Rarity was sitting in Canterlot with Celestia and Luna, the panicked look on their faces as they skimmed over maps of Equestria. Celestia growled “It’s been two weeks since the Empire returned and there is no sign of him!”
Luna gritted her teeth “Indeed, sister he has to be around here somewhere!”
Rarity frowned at them “Enough, both of you! I’ll take care of this, just look at yourselves! You haven't slept in days and it’s beginning to take it’s toll, get some rest!”
Luna snarled at her “We can’t do that, we need to find him!”
I growled “You won’t be able to fight him if you are exhausted, get some rest! I’ll take over for at few hours, you two get some rest!”
Celesta sighed “Rarity is right, we won’t stand any chance against him as we are.” Little did they know the pony they were looking for was helping on the Apple Farm, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack had returned to their routines trying to get their minds off Sombra still being out there.
Scootaloo knowing this had tried to help as much as possible on the Apple Farm to get Applejack’s mind off the tyrant. Aqua Shade was also trying to help feeling guilty that his existence was causing this. Aqua Shade smiled as he galloped over to the basket, Applejack smiled as he lifted up the basket “Thank ya, kindly.”
Aqua Shade nodded as she galloped over to the cart, Shining Star was puffing a she joined him “How do you keep this up, it’s so exhausting.”
Aqua Shade frowned “I have had a rough life, let’s leave it at that.” They put the baskets onto the cart, Aqua Shade smiled at Scootaloo “It’s full now.”
Scootaloo grinned “Great work you two, I’ll be right back.” Aqua Shade smiled as he watched Scootaloo galloped away this was the life.
Scootaloo returned only for the group to gasp as a red barrier materialised around the town. They galloped into town to see a blue unicorn with a two toned blue mane boasting “I have defeated Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville now belongs to me!”
Applejack growled “You liar!” Everypony in town watched in horror as Applejack was turned into an old mare by Trixie
Aqua Shade looked at Scootaloo “We have to do something, we have to confront her!”
Scootaloo growled “I agree, look at the red amulet around her neck. We need to take it off her!”
Aqua Shade and Scootaloo approached Trixie their forms shifting, Scootaloo’s coat and mane darkening. Aqua’s coat darkened while his light blue mane faded to black, everypony looking at the two as their bodies grew in size. Scootaloo snarled “Give me that amulet now!”
Trixie grinned as fired a blast of magic at them, Scootaloo rolled her eyes as her eyes glowed green with powerful purple trails flying backwards as she caught the spell in a field of magic and inspected it as if looking at a pile of coal “You really are pathetic, using a beginners dark magic artefact and losing complete control of yourself.” She dispelled the spell and then ripped the amulet off Trixie which caused the barrier to dispel.
Trixie sobbed “I’m so sorry, I lost control of myself.”
Aqua sighed “What do we do now, Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo crushed the amulet into dust with her magic “That was a tool for training apprentice dark mages, get then to sense dark magic and control it. Non-dark mages should not touch this type of artefact, it will corrupt them.”
Aqua saw the ponies looking at them in fear, he turned to Scootaloo “What do we do now?”
Scootaloo frowned “Well we have to tell them the truth, there is no lying about this one.”
Applejack glared them “Ya lied to us, both of ya. Ah want the truth!”
Twilight had galloped back in to Ponyville “What’s going on?!”
Rainbow flew over to Twilight the spells Trixie cast being dispelling when the amulet was destroyed “’Scootaloo’ and ‘Aqua Shade’ apparently have been hiding their true selves, the could be changelings for all we know?”
Aqua sighed as he looked at Twilight “I am the one you are looking for, I am Sombra. You should inform the Princesses about me.”
Twilight growled her horn glowing “I’m going to bring you down, Sombra!”
She fired a blast of magic at Aqua only for a wing to deflect the spell with ease, Scootaloo shook her head “I brought him here under the condition he would cause no trouble.”
Apple Bloom galloped over to them “Scootaloo and Aqua have been helping us at the farm. They don’t deserve to be condemned when they haven’t done anything wrong.”
Applejack sighed “That is true, they have helped us quite a bit. Ah’m still a little sour about the lying but they still helped us a lot. We’re weeks ahead of schedule.”
Rainbow’s eyes narrowed “Scootaloo, is it really you?”
Scootaloo deadpanned “On the first day we met you hit you flew into a tree and got stuck. I had to pull you out.”
Rainbow Dash’s face glowed bright red as several ponies burst into laughter, the tension in the air dissolving “It’s her.”
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in the air in front of Aqua “I’ll have to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party.”
Aqua blinked “Is she always like this?”
Scootaloo giggled “Yes, don’t worry you’ll get used to it.”
Before anypony could another word a flash of light went off nearby, Celestia let out a her Royal Canterlot Voice “Sombra!”
Everypony struggled to stay on their hooves until a deep black shield emerged, Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed as her barrier protected everypony else“I believe you will find more interest in me, Dark Regalia!”
Celestia turned around only for Luna to appear in a flash glaring at Sombra “So are we going to take him out!”
Celestia gritted her teeth “Later, first we are going to exterminate that orange mare! She is Dark Regalia!”
Luna gave Scootaloo the most deadly glare ever conceived “You are the monster who wiped our species!”
Everypony gasped as they heard the news, suddenly a huge eruption of darkness flew out of Scootaloo forcing the two Alicorns to their knees. Scootaloo spoke calmly “You have no idea what your kind did, first off the condemnation of dark magic was an Alicorn idea to establish rule over the other Non-Alicorn Ponies. Dark magic was invented by Pegasi and Earth Ponies by combining their magics together to oppose the Unicorns.”
Scootaloo took a deep breath as tears flowed down her face “You kind killed my parents in cold blood! I devoted my life to unseating the Alicorn Empire through my studies in dark magic, after over 3 million years of study I achieved my goal! I was the original master of dark magic, I taught Grogar dark magic and created the Umbrum. Grogar was a powerful student but he tried to enslave ponies. I opposed him alongside Gusty the Great, granting her the opportunity to steal his precious bell. I then sealed him away.”
Luna snarled “Why should we believe you!”
Scootaloo frowned “You don’t have to. I thought you were my enemies, the Umbrum were my creations to destroy you two as I believe you would enslave pony-kind. In the end my final failed plan lead to me understanding how far that you, Celestia would go to protect your ponies. The Nightmare was my creation!”
Celestia let a devastating scream “You’re the reason I had to use the Elements against my sister! I will destroy you!”
Scootaloo shook her head as many ponies were frozen the tension having returned in full force “No, that was all you! I ordered Nightmare to possess you, so you would kill your sister and then she would leave your body so I could kill you. Unfortunately Nightmare empathized with your sister’s plight and tried to help her, I have been living under your rule for the last millennia under different identities.”
Celestia eyes narrowed while Luna glared at her “Why should we trust you!”
She then released her hold on them as she bowed before them “There is no reason you should, do what you wish!” Celestia’s face contorted as she was at war with herself, she was a stern believer in the fact that anyone could be redeemed and the mare in front of her had done that but the age at the loss of her kind screamed fiercely. Luna on the other hoof was not willing to show mercy, her horn glowed as a magical sword swung down as Scootaloo closed her eyes waiting for the end.
Scootaloo waited for an end only for nothing to happen, she opened her eyes to see Aqua smiling as sword was embedded in his side. Aqua smiled at her “You gave me a chance at a normal life, thank you for everything.” His vision faded to black as he collapsed to the ground.