Sombra, the dreaded King of Darkness and former ruler of the Crystal Empire, found himself defeated by nothing more than a young purple scaled dragon and a pretty pink alicorn, who returned the Crystal Heart, which he hid away behind some rather well thought of traps, to it's pedestal in the middle of the empire. The resulting explosion of love energy that erupted from the Heart being returned ripped all of his shadows to pieces and caused his entire being to explode, while at the same time flinging his horn, the last vessel of his power, through the air as it disappeared into the Frozen North of Equestria. It was a painful experience for one such as Sombra, being able to fully regain his true form before it was so brutally destroyed in such a manner, but despite this setback he was still alive... in some manner anyway. All he had to do was gather his power, form himself a new body, and then patiently plan the downfall of the newly restored Crystal Empire, before he raised it as his beloved empire once more.
Of course that meant that he had to start from the ground up and was forced to remain near his horn, which would serve as the home for his soul while he gathered the necessary energy to take back what he had lost, while at the same time hoping it was soon so he could move into one of the caves before the snow completely covered his horn up.
The one thing that he was used to determining was exactly how many years had passed, as he had excellent practice from his thousand years trapped in the ice, and only a year or two after his defeat, where he was no closer to reforming his body, he felt the air rumble as two large powers clashed with each other. From what he could tell, from his limited position, that Tirek must have escaped his prison at some point in time and was clashing with an empowered Twilight Sparkle, the mare that sprung his traps back when the Crystal Empire had returned. He other bothered to remember her name so that when he regained his power, and captured his empire once more, he knew who he was looking for and could find her by asking a few questions... and likely torture some of the ponies that knew her if they refused to give him the information he was asking them for.
Some time passed before Sombra felt the presence of another powerful being, though this time around when he felt the alicorn's magic, as it was the only other creature that could contain such incredible power, it was unlike anything he had ever felt before... and there was a sinister feeling to it that was dormant at the moment, but was beginning to slowly awaken inside of whoever it was resting inside.
It was during the time of the mysterious alicorn's arrival that Sombra felt his soul being drawn to something to the south of the Frozen North, something that appeared to have a great deal of magical power and could easily give him the power he wanted to retake what had been stolen from him. Despite the fact that he had no physical mouth at the moment he couldn't stop himself from grinning, to which he concentrated on his horn and drew all of his power into his soul, charging him for the journey ahead of him. Such an act meant that his horn would remain empty and would likely be smashed by a crystal pony if they discovered it, but then again it would return to him once he reformed his body into a stronger being than he had been when the Crystal Heart shattered him.
Thanks to the fact that he was traveling as a soul, and there was nothing around to stop him in his tracks, he rapidly made his way down to the south, where he could travel through the night without have to eat or rest, before coming to a small town that he had never seen before. From what he could feel in the air, if his senses weren't lying to him, Discord, the Spirit of Disharmony, was actually living somewhere on the outskirts of the town, which was good since he was being drawn to the crystal castle on the other side of the town. The energy of the mysterious alicorn, who had to be even stronger than Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, was gone as well, but that didn't concern Sombra as he made his way into the castle, where his soul passed through the wall and entered the hallway.
He waited for a few moments, where he felt for the energy that had pulled him down to this town, before he snapped his eyes open and continued down the hallway that he had been floating in the entire time, while also making sure that he didn't bump into any maids or servants along the way. That thought was changed as he realized that whoever owned this castle didn't have any work staff to speak of, as there were only three signatures appearing on his radar, one that wasn't very strong, another that had to be Twilight, and a third that reminded him of Discord. Unfortunately he discovered that where he was being pulled to was the same place that Discord was standing in, where he focused his mind and followed the trail until he came to what appeared to be a library... with a strange looking mirror resting in the middle of the room, which was what the energy was radiating from.
Something else he noticed was that a familiar chimera creature, which he had read about before his first defeat a thousand years ago, that appeared to be oblivious to the fact that he was even there... to which he floated through the air and headed towards the mirror so he could investigate it.
When he approached the mirror he watched as the seemingly ordinary glass shifted until it revealed a scene of a great battle, where two strange pony hybrid creatures, one with cyan skin and one with orange skin, fought along side some rather strange creatures while battling an even stranger white skinned creature that appeared to be far stronger than everyone else in the area. A few moments later the scene shifted to show two more hybrids, one a grey skinned pony and the other looking like a griffon, flying through the air with some sort of raccoon creature, while at the same time fighting against a large metallic bird that wanted all three of them dead. The third scene he was shown was another hybrid, this one having pink skin, that happened to be riding on the back of the strangest dragon Sombra had ever seen... though that was followed by the scene fading away until the mirror returned to normal.
