Chapter 6
Shadowy Love
By FinnPony
Chapter 6
Sombra woke up. The sun’s light peered through the window, tickling his nose. It annoyed him so he turned his back towards the window, grunting and pulling the covers over his head. He laid there for a while, before his stomach grumbled. Sombra groaned. He didn’t like how his body was acting up without his powers. Oh, how much easier it was while being in power. He never felt hungry, didn’t need rest or even wanted it. Now it was different. He was reminded about his weakness with every grumble of his stomach and every yawn. He hated it so much. His stomach grumbled again, and he had to force himself out of the bed. He hadn’t noticed the door next to his bed last night. He stared at it and yawned before standing up and opening the door. He found out that it was a bathroom. What a pleasant surprise. There was a shower and nice clean toilet. He still got shivers while thinking about the toilet in his cell. Then there was also a sink and mirror. On the edge of the sink was a hairbrush, comb and a glass where was an unused toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. Sombra eyed the shower for a moment, before turning towards the mirror. When he saw his reflection, he grimaced. He had a bad case of bedmane and his fur was tangled. Sombra growled. He was King. He should not show himself around those peasants with him looking like that. With that he decided to take a shower.
The warm water felt nice after being locked into a small, filthy cell for couple of days. He scrubbed his mane until it squeaked under his touch. He stepped out of the shower and very un-royally shook himself dry, sending drops of water flying all over the place. After that he brushed his coat, which proved to be lot harder without his magic. He cursed out loud and thought how earth ponies could live with themselves. After about half an hour of struggling he was ready to brush his thick, black mane. It wasn’t as hard, and he did finishing touches with the comb. He was satisfied to the results, and quickly brushed his fangs. After he was done, he flashed a toothy grin towards the mirror, and his fangs literally shined. Sombra stared at the mirror for a moment, before giving himself a half lidded, handsome smile, thinking how doable he looked. He chuckled after that and left the bathroom. He briskly walked to the door of his room and opened it, and his good mood died immediately. He was greeted by two hooves pressed against his chest.
“Where are you going?” asked an orange pegasus in his flashy armour and poked Sombra in the chest again.
The other one immediately continued, “Answer him!”
Sombra inhaled deeply and stared at the guards. Both of them slowly lowered their hooves from his chest and backed away. Then Sombra said, very slowly, like speaking to a foal, “I’d like to go and have breakfast.”
The guards were quiet, but gestured him to follow. He did so, walking in between them. They trotted down to the living room, where the big stained glass windows greeted him, like teasing him. He shot an irritated glance towards them as he walked towards the kitchen. He could smell a salty aroma that made his mouth water and his stomach to grumble. It got stronger as he got closer to the doorway, thinking to see Twilight Sparkle making breakfast. He thought wrong.
He froze on his place and his eyes grew wide when saw the cook. It was a purple dragon, who Sombra recognized in mere seconds. The dragon had grown a lot since the last time they had met. He stood on two legs and was about the size of a normal pony. Even though he looked different, Sombra could easily remember the damned dragon who ruined his plans more than seven years ago. He was happily humming while frying something on a pan, stretching his leathery wings from time to time.
“Good m…” Spike started and turned towards him, only to freeze in panic with a spatula still in his hand. He and Sombra both stared at each other for a long moment, Sombra’s right eye twitching a little. Spike blinked couple of times, before speaking with shaky voice, “K-King Sombra?”
With that Sombra roared his war cry and dashed towards Spike with his head held down and his horn pointed at the poor dragon. Spike screamed and dropped the spatula, lifting his hands in front of himself for cover. Sombra galloped towards him, determined to impale that damn lizard against the kitchen wall. Sombra didn’t get too close to him though, before both guards jumped over him, pinning him to the floor. He roared and tried to struggle free. Even though he was a big stallion, almost a head taller than the guards, he couldn’t get away from the iron grip of the guards. He kept squirming for a while, his eyes fixated to the scared dragon who was cowering behind a chair.
