//------------------------------// // Welcome to Ponyvill // Story: The reformed King? // by Ravenray //------------------------------// A few minutes later Sombra returned to the princesses with a suitcase he was pulling along with his magic. Surprisingly the case was about the size of Sombra himself though nobody questioned it, after all he was leaving, never coming back and had no idea what to expect in his new life, so he most likely decided to pack everything he could for every possible situation.....which would be everything he had in his room. Celestia had already contacted Twilight and informed her that she'd be coming over to discuss important matters with her. "Are you ready now Sombra? Luna has already left due to feeling exhausted after the long night she's been through so please forgive her. "Please princess, I have already said that I understand your hard work, I know that there are priorities to being a ruler and I most certainly shouldn't be one of Luna's, but yes I am indeed ready, shall we?" He asked and Celestia nodded. "Yes, let us go now" Celestia responded before her horn began to glow softly and the two of them vanished in an explosion of magic. <*> Twilight sparkle was currently in the throne room, pacing up and down while thinking about the letter she had recently gotten by her former teacher and fellow princess. Dear princess Twilight, it appears that I have an unexpected problem that I'd wish to speak to you about in person. I'll be there in a few minutes and I'll give you all the details then, though I need you to promise me that you do not freak out. From Princess Celestia Twilight sighed still worried on what this may be, a part of her wanted to believe perhaps Celestia had something amazing planned and didn't want Twilight freaking out in excitement, but that was extremely unlikely, so much so that Twilight saw it as near impossible. Suddenly her trait of thought was interrupted when suddenly a blinding light appear before her. Twilight covered her eyes with a hoof as she turned away, when the light began to fade Twilight looked forward and her eyes immediately widened, it was then Twilight wished she continued covering her eyes. Standing before the young mare was the king of the shadows who was giving Twilight an extremely intense glare, behind him was Celestia who had a very awkward smile on her face, clearly worried on how this will go "ok Twilight, I think it's time that I explained what is going on" Twilight listened closely through the entire explanation, meanwhile Sombra went to the side and sat in rainbow dashes throne, she would have normally mentioned that throne belonged to her dear friend, but this was King Sombra, there's no way mentioning who the throne belonged to would make him move. "Well um, Celestia I think I understand why you want to help Sombra but....why exactly did you bring him here to me?" Twilight asked, tilting her head slightly to the side. At this point Sombra swung around to face them while in the throne "I was wondering that as well, you explained we'd be heading to ponyvill so I assumed that we'd encounter one of your little ponies but why bring me to this inexperienced princess?" Sombra asked while Twilight tried not to snap at the unicorn King. Celestia then smiled before responding "well I've been thinking and I have come to the conclusion that you Twilight are our best chance in reforming Sombra" Celestia explained in a calm and peaceful tone. "WHAT?!?!?!" The two Royal ponies shouted in unison, much to Celestia's surprise as she tried to hold back a laugh. "I know this may sound mad but trust me both of you will benefit from this and Sombra, it's either here or you'll be spending far more time with shining armour in the crystal empire" Celestia winked as Sombra let out a low growl before finally dropping his head in defeat. "Fine, but know this princess, I'm not one that is swayed easily and no threat is going to change that" he warned and Celestia merely nodded before she disappeared in another blinding light. Sombra and Twilight then looked blankly at each other, both of them taking in all the information that was just given to them, both of them trying to figure out what their next action should be as if it was the most important think they'd ever do in their entire life, that was when Twilight stepped forward and extended a hoof to the unicorn King "well I think now that we'll be living with each other for a good while we should formally introduce ourselves, my name is Twilight sparkle" Sombra looked at her a bit confused before shaking her hoof "King Sombra" he replied before they both let go of the others hoof "now then, would you mind giving me a tour, I prefer being able to make a perfect image of my surroundings while exploring it" he explained and Twilight nodded. "Of course! Just come with me" she responded slightly enthusiastically, mostly to hide her own worries underneath it, as the tour began Sombra was taking in everything in his surroundings p, from the library to the kitchen, mapping out everything from one room to the next, every time they entered a room Sombra would begin exploring it and examining it, after a few times of this Twilight eventually asked "what are you doing? I mean I understand if you want to know where everything is but you could ask me" she explained bit was only met with a blank stare. "I prefer to look over these things myself, I'm sure you and I can both agree it's easier to remember something if you study it yourself more so then when someone just tells you it" Twilight shrugged, she could definitely see where he was coming from however using that for something as simple as what's in a room seemed a bit like over doing it in her eyes, but he was staying there, he'd be looking through all these areas in anyways many times, if he could memories it like this it saves Twilight from having to answer questions of "where's this" and "where's that" As they returned to the throne room the two were in complete silence, clearly both still adjusting to this turn of events, that was when something Twilight didn't account for suddenly happened, Sombra spotted Spike as he entered the throne room, the baby dragon that humiliated him after he returned from his banishment, that was when Spike also spotted Sombra and the baby dragon froze from fear as the unicorn King let out a low rumbling growl as he began taking a few steps forward, that wax when Twilight