The Last of the Dark Ponies

by Askre

Chapter 10. Yeah, yeah, unless I behave

Chapter 10

Sombra growled in frustration and stepped away from the book on the podium. He was frustrated. So far his findings had turned up nothing of use. He had by now examined both Private and Barricade magically, found traces of their dark pony ancestry, but it was so muddled now with cross-breeding between other pony races over the long years since their dark pony ancestors had first arrived in Equestria.

There must be some way to do it, he thought and turned so his back faced the podium. He saw that Private was slowly rising, newly recovered from the same examination the king had subjected his brother to.

“Go to the supply cave and get some of the food and give it to the prisoners. There is a water well in another cave close to it so you can bring water to them,” he ordered. Private didn’t even look at him, just slowly turned around to head out of the lab.

I was going to examine his parents and the children as well, but I have a feeling the results would be just the same, Sombra walked over to the bookcase and pulled out an old book with his magic.

I can reshape the landscape around me with my presence alone, I can pull ponies back in time with the right spells, I have even cheated death.You would think recreating my own race using descendants would be a simple matter. The dark pony opened the book, it listed a wide array of transformation spells.

It’s there, I can feel it. When I’m around Private or Barricade, I feel the familiarity, the feeling that another dark pony is near me. Yet I know they are not true dark ponies, with those cutie marks and not even a sliver of dark magic in them. Sombra closed the book and tossed it back in the case. None of the spells had listed what he needed.

“I’m not ready to give up,” he muttered and picked another spell book and went through it. “I could of course just use a shape changing spell, but that wouldn’t make them true dark ponies, it would just be an illusion. They would still be Equestrians underneath it all.”

Hoofsteps caught his attention, glancing to the cave entrance he saw that Private had returned. The prisoner didn’t say anything, just halted when noticing that the king was looking at him.

“Has your brother recovered from the examination?” Sombra simply asked, he didn’t even react to the glare Private gave him.

“Not really, but he accepted the food and water,” Private grunted. He hadn’t dared staying for too long with his family, recalling what happened last time.

Why does he remind me so much of Timido, not just the basic appearance but his general behavior. Granted, Timido spoke to me with more respect and was more shy, Sombra thought as he continued to observe Private.

“What do you want with us? Aside from the ‘you own me’ bit, you went through a lot of trouble catching us in one place,” Private dared himself to ask.

“As I told your brother, I intend to recreate the dark pony race,” Sombra responded, inwardly chuckling when seeing his prisoner’s surprised expression, Clearly the smaller unicorn hadn’t expected a straightforward answer.

“I believe the key to it is you and your brother. Through your parents, two different lineages come together. Of all the other dark pony descendants, you two show the strongest dark pony traits.” Sombra put the book on the shelf and turned fully towards Private who was now contemplating the answer he had just received.

Unlike his brother, Private wasn’t as closed to the idea and actually found it mildly intriguing. He recalled the king musing about this back during the possession ordeal. The unicorn wondered if this was something possible by someone as powerful as Sombra, especially since he wasn’t shy of using more unconventional methods and experiments.

I hate to admit it, but if somepony could pull it off, it would be him, he thought, then noticed the king was approaching him.

“I take it my parents and nieces are next up for examination?” Private asked, cringing a little at the thought of seeing the girls and his parents being subjected to that invasive magic scan.

“I considered it, but after examining both you and your brother, I have reached the conclusion that it would be a waste of time. They would probably just show similar results. All I have really confirmed is that you are in fact descendants of dark ponies, so you don’t need to worry about them too much, unless…” King Sombra let the sentence hang, knowing that his prisoner would catch on.

“Yeah, yeah, unless I behave,” Private grunted and half expected to be petted by the dark unicorn. Sombra, however, kept his hooves to himself, but did now stand awfully close.

“I’m going to retire to my chamber for a little while, don’t touch anything here, save for the books, feel free to read them if you so wish or go talk with your family if you must,” the king simply said and started to walk past him.

What? I’m not going to be dragged there too? Private was mildly surprised by this development, then a black tail gently slapped him in the face.

“If you want to, I can do that,” Sombra responded to his thoughts with a coy smile, halting on his way out of the cave.

“NO!” Private shouted, mentally cursing that he forgot that the bigger pony could enter his mind whenever he wished.

“Ah well,” the king chuckled and departed the cave.

“Ugh… seriously,” Private muttered and watched the dark pony leave. Then he entered the lab fully and started to look around. He went to the big book on the podium and took a peek at it, however it was written in the script of King Sombra’s race. The unicorn knew his parents could read it, but he had never studied his distant ancestors as closely as they had.

I don’t think it is a good idea to take it to them. Sombra will probably know and that will probably count as misbehavior. Private thus ignored the book and trotted to the bookshelves.

Maybe I should go talk with them since I was given a free pass. He carefully picked an old book and browsed through it, it was full of magic theory that made him go cross-eyed. I just remembered why I failed magic class in school.

Private put the book away, wondering if he should bother with another. His interest lay in history and for some reason the pony couldn’t picture a lot of these volumes contained any of that.

Rainbow Dash wants me to help figure a way out, maybe I should explore the caverns a little before going back to the cells. He glanced towards the cave entrance. Then the unicorn frowned, now that he thought about it, why were they in caves? Surely King Sombra could have found something more suitable.

Figuring this was worth investigating, Private trotted out of the cave. He noted that all the torches were lit so there was no trouble navigating around. Now that the pony was getting calmer, he took better note of details. The tunnel he was in was clearly old and dug a long time ago.

By now Private knew his way to the supply cave and the cell caves. The tunnel near the cells led to a dead end so he headed in the direction of the other one. The unicorn frowned as he continued down the tunnel, he passed the supply cave and the one with the well. He was starting to wonder where Sombra’s chamber was, so far there was no sign of another cavern.

Suddenly the tunnel stopped, at the end there was a simple wooden door. Private arched his brow and used his magic to open it, wondering if he was now entering Sombra’s bedroom. Thankfully in his mind, no cavern with a bed appeared, simply stone steps leading upwards in a spiral.

Well, here goes nothing. The unicorn took a deep breath and started to walk upwards. He wasn’t sure how long he had walked, but at the top the pony was presented with another door. Opening it lead him into a huge stone room.

Private frowned, there was something hauntingly familiar about it. It looked a bit like an ancient dining room, there was a big long table in the middle and around were chairs and other furniture in various state of disrepair.

On the wall at the far end of the room was a single door that was closed. The side walls had windows and sickly yellow light poured in through them. The back wall had two doors, one Private had stepped through and a second one further to the right of him.

Private didn’t like the looks of this place, everything was bathed in a sickly yellow glow from the light outside. Then he noticed that on the walls were black crystals. They didn’t look like they belonged, more like the walls were infected with them and they were slowly spreading, some had even reached down to the floor and black, vein-like lines were slithering across the floor.

Why does this place look so familiar? He wondered and tentatively walked further in, avoiding the black lines on the floor.

The unicorn made his way to the furthest door and carefully opened it. He blinked when seeing outside, snow-peaked mountains greeted him in the distance, looking down was a straight drop. The door led straight off the edge of a cliff. The strangest thing of all was how sickly dark yellow the sky was.

What is this place? He wondered and closed the door again and backed away. It’s like it’s being slowly corrupted.

“Enjoying the view?”

The voice froze Private for a second before the unicorn dared himself to slowly look back. King Sombra stood right there, looking at him with a grave expression. Private gulped and turned around.

“Not really,” he whispered, shifting nervously and wondering if he had made a grave error coming up here. “Why do I feel like I’ve been here before?”

“Oh right, shortly after you left the hospital in the Crystal Empire, my spell that was supposed to alert me of it, didn’t work right. Instead it brought you here, for a short moment, I sent you back, but suppressed your memories of it, just so you wouldn’t accidentally blab,” the king explained.

Private’s eyes opened wider as suddenly the memories came flooding back. He had been here before, but it didn’t look like this. It had just looked like an old abandoned fort. The unicorn glanced back at Sombra. “So why does it look like this now?”

“A side effect of my dark magic, I do have a lot of it and it can start to creep out into the environment. I’m a very bad pony to have hanging around for too long,” the king started to smile evilly. “I can actually change the whole thing much faster, but I just haven’t really decided yet if this is where I’m going to stay. So, in the meantime, the fort and the mountain it is on is being slowly corrupted by my magic.”

“The mountain goats call this area now the Mountains of Fear. That is an apt description, wouldn’t you say?” the king chuckled and started to approach Private who took a step back. He was starting to get scared. Sure he always figured the king was evil, he did possess him after all and even killed ponies during that, but that he was that bad that the very environment changed to reflect it?

“H-how long until it affects living things?” Private whispered, now seriously worrying about his family and Rainbow Dash. If Sombra’s magic could affect the landscape, how could it affect others?

“Ask Twilight Sparkle about the Crystal Ponies when they first returned,” Sombra said, his horn activated purple and green and a crystal slab rose out of the floor to prevent Private going further back.

“I read about it, they looked like they were in a permanent state of depression… oh sweet Celestia.” Private gulped as he realized he couldn’t retreat and now Sombra was right in front of him.

“W-wait, why are the caverns not corrupted like this?” his voice was barely audible now.

