They had given the mountain her name.
She didn’t know when, so she didn’t know if it was because they knew who she was, or just because they all lived east of her domain. To her, the important thing was that the ponies dwelling in the valley below her left her alone.
She didn’t know why they left her alone, either. They might have respected her privacy, but that seemed unlikely. Ponies tended to be incredibly meddlesome. On the other hoof, they might have known who she was, and simply shunned her. That would have been more in character. Or, the solitude might have resulted from their thinking that a dragon still lived in her cave.
Of course, a dragon might still have been living there, if said dragon hadn’t responded to her half-started apology by breathing fire on her.
Idiot.
As it was, the cavern’s new occupant had only been there for a few weeks. It was comfortable enough, especially when one was as accustomed to a luxury-free life as she was. It was huge, obviously, since an adult dragon had once claimed it as its own. Which meant there was plenty of room once she’s reduced the corpse to cinders, and raised a wind to blow them away. The cave was also full of gems and precious metals, for what that was worth.
A little furniture, a few book cases, it might have been nice.
But she wasn’t sure how long she would be staying, and she certainly was in no humor for being surrounded by ‘nice’ things. The cave was dark, and cold, and it echoed a little, and frankly that suited her mood perfectly.
The cavern’s new mistress had a great deal on her mind. And she would work through it all in her own damned time, at her own damned pace. And to Tartarus with the rest of the world until she was well and truly prepared to give a flying, feathering damn about it again.
But no matter how she looked at it, no matter the angle or perspective she tried to apply to her life, it always seemed to come back to…
Her.
I loved you, too.
Sure you did.
I still do.
Liar.
Sometimes, she was almost calm. Other times, she seethed in the darkness. Other times still, she could feel the pure, liquid hate rising up in her soul, threatening to drown her completely.
And then, it would pass, leaving her empty. And in those moments of clarity, she would look at her reflection in the cavern’s still little pool. She would wonder who the hell she was anymore. What she had turned herself into, within and without, and what she was supposed to do now that her great life’s plan had been cast aside.
The calm would last for a while. Then, the anger would rise again. Tidal in its inevitable onslaught against the shores of her mind, its determination to pull her hooves out from under her and drag her back down into its depths.
One night, as she lay on her stone floor, a shadow far deeper than any in the cave’s stygian depths drifted into her lair. Dark as a tyrant’s heart, silent and graceful as smoke. It observed her with eyes of fire: crimson, green and blue. Drinking in her hate.
Eventually, she realized that the intruder wasn’t going to leave on its own.
“Get out.” Her voice was flat, almost completely uninterested, yet containing a coldly controlled rage.
The shadow chuckled with an ebon mirth. “Such animosity. And yet, completely unnecessary. At least, where I am concerned. You see, I come here as a friend.”
“That’s once.” The quiet threat in her tone was unmistakable.
“You and your exploits are not entirely unknown to me. And so, I am aware that we have common enemies, you and I. In my case, the Princess of the Crystal Empire has my greatest attention. Though, of course, all the princesses are my enemies.”
She half-opened one of her eyes now, looking at the undulating shadow before her.
“That’s twice,” she said. Her spiral horn began to glow with a cyan flame.
“Alone, either one of us might be defeated by their combined abilities,” the shade went on. “But between us, it would be a simple thing to have our revenge upon all of them. Luna, Mi Amore, Twilight… and most especially of all, Celestia.”
Silence.
“My only personal interest is the Crystal Empire, of course,” the smoky thing said. “My personal revenge is focused primarily upon the royal family there. But any ally of mine would enjoy my full efforts alongside their own, in whatever endeavors they wished to employ. Outside my domain, of course,” he added.
Silence.
“I would only ask for her assistance in my own interests. Principally, the re-creation of my body. After that, the Lady of Day would fall easily enough. First or last, however your whims dictate. For after all,” it concluded, “once we bring one of them down, the others will happily seek us out, lining up for the kill.”
The fire surrounding her horn faded, and was gone.
Slowly, almost lazily, she rolled over to her hooves. She stretched out her dragon wings, her back, her legs. She turned and looked at him with blue-green eyes beneath a mane of crimson and gold.
“I’m listening,” Sunset Shimmer said.
An Understanding is Reached.
This far outside the magic of the Crystal Empire, the wind had claws and fangs of ice. Sunset might have thought nights like this had been the basis for the legends of the wendigoes, if she hadn’t seen some for herself years ago.
“Yes,” the shadow said. “This is the place.”
Sunset’s expression hadn’t changed the entire journey north and east, flying above the clouds, following the thing of smoke and shadow to their destination. Barely controlled fury, poorly disguising itself as irritation.
Now, she landed in the snow of the northern tundra, in a place unmarked and unrecognizable in the vast wasteland of snow that surrounded her.
“This had better be worth it,” she said.
“Oh, believe me, it will be,” the shadow assured her. “Once I have reconstituted myself – with your help, of course – our powers combined will be unstoppable. Our foes will fall before us like snow.”
“Mmm.” Her horn did not glow, but the snow before her evaporated in an eyeblink.
The shadow narrowed its eyes. “How…?”
“Invisible fire.”
“Ah.” It chuckled. “Truly, I chose my ally well.”
“Mmm,” she said again. “This it?”
At the epicenter of charred ground, surrounded by a crater of snow, was a pair of crimson, gem-like fragments. The small piece was perhaps three inches long, the larger one around six.
“Yesss!” the shadow breathed. “My horn! With this, all things become possible. Now, hurry,” he turned to her, “Cast the circle of blue flame. Reconstitute me! You have only to begin the process. I can handle the rest, even now!”
Sunset glanced at the smoke that urged her on, and then stepped into the circle she had created.
