As ‘Sombrance’ cackled underneath the Crystal Heart, Sombra and Cadance faced each other down in an empty room. Cadance looked around at the blank white walls with open confusion.
“W-where are we?” Cadance sputtered. “Where have you taken me?”
“We’re inside your mind,” Sombra replied. “I understand why it’s a foreign place to you.”
“You…you made me think that it was Flurry,” Cadance growled. She extended her wings in a challenge and scuffed a hoof on the plain white floor.
“Why would I want to be in that little freak’s head?” Sombra snorted. He waved a foreleg around. “There’s so much empty space in here.”
“You vile fiend!”
“If I knew it would be this easy, I would’ve tried this years ago,” Sombra admitted with some visible surprise in his red eyes.
Cadance shook her head. “You made me say those things. You made me hurt my daughter.”
The dark stallion rolled his eyes. “We both know that is a lie.”
Cadance charged him with a war cry and slid across the floor on unsteady hooves. Sombra stepped to the side and dodged her easily. He flourished his thick red cape. The stallion’s iron crown sat regally upon his brow.
“We appear here as we believe ourselves to be,” Sombra explained. “I am a King, and you…” he waved to her with a hoof.
Cadance looked down. She was wearing striped pink socks. Long striped pink socks. Call me Candy, the thought slipped into her mind. She grit her teeth. “You’re doing this!”
“You are not even fit to be my dark bride, harlot,” Sombra scoffed. “That is what you are. Useless. Vapid. Airhead. Ditz.”
Cadance charged him again and her socks slid across the floor. Her horn sparked, trying to lash out with magic, but the spell failed. The pink alicorn crashed against the wall. She tumbled tail over horn and collapsed in a heap.
The white walls flashed and began to shimmer with moving pictures. Memories of her life played without sound. Cadance shook stars from her eyes and tried to stand up.
“Jezebel,” Sombra laughed. “You remind me of her.”
“Who?”
“A mare of the night,” Sombra clarified. “Her talent was stamped on her flank, and she proudly showed that flank off. Like you.”
“I am a Princess,” Cadance spat and struggled to stand up. The socks slipped on the smooth floor and she crashed back down. Her eyes turned to the walls.
Cadance, younger and with a mane high in a ponytail, trotted through a modest home to foalsit Twilight for the first time. She smiled indulgently at Night Light and Twilight Velvet as they left. Shining gathered his things at the table, stuffing several notebooks and errant sheets of paper into saddlebags. The notebooks were all decorated with heroic knights fighting dark wizards, with one sticker of a Royal Guard helmet proclaiming “Join for Real Adventure!”
Shining’s mane was unkempt and a bit greasy, and he was closer to a stick than a stallion. He froze as Cadance walked past, struck by her slender and smooth stride. His muzzle blushed scarlet and he was unable to say anything.
I didn’t meet him like this, Cadance thought.
And she didn’t. In the memory, she walked past him without even sparing him a glance. Shining looked at the guard helmet on the notebook he clutched in his forelegs.
No, Cadance thought. That’s not why he joined. He didn’t do it just so I’d notice him.
Another memory played on the opposite wall. Cadance reclined in a ventilation shaft, peering through the grate with a dreamy look on her muzzle. The wrestling team flexed their muscles in the locker room. The muscular stallions laughed and bumped each other’s flanks in ways that were totally platonic. Cadance leered at them and licked her lips.
“This is who you were long before I was ever here,” Sombra said dryly.
“No,” Cadance whispered. Another memory shimmered into existence.
Sombra stood, regal and proud, fetlock deep in a ball pit in the middle of the night.
“Whoops,” Sombra chuckled a touch uneasily. “That’s one of mine. Ignore that.” Luckily, Cadance was staring at another wall and memory.
Flurry Heart sat at the breakfast table before a plate of crystalberry pancakes. Judging from her wing size, Flurry was about ten. She cried quietly and pushed her plate away, baring her first set of braces. The awkward metal stretched her lips and her teeth hurt. Decorations hung around the table, little pink paper hearts on strings attached to the ceiling.
In the memory, Cadance skipped by into the kitchen with a song on her lips. Her gold and purple dress hugged her flank and made her eyes pop. Her mane and tail blew in a breeze, even indoors.
Hearts & Hooves, Cadance realized on the white floor.
The Cadance in the memory practically danced past Flurry at the breakfast table. Just before she entered the kitchen, she stopped and glanced over at her daughter. She rolled her eyes and resumed singing. The memory faded away on the wall. Flurry Heart, alone at the breakfast table, remained the longest.
