//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Conquering the Horizon 
// Story: Favorable Alignment 
// by Ice Star 
//------------------------------//


Sombra:


I cringe a bit as I'm slammed into the clean, light gray-white wall of the peacefully empty mountainside path in Canterlot. The gray cobbles are framed by a barrier that lead to small strips carved out by magic where strange structures float. I've never seen them before, but they look vaguely like a house and a large balloon. I didn't get to look too closely at them because as soon I turned the corner, I was greeted quite harshly.

So, here I am with my back shoved up against a wall and looking into two fierce turquoise eyes, each shining sharply with the question she speaks, as determined as ever to read the answer on her own.

And I like that.

"Why were you following me?"

Her tone, like the look in her eyes, is sharp but not hostile - just to the point - and proves that her thoughts are elsewhere. That very look tells me that she'd rather be doing something else. What exactly that might be, I aim to find out.

It's nice to see you again, too. "Do you really think that I'm the sort that would stick around to see what was going on back there?"

"Perhaps you are," she replies frankly, "I do not know exactly what 'sort' you are, and that still does not explain why you would follow me."

"I'd be a bit more willing to answer if your forehoof wasn't trying to sever my spine and all my hooves were touching the ground."

She snorts with amusement. "Give me the answers I want, and I will consider it, but do not think I will let you get away that easily."

I don't remind her that I can just dissolve into shadow since she's probably anticipating that. "Well, let's just say that I'm not the sort who likes crowds."

Luna nods slightly, and everything but that wonderfully intense gaze of hers softens a bit. "As to why you were following me?"

"You're going somewhere."

"Really? I had no idea."

I'd kiss her for that one but I'm not exactly able to right now.

"Yeah, and I want in."

She blinks her thickly lashed eyes in surprise and removes her forehoof so I fall to the ground. By the time I get up, she's still looking me over again and it's quite obvious that she's thinking, which from my experience with the other three isn't the most princess-y thing to do.

"Do you know what I am even doing?"

"Shoot."

"To save time by putting this simply, I am going to find somepony. You may not have caught the writing on that shark, but I did and there is something I need to do, even if everypony..." She trails off and for a moment I can see the underlying sadness flicker in her eyes.

"Tell me later, I guess. It's still quite clear you're going somewhere that will take you far away."

A nod from her. "Possibly. Why is it you wish to come?"

You. "You look to be in need of a mercenary, and I'm not exactly a witness you can dispose of." I neglect to mention my skill in magic, my combat ability, that I speak multiple languages, am incredibly handsome, and have a sharp mind and far sharper tongue. She's always been the reason.

Always.

She's still looking me over, eyes searching me up and down. The look on her face is thoughtful still. After a few moments her eyes stop drifting across my form. "Do you have any experience in stealing things?"

Plenty.

"Who, me? Of course not! I'm the Right-Honourable Lord Sombra, need I remind a fair maid like yourself that 'Honour' is in my name and-"

It's my turn to be surprised when I look to see her giggling softly, the same forehoof she used to slam me against the wall behind me now covers a small smile. I don't even get a chance to respond when she seizes me by gathering the front of my cloak in her magic and I'm dragged away. I'm not even able to stifle a small trill of surprise. 

"I suppose you will do," she says without turning back to look me in the eyes. She's a bit taller than when I last saw her, so the next time I'm not shoved up against a wall and I get to stand next her she'll probably be taller by about another two inches. Gods know that I find her being tall appealing, and now she's at full height and not a giantess... it's very nice. She isn't wearing her crown or her shoes, and the latter would interfere with any guesses but that won't be a problem now.

She still seems a bit nervous, but that was to be expected. At least she seems happier than the last time I saw her. Her laughter sounds so earnest and warm. I want to get her to laugh again. I want her to be happy and open around me, though her not striking me as a general conversationalist might mean I'll have to take even more care with approaching her. And with how she's interacted with me so far? Every word from her is intriguing at the least and tantalizing at the most.

After seeing what that potion showed me in the Archives I'm just relieved that she's still here, that she wasn't lost by what she must have gone through, and everything I saw all those years ago... they were just so obvious... but she's okay... oh thank goodness she's okay. 

I'll be able to keep an eye on her to make sure she's alright. There's something about her that worries me, and I can't name it, but I think I've seen it in her eyes. If we were more familiar, I would like to wrap a foreleg around her withers, if she would let me, because after all these years apart, I had been hoping...

Yes, me hoping for anything is a bit odd... but this was something so out of my control. I had hoped that history would be as kind to her as it has been cruel to me.

Her eyes are lighter than I remember. I'm glad.



...



I am not alone. As soon as I had gotten a chance to slip deeper into my own thoughts, I knew this and I'm not referring to Luna, who is still dragging me along. A better way to put this would be I'm not the only demon. This isn't such a big deal compared to other happenings. I always knew that whoever wrote the Book most likely ended up with demons too. I wasn't sure if they were still alive or if something had happened to them.

