//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13. Don’t go in there if you value your sugar level. 
// Story: Rage of a Queen, wrath of a Mother 
// by Askre 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 13 

Sombra heard squealing, followed shortly after by mildly hysterical giggling. He was coming from the washroom. The others had tasked him with cleaning the six towels that he had used during his first shower in the house. Although the Dark Pony felt the activity a bit beneath him, he had held back any grumbling about it, knowing playing nice was essential right now. 

He had no idea nor cared if his attempt was successful. Once he felt the towels looked clean enough, he hung them up where Foxy had shown him to hang up wet laundry. The king had then quickly left the washroom, stopping short when hearing that noise. 

“Eek!” Sombra arched his brow when hearing the squeak. It sounded like Dew Doe, and it was coming from the living room. 

What by the First Queen is going on? He thought. The noise didn’t sound like anything he’d heard before. Sombra slowly approached the living room and carefully peeked in, doing his best to remain unnoticed. His brow rose higher when seeing what was going on. 

Private and Dew Doe lay together on the couch, and the stallion held the mare in his forelegs. The unicorn’s magic was active; in it, he had several of Dew Doe’s feathers and was tickling her with them. The mare squealed and squirmed and giggled but otherwise looked to be enjoying herself. The couple thought they were alone at the moment. 

Sombra slowly backed away from the living room entrance, mild confusion on his face. He had never seen Private smile like this, or from what little he had seen of Dew Doe, seen her like that. The Dark Pony wasn’t even sure what word to use. 

As the king pondered this, he noticed that a crack had formed on his left foreleg, and wispy black smoke was pouring through. Sombra frowned, activated his horn. The crack closed, and the smoke disappeared. 

Damnation. It is starting faster than I anticipated. He frowned and examined his leg. What little magic Celestia allowed me to use was just enough to… 

The king looked sharply to the stairs when hearing a rush of hoof steps. Foxy Stripes was hurrying down the steps and appeared to be beelining for the living room. The mare screeched to a halt when she had the entrance in full view, cringed, and promptly turned around and scampered towards the kitchen. 

“Don’t go in there if you value your sugar level,” she addressed Sombra, briefly glancing at the king before disappearing into the kitchen. 

What is going on? Sombra frowned. Not that long ago, the atmosphere in the house had been somewhat tense. Foxy was still grousing that Coal was sent to live with her father during the king’s stay here. Private had for the most part holed up in his study until dinner, and Dew Doe had just ignored him. 

Not really knowing why, Sombra followed Foxy into the kitchen. The mare was setting a kettle on the stove, clearly preparing tea. A box of teabags was on the counter. 

“What is going on in there?” the Dark Pony asked, nodding his head in the general direction of the living room. Foxy looked at him, appearing mildly surprised. 

“What, you've never seen ponies in love before?” she asked with a confused tone in her voice. 

“I generally avoid that emotion, for obvious reasons,” the king grunted. He glanced towards the kitchen doorway. “That doesn’t sound like love to me. It sounds more like children playing.” 

“Love comes in different forms.” Foxy shrugged and started to rummage through the cabinets, looking for something. “Some go for the sappy, and some go for romance, some go for snark, some get silly, and some do several, and some do all of them.” 

“What?” Sombra wasn’t sure he even understood half of that. Foxy slowly peeked up from behind a cabinet door. 

“Look, big dark and spooky, you don’t come to me to explain love. My love experience is stallions trying to use me to get to my sister, just wanting a one-night stand because they wanted to try a mare my size or Barricade. Take your pick. All three are messed up,” she claimed before burying her head back into the cabinet. Then she made a triumphant shout, as she rose, lifting a small jar. “I knew we had marmalade.” 

“Speaking of Barricade, weren’t you brooding just a few hours ago over the fact that your daughter was sent to live with him?” King Sombra asked, looking even more confused. Now the mare just gave him an unimpressed glance. 

