"Death is just a setback"
"And what do we do with the masses of ponies, Flurry dear?"
The small alicorn looked at the ground for a moment, concentrating. "Uh... We enslave them?"
"That's right!" Sombra would have petted the filly's head, but he had no limbs with which to do it. It was quite hard to express his approval in a way the pony could appreciate when he was just a shadow and a voice. But Flurry did like the unlight shows he put up, and the silhouette of them standing over a crowd of kneeling ponies he displayed on the wall did cheer her up.
It was pretty hard to form connections when he couldn't shake hooves. Fortunately, he'd had quite a few good connections already. To that world, to the other, and to the sweet little alicorn in front of him. Letting a piece of him with her had been a gamble, but it had paid off. Recently, she'd even given him a bit of magic, enough for him to manifest more properly and not just as whispers and visions.
"Uncle?" Flurry asked after a moment, staring at him with wide eyes. "When are we going to conquer Equestria?"
The shadow sighed. "I'm not sure, Flurry." With no Grogar to give him another body, it would take a while for him to fully come back. Flurry might do it eventually, but he wasn't about to teach necromancy to a foal. Teaching her about putting others under her hoof was one thing, but he didn't want his eventual heir to have business dealing with the dead. That was stuff for warlocks, not rulers, it wouldn't do for her to have a skull for a cutie mark. It would also make her parents a tiny bit too suspicious of her.
"You said mum can't do it, but do you think aunt Twilight could help with that?" the little alicorn asked.
What was left of the unicorn pondered the idea for a moment. The Princess could certainly bring him back, but she would never want to, and he was in no condition to force her to. "I suppose so, but I wouldn't know how. We shouldn't bother her with it, she's a busy mare."
"Oh, there's no need to worry about bothering her. She'll be coming here tomorrow!"
"She will?" Despite the lack of any physical apparatus producing it, Sombra's voice still managed to crack. "Oh, that's..."
"Oh, oh!" The filly stood up, excited. "What about Celestia and Luna? They'll be coming here too, do you think they could help?"
Being a shadow on the wall meant he couldn't draw back, but it did not stop him from trying. "I-I well... Why exactly are they coming here?"
Flurry stared at him with eyes wide and arched eyebrows, cocking her head to the side. "What do you mean? Don't you remember? It's Hearth's Warming in just two days!"
"Oh, right." The shadow nodded. Then stopped nodding. "What is that?"
"And ponies exchange gifts with each other? Just because they feel like it?" the shadow asked, bewildered.
Flurry nodded. "I don't know how you've never heard about it," she commented, closing the book she'd fetched from the shelf. "Maybe you've forgotten about it, being in that state and all."
"I might have. But I do remember windigos, actually. They were quite annoying to keep out of my Empire." A sound like that of him clearing his throat came from Sombra's remains, though he had no throat to clear. "When we rule together, we'll make it so we get all the presents. What do you say?"
"But I like giving presents," the filly replied, putting the book away. "I think we should make it so we give presents to everypony in the Empire."
"Come on now." Sombra sounded more than a little bothered by the idea. "That's not something royals should do. We're supposed to rule over others, remember?"
The alicorn stopped for a moment, looking at the wall where Sombra lay. "But I like giving presents," she repeated. "It'll make me happy if we give presents to all our subjects."
"I-I guess..." The little one had gotten the enslaving and conquering part down, but she didn't quite grasp the concept of tyranny yet. It was proving a bit hard to get his sadism to rub off on her. Sombra shook his nonexistent head. "We wouldn't have the time to make all those presents, dear."
"Why not? Didn't you say we can do what we want and how we want? Isn't that what you said ruling truly means, and why mum and dad are doing it wrong?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"Then why can't I make everyone happy on Hearth's Warming if I want to?"
The lack of a body meant no encounters were had between Sombra's forehead and hoof, but the sigh that came from his form carried the same weight of annoyed resignation. It was because she was a filly, he repeated to himself. No adult pony would want to use absolute power to be nice with others. She'd grow into the evil tyrant he knew she could be with time.
The filly suddenly gasped. "Nopony knows you're here! You'll get no presents! I should tell-"
"Don't!" the shadow shouted. "Don't worry about it. I can't return the favour anyway," he explained, pointing at the lack of anything to point at that he was.
