We are all taught that when an enemy is truly defeated, their threat ceases to exist without a second thought.
But that's not the case.
Somehow, in some way, pieces what's left of their essence escape their fate and inflict their influence in small ways. Nopony is aware of their existence but they will come to realize what happens when their influence become one...
Deep within an unnamed forest near Canterlot, a familiar horn laid in a patch of grass with dark crystals sprouting out of the ground. Every so often, the horn sparks black lightning, in which didn't affect the forest or its inhabitants in any way.
Elsewhere in the forest, a purple serpent like mist glided silently through the forest, making whatever sunlight that shined through the thick leaves retreat. And somewhere else in the forest, a cotton candy cloud floated aimlessly around, spilling chocolate rain and sparking out lightning made out of licorice.
Whatever seemed to come in contact with the licorice lightning change as grass became lively green tentacles, branches having a mind of their own, and small pieces of bark oozing out gravy. But what they all did, didn't do anything more than a couple of misdemeanors.
But everything was about to change within a matter of seconds as the cloud and mist pasted over the horn simultaneously right before the horn produced another lightning, this time much bigger than usual. The lightning struck the cloud and mist as they started to uncontrollably lash out at each other before froze up in place.
A mass started to develop within the middle of the chaos before it grew bigger with each passing second, starting to take on a form of a human boy, no older than thirteen-years-old.
This human was wearing a plain black pull-over hoodie, navy blue jeans, a necklace with an amulet written in ancient Equestrian, black and white shoes with red shoelaces. His brownish hair was shaggy and always covered his eyes.
The horn began to dematerialize into black smoke before entering the human body through the mouth and nose followed by the purple mist and lastly the cloud, like something was pulling them into the body.
As soon as the last of the essence entered the human's body, the body started descending down towards the charred ground. When the body touched the ground, no vital movements came from the body as it laid perfectly still like it was in a deep slumber.
Hours has passed since whatever chaotic event took place and the human boy still seemed to not move a muscle, not even the movements of breathing. Nothing has seemed to disturb the human from its deep slumber as the creatures of the forest have kept their distance away from him, not daring to get any closer to the human in fear they'll catch some sort of disease from it.
Another hour goes by before a pack of Timberwolves settle down near the human as one of the Timberwolf ventures outward. As the Timberwolf scavenged for what little food it could find, it suddenly caught sight of the human body. The Timberwolf tread closer to the strange creature before it sniffed the shoe, not sure if it was prey or alley.
Suddenly, the human let out a small groan, his first sign that he's alive since his forming. But making the Timberwolf jump back in surprise before it gained its composure back and let out a deep growl. More groans escaped from the human's lips as he slightly moved his head side to side, like he was having a bad dream or something. The Timberwolf let out more growls before moving up to the human's head, coming face-to-face with its prey.
The Timberwolf continued to growl before the human snapped opened his sea-green eyes. As soon as the Timberwolf looked into the human's eyes, the Timberwolf whimpered. Before the human could react to what he was seeing, the Timberwolf took off away from the human with its wooden tail between its legs.
The Timberwolf let out a howl, alerting the others as they started to sense something as well before they took off too as well. Even though Timberwolves are known for being fearsome creatures, they sensed something dark and unsettling about that human boy that made them cower in fear.
The human was pretty stunned at what he just saw there. Whoa, what were those things? he asked himself, they looked... awfully familiar. The human boy tried to rack through his brain to see if he would remember ever seeing the Timberwolves, but nothing came to him before a more important question came to him. Where am I?
He looked around his surroundings to see nothing he recognized as many questions began to swirl through his brain. What is this place? How did I get here? Why did those things look familiar to me? Who am I? That last question seemed to spike the human's interest more than the other questions as he began to think of who he was. But just like last time, nothing came to him.
Maybe if I walk around and get my bearings down, maybe it'll jog my memory or I might run into somebody that knows me, the human suggested to himself before he started rising to his feet, but he fell back down on his face. After a while of trying and failing, the human finally manages to get to his feet, despite all the shakiness but a new problem came to him; walking.
The boy took one step forward before collapsing back to the ground. It took him several more tries before his legs eventually were strong enough to barely walk. He stumbled around the forest as he looked around in hopes of remembering something, but still nothing came to him.
