• Published 17th Jan 2016
  • 1,914 Views, 112 Comments

The Company We Keep - Ice Star



After recent events, Cadance is pretty sure that she doesn't want to go another adventure for a while. Except that you don't have to leave your castle to have an adventure. Especially if said castle is haunted.

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Chapter 18: The Story's All Off

I found him in a peacefully empty Canterlot street a few hours after visiting Twilight. One of his legs, his left foreleg to be more specific. I had so much I had to ask him, as well as needing to shout at him for hurting Twilight.

"Sombra!" I called even though I knew he was already aware of my presence, I saw his ears twitch in response and watched as he turned around.

"What is it Princess Amore?" I couldn't read his expression well, but his eyes had a fiery look in them and there were the remains of a triumphant looking smirk on his face.

"What did you do to Twilight?!" I had no idea what was keeping me from wiping that look off his face. Patience, yes that's it.

"Traumatize her, probably," he said with a shrug.

"Why?!"

"She pried too much and she got a tiny taste of what she had coming, such treatment was inevitable if she was going to keep doing what she found so thrilling."

"Do you know how sick you are?!"

He frowned slightly, now appearing to be bored. "She's alive isn't she? If you want I can fix that."

"NO!" I screamed, "Why don't you just listen to me?!"

"Well? What is it, Princess Amore? I'm standing here, maybe I'll listen to whatever it is you want to tell me, although I would advise you to choose your words very carefully."

"Oh, don't you tell me that, I know full well what your like when your angry, I activated that cloning spell-"

"Replicating Spell," he interjected.

I continued to go on, "-of yours, and you showed your true colors!"

He taps a hoof to his muzzle and smirked. "Let me guess they were gray, black, and crimson, no?"

"Oh, stop it! You even gave me this book." To prove my point I held up that very book with my magic. "Most of it was ruined in some sort of fire but everything I needed was in there, I bet you caused the fire as well, since you do love to burn things, the Archives are a perfect example of this!"

He blinked. "I didn't burn that book," Sombra mumbled.

I ignored him and kept going. "Everything said makes sense now, all the things you said, or at least the parts I'm willing to believe."

Sombra scowled. "Really, you think I'm a liar? I'm nopony's idea of kind, but don't you think you're venting at this point?"

"No! I think you need to listen to me-"

"I am, although rather half-heartedly and refuse to take you seriously."

"Well maybe I shouldn't take you seriously either! You aren't even one pony, if you were even a pony at all!"

He glared at me with the same maliciousness he must have shown Twi. "Pick your next words very carefully..."

"So which one did I trust back there in Gildentundra, was it Sombra or Onyx?"

"It was me, I swear it was-"

"Yes, but who is 'me'? Don't think I don't know which one I'm dealing with."

"You've only ever-"

"STOP TALKING! I know what happened with you know, I figured out who Onyx is, Twi told me a bit and I get it now!"

"Tell me what you learned, " he said through gritted teeth. His ears were pinned back as well and I could see that if I continued to push him any farther he might loose it, based on the creeping green tint in his eyes.

I forced myself to swallow and bit my tongue trying to calm down just enough so he wouldn't flip out. I couldn't meet his eyes and looked at the cobbled streets instead, grateful that this was such a quiet part of the city.

"Well," I started with a shaky voice, "it all started with Starswirl the Bearded. He had an apprentice."

I quickly glanced up at Sombra and was relieved that I couldn't tell what he was feeling, so I decided to continue.

"His apprentice, a young colt, didn't know who his family was. He - the apprentice, not Starswirl - was malicious and cruel as well as highly ambitious and self-absorbed. He wanted power, and lots of it. One day he found an artifact of some kind, and without a second thought he sealed his fate, I'm not entirely sure what happened next but he cast a powerful, and completely taboo spell. It gave him the power he wanted but it came with the cost of himself, he was driven mad and was no longer alone."

I still refused to look at him, did I really want to see his face? The face of a pony who had violated the biggest taboo in magic for the sake of greed.

"With their mind completely shattered, the sorcerer and his demon-"

Wait a moment, did I just see him flinch? That can't be right, this is his life story.

"-traveled to the nearest place they could find in attempts to satisfy their lust for cruelty, yet secretly one of them, who still had some of his animal nature in him was able to regain some of his mind at some point, however lost most of him was to the monster inside, who constantly tormented him... well that is until he decided to piece himself back together in a very literal sense, turn up at the castle... w-well, you know the rest... but..."

