Within You

by fancybloom

Chapter 4

The sun began to slowly carry out its illumination process, marking the beginning of another new day.
Another new day in which the purple alicorn hoped would not be a failure like all the previous ones.

For context, it had been a full week since they had arrived at the castle and she had provided lodging for the king.

Just the day after that, the princess had planned to invite him to have breakfast with everyone and thus be able to make him feel more confident; something she couldn't accomplish since the pony refused to come out.

Every time the alicorn went to knock on his door to try again, he responded that he didn't feel like eating or leaving his room, so she simply left some food for him at the door and then went somewhere else.

She wanted to insist, but if she wanted him to start feeling comfortable, she knew she had to give him space until he felt confident enough to at least leave the room.

On the other hand, during those exact seven days in which the steed had not wanted to go out, he had simply preferred to stay inside so he could think carefully about everything.

He didn't know how, but he had to return to the Crystal Empire and fulfill his mission: Liberate all the Umbrums, which was the idea from the beginning.

For different reasons, his mind felt like a puzzle with several pieces missing, there were things he remembered and things he didn't, and when he tried to remember, his head was attacked by some type of extremely painful and annoying migraine.

This being so, he actually wasn't very clear about why exactly he should free the other umbrums, he had almost forgotten it; but even if the reason was uncertain, he knew it was important, he could feel it.

Being locked in a single room for a whole week might seem like an exaggeration for any pony, but it wasn't like that for him.

A week in a room didn't compare to a thousand years in the ice, did it?

He could boast that he had more endurance than any other existing pony, he did not believe that there was any pony capable of withstanding even half of the things that he had experienced in his more than a thousand years of life.

Even if a few years had already passed, the experience of being contained in a huge piece of ice but unable to actually feel anything was still vivid.

He remembered how he was indeed alive, but he couldn't feel anything at all, he didn't know if this had been caused by the numbness that the cold caused to his body or because he simply didn't have one and was in his shadow form, but whatever the answer, he had always been aware of the environment he was in; He couldn't feel if he was breathing or not, he couldn't feel his heart beating, and at some point after a few years, he stopped knowing if his eyes were open or not. Everything around him was darkness, everything in his mind was darkness too; and that same darkness that once terrified him was what helped him maintain hope that one day, no matter how far away it was, he would be free again. The darkness ended up becoming his faithful companion.

But, even though after the first hundred years, he had learned to wait and be patient (as much as possible), this experience had been one of the worst tortures he had ever experienced, and he hoped he would never have to return. to ever live it.

Although well, that could perhaps compete with the time the crystal heart literally dismembered him and reduced his body to pieces; so that he then had to regenerate and each piece had to be put together one by one as if it were some type of board game.

But no, he was not so masochistic as to start remembering all his bad moments and make himself suffer by having to relive them.

That being the case, he preferred to continue wandering among his memories.

He quickly entered the memory of when he was a little pony, more than a thousand years ago, specifically that day when he went with his best friend to admire the crystal heart, which was supposed to show what would be your future, your destiny.

And whilst it had presented his friend with a beautiful future where she would become a powerful princess loved and appreciated by everyone, to him, it had only shown that his destiny was to become a being of darkness, an evil being.

From that precise moment, nothing in his life was ever the same, the days of being a colt full of joy and innocence had come to an end.

Suddenly, it was as if he was on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire again, feeling chills run through his body due to the freezing night, Radiant Hope had just given him the news that she would be leaving for Canterlot and leaving him alone. The only pony who made him feel safe and happy would leave him alone.

He had run as fast as he could to escape, he wanted to escape reality, he didn't want things to change, he didn't want to be alone again. But above all, he did not want the destiny that the crystal heart had shown them to come true.

That's how he had arrived, he had run for a long time until he couldn't take it anymore.

And that's where he found it.

The crystal, that red crystal that had marked a before and after in his life, that crystal that had revealed to him his true ancestry, and his true purpose in this life.

That was his destiny, to be evil, to harm others, to create nightmares; to be the King of Darkness and Shadows.

That was when he understood everything, he understood why his appearance was so strange, he understood why each crystal fair made him feel the worst pain, he understood why the crystal heart had shown him that horrible image, and he understood why no matter how hard he tried, he could never change his future, he would never be good.

He understood that his fate had been sealed long ago.

---

It was six in the morning, Princess Celestia had already raised the dazzling sun that was beginning to shine through the windows. The stallion focused his gaze on the ceiling, admiring the fine crystal decorations that hung from there, to tell the truth it looked somewhat like his previous castle, so he liked it, it was visually comfortable.

His mind remained active, his ears waiting to hear the same sound of footsteps that the Princess of Friendship was going to cause at any moment, just as she had already been doing for a full week. She would get up early and knock on his door in the hope that he would say "yes" to her request to join her for breakfast.

There was not a single bit of fool in him, he knew that she wanted to give him comforts in order to soften him and slowly make him change. But no, he wasn't willing to fall into that dirty trap called friendship.

However, he at the same time considered that there was also some gain in it; If he managed to have the princess' complete trust, there were infinite possibilities (not really) of what he could do with it. His ultimate goal could be facilitated; he could even convince her to accompany her on her next visit to the empire.

