Chapter 7 - Soooo you might be screwed

When I opened my eyes the first thing to greet me was the ground. I felt small tingles on my stomach.

"What the-" I lifted myself from the ground to see- grass? It was light green with strips pointing out being made of different colors, akin to confetti.

I moved my hoof through it, feeling the small tickle it gave. Thin, very thin, not like grass blades, Odd.

"I'm glad to see you are finally awake, well more like awake in your dream- or would that be lucid dreaming?" My head swerved to see Discord floating In place a few inches above the ground. He had a red robe with a black outline that stretched from his neck with fur to the bottom. In a claw was a wooden smoke pipe that curved from his lips to swirls creating big loops until an inch away from his face. On his nose was holding a small set of glasses but instead of being normal reading glasses, one was much bigger than the other with swirls in its lens.

His dragon leg was on top and over the goat leg, he held the pipe out while having his lion paw caressing the short white beard. He looked out with a million-yard stare out in space.

Everything about this felt weird, the confetti-like ground, the space I looked out to find the space that encompassed us was just changing vibrating colors. "Uh-"

"Well, it doesn't matter." He threw the pipe away while ripping the robe off him with both tasks using only one hand. "Hello, again King Sombra." He grinned ear to ear.

Wait what? "King Sombra? Oh!" I smiled nervously, "That's me, yup! King Sombra!" With a nod and a noise of confirmation, I looked at him with a smile.

Discord could only look at me with disappointment written all over his face. "Really? You're going to try to pass as a ruthless king with that kind of performance? Honestly, maybe we should have run through rehearsals."

Raising his talons I shut my eyes in preparation for the bright flash. As I waited no sound or crack of light came to wash over my eyelids.

Slowly cracking open an eye, I saw his face in discontent.

"Discord are you-"

He sighed, lowering his talons. "As much as I'd like to play around, I'm afraid I'll have to be- uck"

He stuck out his tongue, the ground beginning to shake as he, alone, stood still.

I lost balance and fell backward, as I pulled myself back up the tremor stopped.

"-Serious."

"What about-"

Discord raised a paw, I obliged with a skeptical eye.

"So would you like the bad news or the worse news?"

My eyes bugged out. "Wait what?!"

He rolled his eyes, "I said do you want the bad news or the worse news."

"Discord you can't just-" as I looked up at him, his eyes glowed with his red slit irises.

I sunken back with my head a little lower."Ah gotcha," my voice cracked and with a cough, I spoke again. "Ahem, what I meant was, bad news please."

He waved his talons in the air as if they had no weight or care for the subject.

"So we may or may not have summoned a demon from another realm." He said nonchalantly, examining his claws.

"THAT'S THE BAD NEWS?"

"Well, the worse news is you now have the attention of the royal guard, the two demigods, and a batch of foals that sent away said demon."

WHAT THE FUCK?
"HOW?!"

"Weeeeell, if you want I could give you some of the worst news, well to this universe anyway."

"There's more?!"

He snapped his talons and with a puff of magic a cage appeared. Showed into the darkest corners were eyes laid open, red irises and a sharp maw that had opened at the acknowledgment of my prying eyes.

My brain shutting off I looked to Discord in a state of shock.

"Discord."

"Shadey."

My eyes widened at that, "How did you-"

"I watch everything and every creature that holds my interests or is integral to my plans."

"Ah, okay so can you explain where the hell does-" I pointed straight at the cage. "THE real Sombra fit in this?! I thought we switched places!"

Discord gave a big sigh, muttering away. I could only hear 'humans' and 'big babies' but I kept my tongue as I mulled over the consequences.

"I never said anything, I will say this wasn't what I had expected." Stroking his beard with a lion paw, he looked puzzled. "Something is keeping him tethered to your body, refragmenting his body was one thing, but it being tethered to his soul is another."

He smirked and elbowed the cage, rattling and causing a hiss, "I must say, I am quite impressed." looking back at me he gave a smug look on his face. "Guess I know what I felt was attached to your soul, or now specifically, your body."

Closing my eyes I rubbed the sides of my head with my hooves, trying to understand what was going on.

"Okay so explain again, why is HE here? Can't you just banish him or something?"

"One, rude, and second I can't."

I opened my eyes to give him a sly eye, "can't? Or won't?"

His expression grew serious, slowly coming closer to me, I stepped back only to be made aware of an invisible wall behind me. His face drew close as I could see his face in close, full detail.

"What I can and will not do is not up to you to know, human." He snarled, burning his eyes into my soul as he slowly drew back. I gulped.

"And the process would be a waste on a being such as me, it would be like delicately using a scalpel to cut you apart from the body. Soul magic is very precise and dangerous, one wrong move and I could be removing a piece of your will, not to mention the amount of difference between yours and his. Soul magic like this taints the body and soul."

He knocked at the cage earning himself another snarl from the previous king. "His knowledge on soul magic is quite extensive if his attachment to his body being remade is anything to go off of. Possibly done to make coming back to life that much easier for him, would explain why you gained a bit of his arsenal so quickly."

