The Other Side Of History

His heart aches.

He failed.

He...he FAILED!

'How did my spell fail? It should NEVER have faded!'

...it's no use deliberating over questions not worth taking the time to answer right now. He must protect his subjects. They must be disoriented after so long shut away from the outside world. He never planned for this. He never planned for having to adjust to a world they had been frozen out of. That he chose to freeze them out of.

Guilt pulls at his shadowy heart once more.

'Did...did I...did I make the right choice...?'

With a toss of his mane, the determined King Sombra transforms into shadow and rushes into the Crystal Empire, smiling at first when he hears screams.

'Even with the time amnesia, they must remember who I-'

"I-It's- it's him!"

The sheer terror and disgust in the stallion's voice drives a dagger into the center of his heart and twists. Glowing red eyes swivel to find the source, and the stallion in question looks to be in danger of urinating himself from fear, knees knocking together and sweat beading at his temples.

"...Daffodil Druid?"

He hits the shimmering floor with a muffled thump, eyes rolling back in their sockets. A scowling pink alicorn and a bulky white unicorn run over, panic clear on their faces. The alicorn gets to work checking Daffodil's vital signs and ensuring that he won't choke on his own spit as the unicorn stomps over to King Sombra, a scowl on his face.

"What did you do to him you MONSTER?!" He nearly screams the question, an accusatory hoof thrust out towards Sombra as his horn glows pink, presumably preparing a spell in case the king decides to attack.

Confusion twists his face, a hint of anger beginning to simmer within his breast.

"I said his name, unicorn. If we're asking questions, what are you doing in my empire?" And now it's his turn to point a hoof, the limb materializing from the shadows he's composed of, quickly followed by the rest of his body. He towers over the blue-maned unicorn, and as the alicorn stands upright - having noticed the interaction growing heated - he silently notes that he's only a few inches taller than her, too. She must be a newly-transformed princess.

He bows halfway, nodding slightly, in the direction of the alicorn and the alicorn alone.

"Hello, Princess...?"

The alicorn's befuddlement at his behavior couldn't be any more obvious, and she stares, open-mouthed, at him before returning the bow with her own awkwardly bow-legged one.

"I- uh- P-Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. But, please, call me Princess Cadance." Once risen from her bow, she shoots a look towards Shining Armor that portrays her current "what do we do now?!" state of mind.

"King Sombra, though I'm sure you've heard of me. Judging by your reactions, you weren't expecting a disgusting monster like me to act like a pony, were you?" He'd be lying if he said he didn't take just the smallest bit of amusement from seeing their cheeks go pink and the way they awkwardly squirm at the accusations. Hmph. Good. See how they like being insulted out of hoof.

It is at this time that Princess Cadance unfolds the wing closest to the unicorn and hits him in the back of the head hard enough that little golden stars dance around his head for a good twenty seconds. Once he comes out of his daze, he only glares at her for a second before returning his gaze to King Sombra and frowning apologetically. He offers his own bow, nearly touching his nose to the ground, then rises once more, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof.

"I-I'm Prince Shining Armor. I'm...I'm sorry for, uh...judging a book by its cover." That earns him another wing thump. "Alright, I get it! Sheesh." He clears his throat awkwardly. "So, uh...friends?"

He cocks his head to one side, a hint of suspicion entering his gaze, but he nods, slowly. He can forgive a bad first impression, and these ponies seem nice enough. Prince Shining Armor starts to close the distance between them with the intent to shake the other's hoof, not noticing an uneven crystal on the path in his trajectory, and...

King Sombra acts upon pure reflex. With a wooshing sound, he rushes forwards to catch his new friend(?), arms wrapped around his barrel underneath his armpits and muzzle buried within the crook of his neck. It would be sweet, or perhaps embarrassing, if it weren't for the fact that he'd underestimated his own strength.

"C-Can't...breathe...K-King...Sombra...loosen...grip...please..."

He's just about to respect the wheezing stallion's wishes and apologize when a blast of purple magic shocks his senses and knocks him clear off of Shining Armor.

'Huh...weird...shouldn't...Crystal...Heart...stop...snowing...?'

His bleary eyes struggle to focus upon the gorgeous snowy skies before the rapidly-encroaching darkness overwhelms his vision.

The first thing he notices upon waking is that his head hurts. No, scratch that, his brain hurts. It's like that one time he fiddled a little too much with the toast stuck in the toaster and he'd received a powerful magical shock from the socket powering the device, but magnified by one thousand. Maybe one million.

The second thing he notices is that his horn hurts. For some reason that makes sense in his still-groggy mind, attempting to cast a light spell in the dark area - 'Room?' - that he's in seems like a good idea. He gets another wave of agony for his efforts, and the realization that there's a tight presence at the base of his bladed horn. The first cold fingers of dread run down his spine. It has been years since he last had one put on him - even now, a mirthless smile curls his lips as he's reminded of his childhood - but he remembers the feeling well.

