Soaring together across the midnight sky, Sombra held one hoof underneath Apple Bloom and another underneath Sweetie Belle. Every few seconds, he’d boost them up another half-foot to let them adjust to their wings.
“This is kind of hard, Mr. Sombra,” Sweetie Belle lamented, beating her thin wings with all her might.
Sombra propelled her up again. “You’ll get used to it. Don’t worry. If one of you should suddenly plummet towards the Earth tonight, you’ll probably be traveling so fast you won’t feel a single thing once you hit.”
Sweetie Belle spared Apple Bloom a glance—a glance that Sombra had begun to keep track of which meant: “I think we’ve made a mistake.”
Sombra grumbled, “But I wouldn’t worry much about that. If anyone falls, I’ll catch you with my magic. You two aren’t afraid of heights, are you? Scootaloo’s having a great time.”
With longer and lighter wings than before, Scootaloo took to the task of night flying faster than even Sombra had, circling around the top floor of the clubhouse before charging out the window and up into the clouds. Although Scootaloo had never been much of a giggler since he’d known her, she couldn’t stop them from bubbling out that night.
Sombra looked up to find Scootaloo dividing a cloud in half as she passed through it. She then lazily looped around the other three fliers as they struggled. “Isn’t this great, you guys!? I never thought I could love flying this much! But somehow I do!”
“Well, maybe that has something to do with the fact you’re actually flying now,” Sombra grumbled, as Scootaloo shot past his snout by less than an inch, “as opposed to whatever it was you used to do before. Hovering? Is that what you did?”
Apple Bloom poked his shoulder. “Be nice, Sombra. This is the first time Scootaloo’s really had a chance to fly, so don’t you go ruining it for her.”
“Tonight’s not only about flying, you know,” Sombra replied. “I have a lot in store for you all. If tonight doesn’t warrant at least a single cutie mark for one of you three, then I doubt any of you were destined for a lifetime of villainy.”
Sweetie Belle gritted her fangs and flapped her wings hard enough to get some distance off his hoof. “We never actually said we’d be good at being evil, though. You did.”
“That’s because I know what’s best. And right now, what’s best is a good scare. So let’s land.”
Over the next few minutes, Sombra gradually descended from the sky to land on a rooftop in the center of Ponyville. Once Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom safely touched the roof, Sombra shouted for Scootaloo to come join them. He was told, “just five more minutes.” Six-and-a-half minutes later, he grabbed her in his reddish aura and dragged her down to their level, Scootaloo glaring all the way.
Sombra never thought he saw a filly look at him with such unrelenting levels of hate as when he brought her down—which was odd, considering how many foal slaves he used to oversee on a daily basis and point at and laugh.
Standing by the edge of the roof, he told them, “The art of a good scare is all in the set up—the atmosphere, the tension, the sounds. If someone just pops out and goes ‘Blargh!,’ then they’re nothing more than annoying. First, you have to make them think that’s something wrong. Then, you need to make them think that something’s very wrong. And after that?”
Scootaloo raised a leg. “Make them think that something’s super wrong?”
Sombra shook his head.
Apple Bloom also raised a leg. “Make them think all their apples are gone?”
Sombra shut his eyes. “Why hasn’t your family had a surprise intervention yet?”
Lastly, Sweetie Belle answered, “Laugh really loud and tell them you’re going to bite their neck and suck out all their blood?”
With a hoof, Sombra rubbed a wayward tear from his eye. “You always seem to know just what to say to get the waterworks going, Sweetie Belle. Five jellybeans for you.”
“What happened to all those stickers from before?”
“I lost them.” He straightened out his back and looked to the street below. A middle-aged mare casually strolled away from them. “Target acquired, my fine fillies.”
When Scootaloo found the mare on the road, her pupils shrunk. “That’s Mrs. Cheerilee!”
“It is?” Sweetie Belle asked, before looking herself. “Oh, hey, it is! We should say hi or something.”