“No!” Cadance screamed at the memory. “No! I didn’t do that!”
“What did you do?” Sombra asked. He tilted his head.
“I…” Cadance trailed off. Nothing came to her.
Sombra smiled cruelly.
Cadance stood up with a scream of rage and despair, only for hundreds of dice to crash down atop her. The sharp little edges battered her back to the floor; some were the size of bricks and boulders. The alicorn shoved back, but they continued to pour down. One little die landed on her muzzle, right between her eyes. The twenty-sided die balanced perfectly. It was pink and purple, like her fur and eyes.
My lucky die never fails!
Cadance stared cross-eyed at it.
Do…do you wanna come to the park?
She lowered her head back to the floor. The die remained balanced on her muzzle.
Flurry looked around, scanning over the crowd. Her ears wilted.
The dice continued to pour down. Cadance didn’t feel their weight anymore.
She never shows up.
Sombra smirked and turned away. “This has to be a resurrection record. Less than three days. Gozer’s going to be so jealous.” He hummed a jaunty tune and looked through her eyes, back into reality.
Beneath the Crystal Heart, 'Sombrance' smiled viciously from within the failing containment circle. Their fur was entirely ash-gray and smoke poured from their eyes. The Heart shuddered above them. “Go on,” Sombra said in a mix of his and Cadance’s voice. “Activate the Heart. See what happens.”
Shining and Flurry stood with the others, hesitating. The Heart began to crack.
In the white room, the dice buried Cadance, everything except for her muzzle and eyes.
I have failed my daughter utterly.
Well, Cadance thought, I was right about that.
“You have not failed her yet,” a stallion’s voice proclaimed haughtily. Heavy armored hoofsteps thudded from out of sight. A white alicorn walked around the pile of dice and stared down at Cadance. His golden armor was emblazoned with a fiery sun and his wings were razor sharp. He stared down at her with hard teal eyes.
Cadance frowned up at him. Her muzzle was stained with tears. “Primary Horse?”
Primary Horse sighed. “Sure.” He frowned at her. “What are you doing?”
“Everything he said was true,” Cadance wept.
“The daemon is a liar,” Primary Horse spat. “My greatest sin was not turning against the Empress, but listening to the words of Chaos in the first place.”
“I’m an awful mother,” Cadance admitted. “And wife.”
“Are you?” Primary Horse asked. “Look again.” He jabbed an armored hoof at the walls.
Sombra was distracted with a map of his dark filing system. He frowned and tapped a hoof to his crown. “First, refiling for ‘Dark Lord’ status, then…”
Cadance ran beside Shining Armor on the track. He was wearing a Cadet headband, but was still a thin, sweaty mess. Cadance had purple leg warmers. She jogged in place while waiting for Shining to catch up. Many of the other Cadets slowed to watch Cadance, but she didn’t spare them a glance. She waited until Shining puffed up to her before continuing.
Cadance suplexed a tan stallion onto a thick mat. He blushed as she straddled him, then squealed in pain as the alicorn bent a leg back. He cried out something, and she stood up with a lashing tail, levitating over a notebook from a pile of bruised jocks. She glared at them as she left the gym.
Flurry sat alone at the breakfast table. Cadance returned from the kitchen with a large tub of ice cream and two spoons. Her mane and tail crackled with energy, but she sat at the kitchen table with her daughter, ignoring the festivities of Hearts & Hooves. The ice cream numbed the pain from her braces and Flurry wobblily smiled up at her mother. Cadance smiled softly back.
“I don’t remember any of that,” Cadance whispered.
“And yet they happened,” Primary Horse answered. “Conquer your daemon.”
Cadance freed her left leg. She stared at the striped sock. “Are you saying to use the love for my family to overpower his hatred?”
Primary Horse hummed. “Eh, you could go that way,” he admitted, “but the chainswords and armor aren’t for show. We use extreme violence.”
Cadance pulled the sock off with her teeth, then crawled free from the pile of dice. She selected three hoof-sized dice and shoved them in the sock. She wrapped the end around her hoof. Armed with what was effectively several bricks inside a sock, Mi Amore Cadenza gave it a swing.
“I can do that,” Cadance stated. She turned to face the alicorn. “Thank—"
Nopony was there. She was alone with Sombra and the dice. Cadance slowly turned her head back to Sombra and hefted the sock.
Sombra heard her approach and his ears twitched. “Really, Candy?” he teased. He stepped to the side without looking over his shoulder. “All that empty space up here must make it difficult—”
The sock slammed into the back of his head and dislodged the crown. “Natural Twenty!”
