Gilda, Seth and I spent some time enjoying ourselves in the Crystal Empire, though we didn't spend long. We already had our fill of vacation from the time we spent in the New Dominion, so instead of a full blown holiday, we instead decided to just take the tour for the day, then retire to a hotel and get a fresh start tomorrow.

First stop was the castle, with Cadence and Shining Armor holding court. The atmosphere of this throne room was fundamentally different from the one in Canterlot. It completely lacked the pompous arrogance of Canterlot, and instead of stuffy nobles whining that they weren't making nearly enough money, they had actual ponies with actual issues, having those issues be addressed.

We didn't linger there long, as our tour guide continued to show us around the city. The rest of the tour was rather boring, a few interesting tidbits here and there, but mostly nothing noteworthy until we arrived at the Crystal Heart, and the end of our tour. The guide spewed the same humdrum as always. Powerful artifact, linked to everypony in the city, powered by their joy. Just drawing close to it I could feel the magic humming inside, as could Seth.

"Excuse me, I have a question."

"Yes, Mr. Griffin?" The guide turned to me.

"Is the crystal heart indestructible?"

"Well, nothing is totally impervious, but the crystal heart may well be considered indestructible to anypony using normal means. *Gasp* Don't tell me you intend to break the thing?" The rest of the crowd gasped as well.

"Oh gods no." They all breathed a sigh of relief. "It's just that there's some things about the way S..." I paused, bringing up his name might put a bad taste in everyone's mouths. I don't care, personally, but I do know how to use tact and walk on eggshells every once in a while. "Some things about the way you know who acted that confuse me."

"I'm glad. Everyone, even the King of the New Dominion can find no logic in the tyrant's actions." The guide said almost with a sense of pride. I take it Sombra is a bit of a verbal punching bag around here.

"That's not something to be proud of." I retorted. "If we can't understand our past and the reasons why things happen, then how can we prevent them from happening again?"

"Now that Princess Cadence sits on the throne, there's no chance of the crystal heart being stolen and corrupted again. You can rest assured we are all safe."

More blind faith in an alicorn. Wasn't Cadence on the throne before, when the heart got stolen in the first place? And what's more, the heart is, according to Twilight's book, an aspect of creation, but the guide just said that Sombra corrupted it somehow. Is it like when Discord used magic seeds to choke the life from the tree of harmony? It just doesn't make any sense. From all the reports I've heard, King Sombra could make crystals with his magic, and he was forcing the crystal ponies to mine them as slaves, but why? If he could make them himself, why was he making others mine them?

The obvious answer is that he didn't actually need the crystals, he just wanted to keep the ponies miserable. And the obvious answer to why he wanted them miserable was to corrupt the crystal heart so it couldn't be used to get rid of him. That's where the facts end. If he was able to corrupt the heart, then why not destroy it completely? It's indestructible to a pony with normal methods, but Sombra was the very definition of abnormal, by pony standards. And, even if he, with all his power, couldn't wreck the thing, then why keep it in the tallest tower in the city? All the records say the heart was lost, but it was right in the middle of town the entire time. It was less that they didn't know where it was than that they didn't know how to get it. Why? Why would Sombra keep the only thing that could destroy him so close? Why not hide it somewhere out in the tundra, where the nearly constant storms would prevent anyone from finding it? It almost sounds like he needed it...

"No.... that couldn't be it, but it makes so much sense, if that's how it is."

"Griffin, what are you on about?" Gilda asked.

"I think I just figured something out. You go on ahead and book the hotel. I'm heading to Sombra's library."

When I arrived at my property, I found a pair of scholarly looking unicorns being denied access by a very bored looking guard.

"As I told you before, the library no longer belongs to the Crystal Empire. You've spent long enough trying to get inside without any success, so you've run out of time."

"What's going on here?" I demanded.

"You're Mr.North, yeah?" The guard asked.

"I am." I showed the deed.

"Great." He turned to the researchers. "This is the new owner. You can direct any questions or concerns to him. Job's done, I'm out of here."

"Finally, now all we have to do is convince him to let us keep trying."

"You know I'm standing right here, don't you?" I replied as they spoke among themselves.

"Oh, yes, well, we've been trying to gain access to this library for a long time, but we can't get in."

"Why not?" I asked the pair of bookies who shall remain nameless because they are of little interest.

"Well.... if I may..." The one on the left asked. I nodded in approval. She walked up and opened the door, only to reveal an empty tower with nothing in it. "This is the location of King Sombra's library. But this..." She motioned inside. "Is NOT King Sombra's library.

