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// (7-4) In Her Own Hooves 
// Story: The Ruler of Ponies and Men 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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Sombra had his eyes closed as Twilight stood over him, doing everything in his power to not growl or snarl. He wanted to show some semblance of self-control in front of the alicorn as he tried to remember where his enemy’s pieces were.
“Most of them,” he told her as she stood waiting expectantly, quill in her magic, “are in the frozen north, near the Crystal Empire. I believe there are nine within the vicinity of the city, with one being buried directly under the city at this point. There’s one near Neighagra Falls, one in Galloping Gorge, one near Saddle Arabia in the desert, one in the Smokey Mountains, and one in the jungle on the southern end of the continent.”
“Okay, so that makes… fourteen in total? Or fifteen?”
“Fourteen. There are fourteen pieces of her. That, I'm sure.”
“How do you remember all of this, Sombra?” Hope asked. “That was all so long ago… over a thousand years by now.”
“You forget, Hope, I spent a thousand years under ice. From my perspective, it’s only been months since it happened, since she revealed how much pain she caused me.”
“Well, regardless,” Twilight started as she looked over her notes to make sure everything was written down correctly, “you’re a good pony for doing this, even despite, um… what happened between you two… although with where you say her pieces are, this could take a few weeks… but still. I can tell you don’t like it, but you’re doing a good thing.”
“It’s certainly more than she deserves, I can say that much,” he replied simply. “Was there anything else you were looking to know?”
“Ummm… no. This should be good enough, I think. Thank you, Sombra… oh I’m so excited! I have so many questions to ask her! I wonder what she’s like or what she’ll be thinking?”
“Hopefully about her hypocrisy,” the stallion commented. “Telling me I had to turn away from darkness when she made me this way and placed the darkness in my heart. I’ll bet she’ll be wishing Hope didn’t save me that day in the hospital.”



“What do I do?” Cadance thought to herself as she strode around her room, trying her best to keep herself from growling. “What can I do to show these ponies that they’re in the wrong?”
She wanted to prove it to them. She wanted them to know that she wasn’t at fault. This wasn’t her fault. Sure, she might have come up with the plan, but it was still Sombra’s doing. Without Sombra, it wouldn’t have even been possible to attempt. Just because she took action didn’t take blame away from him. This wasn’t her fault. This was his.
“But what do I do about it?” she muttered to herself as she paced, gazing up to the ring around her horn. It kept her from both performing magic and flying. Worse, it was a mark of shame. Everypony who saw her noticed it, she knew that, and looked down on her because of it. And there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t take it off herself; it required magic to get off. So she was stuck unless she could convince somepony else to take it off for her, which was never going to happen.
She clenched her jaw and ground her teeth. This was all his fault. All he had to do was create a personality. That was it. They’d both be in their perfect positions had he done so, but he hadn’t. Maybe it was on purpose, seeing as he got all the rewards and she got nothing. Maybe he’d pulled one over on her. Just the thought of that made her furious.
“What am I going to do?” she asked herself again before stopping to stand in place. “Go to the Royal Library? There might be a spell there that can show me how to take this ring off, but… will they even let me go there? Actually, no, I don’t care what they say. They said I could go anywhere in the castle, and the Royal Library and Canterlot Archives are on castle grounds. That’s my excuse if they ask what I'm doing there.”



“You’re not letting me in?” Cadance asked, frustration in her voice as she was stopped by a trio of guards who stood in the library, directly in front of the entrance to the archives. “Don’t you know who I am?” As she said it, she took a threatening step forward, looking down at them with a scowl.
“We do know who you are, Prin- err, Cadance,” one of them told her as they stood their ground, albeit nervously. “But Princess Luna informed us not to let you in here. I’m sorry.”
“Why?” she demanded, stomping a hoof. “What was her reasoning for not letting me in? Because Alex told me I could visit anywhere in the castle, and this is on castle grounds, therefore-”
“We- we understand, Princess, but-”
“If you understand, then move!”
“We- we- we… we can’t do that. Princess Luna said-”
“I don’t care what Princess Luna told you. I’m telling you to move!” As she said it, she spread her wings threateningly, taking another step forward and making them shrink back.
“We… no. We can’t do that. We- we know your s-status in Equestria, but... but Princess Luna specifically told us not to let you in. If you want to come in, you have to take it up with her.” As they said it, the group got more confident, and by the end, they were all three looking back up at her with authority.
“Oh, just you wait until I get back to Luna,” Cadance growled. “I’ll make sure she has your heads for wasting my time.”
“If she tells us differently,” one of them said, “we’ll be the first to apologize to you. Until then though, we can’t let you back there.”
