The Lost Years...
Somber woke up again, this time in a dull pain...bandages wrap his still seeping wounds. The sound of slow hoofsteps echo in the cave.
"D-dont..." Somber managed weakly.
"It is alright, I wont bring you further harm. My name is Ancient Tome...can you sit up?"
Somber opened his eyes, the stallion was wrapped in robes of various states of decay and quality; anything to keep warm...his soft pale eyes were disturbing, yet the green mist that emanated from them was even more haunting. Somber tried to move but none of his limbs responded yet, the numbing feeling still overwhelming his body.
"Who are you..?" He said quietly...
The old stallion laughed and shook his head.
"Quite the knock on the noggin, lad? As I said,My name is Ancient Tome."
Somber sat up slowly, head clearing up quickly and numbness wearing off...pushing himself upright;he winced in pain when his left hoof shot pain up his arm when he put weight on it..
"Ah, that one was far more damaged than even I can heal in one session. You don't even want to know what it looked like...before I healed you. Now...what is your name...?"
Ancient Tome sat down slowly and stared deeply at Somber...the empty grey eyes seemed to look into his soul with their empty gaze.
"I...I don't remember..." he said, voice returning as his body slowly started to regain feeling,other than pain.
"Shame...lucky for you, I know who you are." He said with a cheery tone.
Tome laughed a little again at Somber's shocked expression.
"But I'm not telling you until I am certain, these things need to be...set in stone...before I can make that decision...but...if it is any consolation, thou have the raw strength to be thee..."
Tome got up again and laughed even more, Somber started to get frustrated...no memory of why he ended up trapped in a cave with a blind and insane coot. If this coot knew his name, why keep it secret?
"Just...wait, why are you talking in riddles, old man?"
Tome turns around and starts walking, laughing all the while. Somber glared and attempted to fully stand up, panic was setting in now that somepony had the answers, yet refused to share them.
"Wait, explain yourself!"
Somber got up and limped to follow, pain spiking up and causing him to nearly collapse with each unsteady step.
"Ancient Tome!"
The old pony walked out into the snow storms, robes suddenly flowing with darkness...in the sub zero temperatures outside, no pony could stand in the storms for longer than a minute before hypothermia would set in. Yet the old pony seemed the same as he was sitting by the fire.
"How are you..."
"When you can leave this cave, you will know the truth. When you return to your rightful place, you will understand your purpose in life!"
Tome laughed again and continued on, shadows flowing around him in the wind somehow keeping him warm. Somber needed to know...now more than ever, he needed to know what this pony knew...Somber grabbed the blanket off his makeshift bed and wrapped himself up, lighting a orange flame in front of himself and charging outside..The second he left the mouth of the cave, nothing but cold and ice greeted him...The fire was snuffed out by the wind and forced Somber to stop a few feet from the cave and felt his limbs stiffen.
"Tome....answer me!!!" Somber shouted into the blank storm
"ANSWER ME!!!"
Somber was bitter that he had to run back to the safety of the cave...Tome still had yet to return, perhaps he was just crazy, and now he was alone with no food or hope of rescue...
"If you are hungry, I have brought back something that might open some doors in that thick skull of yours." Tome said with a condescending tone.
Somber jumped, startled that he managed to get back without a sound and even carried a full bag of what seemed to be food.
"What is that?"
Tome lifted the bag off with a whirlwind of dark magic, letting it drop to the ground and the flap fly open. Somber backed up a little to avoid the tumbling assortment of fruits,vegetables and even breads; he felt his stomach growl...How long had it been since he had eaten? Somber lost all control of himself, immediately grabbing a roll and stuffing his face, Tome just laughed quietly and sat down.
"It has been a few weeks since you had the strength to eat...I'm sorry I did not think about your well being."
Somber just kept eating, fresh and delicious apples with carrots, sweet cheese bread and frost tomatoes....
"It has been a long time since I have eaten. The shadows sustain me as well as they can..."
Tome looked down at Somber and growled like an angry grandfather at his inattentive grandson, he even smacked Somber over the head like one and scowled.
"Pay attention, boy. I'm imparting my first lesson and all you're paying attention to is your chubby stomach!"
Somber winced at the smack and put down the half eaten loaf of bread...looking down at his showing rib cage..
"Chubby? My flan-"
Tome thwaped him again.
"Hush. Now...think on this, boy. I have not eaten since my sixth birthday...the cake was delicious, butter cream made by the kindest mare...Sweet Thing...Celestia she had an amazing......cake..."
Tome shook his head and laughed, embarrassed that he got off track, Somber just sat confused and hungry still....
"I am well over a hundred years old...how do you think this is possible?"
Somber tilted his head..if it was true, then it was impossible. Yet with no proof of a falsehood...
"I said it a moment ago if you would listen. It is by the shadows that I still live...by the darkness,my body and mind are free of death and fatigue. Now, all this food...is your reward...if you pass my first test."
