Darkness Remains

Chapters

Prologue
Prologue - Failure
Shining Armors Terrors
The revelation of Sombra
Rule breaking
The journey home
The duel
Attempt 1: Bonding over dragons and magic

Prologue

The dreamscape. A realm without limits and with unthinkable wonders. It is from here that all the dreams of the worlds inhabitants origin. The world would seem almost alive, moving and shaping n different ways at its seemingly own accord. And the ruler of this realm, its goddess, was none else than the fair and just lady of the night, Princess Luna.

Her beauty was near unrivaled, her powers the same. She was the princess of the night and dreams. But despite being this worlds ruler, she could often find herself in a bit of a headache trying to make sense of the dreamscape. The way it flows and the millions of worlds in it, so grand and yet so small. The very fact that it seemed to spit in the face of reason and logic as it defiled all the laws of time, space and matter.

Conscious or awake, Luna watched over her realm of sleep, and marveled at the beauty of it, a beauty which she had had no appreciation for as young. This was her own kingdom. No big sister to snatch all the attention, no politicians to bore her with their complaints, just her and her sleeping subjects. She had missed this in all her years of loneliness. Her joy was unrivaled on this day as her connection was once again complete.

After her return the dreamscape had been reluctant to accept her again, rejecting the creature formerly known as Nightmare Moon. But those day were over. Finally, she was completely accepted in the realm again and she could work her ways with her fragmented self to every corner of the world. The dreamscape was solely her own again.

“Ah, I live for these moments” Luna sighed.

“Moments to just relax, and enjoy the wonders of my dear subjects imaginations” She said as she gazed through the veil to the dreams of her many dreamers. She came across the world of Discord's dreams. There was an astounding peace and harmony to it all. Ponies laughing and playing, tweeting birds, the citizens of Ponyville going through their everyday lives with big smiles on their faces all while Discord is running around in a state of panic, snapping his talons and paws in attempts of desperation to cause some chaos. All for naught.

“Aw, is poor Discord having a nightmare” Luna asked no one in particular in the most whiny and condescending voice she could muster. Discord looked up and saw Luna looking down on him from the veil and went down on his knees, begging for her to end this nightmare.

“Maybe I should help him” she said and considered her options. “Nah” she said and closed the veil, leaving discord to his hell as he made some very rude gestures towards her. “I wonder what Twilight is dreaming about. A new scientific or magical discovery most likely. And Fluttershy... Oh goodness, look at me, I'm talking to myself. Silly Luna”

The faintest of breezes passed by and with it, the faintest hint of a whisper. “...are you?”

Luna's ears peaked and she turned her head, trying to catch that sound again. “What was that” she asked herself. Then she felt something. A disturbance in the perfect flow of nonsensical imagination. Something or somepony was tampering with her subjects dreams.

She unfurled her wings and with a powerful flap, she was in the air at remarkable speeds. “How is this possible? Only I can make sense and work the dreamscape”

She reached the anomaly and found it at great disarray. She knew who's veil this was. Shining Armor was being tormented by night terrors. But this was no ordinary nightmare. The veil was corrupted, dark and twisted as the dreamscape itself tried to make right of this abomination.

She reached out with her magic, trying to rectify this atrocity, but as her magic connected to the veil, a wall of black crystals materialized and threatened to impale her.

With a flap of her powerful wings she avoided the spikes with barely an inch to spare. She stared at the crystalline formations, gasping in shock. Those were all too familiar to her. The dim surface, the dark colors, the very creation itself seething with darkness and malice.

“How can this be?” She asked in disbelief. “You can't be... You are dead. You are dead, do you hear me”

The crystals retreated back into nothingness.

“YOU ARE DEAD!” She shouted into twisting veil. “YOU-!” she froze in mid-sentence. She felt something. Small gushes of hot air at the back of her neck. She felt a chill down her spine and she could feel the looming presence behind her.

She felt the urge to turn around, wanted to turn around! But she couldn't. There was this lone logically thinking part of her mind which convinced her that standing still was the best option. But it was not simply reasoning that held her in place. Fear had taken hold of her and it held her tightly in its grasp. “Well, if it isn't our young Luna, fairest of the fair” A voice spoke, poison dripping from every syllable.

She was about to respond until she felt something being pressed against her throat. She looked down, trying to see what it was, but she couldn't see anything. It was perplexing to say the least. She couldn't see it, nor could she make physical contact with it as she searched for it with her hoof. But from the feel of it she could guess what it most likely was. It was hard, sharp and felt cold as ice. She felt the presence stirring behind her and she shivered as it pressed its cold nonexistent body closer to her and as it invaded her mane. “Mm, you smell sweet” it chuckled.

As calmly as she could she asked “Who are you?”

A few moments of eerie silence passed before she was granted an answer. A very vague one at that. “What's that in the mirror or the corner of your eye? What's that hoofstep following, never passing by. Perhaps it's just waiting, perhaps when we are all but dead. Out it'll come a slithering, from underneath your bed” the presence answered with gleeful pride.

“What are you trying to say?” she asked.

“Thats me”

“And what are you” she asked.

“I am the who when you call who is there?. I am your ever loving companion, always present”

Starting to get slowly impatient she asked another question. “What is it that you want?”

She felt the object leaving her throat only to be replaced by a choking sensation. She gasped for air as the presence whispered into her ear.

“I want you to stay out of my way. Not long, just for a few minutes, to let me finish what I came to do” it whispered. “And if you try to interfere, I will hunt you down like the Serpent hunts the Rat” It hissed and she was tossed aside.

She quickly turned her head to gain a look at her assailant. The only thing she saw was a quick moment where smoke-like, oily shadows entered the veil and she was left alone. Could it be? He couldn't. She thought.

“What in the blazes is going on” She asked herself.

Prologue - Failure

The sound of the most celebratory of dance steps confused the pony who had recently stepped down from his bedroom, down the chocolate brown staircase to the ballroom. Ponies were dancing, socializing by the punch and spreading gossip all while Shining Armors confusion grew. In the corner of the ballroom he spotted his wife, waving him over. He was making his way towards her, hoping she could fill him in on the blanks. He stopped as he heard a faint laughter from above. He looked up to where the chandelier had a young pony, who's brown body was swinging in a pendular motion. What seized his glimpse was not the dancing ponies below nor the merrily laughing child above, but the mere horrifying fact that the chandelier's chain was breaking.

The pony's white legs went into leaping formation. Someone like him had mastered since many years past the art of swift decisiveness. He jumped all the way to the chandelier, grabbed the boy and the chandelier, trying to stop the over-sized lamp from crushing them both. The immense panic that abruptly arrived and abruptly ended turned into confusion and the entire party of dancers, servants and soldiers all looked at the two ponies who had both crashed into the table. "Are you safe lad?" The pony asked and when he received no response the eyes peered into the abyss of his fading sanity and teary-eyed he looked at what now was soon to be a corpse. His gaze trailed down the young colt's neck and saw a big piece of glass protruding from his throat as the kid choked on his own blood and the light fading from his eyes.

The pony cried but he did not notice the demonic gazes that crept through ballroom and suddenly he heard the sound of weapons being drawn. Rather than asking why the guards drew weapons he instead, for unknown reasons, said: "I did not do it. I tried my best!"

"Failure." The guards said.

"All you were – all you will ever be."

Shining armour ran as if death itself was behind him. He ultimately fell down on his hooves who ached due to the strain, his lungs craving more air as his panic rose. He panted a bit and looked around, no one was to be seen. Shining Armor walked with his head down and then he reflected quickly onto what he should do. The other ponies, would they chase him? Would they try to strike him down for what he, no, what they believed he did. He observed the environment.

He had a memory of being next to a road but it must have been an illusion, a faint part of his mind because the road had evaporated into the middle of a forest. That was when a drop of sweat turned down on his forehead and he heard a weak sound. Something resembling the strides of a hunter.

Shining Armor heard how the sound increased and synced with his heartbeats. The eyes turned from moss-covered stone but a fog appeared and grew denser.

Everything felt gloomy, dark, harsh and it was as if the world had suddenly grown teeth. Shining Armor readied himself for battle.

His vision fluctuated in directions and then he jumped up to see a beast of black sludge that looked like someone familiar yet unknown.

He struck the beast with his hindlegs and it backed a bit, stunned by the kick.

"Fiend of darkness!" Shining Armor shouted. "Leave me be!" He kicked it on the chin and it fell.

The beast did indeed back off but suddenly he got an arrow on his back. "There the murderer is!" Shining Armor heard as he fell on the ground, incapable of rising up due to the arrow inside his hip. "Burn him here!" One said.

A mass of ponies of all colours gathered with a demand for vengeance. This is incomprehensible. Shining Armor thought as he was being dragged away to the town. What on earth has happened with this place? Something, although he did not know what responded. This time though, the voice did only resonate in his mind.

All you were – all you will ever be.

When they arrived in the town Shining Armor had several bruises on his chest due to the dragging he had just been through.

There were a bunch of hanging nooses before the town's entrance. Shining Armor looked upon them and shuddered when he saw that the nooses were all occupied and the ponies who had been hanged had gotten a sign that had engraved the name of the town.

"Pleasantry." Shining Armor said as he shook his head in despair-filled disbelief. The houses had melancholy brown rooftops and walls void of any colour or happiness, they also, occasionally, had blood smeared on them.

Villagers came outside, the ponies there were all grey, thin, or wielded other obvious signs of their misery. Two boys, one with orange skin and one with green looked rather sadly at the captain who's chin was still being scarred by the ground. "Papa, what has he done?" Asked the orange one to a father not visible for Shining Armor.

"Papa, why is he tied to a cart instead of being on the cart?" Asked the green one. A grand, grandiloquent man wearing a suit and a tie sat down next to them and explained.

"He had murdered a child. He deserves his fate."

"But he looks so innocent."

"But he is a failure." Once it was noted by the father that Shining Armor listened to them, he made himself tall and shouted: "How can you live knowing your crimes?! Why do we have to enact justice upon you?!". Before leading his children away from the scene.

Shining Armor looked down for the remainder of the painful dragging, ignoring the jeering of the crowd that smiled brighter and brighter the nearer he came to the guillotine.

Fortunately enough for Shining Armor there was first to be a trial. While he had the knowledge to understand that the chances of him being given anything even resembling mercy would be low, he still desired to take the chance while he could.

It did not help that the judge despised his very existence and what hurt even more was that his wife sat on a make-up throne behind the judge, growling like a beast anytime he looked in her direction. Once Shining Armor had been placed next to a guard, whom oddly enough looked like someone formerly of his service, the trial could begin. They presented no evidence and no one, neither Shining Armor's "defendant" nor his accuser who was a purple mare, or even his own wife, seemed to even debate whether or not Shining Armor had killed the boy. The very first line began with the defendant saying:

"It is clear and indisputable that Shining Armor had killed the boy Winderfeldt at the ball in the castle, which makes it rather clear that a sick individual is what I am appointed to attempt to give a rather lenient verdict. I will say that this pony's history is that of deceit, treachery and 'foul play', which is why he was in such a favourable position with princess Celestia. Which makes it hard to defend this monstrous, lowly filth at all." The crowd did first cheer on the "defendant" but merely after around 2 seconds it turned to manifestations of hatred towards Shining Armor.

Shining Armor felt an inner need, due to his affiliations with the guard and his background, to speak out against the injustice he was facing, but the threat of cutting of his tongue that his wife had threatened with when he tried to speak out of his turn had confirmed that it was better to wait for the moment he was allowed to speak.

The accuser took her opportunity to smear Shining Armor's name. She began by coughing a bit and preparing her sophisticated yet arrogant voice.

"I think we all appreciate the adage: Both love and hate runs in the family. As we have seen with Twilight Sparkle, being a social climber is the grand tactic of this bloodline." Shining Armor lowered his eyebrows in resent. "In fact, witnesses have reported Shining Armor trying to reason himself out of guilt for this crime by such a statement of arrogance as: 'I did not do it.'" The crowd burst into immense laughter.

"I could go on succeeding effortlessly to convince you of Shining Armours deceitful psychosis but the very guard next to him could say enough".

"Indeed." Shining Armor widened his eyes in surprise. He had known this guard somewhere from before.

"He bribed all from lieutenants to generals with the fortune he had been given at childhood. He successfully and with little mercy stabbed the ponies, who had instructed him in the arts of war, in the back while he could"

Shining Armor couldn’t take it. "I have done none of the sort! And what do you mean "fortune"? I never had a fortune growing up!"

The ones present ignored his statement as if it was the ravings of a mad-pony to be ignored. "He has stolen the glory from the people who tried to help him away from his psychological dilemma. His faulty world view is nothing but sadistic!" The crowd gasped.

"Now," the judge said. "I'll let the suspect attempt to defend himself." A massive booing heard and was repeated and the crowd would not be silent until.

Shining Armor leapt at the chance to talk freely and said: "Citizens – I give out this speech in the hopes that you'll understand me before I die, for I believe that no matter how indisputable my arguments might be; they'll demeaned, twisted or ignored. All that these ponies have openly declared against me are lies and nothing but." The crowd started booing.

"And so I wish to tell this crowd as well as this 'court' that I do not have any interests in refuting your lies as my refuations can be easily dismissed, but I will say that I stand innocent and I hope that this crowd, at least, understands that this is an abominable misuse of juridical practise."

The crowd booed and Shining Armor only glimpsed arrogantly at them in return, but his mood fell once more when he saw the scowl he received from Princess Cadence. He noted that the two boys looked at him rather sadly. The adults on the other hand did not. "Behead the cretin!" The judge shouted as the guard gripped the white captain. "That's enough of you." He said and then dragged Shining Armor towards the guillotine.

The guillotine was massive. It was impressive and frightening – no doubt that it was ominous as well. Shining Armor upon the very first glance of it immediately looked at the contraption with respect. Something that powerful that retained the pleas of thousands upon thousands of ponies deemed guilty. Shining Armor's head was placed in the opening. He looked at the people who smiled sadistically and then said: "I did everything I could." He closed his eyes hoping that at least there would be no pain. The blade fell, the blade neared his neck and for a fraction of a second a sound was heard and something shattered.

There was a gasp amongst the public. The two boys who had looked at Shining Armor suddenly burst the guillotine's prison, their horns ablaze, and Shining Armor immediately lifted his head. The guards tried to kill him but since they had distanced themselves they had to at first jump towards him and Shining Armor kicked them both to the said. The crowd booed and jeered, simultaneously yelling the noun "Failure"! but for some reason none of them attempted to help cease the escape attempt. Shining Armor and the two boys together jumped on the crowd, used their heads as leaping-aids and then they ran through the gate. The guards were after them but they successfully hid in the nearby woods.

"I owe you eternally boys." He said.

"You both deserve medallions." A little pause as the two boys panted in exhaustion. "What are your names?"

"Flaunder." The green one said.

"Skiptop." The orange one added.

"Why did you rescue me?"

The green one began: "You're innocent. 'Course we had to rescue ya!"

He said smilingly. "I knew Wilderfeldt." The orange one said. "He loved swinging way to much, its no other pony's fault but his own." The tone the orange one said the words with was sombre and shy.

"It's okay though!" The orange suddenly burst out in a mixture of happiness and gloom.

"We'll go back to papa and he'll understand!" Shining Armor looked on them with a serious look. Now it was his turn to be sombre.

"About going back...it is…"

"Flaunder! Skiptop!" Suddenly someone yelled.

"I miss you so much. Please come to me!"

"See?!" Skiptop shouted gladly while suddenly skipping as if his exhaustion had never existed.

"I told you! I told you!" Skiptop suddenly ran towards a more open area.

"We're here papa! Here next to the trees!"

"I am so glad to hear that." The sound became a little bit muffled, something was strange.

"I would like you both to come here now. Please do hurry."

Flaunder looked at Shining Armor and nodded his head.

"He sounds like that when has something in his mouth." Flaunder said.

Skiptop ran desperately towards his father and suddenly Shining Armor yelled:

"No! Skiptop don't!" In the distance the echo of someone being hit by a bludgeon and the crash against a tree was heard. Shining Armor ran. The father wielded a mace in his mouth, a mace that he had previously used to break rocks.

"Papa." Skiptop said sobbing and whimpering. He lied with his back leaning against a big tree.

"Papa – please."

"There is no other option." The father raised the mace again.

"All options are gone."

"No!" Shining Armor yelled as he leapt before Skiptop was about to be hit by the mace. Shining Armour now wounded on this side leapt again and pounced in anger on the father. The father was pinned to the ground. "You have turned my children to monsters!" He yelled crying with eyes almost bursting out of his eye-sockets.

"Fool!" Shining Armor yelled.

