'That feels so weird...'

Sombra thought to himself as he was guided by the two pegasus guards alongside Sunny and Izzy through the mountaintop city. Right after their initial encounter, which resulted in a lot of frightened screaming from the stallion of the two, they decided to place tennis balls upon the horns of the two unicorns as a way to restrain them, referring to the balls as 'shields'.

While Izzy seemed to be unbothered, as seen by her and Sunny's reactions to the jumbotrons that were broadcasting Princess Pipp's livestream, Sombra was visibly uncomfortable with the whole ordeal. It felt like he had a stuffy nose and clogged ears at the same time, but specifically localized in his horn.

'Maybe these pegasi were onto something.'

As the group continued to be led by the guards towards the Royal Palace, he felt the familiar feeling of tapping on one of his greaves. The shadow pony turned his head towards the source and raised a curious eyebrow.

Sunny nodded her head towards one of the massive screens spread throughout the city, "You don't seem very surprised by... well, everything here. I thought you'd be more, uh, shocked, by the technology."

Sombra glanced at a nearby jumbotron and shook his head. He remembered a certain scene during an episode, one featuring a certain Pink Pony touring a group of ancient heroes around a city.

"Large screens like these have already existed even before Zephyr Heights was built. However, they were primarily projected via magic rather than technology. While definitely not as modernized as this city, Manehattan was considered to be quite advanced for its time."

'Could just be Pinkie being Pinkie... eh, everything did actually get lit up.'

He looked back towards the earth pony mare and saw her using her mouth to write in her journal. She wobbled slightly, due to the fact that she was only using three legs to walk.

Sombra turned back to the looming form of the Royal Palace. He took a long, calming breath as he mentally prepared himself for their meeting. A part of him wanted to stay quiet and hope that everything went similarly to the movie, so that he could chime in again when Zipp eventually visits them in the... 'dungeon'.

'Not a lot I can change before they get magic back...'

It was unfortunate, really. He wished that he could just grab all five of them in one fell swoop and use his powers to force everypony to unite once again, but Friendship and Harmony didn't work like that. Heck, he doubted the crystals would even work if he did speedrun the entire movie like he wanted.

A real, genuine bond had to form between the Mane Five, and if he got in the way of that, it could lead to issues that would spoil the entire reason he was doing this in the first place. He would need to take a back seat for the time being, whilst being a handy—hoofy?—living archive whenever they needed help in clarifying lost or forgotten history.

'But after that? You better look out, Arcana.'

Sombra didn't realize it, but a faint trail of dark magic had formed from the corners of his eyes. Everypony around him felt a chill go down their spines as he thought about the pony who ruined everything. Both literally and metaphorically. A sense of dread and anxiety began to creep into their minds alongside the lowering of the surrounding temperature.

Izzy's skipping turned to a cautious trot, Sunny's writing looked less coherent, and the two guards, Thunder and Zoom, felt their wings twitch as if they were about to fly away.

Things only went back to normal once the group entered the elevator to the palace's throne room. But even then, the feeling of dread never truly went away.

"Bow before our Queen!"

Thunder announced as the five of them entered the throne room. Beside them, two rows of guards marched into position, their expressions ranging from confusion to visible trepidation at the presence of the three outsiders.

Right in front of the dais, another row of guards blew into their trumpets, catching the attention of everypony present before bowing as they finished their tune. Sombra discreetly nudged his companions to bow alongside the guards, to which they quickly followed.

Not a moment passed before a... small, fluffy winged dog walked in front of the center throne. Despite its small size, the aura of haughtiness it gave off could be clearly felt in the air.

Sunny turned towards Sombra with a look of confusion, her head still bowed low. Izzy took a small peek before quickly lowering her head when she received a harsh glare from the dog.

"Uh... is that-"

"Wait for it..."

A beam of light shone upon the small dog, causing it to jump and bark in joy. Unable to contain her curiosity, Sunny looked up from her position to see where the source of the light was.

It didn't take long before the silhouettes of three flying pegasi made themselves visible, descending as an admittedly funky tune played in the background.

The young mare couldn't help but stare at the majestic sight. Her father had told her countless stories of the pegasi and their role in managing ancient Equestria's weather. To see them twirl around in the air like birds... truly, it was a sight to behold.

Izzy swiftly shot up from her position as well. Her eyes wandered towards one of the descending ponies, locking onto one of the brightly-colored and strangely familiar one of the three.

Realizing that his attempt at following proper decorum had utterly failed, Sombra stood up with an exasperated look on his face. He wanted to tune out the rest of this interaction and proceed into the dungeon by himself, but that wouldn't help in catching Zipp's interest in the three of them. Or at least, more interested than she was already.

The ex-human observed Queen Haven's blabbering with visible disinterest. While he found it interesting how the pegasi turned their society into a monarchy as opposed to something more akin to a stratocracy, he wasn't exactly invested in most characters beyond the Mane Five.

'I wonder how Commander Hurricane would react to Zephyr Heights?'

Sombra was pulled out of his thoughts when Thunder and Zoom moved off beside his group, presenting them to their queen. Just as he expected, the way Haven reacted was nearly identical to the movie.

The three outsiders watched the monarch blabber to herself as both of her daughters gave their own drastically different reactions.

Feeling the need to entertain himself throughout the entire ordeal, he patiently waited for Pipp to turn her phone's camera towards them. Once she did so, the shadow pony flashed a large toothy grin, showing off his long and sharp canines. He also flicked his head to make his mane billow towards the side of his head.

The royal pop star's eyes widened as Sombra showed himself off. She immediately turned her phone's camera back towards her face and excitedly addressed her now incredibly frightened audience.

"Whoa! Did you all just see that?! You saw it here first, Pippsqueaks! Unicorns. Have. FANGS!"