“Yeah it’s called getting over yourself. Seriously, ponies don’t angst all day and night over things, just so you know.” She rolled her eyes and continued preparing her tea. When Foxy looked back towards Sombra, he was gone from the kitchen. The mare shrugged and returned her attention to the kettle. 

 
Sombra hadn’t gone too far. He was walking past the living room and going towards the stairs. He did stop for a second to glance inside, having noticed that things were silent now. Private now lay on the couch and Dew Doe lay stretched on his back. The couple were talking, but in very low voices so he couldn’t hear what they were saying. 

He’s still smiling, Sombra thought, finding it a little uncanny. It was even stranger to him to see how lovingly the unicorn would glance at the mare. 

The Dark Pony resumed walking, heading towards his room. As he reached the second floor, Sombra did glance back down with a thoughtful expression. He does have a nice smile. 

King Sombra frowned as that thought entered his mind and sneered. Then he noticed that on his left leg another crack had formed. With a growl the Dark Pony stomped to his room and slammed the door shut after him. 





“Jeez, what’s going on up there?” Dew Doe glanced upwards when hearing the loud door slam. 

“Probably showing how he felt about doing laundry,” Private remarked, causing the mare to giggle. 

“Probably the first menial task he’s had to do, ever,” she nodded, then the mare started to frown. “Maybe we shouldn’t be making fun of that.” 

Private glanced up at her curiously. Although a mare with a big heart, Dew Doe was known for holding grudges, especially towards those who had harmed anyone she cared about. Dew looked at him, noting how the unicorn was staring at her. She sighed little. 

“I mean, of course he wouldn’t be used to doing something like this. Not just because he’s a conqueror and the former tyrant of the Crystal Empire. He grew up as royalty, having servants taking care of things like that, long before he turned all evil. I guess it isn’t his fault that he’s never had to clean up after himself or cook a meal. He probably just magicked meals ready when he could,” the pegasus explained and laid her head on top of Private’s. She was fully taking advantage of it that her lover currently wanted close company. Private just nodded in response. 

Dew’s eyes then opened wide as an idea suddenly struck in her mind and raised her head again. “Would he even know how regular ponies live their lives?” 

“Doubt it and even if he did, probably never cared,” Private muttered. He could see something was brewing inside her head. The stallion knew the mare well enough to know something had hit her. 

“You think we should show him? Show him how we do it? Get him to experience a normal pony life?” she wondered, now the unicorn gave her a skeptical look. The pegasus chuckled weakly. “Yeah, you’re right, that’s silly. Besides, it’s not like we’re trying to reform him.” 

The couple laughed. Dew rested her head again on Private. A sigh escaped her lips again. She had to admit being still worried how things would pan out. Queen Rabia was still on the loose and her son wasn’t leaving until that had all been sorted. She worried about Private, who still was damaged from his encounters with the king. 

“He would probably ask to be sent back to Tartarus if we tried,” Private rolled his eyes. Dew couldn’t disagree there. So far nothing in the king’s attitude suggested to her that he was even remotely interested in turning good. 

The couple eyed the living room entrance when Foxy Stripes entered, holding in her mouth a tray with a teacup and a plate of toast smeared with marmalade. The maroon pegasus put the tray on the coffee table, before giving them a look. 

“You two done being all sugary sweet?” she asked with a cheeky grin. Dew Doe’s only response was to stick her tongue out at her sister. Foxy faked a disappointed look and shook her head as she found a seat. “And ponies say I’m childish.” 

“By the way, you two really confused Mister Darkness with your antics,” Foxy remarked as she grabbed up her cup, causing the couple to blink in surprise.

“He saw us?” Dew Doe winced a little. She had been so sure Sombra had been too busy with his laundry duty and then just gone straight to his room to grumble about it. 

“I think so. He asked me what the heck you two were doing, like he’s never seen a couple in love before,” her sister responded and drank her tea. 

Private frowned a bit. He had already noticed that Foxy didn’t say that Sombra had mocked their display of affection, something the unicorn was sure he would have done, or so he thought. 