"How can you even try to murder your children?!"

"I would give them mercy!" The father shouted. "I would kill them so that they don't get hunted and impaled! So that they don't live their final moments in false hope!"

Shining Armor hit him on the face.

"Do you even know what family is?!"

"Family spares inevitable pain!" He screamed then he started to sob so that his lungs ached.

"Family takes the best opportunities!" Shining Armor looked at him in amazement, no, he did not look at him, he looked through him, trying to comprehend how a father could say such atrocities to his own offspring.

"Don't you understand?! We're all failures!"

Shining Armor hit him this time unconscious, while the word "failure" was ringing in his head. He had grown sick of that noun and instead went to the children and tried to look them in the eye and explain that life would never be the same.

After finding a good hiding spot they moved towards the only place where Shining Armor was certain they could be safe: Ponyville. After the incident at "Pleasantry" he had decided that it would not be a good idea to trust any other place. Upon further reflection, while trying to discover the quickest way to Ponyville he noticed that the area he was in did not feel familiar. He had not thought of it back then but it was so. He truly had no understanding where he was and why he had never heard of "Pleasantry" before.

He also asked himself which castle he had been present in. Besides Wilderfeldt who he was certain he had known from somewhere else, who were the people that danced? Why did they dance while he slept. He was intensely confused.

No matter, he thought. I should make sure we get to Ponyville so that they can be adopted by good parents. He told the children that it was time for a talk.

"I know a place called Ponyville, have you ever heard of it?" They both shook their heads.

"Where Twilight Sparkle lived?"

"Who's Twilight Sparkle." Flaunder asked. Skiptop remained paralysed while trying to think if he had ever heard that name before.

"I miss my father." Skiptop suddenly said. After some thought Shining Armor replied:

"Well, he definitely does not miss you." After the sentence Skiptop began crying and Shining Armor realised what a grave mistake that that was.

"Let's try to get ourselves ready for the journey. It will be long and tedious. Oh and Skiptop." Skiptop opened his eyes a bit.

"You're a great kid." Skiptop smiled while teary-eyed and then lied on the ground and curled himself to sleep away the sorrows.

The first hours of the promenade matched exactly Shining Armor's description. They were long and minutes felt like tens of minutes. Since Shining Armor was the only one with a military background it became no surprise that they were exhausted and at some points muttered curses for themselves.

Eventually Shining Armor and Flaunder got into a conversation while Skiptop slept. It was during the evening and Shining Armor was almost asleep but soon to become alert.

"A personal question if it is acceptable." Flaunder looked at him oddly.

"Can we speak serious?"

"Sure."

"Why are you not sad that father tried to kill your brother?" He thought for a long bit and then he said: "I am. I just don't cry."

"Why not?"

"Ever read the book Simonthra by Dusk Delcan?"

"No."

"Well, the plot's sort of like that Simonthra has a bud who uses cries like cheapshots. You know – like …"

"Manipulation?"

"That word."

"Dusk Delcan seems to be a pessimist." The odd look came again.

"Whiner." A little pause.

"To mask pain only let's it grow. It's better to be open about feelings. It can help so much revealing to people who you are." Flaunder leaned his head to the side.

"Do you understand?"

"A bit – I guess."

"It will all be fine in the morning. We'll continue our journey."

"Don't call it that it's like more like a chore. Homework!"

"Let's call it homework then." Flaunder let out a groan.

"Just being sarcastic."

"Speak understandish!"

"Just messin'." He smiled. Eventually Flaunder fell asleep and Shining Armor would too if it wasn't for that he heard the howling of beasts in the distance.

Shining Armor looked at them both sleeping gladly. With nearby sticks he tried to create a fire but to no avail. The howlings became louder and they turned slowly to growls. How many are they? He thought. How many?!

He looked around like panicked prey. Little did he know that his body language emitted weakness. Finally he took the very sticks he had tried to lit fires with and instead he sharpened them and stuck them into the ground. They worked as a bladed barricade and a trap. He then gathered his thoughts and looked around. His ears listened. The creatures had gone silent.

They're waiting somewhere in the dark. He thought while trying to compose a plan. He looked at the children again. They're waiting somewhere… he stepped on a twig and the twig snapped and gave out a sound that was there opus for now the clamps of the beasts hiding somewhere escalated into a primal stampede.

Two of the beasts tried to leap on him but he jumped and kicked both, simultaneously, on the ground. Skiptop suddenly opened his eyes and then he looked at the two unconscious, wooden and fanged beasts who turned out to be timberwolves of the size of Shining Armor. Skiptop turned the eyes towards Shining Armor, whom had been led away from them by the battle, and he screamed his lungs out.

Shining Armor kicked another timberwolf to the ground but then he heard the scream and quickly shifted his gaze. The other timberwolf jumped on the captain with teeth bared but Shining Armor blocked the bite with his right front leg. He felt a surge of pain searing him and the wolf saw a great opportunity to strike again. It did but Shining Armor turned around and rammed the wolf with his hind legs. Shining Armor was just about to run to Flaunder and Skiptop since both had awaken but two additional wolves jumped forth.

Flaunder looked at the scene and Skiptop did as well but then they both heard a growl and the shattering of a twig. Behind them were a wolf that growled ferociously as the mouth was drooling. "Jump!" Screamed Flaunder as well as Skiptop whom both sidestepped the leaping wolf. The wolf accidentally rammed his own head into the body of a massive tree and fell unconscious and then he said: "We have to run!" Flaunder said commandingly. "We have to run away and hide until it's safe."

"But Armor?" Skiptop exlaimed.

"He'll be safe. Run!"

Both Flaunder and Skiptop ran like madmen and wolves cut chase. They jumped up to a tree eventually where the wolves tried to jump up but failed. "We're safe." Flaunder said. It was a tree that was in no doubt short as the branch they were on were highest one. "Look Skiptop." They both saw suddenly a wolf more bulky and sturdy than the remainder. It had one eye but that one eye seemed to be of a demon.

Must fight on. Shining Armor thought, he lied on the ground trying desperately to rest but his mind wanted to force him to continue no matter how painful every single step was. Shining Armor had fended them all off but he did not know where Flaunder or Skiptop were. He raised himself from the ground and at the very next step he fell back on it again. His body blodied, bruised and scarred.

They must be safe. They must be safe! Shining Armor fell asleep as his body had succeeded for once ,but only once, over his will as exhaustion claimed him.

When he woke up sunlight gazed upon him and he heard a faint voice, the voice of someone he had once known. "Skiptop?" He said to himself. "Skiptop, you're safe!" He exclaimed gladly and ironically, much like Skiptop he became alleviated of all the pain he had gone through just at the sheer voice of someone he cared for, someone he owed his life to.

He neared the voice as it grew louder and louder. He suddenly ran like had once done when he was small and about to be given his favourite dinner. He got the rush of a young child, the rush of unimaginable joy.

"I'm coming Skiptop but where is …?!"

A sudden silence. He looked at a short tree that had only one branch that was not far above the ground but beneath the branch there was blood spread over the ground and on the foundation of the tree. Shining Armor looked upon this scene and then he said: "Skiptop?" The silence grew wider.

"Flaunder?" The silence remained the same. "Skiptop! Flaunder!" Only an echo. "Where are you?!" There was no response, there came no response and there would not ever be any response. Shining Armor thought of the sentence the father had said: "Family spares inevitable pain!" He looked down on the ground and collapsed and then cried and cried to the point where if anyone had seen his sorrow they would have believed he would have died from it.

When he recovered he searched for two beautiful flowers which he eventually found and he placed them at the tree. He stood once, bowed his head in the mournings of the loss but then he heard a voice.

"Failure – all you ever were – all you'll ever be." The same one-eyed wolf whom had peered into the eyes of the children came and with him came the remainder of his pack. They looked at him ferociously, grinned sadistically and then backed for the alpha's words.

"You can't protect your own." The Alpha pounced upon Shining Armor and the battle was quick for one bite of the neck was enough to wake Shining Armor making him scream his lungs out in the very bed he had fallen asleep in. He looked around and found himself in his crystalline bedchambers, his beautiful wife sleeping soundly beside him. In amazement and with tears of both joy and immense sorrow slowly drain from his eyes he opened the windows to see the home he had lived in for a while now and rejoiced to know that there was no bounty on his head. What truly frightened the captain is that in his mind the phrase still echoed. The sentence that radiated fear:

"You can't protect your own"

Shining Armor whirled around and found an unknown pony standing at the doorway, staring at Shining with demonic eyes.

Not thinking, nor daring to act, he called out: "GUARDS!"

He roused such commotion that he woke his wife from her slumber and had a dozen guards answering his call. The guard didn’t seem to notice the foreign pony as he charged straight through the intruder which dissolved into smoke upon contact and stormed to his prince's side. "My lord, what is the matter?"

Not answering at first he stared at the faint wisps of smoke which disappeared into nothingness. With ragged breath and sweat dripping down his forehead he commanded: "Search the castle, we have an intruder in our midst"

Not questioning for as much as a second, the guards saluted and stormed off to find the alleged intruder.

"Sweetie" Cadence called from behind. He did not turn around. "What is going on? Did you see the intruder"

He nodded.

"Who was it?"

He swallowed the lump in his throat and after some long and agonizing moments he finally answered. "King Sombra is back"

Shining Armors Terrors

’You can't protect your own’. Those were the words that haunted our young prince. No matter what he did or where he went, those words followed him. He was pacing back and forth in his brightly lit bedroom, the only place where he felt even remotely safe anymore. It had been six days since the nightmares started and they had completely stopped him from getting any form of peaceful rest. The growing paranoia didn't help either. The guards had reported that there was no intruder in the castle grounds but he was not assured.

Every sound now startled him, every corner held the his demise a secret and every shadow was now his enemy. “You can't protect your own” He whispered under his breath.

“Failure – all I am – all i'll ever be”. He shook his head violently. “No, you are wrong. I am a prince and the captain of the Crystal Empire's guard force. I am anything but a failure” He tried convincing himself and whomever might be listening. “I bested the changelings during their invasion and I helped in defeating you. You failed, Sombra. You are the failure!”

There was a knock on the door which sent Shining Armor covering underneath his blankets.

“Your royal highness? Are you in there” called a familiar voice. The door opened up revealing an aged pony with an iron coat and a silvery mane and tail known as Silver Lining, the royal advisor and accountant.

“Silver Lining? Thank you for coming so soon” Shining Armor said while slowly climbing out of the bed. “Please say that you have some good news for me”

The pony sighed. “Forgive me, your highness, but I would be lying if I said so. There has been yet another murder. This time of the noble pony named Rough Quartz. I am sure that you remember him”

“Yes, he is one of the members of our royal court”

“Or, well, he was a member”

The news made Shining Armors heart sink to oblivion. Rough Quartz had been one of Shining armors most faithful supporters for his keep to the throne and proved to be an invaluable asset for keeping the nobles and commoners happy and in check. And in most recent times, he had even come to see Quartz as something of a friend.

“I-Is there anything else that you have to report” Shining Armor asked with a trembling voice. All he could possibly hope for now was that there was no more bad news to be heard. He was not sure he would be able to handle much more.

“Only one thing, your highness. A letter, addressed to you” Silver Lining said as he picked up a letter from his satchel. He hoofed it over to the young prince who quickly snatched it from the time worn pony and slowly walked back to his bed.

“Who delivered it” Shining Armor asked.

“One of the guards investigating the crime scene delivered it to me. According to her it was found on the body”

Shining Armor froze dead in his tracks. He looked down on the letter. It seemed simple enough, nothing particularly interesting about it beyond the foreign language and unusual violet wax sealing it. And the wax had a symbol of a serpent, a wolf and a horse running and slithering in a circle.

“Any other signs” he asked.

Silver Lining shook his head. “No. There are no signs of breaking and entering, no wounds, no weapon, nothing. There are no signs of anyone being there to begin with beyond the letter”

Shining armor put it down on his bedside table, not daring to open it and turned to Silver Lining. “Leave me. I need to be alone right now”

Silver Lining took a bow. “As you wish your highness. For your further notice, Princess Cadence is waiting just outside, will you permit her in?”

“Of course” Shining answered matter-of-factly. “Why is that even a question?”

“I'm simply asking out of respect. After all, you said that you wanted to be alone”

Shining Armor rolled his eyes. “Yes, I suppose that is true. Just let her in”

“At once”

Shortly after he exited the room Cadence was soon to enter. She slowly approached her husband and tentatively placed her hoof on his shoulder. He leaned into her hoof, desperately seeking her warmth and comfort. “How are you feeling, sweetie” She asked.

“Honestly? I'm feeling worse than ever, and it just gets worse and worse. I can't stand it being in a room without a candle in every corner, I'm jumpy and constantly terrified. I am starting to think that you are the only thing keeping me from insanity”

She was not sure whether to feel flattered or be afraid of how fragile his fading sanity truly was at the moment. Probably the latter with a sprinkle of the former.

Several moments of complete silence followed before Shining Armor finally spoke again. “Rough Quartz is dead” He said.

“I know. I'm sorry, Armor” Cadence pondered the possible things she could do next and her only hope was to plead with him one more time. “We could always call for-”

“No” Shining Armor interrupted.

“Armor, we can't do this by ourselves anymore, we need help, YOU need help”

“We can do this on our own. We can't bother the princesses with every little problem we encounter”

“Little problem!? We are talking about the possibility that Sombra himself has returned, and you call that a ’little problem’” She exclaimed in frustration.

“We are our own kingdom now, independent, we must be able to take care of our own problems. Sombra is our problem, not theirs”

Cadence was about to retort until she noticed the foreign letter on the nightstand table. She approached the table and picked up the letter in her magic. “Where did this come from” She asked while carefully inspecting the letter as if searching for something deviant. Her gaze locked on to the seal.

“It was found on the corpse of Rough Quartz”

She decided that it was in their best interest to read the message within so she broke the seal and took out the message and read it through. It was a short message but she read it several times over, blinking hard and shaking her head, hoping that what she read was wrong.

“Cadence? What's the matter dear” Shining asked worriedly.

She dropped the letter to the floor and walked towards the door. “I don't care about your idiotic independent bravado, I am massaging my aunts and sister and asking them to help us figure this out this instant” She said before storming out.

Wondering what got her so upset he picked up the letter himself and read it. It simply read: You are next. Beware young prince, The Wolf is coming.

One quick read was all it took from him to run after his wife, deciding that he did not like being alone anymore.

Twilight sat on a train on its way to the crystal empire. With her was her friends and the princesses of night and day, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Luna seemed awfully distracted by something that could not be seen or heard. Twilight had approached her on the subject earlier but Luna had simply dismissed her worries and claimed that it was nothing.

“So remind me how this is even a problem to begin with” Rainbow Dash asked. “Can they not just use The Crystal Heart again like last time and whoop his sorry butt out again?”

“That would not be possible” Said Twilight. “The Crystal Heart can not act on a threat if it does not have a clear identified target to fight. Whatever Sombra is doing, he is being far more subtle this time around”

“No kidding. Remember last time” Pinkie asked before starting to impersonate the fallen king. “Crystalssss”

“Twilight is right. The way he is acting is not like the Sombra we know. Can we be sure that it is him” Applejack asked.

“Sombra is not a fool, my little ponies” Celestia interjected. “Sombra can think and act on ten moves ahead before you have even made one. He has most likely learned from his past mistakes and are adapting a new strategy to deal with us”

“Ok, so I will give you that. But what about your crazy-strong magic? Why don't you just overwhelm him with some insane power. I mean, you are strong enough to move the sun and the moon”

Celestia sighed and looked down at the floor. Was she ashamed? “Do you remember the royal Canterlot wedding”

Who could possibly forget? The deceit of the changeling queen, the collateral damage costing the crown a fortune and the masses of screaming ponies in the streets crying out to whatever powers above for help.

“I gave my all to safeguard my citizens but I stood powerless next to Chrysalis and her love-fed power” Celestia looked and stared grimly at the ponies gathered. “She was my match that day and I could do little to protect my people and Sombra is far worse. If we find him in time, and we all work together then we might be able to take him down before any major damage is caused”

Everypony nodded in agreement though some showed more hesitation than others. Rarity for one pondered much about how useful she could really be if things got hectic. She was a lady, not a brute and was not a very capable combatant. She prided herself not for brawn but for her keen eye, her elegance and her masterful usage of fabrics. She exited the cart and made her way towards the café cart to buy some tea to calm the nerves. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she failed to notice the oncoming pony and like a complete klutz she walked straight into him, looking up at the very last moment, her muzzle connected with reinforced metal and her posterior was introduced hard to the floor. She rubbed her aching muzzle and looked up at the brute who had done this to her.

