She stood at the base of her tower, wearing a purple dress that had Rarity’s signature stitched in the hem. Undoubtedly Rarity knew who it was for when she’d made it, there weren’t too many alicorns left around, but Twilight hadn’t worn it in the years she’d had it. She hadn’t had a reason to. Even tonight she had been torn.

Sombra wouldn’t truly chastise her for simply wearing nothing, at best he’d sling a rude barb or some veiled comment about her being ready for him. That comment would start one of their jousts, a verbal contest where she’d insult him in some way and he’d do the same back. She couldn’t help it, and she knew it. In that moment, she’d enjoy the banter and forget that he was a monster.

So she’d worn the dress. In a way it was armor—one layer of protection to keep her mind focused on the reality. She hadn’t seen Rarity in years because of him. Her world, no, their world had been ruined because of him.

Her musing was interrupted as he walked around the corner, dismissing her guards with a nod. The night had begun.

“I’m glad you chose to join me for a walk, Twilight. You look stunning.” He held out a single flower in his magic.

Twilight frowned at him as she grabbed the flower with her hoof. She crushed it without thinking, then dropped it to the ground, following it with her eyes. “I’d considered not coming. I’m not particularly in the mood to play your cruel game tonight.”

He smiled darkly. “You’d be keeping me company one way or the other, Princess. The sole ruler of the lands wouldn’t be spending the lover’s holiday alone.”

She stared at him, studying his face. “So you say every year. Why not entertain yourself with your concubines?”

He motioned for her to walk, and she did. Keeping step with him would allow her to leave her tower if only for a few vile minutes. “And which would you have me choose? The rainbow one? Or maybe your other pegasus friend? The soft and warm yellow one that I enjoy every month or so?”

Twilight’s stomach soured, but she didn’t lose step. “Is that what Fluttershy has been up to while she visits?”

“Don’t be too jealous. She has no choice in the matter, unlike you. When I order, she obeys. Just like the rest of your friends. They’re a small part of my harem, but I do enjoy them all.”

The rest of her friends. He rarely brought them up, and he hadn’t mentioned harassing the others before. Just Rainbow. Bitterly, Twilight asked the question she didn’t want to. “So, you’ve raped all of them then?”

He glanced back at her, surprised. “You didn’t know it? Didn’t even guess?”

“I guess I just didn’t want to think about it.”

He shrugged, focusing back on his walk. “They are my property, like all things. I enjoy reminding them of that.”

A fire bubbled in her stomach. “All things? Then why not spread your affection across all things? Why my friends?”

He laughed, opening the door to the garden in the courtyard and inviting Twilight to stand under the cool moon. She hadn’t put a hoof outside proper in a year, since last hearts and hooves day. While he waited, he smirked. “Isn’t it obvious, Twilight? It’s because of you.”

She glared at him, cursing the fact that she had to continue this conversation. “Your actions are not my responsibility, Sombra.”

He followed her closely as she stopped on the grass. “Indeed, they are mine. But your actions are your own, unlike everypony else’s. You are the only thing that doesn’t belong to me in the same ultimate way. Not yet.”

She fumed, spitting her answer coldly. “Is tonight the night you change that, then?

He let his eyes graze over her dress. “It could be. You couldn’t stop me.”

He took a step forward. “You couldn’t fight me… Would you run?”

She glared at him. “Where to? No. Your spell would put me back in the tower.” Twilight looked over towards the castle, wondering if she should have stayed in tonight and risked his anger.

“Not tonight, it wouldn’t. You’re anchored to me tonight, Princess. Run too far, and you’ll find yourself warmly in my hooves.” He put his nose in her mane and took a deep breath.

She didn’t answer, ignoring his closeness and staring impassively forward. Her defilement had always been a matter of time, and oddly the fact that her friends had all been raped by him made her own impending fate all the more bearable. A flicker of anger rolled through her body at the thought of how abhorrent that line of thinking was, and she put her hoof up.

Forcefully, she pushed him back, away from her and literally out of her hair.

He looked at her hoof in confusion, then laughed. “I forget what it’s like sometimes. Nopony dares denies me, Twilight. Nopony but you. Let’s continue our walk.”

