Northen Stars

Only once.

It had only been once in his life that he had been able to count on not being only him. He could still remember it, even though the annoying mist that ended up settling in his mind after his return still lingered to cloud his memories. Memories lost in time that had slowly been unlocked.

The mind really was a very curious thing. It had the uncanny ability to suppress past memories that might be a pain to recall, a pain that could cause its bearer to receive the anguish that had previously been forgotten deep inside. As an advanced defense mechanism, consciousness itself chose to block out that specific part to protect itself, hoping that nothing would ever be able to poke inside itself and bring it to light. Thus he could continue to have the illusory idea of a possible well-being.

But what happened when pretending that everything was fine wasn't enough?

Or maybe it had been, maybe it was just enough to ignore all the shit his life had become. To evade responsibilities and hope that everything would magically improve... Yes, anypony could do that.

But unfortunately, there always came a time when everything just ended up breaking down. And for him, at a certain point, it had not been the exception. Why would it be anyway?

On that occasion, when he was still so young that the clutches of life had not yet been able to snatch away his innocence, that natural naivety of knowing that anywhere he could be fine, completely safe.

But he had never been entirely sure.

His life had always been surrounded by solitude, even from the first moment he put his hooves on the empire after those guards found him lost and abandoned in the snow. He had been alone long before he could remember, even before he could escape that hell.

So it was definitely a feeling that he could understand. Perhaps he could even share it.

Perhaps because that was a feeling that had been ratified even more since that moment when he had not been able to get along with the other foals and had been left aside, discarded from their stupid games with rules as stupid as themselves. Just because he wasn't a crystal pony.

Until that changed when he encountered a peculiar little pony. Or rather he should say that she found him.

That's when he could remember that in a distant time he had been able to trust somepony else. Even if in the end that somepony had betrayed him. But it was actually fine, at least that had shown him that not everything was always as it seems.

Life, once again, showed him how hard he was. And he had made sure to follow that advice very well.

Although in the end it all ended up being a resounding failure, the memories prevailed like flashes of light and shadow in his mind, waiting asleep, fading into a fog of darkness that had lasted for the thousand years of his confinement. Until the well-known moment of his return.

A moment that had ended as it did due to his impulsiveness.

It had really been a very ironic thing. Before, he had been waiting for years endlessly, preparing for when that opportunity finally came, only for it to end in utter failure through his own fault.

And then he had to wait. Waiting once again for each fraction of his power to slowly restore itself while he felt how the seconds passed, the minutes, hours and days that successively turned into years.

Until she had finally arrived.

He didn't know exactly how long it had been since his fall, he only realized that it had been long enough when he saw that the unicorn that had influenced his defeat was the same one that at that moment wore a pair of wings on her back, an unmistakable symbol of her new status as a princess.

On that occasion he had mocked. Apparently, it was only necessary for Celestia to choose any commoner to become one and play royalty. And when he learned her title, Ha! 'Princess of Friendship,' he realized that it was impossible for her to be prepared.

He never imagined that that same princess would prove him otherwise.

From the first moment they had been trapped in that forgotten place in the world she had done it. Then he understood, much later, that she had not been a random choice. That white alicorn knew very well what she was doing. So in the end something ended up being very different this time.

Because after everything they had been through up to that point, he realized that he had underestimated the little purple alicorn more than she really deserved. At least until that moment.

But then something very curious happened that had left him quite intrigued and even suspicious at first. After all, he never imagined that she would be willing to propose a much wider truce and give him a bit of that so-called 'brotherly union between two ponies'. And to his own surprise he had accepted it, mostly to give her that possible benefit of the doubt.

And then everything that happened later with the dragon and those things had happened. She had not taken it and in the end she ended up dropping everything in front of him. So by that time he was already beginning to seriously consider everything that the alicorn had said. Even if at first he hadn't taken it seriously.

But something had also changed with that. Something that had somehow made him think. Only he didn't know yet, or didn't want to realize it.

Although in spite of everything... Could he really consider giving her his complete trust?

"After all, we're still a team, aren't we?"

Maybe it could be that way, just maybe...

"It's not long now."

Yes, maybe it was time.

"I think we're already close..."

Sombra saw the exact moment when Twilight stepped forward when a slight crescent began to show its presence beyond the dark tunnel they had been following for hours. He didn't speed up his pace, but he stayed behind her all the time while watching that no unforeseen event was going to happen suddenly.

