Fear grips Doug as he gazes upon the three wanted ponies that just appeared in the middle of the stadium like lightning. And not just because of the fearful whispers traded back and forth, or the guards abandoning their posts to flee or form ranks in equal measure, or the way the four Princesses alight to join him, looking less like noble steeds charging into battle and more like anxious foals cowering as they await the foundation-shaking thunder. Especially fraught are the crystal ponies, their palpable fear apparent in flattened ears, downcast eyes, and subservient bows as if that might spare them from the coming wrath.

In sharp contrast, Radiant Hope looks about, wide-eyed with wonder, an irrepressible smile splattered across her muzzle, while Tempest Shadow swivels back and forth, eyes never still, her fully intact horn ready to flare at a moment’s notice. But Sombra? Doug’s heart hammers at the sight of the stallion. From the long spiraled horn to the coal black tail, the former tyrant looks exactly like the pony he imagines Celestia would fall in love with: tall, regal, with a strong jaw and stronger convictions, standing confidently in accord with his mares even as hordes of enemies take up positions around them.

“Peace.”

The word, an entreatment, a command, a blessing all in one. Doug’s racing heart subsides, his rapid breathing slows, his fingers cease their shaking as he fumbles with his quiver. It’s clear everypony else heard it just as clearly despite the distance, their frantic movements slowing and widened eyes returning to normal. He straps the open quiver to his waist, though at the same time wonders what good it would do in the coming confrontation.

In fact, he wonders what good he will do.

The alicorns land not with the thunder of hurried hooves but the soft taps of one afraid of waking a napping foal, making a show of being calm and collected when he can feel the nervous energy in the air. Rarity floats closely behind on a cloud shared by Raikou, Starlight Glimmer levitates herself next to Shining Armor and Chrysalis, and a snarling Spike brings up the rear on madly flapping purple wings. They form a rough circle, the Elements of Harmony clustering in one corner and standing in front of Doug as though they might shield him from any sort of involvement. Though, knowing Celestia, he’d find himself on the front lines for some seemingly insane but ultimately plausible reason.

Speaking of the eldest alicorn, her focus is off in a way Doug has only seen once before. It was almost a year ago that he asked her about the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration, mere days before Luna’s return as the Nightmare. Yet, rather than horror at the miscalculation it is curiosity splashing across her muzzle, a peculiar interest in seeing these events play out than decisively acting to prevent them.

“What happened?” Emperor Spike demands, seeming to have come to the same realization about Celestia that Doug did. “How did they get past your wards and the Heart?” He waits a beat, yet Celestia gives no reaction, seemingly determined to let the others lead. Doug can’t help but wonder why she would stay so aloof, so detached during a time when clear leadership is needed. Or is she worried about misinterpreting Harmony, avoiding speculation, much like when Luna was called to the Hippogriffs?

“My understanding is that the Crystal Heart stops those with ill intent,” Cadance claims, her doubt as obvious as her desire to be with her husband.

“If he doesn’t have ‘ill intent’,” Spike spits out, “then who does?”

“Options?” Twilight Sparkle asks the gathered mares, trying to gain some semblance of control over the proceedings.

“Blast him,” Spike says immediately, jumping at the chance. Quick nods join him from the others. “Subdue him, lock him up. Stop him!”

“C-can we talk?” Fluttershy whimpers, seemingly the only voice for a peaceful resolution.

“How yearned for are the hooves,” plays a deep, echoing baritone, straight into Doug’s head, “of those who bring glad tidings!”

It’s unnerving, the pleasant tones of a relaxed conversation coming from directly in front of him, and yet nopony is there. Everypony glances this way and that, ears splaying low, trying to find the source, while Celestia’s gaze remains locked on the black stallion.

“Did he come to the same place we did?” Spike scoffs. “Who does he think he is?”

“And it is glad tidings I bring,” the voice continues, becoming more and more obvious that it is Sombra speaking as he circles about, magically amplified even with his horn unlit. “Sent by Harmony, to speak so all might hear, and after believing to call on Her!”

“We cannot sit here and remain silent,” Luna argues, drawing agreement from everycreature, though Celestia remains hesitant. “Not with what he did to the Crystal Ponies!”