"He was known to use magic to create pocket dimensions. He pulled the entire Crystal Empire inside one for a thousand years. We've figured out that while this is the entrance to his library, it isn't physically here. He must have cast a spell pulling it into another realm."

"That theory doesn't check out though, because when the crystal heart was purified, it destroyed every last bit of him, and if he's totally gone, then his spell should have disappeared. It's not like this is a small item you could put a long term enchantment on, it's a whole building! The magic definitely should have been used up by now."

!

"Which means that, wherever this library is, there must still be a small part of King Sombra alive in there, maintaining the spell. It didn't get destroyed when the heart was purified because it wasn't in the Crystal Empire. Ladies, thank you for the information, however, this library is my property, and it is NOT a public library, so geeeeet out!"

"But we're so close to finally getting insi..."

"Out! Outoutout!" I shooed them out of the foyer leading into the tower and slammed the door behind me, making sure to latch it tight.

"Well well, 'King' Sombra. We meet at last." Yes, I am talking to a door. "I know you're in there." I said to the closed door. "Hiding. I think I've finally figured you out. Ever hear of a phylactery? Those who seek to overcome death remove their soul from their body and bind it to an object. Then they possess their body and keep walking around in it, but when the body dies, the spirit persists because it's housed in a different vessel. That's how you survived when the princesses blasted you into oblivion. That's why you corrupted the crystal heart. It's almost indestructible, so it's be the perfect vessel, except that it was already bound to Cadence. You made the ponies miserable, by using your magic to make crystals and forcing them to mine, all so their misery would corrupt the heart so you could bind yourself to it. You had to keep it close, somewhere in the city, because you couldn't stray too far away from it. When Cadence purified the heart, it kicked your soul out of it, and you had nowhere to run or hide when the shock wave of love magic came."

...

"But you didn't put ALL of you in the heart, did you? No, you kept a portion of yourself hidden here, in this library, bound to something else. From in there, you're casting a spell on this door, so that instead of leading to your library, it leads somewhere else. All these actions... they are the actions of someone who's terrified of dying. As a descendant of Hades, hellfire is my birthright." My right talons burned black with the magic stealing flame, before I put it out." "Here's the deal, dead king. I'm going to open this door, and if it doesn't lead to your actual library, I'm going to close it, then burn the door with hellfire. It'll eat the magic holding your lab out of this dimension, then travel back along the spell connection straight to you, and it'll burn whatever is left of your soul. I'll kill the last piece of you and send you on to the afterlife. Given what you've done, I doubt Hades is going to show any mercy." I paused to give the door a second to think about it.

"Look at it this way Sombra, either way I'm getting in this library. One way, you die and the ponies outside get access to the knowledge held within. Sure, this place may belong to me, but I'm not going to stick around and guard it, I've got shit to do elsewhere. The OTHER way, I still get what I want, but whatever is left of you doesn't get destroyed, and can keep guarding this place. Make your choice."

I put my claws on the doorknob, turned, and flung the door wide.

Author's Notes:

King Sombra was a lich! Come on, considering the evidence given to us in the show, Sombra being a necromancer actually makes a lot of sense.

The spooky dark cloud Sombra? That's his soul without a body. If anyone has watched 'Supernatural' then they'd know that evil spirits look like dark clouds. It explains why he didn't just destroy the heart, or hide it somewhere outside the city. Hell, the heart was still IN THE PALACE, just at the top of a tower with loads of stairs, and a couple traps along the way.

Given that the mighty Hasbro has elected to not give Sombra a backstory other than ';Blah blah blah, he's evil so let's 'friendship nuke' the crap out of him, we need a bland and generic villain that we can put no effort into, because we're going to off him after 2 episodes so why bother putting any work into him? Chrysalis got beat after 2 episodes but she actually had some reasoning behind her. Some motive. Sombra was just 'Grargargarhhagr Cryysstaaaalllllssssss" Boom dead.

What am I griping about? They basically just handed him to me and said 'Make your own backstory.' They're pretty much telling the fans to flesh him out themselves.

Given that a lot of what has been popping up in the show in the latest seasons clearly takes it's inspiration from some of the better Fanfics, I'm assuming they just didn't know what to do with the character at the time and were giving the fans something to spill all their creative juices on for when he comes back later, (as if his horn surviving the explosion wasn't foreshadowing enough.)

Speaking of 'Spilling creative juices' some of the fanart of King Sombra is really good. Like REALLY REALLY good. He's one of those characters that with his profile and art style make him seem very classy and sophisticated, despite his only lines being 'Grahaggharag Crystals'. In fact, I half expected to hear a bourgois accent out of him as he called someone a plebian. Again, disappointed that they didn't make more to him, and also kind of glad because that means we get to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQYIzDGOYwA