The Last Lesson

by Misty Shadow

Shrouded in Mystery

King Sombra continued to laugh evilly as the students continued to panic.

“Still waiting on the part where you run away screaming?” Sombra scoffed. “Or would you rather submit to my power?”

Sombra shot an evil glare from his eyes and the students ducked under their desks in response. Once they emerged, they began to flee towards the exit as a crowd while Sombra summoned hands from his shadows that could reach out and afflict their minds.

“This has to be a bad dream!” one student screamed.

“This has to be a bad high!” the hippy pony cried.

“Such weak fools…” Sombra continued to deride them as he retracted his shadow hands. “Not even worth the effort...as for you brats…”

Sombra turned to Sandbar, Silverstream, Ocellus, Yona, Smolder, and Gallus, who were all still staring uncomfortably at the vicious shadow lord and shaking with fear as they watched him smugly shift through Discord’s shattered remains with his front hoof.

“I regret to inform you that I will be your substitute teacher for the day.” he gloated.

“Why not just kill us?” Smolder asked in confusion.

“Do you not want a chance to pound my face in?” Sombra mocked her, leading her to blush in embarrassment. “That’s right, I was watching you from the shadows, listening to everything you said in the hall. Your school was invaded from the start.”

“So my hunch was right…” Sandbar thought as his mind harkened back to when he saw the suspicious green glow in Starlight’s eyes.

“Speaking seriously…” Sombra continued. “Killing you while you’re so weak and powerless right now would reap no rewards for me. That would not be a satisfying revenge…”

“Is it our teachers you’re after?” Ocellus surmised. “Then what are you doing coming after us?”

“I already proved myself stronger than Twilight and her friends once.” Sombra explained. “The only reason they were able to defeat me twice is because of that accursed Tree of Harmony and that loathsome Lord of Chaos. Now that both of the masters pulling their strings are dead, all that’s left is to prove myself stronger than the ones who will carry on their will.”

“Dead?” Gallus replied angrily. “What do you mean “dead”?! The Tree of Harmony is-MMPH!”

Smolder quickly put a claw to Gallus’ beak.

“No use in keeping secrets.” Sombra said. “I already know. The Spirit of the Tree supposedly still lives on as a haven for you...but how do you know for sure that’s true? After all, wasn’t the last time you saw the Tree when it sprouted that new form?”

“No, it has to be true!” Silverstream exclaimed worriedly, trying to cling to hope as doubt began to pervade the minds of her and her companions. “We were told the Spirit would only perish if we didn’t care for the Tree! It could only have been for a good reason that it didn’t show up when Equestria was under attack!”

“Right you are…” Sombra jeered with a menacing sneer on his face. “I myself can vouch for a reason that’s as good as any…”

The students nervously backed away as Sombra then blasted a spell at the floor to make small pink, bright purple, and bright blue crystals appear, causing the students to gasp in terror.

“Well, don’t these look familiar, mwa ha ha ha ha!” he said with a ghastly guffaw.

“How...HOW IS IT THAT YOU HAVE THE TREE’S POWER?!” Sandbar bellowed.

“See for yourself…” Sombra retorted ominously as he stood on two legs and waved a hoof across his stomach, revealing a sight the students almost couldn’t comprehend…

“AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH! HELP US!”

...the spirits of Discord and the Tree of Harmony were inside of Sombra’s belly, crying in agony.

“No…” a mortified Sandbar said in disbelief as he came closer to Sombra. “This has to be one of your tricks...this has to be an illusion…”

“No…” a crestfallen Gallus thought. “That’s definitely the Tree of Harmony’s spirit in there...I can feel the darkness that’s washing over her…”

“Yona see it…” Yona said in her mind. “...but Yona not believe it. Tree Yona know could not allow this to happen…Yona know this some kind of trick!”

“This is insane!” Silverstream exclaimed in her mind. “There just has to be some reason for this, there has to!”

“Discord has manifested himself as a ghost before…” Smolder thought. “But why bring Sombra back to kill him? It doesn’t make any sense...”

“This can’t be one of Sombra’s illusions, or else we’d be trapped in a fearscape.” Ocellus surmised. “Those are the real souls of Discord and the Tree, but a piece to this puzzle is clearly missing…”

“I know what you all want to believe.” Sombra remarked. “If you insist on clinging to the pretense that this is just an illusion, try reaching out and talking to them…”

Sandbar gulped before asking…

“Is...is it really you?”

In response, a hoof of a sparkling Twilight, the Tree’s avatar, reached out to Sandbar.

“Please...save us…” the Tree said.

“Tree…” Sandbar replied, instinctively holding out his hoof. “What can I do?”

“The Elements…” the Tree answered as a magic glow appeared between their hooves. “There is still...chaos…”

“Wait!” Sandbar yelled as the Tree’s hoof slipped back into Sombra’s stomach. “What do you mean?!”