“What in heavens is going on in here!?” they heard Twilight Sparkle asking from the doorway. They all turned to look at her. She clearly had been woken up by the ruckus in the kitchen. Her mane was tangled and her feathers pointed in all directions. She looked at the scene in front of her with confused look on her face. She first looked at Sombra being held down by the two guards, before looking at Spike, who was still cowering behind the chair. She glanced between those two for a moment before everything became clear to her. An angry frown appeared on her face and she stomped next to Sombra and knelt down in front of him. She pushed herself close to Sombra’s face, showing her teeth as she spoke with unusual coldness in her voice, “If you ever hurt Spike, I will end you in a blink of an eye. Is that clear?”
Sombra was taken back by her sudden anger. He decided to play tough and stared angrily back at her, growling a little. Twilight didn’t take something like that from him in that matter and stomped her hoof right next to Sombra’s face, before asking again, with louder voice, “Is that clear!?”
Sombra was almost terrified by her now. He returned the stern stare Twilight was giving her, but after couple of seconds he looked away from her violet eyes and muttered just barely audibly, “Yes.”
“Good,” Twilight said and nodded to the guards, who hesitated a moment before letting Sombra go. He rubbed his neck while muttering curses to the guard, the princess and especially to the dragon that was standing in the corner of the kitchen, holding his chest. Twilight walked to the kitchen table and sat down. Spike quickly gave her a plate with daisy sandwich on it, keeping his green eyes on Sombra, just in case.
“Can we act like civilized ponies now?” she asked from Sombra, before taking a bite of her sandwich. Sombra was still sitting on the floor, but rose up and walked to the table, quietly sitting down. Twilight levitated a plate of hayfries in front of him. Sombra wrinkled his nose. They served him peasant food? He would never... A lovely greasy aroma reached Sombra’s nose. Somehow the simple dish started to seem a lot more tempting. He started to eat his hayfries while sulking at Twilight. She just chuckled at his childish behaviour and said, “You’re acting like a little foal who’s being scolded.”
Sombra kept silent, and soon Spike leaned close to Twilight whispering into her ear, “You didn’t thought about telling me that King Sombra was here?”
“It kinda slipped my mind,” Twilight said with a sheepish smile.
Spike rolled his eyes and then whispered again, “He almost killed me!”
“Noo…” Twilight dragged the word. “He wouldn’t do that… Right Sombra?”
Sombra was silent, eating his hay fries slowly, his red eyes fixated to his plate.
It was at that moment when Twilight noticed his appearance. He had brushed his coat and mane. It wasn’t tangly and messy like when she first time saw him in the cell under Canterlot. For a moment she felt a bit embarrassed sitting in the same table with him, with her messy mane and unkempt wings. She could almost hear Rarity scolding at her. Twilight blushed faintly and rose up from the table.
“I… uhh. I’m going to go and freshen up a bit…” she muttered and started to quickly walk towards the doorway where the guards were standing.
Spike nervously glanced at Sombra, and then called at Twilight, “You’re going to leave me with him?”
“Oh Spike. He’s not going to do anything stupid,” Twilight chirped, but stopped next to the orange-coated guard and whispered into his ear, “Keep an eye on him.”
“Understood,” The guard said and saluted.
Twilight rolled her eyes at him and started to trot upstairs, leaving sulking Sombra and scared Spike alone with the guards. Spike trembled a bit as he carefully sat down to the other side of the table. He watched Sombra eating slowly, catching glimpses of his fangs. He gulped loudly before asking with shaky voice, “So uh… no bad feelings about the… uh… crystal heart thing?”
Sombra was quiet. Spike glanced at the clock on the wall, and when he returned his gaze towards Sombra, his heart jumped to his throat. Sombra’s face was just inches away from his own, making Spike yell and fall backwards with the chair. He landed to the floor with a loud thud, and started to quickly back away on the floor. Sombra just chuckled coldly with a deadpan look on his face. He leaned back to his chair and said in his low, cold voice, “We are going to have fun someday lizard.”
