Sombra's Bat

"Believe me, I'm not pleased to be telling complete strangers this story, but if it stops you from blowing up my village or using your dark magic on me, I don't have much of a choice," she sighs.

"When I was a filly, I had a friend. I think he meant more to me than I did to him, but we were still friends. The two of us were obsessed with magic, and he got a cutie mark in it long before I did. He was sent off to Celestia's school to follow his dreams, and like that, I was left behind. I tried to make friends after that, but nopony would. I was a blank flank for a long time, and got a lot of bullying from it. I became understandably angry. This is what cutie marks do to ponies. They tear apart friends, leave individuals to fend for themselves. I've attempted to trace him down for years, but I only received a letter once, saying that he didn't want me in his life. To me, the stupid things are a curse, and the only reasons I keep mine is so that I am able to free others from this pain, and remind myself why I do this. Ok, maybe I do enjoy having all that power over other ponies, but so do other ponies, namely Celestia." She looks away from us and says in a quieter voice, "It's not too late to free yourselves."

"Did Celestia not do anything to help you?" I ask.

"Nothing at all. It seems that even he must have disliked her, because he flunked out about two years before I was old enough to travel to Canterlot on my own and find him."

"Starlight, none of us like her either," Sombra consoles her. "In fact, we are only here because we're on a little mission to get payback for all of what she did. Our original plan was to cause a load of trouble here for her to clean up, but I think you can help us instead."

"Why should I?!" she snaps at him. "I mean, as far as I know, you are no better than Celestia! You're both cruel rulers of kingdoms who can't be challenged by anypony because you can just lock away those who speak out against you."

"Two things. One, the same could be said for you. Two, I convinced Sombra to put an end to that a long time ago," I say.

"What?! But he's evil!"

"I've made him a nicer pony and kept him on the straight and narrow. Yes, he used to be like that, but the one pony he won't hurt is me, and if I don't want him to do something, he stops. Our aim is to look at everything Celestia has done wrong and right those wrongs in our own country. For example, we don't protect our subjects from every bump and scrape, but we've got a team of guards that actually know what to do in an emergency."

She facehoofs. "I still don't trust you. Prove to me that I can."

"Well, Sombra and I have a motto to show that we can trust each other." I give him a sidelong glance.

"Moonlight made me agree that when we are together there are to be no secrets, no spies, no pain and no lies between us. These are the barriers that Celestia has put up, and we are slowly knocking them down."

"Well, it looks like everything the history books said about the Crystal Empire just got thrown out of the window. Fine, then. Tell me what you need me to do. I don't feel like I have much of a choice, but if it's going to help show Celestia that she's in the wrong, I think I can help."

I look out the window. "The ponies out there are gullible enough to buy into anything you say. Why not tell them about how Celestia wouldn't help you find your friend and how her lack of care for her sister led Princess Luna to become Nightmare Moon? Those are the real stories behind why you founded this village. Talking of Luna, she's a member of the anti-Celestia movement we've started. Trust her."

"I can barely trust any of you three, and now you're telling me to trust one of the alicorns? Seriously?"

"I spent a thousand years on the moon with her, and I don't doubt her one bit," I say.

She gasps. "I forgot. The Daughter of the Night. Are you really Luna's-"

"No. As far as I am aware, both of my parents were bat ponies who resided in Hollow Shades. Also, Starlight, your cutie mark reminds me of mine." I use magic to take off my cloak, and show her the four-pointed star and the crescent moon. "They say ponies have similar cutie marks because they are supposed to meet each other."

"Maybe, but you know I've never been fond of this mark. Should I tell them out there that I've kept it?"

"Not at the moment," Sombra advises her. "They would be understandably upset."

Cozy begins to come out of her shell. "Gee, somepony's got a Sunbutt-level of low intelligence! If you're breaking the law, you're not gonna tell everypony, cause then the Royal Guard find out. I reckon that's how they catch ninety nine percent of their criminals, 'cause they're handed everything they need to know on a gold platter."

Sombra and I laugh at her. She scowls indignantly.

"Anyway, it's getting late," says Starlight. "I need to get to bed. Let me show you to your rooms, and then I'll leave you be. I need to think about all of this before I decide what it is that I'm going to do once you're gone."

She leads us upstairs, then retreats to her own bedroom. There are two double beds in the guest room. Sombra suggests that the two of us share one of the beds and let Cozy have the other.

"Not a chance," I tell him with a smile and a kiss. "I might love you, and we might be engaged, but the key is in the word engaged and that means we are not married yet. Wait until after this whole thing with Sunbutt is finished."

"I wasn't suggesting anything of the sort. Either way, I thought you would be the first to spout off something about this being the modern era and some rules from a thousand years ago being stupid and pointless."

