//------------------------------// // Displacement part 1 // Story: You Are My Dad, Your My Dad! (Boogie Woogie Woogie) // by emzzy123 //------------------------------// Sombra breathed in deeply as the fog of sleep lifted itself from his mind; he kept his eyes closed, revelling in the comforting silence blanketing his sleep-warm body; it almost reminded him of when he was reduced to merely a horn, but much cosier. Before Sombra could slip back into sleep's warm embrace, a hungry whine rang out from across the room; Sombra sighed at the sound of his impromptu alarm bell and sat himself up. Rolling his shoulders to release tension before finally opening his eyes to the old flaky plaster that made up the opposite wall, Sombra grunted as he pushed himself up and off the bed, the cold vinyl of the floor on his hooves helping him wake up. Sombra shook off the remaining drowsiness before trotting over to the crib in the corner of the room where his daughter was still making small cries of hunger; he ignited his horn, sending his magic outwards to cradle her and lift her safely out of the crib before settling her against his breast.  Sombra bent his head down to nuzzle his daughter, her dusty-pink baby fur tickled his snout slightly. He let himself relish in the tranquillity of the moment, searing it into his brain before he walked over to the door and stepped out into the hallway, it was a dull vinyl-and-plaster affair like his bedroom, and rather spartan in terms of decoration, but it did its job. Sombra trotted down the hallway, passing four doors and two medium windows before reaching the living room. He navigated around the large couch and into the kitchen. Setting flurry Skyla down on the counter, Sombra busied himself with making her a bottle, his ears swivelling between his daughter and the front door, a basic attack spell on his horn should any threats become apparent; Ditzy called him paranoid, he preferred practical. Sombra grabbed the now-finished bottle in his telekinetic grasp, scooping up his daughter similarly (and making sure to add some extra swoop in her movements to make her laugh). He walked back into the living room and settled himself on the couch. Skyla nestled in his forelegs as she drank from the bottle, gripped securely in his magic. Sombra found the TV remote with his magic, flipping through channels until he hit the daily news; he watched as the news anchor - a female Longma with lime-coloured scales - discussed the current trade agreements with Yakyakistan, the timer in his mind's eye ticking down as he waited for the grand reveal. 5 4 3 2… “We interrupt this program for Breaking News from Equestria.” Right on time.  Sombra smirked as the scene switched from the newsroom to outside Canterlot castle, where a small Griffon stood in front of a sea of other reporters with a microphone in claw, ready to report. “That's right, Yújìn, I'm currently standing outside Canterlot Castle, where we’ve received word that Princess Twilight Sparkle is due to speak publicly in regard to the sudden disappearance of the shield around the Crystal Empire” The reporter suddenly pressed a claw to their earpiece, their face warping in mild shock at whatever it was they were being fed from the other end of the line, Sombra couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him as he watched it all unfold. “We’ve just gotten word from the castle that the Princess is ready to speak” The camera panned away from the reporter up to the large balcony where you could barely see the silhouette of a pony behind the curtains.  There was a beat of silence, everyone waiting with bated breath for the Princess of Friendship to appear; Sombra was almost trembling with anticipation. The curtains were swept aside with a wave of magenta magic, the bright glittering aura obscuring the balcony for a brief moment, but only for a moment. The lights faded, and in their place stood Princess Twilight Sparkle. And she looked like shit. Her mane was a greasy tangle of knots, her coat was grimy with sweat and patchy in some places, almost like she’d been picking at it, and her feathers were so ruffled you couldn't even see the original shape of the wing and her eyes, dear gods, her eyes, they were horribly bloodshot, framed by bags so bad they could have been mistaken for bruises, but the thing Sombra focused on was the sheer despair held within them, it was a deep, almost unfathomable despair that spoke of a complete loss of hope, despair so vacuous and great that it rivalled a black hole.  