“Sorry!” Sombra taunted. “Visiting hours are over!”

“You son of a DOG!” Sandbar hollered furiously. “Give her BACK!”

“What about Discord?” Sombra asked.

“Keep Discord.” Smolder said bluntly before she got collectively nudged by Yona and Silverstream. “Just for a while!”

“You’ll get them back if you can beat me at the game I’ve prepared.” Sombra explained. “Meet me at your treehouse in half an hour. And don’t even think of running to anypony for help or I’ll destroy the treehouse! Not that any magic of friendship would help you this time...no, rest assured, it is the power inside of me that shall triumph! Mwua ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Sombra turned into a cloud of smoke and left, leaving the concerned students to ponder alone.

“Yona smell something worse than Dad’s back hair now…” Yona asserted her suspicions.

“King Sombra is not at all nervous in repeating the exact same mistake he made before…” Smolder pointed out. “That scum has to have some other sort of ulterior agenda in letting us live free of his mind control besides what he told us…”

“I didn’t even sense any dark magic coming from his horn when he showed us the inside of his stomach…” Gallus told them. “...the only thing I can’t rule out is him having some kind of accomplices aiding him with an illusion. I think he waved his hoof in front of his stomach as some sort of a signal…”

“But Gallus, that’s ridiculous!” Silverstream exclaimed. “Discord and the Tree were the only ones in his stomach, and there’s no way they’d help him!”

“This really is quite the conundrum…” Ocellus chimed in. “But difficult as it is to come up with a rational theory for what’s going on, I can’t shake this feeling in my gut that this is all part of some kind of test…”

“And what does that change?!” Sandbar interjected, frustrated. “No speculation about this is going to change the fact that we have no hope! Fighting Sombra wouldn’t bring the Tree back even if we could beat him...the Tree’s dead! It’s over. We have nothing…”

“Sandbar have us…” Yona said to comfort him, smiling as she took his hoof. “...Huh? Sandbar, what this?”

“What the…” Sandbar replied as he looked at his hoof and saw that he was holding a gold-colored, circle-shaped pendant. “This must be what the Tree gave me!”

Everyone gathered to look at the pendant Sandbar was holding to see that it held an emblem with six slots that were all holding miniature black crystals. Engraved on the emblem was a drawing of a draconequus.

“They look just like the Elements of Harmony…” Silverstream said in awe.

“Those look like Sombra’s black crystals…” Gallus pointed out.

“That drawing looks just like Discord…” Smolder remarked.

Putting all that information together, Sandbar had something dawn on him…

“These must be the Elements of Chaos…” Sandbar proclaimed his realization. “If the Tree created the Elements of Harmony, then Discord and the Tree must have created the Elements of Chaos together so that we could stand a fighting chance against Sombra!”

“Regret being such a Debbie Downer now?” Gallus teased.

“Come on!” Smolder exclaimed. “Let’s go show ol’ hornface what for!”

As Sandbar, Gallus, and Smolder began to walk away together though, the other three stayed behind.

“Wait!” Yona cried, leading the trio to turn around. “This not seem off to you?”

“Yeah…” Silverstream concurred. “We’re supposed to exemplify the magic of friendship, and it can’t just be me thinking that “Elements of Chaos” doesn’t sound very friendly…”

“Not just that…” Ocellus intervened. “But wasn’t a big part of Discord’s plan showing our mentors that they didn’t need the Elements of Harmony? Why in the world would he give us our own Elements?”

“Better question.” Smolder responded. “Who cares? Why not use what’s been given to us?”

“What’s our other option?” Gallus asked. “Stare at the ceiling, twiddling our hooves and claws while the last remnant of the Tree dies?”

“The Tree entrusted us with these Elements…” Sandbar asserted as he gave his other three friends a stern look. “Whatever the Tree wills, we must follow. Otherwise, you may as well just stay behind.”

The three scowled as they saw a green glow in Sandbar’s eyes.

“Hmph.” Yona went in frustration as she and the others begrudgingly started following Sandbar and the rest. “Yona follow friendship. Sandbar Yona know not just do what Sandbar told. Yona only want to follow Sandbar if Sandbar stand up for friendship...”

Yona thought that to herself as she and the group went to face King Sombra, who was happily blasting the ground with dark crystals outside of the Treehouse of Harmony in waiting.

“They won’t win me over…” Sombra confidently mused to himself. “They’re nothing like Twilight and her comrades, and even they only left a dent. The seed of darkness within me will never be one of light…”

Sombra smirked widely as he looked at his reflection in one of the bigger dark crystals and saw the Tree’s avatar of Twilight…

“...for I am the darkness the light of the Tree needs…”