Deep in the Crystal Castle's library, Twilight Sparkle was already busy gathering what information she could on curses and spells relating to the Crystal Heart. Perilously stacked towers of books loomed on each side of the desk she worked at, threatening to collapse at any moment as she flipped from page to page and book to book with her magic. Each collection of knowledge stayed in its home for only a moment before the young alicorn glossed over all the book had to offer her, and placed near her side atop the ever growing towers of literature. Her most recent find, however, gave her pause. Its cover was bound in purple crystal, etched with arcane symbols and wording that Twilight had never seen before. From what she was able to piece together, she was certain that the book referenced King Sombra.
"Please tell me you've found something, Twilight." The exhausted voice of Princess Cadence pleaded, pulling down the top of the book with her hoof. Queen Sanguine was waiting impatiently nearby, glaring at Shining Armor and Flurry Heart with a look of hatred so intense it threatened to cause a repeat of the Library of Aleks-sandria's burning. "The Queen is getting more unbearable by the moment, and the changelings outside are getting restless."
Twilight nodded hopefully. "I think I have found something," she replied, setting the crystalline book down with a loud clank that scratched the glass table. "Oops, sorry!"
"What is it?" The rapidly approaching orange queen asked, "Something to do with the curse?"
Twilight pointed to the odd book in front of her. "I think this has something to do with King Sombra, but I'm not familiar with any of the wording on it." She scratched her chin in thought, scanning each line of the odd symbols that were carved into the crystal. "Maybe if we-" She began, before an aura of orange fire lifted the book from the table and floated it towards Queen Sanguine. "What are you doing?" Twilight inquired quite grumpily.
After a moment of searching eyes, Sanguine huffed in annoyance and tossed the book back to Twilight. "I have no idea of what this even says."
Twilight caught the book in her magic easily, giving a look of deadpanned annoyance. "Really? Didn't see that one coming."
The orange queen growled in annoyance, already making her way to the exit of the library. "Find a cure for this curse, and quickly, or these hives are going to lose their minds as soon as their carapace turns white."
The four ponies present watched Sanguine leave in what they were becoming to know as her typical state of being: furious with a side of livid. As if to affirm that observation, the door slammed with excessive loudness on her way out, leaving dust to fall like a blanket on the rest of the library.
"No pressure." Spike replied, waving dust away from his face and bringing yet another book to the table. "Find anything yet?"
Twilight returned her attention to the mysterious crystal book in her magical grasp, floating it over to the table and moving the book that Spike had provided to the side with a gentle shove. "This book says something about King Sombra, but I'm not sure what it is. There's all kinds of runes and encryption on it, and knowing a little about King Sombra's magic from when we defeated him, it probably isn't the best idea to open it."
The ponies and dragon stared at the book for a short moment before Spike spoke up once again with a weary sigh. "That mean's we're going to open it, doesn't it?"
Twilight's smile was wide, "Yep! Nopony ever learned anything by staring at the cover of a possibly dark magic warded tome, did they?"
Claw swung to meet forehead faster than swift vengeance against a mosquito. "I knew we were going to do something like this today." Spike groaned.
"Everypony ready?" Twilight asked to the few gathered. Her magic was already pulling at the crystal snap binding that fastened the book together with eager readiness.
"Hold on, Twily. I'm going to put Flurry Heart somewhere safe. Do you want to come along, Cadence? She doesn't mind naptime as much when you're around." Shining Armor interrupted, once more adjusting the harness that held the wiggling filly on his backside.
Cadence gave a pat between Twilight's wings. "I'm sure you and Spike can handle some research in the library, Twilight. Good luck, and please hurry; I may be the leader of the Crystal Empire, but I don't think even Princess Celestia has the patience to deal with Queen Sanguine for long."
Spike gave a quick salute to Princess Cadence, his chest puffed with duty and determination. "We've got this covered, Princess Cadence!"
