As Stellar and Life returned to the Crystal Kingdom, Stellar suddenly collapsed and everything went dark. It felt like she had just been pulled into the shadows of her mind and it felt somewhat painful, too. Where was she and what happened that would make her come here?When she woke up, she was standing in front of a collapsed Life. He didn't seem to be moving and was on his right side. Sunlight was no longer coming from the sky, and everything seemed to be shrouded by a thick, black storm cloud. The mare didn't pay attention to anything else, assuming it was just the weather. She chuckled and said:
"Come on,Life. I know you're super sensitive and needed help walking back here after the kiss, but you didn't need to collapse because of it. Come on." Stellar's happy demeanor slowly left her face. "Life?"
She extended a hoof to poke him, but jumped briefly when she saw black armor on her hoof. The mare started to pat herself everywhere and noticed that she was now wearing armor all over her body. Not only that, but she was standing on a large platform made of smoothed, black crystal. Giant pillars of black crystals had grown everywhere, with many going through several of the buildings. Worse still, nearly the whole kingdom was standing near or around the platform. They were all in a terrible state and were trembling in fear at every movement she made.
"Guys, what's happening?" she pleaded.
"N-n-n-othing, your majesty! We are b-but your humble slaves!"
"Wh--"
Stellar took a step back, then her gaze returned to Life who remained oon the ground. She jumped to him and lifted him up and shook him. She even started to slap him, hoping he would wake up. "Life! LIfe! Please! Wake up. I just met you. I just had my very first kiss with somepony I actually feel love towards. Please don't die! Please!"
"Hohohoho. You wish him not to die, but you killed him with your own hooves, Queen Penumbra."
"No! I couldn't have! I didn't!" Stellar shouted as she nestled herself into Life's lifeless neck. "He's not dead! I would never kill him."
"Yet you did. The crystal is stained red and your hooves have become infused with the crimson liquids of his remains."
Stellar's anger erupted, and she turned to face what was herself.
"What...No. I know what this is. It's another one of the illusions that I've been put through constantly since I was born. I'm not falling for it ever again!"
"No! Wa--"
The Stellar copy tried to jump forward to grab the mare, but she closed her eyes and concentrated, and the whole illusion crumbled like broken glass. When she opened her eyes again, Life was standing over her and looking worried.
"Stellar? Are you okay? You just blacked out and collapsed once we returned here."
"I..."
She immediately jumped and hugged Life tightly. "I'm tired of all these things happening to me! I saw you dead, and I was the one who killed you. I want all of this to stop! I can't take it anymore!"
"NEITHER CAN I! I have been working on this for forty-eight years, and you just won't give in! I'VE HAD IT!" a voice roared in the kingdom.
The land started to tremble and crack open, frightening many ponies who galloped in Stellar and Life's direction. As the ground split open, rays of darkness began to burst forth, and hundreds of shadows began to swarm outwards. As they did so, a large amount of guards came from the Crystal Tower like a horde of bees defending their hive. Cadence flew towards Stellar and Life with several guards in tow. She landed in front of Shadowrette with her small forcen a bid to fight off as many of the incoming shadows as possible.
"Princess Cadance! It's King Sombra!" the voice called.
"Huh?"
The pink pony turned to look at Stellar, and she shook. Her eyes were wide with fatigue and fear. Her mane was in a complete mess and it seemed like she had been terrified of something.
"Princess? What's wrong with--" Life tried to ask.
"There! There she is! It's her! She's the culprit of all this!"
The guards turned around and faced Stellar with aggressiveness. Before they could even touch her, however, Life intervened, and broke several legs in the defense of Stellar.
"You're the cause of all of this! I've seen everything happen while I wasn't looking. It was told to me. You're responsible for all this chaos and mayhem. I won't have it anymore!"
"Wh-what are you talking about? I didn't do anything!" Stellar pleaded.
"She's right. What are you doing?"
"You must remain out of this! You are an official of the SPS and are under my strict orders. Now, arrest this mare!"
"No!" Life stomped a hoof down.
Cadence was taken aback by this attitude, but her surprise was quickly replaced with anger.
"How DARE you! I helped! Brought you back from that pit. I fed you, nurtured you, and this is how you repay my kindness?"
