The Absence of Light

by Gordon Pasha

When Hope is Lost

“Enough talk about destiny, Sombra. I’ve never believed in it. You’re the only thing I’ve ever believed in.”

These words ran again and again through Sombra’s thoughts as he looked into the Crystal Heart. His own image glared back at him, the monster he had always been told he was. The monster he had always told himself he was.

He looked up. The air was quiet now. Only moments ago, a battle had raged throughout the streets of the Crystal Empire, the forces of friendship against the forces of darkness. Princess Twilight’s army against his own.

No, not my own.

Sombra looked around him. Twilight’s forces seemed to have been routed. They had certainly gone silent. But there were no shouts of triumph from the Umbric side. There were no sounds at all. Sombra realized everypony was looking at him. Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence, whose fates lay on the line. Their friends, by and large all defeated. Rabia and the Umbrum, waiting in rapt impatience for him to deliver the final blow. All the ponies who called the Crystal Empire home, and who had now suffered through his tyranny multiple times, and who had given up hoping to be rid of him this time. And then, off to the side, Radiant Hope.

Hope.

Sombra’s eyes locked with hers. Only hers. Of everypony looking at him, she was the only one who mattered. The only one who had ever mattered. She bit her lower lip, as though nervous about what he would do next. But her steely-blue eyes told a different story. They were calm and clear and firm. There seemed to be no doubt there. She believed in him. Sombra knew it. After everything, she still believed in him.

“Hope?” he said quietly.

“Sombra?”

“Thank you.”

Hope smiled.

Before anypony else had time to react, the Crystal Heart was in the air, breaking the stillness. Sombra had never been particularly coordinated, and even using his magic, his throw was not so good. Had the Heart been a normal object, the pedestal ornament it generally appeared to be, it would have missed its pedestal by a yard. But the Crystal Heart was no mere ornament. All Sombra had to do was make the initial effort, and the Heart did the rest.

There was a blinding flash and an awesome noise. Where once had been darkness, there was now light. The Crystal Heart shined like a blazing beacon, like Celestia’s sun but brighter. In what seemed like an instant, everything changed. The chains fell from Twilight and Cadence’s necks. The Princesses, Celestia and Luna, and Prince Shining Armor, frozen in stone, were flesh and blood once more. Piercing shrieks filled the air, all from the Umbrum. Even by their normal standards of speech, the sound was deeply unpleasant.

And then, in an instant, the Umbrum’s bodies fell apart, becoming not bones but mist. And like smoke blown away by a strong gust of wind, the mist dissipated, pulled back into the dark pit from whence it had come.

Sombra felt a pair of forelegs wrap around his neck.

“You saved the Crystal Empire,” Hope whispered into his ear.

“Only after I had been the one to put in in danger.”

“Oh, hush. You’re a hero, Sombra.”

Sombra could not help chuckling grimly. “Maybe. It’s a funny thought.”

Hope pulled back a little to look up at him. She was smiling, a very large joyful smile. He had only seen a smile that large from her twice before; the first time she had told him about the Crystal Faire and the second when she had received her letter of acceptance to the Royal Academy. And now he saw it again.

Sombra looked over her head. He saw the bright light emanating from the Crystal Heart and reflecting across all the crystalline towers of the Empire.

“So this is the Crystal Faire,” he said. “I finally got to see it. It only took a thousand years.”

“What do you think?” Hope asked.

“It’s beautiful.” Sombra was not lying. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Then he looked down at Hope, her eyes filled with tears of joy.

Well, maybe the second most beautiful thing.

Until the look in Hope’s eyes changed. The joy was gone.

“Sombra,” she gasped. Sombra did not like this change in her.

Then there was a loud thunk. Hope was on the floor of the Crystal Dais. Sombra looked down. He saw his body. But he could also see the twists and turns of the large snowflake pattern on the floor beneath it, and Hope lying on the floor next to it. He realized he could see through his own body.

Ir didn’t take Sombra long to guess at what was happening. He was an Umbrum. A creature of darkness. In his youth, the Crystal Heart had nearly killed him. That was its purpose. And it was fulfilling its purpose now. He would go the way of all the other Umbrum. He could feel it happening already.

“Hope, we don’t have long,” Sombra said. “Please listen to me.”

Hope got to her feet. She seem confused, unable to process what was happening.

“Hope, you have to promise me something,” Sombra went on. “It’s too late for me, but you have your whole life ahead of you.”

Hope was still confused, but slowly, she seemed to catch the drift of Sombra’s words. And she clearly did not like it. “What? No, Sombra, you can’t mean—”

“Hope, you have to promise not to run away again. There’s so much good you can do for this world. You can’t keep living for me anymore. You have to live for yourself.”

Hope was confused no longer. She understood well enough. But Sombra could see that she did not accept it. Her voice came, when it came, in a mixture of panic and resolve.

“I have to save you!”

“You already saved me, Hope. Whatever happens to me now, you already saved me. Now go live your life. Make it worthwhile. You have so much to offer the ponies of Equestria.”

Sombra felt himself rise into the air. He looked down, but could see nothing of his own body. It was all gone. He must be nothing more than mist now. It was a new sensation. Though he had by now managed to accumulate a vast experience in being bodiless over the past thousand years, it had never felt quite like this. It had never felt so empty.

The look in Hope’s eyes told the whole story. There was pain, anguish, perhaps even despair. No, not despair. Hope never despaired. She certainly didn’t now. And there was also something else in her eyes. Her namesake emotion. Hope.

She stamped her hoof upon the floor. “No, you are my life! You’re what made it worthwhile. And I will not lose you again!”

