Chapter 15: Old as Time (Part 2)
It was difficult for Twilight to find a moment to sneak away with their attention on her, but Pinkie Pie didn’t take long to break into a lengthy musical number that dragged the entire dining room into an elaborate song and dance. While everypony’s attention was fixated on the silverware as they somersaulted from the chandelier, Twilight made her escape and quietly slipped into the dark hall. With Flurry Heart nestled between her shoulders, she held her breath and waited, listening carefully to make sure that she wasn’t followed.
When she heard nothing but the muffled noise of the room behind her, Twilight set off quickly through the castle as soundlessly as she could, wary of the fact that the furniture she passed could have a mind of its own. Thankfully, she didn’t actually run into any more enchanted staff… or at least, none that made themselves known.
She wasn’t quite sure where she was headed, but Twilight recalled one particular telling of the story where the beast had been very protective of one of the wings in the castle; so it seemed like a reasonable location to search for. Sombra hadn’t warned her to stay away from a specific area, but she was certain that if she found the beast’s room, she would likely find him there.
And unlike the original tale, she didn’t have to worry about the Beast’s anger. Sombra did have a temper, but she couldn’t see him getting upset just because she wanted to talk to him.
“Maybe I should just yell,” Twilight whispered to herself after trotting past a corridor she thought she had been down before. “It’s not like I’m trying to hide—” In moving around a corner, she came to a sudden stop at the stretch of shadows that deepened in front of her. The hallway here was dark, with beams of dull light peeking through breaks in the tattered curtains over the tall windows. Compared to the rest of the castle, which showed signs of diligent cleaning, this hallway appeared unkempt and ignored with a decaying carpet and equally neglected furnishings.
Flurry Heart whimpered, shivering and snuggling herself deeper into Twilight’s fur. Twilight fluffed up her wings to give her niece some extra warmth and cover. “Shhh,” Twilight tried to comfort her. “It was… probably like this before we got here.” She turned back to the hallway, trying not to show her own nerves as she slowly stepped forward. “And the servants don’t clean it… because it’s in the story... not because Sombra would have any reason to keep them away.”
She approached the end of the hall and lowered her ears, confused by the sight of a large, broken beam laying across the doors and barring the way. Though it was obvious from its size how heavy it was, Twilight lifted her hoof and gave it a curious prod. As she suspected, it didn’t budge.
With a determined snort, she lit her horn and surrounded the beam in an aura of magic, grunting when she took a step back and tried to drag it with her. Sweat beaded on her brow, and Twilight could feel her magic straining to even slide the object. It felt as though it wouldn’t move until the beam suddenly shifted. At the sound of the wood scraping against the wall, Twilight scampered away and covered Flurry with a protective wing just as it toppled over and plummeted to the floor with a heavy crash.
Twilight stood at a safe distance, her body rigid with her ears perked to listen for any noise, but she heard nothing but the pounding of her heart in the deafening silence. Even though she was certain there weren’t any others nearby, she knew that the sound had to have been heard. If she couldn’t find Sombra, then at least she might manage to bring him to her.
As she stepped over the fallen beam, she tried to shake off the uneasiness that set off warning bells in her head. It occurred to her how strange it was for Sombra to bother blocking the door—but it didn’t seem too unusual when considering how odd he had been acting. He could have only been trying to protect her.
Or he had tried to keep her out.
She shook off her doubts and opened the door anyway, peeking through to see nothing but wispy silhouettes waving in the gloomy darkness within. There were no candles set out, but a visible layer of grime covered the once-elegant surfaces, and broken objects lay scattered about the room without a care.
Stepping inside, Twilight reassured Flurry with a comforting hoof, her niece shivering quietly against the spot between her shoulders. The balcony at the end of the room was large and open, with a frigid breeze that caused the shredded drapes to rustle and sway as if they were the breathing sides of a gigantic creature.
As she passed an unidentifiable, mangled wreckage of wood and metal, she shivered at the thought of it ever having once been a pony. It was all just normal, non-enchanted furniture… right?
Twilight scampered deeper into the room, unable to help glancing over the objects strewn about. Her eyes briefly paused over the enchanted rose floating in its protective glass on the balcony, but she quickly passed it by. She already knew the story behind the object: how a disguised enchantress had offered it to the prince for shelter. When he had refused to show her kindness, she revealed herself and cursed him in the form of the beast until he could find another to love him.
