//------------------------------// // The Suitors of Princess Luna: King Sombra // Story: Sensational Serials: Silly, Short Stories for Silly, Short Ponies // by PhycoKrusk //------------------------------// Near the Castle of the Two Sisters was a resplendent garden of carefully cut and maintained grasses, trimmed hedges and groomed trees, and a large fountain enchanted to babble like a brook. It was Princess Luna’s favorite place in the castle, and the one where she was found most often, lounging on the grass beneath the boughs of a great oak tree, shaded from the midday sun and reading a book. It was in this garden that her imagination had brought to life countless adventures recorded for her (and ostensibly for others, if they could ever figure out where she’d hidden all the texts). It was in the midst of so grand an adventure when she could not help but wonder aloud, “Canst thou not take a hint?” Of course, he was there when she glanced up from her book: King Sombra, smiling widely and wearing his shiniest armor and most luxuriant cape. “Luna, my sweetness, must you play these games?” he asked. “Admit to me truthfully that there is a stallion more suited to be your husband than I, and I swear that I shall never speak to you again! But only if you admit truthfully.” Luna opened her mouth to answer, and then closed it and took a closer look at Sombra. She observed his immaculately brushed coat, perfectly styled mane that surely must have taken hours, and hooves polished so sharply they glittered in the midday sun like fire. “Mm, thou art certainly a specimen like no other,” she purred with a coy smile as she stood up from the grass. “Pucker thy lips and close thine eyes, and thou shalt receiveth a grand surprise.” Face lighting up, Sombra did as he was told, puckering his lips and shutting his eyes and in mere moments, a hoof forcefully connected with his face. Knocked silly, he went flying across the gardens, splashing down in the fountain and bobbing to the surface like a misshapen apple. Back under the boughs of the tree, Luna lowered her outstretched leg back to the ground. “Surprise,” she said. Speculations that this incident is the true reason Sombra became the tyrant he is remembered for being, although unfounded in fact and unsupported by evidence, are not untrue in nature. (That’s fancy-speak for, “Totally Luna’s fault.”)