I jolt awake, and take in my surroundings. The soft velvet sofa. The black crystal walls. Sombra's thick grey fur. His face looking down at me with a neutral expression. I don't even remember how I got here.

"What happened?" I lift a hoof to my forehead.

"You were worrying about the future. Not something that I would lose sleep over if I were you, but we all have our worries. I helped you get a decent night's rest. I didn't want to wake you up, so I stayed here."

"What was that spell?" I ask as I sit up next to him.

Silence.

"Sombra, my love, what was it?"

"You're not going to like the answer," he grimaces.

My stomach lurches. Was that the mind control spell? "I have a hunch."

"Spells can be adapted for different purposes. It was an altered version of the mind control spell. The original uses fear to shock a creature, and then they relax which allows the pony casting the spell to take over. However, there are variants, some much worse than others. I changed the spell so that it skips the first part. This version doesn't use fear at all. It isn't strong enough to properly control another being with, but alleviates pain and brings comfort so that the individual the spell is being used on is relaxed. When in this state, ponies do not question you if you tell them to do something, and usually they sleep off the effects."

"So you took a really horrible spell and made it into something to help ponies."

He gives a grim laugh. "Unfortunately, my intentions at the time were not as noble. I was still trying to help, but I wasn't anywhere near as kind as I am today. I wanted a less extreme form of the mind control spell for foals, to make sure that they were not as fearful of me as the adults were but still submissive and willing to follow my orders. I didn't want to wear them into the ground so hard that they wouldn't get back up again."

"Still, you've repurposed it to help others. I can forgive you because it certainly helped me last night."

"I am glad to hear it did. How do you feel now?"

"I feel like I wasted my time. What will be will be. What I hope will happen is we get to ridicule Sunbutt until the end of time."

"Me too. By the way, if you were in a position to do so, would you send her to the moon or the sun?"

I stop and think for a moment. Hard one, but I don't really want to be cruel. "I don't like the idea of her spending the rest of her immortal life being turned into a phoenix, so probably the moon, but it depends on whether she does anything worse than what she's already done."

"I doubt she is about to stop making life difficult for us, but the thing is, she's making it difficult in many ways. As well as the obvious ones - declaring war on us and all that - if we are ever in a position where we rule Equestria, she has not done a good job of caring for her subjects."

"Oh?" I need to hear this.

"First, there is the Royal Guard. We already know somepony needs to look at that as soon as possible. As well as the guards being sloppy, though, I have a feeling very few of her subjects know how they would survive if the alicorns or Element Bearers were unable to protect them from the issues life throws at us. Equestria is where it is now because it has not changed leaders for such a long time. If somepony else were to take the throne, the land would crumble. This is something I thought about quite a lot before Luna revealed she was on our side; how to rule Equestria without it falling completely to its knees and being vulnerable to other attacks. Thankfully, if our plan succeeds, Luna can gradually introduce measures, and the system is less likely to collapse."

"You've spent a lot of time thinking about this."

"It comes with being a leader. You have to consider how each law affects the ponies, and whether the benefits outweigh the downfalls. That is why you shouldn't make decisions on the spot, including going on a flight around the Crystal Empire without telling me. Just because magic can be used to bring us back if something kills us, it doesn't mean we can't still die, and catching pneumonia is horrible."

"Hey, I thought you said something about Umbrum being immortal, and that the only thing able to kill us was love and light."

"Love and light are the only things able to wipe us out completely, to the point where even dark magic can't bring us back." He shakes his head and scowls.

"Point taken. No need to scowl at me, Sombra."

"I'm not scowling at you, silly. I just keep thinking about why Celestia is fighting this way. She keeps sending everypony in waves, rather than just gathering them all and storming in. Surely she can see that we are getting back up each time?"

"She might think we're going to get arrogant."

"That we probably will. However, at some point she is going to try and shock us. It is like playing chess with Cozy. She starts off all nice and innocent, but then she will get all of her pieces into position and put you in checkmate. Usually, you can't even see it coming. You might be right about that filly using hypnosis. She has spent a lot of time in the library as of late, reading books about Grogar and dark magic. It makes me wonder what she's up to, but I rarely have the chance to keep an eye on her, what with Sunbutt threatening us."

"Who knows, at some point Celestia might even have the Element Bearers all storm in here with their trinkets and threaten to use the rainbow laser."

"That is very likely to happen. But do you know what I would do?"

