Once Upon a Time...

Deep in the receptacles of the Crystal Empire, a prisoner awaits his execution with a grim silence. It had been twenty long years of slow death inside his cell. Slow death with nothing but expired grubs and deranged rats for company. His filthy coat reeked of dirt, feces, and other noxious smells. His mane and tail nothing but matted heaps of hair, the silky flow that had once magically undulated through them gone, succeeded with grease and filth. His magnificent red cape was but a tattered, worn-out rag, with soil adhering onto it.

His name was Sombra, which meant shadow. A name that suited him well. And once upon a time, he was a colt...

"I was born from a crystal, with no recalls what so ever," Sombra breathed, "I could only say one word and that was Sombra."

The crystal guards remained stoic, never once glancing back at the prisoner as they led him out of the dark stockade. His chains rattled as he trotted after them, his weak legs practically buckling from Muscle Atrophy.

"So that is what they named me. Sombra. I was brought to an institution, oblivious of what was supposed to be happening.

There, I met Ms. Chestnut Falls. She was kind to me and very tolerant. She taught me how to speak, write, everything. I soon caught up with my classmates with her guidance, becoming one of the cleverest in the entire class. Despite the fact that I was friendly to the other kids in my youth, none of them liked me. They harassed me, called me names and refused to play with me. Mostly it was because I wasn't a Crystal Pony, and I had no cutie mark."

A guard grunted in acknowledgment, shouldering a door open.

"I thought I was all alone. I was a loner and that was that, but fate had different ideas. One day, I met an extraordinary filly named Radiant Hope. Like me, she was discarded for being a blank flank. We soon became very close, sitting next to one another in class, writing notes in a cryptic language that only we knew, and making up our games with rules that the rest of the foals wouldn't understand."

Sombra and the guards entered a stairwell and began to ascend it at a brisk pace. The stallion wheezed as his out-of-shape body was pressured to move faster than he could, yet he did not terminate talking to the guards.

"Sometimes, only she knew the rules. Which was fairly low at times.

Every week we would get a gem, that was our allowance. Hope and I decided on trying to save up to go to the Crystal Fair. She would beam excitedly each time a gem was put into our piggy bank.

About a week before the fair, we went to see the Crystal Heart. Legend has it that the Heart shows your destiny-if you look long enough. Sure enough, that is what transpired."

The guard's coats dimmed slightly upon apprehending this. They knew what was going to happen next. Sombra sneezed again, then resumed his tale. "I saw something quite disturbing. An obscuration with a heart more foreboding than the evening firmament, forcing the Crystal Ponies to do his charge. They sustained appalling things that I did not want to see. I turned and fled from the Heart, bumping into someone before I could get very far.

Princess Amore stared down at me with a look of uncertainty...and recognition. Hope followed up closely, an extensive grin across her face. She told the Crystal monarch what she had seen herself as; a princess. Amore then asked me what I had regarded. I can still feel the sensation of terror that crept through my body at her question. Instead of telling her the truth, I lied and said I had only seen my shadow on the Heart. Or so I deemed I had. I did not realize how close to the truth I had come."

The trio reached the top of the stairs and began to trot briskly down another darkened hallway. Sombra let out a strangled sound. "I had hoped to put the terrible image out of my mind by going to the Crystal Faire, but when the day came, I fell severely ill. Hope refused to withdraw from my side, telling Ms. Chestnut Falls to go and see the Heart while she sojourned with me. This occurred each year, each time growing even worse until eventually, Hope resolved to do something. She preserved me, and got her cutie mark."

Another door resided at the end of the passage. One of the guards shoved it open, and they entered a polished and sparkling corridor. "About a few years later in my approaching adulthood, Hope ran up to me with something in her aura; a message from the two sisters. She had the largest simper. Ere she could address me with her news, I turned and ran away from her. I knew what was on that letter without even needing to see it. Fearing my destiny was to come, I didn't stop running until I was in the wastes. What a fool I was. In running from my fate, I ran to it."

Sombra chuckled, his ghastly voice filling the vacant hall. "A red crystal called me her offspring. She told me what I was and what I was supposed to do. She granted me my endowments, and suddenly I could remember everything. How Amore infiltrated our home, trapping us in a stockade that we didn't even deserve.

She instructed me to go back and remove the Heart. I told her how I would lose my only friend if I did so, but she didn't listen to me. She told me that if I had to go through another Crystal Fair, I would surely die. Eventually deciding for my life, I went back to the Empire, and stole the Heart."

The guards pushed open yet again another door, leading down some stairs to outside. Sombra continued his tale, understanding that his time was almost up. "Amore came and tried to reason with me. She knew. Damn well knew what she did, what my mission was, and what I was. Yet she did nothing to save me from the pain I went through every year.
Rage took control of me, and I turned her to a crystalline figure. Hope, who had been watching the whole affair, assumed she could fix it. She had foolish hope.

I could not bring myself to kill Amore. Instead, I shattered her figure and spread her pieces across the world. Maybe someday someone will put her back together. Hope begged for me to leave before I was captured, but I refused. Realizing how much power I truly had, I took the throne and forced my subjects to dig up the Umbrum, leaving her to flee from the Empire."

One of the guards trembled slightly, making the other stop for a brief second in confusion. Sombra scowled in anger.

"Celestia and Luna arrived too promptly. We had a formidable battle, where I nearly prevailed. If it weren't for the younger sister. She portrayed an unusual feat of sinister power. Razing me aroused a failsafe I had generated over the city. Everyone soon faded, leaving an application of earth that was immediately filled with snow.

Luna thrust me into a feeble position, and enclosed me in ice for over a thousand years."

Sombra's tone fell faint and more subdued as he dispatched his anecdote. One more entrance was pushed open, revealing a great crystalline outdoors. The stallion was blinded for a minute, incapable of moving. A shake of his shackles meant that the curators were not about to wait for him.

Hesitantly, he climbed onto a small platform with a guillotine. Cadence and Shining stood on the stage, melancholy expressions inscribed over their faces.

"King Sombra," Shining addressed, a look of repugnance creeping onto his features. "You stole the throne from both the Empire, and Canterlot, oppressed and slaughtered thousands, and destroyed the Elements of Harmony. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Sombra tossed his oleaginous mane, glancing out to the crowd. "I am proud of what I did," He returned, eyes aflame. "I will never feel grieved for any of these feeble ingrates." This was followed by a weak cackle.

"Very well. For your transgressions, you will be condemned to death by the guillotine."

Sombra nodded, and stepped forward, resting his head into the slot. A guard seized the lever, ready to pull on Shinings signal.

Cadence turned away to evade the apprehension that would come next. Shining gazed into the older stallion's eyes. "Any last words, Sombra?"

Sombra smirked. "Salvete, Vivitar. Long live the king."

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