The vision came as he stared at and through us. He was no passive collection of shadow. He seemed to press the thoughts on us, and we were whisked away.
It was dark, very dark.
Pinkie drew a flashlight out of nowhere and clicked it on before waving around the bright beam of light. "Looks like a cave?"
It was more than a cave. I heard a choked cry come from deeper within moments before a wave of intense energy washed over us, putting to shame the smaller burst I saw when Sombra had been banished, and even many of the later ones I would see. Putting these visions into chronological order was a challenge, but I was certain this was one of the earlier ones.
I found myself glad that Sweet hadn't joined us on this journey, even if it was close to her home.
From the direction of where the energy had already passed, soft cries and wails began to rise. Pinkie tilted her head. "Who's that? They sound like they're having a bad day."
"So bad, no party can fix it," I said, shaking my head. "Why are we here?"
My vision was drawn upwards. Various crystalline structures vibrated with every wail and cry, pulsing with an increasingly familiar burst of black, green, and purple. Time became hazy as the wave passed over us again, repeating the cries, charging the crystals.
Sombra emerged from the shadow to face us. "The shadow, what the crystal ponies have learned to fear... Me... We were created by the desperate cries of the dark ponies. Our original purpose was to free them of this pain, to destroy the crystal heart once and for all. Each time they cry, we have failed. We were not without our successes."
The scene changed, showing Sombra ruling from on high in the Crystal Palace, glaring down at the hated crystal ponies, but that quickly jumped again, showing a more primitive time. Their huge totem of crystal was set afire along with a circle of others. "They would infuse their crystals with the very soul of what they would ward, and with barbaric rituals would activate them. For most, this simply kept them at bay. The dark ponies had nowhere to go, nor knew what was happening as they were crushed in their own homes. This injustice drew us, for we had no other purpose. We rose as a mighty army." The horizon grew almost fuzzy and indistinct, obscured with a shadow army that spread from one edge of the horizon to the next. "My ancestors came, and we destroyed."
The crystals were shattered, all of them. "We thought we had won..."
A lone crystal pony timidly stepped into the field of broken crystals, sniffing along the ground. They pulled one piece closer to themselves, picked it up, and trotted off with it quickly. "We were wrong. One clever pony reforged the remnants of the crystal totem, becoming the heart that we know today. They constructed a grand focusing device, fell and terrible, that would focus its lingering power. True, its power is still a shadow of its original glory, but enough to strike at them, and to prove us failures once again."
Pinkie tilted her head. "Why didn't you just ask them not to do that?"
I just noticed as she talked that we had a presence, if non-distinct.
"Do you not think we tried? My ancestors were not as... refined as I. It was not until my creation that this was possible, and the damage was done. The crystals that made me became slowly more clever with every passing moon. They knew an outright attack would fail. The crystal ponies were too clever, the shadows too weak individually." His fanged smile spread. "So they made a pony, one of shadow, and sent him to their city. You already know my story."
"I don't," complained Pinkie with a pout.
"You don't count." His eyes fixed on me. "Do you understand?"
Some of it... "Why didn't you smash the heart when you controlled the city?"
His eyes flared with power. "You know how they made it. To destroy it utterly would betray our purpose."
How they made it? I frowned in thought, then it clicked. "The first one, the 'outer space' explorer, his soul's trapped in the heart crystal, right?"
"He is as victimized as those within the city. They all knew peace, for a time, when I held the heart, and their pain delayed when the city was sent away. While his soul resides, outright destruction is beyond consideration, even if it would spare many of his kin."
We suddenly 'woke up', back in the cavern. Unlike the other times, the source of the vision still stood there before us. "Now you understand?"
A familiar green grin appeared in the air, quickly wrapped in the shadowy ball. "I 'understand' that your weakness lets the poor bastard stew in his own juices." He turned towards me. "Hey, kid, nice delaying tactic, but you haven't changed a damn thing."
I spotted Sweet by Trixie, freeing her from the confetti blast. Both fell to the ground in a heap, Trixie still slumbering.
Pinkie pointed at the grinning blob. "What's that?"
"You should already know." He leered at us. "At least one of you, anyway. Sombra, get your ass in gear."
"Do not speak to me in such insolent tones!" A mask of fury, he fired a bolt of almost brilliant dark magic, though the blob easily flowed around it. "He has proven willing to hear our side, more than most."
"Like that matters? He gave you a body, now do things with it. We need Sombra back, kicking little ponies around. You like doing that, don't you?"
