Flurry Heart and the Imprisoned King

by ddstory25

Your Life

Flurry was sitting in her room just looking at the last passage the spell wrote. Sombra’s words echoing in her mind ‘A monster can never dream of seeing something so beautiful. She didn’t really understand why after all these years he still believed he was a monster. She had learned from her mother to love and respect everypony and everycreature. Auntie Celestia taught her that every pony was capable of changing and Auntie Luna taught her to forgive ponies for their past mistakes. Her favorite aunt, Auntie Twilight had taught her that everypony deserved friendship. So why was he still imprisoned? Was what he did so bad? Was what he did really unforgivable? She couldn't make sense of it; they had forgiven Discord, a creature that threw Equestria into total chaos. Twilight had forgiven Starlight even though she had apparently destroyed the world several times over, and Starlight even learned the magic of friendship. Celestia herself forgave Luna when she came back and was no longer Nightmare Moon. Luna even changed into a better pony to make up for her past mistakes. Even the changelings changed and were now allies with Equestria. Knowing all this she just couldn't understand why no pony tried to change Sombra or give him a chance. Was it because he wasn't really a pony or was it because he refused to talk to anypony? It could have been his personality, he is difficult to talk to. And the fact that only guards and her parents visited the dungeon bothered her. Flurry looked at the passage again, her thoughts swirled together.

Why do you think you're a monster? Did no pony try to befriend you again? Did anypony even talk to you? I don't think what you did was that bad, well compared to what Discord did, what you did was nothing really. But then again all the books I’ve read just say that he enslaved everypony and then cursed them. Is that really any different than Discord or Starlight? Is it really so bad to want to live? I guess the way he went about it was wrong but still? I just don’t understand why he’s still imprisoned. He’s clearly not a threat and he seems so… sad deep down… Why is he still imprisoned?’

Flurry put the book down and sighed as she spoke to no one

“I think I’ll give him a few days before I question him again. Besides, that’ll give me some time to do more research on Canterlot Castle and catch up on sleep.”

She yawned all the way to her bed. She jumped up onto it and drifted off to sleep.

Two days had gone by before Flurry had decided to go back to the dungeons. She had new material to work with since she went and visited the Canterlot library to see their records. She had found out that Sombra had come back, after his original defeat by Uncle Spike. Though he was defeated by her Auntie Twilight and friends. After his defeat, he was apparently destroyed by the elements of harmony. However, that information couldn't be true since he was imprisoned below the castle. She figured they rewrote history in order to ensure peace and hide the truth from the public. It wasn’t much but it was something new she could question him about, she was armed with her saddlebag ready to go. She moved swiftly through the dark corridors of the castle reaching the garden in no time. Before she opened the passage she stopped and looked at the crystal roses, she remembered how he seemed when she left. Depressed and lonely. She decided to pick some roses, grabbing a bunch in her magic. She smiled brightly at them

“I hope these will make you happy, Sombra. You deserve some happiness.”

With the flowers in her magical embrace, she opened the passage and descended down into it, as somepony watched her from afar.

“Oh, King Sombra! I’m back~.”

In a sing-song voice, Flurry looked right at the gray unicorn. For once he was sitting near the bars looking out at her. He replied ruefully

“Your back. What took you, you didn't come yesterday or the day before that? I thought you had given up or been caught in the act.”

To her surprise, he admitted he was waiting for her in his own weird way. Flurry smiled awkwardly

“You were waiting for me?”

“I have nothing better to do.”

He turned his head slightly away from her, hiding the relief that overtook his features. Her smile widened

“Well, I wanted to give you some space since last time you seemed, you know, mad. And besides, I brought you these.”

She pulled the crystal roses out from behind her back levitating them over to the cell. Surprise overtook his features, no pony in their right mind would bring him something so, so lovely. He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head as he asked curiously

“Why did you bring me these? Whatever possessed you to do that, bringing me a gift?”

Her smile slowly turned into a frown

“Well last time I made you feel bad so I thought this might cheer you up. Since I’m guessing you only ever look at the dark hallways and floors and maybe a guard once in a while. I thought something pretty would...I don’t know, make you feel better. ”

He just looked at the roses, a genuine smile spread across his lips.

“Although I appreciate the gesture, child, I cannot accept them.”

“What!?”

She almost dropped the roses as her jaw fell slack, he looked somewhat amused

“I can’t accept them because I can’t even take them, the barrier around my cell keeps my magic and me in. Also, nothing can enter this barrier unless Shining Armor allows it to enter, so your gift will go to waste.”

Flurry looked disappointed as she sat down in front of the cell, placing the flowers down in front of her.

“Well, I guess you can admire them from afar. Right?”

“Yes, I suppose. I can do that.”

