//------------------------------//
// Powerlessness 
// Story: Sombra's Recovery 
// by MisterEdd 
//------------------------------//

"I want to know how to conquer Equestria," Tenebris grinned savagely.

THAT IS QUITE THE GOAL, Thanatos considered in a tone that was irritatingly casual. BUT I CAN ACCOMMODATE YOUR AMBITIONS. He raised a bony finger. FIRST, YOU MUST TAKE THE PRINCESSES CELESTIA AND LUNA OUT OF THE EQUATION.

"Even I'm not powerful enough to take them on," Tenebris snarled, before an idea arrived. "How do I remove the Royal Pony Sisters' magic?"

THERE IS AN ANCIENT SPELL, CREATED BY FAUST HERSELF, TO REMOVE AN ALICORN'S POWER SHOULD THEY ABUSE IT. SUCH KNOWLEDGE WAS LOST WHEN GROGAR THE REVILED MADE HIS MOVE AND OLD ALICORNIA SANK BENEATH THE WAVES. HOWEVER, I KNOW IT WELL.  

"What will it take?" Tenebris eagerly inquired, licking his lips as he did so.  

The savage winds of the Frozen North clawed at Tenebris but the stallion paid them no heed, his cloak of darkness protecting him from the freezing climate. He slithered around in the air like a serpent, his shadow-form allowing him to cover greater distances than walking alone. As luck would have it, the first of the spell's ingredients called for the breath of a windigo and thankfully, they were easy enough to find if one knew where to look. When the Founders of Equestria banished the windigos, everypony assumed that they were gone for good but the truth was, they'd only been pushed back and due to the abundance of goodwill among the Three Tribes, the windigos didn't have enough strife to feast upon and were forced to the outer limits of Equestria. Strong magic in the Yaket Mountain Range kept them at bay but should they ever feast on enough hatred, it is said the windigos will return.

And what is so wrong with that?    

Tenebris relished at the thought of using an army of windigos to carry out his bidding, helping to create fear and confusion among the ponies. In fact, he would've considered using them ages ago if not for the fact that the air spirits were purely instinctual beings with no concept of fealty. Neither reason, bargaining or threats could sway windigos; they only lived to feed on hatred and nothing more. Not even mind control or beast-charming magic could affect them. However, it was no great loss, since Tenebris was confident that such beings were nowhere near as deadly as he was. 

The black and green bubbling orb he'd been following suddenly stopped and it was then he knew he was in the right spot. Dissolving the windigo location spell, Tenebris once more assumed his pony form and waited for his quarry to appear. A soul-wrenching wail reverberated through the icy plateau, the sound so chilling that it'd send anypony else fleeing in the opposite direction but Tenebris wasn't just anypony. He stayed rooted in place as a mist-like figure materialized through the snowfall, its glowing blue eyes locked on the dark stallion. It was equine in shape, with a long snout and hoofed forelegs but the rest of it was a semi-transparent haze that generated a prickly, freezing sensation of pure hatred.   

"Hello there," Tenebris purred, the windigo drawing closer. "My, aren't you beautiful..."

The windigo hissed and nickered, its nostrils flaring at the scent of malice its visitor was radiating. It cautiously approached Tenebris, the air from its nostrils stinging his face with frigid gusts. Tenebris stayed perfectly still as the windigo sniffed him from head to hoof, cooing lightly while it drew in the hatred, growing more solid with every inhale. The poor thing had to have been starving out here in this frosty wasteland, no source of strife or disharmony to be found for miles. Luckily, Tenebris had a steady well of venomous resentment for the windigo to draw upon.

Slowly removing a small glass phial from within his cloak, Tenebris unscrewed the lid and held it up beneath the windigo's panting lips. A glittering blue mist seeped out of its mouth and swirled into the jar, which Tenebris promptly snapped shut, startling the windigo. Activating his horn, Tenebris released a burst of purple and black fire that sent the windigo screeching away, the air spirit fleeing far from the warlock and back through the fog. Tenebris held up the jar, watching the windigo's breath spiral around inside it with gleeful fascination. That was one ingredient checked off of the list.    

"Next stop: Coltlantis..." 


Following Thanatos' instructions, Tenebris chartered-mystically enthralled-a ship to take him past the boundaries of the Celestial Sea, where soon they entered the waters of the Morvarc'h Ocean. The crew worked tirelessly, forgoing food and rest to bring him to the legendary Pillars of Tencendur, two massive stones that'd become a place-marker for sailors since time immemorial. As any marine archaeologist might tell you, the pillars also served as a giant arrow pointing towards the sunken city of Coltlantis. There were many theories as to the source of its destruction, ranging from a volcanic eruption to earthquakes but Tenebris didn't care, his only concern being for what the lost civilization held. Signalling for the crew to cease all activity, Tenebris climbed onto the bow-sprint and, without any sign of hesitation, dove head-first into the water.     

