Chapter 14: Transformation
The moon wasn’t setting.
It was well past the time when dawn should have arrived, and yet the moon and stars had not rested their glittering heads, nor had Luna arrived. Sombra paced just inside the shields of the Empire where he had told Luna that he would meet her. He stared at the sky, praying for the moon to go down just so that he would know that she was well. It should not have taken her this long to arrive, unless something terrible had happened.
“What if she needs you? What if she is in danger? Can you save her the way you are?”
“Not now,” Sombra said to the voice as he continued to pace. He had left the crystal cave as Luna had requested, and though he longed to return to those mirrored walls, he would not do so, not until he knew that his Luna was safe and sound. “She will come soon. I know she will.”
“What if she doesn’t?” the voice asked, but there was a different tone to it. It sounded worried and echoed the terror in Sombra’s heart.
He swallowed hard. What would he do? He was nowhere near as strong as Luna, not as he was. His magic could split a crystal house, as he had witnessed, but he was no alicorn. So then, what could he do for Luna if she was in trouble?
You may be overreacting. Maybe she was delayed.
But if that was the case, why was the moon still up?
He glanced up at the sky again and tried to hold his fear at bay.
Golden light suddenly shimmered around the moon, but Sombra knew that magic did not belong to Luna. A cold splash of dread struck him in the face as the moon hesitantly lowered from the sky, as if the wielder had not performed such a feat for a very long time. One by one, the stars winked out of existence. The moon slipped below Equestria, and the same golden magic suddenly brought the sun into the sky.
Something is wrong. Luna should have done that, and she wasn’t even with me to distract her!
He thought of what she had told him in his dream.
No unicorns had attacked, that he knew of, so why then had Gemfyre sent the note?
What if Gemfyre wasn’t the one who wrote it, Sombra realized with terror. What if it was a fake…meant to draw Luna out so that she could be overtaken without the aid of her sister?
“She needs you,” the voice pushed him. “You must help her.”
Yes, yes, he did, but first he had to make sure that something bad had actually happened to her. Sombra pushed aside his worry and galloped across the Empire and through the shields as he had done many times before. A nagging feeling begged him to go to the crystal caves, but he ignored it and instead went towards the woodlands. Luna would have flown over them on her way to the Empire.
The woods were oddly silent at such an early hour. The birds should have been chirping and squirrels skittering, but there seemed to be no life.
Something terrible occurred here, he realized. He moved hesitantly through the trees, weaving around the trunks. There were still many shadows since the sun was low, so he cast a small spell with his horn to light his way. The green aura glistened on dew drops and danced between the crags of bark.
He was so busy looking around that he didn’t notice anything amiss until his hoof crunched something hard. Sombra drew back and lowered his horn to find a strip of painted blue wood. It looked as if it had belonged to a cart or chariot.
Sombra gulped and started to move quicker through the trees, finding more and more pieces of scattered wood until he stumbled across a broken wheel with part of the chariot still attached. He noticed that the harnesses were cut, but he did not know if the ponies had freed themselves, or if something more dreadful had happened to them.
He searched further and suddenly felt a pull on his magic. Sombra frowned in confusion and followed the sensation.
There was a powerful spell or magic here, he thought to himself as he stepped into a wide clearing. He saw scorch marks on trees and on the ground that formed a circle around some crushed grass. Sombra walked towards it tentatively, and just when he tried to reason that surely Luna could not have been here, he saw something black glint on the ground. Sombra reached out for it and lifted it with a hoof.
His heart stopped.
Luna’s broken crown.
No…no, no, no, he cried over and over again. He tried to fit the broken pieces together, but his shaking hooves just caused them to fall back to the earth. Someone took her…that has to be it. She was attacked!
He heard a groan behind him and he whirled, horn alight and at the ready. Tentatively, he stepped forward and nosed through another pile of wood. He cleared the top off and stared in shock as a battered Quill emerged, followed by a strange looking stallion that had covered her with his body. He had bat-like wings, and his armor looked crushed and marred. Scorch marks covered his breastplate and had burnt off part of his mane and tail. Quill’s mane was disheveled, and she had cuts and bruises all along her tan body. A tattered satchel dangled limply against her side.
“What happened?” Sombra asked them once they were upon their hooves.
“Magic…” the stallion moaned and rubbed his face.
“They came out of nowhere,” Quill whimpered. “One moment we were flying, and the next we were falling. The Princess…she tried to save me, but they caught her! I was thrown back during the magic fight that ensued, and I crashed into this knight here.”
Sombra cursed to himself. “Do you know which way they went?” he asked urgently.
Quill swallowed. “So-somewhere near the crystal mountains, but they are so vast that it may take days to locate her.”
“Not if you allow me to help,” the voice said. “We have to find her. Together, we can, and together we can make her abductors pay.”
Sombra nodded inwardly. Yes, he would make those monsters suffer for hurting and taking his Luna. “Listen to me closely,” Sombra said sternly. “Quill, return to Queen Gemfyre and tell her what has transpired.” He looked at the guard. “You fly to Princess Celestia and inform her that her sister has been abducted.”
The guard glared. “Who are you to give me orders?”
“A friend,” Sombra insisted. “Go. I will try to find Luna while you are gone. You’ll reach Canterlot faster than either of us.”
