Onyx is a young crystal pony with a twisted mind and a complete lack of foresight. He relishes in the suffering of others and has a disturbingly chipper attitude. All this is to help conceal his absurd desire for revenge and bloodlust. When he was young, Starswirl the Bearded whisked him away from the Crystal Empire with promises of being his apprentice. Years later, this led to the one spell that changed Onyx's life and devastated an entire country, and much more.
Sombra is the result of that spell: a young and mysterious creature created by a kind of magic almost as twisted as Onyx's mind. Unfortunately, Onyx is now and forever in his mind, unable to die or age as they are locked in a constant power struggle and a journey across the Arctic that could claim both their lives should something take a tragic turn.
This is a side story to Tomb of Magic as much as it is a stand-alone story. Contribute to the TVTropes page!
Proofread by an anonymous user.
Onyx obviously needed somepony to treat him with a bit of love and understanding. He's messed in the head and he obviously needs somepony to help him understand the emotions he cannot.
But instead, he gets Starswirl.
Damn it Ice Star, you're making me feel bad for a cruel and merciless little brat.
7495096 He's a bad seed. You can't really help those bratty types.
Glad you're enjoying the story though.
ICY
HAVE YOU BEEN READING HARRY POTTER
WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THAT
At this rate, I'll need a folder specifically made for Icy stories
This was your intention wasn't it
7894723 I'm not a witch!
7896621 I don't believe you
7896629 Umm... well...
7896636 hrmmmmmmmmmmm
7896643 Err...
7896652
Before I read this, what is the Gore and Dark tag for ?
And how bad does it get ?
8128519 The gore tag is for descriptive injuries, a character who is a sadist, and a scene where it is implied that the same character - a pony - eats meat.
A bit of a late/odd question for the author. This story is in one of the folders for the transgender bronies group, despite it not appearing on the group list at the side of the story here. Im pretty certain only stories with trans characters go in that group and as far as I can tell this story doesn't have any obvious or implied trans characters. Im assuming one of the commentators or readers of the story put it into there by accident or thinking that there was trans characters in the story when there actually weren't. Or maybe there are trans characters in this story and I wasn't paying enough attention. Maybe you put in that group? I dont know either way, I just thought I would ask about it.
9026397
I actually put it there! Sombra is kinda trans, and as a result, most of my stories with him that feature anything were his gender and gender expression comes up tends to be put in there. This story didn't have it strongly as some of my others, but the newest chapter from this story was a revised version of one in an anthology in the group, which features more overt themes of what Sombra's gender is/means/etc. I thought that it wouldn't hurt to put in the group to see which readers are interested, and if any confusion and such was brought by it, I'd just remove it. It's been removed now.
9026827
Ah fair enough
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Sorry for any confusion!
9027322
Nah its fine, dont worry about it
I like it!
10102430
Thanks a lot! I'm always happy to see this one get some love; it's one of my better stories.
10102450
That's good!
Okay so thus far I haven't had much to comment on this yet, been too busy reading on and on without much of a break, but I really loved this chapter. Cocky and sassy future(present?) Sombra is a very fun character a lot of the times, and I enjoy him, but seeing him younger with some sort of shred of innocence and a fascination with the world?
It's just... Really nice I guess.
Between his wonder in seeing himself for the first time and describing snow like falling stars, it was actually quite cute... Even if he immediately goes and disrespects the ecosystem afterwards. Gotta start somewhere I suppose.
Just as six certain ponies of the future see a rainbow that destined them to be Equestria's protectors, four certain ponies of the past see a sunset, that though has no relevance to their futures, brings them together in some way.
...Inevitably causing many, if not all, the problems said protectors will protect Equestria against. Whoops.
Fate really is a cruel thing, huh?
So throughout it all, Sombra was, in a way, innocent to so many things he was accused of. I mean obviously, he's not innocent at all, but there's many things he was forced to take the blame for because he's trapped in the mind of some twisted pony who's Hellbent on causing death and destruction for his own joy. The fact he still has that bit of wonder for seeing the rest of the world seems to remain as well, though I'm not sure how much of that was ever shown in the present time, but I guess so long imprisoned can make you even more cynical than you were before!
That being said, is Sombra still half blind in the present? He's been shown to have the magic to heal others if he needs to, unless he somehow healed Twilight in another way, but no one's ever healed him. His blindness has also never been mentioned before either, and since his eye was described as milky I imagine that would've been brought up at some point. Unless he uses magic to cover it anyway.
I know it might be considered a small thing, and it might be strange, but I sorta like that little detail? As someone who's got a pretty much functionless left eye, it's one of those traits that sticks out to me. One of those 'enjoyment in seeing your faves with the same disability/sexuality/some other feature as you' moments I suppose.
10170266
Sombra's dubious innocence (as opposed to experience here, rather than guilt) has been one of my favorite things to write. His circumstances are bizarre; he can't have ever grown up naturally yet the world is still new to him. He doesn't trust ponies and shows cynical tendencies from his first moments, but takes quiet joy in the little things he observes in the world around him.
