Terror

She had stood on a golden balcony only moments before, looking over a kingdom of crystal. Despite the reccsion it was still filled with love and life, gleaming beneath both the sun and the moon.

She thought nothing could ever happen on this scale. Nopony in this isolated paradise did.

But it did happen, a black fog rushing through part of the mountains. It held a power not seen before, some few thought it was their reckoning. The kingdom went from a calm peace to sheer choas. Terrified screams filled the sky but it kept coming. Passing them by and cloaking the world in darkness. It was so fast...

None of the magic was working. Not even the prized crystallokinesis. Nopony was powerful enough.The Heart wouldn't work if the terror of the razing was too much. Buildings crumbled around her.

The mare ran to the edge sprouting a crude staircase of gleaming rainbow flecked gems down to the plaza. She had to get the Heart. The Heart could save them all, she thought. When she arrived there she ran and grabbed it from its floating state, holding it tight and whispering to it as if it were a foal.

There were thundering calls she did not know, in the choas it seemed there were no ponies at all. Only endless screams.

Then there were hoofsteps. She didn't hear them then but she hears them now. They were silent. Deadly silent, and then came the voice.

"I'll hide the Heart,you should run."

She turned around. It was a gaurd. His helmet was askew but otherwise he seemed okay.

"Platinum Laurel is that you?"

Was that a nod? It looked like a nod.

She gave him the Heart. Then was the smile, it wasn't Platinum Laural at all. The pony changed into a tall, skinny colt dressed in rags with a shaggy mane and curved horn. He had demon eyes with purple smoke and sharp white fangs. He had a somewhat battered looking knife in his magic.

A blast of strange magic. The Heart turned gray and cold.

She turned to scream but her voice was too soft. It blended it with the others.

"Who are you?" she squeaked hoarsly, her last cohernt words before everything turned to pain and red. There would be so much red.

He smiled evily, the right side of his mouth pulled higher than the left. "I'm the King."

That was when the real screams began, and everything turned red,even when she closed her eyes.

...

My head still ached as I stood up, feeling dizzy and blinking at the dimness.

Where was I?

Last night. Poltergiest. My magic. A dream that left me in a cold sweat.

Gasping I ran to where the door should have been and kicked it as hard as possible with my back legs. Nothing happened.

Sealed shut, just my luck.

I slumped against one of the corners of the triangular anntechamber.

This annex would be my tomb, I thought drawing a thin breath. Soon the air would run out.

Then it hit me. I was strong enough to kick the door, my vision wasn't blurry, and I still had my cutie mark.

That meant something.

But what?

"How could I be so stupid?" I hissed, too angry to cry. "What idiot gets themselves outwitted by a thousand year old stab victim?!"

I tried to bit back a scream. Now who will help Queen Sapphira?

"She doesn't even have eyes! I was tricked by a blind ghost! She set me up with a bandana as bait!"

Slamming a hoof against the wall uselessly I continued my bitter rant. If only somepony where in the castle, somepony who could hear my screaming.

"I set myself up for this. So much for trying to play this scenerio like a card game."

Slumping frther against the wall I felt my hateful emotions get something stirring inside, burning like a fire. An intellegent, deterimined, and angry fire that wouldn't listen to anypony at this point.

Gosh, I bet this is what Sombra feels like.

Sombra...that was it!

Who lived here once?

Sombra.

Who likes to hide things?

Sombra!

Who would build something this austere!

Definetley Sombra!

Who would leave a way out for those clever enough to find it? Even though he probably hould just kill them later...

SOMBRA!

I jumped up and ran to the corner that seemed like the pointer to an arrow. I knew why I still had my cutie mark, my stregth.

It would be hard for a ghost like her to take every bit of magic in me.

Oh sure, she may have taken my personal magic but she didn't take every last shred like Tirek did.

My 'matches' may be gone but there are other ways to spark a fire. I tucked the bandana into a pocket. Who knew, I may need it later. I stared at the corner and tried to focus all my Sombra-esque rage on the wall.

I felt terrible trying to ball all that anger up made it feel like someone was twisting a very small knife  inside my heart. It wasn't any better that I felt a headache stemming from my horn, the magicly clearly not fitting with it. Despite all this, it was no exuse! I had to get out of here!

