The Life of Penumbra Heartbreak

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 38: The Stargazer

Sombra was dying. Except, in reality, it was not simple. Nothing was ever that simple. His body, indeed, was fading. Every cell was beginning to collapse and separate, their individual life processes failing one by one. But that was not new. In a way, Sombra had foreseen this for some time. The Heart of Darkness had been losing power for decades, and even he, the pony who had first dared to apply its power, did not know why. Yet, even still, as he sat still and in agony on his throne, it was the only thing keeping him alive.

Before him the steward paced nervously. She hid it well, but Sombra knew her. In a way, she was more like a daughter to him than the alicorn. He had broken her and created her anew, not as a slave but as something better than what she had once been. Perhaps, he found himself wondering, she loved him. In a way that no pony ever would. Yet it hardly mattered. Sombra was not dense enough to be unaware that love was the very thing causing his decline.

Beside her stood another pony. He was not unlike her, to the point where they could have been siblings- -save for the strangeness of his features, remnants of a unicorn race long unknown to the world. He stood quietly, watching from the lightest eyes Sombra had ever seen, this strange, pale horse.

“Steward.”

The steward stopped and immediately stood at attention. “Yes, my king? What is it you require?”

“Tell me, steward. Have you ever heard the legend of the Stargazer?”

The steward seemed confused. She had clearly expected an order, or a request for a report on the progress of the kingdom. The kingdom she, essentially, ruled, and the kingdom she had ruled for three hundred years. Yet she also seemed intrigued, because in all this time, the king had never spoken to her of something so trivial as a story. For just a moment he looked to her not like a virile, immortal wellspring of absolute domination- -but like an old stallion. Like her father once had.

“No, my king. I am not aware of that story.”

“I did not expect you to be. It belonged to my people. To the dark unicorns, passed down from our greatest poet across ages long since passed.”

“Would it be impertinent of me to ask the nature of this tale?”

Sombra looked up at the dark throne-room, and at the tattered banners that had once adorned the chambers of a beautiful and storied hall. His eyes grew distant. “It was long ago, in the times before we had retreated to the Dark Lands. The Stargazer was a wizard, one of uncommon power and skill, who claimed that his descent was from the stars above.”

“Was he?”

“I do not know. Nor does it matter. He believed it. And he spent his lifetime in the pursuit of the dream of returning. In the most secluded high desert, so far from any civilization, he chose a place. A place to built a tower, to reach his home. But it took a long time. The lifetimes of many slaves, generations of workers who assembled his tower of stone. Many compelled through force, in chains...but not his truest disciples. Those who truly believed in his dream. To see him return, to see him take flight when their work was finished. To fulfill their master’s beautiful dream.”

“Did they?”

Sombra did not move, but he paused. “They completed the tower. And the faithful watched as he ascended, anticipating the beauty of what generations of their forbears had given their lives, their work, their everything to see through. They watched and wept in amazement as he leapt from the tower. And they watched in horror as he plummeted and met his end on the desert floor.”

“How terrible.”

Sombra smiled, though weakly. “In our culture, it was considered beautiful. I wept the first time I heard it as a boy. How powerful it must have seemed when spoken by the Wheel himself in ancient times, but even from the mouth of an aged monk it moved me. And I recall it now. My whole life, I had focused on the horror of those who watched him fall...but now I wonder what the Stargazer thought. Did he know, as he climbed the tower? Did he realize as he fell? Or did he hold his dream to the very last?”

“My king. These are not things you should be thinking- -”

“And you would tell me what I can and cannot think?”

“There is no reason to be angry with her,” said the pale horse, softly. “She speaks from concern. She is afraid for you. She would weep, if her pride would allow it.”

Sombra sighed. “It has simply come to my mind that I might meet the same fate. That this Citadel, this Heart, my dream...that perhaps it was always impossible. That I might never see it completed.”

“Please, sire, do not say such things. I cannot bear to hear it.” The steward’s eyes were watering, but the pale horse was right- -she would not allow herself to cry. “Al’Hrabnaz will succeed! He has to!”

“And if he fails, the dream dies with me. The doors I was meant to open will forever remain shut. But after witnessing Luciferian, the door he opened...perhaps that is for the best.” Sombra sat up. “But the kingdom must not end with me.”

“You mean the princess. You wish to transfer rulership. Sire, these things- -”

“The alicorn must NEVER rule the Crystal Empire. She is unstable...and kind. Unable to do what must be done to rule. You will take it instead.”

The steward gasped. “Sire, no, please- -”

“It it comes to it, you will rule in my place. And you have my permission to terminate the alicorn, should it be necessary.”

The steward could no longer contain her tears, but she bowed and silently accepted her sacred duty. “Only if we fail. To save you.”

“Which is an impasse,” sighed the white unicorn stallion. “King Sombra, you must understand the precipice you now stand on. That you are now given a choice, and the decision is not nearly as cut and dry as it seems. If your servant succeeds, no matter how many doors open, one will always remain closed to you.”

“I understand...”

The steward looked confused, and looked around the room, trying to see where Sombra was standing. For the two of them were alone.

“You do not,” continued the pale horse. “The cost is dire. This is your only chance.”

“To fall to eternal torment...”

“Sire?”

The unicorn smiled. “Yes. And no. You saw Her, the Divine One, and you think you understand, just like poor, misguided Twilight...but you do not. You have lived too long in a material body. But what you have felt now is only the barest fraction of eternity. Think carefully on the horror you would inflict on yourself. The horror that has already been inflicted on your daughter, although she does not know it yet.”

“I refuse,” said Sombra, standing.

“My king!” cried the steward. “Please- -”

“This will not be my end. I will persist. This, I swear, on the bones of the friends and ancestors fate denied me the chance to hold. What is one door, for them all? I am Eternal. I am KING.”

The pale horse smiled and nodded, pleased with the response, but oh so sad as well. Then he was gone from view- -although still present, trapped in his own eternity as he watched all those who would one day join his legions.

And Sombra collapsed into the grasp of his steward, because he was afraid that even he would not be able to make good on his promise.

Author's Note:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmJIccPWnEk

Comments

[Opium4TmassS]

Cool song.