"But what?" he questioned, voice distant.

"Why'd you do it?" I asked unable to stay calm, "Why?! You knew exactly what would happen, and you still went along with it! How could you do such a thing?! Surely, beneath all that pride there was true empathy of some kind? I've seen you show it before!" I had finished the story and met his eyes with those last words.

"Why did I do what, Pink One? Tell me that."

"Why did you cast the spell? You seem smart, so how could you do something like that and create a Shadow - that's what the few readable bits of that book said they were called. How could you be such an impulsive apprentice?"

He continued to maintain the aloof demeanor. "Why do you think I was the one who cast the spell?"

Why did he continue to mess with me like this?!

"It's because you aren't a monster, Sombra! Onyx is the demon! It's a lesson drilled into us all since foalhood: artificially created souls are unnatural and wrong, doomed to be evil, creating such a creature isn't like creating a construct, who have no souls, and are just that: constructs, not real life. Only dark magic can do this and you should know this better than-"

"Have you ever met a Shadow, as you call them?"

"Well, you..."

"No, I meant the demon." Every word he spoke was surprisingly and terrifyingly calm for Sombra.

"Well, then how would you know?"

"Sombra, everypony knows that demons - you obviously know, the 'ponies' from nothing - should be avoided."

"So you've never met one? Talked to one? Anything?"

"I already told you: no."

Sombra glared at me with even more barely controlled fury then in his youth, and spat through a venomous smile: "Haven't you?!"

He turned away and before I knew it was walking away, clearly fuming. "You can forget that silly offer of your friendship as well!"

I galloped after him, turning street corners as fast as I could in an attempt to catch up with him.

"Sombra!"

I turned another narrow and deserted side-street.

"Sombra, wait!"

Was that a crimson cloak I saw? I headed in that direction.

"What do you mean, 'haven't you?'"

Ah-ha! I think I had him on this one, I swear I saw Sombra.

I turned the corner.

It was a dead end.

Sombra was gone.

He wouldn't be found unless he wanted to be.

I turned around and almost tripped over something: a hastily wrapped parcel that seemed quite light in weight. It must have fallen out of his saddlebags because when I tried to unwrap it, a piece of paper fell out. It was covered with writing that was barely legible.

There was a name and a roughly calculated date.

Nothing more.

I put the paper back, lifted the parcel onto my back, and headed towards the train station where I would meet Shining Armor and return to the Crystal Empire. When I thought of that my already active magic glowed white for a brief moment and faded just as quickly.

I looked down at the newly acquired package, in the corner a small cluster of of blue, pink, and purple crystals had formed.

I was making progress. It was the last thing I remember thinking before falling asleep on the train ride home.

...

Haven't you?!

“Life is full of disappointments.”

Because you've been through a lot, and you aren't exactly an optimist, Sombra.

"I see how it is."

You think that others doubt your existence and you hate that.

"-and my authority."

You're stubborn and willful - probably by whatever nature created you - but most of your life choices may have not really been yours.

"After all," he added flatly. "I'm supposed to be a king... supposed to..."

It's what he wanted you to be, isn't it?

"I was going to say that it was impossible to pity a heartless tyrant like you!"

I shouldn't have called you that when you aren't the heartless one. I'm sorry.

"Really? I'm just a terrible critic? I'm not a tyrant, a Tartarus-bound monstrosity, a freak of nature, a pariah, or the sort who makes sadists look like pacifists, just to name a few. Actually, I think I'll go on, it's not like you can stop me. So what else am I not: am I not a monster? A usurper?! An uncontrollable ball of wrath?! You think I don't know this? I know what everypony thinks about me, and hardly a word of it's true, for the most part."

You know that others know exactly what you are, even though you don't care for the most part.

"Onyx did. It's nice that you want to blame your life problems on me, but we both know somepony else is far gultier than I am of that particular offense."

Did he use you as a scapegoat? I believe you on this one, that smile couldn't have been yours, right?

"It's simple: I don't smile, grin, laugh, smirk, half-smile, of my own free will..."

It's because you were so miserable there.

"...Although I shout quite often."

Because you felt trapped?

