effect of trying to lift a house. She lifted him with her magic yet just holding him in the air was taxing and she knew she couldn't take him all the way to his room. She braced herself and with her magic placed him on her back. "By Celestia! Of all the villains I've faced why do you have to be a big bulking warlord stallion? Why couldn't you have been a much lighter mare, like Chrysalis?" Twilight grunted, her legs nearly buckling. She started walking towards Sombra's room, getting steadier as she walked. "...I guess I should be glad you aren't as big as Snowflake." After some time and many breaks Twilight finally carried Sombra to his bed. Too tired to lift him off her back with her magic She walked to the side of his bed and rolled onto it, causing him to flop of her back. She took a moment to catch her breath laying beside the unconscious. "Next time I'm bringing a guard so he can do this for me. After all they actually workout for things like this." She said to herself making a mental note. She started to get up to head to her own room when something wrapped around her chest and pulled her back into Sombra's bed. She had one guess as to what that something was. "Ah! Sombra let go of me this isn't funny!" Twilight turned her head to look at him and from the corner of her eye she could see that he was still asleep. He must of wrapped his hooves around her due to a reflex in his sleep. She tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but the more she struggled the tighter he held onto her. She eventually gave up and just laid in his arms to tired to break out of his grasp. The irony of the situation did not escape her. Sombra was one of the most feared and hated of all of the villains she had faced and now she was being held by him like she was a stuffed animal for a foal. She tried to relax and get some sleep so she could get back at him in the morning, when she felt him nuzzle her neck like he would a lover. Her normally violet face turned bright red with embarrassment. She had never had anything like this done to her before and Sombra was the last pony she would ever have expected to do it. She wanted to get out of this whole situation, but at the same time it felt kind of good. Suddenly he turned onto his back making her lay on his surprisingly comfortable chest. Okay, it felt really good. She looked up at Sombra sleeping peacefully, but somehow seeming ever vigilant and for some reason she felt safe. As Twilight drifted off to sleep she couldn't shake a feeling something was off about Sombra, his chest was silent.
Chapter 14
Sombra sat In his tent, looking over the tactical map. It had changed completely compared to when he saw it for the first time. His army had steadily moved closer and closer to the Diamond Dog capital forcing the Diamond Dog army to fall back. By outmaneuvering and separating the Diamond Dogs they were dealing massive casualties to the enemy and for the first time since the campaign began they were winning. Sombra was brought out of his thoughts when his tent was opened. Eve and another soldier a orange and blonde stallion wearing full armor walked in and saluted him. Sombra had been relieved when Eve had recovered from her wounds he hoped that when the war was finally over he could propose to the beautiful and intelligent mare. "General Sombra this is Crystal Sentry I believe he is the perfect soldier to lead the second legion." She said in her professional tone that he loved to mock when they were in private. Sombra reached out with his right hoof to shake Crystal Sentry's hoof, suddenly everything changed. They were now in the throne room of the Crystal Empire, Sombra was in his kingly armor and sitting on his throne his hoof still outstretched, Crystal Sentry was covered in bruises his armor removed, one of Sombra's personal guards held a sword to the stallion's throat. Just behind them Evening Ray stood in the center of the room looking up at Sombra, tears streaming from her eyes and very pregnant."Please Sombra, don't do this." She pleaded. "Please." Her tears were suddenly replaced with blood.
Sombra awoke to a swift kick in his ribs. "SOMBRA!"
Caught completely off guard he shouted awake and looked around confused. It took him a second to figure out what was going on. He was deep in Apple Jack's orchard where he had taken a nap while trying to avoid work from the farmer mare, who was now glaring at him. "Oh, you finally found me."
Apple Jack glared at him with the intensity of a guard that just found a thief. "Ah did. Now Sombra you need to get off your lazy flank an git back to work. Ah need you to go pl-"
"IF YOU SAY TO GO PLOW A FEILD, WHICH MAKES NO SENSE SINCE YOU ARE AN APPLE FARMER IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'R CROPS DIE EVERY YEAR, BY FAUST I WILL LITERALLY BEND YOU OVER WITH YOUR FACE IN THE GROUND AND PLOW YOU INSTEAD!" Sombra threatened knowing exactly what she would say next, and remembering the terrible experience of the last time he was at the farm. He looked straight into her eyes and stood up to make his threat seem as real as possible. "I WILL MAKE you..." his commanding voice faded to a whimper when he realized that instead of having an expression of fear on her face Apple Jack was blushing with embarrassment. She wasn't imagining what he would do to her with fear, but rather with desire. Sombra stood there dumbfounded by what he was seeing for a few moments. "...Wait what?... You would actually like for that to happen?!"
Apple Bloom finally finished her homework and ran down stairs to eat a snack in celebration. When she got to the kitchen she was surprised to find Sombra sitting at the kitchen table his back facing her and, holding something to his face. "Sombra? What are you doing inside, I thought Apple Jack was having you work outside?" The gray stallion turned to face her letting her see that he was holding an ice pack. Now realizing that he was somehow hurt she began to imagine what could possibly cause enough damage to the immortal stallion that he would need to treat the wound. "What happened to you?!" Sombra removed the ice pack from his face revealing a horseshoe shaped purple bruise across the right side of his face.
