There are many who say that evil has no place in the world. These people are wrong. There is a place for everything, but evil especially. Without evil, we wouldn't have any context for what is good. The world needs villains so that it knows who its heroes are.
But as someone very unhelpful once said, there's evil and then there's evil. Some villains go over the edge, and instead of quietly filling their role as the natural antagonist, they try to overturn the chessboard. Instead of conquering, they destroy.
It's these sorts of villains that give evil a bad name. It's these sorts of villains that King Sombra is dedicated to hunting down.
Made as a birthday present for the utterly brilliant Evehly.
Chapters (1)
An intriguing concept and excellent execution.
Please sir, can I have some more?
Hmm. Not sure I entirely buy Sombra's reasoning, but I won't argue with the results. Plus, this is one of the more impressive presentations of him I've ever seen. Nice work.
What the people below me said!
Hmm...
Interesting.
I always pictured Sombra as half of a protagonist, and half of an antagonist. Yes, he took over the Crystal Empire, but for a reason. He gave the Crystal Ponies a reason to have hope, hope to get to Celestia and escape his rule. He was a tyrant, but he was a villain that conquers, but he didn't destroy, unlike Tirek...
I hope they bring him back.
I love the concept of villains keeping monsters in check. I kind of want to see more on the concept in general. But what is Discord? A monster or a villain?
7650447 "Killing is so... boring. There's so little you can do with a corpse. I keep ponies alive. These days, at least."
I think he sees himself as a villain, but Sombra is very iffy on the idea of not cutting off Discord's head.
7650460 Another question is whether or not he could cut off Discord's head. Discord seems rather more powerful than Sombra.
7650478 That's a large part of the reason why the matter isn't settled.
So the pony Sombra killed was Discord... Well it would be something to see, I would expect something like that in Transformers not MLP... Just does not fit in the cheerful world of magical talking pastial colored ponies, but right in place in Transfomers Gen 1, Beast Wars and Prime.
But yes Sombra is still the best MLP villain!
Been around for a long long year, stole many a stallion's soul to waste?
Well, that was metal as fuck. I like your incarnation of Sombra—a villain who knows he's a villain, but he's not a completely illogical or mindlessly evil one at that. Hell, he almost seems to have a bizarre, unspoken code of ethics. It's not even completely unbelievable that he and Celestia would see mutual benefit in each other despite their (rather glaring) opposite personalities.
I'd personally like to see how this Sombra handles other villains from the show, but I guess we don't have any that would be 'monsters' to the magnitude of Tirek. Still, the idea of a vigilante Sombra is really rad, and it's sad to see it done so well in so short a story.
7650595
Well, folks said the same thing about Synthetic Bottled Sunlight back in the day.
7650595
7650613
Norry just got rekt.
7651712
7650613
Stupid fake sunlight.
I approve of this and the hunt idea thing.
This, is good. Really good. As a one off this was amazing, but it could also be the first chapter of something even more amazing if you decide to go that way.
Agreed
I guess every society needs an enforcer of justice.
That was my favorite Sombra so far. I like his explanation and the way he carries himself.
I felt like that last line kind of threw the tone off. Like going from hardcore to epic to punchline.
I want more Sombra now...but an awesome Sombra like this.
By the way, that cover art is FANTASTIC!
Best final line to a fic ever.
Well this turned out better then i thought, Great Sombra.
7720207 Punisher :)
This is some dang good philosophy! Really, that's something I love to read in a story, since I've found them to be some of the best mediums for the teaching of philosophy, psychology, ethics and morals, and all sorts of other metaphysical ideas.
And this one is a personal favourite, the idea of villains having a purpose and use, of being actual people with goals and ethics and standards.
As for the story itself, I found it well written, and the the little bits of humour were fitted in very appropriately
One thing that particularly got my interest was the system by which Sombra survived and reformed after the absorption process, and how he could kill Tirek from the inside
Then again, super powerful master of shadows and mind magic, so
Another excellent fic!
Before I read this, what is th Dark tag for ?
And how bad does it get ?
8128530 Either read it, or don't.
So, if Tirek would not steal all the magic in a pony, but 90%, then waited for it to regenerate and then repeated - he would be "a villain"? I'm afraid I don't quite understand the idea.
I liked and favorited this story just for the last sentence. I am not a discord fan.
It's been a while since I originally read this story. Wish I could tell you when but sadly I can't remember. I decided to re-read it again as it was in my 'thinking fics' library on the site, since I needed some inspiration for a villain doctor in a My Hero Aca RP I'm in. Since I've read a fair amount of your stories and I've never left a comment (despite your attempts to get me to do so), so I believe it's time that I do.
