The Gravest Of Circumstances
Rarity sluggishly answered the door with her sleep-mask wrapped around the side of her head, one of her eyes struggling to stay open while the other remained shut. The sight of all five of her friends finally helped lift that droopy lid.
“Twilight?” she greeted tiredly. “What’s—”
Applejack charged out from the rest and pushed Rarity further inside. “No time to explain. We can’t find Scootaloo anywhere and now we need to know if Sweetie Belle’s all right.”
Rarity rubbed at one eye. “Why of course Sweetie Belle’s all right. She’s been asleep since this evening—I went to check up on her myself a few hours ago, and…”
Applejack’s anxious expression killed whatever Rarity had left to say. Without another word, the pair galloped up the boutique’s stairs and entered the first room on the right.
Rarity sighed at the sight of her peacefully sleeping sister. “See? Everything’s fine. What’s gotten you all so riled up suddenly, dear?”
Ears twitching, Applejack stomped across the room. “Because my sister wasn’t in her bed tonight, or anywhere else for that matter, but something else was.”
“What was?” Rarity asked.
“A trick; not even a good one.”
Applejack lifted the covers off of Sweetie Belle, revealing the filly curled up in a tight little ball. She mumbled something just below hearing.
Rarity clutched at her chest. “I still don’t understand. What’s she saying, Applejack?”
Applejack leaned in to listen to Sweetie Belle, then rolled her eyes. “She’s saying she’s a cute little marshmallow… and that’s it, over and over again.”
Chuckling uneasily, Rarity added, “Well, she does sort of look like—”
“Sweetie Belle! Get up right this instant!” Applejack screamed into her ears.
The filly jolted and fell off the bed head first. An instant later, she was back on her hooves and confusedly glancing at each pony in the room. “Marshmallow?” she said earnestly.
Rarity gave Applejack a smack on the shoulder. “Now look what you’ve done! You scared her half to death—”
Applejack shoved a hoof into her mouth. “Listen for a moment.”
Sweetie Belle set her big eyes on Rarity, angling her head to the side. “Marshmallow?”
“Ee ‘as ‘rain m’age!” Rarity exclaimed through her friend’s hoof.
“Or…” Applejack started, removing her wet hoof from Rarity’s mouth, “she’s just an trick, like I said.” With one of her dry hooves, she went to pat Sweetie Belle on the head, only for her leg to slip right through her and hit the floor.
Sweetie Belle giggled as if it tickled. “Marshmallow!”
That finally did it. Rarity grabbed hold of Applejack’s shoulders and pressed her snout against hers. “So where is she? Where’s my darling sister?”
“Heheheheehehahaha!”
Rarity and her friends turned to find Sweetie Belle laughing as loud as she could. In place of her sweet, innocent voice was King Sombra’s. It had the oddest effect coming from an adorable, curly-maned little filly.
Sweetie Belle glared at each of them. “You will never see your darling sisters again!”
“What!?” Rarity and Applejack yelped together.
“Or Scootaloo!”
All eyes on the room turned to Rainbow Dash until she sighed and begrudgingly said, “Oh, no. That is also a bad thing.”
Sweetie Belle chuckled deeply. “I will harvest those fillies’ souls—drink their youth so that I may live forever. You will never find their bodies or wish them farewell. You are too late, I’m afraid. Far too late.”
Rarity slapped both hooves to her cheeks. “That can’t be true! You’re lying!”
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Or maybe we’re playing hide and go seek in the dark. Either way, don’t bother us anymore!”
One last laugh and Sweetie Belle ceased to be—a small flash of light showcasing her exit.
For a long while, no one knew exactly what to say. Until Pinkie Pie did.
She fell to her knees in horror. “This is just the worst… possible… thing! They’re playing hide and go seek and I’m not there to join in!?”
Applejack consoled her with a hoof. “That Sombra sure is evil. No doubt about that. So I think we better end this little experiment before someone gets hurt. If my sister or her friends were going to befriend the tyrant, I’m sure they would’ve by now. Twilight? Can we put an end to this, please?”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “That’s probably for the best, Applejack. I thought the Crusaders would help show Sombra the more joyful things in life to help him finally earn his cutie mark, but so far all Sombra has done is try and recruit them as sidekicks. Perhaps in his mind, he’s being kind.” She glanced at the empty bed and the spot where Sweetie Belle disappeared from. “Only now he’s trying to trick us so he can spend more time with them, and that just doesn’t sit right with me. Sombra never seemed like the type to stay calm and collected for more than a few days. He may well be at his snapping point.”
Rarity shot a hoof towards the ceiling. “Then what are we waiting for!? He might have them smoking or swallowing gum right this minute! And that stuff never leaves your system!”
“Never!” Pinkie Pie added gravely, before nodding. “And I would know.”
Applejack gulped. “Or maybe he’s having them do something even worse.”
***
“Okay. Who wants to start?” Sombra asked, holding a shovel out to the three of them.
Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo looked at him awestruck.
“Don’t be greedy, my little ones. I know these pests have done a number on you over the years, but I’ll make sure you each get a turn. So who’s first?”
“Let me out!” protested Diamond Tiara behind him. “It smells like gross potatoes in here!”
Sombra turned to her. “That’s why it’s called a potato sack, darling. But I think you have bigger things to worry about right now.”
The filly in the sack sat up in her grave. “Like what? Smelling like some stupid vegetable?”
“Or…” Sombra explained to her calmly, “the fact that you’re about to be buried alive in the next few minutes.”
“What!?” both sacks shrieked.
“Feel that dirt underneath you? That’s called a grave. Bodies go into graves and usually don’t come back out. I say ‘usually’ because there was this one time—”
“But I don’t want to die!” Diamond Tiara wailed.
“What she said!” Silver Spoon agreed.
Sombra grumbled, displaying his fangs. “Well, maybe you should’ve thought about how badly you enjoyed not being dead back when you were terrorizing the young and innocent!”
“My father’s rich!” Diamond Tiara responded. “Really, really rich! He’ll pay you anything! Please!”
Sombra stood by the edge of the graves. “This was never about bits, little one. This was always about sending a message—that life is not fair; that not all little fillies get to grow up and live the life of their dreams; that sometimes things end for no good reason and there’s just not anything you can do about it!”
Inside her potato sack prison, Diamond Tiara turned to her side and whimpered. It was sweet music to Sombra’s ears. Turning and seeing Sweetie Belle nearly in tears was not nearly as sweet.
He lowered down to the three of them and pulled them close. He winked. “How am I doing?”
Sweetie Belle told him, “You’re scaring us, Mr. Sombra. More than usual. Please, stop. Oh, please, please stop this!”
Sombra raised his brows. “You think this is real? That I’m really going to bury two fillies in the middle of the school playground?”
Apple Bloom glared at him. “You mean… you’re not gonna murder Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?”
He snorted. “You must really think I’m a monster, mustn’t you? No. What was tonight’s big lesson on? Scaring. And what better way to scare a pony than by pretending to kidnap them and bury them alive?”
Scootaloo thought for a moment. “Anything but that?”
“Incorrect, but thanks for playing.”
Scootaloo said tentatively, “Okay. Then if that’s the case, I think they got the point. So we can stop now. All right?”
Sombra scowled. “Not all right. Not nearly all right. Not until that first bit of loose dirt hits their sides will they truly know what losing everything feels like.”
“But I thought this was about scaring ponies,” Apple Bloom spoke.
“It… it is….” Sombra paused, thinking. “I’ll… I’ll only do the one scoop and then we’ll be done. Okay? Maybe you three could stand by their graves and pretend they’ve wound up in the underworld or something. That might be fun. Although, I highly doubt the underworld contains adorable fillies with bat wings and—”
“Stop what you’re doing, Sombra! Right this instant!”
The four of them spun around when a harsh bright light fell upon them, blinding them all. Sombra shielded his eyes with a leg and could barely make out the figure of Twilight Sparkle with a bullhorn in one hoof. The rest of the Elements stood beside her—Rainbow Dash in the air with a massive spotlight. Each had a look of stern determination.
Except for Pinkie Pie, who appeared more than excited by the current proceedings.
“Are you all done playing hide and go seek!?” she screamed across the field.
Sombra grinned. “Yes, pink mare! And it was glorious! Afterwards, ice cream cake was served and, that too, was glorious!”
“Is there any left!?”
Sombra gave his back to her and pretended to munch on something. He yelled to her, “Sorry! All gone! I would have saved you some, but I had no idea you liked ice cream or cake or the combination of the two.”
Pinkie Pie pointed a hard hoof at him. “You liar! Everyone knows that!”
Using her aura, Twilight closed Pinkie’s mouth. She brought the bull horn to her mouth again. “We’ve been watching you for some time, Sombra!”
Sombra put a hoof to the side of his mouth. “No shit!”
Twilight continued unperturbed, “Seeing if you’d change your act! Obviously, this was a mistake! We need you to step away from the Crusaders and we’ll discuss what happens next! We are not here to harm you as you haven’t actually done anything to warrant it! So stop whatever it is you’re doing and come with us quietly!”
“Quietly says the one with the bullhorn,” Sombra muttered to himself.
For a time, he looked from Twilight and her friends and back to the Crusaders by his side. He could tell the fillies wanted to run to the others to get away from him and this ghastly scene. Maybe he had gone overboard this time—maybe the Crusaders’ path was never supposed to be one of villainy and all-around nastiness. But could anyone blame him for trying? How long were ponies going to let the Crusaders continue on their quest before someone suggested they mix it up and try something new?
He stared down Twilight again, his face twitching between a snarl and plain bewilderment. For the first time in a long time, he didn’t know how to react. He’d shown a gentler side of himself to Sweetie Belle and the others that he hadn’t tapped into for centuries. But could he show that side to the same mares that destroyed him only a few years ago? Could he let his title as one of the greatest villains in Equestrian history honestly slip away from him in just a night?
Sombra had always been good at making speeches, whether rehearsed or on the spot. Tonight would be no different.
Standing up straight like a true villain should, he told Twilight: “Make me!”
Throughout their short-lived conversation, Sombra could tell both Applejack and Rarity desperately wanted to charge ahead toward their sisters. Twilight seemed to be the only one that held them at bay, reassuring them that a peaceful outcome would work better than an all-out battle. It seemed Sombra’s last statement was enough to break their composure, as he watched them escape the group and gallop across the field.
While Applejack jerked a lasso out from her saddlebag, Rarity lit up her horn and gritted her teeth. Sombra waited to see if he should dive to the side to avoid a blast of some kind, but instead found Sweetie Belle and her friends wrapped in Rarity’s magic and clumsily lifted into the air.
It seemed Rarity’s magic was limited to sewing needles and fabric stitches.
Too bad Sombra’s magic was limited to nearly everything.
“You’re coming with me,” he told Sweetie Belle and the others, snapping Rarity’s magic off of them before encasing them in a crimson bubble.
When he faced the group of mares again, a patch of grass near his hooves burst into flames. He looked up and saw a bit of smoke at the tip of Twilight’s horn. A warning shot. Unless she really was as terrible an alicorn as Sombra’s malicious rumors said.
“Put them down, Sombra,” she warned. “We only want to talk.”
“And I only want to dance on your graves while eating quesadillas, but we don’t always get what we want, do we?”
Sombra screamed, forming a swirling black vortex in the center of the four remaining mares at the end of the playground. In the blink of an eye, the vortex expanded and swept them up and away. Rainbow Dash was able to shake it off and fly away, but Twilight and Fluttershy were sent sprawling into the dirt. Pinkie Pie, somehow, bounced off the growing vortex and curled her body into a cannon ball, giggling the entire time.
As Sombra ran behind a tree, he made a mental note to one day fire her out of a cannon should the situation arise. Although he knew she’d somehow survive, the sight might still grant him some momentary levity.
“Let go of my sister, you varmint!” Applejack had made her way to them, her pace grinding to a halt only feet from the graves.
Rarity was close behind her, horn at the ready. Unlike her friend, though, she’d actually noticed the two freshly-dug holes in the ground.
She sucked in enough air for three ponies. “Oh, sweet Celestia’s Equestria! What was he about to do!?”
Applejack turned to the scene and raised a hoof to her mouth to keep from gagging. “About to do? What are in those sacks?”
Diamond Tiara mumbled something to them that Sombra couldn’t hear. More than likely more of that “help me, I don’t want to die” type of stuff. Once you’d heard it a hundred times, it truly all started to blend together.
Sombra poked his head out from behind the tree, his bubble of carefully contained fillies close to his back.
Applejack was already staring in his direction. “What were you planning on doing, Sombra? What was the point of all this?”
Again, Sombra thought of the avenues of answers he could travel down. The truth—or something else that might be better for all of them to hear, including himself.
He bared his teeth at her. “I was going to bury those brats alive! Save everyone some trouble! You should be thanking me, you meddlesome mare!”
Behind him, Sweetie Belle scratched at the edge of her bubble enclosure. “Tell them the truth, Sombra. You just wanted to scare them. You only went too far this time. They’ll understand. I’ll talk to them and they’ll—”
Without turning to her, Sombra said, “I don’t think that’s the way this ends, Sweetie Belle. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you all when I said I would.”
Applejack took a few steps to them. “Those fillies will be just fine now that we’re here, Sombra. Now I want my sister and her friends! So stop this foolishness and give them back to us!”
By that point, Twilight and the rest of them joined the pair by the graves. Fluttershy was the only one that actually helped Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon out of their sacks, carefully wiping away their tears.
Such lightweights, Sombra thought.