He was aware that she could handle it if it happened, but he preferred to stay alert anyway. It was the best.

"Fine, just don't stray too far," he said in a quiet slowness, somewhat unusual for him.

He had said that as something simple that she could keep in mind, so somehow he didn't expect her to stop and turn to him, walking calmly. Twilight's next words escaped her lips in a soft, gentle tone that proved to be to his liking.

"Then come with me," she encouraged him as she returned to his side. "It is better not to be left behind."

He ended up nodding as he agreed with her and stayed by her side again. At that moment he didn't notice the small smile that was sketched on her face.

They went on their way in silence until the opening of the tunnel finally opened completely and revealed to its full extent what lay beyond. The light had not lied to them, even though darkness reigned outside. The glow they had seen was only the faint gleam of the full moon rising above the sky.

Twilight stepped forward a bit again, though she did not dare to leave the relative safety of the tunnel until she had hoped that Sombra was entirely at her side. So in those few seconds that she was like that she decided to move her gaze all over the outside.

They were greeted by the same dark and eerie forest as always in all its gloomy expanse.

The only difference was that in this region the trees did not seem to grow so close together or twisted, but rather gave the impression of having a renewed freshness of which she was not entirely sure, since she was looking at them at night.

"What happens now?" Sombra asked after reaching her side, saying his words in a slightly lower tone.

"Nothing..." Twilight whispered without taking her eyes off her point of interest, perhaps in an attempt to catch something that had escaped her before. "I just think that we have to be careful until we get to the place where we are going."

Sombra couldn't help but look at her with a flat expression at the moment she said that, in passing while letting out a slight snort that made Twilight finally look at him in the same way. Then he decided to get out of the tunnel on his own.

"Well, that's a bit too much to say, don't you think?" He asked after moving back a little to let her out.

Twilight took another look at her surroundings after ignoring his words for a second. Once again, she could not see, hear or feel anything that by chance would betray some kind of latent threat in the environment; but that was not something that left her alone either. In the end she let her lips purse slightly as she looked back at Sombra.

"I know I'm stating the obvious," she began again after she slumped down on the ground and lightly rubbed her hooves. "But right now I'd really appreciate it if we stopped right here if possible, at least so we can rest until the sun comes up again."

Then she let out a sigh as she began to settle in. She hadn't heard the stallion's answer, but she was expecting what it would be anyway. Sombra looked at her and also had to admit in his mind that maybe it was time to heed her suggestion and wait until morning to continue.

"Good, but don't start complaining that your whole body hurts." He stood next to the relative safety of the tunnel again, watching her go a bit deeper into the tunnel and grimace in disgust at his words.

Twilight definitely didn't hide the way she looked at him as she plopped down on her own hind legs, the front ones folded under her chest after giving herself the task of adjusting her cloak. After that she spoke again.

"It's not that I've complained about it so many times, but it's not my fault that the ground is so hard," she let out a slight click of her tongue after shrugging her shoulders a bit. "It is not common to me."

Twilight closed her eyes after that, but it was impossible for her not to notice the slight snort that the stallion made in front of her anyway. Sombra was still thinking about what that meant when he spoke again in a tone that indicated a bit of mockery.

"We've been in this place for about a month and I still can't understand why you keep complaining about it. I mean, is it serious?" He sent her his typical serious look once more, even though she kept her eyes closed. But he knew pretty well that she was hearing him because her body language indicated it.

Twilight had turned her ears all the way in his direction. However, just because she was hearing him didn't mean she cared about that too. So at the stallion's words, the only thing she did to get out of her discomfort was to settle into a more pleasant position for herself.

"Completely seriously," she replied without altering her voice and without opening her eyes again, just lying down with her head on her front paws while whispering to herself. "I miss my bed, so I can't say anything else..."

Twilight's mind began to dissociate little by little, prey to falling into the eventual and pleasant fog that enveloped the dream, but apparently not everything could go as well as she expected. Or at least not for long for them.

"What...?" She opened her eyes once, slowly and slightly sleepy when she began to sense something strange around her.

She turned her gaze to Sombra and quickly realized that he had felt it too. By now he had entered, and was looking at a fixed point in the distance with a marked frown on his face. This only made her alarmed and more so when he summoned an invisible protective field around the entrance.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked as worry grew within her. The feeling that something was not right ruffled her feathers.

