Author's Note
This is very, very, very loosely based on the comic where Celestia falls in love with the king.
Previously called "The King".
The king
Queen Celestia, the ruler of the magical kingdom of Equestria and queen of the sun, walked into the horrific cave. She knew what she had to do, she knew that she had to do it, she could not just simply 'brush this under the rug'. She had to do this now, while she had the high ground. This time King Sombra had gone too far…this time, there would be no mercy. Enslaving the crystal ponies had earned Sombra the fear of all of those in the Crystal Empire and all the lands in Equestria, but, forcing the princess of the moon, Celestia's own flesh and blood sister, to be his wife had earned him the almost fearless Celestia's fear. Turing around, watching her glorious sunset, Celestia took one last deep breath.
Making her way through the bones and rotting bodies, Celestia came to an opening. It was surprisingly well lit, with a diamond chandelier showering the cave with warm, yet unnerving, light. She wished her horn would create a brighter and bigger light. She could if she wanted to, but she knew she had to reserve most of her strength for what would be the fight of her life.
CRACK!
The sun queen gasped and jumped into the air, blasting a powerful and brilliant beam into the ground, preparing herself for an attack. As the dust cleared, Celestia returned to the ground, realizing it was just the sound of bones snapping beneath her hooves. Puffing out her chest, filling it with courage and hope, she moved underneath a chandelier that reminded Celestia of a crystal chandelier with its grand and impressive status. It shone like the brightest sapphire, casting a cool, yet somehow hot, blue glow.
Now she wished she had told Twilight or Cadence or even Luna what she was doing, anypony really. At least then she wouldn't be so alone in the cave that somewhat reminded her of the caves the lived under the Canterlot palace, yet, at the same time, seemed to change each time she turned to back to one side.
It was nothing Celestia said to herself, again and again, trying to get her nerves back under control. She knew she had used most of her strength just then on that blast and she wasn't as powerful as she had once been when she had originally banished the dark king under the ice. Celestia couldn't help but feel powerless, she left afraid and like the eyes of all her subjects were on her and her alone. When Sombra had first been banished, she had Luna by her side. When he had returned, she had sent Twilight and her friends to defeat him and free the Crystal Empire, so Cadence's destiny could finally be completed. The first time, she had the elements of harmony, she had her sister's love and strength, she had the strength she so desperately needed now. As she looked around, feeling so small, she wished she had brought somepony with her - anypony.
Suddenly, a shadow approached the white alicorn, walking with a cool yet urgent matter. Once it was within arm's reach of the Sun Queen, it simply stooped and began to creep upwards, until the body of a unicorn stallion rose from the shadow. The queen had already guessed who the shadow belonged to, yet, it was something different, yet so familiar...
"Celestia!" the shadow said calmly, greeting Celestia as if she was an old friend of his.
Celestia gasped, looking around herself madly. Why had she let her thought distract her? Had she opened her mind to Sombra? Had he seen her weakness? "Sombra, show yourself!" Celestia screamed, her golden armor shining in the refection of the lights coming from the chandelier.
"That's no way to treat your host." Sombra smugly remarked, appearing from the shadows, dressed in his signature armor, cape and...wings?!
Celestia took a step back. "How were you able to achieve alicornhood?" Celestia gasped, disgust and hatred blending on to her kind face. "What did you do?" She questioned, holding her head down low, ready to charge. Disgust smeared across her pleasant face. He, on the other hoof, wore a cocky, full-of-himself smile as He looked bemused at the other alicorn. Sombra paraded around her, flexing his wings and keeping his toxic eyes fixed on the sun goddess, whose eyes were glued on to him.
"It was simple, dear Tia," Celestia snorted as Sombra called her by the nickname Luna had gifted her when they were but foals. "You see," Sombra explained, stopping his parade and standing front on to the sun queen. "alicorn blood, whether you like it or not, still runs in the Umbrums. Where your pathetic race failed, we thrived, we lived in the shadows while you ran forever chasing the light," Sombra remarked. "we, we were the survivors." He added coldly.
Celestia scoffed. "Ponies - no, that word is far too good for you - tyrants," Celestia corrected herself, looking head-on with the dark alicorn. "like you are the reason such shadows exist in the first place." The sun goddess said with certainty. "Your kind were most certainly not the 'survivors'," The sun queen corrected. "you were the pathetic and dependent parasites that feed off of desperate ponies and other creatures, sinking yourself deep into their mind." She explained coldly, looking somewhat proud.
Sombra sighed and shook his head like a parent would with a foal. "My dear Tia," Sombra smiled, Celestia could actually make out the sound of the skin around the stallion's mouth cracking in the stillness, emptiness, and dread of the cave. "there is no need for such name-calling here...Why don't you call me "Sombie"?"
Celestia's face turned a bright crimson color. How did he know that? Celestia snapped in her mind. That name was what she had given to her true love. How could Sombra - a creature that had been lost to time for so very long, know of that name? "How did you know that name?" Celestia hissed violently, her horn ablaze with a fiery glow.