“But what will you do if you locate her?” Quill gasped. “You’ll be killed!”
“If I must die to save Luna, then so be it,” Sombra swore. He looked at the guard. “At the very least, I can slow down her captors until more help comes.”
The guard looked ready to protest, but when he saw the sun in the sky rather than the moon, he paled. He sent Sombra a look then reached out to grab him by his mane. “I swear, if anything should befall the Princess that is your doing, nothing will stop me from finding you and destroying you myself.”
Sombra held up his hooves. “I would rather perish than harm Princess Luna. Now please, hurry. We may not have much time.” He bid his goodbye to Quill and the guard and ran towards the crystal mountains.
What am I going to do? What am I going to do?! The mantra continued to drum a beat in his head as he ran. He was a weak unicorn who could barely conjure spells. What hope did he have of protecting Luna or saving her from her attackers? They would destroy him on sight, and then what would become of his beloved?
He kept his eyes on the mountains, but he found his hooves carrying him towards the crystal cave instead. “What will happen if…if I accept your offer?” he asked of the thin air.
“You mean, what will happen if you reach your full potential?” the disembodied answer came.
“Yes…will….can I return to what I am now?”
“Why would you want to do such a thing? With the power I can offer, no one will laugh at you or harm Luna again.”
“But what if I just want to be me again?” Sombra swallowed and bowed his head as he ran faster. “Luna won’t like it if I listen to you.”
“Luna may not survive if you do not let go of your fears. Would it not be selfish of you if you allowed harm to come to her because you feared what you might become?”
The voice spoke with reason, Sombra decided. He jumped over a fallen tree and ran into the cave where the crystals glittered their greetings. “Swear to me that when I wish to return to my old self, you will release me.”
“Of course. I only wish to help you and your beloved.”
Sombra swallowed and walked slowly through the cave. He looked around, following the path that brought him to the now hidden pit. He stepped on top of the newly formed crystals and stared at himself in a giant shard in front of him. He saw his green magic flicker and glow, casting shadows across his face and the floor. “What do I do?” he asked.
“Step forward into the crystal.”
Sombra stared at his reflection.
Should he do it? The voice had promised to let him go. If he had to make this sacrifice to save Luna, it was worth it, wasn’t it? She would thank him in the end.
He lowered his horn and walked forward slowly. He expected the tip to bump against the crystal, but instead, it went right through it. Sombra blinked but did not stop. As the crystal’s surface brushed across his body, he felt a strange sensation fill him. It hurt at first, and he wanted to back up, but it was far too late for that. He stepped into a dark cave that not even his magical light could penetrate.
Something cold touched his legs. He jumped to the side and gaped as spirals of glowing blue and purple mist suddenly swirled in front of him. The mist crashed into the ceiling and twisted around, the colors sparkling and nearly blinding him. Sombra bumped into a wall, suddenly realizing this was a fool-hearted idea.
“Wait. Wait!” he cried, but the mist descended and swarmed around him.
All grew cold.
Sombra stood very still, feeling the magic course through his veins, his horn…his heart. A hunger grew within him that felt insatiable; it was a hunger for power. Something settled across his legs and he felt a tingle where his cutie mark had been. His horn itched and ached briefly, and it felt as if it grew in size. The mist lifted him from the ground and tore into his body. Sombra let out a wordless cry as it transformed him from a weak unicorn into a powerful beast.
In what felt like moments, the mist set him back down on his hooves. Sombra kept his eyes closed for a very long time, letting the magic settle around him like a warm, precious blanket. He understood now, better than before, how to reach for his gift. There was a new-found knowledge about magic that he had never had before, not even with Luna’s lessons to guide him.
“Look, and see what you have become,” the voice said, only, it was not a whisper in his ear. Sombra actually spoke the words with his own muzzle, though the sound was deeper, almost darker.
For a brief moment, he hesitated to do as the voice…as he instructed.
This may be the last time that I am Sombra, and Sombra alone. Will Luna forgive me and understand what I have done for her?
“Does it matter?” it…he asked with a chuckle.
Sombra opened his eyes and stared at his reflection in the crystals. His irises, once emerald, were now tinted red. The green had receded and now covered what had once been white. His horn had grown larger and now curved back slightly, the tip glowing lava red. The magic swirling around it was no longer green, but rather violet and ebony. His luxurious mane had turned a darker shade of black. Silver armor covered his chest and hooves, and a majestic red cape swept along his body. The crystal shimmer of his coat had vanished and left him looking more like the rest of the ponies of Equestria.
He lifted the side of his cape to look at his cutie mark.
What once had been the image of a horn with stars dancing around it now showed a serpentine eye covering half of the horn. The entire eye was green except for the thin wave of purple magic that seeped out of it. Sombra stared at it then let the fabric slowly settle over his rump.
He faced the crystal again and he started to laugh. It began deep in his belly then bubbled up in his throat and turned into a maddened cackle.
“Welcome home, Sombra,” he laughed and blinked his red eyes. His reflection smirked back at him until Sombra remembered the reason for his transformation.
Fright filled his eyes.
“Luna…” he gasped at first until it turned into an enraged roar. “Luna!” he screamed until the crystals around him began to tremble. He swung his horn and violet magic cracked the crystal in half and left him free to escape the cave.
He would find Luna…and he would make them pay.