Second Chances: Friendship is Music

by Draconis187

Meeting the Band: King Sombra

Second Chances: Friendship is Music
Meeting the Band: King Sombra
Author: Draconis187

“What do you mean you want to take some time off?” Post Script asked me as I reported for duty at the Royal Archives after the end of the weekend.

Post Script is a rather interesting Unicorn to say the least… but also the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever met. The navy blue Unicorn always told me to keep my mind focused on my job and yet I’ve noticed her reading Playmare on more than one occasion during shift. Not that I’d mention it, she is my boss after all.

“I mean exactly what I said, Post. I have some personal issues that need resolving and I need to go quite the distance so I’m requesting some time off,” I responded.

She was only objecting since she’d need to actually work for once. She wasn’t especially lazy but she hated having to exert herself… like I said, she was a hypocrite. Despite it all though, she was not the worst boss to work for. She was compassionate and understanding and despite her laziness, very willing to help out when it was needed.

She rolled her eyes at me and sighed, “Fine. I’ll let you go for one week Crescendo. We have some documents coming from Saddle Arabia that will need to be catalogued and filed so I expect you to be ready for a buck load of sorting.”

“Thank you Post,” I replied with a smile as I walked out of the Main Archives and flew towards my home.

I arrived at my door without encountering any problems. Nor did I see any sign of my brothers. I was so sure they were lying in wait for me so they could jump me and ask about Summer Rhapsody that I had to keep changing my route and fly rather erratically. If I told them the truth about her being Queen Chrysalis, they would either call me crazy or delusional.

I knocked on the door in a certain rhythm so that the two mares inside knew who it was at the door. Discord had vanished yet again to do something that would probably blow up in somepony’s face. The door opened slightly as the face of Summer Rhapsody greeted me.

“Well?” She asked as I entered my own home.

“I got the week off so we can make the trip,” I replied, “Where’s Nightmare?”

“Call me Eclipse,” A voice said from the top of the stairs.

Nightmare had been experimenting with using shadow magic to change her appearance. She apparently did the same thing when she first returned to shroud the world in darkness. The final result stood before me with a grin.

She was a dark purple Earth pony that almost looked black in the right light. Her mane had a single long bang that covered her right, teal eye. She went with a dark green coloured mane and a tail which was long enough to touch the ground. Her Cutie Mark was a representation of a lunar eclipse with a small speck of ‘light’ at the top right like a diamond on a ring. The strange thing was that her eyes were still a little glazed over for some unknown reason.

“Okay then, Eclipse,” I replied with a roll of my eyes, “Has Discord gotten back yet?”

Eclipse shook her head, “Afraid not yet. I wonder what he is up to.”

“Knowing Discord, it could be anything, literally,” I deadpanned, “Well I suppose we could meet by the station. I’ll just write him a note to tell him to get his backside there.”

Summer Rhapsody walked past me with a snide grin that I was beginning to associate with Chrysalis over the weekend, “I’ll write it.”

I went upstairs with Nightmare to collect a few instruments while Chrysalis wrote the note. Something about Nightmare’s eyes made me a little worried as well as her behaviour. She appeared to be unaware of her surroundings until she heard us speak or a sound was made. I mean, she almost walked into one of the pillars once.

I gathered it was best to leave her be as I made sure we were set, collected my saddlebags just in case they were needed and with a nod from Chrysalis with regards to the note, we made for Canterlot Train Station.

Luckily for us, seeing a stallion and two mares walking with a set of instruments in tow was not too odd an occurrence as Canterlot was known for some of the highest class of classical musicians. Sure other genres had arrived here but they didn’t seem to be as popular with the stuck-up nobility.

Most of the passersby didn’t even notice our presence as we made our way through the city. I did see the one noble pair that broke the stereotype everyday: Fancy Pants and Madame Fleur Dis Lee. Those two were the only nobles who would associate openly with ‘commoners.’ But they were too embroiled in a conversation with each other to spare us a glance.