* * *
Later that day Sombra was standing in the middle of the throne room of Twilight Sparkle’s castle. This time he wasn’t admiring the design of the place, because he was under the scrutiny of six pairs of judging eyes. He stood in middle of the elements of harmony, emotionless look on his face. The six mares each were looking at her, and glancing at each other occasionally. Sombra now knew that the seventh throne was made for that puny dragon, Spike. For some reason he wasn’t there with them.
“So, Sombra,” Twilight finally spoke, earning his attention. “These are the elements of harmony.”
Sombra gave a quick look around himself. Quite a colorful bunch she had there. He then turned back towards Twilight, waiting for more.
“They are going to teach you about the magic of friendship,” Twilight explained and clapped her hooves together as she spoke.
“There is the element of honesty, Applejack,” Twilight said and pointed at the mare in question. Applejack was sitting with her trademark stetson on the back of her head, glaring at Sombra angrily. He gave little attention to a hillbilly like her.
“Element of kindness, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, pointing to Fluttershy now. Sombra looked at her, and saw that this was a funny case. She hid herself behind her mane, clearly scared of him. Sombra liked the scent of her fear.
“Element of laughter, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said and Sombra turned towards the next throne. He jumped a bit backwards when his vision was blocked by a poofy pink mess of a mane.
“That’s me!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed and shoved a lollipop into Sombra’s mouth. She then cartwheeled back to her place, leaving Sombra stare after her with shocked look on his face. Sombra soon got all sorted out in his head and spat the lollipop to the floor, and turned towards the next throne.
“Element of generosity, Rarity,” he heard Twilight announce and looked at the classy looking mare in front of him. She sat with her rear legs crossed in elegant way. She looked at Sombra with some kind of an sparkling in her eyes. Sombra didn’t like it.
“And the element of loyalty, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said as Sombra turned towards Rainbow Dash. She had her front hooves crossed over her chest and her ears twitched as she stared at him. Sombra narrowed his eyes for a moment, before turning back towards Twilight.
He stared at Twilight Sparkle for a moment before the corner of his mouth started to twitch. First he just chuckled faintly, but then it became a full laugh that echoed in the throne room. Everypony looked at him with confusion beaming on their faces. When Sombra started to get his laughing under control, he started to speak between chuckles, “I know that this was going to be rather interesting, but…”
Sombra laughed loudly again, before he continued, pointing at Applejack, “But a hillb…”
“Hrhm..”
“...A farmer!” he quickly corrected, still laughing. Then he moved his hoof towards Fluttershy. “A full grown mare who is afraid of her own shadow!”
Fluttershy let out a small ‘eep’, only fuelling his amusement. Now it was Pinkie Pie’s turn. She seemed happy as always. Sombra still chuckled and said, “A village idiot…”
“That’s me alright!” Pinkie chirped in return.
Sombra kept snickering and looked at Rarity. She already had a hurt look on her face, but Sombra still kept going, “A diva…”
Rarity gasped and her lower lip started to tremble. Then Sombra turned towards Rainbow Dash and grinned.
“And a wannabe stunt flyer.”
“That’s it!” Rainbow Dash shouted “You can call me anything you want, but you do not make my friends sad!”
“Bring it on you little…” Sombra started and took a fighting stance, but felt how his mouth was once again sewn shut by magic. Also his were legs being tied together with invisible rope. Sombra tried to balance himself for a second, but fell over to his side with a loud thud. He hurt his side when all his weight came onto it, but did not even wince.
“I’m getting real tired with you Sombra!” Twilight shouted, clearly angry. She jumped down from her throne and walked over to him. Her horn glowed and Sombra was lifted up from his legs, so that he was facing Twilight Sparkle while hanging upside down.
“I know you are still sulking from the thing that happened in the morning, but that doesn’t give you a right to mock my friends!”
