Chapter four

A pair of bright green and red eyes slowly peal open and swivel about in the dim light. It’s cold, damp, and musty like where ever he is doesn’t get much air flow. There’s a hard knocking in the back of the colts head like he took a 2x4 to the noggin, and a pool of mucus deep in his throat the instant he takes his first breath in a long, long time. All of this would matter little to one long sense dead pony.

Though right now, he can actually feel all of it now.

King Sombra shoots up off the ground from his back, and props himself up with his fore legs behind him. Hacking up nearly a lung and a half from his throat after so long without any air flow. It gives the once tyrant a second or two to look about his surroundings. The only light source being a faint magical glow of a candle spell radiating from the side of the room that he had been placed in. All the while his eyes adjust the best he can to his enclosure. “This isn’t the Tartarus I’ve come to know?” he questions his own eyes and brain for what is registering inside him. Though while his eyes may still be playing catch up, his ears are in perfect working order still.

A small tapping forces them to twitch left and right for but a moment as the king realizes that footsteps are getting closer and closer as they resonate off the walls to him. Sombra gets up on all fours and silently walks over to the doorway to the room. Nothing more than a tunnel leading off to the rest of where ever he is, but its distance from the spell does give him the dark covering that he was looking for. Just as he does, a single form comes through carrying a basket in its teeth. The changeling never sees the blow delivered to the back of her head by Sombra’s hoof as the impact splits the skin and leaves his target falling face first in to the ground with a thud.

Once she has collapsed to the ground and he is sure that the coast is clear from now. Sombra ducks down and looks through the basket while he wipes the blood stain off his hooves on to the ground. With a quick search drawing up nothing but medical supplies, probably intended for him. The one time king finds himself walking blindly down the path that the would be nurse made her way down, not using any magic to light his way in the hope to keep his mark to a minimum.

“Almost feel sorry for taking her out,” Sombra starts to chuckle to himself in hushed tones as he keeps his side to the wall to help guide him, “Almost that is.” The sound of a few heavier footsteps, the king stands fast and watches with what best he can manage in the shadows.

A few more changelings come his way, these ones aren’t a nurse like he dealt with. They are each clad in their own armor and carry a short sword across their back along with a shield, build tough and ready for battle. “Finally,” he whispers through is teeth, “a challenge.” with that he lunges from his cover between them with hooves spread wide and close lines them both to the ground. Neither one have time to let out a single word as he uses his hind hoof to mule kick one while he’s still down across the face with enough force to snap his neck and take him out of the fight for good. The tuned ears on his head pick up the sound of a sword being unsheathed from its holder, and after a simple duck from the over compensated swing. Sombra draws the dead changeling’s sword from its own holder and darts it in to the chest of his attacker. Still pushing in to him until it pierces through the back of his armor and leaves the gasping soldier stuck to the wall.

The king slides up to the changelings side and covers his mouth while watching the blood slide down his partners blade and on to the ground pooling itself, all the while seeing the life slowly drain from his eyes in the dim light. The sight of more blood being spilled by his own hooves even excites the king enough to share a simple giggle like a filly with himself. “I still haven’t lost my touch,” he says, pulling the two sheaths off the dead guards and holstering them on his back to use later if need be. It’s then he notices something he should have seen before hand, ‘damn! I don’t have my cape!’ Sombra screams in his head.

The blood red royal cape is as much of a signature to him as the crystal heart that put an end to his rein is to the Crystal Empire. ‘How could I have lost that?’ he questions himself, before remembering that he was technically dead for quite some time before somepony brought him back. It’s a good excuse to forget a piece of clothing. Looking back at the bodies of the guards though it comes to his attention that this may help a bit. He removes one of their helmets and places it over his own head while taking off some of their armor and doing the same. It may not do much to cover all of his face or fit that well across his body, then again with his dark coat similar to theirs it may give that moments time when the enemy hast to do a double take. In that time, his already blood stained sword can slide in to them as well.

