The Last of the Dark Ponies

by Askre


Chapter 5. He hasn’t changed much has he?

Chapter 5

Discord teleported into the map room of Twilight’s castle with paw and claw on his hips. He couldn’t really help but cringe slightly at the scene before him. Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were encased in crystal, Twilight was trying to reassure three upset pegasi mares, plus one unicorn filly and Spike was assisting Flash Sentry whose wings hung limp on his sides. Starlight Glimmer still lay unconscious on the floor but a pillow had been placed under her head.

“My, my what a mess,” the draconequus shook his head. Twilight whirled around when hearing his voice.

“Discord. What are you… wait, since you were here, why didn’t you help!” she shouted angrily, tears in her eyes.

“Tsk, tsk, I recall telling you and the others that I’m not coming anywhere close to King Party Pooper.” The spirit shrugged while walking closer to Applejack’s crystal prison. He produced a chisel and a hammer out of thin air and started chipping away at it.

“Discord, he’s abducted seven ponies,” Twilight growled and started to approach the chaos spirit.

“Eight, Rainbow Dash rather foolishly chased after King Smoky,” Discord corrected her as he continued to chip away the crystal on Applejack.

“What!?” the alicorn shouted in shock and horror. “Why didn’t you stop her!”

“Because I got nearly blown all the way to Abyssinia when I tried to get rid of that dark magic storm cloud King I-only-know-three-colors put up to distract Dashie. This is what happens when my chaos magic interacts with his dark magic, things just go boom,” the spirit told the princess. He finally managed to free Applejack’s head. The farm-pony gasped for air.

“What the hay happened?” she asked, then blinked when noticing that the rest of her body was still encased in crystal.

“King Sombra attacked, Applejack. He distracted Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and then imprisoned you, Rarity and Pinkie Pie in those crystals. He’s taken Private, Barricade and their family, Rainbow went after him, but she might have been captured since she’s not back yet,” Twilight said sadly and walked over to her.

“Oh when I get mah hooves on that good for nothin… can’t ya hurry this up?” Applejack glared at Discord who was still working on freeing her.

“Sure, if you don’t mind exploding,” he said with a smirk, causing both Twilight and Applejack to widen their eyes in shock.

“Listen ladies, I have to do this carefully I’m afraid. As I told Twilight, if I actively use my chaos magic on this crystal that was created by dark magic, things will explode,” he said waving one clawed finger before resuming his work.

Twilight sighed and hung her head. She didn’t want to admit it, but Discord was right. She looked regretfully at the three pegasi mares who were huddled together with Tootsie. Then she finally turned to Spike who was helping Flash sitting down by the table. The guard was cringing in pain.

“Spike, get a message to Princess Celestia and then help Flash to the hospital, I’ll…” she halted and glanced at Starlight Glimmer. “I’ll help Starlight.”

“Hold still please.” Suddenly Discord was in front of her, wielding the hammer and chisel. Before the princess could protest, the spirit was already in the process of chipping off all the black crystals on the horn. She noticed Applejack was completely free now and rushing over to Pinkie and Rarity’s crystals.


Starlight groaned as she came to, for a moment the mare felt groggy, but soon the memories of the fight returned and she quickly sat up. For the first time the unicorn saw that she was in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around her head, in another one was Flash Sentry, both his wings in a cast. Between the two beds sat Twilight and Princess Celestia.

“Please tell me this was all just a bad dream,” Starlight pleaded and cringed when both princesses shook their heads.

“I’m sorry, Starlight. I’m glad you’re okay. For a moment I wasn’t sure if Sombra had killed you or not when he finally struck you with that scythe,” Twilight said and smiled weakly.

“Well, this is one way to get extended time off from the guards,” Flash grunted, eyeing his broken wings.

“Where are the others?” Starlight asked, glancing around but seeing no other pony in the room.

“My sister is taking care of the mares. They’re at Derpy’s house. I managed to convince Discord to continue keeping an eye on Ponyville for the time being. Well, I should say Fluttershy and I managed to convince him,” Celestia answered and rose up. Although she spoke kindly, her expression was serious.

“The rest of our friends are waiting for us. The doctor didn’t want a crowd in here,” Twilight said and sighed heavily. “I should have convinced Pinkie to move the party to the Crystal Empire.”

“What is done is done. There is no use griping about that. Now do you understand though what I meant when I said that when Sombra has time to think he becomes far more dangerous?” Celestia turned to her former student, gently patting her on the back.

“That’s putting it mildly. I think the only reason he didn’t kill us is because he just wasn’t interested in killing us. He was utterly prepared for all of us,” Twilight looked up at the Sun Princess.

