Past, Present, and Future
“Just a little farther!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah!”
Radiant Hope clung to the rope she was hanging from as the now purified King Sombra lowered her a little lower, low enough for the small piece of crystal on a ledge below to enter the range of her telekinesis. “Got it!”
The mare then gasped as a massive red, eel-like head emerged from a hole in the rock and turned around to look at her, mouth larger than herself lined with hundreds of sharp teeth. Before the massive Quarray Eel could snap its jaws shut on her, Sombra pulled with all his might (both physical and magical), moving her just out of reach of it and causing it to slam into the side of the wall. She focused and disappeared in a bright flash of light, reappearing next to Sombra.
The two fled back away from Ghastly Gorge to a safe distance before Sombra nuzzled Hope. “Are you okay?”
The unicorn mare nodded with a reassuring smile. “I'm fine, thank you!”
The reformed tyrant gave a sigh of relief. “I wish you could have just teleported down there...”
“Me too, but it was too far away to get a close look, I might have materialized inside something...” Hope admitted, looking at the fragment she'd gathered. It looked to be in the shape of a piece of an ear. “But we got another one!”
Sombra nodded, levitating a small bag in his telekinesis (which was now a blue color, as it had been when he was a child) and opened it, showing several pieces of the same color crystal, and allowing Radiant to lower the new fragment into it. “I forgot how far I scattered her...Looks like making up for what happened is going to take quite some time...”
Radiant nodded, giving an encouraging smile and nuzzle...but also a strangely similar look of guilt for a few moments. “Don't worry, Sombra, we'll find all of her.”
The stallion gave a small smile and returned the nuzzle. “...Thank you, Hope.”
The two stood there for a few moments, sharing the nuzzle and each others warmth for a few moments before they continued to move on.
+++
Sombra carefully lit a fire by rubbing a pair of sticks together in his telekinesis, the two sitting in a cave for shelter for the night. They'd been together and doing this for several months now, ever since Sombra had become a normal unicorn. Princess Amore's pieces had been scattered very far (he hadn't been kidding when he said he'd 'scatter her over the world'), and in some cases even finding where one of them ended up was an issue. Some had naturally ended up found by ponies or other beings and put to various uses, but Sombra had reassured Radiant that the crystal Amore was turned into was extremely hard and the dark magic made it very unappetizing to dragons and other jewel eaters (even as corrupted as he was, he couldn't bring himself to give her a death sentence). Still, that means not all of them were still where Sombra had sent them, but thankfully the now-normal-unicorn knew his own magic signature better than anypony.
“There we are,” the stallion replied, the fire finally burning bright enough he was certain it wouldn't go out.
Radiant nodded, scooting a bit closer to the flames. “Thanks, I still don't know much about fire spells. I didn't need them...living with the Umbrum, since things really didn't change that much down there...”
“I learned it for...reasons I'm not proud of,” Sombra explained, the two not noticing (or at least not addressing) the fact both of them had similar looks of guilt. “Though I will say, learning to do normal magic instead of my dark magic is taking time...”
Sombra had learned the basics of magic growing up (as any unicorn typically did) but hadn't used much of any of it since he learned his true existence and became an evil overlord. While he did have a great deal of potential for magic, his skill with it had degraded from his disuse and he had a ways to go.
“So you can't use dark magic at all now?” Radiant questioned, unpacking her bags and looking.
“I likely could, given normal ponies can. Well, except for transforming into living smoke and a few powers I had specifically as an Umbrum,” the reformed tyrant explained. “But it requires emotions like fear and hatred...and...” Sombra seemed to look for the right words. “I used to be afraid of a lot of a great many things...what I had done...what I was...whether or not I was simply the one monster in my species...of the future...and I hated myself for all of it...I was angry with Amore, with the Princesses, with Princess Twilight...”
The former King looked...oddly peaceful. “...Now I know Amore was right and all I saw was a shade of what might be, not what had to be...those I hated helped save my life...And I can finally accept myself for who I am. I'd be angry with mother...I mean Rabia, but she and the rest of the Umbrum are back to rotting away in the Shadow Prison and the door was buried again, their crystal gateway likewise sealed...So it's less I can't use dark magic anymore, and more I no longer have the emotions needed to use it. Does that make sense?”
Radiant gave it thought and then slowly nodded. “I think I understand...”
