The Prince of Shadows

by Antydeth

They Will Know Fear

Chapter OST=Dark Souls III Soundtrack OST - Slave Knight Gael (The Ringed City) - YouTube
At the moment, I know not what is happening...I am drifting through a void of bright neon colours and unreal spatial shapes. This void isn't like the Ether. It is much more...alive.

The final battle had ensued. With aid of my excellent and merciless leadership, I managed to turn the little group of scoundrels into the deadliest force Equestria had ever seen.

Tirek was muscular; big and strong...he made for a great berserker. He was also partially capable of magecraft, though obviously not on the same level as myself or Chrysalis. He worked best against a large number of weaklings. Like a diamond dog, he hunted all the little rabbits that scuttered about, trying to flee to their pitiful capital, either to seek shelter or assist their precious Princesses however they could.

The little pegasus filly, Crazy Glow or whatever...she was surprisingly versatile in her usefulness. She proved to be a great foil to Twilight. She herself could not match the Princess in battle. But fighting prowess wasn't Princess Twilight's best trait. It was bringing a great number of gullible fools together. Her intellect and charisma makes it an almost too easy feat for her.

But my little filly ally also exceled in that, except it was dripped in malevolence. Whereas Twilight's compassion and selflessness naturally drew others toward her, the little filly's manipulation and exploitation lured people to fall. And dear me, was she like a ticking bomb in this regard!

I directed her towards the most gullible of idiots on Equestria. Asinine rumours spread. Racism, xenophobia, confusion, religious fanaticism, conspiracy theories, political agendas. Crazy Glow and I set it all up! Simply magnificent *chef's kiss*!

Chrysalis was...a true Queen of Darkness. If I wasn't an apocalyptic force of nature, I'd say she was my equal. She was the only one in the group I could tolerate and respect, though after seeing her conversing with those pony dolls of hers, I redacted any mental plans for her and I to be King and Queen. I like freaky, don't get me wrong, but this was just too...unsophisticated? Pathetic? Weird?

EHEM! So anyways, Chrysalis, great asset and all. The only thing on her mind was vengeance and inflicting suffering. And she quickly came up with methods to do that efficiently. Now that, I respect. The sheer malevolent drive to do something these ponies call 'evil' was what made her so alluring to me in the first place.

As the strongest of the changelings, her arsenal of deadly abilities almost matched mine. With her help, I was able to deceive the majority of the Princess' allies into one neat spot. A canyon near the caverns that Grogar, who was actually Discord the entire time, had nicely stashed the four of us in.

What happened there was a delightfully cruel and horrid picture. It was so sweet! So great! I hadn't felt so satisfied. Not since the first time I invaded the Crystal Empire and butchered the royalty!

Tremble, tremble you vermin! HAHAHAHA!

Fear me! Fear Sombra! Fear the King of the Shadows! The Master of Fear! The Despair Incarnate!

Aaah...war crimes and merciless slaughter. Truly my area of expertise.

Forcing information out of the survivors was easy enough. Haunt their subconsciousness with horrors long enough and even the sturdiest bend like molten metal.

...

(Sombra remains silent for several minutes)

This was, unfortunately, the last genuine victory I and the other three achieved.

Hmph...I admit now that I'm alone, drifting through the Elements know what, that my arrogance may have made me a little ignorant of the situation.

I was so drunk on the glory from that majestic butchery that I just sat my behind on Celestia's throne and hummed a dark and gloomy song about my greatest victory yet. I refused to listen to whatever blabber my allies were spouting. I actually put a barrier around myself.

I should've at least listened to what they were saying...CURSES! DAMN YOU, YOU PRETENDER-HEROES! We were so close-I was so close!

Rrrrgh...Hm. In any case, I once again fell victim to my own arrogance. I would've cursed myself for it, but I am simply too majestic to insult my own image.

Just a mere set-back...A lesson to be learned!

