Disclaimer: I do not own "My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic" or its characters. They are all property of Hasbro Studios and DHX Media.
"Julius Sombra"
By TwilightSparkle3562
Chapter 1
"In the Beginning"
PRESENT DAY: TARTARUS PRISON
It had only been merely 3 days since I was recaptured by my enemies, my father's enemies and brought back here to the cold prison of Equestria's most vile and dangerous prisoners. I was a pony who had a dream, an ambition to one day become supreme ruler of Equestria. But, now all those dreams were dashed and more than likely will never come to fruition again.
"You might as well not even try to escape again, Sombra," said the Prison Warden, his guards pointing their flashlights right at me. "I have orders to tell you that for your recent escapes, you shall be put to death."
"Tirek escaped from prison and all he got was a flogging and a branding," I said to the warden. "Why do you keep him alive and only kill me?"
"Because Tirek didn't kill anypony," answered the warden, firmly. "All he did was steal magic and place our princesses in here against their will. You have been serving a 1,000 year sentence for murdering Princess Amore and the terms of sentences for murderers is that if they escape from here, then they are to be put to death."
All I could do was scowl at the warden, growl at the way he was looking at me with a smug smile on his face.
"Your father was a murderous pony," he remarked, lightly tapping the bars of the cage I was in. "It seems only fitting that he be blown up to smithereens by the Crystal Ponies. It was a slow and painful death to say the least, you know. Yours will be similar, but you will be hanged for your crimes and only your neck will break."
"Then, you may do what you want with me," I whispered. "But, hear this: that what I did was try to honor the wishes of my murdered father by doing what I had set out to one day accomplish…"
"Which was nothing," interrupted the warden, chuckling slightly. "Thanks to our princesses and our former enemy turned ally, your plans were destroyed and now you are going to pay the penalty for your crimes against Equestria. If I were you, Julius Sombra, I'd think about your life up until this moment, how you ended up like this and why you are standing in the shattered dreams you once found yourself in."
With those words, I saw the warden walk away, flanked by his guards. It could be any moment, it could be any day now, but I was going to die and that there wouldn't be anything I could do to stop it from happening.
"It seems like that everything that I have done is all for nothing," I said to myself, sitting down on the cold floor of my cage. "Father, if you can hear me, then listen to what I have to say. I tried to do everything you trained me to do and I have failed. If I have regrets, it would be for not fulfilling your wishes and desires. Where did I stumble? Where did I go wrong? Should I not have escaped from this prison? Please, I ask you father, please do not let me die…bewildered."
For a moment, I could hear nothing. Then, I heard a voice, a growling voice that was just like my father's.
"Think, Julius," the voice growled. "You must think back to the beginning."
Hearing this made me confused. What did my father mean by the beginning? Could he be wanting me to think back to that beginning when I was born over 1,000 years earlier? To the moment
"The beginning?" I asked. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I am saying of you, my son," the voice replied. "The moment you came into the world and I groomed you into becoming like me."
For a moment, I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but it wasn't. Then, before my eyes, I saw the ghost of a pony that looked very much like my father. The only difference was that the red horn that once adorned at the top of his head was gone.
"Look at me, my son," the ghost said, putting his hoof on my chin. "I know that you tried your best in doing what I had taught you to do. I know you wanted to fulfill my dreams and goals for Equestria in an effort to please me and your mother. Yet, that was not meant to be and thanks to our enemies, I'm afraid everything that our family has worked for will be for nothing."
Hearing this, I sighed heavily as I began to think back…
…
1,008 YEARS EARLIER: THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE
A wise pony once said that everyone is born, but not everyone is born the same. Some grow up to be butchers, bakers or candlestick makers. Some even grow up to be good at making Jell-O salad. But, you know, everypony is unique for better or for worse.
…
That's how I was brought up to be from the moment I came into the world of Equestria, to one day succeed a king who ruled over a kingdom with an iron hoof. He had a plan, a plan to conquer this kingdom and rule it as his own. That was the dreams of my father, King Sombra.
…
On the day of my birth, my father was in the rank of a highly respected member of the Crystal Empire's court. But, unbeknownst to his fellow members of the court, he harbored a dark side, a dark side that would more than likely one day come out in devious fashion.