“But Harmony desires more than mere belief in her existence,” Sombra continues, becoming more and more fervent with every word, as though his own existence is contingent on convincing as many ponies as possible. “She desires those who follow her with heart and mind, body and soul! Who reject the fleeting fancies and momentary pleasures of this world for something greater!”

“Then let’s stop him!” Rainbow Dash snarls, eager to fight. Around the stadium the panic has subsided, leaving ponies listening to Sombra’s words with an alarming amount of interest.

“Do we have to fight?” Fluttershy asks, looking none too happy at the thought of a pending confrontation.

“Give Harmony your mind! Allow her to dictate your actions, to lead your life, to be your master! Has she not marked you as uniquely special, destined for something greater than mere existence? Follow her decrees, and she will bless you beyond your wildest imagination!”

Twilight Sparkle’s frown deepens at Sombra’s latest screed. “What he proposes is little more than mind control of those too naive to resist.” The normally reticent alicorn spreads her wings, though not to take flight; whether consciously or unconsciously, she has assumed the role of Princess. “We cannot allow this false version of Harmony to persist.”

Her gaze lingers on Doug for a brief moment, allowing him no chance to slip away. He takes a deep breath, steeling himself, even if the most he can do is appear intimidating - and he doubts he can even do that.

“But we can do this peacefully.” The already strained smile pulls tight. “Hopefully.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle strides forward, everycreature stepping aside to follow her onto the stadium field. Celestia and Luna flank the commanding alicorn on the left, Cadance and Shining Armor on the right. The Elements of Harmony spread out past Canterlot’s Captain of the Guard while Doug, Chrysalis, Starlight Glimmer, Raikou, and Spike take the left. They make an impressive line, the powerhouses of Equestria come to meet the latest threat head on.

Sombra turns to face them, unfazed by their display, with Tempest Shadow and Radiant Hope standing at his side. His voice loses the echoing quality, but Doug doubts there is a pony in the stadium who cannot hear him. “In the name of Harmony, I greet thee.”

“Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship,” Twilight returns with an amiable smile, though Doug can tell it is strained. She comes to a stop a dozen yards from the black stallion. “Not sure exactly what is going on, but I’m sure we can work it out!”

“You have come to resign,” Tempest Shadow states, a command and not a question.

“Preposterous,” Luna mutters, loud enough for all to hear. “Though hath no cause for such a demand!”

“There was once a farmer who owned many acres,” Sombra explains. It seems like a non sequitur to Doug, except for the focus the unicorn trains on Celestia. “One year, she was going away for a long time, so she entrusted the land to her farmhooves according to their marks. To one she gave the orchards, to another the fields, and to the last the herb garden. The first tended to her orchard, expanded it, and multiplied her yield. The second did the same, plowing and harrowing, and likewise multiplied her yield. But the third, though she watered and weeded her garden, did nothing to improve it, and her yield remained the same.”

Twilight hisses, affronted at whatever implications Sombra is drawing.

“What?” Raikou whispers, voicing a confusion that Doug shares.

“He implicateth Celestia as the third farmer,” Luna explains in hushed undertones. “For Equestria hath neigh increased as an expanding forest during her reign, but as a single tree.”

The stallion continues, undeterred by Twilight’s exclamation, “When the farmer returns, will there not be a reckoning, in which she will praise the first and second farmpony, and condemn the third? For the first and second have been good stewards of their charge, and will be placed over much more, but the third shall be rebuked for failing to fulfill her mark.”

“Rebuked?” Twilight asks, askance. Her demeanor darkens, turning hard. “For failing a test she was never given?”

“For Chaos to be turned into Order,” Sombra answers, “it must be refined as gold, purified as silver in the forge! So must the dross of our hearts be separated and cut away, leaving the pure behind.”

“These are ponies you are talking about,” Twilight argues before drawing up abruptly. She takes a deep breath, continuing in a lower voice that still transmits clearly. “You need to stop. All you’re proposing is a continuation of your old methods, trying to control ponies’ minds through any means necessary! Cease your spreading of this false message, and allow ponies to live their lives without your meddling!”

