//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: A Dark Little Place // Story: One Thousand Years Ago // by Scroll //------------------------------//     Cozy Glow is taken aback by the whirl of machines in the room where her sister is being held. There are beeping sounds, a purple accordion looking things pumping up and down, several large and small clear glass tubes with various colored bubbling liquid, and much, much more. This room is a triumph of Equestrian science.     Also a little familiar to Cozy in two ways. For one thing, it vaguely reminds her of the technology in the human world, but in that case, this stuff can be regarded as far more primitive. It also reminds her of a steampunk civilization she once encountered in her youth, and the power source behind all this tech is very likely magic-based as well.     A bunch of wires is hooked up to her sister which, in this dimension, is also in pony form. That person looks almost like an identical twin of herself, especially since their age gap narrowed somewhat since she last encountered this person.     In addition to all this tech, which is probably reading the vitals of her unconscious sister, Zecora is also examining the unconscious mare directly. At that moment, Zecora is hovering her forehooves near and to the sides of human Cozy's head while humming.     Cozy glances at Sunset who enters along with her. Sunset, too, is looking around at all the whirling gadgets in the room with bewilderment.     “Jeez, Twilight, did you make all this stuff yourself?” Sunset asks. Then, a moment later, a thought occurs to her as she grins at Twilight. “Or did you get the idea from your human self?”     “Honestly, all the above, and then some,” Twilight answers as she gives a very thoughtful and discerning look at a roll of paper that is continuously printing some vital information about her patient. “Some of it I got from my twin sister, most of it I read in various books, and I've also added my own personal touches here and there to make it all more efficient.”     “The other Twilight is a whiz with machines, too,” Sunset announces, followed by an admiring whistle as her eyes continue to dart about the room. She approaches one rail in front of her while still looking around. She rests both of her forehooves on the rail and crosses one leg draped over another.     “Oh, careful with all those wires!” Twilight warns at Sunset in a bit of alarm.     “Oh! Sorry!” Sunset immediately lowers her hooves from the rail. “Anyway, change of subject, how is our beloved patient doing?”     “Well, so far, her magic geode is not wreaking havoc on these machines,” Twilight informs as she looks back at the printed data. “I don't get it, though. Most of my instruments indicate there is nothing physically wrong with her, yet her life signs continue to decrease. This is very perplexing and disturbing.”     “Life signs are decreasing?!” Sunset asks in alarm. “Are you sure?”     “I'm positive,” Twilight confirms as she looks back at Sunset. While she does that, her flowing, sparkling mane flows behind her so her face is not concealed.     “The doctors didn't know what was wrong with her in our dimension, but at least she seemed stable then,” Sunset puts in. “Do you think not being in her natural form has something to do with this?”     “Her mind and body are not in sync,” Zecora informs as she emerges from her trance. In the process, she lowers all four hooves to the ground. “Unification will be necessary, I think.” Zecora turns her head about to look back at Sunset. “With a magic crystal, you once said she has a tie. How this is hurting her, we must decipher why.”     “The crystal?” Sunset looks taken aback, then she looks thoughtful. “Well, it is true that Cozy's crystal was wreaking havoc on the machines in my world. Normally she has to be touching it to use it, but she was comatose in her bed while the crystal was in the closet. Yes, it was in the same room, but it was nowhere near to touching her.”     “Yes, but isn't King Sombra supposed to be an expert with crystals and such?” Cozy proposes questioningly. “And we do know his consciousness has something to do with this.” She looks at Sunset to see if she agrees.     “Or maybe . . . it wasn't from a distance!” Twilight realizes in astonishment, then looks over at Zecora with wide eyes. “Zecora, you said that her mind and body are not in sync?”     “The statement I said is simply true,” Zecora informs back. “It might even be the heart of the issue. If mind and heart are not one, we must discern how this process may be undone.” Zecora gives Sunset a warning look. “But with the likes of King Sombra, you must beware. His nefarious curses can give quite a scare. You must proceed with the utmost care, for his dirty mind tricks will unlikely play fair.”     “So what you are basically saying is, it will be dangerous,” Sunset reiterates. “I already knew that.” Her eyes grew determined. “But I am not going to let that stop me. I will not stop until Cozy is safe and sound.”     “Thank you!” Cozy cheers at Sunset with a small voice while she blushes.     “I have a sneaking suspicion that Cozy and Sombra's minds are within the geode itself!” Twilight realizes. She looks at Sunset. “He's done this before. Meaning, siphoned off a sliver of his consciousness to other crystals to house a piece of himself. Come to think of it,” she looks up, “that might explain how he keeps returning from the dead.”     “Do you think she accidentally pulled in the real King Sombra from the nether?” Sunset asks in concern.     Twilight looks back at Sunset in confusion as she asks, “What do you mean by the real King Sombra? How was he fake before?” Twilight lifts an eyebrow. “Or are you referring to his original consciousness?”     Sunset looks down as she sighs. “It's . . . kind of hard to explain, but suffice it to say that the Cozy Glow from my world, um . . . sorta . . . copied little bits and pieces of his memories. What gaps there were got partially replaced with her own memories. Cozy's bond with the collective unconsciousness of Equestria isn't perfect, so the version she got was incomplete. Plus, I later found out that the corrupted King Sombra that terrorized this world was an incomplete copy of his original self as well, so the version Cozy got was basically a copy of a copy.”     “The one we got in this crystal now is the bad one?” Cozy guesses, then winces with doubt. “I don't know about that. Some of the voices and text I saw back at the hospital indicate he is filled with multiple instances of regret.”     “And when I contacted her mind using my crystal, the response I got was largely unfocused,” Sunset recalls. “This version of Sombra may be so incomplete that he can't even control himself anymore.”     “So what are you going to do?” Cozy asks Sunset with worry.     “Well,” Sunset rubs the bottom of her chin with a hoof in a thoughtful pose. “Whatever he is now, my objective is the same, so here’s what I’m thinking; I have the most experience diving into mental universes. He may have an edge over me in the real world, but in the cognitive world, he'll be in my domain!”     “Don't forget, Sunset, King Sombra is good at mental magic too,” Twilight warned. “He once almost conquered all of Equestria by himself using that magic alone.”     Sunset frowns at Twilight, then says, “Okay, so he might be a challenge for me, but I still think I'm the best person for the job. In an odd way, I've had experience dealing with him before, and I even beat him back then.”     “With this quest, we have another card to play,” Zecora brought up. “Although this is a suggestion that I am reluctant to say.”     “It's about my daughter, Cozy, isn't it?” Twilight figures. “She also has a connection,” she says to Zecora, then transfers that look to Sunset as she goes on to say to that mare, “You know, you are going to need her to connect with the crystal. It's attuned to her sister, but my Cozy is similar enough. Plus, this Cozy has a connection to her other self. She has her memories, after all. That might not only act as a guide, but help you to persuade her sister.”     “I was reluctant to bring this up as well, but I had similar thoughts in mind,” Sunset admits. “She would be at some risk, but we can reduce that risk if we work together. I'll take care of her, Twilight. You know I will.”     Twilight frowns. “I'll admit, I'm not happy about this prospect, but it does seem like she could be super useful on this mission. However,” she looks at Cozy directly, “I will not press any of this on you against your will, nor shall I order you to do this either as your mother or Princess. So, what do you-”     “I want to do it,” Cozy announces, cutting her mother off. “I think I need to do this.”     A bit of a proud smile lights Twilight's lips, but then she goes on to say, “Are you sure? Think about this, Cozy. What you may face in there could be very scary. Possibly even dangerous.”     Cozy sighs as she looks down. “I carry the memories of when my sister betrayed Sunset Shimmer. With those memories, I carry the guilt it causes accordingly.” She looks back at her mom. “If there is any way I can make up for this, then I want to do it.     “Besides, this version of me also helped me out. If it weren't for her excursion into Equestria, you might have left me in stone. I owe her, Mother. How can I abandon her during her hour of need?”     Twilight's proud smile deepens.     “Furthermore,” Cozy adds, “you asked me to do something to earn your trust. Does this count?”     “This situation is oddly self-serving, but very brave of you,” Twilight announces to her daughter. “If you want to do this, I will not stop you. In fact, I'll do everything I can to support you from my end.”     “Thanks . . . um . . . Mom,” Cozy says a little sheepishly as if embarrassed to admit that social connection or to show gratitude.     “You're welcome, Cozy,” Twilight says back to her daughter, then looks at Sunset in puzzlement. “There is one thing I don't understand, though. I thought you told me, in your letters, that your magic crystal only allows you to read past or current memories. How are you going to use that to communicate with Sombra?”     “To answer your question,” Sunset brags with a grin as she levitates two magic crystals, each of which is now entwined in some wire and tied up on a string to make a necklace. One of these she floats over to Cozy. “I've learned some new tricks since the last time I wrote to you about this. The reasons I learned this is kind of a long story. I'll write to you again about it someday, but for now, just know that I've learned how to go deeper using my magic.”     “And you can bring Cozy's mind along for the ride too?” Twilight checks.     “Not only can I, but I suspect I must,” Sunset answers. “It is Cozy who is connected to her counterpart's crystal. I'm, ah . . . sort of using her as a bridge to get inside that thing.”     Twilight squints an eye at Sunset. “Get inside that thing?” Twilight echoes questioningly.     “We can't get in there with our bodies,” Sunset explains as she trots next to Cozy. “We can only get in there with our minds. Once inside, we'll be in a disembodied, mentally projected state.” Her next question is to Cozy directly. “Are you ready for this, Honey?”     “Because of my sister’s memories, I've sort of done this before, so I kind of know what to expect,” says Cozy. Despite this, she still appears nervous. “This is King Sombra we're talking about, however. I'm trusting you to keep me safe.”     “Yeah.” Sunset puts a hoof on Cozy's shoulder. “You're ready.”     Right after she says that, her eyes suddenly glow white. Seconds later, white envelopes Cozy's perception as well. This is followed by the sensation of falling.     During the falling sensation, Cozy instinctively tries to use her wings to save herself from the fall, but to no avail.     When the falling sensation fades away, the whiteness around them does as well. In fact, the lighting situation seems to entirely reverse to darkness. Next thing Cozy knew, she is standing in a void of darkness, yet she can feel solidity under her hooves.     “Um . . . Sunset . . . are you there?” Cozy asks nervously with small eyes and droopy ears.     “I'm here, Cozy. I gotcha,” Sunset assures as she lights up her horn. It turns out to be a very warm and radiant light. It isn't like a normal unicorn light. This light pulses softly and feels very comfortable to be near. Accordingly, Cozy draws closer to Sunset. So close that their barrels rub up against each other.     “I'm . . . just making sure,” Cozy says with a little false bravado.     “Shh! Do you hear that?” Sunset asks as her eyes and pony ears dart about.     When Cozy pauses to listen, it kind of sounds like multiple voices echoing in the darkness, except each of the voices are the same. The same voice, but not saying the same things. It's not even the same vocal tone. Some are crying, others are growling, some are shouting, some are musing. It is basically the whole gambit.     “That is Sombra's voice!” Cozy says in a spooked tone as her eyes remain tiny. “I remember that from my sister's memories.”     “Yeah, me too,” Sunset agrees with a discerning look, “but something is off about it this time. The last time I heard him in Cozy's mind, he did have that multi-vocal tone, but the voices used to speak in complete unison. Now they are not.”     “Due to the echoes, I can't tell where the voices are coming from!” Cozy says in fright as her eyes dart about, then narrow a bit. “Wait a second! I think I recognize this place somewhat.”     “Again, me too,” Sunset agrees. “I think this is King Sombra's cave, or at least a mental projection of it.” She thins her lips. “Hmm. If he really is King Sombra, or rather just King Sombra, we might have a fight on our hooves.”     “You really can protect me?” Cozy asks in a vulnerable voice.     Sunset flashes Cozy a confident smile as she says, “Of course! In the cognitive universe, I am much more powerful.”     Suddenly she whips her head in a certain direction, then narrows her gaze in that direction. “I think I honed in on his mental signal. Stay close to me, Cozy. I'm gonna whisk us there.”     “You don't have to tell me twice!” Cozy assures nervously. “I'm not willingly leaving your side! Besides, you're my ticket out of here.”     “And you're mine,” Sunset says back. “You're the bridge that got me here in the first place. I'll need you to leave.     “Now, hold tight. This will take but a moment.”     A teal flash of light envelopes them for a brief moment which is followed by raining tiny magical sparkles.     “I didn't know you could teleport!” Cozy notes with surprise.     “Actually, I used to be pretty good at it!” Sunset brags. “I was one of Celestia's top students, after all!” Her expression shifts to a bit of embarrassment. “However, I haven't cast magic as a unicorn for so long that I've kind of forgotten how. The method I used this time is kind of different. Remember, Cozy, we're in the cognitive world now. These,” she gestures back and forth between herself and Cozy, “aren't our physical bodies anymore, which means we also left behind mortal advantages and disadvantages. Accordingly,” she taps her head three times with her left hoof, “we are wherever our mind perceives.” She looks forward sharply. “And I just teleported us close to the only other mental signature that I detected in this place.     “Behold!” Sunset cries out boldly while sweeping her hoof forward in a grand way. “what is left of the mighty King Sombra.”     What they see is one pony sitting in a certain place, sort of, but after images and other shadows of him shift back and forth. It looks like many ponies who look the same are sitting in the same place, but doing different things. Each of those after-images also speaks with their own voice and emotional attitude. Most of them are in the negative emotional spectrum.     Sunset projects her light even more brightly. Bright enough for the radius of the light to pass the spot where the Sombra(s) sat. When that happens, most of the Sombra images still, then it seems as if hundreds of Sombras look back at Cozy and Sunset almost simultaneously, which makes his face drag with many after-shadow images. In the light, Sombras' snake-like eyes with glowing green background flash.     “What are you two doing here?” most of the Sombra voices speak at once, but a few say something different. What they say is very hard to catch, like a lone voice getting lost in a crowd.     “We came to-” Sunset began.     “GET OUT!” the Sombras roar explosively. “You are not welcome in this forsaken place!”     “We can't do that!” Sunset cries back defiantly. “Not without Cozy Glow.”     He passes a menacing look to pony Cozy standing right here. A look that makes Cozy shrivel.     “Not this Cozy,” Sunset clarifies, “although it is true that I'm not leaving without her, either.”     For some reason, the darkness seems to grow thicker in this place. It swallows up Sunset's globe of light. Accordingly, Sombras' face vanishes in the shadows again except for his eerie, glowing eyes. However, seconds later, that, too, vanishes because he closes his eyes. At the same time, Cozy and Sunset hear him sigh.     “I know of whom you speak,” the Sombras admit in the darkness. “I possess her memories as well.”     “Don't we all?” Sunset asks with a roll of her eyes. “It's weird, but we strangely all have that in common.” Sunset gives the dark area she suspects Sombra still is at a hard look. “What happened to her? Human Cozy, I mean? Is she still with us? Are you her?”     “No,” the Sombras confess, although, again, some of the voices say other things. They are very hard to understand, but sometimes even more of them say different things. Cozy and Sunset vaguely catch some of the voices saying things like, “She is just another one of my many victims”, and “Another reminder of my failure,” and “I wish these two would just go away and leave me to my sorrows.”     “Human Cozy is . . . dormant for the moment,” most of the Sombra voices say.     Of the voices that don't speak in unison at that particular moment, the most noticeable one is crying in pain.     “That means you are aware of her,” Sunset says with rising hope in her voice. “Does that mean she is aware of us, too?”     “I doubt it,” the Sombras reply. “It's like she is asleep, dreaming of being Sombra. She can't consciously reply to anything. However, since I do possess all of her memories, and then some, I believe I can speak on her behalf with questionable reliability.”     “Can you wake her?” Sunset checks. “I would like to speak to her if it's possible.”     “Forgive me, but I don't think I can wake her,” Sombra replies fairly politely for such a menacing sounding collection of voices. “Right now, I'm struggling just to control myself.”     “Yeah,” Sunset agrees as she droops her pony ears. “I can see that. The term, 'Pull yourself together' has never been more apt than it is in this moment.”     “And that is why you two must go!” Sombras cries out insistently. “I can't control myself right now, and I don't want to hurt you. Either of you. Just go!”     Cozy and Sunset glance at each other for a moment. Cozy tilts her head towards Sombra, silently begging, “Say something!”     “If you don't want to hurt us,” Sunset begins as she looks back in the rough direction of the Sombras, “then don't, but we're not leaving without saving Cozy Glow.”     “You don't understand!” the Sombra voices cry back, and some of them say, “Nopony ever does!” and “Why won't they listen?” and “Please go! I have enough blood on my hooves as it is.” Then, most of them say, “You two have to listen to me! GO! You are in danger in my presence, for I am a monster.”     “Sombra, calm down!” Sunset cries back insistently, then speaks again in a much calmer voice. “You're a unicorn, right? Moreover, a trained wizard? If so, then you must have been taught how to train and hone your emotions. Did they still teach the breathing technique over a thousand years ago, or is that a more 'in my time' sort of thing?”     “That . . . is a stupid question,” the Sombra voices chastise. “And I know you are not a stupid pony, Sunset. Not if my memories from Cozy don't betray me, which is honestly possible right now.     “Of course they taught the breathing technique in my time. We taught and perfected that technique back then. We did it because we had to. I was trained by one of the greatest pony wizards of all time! You think he would neglect a technique that basic?”     “Well great! So you know it. In that case, use it,” Sunset presses. After that, she takes a slow but deep intake of breath, holds it for about two seconds, then lets it out. She repeats the process after that.     Cozy and Sunset could hear the Sombras do so as well. The more they do, the more in sync the voices seem to be, at least for the moment.     They pass about five minutes in this fashion. After that, the tension level seems to drop dramatically.     In fact, the next time Sombra speaks, it is finally with a single voice.     “Thanks, Sunset. That helps . . . somewhat,” Sombra says in a bit of pain.     Sunset pushes her light to become brighter again. It pushes back the darkness with far less resistance this time. Because of it, Sombra is once again in the light.     When he is in the light again, both mares can see a gray coated stallion with a short black mane and sideburns. His tail is about medium length. He winces tightly at them as his eyes adjust, but they do so in a few seconds. When they do, they can see his red but otherwise normal-looking pony eyes stare back at them. Also, the only article of clothing he seems to wear is a red scarf.     “Nice to finally see you,” Sunset says with a bright smile.     “To you as well, milady,” Sombra says with a blink and a polite nod. “Although, I must say, it is strange, to my eyes, to finally see you in pony form.”     “Oh!” Sunset blinks. “Well, considering where we are, I can fix that.”     After that, she whirls around for a moment while dragging a teal streak of light around her. It continues to spin around her for three seconds. When it fades, Cozy and Sombra behold Sunset's human form, except she continues to radiate light out of an astral looking horn and glowing wings on her back. Wings and horn which seem out of place with her jean pants and black leather jacket which is open at the front, revealing a purple shirt with the image of her cutie mark covering over sixty percent of the front of the shirt. She poses for him by putting her hands on her hips and giving a bit of a slouched stance. “Better?”     Sombra crawls up to stand on his four hooves as he shakes his head at Sunset. “No, not better. Simply more familiar, but to tell you the truth . . . if human Cozy was here, she'd prefer you in pony form even if it's less familiar to her.” He looks off to his side into the darkness. “She'd say it is cute.” He smirks back at Sunset. “Apparently, human Cozy regards our entire race as adorable, with the possible exception of myself, especially while in smoke form. That she regards as scary instead.” He rolls his eyes as he looks down. “Story of my life, apparently.”     “Well . . . do I get a vote here?” Sunset checks.     “About your form?” Sombra checks as he looks back at Sunset, to which she nods. After that, he goes on to say, “Not only does your vote count, milady, but it is the deciding vote, I assure you. At least,” he looks at Cozy, “it is to me.”     “Um,” Cozy looks at Sunset as she says to her, “I, ah . . . kind of prefer you in this form, too. You just look so weird to me as a pony. No offense.”     “To tell you both the truth, I prefer this form too,” Sunset announces as she looks at her fingernails. “I've been in it for so long that it actually feels like my 'true' form. But, I do miss my horn. That thing is useful.”     “Of course,” Sombra agrees. “But do as thou wilt, milady. 'Tis only appropriate that you wear whatever form is most comfortable to you.”     “You're more courteous than I expected,” Sunset notes with a pleasant blink of surprise. “So . . . I take it this means I'm not just addressing King Sombra? You are also what remains of his early ponyhood?”     “I think so,” Sombra replied with some uncertainty. “I do possess the memories of King Sombra as he spent most of his time brooding in this cave.” He gestures around them with a hoof. “But . . . I also possess memories as myself brooding in a Red Crystal shard that I splintered the remains of my consciousness in before my evil side, King Sombra, took over my body.”     “So you have both memories!” Sunset realizes. “I see. So that is the source of your conflict! You're struggling to reintegrate both sides of yourself. It's not unlike what happened to human Cozy last year.”     “That's partially true, but there is another problem,” Sombra announces.     “What?” Sunset probes with a look of concern on her face.     “The memories conflict,” Sombra informs. “Particularly before our split.” He looks down as he applies a hoof to near his forehead and horn. “I don't exactly know how to explain this. Most of our memories match up after our split. I remember being King Sombra as he flew back to the Crystal Empire and . . .” He trails off with a look of pain and guilt on his face.     “That's when you took over the Crystal Empire,” Sunset completes his unfinished announcement. “I've been reading up on your history recently. A lot of it was lost for a great deal of time. I could tell that a lot of the text is written in a newer Equestrian script.”     He closes his eyes and bows his head. “Yes, but it's more than that. Far more.” He looks up at Sunset while his eyes glisten with tears. “To take over the Crystal Empire, he . . . I . . . had to usurp the one who was originally on the throne, and that pony is . . . was . . . somepony very close to me. Somepony very dear to my heart.” He bows his head in shame. “Somepony I once fought to protect. Somepony I loyally served for so many years. You wouldn't believe the struggles I went through to protect her.”     Sunset swallows hard, then asks, “I . . . don't mean to sound indelicate, but did you . . .” She looks around as if checking to see if the coast is clear, then asks more quietly, “. . . kill her?”     “I . . .” He turns to his side. “I don't want to talk about it right now.”     “Well . . . alright. You don't have to,” Sunset assures. “But you should know two things about me. For one thing, I was in school training for a psychology degree, and two, Cozy Glow is my friend, and she's a part of you. If you do have her memories, you should know how much she trusts me. You can talk to me about anything.” She draws a few steps closer as she continues. “I know you want to act tough, but right now I can easily tell that you are really hurting and you need help, so let me help you! Please!”     Sombra says nothing. He just hangs his head quietly.     “Let me ask you something,” Sunset brings up as she raises her hands to her hips. “Let's cut to the chase, here. Sombra.” He looks at her with his eyes only when she says his name, “what is it, exactly, that you want in this situation? We may not know exactly how you got here, but now that you are here, what is it that you wish to accomplish?”     “Me?” His eyes look forward again, then he closes them while continuing to hang his head. “It seems my intentions are irrelevant, but if I had my way . . . all I really want to do is rest in peace.”     Sunset is a bit taken aback as she asks, “Meaning . . . you want to pass on from this mortal world?”     “I don't belong here,” Sombra says as he lifts his head and looks back at her. “This isn't my world or time anymore.” He waves a black-tipped hoof through the air. “You have no idea how much immortality has been a burden to me. The centuries upon centuries where I had to live with the knowledge of outlasting everypony I ever cared for. I endured it for a few centuries for the sake of a small hoofful of ponies who had also endured that length of time. I did it for her. I did it for them, the crystal ponies and the empire we helped to forge together within the bitter and otherwise inhospitable land.     “There was no paradise a thousand years ago,” Sombra sneers, especially on the word “was”, then goes on to say. “Not like it is in Equestria today. We had to build our paradise through centuries of hard work, sweat, blood, and tears. You don't know how much I sacrificed to build that utopia, only to have it crumble . . . by my hooves, no less.”     He looks sharply to his right. “But today, at least, I have the consolation of knowing that the Crystal Empire has returned to Equestria. Its brilliant rainbow light shines in the heavens like a river of light once again.     “That, too, took a lot of effort and work to restore. More than a century of accumulated positive energy was necessary to bring the Crystal Empire back from the edge of oblivion. From the Ether. From the void.” His eyes look sharply back at Sunset. “From Limbo.” He directs his face to look back at Sunset in addition to his eyes. “The world between worlds which is not one place or another. It's in between, so time did not pass there; therefore, the crystal ponies were stuck in non-existence until I helped to save them.” He looks down with regret. “After everything I have done, I felt it was the least I could do.”     “Um . . . wait. I have a question,” Cozy brings up. “You said you helped bring back the Crystal Empire. That implies you didn't do it alone. Who else helped you?”     Looking up at Cozy, he answers, “My family, those who are left in Equestria, are imbued with my bloodline and therefore share a connection with the crystal I had left in the world that housed the last of my consciousness, aside from King Sombra. Using that crystal, it was necessary to store enough positive energy to eventually create a sympathetic feedback loop with the Crystal Heart which was, itself, stored in the Crystal Empire. That feedback loop would create a magical attraction to each other and thereby drag the Crystal Empire back in sync with the material plane.” He sighs a bit as he waves a hoof. “There is more to it, but I'll spare you the details. Suffice to say, we eventually succeeded, and the Crystal Empire's glory reigns in the material world once again.”     “Don't you want to take it over again?” Sunset checks. “I asked you what you wanted, and you failed to mention that before.”     As his eyes shift back to Sunset, he scoffs for a brief moment, then suddenly turns into black smoke with glowing, menacing eyes. In that form, he dives into the ground, out of sight. Seven seconds later, a black crystal tears up from the ground which eventually splits into three. The middle crystal is the largest of the three. A royal throne forms at the base of that crystal which Cozy Glow recognizes as a replica of the royal throne from the Crystal Empire.     As black smoke, Sombra emerges from the crystal at the back of the throne then solidifies to sit on it. When he appears physical again, he is now wearing a thick cloth red cape with white trimming, has a black crown on his head, and metal plates over each of his hooves. In addition, his eyes continued to glow red and green with a purple wispy trail extending from the outward sides of them. He is sitting upright on the throne while resting his head on his left hoof. His head is tilted a bit to his left. The elbow joint of that leg rests on the left side of the throne.     “I must admit, I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't tempted to reclaim the throne of the Crystal Empire,” Sombra confesses to Sunset. His normal pony voice, instead of the intimidating multi-tone, seems to be a sharp contrast to the dark motif he currently has. “The parts of me that are corrupted by dark magic want nothing more than to reclaim what is rightfully mine. After all, I worked so hard to build that Empire up to what it is today. Why shouldn't I reap the benefits of all that effort?     “But ah, you may relax,” he assures as he lifts his right hoof for a moment, “I have no serious intention to go through with it. My former ambitions that I had in life are quite empty now that I have a deeper perspective of the situation. More than anything else, I am quite weary.”     His head sits up straight as he rests both hooves over the arms of the throne.     “I'll tell you something else that I don't want, Sunset Shimmer. What I don't want is to victimize anypony else with my continued existence, which includes the two-legged child Cozy Glow. This life is her life, not mine, and I have no intention of remaining a burden.”     Sunset breathes a sigh of relief, then happily informs, “That's a relief to hear.”     Sombra lifts his forelegs off the arms of the throne and taps them together as he adds, “It is especially important to me not to harm or burden the lives of innocent girls.”     “Oh?” Sunset perks up with interest. “And why is that?”     “Because I feel it is my sacred duty to protect them,” Sombra informs softly. “It's not an official duty, mind you. It's just the way I feel.”     He leans back into the throne.     “This was especially important a thousand years ago,” he says. “Back then, the world was a much darker and more bleak place. Resources were scarce, so many creatures attempted to adapt by preying on the weak.” He waves a hoof at them. “Now, I'm not saying that all mares are weak. On the contrary, I've met quite a number of them that were strong in various ways. I proudly counted some of them among my comrades in arms while they lasted.” He looks up. “But plenty more were not so strong, especially when they were left starving for so long. As a result, many mares became the target of abuse in a multitude of ways. This always gulled me to the core of my being whenever I noticed this, except for the pure aspect of the Dark King Sombra. His heart is too corrupted by dark magic to preserve his once noble ideals.”     