Chapter 16
Dew Doe trotted along the road, carrying both her saddlebag and a new bag that was full of groceries. Sombra walked alongside her and had relented to carry the remaining two bags. The pegasus had used the opportunity to buy a little more extra since there were two of them. They were heading home now, and the pegasus was very contemplative.
“Go on, just say it,” Sombra grunted, already feeling he knew what was on her mind.
“Eh… that was surprisingly uneventful,” Dew Doe smiled nervously, feeling a little guilty that the whole time she had been second-guessing herself taking Sombra on a shopping trip, half-fearing that it would be a disaster.
Nothing she had pictured had come to pass, although many ponies stayed clear away from them, looking at the pair nervously, especially Sombra. Yet the Dark Pony had not spared them a single glance, just accompanied the mare to the stores without uttering a single word. He had been observing, though, looking at things attentively.
The only real incident, if one could call it that, was at one point a pony who wasn’t paying attention to where he was going had bumped into Sombra. The king had just glared at the poor pony and gave a bit of a growl, but the other stallion just quickly excused himself and ran off as if his life depended on it.
“I assume you figured I was incapable of behaving civilly?” Sombra asked, smiling a little smugly. “I did promise I would behave myself.”
“Yes, I mean no… ugh…” Dew stopped for a moment to rub her forehead with a hoof. The king stopped as well to look at her. “You really can’t blame us for not trusting you fully.”
“Please, Miss Dew Doe, I was raised in a royal court. I know how to properly conduct myself when amongst the peasantry,” the Dark Pony chuckled and resumed walking.
“I am not dignifying that,” the pegasus grunted and now followed slightly behind the large unicorn, who just chortled a bit.
I can’t wait for all of this to be over, she quietly snorted and felt so relieved to see her home in the distance. Then the pegasus almost walked into Sombra, who had suddenly come to a dead stop.
“What’s wrong?” she asked and walked closer. The pegasus was halted when Sombra held out his hoof to prevent her from going further. The king was staring forward, his brow sinking into a hard frown.
“Tell me, has Private told you about how Dark Ponies can in a way sense each other?” he quietly asked, never taking his eyes off the house.
“Yeah, a little,” the pegasus nodded, eyeing the house and Sombra uncertainly.
“Private and the other descendants have to concentrate to feel it. A pure-blooded Dark Pony doesn’t. We just feel it,” Sombra said, his voice almost in a whisper. “There are only two Dark Ponies alive today. My mother and I.”
“What are you…” Dew froze when it hit her what Sombra was talking about. “Oh no… Foxy!”
Before Dew could even think of racing forward, Sombra stepped right in front of her, then glared back at the pegasus.
“Dew Doe, if I can sense her from here, she can sense me. She knows I’m coming,” Sombra told her sharply. “Wait here; I will get your sister out.”
Dew was too worried about her sister right now to be surprised about this uncharacteristic offer from the king. Right now, her mind was just focused on helping Foxy, and right now, help appeared to be on the way, even if it was King Sombra. So, the pegasus just nodded, shifting her hooves on the ground nervously.
Sombra turned back to the house and started walking. A sneer crossed his lips, and his eyes narrowed to slits. He had worried this would happen. It now occurred to him what his mother had been doing in Manehattan. Barricade knew Sombra was here, so it was clear that Rabia had received that information from him.
The dark unicorn stopped for a moment in front of the house, deep down, steeling himself for the upcoming confrontation. As he was about to open the door, it swung open with red magic that was not his. Grunting, Sombra entered and didn’t even need to be told where to go. He stepped into the living room entrance, where Rabia sat on one couch, and Foxy sat on the other.
“Mother,” he growled at the one pony he had hoped never to see again.
“My son, enjoyed your shopping?” Rabia looked over, smirking at her seething son.
“You, get out.” Sombra glared at Foxy. The mare blinked in confusion and looked at Rabia, who just shrugged, apparently not caring at all.