The pony before her was a strongly built pegasus stallion around the age of his early fifties, his muzzle almost parallel to his skull making him give off a regal appearance, violet coat and a long ash gray mane and tail, unusually large wings, wearing the lunar guards traditional blue-purple armor.

“My lady, please forgive me for my clumsiness. Are you hurt” the guard asked concerned. He extended a hoof to her which she happily took as he pulled her on her hooves.

Hm, so no mere brute then, but a gentlecolt? She thought. “Oh no, darling, it was my fault. I should have looked where I was going”

The pegasus chuckled. “I suppose we are both at fault then. May I ask where you were heading”

Rarity sighed. “I have a lot on my mind right now, so I thought I ought to sample the trains tea and calm down for a bit. So if you excuse me, I should be on my way” she said and tried to walk by. The guard unfurled one of his wings and formed a feathery wall in front of her. She gave him an annoyed look before he replied: “May I accompany you? Sadly there is not tea on this train but there is coffee, would you mind if I join you for a cup?”

She eyed him carefully, trying to figure out his goals and motives. What could he possibly want of her? Does he simply wish to be polite and repay her, or is there some other motive hidden behind a kind and smiling mask?

“Perhaps we should get introduced first? My name is Rarity, who are you” She asked.

He looked shocked to learn her name. Before she could ask how he was he recomposed himself and took a bow. “Then it is my honor to accompany you Miss Rarity, if you will permit me”

“You still have not told me your name” She said matter-of-factly, almost growing a bit impatient with this stallion, despite his polite attitude.

“Of course, how forgetful of me. My name is Frigidos, acting lieutenant of Princess Luna's night guard, at your service” He said and straightened himself up.

“Frigidos? Thats a pretty unique name” Said Rarity.

“Heh, it may sound a bit different than a name you would typically think a pony would have but I believe that everypony has a unique name of their own, don't you think?”

“I suppose you are right” She said and made her way to the café. She stopped and turned around to face the stallion again. “So will come with me or do you have your duties awaiting” She asked, innerly hoping that he would accept. She didn't know for sure what it was but it was something that intrigued her about this pony. There was something that seemed familiar about him.

A toothy smirk spread upon his features as he accompanied her.

They sat together, enjoying their cups of coffee while chatting away the hours. Rarity had come to find the stallion quite charming. When she had tried to indulge in a conversation about her profession and it quickly became clear to her that he had no idea about anything she was talking about. But he at least made an effort to understand and he took in everything that she said and asked question about things he didn't quite understand without ever interrupting.

“-and so Hoity Toity had me work on six entire ensembles of clothes and practically have them mass produced in little more than a weeks time”

Frigidos had the sort of expression as if somepony had just told him that the sky was in fact made out of chocolate. “You can not be serious, Rarity. That sounds like a huge endeavor. Exactly how many are we talking about” He asked.

“About a dozen of each dress”

“By all that is holy, it seems like an impossible task. Did you really fulfill that order?”

“Oh, I simply had to. I couldn't disappoint one of the most influential ponies in the business, now could I?”

“I suppose not, but that does still seem like an awful lot of work. You must have stayed up day and night to complete it”

“It was not easy, but it was very worth it. Thanks to Hoity I was able to make more of a name for myself and my sales almost doubled afterwards”

He flashed her a smile before he noticed that the door behind Rarity swung open, revealing a magenta alicorn which only took a quick glance in their direction before walking up to them. “Rarity, you need to come back”

“What for, Darling? I was having such a lovely conversation with sir Frigidos here”

Twilight eyed him suspiciously, analyzing every single detail about him. “I've never seen you before. Who are you” Twilight asked.

Frigidos gave a light chuckle before answering. “You might have, princess. You see, normally our armor have a spell cast over them that makes everypony that wears them look like bat pony hybrids. Not that it serves a real purpose, I just think it is to princess Luna's preference”

“So why aren't you one now” Twilight asked.

“Because eventually enchantments wear off. I was actually on my way to have my armor replaced as it seems that my enchantment have. But then I bumped into your wonderful friend here and I kind of lost track of time and duty”.

The mention of the word duty seemed to spark something within him, he looked at the clock and then back to Twilight, panic radiating from him. “No, nononono, this is not good, if princess Luna finds out about this then I might as well quit immediately”. He looked back at Twilight Sparkle and Rarity with a pleading look. “Please, my ladies, you must not tell the princess about that you ever met me. My future is at risk if you do”

Twilight pondered what to do next. She considered the many pros and cons of telling or not telling, taking a look at the pleading guard and at Rarity who inaudibly begged Twilight to spare him.

She sighed. “Very well, we won't tell anypony, but this better not happen again, mister” she said with a voice that demanded respect and attention, a slightly foreign tone for her.

He hopped down from his chair and took a bow. “Of course, your highness, I shall not repeat my mistake” He said before making his way towards the door.

“Wait” Said Rarity. “Will I get to see you again” she asked.

He turned his head and smiled kindly. “Probably not on this ride, but should you ever come to Canterlot then be sure to find me sometime so we can have some more fun”. He took a bow and left with the parting words: “My ladies”.

Twilight turned back to Rarity. “Come now, there are a few things left that the princesses want to take up with us before we arrive”.

Cadence sat together with her husband in the throne room, filling some taxes and listening to the nobles complaining about how the guards are not offering sufficient protection. “We are all in danger, your highness! Even with your guard force protecting us there are still murders being committed beneath our very roofs! How long are we supposed to tolerate that? And to add insult to injury, you have now deemed it fit to remove the guards from our homes all together and even those watching the streets. Who is supposed to now protect us from thieves and murderers?” shouted an angry noble.

“I assure you, sir, that we are doing our best to handle the situation. We have no more reason to believe that the murderer would come after you and the city can survive without its guards for just a day” Cadence replied impatiently. This was the tenth noble who had complained about this today.

“How do you expect things to just remains quiet and calm while there is a psychopath out there? And how would you know whether we are in danger or not”

Cadence was about to reply before a guard came bursting in. “Your highness's, urging new from the mines”

Shining Armor shone up like the sun in the sky at the mention of the mines. “What is it, sir guard” Shining Armor demanded.

Slightly taken aback by his princes' harsh tone he tried to recollect himself before speaking. “T-there is someone in the mines that wishes to speak with you, your highness. He claims that he has information about the recent murders that might come to use”

Not even hesitating for a moment, Cadence and Shining Armor was up on their hooves in an instant and dismissed the disgruntled noble and followed the guards path. They followed said guard to the bottom level of the castle where they eventually came across an ivory white staircase that led down towards the mineshaft. After they had come and claimed the empire for their own, Cadence and Shining Armor had all known supporters of king Sombra's rule locked down in the abandoned mines until a future judgement had been made. The mines were completely devoid of light and the only source came from a couple of torches. It was humid and the stench of rot and feces was heavy in the air. Uneven ground caused the royalties to almost slip once in a while and found themselves wondering if anypony had ever died from a misstep in these mines. They passed many imprisoned ponies who snarled like beasts at them and shouted curses.

The entered a shed that was once made for the foremen who oversaw the progress in the mines. A few maps on the walls revealed how truly deep and vast these mines really was. They spanned all across the city and even further.

To the right they saw a faint green stallion with a green mane and bright red stripes. He stood out as being both very pale and malnourished, strapped down to the floor with chains. He looked up and his features brightened at the mere sight of them. Cadence pitied the stallion and made a mental note to increase the supplies they bring down to these ponies.

“Your highnesses. Its an honor to finally meet you” said the prisoner. His voice was high pitched and weak. He made his best efforts to take a bow but found his movements greatly restricted by his heavy iron binds.

Before Cadence had the chance to reply, Shining Armor got in the ponies face. “Skip the courtesies, traitor, what is it you want” Shining armor hissed.

“Armor” Cadence exclaimed. “I am very sorry, these times have been trying for both of us”

The stallion flashed them a weak smile. “I understand, no need to apologize. My name is Melon Harvest, a former spy in Sombra's service”

“So what is this information that you offer us”

He leaned in every direction, his ears and eyes flicking in every direction, as if he was searching for something or someone. He leaned forward and spoke: “I know where Sombra is”

For a moment, Cadence was overjoyed. Finally they could find the infestation and be rid of it, soon it could all be over. But there was one thing nagging at the back of her head. Something wasn't adding up. “Aren't you one of his loyalists? Why would you sell out your king” she asked.

He shook his head. “You must understand, Princess, most of us had no choice. He was our only option, it was either him or the mines. I have family to care for and I am sad to say that they are strong supporters. All I want is for the kingdom to return to how it used to be”

“Is that really all you want? You have no other motives beyond bringing him down” Shining Armor asked.

Melon Harvest stared down at the floor, seemingly ashamed of himself. “There is actually one other thing I would like to ask you for in exchange of this information”

“And what is that” Cadence asked, slightly more hostile than she intended.

“I want my family free from here. Leave me if you want but please bring them to the surface and give them a home. That is all I ask for this information”

“Deal” The royals said unanimously.

Melon Harvest looked stumped. “Really? … That easy?” he asked bewildered beyond his senses. He had expected to try and negotiate with them for the longest time, he had spent hours trying to figure out good answer to every possible question and argument.

“That easy” Said Shining Armor. “So long as this information is valid and useful”

“Oh, I swear, your highness. This is legitimate, he came down here himself and told us all about it”

“HE WAS HERE” Cadence shouted. “Why were we not alarmed, why did no guard report his presence” she asked him.

“If Sombra does not want to be found, he won't be found. But I can tell you where he will soon be, but you don't have much time”

“Are you sure it was him and not some servant of his or something” Shining Armor asked, panic constantly growing within him, consuming him like a rabid monster.

“We never saw his face, but there is no mistaking that smoke, those infernal eyes or that voice”

“Very well then, what did he say”

“He said that he has a contact in the castle. In other words, you have a traitor in your midst. Somepony called Silver Lining or something like that”

“Silver Lining” Cadence asked in shock.

“Yes, and if you want to catch Sombra you must hurry” He said while looking at the clock on the wall. “Their meeting is beginning in just a few minutes. If you go now you might still catch him”

“Where can we find him”

“Sombra said that they would be meeting up in the royal library”

“Guards, to me” Shining armor commanded and rushed out of the mines.

Cadence bowed to Melon Harvest. “Thank you for your aid” She said. “We will remember you and your service”. After saying this she stormed off after her husband, leaving Melon Harvest alone in the shed with one lone guard that escorted him back to the prison.

Above Cadence found Shining Armor and the guards standing by the doors, ears pressed up against them. Shining Armor saw her and waved her over, directing her to look through the keyhole. She peered through the little opening and saw Silver Lining standing there, talking with somepony that she could not see beyond a few wisps of smoke.

“This has gone on long enough” exclaimed Silver Lining. “You promised that you would have the prince dead, so why is he still up and walking, seven days after we agreed to it. What is taking so long”

The voice that came next could only be described as Sombra's voice, though his wording seemed to have improved vastly. It sounded as if he was quoting something.

“On the first day he vanquished the lesser evils of the world. In the days to come he battled the endless legions of darkness and on the seventh day he fought and conquered The Rat and imprisoned him in the fiery pit below, such as he had promised”. The voice was not cold nor dark or malevolent. It sounded like the voice of a happy child about to receive a treat. Did he take such pleasure in these vile acts? “His time will come. Soon I will strike, and then you can have a true king sit on that throne”

“You'd better, otherwise all bets are off”

“No need to worry yourself, keep up your end of the bargain and I will keep up my own”

There was a few moments of eerie silence before Sombra spoke again. “But it seems that there may be some complications to our little arrangement”

“What?! Why”

“Because there is half an army of guards just outside our door, probably listening in to everything we are saying”

At the mention of their presence the guards burst into the room, forming a wall trying to restrict the intruder from escaping. But it was to no avail. Sombra had already evaporated into smoke-like shadows and made an escape. The guards was about to pursue him but Shining Armor stopped them. “Ignore him, arrest Silver Lining”

The guards surrounded the terrified pony which backed up further and further towards the shelves. “M-My liege, please let me explain”

“We have heard enough out of you, Silver Lining” said Cadence. “For your crimes against the crown and the empire, I name you traitor of The Crystal Empire. Take him away, we will interrogate him later”

The guards grabbed the old pony and guided his way to the prison.

“Seems like we are one step closer to solving this problem” Said Shining Armor.

Cadence eyed Shining carefully. “You seem awfully optimistic”

He shrugged. “I have come to the conclusion that I am utterly useless as a quivering coward. I'm not gonna sit around and wait for some wannabe king to murder me”

Cadence nuzzled up to her husband, acting the role of supporting pillar for him.

“Come now darling” He said. “The princesses will soon be here”

Cadence nodded and they were both escorted by a couple of guards to the train station.

Can't we ever just meet during normal circumstances? Just once?! Cadence thought to herself.

The revelation of Sombra

The princesses and their company left the train station and was met up by a dozen guards and in the middle of the gathering of armored ponies stood the two regents of the empire.

Forgetting everything she knew about proper etiquette and how to behave with other royalties, Twilight simply couldn't hold back the urge as she dashed forward to her brother and sister-in-law. Cadence met her halfway and together they performed their little dance which Cadence had taught her when she was just a filly. With perfect synchronization in their movements and tone they sang: “Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake”.

The guards looked at each other in confusion at the childish act.

As soon as the little routine was over and done with they properly exchanged courtesies and they were on their way to the castle in the center of the city. Twilight became ever so slightly frightened when suddenly the royal guards moved themselves to stand as a circular wall around her. She turned her head to see through the small gaps between the guards that Luna's bat-ponies and Celestia's guards did the same to them. “What is going on” Twilight asked.

“Be at ease, Twilight Sparkle” Spoke Luna. “The guards are merely taking the necessary precautions to handle our current predicament”

Twilight nodded but still felt uncomfortable as they made their way towards the castle. Once inside they walked into the throne room, dismissed the guards and began their meeting.

“Cadence, are you certain that King Sombra has returned” Celestia asked.

She nodded. “There are no doubts in my mind. We have the testimony of his presence by his loyalists and we have seen the monster with our very own eyes. Sombra is back and he is now more dangerous than ever before”

“W-What a-are we supposed to do” Fluttershy asked, timid as ever.

“First we will interrogate Silver Lining to find out what he knows about Sombra's plans. Afterwards we will take necessary precautions to make sure that Sombra's plan does not come to fruition. Whatever is about to happen it is happening today and I would expect soon”

“Wait, Silver Lining” Luna questioned. “Isn't he your advisor and accountant”

“Was would probably be more accurate. He turned out to be a traitor that was working together with Sombra to bring us down. He is currently down in the prisons/mines until further notice”

“What makes you so sure that he will attack today” Twilight asked. “Couldn't he just wait for a while and hope for a better opening”

“We do not think so. Before we had the chance to capture him, he said something that made us believe that he has the very specific plan to take Shining Armor out on this day”

“What did he say” Applejack asked.

Shining Armor quoted the dark stallions words impeccably well. But where as the words seemed to fill Shining with nothing short of dread, the other ponies just seemed confused.

“...pit below, such as he had promised” Twilight repeated to herself. “That doesn't even sound remotely sensible”

“No, but it sounds awesome” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Twilight glared angrily at her cyan friend before going back to her thoughts. “The legion and the lesser evils must be the nobles and farmers he has killed. The Rat must be you Shining Armor. But this sounds very much like a quote. Does anypony know where it is from”

Everypony shook their head. “Why would that be important anyway”

“If he is indeed imitating something from a book or something then we might get a clue as to what his next move will be. If I could find the book-”

Celestia interrupted Twilight in mid-sentence. “No, Twilight. I fear that there is no time for you to search through the endless collection to find it. We must find Sombra and deal with him immediately”

Twilight gave a firm nod in understanding.

“If there is nothing else to say, lets retire for now while our guards press Silver Lining for more information. We will call for you all again once we have heard something of use” Said Shining Armor.

The guards was allowed in again and they escorted the element wearers to their room and as well as the princesses. But Luna stayed behind as she wanted to bring up a question to the two crystal royalties before she took off.

“Pardon me, Cadence and Shining Armor, but I would like to make a small request”

“And what would that be” Cadence asked her aunt sweetly.

“I would like to request permission to be there during the interrogation of Silver Lining. If he knows something about Sombra then I would like to personally be there”

“I don't see what purpose it would serve since we will get the information he has anyhow. But if it makes you feel at ease then of course you may. A guard will escort you there right away” Said Shining.

“Thank you. I will return when I have learned something new” Said Luna and trotted off, with a group of four guards accompanying her.

Once arriving at the cell in which they held the prisoner Luna found the prisoner in the middle of interrogation. “You are not leaving this cell until you have told us what we want to hear” shouted an orange pegasus guard. “So let's try this again. Where is Sombra and how long have you known about him”

Silver Lining remained silent and stared down at his chained hooves.

The pegasus sighed. “Listen, if you are afraid then you do not have to worry. Just give us the information required to bring him in and we will protect you from him, that I swear”

“I do not fear Sombra, nor do I doubt your word, sir guard. What I fear is that you will fail to fulfill your duties against that which is coming for me if I say as much as a word”

The guard was about to press matters further until Luna halted him. “You may leave” She commanded the guards who left her alone with the prisoner. Uncertain of what he would be capable of she remained on the other side of the bars and starred the pony down.

“Why did you do it” she asked.

Silver lining looked up at her. “Because Shining Armor is unfit to be considered anything close to a prince in our kingdom”

“Why is he unfit? Has he not proved his capability as a leader”

Silver Lining let out a small chuckle. “Yes he has. He is an excellent captain, he has shown an understanding of the political game and how to make the people happy. By all means, I should be happy with him. There is just one thing in the way for him to be a perfect prince”

“And that is”

“His heritage. He is not of noble blood”

Luna just lost every single drop of concern and pity she felt for the old stallion. “That is it? That is your reason” she spat.

He shook his head. “I don't expect you to understand. The bloodline is already tainted. It must be purified with noble blood”

“Why is that so important and how is it tainted”

He was about to answer but then quickly shut his mouth, regretting whatever he was about to say. “It does not matter. Soon the day is over and his plans will be for nothing”

“What do you mean”

“He was intent on making the kill today or not at all”

“Is it about that seven days thing? Where is that from anyway”

He looked hesitant to answer. As if speaking the words would set his fur on fire. “It... It is from the Kirlan, our holy scriptures. It speaks of how God fought the ultimate evil, The Rat, and its armies”

“God? Sombra believes in a god”

“That he did. But moving on, it does not matter that you are here princess, I will not say one word... I dare not”

“But we can protect you from him. Just tell us where he is and we can capture him all while you'll be protected and safe”

“I already told them, your guards cannot stop him from getting to me”

She did her best to appear even taller than she was and it seemed to have the desired effect on the pony. “Who said anything about guards”

Silver Lining stared at her for a moment with wide eyes and then turned away, mumbling something to himself. After a few minutes of silent mumbling he turned back to the princess and said: “Yes. Yes, that might work. With you and your Sister protecting me, not even Sombra would dare to confront me. Princess, if you can guarantee my protection then I will give you everything I know about him and how you can find him”

“Excellent. So where can we find him”

“That is a bit of an issue. I have no idea where he is hiding, but I know how to bring him out” he said with hope growing in his chest.

“Very well, how do we bring him out”

He leaned in close to the bars. “When you are all alone, just speak the words...” He waved her closer. She leaned into him until her ear was right beside his muzzle. Quietly he whispered the words in her ear. Her eyes grew wide as he spoke the incantation. So it was him! She thought to herself.

She retracted her head and ordered the guards back. “Escort Silver Lining to my sister. Tell her that she must keep him from harm at all cost”

They saluted her and without a word said they did as she had commanded them.

She returned to her own assigned room and carefully made sure that she was all alone. What if he attacks? She thought. “Well if he does then I am certain that I should be able to hold him off long enough for me to receive reinforcements” she told herself.

She took a deep breath and then said: “What's that in the mirror or the corner of my eye? What's that hoof step following, never passing by. Perhaps it's just waiting, perhaps when we are all but dead. Out it'll come a slithering, form underneath my bed. Its you. Its always you”

Suddenly the air became cold as ice, frost spreading across the windows and crystalline walls and all candlelight died out. She heard a growling sound from the spot where her bed stood and from beneath it crept the smoke-like shadows out. And slowly took form. “You summoned the wolf” asked the smoke-fiend.

Soon there was a pony standing before her. He was shrouded by the darkness in the room and she could not make out the details about the pony. But there was one feature which she could never mistake. The eyes. The green where the whites should be, the red irises and the slitted pupils and the dark magic radiating from them like purple flames.

“We have much to discuss, Sombra” said Luna

“Indeed we do, princess” said a voice that awakened something within her. A memory since ages past. A memory she could not for the life of her recall at the moment. “But if you intend to waste my time with talk, then you may at least use my proper name”

Luna scoffed, shoving her earlier thought away from her and to the back of her mind. “Then what, pray tell, sort of name do you go by now then”

“The same name as I have always had. My name is-”

Almost two hour has passed since Luna went on her way to the prison where they held Silver Lining and Luna had now summoned everypony back to the throne room to reveal what she has found out. Celestia was last to arrive to the room and behind her skulked a Silver Lining trembling like an autumn leaf. Shining Armor shot him a glare that could have made anypony fear for their own wellbeing. But Silver paid him no mind, instead he spent all his time looking in every direction in search for any possible threat. While Shining Armor felt nothing of a kind nature towards the aged pony he still understood what he was going through.

“Luna, dear sister, I hope that you have found something of use? Considering the situation” She asked sweetly while gesturing towards the covering pony behind her.

“Indeed I have, sister of mine, and I may even have found a solution to our dilemma”

“Is that so” Celestia asked. “What sort of solution is that”

Everypony gathered closer to hear what Luna had to say. But before she was able to say as much as a word to any of them the doors flew open with with a mighty slam that sent cracks in the walls. And from the entrance stood a pony foreign to all of them except for two. Rarity's and Twilight's jaws hit the floor as they saw who it was.

“Mares and Gentlecolts, may I introduce to you our “Sombra”, the assassin Frigidos”

The violet pegasus walked towards them in a very calm and regal manner. The air seemed to freeze around him and everything positive in the room was slowly being drained away.

Beyond what the two ponies noticed about him the last time there was a few new details about him. Instead of the old blue-purple night guard armor he was now clothed in red scales, a royal blue version of the cape that Sombra wore but with an additional hood. Leather bracers around his front hooves. And the final three most striking features: Eyes like those of Sombra, ice blue glowing tattoos covering his face and every bare surface of his body and finally, the front row of sharp teeth as he flashed them all a toothy grin.

In many ways he resembled Sombra and it stood as no wonder as to how they had confused the two of them.

“F-Frigidos” Rarity asked hesitantly.

Luna looked between the two of them. “Do you two know each other” Luna asked.

Twilight beat Rarity to the answer. “He was on the train with us! He posed as one of your guards”

“HE WHAT” Exclaimed the gathering of ponies.

“Heh, well, I never really kept that a secret, now did I? I even confessed to you Rarity that I was simply acting the role of lieutenant” said Frigidos.

Before anypony had the chance to reply they heard the drawing of a sword. They turned around and saw Shining Armor holding a sword in his magic and charging forward.

“Shining Armor, Cease!” Luna commanded but he paid her no mind. Before him stood the one that had tormented him the past week and the very one who had killed six ponies in his kingdom, farmers and nobles alike. He was not about to let him go now that he stood so plainly in sight. Frigidos grinned and took battle position. He too charged forward, intending to meet him in combat. Shining Armor dealt a quick cut in neck height with the full intent of decapitating the fiend. But Frigidos was faster than what Shining Armor was with the sword. He easily dodged the swing of the blade and just as quickly delivered a powerful uppercut sending Shining reeling back. Frigidos took the opening to deliver a quick flurry of punches and kicks to Armor's whole frame.

Shining Armor laid on the floor writhing in pain. Cadence rushed to his side without a word and started tending to him while sparing Frigidos a glare.

Frigidos sighed. “You are so ungrateful, your highness. Do you even realize how easy it would have been for me to finish you off there and then? And after all the effort Luna went through to save your miserable little life. All I would have had to do was bring this out-” he said and flicked his hoof, sending a hidden blade up which he grabbed in his malleable hoof. “-and all would have been over”

“Frigidos! We agreed that nopony would come to harm” Exclaimed Luna.

“Well i'm sorry, but I can't be blamed when somepony attacks first. Besides, it's not like he has received any substantial damage” Frigidos defended. As they argued, Shining Armor was slowly getting back up on his hooves, groaning by the effort. “See? He is fine! So moving on from one subject to another, Luna said that you had a job for me”

The ponies in the room shot angry glares at Luna, except for Celestia who seemed to be in deep thought. “Luna, may I share a word with you” Celestia said. Luna nodded and walked with her sister into another corner of the room.

With their leave the room was drowned in an awkward silence. Everypony exchanged glares and confused looks and Silver was trying to hide behind the thrones, all while keeping an eye on Frigidos and Twilight stood stoically in front of Spike, trying to keep him away. Frigidos noted how very similar she appeared like how a mother protects her young. He smiled at the thought which either confused or scared the other ponies.

“So, am I to assume that I am in the same room with the elements of harmony” Frigidos asked. The Six ponies grouped together, as if their unity could protect them even without the elements. In a mocking tone he then proceeded to bow and say: “I am humbled by your presence”

“Enough of your games, Frigidos! What do you want from us” Cadence exclaimed.

He shrugged. “The same thing I want from all my contracts. I want money. Plain and simple. It's what I wanted from Silver Lining, it's what I want from you as well”

Shining spared Silver Lining a look before asking Frigidos: “How much did he offer”

“700 000 bits. You would have been my most valuable target ever”

“700 000. Is that the worth of a life to you” Twilight asked in disgust.

He shook his head. “Absolutely not, a life can not be measured by mere coin. Not even all the coin in the world could justify the taking of his life”

The other ponies stood stunned. Did they just hear that right? “Did you just say that his murder would not have been justified”

“Indeed I did. There is no just reason to claim a life for the sake of wealth or any form of personal gain”

“Frigidos” spoke a kind and motherly voice. Everypony turned their heads towards Celestia and Luna who had returned to the rest of the gathering. “We have a mission for you”

“Excellent, what is to be my task” he asked with enthusiasm.

“We ask that you accompany princess twilight and her friends back to Ponyville and remain there until further notice”

The ponies were about to protest but Frigidos beat them to it. “What?! I came here to do a job, not to take a vacation. You better have a good reason for this. Or better, good payment”

“There is. You will receive a monthly income of 500 000 bits in exchange for your service. And should we ever need you to do us a favor, you will answer the call” said Luna.

Every jaw hit the floor at the mention of his income. “Celestia, with all due respect, that is too much” Twilight protested.

“Not for us” Celestia countered. “So what do you say, Frigidos? Do we have a deal”

Frigidos recomposed himself and took a small bow. “I am at your service” he said but something told them that he was not exactly fully pleased with the outcome of this.

“Good, then you may remove yourself and retire to your room”. Luna called for some of her night guard to escort him to his quarters.

Cadance kept her smile up until Frigidos had left out of sight.

“Celestia, Luna, my dear aunts. Just one little question” she asked. Celestia and Luna nodded. “ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE?!”

“Listen my little ponies, this pony is special. A pegasus with magic, that is unheard of. If he has powers anywhere near Sombra's range of abilities then Equestria would benefit vastly from his cooperation. So I have an additional mission for you as well. Like with Discord, it will be your duty to reform him. Get to know him, be his friends and make him turn away from the path he is walking. And you will have the Elements of Harmony at your disposal to use depending on how badly it goes”

The discussion went back and forth for almost an hour before the mane six finally gave in and agreed to the task. “Wonderful. Tomorrow we shall return to Equestria and begin the reformation of Frigidos”

In the dark and dank mines was Melon Harvest with his family, telling them how they will soon leave the mines.

“I swear, I convinced the prince and princess to get us out of here, soon we can live on the surface again, in a proper house and fresh air” Said Melon Harvest.

“How did you manage to accomplish that? What could you possibly have offered them in return for our release”

“Information” said a venom dripping voice.

Melon Harvest spun around and Saw Frigidos standing before him. “L-Lord Frigidos. I-I didn't know you were here”

“I wasn't. But something you said brought me here. You believed me to be Sombra, if I recall”

“That was you” Asked Harvest's wife and daughter.

“Indeed. And perhaps you would like to know how they found me to begin with”

Harvest's wife and daughter turned their gaze towards him. “I-I can explain” he said.

“He sold me out so that you could get out of here. He betrayed me, and what's worse, since you believed I was Sombra that means he betrayed him as well”

“Sir, please”

“So I think you will understand when I say that your husband and your father has grown too unreliable to be of further service” he spoke and slowly approached Melon Harvest who backed up until he came in contact with hard compact stone. He was trapped.

“My lord, please understand, I was only looking out for my family”

“Oh I understand. I understand completely. I understand that your own comfort was more valuable than your loyalty”

Melon Harvest was stumped. He looked towards his family for assistance. All he could see was angry stares that screamed that he was getting what he deserved.

“At least your family knows where their loyalties lies”

“My lord, forgive me! I didn't see beyond my own desires. I am but a pony. A weak but humble servant. Please forgive me” He begged on the edge of tears and moved to his knees.

Nothing happened for a good while. Soon Melon Harvest looked up and saw that Frigidos extended his hoof towards him. Hesitantly he took his hoof and was pulled back up. “You are forgiven my friend. By me and by god” he said and embraced Melon Harvest. Melon hugged him back and when they let go of each other he and Frigidos share a smile. Frigidos turned around and made his way out.

Suddenly Harvest's skin felt as if it was set ablaze. His muscles tensed up and he started choking on the air. He heard a faint sound over his gasps. A small croak.

A tiny multi colored frog jumped on his muzzle and gave a final croak before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

“So join him in paradise” was the final thing Harvest heard before he was claimed by death's cold embrace.

Rule breaking

The mane six and Spike retired to their room and started to discuss their current situation.

“What do you think girls? Think we can do it?” Asked Twilight.

“Ah dunno sugar cube, Discord was one thing and ah'm still not to sure about him. This Frigidos is a whole different story, he actually murdered ponies where as Discord only caused chaos. Can we be so sure we can reform him” asked Applejack in return.

“There has to be some good to him? I mean, its not like he justifies what he does” Said Fluttershy barely above a whisper.

“But he doesn't seem exactly torn up about it either” said Spike.

“Spike. Would you please wait outside? This is grown pony talk” Said Twilight and ushered him out.

Frustrated to be left out he exited the room, steaming with frustration he slammed the door behind him.

The ponies were slightly taken aback by his outburst and faced a slight difficulty moving on with the subject at hoof.

“W-Well * cough * I think that we ought to give him a chance” said Rarity. “I do not know much about this stallion but from the short time we spent together he seems to be a genuine gentlecolt. It might be difficult and take some time but I don't see it as such an impossible task”

“That could just as easily been an act to get on your good side, Rarity” Twilight scowled

“Could have been, but if we are to reform him then maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt” she asked hesitantly beneath Twilight's disapproving stare.

“Sure we can do that and after that we can invite him home and wait for him to slit our throats in our sleep” protested Rainbow Dash.

Just outside the door stood a very curious dragon, ear-fins pressed against the door, listening in to everything that was said. Whether they wanted him there or not, he was not going to be left out this time around.

He was so focused on listening in to their conversation that he failed to notice the hoof steps that was slowly approaching him from behind.

“Didn't your mother ever teach you that peeping and tuning in to private conversations isn’t very nice?” asked a voice from behind.

Startled, Spike spun around, claws up in the air ready to attack. But his blood froze and all courage was shattered to pieces like how a rod smashes a pot. Frigidos stood there, clad in only his own fur, cyan eyes staring down at Spike. In an instant, Spike was overcome by an overwhelming desire to run for his life.

“Well? Are you going to answer me?” Frigidos asked.

As a response Spike turned on the heel and made a run for it. But his efforts were futile as he heard the flapping of wings behind him and the stallion quickly landed in front of Spike, blocking his way.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Settle down little dragon. I only asked a simple question. Why the hurry?”

“You're Frigidos” Spike said.

“The one and only” Said Frigidos proudly.

“Then I’ll give you three guesses why I'm running”

Frigidos just simply smiled at the little dragon. “Are you afraid that I will hurt you”

Spike hesitated. A smile was not what he expected from the assassin. A cruel or malicious smile, sure, but not such a genuine and kind one. It threw him off guard, not sure what to do or say next.

“I will take your silence as a yes. Then let me tell you right away, little fellow, I have never nor will I ever harm a child” The tension seemed to grow lighter as he spoke those words. Frigidos continued to walk down the hall and suddenly came to a stop. He turned around and spoke: “Would you like to accompany me?” asked Frigidos.

“Accompany you where?” asked Spike suspiciously.

“I am heading for the royal garden, get some peace and quiet in a more elegant surrounding. That is if the prince and princess have been tending to it like they should”

“They have a garden here? I've never seen it”

“Well maybe not a garden, its more like a greenhouse in the castle. It is filled with exotic plants and animals. So, would you like to make me company?”