In the real world, 'Sombrance' punched themselves in the face. The crystallized hoof blocked the next punch. “You insane mare!” they exclaimed with a cry of pain.
Back in the white room, Cadance whipped the sock back into his muzzle. Sombra flailed and stepped back across the floor. “You’re only hurting yourself!”
Cadance screamed ferally and swung again. Sombra managed to jerk his head back in time. He narrowed his eyes. “You stand no chance, Horse of Babylon.”
“You’re right,” Cadance panted. “I am a ditzy airhead, but it takes work to look this good.” The pink alicorn wrapped the end of the sock around her hoof. The lean, corded muscle rippled under her fur. “It’s not magic. I might not have brains, but I have brawn.”
“You are weak.” Sombra removed his cape and reared up. He pumped his front hooves, assuming a boxer’s stance.
“It takes a lot of squats and jogging, Sombra. I’m not made of shadow.”
Sombra narrowed his smoky eyes. Cadance stared him down.
“I’ve taken bigger,” Cadance smirked.
“Phrasing.”
“I meant it both ways.”
Shining, Flurry, Thorax, Sunburst, Starlight, and Trixie watched as Mi Amore Cadenza began to beat the stuffing out of herself inside the ward. “I’ll give you a cutie mark in pain!” Cadance’s voice rang out, followed by Sombra’s harsh shout of “Try me, harlot!”
They spoke out of the same muzzle, and one eye remained a red and purple slit. The other was Cadance’s normal purple, but narrowed in anger. The fur around her right foreleg turned pink as it swung into her stomach.
“She’s fighting from the inside!” Thorax chirped. “Resist!”
“Is it supposed to work this way?” Sunburst asked from the side of his muzzle to Starlight.
“I have no idea,” Starlight admitted.
“Let them fight!” Trixie proclaimed with a pumping foreleg. “Beat his flank!”
“Uh, kick his flank, honey!” Shining shouted. “Your flank.”
In an impressive display of gymnastics and flexibility, Cadance suplexed herself into the floor. Her neck crunched audibly, but she continued to roll around with alicorn-level endurance.
Thorax hissed in sympathy, but his antlers glowed. “She’s winning!”
Flurry squinted through the broken lens on her glasses. “Mom! You can do it!”
The next scream of rage was entirely Cadance’s as she backflipped onto the floor. She wrestled with the crystal hoof. It continued to block some of her swings.
Back in the white room, Cadance swung a sock full of mostly dust and powder between Sombra’s hind legs. He squealed. “Give me back my hoof!” the alicorn snarled.
“Never!” Sombra squeaked in a falsetto. “You’ll never be free of me!”
Cadance turned to the wall that showed the real world. Her family watched nervously and the Heart shuddered above them. Her horn began to glow.
A red chainsaw teleported in next to the Crystal Heart. It landed inside the containment circle. Now far more Cadance than Sombra, the embattled alicorn levitated it over to her muzzle. She pinned the spasming black-crystal hoof to the ground with her other foreleg.
“Give me back my hoof!” Cadance spat. Half of her mouth was a jumble of fangs.
“Never,” Sombra vowed from the other side of her muzzle.
Cadance tugged the chainsaw over with a wing. She pulled the cord with her teeth.
“Mom!” Flurry screamed. Thorax grabbed her and held her back.
Sunburst and Starlight held Shining back. “You can’t cross the streams!” Sunburst pointed to the lines of white fire emanating from the sigil and connecting to the Crystal Heart.
“Cady!” Shining screamed.
Cadance’s horn poured black smoke and she shook her head violently. Her forelegs trembled and the crystal hoof twitched. The alicorn levitated the revving chainsaw over her head.
In the white room, Sombra panted on the ground. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Cadance huffed on the floor next to him. They were both covered in similar bruises.
“The pain would be unimaginable,” Sombra continued. “You’d feel it too.”
“Have you seen…” Cadance gasped, “Flurry’s wings?”
“What?” Sombra exhaled.
“You don’t know the pain of motherhood,” Cadance laughed. “I do.” She continued to laugh, higher and louder at Sombra's expression of terror.
Below the Crystal Heart, Mi Amore Cadenza cackled as the chainsaw descended. It was entirely her own voice. “Who’s laughing now?”
The blade was aimed at the crystal hoof.
“Who’s laughing now!?”
Just before it made contact, Cadance vomited black smoke. The retching threw off her aim and the saw carved into the floor. The chain snapped, but the saw broke one of the chalk lines. The smoke swirled around her as the black crystal flaked off her hoof.
