The hallways of the Canterlot castle were mostly silent, nopony was allowed in unless they had specific approval from the royal sisters. A sole pair of guards patrolled the hallways, their hoof-guards echoing through the desolate halls with their posture statuesque. Suddenly, a high pitch scream reverberated off the stony walls, causing the pair to flinch. It wasn’t the first one of the night but they were just so piercing that they always managed to shatter the stoic resolve of the guards, even when they were two of the most experienced in the force. One final blood-curdling screech later and they died down, much to the relief of all the guards situated within the castle and the surrounding grounds.

Inside Luna’s personal quarters stood Celestia, her two closest hoofmaidens and a unicorn stallion that all of Equestria had come to know as the Princess of the Night’s special somepony and consort. He fit the role perfectly, his grey coat and royal blue mane complimenting her well, not to mention being so sought after by every other mare in Canterlot until they learned that only one would ever have his heart, one they could never hope to be in fair competition with.

Luna herself was worn out, but with a giddy grin plastered across her face as she held her newborn colt close to her. He was grey, like his father Argentum Noctis, with a small tuft of black atop his head. Noctis was standing on one side of the bed, holding Luna and his son close while Celestia gently nuzzled the foal.

“A colt, and we spent all that time on filly’s names, too. I suppose ‘Umbra’ is too fillyish for our little prince, right Lu’?”

“Sombra… Prince Sombra. Perhaps one day, King Sombra.” The two now-parents looked at each other, then to the colt with sparkles in their eyes. “Thou shalt rise to perform a great many deeds, little prince. Any wisdom thou wouldst like to impart on thine nephew, ‘Tia?” Celestia looked at the glowing couple before shaking her head with a gentle smile.

“There is plenty of time for our words in the future, for now you two should bask in the moment without our interference. We shalt have thine hoofmaidens awaiting thine beck and call outside.” The pair nodded and Celestia ushered out the two much smaller mares, whose eyes were red with the overload of emotions they were feeling right now. They had been at Luna’s side from before her consort had come into the picture and had helped her through her pregnant journey at every turn, so they felt the same if not a more amplified version of the current feelings. Their current state of emotion was only rivalled by the time when they were asked by both Noctis and the princess to be the foal’s godmothers, a title they had only ever dreamed about in their wildest fantasies. They suspected Luna’s dream walking to be associated with the offer, but they never cared because the offer was actually made and they held no regrets for accepting.

The door to Sombra’s nursery opened, the crack of light from the hallways outside acting as a beacon in the pitch black room. A white muzzle poked in through the doorway before the rest of the body followed, the mare casting her gaze around the room in order to find the gem that was enchanted to create the darkness. Once she finally located it she hit it with a burst of magic, dispelling the shadow that enshrouded the room to allow her to look for the colt.

“Sombra?” she called out, hoping for some kind of unintelligible noise that she could follow to gain a sense of direction in the crowded room. “It’s dinner time Sombra, come out so that I can prepare thou to be taken to thine mother for a feast.” She noticed her shadow twitch slightly, contrary to her own movements, but passed it off as the flickering light of the torches in the hall. Suddenly a foolish giggle resonated throughout the room with no discernible source, sending the mare into a slight panic.

“Sombra? Sombra, please come out. Pretty please? With a cherry on top?” The giggling increased in intensity, the echoing noise that reverberated throughout the hallways catching the attention of another mare who could very well have been a clone of the first were her mane not tied up differently.

“’Gel? What’s going on? Why haven’t thou prepared young Sombra for his dinner yet?”

“I can’t find him Gen’! I can hear him, but I can’t see him anywhere!” Angel called back out frantically, making Gentle gallop down the hall and into the room. She looked around the room, finding nothing out of place until the giggling started up again. The movement in the corner of her eyes was slight at best, but it’s easy to notice when your own shadow is laughing while you aren’t.