He walked, and she followed, still fuming. She lingered behind him, watching him and analyzing him. The red cape he wore looked new, but she knew it was ancient. A magical artifact he’d created eons ago to augment his magic, and highlight his physique. It certainly set across his broad shoulders and rested back, obviously framing certain masculine features. If you followed the lines, it trailed all the way to his flanks, where the muscles rippled underneath as he walked.

Sombra was physically powerful, and he flaunted it. Even without his magic, he was likely much stronger than Twilight. There weren’t many ponies still bigger than her, but Sombra was one. She trailed behind him, feeling oddly small in too many ways, even as her anger bubbled.

A question lingered, one she’d asked before but never been satisfied with the answer. “Why are you so cruel, Sombra?”

He glanced quickly over his shoulder with curiosity on his face, then looked forwards as he spoke.

“Your question is answered with another, Twilight. Why are you so timid? I’ve done terrible things to everything you love. I can feel the hatred you hold for me in your heart. So why do you not strike me down? Why do you meekly follow in my shadow, staring at my flank?”

She jerked her face to the side, ripping her eyes away from the base of his tail. She’d been studying how his tail was connected to his dock when he’d called her out. “You would easily stop anything I could do. Then more would suffer. You’ve made it clear that when I lash out, you get your relief from other ponies. I don’t want them to suffer any more because of me.”

They turned, crossing by a green hedge-wall and finding themselves before the alicorn statues. He spoke slowly and carefully as he stopped. “That is your answer. My cruelty, like everything else in this world, is a tool. One that gets me exactly what I want, and keeps me from wasting time.”

Twilight swallowed her rage, sadly looking over the statues. They looked well cared for, at least. Even under Sombra’s cruel rule, Fluttershy was still kind. “What if your cruelty was a crutch, and kindness could be the tool to get what you wanted?”

He shrugged, stepping towards Celestia. “Kindness has been taught to me. I understand it well. It’s not the virtue you think it is, Twilight. It’s simply another tool. Your little friend tried to wield it against me. It didn’t work out so well for her, but I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed her efforts.”

Twilight’s anger fumed while she watched as he gently touched Celestia’s face, seemingly lost in thought. “You only spread misery and hate.”

He shrugged, turning from Celestia to Luna. “Also safety and stability. Equestria is far more safe than it’s ever been. There is no crime, for all fear me. Foals can grow up without their parents being murdered. All are equal under me. This is very real security is actually a virtue, unlike the esoteric concept of kindness.”

Twilight glared down at his hooves, not wanting to look at her once peers. “They might live, but at what cost?”

He stroked Luna’s hoof absentmindedly. “It’s not as bad for them as you think, Twilight. Most ponies don’t care who rules. Now that I own them, the masses are left to their own devices. Even your friends, whom I know are dangerous, I let be free enough until they commit a crime or I need entertainment.”

Sombra let go of Luna’s hoof, and walked to Cadance, leaning in close to meet her stone eyes. Twilight shivered, focusing on the grass in the moonlight. “And what of the innocent? I know you blame those three for something, but she’s as innocent as can be.”

Twilight motioned towards the fourth alicorn statue—Flurry Heart.

He left Cadance, and looked down at Flurry appraisingly. “I suppose she is. But I can only let one of you roam for now. She isn’t in any pain. At most, your brother’s heart breaks for her.” Sombra glanced back to Twilight, “And perhaps yours.”

Twilight lowered her head, ashamed to look. Her heart didn’t exactly break for the juvenile alicorn. She was envious of Flurry’s fate, and that fact made her feel guilty.

“No matter. I care not if he suffers, and your suffering is with purpose.”

She hated this part. It always happened one way or another. The conversation always turned here. Her words were laced with disgust even as she fought to hold them in, “My suffering? My life is far from suffering. If anything, you pamper me.”

He turned back to Flurry with a curious smile. “If you are so pampered, then tell me. Are you happy?”

The answer was easy, same as it always was. “No.”

“Then make yourself happy. Take what you want, Twilight. If you can’t get it, then ask me and I will get it for you.”