Able to avoid other larger groups of changelings along his travels, he eventually reaches atop an overhand to a large cavern. Adorned with a large pool of glowing water and gems sparkling everywhere. The twinkle that they give off lights up the eyes of a king who once ruled an empire that would mine such an item. “Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” he nearly drools at the view from the precious stones everywhere around him.

“They are quite lovely, aren’t they?” he hears a near hiss behind him, a female’s voice.

Whipping around he has just enough time to draw the sword and block the magical green blast that was meant for him. However, even with the block it still has enough force to push him over the side. Being weighed down by armor doesn’t help as he hits the ground and the impact reverberates in to his bones, but as his head snaps back and hits the ground, Sombra’s glad he took the helmet. Getting back to his feet, he takes off the collapsed headdress as it now obstructs his view and tosses it aside. No point in wearing it now after all. The former Crystal Empire ruler looks up to see who attacked him, only to find a larger changeling flying down to the ground with her wings buzzing away.

Queen Chrysalis lands before him with her wings folded back. For a stallion who has been killed recently and before that banished from his own kingdom. Seeing a mare before him is a wonderful thing to behold, then again, she did just fire upon him.

Sombra snaps back in to reality and shakes his head to get his thoughts in order. Taking a stance he drops the half melted blade and brings the second sword to his side while conjurering a magical ward shield to block whatever she can do to him. The look on her face goes from blank stare to grinning, then capping off to the queen bursting out in to sinister laugh. “Do you really…think that will…help?” she says between breaths as she tries to compose herself. Chrysalis fires off another magical blast at her target. A small shock wave is sent through the air of the cave while the monarch waits to see her results, to her surprise though when the smoke clears from the impact, Sombra still stands there strong. “Well it seems I’ve underestimated you, Sombra.”

“That you have!” he yells out at her as he lunges forward and tries to slash across her neck.

The queen may have been defeated long ago and left in substandard conditions, but that doesn’t mean she lost her touch either. Sombra expertly handles the blade in his magical aura grasp swiping it whichever way he can, though Chrysalis dodges every attack. Using her wings to power herself to one side or the other while his blade does nothing more than cut the air between them. It eventually gets to the point where the king realizes that this is going to be a never ending battle, and although he stopped her powerful attack, the king won’t be able to keep that up for long. Sombra charges up his red horn with his own magic and prepares his own attack. A blackened orb shoots out along the tip and starts to bounce across the ground before coming close to her and exploding in a shower of red spikes darting all around like a grenade.

Against any other target, that would have killed them instantly. Though for a queen just as powerful as himself, Chrysalis’s own ward reflects the shards without problem as they dig in to the ground around her. “You’re going to have to do better than that!” she taunts with an ever so devious grin across her face while lighting up her magical appendage and launching a single bolt of green lighting traveling his way.

With a pound of his hoof to the ground, several of the gems that litter this area leach out and fuse together creating a reflective shield that he holds to his hoof and braces for the attack. The charge surges across their surface, though the magic reflects off of them as he guides it right back at the queen. Forcing her hoof as she tuck and rolls out of the way, recovering in time to see the king drop his shield and charge up his own horn once more.

Seeing this, the queen does the same in record time while they both light off against one another. Each of their rays deflecting off one another as it vies for control of the other like an intense match of tug-of-war. Neither side winning, as it pushes one another back and forth, eventually though it gets to the point of the energy between them building up and building as it breaks apart in the center and collapses in on itself from the pent up energy surge. The shockwave that travels out is enough to send both parties to the ground as other changelings that were once obvious to the combat before them see the spell go off and take notice finally. They don’t help their queen for the fear that they may get in the way, also the fact that they know she can take care of him herself in a simple one on one match up.

Chrysalis shakes her head while black spots start to dot her vision, putting a hoof to her neck to hear the throbbing of her own heart. ‘That was surprising. I need to work on some defensive spells in the future,’ she mutters in her head as she starts to look around.