The food was wrapped in darkness and stuffed back into the bag, the satchel flowed in darkness until it vanished like smoke...scattering though the the cave like it never existed. Somber looked around for any scraps...anger welling up.
"How dare you treat me like some beggar, I've been starving for weeks now!"
Tome scoffed and leaned forward, Somber backing up slightly.
"How dare I? You are no king yet, boy...the darkness will sustain you...or you will die, either way,it proves a point."
"A-A point?! What point is there in senseless death?!"
Tome smirked, wrinkles bunching up and a shine coming to his pale eyes.
"That..is why you are destined for greatness....you will find a way to bring the shadows into light once again."
There was always a risk...always...and still I continue on...because the risk is worth the effort, the hardship and the suffering. The risk is worth the result. If I can make him see the flickering light in the darkness...then my life will not be wasted;but there are constant changes. A choice of pearl, and not emerald...or something simple like a second look under that rug to find the trap door...even something as simple as a time...one week early...Perhaps all it takes, to send this whole thing, my whole life down the drain...is a name...
_ _
Somber slept, shivering next to the fire and more hungry than he could ever remember being...Tome just sat across from him and watched. Somber tried for hours to figure out how dark magic could 'sustain' a full grown man, failing to understand the lesson that Ancient Tome wanted to impart...
"Breaks over, back to work." Tome said sharply.
Somber jumped awake and stood up quickly, world spinning slightly from the exhaustion...but he followed orders in desperation. Somber focused all he ever learned about dark magic, centering it around him and trying to summon a four course meal....Tome just laughed...laughed hard, almost fell over laughing.
"It is not about conjuring, fool! It is about control."
As much as Somber wanted to understand how this wizard was reading his mind, his stomach was on the verge of eating itself. Legs starting to shake and vision blurry, Somber glared at the old man in contempt..
"You can't control this power, you merely use it! Its got a mind of its own and you know it!!"
Somber fell to the ground, his body no longer able to stand again. The darkness took advantage and started to rend and tear at Somber's insides like an animal... curling up as purple lightning sparks around his body and green mist emits from his eyes.
"Wrong. It is a wild beast, a beast that only a chosen few can tame...and I believe you are such a user. Now prove me right you pathetic excuse of a prince!"
Like a flame....a spark in the night or flash of thunder in a black storm....Tome's shout made Somber feel a burning fury that ignited the ground around him in green flames. Suddenly the dark power filled his heart, turning it black, but giving his strength to stand. Just the word prince sent a flash of memories, all rushing too fast to understand. Ground of the cave cracking with the heat of the flames and weight of the power coursing though this stallion...Tome smiled slightly, Somber stood up, darkness filling his body and turning him back into the imposing stallion he once was...eyes even glowing a full ivy green. The darkness was his power now, his heart withstood its raw strength and it belonged to him.
"I am not a prince!!!" He shouted down at Tome.
All the rage, loneliness and confusion built up and sent Somber over the edge again...this time though, he was ready to accept the shadows. The glow in his eyes faded, leaving blood red irises and a soft green around them. Last...his horn was twisted by the darkness, curving it back in a sickening way.
"You are a king...And I am certain, you... are King Sombra..." Tome said quietly, smile still on his face.
Sombra..?
"I have been waiting for you, a hundred years I've been waiting for you, dope!"
Sombra recoved a hard thwack on the head with dark magic. All the anger became confusion, Tome seemed livid suddenly...
"One in a million! You were one in a milllion, but did you have to take so long?! Goodness, boy...my old heart couldn't wait much longer..."
"Sombra...?" He asked himself more than he did Tome.
"Yes, you dolt...The great King Sombra, destined to birth light into the shadows. End this time of idiocy and bring dark magic back to its rightful place..."
Sombra backed up slowly...the shadows coursed though his very blood and darkness.. darkness filled the void where food and water was needed. By all rights, 'bringer of darkness' isnt normally a title given to someone who is destined to do good.
"What do you mean?"
Tome sighed and stood up, pacing as he explains.
"Ever since my people, your people...Ever since the beginning, dark magic was just a side to a coin. Light is what dark is not...and vice versa. It was a balance....then it was twisted...denounced to be evil when the god of the moon used its power in a usurping of the throne."
Sombra felt the memory return as he spoke...the story was a bit different than the way he heard it but..
"Ever since then, the pratice has been lost...no longer passed on by bloodline or mentor and student...simply abused by any who read from my book..."
Sombra had to sit down...this insane pony was calling him the chosen one..? It was a hard truth to accept, but it made sense; he even could remember the name....Sombra... Now he had a gift, the strength and will to change everything...to bring the dark back into the light...two sides to the same coin, rejoined. Whatever his life was before...it would simply hold him back.
"King Sombra...I ask much from you, there are things that you must do alone..if you are to fulfill your destiny. You can be hated, loved, shunned or even worshipped...but you must follow the light in order to end this nightmare...will you accpet, and subject to the most painful study that there is, in this life and the next?"