King Sombra, once of the cold northern plains and now the king of all the land slumbered, he had not made it to his bed this time – so urgent was his desire to sleep. He had found that as he walked the waking world in his sleep, his mind was so much clearer that it had become in recent days, the cold fog had been lifted and when he looked at his sleeping form he could see no sight of sodden fur or dripping cold...he looked fine really. He was breathing normally and for all the world looked like a peacefully sleeping gray stallion.

Whatever the Shadow had done to him, it seemed only to cling to his body, and once he stepped outside it Sombra could see clearly, like looking at your house from outside after so long indoors. Sombra passed through the stone wall of his room as easily as had had on every other night, but something felt different about the castle tonight, he should have been happy – it had scarcely been an hour since he had fucked that purple mare. He could not put a hoof on it, but something was very wrong with the castle, It felt like some great mass was hanging over the castle: so unfathomable that the force it exerted upon the world was dragging him toward it.

The king drifted to the ground of the courtyard like snow. All seemed normal to gaze upon – horrible to most ponies eyes and ears, but not abnormal under his rule and certainly not the source of his concern. A few of his guards wandered about lazily and Sombra wondered if they knew truly of the influence that his corruption of the crystal heart had placed over them. Sombra passed through the closed gate of the courtyard and into the silence beyond – it was dark inside and getting darker.

Once he had drifted far enough into the silent castle Sombra arrived at his destination, an unassuming wooden door which the king passed thought as easily as any other. He had thought that maybe the source of unease was the Crystal heart, it certainly had the power to effect a ponies mind from a great distance, but locked in its vault Sombra found it to be just as he had left it: the essence of the magic which the advisor had given him swirled at the heart of the blue crystal, turning the ponies who had held close admiration for the heart into his servants, each one had mistaken the heart’s influence over them as some kind of loyalty to the usurping king, and with all pretense driven away they had acting on their impulses for sex and violence which had always been there.

The heart was as Strong and unchallenged as Sombra’s own, clearly Some thing else was making him feel uneasy. Sombra’s thoughts wandered to his crown, he had sent his favorite lackey to fetch it, but he had yet to bring it to him – perhaps having his crown once again on his head would make him feel better. While of course he could not hope to retrieve his crown while he was walking outside his own body, he could at least see what was taking Flash so long.

The advisor was of concern, even if he still lingered in the throne room Sombra knew that even that cold shadow could no more see him in this state than anybody else, but he had no reason to even believe the Shadow had any power without the crown which Sombra had denied it. The more time that passed without Sombra talking to the shadow the more he felt that it had no power at all and that all he had seen inside the throne room had only existed inside his mind.

The trip felt long even though Sombra could pass through walls. Along the way he saw many familiarly faces, but none saw him. All those which the king saw seemed as disconcerted by the strange cold silence which had befallen the castle as he was – he was glad if the periods of empty space between the occasional guard.

Eventually king Sombra Found his way to the hall in which lay the entrance the throne room The cold sensation was oddly stronger here. Sombra saw that the heavy wooden door to the throne room was shut firmly, but that was no problem he Simplly walking into the solid surface and…

“GET OUT!” The voice of the Advisor blasted forth from the room beyond the door, the cold front ripping Through Sombra’s ethereal body, Dispersing the Ethereal mist that was king Sombra like leaves before a hurricane. Sombra let out a silent scream as he was violently cast back into his own body.

His eyes shot open, and he was in his bedroom again, his awakening had been no more sudden than any normal return of consciousness, but nether the less his mind still spun in sudden terror. Sombra looked about his bedchamber and saw that all around him was darkness, and all he could feel was cold.

Applejack crept along the Empty halls of the castle, she had seen death, and she had seen defilement, but this was altogether different – violence and rape were terrible things, but natural as the earth and sky, acts of living creatures brought on by desires of the flesh. In the dark arteries of the castle the air itself seemed to be drained of life with every passing minute, a force which was totally indifferent to life and death, Applejack felt that although there couldn't be anything to truly fear, this place was becoming home to force that would not rape and kill, but would extinguish life without even noticing it was there.

