Princess Mi Amore Cadenza galloped close behind her sister-in-law and newly crowned princess, Twilight Sparkle, as the latter rushed toward the Everfree Forest at full speed. Cadence's violet eyes darted about as she took in their surroundings. The trail was rough, and the edges were beginning to become overgrown. Soon, however, the two skidded to a stop outside a strange looking house.
"Zecora?" Twilight called, cupping her fore hooves around her mouth. "Are you home?"
"Just one minute, my dear," the zebra's voice called from inside. "Come in, I am here."
Twilight and Cadence shared a look before walking up to the door. As Twilight opened to door, she asked, "So, why did you call us here?"
"A very good question you seek; an intruder has appeared, come take a peek." With this, Zecora motioned to the grey unicorn that was sitting behind her. He was bound and gagged, and a metal ring hung from his horn, made for canceling a unicorn's magic. Cadence's eyes widened as she took in the strange stallion in front of her.
His horn was smooth, not unlike a changeling drone's, and faded from red to grey. The unicorn's eyes were red and green, with wisps of purple floating from the corners. His fluffy black mane hung in his eyes as he glared at the two princesses.
"SOMBRA?!!" Cadence instinctively readied a spell, only for Twilight to stop her.
"We need to know what Celestia wants to do with him first. Then we can use him as a living punching bag."
Cadence smirked, "I kind of like the sound of that." She leaned in real close to ex-king Sombra to whisper, "Nopony hurts my crystal ponies."
Sombra's pupils shrank as he struggled to scoots away from the pink alicorn. Twilight chuckled at his reaction to the seemingly crazy pony.
"So how did Sombra get here, Zecora?" Twilight turned to the zebra.
"An old mistake can really bite, and the Alicorn Amulet gave me such a fright," Zecora stated. "For the jewel inside turned into a pony who made me want to hide."
Cadence frowned, "The Alicorn Amulet turned into Sombra? How?"
Twilight thought for a second, "Unless the gem was...his horn!"
"Eww!"
"Doubly noted."
Princess Celestia sighed as she and Chrysalis waited for the train station where Princesses Cadence and Twilight would be arriving. Prince Shining Armor had arrived straight from the Crystal Empire (which had turned into a sort of democracy while he was gone) and was up at the castle settling in.
"Are you absolutely sure I won't be shot once they see me?" Chrysalis whined. Ever since she had been found wandering the streets of Manehattan without a disguise (the reasons why being unknown even to Chrysalis), she was dragged alongside either Celestia, Luna, Discord, or any combination of the three.
"Positive!" Celestia forced a smile. "Shining Armor didn't shoot you."
"He tried."
"Oh look, here they come!" The train pulled into the station ahead of them. After almost all of the passengers got off (several giving Chrysalis strange looks) Twilight, Cadence, and a grey unicorn who was suspended in pink magic walked up to the two royals. Celestia thought she recognized the unicorn, but she couldn't put her hoof on who.
"Celestia!" Twilight bowed to her ex-mentor before giving her a quick hug. "Uh...hi, Chrysalis."
"That's 'Queen Chrysalis' to you, but nopony seems to know that."
Twilight shrugged, "Whatever you say, Chrysalis."
"This has got to be the worst day ever," Cadence groaned upon seeing the undisguised changeling queen. "First Sombra and now you? Who's next, Nightmare Moon?!"
Celestia shook her head, "No, Nightmare Moon stayed at the castle."
Cadence's jaw dropped.
"Kidding!" Celestia giggled. She then paused to think about what her niece had said. "Sombra's back?!"
The two other alicorns nodded their heads solemnly. Sombra's hooves waved unenthusiastically as he struggled against Twilight’s magical bonds. His eyes darted from alicorn to alicorn to alicorn to changeling.
“Why can’t he just stay at the castle?” Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “I mean, you’ve already got Discord and I there. Another pony shouldn’t be too much trouble.”
Cadence deadpanned. “He enslaved the entire Crystal Empire before causing it to disappear for a thousand years.”
“Gotcha. Bad idea.”
“Actually, though I never thought I’d say this, but Chrysalis is right.” Twilight smiled knowingly at Celestia. “But on one condition: Sombra rooms with…”
“…Hello, Roommate!!!” Discord grinned at the grey unicorn in front of him. He couldn’t wait to stay up late talking about nachos, pizza, and marshmallows while they did each other’s hair, and tell scary stories about pudding monsters that ate entire islands and filled up entire ponds (it would be oceans but he was on a budget) and the stories would have an undermining romantic arc which would end in a pudding war during the great dark chocolate ages in which the two main characters would profess their eternal love for each other before dying from their mortal wounds (that they gave each other using pudding spears) only to learn that one cannot date another in the afterlife! It would then be followed by a sequel in which the marshmallow monsters decided to eat New York but choked on the Big Apple. The stories would then be turned into movies where everyone who watched it would say “the book was sooo much better”, so they would have to actually write the books and Sombra could illustrate the stories by doing silly charades at two thirty-seven in the morning while Discord tried to translate his motions into story form. It would be so awesome!
Sombra however, could not believe his bad luck. Of all the worst things that could happen, this was the! Worst! Possible! Thing!