Sombra almost felt bad for her. (almost) Sombra watched as she made her way to the railing of the balcony, her ears pinned back against her head against the din of hundreds of information-hungry reporters and civilians; she put her forelegs over the edge, grasping the gilded railing to support herself. Her horn flared, activating the runes etched into the inner sides of the railing; all noise from below dampened as the ancient spellwork took effect. Princess Twilight looked down at the sea of reporters, almost seeming to glair at them, before lifting her head and finally speaking. “Greetings, everypony” Her voice was scratchy and hoarse; Sombra doubted that they would be able to hear her at all without the voice amplifying components of the balcony runes. “I’m sure that you are all wondering about the situation at the empire, and I am glad to announce that its Citizens have been evacuated safely, and that the final train carrying the royal couple and the final civilians will arrive later today” She paused as the courtyard was overcome by the crowd's deafening scramble for answers; she waited for them to still before she continued. “But that's not the purpose of this press conference, no, th-the reason the shield failed is i-is…i” her voice faltered as she began to sob, her attempts at using the posh, impartial tone most ponies expected from royal speeches failing as she was overcome with emotion, her sobs were almost drowned out by the clicks of hundreds of professional cameras, everyone in the crowd fighting for a good angle of her misery like vultures fighting over the best scrap of meat on a carcass, Sombra winced as the bright flashes of light assaulted his eyes, he looked away from the screen and down to his daughter, who had now finished her bottle and was now gumming the teat, he gently pried it from her mouth and set it down of the nearby coffee table before turning his attention back to the broadcast. The Princess stayed like that for a minute or so before suddenly rising to her hooves, her face overcome with emotion; she looked downs at her hooves, schooling her expression into a shaky mask of neutrality. “The shield surrounding the crystal empire has fallen because the Crystal Princess Flurry Heart is missing” She blurted it out quickly in a single breath; it was like the words were a poison she was trying to spit out. The courtyard exploded into chaos, the mob below the princess bombarding her with questions, a few pegasi even trying to fly up to the balcony before being lassoed back down to the ground by the guards, the camera feed was shaking terribly, the cameraman was probably getting knocked around like a punching bag as everyone rushed up towards the Princess. The camera was knocked particularly hard, the feed showed it beginning to tip over before cutting out completely, and then it was back to the newsroom, the anchor from earlier staring in awe. She recovered quickly, shuffling the papers she was holding before she spoke. “It seems we’re having some technical difficulties” She smiled thinly at the camera. “We’ll be sure to cover more on this topic in the evening news; for now, have a nice day”, Sombra shut the television off. There was no point in watching anything else right now; he saw what he needed to know; he shivered as he felt Their cold tendrils reaching into his mind, searching for any helpful information he had missed. Skyla grunted and wriggled in his hold, sensing Their presence; Sombra chuckled as he felt one of Their tendrils reach out and tap her on the nose. He was glad that They seemed to care for her as much as he did. The pieces were falling into place, soon the hour would be at hoof, and the real work would begin, but for now, he was content to sit and soak up the domesticity. ~~~ Sunburst startled from his half-asleep state as something shattered nearby. He looked to his right and saw a small crowd of ponies at the end of the platform start arguing amongst themselves over whatever it is that broke; Sunburst watched for a few seconds before looking ahead to the armoured train before him. It was boxy and metallic, nowhere near as cheery and inviting as the Friendship Express, but it was much better equipped to ferry the population of an entire city-state besieged by frost monsters and never ending blizzards to safety in as few trips as possible. Sunburst looked to the clipboard held in his magic, idly skimming over the stock list of all the personal items the crystal ponies had been allowed to bring with them; he felt a pang of sympathy seeing just how little they would be bringing with them to Equestria, they only had so many armoured trains at their disposal, and they would already be packed in the cars like sardines as-is, it was simply impossible for them to fit anything more than what the citizens could fit in their saddlebags, unless you were the royal couple and their loyal Crystaller, of course. Sunburst looked to the front of the train; the entire front most car had been sectioned off for the three of them and their belongings. He had seen several of his books carried inside by the guards in