Tomb of Magic

I pressed my ear to the door.

"-just look at what she wrote about me!" Sombra's voice shouted.

Wait, Sombra?!

I slumped to the ground, which caused a soft thumping noise to occur.

Hoofsteps came closer from the other side. Was somepony preparing to open the door?

I felt the cold crystal door's presence behind me vanish.

"Twilight?" asked a soft voice.

I turned around, looked up, and smiled. "Cadance!"

I immediately bolted up, exclaiming: "Sunshine, sunshine-"

Cadance shook her head slightly and made a dismissive gesture with her hoof.

"Twilight, can you come in?"

Why was she being so serious?

"Okay..."

But our hoofshake...

I followed her inside and put my saddlebags into the nearest corner.

The room was almost exactly how I remembered it: round table, small book shelves, etc. The difference was that Cadance and Sombra were sitting at opposite sides of the table, with Cadance being the closer to me.

A smashed crystal bust lay on the floor.

"Hi," I whispered.

He growled and the next thing I knew a familiar sword was up to my throat, hilt clasped with magic aura.

Sombra stood behind it, his crimson eyes half hidden by ragged bangs.

"Make one more move. I dare you. Say one more word. Breathe one more breath and you'll see-"

"STOP!" Cadance yelled, panic shining in her purple eyes.

I looked up into his eyes and realized that he would kill me.

No hesitation this time.

I looked over to Cadance, who was visibly distraught.

She then walked over to Sombra who must have been deciding the best way to fillet me, and whispered something I couldn't catch. It must have been important because he teleported back to his seat at the table, eyes filled with firey mania.

Was he...

...biting his lip...?

It was to restrain himself, he truly would have killed me.

Cadance noticed my frozen postion.

"Come sit next to me, Twilight," she offered gently.

Despite her warm tone, I knew it was something I had to do.

Deep breaths...

I nervously padded and sat close to her.

Sombra's gaze continued to bore into me so I ducked my head, lowered my eyes, and scooted closer to Cadance.

"So, Sombra and Twilight, I would like both of you to separately explain what happened to you two. Tell this to me, not each other, no more fighting okay?"

I let Sombra go first, considering had it been otherwise, he would have skinned me.

"I was ambushing a bandit camp," began Sombra, "which is probably going to get me in trouble later but- oh, never mind. While I was doing this, I found her of all ponies there. With wings. Near dead. I still don't understand why she has wings, but I doubt just anypony becomes...or is it ascends?...to alicorn status. So, I decided to take her with me because dead alicorns are inconvenient, which is why I had to spend large amounts of energy healing her while she is out for seven days and nights-"

Cadance was actively listening and nodding, when I realized...if I was out for a week and we were on the train for roughly two weeks, that means not only was I out for much longer then I thought, but I have been putting up with Sombra for almost a month.

"-and the way she repays me for saving her oh-so-precious life and teaching her a dead magic is by making me seem like a mindless sadist when clearly I'm not! You know I'm not, Princess Amore. Why don't you tell her, or- oh confound it all! I can just show her-"

Cadance turned to me as if he wasn't even there, looking as calm as ever.

"Twilight, it's your turn."

I wanted to tell her that interrupting him was a terrible idea and that she might meet the wrong end of his sword, but all he did was grumble and roll his eyes before taking a sudden interest in what was happening outside.

Although I was still avoiding Sombra's gaze, this didn't stop me from turning to Cadance and telling her everything.

Everything.

She listened patiently, growing more concerned with every word until her face broke out into an expression of pity. But strangely she didn't look surprised.

"I think I know what is wrong here," Cadance mused.

"And what might that be?" Sombra muttered sarcastically.

"Do you want my advice or not?" Cadance asked sternly, arching one eyebrow.

An understanding seemed to pass between them before Sombra rolled his eyes as if to say 'go on' and gave her a 'give it all you've got but I don't care too much one way or the other' look.

Cadance cleared her throat and made sure that we were both paying attention.

"I think the main issue is miscommunication. You both are smart, powerful, headstrong, and stubborn leader-type ponies, but mark my words: the similarities end there. Sombra, you have horrible communication skills, are easily provoked, a surefire loner, and have a sadistic streak-"

He's also a complete jerk, I added silently.

"-but Twilight, I don't think that anything he did to you was right, although not everything you wrote was right either. Sombra, could you also try to tell her what kind of questions are off-limits, and perhaps...threaten to kill her less? It isn't a smart move for somepony who carries themselves like a genius, and the more obvious reason is it's just plain wrong."

I lifted my eyes from the glossy surface of the table to find Sombra staring at the floor.

