//------------------------------//
// Chapter 22: Flashback and Plotting: Part 4 
// Story: The Dusk of Troubled Views 
// by ScorchingFlamesInc 
//------------------------------//

Once King Sombra opened his eyes for the first time after his third return, his eyes immediatly landed on Grogar.

"Well..." Sombra began. "I suppose you had the guts to give me another chance? As long as I submit to you?"

Grogar chuckled.

"Oh, the memories I saw are correct... you ARE stubborn!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sombra said. "Memories you saw? Correct? You're confusing me..." 

"Allow me to explain... but first... do you remember the day I brought you back and there were three other villains there?"

"Yes. There was a changeling, a centaur, and... a filly. Why a filly was there was confusing."

"She was evil. Like you," Grogar corrected. "But even though I brought you back... it actually WASN'T me that brought you back."

"What the hay are you talking about?"

"I wasn't the one who brought you back. Some creature DISGUISED himself as me and brought you back."

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am."

"Ok. Then WHO was the creature that posed as you?"

"Discord."

"Discord? While it WOULD make sense, I have to ask... wasn't he reformed?"

"He was. I don't know why he did it. It could of been out of evil. Or it could of been out of an entirely different reason. I don't  know. But from what I heard, he is reformed as of now."

"Interesting... I have another question... HOW did you know who I was, where I was, and how to bring me back?"

"When I searched the memories of the villains Discord brought together, I learned about you. I learned about your defeat when the memories showed the villains watching your defeat in a crystal ball. As for HOW I knew you were in the aether, it was a lucky first guess. But I knew how to access the aether for a long time before my banishment."

"Speaking of the villains broght together... what happened anyway?"

Grogar then went on telling King Sombra about the events that transpired. He mentioned the Bewitching Bell, Discord being found out, and the whole entire battle that nearly ended everything. He finally finished with the punishment that befell the villains.

"Well..." Sombra said when the story was over. "That was an interesting tale."

"It was," replied Grogar. "But even though they nearly ended everything with my bell, I'm not letting them out of their prison."

"May I ask why?"

"They almost learned friendship. They did other things, but it was part of their plans. When they got my bell, they nearly learned of the error of their ways."

"Doesn't that seem unfair?"

"Oh, please. I'm Grogar. I can decide what is fair or not."

Sombra opened his mouth to say something, but then changed his mind.

"Now listen, Sombra. Discord may have let you do your own thing when he was disguised as me. But this time, I'm not giving you much of an option. Either you submit to me, or get sent back to the Aether. And besides..."

Grogar stepped closer to Sombra.

"... Isn't it better to have a chunk of Equestria then none at all? Better to conquer anything rather than suffering in the aether? Think about it."

King Sombra looked at Grogar. He looked down. He closed his eyes. Then, a second later, he looked back at Grogar and spoke up.

"I wouldn't want to get sent back again..." King Sombra said. "And you have a point. I may prefer to work alone and have everything to myself, but I suppose having a chunk of Equestria is better than suffering in the Aether..."

Grogar smiled.

"Good choice," he said.

"So..." Sombra said. "What do we do next?"

"What we need to do is a mixture of simple and complex..." said Grogar. "We need to disguise ourselves as regular ponies and try to figure out if there are any remaining foes that can join us. Ones that never nearly learned friendship after becoming villains."

"I guess that could work..." Sombra muttered. "Though I hate having to act normal, along with acting like I care about friendship."

"Trust me. I did it," Grogar said. "I met a mare and acted like I cared about her AND her kind. It was an abysmal experience I went through since returning. But it won't be hard. All we need to do is extract info from the first pony we see."

"The Orincess?" asked Sombra.

"Perhaps. We could try that. My disguise was a pony affiliated with law, and technically, the princess is law too. It would work if you went through that too."

"Well then I guess I can go into a law disguise too. But I could use your help for that."

"I can take care of it."

"Now what about the names?"

"I already have an idea!" Grogar said. "I will be Judgement Law, and you will be... um... Gavel... Bang?"

Grogar was the Father of Monsters, but he wasn't too well with pony names.

"Hm," Sombra said. "Works for me, I suppose."

"Now, I believe the Princess knows of the past in many ways. I assume she should know if there are any other villains that would seem suitable enough for our team."

Grogar nodded, turned into a yellow mist, and flew off. Sombra immediately followed.



A few minutes later...



Grogar and King Sombra both arrived in an alley. Although Sombra looked like himself when he materialized, Grogar was in his pony form.

"Ok... now hold still..." Grogar said.

And with that, Grogar lit up his horn, and a few seconds later, blasts a yellow beam at King Sombra.

With that, Sombra's whole body turned into the same color as Grogars beam. The figure of his body began to shrink, and his mane began to lose its flow. His kings attire seemed to disappear within his body. When the spell casting was over, Grogar could see Sombra's new look. Sombra was still in his dark grey coat and blackish mane. However, his horn was normal, he was smaller, his eyes were green, and he had a cutie mark with a gavel on it. His king attire was gone.