Where could I be? the human questioned as he looked around one more time before he slumped to the ground, his throat as dry as sandpaper like he hasn't drunken anything in days.
So...Thirsty... the human thought to himself before he looked around for any water source around him, but sadly there were none. Before the human could worry about finding a water source, he started to hear something like rushing water. Without a second thought, he rose back to his feet and stumbled towards the sound of rushing water.
As soon as the human made it to the source of the sound, he found a crystal clear river right in front of him and beyond that, a flat plain.
"Ugh, water." the human rasped out before falling to his knees and dunking his whole head into the icy cold river, but he didn't seem to care. Taking large quantities of water, the human kept his head underwater until his thirst was quenched before bringing his head back up for a satisfied sigh.
"Much better." the human said before looking up at the nearby mountains to find a surprising sight. On the side of one of the mountains was a castle. But the longer the human stared at it, the more familiar the castle looked to him.
Weird, that castle looks familiar. Maybe, just maybe, that castle holds the answers to my questions, the human thought before he slowly rose to his feet and started making his way to the castle.
Once at the base of the mountain, the human looked around for any other alternative way to the castle but found that climbing was the only way up. Letting out a heavy sigh, he grabbed onto a ledge for his hands and feet before repeating the process, slowly making his way up the mountain.
Halfway up the mountain, the human's muscles began to scream in agony and excessive amount of sweat poured down his face as he tried to work past it before suddenly losing a grip on one of the ledges. He began to slide down the face of the cliff before grabbing a ledge as his body jolted from the sudden stop, almost feeling like he dislocating his arm.
The human muffles his cry from the excruciating pain by digging his face into his arm as tears silently flowed from his eyes. Once some of the pain has subsided, he checked his injured hand to find a deep gash with blood seeping down the arm that ran from the base of his pinkie finger to the base of his thumb.
Maneuvering carefully, the boy rips off a piece of his sweater's sleeve before slowly wrapping the injured hand. Even though it stung and throbbed heavily, it seemed to stay on and prevent more blood from flowing out. As soon as the human was ready, he began climbing once again.
The sun was just above the horizon by the time the human boy made it to the last ledge before pulling himself up, collapsing on safe ground and feeling quite tired from his long journey. But he knew he had more to go before reaching the castle.
Standing between him and the castle was a twenty foot wall and a town. The human looked up at the main entrance to catch a glimpse of huge lettering above the door to the city.
"Canterlot?" the human read as he continued to study the wording before being interrupted by a loud whistling noise.
The boy whips around to the noise to find a steam-powered train with different colored roofed carts zoom past before entering a tunnel near the entrance.
The human looked up at the castle that is beyond the city before he let out a sigh and silently entered into the tunnel. He didn't understand why he had to hide himself, but it just felt the right thing to do.
He hid behind a wall for safe measures before peeping over. Instead of seeing beings just like him, he saw unicorns, Pegasi, and earth ponies rushing in and out of the train, dressed in different attire or nothing at all. There were also six or seven other ponies dressed in golden armor patrolling the train station.
"What are these things?" the human whispered to himself in confusion before deciding to get a better look.
Using the shadows as cover, he crouched walk over to the platform just as the train's whistle blew before slowly taking off back out the tunnel, leaving little for the human to his himself. Only left with one situation, he presses his body against the platform edge and prayed nopony would see him.
I gotta get outta here... he thought desperately. Once the station was clear of ponies, two guards closest to the human paused the edge of the platform, peering beyond the edge, quickened the boy's heart rate in fear of being caught before he threw up his hood.
The human inches his way to the side before he rounded the corner and kept to the shadows just as the two guards turned around and began walking back.
Quickly taking this opportunity, he got up onto the platform before silently sneaking past the other guards with not much as a noise before luckily making his way up to a deserted street. Without sparing any more time, the human shot straight into the alley and kept close to the shadows.
It didn't take long for the human to make it to the castle gates, but upon approaching the castle, a wave a nausea washed over him. A pounding sensation raised within the human's head as he began to stumble towards the castle gates, not caring if he gets caught anymore.
A group of seven guards were chattering happily amongst each other before they caught sight of the human and got their spears ready.
The group of guards cautiously advance toward the human boy who dropped to his knees in agonizing pain, wandering what kind of creature the human was.
