This story is a sequel to Possession in the Crystal Empire
King Sombra. The lost son of Queen Rabia. The former tyrant of the Crystal Empire. He thought he was the last of his kind. He's been defeated twice, first banished for a thousand years, then shattered by the magic of the Crystal Heart, but he was still not down. He was brought back to life due to previous careful planning and through that process has learned that there is hope for his race.
After laying low to recover his former strength, King Sombra has decided that he will rebuild the empire his mother and late sister ruled. But to do that, he needs ponies, certain ponies. Ponies that can trace their ancestry back to his race.
He needs Private Iceland and Barricade and preferably their family too.
Special disclaimer (Should have been in place from the start, author apologizes: This story features somewhat heavy discussion in parts on bisexuality and features implicated M/M sexual interaction. If those kind of things make you uncomfortable, this is not a story for you.
This story is part of The Equestria Tales series.
Second story in the "Return of the Dark Ponies" story arc.
Third story in "Barricade's redemption" story arc.
Cover made by Evehly. Originally given as a gift to Hail King Sombra, used with permission.
Edited by Hail King Sombra
I'm read.
Interesting so far looking forward to see more of this, keep it up.
As the, heh, official proofreader of this story, I highly recommend it. Askre spins a wonderful version of King Sombra, one that everypony will thoroughly enjoy!
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Nani???
Where have you been???
🤔
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?
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It's just that I haven't seen you on the site lately.
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Oh, okay. It's just that I got confused when you called me Nani. That's not my name, LOL. Yeah I've been going through some physical therapy and now neck traction since October. It's been rough and the pain has killed my creativity, but it's getting better. Then after the Doctor Who convention I attended in February, I got sick. I'm still coughing, but that is getting better too. I think I'll be more active now, especially since King Sombra is coming back!
I would have though that Privet would still be a wreak after the Sombra's visit in the hospital? Well I can wait to see when the tension will start to build up in this story.
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As Mirage pointed out, Private has been doing well in therapy. Plus this story happens well after Breakfast Rewards, enough time, with therapy, for Private to be at least somewhat back to his old self. Doesn't mean he's completely recovered, just well enough to not jump at every shadow.
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Well I can't wait to see when has a relapse panic attack in his next encounter with sombra.
Well things are finally building up to something, can't wait to see Privet mental break down upon seeing Sombra again.
interesting, would explain why Flash didn't had wings on him when Sunset came back to Equestria. I take Sombra took the family because they all have dark unicorn gens in them and wanted leverage to coerce Privet to comply to his will.
Nice, I really don't like just having Discord involved in as a convenient McGuffey to solve all problems.
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True, but the one thing he cannot fix is the trauma that Private & Barricade still experience when dealing with King Sombra. And Askre is very good about not allowing Discord to become a convenient plot tool. Have faith that this will work out without him interfering.
The last two chapters were a lot of fun, I wonder if there are other side effects that curse on Ponyville will have? I wonder if that oath of the dark unicorns compulsion spell can be revitalized and spread it to the rest of privets family? I wonder if Sombra is going to seek all the remaining descendants of the dark ponies?
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All I will say about Sombra's curse, it may or may not be what people expect.
The Oath affects all Dark Ponies and their descendants, though it's quite diluted by now, so the diluted version does indeed affect Private's family as well. Whether it can be revitalized however, I will not say in order not to spoil anything.
It may or may not be on his agenda.
Nice chapter I wonder what he has in store for the twins? I feel that you repeat the subject of Privet's bisexuality a little too much this time around, I do understand that it is important to you but I feel they talk to casually about it with Sombra in trying to justify or admit anything to someone how doesn't care about their wellbeing to any measure and wouldn't matter. The idea isn't bad just that the execution doesn't feel appropriate in this manner. I could get that Privet might feel compel to be more honest with him to en extent but I feel sombra would need to prod him a lot more to force it out. For Barricade,I wonder if he is trying to show he cases because he had a self realization or that he is doing it just because he is gilt into it?
Looking forward to the next chapter
This comment has been edited a bit, because I was already in bed when I responded to it originally and was using a tablet to write it which I'm not very good at doing.
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The topic of Private's bisexuality is yes brought up a few times in this chapter, but in ways that are actually relevant. Barricade is just rambling, because when he's stressed, he rambles he does not go quiet like his brother. Private is angry and upset and just barely keeping it together and when he finally has this moment to speak to his parents who have just assured him that they don't care what he is, they love him anyway, well let's just say the cork was finally let out of the bottle he's been bottling it all in.
