//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3. Sorry I’m late! 
// Story: Rage of a Queen, wrath of a Mother 
// by Askre 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3

Twilight Sparkle raced through the hallways of Canterlot Castle. She had just received an urgent summon from Princess Celestia, right in the middle her preparation to close the school for the summer. The young princess had to head off quickly, leaving everything to Starlight Glimmer and her five friends.

The reason for the urgency had been made clear in the letter. Queen Rabia, the mother of King Sombra, had made an incursion in the Crystal Empire. Twilight hadn’t even bothered flying to Canterlot, she had straight up teleported there.

Twilight had been loathing this day, ever since they finally captured King Sombra and locked him up in Tartarus, because there had still been one issue left unresolved. The fact that his mother had somehow been resurrected. It had been revealed that she intended something dreadful towards her old enemies, the Saddle Arabians. Only backing away because Rabia claimed not to be ready to face all four princesses at once.

Yet much like with her son, when he had been first brought back to life, nothing happened. Rabia vanished off the radar, not a single peep in a long time. That made Twilight very worried. Sombra had masterfully trapped her and her friends, Celestia and Discord when he finally struck. She had a very strong feeling that if Rabia was on the move now, that the queen was ready.

The friendship princess finally reached her destination. The throne room of the castle. Already there were the two Celestial Princesses and Princess Cadance.

“Sorry I’m late!” Twilight shouted as she rushed towards the elevated thrones. “End of school year. Finals to grade. Papers to finish!”

“It’s alright Twilight, you’re not late. Princess Cadance was just arriving herself,” Princess Celestia assured the young alicorn with a smile, gesturing to Princess Cadance as she did.

“Oh my gosh, Cadance,” Twilight rushed over to her sister-in-law, grabbing her in a hug. “Is everything alright? Is anypony hurt? Is Flurry and Shining okay?”

“Yes Twilight, they are all fine,” Cadance chuckled, returning the hug. “Rabia’s arrival was alarming, but nopony was hurt.”

The princess of love then started to explain to the others what had happened. The three other alicorns listened, Celestia and Luna became graver with each word but Twilight looked confused at how the queen had simply come to get her daughter’s coffin and nothing else.

“Wait, all she wanted was her daughter’s dead body? Hold on, King Sombra buried the Last Queen of the Dark Pony Empire right under the Crystal Empire?” Twilight barely could believe it.

“It appears so,” Cadance responded and let out an annoyed snort. “I still don’t understand why she did it this way. I mean, if she had just asked, I would have just let her take it.”

“It is indeed rather strange,” Celestia agreed and looked at her sister, who nodded. In truth, despite Rabia’s alarming plans, they had no quarrel with the former queen. She wasn’t even an enemy of Equestria even if she was the dame of Sombra who was. So until she actually did actively do something, there had been no reason for Rabia not to just simply drop by and simply ask for her daughter back.

“What is known about Queen Rabia? What I could read about the Dark Pony Empire was that she was certainly considered powerful and a strict ruler, but the details are rather scant.” Twilight looked at Celestia, figuring that perhaps discussing the queen might reveal why she had gone about this way to retrieve her dead daughter.

“They are scant because when the empire was destroyed, so where a lot of records and the empire was far away from Equestria. We were seldom affected by it, there was minimal trade, but that’s about it,” Celesta started to explain.

“She was though called the Queen of Rage and Wrath for a reason, even her name means rage,” Princess Luna added in.

“Unlike Sombra who feeds his dark powers on hate and fear, Rabia feeds hers on rage and wrath, as her apt name suggests. She wields terrible power through it and we have heard tales of her laying waste to armies and doing unspeakable things to any prisoners caught in the many wars the empire had with the Saddle Arabians,” the sun princess continued. “This is a very aggressive and manipulative mare, selfish and arrogant, but pragmatic and just as dangerously intelligent as her son. She knew how to play politics very well; her death was quite unexpected.”

“How did she die?” Cadance asked. Just from the brief incursion alone, she could tell that Rabia didn’t look like a pony who would go down easily.

“That is the most mysterious thing about her, we do not really know. Some say she was assassinated; others say she committed suicide. The Dark Pony Empire maintained the assassination theory, we really have no concrete proof. The only one who truly knows, is Rabia,” the sun princess shook her head.

“Well she clearly had a plan to get back to life, like that mirror down in the study below her throne room that Sombra revealed,” Twilight pointed out, her mind going back to when they had finally captured the king.

“Speaking of Sombra,” Celestia spoke with some hesitation, Luna snorted. The sisters had the full attention of the younger princesses now.