Exchanging farewells, Cadence and Shining Armor soon left the room with Flurry Heart, only to catch an ear full of complaints from Queen Sanguine on their way out. Some of the wording was quite colorful, with Twilight and Spike thankful that the heavy door to the library closed quickly to drown most of the noise out.
Looking down to the ominous book, Twilight took a deep breath. "Welp," She announced while tugging at the strap, "Here goes nothing!"
Twilight squinted at the book in preparation for whatever wall of magic that might erupt from the runes on the book's cover, pulling the book strap apart with an anticlimactic click. Blinking and opening her eyes fully, she noticed that Spike had taken cover underneath the table itself. "Oh. Well, I guess that was kind of silly." Twilight noted, laughing nervously to herself. "I mean, I only thought it said something about Sombra, right? What would he do, make it explode in our face?"
"Hmmph. That would have been a good idea, now that you mention it."
Twilight felt a snake of cold slither down her backside at the sound of that deep voice. She had heard it before, and if she was right, the opening of the book unleashed something far worse than an explosion. Her shoulders next to her head from involuntary squeaking, she slowly turned to see her fears realized... somewhat.
"What are you staring at me like that for?" King Sombra asked, his eyes red and cloaked in shadow. "Do I have something in my teeth?"
His 'smile', if it could be called such a thing, was a horror story incarnate. Something to tell to young fillies and colts to make them stay in bed at night. This was offset somewhat by his unexpectedly genuine pursuit of debris with his forked tongue, his head listing slightly with determined focus.
"Um... Twilight?" Spike asked cautiously, "Is this real?"
Twilight was frozen for the most part, staring wide eyed at King Sombra. "I... I hope not," She shakily replied.
Finding nothing of note, King Sombra gave up his search and focused on the two in front of him. His voice cast a fog around the library, dripping with malice and hate. "You've opened my journal." He stared at Twilight and Spike for an uncomfortable amount of time, his jaw tensing with the accompaniment of a loud chomp. After what seemed like an eternity, the fog lifted abruptly, and the cloak of shadow that obscured King Sombra's face went along with it. "You also haven't run away screaming yet, so this must be fairly important."
King Sombra and Twilight stared at another for a while, neither speaking a word. Finally, Spike was the first to break the stalemate. "So... are you really King Sombra?"
The dark unicorn in plated armor turned his head slowly towards Spike, leaning down to eye level. His red horn jabbed uncomfortably against Spike's forehead and Sombra smiled wide. "Actually... no."
Twilight collapsed with a gush of air from relief onto the flood below her almost immediately. Spike glanced over with understandable concern, only to find that 'Sombra' was already looming over Twilight.
"An Alicorn? Well, I mean a purple alicorn," Sombra commented, poking Twilight's side. "Just how many of you are there now? One was bad enough, and clearly two was far too much, but three? You're kidding me."
Spike held his head with one of his claws as he walked over to Twilight. "Okay, this is really confusing. What's going on?"
Sombra smiled once more, his teeth strangely normal in appearance. "It's fairly simple if you have all the facts, tiny dragon. You've come into my Library in search of knowledge or gossip, and stumbled across my personal journal." What was even more concerning is that his voice was pleasant at this point, and gone was any sense of danger. "Since I'm not able to flay your flesh from bones, that must mean that I'm asleep again."
Well, so much for the sense of safety.
"Spike?" Twilight called, pushing herself from the floor. "Are we dreaming, or is this really happening?"
"I dunno, I thought you were the magic expert." Spike replied while assisting her in standing. Sombra waited patiently by their side, not lending a hoof in assistance.
When the two had collected their senses and dusted themselves, Sombra spoke once again. "So, you've broken the spell on the cover and not run in terror from meeting me. What is it that you want?"
Twilight had a mental checklist the size of Cloudsdale for all the questions she needed answers to right now, but one stuck at the front of her memory. "How do we stop the curse of the Crystal Heart to cure the changelings?"