"Nonsense! You are under some bizarre spell making you lose reason. Do you not remember the face of Stellar?" He presented the mare's face directly to Cadence, but she did not react like he wanted.
"Yes. That's Sombra!"
"No! You delved deep into her memories to see the precision of what happened to her. Look more deeply. Do you think this mare, a unicorn who cannot use her magic even, would hurt anypony? Even in her foalhood, she did no such thing."
"I..." Cadence grabbed her head and began to tilt, then she fell hard on the floor, as did the guards around her.
"No. NO! I have spent too long spreading fear! My plans will NOT fall apart because of some depressive cinder block!"
A shady mass floated over the unconscious bodies of Cadence and the guards, and slowly rose up to show a grinning shadow. Stellar smiled and galloped towards the shadow, much to Life's confusion and befuddlement.
"Grinning Shadow! I've missed you so much! Help me! There's tons of bad things happening. I need your help!"
Life pulled on Stellar's tail and dragged her behind him, protecting her with a leg up.
"What are you doing? He's my childhood friend."
"No he isn't. He's the reason all these bad things have been happening to you. Just looking at him, I can sense it."
The shadow frowned. "You only kissed once. How is your connection to each other so strong already? Nevertheless, he is right." The shadow smiled.
Stellar nervously laughed at the remark. She was in denial. "What are you talking about? You're not the one who made my dad go crazy. You're not the one who made ponies attack me. You're not the one who made everypony in the sewers except for Crunchy Apple hate me right away." The shadow said nothing. "You..."
"Yes. I was reforming you as per your instructions."
"MY instructions?! I didn't tell you to ruin my life!"
"Well, in my defense, your dad was already crazy. He just needed a little shove in the right direction!"
The shadow started twisting and warping into a vortex of darkness. In its place stood a two dimensional portal of swirling black, and out of it came a shadowy pony still engulfed in the misty darkness of the door. Life and Stellar's eyes widened when they saw the mist depart to show King Sombra.
"Wh-wh-what?!" Stellar stuttered.
"King Sombra! Of course you would be behind all of this. This is just like some badly written book."
"Wow. Everything has to do with books with you. Anyways, I am not Sombra. I am merely a construct of your design before he perished. I am all your magic. I am what keeps you alive, and I intend to bring my master back from his grave!"
"I won't let you lay a hoof on St--"
Life was swiped aside by the Shadow Sombra's foreleg. "I have no time to mess with you, little creature. Stellar, it is your duty. You are King Sombra! You know this deep down! Your communicating with the shadows! Everypony hating you! I never MADE them do such a thing. They were already like this. I did this to show you the face behind the mask. If you accept this, you will regain your old memories, your magic, and you shall become Queen Penumbra! It is your destiny! This is why you made me. WHY DO YOU FLEE MY LOYALTY?!" Sombra slowly walked towards Stellar who slowly backed away at the same speeds. "You have no friends here! They only follow you through fear! With your old power, you will find true friends! Crunchy treated you like the others: a simple, homeless pony. Cadence and Shining considered you to be nothing but an emotionally fragile foal, and the crystal ponies treated you like a monster."
Stellar was hesitant in believing Sombra, but she was certain that he had a point. Nopony she knew treated her as a true friend until she got her prestigious position. Nopony loved her like a friend. She lowered her head in defeat and slowly walked towards Shadow Sombra who opened his forelegs for an embrace, but Life stopped her with his own words.
"That is not true! At all! Think, Stellar. There are those that stayed behind to help you in your time of needs. Who were they? Think! Don't let his spell of fear grab a hold of you!"
Stellar stopped in place and started to think more clearly. Her memories were indeed being fogged, but then, it came to her. Crystal Clarity! She was Stellar's true, very first friend! She helped her through a lot and even played games with her when they were younger, when time permitted, of course. And Click Clock! That bizarre entity always gave her some good tips despite being so strange. She even allowed Stellar to reunite with her mother. That was a true gift that not many could boast to have acquired. And Cadance might not be considered a 'friend' by others, but she was still one to Stellar for all the help she did. And then there was...
"Stellar, I love you. You know this!"
"Lies! It is a trick to keep you from your destiny! They want to hold you under a leash so that you may never be free!"
"That's not true! Even if it was, I would fight to let you be free in the world! You are not some toy that ponies can have! You are who you chose to be! You aren't King Sombra! You're Stellar Shadowrette!"
When Life said those words, Stellar suddenly had an epiphany, as if somepony had said something to her when she was very, very young:
"After all, a body remade never has the same soul."
She stood up and looked at Sombra with a frown. The king's demeanor became that of sadness and betrayal.
"I'm not you! I'm myself! And I have friends to prove it!"
"No!"
"Sombra! I should have known that you would pop up eventually." Cadance while taking her place next to Stellar. "How did I not see that you would popped up eventually. After all you did to the ponies of this Kingdom, still you refuse to back away."
Shadow Sombra hissed and started stomping his forelegs on the ground like a grumpy foal, although he was cracking the floor tiles in his tantrum.
"No! If I must force your true memories back into your body, I will!"
"The shadows!" a guard shouted.
"What?" Sombra said before looking up.
The shadows had all gone from their initial position towards the Shadow Sombra and started to engulf him. Despite his attempts at freeing himself, the shadows were far too numerous.
"What are you doing? You fools! He's right there! I must complete my mission! Noooo!"
A bright flash of green and purple explode within the mass of shadows, letting out a gigantic stream of green and purple magic. It flew several times around the sky before collapsing onto Stellar and making her collapse from the pain. The skies started to clear and the trembling stopped, but Cadance and her guards stood back in anticipation of a possible attack. Life didn't care and gently picked Stellar up, looking at her directly in her closed eyes.
"Come on, Stellar. Come on!"
Several minutes passed before the mare slowly opened her eyes and mumbled in fatigue.
"Stellar?" Life uttered with hope and fear.
"Yes...What?"
This time, it was Life's turn to hug Stellar with love and care, and the tensed guards and alicorn slowly relaxed.
"I'm glad to see you were not corrupted by...whatever that was. We have many things to talk about, and many things to do," Cadence looked around her as she spoke. "but we need to get you to a hospital, and quick. As for you, LIfe, I do believe you need a new name. 'Ruined Life' wouldn't work for you right now."
"Okay. What did you have in mind?"
"I thought long about it, then the idea came to me. What about 'Life Streams'?" Cadance put out her forelegs in a 'ta da!' manner, with the smile to boot!
"Hmmm. Yes. It is...Yes! I like it. I'll ta--"
"Queen Shadowrette," spoke an unknown mare.
Everypony looked towards the previous position of the shadowy mass to see a mare with a black body, white mane, and black eyes with a white iris looking at Stellar with an emotionless face. Above her were swirling a countless number of shadows.
"Wh...Who are you?" Cadence asked.
"I am a true Shadow Pony. We were made by Sombra to follow all orders. His magic's attempts at remaking him created false Sombras."
"Then...what are you still doing here?"
"We follow King Sombra."
Cadence rolled her eyes. "Yes. I know that, but why are you still here?"
Hundreds of the shadows began to smash themselves into the ground and reform themselves into a shadow pony by slow elevation. They all had different designs, but their colors and facial expressions were all the same.
"We follow King Sombra. His magic proved inefficient at reviving the previous one, so we follow the new one's demands. We were tasked with protecting her until the fated day, but the plan of Sombra has failed. We follow the current ruler. She is King Sombra's reincarnation. We now follow her."
"She must be watched and-" another shadow pony said. It was a pegasus this time.
"-carefully instructed. Her magic-"
"-is too dangerous and volatile."
"Must be instructed."
"Must be watched."
"Must be-"
"Protected," they all said in unison.
Everypony just stared at the mass of increasingly larger number of shadow ponies of various tribes just staring at Stellar and completing each other's sentences. They didn't know what to make of any of this. What was going to happen? Either way, Stellar and Ruined LI--I mean, Life Streams, rubbed their noses together, making Cadance's heart go a-flutter with 'awww'. The two were going to learn more about each other and have fun together. Maybe Cadance would know the best way to do that, but what were they to do with these 'true' Shadow Ponies?
"So the little toy of Sombra failed to do as instructed by him. I am not surprised. How could magic from a lowly pony that thinks he casts MY magic succeed at anything but failure? No matter. I have grown tired from all of this waiting. I have nurtured my darkness long enough and I intend to reclaim this land. I still found it amusing to watch this whole event. I will consider possibilities, then I will do this myself."