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// Chapter 12. Got any aspirin over there? 
// Story: The Last of the Dark Ponies 
// by Askre 
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Chapter 12

Rainbow Dash landed hard on the wall as she was violently thrown into a new cell, isolated from the biggest one that contained most of the prisoners. The pegasus sunk to the ground with a groan, barely noticing when the crystal bars went up to lock her in.

“Well that was a big waste of time!” King Sombra growled as he glared at the disoriented pony. “I should have just encased you in crystal like I did with your other three friends and left you back in that pathetic little village you call home!”

“W-what were you hoping to find?” Private very carefully asked. He was standing nearby, feeling really sorry for Rainbow, having had to watch helplessly as Sombra subjected her to a very grueling magical examination. To her credit she never cried out in pain, kept struggling against it and even managed to launch some insults at the king.

Private jumped a little when Sombra snapped his head around to glare down at him. The king looked more annoyed than angry, but it didn’t change the fact that his expression was very unsettling.

“She is still an element of harmony, even if she doesn’t wield the gem anymore since they gave it back to the tree. They overpowered Tirek without the use of the gems. There should have been something there that indicates how that happened - instead there is nothing. In all aspects, she’s just another pegasus…” King Sombra stopped ranting and blinked as if something suddenly dawned on him. He looked back at the cell. Rainbow Dash was slowly rising, glaring back at him.

“In fact, why haven’t you and your friends just turned on those powers time and time again to deal with threats? You used them to both de-power Tirek and send him back to Tartarus…” the dark unicorn slowly started to smile. “It was a one-time thing! You weren’t actually doing anything. It was the tree! It was using you and your connection to it to repair the damage Tirek did.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything, just continued to glare at King Sombra. She didn’t even know if he was right or not. Magical theories just made her head spin, having suffered through some of them while listening to Twilight Sparkle ramble on about them. However, she did know he was right in one aspect. That strange power they had used to defeat Tirek had never come to them again.

They had been summoned to various places by the map sure, but never again had they just turned on some awesome elemental powers to defeat any dangerous foe since. Rainbow was a little disappointed in that. In her mind it would be awesome to be able to just turn it on whenever she wished. Right now she could use them to wipe that smile off the king’s face.

Sombra didn’t seem to be in a mood to gloat, despite his sudden realization. He just gave one last chuckle and turned away, giving Private a sharp order to leave the cavern. The smaller unicorn obeyed, though not before giving Rainbow a regretful look. Once Private was gone, the king walked over to the cave where Barricade was.

Rainbow Dash struggled to remain standing, wanting to show more defiance. She watched as Sombra took Barricade out of his cell, use his magic to put a collar with a chain linked to it on him and then drag his prisoner out of the cell cavern. Barricade looked like he was in pain, but didn’t otherwise struggle and let the dark unicorn lead him out. Finally now did Dash sank back to her rump, muffling a groan as she did.

“Rainbow Dash! Are you alright?” she heard Dinky call from the cell the filly was in.

Rainbow leaned forward to look out. She just about could make out where the bigger cell was. The fillies were by the bars, looking towards her. So were Mirage and Hard. They looked worried, sad, concerned and everywhere in-between.

“Got any aspirin over there?” Dash tried to weakly joke, producing a smirk. That at least got the fillies to giggle. Even Cara smiled a little.

“What was he doing to you?” Mirage asked.

“Blasted me with some crazy magic. Made me drink something that both stank and tasted awful before blasting me again. The only good part is he kept getting more and more frustrated with each test he did,” the pegasus replied. “I’m okay though, just sore. Dunno what he was talking about with all this element connection.”

“I don’t think he’s really that interested in you. It’s us he wants… your status as the bearer of element of loyalty was probably just a curiosity to him,” Hard was speaking now.

“How can you be so sure? He did snatch me as well, after all,” Rainbow grunted and decided it would be best to lay down for now. She stretched her sore legs and wings as she did.

“Like I said, you’re probably just a moderate curiosity. My wife and I have been studying Sombra’s journal that was found while our boys were his captives, back when Private was possessed. That’s how I know his deep respect for the Dark Ponies. There were pages after pages on how much he missed the empire, even grudgingly admitting missing doing magical experiments with his mother. He really longed for the company of other dark ponies. I think he still yearns for them,” Hard Shovel told her. 

Rainbow Dash raised her head a bit at that info. “But you guys are only descendants. You’re not actually dark ponies,” Dash said, arching her eyebrow.

“That’s probably close enough for him right now,” Mirage spoke up with a heavy sigh.

“Look, we’re gonna get out of here, even if we don’t manage to bust out, I’m sure Twilight and the rest are working on finding us. It will be okay,” Rainbow Dash tried to assure them when hearing how dejected the older mare sounded.





