The New Problem

Moonlight Gleam and the others had returned to Canterlot after the visit to Luna. Twilight Sparkle realized she had something important she had to take care of, leaving the two unicorns alone at the gate of the castle. Luster Dawn looked at her friend and the two shared a small smile. "I'm going back to Ponyville, would you like to accompany me?" she asked.

"I would, but I have something I have something I need to confront alone," the investigator replied with a frown.

"You don't have to be alone you know, I'm your friend. I can help you," the pink unicorn protested.

"This is something I have to do on my own. I know you wish to help and I would love for you to be able to help in this situation. However, if I am to end these nightmares decisively, I'm going to need to face this alone. If you wish to be nearby, that would be highly appreciated," the dark blue mare said with a smile.

The other unicorn smiled. Even if her friend had to do this alone, she wasn't abandoning her friends or trying to push them away. She was being gentle and genuine about needing to face things alone and not being afraid to allow ponies to be nearby in case things went wrong. She waved at her friend and turned to leave as she had things to do in Ponyville. This left the dark blue unicorn on her own.

Said unicorn sighed as she walked into the castle, a pair of guards nodding towards her as she did. She remembered where the dungeon was, if only faintly from her time being mind controlled. She reached the top of the stairs leading to it and hesitated for a moment. She would have to someday confront the pony that was down there, but she didn't know if she was ready yet. She was afraid somewhat, but she had learned much about this world since she had arrived. It was very different from her world, yet still easily understood. Well, except for Discord, but chaos by its nature is difficult to understand.

She walked down the stairs slowly, her hooves making a clopping sound against the stone. The guards at the bottom looked up the stairwell as she came down, wondering what was going on. "Excuse me, miss, but the dungeon isn't safe," one of the guards, an earth pony told her.

"I'm used to not being safe," the unicorn dismissively replied.

The other guard, a pegasus looked at her carefully, clutching a spear in his wing as she walked between them. To test her readiness, he tried to poke at her with the weapon's shaft, only to find that it didn't move. "Nice try, Lieutenant," the mare said with a chuckle.

She continued on her way to the farthest cell, she herself had chosen this cell for the prisoner in question. She wanted him to be as far away as possible from any other pony in case he tried anything funny. Much to her surprise, she passed by Twilight Sparkle who was talking to two figures that she didn't recognize. She didn't want to interrupt her though, so she had said nothing and didn't listen in.

"I didn't expect you to be here, a surprise to be sure," a deep voice emanated from the cell.

A gray unicorn with a black swept back mane walked towards her, he looked at her with his green, sorrowful eyes. There was regret written all over his face, but Moonlight didn't believe what she was seeing. "That cell fits you, your highness," she taunted.

"I am King Sombra no more, just Sombra. Ever since I had been freed from the evil that had influenced me, I've had plenty of time to reflect over my misdeeds and my sins," he replied sorrowfully.

"And I'm sure you're telling us that you have regrets because you want to get out of here," Moonlight hissed.

Sombra pushed open the door to his cell, it had been unlocked the whole time, but he closed it back up to show that he was a prisoner of his own choosing. "I do not feel that I am ready to go back to being part of society. I've spent most of my life trying to hurt and dominate others, I do not feel they will accept me," he replied calmly to her venom.

The investigator opened the cell and walked in, closing herself in with her foe. She didn't like him and the look on her face could make his blood run cold in his veins. It was one of pure hatred. Nothing could stop her from doing what she wanted to do to him. Yet, she didn't start casting a spell. She couldn't bring herself to do anything to the other unicorn in the cell.

"I understand if you hate me, I lied to you. I used your greatest desire to bring you under my control. If you want to harm me, I will not stop you," he said.

His words were genuine, his tone was sincere. There was a silence between the two of them that lasted for several minutes. Neither of them choosing to say a word as the tension between them eased. Moonlight walked towards the door of the cell with a heavy sigh, she wanted to hate this unicorn, but something was different about him. He wasn't the same creature that she had faced a month ago, it was as if they were completely different entities.

She opened the door to the cell, "Your eyes, they are a bit like mine once were. You're lonely inside even in spite of your new friends," Sombra said.

She paused for a moment to contemplate what he meant by that. "You're half right, I am not lonely despite my new friends. But I have had something taken from me that I can't ever get back. I used to be lonely," she replied.