The unicorn mare then turned to her bag and began looking through it. Sombra brought out a few simple daisy sandwiches. The two had discovered one thing on their travels relatively early: that neither of them knew how to cook. Sombra was somewhat excusable, given he'd forced his slaves to cook for him and never needed to learn. Radiant's was simply due to being in stasis for the last thousand years and thus not needing to learn to cook. The end result had been an attempt at fried carrots that looked more like coal. They were thankful that the two of them had been alone, as both of them still did have their share of pride.
“I understand, that makes sense I guess...”
Radiant began to rummage through their bags for one more thing. It was part of the daily routine for a traveler: count your money to make sure you hadn't somehow lost any along the way. However, she blinked. “Sombra, where's our money bag?”
Sombra gave a sheepish look that one who knew his evil self wouldn't have ever have expected. “Oh, I didn't expect you to realize so quickly...I meant it to be a surprise.”
Radiant Hope gave a blink. “Huh? What do you mean?”
Sombra opened his bag and floated out something. “Remember when we had one of these as foals?”
The mare's eyes went wide as Sombra lifted a carved wooden dragon sitting atop of a fake golden 'horde,' an opening in it's back big enough for a jewel to fit.
The little black colt floated jewels into a dragon bank with his blue magic.
“Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six!” Sombra counted, finishing it.
Radiant gave an excited jump, throwing her hooves up. “We're going to save enough to eat all the crystal corn!” she exclaimed, the two smiling to each other.
The bank wasn't quite as refined and well made as the one they had as children, looking more hoofmade than manufactured, and by one who was rather new to the craft.
“I was working on it for a long time, it was hard to hide while I was making...I'm still trying to learn how to do it,” Sombra explained. “I know it's not very good...”
Radiant hugged him. “It's wonderful! Thank you!”
“You're quite welcome, Hope...” Sombra allowed himself to hug her back, then kissed. When they separated, he took out a few more jewels. “Want to put the rest in?...I got to last time...”
Radiant Hope smiled brightly. “I'd love to!”
+++
“Sombra, why is one of her shards here?!” Radiant yelled, the duo currently in a crevice as a gigantic three-eyed, frog-like beast was trying to attack them.
“Well I didn't exactly desire restoring her to be easy!” Sombra replied, charging his horn and blasting it with a magic beam, which still packed quite the punch and was able to drive it back, allowing them to get past it and continue running. “I put a few of her pieces in dangerous locations to make it harder!”
Sombra turned and blasted a monstrous bat-like beast in the face before it could pounce on them. The two spun around a corner and hid out of sight. “Well at least I can say I earned my atonement this way...”
“Yeah...yes we can...” Radiant said, looking a bit guilty for a moment, then giving smile. Though Sombra did notice something else: namely that Hope looked a bit fatigued. More fatigued than one in her position would normally be. Especially one as in shape as Hope was.
“Are you okay?” Sombra questioned with worry in his tone.
“Yeah, just a little drowsy I guess,” Radiant replied with a reassuring smile. The two then had to dodge a tentacle from one of the unseen horrors swinging around the corner at them. “But I'm awake enough to dodge that!”
Radiant grabbed Sombra and teleported them to the side to evade another tendril swing before the two began to run again. Sombra in his previous form would have had no problem fighting off the beasts, but in his current state and without as much experience as he would like he was simply an above average powered unicorn.
“Found it!” Radiant Hope called, pointing to a rock ledge over a lake where another fragment of Amore set. She focused and grabbed it with her telekinesis. The two's eyes went wide as a giant, scaly claw emerged from the water.
“Hope, I suggest we get out of here...now!” Sombra said simply.
“Agreed!” Radiant Hope, now that they needed to teleport to somewhere she knew well, teleported the two away as the claw slammed down where they'd just been standing.
The two reappeared safely outside.
“What do you know? Calling it the 'Scariest cave in Equestria' wasn't exaggerating...” Radiant Hope quipped, putting the fragment into the bag.
+++
King Sombra looked through a menu at a restaurant in confusion. “What are 'hayburgers?'”
Radiant shrugged. “I think it's from Germane...” she said, looking over the menu.
“I don't recognize half of the food on this...I guess I'll just have a cheese hayburger...I know what cheese is at least...and I think I know what Prance Fries are so I suppose I'll have those on the side.”
Radiant placed her order and chuckled. “Well it has been a thousand years, it's only natural we'd miss a few things.”
They'd mainly been living on supplies Cadence provided or ones they'd gotten in the wilderness. This was their first real restaurant. Thankfully, Sombra had quickly grown out of his kingly palate. Not that he had much of one to begin with. Even during his 'reign', the Empire hadn't been able to sustain such a thing for long, especially with most of the population devoted to digging up the Umbrum, and growing up an orphan meant he'd only got a short time to indulge luxuries like that for more than a short time.
“That is certainly true...makes this whole thing quite complicated...” Sombra admitted, giving a sigh. “I forgot that the Crystal Empire was not a good indicator of what the rest of Equestria was like...At least this is fair to the Crystal Ponies, isn't it?”
Radiant put a hoof on his shoulder when she saw guilt rear its head again. “I'm having trouble too...the Umbrum knew some about the outside world but not much...but we'll get used to this...you're a fast learner. You caught up with the rest of the class when you were first brought to the orphanage, right?”
Sombra gave a small smile. “Yes...I suppose I did...hehe, remember our secret language?”
The unicorn mare gave a small smile. “How could I forget?! Do you remember it?!”
The reformed tyrant gave a chuckle. “I think I'll need a few refreshers, but I remember the gist of it...Bullies aside, I think those years at Chestnut Falls Orphanage were the only ones I've felt truly happy before now.”
Radiant nodded slowly. “I know what you mean...Miss Chestnut was so nice. We weren't weird to her...”
Sombra gave a small, warm smile at that thought. “Yes...we were like her children...I honestly consider her more of my mother than Rabia...which I suppose is not surprising...”
“Hey! We should visit her when we're near the Crystal Empire again!” Radiant suggested, giving a cheerful smile.
“That's a wonderful idea!” Sombra replied. “Should we get a gift do you think? I'm not very good at picking out gifts...”
“Order up!” interrupted the waitress, putting their meals on the tables.
“Well it smells good at least...” Sombra admitted, taking a sniff and looking over his meal. Given their combined cooking ability, hot food was also something that appealed to him, so he couldn't say he was complaining. He then blinked, looking at Hope's meal in confusion. “Pickles and chocolate?”
Radiant Hope shrugged. “I don't know why, I just had a craving for them I guess,” she admitted, dipping one of the pickles in the chocolate and eating it, causing Sombra to just...stare in a mix of confusion and disgust.
+++
Radiant looked around Canterlot. The town lay in ruins. Well ruins wasn't quite the word. Remodeled was the better one. Instead of the beautiful structures of the Equestrian capital once was, a series black structures stood in their place, held together by green goo. Ponies hung in giant green cocoons, unmoving. Changelings swarmed all over the city along with brainwashed ponies and some that were nothing but emaciated husks. She heard something and snapped around, seeing Queen Chrysalis stand on the balcony of what was once Canterlot castle, laughing maniacally in victory.
+++
Radiant screamed, snapping awake and panting heavily in a cold sweat. She panted, looking around the cave as she sat up. No cocoons, no Changelings. And no Chrysalis. Just her and Sombra in the cave they had set up camp for the night.
“Hope? What happened?”
The unicorn turned to see a sleepy Sombra looking at her with worry.
“O-Oh...sorry, Sombra...just a nightmare...”
Sombra nuzzled her. “Must have been an awful one...considering what we've both been through...”
Radiant Hope nuzzled him back and was silent for a few moments, looking thoughtful...then guilty. She tried to remain composed...but for some reason her emotions seemed...stuck. Like she'd swung into one mood and gotten stuck... “...Sombra...do you remember what I promised Chrysalis?”
The reformed tyrant blinked. “Yes...”
Radiant looked down. “...I was an idiot...”
“Hope...”
“Sombra...I promised her an innocent country for helping me...I was just so desperate...”
Sombra put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hope...I know you planned to stop her somehow...”
“Yes, with the UMBRUM...even if they weren't evil, I had no idea how long it'd take to actually break them free!” Hope replied, not raising her head. “...If you hadn't mentioned the Umbrum...there's nothing I could have done to stop her...I...I promised the Flim Flam Brothers and Lightning Dust to help KILL Applejack and Rainbow Dash...I'm glad I got you back...but...”
Sombra tried to think of something to say, but being comforting wasn't exactly his strong suit when for most of his life either he was the one being comforted...or the one doing some to make somepony NEED comforting... “Hope...I...”
“Every bad thing that happened during that whole mess was my fault. I was so desperate to get you back...I didn't think about what I was really doing...” Radiant began crying, soon beginning to sob. Sombra was taken aback. Radiant wasn't one to breakdown crying. Something just seemed off. Hope herself felt like somepony had pulled a plug and all her pint up emotions came rushing out. “...I want to help you redeem yourself...but...I guess...I guess I want to redeem myself too...I didn't want you to have me being guilty on your mind when you already had so much”
Sombra was stunned for a moment...then simply hugged and nuzzled her. “Hope, I know exactly how you feel...And you already helped me see the light. And you're helping me reconstruct Amore...We'll do this together, okay?”