Sombra was staring at her with narrowed eyes. Twilight returned the glare, but soon she sighed and looked at her friends.
“I’m sorry girls. I guess this is it for today. I’ll be contacting you when I need you, okay?” she said and gave them a sad smile. Her friends murmured their agreements, before trotting towards the main doors. Rainbow Dash flew past Sombra, giving him a spin before leaving. He spun around violently, getting really nauseous. Twilight didn’t do anything to stop him from spinning, and started to drag a pale faced Sombra towards the living room.
* * *
Sombra was still tied up hours after the incident with the elements. He was laying in one of the armchairs, head hanging from the edge of it. He was staring towards the kitchen where he knew Twilight was. His legs were numb and all the blood rushed to his head, making him feel light-headed. Yet, he had not begged for mercy, and so none had been given. He heard Twilight coming from heard kitchen, and soon she trotted towards her study, not giving any attention to him. Sombra soon heard Twilight coming back towards him, and saw her laying down to the sofa in front of him. They stared at each other for a moment, before Twilight said matter-of-factly, “Before I say anything else, I ask you; will you behave?”
Sombra knew that if he didn’t, he would probably need to spent the rest of the night right where he was, so he nodded calmly. Twilight’s horn came to life and suddenly Sombra’s legs were free and his mouth could be opened again. He flopped to the armchair, his head still upside down. He quickly turned around and sat more comfortably to the chair.
“I am still a bit upset about today’s incident,” Twilight said, but then added, “But I know it is hard trying to get used to this all. You must be feeling completely helpless without your magic.”
Sombra had to agree with her, and he nodded slowly. Twilight smiled sadly at her, and said, “I promise it gets easier after while. And besides, you will get your magic back in time.”
He would have wanted to tell her how right she was, but kept his mouth shut. Twilight levitated a parchment to the table in front of her, and soon a quill followed. Sombra looked at the parchment with interest, and Twilight saw that. She levitated it closer to herself and explained, “Celestia asked me to collect some information about you. You know, I ask a couple of questions and you answer. Is that okay with you?”
Sombra nodded. He had nothing against it. That made Twilight smile again. Sombra was starting to grow used to the smile she always wore. It was a quite nice sight actually.
“So first question,” Twilight said. “Why did you lose your powers?”
“I told you, I don’t know,” Sombra answered. Twilight wrote a line or two in the parchment and nodded.
She then asked the second question, “Do you think that elements had something to do with it?”
“It could be so,” he said in his low voice.
Twilight looked up from the parchment and asked, “What do you mean ‘it could be so’?”
“It happened right after you…” he started but was quiet for couple of seconds, before continuing, “...defeated me.”
“I see…” Twilight said and wrote something down to the parchment. She then looked up again and asked, “Now I can see that we don’t have any clear info about the incident at The Crystal Empire.”
“Agreed.”
“So I’m going to jump over these couple of questions that are related to it,” Twilight said and found the right spot. “Here we are. These questions are about your past. Are you okay with it?”
“Yes,” was Sombra’s answer.
Twilight nodded and started asking, “Where did you learn dark magic? This is pretty important one.”
Sombra thought for a moment. Should he even answer that? Twilight meanwhile waited, looking at Sombra with those violet eyes of her’s. Sombra sighed and told, “I stole lot of books from the royal library when I was young.”
“Royal library?” Twilight asked, sounding surprised.
Sombra nodded and said, “From the royal library of the The Crystal Empire.”
“Oh…” Twilight said and wrote something down again.
She then asked the next question, “How would you describe the dark magic? How does it affect it’s user and what are it’s advantages and disadvantages?”
That question made warning bells ring in Sombra’s head. He examined the purple mare in front of him, and saw that she was nervous looking. He narrowed his eyes and said slowly, “I don’t know… But I know that Celestia knows enough about dark magic that she wouldn’t need my answers to clarify it.”
“I… uh… I don’t know… That’s what it says here!” she protested, poking at the parchment. Sombra examined her nervous look, folded ears and twitching wings.