Even as she passed down cold, empty corridor's Applejack’s purpose did not falter, she was going to rescue her friends and neither fear of King Sombra nor dread at whatever had become of this corpse of canterlot castle was going to stop her. Applejack was not as familiar with the layout of the castle as the others had been, she was a country earth pony and thus she liked to register visits among the glittering vaults of her betters as lost time. It was a matter of class. Soon she passed into a corridor that she knew, This was one of the halls which she had been dragged through on her way to the cells, as she had passed she had seen through the gap of a door several guards surrounding...something, curiosity got the better of the orange mare, and she decided that she must know what had had Sombra guards so enthralled back then.

The door yielded to just three bucks, Applejack would have been concerned about the noise of splitting wood, but it seems like there was nobody in the castle to hear it. Inside the small room beyond the dust and splinters Applejack saw it. The Crystal Heart. She could not fathom why Sombra had kept such an artifact of the goodness of the crystal empire. She could feel the magic radiating from it – washing over her, but not touching her as if she was not the target that the magic was seeking, the feeling made her feel unwelcome even within the confines of the castle.

Applejack turned her face away from the crystal heart, and away from the joy it inspired, this was not the time for that. The country mare walked and walked so far among silent tombs that she might have called the journey a trek – when She found the place she had been searching for; the holding cells.

Applejack made doubly sure that she was even more quite than her surrendering as she examined the stark wooden doors, behind one she could hear the faint sound of a mare crying – Rarity’s cell Applejack concluded. Applejack maneuvered herself to the nearest door as gingerly as she, could and with the vegetable slowness of the root of an apple tree – pulled on the handle.

The door creaked louder than AJ was comfortable with, but did not open. Tentatively – Applejack pressed her lips to the bottom of the door.

“Hello. Are you awake in there? I have come back to help.”

The small voice, as concerned for silence as her own replied from beyond the door.

“Applejack...Is that you?” Applejack recognized the voice to be that of twilight.

“yeah it’s me sugar-cube.” replied the country mare a little bit of joy in her whisper as heard her friend. “ah’ am here to get you out.”

“Applejack – listen.” interjected twilight, “Sombra did something to the crystal heart, its making the guards...” now it was Applejack's turn to interject.

“We can worry about that later...” Applejack's words of reassurance trailed off as she felt somehow that the space behind her was not so empty as it had been the minute prior. The sensation of cold terror made her mane stand on end.

Applejack was rooted to the spot, until the urge to act overcame the sensation that she really did not want to know what was behind her. Applejack spun on her pastern and faced the hall behind her. The sensation of terror evaporated as soon as the country pony came face to brick face with the blank wall behind her.

Applejack let her breath out in a cold cloud which lingered in front of her for a few moments. Now that the fear behind her had been dispelled Applejack turned back to the door.

Again Applejack whispered under the door, “it’s okay, Sugar-cube, do you know were the key to this door is?”

Twilight’s voice came out from under the door in a slow flat, strained tone. “Applejack...was someone standing behind you? It just that I heard you spin and gasp”

“it’s okay sugar-cube,” Replied Applejack in as a reassuring tone as she could whisper. “ah’ just thought that something was behind me, but it’s gone now.”

“applejack...” whispered twilight

“yes sugar-cube...” prompted applejack.

Twilight’s next words were even more strained and quite than before.

“I think it’s in here now.”

A noise far less subtle, but no less alarming reached Applejacks ear, the clattering of hooves just about to round the corner. Applejack new that she could not save her friends if the guards found her, but nether the less found it hard to leave twilight; just before the first guard round the corner Applejack got hold of her own reins and slipped into the only hiding place in sight – the cell were she had been held not so long ago.

