Sombra's Bat

The flight around the Crystal Empire is nothing special, but I am glad to be able to stretch my wings. Why it took me so little time to change from pony to Umbrum, I have no idea, but I am glad to be back.

The ponies in the streets are pleased to see me again, too. They shout things like "It's good to have you back!" and "I'm glad to hear that you've recovered." It lifts my heart.

Meanwhile, I think of Sombra and Cozy Glow. What will the filly be like? She's probably the most innocent-looking pony I'll ever meet, but I thankfully know otherwise. She could cause serious trouble if she found out about something like the room full of crystals in the castle dungeon. I have no idea whether I can trust her or not, which is worrying, but Sombra trusts her, at least.

The next morning, I am ready and waiting for Sombra before Sunbutt even raises the sun. I have my armour on and have saddlebags containing food, water, and two Keys of Unfettered Entrance should he be unable to use magic to open the door.

About an hour after dawn, he finally shows up. "Come on, we're leaving," he says, trying to hurry me along.

"I got out of bed nearly two hours ago, and I've been filling my saddlebags with stuff we might need ever since. Where have you been?"

The answer is something about "keeping up appearances."

"Brushing your mane, then. It looks fine. Now, how far can we teleport before we have to travel by shadow?"

He takes me to the edge of the Crystal Empire. "I don't want to rely on dark magic too much once we cross the border to Equestria, unless we want Sunbutt to know what we're up to. From here, we have to travel south east, avoiding towns and cities as much as possible."

I transform into that odd shadow form, and watch as Sombra does the same. We fly - for lack of a better word - for several hours, in that time covering hundreds of miles of countryside, including the Everfree Forest. I have no idea how he is going to find that door, but he must know something that I don't.

Eventually, we reach a valley, and he starts circling the area. I ask what it is that we are looking for.

"A big black door, carved straight into part of the cliff."

I find it almost instantly, and land in front of it, changing back into a pony. Before I can take off my saddlebags to look for a Key of Unfettered Entrance, Sombra blasts the door open.

"Well, that was easier than I expected," I say to him. Then I realise that we are face to face with what I assume is Cerberus, who looks less than pleased to see us. A huge grey and black bulldog, except with three heads. His three pairs of yellow eyes narrow and each of his three pink noses wrinkle in annoyance. I fly right up to the face on the left, and he growls, ready to snap at me. Each mouth has one white fang sticking out, and I assume each of those fangs are about as long as I am tall. I have a plan, but whether it works or not is another matter. Sombra told me that Umbrum are almost immortal, so I assume that even if this huge head in front of me tries to eat me, I'll survive. The thought of being eaten doesn't really bear thinking about though, so I go ahead with my most risky and unbelievable plan, knowing full well that Sombra will most likely facehoof when I do so.

I reach out with a hoof and gently tap his wet pink nose. "Boop." The expressions on his grey faces soften; instead of baring his teeth his three colossal tongues hang out of his mouths, just like any other puppy. He rolls over on his back and lets us in, wagging his three black tails.

Sombra leads me down a path towards a cell containing a little pegasus filly with a baby pink coat and a baby blue mane and tail. I notice after ten minutes of walking through the cavern and are close to where she is being held, that both her mane and tail are curled into little ringlets and that her cutie mark is a brown chess piece in the shape of a castle tower. The rook. Cold and calculating are not the words that I would use to describe the figure cowering in the cage before me, but that is what her cutie mark suggests. She turns to face us and her somehow still innocent-looking red eyes are filled with delight.

"Golly, is that you, Sombra? Who's the bat pony? What brings you here, after such a long time? I thought you were dead!"

"Oh, Cozy, calm down and and be quiet before that dog comes back. I have missed you," he replies. "I've been stuck in Limbo for a millennia, but I am back and we are going to get you out of here. This," he points at me with one hoof, "is my future wife, Moonlight Shade, though we've had some little kerfuffles with Celestia and not had any time to hold the wedding."

"I can't wait to join you in your plans for world domination." She gives us a sly grin, then pulls the cutest puppy-eyes face that I will ever see. "But can you let me out of here first? I don't like the dark!"

"About my plans for the future, Cozy. They have changed somewhat over the last thousand years. I have realised that I will never be able to achieve what I set out to do, when we were planning all this together all those years ago, but we don't need to. Remember Princess Luna?"

"Oh. Her. Moonbutt. The slightly less annoying one of the Two Royal Pain In My Flank Sisters."

"She is on our side, Cozy. I'm not sure if the news travelled here, but she went a bit darkness crazy a long while back, while I was in Limbo. She and Moonlight were hanging around on the moon for a thousand years, and though her feelings of jealousy have dampened somewhat, Luna still doesn't like the way Sunbutt's running the country and can see that we aren't doing any harm to the Crystal Empire. I actually made the decision to keep everypony out of the mines and the guards aren't under mind control, so I am technically not doing anything wrong."

She looks at me. "Gee, this isn't the King Sombra I knew. Future Queen Moonlight of the Crystal Empire, tell me something. Has he lost his touch, or have you just made him soft?"

"It's probably my fault," I snort. Not that it's a bad thing. "Now we have to get you out of here without Cerberus eating one of us. Is there anypony here who you would like to join us?"

"I would have said Lord Tirek, but he broke out of Tartarus a while ago and left me here, even though I've kept him company for ages. Otherwise the only company he would've had was a few cockatrices. He was in that cage over there." She points to an empty one not far away. "You're the first creatures I've told about his little escape plan. I'm a bit sore that he left me behind, but I'm sure he has his reasons."

"Where's he going?"

"Well, he eats magic to make his own magic stronger, so presumably he's gone to do more of that until he's strong enough to have a good old fight with the Princesses."

I give Sombra a sidelong glance. "Do you think he would help us or just give us a hard time if we found him?"

"I would leave him to get on with it, for now. He is still helping us, but he is unaware of it. How much he can help us depends on how much magic he absorbs in the next two months and whether he decides to go after the Crystal Empire or not. Besides, Chrysalis told us not to talk to him."

"Fair comment. Now, Cozy, can you fit through those bars?"

She wriggles out with ease. "Yuppers. Now I get to test my wings again. I can fly around in that cage, but I don't often." She spreads her tiny filly wings and takes off into the air, hovering above my head. "Now all we have to do is fly past Cerberus. Something tells me he won't fall for the whole boop-him-on-the-nose trick again, but at the moment he's still rolling around on the floor. That was hilarious to watch, by the way. Gee, if I knew he was such a softie, I would've been out of here centuries ago."

However, on our way out, Cerberus is even less pleased to see us than before, probably because I discovered his weakness. When I go to give him a friendly scratch behind the ears, he swipes with one of his huge paws, nearly as large as the dais at the Crystal Castle. Thankfully, I notice what he is about to do and move out of the way. By the time his paw reaches the spot where I was hovering, he misses me by several metres.

I lead him away from Sombra and Cozy, allowing them to run for the exit. The creatures in the various cages, which turn out to be mainly cockatrices, watch with amusement, talking to each other in various tongues. I fly above Cerberus' head, too high up for him to reach, and address the audience: "This is only a small raid, but we'll be back for you another day!" The creatures cheer and shout in support. Then I fly for the now open door and Cerberus charges towards us. We slam the door just in time and hear a nasty thud from the other side, followed by a howl of pain.

"That really was easy," Sombra grins. He teleports us back to the Crystal Castle, where we collapse with exhaustion on the dais in front of Chrysalis.

"Surprise," I groan.