Sombra's body froze for a moment, his eyes scanning and twitching from side to side in a blur. His face slowly contorted into one of absolute confusion before replying, "I'm sorry, what?"
Spike and Twilight shared a nervous glance. "You placed a curse on the Crystal Heart against changelings?" Twilight asked nervously, "How do you remove the curse?"
Sombra gave a helpless smirk before shaking his head. "What year is this? A curse? Changelings? Alicorn, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"It's over a thousand years since the banishment of Nightmare Moon." Twilight replied with a reflexive academic tone.
Sombra blinked with a lack of comprehension. "Who?"
Spike face-clawed and pulled Twilight's ear to his mouth. "Twilight, If this is really Sombra, then he was 'sleeping' before Nightmare Moon even existed. Princess Celestia and Luna defeated Sombra before all of that happened, remember?"
Her mouth scrunched by obvious facts being made known to her once again, Twilight attempted a new line of inquiry. "What is the last date in the journal?"
Sombra smiled at the request. "Well, the last recorded date is 873 A.D.," He placed a hoof near his mouth to whisper excitedly, "That means 'After Discord', in case you were unaware."
Twilight's eyes went wide with wonder, whispering in awe. "That long ago!?"
"Twilight, we have a very angry changeling queen outside who's waiting on us with an army of starving drones with very sharp fangs. Ask the spooky 'not Sombra' about a history lesson later, okay?" Spike insisted, tapping on Twilight's side with a pointed claw.
"Oh, you're right." Twilight realized, shaking her head free of the many unrelated questions she had. "King Sombra, I-"
"Please, Sombra is fine." He insisted, a hoof pressed formally against his breastplate.
"Uh, Sombra, then." Twilight continued, regaining her train of thought. "Have you ever encountered a Changeling before?"
Sombra's eyes searched through the nothingness in front of him once more before returning with a confused expression. "I've never heard of that name before."
"They're a bit taller than you are," Spike explained, "Holes in their hooves, kind of bug-like, feed off love and really angry all the time?"
A faint spark of recognition played across Sombra's face. "Those things?" He asked incredulously. "They're what drove you to invade my journal? What, did you steal one of their Queens or something? You should've known better than to kidnap royalty, even if they're a hideous abomination!"
"Well, its more complicated than that, Sombra." Twilight replied, realizing in that moment how absurd it was that she was now speaking to what was essentially the ghost of an evil unicorn king. "One of the changeling queens is using some kind of device to banish all of the other queens to a different reality."
Sombra stood still for a moment, his face frozen.
"Um, Sombra?" Spike asked, waving a claw in front of his face.
"No," He suddenly replied, shaking his head, "I still have no idea what you're talking about."
Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground and roared in frustration. "You've got to be messing with us!"
Sombra shrugged. "And what if I was? I'm just a book brought to life, what are you going to do, burn me?"
The look in Twilight's eyes soon made Sombra realize that the act was indeed in the realm of possibility at this point in time, and he soon backpedaled his previous remark. "W-wait! Alright, I know that I'm made of crystal and that I won't easily burn, but that doesn't mean I want to slow roast in a forge room either. These runes are delicate, you know!"
"Tell us everything you know about the device, and changelings. Now." Twilight demanded with a tone that allowed no dissent.
"Well, you'd better find someplace to sit, because it's going to take a long while." Sombra smiled nervously, motioning politely to a nearby chair. "Seriously, you should get water and food for your mortal shells."
"Oh, well in that case, I'm going to make sandwiches. You want any, Twilight?" Spike asked, already headed for the door out of the Library.
Twilight's face was scrunched in annoyance, but her grumbling stomach soon betrayed her. "Fine," She shouted after Spike. "Whatever's available, but no Jalapenos this time, alright?" After a moment, Twilight took notice of Sombra's confused expression. "What?"
"What is a 'Jalapenos'?" Sombra asked with a raised brow.