I frowned at the shadow. He was quite the pain in the butt. "I want to find an answer, a real answer, not just keep repeating this fight over and over again."
"You would know about repeats, wouldn't you?" His eyes rolled dramatically in its spherical body. "Come on, big guy, It's waiting for you just upstairs. No excuses, get moving!"
Sombra let out a slow exhale. "We will meet again, at the peak." He lapsed into shadow and fled up through the wall, gone.
"Adios, jerks." The orb dissipated into nothing.
Sweet shook Trixie gently, rousing her with a sleeping mumble. "Five more minutes..."
Pinkie turned to me. "I don't really understand everything that's going on, but we need to get you up to that peak." She grabbed me at the collar and tossed me onto her back. "Come on, Trixie's still dizzy, I'll do it."
Sweet climbed up to her own hooves, with Trixie draped over her. "Ready. Do you know the way?"
I suddenly giggled. "I'm going to guess she doesn't, but she's going to try anyway"
"How'd you know?!" Pinkie began bouncing for the exit, proving she was far less smooth a ride than Trixie had been. I took a firm hold of her curly hair as we went, or was that a mane? Right, mane. We emerged into the light of day, dim as it was with a heavy cloud cover, and she spun around. "Well the mountain's right there, so up we go! Goat style?"
"Goat style?"
"Like this!" She jumped up to the closest ledge, just to bounce up to the one beyond it, springing from one rock to the next without a shred of hesitation. "How'd you guys get this far anyway?"
I could see Sweet carrying Trixie back towards where we'd left the bicycle. "We actually pedaled up here, though I guess it's only for two ponies, not three and me."
"Good thing I'm good at climbing then." She leaped onto a large ledge and panted a moment. "Sorry for falling out of the story for a while there." She resumed her climb with a spring. "It looks like you did pretty good though. You don't seem as scared as you used to be."
"Not scared? I'm terrified!" I held on tight as she bounded along. "Especially right now."
"But you're still here." She glanced over her shoulder just before she jumped, a move I don't recommend to anyone. "You're still moving, still trying, still pushing. You might be scared, but you're brave. Hay, you're even trying to do it right instead of doing it easy. Even Twilight sometimes does it easy if she can get away with it." She waved a hoof at me, predicting my next question. "Friend of mine, rival of Trixie's. She's a nice pony. Maybe you'll meet her someday." She turned her attention back to the mountain climb. "So, what do you plan to do?"
That seemed like a fine question. I frowned with thought, no, determination. "We have to free the explorer, the first dark pony to come up to the surface."
"Isn't he in the Crystal Heart?"
"Right..." How did we bust him out? "I assume just breaking it would be bad."
"Besides having the entire empire hating you forevers?"
"Yes, Pinkie, besides that."
On the next ledge, a large figure rose from the snow and ice. Aquator loomed over us. "Enough. You've gotten too far, too close. Our plan's off. I can't parade you around as a failure if you don't fail! Child of Light, prepare to be destroyed."
He brought back a spear of water in his mouth and stabbed it at me. I held up my hands. "Don't you want to see your son again?!"
The spear hesitated, hovering dangerously close to my face. "What... What do you know of him?" The spear melted into a pile of water, splashing Pinkie as it fell to the ground. "Where is he?"
Pinkie shook out her mane. "Sheesh, you could at least say you're sorry."
"Silence, pink one." His body swirled with the black specks that had defeated me several times before. "Where is he?"
I had an idea. I wasn't sure of it... "I think... I need your help a little here, to be sure I have this right. Was it your son that ventured into outer space?"
Aquator recoiled violently. "W-what? I... Yes... By the darkness, yes!" He stomped a hoof, shaking the ledge beneath us. "How could I forget? That damned journey that took away my only child... Have I been hunting a ghost all these years? Is my son truly gone?"
"Mostly." I wobbled a hand. "I think we can free him, but together. We're not on different sides here. If we free your son, the dark ponies will be left alone too."
"Could it truly be so simple?" He reached forward and a black-furred hoof erupted from the water, "Can we be free?"
Pinkie pointed at the furry limb. "I think you're already coming free."
He looked down at himself and began to laugh, a little hysterically. "Is the end finally in sight? How do I know you're not weaving a quick tale to spare you my wrath?"
I spread my hands out to either side, balancing on Pinkie's back. "You can come with us. No more hiding. You'll walk at my side, until we fix this."
"Until we fix this..." His watery head rose towards the peak. "You have my services, until you prove otherwise. Come, let us end this."