The Different Shades of Gray

by Gloria Beezus Rose

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Blank. It all was blank. No color, just whiteness. All consuming whiteness. Then through the light he felt something, cringe, and something crack, then warmth flooded into his soul and melted the ice. The cold was gone, the numbing coldness that always seemed to be there. Then the color the brilliant color, the baby blues, the pink the yellow, violet, and green. The green was something to see it wasn't dark like the where the whites of his eyes should be, it was beautiful. For the first time in a very long time, he saw bright colors, it looked alive then, the fragrance came. The smell of crystal berries, and grass. The lovely smell, he couldn't remember the last time he smelt it. Then the  sounds came, the music, it was so, so lovely. It made him want to get up and dance along to it. then he listens past the music to the sound of ponies rejoicing, at what  he wondered. Then the chirping of the birds. Where was he? Then he remembered how to move, his leg twitch like it been moved in ages. The noise of the ponies came closer. He tried to get up but failed again. He closed his eyes and listen. The voices of rejoicing became loader. Then everything faded from his conciseness. Then there was blackness. A whole new sensation. Nothing, no thoughts. There was nothing. Everything was empty. HIs heart cringed, he hurt. He was broken, empty. The crack inside of him became larger, and then the warmth flooded in. He felt the hole, then came his thoughts it felt like the floodgate had opened. SO manny emotions he had been blind to for longer that he could have ever imagined. Once he felt the sudden urge to cry, he was pulled into the emotions of utter happiness. Then came the light once again but, he could see and feel much faster. Where was he? The question popped into his head once again. There was the question, he thought, h hated not knowing.

"Do you think he's awake?" asked a, a familiar voice that sounded like a mare. He hated, well hate is a strong word. He disliked not know who's voice it was. He then heard what seemed to be ponies shuffling within their seats, uncomfortable. Then memories, of pain the defeat,  the pain he caused others, it scared him. He enslaved an entire empire because of greed and a glimpse of the future. What a fool he'd been. What a fool. He was a monster and he saw that, an utter monster. He hoped they'd forgive him. For all of the things he'd done, he was out of his mind. Then his eye the slid open slowly and the colors, surprised him yet once again, the brilliant colors. He felt his eyes water due to the bright colors. "H-he's waking up girls!"

"Get back! We don't know if he's still dangerous." a commanding voice said, which he assumed was a stallion called Shining Armor wife to the alicorn. Immediately Sombra saw the blur of bright colors wich he assumed to be ponies they might be the elements of harmony, recede from his view. AS his eyes began to get in focus he sat up slowly. He looked around the white room and the only thing of interest or worthy of noting in the tiny  bland room but the ponies themselves. Well as bright colored they were it was hard to notice he hadn't seen colors like this for years.

"Were am I?" He asked kindly much to the surprise of the ponies in the room who no dought knew of his deeds. "Oh come on, I won't bite!" he tried to add a little humor to the noticeable feeling of unwelcomeness inside the room. He exceeded in making the feeling in the room even more uncomfortable. "I suppose you'd like to hear the why, I did it." Sombra tilted his head down, and added a sigh for effect, hopefully, they would pity him.

"Yes Sombra," said a pink alicorn, Princess Cadence who was to the left of him right next to the door. "Exactly why did you harm thousands of innocent ponies' lives, was it for the gain in power. Or was it because you enjoyed it." Cadence said clearly upset about the previous ruler of her new Kingdom. She was not one to trifle with, because of well you he was, it clearly would be a bad idea because she was the one that held his life in her hands.

"Don't be so hard on him," said a purple unicorn mare, what struck him odd was her cutie mark. If Sombra remembered correctly, that was the symbol for magic. She was a very pretty mare, he noted as well, probably intelligent, or she wouldn't be here. Maybe she was the one who tripped the alarms that he used to guard the Crystal Heart. Anyway, that didn't matter now. All that mattered was the fact that he lived.

"Well, it all started when I was around the age of ten when I visited the crystal heart. While I was there my best friend, well my only friend, Hope saw herself as a Princess inside the heart. I well saw otherwise, I was a monster. Long story short I find out about dark magic and wanted to make all those who hated me, pay and used my powers to take the heart turn the true princess to stone scatter here through the earth. Then conquered and enslaved the Crystal Empire." He said sadly, looking down at the blanket that laid over him. "I say with all true sincereness that I am truly sorry, I deserve whatever punishment you give me. Even if it is the gelatin."

"That punishment hasn't been used for centuries and we're certainly not going to start," the Cadence to the left of him said, no dought the new ruler of the Crystal Empire. She had Pink, violet, and yellow striped in her curly mane. She felt powerful with love and happiness magic something he never dabbled in, something that he greatly regretted. There was that cringe, and crack, it was now becoming a concern to him.

"Your kindness shows no bounds," he replied, trying to flatter her, it was worth a shot if it saved his life. Anything could be useful to him in his current situation. "Your highness." He continued to where he thought it would sound rude if he continued. That would definitely not King Sombra's life.

"Let's go we have to decide what to do," she said facing the other inside the room and all followed the pink alicorn out of the entrance to the room  and head to a place which was most likely to be a meeting room of sorts. Leaving Sombra alone with his mind, and all of his pain of being numb to all his feelings for a little over a thousand years. Once again he closed his eyes and drifted off into his own world where he was at peace. Where he was numb to all of the things he'd done, all of the misery he'd caused. Of to where he'd truly would be at peace. Sombra fell asleep wandering the land of his imaginations. He was at peace for once in a very long time. Sleep finally took Sombra.