Using the glow from his horn, Tenebris lit his way as he swam down further, his shadow-cloak converting itself into a pair of manta ray-like fins and tall. His cloak-collar had wrapped around his mouth and nostrils, ensuring that he wouldn't drown by supplying him with his own oxygen source. All around him, the different fauna of the sea kept their distance, as if somehow aware of the stallion's goal and wishing to take no steps in impeding his progress. Even the sharks didn't dare to come near him, maintaining a respectful space between them, though still encircling him with the desire to attack. Diving deeper, Tenebris soon came across cracked stone columns and fractured walls, coming across the ruins of the once-thought mythological city of Coltlantis.     

Searching through the crumbling remains of a coral-infested temple, he happened upon a statue of a bearded hippocampus with a crown and trident, no doubt the sea-god Neptune. Tenebris began dusting away sand that'd gathered around the base until he revealed the seal bearing a sigil: 


Remembering Thanatos' words, he pressed the seal, triggering a mechanism that pushed the seal outward on the end of a metal rod. He then twisted the seal counter-clockwise until it was upside-down and pressed it again, opening a hidden door in a nearby stone wall. Swimming into the secret entrance, Tenebris entered a long tunnel that soon lead to an antechamber filled with glittering gold coins and shimmering gemstones, though he ignored these treasures in favor of a large hunk of seemingly innocuous gold-copper metal. It was orichalcum, a rare alloy that many ancient civilizations, including the Coltlantians, used to forge their weapons and armor. More importantly, it is said that the alloy held certain magical properties, hence why Tenebris was here to retrieve it.

Grasping the orichalcum with a shadow-tendril, Tenebris hoisted it up and made his way back to the ship. Breaking the surface of the water, he climbed aboard and commanded some of the deckhooves to dry him off, the hypnotized stallions patting him down with towels as quickly as possible. Holding up the precious alloy, Tenebris chuckled to himself, admiring the way the sun reflected off of the dull surface. He was fortunate in that he didn't have to use the whole chunk, leaving some behind for future usage. Tenebris snapped his head to the side and hollered for the captain.

"Aye, sir?" A middle-aged earth pony with a bushy mustache saluted him.

"Captain, we're heading to Baltimare. Be sure to ram the ship into the harbor, will you?"     


~*~


In a warehouse in Baltimare, a secret auction was underway, one held by the most crooked and vile of Equestria's criminal elite. Crime boss Rotten Apple was one such notable personage, the unicorn making some last-minute mental calculations as he patiently awaited for the next item to be brought out. Chomper, a diamond dog fence, clicked his nails against the head of his cane, moistening his lips with a swipe of his tongue. Archaeologist and black marketeer Dr. Caballeron tapped his hindhoof as he fidgeted in his chair, his ever-present lackeys seated on either side. Of course, no one was more recognizable than Impossibly Rich, the elderly matriarch of the Rich family, her great-nephew Stinking Rich grasping the old mare's foreleg as she loudly complained about the air conditioning.

"And now," announced a rail-thin pegasus. "Item number forty-seven: brought to us all the way from Mythica, a genuine basilisk's crown, which has been verified by our specialists."    

Two large earth ponies wheeled out a metallic blue-gray crown, which was large enough to serve as a neck-piece should a normal pony decide to wear it. Some of the guests clapped at the sight.  

A mare in the back spread her wings and hurled herself towards the stage. Tossing away her large poofy wig and coat, she revealed herself to be Daring Do, adventurer and finder of rare antiquities. 

"Aright, nopony move!"

The exact opposite occurred, ponies fleeing from the warehouse or rushing to confront the interloper. Punching and kicking her way through a trio of security guards, Daring slapped a random crook with her wing before knocking him into another baddie, rendering them both unconscious. She rushed towards the crown, only to be met by Dr. Caballeron's goons, each one armed with a club or a brass toe-duster. Their boss soon joined them, a loaded crossbow in his grasp. He grimaced at her.  

"Once more, you put your muzzle into my business," Dr. Caballeron hissed.

"I'm like a bad bit; I always turn up," Daring glibly remarked.

