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// 1. The Return 
// Story: Alone 
// by Child of Stars 
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To Sombra his banishment felt like nothing more than a dreamy blur. During it his entire life ran through his head on repeat from the moment he was brought into existence to the moment he was cast into an icy prison. Different memories would surface and then fall to the wayside as others took their place. Two memories stood out to him, however. The first was that day his wife gave birth to a beautiful little filly, and the second was the day he lost the war against Equestria. For some reason those two days just kept coming up in his mind over and over again constantly as the time went on. 

Time was a concept that didn't apply to Sombra in his icy imprisonment. He had no idea how long he’d been in there, for all he knew his banishment might only last a year or 100,000. He was stuck in a trance like state where everything seemed to go on forever, yet it all was over in an instant. One last memory, the day his wife told him she was pregnant, lazily floated to the surface of his delirious mind before he was assaulted by a bright light that cast him out of the darkness.

It was slow at first, but soon the fallen king’s shadowy form began to seep out of cracks in the ice. The growing darkness began to pull from surrounding shadows to build upon itself as black crystals shot up from the snowy ground below it. Then all at once consciousness returned to the dark shape that had once been king. It opened its green eyes as purple smoke billowed out and a screech of agony tore across the surrounding tundra.

Sombra felt an indescribable pain rattle his whole mind. His shadowy body was moving erratically as the unstable thing threatened to completely disappear. Sombra fought hard to get his new body to stabilize as he racked his mind in an attempt to find out what had happened to him. Then with a great effort he managed to restabilize his body as his mind cleared and he remembered. 

‘One thousand years,’ The dark lord recalled. ‘They banished me for one thousand years!’ Sombra’s fury exploded as another wail of rage was sent out through the air. Sombra’s memory, while still fuzzy, was becoming clearer as the fog of his banishment lifted. ‘Those wretched princesses dared to banish me, to try and take my empire!’ Sombra’s rage continued to grow just like his own shadowy form. His memories became clear once more as he remembered the princesses of Equestria joining their spells as one to cast him into the ice. They told him that his banishment would last 1000 years, then upon his release if he didn’t relinquish his evil ways that he’d experience the full and unmerciful wrath of the sun and moon. 

Sombra’s dark cloudy form flowed upwards as it became larger and larger than it had ever been. Then all at once he stopped as a thought dawned on him, a thought that ceased his outrage and replaced it with laughter. ‘Those fools,’ Sombra thought as he let out a dark chuckle. ‘They’re not even here to secure my conformity? HA! All they’ve done is given me the opportunity to rise again. This time however I’ll be stronger, smarter, and better prepared. Oh Celestia, Luna…’

The dark king’s thoughts trailed off as his green eyes suddenly filled with the shape of slitted black pupils and red irises. Sombra looked around the snowy wasteland in front of him as another dark cackle split the air and his ghostly vocal cords came to a distorted life. “They know not what awaits them!” 

The king’s gleeful mood was short lived as the realization of his current surroundings put a damper on his mood. ‘The empire!’ Sombra realized. ‘Did I succeed? Where is it? Did I bring it with me?’ He swung his shadowy body around as he looked in all directions attempting to locate the Crystal Empire as snow floated down all around him. When his search of the immediate landscape seemed to bear no fruit, he decided that his first act upon his re-emergence would be to locate and recapture his empire if it had managed to go through time with him. If it didn’t, then he’d simply have to take over whatever new version of the Crystal Empire stood in its place.

Acting with haste Sombra shot his shadowy form into the air and willed it to spread out. The darkness followed his command as it expanded outwards and became like a new dark cloud cover. A cloud cover that threatened to release a storm even more destructive than those that naturally plagued the Frozen North. As Sombra felt himself expanding and his dark smoky tendrils reaching further outwards he felt his own strength grow. ‘Soon it won’t be too long before I am back to full power. I only hope I can find my empire and regain my position before Equestria finds out I’ve returned, if they don’t already know.’ He thought. 

Soon enough his darkness managed to come in contact with a magical signature that was all too familiar to the dark king. He laughed in triumph as he realized that he’d found not only the Crystal Empire, but his version of it from 1000 years ago. Without wasting much time Sombra descended from the heavens and touched a part of his shadowy form onto the ground as his eyes opened up on its surface and he set his gaze on the Crystal Empire that laid in front of him. 

“Glorious.” He simply stated. He approached the crystal kingdom and peered into its dazzling city. Much to his satisfaction he saw only his scared and confused crystal subjects running about. There was nary a sign of any other unwelcome occupants. ‘The princesses haven’t sent anypony at all?’ He internally questioned as his joy slowly turned to anger, ‘Do they truly think of me as such a non-threat?! They think I’m a joke!?’

“Well, I’ll show them what happens when you dare take King Sombra so lightly!” The dark king bellowed out in rage as his shadowy form began to spin around wildly. Darkness shot out of his body from all directions as it slowly wrapped itself around the Crystal Empire like a sandstorm about ready to break. His shadowy form moved to the gate of his empire as the darkness built onto his form and swirled around his eyes. The shadows then broke like skin as a wicked blood red curved horn forced its way atop the newly forming shadowy head of Sombra. The large imposing head of the king now sported his flowing mane as his face turned to its normal slate gray color. The face of the king smiled maliciously with his newly formed mouth and teeth; his fangs glistened in the natural light of the empire.

 Sombra looked skyward at his dark shadows that blanketed the sky and then threw his gaze towards the empire in front of him as his smile grew larger. He let out a small chuckle as his shadowy form shot up into the sky over the empire and grew into a large collection of billowing darkness. His large maw opened and let out a thunderous laugh that shook the crystals around him and caused all of the crystal ponies to look up at him in terror.

