Their blades collided and Luna staggered back, a pulsating blue aura wrapped around the sword near her head. She’d unknowingly been retreating towards a corner of the throne room, each of the King’s heavy blows driving her back a step.

The throne room lay empty, the usual tables and chairs shoved against the walls; each weapon clash cutting clearly into the stillness of the night.

King Sombra spat his sword from his mouth to hold in a reddish aura. “You prepared to admit defeat, Princess?” A side of his mouth flipped into a grin, his dark blue eyes never leaving the mare’s.

Luna did her best to hide her own smile. He never went easy on her. She once told him never to do so and from then on he gave her his all. It was one of many things Luna would recall about the stallion, in that small pocket of time between dreaming and awake.

The color of his eyes. His straight gray horn. That wolfish grin of his as they clashed and fought in his vacant throne room. The heavy breathing and the sweat; the close calls when weapons swept too close for comfort.

Sombra’s only downfall was his arrogance, Luna knew. She’d only need wait until the perfect time to strike.

“Too winded for words, my dear?” he asked her, spinning his sword around his mane as he approached. “Battles to the death do not normally stop for rests, but if you ask nicely, I—”

Sombra’s sword shot out of his grasp, ten feet above him. As he glanced up, Luna unfurled her wings and soared to him, one hard kick to the chest sending him to the marble floors with his cape in a mess.

She rested her sword under his chin. His mild surprise disappeared as he smiled at her.

“Well, we can’t all be at our best in the middle of the night. Most ponies tend to sleep at night.” He removed a few bits of dirt from his chest plate, averting Luna’s stare. “So what does the victor have in mind, then? Usurp me and take my throne? I do not believe my citizens would take so kindly to a ruler from another nation.”

Luna released both swords and let them loudly clash to the floor. Removing her helmet, she pressed herself atop him until they were eye to eye. For the first time since their sparring match began, Luna finally loosened, returning the sly smirk.

“Could you barricade the throne room from outsiders, my King?”

Sombra brought a hoof to his chin. “The throne room is supposed to remain open at all times, except in cases of war. Luna, do you dare threaten the King?”

She giggled softly. “Perhaps I do.” She looked up and slid the wooden blank across the entrance doors, then pulled each window cover down. She looked back at her fallen foe. “You shall be made an example of, I regret. A Princess cannot let her peasants believe she would turn soft on account of dealing with a King.”

Luna lowered herself and kissed him on the cheek, then again closer to his lips.

Sombra sighed and rolled his eyes. “Very well, Princess, I shall accept my punishment with grace and poise. I only hope that my citizens can face their King again after learning of his exhausting defeat.” He brought a leg around her head and another behind her back, pulling her overtop of him. They kissed as he rolled her to her side.

When he pulled away from her, that wolfish grin was back on display.

“You’re not really leaving me tomorrow, are you?”

Knock-knock-knock.

Luna’s eyes shot open and her thousand year old dream slipped from her vision, the Sombra so close to her before now replaced by a silky pillow wrapped up in her legs. Angrily, she brought it to her muzzle and huffed, for the first time noting the golden rays of sun shining in through her tower windows.

“Is the Princess… awake… yet?” asked her servant outside the door, clearly winded from the many stairs that led to Luna’s private bedroom.

It had taken several years to be given a wing of the castle she could wholly call her own. Most nights, Luna wanted nothing more than silence and peace, away from the rest of the castle’s flux of political matters and all-around drudgery. Dealings better left to her sister.

“Is the Princess—” her servant began again.

“I am up!” she answered, first removing her face from her pillow, ignoring the wet circle where her mouth may or may not have recently kissed it. Taking a quick glance at the sun through the blinds, she asked, “Why am I up?”

“Umm….” her servant hesitated. “Princess Twilight Sparkle is here to see you. She told me you two had arranged to spend some time together this afternoon.”

Luna returned the pillow to her face. Her visit with Twilight had completely slipped her mind.

“Shall I tell her you’re on your way, Princess?”

Luna threw her pillow to the floor and stretched out along the bed. She let her head fall over the side as she eyed up the tiny box at the very center of her desk. To the box’s right sat a half-dozen tomes, and to its left, a helter-skelter bundle of various vials and flasks, some of their labels so yellowed and so old, the writing was nothing more than a smudge.

The rest of Luna slowly joined the rest of her body in slipping off the bed, her face lighting up in a grin.

“Has my latest order arrived?” she asked.

“Yes. Yes, it has. Just this morning. Shall I leave it outside the door, Princess?”

“Please, do,” Luna said with her cheek pressed again the cool stone floor. “And tell Twilight Sparkle I will be joining her soon.”

“Very good, Princess.”