Twilight knew not to touch it, so instead she hurried over to a semi-clean rug set before an unpolished fireplace, safely away from anything that looked important. A chair had been flung onto its side with a leg snapped off, but other than that, the spot appeared to have slightly less debris scattered about than the rest of the room. It looked like her best option for a place to settle in and wait for Sombra to arrive.
Moving carefully over the mat, she had fully intended to sit quietly and ignore everything, but a portrait above the mantle caught her eye, only because… well, she already knew about the painting from various tellings of Beauty and the Beast. She wasn’t surprised by its ruined appearance, with gruesome claw marks marring the image of the prince—or in this case, King—that the Beast had once been.
But even with a glance, she could tell something was different. The slashes obscured very little, and Twilight could clearly see that it wasn’t a portrait of Sombra as she had expected.
Uncertain as to whether or not she was over-stepping some kind of boundary, Twilight hesitated only a moment before shuffling closer to the dusty fireplace. She carefully climbed up the toppled chair and lifted her hooves to the mantle to get a closer look while Flurry hopped onto her head and hid in her mane.
Multiple figures stared back at her from the faded painting. A pair of ponies were the perfect image of stiff-looking royalty: a stallion and a mare standing side-by-side while two younger foals sat in front of them.
It didn’t look out of the ordinary, except that once she realized it was a family portrait, she had expected it to be a painting of Sombra’s family; like the one with herself, Spike and Shining hanging on the castle wall in The Snow Queen.
But she didn’t see a stallion that looked like Sombra—at least… not at first. She only noticed the strange familiarity of the taller colt as she shifted closer, her breath catching in her throat at a very strange detail.
His fur color was bright blue, not the shadowy grey he currently possessed. The change could have easily been explained by the effects of using such powerful dark magic as Sombra had. What couldn’t be explained was the predicament of the two colts. The smaller unicorn was obviously his younger brother… but only one of the siblings had a horn.
The other was a crystal earth pony.
Twilight teetered dangerously on the chair as she lifted her head closer, her magic sputtering when she tried to shift the canvas and see if the claw marks were distorting it somehow. But no matter how she moved it, it became clear that the missing horn was not a mistake.
She clearly remembered Sombra saying that his brother had been more proficient in magic, so as her thoughts tried to make sense of it, the uneasy feeling in her only grew. He could have meant magical artifacts. Maybe potions or spells? As a unicorn, it made sense that Sombra might have felt more pressure from his parents if he had failed to be better than his brother at one of his natural talents.
But… as she stared at the unicorn colt, Twilight felt her eyes drawn to the familiarity of the taller sibling. Ponies could easily change over time, but his mane and the shape of his muzzle gave hints to the stallion that he would eventually grow into. And, while only a painting, the image expertly depicted the proud way he held himself, and that stern frown that sent a disapproving look at the viewer...
It couldn’t have been anypony but him.
Her mind scrambled to make sense of it all while she stumbled to the floor and backed away from the fireplace. Flurry Heart bounced back down to her shoulders, whimpering in concern, but Twilight was too lost in her confusion to offer comfort.
It might have been some strange, made-up addition by the storybook… but that couldn’t have been true, could it? In every instance, it had only ever pulled its components from their own memories. The portrait depicted Sombra’s real family… and his true past.
Somehow, he had become a unicorn—possibly through means of dark magic.
...they were devastated…
His words echoed in her head, and her breath grew short as she took a backward step over the floor, dark pieces of the puzzle falling into place in her mind. The shadows of the room felt like they were converging around her as panic took hold of her. She had never seen a crystal unicorn... and why hadn’t his family come back with the empire?
...It gave me strength, power… and an unfathomable magic...
She hadn't thought about the spellbook since Robinhood, and she couldn’t recall the exact words with her mind in such a frenzy, but she knew now what the spell had done. She had read it for herself, after all. The horn couldn’t have given him power without a source of magic… the source of another pony.
Twilight must not have heard anything over the pounding of her own pulse in her ears, because she suddenly backed into a solid figure. Letting out a shriek, she jumped away and spun around to see Sombra there in the darkness. He appeared frightened, frozen in place with a claw stretched toward her.
“Twilight…?” he asked slowly, his quiet tone strained in the silence of the room.
Twilight’s legs trembled and her throat tightened from fear. Her mind could only focus on the image of his parents standing over him and his innocent brother by his side. After what felt like an eternity, her voice finally croaked out, “Why… why are there no crystal unicorns…?”