Private Donut rounded that corner, his member already at half mast – mourning wood. Much to the surprise and delight of the castle guards Sombra had allowed them access to the mares that he had already impregnated, except the blue Pegasus who was much too fiesta, and the purple unicorn, who he had fucked too recently to tell if she was with foal. Private Donut wrenched open the door to the cell containing The pink earth pony. The pink mare tried all in vein to grasp onto the bedpost as Donut pulled her out of the room and into the corridor. Just as hurriedly as he had brought the pink mare out – two other guards had their hooves on the pale unicorn and The yellow Pegasus.

“it’s cold in the hall,” announced Donut “put these mares in that cell which had the country bumpkin in it, shame she got away”

The other guards had also been feeling the cold and so were only so eager to find a more Comfortable place, before they staved off the strange cold with the heat of mareflesh.

An engorged penis flopped between the legs of every randy stallion as the mares were shuffled into the vacant room, Donut himself could feel his heart begin to race, and his own organ began to fill with pulses of blood in the primal anticipation of mating.

The Pink one was the most feisty of the bunch – she bit and kicked at her captors, even as the first of them bent her over an ornate credenza and buried himself under her tail – the sound of the guard’s gasp of pleasure mixing with the sound of Pinkies cry of anguish, that was when the tears began.

The white unicorn, most obviously pregnant of the mares had no fight left in her, and marched head down wherever the guards directed her, she barely even made a noise as her legs were spread apart, and a stallion pushed his way into her thoroughly uninterested vagina.

The yellow pegasus on the other hoof held back no emotion, and was already in tears as soon as she was pushed into the room. Donut knew which mare he would be using for his relief. The mare Squirmed and writhed, but did not dare try to push Donut away as he loomed over, She was not In heat, but nether the less Donut could smell her sweet aroma – her fear, the scent even of the tears that rolled down her cheeks, the scent of her cowering femininity Was making Donut’s Manehatten heart beat faster, and a bead of white began to form on his already throbbing shaft.

The sounds were no less arousing to the beige stallion, Fluttershy herself let out little but a gentle whimper, but the room was far from silent, the cold silence was being driven out by the sounds of the guards using the mare’s, the whole din made Donut yearn to add to them with his own.

The wet slapping of the stallion repeatedly plunging into Pinkie, the pink mare’s own ugly sobbing being covered over by the stallions own loud, shuddering moan as he hilted himself into her cunt – his tail twitched and his stomach contracted in rhythm with the pulses of his ejaculation. The stallion slipped free – his shaft shiny with the mares fluid, and a string of semen lingered on his flared tip for a second before falling onto the fine carpet. There was agap in pinkie’s cry as if she thought that her ordeal might have been over, but no sooner had the stallion left than another took his place behind the bawling mare.

Rarity was as resolutely quite as if she had been robbed of her voice, Donut could see that she would be making no sounds even if her mouth had not been full.

Donut pressed his snout into the side of fluttershys neck, her could feel just below her skin the pulse of her blood raising with each of his ministrations. Donut was not the kind of stallion who cared for much needless ceremony while he was fucking mares, he let loose a pleasured groan as he pushed himself into the Pegasus with more care than he had with mares that he hadn't been concerned with leaving undamaged. Fluttershy’s genitals had been about as dry as he had expected when he had entered her, the dryness of her unwilling sex against his cock caused her innermost flesh to be pulled back and forth with each of Donuts’s thrusts –tentative as they were, but now the mare was growing wet like they always did: with the growing slickness Donut felt that he could be less careful with his thrusts, but that did not mean that he intended to leave out the talking which so many ponies like to partake in while fucking.

Fluttershy had almost come to forget the shame and pain of the violation which she had received at the hooves of Sombra, it seem to her – in the many days she had spent in her cell that as her belly grew, it seemed that the pain of the act that had put it there grow more faint and distannt. But all if a matter of seconds it was back, a different place, and a different stallion, but all the same terror. It was all She could do to not scream for the mercy which would not come from the beige stallion any more than it would have come from King Sombra. She did not intend in giving him any more satisfaction than that he would get from raping her.