Spike thought back to what the princesses had said. To be friendly and helpful to Frigidos and set the foundation for what could hopefully grow to become a friendship. He had also heard how the other ponies debated whether this was a good idea or not. So he came to the decision that he should set the ball in motion and be an example for the rest of them, maybe even impress Rarity.

“Sure, i'll come with you” he said as he motioned for him to follow him down a hallway.

The silence that followed was so intense that you could hear the fall of a feather. Spike wanted to lead a conversation but he was not sure what to say. What do you even talk about with an assassin? Then he took notice to something different.

“Hey, where are your tattoos” asked Spike

“Hm? Oh, you mean these” Frigidos said and suddenly the blue tattoos appeared on his body in a flash and then disappeared just as quick. “They come out and disappear at will. It is thanks to them that I can cast spells”

“How does it work?” asked a very curious little Spike.

“Do you know how a unicorn horn works?”

“Yeah, I read it in a book from Twilight once. It has something to do with the ley lines in the horn that allows magical energy to flow, right”

Frigidos gave a nod. “Precisely, and while I do lack a horn myself, these markings allow me to use magic just as well as a unicorn”

“That is amazing! Where did you get them”

“A friend of mine made them a very long time ago”

“What was his name”

Frigidos halted in the middle of his step. Spike looked at Frigidos and got worried. Frigidos was staring into nothingness and breathing heavily. The dragon's worry soon turned into fear as Frigidos condition worsened. The marks appeared again and his eyes glowed similarly to how Sombra's eyes looked and the air grew cold. His gaze hardened and he started to mumble something in a foreign language.

“F-Frigidos? You're scaring me”

The words seemed to snap him out of his trance and he soon returned to his earlier more cheery self. “Forgive me, I easily slip into my own little world and forget everything else. HER name was Ruby Rose. We... did not part on the best of terms”

“What just happened”

Frigidos waved a dismissing hoof. “It's nothing. A side effect from using dark magic. I hope that I didn't scare you too badly”

Spike shook his head, shaking the uncomfortable feeling out of him. “No, it's ok. No harm done”

“Thank you for your kindness and understanding, Spike. But enough about me, what about you? Why are you in the custody of a pony?”

“Oh, I could go on for hours”

“Would you care to share?”

“Ok then! It all began when Twilight hatched me from a purple egg...”

“... and that is how we defeated Nightmare Moon” said Spike, beaming with pride.

“Amazing. And you were there all along? Your mother must be a very irresponsible parent if she allowed a baby dragon to come along on such a perilous quest”

“W-Well... I wasn't actually there. I was home and asleep through the whole thing. I only heard about it from the girls later. And Twilight is not my mom”

Frigidos sighed. “Sorry for mistaking her as that but moving on, Spike, lying is not acceptable in any way”

Spike glared at him angrily. “Don't you patronize me. You are not exactly clean yourself”

“What do you mean?”

“You tricked everypony into thinking that you was Sombra”

Frigidos looked insulted. “I have done no such thing. You and your friends just assumed that I was someone who I am not”

“Can you blame us?”

Frigidos intended to protest but halted himself as he thought back on his actions. He thought of the magic he used, the things he had said and the way he had appeared to the ponies and even to the prisoners. “On second thought, no I suppose not. With the way I was behaving I suppose it was only natural that you jumped to conclusions” He looked up from Spike and saw that they had arrived at the right spot. “Here we are” he said and gestured towards a door.

They both entered through the door and what was on the other side was stunning. Thick and twisting trees, lush green bushes, flowers and plants of every color imaginable. Birds could be heard close by and in at a distance, singing a hundred different tunes at the same time together with the croaking of frogs which mixed together into a pleasing but incomprehensible melody. Lizards and snakes climbed the trees and slithered across the ground. Spike was enthralled by his surroundings, swirling around, trying to take it all in. Never before had he seen so much life in such a small place. The air, the colors, the sounds it was nothing short of magical. A small croak pulled him out of his trance and made him search for the source of the sound. And to his left, not far away from him, sat a tiny multi colored frog on a branch and made its own form of music. Spike got closer and eyed it curiously. “What is this?” he asked Frigidos.

Frigidos turned to him and saw what he was talking about. A small smirk spread across his lips. “That, my little dragon, is a Color Rana. Very rare but oh so beautiful”

“Can I hold it?”

The smirk grew wider. “But of course you can. Just cup your claws around it slowly and carefully, so it knows that you mean no harm to it”

Spike did as he was instructed and soon he held the adorable little critter in his claws. “Omigosh, I'm holding it. I'm actually holding it” He whispered excitedly, scared that it might jump away.

“That you are”

“Ok, so who is gonna take care of him” Asked Twilight.

“If you mean to ’take care of him’ then i'm signing up” Said Rainbow Dash with a punch to her hoof.

“No, I don't mean like that. I mean, who is going to reform him”

The room fell silent as everypony started to ponder the possible options. For the most part, the ponies did not want to be the ones to receive the task of reformation so they pondered the other options for it.

“I have a suggestion” Said Fluttershy. Everypony turned to her, eager to hear what she has to say. Since they stand at a stand-still they are willing to listen to any suggestion that any of them might have. “How... how about we vote for who should take him?”

Twilight beamed up. “That is a brilliant idea, Fluttershy! Ok, lets be democratic, whoever gets the most votes will take care of Frigidos's reformation”

Fluttershy raised her hoof. “I vote for Twilight. I think she would make a good reformer”

Twilight was next. “Very well, I vote for you, Fluttershy. You have made an excellent work with Discord already, Frigidos shouldn't be that much more difficult”

Rarity raised her hoof eagerly. “I vote for myself. Through my little interaction with Frigidos I think that he and I have bonded pretty well”

“Then ah vote for her as well. Besides, she seems to be the only one who actually wants to do this” Said Applejack.

“My vote goes for Fluttershy. Nopony can do it better” Said Rainbow Dash.

“I say Twilight, Twilight is a good teacher, so who better to teach him friendship” said Pinkie Pie, surprisingly more subdued than normally.

Twilight groaned. “So, we are indecisive. How do we solve this dilemma” asked a frustrated Twilight.

“Why don't we ask Spike what he thinks? Let him act as a tiebreaker”

“I don't know, girls” said Twilight feeling hesitant to bring in Spike into this ordeal.

“He is going to get involved one way or another, darling. Best we prepare him right away before he is thrown into it all” said Rarity

Twilight intended to protest but when she saw the looks from her friends she sighed in surrender. “Ok, i'll bring him in” She went and opened up the door. “Spike, you can come in now... Spike?”

“What's wrong, Twilight” Asked Pinkie Pie.

“Spike is not here” She said. “Where could he have gone”

“Maybe he went to explore” asked Applejack.

“Possibly. Excuse me girls, I'm gonna go look for him”

“Twilight, he is fine, you don't need to worry or anything” said Rainbow Dash.

“I'm not worried” Twilight defended. “We just need him to decide who should take care of Frigidos and then he can go on and explore as much as he likes” And with those words she took her leave.

She unfurled her wings and took a few flaps so she could gain speed and height. She searched every level until she came across one of the ones furthest down. She passed by a room where she heard a childish giggle. She came to a halt and opened up the door. To her horror, there stood Spike, beside Frigidos, and with a brightly colorful frog in his claws. “SPIKE” she shouted and rushed forward.

Spike was temporarily startled and as such he scared the frog away. Disappointed he looked at Twilight, slightly angry. “Why did you do that for Twilight? I was jus-woah!” he exclaimed as Twilight levitated him beside her as she started to fuss over him. “Pupils unchanged, no heavy breathing, no swelling of the tongue, no skin sensitivity”. She let out a relieved sigh as she gave him a tight hug. At first he was confused as to why but he eventually returned the embrace.

Twilight glared at Frigidos with a gaze that could scare an Ursa Minor to submission. “What in tartarus were you trying to do” she screamed at him.

Frigidos stood stoically. “I don't understand why you are so angry, I simply showed him this wonderful garden and suddenly you come bursting in”

“That was a Color Rana, darn you! The most poisonous frog in the world”

“P-p-Poisonous” Exclaimed Spike before hiding behind Twilight.

Frigidos waved a calming hoof. “Indeed, that was a Color Rana but believe me when I say that I never intended him harm”

“You told me to pick it up” Said Spike, which only helped to fuel the burning anger within Twilight.

“No, you wanted to hold it. I just said that it was ok”. He shook his head. “You are a dragon, Spike. You have thick scales which protects you from its poison. You were perfectly safe all along”

“How would you have known” asked Twilight.

“I have studied dragons for a long time, even written a tome about them. I already told you, Spike. I have never nor will I ever harm a child”

“Frigidos” Shouted a voice from behind Twilight. She turned around and found Princess Luna standing there. “What are you doing outside of your room”

“Ah, princess Luna. I was simply exploring this wonderful garden. I am pleased to find out that it has been so well cared for still”

“We gave you specific orders to remain in your room for the remainder of the day or until we said otherwise” Luna said on the borderline to using the royal Canterlot voice. She turned her gaze towards Twilight and Spike and her look softened immensely. “Go back to your room, you two. I will deal with Frigidos” she said before looking back at said pony.

“Yes princess” Said the two of them and returned to their residence.

“Come with me” Said Luna.

He bowed ever so lightly but never gave any sign of true respect. “As you wish, princess”

Twilight and Spike returned to their room and shocked everypony when they told them about everything that had happened.

“He breaks the rules already? As if we needed any more reasons to not trust him” Said Applejack.

“I'll say. And I was going to throw him a party when we returned to Ponyville. Well, no party for him”

“Whoa, whoa you guys. You are jumping to accusations again. He is actually not that bad” said Spike.

“NOT THAT BAD!? Spike, he let you hold a poisonous frog” protested Twilight.

“And he knew that I wouldn't get hurt so it is ok. But either way, I think I know just the right pony for the job of reforming him”

“Really? Who” asked Rarity.

He pointed right at the mare beside him “Twilight”

“Me” she asked, slightly taken aback.

“Yes, while we were walking to the garden he told me about the different kinds of magic he can use and I think you would be impressed. He could possibly know even more magic than you do”

“But how is that possible? He isn't even a unicorn” protested Twilight, feeling almost insulted that someone that wasn't even supposed to be magically capable could possibly be more adept than her.

“I know, and wouldn't you just love to find out”

Twilight had to admit that she was intrigued. If he was as talented as Spike claims then she would indeed like to find out more. And if they are both talented in magic then that could give them something to bond over. “Very well, the votes have been counted and I shall be the one to reform Frigidos. Wish me luck everypony”

Frigidos and Luna entered his room.

“Is there anything we can offer to make you more comfortable” asked Luna

He scoffed and his voice grew much harsher “Don't act nice, princess, I am here because there is some money to it, nothing else”. He turned his back to her.

A normal pony would have taken their leave after that, but after a thousand years stuck on the moon she was hardly an ordinary pony.

“Inside the throne room you seemed so cheery, why the sudden change?” she asked while inspecting his features. The most prominent which her eyes ended up upon was his fangs.

“Oh, I am so sorry that my mood is not pleasing to you m’lady. How should I repay you for my inappropriate behavior, princess” he hissed.

She sighed. “You seem to have a problem with royalty, am I right” she asked growing a bit impatient with him.

He turned to her but he didn’t seem angry anymore. “I don’t have anything against royalty, though I am not overly fond of you or your sister”.

“Why” she asked frowning.

“You have caused me much pain in the past, pain which could have been prevented had you simply intervened”

“What sort of pain?” she asked growing ever more curious.

He stood silent for a long while before he spoke again. “Maybe another time. But for now I just want to be left alone”

“Very well, we shall grant you your wish. And remember, we will cut your income in half for this month. Refrain from further rule breaking unless you wish to see the decreased income become permanent” she said and walked out and closed the door behind her.

“Thank God, she is finally gone”.

The journey home

Shining Armor and Cadence stood ready at the train station to see off the princesses, the mane six, Spike and Frigidos. They stood alone this time, without the accompanying guards. Eventually they saw the company of ponies and dragon walking towards them. Spike was pulling a giant luggage cart, towering about five feet high, half of which was most likely Rarity's possessions. Furthest back in the group was Frigidos and at his sides stood the princesses of night and day, making sure that he doesn't do anything that he should not.

“Remind me why we are letting them ride in the same train as him, let alone the same cart!” Shining Hissed.

“We must show him a more friendly side, to have him trust us we must trust him” Cadence said, attempting to calm her husband.

“You expect me to trust the stallion that is trying to kill me? Have you gone mad?”

“He was trying to kill you, not anymore since Luna paid him. They have given him rules and he is gonna stick to those”

“Like he did yesterday?” Shining said about to explode in anger. He didn’t want anything to do with the assassin what so ever.

“What about yesterday?” asked a cold voice. Frigidos stood right in front of Shining Armor and once again, the air lost some of its heat.

“You know very well what happened. And seriously, how the buck does it get so cold whenever you decide that it is time to show your ugly muzzle?”

Frigidos reeled back at what appears to be shock. “Shining Armor! I understand that you are frustrated but this is no time for profanities, there is a child here for goodness sake. And as for your question...” Frigidos leaned in close to Shining until there was only inches separating their muzzles. “It is my heart of ice that freezes everything in close proximity”

Shining Armor gave him a deadpan look. “Seriously? That is the explanation you are going for? That has to be one of the stupidest things that I have ever heard”

Frigidos chuckled. “I know, I made it up on the spot. But no, the cold comes from my tattoos” he said and quickly flashed them.

Before any of them could speak any further, there was another presence that made herself known. With a small cough the three ponies turned their heads and found Celestia standing there. “Frigidos, may I speak with you for a moment?” she asked and signaled for him to follow her. He complied and as soon as he left the crystal royalties behind, Twilight was quick to take his place and say her goodbyes.

“Listen, if this has anything to do with the rules then do not worry, I'm not gonna put my payment in jeopardy for the sake of some trivial rules”

She shook her head and dismissed the notion with a wave of her hoof. “It has nothing to do with that, believe it or not” she said sweetly. “I just wanted to tell you that I look forward to our cooperation and wish you a happy journey to and stay in Ponyville”

Frigidos gave her a slightly confused look. “I told this to your sister and I will tell you now, there is no need to act friendly with me, princess. This is nothing more than professional work in exchange for coins”

Her smile never wavered. “Who says that it has to be an act? I genuinely hope that you will enjoy your time with us. I know that you do not put much faith or trust in us but I hope that that may change in the future”

“And exactly what is it about me that interests you so much? Many other would have had me imprisoned or executed, but not you. Why is that”

Celestia didn't beat around the bush, she went straight to the point. “What is your connection to King Sombra”

“Pardon” asked Frigidos confused.

“How are you connected to Sombra? A simple enough question I would wager”

“Every pony in the crystal kingdom is connected to Sombra somehow, princess, he enslaved the kingdom after all”

She knew that there was something that he did not wish to say, so she played along, she was going to respect his desire to remains anonymous in his social position. At least for now. “True enough. May I also ask how wide your range of magic stretches? How many different forms of magic are you familiar with?”

“Too many for me to list for you on the spot”

“Would you care to give me some examples?”

He shrugged. “Sure, why not? Beyond the basic knowledge and usage of utility and arcane magic I am also fully capable of phyllokinesis, Gyrokinesis, Hyalokinesis, Umbrakinesis, Chronokinesis and the elemental forces, just naming a couple”

Celestia's eyes said everything. She was impressed. She leaned in a little closer to him and lowered her head to his level, a sign of equality and respect. Frigidos could feel the ponies behind him staring at them. He had their full attention and the princess had basically deemed him her equal, and he lavished in the feeling it gave him. There was not proper words for him to explain how wonderful this sensation was to him.

“You are obviously a very skilled sorcerer and I am greatly grateful that you are willing to cooperate with us. You fascinate me, Frigidos. If what you say is true, then such magical prowess as you claim to possess has not been seen since the time of Sombra and Star Swirl the bearded” she said and raised her head again. “And there you have the reasons as to why I have such interest in you. Your past with Sombra and your magical power is what interests me. Trust me when I say that you would not have lasted this long otherwise” she spoke in the same sweet and kind voice.

Frigidos's eyes looked like his eyes was about to pop out of his skull at any given second. His state of absolute bliss was shattered in an instant. He looked up at Celestia and she looked back at him and behind those kind and caring eyes he saw something that would have terrified lesser ponies. Her outwards appearance, her gentle smile, those kind, motherly eyes, her calm demeanor, all of it was nothing more than a mask. And behind that mask was a ferocious beast, ready to tear him in half if he stepped as much as an inch more out of line. And when he saw it, he was not afraid, not even a shiver. But he felt something. Deep within him he found a brand new feeling he connected the princess to. Not hate, not anger nor jealousy.