Foxy didn’t need to be told twice, she jumped from the couch, and Sombra stepped out of the way so the pegasus could run out. The king fully entered the living room and sat down on the couch Foxy had previously occupied.
“I did have a feeling that after our last meeting, you would figure a way to get out of Tartarus, a rather interesting place though you found it to hide in,” Rabia remarked, retaining the same smirk on her muzzle. “You really thought you could hide from me, my Little Shadow?”
“Then again, that is what you were always so good at. Hiding,” the queen snorted and rolled her eyes. “Hiding, hiding, always hiding. It took some serious effort to get you to stop that finally.”
“Yes, I remember those efforts very well. In fact, I still have some of those scars from those efforts,” Sombra growled low before glancing down at himself. “Well, not the physical scars, I suppose, new body and all.”
“Well, it worked, didn’t it? You stopped recoiling at every little thing I was trying to teach you,” Rabia snapped. Sombra said nothing, holding back a wince as he raised his head to resume glaring at his mother.
“Seriously, a Dark Stallion who freaks out at the sight of blood, even his own? What kind of a stallion is that?” the queen snorted and shook her head in dismay.
“Are you here to collect me, or are you just here to remind me of the ‘tender’ and ‘loving’ care you raised me with?” her son snorted. He really had to use all his willpower not to recoil when his mother fixed a cold gaze on him.
“I recall also teaching you not to SPEAK unless given permission to,” she snapped. She sneered when Sombra smirked at that. “What are you smirking about?”
“I’m sorry. I’m allowed to speak?” the king asked mockingly. What happened next was too fast for him to react; Rabia was suddenly on all fours, raised her hoof, and struck him so hard in the cheek that Sombra was thrown off the couch and crashed on the floor.
“Do not be smart with me, Sombra!” Rabia snarled, glowering at her son. “You will show me some proper respect!”
Sombra lay on the floor, breathing heavily, refusing to give his mother even an ounce of satisfaction. Slowly he looked up at her, nothing but hate and contempt directed at the mare standing above him.
“Isn’t it funny how you keep complaining how emotional stallions are when you are the only one here raging in emotions?” he snorted. This earned him a kick from Rabia, knocking the wind out of him.
“STOP IT!!”
A blue flash suddenly rushed into the living room. When Sombra looked up, Dew Doe was standing between him and his mother. The pegasus looked absolutely livid, glaring up at the much taller unicorn mare.
“How in Equestria can you call yourself a mother! What kind of a pony treats their child like this! I don’t care who you are! I don’t care what you can do. No parent treats their children like that!” Dew Doe snarled, stomping her hoof down.
“I thought Sombra was the absolute worst pony I had ever met. Well, I guess I now know who I can thank for that. If this is your idea of how to interact with your children, it’s a small wonder Sombra turned out as he did. I can see now why he ended up running away. To get the Tartarus away from you, you crazy bitch!” The pegasus was so mad she flew up to be at eye-level with the queen, who was starting to sneer and her horn beginning to glow green and purple.
Sombra could already see what was going to happen. The king quickly rose and used his head to push Dew Doe out of the way. But as Rabia was about to shoot, a maroon flash collided with her, throwing the mare off her hooves and crashed into the couch. The magic energy flew into a wall and left a large gaping hole there.
“Let’s get out of here!” Foxy declared as she quickly made a beeline for the entrance. Dew had already corrected her flight and saw that Sombra was already standing up and flew out after them.
They didn’t get too far. In the front yard, they heard a terrifying roar coming from the inside. The pegasi and Sombra looked back, the mares cringing when seeing black smoke pour out after them through the door.
“Keep running!” Sombra snapped and galloped away; the sisters didn’t need to be told twice and sped after him on their wings.
“What do we do?” Foxy called, her eyes grew wider when seeing the black smoke filling up the sky above them.
“You two continue,” the king declared and ground to a halt and turned around. He sneered at the sight before him; the horizon itself was slowly filling up with the black, shadowy smoke.
