//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21: The Summer Sun Setback, Part 1 
// Story: A Tyrant To A King 
// by ShuTodoroki 
//------------------------------//

Sombra was initially going to inquire as to what Princess Celestia needed from him, exactly, but he figured that he could ask her herself when he appeared in the throne room. "I'll be out shortly." He responded curtly, ensuring that he looked presentable as he used his castle suite's full length mirror to ensure that there were no creases in the red cape he wore.

He then exited his castle suite and walked towards the throne room down a long hall with stained glass windows, a route he had become quite acquainted with the first time when he met Princess Celestia and Luna with Discord, at the end of his imprisonment.

When he entered he saw the princesses at their thrones as usual, both smiling warmly in greeting. "Sombra! Thank you so much for coming. As the royal guard probably stated to you, I need your help with something. Well, more like somepony else might need your help, but you get the point." Celestia said.

"What exactly does somepony need my help with?" Sombra inquired, wanting to know why he was here.

"I requested that Twilight plan the Summer Sun Celebration, to prepare her for when she becomes the ruler of Equestria, you know? Her friends of course will be helping her, and I figured since she can become overwhelmed…well, easily, she could use your assistance with the preparations. Friends help each other all the time, anyway. It could be a good lesson in teamwork for you."

"I'm not sure whether my dark magic will do more harm than good in this case." Sombra stated bluntly, Luna waving a hoof dismissively since she had her own experience with her magic being used for evil and now for good.

"Magic is only defined by what you use it for, Sombra. You can use it to levitate things like a normal unicorn, right?"

Sombra obviously could use his magic for that, but it seemed rather menial to him. "…I suppose. So, when am I supposed to meet Twilight and her friends?"

"Twilight will be here this afternoon to plan the ceremony out, but you can meet her in the hallway you just came in from this evening, where she'll meet with her friends. I know you're probably not familiar with the ceremony since you're from the Crystal Empire, but it's simply a matter of helping Twilight with whatever she needs to get done." Celestia answered.

"I suppose I can manage that." Sombra replied, still looking quite unsure since "helping" in any sort of fashion rather than giving orders was quite foreign to him.

Celestia seemed to sense this, before she spoke. "I know friendship is new for you and it'll be difficult, but the fact that you're making an effort is already a great start. Hopefully I'll see you this evening participating in the festivities!"

Sombra resisted the urge to roll his eyes at how sentimental Celestia sounded, his buried evil side having a visceral reaction to the whole "you're making an effort to learn friendship" dialogue. He just turned around and headed back to his castle suite, deciding to rest up before he'd inevitably have to help out with whatever Twilight needed to do for this ceremony he could honestly care less about.

He had thought Discord to be quite weak to bow down to the whims of ponies after being reformed, and it was quite irritating to realize that he was basically doing the same thing. If that's what it took to avoid being turned into stone, however, he'd take it. He had enough common sense to know that returning to his evil ways wouldn't end well for him.

As the sun was setting and the moon rose in the sky, Sombra headed to the hallway that Celestia had directed him to. He opened the double doors with his dark magic to see Twilight there, straightening out a bulletin board with various diagrams tacked on to it.

The sound of the doors opening alerted Twilight to his presence, as she turned around and looked surprised when he was there, looking at her expectantly. "Sombra? What are you doing here?"

"Celestia wanted me to help you with preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. She seemed quite worried that you would overwork yourself or get stressed, and if the Trivia Trot was any indication, perhaps her concerns were well founded." Sombra explained with a bit of a smirk.

Twilight rolled her eyes, feeling quite annoyed when Sombra decided to bring that up. "For your information, Sombra, I've actually made a lot of progress in not freaking out! Especially since I'll never hear the end of that trivia night."

"Hmph. Well, I'll believe it when I see it; you certainly made an impression. So, what did you need help with?"

"Oh! I actually already gave my friends things to do, but I didn't think that you'd be interested in helping out with preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration! I'm sure I can think of-"

The double doors opened which revealed Twilight's friends along with Spike, who had just arrived from Ponyville. They looked surprised to see Sombra there, but it was certainly better than the suspicious glares he had gotten when he first arrived in Ponyville.

"Sombra? You're helping Twilight with plans for the Summer Sun Celebration?" Spike asked curiously.

"Indeed. Celestia was worried that Twilight would be short hooved, but it seems she has a plan of sorts from the bulletin board." Sombra answered.

"Princess Celestia and Luna told me that this was going to be the last Summer Sun Celebration, since they're planning to retire soon and the whole holiday is about them." Twilight explained, while picking up the amulet Celestia had given her with a slightly anxious expression.

There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room, save for Sombra who wore his usual stoic expression. He wasn't that familiar with the holiday, and if it was dedicated to the two princesses that he wasn't on particularly chummy terms with, he honestly could care less and this was more about learning about teamwork, like Celestia suggested.

"My goodness! How are you feeling about all this?" Rarity exclaimed, finding the news to be quite a shock.

"Something like this could definitely send you into full freaky-outy mode!" Pinkie added, hoping that Twilight wouldn't freak out again.

"I'm actually fine. But if this is gonna be the last Summer Sun Celebration, I want to make sure it's the best Celebration ever!" Twilight asserted, her eyes narrowed in a determined grin.

