My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 33

Daddy Dearest

The massive gates to the Necromancer’s castle opened wide in a foreboding way. They creaked and groaned up until they fully opened. Starlight was the first one to enter the castle, followed by Bass, Goldie, and Glade. Everyone soon followed afterwards.

The outside… didn’t look like what they expected. Outside, the castle looked dreary and gloomy. Inside… it looked lavish and decorative. A complete criss-cross.

Relics from ages long past hung off the walls, some that have been missing for thousands of years. Starlight saw a object that looked like a pocket watch. A object… that looked like her Cutie Mark. She looked to her flank then back to the watch. It has to be a coincidence.

As the group grew closer to the center of this audience hall, they saw a series of screens floating over a red throne. Sitting on the throne, his back to them, was a black unicorn, who stared intently at the screens. Each one played a different event happening elsewhere the planet. One such event showed Gilda becoming a first time mother.

“you know that Aunt Gilda was pregnant?” Eris Shine asked her brother. Soarin’ shrugged back to her.

Their advancement was halted by a invisible barrier, which they found when Cotton accidentally ran into it. “That’s close enough!” the unicorn said in a bellowing voice. The voice was frightening enough to make Goldie hide behind Starlight and Fire Ruby behind Filigree. Chaos Gun grunted and held his head in pain. Something about him… felt very familiar. “who are you ponies and what are you doing in my castle?”

Everyone stayed silent. His voice must’ve scared them. As this was her journey, Starlight approached as close as she could. “a-a-a-are you the Necromancer?”

The foreboding stallion turned his head slightly. “who wants to know?”

Star gulped. So scary. “m-my name is Starlight Sparkle…” the stallion’s ears flickered when he heard that. “…a-and I traveled a long way to find you.”

A moment of silence followed, which grew into moments of fear. “Starlight Sparkle, you say?”

“y-yes.”

The dark stallion got up from his throne, causing the screens to go away. Using his magic, he sent his throne away. He turned to the group. “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

In a word, this stallion was scary. His red cape, his body armor, his black color fur and mane, his red horn; everything about him was scary. When he turned, his cape moved with him. Everyone gulped out of fear. Necromancers are as fearful as every story says they are.

The dark stallion started down the stairs. Though initially fearful, Starlight steeled herself enough to talk to him. “I traveled a long way to find you because I’ve been told you’re one of the most powerful magic users on the planet, minus the princess’.”

“Indeed I am.” he replied halfway down.

“I came all this way… because I’d hope you’d give me the answers to the questions that have plagued me all my life.”

“and I will.” he reached the bottom and came face to face with her. Something about him felt eerily familiar. So foreboding. His entire aura could engulf all Alicorn‘s combined. He carries himself with such cold confidence and in such a frightening aura… he’s not normal. “Ask away.”

Starlight gulped again then focused. “Okay… um… who are you?”

The stallion chuckled. Even his chuckle was frightening. Something was off with this guy. “My name is Sombra, a Unicorn Necromancer, and I’ve been waiting for you for a long time… my daughter.”

Starlight gasped and went wide-eyed when he said that. “D-Daughter?”

“Daughter!?” her friends, including the guards, all exclaimed in surprise.

Sombra nodded. “indeed. I am the father you’ve been seeking, Starlight.”

Starlight couldn’t believe it. She went looking for the Necromancer to find her father… and the Necromancer was her father. Sombra… she looked at him and finally remembered why he looked so familiar. He’s the stallion who saved her from the wolves when she was a filly.

“I hate to be a party pooper, but how can you be her father?” Bass asked. “For all we know, you’re lying to get on her good side!”

Starlight looked at him with such anger, it was terrifying. It certainly caught him off guard. Sombra chuckled. “I figured you would ask that.” he already had a good explanation. “I assume Starlight has done this more then once.”

Without concentrating or even doing anything, his eyes turned red, the whites turned green, and the purple fire came out of the edges of his eyes. The group collectively gasped. She did do that.

“Wait. I do that?” Starlight asked, not really grasping it.

“Um…” Marian pondered if there’s a right way to say this. “every time you get angry… your eyes turn into Sombra’s; all red and green and purple.”

“Every time?”

“Yeah. You did it when we went up against those Timberwolves, and when we battled the Windigoes and the Wyrm.” Season explained.