large cardboard boxes, and seen several disgruntled citizens look at them like they were trying to set them on fire with their minds. Those books, along with some furniture, regalia, several crates worth of legal documents, and a chest containing all of Flurry Hearts toys, had been deemed as ‘too important to lose’ by the temporary council Celestia had erected in the wake of her temporary usurpation of the Crystal Throne. There had been a lot of public outcry at that; some even claimed that Celestia had planned this and staged Furry Heart's dissapearance in order to weaken Cadance and reabsorb the empire into Equestria as a whole. Celestia’s reaction to somepony suggesting she would kidnap her beloved niece had shut that down with brutal efficiency, but even then; it was overshadowed by the worry they all felt for Cadance and Shining Armour. It was no secret that Flurry’s dissapearance had hit them both hard, but the sheer devastation in them was genuinely frightening; Cadance was practically catatonic, only responding to the world around her when prompted, she wouldn't even eat or bathe without being asked to do so by her seneschal. And Shining was the exact opposite in all the worst ways, he stormed through the palace like a stallion possessed, screaming his head off at search parties when they failed to find anything of note, he had even seen him throwing furniture at the walls when the reports were particularly bleak. No pony had seen hide or hair of him since Celestia had usurped him and Cadance, Sunburst had heard whispers amongst the soldiers that he fled into the tundra to search for Flurry himself, he knew they were just rumours, they couldn’t not be, but the fact that he had been shouting about how “if you want something done right, you should do it yourself” just before he disappeared wasn’t helping. Sunburst just hoped that he would calm down and poke his head out soon, it was bad enough that they lost Flurry, he didn’t even want to think about the panic that would ensue at losing Shining Armour. Sunburst walked over to the front compartment of the train where one of the palace servants was waiting at the door, they gave him a withered smile that looked more like a grimace as they stepped aside and let him in. The interior of the car was cosy, with crates pilled against the walls in ways that wouldn't obscure the windows, in one corner was a queen-sized canopy bed for the ruling couple to use, hastily assembled by servants in the car before they were shoved into the rest of the train with everypony else. In the adjacent corner was a twin-sized bed for him, a blue comforter tucked snugly against the mattress.  He went and sat down on it, the sitting area made of flat-pack furniture that had been set up in the middle of the car felt wrong to him, it reminded him of those ponies on the platform, the way they looked at all the crates in this car, the way they looked at him when he entered, it made a feeling of shame rise in him. “How many ponies could we fit in here” he thought to himself, “how many trampling deaths could we prevent if we let them in” he remembered the newspaper articles, foals and elders and anypony unlucky enough to be shorter than those around them crushed to death by the crowd, those closest to them powerless to help as any significant movement could knock them over, condemning them to the same fate.  Sunburst looked around him, the feelings of shame and disgust rose like bile in his throat, he wanted to scream, to throw all this pointless finery out the window and open the door to the other car, to let those poor ponies have space to breathe. He wanted to march up to Shining and chew him out, point out all the ways he had failed them in this crisis until he was begging at his hooves for forgiveness. He wanted to shake Cadance hard enough to wake her up from whatever stupor she was in. but more than anything, he just wanted to understand. He was so sick of the absolute radio silence they were receiving, ever since Flurry disappeared, they got nothing. No ransom, no threats to her safety, no cryptic messages, nothing, and Sunburst hated it. There was no connection to any of the usual subjects; the Griffons were busy rebuilding after their latest civil war, the legion of doom were all in Tartarus and Grogar was still sealed in Tambelon, there was no one who could have done it that wouldn’t have gloated about it by now. Sunburst bit his lip, his mind couldn’t help but drift to Him, it was nonsense, he knew Sombra was dead as dust, there was no way it was him, but there was no-one else who made sense. Sunburst was broken from his musings by the sound of hoofsteps approaching from the back of the car, he saw Cadance standing there in front of the rear door with her secretary at her side, two guards flanking them and a third bringing