Retirement of a king

by Askre

Chapter 12 - A king retires, a prince wonders

There was a long awkward silence as the two Celestial sisters stared at the four ponies in front of them. Dew had just finished the second report and Twilight had explained what she had figured out regarding the friendship map. This time King Sombra had been allowed to be present at the behest of the Friendship Princess. To his credit, the Dark Pony had been silent the entire time.

“I see.” Finally Princess Celestia broke the silence, her eyes drifting to Sombra, who just stared back with a hard expression on his face. “Do you have anything to add, Sombra?”

“That depends,” the king remarked. “On what exactly you want me to add.”

“Perhaps beginning with an explanation as to why you broke out of custody after we captured your mother if you had no intention to cause any further trouble,” Princess Luna snorted and narrowed her eyes.

“It’s not like you needed me anymore.” Sombra shrugged casually. He rolled his eyes when just getting sharp glares from the Celestial Sisters. “I did not want to go back to Tartarus, alright. I didn’t want to risk it.”

“I decided to just step out of the way. After my brief stay with Private and his friends, I got more curious about the modern world and decided to explore it, investigate it. I hadn’t really focused much on that the first time I was in hiding,” the Dark Pony continued before hesitating a little. “I returned… because the longing for the company of my own kind was finally driving me nuts again.”

“As I briefly touched on earlier, we’ve discovered that Dark Ponies really do need the company of their own kind. The connection they feel isn’t just some weird quirk of theirs. It’s actually an empathic connection they are dependent on,” Dew Doe spoke up. “Sombra can alleviate it by being amongst the descendants of the Dark Pony refugees. That’s one of the reasons he was always so hyper-focused on Private, who is descended from two Dark Pony bloodlines.”

“That’s also probably why Private was the pony who got first drawn to Sombra’s horn. It wasn’t just the spells Sombra put in him. It was his Dark Pony ancestry that drew him in as well,” Twilight added in. Private tilted his head curiously. He had never considered that.

The Celestial Sisters listened attentively, then looked at each other. Both were thinking the same thing and nodded to one another. Celestia rose from her throne, as did Luna. The Sun Princess’s expression was still stern as she focused back on King Sombra.

“I want one final assurance before we decide anything,” she spoke. “Sombra, any spells that are still in Private. Undo them.”

King Sombra frowned slightly before nodding and looked at Private who turned towards him. The king’s horn lit up with dark magic and he locked eyes with the unicorn.

‘Apologies, Private, this may sting a bit,’ Sombra addressed Private in his head as the Dark Pony connected with the unicorn’s mind.

‘I’m almost used to that,’ Private responded and grunted out loud when feeling the magic enter his head.

‘I… apologize also that you are almost used to that.’ Private almost forgot the pain when hearing what the Dark Pony said. Once he was free from Sombra’s hold, the unicorn just continued to stare stunned at him. The king meanwhile was turning his grave expression towards the Celestial Sisters.

“Alright, all spells that were still buried within his mind are gone,” Sombra told them.

Celestia and Luna lit up their horns and for a brief moment magic swept over Private Iceland. This time it tickled a little, causing the unicorn to jump, but he managed to refrain from making any sound.

“I hope you understand that we trust you carefully, after all, you did not trust us,” Princess Celestia said and eased her stern expression a bit.

“I would be very disappointed if you did,” Sombra allowed himself to smirk.

“Private Iceland, Dew Doe,” Celestia addressed the two. “I take it the two of you still wish to continue working on Sombra.”

“Yes!” To the surprise of everybody, it was Private who responded as he turned back to the thrones. “That pony who just got rid of the spells, that’s not the pony who put them in me. That’s Prince Sombra.”

“No, Prince Sombra is in the north wing of this castle, if I understand correctly,” Sombra remarked. He chuckled when seeing the unimpressed glare he got from Private.

“You know what I mean,” the unicorn grunted and looked back at the princesses. “Dew Doe has already scheduled therapy sessions for him. He’s retired, but there is still work to do and I want to help my friend.”

“Very well,” Princess Celestia nodded in approval, as did her sister. Both were smiling now. “We still want regular reports on the process, but let’s make it monthly this time.”

“You are after all still on parole, Sombra, even if you took a small break from it,” Luna pointed out when the king arched his brow at Celestia’s words. “And you did return to your assigned home during that parole.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Sombra grumbled and glared at Twilight, who was giggling. “You are not coming over with friendship lessons.”

“No, no, I have my hooves full of that with your mother,” the Friendship Princess assured him.

“I still can’t believe you managed to get her to agree to that,” the king muttered. He had been told now what was being done with Queen Rabia, and the Dark Pony was still having trouble accepting that idea.

“Well, how about we head home? I’m sure the princesses are busy,” Dew Doe suggested. She and Private then bowed before the Celestial sisters. Sombra restrained himself from snorting or rolling his eyes.