“it’s a family trait.” Sombra explained. “it can only be passed down though my genealogy. And that means…”

“you… you are my father…” Starlight finished. Without a warning, she hugged him. “you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to see you! You have no idea how much I’ve been though to find you! Why did you leave Mom? Why did you…”

Sombra used his magic to move her back a ways. “If you’ll calm down, I’ll explain everything.” Starlight and her friends did just that. What story Sombra had in store for them, they don’t know, but it’s gonna be worth a listen regardless.

Sombra used his magic to summon forth a screen which he used to tell his story.

Begin Song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO1FdPXlsWw

From Shadow Unto Crystal - King Sombra’s Theme by Youtuber Carbon Maestro

“when one lives as I do, you are void of female contact. It had been too long a time since I held a mare; long it has been since I smelled flower perfume, long since I caressed a woman in bed. Long since I… had relations. And if any Mare saw me for what I am now… they wouldn’t care for me. So I was… forced to using houses of ill repute. And one I happened to visit one fateful night 18 years ago…”

“…had my mother captive.” Starlight finished.

“yes. And you know the rest of that story.”

Starlight shook her head. That doesn’t explain everything. “But why didn’t you try to talk to mom afterwards? Why hide all the way out here?”

Sombra didn’t chuckle this time. Instead, he adopted a somber look. “I was afraid.”

“Afraid? Afraid of what?” Woona asked.

Sombra glanced to the Alicorn. “Afraid of what would happen.” nobody really understood what he meant by that until he went further into it. “once upon a time, I was like you all; happy, vibrant, full of youth, and had great friends. That is, until I discovered my special talent.”

“Special Talent?” Sym asked.

Sombra powered up his magic via his crackling horn and let it loose. At first nothing happened. Talk about boring. That is until Eris looked down at the floor and yelled. Everyone looked and yelled as well.

Their own shadows moved and turned, showing red eyes. Next thing they knew, the shadows ascended from the floor and stood in front of them all, like demons out of a fairy tale.

“My special talent is the manipulation of shadows. I can use them to form endless soldiers, engulf the world in eternal night…” he paused for a moment, then stopped his magic, letting the shadows go back to normal. “and get rid of them entirely.”

“how’s getting rid of them a bad thing?” Fire Ruby asked.

Sombra used his magic to pull down one of the screens. It flickered and show the cargo hold of a ship. None of them remembered it. “do you know what Ka is?” everyone shook their heads ‘no’. “Ka is the Egyptian term for soul; for life. And it resides in the shadows of all things. I learned this when the humans arrived on this world. When they went to reverse the spell Trixie cast that turned all the ponies into human, I went aboard the Orion and read up on the humans. Anyway, I tried this Ka thing on a rat. Sure enough, it worked. Not at first; over the course of a few years, but it does kill them. Slowly and painfully. Who knew something from a human world would work here?”

the screen flickered and showcased scenes of battle and destruction, scenes from Requiem‘s war with her brother Catalyst back on earth 20 years ago, lone before they arrived on this world. “A fascinating race, humans. They’ll go to war just over the most puniest of subjects, like a rose or a girl named Troy.” he chuckled softly to himself. “Seems the friends of your parents were anomalies in that manner.” he sent the screen away.

“that doesn’t explain why you’re out here.” Glade said.

“technically, it does, Glade Yggdrasill. No pony in the history of this world has had such command over shadows as I have had. Some might say it’s a abnormality. It also ruined my life; my friends and family shunned and abandoned me. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Princess Celestia came to ‘purge’ me. I knew she meant eradication so I fled before she arrived. I’ve been hiding out in this forsaken land ever since, venturing out only when the call of nature demands it.” he turned his attention to his daughter. “that’s also why I never talked to Twilight.”

“why not?” Starlight asked.

“*scoff* how would she react, knowing the father of her child is a manipulator of shadows? Simple; she’d report me to Celestia and she’d send me away, probably to the moon. And when I found out you had power over time, I went to rescue you. Heh. Turned into a battle for my life against those Timberwolves instead. And it turns out I didn’t need to go, with your friends willing to go with you into Tartarus to help you find answers.”

“How do you know about that?” Marian asked.

“I know a lot of things, La Luz De La Marian.” Yeesh. Full name. he used his magic to pull the screens down. They turned on, playing events happening right now. One screen focused on Derpy and Dinky playing with Dinky’s twins. Another showed Changelings and Ponies playing a game of soccer in the Changelings country. “with these, I see everything that happens all over the world. I saw the Humans arrival, I saw the return of Nightmare Moon, The Winter War, Discords reformation, the Rise and Fall of Oscurita and his handler Orochi, and your journey and your battles with the Wrym, the Windigoes, Nightmare Marian-” Marian twitched at that. “-and the Timberwolves.”