He started to scratch his chin with his hoof and asked, “Could I see the list?”
“No!” Twilight exclaimed, before she chuckled nervously and started to ramble, “I mean… It’s classified. It’s for my eyes only, and your eyes aren’t my eyes so you can’t look at it and…”
She was interrupted by Sombra starting to laugh a little. She folded her ears against the back of her head when Sombra gave the most amused look to her.
“You made those questions up,” Sombra stated and laughed a bit more.
Twilight flushed scarlet red and said, “No I didn’t!”
“So they aren’t telling you?” Sombra asked while giving her a knowing look. “They won’t tell the scary stories to the youngest one… You are their little precious princess…”
“Stop that!” Twilight said sadly. Sombra noticed that he had it the spot, so why stop there?
He grinned and leaned closer, saying, “It must be hard to be the young little Twilight Sparkle. The foal among the princesses.”
“Stop that now! It’s not true!” Twilight said angrily, and Sombra could see her eyes getting wet.
His grin grew wider and he continued, “They don’t let you do what you please… They are holding you down Twilight Sparkle! They won’t let you rule on your own! Remember how they didn’t care about your opinion when I was about to be executed? They would have done it, even you tried to protest.”
“They did care about my opinion! You would be dead if they didn’t! Besides, we are equal as princesses,” Twilight said and looked away, trying to spot the guards.
“Are you?” Sombra asked. “Then why didn’t the other princesses tell you about their plans about bringing me back? What if there is other things that they haven’t told you about? How many secrets do they share with each other… and how many do they share with you?”
“Guards!” Twilight called, and soon the two guards ran into the room, immediately grabbing Sombra.
“You know how it felt to use dark magic, Twilight Sparkle?” Sombra hissed from the grasp of the guards. Twilight gave him a watery eyed glance, and Sombra continued to hiss, “I had the absolute power to do whatever I pleased, unlike you do, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Take him to his room and don’t let him go until the morning,” Twilight sobbed and started to gallop towards the stairs.
“You are a puppet Twilight Sparkle! Your job is only to look good!” Sombra laughed menacingly, before Twilight disappeared into the long corridor. Soon after they heard the door of her bed chambers close with a loud bang, and immediately Sombra felt a hoof connect his side with a force that blew the air out of his lungs.
Sombra fell to his knees and held his side, surprised by the sudden attack. He didn’t even manage to look up before another strike came onto his back and he fell forward, faceplanting to the floor.
“Never do that again!” he heard the other guard shout. He turned to look at him and saw that it was the orange-colored pegasus. He was showing his teeth to him, and his wings were flared open. Sombra rose up to all fours, only to to be struck by another hoof in the kneecap of his left rear leg. As Sombra fell to the floor, he noticed that the other guard didn’t seem to accept the doings of his fellow companion, but didn’t step between them.
“You might not care about the princess, but I do!” the orange-colored pegasus growled.
Sombra didn’t sense any fear from him. He was defending her… That made Sombra realise the fact why he was being beaten. His mouth twisted into an amused smirk.
“You love her!” he laughed, but it hurt his side too much to continue. The pegasus backed away and looked away for a moment. That look on his face gave him away. Sombra chuckled a bit more and said, “It must be terrible to love somepony who you aren’t allowed to love… Am I right?”
That made the orange pegasus snort angrily and he lunged towards Sombra. Sombra wasn’t going to stand anything like that. He had fought his way up to the throne of The Crystal Empire, walking over the foes he had smitten with his blade. He wasn’t going to let some farmer’s son jump on him. In a swift move for a stallion of his size he dodged the lunge of the orange stallion, tripping him with his front leg. The stallion went stumbling over and landed on his face. The other guard let out a gasp and Sombra heard a blade slipping out of it’s scabbard. He swung around and a well-aimed kick of his front leg he hit the sword’s handle while most of the blade was still in it’s scabbard, breaking blade clean off, leaving only the handle in the guards mouth. He chuckled and thought that the Equestrian blades were not made for war, unlike the crystal blades his army had used. They stared at each other for a moment. The guard was terrified, Sombra could smell that. The orange pegasus behind him rose up, making Sombra to back up towards the staircase.