Flurry frowned. "Are you sure?"
"I am." Sombra remained silent for a moment, to make sure he'd actually convinced his not-actually-nephew. Then he asked, "So all Princesses will be here in the castle?"
"That's right," Flurry answered with a nod. "You've met them all, right? You said you were old friends."
"Yeah, uh, that. Old friends." It was hard being part of the unliving. He couldn't even awkwardly look to the side. "But you don't need to bother them, really. We haven't talked in a long time, it's better if things stay like that. I-I'd rather not let them see me like this."
"Oh. Are you sure? I know you said the same when I asked you to meet my parents, but it's Hearth's Warming. They'd enjoy seeing you, I'm sure of it!"
"I wouldn't want to spoil the holiday," Sombra replied.
"But-"
"What do we say about the word of the King, Flurry?" the shadow reproached her.
The alicorn looked to the ground, and recited, "The King's word is the law, and must be obeyed." She munched on the inside of her cheek. "But-"
"No buts," Sombra firmly stopped her. "How can you expect to rule over ponies if you yourself don't obey the King right now? You're setting a terrible precedent."
Flurry sighed, and nodded along. Then she perked up. "But once I'm Queen, then I'll have you meet all of them!"
"Alright, alright," he answered with as warm of a tone as his magically produced voice allowed him to. "We'll all be together once I return." As he said that, he projected an image of him and an older Flurry sitting on the throne, while the other Princesses kneeled before them.
The filly looked at it with a happy smile. Then something crossed her face, and she tilted her head. "Uncle? Where's daddy?" she asked, pointing at the wall.
"You're right, my bad," he answered back, as his magic added the silhouette of a unicorn to the others.
Flurry still looked at the image with a frown. "That's a mare."
There was a pause from Sombra, then a cough. "Oh, right. I don't know what I was thinking." He changed the figure to match Shining's shape. "There, all fixed."
Flurry smiled, and looked back at him. After a moment of hesitation, she said, "Hey. I was thinking... Would you like to see them? You could stay with me while they're here. You wouldn't need to interact, just... I thought you might enjoy getting to spend time with them, even if they don't know you're there."
"That's sweet of you," Sombra answered, cursing inwardly. As much as that raised some questions, given how he was a flat shadow. It was a tad hard to figure out how exactly he had an inside towards which he could curse. But disregarding digressions on the nature of his condition, he couldn't real find a valid excuse against Flurry's request. Not when he could actually gain something from it, at least.
Flurry stared at him, or at what she presumed was him at least. "So what do you say? Will you?"
It was risky, but it could be quite useful. The filly's eagerness to help pointed him towards agreeing, and all things considered he would probably gain more that way. Just as long as he wasn't found out. "I think I will, yes."
The alicorn perked up, and fluttered upwards on her overly-large wings. "Yes! Oh, thank you, uncle. I'm sure you won't regret it." Her eyes fell on the clock, and her body fell back down. "Oh my. Sorry, gotta go. It's almost time for dinner, mum will get worried otherwise. See you later!" She waved goodbye as she walked out the door.
Sombra waved back. Then the door closed, and he slithered back behind the large and ancient wardrobe, letting temporary hibernation overtake him, ready to awaken again as soon as a new disturbance perturbed the room's quiet air.
"I'm not sure anymore, Flurry. I'm starting to have second thoughts about this whole thing."
"Come on, you promised. They're your friends, after all."
Sombra couldn't swallow, which made it all the more awkward to feel the need to. They were staring at him. Staring at Flurry, technically, but he saw through her eyes! That just made things worse, the alicorns looked even taller than what he was used to. It was also noticeably hard to tell if the filly was right about the sisters getting shorter, but he had other things to focus on.
"They grow up so fast," Celestia said, running a hoof in the little alicorn's mane. "I remember taking care of Twilight, one day she didn't reach up to the base of the throne, and the next she was sitting on it with a crown on her head." She brought a wing to her face to rub a tear out of an eye.
"I was her foalsitter and Shining her brother, you don't need to tell us that," Cadence replied, letting go of the greeting hug she'd been sharing with Luna.
