The Not-So-Normal Adventures of King Sombra and Pinkie Pie

by Harmony Charmer


Chapter 26: External Confrontations

Pinkie couldn't even begin to form words within her head as she looked at Sombra, who stood so strong and powerful against the demon before both of them. She was so undeniably ecstatic and somewhat frightened at the same time as Sombra kept his tight hold on her, no intent on letting it up showing from his expression.

"S-Sombra?" Pinkie said, just barely above a whisper, "What happened to you? You look..."

"Different?" Sombra finished, his tone holding a strange quirkiness, "Yeah, I guess that's one way to look at it."

Pinkie blinked in surprise at his voice. It was the same, to a degree, but it held more of cynical humor to it with just a hint of child-like mirth. It was his own, yet not at the same time.

"Why do you sound... different?" Pinkie questioned, having finally found a word to describe his voice.

"Come on, I sound like this all the time!" Sombra told her, uncharacteristic perkiness resonating off of him, "I figured you'd recognize it!"

"Huh?" Pinkie blurted out, completely confused.

Sombra chuckled. "I guess it's safe to say ya don't remember me, huh? Well, I only talked to you once, so I guess that's understandable."

Pinkie gawked at him for a brief moment before shouting, "Conscience?!"

"Aw, ya got me!" Sombra-- er, Conscience-- exclaimed, a small laugh following afterwards, "Never could put anything past you, Pinks!"

Pinkie felt a strange feeling of uncomfortability at Conscience's use of Sombra's nickname for her and suddenly, his hold wasn't so familiar, let alone safe. Pinkie felt her eyes widen at the thought of her special somepony and she found herself looking over Conscience with peering eyes.

She'd be lying if she said he didn't look like him, she knew. But, that fact didn't take from how different he looked altogether, along with his quirky behavior that somewhat resembled her own.

Why had he changed into this strange persona? And where was the Sombra she'd been with for the past couple of months?

With fearful eyes, Pinkie's attention returned to The Shadow, who was glowering at Conscience and her with an indescribable amount of hate in his eyes. Then, she looked back at Conscience, who was returning the glower, though his held the unfamiliar quirkiness that she had yet to get used to.

"Conscience..." Pinkie said slowly, "What happened? To you, I mean."

Conscience spared her a glance that was devoid of his earlier glower at The Shadow and grinned at her. "Well, the short version is, I got a body of my own again. So, yeah, things are pretty stinkin' awesome right now."

"A-Again?" Pinkie repeated, unhinged by his word choice, "Are you saying Twilight was right?"

Conscience quirked a brow. "Depends on what Twily was talkin' about. Give me the abridged version, though. We got a time limit, 'member?"

Pinkie wasn't able to answer due to an aggravated growl from The Shadow. "Enough!" he snarled, "I will not put up with your insolence any longer!"

Conscience spared The Shadow a sideways look, then sparked his horn alive as he disinterestedly conjured up an orb of red energy. With an annoyed roll of his eyes, he shot it at The Shadow, the orb expanding and stretching into an odd shape. When it made contact with the dark being, it turned into a muzzle, which then latched around his jaws to prevent anymore movement on its' part.

While The Shadow was struggling to rid himself of the glowing red muzzle with his hooves, Conscience looked back at Pinkie. "Twilight. Time limit. Go."

After she spared The Shadow a bewildered look, Pinkie looked back at Conscience. "Well, uh, Twilight said that there was more than one version of Sombra because Cadence said that she heard him say something about it back in the hallway, though I have no idea why she would make a weird connection like that, and I mentioned that I talked to you once and Twilight thinks that you're the original Sombra, and now that I'm on it, are you the real Sombra? Wait, no, don't answer, I'm already confused and tired because I'm kinda depressed 'cause I don't know what's going on and I feel bad about not knowing because I normally do, ya know?"

Conscience nodded. "Yeah, what else?"

Somewhat surprised by the fact he wasn't perturbed by her speed talking, Pinkie hesitated before continuing. "So, then, uh... Twilight said there were multiple versions of you and now that there are two of you here, does that mean that..."

"That the Sombra you knew isn't here anymore?" Conscience finished.

"Y-Yeah..." Pinkie said, her voice shaky with fear.

Conscience sighed. "Unfortunately, the Sombra you knew isn't here. After we separated, things got a bit... complicated."

Pinkie gaped at him. "W-What?"

Sombra was gone? The pony she had been with for the past couple of months, the pony who had been there for her, the pony who she had fallen for was... gone?

Pinkie didn't have the proper amount of time to grieve over her loss when Conscience jerked her to the side and pulled her behind him in an attempt to shield her. Pinkie's eyes widened as she looked at the spot where they had been, where a large, gaping crater with columns of smoke rising from it laid.

