Sombra awoke to a light blinding him. He looked out the window and saw that Celestia already had the sun high in the sky. He got up and stretched. He hadn't slept that good in a long time. He shot a glare at the sun. It was bright and he liked the dark a lot more than that blinding ball of light.
Sombra walked out of the room. The first pony he saw was Midnight Fire. The colt ran up to him and tried to jump onto his back. As he ran, Sombra crouched a little to make it easier for him, even though he would still have to jump kinda high. Sombra was a tall stallion, not much shorter than Celestia. Midnight leapt and almost missed. Sombra lifted him onto his back with magic. He did extremly simple levitation, just about every unicorn can do it. Midnight Fire sat on his back looking happy as Sombra walked to the kitchen, looking for Starcrossed. He saw Mist Seeker out of the corner of his eye behind him and quickly moved to the darkest part of the room. Shadows hide him rather well in both forms. Midnight Fire stayed still and silent on Sombra's back. Mist Seeker passed them without spotting the duo. Sombra came out of the shadow and continued over to the kitchen. He walked in and Starcrossed notices them.
"Morning you two!" She said cheerfully.
Sombra felt Midnight Fire shift on his back and he crouched so he could jump off. He jumped as far as he could, which is only about two feet.
"He wants you to stay. You seem to know what he wanted out there and just now."
"Lets just say he is not the first to want to have a ride on my back." Sombra said, remebering his younger sister.
"You played with foals before you were banished?" She asked. "Yes. I'll tell you later." he said as he heard hoofsteps approaching.
(Unedited from here on out.)
I know that Mist Seeker is coming because they and heavier than Midnight Fire's steps. Mist seeker enters with Midnight Fire not far behind. Midnight Fire runs at me again. I lower myself to a height that he can get on without me having to help him. He lands in the middle of my back and I stand. Mist Seeker glares at me, but I just ignore him.
"We're going outside!" Midnight Fire anounces. I chuckle slighly and walk out outside. Many ponies are out now because the storm is over. I see a large pile of snow not very far away. I scan it, looking for anything that would harm Midnight Fire underneath the soft, powery snow. Upon seeing nothing, I lift Midnight Fire up with magic and hold him above the snow. He starts squealing in mock terror, laughing as he does. I drop him inside and he screams happily. His scream if muffle because of the snow. I walk to the snow and walk around it. Midnight Fire is trying to dig his way out. I part the snow, making a good sized hole. I see him sitting down in the snow laughing hard.
"Can you help me make a snowpony?" He asks once he is done laughing.
Without saying anything, I lift him out of the snow and set him down on the ground. He starts to make a ball of snow to make one of the four legs. I decide not to use magic do the same thing. I had done the same thing with my family. I hear a few young voices nearby. Midnight Fire looks up from what he was doing.
"Come on guys! Helps us build a snowpony!"
Midnight Fire yells to a colt and two fillies. They run over and begin to help. Soon the snowpony is done.
"Who are you?" A white filly with very light silver mane asks.
"Sombra."
"Hi Sombra! I'm Winterflake, he Clouded Storm, and she is Frozen Flare."
Winterflake said pointing first to dark grey colt with a few shades lighter mane and then an ice blue filly with a few shades lighter mane that has silver streaks in it. I nod slightly to them.
"Winterflake. Frozen Flare. You need to come in." A mare calls not very far away.
"Bye Sombra!" They yell as they run to the mare.
"Your a unicorn!"
Exclaimed Clouded Storm. He must've just noticed.
"What kind of magic can you do?" Midnight Fire asks.
I think for a second on this. I need to do simple spells that don't require dark magic. "Just a few simple spells." I reply.
"Can you show us one?" Clouded Stormed asked.
I nod and think about what spell. I can make it look like I use magic to grow crystals. I use a simple levitation spell and stomp one hoof. By have the magic aura, it looks like my magic is doing it and not just being half crystal pony. I finnish the spell and they climb on the small black crystal. Well, small compared to what I normally do.
"That was cool!" Both of them exclaim.
"Yeah, it was." A female voice says not far from us.
I look around to Starcrossed at the door of her house. I see Mist Seeker glaring daggers at me from the window. I just ignore him. He can't harm me, so why care? I glance at the ground to see what time it was. I don't need to see the sun to know what time it is. I haven't seen it for a while and can tell what time of day it is by seeing how bright the light is aroud me. I see Midnight Fire and Clouded Storm jumping of the crystal. I make it disapear, but still hiding the crystal pony part with magic. The two run off to somewhere. I don't really pay attention.
"Let me show you around our little village."
Starrossed says and starts to trot to who knows where. I trot not far behind her. Some ponies noticed me. They began to talk with their friends most likely about my horn, armor and other stuff that I don't care about. Starcrossed enters a building. I follow her. The building looks like a small caffè. She orders something and motions for me to follow her to a table. She sits down on one side and I'm on the other.
"You mentioned that Midnight Fire wasn't the first foal you had played with like that. Who did you play with?"
I tried to think of an excuse and realized she needed to know.
"My sister was like that." I said.
"Wait, you have a sister?!" Starcrossed exclaimed.
"Yes, did Fire not save that in your book?" I asked.
"No. What was her name?" She asked.
"Medianoche Sombra, or Midnight Shadow"
"She has your name!" Starcrossed said with surprise.
"No, she doesn't. We don't share names, just the last part of our names are the same." I explain to her.
"Wait, the last part? Your name is not what everypony thinks it's to be? What is your name?" She asked.
"Sombra Oculta, Hidden Shadow. I just kept the original. My family has names all in a different lanuage. My great-grandparents came from another country, other than Equestria or the Empire. We liked to keep using the language as our own and were named in that translation. We were still taught how to speak like everypony else here, just spanish is our main language."
"Wow, your family seems complicated. Can you still speak spanish?"
"Tan fácil como nunca. Easy as ever."
"I'm jut gonna pretend I know what you said." She said, a little uncertian about me speaking a different language.
"Go ahead."
I don't really care if anypony can understand my primary language. I spot a steel pony unicorn enter the caffè.
"Who is she?" I ask.
"Oh, she is Star Gazer. The only unicorn steel pony that I know of. She is rather snobbish because she thinks that nopony else is as good as her." Starcrossed said.
Star gazer spotted me and is walking over. I stand to let this mare know I won't tolerate anything. She ignores what I do and keeps walking.
"Well, well, well. I see somepony wants to pretent he is a unicorn." She sneared.
I keep my cool and let her continue.
"Why don't you remove that fake and stop trying to be better than me."
That's because I am better than you.
"What are you a mute? Ha! How pathetic. First you try to fool everyone, then you can't even talk. I shouldn't talk to low life like you." Star Gazer said and turned away.
"That is because you don't know who I am." I say, hiding the snake lisp, but not bothering to try to hide the unnaturaly deep voice.
"Oh, so you do speak." She said, turning to me once again.
"Let's prove that that thing is a fake. Come outside and we will have a magic duel." She said and walked off.
I looked at Starcrossed to see what she thinks.
"Beat her tail. It would be nice to see her ego beat down a bit."
Starcrossed said and stood. I walk outside with Starcrossed not far behind. I see Star gazer standing not far away.
"Do a simple levitation spell."
She said and levitated some snow. I rolled my eyes and looked at Starcrossed. She understood and I levitated her. Star Gazer looked shocked, but quickly covered it up with a smirk.
"So you can levitate. Big deal. Teleport yourself."
She said and proved she can do it. I set Starcrossed down and telported us both to right behind Star Gazer.
"Hey, where'd he go?"
She asked anypony. One pointed to right behind her at me and Star Gazer jumped around.
"I can easily perform any extremly simple spells that you can do." I said.
Starcrossed got out of the way and stood by all the other ponies that had gathered. She performed a few other spells and I easily matched them.
"This is getting boring you know." I said. She ignored me.
"Show us what you got."
"I'm sure you don't want to see that." I said. She looked at the crowd.
"Oh yes. I think we all want to."
She said, speaking for the crowd that looked like they were expecting nothing good. I shrug and feel the dark magic flow into me. The white in my eyes are now green and the purple smoke that seems to flow out of them is there.
"Now, do you still want to see?"
I say, for the firt time in this duel speaking normally. Star gazer looked creeped out. "Yes."
She said in a strong voice even though I can sense her fear. My horn shows the dark magic as I make two, kinda small crystal apear. They were small in my opinion. "Good enough?" I ask.
"Y-yes."
She stutters before running away. I make the crystal disapear and all signs of dark magic gone. Starcrossed runs over.
"I knew you could do high level spels, but I didn't kow that you are a dark magic user." She said.
"Yes, I've been a dark magic user most of my life." I say as many ponies begin to come close.
"Who are?"
"What was that?"
"Where are you from?"
"I'm King Sombra.I use dark magic and you could say I'm from The Crystal Empire!"
I answer the three questions I heard the most. I teleport Starcrossed and myself back to house. I teleported us to the inside so we wouldn't be seen.
"You beat her! You scared her!"
Starcrossed was excited about that. Mist Seeker walked inside with Midnight Fire behind him. Mist Seeker glares at me while Midniht Fire just stands there.
"Wow! You are so cool!"