The wish. He was alluding to the wish. He’d promised her, long ago on another night much like this that he’d grant her wish on Hearts and Hooves day. Every year he offered, sometimes directly and sometimes like this.

Her answer was soft and timid. Just like how she’d become. “Not this year, Sombra.”

He laughed, patting Flurry’s head as though he was an affectionate father. “Another year then? Will we do this forever? We’re both immortal, and you aren’t going anywhere. All that will happen is the mortals will die off. First your parents, then your brother, then your friends. A hundred years from now, you’ll have no one but me and the castle guard that even knows you’re alive.”

Twilight closed her eyes, holding back tears. He was right. He would do it, and she would too. An eternity of this morass, of guilt and regret. An endless amount of that ever bubbling hate she so despised. Would even that cool eventually? Would the hate burn itself to cinders and leave her hollow and empty? A bitter old mare who doesn’t feel emotions anymore?

Sombra held his hoof on Flurry’s head. “Given enough time, you’d become a mere legend. Ponies would question if you were ever even real. There would be a forbidden tower in my castle that housed an ancient evil. One that only I communed with. Is that the fate, no, the legacy you want?”

She kept her head down, feeling the hot tears well up under her eyelids. Her answer was a whisper. “No.”

He sighed. “Your mother and father age. Your brother ages as well. Break this cycle and free them. Agree to my proposal and I’ll treat them well in their silver years. Even little Flurry here will be freed. Allow Shining to see his daughter again.”

Twilight fought back a sob as she shouted. “You… None of that is my doing. You did it! You hurt us all and now everyone suffers!”

He let go of Flurry’s head, and turned around to face Twilight, his yes dark but his smile calm. “I take full responsibility. I did, in fact, do this to your ponies, your friends, and your family. I’m not going to stop on my own, though. You’re the only one who can make it stop. Will you finally take responsibility, oh Princess of Equestria?”

She glared at him, the bubbling hate turning into a roiling red froth that rose through her spine. She felt her hooves tingle and her wings twitch as she imagined hurting him. If she could, she would break him. Her heart raced with sick pleasure and she imagined pressing her hoof down on his face. She would make him bleed.

Guiltily, she lowered her head, the burning tears blurring her vision as they dropped into the grass, “How can I? I hate you.”

“Hate can be just as binding as love.” He sneered.

Twilight felt dizzy, furious at his audacity and confidence. Here she was, trembling from disgust with herself and he was playing some inane game with words. “Does hate make flowers grow? Does hate bind the world?”

“It does, Twilight. Allow me to teach you. You’ve always liked teachers, haven’t you?”

She glared at him, her restraint finally cracking. “Teach me? You want to teach me? You think I don’t know what it means to hate? After ten years of being your little dress up doll? Ten years of watching you lord over my people, rape my friends, and torment innocents? Ten years of this?”

She gestured towards the statues, her vision finally blurry beyond use from the tears. They cascaded down her face like her words as she struggled to breathe and scream at the same time.

Sombra darkly laughed. “There it is. I’ve been waiting to see it, and it’s magnificent.”

Twilight screamed, stomping her hoof with her earth pony strength. The last vestige of her power flooded through her, causing the earth to tremble with a tremendous clap. “Magnificent? It’s foul. The world is wrong because of you!”

He stepped closer, blowing softly on her face as he cast some spell. Her vision immediately returned, sharper and clearer than before. Without thinking, she swung her hoof, slamming it into the side of his head.

The impact numbed her hoof, and she pulled it back in surprise. She’d lashed out to hurt him, intending to kill him with the strength of an earth pony. It had done nothing. She held her hoof staring at it in horror before looking up to see his smirking gaze. Her words were a quiet whisper of realization, “I’m wrong because of you…”

“You’re more beautiful than ever.”

Twilight felt the tears welling in her eyes, but they didn’t block her sight. They didn’t even roll down her cheek, seeming to evaporate off her immediately. “I want to kill you…” She’d known this, but the admission was freeing in some way, so she said it again, but more clearly.

“I want to crush your face and watch you bleed out. I want to strangle you with my hooves and pierce your heart with my horn.” Her heart raced, furiously beating as the world around her seemed to pulse in tune with her rage. She looked at him, tilting her head as the revelation and admission shook her to her core, far more pleasantly than she ever imagined it could.

Sombra smiled hungrily. “Stunning.”

Twilight tried again, the words feeling almost comfortable as they danced on her lips, “I want you to die, and I want to be the one to do it.”

Sombra’s smile flickered curiously. “Have you finally made your wish? Is that what I have to grant?”

Twilight shook, fury possessing her as she glared at him and tried to will him dead with her mind alone. More than anything, she wanted to end him. The burning in her gut rose to her mouth, and the word tasted sweet, “Yes.”

He chuckled, shaking his head in amusement. “It’s granted.”

Twilight watched carefully as his horn began to glow. A light surrounded him, and she could see the strands of dark magic unravel. One by one, spells she’d previously never noticed were lifted from him and ruptured violently over the two of them. He was making a show of it, tearing each spell off and pulling it apart above them just for her to watch. A spectacle of him stripping.

The dark magic cascaded down with green and red sparkles, each speck causing her to tingle when it touched her. She felt the magic in a new way, the evil spellwork becoming clearer and more obvious with each exposure. As the spells were ripped from him, he seemed to shudder and shrink, until he was only slightly larger than Twilight.

Last he grabbed his cape, tossing it to the side and leaving himself naked in body and magic. He nodded to Twilight. “Why don’t you take off your dress? If you are going to kill me, we might as well make this intimate. All my protective spells are gone. I’m just a pony now, princess.”

Twilight bit her lip and lunged.

Surprise crossed his face as she slammed her hoof into the side of his head again. It still went numb from the impact, but this time he was forced to turn away with a sickening slap. When he slowly looked back at her, there was a welt and some blood where her hoof had hit.

She’d hurt him. Her heart raced.

He blinked, his eyes wide and pupils small. He moved his jaw, concern on his face. “I’d forgotten what pain feels like. This is going to be unpleasant.”

Twilight scowled, “Very.” and reached for his neck.

He didn’t flee, or even struggle as she grabbed it and began to squeeze. The sensation was strange. She could feel magic under her hooves, but also his blood and life. She squeezed harder, her vision going red. She could kill him. She could finally hurt him.

Her hooves pressed with earth pony strength, and she felt a crunch. Sombra gurgled. Euphoria rushed through her veins as some primal part of her recognized that she’d just done very real damage to another being, and she threw him to the ground. He twitched in pain, writhing on the grass and clutching at his neck while Twilight watched him struggle.

He didn’t seem like the monster she knew he was. He looked weak, and mortal. No longer a titan, he was now just something writhing and hurt that she could crush underneath her.

Slowly, she raised a shaking hoof and pressed on his back.

A million emotions raced through her. He was under her. The tyrant ruler, the bane of her existence, was under her and squirming. She could let him go. She could stop and walk away and tell him that everypony deserves a second chance.

She could, but she wouldn’t. She pressed down hard, fueled and burning with desire, and heard him gurgle.

She spoke plainly, uttering her heart’s wish one more time. “Die.”

Twilight’s hoof smashed down, beating and crunching him. Blood oozed from his face as the twitching stopped, and her hoof dug through his flesh with each powerful slam. She didn’t stop with him when he stopped moving. She screamed in frustration, tears evaporating from her eyes as she continued to smash him.

“Ten years!” She screamed at the corpse. “Ten years, you monster!”

Her hooves dipped red, stained with his blood as she turned his body over. His back was wet and sunk like a collapsed bridge. When she flopped him onto it, his face stared blankly up. There were still tears in his eyes and blood pouring from his face.

She began to pound on his chest, watching his head convulse with each slam. “This is too little! This is too good! You hurt everybody! Don’t you understand? You did this!” She screamed at his dead face as she felt his chest crunch under her weight.

She was sobbing, but there was no evidence. Her body shook, and her mind raced. This wasn’t her. This wasn’t who or what she was. She still couldn’t stop. She didn’t even want to stop. She cried out in rage, disgusted and horrified with herself.

