Our Empire of Darkness

Crouched low, awaiting the prize, horn at the ready and body tense. As she laid in the underbrush, only one thing passed through her mind.

I’m not good at this. Twilight slanted her mouth, staring at the bait she and Sombra had made together. While the king was off no doubt bagging his fiftieth catch, she had yet to claim a single one. And it’s not like there weren’t critters around. The six-toed squirrels knew how to hide in the grand pines that made up the forests, rarely showing themselves to would be predators. All she needed was to capture one in her magic...

With a great sigh, she stood and went over to the bait, picking it up and sniffing it. Sombra assured her that the rancid odor would attract the squirrels. Did they use too much? Why isn’t it working?

“Twilight?” She jumped, turning to see Sombra floating nearby, his tendrils moving without aim or direction like normal. “I think we need to move spots.”

“I... A-Am I doing it wrong?” She looked to the lump of muddy stuff, scrunching up her nose.

“You’re in plain sight of them. A hunter waits at a distance, not in the bush right next to where their trap lay.” He gave a quick chuckle as he floated over. “Don’t feel bad about it. I couldn’t catch any either.”

“Is it the bait?” She took the ball into her hoof, holding it up to him.

He hummed to himself as he grabbed it with a tendril, throwing it into the air, where it was immediately snatched by a squirrel jumping between the trees as a blur. “No, it’s not the bait. They’re too smart for traditional hunting.”

“Ugh!” She rolled her eyes, walking past him to where she kept her bags weighed down by a shield spell, grabbing them to put on. The shadows moved past her, taking her deeper into the woods. “How far to the town?”

“Over the next hill. I checked it out while waiting on my traps. It looks to be clear, but there’s always a chance for that to change.”

While they trekked in pursuit of their next destination, Twilight stretched her legs from her failed ambush attempt. She wanted that cloak before sunset. The cold was worse than winter back home, sending chills to her bones with the passing winds. They also were getting close enough to the ‘exclusion zone’ to feel the latent magic in the soil, and to see what it did to the creatures. That was the second reason for the cloak. The creatures all evolved to resist the intense magical field wafting from afar.

From where they were two days ago, changes were minimal, only being noted by a brief period of galloping across the fields filled with grass-crawling parasites and a drastic increase in the number of stones compared to orange plant matter. The trees were still thirty times taller than her, the animals still keeping their distance or looking to make her food, and the weather still numbing-levels of cold.

The only good thing was that the berries from certain bushes were edible, supplementing her dwindling potato supplies. Once she and Sombra got to the top of the hill, she looked out over the trees, wondering how many grew where there were once roads. She followed her guide down the hill, getting onto the cobblestones interrupted by a tree past the first building, the king bringing her around it into the overgrown village of stone.

Her eyes glazed along the occasional building they passed between the trees. He wasn’t joking about the fifty million remark. It seemed villages were strewn everywhere she looked, making the travel at least a little more bearable. The last city turned out to be from day two. The further they got from Galdon, the less connected the settlements. At least the castles stuck around until day four, with today being absent from the short distance they trekked.

“Sombra?” She cleared her throat, him stopping to turn his eyes back to her. “C-Can we stop to rest? I-I need something to eat, and maybe to, um, warm up.”

He took a moment before letting out a sigh. “Very well. I’ll continue hunting. Don’t wander too far from the village. I’ll be back as soon as I catch one of the critters.”

“T-Thank you.” She provided him a gentle smile before he left, leaving her to walk to the nearest tree to plop down next to. Twilight stretched out her hind-legs with a wince, feeling her muscles complaining about how much she put them through so far. To feel the caress of a shower was all she wanted, to experience its warmth and blissful flow. Gosh, it was at the two-month anniversary of being foalnapped, wasn’t it?

Despite her complaining aches, she stood back up to go collect some stones and wood, leaving the shaded town into the darkened woods. Her magic picked up what twigs she could, grabbing a nice bundle of dead needles to serve as kindling. Before she could finish her collection, she spotted a curious sight. A squirrel in the open, gnawing at a hardened nut. They looked... young, maybe maturing.

With a deep breath in, she scrunched up her muzzle and set down her fire-starters, grabbing the squirrel in her magic and dragging it to her. It clawed at the ground to hold itself in place, Twilight growling under her breath as she walked over. It took serious effort on her part to keep it in her grip, the very hide of the creature pulsing with its own magical energies to make hers falter if she didn’t keep a watchful eye on it. With the critter still frantically trying to escape, she did what she had to.

