//------------------------------//
// The Brightest Of Beginnings  
// Story: The Crusader King 
// by naturalbornderpy 
//------------------------------//

Sombra set his hooves down at the edge of the stone and set his sights on the horizon. The sun was still in hiding; the sky was dark and the only items to be seen in the distance were the glowing lampposts in town and small candles burning inside homes.
                
Most residents in Ponyville were asleep. Even those that were awake would not be able to outrun what was to come. If, that was, Sombra kept to his plan.
                
With a sigh and a quick flap of his bat wings, Sombra leapt off the lip of the town dam and hovered around its top. The wall of the dam was lined with deep cracks—some patched over with cement and some just left the way they were. Safe for the time being. A dozen jagged bits of crystal sat wedged deep inside those cracks. They’d gone in a few hours before he’d met the Crusaders for the first time.
                
Once embedded, he’d melted them into a liquid and pushed them as far as they would go inside the cracks before they hardened again. If he left them untouched, the dam would be in much better repair. But if he flicked his horn—if he even so much as thought about those bits of darkened crystal suddenly expanding and exploding—the entire town would be submerged, much to his delight.
                
It’d seemed so simple, days ago—before he stood atop Ponyville’s dam for the first time and witnessed the Crusaders make their way across town, a spring in their step and a song in their heart—or in this case, sung aloud for all to hear.
                
Feeling an emptiness inside his chest that wasn’t there a short while ago, Sombra returned to the top of the dam and set his sights back on the town. He still had a lot to think about.
                
“I could always put the Crusaders somewhere else and then blow up the dam,” he told himself. “But then what would you do? They don’t like you anymore. They’re scared of you. Can’t you tell?”
                
His eyes fell on the candy shop the four of them had vandalized and robbed. Did he honestly think a cutie mark lay in-store for one of them after what they did there? A cutie mark in violence or destruction? It seemed hundreds of years of evil deeds had left him with a one track mind.
                
“But what would be the point?” he said bitterly. “You save them and then what? Try for more cutie marks in a field they’re not even interested in? Haven’t you failed enough by now?”
                
He chuckled, as quiet as a whisper.
                
The notion of turning Ponyville into an artificial lake didn’t seem quite as amusing now. Not when it left three fillies without a place to call home.
                
“Damn it all,” he muttered, flapping his wings and lifting himself off the ledge. He hovered, several stories off the ground, eyes focused on the horizon. A hint of light was already glimpsing over the faraway mountaintops.
                
“Mr. Sombra, what are you doing?”
                
Sombra gasped and dipped a few feet in the air. He whirled around and saw the last thing he wanted to. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom stood by the dam’s edge. Each wore a frown, each brow furrowed.
                
“I… um….” Sombra swallowed dryly. “You fillies shouldn’t be up here. It’s dangerous, and—” A more pressing thought pulled at him. “How did you even get up here?”
                
Scootaloo flexed out her bat wings. “We still have these, remember?”
                
“And Twilight let you go just like that?”
                
Sweetie Belle glanced downward and ground her hoof into the stone. “We might’ve run away after we crashed in on you. We also might’ve overheard what happened to your daughter. We’re awful sorry, if that makes any difference.”
                
Sombra sighed. “Thank you, Sweetie Belle. I think the three of you would’ve liked Nocturne. She could’ve been a Crusader like you—a good one, too.”
                
Apple Bloom hesitantly approached the edge of the dam and glanced down. “Why don’t you come back over here, Sombra? Doesn’t that make your wings tired?”
                
“Yes,” Sombra admitted softly. “But I think I’ll stay here for a little while longer. Soon enough, the sun will peak and all this madness will come to an end. If I should happen to return sometime in the future, maybe then I won’t make such a mess of it all.”
                
Sweetie Belle held a hoof to him. “But, Sombra, you said that when the sun comes up, we lose our wings and—” 

Cold realization took hold. Her eyes popped open and together with her friends she leapt from the dam to fly to him.
                
Apple Bloom grabbed hold of one of his legs while Scootaloo pushed on his back in the direction of the dam. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle seized Sombra’s head in a vice-like grip and pulled with everything she had—far more strength than he’d given her credit for.
                