“He was also confused that I wasn’t still moping over Barricade coming here earlier, as if he thought we just brooded for days when things don’t go our way,” Foxy then mentioned. She snatched her toast and started to munch on it. She then noticed that both Private and Dew were staring at her, looking surprised. “What?” 

“Foxy, did he have an almost normal conversation with you? No mock, no attitude?” Dew asked unsure. Her sister had to think back to that moment, trying to see if there had been something like that going on. 

“I guess. Just asked a bunch of questions and then left,” she shrugged. 

Dew Doe furrowed her brow as she thought about this new piece of information. She barely noticed sliding down to the couch when Private rose up, muttering about the bathroom. The pegasus sat up, rubbing her muzzle in thought. 

“It was your turn with the groceries right?” Foxy asked while finishing up her snack. Dew just silently nodded.





Private stared at his reflection in the mirror. For once his mane was kempt, Dew had managed to corner him with a brush. Once she was done, he had retaliated by grabbing loose feathers off her wings and tickling her. He knew he was lazy about brushing - once Private even felt it at least made him look more different than his brother, before Barricade started making amends. 

Right now, none of that was on his mind. Now that Private was not being distracted by his marefriend, his thoughts had gone back to his discussion with Princess Celestia. The stallion wondered how he was going to pull off what he had offered to do - getting Sombra to talk about his mother by reminiscing about the past, which did seem to open the Dark Pony up a little bit. 

Why do I always get the ‘easy’ jobs, he thought to himself. It was usually Private who went to confront Barricade when his brother had done something in the old days. Now it was trying to pry open a pony notorious for not discussing things much in detail, unless it somehow amused him or interested him. 

Not to mention, I suck at talking and he could easily completely take over the talks. The unicorn frowned and peered at himself in the mirror. Would that I was somepony else, a pony like my brother, who can actually get others to talk. Seriously, Barri, what is your secret? 

It’s so obvious why Sombra wanted to hide here. He just wants another shot at messing up my life again, the unicorn narrowed his eyes and glared towards the ceiling, as if he was trying to see to the second floor and the room Sombra was in. What was it he kept saying, that I would eventually give in. 

What does that even mean? Give into what? Why would he even need me to do something like that? I mean he had me at his mercy. It was not like I had any choice in the matter. I was just a slave, a thing, a possession as far as he was concerned. Private turned away from the mirror and hung his head, wondering if he should just call the whole thing off. 

A loud crash made him jump. He looked up, realizing it had come from upstairs. The unicorn rushed out of the bathroom. Already he saw Dew Doe and Foxy Stripes running up the stairs, so Private followed them. All three had figured this could only have come from one room, so they all rushed to the guest room Sombra was in. 

Dew Doe was first and quickly opened it. She stopped short in the doorway and gasped. Foxy and Private stopped behind her, eyes opening wide in shock. 

Sombra lay on the floor, having fallen down. In the process he had crashed into the desk and due to his size had cracked it and one leg had broken off and it was tilting. The Dark Pony groaned, cracks had formed all over his body and black wispy smoke poured out of it. 

“W-what is going on? What’s happening? Sombra?” Dew Doe asked as she hurried into the room followed by Private and Foxy, right now not caring who the king was, right now all she saw was someone who needed help. 

“Well… miss Dew Doe… Looks like you’re getting your wish sooner than even I… anticipated…” Sombra groaned and slowly looked up at the mare. “My dark magic… being… suppressed… heh… thought I had longer or my body… had solidified enough for it… not to be an issue.” 

“What are you talking about?” Private asked, feeling strangely worried. 

“Think Private… I regained my body… using my dark magic…” Sombra glared at the unicorn and slowly managed to rise up a bit. “For the… first days… that’s all my body was… dark magic in pony form… but slowly becoming a normal… body… That’s why it was so… easy for me to play… like I was still a spirit… It had become more solid and… normal by our second encounter… but…” 

Sombra stopped and looked down as a large crack formed on his chest, more smoke was pouring through. The Dark Pony chuckled ruefully. “To think Tartarus… was actually keeping me together… now that I’m not… there and… my dark…magic… is…suppressed…well… Dew Doe… you’re getting rid of me ahead of schedule…” 

“Wait… what?” Dew Doe looked alarmed at Foxy and Private. “He’s dying?” 

