“Fellow Umbrum,” Rabia screeched, “we gather here for the trial of the traitor Radiant Hope, who we honored and sheltered for a thousand years and who, just as we were about to achieve our final victory, turned our lord Sombra against us and cost us our freedom, thereby ruining our work and dashing all of our hopes.”
A loud, collective hiss erupted from the assembled Umbrum. Sombra began to make his move. Cadance blocked his path with her foreleg.
“What are you doing?” she said.
“I have to save Hope. I can’t let them... put her on trial?”
Sombra stopped for a moment to think. “Who would have thought my people would be so litigious?”
“Lawyers, Umbrum, they don’t seem that different to me,” Cadance responded.
“Not a fan of judicial independence?”
“There’s a reason there are no law courts in the Crystal Empire.”
“And I thought I was the tyrant here,” Sombra said. “But I have to save Hope. It’s now or never.”
“No, not now or never. We have to be careful. We can’t engage them here. There are too many of them.”
“Is there anyone willing to stand up and defend the traitor?” Rabia said from below. There were no takers.
Above, Sombra continued the argument. “I thought you said that you had some sort of love-magic that could hurt them.”
“But I can’t take on this many. And neither can you, Sombra. You aren’t one of them anymore. You’re—”
“Useless?”
Cadance shook her head. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“You think I can’t save my best friend, don’t you?” Sombra said.
“We’re not going to do this again,” Cadance said. “We don’t have the time. Just don’t do anything stupid. I think I have an idea. But we can’t interfere now. We have to wait until they’re not all together.”
“So, we wait until after the trial?” Sombra said with a scoff. “Hope did the right thing and saved both of us. You want them to find her guilty for that?”
“It’s not a real court, Sombra!” Cadance said, obviously growing frustrated. “The verdict doesn’t matter! What matters is that we need to bide our time. I think I have a plan. Just trust me.”
Sombra concealed a snarl. He turned his back on Cadance and looked again to the trial.
“So, there is none of you willing to betray your own people and defend this disgusting excuse for a pony?” Rabia said. “Good. Then we can proceed with the verdict.”
“So much for proper respect for judicial institutions,” Sombra said.
“You know your people are the bad guys, right?” Cadance remarked. “I’m still not sure that you get that.”
“You called me a bad guy just a few hours ago.”
“And was I wrong?”
Sombra avoided Cadance’s gaze. He looked instead to Radiant Hope. She was standing there, with a large metal collar around her neck, from which hung two very large chains being held by two very large Umbrum. Sombra could not see her very well, but she did not look well. Her coat was dull and her hair disheveled. Maybe it was just the green light of the flame.
But she did not look terrified. She didn’t look utterly fearless, either, but there was a hint of steel in her bearing and demeanor. Whatever she felt inside, she seemed unwilling to let the Umbrum and their taunts get to her. As they laughed and jeered, she stood, unmoved, defiant, even proud.
Then, she spoke. Her voice was quiet, weak, but firm. “Don’t I get to defend myself?”
An awful collective laugh burst out from the assembled Umbrum. It was loud enough that Sombra and Cadance felt the rock under their feet shifting and cracking.
“You want to speak in your own defense?” Rabia said, clearly finding amusement in the idea.
“I am your Empress still, am I not?” Hope said matter-of-factly.
“You gave up that title when you betrayed us.”
“You betrayed me!” Hope snapped back.
Rabia growled and waved to the two Umbrum holding the chains. They gave them a hearty tug, forcing Hope to hit the ground hard, to general laughter and applause.
Sombra began to move. Cadance once again held him back. “Wait,” she said.
“I can’t wait! Look what they’re doing to her!”
“I know, I know. But we have to. It’ll be worse if we don’t. Trust me.”
Sombra contained himself. But he eyed Cadance. Could he really trust this princess? Why was she so hesitant, if she possessed the power she claimed she did? Did she really want to save Hope, based only on a brief acquaintance? Princesses weren’t that compassionate, in his opinion.
Hope got to her feet, undaunted by the mockery. “You did. You did betray me. I thought you were my friends. You were my friends. We were friends for a thousand years. I told you everything. I shared everything with you. Didn’t that mean anything?”
“We were never friends,” Rabia responded.
“Weren’t we? Some of it had to be real, right?”
Rabia signaled to the other two Umbrum again. They once more dragged Hope to the ground. It took all of Cadance’s might to restrain Sombra this time. He resolved that he would not be restrained again.
“You are abysmal when it comes to choosing your friends, little pony,” Rabia said. “You chose Sombra despite knowing what he was. You chose us, despite knowing what we were.”
“You tricked me! I didn’t know what you were,” Hope responded as she stood up. “I thought you were pixies. I thought you were oppressed!”