“Looking like this?” Apple Bloom interjected. “I wonder why she’s out so late.”
“Maybe she had a date with Big Mac,” Sweetie Belle said.
Apple Bloom laughed. “Yeah, sure. Those two on a date after… .” Her chuckles died as something came to mind. “Although that might help explain why Big Mac said he was too busy for chores this afternoon.”
Sombra silenced them by spreading his wings with a whoosh. “It matters not who she is. This Cheery Lee will now have the scare of her life! I hope you all brought something to write notes with.”
All three fillies glanced at their exposed sides. “With what?”
“Just pay attention,” Sombra said, before jumping from the roof.
***
Even from a safe distance away, Sombra could hear Cheerilee humming some faint tune, her head bobbing to the right and to the left. Not once did she spare a glance behind her or take in her surroundings. Perhaps Sweetie Belle’s thoughts of her recently finishing off a romantic entanglement had been true.
Only Sombra didn’t want her happy or content. No. He wanted her scared. And he knew just how to get her there.
Sombra’s horn illuminated in a pulsing red glow, and from the edges of each alley seeped out a thick white fog. Soon it rose several feet into the air, encasing the street from front to back. Sombra had to strain to see ahead of him—could barely make out the silhouetted figure that was Cheerilee.
Once the fog rolled over her, she came to a halt and looked around. “This fog is… oddly sudden. The forecast never said anything about this.”
Using his horn, Sombra wrapped a bit of magic around a trashcan next to her. He cocked his head to the left and the can toppled to the street, crashing loudly and spreading garbage in the still night air. Its lid rolled up the curb noisily.
Cheerilee sucked in air and remained where she stood.
Sombra took a quick sniff and tasted fear in the air. We’re well on our way, he thought pleasantly.
In a flash of black smoke, he disappeared to materialize behind her. As quietly as he could, he stretched out his neck and warmly exhaled on her neck.
Now Cheerilee did more than suck in air. Now she squeaked like a chew toy.
“Is someone there?” she whispered.
Sombra replied as low and as guttural as possible. “Yes.”
When she spun around, Sombra turned himself into a pit of pure darkness, only his floating red-and-green eyes visible, burning with a fiery intensity. He opened his jaws and displayed his fangs, dripping with saliva in the blackened void he had created.
Cheerilee collapsed to her rump and stared at him awestruck, screaming the entire time. The moment he appeared behind her, Sombra created a soundproof bubble around the two of them. A smart move, he soon realized.
Sombra remembered what Sweetie Belle had said and decided to use it. “And now to bite your neck and drink your blood. All of it!”
Cheerilee just continued to scream, shielding herself with a leg.
Making his whole form visible, Sombra awkwardly chewed on his tongue. “So you’d better run away soon! Otherwise… .”
Cheerilee’s cheeks became stained with tears as she continued to shriek.
Sombra sighed. “Seriously? I haven’t even done anything. Just run away! Go! What are you waiting for?”
“I don’t want to die!” she yelled, a bit of snot dripping from her nose.
“Well, you’re doing a terrible job at not dying, then!” Sombra told her earnestly. “Here, I’ll show you what to do.”
With his horn, he levitated her back to an upright position, only for her to crumble the moment he didn’t support her. By the third attempt, she finally found her footing, still shaking like a leaf caught in a breeze.
Sombra said, “Now mush! Go! Run!”
“But I don’t know how anymore!”
That last part made Sombra so mad, tiny dots danced in his vision. He quivered out a breath. “I know what you need: motivation. How ‘bout this?”
From the pile of garbage on the ground, Sombra found a soaked newspaper and rolled it up tight. He then smacked her on the plot with it and watched her gallop up the street—the opposite of the direction she’d been going previously.
Before returning to the girls, Sombra rubbed at his temple with a hoof.
“I should’ve stuck to my original plan of destroying this town.”
***
“This house looks big,” Apple Bloom said, once the four of them landed next to the pool.