Celestia chuckled. "I guess you're right. Apart from Sunset she's the closest thing I had to a daughter, but it was probably not the best example given the circumstances."
"Closest thing we know of," said Luna after sharing a hug with Shining, as she turned towards Flurry.
Celestia rolled her eyes. "Look, I've told you. That thing with the Ambassador never went anywhere, and either way he was a d-"
"Twily!" Shining shouted towards the opening doors, running towards his sister as she stepped into the room.
The Princess of Equestria looked up to see a white and blue-streaked blur crash into her, shortly followed by four small bursts of coloured magic as the remaining alicorns all teleported towards her. The resulting hug was more akin to an abstract representation of an eldritch nightmare than to a formal greeting between royals past and present, as was customary in Equestria at that point. Twilight reasoned that allowing Pinkie to have a say in what was accepted by formal etiquette had been the best and worst decision of her reign that far.
The tangled mass of wings and horns came apart, much to Sombra's relief. Despite being the least corporeal of the presents, he'd undoubtedly been the one closest to suffocating inside it. And he still had trouble wrapping his head around the ratio of limbs to ponies. Two alicorns had been enough, how five could be in the same room without collapsing reality was beyond him.
After performing some strange ritual with Cadence, the purple one moved to him, and lifted him up in her magic. Had she gotten taller? She seemed a little taller. He didn't like looking at her, not after the last time.
"Auntie!" came the words from the mouth he was possessing, followed by happy giggles. The body he inhabited spread its hooves, and a moment later he was hugging the dreaded purple thing. It was rather hard to reconcile Flurry's happiness at the contact with his own desire to flee and hide.
"It's so good to see you all!" Twilight spoke in their ear. Then she let go of Flurry, setting her back down.
"It's good to see you too," Celestia replied.
"You could go visit her a little more often, if you weren't so busy," Luna said to her sister, earning herself an annoyed look.
"Are you sure you're okay with missing the play in Canterlot?" Cadence asked, dismissing the guards outside the door.
A short laugh escaped Twilight's lips. "I told Trixie she could be in charge of the special effects this year, I'm pretty sure I want to be as far from there as possible." She began to walk towards the centre of the room. "What?" she exclaimed after a moment of stares, "The theatre needs renovations anyway."
Shrugging, Luna began to follow her, and the rest quickly joined them, chatting.
The play was entertaining, he couldn't deny that. Certainly well acted. He would be willing to give some of stallions the chance to play his role in the celebrations of his return, once the time came.
Unfortunately, being sat between Cadence and the purple monstrosity that she'd helped in raising meant it was rather hard to focus at times. And the two kept staring at him during every break and scene change!
"How much longer?" Sombra asked, dreading the answer.
"It's almost done," Flurry replied. "Do you not like it?"
"Oh, no no, I do like it," the shadow inside her reassured her. "I'm just a bit nervous, that's all. I wouldn't want to be found out and ruin everyone's fun."
"Is the little Flurry enjoying the play?" Celestia asked from the far right, past both Twilight and her own sister. Her neck came rather useful in leaning forward, if at the cost of almost impaling the stallion sitting in front of her.
"I'm sure she is," Cadence answered back. Looking down at her daughter and Sombra, she asked, "Do you like the play, dear?"
Flurry nodded.
"What about Shining?" asked Luna, having the foresight not to risk spearing the mare in the following row.
Everyone turned to the left, towards the quietly crying stallion sat next to Cadence.
"He always gets emotional when they get to the melting of the ice," Twilight explained, while her once foalsitter patted her husband's back reassuringly.
Sombra supposed it was probably an emotional part. He certainly would have liked ice melting in his Empire. There had to be a way to mind control ponies in a way that tricked magic, he'd make sure to find it.
"Could you pass the salt, dear?"
Flurry wrapped her feathers around the glass cylinder, and extended one of her overly-long wings towards her mother.
"Thanks," Cadence said, grabbing the salt shaker in her magic.
"So, how's the food?" asked Twilight, nervously shifting about in her chair.
"Wonderful," answered Celestia, "Simply wonderful."
"And much friendlier than that pudding," Shining added.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "It was years ago, Shining!"