He found respect.

He gave out a whole hearted laugh. “My my, so the princess has teeth after all? Then let me tell you that I too look forward to see the fruit of this arrangement”

“I'm glad you see it that way. Now move along, you don't want to miss your train, do you?”

Frigidos looked confused. “Wait. Are you not coming with us?”

She shook her head. “This train will take you straight to Ponyville. My sister and I will return to Canterlot by chariot”

“I see. Well then, I think this is goodbye for now then”. He bowed to the princess and she returned the gesture. “Until next time” he said and walked towards the train and walked on board. The other ponies were quick to get on board and the train was on its way. To ride a train was a foreign feeling to Frigidos. He felt soothed by the dampened rumbling sound of the engine and the occasional shaky motion. It was not long before he surrendered to his sleep.

A few hours later he felt a light tap on his shoulder, quickly reacting to it. But he knew he was in no danger so he fought against the instinct to attack the intruder.

Before him stood a beige mare with a chef hat on a pile of sugar for a cutie mark. “Do you want anything, sir” she asked, her voice kind of raspy.

“I do not have any bits” he said laying his head back on his hooves.

“The princesses have already paid for everything on this trip. It's all free to take”

His interest peaked and he started to look through all the treats and sweets, looking for something in particular but did not seem to find it. “I do not know, you wouldn't possibly have something with rhubarb, would you” he asked.

She started to look through her cart looking for said treat. “I'm sorry sir, I don't seem to have anything”

His ears folded in disappointment. “Well in that case, thanks but no thanks. You have nothing for me. You can move along”

She nodded, slightly saddened that she had failed to appease a customer but she kept up her cheery demeanor as she moved on to the next batch of customers.

Everypony grabbed something and went along with their own conversations. Seeing no reason to stay awake for the whole journey he went back to sleep, hoping to catch some peaceful rest.

The world became black as he closed his eyelids and the voices in the room became muffled to the point where it was almost inaudible. Then it all changed. The roof that was once above him dematerialized and above him was a clouded sky and the only source of light to be found was that from the bright full moon. Harsh and icy winds lashed at him mercilessly, the snow struck him like tiny arrows, piercing his fur and skin. He tried to fly away from the weather but the powerful winds forced him down to the ground again. He stood in the middle of a crater, uneven rock and snow beneath his hooves. He was freezing, a feeling he had not felt since... He looked down and saw so many things missing. His marking were gone and he could not summon them. His wings were still abnormally big but yet they were smaller than he remembered. And finally he noticed that his four foot stature was missing too and in its place stood a barely one and a half foot tall colt carrying nothing more than a little saddle pack, soon depleted of supplies.

Without his say so, his legs started to move. Using every ounce of strength in his small body he started to climb up the edges of the crater he had fallen into. Frigidos remembered this moment. It felt not as much as a dream as a memory. He had been so distracted by the view in the distance that he had failed to notice the sudden loss of proper footing.

Every muscle in his body cried for him to take a break. To lay down and rest his aching and tired little body. But he refused to stop. He would stop when his legs could carry him no longer and until his wings went stiff from overworking themselves. He had seen unrivaled beauty and nothing was going to come between him and his destination. Beauty, light and warmth was what awaited him in the far far distance. He pulled himself up and saw that which he had been searching for again.

There in the distance stood the magnificent and prideful Crystal Kingdom. The worlds richest nation with the happiest population. This is what he had heard in his youth. It sounded like the ideal place to live. And it was that ideal that he was in search of, the perfect place to be and live in.

Time melded together during the last bit of his journey. Minutes melded into hours and hours into days. It all seemed to be like one single long day. But finally, he reached his destination. But once he reached the kingdom it was... strange, weird even. He had had this image of the perfect place to live and with that he had expected a whole different feeling. He had expected to suddenly feel fed and his thirst be quenched the moment he arrived, as if his destination would have filled up every inch of emptiness inside him. But it didn't. Suddenly his arrival felt less glorious. But he quickly dismissed the feeling and tried to interact with the locals. He figured that the feeling he was expecting would come as soon as he leaned back with a full stomach and a quenched thirst.

He tapped on the leg of a crystal pony, and he could not deny their beauty. Fur sparkling like gemstones, almost giving off the image that they were in fact made out of crystals. But that beauty soon faded. As the pony turned around to face him, the pony changed. Its features twisted into foreign shapes until what was standing before him was no longer pony. Whatever it was, it could not be described, for no such horrors could ever exist in the mortal realm.

Frigidos started to looked around only to find even more wretched creatures, glaring at him with hungry eyes. Frigidos turned the heel and sprung into a panic induced sprint. The hulking creatures were to slow to catch up to him, but for every monster he lost three was soon there to take their place in the hunt.

He ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him but there is only so far you can go on empty reserves. He turned his gaze backwards and saw the massive monstrosities slowly closing in on him. He tried to fly away from the scene only for his wings to give out on him. He got back up on his hooves and continued running. He ran into an alley, hoping to shake them off. The creatures followed him still and now there were monsters on the other side of the alley too.

Trapped! Two walls to his right and left. Snarling beasts behind him and drooling behemoths in front of him. Realizing that all hope was lost he curled into a ball and awaited his oncoming fate. He sobbed. He sobbed and begged the monsters to leave him alone, to go away. He pleaded to his parents to come and take him away from here and lead him back to his warm and comforting home.

But there was no help to be found. He was alone and now he would die alone.

“STOP” A young voice called out. The voice of a little filly. Like angels descending from above came three figures and stood in the way of the monsters. The light that radiated from them was so bright that he sat blinded by them. The fiends growled and scurried away.

One of his saviors approached him and extended a helping hoof. The light faded and he happily took the foal's hoof. Once he got a more clear view he saw that the one who had helped him up on his hooves was a little filly. A faint pink filly with a scarlet mane and with glittering fur. “Are you well” She asked with a voice that was soft and soothing.

With his own feminine voice he spoke: “I am now. Thank you so much”

The young filly smiled at him. “What is your name”

“Fai-... Frigidos. My name is Frigidos... what is yours” he asked in return, slightly embarrassed to ask.

“Frigidos”

Frigidos became confused by the answer. “E-excuse me but did you just say”

“Frigidos” she said in a more worried tone. Suddenly everything dematerialized and evaporated into smoke. His surrounding crumbled and panic rose once again. His saviors vanished into the void and once again he was left alone. Alone with one single word, echoing throughout the nothingness.

Frigidos...Frigidos...Frigidos...

“Frigidos? Frigidos?”

Frigidos awoke with a jerk and started to inhale and exhale heavily. He quickly looked around, taking in his surrounding, making sure that he was safe and away from harms way. He let out a sigh of relief when he came to the realization that he was awake again and that everything had been nothing more than a dream.

“Frigidos, are you-” Twilight said, reaching for him.

He swatted her hoof away like you would a fly. “I am fine! …I am fine” he said and buried his face in his hooves.

Twilight took no offense to the unnecessary act of violence but instead looked at Frigidos with concern.

Frigidos looked up from his hooves and gazed directly at Twilight. A smile immediately grazed his lips. “Well, if it isn't princess Twilight herself. To what do I owe the pleasure”

Twilight saw his smile and felt unnerved. She could never tell whether he was genuine in his gestures or if it was all an act. She also could not help but to feel disgusted whenever she looked at the stallion, the thought of the ponies he had killed simply to make reference to some stupid religious book and not to mention, the attempted murder on her big brother. But she fought against those feelings and decided that if she was to be the one to reform him then she should probably get to know him.

“So... you can do magic?” she asked awkwardly.

Frigidos cocked an eyebrow. That question felt very strained. “Uh, yes. I would say that I am quite capable”

“Are you able to teleport?” she asked, her interest slightly growing by the minute.

He looked at her unamused. “For real? I'm telling you that I can do magic, you have a heard part of what I can do, and the first thing you ask is whether I can do something so basic as teleporting? Any unicorn with half a horn can teleport”

She reeled back, fearing that she had offended him. “Well, you are a Pegasus, not a unicorn”

He shook his head in a defeated manner. “Point”

“So what else can you do then?”

“Just like I told Celesia, I am capable of phyllokinesis, Gyrokinesis, Hyalokinesis, Umbrakinesis, Chronokinesis and using the elemental forces”

“Chronokinesis” she exclaimed.

“Um, well yes. I learned it a couple of years ago”

He had stolen her full attention with that single word. Chronokinesis or time magic is one of the most advanced forms of magic there is. Only the most top level unicorns could use such powerful magic and then it was mostly just for a short time. “How far back in time can you travel?”

“A couple of years” he calmly said, as if that accomplishment was nothing.

“A couple of years?! Most ponies can't travel more than a few days at best. How long can you stay in the past?”

“If that was not abundantly clear yet, I am not like most ponies. As for how long I can stay, just about as long as I want to”

“As lo-”

“I swear to god, if you repeat what I say one more time than I am going to haunt you in your sleep. Well it is not completely true. I can stay as long as I have magical energy to spend. And while a unicorn has near limitless and is only limited by her stamina, my energy is limited to what my marks/runes can contain”

“That is quite amazing. Where did you learn magic like that? And how can you cast them?”

He flashed his tattoos to her. “These works as replacements for the unicorn horn, Twilight. As for where I learned it, I traveled the world and read some of the books that can be found in the Crystal Kingdom. There was no school for magic back in my day. If you wanted to learn, you had to travel”

“Back in your day?” she asked.

“Well, I am from the Crystal Kingdom. I was there long before Sombra banished it”

“And you still know so much?”

“I have spent a great majority of my life learning the convoluted elements of magic, I would not be much of a sorcerer if I had not learned a thing or two”

Twilight was about to speak until they felt that the train was coming to a halt. “Oh, seems like we have arrived. We'll have to finish this conversation at a later time”

“If that is what you wish”.

When they stepped off the train it was in the middle of the night. Everypony eventually split up and went their own different ways to reach home. At the end there was only Frigidos, Twilight and Spike standing in the middle of town. “You'll be staying with us, Frigidos. If that is alright with you?” said Twilight.

He shrugged. “Very well, show the way” said Frigidos.

The walk to the library was a quiet one. Not an uncomfortable or awkward one but rather a pleasant one. The sort of silence when you know that there is nothing that needs to be said and that all you have to do is enjoy the pleasant night. Once they arrived at the library and stepped in there was one detail that Twilight had overlooked that suddenly dawned on her. Frigidos had no place to sleep.

“Um, Frigidos” Said Twilight hesitantly.

“Yes”

“I... um... I have no bed for you to sleep on”

“I see”. He took in his surroundings for a bit. The library gave off a very homey feeling as he stepped inside the house. It was nothing spectacular but it had its own likable charm to it. He tapped the floor with his hooves and took in the pleasant smell that filled the entire library.

He turned to Twilight with toothy grin. “Do not worry yourself, princess. I have dealt with far worse before. I will just sleep on the floor until further notice”

“Are you sure? I could try and find-”

“No, do not think about such matters right now. For now, just lay down in your own comfortable bed and enjoy a good night's sleep”. He walked to the middle of the room and propped himself down on the wooden floor and used his hooves as a makeshift pillow. “See you both tomorrow”

Twilight and Spike looked at each other and shared a concerned look. Spike shrugged and went up the stairs to their room. Twilight was soon after him but not before shooting a glance in Frigidos's direction.

That night she could not manage to get some sleep. For some unknown reason, she was feeling concerned for Frigidos. It was strange. In all actuality she should hate his guts and not care for in the slightest how he is feeling. But there was also this other feeling inside. A feeling which urged her to do something to fulfill her role as a host and to fulfill Celestia's wishes. And urge to offer some form of assistance to Frigidos, in what little ways she could.

She started to ponder what she could do to get rid of this guilty feeling in her gut. She considered the predicament that Frigidos was in. He was without bed, without blanket and without a pillow to use. She groaned in slight frustration as she pulled herself up from the bed and started looking through her closet. In there, as she had suspected, she found a replacement pillow and a battered old blanket. She had planned on throwing it away but it seemed like it would serve a purpose once again.

She quietly opened the door so to not awake Spike from his slumber. She walked down the stairs until she came into contact with something. She ignited her horn to see what it was and was surprised to see Frigidos standing right before her.

“Princess?” asked Frigidos confused. “What are you doing up so late?”

“I-I was just going to... Wait... What are YOU doing up this late?”

“I was just going to see if you had fallen asleep”

She still thought that it was a bit suspicious but she didn't press matters further. “Here, these are for you” She said and levitated the pillow and blanket. Frigidos was dumbfounded. “What are these?” he asked.

“They are for your nightly comfort” she replied. “But if you do not want them I can just put them back in the closet”

“No no, I did not mean to be rude” he said and grabbed the stuff in his own aura, which glowed very similarly to how Twilight's horn would glow when she cast dark magic spells. “Thank you, princess”

She nodded and turned around to go back to sleep. She had fulfilled her duty for the night and was now going to finally get some rest. “Goodnight, Frigidos”

“Goodnight, Twilight Sparkle”

He walked down the stairs again and once he was propped down on the floor again he picked up the knife he had hidden from Twilight. He toyed around a bit with it and looked back up the stairs. “Mission failed” he said to himself. The knife vanished into thin air as remembered that there was one last thing he needed to do. He walked up to a nearby window and looked up into the sky. He closed his eyes and drew four intertwined rings on his chest with his hoof and pressed it in the center of every ring and then whispered: “Dagen är färdig; Å gud herren, se ner på ditt lilla barn! Å ljus av ljus, håll mig sällskap denna natt, som i dina ord du lovat och sagt. Jag behöver inte frukta om du är nära; du är min räddare rar och kär” He said and kissed his hoof and pressed it against the window before going back to sleep.

The duel

The room was quiet, the only sounds that could be heard was the everyday sounds that was the result of a sunny weekend day. Frigidos stood there, eyes wide open, staring right at Twilight, seemingly in a state of shock.

Frigidos rubbed his ears and did his best to scoop out excessive earwax. "Forgive me, Twilight, it seems that my hearing may have been impaired. What was it that you said, cause I am almost certain that I heard you say that you challenged me to a duel."

Twilight's grin grew even wider. "As a matter of fact, I did. And just to clarify it to you, it is a magic duel that I challenge you to."

Frigidos looked like he was near panicking. "Um, Twilight? Are you sure about this? I mean, I don't think that you would be capable of facing me off in a duel like that. You would be humiliated or worse still."

She waved a dismissive hoof. "I do not know how things worked in your time, but now there is no shame in losing. Why are you so afraid of facing me? Are you perhaps not as capable as you say that you are?" Twilight taunted.

Frigidos grew a stern look on his features, obviously not pleased with the questioning of his competence. "You did not just say what I think you said."

"Oh, I did. What are you going to do about it?" She said with a cocky grin.

The temperature in the room sank as the runes on Frigidos's body glowed more intensely. He spread out his vast wings and stretched himself and puffed out his chest in an attempt to make himself look bigger and more intimidating. And in many regards, he succeeded, Twilight felt the shivers going down her spine. But she was not going to give in, so she just stood there, stoically in-front of him without even moving a quarter of an inch. "I have existed even before the founding of Equestria as you know it. I practiced magic before your ancestors were nothing more than seed. I have lived through Sombra's reign of terror unscathed. And you dare to question my power?"

"Uhu"

For a moment he shook uncontrollably and Twilight feared that she may have overstepped HER bounds. She was just about to ask him if he was well until his shaking stopped. He looked up at her with glowing eyes and a devilish grin, revealing his row of sharp teeth to her. "Very well, princess, If you think that you can take me on, then by all means, lets begin." he took a bow and gestured for the door. "Lead the way to our playing field."

Feeling quite pleased with herself she stepped forward to the door and opened it up.

After equipping a simple cloak and hood on himself, they both stepped outside to find a suitable place for their duel. Twilight thought it over and considered what would be an appropriate dueling ground for them. Perhaps somewhere with a bit fewer ponies walking around since the area they were in right now was a bit hectic with all the children running around and magic required a certain extent of calm and concentration, which could prove to be something of a challenge with a bunch of fillies and colts running around. "How about we take this to the town square? There will most likely be less ponies there and we will have lots of space to work with."

"Whichever place you deem to be fitting." He said in a disinterested tone.