“Holy Heart!” Sombra exclaimed. His muzzle appeared in the cloud. He blinked down at Cadance. “And they called me the Mad King?”
Cadance wheezed and puffed one last bit of smoke out of her lungs. She fell to her side. The sigil collapsed and the fires faded from the chalk. Shining and Flurry rushed to the pink alicorn.
Sombra frowned down at Cadance. “Are you sure we’re not related?”
Shining glared up at him and fired a laser through the smoke. “Sombra!”
Starlight, Trixie, Sunburst and Thorax stood in front of the doors. “No escape!” Starlight vowed. “Your tyranny ends today.”
The smoke cloud solidified. Sombra’s muzzle stuck out from the roiling shadow. “I’ve heard that one before.”
Fluegelhorns began to sound from outside. The window shattered as Sombra’s horn crashed through it. The blood red tip plunged into shadows. Sombra’s muzzle split into a wide grin as the horn connected to his head.
The Crystal Heart chimed dully. A crack ran through it.
“No Heart,” the shadow laughed. “No hope.” Sombra fully reformed into a floating stallion, complete with cape and crown. He gave the crowd a teasing smile and drifted towards the open window.
“I have paperwork to refile,” Sombra chuckled.
A golden bubble flared into existence around the stallion. He stopped and turned down to the small light pink alicorn. Flurry Heart stood beneath the Crystal Heart. Her eyes shimmered behind the glasses.
“Really?” Sombra laughed. He pressed his hooves against the golden shield and smirked down at her. “Are you upset that I didn’t want to be in your head, you flabby little urchin?”
“We’ll take him down together,” Shining declared. Cadance wheezed again, exhausted and bruised.
“Right,” Sunburst nodded. He stood beside Flurry. “You remember your containment spells?”
Starlight and Trixie stood on the other side. “We’re with you.”
“We got this,” Thorax promised.
“No,” Flurry raised a chipped hoof to her muzzle and removed her glasses. She squinted up at Sombra; he pushed on the bubble. His hoof warped the shield with little resistance.
“He’s mine,” Flurry stated and closed her eyes. “Hang on to something, everypony.”
Her horn erupted with white fire. She opened her eyes. Shining light poured from them, completely obscuring her pupils. Flurry turned the baleful, fiery stare up to Sombra.
Sombra yelped as his hooves burned where they touched the bubble. The bubble roiled with white fire. “What are you doing?”
Flurry lifted off the ground. Her wings remained by her side. “Klaatu…” she intoned.
Sombra gasped. “No!”
“Barada…”
“You can’t!”
“Nikto!” Flurry slammed her forelegs together in a clap.
Reality tore open. A howling void of pure darkness formed on the far wall. Sombra screamed again as the bubble began to compress. His hooves collapsed into smoke and the stallion visibly struggled to reform them.
“You can’t do this to me!” Sombra yelled over the howling wind.
Everypony’s hooves skidded on the crystal floor as the gale winds pulled them towards the vortex. Hooves and smooth crystal mixed poorly. Thorax erupted into green fire, and the four-armed ‘Changeling’ dug sharp talons into the crystal to hold on. The claws grabbed Sunburst, Starlight, Trixie, and Shining.
“Hang on!” Thorax yelled. The red eyes widened as the spiked tail wrapped around Cadance’s barrel. “I got you!” Cadance looked up at the shrinking orb.
Sombra howled as his body collapsed into smoke. The smoke left the bubble, pulled back into the shrieking void on the wall. “Did you wait until I was solid to do this!?” The horn floated in the smoke, matched with struggling eyes.
Flurry Heart did not respond. She floated in the air, unbothered by the gale winds whipping around the room. Her eyes and horn continued to glow with pure white light.
A little cardboard box skidded against the ground, spinning toward the vortex. Cadance’s eyes widened. She pulled on the tail. “Let me go!”
“What?” Thorax yelled back.
“Let me go!”
“…no?” Thorax answered.
Shining held onto the claw for dear life. “Hold on, honey!”
“I have to save Primary Horse!” Cadance shouted. She bit down on the tail with her muzzle. Thorax screamed and uncoiled the appendage on reflex.
Cadance spun across the floor. She angled herself towards the box and flapped her wings to gain speed. The alicorn snatched the box in her jaws. Yes!
She continued spiraling towards the shrieking void. No!
The garden hose flailed in the wind, still connected to the crystal shed through the broken window. Cadance leapt up and wrapped her hooves around the nozzle. She spun about in the air, clinging to the hose. Her eyes crossed and she felt sick.
Not as bad as the tornado speed dating idea, she repeated as a mantra.
