(7-3) Back Together
Sombra lay on the ground in his old study writhing in pain, feeling like he was being stabbed over and over again. It was the most horrible pain he’d ever been in, and was thanks to that fool. It didn't help to add in the burning he was getting from the Crystal Heart’s proximity to him. If he could, he would simply destroy it, but the agony he was in prevented it. Still, despite the burning it caused, it was better that it was here near him rather than it being in Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor’s hooves.
As he lay on the ground, waiting for Hope to return, his agony lessened into something just below overwhelming. It was still quite painful, and he could feel a nerve in his neck starting to pinch, but those things would be healed soon enough when he reattached the string that fool broke off. Although, he wondered if Radiant Hope could heal him. It was her special talent, after all, her receiving her cutie mark when she healed him before. Although why she couldn’t just untie that string herself and spare him this pain was beyond him.
He briefly tried to remember what his plan was and what had happened. He knew part of it had to do with subduing Luna and driving Celestia to insanity, but he couldn't remember exactly why. Not that he didn't know what his goal was. Taking over the Crystal Empire was obvious. He just couldn't remember why he chose to play the waiting game and had that fool occupy him when he could've just attacked directly. But it was trivial to try and ponder. He was here now, and he was edging on victory.
Except for his pain. The pain he was in was brutal. But it was worth it since it brought him so close to victory. He’d thought victory was in his grasp before, but this time he was sure of it. He only needed to get Discord and one of the Element Bearers out of the way before it could be completely assured.
No, not completely assured. There was still Cadance. Sombra still had to deal with her. At least, he imagined he’d have to. There was no reason he wouldn’t have to. However, he somehow felt like he wouldn’t need to, and he didn’t know why. But he would concern himself with that later. For now, he put the thought out of his head while he watched Radiant Hope return, his pain lowering at her sight.
“Where were you?” he asked his friend, standing up from laying on the ground, using a hoof to rub where the nerve was pinched.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I wanted to see if I could try and get Chrysalis out of the cell she’s being held in, but it’s being guarded by Shining Armor.”
He humphed at that. “I wouldn’t want to work with that insect anyway. Not that we need that cretin. There isn’t that much else standing in our way. My plan worked.”
“Your plan, if you can call it that, was risky. What would you think might’ve happened if I hadn’t come to free you from… that thing?”
“That wouldn’t happen, you not coming,” Sombra said matter-of-factly. “I knew you would come.”
“How would you know that?”
“Because you’re my friend.”
She gave him a weird stare at that, slightly dubious and slightly annoyed, and he returned it with a genuine smile. “Well,” she told him, a tiny bit frustrated, “If you would have just waited a little bit longer, I had a perfect plan for how to free the umbrum and-”
“Wait,” Sombra interrupted, his smile returning to his usual scowl. “Why would I ever free the umbrum?” he asked her.
This time, Hope’s expression was incredulous. “Why would you not?” she asked her friend, surprised. “They’re counting on you to free them from their prison!”
“Well, as long as I’m living, they’ll stay in their prison.”
“You have to free them! You’re supposed to be their-”
“I know where you’re going, Hope,” he interrupted again, “and I’m going to stop you. They’re monsters. The umbrum are all monsters like me.” He growled, continuing, “Even if they weren’t, I wouldn’t care. They’re just as much to blame for how I suffered as Princess Amore and those wretched crystal ponies.”
"Wait, they cause you to be hurt by the Crystal Heart?" Radiant Hope asked.
"They had a heavy hoof in my suffering, yes."
She went quiet at that as the two stared at each other. “So we’re not freeing the umbrum,” she whispered. “We’re just… what?”
“I'm being the monster I was destined to be,” he told her without hesitation, anger in his voice. “I’m taking control of this kingdom and crushing these ponies under my hooves.” He then left the anger out of his voice as he continued, “Or perhaps you can be the princess you were destined to be.”
Radiant Hope knew that her ‘destiny’ was out of her reach at his point. It’d been a thousand years, even if it only felt like months to the two of them. More importantly, what had become of the current situation they were in was already too far into motion for them to stop. Besides, they were on the verge of winning, having already taken care of Luna and Celestia being deposed. She might as well follow through and finish what they started. Then they’d rule over Equestria and Sombra would be happy like he used to be. She might not be an actual ‘princess’, but it would be worth giving up to have her friend back.