Twilight approached him cautiously. “I know you don’t want to hurt any of these fillies, Sombra. You wouldn’t have been spending so much time with them if you did. You wanted to help them. And I think you also wanted to help yourself in the process. Like most of us, we tried to help the Crusaders earn their cutie marks as best we could—and you, of all ponies, went beyond that. Maybe you’re mad that they haven’t gotten them yet, but I think there must be more to it than that. Think, Sombra. Just think for a moment. You don’t really want to hurt them, do you?”
Sombra looked away and placed his back against the tree. He took a few deep breaths.
In the crimson bubble, Apple Bloom slid next to Sweetie Belle. “What are you waiting for? Tell them about the cutie marks! And the clubhouse and the lemonade stand! Tell them that you’re a Crusader too and that you were only trying to earn one yourself. They’ll understand. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Really!”
Sombra closed his eyes and the bubble popped. The three fillies landed in a heap on the grass. He spun away from them and left the protection of the tree, glaring at the mares only a few meters away.
“You’re all so stupid, it’s almost unreal,” he spoke thickly. “You think I’ve gone good all of a sudden? Hmm? Is that what you think happens to every villain you deal with? Nitwits, all of you! It’s called deception and you fell for it wholeheartedly. First, I’d win the love of those you care about. Then, I’d pretend to accept the error of my ways, foregoing my evil tendencies. Then, when you all thought that nothing could possibly go wrong, I’d kill all three of them in front of you. I’d make you watch—make you carry the knowledge with you that you could’ve stopped it at any time, but you didn’t. And you’d only have yourselves to blame. That’s what—”
“He’s lying! He never would’ve done that!” Sweetie Belle yelled to them, bounding out from behind the tree. She stopped near Sombra, pleading, “Why are you saying that? Why are you lying? Tell them the truth, Sombra! Please!”
Rarity brought a hoof to her mouth and gasped. “Sweetie Belle!? Why do you look like a bat pony? Better yet, why does everyone look like that?”
Sweetie Belle looked at her. “Sombra gave us all a potion—himself, too.”
“Not permanent, is it?”
“It wears off in the sunlight. Or I think it does.”
Rarity shot Sombra a glare. “Now you’re giving my precious little sister potions and turning her into a bat? What’s wrong with you?”
“Lots of things!” Sombra screamed. “I used to make potions all the time! They’re safe! Not once did Nocturne ever show signs of—” He cut himself off and frowned deeply.
Twilight entered the scene and took the lead ahead of her friends. She spoke to him gently, “Who’s Nocturne, Sombra? Were they someone special to you? We know you’ve said that name before.”
Sombra scowled. “How could you know that?”
“Sweetie Belle mentioned it in passing—after the lemonade sale. She asked Rarity if that was a filly’s or a colt’s name.”
“It’s a filly’s name, you annoying simpleton! And… it doesn’t matter anyways. Leave me alone! I’m done with this town.”
Twilight took another step forward. “Is that why you wanted to spend time with the Crusaders? Because they reminded you of this Nocturne?”
Sombra clicked his teeth together. “Don’t say her name! Go rot in Tartarus!”
He lowered his head and fired an orange beam from his horn that formed a circle of red markings on the ground. A second later, the inside of the circle collapsed in on itself and started pouring inward like a sinkhole. Once all the dirt and grass from inside the circle had fallen into the pit of darkness below, it hurriedly ate up the area of Earth surrounding it and continued to spread.
Twilight took a few steps back as did the rest. “This doesn’t need to end in a fight, Sombra!”
Sombra shook his head. “I’ve read up on you, Princess. When was the last time a battle between you and a villain didn’t end with a fight?” Then he laughed and laughed, straining to keep them coming. If it felt forced to him, it must’ve looked forced to everyone around.
“’Nuff of this!”
Applejack tightened her jaws on the end of her lasso and spun it around her head. She hooked it around the tree behind Sombra. Backing away, she leapt into the air and bounced off Pinkie Pie’s back, launching her another dozen feet up. Using that momentum, she swung towards the laughing tyrant with both back legs leading the charge.
Still in mid-chuckle, Sombra never saw the cowgirl’s strong legs buck at just the right time to strike his head and knock him out cold.
For the first time in years, he dreamt of Nocturne again.
Well, it seems since everyone's become aware of my tendency to darken up comedic material to the point of being cruel, they should also note my tendency to end stories on more positive notes than not. This story will be no different.
The last chapter of this story will return to its goofy, gooey, warm-hearted ways. The same cannot be said for the second last chapter, though. 
Stats
Page generated in 0.029 seconds
Total duration
841 users online
1,342,080 hits today, 2,571,732 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.®
B-but... Diamond Tiara... grave... there's still a shovel standing right there... right there!