"You think I enjoy any of this?! Do you think I ever had a choice?!"

No, you never did.

"... most of the time he smiled so happily as he carried out his deeds and was completely lost behind a veil of madness. He talked joyfully to those that did not exist, to himself. He liked it when my ponies screamed."

That was Onyx, wasn't it?

"...sometimes he acted stranger, a violent mess of anger, a horrifying and mysterious mix of fire and cold, who locked himself away from everything and screamed just as much as anypony else did..."

That must have been you, Sombra.

"Don't ever refer to me as 'king' again, I'm not a king, I'm not a ruler, and I never wanted to be."

You kept telling me this and I never listened...

"The assumption that books only have one page and everything is going to be given to you without even the slightest hint of a challenge."

You must hate me for that, don't you?

"I don't have any family members."

It's why you don't know them - because you never had any to begin with.

"...they don't emit the same magic."

Of, course, you're magic so you would know... but it could also just be because you are weird.

"I'm a spell."

Which is why you can detect magic - at least I think that's why - and it explains why you have no family.

Haven't you?

Haven't you?!

HAVEN'T YOU?!

Author's Note:

The sequel is here

Comments ( 45 )

7138242

I haven't tried that one before. :trollestia:

7140657

Yup, she received a flashback.

7147534

Moon Princess. :moustache:

7168938

*cough*Skyrim*cough*

7168978

If Sombra is all-knowing is still up for questioning... :applejackconfused:

But it seems I am, as Cadance so wonderfully puts it 'a magical contact lens'. What? :rainbowderp:

7169132

You edited that one. :ajbemused:

And editing peasants mean I have more time to write. :derpytongue2:

7169162

Haha, nope. If you paid attention in Through The Snow you'd notice the difference. :derpytongue2:

7169182

At this point, Sombra is always right. He's such a lunatic. :trollestia:

7169232

She's gone bonkers from being murdered, remember? She's sort of this AU's Princess Amore but without the Cadance relation.

And I'm so popular that somepony would gouge out their eye. Ha.

7169443

Smug ghost is smug, what can I say? :derpytongue2:

7177862

Thanks! I loved writing her. Also: :facehoof:

7177867 For some reason, none of your comment responses appeared in my notifications so I just now found them ... that is really bizarre. :applejackconfused:

Is that Sombra brooding at the end? I'll be surprised if they can mend that link that was apparently severed in this chapter.

7191189

That was Cadance realizing she screwed up.

7191991

Yup. Internal monologue haunting her. :derpytongue2:

7887940 Peanut butter is bad news.

7887957 fak
RIP peanut butter XD

7887981 Gotta fix that i. Gah. Thanks for pointing that out!

Before I read this, what is the Horror and Dark tag for ?
And how bad does it get ?

8128518 Horror because there's ghosts, which are spooky.

8737334
Because even after reading them, they keep playing in my mind over and over, and it puts me in a totally different state of mind than if I were to be writing. I can't write effectively if I'm all excited and my mind is occupied with reveling in such a good tale.

8737375
I'm going to chose to be flattered by this.

If I'm right, which I really think I am cause you did a fantastic job alluding to it without saying it. Cadence met the moss that covers the stone but she thought the moss was the stone. I'm only using metaphor to avoid spoilers despite the aage of this fine story.

9340536
Well, there is a spoiler function to hide spoilers in comments. And, wow you read fast! Still, because even I didn't get that metaphor (headcold right now) I'm going to guess that you meant Cadance knew Onyx instead of Sombra?

9340583
Reverse that she knew Sombra, him being the moss grown over the stone and onyx being the stone. I.E. Onyx is the original and Sombre the createf and no I didn't know about the spoilers thing, that's nnifty

9341337
It's super-duper nifty. Also, you're a terribly punster, comparing Onyx to a rock. Well played.

9341355
But was I right? And I love me some word play.

9341394
I dunno, you tell me? :trixieshiftright:

9341402
I see how it is, so the pink one isn't real and it's all in smokies head

9341705
Is Smokey what we’re calling him now?

9342273
I thought it was fitting

9342350
okay but what if he vapes? There’s the real trick question.

10276773
rest in peace sandwich, may we never forget him

"Well maybe I shouldn't take you seriously either! You aren't even one pony, if you were even a pony at all!"

oh dear
no cadance, please don't

"Why did you cast the spell? You seem smart, so how could you do something like that and create a Shadow - that's what the few readable bits of that book said they were called. How could you be such an impulsive apprentice?"

