Chapter 15
Somewhere
Private Iceland was falling, straight down, he was in freefall, face down into blackness. The dark gray unicorn had no idea what was going on. The last thing he remembered was going to bed, was he dreaming? Weren’t you supposed to wake up if you dreamt you were falling?
If this is a nightmare, I wouldn’t mind waking up right now, he thought as he kept barreling towards yet unseen ground.
If it was a dream, it could be stress related. Things had been quite hectic at work. Even if he usually was just holed up in the back room of the history museum, he did sometimes help outside and it had been field trip day. Lots of school foals coming for a visit, running around, going into places they weren’t supposed to go, touching things they were not supposed to touch. Almost breaking invaluable historical artifacts. It had not helped his mood and Private was already considered grumpy on a good day.
He was so done when the day was over and not even pancakes had helped quell his very sour temper. Thankfully he was not expected to come in tomorrow and the unicorn planned to pretty much hibernate for most of it. Something better be on fire if his attention was needed somewhere.
What was it they say, it’s not the fall that kills you but the sudden impact? He cringed and really, really hoped this was a dream and he would soon wake up with a start.
Then everything came to an abrupt halt and his face planted hard on very solid ground. Private groaned and for a moment just lay there, contemplating if he wanted to rise up. So far he wasn’t feeling the softness of his bed.
Slowly he looked up. The stallion frowned. Things weren’t black anymore, more grayish-brownish. There was no visible source of light but he could see. Rubbing the sore spot on his face, he rose up. Even the ground was the same color as everything around him. He arched his brow...this was hauntingly familiar.
Okay this is the second weirdest thing ever to happen to me, but if it is a dream it’s not even in the top ten. He started to look around but so far saw nothing of particular interest, aside from the color, everything was empty.
Suddenly a sound caught his attention. It sounded like hoofsteps. Something was approaching. There was a metallic sound to them, like the hooves were clad in armor. Private’s frown turned worried. Hesitantly he glanced back. His heart stopped, his eyes opened wide, he felt weak in the legs.
Approaching was another unicorn, bigger, darker gray than him, his wild lion like mane was black, the horn was red and curved like a knife, the eyes were intent and red. Clad in armor, wearing a crown and the back adorned with a red cape with white trims.
I WANT TO WAKE UP NOW! Private couldn’t move, just kept staring at the approaching unicorn.
King Sombra stopped close to Private, observing him with a grim expression. The smaller unicorn still couldn’t move, just kept staring and desperately hoping that something would wake him up soon.
“I…I’m dreaming right? You can’t be here… I was in my bed, I went to sleep…” Private whispered and finally managed to will up the courage to turn to face the king.
“This is no dream,” King Sombra said, tilting his head as he continued to observe the frightened pony.
“Oh come on! Why have you taken me? How? When?! Celestia have it! Can’t you leave me alone?!” Private snapped, then quickly put a hoof over his mouth, he couldn’t believe he had worked up a nerve to actually do that. Strangely enough, there was no mocking laughter. Sombra just continued to watch him, almost curiously.
“I have done nothing,” the king said and arched his brow. “Believe me, I am as confused about this situation as you are.”
Come again? Private was not used to this. King Sombra wasn’t even taunting him, just kept observing him curiously. “Okay… is this a new game of yours with me?”
“I’m playing no games,” King Sombra said, then looked contemplative. “The last thing I remember was having to rest. I had just confessed to my son…” The dark pony’s eyes narrowed as he looked around. “Never mind that. What is this place?”
“If you don’t know, I certainly don’t,” Private snorted, feeling unusually bold since the king didn’t seem to be tormenting him. Then the unicorn blinked. “Wait, you have a son? Since when?”
“By the first queen. You’re… Temor, if I hadn’t raised him,” Sombra seemed to realize and took a step back. Private could only stare in utter confusion. This was not how the King Sombra he knew acted.
The king took another step back, then started to look around. “In my weakened state I must have been pulled here, but why? Why to you?”
“What are you talking about, you have been constantly tormenting me since you possessed me a while ago. I was hospitalized for months because of you!” Private snorted, not sure why he was feeling so brave. Perhaps it helped seeing the king act so differently, or perhaps this was a dream after all.
“I did what? I would never…” Sombra growled and scowled angrily, but halted when seeing Private flinch and shrink a little as the smaller pony squeaked an apology.