She turned around and closed the door to the cell with her magic. The stallion walked towards her and sighed heavily. His shoulders sagged as he looked down at the ground. It was obvious that something was weighing him down and Moonlight didn't need years of training as an investigator to see that this was the case. The dark gray unicorn sat down on the floor and looked up at the ceiling. "I guess it would have been over a thousand years ago. I was just a normal unicorn in the Crystal Empire, a low born unicorn. Because of my social status, I wasn't very popular with other unicorns or ponies in general. Every year at the Crystal Faire, I became sick. As I grew up, it became worse year after year. The Crystal Ponies shunned me for this and by the time I was nine, I felt truly alone. Not even my own parents wanted anything to do with me. If it wasn't for one special unicorn, I would've fallen to darkness much sooner. She helped me and healed me as best she could. She was there for me, until... I became the monster you had fought in my adulthood," he recounted.

"That sounds like a shortened version of a very long story. You're telling me that the Crystal Heart was hurting you, do you know why?" Moonlight asked, being an investigator.

"No, neither Radiant Hope nor myself figured out why this was happening. It was unknowable. Eventually we went to Princess Amore to find out why. She told us that it was fate and we couldn't change it. I decided on that day if that was going to be my fate, I was going to embrace it fully. It was at that moment I had embraced the dark magics and my first act was to encase her in crystal and shatter her," Sombra recounted regretfully.

Rage filled Moonlight's entire being, she rushed the other unicorn in the cell and slammed him into the door, sending it flying open. She then slammed him into the wall and held him up with a foreleg against his neck. A fire spell charged on her horn and she aimed it directly at him.

"Moonlight, enough!" came Twilight's voice.

Before she could cast the spell, it seeped away from her and a voice that was unfamiliar to her spoke up. "Sorry about that Princess, but I couldn't let her hurt that pony."

"You'll get a pass on that one, Tirek," the alicorn said annoyed.

"She was a distant ancestor of mine! And he destroyed her in this world!" the dark blue unicorn yelled.

"I can bring her back!" Sombra stated weakly.

The investigator dropped the gray unicorn to the ground. He stood up and sighed, "If I can find all the pieces, I can restore her and then reverse the spell. She'll live," he stated with a cough.

"I grew up hearing stories about my ancestor. She lived a wonderful life, one greater than I ever had. You were right that I was once alone, Sombra. I lived a life of poverty that none of you ever had to even worry about even once. There were days in my life where I worried if I would get to eat that day. There were weeks had to go with little to no food. No one wanted to help us, no one wanted anything to do with us. You had a friend that you threw away, but mine... he betrayed me and I've been trying to track him down ever since," Moonlight said angrily.

"That's not the entire story, is it?" the former king asked.

"No, but you don't deserve to hear the rest of this story. Why did you bring up this Radiant Hope pony anyhow?" the investigator hissed.

The gray unicorn sighed heavily, "Two reasons. One, I love her and I never had the chance to tell her. I was consumed with anger and hatred before I could. The other reason is that she's the only one that could help me restore Princess Amore to her old self. I know you don't have any reason to trust me, but please, I beseech you. Find Radiant Hope for me and bring her here, I wish to make things right between her and I. I will do anything in my power after that to bring your ancestor back," he stated.

"Wait... you're the descendant of Amore? My old foal sitter is a descendant of her's as well," Twilight stated.

"If you're thinking we're cousins, we're distant enough at this point for me to be as related to Sombra as I am to her. My parents traced back our family history far back enough for us to realize that our relationship to the famous movie star, Cadance was pointless to pursue. She wouldn't have helped us or accepted us as family," Moonlight said to cut the princess off.

She then turned back to Sombra and started to think about whether or not she should consider the request of the pony who had taken over her mind. She was still furious at the other unicorn. Thoughts of repeatedly punching him in the face entered her imagination and she smiled at them. However in the pursuit of pragmatism, she couldn't harm him. Her brow furrowed as she became irate, in her world, her ancestor was long gone by the time she was born. But here was a chance to be able to meet her and ask her the questions she had always wanted to ask. Maybe this was her chance to be something more than just a lower class investigator.

"Fine, I'll do what I can. Remember this though, I'm an investigator, not a miracle worker. I have no clues to go off of. I doubt the Cadance of this world would know either, if I find anything, I'll let you know. Until then, I wouldn't hold my breath, usurper," she said, putting an exceptional amount of venom on the last word to show her hatred of him.

Everyone looked at her with surprise, but she left the dungeon. She was left with questions and didn't know where to look, but her first instinct would be to find out where she was last seen. She was going to head to the library to find some sort of clue and she'd play it by ear from there. Maybe something would turn up, maybe not, only time would be able to tell.