Outside her door, she heard her servant set down her parcel and begin the many steps back to the rest of the castle. Though Celestia had suggested a unicorn for her personal servant, Luna wouldn’t trade her Earth pony assistant for anyone else. If they wanted to ditch the stairs, a unicorn could always teleport right to her. A couple hundred noisy hoofsteps always gave her tower room just the perfect amount of privacy.

Prying herself off the ground, Luna got to her hooves and retrieved the small brown bag outside her door. She placed it at the corner of her desk and pulled from the bag the last item on her list.

She traced a hoof atop the wooden box at the center of her desk, placing a thin blade by its side. Slowly, she opened its lid and fixed her gaze at all the chunks of red bone, some as large as the handle of her blade and some as tiny as a bit of sand. It had taken many a visit to the outskirts of the Crystal Empire to retrieve them all, and she would do it all over again, if need be.

Luna shut the lid. “I will see you tonight. I only hope you come back as the Sombra I remember.”

“You seem rather happy today,” Twilight said, as she sipped from her small coffee underneath the shade of the canopy.

Luna smiled and drank from her own cup—a larger one filled to the brim with Canterlot’s café’s strongest brew. It tasted bitter, but she drank it greedily. She’d need all the energy she could get come tonight.

“I feel good, Twilight,” Luna told her. “I have the feeling that things are finally settling into place, or will be rather soon.”

Twilight floated a few bites of her scone to her mouth. “Sorry I had to wake you, but this was really the only time I had to come see you. The girls all want to do different things now that they’re all in the city.”

Luna raised a brow. “All of your friends are in Canterlot?”

“For the week. Or maybe a little longer, depending on Rarity’s bit supply. She tends to buy a lot the first day, then lament about it for the rest of the trip. I’m sure we’ll all find time to get together with you and Celestia at some point.”

“That would be nice.”

Twilight glanced to the side of their table. “I was thinking that even tonight we might spend some time together. I always wondered just how you organized the night sky.”

Luna waved a hoof. “It is not as difficult as one would imagine; more tedious than amusing.”

“I would still be interested, Luna, even if we only spent the night looking at stars. I could bring my astrology kit, too. I told Spike to pack my backup kit, but I always carry an extra one around just in case.”

Luna’s smile faltered as she looked away from her. “Tonight… is not the best night for that. But I am sure we will find another time before you depart from Canterlot.”

Twilight returned to her coffee. “All right.”

Luna hesitated before asking, “Was it Celestia that invited you all here?”

She chewed on her scone. “We had always planned to visit for some time, but it was Celestia who suggested this week.” Twilight’s cheeks reddened. “But I might only be remembering that wrong.”

Luna giggled softly. “You do not need to try to hide why you are here with me now. I am not mad. Rather, I find it sweet. Celestia is only doing what she thinks is best, same as the six of you. I consider you all the very best of friends and am happy you are here.” She paused for a while, scanning the narrow tower on the castle that made up her room. “You know what the anniversary of today is, Twilight?”

“The day that you and Celestia defeated King Sombra.”

Luna nodded. “Yes. Over a thousand years ago and I can still remember most everything.” She turned to her. “I am sorry you and your friends had to deal with the same beast my sister and I had to. Whatever that thing was, was nothing like the Sombra I knew before.”

Twilight leaned across the table. “What was he like? I hope I’m not asking too personal of a question, but I’ve always wanted to know. Most history books remember him as a tyrant and little else.”

Luna gritted her teeth. “That is because they never knew the real King Sombra—the one I grew close to.” She fixed her gaze at the castle again, hovering her coffee close. “When the Crystal Empire was first discovered, I was sent there to learn of its ways and its crystal ponies. Ruling over all was their King—a just and passionate stallion that cared for each one of his citizens.”

Twilight lowered her head to stare at the table.

“I know that seems hard to believe,” Luna continued, “given the monster you saw at the Empire, but the stallion I found there had no curved red horn or venomous eyes to his appearance, nor any fangs to speak of. He was a normal unicorn and nothing more. One that placed the weight of an Empire on his shoulders. Under his rule, he turned a small city into a beautiful kingdom; meeting with citizens every day to fix what needed tending to. He was smart and gifted in magic. He was also sweet and kind, but never afraid of a fight.”

She sighed. “A one week visit soon turned to three months, and by that time Celestia nearly had to drag me back to Canterlot. When I wanted to show her all that I had seen, we found the Crystal Empire had sealed its doors and allowed no one in or out. Those that escaped… told tales of a mad King I did not want to believe.”

Twilight said, “And that’s when you went back to the Empire with Celestia?”

“Yes.”

“How did King Sombra react when you got there?”

“He did not remember who I was, but, truthfully, I could have said the same for him. He might have appeared like Sombra in every way, only I knew that something was wrong. Reflecting on it now, I sometimes wonder if all he needed was our help—to cure what was affecting him. But that Sombra was not about to give us that option.”