Before he could respond, a black mass appeared behind them, congealing into the shape of a pony with green glowing eyes. Dr. Caballeron screamed and fired his crossbow, the bolt flying straight through the figure's chest and embedding itself in the podium behind him. The shadow-pony's eyes flashed, trails of purple smoke erupting from them, leading to Dr. Caballeron dropping his crossbow and backing away slowly. Seizing the crown with a black tendril, the shadow-pony gave everypony a mock salute and vanished in a burst of smoke. Dr. Caballeron breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Oh my, that was a close one. Where was I? Right, as I was saying..."

He trailed off upon the realization that Daring Do was also absent. 

"DARING DOOOOO!" 


~*~


The black streak touched down on the mountainside and re-materialized into the shape of Tenebris. After acquiring the basilisk's crown, he decided to return to the Frozen North, as the other items were already in his occult collection. Once inside his secret lair, he made his way down the large stone staircase and into the deepest level of the tunnels. The cloaked figure inside the summoning circle continued to do what he had been since he arrived: stand perfectly still and just stare out into space, his glowing orbs shining like lanterns. Tenebris could not suppress his smirk at the display; how many ponies could claim that they trapped the Grim Reaper himself? 

Humming to himself, Tenebris laid his findings in front of the summoning circle, then popped back into his supply room for the rest of the ingredients. The other items included the tooth of an ursa minor, the scales of a lindworm, a demon's wing, the knuckle-bones of a yeti, tail feathers from a phoenix, the spit of a gremlin and the eyelashes of a sphinx. The eyelashes he'd retrieved centuries ago, only succeeding due to using a potent sleeping spell and sneaking into the she-beast's resting area, though he'd nearly been eaten once the spell unexpectedly wore off and the sphinx pursued him. 

Tenebris wiped some dirt off of the floor and carefully drew a ten-foot X on the floor in red chalk. Next, he drew a series of symbols in the line that ran right-to-left, then in the one running left-right in white chalk. As with any rite, he did so unhurriedly, recreating each symbol with as much painstaking accuracy as possible. Placing the basilisk's crown at the intersection, he placed the remaining ingredients inside of the crown and carefully stepped back. Filling the X with his magic, Tenebris began to speak aloud the charm Thanatos earlier recited to him:

"Unworthy ones, for the gifts you have squandered, I hereby denounce you as alicorns and return your powers back from whence they came. In the name of Faust, let your powers leave you!"   

The X and symbols rang as a white-green light burst from the floor. The symbols leapt off of the X and revolved around Tenebris, spinning faster and faster, forming a roaring whirlwind filled with a series of glowing white orbs. Soon, what seemed to be long, stiff white objects began to spin within the whirlwind's current, shortly joined by similar dark blue and dark pink objects. Streaks of light gold, cornflower blue and cobalt blue sprang from the walls in three arcs before colliding inside the center of the whirlwind, coalescing into a swirling, shimmering silver ball. Just as suddenly as it'd arrived, the whirlwind gradually died out, leaving the objects tumbling to the stone floor and it didn't take long for Tenebris to realize that they were feathers, more precisely, wing feathers. 

He approached the silver ball, his face reflecting off of its brilliant surface as it hummed with magical energies. For a moment, all was dead silent within the cavern. 

"It worked..." Tenebris began laughing manically. "It worked!"

I HAVE GIVEN YOU WHAT YOU'VE ASKED FOR, Thanatos boomed, his voice like the squeaking of a cemetery gate. NOW RELEASE ME. 

"No!" Tenebris brazenly fired back. "No, I think I'll keep you right where you are."

YOU ARE MAKING A GRAVE MISTAKE.   

Tenebris' hooves carefully drifted over the ball.

"The only mistake that's been made is not trapping you sooner."

He grinned and lifted the ball with both hooves.

"Let us see what dear Tia and Lulu make of this..." 


~*~


Twilight Sparkle sat at the Friendship Map wrapped in a blanket with an untouched mug of hot chocolate sitting across from her. While her friends were chatting around her, she stared off into space, her mind set in deep contemplation at the situation she now found herself in. Sombra, in an attempt at ridding himself of his worst traits, recklessly used an ancient artifact to split himself into two beings, one good and one evil, and both were going to disappear forever unless they were reunited before the sunset in three days. Lumos was resting from a sudden migraine and looked to be on the verge of death while his dark counterpart was nowhere to be found and most likely planning something awful. What compounded matters further was that this turn of events was, in a way, all of her fault.  

In her heart, Twilight knew that she made the right call in preventing Sombra from choking the life out of the bandit but she felt guilty for how she'd addressed him. She'd driven him away, not just with her words but also, in hindsight, an expression of anger-and fear. In that moment, all Sombra knew was that his marefriend, the only one who wholeheartedly loved and believed in him, was afraid of him and probably despised him. Yes, Sombra's action terrified her but it wasn't that she was afraid of the umbrum but rather, afraid for him, afraid that he'd slip back into being his old self, returning to his dark, lonely road of hopelessness and scorn. The worst part was, Twilight was aware of Sombra's fragile emotional state but instead of talking to her coltfriend, comforting and assuring him that she still loved him, she let him believe that she hated him and pushed him into essentially destroying a part of who he was in order to make her happy. 

Pulling the blanket tighter around herself, Twilight thought back to the events of the day and her guilt only grew from there. During her interactions with Lumos, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing from the stallion. Any time she touched Sombra or he touched her, there was an overwhelming kind of bliss from being around him, a sense of security like he'd protect her from anything. Now, Twilight wasn't a pushover; her one-on-one battle against Lord Tirek was a testament to this fact but regardless, it felt nice to feel such peace of mind from her coltfriend. Neither trauma nor even death could stop him and this gave her immense pride that such a being was so devoted to her and her alone. 

With Lumos, however, those feelings changed. He was much kinder and more mellow than Sombra, behaving every bit of the perfect coltfriend you'd want to introduce to your parents. Yet, he was kind of subservient and meek, as his dealing with Cranky Doodle Donkey showed. She still loved Lumos/Sombra, of course, but it wasn't as intense as it once was. Was it that she found him less appealing than before, that this new, softer Sombra wasn't as attractive to her as the old one? 

Did she really prefer Sombra the way that he was rather than how he was now? 

Am I wrong for thinking this? She asked herself. Am I just shallow?   

She felt a hoof on her shoulder and found Applejack smiling softly at her.

"Y'all awright, Sugar Cube?" 
  
"I don't know," she sighed. "My head's just a bit jumbled up, that's all." 

Applejack nodded. "Yeah, yah've got tha' look ov deep contemplation goin' on. So wha's up?"

Twilight's guts twisted at the thought of her next words.

"Is it wrong that I kind of prefer regular Sombra to Lumos?"

Instead of an immediate response, the other mares took a minute to think it over.

"Well...Lumos is more gentlecoltly," Rarity answered, though she didn't sound enthused. 

"He seems kind of hollow," Pinkie Pie observed. "Like he's got a hole inside of him."

"I like both of them, for different reasons," Fluttershy interjected quietly. "Lumos is much nicer but Sombra seems bolder, like he'll do anything to help those he loves." 

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Lumos is a weenie and Sombra is a nutcase-ow!"

She rubbed her shoulder and glared at Applejack, who shook her head in dismay. 

"Well, yah fell in love wi' Sombra, right? Tha' means yah fell fer both his good an' his bad qualities. It's kinda like how peanut butter an' jam sandwiches are delicious but if yah took one o' th' ingredients away, it don't taste right. Sombra took away somethin' tha' was uh big part o' him so now he's missin' somethin,' somethin' that made him Sombra. Ah don't think it's wrong tha' yah feel this way. Th' only thing wrong 'bout this whole thing is tha' yer feelin' so torn up 'bout it."  

Applejack patted Twilight's back and tousled her mane, making Twilight giggle. 

"We can't help who we fall fer. We jus' gotta make sure we're there fer them when they need us."

Twilight beamed at her friend. "Thanks AJ."

"Any time."

"Twilight?"

Lumos slowly drifted into the room and apart from his baggy eyes and slow pace, he looked completely healthy. He smiled weakly at her and the others.

"How are you feeling?"

The stallion slid into an unoccupied chair.

"Better. I'm just tired instead of in pain."

"Is there something we can get you?" Fluttershy offered.

"No thank you, Fluttershy." He turned towards Twilight. "Any word yet from Spike?"

Twilight slapped her forehead.

"Spike! Oh, I forgot about him! I was supposed to have gotten a letter from him but it's late!" 

A flash of green flames crackled in the space above her head, dropping a rolled-up scroll into her lap. 

"I sure hope it doesn't start raining cupcakes!" Pinkie shouted and peered around cautiously. She then hung her head and sighed, "Awww..." 

"Looks like Princess Celestia found a way for used to receive magic flame mail from Spike," Twilight mused as she unfurled the scroll. "I've got to remember to ask her about that."

"What does it say?" Lumos asked.

Twilight froze before letting the scroll tumble out of her grasp.

"I don't believe it..."

Scooping up the scroll, Rainbow skimmed through it and gasped. 

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence have all lost their horns and wings!"