“You believe my message to be false,” Sombra states, cocking his head to the side. “That I do not come in Harmony’s name.”

“Ya might be some ploy o’ Discord’s,” Applejack says. “Sent here t’ deceive us all!” Her green eyes, normally so vivacious and pleasant, narrow in distrust. “Can ya prove ya ain’t?”

“You find it plausible,” Sombra says, doubt laced through every word, “that Discord disguised himself as a great blue goat and restored my very being all so that I might return to Equestria and the Crystal Empire-” one eye squints, as though trying to make sense of this “-for some ultimately nefarious purpose?”

“It ain’t gotta be nefarious,” Applejack claims. “He might be tryin’ t’ help.”

“Very well.” Sombra straightens, training his focus on Twilight. “Are you prepared to be tested in kind?” A smirk plays on his muzzle as he glances at Celestia. “Shall we call down fire from the heavens?”

Twilight blinks, stunned at the suggestion. Celestia offers no assistance; in fact, it seems unlikely they can count on her at all. It worries Doug that she’s playing this so passively, ignoring what seems to be a direct assault on their way of life. “Um…”

“Aww,” Radiant Hope teases. “Nopony ever chooses fire.”

Twilight glances back at her Friends, getting confident nods. “We’ll test your knowledge of Harmony.”

Sombra relaxes, motioning forward with a casual shrug. “Proceed.”

“Ah got a question for ya,” Applejack thunders, stomping forward, hooves pounding out the anger she can barely repress verbally. “Say somepony was asked to judge a bunch’a dresses, each gaudier and more impractical than the last.” Behind her, Rarity sniffs, affronted. “How should she best express her honest opinion?”

Applejack smirks as Sombra carefully considers her question. Doug finds it a difficult one, especially because he knows how much Applejack loves sharing her honest opinion.

“The Apple says not to lie,” Sombra answers, red eyes locking with green. “But I say your truthful response must come from a position of love, not looking to belittle or disparage but to improve. For we all err, and need correction, and at times that error must be pointed out to us, so we might grow closer to Harmony and each other.”

Applejack’s jaw slowly tightens. Unable to find fault in his response she backs up, a slow and restrained pace, her glare failing to subside.

Rarity sticks her nose up as she walks forward. “Say,” she leads in a wandering way, even going so far as to look pointedly at Applejack, “you are a dressmaker, having crafted the latest in fashions using a fabulous fabric you have spent months developing. The most wonderful of materials: stretchy, but not clingy; shimmery, but not showy. A rival fashionista asks to ‘borrow’ this fabric before Fashion Week, the largest event in all of Manehattan, but you know he will steal your hard work and pass it off as his own, ruining your chances at winning. What is the generous thing to do?”

“Not only should you share the fabric with him,” Sombra answers, “but your designs as well, and in doing so he might recognize his error. For if one asks, will it not be given?”

“What!?” Rarity exclaims, stumbling backward at the unexpected answer. “But, but, but, you’re just enabling him to take advantage of you!”

“Are you so concerned with recognition that you would allow their greed to overcome your generosity? He has gotten his reward. But you?” Sombra looks Rarity in the eyes as she gulps. “Will Harmony not bless you with gifts far greater than fabric should you put your trust in Her?”

“Alright, my turn!” Rainbow Dash barrels forward, skidding to a stop in front of the stallion as Rarity sticks her nose up and returns to the line. “Say somepony close to you betrays you.” She meets Tempest’s gaze for a moment, then Raikou’s; the orchid unicorn returns a dour scowl while the Storm King gains a pensive pose, rubbing at his shaggy white beard while leaning on his silvered staff. “Or, you’re a Wonderbolt and you cheat, or use underhooved methods to keep your records from being broken. What do you do?”

“When I was a foal,” Sombra answers, “I desperately wanted to attend the Crystal Heart Faire, but every year I grew sicker and sicker when the day drew close.” He turns to look deeply into Radiant Hope’s eyes, his smile growing wide. “It was through Hope’s ministrations that I was able to keep the shadow inside myself contained. She even gained her cutie mark through watching over me!” His smile falters, and his gaze returns to Rainbow Dash, humbled. “But when she was called away, I gave in and allowed the darkness to consume me. I shattered the statue of the Princess I petrified and enslaved the kind and gentle ponies that had taken me in.”