The stallion’s hot. ragged breath passed Fluttershys’s ear, carrying with it a whisper that only she could hear midst the sounds of her friends being violated, and the moans of pleasure of stallions. The stallion paused his thrusts to speak – still buried up the his balls in Fluttershy’s shamefully aroused mare-parts, which still spasmed slightly at the same pace the stallion had been thrusting.

“Hey, wanna hear a secret from me before you here it from everybody else?” choogled the beige stallion blissfully. Fluttershy offered him no response.

“The king has decided that only the purple mare will be the mother of his heirs” Continued the burly stallion, through teeth gritted in carnal pleasure.

“W-W-W-W-W-What?” Fluttershy managed to intone.

The beige stallion who Fluttershy noted smelt faintly of pastry goods gave a small chuckle and gave Her a sharp thrust which made her squeak in unwanted pleasure.

“That’s right. The king only wants foals from his chosen queen” explained the stallion, “Once we are done here, you are all going to feed the pigs!”.

“B-b-b-b-but, my baby...” Fluttershy blubbered, as her tears swelled to new torrents – surely that could not have been true, surely all this suffering could not have been for nothing?

The stallion behind her began to jab into her vagina faster as if the scent of her fear was as arousing to him as if she had been in heat. Fluttershy’s own her arousal was not less shameful to her now as it had been when the stallion behind her had been Sombra – she could feel herself getting close to orgasm even if she would never allow herself to admit that her body enjoyed this treatment.

“Just foaling around — AAAAH...FUCK!” had the mare not been already pregnant Donut might have Hilted himself inside her out of some instinctive reflex to maximize the chances of impregnation – But since the mare’s womb was already in use he paid his biological inclinations no mind. The wild thrusts of his orgasm let to his penis flopping free of the mare’s cunt after only one pulse of ejaculate had entered her. by the time Donut’s penis was done flaring and twitching Fluttershy’s hind quarters had been painting in streams of white which dripped down her cutie marks.

Fluttershy was left empty as the stallion dismounted, but it made no difference to her sorrow – in moments a snowy griffon had replaced him, this violation knew known barriers of species and the tears on her cheeks did not change nor burn less just because the semen inside her was of a different species.

Rarity was still resigned to her fate in relative silence, the only noise that game from the pregnant mare’s mouth was a stifled moan as she was made to orgasm – muffled as it was due to her mouth being full.

Pinkie, ever the extrovert was less inclined to hide the pleasure of her body, and she squeaked and moaned occasionally through her tears as her pussy was made into an instrument of relief for stallions. But once each of the males had emptied his balls into the hole for his choosing there was no longer any need for the mares to be let free of their cages.

Each pregnant mare was dragged back into her cage with as much care as when she had been removed from it – the whole event having lasted only perhaps 20 minutes.

Under the bed – Applejack seethed at what she had seen the ankles of Sombra’s guards do to the ankles of her friends, she was impressively angry- but could not express it for fear of attracting attention. The room was empty now, but the act still lingered on like hoof prints in dirt – the patches of rapidly cooling fluids, the ruffled bedsheets – and around it all the scent of sex – sweat, fear, semen and satisfaction.

Applejack peering into the hall beyond tentatively, as much as the stallions had been terrible, it had been a natural kind of terror, a brutality inspired by the flesh of its practitioners, with a clear goal, a reason – a warm, lustful kind of horror which left blood on the battlefield and semen in wombs – and for a moment it had displaced the disquieting dark which now returned like water filling in the wake of a single warm body sinking into a lake of infinite cold.

The hall was empty save for the distant sound of retreating hooves like slow raindrops on the roof of the world, and all too soon those were gone leaving nothing but darkness and cold. Cautiously the orange mare crept down the cold halls; the fire of applejack's anger had met with the damp cold of the castle – turned into the bitter ashes of sadness and the country mare did not even check the cell doors in the hope that guards had left them unlocked in haste. Instead she headed for the Crystal Heart.