Instead of physically shaking them off, Sombra let his horn do the work, yanking on each of them in turn and setting them safely back down on the ledge. He had to turn his back to them once their tears began.
                
“But why, Sombra?” Sweetie Belle squeaked out. “If it’s about Twilight, we can talk to her. We promise she won’t bug you anymore.”
                
“I have a feeling that’s not an option now,” Sombra said calmly, watching the spreading light in the distance. “And this was never about Twilight, really, or any of the Elements. All I wanted to do was to try and help you three and even that I couldn’t do. I can’t help anyone, it seems.”
                
Scootaloo zoomed passed his head and tried to talk to him directly. He set her back on the dam while she yelled at him. “But there’s still time, Sombra! You’ve only been here for four days! We’ve all been trying to get cutie marks for years already!”
                
He chuckled. “Yes. And I’m sure Applejack, Rarity and the rest of them will happily welcome me back after tonight’s events. I can’t imagine I’m the most popular of ponies right now.”
                
A ray of light shot up over one of the darkened houses in town, making Sombra shut one of his eyes. He felt his wings start to thin and the elongated fangs inside his mouth begin to sink into his gums. With every passing second it was getting harder and harder to remain in the air.
                
“There must be another way!” Apple Bloom said. “You can’t just quit when things don’t do your way! Kings don’t quit!”
                
“Some do,” Sombra answered, as he flapped his crumbling wings as fast as he could just to remain in the air. “Look on the bright side, little one. I came up here to destroy your town—break this dam and drown everyone you know. But the thought that you three might get hurt is what stopped me. And I know if I stayed around any longer—even if I left and swore never to return—there’d always be some chance I’d come back for Twilight and the rest and you all would become nothing more than a casualty. I don’t want that. I don’t think you want that either.”
                
The sun came over the horizon in full force and Sombra had to shield his eyes with a leg. Painlessly, his wings crumpled into ash and he began to fall. The moment he began his descent, he closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see death come and greet him.
                
Sombra’s fall was short lived, though.
                
“Gotcha!” Apple Bloom shouted, wrapping her hooves around his back legs.
                
In mid-fall, Sombra came to a full stop and his momentum carried him into the front of the dam, his snout and ribs taking the brunt of the damage. He wheezed out in silent agony and looked up to find all three fillies holding onto one another like a short chain made of ponies. At the top, Scootaloo had her back legs wrapped around a thin metal post, while her hooves dug deep into Sweetie Belle’s legs. Like her friend, Sweetie Belle held onto Apple Bloom until sweat poured down her mane.
                
“Okay. Fine,” Sombra croaked, painfully gripping his sore ribs and tasting blood. “I’ll think of something else to do. Just pull me up. I am in so much pain right now.”
                
Sombra cleared his head and pointed his horn at Scootaloo, tugging on her tail inch by inch with his magic until the four of them were safely back on the dam. Sombra put his back to another metal post and poked around his chest and face for broken bones. It seemed as if they were only bruised rather painfully.
                
“That was really stupid of you, Sombra!” Scootaloo informed him the moment she got her breath back.
                
He nodded. “Probably. But so was what you three did. If I hadn’t lost those ten pounds last week, you might’ve all gone down with me.”
                
Scootaloo awkwardly scratched the back of her head. “We might’ve had a little help, actually.”
                
Sombra frowned deeply, paining his muzzle further. “What do you mean?”
                
Apple Bloom laughed uneasily. “Well, you didn’t think three fillies could really support a fully grown stallion, did you?”
                
“I was never very good at physics.” Sombra thought for a moment, narrowing his eyes to the other side of the dam where a trio of large boxes sat,  all left over after construction.
                
Loudly, Sombra cleared his throat and yelled, “Twilight Sparkle! If you do not announce yourself in the next ten seconds, you will be marked tardy and it shall remain on your permanent record until the end of time! Furthermore, if you do not declare yourself present, I shall create a new wing of Hell just for you called Tardy-rus! Where only the tardiest of ponies are sent to!”
                
He paused to catch his breath.
                
“Ten! Nine!”
                
All three boxes exploded in a blur of deep purple. That blur continued towards them until it came to a sudden stop, revealing Twilight Sparkle with a scroll and quill by her head and poised to strike. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash still latched onto her sides, their manes disheveled by the hurried ride over. Atop Twilight’s head sat Pinkie Pie, one foreleg held above her as if riding a bull.
                
