"Sombra? Dear Sombra? It that truly you?"
The world was spinning. The snow and wind was harsh on his hide, a storm swirls around him. Raging. Angry. Betrayed. Hurt.
The storm was just as violent in his heart and his head, it echoed down to his very soul, his foundations weak.
Weak from the confusion. Weak from the weather, the cold, and the pain. Still, the black colt was able to find the strength to lift his head.
He looked to the ruby red crystal, at which he had collapsed in front of. His voice was weak. His tone wounded, he asked feebly, "who?"
"Don't you recognize your own mother when you see her? I'm the one that brought you into this world."
"...what..." It was barely a whisper. Sombra's mind was already reeling from everything. And now suddenly. This. His mother? He had one? He wasn't an orphan? "I don't understand. The Crystal Guards found me out here."
"And haven't you ever wondered how you got here? Haven't you ever wondered why you are different from everyone else?" The crystal darkened, it's tone revealing disgust, "Why you don't have one of those. Silly little cutie marks. Like the other ponies?"
His heart quickened. His mind was clear. He found his strength.
Struggling to get up against the battering harsh winds, he screamed, "tell me mother!" The crystal remained silent. This isn't right. This isn't fair. I'm just like everyone else. I'm just a pony. Please. I need answers. I need truth. What am I? Thoughts racing, he yelled louder, "tell me, please!"
The voice became coaxing, sweet. "...The answer is so simple, Sombra... You're not like them. Because you're not one of them.You're not a creature of shining crystal. No. You're the opposite... You are a creature of shadow and smoke. You are the very thing they fear. An umbrum. A shadow pony."
...That...that can't be... "they're not afraid of me." I'm... I'm just like them. Just like Hope...
A soft giggle. "oh. But they are.They just can't remember why! You see, we are the darkness they fight to keep at bay. WE haunted their every nightmare!" Suddenly, the voice turned bitter and vicious, "Until they created a weapon to keep us away!"
My life. It was... I was living a lie! It was fake! Nothing was real! And all those years. That pain. The faire... The Heart! "The Crystal Heart." Sombra had never had so much hate in his words then he did that very moment. "The crystal heart! That's why the crystal faire makes me so sick! Because it's supposed to protect them from me! But why?!" He looked at the red crystal, defiant, "I can't do anything!" Frustrated.
Another sickeningly sweet chuckle escaped. "Oh. But you can. Your magic is very powerful.But it makes you vulnerable to the Heart. So we locked it away... Until. Now."
Energy crackled from the crystal to Sombra's horn. He thought there would he pain and flinched from the dark lightening bolt, but instead, his memories returned. He knew who his mother was. He knew what he was. And he knew what he could do. He had a mission. A quest. His life finally had purpose. He didn't need a 'cutie mark'. And he was sure as hell knew that he didn't need friends.
The wind was picking up, Sombra had condensed into a thick cloud of darkness, but when he materialized himself again he added a bit of armor. And a costume befitting of a King, under a simple cloak of course. He didn't want to be noticed.
He walked the streets of the Crystal Empire in the dead of night, everything had never been so clear in his mind before.
Before.
Before everything. He was nothing. Weak. Helpless. Always needing help from somepony else. He never noticed it back then, but now it was clear. The others must've had some instinct warning them to stay away from him. The smart ponies did. The dumber ones laughed at him. And oh, the rest were simply fools. Sombra knew without a doubt that if She saw him now. She would definitely run. She would realize he was a monster. That he was Darkness incarnate, and she would turn tail, and disappear... They were all fools.
They should've feared him before.
He was more than a monster. He would show them.
Show them all.
He was more.
Sombra reached the center of the palace. The dais were the Crystal Heart floated. It alone knew his secrets. It alone could bring his down fall. It was responsible for plunging his pony-kind deep into the ground. But. No more.
He removed his hood and took a good long stare into the Heart as his magic plucked it from it's place.
He saw nothing. No reflection. No shine or glimmer. It was simply swallowed in his magic's purple glow.
Without a moment's thought, he smashed it.
Flung it to the ground and watched emotionless as it shattered into a million billion pieces on the crystal floor.
"NO! Sombra! What have you done!"
Sombra turned to look behind him, and as he moved, the winter storm closed in upon the empire. His clock was buffeting in the wind, and with an unconscious thought, his magic released the clasp and his outfit was revealed. His thick ruby cape, edged with spotted white fur, moved lazily against the storm, being too heavy to be swayed. And the silver battle armor he wore underneath shone a sick dark glimmer.
Princess Amore, the now former queen of the crystal empire, was racing towards him, tears already frozen in her eyes. He knew that of all the ponies in the kingdom, she alone would know what he was. From the day he gazed into the crystal, when Amore watched him look at his true self, the Princess must have known all along what he had seen.
And Amore never told him. He lived a lie. Thought that he could be like the others. That he was a crystal pony. But he wasn't.
He was FAR from it. And the Princess knew.
"You knew. Didn't you, princess?"
"...Please. Sombra, look at what you're doing. The storm will be upon us any moment. It's not too late. We can fix this. Together. We can mend the Crystal Heart."
King Sombra let out a harsh laugh. "You ask me to fix the very weapon that's been trying to kill me all these years!?"
The snow was everywhere. Ponies were panicking in their homes, the clouds grew thicker. The storm was growing. As King Sombra looked down on the tall cream colored pony, he smiled a smile full of fangs. The purple mist, like fire, grew thicker around his green eyes. Behind him the shadows came to life.
"We're free. We are all. Finally. Free."
Princess Amore took a disbelieving step back, a chocked 'no' escaped her throat.
The Umbrums. They had all escaped from their cages, deep in the earth, the moment the Heart had split into pieces.
"Please! Sombra-"
The Umbrum's voices boomed in the growing storm, "THAT'S KING SOMBRA TO YOU, WENCH!"
"YOU WILL TREAT OUR KING WITH THE RESPECT HE DESERVES IF YOU WISH TO LIVE, PITIFUL BEAST!"
"No." His voice wasn't loud. But it carried through the night. As clear as if they were standing in an empty room. "No matter what she says, she will get the same sentence."
"Please... You are not-"
"Princess Amore. You are stripped of your title. Your words no longer carry weight.... My subjects are free to do whatever they wish upon your person."
As his last word escaped his lips, the umbrums snarled, and when their King had finished speaking, like a tidal wave of darkness, they surrounded Amore. Some took pleasure in holding her down for the others and watching her suffer, others plucked her wings, some began feasting on her raw flesh, while others attempted to take an organ. Her blood splattered everywhere, turning the snow as red as strawberries. She struggled feebly, her eyes bugged out, her horn was the first thing to break as the shadows had descended upon her. Her screams echoed in the dark, the wind carrying the haunting sound throughout the empire. Every crystal pony heard it, and immediately lost their glimmer. Their hope.
Her cries carried on through the night as the wind and snow battered against walls, windows, and doors alike. There was no comfort to be found.
No... It's not too late... It can't be...
Her entire body froze over slowly as she struggled desperately through the snow. It isn't far now... I'm almost there!
The small purple pony was battling against the growing storm, her hooves felt like they were ready to fall off. She felt like she had no energy left, but she still kept moving. She was so close.
The palace loomed above her in the storm, underneath it, in front of her, stood a tall dark pony figure.
"Sombra!? Sombra is that you!?"
The many shadows behind the figure suddenly grew many pairs of eyes and multiple sets of bloodied teeth. The stallion turned slowly, and Hope gasped at what she saw.
She didn't know who he was. But she sure as hell knew it wasn't him. That isn't Sombra.
His pupils were red. Sombra's pupils were emerald green. They were gentle, kind, and lonely. But they were Sombra's eyes. Not... Not that.
"Hope..."
"...Sombra..." No. It can't be....?... "Where's Princess Amore?"
His eyes changed suddenly, the sclera turning green, a purple flame surrounded them. "Why?"
"She needs help, Sombra! The whole empire could hear her screams!"
The shadows crept forward, the purple flame grew and the wind kicked up. King Sombre's hair whipped in the wind, she noticed that the edges seemed to be made of nothing but smoke. He looked at her, red pupils unfeeling. Radiant Hope shivered. "Please Sombra. I can cure any anything... Just. Let me see the princess."
"Heh. Really? Can you cure death?" The umbrums parted to reveal nothing but scrap bloodied hide, and a few bones amidst a pile of fleshy innards. Most organs were missing. A few feathers were scattered. There was almost nothing left of the former Queen...
Hope lost her strength. She couldn't fix that. She couldn't save the Princess... There was nothing there to save.
No... nonononono. No. NO. She couldn't look away.
She couldn't look away from all the blood.
From her greatest failure...
no.
The Princess's death wasn't her greatest failure. Sombra was.
And it was all her fault. She was the one who was about to leave him, now it all made sense.
Why he'd run away when she ran to him, the letter from the two sisters in hand. He thought she was happy to leave him. When he didn't even get his cutie mark yet... When they didn't even get to go the one crystal faire together... When she haden't even spoken to him in such a long time after she got her cutie mark. It was like she was suddenly more important than their friendship... Like she was more important than him."oh." Tears flooded her eyes and blurred her vision.
She hadn't been thinking. When that golden Caduceus had appeared on her flank, the first thing she had done was hug him goodbye.
And after that?
After that. She had pushed him to the back of her mind.
She had never once stopped to say hello. He had been watching her from the corners of her vision, and she knew he was there, watching her... And yet.
She still never turned and said hello. Never. Not once after she was bestowed her cutie mark.
She abandoned him. And she was the only pony who he needed.
And she had just. Ignored him. Tossed him away like. Trash.
"Oh Princess Amore... Sombra... I'm. I'm so sorry..."
She bowed her head, finally losing all her strength, her consciousness fading away. "I am so sorry Sombra..."
That was the last thing she had whispered before she fainted.