“He lives to his name, ‘Gel.” She leaned down to her sister’s shadow and poked it lightly, causing it to giggle more. “We hath found thou Sombra, the game is over.” The shadow made a small ‘aw’ noise before its horn glowed with a green and purple bubbling magic, much to the shock and confusion of the two mares, and pulled itself away to form a small grey colt in front of them.

The smell of urine told them enough as they cleaned him up and changed him in preparation for his dinner. Even though he was royalty he still wore a standard cloth nappy,  albeit the colour of his mother’s coat and father’s mane instead of the traditional white. It surprised the mares originally, but the explanation that it would be a waste of fine artistry was enough for them to see the reasoning behind it.

When Sombra was prepared he sat upon Angel’s head, forelegs grappled around her horn in foolish glee as they wandered through the halls of the castle. Every so often he would try to suckle on the tip of her horn, sending a shiver down his chariot’s spine and the sudden vibration causing him to giggle and forget about his hunger for another few moments before he tried it again. This repeated itself over and over again until they reached the room where they were to deliver the special package, knocking before entering Sombra first. The four ponies in the room’s eyes lit up upon the arrival of the fifth, instantly stopping their discussion to watch the young prince and his faithful steed.

“Princess Luna,” Angel started quietly to not divert the others’ attention. “Thou may wish to watch Sombra’s magic. His aura is… peculiar, if not abnormal. We suggest Archmage Starswirl might be able to shed some light on the matter.” Princess Luna looked towards the giggling foal before turning back to her hoofmaiden.

“What dost thou mean ‘peculiar, if not abnormal’?”

“It isn’t a transparent aura like thine own, nor any other magic user for that matter, and it made the room cold when he used it…” Luna nodded, noticing that the small colt had started to crawl her way.

“We thank thou for this information, we shall look into it.”

“Ah, my liege! To what do I owe this unexpected visit?” The source of the voice was an old unicorn with a light grey coat and mane, sporting an excessively long white beard that licked at the floor. More noticeable was his garb, the large pointed blue cap and robe decorated with stars, moons and small bells; the standard clothing for an overly eccentric mage such as himself.

“We are sorry to interrupt thou, Archmage Starswirl, but we are here on a matter of our son, Sombra.”

“Ah yes, the little prince! My, I haven’t seen the colt since he was yea big!” Starswirl reared back onto his hind legs to gesture a general size to the princess. “Dost thou require us to tutor him in magic? I would most certainly be honoured if that were the case, Princess.”

“No no, he is quite capable in that regard. It is a matter of his magical aura, it is like nothing we hath ever seen before. We hoped that thou wouldst be able to shed some light on the problem.”

“Well then where is the colt? I hath years of catching up to do with him!” Luna stepped aside to reveal the colt, his black mane swept back, tail cropped short and two slightly noticeable arrows across the top of his muzzle. Almost instantly Starswirl gasped with glee and teleported around the colt, looking him over. “My my, what a handsome young colt thou hath grown up to be.” He leaned in close to Sombra’s ear before whispering. “If there are any spells thine mother refuses to teach you, my door is always open.” Luna shot him a glare and he quickly teleported back to where he was when she entered. “Now! To inspect thine aura, young Sombra. Here, levitate this apple.”

An apple appeared on the floor in front of Sombra and he did as he was asked, focusing entirely on the apple as his bubbly magical aura enveloped it. He lifted it in front of Starswirl who had a look of shocking disbelief on his face, one that distracted Sombra long enough for him to drop the apple back to the floor with a thud.

“Is… Is something wrong, Archmage?” he said nervously, snapping the old unicorn out of his trance.

“No, nothing is wrong my colt… But wouldst thou allow me a moment with thine mother? Alone, that is.” Sombra nodded shakily and exited the room, the door magically closing behind him and getting coated with a soundproofing spell – an automation that the Archmage had implemented to prevent eavesdropping on his various researches. “He is a natural-born, Princess.”

“We know; we birthed him.” She deadpanned.

