King Sombra's Warning
“Wow, today sure was great, wasn’t it Twilight!” said Spike as he walked up the stairs with Twilight. They were both getting ready to go to bed after a long day of having saved Equestria once again and needed a lot of sleep.
“I mean, we saved the Crystal Empire, you passed your test, and I’m a hero now!” he continued excitedly. “Bet you weren’t expecting that, eh?”
“Oh Spike…” said Twilight laughing, “…you were always a hero to me!”
“I know, but isn’t it, like, just awesome that I have my own stained glass window in honor of what I’ve done now?!”
“It does feel pretty good to be in one of the stained glass windows in the Canterlot Palace. Of course it’s traditional to always make one when somepony…or dragon, saves the day.”
Spike stopped and started entering his little basket bed while Twilight continued on to her bed. She used her magic to lift the covers and began tucking herself in while talking to Spike.
“A lot has happened in the last few days Spike.” she said. “You, I, and all of our friends have been through much: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra… I can’t even begin to say how busy we’ve all become with this saving-Equestria business…”
“Yup, we’re all heroes now!” Spike said getting in under his covers.
“It’s gotten pretty challenging but it’s really starting to teach me a lot of things.” Twilight continued. “And I can’t wait to see what it is Celestia wants me to do next now that I’m done with my old teachings. I’m ready for more……although…”
“What is it Twilight?” Spike asked sitting up in his bed to look at her.
“I dunno……I just can’t help but feel this is just the beginning of it all. I mean, we defeated Nightmare Moon entirely but I have a feeling we’ll meet Discord or Chrysalis again and probably even King Sombra. We didn’t even use the Elements of Harmony on him and that’s what worries me…”
“Eh, don’t worry about it now Twilight. You and your friends are all great at solving problems. If he comes back, you’ll beat him in a flash!”
“You’re right Spike. Our friendships are growing stronger and those villains are going to have to try harder if they want to bring us down.”
“Well…” Spike took a large yawn and then turned over in his bed. “I’m gonna doze off now. Saving the day sure takes it out of ya…”
“Sweet dreams, Spike.” Twilight said to her little assistant as she put her covers over her and turned to the side.
A lot was on Twilight’s mind, but she felt a sense of relief from having passed Princess Celestia’s test and she was very content with the way things were turning out in her life. She was eager to see what was in store for her that Celestia had told about earlier that week, but for now, she needed to rest and prepare for the coming days. She closed her eyes and drifted off peacefully in her sleep.
In what seemed to be a few moments later, Twilight found herself awake with her eyes wide open and she was in the middle of a large crystal cavern. There were four torches lit with a purplish black flame and no doors, windows or any other signs of ingress or egress in the cavern. It was somewhat damp and cold in there, but the temperature slowly started to rise.
“Huh……where in the wide world of Equestria am I?” Twilight asked herself getting up and looking around.
“Be at peace, Twilight Sparkle…” said a low and ominous voice Twilight could have sworn she heard before.
“WHO-WHO’S THERE?!” she said nearly jumping out of her skin.
“Oh, you’ve forgotten me already?” said the voice, “Shame. It feels somewhat insulting I must admit…”
“Forgotten already? Wait……” Twilight took a moment to think and then remembered. “That voice……it can’t be… King Sombra?”
“Ah, so you do remember me…” said the voice which did indeed belong to King Sombra.
One of the flames all of a sudden was brought to life and the face of Sombra appeared before Twilight.
“What?! How are you……What are you doing to me and where am I?!”
“Patience, little one. Patience. You are not in any real danger right now; this is all just a simple illusion of my dark and magnificent power. I present myself to you in your sleep this very moment.” Sombra continued as the rest of his body formed from the dark flame. At this point, Twilight felt a very uncomfortable feeling of warmth around her; almost as if she was walking on a dreadfully hot and dry summer day. The odor of smoke and ashes filled the room making her feel sick.