I don't think I ever gave the impression it was important to me, it is certainly an important part of Private's character, and this story will focus on him quite a lot, even dare I say, more than Possession did.
In case of Barricade, as I mentioned above, he's just rambling out of stress and just trying to keep it together. Private is really just angry and upset and felt like snapping at Sombra, even if he knew Sombra doesn't care at all.
Barricade is not in a good place mentally right now and lot of hidden baggage is coming to the surface, heavier baggage than even Private had.
Nice chapter
Near chapter keep it up.
Finally the fun stuff happens, I wonder how he will revitalize the oath with him? Now I wonder if Sombra is going to try to turn RP into a Dark Pony as an experiment?
Sounds interesting...More Dark Pony lore
Called it since Possession.
Aaaaäaaäaaaaaaaaaaäääaaahrrrrrrŕkk... Just äaäaäaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaä. I mean, I knew this would happen the moment I saw the Tags for this story. Private would definetly keep it a secret, even to Barricade to spare him a certain feeling of guilt, but Sombra...
Also, I was absolutly silent while reading this because I was in public but dang it was hard to do so.
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Yeah, hehe, I think I probably made it rather obvious.
All I will confirm is that Private will definitely hide it from Barricade.
SQUEE! You put in my suggestion! So CREEPY *shiver!* And I LOVE Celestia's response. AWESOME!!
You know, I couldn't find a picture of that damn window from the show ? Too busy these days *shakes head*
He is finally falling into the Stockholm syndrome for privet, can't wait to see how his reality will start to twist around him.
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Actually I'm avoiding the Stockholm syndrome aspect, if this was Stockholm syndrome, he would be sympathizing with Sombra and his cause and finding actual justifications for Sombra's actions. That's was actually the whole point of him going to talk with his mother and the confessions he did make, he can't find justifications and he realizes this is something he can't pursue. As Hard Shovel said, Private can sometimes be painfully realistic.
This will all be made clearer in later chapters.
Oh...thanks for clarifying that, Askre. I was wondering myself!
I'm only familiar with Stockholm syndrome from our own local big news case in California YEARS AGO when I was a child. The Randolph Hearst heir Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the SLA in the - 70s - I think it was. There's a famous picture that the newspapers printed after an SLA bank heist of Patty standing holding a machine gun in front of an SLA symbol. I'll NEVER forget that image - especially since my dim memories of it seem to remind me of the Hail Hydra symbol from t.v. series a few years back.
Anyways, it's weird that Mix-up mentioned this because in preparation for writing on Mad Seeress of the North again, I had dictated notes on a scene yesterday that involves Nyx's final capture by King Sombra. That's a scene I have always had planned these past three years, but had NO IDEA how to pull off. I made a note to remind myself that she ultimately gets captured because she's a victim of similar feelings to Stockholm Syndrome. Thank you two for discussing this - it clarifies not only Private's feelings, but will help me when I get to writing my own scene!
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Yeah I realize this chapter might not be too clear on this, Private's issues are far more complicated than Stockholm's syndrome and I never intended for Private to go that far. Picture it more like this, as he told his mother, he's been fantasizing bout three historical figures in pony history and he's being doing it for a long time, he's built up ideas about them in his mind that may or may not necessarily fit, especially the mythical Lost son of Queen Rabia. He was a fan of that one before he even met King Sombra the second time, don't forget, he always thought the first time was just a traumatizing bad dream. So there were expectations and that are clearly not matching up and he's actually realizing that. However, to confound the issue he's seen different side to Sombra that weren't just mind games by the king. Like when they learned Timido was Private's ancestor, that was genuine relief and care Sombra showed, something Private had just already decided the king couldn't possibly portray.
But I really can't say more without spoiling the story, we will go further into this, I do need to address the fact that Private is acquainted with a certain pony, those who read the Time Keeper will know who it is and he did make a brief cameo in Possession and I did mention in passing in Possession that Private has memories that are so securely locked that Sombra couldn't even access them when possessing him.
Al I will say is that there is far more to Private's history with King Sombra than I've really been showing.
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So will you explore all of that in this story's future chapters or will you do future stories going into more depth with our favorite pancake-obsessed historian?
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Very important parts will certainly be revealed, but this is by far not the last story with my grumpy historian horse.