“And familiar, too,” Sweetie Belle added, taking in the backyard’s in-ground pool and numerous tables and deck chairs. She gasped. “Wait. This isn’t Diamond Tiara’s house, is it?”
Sombra whirled around to her with a grin. “One and the same! But we must be quiet now—everyone’s asleep inside. Follow me.”
After Sombra stepped off the ring of cement around the pool, he strolled around the side of the house and looked up towards a large shut window.
“I don’t have a great feeling about this,” Scootaloo admitted. “Why can’t we just go fly around some more? That was fun!”
Apple Bloom shot her a look. “For you, maybe. I’ve only had wings for an hour and they’re already sore.”
Sombra flapped his wings and rose in the air. “Let’s go see if anyone’s home.”
Not giving them time to interject, he flew upwards and hovered in front of the window he’d been staring at. Scootaloo shot up after him in a hurry, while Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both struggled to reach them. Again, Sombra used a bit of his magic to give them the necessary boost.
Through the window, Sombra could see a lone burning candle on the floor. To one side was Diamond Tiara wrapped tight in a sleeping bag, eyes closed. Opposite of her was Silver Spoon, also asleep in a matching sleeping bag.
Sombra turned to the trio. “What do they call these things again?”
Apple Bloom bumped her nose against the glass. “You mean sleepovers?”
“Sure. That sounds right.”
Visibly winded from continuously beating her wings, Sweetie Belle landed on Sombra’s flank and held on tight. “Why are we here again? You really need to start explaining things in advance to us.”
He regarded her wearily. “And ruin the surprise? Unheard of. And it should be obvious why we’re here. Revenge, remember?”
Sweetie Belle gulped. “Revenge?”
“Yes, indeedy.”
“But we told you not to hurt them!”
“I have no plans of hurting them, Sweetie Belle. Instead… we shall merely scare them a bit. Perhaps make them think twice about bullying you in the future. Wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace?”
Scootaloo returned to the group after doing a few fast dives off the roof. “And how do we go about doing that?”
“Are you three really going to make me explain everything?” Sombra grabbed Scootaloo with a leg so she wouldn’t wander off again. “I’ve given you all wings and fangs and you can’t even figure out how to scare two little fillies? Well, I’m not going to do everything for you. Sweetie Belle, as my top student, I’m leaving you in charge. Make me proud.”
Suddenly, Sombra shot his plot up and bucked Sweetie Belle back into the air, causing her to chirp and start erratically flapping with her wings. It didn’t take her long to get her flight back under control.
She looked down at Sombra on the lawn. “Do I have to?”
He nodded. “Yes. Otherwise I’ll take away all of the candy we stole and bury it somewhere you won’t find it.”
“Now that’s just mean!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
Sombra stuck his tongue out at her. “Then I guess the tyrannically king of the Crystal Empire and ruler of slaves is a little bit mean! Who ever would have thought?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “How are we even—”
“Shh!” Sweetie Belle pressed her face against the glass. “I think I see one of them moving. They must have heard you, Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo flew next to her friend and glanced inside. “Sorry. What should we do? What can we even do?”
“Duck!” Sweetie Belle grabbed both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom and pulled them down enough to not be visible from the window. She whispered to them, “One of them grabbed the candle inside. I think they were coming over here.”
Apple Bloom asked, “Shouldn’t we let them see us? To scare them, I mean?”
“Wait until they get close—then we’ll fly up and surprise them.”
Scootaloo nodded. “Okay. And make sure to look scary, you guys. We should hiss or something.”
Apple Bloom looked downcast. “You don’t think we’ll get in trouble for this, do you? I mean, what if they tell Mrs. Cheerilee at school tomorrow?”
“Tell her what?” Scootaloo said. “That three bat ponies were hovering outside their window? Who’d even believe them?”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “Well, Mrs. Cheerilee was scared by bat Sombra only a little while ago, so….”
Scootaloo pursed her lips. “Good point. But a better question: do you really care? We won’t look like this tomorrow. Or, I hope we won’t.”
Apple Bloom clumsily propelled herself in-between them. “We could talk about this more, or we could jump up in three, two, one, scare!”
“BLARGH!” all three fillies screamed in unison once they were visible from the window, brandishing their fangs while throwing their wings to their sides.
Silver Spoon was closest to the window when they made themselves known; Diamond Tiara was busy clutching her friend’s back like some makeshift shield. At the sight of the trio of bat ponies, Silver Spoon leapt back and collided with Diamond Tiara, who had the candle from earlier in her mouth. Knocked to the floor, the candle flew from her lips and landed atop a nearby blanket—one which quickly caught on fire.
Instantly, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle dropped their nefarious act as their jaws dropped in shock. Silver Spoon kept her attention on the ponies outside the window until Diamond Tiara screamed behind her. Diamond Tiara soon began beating the lit blanket with one of their sleeping bags. That, too, was hurriedly set ablaze and abandoned.
The second fire only added to Diamond Tiara’s terror, and she backed into the corner furthest from the flames. The lit sleeping bag leaned against the only door in the room.
“How’s it going, girls?” Sombra called from down below.
Apple Bloom turned to him. “Sweetie Belle set them both on fire.”
Sombra smiled. “Really? That’s fantastic. I had no idea you had an interest in pyromancy, Sweetie Belle. To think, we could’ve brought stuff to make smores with.”
Horrorstruck, Sweetie Belle told Apple Bloom, “I did not set them on fire! We need to help them!”
Apple Bloom didn’t appear as concerned. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. Diamond Tiara’s parents had to have heard something by now.”
“Unless they’re not home,” Scootaloo said, not taking her eyes from the scene inside.
Sweetie Belle looked back inside to find Silver Spoon trying to beat away the fire closest to the door with a pillow. A moment later, that same pillow was blackened with flames and tossed away.
Silver Spoon joined her friend in the corner and both of them tried to make themselves as small as possible.
Scootaloo tapped on the glass. “Look! Sweetie Belle! There’s a pitcher of water on the nightstand over there by those glasses. Grab it with your horn and dump it!”
“They had water this whole time and didn’t use it?” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
“They were probably scared… and maybe a little dumb, too, but that doesn’t matter!”
Sweetie Belle flew a foot above Scootaloo and landed on her back.
Scootaloo began beating her wings twice as hard to support them both. “What gives?”
A white aura wrapped around Sweetie Belle’s horn. “I can’t concentrate if I have to fly. Just stay put and try not to move too much.”
With a grimace, Scootaloo did as she was told. Inside the fiery room, the large water pitcher levitated into the air and sluggishly made its way to the burning pile closest to the door. Sweetie Belle gave a grunt and the pitcher turned on its side, extinguishing the flames with a hiss. The moment the fire was out, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon bolted for the door and out of sight down the stairs.
Using what water remained in the pitcher, Sweetie Belle put out the remaining two small fires before letting the empty pitcher fall to the floor. She exhaled a sigh of relief.
“It’s okay, Sombra!” she yelled out. “I put out the fire! It was cool… sort of.” But when she turned around to glimpse the lawn below, Sombra was nowhere to be found. “Mr. Sombra?”
Cautiously, the trio descended to the ground and went back to the pool area to look for him. Only when they made their way to the front of the large house did he nearly run into them, his head beaded with sweat and a one-sided grin on his lips, hardly holding in a chuckle.
“Have fun, you three?” he asked them.
“Where’d you go?” Sweetie Belle said. “Did you go get the fire department?”
He snorted. “Why’d I ever want to put a fire out? No. I only had to relieve myself at the other side of the house. That tea from earlier must’ve just shot right through me.”
Scootaloo hovered near his head. “And that made you all sweaty?”
Sombra smiled thinly at her. “I’ll remind you, it was a rather large cup of tea.”
“Then why were you laughing?”