Sombra felt oddly weightless as he trotted down the silent corridor – as if when the Shadow had cast him back to his body all of his fear and concern that had been weighing him down had been left in the space between waking and dreams and now he knew clearly what he needed to do – the fog was gone and even if he was still soaked in black he could see as well as his days in the icy plains. He had a goal again, like when the crown had been his aim – he did not know how he was going to achieve it, but he knew that he must try.

He dared not teleport less he be intercepted again – Sombra placed little trust in the magic that the Advisor had given him, all that he could really on was his will, and what power he gained on his own.

Soon King Sombra...no...no longer a King just Sombra – Found himself trotting past a window, He stopped to take a look at the outside world; not a cloud in the black sky but he could see no stars and it was snowing the first snow of the upcoming winter – a winter that might never turn to spring, the sun was setting, but The creaking shadow would see that it never rose again.

Snow on the outside, even colder within the castle, Sombra’s mind looked back to a time of warmth divorced from temperature.

The gray stallion stood on a peak of cliff, the end of his snowy world, in his arms there was his lavender mare. The sky was black, but on the horizon a pink and orange sun was starting to peak over from the underside of the world. His lavender Mare sighed as she let out a breath weaker than the last. But still strong enough to carry words.

“Don’t linger after me when I am gone, find another mare” she said

“I could not love them as much as I have loved you” replied the gray stallion with little emotion as he looked into the sun.

The Mare seemed to consider for a moment before she spoke again.

“I wish our foal could have been here to see this” she said as her fading eyes followed Sombra’s gaze to the dawn.

Sombra said nothing, but gently stroked one hoof across the mare.

“what should I do now?” asking the gray stallion to nobody in particular.

“Find another love, have a family, don’t let me keep you in the past” Said the mare, her voice growing more weak with every syllable, but not lacking levity.

The gray stallion looked further into the sun and was silent for a time until…

“what if she Dies too?” said Sombra, up until now he had not dared speak the word death to his beloved.

“Don’t worry...” said the mare as her eyes began to close. “Every light has to go out Sometime.”

The sun rose and the wind continued to blow as ever it had in the clear orange morning, it looked like it was going to be another fine day. And only Sombra was there to see it.

In time, another voice drifted over the snow, from behind Sombra the words came – creaking like strained ice sheets.

“A crown has its price.”

Applejack could have sworn that she remembered the way to the Crystal Heart, In fact she did swear.

“Where the fuck am I?” whispered the orange mare under here breath, to avoid alerting whatever...presence filled the halls. Those hall which seemed to have moved while she had been away, From the corner of her eye she saw a door, and skidded to a halt, and skidded further than she had anticipated – The flagstones had ice on them.

Half expecting the wooden door to be just another broom closet, Applejack felt a little bit of joy when she saw that beyond the door was indeed the Crystal Heart.

It looked no different than when Candace and shining had brought it Canterlot on its yearly tour, but even as its appearance was quite unchanged it was nevertheless very different from what it had been before. Applejack was an earth pony who know little of magic, but she could feel some kind of dark power washing out of the thing in waves.

The country pony circled the Heart slowly – the way a Timber-wolf circles a deer, the way a worm sizes up a frightened apple, Like how the last of soap bubbles circle the shower drain. Tentatively Applejack reached out for the Heart, it looked fragile; it felt fragile, it would take so little of a push to send it toppling from its pedestal.

“So this is how Sombra got the guards to do what they have done all over the place?” Muttered Applejack to herself as she Pushed her hoof ever so slightly against the Heart

“Yes that's right” Came a voice from Behind her.

Applejack spun on her hoof as soon as her mind registered the foreign words, and Came snout to snout with King Sombra.

She froze in abject terror.

“Yes – the heart, that is what I used to turn the guards to my will” Said King Sombra conversationally “I suppose that you are here to rescue your friends?”

Applejack nodded, but shuffled back in fright from the Stallion that had cause her and equestria so much anguish.

“Yeah...” proffered the country mare.