“I had… a feeling you… were… smar…” Sombra closed his eyes and sunk fully to the floor. 

“Private! Contact the Princesses!” Dew Doe shouted. 

The unicorn cringed and turned to run out of the room and galloped to his study. He had the notes from Princess Celestia there with the spells he had to do to contact them. Private was all too aware how bad he was at magic, so had made sure that she had given him written instructions how to perform them. 

Private rushed through his desk, using his magic to sweep away the books and other papers he had on it related to his work until he found the notes. He hurried to look over them, winced when seeing how complicated everything looked, before closing his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could. The unicorn heard the panicked voices of both Dew Doe and Foxy, they were clearly trying to do something to help Sombra, even if there was little they could do. 

Help! Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! Twilight! Cadance! Something’s wrong with Sombra! He shouted in his mind before realizing, that was not how it worked. He grabbed a quill and a paper and wrote on it the message and sighed in relief when seeing the magic activate and the paper vanish into thin air. 

The unicorn hurried back to the guest room. Dew and Foxy had a medkit and were trying to cover Sombra’s body’s cracks with bandages. The king was completely limp and there wasn’t a sign that he was breathing. 

“Girls… I think he’s…” he whispered, not wanting to say those words. He looked back when hearing the front door downstairs slam open. 

“Private Iceland! Dew Doe! Foxy Stripes!” the loud voice of Princess Luna bellowed through the house. 

“Up here!” Private called and had to avert his eyes when a blinding teleportation flash appeared in the room and Luna stood amongst them. The lunar princess gasped when seeing the state Sombra was in. 

“What happened?” she asked, stunned. 

“He’s dying. His body apparently isn’t fully formed yet, even after all this time,” Private told her in a hurry. “Apparently… because his dark magic is suppressed, it isn’t maintaining his body.” 

“Oh, this is just what we needed,” Luna growled. The princess activated her horn and pushed all three ponies out of the way with her magic. Then she enveloped Sombra in a magic aura and lifted the still body and put it on the bed. 

Narrowing her eyes, the Princess formed a bubble around the bed. Then she used another spell and the manacle around Sombra’s horn snapped open. Luna pulled it out of the bubble and now stood in front of the bed ready and waiting. 

Nothing happened. The moon princess raised one eyebrow a little. The smoke began slowly to disappear, the cracks on Sombra’s body were beginning to close. But still Luna stood ready, shaking her head at the other ponies when they started to come closer. 

The princess raised her head fully, her brow arched, staring at Somra suspiciously. The cracks were all almost fully mended. Slowly the king opened his eyes, he let out a groan before going into a violent dry coughing fit. Luna would still not let the other ponies come closer, holding out a hoof towards them. When the coughing stopped, Sombra tiredly turned to face the room, looking weakly at Luna. 

“Princess Luna,” the king muttered, then glanced at Private and the mares, but did not speak anymore. He laid down his head and drifted to sleep. 

“He isn’t bluffing?” Luna blinked then realized she said that out loud. She looked over at the other ponies. “I am sorry… I thought he was bluffing. That he had fooled you into helping him get rid of the manacle that suppresses his magic.” 

“Well, he could still be bluffing,” Foxy pointed out and felt a bit stupid not having thought of that. Dew and Private looked similarly sheepish, having been too panicked to realize that this could have been a gambit played out by the king. 

“No, no, I can feel it. He’s terribly weak. A whole lot of his dark magic is gone, no doubt to repair the damage,” Luna looked at the Dark Pony. “Sombra. Sombra! Wake up.” 

“Ugh… can I please be allowed to rest? I may have some experience in dying, but that doesn’t mean it’s a pleasant experience,” Sombra growled, opening one eye to glare at the princess. 