Apple Jack spoke up from the other side of the kitchen. "Yeah! What did happen to ya Sombra?" Apple didn't know what was going on between them but for some reason her sister was practically shooting daggers out of her eyes.
Sombra paused for a moment. "AH don't seem to remember. But whatever it was, it was worth it." Sombra smiled widely, while Apple Jack was giving him a glare of death, leaving Apple Bloom utterly confused.
Sombra stared at his bed unsure if he wanted to go to sleep at all. His last dream had taken a dark turn at the end, and that was a foreboding sign. He sighed and climbed into bed steeling himself for whatever may come. He pulled the blankets over himself and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Sombra awoke in a open place with the only defining feature being a large stone tower. The area was flooded up to his knees with what he assumed was only water, until he saw that it was red. He was wadding through blood, and he had no idea why. He wadded towards the tall stone tower hoping it would provide a clue as to where he was. As he drew close he began to hear the splashing as the blood was agitated by somepony else. He turned around to face whoever it was but all he saw was the level surface of blood stretching as far as he could see. He wondered if he was being paranoid or if he truly was not alone.
"Oh trust me Sombra you are anything but alone." Sombra stopped in his tracks as his blood froze in his veins, he knew that female voice filled with nobility and supposed worth. Facing the voice he stared at the blue and emerald corpse of the last Empress of the Crystal Empire. A crystal alicorn and the cousin of Celestia, she was half rotted with many of her ribs showing through the skin, flesh falling off the bone and her left wing twisted into an impossible position.
"NO! No! No! nononononononononono! You're Dead.... I killed you..." Sombra backed away from her his eyes wide in fear.
"You are right TRAITOR you did kill me, but I will ensure that you suffer and pay not just for my blood that you spilt but the oceans of blood from every victim of yours. Tonight I will have just against you, my murderer!" The dead Empress laughed like a madpony as the blood at Sombra's hooves began to rise. Sombra ran to the tower as he could as a massive wave of blood and bodies rushed towards him, but with each step he took the tower seemed to move further and further away. Tears streamed down his face, he did not want to die, not like this. Eventually the inevitable occurred and the tidal wave of blood and bile crashed upon his head. He was swirled around in the concoction of bodily fluids and death, deep beneath the surface. When he finally was able to control his body he swam towards the surface as fast as he could. Just as Sombra was about to breach, something grabbed onto his left hind leg, and dragged him back down. Suddenly many hooves, claws, hands, and mouths were grabbing onto him, bringing him back down and ripping his flesh. He was fighting against the bodies of thousands he had slain and they would not forgive. Entrails wrapped around his arms and neck binding him into uselessness, while is lungs filled with the blood of his victims.
Somra threw himself from his bed his body involuntarily shaking and his stomach contents risking to fly from his mouth. He hugged himself in the corner of the room trying to tell himself it was just a dream. Sleep was no longer a haven for him, and he had to avoid it. He laid on his side on the wooden floor of his room, and vomited. The King of shadows for the first time in many years, was scared to his core, and had no idea what he could do.
"Ah ain't ever been more embarrassed in my life." Apple Jack finished her story, folding her front hooves against her chest, flustered and angry from just thinking about her experience with Sombra. Twilight took another sip of her tea letting Apple Jacks story sink in. She was sitting across from the orange farm mare at her dining table. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow dash were sitting around the table with a variety of expressions. Fluttershy looked shocked and embarrassed, Pinkie had a massive smile on her face and was apparently trying to contain the thoughts in her head, and Rainbow dash was indifferent as she hovered over her seat. Twilight wasn't sure what to feel about the whole situation. It just did not sound like the well behaved and intelligent stallion that Luna described.
Rainbow Dash interrupted Twilight's thoughts with her next question for Apple Jack. "So.... Did you let him plow you?" Apple Jack nearly fell out of her chair as she blushed bright red and and flailed her front hooves.
"What, No! Why in tarnation would you think I would do that?!" Apple Jack answered quickly failing to hide her blush.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked down at the apple farmer. "You obviously think he's hot, starring at his flank whenever he isn't looking. Plus I wanna know if one of my friends has finally lost her virginity. After all if you haven't found a stallion by now then you wont ever find one." Twilight paused mid-bite into her cookie realizing the truth to Rainbow Dash's words. There was no denying the fact that there was a gender imbalence in Equestria. Many cities had a ratio of ten mares to every stallion but luckily Ponyville and Canterlot had a better ratio of six to one though Sombra changed the ratio slightly. Many mares treated eligible bachelors as a prized comodity. The gender skew had gotten so bad that Celestia had legalized polygamy again. With so few stallions some mares were getting desperate to find a lover, especially near estrus. She heard a guard report that a young stallion who had barely come of age as an adult was kidnapped and drugged during the week of estrus and a year later found himself the father of 20. Twilight shuddered and focused back on her friends. AppleJack was blushing bright red while Rainbow Dash had a smug smile on her face.
Pinkie was muttering to herself. "Applebra? Sombra Jack? Somber Apple?" Apple Jack attempted to draw attention away from herself.
"Uh... Pinkie what are you mumbling about over there?" Pinkie shook her head out of her daydream seemingly realizing her friends were there.
