//------------------------------// // Struggle Against the Dark // Story: Sombra's Recovery // by MisterEdd //------------------------------// It can't end like this. Twilight reasoned, the situation looking more and more dire. It just can't! They'd faced odds much bleaker than this and always came out on top. When Discord stole the Elements of Harmony and turned them all into negative versions of themselves, they managed to persevere and win the day, and now he was their friend and sometimes ally. Lord Tirek managed to absorb almost all of the magic in Equestria but, again, they turned the tables on their foe and sent him back to Tartarus where he belonged. Faust, Twilight was possessed by Nightmare Moon and trapped her friends in their own nightmares, yet they still found a way to free her from Nightmare's control and defeat the dark alicorn once and for all. Time and time again, the six mares, along with the occasional help from others like Spike and Sombra, managed to pull themselves together and restore order to Equestria, even when victory seemed impossible. Twilight gazed horrified at the unconscious and wounded ponies all around her, struggling to retain her hope in the sight of such brutality. Flash was nursing a broken wing, an injury that was debilitating for any pegasus, especially one in the Royal Guard. Rainbow, who by now had regained consciousness, managed to crawl over to a still distraught Fluttershy and hold her tightly in her winged embrace. Pinkie and Applejack were tending to Rarity, who was shaken and woozy but otherwise perfectly healthy, albeit with a bald spot in the center of her chest, the unicorn immensely distraught by the imperfection in her normally immaculate coat. Spike, meanwhile, was trapped up to his head inside of a crystalline pillar, now rendered unable to move or use his magic. He was still so young, not even a teenager and yet he was usually caught up in crazy adventures involving villains and hexes. Now he was an Element Bearer, her equal, and was now decreed by Harmony herself to defend their home from monsters and madponies. Twilight wanted nothing more than to get Spike home and refuse to involve him in her nonsense, to run and play and be a kid his age but that wish was rendered moot by the fact that he'd fight tooth and nail to include himself in dangerous situations. As much as she hated it, she was proud of him for how far he'd come. Her attention next zeroed in on Tenebris and there were few times in which she truly despised someone as much as she did him. He tormented and hurt her friends, banished Princesses Celestia and Luna, and turned Princess Cadence into an infant so he could play out a demented game of house, with Twilight herself as his wife. All of these acts of malice, in turn, spun the wheels in her head and she found herself wondering if Tenebris was a part of Sombra, then did that mean that Sombra, deep down inside, was truly like this? Then again, Lumos was also an aspect of Sombra given a physical form and he was nothing but kind and thoughtful, so that was also Sombra. Could Twilight really look past the demons lurking inside of Sombra and forgive him despite everything he's done? Don't forget, you weren't so innocent yourself when you were Midnight Sparkle. How could she forget? Twilight had said terrible things to her friends, using personal information to maliciously attack them in their vulnerable spots and then later using their own fears to torture them in the Dreamscape. They all told her they'd forgiven her but every time she looked at each of their smiling, happy faces, she was shamefully reminded of what she'd done and wished she could take it all back. Sombra, while being nowhere near the definition of "perfect", had demonstrated that yes, while he'd committed terrible acts, he was capable of remorse and make up for his less-than-sparkling past, to become better than what he was. She loved Sombra: his soulful red eyes, shaggy dark mane, that cute fanged smile. He had a wonderful laugh, on the rare occasions on which he afforded himself that luxury and was always so supportive when she needed him. He was smart and well-read, strong-willed, brave, and while his pony skills needed work, he was loyal to a fault when it came to the few friends he had. No, when you love someone, you shouldn't just cherry-pick the things you like about them and ignore their flaws but you also shouldn't demonize them for their failings and only appreciate their strong points. Loving someone means caring for them as a whole, accepting both their advantages and disadvantages, to help cultivate their