In the Past
Sombra had been bringing Luna to the Shining Forest everyday for the past week. He had shown her the many trails through the trees and giant mushrooms, he had told her about the firemoths that flew around the trees, he told her about the great crystal tree, and he had shown her the giant pavilion.

"I made this myself," he had told her as they walked between the trunks. "I planted a circle of trees then shaped them as they grew."

As he talked to her more and they walked together more, Luna became much less afraid of her captor. She became interested in what he told her. And when he ran out of things to say, she began telling what she knew of crystal trees, from the crystal casing on the outside to the crystal sap on the inside.

It was the ninth day since Luna had been captured, and Sombra had just finished showing her the Magenta mushrooms that grew as tall as the trees. Luna's legs were hurting, the cuff was tight and sleeping on stone floor for over a week didn't help. She was limping a bit when Sombra asked, "Do you want to take a break on the Roots?" he asked. The Roots were just what he called the giant roots of the white crystal tree.

"Yes, that would help," she replied, wincing. They walked off the path to the Roots and climbed out to one that stuck into the water. Luna laid down, her hoof trailing in the water. Sombra did the same next to her.

"Do you want me to loosen the cuff?" he asked after a moment. Luna looked up at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Yes, please." Using his magic, Sombra gently loosened her leg cuff. She sighed in relief when it stopped pinching. "Thank you." He just nodded.

They relaxed for a few minutes, just enjoying the peacefulness. Then Sombra spoke up. "Do you miss Equestria?" Luna glanced at him.

"Of course I do." She looked out across the water. "I miss the hills, the sky, the wind, my sister, my friends…" She stopped, wiping her eyes with her hoof. Sombra looked down at the crystal beneath him.

"It must be nice, having an entire kingdom that loves you," he said, a tinge of bitterness in his voice. Luna glanced at him.

"Not an entire kingdom," she murmured. He turned to her.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Luna looked away.

"I don't really want to talk about it," she replied.

"Come on, you can tell me. What happened?" Sombra pressed. "Who am I going to tell?"

"Well…" Luna sighed. "About a month ago, I was patrolling the kingdom by air at night, and I saw a fire on a few houses down in one of the cities. I flew down to help put it out, but…" She halted, keeping the tremor out of her voice. "The ponies in that city were direct descendants of the ponies who had suffered greatly under Nightmare Moon. They hated her, and… they think I was her. So when I came down to help, they thought I had started the fire and started attacking me. Several had weapons, but I couldn't attack my own subjects. So, I flew away, forgetting about the fire." She stopped.

"A mare died in that fire, and two foals were seriously burned. So, in the next few days, hundreds of ponies from that city went around Equestria, gathering recruits, and marched into Canterlot, demanding…" Her voice caught in her throat. "…Demanding that Celestia order my execution." Luna heard Sombra gasp quietly, but she continued. "Celestia, having her way with words, managed to calm most of the mob, but some managed to get into the castle. They came to where I was giving out daily orders to my batpony guards, all of whom I am good friends with, and attacked. They killed two of the guards before we caught them. When the guards took them down to the dungeons, the stallion whose wife had been killed in the fire started screaming the worst things…" She broke off, tears threatening to spill over. She took a deep breath, fighting them back.

"So many ponies think Nightmare Moon was me. They think I did all those awful things…" Sombra stopped her, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. Luna blinked through her tears at him.

"For what?" she asked.

"I shouldn't have asked you about it." His hoof still around her shoulders, he began talking: "Something like that happened to me once," he told her. "I had never been interested in ruling the Crystal Empire. I loved discovering things and exploring new places. But once, I went exploring in a cave I found in the mountains. In there, there was a pack of Windegos, which had been dormant for thousands of years. They woke up when I came into the cave and went to the Empire. They attacked for several days, and I was too afraid to go back. I was scared of what the ponies would think of me.

"But I finally got the courage up and went back, after about a week. When I came back, everything had been destroyed or frozen. Most of the ponies had lived, but some hadn't. The Empire figured out it was me who had woken the Windegos and many of the villagers came after me. They had a right to. I had woken those monsters up, it was my fault that some ponies were dead. They chased me out of the Empire, and as I was crossing the border to the mountains, several of them started cursing at me and calling me a murderer.

"I became so angry. I hadn't meant to waken the Windegos, and I thought it wasn't my fault they had attacked the Empire. I traveled deep into the mountains, getting angrier each day. But I never got angry enough to attack the Empire. I was in a ravine one day, when something attacked me. I don't really know what it was, I just know that it was a Shadow beast." Luna blinked. "It came into me, and all of a sudden, it controlled me. My actions were his actions, his desires were my desires, and his thoughts…"

"Were your thoughts," Luna whispered, her eyes wide. Nightmare possessed me like that.

"Exactly," Sombra continued. "It made me want to take over the Empire and have revenge on the ponies inside. When you princesses came and banished me, the force weakened in me, but it didn't leave. When Cadence and Shining Armor banished me again, it broke the beast's hold on me, and I escaped down here," he finished, looking down into the water.

Luna looked at him. He seemed honest enough, and his story lined up with the events that had happened in the Empire before the princesses had arrived. But still…_ He is still Sombra, King of Shadows….isn't he?_



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So, this was just a quick sketch of them that I did. Figured I should explain Sombra's backstory a bit.