Twilight shoved the door shut with a loud slam, and bolted it tight, her breath exited her throat in short bursts as she galloped down the long hallway.
The door wouldn't last long.
It had all gone wrong so fast. An unknown illness with no known starting location, that overcame ponies horrifyingly quick, had almost completely destroyed their populace in under forty eight hours. She was barely able to escape mostly unscathed, already sporting scratches and cuts from her frantic dash for safety. Sadly, the military site she'd been working at wasn't as "secure" as her higher ups had assured her. They'd trusted their guns and soldiers to fix it...yeah, a lot of good that did them when bullets meant nothing to zombies.
Twilight had been working in the upper floors of the base when the alarm was raised, only to be suddenly killed off by the horde of zombies swarming towards the gates; effectively killing the power lines that gave the site it's electricity. In short and quick succession, they'd over run the gate guards and began shattering through the upper levels faster then most ponies could react.
Twilight had been lucky to reach the elevator in time before it disappeared into the depths of the compound. Watching three of her co-workers scream for her to hold the door open as the horde over took them, it didn't make her insides sit well. She had a few seconds to gasp and stare wide eyed at the floor, her forelegs held out on either side of her, gripping the metal rail. That however was only a short lived breath of comfort, as she'd heard the elevator defense doors above come crashing down onto the metal box she was traveling in, and about five zombies.
She had waited with bated breath as the machine ground down several floors, before coming to a stop. The furious scrabbling and snarling above her only growing more frustrating as it went deeper into the compound.
She internally gulped as the placard that floated into view as the elevator came to a slow, whining stop.
Floor seven: criminal detainment faculty.
Twilight Sparkle, for once in her life, did not wait to question if she had clearance, she leaped through the opening doors just as the elevator ceiling groaned horribly and crashed down where she'd been standing, covered in angry, teeth gnashing zombies. They took one glimpse at her and she held back a shriek as their eyes widened in hunger. She took of like a bullet escaping a gun barrel. The terrified mare dodged around corners and down a nearby stair well. She needed an exit and fast.
The hallway was lined with several large cells that were either housed or held criminals of the state. Any of them could do as much harm to her as the abominations(former co-workers) behind her could, so her options were either death by being torn apart and eaten alive, or worse...
In her terror she hadn't been paying attention to the path in front of her, and tripped over a nearby fallen cart that had lay in the way. Shaking herself she flipped over just in time to see a group of zombie ponies round the corner. Their legs and barrels having missing flesh, ripped open organs, and visible bones protruding from their corpses. Foaming mouths and blank eyes that seemed to stare right through her. She gasped, and they snapped their eyes to her.
With guttural snarls like wild animals, the dead lunged as a unit, a mass of flesh and hunger, at the poor mare.
This was it, they were too close, and magic had proven just as ineffective to them as bullets or other weapons. The zombies descended, and Twilight screamed.
Only to have a hoof come from behind her and yank her by the neck and out of harms way. She saw bars fly past her sides as the zombies turned and looked at her in almost comical confusion. She coughed as she hit the floor on her side. A collection of loud explosions rang in her ears and bright flashes of red bounced off the momentarily lit walls.
Then silence.
She could hear breathing near her, and it seemed like the darkness of the cell she'd come into wasn't natural. Normal shadows had ambient light, these didn't, and instead they sucked all the light from around them.
That was rather odd... wait...it moved?
Weird glowing red veins floated before her in no particular pattern and for a moment she was fascinated by them, poking them with a hoof gently.
"That is my mane you're touching, mare." Twilight's breath hitched in her throat and she whipped around to see a set of red and green eyes seemingly floating among the glowing veins and darkness. They watched her with a feeling of pure anger and malice so permeable that it hit her like waves crashing against the shore of a beach. She took a visible step back...
her body began to shake.
"Y-you are...." The shadow moved like smoke, shifting and changing, and after a second or two, coalesced into a physical body before her. Towering over Twilight by a good foot and a half, she beheld the stallion of terror itself. Grey fur, a black mane and tail that shrouded the room in perpetual darkness, and a sharpened horn made of blood, bone, and crystal.
Said horn lit up, bathing her in neon crimson light, making his visage even more terrifying.
"I am King Sombra, yes. It is nice to know I am still remembered by the above dwellers."
He stepped up to her, leaning forward he neither grimaced nor grinned, simply watched her for a time before sitting.
"...Normally you state your name as well, unless customs are different, I would not know." Twilight nodded but couldn't find herself to speak. Out of all the cells she could have chosen, she had to get pulled into one with a being far older, wiser, and stronger then her by millennia.
of course she did, fate hated her. She sucked in a deep breath and almost choked as the stallion's natural aura of malice seemed to follow suit with the air. She coughed once or twice, quietly.
