Before a Pony's tale
Many moons had passed since the day the Umbrum were born. The male umbrum, that would be given the name Howling Mountain, and the female, who wouldn't be named for quite some time, traveled togeather in search of the only source of food for them. Fear.
The third Umbrum, who was physically injured by the unicorn filly's light blast, was never found by the other two. Not that they really went looking for the injured one. Hunger and rage were all the Umbrum knew. That, and how to install fear in the hearts of others so they could feed. Much like their creator, the Umbrum found they could channel their energy into their bodies, concentrate it, and blast it in bursts of black and purple bubbling magic from their eyes, mouths, and in the female's case, her horn. Their spells, if they hit their mark, would cause a creature to see halisinations specific to that creatures worst fears, leaving the creature weak, helpless, and their fear ripe for the picking to the Umbrum. An easy meal.
The Umbrum found they grew stronger with every meal they consumed. Traveling togeather, the Umbrum ventured around the world, spreading fear to every creature they met. Dragons, griffins, yaks, sea serpents, it didn't matter, they all became prey to the Umbrum. But the Umbrum never forgot the most delicious meal they had was that of the pony tribe that they only tasted before being cast away. The thought of their meal that got away, the richness of that fear was unlike any other they had since. But the Umbrum knew it was too risky to try and feed off ponies, less they end up like the missing third Umbrum. The female Umbrum was cunning, though, and was always watching, observing the world around her, trying to find a way to get the upper hoof so she might enjoy a pony feast.
Many years past, and the creatures of the primal world became intelligent, or atleast more so then they had been when the Umbrum first walked the world. The dragons made claim to their own lands of fire rock, the hippogryphs nested atop a mountain to the south, the griffins to the east, yaks to the north west, and ponies seemed to make the main land home. The Umbrum never needed a place to call their own, it was only the two of them, and their diets required them to travel. They could never stay in one place and recieve the nessisary amount of food.
After leaving a yak village, having fed upon the proud but still frightened yaks, the two Umbrum found themselves in a forest of crystals. Most of the crystals were as tall as trees, reaching to the sky, and all of different shades of blues, greens and purples. But one group of crystals caught the female's eye. A group of black crystals, more jagged then the others, lay in the center of this rock jungle. They seemed to call out to the Umbrum, summoning them to stand in the center of them. As the two Umbrum obeyed this silent message, the dark crystals began to glow, feeling the energies given off by the two Umbrum. The Umbrum didn't know it, but the dark crystal anomily that had been waiting for them, required both of them present.
An idea popped into the female's head to focus her magic into the crystals around her. As she did, the Howling Mountain did the same. The crystals took all their magic in and began glowing, bubbling with the dark magic they had become enfused with. Moments later, after the two Umbrum used up almost all their magical energy, something stired inside the crystals. The couple watched as a shadowy creature like themselves emerged from the reflective side of a dark crystal. It was an umbrum not unlike them. A creature that walked on four hooves, a flowing smoke like mane and tail, but unlike its parents, this umbrum had wings on its back, not feathery like a bird, or insect like, but wings none the less. As it emerged it snapped at the couple, the couple growled at it, and let the youngling know where it stood. The youngling lowered its head in respect and looked around as others were born the same way. All round the Umbrum couple, smaller umbrum began to emerge from the dark crystals. Some with wings like their first youngling, some with horns like the female Umbrum, some with neither like the Howling Mountian.
By the end of the emerging, there were now three dozen or so umbrum, plus the original couple. The couple chuckled in delight, now they had numbers, and could go and feed on the delicious fear of ponies without their own fear of the light.
The umbrum then set forth like a storm, spreading fear across the land of ponies, consuming every last bit of the pony's fear and growing stronger then ever! Not even the magical ponies with light creating horns could stop them now! For many moons, the umbrum rode free across the land of ponies. One day, when the umbrum had ventured back to the forest of crystal, they were approached by a cloaked pony, one who bore the mark of the sun and stars on her cloak. A unicorn mare, taller then most ponies.
She warned the umbrum that if they continued to torment ponies as they did, she would have no choise but to lock them away. Although the umbrum's own intelligence had caught up with the nolonger primal world, and could understand the warning of the tall unciorn, they didn't care to listen. They chuckled as they leaped at her, planning on filling her with fear then draining every last drop out of her.
But the cloaked unicorn mare was prepared for this, and flipped her cloak off her body, revealing three stones that glowed and hovered around her. The stones put up a barrier that stopped the umbrum from ever reaching her. Reluctantly, the unicorn cast a spell that sealed the umbrum away, deep, deep underground, imprisoned for all time. The only hope of escape the shadow creatures had would be if somecreature foolishly release them with the power of the unicorn's corner stones that were used for the seal.
