//------------------------------//
// Chapter 69 
// Story: A New Beginning in a New Land 
// by REDACTED99999 
//------------------------------//

Luna felt… uncomfortable. She kept moving around on her soft seat, unable to find the perfect spot.
On her right side, Jax… or at the moment, Sombra, was busy trying to dismiss Pinkie, who sat on his other side. Much like Luna, he was trying to do the impossible. She would never find a good spot, and he would never be able to dismiss the pink ball of energy.
She looked out of the chariots window once again, trying to get her thoughts in order. It was a futile attempt, since everything screamed at her that they were going too slowly. That she needed to do this as fast as possible. The small fluffy clouds, the beautiful landscape that changed from different kinds of green and brown, to a pristine white mass of snow and ice… it was all going by painfully slow… no matter how fast their four guards were flying.
She had a feeling she would feel that way about all speeds, unless Rainbow got out there and Sonic Rainboom’ed them to their destination.
That would be a sight. She wondered how it was to travel at such speed. It must be invigorating.
She tried to change position again, but it for naught. It was not that she was uncomfortable, it was because she was restless. She wanted for this all to be over so badly, she had to convince her body that spreading her wings and grabbing Jax was not going to help anything. If anything, it would just allow Sombra to do something. She could not quite figure out what he would do, since he seemed fairly content to do as planned. She could not quite figure what his scheme was... or if he even had one.
Twilight had tried out his spell under the watchful eye of her and Celestia, and it really did as promised. The only thing that could be somehow trapped was the crystal, but it was not as if they were just going to use them without testing them first. Luna knew enough about dark magic to be able to identify anything suspicious, and Twilight was not only the Element of Magic, her very cutie mark represented magic. There should not be a way that could fool them both.
She looked over to the culprit of most of her recent worries, only to be met by Jax’ back. Sombra seemed to finally have enough of Pinkie, and was holding her against the other door, while whispering something aggressively, yet low enough that none of the others could hear. 
She was just about to interfere, when she saw Pinkie’s eyes widen, not in fear or even realization but… curiosity? After a short pause she nodded, and Sombra pulled back, yet even though he had been the one who had been aggressive, he looked like he had somehow lost, or like he regretted something.
Pinkie was still smiling, giving him the peace he had obviously wanted. Then why did he not look satisfied?
Luna looked at Twilight, Rainbow and Beating on the opposite bench, but they looked as confused as she felt.
Rainbow rustled her wings at the same time Luna did. Apparently Luna was not the only one who wanted to get this over with.
“I’m going for a flight!” Rainbow suddenly declared and got up.
“I shall join thee.” Luna all but shouted, glad to escape the slightly cramped chariot. She opened the door and jumped out, spreading her wings after a short fall.
“Ah! Pinkie!” She heard from above her. She saw Rainbow plummet with Pinkie on her back, before regaining control. “Warn me before you do something like that!”
Pinkie just giggled. “Sorry Dashie, I didn’t mean to surprise you.”
Luna’s small smile vanished as she took in the landscape underneath her. They were close to the Frozen North. She could see the edge of snow up ahead, less than an hour of flight.
She would have to put more clothes on Jax before they arrived. 

***
Beating Heart shuffled around nervously. In one second more than half their numbers had disappeared, and she was all but alone with the wolf known as Sombra. Sombra was wearing the body of her friend Jax and it was creeping her out. The cheerful, joking and most of all - kind being that Jax was, had been replaced by something so cold. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it, even now.
He sat opposite her, looking at the scenery outside… or maybe not really looking at anything at all, but was rather deep in thought. Thinking about sinister things, no doubt. She didn’t understand how Princess Twilight could look so calm in the situation, almost as if she wasn’t bothered at all… maybe she wasn’t? Maybe after all she had been through, this was a day in the park.
“My offer still stands, you know.” Twilight suddenly said, making Beating jump a bit. Jax - Sombra - slowly turned his head towards her with a blank gaze, seemingly not understanding. “It’s never too late to make the right choice.”
Something close to a smile appeared on his face. It just… it wasn’t Jax’ smile, and that made it uncanny for Beating. “Right. I remember your amazing speech. ‘you are evil. But you don’t have to keep being evil.’ It was so inspiring, it was all I could do to not laugh all the way through it.” He gave her a rather predatory grin. It looked scary, and Beating found herself shaking just a bit, despite it being directed at Twilight.
