Lost into Shadow

by Lucidenn

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, King Sombra, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 47418

King Sombra returns to Equestria, requesting a chance to be reformed like Discord, on the condition that Twilight be his reformer. Fascinated by Twilight's ascendance, Sombra intends to study and corrupt her, but things do not go according to pl

Twilight had reached her peak, she was at the happiest point in her young life. The day of her coronation as Equestria's newest princess had finally arrived. Then the unthinkable happened, Sombra appears in the throne room alive and well demanding his chance to be reformed by pony society. The unthinkable happens again, when his wish is granted, spearheaded by none other than Princess Twilight herself. Will Sombra's nefarious plans bring her to ruin, or will she succeed against all odds? Only time can tell as it reminds them both that plans have a way of changing all on their own.

Published 2013-12-26 02:00:04 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-04 20:06:24 UTC

2) There's a spy in our midst!

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
~T. E. Lawrence

3 days in Canterlot, and King Sombra had already contemplated killing his host hundreds of times. This fool of a stallion was such a fragile vessel that to assert his will too strongly would break its mind and kill it. That didn't stop Sombra from taking pleasure in the myriad of ways he would wish to kill the slave; why if it weren't for Sombra residing residing in its skull, he could install a fish tank and be none the wiser. For the twelfth time that day already, Sombra swore destruction on his host for the way the fool trotted about like a filly in a town made of caramel apples.

Plain Strider on the other hand, was having the time of his life. Though not of crystal like his home, the spires of Canterlot still managed to glimmer in the morning sun. Though the ponies of Canterlot did not glisten and gleam, they somehow still managed enrapture him with the style and elegance of their clothing, their composure. Oh and the colors! So many hues and shades he had not thought possible worn and painted and warm like the whole world were smiling at him! Best of all was still to come, as he trotted on the way to the castle to finally begin the extended tour, and maybe even meet the two Princesses themselves. He could hardly keep from quivering with his excitement, oh what a wonderful day it would be!

6 hours later

King Sombra was ready to bash Plain Strider's head against the wall in frustration. Six excruciating hours into this forsake tour and he had learned NOTHING that could be useful. No Princesses, no clue about the lavender unicorn, not even about the defenses of Canterlot. The tour was almost over and his time had been completely wasted. That is, until the tour came to the hall of stained glass history. There she was at last, the mysterious lavender mare and five companions, surrounding a midnight colored alicorn with a rainbow of energy.

The Elements! Sombra hissed to himself. So, that was her secret, but he had to know more. Simply content to watch the pretty colors the stained glass cast upon the red velvet carpet, Plain Strider was most surprised to find himself suddenly staring directly at the tour guide and asking "In this window here, who are these ponies?".

The tour guide smiled at the question and began to point out each pony in turn. "An excellent question sir! Here on the far right we have the unicorn Rarity, element of Generosity. Directly beneath her is Pinkie Pie, element of Laughter. To their left we have gentle Fluttershy, element of Kindness, and directly across from her is Rainbow Dash, element of Loyalty. In the bottom left corner is Applejack, the element of Honesty. Now some say that the final element of harmony is the most powerful of them all, for it is the element of Magic and is born as a product of the other five. The bearer of this element is the unicorn in the top left, Twilight.

King Sombra knew then that he had been right to beware the meddling of this mare, not only a bearer of harmony, but the element of Magic itself no less! As the tour continued down the hall he watched as time and time again the six brought down every danger in their path, until finally they paused at a window hidden behind a white velvet curtain.

Turning to the group, their tour guide said "And thus concludes our tour of the castle! Before i show you all the way out, I wanted to share with you the latest addition to this hall that was just completed today. The official announcement of this momentous event will occur this afternoon, but as some of you may or may not be here still in Canterlot then, here is a sneak peak! Tonight will be a very special night, for Equestria will be welcoming its very newest princess! A special pony that has done something thought truly impossible!" And with that the guide threw the curtain open to reveal a lavender mare flying above a turquoise landscape, a mare with wings, a horn, and her element of harmony upon her head "Princess, Twilight Sparkle!".

This changes everything King Sombra thought to himself. For this slave to have ascended to royalty, combined with the element of magic, if she were to challenge him head on, she might just...
win

King Sombra dashed back to Plain Strider's hotel room. He would need a new plan, but far more importantly, he would need as much information as possible on this, Twilight Sparkle. Contemptuously the shadow at Plain Strider's hooves ripped itself away and expanded, slowly morphing into a black form with cruel green and red eyes set aflame with dark magic. As King Sombra rebuilt his body, he stretched out black tendrils to drag Plain Strider, now catatonic with fear, inside the folds of darkness, until he was gone completely, and in his place stood the proud monarch complete with armor and royal red cape. The slave had proved most useful after all, with the information he had gathered, it was clear now what Sombra would have to do to learn the weaknesses of his enemy.

Raising his head, Sombra roared with laughter. Princess Twilight Sparkle, your days are numbered.

3) Decisions

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
~William Jennings Bryan

"Today, I consider myself the luckiest pony in Equestria. Thank you friends, thank you every-pony!"
It was perhaps the greatest day of Twilight's young life, her friends and family surrounding her with their love and support. Her beloved mentor, standing tall and proud of her most faithful student. Indeed, she felt like all of equestria was there to share in her accomplishment and celebrate her joy. All that is, save one.

"How quaint" spoke a malevolent voice from the entrance to the throne room. Silence fell immediately, as all eyes turned to the armor clad pony who had spoken. There stood King Sombra, staring straight at her, feeling his burning eyes study her every detail. Before another word could be spoken, a brave guard leapt froward, sending his spear crashing through the King's armor and flesh, only to come out from his flank, as if he were made of shadow. Without removing his gaze from Twilight, Sombra snorted in contempt and cast both guard and spear aside in an angry purple and black nimbus of magic.

"Do not fear princesses, my purpose here is purely diplomatic, so take care to treat me accordingly."

"Sombra! How dare you come to these halls! Leave now before you are struck down again!" bellowed Celestia, surprising and frightening Twilight to hear the hatred in her mentor's voice.

"Oh come now Celestia, is this any way to treat your guest? But do not worry, I forgive your transgression."
"Now how about we get down to business? I'm fully aware of the second chance you granted the draconequus, and I am here to ask of the same."

At this point Twilight spoke up, "Why would you volunteer to be reformed as Discord was?"

Sombra simply laughed and said "Do you mistake for a fool? HAH! No, I do not wish to be reformed to use my ability for scum like you. No, I simply wish to give you the chance to try."

Cadence could hold back no longer, her people where so happy now, but she still heard tales of the time of Sombra's reign. "After all the atrocities you've committed, you do not deserve such a chance, and we will never be able to trust your word!"

Still unsettled by Sombra's steady gaze at her, Twilight turned to the other princesses. "Don't be too hasty Cadence, we thought Sombra utterly destroyed once before, yet he still returned. To simply refuse his request would make for an enemy to all of equestria and the crystal empire that we could potentially never be fully rid of. Furthermore, we were able to keep Discord in check with the threat of the elements of harmony during his reforming. The gain is just as great for just as much risk as it was for Discord, and his attitude was none the better at the beginning. I'm confident that my friends and I can come through for you again"

"Such hubris." mocked King Sombra, "It suits you well, princess."

Ignoring him, Celestia looked down on her prized student, so confident and calm, and to her five friends showing their full support of Twilight in the setting of determination in their eyes. "You do not have to take up this task dear student, but I know the power of your friendships, and the love within your heart. The choice therefore, I leave up to you."

Turning back to Sombra, Twilight announced to the whole room, "Sombra, your request has been granted, you shall receive your second chance"

Grinning wickedly, Sombra thanked her for the opportunity, but demanded first that the reformation be led by Twilight herself, and as he would need accommodation in Ponyville for the duration of the project, that she allow him live there as her guest. Once again, confident in her ability, Twilight agreed to his conditions; and with that, he was gone in a blast of dark magic. The celebratory mood that had earlier permeated the atmosphere now gone, the guests began to disperse and head home. Reassured in her decision by her friends one last time, Twilight soon too retired for the night, feeling ready for the task that coming day. All through the night however, images of the King's burning eyes tormented her dreams. Those eyes staring deeper and deeper, until it seemed even her soul was bare before him and aflame as his laughter echoed forevermore.

4) Beginnings

The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.
~Leonardo DaVinci

"Good mornin' Twi! We'd best get a move on if we want to catch the early train back home!"

Begrudgingly, Twilight opened her eyes to find Applejack inside her room and pulling open the curtains to reveal the early morning sun. Trying to hide her bloodshot eyes, the alicorn stumbled out of bed. "You alright there sugarcube?" Shaking her head, Twilight merely said, "I'll be fine don't worry about me. Let's get down to the train station and make sure everypony has their elements ready. I fully expect Sombra to be as poorly behaved as Discord was when we first started out with him. Where's Spike?"

"He went on ahead to help Rarity with her eeeNORmous amount of luggage since you were still snoozin'."

By the time Applejack and Twilight arrived at the train station, the rest of their friends where packed up and ready to go, yet there had been no sign of Sombra as of yet. "That creep hasn't even bothered to show yet, he's going to make us late, IF he even shows his face at all." No sooner had those words left Rainbow's mouth than did Sombra greet them "Hello insects"; striding out of the shadows behind Fluttershy, and in the process very nearly giving the poor yellow pegasus a heart attack. "Speaking of the devil" mumbled Rainbow to herself, but Sombra heard her anyways. "And here I had expected something more sophisticated than flattery to win me over for team Celestia" he mocked.

"That's enough Sombra. Everypony on the train, it's still a long trip till ponyville." Commanded Twilight. Before Rarity and Spike could board she first pulled them aside. "Rarity, I'm going to have to ask a big favor of you for the time that we are reforming Sombra."
Without hesitation Rarity said, "but of course darling, anything for my friends!"

"Thank you Rarity, it would mean ever so much to me if you could please take care of Spike and let him live with you while Sombra stays at the library, I...." At this point the young dragon protested loudly, saying that there would be no way no how he would leave Twilight alone with that creep.

Cutting him off, Twilight assured him, "It is very noble of you to want to be there for me and protect me Spike, but you don't have an element of harmony to protect you, and I simply couldn't bear it if something were to happen to you. Besides, with my magic and element I am the most safe of anypony in Ponyville, wouldn't you agree it'd be more noble of you to protect somepony else?"

It slowly dawned on Spike what she meant as he looked up at Rarity. Nodding slowly to show he understood, he started walking to the train care with Rarity to board, with one last remark: "Just be careful Twilight, and remember that I'll always come running if you need me."

"Thank you Spike, I will."
"That was all very touching, but perhaps we can hurry it along" Said Sombra dryly from inside the train car. Twilight sighed, it was going to be a long day indeed.

Still smiling, Sombra kept his burning stare on the purple alicorn for the entire train ride to ponyville. Everything was going perfectly to plan. Not only had he guaranteed his safety and found out where the lavender scum lived, but through her own pride managed even to worm himself into living in the same domain as her. Just so far today he had gathered enough information to determine the source of the whelp's strength. These friends of hers provided her the strength and qualities she needed to prove even a hint of a threat to him he sneered to himself.

Tempting as it may have been to simply slaughter her friends however, he knew it would still be to risky, too hasty. Discord before him had easily confused and corrupted them once before, but that had only served to make Twilight all the more determined, all the more powerful in a rush to defend the friendships she held so dear. Thought it sickened him to be surrounded by such filth, he would have to let them all live. It would have to be on the young princess herself that he focused on. Too powerful to risk simply killing, he would instead need to find a way past her guard, perhaps even corrupt her with the dark path if he could. Without her the other elements would be powerless, and Sombra would be free once again.

Look at this slime, he thought to himself, I haven't even begun to press my shadowy might against her mind, and already see how she squirms under my stare. To Sombra, victory was simply a matter of time.

Twilight on the other hand was quite relieved when they finally arrived at the ponyville train station. She had tried to distract herself with attempts at conversation with her friends, but with Sombra in the same train had made their moods so tense that conversation quickly fell back into strained silence. The entire trip, though she had to refused to look at Sombra at all, she had felt the force of his eyes on her, like a pack of timberwolves just waiting for their chance to pounce. "Alright ponies, lets head home and get unpacked. Spike if you could please assist Rarity for now please, then we'll move the rest of your belongings over later. Sombra, I want a word with you alone." Hesitating at first, her friends filed out of the train car.

Sombra grinned, it seems he had gotten under her skin even more easily than anticipated. "To what do I owe the honor of your unexpected coun..... rrraaaah" Before King Sombra could have uttered another word, Twilight had faced him less than a stride away, closed her eyes, and unleashed a blinding flash of light from her horn. Eyes stinging, Sombra glared up at the insolent bitch, his face locked halfway between a snarl and a growl. "That is your first lesson Sombra, it is very rude to stare at a pony, especially for extended periods of time. If you have learned your lesson then you may follow me outside. If you have not, then I can always repeat the lesson for you as many times as you need." With that, the alicorn turned around in a swift 180, adding insult to injury by smacking Sombra in the snout with her tail, and promptly left the train car. Now wearing a smile that seemed to promise vengeance and death, the King stood up and followed her. Now, he thought to himself, now I'm going to ENJOY this.

5) Getting Comfortable

We fear violence less than our own feelings. Personal, private, solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone else can inflict.
~Jim Morrison

The sun was high in the sky over ponyville, and by Twilight's calculations, only an hour away from noon. Turning to her friends who had finished grabbing their luggage, she called them and the still glowering Sombra over to her. "Alright girls, we've got an hour before noon, which means we have just enough time to get unpacked and have lunch before we spend the afternoon reforming Sombra. I want you all to keep your elements on at all times just in case."

To Sombra she added a very clear warning. "And don't think we won't use them against you at the slightest hint of trouble. I took the precaution last night to cast a spell on each element of harmony. All the wearer has to do is to say the phrase elements unite, and the rest of us will be teleported to their location ready to assist. That means that you will always have at least one of us with you to make sure you behave yourself."

"Now Twilight, is treating me like a prisoner really to be your preferred tact? After all, aren't we supposed to become good friends like that draconequus did? How can we do that if you can't even trust me?", mocked Sombra with feigned innocence. Without missing a beat, she shot back, "Right now you have enough trust to be a guest in my home; any more than that must be earned by your behavior."

Meekly, Fluttershy shuffled up next to Twilight and softly inquired her, "Um, Twilight? How will we start with reforming him? He's different from Discord; when he looks at us it feels like a kitty staring at a poor mouse, and we're the mice."

Hearing this Rarity chimed in "Worry not dear Flutter-shy, us mice are together for all of our troubles, and we've plenty tricks to make the cat friendly with us." encouraging a small smile from the yellow pegasus, feeling just a tad more brave. "Oh my", Rarity continued, "but we have completely forgotten about the mayor in this whole adventure! However shall we break the news to her and the rest of ponyville that we'll be harboring a highly dangerous criminal whose last known evil act was to cause an entire empire to vanish from the map for a thousand years!" As an after thought, she also politely added with a nod in Sombra's direction "No offense meant, of course"

He responded only with a satisfied chuckle, "I'm glad to see my reputation precede me."

Twilight on the other hand was deep in thought; Rarity was completely correct, since Sombra would be in town, the other ponies had a right to know they danger they faced. But how to tell them without starting a panic? All this thinking was making Twilight hungrier than ever before, yet inspiration struck her like lightning as her stomach gave a loud grumble. "I've got it girls! We'll invite the mayor to lunch with us and Sombra. That way she'll be informed on the situation, and have a first hand account of how Sombra acts in public!"

Clapping her hooves with the brilliant simplicity of the plan, the mare said "Spike, please take a letter to the mayor to formerly invite her to the lunch, please refer to Sombra simply as an important pony from the Crystal Empire, and make sure to include my title of Princess with my name. That way, if the Mayor has other lunch plans she'll understand the importance of the request and prioritize meeting with us instead."

"Alright everypony, lets quickly get unpacked, we'll be meeting with the Mayor in just one hour. Rarity don't worry, Spike will be back in no time to help with you luggage again. Sombra, if you will please follow me its time for you to see where you'll be staying for the foreseeable future."

With a quick nod, everypony took off to reach their homes with Sombra calmly following close behind Twilight, trying hard not to let his disgust at this simpleton town urge him fast towards its destruction. He was forced to modify his opinion however when they entered Twilight's tree; he had not expected that she had lived in a library, nor that it would have such an impressive collection of tomes at its disposal. Why he could see a full shelf dedicated solely to the works of the great Starswirl the Bearded, and beyond those many more rare or exotic books that Twilight must have accumulated during her stay here.

"I hadn't thought you were a book lover Sombra"

Secretly furious with himself for being read so easily by the lavender worm, Sombra shook himself from his reverie and replied with an old saying that he had learned to live by. "Knowledge is power, Princess, and I love them both. Therefore I love books and all they contain."

Now that he had gotten over being in Twilight's library, Sombra decided to put the first phase of his plan into action. Slowly he stepped forward, advancing on the lavender mare until he was but inches away from her. Twilight, unsure of his intentions, stood her ground and prepared herself to summon her friends to her aid, even as she could feel the dark musk of his breath against her skin.

They were so close now, that Sombra's next words were breathed into her ear like a whisper carried on the wind. "But knowledge isn't everything, is it princess? I wonder if your knowledge has brought you the gift of understanding, and with it, wisdom. Tell me, how can you possibly hope to reform me? I am the fear in your heart, the hatred in your soul. I am the shadow that stalks everything that light can touch, and yet I grow stronger with as the light grows brighter for my shadows grow darker and deeper than you can know. How can you, a minion of that light, have any hope at all in this endeavor?"

Sombra had made sure that he was standing close enough to the alicorn so that he had one of his hooves standing on her shadow. As he spoke to her, he slowly edged a part of his consciousness down into her shadow. This was far more delicate and slow than what he had done with Plain Strider. This time he needed only a part of himself to intertwine with the mare's thoughts. This time there would be no attempt to control her mind, no she was probably strong enough to fight such an influence anyways. Instead, he planted a dark seed of thought deep within her mind, it would be the voice inside her head, and with time it would hopefully color her point of view to one he deemed more, favorable.

Twilight stood there, still, for what seamed an eternity, slowly turning over Sombra's words in her head. It is true, what Fluttershy said. Sombra is nothing like Discord was. He may not have the widespread and devastating power of the draconequus, but there was something about him that was far more dangerous in its own way. Something dark and infinite.

Finally she spoke, pulling back enough to look Sombra directly in his eyes. "It's true Sombra, that this will not be a simple nor easy matter. I do not know when, or how, but I believe that if there is any good inside of you, however far buried in your heart; I do believe that my friends and I will be able to bring it out in you."

"For your sake, I hope you are correct Princess. For if you fail, what then is there to stop me from bringing out the evil inside of you?"

The way that Sombra spoke that sentence unnerved Twilight more than anything else he had done so far. It was not how an empty threat would sound. In fact, he spoke it most like the promise of a stallion incapable of breaking his promises. They stood there a few moments more in silence until Twilight could bear it no more. Clearing her throat she walked around Sombra and proceeded to the staircase leading to the second floor. "Let's go Sombra, you still have to yet to see where you'll be sleeping, and we must hurry if we want to make it on time to the meeting with the Mayor."

Sombra watched the purple mare shuffle past him and up the stairs out of view. For once he was not thinking of the endless ways he could spread destruction and misery on the insects surrounding him. He found himself puzzled, and curious. Not the curiosity that eats at your mind until you have satisfied its needs, but instead the calm wonder to be found when you catch the moon rising over an ocean horizon as a million stars dance with their reflections. When he had touched her mind to plant his seed of dark thought, he had encountered something he hadn't seen before in any other pony. While Plain Strider's thoughts had been as shallow as a puddle, and with the intelligence to probably drown in it too, her mind had felt like a rippling pool of endless thought, going far deeper and stretching farther than probably the mare herself even knew. And when she had pulled away from him to give her answer, he had seen that same depth and brightness swirling behind her eyes.

He had been pleasantly surprised to find she had such a wonderful mind, and looked forward to manipulating it to his needs. But that is what concerned Sombra the most. It had been eons and he could not once recall a time when he had thought of that word, or used it to describe anything. It was concerning because somehow he had been made to feel something he should not have felt, he was the Master of Shadows after all! His power, unquestionable, his control, absolute. He had sent countless minds to ruin with the superior manipulations of his own, and not once, ever, had any of his victims been able to maneuver, trick, or otherwise get him to act or think the way the wanted. He was simply too clever for that, he saw through his opponents and read them like a filly's diary; exposing all their plans, their secrets, their intentions.

And yet here he stood, feeling something he could not ever remember feeling before because of that mare. A feeling only describable by a single word.

Beautiful

"Sombra I said the guest bed is up here, unless you like downstairs so much that you'd like to sleep there, I recommend coming up to make sure everything is comfortable."

Sombra shook his head clear and made the ascent to the next floor, passing off his lapse as nothing more than a temporary side effect of his previous exile and its complete lack of pony minds to encounter and exploit. He noticed as he went that the library had many crevices and folds in the wood that would be ideal for hiding deep shadows. Perfect to disappear into if the need arose.

Meanwhile, at Twilight's favorite cafe all of her friends were gathering for the lunch. In strode the Mayor, carrying a look of both optimism and apprehension. She greeted each of the ponies warmly, but the worry line on her forehead only deepened. "I do not mean to be rude, but where is Princess Twilight? I had thought for a matter of such importance as conveyed by her letter would warrant her being here already."

Spike shifted uneasily at this, he agreed, Twilight was never late, ever. It could only mean that "the delegate" was causing the delay; and the many horrible ways Spike imagined such a delay being caused soon caused his small frame to start shaking from the increasingly ghastly what ifs.

Thankfully Rarity noticed his plight, and reached a hoof out to hold Spike close as she answered the mayor. "Twilight was showing the foreign delegate her guest accommodations before this meeting, and getting settled in a new place is hardly quick as a snap. I'm certain they'll be along very shortly. This is Twilight we're talking about after all. Let's all get our drinks and consider our orders, and I guarantee she'll be here in no time flat."

Just like she said, no more than 10 minutes later Twilight walked into the cafe as if she did not mind terribly that she had arrived late. The glaze of sweat in her purple coat however betrayed that she had in fact been galloping furiously just moments ago. Approaching the mayor, Twilight bowed her head in respect and shame. "I am so very very sorry for being late, and I want to thank you for taking the time from your schedule to meet with me and my friends on such an incredibly short notice."

"Not at all Princess Twilight. While such haste is unusual, I know that you would not have asked this of me without appropriate reason. Now where is this crystal empire delegate? I would very much like to greet him and welcome him to our humble town"

"He's right here." The sound of the voice made the Mayor's blood run cold, it had a malevolent echo that made butterflies blossom in her stomach, and every nerve in her body seemed to be telling her to run. From behind a corner stepped a unicorn the color of a granite mountainside and a flowing onyx colored mane. His horn an angry red like iron left in fire, but what caught her attention most of all were those sick green eyes that seemed to be wafting purple smoke from their back edge. She had heard only rumors, but the pony standing before her matched them in exact detail. "King Sombra" whimpered the Mayor.

Twilight had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the Mayor's obvious fear. In her mind she heard a small voice saying, what a pathetic sight. Aghast that she would think such a thing, she asked Sombra to join them at the table and tried to console the trembling Mayor.

"Don't worry, Sombra is here for completely diplomatic reasons. He surrendered to the other princesses and myself at my coronation last night. He is to be reformed by us here in Ponyville. The reason I asked you here today is because of the fact that even though we can hold him in check just as we did with Discord, he still poses a significant danger. To avoid panic we must spread the word in an orderly fashion, so that families can be prepared for anything that may happen."

Hearing this the Mayor ceased her quivering and sat up tall, when it came to the safety and well-being of her citizens there was no greater priority, and she would need to lead by example if she wanted to keep Ponyville a calm and safe place to live. "Thank you Princess Twilight, for letting me know immediately of this situation. I must prepare a speech immediately, and have a safety procedure drawn up for everypony to practice.

"Before you go, please enjoy lunch with us first. It will give you the opportunity to see how Sombra behaves for yourself, so that when you speak to the rest of Ponyville it will be from your own experience instead of just words." Implored Twilight.

"Of course, you're quite correct Princess Twilight, I shall do as you ask." Returning her gaze to Sombra now with a newfound determination, she bluntly asked just how long he would be staying in Ponyville.

"That, madam Mayor, will be entirely up to how quickly these ponies think they can reform me." Then, adding in a malicious grin, "But I can say THIS with great certainty. One way or another, this will all be over within a year's time"

6) Secrets of the Heart

Author's Note

WARNING! This chapter contains graphic violence and gruesome death near the end. Just thought you ought to know.

(wasn't sure if this little bit warranted rating the whole story with the gore checkmark, but if you guys disagree just let me know in the comments)

6) Secrets of the Heart

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.
~Corrie Ten Boom

As the luncheon came to a close and the Mayor excused herself to begin her speech preparations, Twilight breathed a deep sigh of relief. All in all, the meeting had gone better than she'd hoped, the only incident being the slight panic attack the Mayor was subjected to at first. Now that the public relations part was over, they could focus on the important task at hand, how to actually begin reforming Sombra. Applejack however, was the first of them to point it out.

Standing up and stomping her hoof on the tabletop to emphasize her point, she exclaimed "Alright y'all, now that that's outta the way, let's get down the business of actually reforming this villain. Fluttershy, you knew just what to do with Discord last time, what's our next move?"

At this Sombra turned his evil gaze and his widest smile showing the most teeth possible to the yellow pegasus, watching gleefully as she trembled and stuttered out her response. "W-we-well, all I really d-did was gi-give him room to be h-himself."

Levitating a napkin with her magic, Twilight gave Sombra a swift flick on the nose that resulted in an audible smack. Gesturing to the still quivering pegasus, Rarity added "Though I think we can all agree that method may not be the best for this matter."