Without another words she led him down through town, heading towards the aforementioned location. On the short way there, Frigidos took a bit of time to admire his surroundings. The dirt roads felt far more natural and comfortable walking in than the hard cobble and marble stone floors and roads of Canterlot. The town had a very rustic and homey feeling to it. Like you could be anyone coming from any part of the world and still be welcomed in with open arms. It stood far away from any other point of civilization, so secluded and yet so open. So a thought struck Frigidos. How did they supply themselves? Other villages and cities are so far away that it seemed unlikely that they could sustain themselves on one single train. Unless of course there was something he was missing. He has yet to explore the entirety of Ponyville so it could quite possibly be a mostly self-relying and independent town. At least for the most part. There should most likely be a farm around here somewhere. It wouldn't surprise him if the country mare he had met earlier was a worker there. Seemed too fitting and perfect to not be true.

The weather was bright and clear, the weather team had clearly put a lot of effort into making this as beautiful a day as they could make it. And it was much appreciated by the townsfolk. The streets was filled with ponies of varying ages and sizes, all going about their everyday life. The adults wandered the streets, conversing with one another, perhaps enjoying a little bite at one of the local restaurants and cafes.

Meanwhile, the children enjoyed all else that life had to offer them. Running around and playing their various games, the most popular as it would seem appeared to be a game about kicking a rubbery ball around without rhyme or reason other than to have the ball.

But what stuck out the most to him was how many of them seemed to be so fascinated by him. Everypony stared at him and he had no idea as to why that was. There was nothing really about that would make him stand out of a crowd since he had deactivated his markings and thus removing the glowing eyes and fangs. So what was it that brought all of their attention to him? Was it because he was new to the town? Did they really take notice of such things? Either way it was starting to make him feel uncomfortable. After a lifetime of shadows and avoiding public appearances, all the sudden attention was completely foreign to him.

"Here we are" said Twilight suddenly, breaking Frigidos out of his line of thought.

Frigidos looked around at his surroundings again, and with a clearer mind, free from the frustration he had earlier felt, he took notice of that this was a largely populated area. Lots of ponies were walking around and some had even formed a little group that had followed them. Suddenly this idea seemed ill advised.

"Um, you know Twilight, Come to think of it this seems like a pretty bad idea. Perhaps we should pull away from this and just return back to the library." said Frigidos.

"Why? You seemed so confident just a mere moment ago."

"True, but now it seems like we have an entourage. But if you really want this to happen then perhaps you could kindly ask them to back off for a bit?"

"Ok, shouldn't be a problem. Um, could everypony please take a few steps back before we begin our duel?" Twilight told them.

"Duel? What duel?" asked some mare in the crowd.

"You will see soon enough. Now please, step back." Twilight said a bit harsher this time around.

Everypony did as she said and backed off to give them their required space. Twilight turned her gaze back to Frigidos and gave him a look that spoke: Are you ready?

Frigidos took another look around and let out a sigh. I guess I can't get out of this one without appearing like a liar or a coward. He thought. "Guess I will be as ready as I will ever be." Frigidos proceeded to remove his cloak and toss it aside. His markings flared up with a menacing glow, his eyes changed color and the air lost its summer heat. The witnesses around them stood confused and uncertain what to make of this. Frigidos twisted his neck until loud pops from his bones could be heard.

"So how will we do this? Traditional rules?"

"Absolutely. I am ready whenever you are, Frigidos."

"Then lets begin. Since you challenged me, I should be the one to open with the first spell. But I would much rather see what you are capable of yourself first, Twilight."

Murmurs could be heard from the gathering of ponies. Who was this pony, talking about casting spells? He is a pegasus for crying out loud!

"Very well then. Let's see if you can keep up with something simple." she said and prepared her first spell. Frigidos stood fast and pulled his wings up in front of him as if they were a shield. What is he doing? Thought Twilight. But ultimately she cared little for what he did and just focused on her own spell. She unleashed the magic she built up in her horn and directed it towards the sole surface of his body which was in clear view to her. His wings. An aura covered his wings in magical energy and so he closed his eyes and steeled himself for the worst possible thing.

Nothing? He thought to himself. He opened his eyes again and to his surprise he found his wings changed from their natural violet color to a green hue. "What in the world has..." he separated his wings and looked back at Twilight, a cocky and proud smirk on her face. "What did you do to my wings?" he demanded.

"I simple alteration spell. I changed the pigments in your feathers to another color. I told you I would start off simple. Now the question is can you counter it?"

Frigidos looked as if someone had just insulted him. "Are you kidding me?" he said and started to shake his wings. Very quickly, his wings returned to their natural color, as if he was shaking paint off of his wings. "Very good. Your move." Said Twilight, though hiding it, feeling rather impressed by Frigidos' usage of actual magic. Never could she have imagined that a pegasus could use actual, non-weather, magic.

"Is this a jest? Are you coming at me with such weak, pathetic spells? Do something else."

Twilight reeled back. "Um, ok." she said cautiously. It sounded like she had offended him somehow. Hoping to fix it by doing something more impressive while still keeping it simple. Anyone rookie spell-caster could change pigment color, it takes a more experienced one to alter another creatures appearance. So once again she prepared her next spell and cast it at Frigidos. A beam of light shot out from her horn and hit Frigidos square in the face. Frigidos expected pain but instead experienced a sort of tickling feeling. Frigidos prodded his face with his hoof and felt something. His face was covered in facial hair. A long and twirly mustache on his upper lip and a short goatee on his chin. The gathered ponies started to laugh at Twilights silly trick while Frigidos growled under his breath.

Frigidos brought up his wings towards his face and in a flash, they changed color again, taking on a more steel gray color. He brought them along his muzzle and cut off the mustache he had been given as if his wing was a razor. How in the... thought Twilight.

Frigidos brought his wing to his chin but then stopped. He stroked his petit goatee. "You know what? I actually like this. Thanks, Twilight." he said. "But that still does not dismiss the fact that you still keep on pulling your punches. Why won't you give me the good stuff?" he said accusingly.

"I thought I should just keep it simple. But if you want to set a different pace then by all means, cast a spell of your own." Twilight barked back.

An evil grin spread on Frigidos' features. Suddenly Twilight got the urge to run away as fast as she could. "As you wish."

Twilight barely had the chance to react. Eyes and marks flared up in a mere instant and just as quickly as that had happened, Frigidos brought the feather tips of his wings together and in the space between them appeared a ball of golden magical energy that launched towards her. It took all of her might (and with some magical acceleration) to take flight and avoid the orb. She looked down to see what happened, and by the looks of it, the moment it came into contact with the ground it resulted in it just disappearing into golden mist, and with the sound of a thud, caused loose dirt to be tossed around. The ponies that had gathered gasped and took several more steps backwards. Frigidos looked up at Twilight, taking notice that she wobbled a whole lot, unable to keep her balance in the air. "Hm, curious."

Twilight glared daggers at Frigidos, unable to make it look dignified with the way she was wobbling in the air. "What in tartarus are you doing?!" She cried out at him.

"Stepping things up." he answered and again she saw his wings again take on a steely color. He gave a powerful flap of his wings in her direction and from his wings flew feathers straight towards her. Not daring to take any risks with this scenario she conjured up a bubble-shield to defend herself. She realized how fortunate she was to have made that decision as the feathers collided with the shield and penetrated it, sticking to it. But with her focus on the shield, she forgot to keep balance and give enough strength to her wings which resulted in her falling to the ground. She used the same spell to protect her from the impact of the fall. She stood back up on her hooves and tried to get a look at Frigidos. But all she could see was another barrage of feather and a golden orb flying straight at her. The bubbles thin wall got penetrated by the feathers like before and the orbs collision caused a great explosion this time around, causing the shield to crack. As the dust came clear another barrage came. And another and another. What exactly was he trying to accomplish? Was he trying to kill her? She poured every ounce of magic she had in her into the shield in an attempt to not have it break. The ponies around started to panic and run away.

"What's the matter, Twilight!? Did a gryphon steal your spell book!?" She heard Frigidos laughing over the explosions. "Come on! The element of magic must know more spells than this!"

Twilight forced even more magic into the shield, so much in fact that it proved to be overwhelming for the poor little bubble to receive so much sudden raw energy. The shield shrank and expanded at such velocity that it created a minor shock wave which forced Frigidos to stumble and halt his onslaught. Twilight took this opportunity to counterattack. She unleashed beam after beam of magic at Frigidos in an attempt to keep him down. But to her surprise it seemed to have the opposite result. Frigidos stood up tall and strong as his markings glowed even brighter. It was if she was charging him up.

"Tsk tsk tsk, is that the best you can do, princess? Surely you must have better tricks up your sleeve or you wouldn't have challenged me to begin with." he said and shot a golden beam of his own. The golden beam struck her straight in the chest and she was flung into the town hall. The impact to the floor knocked the air out of her lungs and she struggled to fill the up again. She forced herself up on her hooves again and looked over to the entrance. In through the shattered door trotted a calm and grinning Frigidos. "Call me impressed, Twilight. You took that beam like an ogre and walked out of it without a scratch. Now then, do you have anything to counter that with?"

Twilight had an idea, but she did not know how well that would work. But it didn't matter, she needed a way out of here and the only way out was right behind Frigidos. She brought her wings together just like how she had seen Frigidos do earlier. She did her best to imitate what he had done and started to pour magic into that specific spot. The magic was clumsy and it went a bit into all places so she started to use her wings to try and form an orb out of the magic and eventually she succeeded. She had no idea how the spell worked so she tried to balance the spell with as much magic as she could but no matter how much she tried it refused to grow any bigger than the minimal size it was in. No doubt it would barely cause any damage whatsoever to him. Maybe it was a spell that took a lot of magic to perform? But then that raised the question as to how much magic Frigidos actually had. But one thing caught her attention. Her orb was the same color as all of her spells, the color of her eyes, just like any other unicorn instead of the golden one of Frigidos. But his eyes are naturally ice-blue. So why isn't his magic the same color?

But Twilight caught her mind wander away from what was actually relevant. And what was relevant was that Frigidos was approaching her in slow strides, clearly enjoying the moment. Panicking, Twilight forced even more magic into her orb to the point where she started to feel exhausted and "threw" it at Frigidos in the hopes that it would at least do something despite its small size. Its velocity was quite minimal as Frigidos had more than enough time to actually dodge it. But instead he just stood there waiting for it. He probably didn't expect much out of it and was just waiting to absorb it like how he had absorbed her earlier beams. Seconds passed by without anything happening other than her orb slowly approaching him. Then it finally collided with him and the result was unexpected. Scratch unexpected, more like shocking. The moment the orb came into contact with him, the explosion that followed was so massive that it caused a blinding light and made the earth quake.

Twilight closed her eyes to avoid the bright light. When the light faded she opened her eyes and immediately regretted her decision of using the spell. Where there once was a doorway there was now only a massive hole in the wall and the floor had completely shattered. And Frigidos was nowhere to be seen. She carefully treaded past the broken floor and out of the town hall. She turned around to take a good look at her work and was horrified. The damage she had caused was near causing the building to collapse on itself. She turned around in hopes of finding Frigidos. And she did. But not in the state she was hoping for.

Further ahead of her she found him buried into a house wall. She ran forward to him, and the sight was even more grisly than she had first expected. Three big iron rods had penetrated his side and was jutting out of the other. He was coughing up his own blood as he tried to move his head to look at Twilight. He just smiled. "First to draw blood wins." he said. He looked at the rods sticking out of his side and then back at her. "I think you succeeded in that regard."

Before Twilight had a chance to respond she heard something from behind.

"TWILIGHT!"

She turned around and saw her friends approaching her quickly. "Twilight, what happened." Asked Applejack.

"Frigidos and I just had a duel and then-"

"AHHH!" Rarity screeched.

Everypony turned their eyes away from Twilight and found their eyes locked at Frigidos.

"T-T-Twilight? W-What happened?" asked Fluttershy.

"I can explain. We were just having a duel and then-"

"Get me down."

Twilight too turned around to look at Frigidos. "What?"

"Get me down from here"

Rarity was the first to oblige. She used her levitation spell to slowly and carefully pull him out. She was very cautious so that she did not worsen the damage done to him. After a couple of grunts and moans she was able to pull him out as blood squirted out on the ground. "Now help me up."

"F-Frigidos, you should lie down until help comes." Fluttershy suggested. She knew exactly how serious this was. The rods had pierced his lungs and possibly damaged his heart. How he was even able to be so calm and speak properly was beyond her.

"No need. I can help myself. Now just get me up."

Rainbow Dash and Applejack stepped forward and held him under each wing and slowly pulled him up on his hooves, getting blood smeared on their fur. The markings on his body glowed more intense again and Applejack and Rainbow Dash immediately regretted standing so close when this happened as Frigidos' markings chilled them to the bones. Minutes like this passed until they felt that he now stood on his own. Carefully, they moved away from him and found that he was able to stand without their help. They also noticed that the holes that was earlier present on his body had all simply vanished. The ponies were astonished. How was this possible? How could those wounds have just healed like that? Twilight was about to ask how but he raised a hoof to halt her. His breaths were uneasy and ragged. They saw how he dry-heaved and understood what he was doing. Seconds later he regurgitated. But instead of something like vomit he heaved out blood.

Pinkie caught a fainting Fluttershy and the others seemed like they were on the verge of vomiting themselves.

After that whole incident he soon stood right back up and cleared his throat. He looked at the mane six and found them staring at him with confused and horrified expressions.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

"Something the matter!?" Twilight exclaimed. "You were just pierced by 30 inch rods straight through your ribcage! How in tartarus are you still walking?! Why are the holes fixed!?"

"The holes? Oh you mean that! My apologies, such insignificant damage is so common in my line of work, so patching it up is pretty much no big matter to me. Such wounds are easily healed."

"But not even the most advanced healing spells can perform such feats."

"Well then, lets consider myself lucky that it was not a healing spell I used."

"Then what did you use?"

He waved a hoof dismissively. "Irrelevant. Something that is relevant though is why you used such a powerful spell on me. Did you actually try to kill me?" he said jokingly.

The ponies and little dragon all turned to Twilight, shocked to hear this. "Twilight?

Did you do this?" asked Spike and pointed towards the broken town hall and house wall.

"I-I..." she could not find the words. The way they looked at her made her feel like she was being accused by them. She turned away from them, not daring to meet their gazes. She looked towards Frigidos and, weirdly enough, it made her feel better, safer, as if he was the only one that was not judging her right now. "I didn't mean it. I thought that the small size of the orb meant that it would be weak so I just poured more and more magic into it. I had no idea that it would be as powerful as it was."

Frigidos nodded. "I believe you. And as ridiculous and perhaps cliché as it may just sound..." he said approaching the other and put his hooves over Spike's finned ears.

"Size does not matter. Least of all with magic." he uncovered Spike's ears. "As for the rest of you, do not worry yourselves and do not be too harsh with Twilight. It was a rookie mistake, nothing more."

"WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY HALL!?"

Everypony turned around and found the mayor standing in the middle of the town square, taking in the sight of the broken hall in-front of her.

"Now if you excuse me..." Frigidos said as he made his way forward. "We will explain everything to you back at the library later. But now, there is a certain mayor that I must speak to... That is the mayor, I assume?"

Everypony nodded.

"Well then, why don't you all go back to the library and talk this through, while I go and pay for the damages?"

"Wait, what?" Twilight said. "You can't do that. I am responsible for these damages."

"Do you have the money to pay for the repairs?"

"Well... no, but-"

"But nothing. Just go back to the library and let me take care of this, okay?" he looked towards the other ponies. "Escort her back there, would you?"

They nodded and started to direct her back home. Once back in the library they all sat down in a circle around the floor. "Now then, Twilight. I think you owe us an explanation." Said Rarity.

Attempt 1: Bonding over dragons and magic

The early morning sun's first rays and the chipper chirping of the summer birds awoke the tired princess from her peaceful slumber. She groaned and turned away from the invading light, wishing to return to the wonderful realm that was her dreams. Feeling to tired to bother using any magic and even less able to get up and close the blinds herself, she jumped right to the most obvious answer to her dilemma.

Tell Spike to close them of course.

“Spike” she moaned. “Close the blinds.”

…

No answer. She figured that he was still soundly asleep. But feeling to frustrated by the sun that has so rudely interrupted her sleep she did not think of being bit more gentle and understanding of her young baby dragon. “Spike, close the blinds.” she commanded. Still no response, not even a heavy breathing or a snore.

She groaned and sat up, about to give Spike a piece of her mind for being so inconsiderate of her, hypocritical as she may be. But to her astonishment, he was nowhere to be found.

“That's odd. He is usually still asleep by this time.”

Reluctantly she decided that maybe it was time to wake up anyway. She closed the blinds a little bit to limit the sunlight that got in, barely illuminating the room. She walked up to the mirror and started to brush out her mane, getting it out of its tangled morning state. Her mane was a real work of art this morning. The messy hair was standing out in every direction and some parts was so badly tangled that when she tried to comb them out it felt like she was about to tear her own hair out if she tried.