“You don’t think the whole time he’s been laying low, he’s just been studying all of us, has he?” Starlight frowned. This idea came mostly to her since she had done it herself back when she was still feeling vengeful towards Twilight and her friends.

“I would not be surprised. Sombra never does anything until he’s prepared for it. He hates improvising or taking chances. He must have simply distracted Fluttershy to keep her from any kind of harm, knowing she is a good friend of Discord’s. Discord would not do anything unless Fluttershy was in clear danger,” Celestia agreed, recalling that Discord had not helped Starlight, Trixie and Thorax against the changelings until he had heard that Fluttershy had been taken as well.

“Then he simply imprisoned Rarity and Applejack. He probably figured it would attract attention if he did the same with Rainbow since she was up in the skies and simply distracted her as well.” Twilight frowned as she thought the attack over.

“Then he didn’t use any dark magic while you and I were shooting that love magic at him, not until he had disabled you,” Starlight said then frowned. “But why did he attack me with physical force?”

“Because you have no training in it,” Flash mentioned, causing Starlight to glare at him.

“No seriously, you put up a good fight, but you were obviously not trained to fight with a weapon. Sombra probably saw that you could delay him in a lengthy magic duel, so the quicker way to deal with you was to fight you physically with a weapon,” the pegasus pointed out. The unicorn grumbled, but had to concede that he was right.

“And me, once all the magic users were out, he had no problem with me,” the guard sighed.

“He said what he was doing has nothing to do with Equestria, that he’s not interested in it at all. I find that hard to believe, especially since he took Rainbow Dash,” Twilight grunted.

“It is best to take his words with a grain of salt. Recall how he kept up the façade that he was still a spirit even when he was already living.” Celestia nodded.

The Sun Princess sighed a little. She had hoped that because Sombra had laid so low for long that he had simply given up, seen how strong Equestria was now with the Crystal Empire in full operation, four Princesses and six Elements of Harmony. It was possible that Chrysalis’s second attack told him otherwise, that there were still cracks he could slip through.

Why are you so interested in those ponies? Granted some of their distant ancestors’ hail from the empire your mother and sister ruled, but it is long gone. These ponies have no ties to it anymore, she thought and glanced out the window.

“So, what do we do now?” Starlight wondered, Twilight looked at her with a determined expression.

“We are going to find where King Sombra has taken them, free them and hopefully deal with Sombra once and for all,” the purple alicorn stated and turned to Celestia, who was still staring out the window.

“It will not be easy. Wherever he is hiding it is probably very remote and well-protected by now. Do not forget the traps you encountered in the Crystal Empire. They alone should tell you how security-minded Sombra is,” the Sun Princess said as she turned back to the ponies.

Twilight shuddered a little when remembering the traps. Heck, she had been stuck at the first one almost immediately and would probably have remained stuck if Spike’s calls hadn’t woken her up.

“Alright, but how do we find somepony we have so far been unable to find at all?” Starlight wondered.

Now Twilight took a moment to think it over. Sombra had definitely been elusive ever since his resurrection. They had only ever found the aftermath of his sightings, but never any hard evidence where he might be located.

“Maybe Discord can help us find him. He may not want to directly do anything about King Sombra, but he might be able to show us on the map at the castle where he is. Discord is sensitive to magic and might be able to show us where there is a buildup of dark magic,” she finally suggested.

“It is worth a shot. At full power, King Sombra’s dark magic is very corruptive. There should be traces of it somewhere,” Celestia nodded.

“Right, Starlight, you continue to rest here along with Flash Sentry. Our friends and I will go and locate Sombra.” Twilight turned to Starlight who grumbled a little but then nodded.

The two patients watched as Twilight and Celestia left the hospital room. Starlight glanced at the pegasus who had slumped back down in his bed. He flinched a little when accidentally disturbing one of his wings before settling down.

“So what do you know about King Sombra?” she asked.

“Not much. Just that he used to rule the Crystal Empire before the sisters banished him and then when he returned along with it and was killed by the Crystal Heart, though I was a bit involved when he resurrected.” Flash turned his head a little to look at her.

“All right then, since we seem to have plenty of time, how did that all happen?” Starlight asked. She was pretty sure that happened well before she met Twilight and her friends since otherwise she would know more about it.

Flash shrugged and proceeded to tell her about the Shadow King’s unexpected return. How he had possessed Private Iceland and abducted his brother Barricade in the process, then forced everyone to chase them to the Crystal Mountains where they had a final confrontation with him. Starlight listened with interest to the story.

“And now he’s back. Jeez, took him long enough,” the mare muttered after the pegasus was finished, gingerly touching the bandage on her head.

“Are you all right?” Flash asked. He could sense a little bitterness in her tone.