Slowly Twilight looked around at her friends, one by one, as she mulled over ideas in her head. A spark beginning to form, she looked at her new wings and smiled. Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty. Without her friends and their strengths she would never be where was today. By living and learning from their examples she had reached her true potential.

"I propose, that we do nothing!"

So as not to miss the moment, Pinkie grabbed a glass of water from the table, downed it, and appropriately spat it out in shock at her words. Though not as dramatic, the surprise was still evident in the faces of everypony else at the table, even in Sombra, who was beginning to wonder at how this purple mare managed to keep surprising him.

"I mean no offense Sugarcube, but how are we supposed to reform this fella if we don't actually do anything?"

"Well the idea came as I realized Sombra and I have something in common"

"You Dooo!?!" They all exclaimed at once. Sombra for his part remained silent, carefully scrutinizing the alicorn, patiently waiting for her explanation.

"Well, yes. We both came to ponyville not caring about friendship, believing it something unnecessary. But through you ponies I learned just how wrong I was, and just how valuable having friends is. After all it is because of all of you that I am who I am today, and because of you that I stand here an alicorn. Perhaps it will be the same for Sombra; by living amongst us, he'll have the opportunity to connect with other ponies, and at his own pace learn what friendship is and how to live a life of good"

"That sounds real nice and all Sugarcube, but you're forgetting that Sombra here is happier terrorizing others than getting along with them, just look at Fluttershy!"

"I for one agree with Twilight's plan"

Again, shocked silence. This time all heads turned to look at Sombra. Twilight more surprised than the rest of them, for she had noticed what the other's had not. Not only had Sombra actually agreed with her, but he'd actually used her name! Not scum, or insect, or the sneered title Princess. More than that, he was still giving her that strange look, a look that nopony had given her before that made her stomach feel, almost fluttery. His eyes had lost some of their malice, and in their place was the look of a pony in deep thought, the look one would give the stars at night as one searched for a reason for them being there, for why some fell and others seemed to twinkle on forever.

A small blush was toughing her cheeks as she spoke to her friends again as she tried her best to ignore the inexplicable stare, and the even stranger effect it was having on her. "It's as I always like to say, practice makes perfect. Sombra has been practicing being evil for who knows how long, the only way for him to learn good is for us to help him practice that as well."

At this point Rainbow Dash soared into the sky and back down next to Twilight in a perfect parabola. "I don't know how its going to work, but I trust Twilight, she hasn't led us wrong before." This simple praise caused Twilight to blush again, but it had the needed effect on her friends. Each one nodded their agreement and support.

"Besides, its not like we have any other plan even close to as good anyways, so let's give it a go!" Cheered Rarity.

"So how exactly is this going to work Sugarcube? We can't exactly let Sombra wonder around"

"It's simple really, from this point forward we'll simply resume our daily activities, and Sombra will get to choose which of us he wants to follow around. He'll be there to help out and hopefully learn what its like to simply hang out and enjoy the company of other's"

"As I am currently living with you Twilight I feel it would be best then to start by being your shadow. Once I am more, comfortable, with your company I'll be ready to branch out." Said Sombra, still giving her the look she was having so much trouble ignoring.

Again, he spoke without that menacing echo of malice, again he had called her by her name. All of her friends used her name, all of Ponyville, even all of Equestria, had called her by her name. So why was it that when he said it that way it sent shivers up her spine?

Nine weeks.

Nine, long, hot, frustrating weeks since that day at the cafe. The light of the Sun this final month of summer was fading over Sweet Apple Acres. It will be time to go home soon. Twilight thought to herself. Another day, another failure. It didn't seem to matter how or what she tried, Sombra had remained unchanged since the day he first stepped into her life. With great effort, she was barely able to keep the tears from her eyes as the day closed on her latest attempt to integrate him into the Ponyville way of life.

Despite her diligence, Sombra's condescending attitude had only managed to turn the town's fear of him into a strong loathing instead. This had led to everypony avoiding him when possible, and, by extension, Twilight as well. Due to the need to keep the everyday citizens of Ponyville protected, it was quickly learned that wherever Twilight was found, Sombra would be less than a stone's throw away. Sure She had tried to hang out with her friends with Sombra in tow, and even tried to have him spend time with them while she got her own time, but he had a way of quickly wearing their patience thin enough to return him to Twilight's watch.

Despite the growing lack of casual convention with other ponies, Twilight still heard the rumors pervading Ponyville. There were whispers that she must have a will of iron to be able to tolerate Sombra each day and night. If perhaps, it was a lost cause that should be abandoned so that they could all return to more normal lives. Others, that wondered if she would ever be successful in transforming him. The worst of the whispers however, came from her own mind.

See the way they all look at you? They're just watching, waiting for you to fail
I'm sure they just avoid me because of Sombra, once its all over everything will be back to normal. Won't it?
Even your friends aren't around much anymore. Is it really just because of Sombra? Or is it something more?
Just keep smiling Twilight. Just keep going. You wouldn't want to make your friends unhappy now would you?
Why do I feel so alone now? Can't they see it in my eyes? Can't they feel it? Don't they KNOW?

She was snapped back out of her memories by the sound of Applejack calling her name. "Hey Twil, can we talk real quick?" The orange earth pony trotted up next to Twilight and sat down beside her. "Look Sugarcube, I really appreciate you coming out here today to help me out with apple bucking season, but..."

But, there was always a but... Twilight thought.

"I just don't think it would be the best idea to bring Sombra around again..."

Of course not, everypony had said the same before...

"He swears he used no magic, and I didn't see his horn glowin' but the trees he 'helped' with are all wilted and dying. And I aint never seen Apple Bloom cry so much in me life..."

More bitterly now, Poor Apple Bloom, it must be SO hard for her....

"And I was just thinkin', maybe it's time we tried something else Sugarcube."

Of course she does, she never believed in me from the start of this. She thinks my plan's failed, I bet she's just waiting for the right moment for a great big I told you so letter to Celestia! This thought replaced Twilight's gloom with a heated anger. "And just what to do you in your great wisdom suggest we do Apple Jack? As I recall you didn't have any useful idea nine weeks ago, maybe by now you've had enough time to figure out a better option?"

Taken aback by Twilight's outburst, Applejack hurriedly racked her brain for something. "Well, I uh, we could....um"

"No? Nothing at all? So after nine weeks you still don't know, but you've had plenty of time to figure out all the things wrong with mine?"

"Now hang on I never said..."

"No, instead I've been doing all the work while you lot sat back and did NOTHING!"

"I said hold on one apple bucking minute!"

This time, it was Twilight's turn to be shocked. Stunned out of her tirade, she could only sit there with her ears laid back and her head hung low in ever greater shame as Applejack continued.

"Now Twilight that was completely uncalled for. We're your friends, and that means we'll always be here for you. No more than a dozen cries of the rooster ago did little Apple Bloom come to me and ask if you was sick. I asked her why, and she said it was because of how worn out you looked, especially in your eyes. And I told her it was cause a' how hard you'v been working, on something most ponies would have given up on already, and that all your time with the nasty Sombra feller was just wearing you down. Then she asked me, 'Applejack, is she going to feel better soon?' And do you know what I said?"

Twilight simply shook her head no.

"I told her that I honestly didn't know. But I do know one thing, and that's for sure of it, if there's anypony that can change Sombra, its our Twilight. She don't know how to fail, and she ain't never lead us wrong before. So if nothing else there's one the we sure can do for her, and that's to trust Twilight, and believe in her."

Upon hearing this Twilight's purple frame became wracked with quiet sobs. She had been carrying the wait of her doubts, her frustrations and anxieties, her fears, for so long that suddenly feeling the strain of them being lifted away made her weak and dizzy. Applejack edged closer to her friend, and gratefully Twilight leaned upon her for support as sobbing slowly faded.

"I am so sorry Sugarcube. I didn't know we were putting you through such a hard time, making you feel so alone like that. We all saw you trying your best day in and day out, and we say you hurting each time. We all wanted to help, but I'd be a lier if I said anyone one of us had a clue how. I guess we just got caught up hoping and praying your efforts would turn Sombra around, then everything would be alright again."

"I'm sorry too Applejack, I should have never doubted you girls like that; and I'm so sorry for yelling at you and letting all of that get the best of me."

"Aw don't you sweat it now Sugarcube, it ain't your fault. Besides, nopony's really been acting like themselves ever since Sombra came along."

At this Twilight's tears stopped and she bolted upright, a spark twinkling in her eye. "Applejack, could you watch Sombra and make for a few minutes, you are absolutely right, and I need to try something real quick." Then, in a softer voice, "and thank you, I could never do this without you girls, you've helped more than you know tonight."

Unsure of what Twilight had in mind, yet completely confident in her at the same time, Applejack trotted down the hill to busy Sombra (or at least try to while he condemned the work for peasants) with pulling some weeds. "Anytime Sugarcube, any time."

Sitting back down, Twilight crossed her hind legs in front of her. Seated comfortably, she rested her forelegs upon the knees of her hind legs, and took several slow, deep breathes. With each inhale, she pictured wisps of light flowing into her body, filling her lungs and spreading through her circulation. With each exhale, she pictured the light pooling back into her lungs and leaving her, taking with bits of detail.

Slow, deep inhale. Pausing. Slow, steady exhale. The tingling of the blades of grass against her flank, gone. Once more, slow, deep inhale. A pause. Slow, steady exhale. The kiss of the cool dusk air and the caressing of the wind in her mane, faded. With each cycle, the less she was aware of the world inside. Even the thought of her own lungs filling and relaxing faded away, leaving only the wafts of light, floating in darkness as dust seen through a shaft of sunlight. She followed one of the specks for a time, not in the normal sense of following, but instead just letting herself be in the place it wanted to go.

The first thing she noticed was sound, a rushing, whispering sound. Next was a gentle rocking sensation, identical to the rise and fall of breathe, but it was somehow much larger, enveloped in arms swaying back and forth, keeping her safe. Finally, her surroundings where revealed to her in the form of sight. She was in the middle of what seemed to be at first an ocean, stretching off in all directions all the way to where the horizon should be. Should be. How peculiar, the farther she looked, the farther she saw the ocean stretched out, never seeming to come in contact with the soft starry blackness that was the sky. The world was both flat and, if not infinite, than at least much larger than she could explore in a lifetime. That was not all that was far from ordinary about this ocean however; the second thing she noticed was how the water seemed to be its own light source, glimmering and glowing softly like billions of dimmed fireflies. Looking down she noticed the third oddity. She was lying on the surface, gently being rocked by the waves, but she was not sinking or getting wet at all. The, well, water, for lack of anything better to call it, seemed to be supporting her like the softest and most pliable bed in existence.

Last but not least she noticed what she had come her for, the reason for her meditation. Far down below her, she noticed a singular spot that was not glowing like the rest of the ocean around her. What's more, though she couldn't quite tell from this far away, but instead of moving in the circular rise and fall with the rest of the ocean, it seemed to be fixed still, pulsing like a heartbeat. Twilight did not know what it was, but she knew she had to find out. Pressing firmly against the surface with her right fore-hoof, she shoved with all her might and tore through. The water beneath the surface layer did not seem to mind the intrusion, instead she found that she could actually breath like air as she swam down toward the black object. The closer she came however, the more resistance she felt, until she her breath came in labored gasps, and her hooves strained and struggled to reach just those last few meters to her goal.

At this close, she could now see that it wasn't just the mysterious seed shaped like object that was down here. Wrapped tightly around apple sized shape were spiny black tendrils with large suckers firmly grasping the black seed like a drowning sailor to driftwood. The breath was being crushed from her body now, just one meter away.

Half a meter, vision blurring, the world growing dark around her.

Less than a foot away now, but she could not continue, as the world was about to lose the last bit of light around her, she could think of only two words. Breathe, Light!. Wrenching herself back from the brink she forced her lungs to open, to gasp for air force, wanting, no making, her entire body obey her will and take in that life giving force. Light exploded around her, it had not just been her perception, but the whole ocean around had been dimming with her suffocation. The brilliance of that saving breathe made the tentacles from the depths writhe in pain. Still, they were firmly clasped to the dark seed, refusing to relinquish it.

Again

Again Twilight focused with all of her might on breathing, taking in the greatest breaths she ever had. Light blazed once again throughout out ocean, even stronger and steadier. The jagged movements of the tendrils pantomimed the shrieking of their torture, yet still the refused to let go.

Again!

This time when Twilight breathed again, it was not to fill her lungs, instead she imagined filling the ocean itself, of taking more and more in to pour into this infinite expanse of light and water. This time the entire ocean became lit up like sunlight itself, all around for miles and miles. Unable to resist now the tendrils finally released their grip on the black seed. As Twilight reached forth and grabbed it, she noticed that with all the ocean lit around her, she could still only barely make out the bottom far below where those dark tendrils were retreating. It was a forest of black shadowy trees, more sinister than even the Everfree Forest could hope to be.

Now was not the time to investigate however, turning her attention once more to the seed within her hooves, she ascended back to the surface. Much to her surprise, the journey up seamed to be taking much longer than she had taken coming down. The farther up she went, the more the water around stopped glowing by itself, instead the source of light was up above, like a guiding beacon leading the way home. Up and up she went, and she realized she was suddenly holding her breath tightly, soaked through to the bone, and that the water around her was acting like normal water now.

Just a little farther.

With one final stroke she broke through to the surface gasping for breath, but her respite was short-lived. Before she had even finished filling her lungs with the first gasp, the whole world flipped itself around. The moon and stars were bright, reflected perfectly back by the unbroken calm of the ocean; which was sky and which was water? Not even gravity knew as she tumbled and tumbled with greater speed through space.

Thud!

Twilight slowly, delicately opened her eyes. She was lying on her back on the hill in Sweet Apple Acres where she had been talking to Applejack. Night had fully fallen now, and cool night air was a relief against her skin. Gingerly, she sat back up again, and noticed the prick of something hard in her right hoof. Looking down she saw a small black crystal no bigger than a cat's eye, and perfect in it's diamond shape. Smiling, she raised her hoof and brought it smashing back down on a nearby rock. As the stone shattered on impact, it continued to fracture itself apart, until it was no more than a fine dust carried away harmlessly by the wind.

Already, Twilight was feeling immensely better. Applejack didn't know it yet, but she had been much more correct than she had thought. Twilight really hadn't been acting like herself at all. She wasn't sure when, but she knew that it was Sombra who had planted that thing inside her mind, and because of that thing that she had been having all those inexplicably negative thoughts the past nine weeks.

Well she thought to herself, two can play it at that game. I'll simply plant a seed of good in his mind, and I'll bury it so deep he won't ever be able to find it. Maybe then we'll see his attitude turn around. She hadn't felt this good in weeks, not only had she discovered and destroyed Sombra's sabotage, but she finally had a way to make all her hard work finally pay off! Everything was looking up from here, now all she had to do was find him and take him back home to give it a try.

Finding Sombra at night turned out to be a lot easier than expected. All Twilight had to do was follow the sounds of agitated hollering. There she found and odd sight, Applejack up in the boughs of one of her apple trees. Ever stranger was that the tree appeared to have uprooted itself and was taking great crashing steps toward the Apple's barn. Applejack was protesting quite firmly against the bewitching of one her precious trees at Sombra who was calmly strolling along beside it, trying to reason with her that this way was many times more efficient than the laborious bucking.

Twilight's horn glowed brightly, and with two flashes of purple light, Applejack was teleported back down onto the ground, and the tree had ceased to move forward, instead choosing to happily root itself mid stride. Sombra turned toward the Princess as she loped forward, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. She had been gone for more than an hour, and he did not like the look of the renewed determination in her face. He had not seen that face on her since the day he'd stepped into her shadow.

Closing the last couple of feet with a strong bound and flap of her wings, pulled up short of running into AJ. "I think I'll be taking Sombra and heading home now, its high time we got some good rest!" Then in a soft whisper to Applejack, she thanked her again for her invaluable support. Without any further ado, she looked Sombra straight in the eye and said "I feel like taking a shortcut home tonight." With another blast of lavender magic, they were gone from the orchard, appearing in the bedroom.

"Why such the hurry Princ..." but Sombra never got to finish that sentence, for Twilight surprised him again by leaning in close, horn still glowing bright with the force of her magic, and crossing her horn with his as she touched the tip to the crest of his forehead.

Blinding, searing white light. The air was humming with the energy pouring through it in this white featureless expanse. Suddenly, static, stuttering and fierce, the silhouette of something else juxtaposed over this reality, and gone again just as quickly. Then with the mournful groan of two worlds colliding it reappeared in full detail. The sky was an angry crimson set against the blaze of an ancient and dying star. All around Twilight was an expanse of jagged obsidian protruding from every surface like crystal blades. Most prominent, was the colossal mountain that reared from the earth before her. Surely something so big could never exist! The mountain she had climbed with her friends to remove the dragon from it's cave was but a toy beside it; and in fact if she were to lay it down next to this monstrosity, that mountain would still not even be as tall as this one was wide! It reached angrily from the earth, razor cliffs clawing higher and higher into the sky, as if it were challenging the very rule of heaven itself, throwing its might into tearing past the atmosphere so as to finally scream in victory over the rest of the world.

So this she shuddered, is Sombra's mind. Twilight shook her head in an attempt to regain focus, she must find a place to place a seed of good in Sombra that would be difficult for him to find, while also having the most affect on sheer force of the rest of his mind. If this mountain represented Sombra's mind, then what properties of a mountain could she exploit? The rock, the density, the height? No, useless all of that. Taking her eyes from the daunting mountain side, she looked down at the hard rock beneath her hooves, and something she'd read about geography from her library came to mind.

Roots, mountains have roots. Though in this case rather metaphorical, the theory should still apply. If she went down to the 'roots' of this mountain that was Sombra's mind, she'd find the perfect place to plant a seed of good that affect him on truly the most base of levels. She closed her eyes and focused once again, thinking of below the base of the mountain. Take me to his roots.

The landscape all around her trembled once more, the static crackle in the air as the world blinked in and out of phase. This time it wasn't from Twilight breaking in however. This time, something was trying to break away. Rocks shattered around her as an earthquake loosened deadly boulders to tumble down and crush her beneath their bulk.

He knows. Then, with even greater determination, But he can't stop me. And with that, the world seemed to break apart around her, matter stretching and blurring past as she zoomed, down and down past the base of the mountain. But something was wrong, the world was nothing but bright blinding light again, yet she could feel herself going faster and faster. She couldn't stop anymore, she couldn't even slow down. She could only watch the forces she'd unleashed to bring her here to this deepest part of his mind took control, and forced her to live through exactly what she had been looking for. King Sombra's deepest roots.

The world was so bright and blurry, shapes were out of focus, and blurry at the edges. Everything was so big and wide and scary out here in the open that he started crying. Then he felt something holding him close and warm to its chest, and that something was speaking. Almost immediately he calmed down. He knew that voice, he knew that heartbeat. He'd known them his whole life. Feeling safe again he snuggled closer still, and then looked up to see his mother for the first time.

She was beautiful. Her amber colored mane cascaded from her head in a copper waterfall, with a single streak of ebony accenting its perfection. Her coat was a gentle purple pastel color, soft and cozy. And those eyes, looking down at him just beaming with love and adoration. He couldn't help but to smile back at her.

"Hello my little Sombra. How I love you so." Still lying in the hospital bed, she stretched out her right wing over him. He held completely still, fascinated by this unexpected sight, until she reached down and tickled him on the nose with it. Bubbling over with giggles, he reached out with all four hooves and tried to catch the wing in his embrace as it continued to hover over him, tickling him with its strange texture. Soon his giggles became bursts of laughter as his mother chuckled with him. To his young eyes there was no big scary world anymore, it was just him and his mom, and their love and laughter filling everything to the brim. That was his whole world, and nothing could have made him happier.

The memory flashed forward, Sombra, now a little foal of five years old, prancing around his father on the most exiting day of his young life; dad was taking him to his work that day! Sombra's father a stark contrast to the glimmering landscape of the Crystal Empire they called home. A physically strong and proud unicorn, it was impossible to tell the original color of his coat. Between the oil and smoke of the factory he'd worked in for 20 long years, he was stained a permanent splotchy grey and black. The day wound up being much shorter than planned however. As soon as they arrived at his dad's factory, his boss was already there, waiting for him with a small pack of security guards.

"Stay here son, I need a moment to talk to my boss, alone, to see what this is all about."

Sombra stood back anxiously while he watched his father talk with his boss. Soon talk became heated argument, and then became hollering and stomping of hooves on the ground. Sombra was scared, he'd never seen his father loose his temper. Not once ever. Suddenly the security guards jumped on his father and pummeled him into the ground. "Poppa!"

Hearing his son, Sombra's father immediately stopped struggling, and did something else he'd never seen him do. He begged to his boss "I'll leave without another word, nothing at all, please, just let me leave in peace with my son." With a grin, the boss spat on the face of Sombra's father, and then had the guards release him. The journey home was made in silence.

That night Sombra was lying in his bed, he hadn't had any dinner, and sleep just wouldn't come. Though she had tried to hide it, he'd seen his mother at the dining room table, sobbing ever so gently, and that image hurt more than even watching his father get kicked out of work had. "Sombra darling, are you still awake?"

He didn't answer her, he couldn't. But he nodded his head anyways. "Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry you had to see that today."

"Momma," he replied, trying to keep the tears from his own voice, "why did they do that to Poppa? He never did anything to them."

"The new manager didn't like your father working there honey."

"But why? Poppa's the hardest worker, he's never done anything wrong to anypony!"

"It's because we're different Sombra. We came from a land far to the south to live here in the Crystal Empire, so they think we shouldn't be here at all."

Looking directly at his mom now, eyes brimming with his tears. "But why Momma? Why?"

"Shhhhh, shhh, there now its ok sweetie. It doesn't matter what they think or do. We've got everything we need to be happy right here."

*sniff* "We do?"

Smiling gently, she slid into bed with him and wrapped him in a warm, loving embrace with her wings and her legs. "Of course we do honey, your father and I love you so very, very much; we're a family. Family means you'll always be loved, that you'll always belong right where you are. Family is the most important and wonderful thing in the world, and when the world is tough, with family you'll have everything you need and more to be happy"

"I love you Momma."

"I love you too dearest, I love you too"

The world flashed forward once more.

Momma had just gotten home from the hospital, and Poppa was smiling for the first time again since the day he'd lost his job. Their family had just gotten one pony bigger. Looking at the small pink shape curled up tightly in a blanket, Sombra could contain his curiosity no more. "Momma, what's having a sister like?"

Smiling sweetly just like she always did, she reached out a wing and pulled Sombra in close with it. "Well honey having a sister is a wonderful thing, the more you make her smile, the more you'll smile too. See when your sister smiles at you, it means she knows how much you love her, and how much she loves you. That makes it one of the greatest treasures of the world, so keep it safe my Sombra."

"Don't worry Momma, I won't let anypony take her smile away"

Memories flashed by in a blur now, of dancing, playing, and laughing. Sombra was keeping true to his word that he would keep his little sister smiling and loved. Now he was strolling down the street, it'd been his sister's first day of school, and Momma had trusted him with the very important job picking her up and bringing her back home. Chest swelled with pride that he would be trusted with such an important mission all on his own, nothing could get his spirits down. Nothing that is, until he came to the school yard. There he saw his beloved little sister pinned to the ground, crying for mercy as the older kids kicked and taunted her. "This school has really lost its standards letting washed up Equestrian trash taint the halls!" "Go back where you came from freak." "Scum like you don't deserve to live with us crystal ponies."

Sombra's vision went red with rage, using his magic he blasted apart the school yard fence and used its shattered pieces to bludgeon the bullies away. Their leader, older and larger than Sombra, charged at full speed, intending to teach the spat of dirt a lesson. Instead, Sombra used his smaller size and his enemies momentum to dodge underneath the bully and flip him onto his back. In a flash Sombra had him pinned down with his hind legs while he brought his front feet smashing down as hard as he could on the face of the crystal bully who had stolen his sister's smile away. Again, and again, and again, until he could hear the crunching collapse of bone and blood began to spatter, and still he continued.

"Please brother stop it, I'm scared, I just wanna go home."

The sound of his sister's voice broke him from his pummeling trance. "You're right sis, lets go, we'd better hurry." They dashed back as fast as their little legs could gallop, and as soon as they got home they told Momma everything. Sombra had expected her to hold them close and tell them how it was all going to be ok, like she always did; but instead he saw something in her eyes he'd never seen before, fear. "Honey!" She yelled to his father, "get the bags ready, we can't stay any longer!"

"Momma, what's going on? I don't understand."

"Sombra there's no time to explain. Remember what I've always told you? Family is the greatest treasure, family always comes first. Right now I need you to trust me when I say that we need to leave now, so I can keep my treasure safe. I want you to promise me something Sombra. I want you to promise me that no matter what happens tonight you'll keep your sister with you, keep her safe. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes Momma."

"Good, now grab some blankets, we're going to wrap what food we can carry, quickly now."

But they weren't quick enough. Less than 15 minutes later while Sombra, his sister, and his mother where in the back of the house were wrapping the last bits of food and getting ready to leave through the back door, his father went to the front to find anything that could be used as a shield in case of danger on the way. At that moment the door was smashed down and crystal ponies carrying torches, knives, and pitchforks rushed into the house. Sombra only heard his father yell "Get out now!" before the sound of clashing steel rang through the house. Surprised, his mom darted a look out the window, and the fear in her eyes only grew.

"Sombra, I need you to keep your promise now. Forget the food, just take your sister out the back and hide in the foothills. I need you to keep each other safe. As soon as tomorrow morning dawns I need you both to run, just run, keep going south and don't look back."

"Momma you're coming too aren't you, Momma what about you and Poppa?"

"I can't my angels, it's time for Momma and Poppa to protect our treasure. Now go, and remember, we'll always love you."

