//------------------------------//
// A Brief Interlude: That Moment Of Dawning Comprehension 
// Story: Unfortunately, I Am The King Of Equestria 
// by Sofa King Zill-E 
//------------------------------//

"We may have a problem."
Rainbow Dash raised her head from her work, and turned to look over at the approaching Maud Pie, then held up a hoof, indicating to wait a moment.  She looked back down, briefly, at Prince Blueblood, who was fitfully struggling to raise his head out of the urine-filled latrine ditch he was currently being drowned in.  Of course, with all of his limbs broken, Dashie didn't really to keep her hoof on the back of his head to keep him there, but she'd always felt that, if you wanted a job done right, you should do it yourself rather than leave it to chance.  A few seconds later, Blueblood quit struggling, and bubbles quit rising.  With a final kick, she knocked his body into the ditch.  A perfect resting place for traitorous filth like this.
Pinkamena was standing nearby, taking care not to look at what had just happened.  She'd refused to be a part of what Dashie had done, but she hadn't tried to stop her either...
Looking back over to Maud, Rainbow Dash asked, "What's up?"
Maud Pie was not the most expressive of ponies.  She rarely talked about how she felt, or expressed an opinion, or even changed facial expressions very often.  It wasn't because anything was wrong with her, it was just the way she way.  However, Pinkamena's head jerked up when she heard what Maud had to say.  Something in her sister's tone of voice rang warning bells.  Big, loud ones.
"Thanks to what just happened, we're going to be stuck supporting King Sombra, no matter what," Maud Pie stated bluntly.
Shocked, Dashie asked, "What... what are you talking about?"
"You just killed Prince Blueblood, the one other pony who has a blood relation to Princess Celestia," Maud explained.  "More to the point, we were seen leaving the palace with Blueblood, and he is not coming back, thanks to you.  Celestia always doted on Blueblood, ignoring his many flaws, and the fact that his actions had a small, but measurable, negative impact on the war effort.  In Celestia's eyes, Blueblood could do no wrong.  So, if Sombra is deposed, and Celestia put on the throne again... what happens to us?"
Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped, as did Pinkamena's, as two and two came together to make four.  Sombra had removed Blueblood's royal privilege, and any protection he had granted to him by law.  Thus, so long as Sombra was in charge, killing Blueblood wasn't a crime at all.  However, there was always the faint hope that maybe something would happen, and the Princess could reclaim the throne.  But if that happened...
Then what Dashie did would be considered regicide.  A very big crime.  Whatever Celestia did to Sombra, she'd do double to Rainbow Dash.  And to Maud and Pinkamena, just for letting it happen.
"The worst part is," Maud added, "we can't claim that Sombra tricked us, or controlled us.  He used no magic on anyone in the room.  It was... very smooth: Blueblood wrote the 'treaty' in his own hoof, and anypony with any sense would have seen that not only was it full of holes wide enough to drive a cart through, but that Sombra was making no effort to hide the fact that he was setting Blueblood up.  Sombra was grinning the entire time: It must have been like a tiger watching his prey season itself, roast itself over an open flame, and then lay down on a silver platter and say 'Dinner is served.'"  She paused, then added, "And then he dropped the hammer on him.  And we reacted exactly how he expected us to, I think."
Dashie's eyes widened in horror as she replayed the last few minutes in her head.  She'd asked if Sombra's proclamation meant that Blueblood was no longer a prince, and then struck the fool directly in the face.  And then Sombra had explained to Blueblood exactly what that farce of a treaty actually entailed.  The tyrant had wrapped it up by saying that, if Dash wanted, she could beat the prince to the brink of death with a chair.  He hadn't commanded her to, or used magic to coerce her, he'd simply mentioned it as an idea, and she'd leapt at it, like a monkey jumping at a low-hanging fruit... not realizing that she'd land in the mother of all pitfalls.