Much time had passed; long enough for the land above the umbrum to turn to ice and snow, the Crystal forest harvested by ponies to build their own empire. Time and time again, the umbrum faught against their underground imprisonment, and little by little, they began to chip away at the imperfect seal. Until the umbrum finally broke free! They saw the world around them was cold and dark, but not far from their prison was a Crystal paradise, with ponies who's hearts didn't know such fear. But they would.
The umbrum ravished the land of Crystal, feeding off the ponies, making up for the years spend sealed away. Until another tall unciron mare stepped forward. She wasn't so kind to the umbrum as to offer them mercy. They offerd none to her little ponies, why should she offer it to them? The tall unicorn mare levitsted a large crystal in the shape of a heart over head and focused her magic into it. The light from the Crystal Heart not only pushed back the umbrum, but sent them back to their prison. The tall unicorn followed the trail of the umbrum, and using the combined effort of the three legendary corner stones of her ancestor, with her own Crystal Heart, the tall unicorn resealed the umbrum away.
Many more moons had passed, and every 12th moon the seal to the umbrum's prison was restangthened by the magic channeled through the Crystal Heart. The ponies had learned that by channeling their own magic through the heart that they could restangthen the spell on the umbrum's prison. If nothing changed, if the heart remained where it was, and the ponies continued to fill it with magic, the umbrum's fate was sealed.
Some umbrum settled down in their underground prison, making homes for themselves like the creatures above ground who were free. Some umbrum practiced magic in hopes to break their seal. Some umbrum even found dark crystals in their underground prison and mimicking their creators, utilized them to create families for themselves. The original female Umbrum and the Howling Mountain themselves made one more umbrum youngling, a small, weak little thing, that had never tasted fear.
Seeing his young son in so desperate need of food, the Howling Mountain made an attempt to break free. He knew that if HE could just get loose, he could gather those stones that sealed his kin and release them back onto the world! With the help of his horned children, the Howling Mountain was able to travel out of their prison through red crystals they made that reached the surface. But that was the last time the umbrum ever heard from the Howling Mountain.
Many more moons passed, and the umbrum learned to survive on eachother's rage as a poor substitute for delicious fear. But the original female Umbrum, hated surviving like cannibals.
The female Umbrum knew the crystals used to send her husband to the surface were weak and she would never be able to press forward herself as he did. But another, smaller umbrum, could if it took another form.
The female told her other younglings of her proposal. Turning to her weakly son, she and the others gathered togeather, and blasted the smallest youngling with their dark magic, painfully forcing him to take the form of a pony, and pushing him through the red crystal exit. The female was able to watch though the red crystal as ponies spotted her newly transformed son, and carried him away. All the umbrum could do was wait.
It wasn't many years after that that the female saw somepony approach their crystal from the snowy distance. The tall unicorn spoke to them though the Crystal, claiming to have befriended Howling Mountian and seen the youngling, they called Sombra, grow and develop into a promising adult. The tall unicorn claimed that it was possible for the umbrum to live peacefully with ponies, and offered to find a way togeather for them to coexist. The female Umbrum agreed to such a proposal, but the tall unciorn was smart, and would only let the umbrum out one at a time to keep any chaos from breaking loose.
The original female offered to go first to pathe the way for her younglings. The tall unicorn, known to the ponies as Princess Amore, lowered the magical force feild that held the prison togeather. Only too late did Amore realize the female Umbrum could not be trusted, and soon found herself in an epic battle with the female Umbrum. The battle left both parties weak, and in a desperate attempt, the female Umbrum turned her body into its most basic essence to save energy, and fused her essence with Amore. The female Umbrum was able to control Amore and overpower the princess's mind, taking control of the unicorn body like a puppet.
The female Umbrum made a shelter with her magic to allow her host body to heal from the wounds of the battle, all the while having to mentally fighting off princess Amore from within. Days had passed, and slowly,, the female Umbrum pushed Amore's mind into submission. Not long after her victory did the female Umbrum watch from a distance as a hunting party of armor clad ponies searched for their missing princess Amore. To the female's suprise, the saw her own son, Sombra, leading the group, clad in pony armor. The female remained silent and hidden, letting the group of ponies pass her by, all the while looking through Amore's memories.