"Perfect!" Grogar exclaimed. "Now, we just need to convince the guards to let us see this 'Princess Twilight' that was spoken of to me. We can talk with her and try to see if she knows of any other villains that haven't reformed. No matter what their fate is, I believe I have a way to take care of it."

"Hold up, hold up... did you say Princess Twilight?" asked King Sombra.

"Yes. Why?" 

"She and her friends were the ones that defeated me!"

"I know. I can see memories of other villains watching a crystal ball, remember?"

"Oh... right..."

"When I saw the memories of the other villains, I saw stuff before them. They were always defeated by Twilight. And one defeat was before this Twilight even had wings! And judging from the memories, I have a feeling the other defeats I saw happened before she ruled Equestria as well.”

"Twilight ruling Equestria..." Sombra muttered. "Now I want to take over even more!"

"And we will get there, if we put this plan into action," Grogar replied. "So let's head on our way. I believe the area we landed at is close to the castle. I suggest we walk there since our method of transport could blow out cover."

With that, Grogar and Sombra walked out of the alley, meeting the sight of multiple ponies and creatures walking through the street.

Grogar looked both ways of the street before he saw a big structure. Judging from the size and way it was made, Grogar assumed that was the main part of the castle.

"We have a long journey ahead of us..."



Thirty minutes later...



The walk was shorter than they thought.

It only took thirty minutes for the base of the castle to appear. Sombra didn't even have to say anything for Grogar to know that they arrived.

"Well... here we are," King Sombra said.

But he said something anyway.

The base of the castle consisted of three guards, one of them talking to another pony. Two of the guards appeared to be white ponies standing still while a third guard, one that appeared to be a griffon, was talking to the pony. Although the armor made it hard to see the griffon entirely, the two disguised villains could see the feather color on his head being blue, with a few peach-colored spots. The pony he was talking to seemed to be a light shade of pink, with mane that was a darker shade of pink. Her poofy mane was done up in a big ponytail, and there were many childish things sticking out of it. Her cutie mark consisted of three balloons. As they came closer, Sombra stopped and put a hoof in front of Grogar, stopping him as well.

"What is it?" Grogar huffed.

"That pink pony..." Sombra said. "Wait... she was one of the ponies Twilight was with when I was defeated!"

Grogar looked at her.

"Come to think of it... I HAVE seen her in some of those memories I saw. Yes! Forget the Princess! If this pony has been associated with her a lot, I believe we have what we need. All we need to do is wait for the right opportunity..."

It didn't take long for the opportunity to come. A minute later, the pink mare turned away and began hopping to the direction Grogar and Sombra was. Once she was close enough, Grogar took the shot.

"Um... excuse me Miss..."

The pink mare turned to them. Oddly, even though she was bouncing like a child, she looked like she was in her 40s. The disguised duo decided to brush it off.

King Sombra decided to speak next.

"We were wondering-"

Immediately Sombra was cut off because the pink mare did another thing that only the oddest of ponies will do.

She jumped up in the air and gasped. While in midair, she posed as if she was about to run.

As if out of reflex, Grogar grabbed her with his magic. She's going to give him the information whether she likes it or not!

Despite that, however, Grogar tried his hardest to remain sincere, despite hating being sincere to ponies.

"Listen, we don't want you to be alarmed," Grogar said. "My name is Judgement Law and this is Gavel Bang. We promise we won't hurt you."

"Hurt me? I didn't think you were gonna hurt me," the pink mare said, speaking at an alarming rate. “The reason I went all *GAAAAASP* was because I noticed  you two were new! And so I wanted to give you a 'Welcome to Canterlot' surprise party!"

Grogar and Sombra expressed stunned looks due to the fact that a middle-aged mare was acting like a child. They snapped out of it pretty quickly.

"No, no... no parties," Grogar said, putting the pink mare down. "We..."

"We already had one a few days ago!" Sombra cut in.

"Ooohhh! Tell me it was Cheese Sandwich!" the pink mare said, suddenly jumping up and down rapidly. "Tell me it was my Cheesy Wheezy! Tell me that was why he was gone while I trained Lil' Cheese the arts of party-making!"

Grogar and Sombra looked at each other, once again with stunned looks. Again, they regained composure. Couldn't let an opportunity to lie go to waste.

"Yes. Yes, it was this... Cheese Sandwich!" Grogar said. 

The pink mare stopped jumping.

"Oh that Cheesy... I KNEW he loved me enough to do the parties I don't have time for..."

"Yeeaah..." King Sombra said. "But the poor colt accidentally got hit in the head and forgot the whole party even happened. But don't worry! Some of the party guests managed to bring him outside and send him on his way when he woke up. Sadly, that means he didn't even notice us when we left..."

"OH NO!!!" the pink mare exclaimed. "That means he forgot about the whole party that he threw! It must have been wonderful! Are you sure you don't want me to make it up for you?"

"No, the party was still... fun..." Grogar said. "And we wish him the best of luck."

The pink mare puzzled for a moment.

"Ok. As long as you are happy and wish Cheesy the best of luck, I'm happy."

And with that, the pink mare turned around and began bouncing away.

"Wait!" Grogar called out.

The pink mare stopped bouncing, turned around, and returned to the disguised villains.

"Yes?" she asked.

"We heard you are friends with Princess Twilight Sparkle..." Sombra said. "Is that true?"

"Oh, Twilight and I go way back. We bonded a lot, had a great time being friends, and we also defeated a bunch of meanies with our other friends. I was actually discussing the next time we would meet with her with the royal guards."

"Meanies, huh?" Grogar said. "Any chance you could list the names of those 'meanies' that nearly brought an end to all of Equestria in a powerful manner?"

The pink mare suddenly started speaking at an alarming rate again.

"Well, let's see. There was Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, Starlight Glimmer, the Pony of Shadows, Tempest Shadow, the Storm King, and Cozy Glow!"

Grogar and Sombra, for the third time, expressed stunned looks. And for the third time, they snapped out of it to resume questioning.

"Where do they stand today" asked King Sombra.

The pink mare resumed talking in a rapid manner.

"Well, Nightmare Moon turned back into Princess Luna a long time ago. Discord was turned back to stone, but he soon reformed. Starlight also reformed, and so did Tempest. The Pony of Shadows was sent to limbo again while Stygian, the unicorn that the shadows were corrupting, stayed by our side. King Sombra was sent to the Aether the last time we saw him. The Storm King was turned to stone, but he broke into many pieces. The pieces have been in many places, but now they are in a museum. And Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow, who worked together after we defeated them all a few times on other occasions, were also turned to stone, where they reside in the Canterlot Garden. Though Cozy Glow is a filly, but then again we don't know why she is evil, and we don't know why she worked with Chrysalis and Tirek."

Yet again Grogar and Sombra were stunned. However, this time they stayed stunned.

"Well, I better go," the pink mare said in a normal speed. "I'll tell Cheesy you said hi."

And so the pink mare turned and hopped away, leaving the two villains standing there in silence for a few seconds before they walked away out of the guards views. They walked around until they found another spot where they won't be discovered.

"Did you... get all that?" Sombra asked when they were finally out of view.

"Actually, I did!" replied Grogar. "You?" 

Sombra nodded.

"So... the only unreformed villains are Chrysalis, Tirek, Cozy Glow, and the Storm King," said Grogar. "I guess this Pony of Shadows counts since it was technically a separate being. And maybe that Nightmare Moon too."

"So... what should we do?" asked Sombra.

"Chrysalis, Cozy, and Tirek are off the list as I have mentioned a while ago. I suggest we bring back the Storm King. Whether we can somehow bring back the shadows or Nightmare Moon is uncertain to me. Maybe we can succeed. Maybe not. I feel like settling with the Storm King, however. At least for now."

"But bringing back the Storm King seems even harder than the Shadows or Nightmare Moon! How can we pull off resurrection?"

Grogar smiled.

"With the right magic, of course..."



Fifteen minutes later...



Luckily, the museum was not very far. But when they discovered they had to pay, Grogar and King Sombra walked a decent distance away and thought of a way to get in.

"Well, since we have to pay but we have no money, I'm pretty sure we know what to do next..." said Sombra.

"Indeed," replied Grogar. "We may not have money. But we have magic and wits. We will sneak to the side of the museum and see if there are any spots we can sneak in. Then if we find a window that is open, we then perform a spell where all the ponies in the museum fall into a temporary sleep. When ready, we enter the museum through the window and then look for the Storm King pieces.  And I think we could use some materials to make decoys of the pieces. If there is anything there, that is. Otherwise, we can enlarge a pebble or something."

"I would question how you know that there are materials, but I know what the answer would be..." Sombra said.

"Indeed..." Grogar said.

"Now to put this plan into action. But remember... there are a lot of windows on the side, so we must be careful to not look suspicious. If ponies see us, we can put them to sleep and make them forget they saw us."

King Sombra nodded. And with that, the duo ran to the side of the building. Nopony saw them. While Sombra began gathering up pebbles and enlarging them, Grogar searched for and immediately found a window that was open. His horn lit up and he blasted a small yellow beam into the museum. He looked in for a little longer before he turned away from the window.

"The ponies are asleep," Grogar proclaimed.

"And I think I enlarged enough pebbles to cast the spell to make the decoys," Sombra said.

"Excellent!"

Grogar turned into his smoke form and entered through the window. As soon as he turned back into his pony form, Sombra entered as well. Grogar waited for Sombra to return to his normal form and lift the rocks through the window without breaking it. A few minutes later, there was a large pile of enlarged boulders resting next to Sombra.

"Now stay here," Grogar instructed. "I'm gonna search for the pieces."

Sombra nodded and Grogar began exploring the museum.

There were many artifacts. Some Grogar recognized. Some were new. He knew that his bell wasn't there. The butterscotch mare did tell him Discord had it, after all.

As soon as Grogar turned the corner, he saw what he was looking for. There, in a large case in the wall with only a glass door blocking it, was a bunch of unique stone pieces clumped together. Grogar went closer and examined it better to see if he found who he was looking for. He read the title of the exam to confirm his hopes.

The Storm King.