Starlight decides that Fiducia Compelus can help her in learning a friendship lesson.

Rainbow decides that mind control spells aren't her thing.

Twilight decides that leaving Starlight alone may have been a bad idea.

Featured: 6/26/17

The village had been perfect, free from the inequality and misery rampant throughout the rest of Equestria. Then Twilight Sparkle and her so-called friends arrived and ruined everything.

But all hope is not lost. Starlight Glimmer has a plan to restore her lost utopia on a much vaster scale.

After all, it's not like that purple princess was friends with anything worse.

Story contains spoilers for the Season 5 premiere, nonspecific allusions to torture, and nuts. Story does not contain Nikita Khruschev or shoes.

This story is a sequel to A Mad Glimmer

The plan had been perfect, taking everything from Twilight Sparkle and trapping her in a no-win situation. Then Twilight showed Starlight the alleged consequences of her actions.

But there's a bit more to the story. Starlight Glimmer has paid a heavy price, but there's one more debt to call in.

After all, Discord doesn't make idle threats.

Story contains spoilers for the Season 5 finale, potentially disturbing imagery, and nuts. Story still does not contain Nikita Khrushchev or shoes.

Tirek's brother Scorpan never really accepted his brother could wander so far off the good path. Deluded and crazed from missing him, he has one simple goal: break his brother out. To do that, he will need magic beyond anything he's seen before. DARK magic.

With the discovery that Sombra is not only the lone survivor of the Umbrum race, but may not have been completely destroyed, he sets out to locate what remains of Sombra's horn. From this he is able ressurect the former tyrant and keep him captive. Day by day, draining his magic. But thats just the start. He has other plans for the Umbrum pony's magic abilities...

When a passing bird finds its way into the cave, it delivers this news to Fluttershy. On Celestia's orders she and the others go to find Sombra and try stop Scorpan's plans.

But the Sombra they bring back to Canterlot isnt the former foe they once knew. Lost and afraid, his mind fractured by Scorpan's torture, Sombra seems out of thier reach. Now they have to race against an incoming doom to try and heal the broken King before it reaches Canterlot.

But how will things fare when Discord gets invovled? Can his unorthodox methods break Sombra's nightmares into dust and get him on his feet, or will the unicorn finally lose hope?

When the sky over the Crystal Empire is split open by a dark tear, Celestia, Cadance, Luna and Twilight must figure out a way to stop it. But in order to defeat darkness, sometimes you NEED darkness. And that leaves only one option; Sombra.

With his powers under lock down, and a growing connection to the strange darkness, can Sombra learn what it really takes to earn an empires respect, or will he abandon them to the darkness from another world?

UPDATED: Chapter one re-formatted, extra bits added, general tidying.

Edited by Dream Seeker!
Further helped into readableness by Hail King Sombra!

Now with a dramatic reading by AShadowOfCygnus!

Sombra.
The name that makes ponies everywhere tremble.
The name that is the definition of cruelty.
The name that strikes fear into the hearts of all that hear it.
And that's really all that anypony can say. Ponies everywhere wonder what really goes on inside the head of the legendary crystal tyrant. What dreams and thoughts of malice could possibly sustain such cruelty?

What actually goes on inside Sombra's head might surprise everypony...

A big thanks to the amazing Mickeymonster for letting me use the cover art. Check it out here!

Evil is as evil does. Therefore, King Sombra is a monster, and there's no debating it. So when Sombra is discovered alive it should be obvious that he's up to nothing good and needs to be taken down... So why isn't he doing anything? Twilight Sparkle is sent in to try to answer this question by talking to him, while she also tries to determine what the future will hold for the ex-king. Is there even a chance for Sombra's future? Or is the shadow of his actions destined to destroy him?

Cover art by Flam3Zero used with permission.

Throughout the multiverse, sphinxes are enigmatic beings. Some are merely monsters with inscrutable motives, while others guide entire civilizations towards goals only they understand. No matter the world, a sphinx is a mystery given form, and Equestria is no different.

Of course, some mysteries have more satisfying solutions than others.

Now available in video form thanks to Spore Harvest.

Thanks to SirNotAppearingInThisFic and Bugsydor for editing and general helpful bickering.

Warning! Spoilers for "Keep Calm and Flutter On!"

Fluttershy managed to do the impossible. She's befriended Discord, the Spirit of Chaos, former evil overlord of Equestria and taught him that friendship is magic. However, in the aftermath of all this, the master of confusion finds himself completely baffled by one thing. One question that in his entire life he'd never desired to have an answer to; why? Why after so many eons, was friendship important to him?

My Little Pony Belongs to Hasbro.

Preview pic by C-Puff on Deviantart!

The elders tell of times long past, when throughout the plains, hyenas massed.
Yet they were not as we are now; naught but beasts they were, strong, fierce, and fast.
And they acted as befits a beast—procreation, slaughter, feast—
Till a Monster came, we know not how. Through Him, lowliness soon ceased.

A poem, with a short scene framing it. Entry for the World-Building Alliance's January writing contest, where it earned an honorable mention.