He says excitedly. I didn't say anything, just stood tall and out of sight from the windows. I back up a bit to hide in the shadows. I saty there for the rest of the day. Everypony just kept doing what ever they were doing. I don't want to be the center of attention right now. I slowly fall into a dreamless sleep like I always do. Well, I thought I did.
-----------------------Sombra's Dream------------------
I was walking around the small village. It seemed like nopony could see me. I see myself and Starcrossed in the window of the small caffè. I walk up to the window and watch as I explained how I knew what Midnight Fire wanted and my name. I see a pony out the corner of my eye and reconize Star Gazer. She was talking to a few of her friends.
"Look, there is a new unicorn." One of them said.
"I bet he is a fake." Star Gazer said.
"You should embaress his sorry flank." Her other friend said.
"Yeah, come on girls. We have a weakling to scare."
"I just hope he doesn't reconize me."
I hear her say to quietly for her friends to hear. I don't know what she is talking about. They go inside and I try to follow, but something hold me back. Suddenly the scene changes to when we were having the duel. It was right before Star Gazer had run away. She looked fearfully at what I was doing. Well, the past me.When she ran, this time I followed. I want to see what she was doing. She runs into a house that I'm asuming is hers. I manage to get in and find her sobbing on her bed. She is holding a picture of two foals. One has super fluffy mane that goes everywhere. I reconize the filly in the picture. She is one of my friends that was named Star Gazer. This mare on the bed is a unicorn and my friend wasn't a unicorn. I notice that the teal mane and tail look almost exactly the same. This Star Gazer just has her mane is a loose braid and her forelock is shorter. My friend had a longer forelock. The more I look at the pisture to the mare, the more I realize that she is still alive. I wonder how she lived a thousand years.
"I loved you."
Star gazer whispers. I look at the other foal and notice that the colt is me. The room starts to get blurry. I try to focus, but can't.
--------------------End of Sombra's dream---------------
My head snapped up. I remeber the dream. I need to see Star gazer. The house is dark and it looks like it is night. I stand up and walk to the door quietly. I open and close it softly. I sigh and begin to walk to Star Gazer's house. Nopony is awake at the hour of night. I reach her house and see a few lights on. I knock on the door. I don't expect anyone to answer though. The door opens and the light from inside blinds me. I hiss lightly at the light. I see Star Gazer standing in the doorway.
"What do you want?"
She asks a little bitterly. I stand tall and say,
"To talk to you."
She looks shocked, but invite me in.
"When did you get the horn?" I ask her.
"I guess I always had it. My mane just covered it." She answers.
I nod and look at her.
"Sorry for scareing you earlier." I say even though it feels wrong.
"King Sombra, how did you become what you are?"
"First, you don't need to call me that. Second, I use dark magic. It is so much stronger tha normal magic. Even Celestia couldn't beat me. It was Luna who did." I said to my old friend.
"Sorry for being a total jerk earlier. I needed to hide the fact that I knew you once."
"Everypony makes mistakes. There is nopony alive who hasn't made a mistake." I said knowingly.
"Not the princesses." she said.
"Yes, Celestia made a mistake by underestimating me, and not trying help the ponies enjoy Luna's moon. She let them just enjoy her sun. That helped Luna become Nightmare Moon. Whom I knew very well. I'm now assuming that Nightmare Moon is no more and Luna is back."
I said, trying get her to realize that nopony is perfect. Celestia lacks purity just like every other pony.
"How did you manage to stay alive for a thousand years?"
"You've been hidden for a thousand years?!?!"
"Yes, now, how are you still alive? Midnight Fire is no more. Starcrossed is his decendant."
"Well, I was in the Crystal Empire a few weeks ago. With a few friends. I had heard that you were currently living there and wanted to see you. Well, everypony there was hidding and it seemed like some sort of battle was going on. I didn't pay any attention to it and continued looking for you. I caught a glimpse of you fighting the princesses. I watched the whole thing. It took me a while to realize that the stallion fighting was the same one that escaped slavery and had left to find a better life. Not long after you did something to Princess Celestia, I ran away. Me and my friends quickly gathered and began running away from the empire. One second we were on grass, the next we were on snow in the middle of nowhere. I remebered the village we had been to a few times and moved here. Been here for about... three weeks." Star explained.
"There wasn't any sort of delay in your transition from grassy ground to snow?" I ask her.
I need to know if the Empire just completly froze in time.
"It seemed like a few minutes, but nothing other than that. Why?" She answered.
"Well, it seems that the Empire was frozen in time. You must have been in the Empire when I was banished. And because you weren't a resident of the Empire, the curse didn't fully apply to you, but you were still stuck in it. The crystal ponies have just started doing whatever their powerful minds were doing."
I said, thinking about how she kept the curse, but came back to the real world a few weeks before anypony did.
