It was late in the afternoon and Vinyl Scratch had just woken up. With her roommate out doing whatever ponies do in the daytime, Vinyl slowly forced herself out of bed. As much as she hated waking up while the sun was still out, she had things to do.
Just as she was about to leave her room, there was the bang and tinkle of her window shattering. She rushed over to look out the window and see what was going on, avoiding the glass all over the floor. Outside, three young fillies were running around making noise. She punched her window frame in an attempt to get their attention, but nothing.
It was times like these Vinyl wished she was born with vocal cords. She felt the deep need to yell at the fillies, but she knew full well it couldn’t happen. She recognized the three of them, so at the very least she could get something done about it later, but right now she just wanted to tear into them. Punching the window frame once more in frustration, Vinyl turned to look at the mess.
Sweeping all the glass shards into a pile with her magic, Vinyl finally spotted what had broken the window. It looked like a black rock or something, kind of shaped like a bent cone. Stepping closer to look at it, it didn’t seem like stone at all. It almost looked like a horn.
As she stared, she felt something warm running down her cheek. Touching her face, her hoof came back with a trace of blood on it. Confused, she trotted over to her bedroom’s attached bathroom to check in her mirror. A tiny glass shard had managed to imbed itself in her cheek bone. Giving thanks it hadn’t been an inch higher, Vinyl pulled it out and wiped up the wound, tossing the bloody shard in the garbage pail. With the shard removed, the blood came faster, but it was still just a minor cut. Wiping off the blood with some tissue, she bandaged herself and got back to cleaning.
Her first thought was to get the glass off the floor before she stepped in it. One search for a dustpan later and the job was done, the glass dumped into the bin with the bloody tissues. All that was left was the odd black object.
As Vinyl picked up the thing, she immediately felt a wave of fatigue. It was taking immensely more magic to hold than made any sense, and she was quickly light headed and woozy. She quickly noticed that the tip of the cone began to glow red with energy as she held it. In firm rejection of its incredibly ominous appearance, Vinyl dunked the object with great force into the garbage where it belonged.
Struggling to catch her breath and not be sick, Vinyl’s mind staggered for a next move. Crazy magical shit, probably should tell somepony. She could mention it to Rarity, see if word could get to Twilight Sparkle. No, they were out of town, they’d taken a train to the northern wastes just the previous day.
Vinyl heard a crackling noise from the garbage. Suspiciously stepping forward, she glanced inside. The horn, sitting in a pile of bloody tissues and shattered glass, had begun emitting short arcs of black lightning. Soon after, a deep purple and green glow filled the bin and Vinyl staggered backward in a panic. A bolt of dark lightning knocked the bin over, sending its contents spilling all over the floor once more, between her and the only door out of her room.
As the deep and foreboding glow grew larger, Vinyl dashed back over to her window. Flailing her hooves around, she attempted in vain to get anypony’s attention. She wanted to call for help, but- There was a definitive crack of thunder and the sound of all the broken glass falling to the floor again. Vinyl slowly turned to look, terrified of what she’d see.
Standing before her was a pony who looked nearly identical to her, save a few glaring details. The first and most obvious difference was her eyes, a deep crimson with that same ominous magical glow smoking out of them. Her coat was charcoal grey, her mane jet black, and her horn was replaced with the object that had shattered the window in the first place.
The dark mare stood there, proud and terrifying, and began to laugh. Well, she tried to, at least. Half way through what looked to be a masterful evil cackle, she paused, confused. She touched her throat, trying to talk, her voice only coming out a whisper.
“What the Devil is going on?”
Despite herself, Vinyl’s fear immediately shifted into amused schadenfreude, and she whispered back, “Sucks, don’t it?”
The dark mare slammed a hoof down on the coffee table, attempting to shout in a whisper, “Unacceptable!”
Vinyl laughed at the impotent rage. They had moved to the living room to sit and talk, and were now both sitting on the couch so they could hear each other properly. As the other mare put it, Vinyl was currently briefing her on the situation. The momentary chuckle earned Vinyl a stern glare from her visitor.
“Do you think this is funny, mortal?” She hissed, “You need to watch your tongue in the presence of a king.”
“Queen,” Vinyl corrected in amusement.
“I don’t give a damn what body I’m in, I am a king and you will respect me as such,” she said with as much volume as she could manage, raising a hoof and striking Vinyl.
The moment was a strange one. Vinyl flinched as the hoof came down, but all she felt was the slightest brush of her cheek. At the same instant, her visitor’s head cranked sideways like she’d just gotten sucker punched, sending her sprawling backwards across the couch. As she slowly realized what had just happened, Vinyl couldn’t help but point and laugh. Sitting upright and glancing around the room in shock, the dark mare mumbled something just too quiet and far away to be understood through Vinyl’s laughter.
The dark mare glared at Vinyl for answers, but just received an equally confused shrug. Gently slapping herself on the cheek, Vinyl watched as her guest very clearly was the one to take the force of the blow. The act earned her a continued glare, but the point was clearly made.
“What’s your name?” Vinyl finally decided to ask.
Sitting upright, struggling to maintain her dignity in light of the situation, the visitor replied, “King Sombra.”
“Queen,” Vinyl retorted.