//------------------------------// // 08 The oncoming storm // Story: A new breed of evil // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// “So, Astral Chrome,” the doctor spoke to the immobilized stallion with a worried expression upon his face. “I do suppose that that is all for today.” The stallion turned himself around. Without a further word spoken had he left the cell. When he made his departure, the door fell shut behind him. Astral was left once again all alone, inside of his cell where he would do what he had done for the past months. which happened to be nothing and wait. He would wait for the inevitable to come for him. Yet the doctor on the other end had his mind filled with other troubles. It didn't matter what he tried to do to the poor soul, there wasn’t anything that seemed to make a dent in the metal plate that was placed over his skull. Not a normal word appeared to be leaving his mouth besides the warning. The good doctor was getting sick and tired of it. He was almost at the point of giving up. Grumbles of anger left the mouth in whispers as he walked passed the cells of other inmates but he never gave them any eye. Astral Chrome was his pride, his very own Moby Dick to a certain degree. The doctor would do almost everything to make sure that the stallion would be placed on the right path. Yet whatever he tried, nothing seemed to be working. It already had led him to a mental breakdown of his own. The cracks only seemed to grow over time, instead of healed up. The doctor walked through the hallways and back to his office within the dark asylum. With the lights turned off for the night, the stallion and staff only had the moon and stars as their light sources. Something that did create both a wonderful and utterly uncomfortable play of lights in the cells and windows. Yet the stallion didn't seem to be noticing them. Not anymore at least. He heard the groans of other inmates as well as their screams for both help and insanity but not even those were heard. He cared little for them all at the moment he was in. He had struck a dead end and he knew that all too well. But was too thick in the head to admit it. The stallion had entered his office. He first took a good look around under some rather discouraging words. “I just hope she didn't change anything.” His eyes went all over the wooden walled and floored room. Over the couple of dossier cabinets filled with the files of his many patients and diagnostics. Than it was up to some prizes that stood on the top of the cabinets, accompanied by some more personal belongings. Though the thing that he was most looking forth to, happened to be his desk. Despite it being a major mess, the doctor always did seem to have managed to get his way around and find that what he needed. Even though the cleaning lady had been at work in his office, everything still seemed to be in the order as he left it for his two hour during appointment with the broken Astral. The stallion dropped himself in his chair with a loud moan after he had dropped the files on his desk like trash. The forelegs were brought over to his eyes were in order to just rub them. Another groan was released by his mouth before the hooves were brought over to the desk and he just fixed his position back behind the desk. “What am I going to have to do to make him..?” he questioned himself. He rolled up the sleeves of his lab coat a bit. There was only one candle that acted as the source of light inside of the room. One that was magically enhanced. It would never lose power, it wouldn't even burn out. An everlasting candle was among one of the best things he had ever come across and to that very day still made great use from. ~~~~         Seconds turned into minutes as those turned into about a set of forty five before there was a knock on his open door. “Doctor?” a feminine sounding voice echoed through his ears. That little word alone caused him to peel his eyes away from the documents and over his brown framed glasses. In his eyes he caught a nurse he knew rather well. Perhaps a little bit too well even but that was up for debate. The files were dropped down to the desk and the glasses removed from his eyes while he leaned back into the chair. “Something the matter, nurse Vision?” he replied in his deep tone. It wasn't the world’s best thing for him to be interrupted the way he was. Better yet, it annoyed him more than anything known in the world. “Please doctor, call me Mythic. But to answer the question you asked, I was simply wondering if everything is alright with you,” Mythic Vision replied to him with a small giggle. The stallion tilted his head to the left side while he leaned a bit more forth in the chair. “Are you accusing me that I’m going mad myself, nurse? Because if that is what you are thinking inside of that mind of yours, I highly suggest to rethink it,” the doctor said to her. Mythic Vision on the other end just shrugged it off with a giggle. She leaned against the side of the doorway and shook her head a little bit. “I’m suggesting everything but, doctor. I’m not accusing you from anything else besides a hard worker. But