“This is not your world, spirit!” a commanding voice spoke out of thin air. A bright moon appeared high up in the air, generating a soft glow on both stallions. Then it suddenly transformed into a midnight blue alicorn with an ethereal mane. She glared at the king while slowly descending to the ground between them.
“Princess Luna.” King Sombra sneered and took another step back.
“Yes, it is I. But not the one you know,” the Lunar Princess snorted, then she glanced back at Private who was still registering the fact she had arrived. “Have no fear, Private Iceland. This is the dream realm and you are safe.”
“Oh… so this is a dream?” Private whispered and rose up again. “Is that why he’s acting so weird?”
Luna chuckled slightly and turned her gaze back to the king. Sombra had resumed his grim expression and remained silent.
“You are asleep, but this is not quite a dream,” the princess explained as she started to approach the king. “He is acting so weird, because this is not the King Sombra you know.”
“I… what?” Private didn’t look even close to understanding what she was going on about.
“When you were a colt, King Sombra abducted you through time and space and imbued you with spells to potentially possess you. I believe he also imbued some of his essence into you, am I correct?” Luna asked as she started circling the king who never took his eyes off her.
“I… yeah I recall something like that being said, whatever that means really,” Private muttered, not really wanting to remember that part of his life.
“This Sombra did the same, except, in his case the colt never returned to his proper time,” Luna told him. She stopped and gave the king a pointed look. “He was stuck with you wasn’t he, Sombra? So you had to raise him yourself.”
“Woah, hold on, can we please speak in less cryptic manners?” Private asked, his head was starting to hurt.
“Yes, my son was from another time who I pulled back to make him ready to serve as the vessel for my spirit if I would happen to die in whatever time period he was from,” King Sombra spoke then sighed. “Something went wrong, he wasn’t sent back. So I adopted and raised him.”
“Can somepony, PLEASE tell me what is going on?” Private finally snapped. He felt like he was missing something really important information to fully understand what the heck was going on. He glared at Luna who was chuckling.
“King Sombra here is a dead spirit, from another world. A world where a version of you was not sent back to your proper time. This Sombra raised that version of you. He was in a weakened state and was pulled to you while you were sleeping. The dreaming world and the spirit world are closely linked. He was probably drawn to the essence of Sombra that is still within you,” the Lunar Princess calmly explained to the confused unicorn.
“In his world, you are his adopted son, named Temor,” Luna then finished and tried not to laugh when Private’s jaw nearly scraped the ground.
“Yes, that sounds about right. I had just used a lot of magic to unlock some memories within my son, memories I had locked away. It drained me and in order to prevent myself from drifting away, I had to rest. Then I did feel a pull and I was suddenly here. I felt something familiar.” King Sombra’s expression softened a little. “I apologize, Private. I did not mean to cause you any discomfort or confusion.”
“Did King Sombra actually, genuinely apologize to me?” Private blinked. This was just too surreal.
“I have recently had many regrets regarding my son. He’s the only thing that kept me sane during my exile. You are what he could have become if I hadn’t…” King Sombra sighed then looked at Luna. “I probably should leave…”
“King Sombra, what you see before you is what would have happened had your previous plans succeeded with your son. This pony has been hounded and tormented by his King Sombra. He still bears the mental scars after a possession that could have very well have driven him insane. He is lucky to be still alive,” Luna stated dryly to the king.
Private arched his brow when seeing the look of horror come over the dark pony. Sombra looked at him. There was a hint of regret in his eyes. Then the king’s expression turned solemn, slowly he began to fade away until he was gone.
“I still have no idea what just happened here,” he muttered, watching Princess Luna turn her attention to him.
“That is the nature of alternate worlds I fear, Private. They can be very confusing. What you saw was the briefest glimpse if things had gone differently,” she told him as she spread her wings and started to ascend.
“I would not trouble yourself over this, just consider this a very strange dream if it makes you feel better,” the princess smiled before disappearing in a bright flash.
Private woke up with a start. Sitting up revealed he was in bed and in his room. A faint glimmer of light was starting to pour into the window, indicating a new day was coming. The unicorn glanced around, wondering if perhaps he had had one too many pancakes before bed.
Weirdest dream, I have ever had. He thought and lay back down. Despite a reputation of being a morning pony, he wanted to try and sleep in.
As he drifted back to sleep, he was observed from one corner of his room by a very faint image of King Sombra. The king had a small smile on his face. A fatherly smile.
“You are in the wrong world, spirit!” a dark voice addressed him. It was his voice but did not come from him. “This world is mine, Private is mine. I will not have you interfere here!”
“Private Iceland belongs to himself,” Temor’s father scowled. “Frankly, I do not care for how you treat him.”
“I do not concern myself with what dead failures think. Get back to your world. There is nothing for you here,” the voice snorted.
Sombra narrowed his eyes, but then sighed, regretfully, admitting that the version of him that belonged to this world was right. With one last look at the sleeping pony on the bed, the spirit faded away, departing back to where he came.
King Sombra was starting to understand what his sister meant when she talked about being a spirit. In his weakened state, things were beginning to become confusing. Time didn’t really seem to exist. He saw the past, the present and what he figured was perhaps the future muddled together.
So far the dead king had used his iron will to just tether himself to his son and focus on the task that lay before them, his resurrection. But after using his accumulated powers to unlock Temor’s memories of Emerald, he found it more difficult to be in the now. He even felt a pull, something wanted him to just leave, move on. It took everything the dark pony had to ignore it.
Then that strange thing had happened. Where he had appeared before his son, but it wasn’t his son, it was the pony his son would have become had he not become stuck with him. Then there was that ominous threat from a version of himself. Sombra had to admit he didn’t care for how obsessive it sounded.
To get back he had to do what he did back in his exile - center all his thoughts on Temor. It started to work somewhat. He could see Starlight’s village, but for now was just a distant observer. He was still linked to his son, but could not yet appear before him.
To get his mind off that strange and rather confusing event, he began focusing his attention on the village and its inhabitants. “Look at this waste of resources, drained of their magic. They can barely do any job properly.”
Sombra narrowed his eyes as the king watched the villagers go about their business. “Granted, I give her props for manipulating loyalty from those dimwitted idiots with her ridiculous spiel, but seriously. She has one tiny village in the furthest corner of Equestria, nearly isolated from the rest of it. How does she expect her propaganda to spread?”
Sombra continued to observe, feeling a bit stronger again. He considered going back to Temor, but found himself strangely reluctant to do so, especially after that strange vision of what could have been. The king then figured since he was out there, he might as well see how things were in this village and be a look out for any trouble.
The villagers were blissfully unaware of the spirit now walking amongst them. Sombra couldn’t see them do anything unusual, most of them were just doing everyday things, none of which interested him in the slightest.
Then a whimper caught his attention. A foal had tripped and hurt her leg. The parents were already on the scene, the father picking up her daughter and giving her a comforting hug. The mother gently caressing her on the head, telling her it was going to be alright, it was just a scratch.
King Sombra growled softly and turned away, ignoring a strange feeling building up inside of him.
“I love you daddy.”
The spirit looked to his side where the source of those words had come. Seeing a colt hugging his father, there were no visible signs of why the child had suddenly made this declaration. Sombra watched silently as the father returned the hug, assuring his son that he loved him too.
Why don’t I scout outside the village, the king thought and started to quickly float away. Things were getting more and more uncomfortable as he observed more parents interact with their foals.
Soon he was on the cliffs overlooking the village. He could feel he was stretching the limit he could go from Temor, but right now that wasn’t too high on his mind. The king just couldn’t understand why seeing these peasants enjoying their time with their children was making him uncomfortable.
Focus. There is no time for this. Sombra sneered and started to levitate into the air so he had a wider view of the area. He could just about see the borders to the frozen north and where Equestria became a grassy plane again.
I did alright, didn’t? His glance slowly drifted back towards Starlight’s house. It wasn’t my fault he got stuck with me… I…
Wasn’t it? It was I who was messing with time spells, pulling ponies back from the comfort of their own homes. Fusing spells into them at the slim chance I might die in their time period. The spell was risky and experimental. It cost two ponies their son… the king closed his eyes, growled softly and turned away from the village.
Oh for the love of… I have no use for sentimentalities right now, focus! King Sombra slowly opened his eyes again. He was facing towards the west. The spirit narrowed his eyes...he saw something no normal living pony could see in the far distance. Perhaps it is time to test the limit of how far I can go from Temor.
“Is Leatherwing sure this is the way he saw them go?” Twilight asked, glancing at Fluttershy as the group stopped for a moment to rest.
The six ponies plus one bat had reached the edge of the grass plain and before them was a barren land of rock and sand. They had been traveling for a little while now, having found a campsite near the trees where Leatherwing had seen Temor and Emerald, they headed in the direction the bat told the yellow pegasus the two ponies had taken.
Fluttershy took a moment to talk with the bat, before looking at Twilight again. “He says yes.”
“Rainbow, you said you saw a village when you tried to see something from high above?” Twilight now turned her attention to the other pegasus who nodded.
“It will take a while to get there on hoof. I can zip over there and see if anyone saw, Temor,” Rainbow Dash offered, almost ready to just dart off in an instant.
“His name is Private Iceland,” the purple unicorn insisted with a frown. “But no, we must stick together. He’s maybe not King Sombra, but he was raised by him, so we don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“Twilight is right, no sense going off alone. Besides the fellow could be in the village and if he became aware that we are looking for him, who knows what he might do?” Applejack concurred. Rainbow Dash folded her front legs and grumbled.
“Fine,” she relented and descended to the ground when she saw that her friends were all sitting down. Pinkie was pulling out goodies from her saddlebags and giving them to the other mares for eating.
“Alright, you take care, say hi to your family from me.” Fluttershy was still speaking with Leatherwing the bat, before he flew off. “He said he needed to go now and join his family for their day nap.”
“So what exactly is the plan if we catch up with this Tem… I mean Private Iceland?” Rarity asked Twilight. The white unicorn had pulled out a blanket from her saddlebag, draping it on the ground before sitting down.
Twilight sighed. In all honesty she wasn’t quite sure. If Leatherwing hadn’t shown up to show them where the pony had gone off to, they would probably still be in the Crystal Empire trying to figure out where he had gone. To complicate matters, Temor’s entire family was involved with this Order of Umbrum by the sounds of it. She had hoped telling him about his family would help, but that didn’t seem to be an option now.
“I’m not sure. At least we’ll try to reason with him before taking any other action. Hopefully we can turn him away from following that monster,” Twilight then said quietly, her friends nodded in agreement.
“So much for not going on a long weary chase huh?” Rainbow commented. That resulted in Twilight planting her face on the ground as she groaned in frustration. Pinkie grinned nervously, recalling saying something along those lines.
“Tell me somethin’, how would this fellow go on about resurrecting his father? Ah mean, it’s not exactly something that happens everyday,” Applejack inquired with a thoughtful frown. Twilight looked up again as she contemplated the question.
“Raising the dead is not exactly something taught in magic school, that I can tell you. I don’t even think Starswirl the Bearded could have done something like that,” the unicorn then responded, rubbing her muzzle.
“Then again I can’t dismiss that King Sombra was a powerful user of dark magic. I don’t quite know what he is capable of. I’ve only experienced small samples of it myself and let me tell you, I did not like the feeling of it.” Twilight shuddered as she remembered the traps in the Crystal Empire.
“You don’t think the prince will summon Sombra’s ghost, will you?” Pinkie gasped and looked a bit freaked out.
“No Pinkie, ghosts aren’t real,” Twilight chuckled at her friend. The others also giggled.
Unbeknownst to the six mares, they were being watched carefully by a pair of unseen eyes. Hearing the unicorn’s remark about ghosts, caused the spy to chuckle mockingly.
Don’t believe in ghosts, huh? King Sombra smirked, fixing his eyes on Twilight Sparkle. He was currently really straining the limit he could be apart from Temor. If he tried to get any closer he would be pulled back.
Well I can’t say I blame you, not like I can do much in this form. Especially since I’m linked to Temor, he thought and rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully with a hoof. Despite the strain he could feel his strength returning.
Never mind that though. You all being here now, poses a problem, he thought and began fading away. I can’t do much, but I know who can.
Unknowingly being observed, the mares continued to eat the food. Twilight was currently raking her brain over what they should do if they caught up with Temor since her initial plans were out the window.
And I just realized we don’t even have the elements with us, she frowned. Of course they were only supposed to use them in a dire emergency, but she was starting to feel this was exactly that.
“Well we better get going and see if he’s gone through the village,” she declared and started to rise. “Let’s go find Private Iceland.”
“Private Iceland is dead!” a sharp voice addressed them hatefully. Turning towards it they saw Temor step up on a large boulder, scowling hard and his horn sparkling with energy. The sky began darkening above them as the prince observed the six ponies below him.
“I am Prince Temor, son of King Sombra, grandson of Queen Rabia of the Dark Pony Empire and nephew of the last Queen of the Dark Ponies.” Temor narrowed his eyes to slits.
“Will you quit grandstanding and just attack them,” his father whispered sharply, unseen from behind him.
“Just having a little fun,” Temor whispered before quickly using his dark magic to change into a towering shadow form, with only the eyes visible glaring daggers down at the startled mares below him.
End chapter 15