"Oh nothing much silly just trying to think of what you and Sombra's shipping name will be, and imagining how adorable your foals would be." She said with a big smile and her mind going back into her daydreams can see your little black colt with blonde hair and freckles now." Pinkie squeeled imagining the little foal. Apple Jack's jaw dropped and turned so red she could have been mistaken for her brother, and Rainbow Dash laughed so hard that she fell onto her seat with tears streaming from her eyes. Twilight facehoofed at the sight and was a little afraid that she left a mark on her forehead.
Fluttershy, luckily for Apple Jack, decided to speak up. "Um... Speaking of Sombra... I'm kinda worried about him..." Twilight was surprised by her remark. She couldn't imagine what could possibly make her worried about the immortal stallion's well being. "Well... He hasn't eaten or drunken anything in a while... I was wondering if you have had better luck with him.."
Twilight thought back and realized that Sombra hadn't eaten anything since she found him in the wine cellar. "He didn't eat with me yesterday." Twilight answered.
Pinkie looked down a little deflated. "He barely touched any of the food I gave him."
"An' he didn't eat with my family either, he just sat at the table untill we were done. I believe he upright refused to eat with rarity as well." Apple Jack confirmed. The entire room was silent for a few moments until Twilight said what they were all thinking.
"Why would Sombra want to starve himself... It doesn't make any sense."
If there ever was a time where Sombra was out of his element then sitting at a café in the center of ponyville with a enamored fashionista and a small green and purple dragon that was giving him the glare of death while every mare and her grandmother seemed to stare at him was definitely it. Sombra spotted three waitresses poking their heads out of the café's kitchen, which was starting to piss him off as no pony had come to take the group's orders after 15 minutes and he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. He turned to face ensuring that they knew he could actually see them and watched as they quickly ducked back into the kitchen. It was very strange to have so many mares staring at him. Was the gender ratio always so skewed and he only just noticed now? 'Eh probably.' Sombra l ooked around and counted 15 pampered up mares staring at him. He wondered why they were all looking at him and blushing when he realized the only possible answer. Why hadn't he thought of it before? It was so obvious. It was his curved horn. He was practically a walking freak show to these mares. He sighed and tried to pay attention to the alabaster made in front of him.
"-but in the end Blueblood turned out to be a huge jerk." Rarity finished her story with a Humph.
"Facinating..." Sombra said halfheartedly.
Rarity realized what was going on "Where you even listening to me this whole time?" She looked offended in her very large hat that Sombra really wanted to throw, to see how far it would fly.
"Nope. Not at all. I've actually been focusing more on... Other things... Like why we have not been served yet, then on this Prince Blueblood You've been talking about." Sombra stared at her as a predated would look upon its prey.
Rarity completely lost her train of thought and blushed misinterpreting both his words and his eyes. 'He must have been distracted by me and just didn't want to hurt poor spikey-wikey.' She thought to herself. "Y-yeah... I wonder why nopony has come over yet..." Rarity spotted one of the waitress poking out of the kitchen, and waved her over.
The waitress timidly trotted to their table a blush of embarrassment on her face. "Hello. C-can I take your..." The poor made froze mid scentence as she was caught in Sombra's gaze, but after a few seconds recovered. "...your orders."
Rarity quickly answered with her typical calm demeanor knowing that Sombra would have no idea of what they served at the café. "Well darling, i would like a caramel latte, spike would like a vanilla frapachino and I think my friend Ebon here would like what I'm having." The waitress quickly nodded and ran back to the kitchen.
"I don't know Rarity I think Sombra is more of a liqued metal kind of stallion." Spike spoke with a hint of venom to his words. He knew what was going on and he did not like it one bit. Rarity gave him a good bump with her front hooves and shot him a warning look. However when she looked back up she found that not only had the waitress brought their drinks remarkably fast, but she had brought three other waitresses who were all crowding around a rather confused Sombra.
Rarity layed the young mares no attention and pushed Sombra's drink towards him. "Go ahead darling. Try it." Sombra slowly picked the mug up and took a sip.
"Ugh!... Its far far too sweet for my tastes." He placed it down quickly and spat what little he had sipped onto the ground. A pin drop could be heard across the little patio.
A mischievous idea to get some payback on Sombra came to Spike at that moment. "Get him a coffee as black as his heart!" As one of the waitresses ran off to fulfill the request Rarity shot the small dragon an angry look.
"There are two things wrong with your statement, little Drake." Sombra spoke with his deep resounding voice, recovering from the surgery drink. "The main of which being that she has no idea how black my heart is. But if you think I will enjoy it I might as well try it."
Rarity looked up at the grey Stallion in shock. "I don't know about that... Their are few ponys who could stomach such a drink." The waitress returned with a mug of the black drink and carefully gave it to Sombra. After eyeing the drink for a few seconds he slowly brought the mug to his mouth and tasted it. Sombra's eyes grew wide and slowly rolled back into his skull, a loud near sexual moan resounded from the stallion leaving all present in absolute shock.
The next second though Sombra chugged the entire mug and slammed it down into the table shattering it into a million pieces. "ANOTHER! I demand another mug of this glorious necter of the gods!"
Twilight looked through the papers on her desk one last time before sighing in content. Today was looking pretty good, Sombra was showing signs of improvement, no monsters were attacking the city and she was going to be able to hangout with all her friends without her royal duties interfering. She just hoped that Rarity's lunch with Sombra went better then the lunch at the castle. The sound of her office door being slowly freaked open brought Twilight back to the present as Fluttershy walked in. "Hey Fluttershy. Sombra, Spike, and Rarity here yet?" She asked smiling at her good friend.