"Life's not fair, is it?" he asked as he grabbed a mouse in his magic aura. "You see I, well, I shall never be king."
He twirled the mouse around and then brought it to his mouth, chuckling slightly. "And you shall never see the light of another day. Adieu."
But before my father could finish off the mouse, an older voice, almost like a grandfather's voice was heard from behind him.
"Sombra," said the voice that came from a blue unicorn pony with a curly gray mane and tail. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to torture innocent creatures?"
"What do you want?" he grunted, releasing the mouse from his magical grip.
"I'm here to announce that your beloved wife has given birth to your foal," he announced and all my father could do was grin, not because of the fact that I came into the world of Equestria. But of something else. "It is a colt and I must say that he very much looks like you."
"Show him to me," my father said quietly and the old unicorn pony led my father into my mother's chambers. Upon entering the Chambers, my father looked my mother, who was holding me in her magic aura. Even though I was too young to remember everything, I do remember my father gasping loudly at my entrance into the world. "Pewter, my wife. You gave me a son!"
"It seems that our lords and masters have been good to us," my mother said, handing me over to my father. "You've always said you wanted a son and here he is."
Now, my father couldn't have been more happier at the fact that he had me in the first place. As I looked up at him, I could remember him feeling like the happiest stallion in Equestria… maybe a little bit too happy.
"What shall we name him?" asked my mother.
"We shall name him after me, Pewter," my father answered. "Our son shall be called Julius, Julius Sombra II, son of Julius Sombra I, me."
Just then, her royal highness, Princess Amore, walked into the room and towards my father. As she did, the smile that my father had quickly disappeared and turned into a scowl, for he had a hatred towards Amore and it wasn't because of the fact that she had done anything personally towards us.
"Congratulations on the birth of your son, Sombra," she said. "He's going to one day be like his father: a valued member of my court."
"Indeed he will, your highness," remarked my father, trying to keep his forced smile on Amore. "Indeed he will. There is no question that my son will be a valued member of your court, your highness. I have no doubt about that."
Then, of course, my father had plans for the Crystal Empire and Princess Amore was not to be included.
…
8 YEARS LATER ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE…
…
The day of my exposure to my father's ambitions was on a day of great victory for my father. For he had been locked in growing conflict with Princess Amore, the ruler of the Crystal Empire. And so, the great might and ponyhood of the Crystal Empire had met in bloody civil war. My father's legions had destroyed Amore's legions and now he was relishing in the victory that he had obtained.
"The smell of Crystal death is just as black," he said to himself. "And the stink no less. It was Amore, not I who wanted so. She wouldn't give up her crown and thus brought this conflict on our land. Julius, come here at once!"
I had been in a tent, having come to witness my father's triumphant victory over the Crystal Empire's beloved Princess.
"Yes, father?" I asked, approaching him. "What do you ask of me?"
"What do you see before you?" he remarked, ordering me to look at his forces clearing the bodies of the dead off of the battlefield.
"I see dead bodies being taken away," I said. "Bodies of our own forces and those of Princess Amore."
"Take a look around you, son," he replied attempting to show me what was happening. "Do you see what I have spent my entire life preparing you for? This is what happens to those who defy the order that I seek to bring to the Crystal Empire. They pay dearly with their lives."
However, at the time, I wasn't sure of what or why my father would do such a thing. I was only a young foal of eight, at an age when most ponies my age would be going through the process of education. But, my father was giving me my own education and it was an education that was of his own vision.
"Now, I put the next part of my plan in motion," he said, pulling a sword out of his holster. "But this time, it's up to you to carry out this part of my plan. "And the pony who will help me carry out that plan…is you."
"Me?" I wondered, begrudgingly accepting the sword. "What do you want me to do?"
For a moment, there was nothing but silence between my father and me. Then, he uttered words that would make a pony like me turn tail and run.
"Eliminate Princess Amore," he ordered in a cold voice. "Now that she has retreated from her kingdom, we need to make sure she doesn't return to the Crystal Empire…ever."
My eyes widened in shock, completely unaware of the consequences that were about to be uncovered…