//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: A Spa Treatment With Complications AND Puns // Story: The new Sombra - The tale of a villain, that tries to behave... like a villain? // by Hoppa_21 //------------------------------// “Not a bad start. I mean besides getting run over by a train and then getting dragged along with it. I could bring that little kid to giggling and now know my destination. A classical destination. I go to the big shots and get a quest to save the world!” I cheered, as I walked along the streets. Nothing could really disturb my good mood right now. Not even the ponies, that were hiding from me. I just rolled my eyes. “What is their problem? Is my look really that strange,” I pondered. “Now that I think about it, these horses all have such a shiny coat. I on the other hand, have just this normal grey unshiny coat.” And yeah, this word is made up. Deal with it. My dream, my choice of words. “Or I really give them a RUN for their money! You know? Because they are running?” I said to a random pony, who wasn’t running away AND didn’t seem to react at all. I wagged my foreleg in front of his face, but he still didn’t react. “Don’t tell me he is frozen in some kind of shock? Maybe there is more to my look than I thought. Are Unicorns all tyrants? Maybe even something to do with tribalism?” I looked around and I really didn’t like it. It’s really not nice if you get left out of such a joke. I would feel better, if I had some actual information. “Better hurry up,” I said, as I ran towards the large building in the middle. AND I just crashed right into another pony that came out of a building on my left. I should have known. I rubbed the sore spot on my head as I looked up. Right in front of me was a slightly muscular built Unicorn stallion, with a brown coat and dark grey hair. He was also wearing an old duster. His horn was in a different shape than mine. Mine was lightly curved, while his was straight, but since he was the first Unicorn I had met, I couldn’t exactly say if there were more variations of horn shapes. “You should watch where you are going,” he said as he offered me a ha- pardon me, hoof. Probably need some time to come in grip with these terms. “Sorry about that. I’m new around here and got a little nervous with these panicking horses around.” I grabbed the hoof and got back on my own hooves. He had some nice sky blue eyes. I really like that colour. “You mean ponies, don’t you? But besides that, I can understand that. These ponies are still a little jumpy.” “Yeah, they JUMPED right into the bushes at my sight!” The Unicorn gave a hearty laugh. Seems like I found someone with the same sense of humor. That is good. Maybe I should recruit him for my quests later. I then continued on with my chatter. “So these are all ponies, then? Good to know. But I’m still wondering, are they afraid of every Unicorn here?” “Well, they may feel a bit uneasy near one. There was once this evil King with the ideal of a Unicorn master race. He had only Unicorn guards and the normal Crystal Ponies were all enslaved. So this behavior can be expected.” The Unicorn looked dreamily to the large tower in the middle. “But still a wonderful city. I love to spend my vacation here and let me tell you, the crystal mud bath is unsurpassable! I can highly recommend it, since I just tried it out,” he said, as he tilted his head to the building that he came from. I could read the sign “Crystal Spa” in a swirly writing. It looked really fancy. Well, technically every building looked somehow fancy, I mean, they all consisted of shiny crystals! Can you think of anything fancier than that? “I bid my farewell, then. There is still much to see and I hope you are going to enjoy your stay here as well.” “I wish you a good vacation, Sir…?” “Wate Ain Sea, but you can just call me Wate.” “Nice to make your acquaintance. I’m Leon.” “It is always nice to meet new ponies. Be safe!” And with that he turned and left in the direction of the large building in the middle. “Nice guy. Hopefully I will see him again.” I then stared at the spa in front of me and mused, “Maybe I should try it out, while I’m here. Maybe there is even a key event in here, since he was trying to convince me to go in there.” I slowly stepped in and looked around. There was a counter on the left side, with a ‘Pony’, better get used to that term, standing behind it. I could also see a Unicorn mare in the edge of the room laying on her belly, as another pony massaged it. “Maybe I should take one of these, too,” I uttered as I slowly approached the counter. The pony on the counter frowned and seemed quite shocked as well. Seems like it is really bad to be a Unicorn around here, since this evil King seemed to have done quite a number on them. I waved in a friendly manner as I stood in front of her. “Hey there! I wondered if I could try out the crystal mud bath.” No reaction. Maybe I should try something else. I began to smile wide, trying to show her my best smile, but she somehow shrunk back as I was doing it. I frowned. “Ohhhhh. Right… It’s the fangs, isn’t it? That makes my smile probably seem more like a threat,” I laughed nervously. Didn’t like the silence one bit. Maybe I should try a different approach. “I really need a bath. Or maybe I could SPAray myself with some deodorant, if you have some! Get it? SPA-ray?” I smiled widely at her and my eyes were beaming with anticipation, but somehow this didn’t put her mind at ease either, since she just cowered behind the counter. “Tough crowd,” I complained. “Or bad pun,” muttered the mare in the edge of the spa. It was the one that was given the massage a minute ago. She was now sitting on the cot. I glared at her. It was a Unicorn mare with a pale yellow colored coat and an orange hai- or mane, if I want to finally put it correctly. Those new terms are really confusing. “You just have no sense of humor,” I stated flatly and huffed, before turning back to the counter, but the pony wasn’t there anymore. “Great. What now?” I asked, slightly confused. “I don’t know. You even scared off my masseuse!” came a complaint behind me. I sighed. “Wo-Mares…” I tried my best to blend her out as I considered my next steps. I turned around and saw the mud baths right there next to the massage section. There, the complaining mare huffed. “Might as well…” I said as I slowly tried to take my cape off, but that wasn’t so easy. Hooves aren’t that HANDy! HANDy, get it? “What in the name of Celestia are you doing?” I heard the mare saying. She seems somehow surprised by my attempts. “Trying to get my cape of, so that I can take a bath,” I stated flatly. “Use your HORN!” She nearly shouted, frustrated. “Oh of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” I tried to use the horn as a hook to drag it off me, but it somehow didn’t work. The mare meanwhile facepal- uhm, I mean facehooved. “You are kidding, right?” I just gave her a confused look. “Just use a levitation spell! Look here, like this!” she said as she levitated a towel from one of the shelves. “Ohhhh.” I then concentrated strongly on the cape, to see if it would work. Dark sparks erupted from my horn and suddenly a large crystal erupted from beneath me. I fell right from the peak of the crystal as it rose higher and higher and landed in the crystal mud bath. I gasped for air as I tried to get out of the mud bath, and then heard a crash as the crystal collided with the ceiling and debris fell to the ground. “Oopsies.” I then glared at the mare. “You didn’t tell me that something like this could happen!?” I yelled at her, quite shocked. “AS IF THIS WAS MY FAULT! HOW CAN ANYPONY FAIL LIKE THAT AT A SIMPLE LEVITATION SPELL!” she yelled back even louder. “YOU SUCK AT TEACHING!” I yelled back in the same volume. “THIS IS A BASIC SPELL THAT DOESN’T EVEN NEED TEACHING! EVEN LITTLE FOALS CAN DO THAT!” I blinked in surprise. “Seriously?” She just nodded in a huff. “Guess I’m starting this game from level zero then.” I sighed. Normally I had better control of my abilities in my dream. I once had a dream of flying and I could control this ability quite well. Not perfectly, but a LOT better than this one. I mean soaring crystals out of the ground? That is definitely NOT even close to what I wanted to achieve. I looked dumbfounded at the large crystal poking out of the roof and then looked to the Unicorn mare. “How about we split the repair expenses?” “How about no?” “Oh come on! You didn’t even warn me!” “Hey listen here, Mister Creepy-Eye, no pony could have seen this coming! I mean, it almost seems like you are using your magic for the first time!” I fell to my knees. “God, I knew it. These eyes are the worst, just like me. I should probably just lie down and die. I’m so useless…” “Hey! I didn’t mean it like that! Just stop your pathetic whining!” “I AM PATHETIC! I KNEW IT!” I then continued with the sobbing and whining. My eyes were a sore spot. “By Celestia. What is wrong with this guy?” Then suddenly the door flew open and an armored guard entered the spa. “Hold it right there, criminal scum!” shouted a feminine voice. I looked up and saw a Unicorn mare with a turquoise coat, an aquamarine mane and light blue eyes, wearing heavy armor. I hastily stood up and faced the Unicorn guard. “Thank god you are here! It was her!” I pointed at the pale yellow mare. “She just destroyed the ceiling and then threatened me! I was so afraid!” I held an arm on my forehead and tried my best damsel in distress pose I could muster, which was probably pretty poor, considering that I look like a ruffian. But hey, it is always worth a try! Best I continue on with it. “Please, save me!” What should I say? Every man, or in this case stallion, for himself! She wasn’t a huge help anyway. The jaw of the mare behind me dropped. It took her a moment, before she realized what I was pulling of and she accordingly answered with fury, “HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY CRAZY? THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!” “See? She is a real termagant! Please protect me from her!” “YOU SELFISH BASTARD!” I smirked at her. However, my smirk did not last for long, as a light blue aura enveloped my body. I was suddenly enclosed by magic walls and then imprisoned in a cube. I looked at the mare in question and she was glaring at me with hatred. I was quite panicked at this point. “What are you standing there for!? Help me!” I shouted at the pale yellow mare. She grinned mischievously. “Let the devil take the hindmost!” “TRAITOR!” I yelled. “OH, NOW I AM THE TRAITOR!? YOU STARTED THIS!” she yelled back. “SILENCE!” came from the Unicorn guard, as she faced us both. She then shifted her glare to just me alone. “Now to you. King Sombra, you are arrested for your crimes against the Crystal Empire and its citizens.” I just furrowed my eyebrows, while the other Unicorn mare seemed to be surprised. “King who?” “I’m not falling for your tricks. Not again!” shouted the guardspony. “Wait a moment. He is King Sombra!? But isn’t he dead!?” uttered the pale yellow mare, whose coat grew even paler. “King Sombra…” I muttered, as I tried to puzzle the pieces together. “Don’t even think you can take over the empire and enslave everypony again!” “Ah! Now I know it! So I’m that evil king that all the ponies are talking about!” And here comes the silence. Those both were giving me their best ‘are you kidding us’ look they could muster. I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud, but at least now I know it for sure. After a long pause, the female guard spoke up again. “You are coming with me too,” she said to the pale yellow mare. “Wait a moment. Why should I come with you?” “You are under suspicion of working together with King Sombra.” Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. If I think about it, it is a little creepy because they have so absurdly large eyes. “Horseapples! I have nothing to do with him!” “Don’t deny it, Miss Yellow Shine. She is too smart not to notice it,” I said. I had real trouble trying to hide my grin at this point. If I go down, I’m going to take her with me! “That’s not even my name you idiot! Stop fooling around!” “I have made up my mind. Follow me now or get arrested in a cube like him.” Of course she was not keen to follow her orders, but at least this gave me some time to think of something. So technically I’m a villain, which means that I must have supervillain powers. I might as well try to use them. “Let’s do this,” I said as my horn began to glow. And as soon as it did a huge crystal sprouted out of the ground, on which the guard was standing. A few seconds passed, as it broke through the ceiling. “Nice,” I said, as the cube barrier around me vanished. Meanwhile, Miss Shine’s jaw dropped. I think I will just call her like that. It is a lot shorter than pale yellow Unicorn mare. Won’t you agree? “A villain it is. Actually, I always wanted to play as a villain. A villain doesn’t have to follow any rules and can do whatever he wants. I’m probably not the only one who always wanted to try out such a lifestyle.” I when stared at the ceiling. “And it also means, that they can’t charge me for the holes in the ceiling.” I grinned. “Oh, it is great to be evil! I think I will love this role!” I was about to walk out the door when some debris crushed right down on me. I was barely fast enough to dodge it. I could see a silhouette in the dust cloud and it made my blood run cold. “No. You are not going anywhere!” She sure was determined and tough. Crashing through a ceiling should normally take an average enemy down. But no time to think about that. I have a lot more like that in store. “Soaring Crystal!” I screamed, as I used my magic to let a crystal sprout slant out of the ground to hit her in the front, but I missed her by at least one meter! She of course used this opportunity to strike. She summoned a magic shield barrier in front of her and then casted another spell, which leaded to an increase in speed. She ran me over and sent me flying. I then landed on my face groaning, my hindlegs over my head and my tail in my face. Snap! Snap! Snap! “What is this?” “Just stay like this! This is worth gold! Oh, what am I talking about!? This is priceless!” I then turned around to see that Miss Shine was taking photos of me! “What are you doing, Miss Shine?” “What do you think I’m doing?” She giggled, before frowning. “And stop calling me that!” “I never gave you permission to take photos of me!” I fumed. “Especially in such a compromising pose! My reputation will be ruined!” “What reputation? You are a criminal!” “No, I’m a villain and have therefore a reputation as a tyrant, which I want to uph-“ And then I was smashed into a nearby wall, by a magical barrier shield. She just rammed me, while I wasn’t looking! And here I thought the good guys would play fair! I coughed through the dust and got up, with fury in my eyes. Snap! And with that I also snapped. I ran over to Miss Shine and slapped the camera out of her hoof before throwing it to the ground and stomping on it. “Are you crazy!” she yelled, but I didn’t care. “You know what is so great about being a villain!? I can live at others’ EXPENSE! In this case your camera! I won’t pay for it!” Pun right in your face! Who is making bad puns now! Ha! I smirked, somehow satisfied. This really helped me and I let out a relieved sigh. “A lot bette-“ I suddenly dodged another magic shield run on her part. “What’s your problem? Can’t I spend my SPAre time freely, without you interrupting me all the time?” I giggled. “SPAre time!” I could hear Miss Shine groan behind me. I’m almost sure she facehooved, but I couldn’t concentrate on her now. I had a little Taurus here, which I needed to attend to. I concentrated on my magic and tried to use it this time as a wall, seeing as she was coming straight at me that it could deliver a fatal blow. I smirked. “Crystal Wall!” Just in time, a crystal wall formed in front of me. A second later, the guard ran straight into it and… CRACK! “Wha-“ She went right through it and delivered a critical hit! But she stumbled afterwards to the ground too. So you could say that it at least had some effect. “GAH!” I screamed as I flew right into Miss Shine’s direction and with her now out of the spa. We came in the middle of the street to a halt. “Ouch… Maybe the wall was too thin… But at least I had a soft landing.” “Get off me!” Miss Shine didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm about my soft landing. I smirked. “Seems like you are the butt, uh… flank of the joke!” Her face became a glowing red and she threw a hissy fit. Too uptight for my taste. I stood up fast and brought some distance between us. She then gasped. “My second camera! You broke that one too!” I looked over the shattered remnants of another camera. It probably broke during our little crash. “Don’t tell me you were taking photos even after I forbade it and destroyed your first camera, Miss Shine!” “Of course! Do you have any idea how many bits a photo of you is worth!? Especially since no photos of you exist at all! Do you think I’m a proper Journalist, if I let such an opportunity slide!?” “Why should I eve-“ I then noticed the stomping of hooves as we were surrounded by crystal guards. They all pointed their spears at us. I then pointed at Miss Shine. “She started it.” “HEY!” The female guard then trotted over to us with a determined look on her face. At least she wasn’t smug. She still seemed cautious. On the other hand, it would probably be easier, if she was smug. Getting out of here wouldn’t be easy. “Surrender Sombra. You are surrounded. You won’t get away.” “Oh please, SPAre me!” I chuckled. The guards seemed confused at this, only Miss Shine seemed to get it, as I heard an annoyed groan from her. But I had no time for this. I needed to escape. I already formed a plan, and with a smirk I said casually, “Crystal Stomp.” A crystal pillar shot out next to me out of the ground and hurled a nearby guard through the air. “Oopsies.” The other guards didn’t seem to like that, as they got closer with their spears. A look of determination was plastered on their faces, but I could also tell that they were nervous. There was sweat dripping from their forehead. I didn’t have any time left. This time counts. “Ok. This time: Crystal Stomp!” A crystal pillar then shot out from under me and I tried to keep my balance, as it ascended. I then jumped at the right height from the pillar to the roof of the spa. I cheered as I looked down on them, a confident smirk on my face. “I am King Sombra! Behold my powers!” Then suddenly, some of the guards were engulfed by light and disappeared. They appeared not only a second after this right behind me, led by the female guardspony. “Teleportation magic! Dam my luck!” I then scooted off over other various rooftops trying to outrun the guards. They had heavy armor, so I found this a completely reasonable action. I also took off in the direction of the outskirts of the town. I had enough problems to take down one simple guard, so conquering an entire empire was out of the question for now. I needed to get a better grip of my powers, so training was of the essence. Meanwhile, I already forgot a certain pale yellow Unicorn that was still standing on the street and looking after me, a determined look on her face. “Just you wait and see, King Sombra. I’m going to get a photo of you, or my name will no longer be Press Pass!” “Ahem!” This single sound broke her out of her thoughts. “Would you please follow us, Miss Shine?” asked a guard in a harsh tone. “Horseapples!”