One thing that Sombra was sure of was the fact that every hybrid he had seen so far had been an inhabitant of Equus at some point in time, though it appeared that by stepping through the mirror they gained powers that were beyond their wildest dreams... to which Sombra allowed a smile to appear on his face, or what passed as his face, before he raised a shadowy hoof towards the surface of the mirror.
"I wouldn't touch the mirror if I were you," a voice said, though it was one that Sombra recognized as DIscord's voice, to which he carefully turned his shadowy head around and found that the Spirit was staring right at him, as if he could actually see his soul at the moment, "unless, of course, you want to be lost in the vastness of our universe."
"Begone Discord," Sombra replied, though his voice crisp and clear, as he had found that he could speak well in this shadowy soul-like form, as speaking in his normal form was hard due to how long it had been since he was able to use his actual vocal cords, "otherwise I'll force you to leave... I have work to do."
"If by work you mean getting yourself killed for real," Discord stated, as he knew that Sombra was now trapped in this soul-like state and that any serious and substantial wound would permanently kill the tyrant, which would no doubt bring joy to the crystal ponies if they were told the news.
"I will leave this world as a mere mortal," Sombra promised, though at the same time he glanced at the mirror, where he saw that the scene continued to shift, revealing one place before shifting to a new place, before he turned back towards the creature he was conversing with, "but when I return I will be a god... and everyone will become slaves in the end, including all of your friends, if you truly have any."
"Sombra, for your sake you better leave Fluttershy and the others out of this," Discord replied, though at the same time he growled a little, because the mere thought of what Sombra would force his darling Fluttershy to do was enough to make him want to end the former tyrant already.
"Ah, so you do have companions for me to enslave later," Sombra said, to which he grinned as he imagined his empire growing in size once he came back with the powers of a god, something that would defeat those that had bested him in the past, "Good, a kingdom without proper slaves and servants would be boring... and rejoice, because I'll make sure that you join the Princesses in shackles once I return to this world."
Discord raised a hand and grabbed Sombra by his nonexistent shadowy neck with his magic, because while it was still odd to be considered friends with the Princesses that sealed him in stone all those years ago, along with the ponies he eventually befriended, he wasn't about to let Sombra do anything to them. Sombra, from what he could tell, was shocked that this was even happening at the moment and Discord contemplated what to do with the former tyrant, until he looked into the mirror behind Sombra and watched the scene change again. This time it was showing a circular shaped city that was unlike anything he had seen so far, though for some reason the image seemed to stay for a few moments longer than all the other ones, meaning that he had found the solution to his current problem.
"Fine. You want to go to a new world?" Discord asked, to which he noticed Sombra's eyes shift back towards the mirror, or what he assumed where his eyes since he was a shadowy soul at the moment, "I'll send you to a new world... and maybe you'll learn how to be a good pony this time around, instead of a hateful pony that's bent of world domination. And if you think about turning my friends into slaves again, or anyone else for that matter, I'll destroy you with my full power."
A few seconds later he hurled Sombra's soul through the mirror and watched as it disappeared completely, traveling to whatever world he had seen in the mirror, though at the same time Discord really didn't care too much about Sombra. With the way the mirror operated now there was a chance that Sombra would get to live a normal life, without his memories and who he used to be, and maybe learn something about himself in the process. At the same time, however, he realized that he could have made one of the biggest mistakes he could have ever made, because if the spell on the mirror didn't do anything to Sombra then there was a chance that he could actually conquer whatever world Discord had sent him to... and potentially gain the powers he was searching for.
Discord groaned as the mirror shifted and the circular city was lost once more, meaning that it would take him some time and effort to find out where he had sent the former tyrant... and that was before he even considered bringing him back to Equus to face the Princesses and the rest of his friends.
When Sombra arrived at whatever destination Discord had hurled him to, and collided with the ground that was below him, he couldn't help but groan at the headache he had developed along the way, before realizing that, when he was just an ordinary soul, he never had headaches to begin with. He opened his eyes, finding that he actually had eyes, and noticed that he was in what appeared to be a white desert that had no life in the area around him, save for some odd looking trees that weren't like anything he had seen back in Equus. He raised his front right hoof and touched the sand, though that was when he noticed that his leg was misshapen, into what the minotaurs called arms, and that his hoof had been transformed into a 'hand', complete with five 'fingers'. The same could be said for his front left leg when he glanced at it, though he grinned as he picked himself before he realized that his entire body had been changed since he was thrown through the mirror... and, as if fortune was smiling upon him, there happened to be a large crystal resting nearby, one that he could use to check his appearance.
