Chapter 9
“How is this possible? We stopped you. We saw you blow up,” Twilight protested, she was still finding it difficult to accept what she was seeing.
Sombra was about to respond but was distracted by a blast of magic passing through him. The dark king glared to the corner where Shining now stood, having carefully put Cadance back to the floor. The white Unicorn returned the stare and his horn was glowing, ready for another charge.
“Don’t bother little prince, this theatric is merely a projection,” the dark king snorted and the shadows sunk back into Private’s body.
The ponies could only watch as the body started to rise, the blonde mane and tail now had black accents and the horn curved slightly at the edge and had a red tint. Sombra was in full control of Private now, though he hadn’t taken completely over.
“I am still in here and I should point out that any harm done to me is actually just harm to my slave. I am still just a spirit, I have nothing to feel pain with,” the dark king chuckled and smirked mockingly at Shining Armor who still had his horn ready for a blast.
“As for how this is possible? Simple, death is merely an inconvenience for one such as me. My spirit was bound to my horn, I made plans, have you forgotten my traps princess? The ones you undid in search for the Crystal Heart,” Sombra glared at Twilight.
“Oh I remember you now, you’re the one who found the Heart and sent that insufferable dragon to give it to that pretender I’ve knocked out,” the dark Unicorn eyed back towards Shining and Cadance.
“Even I am not so foolish to think that there is never a chance to defeat me. You think I hid the Crystal Heart just to spite these worthless worms out there? I prepared for my possible death, granted it has not quite played out as I had hoped but that is why you make contingency plans,” Sombra snorted and started to glare at every pony in the room. Then he suddenly smiled and chuckled.
“Please excuse me, I did not intend to ramble like that,” he apologized in a mocking tone.
Twilight rose fully to her feet staring defiantly at the possessed pony. She opened her mouth intending speak but then the door to the hospital room swung open. Flash Sentry and few guards rushed inside, they had heard the commotion and knowing that there were three royal ponies in the room had hurried over.
This turned out to be enough of a distraction for Sombra. Suddenly he sprouted shadow and smoke from Private’s body, covering the entire room in darkness, causing mild panic amongst the other ponies This took only a split second and even before the unicorns thought of lightning up their horns for a light spell the darkness was gone and so was the dark Unicorn and Barricade.
“Where are they?” Twilight shouted and looked between the bed and the spot Barricade had been covering in. Then she saw the open window and rushed to it, but no matter where she looked, nothing could be seen outside.
“Flash Sentry and the rest of you, head out and search for them. Get more guards, search the entire city, you’re looking for two dark gray Unicorns!” Shining Armor ordered immediately, Flash could only salute with a nervous grin before he and the rest of the guards ran out.
Twilight ran over to her brother and helped him take Cadance over to the other bed in the room. Fortunately, the pink Alicorn was already stirring.
“We have to active the Crystal Heart so it sends its magic pulse throughout the empire, that should rip Sombra out of Private Iceland’s body and hopefully remove him for good,” Twilight said with a concerned frown.
“W-what?” Cadance murmured as she finally came too, Shining rubbed his head gently against her.
“I’m afraid we spoke too soon about King Sombra, he’s back,” her husband whispered gently. Then he looked gravely at Twilight.
“To activate the Heart we need all the Crystal Ponies in high spirits so their natural magic infuses it with their love and light if we want the blast to hit the entire empire,” he reminded her.
“Actually I can activate it with my magic, but the blast is then only concentrated around the city,” Cadance pointed out and sat up.
“Then we better hurry and do it while he’s still in the city, because I think King Sombra thought of that,” Twilight said and glanced anxiously towards the window.
Shining Armor helped Cadance off the bed before the three ponies hurried out of the room. They had scarcely left when the shadow under the bed began to stretch out from under it, then it rose up and slowly formed back into possessed form of Private. Barricade emerged as well wrapped tight in shadowy tendrils that also kept his muzzle shut.
Blasted Crystal Heart, I must get out of the city and fast, Sombra thought and then glanced at his other prisoner who was struggling madly at his bonds.
“Although I have your brother, an additional hostage could be useful,” the dark king mused before he dissolved himself back into shadow, dragging Barricade into this form as well. Then he slinked out of the still open window.
“King Sombra certainly picked a perfect time to return,” Twilight grumbled as she, Cadance and Shining Armor rushed to the where the Crystal Heart rested on its dais underneath the castle.
“Don’t worry, we’ll activate the Crystal Heart, there is no way he’ll get out of the city in time,” Shining assured her, the Crystal Castle was just up ahead, they could already see the mystical artifact shine on its raised platform.
“I would still have liked to have the Elements of Harmony as backup,” his sister muttered, remembering when she and her friends had to give them up to heal the Tree of Harmony.
Shining Armor didn’t respond except by nodding. When they finally reached the dais, the siblings were alarmed to see Cadance stumble a bit as the pink princess came to a halt. The stallion rushed over to his wife to support her, allowing her to lean on him.
“Sorry, I still feel a little woozy after that punch Sombra gave me.” She smiled tiredly.
“Can you do the spell?” Twilight asked worriedly.
“I must, can’t let that creep get away with that poor pony or his brother,” Cadance said with determination and rose to stand on her own.
Twilight and Shining held their breaths as the princess of love activated her horn and aimed it straight at the Heart. Crystal Ponies started to gather around having noticed the mad run of the royals earlier and were curious about what they were doing now. Cadance cringed as a headache started to build up in her head as she put all her concentration into the spell that usually came quite naturally for her. The magic fizzled away from her horn and she dropped to one knee, grimacing in pain.
“You must have a concussion, you’re in no shape to be casting that,” Shining told her gently as he helped his wife to stand up again. He looked Twilight who was starting to look a more anxious though she also watched her sister-in-law with sympathy.
“Twilight, do you think you can cast Cadance’s spell?” he asked, knowing well how his sister could often duplicate spells others had cast.
“Oh of course, why didn’t I think of that.” Twilight blinked and immediately turned towards the Heart. She lit up her horn and concentrated, having seen Cadance often enough cast the spell and could remember it well.
Twilight fired a beam of light straight into the heart. It spun on its dais then burst with bright light, sending a bright beam skywards, using the castle like a giant amplifier. The three royals smiled at first but it started to waver when the light began to fade before reaching the summit and then the Heart sent out a weak pulse of magic energy that only reached the first houses surrounding the castle.
“Well, unless Sombra was within a block of the castle, we did not get him,” Twilight groaned, she had been too careful with firing the spell and not put enough power into it.
“Sombra? Did she say Sombra?”
“What, King Sombra?”
The two Alicorns and one Unicorn now first noticed the throng of Crystal Ponies around them, all now looking around nervously and whispering uncertainly. Twilight hoofed her face, the last thing the they needed to hear was that their tyrant had returned even after they had used the Crystal Heart to blow him up.
Cadance looked at Shining Armor briefly before turning her attention to her subjects. Despite her headache, she stepped forward standing tall and assumed again her determined expression.
“Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. King Sombra has returned, he is possessing the pony Shining Armor and I rescued off Little Crystal. He was only revealed today and we are trying to use the Heart to send the same magic pulse that defeated him the last time, hoping to save the pony and his brother before the King flees the city. For he knows he is not safe here with the Crystal Heart protecting us,” she addressed them in a calm gentle voice.
The Crystal Ponies looked at each other, some looked shocked while others were concerned. Then one mare stepped forward with confidence in her face, she knelt down before the dais. The others stared at her in wonder for a moment before one by one all the ponies around started doing the same. The road underneath them began lightning up and the light spread towards the Crystal Heart.
Once again the Heart spun and sent out a bright light that traveled up the castle and towards the summit. Now a powerful magic pulse shot out from the artifact, spreading across the city and making even regular ponies visiting the empire as glittery as the Crystal Ponies. But the pulse stopped just outside the gate, not enough ponies had taken part in the activation to spread it further.
“Yes, that had to have hit him,” Twilight cheered and flapped her wings in excitement.
“I hope you’re right, thanks everypony,” Cadance nodded gratefully to the Crystal Ponies around who had activated the Heart.
“We better join the guards in searching for the Unicorns,” Shining suggested, his wife and sister nodded in agreement. Before they could head off a Crystal Guard came running in a mad dash and pushed his way through the crowd of ponies.
“Your Highnesses,” he bowed before the royal ponies. “I was just coming from the train station, with news.”
Oh no, please don’t tell me… Twilight cringed, she had noticed that the pulse had only covered the city and the train station was outside of it.
“What is it?” Cadance asked with a heavy frown.