“I look forward to your next report in a month,” Princess Celestia reminded them.

There was a small alarm before they departed. When Dew Doe turned around with the others to leave, the pegasus stumbled and looked to be in mild pain. Private was immediately at her side to support her.

“Oof, don’t think I’ll be walking out. That was a mean kick from you down there,” Dew mock glared at her belly, but was smiling.

“You thought I was going to allow you to walk to the train station in your condition? We are teleporting,” Sombra declared sharply, grabbing both smaller ponies in shadowy tendrils before disappearing in an explosion of black smoke.

The three princesses giggled a little. It hadn’t escaped their notice that even the king had looked concerned when seeing Dew Doe stumble. Their attention though was soon turned to a flash of light in front of the thrones. Discord appeared wearing a cap with Sombra’s face on it. His eagle claw was clad in a big foam hand and his lion paw was holding a flag, also with the Dark Pony’s face on it.

“Yay, congratulations King Smo…oh I missed it.” The Chaos Spirit went limp when seeing only the three alicorns. Twilight just shook her head with a smile and the Celestial Sisters just eyed the spirit, bemused.

“Let me guess, you knew the whole time Sombra was already retired?” Twilight asked and flew over to Discord, who was now busy removing his apparel.

“Of course I did, I was just waiting for him to finally admit he was just lonely, like I was,” Discord smirked and floated up to hang in midair.

“Still, thank you, Discord, for keeping an eye on things for us,” Princess Celestia thanked him, then gave him a mocking suspicious look. “You knew where he was in hiding as well, didn’t you?”

“Sure. A note of warning, though, do not play blackjack against him. He counts the cards.” Discord shrugged and grinned cheekily.

“And you didn’t think of telling us where he was?” Luna asked, though the Lunar Princess figured she already knew the answer to that.

“Well, he wasn’t causing any trouble, aside from making a few other high rollers grit their teeth in frustration at the Mareage resort.” Discord gave another careless shrug. “Now if you will excuse me, Fluttershy has invited me to afternoon tea at that delightful café in Ponyville”

The princesses watched the spirit snap his claws and disappear in a flash. Now that they were alone in the throne room, Princess Celestia looked at Twilight mildly concerned.

“Have we had any news on descendants wishing to visit Queen Rabia?” she asked. Learning that Dark Ponies needed others of their kind around had made her worried. She had known of the connection, but not that it was so vital to them.

“We are still working on that.” Twilight shared her concerns. Learning about this from Dew had answered what was wrong with Rabia, why she seemed so eager to meet them, and had even risked asking if she could meet Prince Sombra.

“King Sombra ruled the Crystal Empire for a long time, not knowing of the refugees in Equestria. How did he cope with it back then?” Princess Luna couldn’t help but wonder.

“Only he can answer that. I have a feeling he just powered through it since he probably thought he was the last anyway,” her sister could only guess.

The princesses quickly turned their attention to the throne room doors when they swung open as something came crashing through them. Prince Sombra lay flat on the floor, mildly disoriented. Through the open entrance peeked the two boys and two concerned guards.

“Oh my, is everything alright?” Celestia asked and started walking down from the throne, as did Luna.

“Never underestimate how quickly those two can take a sharp turn,” Prince Sombra spoke at a slightly higher octave as he was still recovering from the knock. He gestured towards the innocently grinning colts. The guards stepped in to help him stand up.

“Ah, play went a little sideways?” Luna chuckled, considering the colt didn’t look frightened and the Dark Pony wasn’t looking frustrated or angry. This wasn’t probably as serious as it may have appeared.

“I was going to take it to the gardens, but they decided to start as soon as I opened the door to our room. I was trying to intercept them,” Prince Sombra admitted and took a moment to rub the sore spot on his head that had hit both the door and the floor. “I hope we didn’t interrupt anything?”

“We were just finishing,” Celestia assured the prince, but then looked at Piat and Barri. “But next time, play runs outside.”

“Yus Princess Celestia. Sowwy,” both colts said in unison, hanging their heads a bit.

“Good, we can’t have your father be crashing into doors like that.” Celestia nodded with a smile. Prince Sombra opened his mouth to protest being called their father, but shut it quickly.

“Now that you have shown how sorry you two are, let’s go outside,” he said instead and herded the two colts out of the throne room. They had barely disappeared from view when the princesses heard the prince shout:

“Barricade! You were just telling the princess you were sorry for running inside!”

“I see life in the castle is turning out livelier with those three around,” Twilight commented as she laughed along with the Celestial Sisters.

“Oh you have no idea,” Princess Celestia had to take a moment to regain control of her breathing.

“Piat has started wishing every guard he passes good night, or ‘night, night’ as he says it when it’s time for bed,” Princess Luna told her.

“Okay, that’s adorable.” Twilight smiled at the mental image of the small colt doing that every night.