Eying Sombra still across from her on the ground, he starts to stir, but before he can fully recover Chrysalis floors over to him. Galloping to get a head start before beating her powerful wings to push herself along, she tackles him back to the ground. Pinning his legs beneath hers she stays on top of him and watches him struggle. It takes a few minutes for her to realize that he isn’t going to stop struggling underneath her, no matter how weak he may be getting from just waking up from deaths door. So to cut it short she tries to get his attention a different way. Pealing a hoof off of him and bringing it extended out to her side, Chrysalis slaps him across the face before he can use his free hoof for anything.

The shock of the smack is enough for the king to bring his own hoof to face and feel the stinging cheek that the mare left. His eyes go dead set on hers as they meet in the middle once more while no words are spoke for but a moment, even after she leaves her hoof off of him.

“No one has ever slapped me across the face before like a foal,” Sombra bites down on his teeth, pushing his face in to a halfhearted smirk. “Is that how you treat your prisoners?”

“Oh believe me if you were a prisoner you wouldn’t have gotten out as easily as you did,” she scorns him with a wicked grin of her own. “Keep in mind while you were out I had more than enough opportunity to kill you.”

“Then if you were trying to keep me alive, why did you fire upon me!” Sombra spits back at her, literally.

Wiping the saliva from her face, she lets him back up as they take a few paces from one another to give each other some space in case of another fight. “You gave my nurse a concussion and killed two of my guards all after being up for what? Less than five minutes?!”

“That’s slow for me,” he grins at her, watching the temper in her start to rise as he pokes and prods every button he can find, “I could have done better if I wanted to, but then again being resurrected and returned to a mortal form will take some energy out of you.”

“You’re welcome by the way,” she rolls her eyes. Not even expecting an apology from him for his actions, but then again if she was in his position she would have probably kept on fighting. “Then again I hope you know I didn’t bring you back to argue with you, or get in a petty bout with a once dead king?”

King Sombra raises a questioning glare at her and thinks of what she just said, “Then why did you bring me back?”

All the queen does is snicker at him and turn to walk away as the changelings around her clear a path as she walks towards them. Stopping momentarily to look back at him when she doesn’t pick up the sound of him. “Well? Are you coming?” the king gallops for a short distance to pick up the pace as they walk side by side through the cave system that the once powerful queen calls home now, and soon both of them will.

The queen walks with the new comer, or more so the other way around. Explaining it all while he’s been gone, catching him up to speed on what has happened in Equestria lately from the parts that he missed. “We both have fallen from our own pedestals. You ruled an entire kingdom and I almost captured Equestrias capital in record time,” she whips her hair back in his face, proud of that fact.

“And you lost it because of a wedding couples love of all things,” he points out mocking her.

Chrysalis snaps her head biting down on her fangs, “and you were brought down because of a young mare with a major study habit!”

“Who do you think found you out, and brought back the princess you were trying to replace?!” he yells back at her, getting mere inches from the queen’s muzzle. They both can feel the others breathe brushing past them, the hot air getting even hotter as tensions rise up in both. Before anything goes farther though, Chrysalis backs her head up and chuckles to herself.

“You know,” she starts off, walking slowly away from him with a single eye still locked on him behind a bang of hair, “you’re kind of cute when you’re pissed.”

Sombra pauses for a moment to try and think of a snappy comeback. Though between the pints of blood rushing to his face, and the feeling of his heart pounding in his chest vibrating across his body and in the armor he wears. The king is left dumbfounded at the queen flattering him. Mentally slapping himself, he goes right back to her side with his head slightly lower. “That’s not fair,” he almost spits out, seeing the prideful grin plaster her face.

“I know it isn’t, but in our bickering you may have noticed something similar in our stories.”

“We both were brought down by something very moronic?” he answers sarcastically.

“Well close, the same unicorn, or Alicorn now,” she corrects herself, “now known as Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Chrysalis reads the confused look on his face and remembers he’s been gone for a while, “Oh yea, she got a promotion. Twilight is now being mentored by Celestia in eventually leading her own kingdom when the time comes, among the other things that every little pony princess should know.”

“How do you know all this?” he wonders.