“You have some nerve haunting my dreams like this King Sombra!” Twilight said angrily. “You didn’t really say much the last time we met back at the Crystal Empire.”
“I know, Twilight. We didn’t even get a chance to talk to each other while you were imprisoned at the top of the castle spire.” The king said while looking down on her menacingly. His appearance was frightening as always but he spoke with a somewhat benign tone to try and keep Twilight from feeling he was the enemy. He wished to have a more personal face-to-face conversation alone with her now.
“What do you want with me?” said Twilight still having anger in her voice.
“Well, first of all, I would like to congratulate you and all your friends on successfully defeating me up in the north. I will be honest; you did a much better job than those pathetic excuses of royalty: Celestia and Luna.”
“How dare you insult my teacher and her sister!”
Twilight got in a battle-ready position although this was just a dream and she could do nothing to fight back.
“HAHAHA! Oh that’s right, you are the student of the Princess of Light aren’t you?” said the king laughing wickedly. “Well you have indeed learned much, little one. No wonder you and your friends were able to defeat me. But you must realize that I am not completely defeated. Celestia and Luna banished me which was unwise because I had set a curse that would cause the Crystal Empire to vanish the moment I was defeated. You, however, were smart to not banish me with the Elements and use the Crystal Heart instead; that keeps me from entering the Empire. Still…… I am not dead; I am barely even mortally wounded…”
“I thought we might be hearing from you again sometime...” said Twilight calming herself down now. It seemed to her that the King had information that she would need to hear; perhaps even a warning she should heed.
“Oh you will young one. I will be back soon, you can bet on that.” the king said while walking around her. “I can’t help but feel I didn’t push myself that hard in the North earlier, so the next time we meet, I promise you and your friends will not defeat me that easily.”
“I’m warning you Sombra: me and my friends are all very resourceful and you underestimate the power the Elements of Harmony!” Twilight said determinedly.
“Ah yes, the good old Elements of Harmony.” Sombra walked towards one of his torches and caused it to come out and form into the shape of the Elements. “Tis the one thing that can stop and banish me to a state of weakness and immobility... But the last time the Elements were used on me, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ended up losing that bond of harmony. Luna turned against her sister not to long after my defeat and ultimately weakened my icy cold prison.”
While the king spoke, the flame transformed into Celestia and Luna and showed a vision of what happened when Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon. Twilight had never imagined what it must have been like; she only saw simple illustrations in a book. Seeing Luna turn her back on her sister and then become the dark mare caused Twilight to feel very scared about it all. Even if it was the past, the sight of it made her very discouraged. Clearly King Sombra was trying to intimidate her with dark visions of the past.
“That is how I was able to break free, Twilight.” continued Sombra “It took one thousand years to regain my full strength but I broke free eventually. It is just a shame that the Empire reappeared before I did and your brother and his wife got to it first.”
The king extinguished the illusionary flame and walked back to Twilight.
“All I’m saying is that you and your friends may lose that power one day as Celestia and Luna did. I am waiting for the day when that happens and I can take back what is rightfully mine.”
“No King Sombra…” Twilight said looking up at him. “I love my friends very much. We may have our differences and we may have failed to use the Elements once before like we did against Discord the first time around, but we did manage to beat him and we’ve learned a lot since then. If you think you can beat us you had better prepare for defeat once more!”
“I like that…” the king said laughing a bit. “You and your friends certainly are adversaries worthy of my vast power. Very well then, Twilight Sparkle. I will leave you to your happy thoughts and make myself busy preparing my next visit. I hope you and all your friends are as ready as you say you will be…”
“You don’t scare me Sombra.” Twilight said. “We’ve done it once, we can do it again!”
“Hehehe……I look forward to the fight.” King Sombra then started to transform into his smoky form and moved away as the torches were quenched and the room went dark. “Till next time Twilight Sparkle. Till next time! HAHAHAHA!!”