“Well, to go briefly back to the topic before we call it good for now. Twilight, you continue looking into the descendants,” Celestia addressed her former student, who nodded and after saying goodbye, trotted out of the throne room.

---

Queen Rabia glanced at the window when she noticed the light was dimming. She rose up from the couch and peeked outside. From her vantage point, she could just make out Celestia lowering the sun. The Dark Pony wasn’t sure why this had piqued her curiosity. She had seen this routine now for months. Eventually, Luna would stand where her sister stood and would raise the moon.

Turning away, the queen started turning on the lamps in her chamber. She was allowed just enough magic to be able to do so. She then returned to the couch and picked up the newspaper she had been reading.

“The Princesses welcome a new member to the royal court.

Mysteriously arrived from a magical vortex, a pony from another world is stranded here in Equestria along with his two sons. The Celestial Sisters welcomed the castaways first as a guest while this incident is being investigated. Our correspondent within Canterlot Castle has now confirmed that the exotic guest from a different world has now been appointed to the court, though what jobs he will be undertaking has not been determined yet.

More on page…”

Rabia looked up when she felt a nearby presence of a Dark Pony. There was a knock on her door, then a guard looked in.

“Queen Rabia, you have a visitor,” the guard announced.

“Let him in,” the queen requested in a low tone. She didn’t even need to see the visitor to know who it was. The guard stepped away and in the entrance appeared Prince Sombra.

So alike…yet there is something different, Rabia held back a gasp, barely managed to retain her stern expression as she put down the newspaper and rose from the couch. “Please, come in.”

The prince was hesitant as he stepped into the chamber. The door closed behind him and the stallion glanced at it before turning back to face Rabia.

“I take it Princess Celestia approved of my wish to meet you?” the queen asked, scanning the other Dark Pony with critical eyes. Deep inside she was feeling relief at having someone of her kind nearby.

“It was with some hesitation on my part…” the prince admitted and then fell silent, averting his eyes downward. Rabia bit her lips, knowing exactly what he was doing.

“We are not in Dark Pony society…I am not your queen and…not your mother,” Rabia said with some difficulty. It was very hard to just break off what she considered completely normal. “Please, feel free to speak.”

“I was just finishing putting my war…sons to bed when Princess Celestia approached me and told me of your request. I will admit that when I learned of you, I was not overly enthused to see you. She told me it would be my decision,” the prince told her, only giving Rabia a slight glance. Clearly, it wasn’t easy for him to break the norms of their kind either.

Can’t say I blame him, Rabia thought and lay back on the couch. “Then why have you come?”

“I guess in the end I was curious why you wished to see me. Were you hoping to compare me to your son? Or did you just crave the company of someone of our kind?” Prince Sombra grunted, then quickly looked away and seemed ready to dive through the door. He was surprised to hear the queen start laughing.

“Well, if I wanted a comparison, I’m already seeing a very big one. I never got the chance to tell him, but I sometimes enjoyed his snide commentary, even if I had to discipline him for it as he was speaking out of turn. But he never looked ready to dive for cover,” Rabia remarked to the confused prince. The queen sighed deeply.

“You are not wrong. The longing for the company of our kind has been growing stronger. I’ve just about managed to feel your presence in the castle, but that was of course not enough. And I was curious about this other world they say you hail from. Judging by your reactions, you have not been gone long from your mother’s court,” she said and looked towards the window. The moon was now in the sky.

“You have nothing to worry about from me, Prince Sombra. I’ve had a while now to…regret and come to understand that it was my own fault that I lost both my children away from me. I was…I hate admitting that the blue mare was right…I was not a good mother.” Rabia started to reach for the newspaper again with her magic. “If you do not wish to see me, I will accept that.”

The queen unfolded the newspaper and didn’t look up from it when hearing the door open and close. Already she could feel the connection diminish. The mare sniffed and grabbed a tissue from a nearby box to wipe away the tears that were forming in her eyes.

---

Princess Luna hummed softly as she continued to replace the old lavender on the wall scones with fresh ones. She had been at it for a while now and was on the last hallway of the castle in the north wing. Soon enough the princess would be traversing the dream realm to ensure the citizens of Equestria had no troubled dreams.

The alicorn expected everybody to be asleep by now, aside from the nightguards, so it gave her a pause to see a balcony door open and she could just about see someone standing outside.

She left the flower cart and peeked out. Standing out on the balcony, staring over Canterlot, was Prince Sombra. Curious why he was still up, the alicorn stepped outside, which prompted him to glance over. Luna hesitated, the scowl in the prince’s face was very reminiscent of the king.

“Is there something that troubles you, Prince Sombra?” Luna ventured to ask. Clearly something was bothering him.

“Am I here just to be a replacement? Because I have not fallen yet?” the Prince snorted and turned his head back to have a view of the city.