“My subjects are changelings,” she states the obvious while answering flatly with a deadpanned expression, “it’s really not that hard to get a spy put in to a castle when you can blend in as any pony you need to. Anyway where was I? Oh yes,” the queen says as they continue to walk about the caves, “the good news is that the elements of harmony that they so love to use. Have now been turned back to which they came, The Tree of Harmony-”

All of this is nearly lost upon the king as he pipes up and cuts her off, “what in all levels of Tartarus is that?”

“All I know is that’s where they originated,” she answers him. “The two regal sisters found them hundreds of years ago and used them to bring down Discord for the first time around when he reigned over Equestria. However, with them gone there may be a chance.”

She steps away while Sombra pauses in mid step in the middle of a hallway. Trying to figure it all out as he sorts through the information. Cleary the Queen has done her homework, there’s just one issue. “Where do I fit in this idea of yours?” he asks to try and clear that last bit of fog in his head, “you have a plan of some sort, and you need help for it. Though why did you go out of your way to bring me back to life to get me on your side?”

Chrysalis stops for a moment and back petals to him, not answering for a few seconds as she takes a different route. Coming to the same overhang where she launched him off less than an hour ago. They watch over the entire cavern as she explains some of the bigger bits to him. “The fact of the matter is you are the only ally I could hope to have. With Nightmare Moon returned to Princess Luna some time ago, and Discord playing daddy with Celestia and their kids-”

“What in the hay is going on in this world!?!” he shouts out in surprise at the last line.

The queen just giggles to herself and rolls her eyes in response, “I know… I never would have seen it coming either. Discord got reformed and eventually from working together with her. He and Celestia got even closer…blah…blah… blah. One of the strangest love stories I’ve hear,” Chrysalis tells him still not able to really believe it herself fully, “never the less it happened. Which means you were the only one I really could hope to call on to act as an ally. Your evil, I’m evil, it doesn’t take a math whiz to figure that one out of what we could do?”

“Clearly this is going to be a volatile partnership,” he grins at her. Recalling the events of their first real meeting after he has been up for such a short time.

The changeling mare rolls her eyes at him yet again, quickly following it up with nothing more than an all too sincere smile, “oh trust me I’m going to want to kill you before the time is up. Then again we have a common enemy, and rule of hoof dictates that 'the enemy of my enemy, is my friend'. In this case it couldn't be more true. Alone we were defeated by them and pushed even lower than we had been in years, perhaps together we can destroy them and take what is ours. With the elements gone, and my own plan, it should be possible.”

“And what is your plan?”

The queen gives him a sly grin before answering, “Ill fill you in as we go,” she avoids the question almost entirely, “you want your kingdom back, and I want to level Equestria,” she turns and extends a hoof his way, seeing the look on his face turn to something of bewilderment, “help yourself by helping me. What do you have to lose?”

The King thinks about all his options for a few minutes. Coming up with nothing though, she has a point. They were both brought down by Twilight and her friends. With a little back up and working together. Maybe that will give the extra support they need to win and finish the job they each started long ago. If they don’t try to kill one another first. He takes her in hoof as they shake on it. The same devilish grin on their face as the other. “I get my kingdom at the end of this?”

“And we both get to kill those that have done this to us,” she shakes back.

“Sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“Of course it is,” she holds a regal hoof modestly to her chest, “I came up with it after all.”

“Then again,” he starts to bring up a crucial fact as they take their hooves away from one another and start to head off again down the caves, “being lost for such a long time gives another issue to me of being weak when it comes to spells. Considering it took nearly all my strength to do what you saw earlier.”

He starts to hate himself for telling her this, almost waiting for a smart ass comment.

“Hmm could have fooled me. I was surprised that you managed what you did,” she replies simply much to his surprise. However, the smart ass comment isn’t far behind, “I guess you can still show a mare a good performance when the time calls for it?” she snickers back at him ever as flirtatious as she was before with a wink, receiving a glare in return.

“I take back what I said about a ‘volatile partnership,’” he corrects himself while looking back at his new partner square in the eyes without even a blink, “I think I’ll go for ‘homicidal time bomb’ instead.”