quickly acted and jumped in front of Sombra "that's enough Sombra! Besides you have no magic remember? There's no point in trying to get revenge" Twilight barked as Spike sighed in relief at the mention of Sombra no longer having his magic, something the baby dragon wasn't even going to try and question as to how that happened or why Sombra is here. Sombra sighed in defeat and glanced away, not looking the princess of friendship in the eye "I suppose you are correct, very well, could you show me to my bed chambers? I feel as if I need time to unwind and think about...everything that's happened today" Sombra explained. Twilight nodded before walking around him "of course, I understand, Spike we'll talk about this later ok" and with that Twilight and Sombra headed out of the room, leaving Spike with his jaw dropped as he watched the unlikely scene unfold before him. As Twilight and Sombra headed towards Sombra's room there was complete silence, Twilight didn't feel too comfortable with it while Sombra looked to be absolutely fine "so, um what was life like a thousand years ago?" Twilight asked trying to create a subject they could discuss. Sombra shrugged slightly "we did not have most of the equipment you have today, many of the machines I saw around your different rooms is far beyond what we ever had" he began "other than that I suppose in some cases we had more war, many ponies did not believe in the magic of friendship that you speak of back then, many outside canterlot saw it as a trick from the royal sisters to join forces with canterlot and hand their power over to the twin alicorns as they were superior to everyone else" he explained, while Twilight just tilted her head slightly and looked at him. "Did you agree with those ponies? That the Royal sisters were planning something?" She asked as she leaned slightly closer to him, Twilight suddenly jumped from seeing Sombra as the tyrant from a thousand years ago to a source of knowledge of history from view point different from the Royal sisters who could probably tell her stories on the crystal empire that no one else could. Sombra shook his head before letting out a sigh "no of course not, I had a good idea on how the Royal sisters ruled, they were kind to all and back a thousand years ago had enough problems protecting canterlot and ponyvill, I truly couldn't see them expanding their horizon to that of ruling the entire world, I then decided to prove all those fools wrong" Sombra explained as he held his head up slightly higher as if in pride. "What did you do exactly?" Twilight asked feeling even more curious now. "Well it's quite simple, I made piece with the alicorn sisters and the crystal empire and canterlot became close relations from that day on, after that both our kingdoms expanded to far greater heights, we helped each other through war, we traded what would be common to one kingdom but a need for the other to survive, due to this the Crystal empire quickly became the most powerful empire of all and I celebrated this by introducing the empire to the crystal heart. After making piece with the alicorn sisters they thought me more and more about friendship, so that I could teach it to others and they mentioned to me how the power of love is even superior to that, so my instincts led me into creating the crystal heart" Twilights eyes widened in surprise and her jaw almost dropped from the shock, however she quickly regained herself as they made it to the unicorn kings room and Twilight opened the door and led Sombra inside. The room was well decorated with a large bed that looked like it was made for two, multiple shelves of books, a lamp beside the bed and a mini fridge to the left corner of the room closest to the door. First twilight walked over to the lamp and showed him the switch close to the bulb "just flick this switch and the bulb will come on, it converts the energy inside the lamp into light energy for when it's too dark in the room" Twilight then walked to the fridge and opened it "this is for foods that are meant to stay cold, so you can store them in here if you want to" Twilight then turned to Sombra and smiled "any questions?" Sombra looked around the room one more time before responding "there is one thing, earlier when you introduced yourself to me you referred to yourself as Twilight Sparkle, why do you not refer to yourself using your title?" He asked curiously. Twilight sighed as she thought of the right words to use for the explanation "as you probably know I wasn't always a princess, I was a normal unicorn and I don't want my friends to see me as some level above them, I don't want anyone to see me that way" Twilight explained but Sombra still seemed to be waiting, as if he knew there was more and indeed their was, Twilight gulped knowing if she didn't give him the last piece of the puzzle he'd just solve it later, perhaps this would be a chance to connect with him "and.... I don't think I'm worthy of the title, I've only been princess for a year, they've been for over a thousand, I don't even rule ponyvill I'm more of just a symbol of friendship or a figure head, so I feel more comfortable seeing myself as Twilight Sparkle....but please please please don't tell anyone that second part!" She begged and Sombra simply chuckled. "I think I understand, while I don't feel the same I suppose I can see where you are coming from, you've experienced friendship in ways I have not, so I suppose I can't fully understand, just like how you can't fully understand being a ruler" an idea popped into Sombra's head though he decided to keep it to himself and save it for later "well, thank you, Twilight Sparkle" Twilight smiled as she began to walk over to the exit of the room "no problem, King Sombra" and with that Twilight exited the room, shutting the door behind her, leaving Sombra to his thoughts. He waited a few moments before growling in frustration "damn it Celestia! That damned Alicorn has deceived me, played me for a fool!.. No matter, this plan of hers will never work, I just need to find a way to reclaim my magic, I could even channel it over time if I wished. Your plan has far many holes Celestia...this will be my victory" Sombra's eyes slowly began to leak purple myst as a grin crawled along his face "I....will.....not......fail" Sombra chuckled slightly while Twilight now in the throne room had a face filled with worry and concern. Everything was about to change.