The winds of the frozen north were howling and the landscape could barely be seen due to the thick snow whipping all around. To the outskirts stood an ancient temple that had eroded over time and was nearly covered in ice. Within the temple was a dark and unsettling presence as there was only darkness that remained. A lone pony, with sinister ruby red eyes and a curved horn paced around the inner chamber. His black magic seeped around his body as he cackled with unsettling malice.
“Soon…” the dark pony hissed. “Soon I shall make my return, and all shall tremble before the might of King Sombra once again! I was a fool to underestimate those meddlesome alicorns, but once I reclaim my precious Crystal Heart, I shall become unstoppable!” The dark king seethed with a vengeful smile, he dragged his tongue over his razor sharp fangs. As he was busy brooding, his senses perked up when he felt a presence enter the temple. He growled as he faced the only way in and out of the chamber and had his horn powered up and at the ready. “Who dares enter my hideout and is bold enough to forfeit their life in doing so?!”
“Pardon me!” A voice called out as a strange bipedal creature walked in. He was an elderly looking fellow with a cane in hand as he brushed off snow from his shoulders. “I do apologize for the intrusion, but I just needed a place to rest in order to escape the frigid cold. The weather is not the kind a man my age does well with.”
The dark king glared at the strange old being and stalked towards him with his magic still at the ready. “I cannot tell if you are just completely oblivious or just too senile for your own well-being, not that I give a shadow’s curse.”
“I understand my appearance may be unwelcome, sir, but may you find it your heart to allow me sanctuary from the storm?” The old man pleaded.
“Hmph, of all the insufferable…” the dark king spat, turning on his hooves away from the old man. “Do as you please, I shall not remain in this place for long anyhow.”
“I thank you,” the old man nodded. He spotted a good sized rock and proceed to take a seat to rest his old bones. “This is quite the unusual place to call it your home, sir.”
“It is not my home, fool, just a temporary stay until I take action to reclaim what was taken from me,” Sombra corrected sternly.
“What, may I ask, was taken from you?”
“My whole kingdom.” Sombra’s eyes glowed red at the memory of how he was defeated by the two alicorn Princesses. “I was robbed of my right to rule, and now I shall make them all pay once I am back in control.”
“You seem quite bitter towards those who have wronged you, what have you done to deserve such a fate?”
“I was king of an entire kingdom,” Sombra explained. “My rule was a glorious one, and I ruled with an iron hoof! I had everything in my grasp and no pony would dare stand against me. That is until the two rulers of the sun and moon thwarted my plans of dominating the rest of this pathetic land.”
“Why do you sound so spiteful?” The old man wondered, discouraged by the harsh words spoken by Sombra. “Shouldn’t a ruler care for the betterment of his subjects?”
“Who cares about the subjects! All that matters is who reigns supreme!” Sombra spat. “It is my destiny to bend everything to my will, and I refuse allow myself to fall once again as I did eons ago!”
“Nothing good comes from forcing others to do as you desire them to, sir,” the old man sighed.
“Hmph, how would you know? You’re just a bumbling fool who I am allowing to refuge because of how pathetic you are.”
The old man was silent, seemingly undeterred by Sombra’s insults as he closed his eyes. “You remind me of a story I was once told when I was a boy. There were two brothers who lived outside of a town, one a farmer who grew the bounty of the earth and the other a keeper of sheep who raised them with love and care. One day, the brothers brought gifts to the local mayor of the town in order to seek his favor. The older brother brought some food he had grown, and the younger brother brought the very best sheep he had. Care to guess which brother the mayor favored most?”
“Hmph, it is obvious, the brother who provided the bounty of the earth.”
“Wrong,” the old man shook his head. “It was the keeper of the sheep, whom the mayor favored.”
“What nonsense is that? What use are dumb animals to anypony? The bounty of grown food should have been the one chosen!”
“It is not just that the older brother’s gift was better than the younger brother’s. It is because the younger brother was a good man. He was the mayor’s friend, along with the town’s inhabitants, and even his brother. But the older brother was bad; he did not love his brother, nor bothered to be friends with anyone.”
“For good reason, he was robbed of his favor and put in all that work for nothing,” Sombra said bitterly.
“His hatred would soon be his downfall, I’m afraid,” the old man continued. “So the mayor tells the older brother that he should change his ways, but he does not listen. He is very angry because the mayor liked his younger brother better. So he says to him, ‘Let us go over into the field.’ There, when they are all alone, the older brother hits his brother. He hits him so hard…that he kills him.”
There was brief silence in the room before Sombra smiled with a fanged grin. “He got what he deserved.”
“Do you truly mean that? The man killed his own brother out of spite.”
“He robbed his brother of what he was owed. All the younger brother did was look after a bunch of stupid animals. Meanwhile the older brother put in more effort to grow and raise his bounty from the ground with more care and effort than his brother.”
“But the older brother was known as a cruel man, he wouldn’t share shred of kindness to anyone, not even his brother.”
“It is as I said, only those who reign supreme should stay at the top. Those who disagree are mere inconveniences and are cast out like the vermin they are, forgotten so that the more competent ones be remembered for years to come.”
“Unfortunately, even though the younger brother died, the mayor still remembered him. He was good, and the mayor and the townsfolk never forgot a person like that. So even though his life ended, he was still remembered by those who viewed him as a friend. But the mayor was not pleased with a person like the older brother. So after he killed his brother, the mayor and town punished him by sending him far away from the rest of his family.”
“What sort of ludicrousness is that?!” Sombra barked. “So what if he dispatched his brother?!”
“He committed a terrible crime, that is why,” the old man said. “He allowed his pride and hatred overcome him and do something that was unforgivable. It is similar to how you ruled your kingdom without compassion and not care about who was suffering along the way. Can you not see that if you were to reclaim your kingdom, and continue to rule the way you are now, you would only be causing more damage to those around you?”
“It is I have mentioned many times, old fool, I care not for those who are beneath me! I am a King, a powerful one at that! I deserve anything I want, that includes Equestria and the rest of the pathetic kingdoms that stretch across the world!” Dark shadows enveloped the shadow pony as he hissed at the old man.
“So you would rather live a life of solitude and malice rather than try and see that your actions would doom the world to conflict? The older brother from my story had live with the guilt of killing his brother for the rest of his existence after being marked as a murderer. Over the course of time, there were many others like him who committed acts of violence for their own selfish gain.”
“Only the worthy and strong survive,” Sombra repeated once more. “And I am not weak like the younger brother in your foolish story.”
The old man frowned, feeling that nothing else could be said to one so lost to the shadows like the dark king. He had been successful before with his words, but this was the first time when words failed him. This one had allowed himself to embrace his inner darkness to the cruelest extent.
“I see.” The old man stood up from his seat and slowly made his way out from where he entered. “I was truly hoping I could help you see the light, but your heart drowns so deep in shadow that it has forgotten what light looks like.” The old man looked over his shoulder to see Sombra still glaring at him. “I only wish that one day you will stop to take a look at the misery and torment you bring upon others. Not everything is about power and might, Sombra, compassion and peace can have more of an impact than you realize.”
“Begone with you, I shall hear no more foolish words,” Sombra demanded.
Sighing again, the old man turned to walk away. Once he was out of sight, the king felt a twinge of magical power in the distance, which made him smile and cackle in the darkness.
“Now…the time has finally come.”
Standing on a ledge in the snow, at the base of a nearby mountain range, the old man watched as a bright light enveloped the Crystal Empire and the snow storm surrounding it began to cease its strong winds. Though the grand city was saved by Twilight and her friends, the old man, who watched from afar, felt a twinge of guilt that his words fell on deaf ears.
“I suppose even the words of an old man like myself are meaningless to those too far gone,” the old man shook his head. “I may be an old fool, but I have a feeling that we will one day meet again, Sombra. Maybe then, my words will be able to break through that cold shell that surrounds your heart and soul.”