don’t work too hard on your patient. I have seen you wearing off,” said the nurse in her defense. “That’s because I can’t get through to him. I have tried everything in my might to crack him open and see what his brain looks like. But I just can’t get through that first layer,” the doctor replied with a strange calm. Yet despite his calm tone, there was the sheer bitterness of his failures that weighed down on him. Something the nurse could see almost clear as day. “Anyway, continue on with your round would you? I’ll be doing a couple more things here and then I’m off to home.” Even though she could only pray he spoke the truth, the nurse knew all too well that he would do pretty much the opposing from what he said. “If you say so, doctor,” Mythic replied in a truly calm voice. She turned herself around and left him to continue working. The doctor himself turned his eyes over to the raging little flame of the candle and found himself caught by its motions. Motions that were caught by one particular other stallion in the whole asylum. ~~~~   Behind the steel door and resting against the wall while being inside a straightjacket had Astral Chrome tried to get some sleep. Though he couldn't help himself but to smell something. The stallion couldn't place just what it happened to be or where it did came from. The dulled out, almost gray looking rims of the stallion revealed themselves to the world and he started to look around in his cell. The scents became stronger with almost every single turn he made. Then he caught it in the corner of his eyes. The lights that were flickering like, like flames almost. Astral gathered the strength to turn his head over to the side. With his weakened eyes did he notice that the lights came from under the tiny gap of door. The sight could only have meant one thing in his mind. Astral Chrome pushed himself further up against the wall as he simply feared for his life. The lights and scent were getting closer and closer to him while the screams of his fellow inmates pierced through the airs. There wasn't any doubt anymore. They were being burned alive and there was no hope for him. Nopony would come for him, he would be left behind as if nothing had ever happened. A tear had started to stream down his cheeks just before the plumes of the thick black smoke entered his cell and the two far corners erupted out in actual flames. Screams couldn't be left from his mouth as it felt that it was taped off. All he could do was shiver and feel the heat of the situation he was in. His life was over and he knew it. The broken down stallion would be nothing more but a pile of burned meat. In his eyes could the reflection of the raging flames being seen. Even though the walls were made out of the finest stone, it burned like an inferno. It was in the smoke that he managed to see something. Almost as if it was forming something inside of it. Astral shook his head heavily. He knew just who would be coming out of it. He refused to watch over the reigning chaos. Though with his life on the line, not looking at the fires was something easier said than done. Thus he forced his eyes to look back at the fires and the smoke only to see, her. The nightmarish queen herself had appeared before him. The very pony who had tortured him for so long had managed to come into his cell. She would be the one that would give the final blow. “She’s coming,” he whispered to himself at first. While the second passed by, that little whisper got repeated time and time again. All the way up to the point he was shouting it out. All while the smoking figure looked over him with the most sickening delight and grin upon her face.         “She’s coming!” the stallion then screamed on the top of his lungs. After which he erupted out in the most insane sounding laughter that he had ever given to anypony and even any being. A laughter that started out as this eerie, near silent one before it even louder than the crackling fires.         And it was during that laughter of utter insanity that the door was flung open. Or better said: blown off completely off of its hinges. What followed was a column of fire that just raced into the cell. It was a thing that caused the stallion to scream in pure fear already, but the final blow still had to come. It wouldn't be something pretty at all.         The eyes of Astral looked over to the image of the nightmarish queen and the horror could be seen. She had transformed her mouth into an enormous jaw. One which stood wide open and was even smoking more of the black plumes to suffocate the poor stallion. Sadly enough for him, it wasn't the only thing that was planned out for him.         For the last thing that he would see in his life was the queen walking up to him while the jaw closed itself it in order to form a sickening grin across her lips. The gem on top of her horn was placed in his neck and even went through the skin like an injection needle. Then he felt it from the spot where the gem it started to travel all over his body. That feeling of utter immobilization. Almost as if he became nothing else but cold stone itself. ~~~~                      “Quick! Get the doctor, we need him here, now!” one of the nurses yelled. Another stallion left the cell to carry out the command. “Come on, come on, come on,” the unicorn nurse muttered as she tried everything within her might to get a heart operational again. “Don’t you dare to die on me!” Next to her laid an injection needle. One filled with a fluid that was supposed to calm him down. But it seemed like it had given him the eternal rest instead.         “Make way, make way!” the doctor spoke up before he managed to enter the cell that held the broken Astral Chrome. His eyes looked through the glasses to the terrible scene of the stallion lying in a near lifeless against the wall and could only ask just one question. “What happened here?”         The stallion who had gone to get him explained the events that they had heard, before they rushed inside to help him. The doctor nodded understandable to them. He removed the glasses from his nose with care and gave off the words he rather didn't spoke. “And so it seems, that mister Chrome has passed away because of his own fears. Nurse, there’s nothing we can do for him anymore except to pray that he has gone to a place better.”         All of the ponies held a minute of silence for the passed away pony. The doctor dared to look out the barred window afterwards. What he saw there, was not something he liked. For a massive storm front seemed to have left Everfree or perhaps even White Tails. It was slowly drifting towards Ponyville. But it wasn't a matter to which he could focus his attention on. He had his own reports to write and funeral to be held. “Let’s, let’s follow the procedures, shall we?” the doctor spoke up after he had laid his eyes back upon the deceased pony. ~~~~                      Rainbow Dash was among the first, if not the first to have entered the clouds that hovered above the little town. She was of course taken by surprise that something of that size had managed to come over the quiet town. Her wings had set everything on everything in order to just get rid of the clouds. Though she found herself almost in the midst of it instead.         While she was deep inside of the clouds, there were whispers of fright heard in her ears. All it took was one flash of lightning to startle her. While the clouds lit up from the lights, they revealed a sight that Rainbow rather hadn’t seen at all. A sight that was the face of the elusive queen of fear, right inside the clouds. A face that even seemed to be made out of the fluffy material.         Rainbow gained the feeling of the fact that she shouldn't be there under any given circumstances. Which resulted in her just taking her leave. There was something inside of that pack of clouds that was everything but good for her. The powerful wings begun to soar the body down to the ground. There she could only watch as the storm kept on rolling in the wind. Or by itself as there was little to no wind up there.         “It’s gonna be a lot of explaining to them,” the pegasus muttered to herself once she stood safely on the ground. She had her eyes turned over to the clouds with a shady look. The mare just couldn't believe that she was unable to move the clouds away from the town. But that wasn't the worst feeling she had. Shame was of course a high price to pay without a doubt. Though it were the feelings of both fright and a faint recognition that haunted her mind.         Inside of that same mind was the image she had seen inside of the cloud. That massive head and the holes for eyes. All of the sudden it made a click to somepony she knew rather well. The mare got a shock through her body that caused her to shiver like mad for a second or two. Her eyes closed themselves and when they opened, they were staring at the ground as she spoke her words in a whisper. “Impossible, that that, that that was Rarity.” ~~~~   It seemed to be rather unbelievable, but the facts were there. For Rainbow had seen the face of the nightmarish queen. A queen that stood by the edge of the Everfree forest. Her and her commanders were looking over the clouds rolling in the skies. They lit up every so often from a lightning flash. The mare chuckled to herself while she kept on looking with a sickening wonder in her eyes. “They can bet on their lives that tonight’s just the start. Once they bled to their deaths, we’ll tear Canterlot apart!” Nightmare Rarity spoke up to herself but loud enough for the shadow stallions to hear it.         “Heh, that rhymes.” Blood replied in a whispering chuckle. Just before the rumbles of the thunder could be heard in their ears.         “It’s gonna start!” Fright spoke up in an utmost delight. And he had all of the reasons to be happy, because their plan had been in the make for months by then. A plan that was just filled with everything that the queen could think of in order to get her so much wanted revenge on the foals that just left her. ~~~~                      Twilight was in the Golden Oak library and she watched over the skies with a sigh. She turned herself away from the window. Something was troubling her mind deep. The mare had not even the slightest of clues how and what she could be doing on that evening. The storm had taken her out of her concentration and the sheer will to continue on with her work wasn't present anymore.         