Within You

While the lamp was still floating wrapped in a bright translucent red mantle, Sombra's eyes landed on said object and lingered there as if it were some hypnotic spell.

Guided by the familiar tickling sensation on his horn, Sombra began to cause the object to oscillate patiently and gently through his magic.

His mind couldn't seem to fully comprehend what exactly had happened or how it had happened.

Nor what it implied.

Maintaining the same slow pace, Sombra returned the lamp to its place. Making it look at first glance as if nothing had ever happened in the room.

Suddenly the sheet on his bed with moisture stains no longer had the same relevance as before.

Something else had taken its position on his priority list.

So he took one last suspicious and curious look at the lamp and walked towards the most spacious part of his room, near his practically empty dressing table, with an idea in mind.

The next couple of hours, Sombra decided that he would use them to test the ability that had been returned to him (although not in full, from what he had noticed) in an unknown way.

Somehow he had managed to spend all his time testing in different ways how far the limits of his "new" magic went. So much so that he didn't even notice when the warm light of the morning sun began to patiently peek through his window.

Keeping in mind that he could now have the chance to leave his room without looking suspicious or provoking unwanted questions from the princess or any other pony, Sombra began his journey towards the Library, as this was the place that had become the one he frequented most due to the silence and pleasant temperature that characterized it.

Ergo, the perfect place to carry out what he had in mind.

As he had imagined, the princess was already awake, and he had confirmed it in the way he had just hoped to avoid.

Coincidentally, the alicorn had left her room only about five seconds after he had left his. And, as he had anticipated, he could not escape being noticed by her.

From the corner of his eye he noticed how her eyes landed on him once they became aware of her presence, and how with a small smile he began to direct her steps towards him.

Even if he didn't make it visible on the outside, in his mind the grimace of annoyance was emitted with much feeling.

But it was fine, he knew how to deal with her.

“Maintain eye contact. Nod when she finishes speaking. If she asks something, answer yes, no or that you don't know.”

He had created it himself just a few days after starting to live with her. It was very effective, to tell the truth.

Having followed his imaginary list to the letter, the princess walked away from him with a half smile as soon as she finished saying whatever she wanted to tell the stallion. Who, of course, only paid attention to 20% of everything she had said.

Something about having to go to an important meeting in Canterlot. Or something like that.

Most likely nothing really important, she always had to be going to meetings and most of them didn't end up being of real importance.

He still didn't understand why she always told him about her royal stuff.

What part of his actions had made her understand that he cared?

Not wanting to waste his mind on such banal things so early in the morning, Sombra preferred to continue on his way and direct his concentration to another matter.

There were much more important matters to think about.

The moment the guards opened the doors to the throne room, something that Twilight couldn't identify in the environment caused a strange and uncomfortable feeling that ran through her entire body.

The curtains so unusually canceling out the translucency of the palace's large windows and stained glass windows did not contribute to the situation.

The faces of the other rulers were of no help either, because beneath their mask of serenity, consternation managed to emerge.

Something wasn't right.

And she could sense it since a rolled up paper appeared so suddenly in front of her, born from several magical sparks just a few seconds after Celestia had finished raising the sun. The content of the paper requested her presence at Canterlot Palace as soon as possible, as there were certain urgent and delicate matters that needed to be addressed.

"Thank you, gentlemen." The monarch's voice echoed slightly in the room and brought Twilight out of her thoughts. Celestia nodded towards the guards as if giving them a signal. "You may leave now."

The four guards did what was required.

Leave?

Since when did Celestia make her guards leave the Throne Room?

Celestia took a step forward.

A light layer of sweat began to appear on the younger alicorn's extremities.

"Good morning, Twilight, we're sorry for summoning you so early, but I'm afraid this matter couldn't wait another second." Celestia's face maintained its unchanging seriousness, just as her voice seemed to try to stay in a single tone.

Twilight tried to get her level of nervousness to stop its ascent for at least a second.

"Did something bad happen?"

The likely answer to her question felt almost obvious, but she felt it necessary to ask.

Celestia's gaze lowered and a sigh escaped her lips. Her face betrayed the difficulty she was going through as she prepared to respond.

"No more than a week ago, a report of a missing pony was made in the Crystal Empire;" Celestia did not answer the question directly; "A group of mountaineers noticed that one of their members was not there when it was time to return from their last excursion. The Royal Guard of the Empire began their search almost immediately in the places near where the excursion had taken place, Shining Armor was with them." She added the last thing. "After a few hours they managed to find her. "

The monarch stopped and directed her gaze to the white unicorn behind her, they seemed to share silent words through their gazes and Celestia began to walk back to her throne.