Though her words were cryptic, Sombra’s eyes widened, and his expression broke into an alarmed grimace. “I… I can explain—”
He took a step toward her, but Twilight shuffled backward, keeping a wide distance between them. “You used them… you used innocent ponies to power the horn!”
“That—!” Sombra’s expression shifted between anger and fear. “I didn’t want that to happen. The spell reacted on its own!” He moved closer and reached out for her again, but Twilight only backed away, shaking her head while tears pooled at the corners of her eyes.
“You tried to hide it!” Twilight’s voice wailed louder than she had intended as it broke into a sob. “You were only protecting yourself!”
“Twilight!” Sombra shouted, his face twisting into a snarl as he stomped forward. “Listen to me!”
At his heavy hoofsteps, Twilight jumped up from genuine fright and flared her wings before spinning around in a panic. With her hooves scrambling over the floor, she made a mad dash for the door, quickly focusing on trying to find her friends. As illusionary as they were, the thought of them offered her more comfort than the horrifying truth of Sombra’s past.
“You can’t leave!” Sombra exclaimed sharply. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw his arm swing toward her, and she instinctively ducked. His claws missed their mark—only to slip and rake across her wing. In a whirl of feathers that scattered over the floor, Twilight’s pained gasp was accompanied by a delicate ping of porcelain—and Flurry’s small weight tucked against her shoulders suddenly disappeared.
Twilight stumbled to the floor, but pulled her head up just in time to see Flurry Heart hit the nearby wall with a high-pitched crack. Her blood ran cold when her niece’s small form clattered to the tiles, a wicked fracture splitting through her ceramic side.
Staggering to her hooves, Twilight rushed to her niece, relief flooding her when Flurry started wailing—a good sound as opposed to the silence that indicated something far worse. With a gentle motion, Twilight clutched Flurry to her chest, trying to comfort her niece while covering her safely in the soft feathers of her uninjured wing.
With Flurry’s crying the only sound in the room, Twilight took in a trembling breath, lifting her gaze and gaping at Sombra as he stared back at her with a horrified expression. “T-Twilight… I—”
Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and turned with a gallop, bolting through the open door as her niece’s pained cries echoed down the hallway. All thoughts of finding her friends were gone as she raced through the castle corridors and stumbled down the seemingly endless flights of stairs. She needed to get out of the castle… away from this fairy tale—the storybook… everything! She just needed stability… normality…
Spike.
She needed Spike.
Twilight reached the front entrance in no time, grunting and panting as she struggled to pull open the heavy doors. She managed to make a small gap, and it was enough for her to slip out and escape over the frozen path. She galloped through the courtyard, flinching and pausing only for a second when a beastly roar echoed from the depths of the castle. Twilight caught her breath before pressing her wings tighter around Flurry Heart to quickly squeeze through the rusted gates.
Freezing cold bit into her fur as she plowed into deep snow that rose up to her chest. She tried to ignore it by sorting out the whirlwind of thoughts rushing through her mind, not unlike the winds whipping past her.
Her gait eventually slowed as the adrenaline faded, and her heavy breaths formed thick clouds of frost before her snout. The chill helped to bring her back to some of her senses, and it didn’t take long for her to realize how foolish it had been to run into the forest without thinking. The castle might not have been the safest place, but it was a better choice than where she had run to.
Twilight hadn’t stopped moving since she left the castle, and hadn’t paid any attention to the swirl of snow billowing around her. As she lifted her gaze to look around, the surrounding trees all appeared the same, and the path beneath her was completely buried beneath mounds of snow. She’d become hopelessly lost the second she’d run out into the forest.
She shifted her injured wing, but a sharp pain from the gashes caused her to wince. She might have been able to check from above, but she could already see from the mangled feathers that it would have been useless. With her wing the way it was, she couldn’t have flown even if she’d had enough magic to help her.
Just as the weight of her predicament fully sank in, a hollow shriek split the air, and a billowy form of frozen wind knocked her into the snow. Twilight sputtered and gasped, trying to right herself while several shapes dove around her, circling through the trees and wailing as they pressed closer.
Crackling ice jutted up and quickly surged over the ground, racing for her hooves and following after her when she jumped up and tried to sprint off into the trees, but the windigo dove at her in a fury and drove her into the ice’s path. The frozen crystals shot up one of her hind legs, and Twilight reared back with a yelp, trying to wrench her hoof free only to find her front leg caught as well. Above her, the circling windigo added to the blustery storm, stirring up frigid winds and wicked, swirling fragments of ice.