Sombra chuckled, sending echoes all around the alicorn queen of the sun, also causing the chandelier to shake a little, making the already bewildered and sickened white alicorn shake. Celestia watched in utter horror as Sombra's form turned into that of an almost normal stallion, he sunk back into the ground as he did so. His crimson blood-red and toxic greens eyes turned a light, pleasant, and airy blue that were filled with hope and kindness. His horrifically sharp fangs disappeared in the blink of an eye and replaced by normal teeth a pony would have. They were replaced by a charming and - dare she think it - handsome smile.
Once the transformation was complete, Celestia stepped backward, her horn no longer ablaze with the light of the sun, nor anything else, not even a small glow. "You," Celestia gulped. "You were...him?" She asked, her voice strained and confused.
Sombra smiled wickedly as the white mare began to let tears flow down her cheeks. "I had such a fun time in that universe. Why, once the other 'good' king Sombra was gone, you fell right into my arms and I,"Sombra placed his hooves on to where his heart would be, if he was not an umbrum - who did not have hearts, "into yours," Sombra explained, advancing towards the queen of the sun. "Did you honestly think I was truly him? Could you not see all around us? Could you not see what was so very wrong with that picture?" The dark king tore holes into the white mare's heart, each time hitting harder, making each cut more deeply than the last, horrific cut.
"How...Why?" Celestia sobbed, her eyes reddening.
Sombra chuckled once again. "Oh, my... you truly do let your heart take over your mind."
"WHY!" Celestia screamed at the king, who merely smiled as she let more tears fall.
"Why?" Sombra spat back at the white mare. 'it's simple, dear Tia. To gain your trust."
Celestia's mind whizzed around at a thousand miles an hour, almost reaching the speed of light. Could she really have let everything slip so easily? Maybe, she had grown so weak that anything that was once so very important to her was now mere gossip to the white alicorn mare. She had considered the small possibility that she was drunk while with Sombra, then, her actions seemed less 'horrible' in a strange way.
"You were SO desperate for love you fell for me, ME!" Sombra chuckled, throwing himself into an almost hysterical state of laughter.
Celestia slumped to the floor, her eyes taken on the same eerie glow as Sombra's. Sombra eventually turned back into his normal form, as if he was trying to taunt the white queen of the sun even more.
"The 'wise and forgiving' queen of the magical kingdom of Equestrian told me her secrets! You had so many secrets, dear Tia. Some were about your sister, and how you wished she would 'grow up'," Sombra paused and approached the queen. "Some were about your first husband, the son of the unicorn queen, Prince Lost legacy. You didn't love him," Sombra chuckled, bemused." you love the luxury and pride he came with - the parties and buffets, the glamor and the fame... dear Tia, he was a stepping stone to you, wasn't he?" Sombra coyly asked.
The white mare nodded, her heart sinking even lower.
"You only loved him once he left and mysteriously 'never returned'... Leaving you the throne and your children free to carve out the elite of your new kingdom," Sombra said like he was an expert on Celestia. "despite all you told me, I still have one question left..." Sombra whispered.
"Yes...?" Celestia sobbed.
"Dear Tia, I have one question for you," Sombra whispered into the shaking white mare's ears. "You loved me, didn't you?"
Sombra was violently thrown to the other side of the cave, sending shards of the cave to the floor. Sombra groaned and groggily looked back up. The Umbrum king flinched and gasped as he felt a sharp object at his neck. He managed to open his left eye to see Celestia. Her horn was sitting patiently at his neck. Her eyes were ablaze with a thousand suns and ten thousand fires.
"Ah, 'bout time you showed something!" Sombra remarked.
Celestia let out a triumphant scream as she slammed the dark king into the ground. Sombra groaned once again and looked back up to see the white Empress standing above him, her wings covering the light from the chandelier like curtains. Her eyes were all ablaze, perhaps a little more now as she stood above the king that had caused her so much pain. Celestia reared up on her hind legs. Sombra's eyes widened as she watched the queen swoop down on him, then, everything went black as night...
. . .
Celestia pulled herself out of the cave and looked around at the utter wasteland that surrounded her. She smiled as she found the familiar cries of her faithful student singing in her ears.
"CELESTIA!" Twilight threw herself on the queen, wrapping the white mare up in a hug. "What was down there?" she asked.
Celestia returned her friendly smile and felt the purple alicorn's cheek with her white wing. "There was nothing, my dear student. Just a cave," Celestia smiled.
Twilight raised an eyebrow, not entirely trusting the white mare. She had been gone down there for close to an hour. It didn't seem like there was 'nothing' down there. Surely, there had to be something down there. Twilight shrugged off the suspicions and smiled at the mare.
"Come along, Twilight," Celestia smiled. "I think it's time we leave this land." Celestia walked with Twilight away from the cave, keeping an eye on it until it was out of view. Yet, as the lilac alicorn mare walked away with her mentor by her side, she could just hear a faint, bearly even there chant;
"LONG LIVE THE KING! LONG LIVE THE KING..."
