Chapter 3: Sombra’s Return
Sombra trotted through the Crystal kingdom, a majority of the crystal ponies jumped out of his way while others started throwing whatever they had on them at the time including fruits and vegetables realising that Sombra was weak and not a threat. Sombra ignored everypony and continued limping to where Shining Armour and Cadance had been listening to the motivational speeches which was in their throne room.
Shining Armour was first shocked about the end of the world and slowly started losing hope and looked towards Cadance who was on the verge of tears. Cadance had never really felt scared, she never wanted to be a mare that was weak in the eyes of males and learnt how to fight with Shining Armour. Even as the Princess of Love she realised that love is a two way street and one cannot dominate over another, that was for other times, but it was at this point when faced with losing Shining and Flurry Heart that made Cadance feel her world come crashing down upon her.
Shining saw this and hugged his only lover while snuggling with Flurry Heart and tried to comfort them both with his body, it was a good gesture as Cadance snuggled closer to her husband’s strong muscular body as they listened intently to the silence. Flurry Heart had no clue what was happening but when she first saw her mother crying she tried to call for her “Mu…” and “Da…” Shining and Candace heard the little cry and snuggled together making Flurry feel better as she could see the smiles on her parents. They had been sitting in the throne room and had dismissed the nobles not wanting to hear what they had to say about the end of the world. The throne room was special where the emotions of the family changed the colours of the crystal layout, it was a soft blue hue of sadness at the moment.
It was then after hearing Fluttershy’s and Twilight’s speech that changed everything, the colours of the crystals turned to a bright yellow and pink. Shining was so proud of Twilight when he heard her rallying everypony “She would have made a good commander” Shining thought and wished he was there to comfort her and congratulate her on bringing Equestria together. He knew that there would soon be a meeting of all the leaders of Equestria and that they would be needed to discuss a plan of attack and defence against the planet.
“What can we do?” Shining thought, it was an important question that had no answer at the moment, but as he laid on Cadance’s sweet smelling mane that they could hear the echoes “For Equestria” travelling towards the Crystal Empire. The chanting reverberated throughout the Empire making the family’s spirit lifted from the rock bottom of Tartarus to the highest point in the world, that was until a guard burst through the door yelling “KING SOMBRA HAS RETURNED!”
The two pegasus and unicorn guards saw Sombra trudging towards the main courtyard and started cowering and shivering at him, wondering what to do but they soon realised that Sombra was in a broken state by the fact that his armour was broken, tears in the joints and the chest plate were burnt at the ends while his red royal cape was scorched. Then one of the pegasi started laughing at, the now pathetic looking, Sombra. Before the tales of him were terrifying and not many ponies wanted to work as the guard for the crystal pony empire because of his actions but now looking at the broken Sombra was hilarious to him.
“LOOK at him, he’s so weak now we can take him on,” the stallion pegasus guard laughed,
“Sergeant, what do we do?” the mare pegasus guard asked, pointing towards Sombra in slight fear who knew better than to underestimate the broken unicorn. She had heard many tales of Sombra and knew of the feats that he had performed.
“We tell the Princess of course and go find Captain Shining Armour right this instance, I will hold him off till then” the Unicorn Sergeant said, preparing his magic.
“But sir, that’s suicide. You do know who he is?” The mare pegasus guard asked.
“Definitely not a King!” the stallion pegasus guards said raising a hoof waiting for a high hoof, but when the Sergeant gave him a death stare he knew it was time to shut up.
“JUST GO ALREADY!” the Sergeant shouted, before zapping a ball around Sombra.
“Yes sir!” as the pegasus rushed off towards the throne room.
Sombra stood quietly knowing he needed an audience, at this point of time he was in no condition to make demands. The Sergeant was a bit sceptical about Sombra not doing anything and decided to converse with him wondering about his intentions and how he survived the Elements of Harmony.
“How did you survive the Elements of Harmony Sombra?” the Sergeant asked.
“I do not know myself, to be honest with you.” Sombra wondered, “But I do know this, I am not the enemy today.” and stayed quiet until Shining appeared. The Sergeant had no idea whether to trust Sombra at all, but after listening to Twilight’s speech he was in a state of turmoil. Shining’s face was full of distaste as he trotted towards the Sergeant and told him to stand down.
“I do not know why you bothered coming here after what you have done!” Shining said, moving closer towards Sombra ready to fire a beam of magic towards him if he did anything suspicious. A crowd was starting to appear behind Sombra all holding makeshift weapons eyeing him while Sombra himself was staring at Shining, studying him and thinking about his next words carefully.
“I know I do not deserve anything from this Empire and should not be here but I am here to fight for Equestria, I have heard Twilight’s speech and rather was impressed with her ability to rally everypony,” Sombra said.
“Don’t you dare talk about my sister like that,” Shining shouted barely keeping his anger under control. “And you expect me to believe you after what you have done? How can I trust you? Do you want me to list everything that you did? You tried to imprison the Crystal Empire twice, you cursed this land to disappear when you were imprisoned, you hid the crystal heart, and you killed Princess Amore with your bare hoof, and now tell me this: Why in Celestia’s name should I trust you?”
“If I wanted you dead I would have done it already so just listen to what I have to say, I know you do not trust me, no one here will ever trust me ever again but you will need me, a criminal I may be but you will need me when the time comes.” Sombra said.
“And what will this thing be when the time comes?” Shining questioned, still suspicious of Sombra, his true intent still mysterious to Shining. Shining was trying to study his opponent, but he couldn’t tell if Sombra was lying, the posture was fine and Sombra’s green and red eyes showed no sign of deceit. On the other hoof Sombra sometimes wished he wasn’t the bad pony, it was so hard for him to converse to anyone.
“I am a powerful unicorn, I have great power within me and I can do many things, and when the time comes I will be needed for assistance.”
“As if, my sister is still more powerful than you’ll ever be!” Shining said.
“Ah but can she take on a planet by herself?” Sombra retorted, “You need me either way, you could kill me now in my weakened state.”
“I still do not trust you, you know I really have no words for a sadistic being like you however I did read a bit of history about you and I learned some interesting things about you.”
“Well if you know everything about me then go on tell everypony around me the truth!” Sombra shouted, “They should know the real truth of who started all this, and why I have become like this.”
“Your story is sad, Twilight told me about you and further from Princess Amore’s letters and diary, but what I’m wondering is what went wrong.” Shining pondered.
“WHAT WENT WRONG?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA ON WHAT SHE DID TO ME?! SHE NEVER ONCE SHOWED HERSELF TO ME ON THE CRYSTAL FAIRE, WHEN I WAS DYING!” Sombra yelled, the audience behind him all gasped and all of a sudden had sympathy for him. The dark past that Sombra had kept from everypony changed their view on him immediately and wished they could have helped him and change him into something better.
“But that doesn’t mean you can become an evil tyrannical leader, because something didn’t go your own way. Look at the ponies all around, if you had asked for help they would have helped you in any way possible,” Shining sighed, “I would have too if I was alive back then but since you decided to release your anger on everypony during that time, you then lost everything and everypony’s trust, now if you excuse me I have a family to attend to and you are coming along with me.”
“What?” Sombra asked, slightly confused about what Shining had just said.
“You are right about one thing, I hate to say it but we will need you for the upcoming battle, Twilight was right. But if you touch or hurt my family in any way, I will break every bone in that body of yours, and make sure you stay dead.” Shining threatened, “You are dismissed.” Shining shouted to the audience and trotted back to the throne room to tell Cadance of what had transpired.