In an attempt to protect Flurry Heart, she curled her head around her niece’s small, trembling body, feeling the ice crawling up her legs even as she brought her wings around to cocoon Flurry in what little warmth she had remaining.
She was trapped in place, Twilight shuddering as the ice crept along her shoulders, collected over her wings, and formed icicles at the tips of her ears. Even her eyelids, tightly shut against the blizzard, felt heavy and cold.
Too tired to fight and worn from her exhaustion, Twilight pulled Flurry Heart closer against her chest. The ice along her wings groaned and splintered, locking them in place, but thankfully did not break the protective barrier she held between the monsters and her niece.
A distant roar rose above the howling winds, and her ears stiffly twitched toward it shortly before the ice sealed itself around her. A muffled silence fell over her, and Twilight felt her mind begin to spiral into darkness.
Twilight lost all sense of time, unaware of how long it had been before a dull thud vibrated against her side. After another painless blow, she felt the ice shift around her, only faintly conscious of the cold air striking her fur. While the frozen shell still clung to her, with each new hit, it slowly shattered into smaller shards, eventually crumbling away to free her completely.
She collapsed into the snow and took in a gasping breath, not even realizing that she hadn’t been breathing. Coughing roughly, and trembling violently despite the numbness in her limbs, Twilight curled her grip tighter around Flurry Heart, thankful to hear the soft sobs of her crying voice.
A shadow fell over her, and Twilight lifted her head only to have the heavy weight of fabric dropped over her. She was faintly aware of somepony wrapping a cloak around her.
It took her blurry vision a moment to adjust, and her addled mind couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening… but when she understood who was helping her, she jerked away in shock.
If she had been thinking straight, his arrival shouldn’t have been a surprise—it was all a part of the story, after all—but seeing Sombra crouched over her after what had happened was still an alarming sight. His large claws hovered nearby, but he held them at a distance as if trying not to touch her.
Meanwhile, the windigo moaned and howled in fury above them, circling about in the torrent of winds.
“Listen to me,” Sombra growled and lowered his head over her. “Just… run. I will distract them.”
Twilight stared up at him before turning her gaze into the surrounding trees, doubting that she would even make it. She could barely feel any of her limbs.
The cries of the windigo drew their attention up when a pair broke away from the blizzard and dove at them. Sombra planted his claws in the snow, placing himself in front of Twilight while he roared at their attempt. Though the creatures appeared to show no fear at his intimidation, they shot past with furious shrieks, only to swirl away and rejoin the others above.
As Twilight watched them, she took notice of their strange behavior. Where they had been so aggressive before, now they suddenly appeared to be keeping their distance.
Sombra interrupted her thoughts when he spun around with a snarl, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw her in front of him. “What are you still doing here!?” he shouted. “RUN!!!”
Angry wails split the air before Twilight could get up, and several of the windigo suddenly swooped toward them. The vortex of the blizzard shifted, and the surrounding trees buckled and groaned when the swirling walls of hail and ice turned in their direction, pulled along by the charging creatures. Twilight hugged Flurry Heart, her horn flickering in a panic to get a shield up in time, but Sombra immediately broke her concentration when his arms suddenly wrapped around her, pulling her tightly against him.
The windigo screamed, their shrieks shaking the trees as they rushed past in a bitter torrent of wind. A cascade of stones, twigs, and ice rained around them, littering the snow as everything dropped from the air and suddenly settled into an odd quiet. From the sound of things, the windigo had left, but Twilight was too stunned to actually check.
While she was certainly surprised, she couldn’t really move with the way Sombra had her pinned against his chest, with her snout pressed into the thick fur of his mane. She wanted to be mad at him, and she could feel that anxious fear over the realization of what he had done… but despite all that, she couldn’t help the way her heart fluttered softly in response.
She was busy trying to get a hold of herself when Sombra’s low voice rumbled, “Why didn’t you run?”
Twilight didn’t get a chance to come up with an answer, because Sombra’s weight suddenly bore down on her when he lurched forward with a pained grunt.
“Sombra!?” Twilight cried out, huffing with the effort to keep him standing before they both toppled into the snow together. She dragged herself from beneath his limp arm and gasped when she saw a splatter of red splotches staining the ground.