The King smiled a bit sheepishly, his horn glowed purple for a moment, and a small explosion of purple smoke happened between him and Applejack. Something jangled onto the floor.

Applejack Look down and saw that It was a set of keys.

“I imagine You will be needing those for your friends.” Said the gray stallion.

Applejack’s fear was replaced by bafflement: was this some kind of trick? Had he been expecting her this whole time?

“Why?” asked Applejack.

The king turned away toward the door.

“I don’t think this world needs a ruler so cold” Choogled Sombra.

“But what about the guards?” Said Applejack.

“I don’t think they will bother you much now” Replied the gray stallion. Sombra raised a hind leg, and with one sharp motion – calmly pushed the Dark Heart from its platform.

Applejack leaped to the side before the Heart hit the flagstones, for all the magic in the heart it fell like any other object, as it hit the Cold stone floor there was a bright burst of light which left Applejack’s vision filled with dark blue spots, and and crash like the stamping of giants heels. Once her eyes and ears had recovered from the shock there was nothing left to be seen of the heart save for glistening shards: none any larger than common peddles.

The magic that Applejack had felt pouring from the heart was gone like an interrupted dream, And the orange countrypony was left alone. King Sombra was nowhere to be seen. Applejack did not linger long among the shards, not while her friends were still imprisoned.

The rooms that contained her friends were soon empty.

Sombra stood before the heavy wooden gates to the throneroom – unmoving, as still as his first foal had been born. Whatever happened, Sombra would make the shadow see the sunrise, he intended to follow the fading light to whatever end.

As easily as the shadow at cast hi m away before this time he was armored in his flesh, and could not be dispersed as easily as a dream. The dream was over and he felt awake for the first time in forever.

Sombra looked over himself, his fur was dry and warm.

He let out his breath and pushed the great door inward – and from the gap rushed a wall of cold air, such a cold Sombra had never known. He held his eyes shut until the blizzard was over. Inside the throne room was much as he had left it, but Sombra had never shivered so as he had made his way to his throne in any of the millennia past. He was not alone with the dark, to the right of the room stood Flash sentry, as still as the empty void, in his hooves was the plain band of dark metal which they had found beneath the earth.

Sombra stood before him and looked into the unicorns eyes: glazed over with frost. Sombra thought that perhaps he should go, find another place in the world like he had before, but there was no running this time.

“A king’s gotta do What a King’s gotta do” Said Sombra, turning away.

Sombra felt the air stir above him and turned his eyes skyward, and saw for the first time his advisor.

A black mass deeper than any shadow, formless beyond whatever shape it needed at the time. Writhing among the rafters like Black oil floating in clear water. And in the Center, a baleful green eye.

“Come for your Crown, like the others all did” Spoke the Empty air in the room.

Sombra thought for a moment before he replied “No...I have come for yours.”

“You're too late,” Choogled the darkness “You know that there is nothing which you can do now, I can see into your mind, and if you had put on the crown, I would have your body.”

The crown...yes the Crown, thought Sombra. The crown made of the Gems that the mares had tried to use against him.

Sombra Ran for the throne, he ran before the Shadow could read his intentions, it seem to work it first, but has Sombra got to full gallop the Shadow seem to realize his plan.

Mere hoofsteps before the crown Sombra felt the cold strike like a sword, his muscles becoming numb in an instant, and he began to topple forward as the cold rushed over his body like an avalanche.

Sombra leaped from his own body. Barely missing a step.

His Ghostly form landed at the foot of the throne, without even looking back. Sombra condensed every part of his will into his hooves and reached for the Crown of the elements of harmony – And made contact, he could not lift the crown but never the less he held it. He looked into the Heart of the magic of the thing, but found that he could not make the magic move. And as much as he tried the Elements would not work for Somebody such as him.

The darkness closed in all around him, if only the bearers of the Elements had been here.

But Sombra Struggled to find a way to make the connection, and he found it. The foals, The foals he had in the wombs of the 5 mares. Not all six but perhaps it would be enough. It would need to be enough.