A beam of light, almost as bright as that emitted from the Crystal Heart, blasted forth from Hope’s horn and engulfed what remained of Sombra. He found himself encased in a sphere made up equally of brightest light and blackest darkness, locked in an even struggle.

“Hope, what are you doing?” he shouted out in alarm.

“You said I could do good. Now I’m doing it.”

Sombra used all of his remaining force to push his way through the bubble to look down at Radiant Hope. He could tell she was struggling. Even from this distance, he could see the sweat pouring down her face. Her legs looked about to buckle. The hair of her mane and tail were flying everywhere. Even her crystalline coat was losing its luster. And the beam she was sending out was only growing in size and intensity. It was larger than she was.

“Hope, stop!” Sombra called out. “You’re going to hurt yourself!”

“I won’t lose you, Sombra,” Hope called back, her voice strained but determined. “Not again. Never again.”

But even with all of her effort, the pull of the Prison of Shadows was too much. Sombra felt himself being drawn out of the grip of Hope’s magic. Hope could feel it, too. He could see it in her eyes. She looked desperate. Like she was ready to try anything. And Sombra knew the type of things Hope could do when she bordered that close to despair.

Hope closed her eyes and grit her teeth. Her hooves dug into the shining surface of the floor below. She steadied herself as best she could, even as the force of her own magic pushed her backward. Sparks were flying from the beam of light now. Sparks and then lightning. Sombra tried to call out, tried to issue another warning, tried to convince Hope to save herself and just leave him to his fate. Maybe he said all those things or maybe he only thought them. He could not be sure, because the rumble coming from the beam and the sphere was too much for him to even hear his own words anymore. Hope was on her own.

Sombra looked out over the crowd. To a pony, they all seemed to be stunned, silent, transfixed as they watched the spectacle unfold. He looked over to the four princesses, half-expecting them to do something, to intervene in some fashion. But they just appeared to talk nervously amongst themselves.

No surprise there, Sombra thought. Princesses are never there when you need them.

Hope really was all alone. She did not seem to notice. She was too focused, too hellbent on saving Sombra. Sombra noticed that, even under the intense pressure, Hope seemed to be gathering up her strength. He knew that she was about to try something. Something big.

For a brief moment, Hope’s eyes turned a pale white. A great final blast shot forth from her horn and pierced the sphere, surrounding Sombra with the most brilliant light he had ever seen, magnitudes brighter than either the Sun or the Crystal Heart. For a moment, it blinded him. He lost all sensation. Maybe he even lost consciousness. But then, it was over. And the first thing he felt afterward was pain pierce his entire body. It was the pain of falling from a great height.

It took Sombra a moment to realize that, if he felt pain throughout his body, he must have a body.

Sombra opened his eyes. He was laying in a small crater, no doubt caused by his impact. But there were his hooves. There were his legs. They looked solid. More solid than they have ever looked before. Solid as crystal. He had a body. He was here. He was saved.

Sombra looked around for Radiant Hope. He saw her, some distance away, lying on her side in a crater. Despite the pain, he forced himself to his hooves and hurried to her. Though he barely had a moment to think of it, Sombra was surprised. His movements were awkward and lumbering. It was as though he was having to learn how to move his legs again. For once, he wished he could simply move as fog.

Hope did not look good. The old threadbare cloak she used to wear had either been blown off or had disintegrated entirely. Her coat, already having lost its crystalline sheen, had faded even further; it was barely more than a dull grey. Her eyes were closed and her tongue, discolored, was hanging out of her open mouth. The hair of her mane came down like little wisps of smoke all over her face.

“Hope? Hope!” Sombra said, grabbing hold of her.

Hope did not respond, and Sombra feared the worst. But then, her eyelids slowly lifted and she stared up at him, blankly, with milky eyes and grey irises.

“S-S-Sombra?” she said at last.

Sombra hugged her to his chest, tears streaming from his eyes.

“Did I... did I....”

“You saved me, Hope! Just like you said you would. You saved me.”

Sombra pulled back. He saw Hope smile weakly.

“I saved you,” she said, her voice cracking with each syllable.

Sombra pulled her into another hug. “Yes, you did. I can hardly believe it, but you did.”

He felt almost as though he could break into laughter. But then Sombra felt something else. Or rather, he didn’t feel something. He realized that he could no longer feel Hope’s back, her shoulders, or her spine. In fact, it was almost as though.... Were his forelegs going right through her?

Sombra looked at Hope. She was fading. Actually fading. He could see right through her body. And a mist was forming around her hind legs and tail.

“Hope, what’s going on?” he said in alarm.

Hope did not seem to hear him. Or if she did, she did not choose to respond. She just smiled and said again, “I saved you.”

“Hope, what did you do?”

“I saved you, Sombra. I saved—“

Before she could speak further, Hope was torn from Sombra’s grasp. Sombra watched helplessly as Hope’s body, becoming mist, whirled into the air and away from him. He took to this feet. He charged after her, faster than should have been possible , especially for somepony struggling as much with basic motor functions as he was. But he kept pace with her, bellowing at the top of his lungs for her to come back to him. He pursued her into the throne room, down the flight of stairs in the middle of the hall, and into his secret study.

All in vain. As Sombra reached the entryway of the study, he saw Hope pulled past the doorway once hidden behind his bookshelf. The doorway to the Prison of Shadows.

“Hope, no!” Sombra let out a cry in anguish and fear. He lunged for her, in one last desperate bid to save her, one last forlorn hope charge. It was futile. Radiant Hope disappeared into the darkness, and the door to the Prison slammed in Sombra’s face.

---

What would Sombra do now?

Read on.

Comments

[Sephocolys]

Very good! A nice weave of the comic as well! Carry on!

[FlamingSamurai]

Solid start! Can't wait to read the rest!