6575720 GLaDOS: You Horrible Monsterr...
6587469 Dream a sweet dream...
The humor in this chapter was spot on. I was giggling like a liitle girl the whole way through.
Oddly enough, I did once read a story on here where the CMC do actually ritualistically sacrifice those two in an attempt for necromancy cutie marks. It was actually a really well done comedy piece (if a bit dark).
6589924 Dark comedy? That sounds like my kinda story.
6589072 Twilight will get caught eventually. There's still a few chapters left.
6588625 Wait. I thought you only critiqued my work. Now you're suddenly enjoying it?
6588236 Villains are better than heroes. There, I said it.
6588034 Really? I thought this one was kinda dark, but all right...
6587452 There's dark and then there's dark, Mr. E or whatever your name used to be. The darkness is up to a seven right now. If I push it to a nine or higher, people might stop reading.
6590579 {Sigh}... okay... [walks away from open grave, 'accidentally' knocks shovel into hole...]
6590579
What on Earth made you think I would bother critiquing your work if I didn't also enjoy it? I always did, I just also like to give my thoughts on what about it sticks out to me - and hopefully add something constructive that helps people improve their stuff while I'm at it.
6590579
Well lucky for you I managed to dig through my bookmarked stories and find it. The title is :
CUTIE MARK CRUSADER NECROMANCERS, YAY!
exactly as it's copy-pasted above. It is a great quick read.
6590839 I was only kidding. That would be a lot of effort to read something only to critique it. Unless you were getting paid. Perhaps it's only that I've never seen you quote a part of my stories and tell me you enjoyed them. Or maybe your account picture makes you scarier than you seem.
6591186 Thank you!
6591272
Also, I may be wrong, but I think there's also a short sequel about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's experiences in the afterlife.
6591272
Well, I do post a lot while waiting for my work to process.
It's really not that I don't think that your other stories are funny so much as that most of them are a very subdued, low-key kind of funny. That's not a bad thing and I still enjoy reading them, but it's the kind of funny that leaves me more in a wry and thoughtful mood than laughing my guts out, so wry impressions are how I comment on them - what I think of the characters, their behaviour and attitudes, how well a scene worked for me, that kind of thing. This one had me keeling over in laughter about twice per paragraph, though, so that's what you get instead. I honestly could've commented on a half a dozen more things like that per chapter, but I didn't want to flood the comment section too much.
A terrible outcome. I'm disappointed.
Is Pinkie Pie going to steal Rarity's couch next?
Well, like I said previously (though I don't know if you saw it, because FIMfiction's comment note sys is awful), you could always go for a story where Rarity or Celestia, two mares with white coats, dye them black
6590579 It was pretty dark, but the sheer absurdity of the whole situation combined with the snappy dialogue managed to give it a more lighthearted tone.
I'm a huge fan of that sort of humor, I love it when serious situations aren't necessarily taken as seriously as they should be.
6593616 If you're a fan of that type of humor, you might like some of my other Sombra stories. Plug, plug, plug, plug. Just steer clear of "Dinner With The King". That one's not a comedy.
6593159 You really want me to write that, don't you?
Sorry. I'm not about to pull a Paula Deen on this site and lose my Doritos sponsorship. 
6592157 I'm curious now. What outcome were you expecting? Especially given that I was writing this.
6594477 It's still well written though. I like a maglomaniacal headcase.
6594477 It is not about what I've been expecting. It's about Sombra getting knocked out like that.
I'm calling shenanigans on the beginning. Sombra was planning to keep the adorabullies inside their sacks the entire time, so why did he have the CMC actually dig the graves? I think he was hoping to ease the gals into murder after all.
Wait, Pinkie likes ice cream and cake? Why have I never noticed that before?
6595167 You actually read it?
Hmm. You must think I'm weird now.
6595848 He was too busy laughing to notice his immediate defeat. Happens a lot with villains.
6598265 No, it had a dark tag, and managed to be truly unsettling without crossing the line into "edgy" territory. The villain was well written, the atmosphere was consistent and well established, and the story itself was nice and tight with no dangling threads.
It was a great story just on technical credits alone, the fact that it managed to make me uncomfortable as I read it proves its merit. You set out to create a dark story, and you did that wonderfully while avoiding a cartoonish villain.
6598265 In fact, now that I've actually looked at your story list I realize that I've read A LOT of your stories without even realizing it.
You are a monster. You've got the membership card and everything.
... dude, a battle is a fight.
6965601 actullu not all battles are fights. A battle of words is not a fight for example.
There are many different types of battles.
Hmmm he mourns maybe?