Chapter 1: Sombra's return?
“Where am I?” the frightened little colt wondered as he popped his head out of the snow. “What is this place?” All around was nothing but white and cold winds. He shivered and fluffed up his feathers.
He slowly pulled himself from the snow and tried to stand but quickly gave up; he was far too weak. After curling up in a ball he tried to remember what had happened, but was soon terrified when he realized he had no memories. He didn’t even know his own name! Once again he tried to stand up, to no avail.
The harsh winds blew, and the snow fell. Soon he was once again buried in the cold icy flakes. Uneasily, he drifted off to sleep.
In his dreams, nightmarish images haunted him. A kingdom enslaved, a black shadow, and horrible cackling laugh.
With a flash of silver light, his nightmare ended, and a blue alicorn stood in the emptiness, looking very confused.
“Where am I?” the blue pony said. “Did you summon me here?” she asked looking at the little colt.
“I don’t know; who are you?” he said softly.
“Wait, are you an alicorn?” she asked noting his wings and horn.
“What’s an, alicorn?” he said the word slowly as if he was trying to get is tongue around it.
“I am Princess Luna, and you are?” Luna asked in a softer tone and taking a few steps toward the frightened colt.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember,” he said as panic entered his bright green eyes.
“Shh, it’s alright,” Luna said laying down next to the little black foal and pulling him close with her wing.
“Can you tell me where you are so I can find you?” she asked gently as he pressed himself to her comforting side.
“Snow. Lots and lots of snow,” he said as he closed his eyes, trying to focus on his body freezing in the cold.
“It’s really cold, and windy,” he looked hopefully into the blue eyes of his companion.
“I think I know where to find you,” Luna said smiling to ignite his hope.
“Really?” he said, his face beginning to glow.
“Yes. But I am going to have to leave your dreams if I am to find you.”
“Do you have to?” he asked sadly.
“I am afraid so. But never fear, I will be there as soon as I can.”
“How soon is that?”
“Less than a day if I can manage. Can you hold on that long?”
“I think so.”
“Good. Good bye for now my little foal,” Luna said as she faded away and the colt’s dreams became a jumble of indistinguishable images and sounds.
“Sister!” Luna called frantically as she galloped down the hall to Celestia’s room, her hooves echoing in the silent halls. “Celestia open up,” she yelled as she banged on the door with her hoof.
“What is it Luna?” Celestia asked sleepily as she opened the door to find her sister trotting in place with worry.
“Sister, Sombra has returned!” Luna practically yelled.
“What!” Celestia unfurled her wings as if ready to go and blast him herself.
“Wait, he has no memories of his past. In fact, he is nothing more than a little colt.” Celestia stood in stunned silence as Luna explained her dream walk. Once the story was over, Celestia paced and pondered what needed to be done.
“Are you sure it was Sombra?” Celestia asked, a darkness in her eyes.
“I am positive that it was him, or at least, a part of him.”
“Twilight must be summoned to a meeting in the Crystal Empire, along with Cadence. All the alicorn princesses must meet and determine what will be done with Sombra, now that he has returned.”
“I agree, however I am leaving for the Crystal Empire this moment,” Luna said firmly.
“What for?”
“He may have once been Sombra, but now he is only a frightened little colt with no idea who or what he is. And I promised him I would come to him as soon as I was able. It is a promise I do not intend to break.”
“Then go. Once you find him, bring him to the Crystal Castle where I will be waiting.”
“Yes sister.” And with that, Luna flew out the castle doors and into the starless night flying faster than she could ever remember flying before.
A blast of icy wind signaled that Luna had reached the frozen north. However, she had no idea where to begin looking for the little foal. With a rush of wind and a flap of feathers Luna’s hooves touched down in the cold snow. The end of her horn began to glow as she searched for any sign of life in this desolate place.
In the distance, a faint silver light appeared indicating the location of a magic source. Luna’s horn connected with it by means of a blue line of magic. Quickly, the worried mare followed her horn deeper into the icy land.
The wind pushed her away and strange whispered voices warned her not to come near. But her longing to help the innocent colt drove her on despite these warnings.
She reached the source of the silver light, a small mound in the snow. Frantically Luna tossed snow away with her horn and hooves. There, unconscious in the snow, lay the little black colt with silver hooves.
“Oh dear,” Luna exclaimed. Gingerly, she lifted the half frozen foal and lay him gently on her back. A strong flap of feathers latter and they were air born, the wind now pushing them away from the place the foal had lain.
“I must get him to the Crystal Empire before it’s too late,” Luna urged herself. Despite the frigid weather, and the whispered warnings in the wind, Luna pushed herself harder than ever before; that, combined with a strong tail wind, drove her at top speed to the safety and warmth of the city in the snow.
Warmth spread throughout her body as she crossed the boundary from wasteland to city. Gasping in the warm air she caught sight of the castle, and her fellow princesses on the balcony. A soft clink of her hooves on crystal indicated the end of her frantic flight as the others lifted the foal from her and carried him away.
Luna’s head hung down, her hooves spread as she breathed heavily from her speedy flight, yet somehow the others had gotten here first. She assumed it was an act of her sister’s magic.
After several long minutes like this, Luna collected herself to find that Spike, Princess Twilight Sparkle’s assistant, had been patiently waiting by her side with a glass of water.
“Why, thank you kindly, Spike,” she said nodding to him as a sign of respect and gratefully taking the glass.
Twilight paced worriedly outside the room the foal had been placed in. A doctor and a nurse where currently doing what they could under the watchful eye of Celestia. Twilight’s five friends sat on benches in the hallway watching as Twilight was overcome with worry and curiosity. None of them knew who the foal was or why he appeared to be an alicorn.