You couldn't even call it being manipulated.  He'd shown them all the door leading to their doom, and all of them had gleefully jumped right through...
"And with Blueblood out of the way, and Nightmare Moon still sealed away, Princess Celestia is the only member of the royal family left," Pinkamena added, putting one more nail in the coffin of realization.  "And Sombra has her right where he wants her."
"We did Sombra's dirty work without him even having to ask us," Rainbow Dash said, with the kind of horror one might normally associate with someone watching an avalanche approaching.  "And it gets even worse: Blueblood might have been scum, but somepony might have tried to use him as a figurehead for a resistance movement.  Having the backing of the last free member of the royalty would have gathered ponies under any banner who had it.  Heck, even if Blueblood were banished from the country, he could have used his clout as a member of royalty to raise an army to retake Equestria almost anywhere he might have ended up."  Looking back at the drowned corpse of what might have been Equestria's last hope, slim as it was, she added, "No loose ends: We did a better job of handing Equestria over to Sombra than even Blueblood did..."
"So, we're stuck supporting Sombra, at least for the foreseeable future," Maud stated, bluntly.  "At least, until we can figure out a way of turning the tables that won't leave Celestia wanting our heads when she's back in power."
'Clever boy,' Maud thought to herself, as the three walked the long road back to Canterlot.  'Whoever you are, you're not Sombra.  Sombra would have either killed the four of us on sight, or subdued us with his magic.  He wouldn't have let us dance in the palm of his hoof of our own free fill.  Was all of this intentional?  Removing Blueblood as a threat, and forcing me, Pinkamena, and Dashie to see supporting you as our only option?  The best commander in the Equestrian army, plus two of its best soldiers, are now left with no sanctuary except under your banner.  Just how far ahead are you thinking, Mister "King of Equestria"?'
"Well, in the meantime," Maud said, her tone the same monotone she almost always used, "we have a speech to listen to.  Hopefully, it will give us an idea of just what we have to look forward to."
What she didn't say was, 'And tell us whether the "King of Equestria" will be better or worse than the real Sombra..."





Meanwhile, far to the north...
There was a cave, deep beneath the Crystal Empire.  It is very dark there.  It is the kind of dark that one can only get when someplace has never seen light.  Ever.  It is the kind of place where one would close their eyes instinctively, in fear that the shadows might try to pull your eyes out of their sockets.
However, it was not silent in this cave.  The cave was filled with what can only be called the sound of limitless rage.  The rage of someone who was thwarted, a fraction of an inch from his greatest victory.  It was the rage of someone who had escaped from death by bare inches.  It was a sound that came from no throat of flesh and blood.  No mortal body could express such fury without bursting into flames and exploding twice.
It would take dozens of ponies, digging for days, to reach this place from the surface.  And if they tried, they'd run into many a terrible trap, set to prevent anypony from reaching it.  And worse would befall anypony who did manage to enter this cave just now.  Pure hatred like this could strip flesh from bone faster than any acid in existence.
Still, the cave was perfect for what was needed.
It's the perfect place to hide, and to wait.
And generate a new body.
There would be a reckoning.
There would be blood.
Sombra was not dead.  Only one thing could truly kill him, and he had sealed that death away in a box, specially made for that purpose, and buried it in another world.  He hid it in a place where he was certain no one would ever find it.  As long as his death remained sealed away, Sombra's body could be destroyed a thousand times, and he'd revive again and again.
It should still be there.  But it wasn't.  Somehow, it was here in Equestria.  It was lodged in the body he'd just abandoned.
He'd felt it reaching for him when that usurper had entered into Sombra's body.  It had taken root within Sombra's flesh, and the usurper's mind had taken control, once the true Sombra had withdrawn.  It was why he'd been forced to flee here, to generate new flesh to hold his spirit.  And as soon as he had hooves to walk with, and a horn to cast spells with, Sombra would find that fool, and rip that death from the usurper's chest, along with his still-beating heart...