//------------------------------// // Drowning Sorrows // Story: Sons of Damas // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Crystal Light was a crystal pony, and had grown up happy. His Cutie Mark of a glass and spoon showed his talent for mixing drinks, earned when his childhood lemonade stand had been the most successful because he had used more than just crystal lemons in the drinks, creating unique and delicious flavors. As he'd grown into adulthood, the sort of drinks he mixed had changed from fruit and vegetable cocktails to the sort respectable stallions really shouldn't drink but did anyway. He'd even opened up his own establishment to mix drinks of a wide variety of sorts for paying patrons, the adult version of his old lemonade stand. The happiness this had brought had lasted until Sombra's reign. Then Crystal Light had been offered the choice of mixing drinks specifically for Sombra, or him and his family being down in the crystal mines. He had mixed drinks, never daring to do anything to endanger those he cared about. And then Sombra had been overthrown, and he hadn't even been able to remember that he was a bartender. And then Sombra had walked in the door of the establishment with somepony who made Sombra look like a child playing dress up on Darkest Night(1), the curse of forgetfulness had been lifted from Crystal Light, and he'd been told to start serving drinks. Of course, he'd done what he'd always done, mixing drinks while pretending not to listen. Before too long, however, this became trying desperately to not listen, as even the snatches of conversation he heard between drinks as they shared stories that made his skin crawl... "...so for the next year they had me locked to a table, injecting me with that Dark stuff..." Black Knight explained as he drank. "Just...shootin' me up like I was a dartboard or somethin...course, they didn't really know what they were doing..." "Yeah, gov'mnt's like that," Sombra slurred, being far more drunk than Black Knight despite having had the same amount of alcohol...likely because alicorn physiology processed alcohol far better than standard equine physiology. "Do what they think best...don' ask quesshuns...all hail the crown!" He chugged back another glass. "But...that wasn't the worst of it," Black Knight groaned. "Even when they threw me out like garbage cause it seemed it didn't work, that wasn't the worst of it..." "What wus the worst?" Sombra asked curiously. "Jak - my bro - found out the guy wasn't right in the head cause o' his own darkness...so he spared him!" Black Knight snapped out. "He...he could forgive and let go...but I couldn't. But he was in charge, I was helpin' him...so I had to stand next to the guy who did all that to me - the guy I hated with a passion...and just pretend like everything was alright!" Black Knight chucked his empty bottle across the room as Crystal Light gave him another. "Just...pretend I didn' relive every moment of that torture every time I looked at him...pretend I forgave him! But...it was for my bro. I...I love mah bro...and he knew what he was doin. It...it was his story. I was...I was just along for the ride...makin' things interestin." "Harsh..." Sombra offered consolingly, patting Shining on the shoulder with one hoof on the third try. "Kinda like what happened with me..." "So that...that bloody Heart was killin' me, bit by bit...and she knew!" Sombra wailed, chugging back his next shot. "That royal bitch knew I was Umbrum all along, knew the light o' the Heart was slowly killin' me every year...and she did nothin'! She just...let it happen! I just couldn'a take it. I...I didn't like workin' for the Umbrum, erasing the Fair - oh Hope! Ya loved the Fair, I never wanted ta stop it, I wanted ya ta see it! - but they were right all along! So...so I stoned her...broke her...scattered the pieces..." He sniffled loudly, burying his face in his glass. "The look on her face, Blacky...I'll never forget it! I just...I'd take it all back if I could, but I can't...and there wasn'a other way..." "There there, bro..." Black Knight offered comfortingly, patting him on the back. "But...ya know the Umbrum were just usin' ya as a weapon, like what the Baron meant fer me and me bro..." "Well, ah see it now..." Sombra murmured. "Hearin' yer tale, ah see the...what's it called, two lines not meeting..." "Parallellallellallells?" Black Knight suggested. "Them's the birds!" Sombra confirmed. "And...it's not like there was another option..." "Wusn' Rady...Radical...Radiant, that's it, Radiant Hope...wusn' she bein' sent ta study with Celestia?" Black Knight inquired drunkenly. "...yeah...she was leavin' me..." "Why not jus' go wit her?" Black Knight suggested. "Ah mean...no Crystal Heart in Canterlot. She sounded smart...bet she'da had a way for you to see the Fair like..." He attempted several times to knock his hooves together to make a snapping sound, only to miss each time. He finally settled for laying his forelegs flat on the bar and bringing his hooves together