“The Friendship Express departed few minutes ago, Flash Sentry and I went to the station just in case the Unicorns would go there. Several Ponies did indeed witness two dark gray Unicorns with blonde manes jump into the train as it departed. Flash flew after it in hopes to intercept it or at least catch up with it at its first stop,” the guard confirmed their fears.
“Oh no, that means King Sombra has escaped,” Twilight gasped.
“Darn it, Flash stands no chance against Sombra alone, find a Pegasus guard to fly after Flash and bring him back, put all guards on high alert. King Sombra might be gone for now, but he’ll definitely be back,” Shining Armor ordered the guard who saluted and rushed off to carry out the orders.
“Everypony, it is important we all remain calm. Remember that the Crystal Heart is still here and will protect us, there is no need for worry,” Cadance addressed the Crystal Ponies who had started to look worried again when hearing that the king had escaped.
“Twilight, you need to go warn Princess Celestia, she and Luna will need to be prepared as well in case Sombra decides to avoid the Crystal Empire.” Shining turned to his sister.
Twilight wanted to protest, wishing to help here but the prophetic messages from the other hospitalized ponies came back to her. Even if Sombra had said it was simply to spread some fear and panic, they did not know what his plans were. Best to put Equestria on high alert.
“I’ll return as quickly as I can,” Twilight said and spread her wings and flew off.
“Should we make another attempt, gather the Crystal Ponies and make an Empire spanning pulse?” Shining Armor wondered and looked at his wife as they made their way into the castle.
“I don’t think enough of them will be in high enough spirits once it spreads out that King Sombra is back, for a blast that big we’ll need all of them,” Cadance spoke in a low voice and shook her head.
“Then there is only one thing to do, we need to capture Sombra while he’s still inside that body and drag him back to the city limits so we can blast him at close range,” Shining said, his wife nodded in agreement.
Sombra peeked out of the luggage car and smiled when seeing the magic pulse come from the center of the city but stop just outside the gate. Glancing upwards he could just make out a lone Pegasus guard trying to catch up with the train, the king chuckled, seemed that his projection spell had worked, making it look like that Private and Barricade had jumped into the train as it departed. In truth he had slipped into it using the shadows, but he had wanted to make sure everyone knew he was onboard this train.
What a marvel this new technology is, he thought and started to admire the train itself. It certainly made his escape easier.
A groan caught is attention and the Dark Pony glanced back. Barricade was coming too, having been rendered unconscious previously by the king so he wouldn’t make too much noise. Sombra walked over and stopped where his other prisoner lay, tied up with shadowy tendrils.
“Ugh… where am I?” Barricade groaned and looked up, then he remembered when seeing his possessed brother standing over him. The horn was still partly curved and the mane and tail still had black streaks in them.
“Where is Private?” the Unicorn asked and glanced down at his bonds. Even if they looked just like some shadowy writhing mass, they felt like ropes.
“He’s still here, being quiet,” Sombra responded and reached with a hoof to tap the temple of the head.
“He’s is good at that,” Barricade muttered and decided to test the tendrils tying him up, they turned out to be too strong for him. He glared up at the king who kept watching him with a mocking smirk. “How is he?”
“All you need to know right now is that he’s still alive, unless you give me a reason to change that,” the Dark Unicorn chuckled and sat down. “You really care for him, don’t you?”
“I may be a selfish jerk who tried to scare him and his friends away from messing around in my business, but if I had to take a magic blast for him, I will,” the other Unicorn snorted. “My family may not think too much of me, but they are still my family.”
Barricade raised an eyebrow when Sombra started to laugh, it actually took the king a minute to compose himself and he had to dry tears from his face. Then he looked back at his tied up prisoner with an almost maniacal grin.
“You are hilarious, Barricade. I should let you know that at this point I have fully accessed all of your brother’s memories and while I had you asleep, I accessed yours as well. I can only say, you have one messed up view how the world should work,” King Sombra shook his head. “And this is coming from me. Who enslaved the Crystal Ponies and cursed them so when I was exiled they were put in a thousand-year stasis and couldn’t remember anything but my rule.”
“You actually think you can have it both ways, the love of your family and at the same time be a gang leader engaging in illegal business that even includes beating up ponies to keep them in line. You want to have normal family life and at the same time behave like you’re some criminal big shot.” Sombra shook his head and rose up.
“And now Mister Big Shot, you’re tied up and have to helplessly watch as somepony far superior to you controls your brother who hates looking in the mirror because he doesn’t just see his face but yours as well,” the king walked back to the door of the car glanced out. He saw that the Pegasus was no longer following the train, either the pony had given up or fallen behind.
“You don’t have love of your family. Your brother showed no appreciation that you came running when hearing he was hospitalized in the empire. He can hear everything I can hear and he showed no positive reaction to it when you expressed concern for him few minutes earlier.” Sombra looked at the passing snowy landscape, he smiled as he recognized where they were.
Using his magic, Sombra lifted Barricade off the floor. Before the Unicorn could even protest he was suddenly flung out of the train and landed harshly in the thick blanket of snow that covered the ground. The king followed shortly, floating in his shadow form before landing by the groaning pony and changed back to Private’s body.
“You’ve deluded yourself into believing that you can make this work. Is it really working? Two of your daughters now hate you and want nothing to do with you anymore, you are holed up in some run down part of a city where you barely manage to make ends meet even if you run that gym and help running that apartment complex for your bedmate’s father. You’re at constant risk that the law enforcement might just finally come around and clean you up, or even better the royal guards get involved. Tell me Barricade, are you really living in the paradise you envisioned for yourself?” King Sombra asked and used his magic to remove the tendrils off Barricade’s legs, the shadows slinked off towards the king, crawled up the legs and returned to the black part of his mane.
Barricade didn’t respond, instead he just slowly rose up feeling a bit dizzy after having been thrown off a train. The pony really didn’t want to answer the question; he didn’t even want to admit it that Sombra was right.
“If you really are a selfish jerk as you put it, if you really want to show everypony that you are this big bad criminal boss, then just go. Follow the train tracks back to the Crystal Empire, it isn’t too far away from here,” Sombra said and started to walk away heading towards the mountains in the distance.
Just go home and forget any of this happened? I’m sure Private will be alright, Barricade thought as he glanced at the train tracks.
I mean… it’s not like he’ll thank me for this or anything. He looked towards where his possessed twin was walking away.
Wait, why is he giving me a choice to follow or not? What was the point in dragging me along here? The Unicorn frowned, looking now between the train tracks and Private Sombra.
He told the princess that he has contingency plans, his previous plan of remaining secret was blown apart and now he’s gone all the way out here and heading towards the mountains. Yeah, Private is not going to be alright… Fine, I messed up in Manehattan, I’m not messing this one up. Barricade turned away from the tracks and hurried after his brother.
“So much for selfish jerk,” Sombra remarked when he saw his host’s brother come running.
“I told you, I’m maybe a jerk but he is still my brother, even if he hates me!” Barricade snapped, glaring at the king. “So where are we going and why?”
“See that mountain there?” the king gestured to a large mountain in the far distance, parts of its peak resembled a toothed mouth. “That’s where we are going. At its summit, there is a cave which I happen to be very familiar with. Long before I took over the Crystal Empire, I had some items stored there, they will assist me for the next phase of my new plan.”
“Your new plan, I take it the old one was to remain secret and do something else?” Barricade grunted.
“I had intended to remain secret for a while longer yes.” Sombra narrowed his eyes. “Lay in wait and gather information before slowly spreading my corruption across Equestria while I regained my power and could regenerate my body. My plans however were made when I only thought there were but two Princesses, as it turned out, there being four made things more complicated.”
“And now?” Barricade wondered, although he wasn’t really expecting a straight answer.
“Now that would be telling,” the king said and glanced at the other Unicorn with a smirk.
That was pretty much what Barricade expected to hear. The spirit seemed to love being vague, only giving so much information but still keeping vital parts to himself. He looked towards the mountain in the distance, this trip was going to take a while, even if Sombra took on shadow form and flew them there.
Deep inside his own head, Private could do little but watch and listen. The king ignored him for the most part now that he was focused on controlling his host’s body. The pony really wanted to tell his brother that the spirit was lying, he had deep down appreciated seeing a familiar face even if it was him. He had really hated hearing Sombra belittle his brother and lie to him about how his family felt about him.
“We don’t hate him! We just wish he would wise up already and grow up. Mom and dad would listen if he genuinely apologized. If he wanted to apologize to Dinky and Coal and their mothers Derpy and Foxy, I would ask them to at least hear his apology.” Private had protested earlier but Sombra had just ignored him.
Private sighed and watched as they reached a road that was only slightly covered in snow, indicating that it was well travelled. Sombra stepped on the road and headed in the direction that lead towards the mountain, Barricade trailing behind.
End chapter 9