The pink alicorn glared at them before pushing her mane out of her face, giving a huff, and stomping off. She knew going to Luna would just be a waste of time. She wasn’t going to do anything. Why would she? She thought she deserved the brunt of the punishment. She was against her just like everypony else. She’d have to figure out how to get past them on her own. On her own without her wings or magic to help her, against ponies that she knew wouldn’t budge for her.
She paced back and forth, trying to think up a plan on the spot when she was interrupted.
“Princess Cadance?” somepony, a yellow unicorn with a coal-black mane, called as they entered. “What are you doing here?”
“Princess… he called me princess… he might be useful to me… but I need to get him alone and away from the guards so they don’t hear us.”
“I was just browsing the library,” she replied, trying to hide any annoyance she had and already starting to move farther away, eyeing the guards watching her carefully. “Seeing what there is to read. It’s a nice day, so I figured why shouldn’t I go out and take a look around the castle?”
“Ah, I see. Well, it’s always nice to meet a member of royalty. My name’s Brimstone, by the way. Say…” Brimstone trailed off, getting an idea of his own as he glanced at the ring on her horn before continuing, “What if we browsed some of the books in the back? I mean, if you’ll let me. I’d really love to get to know you more! I’m kind of a history buff.”
The alicorn followed him to the section he was talking about, a lonely corner of the large library, before she started, “What do you want? I know you want something from me. I saw you looking at this wretched ring.”
“I… want to take it off for you,” Brimstone replied quietly, a bit uneasy. “I know you can’t stand it, so, um…” 
“You will?” Cadance asked, slightly surprised but smiling nonetheless. “You’ll take it off?”
“I would... But um, before I do that, I would need you to do something for me. Err, I mean, I can’t right this second because I need to get stuff in order first, but… you’d eventually have to do something for me. I mean, once the time came.”
She frowned a bit at that, not liking the idea of relying on somepony else and being in their debt, but moved past it for now as she asked, “What exactly would I be doing?”
“Well… umm… without getting too specific, you would be…” he trailed off, but used his head to motion to a window that held a view of the castle.
“I can do that, but I’d need you to take this ring off right now, or at least go into the archives to get me something that shows me how to take it off myself.”
“I- I don’t think I can do that. I don’t know if they’ll let me back into the archives yet, and I can’t take it off for you right now because I know you’ll just… do whatever you want and then abandon me. And I- I don’t want that to happen.”
“I wouldn’t-”
“I think you would. I really do. I heard about, uh... what happened... between you and the current rulers. So um… because of that, it’s better to wait… but I don’t see why you can’t just get Princess Luna or Alex to take it off for you?”
“Ugh, of course, you’re one of those ponies,” Cadance grumbled, rolling her eyes. “Of course you don't trust me. You might even be trying to set me up, and I'd think so if you weren't so idiotically forward. And besides, they're obviously not going to do that. If they were, it’d be off by now, which is why you need to-”
“Hold on, that’s not what I mean,” the unicorn interrupted. “I mean, if you play nice for a few months and say you’re sorry, then I don’t see why they won’t just take it off themselves. I mean, I spoke to Sombra… er, Alex, and he seems like a genuinely nice pony to me. I don’t see why he wouldn’t if you played nice, or at least pretended to.”
“Hey! You’re right! And then I wouldn’t need your help, would I?” Cadance realized, smiling smugly now at the thought. “I wouldn’t have to rely on you!”
“Uhhhh… wait,” Brimstone tried to backtrack. “I mean… I- I can take it off for you sooner than that. I mean, I have my own plan that we can-”
“No, thank you! Now I don’t need you at all! That’s a much better plan than what I was thinking!”
“Wait, we can still-”
“Nope! I don’t care! I have a plan now and I don’t need you, and I don’t want to need you. I’m not going to rely on you like I did him. That was my mistake before, and I’m not making it again. I’m keeping my own destiny in my own hooves.”
“But it'll be easier my way. I have Grog-”
“I don’t care!” she called, already starting to trot away and out of the library. “Don't follow me either! I don’t want to hear it, and I don't need you blowing this for me!”
“Well… darn,” Brimstone said aloud to himself, a bit surprised at the sudden turn of events as he watched Cadance march away with her head held high. “I might have let my mouth run a little bit too much. Um...”
The bright yellow pony looked around trying to decide what to do before shrugging his shoulders and heading right up to the entrance to the archives.
"Ah, um, I was wondering if I could head in?" the unicorn asked innocently, tilting his head a bit.
"Do you have an escort or a written pass?" one of the guards asked suspiciously. "Because we just saw you talking to-"
"It's okay," another guard interrupted, holding a hoof up to silence him. "I remember him. He was here a few weeks ago with Somb- I mean, Alex. You can head in."
"Thank you."