The bubble continued to shrink. It was now the size of a bowling ball. Sombra’s horn crunched against the edges. “Oh, oh Heart this hurts!” Smoke poured off the bubble and into the void.
“No! No! How did you even know how to do this!?” Sombra’s voice shrank.
Flurry raised her hooves above her head.
The bubble shrank down to the size of a marble. Or a twenty-sided die.
“No! No! Help me! Help me!”
Flurry Heart slammed her hooves together and the vortex vanished with a snap. She landed on the floor; the golden marble landed next to her. The bubble shield had solidified into a smoky little circular rock. Something on the inside moved around with one last puff of smoke.
Cadance fell to the floor. Her jaw rattled, but she kept ahold of the miniature box.
“Woah,” Thorax panted and released everypony.
Trixie looked up at the slavering monster and raised a brow. “Roleplay night?”
Thorax’s normal green and orange form reappeared in a burst of fire. “Only if everypony’s into it. This is more Pharynx’s thing.”
Trixie scoffed.
Starlight and Sunburst approached Flurry. “I don’t know that spell,” Sunburst admitted.
“I came up with it,” Flurry said absently. She stared down at the marble with solid white eyes. A tiny voice shouted up at her.
I am the King!
Shining embraced Flurry and pulled her into a hug. The Crystal Heart glowed and the crack began to fuse. Cadance spat the box out and stared at the alicorn stallion on the cover art. Thank you. She clutched the box to her chest.
“There’s one last thing.” Flurry gently pushed her father away with a large wing. She lowered her muzzle to the little marble. “I felt bad for you,” Flurry said. Her voice thrummed with power.
…Really?
“Not anymore.” Flurry Heart raised her hoof. The tiny voice began to plead.
Please! Help me! Help meeeeee….
Flurry slammed her hoof down. The marble shattered with an explosion of light. The last bit of smoke burned away. Flurry raised her hoof and inspected the bottom. She smiled and her braces glowed. The light faded from her eyes as the white fire on her horn guttered out.
Flurry squinted and looked around for her glasses. “Oh,” her ears wilted. “I knew I was forgetting something.” She looked to where the void was. “I’m not getting that pair back.”
“You have your spare?” Shining asked kindly.
“I don’t like thosh,” Flurry lisped. “Those. They’re pink.” She tugged on her frumpy blue hoodie.
“They were broken anyway.”
Cadance approached. She winced from the bruises across her body. “Flurry…” she began.
Shining broke the hug with his daughter, but hesitated before embracing his wife. Starlight’s horn glowed, along with Thorax’s antlers. The changeling nodded to the white unicorn.
“Shiny,” Cadance said softly. She didn’t meet his eyes.
Shining Armor stared flatly at her, then smiled and embraced his wife. The latex outfit squeaked. “I know,” he said. “Believe me, I know.”
“I’m going to get some doctors,” Starlight stated. “All the doctors.” She vanished with a teleport.
Cadance wept into her husband’s shoulder. She set the box down beside her hooves and collapsed against him. Shining sat on his haunches and held her, whispering into her ears.
Flurry squinted over at her parents, blinking her bright blue eyes. Cadance tried to make eye contact over Shining’s shoulder, but Flurry looked away. She did not move to hug her mother.
“Hey,” Trixie said quietly. She bumped up against Flurry. “You showed him, huh?”
Flurry nodded, but without any energy.
Sunburst trotted over to Flurry’s other side. “You need help finding your way to your room?”
“I’m not that blind,” Flurry mumbled.
Trixie jerked her head towards the door and gave Sunburst a pointed look.
“Let’s see if I can still find your room, then,” Sunburst said. “You still in the same place, with that Mare at Work sign?”
Flurry let the adults guide her out of the room.
Thorax followed to give Shining and Cadance privacy. At the doors, he changed into Shining Armor. “I’m going to, uh, let everypony know that Sombra’s been defeated. Again,” he said in Shining’s voice.
“Thanks,” the actual Shining Armor said. “You’ve been a good friend, Thorax. To our family.”
Thorax/Shining nodded.
“Does my beard look that bad?” Shining asked before his doppelganger left.
Thorax winced. “Yeah, a bit.”
Shining sighed. “I tried. It’s the fifth ‘Defeat of Sombra Day,’ by the way.”
Thorax nodded again and left.
Cadance clung to Shining Armor underneath the Crystal Heart. She looked down with blurry eyes at the box. The scowling alicorn on the box art offered no comfort. Mi Amore Cadenza sobbed against her husband, complete with a snotty muzzle and occasional neighs.