"Now, Sombra, you can go, but Twilight, I'd like to talk to you for a moment."

He shrugged nonchalantly and left without a second glance.

Cadance turned and faced me.

"Twilight...I think you're digging pretty deep here for his taste, and even for mine. We may not know anything about his past, but I know him and you've certainly got him pretty angry. Angrier than he was with me. I wish I could tell you more about him...but he is my friend and he has his share of secrets that I've sworn myself not to tell. But I can tell you this: you can trust him. I'm sure you'll find Starswirl's things, especially if you let him help you."

She gave me one last worried smile as I plopped my items on my back. What she just told me was certainly hard to believe.

I nodded and bid her goodbye, hugging her tightly.

...

I gazed longingly out the window towards the Empire as the train to Trotland chugged away....

"I wouldn't be missing that place too much if I were you."

Without needing to guess, I turned around, heart already back to feeling like a sunken ship.

"Did you ever have a home?"

He shrugged.

"So, are you going to help me on my quest?"

"If I have to..."

Silence. I went back to watching the the Gemheart Mountains recede.

"Purple Eyesore?"

Ugh, what could he possibly want now?

"Yes?"

"Can you read this?" he asked, passing me me a small slip of parchment with a single line of runes written on it.

I looked down at the slip, grasping it in my aura.

"It says 'somber', right?"

He shook his head. "Not quite. It says 'Sombra'. I thought since I taught you to write your own name in runes I should show you mine."

I didn't even give the paper a second glance as I shoved it in my bags. "Thank you," I lied. "Is it alright if I ask you a question?"

He didn't answer.

"Since you only write with your mouth, I was wondering if you might let me teach you how to write using levitation magic, like I do."

I turned to look over at him. "Well...?"

He snapped back and most of the confusion disappeared from his eyes.

"Yeah...we could try that."

...

"Can I go back to writing with my mouth?

"NO!"

We had three days until we arrived in Trottingham, Trotland's capital, and Sombra's penmanship when he wasn't writing with his mouth was the worst I had ever laid eyes upon.

"Sombra I told you to write the word 'cat', not draw squiggles all over the place."

"This is harder than it looks!"

Hard? For a master unicorn?

"No need to yell, at least your 'C's' don't look like quadruple loops anymore," I said as I peered across the small table in the train car to examine his work.

"They look like octuple loops now," he pointed out.

"I just thought that a powerful unicorn like you would know basic magic any unicorn under the heavens had already memorized."

His gaze burned like embers through his shaggy mane.

"It's not my fault! Maybe if you weren't so racist we could accomplish something for once!"

He magically grasped his sword which was nearby, eliciting a wince from me, and stormed into the sleeper car.

Racist?

How could I be racist when we are both unicorns? I may be an alicorn now, but there were times when I still felt like a unicorn.

I adjusted my new hat, running a hoof over the soft gray brim, and stared out at the wild Trottish landscape of rolling green hills, small clouds of fog, winding creeks, snow dotted mountains, and stones and the occasional copse dotting the earthen canvas.

All I knew about Sombra was minor information from Princess Celestia. Besides that I had no knowledge of him, other than what I could guess.

Even more mysterious was Starswirl the Bearded, who was the whole reason this trip was taking place.

Although now that I think about it...Sombra and Starswirl did have a lot of similarities. Both of their names start with 'S' even though that is an insignificant detail. They existed around the same time in history and seem to possess immense knowledge in various types of magic. Starswirl never had an officially recorded birthdate and their is no proof of a death date, so legally he never died. Both have a connection with Celestia and Luna. Weirdest of all is that Starswirl stops being mentioned in all canon history records when the figure known as 'Sombra' emerged.

Was I travelling with my corrupted idol? Maybe his cloak was concealing the obvious cutie mark?

But then there were two minor flaws to my theory: Starswirl knew how to write with magic, and Sombra-possibly-Starswirl seems a bit too young to fit Starswirl's description of being the master conjurer.

But he was a master wizard...

...

Two days later.

As late dawn light shone through the train, soon to stop, I rapped the sleeper car's door gingerly.

Was this pony ever going to get up? I swear he wasn't diurnal.

"Sombra?"

I heard an annoyed grumble from within.

"We are approaching Trottingham now. Do you want to come out and catch a glimpse of the scenery?"

Perhaps, not be such a creep, hiding in there all the time?

"I have a nice view from in here."

"Sombra, there aren't any windows in there."

I heard what sounded like a sigh.

"Fine. You got me. I'm coming out; you will need me in about five minutes anyway."