"Tell me."

"I would tell them the truth: we already know that friendship is magic. Hopefully, the two of us could make the Elements doubt themselves and Celestia."

"Make Twilight Sparkle doubt her mentor? I wish. She's never going to believe you."

"She might believe us. You shocked the world when you chose me over them, because they thought you were one of them. They thought you were a perfect little pony."

"Wrong. Some of them knew I wasn't. The amount of times I have been asked if Luna and I are related, if I still think about Nightmare Moon. Celestia probably knew. When I held that Crystal Heart in my hooves and I saved the baby dragon, most ponies thought that I was going to say goodbye to my past. Because the dragon was safe, they thought they were too. Celestia made it so difficult, though, that I took the choice my own heart wanted to make." I look directly into those huge red eyes, and for a moment, I think he might take the sentimentality seriously.

"Now that is just embarrassing," he says.

"Sweet Celestia, you ruined it again! Why?! You can say stuff like that to me, and I'm fine with it, but the moment I say something nice to you, you just can't stop yourself, can you?!"

"No. Fine, Elements of Harmony, I know friendship is magic and all that, but those sort of heartfelt speeches are for special occasions, and I decide when those occasions are."

I ruffle his mane.

"Stop that."

"You have a spell on your mane which makes it move on its own, and it looks messy most of the time anyway."

"Messy? I make it look regal, and have it exactly how I want it, but you just have to-"

"Now you know how I feel."

"Fair point."

We sit there in silence for a moment. I think about Celestia, and why she is acting so strangely. Fear, anger and sadness turn ponies into something else. This is probably why she won't just walk in and evict me and Sombra. She hates Sombra and she is afraid of me. If I am the mare in this prophecy and I'm supposed to restore the balance between light and dark or something like that, the darkness is probably a bit fed up with her. She banished myself and Luna to the moon; turned Discord to stone; sent Chryssie and the bugs flying across the horizon; wanted her subjects to kill Sombra; oh, and she kept Cozy Glow in Tartarus for a thousand years.

"Ready for breakfast?" he finally asks.

"I'm ready to confront the world, discuss what to do about the Solar Guards with Chryssie, send junk mail to Sunbutt and cause a whole load of trouble."

"You like being awkward, don't you?"

"I like being myself. The pony who made that prediction about the future of Equestria can go to Tartarus, because I'm going to do what I'm going to do. If that means I eventually send Sunbutt on a little trip to space, then that's fine, but usually things don't work out how anypony expects. For all we know, Twilight Sparkle might end up being the mare in the prophecy."

"You sound tired and hungry."

"Actually, the more I think about it..." I trail off. "I don't know enough about her, but she certainly sees things differently to other ponies, and she could probably write a decent speech calling all of Equestria to fight."

"Considering the fact that she is not on our side, I would rather not think about it. Breakfast. Now. Before I decide I don't want to eat."

We teleport to the dining room and take our seats. Hope and Wishbone are already there eating breakfast. Cozy Glow, however, is nowhere to be seen, which is worrying.

"What happened to the demon filly?" I ask them, pouring some cereal into a bowl.

Wishbone wrinkles her snout in disgust, and I notice her mane is wet. "I opened the bedroom door and nearly drowned in a bucket of water, that's what. I yelled at her and she disappeared. I haven't seen her since."

The door opens, and speak of the devil, she scurries in, avoiding Wishbone in particular. She takes a seat at the table next to me, and I notice the tearful expression on her face. It makes me want to cry too. Either she's really upset or a brilliant actor.

"You ok, Cozy?"

She shakes her head.

"What's wrong?"

She points at Wishbone with one hoof.

"You know, you can't go throwing buckets of water at ponies."

"Changelings?"

"You can't throw buckets of water at anycreature. Got it?"

"Yes, Moonlight." She seems really down.

"Wish, what did you say?"

"I can't remember exactly, but I told her I was disappointed."

I shake my head. "Cozy might be completely mad, but she's had it rough. Probably you reminded her of something she wanted to forget." I turn to the cowering filly, and stretch out a wing to wrap around her. "Here, it's fine. Wish was just annoyed. It's not often that somepony pulls a prank on her successfully."

"Oh?"

I use magic to grab a slice of toast and cover it in jam for Cozy. "I tried a few times, but only one thing worked. She'll tell you about the time I pretended Nightmare Moon had returned."