“H-hold on! I’ll—” she stammered, darting away and stopping to stomp her hooves, uncertain how she would find the castle again to go get help. Luckily, she didn’t have to wait very long before she heard a familiar shout from the woods.
“Over here!” Twilight called back and sprinted over the ground, clutching the quietly sobbing Flurry Heart to her chest.
The voices of her enchanted friends grew clearer as they moved awkwardly through the snow toward her voice. With their support, it wasn’t any trouble getting Sombra back to the castle; only a race to tend to his wounds as quickly as possible.
“RRRAAARGH!!!” Sombra’s bellow loudly echoed through the castle, causing Twilight to duck and press her hooves over her ears.
“Why didn’t you squeeze the cushion like I said to?” Twilight berated him once he had quieted down.
“Because I didn’t think you were going to stab me!” Sombra’s claws tightly gripped the sofa, gouging deep tears in the fabric. “And I don’t need some babying technique to make myself feel better.”
“It will help—and I’m not stabbing you!” Twilight slapped a gauze pad more vigorously against his fur than she had intended and was forced to sit through another howl. She glared up at him once he had quieted down. “I needed to make sure the wound was only superficial! Unless you want to bleed out, suffer an infection, or—”
“Enough!” Sombra snapped before dropping his head against the cushions and shifting his body so that his back was all that faced her. The fire crackling in the hearth popped, and the room fell into an uncomfortable silence that was only interrupted by the rhythmic tempo of a single clock.
“Tick, tock, tick, tock...”
“Pinkie, shut up,” Rainbow Dash quietly hissed while her friend giggled.
“Umm, do you need more bandages?” Fluttershy leaned over Twilight’s shoulder, bringing forward a few of the bundles hanging from her arms.
“Thank you,” Twilight mumbled, taking hold of some in her magic and lifting them over Sombra to carefully dress the rest of his wounds.
“You uh… think we should leave ‘em alone to work things out?” Applejack tried to whisper, but the words were loud in the quiet of the living room.
“Oooh! Good idea!” Pinkie jumped up and started ushering Fluttershy toward the door. “They could use some ‘alone time!’”
Twilight watched as her friends all shuffled into the hallway, wondering if they would stay if she asked them otherwise. While debating whether or not she even wanted them gone, Applejack poked back around the corner. “Just holler if you need anythin’.”
And then the door shut with a soft click, leaving her alone with Sombra.
She turned back toward him, but he was still turned away from her on the sofa, remaining quiet and allowing her to continue wrapping the bandages over his injuries. When she was finished, Twilight simply lowered the medical instruments back into the kit and stared down at the last square of cloth in her hooves while she folded it over itself several times too many.
“How is your wing?” Sombra’s rumbling voice broke the silence, and Twilight straightened up with a start.
“It… it hurts,” she mumbled. Outside in the snow, the injury hadn’t bothered her much, but treated and wrapped beneath a layer of gauze, she could feel the gash throbbing painfully.
Sombra carefully rolled over on the couch, a somber expression on his face. “I didn't mean to harm you,” he started softly. “Or your niece.” His claws gripped his face and slid down his snout with a grunt. “Things were happening so quickly—I… I just didn't want you to run into the windigo...”
Twilight lowered her gaze, trying to fix her attention on the fabric in front of her, but it was already too thick to fold anymore. His explanation didn't comfort her, not with Flurry Heart resting in the kitchen and wrapped within as many pillows and blankets as possible. It had taken nearly an hour to get her calm enough to fall asleep.
She was safe and would live, but unlike Twilight’s wounds, there wasn’t a way to provide medical care to a chipped teacup—apart from a tube of glue.
Twilight wasn’t certain what to say in response—not that she had a lack of questions or choice words—there were just too many to choose from, and she didn’t feel like she had the energy to voice any of them.
With a heavy sigh, Twilight finally settled on the burning question. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
Sombra immediately snorted. “You obviously hate me for it. Same as every other fool in the Emp—” He stopped himself and averted his eyes before clearing his throat. “I didn’t want to see you… look at me like that. The way they did.”
Twilight didn’t have to ask who 'they' meant. Aside from the fact that he had taken over their kingdom, she now knew the reason why the crystal ponies feared him so much. At least… if her conclusion had been correct. But if she asked, could she trust him to actually tell her?
“Hate is a strong word,” Twilight mumbled, rolling the cloth in her hooves into a bundled mess. “I may not agree with what you’ve done in the past, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate some honesty.”
An awkward silence fell over them again, and this time, Pinkie wasn’t around to break the quiet. Twilight just squeezed the square of fabric against her chest until Sombra finally spoke up.
“You could have run away, you know.” Sombra looked down at her with a curious expression. “With the windigo," he clarified. "There was an opportunity for you to leave all that behind, but you stayed.” He leaned forward with interest and asked softly, “Why?”
Twilight lifted her gaze and blinked at him slowly before turning away, staring instead at the shadows the fireplace cast on the wall. Maybe it had simply been the storybook, but she didn’t feel like it had manipulated much in that scenario. If the windigo had simply been following a script, then their behavior would have been more straightforward—like when she had tried to sabotage the archery tournament.
“Because... something was there,” she finally answered, shaking her head even though she was certain of it. “It may have been small… but it was enough to drive them away.” She looked back at Sombra and found him watching her intently, and her stomach fluttered uneasily. “And I... can't just ignore your feelings…” She pawed at the fabric and added quietly, “...or mine.”
Sombra grunted when he pushed himself up on the sofa, and Twilight reached out to him, making a soft noise in protest, but he held up his claw to stop her. “Is it… is it too late to tell the truth?” he asked.
Twilight was silent for a moment, but she eventually shook her head without a word. Though he was much larger than her, he reached around her shoulders, and she helped him move down the halls.
Their progress was slow going through the castle, the thud of Sombra’s heavy hooves and the click of his front claws the only sound throughout the dark hallways. If there were any servants around observing them, they didn’t make themselves known.
Eventually, they stopped in front of a familiar door.
Sombra glanced at her before stepping away from her support and moving inside. Twilight fought down the urge to bolt and trudged behind him, treading once again over the dusty floors of the Beast’s room.
She followed him to the fireplace, where he stood in front of the mantle quietly. He stared at the portrait she had found, and after a time, he finally reached up with a sigh and grasped the frame, lifting it away from the wall to gently lower it to the floor. With the back of his claw, he carefully swept away the dust and eased the torn flaps back to their original place. Though it didn’t fix the image, the figures within became much clearer as Twilight stared at the painting.
“I assume you've already guessed at who they are,” Sombra mumbled sadly.
Twilight gave a small nod and gulped. “Your family?”
Sombra pointed a claw at the older ponies. “My mother and father…” His claw slid down to the unicorn in front of them. “My brother.” And finally, he directed her gaze to the earth colt. “And myself… an earth pony in a family of unicorns.”
Staring at the image in silence, Twilight wasn’t at all surprised since she had already figured it out long before. But hearing it from him, she could only gawk at the figures in the painting. She’d just assumed that Sombra had always been a unicorn. It wasn’t as if there were any reason to question it… before she knew of the existence of that dark spellbook… or before she had seen the painting…
“They resented me for that.” Sombra curled his claws away, leaving behind new rips in the canvas. “In their eyes, I had no power.” A low growl started up in his throat. “Not exactly what they wanted in a son who would be king, even if I showed them that I could be just as intelligent, and just as strong...”
“Is that why you—?” Twilight choked on the question, thoughts of her own family flashing through her mind. It horrified her to think of hurting them, even if they had acted in a way that she didn’t agree with.
As she watched, Sombra’s eyes darkened with a sadness that she had not seen from him, and he leaned over the painting, his claws hovering over the image of his brother.
“If you can believe me, I never intended to harm any of them. I just wanted our parents to acknowledge what I achieved. In my search, I found that dark spell book and its promises of power. I knew the risks, but I thought…” Sombra’s claw balled into a fist. “I thought I could control it. Like a fool, I believed I could fix it.
“So I used the spell. I altered it to suit my needs and thought it was safe, and for a while—it worked.” He frowned, brushing his claws against the image of himself. “I was a faux unicorn, with my own horn. I just didn’t have any magic… not until...”
Sombra leaned over the picture again and grasped the frame, gritting his teeth in a grimace. “It wasn’t an easy task, so I wanted to show my parents. I imagined they would be impressed, maybe recognize what I had accomplished…” Sombra closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. “But they only saw the darkness. They looked at me as if I had turned myself into a monster.”