We finally arrived at the train station as the next train to the Crystal Empire rolled in with a screech. Most ponies that commute in this fashion had gotten used to it but for the three of us, our ears fell flat on our heads as we winced from the noise.

“All aboard for the Crystal Empire!” I heard the conductor shout to nopony and everypony in particular.

“That’s our cue ladies,” I said to the duo beside me, “You get aboard and I’ll get the tickets.”

The two mares carried the instruments without any arguments onto the train as I walked up to the ticket booth. I took out a small bag of bits and handed it to the ticket master.

“Four tickets to the Crystal Empire,” I said cheerfully.

“Four tickets,” The monotonous mare replied as she handed me the tickets, “Enjoy the Crystal Empire.”

“Thank you,” I replied, trying to be as positive as possible as I put the tickets into my saddlebags. That mare seemed to be a black hole of happiness.

As I returned to the train, I found Eclipse and Summer alone in one of the back carriages with the instruments not too far away. They were still disguised so I wondered what they could have done that would have made everypony leave. It wasn’t until I walked through the rest of the train did I find out that it was not fully booked. There were many empty spaces for passengers in the forward carriages. I guess that Nightmare and Chrysalis decided to be as far back as possible to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Understandable really.

“Hiya Cressy!” I heard the oh so familiar voice of Discord as I returned.

The Draconequus decided to sit himself across Summer while Eclipse sat on the other side of the caboose. The train lurched to the side as it began to take all of us to the Crystal Empire. As the train happily chugged along the tracks I looked out the window and began to wonder what I could be thinking with regards to this band of villains. I was sure I was slowly losing my mind.

Sure Chrysalis was not a bad conversationalist and Nightmare was rather quiet yet friendly. I had already been friends with Mr Chaos so that part didn’t bother me. Sure his antics did have a tendency for wearing out rather quickly but he had semi-good intentions… most of the time.

But Sombra… he was a ruthless dictator. Chrysalis was warm to her Changelings or so she said and Nightmare only wanted ponies to perceive the night the same way they did the day: with love if you can believe it. I did not believe Sombra had any redeeming qualities.

While lost in my little thoughts I finally realised Eclipse was softly singing something. I seemed to have missed quite a bit of it but it was rather soothing and abated my worried state a little.

Some will say that this is not going to last long
Some will say that if we try we can't go wrong
As time goes on we are not leaving this place
Cause when we'll come back, we lose our track of time and space.[/color

I looked at her as she sang. She was gazing out the window, lost in the lyrics she was singing. I looked over to Discord and Chrysalis and found they were too engrossed in a heated conversation. I think it had something to do with the holes in her legs as Discord was poking his claw through a few of them, laughing his head off. Celestia save us if the conductor comes in right now.

So together we are all lost on the moon
We all share our home on the moon, we
forever we are lost on the moon, together
we pay your crime on the moon

Well, I’d have to admit it was very catchy. All it needed was the instruments to bring it to life. Who knew the bringer of the Eternal Night had such a lovely voice? I sure as Tartarus didn’t and that made me feel a little ashamed for making said assumption.

“What is it?” Eclipse asked me, still looking out the window as the landscape was slowly losing its green hue as we got closer to the Frozen North.

“What was that you were singing?” I asked.

I was sure I saw her cheeks brighten but since her coat was rather dark, it was a little hard to see. She turned to me with those glazed eyes of hers. In truth it was actually starting to make me a little uncomfortable.

“You heard?” She asked, staring at me or through me.

“Just a bit of it really. It was quite nice,” I replied, hoping that she’d not try to kill me or something for eavesdropping on her vocalising.

“You honestly think it was any good?” She asked.

“Yeah, you sing quite well,” I said.

She didn’t reply and returned to looking outside the window once again. I sighed deeply, glad I wasn’t flayed alive for hearing her sing. Although she didn’t look angry or upset, she looked more surprised than anything else when I said I liked it. I wondered if I could get her to write the lyrics down.