We started hunting our biggest enemies. We tried picking them one by one, but Chrysalis and Tirek rushed a bit in one of their attacks and almost got captured themselves. Ugh...this was the problem with scoundrels who inflict pain for revenge. It was too emotional, too personal. It clouded their judgement!

In any case. The following days were a compilation of skirmishes. Battles that merited no benefits for both sides. And then the wendigos started swarming in from the sky.

It seemed like a mutual telepathic agreement between the two sides. We knew we had to end our dispute before the wendigos grew a blizzard strong enough to freeze even me into a dark all-powerful popsicle.

Icy wind blowing through the hills, painting the top of the grass white. It was the four of us versus every remaining 'hero'. It was a legendary battle! Something on unspeakable levels! Our battle was so destructive we almost reshaped the entire world of Equestria, sundering the landscape and boiling the oceans.

Me, Chrysalis, Tirek and Crazy Glow managed to synergize near-flawlessly near the end, swatting away a dozen ponies and other creatures like they were flies!

Funny, I recall that we seldom got along. But at that moment, we were like an unstoppable disaster. Something even greater and more terrific than the blizzard of the Wendigos!

We had them overwhelmed. I was just about to plunge my demonic horn through the heart of Princess Twilight and end her pathetic 'Era of Friendship'!

...

...

...

(Sombra trembles in fury)

Sadly...that did not happen. Rather, fate didn't allow it to happen. Hm...kehahaha...I like to think I terrified all of Equestria so much that the WORLD itself and all its magic tried to stop my wake of destruction. Ooooh, I do love this theory!

Anyways, the best way to describe what happened was: deus ex machina. 'The great villain was about to slay the hero, but in the nick of time, the hero was saved by an unknown force!!' - yes, all that romantic jazz. That...that actually happened!

I understood my previous defeats, and those of my comrades well enough. The 4 would always end up being outnumbered, outsmarted or beaten down by the endless power of the Elements of Harmony.

But this time, THIS TIME...!

(Sombra lets out a howl, making the spiral space-time bridge rumble)

This time everything was set up in our favor. We had weakened the Elements of Harmony. We took precautious steps in battle. Our combined firepower was more than enough to put even Celestial, Candace and Luna on their knees with ease.

So, uh, naturally weak and tired Princess Twilight should've just died then and there, right? INCORRECT!

The moment my horn made contact with her, her body was enveloped in an ethereal glow that cut my goddamn horn clean off! The glow expanded until it turned into an explosion of bright light. My damaged shadowy body was blown to kingdom come.

When I came back to the battlefield, the Princess was floating in the sky with an aura of power so massive, I actually shuddered in terror. I am not even ashamed to admit it out loud! T-That thing...It wasn't Twilight. It was the Elements of Harmony. Or maybe Harmony itself? Or the whole Equestria??

Whatever it was, it made me feel like an insect. And if there is something I truly despise, it is exactly that feeling!

Floating World Goddess Twilight or whatever, just stared us down with a neutral look. There was no affection nor hate in that gaze. And her blazing blue eyes obscured any recognizable emotion. She spread her arms and began singing.

That was it, I thought. She's mocking us! So I acted rashly and blasted her with one hundred bolts of darkness. My attack did nothing.

Then, another astonishing scene occurred. Raw magic began to leak from...practically everything. My mind couldn't fully comprehend it back then, but...it was as if Twilight was soaking up all the raw magic in the world. From fallen comrades and friends. From the deceased. From nature. From history. Even from the wendigos. The freaking wendigos. HOW?!

She ended her song with a piercing howl that still haunts me even to this moment.

She gathered all that endless energy into the tip of her horn. The glow was so strong I'm sure the minds of weaker individuals would be immediately destroyed upon gazing directly at it.

With one last roar, she fired it at us. I braced myself. I knew I had to be the one to overwhelm this...this freakish monster. Luckily, I had been stacking residue energy from the negativism that Crazy Glow caused. Our brutal victories further increased my stock of magic supply.