“MY CRYSTAL SLAVES!” Sombra bellowed out. All of the crystal ponies stood still as the panicking stopped and everypony gave their full attention to the dark clouds above them. Too terrified to move, they all waited to hear what their king would say. “The Equestrians tried to destroy our empire and our ways of life. They tried to destroy me! Yet, they failed! I, your true king, live! The princesses attempted to banish me for one thousand years and take you all away, yet I wouldn’t let them. I saved you; I brought you with me into the future! And now we can have our vengeance upon them! I am here before you as a testament to the empire’s strength. That no matter how many times they try to get rid of us…”

King Sombra fell silent as he let his imperious gaze sweep across the capitol before continuing, “WE ALWAYS SURVIVE! Now rejoice, for I have returned to lead you once more into glory!” Then without wasting any more time, the dark king let out a ghostly howl as he dived down towards the empire and released his darkness that began to flow through the crystal streets. With black lighting streaking through the clouds, the ponies below began to panic as they cried out in fear running wildly to and fro. Sombra laughed all the way as his shadows touched down in the empire and he let himself flow forward towards his crystal castle. 

Dark tendrils shot out of the darkness and forced their way through the city as they infected the crystals around them, turning them black as night. His darkness continued to flow through the city with vigor when a few brave crystal soldiers attempted to throw spears at him. Laughter exploded out from his dark form as the spears passed harmlessly right through him and the soldiers were swept up in his shadows. His darkness swept up all in its path as crystal ponies were bound in chains, loyal soldiers were armored back up, and troublesome ponies had helmets of absolute obedience placed upon their heads. All of his subjects were forced right back to where they were when the empire vanished 1000 years ago, right where he desired them to be.

His shadows forced their way through the last little bit of the empire before they coalesced at the castle and stopped. They flowed around the castle like a moat for a few moments before roaring back to life as they slammed into the castle’s base and started their way up the towering spire. They slowly converged into one point as they made their way up the castle. The shadow slithered around the spire like a snake as it approached the top, infecting the castle’s crystals all the way. As it neared the top King Sombra’s massive head re-emerged on its front and smiled wickedly. 

His long snake-like body shifted and squirmed as two massive shadowy arms extended from its surface. The arms each grew a hand of five clawed digits that grasped onto the tip of the crystal castle and heaved the dark lord’s head to the top. The hands shifted and sunk their claws into lower parts of the castle and infected them with darkness as Sombra gazed out over the whole of the Crystal Empire that was now fully back under his control. A small content smile momentarily graced his face as he felt the fear of his crystal subjects fill him up with power. He looked a little longer over his empire before letting out a triumphant laugh and letting some of his shadowy cloud covering dissipate. 

‘Celestia and Luna truly don’t know what a mistake they’ve made…’ King Sombra’s thoughts trailed off as his large shadowy form began to shift once more. Being at the top of his crystal castle’s spire caused Sombra’s attention to be drawn to the artifact that laid on the platform below him. He lowered his shadowy self as his snake-like body disappeared and the dark king took on a much smaller and pony-like shape. His new shadow pony body touched its hooves down on the crystal dais as his dark-magic-free eyes gazed upon the crystal object floating in front of him.

King Sombra walked towards the thing, deactivating the alarm he put around it, and stopped directly in front of it. He tilted his shadowy head side to side for a moment before opening his mouth to speak aloud to the crystal construct. 

“So, it all comes back to you. You never worked. I tried everything to get you to work, every light and dark incantation, every member of the royal family, everything! All my efforts on trying to figure out and protect the empire using your power, yet in our time of need you shunned us…” Sombra silently seethed a rage born over 1000 years ago, “Some Crystal Heart you turned out to be.” Then without hesitation the dark king used the dark arts to corrupt the surrounding crystals with his black magic and get the pulsating Crystal Heart back under his control. “Humph, easier than I thought it would be. You’re losing your edge, heart.” 

With the Crystal Heart back under the king’s control, he felt a pressure lift off his soul allowing him to finally return to full glory. He gathered dark magic around his horn then around his body as it became cloaked in shadows. Then the shadows stopped moving as he stepped out fully reformed in his physical, fleshy body. The dark clouds began to dissipate as his empire fell back into its old routine. King Sombra smiled genuinely for the first time since his return as he looked over his armor-clad body. Silver segmented greaves on all four hooves, royal red cape with a white and black spotted fluff trim, a silver segmented neck guard, a silver glistening crown with black face guards and a silver jewel with two red spikes curved around it, and a black mane and tail, both flowing with power and immortality. “Yes,” he said. “I truly am an eternal king.”

King Sombra then turned away from the heart and approached the edge of the crystal platform as he gazed out across his empire. He saw an orange glow now engulfed his empire, so he looked skyward and saw the newly rising sun slicing through the dissipating darkness over the empire. ‘Hmmm that’s…’ The reborn king’s thoughts trailed off, ‘Odd. The sun feels, different? No, huh. I can’t tell, one thousand years can change things I guess.’

King Sombra looked at the sky a bit longer before turning away. The snowy storms that naturally occurred around the Crystal Empire usually kept the sun and its slight magical aura covered up. So, he couldn’t tell if the sun had changed or not. Either way he paid it no mind as his own began to wander. ‘I have other things to worry about now.’ As the king descended the nearby stairwell into his castle with thoughts of Equestria on his mind, the rising sun hung in the sky menacingly as it cast a harsh orange glow across his dark empire. An empire now returned and reborn.