“Few days ago, Rabia did come here and ask if she could pay a visit to King Sombra in Tartarus,” the moon princess told them. Cadance arched her brow, she hadn’t heard about that, neither had Twilight whose eyes widened.

“We allow that?” she asked absolutely shocked. Tartarus wasn’t exactly a normal regularly run prison. It was intended for those who posed the worst danger to Equestria.

“Usually no, however, her unexpected arrival here and her request did arouse our suspicions. I allowed it, hoping she would let something slip to her son,” Princess Celestia explained to them. “We kept a close watch and when Rabia departed, we went to Tartarus to speak with Sombra about the visit. He was not overly cooperative, though he did say that his mother was indeed planning something for Saddle Arabia.”

“But when we asked if he had any theories or ideas what she might be doing, he gave forth outrageous terms for his cooperation.” Luna scowled hard.

“What kind of terms?” Cadance asked worried that now they would have to contend with Sombra as well.

“Better living conditions, not too unreasonable. The shackles off his legs, but we could still continue to suppress his magic, not too bad,” the sun princess counted up before her face darkened a little. “And that he would name his custodian.”

“WHAT!” Twilight snapped in outrage. “Oh that son of a… it’s obvious who he wants. Please tell me you didn’t agree to this.”

“Private Iceland is finally living in a relationship with the love of his life, we can’t possibly put him in a situation where he has to deal with King Sombra again,” Cadance looked just as furious as her sister-in-law. “The nerve of that horrible monster to demand that just so we could get some ideas what his mother might do.”

“We agreed to nothing,” Celestia assured them, the younger princesses both sighed a breath of relief. “We did tell him we might talk with Private Iceland about this.”

“But we had no intention of doing so,” Luna said but then gave an exasperated sigh. “Until we heard Rabia invaded the Crystal Empire.”

“Rabia would have had no idea where her daughter was buried. We didn’t even know, there was only one pony who knew where Queen Ira was entombed,” Celestia pointed out. “King Sombra.”

“That bastard!” Twilight hissed, her wings rising in irritation. “He must have told her, Rabia must have asked him and he told her. Then he withheld that information to make a point. He knows something that we need to know.”

“That is what both Luna and I suspect as well.” Celestia nodded and shook her head. “We need him to cooperate, we need to know Rabia’s next moves. This isn’t a direct threat to Equestria but to a now friendly nation, we need to be able to warn them and even help them.”

“I offered to host Coal’s cute-ceañera in my castle after Private’s possession ordeal. I let them all stay in my castle while Private was recovering in the hospital. Mirage Rock and Hard Shovel helped us uncover years of lost crystal pony history King Sombra tried to destroy. I even went to Barricade’s and Barbell’s wedding. I consider that family my friends, I can’t believe we have to ask them to suffer King Sombra again,” Cadance snorted and turned away, fuming even more than Twilight was.

“Cadance,” Princess Celestia approached her niece, putting a wing gently over her. “We will not force them into anything. If Private says no, we will accept that and try and deal with Rabia as we can.”

“We shouldn’t even be asking him in the first place,” Twilight growled, really feeling for her sister-in-law. She had often met Coal, Private’s niece, when the girl came to Ponyville to visit her sister. Sometimes Private was with her, escorting her. Though he was not the most talkative of ponies, Twilight had sometimes approached him then to just talk and hear news of him and his family. The family she had promised and failed to keep safe when Sombra had struck again.

“You will hear no disagreement from us,” Luna sighed, understanding quite well how the young princesses were feeling. However, feelings had to be put to the side as much as she hated to admit it.

“We will make sure that Private feels safe about this. He can contact us at anytime and remove Sombra away, that he can cancel the deal at any time,” Celestia told them, still holding a wing over her enraged niece. “Sombra is not in control here.”

Twilight was still scowling, hating the very idea of letting King Sombra set one hoof out of his cage in Tartarus. Yet she did see why they needed him. Celestia had said so herself, there were very few records of Queen Rabia. Even the Celestial Princesses didn’t know enough to comfortably tell what she might be up to. Hard as it was to swallow, there was only one pony who truly knew the queen, her own son.

“I’ll go ask him,” she offered quietly, her wings slowly folding again. “He should be asked by a friend.”

“I will go as well, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, she was stepping away from Cadance who had calmed down and was sitting down. Her back was though still turned towards the other three alicorns.

“It was I who told King Sombra that we might speak with Private, I intend to take the full responsibility for even entertaining the idea.” The Sun Princess walked over to Twilight. Then she said quietly. “I am just as concerned as you all are, King Sombra is obsessed with Private. There was a gleam in his eyes when he made his third demand. The worst thing is, he made that demand the deal breaker.”