While the former tyrant hated seeing Hope upset...sugercoating wasn't a strong suit of somepony who's powers ran on hatred and fear before a few months ago.
“You think so?” Radiant asked, trying to stop the tears and having some difficulty doing so for reasons she wasn't sure.
Sombra nodded. “Of course...you believe in me and I believe in you...isn't that how we're supposed to do it?”
The unicorn mare smiled and returned his hug and nuzzle. “Thank you...I guess I'm just a bit emotional right now...but...I think I needed that...”
“Goodness knows you've done it for me already, I was just returning the favor,” Sombra replied. The two finally kissed. “I love you, Hope.”
“I love you too, Sombra...” Radiant replied, suddenly seeming a lot more happy, almost like a switch had been pulled, causing Sombra to blink.
+++
“Do you see it, Sombra?” Radiant asked, the two peaking their heads around a corner, deep inside a cave. They could hear the ocean roaring above them and salt water pouring in from the ceiling in several places.
“I feel it, don't see it quite yet...” the reformed tyrant replied. He then looked back to Hope. He noted she seemed to have a little bit more weight on her now. Then again, they had been eating well and he knew for a fact the Umbrum didn't need to feed her, but she HAD marched across the frozen north before being put in stasis by them. She still seemed unusually tired as well, as she had been for some time. “Are you feeling okay?”
Hope nodded. “I'm fine,” she replied, seeming a bit more sharp than normal. Sombra recalled she had seemed a bit more moody lately (and sometimes more sad than one would expect), but given what had happened, he put it up to nerves. “Just a little tired.”
Sombra nodded, leading the way forwards. He was worried...but Radiant was a doctor and knew medicine, he trusted her knowledge of her own body. So the two continued on.
Finally, they came up to a large cave. In the center was a massive lake, the center having a gigantic waterfall of salt water pouring down. A ship set wrecked on a small island in the center.
“So how exactly did this get down here?” Radiant questioned.
“I imagine on board that ship,” Sombra replied. “I think the crew likely found it and the ship ended up sinking.”
The unicorn mare nodded and focused, the two disappearing in a flash and reappearing on the island itself. “Alright, this should be easy!” she announced, suddenly unusually cheerful out of nowhere. Sombra blinked in confusion and prepared to say something...when the water nearby began to churn. The two had to jump back to dodge a swing of a gigantic brown tentacle. “Okay, so it's not that easy...”
With an unearthly screech, a massive octopus-like leviathan emerged from the lake, eight tentacles moving up and down out of the water.
“I believe that thing's called a Kraken,” Sombra said. “Take cover!”
The two dodged another tentacle and they jumped into the ship itself and hid. The creature seemed slightly confused to lose sight of them.
“Well now we know what brought down the ship...” Radiant quipped, peaking slowly out before ducking back in the moment the creature's gigantic eye emerged and peaked. The creature then roared, forcing both to cover their ears from the sound and gag from the smell of decaying fish coming from its maw. It began swinging its gigantic tentacles at the ship, causing the whole thing to rattle.
“I think we need to find the piece of Amore and get out of here!” Sombra exclaimed, as wood fell down. He then blinked, noting Radiance holding her stomach and looking a bit green in the face. “Radiant? What's wrong?”
“I...I guess it's breath hit me harder than I thought...” the mare admitted, though couldn't help finding it strange. She wasn't normally didn't have this sensitive of a stomach. She didn't like the smell of rotten fish anymore than anypony else, but it should've taken a bit more to sour her stomach. “Let's hurry before this place falls apart!”
Radiant, being a doctor by nature, began wondering about what was going on with herself as the two moved through the ship. She'd noticed a few oddities, but she hadn't through about them much. She wasn't showing any symptoms of serious medical problem and there'd been so much on their minds. But she knew for a fact her suddenly getting sicker than she should have been from something so simple wasn't normal.
The two made it to the treasure chamber below deck, a large amount of gold and jewels strewn all over. “It's in this room!” Sombra announced.
The two prepared to rush in and began searching for the fragment...only for the kraken's tentacle to slam through the ceiling between them and the treasure. The creature pulled its limb back and snarled, staring at them for a moment before screeching and bringing another tentacle down at them, causing Sombra to blast the limb in retaliation. While he didn't have enough power to punch a hole in it or blow the limb off, he did force the limb back and get a massive roar from the monster.