He soon discovered that his body seemed to be a mix of the body of a minotaur and that of a pony, as he was standing tall like a minotaur and had some distinct pony features the reminded him of what he truly was. While his new body was more aligned with that of a minotaur he noticed that he still had the dark gray coloration to his skin, matching his old coat, while at the same time finding that his new mane was still black, as was the pony tail that extended from his spine. His hind legs had the structure they had in his pony form and they also ended in hooves, though he smiled when he saw the familiar dark mist surrounding his eyes. His eyes, of course, were the same brilliant scarlet color they had been when he was alive, complete with scarlet colored pupils and the same eerie green color surrounding his sclera... and he even had his red curved horn, which was resting in the middle of his forehead, where it had been when he was alive.
That was, however, before he noticed a few odd things about his body, as he was now wearing a dull gray robe of some kind, that covered the majority of his upper body and lower body, that had a white undershirt beneath it and a small red collar that rested around the neck part. There was even a dull gray colored sash that was wrapped around his waist, though as he took all this in he noticed that there was some sort of white crown, almost bone colored, resting behind his horn and wrapped around his head, just like the crown he wore when he was alive. He had no idea what the crown was supposed to be, since he had never seen it before, but before he could think about it too much he heard the sound of something hitting the ground behind him, where he turned around and spotted what appeared to be his iron armor and lush red cape. That was, however, before the armor and cape seemed to become pure energy, as they broke apart and disappeared as quickly as they appeared, leaving behind a gleaming blade that was stuck in the sand.
As Sombra stared at the sword, however, his headache from earlier returned and got even worse than it had been when he first arrived in this strange world, though he could feel his power decreasing as he gazed at the weapon, which he found that he could no longer look away from. When his power and memories started to leave him, and were being pulled into the blade, Sombra realized that Discord had cursed him while he was being sent through the mirror, as the Spirit of Disharmony was taking from him the power that had made him great and his memories, so he wouldn't get his power back easily. It was a painful process, especially since there were so many decades of memories for him to lose, but all Sombra could do was let the curse take hold of his mind and drain him of who he had been before he had been thrown through the mirror... though he did, in one act of resistance to Discord's curse, use what little of his magic remained to etch his name into the crystal that he was now sitting near.
Once his name had been etched into the crystal, and he could read it, he felt the last of his power and memories being stripped from his body, along with the dark mist disappearing completely... though the last thing he saw, as he fell into the sand that rested around him and the crystal, was the cursed sword being propelled through the air, before he closed his eyes.
Sometime passed before something caused him to stir, where he moaned for a moment as he opened his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position, though as he did so he looked at the strange area that he had woke up in, as he had no idea where he was. The desert he was in felt strange and foreign to him, though he had no idea why he felt that way, but at the same time he looked at the crystal that was beside him and used it to steady himself as he made his way onto a standing position. When he got onto his hooves, which felt natural to him for another reason that he couldn't explain, he noticed that there was something etched into the crystal's face that he was using to steady himself, something that looked like a name.
"Sombra..." he said, feeling something in the back of his mind, as if his brain was telling him that this was his name, though if that was the case he had to wonder why he had bothered to etch his name into a crystal like this, to which he sighed as he looked around the area he was in, "Great, I guess I know my name... but I have no idea who I am, where I am, or why I can't remember anything before waking up in the middle of a desert. So, where do I go from here?"
He, Sombra, figured that asking the area around him was a stupid thing to do, but voicing the question he would have asked mentally gave him a little more to consider than if he had just thought about it, though as he stood next to the crystal he absently tapped the face of it. That was when he noticed that a strange faint horizontal black line forming along the crystal's face, though as he stared at it he watched as the line grew, slowing moving upwards and downwards in rectangular shapes until a large maw stood between him and the crystal. He stared into that black void that rested behind the open maw, as he had no idea what it was or why it had suddenly appeared in such a manner, but he guessed that it was in response to his question. He steeled himself before he stepped into the open maw, as he was being cautious at the moment, before the maw closed behind him and trapped him inside the black void, where he silently stood there for a few seconds as he wondered what he was supposed to do.
