The Shadow of A Tyrant

Several months later...
"Sombra, wake up." Chestnut Falls commanded him.

The grey colt woke up and yawned, asking, "Miss Chestnut Falls? What's wrong?"

"I have great news, Sombra! The princess has decided to adopt you!" Chestnut Falls answered with a grin.

"What?! You're joking, right?" Sombra gasped in shock.

"No, not at all! She told me that she had met you and Hope near the Crystal Heart a few months ago and took a liking to you." Chestnut Falls explained while leading the unicorn colt out of his room.

Despite the excitement that he now had a family, Sombra felt concerned since he was leaving Radiant Hope on her own at the orphanage. At least she would have Chestnut Falls to keep her company...

His thoughts were broken when he heard Radiant Hope calling his name and running towards him. He excused himself from Chestnut Falls and approached his friend.

"Where are you going?" She asked him.

"Oh, um, Hope...I've been adopted by the princess now. She's outside to take me to the castle." Sombra answered nervously.

Radiant Hope was silent for a while as she sighed sadly, "Congratulations, Sombra. I'm going to miss you. It's a shame we can't go to the Crystal Faire together..."

"Same here." Sombra nodded, hugging her. "Don't worry, maybe you'll get adopted one day. Do you think we'll see each other again?"

"I hope I'll get adopted, but we will definitely see each other again." Radiant Hope smiled.

"Sombra, come on! You don't want to keep your new mother waiting!" Chestnut Falls called out.

"I have to go..." Sombra sighed before leaving his friend.

He followed Chestnut Falls outside where Amore was waiting for him alongside her Royal Guards. Sombra stopped in front of the princess as his caretaker from all this time bowed to her. Before stepping into the carriage with his new mother, the colt gave Chestnut Falls a farewell hug.

Sombra stepped into the carriage as the guards pulled it towards the palace. Once they arrived, Amore stepped out as the guards bowed to her while he followed her.

"Welcome to your new home, Sombra." She told him as she led him into the castle.

The colt was in awe, stepping into the place he was to now call home: the palace was completely made out of crystal like the rest of the Empire's buildings. As he explored, Amore smiled and turned to one of her guards, ordering him to bring her two biological foals down to the throne room, so they could meet their new brother.

Soon, accompanied by the guard the princess had sent, two foals slightly older than Sombra came down the stairs. The first was a unicorn colt with amber eyes, a red mane, and a dark orange coat with a ruby as a cutie mark wearing silver regalia. The second was a Pegasus filly with dark blue eyes, a blue mane, and a cyan coat with an ocean wave as a cutie mark wearing the same regalia as her brother.

"Garnet, Aquamarine, this is your new brother: Sombra. I adopted him earlier today." Amore explained to her foals.

"Welcome to our family, Sombra. I hope you enjoy living here." Princess Aquamarine smiled slightly.

"Yes, welcome." Prince Garnet added with a nod. "I'll take it upon myself to teach you magic. How is that?"

"I like that." Sombra grinned at his adoptive brother.

As the days past, he spent time with his new siblings and mother as they taught him how to be a proper prince and how to use magic for basic ways such as levitation and other spells.

One day, Garnet was teaching Sombra how to summon crystals from the ground. To demonstrate this, the orange unicorn summoned a crystal spire of sapphires and explained to his brother about how crystals are important to the Empire since it's what they specialize in for trade with the rest of the kingdom.

"Now, try to summon some crystals, Sombra." Garnet commanded him.

Sombra nodded and concentrated as his horn glowed. He could feel the ground crack slightly and kept concentrating until he looked up, seeing a large red quartz popping out of the ground and being unaware of the flash of light from his flank.

"I did it!" He cheered before looking at his flank to see his cutie mark: a three pointed red quartz. "My cutie mark! I got my cutie mark!"

"That's Ruby Quartz...it's the rarest crystal there is..." Garnet gasped before hugging his brother. "I'm so proud of you, Sombra!"

Sombra smiled and kept hugging him before walking inside with his brother, hoping that their good relationship would last forever. Unfortunately, it wasn't that so.

As the years went by, Sombra grew apart from his siblings as Garnet was being groomed in order to take the throne as heir while Aquamarine became an ambassador to help establish trade routes with the other kingdoms. He just spent his time in the library, studying magic while his siblings got more attention (Garnet getting the most) and he felt jealous of them, but hid it well.

Sombra ended up shutting himself away from his mother and siblings as he got deeper and deeper into his studies, being told by the librarian to stay away from the Forbidden Section which was closed off to everypony who uses the library. As this went on, Aquamarine decided to travel Equestria as more and more trade relationships were built while Garnet met and fell in love with a Crystal Pony mare named Emerald Gleam who decided to live with them in the castle after Garnet proposed to her.

Emerald Gleam was a Crystal earth pony mare with silver eyes, a light green mane, and a dark green coat with an emerald heart as a cutie mark. Sombra thought she was friendly, but he could care less since she was the fiancé to his "more spectacular" brother.

One year after Garnet's engagement to Emerald
On the day of the Crystal Faire, Sombra, now an adult, was going through the faire and assisting the other Crystal Ponies with various activities such as feeding the ewes, helping pick some Crystal Berries, cleaning the armor for the jousting, putting salt, pepper, and butter on the Crystal Corn, and so on and so forth. It was a boring job, but he was the prince and it was expected from the Crystal Ponies that he would help.

Also, it didn't help at all that tonight was when Garnet and Emerald Gleam were to get married at the front of the palace near the Crystal Heart. Sombra winced in disgust at the thought of that. It was always Garnet or Aquamarine who got the attention (mainly Garnet since he was the heir) while he stayed in the library studying all he could about magic and not going into the Forbidden Section which frustrated him to no end.

With a groan, he walked over to the jousting arena to go sharpen the spears. Before he could start, he saw a familiar unicorn mare levitating some gauze around one of the jouster's hooves: it was Radiant Hope who was tending to the jouster.

Feeling excited, Sombra ran over to her as the jouster thanked her and left. She turned and gasped in surprise before running up to him and giving her old friend a hug.

"Sombra! You've grown a lot since we last saw each other!" Radiant Hope exclaimed.

"So have you. You look...beautiful." He commented.

"Thank you!" She grinned while blushing slightly. "I also got adopted by one of the best doctors in the Crystal Empire several days after you left the orphanage. Now, I'm a doctor."

"That's great!" Sombra said with a large smile on his face.

"I know! So, I've heard your older brother, Prince Garnet, is getting married tonight. The whole kingdom's invited!" Radiant Hope nodded.

"Yes, it's fantastic..." Sombra grumbled under his breath sarcastically.

"Anyways, we'll talk during the reception tonight. I have work to do." Radiant Hope told him.

"Alright." The grey unicorn nodded before going his own way to continue adjusting things.

Later that night...
Sombra begrudgingly sat through his brother's wedding which was witnessed by the entire Empire and presided by Amore. At the end of the ceremony, everypony went to the fairgrounds to celebrate the reception in celebration of Garnet and Emerald Gleam.

Sombra stood from the shadows and watched the celebration. The reception was in the center of the fairgrounds where the ponies ate food that was prepared by the castle's chefs, socialized, and danced as the royal orchestra played. No one paid any attention to the grey unicorn and instead focused on the happily married couple.

He couldn't take it anymore. He was forever stuck in Garnet's shadow and no one seemed to acknowledge his existence or appreciate his dedication to studying.

I should leave the Empire, no one seems to be accepting of me even when I'm no longer an orphan! Sombra thought in a rage.

He immediately ran out of the fairgrounds and towards the outskirts of the Empire, arriving at the unforgiving cold of the Frozen North. This was his chance...he could abandon his royal title and start over somewhere else like possibly Canterlot.

Sombra was about to step out when a familiar voice called out to him, "Sombra!"

He turned and saw Radiant Hope with a saddened expression as she realized that he was trying to leave the Empire.

"Don't go..." She whispered to him.

"Why not, Hope? Can't you see that they don't care about me?" Sombra asked her.

"That's not true! I do..." Radiant Hope answered as she approached him. "Because I love you..."

Sombra's eyes widened at those words as he stammered, "You...love me?"

"Yes. A day hasn't gone by whenever I thought about you." Radiant Hope nodded.

With that, she kissed him passionately before the two decided to return to the Empire. Maybe Sombra didn't have to leave after all as long as he had Radiant Hope with him...