If they had found the pony, what was the problem then?

What had happened?

The mystery and the slowness with which the news was being revealed was beginning to create a small growing desperation within Twilight.

Shining Armor took his place in front of her and sighed heavily before beginning to speak.

"Twilight... What we found was horrible."

Chills took over most of her body as Shining Armor began to describe one by one the physical characteristics of the pony's condition in a rather explicit manner, hence there came a time when Twilight had to pretend that she was listening and that she wasn't about to cry and vomit at the same time.

It was not possible.

She had never heard of a case as horrible as the one she was now presented with, not even in history or horror books.

What had happened?

A gentle touch on her shoulder from her brother brought her back to the present and made her look up at him.

"There were no traces of physical attacks or illness of any kind, nor traces of poisoning or magic of any kind. We found nothing but her corpse and belongings."

There was a pause on the prince's part, a probable wait for his sister's response.

A response that never came.

Shining Armor and Cadance shared worried and hesitant glances, before the Crystal Princess gave a nod and began to approach the younger alicorn.

"Twilight... I know it's difficult to digest everything we've just revealed to you, but you need to know that we already have suspicions about what could have happened."

The aforementioned reacted almost immediately and fixed her gaze on her sister-in-law, giving her the space to continue speaking.

"We know that you might not agree with our assumptions, but, I insist, you must keep abreast out of everything." Cadence cast an uncertain glance toward the other rulers behind her, returning it to the front as soon as she earned a silent approval from them. "We believe this may have been the work of King Sombra."

Clear and concise, the pink alicorn blurted out the phrase and left a space of silence for Twilight's possible response.

"Wait, what?" Her brow furrowed automatically and she had to blink about three times in a row while she processed what had just been said.

There was only one question in Twilight's head: How had they made such a big leap towards such a conclusion?

Cadence let out a short sigh before speaking again.

"As Shining said, no trace of magic, attack or illness was found that would give a coherent explanation for the way the pony died. The only way to do that is to use dark magic, forbidden magic... This was murder, Twilight."

Usually, if her wings and other limbs hadn't been so numb to the point of almost giving out, and her eyelids weren't almost closing themselves, she probably wouldn't have asked the guards at the entrance to open the door for her instead of doing it herself.

She was tired, in many ways.

The revelations and accusations made at the recent meeting still bothered her head, affecting her entire body as well.

What she wanted to do most at the moment was enter her room and let herself fall into the softness of her mattress.

But it was not something within her possibilities.

She had to do something more important first.

"Good morning." She greeted two guards with a small smile right after approaching them. "May you tell me where King Sombra is?"

No more than three seconds passed before the guards nodded, exchanged glances, and then indicated what was required by their superior.

"He's in the library, Your Highness."

"Thank you very much, gentlemen." She said goodbye with a smile and began to walk away from them.

The slight smile on her face began to fade as her steps advanced towards the aforementioned library. Her urgency to check that her recent 'reform student' was where he was supposed to be was beginning to become uncontrollable.

It's not that she knew the stallion well enough to blindly affirm that he had not been the author of the recent murder, but inside her she refused to believe the words of the other rulers without first having proof to back them up.

Not to mention, in the unfortunate event that King Sombra was indeed the murderer, that would mean that the death of that innocent pony would also be her fault. Her fault for not listening to the warnings of others and freeing a former enslaving king with active criminal tendencies with the intention of trying to reform him.

Yes, that sounded a lot like great part of that death could be her fault too.

A deep inhale was necessary for the alicorn to counteract the strong shiver that ran through her at the thought of it.

Once she was in front of the large doors of the library, she wished to herself one last time that everything would turn out well.

She entered.

At first glance, she could not find the former king, however, after going deeper and heading towards one of the subsections of the library, she was finally able to find him.

Seeing him with an open book between his hooves, apparently quite focused behind a stack of books, was more satisfying than expected.

He wasn't out there somewhere around the Empire murdering ponies, no. He was just reading a book.

That had to be a good sign, right?

"Sombra?"

Even though it was very subtle, Twilight noticed the almost imperceptible jolt in the unicorn's body.

"Sorry, I didn't want to bother you." She smiled and directed her gaze elsewhere.

She already knew what she wanted to know (or at least part of it), so what was next?

"Then what did you want?"

On days like this, Twilight sometimes hated his hostile way of responding.