A few more moments passed before another maw opened in front of him, where he found that the exit to the void was in what appeared to be some sort of city, or what he assumed was a city as he stared at the large buildings that rested around the maw that he had walked out of. The area he was standing in appeared to be some sort of dead end, with a store of some description resting in front of him, though as he started to question what was going on the door opened and someone walked outside. The person was a tall, lean-built man with light skin and gray eyes, though his hair was messy and light-blond, almost pale, colored, with strands framing the sides of his face and hanging between his eyes, and he had some chin stubble. The man was wearing a dark grey colored coat, which sports a white diamond pattern along its bottom half, with a dark green shirt and pants resting underneath, though at the same time Sombra noticed that he had a white and green colored hat on his head.
The man was also carrying a cane and a fan, though as Sombra stared at him he felt the air shift and watched the maw close behind him, effectively stranding him in an unknown area with a complete stranger approaching him, though he remained silent as the man came to a stop near him.
"Well now, what do we have here?" the man commented, though while he sounded friendly Sombra got the sense that he was being studied at the moment, but he remained still as the man stared at him, "An arrancar arriving outside my shop, by a garganta no less. Well then, what can I do for you today?"
"I... I don't know," Sombra admitted, as he was still trying to figure out what was going on at the moment, since he knew nothing about himself or the places he had visited so far, "I suddenly woke up in a white desert, next to a strange crystal I might add, and tried to figure out what to do next, where that strange maw opened and brought me here. I have no idea who I am, what I am, where I am, or what an arrancar and a garganta are... about the only thing I remember is my name, and that was because it was etched on the crystal I woke up next to."
"So you can't remember anything else?" the man inquired, though as Sombra nodded the man looked him over, as if he was looking for something specific, before returning to where he had been standing earlier, "Despite being an arrancar it appears that your zanpakuto is missing, while at the same time I can tell that you possess a descent amount of reishi in your body. Seeing how you woke up in Hueco Mundo, I would hazard a guess that your weapon must have been left behind, which means retrieving it might be impossible at the moment."
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Sombra said, as he felt lost when the man mentioned all of these names, as if he was actually trying to trigger his memories, but at the same time he knew that his attempts weren't doing anything at the moment.
"Don't worry about it right now." the man replied, where he waved his hand, the one with the fan, in a dismissive manner, though that was before he stared at Sombra once again, "You said that you remembered your name. If I tell you my name, will you tell me yours?"
Sombra thought about that for a moment, as he had no idea who the man was or what he was doing in this time area, though after a few seconds he guessed that it couldn't hurt to give the man his name, since he might actually be able to help him out in some manner. Once he reached his decision, as it wasn't hard to come to since he needed information and the man seemed to be the best source of it at the moment, he nodded his head and noticed that a smile appeared on the man's face.
"I am Kisuke Urahara," the man said, to which he beckoned to the shop that was behind him for a moment, causing Sombra to glance at the structure for a few seconds, before they stared at each other once more, "and I am the owner of the Urahara Shop."
"Sombra... that's my name." Sombra replied in kind, figuring that Kisuke might, just might, be able to help him with his questions, especially since he had asked the world what to do next and coming to this area apparently had been the answer to his first question... even if it might have been random chance for something like that to even occur.
"That's a good name." Kisuke said, though that was when he smiled for a moment, something that told Sombra that he might have found someone that could help him with his problems, "Tell you what, Sombra, if you follow me back inside the shop I'll do everything in my power to see if I can't help you recover your memories... though there will be a few errands you'll have to run for me every now and then in return."
"That sounds fair," Sombra said, as he guessed that since Kisuke was the shopkeeper, and likely dealt with the customers more than his employees, if he had any, he'd be taking time out of what he usually did and this was the price he would have to pay.
"I'm glad that we have an agreement," Kisuke stated, to which he turned towards the shop and started walking back towards it, before turning back and glancing at Sombra once more, "Come along now. We have to go over the official terms of our arrangement before anything else happens... and you will need to meet Yoruichi, Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu as well. I guarantee you that you won't regret coming to me for assistance."
Sombra wasn't sure why he was so willing to put his trust in Kisuke Urahara, but he felt that he was a trustworthy person and wouldn't lie to him about something so important, so he guessed that if he wouldn't regret this decision he knew that he'd definitely get something out of it. Since it appeared that he was going to gain from this arrangement as well, instead of just Kisuke gaining some additional help, he followed Kisuke towards his shop, where he looked forward to seeing what the future held for him.