Fluttershy seemed to hesitate before speaking. "Well... No... But I actually wanted to talk to you about Sombra..."
Twilight's ears perked up. Perhaps Sombra had talked to her about something. The purple analytical mare couldn't help but be intrigued by any information about the secretive stallion. "Oh?" She responded readying a quill and paper for notes.
"Yeah..." Fluttershy took a deep breath to calm herself down and spoke slightly more sure of herself. "You know the five stages of greif?"
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance." She listed them out from memory to prove the fact.
Fluttershy looked down and shifted uncomfortably. She always hated being the center of attention. "Well... They can also be used as the five stages of Reformation... And I think Sombra is still on denial..."
Twilight paused from her notes and looked at Fluttershy confused. "What do you mean? I would have thought he was on the bargaining stage."
"Well... I thought that to....but ... I had thought I had reformed Discord as well, but he was only in denial and believed that he could take Equestria and kept plotting. He moved into the anger stage when he helped Tirek steal near everypony's magic. Discord had entered the depression stage when Tirek had taken his magic and made him realize his wrongs. After that he made a whole lot of deals with Celestia for what jokes he could play and how many. Then a year ago he stopped breaking his deals and seemed much happier throwing occasional jokes... I think Sombra believes that he can still take back the Crystal Empire... He's just really patient... And calculative, like you... If I were to guess he probably is still plotting to take the Crystal Empire back." Fluttershy made her case and looked at Twilight not knowing exactly what to expect from her.
Twilight seemed to have some difficulty processing all that Fluttershy had said and just stared wide eyed at her. "We haven't even seen the worst of this yet..."
Fluttershy shook her head. "We have to prepare to either stop his plan or stop an attempt at invading the Crystal Empire."
Twilight thought for a second. "Based on other villains, if he wants to take the empire back, he will need an army, to get himself at peak condition, and he will want an ace up his sleave. I'm guessing he will consider his new found immortality as his ace up his sleave."
Fluttery's eyes went wide, "He also earned several thousand bits from working around town... And he... Talked about finding some mercenaries a while back... But because he can't use magic even without a repressor we should still be okay."
Twilight slammed her chin down onto her desk. "Except that I have been working with him to get his magic back and we actually had some success. You wouldn't happen to know where those bits are would you?" Fluttershy shook her head no in embarrassment, and Twilight buried her face in her hooves.
Suddenly Rarity and Spike walked in. "We are back Darling."
Twilight removed her hooves and noticed the lack of a certain gray stallion. "Where's Sombra?"
Spike pointed in the direction of the kitchen. "He discovered the magic of coffee, and is down stairs with a big bag of coffee grinds making another pot."
Meanwhile in the study
Pinkie kept muttering to herself. "Black diamond?... No. Somber diamond?... No. Sombrarity?... Yes! Awwwww. Cute poshy foals." Pinkie squeezed her face and squeeled to herself. She added the new ship to her list. Currently Sombrarity was tied with Twibra, but she felt like she was forgetting something. Suddenly it came to her. "Sombrashy!" She stood up and cheered on her hind legs, and then she thought about what Sombrashy foals would look like.
Meanwhile in the kitchen
Sombra poured a steaming cup of coffee from his first self made pot. He carefully carried the mug to the table and sat down ready to relax. Suddenly a mass of Pink grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back to the point that he was at the verge of sending him and the chair to the floor.
"You will have babies with Fluttershy."
Sombra stared into the very close blue eyes of pinkie and was both confused and terrified. "Woah! What!?!"
"You and Fluttershy's foals would be the cutest things ever, and my foal needs play mates." Pinkie said rapidly, barely slow enough for Sombra to understand.
"Uhhhhh.... I don't know if I could... Or if she would want..." Sombra said nervously having no idea what he to do about the crazy pink mare.
"Say it." Her voice seemed to grow distorted and menacing. "Do it. Do it now."
Sombra realizing there was no way out tried to appease her. "...I will have foals with Fluttershy?..."
Pinkie then jumped into the air, her hooves flailing in celebration, and sent Sombra tumbling to the ground. "Yay!" She then grabbed Sombra's coffee and took a sip. After a few smacks she declared "Needs mustard. Well see you around Sombrero, I have to pee."
Sombra watched as she happily hopped away wondering: 'what the Buck just happened?!'
Sombra held a crude knife In his maroon aura. It was simple and very thick, perhaps at one point in time it was part of a cauldron, and had been sharpened into a blade. He knew what he had to do, over three thousand lives depended on him. Sombra sat down and looked down at his chest as he slowly brought the knife nearer. He brought the edge of the knife to his chest just beneath his collar bone, and quickly slashed down. The cut went down his chest to the edge of his ribs and was at least clean and would heal easily if he didn't mess with the wound, but he knew that he couldn't do that. He fought through the pain and pulled open the left side of the wound with his magic revealing the left side of his rib cage. Blood began to pool at his front hooves now that a good portion of his blood covered tan ribs were exposed. Every instinct cried out for him to stop, to run away and heal, but he pressed on. He wedged the knife, between two of his ribs and using the knife like a crowbar he popped the top rib out, spraying blood and a chuncks of bone in front of him. He cried out in pain nearly losing consciousness, as the pain registered in his mind. Tears streamed down his eyes, as he felt certain that what he was doing would kill him, but he did not stop. He wedged the knife under the next rib and popped it out as well. He brought the knife to the next rib but he couldn't force his magic to break off the next rib, so he quickly slammed his hoof down on the handle breaking off even larger chunks.