“I shouldn’t have-”

“It was not your fault,” Sombra says, cutting Radiant Hope’s apology off, though he assuages her distress with a gentle smile. “But my own.” He turns back to address the other ponies. “And for my many crimes, my loss of faith in Harmony, I was deservedly disintegrated by the combined love of the Crystal Ponies. Good riddance, you might say, and rightly so; but is that not the fate of all of us should justice be served? Which of us can truthfully claim to have never crossed Harmony’s strictures, to have in all actions and all words and all thoughts lived in accordance with Honestly, Generosity, Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, and Friendship, which is Magic? Should any of us be spared those searing rays?”

“It made us sparkle,” Rainbow Dash states, smirking as she glances at Chrysalis. She scowls back at the pegasus. “All of us.”

“It is fortunate, then,” Sombra continues, acknowledging Rainbow Dash’s objection, “that Harmony is not solely concerned with justice, but also with mercy. For we are to forgive each other, even when betrayed. Is that not the way to return to right standing with one another? And if Harmony can forgive me, as evidenced by my presence here, is there any that She cannot forgive?” While Rainbow Dash had looked at Tempest Shadow, he looks at Princess Luna. Her eyes drop, unable to meet him. “Is Harmony not stronger than the challenges you face? Will She not use your failures and your flaws to draw you closer to Her, and to each other?”

The ragged scars criss-crossing the back of Doug’s left hand ache; clenching into a fist does little to suppress the pain, or keep him from remembering what Luna had done to him and his foals when possessed as the Nightmare.

That he forgave her for.

He has to force himself to raise his other hand to rub reassuringly at her neck; the mere action helps immensely. She glances at him through tear-filled eyes, a faint smile playing on her muzzle, before resting her head against his chest. He hates that they had to go through that ordeal, both for his sake and hers, and yet something wonderful had developed between them because of that, and continues to grow. Could that have happened otherwise?

Rainbow Dash frowns, perhaps expecting a more antagonistic answer. She grunts before returning, though she has to remind Fluttershy with a pointed cough that the shy pegasus is up next.

“Oh, um, me?” Fluttershy cowers into her mane, tepid steps only hurried along once Rainbow Dash gets fed up and puts her head into Fluttershy’s backside. She skids to a stop before Sombra who treats her with a genial, if fangy, smile. “Oh, dear. Err, let’s say, um… what’s the nice thing to do?”

“Nice?” Sombra asks patiently, cocking his head slightly to the side.

While Fluttershy dithers, Radiant Hope walks up to Doug, greeting him with a pleasant smile that dissipates any suspicions he might have had. “May I see your hand?”

Luna looks up to warily regard the light purple unicorn as Doug extends his scarred hand. Celestia herself had cast a spell to heal the wounds; it worked, but not perfectly, leaving an often painful and stiff reminder.

Radiant Hope gingerly takes his hand, turning it this way and that to inspect the raised white lines. She turns her cute small smile on him. “Do you believe in Harmony?”

Doug forces himself to keep from chuckling. “It’d be hard not to.”

“Well, she…” Radiant Hope says before her smile fades to a concerned frown. “She doesn’t…”

“Believed in me before I believed in her?” Doug tries, swiftly growing concerned. He knows magic doesn’t always affect him, or have the same effect as it does on ponies, but he finds Hope’s reaction alarming.

“No. Yes.” Radiant Hope grits her teeth, breath whistling before she again focuses on his hand. Her horn flares, her light blue aura settling on his wrist. It takes away the pain, though not the scars, leaving him free to flex and stretch without any discomfort. “There.”

“T-thank you,” Doug mumbles, staring at his healed hand. The idea that Radiant Hope would be so kind to him even while Twilight confronts her stallion…

“Thank Harmony,” Radiant Hope advises, meeting Luna’s eyes briefly before returning to Sombra’s side.