Well, we’ll find out soon enough if my preparations worked, he thought as he watched his mother’s head form above. Then he noticed that the pegasi sisters had stopped a short distance away and were watching. “Didn’t I tell you to keep flying!?”
Before either could respond, there was a brilliant flash of light. Rabia’s head howled in pain when a yellow beam of magic struck her in the head. Sombra arched his brow, and the sisters gasped. Celestia was flying through the air, her mane and tail glowing like fire.
“Stand down, Queen Rabia!” the Solar Princess boomed in her royal Canterlot voice.
Rabia snarled, and large, shadowy tendrils shot out from her smoke form, aiming for the princess. Celestia dodged them and fired more beams of magic, dissipating them. The queen sneered, then she suddenly compressed her form and started to speed off with the Sun Princess right behind her.
“Okay, that happened,” Foxy said as she and Dew landed right behind Sombra.
Sombra glared back at them and opened his mouth as if to say something, and then he changed his mind. He turned his head forward, Rabia was already a distant speck on the horizon, and despite the daylight, they could still see the bright glow of Celestia. The king held back the relief he was feeling.
“It is not coincidental. I was not entirely honest yesterday,” he growled. Since Celestia had arrived, it was clear that one of his spells had, in fact, worked.
“You weren’t really dying? Yeah, we know,” Dew Doe said and couldn’t help but snicker when seeing the look of utter confusion the Dark Pony gave her.
“Yeah, you didn’t fool Princess Luna at all. She knew. She and Celestia just played along, then told us and told us to play along,” Foxy grinned.
Sombra growled softly to himself and wondered what had tipped them off. However, he had planned to confess the ruse the moment any of his contingency spells activated, which at least saved him that trouble. Now another question remained - how would they view this. This could be interpreted as him causing trouble while staying here.
“Well, I guess it’s back to Tartarus with me then. I suppose this counts as me breaking the agreement we made,” he grunted and glanced back when noticing a flash of light. Celestia had teleported back to them.
“It could indeed be viewed that way, Sombra,” Celestia agreed in a neutral tone of voice. She took a moment to look back. “I’m afraid your mother managed to escape; she traveled faster than I could fly.”
“So, Sombra, why did you feel the need to deceive us so you could put alarm spells on yourself in case your mother found you?” the princess turned back to the Dark Pony, still sounding and looking neutral.
“Oh yes, I was just going to ask you politely to take off my manacle for a few moments while I did those spells? I can see how well that discussion would have gone,” Sombra snorted and turned to face the princess fully. “None of you trust me, and I sure don’t trust any of you. And I didn’t just put on alarm spells. I added some extra layers of defense. I know too well how hard mother hits.”
“Well, if you want to go back to Tartarus…” Celestia began, but at that moment, Dew Doe sprang forward, putting herself between her and Sombra.
“Wait, wait, let’s not be too rash,” the pegasus said, quickly making a bow for the princess as she did. The alicorn just tilted her head but waited for Dew to continue.
“I will admit that after hearing that Sombra fooled us after all, I was a bit miffed and almost just wanted to have Private ask you to toss him back to Tartarus, but after recent events…” Dew Doe glanced at the house and cringed when seeing the smoking hole in the wall, wondering for a brief second how they would explain that to the landlord.
“I can see now that Sombra was desperate,” she said, turning back to the bigger ponies.
“Now hold on there,” Sombra protested, only to have Dew to fly up to be at his eye level.
“Can it!” the pegasus said quietly but sharply as she pointed at him. The king arched his brow and snorted, half in amusement, half mildly indignant of being told to shut up by this mare.
“When Foxy ran out of the house, I was already sneaking closer. So we both snuck closer and managed to listen in on their conversation. Princess Celestia, I’ve had to deal with my fair share of abusive parents while working in social service. Even some of the ponies I’ve helped settle back into society after having been in jail have confessed to me about how terrible their upbringing used to be,” Dew returned to the princess, who just kept listening.