"T-twilight sparkle...my name is--"
"I Know who you are, child."Sombra scoffed, and Twilight physically twitched.
"T-then why did you ask?!" Sombra let the hint of a smile grace his lips as he looked past her and out the bars. the red lighting accentuating his features and making his smile take on a far grimmer aspect.
"Proper etiquette demands it.." He said coyly.
She went to retort but found something far more important coming to the forefront of her mind.
Sombra's horn was glowing, meaning he was doing magic. That couldn't be possible if he was still in his cell though! The bars were magically enchanted to react if he tried, not only that, but they were supposed to restrain him, and he was blatantly NOT restrained in the slightest!
She looked back at the bars. and noted that the metal, while normally glowing with blue and gold magic, showed no signs of glowing runes or life.
Right...power failure...She grimaced, and pinned her ears back. At least the zombies were gone, well, sort of.
They were splattered all over the place. Twilight looked at the puddle of blood and gore that coated the floor, walls, and ceiling, and she gagged. She turned back to the stallion.
"W-what did you do to them?"
Sombra's tiny grin tripled in length and size, until it was a creepy smile that no one liked to see, and stepped up next to her, his voice like a snake whispering into her ear.
"Simple, I took their innards, and made them 'outtards'. In laymen terms, I blew them up from the inside out." He chuckled when she gagged again and shivered. Twilight stepped away from him and glared at him.
"You're horrible..." She whispered. In response, his eyes gained a merry little twinkle that Twilight noted felt so very wrong with the Cheshire smile he aimed at her. He turned and slid his left front hoof down one of the cell bars slowly. His eyes following its path and his ears twitching as the metal made little clinking noises every time his hoof found a dent or chip missing.
"Am I? I hadn't noticed. I was paying more attention to the fact that I saved your life and so far have not hurt you. Normally anyone who trespasses an inch within my cell gets bitten..." he leaned in rather quickly and let his breath brush her ear tips,
"And I like to bite mares...a lot..." Twilight shot towards the bars and tried to squeeze past them in an attempt to escape. She was surprised to see that Sombra neither stopped her nor tried to hurt her in any way.
He was too busy laughing harshly to do so anyhow.
"AHAHAHAHA! I like you, Twilight. You've got guts. Not something I can say for them." he said, snidely pointing at the visceral content she was standing in now. She scowled and growled at him.
"Uugh, you're despicable, Sombra! These ponies were my friends!"
He grinned looking at a hoof.
"Oh I know, but I'm curious, why are you friends with dead ponies? Are they your friends too?" He pointed down the hall and Twilight shrieked when she saw three more zombies barreling towards her.
"My doors are open if you need help, all you have to say is 'pretty please mister So--'." Twilight dove passed the bars before he could finish his sentence, and landed smack dab with her back against his chest and her hooves trying to push her as far away from the bars as they could.
"Kill em! Kill em!" She shrieked in fright. Sombra grinned, shrugged, and angled his horn at the creatures marring his door step. His chest puffed out proudly, and his ears stood straight.
"Eh, that's close enough!"
Three guttural explosions later and the pair were once again alone. Twilight sighed and rest her head against the stallion's chest fur, grumbling.
Until she realized what she was doing, and lunged backwards. Sombra snorted, lifting a hoof mockingly to his chest as if affronted.
"Jumpy, aren't you? You act like I was going to do something to you."
Twilight growled.
"You are the Stallion of Horror, The Tyrant King of the Crystal Empire, I wouldn't put it past you to try!" Sombra's grin disappeared and in it's place he leveled a glare at her, effectively shutting her up.
The room darkened suddenly. Twilight blinked as then saw her own breath come out in a puff of cold air. The very temperature had dropped. Twilight gulped.
"First off lets get one thing straight, mare. I just saved your life, again. I did not have to do that. I could have laughed as they ripped you to shreds, then blown them up, and then reanimated your flesh and rebuilt you just to do it all again... Don't spit on my kindness by insulting me the moment I help you!"
He was almost snarling by the time he finished, his frame and body towering over her as twilight quickly lowered herself to the floor with fright. Her show of submission seemed to appease his anger, and he closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in deeply, before snorting and looking behind her.
"Secondly, You need to set your priorities straight right now. Am I more of a problem then those zombies? Because I can honestly tell you right now I have no current intentions of killing or harming you..." Twilight watched as he walked up and sat in front of her, frowning as more zombies round the corner to his cell.
Twilight felt his magic aura pull her close to him again as he leveled his horn at them again, his voice but a calm wave before the storm as he channeled his dark magic.
"Ask your self this, Twilight. What is the greater evil now?"
Author's Note
Couldn't sleep, and this idea popped into my head. Figured i'd entertain it.
if you see errors please point them out and I'll fix them.