She proceeded to pull out her notebook and quill. Ready to start her interview today

“Alright, so how did you come back the first time?”

He looked puzzled asking bitterly

“Clarify your question. It's vague."

"You know after you were sealed away the first time. In the Frozen North."

"So when Luna and Celestia banished me to the ice in the Frozen North?”

“Yes.”

His eyes darted back and forth, confusion was evident on his face.

“I just came back, they only banished me for a thousand years. They seem to like the thousand-year thing as evident with Discord and Nightmare Moon. So when a thousand years passed I came back along with the empire. I only cursed the empire to be gone for as long as I was gone. And over the years the magic seal breaks down.”

“Soooo, how did you come back the second time? I mean you were banished again. Resealed into the icy north. Right?”

She put her hoof in front of her mouth, raising her eyebrows in amusement. She noticed his gaze. Highly unamused and disappointed in her. She whispered

“Sorry.”

He rolled his eyes speaking monotone

“I’m surprised you don’t know that.”

She looked puzzled, frowning at him

“What do you mean?”

He snickered

“Grogar.”

Her ears flattened, eyes bulging out as her breath failed her, she raised her hoof to her mouth. Her mind numbed Grogar was a true monster, if Sombra was king of monsters as he claimed then Grogar was the god of the monsters. Grogars tales of evil were fairy tales told to children, until recently. When he had returned and sought Equestria's demise. She dared to ask

“How? How would I know that? Grogar was only spoken of in recent texts and even they don’t mention you, only his accomplices.”

“He was a powerful mage even greater than I or Discord. He used a very powerful necromancing spell to bring me back from the ethereal plane.”

“Wait, so when Spike gave my mom the crystal heart they really did… you know... kill you.”

She whispered the last part as if the word itself was taboo. Sombra just looked at her slightly annoyed

“Yes it did, although who’s this Spike you speak of?”

Flurry was shocked that wasn’t the reaction she was expecting

“Um, Spike is the dragon who brought my mom the Crystal Heart when the empire reappeared. You tried to kill him, I think.”

He looked confused

“Was there a dragon? I only remember Cadenza grabbing the heart while it fell. After she got the heart it was all over for me the first time. ”

She just looked at him surprised,

“Seriously!? You don’t remember the dragon at all? How do you not remember the dragon!? There was a statue of him, you had to have seen it when you invaded again. He's purple and green, spines on his head down to his tail!”

He just shrugged at her, she puffed up her cheeks and breathed out heavily

“Okay, whatever. So why did Grogar revive you?”

“Simple really, he wanted me to help him in his scheme, however, I don’t do team work. So he said ‘If you can retake your empire then I’ll leave you be’ or something along those lines. I don’t really care what his reasons for bringing me back were, all I know is that he also failed to destroy Equestria. He failed just like the rest of us failed. We all failed and succumbed to Princess Twilight and her friends.”

Flurry looked confused again

“How could you know that?”

He huffed

“Simple you're alive and you said you're sixteen, I attacked you when you were an infant. Therefore I can deduce that he failed because if his plan succeeded we’d all be dead.”

She was stunned, she didn’t think he figured that out but then again she was underestimating him, again. If he couldn’t figure that out then he wasn't a very smart pony. She knew he was quite intelligent, just from reading his journal. He mentioned his love for puzzles and books as a colt many times in his journal.

“Okay, so Grogar."

She shivered at the name

“Brought you back to life. How did you survive all this time, if the crystal heart is supposed to kill you.”

“I told you already, I don’t know. I’m guessing it’s because Grogar’s spell was very powerful and because of how powerful it is the heart is having a hard time killing me. Or again it’s because I’m too far from the heart for it to affect me. I don't feel ill anymore when the faire date approaches, whenever it is. It's probably the latter… I suppose the heart is slowly chipping away at my life. Biding its time to kill me.”

Before Flurry could say another word they heard something down the hall, a voice slowly approaching getting louder with each step.

“This job is easy. All you have to do is check on the prisoner every few days or so and escort the food server down here.”

Sombra got to his hoofs, speaking in a whisper

“You better hide, the guards are coming. If they see you, you’ll never be allowed back here and we can’t have that can we?”

He flashed her a smile as her horn illuminated, making her disappear before his eyes.
The guards, one a pegasus the other a unicorn. The unicorn approached the crystal cell looking at Sombra in disgust.

“Well, well I’ll be damned. I thought this position was a joke but there really is a prisoner here. And it's the infamous King Sombra. Ha, oh how the mighty have fallen.”

The unicorn guard chuckled at Sombra, Sombra answered monotoned

“You must be new. Great another one, tell me are you as stupid as you look?”