“I give it a week before I bite your throat out,” Chrysalis mocks without missing a beat, licking her fangs and letting the saliva drip off them.

“We’re going to go back and forth with this all the time aren’t we?” he raises an eye brow to her.

“Well me being a smart mouth to you and pissing you off, makes it easier to deal with your own ass,” she points out for him, “never the less I see us getting in to another fight here soon.”

“Couldn’t agree with you more.”

“Probably one of the few things we do agree on,” she emphasizes to him. “Never the less. What about you’re missing power? How can you get stronger, because if you’re no use to me then I can end my torment now.”

Sombra laughs under his breath, but still loud enough to let her hear so he can tick her off even more than she already is. “I drew a lot of my power from the crystals in my kingdom, it’s why I had slaves to mine them for me. Also why you were probably able to bring me back to life by using crystals from my old empire, am I right?” he watches as the queen confirms what he just said, “my essence was trapped in them over the years, a part of me is left in every single one. I’ll need original crystals to get my full power back.”

Chrysalis starts to shake her head, wishing she brought more from the empire and stored them, “Well then we have somewhat of a minor setback, because the ones I used to bring you back were destroyed in the process.”

“That I would have figured,” he ponders with a hoof to his chin, “so somehow I have to get back in the empires castle and steal some from many vaults in the castle. After all that’s where they were stored, and this new Princess and her husband have no reason to remove them.”

The queen starts to smile after hearing this, “well then that should be easier then you may think. As I said I have spies, and a few are in the empire itself,” she informs him as they enter the main caverns ground floor among the other changelings. All of them now eyeing the pair as they walk by. “They can get you in there, and you can get your crystals.”

“I like how this is turning out,” he starts off as they step up to another cottage right next to the queens herself.

She stops him and opens the door as they both fall in. The settings are basic at most. A few scavenged rugs around, several book shelves for all the readings of a queen to keep her mind sane, and a couple cabinets to store the necessities. With a single hallway, more or less, leading off to what would amount to the bed rooms. But then again after being more or less dead for years now. Anything will be comfortable at this point. “And this is where you will be staying,” she points out to him, “it’s not the usual royal settings that were both used to, but what would you expect after being tossed out of our rightful places?”

“Oh I suppose it will do,” he answers Chrysalis while going over the setting with a fine toothed comb.

“I could chain you up like a dog for when I need you?” the queen remarks, “if that would make you feel more comfortable?”

“Do you have the collar?” Sombra answers swiftly, leaving her now stumbled for a second as he turns his attentions away from her.

He can’t see it, but a genuine smile crosses her face after the little snide remark. ‘This maybe more fun than I would have expected out of a tyrant like him,’ she thinks, opening a wardrobe off to the side, ‘but then again you have a tyrant talking to another such as herself,’ the queen steps off so he can see what she has.

Presented before him is a new suit of armor, all crafted long ago but never worn. Decorated with multiple jewels placed ornately across it, and now being adorned with the same color pattern as the stallion it is for. Onyx plates glistening against the candles that are lit around them to light up the home, while the jewels that sit do the same and give him the same look of wonder that the king had when he came in to the cavern. Along with it a matching sword, all done up with a serrated edge for more tearing power against its sharpened curved edge, and a shield just as strong to top it all off.

“Your armor is old,” she says to him, all the while Sombra steps up in a gasp as he looks over the piece admiring the craftsmanship that was put in it, “I figured that you could use a new set. Seeing as this isn’t going to end cleanly for any pony now is it?”

Sombra just looks at her with an evil smile across his face as he thinks of all the possibilities that he can do with what he’s just been given, he wants to say ‘thank you,’ but that isn’t quite his nature, “If it doesn’t get covered in your blood first.”

She grins back at him in the same way. Even through his comment, she can still see the appreciation that he has for the piece and the gratitude in his eyes, “Let’s keep it clean, for now. We’ll have all the time in the world to kill one another after Equestria has fallen.”