Fires of Friendship and Ice of Hatred

by Super Ponyman

Chapter 6: Shadowy Revelations

Author's Note:

Yep! You thought I wouldn't do it again... but you are WRONG! Hahaha!

If you have read my first Story, "Dark Star of Shadows", You know exactly who this is...

Also, another old foe appears, and she may need a gore warning!

(Ponyville Hospital, ER)

Twilight Sparkle had seen many things that were amazing.

The elements of harmony beating down evildoers, check.

The Defeat of Tirek by her and her friends hooves, check.

The defeat of Daybreaker and the Nightmare tribe, check.

But she hasn't seen somepony come back from the dead before!

At the end of the hall stood a stallion who was oh so familiar to everypony. But they were staring in disbelief, not out of shock.

It was King Sombra! He was back... again!

Rainbow Dash shouted at the dark stallion, "HOW MANY TIMES CAN ONE PONY COME BACK FROM THE DEAD!"

King Sombra answered that question, "Well if we count this one, three. But I doubt your good at counting Dash, maybe your head is in the clouds you fly around."

Without warning, Rainbow Dash charged at King Sombra, sending him flying out of the doors to the hospital. She then grabbed him and flew high in the air, until she was above the clouds.

King Sombra struggled, but he knew what was coming, and he hoped that he was ready to shield himself from the impact.

Rainbow Dash smirked and said, "Survive this you monster!"

Rainbow Dash let go of Sombra and let him fall towards the ground, she then tackled him midair and pushed him along with her, with the pair landing with a loud bang as they crashed through the roof of the hospital.

King Sombra glared at the multicolored maned Pegasus, then shot a Beam of Dark Magic that flung her outside, he stepped forwards, eyes full of hate for the Pegasus.

He growled in anger, "Typical. Always jumping to conclusions, Rainbow Dash. I'm surprised you have not gotten yourself killed on one of your stunts..."

Twilight Sparkle ran outside and push the two apart, shouting as loud as she could "Ok THATS ENOUGH!"

King Sombra stepped back and closed his eyes, he could feel the immense magical power Twilight had at her disposal, and he didn't wish to cause any more distress for her, she was already worried about Burning Star.

In fact, so was King Sombra... kinda.

The Shadow King smirked and said,"Well, Well... seems you have grown since our last encounter, Twilight Sparkle. I'm surprised that you still are among the living after all the disasters you have been in, how..."

Sombra paused for a moment, then ignited his horn, "Interesting."

Celestia wanted to step in, but Twilight needed to do this alone.

King Sombra stared down the purple Alicorn, saying "You actually thought I was dead? How naive are you ponies? If I could survive being imprisoned in ice for 1,000 years, then a laser through the heart wasn't going to kill me. Sure, it destroyed my body, but my soul remained intact."

Twilight Sparkle asked the Shadow King, "How did you come back? Answer me, now!"

King Sombra simply chuckled and said, "Your battle with the Nightmare Tribe and the return of the Windigos gave my soul enough negative energy to restore my body to its living form."

King Sombra melted into the shadows, then reappeared behind Twilight and whispered into her ear, "Resurrection Magic, Twilight. Perhaps I could teach it to you one day..."

Twilight Sparkle spun around to fire at Sombra, but he melted into the shadows again and reappeared in front of the hospital door.

The four Royals tried to bar Sombra from entering the hospital, but he effortlessly flung them back. He spoke to them in his deep voice, "I have knowledge that can save Burning Star's life, and yet you still continue to block me? It seems idiocy is contagious nowadays."

Fluttershy stepped forward and stared Sombra down, saying "If you have knowledge to save him, say it. I believe we all are getting real tired of your presence here, Sombra."

King Sombra looked around at the group of ponies, each having a death glare on their face, he shrugged and said, "Well, why not? Let's TALK."

