Sombra's eyes illuminated the northern sky, incandescent stars wreathed in emerald flames casting a vengeful scowl down upon his former kingdom. His fury so far had been a terrible thing to behold: tornadoes red as bloodshed tore away at the structures of the city, consuming any within their reach. The sky turned black as pitch, and destructive green torrents of fire came raining down like the apocalyptic fury of a million emerald dragons. Earthquakes split the foundation throughout the city, causing cracks as intricate as spiderwebs to literally tear the land apart. Celestia's army, their morale all but destroyed, could do nothing to combat the evil force directly. If they were faced with an army to fight, an actual physical entity made of flesh and sinew which their weapons could cleave, and their magic could smite, perhaps the outcome would have turned out differently; there seemed to be no way of combating this dark tempest of carnage that Sombra had devised.
With seemingly no other options at her disposal, Celestia decided to confront the enemy directly. Bolstered by the company of the six elements, her sister, Cadence, the captain of her guard, and a score of his best sentries, she ascended to the highest point of the Castle, a lofty observatory perched upon a tower that reached to the sky like a crystalline lance thrust into the heavens. And it was there they stood, looking toward the North, toward those horrible phantom eyes looming over the horizon.
"Sombra!" Princess Celestia called out to him in a magically augmented voice. "I demand that you cease this madness!" The eyes shifted. The way he looked at her, that poison in his glare, it was enough to make her blood run cold. "What are you about, Sombra?" The princess attempted. "How is it that you've returned?" The eyes regarded her with cold silence.
Princess Twilight then stepped forward. "It's the Crystal Empire you want, isn't that right? What would you have to gain by destroying it?"
The eyes gleamed, and his voice rolled and rumbled throughout the sky in a deep growl, "It is not the Empire I wish to reclaim. It is merely an audience with the princess I seek. I trust that I have your attention?"
"All of this just for my attention?" Celestia shouted back in outrage. "My sister and I have thwarted you once, and we can do it again if you force our hoof."
"I'm a much more dangerous foe than last we battled, princess." The King pointed out. "To attack me would be folly."
"And what is it that makes you so dangerous?" Celestia inquired.
"I have nothing to lose."
"Nothing to lose?" Celestia and Twilight Sparkle exchanged bewildered looks. "Your former kingdom," the princess reminded him. "You'll destroy it if you keep this up."
"I no longer care for this paltry little kingdom. It's sullied, filthy; it no longer suits my desires. If you think I was strong before, let us do battle with our powers completely unbridled. Collateral damage will not be a concern for me as it was before. So many deaths, princess. So much destruction. Are you prepared for that burden?"
Celestia remained silent, unsure how to respond to the sudden revelation placed before her. It was a worst-case scenario she hadn't planned for. He's bluffing. He has to be.
The bout of indecisive silence seemed to enrage the King. "So be it!" His voice was a thunderous roar that shook the tower upon which they stood. "Steel yourself for battle! May the terrified eyes of every slain subject haunt you for eternity. Even if I am killed this day, I shall relish your misery from Tartarus." The giant set of green eyes dimmed from the sky, and the black King took shape from a shadow on the ground. He was a mere shade at first, black, oily, featureless, an apparition rising from the ground. But soon he solidified and his features took substance into the terrible thing Celestia remembered him as. He towered before them, clad in the polished steel of his gorget and gauntlets. A crown fashioned from dragon bone rested atop his brow, and his crimson cape flowed at his back, swirling and snapping at the wind with the color of bloodshed. He stood tall and formidable, a full head over even the lofty Celestia. His physical size, however, mattered little when compared to his magical prowess. Sombra was powerful, Celestia knew. It only took a moment for the princess to shudder over the potential massacre an all out war between them could cause for her to know what she had to do.
"Sombra, wait!" she exclaimed, extending a pleading hoof. "We... We don't have to do this! If you have demands, I'll hear them. I can't guarantee you anything, but I'll hear you out."
"You're in no position to dictate terms to me, sow." The black king's fangs gleamed as his lip curled in a sneer. "You shall give me what I want, or there will be Armageddon to pay. What say you?"
"I don't know what to say. What is it that you want, if it's not the Crystal Empire? We can talk about this. Let's just go somewhere else. Somewhere far away, with no distractions, where no one can disturb our quarter."
"A noble attempt, princess, but I am quite comfortable where I stand in this negotiation. I shan't allow you or your sister to lead me away from an entire city full of bargaining chips so that you can ambush me."
Celestia could feel a bead of sweat trickling down the back of her neck. This mad stallion of a fallen king was holding the entire Chrystal Empire hostage. But what was it that his black heart coveted so that he would forsake his former kingdom in its pursuit?
"He wants a what?" Twilight Sparkle's friends said in unison, utterly horrified by the demand. The walls around the castle parlor which housed their circular conference room echoed with their inquiry.
"A... A Bride... He wants a bride." Twilight's speech was shaky at best. It took all her strength to remain composed as she relayed the king's demands to them. "That monster... He wants a queen. One of us. He makes his selection on the morrow."
"That's insane!" Rainbow Dash pounded hard on the round table. "What does he need with a wife? Why does he want one of us?"
Twilight sat back in her heavily-cushioned seat and mused, "I'm guessing he's doing it in order to separate us. If even one element is missing, we become weak, incomplete. Maybe he's looking to exploit that."
"He could have simply demanded to ward one of us as a captive." Fluttershy shuddered. "Why... Why does he wish to..." She trailed off into silence, too horrified by the mere prospect of the dark king's demand to finish her sentence.
A profound silence fell over the room. It seemed as if Twilight Sparkle, with all her wisdom, was unable to solve the conundrum before her. Fluttershy had spoken true. If Sombra wished to weaken the elements of harmony, he need only take one of them captive. Why marriage?
"I won't have it!" Rarity shattered the silence. "I won't marry him, and I won't let any of you. He can't do this to us!"
Twilight Sparkle stared down at the round table with a defeated look in her eyes. "I don't see what choice we have. He'll do everything within his power to destroy the city if he doesn't get his way - even if it kills him. You've all seen what he's capable of. You saw those horrible tornadoes, felt the earthquakes. If all that wasn't his full power, I don't want to know what is."
"But we can beat him!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "We've done it before."
The princess hung her head and sighed. "We didn't defeat him. We got lucky, and Spike was able to stop him before he was able to gain full power. That was different from now; he's somehow acquired his full form. How he was able to completely regenerate himself from a pile of shattered crystals - I haven't the slightest clue."
The room fell silent again. It was rare that Pinkie Pie was at a loss for words, but she was. All of them were.
Sombra's demands had also included an ancient manse that resided in a particularly dangerous part of Equestria, a vast amount of land, and a team of servants, all which were bizarre demands for one such as the black king.
Twilight Sparkle, after adjourning the conference she had held with her friends, retired to her room to meditate over the strange requests. She refused to accept that an ambitious villain such as Sombra simply pursued the life of a count, complete with servants, territory, and a bride to share it all with. There had to be something behind all of this.
It was a long night for the princess of friendship. Several ancient tomes and dozens of dusty old scrolls littered her desk. Any historical account concerning king Sombra had been delivered to her room by her order for close examination. Perhaps they would bear clues to the King's intentions. She had been at it for hours, hunched over her desk, studying methodically the ancient texts and writs by the glow of her candle, but her research yielded no answers. She had thought that she had found a lead when she stumbled upon an old scroll concerning ancient Equestrian laws and traditions, which dictate that a king may only hold his royal title so long as he has a queen to rule along side him. But it was an old law, archaic and lost in time. There hadn't been need for kings in Equestria since Celestia united the land under her banner.
She sighed as she rolled the scroll, frustrated that her hours of research brought her no closer to an answer than when she first started. The princess found herself staring into the dancing flame of her candle, watching as the beads of melted wax pooled into the disk-shaped stopper of the brass holder. Owlowicious watched her silently from his perch mounted at the upper-right corner of the desk. After giving the situation more thought, Twilight Sparkle managed to find a small glimmer of hope amid the darkness of her uncertainty. She reached over and gave her pet owl a scratch between his ears. "Which one among us does that monster intend to take for his bride?" She asked Owlowicious, who replied with a "who?"
Twilight smiled at her inquisitive little friend. "I think we both know the answer." It was none other than the princess of friendship herself who made the most sense. She was the element of magic, and Celestia's most trusted protege; out of all her friends, it was she who posed the biggest threat to the king's ambitions - whatever they may be. It made sense to take her away so that she could be kept under lock and key. She also made for a valuable hostage. "A princess imprisoned by an evil king," Twilight Sparkle almost laughed at the bookish little cliche. It had brought her a bittersweet sense of relief in realizing this. Her friends would be safe, and she would be taken to Sombra's mansion, where she could figure out what he was up to, how it was that he was able to return, and formulate a plan to stop him once and for all.
After thinking, plotting, and pondering every possible outcome of the morrow's events, the princess finally decided to go to sleep, assuring herself that she could not be wrong about her predictions. She would need her rest, for tomorrow, when Sombra chose her to be his queen, it would mark the beginning of a dangerous game - a game that she didn't intend to lose.
The six elements of harmony stood abreast from one another in the center of the royal throne room. Celestia herself was present for the choosing. She stood next to Sombra, remorse and shame conspicuously eating away at her visage. Twilight tried to comfort her with a smile, but it had no effect.
"Go ahead, Sombra," Celestia said in a reluctant tone. "Make your choice before I change my mind about this."
"How unfortunate it would be for your subjects if you did," Sombra retorted as he began his slow strut down the line.
He stopped before Rarity, who quickly drew her eyes away from him in disgust. "Such beauty," Sombra commented approvingly. "But beauty fades so quickly. In a few decades time, you will be naught but a wilted flower. I'm looking for more than just a bed warmer, you understand." Rarity didn't speak, nor would she look up at him. Sombra shrugged and moved on.
Rainbow Dash refused to look away, defying the fear that she was so desperately trying to hide. For all the mare's habitual boasting and swaggering, she seemed to be disturbed by the prospect of the situation, now that it was glaring down at her. "What are you looking at?" she forced herself to say.
Sombra regarded her half-hearted bravado with bored contempt. "Nothing," he replied coldly.
"Really?" Rainbow Dash spat back in attempt to maintain her dignity. "I could have sworn you were looking at me."
"As I have said," the king replied before he moved on. "Nothing."
He stopped in front of Pinkie Pie. Her eyes were wide and shimmering through a veil of tears. "Please," she sobbed piteously. "You don't have to do this. Don't take any of my friends away from me." She sniffed and closed her eyes, her sorrow trailing damp dark lines down her cheeks.
"This one is just too sweet," Sombra critiqued, his cruel ears utterly deaf to the mare's plight.
Applejack was next to be inspected. She glowered in outrage at the floor. "Ah don't see how you can do this," she said, refusing to meet the eyes of the king who towered over her. "What the hay are ya gettin' out'a this?"
"A bride," was Sombra's curt reply.
"If yer gonna take one of us, then it might as well be me."
"Is that so?" Sombra quarried with amusement. "And why should I pick you?"
"Ah don't know what yer plannin' on doin' to whoever it is you get hitched to, but it might as well be me. Ah'll do whatever disgusting, sick, twisted thing your heart desires, if you just promise me that you'll leave mah friends and the Crystal Empire alone."
"Such selflessness," Sombra sneered in disapproval. "It will be the death of you one day."
"Yet, here Ah stand. Alive and well," Applejack spat back.
Sombra's eyes flickered with amusement. "Only because I've decided not to kill you, my dear. A decision that pert tongue of yours may yet change." Applejack glared sullenly at the ground. The King glowered over her, awaiting the southerner's retaliatory remark that would spell her end. When there wasn't one he moved on.
Twilight Sparkle stood, staunch and ready. "I accept," she said at once.
Sombra didn't even so much as look at her as he walked by. "Not you," he said in a tone that hinted knowledge of her plans. "The stink of treachery is all about you."
"Treachery?" Twilight Sparkle was taken aback. "I wouldn't!" she lied. "I couldn't!"
The King, not deigning to reply to the lavender mare's protests, stopped before Fluttershy. The sunflower mare cowered in his shadow, looking up at him with wide, blue eyes, her hair hanging in front of her face in disorganized strands as she trembled.
"Wait," Twilight went on. "What about me? You want me, don't you?"
Sombra's glare remained fixed upon the hapless mare. "You're beautiful," he said, reaching out to her with a hoof, but the mare shied away.
"P-please don't," she stammered.
Sombra's eyes were suddenly aglow wth intrigue. "What is your name?" The tremulous mare whispered an unintelligible response. Sombra blinked. "Your name. I requested your name." The mare's response was even quieter than the last, her voice no more than a timid little squeak.
"Stop looking at Fluttershy like that!" Twilight Sparkle demanded. "You're scaring her. It's me you want!"
"Fluttershy is it?" The King leered at her, red eyes entranced and glowing like embers among a bed of hot coals. "I've made my choice," he announced, with all the finality in the world. "I want this one."
Fluttershy began to weep. The ensuing objections from her friends were raucous. Fluttershy was the weakest of all of them. There was no way she'd be able to survive without them. "No, not Fluttershy!" Twilight Sparkle pleaded among the cacophony of outrage. "I'm the best option for you. Of all of us you could have picked, why her!"
"I want her," Sombra snarled. "That's more an explanation than you deserve."
"But I'm the princess of friendship!" Twilight insisted, overcome with dismay at the wildcard she had just been dealt. Her game that she had spent so many hours planning had ended before it could even begin. "I'm the most logical choice!"
"You are the princess of friendship," Sombra agreed. "But you are not my queen."
"We've tarried long enough!" Sombra's voice was a roar that echoed throughout the throne room. A halberd dropped by a startled guard could be heard twanging against the reflective polished floor with a strident report.
Fluttershy whimpered at the sound of her soon-to-be husband's outburst. Twilight Sparkle took her in her arms to calm her. "Just give us a few more minutes!" she shouted back. "We're saying goodbye to our best friend, here!" She brought her muzzle close to the quivering mare's ear and whispered, "You need to remain strong. He won't hurt you. He wouldn't dare. You're the only thing between him and all of us. Just... Just try not to make him angry until I can find a way to rescue you."
The words were encouraging at first, but the last statement made Fluttershy think that Twilight may have been second guessing the part about her husband not daring to hurt her. "I can't ask you to put yourselves in danger for my sake," she sobbed.
"Not another word of that! We will come for you. It's not a matter of if, it's when."
"I suppose you'll be wanting some kind of ceremony to see you two off?" Fluttershy heard Celestia say. She turned, and saw that the princess was conversing with her husband-to-be.
"No ceremony," he replied, his cold eyes locked in its perpetual grimace. "Just a kiss should suffice. I find weddings and other ceremonies of the like to be rather..." His muzzle wrinkled in disgust. "Mawkish."
"Very well," the princess acquiesced, mooning at her reflection in the polished floor beneath her.
Fluttershy shuddered upon hearing the exchange. She was going to have to kiss him... But that was the least of her worries, she quickly realized. Images of that red-eyed demon dragging her away to their marriage bed came to surface. The color drained from her face as gelid jolts of trepidation raced up and down her spine. "Th-this is a bad dream," she told herself. "It has to be."
Sombra then looked over at her, as if he could hear her every thought, feel her every emotion. His expression was a perpetual, unchanging mask of cruelty. He showed not pleasure, nor agitation in the mare's horror. "Well then," he finally said to her, "shall we?"
Fluttershy's reply was a squeak.
"I trust that the arrangements have been made," The king imparted to Celestia, who responded with a nod.
"The servants were dispatched yesterday. They should be at the manse by the time you arrive." The concern on her face deepened. "I hope their journey is a safe one. There is a reason why they call the area in which your manse resides 'Brigands' Hook.'"
"It is because your rule is weak that such dregs are free to rape and plunder as they please," Sombra pointed out with an icy contempt. The throne room echoed with the collective gasps of subjects who were shocked by the impertinent remark.
The princess looked as though she was about to say something in response, but her words died in her mouth.
"Now, then," Sombra said, looking to his bride-to-be, his heavy mailed hooves tramping in metallic cadence across the polished floor.
Fluttershy's heart raced as he approached. He was moving faster than she would have liked, his green eyes leering and intent. When he stopped before her, he looked down, sat back on his haunches, and placed his large mailed hooves upon her shoulders. It was no later than when he did this when Fluttershy tried to bolt. She didn't know where she would go, or how she would get away. She agreed to marrying him, but her primal, baser instincts of survival took charge of her actions, and they were screaming at her to get away, to escape from the shadow of the fanged predator and his iron grip... And iron it was, for when Fluttershy had turned to run, her efforts were only rewarded by being spun around and locked within the king's unyielding embrace. She shook as she felt her feet leaving the ground.
"Rejoice, my bride," Sombra said to her, low and deep, his hot breath like blurred tendrils of air wafting from a furnace. "It is not every day one born from common blood becomes royalty."
He then moved in for the kiss, but Fluttershy evaded, turning her head frantically toward her friends. Why weren't they helping her? This had to be a dream. A horrible dream. If this was really happening her friends would be rushing in to rescue her. They only stood by, staring helplessly with faces twisted in remorse and sympathy. She noticed the tear rolling down Twilight Sparkle's cheek. "Fluttershy," she muttered, turning her head away. "I'm so sorry." It had to be a dream. Twilight Sparkle always knew what to do. She always had a solution. She would never let this happen.
Fluttershy felt a massive hoof upon her cheek. It guided her muzzle back toward his. She could only sob as she was forced to bear witness to his beastly visage in such proximity. She had always regarded his demonic image that was depicted and described in the history books as nonsense, lavish embellishments to make his legacy seem all the more threatening, but now, looking up at him, she knew all the stories to be true; he was indeed a monster; the embodiment of every nightmare she could ever conceive made into flesh.
It's time to wake up... I'll wake up now... Please, someone wake me up... I don't know how much more of this I can stand...
The king calmly shushed her and wiped her tears away with his free hoof. "Enough of that," he whispered. He moved in closer, their lips meeting for the first time. Fluttershy could feel his free arm locking around her, enveloping her in the crimson folds of his royal cape. Her lamentations came audible in the form of a distressed, muffled moan as his mouth opened over hers, forcing her lips to part.
It was at that point that Fluttershy could feel just how real he was. His lips were warm. His breath was so hot that it felt like he was breathing flames into her. That was when a profound reckoning washed over her, a bleak understanding that was every bit as real and cruel as life and death itself: This was not a dream. She would not suddenly wake up safe and warm in her bed, her Angel bunny snuggled up to her. Her friends would not be coming to her rescue. And she was married. She was the bride of the most feared beast in Equestrian history. She was his now. She was the wife and queen of king Sombra.