Several moments later, Spike hurried around the corner closely followed by Luna.
“Spike! There you are!” Twilight exclaimed as she rushed to her trusted assistant and scooped him up on her back.
“Oh Spike, I don’t know what is going on. I have never read anything about this kind of thing before.” Out of her saddle bag, the purple pony levitated a large book titled, “The Complete History of Equestria: a Summery by Twilight Sparkle.”
“I’ve read every history book I could get my hooves on and put all the important parts in here, but there is still nothing about male alicorn colts appearing in the snow!” Impatiently she slammed the book closed and gently set it down under a bench so as not to damage it.
Seemingly for the first time, Twilight noticed Luna standing patiently by Pinkie Pie who was whispering something in the Princess’ ear.
“Luna!” Twilight exclaimed rushing over to her.
“One moment Twilight, Pinkie Pie is telling me about an interesting dream she had.” The princess had a calm, patience look on her face as though she was very familiar with Pinkie’s antics and her occasional sudden strokes of pure genus.
“And then I realized it wasn’t a filly at all, it was a colt!” Pinkie yelled out as if she had just given the punchline of a very good joke.
“That is very interesting Pinkie Pie, I am sorry I wasn’t there myself,” Luna said with a small smile. “What is it Twilight?” the princess of the night turned to give her full attention to the princess of friendship.
“What is going on Luna? Who is that colt? What was he doing in the snow? Why does he look like an alicorn? Is he an alicorn? What…”
“Calm down Twilight,” Luna interrupted. “I can’t tell you anything yet, not until Celestia decides what parts need telling.”
Twilight didn’t know what to think of that, so instead she sat down on the floor with a huff sending Spike tumbling off her back and onto the floor with a thud.
At that moment, the door opened and Celestia appeared gesturing for the ponies to go inside.
The room was large, clearly a guest bedroom, but a rather undecorated one. Only a few pieces of furniture sat in the otherwise well lit room. Rarity gave a harsh look to the curtains like they had offended her honor.
In the center of the room, sat a regal, if somewhat small, bed. Under a light blue blanket lay the strange black foal who was shivering fiercely despite sweat dripping from his brow. An IV bag stood next to the bed giving the colt much needed nutrients and water.
Fluttershy walked up to the bed and lay a hoof on the foal’s forehead.
“He is burning up,” she remarked solemnly.
“He does have a very high fever,” the doctor explained looking at a clipboard. “However we have given him medicine that should bring it down. As long as it comes down within the next few hours he should be just fine.”
“That’s good,” Rainbow Dash said, a waiver of uncertainty in her voice.
“Indeed,” Celestia said. “For now we can only wait until he wakes up and hope he will be fine. I want you to come with me to the throne room. What I have to say can only be said once, and Princess Cadence must be there for it.”
Twilight and the others followed their wise leader into the grandest room in the castle, where Cadence was sitting on the throne looking over some papers with Shining Armor at her side. When she saw the ponies enter, she passed the papers off to a guard and nodded for him to leave.
“Who is this colt Celestia?” Cadence said, a darkness in her voice as though she had already guessed the answer. Celestia sighed and collected herself. Luna stood at her side and poked at the floor with her hoof nervously.
“He is, or rather is a piece of, Sombra,” Celestia said. A collective shudder moved throughout the quiet group.
“Then why did we dare to bring him here!” Shining Armor questioned as he stomped his hoof on the polished floor. “After what he did to the Crystal Empire and the ponies!”
“Calm down Shining Armor,” Celestia said. “I would not have Luna bring him here if it was not perfectly safe.”
“And besides,” Luna added, “He has none of the memories of Sombra.”
“But how can this be?” Twilight asked. “Sombra was destroyed. Nothing remained.”
“Some small piece did,” Luna said. “Sombra was full of dark desire, and something like that is hard to destroy, I should know.”
“For the moment, this foal is harmless,” Celestia explained. “He has only a small fraction of the power Sombra once held. In his current state, any one of us alicorns could easily bring him under control if need be.”
“But any normal pony couldn’t?” Cadence clarified.
“Correct,” Celestia said.
“But from what I saw in my dream walk with him, I doubt he will cause any harm to any pony. He is merely a frightened colt with no knowledge of how our world works.”
“My sister is right. This is our chance to ensure the true Sombra will never rise to power again. If this young colt can learn to let true friendship into his heart, something the old Sombra never did, then we will have nothing to fear from him.”
“But, if he doesn’t?” Twilight said, her eyes showing she didn’t really want to know the answer.
“Then this young colt’s future is grim,” Celestia said.
“What will be done with him now?” Cadence asked.
“I believe that the best chance this foal has for learning the magic of friendship is in the company of the bears of the Elements of Harmony.” Celestia looked fondly at Twilight and her five friends who were standing together looking brave, despite the fear they no doubt felt in their hearts.
“You want us to take him under our wings?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes. There is plenty of room in Twilight’s castle. I am confident she can make him comfortable there.”
“Of course princess,” Twilight said. “But are you sure we are up for the task?”
“You six successfully reformed Discord. I am confidant you can teach one little colt the magic of true friends.”
“Did someone say my name?” Discord said suddenly poofing into existence sitting on Celestia’s back.
“Discord!” Fluttershy called out happily as she flew into Discord’s arms.
“Oh Fluttershy, we really must get together more,” Discord said hopping off the princess’ back and embracing his friend. …..
*Is this even interesting to you guys? If it is, message me and I will keep writing it, which I probably will do even if no pony likes it, but if you do, please please please let me know. Also, if there are any errors let me know. Thanks.*