Noticing that her daughter was causing a potential PR nightmare scenario, Queen Haven swiped her phone away and attempted to calm her citizens down.

Sombra snorted in amusement. It was a nice reprieve from constantly getting asked and being forced to sit back for the next twenty-four or so hours. The former human breathed out a calming sigh and patiently waited for them all to be pulled away.

'Soon...'

Izzy giggled as she twirled Sombra's flowing mane around her hoof. The dark unicorn was lying down on his stomach, enjoying the short recess from his little adventure.

"Ooo... I really like your mane! It's all swooshy and wispy!"

"Mhm..."

He didn't know how long the two ponies beside him waited for in the movie, but judging from how long they had been there, Zipp must have really taken her sweet time.

'And she's supposed to take Rainbow's place?'

Sunny turned back from the barred window towards Sombra. She took a seat on the massage chair that Izzy should have been in before shooting him a question.

"So... is there any reason why we haven't seen anypony fly besides the royals?"

The shadow pony carefully rested a hoof under his head, making sure his sharp greaves didn't prick him.

"No magic, no flight. None of them can. Haven and her daughters are using cables. All smoke and mirrors."

The earth pony remained silent after his answer. Oh, how she wished she had her journal with her right n-

"Hey!"

Sombra's eyes snapped open as he turned his head towards the gold-plated bars of their 'prison'. Zipp looked from side to side conspiratorially before addressing them.

"I'm sorry you three got thrown in here, but... I have to talk to you."

All three of them stood up from their resting spots and trotted up to the princess. Zipp discreetly took a step back as Sombra's taller form loomed over her.

"Princess Zeph-"

"Zipp. Call me 'Zipp'."

Sunny smiled and gave her a nod, "Okay, Zipp! I'm Sunny, and these are my friends."

"Izzy Moonbow~"

"Sombra."

The eldest princess craned her head back. She raised an eyebrow as she looked towards the stallion of the three.

"You're kinda, uh... freaky." she quickly shook her head apologetically, "Sorry, just had to get that out..."

Sombra bowed his head courteously, "I take no offense. My visage can be quite intimidating for some."

'He was pretty scary as a kid, honestly.'

"Right. Anyway! Sunny, Izzy, Sombra, I really need to ask you something important..."

Zipp leaned in closer to the trio and lowered her voice to a whisper.

"About magic."

Sunny stepped closer to her, "That's exactly why we're here! All of the magic in Equestria disappeared a looong time ago, and we're trying to bring it back!"

The pegasus princess looked at her incredulously, "Woah, 'disappeared'? As in... no magic?"

The three prisoners shook their heads simultaneously. Their synchronicity was a surprisingly eerie sight, though it was likely only because of Sombra's presence.

Zipp nodded in understanding. She looked down in thought for a moment before turning to the trio once more.

"Well... that changes things..." she muttered, "Listen, I might have some information that could help. But first, you need to tell me about this."

The pegasus unfolded a wing and reached under it with her hoof. Sunny caught a glimpse of what she was grabbing and gasped in surprise.

"My journal! Thank you, Zipp!"

Sombra tuned out the rest of the interaction yet again. This entire part was where the three of them—'three' as in Sunny, Izzy, and Zipp—would begin to form a bond. He dared not to barge in at this moment unless directly addressed, as this interaction would also lead him to the abandoned air station.

'Give 'em the old Lore Dump MonologueTM '

He turned his head toward the other end of the hall where their cell was situated in. The sound of trumpets and the sudden appearance of a roll of red carpet signaled the arrival of Pipp, who trotted up to her sister fabulously.

Sombra didn't know why, but it really was quite a fabulous trot.

"Zipp? What are you doing here?!"

The sisters began their quick and minor squabble just as he expected. The former human also remembered to flash another fanged smile as Izzy pulled him and Sunny to join in on the royal pop star's selfie as it continued. Sunny didn't get to ask her a question regarding the royals' ability to fly, as she had already been informed of the loss of magic.

'Wonder if that's gonna cause an issue?'

With a buzz of her phone calling her away to a dress rehearsal, Pipp trotted away whilst practicing her voice alongside her two assigned guards. Both diligently rolling the carpet back up again.

Zipp waited for them to fully leave the premises before turning back to the trio.

"I have to show you something."

With a final heave, Hitch pulled himself up to a flat cliff and plopped himself onto the ground, not caring about the dirt and dust that would stick to his coat. A pair of incredibly fluffy bunnies ran up to him and rubbed themselves on his cheeks.

The sheriff forced himself back up on his hooves before wiping off some sweat from his forehead.

"You're in so much trouble, Sunny."

He mumbled, as an entire swarm of curious bunnies began to surround him.

Author's Note

I know that most of you are probably wondering: "Baroque, why does Sombra only get one to two thousand words per chapter while Midnight and Daybreaker get over three thousand?"

Well, it's mostly because I'm trying to avoid blitzing through the entire movie. Just like what Sombra mentioned in his thoughts, if he speedran the entire adventure in one go, the bonds that formed between the Mane 5 and the tribes would be much less genuine. This means that the Unity Crystals might not combine and Sunny might not become a pseudo-alicorn.

Think of the G5 movie like the Mane 5's Nightmare Moon EventTM. Anything that happens before and during it should be treated with caution because any small changes could be detrimental to the rest of the timeline.

Anything after that is free game, as a certain purple alicorn would know very well.

Anyway, that's chapter 4 for you! We'll be focusing on the Pegasus Crystal heist on the next one, so stay tuned!

If you want to share ideas on how this story should go, consider commenting!

Corrections and criticisms are more than welcome, I can't improve without those now, can I?
Have a good existence!
:)

"Remembered forever, the Land of Equestria"