“If you foals are done playing games, I’d like to go to bed now,” he said calmly and watched the two guards glancing at each other. The orange coated one swore to himself before nodding. Sombra smiled wryly and said in his low bass voice, “You two can escort me like you promised to the princess!”
The guards mumbled something to each other, before they started to walk towards the stairs.
“Chop chop!” Sombra hurried them with amused grin. The guards walked past him, towards the stairs and Sombra followed them. He hummed to himself, feeling rather proud of himself. They soon reached his room, and Sombra walked in. He turned towards the guards, leaning closer to the orange coated pegasus before saying, “You did good soldiers. I’ll be sure to tell princess Twilight how well you managed your duties…”
The guards were quiet. Sombra glanced between them, before he started to laugh and slammed the door shut in front of them. He walked to his bed and jumped onto it. He thought about how much he had achieved that day. He had broken Twilight Sparkle and a couple of her guards… All in a day’s work! Still he couldn’t help but to think that he just might have caused a major setback to his plans. He laid his head on the pillow. Now that he thought about it, maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to make Twilight Sparkle snap like that. Sombra rolled to his side, staring out of the window. He remembered the way Twilight had looked at him in the eyes earlier. The image of her crying made Sombra squirm uncomfortably in his bed for some unknown reason. His chest felt a bit hot. Sombra scratched his chest, only to notice that it really was hot.
“What in Tartarus?” he mumbled to himself, the image of Twilight escaping from his thoughts as the pain in his chest grew. His chest burned for a moment longer, before it ceased to do so. He kept rubbing his chest, thinking if he had some kind of internal injuries from the battle couple of days ago. It made him a bit worried, but soon sleep caught him and he fell into a deep sleep.
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
733 users online
640,665 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Bravo!
Some minor grammatical errors here and there, but very good as always.
Nice chapter as always, I like how you write Sombra
Good job with Flash's appearance in this chapter. Also good job showing that Sombra has a heart. It will be interesting to see how the next chapter proceeds. Good luck.
I lol'd at the scene where Sombra snuck up on Spike. Your development on Sombra is great. Also showing that he actually does a conscience and with him mistaking it for injury was amusing. Also nice little cameo with Flash Sentry.
4555244
I'm surprised that nobody else has commented about that yet.
4555984 I guess, because you never said his name was Flash. Besides lots of people don't like the Flash light ship. I'm a fan of it, but I am interested to see this Twimbra ship here. Who know maybe Flash can help Sombra realize his feelings. I don't know how. It's your story, so do with it as you wish.
Sombra obviously just has heartburn from the hayfries.
Love this story.
I LOVE This Chapter!My favorite by far.
I mean, Sombra is feeling emotions, with his chest pains and stuff.
Then how Twilight totally scolded him, which was funny,
The touch of Flash Sentry,(which I have no problem with, and makes me love this story even more,)
The part where Twi cried and Sombra felt bad,
The Spike incident scene,
EVERYTHING!
4556241
Yeah. Fast foods are killing us man.
For once, I would like to see a story that doesn't address the main six as the Element of Harmony, but rather the bearers instead!
And the kings heart grew 2 sizes that day.
Grammar is still terrible. The storytelling is still full of plot holes, writer's conveniences, and other cheap shortcuts. All in all just another Author's-favorite glorification that doesn't match the description.
Let me give the people of the internet a more accurate description so they don't get sucked in by misrepresentation like I did: “Sombra fuck YEAH!! Everybody else sucks!!!!!“
I love King Sombra portrayal here, a sarcastic jerk who is completely opposed to the idea of friendship.
Heartache...
Well you did say her only job was to look good..
Slight affection..can only hope for it to turn to
love.. My ship!