The guard’s face flushed red as he grabbed Sombra by the throat with his magic, rage consumed him

“You're a pathetic pony who couldn’t even take back the empire. You're a failure, so why is a failure like you looking down on me! You smug jerk!”

“Did I strike a nerve? You dolt.”

Sombra choked out. His magic grip tightened, Sombra struggled to breathe, however, he refused to show any weakness to this thug. Before he could tighten his grip again his partner put his hoof on his shoulder

“Dude let it go, he's not worth it. Just leave him alone before you kill him. Besides, we're supposed to be making sure the prisoner stays here. We aren’t allowed to harm him. And you're acting out of line, he's always smug, get used to it.”

He looked at his partner and released his magical grip

“Huh, fine I guess you're right. I just didn’t expect this to be real. At least hurting him felt good. Huh, whatever, let's go back to the post, there's nothing he can do anyway.”

The pegasus watched the newbie head towards the entrance he sighed heavily

“Why are you always so smug to everypony?... Sorry about my new partner.”

A hollow apology.

"You know I hate your apologies. You've been doing it for years. When will you stop apologizing for somepony else's mistakes and poor behavior?"

The guard didn’t answer; he turned around and left. Silence set in around the dungeon. Flurry released her spell tears falling down her eyes, fear evident on her face. Sombra coughed

“I hate new guards *cough* *cough* They always think, there so tough. *cough* *cough* Such fools.”

Flurry sat up and held her stomach

“Wh-why did he do that, you can’t do anything to anypony? It was awful. It was mean and and…”

“One new guard gets switched in every three months. Looks like it’s been three months already, it does hurt but the pain always subsides. As to why they do it I’ll never really understand. I’m already down on my luck so why beat me down? I am just assume, it's to show off how strong they are or how much they resent me. I brainwashed everypony, perhaps it's revenge.”

Flurry didn’t respond, she closed her eyes and breathed out

“That isn’t right I-I’ll tell my father he’ll stop them from hurting you. They shouldn’t do that, it's wrong. No pony deserves this, you're alive whether you're a bad pony or not.”

“Don’t bother, if you tell him you lose your research material. Besides, it hardly hurts. They are rather weak. I’m stronger than I look, you know. I don’t need your sympathy.”

Flurry felt a pit form in her stomach, however, she knew he was right, she begrudgingly looked away as she put her notebook and quill away. She spoke her voice was shaky

“I’m done for today, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Sombra just watched her, he looked down at the roses and back at her

“You better be back, I’ve grown to somewhat enjoy your company girl.”

She looked over her shoulder back at him stunned to hear such a thing, she started to think she imagined it but could tell from the look on his face she didn’t. She headed to the secret passage and whisper to herself

“I’ll be back.”

She exited the hidden passage and darted out of the garden, the night was her shroud as she reached the door and left the garden.

“I saw somepony found a secret passage in my garden. I’ll have to inform the princess of this.”

A lone figure watched the silhouette from behind the azalea bushes.

Comments

[GamePlayer64]

“He was a powerful mage even greater than I or Discord. He used a very powerful necromancing spell to bring me back from the ethereal plane.”

Except Grogar was Discord in disguised to create a event where Twilight beat them to gain confidence to be Rule of Equestria. Still don't understand why viewers forgave that traitor. He literally committed treason and got all of Equestria destroyed

[PonyDragon]

“You were waiting for me?”
“I have nothing better to do.”

Fair enough.
They could give him some puzzles or something.

“Well, I guess you can admire them from afar. Right?”
“Yes, I suppose. I can do that.”

As can everyone else.
Except they won't admire them but rather start asking difficult questions...

I just came back, they only banished me for a thousand years. They seem to like the thousand-year thing as evident with Discord and Nightmare Moon. So when a thousand years passed I came back along with the empire.

In the official comics Spike also mentioned this pattern, noting this must have been a busy time a millennium ago.

“Was there a dragon? I only remember Cadenza grabbing the heart while it fell. After she got the heart it was all over for me the first time. ”

She just looked at him surprised,

“Seriously!? You don’t remember the dragon at all? How do you not remember the dragon!? There was a statue of him, you had to have seen it when you invaded again. He's purple and green, spines on his head down to his tail!”

: "I know should have gotten used to this by now, but still..."

“I saw somepony found a secret passage in my garden. I’ll have to inform the princess of this.”
A lone figure watched the silhouette from behind the azalea bushes.

At least the figure didn't see who this somepony is...

[ddstory25]

11201869
True, but I did write this before the ending took place, so were in a parallel world. But that reveal was a letdown, would have preferred it if it was actually Grogar.

[Aleksa Brenan]

Quite an interesting story, I really enjoyed it)))) I am very much looking forward to the sequel))))