//------------------------------// // 55: End of the Road // Story: Sombra visits Skyrim // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Sombra moaned as the sunlight hit his eyes, telling him that he needed to wake up and get the day started, but he was so tired that all he could think about was sleep. The last thing he remembered doing was fighting against a large red dragon, a creature that had been called Yolrahtoor, in the middle of a city that rested on a plain. He knew why he was tired, he had over extended himself at the very end of the fight and he had collapsed near the fallen body of his enemy, saving the citizens of the city in the process. In the moment he fell he was sure that he had seen the ghost of the person, the khajiit, that had traveled with him from the beginning, Raika Snow-Heart. She had been fiercely loyal to the Stormcloak leader, Ulfric Stormcloak, and fought for her cause, the cause that she had been born into, with her teeth, her steel, and her claws. She had been the one to find Sombra when he had no idea who he was and, while having the greatest patience Sombra had ever seen, she managed to restore his mind. She had been the Dragonborn of nordic legend, the sole person who could completely slay a dragon by devouring its soul, but that had come with the cost of carrying the soul of Yolrahtoor within her. In the end Raika had been consumed by the dragon Yolrahtoor, who sought the end of Nirn, but Sombra had no choice but to put the dragon down. Sombra sighed, he just wanted to sleep and remember nothing more about what had happened over the last few weeks, so he could embrace the cold touch of winter once more. "Really Sombra?" a familiar voice called out, though it sounded closer than it really was, "Your sleeping? Come on sleepy stallion, get up and smell the crystals." Sombra moaned again and weakly opened his eyes, finding himself in the middle of a desert that was made up of white sand and had nothing around for miles. Then he saw her; the dark blue coated mare, with a dual blue mane that waved through the air as if it was being moved by the wind itself, despite the fact that there wasn't any wind at all. He recognized her almost immediately; she was Princess Luna, the sister of Princess Celestia, and the third friend he had made other than those in the Crystal Empire. "Princess Luna...I'm so tired," Sombra said, laying his head on the sand once more. "Yes, that would make sense," Luna remarked, a smile appearing on her face as she sat by him, "You burned through so much of your magical power in your duel against the dragon Yolrahtoor that you began to fade back into the shadows. Luckily Celestia recognized the signs and cast a spell to prevent your body from following your spirit, though it makes it look like your in a coma. I came here, intending to follow you into the Dream World, but here I find you waiting for the end. Grab my hoof, Sombra, and I'll take you back to the Waking World." Sombra looked up at her again, glanced down at her waiting hoof for a moment, and then, after a few brief seconds of thought, raised his hoof and pressed it into her's. For a second nothing seemed to happen, but then something wrapped around his mind and grabbed onto him, yanking him out of where they were sitting. ---------------------------------- "Ugh..." Sombra moaned, opening his eyes and raising himself into a sitting position, "Where am I this time?" "In Whiterun silly," Luna chuckled, though this time she was in the form of a humanoid figure, a nord he realized, "The moment we found you, collapsed on the ground near Yolrahtoor's cold body, we took you inside the remains of Dragonsreach and made sure you weren't hurt. You burned your arm during the fight, but it was nothing that Celestia and I couldn't heal." Sombra looked up at the ceiling and found a gaping hole in the woodwork, giving him a decent view of the night sky while showing him the damage Yolrahtoor dealt to the castle. He was surprised to see how much had been ruined, because at the time of the battle he had been more focused on his opponent than was happening around them. It was then that he realized that he was in the Porch area of the castle, though this time there weren't any guards walking around him like the last time he had been there. "Where's the guards?" Sombra asked, looking over to Luna, "Shouldn't there be someone standing guard over me, after what happened earlier before the dragon came?" "Almost all of them are scared to be around you," another voice said, just as a guard walked in behind Celestia and Trixie, before green flame wrapped around her and Chrysalis stood before them, "I mean, after summoning the Avatar of Darkness and defeating the attack that Yolrahtoor had prepared to destroy the entire Hold, only to beat Yolrahtoor herself, you've scared them to their core. Your fight ended up destroying half of the city itself, but the nords that live here are saying that they can rebuild, if there isn't anything else that could take away from them doing so. Basically the guards are either busy defending the citizens of the city from bandits, helping out in the reconstruction, or just staying away from you in case you decide to kill them." "So, when will we head home?" Sombra inquired, both looking forward to heading back to Equestria and dreading it at the same time. "We were just waiting for you," Trixie replied, slipping off the mask she was wearing, "I am unfamiliar with the magic used to create the portal home, but Celestia said that your magic would help out in the long run. I'll allow her to explain." Sombra knew what Trixie was referring to almost immediately, even if the young mage had no idea what she had said herself before passing it onto his wife. Celestia wanted him to build an arch out of crystal, which would act as a temporary anchor for the magic, allowing them to open a portal to Equestria that would allow all of them to leave. The original spell, as far as he knew, was designed to work similar to his own shadow gates, where the gates needed to be told how many were leaving. This addition would remove that restriction and would allow everyone to return home safely, though he had to wonder if he had the magic to pull it off. "I hate to ask something like this of you, after your fight earlier," Celestia said, taking a seat next to him and wrapping her arms around him, "but do you think you can manage the spell? If not then I would understand. We can always wait until tomorrow or the next day to return to Equestria." "No...we have overstayed our welcome in this world," Sombra confidently said, pulling himself out of her arms and getting onto his feet, despite feeling dizzy for a moment, "I shall work whatever magic I can." Sombra pressed his hand against the stone floor and took a deep breath, reaching out for his magic and hoping that, against all odds, that there was still a spark for him to connect to. After a few seconds of searching he found only a single spark, though every time he reached for it it continued to move further away from him, as if it was simply drifting away. Then he felt a hand on his back and a bit of magic trickled into his body, strengthening the bond between him and the spark that he had discovered. With his renewed energy he gripped his magic and grunted, the stone breaking as two slim crystal pillars rose out of the ground, reaching until they passed how tall Luna was before making the arch. Once the deed was done, and the empty gateway was created, he sighed, wiped the sweat off his forehead, and got up so he could face his friends. He nodded to Celestia and returned to the bed he had been sleeping in, though Celestia got up and moved towards the gateway, Luna following suit and standing across from her. Both of their horns began to light up, but instead of the magic hitting anything around them they pressed their hands against the gateway and poured the spell into the crystal. For a moment nothing happened, but then the magic sparked and the gateway sprung to life, the magic swirling around between the two crystal pillars and the arch. "The portal home is stabilized," Luna said, backing away for a moment, "Will Cadence be expecting us?" "She would have felt the portal open like last time," Celestia commented, smiling as she stared at the gateway, "I'm also sure that Twilight felt it and is already on her way to Canterlot. We had best be on our way before a guard comes looking for us." Trixie nodded and stepped into the portal, disappearing from the porch and returning to Equestria, though Sombra noted that she was still carrying the Staff of Magnus and one of the masks with her. Chrysalis moaned for a moment, muttered something about not harvesting enough love to sustain her hive, and then followed Trixie into the gateway. Luna chuckled and picked up her battleaxe, staring at it for the moment before making it disappear, though she moved through the portal with ease. Celestia smiled at Sombra and held out her hand, though he immediately took it and got onto his feet once more, a smile, despite being weaker than Celestia's, appearing on his face. Together the two of them stepped into the gateway and left the world of Nirn behind, leaving whoever came looking for them confused as to where they went. ---------------------------------- "Are you positive this is where they'll appear?" Cadence asked, trotting behind Twilight as studied the empty area of the castle, "Are you absolutely sure about this?" "I one hundred percent sure Cadence," Twilight replied, her eyes peeled for the gateway she knew was coming, "It has to be somewhere around here, of that I'm...certain of..." Before she had a chance to continue what she was saying she felt the magic in the air warm up moments before the object she had been searching for appeared before them. A crystal gateway, similar to the door that Princess Celestia had shown her in the Crystal Empire some time ago, erupted out of the floor and didn't stop until it was the height of what Celestia was. A moment later a spiral of magic ignited in the center of the gateway, creating the portal that the two of them had seen when the sisters traveled between Equestria and Nirn. For a moment neither of them spoke a word, waiting for the other Princesses to return, though Cadence could hear Shining Armor huffing as he drew closer to the room they were in. Then, just as Cadence was about to step into the portal and ask the Princesses what was taking them so long to return, a pony the size of a normal mare, wearing a cape and carrying a mask and a staff, appeared before them. Cadence recognized Trixie almost immediately, and she was sure Twilight did as well, mostly due to the fact that she had traveled with the mare for some time before returning home. "It feels so strange to be in my natural form again," Trixie commented, tipping in one direction before correcting herself and trotted over to where they were standing, "not after how long I spent in Skyrim." "Its good that your back Trixie," Twilight said, smiling at the mare before turning back to the portal, "Are the others coming through as well, or are they still adventuring?" "They're on their way," came a second voice, as none other than Chrysalis, in her true changeling form, walked out of the portal, "oh great, pretty Cadence is here as well. I guess I'll end up in jail this time around." "Nay, I think a pardon is in order," Princess Luna exclaimed, emerging from the portal with her armor still on, "after all, she did aid us in our quest to help the Dragonborn. I think we can afford to look the other way, this time." "Nice to see you too Chrysalis," Cadence smiled, silently welcoming the changeling monarch back to their world, "I actually have some news that you will find interesting, though it can wait till everypony is here." "What...is