Tears running freely down his face, Sombra nodded his understanding, and together with his sister dashed into the darkness of the night out the back door. Running up to the crown of the closest hill, they paused a moment and looked back. Their home was surrounded by a mob of angry crystal ponies, and as they watched their mother crashed through the kitchen window and flew north, trying to gain altitude as fast as possible. She was carrying two large dark bundles, each about the size a young pony would be. The weight of the decoys must have been too much for her however; before she could climb high enough to escape, a rope flew threw the air and synched tightly around her throat. With a great tug from ten of the crystal ponies she came crashing down to the ground, her bundles spilling apples and cheese everywhere. This only seemed to enrage the mob even more, and instinctively, Sombra held his sister close, shielding her view with his own body as he watched what happened next. The mob pounced upon her, ripping her feathers out by the mouthful, then they threw the other end of the rope up and over a support beam protruding from the doorway to Sombra's home. From the crowd one stepped forward, and even from this distance his words could be heard, carried by the wind.

"For years we tolerated their presence here in our home, for years now we have ignored this blemish upon our sparkling village. Today, they repaid our kindness with MURDER! The spawn of this filth has killed one of our own precious children in cold blood! Let this night be marked forever as the day we cleansed this scum from our lands, with FIRE!" With that he grabbed a torched from a pony nearby, and used it to set his mother's purple flank aflame. Now screaming with pain, she was hoisted again by the rope around her neck, lifted up until she was struggling high above the ground as she burned alive.

It's time for Momma and Poppa to protect our treasure......Keep you sister safe Sombra Sombra, turned away from the awful sight, and looked down at his sister, trying to stem his never ending flow of tears. "Come on little sis, we're going to run now, and we're not gonna stop running. We gotta keep our promise to Momma, we gotta."

"Oh you ain't going nowhere" From out of the darkness behind them a crystal pony suddenly leapt out and struck Sombra hard on the side of his head, nearly knocking him unconscious. He watched with blurred double vision as the pony tied them both up and dragged them both back downhill. "Hey y'all guess who I caught trying to leave the party without even saying good bye?"

The mob laughed at that, a cruel monstrous laugh as he was drug to the center clearing along with his sister. In his dazed state, he could just make out his mother's body, now still, burning like a torch overhead. The pony responsible grabbed his sister from their captor, and stood with her in the center of the clearing ready to give another short speech. In the torchlight he could just barely recognize the leader, it was his father's old boss. "Ladies and Gentle-colts! I present to you the demon spawn that shed the blood of our innocent children earlier today. Let us send the both back to hell where they belong!"

Sombra could only watch as his sister, staring straight at him and flailing in fear screamed out "Help me Sombra, Sombra save me! I don't wanna die, Sombra help MEEEEEEEEE.." He strained with all of his might against his captor's bonds, trying to get to her in time, trying to do something, ANYTHING. As such, he was close enough to watch the terror and agony in her eyes as a silver knife flashed through the torchlit night, to hear the gargle as her scream was severed short, and to feel the spray of blood from his sister's slashed throat splatter across his face.

"NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Sombra screamed and screamed the word, so forcefully his vocal chords themselves began to bleed. All semblance of thought was destroyed, there existed only in his mind only the destruction of his world, of his family, his love. Everything was paved away for the sheer force of his hatred, memories of making his sister laugh and smile, of his mother holding him close to say "I love you", the very force of everything, all of it being ripped away from him was gasoline for the flames of his wrath inside.

For the first time that night the crystal mob felt fear and confusion, his captor even letting go of the ropes and stepping back. The very air around sombra was warping and crackling. Still screaming and without even realizing what he was doing, he levitated to a height of 20 feet off the ground. He had but one thought now, to release all of his hatred down upon them, to make them pay.

Sombra's scream was joined by the screams of the atmosphere itself, as black lightning blasted from his horn again, sundering flesh, stone, steel, and air. Where it struck land black crystals exploded forth, impaling everypony near. They screamed and ran in every direction, trying to get away from the massacre.

But it wasn't enough, it was still only the beginning. He focused all of his wrath on the earth now, reminding it of days long gone when it had belched flame and molten rock, pouring his endless hatred into feeding his spell the energy it needed. The foothills behind trembled as if from an earth quake, until they could handle the pressure no more, exploding outwards as geysers of lava, adding meteors of rock to the already potent destruction of lives.

This night all the crystal ponies of this small village would know the hell they had unleashed, this night, for the murder of all that he had ever loved he would make their whole world BURN!

Twilight could stand it no longer, having been forced to live through his memories like that, his rage had been her own, and she had to sever the connection before it completely consumed her. She was back in her library, as Twilight Sparkle, no longer seeing through Sombra's eyes.

Sombra felt it the moment the connection was severed, as he was able to wrench himself back from living the memory into dealing with the present. Nopony had ever invaded his mind before, nor even dared try. HOW DARE SHE? HOW DARE SHE! I'LL KILL HER, I'LL KILL HER NOW! and with a roar leapt through the air at her. Purple bands of crackling light appeared around him and locked him to the floor as Twilight's horn glowed, amplified by the power of the element of magic she still wore. Still roaring like a savage beast, Sombra struggled against his bonds, her magic keeping him unable to complete his shadow form transformation to escape them.

"I am NOT some weak and helpless mare Sombra!" Twilight cried. "And I am not here to fight you! I am NOT your enemy!" Then, with a soft and shaky voice and tears in her eyes, "Let me help you." She released her spell, the magical bonds dispersed. Snarling, Sombra reared up to attack her again, but he could not bring the deadly blow down upon her. Something in her damnable eyes stopped him, something that reminded him all too freshly of the loving eyes of his mother and sister, long since passed. He roared, shaking his head to clear the images and try again, but still he could not strike her down. Instead he turned around and pounded down the stairs, where Twilight heard a mighty crack-a-boom, followed by another, and another, as Sombra vented his pain on the walls of her basement.

Meanwhile, Twilight could only collapse to the floor, sobbing hysterically as the emotional weight of living through Sombra's greatest love and pain came crashing down upon her. Crying harder than she had with Applejack that evening until she was so utterly and completely spent that her mind drifted off to sleep to the rhythm of the thunder in her basement.

7) A way of Thinking: Part I

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
~Henry David Thoreau

Dawn cracked the first rays of sunlight through Twilight's open window as birds chirped in happy ignorance of last night's events. She slowly opened her crusty eyes to find she was no longer on the floor, but tucked in to her bed instead. Confused she sat up to look around for Sombra, whose bed did not seem to have been slept in, but instantly regretted it. Her whole body was a tense ball of muscle, and worst of all was the pain in her chest. The memories had been so real, the emotions so raw and powerful, that it had wracked her whole body, her heart worst of all; yet somehow she felt, she knew, that while the rest of her tension would be gone before long, that it would take something more than mere time to relieve the pains in her chest.

Remembering that Sombra had last been beating up the basement, Twilight clambered from her bed and slowly walked downstairs to see if he had fallen asleep down there, trying her hardest not to make even the slightest of sounds in case he had not awoken yet. She didn't want to really face him yet, the memories, his memories, were still too fresh in her mind, and she didn't know how to handle them yet herself, let alone what to say to the pony she'd just made relive what was probably the most horrendous moments of his lifetime.

She froze halfway down the staircase, luck it would seem, was not on her side today. Sombra was sitting in the main room of the library, just sitting there and staring at a picture on the wall; the one of twilight surrounded by all of her beloved friends, smiling brighter than ever at the bliss of their company. Even more unusual, was that Twilight could actually see the soft grey of Sombra's coat, and the way his long mane fell across his back, as untamed as a lion. For the first time, ever, Twilight was seeing Sombra without his armor. Not only that but the red flowing cape, and even his obsidian crown that he always wore; everything was gone, leaving Sombra, just Sombra, sitting down below.

"I see you've awoken", he said calmly, without even turning to look at her on the staircase.

Twilight blushed at this, abashed that she'd been caught sneaking, and quickly descended the rest of the stairway to stand slightly behind him, and to his right. She found herself very nervous beside him, unsure of how he would react, made only worse by the fact that he was so calm right now. His voice wasn't even echoing with its usual malice or contempt. Instead it was a deep, gentle tone that reminded her of almost like the purr of a large jungle cat. The fur along her back stood up a little as it sent a tickling sensation down her spine; her blush becoming redder as she realized how her body was reacting, and redder still at her blushing for it. Thankfully Sombra spared her from further self reflection by speaking once again.

"Its been 3000 years since last their memories lived in my heart. Dozens of lifetimes spent slowly forgetting that they had even existed; forging my darkness in the fires of my own hatred for naught but its own sake, century after century." He turned to look at her now. "Until last night."

Twilight wasn't sure which caught her more off guard, his words, or the fact that she could see his natural eye color now. Green was replaced by the natural white, and his pupils were a stunning ruby. She chose not to mention it, instead committing to memory the change, feeling that it could prove important as she continued to work with him. "How could you forget, that?" She said with a shudder, barely whispering the last word.

Looking back at the picture on her wall, he paused for several moments, letting the silence between them drag out just long enough for Twilight to shift slightly in discomfort, wondering if he was actually going to answer or not. Finally he said, "You should be dead right now. Your carcass should have been lying shattered beneath my hooves, but instead you dared do what nopony had ever done before, and now you've lived to tell the tale for it."

Looking directly at her once again, he continued, "I once considered you nothing more than a pawn, lucky enough to have somehow managed to make it to the other side of the board to turn into a queen. At best you were a nuisance to carefully trap and capture. I see now that you have the potential to be one of the players, though naivety keeps you trapped to your distinctly colored squares."

"You were never willing to give reformation a chance at all were you? It was all just a ploy from the very beginning to get close to me, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. You wanted to wear me down with that magic you placed in my mind so that when the time came, you could disable the power of the elements combining."

Sombra grinned at this. "Naive yes, but a quick learner. But do not be so modest Twilight, if I wanted to stop the element's of harmony combining I could have quite easily removed one of your friends from play at the very beginning. Now why didn't I do that?"

"Because I wouldn't have allowed it!" She cried out angrily, "Because, ....." and then the memories from last night came flooding back to her once more, of the power young Sombra had erupted with, and her voice immediately softened. "Because you know exactly what that can do to a pony."

Sombra's smile disappeared, his features hardening like granite. "And so that brings us to our current impasse. You remain an obstacle to my rightful throne, and now you know that your mission has been in vain from the very beginning. But I can be patient, since this endeavor is proving fruitless its time I left to employ other strategies. Goodbye Twilight Sparkle, I look forward to meeting you again, where we shall see which of us is the greater unicorn." With that he stood up and turned to his pile of armor in the far corner, getting ready to depart.

"Last night was not in vain" said Twilight, her voice still barely above a whisper.

Sombra froze in his tracks, his back to her. He did not move, did not utter a word, he simply stood there, waiting.

"Terrible things happen to good ponies Sombra, you and I both know now that deep down you're still the same colt that loved his family more than anything in the world. You can be him again, let me help you."

Sombra whirled around, his eyes once again green and smoking with anger. "Do not presume that you can understand me from your silly peeping, whelp! You who do not even know enough about the path that you have chosen to walk, can not possibly hope to understand the steps I have taken! I am King Sombra! Do not think you can lecture me on what is right and wrong; nor persuade me with your puny experience to abandon the life I have chosen!"

Now Twilight stood and stared Sombra straight in the eyes, challenging him. "Then MAKE me understand!"

Sombra blinked in confused surprise, the hatred draining once more from his eyes to leave them ruby and white once more.

"Make me understand the choices you have made, and why! Teach me to see from your eyes, to wield and think with your black magic. Then, when all of that is done, when there is no doubt in your mind that I can truly know your perspective, then you will take my words and my guidance to heart. Then you can trust me to bring you out of the darkness."

This mare really is full of surprises. "You know not what you ask for child."

"I know that love and light will always be right, and I know that there is still love inside of you. I intend to bring it out and show you how to share it with the world."

Sombra shook his head. If he humored the princess, there would be a strong chance that the dark magic would consume her; but she had also proven consistently unpredictable and competent. There was just as strong a chance that she could use the knowledge of the dark arts to exploit it's weaknesses. It was just too risky, he could never consider it. Yet something forced him to stay. He was hungrier than ever to understand this mare now, he could not just simply walk away anymore.

"You are a fool Twilight Sparkle, but very well. We start your training in an hour. Luckily, your basement has recently gone under renovation. With some refinement, it will make for the perfect place to practice."

Twilight nodded once, determination fierce in her eyes, to show that she understood. He simply shook his head once more, then brushed past her, descending into the basement to begin the "refinement".

Twilight only relaxed when she heard the sound of his hooves disappear on the stairs, the air vacating her lungs in a large whoosh. She hadn't realized it but she'd been holding her breath since she had asked Sombra to teach her; and now that he had agreed to her crazy proposal, she found a tiny part of herself wondering if she had bitten off more than she could chew.

"Thump Thump Thump!

Twilight jumped like a foal caught with their hoof stuck in the cookie jar at the sound of somepony knocking on her door. She cracked it open just far enough to sneak her head out and peer at who it was outside. As soon as the door was open wide enough, a small green and purple dragon dashed inside and hugged her leg tightly.

"Twilight! We were so worried about you! Rarity and I ran into Applejack this morning who told us about what happened at Sweet Apple Acres and I looked at Rarity and I said oh my gosh the sounds we heard last night must have come from Twilight's house with all the thunder without clouds in the sky and the earth shaking and then Rarity agreed I must be right only powerful unicorn magic would explain that and then I knew it must mean there was a fight but you didn't call our friends to use the elements so what if you didn't have a chance to use the elements what if you were too surprised or had lost already before you had the chance and you were hurt what if you were dying and we would have been to late and...."

Twilight shushed him with a hoof, both to stop poor Spike from working himself into any more of a panic, and also so that the baby dragon could have a chance to breath. Rarity and Applejack had now walked inside, and while both were obviously relieved, she could tell her friends were still very worried for her. "It's alright, really I'm fine see? Nothing happened to me."

"That there door don't look like it would agree with ya Sugarcube."

"Huh, what door do you mean Applejack?"

The orange pony stalked over to the middle of the room and picked up a heat-warped metal handle, still attached to a small chunk of shattered wood. Twilight's mind raced, she hadn't noticed any doors missing. But wait, she hand't looked at her basement yet, the fist boom from last night must have been the untimely demise of the door leading downstairs.

"Huh? I mean um, uh oh yes of course that door. You see I had a talk with Sombra last night to try and get him to, um, be more agreeable with ponies! And uh, well he got a little cross about that and decided to vent a little bit in the basement." It was close enough to the truth of what actually happened, so Twilight rationalized that she need not feel too guilty about hiding the rest from her friends. There was no way they could see what she had seen, she couldn't put them through all of that. No, for the safety of her friends she would have to be the only one to have lived through those memories. Unfortunately that meant that they wouldn't be able to understand the reason for the risk she was taking; if they found out what she'd agreed to this morning, they'd think she'd gone off the deep end.

Wrapping her hoof around Applejack and guiding her toward the door she continued "But not to worry, we'll be getting all the damage repaired, so much to do so little time haha!" Having successfully herded her friends outside, she was about to quickly close the door when Spike said one last thing. "Just be careful Twilight, and don't hesitate to call for help. I don't know what I'd do without you."

His words jabbed into her heart and twisted, her guilt multiplying from the secret she had to keep. "I don't know what I'd do without you either, or any of you (referring to her two friends currently standing behind Spike) in my life. I promise to be careful and stay safe." And with that, she gently closed the door on her friends, as much to shut them out as to hide the shame in her eyes. She sincerely hoped that she could keep that promise.

Meanwhile in the Crystal Empire

"Thank you for accommodating us on such short notice Princess Cadence, Prince Shining."

"Not at all Celestia, Shining and I are glad to help any way we can. How long will you and Princess Luna be staying for?"

"It is impossible to say Cadence, it could be weeks or even many months. Our task will require delicate balance and precision if we are to succeed. How soon can you be ready to join us? We must begin at once."

"I'll be ready in an hour, after that Shining will be fully set up and ready to deal with all of the Crystal Empire's royal duties on his own."

"Go quickly then. We shall await your return Cadence."

As Cadence and Shining Armor dashed off to complete their preparations, Princess Luna surveyed the room they were standing in; it was large and circular, completely featureless and smooth. In the very center of the room was a giant crystal fragment, perhaps 20 meters tall and 2 meters wide at its thickest point. It floated ominously above the center of a specially designed diagram 50 meters in diameter itself. It consisted of one giant circle, around which wrapped three connected ovals to form a peculiar triangle. A Triquetra her sister had called it. There were no torches to light this room, for there was no need, the Triquetra itself pulsed with a soft white light, that while not bright to look at, filled the room with a soft dusky atmosphere, throwing their fuzzy shadows up to the domed, windowless ceiling to play.

"Sister do you not trust the elements with their task?"

"No Luna, I have the utmost faith in them, and in Twilight especially. It is Sombra himself that I do not trust."

Celestia gave the floating crystal a steely glare of determination. "Twice now sister, has Sombra been utterly defeated. Twice now he has risen again, stronger than ever before. Should Twilight and her friends fail, or become endangered, we will have to act immediately; and this time Luna, this time we shall be prepared."

9) A way of Thinking: Part III

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
~Henry David Thoreau

Everything hurt. Every bone, every fiber, every single hair throbbed with a deep ache. Am I dead? No, being dead shouldn't hurt this much, should it? A soft moan escaped her lips as a cool, damp cloth was placed across her forehead and wrapped around her horn. As the initial shock of the cold contact wore off, the pain pounding in her head numbed down enough to allow her room for thought. She was expecting cold granite, instead she felt something soft and warm beneath her, like a giant pillow. Barely above her ears was a low whispering voice. She could not understand the words, but they filled her like a warm hug calms and soothes a filly. The deep cadence calmed her heartbeat, and she all but forgot the pain coursing through her as she simply lay there listening. Slowly she creaked open a single eyelid. She found herself staring into the deep ruby of Sombra's eyes, his horn aglow with a crimson nimbus that she'd never seen him use before. Though his attention was focused intently somewhere on her back, he apparently still noticed her newfound consciousness.

"You're very lucky to be alive, Princess", he said, stopping the strange lullaby he'd been singing to the mare.

"mwha, wha apennd." She croaked out.

"You gathered a very large amount of dark energy, but your spell lacked control, and so it backfired on you." She whimpered in pain as he reset the left wing back into its socket, having finished knitting the metacarpals back together.

Her socket now receding to a dull ache, Twilight asked the next thing on her mind, "Why is your magic signature red?"

Sombra chuckled at this, and proceeded to slowly encourage the ripped and stressed muscles of her left hind-leg to reconnect. "Dark magic for all it's greatness is very lacking in the field of medicine, unless you are as deeply intertwined with its power as I am. Therefore I must resort to normal magic to heal anypony other than myself."

Twilight knew that fact shouldn't be come as a surprise, after all she the personal student of Celestia was dabbling with dark magic, but she found her mouth gaping in confusion anyways.

"Is it so strange that I would know and be able to use the other side of magic as well?"

"N-no," she stammered out, "but you yourself said that you spent thousands of years practicing nothing but hatred. Positive energy must come to you with as much difficulty as negative does to me."

"You summoned quite a lot of it before injuring yourself remember?"

"Well, yes, but that was only after I followed your advice and used the power of love t...." Her sentence trailed off as the implications hit her. Sombra was using love to power his healing spell. She felt a rush of blood to her cheeks, and an odd clenching in her chest as if the air was sticking on its passage through her lungs. She shook her head and quickly reasoned that Sombra must be using the memory of his family to power the spell. Sombra in the meantime had not responded to her truncated sentence, a slight frown and furrow in his eyebrows as he seemed to be contemplating something even he did not fully grasp.

The moment passed, and Sombra continued "You are, a very interesting pony Twilight." Her heart beat just a little bit faster now. "Even as an alicorn, you are not hardened by the centuries like Luna or Celestia. While such a blast would be an inconvenience to them, you should have been pushed at least to the very edge of death."

The work in her leg finished, he now turned his full attention to her eyes, staring straight into her as if trying to examine her soul. "When I approached your unconscious body, I ran into a surprisingly strong shield of ionized particles just inches away from you. It wasn't a spell, you definitely wouldn't have had time to erect a magical shielding. It would seem instead that when the dark magic exploded around you, it energized the cavern air causing it to become ionized. You must have reflexively grabbed as many particles as possible with your magic and packed them tightly around your body; the stripped electrons forming a magnetic barrier on the outside surface that doubled as a conduit for energy around your body, instead of blasting straight through it. This is what kept you alive in the initial blast, and what kept your spine from snapping like a twig when you cracked the stone wall with your impact."

Twilight could only lie there in disbelief. It was difficult to conceive that she had done such a thing, and in what must have been milliseconds at that!

Sombra's expression softened from his previous intense scrutiny, speaking as softly as his lullaby before. "You have a talent that, though I hate to admit it, rivals my own. For now though, simply remember my next words. You were consumed today because your anger was hot. When your anger runs cold, you will be able to use it. While it is hot, it will use you instead. Now rest, your body must finish the healing that I have started."

His horn glowed red once more, and a blanket appeared from behind him to tuck her into what she now noticed to be a large circular cushion much like the one in Celestia's personal room. Before she could question where these items had come from, Sombra had gently laid her head back down to rest, and then turned away from her to start a cozy fire out of thin air. It had no visible fuel, yet there it happily danced on its designated section of rocky floor. She could not help but to stare into the flame as Sombra's strange lullaby began again, coaxing her back to sleep. As she closed her eyes and drifted into the land of dreams, her thoughts still dwelt on those strange words, and on the fire, now blue and hotter than ever, dancing across her dreamscape.

Twilight awoke with a start, and looked around her. The fire was gone, and all the torches that had lit the pit that was now her basement were snuffed out, leaving her in near total darkness. To her right, a couple of meters away, she could just make out Sombra's powerful chest; rising and falling in the slow rhythm of slumber. She guessed that several hours must have passed already. Quickly rising from her bed(cushion?) she ignored the protest of her wings and flapped over to the cavern holding the target range. She did not want to awaken Sombra, and she simply could not wait till morning to try out her sudden insight.

Touching down inside the range, she quickly lit the torches along the walls with a simple pyrotechnic spell, briefly noticing that the cavern had been reset since her last attempt, and was once again ready for further attempts. Her dreams had held sudden inspiration for her, her anger was like the fire, which burned hot and if not careful, would spread without control. When fire turns blue however, it could be used to precisely slice the most stubborn of elements such as stone and steel. How funny it was that the color blue usually meant cold, yet when applied to fire it meant that it was more focused and hotter than ever.

Twilight now turned her attention to the targets in front of her. She took each one, its pose, its shape, its location, and slowly reconstructed it as a mental picture. Finally, when she had internalized the entire practice range, she closed her eyes and began to slowly breath in, and out. At the same time she released the same fear and pain as before, allowing it to grow into the same rage; at the same time she kept her focus on the her breathing, and added to her mental image of the firing range an orange fire where she was standing. Her emotions were raging just like before now, threatening to leap out of control, yet she forced them to keep in time with the fire in her mental eye. Each inhale brought the flame higher and stronger. Each exhale forced it to shrink and compress. Ever so slowly, the fire grew in average size, and ever so slowly, its color began to change until the orange and red was fully replaced by a fierce blue sharpened by an edge of indigo. She could still feel the hatred raging in her mind, but now it had purpose, now she was giving it shape and direction.

One by one, a thin beam of black and purple magic lanced from her horn to connect to each target in turn. Still she focused on her breathing, feeding the power she had gathered. So enraptured in her focus, Twilight failed to notice the pair of ruby eyes watching her from the cavern entrance; watching as the aura of black magic around her horn swelled to more than twice the size of the alicorn, growing and shrinking in time with the rhythm of her breaths. Now that she was connected to each statue by the strings of darkness, she focused on them alone and their structure. The floor and the walls faded away until all that was left were the targets and the now enormous blue flame. She was ready. Her eyes opened wide, now pure green, the pupils gone and purple energy wafting from them to join the crackling aura around her horn. With a spear-like thrust of her horn the energy was released. 25 bolts of immense power flew directly down the paths of the beams that had connected her to each statue, and simultaneously each statue had its molecules torn asunder from the shear power of the blast.

Twilight was surprised that she was not blinded by the light of the explosions, nor had she been troubled by the force of the explosion, all except for her hair, which fluttered violently at the wall of air that was pushed past. The cavern became quiet and calm once more, and before her was an empty room, not even a scar on the floor where the statues had stood, as if they had quite simply never existed in the first place. It had worked! It had actually worked! She failed to notice that underneath her elation, she felt a satisfaction that was much more sinister. She had wielded such terrible and destructive power, and it had felt good.

"Well done Twilight, you have passed the first stage of your training, and dare I say with the mental acuity of a master."

Twilight positively glowed at the praise, too happy to even be surprised that Sombra had sneakily witnessed the entire event. "What's next Sombra? I'm ready for it."

Sombra grinned slyly. "Yes, indeed you are. I suppose you're far too awake to rest now, so proceed to the black crystal formation in the floor of the main shaft. Your next challenge is to simply reach the next cavern, to traverse the crystal and come out at the next cavern."

Gleefully, the purple alicorn had to stop herself from skipping out of the cavern in triumph. Sombra watched her walk away with barely controlled enthusiasm and smirked to himself once more. He hadn't mentioned it, but her violet pupils were surrounded by green instead of white, and small streams of purple energy were still wafting from the corner of her eyes. It was perfectly normal for this to happen while casting a spell of black magic, but for the effect to still be lingering afterwards, well...

Sombra chuckled to himself one last time and followed the mare outside and into the main shaft; things were coming along much better than he had expected.

Meanwhile at the Crystal Empire

The black crystal blazed furiously, the green and purple flames warping the air with waves of heat. Each time a shadow reached down to the floor to attempt escape, magical lighting from each Alicorn struck it apart simultaneously. Each Princess was strong and resolute, for they had each other, working together harmoniously.

"Keep it up Luna, Cadence! We almost have it pinned! Just a little more!"

"We shall not fail sister! No shadow can escape our combined light!"