A knock came from the door as it began to open. I shot a look at Chrysalis but as I did I found she had changed back to her Summer Rhapsody disguise. The source of the disturbance turned out to be the conductor checking for tickets.

“Tickets please,” She asked.

I pulled out the four tickets from my saddlebags and handed them to her. She punched them with some funny punch they always carry for tickets. She gave our group an odd look and looked at Discord… who wasn’t Discord.

He turned himself into a brown unicorn with a diploma Cutie Mark and brown mane and tail with greying streaks. He had a full face beard and moustache that went around his muzzle as if he just cut a hole in the spot where his mouth was. The conductor shook her head and left the caboose.

“So what’s up with that get-up?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Call me Q,” Discord laughed.

“Q?” I replied with a raised eyebrow, “Really?”

“Yup! Q for ‘Questionable Quotation’!” I facehoofed right there and then. I probably gave myself a black eye in the process, “Hey, I have an idea: why don’t we get to know each other a little better?”

Well that sounds like a lovely idea, if this were some Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Maybe Villains Anonymous? What did that make me? A villain-in-training, the mediator, the only sane creature in this band? I shuddered at the thought.

“Well, I doubt we need to tell each other our names,” Summer said as she rubbed her chin with her hoof, “We already know who and what we all are so I don’t really see the point.”

“I have to agree,” Eclipse said, not looking at us as usual, “I don’t have anything really important worth saying anyway.”

Q raised his hooves into the air, “Oh, please? Pretty please? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?!”

I doubt anything could look quite as sad as a grown stallion giving two mares the ‘puppy dog’ treatment. In his defence, he seemed to pull it off rather well but he’s like what? Over a thousand years old? Then again I doubt he ever actually acts his age.

Summer rolled her eyes and sighed, “Fine then. I sincerely doubt you would relent if we continued to decline anyway. Who shall start?”

Again Q jumped up and down as if he was on a sugar high from Tartarus, “Me! Me! Pick me!”

We all groaned as Q merely grinned at us, “Hi I’m Discord, the em-”

“We know who you are Discord,” Summer said with an annoyed tone.

“But it fits the theme!” Discord argued.

“But it makes no s-. Oh right, that’s somewhat your thing isn’t it?” Summer said sarcastically, making Eclipse chuckle a little.

“Yup!” Q replied happily.

Q carried on telling us about his time as a ruthless and fun dictator. I had to wonder how any dictator could be fun and still be called a dictator. Regardless he told us the worst thing about being an oversized lawn ornament was being unable to scratch an itch he had behind his ear for a millennia. I couldn’t help but laugh.

He told us of his life as a reformed villain as well. Most of which I already knew since it also encompassed the story of our meeting and eventual friendship.

“Right, who’s next?” Q, rubbing his hooves together with joy.

“I guess I’ll go,” Eclipse said, looking at Q.

“Yay!” Q replied with a broad grin.

“Let’s see. You all should know me from the old mare’s tale. I am – or was to be more accurate – Luna’s darker side that wanted to shroud the world in eternal darkness… I don’t even know if I’m even real despite I am sitting right here,” Eclipse said sadly, “And to compound on the small crisis of existence… I-I… I can’t see.”

“Well, that’s rather unfortunate,” Summer said as she looked at Eclipse, “I guess you use sound to know where we are?”

Eclipse nodded her head as she directed her attention to the disguised mare, “Yes, I use a form of echolocation to determine the distance, shape and direction of an object using sound waves from any source. Multiple sounds give me a clearer picture.”

I whistled, “That’s rather impressive.”

Eclipse turned to me this time, “I guess so. I’m mainly here because Discord brought me back. I’m not trying to bring eternal night mainly because I won’t be able to truly see it. It’s now a worthless pipe dream and since I have nothing else, I ended up with all of you.”