"Hey Sombrero! sleepy head!" Sombra's eyes shot open as he was brought out from his nightmare. He quickly looked about the room, trying to figure out what was happening. He was laying on the kitchen table with a empty pot of coffee near his head, he must have fallen asleep when he ran out of coffee. He sat up quickly and was greeted by a giggling Pinkie with a plate of colorful cupcakes. "Sombrero you want a yummy-"
Sombra had enough of the stupid mare. He flipped the table, sending the cupcakes flying, and yelled with all of his built up anger. "MY NAME IS SOMBRA YOU WRETCH! I AM THE DESTROYER OF THE DIAMOND DOG EMPIRE, DEFEATER OF THE GRIFFIN FIFTH GRAND ARMY, THE EXECUTER OF THE OLD CORRUPT EMPRESS, AND THE RIGHTFUL HEIR OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE! I AM SOMBRA!!!" Sombra lifted his front hoof to punch the foolish mare.
Stop! She may deserve to be struck down and reminded of her place, but her unborn foal? It does not deserve such a punishment. Leave her be.
Sombra looked about the room for the source of the new voice, but their was no other pony there just him and the scared pink pregnant made whose hair was rapidly deflating. She didnt react to the voice, he was the only one who heared it. He slowly lowered his hoof and walked away. He wanted to be left alone so he could think, his dreams were bad enough but now he had a voice in his head. Something was wrong and as much as he hated to admit it the voice was right, at least so far.
Sombra headed towards the front door of the castle. He assumed that some pony would actually stop him at some point, but nopony did. He found himself outside the castle, no closer to finding the answer to his questions. He then headed towards the Evelefte knowing it was likely the only place he could actually be left alone.
Just before Sombra reached the forest treeline, a bright flash of purple light appeared in front of him. After Sombra's eyes recovered from the blinding flash he faced Twilight as she finally must have realized his escape.
"What are you doing Sombra? You nearly scared Pinkie half to death, and you destroyed the kitchen. You better go back to the castle and apologize to her." She demanded, scolding him as she would a child.
He gritted his teeth and walked past her. "No."
Twilight was shocked by his response to the point she couldn't comprehend his response. "No?"
Sombra rolled his eyes from her stupidity. "Yes. That is correct I said no. I will not apologize to that imbicile." He kept walking through the thick undergrowth, with Twilight following close behind.
"Why won't you apologize?" She asked.
"Because I have never apologized." He replied quickly as he pushed through another bush.
"Well how do you expect to make up with friends and admit that you were wrong about something."
"Simple, I don't need, nor do i want friends." sombra was getting sick of her constant pleads of friendship. They made him sick.
Twilight stopped in place "But friendship is magic!"
Sombra stopped and quickly faced her, fires of anger raging in his eyes. "Friendship is betrayal!" She flinched as if he had struck her and leaned her body away from him fear and sadness in her eyes. He then walked off into the forest alone, as she stopped following him.
Night had fallen by the time Sombra decided that he had walked enough. He was tired and as much as he aged his dreams at least they allowed him to rest a little. He headed back towards ponyville since he had nowhere else to go. He decided that tonight he was sleeping in Fluttershy's house and buck anypony that tried to stop him.
Sombra wondered about looking for a clearing in the forest canopy to allow him to see the stars. By putting the north star behind him, he would easily be able to find his way to Ponyville. Eventually he found a clearing filled with strange blue flowers. And marched through it, to find the north star, and trampled it even more when he finally found his heading.
Sombra finally made it to Fluttershy's cottage. It was late at night, and he was certain that she was asleep. After finding her front door unlocked he went to his couch and laid down. Only then did he notice that one of the strange flowers was stuck to his back right hoof. He scrapped it off and placed it on the nearby coffee table before he drifted off to sleep.
Fluttershy was woken up the next mourning by something tapping on her front hooves. She had gone to sleep worried about Sombra and what he might do, but if Twilight said she could handle it then she was certain things would be fine. As for the tapping which she assumed was a hungry angel she just pulled her hooves under her covers. "Angel, stop, its too early." she mumbled, her eyes still closed. Unfortunately the tapping continued but instead of on her hoof it was her nose being repeatedly booped. She opened her eyes to see a pair of scared emerald eyes looking back. "Sombra?"
"How do you know my name?" Said the high pitch voice of a very young colt.
Fluttershy's eyes widened as she sat up to look down at a confused young colt with a black mane, dark gray coat, and a curved horn.
Chapter 20: poison joke and pancakes
Twilight bursted into Fluttershy's house in a panic. "Fluttershy I got your message what's the emmer-" Twilight's mind diverted all it could into processing mode at the sheer strangeness of what she saw. Fluttershy was eating pancakes with a little colt Sombra. Sombra looked up at her his mouth still full of pancake wide open in shock. The shock down between Twilight and Sombra was finally ended by Fluttershy.
