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Part one: The Birthing3,088 words
Part two: Hope's Here1,721 words
Part Three: A Hopeful Care2,397 words
Part four: The Faire2,980 words
Part Five: You can choose1,166 words
Part Six: Who you want to be.2,485 words
Part seven - What have I done?671 words
Part 8: All your fault701 words
Part Nine: the aftermath1,355 words
Part Ten: Three Days Later2,274 words
Part Eleven: You'll be in my Heart - finale5,257 words

Part one: The Birthing

Time means nothing in the pit of Tartarus I was in, drifting away into nothingness that surrounds me. Always falling, never finding sweet taste of relief nor ever finding solid mass to which I may lie. Forever slowly slipping into madness and soon to become nothing.
How did it come to this? Everything I had planned wasted away… the Empire… my destiny… All gone… gone due to a Princess and a baby dragon… A BABY! Of all the wretched things in this world that could possibly beat me? How humiliating! A baby dragon brought about my downfall.
A King I once was...now...trapped in a single piece of horn that wasn’t blown to smithereens. Blasted into the wintery wasteland of the frozen north, as a last result, I had placed my soul within the horn...in hopes one day I may be reborn by my fellow Umbrum for I shall reclaim my throne and destroy the three princesses and the heart once and for all…
So long… so, so long… Drifting away aimlessly.
As I drifted into the empty space, I was consumed by this white light. This light was terrifying yet somewhat calming, filled with this feeling… one I haven’t experienced in so long…
Hope...
“Sombra….” A soft voice cuts through the veil of shadows. Small and meek.
“Sombra...wake up…” It grew louder, and I found myself crawling towards the voice.
At first, my vision was blurry, only seeing a crystallized blob. However,the more this voice called me out, the more of my vision came to be. Slowly, so slowly, my sight had returned, a pair of bright, crystal blue eyes stared back at me.
This bright beautiful smile beaming down at me. My eyes widened when I realized where those bright blue eyes belonged to.
“You…”
It was Radiant Hope.
Hope let out an exciteful screech before jumping onto me, wrapping her hooves around my neck and held me in an embrace. “Ooh Sombra, I missed you so much!”
I was taken aback at this greatly. What was Hope doing here?
More importantly, where in Tartarus was I? I looked around and found myself in some cottage. Laying in the middle of the living room floor. With Hope wrapped around my neck in such embrace.
I started to cough, licking his lips. It’s been too long since I last spoke. My lips were dry, cracked. “Where am I?” I croaked.
“Oh,” Hope pulls back but still had her hooves around my neck. “You’re in my home. Sombra, I brought you back. It took me a moment find the right spell in combination with my healing magic. But you’re here! you’re alive!” She nuzzled up against the crook of my neck.
I pushed Hope off of me before standing up. I suddenly felt light headed before I was forced to the ground again. My body felt extremely weak, and my legs began to twitch slightly... I had spent a long time inside of the horn… almost too long. My limbs felt like jelly, and I was barely able to stand.
“Sombra, hold on,” Hope used her magic to carry a pillow and tucked it under his head.“Although you’re back, you are far too weak to move. You’ve been gone for five years.”
My red eyes twitched. Five years? I’d been gone that long? FIVE YEARS?!
The Umbrum, I could’ve sworn I’d return by their hooves, not this pony.
The last pony I never wanted to see. Her betrayal to me still hurts, and I still held a grudge. Even after all these years…