"But not that many," her brother replied.
The two stared each other down for a moment, then burst into laughter. Meanwhile, Flurry stared at her plate with guilty eyes, recalling faint memories of throwing things into a cauldron.
"Is everything alright, Flurry?" Sombra asked.
"I think the pudding incident was my fault," she replied. "And I remember enjoying it. I don't think I should."
A smile came to Sombra's lips. It never arrived, but the intention was there. He was so proud of the little harbinger of doom he'd chosen. "You don't need to worry about it. If you like something, then it doesn't matter if others suffer."
"But I don't like making others suffer," Flurry replied.
There was that resistance again. "Making others suffer can be fun. I find it very enjoyable."
"Auntie always says that different ponies can enjoy different things. I like quesadillas and she doesn't, for example." Flurry stabbed the food in her plate with carelessly murderous motions. "It's okay if you like to make others suffer, but I don't, and we shouldn't force each other to change."
"But how are we supposed to impose our rule over the masses if we can't hurt them?" hissed the shadow.
"I don't know," answered the filly, chewing on her dinner with a thoughtful look. "Maybe we can just ask them? They'll let us rule if we're nice."
"But how can-"
"Are you alright, Flurry?" asked Shining, setting down the cutlery. "You seem worried about something."
"I'm fine, daddy." She turned to Twilight. "The food is really good, auntie. Thank you."
The purple alicorn smiled, and everyone returned to eating.
Sombra began anew, less loud, "But how can we be nice if we're supposed to crush the weak under our hooves?"
"But we won't need to crush the weak if we're nice and they let us rule." Flurry took a sip from her glass, and passed her empty plate to Celestia as she gathered them in her magic.
"You really don't need to do this," commented Cadence as she passed her own plate. "We have servants here who could take care of this."
"Oh, it's not a problem at all," Celestia replied. She gathered up the last remaining plates, then sauntered over to the kitchen's door. Coming back with the seconds held in her magic, she continued, "I actually kind of really enjoy this. I should try being a maid some time."
The look Luna gave her sister was as flat as the conversation became after she'd spoken, though only because the food was good enough to keep everyone's mouths occupied elsewhere.
As Flurry ate her meal, Sombra tried to think of a way to get past the little filly's naivety. She couldn't really get it, that was evident. She'd been born a Princess, part of the royal family, in a peaceful Empire that practically adored her already. She knew nothing of the struggles to get to where he'd been. She'd had power simply gifted to her, and it was damn unfair.
"Why do you think you have wings?" he asked in a fit of annoyance.
"Uh?" Flurry stopped eating for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"Well, being an alicorn makes you special, no?" Manifesting as black dots and lines in her vision, he pointed to the other mares in the room. "Celestia and Luna can move the Sun and the Moon, your mother controls Love, and Twilight embodies Harmony and Magic." Something he'd learned the hard, painful and deflagration-inducing way. "What about you?"
"I don't know," was the filly's immediate answer, so quick it left Sombra speechless for a moment. Enough for her to continue, "I've wondered about it. Mum and dad say I'll know when the time comes, and it'll be something special. I'm a little worried about having to live up to the other Princesses when I've done less than dad or some of aunt Twilight's friends, but I'm still a filly. I hope I'll find a reason for why I am like this, something that makes me deserve it."
Sombra stayed quiet a moment longer. "We've never talked about this, right? It was always just explaining what you should do to properly rule."
"It's alright." Flurry took another sip. "You're just trying to help me. And, uh, those weren't exactly my words. I spied auntie's old diary when we went to visit grandma last time. I still don't know what half of the things there meant, she was way smarter than me. Like I said, I'm worried."
"It's alright," Sombra reassured her. "You'll grow into a wonderful leader if you follow my advice. And then we'll rule over the world together." Couldn't let his ticket to resurrection get too self-conscious or nervous about things. If only she would actually listen to him. Or if he could just hypnotise her. He'd gotten used to that, traditional manipulation wasn't his forte.
"What about you?" the filly asked a moment later. "What's your special talent?"
"I, uh..." Sombra mimicked the sound of a throat being cleared. "It's ruling over ponies," he lied.