“You thought what you wanted to think to make yourself feel better!” Rabia spat back. “You saw what you wanted to see! And all because you failed. Because you are a failure. A failure who couldn’t save your home, couldn’t save your princess, and couldn’t save your friend. So you went looking for somebody to tell you it was alright, that you hadn’t failed, that there was still hope.”
Hope was silent for a moment. Then she smiled. “You’re right. Maybe I was a fool to trust you. I trusted Princess Amore and I trusted you. I trusted in friendship and I trusted in hope. And maybe that was wrong. Maybe that was stupid. But if there’s one pony I was right to trust in, it’s Sombra. You were wrong about what you said before. I did save him. I did save Sombra.”
Rabia let out a laugh. A very loud laugh, but to Sombra’s ears it sounded hollow. Not that he was much paying attention. He was still absorbing Hope’s words.
“Saved Sombra, did you?” Rabia said. “He’s the same as he always was, and the same as us. He let you take his place in the Prison of Shadows so that he could escape our joint punishment, didn’t he?”
Sombra dug in his hooves, causing the rock below him to crack and crackle.
“You still don’t get it, do you, Rabia?” Hope said, her smile growing wider. “The fact that Sombra didn’t end up here with the rest of us is proof that I saved him. Only shadow ponies are trapped by the Prison of Shadows.”
“Enough of this!” Rabia said with a growl. “Enough of these meaningless words! Your fate is sealed, Radiant Hope!”
“I don’t believe in fate,” Hope responded coolly.
“Guilty! The verdict is guilty!” Rabia barked. “Take her to her punishment!”
The two Umbrum gave a sharp tug on the chains. Hope stumbled a little, but quickly regained her footing.
“Please stop that,” Hope said, stepping between them. “I don’t care what you do to me, but if I’m stuck being the Empress of Monsters, I deserve some respect.”
The two Umbrum led Hope away as their compatriots howled and hissed.
“Good, it looks like they’re going to be alone with her,” Cadence said. “They’re big, but I think that with a little luck, we can take them. We just have to sneak down and— Sombra, what are you doing?”
Sombra barely heard her. He was already running down the crags. Rabia’s words, “He’s the same as us,” kept playing over and over in his head. “He’s the same as us. He’s not here. He let you take his place.”
“I didn’t want you to take my place, Hope,” Sombra said as he approached the gathering and the fire. “I did not abandon you! I’ll never abandon you!”
Cadence called out, “Sombra, stop!” from somewhere behind him. He didn’t care. All he cared about was saving the pony he loved.
And then, the rock beneath him gave way. Sombra found himself tumbling forward, breaking through crag after crag, and making a terrible racket. He knew before he landed at Rabia’s hooves that his cover had been blown. That didn’t make the landing any less painful. Or any less embarrassing.
Sombra pushed himself to his hooves with as much dignity as he could still muster. He was certain that all of the Umbrum were mocking him but he chose to ignore them. He only cared about Hope. As soon as he saw her, he felt a wave of happiness wash over him, the kind of happiness only the crystal ponies ever seemed to enjoy and which, he imagined, gave them their famous luster. He had her now. Whatever happened from this moment on, he would not lose Hope.
Hope, however, did not look happy. “Oh, Sombra....” she said quietly.
He ran to her. He grabbed at the collar around her neck and tried to tear it off. It wouldn’t budge. If ever Sombra needed confirmation that his old Umbric strength was gone, here it was. He let out a loud shout of frustration and, in desperation, he turned to magic. Not the dark magic of the Umbrum, but the natural magic he had been trained in as a foal. He didn’t know what he was doing, he had never been very good at pony magic, and a thousand years of disuse made him unsure if he could even do it. But he had nothing else to try.
The collar around Hope’s neck began to glow a light shade of blue, almost like the vault of the sky on a summer day. Funny, Sombra thought, I don’t remember my magic being that color.
No time to worry about that, though. He had to concentrate. He had to try and remember. He had to focus. Suddenly, the collar broke into a thousand pieces.
Sombra looked up at Hope. She did not seem relieved.
“Sombra, what are you doing here?” she said. “I thought I saved you. I thought you were free.”
“You did save me, Hope,” Sombra said, grabbing her hoof in his and turning to lead her away. “Now it’s my turn to save you.”
Sombra now remembered the Umbrum. He had been so concerned for Hope that he had forgotten all about his own people, even the two holding Hope’s chains. But now, as his eyes turned to them, he was certain that a fight would be brewing. He didn’t understand why they hadn’t attacked him yet.
And then he saw. They were all looking at him. They did not move. They did not make a sound. They just stared at him. Almost as if they were... stunned?
Then something caught Sombra’s eye. A gleam of light, the type which reflects off of a gem or a diamond. Or, to put it more bluntly, a crystal.
He saw another glint and then another glimmer. They were all a pale sort of green, obviously due to reflecting the light of the emerald flame. But where were they coming from? There was nothing crystalline or diamond-like in the Prison of Shadows, as far as Sombra knew. If anything, it reminded him more of how light was reflected off of everything in the Crystal Empire; the buildings, the landscape, the ponies.
The ponies.
Sombra glanced quickly at Hope. She was still dull. No light was reflecting off of her. Then, a crazy thought entered his mind. A strange notion. An impossible notion. For surely, it was quite impossible. Wasn’t it?
Sombra looked down at his own body. There, he saw the light dancing and reflecting off of his legs and chest. It was as though his coat was not made of soft fur, but of hard crystal.
Crystal?
“Hope, what did you do to me?” Sombra asked in a whisper.
“I saved you,” came her reply.
The Umbrum began whispering amongst themselves. The gist of what they were saying was, “He’s a crystal pony? How is it possible?”
Sombra did not know how it was possible. But he sensed an opening. He gathered together all of his confidence, stood up straight, and tried to project some of his old King Sombra authority.
“I may be a crystal pony,” he bellowed, “but I am still King Sombra, Emperor of all the Umbrum. And I order you to let us pass!”
They did not respond. They did not move. They simply continued staring at him.
Finally, Rabia spoke. “Sombra, my dear boy. Here I thought you had been left out in the outer world. But then, I guess you do belong here with us after all.”
“I don’t want to make small talk, Rabia,” Sombra said. “I’m leaving here with Hope. Don’t get in our way.”
Rabia’s face twisted into an unnatural, toothy grin. “It is amusing that you think you can just walk out of here. As though Amore’s magic will allow it.”
“I’m a crystal pony now,” Sombra said. “Amore’s magic has no effect on me.”
“You really don’t understand anything, do you?” Rabia said. For a moment, Sombra thought she looked past him, toward Hope.
“Enough of your mind-games, Rabia,” Sombra snapped. “Just let us pass. That is an order.”
“It would be very amusing indeed to watch you and your beloved Hope try to escape our prison,” Rabia said, “but I’m afraid I can’t let you go. You also betrayed us, Sombra. First by driving us back down here. And then a second time by becoming this... this disgusting thing.... You are no longer worthy of being our ruler and you are certainly no longer worthy of calling yourself my son.”
“That’s fine. We were never really family. Hope is my only family.”
Rabia did not bother to answer. Instead, she turned to her fellow Umbrum and said, “He’s a crystal pony now. Kill him.”
Immediately, the Umbrum all shot up into the air, covering the vault of the cavern and making the darkness above seem that much darker. As they dived toward him, Sombra positioned himself as much in front of Hope as he could whilst holding her hoof. He steadied himself and tried to prepare some magic. Let’s see if I can do this a second time, he thought.
“Hope, if you can, I’m going to need you to fight,” he said without looking back. “I’m going to need some help.”
“Sombra,” she replied, “you can’t—”
Just as the Umbrum were about to make contact, a blinding light filled the cavernous spaces. There was Princess Cadance, hovering in the midst of all of them, her horn a beacon of beautiful white light.
The Umbrum shrieked, grabbed at their eyes, and hurried into the few remaining dark corners in the immediate vicinity.
“Amore’s love-magic!” Rabia screamed as she flew to parts unknown.
“Sombra, you idiot,” Cadance shouted, “this is why I kept telling you to trust me!”
“What?” Sombra shot back. “It looks like you could take care of them fine, Princess.”
“This won’t faze them forever,” Cadance said. “They’ll be coming back soon. We need to get out of here fast.”
“Well, Hope can teleport us!”
“Teleportation spells don’t work down here.”
“Then how do we get out?”
“Oh, now you want my advice?”
Sombra sneered. He deserved that, but he wasn’t about to admit it. “Let’s just figure out something. I’m tired of this place.”
“You take Hope to the stairs,” Cadance said, flying higher into the air. “I’ll fly a little behind and cover you. I can’t stop the Umbrum, but maybe my magic will be enough to keep them at a distance until we reach the exit.”
Sombra did not need to be told twice. With Hope’s hoof in his, he broke into a gallop. Though there were quite a few sharp crags in his path, it did not matter. The need to save Hope gave him the strength and coordination to find his footing easily. He worried that Hope, being much smaller than he, would have trouble taking them, but she did not fail to keep pace. He did not even hear her hooves on the rock. It was almost as though she was gliding behind him.