:facehoof:
damnit, so close

He turned away and before I knew it was walking away, clearly fuming. "You can forget that silly offer of your friendship as well!"

nooooo cadance why

:fluttershysad:
damnit cadance

10276776

i know you already died but not really, but does that really give you license to try this harebrained scheme?

She died the minimum amount of times needed to do whatever the fuck she wants.
10276786

i mean
you kinda did just run into this with very little forethought except "eh, can't be as bad as being stabbed"

Her "plan" > getting stabbed tho

oh no! lack of proper punctuation, how could he

To be fair, putting punctuation on it would not be very user friendly. If there was a clock that was built the same way, it would be liking adding a ':' and other symbols when the numbers alone suffice. Also, imagine if you needed to put multiple punctuations marks there. For what's essentially a magic rotary phone-like wheel, it'd be awful to have to input that.
10276815

oooooh
we really enjoy "cadance powers up" stuff, she gets so little screentime in the show and it's a bit sad, she's a fun character

Cady is a delight I just have to keep her in the wheel of "frequently written horses"
absolutely nothing suspicious about those eye names btw nope nope
10276832

that would be an oddly specific princesshood

The princess of any kind of psychology would quit right after getting her wings/horns/etc

10276888

oh dear, she's got a bit of a celestia streak in her

I mean, other than Discord nopony has been turned to stone...
10276899

ooh, already pulled a fast one, and working on another
is she even crafty enough to accomplish this? she's definitely dedicated enough

Crafty? Perhaps not. But one might say she has heart! :raritywink:
10276926
The youth these days grow up to reference their future selves so fast, don't they?
10276936

didn't you do exactly that? like just that and nothing else? (except blow up a section of the archives, but that was both sombra and theoretically an accident)

One book =/= all of Equestrian folklore
That's folklore reference
10276962
The real reason Twi is in the hospital is that Cady screwed up a friendship so bad it wounded her

10277272

She died the minimum amount of times needed to do whatever the fuck she wants.

absolutely reasonable

To be fair, putting punctuation on it would not be very user friendly

quite quite, we just found it funny that they started conversing using full sentences and were only held back slightly by the lack of punctuation

absolutely nothing suspicious about those eye names btw nope nope

:trixieshiftright: hmmmm sure

The princess of any kind of psychology would quit right after getting her wings/horns/etc

oh goodness absolutely, too much weird shit goes down on a daily basis for that to be a sustainable princesshood, leave that to the qualified, paid, and mortal professionals

Crafty? Perhaps not. But one might say she has heart! :raritywink:

:pinkiehappy:

The real reason Twi is in the hospital is that Cady screwed up a friendship so bad it wounded her

ouch
i would say poor twi, but uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh we really don't like her in this verse so far. hopefully she figures herself out later.

10277272

Her "plan" > getting stabbed tho

i dunno, "intentionally empowering a poltergeist with completely unknown abilities" probably has worse potential outputs than "got stabbed once", sure it was a *really bad* stab, but it was still only one stab, the poltergeist could do many things, including stabbing her twice!

10277302
okay but if you're stabbed you can't eat hot pockets
10277298

oh goodness absolutely, too much weird shit goes down on a daily basis for that to be a sustainable princesshood, leave that to the qualified, paid, and mortal professionals

Yeah, they at least get the mercy of death one dayyyyy

10277327

okay but if you're stabbed you can't eat hot pockets

valid

Yeah, they at least get the mercy of death one dayyyyy

exactly, an immortal therapist sounds like a terrible combo and even if they stuck with it they'd have to take like a full hundred years off every so often

immortality is for doing cool shit that would otherwise be too dangerous and exploring the universe

10359860
The former, but I'd like to see Cadence use her Princess Powers to do it, thinking she's helping him get peace of mind, but just making things worse.

10359894
How exactly would Cadance be able to force something like that? With political power? (She doesn't have any mind-control related powers; they work off of genuine love.) And wouldn't things getting worse be counter-productive for a hypothetical atonement?

10359910
It'd amuse me.

But still, if he's gone good you think he'd feel guilty. Then again, maybe that's why he's living as a hermit in the desert.