Spike had already gone to bed and it seemed to be like that that was the best that the mulberry unicorn could do as well. She allowed herself a yawn before she walked up the stairs. Her heading was set straight for the bedroom to get some of her much needed and beloved sleep. “It’s just a little thunderstorm, Twily, no need to worry,” the mare mumbled up. She dropped her body in the bed and turned around for a bit. ~~~~                      Yet that particular thunderstorm was everything but little. While the rumbles had started to increase, it were the flashes of lightning that got multiplied at an exponential rate. It was about to happen. The energy that was stored inside of the cloud would be released over the entire town. Nightmare Rarity, Shadowfright and Shadowblood were looking from their location as the first bolt actually went down. One that was soon followed up by another and then another one.         It took seconds for the bolts to form and be released over the town. Though the flashes themselves were the true focus of the attention. They weren't the usual white color of electricity. Instead they had a vague hint of blue to them. A blue color that was produced whenever the unicorn queen herself released her fear indulging magic right into the skull of a pony.         That was pretty much the entire plan. The lightning carried the magic down to the ground. It would then travel all over the town before it would its own way straight into the heads of literally every single resident. Mass hysteria was something that would develop itself over the course of the next few days inside of the town without a single doubt. Fears and horrors would become a deadly reality for all of the residents. Which was then much to the delight of the queen.         It would be a slow process though, much like the fog itself. It was actually the plan of Blood to place some form of delay on the magic, before it would actually make ponies live in their very own alternative universe. That way it was made almost certain that the storm wouldn't be associated with the attack. At least not until all hell had broken loose inside of the town.         The three kept on watching the show of lightning. It was strange that a couple of the residents would have joined them from the comforts of their houses. One of them happened to be nopony else then Rainbow Dash. She had returned to her cloud palace and was looking over the storm with that same shady look. The lightning and thunder were only part of the whole thing though. She was waiting for something else entirely as well. She waited for the rain that always would come. That was what she was expecting.         “Can’t have a storm without rain, now can you?” the mare spoke up to herself. Rainbow stood before the window with her wings spread a bit. She had tucked them against her body before, but it not that much of an effect. They would spring open by the first sign of thunder behind her anyway. It was a natural reaction for the pegasus race. And one that took true mastery of the wings to prevent from happening. A level of self-control that Rainbow lacked. It wasn't something she was truly ashamed of though. Even Spitfire from the Wonderbolts didn't had it. Only a very select few pegasi had such control over their body and wings throughout history. ~~~~                      Lightning and thunder followed each other up like Tartarus had come over to the grounds above. Spike managed to sleep through it thanks to whatever reason. Though Twilight was woken up by it. The unicorn found herself looking at the lightning from her study room with a set of interested eyes. Something inside of the violent weather had gotten her attention.         Her violet eyes looked over the places where the curving bolts emerged and where they traveled towards. But it didn't seem to be following any pattern she had learned from Rainbow. That little fact alone proved that it wasn't like any thunderstorm created up in Cloudsdale. Thus making it a rogue storm that came from no place other than Everfree itself. It were those kind of storms that happened to be a lot more dangerous, for they traveled all by themselves. There could be a hurricane waiting to be released for all she knew. A rogue storm was unpredictable.         “This is not good,” the unicorn mare mumbled to herself. Twilight took her eyes off of the skies and laid them on the insides of her study room. The mare glanced over all of her belongings in the light that was created by the flashes. Though the shadows they created managed to form some kind demonic-like beasts for the split seconds they were there.         