Not only had Sombra been raised to believe he was a pony, but he was traimed I'm the royal guard and rose to the level of captain! A captain of the royal guardsmen! Who's job it is to protect ponies! PONIES! Even worse, the female Umbrum found memories of her own husband, Howling Mountain, having also taken a pony form and made friends, FRIENDS, with the ponies! It was HE who convinced Amore that umbrum might be worthy of change! So Howling Mountain didn't exactly fail the umbrum, but he grew to favor the ponies more! This boiled the blood of the female Umbrum. To think her own husband had turned his back on his own kimg! His own children! On her! She would get her revenge one day. But it would be many, many moons before she could attempt such a feat.
In the time since stealing princess Amore's body, the female Umbrum had taken up the name 'Mourning Cloak' having cloaked the beloved princess from her kind, forcing the ponies to assume the worst.
Sometimes fate lends a helping hoof.
Mourning Cloak was approached out of the blue by Sombra. He had been on a hunting party, the ponies still looked for their missing princess, refusing to give up hope. Mourning didn't reveal herself to her son, but instead spoke though a red crystal she had made, telling him of who and what he REALLY, as well as telling him it was his destiny to release his kin. But Sombra didn't take the news as Mourning had hoped, and ran off, upset and confused.
Mourning Cloak knew if she wanted to free her kind and rule over the world once more, she needed to turn more wheels herself. But she didn't have the strength to do much in her current form. She traveled quickly across the arctic tundra, following the scent of her son's fear, until she came to a pony village, no, an Empire, made of crystal! Mourning didn't delay her quest and pressed forward to find her son. Fate had helped her again as she caught him writing a letter to somepony. His heart filled with fear and worry. Mourning seized an opportunity to feed, and she cast her spell to feed on the delicious fear of her own son. The letter he had been writing dropped from his hooves.
Mourning Cloak wss able to view Sombra's worst fear for herself as she locked him in his darkest nightmares, his heart's worst fears. In the dark dream, Mourning witnessed somepony, tall and proud, with a flowing mane of cool colors, a long horn, and breath taking wings! An alicorn princess! She seemed to be somepony Sombra cared about. No. Loved!? Sombra actually fell in love with a pony! Mourning Cloak couldn't believe it! This wasn't some delusion, otherwise it wouldn't hit him this hard! She reciprocated his feelings! And something else Mourning Cloak saw... some PONY else...a stallion? Yes. But Sombra knew him. He was... Sombra's son! Sombra had a child!? With a pony!? A PONY!? A PONY PRINCESS!?
The thought of such a monster being born of her own kind repulsed Mourning Cloak. She would deal with that abomination later. But for now, she had filled Sombra's heart with dout and planted the seed of rage. All she had to do now was wait.
The pain of betrail in Sombra's heart grew, turning him into a dark king, a shadow king! He cast the ponies of the Crystal Empire in chains and forced them to mine where the Umbrum prison was, which happened to have been directly under the Crystal castle. Everything was falling into place. As soon as the umbrum were free, Mourning Cloak would take her place as the rightful ruler of her kind, make Howling Mountain pay for his betrayal, then lead her kind to conqure this new world!
Unfortunatly, fate had a different direction in mind.
Mourning Cloak watched from a short distance away as Sombra faught off and defeated some yellow colored unicorn pony, skillfully using dark magic. But rather then deliver a final blow, Sombra oddly cast a spell to seal the yellow pony in stone, and sent the stone hurdaling into the sky, far beyond the stars. Why he did that, Mourning Cloak didn't know or really care.
A small army of armor clad ponies gathered at the boarder of the Crystal Empire, lead by two taller ponies who not only had horns but wings as well. Alicorns. Mourning Cloak could tell these two ponies would be a problem, and fled, leaving her son to face them himself. Once at the boarder of the Crystal Empire, opposite the side with the army of ponies, Mourning Cloak sat and watched the events unfold.
Sombra was forced back into his shadowy foarm and sealed away beneath the ice and snow. This Mourning Cloak could deal with at her leisure. She could simply release him, when she had the strength. She just needed a few days of rest. She wasn't concerned for Sombra being locked away for that long. But Sombra's back up plan kicked in. He had cast a spell that would seal away the Crystal Empire should anything happen to him. Mourning Cloak watched as the Empire and her only hope of conquest vanished. She let out a horrid scream that became muffled by the ragging snow storm.
She would have to wait a 1000 years before Sombra would be free once more. And so she did. But she made great use of her time and Amore's body. As Mourning fed from the fear of her victims, travaling all around Equestria, her power grew, but it was never enough for the ancient Umbrum. She always craved more and more power. The fear she drained managed to keep Amore's body young and fit, but Amore's mind went dormant. Waiting for the day when her knight in Shinning Armor would free her...