He roughly ruffled her mane. “Because I managed to write my whole name and official title on their sidewalk before I was done. Any more questions? Or can we press on?”
By the tone in his voice, none of them were about to question him any further.
Sombra sighed. “Good. Now time for the best part.”
***
Applejack got all the way back into bed and even pulled her blankets up to her neck before she realized she’d been a complete idiot. This, obviously, made her sit up straight and contemplate just what Apple Bloom had said only seconds ago.
“Apples and junk?” Applejack mumbled out, brain slowly coming alive like it’d been hit by its first cup of morning coffee. “Blood made of applesauce?”
Then the largest revelation of them all.
“Apple Bloom never had apple dreams. That was me! So just what in tarnation is going on around here?”
That was when Big Mac kicked in her bedroom door and stared at her gravely.
Applejack only had to nod a single time. “You felt it, too, didn’t you? The apple sense?”
He nodded. “Eeyup.”
“I knew something fruity was going on here.”
“Eeyup.”
Applejack shot out of bed and had her hat on in a snap. “Then let’s move. One way or another, this Sombra nonsense ends tonight.”
***
“Keep going! You’re all doing a very good job! A few more scoops and I’d say you all earned those juice boxes I promised you.”
Scootaloo looked up to Sombra, bits of fresh dirt clinging to her hooves and coat. “This would go a lot faster if you were to help, you know. You’re only, like, four times our size.”
Sombra greedily finished off another juice box and threw it into the pile of other empties by his hooves. “Sorry, only brought the three shovels along. And I’m just terrible at manual labor. Ask any one of my slaves.”
Using her horn, Sweetie Belle poured another half-scoop of dirt out of the rectangular hole she was in. Her two friends worked on a near identical hole next to her. “This should be deep enough for the seeds. Right, Sombra? What type of trees did you want to plant anyways?”
Sombra shook his head and chuckled. “Oh. No, I’m sorry dear. As much as you all might’ve liked to plant some random flowers or trees in the middle of the night for some reason, I actually had you dig those pits for a far grander purpose.”
For the second time that night, Sweetie Belle gave Apple Bloom the “I think we’ve made a mistake” look. Only this time it didn’t seem nearly as comical as before.
Sombra leisurely paced around the pair of three-foot deep pits. “I’ve never been much of a gardener. But what I am good at is grave digging. Don’t you recognize what you’re standing in?”
Sweetie Belle’s shovel dropped out of the air. Her lip quivered. “Mr. Sombra, I’d really like to go home now, please.”
Sombra paid her little mind. “Right after we’re done here. We still have fillies to bury.”
His last sentence spurred the three of them into action. Scootaloo flew out of the small hole like a bullet before quickly returning and pulling Apple Bloom along beside her. Sweetie Belle had less trouble escaping, using both her wings and some magic from her horn to climb over the edge of the grave.
They only got two meters away from the scene before a crimson aura wrapped around them and dragged them back. Using his horn, Sombra spun them around and stood them in a row next to him.
“Leaving so soon?” he said coldly, narrowing his eyes at them. “I thought we were a group? I thought groups stayed together through thick and thin?”
“But I don’t want to be buried!” Sweetie Belle shouted.
Sombra cocked a brow. “Who said anything about you? I only see two graves before me. I think it’s time to reveal our special guests.”
When he released them from his aura, the trio remained where they were, watching as Sombra went behind a nearby tree and returned with two wriggling sacks above his head. Into each grave went a sack. From each sack came a familiar voice.
“When my father hears about this, you’ll be in so much trouble!”
Diamond Tiara trapped in sack number one.
“What she said!”
Silver Spoon from sack number two.
“Shut up!” Sombra roared at them, making both sacks jolt and keep quiet. He turned to the other three with a toothy sneer. “I’ve been going too easy on you three. Perhaps something a bit more drastic might earn you all a mark or two. Hmm? But I guess before we get started, I really should ask before I get egg on my face:
“Have any of you committed murder before?”