“No, a natural-born user of dark magic.” At Luna’s look of confusion he continued. “Most ponies versed in the arts of dark magic would be only able to do so after being imprinted by another or by reading a tome filled with the maddened incantations and scriptures of the old gods. Sombra appears to merely be born with the gift – or curse – unless he’s been allowed to venture into the collapsed segments of the royal library.”

“Nay he’s… He’s had this aura since he was first able to use magic, back in his little surges as a foal. What dost thou suppose would… become of him?”

“He’ll grow up to be a fine stallion I assure thou. However, I cannot be certain how the magic will affect him personally. Most… sufferers of dark magic hear voices in their mind, whispers that slowly drive them insane over a period of time based on how extensively they practised the dark arts. Natural-born users are rare indeed, but not unheard of, though I can’t say I know how he will be affected.”

“We… We do not know what we should do with this knowledge. While we of course hath heard of dark magic, we hath never had the experience of seeing it used ourselves.”

“Remove him from Canterlot.” Luna’s eyes widened and her mouth went agape, but before she had the chance to refute the Archmage’s suggestion he cut her off. “Dark magic works on fear, and even in our time of peace fear runs deep within the ponies of Canterlot. The nobility fears the common, fears the other nobility. If Sombra is to remain here, even within the castle’s confines, his magic will become empowered beyond the levels that both thou, thyself and thine sister would be able to combat.”

“W-We thank thou… Starswirl,” Luna said to the floor. “Forgive us, we hath plans to make.”

“I am truly sorry I do not know of a solution, Princess. I shall endeavour to learn more on the matter.” Luna took a deep breath as she reached the door to compose herself before facing her son. When she opened it she greeted him with a false smile, one she wore when around the nobility of Canterlot and had a sense of familiarity with.

Sombra stood in the massive doorway to the throne room, staring down the carpeted path to see his mother at the other end. The walk to her seemed to last forever; she never called him to the throne room. His little legs carried him, head held high to attempt to hide the fear he held of what she might have summoned him for. His mind ran through everything, from his midnight raids of the royal kitchen to not studying the magic he was supposed to and instead looking for cooler and more fun spells to perform. He only set fire to the room once though, and since he was already punished for that he had no idea what the problem could be.

As he neared the Princess of the Night, he could feel a surge of emotions flowing through her. They were not of anger or disappointment but… sadness, perhaps a hint of fear. He could see her tells, the true feelings behind the masks she wore and she was definitely holding something back.

“Our dearest prince,” she started, her voice wavering almost unnoticeably as she spoke. “We are sending thou away from Canterlot for a while…” Sombra’s jaw dropped and his eyes started watering. He didn’t deserve this punishment, whatever it was he did! “Thou… Thou art not in trouble, this isn’t punishment for anything.”

“Th-Then w-w-why?” Sombra had run up to her and grappled her foreleg, crying into her knee.

“P-Please little prince, quell thine emotions. It will not be for long, and thou will hath a guard accompanying thou.”

“I-I d-don’t want s-some stupid o-old  guard… I-I want y-you!” He dropped his trained royal speech in his sadness, but at this point neither of them cared.

Luna pried him off her leg and scooted him back a tad before stepping to the side to reveal a bat pony filly, around the same age as himself. She looked a tad hurt from his comment, but upon Luna’s nod she cautiously approached the sobbing colt who had yet to notice her.

“H-Hi,” she said nervously, failing to grab his attention. “I-I’m Hazel Skies, but everypony just calls me Haze.”

“Go away.” Sombra responded bluntly, causing Hazel to look back at Luna who merely flashed her a smile.

“What’s your name?”

“Thou know my name… Everypony knows my name.” he mumbled.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t count. C’mon, tell me!”

“Sombra…”

“Huh?”

"Sombra.”

“Diiidn’t quite catch that.”

“SOMBRA!” he screamed at her, making her wince at the sudden shift in volume. Tears started to well up in her eyes before Luna draped her wings around the two, pulling them close to either side of her.

“Come now, little ones, thou hath a chariot to catch.” Next Chapter: Chapter Two Estimated time remaining: 18 Minutes