Author's Note

Author's Note: The next few chapters HEAVILY reference the official My Little Pony "FIENDship is Magic" comic in order to illuminate Sombra's backstory.

Chapter 9: Time

Everypony gazed around in awe at their new surroundings. It was the site of an astoundingly beautiful city. Shining, stunning crystals grew up from the ground and decorated the city streets and buildings. The architecture was grand and elegant, and every building sparkled in a special way. The colors were vibrant and iridescent, like the entire city was in technicolor. Ponies roamed the streets of the city, but they weren't like any ponies that Chorus, Prose, or Ginger Blush had seen before. Their mane and fur sparkled and shined, as if they were made of crystal themselves. This whole place seemed like it was pulled straight out of a fairy tale.

"We're in the Crystal Empire," Twilight Sparkle observed.

The group looked around once more, recognizing their surroundings as the beautiful Crystal Empire. Sombra faced away from the group, seemingly waiting for something to happen.

Chorus walked up to him and spoke up. "Why did you take us here? What are you trying to show us?"

Before Sombra could explain, he was interrupted by the appearance of several ponies wearing shining suits of armor heading down the road, straight towards them. The ponies were followed by a small, black-maned, black-furred unicorn. The group stepped out of the way of the traveling ponies, giving them room to move past them. The armored ponies guided the small unicorn down the street. The small unicorn looked utterly lost and confused.

"Is that..." Chorus started.

"Me," King Sombra confirmed.

King Sombra began to follow his younger self down the road, leaving everypony else to decide whether or not to follow. The rest of the group of time travelers convened for a brief meeting.

"He seems vulnerable right now," Twilight Sparkle noted. "Should we try to stop him? Should we capture him or banish him or something?"

"Banish him where? We're not exactly in our home territory right now. We don't know the rules of this place. Trying to thwart him on his home field might turn out badly for us," Prose explained.

"Are we just supposed to follow him? I don't know if we can trust him," Ginger Blush spoke.

"What else can we do? He's taken us back to his own past," Savoir Fare added. "I think we might not have any other choice."

"If I had a coin for every time I was taken back to the past of my enemy, I'd have... two coins. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice," Ginger Blush commented.

Chorus interjected into the discussion. "I think we should hear him out."

Ginger and Prose eyed him doubtfully.

"Are you sure, Chorus? This feels really dangerous," Prose warned.

"Come on guys, this isn't our first time trying to empathize with the enemy," Chorus optimistically pointed out.

"But it is our first time dealing with King Sombra," Ginger Blush included.

"She's right, Chorus. My friends and I have dealt with and empathized with many villainous ponies on our adventures, but King Sombra is one of the only enemies my friends and I couldn't help," Twilight revealed.

"But did you guys try to? Do you guys know anything about who he his? His past? His motivations?" Chorus asked, desperately hoping he wasn't wrong about this whole thing.

"Well, no, But-" Twilight started.

"Exactly, Twilight! Now's our only chance to discover if he's truly as evil as we've all known him to be," Chorus advocated.

Ginger Blush sighed. "If you're truly confident about this, Chorus, then I trust you. I find it hard to believe, but maybe there really is something we're all missing."

Prose looked back and forth between Chorus and Ginger Blush. "I'll trust you guys on this, but if things go south, we have to take him down. If we let him, I believe he's capable of conquering... well, everything."

"Understood," Chorus confirmed. "Now, let's see where his story leads."

Chorus departed from the group and caught up with King Sombra down the road. The rest of the group warily followed him, walking down the road with their sworn enemy. The ponies followed King Sombra and his smaller self to a beautifully blue, sparkly, decorated building. A large sign above the door of the building spelled out exactly what the place was.

Crystal Heart Foal Center

It seemed to be some sort of foster home for young ponies. The guards knocked on the door, waiting for somepony to open it. A beautiful crystal pony opened the door. Her wavy auburn mane complimented her yellowy fur. She had a kind face that housed a warm expression as she greeted the ponies at her door.

"Sombra?" the young unicorn spoke.

Chorus turned to King Sombra.

"Why was that all you said?" Chorus asked.

"I didn't know anything else," Sombra clarified. "When the Crystal Guard found me, that was all I knew. I couldn't remember my family or where I came from."

"Sombra?" the nice pony at the door spoke. "My name is Chestnut Falls. You're going to come live with me for a while, okay?"

"She seems nice," Ginger Blush commented.

"She was," King Sombra agreed.

As Little Sombra entered the door of the Crystal Heart Foal Center, reality began to swirl and warp around the ponies. Their setting quickly and abruptly morphed from the exterior of the foster home to the interior of a charming crystal classroom. The ponies scanned the classroom, searching for Little Sombra. Their eyes all eventually landed on a little unicorn in the second row of desks. Sombra sat at his desk, looking mildly frustrated. A small sheet of paper was taped to the top of his desk, illustrated with every letter of the alphabet. It seemed like it was there as a reminder to Little Sombra as to what the letters of the alphabet were. The reminder did not appear on any of the other students' desks. It appeared Sombra was behind in school.

"So, when you said you didn't know anything else, you really meant it, huh," Prose suggested. She immediately winced after she spoke, fearing Sombra might destroy her for that comment.

"I was a quick learner," King Sombra nonchalantly commented, ignoring Prose's remark.

The ponies watched as Little Sombra fumbled with his pencil, scribbling down barely legible sentences into his notebook. It was a pitiful juxtaposition to the rest of his classmates, who wrote with ease and certainty.

And suddenly once again, reality warped around the ponies as their setting morphed from the charming crystal classroom to a humble crystal bedroom.

"These transitions are making me nauseous," Savoir Fare lamented, his cheeks green, holding his hoof over his mouth.

King Sombra glared in his direction. Savoir put his hoof back on the ground and smiled, pretending to be fine. In the bedroom, Little Sombra was sat on his bed with both of his hooves on an open book. He squinted his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows, seemingly unable to successfully read the book.

Chestnut Falls stood beside the bed.

"Sound it out a little bit at a time," she kindly advised.

Little Sombra pointed at the word on the page and sounded it out. "Peg-uh-sus."

"That's right! Pegasus!" Chestnut Falls cheered. "You're doing so well, Sombra!"

Twilight Sparkle stepped forward towards King Sombra and faced him as she spoke. "I don't understand. It seems like you had support, like you were being cared for. How could you betray all of that?"

"There's more to the story, Twilight Sparkle, if you would be patient," Sombra scolded.

Twilight left Sombra's side and returned to Prose's.

"Prose, I don't know how much longer we can afford to be here," Twilight whispered. "If the gala ends before he's finished, Luna will have to take the barrier down, and he'll be free to get away."

Prose winced at the thought. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

She watched as Chorus attentively consumed Sombra's life story, desperately hoping he was right about all of this.