Dark Horse: A My Little Pony Story

Reality materialized back into place, revealing the familiar setting of Little Sombra's bedroom. Chorus, Prose, Ginger Blush, Twilight Sparkle, Savoir Fare, and King Sombra watched as Little Sombra slept soundly in his bed. Clearly some time had passed since their last flashback. The moment of peaceful silence was quickly interrupted by sound of the bedroom door abruptly swinging open.

"IT'S TIME FOR THE CRYSTAL FAIRE!" Radiant Hope shouted from the doorway.

Sombra burst out of sleep, frazzled by his impromptu wake-up call.

"Hope!" he wheezed. "You scared me!"

Hope rushed to his side. "It's the biggest day of the year, Sombra! A little extra excitement will do you some good," she defended herself. " Now get ready and let's get out there! Last year they ran out of flugelhorns! I'm already the pony without a cutie mark, I will not be the one pony without a flugelhorn."

Hope nudged Sombra's body with her head. A bizarre expression possessed Sombra's face. He looked anxious; shaky. He began to sweat profusely.

"Hope! Hope, help!" he cried.

"What is it, Sombra?" Hope asked.

"Hope, I can't move my legs."

The memory quickly shifted. The ponies dissolved into the air and the sun rose a little higher into the sky. Little Sombra reappeared in bed, thermometer in mouth. Radiant Hope and Chestnut Falls appeared at his bedside.

"The doctor said there was nothing wrong with me," King Sombra disclosed to the audience.

The memory shifted again. Radiant Hope disappeared, and Chestnut Falls stayed. The Crystal Faire roared outside. Laughter and cheers could be heard through his window. It was obvious Little Sombra wished to be included in the festivities, but he remained bedridden, shaking and sweating.

The memory shifted once more. Chestnut Falls disappeared, and Radiant Hope returned.

"Oh, Sombra, I wish you could see it," she said. "It's so beautiful."

Sombra continued to shake and sweat in his bed, weakly crying. As the festivities died down outside, it appeared Sombra's ailments died down as well. His breaths became longer and his eyes appeared less anxious. As he fell asleep, Hope laid her head onto Sombra's blankets.

"Next year, Sombra," she consoled him.

Her words echoed around the room: Next year, Next year. Reality shifted slightly, almost unnoticeably. The Crystal Faire was suddenly back in action, the noise once again roaring from outside. A slightly older Sombra and Hope appeared, almost in the exact same positions as before. A shaky Sombra, sickly and crying in his bed, and a somber Hope, consoling him from his bedside. In swift succession, several years of sickness were depicted. Different, aging iterations of Radiant Hope and Sombra appeared in nearly identical positions. Sombra was always sick every Crystal Faire, and Hope was always by his side, comforting him.

The quick changes came to a stop on one year, indicating some sort of importance. An older Sombra writhed in bed while Hope sat at his bedside. It seemed just like the other years, except this year's sickness looked to be manifesting physically. As Sombra squirmed in his bed, it appeared his skin was beginning to... crack. His skin began to fracture and splinter like a porcelain doll. Shadowy darkness began to seep out of the fissures and crevasses that were gradually forming. Suddenly, Older Sombra began to float from his bed, alerting both himself and Hope that something was very wrong.

"Sombra! What's happening?" Hope screamed in worry.

"I don't know. I'm not controlling it," Sombra grunted through his pain. Dark purple magic began to flow out of the sides of his eyes. Some sort of transformation was occurring. His teeth began to sharpen into daggers, and his horn changed from its usual soft black to a bright, piercing red.

"Sombra, you're disappearing," Hope cried.

"I'm what? Help me, Hope! Help me!" Sombra pleaded.

Sombra's skin began to crack and fall off, revealing a shadowy mass of darkness underneath. Sombra screamed in pain.

"I don't know what to do!" Hope wailed. "Don't leave me Sombra!"

"Save me, Hope!" Sombra begged.

Tears streamed down Hope's face as she began to spark up some magic in her horn. She cast a desperate spell, sending beautiful bright blue magic out of her horn and straight towards Sombra. Her magic encased him in a brilliant blue bubble. Everypony watched as the pieces of Sombra's porcelain skin slowly rose and returned back to their original locations, trapping the shadowy darkness back inside of Sombra's body. Sombra's eyes and horns returned to their normal state, and the cracks in his skin sealed back up. Hope's magic faded out and dropped the healed Sombra down to the floor.

Sombra weakly looked up at Hope with eternally grateful, tired eyes. His eyes traveled to something that had just changed about her.