“Nice,” Fluttershy repeats. When this clarification fails to prove sufficient she continues, slowly growing bolder, “If somepony is in need, but refuses to help themselves. Say somepony has, mm, a brother, or, uh, not a brother, a close relative, and you’re worried that your brother, err, your close relative is wasting his life away. He’s too busy living in the moment, living off his parents, ignoring his responsibilities and his mark. “How do you show him kindness?”

“It ain’t easy putting your hoof down,” Sombra says, drawing a surprised jolt from Fluttershy.

“I know!” The pegasus loses her shyness to commiserate, “It’s so hard to be confident, to come out of your shell, when you’re afraid of what he might say!”

“Indeed, it is important to keep calm and flutter on, lest the sounds of silence prevail. Should the task prove too daunting for you alone, bring a friend who might articulate more confidently than yourself.” Sombra’s soft smile encourages Fluttershy, who returns a cheerful grin, as though she has completely forgotten any sort of antagonism between them. “Though this reprimand you bring must be motivated by love, and a desire to see them grow in Harmony.”

“Of course! Thanks!” Fluttershy happily trots back to the others, unaware (perhaps deliberately so) of the cross looks the others are giving her and Sombra.

Well, aside from Pinkie Pie. The perky pony pronks forward, a wide grin spread from one ear to the other. “What present would you get me for my birthday?”

The question takes Sombra aback, and it is one that has plagued Doug since he met the effusive mare. “More than the love I would show anypony?”

“Well, that depends,” Pinkie Pie says with a sly wink, sitting back to hold her hooves about six inches apart. “Does ‘your love’ fit in a box this big?” She spreads her hooves about a foot apart. “Or this big?”

Not seeing a response, Pinkie Pie goes wider than her withers, eyes growing like saucers. “This big?!

Sombra merely gives a quizzical twist of his head. Behind him, Radiant Hope gives the slightest of nods, prompting a furious blush on the pink pony. Cadance fans herself, much to Shining Armor’s consternation, while Doug is mostly glad he wouldn’t fit in the first box.

“O-okie dokie!” Pinkie Pie stumbles back into line, though nopony seems particularly keen on returning her scandalous smirks.

“You did not wish to ask about Laughter?” Sombra shrugs before turning to Twilight as she steps forward. “Princess. Perhaps your question will be more relevant?”

“I think it was perfectly pertinent,” Twilight states, though she has to bite her tongue to keep her opinion on the propriety to herself. “After all, giving and receiving gifts is the primary way Pinkie Pie, and many other ponies, share Laughter.”

Sombra concedes this with a low bow and deferential wave of his hoof toward the Element of Laughter. “Then I, too, have much to learn about Harmony.”

“As do we all.” Twilight pauses, his concession throwing her off. “Why are you here? Why did Harmony pick this time and this place to send somepony on her behalf, and not some other?”

“Harmony’s ways are, at times, as unfathomable to me as to any of us. Were I to hazard a guess?” Sombra glances at Celestia, who continues to regard him impassively. “It would be that we are at a pivotal time in Equestrian history. With the advent of alicorn foals we shall see an expansion of the Equestrian nation, not just internally but spreading to all corners of Equus. Have there not been dramatic inroads with the changelings and the Griffons, the Hippogriffs and Storm Creatures, the Abyssinians and the naked mole rats, the dragons and those beyond? The time is ripe for Harmony’s message to spread as well, and it should be one that emphasizes a conscious application of Her rules and a rejection of the corrupting influences of anything to the contrary.”

Doug slides a hand over the lightning bolt tattooed on his shoulder. He had gotten it as a consolation to the Storm King, a way of blending their cultures as the Storm Creatures had taken on the tenets of Harmony. Did that count as corruption? Would the other nations see this new ‘contribution’ to their culture as beneficial or as an existential threat to their way of life?

“Truly?” Twilight’s tempered expression breaks at the thought of partnering rather than prosecuting the former tyrant. She extends her foreleg with an earnest smile. “Why, if you would accept our hoof in friendship, then-”

“Enough!”

The ponies look up as a shadow spreads over the field, barely able to dodge to the side as Dragon Lord Torch smashes into the ground with a sickening thud, pulverizing the area where Sombra once stood.

Next Chapter: Ch. 192 - Militant Faith Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes