I'm Sorry Sombra

"You call down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind."

It seemed as if though greater forces were trying to prevent me from my goal, as the night peaked and the land was consumed by darkness, it only became colder and colder, the energy inside me was the only thing keeping my internal organs from freezing. Despite everything, I managed to drag myself all the way to the energy beacon, another two hours of travel through the soul freezing tundra.  As my luck would have it, it turned out my hunch was right, as I came upon my preset target, I began to detect a myriad of faint energy trails, a couple's love, the wood from a home, even scraps of food, though if my guess was right, any food I found in this place would be rotten.  Still, the strongest energy coming from this spot was the attachment I picked up miles away, and as I grew closer I grew more curious.  However, finding out the exact source of the energy was not to be the focus of the evening, that still remained the resurrection of Sombra.  It must have been only a hundred yards away by now, and I could tell it was definitely a house, the energy of wood seemed to take that specific shape.  By now though, my body felt almost completely broken and worn, the thought of rest nearly stayed my feet, but I couldn't stop then, not when I was this close.

I felt I was close enough now to see the home through the thick winds, I slowly opened my eyes.  When I had my eyes fully pried open, what I saw left me humbled, I knew in advance what I was going to see, but to actually see it was something else.  It was nothing more than a home, simple in design really, two stories, kitchen, a master bedroom, 2 other bedrooms, 1 bathroom and a living room.  Nothing special right, however, it was the fact that it still remained is what humbled me.  It had a heaping pile of snow covering the v slanted rooftop, but still it bore it's weight, the dead brown wood not willing to crumble.  The land had tried to hide the structure, cover the doorway and windows with snow, but the house seemingly prepared for my arrival, cleared its doorways and windows of what would otherwise be heaping piles of snow.  It was the house's will to survive in such a terrible land that humbled me, not willing to back down, to live and to serve weary travelers.  Despite my heavy use of magic, I still believe powerfully in logic and science, this house being here and not 30 ft under had no logical basis whatsoever.

"How are you still here..."  I figured there were other forces at work here, that was the only other explanation, I had felt it during my entire journey, an invisible hand guiding me through the wasteland, and at last, to this shelter, but why here?

Regardless of the whys and the hows, I didn't question the fact that it was shelter, and I wasn't going to turn it down simply on the basis that it seemed out of place, I cautiously proceeded to it's doorway.  Upon reaching the bulky wooden frame I was confronted with the overwhelmingly obnoxious fact that for a long time I had been given the freedom of ignoring, my species was roughly 5x bigger than that of the local population, and the doorway was my first reminder of that.  As I reached for the antique doorknob, I noticed something about the door itself.  There were lots of small claw marks that had torn away at the doorway, something wanted to get inside, badly.  They bore no similarity to a pony's hoof mark, and this was the disconcerting part, underneath the layer of claw marks, I swore I could see pony hoof prints that had been pounded into the doorway, the wood was stained in those areas.

I didn't know of any creature that lived in Northern Equestria that could be so aggressive, the Griffon Kingdom was relatively nearby, but I couldn't honestly see them acting in such a violent manner.  That could have only meant that this was a creature that was never here before, something that was sent here with a very specific task.  This was the other unusual part, usually, at scenes of battles or deaths, an energy marker would be placed there that represents that individuals last moments in life.  If the building was as old as I had thought, the energy may have burned off by now, but for curiosity's sake, I closed my eyes, and placed my hand on the doorway.  I waited patiently, but to no end, I couldn't feel any trace of emotion from this scene.  For the time being I simply ignored the clawmarks, although I was weakened, I still had more than enough energy to kill anything on this world that looked at me funny, whatever this creature was would learn to fear me a lot more than I feared it.

Grabbing onto the doorknob, I turned the handle and forced the splinter door open, it creaked loudly all the while it slid open, almost as if the building was crying out in pain.  Once opened, I bent over and pushed my head through the doorway, a quick glance inside revealed to me a dark living room preserved by a thin coat of dust that covered the interior.  I forced my way through the doorway, making sure my long reptilian tail made it all the way in before I quickly turned around to reseal the barrier.  Forcing it shut, I turned back and faced the living room, the ceiling was so low it was almost like a toy house to me and I had to crouch just to keep my head from hitting the ceiling.  At long last I had a moment of peace, it felt better than I had expected.  I collapsed on the floor, sitting down with my back against the doorway and panting heavily, inhaling the stale air of the otherwise preserved home.

Now that I was inside, I was formally introduced to my makeshift shelter, very antique furniture, wooden chairs and couches all centered around a fireplace all greeted me with the usual indifference inanimate objects tend to.  Above the fireplace, there was a ledge filled with photos, many of which were impossible to decipher due to the fact that they were either burned, smashed, or torn.  The building not only looked old but sounded old, the building seemed to have it's own drone that competed with the howling winds outside for my attention, though ultimately the groan was what won my attention over.  There were stairs hiding on the other side of the room from where I sat that most likely led to the bedrooms.  To my right, there was a cozy little wooden kitchen with splintered cabinets, draws, what looked like a food storage of some sort, and many multicolored washed out pieces of paper that were tapped all along the top of the kitchen.  What perplexed me most was the fast that at the oval dinner table just beyond the kitchen bar, plates, forks, knives, glasses, and even folded napkins were set up, 4 sets to be precise.  Here and there a plate seemed off-center or a fork was pointing to the side, but otherwise it had seemed like the table was just recently set.

I looked back over to the fireplace, there was wood and kindle already neatly placed in the shaft of the chimney, it was very old just like the rest of the building, this would make it easy for me to ignite it.  Out of desperation for heat, I crawled on my hands and knees past the neatly oriented furniture, squatted on the ancient carpet in front of the fireplace, and took my gloves off my claws.  Throwing the gloves on the floor behind me, I exercised the stiff joints of my fingers by contracting and releasing them in my hands in rapid succession.  I had to hurry, as it turned out, the building offered little to no protection against the cold which penetrated not only the building but my very mind as I felt my thoughts slowing.

Concentrating under such conditions was not always easy, even for someone like me, but I had to focus and clear my mind of distractions if I was to do this right.  I tried to control my breathing as I began to direct a portion of my energy into my finger tips.  Placing my thumb and pointer finger against each other and with a substantial amount of energy now being directed, I simply gazed into the fireplace, snapped my fingers, and watched as the woodpile instantaneously ignited.  I smiled, I tried to use a very small amount of energy, the kindle caught fire instantly, but the larger logs were not amused by my attempts to steal their heat.  Regardless, I knew that the kindle would set fire to the larger logs quickly and I would have my fire.  The warmth that emanated from the flame of the kindle was enough to make me want to sing, though it was a small flame, it was good enough for me at the time being.

Scooting in closer, I rubbed my hands together and held them up to the small flame, absorbing every droplet of heat it gave.  Even though I could see there was no ice forming on my hands, it felt as if though ice was melting off my palms, I sighed with content as the imaginary water dripped off and hit the carpet.  I took this time to relax, a moment of peace and quiet before I was to revive Sombra from death, his horn still buried deep within my pocket.  My eyes wandered about the room, in particular, the row of framed photos that nested uneasily on the shelf directly above the fireplace, to which I was at eye level with.  I tried to make out the faces of ponies, I wanted a clue as to who lived here long ago, however as I noticed when I first entered the wooden stronghold, many of the photos were smashed in, the glass shards scattered all along the shelf and some directly below the shelf on the carpet.  Many of the photos were torn, leaving only a corner or a shred of a photo for me to work with, sadly, that wasn't enough.

I began forming my own hypothesis of what had happened here, besides the photos and the doorways, there was no sign of a struggle, no bodies, none that I had found yet anyway.  The energy of attachment that I picked up on so long ago seemed to grow and then suddenly disappear as I got closer to the home, almost as if the building was hiding something from me, and I could no longer detect it.  Now there was nothing, just the weak traces of energy given off by the strain of the building, the heat from the fire, and the nearly extinguished life from the wooden husk.  There was however, an omnipresent energy that seemed to fill the structure in it's entirety, love.  Love was one of the most powerful forms of emotional energy, for those trained to channel energy such as myself, love could be used as an incredibly devastating weapon.  This is why I wasn't surprised traces of the aura all along the house, because love was so strong, it took the longest to fade away.

I made the prediction that I was dealing with a family home, the smeared pieces of paper in the kitchen being doodles drawn by children.  There was a mother, a father, and based off the setting at the table, two children.  Which made sense, for as I sensed the energy around me, a three dimensional image of the home formed in my head, I could see two bedrooms and one master bedroom upstairs, just as I had predicted.  I glanced back over to the photos on the shelf, hoping to find at least one image that was roughly in tact.  My curiosity at this point was beyond piqued, it was starving, I figured there had to be some reason this building survived the torrent weather for all these years.

Finally, my eyes fell upon what they had been seeking, still relatively in tact with only a tear in one corner at the very right end of all the photos, reaching over I grabbed the bronze frame it was in, I held it up to my face, and looking closely I saw a little filly and a colt.  The colt had a grey coat and a scruffy black mane with deep blue eyes, the filly had a red coat and a swirly pink mane, this one had glistening yellow eyes.  They appeared to be brother and sister, the sister looked slightly older than the brother.  Just looking at them brought a tender sort of warmth to my heart, they seemed so happy to simply be with one another, it made me wish I could see my family again.

Just as I felt a tear welling up in my eye, I felt a sudden shock of energy instantly appear within the home.  I turned around, but saw no changes in my environment, though I could not see it, I could feel it, whatever just happened set off a massive energy surge.  Quickly, I closed my eyes and tried to sense the energy around me the way I did when I searched for Sombra. The instant the energy began to appear in my mind I nearly screamed aloud, for hovering no more than an inch away from my face, giving me one of the most soul robbing stares I had ever seen was the ghostly essence of what appeared to be a pony.  Floating in the air in front of me, it's eyes gazed directly into mine with such emptiness that it made my lips quiver.  It was no large than a regular pony and emitted a beacon of flaming grey energy from the center of it's body.  It said nothing, only pressed it's head closer and closer to mine.

Before it's face touched mine, I opened my eyes, and thankfully, I could not see it anymore, but I could still feel it, I knew where it was.  I made the guess that this was the spirit of a pony that lived here before, the energy of a spirit can linger for nearly an eternity, and depending on how strong the energy is, it can impact what happens in the tangible world.  This made me wonder again why I hadn't come across a body or bones or blood stains of any sort, it would have taken a very gruesome and evil event to bind a spirit to a location so strongly. Thankfully, I had experience with the dead before, only about half of the spirits I've ever met could talk, it appeared though as if this one was silent.  I tried to appeal to what was left of its mortal mind, and began,

"I know you're there, I can sense you.  I'm sorry if I've invaded your home, but this is the only shelter I could find for miles.  If you wish it, I shall leave, but if I may, please allow me to stay, I will be very careful with your home..."  I waited quietly with the photo still in my hands, I slowly put it back where I had picked it up, hoping the spirit would be pleased.  There I sat for a minute, waiting for a sign when at last I felt a cold presence pass through my body, without closing my eyes, I followed the spirit's movements, it felt as if it had drifted up stairs through the ceiling where it finally decided to stay.  Many times before I had dealt with the spirits of the dead, they are more reasonable than you would believe, but this one, this one was unusual, it didn't seem to want anything, didn't say anything, it was just sort of, there.  I made a guess in my head that the spirit was one of the two children whose photo I had just moved, but I didn't pursue the matter any further, I simply accepted the fact that there was a spirit in the midst and I would simply have to coexist with it for the time being, that is unless I stepped into the spirit world to destroy it forever, but I had nowhere near the energy left for a trick like that.

Trying to refocus, I put the spirit out of my thoughts and starred back into the fire.  Despite my best efforts to resist, in the back of my mind I wanted to know who that pony was and why it was here.  I wasn't so much afraid of the ghost as I was curious, in my experiences, most ghosts can only do about as much as move small objects and make noises, 97% of them didn't have enough energy to cause harm, especially to someone like me.  It started to make sense though, it seemed to me that the ghost was what was keeping the building alive using, it did this by using its own life energy.  Though believed powerfully in science and logic, most of the time, I simply had to concede to the fact that magic works in strange ways, this being a perfect example.  As I finished my train of thought, I felt a second tidal wave of energy, it was the energy of attachment that I had felt from long ago, and it emanated from upstairs.  I was too anxious to find out what it was.

Again, I tried to ignore it, I had rested enough now and regained enough energy to perform my spell.  I opened up my pocket and reached deep down inside, latching onto the horn and pulled it out.  It still glowed a hot orange like a burning ember.

Mumbling to myself once again as I held the horn in front of my face and spoke,

"Energy never dies, it only changes form...  Are you ready to give life another try?"  I paused, almost as if I was expecting a reply, but the glowing horn remained there in my hand with a merciless silence.  Looking behind me, I scooted back as far as possible without hitting the furniture, it seemed the ghost was triggered as soon as I touched something . I could sense it had calmed down and it was still upstairs and I didn't want to anger it again.  I looked glanced back at the living room, I had cleared more than enough space for Sombra to be built from again.  Still sitting on the floor, I reached over and placed the horn in the center of the room.  I then closed my eyes and crossed my feet in the way the monks showed us back on my home world and meditated, building up what energy I had left into an energy chamber inside me.

I must have been recovering quickly, my energy compiled much faster than it usually did.  That both surprised me and scared me at the same time, I thought it would take me much longer to return to my old capabilities, I thought I could recover in that time, but I guess these things couldn't be helped.  With superb accuracy, I recited the words for the spell from my own language,

"Ker du' serva'tov,

G're lud betaron kal ne ts'i,

O'pvaluke du' selcas'ty,

Heran teron un Verukai'."

I inhaled deeply and with highly controlled movements, I forced the energy I had been piling up through my body and exhaled it out into the room with my breath.  To those without the ability to detect aura, it would have appeared as if though I had just breathed heavily onto the horn, but to me, a thick layer of gaseous purple energy, my energy, rapidly filled up the room.  It dispersed for a moment, trying to locate it's target, but a few more seconds of waiting and the purple cloud seemed to get converge towards the horn, attaching itself to the shaft.  I did a quick check of my surroundings to find the spirit was still upstairs, just making sure I hadn't done anything to set it off.  I felt we had finally reached an understanding, but it was watching me carefully, guarding what was left of it's tomb, and the events that took place with it.

Eyes wide open now, I could see the effects of my spell taking place, the horn hoisted itself into the air and was no longer the ember orange, but a deep purple.  The horn began radiating a white light, humming lowly as it spun itself in the air.  It suddenly stopped spinning, from the base of the horn, particles of light began to pour out, quickly taking the shape of Sombra.  I watched with a slight bit of pride as my spell worked to create the outer frame of Sombra in the form of walls of light, without his armor padding that was.  Then, the light that had formed his body began losing it's color at the head and tips of all his feet, returning to the color black, and worked it's way towards the center of his body.  The instant his internal organs were formed, a blood curdling scream filled the room as Sombra's brain had finally begun to form.  This is what I was  afraid would happen, during this sort of spell, the bodies organ's don't all form simultaneously, it usually starts at the head and ends in the center of the body.  The screaming meant at least his brain and lungs had formed and he was sensing a pain equivalent to having half you're body missing.  However, the magic worked quickly as his lower body began to form from the particles of light until he was whole again.

Still floating in the air, Sombra ceased his screams of pain once the rest of him was formed, his eyes rapidly shut themselves and his entire body went limp, and he came crashing onto the floor.  It appeared as if though everything had gone correctly, but just to be sure I did another quick check of his energy.  Closing my eyes, I saw the same energy pulsing from his horn as I did before, but the rest of his body was also dispensing energy now, his heart was pumping blood, his brain was functioning properly, and best of all, he was breathing, all I had to do was wait until he woke up.

Turning to my right, the ghostly pony I saw before floated right next to me, not starring at me though, but starring intently at the pony that just crashed on the floor.  It didn't show any emotion, but if I had to guess, it was surprised, surprised that I somehow overcame death.  I made a joke to it now that I felt we had an understanding,

"If I had any trace of you I could resurrect you too."  It didn't even turn to me, it just kept facing my creation, and quite frankly I couldn't blame it, resurrecting the dead was an incredibly powerful spell, I would know, I was brought back from the dead in Equestria two years ago.

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