A gray pony could be seen wandering a frozen desert, snow and sand for as far as the eye could see.
"Lost, I am lost," He whispered to himself, his body hidden under ratty grey robes as the harsh sun cooked him.
A purple unicorn with blue hair sat in a cave next to the dark Unicorn, her body was reflective like crystals as the green light from the Stranger's horn illuminated the cave.
"Where you a Unicorn?" She asked.
The Stranger, his face hidden under a black cloak, shook his head, "No no, But I was once a Magician, long ago, long long ago..."
The Stranger, now much younger, stood over a balcony overlooking a city of crystals, to his side stood a tall white Unicorn, her size towering over others of her species, her body reflective like the crystals that make up the city she was standing over.
"At last, we will reveal ourselves to the Alicorns," The stranger said as he turned to look at his mistress and teacher, "At last we will have our revenge,"
"You have been well trained, my young student, They will be no match for you," The Crystal Unicorn said, a smirk of satisfaction on her lips as she looked at all the tiny ponies in the city.
Moving about like ants.
In the cave, The purple crystal Unicorn took a step away from the stranger, her voice shaking slightly as she truly looked at him for the first time.
"So you're an Umbrum?"
The Stranger, now without his hood, stood in the ruins of a flaming city, a heart-shaped crystal laying at his feet, his horn glowed green as he tried to lift the crystal, but his magic would slip away, and he couldn't take hold.
"I was apprenticed to the most powerful Unicorn in the Crystal Empire once," He said, his eyes not leaving the heart-shaped crystal, "I was destined to become," His thought moved to the spire of crystal in the distance, and to the throne room at its base, where he has spent years of his life, "So much more..."
In the cave, the cloaked stranger repeated the words the purple unicorn used, "The Umbrum?
A young Umbrum, with grey insect wings and a body made of dark mist, cried in fear as he was grabbed and dragged through the underground hollow that was his home, The larger mist creatures threw him outside of the barrier that kept them alive, the screams of his mother echoing in his young ears.
"The Umbrum took everything from me, Ripped me from my mother's arms, Murdered my brother, Used me as a weapon, and then cast me aside,"
The Stranger, now once again a Unicorn, was thrown into a crystal window, the impact shattering the glass, and the tall white Unicorn who threw him smiled sadistically,
"Abandoned me,"
The White Unicorn started chuckling to herself.
"Once I had power,
"Now I have nothing,"
The Cloaked stranger collapsed in the desert, the Sun hitting him with the sweltering heat that he was unused to dealing with.
"Nothing."
The Stranger stood in a mostly empty hall, green light glowing in his horn as he looked at the Young Purple Alicorn who stood in front of him.
"We were both tools for greater powers," He told her, his silky voice slithering like snakes hidden in mist, "But I played my part, And you know what happened to me?" He asked the young Princess Of Friendship.
The Tall white crystal Unicorn looked down a ledge, staring at the wretched form of her disgraced failure of a student.
"Remember," She told the gray ex-Umbrum, "There can only be Two rulers of the Crystal Empire," She smiled sadistically as the eyes of her former student widened, And you are no longer my Apprentice,"
"I was cast aside," He told the Princess of Friendship, the eyes of the Alicorn squinting as her horn started glowing purple.
A blue glow encompassed the White Crystal Unicorn, as she picked up her former student in her magic, and threw him at a wall.
The sound of flesh slapping on hard stone echoed out in the crystal hall.
"Have mercy," He cried to his former teacher, sticky red blood dripping from below his horn, as he lay on the floor in pain "Please!"
The White Unicorn looked down at his pathetic form, "There is no mercy," Before rays of magical electricity shot from her horn, electrocuting the gray Unicorn as he screamed in agony.
"I was forgotten."
In the cave, the cloaked stranger looked at a small campfire, the Purple crystal Unicorn sat beside him, listening to his tale.
"I once had a real name, So long ago," He told the Crystal pony, his mind drifting back to his time as an Umbrum, when life was simpler, when he could spend his days as a cloud of mist without worry.
"I don't remember,"
"It has been so long, and my path has been so dark," He said, looking down at the White Unicorn who used to be his Mistress, his teacher, His Empress.
"Darker than I could ever dream," He told her, as he took steps closer to the ruined Princess of the Crystal Empire, his horn glowing green as he aimed his magic at the Unicorn.