He's been fitted with a magic suppression ring, and one forged by a powerful mage at that. He didn't know it was possible to suppress both his unicorn magic and his shadow magic.

The third thing he realizes, in the minutes that it takes for his slitted pupils to adjust to the darkness, is that he is in a prison cell. A brief flash of panic runs through him before he spots the locks on the bars. Stamped with the Crystal Empire's signature trio of crystals, he knows that he is, at the very least, still in his empire. A small sigh of relief leaves him.

He begins to run his hooves over his body to assess any possible damage, speaking out loud to better ground himself.

"Ahem. Damage assessment. Horn: Unchipped and whole. Magical suppression ring is locked and presumably magically attuned to whomever fitted me with it. Brute force is likely impossible and a highly inadvisable course of action to take for removal. Coat and skin: Free of blood, injuries, and piercings. Light level is insufficient to view for new tattoos, but lack of scabs leads me to assume that there are none, unless they have been magically healed. Hooves: Uncracked, still shoed, regalia has been removed. Muzzle: Teeth are all remaining, fangs are not filed down or removed, all five senses seem to be functioning adequately. All five limbs and extremities seem to be functioning adequately."

Once finished, he sits back down, releasing a soft sigh. He feels...betrayed. By his Crystal Ponies, by those two new ponies, by- by everything.

'Is this the price for selling myself to a demon?'

Muffled arguments break him out of his ruminations. The voices are too incoherent for him to distinguish from one another at first, but as they grow nearer, he can make out two separate mares and one stallion. He recognizes two parties; Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance sound upset, but the other, unknown mare sounds particularly furious.

The quiet shimmering of magic and that same purple arcane hue is all the warning he gets before the dungeon door is abruptly slammed open, so hard that the handle simply snaps off. The unknown purple mare doesn't notice or care. He suspects it's the latter. His poker face remains unchanged.

Shining Armor and Cadance hurriedly follow after her, but they're unable to stop the new alicorn before she's at Sombra's cell and screaming in his face in a fiery rage, "WHAT did you do to my brother and sister-in-law?!"

Without bothering to acknowledge the verbal assault, he turns his head to face the two red-faced ponies beside her, and calmly asks, "Do nonsensical accusations run in your family, Prince Shining Armor?"

Another wing thump, followed by Shining Armor smashing a hoof into his own face so hard that the thunk of keratin against bone bounces off of the cold stone walls.

Sombra nods in respect for a well-executed facehoof. One must suffer for their art. Cadance fusses over her husband as he now winces and gently grasps at the black eye starting to form as a result of his actions.

This doesn't please the purple alicorn in the slightest. She raps a hoof against the bars, hard, then speaks again in a barely-restrained tone simmering with anger.

"Ahem. King Sombra, was it?"

He finally decides to give the new alicorn his attention, red eyes locking onto narrowed violet ones. To her credit, she only gasps slightly before resuming her glare.

"Yes, Princess...?" He pauses before turning the rest of his body to face her. "You'll forgive me if I don't bow. The magical concussion you gave me was quite powerful, and I'd rather not risk another fainting spell in the middle of our conversation." He can't help himself; one corner of his mouth curls upwards into a snarky little grin, one pearly white fang poking out.

A visible shudder runs down her back, and she backs up a few steps before realizing she even did it. Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, she steps back up to the bars, forcing a smile that looks so pained that Sombra is briefly reminded of Slithar. He must resist grinning wider, and succeeds. Mostly.

"Twilight. Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. But I'm known to most as Princess Twilight."

"Excellent. Now that we've properly greeted each other, you may resume your screaming session. Let me make this clear, though, Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. I do not listen to those who disrespect me. I listen to those who converse with me. It is my right as a king to be treated as an equal, especially when I am amongst fellow royalty."

With every passing second of his speech, Twilight had grown more and more red in the face, shaking with fury, until the last word causes her to snap.

"'FELLOW ROYALTY'?! You're lucky Princess Celestia's too busy to be dealing with scum like you! You- y-you-" Suddenly she finds herself at a loss for words, shocked at just how far this stallion has fallen from the unicorn he once was. She thought she might be prepared, especially after Celestia told her what Sombra had done - she came into these dungeons knowing full well that she'd be facing a pony mad enough to lock away his entire kingdom - but the...the utter lack of remorse, it's like he believes he's done nothing wrong!

She shakes her head, turning away from the cell.

"I'll find a way to undo your dark magic from my brother and sister-in-law, you freak. And then...I'm going to ask Celestia if we have a punishment worse than the Stone Sleep Spell. And once we find a spell ten times worse than that...that's what we'll cast on you." She snorts out a frustrated huff of air before grasping Cadance and Shining Armors' heads and dragging them out of the dungeons.

If she had bothered to look back, she would have seen the proud King Sombra with his head hung low, tears pattering down onto the cold stone floor, body shaking with silent sobs as he pondered whether it was worth loving his Crystal Ponies if they and all of Equestria hated him for what he'd done for them.