“Again! Again!” she shouted, kicking Twilight’s shoulders to nudge her along.
                
“Twilight Sparkle, present and accounted for! I’m not late, am—” Twilight said before she exhaled roughly and shut her eyes. She sat on the ground and rubbed at her head with a hoof. “I really should see a therapist about that.”
                
Applejack pried herself from the rest of them. “So where does this leave us now? Aren’t we just back to square one? I mean, Sombra’s still Sombra, right? Just because he tried to kill himself just now doesn’t mean I forgive him for all he’s done. And I still don’t feel comfortable about him being near my sister, either.”
                
“Hey!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “Why can’t I be friends with Sombra? Who says it’s just up to you?”
                
Using a hoof to flatten out her mane, Rarity entered the conversation. “Sorry, girls, but I’d have to agree with Applejack on this. Until we can figure out just what Sombra plans to do right now, I don’t think it’s safe for any of you to be near him. That includes you, Scootaloo.”
                
Scootaloo stomped a hoof. “That’s not fair!”
                
“Neither is kidnapping and burying two fillies in the school playground.”
                
Sombra laughed and glared at her. “You’re really gonna hold that over my head forever, aren’t you?”
                
Rarity pursed her lips. “Probably.”
                
Wincing, Sombra rose to stand, keeping a hoof against his injured chest. His eyes went from the six mares to the three fillies closest to him. “It seems our quest has come to an end, you three. In case I don’t see you again, know that I’ll miss you all very much. Try not to remember me as the pony that tried to get you to commit murder. Maybe, try and remember me as that really good looking stallion that only wanted to help.”
                
Sweetie Belle held her hooves to him. “Can we have a hug before you go?”
                
Sombra shrugged. His reputation had been in tatters even before setting hoof inside Ponyville—truthfully, there was nothing left to salvage by now. “Sure. But be gentle. My insides are a little soft at the moment.”
                
Sweetie Belle took a step towards him and wrapped herself around his chest. He put a hoof on her shoulder and Apple Bloom gripped his neck, nuzzling her head into him. Scootaloo, being the only one of them left with wings, hovered onto his back to latch around his shoulders.
                
“Thanks for everything, Sombra,” Sweetie Belle whispered to him. “I’m sure Nocturne would be happy you tried to help us.”
                
At that, Sombra smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

All this sweetness is getting to me, Sombra thought casually, as warmth spread throughout his chest and made him shudder.

He coughed. “That’s weird. That’s really warm. And why is it…?”

Sombra grunted, his eyes shooting open. He pounded on his chest with a hoof.

“Ow! Ow! Why does that hurt so much!?”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong, Sombra? Are you joking again? I remember the first time we met, you said—”

“No, you idiot! It feels like I’m being torn apart from the inside! What did you do!? What in Tartarus did you do!?”

Sombra had both hooves to his chest, almost as if attempting to tear at his skin to get at the pain inside. A thin trail of smoke oozed out from one of his nostrils.

“I’m on fire! Ahh! Ahhahahahha!” Sombra shrieked as he flailed around.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom took a step back to stand next to Sweetie Belle, their eyes wide in horror. Scootaloo asked him tentatively, “Sombra, if this is all a joke, I think you can stop now.”

That was when Sombra suddenly stopped thrashing around and vomited blood on the three of them, before collapsing to the ground.
                
Scootaloo blinked blood out from her eyes. “I guess he wasn’t joking.”
 

***


 

The moment he came to, Sombra felt something plastic up his nose, feeding him oxygen. He opened his eyes and found another half-dozen tubes and patches covering his chest and forelegs. Underneath his head was a pillow and a blanket had been pulled up to his lap. Some machine was beeping by his bed.
                
He never thought he’d experienced so much pain in his life.
                
A stallion in a doctor’s coat and spectacles strolled inside the room, a chart tucked in a leg. “How’s our miracle patient doing?”
                
“I should be dead,” Sombra mumbled out through cracked lips. “That was terrible.”
                
The doctor snickered. “I bet, by the sounds of it. Honestly, you should be dead. Then again, you weren’t exactly alive to begin with. More… ghost… apparition… shadow spirit-type thing—”
                
“I get it!” Sombra cut in, hurting his throat. “Just get to the point.”
                