"Hope, your cutie mark," Sombra acknowledged.

A symbol had appeared on Hope's rear. She was now adorned with a golden caduceus, a symbol fit for a healer. Hope gasped at the sight of her new cutie mark, and rushed over to bring Sombra into a magical, magnificent hug. The moment was beautiful, but King Sombra didn't appear nostalgic or happy as he watched it.

Before anypony could comment on King Sombra's odd demeanor, the scenery quickly changed into the next scene, almost as if Sombra was deliberately cutting that moment short. The ponies were back out in the streets of the Crystal Empire. Older Sombra was walking alone down the street.

"Sombra! You'll never believe it! The most amazing thing has happened!" Hope rushed down the street towards Sombra, carrying a letter with her magic as she ran.

Older Sombra saw the seal on the letter, instantly recognizing the seal of Princesses Luna and Celestia. Sombra closed his eyes and ran away from Hope, charging down the street as fast as he could.

"Sombra? Sombra, where are you going? I didn't even tell you the news!"

The scene changed into a setting that they had not seen before. Older Sombra had run outside of city bounds, into the freezing, snowy cold of its exterior. His eyes were still closed, feigning tears as he ran. The wind and snow battled him intensely, forcing him into defeat on the ground.

"Sombra, my dear. What is wrong? Why have you come here to see me? Is your work done already?" a voice floated through the cold, jagged and dark.

"Who?" Sombra weakly questioned.

Sombra stood up to face the voice, only to come face to face with a large maroon crystal that staggered up through the snow. The voice floated right out of the crystal, clear as day.

"Don't you recognize your own mother when you see her?" the crystal spoke. "I'm the one who brought you into this world."

Sombra shook his head in disbelief and confusion.

"I don't understand. The crystal guards found me out here," he said.

"And haven't you ever wondered how you got here? Haven't you ever wondered why you are different than everyone else? Why you don't have one of those silly little cutie marks like other ponies?" the crystal ominously expressed.

Sombra stepped closer to the crystal.

"Tell me, please!"

"The answer is so simple, Sombra. You're not like them because you're not one of them. You're not a creature of shining crystal. You're the opposite. A creature of shadow and smoke. You're the thing they fear. An umbrum. A shadow pony," the crystal explained, its words like knives.

Older Sombra shook his head again. "They're not afraid of me," he insisted.

The crystal laughed. "Oh, they are. They just can't remember why. You see, we're the darkness they fight to keep at bay. We haunted their every nightmare. Until they created a weapon to keep us away."

Sombra took a couple of steps back, his expression changing from one of anger to one of confusion. "The Crystal Heart!" he remembered. "That's why the Crystal Faire makes me sick," he figured. "Because it's supposed to protect them from me."

Sombra felt a disappointment and rage rise in his heart.

"But why? I can't do anything!" he snapped.

The crystal chuckled again. "Oh, but you can. Your magic is very powerful, but your magic makes you vulnerable to the Heart. So we kept it locked away. Until now."

Instantly after the crystal finished that sentence, a dark, corrupt purple magic burst out of its tip, connecting like lightning directly with Sombra's horn. His horn became bright red, and it was matched by the pupils of his eyes. Purple, menacing magic streamed out of the sides of his eyes. It was like he'd instantaneously undergone the transformation that Radiant Hope had previously saved him from.

"Go easy now," the crystal warned. "Your powers are stronger than you have any way of knowing. You may not be able to control them at first."

A malicious smirk took over Sombra's mouth. He turned his horn towards the snow and blasted a dark purple magic out of his horn. A wall of dark, shadow-black crystal grew up from the ground where he struck.

"That's it, Sombra. Show them your power!" the crystal reveled.

Sombra's pony-like form broke apart and dissolved, forming a large, shadowy mass. He floated in the air, basking in his dark powers.

"What do I do with this power? Why am I the only one with it?" Sombra inquired.

"You aren't," the crystal clarified. "There is an army of umbrum waiting below the city. We only wait for you to dig down and set us free. But first, you must destroy Amore's weapon."

A tinge of humility and compassion shone through Sombra's eyes. It seemed his old self wasn't completely gone just yet.

"But if I try to destroy the Crystal Heart, I'll lose the only friend I have," he spoke, a sense of guilt apparent in his tone. A single tear escaped his corrupted eyes.

"You no longer have a choice, Sombra," the crystal threatened. "If you have not removed the Crystal Heart by the next Crystal Faire, it will destroy you."