The entire room started to crumble as if being crushed by a mountain on top and the crystals from the cavern went in all directions. Twilight then saw a bright explosion of light and immediately got up and found herself back in bed with Spike next to her shouting her name over and over again.
“TWILIGHT!!! TWILIGHT, ARE YOU OKAY?!?”
“WHAT?! King……King Sombra?” she asked looking around.
“Um……do I look like King Sombra, Twilight?” said Spike crossing his arms.
“Oh…Spike, it’s you.”
“Yeeeeeah. So what were you dreaming about?”
“I had a dream……I had a dream I met King Sombra again…”
“Oh, that’s why you were talking about him.”
“Yeah…”
Twilight bowed her head and thought heavily about what she had just seen. Was that just a dream or was the King really haunting her mind to try and talk to her? The fact that he was able to actually enter her mind and speak to her made her even more scared.
“Twilight?” Spike asked.
“Oh…I’m sorry Spike. I was just thinking about the dream…”
“What happened exactly?”
“Well…” Twilight paused a little wondering if she should tell Spike everything. “Sombra was talking to me and…”
“Hehe, well that’s a surprise!” Spike laughed. “The guy barely said a thing back at the Crystal Empire! He was all like ‘GRRRRRRRR, ROOOOOOOOAR, KING SOMBRA WANT CRYSTAL HEART!! RAAAAAWR!!”
Twilight laughed at the sight of Spike walking around in circles and trying to be creepy but she started thinking again about the dream.
“Well, I don’t know, Spike…He was pretty serious this time. He kept saying how we would see him again one day and how we should be ready…” she said gloomily.
“Eh, we have a better chance of meeting Trixie again than him!”
“Trixie? How is she a threat?”
“Uh……well, you’re right. I guess she’s not that much of a threat. She’s just…you know, we don’t really like her and she causes trouble.” Spike said walking back to his bed.
“Well I just hope Trixie learns her lesson too.” said Twilight as she tucked herself back under her covers. “But what gets me is that King Sombra chose to come to me. Does he really know a lot about me like Discord did? I know he didn’t seem like much of a threat but I get the feeling we never truly defeated him and he’ll be back soon…”
“Like I said, Twilight: you guys will beat him fair and square if he does.” Spike then took a deep yawn and went back to sleep. “Good night, Twilight…”
“You’re right. Good night, Spike.”
Twilight laid her head down on her pillow but hadn’t closed her eyes yet. She couldn’t stop thinking of King Sombra and what he might do next. It scared her to know he was still out there and may try something rather dastardly for revenge. Sombra had something in mind; something to try and conquer Equestria and create his own kingdom to rule the land. He had tried it with the Crystal Kingdom and failed but if what she saw in her dream was the real King Sombra trying to get his message across, then he was right.
“So much evil is out there…” Twilight thought to herself. “We’ve come across so many villains. Sure we may have defeated them all, but I feel like this is going to get a lot tougher to deal with. Still, as long as my friends and I stick together, the Elements of Harmony will always help us pull through. If Sombra wants to see us fight back, I sure hope he is ready next time. We’ve got a long ways to go from here and the best thing to do right now is just have some faith. You can do this Twilight Sparkle… you can do this…”
She closed her eyes and fell back asleep and had no more dreams or visions the rest of that night. The young unicorn had much ahead of her to prepare for and she was determined to not let King Sombra discourage her from doing it.
Meanwhile in the arctic north, a dark cloud remained in the middle of a snowy field. Inside could be seen King Sombra standing completely still. The cold north wind blew and howled but it had no effect on him. His dark cloud of black magic kept him safe from the freezing temperatures. He was looking down at the ground but suddenly looked up beyond the horizon where the Crystal Empire could be seen. His lips began to move up and he smiled and began laughing softly with his crude deep voice.
“So it begins, my little ponies…” he said. “Celebrate this victory all you want but mark my words, this is just the beginning…”
The End