He sighs as he places a hoof on his face as if to conceal his shame.     “That version of me stood against all that I once had in my youth. Instead of the protector, he simply became another aggressor.”     Sunset takes a deep breath then releases it. “So . . . let me get this straight. You want to rest in peace, but you can't? Are your conflicting memories the source of your woes right now which are keeping you from resting?”     “It used to be the Crystal Empire,” Sombra mentions as he looks back at Sunset. “Part of me wanted to conquer the place, and the other part simply wanted to restore the greatest legacy I ever helped to forge. But, now that that is accomplished, I can see no other resistance that is likely at this time. I would rest in peace if I could, but something bothers me. Why does the Dark King Sombra have different memories of my earlier youth? Having different memories after our split makes sense, but before? Back then, we used to be one being, so why the inconsistency?”     He taps his hooves together again.     “What especially troubles me is certain aspects about the past feel . . . unsettled, like a promise that has yet to be fulfilled. I can't put my hoof on it yet, but a very strong part of me feels like something remains unresolved about the past.” He looks at Sunset sharply. “As a ghost with an unresolved past, I cannot rest in peace, but my biggest complaint right now is I can't even recall what is so important that is unresolved, and why.”     He lays his head on his right hoof. That same foreleg also rests on the right side of his throne.     “Here is another thing to consider,” he goes on to say. “If any of these memories are true, why would half of me not recall it? Also, does any issue I have unresolved about the past have lingering consequences? Does any other creature that I once cared about still suffer to this day because of some unfulfilled promise of the past?”     Sunset raises a hand as she points out, “Well, as you know, I do have a gift for sifting through memories of the past.”     Sombra squints one eye in suspicion at her as he asks, “Does that include memories that the subjects themselves have forgotten?”     Sunset opens her mouth to answer, but pauses as her eyes shift to her left with a thoughtful look, then looks back at Sombra as she admits, “You know, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure.” She rubs the back of her head. “It seems to me the visions I get are the most relevant to the subject at the time I attempt to scan them. That, and possibly my intentions when I touch them.” She folds her arms across her chest. “Back when a splinter of my consciousness was in human Cozy Glow, I encountered some memories within her that she had forgotten herself, but it turns out another entity within her possessed those memories instead of her.”     “That entity was me,” Sombra recalls. “Yes. I remember that, now. I used to possess all of her bad memories of her parents instead of her.”     “It took me a while to decipher that you had those memories instead of her,” Sunset informs. “But, when I realized the truth, the mystery began to unravel in my mind.”     Sombra lifts a hoof to forestall Sunset. When she stops, he asks, “Before we get into all of that, tell me more about Cozy's condition in the waking world. Is she stable?”     Sunset droops her shoulders as she admits, “No. Ever since bringing her to Equestria, her condition has slowly been . . .” Sunset trails off as she widens her eyes when she realizes something. “Oh my Celestia!” She slaps her forehead. “I just realized why!”     “Well . . . don't leave us in suspense!” Cozy presses.     Sunset returns both hands to her hips as she informs, “We brought human Cozy to Equestria because we were convinced that her condition was caused by something magical, and Equestria is more prepared to deal with a condition like that. However, there was one thing that they were doing in the human world that we haven't done since because Equestria is lacking these resources.”     “Such as?” Cozy asks.     “The life support systems!” Sombra exclaims in realization. “That's it, isn't it? The human world plugged Cozy up to machines to help her breathe!”     Sunset nods in confirmation. “Cozy can breathe on her own in this world, but not as efficiently.” She looks off to her right side. “Darn it! Why didn't I think of that sooner?”     Sombra leans back in his throne again as he announces, “Then the most critical issue we need to cover right now is to get Cozy's physical condition stable.” He waves a hoof around them to indicate the local environment. “This place dwells within the crystal attuned to Cozy. It can persist without her.”     “Meaning?” Sunset challenges with a cautious look to Sombra.     “Cozy's body needs to be locked in stasis to buy ourselves time to work out the rest of these unresolved issues,” Sombra answers. “If memory serves, you freed Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow altogether from the stone prison, correct?”     “Yeah,” Sunset answers at first, then elaborates, “Well, better to say that Princess Twilight freed them.” Sunset tilts her head as she asks, “What's your point?”     Sombra squints his glowing eyes at Sunset while tapping his hooves and asking hopefully, “Have you made any headway in getting Queen Chrysalis's cooperation?”     Sunset squints back as she wonders where he is going with this. She pauses a moment to think about it, then answers, “Largely, no. From what I've been told, Chrysalis is the most stubborn of the three to resist any attempts at friendship. Starlight Glimmer was the one mostly spearheading that project with Chrysalis, and the former changeling queen is reacting as if she's literally allergic to friendship. What's your point?”     Sombra sighs in disappointment, then asks, “So, I take it if you asked her to cocoon Cozy's body in slime, she wouldn't do it?”     “OH!” Cozy exclaims. “NOW I see where you are going with this.” Looking to Sunset by her side who still looks confused, Cozy explains to her, “Queen Chrysalis has a biological technique to cocoon her victims in some kind of green slime that puts their bodies into stasis. She claimed it was a method to store her food for later.”     “Such a technique does not freeze the victim’s state, from what I understand,” Sombra adds, “but it does slow the metabolic rate of the victims tremendously. It's much akin to a hibernating state. With the heart rate slowed down to a tiny crawl, the victims are induced into a very deep sleep.”     “How do you know all this?” Cozy wonders to Sombra.     “Kid,” he shifts his eyes to look at her, “there is a lot you don't know about me.” His eyes look down in depression. “Apparently, there may be a lot I don't even know about myself as well.”     