Sombra stared in disgust at the purple reptile and his equally purple mistress. She may have trained a dragon to do her bidding, but he would train an alicorn. And then he would be the one to end her rule through his servant, and finally get revenge. For the first time at least, he was still deciding what to do to her about the second time they'd met.
The fire-spewing annoyance had arrived early that morning, carried to the castle by flocks of adoring ponies lifting him from the ground. With him, or behind him and his worshippers to be precise, had been two other unicorns, apparently Shining and Twilight's parents.
They had spent a lot of time with Flurry. An unreasonable amount, if he was to judge. And all of it had been spent staring at her and asking questions. Had they never seen a filly? How anyone could be so interested in another pony's life when not trying to find something to use against them was beyond him, and much more so given how little there was to actually probe in the young Princess' life.
They had brought presents with them. Many presents. Everyone had brought presents, and he wasn't quite sure where they'd been hiding them considering they wore barely any clothing and clearly had no access to magical storage of the kind his old powers granted him. The sisters, maybe, with those flowing wavy manes, but the dragon?
And yet, the torn carcasses of what had been layers of coloured wrappings and fancy ribbons, now spread all over the hoof-made carpet, proved that the presents had been more than just hallucinations born from Flurry overdosing on sugar and chocolate and whatever else those unbearably sweet things she'd stuffed in her mouth during breakfast had been made of. Truly, he still wasn't sure of what had happened. The day had been a blur of sickeningly bright colours and ear-piercing chimes, and maybe a song at some point.
He sat there, inside the young Princess' sleeping body, taking in what looked much like the most war-torn battlefields he'd walked, and the spoils of the non-war he'd been made to live through. They sat on the ground by the sofa, piled as neatly as one would expect from a pony of Flurry's age. No more than a small part of the gifts that had been exchanged that day, but he only held a vague recollection of what everyone else had received. And the memory brought with it notes that made his shadowy essence tremble, and an unbearable warmth spread inside him.
A book was at the bottom of the pile. Twilight's gift, obviously. Something about a warrior from the northern lands, a dark lord and a sword made of emerald, or something like that. Above it, her pet's present, a thick volume of illustrated stories that he'd heard them call 'comics'. A magical shifting painting depicting the night sky from the two sisters, an ornate brush from her grandparents, and a set of carved crystal figurines from her parents.
And socks. No one had said who they were from, not after seeing Flurry's reaction to opening them. Sombra was unsure of who among Celestia, Night Light, and Shining had chosen to pretend they'd been giving her something as a joint gift with their companion, and decently certain another one of the three had altogether forgotten to bring a present for Flurry.
There had been two other gifts for the young alicorn as well. They'd both come in packages from the mail, dropped there by a grey mare after she'd crashed through the window. One was a spinning top painted bright red, apparently from Flurry's old caretaker. The other a weird thing made of glass and some dull purple material, with buttons on a side. It was from a certain Sunset, who apparently resided fairly far away from Equestria as a whole.
Apart from the questionably useful cylinders of striped fabric, Flurry had been happy with all her presents. He knew the book would be added to the shelf in her room and read twice by the end of the month, as with every new book she received. Same for the comics, most likely. She'd found the painting pretty, she'd played with the figures a bit already, and the brush would definitely find daily use against her curls. The top had gotten a genuine smile out of her, and the... the thing, whatever it was, had her at the very least intrigued.
Listening to his host's peaceful snores, Sombra tried to recall what else he'd seen, just to pass the time. Twilight had given and received almost nothing but books, some incredibly old, some definitely the result of someone digging up his own private archives. The one exception was the gift she'd given to her brother, what they'd called a vinyl. From where that Sunset pony lived, apparently, but he had no idea of what the thing was. Only that it did not seem to be made of metal nor particularly powerful, despite the words used to describe it.
Besides the purple Princess, who he'd focused on the most, Cadence had been the one to catch his attention. Her given gifts had been the most varied, and always met with happiness bordering on awe. All, from the framed card she'd given her husband to the water-based crystal hourglass she'd gifted to Luna to the surfboard Celestia had received. And she'd always smiled when opening hers, despite how out of place some of the things appeared. Perhaps she was very good at pretending, but it really did seem like she appreciated everything.