"Please, help me..." the human weakly pleaded out, making the guards jump back mostly because of not just that this creature spoke, but that it pleaded for their help.
"What is that thing?" one of the guards asked confusedly.
"Is it a Changeling in disguise?" another guard guessed.
"Is it a creature from the old legends or stories?"
"Could this be another test brought down by one of the princesses?"
The more the guards wandered, the less they knew what kind of situation they were under before the human spoke up again.
"Please, I'm begging you, help me." the human pleaded before the guards pointed their spears towards the human again.
"Shut up whatever you are, not another word until we figure out what's happening." one of the guards orders before the human began to shake violently.
"PLEASE! Help me! Why aren't any of you helping?" the human said a little angrily as an immense anger urge washed over him. The guards approached the human a little closer as they kept their weapons trained on him.
"For the last time, shut up!" the guard in front of the human ordered right before the human stopped shaking and stayed perfectly still.
Curiosity rose amongst the group of guards of what happened to the boy but before any of the guards could move a muscle, the human lashed out and grabbed the guard's spear that was in front of him.
"You insignificant fools!" the human growled out as his voice sound a bit different now.
The human rose his head up to reveal that his eyes were no longer sea-green, but they were scarlet irises with purple mist emanating from them. The guard shook in fear from the sight before darkness began to spread across the spear as three guards rush to the first guard's aid.
But no matter how hard they pulled, they couldn't yank the spear from the human's grasp. The darkness slowly started to infect the guard as well as the other three near him before they were completely overtaken by the darkness and they fell unconscious.
The remaining guards watched in shock as the unconscious guards collapsed to the ground before they turned their attention back to the human.
"Take him out!" one of the guard shouted out before they all charged at one toward the human, but the human simply vanished in thin air before reappearing behind them all.
The human's palm began to glow with Sombra's magical aura before he sent a ball of dark magic toward one of the guards, knocking that pony unconscious.
The remaining two guards whipped around to face the human again as they got their spears ready and charged. But before their spears could impale him, the human grabbed the spears with his bare hands and miraculously started lifting the guards into the air before he threw them over his head as they both slammed into the ground, knocking both of them unconscious.
The human stood still for a few more seconds before walking up to the unconscious guards and gently grazed his hand against their armor, making darkness appear and infect the guard. As soon as he was done, he stood in middle of the unconscious guards.
"Rise up you dim-wits!" the human sneered out as the guards' eyes snapped open as the whites in their eyes are green and looked like they had no life in them, indicating that they are now under the human's control.
"Now you pathetic excuses for Royal Guards, escort me to the throne room. I think the princesses should know of my return." the human said with a sinister smile on his face as the hypnotized guards silently nodded and did as they were told by escorting the human into the castle and towards the throne room.
The inner guards were quick to realize a pack of hypnotized guards escorting a human through the halls but before they could spring into action, they were quickly put to sleep through Sombra's magic.
As soon as the guards posted outside the throne room were taken care of, the guards pushed open the door and piled in as the human lastly entered the room.
Celestia and Luna looked up from what they were doing as their eyes widen at the scene in front of them. It wasn't so much as the controlled guards or that a human was standing on the other side of the room from them, it was what they sensed coming from the human.
"Sombra?" Luna blurted out as the human devilishly smiled back at Luna. "But how?"
The human continued to smile towards the princesses before he moved a little closer to them. "Is that all you can say to me for all the years I've been gone. Your next question should be what's going to happen next?" the human asked delightfully as Celestia and Luna rose to their hooves and their horns glowed in their aura.
But before the human can spring into action against the princesses, blood began to drip out of his nose. Sombra's eyes faded in and out of control before they diminished and reset back to their sea-green color before he collapsed, unconscious.
In result, the hypnotized guards also collapsed to the ground unconscious as Sombra's magic was released from their bodies.
Celestia and Luna slowly approached the human boy with caution, not sure what to make of what just happened.
"Sister, could that have really been Sombra?" Luna asked as Celestia turned to look at her younger sister.
"It could be a possibility that Sombra's Dark Magic could have survived the Crystal Heart and traveled to the human world and infect a human and bring him back here, but..." Celestia said before moving her horn over the human's chest. "...I'm detecting two other energy forces. One of them is Discord's and the other one is... Nightmare Moon's."
Luna shivered.
Ever since she was redeemed back to her former self, she never thought she had to ever hear that name or deal with her darker self ever again. But is seemed that there is no escaping her evil half that easily.
Celestia looked down at the human again to finally see a necklace around his neck before she used her magic to remove the necklace from the boy.
Celestia studied the necklace as it gave off a sense of familiarity, but she could tell why. Celestia then looked at the amulet as she looked at the ancient writing written all around it. She hasn't seen this kind of writing in centuries but if her memory serves her correctly, she knew what is said.
"Three souls, one body." Celestia read out confusedly before turning to her sister who looked as confused as she was.
"What could that mean?" Luna asked as Celestia examined the necklace again to see if there was anything else, but that was it.
"I'm not entirely sure, but I know somepony who might." Celestia said before she closed her eyes and concentrated her magic on summoning the pony who could help them out.
Within a flash of a light, a certain Draconequus appeared above the princesses, sitting in a chair with a stack of chips floating beside him and a deck of cards in his claw/paw.
"For the last time Cherry Swirl, if your fed up with losing, why don't you just stop playing and stop wasting your time losing to me." the Draconequus said before he noticed he wasn't where he was suppose to be before he looked down at the princesses.
"Honestly Celestia, how am I suppose to enjoy my vacation if I'm just going to be summoned every five minutes and unexpectedly?" he said before snapping his claw and the chair, stack of chips disappeared from sight, but he kept the deck of cards.
"Do you know anything about this Discord?" Celestia asked as she pointed a hoof at the unconscious human boy in front of her.
Discord took one look at the human boy before shaking his head. "I don't know nothing about this at all. Now, how about picking a card, any card." Discord said before flashing the cards in the princesses' face before Luna smacked the cards away from her, making the cards fly out of Discord's grasp and fly everywhere.
"This is serious Discord! Celestia has detected your energy force from this human. So you better not be lying to us about not knowing." Luna growled out as her horn glowed fiercely.
With the snap of his fingers, the cards reappeared back in his paw as he began shuffling the cards around. "I would take credit for this if it was my idea, but sadly I didn't do it. So don't get all up in my case for something I didn't do. And besides, I'm reformed, remember?" Discord said with a sly smile.
Not that reformed, Luna angrily thought to herself before containing her anger.
"Discord!" Celestia interrupted before letting out a sigh. "Please, we need your help. Your the only Draconequus I know who can Identify how ponies were able to obtain these kind of powers." Celestia pleaded as Discord crossed his arms and grumbled and mumbled to himself before he gave in.
"Alright, I'll help you. But I'll help if and only if somepony apologizes for wrongfully accusing me of all of this." Discord said as he batted his eyes toward Luna who widen her eyes in shock.
"What? No! I'll do no such thing." Luna protested as Celestia gave her sister a pleading look.
"Sister, please." Celestia pleaded as Luna looked back at her before she let out a sigh of defeat.
"Fine..." Luna growled out before turning to Discord and mumbling out, "I'm sorry."
Discord frowned at the way Luna presented her apology to him. "Oh come on Luna, I know you can do way better than that. Now take it to the top. AND ACTION!" Discord yelled through a megaphone as he was suddenly wearing a plain shirt and plaid pants with a black hat that said 'Director' on it. Discord sat on a floating director's chair and a camera trained right on Luna.
Luna's body began to shake with anger as her horn glowed brightly. "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" Luna yelled out before firing her magic at the camera, making it disintegrate.
"Oh, poo." Discord said disappointingly as Luna got ready to fire another magic blast towards Discord but before she could, Celestia intervened.
"Luna!" Celestia cried out, making Luna turn to her sister and her anger subsisted, bowing her head in shame.
"Well, that was something. OK, I guess I'll take what I got and help you." Discord said before floating down to the human boy. He planted his claw onto the human's forehead and concentrated.
Suddenly, a tremendous shiver ran through Discord as he quickly pulled his claw away from the human.
"Did you seeing anything?" Celestia asked, confused of why Discord withdrew his claw back from the human.
"That was strange..." Discord mumbled to himself before he turned to Celestia and Luna. "There seems to be immense negative energy inside this boy, its preventing me from seeing anything. I have never felt something like this at all."
Celestia and Luna looked worriedly at each other, if this human can prevent Discord from getting in his head while unconscious, then what is he capable of when he's awake?
"Okay Discord, thank you very much. You are excused." Celestia said as Discord smiled delightfully before nodding to Celestia. But before Discord left, he took one more look at the human. Discord felt something from the boy, something... familiar, he couldn't quite put his paw on it.
This could be quite entertaining... Discord happily thought to himself.
With the snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared within a flash of light. Celestia and Luna looked down towards the human boy with confusion and fear.
"What is he? Besides him being a human and all." Luna asked as Celestia shook her head.
"No, he's not human at all." Celestia said, looking down at the human with an unreadable expression. "We might not know what he is but when he awakes up, he'll give us the answers we need."
The human's eyes flutter open to see a white ceiling. Only turning his head, the human looked to his side to see that he was laying in a bed inside a strange bedroom.
H-How'd I get here? the human asked as a unbearable and satisfying smell invaded his nose as drool began to flood within his mouth.
The human looked around to pinpoint where the delicious smell was coming from before his eyes set on a plate of steaming food on a nearby table. The human watched the steam roll off the food for a little bit before he couldn't stand it much longer and sat up and swiped the plate of food off the table and started stuffing his face, even though it tasted a little weird to him.
By the time the human got three-forth of the way done with the plate of food, there was a sudden voice from behind him.
"Well, look who's finally up." The human turned whipped around to see Celestia and Luna standing near his bedside. The human continued to look at Celestia and Luna before he brought up enough courage to say something.
"W-who are you?" he asked as Celestia gave him a pleasant smile and spoke up.
"My name is Celestia, the co-ruler of Equestria. And this here is my younger sister Luna. And who might you be?" Celestia then asked as the human looked down in disappointment.
"I-I don't know who I am..." the human said sadly, looking away from the princesses.
Celestia let out a sigh and walked a bit closer to the bed. "So if you don't know your name, then what would you like us to call you?" Celestia asked in a soft tone and the human looked at her in confusion before he began thinking of a name for himself.
"Riley." the human suddenly blurted out, not sure where the name came from. "I would like to be called Riley."
Celestia politely smiled towards Riley as he tried to smile back, but just couldn't. "Riley, do you know what this thing is?" Celestia asked as she used her magic to levitate the necklace they found on him towards him. Riley looked down at where the necklace was suppose to be before grabbing it from Celestia's magical grip and examined it.
"I'm sorry Celestia, but I don't know anything about this. All I know is that I woke up with." Riley said before putting on the necklace.
"Do you have any idea how you got here?" Celestia asked as Riley thought back of how he got here, but much of what he remembered now felt like a distant memory. "All I can recall was climbing the mountainside, sneaking through the town to get here before I fell ill in front of the castle. I don't remember what happened after that." Riley said before turning to look at the princesses.
"Wait, you don't remember getting po-" Luna began to say before Celestia intervened.
"After you passed out, my guards dragged you to me and I ordered them to take you here. You've been out for a while." Celestia said as Luna looked at her sister in confusion of why she wouldn't tell the truth, but before she could ask, Celestia continued. "Thank you for your cooperation, we'll talk more in the morning. In the meantime, you finish your meal and I prepared a bath for you, my guards will show you the way when your ready." Celestia said before guiding Luna out of the room before she could speak.
Once outside, Luna whipped around to face her sister in anger. "Why didn't you tell the human the truth?!" Luna hissed out as Celestia looked at her with pleading eyes.
"Luna, please listen. If Riley would figure out what he could do, there is no telling what will become of him. It's best that doesn't find out until he has better control over what he possesses. Come Luna, we've got some research to do. Maybe Starswirl the Bearded has something on this kind of situation." Celestia said as she and Luna walked down the hall just as Riley was done with his plate of food.
Once Riley was ready, the guards escorted him to the Bath House. As soon as the doors were closed behind him, he undressed himself and slowly lowered himself into the hot water before he let out a relaxed sigh.
Riley watched the steam dance around the room before looked down at the water disappointingly. Even though the castle felt familiar and he thought his questions would be answered, but it seemed that all it has done was bring more questions than answers.
Riley let out a depressed sigh before bring his hand in front of him and started clutching and unclutching his fist. If I'm not like any of these beings, then what exactly am I?