“So you did hear it after all.” Twilight looked perfectly calm, though she was blushing a bit. Beating wondered what that was all about. “Everypony deserves a second chance, Sombra. If you want to give friendship a chance, then I can show you that having fun with a friend is more enjoyable than sitting on a throne. Trust me, I’ve tried both.”
His smile faded into a frown as he looked back out of the window. “Whatever.”
Beating tilted her head a bit in confusion. That sounded like a way Jax would dismiss something, not something the dark king of the north would say.
“It’s…” she started, her voice shaking a bit. “It’s true. I mean, I don’t know about sitting on a throne, but having friends is nice. Haven’t you had friends before Mr. Sombra?” She wasn’t sure were the ‘Mr’ came from, but she was relieved that she made it through the sentence without stammering.
Apparently it was the wrong thing to say, because he looked annoyed all of a sudden. Alright, maybe more angry than annoyed. “I-I mean, there’s nothing wrong with not having friends, I mean for a long while I didn’t have any either, b-but I think it’s important to realize t-that friendship is right around the corner a-and even humans make f-for good friends a-and….” She wasn’t sure what she was saying, or why she was saying it. Somehow it seemed to work as his glare softened and he turned his head again.
“He really has good friends, hasn’t he?” He asked under his breath. It was probably a sentence that was never supposed to be said out loud.
Beating and Twilight exchanged a look, both wide eyed. They didn’t say anything, but somehow, something had changed. Something small, and almost not even there but also somehow big and amazing, and Beating was proud of being a part of it.
She smiled all the way to their destination.
***
Sombra felt melancholic, probably because of the towers of the Crystal Empire coming closer and closer. He had not felt this way in a long time, and he did not like feeling like this now. His return to the Crystal Empire, to his Empire, was supposed to be a sign of his strength and prowess, a return to take back what was his after extracting revenge upon those who stole it from him. Yet here he was… a failure.
Being a failure, however, was better than becoming a shell of his former self as the positive magic took over. He knew it made those around him, Jax’ friends, uncomfortable when he let Jax control the body. It was probably why they let him take the reins without any fuss. Who could blame them really, it must be hard looking at a shell of a being you used to know so well, and then tell him that you did not need whatever it was he was trying to give you.
Although Luna came back some time ago, the rainbow and pink ones did not, and it worried him. He had dutifully taken on the clothes Luna had given him without any fuss, and now he was just waiting to land and get this over with. They were landing outside the barrier as to not test whether it would affect Jax’ chaos magic or not, and there he would stay until Twilight had retrieved the crystals he had made so long ago.
They finally landed, softly enough that he almost did not notice, and Twilight left him with Luna and Beating, both of which stayed silent, thankfully. He did not need another talk about friendship.
He wished he had a plan. Some kind of great strategy that would give him everything he wanted in one fell swoop.
But he did not. For the longest time now he had debated with himself whether it was safe to use a spell from within Jax’ body while he was in control like this. He knew how it worked, more or less. It had, after all been his plan to use Jax’ magic when he took over his body. Granted, he had not known about the randomness it entailed, and he had pretty much not had a choice at all since he had been under the effect of negative magic. He had seen Jax do something incredible and all he thought was ‘want’.
Now, thanks to Jax’ positive magic which had been high even before he started drawing it in like mad, Sombra could think for himself. And the first thing he had thought was ‘want’.
‘Is there no difference between my Taker self and my normal self?’
It was a troubling thought. When had he become like that? He had hated being a Taker, yet he acted the same way when he was free… then what was the point of being free?
He shook Jax’ head. No, that was the wrong way to think about it… right? Why was he thinking like this anyway? All that had mattered for the longest time was to sit on the throne, but now… now he could barely feel the pull anymore. The drive that had propelled him forward with a reckless abandon was almost gone, and he pretty much wanted the throne by some default setting in his brain.
Of course, that lack of his former pull could be because of the positive magic in the body he occupied.
But was it?
…
He must really have lost sight of who he was somewhere along the way to not be able to answer such a simple question.
He shook Jax’ head again. There was no point in thinking about whether he would use a spell from inside this body or not, since he could not. His ethereal horn was covered in ethereal chains, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Alright, I’ll just put the crystals in the back. You guys go on in. Uhm, it’s going to get a bit cramped but….” Twilight’s voice finally sounded from outside. The door opened, and in came a pink alicorn, a white stallion, the rainbow maned menace, the pink energy ball with a mouth…
And, as if it was not cramped enough, another pony entered after a few seconds, and it was not Twilight.
He would remember those boring, drab colours for the rest of his life. Her gray mane. Her beige coat.
Her shining, amethyst eyes.
“Hidden Gem…”