“All right.” The doctor slid a white box on wheels to the side of his bed. On its front was a black screen with a faint green line shooting across it. “This machine monitors heart rates.”
                
“I don’t have a heart. Or a working one, at least.”
                
The doctor raised a hoof. “Well, you’d be wrong about that! You actually never got rid of your heart completely. It was always there—just beating so slowly you didn’t even notice it anymore. But then something quite magical happened today.” He paused, listening to the room. “You hear that?”
                
Sombra grimaced. He didn’t like where this was going. “Hear what?”
                
With a grin, the doctor said, “That’s your heart; ticking again after hundreds of years of laying dormant. When those fillies gave you that hug on the dam, it must’ve triggered a reaction that caused your heart to restart… as well as grow three times in size.”
                
Sombra glared at him. “That means I should be dead.”
                
He whistled. “I know! Isn’t the body fascinating! But that’s not all.”
                
“You mean something else of mine grew three times its normal size?”
                
“Not quite. Take a look for yourself.”
                
The doctor handed him a mirror from the bedside table. Clumsily, Sombra got a grip on it and held it over his face, almost dropping the mirror when he saw the pony staring back at him. His black coat had returned to its original light-gray, along with his blue mane. His horn looked straight again, all hints of crimson removed. Sombra pulled down an eyelid to inspect and saw cobalt eyes instead of his red-and-green ones. Using the tip of his tongue, he searched his mouth and found his fangs gone as well. Removing a bit of his covers revealed his old, cut up cutie mark back in full: a black silhouette of an adult pony with the silhouette of a foal standing on their back, a single leg pointed up.
                
He looked up at the doctor. “What did those fillies do to me?”
                
The doctor shrugged. “I dunno. You’d have to ask a magic doctor about that. I’m the science one. But if I had to take a guess, I’d say they forced out all of your evilness with the power of love and friendship.”
                
Sombra raised a brow. “Like when someone leaves a tube of toothpaste on the floor and someone steps on it by mistake and then you just know there’s no way of getting all that toothpaste back in there?”
                
“I kinda liked my analogy better, but I won’t take up anymore of your time. I think you have visitors.”
                
As the doctor left the room, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom ran into the room, leaping up to hang onto the sides of his bed.

From the sight of all their adorable, curious faces, Sombra screamed out in pure terror before hiding under his covers. “No! No more, I beg of you!”
                
“I promise, Sombra. They’re not here to hurt you again,” spoke Twilight from somewhere near the door.
                
Sombra removed the covers over his head with a frown. “Twilight Sparkle. How long must we do this dance of ours?”
                
She furrowed her brows. “Dance? You mean the dance between hero and villain? Although I’d never be the type to call myself a hero, I think that’s what you were referring to—”
                
“Yes!” Sombra spat. “You continue to keep me alive, but for what purpose? I will continue to do evil deeds as long as I live! You are only making things worse on yourself by keeping me around.”
                
Twilight had to use a hoof to keep in her laughter. “Have you taken a look at yourself lately, Sombra? You don’t look all that nefarious anymore. Whatever curse you had on you was lifted. Now you look more like…” she gave him a quick scan “… someone’s boring father.”
                
He shot a hoof at her. “I do not look boring!”
                
“Well, you definitely don’t look evil, either. Honestly, is that still how you feel inside?”
                
“Of course that’s how I—” Sombra stopped his sentence short, closing his mouth with a snap. Ever since he’d woken up, he’d felt two distinct things: a bitter pain in his body due to his transformation alongside an unfamiliar thumping sensation in his chest. The second he could, he verbally sparred with the doctor overseeing him, then did the same with Twilight. He’d spent the last thousand years arguing with everyone in sight, so it only felt natural to continue on like that. But where was that sense of malice and anger that continuously swirled in his gut? Where had that simple quest for revenge gone off to?
                
He took a breath and waited for a time—waited for that usual drive for blood and death to return. Only this time, it never came. It didn’t mean he wasn’t annoyed by all the ponies around him or that he hadn’t been making a mental list of insults and puns to spew at them later, but that didn’t mean he wanted to hurt them, either.
                