Sombra’s eyes widened, flashing with victory.
Sunset Shimmer strode to the center of the snow crater. She considered the fragments before her. Such things must be done carefully.
Then, she brought her hoof down on the ruby horn’s remains with a loud crunch.
“What are you doing?!?” the shadow demanded.
She brought her hoof up again, and then down on the remaining pieces, crushing them, grinding them beneath her hoof.
“I’m destroying your phylactery,” she said.
The shadow attacked now, buffeting her. She managed a wry chuckle as she continued to destroy the fragments.
“Yeah, you might be something to think about when you’re at full strength. I mean, even after death, you were a threat to an entire kingdom. The Mane Six barely took you down. With help.”
Crunch.
“But you know what your attacks feel like now? I’ll tell you.”
Crunch.
“They feel like a little colt is trying to whip me to death with silk scarves.”
Crunch.
With every step, the enchantments within his horn weakened further. And as they did, so too did Sombra’s ability to maintain his current form.
“But why?” he demanded, swirling around her helplessly. “Why betray me now, before there was anything to be gained? You have no reason—”
She looked up at him at last. “You really thought I believed you? That I was going to help you kill them?
“You know, it’s funny. I always used to wonder how you were defeated at all, when I read about you. A master magician, a genius ahead of his time, forging new paths in sorcery until then undreamed-of. You dared what nopony else would, and you came out the other side, stronger than ever before. A bastard in a noble house, you came from nothing and rose to become king before you were twenty-one. You’d neutralized all your enemies but the Two Sisters one way or another, before the war had even started.
“And then, after seven years of war, they took you out.
“I mean, sure, they probably had you beat as far as raw power went… but I read your books, growing up! Politics. Tactics. You were a strategist. And you had the entire Crystal Empire under your hoof by the time they caught up with you! So, I always wondered, how? How did it happen?
“But now, I know how.”
She looked out into the growing storm, towards the enchanted city beyond.
“You’re arrogant,” she said.
While Sombra whirled around her, joining more and more with the storm’s own wind, she lay down in the circle she’d formed.
“You found out about my anger, my hate. Heard about how I’d tried to take them down. And you figured that was all there was to me,” she said. “That my rage was all you needed to know. But you played the wrong game, and you played it with the wrong mare.
“Sure, Princess Cadence Mi whatever-her-name-is was an irritant, because she got something I was denied. She was a reminder of bad times, so yeah, I resented her once. But what she was given, I got for myself, by myself. So, why should I have a problem with her now?”
Her ears lay down flat as her ire grew.
“Then there’s Princess Luna,” she went on. “The one time we ever met, she reached out to me. She risked her life just for the chance to show me that I could be better than what I was doing. You really think I’m going to help somepony take her down?”
The wind began to blow more fiercely, its strength growing even as the darkness within it began to subside.
“You also mentioned Princess Twilight. I bet you thought that would be the second-best clincher, too. My replacement. My rival. The mare who stopped my plans cold. That’s what the ponies are saying now, aren’t they?”
She stepped forward, teeth clenched. “The Princess of Friendship didn’t just risk her life for me, she sacrificed herself for me, just so I wouldn’t die alone! She’s only alive now because I didn’t want her to die for me! You think I’m going to turn on her after that?!?”
“But... Celestia…” the dark wind moaned, “the Princess… betrayed you… is there… anypony… you hate… more than her…”
“No, probably not,” Sunset admitted. “That one’s a tangle. And I still haven’t decided exactly where I stand where she’s concerned. I mean, she belittled me, tried to use me, rejected me. She took me for granted, broke my heart. And then she cast me out.
“But I’ve been giving her a lot of thought lately. And you know what?”
She tilted her head, trying to make out any remaining details of Sombra as the darkness of the wind grew fainter.
“She also took me in, when literally nopony else would. She raised me, when literally everyone who knew me shunned or feared me, even as a child. For all the lies and manipulations and broken dreams, she did her best to lift me up when nopony else was doing anything but watching me fall!
“So, no, I still haven’t decided if I’m going to play nice, or if her head is going to end up mounted on a stake somewhere. But one thing I do know is this.”
She raised her voice above the howling storm and proclaimed to whatever remained of the King of Fear, “There is no way she will ever fall to some two-bit terror like you!”
The wind’s roar became greater, more furious, then quieted down as it dispersed, the black winds dissolving away. Sombra’s voice was a whisper as the night grew quiet again.
“Little fool… even this cannot... break my power… I shall return… and when I do…”
“Good. Bring it,” Sunset said. “I’ll be waiting.”
He said nothing more. Whether he couldn’t, or had just decided to save his strength, she had no way of knowing. At length, she rose, and leaped out of what had essentially become a wide dip in the snow. She created a dome of darkness around herself and the crater, to be certain there would be no long-distance witnesses.
Then, she turned and disintegrated the fragments of Sombra’s horn. Converting matter into light was a high-energy spell, and in a way she hated spending so much strength at once. But it was the only way to be sure. A moment later, her own form glowed, everything that clung but wasn’t part of her eliminated by her power. She thought briefly about creating snow to cover any remaining telltale signs, but decided against it. The way the storm was building, the ground would be traceless soon enough.
Dispelling her darkness, she looked out towards the Crystal Empire again, its great city protected by its dome of magic and love. The bluish light of the place gleamed like a distant jewel, even from so far away.
“Arrogant,” she said.
Then she gave a dry, humorless chuckle.
“Aren’t we all.”
She spread her dragon wings, and began the long flight back to Sunset Mountain.
Author's Note
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This timeline continues in The Real Question.
More about Sombra’s past can be found here.
And, of course, the seminal story that starts it all begins here.