King Sombra pulled up an armchair and sat down, saying to everypony, "I knew that Burning Star had the immense fire powers of an Ifrit for a long time, before he learned to control his powers, I encountered him for the first time. He had enough power to pulverize a mountain in one blast"

Twilight Sparkle's eyes shrank to pinpricks, "So you are saying that he can blow apart mountains? Like, entire mountains like they are nothing?"

Sombra nodded, "Yes, he could. But I established magical barriers in order to stabilize his growing fire powers, when my body was killed, those barriers started to weaken, until they broke finally. With his fire powers unrestrained, Burning Star will eventually become so powerful that his body will fail to contain it, and he will detonate in a massive explosion of fire and plasma."

Applejack asked the Shadow King, "How big are we talkin' here?"

King Sombra shrugged, "It will be akin to a Star going supernova, destroying the planet and possibly every planet in your solar system, but there is a way to stop this before it is too late... we have to find a way to establish those magic barriers again, or find a way to stabilize his powers quickly, if my predictions are correct, which they usually are, We all have maybe a week to stabilize his powers before he goes into a meltdown."

Everypony gasped at once, "MELTDOWN?!"

King Sombra snorted, "For the love of Faust in heaven, can you be any more melodramatic? I have an ability to teleport you all to the locations of the Elements of Nature, so calm yourselves! I swear you all would fit in perfectly in a drama play, I am in just as much danger as you and you don't see me overreacting. I can't any of you seriously when you are all acting like that!

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath, before saying, "Why should we trust you? You are King Sombra, you turned the Crystal Empire against Equestria, you're a master of deception, and most importantly, you have tried to kill us. Twice!"

Shining Armor stepped forward and stared Sombra directly into his eyes, snarling out. "You better not betray us, Sombra. I assure you, I will personally kill you in the most brutal way possible..."

Sombra headbutted Shining Armor to the ground, saying "You can certainly TRY, Shining Armor!"

(Twilight's Castle, Balcony)

After that eventful and stressful day, Twilight was trying to relax with a cup of hard cider, her world was in danger again, and she had no clue what to do.

Not only is her partner and friend a ticking time bomb that could possibly wipe out the entire planet.

But King Sombra was back, for the third time! Granted his motives were somewhat nice, an offer of knowledge to help Burning Star, But Sombra was not a pony to be trusted.

On one hoof, The knowledge that King Sombra possessed was valuable.

On the other hoof, It wasn't the wisest idea to trust a pony who has tried to kill them numerous times.

Twilight said to herself, "I know Burning Star's life is on the line here, but King Sombra isn't too trustworthy..."

Suddenly, The Shadow King melted out of her shadow, and said "You are wiser than your friends, Twilight Sparkle. But, you are unfortunately right. You can't trust me, but I'm the only pony who had offered you any advice with some research behind it." After all, your timid friend Fluttershy has MY bestiary."

Twilight Sparkle turned around to see King Sombra with his eyes narrowed, clearly annoyed. He walked up to the edge of the balcony and stood beside her.

Twilight Sparkle raised an eyebrow, "I have a question for you, Sombra."

The dark stallion turned his head towards Twilight, "What?"

She asked a question that suprised Sombra, "Why are you doing this? Is this just to prove yourself superior to us, or do you have other reasons?"

King Sombra went silent for a minute, then sighed. "I feel as if I have some sort of obligation to help my student, even if he betrayed me..."

Twilight Sparkle looked at Sombra with a look that she never felt she would show to somepony like him, empathy.

She knew what it was like to be betrayed, Celestia lied to her when she said that she was her first student...

Yes, Twilight was mad, but she forgave Celestia eventually.

Twilight Sparkle responded to King Sombra's sentence with a small smirk, "Weren't you trying to make me your student as well? I think we both know who is at fault here... hm?"

King Sombra snorted and made a sheepish smile, "Yeah, my mistake on that incident."

He continued his speech, "But, I'm not doing this for my gain, I'm doing this because I care about him Twilight Sparkle. He is my only student that survived my lessons, and I'm honestly proud that he has grown so much."