"Well... Actually I just wanted to see how you were doing, I left you alone for a long time so... "

"You had to check that I was still here? What are you now? My babysitter?" He interrupted her. The usual sarcastic and somewhat mocking tone was not unexpected.

Twilight had to refrain from making her annoyance evident through a grimace and she just sighed somewhat heavily. She did not have enough energy to deal with the former king's characteristic personality.

"Maybe." She wanted to end the conversation once and for all.

Without giving the unicorn time to respond or react, she turned around and began walking towards the exit.

For her part, Sombra only gave her a curious look for a few seconds before she disappeared from his field of vision as she crossed the large crystal doors, all without having said another word.

“Such an unusual mood,” he observed to himself.

Maybe the meeting had been actually important this time.

Everything was fine. There seemed to be no indication that Sombra was involved in the murder—if the situation was seen only partially—so she could rest for a while from that constant thought in her head that was beginning to cause her physical pain.

Everything was fine. It had to be.

Having once entered her room and telekinetically locked the door, Twilight didn't think twice before carelessly launching herself onto the mattress of her bed.

Even though the softness and coolness of the sheets embraced her immediately, the memory of the small argument that had been developed mid-meeting came back to attack her, consequently making her head throb even harder.

«As we told you, they didn't find any type of attack or anything coherent to explain the horrific manner of death of that pony, so everything points to dark magic being involved here... Twilight, there is only one pony in this entire kingdom connoisseur of that type of magic, and he is the one you freed and have in your castle. King Sombra is actually who all this points to.»

Twilight found herself rubbing her temples.

All the words were repeated incessantly in her mind and made her feel the sensations of the moment again, the same or stronger than before.

She hadn't been sure—and still wasn't—whether her tone had been too much at the time, but it had frustrated her that they managed to counter her every word in defense of Sombra, and sometimes even with arguments sort of debatable.

«Twilight, I'm sorry, but King Sombra represents a threat right now to the Empire and to all of Equestria, he must return to the dungeons of the Empire until we issue a trial and an investigation; If we find the real culprit and it's not him, he can return to you and continue with the lessons. But if not… You know what will happen.»

“Lock him up? With what kind of proof besides 'he's guilty because I think so'?” Twilight couldn't help but think once again with ever-growing frustration.

«No, so far the only 'proof' you have is what you believe, so taking legal action based on that is simply unfair. Sombra isn't the best-behaved nor the kindest pony, but I feel it's wise to allow myself to doubt that this is his doing. I can't let you take him away and let all the progress we've made go to waste. —Twilight felt how the gaze of the other rulers made something inside her suggest stopping there; However, she ignored it—. Also, if I'm right and this is not related to him, that means there is a new threat against Equestria, a very important and dangerous one; Instead of focusing solely on trying to blame Sombra for all of this, I think we should worry about providing more protection to the Kingdom, since it is obvious that this assassin will strike again; and investigate who it is, before it is too late.»

Had she over-thought her words until she couldn't do it anymore once she had finished saying them? Yes, definitely.

However, she didn't feel much regret. Just some discomfort with the way the discussion began to develop and then proceeded to make the atmosphere more tense, due to how strongly the points of view and opinions clashed.

It was actually the first time something like this had happened to him. And not just with one, but with all the rest of the rulers of Equestria and surrounding areas. It hadn't been an enjoyable feeling.

«Although you know that I appreciate you very much and that you are part of my family, Twilight, I am also the ruler of the Empire, and it is my duty to ensure the safety of my citizens. I maintain my position, I believe that King Sombra is a threat and I also believe that he is responsible for all of this; Furthermore, I am the one who has the final verdict on his conviction and punishment for everything he did, so even if you disagree with me, I fear that I will have to take King Sombra and return him to the dungeons. If any clue or evidence is found that involves King Sombra, no matter how small it may be, the responsibility will be entirely on him; and this time, without having a chance for redemption.»

Yes, it might seem like Twilight actually had nothing to worry about, but that assumption was more than just wrong.

She barely managed to get Cadence not to take the gray unicorn, it was too much to dream that she would convince her not to take it the moment she found the precious piece of evidence that she evidently seemed eager to find.

And, having seen her attitude towards the whole situation, she could be sure that Cadence was not going to rest until she found said proof, and that she would even be capable to use a very ambiguous and/or debatable validity proof.

What was she supposed to do now?

She only saw one possible option, and that was to find the real culprit, in order to free Sombra from incrimination.

And it's not like that was so easy.

She needed someone's guidance, and this time it seemed like she wasn't going to be able to find it in the same old pony.

The universe and/or destiny were not smiling in her direction this time.