Bold of you to assume that Sombra doesn't have mixed feelings about banishment. š
Depending on how he is blind, the milkiness can clear up. The same goes for healing. If the nerves are disconnected, that can be healed just like a person would be able to get surgery for that in our world. If the actual eye is impacted or damaged, then he'd likely be using magic to cover it up and be less likely to be healed.
He's still blind in the present; his regeneration skills are limited. With the story not being told from his perspective (yet) it does limit the ability for it to be featured when other characters are entirely oblivious to the fact.
I try to represent different things in my stories, though in terms of disability I think most of the ones I've featured thus far have been primarily mental struggles. There's LGBT+ horses, though. Be prepared for them. I'm glad this resonated with you.
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I'm sure he does, but I'd assumed with every single early experience being an awful one, I just threw cynicism at the top of the list!
I'd always assumed the milky coloring of blind eyes was scar tissue, but considering my own blindness wasn't caused by trauma, it's not really something I've really gone out of my way to research. Still appreciated it though.
Mental struggles are absolutely something I've noticed already,
and also write. Looking forward to seeing the LGBT+ horses, though after reading the final chapter of this story it seems evident that I've already found one! Yeah, I noticed that bit with Sombra.10170876
I occasionally have to do bouts of research on weird overly specific topics for stories. An unpublished story Iām working on required me to look up information about everything from Victorian snack foods to exsanguination.
now this was an amazing chapter, we greatly enjoyed it
amoral shadow and his headmate, pure evil! it would be a sitcom except for all the murder
good chapter of early sombra's mentality
10275643
Thank you! This one doesn't get a lot of attention so I'm always delighted to see people digging it up.
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I never thought to describe them as headmates, especially since I think that's usually used for two characters with equal claims over a body and don't hate each other. This is... not so much.
10276377
yeah, but magic and soul summoning / creation kinda break all the "normal" rules of plurality anyway
and technically headmates can hate each other it's just not generally healthy, which i think applies in this case
10276666
Ah, so those darned kids and their wizardry screw up everything. Pfft.
LOL, that's exactly what happened.
Congrats Onyx, meet your like-minded foster pappy Starswirl!
"From the very first moment I was born, I knew only DESPAIR" -Junko
10743724
They're two peas in a pod
They did everything together
and history kinda-sorta maybe paid the price!
(I honestly love comparisons between these two because most comments contrast Onyx with Sombra rather than seeing how similar some of the core traits he has with Starswirl are.
Interesting take. So King Sombra is just a psychopath summoned into existence by a sociopath, and forced to live with him. Quite a unique idea. And some part of me is rooting for Sombra while hoping that Onyx gets what he deserves. Or at least is cast out forever, maybe into the depths of hell.
May have to put this one in my Favorites. I'm eager to read the rest now and find out what happens.
10914580
This is one of the stories that needs revision work, and the next ones do too. At least, as of me typing this, but if you want to check out the rest of the storyline, it picks up in Crystalline, which is on the front of my page. It is the first in a five-story series. Though I'd also be extremely hesitant to call Sombra a psychopath, and I'm not sure why you did, since he lacks the traits for the condition and exhibits multiple contradictions to it in-story. The rest, regarding the eventual fate of these two, I can't really answer without spoiling the other stories.
Thank you for reading, upvoting, and taking the time to comment!
10915285
Well, I'm using older definitions that someone gave to me that seem to explain it fairly well, which might be the cause of the confusion.
A psychopath is someone who doesn't see other people as people. They're not necessarily sadistic but they do lack empathy.
A sociopath does see other people as people. And they have a problem with that.
Even if they're not perfect fits, this is why I think Sombra is a psychopath and Onyx is a sociopath. The former doesn't want to hurt anyone but isn't opposed to it, while the latter pretty much has put that at the top of his list of priorities. That's why I used those words to describe them.
Even so, these are still individuals. These definitions are somewhat generalized, so even two people who fall underneath the same term may exhibit different behavior, or at least have different tastes and goals. They only explain how their minds work, not who they are at their core.
I hope that helps clear things up a bit. Not saying I'm right and you're wrong, but more trying to show you how I see it. In any case, you've written some very good stories, and I look forward to reading more of them. =)
10915742
I wasn't sure if you were using the older definitions (which I tend to go with, especially in-story) or you were trying to suggest Sombra could be diagnosable as one under the previous or current criteria. Sombra not being opposed to hurting others but not unwilling isn't a sign of psychopathy, and while it is notably atypical for somepony his age, it's not out of place. He has no real desire to refrain from hurting just anyone, and he has no plans to go out of his way to do so. He has less empathy, but not little to none. However, Sombra is also surrounded by a genocidal fuckwit, an abusive sorcerer, and has loose knowledge of various species he's never really interacted with. The concept of death is something is more apathetic of, not entirely devoid of emotion to. There is nopony around him he cares about or who doesn't want to hurt him. The concept doesn't really exist in his mind yet. Sombra has no healthy social interaction or reason to even extend/use empathy.
10916019
Hmm. Fair point. I guess I'll read the other stories to refine my judgement.
10918855
I look forward to further comments.