"Twilight I'd like for you to meet Sombra. Sombra close your mouth until you are finished eating, after all you are literally with royalty." The yellow mare said calmly. Sombra immediately closed his mouth and nearly turned red with embarrassment. "Twilight can we speak in private in the backyard?" The purple princess nodded hoping for some kind of explanation. Fluttershy turned back to Sombra. "Me and Princes Twilight will be right back okay?" Sombra nodded and forked another mouthful of pancake. Fluttershy lead Twilight outside where finally Twilight found her voice.
"What just?... How is he like that?! Why is he acting like that? Whats going on?!?" Twilight was losing her mind and her hair was already on end.
Fluttershy pulled out a small glass jar from her saddle bags that contained a particular blue flower. "I found this next to where he usually sleeps. I think he must have walked through a patch of poison joke when he ran off yesterday." One could almost here Twilight's sanity click back into its proper place as the story was revealed. "And... Uh... One more thing... He doesn't remember anything. When I found him this morning he swore to me that yesterday he went to the park with his dad, and that he is only five years old... I think we all need to be careful about what we say around him. We don't want to traumatize the little colt."
Twilight understood Fluttershy's concern and slowly nodded. "I'll send letters to every pony else so they know whats going on... So how is he right now?"
Fluttershy smiled brightly. "He is just a little gentlecolt, and possibly one of the cutest five year olds I've ever seen. Let me show you." Fluttershy opened up the backdoor and called to the little tyrant. "How are you doing in there Sombra?"
A few seconds later probably after the colt swallowed his food he replied. "Pancakes!" Twilight had to admit it was the most adorable response she could imagine.
Fluttershy had to stifle a squeel of delight. "And he does those kind of things all the time. "
When Twilight returned to Fluttershy's kitchen Sombra had just put his dishes in the sink. He then gave abig bow to her his face touching the ground. "Greetings princess Twilight, I am Sombra son of Lord Umbra of the twenty second crystal council."
Twilight took a mental note of Sombra's father so that she coud research him later. "It's okay little one, you can relax. You don't have to be so formal." She had to contain a giggle from how rediculous the colt looked.
He slowly stood up and stared at her in awe. Twilight could have sworn she saw his eyes sparkle, and his tail wag. "Are you the daughter of the Crystal Empress? Do you know why I'm here? I don't recognize this part of the empire. Wait, do you live in a castle? Can I come?!"
The torrent of questions that he spewed at her were full of excitement, and Twilight had to press her hoof to his mouth to get him to quiet down."Calm down Sombra. You aren't even giving me enough time to answer your questions. Unfortunately, I don't have all the answers but I will promise you this, when me and Fluttershy are done here I will teleport us all to my castle. Okay?" Sombra nodded frantically and ran off to Fluttershy's couch bouncing with excitement. Twilight slowly turned to Fluttershy. "He's adorable."
Twilight finally finished the last of her letters, alerting her friends and zecora as to what had taken place. What she hadn't expected was that as soon as she sent the letters through fire that she would get an immediate reply by Zecora. "Oh no."
Fluttershy scooted closer trying to see what the letter said. "What's going on?"
"Zecora recently ran out of ingredients for an antidote bath. Its going to be a few days before she can cure him."
"Oh dear." Fluttershy looked towards the lobby of the throne room. She felt sad for him and wanted for him to return to normal, but another part of her wanted him to stay as he was. Wouldn't it be better for him to have a fresh start?
While Fluttershy pondered whether she wanted a stallion or a colt, Sombra was sitting in the waiting room admiring the crystal castle. However when he looked around the room once more he suddenly found himself nose to nose with a smiling pink pony. "Hey can I ask you a few questions?"she said somewhat calmly
" Sure?.." The small gray colt replied.
"What is your favorite cupcake?"
"Crystal berry."
Pinkie cursed the fact that she hadn't thought of making cupcakes with the exotic berries before. She brought her attention back to Sombra. "What's your second favorite?"
"Chocolate!"
"How many fingers do I have behind my back?"
"You don't have fingers."
"Smart. I thought I had you." Suddenly Pinkie pulled out two red sodas. "Chimicherry, or Cherrychenga?"
"Both?"
Pinkie gave the look of an interregator, and some how remained emotionless. "Final question. Who is your favorite pony?"
Sombra actually had to think about that one. The little colt placed his front right hoof on his chin. "Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.... You."
And with that pinkie swooped in and hugged young Somba, with his hooves sticking out much like a cat when picked up. She was squeeling with joy and nuzzling his jet black hair as she squeezed the life out of him. "You are so cute!!!"
"Pinkie you're crushing him." Twilight and Fluttershy had gone out into the lobby to see what all the comotion was about.
Pinkie loosened her grip slightly and looked at Twilight with pleading eyes. "Can I keep him?"
Trixie slowly walked into a small orange and yellow striped tent that served as the carnival's managment office. Trixie had been working at the carnival for nearly a year, it payed well, the owners participated with acts of their own, and the conditions were very good, to the point that the freaks were treated no different than anybody else. (yes anybody. Dragons, hippogriffs, and griffins had acts in the Carnival as well.) However Trixie was now fairly sure that she was about to be fired. Nobody was called to the management tent durring mid travel unless something was seriously wrong. Perhaps Trixie's act had gotten very bad reviews, or maybe someone found out about that fling she had with the hippogriff Buckbeak.