His claws squeezed against the frame, and Twilight heard the wood crackle beneath his tightening grip. “That was when they called for the guards to arrest me. Me! Their own son! Not that they had ever shown any care or compassion. I realized that they could never love me, no matter what I did. So I… in that moment, as I heard the soldiers approaching… I… I hated them.”
With a deep exhale, Sombra lowered his head until his horn was practically touching the canvas. “That’s all the darkness needed to take them.”
His voice faded in the quiet, and Twilight could only stare at him with wide eyes, trembling lightly as the understanding of what had happened settled over her thoughts. Some semblance of her mind must have remained calm, because a voice reminded her of when she had once used dark magic. It required a remarkable amount of control—one wrong thought, and the darkness could consume a pony.
Maybe it wasn’t completely his fault… from what she knew of his parents, she didn’t like them… but she didn’t think they deserved what had happened. And his innocent brother? His entire family...
“W-what about your aunt?” Twilight stammered in confusion, and Sombra lifted his gaze to her. “Why did you conquer the Crystal Empire?
Sombra frowned deeply and turned his head away. “I just… when I realized what… what I had done... I blamed my parents… the guards. I blamed them all—everypony but myself.” His lips drew back in a furious sneer. “When the soldiers arrived, I could only think about taking what was rightfully mine. The guards stood no chance against my newfound power, so my aunt was forced to flee. She managed to escape with the few able soldiers she had left.”
Twilight felt a spark of relief, because he hadn’t gone after the princess with the intentions of using her as a magic source. Her disappearance had a reasonable explanation. “So your aunt got out of the Empire before it disappeared, but your parents—”
“Were consumed,” Sombra interrupted her, his snout wrinkling with a rumble of his voice. “Along with my brother. They were used as a power source for the umbrum appendicem. This…” His arms reached up and wrapped around his horn. “This accursed thing—!”
Sombra grunted, shifting his grip as if he were trying to pull the horn from his head, but it didn’t budge. It was a part of him, whether he wanted it or not. With an angry shout, Sombra suddenly picked up the painting and heaved it at the wall, snarling when it hit the fireplace mantle and cracked in half.
“Sombra—!” Twilight scrambled backward as he lumbered toward the broken chair. “Sombra, please!” She lit her horn, and it feebly sparked, but her magic managed to wrench his head around to face her before shorting out, and she stared up at him with her brows furrowed in concern.
Sombra froze when his eyes landed on her, and he tentatively stepped closer, lowering himself to all fours in front of her. He lifted his palm to carefully wipe beneath her eye, and Twilight felt the wetness of fallen tears spread across her cheek.
“Some friend I am; all I ever do is make you cry,” Sombra quietly lamented, gently brushing his paw against her fur. “I just keep hurting others. I wish I could say that the corruption of magic made me this way… but I think... I was always like this… even before I found that accursed spellbook.”
Twilight lifted her front hooves to wrap around his wrist, closing her eyes as she pressed into his warmth. She focused on that, choosing to ignore the uncertainty in the back of her mind. She only wanted to see the Sombra that stood before her. “I didn’t know you before now, but I’ve seen the good you can do. Regardless of everything that’s happened, you’re not the villain you think you are.”
A cold chill touched her cheek when Sombra pulled away and turned toward the balcony. He slid his claws over the surface of the small, rounded table housing the enchanted rose and stared forlornly at its glittering petals. “Face it, Twilight, this storybook simply turned me into what I really am…”
“The Beast isn't a monster,” Twilight insisted with confidence in her tone while quickly moving to his side. “He's redeemable, just like you are. You've made mistakes… but you’ve also helped me.”
Sombra shook his head with a growl, averting his gaze away from her. “I was just following a script,” he grumbled.
Twilight sighed and placed her hooves on the surface of the table to shoot Sombra a stern frown. "We may be stuck in these roles, but the feelings are still our own." Hesitantly, she reached over and touched his paw, moving her hoof around slowly to feel that warmth radiating from his palm. "You're capable of honesty and loyalty, maybe some kindness at times and... friendship definitely… and… and maybe more..." Twilight lowered her gaze, feeling her face flush when his eyes moved over her. "That's what… p-probably scared the windigo away..."
Sombra didn't say anything more; he simply closed his claw around her hoof and squeezed it gently, and much to Twilight’s confusion, she felt her heart flutter in response.
Because, despite all that he had done, she believed that there was good in him—and that only made her all the more baffled. It wasn’t the same feeling as when they were trapped in The Little Mermare. It was something different. Something new… something that wasn’t there before.
