//------------------------------//
// (8-1) An Incredibly Brief Battle 
// Story: I Am Not Sombra 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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“Hmmmmm…” Doctor Marks pondered thoughtfully. “You could try apologizing…”
I stared back at him, completely confused. “Apologize?” I asked. “For what? What would that even do?”
“I’m sorry. Let me back up,” he said. “You told me that Celestia is angry at you, correct?”
“Yeah, cause Sombra killed a princess and caused an alternate universe Sombra to turn evil.”
“Okay, let’s ignore the first part of that. I don’t think we’ll be able to do anything about that. We’ll just focus on the second part of that. Explain to me again exactly why this… second Sombra turned evil.”
“From what I understand, their realities were somehow connected,  and they were... out of balance I guess? I guess they’re supposed to mirror each other, and one version of Sombra being good and the other one being bad was messing that up. So to bring back balance, that Sombra, the one in the other universe, had to become evil like this Sombra… I haven’t looked too far into it, but that’s the basic gist of it. At least, from what I’ve seen.”
“Okay, so if they’re supposed to mirror each other, then if you went back, which, mind you, is still an if at this point, then apologizing should make Celestia happy.”
“How?” I asked, a bit annoyed. “I wasn’t him to begin with. I told her I wasn’t him. That should’ve made her happy right then and there, even in spite of Cadance.”
“Okay, but let’s look at it from her perspective. Someone who looks and sounds exactly like the person who hurt her suddenly appears and tells her that, not only is he not the person she thinks he is, but that he doesn’t have any involvement in the things the other person did to hurt her and that she should just get over it. Not to mention the fact that she has someone else next to her feeding into her hate and edging her on. How long do you think it would take her to snap?”
“Probably not that long, but that shouldn't matter because she knows I’m not him. She should have been happy, but she decided to be irrational for no good reason. Well, I mean, she kind of had a good reason, but still.”
“You’re right. She should have been rational, but often that’s difficult to do when you’re being fueled by emotion.” Doctor Marks paused, then continued, “But that’s why you should try to apologize.”
“How would apologizing to her change anything?” I asked skeptically.
 “That’s where we get back to that second Sombra, the one in the… other universe. If they’re supposed to mirror each other, then you apologizing should make that other Sombra good again. At least, based on what you’re telling me.”
“I guess, but that assumes that I am Sombra, and Celestia knows for a fact that I’m not.”
“Yes, you’ve said that she knows you’re not him, but we’ve also established that she’s being fueled by her emotion. If her emotion is telling her that you’re Sombra, then it’s likely that you apologizing should help cool those emotions.”
“Or she could think I’m lying and just kill me there…”
“That’s true, but that’s why you’re going to want to specifically highlight the fact that she should forgive you for that other Sombra, so that he can stop being evil.”
“I’m still fairly confident she’d just kill me, especially since there’s not really any way to verify if my apology did anything. I’m pretty sure I read that she destroyed her only way of getting there.”
“You’re right that she might just end up killing you, but if you’re just planning on letting them kill you as soon as you get there, you might as well try and apologize to her first.”
“I mean, I guess… but shouldn’t you be telling me that this isn’t real and that this is all in my head anyway?”
He only smiled at me in response.



Twilight Sparkle and Sombra cried out simultaneously, with several other gasps of surprise being heard a moment afterward. Twilight’s was a cry of surprise, one that lasted only half a second before it was cut off abruptly as she turned into stone. Sombra’s, however, was one of pain, He clenched his teeth and had to fight to stay standing the moment after he shot the Princess of Friendship.
“Twilight!” Rarity called out, running up to where she stood. The mare, however, didn't answer her friend, able only to stand silently as her friend ran up to her. Her mouth was still open and a look of surprise and fear was still on her face and her stone statue stood motionless.
“I’ll stop him!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she suddenly shot forward and hit him square on his nose, breaking it and sending him staggering backward a few steps. However, she wasn’t able to land more than one punch on him before Sombra grit his teeth and shot his spell at the pegasus. He laughed in spite of his pain as her stone figure fell to the ground, enjoying how incredibly easy a time he was having in defeating his enemies. Granted, he expected this to be easy, but this was turning out to be effortless. How he wasn’t able to defeat them the previous two times was beyond him. He figured it was simple luck favoring them that gave them their previous victories.
The next instant, three more ponies tried to charge at him, but their efforts were futile. Sombra honestly thought it was pathetic, idiotic even, that they thought they would be able to do something. They hadn’t even given him the opportunity to offer them the chance to surrender. He didn’t pay much mind to it, however, deciding instead to turn them into stone as he used a hoof to rub his hurting nose and tried to ignore the painful pinched nerve in his neck.
The stallion casually walked past the five mares now encased in stone and looked down at the one remaining with a cruel smile. “What about you?” he asked, enjoying the look of fear in the pegasus's eyes. “Don’t you want to try and attack? Don’t you want to join your friends as stone statues?”
“A-Alex…?” the yellow mare asked, her voice trembling as she cowered away. "W-w-what are you doing?"
Sombra’s smile got wider at that, letting it show his fangs. “It looks like Alex isn’t here anymore,” he told her with a vicious tone. “It seems like you- AH! Ah ah ah!”
The surge of pain that went through him was the worst one yet, and he suddenly found himself falling to the ground. This one was different from the others, though. It felt like a wave of electricity was rolling through his body, one that seemed to go on for an impossibly long time as he wriggled around on the ground. He felt the pain concentrating on his neck as he screamed out again.
“Hope! Help me!” he called with both anger and desperation as he heard Fluttershy call for someone.
“I’m coming!” she called back, appearing seemingly out of nowhere to run up to him. However, as she knelt down by his side, Discord was appearing before them.
“Tsk tsk tsk. It seems as though everyone’s favorite pony has returned,” he told them. “Or should I say, everyone’s least favorite pony, seeing as almost all of them hate you.”
“Ah! Fix the string, Hope! Hurry!”
“I am! I’m going as fast as I can!”
“You know, Sombra, you caused quite a bit of trouble lately,” Discord said, sounding almost bored. “You turned princesses into stone, made Celestia angry, made Twilight give up on being the ruler of Equestria…”
“AH! That hurts!” Sombra said through gritted teeth as he writhed in pain, tiny tear droplets starting to form.
“You need to stop moving so I can put it back together!” Radiant Hope instructed.
“Not that I really cared about those things,” the draconequus continued. “But then you started to interfere with my fun. I had such a great plan for helping build Twilight’s confidence… and then you appeared and brought that thing here. Oh, how chaotic he was. It gave me goosebumps." He paused, and, with a shiver, added, "It was truly awful."
“I’m almost done, Sombra!”
“Hurry!” he said desperately, hoping she could take away the pain before Discord did something. All he needed was a half a second lead on him to cast his spell and turn him into stone.
“And now I have to save the day as usual,” Discord said with a roll of his eyes. “Bah humbug.”
Just as he finished speaking, Radiant Hope finished tying back the string Alex had ripped apart. A fraction of a second later, Discord snapped his fingers.