"Looks like Shady over here lost his accessory," Conscience said, a brow arched upwards as he brought himself and Pinkie to their hooves.

Pinkie looked over at The Shadow, who was seething with rage as puffs of angry air flowed from his nostrils. The purple smoke that leaked from his eyes practically turned into flames and by the amount of release at which they were going, Pinkie could tell that he was beyond furious.

"W-What are we going to do?" Pinkie stammered uneasily as she looked back at Conscience with wide, terrified eyes.

Conscience gave her a lopsided grin. "Don't worry, Pinks. I got this."

Without so much as another word, Conscience released Pinkie from his protective hold and leaped at The Shadow, who was already readying a charge of his own. Conscience galloped at full speed as he rose his crystal sword, to which The Shadow rose one of his own.

Pinkie cringed as the crystalline blades clashed against one another and created a ringing sound within her ears. Both stallions, one dark, one light, stared the other down with the utmost aggression and despise. They both held their glares as they pushed their blades against the other's, the strain on their faces showing that they were both putting their all into their attack.

Finally, after a tense staredown, they both leaped back and mirrored the other as they let out small growls of anger.

"What's the matter, Shady?" Conscience breathed as he tried to regain his composure, "Can't take a beating, old stallion?"

The Shadow growled once more. "You're such a cretin... It'll be a pleasure to purge the world of your existence!"

Conscience laughed cruelly. "Ya know, you keep sayin' that, but I have yet to see you keep to your word! Heck, I've been here for a thousand years with you tellin' me that and whatdaya know, I'm alive!"

Pinkie could barely believe her own ears and eyes as she continued to watch Conscience taunt the dark demon with the utmost ease. It was almost as if he weren't...

...Afraid.

'Is that why he can't be affected?' Pinkie asked herself, her eyes blinking as a new perception showed for the strange stallion.

His grin held no malice, but a strange sense of cynical humor and his eyes glinted with amusement as he watched The Shadow get angrier and angrier with each passing remark. Conscience was so different from Sombra, Pinkie already knew, but as she watched him continue to stand against The Shadow, she realized that he shared a quality that her Sombra held:

He wanted to keep her safe.

It was oddly comforting, especially with all the strange things that had taken place over the past couple of days. Sweet Celestia, the day they arrived in Canterlot turned a full 180 in less than a couple hours! And now that he was here, standing against her biggest tormentor yet, Pinkie began to realize just how much this stallion meant well.

Her thoughts were broken through as The Shadow leaped at Conscience, who was ready for his pounce and held up his crystal sword to prevent any injury to his person. A snarl escaped The Shadow, whose eyes were narrowed in the utmost aggression as he bared his menacingly large fangs. Pinkie shivered as she noted that they were undeniably sharper than Sombra's, no doubt meant for actual harm than just intimidation.

"How can you be so confident in yourself?" The Shadow snarled, "It wasn't that long ago that you were a sniveling, pathetic excuse of a stallion who was still mourning over the loss of his precious, little--"

Conscience cut off The Shadow by knocking him off of him with a loud yell of anger. "Don't you dare bring her into this! That wasn't my fault and you know it!"

The Shadow grinned as he picked himself up and laughed to himself. "Hit a soft spot? Don't be so surprised, you whelp."

Pinkie blinked in surprise. 'Wait a minute... I heard somepony say that before...'

A familiar sick grin came to mind, framed by straight magenta hair that gave her face a frightening shadow to make her all the more horrifying. Pinkie gasped as she realized the connection, which caused both stallions to look at her.

"Y-You're..." Pinkie started slowly, her voice small and shaky, "You're Pinka!"

It was strange, calling out the nickname of a beloved friend who had turned into an inner demon like she had. But, it wasn't nearly as strange as coming to terms with the fact that the return of said ex-friend was actually the darkness within her special somepony who was gone from her world and that said darkness was in her mind.

Yep, really, really strange.

The Shadow laughed, and Pinkie shivered as she noticed how it resembled Pinkamena's. "Ha, so you're not as stupid as I thought! I'm quite impressed, to be honest. Perhaps Sombra wasn't completely in the wrong for finding love in you."

Pinkie barely processed his insult as she began to realize the horror in what The Shadow had done. If he had managed to get into her head like that, who was to say he hadn't done the same in any other situation? And what if he had planted those same seeds of doubt within her friends, Sombra included?

"Sweet Celestia, just what are you?" Pinkie breathed, her eyes wide as she stared at demon before her with newfound fear.

The Shadow smirked in the most sick manner. "You're so easy to manipulate, especially now that that stallion of yours is gone."

Pinkie gasped, but The Shadow took no heed of her pain and instead relished in it as he continued on.