Speaking of the pink alicorn, just as he was trying to think what else he'd seen exchanged she walked up to the couch to gently nudge Flurry awake with a wing. "Wake up, dear," she said, taking the filly up in her magic and turning her around. "It's bedtime already. You'll need to wake up early tomorrow, or there will be no left-over cake left for breakfast. You know how Celestia gets with that kind of things."
Sombra felt the alicorn outside him smile. She gathered up her presents in her magic, and allowed herself to be carried away by the warm blue glow of Cadence's magic. Her tired eyes closed and opened, doing nothing to take away the fog inside them, and her ears pulsed a little. Possibly from hearing the phrase 'happy Hearth's Warming' more time than anyone ever should, Sombra guessed.
They came to Flurry's room, and the little pony was deposited onto her bed, her gifts at its foot. Good nights were wished between mother and daughter, then the former shut the door and let darkness take over the room. And in that darkness Sombra slithered out of the pony, moving along the walls.
"Hey," Flurry called, spotting the darker streak of blackness in the shadows of her room. "Don't go just yet. I've got something for you."
Sombra stopped and turned, or at least did the closest thing to turning a flat shadow could do.
"Here," Flurry continued, too quick for the other to speak. Her horn lit up, the drawer by her bed slid open, and a square box of black cardboard floated out. "Here, get inside," she said. "I didn't wrap it, since I know you couldn't unwrap it anyway. Happy Hearth's Warming."
The shadow, curious, did as he was asked, finding an open slit on top of the box. Inside the painted cardboard walls, a small blue crystal sat and glowed a dim light on one of the larger sides. Attached to the narrow sides, chunks of protruding black paper blocked parts of the light to produce the shadowy image on the other large one. A throne, and ponies kneeling before it. Sombra moved through the scenery, then slithered out of the thing.
"So what do you think?" asked the filly. "I thought it would be nice to have a place to live. Better than the closet at least. Here you can feel at home. Do you like it?"
Sombra felt something. Something he didn't have a name for, and which would have likely made him want to vomit or crush the filly under his hooves if he still had a body. But he couldn't, and he couldn't run away either. Silence wasn't a valid option, and as a result only one thing came to his non-lips. "Why?"
Flurry seemed almost hurt by the question. "Well, I thought it would be nice, and-and you're always talking about ponies kneeling- I thought you would-"
"No, no," Sombra interrupted her. "Why give me something?"
Flurry blinked. "Because it's Hearth's Warming. Everyone gets presents on Hearth's Warming."
"I..." Sombra tried in vain to swallow. "I like it," he finally said. Then he quickly slid inside the box. If it had been any other pony, he'd thought they were mocking him, being nice now that he was weak after hating him before. But Flurry was... He knew her enough to tell she was just being nice. And he was starting to question which one, between the two of them, other ponies were actually like.
Flurry watched the shadow disappear with a smile, then set the box on her bedside table and closed her eyes.
Cadence sat at the table, pouring herself some wine.
"Ah, Cadence," Celestia greeted her. "Just in time for poker."
"I think I'll pass this round," the pink alicorn replied, throwing a glance at the sleeping bodies of her parents-in-law.
Ignoring her sister's frown, Luna cleared her throat. "So. Are we going to do something about Sombra spending time with your daughter?"
"Are you kidding?" Shining looked at his cards as Celestia finished dealing them. "He saves us so much time, and we don't even have to find a foalsitter!"
Luna clicked her tongue, glancing at her own hoof of cards and throwing another token towards the centre of the table. "Will you at least do something once purple smoke starts coming out of her eyes?"
"I wouldn't be the weirdest thing she's done." Cadence took another sip. "In fact, I give it another year at most before he taps out and comes to us for help."
"I give it six months," Twilight said as she raised.
"Bet?"
"Bet."
Shining gave one more look at his cards, then folded out. "Hey, speaking of bets. I've got this ongoing one with Flash about when exactly I'll get my wings. So, uh, any news on that?"
Cadence took another sip of wine, while the other focused on their cards.
"I'm getting those wings, right girls?"
Silence, broken only by Night Light's snoring.
"Girls?"