“Where could Spike be this early?” she asked herself. “Could he be at Rarity's? No, he wouldn't go there this early unless he was invited. I suppose that he is doing his chores then. Maybe he wants to impress me so that I will treat him to something. Or maybe he is just downstairs making break...”

A thought struck her in her dazed morning state. Spike was downstairs. Frigidos was also downstairs. The two of them were downstairs together. Spike was alone with Frigidos.

…

“SPIKE!” She cried out in fear for her baby dragon's wellbeing. Pulled the door open and rushed down the stairs, accidentally slipping on a step, resulting in a very painful tumbling down the stairs until she hit her hard wooden floor.

“Twilight!” a young childish voice called out from the kitchen.

She slowly opened her eyes, wincing in pain from the tumble. Her gaze locked on her number one assistant who was kneeling by her side and fuzzing over her, making sure that she was well.

“Twilight, are you ok?” Spike asked worriedly.

She started to push herself up on her hooves, giving him a comforting smile. “I'm alright, Spike. I'm alright.” she said, not taking her gaze off of Spike.

His gaze softened as his worries faded away. His eyes trailed upwards until they rested on her mane. He started to snort and chuckle while trying to resist laughing.

“What is it, Spike?” she asked.

“*snort* Your mane.” He said.

It was a bit of an interesting sight. Like two sides of one coin. The left half of her mane was clean and combed out and silky smooth. The right side on the other hoof looked like a ravaged battlefield. Tangles in every second inch of her mane swirls and a few porcupine strands.

“Hehe, you look hilarious, Twilig– OUCH!” he cried out in an exaggerated manner.

Twilight looked up from Spike and saw that Frigidos was standing right behind him, with a ladle in his mouth. “Spike, It is rude to comment badly on a lady's appearance” he scolded the young dragon.

“Twilight is not a lady. Ouch!”

“And it is awfully rude to say such a thing.”

“Stop hitting my assistant!” Twilight exclaimed and positioned herself between Spike and Frigidos.

A smirk spread on Frigidos features. “Forgive me, Twilight. It seems that I have stepped out of my boundaries again” He said all while still keeping that grin on him.

She let out a frustrated sigh. “Very well, I'll forgive you for now, but I don't want to hear that you do something like this ever again. Understood?”

“Loud and clear.” he saluted. “So, how about some breakfast?” he said and turned to walk towards the kitchen. Hesitantly, Twilight follow suit, making sure that Spike stayed behind her. On the table stood plates with various foods. It was nothing spectacular, but it was still a bit more than their average breakfast.

They all took a seat and took just a moment to enjoy the smell that filled the room. Spike reached forward to grab a small gem from a bowl until he saw a big feathery limb covering the crystalline goods. “Now now, Spike, what is up with you and your manners.” Said Frigidos.

“What is it now” Spike whined. “I was just going to get something to eat, what is wrong with that?”

“Nothing. As long as you follow proper etiquette and courtesy. First we have to give thanks”

“Oh, ok. Thank you for making the food, Frigidos. Now hand me those gems”

Frigidos chuckled and refused to give them back. “Not to me, silly. We must give thanks to God for this blessing”

Spike froze for a moment and sat down again looking confused. He turned to Twilight, hoping that she could give him an explanation. Twilight didn't even spare him a look. Her gaze was focused completely on Frigidos. She looked at him with a mix of feelings. She was confused, intrigued and just a little bit angry. “Frigidos, I don't want you to teach Spike nonsense.”

Now it was Frigidos' turn to look confused. “Nonsense? You mean that you usually don't do things like this.” he asked

“Twilight, what is a god?” Spike asked.

Frigidos turned to Spike and then to Twilight and then back to Spike again. He closed his eyes and let out an understanding and sad sigh. “Why did I not expect this?”

“Expect what?” Asked Twilight.

“That you do not believe in a God or the fact that you wouldn't even teach your son about such a thing.”

“She is not my mom!” Spike protested.

“He is not my son!”

Frigidos waved a hoof, asking them to lower their voices. “Forgive me if I have offended any of you, but it is tradition where I come from to make sure that if anypony wishes to give thanks, then you will let them before anypony starts eating. And I would really like to avoid a debate about the matter, so may I just say my prayer before we start eating?”

Twilight was hesitant. On the one hoof she did not have any love for the idea of a higher power, nor for Frigidos and she didn't want Spike getting any weird ideas. But then again, she should make him feel as comfortable as possible if their plan is going to work. And with that in mind she decided to humor him just this once. She sighed. “Go ahead.”

He gave her a nod of appreciation. He lowered his head and closed his eyes as he brought up his hooves and pressed them against each other. He then started to mumble something in a language she did not understand, nor recognize. After a short while he was done and he gestured for Spike that it was now okay to eat. Spike didn't miss a beat as he dug in ravenously into the gems in the bowl.

“If I may ask, Twilight. Why do you indulge his desire for gems? It is not exactly cheap to get your hooves on some of these.” Frigidos asked with concern.

“Oh, that is no problem at all. Our friend Rarity is a master at finding gems of every kind and uses them for her dress-making. Any gems that has too many impurities, flaws or just the leftovers from her gem-cutting she leaves to me and Spike for him to enjoy.” said Twilight.

“Really now? How generous of her.”

Spike then shot up as if he had just remembered something. “Shoot, I promised Rarity that I would be there by morning.” He said. He grabbed the bowl and poured all the gems into his mouth, giving him the appearance of a chipmunk with it's cheeks stuffed. “Bye, Twilight. Cya later, Frigidos.”

The two ponies waved goodbye as Spike exited the library.

The tension in the room grew thick. Twilight didn't know what she would or could say next. On the one hoof she would really like to explore more about his history and maybe get an answer to as to why he hold belief in something so ludicrous as a god.

But what she really wanted to find out about was how skilled in magic he was and how much he actually knew. He seemed rather skilled with the little he had told her about what he could do but she stood curious as to how far that skill reached, and most importantly, where he learned to use magic to begin with. But first, there was something else he needed to talk to him about.

“Frigidos?” she said, trying to get his attention.

He looked up from his pancakes and apple slices in cinnamon. “Yes, Twilight?”

“I just wanted to ask... What did you and Spike talk about?”

“Heh, getting worried about your little dragon, eh? Do not worry yourself, Twilight, I haven't said anything to him that could be considered harmful.” he said with a slight hint of humor in his voice as he munched on another slice of apple.

“And I suppose that you don't consider religion to be a harmful subject?”

Frigidos stopped mid-bite. He looked up at Twilight once again, every last drop of friendliness and humor had been drained out of him like water in an unplugged bathtub. “Do you consider it to be?”

Too late did Twilight realize that she had stepped on a sore point so she figured that she might as well continue this argument as she saw no other way out of it. “Yes, I consider it to be harmful, especially to someone so young.”

“And why is that?”

Twilight was about to retort, she had a whole line up of arguments as to why she considered religion to be a bad influence for children, or just about anyone for that matter, but before she could make as much as a sound, Frigidos raised his hoof to halt her. “Actually, you know what? Forget it. I do not want to argue about this, so for now let us just agree to disagree and move on. I did not tell him anything harmful in either of our perspectives.”

“How would you know whether I would find your topic inappropriate or not?”

“We were talking about dragons. Is that unfitting for a child to hear?”

Twilight ears twitched. Did she hear that right? “You... You were talking about dragons?”

He shrugged. “Well, to be more specific, I talked and he listened. It all started as a curiosity question on my part and it eventually evolved into a full blown questions and answers session.”

“So... would you consider yourself learned on dragons?”

“Learned?” he scoffed in a humorous way. “I would go as far as to consider myself the leading pony expert on dragon culture, social behavior, history and all there is in-between.”

And from there the new session started. Forgetting all about his previous wrongs, forgetting all about his magical prowess, her full attention turned to the idea of learning more about dragonkind. And, much to her surprise, Frigidos was fully willing to indulge her in her thirst for knowledge. For hours they just sat there at the kitchen table, talking about dragons and their different habits: Social habits, moving habits, mating habits and so much more, all while Twilight sat there and took notes.

“And what about family? Do dragons have families, do they care for their young or do they just leave each other?”

“Dragons can form families but it is far more common that they just shag and then separate as that is a far more efficient way to reproduce. Dragons are few in numbers so they do what they deem to be the best option to keep their numbers growing.”

“And the eggs?”

“The mothers are very protective of their young and would defend them with their lives if it would come down to it. They have to be careful, cause a female only lays a clutch once and then that is it. If that clutch fails, then the female will never know what it is like to raise hatchlings.”

“Thats... really tragic.”

“I suppose so, yes. But luckily that so rarely happens. The females grow much stronger and more powerful after being impregnated, so they can fight off most males who would even dare to come too close. Other females respect an expecting dragon's wish for privacy though.”

“So there is no way that a female would just leave her unhatched child all alone then, right?”

“No way in any of the many hells would that ever happen. The only reason a female would or could be separated from her young would be if she was killed by something. Otherwise, I can't possibly think of any other reason.”

“...Did you tell this to Spike?” she asked, feeling concerned.

He shook his head. “No, I wouldn't say something so grim to someone so young. Especially not on such a beautiful, early morning.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Thats good to hear. I was worried there for a moment.”. She put the notes she had been taking aside. “I think we should end it there for now. But I would love to hear more about the dragons at a later point.”

He smiled gently. “And I would be happy to comply. But since we are already having such a pleasant conversation, is there possibly something else that you would like to talk about?”

She brightened up slightly, this was the perfect opportunity to talk about his magic. “Yes actually. I have been more than a little curious as to how you can perform magic.”

He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Spike never told you how I do it?”

“Uhm, no, I think he may have forgotten to mention that.”

“Oh? I see. Well then, allow me to demonstrate.” he said and stood up from the chair. And stepped to the side so that his entire body was in clear view for Twilight. He spread out his wings and took a deep breath and as he exhaled, the markings appeared all over his body. His grinned as this happened and she took notice of the small changes that happened when they did. His fur became a darker color, his eyes went from golden to the eyes of Sombra, his front row of teeth sunk into his gums before growing back out in a more sharpened shape. “Behold, the power of rune-crafting.”

“Amazing.” she said as she walked up to him and inspected his whole body. She traced her hooves over the markings and felt their icy cold lines. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the lines were not line at all, but small, tiny sentences in a foreign language, possibly the one he had spoken in at the table. “What does these words mean?”

He chuckled. “You will have to be more specific than that, Twilight. There are a lot of words on me.”

“Um... this one.” she said and pointed to a specific piece of text that was a very short sentence. Frigidos looked at it and translated: “Thee who believeth shall never die.”

“Another religious text, huh?” she deadpanned, feeling her interest in the marks fading slightly.

“They are all scriptures from our holy texts. Although the runes does not have to be religious, it is common that they are.”

Her ears perked again. “They don't?”

“No. We crystal ponies are not sure as to where the power is really coming from, but what we do know is that the writing must follow a pattern, and that the text inscribed must be something that the carver holds dear or close to there heart. In the case of writing them on a living creature, the text must be something that connects to the both of us. Religion is something that was a part of both mine and my friends life so it was the perfect subject to write the runes with.”

“Fascinating. I have never heard of this sort of magic before.”

“Well, we crystal ponies do not have any magic of our own so we had to find some other way to compensate for it.”

“Who was this friend of yours?”

Frigidos tensed up for just a second, but it did not go unnoticed by Twilight. “Her name was Ruby Rose. A very dear friend of mine. She helped in creating these runes on my body. She was an expert in rune-crafting.”

“Why did she make them? Did you want them?”

“I honestly had no idea that these marks could help me do what I can do now, or that they would even work to begin with. Sombra simply commanded that I should be the first in a long line of magic using ponies for his army. Let us leave it at that for now.”

She nodded, figuring that there was no point in pushing the subject forward, it could only lead to bad things.

“You mentioned that you traveled the world to learn more about magic. Have you ever tried making a spell of your own?”

He smiled a bright smile, seemingly proud of what he was about to say. “I have, actually. I created a few combat spells of my own, a few utility spells, and my proudest achievement, I invented the art of enchanting words and sentences.”

“Words? How do you enchant words?”

“It is kind of hard to explain.”

“Can you try?”

“... its kind of like enchanting air, to try and pour magic into something that is intangible, without true physical form. It is near impossible. But then I figured out exactly what it is that makes you able to infuse magic into an object.”

“What is it?”

“Knowledge, understanding. It may sound as basic as it comes but hear me out. As long as you understand what an object is, you can enchant it. For example:” he said and walked up to the wall and put his hoof on it. “What is this?”

“My wall?”

He groaned. “Yes, it is your wall, but what is it made of?”

“Wood.”

He nodded. “Precisely! And where does wood come from?”

“Trees.”

“And where does tree grow?”

“In the ground.” Twilight started to grow restless with his tedious and obvious questions. She silently wished that he would just get to the point.

“What is it in the ground that grows?”

“A seed.”

“And why does the seed grow?”

“(Scientific explanation)”

“And what does a tree do?”

“It makes oxygen.”

“How does it makes oxygen?”

“Through photosynthesis. Is this getting us anywhere!?”

“It is. You see, it is far easier to enchant something that is tangible because it is easier to understand and come to terms with. Your knowledge of the tree does not have to be so thorough in order to control it. But it makes it easier.” he said as he removed his hoof from the surface of the wall. And along the path that he pulled his hoof, a streak of wood followed in its path. “Air is more difficult.” he said and made a gesture with his hoof that made the wood retreat back into the wall. “Air is intangible and thus so much harder to infuse as it is harder for most to understand. Can you describe air? What it looks like and how it feels to hold it? What it tastes like? I do not imagine that you could, so therefore you must understand the true basics of air. And in truth, air is nothing more than a mixture of gases. And once you realize that, you can infuse magic into the very air itself.”

“And how does that help you enchant words?”

He grinned again. “Simple. Can you tell me the definition of a word?”

“Which word?”

“No word, just the word word.”

She sighed, starting to feel that this was all pointless, but her still peaked interest of a new form of magic intrigued her enough to comply. “A unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions.”

He shook his head from side to side for a short bit. “Good enough, spoken like it was taken right from a dictionary. So basically how this works is that you cast a worldwide spell that affects every living, sentient creature, with specific effect at specific times. The more power there is in the spell you want to use, the more enchanted words are needed. I for one used this to combine a teleportation spell together with a dematerialization spell together with a little old nursery rhyme. As for how you enchant the word, you just need to-”

“Wait, wait. Hold on for one little moment here! You mean to tell me that you can cast a spell that has a worldwide effect? That sounds impossible.” she interrupted him, starting to question his legitimacy.

“It is not as hard as one might think. You just need enough concentration, an open surrounding and a lot, and I mean a lot of magical energy to spend. But anyway, as for how you enchant a word, it works like this: First you need to understand the definition of every single word you are going to use. Then you need to bottle up as much magic as you can just possibly muster. Once you got those steps down, you need to repeat those words endlessly through the entire process, as you slowly release the magic into the wide world. This is an extremely tedious process that took me many years to complete and perfect. Now, when anyone speaks the whole nursery rhyme, I can find out exactly where they are, and if they finish the rhyme with an extra, short sentence then I can teleport to them at will and with minimal magical cost.”

Twilight just stood there, staring at him with a deadpan look. Frigidos smile faded from his features. Something was off here. “Twilight? Something the matter?”

“I think you are lying.”

His brow shot up as far as they could go and his eyes were open wide. Then they furrowed and he looked infuriated. “What did you just accuse me of?”

“Lying. I'm accusing you of lying to me to make yourself sound better than you actually are. The sort of magic you describe is just impossible and yet here you stand claiming to be able to do so, and with apparent ease. I am having a hard time believing you.”

He approached her until he was right at her face. “I am many things, Twilight. A murderer, a traitor, a monster and more. But there is one thing that I am not, and that is a liar.”

“And how can I be sure of that? Could you give me a demonstration?”

“How? Do you want me to leave the land and then wait for you to attempt it?”

Twilight agreed, that was a very poor idea. Maybe some other day when they know for sure that they can trust him. So she thought about what they could do. She really wanted to see what he could do, but then again she now had doubts about whether he was actually capable or not. So how could she test him? And then she got an idea. An awfully wonderful idea. If she could somehow force him to show off his best tricks then she could see just to what extent his power goes. Although she had to admit that it all hanged on whether he was the competitive sort or not. Oh well, might as well try, what is the worst thing that can happen?

“Frigidos!” She said loudly. “I challenge you to a magic duel!”