It was a little something that caught the mare off guard and she shook her head a couple of time. “Well that’s something new,” Twilight replied to the lights with a giggle before she allowed herself to fall in the chair and leaned a little bit backward before the forelegs were placed right behind her head. ~~~~                      The minutes passed by before the storm of just lightning and thunder would have started to dissolve. It would dissolve into the vast nothingness it once originated from. At the first signs from it had the three beings of nightmares made a turnaround and returned to the dark crystal domain in the woods of White Tails. Their job was done for the moment. The waiting game had just begun.         Nightmare Rarity, Shadowfright and Shadowblood were all three as silent as the night. They didn't want to give away their position to anypony who could be wandering the woods. The two shadow stallion already morphed back into the clouded shape and started to hover ahead of their queen. A queen who on her own merged within the shadows by submerging herself within them. After which she simply slithered across the ground. It almost looked like a dark snake that was passing by if it would be seen by any eyes of a normal pony.         The trio of shadows traveled through the woods of Everfree towards the fog covered woods that were their domain. None of them had any trouble actually finding their way home. It only took them a few minutes of both slithering and floating to reach the front gate of the domain. A gate that always stood open in case some new test subjects had dared to make a wander into the lovely woods. The queen wasn’t too worried about enemy forces being able to draw close in either.         When the three of them had reached the courtyard of the place, the two clouds of shadow merged back into their stallion shaped size. The queen herself had to reemerge from the depths she had traveled into. The mare merged back into the physical world a bit differently than anypony would have expected.         First did her forelegs set themselves out of the shadow and unto the dark crystal, before the rest of her body followed up. Until she stood safe and sound upon the ground. A strange substance was dripping off of her body. It caused her to shudder before a gentle roar was released into the air. The substance itself seemed to be having the abilities of black tar, without the fact that it was boiling hot. It just streamed slowly from her body like it was some sort of slime, yet it didn't seem to be leaving any kind of trail behind it.         The substance was simply known as a little something that was called nothing else but liquid shadow by her and the nightmare forces. Something that was a side effect caused every single time she allowed her slender body to be submerged into the depths that is the shadows. The roar itself died down after the last bits of the stuff had made it to the ground. With a growl in her tone she gave her eyes a shady look over the surface of the domain.         Everything seemed to be in order and thus the queen straightened herself a bit again before she walked towards the tower in order to get a goodnight’s sleep. For days she had been running without any form of sleep to make sure that her plan would be simply perfect and with the delay set on the magic, there was time. Little did she knew, that another dark force also happened to be lurking around the foot of the fog. A force that was literally dying to meet her. ~~~~                      The nightmarish queen had laid her down on the velvet cushioned sofa. Her hoof went through the mane of one of her four savaged shadow stallions that laid before her like a dog. The creature made a couple of satisfied noises as she kept petting him. It almost seemed to be like the pure definition of relaxation for the queen herself. She had all of the time that the world could possibly offer to her and she was accompanied by her ‘pets’.         While the one laid before the sofa had the other three taken their places as her guard in the shadows close by her bed. They were actually hidden inside the wall itself, watching over every single inch of the room if there would be any kind of threat coming their or their queen’s way. The ultimate personal guard for the nightmarish queen was what they were. She loved every single second of it.         Yet with the time passing by like every other day, she needed her sleep and the grind of days wasn't really helping her to stay awake any longer. A long yawn left through the mouth of the unicorn just before she stopped petting and stood up.         The stop caused the savaged stallion to look up to her before he made some room for her to move. What happened next was the very fact that the unicorn dropped herself on the literally queen sized, posted bed without a care in the world. Everything was going according to plan so far. Before Nightmare Rarity knew it, she had fallen asleep with the blankets half over her body.         The eyes of the one physical savaged stallion looked over to the bed. Carefully had he walked closer in order to cover his queen fully in the blankets. Once he had done that, he too submerged himself into the shadows to join his three brethren into the endless watch.         