"I thought you'd agree with me."

"Well, if you do not want to have me next to you, I won't force you to do anything. However, you will either have to share with Cozy or kip on the ceiling or whatever bats do. Cozy gets the other bed though. Her snoring is terrible enough as it is. I would rather hear it from a distance."

"Gee, you're being weird, Sombra. Get to sleep. Moonlight, I'll put my head at one end of the bed and you can put your head at the other end. That sound any good?"

"Eh, yes. Don't blame me if I'm grumpy in the morning, though, I will quite literally be getting out of bed the wrong way."

I fall asleep easily, but am not prepared for the horrors that await me once my mind is allowed to freely wander. Conflict all around. Nightmare Moon versus Celestia, the battle of sorts that broke out after I destroyed the Crystal Heart, me fighting Wishbone, the argument Sombra and I had ages ago, the battle of the outposts. I want Sombra to be here, and then worry that I might have upset him earlier. I try to change the dream, but nothing happens. Then I find myself in a room where everything is white or light grey: the walls, the ceiling, the door, the table and chairs in front of me. Resting on the tabletop are a paintbrush and a palette with several hues of acrylic paint on it. They are the only colours in the room. Everything else is a blank canvas ready and waiting to be painted.

The door opens, and Starlight walks into the dream. I can tell immediately that she is not a figment of my imagination. I begin to panic. As well as having an extensive knowledge of the way that cutie marks work, she is a Dreamwalker. She can find out anything about me in an instant. She can do anything to me in a dream.

"You think I'm here to hurt you, don't you?" she asks with concern. "I'm not going to. I won't force you to stay and get rid of your cutie mark. I have never done that to anypony. I could sense your nightmare, and I thought you might need a hoof. You've had quite a colourful life, Moonlight."

"Please, go. The nightmares might be gone, but I don't like having Dreamwalkers around."

"Understandable. See you in the morning." She walks towards the door again.

"Wait, Starlight." There's something about her that I can't put my hoof on.

She pauses.

"Why aren't you going to do anything? You have all the power to do anything you like in a dream."

"If you aren't going to hurt me, there's no point in me hurting you. Plus, if I do anything to you, King Sombra's not going to go easy on me. I do everything I do for a good reason, because it seems like the right thing to do from my perspective. There's those out there who would call me evil, and there's ponies who think you and King Sombra are evil. Really, we're just trying to do everything that we think is right. I've instilled my ethos into my village, but I have no right to force my rules upon you. I was considering it, but it's not the right thing to do."

"At first, I thought you were like Celestia, but actually, you're the polar opposite to that monster. She seems to care about some of her subjects more than others, but you really are trying to stop that. I appreciate that, even if I don't see eye to eye with your methods. It shouldn't matter if you're a unicorn, earth pony or pegasus, yes, we should all be on a level playing field, but I think taking cutie marks is a step too far."

"You sound very determined to go against the grain."

"Look at me. I'm the ultimate misfit. I'm a bat pony, I have a ridiculous name like Moonlight Shade - thanks Mum and Dad! - and I always seem to end up befriending Equestria's worst villains and criminals. I got kicked out of my old home in the Everfree Forest before Sombra and I decided we were meant to be together. I find the darkness in the light and the light in the darkness. I make teal, light purple and grey look like they're supposed to go together. Apparently, when I started having lessons, I had a surprising knack for using dark magic even though I'd never used it before. I'm one of a kind."

She smiles. "I've just realised how silly my worldview is. It's not individuality or cutie marks or talents that I hate. It's having my friend stolen from me, and Celestia has a share in the blame because my friend Sunburst was sent to her magic school and he flunked out for whatever reason. I have no idea what happened to him, and I've been put off of socialising and making friends ever since."

"If you're looking for a friend, I've got your back." I change one of the walls of the room to display a painting of Sombra, Cozy, Chrysalis, Starlight, Luna and I standing over a defeated Celestia. "I want to make this happen. I've disliked Celestia ever since I joined the Lunar Guard over a thousand years ago, even before I met Nightmare Moon. There's no changing my mind now."

"I will be happy to help you, Moonlight. Just... Tell King Sombra that he's not allowed to use his mind control on my ponies."

"Don't worry, I gave him a hard time last time he did that. He's realised that happy me equals happy life."

We laugh. Sombra and I have a new ally, a new friend, and a new stance in our battle to get Celestia off the throne once and for all and live our lives the way we want to. Whilst I disagree with the idea, Starlight has chosen to found a village in which ponies live without cutie marks and she wants to run it without Celestia disrupting her way of life. Hopefully, if we work together, we can make sure that never happens.