Her magic wrapped around its neck and snapped it.

The sound sent a wave of nausea through her, eyes watering up and a lump forming in her throat as she looked at the now deceased creature. Now came the question she had been putting off: Was it necessary? She wanted that cloak for the nights; she wanted to be protected from the elements. What would Fluttershy say? What would she think of her?

“T-Twilight?”

Her heart jumped, eyes bolting from the creature to see the pegasus mere pony-lengths away, her eyes wide, staring down her friend. “F-Fluttershy?” Twilight stepped back, her friend tilting their head.

“H-How could you?” Water formed at the corners of her eyes, lip quivering ever so much.

“I-I’m sorry, I... Um...” Twilight took another step back, her friend walking forward up to the critter’s corpse as the world began blurring. And as quick as it started, it came to an end with a bolt of magic piercing straight through Fluttershy with a spray of red blood splattering against the trees. It took a few deep breaths before she saw the illusion fade, a creature being leftover that only vaguely looked like a pony, with a smooth hide and distorted features of a face and wings, writhing on the ground.

“Twilight!” Sombra rushed over, getting over the wheezing creature to pick up and start crushing with the cracks of bone picking up in Twilight’s ears to bring back that lump in her throat.

“S-Sombra?” She fell to her rump, feeling the nausea and light head receding as time went on. What was she... Oh, right, the squirrel, and... the thing? “W-What is that?”

“It’s a mimic. Were you thinking of somepony?” He dropped the body to the ground before moving over to the squirrel, picking it up with a tendril to bring over.

“I-I was thinking of Fluttershy. She, um, she t-takes care of animals and...”

“Ah.” He picked up the mimic’s corpse, moving over to her. “Looks like we’ve gotten lucky. I have another catch back where we left off. Don’t think too hard about what it said. It was manipulating your emotions to make you see and hear what you wanted to.”

“I-I killed an innocent creature.” Her gaze went to the empty eyes of the squirrel. “I-I killed it.”

“Yes... You did.” He lowered the bodies to the ground, reaching out a tendril for her. “Twilight, don’t think too much about it. If it wasn’t you, it would have been a predator native to these parts. Possibly even that mimic.”

“B-But it l-looked so young.” She sniffled, his eyes now lowering, waiting until she turned up to them.

“This land isn’t Equestria. Do as they do in Galdon, not Canterlot. I’m certain your friend would accept the sacrifice if it meant we put the body to good use.”

Twilight closed her eyes and took a breath, feeling the sadness fade into an anxiety that burned inside her chest. “Y-Yeah. You’re right, like always.”

“Not always.” He gave a chuckle, her eyes opening to see his tendril still outstretched. “Want to help me with the cloak?”

With a breath in, she grabbed his hoof to accept his help from the ground. “Y-Yeah, okay. B-But only after I get the fire going.”

Glowing spheres dropped without aim or direction, Luna drifting further to try finding the one that she wanted to check on tonight. Her sister was making remarkable progress on getting everything set up for using the Elements of Harmony against Sombra, testing it by freeing Discord and subsequently having him reformed through the hard work of Fluttershy. While he couldn’t be trusted with the defense of the Crystal Empire, his help would be appreciated in other small assignments in the meantime.

“Ah!” Her smile grew, body floating for the dream of the purple unicorn, entering to a peculiar scene of Twilight having a picnic in an open daytime field with Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Sombra, all four of them wearing party hats on their heads, or floating on a tendril for the king. She really was buying into the act he put up.

“Then Pinkie started singing about giggling at the ghosties and they just POOF!” Twilight spread her forelegs in a dramatic flourish. “Gone!”

He broke into his familiar laughter, Luna’s smile ticking up ever so much before she blinked back to reality, remembering why she was there. With the ignition of her horn, night fell on the field, the three illusions fading away as Twilight looked around, spotting Luna descending from the moon.

“Luna? W-What are you doing here?” She stood up, walking over to the lunar princess.

“I’m here to hear you out. You seem to truly believe Sombra is acting genuine, and I want to know why you believe so.” She had a seat on the new picnic blanket, opening the basket to take out a bottle of wine, one she could only dream of having again. An ancient vintage from old Equestria, carried over by her mother and father on the long voyage. The real bottle was still sitting empty in her room, waiting to be experimented on to find a way to refill it.

“Oh, um, thanks?” Twilight sat down across from her, taking her glass and getting it filled before taking her first sip. “This is...” Her smile turned up. “This is awesome!”

“It’s from our old homeland. My father explained it came from his favorite producer, aged in an enchanted bottle and purified with magic. You do know about my father, don’t you?”

The single memory surfacing answered the question, her heart beating a little harder at the memory of... what was it? There were two that mixed, one of a statue, and one of the pony themself sitting across a memory-warped desk. Unusual, but perhaps she had seen his picture somewhere and put a scene together from her subconscious.

“Yes, Sombra showed me a statue of your dad. H-He was an alicorn, not a unicorn.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why the lie about him being a unicorn royal?”

“He despised the alicorn divinity narrative. He kept behind the scenes for the two thousand years he co-led Equestria for the good of the realm. I can only assume he didn’t want to disrupt the work of my mother.” Luna took her first sip, hoping the honesty would get through to her host. Another memory surfaced, this one now causing her back to straighten. A magnificent statue of an alicorn pointing away from Galdon. “Twilight, do you know who Gusty the Great was?”

“An alicorn.” She nodded, licking the inside of her teeth as she considered her words, memories now closing off to Luna. “You’re trying to read my mind, aren’t you?”

“Oh? What makes you think that?” She took another careful sip, feeling the field distorting from the agitation. Perhaps I overstepped...

“Because you wouldn’t ask it out of the blue. Gusty the Great had only a few stories about her, ones taught to foals or curious artifacts for historians. You wouldn’t know unless you’re reading my memory of the statue.” Twilight took a moment to pause. “Why are you really here?”

“To understand your perspective. You said in your note you hoped your friends would see through the lies my sister and I have told. Exactly what lies are you referring to? About our father? About our old homeland?”

“All of it, and what you seem to think Sombra is.” She pointed her hoof at the mare. “You don’t want to give him a chance! Everything he’s said has been honest and his kindness more than enough! He even gave me a chessboard as a gift!”

Luna stayed quiet for a few seconds, thinking about how to consider his acts. It was in line with him at a personal level, true; he wasn’t a monster in that way. “Twilight, don’t mistake the small acts as being indicative of the principles he holds. Yes, his kindness may be genuine, but what he seeks to accomplish and how he seeks to accomplish it aren’t reflected in how he acts with others.”

“So you do know he’s not a monster, and you still say he is!” She threw up her hooves. “What can I do to convince you?”

“It’s not what you can do, but what he can do. If he is genuine with his kindness, I would like to see something that requires effort to pull off. I can’t think of something at the moment, but I will tell you when it comes to me.” She sniffed the vapor wafting from the wine, her smile reforming. It was as she remembered, from the bitterness to the sweetness. An artifact of an age long gone, much like Sombra. Or herself.

“So you’re here to get my perspective?”

“I’m here to listen.”

“Fine.” Twilight grabbed her glass, taking another few sips, tapping on the crystal. “He’s told me a lot of things. About you, about Celestia. And your parents. Even if he was lying about some of it, it’s too detailed to all be lies. He’s at least a little honest with me, and I can see he really isn’t all that bad beneath the surface.”

“Still having doubts?”

“A little. But if he’s correct, if he’s telling me the truth, I’ll make my decision as soon as we get to the fort. That should have all the proof I need to know he’s being honest.”

Luna tilted her head. “Fort?”

“Fort Chillrend?”

The princess froze up, straightening herself. “You and him... are going to Fort Chillrend? Do you even know what dangers lie in the way of you? How dangerous of a place it is?”

“From the snow-pony and mimic we encountered, I’d say very.” She took another sip, eyes remaining firm on Luna. After finishing her glass, Twilight put it down onto the blanket and let out a sigh. “Why can’t you just tell everypony the truth? The Chillrend Mountains were our homeland. It may have a lot of secrets, but are they worth keeping? Is it worth all the lies?”

“Twilight, you need to understand it is a necessity for the sake of Equestria.” She fought against her next words, face twitching at the idea. “While I disagree about hiding the truth of the early years of Equestria, nopony can know of the Chillrend Mountains as anything other than some distant, uninhabited continent. If the truth got out, if other ponies knew of Gusty the Great and my dad... it could destroy the foundation of what we have built. Alicorns have to remain in charge of Equestria, else the tribalist conflicts would resume.”