The soft snoring of the queen filled the area and the four savages simply continued to look over the darkened room as well as the blanket covered body of the unicorn. Their sharp eyes were looking over every single inch of her but they could feel that something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong but they didn't see the how’s, the what’s and the why’s. ~~~~   There had been a dark force that had tailed around by the foot of the forest. A force that was rushing itself as a dark cloud towards the domain. The fog didn't do it anything whatsoever and even the false shepherds looked at the cloud with raised eyebrows. Trouble it was for certain, but there was nothing they could do against it. Nor any other force inside of the domain for that matter.         Once the black cloud had reached the entrance of the place, it continued to shoot itself forward and made a straight turn up into the skies. Shadowfright was the one who stood on watch and noticed how it climbed against the tower with the great ease. Yet he had not even a single clue of that what it possibly could be. None of the forces could have actually known it as it was just, cloud.         “...Can it be that that was the cloud which was used to grew the storm with?” Fright mumbled into himself. He shook his head a few times. He both believed and disbelieved the facts as they were given to him. While the possibility was there that it indeed happened to the cloud they used, something else inside of him told him it was everything but. He was frozen and just couldn't move another step into any direction. Not a single idea of what he could possibly do came up to him while his eyes simply kept on watching the racing cloud.         A cloud that stood on the balcony and managed to push its way through the small openings of the doors and windows. Thus it had gained access right into the room of the queen. That action triggered the four savages to jump out of the shadows and assumed an attacking stance against the intruder. Their growls were loud and intimidating but did nothing to the cloud while an all too familiar face revealed itself. The face of a stallion who was just as old as the original Nightmare. A face that Rarity had seen once before and didn't had the desire for to witness it for a second time.         The face inside of the cloud simply looked over the savages with a face of utter disinterest and turned itself over to the bed in which the queen laid peacefully and deeply asleep. “Ahhh, there she is,” a deep, male sounding voice spoke with a small echo in the tone. “Time for you to wake up. And to do it, right now.”         Almost as if he spoke a command over her did it happen. The mare that laid under the blanket moaned and groaned a little bit before the eyes were opened and the disorientation began. “W-What in the name..?” she spoke up under a yawn. The body was risen up on the bed itself and she caught something unusual in her eyes. Something that shouldn’t have been there.         The scenery as it had laid out before her was strange. The queen caught the four savages surrounding a cloud of darkness with a face inside of it. It was something that made her quickly to realize that she could be dreaming, but there was one thing she could differentiate better than anypony in the domain. And that was judging whether something was real life, or a dream. Though from the feelings it was definitely real life.         The unicorn looked over the face inside of the cloud a little bit better with a brain that was still half asleep. Though the realization just rushed through her. She knew exactly who it was and didn't even dare to believe what she saw. “That’s just impossible. You, you were dead!” she spat out.         “Speak my name, child. And we shall discuss the reasoning of why I’m here.”         Nightmare Rarity blinked a couple of times with her eyes before the head was given a rather violent shake in order to get everything straight in the upper chambers. “King... Sombra,” she eventually spoke up. One of her forehooves brought itself over to the side of her head. “How, and why? Why shouldn't I just rip you to shreds right here and now? You failed twice, third time’s the charm they say but I don’t intent to make that happen.”         “Let’s just skip the formalities and go straight down to business, shall we?” Sombra replied in a chuckle. He made the dare to move himself just a little bit closer towards the queen her face. Something that the savages didn't appreciate at all. “I want to strike an alliance between the two of us so we can take over the Crystal Empire and rule over it as a king, and queen.”         The words that were spoken were tempting for certain for the nightmarish queen. Even before her transformation she had always loved the looks of the empire. Ruling over it would certainly give her advantages unseen before. Though there was only one small problem with the entire plan. He was a ghost of yesterday. A spectral being that couldn't be chased by her doggish guards. It certainly placed him in the higher position and the unicorn knew that all too well, even though she was still half drunk of sleep herself.         “Your words have sparked my interest for certain, king. However, I’m afraid that I have to be telling you that I am going to decline your offer on the sheer basis that I’m not interested in an alliance between the two of us,” Nightmare Rarity answered him in a cold tone.         Those very words crushed all of the dreams and hopes that the ancient unicorn king had to regain his land. But it wouldn't be something that he let go unpunished. Because right after she spoke her words, the two of them emerged themselves into a heated argument filled with hatred towards one another. They both knew exactly what was at stake and Sombra even seemed to be knowing just who the queen used to be.         Arguments of reasons why it would be the best for the two of them to join up with one another were spoken by Sombra, while Nightmare Rarity just crushed them with words of her own. Everything he said towards her, was returned almost instantly and vice versa. The two simply weren't able to come to terms that would satisfy both parties. The heat walked up so much even, that the unicorn was getting more than enough of his pathetic little games and almost released the order to tear him to nothing but shreds. ~~~~                      Her mouth was standing open for a mere second before she glanced into the eyes of the landless king. All of the sudden was there the realization that came to her mind. He was a ghost of yesterday. Attacking him would most likely have ended up with two of the four savages pouncing into her after their jump. A thing which she couldn’t use at all in the moment.         With the mouth closed again, there was a deep sigh released by Sombra through his nostrils and small plumes of dark smoke left them. “So this is where our talking has been leading up? You’re a pathetic little queen, Nightmare Rarity. Nothing but a hoax waiting to die out and be buried under a pile of nothing,” Sombra replied to her, taunting her even further into the madness of his own.         Yet his words were something that almost fell into the wrong gullet for the mare. She opened her own mouth again in order to speak the words she desired. “Do you want to know, just how I got the nickname, the Queen of Fear?” she hissed to him before her horn charged itself up. If there was one thing she knew that would even hit the spectral ghost, it would be her magic as she knew that every being had fear for something, or somepony.         While the charge was being released from her horn, the king saw it too late. He was unable to avoid it and thus got the full load of it over himself. The moans and groans of the cloud were made before he turned himself back over to face the nightmarish queen. “What have you done, witch?!” he snarled out towards her before her skin started to boil like it was put into a pot of boiling water. “W-What are you, doing!?” The scene alone made him take a couple steps back as his eyes never seemed to be tearing themselves away from her.         Her skin continued to boil before the pimples of skin just erupted out with blood. There where the skin used to be, could the purple scales of his biggest fear be seen. “No! He’s, he’s supposed to be dead!” the ancient king shouted just before the true revelation was made to him. A revelation that would make sure, he would get away from her land.         Without a warning but with a roar of a dragon turned the queen into a purple scaled, green spiked dragon that kept growing in size until it had reached the ceiling with its back. His worst fear was looking him straight in the eyes for mere seconds. Then the jaw of the creature opened itself to reveal thousands of sharp, serrated fangs that were just ready to consume him on the very spot. Though to make matters even worse, Sombra was also given a look to deep inside of the dragon’s throat and noticed the light of a green fire traveling through it.         That could only mean just one more thing to him. The cloud just made sure it got out of the way before the green fires of hell itself were released. He needed to get out as the heat became him too much of the good stuff and just slithered back to the balcony. A balcony off of which he launched himself like a rocket.         In the bedroom had the queen never moved a single muscle during the event. She smirked towards his departure with great pleasure. “And good riddance to you,” she almost spoke with glee once he was truly gone. “You four, keep watch in physical form and make sure he doesn't return to finish the, job, shall we say.” The nightmarish unicorn then dropped her head back on the pillow. She wanted to fall asleep again for the second time that night. ~~~~                      At the foot of the woods, the very place where Sombra had landed, he watched over the forest with a feeling of disgust in his mouth. But he had found himself in a unique position. He knew exactly who the queen happened to be. Something that his mortal enemies didn't. He knew the fight between them wasn't over yet, Sombra would see himself as the victor over the queen of fear herself, but in order to do that he needed aid. His eyes tore themselves away from the woods and focused themselves upon the castle against the mountain in the far distance. “The royals of Equestria...”