Unbeknownst to anyone else in Equestria, that King Sombra had survived his defeat in Canterlot, Princess Twilight Sparkle sighed in contentment as she prepared some breakfast in her castle as her loyal dragon assistant and close friend, Spike, rubbed his eyes groggily as he entered the kitchen and yawned.
"You're up already, Twilight?" The dragon inquired, rubbing his eyes as he tried to wake up fully.
Twilight smiled at seeing how cute Spike looked when he was still groggy first thing in the morning as she set down a plate she had been holding up with her purple magic. "More like you're up late, Spike. Princess Celestia already raised the sun a few hours ago!"
"Give me a break! After being controlled by Sombra, I needed the extra rest." Spike pouted, glad that he couldn't remember anything that had happened after Sombra invaded Ponyville.
Twilight's cheerful expression faltered a bit at the mention of Sombra, before shaking it off. She and her friends had defeated the tyrant without the Elements of Harmony; it had a happy ending, despite how traumatic the experience was to see the Tree of Harmony destroyed.
"Of course, Spike. I guess I'm just trying to not remember what it was like to see you and Starlight controlled by him, unable to do anything to help. I'm trying to enjoy every moment of peace that we have; after all, there's never a dull moment in Equestria." She explained, before another voice interrupted them.
"You got that right!"
Starlight Glimmer exclaimed, as she joined the trio in the kitchen for breakfast. "It still feels like I was hit in the head yesterday. Dark magic is something that I never want to experience ever again…we are talking about Sombra coming back, right?"
Twilight nodded, with a slightly troubled expression on her face. "We were, but I'd rather not talk about him. We defeated him, and that's all that matters. It was just very difficult to see you both, and realize that we had let our guard down too easily by depending on the Elements. I'd rather relax before I have to prepare for becoming the new ruler of Equestria, you know?"
Starlight nodded, understanding completely what Twilight was talking about. "Yeah, but that won't be for a while! The princesses did say they'd give you more time to prepare, right? Anyway, what's for-"
Suddenly Spike let out a loud belch, a letter from Princess Celestia materializing which shocked both Twilight and Starlight. Twilight quickly grabbed it to read what it said, her eyes going wide as she put it down. "Princess Celestia needs me and my friends in Canterlot at once!"
"Another urgent summons? Weren't you just there?" Spike wondered aloud, Starlight looking concerned while Twilight was obviously stressed, pacing back and forth in the kitchen.
"I don't know what it is this time, but we'd better find the others so we can head to Canterlot at once! Starlight, you'll be okay here, right?" Twilight quickly asked, in a rush as she was almost at the door.
Starlight nodded in reply, waving them towards the door with a hoof. "Of course, Twilight! Hopefully it's nothing too serious."
“I hope so too.” Twilight sighed, before she was past the door with Spike, intent on telling her friends as quickly as possible so they could appear in Canterlot in a timely manner.
“Another urgent summons? It’d better be for something, well, urgent this time. I was in the middle of a really good Daring Do book!” Rainbow Dash huffed, as the Mane Six and Spike made their way as fast as they could to Canterlot.
“I don’t think this is a ‘The Colt Who Cried Wolf’ situation Rainbow, not when it comes to the princesses.” Twilight replied, panting as she ran as fast as she could past Canterlot.
“Two summons in such a short period of time, though. It’s quite bizarre!” Rarity exclaimed, unsure what to think about being called to Canterlot again.
“I’m sure they’d only call us if it was urgent.” Fluttershy said quietly, even though she had been in the middle of feeding her animals.
“Yeah, but I’m wonderin’ what could be goin’ wrong after we defeated Sombra.” Applejack pointed out; she had been under the impression that everything was fine and that Equestria was once again at peace. Unless that wasn’t the case…
“No matter what the reason is, seeing the walls all blurry never gets old! I should run like this all the time!” Pinkie Pie remarked, laughing since she was the only one who saw something funny in this situation.
The rest of the Mane Six and Spike looked at each other before looking back at Pinkie. “Uh, Pinkie, I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’d probably run somepony over in Ponyville.” Rainbow stated, which Pinkie just laughed at.
“Yeah, you’re probably right!” Pinkie replied, as they practically threw open the doors to the Canterlot throne room.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were there, but the expressions on their faces immediately alerted the group that this was not, in fact, a false alarm like last time. Discord was standing off to the side, his expression much less serious as he looked impatient, like he had been waiting for the Mane Six and Spike to show up.
“Finally! You know, I had also received an urgent summons in my realm, and I appeared here right when I got the scroll. Did you seriously run all the way here?” Discord pointed out, holding the scroll in his right hand that looked like a lion’s paw.
Twilight looked embarrassed since although she hated to admit it, Discord had a point. “Huh. I could have teleported everyone here. I didn’t think of that.”
“Forget that. You got an urgent summons too? You didn’t just show up at random like you usually do?” Rainbow questioned incredulously, while Discord looked mock offended as he brought his left claw of an eagle to his chest.
“Well yes, Rainbow, I did! See,” he started, as he materialized a comical looking monocle and started reading from the scroll. “Dear Discord, you are needed urgently at-”
“There is no time for this. Girls, I’m glad you came as quickly as you could. King Sombra has returned.” Celestia stated with a serious expression, causing all of the Mane Six and Spike to gasp while even Discord looked shocked at the news, his mouth agape.
“H-He what!?!” Rarity exclaimed in shock, bringing a hoof to her mouth while Applejack looked confused.
“But I thought we had banished him back into the shadows or whatever. How could he have returned?”
Luna held up a hoof, signifying that she wanted time to explain. “I had received a scroll from Princess Cadance and Shining Armor during the night, which explained that he had been found in the Frozen North. He was severely weakened by your attack, but it seems like he had just been taken off guard before he could turn to shadow to avoid the blast. He’s still in a weakened state, but we have him in a magic-proof cell in the dungeons of Canterlot to be safe.”
“So what are you waiting for? Lock him up in Tartarus so he can’t threaten the Crystal Empire ever again! Obviously, the awesomeness of our friendship isn’t keeping him in the ether, so we gotta do things the old-fashioned way!” Rainbow suggested.
“Unfortunately, my sister and I don’t think Tartarus is strong enough to hold a being like King Sombra. We’re afraid he will find a way to escape since that place is only monitored by Cerberus. Tirek escaped last time when he was powerless, and we cannot let the same thing happen with Sombra, who is much more powerful. Keeping him in Canterlot will ensure that we can monitor him closely.”
“You’re going to imprison him here indefinitely? With all due respect, that doesn’t seem like a very good solution, Princess Celestia. Can’t we turn him to stone like we did Discord?” Twilight pointed out, to the Lord of Chaos’s visible displeasure as he shuddered at the memory.
“Yes, thank you for reminding me of that dreadful time, Twilight. Though I do have to say it’s an effective method of keeping a bad element at bay. After all, it held me for so long, and I’m much more powerful than that would-be tyrant.” He seemed back to his normal self, after looking shell shocked while Luna was explaining what happened.
“Celestia and I did discuss that option, but it will be difficult considering he can at ease turn into shadow to evade any attack thrown at him, and shadow cannot be turned into stone. If he is going to keep coming back, well…” Luna trailed off, looking expectantly at her sister to fully explain what they had decided on.
“Because Sombra is so powerful, and he seems to keep coming back from his banishment, we have decided that it may be more useful to try to reform him to use his magic for good instead of evil. He would be a valuable ally for Equestria if it is possible, but I do understand if you all have reservations about this plan.”
Once again Discord was left speechless along with the rest of the group, unable to believe what they were hearing. They exchanged uneasy gazes, before Twilight spoke. “With all due respect again, Princess Celestia, WHAT!?! I mean, Discord I feel like was only being mischievous. Sombra enslaved his entire empire! He’s about as redeemable as Chrysalis, and we all know she rejected Starlight’s offer!”
“Besides, he just gives off an extremely evil vibe, with the red eyes, dark appearance, dark magic, fangs, basically everything about him is all evilly!” Pinkie remarked, the rest of her friends murmuring in agreement.
“How can dark magic even be used for good?” Spike wondered aloud, since from his understanding all dark magic was evil.
“In a way, Starlight enslaved her own village in which she forced all of their cutie marks to be equal, did she not? I’m not saying I know where to go from there if his reformation is unsuccessful, but I believe that it is worth a try, don’t you? You can always use the magic of friendship within all of you to attempt to turn him into stone.”
“Attempt is the key word there.” Applejack muttered, the rest of her friends not looking very confident in this plan, but they assumed that Princess Celestia probably thought very long and hard about this with Princess Luna. If they weren’t sure that this was the best course of action, they wouldn’t have suggested it, right?
There was silence between the group as they thought over it, but when they figured that there was no other option, they looked to the princesses and nodded. Twilight was the one to speak, her uncertainty clear in her body language, but she put full trust in the princesses.
“If you think trying to reform Sombra is the best course of action, Princess Celestia, I suppose that we’ll do anything that we can to help. That is, if you wanted us to be the ones to try to reform him, like with Discord.”
“Well, given that Sombra is a much different individual from Discord, I wouldn’t make Fluttershy try to make friends with Sombra, even though she’s the element of kindness. The same logic doesn’t apply here for someone who will be much more difficult to reform.” Princess Celestia explained.
“Thank you…” Fluttershy offered weakly, not wanting to interact with Sombra considering the stallion scared her to death.
“We were actually thinking of Discord being the one to try to reform him.” Princess Luna revealed, to deafening silence from the Mane Six, Spike, and especially Discord, who looked like he was about to pass out.
“WHAT!?!”