I commanded Tirek and Chrysalis to fire all of their magic directly at me. Charged up by their power and my personal supply of dark magic, I met Twilight's blast with a ball of pure malice. Something like a black hole. It thirsted for the annihilation of existence itself.

The clash was brutal and I am pretty sure it almost tore the entire world apart.

I was able to hold the terrifying attack of Twilight off, but the weight of it felt literally infinite. Like trying to hold the sky on your shoulders.

But I am SOMBRA! I will destroy even infinity if I have to!

I pushed and pushed, and Twilight pushed, too...My form cracked and I almost slipped up.

'It's over' I thought with despair. One look at my damaged form told me enough. I was not coming out victorious out of this struggle.

Twilight's blast was not only infinite, but it also grew infinitely. And with each moment, it pushed faster and faster through my blast. The sizes didn't even match. Hers was clearly superior.

But at the last second, fate smiled upon me, too!

I barely noticed it...a rift in space-time. It had formed right where our tremendous powers had clashed. Thinking swiftly, I abandoned my plans to hold off till the end.

I compressed the immense darkness around myself and dashed as fast as I could towards the rift. Twilight's blast quickly burnt through my armour of primeval darkness, but it was not fast enough to stop me from getting into the rift.

...And that is how I am here now. I know not how long I have been drifting through this dimensional tunnel for. Years may have gone by on Equestria. Or not even a second. Who knows.

I am...a bit scared. Of what awaits me at the end. Maybe it was a Hell, fit for demonic overlords like myself. A world specifically designed to torment me? Or just a random universe?

Either way, my story on Equestria has seemingly come to an end...And honestly, I'm fine with that. I feel an odd sense of satisfaction...It's almost overwhelming, really...hehehe...HAHAHAAHAHHA! To think-HAH-that not just the Elements of Harmony-HEH-but the entire world of Equestria had to use all of its available power in an attempt to banish me for all eternity...what a magnificent conclusion!

They will remember my dark and malicious existence. They will know the name - SOMBRA! The King of Darkness! The Prince of Shadows! The Master of Fear! The Sovereign of Destruction! The Despair Incarnate!

They will know FEAR...and they will be glad.

Author's Note:

Hello! Long time no see, bronies or whatever you guys prefer to be called. I'm not really a part of the fandom anymore, but I am still a huge fan of Sunset, Sombra and Celestia. My personal favourites, to be honest.

Soooo...been a while, eh? Two years? Three years? Thank you for being so patient with me! Love y'all [insert 100 smiling emojis]

But in all seriousness, I'm grateful for the moderate amount of support this fic got. It has zero dislikes which at one point motivated me to really give it my all.

However, a great evil known to many fanfic writers struck - Writer's Block. At one point I simply lost interest in MLP. All MLP shows had ended which removed the investment in canon content. And I also couldn't bother putting so much time and effort in something that A. Should be done for fun only and B. It's not like the whole fandom's gonna read it and sing my praises across Discord/Reddit/Twitter/etc.

2020 also came along and fucked up any interest I had in writing fics. I was ready to play on Survival Mode for the first half of the year.

Now, skip to second half of 2021 and a lot has changed. Frankly, I've matured. And edgy long-winded fics aren't that appealing to me. I still like edgy Sombra villainy, but I would rather not write 50k words about how he tortures ponies. I can be doing much more productive things instead, like getting my driver license or getting a job. Life bruh.

I decided to temporarily return to finish this story, as it is the first I ever wrote on Fimfic.com. I didn't want it to rot, incomplete, like so many other fics before it. So...this is it. I present to you the rushed ending of "The Prince of Shadows".

I hope I landed the characterization of Sombra. I have my own personal spin on his personality and this chapter is an expression of that. Idk, I just love dark edgy dudes that look like they belong in Dark Souls. Is it generic? Yeah, probably. Should I use more original ideas? Definitely. But honestly, who CARES? I had fun writing this and that's all that matters.

So...I hope you enjoyed my little fic as long as it lasted.

FIN

Comments

[Antydeth]

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Hello, it seems you're the first person to dislike this story. Cool.