“Impossible,” I growled. “I haven’t been gone..” I pushed myself up again, my legs wobbled and I fell to the ground once more. I couldn’t even feel them waking up, that’s how numb they felt for me.
“Yes, you have,” She sternly replied while turning to me. “I worked hard bringing you out. Just give me a second to...” Hope trailed off, and then used her magic, her calming yellow glow ignited her horn and wrapped the aura around me. The familiarity of calmness and healing cascaded over my body and mind. Feeling my strength returning to me. How Hope used to heal me when I was a child long ago.
The magic faded, and I felt my strength returning. Testing it for myself, I pushed myself up on hooves, feeling myself balanced out.
I took a glance down at my hooves and saw my armor was not on me. I had given myself a once over and noticed a few other things were astray; my dark crimson cape and my crown were gone. The symbol of my ruling. It was not on top of my head anymore.
My red eyes at the mare before me. “Where is my crown?” I growled at her.
“I don’t know.” Hope said, taking the black cape off of her. “It wasn’t here when you came out.”
With a snarl, I looked around her home. It was small, barely any room for the both of us. A small cottage with the hellish winter wasteland as a backdrop from the window. “Why did you bring me back?” I asked her.
“I brought you back so I can help you.” Hope replied, slowly trotting towards me. “I didn't help you before was because I was scared. I’m not anymore.” This idiot. She has no idea whom she’s dealing with. Even at my weakened state, I still have power over her. I could feel it. “I know there’s goodness in your heart, maybe if you just let me help you-” She reaches out with her hoof to touch me.
I slapped it away from me. “Help? Why would I want help from the likes of you?” I spat out with a snarl.
“Because I’m your friend!” Hope snapped. It surprised me, Hope raising her voice like that. She never did it before when we were children, even when she betrayed me. “Because I still love you!”
That word, that one word tasted like bile in my mouth. I started laughing, it was absolutely ridiculous! Love means nothing to me. A creature born out of hatred and fear knows nothing of it...not anymore.
What happened at the Crystal Empire was a flook. I wasn’t strong enough to destroy the Heart then. Now that I was alive again, I can complete my mission, my destiny.
“Sombra, why are you laughing?” Hope asked.
“You foolish pony!” I cackled, using my magic, blasting a beam of crimson energy at Hope. Hope screamed was hit, she flew across the tiny cottage. Breaking through the door and landed in the snow outside.
Taking a hooded cloak she had in the home, I made my way over to her, lying unconscious on the ground. The snow quickly sticking to our bodies. The cold was bitter, but it didn’t bother me at all.
I looked down at her. Maybe a long time ago, I loved her as well. But when she betrayed me and left, she became dead to me. She still was.
Shuffling the snow around me, I gazed ahead towards the distance, barely seeing the tip of the Crystal Castle. The Empire was far, but I could make it. Taking one last look at Radiant Hope, I took off running towards home, leaving her there in the snow. Whatever happens to her, I wouldn’t care.
But when I merely got five feet away from the cottage, something shot out of the snow and grabbed hold of me. It was black, transparent, wrapping around my body in a deadlock vice.
I tried using my magic and blast it away, it only went through it and began dragging me into the ground.
I tried teleporting away, turning into my shadow form, it only grips tighter.
I had continued fighting this off before I was consumed by the ground.