"With nowhere to hide, our love will keep the evil at bay!"

All together now, they chanted, voices ringing like bells of righteousness over the howling of the crystal's inferno.

"Princeps ardentem solem, et lunam, et stellas. Simul et tueri amorem Lux ministrare. Verum absit natura mali umbras ostenderet. Sic ut ad mortalitatem percutiebam liga eam semper!"

As they repeated the chant over and over again, their magic solidified into buttresses of pure light. These yellow, pink, and blue beams arched between the crystal and the quarantine circle of the Triquetra. With an electric hum the circle glowed bright and pure, and like a sail being hoisted along a mast, it began to creep up along the princesses's magical constructs. The crystal inferno blazed higher than ever before now, desperately throwing itself against the containment field trying to escape. It would find no weakness this time, no way out. Soon it was hidden from sight as the dome of light creeped toward its apex, and with one final screech, was completely enshrined with blinding light.

When the light finally dimmed, the princesses could finally see the fruit of their labour. There in the center of the Triquetra the crystal had become as transparent as diamond, glimmering in the dim lighting of the room and casting rainbows on the walls. At its very heart however the inferno of green and purple that had consumed it was now suspended inside, like a bug trapped in amber.

"Congratulations." Cheered Celestia. "We've succeeded. Now that it is trapped, we can begin writing new magic." She looked at the other two princesses, soaked through with perspiration and breathing heavily. They'd been at this for hours on end, perhaps even days without rest now. "Let us rest and regain our strength. We will need to be at our very best for what is still to come." Cadence seemed especially pleased by this, she was still a relatively young alicorn and must be missing her husband dearly. One by one they filed out, and only till Celestia was alone in her guest room did she allow her weariness to have its voice. Legs buckling, the sun princess collapsed to the floor and welcomed rejuvenating sleep to her overworked mind and body. Just before drifting into the dream realm, her final thought filled her with sadness and dread. Sombra would be millions of times more potent than the dark magic spark she had instilled in the testing crystal. Twilight is doomed to fail on her own, even with the elements of harmony. I can only hope we are ready before that happens.

Author's Note

I used google translate to latin for the chant, here's the original text: "Sun burning high, the stars and moon. Their light and love together protect and serve. Banish the shadows and reveal to us evil's true nature. Bind it to mortality so we may strike it down forever."

10) Attribute Training: Fear

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.
~Michel de Montaigne

"Now that you have sufficiently mastered the first lesson, it is time that we move on to what are known as the Attributes of black magic. Though there are dozens of Attributes, they can be grouped and condensed to the basics, which will constitute the rest of your training."

Twilight nodded her head in understanding, her green and violet eyes staring at him intently, hanging eagerly upon his every word.

Withholding the urge to smirk in self-satisfaction, Sombra motioned with his hoof for Twilight to stand nearer to the crystal before continuing his lecture. "First of all, be aware that any black magic spell can be cast by simply summoning the negative energy and harnessing it for the spell. This however, is equivalent to using a blunt knife for every situation. It will still achieve the intended purpose, but it costs the caster much more energy, and the result is at best inefficient and amateurish. The Attributes of black magic fix this problem. By 'aligning' with an Attribute, or a combination of Attributes, the spell you cast becomes a properly honed blade; costing less energy and effort to wield, and allowing exponentially more precise and powerful effects."

The gears in Twilight's brain churned away furiously with this new information. What an intriguing concept, that these 'Attributes' whatever they where, could have such a significant effect on a spell. Though her imagination quickly cooked up dozens of theories and wild speculations on what they could be and how exactly 'aligning' with them could alter a spell's nature, she decided to instead ask the most pertinent and immediate question.

"So how does this help with proceeding to the next chamber to begin the next lesson? And how am I supposed to travel through the black crystal, when you yourself said I would only be able to do so when I had completed my training with you?"

My my my, this mare never missed a detail did she? With yet another chuckle, Sombra replied. "That is correct, but I have layered within each level's crystal a form of transport enchantment encoded to take you directly to the corresponding platform. Each platform has a specific Attribute that we will train on, so to move on to the next level you must be able to align with that attribute while in physical contact with the crystal node. Think of each Attribute as a ticket for a specific station, and the transport enchantment as the train that will take you to your destination for you. The first Attribute you must align with is Fear."

Without another word he stepped back and away from the crystal node, leaving her room to focus without distractions. Twilight's eyes however followed him as he sauntered back several meters before lazily lying down and crossing his forelegs. After several minutes of silence passed between them, her eyebrows furrowed in frustration as she realized he was not going to continue.

"Aren't you going to tell me what exactly this 'alignment' is or how to do it?" She demanded with a small stomp of her hoof.

"Oh you're a clever mare, you'll figure out something."

Twilight shot Sombra and his silly, impish grin a frosty glare before turning her full attention to the crystal in front of her. Though seemingly solid black at first, the longer she stared the more she noticed that deep within the inky depths of the latticework, something was moving. Fascinated, she leaned closer, straining her eyes to track the almost imperceptible shapes floating inside. Despite her best efforts however she could not quite discern them, for the images and shapes within the crystal flitted about like shadows in peripheral vision; each time she tried to focus on one they disappeared.

Clank

As preoccupied as she was with the depths of the crystal, Twilight hadn't even noticed how close she was getting until her horn bumped up against its shiny surface. Immediately she felt her body freeze, unable to move a single muscle. That however, was the least of her worries, for as soon as her horn made contact the moving shapes within the crystal poured themselves into her mind like a torrent of anguish. Each image was a miniature movie that lasted a fraction of a second, but to her each one lasted a lifetime. She watched as Fluttershy fled in blind panic from the froggy bottom bog as the hydra chased her down. Her terror could not lend her enough speed though, as slowly it gained on her and with one hungry lung closed its enormous jaws around her. Twilight watched as Rarity sought cover from a manticore. Poor, valiant Spike sought to protect her and distracted the beast, but it was not enough; the beast roared and raised its paw ready to bloody the pony's pristine cloak, as behind it Spike slowly felt his grip on the world flow away through the gaping hole in the middle of his chest. Applejack, her hind legs bent at all the wrong angles, desperately clawing at the grass of her apple acres, trying to get away from the flames engulfing the precious trees all around her.

On and on it went, until Twilight surely felt she would go mad. Out of desperation to save her sanity she screamed again and again in the confines of her skull, putting everything into just making her neck jerk away. Suddenly her vision was left black and empty, and silence crashed around her. Ever so slowly, her senses recovered, and she noticed that her connection to the crystal had been mercifully severed. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage, like a rabid animal trying to escape. She could see her breath in front of her as she panted, and her purple coat was heavy with sweat.

She turned to Sombra, both angry and panicked, trying her best to form a thought to voice her distress; however the longer she looked at him the more her mind cleared and determination took its hold. He was just sitting there, watching her, waiting so expectantly. It was infuriating! It was like he was just waiting for her to quit, to give up.....to fail. Not a word passed between them, and yet she turned back to the crystal node, breathing back under control and a fierce tenacity set ablaze in her soul. She'd show him. There hasn't been a test that she'd ever failed or backed down from, and she certainly wasn't going to start now. With one last deep breath, she closed her eyes and connected her horn once more.

As the purple alicorn turned back to the crystal without a word, Sombra smiled with satisfaction. Where he had expected to feel surprise at the change in her reaction, instead he felt some sort of pride (and though he'd never admit it) perhaps a smidgeon of admiration. Here was Celestia's prized pet, and yet for every challenge he'd given her she'd quickly surpassed it with a combination of raw capability and her acute focus. Even now, she had stopped her quaking and wincing, resuming a state of steadfast determination. Only time could tell now how far she could make it in the training, and what she would do with it afterwards. Sombra stood up, it was time to assist her now that she'd gotten over the initial shock. Gently lifting her horn away from the crystal node with his magic, he tapped her on the shoulder so as to get her attention.

"Do you know why you are failing?"
This clearly aggravated the purple mare, but as she opened her mouth to give what was doubtlessly going to be a sharp retort he cut her off by continuing.
"Tell me this, what is fear? How do you define it?"

Twilight forced her mouth closed and her frustration to the side. He wouldn't be asking such a question if it were not key to learning the lesson. But defining fear was like defining the word "thought". It was such an ambiguous term, a feeling that wasn't even consistent because each pony felt fear differently. The only commonality was that all ponies felt fear in some way, for the loss of property, for death, for change. As her thoughts trailed farther along these lines however, a pattern emerged. The source of fear could be simplified down to two simple words: The end.

"Fear is the emotion caused by endings. The most primal fear is the fear of death, the end of life, or the lives of those around us. But there is fear in new ideas or society as well, for it is the end of what is comfortable and known, or at the least a perceived ending."

"Excellent. You hold a unique gift Twilight Sparkle; to be able to recognize the seed of truth beyond the surface of what is commonly understood is no easy task. And yet, you grasp at it as easily as a dragon breaths flame, I've not seen such talent for many eons."

Her green eyes widened at the unexpected compliment, wafting perhaps just a tad more purple energy as her chest puffed out with pride.

"Now that we have defined fear, remember that fear is a source of dark magic. While harnessing the emotion of fear has its uses for generating raw energy, to align with fear and harness its true potential for the dark craft you must become fear itself. Consider the field mouse scurrying for food in the silent forest night. It cannot place the feeling, but something makes it pause it's search and listen uneasily to the unforgiving night. Too late, the feeling of something amiss causes it's back hair to stand on end. Turning around it only has time to watch the talons of an owl descend to rip into flesh. Be the owl Twilight, hunt the mouse and know the immobilizing terror that you bring its final moments."

Nodding slowly, and a bit uneasily, Twilight turned back to the crystal node. Sombra had simply described a perfectly normal part of the life of a predator. She'd simply be stepping into it's proverbial shoes is all, even though the idea of inflicting such physical and emotional pain still churned her stomach. Forcing such thoughts down, she focused. There were her wings, covered in downy feathers made for silent flight. They were mottled like the wood of an oak tree, floating upon the still night air with an ethereal grace. Tucked underneath her were her talons, serrated weapons ready for the hunt. She felt the muscles in her heart shaped face shift as she picked up the turning of leaves and a tiny heartbeat nearby. Before long her prey's position was triangulated, and she spiraled downwards as silently as a leaf falls. Outside, Twilight's softly glowing horn descended with her mental self as with a screech of victory her talons stretched forth to tear the mouse asunder. At that moment her horn reconnected with the crystal, and she could suddenly feel the mouse's point of view overlapping with her own. An alabaster face, ferocious and cold eclipsing the moon and the perceived agony of death as the terrible talons fell down upon it. A strange feeling rose from deep within her, it was, exhilarating. This feeling of power over the mouse, and the way it had seen her in its final moments; she was magnificent.

Twilight opened her eyes in time to see tendrils of darkness had wrapped themselves around her, dissolving her flesh into shadow and dragging her into the crystal's depths. With a blink of the eye, she was standing, whole again, atop a rock platform approximately twenty meters above the ground level. Behind her she noticed Sombra materialize from the black crystal as well.

"Congratulations Twilight, you can now align with the attribute of fear." Sombra was forced to admit that she was proceeding much faster than expected, once again. Not five minutes ago she was quaking from emotional onslaught, and now here she stood successful and..... There was something wrong, instead of pride his compliment was met with a wince and downcast eyes. The violet energy had ceased to waft, and her eyes were the lightest lime color, dangerously close to reverting back to their natural white.

"Sombra, I..., I uh"

He had to stop her, and quickly. She'd seen a glimpse of the bottom of the rabbit hole, and now she was doubting her choice in jumping inside. If he didn't act quickly she might scamper back up and burry her massive potential forever.

"Twilight, you managed to align with fear by putting yourself in the position of the owl, so now I ask you to consider this: If fear, being a negative emotion, is a powerful source of dark magic, and if therefore by aligning with it you become fear itself, is the owl evil?"

Sombra's question caught Twilight completely off guard. "Off course the owl's not evil, hunting is just how it lives, it's just doing what it was born to do!"

"Yes, of course you would say that, your pegasus friend would be proud. Yet if the owl is simply doing what it was meant to do, then how is it that being the cause of the mouse's fear is such a potent source of the black craft? Only evil begets evil, so how can the owl not be evil after all? Think upon this, ponder it in the corners of your mind. When you have the answer, you will be able to use the black crystals without assistance, and ascend back to your library above, your training complete."

The bemused look on the mare's face told Sombra that he'd been successful. He'd not intended to pose the question to her until much later in the training, but at least for now, she'd stopped questioning herself. Now it was time to proceed, she'd be ready now to let him guide her all the way down the rabbit hole until the very end.

Up above in her library, on its special cushion rested her crown and Element of Harmony. As Twilight's horn had just made the final contact with the ground level crystal node and successfully become fear itself, the purple jewel that was the Element of Magic began to pulse ever so softly with light. Scattered through Ponyville, the other Elements responded to the warning and began to pulse themselves while their owners slept on unaware.

Back below ground, Sombra was introducing her to the uses for fear, and her new practice room. This cavern was much smaller than the last, barely as large as the main room of her library and completely empty of anything. The only interesting quality to this room was that every surface was perfectly smooth and polished. She found her hooves slipping a tad too easily on the marble floor, and if she leaned in close enough to the walls, she could practically see her reflection in the stone.

"For the purpose of dark magic, to become fear itself allows us to take it by hoof and wield it. When wielding this attribute illusionary magic becomes enhanced, and draws its form from the subconscious of the target. With fear we are able to disorient, and with proper handling, control our targets. To practice this, you will need NPCs."

In response, Twilight cocked her head to the left. "NPCs?"

"Neurological Pony Constructs. I temporarily bind the shadow of a pony in equestria to a rock body that I will create here. The result is a semi-intelligent golem that will carry with it the subconscious and some memories of its owner so that you may practice wielding the fear attribute."

Twilight could only stare dumbfounded at Sombra as he turned to the center of the floor and began to manipulate it into the familiar shape of a target practice statue. He spoke of plucking the reflection of a pony's mind and binding it to a statue to bring it to life and create a golem as if it were as easy as spreading butter on toast! The shear complexity of the task, and the delicacy required to pull it off surely surpassed even a time spell in difficulty. She was beginning to see why it had taken both royal sisters and the elements of harmony together to defeat Sombra all those centuries ago.

"How will practicing on these NPC's affect the ponies whose shadows we're using?"

Unsuccessfully, Sombra tried to hide the gleam in his eyes as he chuckled maliciously. "Don't worry your pretty head princess. At the very worst they might experience mild....discomfort, while they sleep."

His response didn't exactly inspire confidence, but Twilight shrugged off her unease. It could not be helped, she would just need to get through this and just focus on the fact that they were simply golems. There before her in the center of the room now stood a yellow mare with a fluffy orange mane. Three proud carrots adorned each flank, identifying the pony as Carrot Top from Ponyville. In fact, the golem was so like the original, Twilight could only tell it wasn't really her Ponyville friend because she'd watched its construction, and the way it looked around the cavern as if it barely registered where it was.

"Now Twilight, I want you to focus on a basic visual and auditory illusion spell. Now, when you have that firmly prepared in the back of your mind, I want you to focus on becoming the owl again, becoming fear. This pony shall be your mouse. Focus, and when you are ready, strike and observe the rewards of attribute alignment!"

Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Somewhere inside she could feel a voice trying to reason with her, trying to tell her that visualizing the pony before her as the mouse from before was wrong and would not actually help her. Nonetheless, Twilight's focus was absolute, and so the voice was drowned in a swirl of silence as the moonlit forest landscape revisited her mind. She didn't even notice how quickly she'd fallen back into the mental landscape, and she didn't notice that she found the mouse nearly twice as fast this time.

"Excellent, well done princess. Bind the illusion spell to your talons, and strike with a terror the night has never known."

Owl-Twilight heard the voice on the wind, deep and powerful as a lion. She readied her talons to do as he had said, only to find that she'd already done so reflexively, it was all too easy! She didn't even have to try, it was like the magic was leaping to her, eager to be wielded. As her talons flashed down, her eyes opened to witness reality. At first nothing seamed to happen, the Carrot Top golem just stood there blankly looking around, until a purple light flashed from its eyes as they widened in horror. From nowhere a powerful wind howled around her as black mist boiled up from the ground. Though it tore at her mane, Twilight could not feel a thing, it must have been part of the illusion she'd unleashed.

She couldn't help but to smile at herself, the illusion was very convincing for the golem within, and the voice within her was greatly relieved that this was the worst of the spell. For the first time that night however, she couldn't have been more wrong. Slowly from the boiling shadows formed a grotesque monstrosity. It was a horribly disfigured pony with parasitic mushrooms blossoming from its flesh. One eyeball was gouged apart by the thorny flower growing out of it, and this pony's five legs all stuck out at disturbing angles that should not have been possible for any creature. The golem took one look at the creature and fled in blind panic, but each direction it turned it found only the reflection of the beast in the glossy walls. Finally pausing for breath, Carrot Top looked at her nightmare over her shoulder; however while she wasn't looking, its reflection in the wall suddenly reached out and clamped around her throat. She struggled in vain as the original creature creeped closer and closer, until her terror proved too much. Carrot Top flailed ever more erratically as her eyes rolled back in to her head and her mouth frothed with madness, unable to even force the breath from the lungs to let loose her screams.

"Stop it! Stop it! Sombra make it stop!"

"You are the caster, if you choose then you must be the one to break the spell."

Twilight could not however, the spell was feeding off the fear of her victim, so there was no link of power for her to sever. She tried fire spells and and magic missiles, and powerful temporal distortion fields, all in attempt to disrupt and destroy the spell she'd unleashed. All to no avail. By this time both creatures had begun to sink their teeth into Carrot Top's flesh, and she'd found her voice again to fill the cavern air with blood-curdling screams. There was only one thing she could do, she could think of nothing else. Gathering a black aura of destruction to her horn, she blinked away the tears from her eyes and obliterated her victim from existence.

With nothing left to feed on, the living nightmare collapsed in on itself and returned to nothingness; leaving the purple princess to sob uncontrollably on the cavern floor, all trace of green gone from her eyes. Sombra slowly strode up to stand directly next to her, waiting for her to look up and acknowledge his presence. As her tear-stained eyes met the cold ruby of his, he had but few words to say to her. "Once again you lack control Twilight Sparkle. If this were real, you would now be a murderer. Her death would lie squarely on your shoulders. Tomorrow, we shall try again. You shall either succeed and continue, or you shall fail and forever have to live with the knowledge that when you unleash your true power, you will kill those you hold dear."

Twilight was absolutely crushed by his words, wracked with guilt by what she had done to Carrot Top, golem or not. She curled up into the fetal position and sobbed herself to sleep as Sombra walked away, grinning wickedly to himself at the control he now had over her. One way or another, he felt certain that through his guidance, Twilight would bring about her own destruction.

11) Attribute Training: Fear Part II

We fear violence less than our own feelings. Personal, private, solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone else can inflict.
~Jim Morrison

"Yes? Yes please hurry, hurry! I'm so scared we can't get her to stop, she won't wake up!"

"Don't worry Apple Bloom, we'll be there before you can say emergency. I just need you to stay on the line with me so that if anything changes you can let me know, ok?"

"I..., I'll try. My sis is here, do you wanna talk to her?"

"Yes, I'd appreciate that little one, and thank you for being so quick to call, you might just save a life tonight."

"Hello? Is this the hospital?"

"Yes, hello Applejack, what is her condition?"

"Not good dock, her eyes are wide open but she aint seein' nothing, and she hasn't stopped screaming since poor little Apple Bloom heard her. Wait, somethings changed, she's quiet now. Doc hurry over here right now she's started shaking real bad!"

"Hold her down so she can't hurt herself, the ambulance is coming up to the driveway as we speak, have Apple Bloom make sure we have a clear path to her room. There's no time to waste."

"Load her up quickly now quickly! I need a blood plump and IV, she's bleeding badly in her lungs. Body spasms have ceased. Hang in there girl we'll get you to the hospital and get you fixed up."

"Doc, is our neighbor gonna be ok?"

Doctor Stable looked at his patient, a poor yellow and orange mare laying comatose in the ambulance. He could only speculate that the force of her screams was the cause of the bleeding in her lungs, and the reason for the bursting of the blood vessels in her eyes. Though she'd received no other physical wound, his nurses were still treating her for shock. He'd never seen anything like this, and he certainly didn't know if she would ever awake from her now comatose state. But one doesn't simply tell the truth to little fillies.

"I'm sure Carrot Top will be just fine Apple Bloom."

2 hours later, and many meters below the ground.

Sombra walked silently upon the smooth floor of the fear room. She was right there where he'd left her in the middle of the floor. He could tell by her twitching that she was torturing herself with guilt in the dreamworld. Excellent, the best thing he could do now is return to sleep on the first floor so that she'll have the full impact of her actions upon her during training in the morning. Yes, that would be the best course of action. He would need to leave now, there was nothing more for him up here tonight.

He took several more gentle steps, and found himself standing over the purple princess now, instead of heading to the door. There was something he didn't like about the look on her face, and the way she softly spasmed. While he turned over the problem in his head, his body knew already what to do as he gently lowered himself down next to her. Sensing the warmth of another, Twilight subconsciously wiggled closer, until her back was firmly pressed against his side. Snuggled now as close and warm as possible, she let out a last shiver, and fell into a deep sleep.

Sombra, still trying to process this unexpected turn of events, looked down at the mare now so intimately close to him. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about all this, or how he had most certainly not done as he was thinking he should do. He determined it to be a lapse due to his own need for sleep, and was about to stand up when he looked down on her face once more. There was a slight upturn at the corner of her cheek, like the beginnings of a smile. She looked so relaxed and peaceful.

"Hhmph. I suppose that is better." He placed his head down on his forelegs and fell asleep along side her; his neck gently lying across the back of hers as through the night their pulses slowly matched up together.

Several hours later

Twilight gave a slow, satisfying stretch, arcing like a Opalescence awakening from a pleasant nap. Inexplicably she'd managed to have a deep and restful sleep, and oh how warm and good she felt. Still not fully awake she snuggled closer to the source of warmth and comfort fully content and ready to sleep some more when several things hit her at once. First of all, she'd fallen asleep alone in the fear room, which is far from anything remotely comfortable, or warm for that matter. Secondly, what she was snuggled up so closely to was breathing.

"Good morning Princess."

Twilight shot straight up into the air like a rocket.

Chuckling softly to himself Sombra stood up and sauntered toward the main shaft. "Now that you're awake we can have a proper meal before the training continues, join me on in the practice range, now that we're finished with it I've converted it into our dining area."

It seemed he would offer no explanation, and that was perfectly fine with the princess, she was more than happy to pretend nothing had happened. It made it easier to ignore blush of her cheeks and the furious beating of her heart. Cautiously she sank back to the ground, peeping outside of the cavern before fully leaving it to make certain no more surprises were in store for her that morning. All she found was Sombra waiting for her, and upon seeing her tentatively peeking out, shook his head and dissolved into the transport crystal.

Slowly she approached the node, and stood inches away staring into its depths. Somewhere deep inside a flickr of red and shadow caused Twilight to shiver. She would have to align with fear again to use this crystal, and the very Idea of it made her sick to the core, images of last night still etched in her soul. With a quick leap she let gravity take her down to the first level instead. She would have to face the crystal at some point, but that didn't stop her from avoiding it as much as possible until then.

Breakfast passed by without a spoken word passing between the two of them. Sombra's culinary skills were, rudimentary...at best, but food was food for the simple alicorn. What carried far more importance were the thoughts playing across her neurons, doing there best to bring her back from distraction to face the terror of her failure. Sombra's complete silence only helped to hasten her pulse; any conversation at all would prove a blessed release of the tension inside of her. Instead she found herself taking smaller and smaller bites of the crispy pancake before her, dragging out breakfast the only way left to her.

"Come."

Twilight raised her head from the nibbles left on her plate to the ruby irises of Sombra's eyes. Their hardness was still there, but the edge was gone; resolute and yet somehow welcoming at the same time. In her guilt those eyes held the only forgiveness for her down in the cavern. "Come", he said again, "this time you shall succeed." Nervously, she rose and followed him to the main shaft, and straight to the transport crystal. If it had been up to her, she'd probably have ended up picking at that pancake unto the foreseeable future, so instead she used his strength, his confidence, to put each hoof forward. One by one, and now the crystal could not be ignored any longer, she was standing right in front of it. She knew what she had to do, and she knew that she feared it more than anything else before.

"Speak your fear Princess."

"I feel like I might lose myself. That I'll become a monster, or worse...that I'll find out I already was the monster. Perhaps this was your intent all along, or perhaps it was something dark inside of me that made me come down here with you. Either way, I'm afraid of the pony I might be once I climb out the final level."

"Is the owl a monster? Is the owl evil?"

".....No."

"Then don't let go of the owl."

At this, Twilight looked up from the ground to cock her head at Sombra, considering. It was such a strange thing to say, yet.... Thoughts cleared she turned back to the node and with a deep breath closed her eyes, initiating the connection with her horn. This time she noticed how easily she slipped into the forrest in her mind, and flinched when she discovered the mouse almost immediately. Here goes nothing. This time as she dove down and sundered the mouse with her talons, she opened her eyes at the same time, overlapping reality with the image she held firmly. She felt it, exactly what she needed to within as the shadows melted her flesh and dragged their combined darkness through crystal lattice and back out again. Yes her talons were deep in the flesh of the mouse, but at any moment she could pull them out, she was in control once more.

"Forget not what you came down here for Princess. You came to learn, to understand, so that you could prove to me that your way of life is the right path to take. I have much to teach you, much to show you; and you should know better than anypony that with knowledge and understanding comes change. So do not fear change Twilight, instead remember your purpose, remember why, and then finally understand what change may come."

"How is it that the tyrant of the Crystal Kingdom that has spread terror and death can speak such wisdom as well?"