“What? Why would you think that?” The Lunar Princess walked closer so she stood beside him. The Dark Pony stopped scowling but still had a heavy frown, he sighed.

“I visited Queen Rabia…maybe it was a mistake,” he responded and put a front leg over the balcony railing. He didn't really want to admit that it had been a little disturbing. “It got me thinking. I look like her son before he fell. I look like the prince your sister remembers before he turned. Celestia suddenly asks me to join the court instead of being just a guest. Nobody seems to mind me, even if I share the looks of that…monster of a Dark Pony.”

Prince Sombra didn't add in that the king's words about how he was a replacement had sometimes replayed in his mind. It wasn't though until after meeting Queen Rabia that they were really blaring into his head.

“I take it you saw the evening paper,” Luna asked. The prince rolling his eyes and grunting was all the confirmation she needed. The princess herself had not been overly impressed by how the various newspapers gushed over the exotic foreign prince, a castaway from a different world, who was now staying at Canterlot Castle.

“At least you don’t have a holiday centered around your evil alter ego,” the princess remarked. Although she was very accepting of it now, it had been off-putting to learn of it the first time around.

“Excuse me?” Prince Sombra eyed her again, very confused.

“I was not always just Princess of the Moon,” Luna placed a hoof on her chest. “Behold, in a fit of jealousy over my sister I changed into Nightmare Moon, banished for a thousand years to the moon, and when I returned, I was saved by my sister’s new champions. Then I learned they had Nightmare Moon as the Boogey Mare of Nightmare Night.”

“If I understood this whole mess that got me here, that hadn’t happened yet on my world,” Prince Sombra considered this for a moment. “If it even would have happened. We will never know.”

“That is always possible,” Luna nodded. She didn’t know much about alternate worlds, although she had become aware of them much earlier. “I have to admit, when my sister brought you here and your two sons, I was concerned.”

“Oh?” the Dark Pony was actually surprised to hear that, aside from when he first arrived and his encounter with the king, nobody had shown him anything but hospitality.

“I haven’t spoken about this, but I knew already of an alternate version of Sombra, and for a brief moment, I worried we had him on our doorsteps,” Luna told him.

“The adult version of your son, Private, had a dream a few years ago that actually pulled him dangerously close to the spirit realm. There he encountered a spirit of Sombra who also had a son, also a version of Private he called 'Temor',” she continued to explain and frowned a little.

“And how do you know I am not him or was meant to be him?” the prince wondered.

“It didn’t match. You have two boys and call them by their actual names. He renamed his son and he had only one. For that brief moment we met, I felt he was similar to the Sombra we knew, more similar than I felt about you,” Luna looked at the prince.

“Look, I do not always understand my sister’s decisions, but I do know her and I know she has not given you a home here to replace the prince she once knew and loved. Newspapers also tend to like to exaggerate. I would advise taking anything they say with a grain of salt, especially the gossip columns.” The Lunar Princess noticed the prince’s eyes were growing wide in shock. “Something wrong?”

“S-She loved him?” he whispered and looked as if he had been struck by lightning.

“Oh yes. After our visit to the empire, she would not stop taking about him,” Luna sighed tiredly at the memories. The prince looked away with a mortified expression. “Do not tell me that your feelings were similar to the Celestia you knew?”

“I wanted to give her a necklace…a tradition we Dark Ponies do to show we care for someone… but I was too scared. I thought she wasn’t interested. I was too hot-tempered and mother just kept pushing and pushing…” Sombra looked down.

“Wait, your mother wanted you to wed Celestia, from your world that is?” Luna was shocked to hear this. She had suspected, the one reason nothing had happened between her sister and the now-former king was that Queen Rabia had forbidden it.

“Have the most powerful alicorn in the world as her daughter-in-law? Of course she did,” Prince Sombra eyed Luna again. He arched his brow when seeing the expression on the midnight alicorn. “I take it that was not the case here?”

Oh boy, I can’t wait to see how this ends up playing out, Luna thought after shaking her head to the prince’s question.

“At any rate, rest assured Prince Sombra, we are well aware that you are not King Sombra and you are not here to replace anyone,” she then assured him. “You and your sons are castaways from a distant world that has been destroyed. It would be cruel of us just to cast you out on the streets. However, I am sure my sister would understand if you would eventually wish to go.”

“That’s a problem isn’t it? I have nowhere to go,” Prince Sombra sighed and pulled away from the balcony railing.

Luna watched him head back inside and go in the direction of the chamber he now lived in with the boys. The princess stepped inside and closed the balcony door. As she returned to the flower cart, Luna considered if she should bring at least part of this conversation up with her sister once Celestia awoke the next morning.

Difficult to imagine how he must be feeling right now, she thought and continued her work on replacing the flowers.

End chapter 12

Comments

[Starkvb]

I ship it.