“There are some minerals down there that dampen magic, not everywhere but in few spots here and there, enough to slow it down. The supply cave and the one with the water well are loaded with them, but not the lab and the prison,” the king explained as he leaned closer to the frightened unicorn.

Oh crap, he knows about that, well duh, he’s probably explored everything thoroughly already. Private closed his eyes, fearing the worst. Nothing happened, carefully he opened them again, Sombra still stood there, looming over him.

“Since you found your way up here, go back down to the supply cave and get me some food. My chamber is through the second door,” the dark pony told him, stepped back and turned around, leaving his confused prisoner behind as he disappeared through the door Private hadn’t opened yet.

He enjoys it too much messing with me. Private took a moment to calm down, then he hurried back down to the caverns.

---

Sombra’s chamber looked to have been an old armory once. There were some old-looking armors scattered around, but it looked like it had fitted a much smaller being than even a pony. The king had constructed a bed made out of crystal at the very end of it. From somewhere he had scavenged a mattress to fit it and blankets.

The king had also constructed a table from crystals close to the bed, but recycled an old wardrobe and made some repairs to it, as the old wood was embedded with crystals clearly to keep it standing and functional.

The king lay on the bed, thinking. Still mulling over how to proceed with his plan. Sombra didn’t like to admit it, but he was starting to wonder if he had abducted the family prematurely.

Maybe I need to conduct some experiments on them with dark magic. I remember when I fused some of my essence into Private back when he was a colt, that the small part of him that was dark pony seemed to embrace it. It’s still in there. He slowly rubbed his muzzle.

“Enter,” he simply said when there was a soft, hesitant knock on the door. It opened and Private peeked in, holding a bag that no doubt contained the food he had told him to get.

“Bring it to the table,” the king ordered, motioning to the furniture with a hoof.

Sombra watched as Private hesitantly got closer and put the bag on top of the table. Then his prisoner glanced around, stopping short when noticing the armor. The king could almost hear the wheels turning inside his head as the smaller unicorn was trying to identify them.

“Mountain goat armor,” he answered the unasked question. Private looked at him with an arched brow.

“This can’t be the entire fort, only two rooms and then steps down to the caverns,” Private said confused. “We don’t know that much about the mountain goats, but we know they build bigger than this.”

“It was probably meant to be bigger, the caverns hint at an early stage of expansion. For some reason, they never finished it.” Sombra shrugged and grabbed the bag with his magic. He floated it over and opened it, after examining the contents, the large unicorn started eating from it. After a moment he noticed that Private hadn’t left yet, was in fact still staring at him.

“Was this fort empty when you moved in?” his prisoner asked, uncertain. Sure the fort looked old and the rotten furniture and abandoned armor made it look like that, but that didn’t mean this place wasn’t occasionally used.

“It was empty when I moved in, yes,” the king nodded. “But my presence didn’t go entirely unnoticed. The goats did eventually send a team to investigate rumors that somepony was living in the fort.”

“W-what happened to the team?” Private whispered, not really sure why he had asked, fearing he knew what the answer was.

“Well, there is a reason why the mountain goats call this area the Mountains of Fear now,” Sombra smirked, enjoying seeing his prisoner pale up. Then he really couldn’t resist. “Now unless you plan to entertain me in some way, I would strongly suggest you return back to the caverns.”

The king barely could hold back the laughter when Private gave a panicked yelp and was gone out of the room in flash. That boy is just too much fun to toy around with.

Sombra returned his attention to the food. Granted it was not exactly a meal fit for a king, but after the spectacle he made when capturing his prisoners, he knew better than to go out and get something better. Now was a time to lay really low and not draw too much attention to himself. The fort was far enough from Equestria as far as he was concerned that search parties would miss it, but an excursion to get a finer meal might possibly leave clues right to it.

After finishing from the bag, Sombra tossed it to the table. He glanced around, missing his room back in the Crystal Empire, but lavish decorations would have to wait. The king felt it was just a waste of magic to change things now, especially since he wasn’t really sure if he would be living here permanently.

Though, I wouldn’t mind some company tonight. I could hypnotize him… but no, his father is right, such service must be obtained willingly. He may be a half-breed, but he is still a dark pony underneath it all. I’m not touching that element bearer, I have standards. Sombra tilted his head as he remembered Rainbow Dash. He had quite honestly completely forgotten about her until now.

I could study her connection to the elements, take my mind of the project for a little while, he considered and nodded. The king rose from the bed and left the room, heading back down to the caverns.

End chapter 10

Author's Note:

Private's previous arrival in the fort is featured in the one-shot story "The king in the mountain"

Comments

[Mix-up]

Near chapter keep it up.