When I was out in the Arctic with Purple Eyesore I saw proof of this, a tracking spell of some kind that was no doubt drawn to me, and there was no way in Tartarus that I was going to let it discover me.

Even if I wasn't what it was after, there's only one possibility left.

It was looking for Alicorns.

Whoever is behind this is behind everything that led to the Alicorn Absence as well and why I seem to be the only pony aware of just how dire the situation was. Ponies now just think that there were a few Alicorns who simply vanished a long time ago like there was nothing wrong, if they speculate beyond Celestia's 'history' at all. They aren't aware of anything that came before, nor have they spent hours poring over books that detailed so much of what was and many of the have-beens.

I once heard a pony in the very streets of Canterlot, a city renowned for its scholars, say that Alicorns are just a combination of the three races. What ignorance is this?! I bet this same pony thinks that unicorns, pegasi, crystal, and earth ponies are the only races of pony to have ever lived. Did they even know that crystal ponies aren't earth ponies? Whose idea was it to limit the pony races to three? There are not three, nor have there only ever been three, but there are at least four surviving races of pony and a few more species of equine that appear to have made it through whatever happened.

I want to learn what happened to rob this world of its gods and plunge it into the dark ages so that only now it begins to compare to all the texts and diagrams I've memorized. I want to help Princess Luna in this, since I know things she may not and I won't let anything happen to her. I'm going to figure out what led to this world becoming such a confused and blind place so that creatures like me were able to exist without much nearly as much persecution as I would have gotten ages ago and that mortals were left in charge of empires they couldn't defend.

It has to be the same entity, the one who wrote the Book, made the amulet, sank everything else and left everypony who managed to stumble away from the death of most of their population to fall into ignorance and be left for dead until those two appeared.

She knows something too, or else she wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't be here if she wasn't.



...



"Here it is," Luna says, gesturing a hoof to one of the carved stone walkways running alongside the mountain path where the floating contraptions were bobbing in the air while wild forests grew below the mountain. 

I stared at it; like all the others it was roughly the size of a small house, and to some degree it resembled a building in Canterlot with its smooth appearance in swirls of white, purple, and gold.

Luna and I were on the walkway, which was really more of a small bridge that led nowhere, and she held a large coil of rope in her magic, which in turn was attached to this...

I paced further down the walkway and found the words 'SKY SCRAPER' written on the side.

"Have you never seen a airship before?"

"Umm, never up close, and certainly not put together. Aren't they usually less...?"

I nodded.

"You must be speaking of ships more akin to a zeppelin, aye?" She moves together more of this rope, and I look up at the balloon part of the airship.

"Is that what keeps it afloat, Princess?"

"Yes," she responds from where she flies, checking the nearby ropes although I'm not sure what for but it does look like she's untying them. "Think of it like a boat, but for the sky."

"What's a boat?"

"I can tell you later, right now would you care to help me with getting this ready before Celestia realizes that I am not going off somewhere to take a break and cool down, as she would have guessed. We need to get the Sky Scraper ready in less than ten minutes, alright?"

"Yes, I'm well aware that we are most likely on a time limit but I don't even know what this is but isn't that a military emblem painted right there on the front?"

"On the prow? Yes it is, this is a military navigator's ship, so it is not quite stealing, but it is close enough if you wish to see it that way. Just get up here on deck and take a look at this map, I need you to memorize some coordinates, and then I'll teach you how this works and explain everything you need to know. I promise."

From the deck Luna withdraws a scroll from inside her cloak before removing what looks to be the last of the ropes keeping this here. She tosses it in my direction and I'm about to try to catch it, silently cursing my depth perception all the while, and just hoping that it won't cause me to screw up what is an incredibly simple task since I don't want this to fall off the mountain.

I don't catch the scroll and Luna notices this, but she doesn't say anything. It wasn't lost, all I do is pick it up off the ground and watch the paper, which is now tinted red because of my magic. Marked on the surface in bold black print is a large circle and coordinates written in the same thick, clear print so I don't have to search for small numbers that flow together. Immediately, I have the numbers memorized since coordinates have never been difficult to recall. I roll up the map and teleport to the deck, where Luna is.

"So, why did you want me to know those coordinates? You just circled a space near a city called Manehatten, but why are we heading there."

By this time, Luna has made it clear that we're ready to go in terms of readying this contraption.

"You are good at teleporting, correct?"

"Yes?"

"Well, that is the starting point I marked right there is where I need us to teleport to. I will be able to manage everything from there, since I can fly one of these."

"Alright."

Luna's horn glows a brilliant blue. "Are you ready?"

I only nod, my horn glowing read, a part of me isn't thinking about the numbers that mark our first destination.

She's the only one in world who I'd ask if they really missed me, but I stay silent instead as we disappear from the mountainside along with the Sky Scraper.