"So uh, he has a preset for just coming back?"

"Precisely, although I know what you're thinking; no he is not a threat. I spoke to him while your unconscious mind was reeling into a dream-like state, I could tell he was weak." Discord clasped his two palms, "So I don't have to do anything!"

"But what if he escapes? I mean how are you even holding him hostage? Can't he use soul magic to just get him out? What if-" Discord looked at me with a bored expression.

I sighed. "I'm assuming you've thought of everything?"

"Quite, his containment is in balance with your soul, so him escaping is just dependent on you dying. His studies in soul magic can't work in this scenario so that's quite out the window."

Unsettled I still probed. "C-could you at least explain it to me? I don't wanna keep thinking about how Sombra could rip me apart in my sleep."

"Ugh," He rubbed his forehead but relented.

"Let me explain it like this; soul magic is one of the many, many subjects that are within black magic. Although black magic isn't evil, yes Celestia has lied to the masses. Black magic is merely unrestricted magic in the sense that there are no proper safety restraints to it. So if you were to use a teleportation spell without a spatial echo spell beforehand It would be considered black magic, and also extremely painful death."

"So how does that connect with yknow, soul magic?"

"Soul magic is essentially messing with the tethers that keep you into your body, like strings. Connections to certain abilities and emotions that keep your soul from being swayed easily, imagine crossing a red wire with a blue wire. Those connections were meant to hold a certain voltage or to keep the electricity going towards one direction, so if I were to say, mess with the capacity of my emotions on my physical body so it left an opening to my soul well-"

"Is that why I can use magic when I'm angry?"

"Yes actually, I've dabbled quite a bit in messing emotions onto the body of mortals, it's quite easy actually-"

"So how does that stop Sombra?"

"Oh yes, that. Well, you can't tap into the restraints that your body holds. Imagine using that horn of yours, you've been feeling aches in its presence right?"

"Right?"

"Well in certain die or try situations, that restraint to cool your horn is a limit that could be bypassed when certain chemicals and reactions lead to your body making that choice. Now as a soul you are just a driver's seat to the body unless you were more skillful in such arts. But I've only met one that as such and she lives in a big castle with her emo sister."

"Point is that you'd have to be practically an expert in a field and that is by no means a small accomplishment. To have control over a body would require an energy source for you to use, that's not even mentioning a conduit to go through. Adding that list to also having some kind of enabler to allow some kind of contact to the soul to allow access is just a tedious task."

"So what you're saying is he needs to devote his entire life to the study which we know is basically what he's been doing?"

"Pft, Shadey. I don't think you understand the gravity of what you're trying to sarcastically say. A lifetime alone would not be enough, countless experiments, soul testing, and countless untested and unethical spells would've killed him by now. He may not be a simple villain but he's by no means near a proper necromancer either."

The cage rattled with a loud bang as Sombra snarled and opened his mouth, fangs accompanied the rows of teeth. "You will pay for this Discord!"

"Yes, yes, and you'll rule Equestria too, blah blah blah." Snapping his talons a blanket encompassed the cage in an instant. The cage shook and wobbled but no sound came.

"Soundproof sheet comes quite handy in situations such as this." His smile faltered.

"I think this as good as time as any to speak to you about the real crux of the matter."

"This wasn't all?"

His face morphed into disappointment. "Sadly no, while Frost Butt and Moon Mare are unaware of your existence, they might try to look for the ripples you left when coming to the Crystal Empire."

"I left?"

"Yes, yes, I know you want to apologize but we have no time for that."

I opened my mouth but he just kept going.

"Point is they'll probably be looking into radiation waves you left passing by their homely turf. Now I did disguise them as best as I could and highly doubt they could see a good magical matrix made of the first magical essence, I wouldn't put it past them."

"I- YOU'RE SAYING THEY COULD FIND ME?!"

"Well it's highly improbable but, there is a very slight chance."

"I barely just got here!"

"And you should stay, while they could look for it, staying in one place helps mask the radiation. Like if you had a string attached to you, if you don't travel far then you aren't leaving a trail now are you?"

I deadpanned. "That sounds like a horrible idea."

"It is an idea though!"

"But what about my whole redemption arc? The whole redeeming a villain plan! I can't exactly spread my goodwill from one town."

"I didn't say you would have to stay here forever, just simply stay by for a bit, lay low."

I sighed, looking around I found a purple hazy looking ethereal background.

"So where even are we?"

"Oh, we're in your subconscious mind, a kind of in-between."

"Wait shouldn't I be dreaming?"

"Yes and no, I had to stop mid-way to not risk us getting found by Luna. Dream realm is not my expertise."

Seeing golden embers I looked below to see my hooves starting to turn to gold dust. "What the fuck? Discord?"

He looked dumbfounded. "Must be you waking up, or dying in your sleep." He shrugged.

"What?! WAIT WAIT WAI-" The golden embers began to envelop me and all I could see was a gold bright flash before everything went dark.