Trixie took one last deep breath and entered the tent. Inside the managers sat at a lone table, well one of them sat. To Trixie's left sat an earth pony mare with a light green coat, a blue mane held in a red bandana, dull blue eyes and a cutie mark of the back of three tarot cards hovering over a crystal ball. She was known as Madame Foresight, and her fortune telling act was scary good, and acurate. She wore a dress that covered her entire body with many golden bells and rings. To the right of Foresight stood her husband, a thin, tall, snow white unicorn stallion, with a long, wild, dark blonde mane and piercing dark blue eyes. His cutie mark was of two squares that had all of their corners attached together by straight lines, it made his cutie mark appear three demensional and a little nauseating. He wore a straightjacket and a restraining mask, thus he usually stood on his hindlegs. He was known as Vendar the mad pony. Trixie had never heard Vendar speak during her time at the carnival, but supposedly he spoke to foresight to tell super accurate prophecies. Trixie wasn't sure if she believed any of it, but who was she to judge if their act was fake or not.
Foresight spoke in her deep haunting well trained voice. "Trixie, do you know why you are here?"
'Of course not' Trixie thought to herself. 'Trixie is a magician your the fortune teller.' "No."
"Trixie, Vendar has made a prophecy. You are in great danger." Foresight pulled out a single tarot card and placed it on the table. It depicted six cloaked shadowy ponies with a caption along the top.
The Hunting Wraiths
After letting Trixie look at the card for a while Foresight spoke again. "Due to the threat these hunters cause we have decided, That you cannot stay with the carnival until the threat has passed.... We are going to give you three months pay early, and we wish you the best of luck." She puled out a bag of bits and placed it in front of Trixie.
However the show mare was more concerned with the fact that six extremely dangerous wraiths were after her. "Can Trixie at least travel with you to the next town, surely the caravan guards can protect us from these six bandits, at least for a little while."
Foresight's face drooped in sadness. "Trixie... The ones that are after you are far more then a bandit.. If they were to find you among the Carnival, there would be none here who would remain breathing... I am sorry Trixie but I must protect the majority."
"Then what should Trixie do? Does Trixie go to the guard? There must be something that Trixie can do." Trixie started panicking.
"Going to the guard will only lead to their slaughter... Trixie the only thing you can do, is run." The gypsy spoke solemnly.
Trixie gulped as the situation dawned on her. "Why me?" She asked quietly.
To Trixie's astonishment Vendar spoke in a deep rough voice. "The Amulet Wraiths hunt you Trixie Lulamoon, because you were the last to wear somthing they seek. Somthing powerful. Something PRECIOUS
Sombra stared at the map feeling hopeless. The main Diamond Dog force was closing in on his position. It would only be a matter of time before they would find him. He sighed and knowing he had no options left. With his magic he quickly closed his tent's fabric doors, and placed a sheild around his tent to prevent anypony from disturbing him. With a peice of charcoal he drew the ever familiar pentagram atop his table, and casted a spell he swore he would never use again.
The pentagram glowed red and the eyes of Grogar appeared above it. "If it tis not the smithy of the crystal Empire. Why hath thou disturbed me? From our last meeting I was under the impression that thou wished to live the life of a common smithy." Grogar's voice echoed unnaturally in Sombra's skull, but he did not let that get to him.
"Grogar I call upon you, only to collect my just due. You lied to me all those years ago, and though you may think us even as I banished you back to Tartarus, you would be horribly mistaken! You used me, lied to me, told me that your teachings would protect me, and that If I followed your teachings I could be whatever I desired. Instead you stole my destiny, left me a blank flank, tricked me into freeing you, and tried to turn me into your slave! Yet through sheer force of will I rebelled, brought you to your knees and casted you back from whence you came! You will give me what I seek, or I will drag you from your Faust forsaken prison beat you into the quivering pulp you are and through you back into the maw of Cerberus!" Sombra's heavy breathing was the only sound that broke the silence that followed. Sombra silently prayed to Faust that the old goat wouldn't see through his half bluff. Although he meant every word, he was not sure he could pull off such a feat. After several minutes the silence that followed was finally broken.
"....… Very well... But upon the completion of this favor, we shalt be, as they say, even. What is it that thou doth desire?" Sombra left out a breath he did not realize he was holding. He regained his composure quickly not letting the demon before him realize how much leverage he truelly held.
"I need the power to protect the soldiers that serve me, my nation, and... The one I love." Sombra's voice faltered for a moment, but he found it once more. "I face an enemy, with a limitless army. They will not stop until the kingdom I live in and cherish is no more. Give me the power to save those I have sworn to protect." Sombra slowly lowered his head, waiting to feel the strength and power he needed.
"no." Sombra snapped his head forward filled with anger and shock.
'How dare he deny me!' He thought to himself, his hatred filling his soul.
"I cannot grant that which I cannot give. Such power is beyond even me. However I know of whom can." Sombra gripped the table and stared into the disembodied red eyes.
"Tell me where I can find them."