up the rear, jabbing the back of his spear at the crowds to keep them from rushing their Empress, Sunburst almost wanted to grab the spear in his magic and let them. The guards herded Cadance into one of the chairs, letting her slump against the table as they secured the doors, the train whistle sounded; it was time to go. Sunburst watched as the guards talked with her secretary, discussing the best ways of transporting Cadance and Shining through Ponyville without the public catching on to how bad things really were, Cadence perked up slightly at the mention of her husband; Sunburst had heard from some civilians on the platform that he had been seen at the back of the train with the other guards, but the train was too full for them to go back and check. He would just have to sit at the back until they arrived.  Sunburst turned his head to the window as the train sped away from the station, the snowstorm outside the tissue thin shield made it almost impossible to see anything, Sunburst squinted as he saw a spec of blue against the hazy whiteness, it was probably just a thunderbird; drawn here by the weakening magic of the shield, same as all the other monsters. Sunburst decided to lay his head down, he didn’t want to think about any of this anymore, he just wanted to sleep until this whole nightmare was over. Outside, the storm raged on, uncaring of what (or who) might be caught inside it. ~~~ Discord groaned and struggled to his mismatched feet, the oppressive heat filling the ‘room’ made him feel like an overcooked noodle, and not in a fun way. He crawled over to the ‘wall’ and rested his weight against it, opening his eyes to survey his extradimensional prison; it was brutalist in design, all concrete, and sharp corners, with a loving touch of impossible geometry thrown in for good measure. Discord looked up to the ‘ceiling’, watching as thousands upon thousands of eyes wriggled in their sockets, all trying to find a better angle to watch him from; some of them even overlapped each other, their sclera squishing together and spilling across one another in a way that made even him uncomfortable.  Discord yelped as he slid down the ‘wall’ and hit the ‘ground’ in a heap, his weakening ‘body’ forcing him to look away from his captors, he toyed with the idea of trying to escape, if only to annoy them, But then he remembered what happened the last time he tried to mess with The Old Ones. He decided he’d rather be bored.  Discord sighed and shifted himself into a better position. He reached outwards from his trapped psyche and towards his body, which was in the same place it was last time he checked on it, on Fluttershy's couch wrapped in a thick quilt with a damp towel placed on his forehead to try to cool the fever that was currently frying his brain like a steak. He felt around inside his body, feeling for any changes in the illness The Old Ones had put upon him to cover up the fact that he had been trapped in his own mind; there was nothing. The sickness still held his body in an iron grip that was just as firm and unyielding as when it first found him a little over two weeks ago. Back when he first felt their presence in their solar system. Back when he thought he could still do something about it. He sighed again; looking back at it, he felt so foolish now. Even before he knew how many power players were involved, the fact that he thought he stood a chance against even the weakest of Them proved how much messing around with this world’s inhabitants inflated his ego; now They were going to get their grubby mitts all over that foal and use her subjugate their entire local group. That stupid foal. He should have killed her when he had a chance. Sure, everyone he had grown to care for would hate him for the rest of time, but he would honestly prefer being hated instead of what he knew They would do to them. But it was too late now; they had noticed the little Alicorn, and then They had her snatched up by Their little errand boy. And now he was taking her who-knows-where to do who-knows-what sort of little apocalyptic ritual that would let Them breach the veil and do whatever they felt like to their poor little planet.  Discord rolled onto his back to stare at the ‘ceiling’ again. He knew it could be much worse than this; after all, They wouldn't put this much effort into a planet they would simply destroy, and the magic holding him would be disrupted once they breached the veil. That left him with a few picoseconds, more than enough to teleport him, Fluttershy, and all her little friends to Chaosville to wait out the worst of it. They would probably be furious at him; they would probably think that he could stop Them, but merely chose not to for reasons they couldn't understand.  He probably wouldn't care as long as they were still alive to be mad at him.