A tinge of emotion sent a wave of anxiety coursing through her body, the field rippling. “Liar. You both won’t give up even a sliver of power.” A scowl twitched onto Twilight’s face, voice raising in response. “Don’t think he hasn’t told me about the little secrets. You don’t need to move the moon, Celestia doesn’t need to raise the sun, and nopony needs you to survive. The tribes haven’t even fought in millennia! I don’t care where your narrative came from about the pony kinds fighting, but it’s all lies! Thestrals used to be a legitimate tribe, then you both screwed that up! Want to know what Sombra told me? That Queen Frostbite led the thestrals to Equestria with the rest, that they built a stratofortress on their own, hay, he was the one to tell me about what a stratofortress even is!”

“Twilight, don’t take this the wrong way, but--“

“Get out! You think you can keep me in the dark, but I won’t have it!” She stood up onto her hooves, the edges of the dream dissolving away, Luna looking around. There were only seconds left. She needed to get one last word in.

“I will be back, Twilight Sparkle. We can talk another time, but know we wouldn’t lie unless we thought it--“ The rest of the dream imploded, startling Luna awake to take deep breaths. The crystal doors at the other end of the throne room opened, one of her guards poking their head in.

“Your highness? Is everything alright?”

Luna let out a deep sigh. “Yes. Everything’s fine, lieutenant.” With a dismissive wave of her hoof, they left the princess sat atop the throne. Her eyes moved to the map of the Crystal Empire on the ceiling, cataloguing all that she learned. Twilight knew too much at this point. If they couldn’t convince her it was all lies, she needed to know not to tell anypony else. And then there was the news of them traveling to Fort Chillrend...

Celestia needed to know, and with the ignition of her horn, Luna searched the dream realm for that one bright sphere.

Every day they trekked only made the sinking feeling get worse. Night had fallen an hour prior, the winds above at a calm unheard of in the entire time she’s been on the continent, and land illuminated from a distant magical rift causing auroras above them. Other than the stop to make a cloak, the past week had been constant travel. Twilight didn’t know if Fluttershy would ever forgive her for what she did. After leaving them at the dock, after leaving the wounded yellow pegasus hanging in midair, the murder of an animal by her own magic might be enough to cause a fight on its own.

As usual, Sombra was ahead of her, no doubt scanning for anymore dangers in their way. Every day there was at least one incident of a dangerous entity they needed to avoid, but today would be the last with the comfort of the forest. The floating shadows moved into an open field ahead, stopping in place for Twilight to step up next to them. Rusted walls of iron and stone laid in front, made by the inhabitants of old Equestria rather than the old empire. And beyond...

Sombra moved forward once more, leading them both to the wall and along to an overgrown area that provided them with plenty of cover. “We’re here.” He said with finality, turning back to her. She tried her best to put on a smile, but given how exhausted she was, it turned out pretty halfhearted. “I’ll go get the firewood for tonight. Please rest. You’ve had it worse than I have.”

“I-I’m not going to let you do all that work.” She let out a giggle, dropping her saddlebags and going off among the trees. Twilight collected a small pile of sticks and stones from under the great pines, taking her time with the collection. How many days of travel has it been? Two by sea, four if you count the first and last days, six by land, and there was still another one or two ahead before some rest. Maybe.

As she returned with her pile, Sombra returned with the larger pieces of wood, taking her supplies to begin the assembly. While she waited, Twilight gathered a pile of leaves from the ground, making herself a soft area to lie. The fire sparked to life with the bubbling of Sombra’s magic; the king drifting to his usual spot opposite her. Twilight opened her mouth to ask him if he wanted to come closer, ultimately closing it when she remembered how cold he was in his current form.

“Sombra?” she asked, taking a breath in as the fire picked up, warming her. “Luna visited me again in my dreams.”

“Oh? And was she still trying to convince you to turn against me, or was it a social call?” He gave a quiet chuckle, Twilight’s frown ticking up ever so much.

“She said she wanted to hear me out, but it didn’t really seem like she did.”

“She still see’s me as the enemy, doesn’t she?” Twilight nodded. “Well, that isn’t surprising.”

“W-Why can’t she see you’re not a bad pony? What could you have done to make her hate you so much?”