Of course it wouldn't be easy, neither he nor the alicorn were that naive, he wasn't going to soften, and the princess would never believe that he changed so quickly and that he would suddenly like to pay a visit to the empire.
That was stupid, in fact, surely the empire was the last place the alicorn would want to take him.

If he analyzed his options, it seemed, unfortunately for him, there was only one way to approach the Crystal Palace and achieve his mission.

He quickly got up from his bed and headed to open the door, although not before rolling his eyes and sighing heavily.

The purple alicorn behind the door looked somewhat surprised, Shadow deduced that she had been about to knock based on the hoof she held up.

"Yes, I will accompany you to breakfast."

---

The princess and the unicorn walked together through the corridors of the castle, causing an echo with the sound of their steps.

She was a little excited, she had finally managed to get the unicorn to dare to come out of his room, which for her meant progress; a small one, but still progress.

Despite how happy she was, the castle was large and the silence was beginning to get awkward.

"So... What... What did make you change your mind?" she asked using a slow tone andlowering her head, curious about the answer.

"You."

She frowned quickly.

"Me?"

"Do you know how annoying it is that you knock on the door every day at six in the morning when I'm peacefully asleep just so I can accompany you to breakfast?"

The unicorn didn't even turn to look at her or show any expression.

The reality is that he was only trying to bother her, he didn't usually sleep in the mornings, he always woke up quite early.

The alicorn opened her eyes in surprise, realizing how true what the elder pony said was, everyone in the castle woke up early—not to say that she actually woke them up early—, she had not thought that maybe he liked to continue sleeping in the mornings.

The princess looked down, showing how ashamed she felt about that fact.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you... If you want, you can go back to your room and come back later to have breakfast; don't worry, we'll leave you food."

The unicorn thought about it for a few seconds.

"No, I'm fine like this." He continued on his way, leaving her behind.

[...]

To say that breakfast time had been awkward was an understatement, that had been more than just awkward.

Spike and Starlight were feeling scared and defensive, and they didn't bother to hide it, their looks made it very clear.

Twilight only watched as the three of them seemed to hate each other's guts, worried about how she could help improve their coexistence.

Finally, when the dragon and the unicorn had finished their meal, they both left the table as quickly as possible and without saying a single word or looking at anyone.

The princess watched them leave with some discouragement, she knew it wasn't easy, but she hoped they would at least try. She let out a sigh and turned to the only pony left at the table next to her.

"I'm sorry about that, Sombra... Can I just call you Sombra?"

The aforementioned turned to look at her with his usual serious look, giving himself a few seconds to respond.

"Mhmm."

Following that, he stood up without saying anything at all, taking his plate with his mouth since his magic wasn't working at all.

"Are you going back to your room now?"

The question took him by surprise, since he had thought the conversation had come to an end.

Since he couldn't say anything because of the plate in his mouth, he simply nodded.

"Wouldn't you like... I don't know... To do something?"

He raised an eyebrow, evidently not knowing what she meant.

"I mean... Isn't it boring to be in a room all day? Wouldn't you rather do something else?... I mean, you haven't been out in a whole week, you know?" She suggested with some nerves; Although she didn't want to force or pressure him into anything, she felt that spending seven days a week locked in a room doing (possibly) nothing was too much.

The pony dropped the plate he was carrying when he realized that he was going to have to respond verbally.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know, what do you like to do? Don't you have any hobbies that distract you?"

"I assure you that you would never allow me to do what I like to do." He replied, showing a somewhat malicious smile.

"Oh…" The princess didn't even know how much she should worry about that, so she decided not to overlook it. "Well, then–" Before she could continue, he stopped her words.

"You know what? Stop right there. Whatever you're trying to do isn't going to work, okay?" He looked at her intensely. "Or do you think that you are going to achieve all this nonsense of 'changing me' by inviting me to breakfast and being nice to me?" He asked skeptically and with a mocking tone.

The alicorn was speechless in a matter of seconds, not really having expected that.

The unicorn took the plate back and turned to leave when he saw that she wouldn't say anything else.

But she stopped him with her words.

"Sombra, I... I do this because I do believe that you can change, the fact that the map gave me the mission was just a push to realize that I don't know why you did what you did, I don't know if you're really just the villain in a poorly told story." By this point, she had managed to catch the stallion's attention. "Maybe you're someone who deserves the benefit of the doubt and you were going to die without it, because you know better than anyone that you wouldn't be able to withstand another Crystal Fair. Besides, I am not going to change you, I can't, you are the one who decides if you want to change or not, I just must and want to show you that if you do, you'll realize how beautiful it is to live in harmony."

It was the unicorn who was now unsure of what to say.

He still stared at the alicorn, but not in such a harsh way anymore.

The princess waited for some word or action from his part, but he simply turned around and left the dining room, leaving her alone.

Once again, her discouragement was beginning to take over, things didn't seem to be going as well as she wanted and expected.

“Why does this have to be so difficult?”

Suddenly, the sound of the doors opening brought her out of her inner thoughts.

A smile formed on her face when she saw who it was.

It seemed that, in the end, the former king had perhaps come to consider some part of the words she had said.

Although she wasn't going to have many illusions about it either.

"Well, here I am"