I kind of felt bad for Eclipse but I wondered if she would try to bring eternal night to Equestria if she could still see. Or maybe this second chance at life would have helped her to become a different mare even if she did see perfectly? Life is full of so many uncertainties.

Summer cleared her throat, directing our attention to her, “I believe it is now my turn.”

“I don’t mean to be rude Chrysalis but we are close to arriving at the train station. I can make out the spire of the palace from here indicating we are at least twenty miles out,” I said.

“Then I shall be brief,” Summer replied, “I was the Queen of the Changelings until the rather unfortunate mishap at the wedding caused a large shortage of love to sustain my subjects and myself. So I had them scatter themselves across Equestria in order to survive.

“It may not be an ideal plan but it was the only one I could think of at the time that would spare them the death I was facing until you two showed up. After that I guess I found another way to get love: through music. How this is possible I have yet to discover.”

“But you look a lot better than you did when we found you though,” I pointed out.

“That is because I can at least siphon the love in the air. It’s not much but it can keep me alive. Spring is known for having ‘love in the air’ as I believe the expression goes,” Summer responded.

“Well tha- oh we’ve arrived. That was rather fast,” I said as the train grinded to a very loud screeching halt. They should really overhaul the railway.

The Crystal Empire stood a short way away from the train station for reasons Tartarus wouldn’t know. The spire of the Crystal Palace could be seen for miles around as it loomed over the city. Ribbons of light comprised of a variety of colours came from the tip as it stretched across Equestria.

As we walked into the city with our instruments on our backs I saw the streets were filled with common tourists, hounding the citizens for as much info as possible. What I didn’t understand was the fact that the Empire had a library for Celestia’s sake! Also, how can they call one city an empire? We may as well dub Canterlot as Equestria just to show them how silly that are being.

But we weren’t here for me to rant about the Crystal Empire. We’re here to find the remains of their former sovereign tyrannical ruler and get him back to the plane of the living and recruit him. Q was chatting along about how he had heard of the empire when he was in power but left them alone mainly because he was having too much fun with Equestria at the time. In my opinion, they already had Sombra and I doubt Discord wanted any more enemies, especially one that apparently had a vicious mean streak. And I’m pretty sure I’m putting it mildly.

“Yoohoo!” I turned around to see the three companions I was with were looking at me rather strangely, “You a little lost there?”

I shook my head, “Sorry, I must have blanked out there. Any idea with regards to where we begin searching, Q?”

Q smirked at me with a grin that should not be possible on a pony’s face. I thought it was going to end up encompassing his entire face.

“Well… I have a small idea where to start but we had best wrap up for the trip,” Q replied, “Kinda nippy out there in the snow.”

“I do not care for the cold,” Summer pointed out, “Where do we get the appropriate garments for our venture?”

Q raised his hoof and made a snapping sound as if he were snapping his fingers. This is Discord… I will not ask a question I am better off not asking when it comes to him. In an instant we were all dressed in full body clothing. The oddest thing was that the instruments vanished.

We all looked as if we were one of those explorer groups, fully kitted with goggles, jackets, pants and snowshoes. At least I thought they were since they had spikes on the soles. My ‘kit’ was a few shades lighter than my coat colour while Eclipse’s was a pale blue. Q hadn’t forgotten about Summer, hers was a lime green of all colours while his own looked like a patchwork quilt which matched the colours of his true form.

“Right then, I guess we’re ready then,” I stated, looking around to see if anypony saw Q’s rather flashy display.

Luckily nopony was even looking in our direction as tourists paid us no mind, more focused on the sprawling city of lights brighter than Las Pegasus.

“Right. Lead the way… Q,” I said.

Q basically bounced up and down as he led us into the snowy landscape. Whenever the wind blew, it felt like it was threatening to turn into a blizzard at a moment’s notice. Summer and Q lit up their horns to light the way as the snow began to get thicker and darken the area, limiting our vision even more.