Stats
Page generated in 0.016 seconds
Total duration
995 users online
1,305,263 hits today, 2,364,530 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Aww, this was a very lovely chapter. I really love the comforting Twilight offers Sombra and how their relationship has grown. I also adore the dynamic of teamwork and siblinghood that Twilight and Spike have in this, and how Twilight wanted to seek him out.
Awwwww
When one gets shunned enough by everyone they know and love, it doesn’t take much to drive that person down the teetering path of darkness, for there was no one there to pull him from the brink.
Can this completely be Sombra’s fault? He wasn’t born evil. He didn’t choose to become evil. He was pushed along the path of evil. Nurture played a massive role in making him this way — a psychologically damaged, unloved, alienated, lonely, and resentful person whose hate was the only thing left in him to keep pushing him along.
All magic comes with a price.
All aboard! ;p
9272375
What most do not realize, is what the price is, and whether or not it's negotiable!
Oh man...when Sombra said back in the Robin Hood arc that Twilight "didn't have the price" for that spell or whatever, I never imagined that his backstory would be like that!
Yikes.
Well, I'm glad he's softened up as much as he has.
I wonder one thing. The story calls for the beauty to truly fall in love with the beast to break the curse. So will it be enough to just play along the story and say "I love you" when the final petal's about to fall or does Twilight truly have to love Sombra?
Aaah!
I completely forgot about this story and it wasn't on my tracking for some reason and now I feel bad and now I have to read the story from the beginning.
Not that I mind though, 'tis a good fic
Sombra really fits the role of the beast quite snugly.
With Twilight looking past his obvious "deviousness" as perceived by everyone there are fewer and fewer things standing in the way of them lovingly kissing each other as they rematerialise in Front of Cadence et co.
Wait... I'm caught up? How did that happen?
For the most part I've held off on commenting, but I like where you're going with each story. In The Lost Foals, they were forced to set aside their differences to cooperate. They were still adversaries for Robin Hood, but Twilight's morality wouldn't let Sombra be executed, which led the storybook to make them allies for The Snow Queen, where Sombra also recognized he needed to put some effort into their friendship. Since nopony had seen him as just another pony in so long, his feelings for Twilight started to grow, and in The Little Mermare the Prince had to figure out his feelings for the mermare. Then, just like in Beauty and the Beast, it was Twilight's turn to figure out her feelings for Sombra. I've seen some guess that Sleeping Beauty will be the last story, but that doesn't make a lot of sense considering this work is told from Twilight's perspective, and we'd either have to shift to another character's or have a very short retelling since she's, you know, asleep for the whole thing.
If we follow the logical progression, then the next story should be about them figuring out what their feelings for each other mean to them and what they mean to everypony once they escape the storybook. That's one of the themes in Tangled, but that particular situation fits another older story better: two ponies, both alike in dignity, who represent factions at odds with one another but love each other, but their star-crossed love might be the way for there to be peace, perhaps? While Romeo and Juliet may not be a traditional fair tale, it certainly has a sort of fairy tale status in modern culture. Not only that, but since both characters die in the end, it would be a logical way for the storybook to get them back out into the real world.
Holy crap, they nearly shattered Flurry.
Turns out dark magic really is a bad plan.
Ahh, I recognize that lyric.
The entire time I've been reading their journey through Beauty and the Beast I've hhad a tale as old as time stuck in my head.
9275959
Oh, I think we already know the answer to that question.
I have no deep and meaningful insight or constructive critism to share with anyone, I'm just writing this comment 'cos I'm in love with the story so far. Thank you for writing it!
Keep up the awesomness and have a good day!
Is a new chapter going to come out anytime in the near future?
9404011
It's very close. 
I am finishing up the last edits for the next chapter this week, then it just needs to be proofread.
9404371
Awesome, can’t wait. Keep up the good work, really love the story.
9404371
Can hardly wait!
can't wait.
Twilight's falling in love with King Sombra may have unintended consequences. After they get out of the storybook and he shows to be reformed, he'll reclaim the Crystal Empire as its rightful ruler
. There's even precedent for turning to the darkness, since Luna has her throne. Still, that does go to explain some things. Though it's not that common a trope in MLP fics to focus on racial envy between ponies, the show just about makes Earth ponies the third wheel to the unicorns with their magic and the pegasi with their wings.
Alright thats a nice reference to the song.