"Please-don't-give-us-more-work...please-don't-give-us-more-work...please-don't-give-us-more-work…" Rainbow repeated like a mantra as she hovered about the ground, as if she hoped that it would work.

Twilight ignored what Rainbow said, determined to go through with her plan. "So, even though everything was done, I thought of a few last-minute changes I could use your help with!"

Rainbow groaned in frustration, even if she knew that her attempts were futile. "Argh, I knew it!"

Sombra shared similar sentiments with Rainbow, not really understanding why they needed to complicate things. "This seems rather unnecessary if everything was already done, as you said."

"Trust me, we need to make this the most memorable Celebration ever if it's going to be the last one! I know I can count on all of you to help." Twilight said confidently, before a voice took them all by surprise from above.

"Oh, the end of a beloved holiday? Last-minute changes to a celebration?" Discord echoed from above, before he suddenly appeared next to Fluttershy. "That sounds positively chaotic!" He exclaimed with glee.

Of course he'd be summoned by talk of chaotic and spontaneous things. Sombra thought, as he deadpanned from Discord's annoying presence.

Applejack seemed to feel the same way, as her brow was furrowed. "What are you doin' here?"

"I've known Celestia and Luna longer than any of you! I terrorized them, they turned me into stone…" Discord turned into a statue and fell apart to prove his point. "If this is the last Summer Sun Situation, I simply can't miss it. Well, I see I've arrived just in time for the 'Twilight gives her friends an impossibly long and overly detailed list' predicament."

"I guess some draconequus isn't the know-it-all he thinks he is!" Twilight retorted, as she handed out color coded flash cards to her friends, save for Discord and Sombra. They all looked confused, Rainbow especially as she looked up from her card.

"This is it?" She wondered aloud.

"What?" Twilight asked, as if nothing was wrong.

"We were kinda with Discord on this one." Rainbow explained, Discord looking quite triumphant that he was right for once.

"No more crazy lists. No more freaking out. With your help, I know we've got this!" Twilight exclaimed, strangely calm from what Sombra knew of her.

"Ugh, character growth is so boring. Do I and Sombra at least get our own note cards?" Discord asked eagerly, Sombra shooting a glare in the draconequus' direction for dragging him into this.

"I didn't ask for one."

Discord didn't show any reaction to Sombra's glare, having been on the receiving end of it so many times he was desensitized to it at this point. "Weren't you planning on doing work anyway? Surely even a former king has done some work in his life."

"That was before I learned everything was already done." Sombra muttered, as Twilight wrote out cards for both of them and handed them over.

"There. Now, I need to go rewrite my speech. But if you all look at your cards, you'll see-"

"Can't talk now. Have so much to get done before sunrise!" Discord interrupted, before poofing them off somewhere unknown to Sombra with a snap of his fingers.





The group soon appeared in a street in Canterlot, Rainbow looking quite angry at being teleported against her will. "Could you not go popping us all over the place, please?!"

"Or at least give us a warning." Sombra added, even if he knew Discord wouldn't really care about what he thought.

"Time is of the essence. Let's go, team!" Discord turned into a cheerleader for comedic effect, even if no one laughed.

"We need to know what we're doing before we go and do it." Fluttershy pointed out, before she looked down at her card.

"Pinkie, you and I are givin' Braeburn and the Appleloosan ponies some adjustments to the menu." Applejack read off of her card.

Rainbow was the next to go. "Fluttershy and I are meeting the Pegasi from Cloudsdale to give them changes to the weather!"

"Spike, we're going to update the Flaming Sky Firework Unicorn Troupe with Twilight's new vision." Rarity told the dragon, who smiled happily.

"And I'm supposed to…make sure Discord doesn't do anything 'Discord-y?' Well, that's annoyingly specific!" Discord read with a pout, Sombra taking out his own card that was colored dark gray to read it.

"Make sure that Discord is following the directions on his card."

"Oh, great, so Twilight thought I needed a foalsitter?" Discord muttered as they all dispersed to do their tasks, Sombra looking quite smug since he had some sort of control over the draconequus.

Unbeknownst to them, Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow looked on in shock at seeing Sombra alive and walking, associating with Twilight's friends of all ponies!

"Golly, Sombra's alive? I thought Grogar told us he was gone!" Cozy Glow exclaimed.

"Never mind that, he's associating with those…those ponies! I didn't think he'd fall into their hooves!" Tirek sounded disgusted. First Discord, now Sombra?

Queen Chrysalis narrowed her eyes, knowing that this new development would complicate things.

"And it seems he did it of his own free will as well. Although I don't understand how he could decide to submit to them either, all that matters is that he's on their side. It's all the more important that we work together to find out how to use Grogar's Bell, if we're going to be up against Sombra as well. I know he's not one to be easily defeated."

"Sombra's another pony we have to look out for in this sea of ponies here for the holiday! It'll be impossible." Tirek lamented, while Chrysalis thought of a plan.

"Oh, no. This is perfect! We need a distraction, and those ridiculous ponies just gave it to us. Now, do exactly as I tell you…"

Twilight's plans for a memorable Summer Sun Celebration were soon going to come tumbling down…