Sweetie Belle set her head on his hoof and he flinched. “We’re sorry we hurt you, Mr. Sombra. But I think it was for the best. You look a lot friendlier now.”
                
Stepping onto her friend’s back, Apple Bloom launched herself onto his bed to study him. “You still having evil thoughts, Sombra?” she asked, extending one open eye towards his face. “Blowing up dams or burying fillies?”
                
Sombra swallowed thickly. “I… I don’t think so, Apple Bloom. I’m not sure how I feel right now, but I know it doesn’t involve anything quite like that.”
                
Apple Bloom pressed her nose against his. “Really?”
                
“Really.”
                
“Really?”
                
“Yes, really! Now knock it off!”
                
The next moment, Apple Bloom began jumping on the bed, forcing Sombra to relocate his soft lower parts a safe distance away from her hard hooves. She giggled excitedly. “We did it, girls! We reformed a villain! We have to get our cutie marks now!”
                
All at once, the trio of fillies happily stared at their rumps, only for not a single mark to appear. With a sigh, Apple Bloom climbed off the bed and exited the room with Sweetie Belle.
                
Twilight kept her distance by the doorway. “We’ll talk again, Sombra. Figure out where to go from here. If you want to stay in Ponyville for a while, I could look into getting you a job. A normal one, if you remember what those are.”
                
Sombra sneered. “Goody. Can’t wait to work reception somewhere I know I’ll hate. Thanks a ton, Princess.”
                
Twilight tipped him a wink before she left the room.
                
Happy to see her gone, Sombra settled back into his pillow before remembering Scootaloo was still in the room. She pulled over a visitor’s chair to his bed and sat in it. She couldn’t seem to get her eyes off the floor.
                
“I’m glad you’re doing better, Sombra.”
                
“Thank you, Scootaloo. Have no fear. I don’t hold any grudges against you three. How were you to know what a single hug was capable of?”
                
“About that… .” She chewed on her lip. “So, you’re kinda normal now, right?”
                
He nodded. “More or less.”
                
“And, um, before the dam thing, we overheard you talk about your daughter. And you said you were a good father a long time ago—that it was even your cutie mark and everything.”
                
“Yes, although you weren’t supposed to hear all that. A lot of nasty business.”
                
Scootaloo hesitated, before asking, “You, um, think you still might want to be a father again someday?”
                
Sombra thought for a moment. “You mean, have another child or…?” He turned to her and found she could hardly keep still, her hooves gently tapping against each other. Sombra sighed, then chuckled. “You’d honestly want me as a father, Scootaloo?”
                
She seemed a little more at ease once he’d figured it out. She looked at him. “Why not? You’re not evil anymore, right? And even when you were, you were a lot of fun sometimes. Scary, yes. Weird, yeah. Corny, absolutely. But I think a lot of fathers are like that. And… Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom already have a family to call their own. I’m the only one who doesn’t have anyone.”
                
Sombra had to look away from her when her eyes began to water. “I don’t know if you’d like me very much, Scootaloo. I lost my mind a long time ago.”
                
“Then maybe I could help you find it again.”
                
He smiled, and patted the edge of the bed. “If that’s how you want it, Scootaloo, then come give me a hug.”
                
“Aren’t you worried about almost dying again?”
                
“If you kill me, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. Now give me a hug before I lose my nerve.”
                
Scootaloo didn’t need any more convincing. She leapt off the chair and used her wings to carry her to the bed to wrap her hooves around his chest. He winced, then hugged her back.
                
“Thanks, Sombra,” she said.
                
“You can call me dad, you know.”
                
“Okay, Sombra dad.”
                
She pulled away from him and sat on his lap, staring at him excitedly. “Can you turn me into a bat pony again? That was awesome!”
                
Sombra scratched his chin. “How about once a week? But only if your homework’s done on time.”
                
Some of her elation slipped away. “Whoa. You really are like a dad now.”
                
He smirked. “You better believe it.”
                
“Will you come to school with me next week? It’s bring your parent to class day. I can’t think of many kids in class whose dads are kings.”
                
“Might be a little early for that.”
                
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon will be there. I heard them in another room still screaming at the nurses about you.”
                
A tiny fire grew in Sombra’s head. “I think I could make an appearance.”