“I don’t know. Something about this doesn’t feel right. I mean, why did he let us all live? He had us on the ropes, he knocked me out effortlessly, took out Twilight and our friends, he could even take care of Discord. Then he just up and leaves when he has what he wants,” Starlight grunted. “Don’t tell me that this super planner didn’t take it into account that Twilight would mount a rescue effort.”

Flash Sentry arched his brow when Starlight’s eyes suddenly widened as if a sudden realization hit her. She activated her horn as if she was going to use her magic, but suddenly felt a sharp pain and the magic dissipated.

“Ow… ow that hurt…” she rubbed her head, gritting her teeth.

“Well you have a concussion no doubt after that strike. I may not a unicorn, but I know magic takes concentration,” the pegasus pointed out. “What were you trying to do?”

“Transport to the castle,” Starlight said as she threw her blanket off and climbed out of the bed. “Have to talk with Twilight!”

“Why?” Flash asked, confused.

The mare had already made her way to the door, she looked back at the guard, looking worried and at the same time flinching in pain.

“I think King Sombra did take it into account that Twilight will try and rescue his prisoners,” she said as she stumbled out of the hospital room.


Luna observed the glum atmosphere in Derpy’s living room with a concerned frown. Carrot Top was sitting beside Derpy with one leg gently around her friend. Tootsie was with Time Turner, holding tightly in her little legs Dinky’s favorite doll. The filly was sniffling, but trying not to cry.

On another couch were the pegasi sisters, Dew Doe and Foxy Stripes. They were holding each other, the blue one with a sad expression and the maroon one was still crying.

For a moment the Moon Princess was cursing her duties for keeping her busy. She should have been there knowing that a major enemy was on the prowl and might target this gathering. She was certain that the king wouldn’t have dared showing himself if she or her sister had been present.

“He just took everypony?” Time Turner finally broke the silence, looking at Luna. He was still digesting the whole thing.

“Yes,” Luna confirmed and shook her head. “I wish I could have been there. But fear not, Twilight and her friends are no doubt already preparing to rescue them all and they will succeed.”

“Months of therapy just down the drain. Did you see Private? He couldn’t even move, he just stared at that monster,” Dew whispered, hugging her sister tighter.

“My poor little baby, why did he have to take her!” Derpy cried, grabbing onto Carrot and started crying bitterly. Time Turner cringed, he wanted to go over to his marefriend, but decided to allow Carrot Top to handle it while he was taking care of Tootsie who leaned on him, still trying not to cry.

Luna sighed, she recalled visiting Dinky’s dream once. The filly had been having a nightmare related to her father. The princess had dispelled it and reassured the girl, but that had been a while ago, recently Luna had noted that all dreams relevant to her father had been positive.

Another thing the Moon Princess had noticed was that so far no one had brought Dinky’s father up. Private had been mentioned, his parents, Dinky’s sisters Coal and Cara as well, but there hadn’t even been a passing reference to Barricade. However, she didn’t feel it was something she should bring up. The ponies were all upset and this wasn’t the right time.

There was a knock on the front door, but barely anyone noticed it. Luna rose up and assured them that she would answer it and left the living room. When she opened the front door, she was greeted by sight of her sister.

“Twilight and her friends are going to be using the map table in her castle to try and locate where King Sombra fled with his captives. I am going to be assisting as I can before we have to return to Canterlot, but I did wish to see how things are going here,” Celestia explained when seeing her sister.

Luna glanced back, stepped out to the front porch and closed the door behind her. She mostly just wished to give the grieving ponies some privacy while the royal siblings discussed matters.

“Well, they are upset still, but at least they have friends to comfort them. Do you require any help at the castle?” Luna wondered, feeling really like a third wheel inside the house.

“No, I don’t think even I will be much help there. They’ll need Discord to try and locate any abnormal amounts of dark magic,” Celestia glanced in the direction where Twilight’s castle towered over the town. Then she rubbed her muzzle with a hoof and returned her attention to Luna. “If you think you have done all you can do here, could you take over for Discord keeping an eye on Ponyville while we do this?”

“Certainly, sister, you can count on me.” Luna nodded sharply. She definitely did feel she had done all she could. At least the last thing she could do was tell the ponies inside the house that a rescue plan was beginning to form.

“Good, I’ll see you when we are done,” the Sun Princess smiled and nodded. She turned around and prepared to fly away, but was then addressed by Luna.

“He hasn’t changed much has he?” Luna said with solemn smile. She inwardly cringed when seeing the regretful expression her sister gave her when Celestia turned her head to look back at her.

“No… No he hasn’t,” Celestia responded quietly before taking off to fly over to Twilight’s castle.

Not everypony can or wants to be reformed, sister, Luna thought, shaking her head, watching her sister fly away before going back into the house to inform the ponies of Twilight’s plan.

End chapter 5