What felt like another eternity, I could barely lift my head. As if what energy I had from before was completely depleted. Rolling over to my stomach, I realized I was in a throne room. Green and black torches flickered, the shadows dancing on the onyx stone walls. The floor stretched in a dark marble, large column stretched as far as the eye could see, disappearing in the dark ceiling above.
Blood red carpet stretched from where I was at to the throne. What appears to be sharp jagged spires, and bones of various creatures were impaled as decoration. Sitting on the throne, a rather large female umbrum was casting a glare that had me coward from her gaze. Though it was the first time I’ve seen this place and the first time seeing this frightening creature, I knew who it was sitting on the throne. There was no denying it.
This creature was the Queen of the Umbrum. My mother…
“So.. you have returned…” she hissed, her elongated fangs bared at me.
“Mother…” I muttered, pushing myself.
“You have no right being back.” The queen said. “You failed your mission. You’re nothing to me.”
“I underestimated the enemy. I won’t allow that to happen again.” I gained my grounding and stood up. “Just give me time and the Empire is-”
With a stomp of her hooves, the braziers erupted and more of the umbrum appeared in the hall. All roaring and snapping at me, their clawed hooves reaching out and their attempts to touch me.
“So you can fail me once more?” She laughs. “You’re kidding, right? Not only you were thwarted by the princess of love, but you had your flank handed to you by a baby! You’re a laughing stalk of the whole kingdom!”
“I can take all of them down!” I roared. “Just give me a few days, and I eradicate them all!”
My outburst just made them laugh harder.
Shadow tendrils shot out and wrapped around my body, the forceful pressure was crushing my sides. I shouted and went to move, but the tendrils tightened. Each movement I made, the tendrils tightened their grip, making it impossible to breathe. My magic as weak as it was, I couldn’t escape.
“Oh my son, you can’t possibly expect that I’ll-” The queen was then cut off by the whooshing sound of the doors opening.
“My queen, it’s time!” This disembodied voice echoed through the room. The throne room became quiet by the sudden announcement. For the longest moment, no creature made a sound. Only to the sounds of my erratic breathing echoed the dark hall.
Time for what? I wondered.
Narrowing her white eyes, she stepped off of her throne. Turning to the other umbrum, she snarled. “Leave us!” Her voice boomed.
The umbrum dissipated, leaving only me, Mother and the umbrum who spoke. When mother turned to me, she scuffed. “I might as well bring you around to see what we have been constructing these past five years.”
I was then engulfed by this black, transparent aura and levitate in the air by dark magic. My mother and the umbrum began to glide — not walk, glide — across the marble floors with me floating behind them.
Down the darkened halls, though it has been centuries since I last came here long ago, it remained the same. From the crystals lining the halls, shadows crawling in every corner. Creatures in malform forms screeching. Hollering out as if they were in eminence torture. This was home. This hellish pit was… home. How I had forgotten the sounds of this place. The way the sounds reverberate down in my bones. The disembodied shadows screaming and snarling like the beasts we are. A constant reminder how different and terrifying the umbrum are truly are compared to the ponies above us all.
With memories returned to me years ago, I’d suffered nightmares of this place. Unknowingly why I had dreams. Dreams that used to keep me up at night, with Radiant Hope by my side, soothing awa-
No! I will not think of that wench! She is of no concern to me. I made sure of that.
What concerned me was the three of us going deeper through the halls. “Where are we going?” I asked, trying to move within the magical barrier but it was a useless move.
Mother didn’t look at me when she answered. “If you must know, since your so-called “defeat” and the birth of the newest princess, the Crystal Heart is stronger than it's ever been before. Even if you were to regain your strength, you wouldn’t be able to get close to it, despite you having a pony form. You won’t survive being around it. That’s how more powerful it become.”
Coming towards a long winding staircase, taking me into a chamber. The chamber was round, with a single light shining down in the center. In a makeshift bed, screaming this hellish, blood curdling scream. The worst than I ever heard - and it should be music to my ears.
In the center of the room, being surrounded by two umbrums tending to it…
Was a young unicorn. Her coat was a deep purple, her mane and tail a darker shade. Her cutie mark had seized to exist by the ghastly scar on her flank - a result of losing her identity. What left of her horn was sawed off so she couldn’t use magic... And from what I could tell from where I was.
The mare was heavily pregnant, the way she was screaming and sweating, she was in labor.
“Sombra, meet Vira,” the queen introduced us.