she...doing here?" Shining Armor, tired from having to run throughout all of Canterlot as he followed his wife, asked the moment he spotted Chrysalis. "She's, well, a friend of Canterlot now," Cadence replied, not really knowing what else to say that would make her husband not attack the Changeling Queen. Chrysalis huffed in annoyance as she and Luna moved away from the portal, stopping near the wall so they could make room for the remaining members of their group. Not that she really cared about Celestia and Sombra, she still had a hive to find and help rebuild, which she hoped would be easier than it sounded in her mind. The portal shimmered for a moment before Celestia, in all of her glory, walked out of the gateway, though a moment later it shimmered again and Sombra, dressed in his steel armor, appeared. "Im...impossible," Shining gasped, his eyes widening as he realized who was standing behind Princess Celestia, "we defeated you. I saw the power of the Crystal Heart destroy you with my own eyes! How can you still be alive?!" "First off, I'd like to personally thank you and your friends for doing that," Sombra said, stepping away from the gateway as it and the magic crumpled behind him, "without somepony to claim the Crystal Heart my evil side would have corroded the empire until it was no more. You, your wife, your sister, and her friends went out of your way to stop my shadow from taking over once more, and in that process you shattered its hold on me. I was flung out of our world and arrived in a whole new plane, but thanks to the efforts of both my wife and her sister, I managed to regain who I once was." "Wait a second....your married?!" Shining Armor exclaimed, not realizing that the pony that had ruled the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof actually had a heart. "Yes, he is," Celestia said, smiling as she draped one of her wings over Sombra, "Shining Armor, its about time I told you the truth as to why I never married while you were serving under me in the Royal Guard, I was already married to Sombra and was awaiting his return. I did send you to the Crystal Empire to defend it, but I had hoped the magic of the Crystal Heart would purge him of the darkness that had taken root in his heart. Yet the magic threw him to another world, which is why I continued to disappear once the empire had returned, I was healing his body and his mind. Shining Armor, I would like to formally introduce you to Sombra, the Former King of the Crystal Empire, known as the King of Shadows in Nirn, and my husband." "S...Sombra and...Celestia..." Shining Armor muttered, his eyes widening further as his mind overworked itself to process the information, "heehee, married..." Shining Armor took a look at the rest of the group for a moment before his eyes rested on Sombra, who offered him a smile, but Shining laughed and collapsed on the ground, passed out from shock. Cadence and Twilight laughed at Shining's reaction, he had, after all, taken the news much worse than the both of them, though Twilight had to admit that she had been sick to her stomach when she heard the news. Now that the two of them knew the real Sombra they were more than happy to have him back, though they knew that the citizens of the Crystal Empire would be hesitant to welcome him back. "So, can I have my news or can I leave?" Chrysalis asked, not really caring about Shining Armor at this point, "My hive needs me and I really need to get back to them before they fall apart." "Actually, that's what I was going to tell you about," Cadence said, turning to the Queen, "half of your hive, desperate for love and leadership, came to the empire and asked for a place to stay. Shining and I talked about it, but in the end I couldn't turn them away and I offered them a place to stay until the others, who were determined to find you, managed to recover their broken way of life. In the end half of the remaining changelings settled down here, in Canterlot, while the second half made for Ponyville, though last I heard they had been turned into a section of guards for Twilight." "How...how long ago was all of this?" Chrysalis asked, worried how long she had been gone to force her subjects to do something so drastic. "Chrysalis...you've been gone for almost two years," Cadence replied, draping a wing over the monarch to comfort her, "but now that your back I'm sure there are some Changelings that will be overjoyed that your back. Come on, lets go see some of them." Chrysalis nodded and followed Cadence out of the room, though it was clear that she was still shocked by the fact that she had been gone much longer than she had expected. Sombra chuckled and let his magic, what he could spare, wash over him, taking away the crown, the cape, and the armor and leaving him bare for the first time in ages. He felt good to leave that part of his life behind, where he could now start a new life and, pending any run-ins with Discord, live it out to the fullest he possibly could. "Hey Sombra," Twilight said, causing him to turn her way, "think you can teach me and Trixie a thing or two about Crystal Magic?" "I won't make any promises," Sombra replied, though by the smile on his face he had already considered passing on some teachings, "though I'll see what I can do." "Ready to start your new life?" Celestia asked, standing beside the door that would lead them out into Canterlot with a smile on her face, a folder, containing what he assumed was the papers she and Luna had created for him, floating in her magic. "I'm ready," Sombra said, walking towards the doorway with Twilight close behind him. He had no idea what he was going to do with his new freedom, but he knew that, with the help of Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, and his beloved Celestia, he'd find a calling that he'd fit into quite well. He had time to decide his new fate, now that his life had been given back to him.