The philosophy on monsters vs villains was something I quite liked, especially seeing it on a rational Sombra, one that fit the 'Lawful Evil' alignment that i expected him to be in the show way back when he appeared. Why Sombra killed the unicorn we may never know, though I'll assume he was a monster as well. Having him be working with Celestia bothered me a little, but once again 'Lawful Evil' has the word lawful in it, so it makes sense in my eyes. I was a bit disappointed that the story didn't go deeper into it's philosophy, but most stories that leave me wanting more of it's ideas probably shouldn't or else sequilitus may ruin it.
Overall coming back to this story I find this story as enjoyable as I did the first time I read it.
8756180
The final line of the story is meant to explain the unicorn. This story begins as a copy of the original Tirek vs. Discord scene, but then Sombra steps in and decides to use his tactics instead.
8223150
No, it wouldn't matter, sombra was getting at the fact that tirak wanted nothing but to kill and destroy, leave the world a burning wreck, unlike sombra that simply wanted conquest.
8857949
That's exactly what I mean. What if Tirek's goal was not to burn everything to the ground and kill everyone, but to farm pony magic by leaving them 10% of what they had, wait until they recover, repeat?
8857998
The farming of magic had nothing to do with what sombra was getting at, farming magic is not a goal, it was a means to an end.
If all he wanted was to steal magic, he would be nothing, literally nothing, since he could live literally anywhere and steal magic, but he didnt and it cant be a goal, lastly, him stealing the magic had nothing to do with what makes a villain and a monster that is worst.
8858179
Repeat: what if Tirek's goal would be to farm magic, not "kill everyone?"
8858211
Then he'd be one step above a plague. He'd be a seasonal epidemic that you can see coming and can theoretically reason with, who has decided that he isn't going to kill you.
And in that scenario, Celestia would still send someone to neutralize him, because eating people's ability to function does not suddenly stop being evil just because you let them keep their legs attached.
8858211
Your missing the point, 'stealing magic' isnt an end goal, Tireks end goal was to leave the world empty.
Plus, if hes 'just stealing magic' there are still medical and mechanical needs, with out magic, those cannot be met, and many would die.
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Nor is desire to remake everyone into a mindwashed slave, which also does almost no physical harm.
8859069
According to canon, Tirek wants to A) get all magic in Equestria, and B) rule over it. Total destruction, like with Nightmare Moon, was a possible outcome yet definitely not a consciously desired one.
I know of at least one race which lives without magic (humans)) ). So it is bad but not possible.
Also, there is always hope of freeing Princesses from Tartarus, finding Elements of Harmony or whatever.
8859078
Yeah, Tirek didn't want to be in charge. He wanted all the magic, and the second he had it, literally all he did was start destroying everything he tangibly could. He showed up in an area, ate all the magic, and then just walked away.
"Once I've stripped these ponies of their magic, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see their world turned upside down."
Tirek doesn't want to rule. That is the entire point of the story in which you are having this inane argument. He literally just wanted power. That's it. That's all. He hated the ponies and wanted to burn their civilization to the ground. Had Twilight not lured him to the Everfree, he would've been going on a rampage with a much higher death count.
And if you're going to claim ponies can function without magic, congrats on the headcanon that they don't biologically need magic on some level. If magic weren't a necessity and were just a luxury, nobody would have cared to stop Tirek.
Finally, Nightmare Moon didn't want total destruction. She came about because Luna wanted equal power to Celestia, which presumably includes having a country to rule over, and in the timeline where Nightmare Moon won we see that the world isn't dead because of eternal night and that she has a government.
If you're going to have a lore argument, at least know the lore.
Now, buzz off.
8859078
HUMANS WERE NOT BORN WITH MAGIC GENIUS, HENCE OUR CIVILIZATION ISNT DEPENDANT ON IT.
secondly, in the timeline in which tirek rose to power, after he got all the magic in the world, HE LITERALLY STARTED DESTROYING EVERYTHING.
Thirdly, when tirek stole magic from eveypony, IT DISABLED THE PEGASUS' FLIGHT, AND EARTH PONIES UNABLE TO WALK OR EVEN FUNCTION.
Fourthly, THE ELEMENTS WOULD BE WORTHLESS IF TIREK KILLED ANYONE OF THEM OR HAD ALL THE ALICORN MAGIC.
8860144
Why are you still here?
8860548
Just wanted my last piece said before i gave up on this.