"Isn't that what you're down here to discover? As we progress however, perhaps you shall come to see no answer is so simple as it seems. For now, it is time to test out your renewed control, today you shall attempt to use the fear spell on none other than myself. Ready yourself Princess, for I am the master of fear, and I will not sit idle while you cast upon me."

Pausing for a slow, deep breath, Twilight strode into the fear room. "What are we waiting for then?"

Meanwhile at the Ponyville Hospital

"We thank you deeply, all of you, for coming here to support Carrot Top. Especially you Apples, because of your swift action she's going to be ok. We've stopped all of the bleeding, and she's heeling quickly. She's still deep in coma, but if you would like you may visit her now, it will be good for her to feel the positive support of friends surrounding her."

"We're mighty happy to hear that she's doing better nurse, thank ye kindly."

"Hey where's Twilight? She should be here too."

"Don't worry Rainbow, I know Twilight wouldn't leave a friend in need. She'll be here."

"Oh I'm afraid that's not quite right Fluttershy dear, you see I dropped by her place on the way here to tell her about what happened. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I seem to recall that she couldn't come."

"Oh my, what happened, is she alright?"

"Oh yes, yes, I think Twilight said that it'd be a bad idea to bring Sombra to the hospital, better safe than sorry kind of thing."

"Pony-feathers, I'm not gonna let Sombra get between Twilight and helping out a friend. I say we kick his tail if he causes trouble and get Twilight over here now!"

"Hold your horses now Rainbow, Twilight might be right. What if we can't tell the trouble he causes from natural trouble?"

"Huh?"

"I'm saying, the doc don't know what caused Carrot Top's condition. What if it were some nightmare thingy Sombra did? Now we've got no way of proving nothing, but we can't rule it out either. The farther we keep him away from here, the better."

"For once I must agree with you Applejack, we simply can't take that risk. However Rainbow is also right, we can't let Sombra dictate our actions like this. We'll simply take turns watching Sombra so that Twilight will be free to visit. Besides the poor darling needs a break, we've been of far too little help already the past months."

"Then that settles it! I'm the fastest, so once my turn is done I'll get Twilight sent over here in 10 seconds flat!"

In the fear room

Twilight could't keep this up for much longer. Sombra had kept true to his word and immediately assaulted her with a barrage of illusions. Through keeping the focus of alignment in her mind, she was able to block most of them, and quickly destroy an illusions that got through. The constant barrage however had quickly exhausted her, and made any attempt at countering with her own spell nigh impossible. As the hours stretched by her own sweat began to wear her down with the added weight to her sodden coat. A dark form solidifying to her right suddenly jumped out. With a powerful leap and a roll she evaded the attack and quickly dismantled the illusion before it could fully form. She silently cursed her stupidity, reacting physically to the illusion was just another waste of precious energy.

"So far the only thing you've made me afraid of is that you'll collapse to the floor Princess!"

Twilight gritted her teeth at the taunt, but there was no time to do otherwise, already dark magic was flowing from her horn to dispel the latest volley of illusions. What was it that ponies say? 'The definition of insanity is to repeat an action over and over again expecting different results.' Well, this certainly wasn't working, she'd have to catch Sombra by surprise to have any hope of victory, to do something he would never expect coming. If it were Rainbow or Applejack, they'd probably dash forward and fight him hoof to hoof, but Twilight simply did't have the strength left for that. If only I had more energy. More energy? More, thats it! Let's see what you think of this Sombra!

With a flare of her horn she focused hard on the image of the owl, feeling the alignment like she would dipping her hooves into water. The feeling of the fear-tinted magic saturating the air became palpable. All of the energy was still there, slowly dispersing into the air, but very much usable. Twilight grinned to herself, to disguise her true intentions, she gathered as much energy as possible only during the times her horn glowed to block more illusion spells. Just a little more. There, that was enough! With everything left inside of her she turned the room full of fear magic into a single blast of black magic that struck at Sombra like a geyser shooting from the earth.

Sombra watched as the princess tried to sneak gathering the dark magic, and right on cue she struck out with the whole lot of it hoping to catch him off guard. With the ease of a filter he stripped it all of the fear attribution and returned absorbed it back into his horn. "Nice try Princess, but you'll have to do a lot better than that to...". His words froze upon his tongue, for impossibly, around him a scene was beginning to form of shadows. A diversion. That cheeky mare had just cast the gathered magic to divert his attention as she slipped an illusion spell behind him right as his defenses had slipped.

"I did it! Haha! Now let's see what the 'Master of Fear' is truly afraid of. Is it imprisonment, defeat, death. Is it perhaps even...oh, oh no." The scene forming around them from the shadows was one that Twilight recognized, a memory that she could never forget. All of the figures in the crowd were indistinct, like long forgotten specters, but the house and the burning corpse hanging from the rafter were far too real, far too detailed. She looked away, she couldn't watch this again; instead her gaze found Sombra, who was now standing directly next to the young Sombra of the memory.

Sombra could only stare, it was one thing to forcibly relive a memory, but it was another entirely to watch it unfold around you as seemingly real as life. There he was, his father's old boss holding a struggling figure down as he addressed the bloodthirsty mob. But something wasn't right with this memory, the figure was much too large for his precious sister, and the coloring didn't seem right. The mad pony was going to slit somepony else's throat instead. The face of the struggling figure was the final part to finish forming, and Sombra was quite taken back to recognize Twilight as the victim. "Sombra please help me!" she cried. This was his true fear? The one thing he feared most above all others? The silver blade gleamed, greedy for crimson life force, before plunging down quickly.

With a tortured snarl and a flick of his horn Sombra abolished the illusion before steel could violate flesh. The shadows swirled like ink floating in water before disappearing entirely. "Your lesson is over, tomorrow you may begin the next attempt, to align with the attribute of contempt." He growled. Each step resonated with anger as he stormed to the transportation crystal and disappeared into its depths. For the longest time Twilight just sat there, she had not noticed that the victim had been anything other than his sister. Instead, her focus had been consumed by the looks on his face, both past and present self. She felt his pain through sharing the memory, but it somehow hurt in an entirely new way to watch it play across his face instead. The torture in his eyes was identical, both young and old, and so she reasoned that it just served as proof that he was still good deep down. Somehow that reasoning just didn't matter though. She'd now seen first hand what it looks like to have what you most love in the world destroyed before your very eyes, and every instinct she had was screaming for her to run after that poor soul, hold it close, and comfort it, protect it from the pain that she knew was destroying him from the inside.

But she couldn't, that soul was buried long ago under hatred and fear. What comfort could she possibly provide anyways, she could do nothing about his past, and provide no words that he did not already scorn. She stood up and proceeded back to the bottom level to get to bed. Sombra had been right to remind her, this was why she was down here, why she had trusted him with this endeavor at all. The good Sombra was there, is still there, and the more she learned of his experiences, his choices, his powers and their source; the more she learned how to bring his goodness to light.

For his sake she would not ... could not, fail.

12) Attribute Training: Loathing

"In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him."
~Friedrich Nietzsche

Ambient golden light slowly filled the cavern atmosphere, his enchanted candles burning brighter to signal the time of day above. Somewhere on the surface Princess Celestia was raising the sun into the sky to bring morning time to all her little ponies. All, but this one. She dozed in her makeshift bed dreaming peacefully still. Posture more rigid than a mountain he sat beside her bed, shadowy mane billowing in a nonexistent wind. His ruby eyes held no edge in their scrutiny, and while he watched her hair catch the fiery glow of the candles, he turned his gaze inwards to ponder the meaning of yesterday's events.

What was he doing here, teaching this silly filly the ways of black magic? What was there to stop him from rending her flesh from the bone and leaving to deal with the other princesses? There she is, right in front of him, it would be all too easy to just kill her while she slept in perceived safety.

The flash of steel falling upon illusion-Twilight cut those thoughts like butter. Why had it been her face there instead of his sister? He cast a quick spell to detect mental tampering upon himself and came up with nothing. Crafty mare, how could she invade his thoughts so easily? Unless.... The spell had been perfect, crafted flawlessly himself, and cast equally flawless by the Princess. There had been no change in formula or structure, so perhaps the illusion really was his truest, deepest fear; and if that were the case, what could it mean? Losing his beloved sister had been the final straw that nearly destroyed him, she'd been his world, and protecting her his purpose. It was preposterous, impossible! He could never fear losing Twilight like he had lost family! Never....fear....

"I know I've got terrible bed-mane, but it's still considered rude to stare like that."

Her voice brought him out of his reflections and back to reality. Lips curling upward ever so slightly, he had to fight down a chuckle. She was right about the bed-mane. "It's time to get ready, today we start your training in the attribute of Loathing."

"About that... see everypony has felt fear at least once some point in their lives, so that at least made it easier to align with; but loathing?"

"Your sheltered life has taught you to see the best of the world around you. To understand loathing, you shall have to see through eyes ripped free of that rosy veil. You shall see again the sundering of that perfect world... and this time, the world that took its place."

Her ears drooped as low as physically possible, and her eyes darkened in apprehension. "We're going back, to then aren't we?"

"Try to eat some breakfast. It's a long trip down memory lane."

Naturally, she was unable to eat a thing, resorting to giving her hay-grain pancakes pleading looks that begged for a way out. A look the pancakes blissfully ignored. There was no putting it off any more, so Twilight wrapped her food for later and went to join Sombra in the fear chamber. As her body dissolved into the shadowy form to be sucked up by the crystal and its transport matrix, she couldn't help but feel the twinge of irony. Here she was again, afraid to ascend to the fear chamber; this time not because of what the future held, but the past instead.

There he was, still and cold as a statue, waiting for her as always. As always... perhaps that exaggeration held more truth than she'd first given it thought. Every morning when she woke, indeed every time she turned around it seemed like he was there, waiting for her. Every time the most pertinent question of 'why' had been answered immediately, but perhaps there was still a question left unanswered, the most important one. What was he waiting for?

Twilight strode purposefully to him, stopping to stare him in the eye with as much pride and determination she could muster. With those crisp ruby eyes locked on hers, she spoke a lie.

"I'm ready."

King Sombra nodded in acknowledgement. The Princess was by no means a good liar, yet had he not known her better he might have been fooled by that proclamation. "Get comfortable then, this time we shall both participate in making the mind link. Either one of us will be able to break the connection at any time, however be aware you shall have no power over the course of my memories like before. Close your eyes, and focus. Reach out with your mind, and I shall do the same to begin the bridge."

He closed his own eyes, emptying his thoughts but for the darkness now surrounding him. There before him in the void bloomed a magenta form of light. Looking closely he could make out luminescent limbs and face, searching the void. Tentatively, a tendril of light stretched forth from its mind, inching towards him. Steeling himself to relive his memories once again, Sombra reached out with his own mental energy, a light born of the fiery red dawn and the shadowy influence of the night preceding it. He was not expecting, and thus not ready for it when Twilight's tendril of thought latched onto his own, and instead of a bridge it began a waterfall.

The princess had put far too much into the connection! Not only her mind but her heart and soul as well flowed into the link between them. Her emotions crashed over him in waves, the magenta light surging forward further and further into the void desperately trying to fill it. It took all his concentration, but he succeeded in keeping the link stable and yanking them both into the safety of his own subconscious.

Twilight gazed around at the familiar landscape before her. For whatever reason, it seemed so much less foreboding than it had before, the razor rocks not even giving her pause. There was a strange kind of beauty to this place, between the scatterings of crystals and rocks against the backdrop of crimson skies. Even the mountain that pierced the heavens seemed less a threat and more a monument to Sombra's determination. Thinking of Sombra, she realized that they hadn't started right off with his memories yet. Curious, she looked to her left to discover the dark King breathing heavily behind her, trying as subtly as possible to catch his breath.

"Are you ok?"

Sombra looked up from the granite of his mind. "I'm fine. When I said to reach out princess, next time try not to trample me with everything you have, it nearly destabilized the connection from the start!"

"What do you mean? I just closed my eyes and reached out with a probing thought, then I found this crimson and black figure in the darkness. It was filled with so much, and yet so empty at the same time, was that you?"

"I must prepare the memory so we may observe it as simple bystanders this time, in control. Try not to touch anything for a minute."

Twilight responded with a snort and a roll of her eyes before turning to meander the craggy plains. Sombra could not help but shake his head in disbelief. She hadn't even realized she had flooded him when connecting, it had simply come naturally to her. What was even more interesting was the feeling that had been behind it all. A powerful emotion bent on helping and healing, trying so hard to fill him just as its light filled the void between their minds. Adding to the puzzle even more, was that after the initial shock, he hadn't really disliked the feeling after all.

Enough delay, time was of the essence. He would not have forever to resolve Twilight's training. Sooner or later, the distraction barrier would be discovered, and doubtlessly all of Equestria's finest would come rushing to her aid. Right now all that mattered was to fill her with as much dark magic as possible. It was a complete gamble, whether should would prove ally or enemy, or even break from his darkness and simply become a non-issue, but it was his secret ace to keep the princesses off balance at the very least.

What appeared to be a living rock formation that Twilight was scrupulously studying suddenly melted away before her, her entire surroundings suddenly resolving themselves into a blurry tundra. Something light and greyish white covered the ground and drifted in the air. Strangely it wasn't cold, so she stuck out her tongue to taste the snow, only to shortly spit it out with a look of disgust.

"It's fresh volcanic ash."

Poor Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin, twisting around to find the voice that had snuck up on her belonged to none other than Sombra. "Ash? but I thought we were going back in your memories to the morning after... after you lost them."

"That is precisely where we are, look closer."

Puzzled, Twilight once again surveyed her surroundings, looking for anything familiar. She remembered the bouts of magma sprouting from the ground to consume the mob of crystal ponies, but surely there should be a sign of them, or anything, having existed here. A tiny, pitiful cough interrupted her thoughts. Shaking off a thick layer of ash a small black and grey colt pushed himself from the ground. His mane and coat were stained crimson with dried blood, and his entire frame drooped like he barely had the will to stand. He turned one last gaze to the depression he had climbed from, and then trudged painfully away.

" I never really said goodbye."

As the young colt disappeared from sight, Twilight walked with Sombra to the slight hole where the younger Sombra had emerged. What lay inside nearly broke her heart. Sombra's sister was at the bottom, curled up like a comfortable cat on a bed. She was so peaceful she could have been sleeping, if not for gash still evident on her throat, and the blood that had died her entire coat and the ground around it a new color.

"I remember that I spent the final moments of that night, just lying here with her, trying to ignore the sounds of murder I had unleashed, protecting her from the flows of lava and the acid rain. I wanted so badly for it all to just go away, for her to wake up so everything could go back to normal with mom and dad making breakfast and we could all move away from this nasty place."

Twilight looked at Sombra, tears streaking from her eyes, and for the first time ever, she saw the same in his. He leaned down close and nuzzled that tiny prone form with the tip of his snout, before straightening up again. "Goodbye beloved sister of mine."

For a moment neither of the moved or said anything, they simply stood shoulder to shoulder to pay respects and mourn the loss of such innocence and joy in the world. It was Twilight to first break the silence; "What was her name?"

At first he did not respond, turning away from the fresh grave to follow in the footsteps of the memory Sombra. Just as she thought he would simply ignore her attempt to connect as he'd done before, he opened up to Twilight and whispered into the wind "Indigo Melody, her name was Indigo Melody."

Meanwhile in Ponyville

"What in the hay is going on here?"

"I don't know AJ, when I went to get the egghead she wasn't home."

"And when I went to go see her last, a poor wittle bunny just absolutely terrified jumped out from her tree and brought me to the edge of the everfree to save his family, but when I got there he disappeared. I hope the poor dear isn't out there somewhere still frightened."

"Twilight told me she had to hit the books all weekend, though she really should't hit the books, its much easier to just read them!"

"That's quite odd Pinky, I visited not more than 5 minutes after you and she said she had royal duties to attend to in Canterlot."

"And every single time I try to approach the library to visit, I get word of an infestation of vampire bats cropping up on my farm; but when I get there to chase 'em away there's nothing to be found! On top of that, has anypony seen Sombra around either?"

"Hmm, nope."

"Uhhuuhh"

"Nah."

"Why no, now that you mention it, I didn't see Sombra when I stopped by Twilight, in fact I didn't even think to ask about him. You don't propose that something sinister is happening are you Apple Jack?"

"I don't know, but my gut's telling me something aint right. Twilight telling stories to avoid us or otherwise unavailable, Sombra nowhere to be seen at all? And there's more! Has anypony else noticed what the elements are doing recently? They been glowing all spooky like and I only just now realized it!"

"My gosh you're right, how could we have missed that?"

"Oh my...."

"Ooooooh, its even more sparkly!"

"So what if the elements are taking after fireflies, what's that have to do with Twilight?"

"I think whatever is causing us to keep missing Twilight kept us from taking notice of our elements, and if the elements are glowing wouldn't Twilight be the first to let us know, the first to figure it out?"

"What if that IS Twilight letting us know? What if she's in real trouble and she can't get our help so she's trying to let us know something is wrong?"

"Sombra that brute! What has he done to our poor Twilight?"

"Well what are we waiting for!? Let's blast that library door down and bust him to stone, nopony messes with our friend!"

With huzzahs, woops, and a lady-like 'hear-hear' the five friends dashed across town to the Library. This time nothing would deter their path from getting to their friend.

Memory Lane

As Twilight and Sombra trotted through the ash, following the trail of memory Sombra, he continued to open up with her about his family, particularly his sister.

"She really liked to sing, but more than anything she loved to listen. She would just walk around outside, listening and running and twirling about. I called her crazy for it, but she called it 'nature's song'. If you let her she wouldn't shut up about the rhythm of the earth, or about how you could hear the harmony of wind rushing through the grass and trees. Anywhere with water she said was the best spot to listen, because that's where the most life would be, and because water has such a strong voice she said. Rivers were her particular favorite."

Suddenly he stopped and motioned for twilight to pay attention. Just 10 meters away stood memory sombra, contemplating the shelter of the first building she'd seen so far. It was a giant mansion-style home, though it had surely seen better days. Every window was smashed, and the entire west wing had collapsed, and recently too from the smoldering smoke still seeping from it.

"What's a home like that doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"It's not, this house is actually on the highest hill right on the other end of town from my home."

"You mean...."

"The magma I unleashed flooded the town, everything that wasn't instantly destroyed was buried in cooling rock, and so the crystal ponies returned to earth."

Twilight stared at the barren expanse around her, horrified to think that beneath lay the bodies of hundreds of crystal ponies and their families, innocent or not. Finally, the young Sombra made up his mind and escorted himself into the house, and after a brief search began to raid the kitchen. All food that did not perish easily was thrown on a table cloth, and everything else he began to eat like he were starved.

"I didn't know where I was going, I didn't even know why I wanted to go in the first place, instead of lying down and accepting death to be with my family. It turns out I'm simply not the kind of pony to ever lay down and die without a fight. Thankfully, my next encounter gave me a sense of direction."

Just as Sombra finished narrating, the house turned out to not be empty after all. And the other occupant Twilight recognized immediatly.

"Get out of my house demon!" He screamed frantically, causing the young Sombra to leap in surprise. Twirling around the colt faced this new threat only to stare in horror to find that the owner of this house, the sole survivor of the village, and murderer of everything and everyone he loved were one and the same. Instantly he tried to charge his and strike the murderer down, only to collapse to his knees. Young Sombra was so burnt out that he couldn't even spare the energy to strike down the greatest object of his hatred after going berserk last night.

Noticing the the spark of magic crackle out from the colt's horn, the mob leader grinned wickedly and lunged forward, pressing his hoof into Sombra's throat. "You took everything from me you little scumbag, my house, my village. All my money, my father's business, everything is ruined and it's all your fault! But now you're gonna pay, oooh don't worry I'm not gonna kill you, you little shit-face. No, you're gonna come with me, and you're gonna wish you was dead till I'm tired of having scum hanging around."

With that he stepped back and looked quickly around the room. Before the spluttering colt could recover and escape pots and pans flew from their shelves, stretching and merging in the air to the screech of protesting iron. Before he knew what was happening, a thick iron chain and collar was clasped around Sombra's throat, fusing together solid so only magic or metal-smithing could remove it.

"I didn't get by just because I'm rich and good looking kiddo. My specialty is shaping metal, which made me an extremely valuable asset to the company. Since your little tantrum's gone and ruined everything, we're going on a nice long trip to see my uncle in Stalliongrad. And look how useful you'b been already, getting my food packed for the trip and everything! Now get up on your hooves you filthy excuse of shit I ain't got all day."

Twilight in the meantime, was clearly feeling very strongly conflicted. On one hand she was horrified that somepony would do this to another, and on the other she was holding back the bubbling of a new feeling to her, one that if she were actually there instead of just observing a long-past memory, she'd be overtaken by and destroy that monster herself to protect the poor colt.

"There, you're beginning to understand now. You're beginning to feel it." She glanced at Sombra, the real one, who was staring at her intently. "Welcome to the beginning of my personal hell, you'd better hold those feelings back, because we've still got a long ways to go before this story is over." He turned to regard the mob leader, now dragging young Sombra by the chain out the door and insisting that he be refereed to as 'Master' from here on out. "Time flies in our dreams, you're going to get the pleasure of experiencing the next year of my childhood in a matter of 24 hours to our real bodies."

"A full year?"

Sombra nodded, eyes still trained on 'Master', "From beginning to end of my journey with that pompous murderer, you'll get to see it all."

13) Attribute Training: Loathing Part II

“The heart can get really cold if all you've known is winter.”
~Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Last Night I Sang to the Monster

"Get a move on scum, or else I'll tie your shitty ass to a tree and leave you for the timberwolves!"

Young Sombra scrambled up onto weak legs, blood dripping from the fresh cuts and scrapes to his knees and face. The terrain was rough and rocky, and the pace his 'Master' set was unforgiving; if ever he tripped more often than not he'd find himself bodily dragged across the craggy rocks. 'Master', the word was poison in his heart, a word he would spit and then be forced swallow lest it invited his 'Master's' wrath.

It had been a long 3 weeks till Stalliongrad. Young Sombra had gone without food save for the scraps left over from his Master's meals, and the occasional clumnps of mountain grass. Thankfully the frigid climate had blessed him with a constant supply of snow so that he would not go thirsty. This blessing was just as much a curse however, as several mornings he had woken up to find his mane brittle and his limbs stiff and just shy of non-responsive. Everytime the chain had gotten so cold as to make his neck feel numb and hard. If he tilted his head just so, he even saw a redish-blue tinge to the skin under his coat beneath the chains.

Thankfully his master was lazy so they rested many times a day throughout the journey. At first he had tried to make Sombra carry him on his back, but the obvious difference in weight and size proved impossible, even to his selfish brain (though not until after several back-breaking attempts). After surviving such an ordeal, Sombra had even started to feel something akin to hope, hope that in Stalliongrad he would be rescued from this cruel fate of his. Meanwhile, 'Master' would never shut up about how once he got to his uncle he'd take him in immediately and restore his substantial fortune as his uncle's new right hoof pony.

Both their hopes would be brutally smashed.

"So..., you've lost your home, your company, your fortune. Then you come crawling to me whimpering like a lost diamond dog about your misfortunes, dragging your dirty plaything along with you. All I have to ask is simply, 'Why do I care?' "

'Master's' uncle spoke with steel in his voice, commanding and unyielding. His tone expected you to head his words, whether you liked them or not, with no ifs ands or buts to be tolerated.

"Wh...whu....whuuuu, but that's not.."

"Cut your driveling simpleton! I cannot believe that I'm related to such an imbecile. Your troubles are none of my concern, I worked hard to become president of Granite Pine Inc, and as Mayor I've built this city from the ground along with it. Take your woes elsewhere, if you are any relative of mine you can build your own power instead of sucking on the teats of your betters. Now get out of my sight!

In the corner of the Mayor's enormous granite greeting hall stood Twilight and Sombra. True to his word Twilight had bared witness to every single moment of his younger self's suffering. Every night he had lain shivering on the mountain top, she had laid down next to him. She knew in her head that it wouldn't provide him any warmth or comfort, but it was the only thing her heart ached to do. Now that the beast that dared keep young Sombra in chains was getting the telling-off of his lifetime, she was positively ecstatic. Her barely restrained joy did not go unnoticed however.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Twilight turned to Sombra and said "absolutely" without even a smidgen of remorse. This monster was getting just what he deserved.

"My my princess, you surprise me. We are more alike then I had thought. This pony is without food and shelter, and has just been turned away back to the streets and empty countryside by his only known relative. And here you are prancing in joy over it."

That stopped her immediately. "But, its what he.."

"Deserves?" Sombra interrupted her. Had you not known his backstory, would you not be appalled at this exchange? Even knowing it, would not your princess at least hold trial, and finding him guilty, at least throw him into prison for his crimes instead of abandoning him to the elements?"

Twilight was floored by this, here she had been rejoicing in the possibly fatal judgement, and Sombra, evil dark Lord Sombra, had already considered the fair and civilized court as fit punishment.

"That feeling is the expression of your loathing, Princess."

"I can't believe I was so happy about his pain, his punishment. I.. I should have realized the proper w.."

"No, Princess." He interrupted again, "Do not doubt your true feelings, for you are right." His gaze returned to the pitiful scene before them. "This is exactly what he deserves."

"Please, sir, will you help me?"

"Be quiet scum! Before I cut your tongue out!"

"Be silent imbecile, you are not to speak again in my presence, and you! Child! I am nothing if not fair, I give you the same answer, your problems are not my problems, nor the problems of my city. Right now you are a filthy slave, so unless you change your ways, you'd better start acting your place. Now be gone with both of you! Soil my halls, my city, no more!

"What! How can he do that, to a poor defenseless foal!"

"It's not fair is it Twilight? It's not right."

"Why, why is it like this?"

"That's exactly how I felt all those years ago. Now that you're beginning to understand loathing, let me tell you that the worst is still yet to come. To allign with loathing, you need to not just feel it, you need to feel the loathing that I grew to know. It's only been 3 weeks yet, we've still many months ahead of us."