“What is this?” I asked her again, watching Vira contorted and screamed, the two umbrum around and held her down.
“As troubling as it is, an idea came to mind, since no one can even get close to Heart and destroy it, what if we make a creature that can not only get close and do the deed, but instead of shattering that trinket...they corrupt it.” She explained, not even phased by the mare’s deathly scream.“Similar to of your making, I know. But my son, you are a shadow in pony form. So, I had the idea to make a creature that can withstand the power of the heart.”
The thought of that did send shivers down my spine. She was talking about creating a Hybrid. Half Umbrum, Half Pony.
An abomination.
“Now, as the years past, we did have some hiccups, not finding the right mare to breed with. All of them were weak. Either weak or the offspring die before or during the birthing. In cases the mare dies as well.”
“How many have you done…” I asked her, watching Vira screamed more and more before the two umbrum got in place.
One shadow held her forehooves and the other got to her hind legs, prepping her up.
“If this one fails,” Mother shrugged.“Nineteen.”
Nineteen?! Nineteen tries?!
“Don’t give me that look, son, at least I kept going after each failing instead of trapping my soul in a horn like a horcrux.”
.Then, the screaming stopped.
Both Mother and I turned to Vira. She lay limp on the bed. From what I could tell, her chest wasn’t moving.
One of the shadows pulled back, in its transparent hooves was the foal. Its skin was just as dead as the mother.
Mother let out a curse. “Blast it!” Her magic disrupted, and I fell to the ground with a yelp. She glided over to the bodies and snarled. “I could’ve sworn this one would be different! I was sure of it!” With her magic, both bodies began burning in a green hellfire. She looked at the two.
“Continue scouting. We won't give up!” She ordered.
I glared at her as I began sitting up. Mother had to be insane. Even though I want nothing more to have my own Empire and be feared by any means necessary, but children dying nineteen times - now twenty. That was evil, even for me.
Before I could subject something to her, the green flames of the mother began changing.
This chill began taking hold of everything. The sudden temperature drop was startling, the ability to see all of our breaths.The fire continued to burn but the colors changed from green to ink black.
The room began shaking, the walls began to crack. This horrific scream rang through all of our ears. This scream wasn’t the sound of creatures being tortured, the sound sounded like it was coming from the deepest dark pits of Tartarus!
This power surge. I could feel it. It was all around the room. It was nothing unlike I ever felt. It was strong, more powerful than I ever felt. At best, this energy rival that of the Princesses.
But with that, came this sense of fear. Sheer, unadulterated fear, as if Mother had messed with forces she couldn’t understand.
Forces that will surely kill us all!
I tried leaving, but Mother had again trapped me in her magical barrier. “Where do you think you’re going?!” she hissed.
The foal and the mare were reduced to ashes and that sound stopped with everything standing still…
The next sound we all heard, was a sound of a baby crying.
Mother and I turned to the table. There, lying in the ashes, at its heart’s content, barely bigger than my hoof was a little foal, a filly.
Her coat was a lighter shade of grey, but her muzzle, all the way down her neck and belly was a dark purple, her hooves were granted to that same shade as well. Her short mane and tail were light velvet. Eyes were brightly blue through the barrage of tears.
Mother lets go of me and went straight to the filly. “So much power…” She said lowly, lifting the crying filly in her magic up in the air to examine her more. “Can you feel it my son? So much pain, hatred...fear.” She chuckled darkly.“Sweet, delicious fear. Almost destroyed you didn’t I?” She cooed softly, making the baby cry louder.
Mother looked at me and sweetly smiled - which was very unsettling. “She’s too tired to attack. But what did she do before we found her? Aw! You felt her power.”
I was sickened with this. For a baby, she was able to hold that much power, a newborn to that! I watched as Mother coddled the tiny creature, wondering if the girl could do all that — though it wasn’t much, it got the point — imagine with the right training, she would be unstoppable.
“Sombra,” Mother then called for me. She held the baby out. “Say hello to Umbre…”

Author's Note:

All in favor of joining the "Kill the Queen" Hunt, raise your hoofs!

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TheMajorTechie

TheMajorTechie #1 · Aug 27th, 2018 · · ·

You misspelled "source" in the short description.

Viper Pit

Viper Pit #2 · Aug 27th, 2018 · · ·

i can not unhear mother knows best from tangled

CrimsonRose97

CrimsonRose97 #3 · Aug 27th, 2018 · · ·

9135103
Thank you for pointing that out I mean it. I wrote that months ago and didn't even proofread the short description.
9135191
And that's where I kinda based Mother from.

Viper Pit