"But I survived," He told the Princess of Friendship, "And I can thrive in the chaos that is to come,"
In the cave, the cloaked stranger turned to the Crystal Unicorn, his red eyes glued onto hers.
"Now, I am called Sombra,"
Sombra scratched sigils and runes into a cave wall, his once beautiful Unicorn horn lay shattered and broken at his feet.
"Always remember, I am Fear. Always remember, I am a Hunter," He muttered to himself as he scratched and wrote on the wall of the cave, picking broken shards from his horn and using them to paint on the wall.
"Always remember, I am Filth," He scratched his forehead, where a smooth, knife-like horn was emerging from his skull, "Always remember, I am nothing!
"Let me go!" He shouted at the two Alicorns that flew over him, each one grabbing two of his limbs in a magical grasp, "Let me die!" He screamed at the two of them, hoping to fall off the top of the Crystal spire to evade the horrific ritual Princes Amore planned to send her ponies to the far future.
The White Alicorn, however, wouldn't listen to him, as she thought back to the good days she spent with the former Umbrum.
More Pegasus joined the two Princesses in detaining Sombra, as he screamed at them what Amore was planning.
"You're all going to burn! We're all going to die!" But they wouldn't listen, they tied him in ropes and threw him into a cell.
"You don't know what you're doing!" He screamed at them, hoping at least one of them will understand what he was trying to tell them.
Back in the cave, The purple unicorn looked at his face, seeing the missing horn on his forehead.
"Your legs," She wanted to ask him how he lost them.
"That scum!" Sombra screamed, holding his head between his hooves as he rolled, Memories of the ruler of the Crystal Empire playing in his head, "She took it from me! She took it!"
"Who?! Who took it?" The young Unicorn asked.
"Amore... Amore..." Sombra pulled the cloak farther over his head, hiding his missing horn.
"Arise, Sombra!" A blue goat said loudly as he stared at the dismembered horn in front of him, "Reborn son, Of Grogar!"
Black mist exploded from the knife-like horn, slowly coalescing into the Umbrum turned Unicorn that was Sombra.
"Revenge," Sombra whispered to himself in the cave, walls of sigils and runes surrounding him, the knife-like horn on his head almost reaching its maturity, "I must have Revenge,"
"We feel a disturbance in Harmony," Celestia told her newest student as she looked out of a window facing north.
"The Darkness has never been stronger," Sombra whispered to himself, his body nothing more than a cloud of dark mist and shadows as he swiftly flew over the endless plains of ice that was soon going to become the Crystal Empire, As the ancient city returned from its millennium-long stay outside of time, "Soon, The world will be remade. The Alicorns, And Equestria... Will Die."
"From the dead, an Old enemy has returned to us," Celestia spoke, her back to her niece as she kept her eyes to the north.
"Seeking, Vengeance."
Both the purple crystal Unicorn and Sombra had their eyes opened wide, as they both stared at a glowing green crystal.
"I see, I see her," Sombra said as he looked into the crystal ball, visions of his target appearing in his mind.
The newly reborn Sombra stumbled out of the Old Goat's hideout, a smile of hunger on his face, as he made his way back to The Crystal Empire.
"She lives," He chuckled to himself as he walked out of the cave the goat used as a base, and into the forest outside, "She Lives!"
Sombra walked through the snow and sand, the harsh sun beating on his cloaked back as he made his way ever closer to his target.
"I can feel, her presence, So close so close!"
"Where is she!?" He screamed at the crystal ball.
"I can see her, in my mind's eye"
He paused as he walked through the desert, sensing that his target was closer than before.
"Amore..." He whispered to himself, before screaming at the top of his lungs "AMORE!!!"
His voice echoed in the desert.
"I have been waiting for you," He told the pink Alicorn who stood in front of him in the crystal throne room.
"Sombra?" Twilight Sparkle asked in disbelief as the Unicorn of mist and shadows appeared before her once more.
Cadence looked at Sombra, her eyes devoid of the hate he expected to see from the descendant of his late teacher.
"I know where you're from," She told him calmly, "I've been to your village," Her mind went back to her and the mysterious Crystal Unicron exploring the caves deep beneath the Crystal Empire, finding the seal that trapped the Umbrum in a separate pocket dimension.
"I know the decision to help the Umbrum wasn't yours, The servants of Grogar made it for you-" But she was cut off when Sombra screamed at her.