The king’s eyes turned toward the ground, his silence punctuating his next words. “She doesn’t hate me, only Celestia does.”

“But why?” She tried again. “What did you do?”

“A lot. If it wasn’t taking the empire after the disappearance of their parents, it was not helping during the collapse following Star Swirl’s disappearance. I killed a trusted vassal of theirs, seized land they claimed as their own, knew too much about the real world, and was almost ready to enact my plans when they had enough. I would guess the last straw was convincing the mountain thestrals to join my side. Luna sent a few angry dreams my way before I blocked her out. That is when they mobilized for war.”

“Yeah, I-I guess I can see why they did what they did, but they seem to believe you’re a monster.”

“Heh. A monster. We’re all monsters in hiding. Be they too young to develop malice or the ones who bury it under their own kindness, it doesn’t change what we are.”

She stared into the flames, her mind at work. There must be something more. “Did you and her get along back then?”

“In a small way. We found common ground in our nightly interests. She’s a masterful wizard, only lacking the strength to enact her own dreams. In many ways, she took after her father.” He let out a short laugh, shifting toward the flames to dip a tendril in, bringing it up covered in reddened crystals. “Ever had rock candy?”

“I... w-when I was younger?” She tilted her head, the king breaking the rock from his tendril to toss over for her to catch in her magic. She sniffed it over before taking a bite, tasting the sugary goodness that was genuine rock candy. Her smile turned up as she indulged herself, finishing the first crystal to grin up at him. “You could have told me you could have made this, ya know?”

“It’s not very healthy. Lacks nutrition, causes stomach pains when unprocessed like that.” He moved back to his original spot. “Prince Nightflame taught me that spell. He loved dipping his hoof into fire to pull out the candy for foals. With all the magic he had, capable of fighting in battles against hundreds of foes and shifting the very tides to his whim, he loved to use it to bring joy to others.”

“You looked up to him, didn’t you?”

“I did. Despite having the skills of a master, he didn’t see it as anything special. For all the foals he awed with his fireworks and magic tricks, he assured them they too can do what he does if they work hard enough. That is what he told me at the fair. Guess that was something else Luna and I had in common. We both admired him.”

“S-So how did he, um, die? T-The regal sisters were young adults when it happened, so--“

“They weren’t.” She blinked a few times, his eyes turning from the flames to hers. “Celestia was barely considered an adult at the time of her coronation, and Luna was still a filly. Didn’t even have her cutie mark at the time their mother disappeared. Star Swirl served as the true ruler of Equestria in those days. Neither had the maturity, let alone the strength to rule.”

“Luna... w-was a filly? When her parents died?” Twilight’s eyes widened. “H-How old was, um, Celestia? Was she...?”

“Luna was six when Nightflame disappeared, nine when their mother vanished. Celestia is only eight years older than her sister, so she would have been on the cusp of early adulthood for her father and a young mare when her mother disappeared. Next time you speak to them, ask them about what their first forty years were like. You’ll find they have wildly different answers.”

“T-That... e-explains a lot, actually. Luna... well, she kinda went evil.” She gave him a shy smile even as his eyes titled. “She turned into a pony called Nightmare Moon a little over a thousand years ago, and was, um, banished to the moon. For a thousand years.”

“Huh.”

One word. Twilight’s eyebrows scrunched together, trying to make sense of it. Why only a ‘huh’? Did he... “W-Were you friends with her?”

“As close as two foreign rulers could be. I was centuries older than her, true, but she always had a spirit more reminiscent of her mother. As I said, we found common ground to bond over. She loved Equestria. I loved the Crystal Empire. Her heart was down south, while mine remained rotating under the spire. That was something we never could reconcile.” He threw in another piece of wood. “Better get some rest. Tomorrow will be a hard journey.”

“Y-Yeah. Okay.” Twilight laid against her pile, closing her eyes to let the warmth wash over her. Would Luna tell her the truth even if she confronted her with what Sombra said? He... He was friends with her. That was proof there was something else missing. Why did Luna seem so certain he was a monster? Did she believe the lies?

Did she know they were lies?

Not a word had been exchanged so far between her and her guide except for the initial instructions: ‘follow my trail and don’t look into the pools of magic.’ In Equestria, a magical waste spillage would be considered a major emergency, an industrial accident that would get ponies arrested, assuming it was one of the hoofful of corporations that dealt in raw magical energies. But here... it was everywhere. No living organisms except lichen existed in the wastelands surrounding Fort Chillrend, the environment being too hostile except for the hardiest of life.