With a look almost as dejected as young Sombra's, she followed the memory out of the Mayor's great hall. Pausing long enough for her to get out of ear shot, Sombra let himself feel the twinge of guilt that had been nagging at him recently. It was truly hurting her to see all of this, even though she needed to, and she understood that; but it was still as emotionally traumatizing as it was for him all those years ago. And her ordeal had only just begun.

Barely audible, Sombra whispered with downcast eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Golden Oak Library--Twilight's Home

THUD!

"What in the hay?"

Applejack rubbed the rapidly forming bump on her head while glaring daggers at the clear dome covering the library.

"Strange, I don't remember that being there before."

"You said it Rares, I bet Sombra saw us coming and put that thing up to keep us out."

"Well I don't care what he does to stop us, cause we aint stopping for nothing and nopony!"

Without another word Applejack gave the barrier a few powerful wallops from her hind legs. When that failed, she backed off to get a running start, charging full ahead.

"Woah woah woah there Aj, just where do you think you're going?"

"Huh, whataya mean? I..."

Applejack trailed off her scolding of Rainbow as she took stock of her surroundings. First of all, she couldn't for the life of her remember where she had been dashing off to in such a hurry, and secondly she was now facing in exactly the opposite direction from Golden Oaks Library.

"Applejack are you alright darling? One moment you were charging forward like a madpony, and next you were off in the completely opposite direction!"

"I'm fine Rarity, just a little hazy. What were we doing over here again? Wait, its coming back to me, Twilight, Sombra, that barrier!"

"We've got no time to wait on your confusion Aj, I'm going in!"

Rainbow dash soared into the sky, and with an acrobatic flip and twist, turned toward the library and dive-bombed it from hundreds of meters in the air. Just before striking the barrier, she suddenly deviated. Braking suddenly she stopped onto a nearby tree branch and produced her pillow to lay down for one of her infamous naps.

Applejack rolled her eyes at the pegasus. "This aint no time for dozing off Rainbow!" And with that, she bucked the poor tree hard enough to knock the cyan mare off her branch.

"Hey! What's the big idea? I was just about to catch a few z's and....why did I want to take a nap? Wasn't there something else?"

"It's almost like thinking of anything but the force field totally makes your memories blurry and redirects you to something else so you wouldn't think of what you were thinking of before when thinking of the thing you were thinking about that the shield didn't want you thinking the thought about! What a bummer."

"Aaanypony else follow that?"

"I think I can translate for Pinkie Applejack. It would seem that this barrier was here the whole time we couldn't reach Twilight. Each time we approached the library, each and every one of us forgot what we were originally doing, and suddenly something else became extremely important. It not only physically protects the library, it also redirects all attention away from itself as well."

"So how come we can talk about the shield thingy in the first place, wouldn't our attention be diverted already?"

"That seems to be the flaw in the design Rainbow, since we're only talking about it, and not about how to get past it, the barrier isn't redirecting our attention!"

"So if we only focus on breaking it down, we'll be able to get past! Alright everypony, let's give this sorry excuse for a fishbowl the what-for! Rarity, you'd best get back to Spike at your place. We need to let the princesses know what is happening, we're going to desperately need their help if worst comes to worst."

"Good idea, best of luck girls! Let's save our Twilight!"

11 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days down Memory Lane

Young Sombra was scraped and battered, worn out from constant travel and abuse. Cold, dehydrated, and constantly on the verge of starvation, he still managed to carry on. Despite of course, his biggest problem: 'Master' had gone completely and utterly mad.

"I'll sit in my house of solid gold just you wait and see scumbag! Oh how the daises will herald my rising as emperor! Even the mountains will gawk and sing praise to me!" At this point the madpony stopped to converse with a large boulder. "Why of course my loyal subject, you need not fear a thing as long as you pay your taxes on time~!"

Perhaps at some point Sombra would have found the fool funny, yet he somehow had grown crueler in his madness. He was 'Master's' favorite beating bag, both physically and mentally, yet frankly Sombra had stopped caring, stopped feeling anymore. With each village or mountain town they wandered through, it felt like he died just a little more. Each time the unfortunate pair had doors slammed in their faces and rotten food tossed at them to chase them away. Food, that due to lack of options, they were forced to still eat. He felt filthy, inside and out.

"By now I'd simply stopped feeling anymore, everything hurt too much. If ever I let my thoughts wonder to my murderous jailer and what he'd done to me and my life, or all the hundreds of ponies we'd met along the way who had the chance to help me and rejected us in disgust instead....I couldn't tell which was stronger, my hatred for every living pony, or the the feeling that perhaps I somehow deserved this fate."

"The only one that deserves this is the monster that chained you. That everypony else could turn their backs on you so easily, I don't know what to feel, it hurts too much."

"It's a different kind of pain, isn't it Princess? The pain of being hurt so much that only the ending of that pain, by any means, can bring relief."

"When will this end Sombra? I can't bear it anymore."

"Endure Princess, for just a while longer endure."
"......"

"......"

"......"

This was no good, the Princess really couldn't take it much more. She had long since passed her limit, watching endlessly over a year of abuse and misery. Normally she would respond with something witty or sarcastic when he avoided her questions or answered cryptically. Now she was so burnt out her spirit had all but failed. He had to find something that would bolster her these final hours, for it caused him pain to see the light in her eyes extinguished and flat.

"You're quite amazing Twilight, did you know that?"

Twilight's eyes went wide at the unexpected compliment and use of her proper name.

"What do you mean? What makes you think that?"

"You've mastered every challenge I've ever thrown your way, met and rose above all expectations, and gone incredibly far out of your way in your mission to help me. Sure I've experienced this hell already, but I had a year to do so. You've tackled all of these memories and pain within the real-time span of just 24 hours, and willingly done so for my sake. Who else could do such things, or even be willing to, other than yourself?"

Twilight was blushing furiously at this point, modestly trying to deflect this sudden---though not unwanted nor unappreciated---attention with her modesty. "You make it sound like I'm some kind of martyr for doing this, I mean after all it hasn't been all bad! I've learned a lot from seeing things from your perspective, from experiencing your pains and sorrows. You've even stopped calling me all those names you used to."

Sombra only smiled in response. "Well don't get too cozy and used to it Princess, I won't go easy on you with our training sessions later."

She smiled in return, one that reached her eyes this time, before it fell and her eyes dimmed once more.

"Tick tock goes the clock
And all the years they fly
Tick tock and all too soon
You and I must die

Tick tock goes the clock
We laughed at fate and mourned her
Tick tock goes the clock
Even for the Scum-sack

Tick tock goes the clock
He cradled her and he rocked her
Tick tock goes the clock
Even for the Scum-sack!"

The madpony sang his chant with a cackle in his voice and insanity twitching his left eye. Every note he held would cause his voice to crack octaves higher, breaking into a haunting disharmony that served to chill one's bones. It was incredibly unsettling, and caused Twilight to shiver. "Must he carry on like that, he's giving me the creeps."

"He knows he's going to die soon, he's become as starved as myself at this point. It is here that his twisted psyche reaches a new low, and ends."

The chant stopped as suddenly as it began, broken off by the realization that the sun was setting once more. "Fire, need fire. Need warmth." Out of the corner of his eye 'Master' took notice of the young Sombra. With a leap he was standing right over top Sombra, who had fallen over in exhaustion, ready to accept another random beating. But it never came. "No no no, not just fire, need food. Yes, Yes, Yes! Ahhahaha, we'll have a roasty toasty tonight devil-scum!"

The young Sombra most definitely did not like the sound of that, but there was little he could do about it as he was forcefully chained to a tree stump. Fixed with walleyed stare Sombra's apprehension was replaced by fear. "Stay put now Filth, I need to get some wood and then you can enjoy the fire's tickling all night long!"

Twilight was aghast. "He wouldn't possibly think of..."

"He would, and he is. Don't worry, obviously I didn't die, so watch what happens next."

The madpony came whistling back with an assortment of sticks in tow. As soon as the poor colt heard his whistling in the air, he struggled frantically at his bonds, wishing with all his might for even a speck of magic to help him escape. But he'd been too weak for too long, his body frail from the abuse it'd taken. He didn't want to die, he didn't deserve this, any of it! When 'Master' came into sight, Sombra fixed him with a look of such loathing it would curdle milk.

Blissfully unaware, 'Master' piled the sticks in front of Sombra. Grunting and groaning with effort, he put all of his effort into his magic, and from what strength he had left, produced a spark to light the fire. Sombra in the mean time had redoubled his efforts to escape, eyes never leaving his most hated enemy.

Leaning in close to the struggling colt, 'Master' whispered softly, "The fire's lit and ready scum, it's time...to say...goodbye..."

"Goodbye!"

With that single word, Sombra put all of his hatred into fueling his hind legs, launching himself forward head first. 'Master' was so close to him that he didn't even have time to react as Sombra's young horn gored his evil heart out. For a moment nothing happened, they stood there joined by Sombra's horn as the madpony breathed his last. With a sigh, he collapsed to the ground as Sombra's bloody horn slipped from the gaping hole in his chest.

But he wasn't done, it wasn't over. He too still needed to eat to survive.

"It was after this that I grew fangs, though I haven't used them for their practical purpose for many centuries."

Twilight turned away from young colt devouring his captors raw flesh. The scene should have disgusted, appalled her, but instead she could only feel a sense of justice and satisfaction, and that disturbed her even more than the cannibalism did.

"And so ends the final murderer of my family, and our time here in my memories."

"Wait, but what happens to you next?"

"Next? I use the strength I regain from my first real meal in a year to free myself of my chains. Still hating the ponies who had scorned me before, I stayed within the wilderness, building my home in a cave. Twice now my rage had saved my life and brought retribution to my enemies, so I spent the remainder of my solitude mastering dark magic in all its complexity."

Twilight realized that they were back inside the fear chamber now, and the connection severed. She stood up slowly on shaky legs throbbing from being in the same position for so long. "Now that I understand, how shall we apply the attribute of loathing?"

Sombra grinned wickedly. "We shall be using NPCs again: I will pull the shadows of ponies on the surface down to the stone golems in the loathing chamber, and then change their appearance to match a more appropriate target. The goal is to inflict pain, suffering, and sickness to the target. That is how the attribute of loathing affects your spells. To spread a rot through their flesh, or cause their own body to slowly dissolve bit by bit."

"You said the NPCs would be changed from the shadow's owner to look like a more appropriate target? Who would that be?"

"You always catch the most important details don't you Twilight?" Sombra chuckled with approval. "The face of every NPC shall be the face of the monster you first learned how to loathe, our late friend, 'Master'. You're about to get your chance to finally do everything you've ever thought of doing to him, and more."

For the first time, Twilight's smile matched Sombra's in its cruel anticipation. "This lesson will be most effortless yet, and quite possibly the most enjoyable." she said, eyes turning green and wafting purple energy already.

As he watched her eyes blaze with the evidence of dark magic and dark intent, Sombra couldn''t agree with her more.

14) Attribute Training: Wrath

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
~John Steinbeck

Two days.

She had taken less than a minute to align with the attribute of Loathing and travel to the next crystal node. It had taken Sombra all of 3 minutes to form an NPC (originally of Cloud Chaser) and transform its features to those of 'Master'. 8 minutes and 23 seconds later, she was grinning with grim satisfaction, blood splattered all over her purple coat, the walls, and even the ceiling as it slowly returned to the dust from whence the NPC came. Less than a quarter of an hour in total, and Sombra was willing to declare her ready to move on to the next step in her training.

Instead, she took two days.

Between eating and sleeping the only thing she did was to take a year of pain out on defenseless dummies in the shape of 'Master'. Furthermore, she was nothing if not imaginative in her torture curses. Loathing gave her spells just the right amount of finesse and control to create optimal suffering for her victims, but the sheer variety of curses she came up with pleased Sombra to no end. A worm implanted in the liver that multiplied so greatly and so quickly, that it caused her victim to burst from the pressure. A rot like acid that ate away from the inside excruciatingly slow. A hunger curse that drove her victim to consuming his own flesh like a snake turned in upon itself. A curse that turned saliva into glass shards and forced the victim to swallow.

She even changed the composition of one victim's blood so that her victim would be violently allergic to it, and when he swelled up like a balloon, popped him open with a prick from her horn. Due to her magical influence, the blood that splattered her this time remained moist and real instead of returning to dust; however she seemed to either not mind, or not even notice. So pleased was he with her enthusiasm, on the second day Sombra even brought Twilight her dinner to the training room, a very special meal he had devised himself.

Eyes neon green and wafting potent purple energy, Twilight was positively giddy when he brought the meal for two up to the chamber. She felt as if she were soaring high as a kite, it felt good, incredibly good to be able to vent her pain back on the one that had caused it. Somehow it never seamed to be enough, he never, ever, went through enough; yet that didn't matter, because it meant that she got to continue dishing it out. Riding on top that high, and the delicious smell of the food Sombra had been so sweet as to surprise her with, she expressed her appreciation in a way she would never consider in any semblance of a reasonable state of mind.

"That smells delicious Sombra! That's so sweet of you to bring me dinner all the way up here!" She was practically prancing toward Sombra, and as she finished her praise she stretched up to his height and kissed him firmly on the cheek, just a tad below and in front of his left ear. Then she sat down and started wolfing hungrily at her food, not even processing what she had just done, just happy about how wonderfully good she was feeling.

Sombra on the other hand, went into processing overdrive, temporarily dazed by the turn of events. She had just....just....He felt a tingling sensation on his cheek, as if the skin there had memorized the shape and feel of her lips on his flesh and was already wanting more than that quick impression. Certain details started popping directly to the front of his mind about her. The way the spattering of crimson across her elegant features glimmered slightly in the magical candlelight and complimented the violet coloring of her coat perfectly. The lithe form of her body and the way it curved so perfectly, all the way from her flowing mane down to the supple curves of her alluring plot...

Sombra snapped himself back to reality and practically threw himself to the ground with how fast he laid next to her to start his portion of the meal. Surprised, Twilight looked up from her dish to twist her head to the side and give him a questioning look, a look Sombra stubbornly ignored as he kept his gaze and vigorously burning cheeks straight forward. Before long she simply shrugged and began nibbling at her food, taking the time to relax and enjoy this new and foreign flavor.

"I have the same eyes as you now, don't I?"

"For the second time in as many minutes, Sombra was completely thrown off. He had no idea what had prompted the question, nor her emotion behind it. He had thought she would go the entire training without knowing the change due to the lack of any reflective surfaces.

"I, uh well..."

"I thought so, I figured it must be happening after how much dark magic I've been using these last two days. I'm even starting to see the spell you wove between each cavern level. It's like a giant, intricate living web. And such a lovely shade of purple too."

"You can see all that now?"

"Yeah..., its rather beautiful actually."

Sombra's chest couldn't help but to swell a little with pride at the compliment. It certainly was some of his finest work in magical imprisonment barriers.

"I'm glad you like it."

She didn't hear him though, she'd already leaned up against his warmth and passed into a deep, contented sleep. Having stopped finally she must have gotten off her adrenaline high and crashed. She had certainly seemed to enjoy his special dinner too, freshly slaughtered lamb chops just barely cooked enough to remove bacteria. He smiled warmly down at the sleeping Princess before turning his gaze back up to the swirling pattern of light that was his containment spell. Everything was turning out much better than he could have expected, and for whatever reason there was a happy warmth seeping into his chest that told him he'd be more than content to lay like this for the rest of eternity if need be, just so long as that feeling lasted in the one muscle he'd long since forsaken; his heart.

Ponyville, Demolition site 3C--Golden Oaks Library

A thunderous rumbling filled the air at demolition site 3C. The finest machinery in Ponyville had been dedicated to the destruction of the barrier around Golden Oaks Library, with no shortage of volunteers hell-bent on saving the princess within. With the weight of several elephants, Ponyville's largest wrecking ball crashed down once more upon the crystal clear dome, and as it reared back for another strike there was a noticable lack of damage done. This would not deter their efforts however, nor the efforts of the explosives experts, nor even the battering ram team on the other side.

Applejack sighed, they needed the princesses' help badly. She knew only their magic would be able to counter Sombra's, but even after two days and dozens of letters tirelessly sent by Spike there had been no response at all. What could possibly be keeping them? This was Twilight in danger after all, Celestia's dearest and most faithful student! She should be moving mountains right now to come to Twilight's, so what was keeping them?

"Miss Applejack, fainting and dizziness have been reported on the battering ram teams 3 through 8, we think the barrier is fighting back!"

"It's a scorcher of day out, have you made sure all the teams are well equipped with headgear to protect from heatstroke and regular water breaks so ponies don't get dehydrated?"

"Oh...uh of course, we'll get right on it."

AJ simply shook her head with a sigh at the retreating volunteer. Somehow she'd become the sight overseer, making sure ponies stayed safe and organized. Rainbow Dash had taken control of the unified pegasi attempts, organizing powerful and focused lightning strikes, gale force winds, and even dive bombers. The others were working to keep everypony properly supplied and morale high. All except for Rarity and Spike that is. Spike's claws were cramped and sore, but he would not stop writing desperate letters for help to the princesses and sending them by dragonflame. The poor dragon was distraught, but refused to give up doing the only thing he felt like he could do to help. Rarity in the mean time, should have reported back by now.

"Applejack darling, there you are!"

Applejack nearly jumped out of her skin. That pony had a real bad habit of showing up just as soon as ponies had started wondering about her absence.

"Evenin Rare, what'd you find out?"

"That Canterlot is an absolute gem this time of year! The garden parties and park extravaganzas, oh it was a dream! Tis a shame I could not stay to enjoy the sophistication. Turns out nopony has seen Celestia or Luna for several months now, not since the coronation in fact. None of the nobles have been concerned about their absence however, as the sun and moon still cycle on time. While there, I did run into a crystal tourist however. He mentioned that Cadence too had been missing for just as long, but there's more! He works at a spa near the palace, and saw both princess Luna and princess Celestia go into the castle around the time Shining Armor took over for Cadence. Following that lead, I took the very next train to the crystal kingdom myself. Unfortunately I was unable to get in contact directly with Shining, but I did get to dig around for more info. Ever since that first sighting, there hasn't been a glimpse of any of those three since, while poor Shining has become all but overwhelmed running everything by himself.

"So you're saying the princesses are all in the Crystal Kingdom? But what are they doing?"

"Word on the crystal grapevine is that the princesses are working together on something big, something so powerful and important that it takes all three of their combined expertise and power."

"Hmm, that would explain why we've had no response yet." AJ glanced back to the bludgeoning of the library's barrier, "I sure hope they get Spike's letters soon. We need their help in a bad way, but we can't stop working here. Soon as somepony leaves they forget about the barrier entirely! We can't afford that risk."

"What barrier are you talking about darling?"

Main Shaft--Loathing Platform

Twilight began to stir slowly, stretching like a cat that didn't really want to wake up from its nap. A now familiar fuzzy warmness pervaded her body, as seemed to happen whenever she fell asleep next to Sombra now. Creaking open her eyelids, she confirmed her suspicions, and was surprised to find that for the very first time, he was still asleep. She'd gotten so used to waking up to find him ready and waiting, staring at her or off into the distance that she'd become convinced he didn't actually need sleep. This time however, the steady rise and fall of his chest was slow and uninterrupted. His ebony mane was as messy as a lion's, and was that a smile she detected? Who knew Sombra would looks so handso.....peaceful! Look so peaceful while sleeping?

"Good morning Princess"

Ah drat, he'd caught her staring with his half open eyes, what had woken him? No matter, it was time to move on and get up now. Reluctantly she stood up and stretched once again (which was a real shame too, he really did make such a wonderfully comfortable pillow).

"Good morning Sombra, nice to know you actually do sleep instead of waiting around like a batpony."

"Careful Princess, it could be a ruse. I have fangs after all, for all you know I could be waiting for just the right moment to suck your blood!" No sooner than his proclamation was over he suddenly leaped up and gently nibbled the left side of her neck.

The sensation sent an electric shock through her nerves, and she had to dance away to keep her knees from fully turning to jelly. Emitting a girlish giggle she'd never heard from her own mouth, she gently chided him. "Hey now stop that, I need to be in all one piece for our training after all."

"Speaking of which, you have been more than ready, so today we move onto my personal favorite, wrath. It is my personal strength, and hence the attribute I truly resonate with."

"Are you implying that each attribute that we align with, some we will align with more strongly then others? Have I encountered my strength yet?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying Princess. And no, I do not believe you have. When you do trust me when I say that you will know without a doubt, for it will resonate with your very soul. Now, since you have so greatly mastered the attribute of loathing, wrath should not pose too difficult for you. It is after all but a step away. Wrath is not as focused as loathing however, wrath is a powerful hate bent on widespread destruction for a potentially wide range of targets. Do you remember all of those villages we passed through while in my memories?"

Twilight frowned at the unpleasant memory. "They drove you out with rotten food and violence, every single one."

"Yes, and what do you feel about them that they would all do such a thing?"

"I'm angry that they could do such a thing to a defenseless chained colt. That they would not help you is bad enough; but to drive you out like you were filth, a plague to their neighbors? It's disgusting."

"Good, now feed that anger. How dare they treat a slaved colt in such a way! They're no better than 'Master' himself!"

At the mention of that name, Twilight's green eyes narrowed in hatred. "No, indeed they're not. Their treatment wasn't any different, to accept you as beneath their existence as a slave, and then to drive you out with the same abuse. They're the exact same."

"Good, now remember the night my family was murdered? Remember my pain, my loss, my eruption. That is aligning with wrath, to become retribution incarnate and rain hell down upon your enemies. Are you ready to try?"

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she re-opened them, if possible, her eyes were greener and wafting even more purple energy. "I'm ready to do more than just try, Sombra."

Without waiting for his cue, she strode to the crystal node and stared it down. The intricate transport matrix was clearly visible to her eyes now, pulsing with magical light as it awaited the one missing piece it needed. She placed her horn on the refreshingly cool surface, and channeled the force of her hatred. She was retribution for the wrongs of the mobs of crystal ponies, fiery judgement for hundred of villages that had so dared to turn their backs and sneer. She was used to her magic burning cold and powerful, but this magic was hot and wild. There was no controlling a wildfire, only directing the direction it is unleashed. She was Wrath.

The matrix had its final piece, and with shadowy threads reached out to dissolve her into its depths. Within moments it released her once more, now upon the 2nd to last platform. It took several minutes of forcing herself to breathe deeply, clearing away her thoughts, to be able calm down and quench the fire of hatred she'd just channeled. By that time Sombra had joined her, smiling wider than ever.

"You take to hatred and black magic like a fish to water Princess"

Something told her she should have been bothered by that, some reason that she had lost focus of to be disturbed or even ashamed. But as soon as the thought came it flickered away, replaced by her own wolfish grin. She was ready, no, anticipating the coming lesson. If she had claws she would be digging them into the rock beneath her, itching to unleash them on the next available target.

"As you have seen from my own memories, the attribute of wrath gives your destructive spells a life of their own, and power even greater than what they would normally produce. As I have seen your capabilities, we shall have to skip over having you apply hatred to your widespread combat spells, as they would surely destroy these caverns and set of earthquakes."

She had decidedly mixed feelings about this. On one hoof, she had to keep from swelling from pride that Sombra recognized her power. On the other, she was most disappointed that she would not get to unleash herself as she was so itching to do.

"Instead", Sombra continued, "you shall have to go straight to the most difficult part. Learning to tame the wildfire that is wrath, and take the inherently widespread destruction and narrow it down into single target spells."

Twilight nodded in understanding, looking forward to the challenge that presented. From the ground erupted several of the familiar standard target practice dummies.

"For the first target, I want you to think of fire. A wildfire, all of Equestria is being consumed by the power of this conflagration. Now focus that down into a single blast, a single fireball to blast the target with. The key is to fight fire with fire, control the wild power of wrath with the cold burn of your own mind. The greater shall win, now focus, and when ready.....FIRE!

CRACK-A-BOOOOOM!

The single monolith of clear crystal still stood proudly within the center of the Triquetra, surrounded by three princesses panting with exertion. Now though the crystal was clear and pure, no longer stained by the black flame that had for so long burned malevolently within. Their spell had crashed upon it like lighting, and the resulting thunder had echoed deafeningly around the expanses of their chamber. The pink, golden, and cyan light slowly receded from blinding to bearable so that the Princesses could get a good look at the fruit of their labor.

"Congratulations girls", panted Celestia between breathes, "the spells are ready for transcribing."

"We are ready."

Author's Note

Dunh Dunh Duuuuuuh!

15) Attribute Training: Despair

“Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.”
~ Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept

If nothing else, from all of this Twilight had at least become a master of her own will. It took time, but slowly over the course of several days she took the raw power unleashed by the attribute of wrath, and through the force of her willpower shoved it into a single-target bottleneck. Fireballs no longer exploded in a nimbus around her, instead they became focused beams of plasma evaporating her target, and the next half mile of cavern wall behind it. Ice spells brought her targets to such low temperatures that she could walk up and breathe on them, and they would shatter in the wind. Even wind spells were affected, drilling perfect holes through anything she wished, or completely wearing her targets away to nothing.

On a whim, she levitated a large boulder over to the breakfast table, it seemed suitable for what she had in mind, the right size, plenty of carbon. Applying the attribute of wrath, the boulder became surrounded by a purple-black aura that slowly crushed it from all sides. As her telekinesis compressed the boulder with the force of ten tons, she simultaneously began to heat it up to temperatures around 1600 C. The boulder was a tenth of its original size now, glowing white-hot from the heat and pressure until finally it was released from her hold. Cooling down the impurities sloughed off under the relieved pressure, leaving behind a gleaming diamond core. Had to be at least 8 carats, the worlds first synthetic diamond, made entirely without having to break a sweat thanks to her mastery of the attribute of wrath.

Focus under pressure, clarity of thought when everything else around is chaos. It was this clarity that allowed her a new freedom of perspective, being able to view anything from multiple angles so that she could achieve comprehension. It allowed her to see the answer to Sombra's first question to her. "Why is the owl not evil?"