Come on...!

At last, a stream of purple and green aura roared to life on my horn and my vision was clouded, as I bit my lip. I realeased the column of energy and wacthed as the stone burned away like paper in acid revealing a dark hallway that was nothing but shadows.

...

The hall did not have incredibly stale air like I thought it would, but it was so cold that I was thankful for even the small black jacket I wore.

Although there were no lights of any kind especially since I didn't have the familiar magic to conjure any kind I knew of, I didn't need to question what direction to head in. One way, and that just so happened to be this way.

Where I was in the castle I couldn't be sure, there were many places to hide secret halls if somepony was clever enough.

After a while I came to a dark wooden door that was clearly manufactured by Sombra Inc.

Please don't be a nightmare door, I thought with a shudder.

Channeling another painful burst of dark magic I turned the knob not sure of what I would find.

I closed my eyes for a moment to reagain my breath after using such needlessy powerful bursts of magic to accomplish simple tasks, although there was no alternative.

It wasn't a nightmare door at all, instead it flipped open to reveal a sort of cipher: multiple  rings, all of the same alphabet-thankfully the one I was used to-fiddled with as if somepony had tried to get in. Perhaps recently.

Somepony who unlike me clearly didn't know Sombra.

I just wasn't sure how well I knew him...

...

Nothing seemed to work. I spun the wheel by hoof spelling out everything Sombra-like I could think of.

I had tried any word that could be asscotied with him and for each fail I carved a tally in the wall with the steel tip of my boot. So far I had fouty-one tries.

Taking a few steps back, I paused to look at the cipher. Manual movement and one word answers were clearly not working.

If I were Sombra what would the correct phrase be?

I glanced over at the tallies for a moment pondering. Well, that's just it I wouldn't want just anypony to get in, and it would be a test as well...

Ah-ha! That was it!

Gritting my teeth, I shot a blast of dark magic at it and watched as the wheels and watched as the became animated, moving and spinning until they spelled out a message: NAME YOURSELF

What should I tell it? Knowing Sombra it's probally trapped, a riddle, indowed with some sort of self-awareness, or...

The wheels spun again revealing a new message: ANY DAY NOW

...snark.

Spinning the wheels I entered 'C-A-D-A-N-C-E'.

After I finished the wheels spun themselves again: CORRUPTED ALREADY PINK ONE

I put in the words 'I need your help, Sombra' as best I could considering the lack of puncuation ring.

The wheel responded: OF COURSE YOU DO BUT HE IS NOT THERE

But...what? Ugh, why is Sombra always so difficult.

Rolling my eyes I instictinivly put in 'DUH'. Hopefully that might get me some more helpful snark.

My message disappeared and was replaced with another message: PASS THE TEST

I frowned. What test?

The cipher wheels flipped over with a sound similar to falling dominos, revealing a blank under side. The center of the cipher wheel which Iwas covering a gear popped open revealing a hole barely big enough for a pencil.

Some of the letter tiles flipped over to give one final statement: ONE WAY YOU CAN ENTER BECOME SHADOW

Become shadow? Oh gosh, I wasn't sure if I could do that, I was no Sombra.

But I also was no quitter.

I stood firm and focused on trying to dissolve into the shadow cloud, screwing my eyes shut as I concentrated, smoke streaming from them.

Then came the pain, a terrible burning sensation like I was being consumed by fire and ripped apart at the same time. I began to feel little but my eyes as if all else was just loosely part of me.

Opening my eyes revealed that I was a large gray-blue cluster of foglike-smoke much smaller then Sombra, with the trademark purple smoke.

Despite my dulled-or lack of-nerves it still hurt to stay like this and took all my concentration.

Steering myself foward, I disappeared through the entrance presented to me.

...

Dark magic was hard. Unlike most magic it did not feel right and was painful to cast if it did not come naturally to the user. For non alicorns it was not possible to cast it without being taught.

It was too hard for me to control and as soon as I entered the other side, door sealing behind me. I felt myself reform which was just as draining and painful as deforming, since figuring out how to put yourself back together at the right speed was not exactly a piece of cake.

I didn't even have I chance to look around, I was too wiped out and so it was that I sank into a dreamless sleep.