positive traits and aid in improving their negative traits. It won't matter soon. If Lumos and Tenebris aren't reunited, Sombra is lost to me for good! Lumos had teleported away during the start of Spike and Tenebris' duel so he must have a plan of some kind. What exactly it constituted, Twilight had no idea but seeing as how he possessed Sombra's intelligence, it had to be a great one and she didn't have any herself. The only issue was that he was evidently still in the process of bringing said plan to fruition so she needed to give him as much time as she could afford. An idea popped into her head and though it was a terrible one, her options were rather limited at the moment so even a bad one could be made good. "Tenebris!" Twilight shouted, then whistled, drawing the stallion's attention towards her. "Yes, beloved?" Came the sardonic response. "Did you want something?" "I wanted to let you know that I will not, or ever in any reality, ever want to marry you." Tenebris' cloak transformed into two arms and grabbed Twilight, prying her off the wall and zipping her across the room. She was now staring up into his furious gaze, small fires burning in his scarlet eyes while streams of purple smoke radiated off of them. His fang-filled jaws expelled hot air in her face, his lips trembling as he tried to contain his boiling fury. "What...did you say?" Twilight gulped, terrified but determined to stay the course. At a first glance, angering the unhinged umbrum that was currently holding all of the cards was unbelievably stupid and anyone on the outside could be forgiven for thinking Twilight had some kind of a death wish. Before, Tenebris was able to tell that she'd been deceiving him and wasn't fooled by her passive willingness to agree to his proposal so easily. Perhaps by being direct and painfully honest, she could catch him off-guard and stall for time. Maybe she could even use his own anger against him, causing him to slip up. "I think you heard me but in case you've lost your hearing, I said that I don't want to marry you." "And why not?" Tenebris hissed. "Should I list the reasons in alphabetical or numerical order?" "Just get to the point!" "Let's see...you're abhorrent, acrimonious, aggressive, appalling, arrogant, Belligerent, boorish, callous, cantankerous, condescending, contemptuous, cruel, degenerative, demented, deplorable, despicable, disdainful, disrespectful, egocentric, embittered, entitled, excruciating, felonious, fiendish, flagrant, foolhardy, forlorn, foul, grisly, ghoulish, gloomy, grim-..."  "Enough!" A curved blade shot up from Tenebris' cloak and kissed underneath Twilight's chin. Twilight merely grinned. "Do you think I'm afraid of you?" "You should be," Tenebris growled throatily. "Everyone fears me. Why should you be any different?"         "Because," Twilight answered smugly. "I've seen the real you. Underneath all of that fury and bluster, you're just a little colt throwing a temper tantrum." "Why you impertinent little-..." Twilight suddenly found herself falling to the floor, landing ungracefully on her side and rolled onto her rump to rub at her hip. Shaking away the dizzy spell, she watched the dark figure looming over her violently jerking back and forth, howling in pain as he grasped his head. His screaming maw opened wide, his sharp fangs extending outward to form razor-sharp tusks, the muzzle elongating into a more lupine shape to accommodate the new teeth. The gill-like slits at the edges of his lips tore open even wider, exposing the interior of his mouth and, along with his dark gray coat and rows of knife-teeth, brought to mind a South Luna Ocean shark she'd seen once at an aquarium. Clusters of purple-black crystals burst through Tenebris' deltoids, giving him a pair of grotesque epaulets that matched the row of crystalline protrusions along his back. He's...he's still mutating! He looks even worse than before! The screaming died down, transforming into loud, sustained breathing. Tenebris narrowed his gaze at Twilight, his snake-like irises retracted to thin clefts within his blood-red pupil-less eyes. Their eyes met and Twilight found her earlier courage evaporating like a snow-mare in the mid-afternoon sun. She began to drag herself backwards, using her wings as extra limbs to try and put some distance between herself at the slowly-advancing stallion, every hoofstep creating little batches of crystals. "Where...do you think you're going?" Tenebris hissed, puffs of mist streaming from his eyes. "I...w-well, I-I..." "You're not leaving, are you? I want you to stay." Twilight wanted to respond but her mind refused