"Silence! You think you know me?" He asked her, his horn glowing green as he held a white unicorn with a blue mane above his head, the Unicorn's horn was covered by small black crystals.
He started walking towards Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, his magic still choking Shining Armor behind him, "It was I who languished for years, thinking of nothing but you! Nothing but this moment!" He pointed a hoof at the Princess's husband behind him, a sinister smile on his face.
"You cannot imagine the depths I would go to to stay alive," He told the Princess of Love, ruined crystal homes burning behind him as spires of black crystal shot into the sky, "Fueled by my singular hatred, for you."
Cadence calmly looked up at Sombra, her voice not wavering as she spoke, "That may be so, But I defeated you before and I can defeat you again," She lowered her body as her horn started glowing blue.
Sombra chuckled as he looked down at the Princess, "Don't be so certain," he said as he readjusted the crown on his head.
As the Princess of Love began battling the King of Hatred, he couldn't help but laugh at the enjoyment he got from fighting Amore's descendant, "What fun... What fun!"
"Fear, Fear is my ally,"
Sombra smiled sadistically as he held Cadence down, his horn glowing a malicious green.
"I will make sure you stay awake long enough, to feel every single cut"
He looked at the Princess as he lowered Shining Armor to his knees before him.
"I never planned on killing you, But I will make you share my pain," Cadence tried to move and stop him, but she was being held down by two Crystal Ponies wearing black masks on their faces, "Amore."
"You will suffer, As I have suffered," He whispered to her, before a magical spear of black crystal impaled Shining Armor from the back.
Cadence's scream echoed throughout the castle.
Sombra, old and broken, looked at the withering form of the mature Cadence, hidden deep in the frozen plains of the north, A single campfire acting as the only barrier and source of light between himself and his prey at this time of night.
"Look what has become of you," He sneered at her, "A rat in the desert,"
Cadence merely looked at him calmly, "Look what I have risen above," She told him, "If you define yourself by your power to take life, The desire to dominate, To possess, then you have nothing,"
Sombra kicked snow into the fire between him and Cadence, casting the two ponies into darkness, only illuminated by the stars above, "And what do you have?!"
"Why come to this place?" He asked her with a sneer, trying to find an answer in her eyes.
"Not simply to hide," He started guessing, "No, you have a purpose here," He smiled when he saw that his guesses were getting closer to the truth.
"Perhaps you are, protecting something?" Cadence grimaced when thoughts of her daughter entered her mind, as long as no pony knew another Alicorn was still alive, then the future could be saved.
"No... Protecting Someone." Sombra guessed correctly, his smile widening when he spotted the change on the former Princess's face.
"You should have chosen the dark side, your emotions betray you," He told her, his horn starting to glow green as he entered a stance, a sharp spear of black crystal levitating beside him.
"You are mistaken," Cadence said.
"It takes to strength to resist the darkness, only the weak embrace it!" She told him, her horn glowing blue as a saber of glowing blue crystal appeared in front of her.
"it is more powerful than you know," Sombra argued.
"And those who oppose it are more powerful than you'll ever be!" Cadence yelled at him.
After a few seconds of staring at each other, Sombra yelled and shot his spear at Cadence, his mind remembering all his past battles against not just her, but Princess Amore herself.
Swings of blades and beams of magic filled the clearing, each swing brought back a memory of a time long past, of a time when he could spend his days without worry, flying in his magical hollow, as a cloud of Umbrum Mist.
SCHLIK
And it was over, the sword in Cadence's grasp sliced into his chest, his horn shattering once again from the sudden impact, his crystals started to disappear as he fell to his knees, quickly being grabbed and held in the arms of the old Alicorn, the one pony he considered his equal.
And as he lay there dying, his body slowly turning to mist for the last time, he asked her a question.
"Tell me," He asked quietly, his eyes focusing not on Cadence, but on the endless sea of stars above her, "Is it the chosen one?"
Cadence thought of her daughter, of her darling Flurry Heart, who she was forced to hide from the villains who threatened the world.
"She is," Cadence told the King of Shadows.
"She... Will... Avenge... us..." And with those final words, The Umbrum turned to mist for the final time.
And flew away.
Author's Note
This was a chore to write, but This is my third One-Shot on this site.
I will not be explaining anything more, remain confused!
Here's the inspiration:
Maul - Hatred
Don't ask questions!