Sombra growled as he watched Private take Barricade out of the lab, having just ordered the unicorn to take his twin back to the cell. Barricade was weakly moaning in pain after the latest series of experiments being done on him.

Another dead end, the king growled and turned to the book on the podium. With his magic, he picked up a quill and began writing.

“Barricade didn’t respond much to small infusions of dark magic. He did have a common reaction - screaming as if he were burning. The traces of dark pony ancestry within him did welcome the dark magic, but it didn’t linger very long. I considered infusing my essence into him like I did with his brother a long time ago, but I have serious doubts it will make any difference.” 

“I really dislike grasping around like that in the dark, but this kind of procedure has never been done before. Granted I don’t have all the necessary equipment to do more proper experiments, however even these rudimentary ones should have revealed something by now.” Sombra shook his head in dismay.

“I do wonder if something is back in the Dark Pony Empire that could help. Even if it was destroyed, I know mother had plenty of hidden vaults only accessible to those of her bloodline. She did have many tomes of ancient magic.” He frowned as he considered this.

“Perhaps something to consider for later. For now I’m going to concentrate on the twins. The fillies are too young. I fear they wouldn’t survive this treatment and the same goes to the two older ones due to their advanced years. Best just to keep them as prisoners to ensure Private’s behavior. As for that element bearer, she will be a useful hostage just in case Twilight Sparkle  somehow manages to evade my traps.” Sombra didn’t even glance up when hearing hoofsteps, knowing already it was Private, who didn’t dare do anything else but return straight away.

“Have a seat, I’ll be with you in a moment,” he simply said and continued to scribble in the book. The king heard a grunt, then some shuffling as the pony did as he was told.

“Did you know dark ponies can sense one another in a way?” Sombra asked while his focus was still on the book.

“Yes,” Private simply replied.

“I paid no attention to it when we first met. After all I wasn’t expecting to meet another one, but as we spent more time together when I possessed you, I realized that when we first met, I did feel something familiar about you. That was probably why I tested your ancestry back then far more than the color of your coat, albeit it did make me curious.” Now he did look at Private, who was sitting close to the entrance. His prisoner didn’t say a word, just slowly nodded.

“I really like you, Private. You’re so quiet,” Sombra chuckled and turned away from the book. He motioned for the unicorn to come over. Private sighed, rose up and walked over to the king.

“You know you are descendant of dark ponies, but do you know the names of your ancestors?” King Sombra asked.

“We’ve only barely connected the family tree on mom’s side. We are still struggling with dad’s side. The family records are spottier there,” Private answered him. “Mom’s distant ancestor was a dark pony mare who married an Equestrian. We don’t know her proper dark pony name, but she was called Feather Fall.”

Sombra frowned hard as he heard the name. It was definitely not a dark pony name, however the name Pluma, which meant feather, had existed amongst dark pony pegasi. Dark ponies only carried one name, not two like often happened with Equestrian ponies.

“So she was a dark pony. Do you know who her parents were?” he wondered.

“Only their Equestrian names,” Private told him. He hid a chuckle when seeing Sombra’s expression, it was like the king was insulted that they had changed their names.

“Look, the story goes that the refugees were so grateful to the Celestial sisters for granting them a home, that they changed their names to sound more Equestrian. Whether that’s a true account, you’ll need to ask Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, if they even remember that bit,” the smaller unicorn explained. “Anyway, Feather Fall’s parents were Timid Shadow and Winged Diva.”

Private wasn’t sure what to think when King Sombra’s eyes opened wide in astonishment. Everything fell silent as the larger pony just kept staring at him, almost as if he had grown a second head.

“It… it can’t be,” Sombra whispered. Then he suddenly rushed over to the bookshelf and started tossing books away as he searched.

Um, what is going on? Private wondered and just watched as Sombra continued to look for something in the bookshelf.

Finally the king held an old-looking book and was browsing quickly through it. Sombra didn’t even bother walking back, morphed for a brief moment into his shadow form and transported right back in front of Private, where he assumed his pony body again.

“If this spell works, I can see who your ancestor is. I didn’t bother much with it since that’s not what I’m after, but I need to confirm something,” King Sombra said and activated his dark magic.

Before Private could even protest, Sombra enveloped him in dark magic aura and spoke something in a language he wasn’t familiar with. The only word he recognized was Odio and he wondered if this was a reference to the first queen. Suddenly a faint image of a pony materialized beside him. It was a tall pegasus mare with a similarly dark gray coat, but her mane and tail were black with silvery highlights.

“No that must be Feather Fall. If she had been born in the empire, her name would probably be Pluma, which means feather,” King Sombra grunted. He still maintained the dark magic aura around Private. He spoke the words again and the mare began to dissolve.

Well that is kinda cool, I got to see what my great, great in the nth degree grandmare looked like. Private had to admit to being impressed. He didn’t know there existed a spell that could show ponies their ancestors.

Another image formed, another pegasus mare. Her mane and tail were black. Private looked at Sombra who had fallen silent, staring at the image in a state of disbelief.

“That’s Ala… her name means wing… I arranged… confound it you ludicrous random spell, show me the father!” the king growled and started the spell again.

Once again the image dissolved and was replaced by another pony. This time an earth stallion appeared. Dark gray, but his mane and tail were dark blonde. Private tilted his head...if the pony had had blue eyes, quite a bit lighter blonde mane and dark brown hooves, he sort of looked like him and Barricade, minus the horn.

“Timido,” Sombra whispered softly, staring at the image in shock.

Timido… wait… hold on… I’m Timido’s descendant? Private blinked then slowly looked at the king who was still staring at the image.

“He did survive! He was in Equestria when the empire fell. Oh, thank the First Queen!” Sombra muttered. The dark magic was deactivated, the aura and the image disappeared.

He really cared about Timido. Private wasn’t sure what to think about this, but had a feeling he better remain silent about it. As fascinating as this had all been, the unicorn hadn’t forgotten he and his family were prisoners and this brief reprieve from the king’s experiments wouldn’t last very long.

King Sombra said nothing more to Private, instead he just pushed past the unicorn and left the cave. Private frowned slightly and approached the entrance to peek out. From the distance he spotted Sombra heading in the direction that would take him up to the fort.

Since he hadn’t really been given any orders, the unicorn decided to head back to the prison cavern. He really wanted to check on Barricade who so far had done very little except either be experimented on or was left recovering in his own cell, unable to really talk much with anyone.

When Private arrived in the cavern with the cells, he did notice almost everyone looking towards him, but the unicorn ignored it for now. His attention was on the cell his brother was in. Barricade was laying down on the side, his head resting on the hard floor, his back towards the bars.

Private started to approach the cell, knowing the others were watching him, probably wondering what was going on now. The unicorn felt a little sick when hearing the soft moan of pain coming from his twin, knowing there was little he could do to help ease it.

“Barricade?” he addressed his brother and lay down next to the cell. There was no response, just heavy breathing.

I really wish I had your ways with words, Private sighed and reached inside to put a hoof on his brother.

“How is your brother?” he could hear call from the other cell.

“In pain,” Private responded, he was starting to wonder if Sombra was being more intentionally harmful when experimenting on Barricade. So far Private could mostly shake it off when he had been subjected to the king’s experiments, but his brother, the one pony he expected to be able to shake things off easily, was looking much worse.

Or is Sombra taking it easy on me? Private started to caress his brother’s mane.

“No… No… NO!” suddenly Barricade screamed and started to struggle violently.

“Barricade! Calm down, it’s okay,” Private pulled back his hoof just as his twin sprang up, eyes wide open with fear. Barricade hugged the back wall of the cell, trembling and breathing heavily before sinking back down. Slowly he looked towards his brother. His eyes didn’t really focus and just seemed to stare into the distance.

“Oh… hi bro,” Barricade whispered and looked away, his eyes still wide open and fearful. It was as if he was still half asleep and unable to fully wake up.

“You know… I love… love her…” he whispered and looked towards the ground, fixating on his front hooves.

“Who?” Private asked gently. Barricade was now too far into the cell, so he couldn’t reach him.

“Foxy… she’s… she’s funny… she takes no crap… from anypony… not even me…” Barricade choked as if holding back tears. “I tried to hit… hit her… you… stopped me… you… you did good that day… you stopped me… I can’t… can’t believe… I tried to… hit her…”

Private said nothing, just let his brother ramble on. His brother was referring to something long ago when he and Foxy had been dating. Back then, Barricade had been possessive and jealous and tried to control her, but Foxy was having none of it. Then they had an argument and in a fit of rage, Barricade had raised his hoof to strike her, but Private who had secretly been listening, stopped it and threw his brother out of the house. After that the two were no longer dating. It had been the start of the brothers drifting apart and becoming estranged.

Barricade continued to ramble on, but didn’t seem to be focusing on one topic, kept going back and forth, counting up his various misdeeds, kept praising his brother for the times Private had stopped him.

Private frowned as he continued to observe his brother. This no longer looked like the pony who had stuck by him back when he was possessed. The pony who kept defying Sombra no matter what the king seemed to throw at him...the rock the unicorn had used to keep himself from going insane while having the spirit of an evil king stuck inside his head.

Slowly, Barricade’s ramblings started to die down and he seemed to be drifting back into uneasy sleep. Private rose up, giving his twin one concerned glance before going to the cell where his parents and nieces were still held.

“Cara,” he addressed the young pegasus. “Did your dad ever get any treatment after coming back from the Crystal Empire?”

Private actually felt like his gut had been punched when Cara shook her head. Mirage and Hard Shovel frowned in concerned, while Coal and Dinky could only listen, not really understanding what the older ponies were talking about.

“Mom, dad, I’m no expert, this is Dew Doe and Foxy’s territory… but I think Barricade is having post-traumatic stress disorder and has been ever since Sombra first appeared at the party…” Private glanced at his parents. Mirage gasped and put a hoof over her mouth, Hard Shovel cringed as he put a leg around his wife to comfort her.

“Not that I’m feeling much better,” the unicorn looked back at the cave entrance. “But at least… I can use the various tricks Dew taught me, try and focus on other things and stuff like that…”

Private omitted to mention that some of the tricks he used were not appropriate to mention in front of very young company. It mostly involved a certain blue pegasus. Speaking of that mare, he wondered if he could convince her to help his brother if they ever got out of their current mess.

“I better go. I’m probably stretching the limits of what I can do,” Private realized that right now he had no idea where Sombra was and he’d rather not have the king come looking for him while he was talking with his family.

“Be careful,” Mirage told him as her son started to walk away.

Private did stop at Rainbow’s cell and looked in. The pegasus was laying on her back looking really, really bored.

“I haven’t found out much, just that there is a tunnel that leads up to a fort and that there are two caves that dampen magic a little. Sorry,” he quickly told her before leaving the prison cavern, not noticing that this had caused the pegasus to frown a bit in thought.

The lab was still empty, so Private headed to the tunnel where the storage and water well caves were. As he entered, he stopped short when seeing Sombra come through the door at the far end.

“Ah, Private, I’ve had a few ideas on how to proceed with my project. Go to the lab, I’ll meet you there, I’m going to fetch your brother,” the king addressed the unicorn when seeing him.

Oh no. Private froze, racing through his mind was the image of his brother in his cell, frazzled, trembling, eyes unfocused and fearful, rambling on and on, sometimes moaning in pain.

I… I must stop this somehow… I have to delay… but how… Private felt ill. He did not want his brother to go through another experiment, not after seeing what he had of Barricade  in the cell.

“I… I…” the unicorn stammered, the king halted his approach and regarded him with a raised brow.

“I’ve given in!” his prisoner suddenly shouted and rushed towards him, stopping mere inches away. “I mean… you always said I would give in eventually. Have my fantasies come true… I have given in… I want it… really… show me?”

King Sombra’s brow rose higher. Private was desperately trying to smile but it came more out as a half-skewed, crazy grin. The smaller unicorn was sweating and nervous and desperately trying not to tremble.

“Oh really now,” Sombra remarked unimpressed and started to circle his prisoner, regarding him critically. “Just like that, you suddenly want to give in, fulfill your most deeply hidden fantasy?”

“Y-yes?” Private really did not want to do this, but he was desperate. Right now this distraction was the only thing he could think of to keep his brother away from further pain.

“Hmm…” the dark pony narrowed his eyes as he stopped beside Private. He used his tail to gently sweep against the smaller unicorn.

“Oh, you think I don’t know what you are doing, Timi… Private,” King Sombra quickly corrected himself, but never really lost composure. He put a hoof under Private’s muzzle and forced him to look up at him. The king smirked at the uneasiness coming from his prisoner.

“Trying to distract and delay me? Hmm?” Sombra chuckled.

Private’s heart sank thinking he would now be forced to watch his brother once again be horribly experimented on. Then there was a voice deep inside of him, a voice the unicorn had tried so very hard to ignore for a long time, that was mildly disappointed Sombra hadn’t taken the bait for other reasons.

“Then again…” the king let go of Private’s muzzle and started tapping his own. Sombra dropped his hoof to the floor and now regarded the smaller unicorn with a more friendly smile. “I suppose I wouldn’t mind a little distraction.”

Private blinked. Sombra’s tail was still gently brushing against him. That long-ignored voice deep in the back of his head was actually giddy, but right now the unicorn was desperately trying not to freak out. Had this worked? Was he just testing him? He stiffened when feeling a muzzle right next to his ear, breathing softly into it.

“Shall we retire to my chamber, my little comfort colt?” King Sombra whispered slyly, snaking a leg around Private.

There were hundred of different responses the smaller unicorn wanted to use to answer this. None of them came out. The vision of Barricade huddled in his cell, kept coming up and Private’s determination to protect his brother started to grow strong again. Knowing there would be no turning back from this, Private glanced at Sombra.

“Yeah… sure,” he smiled weakly and didn’t resist when King Sombra began leading him towards the door that lead up to the fort.

End chapter 12