“So what’s the rest of the plan?” she asked with a sigh. “We’re not getting Chrysalis?”
“No,” he answered. “We don’t need her. We just need to turn one of those six into stone, as well as… that other pony.”
“That other pony? Cadance?”
“I’m not saying their name because… mmmh.”
She raised an eyebrow before realizing who he was talking about. “Oh, that pony. Okay. When are we going to deal with Cadance and Shining Armor?”
“I don’t know. We might not have to. I’m not sure.” Before she could ask, he continued. “It’s just a feeling, and like I said, we might not have to. At least not Cadance. That other pony is Twilight Sparkle’s brother, and I don’t believe he’ll take very kindly to us turning her into- AH! AHH AH!”
Sombra fell back to the floor and writhed in pain once again. Radiant Hope quickly rushed to her friend’s side. “Are you okay?” she asked, concerned.
“No, I’m not okay!” he yelled. “Why did you let that fool tear it apart?”
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I got most of it untied, but my magic wasn’t strong enough to work its way into the last knot… Do you still have the piece that was torn off?”
He huffed at that. “Yes,” he grumbled, standing up again. “I’ll tie it back on later. Right now, I want to end this.”
"You want to go out right now?" she asked.
"It's better now than never, I suppose."
“Before we do this, can I ask you some things? I’m curious about a few things.”
“What?” he asked frustratedly, keeping himself from snapping at her.
“When you were… away, they said a creature from another world was inhabiting your body in your place. That’s not true, is it?”
She asked the question in a way that made it seem like she knew and she was just confirming it with him. Sombra sighed, saying, “No, it’s not. If another world existed, I’d take you with me and wouldn’t bother with this one.”
“So, that… Alex, he wasn’t real?”
“No more real than a dream. He was the product of a spell I created. It was no different than if I was sleepwalking. It was easy to believe what that thing told them because he wasn’t real. I’m surprised that… a certain pony hadn’t caught on to it.”
“Trust me,” Hope told him, “they’re not nearly as smart as you think they are, or as they think they are.”
The two of them shared a laugh at that. Despite the pain Sombra was in from that fool and the Crystal Heart, he thought it was a nice moment. For a moment, he felt as though they were foals again playing the grass near the school they used to go to. It felt like only a few months ago Sombra inadvertently helped Radiant Hope get her cutie mark and they had their whole lives ahead of them. And now they were here, his plan for revenge against the Crystal Empire and the rulers of Equestria in motion.
“Are you ready?” Hope asked.
“This should be quite easy,” he responded confidently.
“Oh, I’m getting a bout of really bad anxiety,” I told Doctor Marks, my hand starting to shake.
“What is it?” he asked me curiously.
“Oh, it’s- it’s just- I- what if I go back?” I asked. “I know I asked before, but I don’t know what I would do if I went back. I don’t want to go back.”
“You’re fine,” he told me. “I understand how certain things can seem and feel real, but you have to ground yourself and remember what really is. Take deep breaths. Count to ten. Find something you know is real and focus on that. If you start to feel like reality is slipping away, do those things.”
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Okay. I can try that.”
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He comes back, and is shot to death?
Why do I have a feeling his going to come back and sombra be pushed out of his own body once and for all?
Irony of lying to Hope and to himself? I guess
I’m morbidly curious what they would do if they find Alex having a literal psychotic break on the floor.
10307519
Just imagining Hope turning around for 1 second, hears Sombra scream, and when she turns back it is Alex just curled up sobbing and muttering about not having returned.
I should not be laughing.
I'm hoping Alex returns and bring on the pain to Sombra. That action splits them in two and the fight goes into Alex ending it with a field goal finisher kick.
Sombra takes over, or Alex ends up getting pulled back once Sombra has reattached the Soul String?
In the end, I still don't know who will outsmart who, since nopony seem to posses the whole script here.
Its not hard to imagine Sombra lying to Radiant Hope. It would compromise her if she knew that Alex was real.
10164442
I don't see why so many downvotes, you are perfectly right.
Everyone on the continent are Americans, not just people from the US.
I think noone has a full grasp off the hole situation yet. Thins just dont add up... Perhaps the plot get moved on to fast?
10307635
But why? Why would you downvote the story just because of the plot development? We can safely guess that Alex is going back at some point, probably soon. The plot development is fine. It adds tension that our protagonists need to deal with. Makes for a good story. Are you downvoting because you don't like how the entire story progression doesn't involve Alex the whole time?
10307548
No PONY, but there is one who knows exactly what is going on and loves it.
#when the author thinks there's only one-ish ways the future can play out...
Dear author, not including the possibility of crossover branches, time travel, god-from-the-machine intervention, and several other filters, there are greater than 49,264,926 available branches for the plot to take from here. Most of them incredibly unlikely, but still.
Just a spell, huh? Sombra you have no idea who even hooked that spell to make it more. This cannot result in anything but your undoing...
Radiant has her doubts...
Keep going! ;)
Hang on...
This... doesn't really feel like a Cadance thing to say. It's more something you'd expect out of Twilight, and even then a more extreme fanon Twilight at that. Cadance after all has personal experience that Celestia is not infallible, what with having personally experienced Chrysalis's hospitality while Celestia was tricked by the changeling Queen for the entire duration. And when you combine it with this:
If even our weary wanderer is noticing something isn't right with Cadance, perhaps he isn't the only human mind piggybacking in a pony body?
10164442
k
curse you sombra and radiant hope with your obvious not quite lovers status, you continue to be the second most interesting part of this fic with the first being about Alex and the building existential crisis that's looming.
10307568
How would it compromised hope?
10307984
Radiant Hope is a good pony at her core. Meaning she has empathy for the living. Knowing that Alex is real and being treated like a shield or a trump card would greatly make her defect from Sombra. Imo.
I do hope that sombra realise that the other world is real and maybe go there with radiant hope
10307948
Sombra x Radiant Hope is the best ship, isn't it?
10308104
right up there with Fluttercord, I blame canon/idw for setting it up.
10307908
Why do I feel like whoever’s in Cadance set the whole scenario up, but didn’t expect Sombra to have a human inhabitant, making her
throw a tantrumget angry because they messed up her perfect little plotline?10307867
It's the equivalent of if people called France ¨Europe¨
10164442
Ahem. There are TWO continents named America.
If you don't specify North America or South America or United States of America or The Americas, then one has not actually specified what one is talking about and listeners/readers may deduce which from context.
10309185
It's more like calling the European Union 'Europe', not France.
There's a good bit of Europe not in the Union.
After binging this story I’m kind of disappointed with this plot twist it’s not fun that never is and it’s never gonna be fun I was enjoying the story all the way until now.
10309299
Oof, I'm sorry : (
10307908
I have a small theory, what if celestia is in Cadance's Body. It is hard to prove just yet but it can make sense. Cadance wants everyone else to hate sombra then she says "to her sister" instead of "to luna". just an idea
im personally expecting alex to beat up radiant hope if he ever returns.
Wait what... okay, I can't tell if Sombra a genius or a complete imbecile, because either he somehow got a random soul from a far off distant reality and not realize it was a real soul and some figment of imagination, or... Alex really is figment and when Applejack said she felt he - Alex - was lying she may had been referring to him not lying, but him being fake... oh my lordy lordy lord what have you done dear author.
10311637
I expect Alex to go full on Super Saiyan on them all and just say "Fuck it! I'm killing you and you and this world, then myself once I'm done with this bullshit!"
10313276
Well im curiouse how close your guess is ones it revealed. So far i dont speculate to hard since the story is rushed in some important places...
10313294
10308062
Plus the fact that sombra could've killed Alex when they switched
10313811
EXACTLY! Ah, you made me laugh with this clip
You don't need both the wings nor a horn to be a princess. You need a crown and a good reputation (even if not the first time).
10307908
I'm just going to say it Sombra killed Cadance's mother! Cadence's mother was Princess Amore so when he turned Princess Amore to Stone and shattered her he killed Cadance's mother. That's why she's so mad because she can instinctively point out her mother's murderer just from looking at him.
I am just going to wait for a smug face Twilight going here are the human world Sombra while she shows him the mirror.
The plot thicken.
Sticky and smelly like milk.