“What has befallen you?” she had asked the King on that fateful day.

At that, he laughed so deeply she could feel it in her heart.

“Do you ever think it might’ve all been an act?” Twilight asked quietly. "The three months you spent at the Empire?"

“No. And I never will.”

Twilight finished the rest of her coffee and stood. “I’m glad you told me about him. It’s sad that no one knows what he was actually like. He sounded like the type of stallion that I would like to meet.”

Luna stood and started walking up the street with her.

She thought, Maybe you will.

Five piles of brightly colored sand sat on the outskirts of a white chalk circle along the floor. Inside the circle were the items from Luna’s desk, some very old and some created only days prior. Slowly, methodically, Luna set each piece ablaze, giving the small circular room the sharp smell of spices and ash. With a leg, she waved away the smoke and returned to the text by her side.

The words on the pages were hard to understand—even harder to pronounce—but she recited each and every word with a clear and articulate tongue. She’d had more than enough time to practice them in the years since her return.

At the very center of the chalk circle lay the shards of Sombra’s horn. Luna tried not to stare; it only reminded her of the monster with the curved, blood red horn. If his horn does not change, does that mean this was all for naught? She levitated her thin blade to the outskirts of the circle, well within reach.

She extinguished the candles along the walls, leaving the half-dozen on the floor as the only source of light. When the sun descended, Luna took only a minute to place her moon into the sky. Shutting her window, she thought Good enough, and left the night to fend for itself.

Luna sat on the ground before her torchlit items, steadying her breath. A clear vial filled with red liquid hovered over his remains. Carefully, hesitantly, she turned it onto its side and its contents pooled around the horn.

Luna’s blood. Alicorn blood.

Then came the hardest part.

Waiting.

Luna had hardly set the vial down before it began.

As if hit with an electric charge, the shards of Sombra’s horn danced around inside the crimson pool, shaking closer and closer together. When one piece met another, they fused solid with a spark of bright light. Soon every part of his horn had connected together again, and it jittered and twitched amongst the blood.

From it came a wide series of lines, forming the outline of a creature. Each red string pulsated with an unseen heartbeat; more bright sparks helped illuminate the static shape lying on the floor.

Luna stood in front of it and held her blade close.

The thin red strings first doubled and then tripled, crisscrossing and layering until they formed a whole. A coat of gray fur grew from the shape, followed by a wavy black mane and a similar tail. The hooves grew last, then the fine details that made up the remainder of Sombra’s muzzle and mane.

His horn never changed. As curved and red as a dragon’s tooth just after a meal.

The body attached to it remained motionless.

Luna shook her head at the sight. “No. No! Not after everything I have done.”

She buried her hoof in his chest, causing the stallion’s jaw to shoot open and a swirl of ash to escape his lips. When Sombra tried to breathe, he coughed violently to his side. He kept his eyes shut tight.

Luna knelt overtop of him, roughly pinning him in place. “Open your mouth.”

Sombra answered by turning his head and loudly gagging onto the ground.

Luna pressed two hooves to his face and propped open his mouth.

No fangs, she thought calmly. That is favorable.

Next, she touched his horn with her hoof, assuring herself in its solidity. Luna cursed. His curved horn was no prop atop a normal one.

It might mean nothing, she told herself.

It might mean everything, her mind echoed back.

She pinned his head between two hooves again, resting the blade from the floor against his neck. “Open your eyes.”

For a moment, Sombra stopped coughing and simply choked on the dirt covering his tongue.

“Open your eyes,” she repeated.

Sluggishly, he did, squinting at the light from the candles.

Luna felt her eyes water.

The eyes looking back at her were blue, bloodshot around the edges—the eyes of the stallion she’d remembered so long ago.

The mad King her and her sister had vanquished before could hardly string a complete sentence together; usually nothing more than mere whispers and growls, if he could speak at all.

A tear coursed down her cheek. “Say something.”

“Why am I on the floor?” Sombra croaked out.

“Say something else.”

“Why am I so sore?”

“Say something relevant.”

He licked his dry lips. “Why are you overtop of me?”

“Say something more relevant… oh, damn it all.”

Luna found she couldn’t take it any more. As a single tear fell to the ground, so did the blade by his neck. She then pressed into him, making him wince. Holding him tight, she was unable to control herself as she kissed every single part of his face. Sombra received the brunt of her passion in near silence, staring at her with a tired expression of puzzlement and unease.

Eventually, Luna removed herself from him, the taste of ash on her lips.

Sombra coughed again. “That was nice and all, but would you mind telling me who you are, exactly? Or who I am? And why I’m on the floor, covered in dust?”

Luna was at a loss for words.

Not so favorable, she thought. Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Questions Estimated time remaining: 30 Minutes