The King reached forth to the his unborn children with what little magic he could muster, and made them the bridge between his spectral form and that mares that carried them.

The elements glowed faintly and Sombra stoked the fire of their energy as best he could with his magic.

Just as the darkness closed over him it happened A great flash of light so bright that Sombra could feel it pass through him as easily as he could have passed Through the air. The Blast so great that the Enclosing dark was pushed away like air

All was White, the hot white of interior of the sun, with no sight of shadow to be seen, and In the centre of it all the Shade of Sombra fading to even less than a ghost before the light.

‘Every light has to go out Sometime’

The halls blurred by the six mares as they ran for the nearest door, they had crept in the darkness like Applejack had until all at once the cold the feeling of terror seem to vanish as if it had never been there.

A guard stumbled by, and for a moment they all back up – the stallion shuffle around like he was drunk and for a moment he seemed not to see the six mares.

“Where am I? Who are you? Who am I? Why does my head hurt?” The stallion spun on his heel as if to flee the other way but fell into a crumpled heap as soon as he stepped.

“Yeah nice to meet you too...” Said Applejack. “Hey you wouldn't happen to know the way out?”

“Third on the left, four doors down” Mumbled the stallion into the carpeted floor.

The six mares moved on led by applejack, as they passed the collapsed Guard Fluttershy Whispered “Thank you.” Quietly. Rainbow Dash just kicked him.

Soon the gate was before them, They could all see that just outside of it, the sun beginning to rise.

Sombra Stood in the wreckage of his throne room, It was still cold, but the warmth was returning. In time Sombra walked back over to where his body lay, and stepped back inside. Except that he did not, his body, so long the most tangible thing in this world of waking dreams, had became as insubstantial as any door had been.

He looked over his form laying there sleeping like he had so many times. Waited to see his own chest rise and fall, or for him to stir in the night – except that he was not breathing. His body was the only thing in the room that was getting cooler.

He might have said Something, had there been somepony there to listen. But instead he just stood there in silence. He had longed wondered what it would feel like for his body to die while he was elsewhere. He could already feel himself beginning to fade away at the corners. He might have stayed to see would become of his Kingdom, but he had other places to be.

He floated out of the room of the castle. Once far above the world he turned toward the distannt northern plains – just beginning to be touched by sunlight. Even as he travel there he could feel his form spreading out -diffusing faster the further he went from his body, by the time he was far enough out to touch the top of the snowy mountains even his thoughts were distant from eachover. His mind no more that a vague force now.

He settled to the ground like a fresh coating of evening snow, across all the space were he had spent his best years. His last coherent thought was of her.

King Sombra had galloped out to the stars. And the years passed by without him.

“Hey, Don’t go too far out, the snow is deep over there” Shouted Twilight to her foal. The Foal – a dark purple unicorn Filly with a black mane paused as she bounced over the driven snow as if Some Important thought had occurred to the young pony.

“I told you not to got out this far, you could be hurt” admonished the foal’s mother as she caught up. The foal continued to look out over the Snowy plane if if she hadn't heard.

“Mother…” said the filly tentatively “Who is my daddy?”

Twilight Considered for a moment.

‘he’s not around anymore, I will tell you about him when you get older” Said Twilight.

“daddy lives in the snow up here!” Said the foal excitedly.

Twilight was glad that the uncomfortable line of questioning had given way to childish fancy.

“Time to go home now sweetness, it’s starting to snow again” Said the foals mother.

The foal shuffled her hooves and said “Can I hug daddy goodbye first?”

The small pony Reared up on her hind legs and attempted to embrace the drifting flakes, the Falling stars passed Between her arms, but she seemed Happy with the result even as she toppled forward immediately after.

Twilight picked her daughter up, and began to make her way back. As she went her foal Looked back and waved gently at the falling snow, The flakes drifted faintly from side to side as they made there way down to the earth.

Author's Note

Reviews much appreciated.