Their journey… “there’s one thing about our journey that puzzles me.” Sweet Song said. “Chaos Gun said that he was created by someone, someone powerful.”

“Yeah, and my dad, who was once Oscurita, is back in Ponyville with mom.” Windancer added. “how could he have been here?”

Sombra, without delay, switched one of the screens to show that monster made out of dark fire and smoke. “I take it you’ve seen him before, right?”

“the monster from the Leopard Village.” Golden Day said.

“Yes. His name is Ambrose. And I created him.”

“You what?” Glade snarled, getting ready to attack him. His guards followed suit. Sombra raised a hoof, halting them.

“Peace, Captain. Ambrose’s creation was a accident. I tested to see if this Ka thing would work on buildings like my castle. It doesn’t. what I didn’t know is what would come from this castle.”

“What do you mean?”

“This place had a previous owner, a very horrid and wretched beast whose name I can’t remember. When he died, his spirit stayed. And when I tried the Ka spell on the castle…”

“you unleashed Ambrose.”

“yes. I quickly sealed him away in the ice far from here. I didn’t expect a village of Leopards to build a settlement there or for you all to arrive. And I certainly wasn’t expecting him to break out. It was he who created Chaos Gun and the Oscurita clone who attacked you yesterday.”

“is that true, Chaos Gun?” Sweet Song asked.

Chaos scratched his hurting head. “I… I think so. I don’t remember, remember?”

This answered a lot of questions, but the ones foremost on Starlight’s mind. “there’s… one thing that’s still bugging me.” Sombra looked to her. “Why… why am I a Alicorn? And why was a born with a Cutie Mark? And why do I have power over time?”

Sombra closed his eyes and looked away. “Sorry, but I don’t have any answers to give you. That’s as much a mystery to me as it is to you.”

That wasn’t the answer she wanted. But if her own father doesn’t know… then why is she one? Why is she a Alicorn? Why does she have this power?

“but…” Sombra said, getting her attention once again. “I do know that Alicorns are never born without good reason. The cosmos has a role for you to play, Starlight. The only question is what and why.”

That’s something that’s plagued her for a long time. But she and her friends have gotten a lot of answers from this; who created Chaos, who the Necromancer was… who Starlight’s real father was… she may have not gotten all the answers she wanted but it was better then nothing. “If you say so… dad…”

Sombra used his magic to summon up the shadows of his guests again. He gestured them to leave and they did. “I’ll prepare rooms for your stay. You can all stay as long as you like.”

Out of humility to their host, Glade, Woona, and Marian bowed. The others did not. “Thank you, Lord Sombra.”

“Lord Sombra…” he repeated. He chuckled for a moment. “fits, seeing as how this is my estate.” with a quick flash, a sound of a door being unlocked echoed. “you may have noticed a barrier on your way to my castle. That’s to keep prying magic eyes away. I have disabled it long enough for you to send a letter to your loved ones. You only have 30 minutes so make it fast.”

“Thanks… dad…” Starlight said. She still had trouble saying it. Sombra nodded and turned to leave. “Wait a moment.” he stopped in midstep and looked back. “If-if it’s not too much trouble, think we can sent a picture with this letter? My mom would want to see who the Stallion was who… made me.”

Seemed only fair. She did come all this way to find out who her father really was. Sombra used his magic to summon up a wallet-sized picture that hovered in front of her. Starlight took it and nodded.

Sombra nodded back and left. When he was certain they didn’t see him, he let loose a evil sneer and snicker.

The bait is cast and the fish are nibbling. Just play nice and be patient and he’ll net the catch.

End Song.

When Sombra left, Goldie jumped onto her sister’s back. “How about that, Star? You found your real dad!”

Starlight chuckled at her hyper sister and used her magic to pull her off. “yeah, I did. But he’s not quite what I expected.”

“how so?”

“well, I didn’t expect him to look so… dark.”

“eh, well, ponies can never expect their real parents to look like what they are in their imaginations.”

“ah, well, that’s true.” Star replied. “and at least I know why he never bothered to find me or mom.”

“not to mention answers to a lot of questions.” Peppy said.

“Yeah…” Starlight looked back to her wings and cutie mark. “…but not all of them…”

“some is better then none.” Glade said.

“Yeah.” she held up the picture of her dad. “some is better then none.” she chuckled. “mom is gonna be surprised when she finds out who dad was.”

Author's Notes:

finally. Sombra has been reached and his 'story' has been told. which is truth and which is lie?