to cooperate. Tenebris lumbered towards her with an odd swaying gait, as though he was being weighed down with invisible chains. "I'm so lonely. Everyone leaves," Tenebris continued in a melancholic tone. "Everyone abandons me." He then hovered directly over Twilight and added, "But not you." Just then, as if answering Twilight's unvoiced prayers, a golden globe burst inside of the throne room, almost blinding everyone present by its sheer radiance. When the light vanished, out stepped Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the sheer anger written on their faces as plain as day. The two had been returned to their usual appearances, their flowing manes and wings restored, both of them looking rejuvenated and ready to dispense some justice. Tenebris actually looked frightened, though mostly mystified by their sudden entrance, while everyone else threw cheers and salutations at the pair. Twilight herself took advantage of the distraction to haul herself far away from Tenebris, making her way over to Spike. "Tenebris, your evil-doing ends here and now!" Princess Celestia declared, hitting Tenebris in the chest with a magic beam. This was followed up with an attack from Princess Luna, striking the umbrum's side and flinging him across the room. "Indeed! We are back from our 'vacation'!" Finding his footing, Tenebris belted out a challenging roar, his cloak forming a wall behind him. Long spikes formed from the wall with audible shink sounds, launching themselves at the sisters in a barrage of ebony darts. The projectiles exploded in the air, sliced to ribbons in an almost-untraceable flurry of speed by the Royal Sisters, moving in perfect synchronicity with each other as their conjured weapons spun in respective gold and blue arcs. Princess Celestia expertly hefted her glaive, a gilded polearm that resembled a spear except with a large curved blade, while Luna spun a long sword consisting of a gray-blue blade, a black hilt, and a crescent-shaped crossguard. For the first time in a long time, as the pair stared down their adversary, they resembled their warrior-princess personas, figures that had not been seen in centuries. "This changes nothing," Tenebris snarled, his horn black and bubbling. "Now I get the pleasure of disposing of you two properly." Princess Celestia's golden aura lashed out at Tenebris, who launched himself over the magic beam and returned fire, a toxic black and violet stream charging towards Celestia like a trebuchet-launched stone. She effortlessly ducked under the stream, twirling her glaive around in time to deflect two more blasts, slamming one back towards its conjurer. Instead of avoiding the refracted magic beam, Tenebris threw his head forwards and allowed his horn to take the brunt of the blast, the beam actually dissipating into the blade-like protrusion. He whipped his cloak out and hurled a series of jet-black flechettes back at Celestia when Luna swooped in a falcon, her flashing sword whistling through the air blocking or cutting the crystalline darts. Once Luna had made short work of the flechettes, Celestia leapt over her sister and rapidly pitched a collection of golden-white balls at the umbrum. Stomping a hoof, Tenebris calmly watched the balls whiz through the air as several large spikes burst through the floor around him in a semi-circle. The balls soared at the barrier and erupted in a cracking-whoosh explosion of flashing light, creating a miniature fireworks display of combusting black shards and red-hot white sparks. The crystal wall itself rumbled and separated so that each spike moved a few inches from each other before lowering themselves in a ninety-five degree angle. Tenebris' hoof once more pounded on the floor and the spikes sailed across the room, shattering due to the sisters' weapons or concussive magic. Gathering up large chunks of crystal, Celestia telekinetically formed them into the shape of an ursa minor-sized bird, possibly a phoenix, while Luna sent her own magic into the construct, its eyes glowing a bright blue. The bird let loose a high-pitched shriek and rushed at Tenebris, its zircon talons reaching out for its austere prey. "þetta mun ekki virka," Tenebris stated rather nonchalantly. The folds of Tenebris' cloak lengthened, stretching high and wide enough to wrap around the artificial bird. Balling itself up, the cloak audibly crushed and ground up the bird. The cloak began to retreat, sliding out what, at first glance, appeared to be a giant crystalline saucer, slowly revealing more and more of the construct before it fully came into view. It was a massive, double-headed axe, the shaft alone being too long and unwieldy for any pony, appearing more suitable for a dragon to carry rather than any equine. Levitating the axe up in the air, Tenebris raised it up high and swung it down at a slanted angle, hoping to catch both or, at least, one of the Royal Sisters with a massive blow. Neither alicorn moved, instead the two took a page out of their foe's book and remained where they were. The axe made contact with Luna but rather than cut her, the blade hit a barely perceptible blue field around the younger mare's body, chipping away at the glittering blade and carving right through it. The entire axe-head crumbled, the debris toppling over onto Celestia but similar to Luna, a near-transparent golden body-field protected her, turning each piece to dust with the slightest of contact. Tenebris, realizing the futility of his weapon, allowed it to drop, the magic holding it together vanishing and the axe-shaft exploding in a cloud of glittering black particles. Yellow-orange flames leapt forward, just narrowly hitting Tenebris, the umbrum vanishing in a puff of smoke and suddenly reappearing on the duo's left. Celestia released another pillar of flames, the conflagration slamming into Tenebris' full-body force-field and forming into a Y that scorched the nearby walls black. Undaunted, Tenebris advanced through the pillar and towards Celestia, his baleful glare all-consuming in its hatred. Luna came to her sister's aid, firing an icy white-blue beam that struck the force-field, creating a thin layer of icicle-laden frost where the flames had left untouched. From within the force-field, Tenebris was visibly struggling to maintain his magic against the dual attack, his fangs gritted in frustration as beads of sweat trickled down his brow. The force-field burst, allowing the fire and ice beams to blast through it and slam into the wall behind it, a shower of sparks and hail exploding against the crystalline surface. Extinguishing their attack, the sisters shared a silent nod to acknowledge their mutual belief that, no, Tenebris had not been destroyed and was somewhere nearby. They both inspected the throne room, scanning it for any possible signs of their enemy, staying a couple of feet apart in case he should reemerge. Sombra, and, presumably, by extension Tenebris, was not the type to abandon a conflict, mostly due to his descent from a pony race with a heavy warrior culture. He wouldn't run away in the middle of a battle unless it was absolutely necessary and even then it was a temporary strategic retreat. The sound of crying drew the sisters' attention to the dais and carefully inched towards it, trepidation weighing down their every step, until they made it to the very top. Inside of a crystalline crib, they discovered a wailing infant filly curling her forehooves in the air, no doubt alarmed by all of the strange noises occurring around in the throne room, though she ceased her wailing and peered curiously up at Celestia and Luna with large light purple eyes. Her coat was grayish pink in color and she possessed three-toned mane of gold, violet and rose atop her head, traits that gave the filly an uncanny resemblance to the sisters' long-deceased mother, albeit without the cold, rigid stare, heavily wrinkled face or imperious attitude. Princess Luna's skin shivered at the spike in temperature and caught sight of Princess Celestia's mane and tail converting into streams of smokeless flames, a low grunting snarl hissing past the elder alicorn's teeth that made Luna slowly back away from her sister. The crib's shadow leapt forward, seizing Celestia and Luna and slamming them on the floor at the end of the dais, trapping them in a semi-solid mass of darkness. At the opposite end of the sludge, a hump rose up from the wriggling mass to form into the cachinnating likeness of Tenebris. A surge of purplish dark magic flowed through the restrictive quagmire as the two struggled to liberate themselves, their auras gradually dying and winking out of existence as black crystals sprouted up on and along the bases and lengths of their horns. Celestia's flaming mane, once a mighty blanket of flame and embers, had sizzled and died down, once more adopting its misty prismatic appearance. Tenebris' cruel, mocking laughter boomed throughout the throne room, building to a crescendo before he took a breath and viciously smirked down at them in triumph. "You turned my daughter into a filly?!" Princess Celestia roared. "'Your daughter'?!" Tenebris slithered down the mass and reformed his limbs, allowing him to walk across the flowing tar-black surface like concrete. His dark grin grew even wider at the sight of Celestia's furious indignation. "No, not anymore." Tenebris then shifted expressions, a disgusted frown now dominating his countenance. "You kept her from me, locked me away so that I couldn't be near my own flesh and blood, the only real evidence that I existed. You and your kind stole everything I had and now, well, now you will know what that is like. You're going to wish that I'd stayed shattered in a million pieces." Tenebris' eyes glowed with a fierce green incandescence, purple smoke billowing out from the edges of his eyelids and his blade-like horn wrapped in a thick layer of black and violet energy. The coagulation surrounding Celestia and Luna stretched upward and hardened, trapping them in jagged crystal pillars. Everyone shuddered at the loud creaking sound pervading their ears, as though the castle itself was screaming in pain. The sunlight pouring in from the windows was cut off by the sable sheets that quickly went to work obscuring the glass and casting the throne room into pitch-black darkness. A green and violet flame pop-whooshed on one of the wall-sconces, followed by another, until the room was illuminated by the malefic fire. "I've suffered at the whim of your kind long enough! Today, I take back my life!" Semi-opaque columns smashed through the walls and floors. "The future belongs to me!" "THE FUTURE"? YOU DON'T HAVE ONE. Collectively, everyone present felt an icy sensation shoot up their spines, a sensation akin to having snow stuffed down the back of your jacket. That sentence was spoken in a deep, baritone and in a soft manner, yet it thundered throughout the throne room and beyond, a voice that sounded as though it was somehow both faraway and right up in everyone's ears. The best way to describe that voice was if somepony took a rusty nail and scraped it against the surface of a chalkboard, except it was located inside of one's soul, the shrill shrieking of the metal on porcelain scraping back the layers of your mind and leaving you bare. No one had seen or even heard the newcomer enter, yet there he stood, a towering pony skeleton wrapped in a cloak of midnight, a glittering scythe held in a bony three-fingered hand. In his other foreleg, he cradled a withered husk of a stallion that resembled Sombra if he'd been left out in the sun for too long and had all of the moisture forcibly ripped from his body. Tenebris' body became as stiff as a board. "Thanatos? H-how did you-...?" HOW DID I ESCAPE THAT CONFOUNDED BINDING CIRCLE? DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU WERE GOING TO HOLD ME THERE INDEFINITELY? NO, THE UNIVERSE WOULD NOT ALLOW THAT. INSTEAD, I WAS AIDED BY WHAT SOME WOULD REFER TO AS YOUR "BETTER HALF". The darkness retreated from the windows, allowing the throne room to bask once more in the daylight. All of Tenebris' black crystal constructs crumbled into tiny shards and dissipated, freeing the Royal Sisters and Spike. Twilight's engagement ring splintered and tumbled from her scalp, bestowing her freedom onto her. Tenebris was vicious and wicked, yes, but one positive trait that he'd maintained was a very strong sense of self-preservation and thus did nothing to Thanatos. After all, no one, not even Tenebris, was prideful or foolish enough to literally challenge death head-on. An almost unearthly scream tore from Tenebris' throat as a vice-like pinch squeezed onto his temples, dragging him down onto the floor. Lumos weakly groaned and thrashed about in Thanatos' foreleg, a pruny hoof shakily rubbing his balding, white-maned head. The Pale Horse didn't walk so much as glide towards Tenebris, the umbrum wincing in horror at the approaching figure and too weak to do anything but impotently watch him. Thanatos laid Lumos down onto the floor next to his doppelganger so that they were laying on their sides and facing one another. "Tenebris," Lumos rasped, reaching a palsy-stricken hoof out to him. "This looks to be the end." The dark umbrum allowed the limp hoof to weakly clasp his own and he squeezed it back. "It does, doesn't it?" He let out a long, protracted wheeze. "Such a pity. So much waste..." Following a brief lull, Tenebris added, "It won't work out, you know." Lumos peered at him in confusion. "You, the Ponyville hicks, Twilight. It'll all be for naught. They'll abandon you and all you'll have left is the realization that this was all meaningless. So why even bother trying?" The old stallion chuckled, intermixed with a painful-sounding cough. "I...have hope. It's not much but it's there. When it rains, there's a chance that it will end soon. I believe there's a chance, however slim, that things will get better for me. For us. That's all hope is, really. The chance that your life can improve." He looked at Tenebris and smiled. "We've let fear rule us long enough. It mustn't come in the way of life." "I still say you're a fool," Tenebris groused, ripping his hoof away. "After this, there's no way they'll ever trust us again." "Yet there's always a chance that they will. Hope, my friend. Hope" Thanatos raised a hand and waved it, surrounding Tenebris in a field of red and Lumos in one of blue. They began to rise off of the floor until they were a good ten feet in the air, then they completely turned into their respective color. The stallions rolled and twisted until a red ball and a blue ball were left suspended, their magnificent glowing lighting up the whole room. Everyone watched as the red ball began to slowly rotate clockwise in a hundred-and-eight-degree angle, lazily bobbing up towards the ceiling and back down towards the floor. The blue ball soon followed suit, jumping in front of its twin so that the pair were languidly chasing one another, creating trails of red and blue that formed a glittering ring around the racing balls of light. The rotation became faster and faster, the two balls now shaped like raindrops. Twilight began closely studying the display and gasped as inspiration struck her. "It's like the symbol on the Scales!" Thanatos nodded affirmatively. TAIJITU. STILLNESS AND ACTIVITY. SKY AND EARTH. FIRE AND WATER. "Two halves that form one whole. A kind of...internal balancing act." SO IT IS THAT EXISTENCE IS GOVERNED, SO IT SHALL BE, FOREVERMORE. The teardrops then suddenly slammed into one another, forming a small, white egg-shaped object that glowed even brighter than the twin balls before it. The trails were entangled and entwined around the egg in a striped red-and-blue pattern, the egg itself growing and pulsating inside its constraints. Then, the egg turned a dark gray color, its entire back-half a dark red. Slowly, the egg morphed so that it grew limbs and a head, a wild rave-black mane tumbling from the scalp of what was obviously a stallion. A curved blood-red horn formed from his brow, followed by a short black tail, a crimson-colored cloak and a lightning bolt-esque scar on the left cheek. The stallion, or rather, Sombra, drifted towards the floor and lay prone on the reflective surface. For a good, long while, no one moved from their places, until Twilight found herself barreling towards the inert figure and patted his cheeks with her hoof. So many emotions were spinning inside of her head but she shoved them away for now, her only real concern being reunited with the Sombra she knew and loved. One scarlet eye fluttered open, followed by the other, their own groggily blinking up at the befuddled mare hovering over him. Sombra groaned and rubbed his muzzle. "Twilight, beloved, as much as I appreciated the attention, do you think that it's possible that you could give me some room? I'm feeling a tad whoozy." Ignoring the tears, Twilight forced a laugh and promptly kissed Sombra repeatedly on the cheeks and brow. "You're alright!" "For the most part...yes." Celestia, meanwhile turned towards the indescribably awe-inspiring figure watching this display. "Thanatos. It's been a long time." "Indeed it has," Luna concurred. "I never thought we would ever cross paths a second time." I KNEW WE WOULD MEET AGAIN. MY PERCEPTION OF TIME IS RATHER...UNIQUE. He shouldered his scythe, the fingers rapping on the shaft. I DO HATE TO CUT THIS REUNION SHORT BUT I REALLY MUST BE GOING. GOODBYE FOR NOW. Something everyone would later agree on was that Thanatos did not teleport. Thaumaturgical transportation always included a visual displacement of air, a surge of magical energies and an audible expulsion indicating said teleportation took place. In Thanatos' case, however, it was as if he was there one moment and, within the blink of an eye, he simply wasn't, almost as if he'd moved through space or, as Twilight postulated, space moved around him. With Thanatos' absence came a sort of feeling of relief, the kind that comes when storm clouds roll by or bath water turns from cold to hot. Perhaps he was just too ineffably old and powerful for mortal minds to comprehend. Twilight helped Sombra to his hooves, then turned to the princesses. "What do we do now?" Before either one could answer, Sombra gave them all a look of immense remorse and vanished in a swirling cloud of black and violet. "I'm sorry," his voice drifted from out of the space where he'd stood. "I'm so sorry..."