Twilight kept her mouth shut and teeth gritted as they want, focused on the back of Sombra’s shadows. The very air crackled with latent magical energy, seeping through her flesh to induce twitches of her muscles and waves of strange sensation in the rest. Her mind had trouble focusing, eyesight blurring, and auditory hallucinations already plaguing her every step of the way. They couldn’t rest until they get the wall.

“Twilight?” Sombra stopped, turning back to her, the mare almost colliding into his eyes before stopping herself and taking a shaking step back. “I need you to watch where you’re stepping now. There’s no path forward that is easy. Avoid staring into the puddles.”

“Y-Yeah. I-I understand.” She nodded, her eye twitching from another stream of magical energy passing through her. The king continued forward, her eyes moving to the tainted soil. With the first puddles she came across, she took extreme care in avoiding, stepping around them and averting her eyes whenever they felt tempted to look into it. The sheer amount of magical energy would exhaust the Elements of Harmony to try cleaning. No trees, no animals, not even grass. Only the rocks and gray dirt, overlooked by a distant set of mountains.

She stepped around the next puddle, her eyes flicking to see her reflection within. It was warped and... Her mind fogged over, leg stumbling on a patch of dirt. She reached out her right leg to break her fall; it landing directly into–

“KEEEYA!”

Twilight let loose a blood-curdling scream as she recoiled backward, Sombra turning and rushing up to her, grabbing her other foreleg before it could touch the affected one. “Don’t touch it!” His tendrils swiped over her leg and horn bubbling, only drawing out more whimpers from her as he removed the material from the boiling flesh. “Take deep breaths and close your eyes. One in.” She breathed in. “Count to five. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Breath out.”

The breath out was accompanied by the tears forming in her eyes, the first trailing down her cheek. It seared straight into her body, lighting every nerve from her foreleg to her spine into full panic. His cold tendrils moved over her, the ones touching the leg hurting the worst as it exacerbated the agony.

“It... doesn’t look good.” She opened her blurry vision to see his eyes staring down at it. “We will need to find medical supplies at the fort. Did you look into a puddle?”

“I-It w-was just a m-moment.” She forced from her teeth, them clenched down tight enough to draw supplemental pain to detract from her suffering. Her body shook, stomach turning over itself, and not a single piece not being impacted by twitching shocks that crossed her without reason.

“That’s all it can take. What did you see?”

“I-I s-saw my reflection. I-It looked...” She tried taking another breath, one of his tendrils going around her back to straighten her up before her eyes shut and body lurched forward. Her entire meal from the morning spewed from her mouth onto the soil, the tendril on her back rubbing in circles.

“Take your time. A few minutes won’t hurt.” He resumed prodding at the leg he held away from her, the mare letting out a sob before another wave of stomach acid seared her throat and ejected onto the ground. Her eyes opened up to see red mixed in with her vomit, breathing shallow as she tried fighting the fog in her mind.

“W-Wha...”

“Twilight Sparkle.” He lifted her dazed gaze to look into his eyes. “Listen to me. It will work out, alright? I know it might seem like everything isnf sa bldgfur ridfguut ndsyfw.” A twisting vine moved into her vision to open her eyelids wider, the noises blurring together as the shadows split and merged.

Twilight. Listen to me. It will work out. His voice broadcast into her mind. What you may be seeing isn’t real. The pollution got into your bloodstream and is impacting every organ in your body, including your brain. I know it might seem all-consuming, but it will improve. I will carry you to a clearer spot for you to get some rest. Now sleep.

The orbs once more passed by around her, Luna floating off to a more distant section where Twilight was likely to still be. The unicorn wasn’t making it easy, that much was for certain. Still, if Twilight is going to the fort, she may reveal information that even Celestia refuses to give voice to. The old empire was... advanced, but the true scope still eluded her.

The princess hummed to herself in thought. Giving a little history between her and Sombra might help rebuild that trust. It would at least let her guard down to get additional details.

As she reached out for the sphere, her hoof shot back, eyes widening. Extreme energies radiated from the sphere. Wild magic. She cast a spell over herself before hopping in, landing in a twisted and rotting forest that distorted with the dreamer’s fracturing mental state. The sky was a mixture of red and purple clouds that sparked and folded in on themselves, roots of the trees surrounding her distorting and dissolving at their own will.