Radiant thought to teleport over to the treasure and begin searching through it...but with that many objects to sift through, she needed Sombra to actually FIND it. It'd be like finding a needle in a haystack!
So she stayed behind Sombra and occasionally took a much weaker shot at the Kraken's tentacles and began thinking back to the issues she was having...and lying them next to each other, one thought came to mind.
“I...” Radiant said, her eyes going wide as it clicked. “Why didn't I realize it before?!”
“What?” Sombra questioned, hazarding a peak over at her before having to blast another of the beast's arms...
“Sombra...weakness, strange cravings, moodswings, and nausea from things that shouldn't bother me too much...I...I think I'm pregnant!”
“What?!” Sombra asked, snapping around in shock. “We're...you're...that's...that's great!” he said, not certain how else to respond to such news.
Before the two could enjoy the revelation, the kraken changed tactics and slammed a tentacle into the room and then swung it across, tearing a large portion of the roof of the ship away. Radiant was able to teleport and dodge, but Sombra was hit and sent flying and partly buried in the wooden debris.
“SOMBRA!” Radiant screamed as she reappeared. She ran over and begin digging Sombra out of the rubble. “Are you okay?!”
Sombra grunted in pain. “I'm glad I'm a normal pony, but Umbrum durability would come in handy right now...”
“Don't worry, I'll heal you up quick!” Radiant exclaimed, continuing to try to free her lover.
Sombra gasped, seeing the Kraken bring up its tentacle for another strike, but at the angle he was pinned in he couldn't get a good shot.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Radiant didn't see it coming, and likely wouldn't be able to free him in time even if she did. He knew Radiant, she'd never abandon him. It was who she was. Sombra had just found out he was going to be a father...he couldn't lose her. Not again...He had to do something.
Radiant gasped as she heard the beast scream in agony. Turning around she found it's tentacle had slammed down, hard, on a large spike of crystal that had sprouted up out of the floor. Not the dark black, sinister crystal Sombra had once used, but a beautiful dark onyx. Not corrupted and evil, but pure and beautiful.
Sombra's horn slowly stopped glowing with a dark violet, more solid energy and more regal purple disappointed from around his eyes.
Radiant blinked...then slowly helped Sombra out of the rubble.
“Radiant, are you okay?!” Sombra asked in fear for her safety.
“I'm fine...Sombra...how did you do that?” Radiant asked, as the injured Kraken screamed in pain and sunk back into the depths of the lake, apparently having finally decided they weren't worth the effort after having one of its tentacles nearly run through. “I thought you said you couldn't use your dark magic any more...”
Sombra gave a small smile. “I said I didn't have the fuel...this time I had something I was scared of...” the reformed tyrant nuzzled Radiant. “Losing you...both of you...”
Radiant felt tears well up in her eyes and slowly nuzzled Sombra. “...Thanks...I love you, Sombra.”
“I love you too, Hope...now come on, let's find that fragment and get out of here...I think we'll need to check a few things out...”
Radiant Hope replied with a warm smile and nuzzle before giving Sombra some healing magic for his wounds. “Yeah...we do...”
+++
The two sat in a hospital room, waiting for the nurse. Sombra had simply put his name down as 'Mr. Hope' to avoid the drama of the doctor finding out who he really was. He stood by Radiant as closely as he could, keeping a vigilant eye on her.
“Mr. and Mrs. Hope?” the nurse asked, trotting in.
“Yes?” Sombra questioned, looking over, Hope joining him.
The nurse gave a smile. “Radiant has tested positive, she's going to have a baby.”
The two merely smiled warmly and shared a nuzzle that turned into a kiss.
“I'll just leave you two alone...” the nurse replied, giving a smile and leaving the room.
“...I guess we'll have to put finding Amore's pieces off for awhile...” Sombra said after they broke the smile, but didn't lose his smile. “But I can't think of a more worthy cause...”
Radiant nodded. While they both had sins they needed to atone for...they both knew a child being born healthy was far more important...and Princess Amore, kindhearted pony she was wouldn't want them to risk a child for her. “Yeah...but where are we going to stay?”
“...The Crystal Empire is our home. And we did get a lot of money from that Kraken's treasure...”
The two hadn't just let the treasure trove go to waste, especially when getting money was something they'd needed to think about.
Radiant Hope gave a small smile. “...Think Miss Chestnut would be happy to see us and hear the news?”
“Hehe...I'm sure she'd love to...”
The End.