“Sombra does put on airs; he shows us all how big, tough, and dangerous he is, flaunting his powers and all that, even when depowered as he is with that manacle on. We have barely managed to keep him in line,” the pegasus continued and eyed Sombra, who didn’t look overly impressed.
“You should have seen him when talking with Rabia. There was none of the usual confidence - oh an untrained pony might not have seen it, but I watched his body language. He was terrified; he kept struggling to put on mask after mask. Rabia absolutely dominated the conversation. Sombra managed to put in some snark, but there was always that briefest hint of body language that he was just waiting to be hit. He knew, no matter what he said, she was going to hit him.” Dew shook her head. Then she looked at Sombra fully.
“Tell me something, Sombra, and there is nothing behind this question. I just want to know. For all your talk about wanting power and more power, like I’ve heard Private tell us, is it because you want power, or is it because you want to be more powerful than her? To be able to beat her up, as she beat you?”
Sombra eyed the pegasus grimly for a moment; then he looked at Celestia, who still had not dropped the neutral expression.
“Yes,” he finally muttered and said nothing more, He walked a bit away and sat down with his back turned to them.
“You certainly have a talent there, Dew Doe. I can see why your calling was to help ponies,” Celestia finally smiled as she regarded the pegasus, causing Dew to blush a little at the compliment.
“However, the secrecy of this place has been compromised, and I do not feel comfortable leaving you all here with Rabia still on the loose. You three shall accompany me to Canterlot until we have figured something else out,” she declared and beckoned for Foxy to come closer. The only response from Sombra was silence.
“What about Private? He’s still in Manehattan,” Foxy pointed out.
“Twilight is already in Manehattan keeping a watch over his brother after last night’s incident. I’ll send her a message to direct Private to Canterlot once he’s done,” Celestia assured the sisters. The princess fired up her horn and then teleported all four of them away.
Sombra averted his eyes when the teleport flash happened. When he could see again, they were all in the throne room. He could hear Celestia address the pegasi sister about something. Glancing back, he saw a guard escort them out of the throne room, no doubt to go somewhere they could rest after what had happened earlier. He rose when the princess turned her attention to him.
“I was considering doing this a little later, but with Rabia’s current show of force, I think I can not delay it any longer,” Celestia said while approaching the Dark Pony. “We have Chrysalis in custody; she’s refused to speak to us. However, we need to know where Rabia is hiding. Do you think you could talk with her?”
Sombra arched his brow. “That is far beyond our initial agreement, Celestia,” he snorted.
“I know. Fine, name your terms,” Celestia said, her eyes narrowed slightly when Sombra raised his hoof and pointed at the manacle around his horn.
“We don’t trust each other, Celestia. I’m not fooling myself into thinking we have any reason to do so. However, I do promise that I will not use my powers on anyone in Equestria, even Private, while I help you hunt down my mother,” King Sombra said and grit his teeth. “Dew was not wrong about me. I am terrified of my mother and… while she is loose, I am just as much a prisoner in Tartarus as out here, even with my powers. She didn’t even waste any time once she found out where I was. She will hound me, again and again, and it’s just as much in my interest to catch her as it is in yours.”
“Chrysalis is just as much a liar as I am, just as deceptive and just as stubborn. However, I can do things that you refuse to do because of your morals, and you know it. You may not agree to it, but you will have to agree that I can get things to talk,” he concluded.
“You give me one reason, any reason at all, that manacle is going right back on, even if I have to hunt you down to the ends of this world and beyond,” Celestia said sharply but quietly. When Sombra nodded, she took a deep breath, activated her horn, and the manacle around the king’s horn fell to the floor with a clank.
“Don’t make me regret this,” the Sun Princess then added and turned around. “I’ll show you where we are keeping Chrysalis.”
“Lead the way,” Sombra shrugged and smiled when feeling his powers surging through him once more.
End chapter 16