"Ah, Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter itself, corrupt because of her belief in love." The Shadow spat out the word as if it were poison, which, to him, it must have been. "So full of it, and cheer as well, who could forget?"

"Enough!" Conscience exclaimed as he leaped into action, "This fight doesn't concern her!"

The Shadow spared Conscience a bored look as he cast a spell so quickly, that Conscience wasn't prepared for it. A black net of crystalline darkness wrapped around him and pinned him to the floor, much to the surprise of Pinkie, but not nearly as much as Conscience himself.

"What on earth are you--" Conscience didn't finish his sentence as black electricity crackled through the black bindings and onto him, the result of which being his loud, painful screams.

"Did you really think that you stood a chance against me on your own?" The Shadow questioned, though his tone was rhetorical, "Honestly, this almost tops your pathetic endeavor to get that mare of yours back."

"Sh-Shut up!" Conscience snarled through his painful hisses, "I'll-- I'll--"

"You'll what?" The Shadow said with a sick grin, "face it, you fool. I've won this battle, and soon, the Empire will be mine for the taking."

"Leave him alone!" Pinkie exclaimed suddenly as she leaped in front of Conscience's form, the outburst coming out of her against her will.

Both stallions spared Pinkie wide eyed looks, their pairs of eyes causing her to lose her nerve almost as soon as it arrived.

"Oh? Are you going to protect your little stallion now, Pinkie, dear?" The Shadow gave her an amused expression, which only fueled her anger. However, she wasn't given time to react properly as he cast a similar binding spell on her, which put her beside Conscience on the floor.

"Ah, how the great have fallen... The great Pinkie Pie, who giggled at the ghostly and laughed in the face of fear itself!" He laughed haughtily. "Now that your 'ha, ha, ha''s have been silenced, now you can see the truth."

Pinkie's eyes widened in fear as his horn sparked alive and she felt her vision turn to darkness as the cold, sharp feeling of fear stabbed through her entire being.

"Your friends all left you behind, dear," he whispered to her, "can't you see their affections were all false?"

Pinkie let out cries of sadness as she watched all of her friends reject her attempts at making them laugh, each one more painful than the last.

Twilight slammed the library door in her face, but not before throwing a book at her. Cruelly enough, it was a joke book.

Pinkie felt welts grow on her limbs as she watched Applejack toss dozens of apples at her, shouts of curses and anger flowing through the air and into her head like a disease.

A sheen of cold water doused her as Rainbow Dash pounded into a heavy raincloud, which then turned into a burning sensation as a bolt of lightning struck her painfully.

Thinking it couldn't get worse, Pinkie was shocked to see Fluttershy order her animals to attack her. Long, deep cuts covered her entire body as Pinkie screamed and screamed for help, but none came as ponies cheered on the pain that was being undone to her.

Finally, a pony broke through the crowd and Pinkie was relieved to see it was Rarity. However, while she expected kindness, she was met with the pain of hundreds of needles piercing her skin and cuts, while Rarity claimed she was merely sewing up wounds, but Pinkie knew it was false.

"Cold, alone, friendless..." Pinkie heard The Shadow say, "for all of eternity..."

"P-Please..." Pinkie begged.

"Let your nightmares take over... Become just like--"

"SOMBRA, NOW!"

PInkie felt her pain dissipate into nothing as The Shadow's voice left her mind and body, then took in deep breaths of air, not realizing she had been holding her breath the entire time.

"W-What?!" she heard The Shadow cry, "How is this possible?!"

"It's over, you monster!"

'Twilight...?' Pinkie thought, her strength fading fast.

"What in Tartarus did you do to her?! What did you do to our friend?!"

'R-Rainbow Dash...' Pinkie felt tears come to her eyes as she realized that the nightmare she experienced was just that: a nightmare.

"Quick, get her out of here! I don't want him to come near her!"

Pinkie felt her entire being freeze as she recognized that voice, while her heartbeat rose to that of a kettledrum. She knew that she shouldn't have been so happy to know he was there, especially after everything they had been through. But, she was, and she wasn't going to let logic tell her that she couldn't be.

"S-So..." Pinkie said quietly, the strength in her words barely getting through the loudness of the clamor.

"Hang on, she's trying to say something!" she heard him shout. Celestia, how she missed hearing his voice.

"S-Som..." Pinkie tried to say again, only to fall short once more.

"Shh, dear, don't talk, you're weak," he told her, his hoof coming to her lips softly, "you need to rest."

Pinkie felt tears come to her closed eyes as she heard his pet name for her, which only increased the yearning in her heart.

"Sombry..." Pinkie said finally, the first time she had said it out loud in what felt like forever.

"Yes, Pinks..." Sombra told her, his nose brushing against hers in the softest manner, "Sombry's here."

The last thing Pinkie felt before she lost consciousness was the brush of his lips against hers.