Luna looked at the mares and Private, gave them a wink before glaring sternly at Sombra. 

“Sombra, your foolish ploy didn’t work. My magic bubble surrounding you keeps you from escaping. That manacle is coming right back on to suppress your powers,” Luna declared firmly, though she made no move to act on her threat. 

“If you want me dead, why did you take it off in the first place?” Sombra grunted and closed his eye again. “Now that I’ve been allowed this brief moment to have my powers again. I have detected that my body still needs a few more months before it becomes fully solid. These things take time. You don’t come back from the dead easily. Do what you must. I will at least die in a bed now.”

“So, you actually were dying. Your body was disintegrating because your dark magic wasn’t keeping it together,” Dew Doe said and grimaced. There was no response except a snore as the Dark Pony had fallen asleep. 

“I am going to keep that bubble on him for now,” Luna said and started to walk away, she motioned to the other ponies to leave the room with her.

They all gathered in the corridor outside Sombra’s room. Princess Luna took a moment to look at the ponies. She was simultaneously impressed and mildly confused. All three of them looked to have calmed down. Dew Doe still looked concerned, Private and Foxy looked unsure. 

“Nopony would have blamed you if you had just let King Sombra perish then and there.  Queen Rabia aside, we would have found a way to stop her without his help. Why did you call forth aid for him?” Luna asked. 

“He needed help,” Dew Doe said and glanced down at the floor. “I just can’t deny a pony that needs help. It’s just who I am. Even if it had been a bluff…” 

“I just do what Dew does, it keeps things simple. I like simple,” Foxy shrugged and managed to produce a grin. All eyes went to Private. 

“Private Iceland, you have the most cause to see him gone,” Princess Luna claimed. 

“Which is why it’s not my call,” Private mumbled and slowly glanced at the guest room door. “I won’t give in.”

The mares stared at the unicorn in confusion, not understanding what he meant. Private took a deep breath, before he looked straight at Luna.

“Sombra kept saying that I would give in. At first I didn’t understand what he meant by that. But I think I do now,” Private explained and his expression got firmer. “Fear and hate, that’s what he meant. That’s what he wanted me to do. Embrace it, become like him. Well, I won’t.”

Dew reached to hug Private with a wing. Foxy just raised her brow. Luna regarded the unicorn for a moment, then smiled and nodded.

“I’ll tell Celestia what transpired here and discuss what we need to do about Sombra and his powers. It’s clear now that he actually needs them to survive. My sister will no doubt drop by tomorrow,” the Moon Princess said and glanced at the room. “The bubble will remain in place until we have made a decision. Do not worry. He is too weak to break through it.” 

With those words, Luna teleported away. The three remaining ponies looked at each other. 

“I think it’s time for bed,” Foxy said and turned to head towards her room, leaving Dew and Private alone in the corridor. 

“Yeah, that’s probably enough excitement for one day,” Dew Doe agreed and started towards the bedroom she shared with Private. 

The unicorn started to follow, but halted and glanced at Sombra’s bedroom. Quietly, he used his magic to open the door a bit and looked in. The Dark Pony still looked sound asleep, snoring softly. Private closed the door and walked away. 

The moment Private closed the door and his hoof steps became fainter as he went further away from the room, Sombra’s eyes opened. The king rose up in the bed, but remained quiet and still, listening. 

Well, that worked. He chuckled, glancing at the magic bubble that surrounded him and the bed. 

Don’t have much time, but now that I have access to my powers, few little spells to prepare myself and I should have a new ace in my hooves. The king’s eyes began glowing green and purple mist started pouring from the corners, his horn activated with purple and green energy. 

He still took care not to let his magic touch the bubble, figuring that Luna had made it so that any attempts to disturb it would be detected. Sombra swept dark magic energy over his body, but remained alert for any sounds and kept an eye on the window to make sure it was still dark. 

I will still need to play nice, but this way, if mother does find me, I at least have a surprise in store for her, he thought as he continued to cast small spells. 

End Chapter 13