Why indeed. It had started as a pattern of emotions: loathing, contempt, hatred. Fluttershy would be quick in telling her that none of these would ever be felt by her animal friends. But ponies do. The owl is not evil because when it kills, it does so for food, for survival, because that is what owls are born to do. Yet the same fear inducing attributes are sources of dark magic, of evil for ponies. So it would seem that the difference between animals and ponies must be the key, the answer to the question.

Twilight strode to the crystal transport node on the bottom floor, Sombra would be waiting for her in the wrath chamber, ready to begin that day's training. Looking up she found herself stepping onto the wrath chamber platform already, her violet tail with stripes of pink slipping out of the crystal behind her like it were made of black fog. Interesting, molding the attributes of dark magic had become so easy for her that she'd aligned with them as easily as putting one hoof in front of the other now. That was a detail for another time however, Sombra was there, waiting for her, and she needed to see if her answer was correct.

"I know why the owl isn't evil."

Sombra cocked his eyebrow, but otherwise did not react. He merely waited for her to continue.

"It's consciousness, the answer is consciousness. What separates ponies from animals is that we have morals and ideas, and that our minds specifically split what is right from what is wrong. That's why negative emotions are the source of black magic, and positive ones the source of good magic. We created those definitions, and from our own consciousness magic is made."

"Then why are shadows so often associated with black magic, while light is the champion of good?"

"Those things aren't themselves good or evil either, we just associate darkness with danger and fear, and hence the harbinger of evil, just as we associate light with life and safety, which makes it a magical source for good. We shape the world around us with our awareness, and in doing so create the magic we know."

".....Correct."

Twilight let go of the breath she didn't know she'd been holding, she was right! But that raised new questions of its own.

"Ok, my turn then. If you have seen both sides, good and evil, and understood both so clearly, how can you have possibly chosen evil? I've seen your memories, but after knowing such truths about the world how can you still harbor so much hatred and evil intent?"

"Because Princess, I choose to. Knowledge is power, power is control. Control means I am untouchable, invulnerable. Control means that I will never endure again what I had to all those years ago. After what I have been through none deserve what was so freely destroyed for me! I am evil because hatred is how I was raised, how I survived, and how I conquered, and now I hate because I choose to. Nopony deserves what I can't have!"

His voice had raised to a passionate roar, his conviction and hatred pervading his words. Refusing to turn away, she looked him in the eyes and quietly asked. "But what if you could have it?" What indeed, would happen if Sombra could once again have love?

The look he returned was one of sad acceptance, one that said he'd forsaken such an idea long, long ago. "It is the path I choose to walk Twilight Sparkle. The question now is, what shall yours be?"

It wasn't fair, him turning the conversation back around on her like that, for it caught her off guard. "Of course I'm on the good si....."

"Can you be so certain?", he interrupted, "After all you only just now have realized the truth behind magic, behind what dark and good magic really is. You understand both now, while before you had only an idealized view of what had been spoonfed you your entire life. Can you be so certain that your views have not actually changed?"

"Well, of course I..."

"No, withhold from answering now. Since you've understood the final lesson, your training is all but done. Wait until you have walked through the town above with your friends and the ponies you've known for so long. Then you can truly comprehend what has changed, and what will always stay the same."

His tone was cryptic, as if he knew something that she didn't about herself, but she chose to ignore it for now. "You said that my training is all but finished, why is that?"

"I said that once you could travel the dark crystal without the assistance of the travel matrices that your training would be complete. Now that you understand the part that shadow plays in dark magic, not as evil itself but a friend and ally, you will be able to travel the dark crystals unassisted, and even complete your shadow form outside of the crystal network as well. There was to be one more attribute to learn, but now you have learned all that you need to understand."

It was done than, over, she could leave at any time she wished. She'd learned a great deal about Sombra, and dark magic itself. So why, why did she feel so disappointed? "Could we, perhaps, still go over the last attribute?"

Sombra smiled at her, she'd chosen to continue with training, even though she had the ability to leave and be done. She'd chosen to stay, and it made him inexplicably happy. "Very well Princess, the last attribute to learn is the attribute, of despair. To align with despair, think of all the hardships and enemies you've faced in the past. Remember what it was like to face them, and now be them."

Be that which she has despaired of in the past? Hmm, well the first time she faced despair was when Discord first broke free, and all her friends had forgotten their true selves and turned on one another. No matter what she had done, nothing got through, and even managed to make things worse. She did manage to find a solution, but still she had felt despair for that short amount of time. When else had she felt despair? Ah yes, when Sombra had been attacking the crystal kingdom, his door that had presented her with her greatest fear. She'd not only failed the test, but been kicked out by Celestia entirely in that hallucination. She'd felt abandoned, worthless, helpless. There was a pattern there. Twilight walked up to the crystal node, the final crystal node, and let her horn make contact with its cool surface. She was despair, untouchable, futile to resist, and overwhelming.

On the outside, her eyes exploded with pure green light, dark energy wafting so powerfully from her eyes that it trailed back behind her, at least a meter in length. Her body became a pony shaped lavender flame that darkened to the blackness of the void at her hooves and her wingtips. From her back sprouted a second set of wings, both burning with the magnificence of a violet phoenix. Her horn grew to triple its length, surrounded by the aura of black magic. Lastly, her mane and tail transformed into billowing shadow that moved inside a magical wind, almost like smoke from the flame of her body.

It was actually happening! True resonance! He was witnessing the birth of the Avatar of Despair, and she was glorious! The transport matrix quickly became overloaded and unstable, shattering the entire crystal node to pieces; but the force of Twilight's power had started to warp reality itself. Gravity was distorted and ruined around her, casting the pieces of crystal into strange and unpredictable orbits. The very rock of the platform they stood upon screamed in protest as its atoms shifted through the entire periodic table. And still Twilight grew in size and power as the resonance continued to build, now easily as large as Celestia herself and half again! One thought pervaded Sombra's mind as he began to cackle in ecstasy....

She was Perfect.

Meanwhile on the surface in Ponyville

All activity at demolition site 3C stopped as the element bearers dropped to the ground and covered their ears. The elements each still wore, as they had first promised to Twilight, were now flashing urgently and brightly in the midday sun as each emitted an ear-splitting screech of warning. From somewhere inside the library, the same screeching could be heard as well. Each of the 5 friends new that something was terribly wrong, and if they didn't get past the barrier NOW, well, they wouldn't let themselves think of the alternatives.

Somewhere in Equestria, a dozing draconequus woke with a start, his body wiggling like a rubber snake in the hands of an overly exited toddler. "Oh, oh my. That can't be right at all..."

Meanwhile in the Crystal Kingdom

"There, that's the last one", said Celestia as she finished etching the final symbol into her niece's specially designed necklace. On the right hand side there were 5 inscribed lightning bolts, and on the left stood three elaborate circles. "Now all that's left is to set up the perime...."

She stopped suddenly eyes widening in horror. Luna too, felt...something, something wrong. "Sister, doth though feel this strange sensation too?" She never answered, instead Celestia threw open the locked doors to their experimentation chamber, to find a messenger practically buried in scrolls. "Sorry to disturb your royal highnesses! I know you said to not disturb you under any circumstances, but there seems to be some kind of emergency in a town called Ponyville. Something to do with a Twili..."

Celestia disappeared in a flash of solar energy: emergency, Ponyville, Twilight, her Twilight. Please don't be too late, please.

Meanwhile, inside of Twilight's mind

As soon as she had aligned with despair, Twilight felt something click inside her mind. With a rush her surroundings dissolved and she found herself standing upon a small rock plateau in the midst of an ocean. The water was strangely splotchy, glowing with motes of light in some places, and murky inkiness in others. She remembered this place, its where she went to remove Sombra's seed of thought, her own mind. It should have alarmed her how much of it was swirling with darkness now, yet for some reason she could only summon a detached curiosity. Peering over the edge of her rock plateau, she met her reflection face to face in the murky waters, and her reflection met her back. With a desperate hooves her reflection broke through the surface of the water and sought purchase on her rock. Before long Twilight stood facing Twilight, though the second one for some reason was but a simple unicorn still.

"Twilight please! You must stop this! Look around you, at what you are becoming! The dark forest is out of control down there. Please! Help me stop this, help me take the ocean back!"

"What a strange reflection you are, hardly complete though since you lack my wings. What are you?"

"I'm you, a projection of how you still see yourself. A studious unicorn that loves books, learning, and her friends above all else. I protect you from the Dark Forest below."

Now, the words began to fall out of Twilight's mouth on their own, it was almost like she had no more say on what it was she articulated. She was but a passive, emotionless observer to her own body. "What is this Dark Forest you say you protect me from?" she said with a blank, emotionless stare.

"It's your inner darkness Twilight, our fears, our anger, and the strongest of all."

"Which is?"

"That which has grown only more powerful now because of you, our despair" Reflection Twilight shivered, as if speaking the word itself made her fear for her life.

"Is not my inner darkness a part of who I am?"

"Yes, but its out of control now, and I can't protect you from it anymore!"

"Perhaps your protection is simply no longer necessary?" Reflection Twilight physically blanched at this and Princess Twilight strode forward purposefully, "It's a part of me just as you and the rest of the ocean are, what if what I really need is protection, from you?" Reflection Twilight was teetering on the edge of the rock now, eyes filled with confusion and desperation. The ocean around was almost completely filled with inkiness now. "Please don't do this, please, for your friends don't do this!"

Princess Twilight pressed her face right up to her reflection, and said the next words with that same flat, emotionless whisper. "You know what happens when you cage the beast?" Reflection Twilight's eyes filled with pain and fear as black tentacles burst from the water and wrapped themselves around her limbs and throat, cutting into the flesh with how tightly they squeezed. "You only make it angry." Reflection Twilight's chest ruptured as several black tendrils pierced through her back and clawed their way back out through her rib cage. Emotionless, Princess Twilight watched as the tendrils dragged the corpse back down into the murky depths.

Twilight's bedroom

With a shriek that rang through the ears of every living thing, the Element of Magic gave one final shudder before losing all color and shattering into pieces. Everyone and everything that heard it, whether they understood or not, found their hearts filled with a sense of dread, with a sense, of doom.

Demolition site 3C

The elements of harmony gave a final shriek and then stopped as suddenly as they had began. Their lights dimmed to barely a glimmer, and hung like ice upon each bearer. From the sky dropped Celestia in a beam of solar radiance, and in the same instance, she took upon her the power of her star, and unleashed it upon the barrier keeping her from getting to Twilight. The force field folded like an egg shell as the solar beam destroyed it completely, and tunneled deep into the ground beneath the library from the excess energy.

Interrupted from his ecstatic cackling, Sombra cried out in surprise and pain at the unexpected interruption. Celestia's magic struck Twilight full on, casting the shadow of her original form behind her. Meanwhile, Twilight still in her mindscape found it engulfed in a painful, blinding light. It was all consuming in its luminescence, and broke the endless cycle of resonance with the attribute of despair. Blinking rapidly, Twilight staggered to her hooves, noticing that she was aware again of the real world around her, and none other than her beloved mentor was standing there to great her.

"Sombra, What have you DONE!

Her precious student stood shakily before her, the same beloved Twilight she held so dear, except for the burning green eyes that marked the use of advanced black magic.

"Can't you see for yourself Celestia? I've enslaved this weak whelp's mind for my own purposes. I've place my dark influence inside of her and now she's slave to my will!"

Twilight, already disoriented from having been blasted out of alignment with despair and the sudden appearance of Celestia, was quickly growing more and more confused. He walked in front of Twilight, as if he were protecting her from Celestia as he finished calling her his slave. Even more confusing was how Sombra turned his head to Twilight, and then winked at her! What was going on?

"You scum!" From the right side of her necklace, one of the five lightning bolts glimmered with the aura of her horn. With a slight pop it came free and transformed into a lance of arcane light. Twilight's eyes widened, it was a physical spell-form, and when she looked closely she could see the hundreds of thousands of symbols and diagrams that composed it. She didn't get a chance to study it anymore though, as Celestia plunged it forward.

Sombra dodged to the side, presuming he was the target. He was wrong. Twilight blinked in surprise as the spell-lance passed through her chest, leaving her unharmed. It even had a warm tingling feeling as it passed through, though suddenly she was absolutely exhausted.

"How dare you! A spell that destroys my darkness, it shouldn't be possible! How dare you think to take my slave from me!"

The world was definitely taking on a fuzzy tinge now, it was harder and harder to stand, she was just so, so tired. Just before her whole world faded to black, she watched Sombra barely dodge another lance of light, dissipate into his shadowform and escape through the cracks in the walls.

"Hold on my student, hang in there. You're safe now, you're safe...."

16) Lost into Shadow

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
~Aesop

Her world was dark and blurry, sounds seemed to roll into each other like waves, indistinguishable from each other. Ever so slowly, the haze from her senses began to lift. She was lying in something soft that smelled like bleach, and all around her voices were speaking in hushed tones.

"The perimeter is fully established, if Sombra ever returns he shall be immediately detained. Mayor, I need you to maintain a patrol, we can't take the risk of a miscapture."

"I know this aint the time to ask princess, but is Twi gonna be ok?"

"I hope so my little ponies, with the element of magic shattered, I place my faith in your friendship to bring her back to full health."

My element is gone!? she thought with shock.

"Pardon me princess, but I don't think it was Twilight's health that we're worried about. That brute did something to her mind you said, who knows what terrible things he's done to her?"

"My answer must be the same. The spell I've spent the last several months working with princess Luna and princess Cadence on is designed to specifically target the black magic of Sombra and eradicate it. I used it on Twilight in the hopes that I could remove his dark influence, but the spell record was, disturbing. I'd expected to see Sombra's magical signature on the destroyed black magic. Instead it matched Twilight's. I fear this means Sombra employed a much more subtle influence, through lies and illusions, that guided her down a terrible path. Therefore it is once again my hope that you girls and your friendships will succeed in bringing her back fully to us."

That made sense, she'd been using black magic quite frequently beforehand. But what was the part about lies and illusions?

This time, Rainbow Dash spoke up, "We're sorry, princess. We've failed you, failed Twilight, and even the elements themselves."

"Do not blame yourselves my little ponies, if anypony is to blame it's myself. To underestimate Sombra is a fatal error, a fact he has proven time and time again in the past. I should have known he had something sinister in mind. Instead I put all of your lives in danger."

Twilight felt the cold touch of a gold-clad hoof upon her skin as the princess continued. "And because of my lack of foresight, Twilight has to bear the full cost of my mistake." Twilight opened her eyes, there was her beloved mentor looking down upon, eyes old and wise, and so very very sad. "My...fault", Twilight managed to croak out. "My Idea." Her friends all began to clamor around her, all asking the same basic thing. Are you alright? "I think so, yes." She responded. A frown touched her face, "what happened to Sombra?"

Their faces all darkened with an emotion she knew only too well, one she new to be quite a powerful source of evil magic; hatred. Celestia spoke up first, "He escaped into the bedrock before I could destroy him, but don't worry, we've set up a special protection spell around the Crystal Kingdom, Canterlot, and here in Ponyville in case he tries to return. In the mean time Luna and I will take turns scouring the lands for him. He will be allowed to run rampant no longer.

"What do you mean, destroy him?"

"We have devised a spell dear student, that destroys dark magic upon contact. Since he has given himself over completely to the ways of darkness, the spell will recognize that they are one and the same, and end him."

Twilight shivered, the cold steel in her mentor's voice was nothing like her normal self, it was like listening to a complete stranger.

"Now you must rest Twilight, you and Sombra's other victims need time to heal."

Other victims? Dread welled up in Twilight's gut, she had to see this for herself. She leaped out of bed with still half-asleep limbs, and dashed for the door to her room. Behind her the alarmed calls of her friends to stop and wait were completely ignored. She dashed down the Hospital hall and ran into a nurse, who after some persuasion relinquished the location for the other 'victims'. Heart beating as fast as the panic in her own mind she burst into their room and froze. Carrot Top... Cloud Chaser... The quills and sofa clerk... Cherry Blossom... Time Turner... Mrs. Cake...Lyra. The pony behind every single NPC she had ever terrorized, tortured, or destroyed, every single one, were lying comatose in their hospital beds. And there were dozens of them.

Not Sombra's victims, her victims. Faintly she heard her friends asking her what was wrong. They had managed to follow her here and were standing right behind her, yet they all seemed so far away. It didn't matter, now was not the time to wallow in guilt. Her victims needed her help, and needed it now. Horn glowing with a brilliant violet aura, she focused everything she had on their minds, looking deep for a way to bring them out of their comas. Moments later, she lay sobbing on the floor.

"Twilight, my most faithful student, please tell us what is going on."

"Please tell the doctors that these coma patients will recover within a period of 2 to 3 weeks. I've placed a memory spell in each of them, so that their subconscious can forget the event that caused them to become comatose in the first place, and the reason why they are too afraid to wake up."

"That's amazing Twi! How did you figure it out so fast?"

Turning to Apple Jack now with tear-filled eyes, Twilight responded, "Because I'm the one that did this to them, and I'm the reason they're all too terrified to wake up from their subconscious. Sombra created semi-intelligent golems using the shadows of these ponies as a means of practice while he taught me dark magic. The shadows must have remembered what I did to them, and that memory now sits deep within their minds. Their only escape, is to forget.

For the very first time, nopony spoke. Nopony offered her condolences or comfort. They all just stared in shock, incapable of imagining what horrors could cause a pony to be too terrified to wake up, to even dream or think. They tried to hide it, but in their eyes was the same look that she saw herself with. She was a monster.

Several months later.

The sunlight played gently across her wings through the partial shade of the oak tree. Next to her was a babbling brook, flowing nonchalantly over the many rocks and fish in its path. By the banks the grass grew tall and wild, early morning dew still fresh on their blades. Somewhere above her was the nest of a morning lark, trilling jofully into the crisp blue atmosphere. It was a beautiful day, but Twilight wasn't watching it. Instead she lay quietly in the shade and listened, her eyes trailing off into her memory.

"Heya Twilight, watcha dooooin?"

The sound of Pinkie's overly enthusiastic greeting caused a smile to tug at the corners of her lips, and she greeted her in return. "Good morning Pinkie, I'm just relaxing and listening."

"Oooh, that sounds fun! Watcha listening to, music?

"Of a sort, I'm listening to the music of nature. A little filly once said by a brook or river was the best spot to listen, and I'm beginning to agree with her."

"That sounds super duper! Who was she?"

At this, Twilight's eyes lost their glimmer and her smile faded once more. Thinking of Indigo Melody just meant thinking of her brother.

"It doesn't really matter anymore."

Life in Ponyville had become almost trance-like for the princess. Everything looked and smelled and sounded the same, but there were constant reminders everywhere. Perimeter patrols were tense and alert, stalking around town in pairs. The still fresh concrete erasing the caverns beneath her basement from existence. The townspeople all greeted her kindly enough, but that was all they ever did. Quick hellos to be polite and keep in good graces, and even faster retreats as they hurried quickly onto other business. The worst was from the recovered coma patients, who all treated her nicely, and would even strike up conversation with her; and yet there was always the look in their eyes, like a memory was just on the edge of their minds, one they were curious, and both deathly afraid of. A memory, that they couldn't for the life of them understand why Twilight was triggering.

Worst of all though, were her friends. They still hung out together, attended Pinkie's parties, and helped each other out with their normal lives; but at the same time everything was different. She was like a glass doll they all danced around careful, afraid she might break. They were all so concerned with protecting her and helping her, that inevitably every conversation would turn to the one topic that hurt the most; Sombra.

"I swear if I ever see that varment again I'll dent his head in!"

"While a lady shouldn't give in to violence, I do certainly hope to be around to see princess Celestia deal the finishing blow for what he did to our Twilight"

"Why let Celestia have all the fun? I'm ready to give him the beating of a lifetime, Rainbow style!"

"He's taken much worse than what you could ever beat into him."

She hadn't meant to say it, it just slipped out before she'd realized what she'd done. It was too late to go back now though, because all conversation had stopped and her friends were all staring at her with that cautious look they now wore so well.

"Sugarcube, I know what you've told us, about the 'memories' he's shown you. But you just gotta remember that it was all fake, nothing he could have shown you was real. He lied right from the very start. Then, because we weren't there to help you more, he hit you right in the soft spot."

"Then how am I supposed to know what is real from what is fake AJ?"

Why did it always come to this? Sombra was a lier, a brute, a monster. Her friends wouldn't even let her take the blame for the ponies she'd forced into comas, saying that it was all Sombra's doing, his influence, his fault. So where did that leave her, Twilight Sparkle? Had she really been deceived from the very beginning when she saw his family murdered. Sombra had shown her his memories, his thoughts, his feelings, and now she had to believe that everything, all of it was fake? Was her world meant to simply be defined by others now? She wasn't Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria and beloved student of Celestia anymore. She was Sombra's victim, Sombra's target, the confused alicorn that had been lead astray by the big bad meany.

"Sweety, this is real, here with us and surrounded by your friends. Sombra's lies were designed to drive you away from us, but he should have known better because our bonds are far stronger than anything that villain can come up with!"

Well intended as that proclamation was, it only made Twilight feel worse as she nodded in pretend agreement, just to make the conversation end. If all of those memories had indeed been lies, then why had they done exactly the opposite? There was nothing there to make her think anything less of her friends, nor even Celestia despite Sombra's strong despise of her. Everything had been about reaching an understanding, a feeling she sorely missed. Her friends didn't--couldn't-- possibly understand, for they would not accept Sombra as anything other than a pure blackhearted demon, and she still couldn't decide if they were right or not.

Indeed there was one thing she did know for sure, one thing that she felt in her heart that made her silently call out for help, knowing that there would be no answer. She'd foolishly thought everything could return to normal after her training, she would have come to understand Sombra, and then helped him to reform, and life would be even better in Ponyville for her success. Instead, where there should have been love and laughter all she could find was caution, hatred, and worst of all, pity.

She was oh so terribly alone, surrounded by her friends and a village of hundreds.

"I think I'm just gonna go home and get to bed early girls. I'm feeling pretty tired today."

The silence was deafening, the thoughts running through each of their minds so obvious upon their faces they might as well have been yelling them. Is it something we said? Is it something we did wrong? It was Applejack who finally voiced the question, "Are you alright Sugarcube?"

It's always a bad idea to lie, especially to the element of honesty, but she did so anyways. "Just really tired AJ, I'll be feeling right as rain in the morning." Yep, the element of honesty knew how to spot a lie better than anypony else, and the look on Applejack's face only confirmed that she saw straight through Twilight's thin deception. Thankfully, she decided to let it go.

"Alright, and don't worry about spike waking you up none, he's having a sleepover with Applebloom and her friends over at Rarity's. You should be able to get a nice and peaceful-like sleep tonight."

"Thanks girls, I'll see you in the morning." She smiled once more to give her words sincerity. Once again her friends were no fools however, they could all see how it always failed to reach her eyes.

11:38pm that night

Twilight lay in her bed unable to go to sleep, clutching a pillow to her like a lifeline, a lifeline woefully lacking in warmth or the steady rhythm of breath. "Why can't things go back to the way they were before? Why do I have to feel so alone when I'm with my friends, what's wrong with me?"

"To what before are you wishing to return, Princess?"

Twilight froze, holding her breath and listening closely to see if she had been imagining things. Finally she replied, "what do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean Princess. Are you wishing to return to a time before your attempts to reform me, or perhaps for some of our time after that point?"

It sounded like his voice was coming from just behind her, patient and teasing as always. Could she just be imagining things?

"You know, everypony says that everything you showed me, from the very beginning, was just a great big manipulation."

"And what do you believe?"

This took her by surprise, she was expecting him to defend his side of the story, to convince her why his was correct and not what Celestia and her friends where telling her, just like they had done before him.

"I don't know what to believe anymore."

"Remember Twilight, that emotions are the source of magic. They give it shape and form, and you yourself realized that it is due to our emotions that the world is shaped around us. So let me rephrase my question for you....What does your heart believe?"

She turn around now, the beginnings of tears in her eyes. There he really was, not a figment of her imagination, not a phantom from her memories. There he was standing so tall and proud, with those big, stupid, adorable eyes of his. Her heart told her that it ached like it had been emptied, and now it was about to be filled again. She didn't answer, she needed to know first...she needed to know what it was that his heart said. She sat up and reached tentatively forward, unsure of how to proceed. He in turn leaned forward, so close now, so very...very close. She was so nervous and uncertain, yet excited at the same time. And then it happened, he closed the distance between them and was kissing her, kissing her as she had never been done before.

And she was passionately kissing him back. She could barely breathe, and when their kiss broke her breaths were short and ragged, and she couldn't care less. He'd come back for her, and what she had felt, what she had known in her heart to be true was oh so real. She was happier than she'd ever felt as he nibbled up and down her neck, stopping just beneath her ear to put into words what she couldn't have even hoped for.

"I love you, Twilight."

Her heart fluttered and nearly stopped, the remnants of tears in her eyes now tears of joy rather than isolation. She latched her limbs around him as tightly as she could, never wanting to let go as they kissed and kissed again. Hooves ran through each other's manes, hers soft as velvet, and his as wild as a lion's. His warmth filled her to the brim now, their coats creating enough static friction to light a lamp. He was hers, and she was utterly his, and as the most passionate and filling night of her life began, she finally answered his question.

"I love you too Sombra."

The next morning.

"Heya Twilight! The girls told me you went to bed early cause you were feeling down, so I brought a cupcake over from the sleepover to help cheer...you...."

Startled out of her sleep Twilight twisted around to find Spike standing in the doorway to her bedroom, jaw agape and a ruined cupcake on the floor where it had fallen. Beside her Sombra grumpily raised his head to peer at what had woken him up early.

"S-s-s-spike! I s-swear I can explain!"

Baby though he was in dragon years, Spike was still old enough to know what happens when two adult ponies are in the same bed together. What was even more shocking, was that the one next to Twilight was none other than Sombra! He snatched his eyes away from the scene before him and dashed back out the door on his way out of the library.

"Oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no oh please no SPIKE WAIT!"

Twilight was out of bed and dashing after him immediately, she had to stop him before everypony found out, before it was too late. As she left the library and gave chase to him outside, she saw a small scroll tied with a red ribbon burn up in green flame. Whoever that letter was going to, there was no stopping it now. Behind her she heard Sombra shout her name as he dashed after her, only to shortly thereafter roar in pain and rage. She watched the sky around Ponyville turn into a golden dome of light as Sombra appeared out of her library. Before he had gone another 3 meters, the golden dome pulsed once and disappeared, 5 spears of light crashing through his flesh in every direction, pinning him solidly to the ground.

"Sombra, NO!"

In another part of Equestria, the middle of 3 transcribed circles began to pulse a vibrant red on the necklaces of the three other princesses. At the same time a brand new letter appeared at Celestia's feet, she didn't even need to read it know what it would say. Sombra had returned to Ponyville, and it was time to finish him.

"None of my spells are working on these spears! Can't you just turn to shadow and escape?"

Grunting with pain Sombra shook his head. "These spell-spears have me completely pinned, I can't use any of my magic, and they've drained me of the strength to physically break free too. You have to leave, now, before Celestia comes and sees you trying to help me!"

"No! It's too late for that now, Spike's already seen us together. Besides, you've already covered up for me once, I can't let you do it again."

"Heh, hope you didn't take any offense when I called you my slave, I had to sound convincing after all."

"Don't worry, when Celestia gets here, I'll get her to stop, then we can talk this through, we can work it all out I know it!"

"You still believe that you can have both me and your friends don't you." When she nodded firmly, he chuckled softly. "It'd be a miracle if they would allow it, and I stopped believing in such things a long time ago."

"I've gotcha Twilight, hang on!" With a gravity defying yank, Twilight found herself hoisted into the air by her cyan pegasus friend. Dropped back where Spike was waiting the rest of her friends caught up and made sure she was alright before glaring daggers at the trapped Dark Lord just a hop skip and a jump away. It was at that moment that Celestia made her grand entrance, a pillar of solar brilliance connected the heavens to the ground directly in front of Sombra. As that light faded, she stood tall above him, cold hatred hardening her features.

"It seems you were foolish enough to return here after all Sombra. That mistake will be your end." From her necklace all three remaining lightning bolts popped out, and joined together to form an even more powerful spear. Sombra simply growled at her in hatred, his final act of defiance.

"Please no, Celestia stop!" Twilight's mentor turned in surprise at Twilight's voice. "Please, I know it doesn't seem that way but I've seen the good in him and I know its real, we can work this..."

"No, Twilight." Celestia interrupted. Her tone reminded her of a certain long dead mayor of Stalliongrad. "No more second chances, no more allowing this fiend to do whatever he pleases, it ends here."

She raised that dreadful spear again. Twilight had to convince her, she couldn't let this happen. "Celestia you can't! I...I love him!" This froze her mentor mid-motion as she turned her head in shock at her beloved student. Spike chose this moment to pipe in as well, saying "When I came to her bedroom this morning I found them there, together...in bed."

The look Celestia and her friends had been giving her was nothing compared to what they were leveling on her now. Twilight wanted to curl up in a ball and hide under their incredulous stares, but she had to bear it for Sombra, they had to realize how serious she was. Maybe then they would...

"YOU VILE CRETIN! HOW DARE YOU PLAY AROUND WITH MY STUDENTS HEART AND THEN DEFILE HER! GO BACK TO THE CURSED HELL FROM WHENCE YOU CAME! Celestia screamed, her face contorted by raw fury.

Time slowed down to a crawl. Why wasn't she stopping? Why did Sombra have to die? A memory flashed through her brain, she'd seen this scene unfold before. A glimmering weapon, a single victim about to be executed by the leader of the group as the rest watched and cheered them on. But this time the victim Sombra, and in his place Twilight stood instead. This time was different because Twilight knew she had the power to stop this from happening.

The spear had finished rearing back, it was about to begin its deadly plunge. Sombra was looking at her, smiling, speaking ever so slowly those three precious words; a silent "I love you." It was that was needed to push Twilight over the edge of shock and indecision, into action. She gathered her magic to her, with all the power of her love, her desperation, her despair. Eyes turned green with dark power, she focused everything she had into that one single thought. Make Celestia STOP!

Faintly in the background she heard her friends call out in alarm and grab her, trying to turn her restrain her, turn her away, but it was far too late for that, Twilight could hold the energy back no more, and so launched it at full speed toward her beloved mentor. There was so much power concentrated into that small orb that it had become an unstable semi-solid. As such when she launched it from her horn there was a sonic boom powerful enough to rip her friends away and throw them in every direction. In the same instant the spear was a mere hoof-length from driving through Sombra's skull when her attack broadsided Celestia with the force of a thousand dragons.

Time stopped moving in slow motion, and Celestia was ripped off her hooves, rocketing into town with enough speed that the vacuum left behind her passing caused a deep furrow to be plowed through the earth. Losing momentum near the center of town, Celestia once again touched ground, and was plowed 80 meters into the bedrock. Fully destabilized now, Twilights attack returned to raw energy all at once. The resulting explosion vaporized everything withing a 100 meter radius of the princess instantaneously. Luckily, only the princess and town hall were hit by the blast. The latter was far less resilient however. It looked like a giant bite had been taken out of the buidling, and with fully 2/3 of it's base gone it stood for but a few seconds longer before collapsing onto the prone ivory form lying in the crater beneath.

Twilight was absolutely still. Nopony could have survived that, she'd killed her beloved mentor, she'd killed Celestia! A scream of fury and despair rang through the air. Far above a blue alicorn had arrived in time to see a large building collapse on her sister, and she was flying as fast as her wings would allow down to the site of impact now. She had to move, Twilight couldn't face Luna, not like this. Around her, her friends that were still conscious groaned in pain, but she had no time for them. With a mighty cleave of magic Twilight destroyed all five spears of light and dashed back into her library, her sanctuary. Sombra hurriedly followed after her and locked the doors behind him.

Twilight was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack mixed with meltdown, telling herself over and over again "I killed her I killed her I killed her I killed her I killed her" between breaths in her hyperventilation. "Twilight! Calm down and listen to what I have to say. Believe me when I say Celestia has survived far worse than that. You did NOT kill her."

"But, but I..."

"No buts, I've tangled with Celestia in the past, and I was doing my best to kill her outright. Do you really think you could do more damage with that attack than what I did back then? No? Good. Now Luna is already here, it won't be much longer until Cadence and then half the royal army arrive as well. What do you want to do?"

Twilight stared at him incredulously. What did she want to do!? She'd just assaulted princess Celestia, harmed her best friends, destroyed government property, and assisted in the escape of an enemy to Equestria! How could he in his right mind be asking her what she wanted to do!?

"You still have a chance you know, to go back to them. You've done so much for them, they would forgive you in time. You don't have to throw your lot in with me."

She couldn't believe it, he was offering her a way out, a choice when there shouldn't have been any. But it meant choosing between him, and everything and everyone of her old life. That was a lot to lose.

Outside, Cadence landed among the element bearers. Three lay unconscious, but alive. Two were groaning in pain and trying to rise. Rainbow Dash lay whimpering trying to gently get off of her left wing, which was pinned beneath her at an impossible angle. To the right of her, Applejack was trying to walk on three hooves, her right fore-hoof was held gingerly above the ground, most likely sprained or fractured.

"What happened here?"

"It was Twilight miss Cadence, we'd captured Sombra and Celestia was about to finish him off when Twilight claimed she loved him, and when Celestia didn't stop, her horn got all dark and nasty looking, and before I know it I'm on the ground watching Celestia get knocked into next Tuesday."

Cadence blanched at this. The idea of anybody loving Sombra was a hard one to swallow, but she could feel something in the air, something very real and very powerful. She also knew love had a bad habit of making the irrational perfectly reasonable. She had to get to Twilight, and fast.

"Please tell me, where did she go?"

"The only place a stressed Twilight would ever go, back to her library."

As Cadence dashed of to the oak tree, AJ added in a whisper. "Good luck Sugarcube, I don't wanna lose my friend, so bring her back to us safe and sound."

Back in the tree, Sombra noticed Twilight's mounting indecision, and with a bit of quick thinking, came up with another possible solution. "A third option Princess, would be to finish what you started."

"What do you mean?"

"You first set out to reform me, no? You still have that option, I can take you into a place called the Shadow Realm. There you shall face your greatest challenge ever, your own darkness, and you shall have to make the final choice on what your path through life is. Maybe you will succeed against it, maybe you won't. At least this way, you will still have the chance to get everything you want."

Turning to the middle of the room, Sombra slowly rent the very fabric of space right before her eyes. A gate of nothingness framed by pillars of black flame ripped open in the air, despite the atmosphere's screeching protest.

"This is the gate to the Shadow Realm, Twilight. Step through or not, the choice is up to you. Either way, I'm proud to have taught you, and immeasurably thankful to you for reminding me what it is to love." With that he was gone, stepping through the black portal without even a look back. A moment later Cadence came bursting through the front door of her library. Seeing the dark gateway, she had but one word, one questioning plee for her. "Twilight?"

Twilight looked away from her sister-in-law. No matter how hard it was, she had to take this chance, for Sombra, for her friends, and most of all for herself. "Tell everypony for me....I'm sorry." The black portal disappeared as quickly as it had opened as Twilight leaped through it, leaving Cadence standing in the Golden Oaks Library, completely alone.

1) Still Alive

"A thousand years the blink of an eye
one hundred decades, come and by
crystal home and crystal throne
love to protect with heaven's dome

The evil king in darkness looms
should Twilight fall the world he dooms
yet love and armor shining bright
with Heart the ponies regain their light

Dark master destroyed, his tyranny dead
and the light of joy, dancing overhead
through Harmony and dragon take
slaves no more, a home remake

Yet shadows lurk beneath the walls
he's living still where no light falls
beware the rising of his tomb
should Twilight fall, the world he'll doom"

In the cloak of shadows, King Sombra slowly regained his strength, bit by tiny bit. He had survived by spreading his essence to the shadows of his empire, yet now they were his prison until his strength could reform his magnificent physical body. Disgusting crystal fools, they will pay for what they have done to me. He would not be so foolish as to openly challenge the defenses of his empire again; no, this time he would have a plan born of cunning intellect. Hidden away in his element, carefully King Sombra watched, and learned. Though it had been the blasted pink princess and fumbling dragon that had brought the crystal heart for his slaves to wield against him, he soon discovered that it had been a lavender unicorn who had bested his traps and caused the heart to be discovered and ultimately freed.

To take back the kingdom would be as easy as enslaving the children to the gem mines once he regained full strength. All across the Crystal Empire the laughter of the crystal scum could be heard, rejoicing in their belief that their nightmare was over, dead and gone. Nopony, not even the current royalty would be ready for his attack the shadows lurking in the corners, and hiding from the sun at their very feet. Yes, revenge would be sweet and swift as the slitting of their throats. Yet the problem of the lavender mare persisted.

How could a simple unicorn slave from outside his kingdom overcome traps of the mightiest monarch the world had ever seen? Even more importantly, when he were to strike back and regain his throne, would she be able to defeat him again? NONSENSE! I am the Darkness that lives within the souls of my slaves! I have mastered Fear, Hatred, and the Infinite Shadow! No worthless runt could hope to stand against me, not even the princesses of the Sun and Moon could defeat me without their precious elements! But it was because of her that he was reduced to being the monster under the bed, a powerless evil barely felt yet never seen.

As his power returned, King Sombra flexed his power and set a trap for an unsuspecting stallion. From underneath the train platform, he focused his consciousness, and from below grabbed onto the shadow off a crystal pony about to tour Equestria. The poor stallion Plain Strider froze in his tracks, panting as if he had ran all the way from the Crystal Palace to the train, foaming at the corners mouth. Throat locked in a silent scream he felt his heart freeze over, helpless as his greatest nightmare cackled in triumphant echoes inside his skull. Though the stallion tried to fight it, Plain Strider watched as his eyes became windows as the darkness slowly closed them against his will.

ALL ABOOOoooaaaAAARD!

Plain Strider's eyes snapped back open and looked at his surroundings with confusing, as one who wakes from a dream. In fact he was having trouble remembering when and how he had gotten to the train station that morning. I'd better remember to have coffee before a long trip next time, I certainly don't want to fall asleep during the trip and get myself lost, Plain Strider chuckled to himself. At least his sleepiness hadn't caused him to forget his destination, in fact it was the strongest thought on his mind. He couldn't wait to reach Canterlot and Tour the castle of the two Princesses. Happily humming to himself, the stallion boarded the train, and no pony, not even Plain Strider himself, noticed that though he was an earth pony, his shadow wore a curved horn.

8) A way of Thinking: Part II

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
~Henry David Thoreau

"This is your last chance to change your mind Twilight. There will be no going back, no stopping once we begun. We either see this through until the end, or it doesn't happen at all. Are you ready?"

Twilight nodded once, firmly. She wasn't about to back down now.

"Then come."

She followed Sombra into her basement, wincing slightly at shattered doorframe and scorch marks on the floor. Rounding the curve her basement came into full view, and she stopped in her tracks to stand there gaping. Sombra's "renovations" from last night were unbelievably expansive. The wooden stairs of her basement simply dropped off into a 100 meter cliff where the floor had used to be. Earth and rock had been blasted away, and she could faintly see the outline of several lit caverns at seemingly random locations down the circular shaft.

"Notice Twilight, that there are no stairs down. Instead, at each entrance and the bottom of the original stairs, there is black crystal shard. Beneath each crystal is a magical barrier that spans across the entire shaft. These barriers prevent magic of any kind from passing through, such as teleportation. Were you aware that the small amount of magic in pegasi that allows them to walk on clouds and control weather, is the same magic that lets them fly with such small wings? Normal animals require much larger wings in proportion to their body to be able to fly, but the pegasi magic let's them get away with much much less."

"So you're saying that the barriers would block even that magic as well?"

"Of course! If you tried to fly, you'd plummet through the air and die."

"Then how are we supposed pass the barriers?"

"Each crystal is connected to a vein of black crystal in the wall of the shaft, and that vein is connected to all of the other crystals. When you are ready, you will be able to phase into the crystal and travel through the vein, coming out at any location that you choose."

Twilight pondered this for a moment, but then smiled slyly. "Why use the black crystal network? Would not a simple pass wall spell allow us to move through the rock without the aid of your crystals?"

Sombra roared in laughter at this. "Good, thinking outside of the box is a powerful asset. But you betray your own naivety Twilight. No matter what method you use for a spell to pass through rock, slipping your matter past the spaces of the rock takes a great deal of energy. To then have to focus and try to move around while still phased inside would be slow and tedious, not to mention dangerous as a slip in focus would mean your own tomb. Add on top of that once inside the rock, you would have no sense of direction; getting lost until your energy ran out would be all too easy."

"The network on the other hand is nearly instantaneous transport between two connected crystal loci. As they are made from black magic, users of the craft have a clear and easy road between each crystal loci that only they can use. Furthermore, the energy cost will always be the same, no matter the difference between the two crystals, as long as there is an unbroken connection between them. Now let us begin, as you do not yet have the ability to travel the network, you will have to find your own way down to the bottom level. There is food and water enough to last weeks at the bottom. Obviously until you have mastered traveling the network, you shall have to remain below."

"Weeks!" gasped Twilight, "but what about th..."

Sombra cut her off, "I have already placed a ward around the building, those who wish to enter shall find themselves suddenly forgetting why, or remembering that they had someplace else they needed to be rather urgently. None shall enter while we train below. Now enough talk, we must begin." Without another word Sombra walked to the crystal at the bottom of the stairs. As he went, his form became less and less distinct, his hair and fur blurring until he looked more like a clump of solid shadow than a pony; and upon reaching the crystal simply walked straight into it like one would a through a doorway, disappearing out of sight.

Twilight looked over the edge of the stairs to the floor far down below. Without the crystal network, her wings, nor any form of magic, that left only one force that could take her straight to the bottom. Gravity. If she leapt off the edge, she could levitate herself down from the last meter or so, she'd just need to make sure her timing was perfect to avoid a painful demise. Despite the situation, she couldn't seem to find much room in her mind for fear. It was far too much taken up with the excitement. New spells, new ways of doing things; a powerful magic that had been forbidden for centuries. Even though she was only breaking taboo as a way to connect with Sombra and to get him to trust her guidance, it still sent bolts of exhilaration through her veins. With a hop, skip, and a jump, she was falling through the air, hurtling towards the first stage of her forbidden lessons.

At the bottom, Sombra stood in front of the single cavern at this level. As the princess managed to save herself just inches from the ground he turned around and led the way to the target range. The cavern was a hundred meters long, and half as wide; staged at random locations throughout were stone pony figures, earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus alike.

"Before we begin, first tell me; what is the source of magic?"

Twilight's eyes brightened at this, a quiz! And such an easy one at that, she took a deep breath to begin reciting what she had learned about how magic comes from within (unlike curses or voodoo) when she suddenly hesitated. Perhaps it was a trick question? She pondered for a moment, and it dawned on her what Sombra was really asking for. "Magic is the combination of the elements that make up friendship; it is born of laughter, kindness, generosity, honesty, and loyalty." She proclaimed with a proud smile.

"Correct, but go deeper than that, what in essence are each of those traits?"

Twilight thought for a moment more, what did each have in common that could be placed as a broader category? With a twinkle in her eye, she had the answer. "They're all positive thoughts, positive emotions."

"Very good, I had expected no less from the element of magic herself." Twilight blushed at the flattery. "Now, black magic is the counterpart to magic itself. Its source comes from negative thoughts, and negative emotions. Fear and Hatred you already know, as these are two of the most common and most powerful examples. But black magic can even come from simple sources such as greed, envy, and contempt. As you use your positive energy to fuel the power of your ordinary spells, so must you harness your negative energy to work with black magic. Observe."

Sombra turned to the nearest target dummy, his eyes flicking green and wafting purple mist in the blink of an eye. His angry red horn crackled with black and purple lightning, and almost contemptuously a bolt of energy smote the target to dust. His horn now surrounded by a stormy aura of purple black energy, Sombra reared back on his hind legs with a roar. When his hooves crashed back down on the floor the solid granite cracked, and bolt after bolt launched in rapid fire up to the ceiling of the cavern to come raining down on the remaining targets. Twilight had to shield her eyes and ears from the barrage of explosions behind her wings. When it was over, there wasn't a fragment left of the target dummies, their places having been taken by scorched craters.

"Just as with normal magic, black magic requires both power, and control. This will be your first lesson, when you can destroy all 25 targets simultaneously without harming anything else within a meter of their location, you will be ready to move on to the next level." With that proclamation, Sombra heaved upwards with his horn, and with it the cavern's floor heaved and groaned, protesting with shrieks of stone as all 25 targets rose from their granite beds. The cavern looked brand new, just as it had when she had first walked in, and Twilight gulped in apprehension. She wasn't sure if she was capable of such a feat even if she used her normal spells, Sombra's power and mental focus were far beyond what she'd expected if this was only just the first of many lessons!

*several hours later*

A feeble black bolt flew through the air to hit a target dummy straight between its stony eyes, leaving the statue unharmed, but slightly smudged now. "Again" Commanded Sombra. Twilight suppressed a groan of frustration. She could barely stand from her exhaustion; after hours of trying she hadn't even been able to destroy a single target, and forcing the negative feelings needed to fuel the black magic had been increasingly draining, both physically and mentally. She wanted nothing more than to take a break, to rest, but when she looked at Sombra, saw his eyes daring her to quit, she felt a rush of determination to prove his expectation of her failure wrong.

Seeing Twilight cease her heavy breathing and straightening up to take another shot at the statue, Sombra smiled in approval. She had impressive endurance and dedication, it was time to reveal a little known secret. "Are you aware why it is that you cannot destroy statue Twilight?" Irked by the slight taunt in his Tone, Twilight gave him a not so subtle glare and waited for him to continue. "It is because you are using the wrong source for the power of your spell."

Twilight could only stare at Sombra incredulously. At the very beginning he had explained that black magic is based on negative thoughts and emotions, and now after she'd spent hours laboring he was telling her the exact opposite!?

Sombra chuckled at the frustration shining from the mare's eyes. "Do not misunderstand me. While negativity feeds black magic, your struggle is that you are forcing the negative emotions. To truly release your full potential, you must feed your emotions naturally, to feel them instead of force them." Twilight's ears pricked forward, her head tilting slightly to the side as she listened intently and absorbed his every word. "Fear and Hate are the most powerful sources of black magic, and you already know the most powerful source for those emotions in all of equestria, in fact you probably feel it each and every day with all of your friends and family. Twilight's ears laid back against her skull as memories, Sombra's memories, flashed before her eyes. She knew the answer before he even said it.

Love

"That's right Twilight, love isn't some pure force reserved for the good and righteous. It is a connection, the most powerful one known; simultaneously capable of being the force behind great good, and great evil. Now, try again."

She was loathe to admit it, but Sombra's point made sense. Know that she thought about it, back when her brother and Cadence had banished the changeling army, it had been Shining's shield spell that did all the work, it was just empowered by the strength of their love, their connection. And now, she could all too easily picture love turning back around to fuel the most mighty wrath. She slowly nodded her understanding. Turning back to the target, she concentrated; not on anger, but on her most beloved connections. Her friends, her family, and Princess Celestia. She imagined them all gone, ripped away from her like Sombra's family had been, and her heart recoiled in protest. The pain was so much to hold, she wanted to curl up and ride away the tide. But that was not an option, failing was not an option. She stood strong and resolute, the flow of pain becoming the waves of energy she needed to turn the tide. She opened her eyes, now green and flowing freely with purple mist, the statue a symbol for all of her imagined loss and pain, and she hated it fiercely.

Sombra took a cautious step back. As expected, now that she knew how to properly fuel her emotions, Twilight's considerable power was being reflected tenfold; but it was very unstable. The very air within the cavern hummed and whistled with the energy she was gathering to her horn, escalating in decibel until it shrieked like the edge of a tornado. Tears stained the corners of her eyes, and as she cried out in pain and rage she released all of her pent up energy at the target. With all the force of a concentrated thunderstorm, the agitated aura of crackling black energy exploded directly on her horn instead of launching forward at the intended target. The floor around her was instantly vaporized for 10 meters in every direction, and the purple alicorn's body was rocketed out of the cavern to to come crashing down against the far wall.

Meanwhile at the Crystal Empire

The crystal hanging in the center of the room was now obsidian in color, engulfed in a skin of green and purple flame. Each princess stood within one point of the Triquetra, inside of their own oval, but standing on the outside of the glowing circle. Each oval pulsed with the color of the corresponding princess, a deep blue for Luna, a golden yellow for Celestia, and a warm pink for Cadence. Arcs of colored lightning splashed from the Triquetra against the surface of the crystal as the princesses channeled their power. Suddenly, a shadow shot down from the crystal's bottom, striking the floor and sprouting small shafts of black crystal. Sparks of lightning struck them to shards again and again, but they were beginning to form faster than they could be destroyed. Pressing forward the crystals forced against an invisible wall formed by the containing boundary of the intersecting ovals. Testing each side of the perimeter, the crystal formation found its weak spot, and slammed through.

The ring of the Triquetra began to pulse like a heartbeat with a pure white light. The blue oval fluttered, dimmed, and ultimately died out as Luna stared in petrified horror at the razor sharp formation leapt forward. The white ring flashed again and again, faster and faster, and as the black spire hit its edge on the way to Luna, gave one blinding blast that filled the entire room. Each princess was blasted against the wall with the force of the detonation, and for many moments after the room remained in utter darkness.

Then, a pulse of dim light from the ring. Three shadowy forms lying limp against the walls. A second pulse, stronger and brighter this time. A princess standing on shaky legs. A third, now forming the steady pattern of a heartbeat, lighting the room with each pulse before dimming again. Princess Celestia slowly approached the still form of her beloved sister, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Cadence was stirring as well. As Celestia drew closer, she saw that her sister was hiding her face under a fore-leg, her azure chest heaving quietly in stuttered breaths. Her tears slowly dripping to the floor as she did her best to contain her sobs.

"Lulu?"

At the sound of Celestia's voice, Luna's sobs became only more ragged and audible as she tried to speak through them. "Oh Tia, i-it was her, I, I saw her. ME.

Celestia lay down next to her sister to comfort her with a warm and loving wing. "What is it Lulu? What did you see?"

*sniff* "Nightmare Moon, when the crystal broke through I saw Nightmare moon, standing there before me. It was horrible, she looked at me with such evil in those eyes, and then she charged me down, I couldn't stop her I couldn't do anything. I was so helpless." She buried her head even farther, curling up alone. She didn't deserve Celestia there, didn't deserve to take comfort in her loving embrace. "I finally know what it was like for everpony else to see me, to fear me. I'm a monster. What's to stop me from becoming her again? What if..?, What if I..?"

"What if my sister just made a bad decision that she's learned from and grown past? What if she's a gentle and loving soul just looking to be loved and appreciated? And what if her sister has learned from her own blindness? What if that sister will make sure she never has to suffer through that pain and torment ever again?"

Luna uncovered her face and looked up at Celestia, no longer sobbing but eyes still full of water. "You are not defined by Nightmare Moon Lulu, you are and always will be my gentle little sister. I will always be here for you, so you'll never have to face your pain alone again, because I love you.

"......., Thanks Tia." She said, drying her eyes off.

Celestia gently guided her sister to cuddle up close to her. "Rest now Lulu, sleep and let your dreams be happy." Celestia then turned her eyes toward the Triquetra. The blast had completely and utterly destroyed everything contained with in, leaving only a black smudge on the floor as the only remaining trace. The power of fear and hatred they had charged the crystal with must have sensed the turmoil still deep within her sister's heart and taken advantage of it to try and break free. If it had not been for the quarantine failsafe, no she didn't want to think about it. "Rest now, for tomorrow we shall try again."