January 9th, the Year MCCCXLVIII
I seem to have fallen asleep during my writings. Or perhaps I fell unconscious? I know little difference between the two today.
My mind is slurred and heavy as though touched by liquor. The encounter with Sombra has left more than just my body bruised. I can feel my mind stirring, thoughts swirling back and forth in a dizzying haze. Where was I..?
Sombra. We found him in the mountains. Cadance and I were able to drive him from his hiding place in the caverns there, but we failed to hold him down for entrapment. Sombra is now out in the wildlands of Equestria, and I shudder to think of what he is planning next. Faell cannot have been his only acolyte. There must be more spread out across the kingdom.
That possibility raises a new problem that must be confronted: how dangerous will paranoia and suspicion be when they begin to run rampant? I can urge caution, for all people to be discreet and alert to danger- but it may spiral out of control. Sombra will be seen in every shadowy corner, one of his followers in every alleyway. He will be everywhere and nowhere all at once, and the people will panic because of it.
The topic of the Annual Address will have to be on Sombra’s return, if we do not find him soon. Until he is captured and defeated for good, there is no higher priority; none would care until the tensions are lessened, anyway. A wedding celebration will do-
Oh, heaven help me, what is wrong with me? I can hardly focus for longer than a few second! I have been trying to write this portion down for over an hour now, and I have only put down a few words! What about Sombra is diluting my mind so violently? Am I trying to understand how he survived? Why he cannot take physical form, perhaps how he has evaded detection for so long? It is maddening, I cannot understand. It is like I’m trying to- remember something…
Oh no.
No. It must be false. I refuse to believe anything else. How could I have even forgotten something of such importance? It was a mistake- no, those memories are not even real. I will not cling to any other possibility. But they sound real, feel real. I can remember the days and what they felt like as though they happened yesterday. What could trigger them so?
It is a trick. A false attack from Sombra himself when he struck out at me today. A heresy of the mind to deter me from stopping him. It must be, it will not be, I cannot accept it.
No. No, no, no, no, no, NO!
Why would they only appear now? Were they linked to his presence? How could he erase something from my own memories? Did I block them out myself, and laying eyes upon him again return them to my mind? Did I construct a prison in my brain, and his presence was the key? I don’t understand! I can’t simply just forget something that important!
Who do I speak to about this? Cadance? She would be horrified. Luna? She is busy patrolling the wildlands, she is needed there. Twilight? Poor Twilight’s brilliant mind will be needed here to help unravel the mystery of Sombra’s survival, I will not add more to her burden.
… Do I dare tell Ford? What would he possibly think of me? Sombra is the horror of a thousand stories, the nightmare that haunted children’s deepest fears of the shadows. His very name is synonymous with malice and cruelty. What would he say if I told him-
I will not. No one will know. I will not even write the words down. I will carry them deep within my soul for the rest of this age, until sun and moon fall from the skies and the fire of the universe flickers out. Ford will never know. He must never know, lest the truth break him completely.
That is his knock on the door. He must be concerned for me, I have been weary since Sombra’s encounter. He will be performing his duty as a soldier and a trusted love.
He never needs to know. It would only bring him pain.
January 10th, the Year MCCCXLVIII
No sign of Sombra. All of Equestria is on alert, and any available militia units not on duty safeguarding towns and cities are now combing the countryside under Luna’s command. The Solar Guard are fully armed in every city and is on a constant, three-man, 24-hour guard. There will be tiredness to deal with, but I will not have us be taken unawares. If Sombra tries to leave his hiding place, we will be there to take him down.
Twilight arrived this morning, and is currently still in the library. She believes that she will be there all night, and well into tomorrow. Ford is there with her by my request. He balked at the command, fearing for my safety without his presence there as a deterrent. Nevertheless I insisted, and both he and Twilight are working relentlessly to complete their inventory of the library.
As soon as Twilight arrived, she was escorted to the library where Cadance and I awaited her. When we were done discussing the major details, I began to question Twilight on what she could determine of the late librarian’s actions.
“Was she conducting an inventory check? Certainly, all her records here point to it,” she told me, taking a seat in the office and poring over the paperwork. “She had only just started, by the looks of it. Sombra… must have attacked her when she came back to get her worknotes.”
“But why, why a library?” Cadance asked aloud. “He had no such collection in his own private quarters, from what I was able to learn about him. What about this place was he after?”
“We can only guess. And only when we know what he stole,” Twilight replied. “This library is huge. I can work quickly, but it will take time to complete the process.”
“What process?” I asked.
“I’ll need to go through the entire library myself. Each book, one by one,” Twilight said, peering at the list of books before her. “She had it all organized by the Decimal System, so that should show where I need to begin… but as just one person, I’m sorry but it’ll take some time.”
“Sergeant Ford, stay here with Princess Twilight and act as her aide until the work is complete,” I said, watching as his features rose in alarm. “It will be long and difficult, but I trust you can help her see it done.”
“And then who will guard you, Your Majesty?” he challenged. “That is my primary duty, I do not wish to abandon it.”
“Please, stay here and see it done. The entire city is on alert, the Crystal Empire’s defenses are active,” I said, trying to soothe his nerves. “It is of greater importance that we know what Sombra is doing rather than my safety. I ask that you stay here instead.”
Ford could only argue so much, though his expression suggested he held no pleasure in the order. I would force him to stay here if I needed to, but I sincerely wish he would not push it to such things.
He sighed, accepting his fate. “So we should start immediately,” he said flatly. “How many books does this library hold?”
Twilight scanned the recordbooks. “A little over 10,000,” she reported. “Only a spare few have been added since the Crystal Empire returned to Equestria. Most books here will be ancient.”
The number was painful to hear. “Then we can’t waste any time,” Ford said. “Your Majesty?”
“I will be fine, Sergeant, I promise,” I told him. “Get to work and find out what he was after. Cadance and I will investigate into what we can, and see how he managed to survive. Hurry.”
Tomorrow morning, I will accompany Cadance to speak to people across the Empire and see what leads can be verified. Some have mentioned tales that are worth pursuing. Perhaps we will be able to see just how he hid himself for so long, and why death did not take him away for good.
January 11th, the Year MCCCXLVIII
That poor, poor, little girl. How could she have known what vileness she was tampering with?
Cadance and I have found how Sombra managed to hide. Clever, wicked man. As long as a small part of him survived, he could be brought back. And to twist and torment as he did…
A series of different stories across the Empire were where we began our investigation. With Ford and Twilight still deeply involved in the library, we found it best to involve ourselves elsewhere. As we talked to different people from across the city, traces of Sombra seem to have been at work for several months now. A shadow in the corner of a man’s house; a specter that haunted an old woman’s home; a young woman’s rash of violent nightmares that fled as suddenly as they had arrived. Bits and pieces of his presence, but never one that seemed to answer to his survival. That was until we met little Primrose, who may have been the one who gave him life again.
Primrose Vale, the daughter of our late librarian. Apparently, her childhood has been turbulent, as her parents had decided to stay together for the sake of their children. An unhappy marriage resulted from it, and the two quarreled before their children often. Little Primrose, sweet and sensitive, struggled to calm herself when her parents would fight.
“And why was I not told of this?” Cadance demanded, much of her story was told to us by Primrose’s uncle, a tired-looking man named Bramble. “I am not the Princess of Love for nothing. If I had known, I would have helped them be restored. At least for their children’s sake!”
Bramble became discomforted and struggled to meet Cadance’s gaze. “I am sorry, Your Majesty, but my brother never wanted the word to get out. He kept saying he’d try to make it better, that he didn’t want there to be talk.”
We got what we could out of the man, and then turned out attentions to Primrose. A calm, sickly girl who struggled to walk and had a small voice to match her frail frame. Nevertheless she seemed delighted to see us, and answered every question we had for her.
Primrose lived in the city outskirts before she moved to live with her uncle, not far from where Sombra was first defeated. During her parents many arguments, she would often find herself unable to bear the sound and would escape elsewhere, trying to find a place where she could hear them bicker. One time, nearly three years ago, she ventured further away from home than usual and found a strange, red stone in the street, rather battered but shining brilliantly and cold to the touch. Delighted with her find, Primrose took that stone home with her and had it sewn into her favorite stuffed toy, giving it a ‘heart.’
Oh, Primrose… it must have been a shard of Sombra’s hand that she found. So much of his body had fragmented, his dark magic had bound rock to hide where flesh had fallen away. Some small part of him, still imbibed with his strength, somehow survived Twilight and Cadance’s efforts. Spike, Shining Armor, all of Twilight’s friends… I will make sure they do not blame themselves for this. It was not failure on anyone’s part. No one would have thought of such a thing.
Primrose’s family troubles only worsened as time went on. With her elder brothers spending more time away from home than ever, she found she had no refuge or confidant to turn to. And so, like all little children do, she conjured one up: her stuffed toy. She spoke to it, speaking of all her sorrows and pains, confiding to it her anger and unhappiness. She had done it before. But with the stone now shining in the toy’s fibers, something new occurred: the stone spoke back.
Little Primrose’s toy became her only friend. The one who understood her, held her trust, loved her like no one else could. The more she spoke to it, the stronger the stone became. She fed her bitterness, her anger, all her negative emotions into that toy- all the things that Sombra feeds upon were being poured in by an innocent, unfiltered source. Sombra grew fat from strength and began to restore his shadows again. But most important of all, she fed it the stories of her family. Of her mother’s work as a librarian in the oldest living library in Equestria…
Five months ago, a particularly violent argument erupted between her parents, and Primrose had run to her room to hide. She began to cry and weep into her toy, saying all manner of things to it, wishing that her parents would never fight again. As she said her wishes, her toy began to twist and become misshapen until it was nothing more than stuffing and rags, fully surrounded by the darkest of shadows that held a pair of sickly green eyes.
Sombra tried to kill Primrose, sucking away her energy and sapping her of life. If her mother and father had not heard her screams, Sombra would be standing in the form of a little girl, and the spirit that calls herself Primrose would be gone into the ether. Instead, the ritual was left incomplete, and Sombra’s shadow, still vicious and powerful, was all that could reenter our world. He escaped into the city and fed on its populace slowly but surely, until the time was right to strike. He fed into Faell two years ago, and has been feeding on the hatred, bitterness, fear, and pain of a kingdom ever since.
Primrose has not been the same since that day. Once a vibrant, rambunctious girl is now a frail little thing. Her body is weakened in a way no magic nor medicine can repair. Her life will certainly be short. It disgusts and wounds me to my soul, that such a sweet young girl who only wanted a happy family, now has to bear such awful memories.
Cadance assured me that Primrose will live a comfortable life for the rest of her days, but I do not feel any better for it. Nothing will bring back the joy she has lost.
January 12th, the Year MCCCXLVIII
Ford and Twilight have found something. It was late in the night when Cadance and I were requested, but it is a lead- no matter how small.
One book is missing from the Crystal Library: Myths and Legends of Ancient Days. According to the information the library contained on the book, it hold stories, tales, and knowledge on the oldest subjects of the world. Arcane magic, lost civilizations, powerful beasts that roam the depths of the earth where no man has ever ventured…
Unfortunately for us, Twilight has never read it. Nor has she even heard of it. The book may be extremely rare- not just here in Equestria, but across the world. If Sombra stole the only copy-
A call will be sent out across the kingdom come morning. If anyone has the book, or possesses knowledge of its contents, they are to come forward immediately. Perhaps we will find out just what Sombra is truly after.