“We should all head back to our regular duties for now, I will contact you, Twilight, when the time comes to talk with Private Iceland,” she then said, almost tempted to delay this as long as possible, but knew she really couldn’t.

Twilight slowly nodded, she walked over to Cadence to give her a reassuring hug before leaving the throne room to head back to Ponyville. Luna left as well, her night time duties still few hours away so she was going to get some rest. Soon only Cadance and Celestia were left in the throne room.

“Cadance?” Celsetia approached her niece again, the love princess still hadn’t risen up.

“I remember seeing that poor guy, half frozen on that ledge on Little Crystal. Then in the hospital, when Sombra forced him to go silent, caused him so much agonizing pain. Then using his body to travel away, all those inn patrons, the crystal ponies he killed while still in Private’s body,” Cadance slowly looked at her aunt, tears slowly trickling down her cheeks.

“And his family, that sweet little filly, she had just received her cutie mark and had to hear that a monster had abducted her uncle who was more like a father to her. His parents, it broke my heart to tell them what had happened and then showing them the torture chamber their boy had been kept in when he was just a colt. They read the journal describing it, his mother was in tears.” Princess Cadance stood up and walked to one of the windows. Celestia followed, allowing her niece to talk.

“I hated it that I couldn’t be at the party when King Sombra abducted them all. Private, his nieces, his brother, his parents. I seriously allowed myself to believe nothing would happen, that Twilight and her friends would be enough, he had been silent for so long,” she whispered, staring at the window depicting her and Spike’s victory when they saved the Crystal Empire.

“Now we want him to have that monster in his own home, just because of Queen Rabia?” Cadance grit her teeth, she closed her eyes hard as more tears came down.

Celestia listened quietly to her niece vent, when she heard sobs beginning to escape the young princess’s lips, she approached and draped a wing over her again and pulled her closer in a hug. Allowing Cadance to cry into her chest as she also put a leg gently and comfortably around her.

“My dear Cadance,” Princess Celestia spoke gently and soothingly. “I do believe your love for our ponies exceeds mine at times. I haven’t forgotten how involved you have been in situations involving King Sombra. You poured out your love to the crystal ponies, helping them recover from his tyrannical rule. And I do see that you do the same with Private and his family, who have been just as brutally treated by him.”

Celestia looked down at her niece, smiling a warm motherly smile. She used her free wing to reach over and wipe the tears from Cadance’s cheeks. Then she reached down to nuzzled gently the top of the younger alicorn’s mane.

“I will not let Sombra play his game. I promise you that this time, he will not be in control. If you want, I can make it so that you are the one Private first contacts if anything is amiss,” she then offered her. “In fact, I will allow you to make any impromptu visits to ensure that King Sombra behaves himself.”

“Really?” Cadance smiled weakly. She had half dreaded that she would have to stay on the sidelines up north. The princess knew she had her duties, she was the protector of the Crystal Empire and she did have her daughter to care for. But knowing that a pony she considered a friend would have to face his long time tormentor and not be able to do much was just tearing her apart.

“Of course. Sombra is just trying to play one of his sick games again and I for one am only playing along so far. As concerned as I am about Queen Rabia, the security and safety of my subjects comes first. I too have seen what Sombra has done to that poor stallion, I’ve seen what he’s done to his brother, no King Sombra is not in charge here, we are,” Princess Celestia told her with a firm nod. Her niece’s smile grew wider and she looked more relaxed.

“Thanks, Aunt Tia,” Cadance whispered and gave the Solar Princess a tight hug. When they separated and Celestia removed the wing away, the younger alicorn looked much better.

“Now, you should still head back to the Crystal Empire for now. I will let you know how it goes. For all we know, Private will say no and that will be that. However, if he says yes, then I will fully update you on what happens next,” Princess Celestia told her. They hugged one more time and this time Cadance departed the throne room, looking already in higher spirit.

When she was finally alone in the throne room, a scowl crossed Celestia’s features. There was a loud clang when the sun princess stomped one hoof to the ground, as she finally let the anger that had been building up inside her out.

“This is the final time Sombra,” she snorted and stomped over to her throne and sat down. “One. Final. Chance!”

Princess Celestia closed her eyes, taking a moment to calm herself down, before she would summon for her secretary to see what duties needed to be attended to. Sombra’s demands had riled her up bad enough, but seeing Twilight’s and especially Cadance’s reaction to them had infuriated her.

“Even if I have to deal with your mother alone. I am not letting you get away with anything this time.” Celestia closed her eyes, took a deep breath and centered herself. Then she lit up her horn to send a magic message to summon for her secretary, the issue of Rabia and Sombra would wait for now.

End chapter 3