Luna had been searching the Crystal Mountains for two weeks. The princesses had heard rumors of strange activities in the high mountains. The villagers of many scattered towns had reported to the Crystal Empire that there were dark shapes moving about in broad daylight. Many had become so frightened that only large groups of ponies left the settlements to forage for food.

The sisters had agreed that Luna should go up to the mountains and figure out what was happening. Luna knew the shadow beasts better then Celestia, and knew the spells that could defeat them. After all, she had been a shadow beast before.

Luna squinted into the biting wind. She rounded the bend in the road she was on and stopped. Nothing. This was the sixth location where a shadow being had been sighted and there was only a bleak rock wall facing her.

“There must be more than this,” she muttered, hefting her sword and pushing forward along the ledge-road until she could touch the stone. She growled in frustration as nothing happened. I know the villagers saw something, she thought furiously. In fact, I can feel… Just then, something icy rushed by her. Something far colder and frightening the frosty wind. She whirled…and her hoof slipped on the ledge. Flinging open her wings, she tried to stop her decent, but the wind smashed her against the cliff and she fell, her sword slipping from her magic.

She kept falling, falling past the ground and into a crevasse at the base of the cliff that had been worn away by melting snow over thousands of years. She fell into the darkness, landing with a crash on some snow that had fallen down with her.

“Ah…” She groaned, sitting up. One of her wings was throbbing with pain, but it wasn’t broken. Her right front hoof definitely was, though. Whenever Luna tried to move it, splinters of pain shot through her entire leg. She left her shoe on to brace it, and looked around.

Darkness. Pitch black darkness all around. Luna had incredible night/dark vision, and even she couldn’t see far. She was in a stone cavern, stretching as far as she could see in all directions. She lit her horn and looked up. Some rocks had fallen down after her and stopped up the hole in the ceiling, blocking that way.

“Maybe there’s a tunnel…” She brightened the light on her horn and began walking into the emptiness. After a few minutes, without a glimpse of the wall, she sat down to catch her breath.

“Feeling tired?” a voice hissed. Luna leaped up by let out a cry of pain as her hoof jerked with the movement. “You’ve had quite a fall.”

“Show yourself!” she shouted, looking around desperately.

“Oh, I’d rather not,” the stranger growled. “When I do that you princesses tend to chase me halfway around Equestria.” The voice kept moving in circles around her, as if it was circling.

That rules out the Umbra ponies, Deirth, and Juorgoth Luna thought, mentally crossing out names. “Where do you come from?” she asked warily.

“Oh, nice try, little princess,” the voice rumbled, chuckling. “I’m not a fool, you know. I’m just as old as you are.”

Cross out all the Southern beasts, Luna determined. “Really? You sound quite a bit older.” Maybe taunting will work.

“Hmm, good try. I see no harm in answering. I am slightly older than you are… and I have haunted you before.” The voice held a hint of triumph, if bitterness as well.

Only a few shadow beasts have ever possessed me… Luna felt something brush close by. She turned and looked harder. Nothing.

“Oh, don’t worry, you cannot see me.” Cross off Mirlander and the Nightmare creature. That leaves… Her breathing stopped, she froze, not daring to move. “Oh, you have guessed who I am. Such a clever pony,” the voice hissed.

“Sombra!” Luna breathed, not daring to say the name any louder.

“Yes, quite right. I see you haven’t changed since your banishment,” Sombra laughed. “Well, except maybe your Canterlot voice.”

“But…but Princess Twilight destroyed you when the Crystal Empire returned!” Luna’s mind was whirling in circles.

“Oh, she just shattered me. But it was just as painful as DEATH!” Sombra roared. Something surged past Luna. Something dark and powerful. And just for a moment, two green flashes lit up. Luna gasped in fear.

“So you are the shadow beast the villagers have been seeing?” she demanded, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

“Shadow beasts?” Sombra asked. “I have not left the caves for years.”

“Liar!” Luna shouted into the dark. “Dark ponies have been seen all through the mountains. Please don’t tell me it wasn’t you, because the Umbra ponies have been banished and there are none that look quite as hideous as your kind,” she snarled.

“Oh my! You really haven’t changed from before your banishment!” Sombra laughed from the dark. “And it was not me, even if you won’t believe it.”

“I don’t!” she retorted, trying to pinpoint where he was. She couldn’t make her light any brighter or else her energy would drop too quickly. Is my light getting dimmer? she wondered. The light was slowly fading inward. No. The shadow was getting larger. Sombra was closing in.

“Stay back!” she warned, spreading her wings aggressively. Her legs shook in fear.

Sombra laughed. “Or what? You’ll wave your broken hoof in my face?” His eyes flashed a few yards to the left. Luna twisted, her eyes wide in fear. “I must admit, you are the prettier of the two of you.”

“Be quiet!” Luna ordered, her eyes searching for another flash. The darkness kept getting closer.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty, this will only take a moment,” Sombra growled.

“I don’t plan to die today!” Luna retorted.

“Who said anything about dying?” As soon as he said it, the shadows arched over her, under her, around her, wrapping her up, covering her muzzle, covering her eyes, wrapping her in a suffocating cocoon of darkness. She tried to cry out, but the only sound she could make was a quiet whimper. “Just sleeeeeeep….”

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So, believe it or not, this is the first part of my Luna x Sombra story! Luna x Sombra was suggested by Princessangledust in the comments of this journal:

Please Read! IMPORTANT
First, I just want to say I’m sorry for not doing much Next gen. I have a couple commissions I’m working on, and I’m busy with work besides, so I haven’t had much time to work on it.
BUT WAIT! I REAAALLLLYYY want to work on it, so below please comment with a scene you’d like to see. Maybe shipping? (must be male x female) I need ideas, and I’d really like to see what you guys want!
Thanks for being patient with me!
Hug Hug Hug
Joan-Grace

This is in MLP Next Gen because it is the story of how they got together after the show timeline.

NEXT:
My Prisoner by Joan-Grace