Soon, they had left the crags behind, and were now galloping through what appeared to be a vast, barren wasteland. There was nothing but dirt and sand. None of the black waters, none of the dead trees. Just wastes as far as Sombra’s eye could see. Admittedly, he couldn’t see very far. He knew that Cadance was keeping pace above them, because he could see at least a few feet ahead of him. But they were at the outer limit of her ring of light, and so beyond that, all was once again darkness.
Still, Sombra was glad that everything was flat and smooth, even as he found himself fighting back a massive cough due to the grey sand filling his lungs. It did not matter. He could deal with it. It can’t be that far, he thought.
It was, however, that far. It felt as though they were running for hours. Sombra could feel the sweat on his brow and his heart pounding in his chest, sensations which he had not felt in over a millennium. He had forgotten how annoying they were. And all the while, Hope kept trying to talk to him.
“Sombra, stop,” she would say. “Sombra, please listen.”
“Not now, Hope,” he would reply. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“No, Sombra. You don’t understand. I can’t leave. I can’t—”
“Not now, Hope. Let’s get out of here first. Then we’ll talk. We’ll have a lifetime to talk.”
When the conversation got back around to that point, Hope would inevitably fall silent.
Finally, after what had felt like a longer period than he himself had been imprisoned, Sombra saw the grand staircase emerge out of the darkness. He let out a sigh of relief — well, as much of a sigh as he could manage while breathing with all his might — as their means of escape became visible.
“We made it, Hope. We made it.”
“Sombra, no!”
Just as his hoof touched the first step, Sombra felt himself pulled backward. Indeed, the force was so great that he nearly toppled over onto Hope.
“Hope, what’s wrong?” he said, all the while keeping his eyes on the goal above. He could just barely make out the portal gleaming in the gloom.
“Sombra, I can’t leave. Sombra, you have to listen.”
“What do you mean, you can’t leave? The portal’s right up there. We just have to go through it. We’re both crystal ponies now. Once we’re through, the Umbrum can’t get us.”
“But Sombra, that’s just it. We’re not both—”
“What are you doing?” came Cadance’s voice from above. “Why did you stop? We’re almost home-free!”
“You don’t think I don’t know that?” Sombra snapped up at her.
The light was getting brighter now, and the whole of the staircase was illuminated, another indication that Cadance was getting ever-nearer. Sombra could even hear her wings fluttering above. But he did not care. He just kept starring upward. He tugged at Hope’s hoof, but could not get her to budge.
“What’s the problem?” Cadance said from directly above them.
“I don’t know,” Sombra said. “Hope doesn’t want to go for some reason.”
“Sombra, I can’t go,” said Hope behind him. “I wish I could. But I can’t. Not right now. Maybe not ever.”
“You see,” Sombra said. “She keeps saying stuff like this.”
“Sombra, look at me,” Hope said. “Look at me, please.”
“Can you talk some sense into her?” Sombra said.
Cadance let out a sigh of understated exasperation. Sombra couldn’t blame her for feeling frustrated. He was feeling frustrated too. And dealing with frustration had never come easily to him.
He heard Cadance alight behind him. The light came with her, throwing everything around Sombra into clear relief. He looked around. Everything, from the stone steps to the cavern walls, became a canvas for dancing, shimmering light. It was so vivid and clear. Indeed, it almost managed to make the Prison of Shadows beautiful.
“Now, Hope,” Cadance said, “I know you’ve been through a lot, but— Sombra, we have to go.”
Sombra did not like the sudden hint of panic in Cadance’s voice.
“Sombra, we have to go!” Cadance repeated, more loudly.
“I know that,” Sombra said. “Come on, Hope. It’s just up the stairs.”
“No, Sombra, you and I have to go,” Cadance said. “Without Hope.”
Sombra felt his temper getting the better of him. “What? Leave Hope? After all that, you just want to leave her? When we’re already free and clear? And you said I should trust you! You really are Amore’s heir after all!”
“Sombra, we don’t have a choice,” Cadance said. She was practically pleading with him now.
“She’s right, Sombra,” Hope said. “You have to leave me here. You have to let me go.”
“Why? The portal’s just up there!” Sombra protested.
“Sombra, look,” Cadance said quietly.
“And the Umbrum will be here any moment,” Sombra continued. “We don’t have time to play these games.”
“Sombra, please look at me,” said Hope.
“I know you like to play games, Hope, but this is really not the time. Let’s just get through the portal and then we can play all the games you want. We can pick up where we left off a thousand years ago.”
“Sombra, look!” both Cadence and Hope shouted together.
Finally, Sombra looked.
He let go of Hope’s hoof. He took a faltering step back, and stumbled upon the stairs, tumbling over. The pain barely registered. Lying on his back on the stairs, looking up, Sombra cursed the light, cursed its clarity and its vividness.
“I-I-I don’t understand,” he said. “Hope, what did you do?”
What did the light reveal?
Read on.