Luna took flight to try finding Twilight, finding the unicorn surrounded by spirits, shaking and crying as they picked at her flesh, her body cut open with a surgeon’s touch to dissect her live. She descended and unleashed a blast of magic to dispel the energy away, moving to Twilight and ‘healing’ her back to health before grabbing her to hold. The mare shook and cried into her imaginary fur, eventually opening her tear-filled eyes and looking up to see the worry on the princess’ face. “L-Luna?”

“Twilight. What happened? This...” She cringed at the thought. THIS wasn’t something Sombra would do. He knew how horrible wild energy was, and it wouldn’t make sense to afflict her with something this horrendous. It was stinging at her soul with every moment she spent inside the dreamscape, trying to latch onto her like it was to Twilight.

“I-I t-tripped into a p-puddle.” She took shaky, shallow breaths against the dark blue fur before continuing. “S-Sombra is h-helping. W-We’re stopping r-right now so I c-can rest.”

“You tripped... w-where? When?”

“A-An hour ago? Maybe?” She sniffled, body still shivering, but the field relaxing with Luna’s magic diffusing into it. It took everything she had to keep both the magic at bay and to calm the unicorn.

“Where did it touch, Twilight?”

“M-My leg. I-It... I-I can’t f-feel it except for the p-pain.”

“Your leg...” Luna closed her eyes and took a breath of the non-existent air in. “T-That’s good. Yes. Very good.”

“W-Why are you h-here?”

The princess reopened her eyes to stare into Twilight’s. “I was going to check up on you, but it seems our talk will have to happen another time. You need to rest. Don’t worry about your leg. No point adding stress to the pain.” She rubbed her hoof along Twilight’s cheek. “I-I can stay for a bit to keep things calm, but talking will be too much. You need sleep.”

“H-He hasn’t t-told me what is going t-to happen to me. W-What... W-Will I die?”

“Not if he...” She let out a sigh. “Y-Your leg will probably have to be amputated. I’m sorry, Twilight. He can tell you more. He has more experience than I do with wild magic.”

Her small smile brought out a faint one from Twilight, Luna collapsing the dream so she can work on soothing the mind without distraction. The energies were raw, unfiltered by any logic or reason. As she kept the field calm, the sinking feeling that Twilight wouldn’t make it weighed her down. It was at least in her deep tissues if it reached her brain.

She could only hope Sombra was genuine and would do whatever it took to keep her alive.

The searing pain shook her awake from her sleep, a groan escaping her mouth before she had the time to open her eyes. “Twilight?” Sombra asked from nearby. “You’re awake?”

“I-I t-think so.” Her heavy eyelids opened to see...

They shot open at the sight. Towering above them at least a hundred poni, made of pure darkened metal, a wall with indentations stretched to the sky. “A-Are we...”

“I carried you to the fort. You needed to rest, and I didn’t believe letting you walk through the terrain was a good idea.” A tendril floated in front of her vision. “See me?”

“Y-Yeah. Black, and, um, shadowy?”

“Correct.” Two cold tendrils moved underneath her, assisting to get her sat up. She looked out over the wasteland one last time, seeing it didn’t really improve even at the walls. Still no green, still ponds worth of raw magical energy scattered about. “How are you feeling?”

“I-I...” Her eyes moved to the leather sling her leg was in around her neck. “W-Where did you...?”

“Your cloak made a sacrifice.” He broke into laughter, her cracking up a bit. “We’re almost at our first real stop. Beyond this wall is some of the last accessible technology of the old empire, protected against the explosions which devastated the continent. What you’ll see is... well, I’ll just show you.”

His tendrils picked up her saddlebags to strap to her back once more, before moving underneath her and taking her into his blackness. The king activated a series of runes scattered around them, a dark crystal extending from beneath to push him up. Twilight stared at the receding ground, breath being taken away by how high they rose. Not a hundred poni...

Sombra moved on his own to launch them the rest of the way as the crystal below shattered, his tendrils moving along the near ninety degree surface until he came over the top, setting her down on the metal platform. Twilight got up onto her shaking hooves and moved to the edge, looking back down at where they came from, a mere dot compared to their height. AT LEAST four hundred poni high.

And as she turned around, her eyes widened in absolute shock.