King Sombra sat upon his throne looking down among all of his slaves, it was so easy to take over the kingdom and it only took a matter of days before he was able to enslave them all. He listened closely to the sounds of the chains dragging on the ground, the chains that ruled his subjects, it was a beautiful sound to him and so he laughed his evil laugh. Next to him stood his personal servant, Calliope. She was a pinkish crystal pony pegasus that he adored, she could play music better than anyone he had ever heard but yet she was scared of him, which was probably for the best so he could control her.
“Calliope could you play that song for me again on your steam piano thing?” He asked, but she just growled at him and shouted.
“Its called a CALLIOPE!! And music shouldn't be forced,” Then she sat down and crossed her hooves. Sombra was amused, so far she was the only one who ever talked back to him, but at the same time it angered him, no one talks back to King Sombra.
“Now now, you know I don't like it when my slaves talk back to me, it really angers me and you wouldn't want me to get mad now would you?” Calliope replied with clenched teeth
“No.. Of.. Course.. Not..” Sombra grinned then petted her mane (which of course she didn't like). She sighed and walked over to her calliope that King Sombra had brought into his castle by completely destroying her bedroom wall and forcing her to drag it the whole way. She carefully held her hooves over the keys as it was very difficult to play without fingers, then began to play. It was such a beautiful song, even Sombra couldn't keep from grinning, but then he suddenly came up with an idea.
“Stop the music!” He shouted. The music abruptly stopped, which caused Calliope to cringe. King Sombra began to piece his plan together, then he began to laugh. Suddenly he grabbed Calliope and brought her to the very top of the castle from where the whole empire was visible. He used his hoof to point to various parts of the empire. He cleared his throat then spoke in his deep raspy voice.
“Now even as ruler, there are still places of… resistance,” He winced, the word seemingly painful to him. Then pointed to a strange building near the corner of the Crystal Empire.
“Of course I always love a challenge, but sometimes things can get a bit out of hand and soon the ponies here might start to get some hope,” He paused expecting Calliope to ask what he meant, but she stood there silently. He intensified his pointing to express his anger.
“Those ponies in that single building believe they can overthrow me so easily, well they are sadly mistaken, and here is the best part— they don't know that I know what they know.. you know?”
“Uhh sure..?”
He sighed, clearly disappointed about her reactions to all this.
“You know what—“ He gritted his teeth then quickly spoke out his plan.
“Basically I just need some pony to sneak in there pretending to be one of them and then come back and report to me what their plan is so I can stop it right in its tracks…” He let that last part echo. Suddenly Calliope was alert.
“W-w.. wait you mean.. me..?”
King Sombra just grinned, and she grew angry.
“NO I will NEVER help a disgusting creature like YOU!” She shouted. He just kept grinning then spoke.
“Like you have a choice,” Then he began to laugh like it was the funniest joke he had ever told.