Sunset gives a frustrated sigh, then says, “Be that as it may, I don't think we're going to gain Chrysalis's cooperation. However,” Sunset lifts a finger, “the changelings from Thorax's pack are quite cooperative. Could we ask one of them?”     “I don't think so,” Cozy answers with reasonable but not perfect certainty. “From the diplomatic missions that I've accompanied my mother on over the years, the reformed changelings seem to have lost that ability, or at the very least, don't use it anymore because they don't have to. They no longer feed on love, so maybe they lost the hibernating slime ability as well?     “From what I can tell, the reformed changeling's diet changed to something far more akin to ponies, except for one thing,” Cozy squints in disgust as she adds, “they seem to have a penchant for eating other insects that they scavenge for and even raise in their lair like a bug version of a farm. When they dropped a plate full of slimy and wiggling worm-like things in front of me, I gave my mother a disgusted, 'Do I have to eat this?' kind of look. When Thorax noted my look, he immediately and profusely apologized for it. After that, he gave us a bunch of fruits, nuts, and salad.”     “Wait, so are you telling me that only the original changelings had the slime ability?” Sunset double-checked.     Cozy shrugs as she says, “It seems so, and Chrysalis is the last of the original changelings that we know of. If that isn't true, then the others are hiding pretty darn well, as changelings are apt to do.”     Sunset moans with worry, then says, “This is frustrating. Everything Starlight told me over the years tells me that Chrysalis would be the furthest thing from cooperative. If anything, she'd more likely deny the request just to see us suffer.” Sunset looks at Sombra hopefully. “Is there any other option you can think of?”     Sombra bows his head and casts a deep sigh. He seems very reluctant to admit this next thing, but he eventually says, “There is one other option I can think of; the Crystal Stasis spell.”     “Oh?” Sunset looks intrigued. “How does that work?”     “It is a moderately complex spell that I learned to develop in ancient times,” Sombra answers. “It was useful for storage of large items, especially if it was food. The Crystal Stasis spell will completely freeze the process of the creatures or objects by encasing them in a specialized crystal which I've learned to grow, and before you ask, no.” He waves a hoof at Sunset. “This spell will not kill the subject. It's more akin to freezing time around the subject. I have even learned to shrink the crystals for more portable storage.”     “Wow!” Sunset exclaims. “That sounds fantastic!” She squints an eye. “So what's the catch?”     “The catch is twofold. First and foremost, I have to be the one to cast the spell itself. Very few have mastered the spell well enough to perform it. Not even the great Star Swirl the Bearded pulled this off.”     “Oh.” Sunset looks a bit spooked. “I take it that miscasting the spell might be dangerous for the subject?”     “Absolutely,” Sombra confirms, “in several ways. However, I am confident that I can cast the spell. That is, if I had my original body.”     “Oh!” Sunset widens her eyes. “And you don't have that.”     “Yes,” Sombra confirms, “which means,” he looks at Cozy with a hungry look in his eyes that makes her squirm in discomfort as he says, “I'll need to borrow her body to cast the spell.”     “What?!” Sunset asks in shock. “But Cozy is a pegasus. How will her body help you at all?”     “The crystal,” Sombra answers as he looks back at Sunset. “That is to say, human Cozy's crystal. It has a bit of my essence in it. After all, such was used to create it. What's more, that crystal was created by another pegasus, and I taught her that.”     He rests his head on his left hoof.     “That crystal can be used like a surrogate horn, as long as the one who uses it is well attuned to it. The one who created that crystal could do it because of my training and her bloodline. As for me, the usage of crystals happens to be my cutie mark talent since I was a young foal.”     “Wait, go back on that one!” Cozy exclaims in amazement. “Using that crystal, you can teach a pegasus to cast spells like a unicorn?”     “I've done it before,” Sombra answers Cozy. “Multiple times, in fact. I even taught one earth pony to cast magic using this technique.” He shifts his eyes to his left. “Actually, one of the former possessors of the Red Crystal even taught an entire society of earth ponies to harness this technique. Such was necessary to save their world at the time.” His eyes look back at Cozy. “Fortunately for them, they actually had access to powerful enchanted crystals back then.”     “So . . . does that mean you can also teach me?” Cozy asks with a cute blush and wide hopeful eyes. She presses a single hoof to her left cheek as she flutters her eyes at him with a “Pwetty pwease!” look passed to him.     Sombra droops his eyelids at Cozy with a listless expression as he answers, “Provided the means and the motive continue, I certainly can. I wish I could trust you to competently cast the Crystal Stasis spell as well, but alas . . . the odds of you messing it up are too high, and the consequences too dire if the spell is miscast.”     “Wait a second.” Sunset crosses her arms across her chest. “Why are you reluctant to possess Cozy? I thought you craved to accumulate power.”     “Yeah. My power,” Sombra clarifies as he looks at Sunset. “But Cozy is innocent in this affair, and she's a girl. I don't want to steal anything from her or harm her. I don't even want the temptation.”     He sighs.     “I must admit, there is a dark side to me that feels tempted to steal control from her without remorse, but that side is tempered by my more complete self. The rest of me feels very severely concerned about hurting her in any way.”     “Would possessing Cozy's body pose any direct risk to her?” Sunset checks.     Sombra rubs his face with both hooves as he answers, “Not much. Honestly, the majority of the risk would be to the other Cozy.” He lays his forelegs back on the arms of the throne. “But, for her sake, this is the best option I can think of.”     Sunset looks down and sighs as she thinks on this, then looks back at Sombra as she asks him, “Any more catches we should be aware of?”     Sombra nods, then goes on to say, “Unless the crystal is of a special property or skillfully enchanted, which is a costly and time-consuming process, the magic of the Stasis Crystal will have to be regularly renewed, for the magic slowly bleeds out over time. If the spell is allowed to decay for too long, it could kill or corrupt the imprisoned subject.”     “That's not good,” Sunset admits.     “But it does not take much to renew the enchantment,” Sombra goes on to add. “Also, that process is fairly easy. Almost any unicorn in the world could do it. All they'd have to do is focus their magic on the crystal. They must allow it to sink and be absorbed into the crystal.     “Honestly, the hardest part is forming the Crystal Stasis spell to begin with. Once that is done, renewing the enchantment is fairly easy, but to do it, one needs to know how.” He waves her off. “I can teach that part with ease.” He shifts his eyes to look at Cozy. “I'm pretty sure I can even teach this Cozy how to do it.”     “So, if we go with this option, it is vital that the Crystal Stasis be kept near somebody who knows how to re-enchant the crystal,” Sunset concludes.     “Right,” Sombra agrees. “And like I said earlier, I can also shrink the crystal so it can be carried easily. Doing so reduces its weight dramatically, too.”     Cozy puts a hoof on her chin and rubs it while she asks, “If we could use Chrysalis's slime option instead, would that have to be renewed too?”     He looks at Cozy as he answers, “I don't know, but I think so. Past observations seem to suggest that the slime dries out over time. To keep the subjects in a state of artificial hibernation, more slime has to be reapplied to counteract the deteriorating effects.     “So, in other words, the method of renewing the process may be different, but it's ultimately a similar result. The main difference between her method and mine is mine requires magic to renew, it's a complicated spell to establish but easy to maintain, my method entirely arrests the biological system of the subject instead of slowing it down, and my method is far more portable.”     “What happens to the subject if the crystal shatters?” Sunset checks.     “There is a chance of physically damaging the subject within if not done carefully,” Sombra answers. “When it happens, the damage can be extreme. However, a method like that is necessary to free the subject from the crystal.     “If I used it to store a large amount of food, for example, and I later wanted access to it, I have to shatter the crystal, carefully, mind you, in order to get to it. After that, the spell is permanently broken, but in exchange, I'd now have access to what was inside.”     “So this method was mainly only useful for long-term storage,” Sunset figures. “A method that also needs maintenance of magic on occasion.”     Sombra nods as he says, “Correct.”     “How much magic is required to renew the process and how often does it need to be re-enchanted?” Sunset investigates further.     Sombra shrugs as he answers, “That depends on the crystal. Using my own power alone, I can easily create a crystal that could last three days at minimum without any risk to the subject.” He tilts his head. “However, in order to establish that, more magic needs to be infused into the crystal. The more it has, the longer it lasts, but the maximum amount the crystal can store depends on its size and type.”     Sunset shrugs as she says, “That makes a lot of sense. That makes it quite similar to my new world's battery system.”     “In a manner of speaking,” Sombra accepts with a neutral shrug.     “I'll have to pass this knowledge onto Princess Twilight first before we decide on anything,” Sunset figures while rubbing her chin with her pointing finger, then looking at Cozy beside her. “In the meantime, what do you think? Are you willing to temporarily,” she said emphatically with a brief glance at Sombra for a moment before continuing at Cozy, “loan your body to him so that he may use it to secure the health of your counterpart?”     “I've come this far,” Cozy says back to Sunset. “I guess it's a risk, but he claims it's not a severe one to me.     “We have to do something, and soon, to secure my sister from deteriorating in our world. This method will buy us time, and plenty of it, as long as we keep feeding the storage crystal more magic, which it sounds like nearly any of us can do. Even I can do it if he teaches me how to use her crystal to cast magic.”     Cozy whips her head to look at Sombra sharply. “But I'll only do it on two conditions. One, I reserve the right to reclaim my body at any time, and two, you must agree to teach me how to cast magic using the crystal in exchange.”     “Agreed,” Sombra says with ease. “But, to be fair, I'm not the only potential mentor for you,” he says with a meaningful look to Sunset, then looks back at Cozy. “If she remains with you, she can teach you what she knows of magic as well. The main difference is the method. You'll be learning to channel your magic through the crystal instead of your non-existent horn.     “Also, I can tell you, from past experience, that non-unicorns need a little extra practice because their magic isn't meant to be produced in this fashion. It can be done, but it requires an adjustment period. Once you get past that phase, it gets easier and easier.”     “Actually, I may want to take you up on those lessons as well,” Sunset brought up.     Sombra blinks at Sunset, then widens his eyes as he realizes something.     At the same time, his red cape, crown, and armor fade away a bit, partially replaced by his red scarf. At the same time, his eyes almost return to normal.     “Come to think of it,” Sombra realizes, “this method might benefit you quite a bit as well. If you can master my knowledge of crystal science, you can use it to create your own magic crystals back in your world. Because your human forms lack a horn, this is the only reliable method to cast spells in your world. If you master my ability to create other enchanted crystals, you can eventually master any spell you want in your new world.”     Sunset nods as she informs, “I have noticed how objects seem to have a penchant for holding enchantments in my new world better than any biological person. I've seen people altered by that magic, but it came from an object first.”     “Objects have a different capacity to hold and maintain an enchantment,” Sombra explains. “Crystals are the best and the easiest method to enchant. That's why I spent so much time in my earlier youth focusing on mastering this science.”     “So we have an accord?” Sunset checks. “You help us to secure the health of human Cozy Glow who is temporarily turned into a pony, and we help you resolve whatever your past issues are so you can eventually rest in peace.”     Sombra finally rose from the throne by turning back into black mist. As he floats forward at Sunset, the crystal throne behind him sinks back into the “ground.” Once in front of Sunset, he turns back into a pony and offers a dark gray hoof to her.     “We have an accord,” Sombra agrees while he continues to offer his hoof.