First of all, I must say that this story can not truly be enjoyed unless you're reading it in a dark cabin in the middle of the woods in the dead of the night. Trust me, I did that.

2nd of all, uh... I was hoping to come up with a really good comment but that's kinda hard to do when the story's not fresh in my mind and considering I was in that cabin for a week it's been a few days since reading, and I talked to you about some things over Discord, so I'm probably going to be incoherent.

Anyway, I've liked all your stories so far, but this one actually got me hooked pretty quick? Love the spookiness, even if minor, Opal's ghastly description did give me the thought of 'what if I looked out the window and saw a deer or something like this'. Which, though incredibly unlikely, was still enough for me to decide I probably wasn't checking for wildlife that night. I'm such a weenie.

Cadance is really fun when you write her too, obviously going through so much at once but at the same time surprisingly chill? Like yeah there's a vengeful ghost *and* a demon in the castle and she has nothing but magic that wants to kill her, but at this point, that might as well happen, right? I mean she's obviously experiencing some pretty major emotions still, negative mostly, but it all returns to those simple little thoughts. And sandwiches. Lots of sandwiches.

Would love to hang out with her.

As for Sombra, more angsty than usual Sombra... Inevitable as it was, I was a little bit sad when he poofed. At least he got some quips in before that, showing his edgy teenage charm he never quite grew out of... Though I guess on the plus side he looks to have grown out of the more violent tendencies in the current time. More sass, less instant physical assault... If you're lucky anyway.

I'd say he needs a hug but I imagine if you did that he'd just bite you. Maybe just offer him pizza. I'm under the impression he likes that. Can pizza repair friendships?

...Yeah this comment's a mess probably. As much fun as it was reading it where I was, it kind of interfered with what I could say. The good news is this won't be an issue for the next story, and I'll have plenty more to say I'm sure. Your stories are very good, and I'm hoping to get to that one before the end of the week.

10547609

First of all, I must say that this story can not truly be enjoyed unless you're reading it in a dark cabin in the middle of the woods in the dead of the night. Trust me, I did that.

This is one of the more flattering reading experiences people have mentioned in my comments.

Anyway, I've liked all your stories so far, but this one actually got me hooked pretty quick? Love the spookiness, even if minor, Opal's ghastly description did give me the thought of 'what if I looked out the window and saw a deer or something like this'. Which, though incredibly unlikely, was still enough for me to decide I probably wasn't checking for wildlife that night. I'm such a weenie.

You just make me want to commission art of her that much faster.

Cadance is really fun when you write her too, obviously going through so much at once but at the same time surprisingly chill? Like yeah there's a vengeful ghost *and* a demon in the castle and she has nothing but magic that wants to kill her, but at this point, that might as well happen, right? I mean she's obviously experiencing some pretty major emotions still, negative mostly, but it all returns to those simple little thoughts. And sandwiches. Lots of sandwiches.

Would love to hang out with her.

We all would, believe me.

As for Sombra, more angsty than usual Sombra... Inevitable as it was, I was a little bit sad when he poofed. At least he got some quips in before that, showing his edgy teenage charm he never quite grew out of... Though I guess on the plus side he looks to have grown out of the more violent tendencies in the current time. More sass, less instant physical assault... If you're lucky anyway.

Saying "lucky" when it comes to Sombra's mood is a sign it's probably already gone.

I'd say he needs a hug but I imagine if you did that he'd just bite you. Maybe just offer him pizza. I'm under the impression he likes that. Can pizza repair friendships?

Oooh, you're almost at the part where the pizza in my avatar comes into play. Soon the joke shall be Known.

...Yeah this comment's a mess probably. As much fun as it was reading it where I was, it kind of interfered with what I could say. The good news is this won't be an issue for the next story, and I'll have plenty more to say I'm sure. Your stories are very good, and I'm hoping to get to that one before the end of the week.

Thank you, Moth friend. Messy comments are comments all the same.

10547620

This is one of the more flattering reading experiences people have mentioned in my comments.

And it'll probably happen again, too!

You just make me want to commission art of her that much faster.

I want to try drawing her but I still don't think she'd translate well in my art.

Saying "lucky" when it comes to Sombra's mood is a sign it's probably already gone.

Which means it's time to run away, and die trying.

So pizza can repair friendships? I look forward to the revelation.

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