The image of Grogan's eyes transformed into a familiar mountain range, but focused on a single mountain. "Not far from where thou stands, a mountain lies. Its name has been forgotten by mortals, but at one time it was called mount doom. Near the top of the eastern face is a cave, within it lives three witches with the power thy seek. Be weary, for thy sacrifice shalt be great. Yet above all else thou shalt go alone." and with that the images before Sombra faded and the pentagram was but charcoal once more. Sombra left immediately taking several days worth of supplies. He left a note telling Eve that he would return in three days. None stopped him as he tracked out into the frozen tundra.
Sombra pulled himself onto a final ledge of rock and rolled onto his back gasping for air. He had marched many miles, and climbed for several hours to finally get to the mouth of the forsaken cave. So he allowed himself some well needed rest. Yet when he felt that he could finally stand on his legs, he stood up andarched into the cave.
Deeper and deeper into the cave he walked even as his eyes could barely see before him, he continued on. Until he finally saw a thin green light at the end of the cave. Said light turned out to be seeping through a large wooden door. Determined to get the power he needed he knocked on the door three times.
"Something wicked this way comes..."
A gentle touch roused young Sombra from his strange dream.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Sombra looked over the new blossoming camp all was going according to plan. A crystal pony guard ran up to him breathless. "General Sombra! The scouting squad was ambushed... Evening Ray had volunteered and is MIA." Sombra ran away from the guard heading in the direction the scouting squad was supposed to go. He wouldn't let anything happen to Eve. The world seemed to skip forward often, it appeared that he would see something in the distance and suddenly he would be right beside it. He heard the sounds of Dogs growling nearby in a small forest. He had found her. Four Diamond Dogs surrounded her crumpled form, he didn't know if she was alive or if she was injured, but he did not have time to deal with the dogs by normal means. He had plenty of hate for them he simply had to focus it and four black lightning bolts shot from his horn and ripped through each of the Diamond Dogs' chests. He ran to Evening Ray and cradled her in his front Hooves.
She looked up at him dazed but happy. "You came." She spoke in a harsh voice, she must have been beaten senseless.
"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I, my love?" He replied, and smiled. There amongst the dead Diamond Dogs they kissed.
TH-THUMP!
Sombra gasped awake as an indescribable pain ripped through his chest. He had no idea what had just happened, but it was painful. After a few seconds the pain faded away and he stopped clutching his chest. It was concerning that it had happened at all, but it was gone and it didn't matter. Sombra rolled onto his side and tried to go back to sleep.
Knock Knock knock
"Good morning Sombra! I hope you are ready to go to Apple Jack's this morning." Said way too cheerful Twilight.
Sombra in kind responded to her announcement like any sane logical being "UGGGGH...." and buried his face in his pillows.
Celestia decided to get her mind of the current issue with Sombra and visit her sister Luna. She hadn't seen her sister in several days and even though it was early in the afternoon she was sure her sister would enjoy her company. She opened the dark blue door and poked her head inside.
"BUCK THEE!!! THOU ART BUT A MOTHER RUTTING NOOBTUBER!!!"
Celestia's mouth dropped as her ears were assaulted by her sister's profanity in her royal Canterlot voice. She looked inside to see Luna sitting in front of a television, her hair styled in a bun to prevent it from getting in the way of the headset on her head, and she had a controller held in her magic. "Lulu?... Are you okay?" Celestia asked having never seen such behavior from her sister before.
Luna was so startled to hear her sisters voice that she flailed her forehooves, threw the headset off her head, and dropped the controller. "Sister! What are you doing here?" She nervously smiled hoping Celestia had missed her most recent rant.
Celestia stared at her sister surprised. "I have never heard you speak such profanities bef-" She was cut off when a rant from another player of 'Call of Harmony' interupted her shouting profanities so loudly that Celestia could make out every word from the headset laying on the other side of the room. Luna quickly turned off her H Box and smiled sheepishly. Celestia's disapproval however was as clear as day.
"Tia you don't understand these are my ponies of the night, sure some are quite brutish, but they can be quite fun to interact with." Luna pleaded.
"Luna... Its 3:00 pm." Luna's jaw dropped as Celestia opened up the thick curtains to reveal the afternoon light.
"Its Tuesday!" Luna shouted in disbelief.
"Luna... Its Thursday." Celestia deadpanned.
Trixie grumbled to herself as she sat next to her campfire preparing a tomato stew. Night had already fallen and Trixie was begining to feel the gentle pull of sleep. She had traveled as far as her legs could carry her towards Canterlot. Yet despite Foresight's warning Trixie hadn't see any sign of being followed, or evil wraiths. She was now convinced that Foresight and her mad husband had simply made the whole thing up to get rid of her. "Stupid Foresight... Trixie bets there never were any wraiths, and even if there was Trixie could take them on all on her own." Feeling bold and angry Trixie stood up and yelled into the woods. "You hear that you stupid wraiths." After a few moments of silence, Trixie sat back down and tasted her stew. Suddenly a sound rang out throughout the woods, freezing her blood in her veins. (0:55 - 1:05 )
Captain Steel Shield could not believe what he was seeing. Dangling twenty feet above him was a wagon that looked like it had been attacked by a hurricane. The entire roof was crushed, the front door looked like it had been exploded off its hinges as well as much of the front of the cart, the windows were now large holes and if a pony was good at reading things upside down you could barely make out due to the amount of deep scratches. 'The great and amazing Trixie' Captain Steel looked up at the sheer destruction and said the two words on every guards lips. "By Celestia."