Sombra's Revenge

by Golden Skies

Chapter One

The being flew over the frozen arctic ice. The howling winds that cascaded down the mountain sides would pierce even the thickest coat, but the shadow felt none of this. No, all the shadow could feel was the intense, burning desire for revenge upon the creature that had done this to him, purged him of his memories, and destroyed his being, tearing him asunder. That wretched little pile of filth would pay.

As the shadow approached the crystal, more of the valley came into view. The snow continued for miles before coming to a complete stop and being replaced by luscious green grass. Houses made of crystal dotted the landscape and reflected an almost blinding light onto the creature. The whole place felt familiar to the shadow, as though he belonged there, but… there was something off about the whole place. Something about it felt… wrong. There was a strange energy that emanated from the city.

As the creature drew closer this… energy grew into a feeling that buzzed in the air, that emanated throughout the very atmosphere. The creature felt almost sickened by it and the buzzing entered its thoughts and brought with it a horrible pain. The dark mist was stopped in its path and it writhed back and forth attempting to dislodge the horrible feeling from its mind, but it refused to be purged. The creature let out a howl and sank to the snow and thrashed about, yet the buzzing refused to stop, instead it only continued to grow louder and louder.

The shadow tried to crawl away, but it had lost track of where it really was. The buzzing was screaming, surrounding the creature on all sides. The world began to blacken and close in on the creature. It huddled against the snow drift, hoping beyond hope that it could simply die so that it would be free from this unworldly suffering! The shadow let out one long final howl that echoed throughout the entire valley and into the city.

And in the city, where a celebration had been under way, everypony stopped. Their smiles melted from their faces and the band stopped their music, and the color drained from the face of the princess. Not a pony spoke, and not a single pony moved.

And on the ice, where the shadow had been writhing in pain but a few moments ago, the shadow arose. The pain had disappeared and had been replaced with a different sort of feeling. Yet this one was not like the other, no, this one felt right. This was the feeling that had been missing when the creature had first seen the city.

It arose and looked over to the city, the glow that had once encompassed the city was gone, replaced now with a far gloomier aspect. The creature felt its strength return almost at once, and it lifted itself up from the small drift it had sheltered in. Whatever that pain was, it was now gone, and therefore, it was irrelevant to the goals of the dark smoke.

And yet, when the shadow came to the edge of the city, a barrier stood in its path. This barrier was not visible to the naked eye, but when the shadow attempted to move past it, an unseen force prevented its transgression. Frustrated, the being moved itself all along the edge of the city, but not a single gap in the wall existed. The shadow then attempted to strike and smash the shield protecting the city, but it was of no use, each blow delivered by the being merely bounced off the wall without so much as a sign the creature had done anything at all.

After several hours of attempting to break through the wall at various points, the shadow resigned itself to defeat. It would have to search elsewhere for its prize. Gliding across the snow filled air, the shadow made its way across the icy expanse searching for a clue as to what it might be able to do.

The day shifted to night, and the night into day, but the creature felt none of this, the only thing it felt was the rage at being unable to exact its revenge. It traversed the great ice without seeing another sign of life, and eventually the shadow came upon a large expanse of mountains.

In these mountains, the creature came across a small trading village. Although, the term village would be generous for such a humble place, as it only consisted of a small handful of wooden houses, and a small pub, all surrounding an old trading lodge. It was one of those communities that was so small that it didn’t even have a name let alone a place on a map, it only served as a stopping point for the trade caravans that traversed between the northern and southern fishing villages and farms.

Here, the shadow descended, hoping to find answers to its questions. It went first to where one can always find the news from around the kingdoms, the pub. The shadow shrank itself until it was little bigger than a field mouse. Inside, the hearty drunken laughter of the customers and the smell of hard pine cider permeated the air. The buzz had also returned and surrounded the shadow once again, but it was far less painful than the previous time.

The shadow made its way towards where the bartender stood, slowly polishing his mugs as he spoke with a few patrons,

“So the way they been sayin’ it, apparently the whole lot of the Elements were there in the kingdom when the king returned.”

The king? Were they perhaps referring to him, the shadow? Leaning closer, the shadow listened to the slurred words of one of the patrons,

“Yesh, buts as I heards it… it was like a… likes a… dragon or shomthin’ that wooshed in at the last moment and broughts the crystal heart backs in time to uh… to uh… ya know… make the king blasts into oblivions.”

The dragon… yes… it was that dragon who had destroyed the shadow. So would this dragon then be with these… Elements? Surely they were connected in some manner or another, why else would a fierce dragon consort with these… ponies? The bartender continued, despite his customers drunkenness,

“Anyways, so they all return back to Canterlot and get a big celebration from what I here. But what I don’t get is why some random mares from a small town like Ponyville get to be the elements. Why not a big city like Manehattan or Phillydelphia?”

There were a few mumbles of agreement, but the shadow was no longer paying attention. At the mention of the town ‘Ponyville’, it had flown up through the chimney and into the sky, it now rested far above the tiny hamlet, looking out at the surrounding terrain. To its left sat the great expanse of ice that lead to the place of the creatures destruction. But to the right… to the right lay a golden land. The fields green and gold, filled with crops, the lakes a pristine blue. The being circled around itself once before shooting off towards this bountiful land.

The creature passed many quaint villages and cottages. Ponds filled with fish, and fields rich in their bounty. Forests that were teeming with wild game, and valleys that radiated the light of the setting sun. As the sun set, the creature slowed down, in front of it lay a rather large village. Large groups of houses, a marketplace, town hall, and not too far away a great orchard, all made up the village.

The shadow descended, once again shrinking itself so as not to alarm the local populace. That would come later. It weaved its way through the narrow streets, searching for its prize. The shadow scanned every nook and cranny, like an owl searching for a mouse in the night. Throughout the village, the colorful ponies were blissfully unaware of its presence, as it searched their quaint homes for a sign of the vile dragon.

For hours the creature searched, but to no avail. The sun had gone down hours ago, and the creature had already searched all of the homes, but they were devoid of any sign of the dragon. The businesses were all closed… Had the shadow been lied to? This was the right village… Perhaps the bartender had been mistaken? Wait… that light...why was that light on?

Throughout the entire dark expanse, not a single light shone except for one within a tree a kilometer or so away. The shadow weaved through the night and made its way towards the light. The building was the town library, which the creature had skipped assuming that a dragon that breathed fire would never be allowed in such a place, let alone possibly live in it.

Slipping under a crack in the door, the shadow made its way up the staircase and into a small study. There, a purple unicorn sat with a book read, illuminated only by the small candle next to her. The creature looked around the room, but no sign of a dragon was present. Perhaps it would just be best to wait until morn-

“Twilight, I brought that cup of tea that you asked for,” a young boyish voice spoke.

The shadow froze in its tracks, not that it had any to begin with. Circling around, it spotted the creature that it had so desperately been searching for. The young purple dragon stood there, a tired look on its eyes. He was handing a cup of tea to the unicorn mare that then gestured for him to go off to bed. Excellent.

The shadow followed the drake as he ascended the stairs and came to a bedroom loft. On one end, sat a bed with dark blue covers, on the other sat a much smaller bed strewn with magazines and plates with crumbs.

The dragon slowly made its way into the bed, brushing aside a few crumbs of an unknown food to the side. Within a few minutes, the drake was sound asleep and lightly snoring. Now it was time for the shadow to act. It made its way up the bedpost and towards the young drakes ear. Carefully weaving its way inside being sure not to wake the owner of the ear, the creature made its way into the dreams of the drake.

Author's Note:

Glad you decided to stick with the story (or maybe you skipped the prologue, IDK). Please let me know what you think of my attempt at trying to write this style of literature. Don't worry, I'm expecting some bad reviews.

Thank you Joyous Apple, Almar Zewizard, Krosskothen, Samaru163, and Sir Charles for helping to pre-read and proof read this story. The help you guys gave me was great and I really appreciate it.

Comments

[OmniFox]

Incoming! Incoming!!!