Some ponies who live in places like the Everfree Village and Hollow Shades are known as feral ponies. They are wild, dangerous and will not listen to anything anypony else has to say, save their family. Wish apparently used to be feral, and I can tell from the glare she gives me. I believe it translates to Say that one more time, and I'll rip you to pieces.

"Gee, she's not going to fess up, is she? Guess I should be proud of myself for managing to get at her so easily," Cozy smiles.

"She's probably disappointed, but you've made my morning for certain. Cleared the air a bit before we talk about the rubbish that is Celestia."

"Do we have to talk about her?"

"Yes, because the fields between here and Equestria were turned into a battlefield two days ago, and the Solar Guards may have retreated for now, but they haven't gone far. We need to sort out something. If only Starlight could help out."

Wishbone seems lost in thought for a few moments. "Maybe she could. Of course, her village is the only one where ponies definitely support you, but there are bound to be others."

I look at Sombra and raise an eyebrow.

"Let me get this straight," he says after downing a mouthful of coffee. "You think the best way to resolve this situation is to go on a pointless expedition to try and whip up more support and risk your life on multiple occasions in the process? I'm not sure as I agree because if my beautiful bat gets hurt in any way I will be absolutely distraught."

Wishbone clears her throat. "Bat. Pony. We are not bats."

Cozy giggles, "No, just pegasi whose genes have been slightly altered by dark magic because of somepony who we technically owe our lives to, the necromancer Grogar. He created dark magic, and he used it to spread terror wherever he could. He's the reason why you're a bat pony and not a regular pony. Those he recruited - willing or under the influence of mind control, he didn't really care - were transformed through magic into bat ponies or Umbrum. At the time the three pony tribes weren't united, but the changed ponies were banished and they moved to places like the Everfree and Hollow Shades. So you and Moonlight are both descended from convicts who worshipped Grogar and were crazy enough to earn the nickname 'bats' even if their appearance didn't already remind other ponies of the creepy flying monsters."

"Know-it-all," I laugh.

"My Celestia," Wish mutters. "I didn't know that."

Sombra answers, "You wouldn't. Information like that is not in most Equestrian history books because Celestia cannot bear to be reminded that she could have prevented all of this from happening. Had she stopped Grogar before he used his dark magic on those ponies, we would not be here today and she would not have told Sparkle to try to assassinate me."

"Why does she hate you so much? I mean, it can't just be because you're ruling this place."

"Luna knows. She helped me the first time I rose to power. She might not have been all that pleased at first, but-"

This sets off a hundred alarm bells in my head. He hurt Luna. I snap at him, "What did you do to her?!"

He holds up a hoof to silence me. "Calm down, I didn't hurt her, nor did I use dark magic on her. She and I made a little spell. That is all."

"I'll ask her myself later."

"And she will confirm what I just said. In times like these, I would not lie to you, Moonlight." He looks at Cozy, Wishbone and Hope in turn. "I wouldn't lie to any of you in times like these. Now hurry up and finish your breakfast, because we have a kingdom to protect."

Sighing, I continue to eat, noticing how nearly everypony is on a knife-edge. Wishbone keeps exchanging annoyed looks with Cozy; Cozy refuses to speak to any of us; Sombra won't look at me, and I don't dare read his mind because I don't want to know if he hurt Luna; and I'm just as wary of everypony. Naturally, Hope is the only one who seems happy, but then again, she could be thinking about anything.

Dear Luna, why must there be so much to worry about?

Author's Note

Bonus: Where I got some of my inspiration from

I've borrowed some of MlpHero's headcanon on feral ponies. Often they speak in very basic language, ie "Me Angel" and "Apples tasty," and they live in places like the Everfree Forest and Hollow Shades. They're pretty much cut off from the rest of the pony world, but in this story, the ponies who live in the Everfree speak Proper Ponish and their village is somewhat connected with Canterlot and Ponyville.

The stuff about Grogar is based on what I remember from Season 9 and my own theories surrounding his "epoch of darkness." From what Discord-disguised-as-Grogar said, it sounded like he was around long before the three pony tribes were united, but my guess is that he stayed alive after his initial defeat with the help of dark magic, and tried again about three hundred years into the reign of the Royal Sisters, only to fall once again because friendship. I made up all the parts about him creating dark magic, bat ponies and Umbrum. He seems like the kind of monster who'd do that.

I need to put an official timeline of this AU's events before the actual story starts in the Author's Notes at some point.

~ Angel