“You broke me! Is this what you wanted?” She pushed her face against his, soaking in the grisly visage. His eyes were empty and his mouth hung open. Blood soaked his fur and his lips, pouring from him like a thick wine.

Twilight pressed her hoof between his crushed ribs, displacing them until she found it in his chest. Heavy and meaty, it was still there. She grabbed it, feeling it under her hooves.

She whispered to his bloody corpse, “Happy Hearts and Hooves day…” and pressed her lips forward to taste his blood. Sombra got his kiss.

She pressed her hoof down until she felt his heart crush under her hoof, grinding it into a jelly paste.

Twilight stopped then, panting and dizzy. He was dead. Her lips tasted of iron, and she licked them. The blood seemed to crawl and lurch within her, but she forced it down. She looked around the garden, watching the blood slowly pool. Her hooves were stained red and she’d been speckled in Sombra’s blood. Shaking, exhausted, she took a step back and collapsed onto the wet grass.

What had she just done? Her mind couldn’t focus. There was too much blood around her and within her. Everything was red. It ran from his body, through the grass, and was seeping up the statues and her leg. Crimson ichor stained everything as it spread. She lay on her side, gasping for breath and feeling like the world was spinning while she was falling uncontrollably. The blood seemed to move around, her, flowing and rolling in unnatural red streams. Almost like it was searching for something.

Twilight covered her eyes, and tried to cry. She wasn’t like this. The rage that had come over her still burned, still ate at her. She wanted to kill him again. She wanted him to suffer more. The realization agonized her, and she sobbed softly and dryly into her hooves. He’d broken her, and done something so that she couldn’t even cry. She felt the tears, but they never fell from her eyes.

Her eyes. Relieved, she looked up, checking out of the corners of her vision. That’s what he’d done. This had been a nightmare vision, like he’d used long ago. She hadn’t done that. He’d tricked her, like he always intended. She never would have done that. Twilight Sparkle never could have possibly beaten somepony to death in rage.

That’s why it had felt so good. That’s why her legs trembled and her mouth tingled. That was why her tail was damp and her inner thighs were wet. It hadn’t been real. She watched the blood slowly spread across the grass. This was obviously a hallucination, one to show her how far she could fall. One to tempt her with how good it felt, how amazing it would be to finally give in.

Slowly, the blood reached the cape, and Twilight had another, deeper fear. She watched in horrified interest as the cape pulsed, and the blood began to ooze towards it.

“No… No no no!” She screeched, scrambling to her hooves with a too late realization.

Sombra stood again, rising from under his cape in a misty swirl.

“I killed you! You’re dead!” She shouted, her anger overwhelming the confusion.

Sombra’s head extended from under the cape, and he rolled his neck. “You did. I hate dying. I’d only go through that for you.”

Twilight hung her head, glancing at the statues. Their hooves were stained red. Just like hers. Her ears pulsed with rage as it burned through her.

Sombra smiled, “Your wish has been granted. Now I get what I want—your hoof in marriage.”

She shuddered, still euphoric and trembling from the rush of what she’d done. She’d forgotten that she’d seen Sombra killed before. Never so graphic, but it was far from the first time he’d died. He’d granted her wish, as promised. Now he’d take what he wanted. He always took what he wanted. Had she been tricked? Or was this simply a natural consequence of her wish? It didn’t matter.

Nothing really mattered anymore. “Yes.”

“I hope you don’t mind if we have the honey-moon before the ceremony… your little show of passion has me all worked up. Take off that dress.”

Sombra licked his lips, and Twilight’s face flushed as she imagined killing him again while she unclasped the bloodied dress with her still shaking hooves.

Author's Note

Are the statues upright or upside down? Does it matter? Each is an alicorn, an amalgamation of all pony magic. In human magic, a full suite of casting would be represented with a pentacle. This symbol represents fire, water, earth, air, and spirit. Of course, these ponies don't operate with that. Perhaps they have earth, air, magic, light, and dark? I figure a pentacle best represents an alicorn conceptually, but I'm not sold on how just yet....