He grasped Twilight's face with his hoof, "And you should know the reason why he seems so distant with you in your relationship."

Suddenly, King Sombra's eyes turned sickly green and he stared directly into Twilight's eyes. Purple smoke surrounded them as they faded into darkness.

(???)

When the purple smoke cleared, Twilight stood in the middle of the ruined town square of Firebrand Village, Burning Star's home.

King Sombra began to talk, "You see, Twilight... behind his mask of bravado and charisma, he buried his past of torment and trauma. Contrary to what he says, Burning Star's wings were not a gift, they were a curse. He was not the most liked pony during his youth. He was picked on and bullied by the other foals at school, He only found peace in his forest grove, isolated from the rest of town."

Twilight and Sombra saw what was supposed to be a young Burning Star flying away from a group of ponies, tears in his eyes.

King Sombra frowned, he was a evil king, but even he had standards, and he NEVER picked on his students without reason to do so.

He began to speak in a more aggressive tone, "I wish I was around to destroy those little brats, but I wasn't, since I was trapped in the ice, and Burning Star suffered for my inability to help."

Twilight Sparkle saw a young Burning Star collapse to his knees and weep, then a huge earth pony with Steel Gray fur and charcoal colored mane and tail put a hoof on his back. A group of ponies also came to comfort him.

Twilight assumed that these were Burning Star's old friends and the bearers of the Elements of Nature

Twilight asked, "Who is that?"

King Sombra slightly smiled, "That is Iron Steed, one of Burning Star's best friends. But when Burning Star laid waste to Firebrand Village, many of them fled to distant parts of the world."

King Sombra changed the scenery one last time, to the border of Frozen North.

Twilight Sparkle looked on in disbelief, when King Sombra said "Believing he wasn't wanted in his home, he ran away to the Frozen North, a place where he couldn't harm anypony... but he found me and from there, the rest is history."

King Sombra broke the shared vision with Twilight, returning to the real world.

King Sombra then backed away from Twilight with a worried look on his face, "Please restore Burning Star to normal, for his destiny is coming soon..."

With that, King Sombra melted back into Twilight's shadow, leaving the purple Alicorn stunned.

She thought to herself, "He is the best hope we have right now, so his advice could be true... but if he is lying..."

Twilight Sparkle's eyes turned a sickly green and a purple crystal sword appeared in her magical grasp.

"Then Faust help him, for I will spill his blood in order to save Burning Star."

(Ponyville Outskirts, Everfree Path)

A lone mare was walking down the path to Ponyville, her long green mane and tail dragging behind her, she had a look of madness in her red and green eyes, and a grin wider than the ocean across her face.

Suddenly, a trio of bandits jumped out of the bushes in front of her, two unicorns and one Pegasus.

The Pegasus smirked, "Hey girl, don't you know it's dangerous to walk around here at night? Now empty your pockets, and we spare your life."

The long maned pony started to giggle, then that turned into mad laughter.

The left unicorn shouted, "Are you nuts, lady?! We said give us your stuff!"

The mare pulled back her hood, revealing a massive green mane. She said to them, "Oh? You think I'm nuts? I appreciate the compliment, but I'm afraid you are out of your league!"

Within seconds, the mares mane transformed into dozens of tendrils of hair, each sharp as a spear.

Both unicorns were slashed across the neck area, killing them instantly. The Pegasus tried to fly away, but the mass of green hair grabbed him and pulled him down.

The mare spoke to him in a nonchalant voice, "Now go tell the little town down there that I am back for revenge...

The Pegasus asked the obvious question, "W-Who are you?"

The green haired mare ripped off her cloak, revealing a purple spandex suit. The Pegasus's eyes filled with terror, he was seeing the impossible!

"I am Mane-iac! The Power Ponies Worst Nightmare! Hahahaha!"

With that, Mane-iac threw the Pegasus like a dart towards Ponyville, and continued her evil laugh.

Ha-Ha-Ha! Heehee aaaahahahaaa!"