"Powerful minds? If they were powerful, then you wouldn't have been able to do what you did."
"The minds of the crystal ponies are powerful because they are full of fear. Even though I have lost most my connection with the Empire, I can still feel the strong amount of fear they still have."
I explain, still mostly lost in thought.
"How can you feel their fear. Nopony can feel others fear."
Star said. I snapped out of my daze and looked at her like she was a brand new student in school.
"Not any normal pony. And incase you didn't notice earlier, I'm not exactly normal. Tell me what was different about me than other unicorns when we had our duel."
I told her to list each difference.
"Well, your sclaera was no longer white, but a slightly glowing green. You had something purple flowing from your eyes and your horn is red. Not to mention that you have unually dark in color all your life, but now you a little darker and no longer a little brown."
Star said, thinking back to when we had the duel.
"What have you heard about the Crystal Empire?"
I ask her. I kinda want to see how much she knows about the Empire.
"It is filled with many crystal ponies, ponies that have crystal like coats and can grow crystal. The Empire has a large castle in the middle of the city and there is some magical item that the Empire loves. A tyrant came and hid that special item and also put all of the crystal ponies into slavery. The tyrant also made the ponies complety lose the crystal coats. And changed the Empire a lot. Tthat is about as much as I know. Do you know more?"
She told me all she knew about the Empire.
"More than you think."
"What do you mean?"
She asks me as I begin to circle her.
"You got all of it right, but you are still missing some things. The Empire's special item is the Crystal Heart. A magical peice of crystal that the ponies pour their love and hope into each year. Every home is made of crystal, along with the castle in the center. The tyrant you spoke of not only hid the crystal heart, but made so that even he could not get to it. If the tyrant was to stay near it at all times, it would soon destroy him. And the slavery, let's just say the ponies had to do it. If they didn't, they would be given a dose of fear. All the ponies did their work. Only the foals and elderly that couldn't work were free off chains. They lost their crystal coats in a short amount of time. The Empire was no longer bright and colorful, but black crystal replaced every other crystal home. The castle was even changed to black crystal. The tyrant made everything happen."
I told her about the change.
"How do you know so much about this? It's like you were the tyrants only friend?"
She said, a little uncertian about it.
"Let's say the tyrant and I are very close." I said.
"How did you get the title 'King', Sombra?"
"Do you think the tyrant was a real tyrant, or just given the title by Celestia?" I ask her.
"Well, I think he didn't do much harm. All he did was make the crystal ponies do some work."
She answers, not sure what I'm getting at.
"Do you think the crystal ponies were pushed to hard?"
"No, you and I were worked a lot harder than that."
She answers truthfully.
"Good."
I say absent mindedly.
"Why?"
She asks, confused on why it would be good for her to think like that.
"Because, I got my title in a very different way. As for being close to the tyrant, there is no tyrant living in the empire right now."
"What do you mean?"
She asks, clearly confused. I come to a halt right in front of her.
"I am the so called 'tyrant'. I took over the Crystal Empire. When you saw me fight Celestia and Luna, I was fighting to keep my kingdom."
I say. She looks utterly shocked and backs up a step.
"No, your not a tyrant. Your a very friendly stallion. You stand up for those being tortured."
She denies.
"Deny it all you wish. I now have the power to take over a kingdom like I did a thousand years ago. Besides, those crystal ponies had me as a slave for sometime. After I escaped, one of the ponies there reconized me. He sent our old master the news and our master said to keep me as a slave. The stallion had me working harder than ever in the mines. My old master had also told him my secret. One that even you don't know about. The stallion didn't stop my work. Instead I was pushed harder. It wasn't long until I colasped in the mines. The stallion left me to die. Somepony found me in there, half dead. She took me to her home, not knowing I was a slave. She tried to heal me and get me to forget about the slavery, but I had already made up my mind that crystal ponies were evil. They deserved knowing what it was like to be constantly working harder than anypony can take. I found a book in the library there about dark magic. By taking it, I managed to get rid of the ruler and became king of the Empire. I made them work, but not hard as any of us were."
I told her some of my past. I backed up a step.
"Now I see why you did what you did, but still, your a careing stallion. And... I don't want to get in your way of getting back to the Empire."
She said. As she was speaking, there was a slight pain in my gut. I chose to ignore it, but it quickly grew stronger. I croch down a little and hiss at the large amount of pain. I try my best not to show it, but that didn't work. It slowly started fading. As soon as the pain was gone, I stood back up. Star Gazer had stayed were she was, just watching.
"I better be leaving." I say and start walking to the door.
"Okay. Bye Sombra."
Star said as I left. Once outside, I stated running towards the outskirts of the town.