in a clap. "Like dat!" Sombra blinked owlishly as the suggestion worked its way through his alcohol addled brain. He then promptly slammed his face against the bar. "Ah'm such an idjit!" he wailed, beginning to blubber endlessly. "There there, bro...there there..." (2)"...and that's why we have an evil overlord passed out on our couch," Shining concluded in a whisper as he held an ice pack to his forehead to deal with his first ever hangover. He prayed to the Quintessent Progenitors that it would end soon...or that he'd drop dead, he could go either way just now. "Well...that's half my question answered," Cadence murmured softly, doing her best to be considerate of her husband and not laugh uproariously at the story so far. She didn't want him to think she was laughing at his misery...even if it did look rather funny. "The...rest of it?" "Well, as we talked, it turned out he knew where to find Radiant Hope in the present, and he really wanted to make things right with her," Shining continued in a soft whisper. "And, well, I remembered my own attempts at wooing you, and I guess a bit of Daxter rubbed off on me or something, because..." The knock on her door caught Radiant Hope completely off guard. She didn't think anyone knew she was here, or that she had escaped the curse of forgetfulness. Dozens of nightmare scenarios raced through her mind as she tiptoed to the door before creaking it open. "Y-y-yes?" she asked nervously, trying not to give away her identity. However, when she saw who was at the door, she threw it open in shock. "S-Sombra?" Sombra grinned at her, his eyes somewhat off center as he staggered back and forth. "H-hit it, bro!" he stammered. Behind him, a stranger stallion who somewhat resembled Sombra with bat wings threw a switch on a large metal thing with grates. Discordant music rang out from it as the two stallions began bobbing their heads up and down, and Sombra began to sing in a surprisingly rich baritone. "All I ever wanted Is to see you smiling" "Smiling!" the other stallion echoed. "I know that I love you Oh baby why don't you see That all I ever wanted Is you and me" Radiant Hope did her best to maintain her composure between the confession, the singing, and the rather obviously drunken attempt at dancing. She managed to keep from reacting visibly until the song reached its conclusion and Sombra fell onto his back in front of her. At that point, she burst into laughter. "Sombra, are...are you drunk?" "Not drunk!" Sombra insisted defensively. "Corec term...is plastered!" "Better be, with how much we drank!" the stranger stallion called out. "Got that right, Blacky!" Sombra confirmed before belching. "'scuse me." "But why do all this drunk?" Radiant Hope demanded, struggling to make sense of it. "Never coulda faced you sober," Sombra offered sorrowfully, tears pouring up his forehead from his eyes, since he still hadn't managed to flip himself upright. "Rady...'m so sorry. I just...jus wanted ta see the Fair with ya...just like you always said. But...but it all went wrong. But ah'm gonna make it right! Gonna give back the Heart, gonna put Amore back together - even if she dunna deserve it fer not tellin' me what was makin' me sick - and then I'm...I'm gonna do whatever it takes ta win ya back! Ah...ah can't live without ya in my life, Rady..." "Hey...thash a difren song!" 'Blacky' called out. "Think I got it on here..." Tears poured down Radiant Hope's cheeks as she threw herself at the stallion on his back before her. "Sombra...you don't have to do anything to win me back...I'm so sorry I turned my back on you when I did. I...I never should have-" On instinct, Sombra silenced her with a kiss. Rolling his eyes, 'Blacky' carried the pair in his magic towards the palace. They didn't look like they'd be paying attention to the world around them until at least past morning. "...and that's why the couch is sticky," Shining concluded, sipping black coffee, glad this beverage lacked the usual crystal sheen of everything else in the kingdom. "...could have been worse," Cadence admitted. She smiled as she stared at the two star-crossed ponies of ancient times, still wrapped in each other even as they slumbered. As Princess of Love, she couldn't help but be touched at such a sight, and couldn't bring herself to object. Less pleasant thoughts had assailed her, and she was glad they weren't true. "I thought that was because of all the booze not..." She trailed off, not wanting to say it aloud. "No, that's the carpet. Sorry 'bout that." (1) Equestria later turned this holiday into Nightmare Night after Nightmare Moon occurred. The only major difference was that it was generic monsters that fillies and colts were dressing up to hide from (they didn't hunt their own) with the candy offering so they wouldn't hunt beyond that day. Originally, Nightmare Moon was simply added to the list of monsters, though within a few centuries the holiday in mainland Equestria had mutated to be all about her. (2) WIld Balance was right, I had to include this line.