One is the Oneliest Chapter
Something stirred in the blackness and Sombra uncurled from his fetal postion. Looking about him, he found himself in an unfamiliar place, but after a quick yet groggy glance around, rubbing his eye, he jumped awake. Where was he? Well, in a palace, and standing around him were four alicorns. FOUR?! Last he heard, there were 2, but then a 3rd had been there to stop him when he attempted to take back the crystal empire. How long had he been out?!
Though the room was dark and ruined, he easily recognized it as a throne room from his studies on military history. But what had awoken him fully, were the easy to identify Solar and Lunar princesses, Celestia and Luna. A third one he identified as the one from his attempted conquest. The fourth and last seemed so familiar, yet he couldn’t place her.
“Welcome back Sombra!” The mysterious one spoke up, and he quickly identified her. But he still looked at her in puzzlement. . . last he had seen her, it was also in the crystal empire, but she had been but a unicorn. The gears turned in his head as quickly as they could as he quickly came to a realization, but he had to be sure.
“Last I saw you” he began to say, but his voice was incredibly sore, but he pushed on, needing to know. “You were but a unicorn. Does that mean that unicorns can become alicorns”
His motives must have been easy to read however, and the mare replied, “Perhaps, but it won’t happen to you.” She smiled, smug and certain. “However, back to business, you’ve been resurrected, which is something extraordinarily uncommon, so how do you feel?”
“A tad thirsty. . . ” he said cautiously, not used to acts of generosity.
“Here you go!” the mare said, summoning a canteen of water apparently either by teleportation or a pocket dimension. Yet another thing that sombra would have to look into.
After quickly gulping all of the water down without spilling any, he breathed a sigh of contentment before turning back to the four alicorns before him.
“Well, enough stalling, let’s get this over with.” Celestia at last spoke as she took a step toward him. “You see, my student, Twilight,” she said, gesturing to the alicorn that he had just been speaking to. “Is a very curious person, and thought that you were too important of a ‘fact mine’, she wanted to bring you back and try to reform you.”
“Reform me?!” Sombra laughed. “Me of all ponies?! You must have gone crazy!”
“To be fair,” Luna said stepping forward, “she reformed me, and then discord, and defeated a changeling invasion to name a few.”
“Really?” Sombra scoffed. “None of that means anything to me.”
Luna turned back to her sister. “He really has been out of the loop, hasn’t he?”
Sometime Later. . .
“So Sombra, never done it like this before, but. . . why and what were you trying to conquer?”
“To answer the second part first, Twilight, may I call you that?” After a quick nod he continued. “I was trying to conquer the world. Why? I was trying to unify us against one of the greatest threats that will ever face us, and I sacrificed so much to achieve that, only for it to fail. I sacrificed my wife, cursed her race, hypnotized ponie en masse, but I lost, and now the world will be swiftly conquered by a foe that it cannot even comprehend!”
“If i may ask,” Twilight inquired, “who is this great threat?”
“TIREK!!!” Sombra shouted, tears leaving his eyes.
“Wait a minute, this was all to defeat Tirek?” Twilight said, unable to suppress her laughter anymore,
“There is no need to insult me!” Sombra retorted, tears leaving his eyes.
“I. . I’m sorry, it’s just that. . . the castle you are in exists because Tirek came back.”
“What!?” exclaimed sombra
“Been out out of the loop, huh?”
Sombra just glared at her.
“Tirek did return, and we did nearly lose. But thanks to the elements and some very interesting circumstances, we defeated him and he was returned to tartarus with his power stripped from him.”
Sombra just looked at her, first flabbergasted, and then confused and flabbergasted.
“What. . . what do I do now?” He mumbled.
“Huh? I didn’t quite catch that.”
It took a moment before Sombra could gather himself enough to reply. “What do I do now with my life?” He said, lifting his head and looking at twilight with a silent plead in his eyes for an answer.
“Well, well starlight became reformed, she began by apologizing to those she had hurt. . . However, the difference between your actions and hers. . . is large as far as scope goes to say the least.”
After a brief length of silence, interrupted only by the barely perceptible sobs of Sombra, twilight spoke up. “I. . . I need an assurance from you.” Sombra looked up, wiping his face with his hoof. “I need you to swear upon your magic, your sole, and your name itself that you will never again enslave people or begin a military conquest without direct authorization from one of the 4 alicorns that currently exist.”
Sombra nodded slowly. “That I do swear. I also swear to serve Equestria and take fulfilling its dreams as my purpose in life, for now i have no other.”
On his way to his guest royal chambers, he had to do a double take. For coming down an intersecting hall was. . . someone he thought he knew. But upon doing his double take, he realized he had been wrong, although who he had thought it was so similar it was eery. A mare, that was about the only difference between her and Shining Armour. And upon seeing her. The first female he had seen in close to who knows how long who had not been a challenger to his power.
Between him staring for so long and the mare looking intently down at a notepad she was reading, the mare run into him.
“Your the newly reofrmed Sombra, am I right?” The mare asked, the first one to speak.
“Ye. . . yes. And who is the fine mare I see before me?”
“I’m, uh, Gleaming Shield.” She said nervously.
“Any relation to uh, Shining Armour?” Sombra quickly followed up.
“Well, sorta, it’s a long stor. . . ” Gleaming was cut off by a shout coming from down the hall. “Awe crap,” she continued “that’ll be my brother, Shining.”
Author's Note
Always appreciate any comments you have, and enjoy!