“Why is it getting so dark?!” I shouted as the snowfall finally turned into a full on blizzard. Good thing we had those goggles, I wouldn’t have been able to see my own hoof in front of my face

“The storm is getting worse, Discord!” Summer shouted, “We should head back!”

Q just laughed, “No need to worry everypony. It’s just a light breeze.”

“A light breeze?! The wind is trying to tear me apart for Celestia’s sake!” I shouted, “You alright there Eclipse?!”

Eclipse was tethered to me via a long rope while I was tethered to Summer and she was tethered to Q. I think I lost a coin toss somewhere along the line. Although I shouldn’t complain, she is blind after all and we couldn’t see through the storm any better than she could.

“I am fine!” Eclipse shouted back over the wind sheer.

“We shouldn’t be too far now!” Q shouted back at us as we continued our trek through the snowy landscape.

While the wind was threatening to tear my clothes and my coat from my body, I wondered why our embodiment of chaos didn’t just teleport us to wherever we had to go. I mean he is a powerful magical entity isn’t he?

We continued to trudge through the now shoulder high snow, Q jumped up in the air, shouting, “Eureka!”

Before any of us could say anything, Discord broke out of his disguise and flew off, carrying all of us along with him. The abrupt change in speed broke Eclipse’s concentration and her disguise failed as well. Chrysalis was not too far behind either but what worried me was the fact that their clothing didn’t change with them and seem a tad too small on their taller, more slender frames.

We soon crashed onto the floor of some cave after we travelled at a speed that would impress the Wonderbolts, my brothers included. We picked ourselves up off the group, except for Discord who was already standing. Nightmare and Chrysalis took off their – now tight – clothing and Chrysalis proceeded to burn them in a blast of green fire.

Just outside the cave, the wind and snow blew past as if to warn us about what waited for us out there should we decide to venture out again. Well, the cave did appear to be rather deep so I gathered we would have sufficient shelter for the time being.

The cave was nothing special to be honest, some stalagmites and stalactites dotted the cave in various formations as we followed Discord into its depths. Chrysalis was whispering to Nightmare, keeping her close as she followed between Discord and I.

“Discord, why are we in this cave?” I asked, “Also: are you out of your mind?!”

The cave echoed as my voice reverberated all around us. I sadly disturbed some bats which decided to give us a piece of their minds as they flew past us and into the raging blizzard outside. Good luck to them.

“Maaaaaybe,” Discord replied with his usual maniacal grin, “The reason we are here is because the king is here.”

Well, cold, dark and dank cave hidden by a blizzard that seemed as if it was made by the Windigoes from the Hearth’s Warming story seemed a little appropriate for a villain. Cliché maybe but appropriate nonetheless.

As we ventured further I noticed something rather odd about the cave. It was connected to a series of caverns but that didn’t worry me too badly since I had three powerful spellcasters with me. Albeit one was blind, one was random and could do more harm than good and the other was not at full strength but they were capable nonetheless.

What worried me were the opaque dark grey crystals that seemed to be jotting out of the cave in a random pattern and eventually I spoke up, “I guess we’re getting close then?”

Discord looked at me with a rare, serious look, “Take a wild guess, Note.”

I felt like I shrank there under his gaze but then his expression flipped – literally, his head spun upside down – and laughed, “Jeez, Cressy lighten up! We shouldn’t be too far now.”

“Anypony know how we are going to get him to join?” Chrysalis asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, “I really don’t know to be honest. Appeal to his better nature?”

Discord frowned, “He didn’t have a ‘better nature’ back then. Or so I’d heard.”

I rolled my eyes, “Brilliant. He sounds like a right royal ray of sunshine and happiness.”

We all chuckled a little at my little statement as the cavern just seemed to carry on forever. I began to notice the crystals that dotted the cave walls, ceiling and floor were beginning to gain variety. Topaz coloured crystals, amethysts, emeralds, you name it and it was there. You’d be forgiven for mistaking these crystals for the actual gemstones. The quality was truly top notch. A jeweller would go mad with joy if they discovered this place.

We eventually found our way into a hollowed out cavern. I say hollowed out because there were no stalagmites nor were there any stalactites to be seen. There were also large holes around the place that looked like they were blasted out.

The walls were entirely encased in ice save for the hole marks where some rather bright crystals jutted out to help illuminate the area. I was so lost in my observation that I failed to see the others had stopped and I walked head first into Nightmare’s flank. I wished I could just die right then as my cheeks burned like fire.

Nightmare jumped and swung around, “What do you think you are doing?!”

“Sorry! I-I-I didn’t meant to bump into you!” I said, waving my hooves in front of me as if I was just caught committing a crime going: ‘this isn't what it looks like!’

My hoof waving was a rather moot gesture since Nightmare was admittedly blind but it was out of reflex. Discord and Chrysalis laughed heartily, both using each other to support themselves as they were close to falling on the ground.

Nightmare was not impressed, “Why are you laughing?!”

“I can see you blushing!” Discord replied as he wiped a tear from his eye, “You must like ponies touching you there! Naughty Nightmare!”

This caused another round of laughter from them and an even more embarrassing blush from me as I pulled the hood of my coat over my head to hide my shame. I couldn’t see what Nightmare was doing though but I would venture a guess to say that she was thinking of ways to either get back at Discord or torture him. Either way as long as it weren’t me she was planning to exact revenge on, I’m happy.

Discord and Chrysalis got over their joke at our expense although I have a sneaking suspicion Discord said what he did on purpose to spare me Nightmare’s rage since she seemed to have clean forgotten about my little ‘collision’ and focused her rage in Discord’s direction.

I finally managed to see what made the others stop as he looked back at us, a rake firmly held in his right hoof and leaning against his shoulder. A grey unicorn with red eyes and green where the whites should be. They even steamed some purple mist as he gazed at us with confusion.

King Sombra stood before us as he did in the pictures the Archives got after the Crystal Empire returned but there were a few differences. He wasn’t clad in any form of grey armour and there was no crown on his head. His horn still had that grey to red gradient look to it and he still had his sideburns, the patch of black that ran down to his nose and slicked back black mane.

I thought we were going to find his horn, not the whole pony! My mind raced as if it was on one of the Cloudsdale flight courses.

“Sommy!” Discord shouted happily.

Does Discord have a nickname for everypony?! Does he sit down and think of nicknames to give ponies, even if he never met them or heard their names before? He came up with ‘Cressy’ in two seconds after I introduced myself.

Sombra just looked at us and didn’t move an inch. It was like he was petrified into a garden ornament. I could see the fangs he had but Chrysalis had fangs as well and I was already used to hers so I didn’t pay much attention to them.

He actually had a Cutie Mark if you could believe it: three crystals of red, blue and green standing next to each other in respective order. I thought it was going to be a spiral staircase in honour of all the stairs he had in his castle.

“Weeeeell, this is awkward,” Discord said as he broke the awkward silence, “I didn’t know we were interrupting something important, Sommy.”

Sombra looked at his rake and walked towards the wall to lean it against it. Why didn’t he levitate it there instead? I know some unicorns prefer to use their hooves unless magic is necessary but this seemed to be out of character for even him and I’ve never met him before.

“What do you want?” He finally spoke in a harsh, gruff voice.

“I am the Ghost of Hearth’s Warming Past!” Discord said cheerfully, “This is the Ghost of Hearth’s Warming Present and this is the Ghost of Hearth’s Warming Future… oh, and the last one is our pack mule.”

He pointed to Chrysalis, Nightmare and then to me in that order. The three of us facehoofed in unison. I swear the day he takes anything truly seriously, Tartarus will freeze over and whoever reigns there shall die of frostbite.

Sombra looked at us as we facehoofed and I believe he made the connection that Discord was pulling his leg, “I shall repeat: what do you want?”

“We came to ask for your cooperation in a joint venture,” Chrysalis said, cutting Discord off before he could reply.

Sombra snorted and looked away, “I am not some unemployed lackey for you to just come and hire. I have a crystal farm to tend to.”

Well it explained the rake that leant against the nearby wall. I heard that there were rock farms in Equestria so a crystal farm in the Crystal Empire didn’t seem to out of place for me. I saw a book pertaining to rock farming in the Archives a few times but never read it.

“We are not here to enlist you in such an endeavour,” Chrysalis said, I was sure she sounded rather offended, “We are here to ask for you assistance in forming a musical group.”

Sombra raised his left eyebrow at us, prompting Discord to snap his fingers. In an instant the three out of four villains were in their disguises, in front of their instruments. Q on bass, Summer on drums and finally Eclipse had an electric guitar as well. I just stood in front of a microphone on a stand. It was a wireless model to be exact.

Now, Q is pretty good on bass, Summer drummed better when she used her hooves instead of her magic but Eclipse on guitar? Well, she wasn’t really that brilliant but could keep a beat. She was actually far better using a piano, keyboard or a soundboard.

“We are -!” Discord stopped himself for a second and looked at us, “Who are we again?”

“Well, we never got that far,” I apologised to Sombra who just looked at us as if he was expecting something flashy like a Great and Powerful Trixie performance.

Nightmare accidentally strummed a bad chord and we winced in the sharp pain that soon followed with the sound it produced.

“Please tell me you haven’t been playing that guitar long,” Sombra said as he walked over to Eclipse and took the guitar off her.

Eclipse looked ashamed and this made Sombra pause slightly, “Do not get me wrong. I am sure you can find an instrument you are better at.”

“Well, she was only using it temporarily,” I replied, “We are looking for a guitarist. Interested?”

Sombra struck a few chords and soon pulled off a guitar riff that was as impressive as it was a shock to us.

“What?” Sombra said, “I had to entertain myself while I’m not tending my farm.”

“I have a question though,” I said, “Not that your playing is impressive. How are you alive? Last I heard you were destroyed.”

Sombra smirked at me, “The Crystal Heart shattered my body, save for my horn. Before I was destroyed, I poured everything I had into one last dark spell. All it needed was time to complete and in the months it took for my body to rebuild itself from the very land that had imprisoned me, I had nothing to do but look back at my life.

“You could say I had a form of epiphany at that point. I was weak and powerless once I could finally walk again. I still have no power but I can charge my body like a battery using the crystals I tend to. Sadly the charge was insufficient for a retake of my Empire so in the end I had to abandon it. Now I send off the crystals to the Empire and get paid in bits so I can eat. It’s not how I pictured spending my life but I am alive and that was a start.”

Well, that was one explanation I wasn’t expecting. Another villain just gave up on their plans for total domination? Albeit it was for the best since I doubt ponies want to deal with a villain trying to take over on a day-to-day basis.

“Soooo, you in or not?” Q asked as he snapped his hoof and everything was back to the very loose side of normal.

Sombra looked back at his rake and then to us with a snide grin, “In.”

Author's Note:

Well, another update at long last. Sorry for making everypony wait so long!
I forgot to mention if I have Nightmare sing, it wil be in blue as you've already seen.
'Lost on the Moon' by WoodenToaster and The Living Tombstone ft. Rina Chan. There is also a version with GatoPaint ft. EileMonty. The former are the original and the latter is a rock cover. Both are very good pieces.

Comments

[Mixer]

Q... I about died laughing at that...
Also, I feel even more sad for "Eclipse" now...
And Sombra... seems like kind of a pansy now... but that pony can shred...
I like your band, now let's see if you can keep it together kid.

[Razzy]

... Well, at least he was doing something productive?