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I'm glad to hear that. When I first started reading about your twin OCs I thought I might stop following them if Sombra was out of the picture, but now I'm looking forward to reading more with them and their whole family(ies)
I hate it when mirrors do that
WITH FIRE !
Somewhere in Posession Chapter ?
King Sombra: I was considered to be the most powerful Dark Pony to have ever been born.
screen turning black-and-white, zooming in, music starts playing: Mmh whatcha say
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He was bragging and exaggerating, plus his mother may not have been entirely honest with him about that, hence that final line of this chapter.
What better way to surprise him, just in case he turns on her.
This is actually a really good reason why something as simple as a birthday party is a bad idea!
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Indeed, Private used to simply not like birthday parties, now he's closer to detesting them.
Seeing Discord pop up here makes me wonder how him and Sombra might act, kinda one-on-one. They're both in a fairly similar boat here, and are manipulative fellas. Some banter between them would be interesting!
While I get what her name is a reference to, in true pony pun fashion it would be neat if it had been spelled as Barbelle.
This is actually kind of bittersweet.
Prince Sombra is so overly touchy-feely.
Also, Private already knows he's the lost son so why is it that he's framing things in the time-travel bit as 'omg big bi princeybutt pet my face and he's the lost son' and not something more like 'wow sombra used to be cute as the lost son but was also grabby as heck'? Did he forget that between chapters?
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These are meant to be memories that happened before Private was possessed by King Sombra (his first meeting as a colt were at that point dismissed as a severely bad dream) that were locked away and are now just flooding out of control through Private's mind, the present Private is currently too dumbstruck to adjust the memories to fit with what he now know, we are basically experiencing the memory flood with Private.
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Okay, that clears things up considerably. The way it was presented in-story was structured fairly oddly, though.
So, if Rabia died before Ira ruled, her spirit has been anchored for a long time. Certainly long enough that she knew of the horrific fate her daughter suffered? Hearing that Ira died the way she did and the dark ponies city fell with her like that is a considerable gut-punch, since before we only knew that she was the last queen... I can't imagine that Sombra took her death well initially. It even sounds like he had been among the first to discover her. Guess that makes Rabia extra horrific in hindsight if she appears so apathetic to Ira's death, instead preferring to scorn Sombra's success/long life. Also, what are Ira and Rabia's names based off of/supposed to mean? They both sound somewhat familiar but I can't find anything about possible meanings.
Something tells me that Rabia isn't the complicated one here.
Also this is by far one of the most romance-y stories not tagged romance that I've read. Just what are you planning, you scheming whale?
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I've made a lot of nods to the comics in my Dark Pony lore and practically now just view my Dark Ponies as my version of the umbrum.
Ira is Spanish for anger and Rabia is Spanish for rage, much like Sombra is Spanish for shadow. I basically took Rabia and to lesser extend Ira from the comics where they appear as umbrum in Siege of the Crystal Empire and it's implied that Rabia is also Sombra's mother thus Ira is his sister, I just grabbed them and ran made and them into Dark Ponies.
oh no oh heck it just ends there
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And here I was, thinking that they might be Russian, as there is a feminine Russian name 'Ira'. Though, the choice of Ira for meaning seems odd, since Ira isn't a particularly angry pony. The way Sombra speaks of her is certainly endearing. And considering she was born when Sombra was 20ish, wouldn't she have been a teenager-queen?
Okay, on that thought, maybe she was angry.
The umbrum actually didn't come to mind when reading this, but that's also because I only read one comic (Sombra's FIENDship origin) with them in it, and they didn't make much of an impression. The dark ponies actually reminded me more of something like traditional dragons - secluded, angry, predator animals, not inherently evil or 'dark' but generally have the inclination to be so. Also, them living in spooky places and landmarks named after dark ponies with stuff like 'Sombra's Maw' sounds kinda dragon-ish. Oh, and their temper tantrums. That oughta be mentioned again.
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Yeah I know, I considered writing a chapter or two more that happen in Twilight's castle, but I very rarely pad things out after the villain has been caught, but have no fear, as you saw in that other blog a sequel is being written.
Ira did indeed ascent to the throne unusually young for a Dark Pony royalty after her mother's mysterious death, and yes her name does not match her personality, let's just say Rabia had expectations that didn't quite match what eventually happened.
Yeah, the Umbrum connection is really just a nod to those people who have read the comics. although the comics aren't canon to my writing, I still like giving nods and cameos for the readers who have read them.
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There better be a romance tag, you fiend! >:C