After a while that seemed like an eternity to her, Sombra finally returned his gaze as he moved a bit closer to her. But even though the expression on his face remained unperturbed, Twilight was able to catch a fleeting gleam of alarm inside his eyes for a brief moment.

"I think I know what it might be." His gaze narrowed after he caught something medium-large among the trees. "Look over there."

Twilight did so as she approached to stay by his side. She focused her gaze to notice the large shape of some unknown creature walking through the forest. She frowned and let out a little snort, a bit tired from the fact that again her instinct told her that that was not there by pure chance.

Even from her position and despite the darkness, Twilight could tell that she had the appearance of a giant bovid. A pair of huge antlers grew from its head and twisted in a strange shape that she had never seen before in such animals, giving the impression of possessing an unsuspected edge. However, the strangest thing was its body.

Twilight really couldn't explain why the creature had six twisted legs that ended at an end that was too weird. Because actually, from where she could see, she suspected that it was claws. She had no idea what it was, but definitely the only thing she could recognize was the frontal and seemingly peaceful appearance of a deer.

However, there was something more to that... Something that inevitably made her fur stand on end and made the feathers of her wings bristle in a position of alert.

"What is that?" She whispered as quietly as she could in a tone that exuded a strange mixture of curiosity and apprehension, but there was also some fear. Fear for something she didn't know.

Sombra turned his head in her direction and frowned when he realized that she was also on alert. A low growl began to grow from his throat as he turned his gaze back to the forest. If she had been able to feel it the same way, then that only meant one thing.

"A fiend of the mountains," He answered her question without turning to look at her again. He couldn't, at least not until his instinct calmed down again when the danger finally passed. "So it's too rare for it to be in this area..."

"What do you mean by 'fiend'?" She hadn't missed that detail as she looked uneasily at the creature that was beginning to move away. "What exactly does it do?"

He took a few seconds to answer, all the while he had kept his eyes fixed on the creature with twisted antlers and now he watched with infinite patience as it moved farther and farther away from them, going somewhere they had no idea about. Only then could he allow himself to answer her properly.

"Somehow it can absorb magic in large quantities and then expel it in smaller parts, so it leaves traces wherever it goes." His gaze went once more to the mare beside him, now it seemed to reflect an implicit warning. "It may seem peaceful to some, but it's actually quite the opposite. Its danger lies in the fact that it do not attack its prey directly, but wait patiently for it to come to where it is, attracted by the smell of magical energy in the air," he concluded in a dark tone, letting out a growl when he looked beyond again. "It is, after those shadowy beings and the hydra we saw, one of the most dangerous creatures in this place."

Twilight had kept her ears down as her expression furrowed at everything she had just heard. However, there was also the fact that she couldn't help but notice the antipathy that was expressed in him. Something that was not very usual.

"I can see you don't like it very much," she said, looking away in the same way. "And I don't think it's just because of what you just told me."

"Not really."

Twilight bit her lip slightly as she heard the dryness of his answer. Deep down she thought that there was something more behind it for him to show himself like this. In any case, she was not going to insist that he tell her at that moment.

"Well, anyway I think it's gone," she got up to move away a bit and give him his well-deserved space, then ended up leaning back in her place. "It shouldn't be a problem for now."

Sombra let out something like a growl of nod after she said that. Then he simply closed his eyes while his mind wandered for a while longer with what he had been thinking about before.

Even if he hadn't wanted to remember one of his first encounters with that creature, he knew it had been important on that occasion. The problem was that at that moment he had not expected that at all, it did not matter that he had been warned long before.

Then, once again, his thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the princess near him who brought a peculiar comment.

"But I still can't help wondering why the magic of all those creatures behaves so strangely."

Or rather it wasn't the comment itself, but the way she said it. Be that as it may, Sombra couldn't help but turn to her for a slightly broader explanation for her words. It was then that he realized that she had pursed her lips in a slight grimace of doubt that gave an intrigued expression to her face.

"What exactly do you mean?"

Twilight had a vague idea of how to explain it without sounding so pretentious. In the end she ended up touching her chin with a hoof while she spoke.

"Because before, for example when the birds attacked us the first time, I couldn't feel its magic in the same way I can feel it now, not even with the hydra," she explained as she looked at him, opening a bit more in her thoughts to show him her concern. "But after those things that took Spike... I can be conscious before another creature appears. And I think it happens to you too."

He looked away, but still gave a slight nod to her words. But he also had something else to say.

"Maybe I can have an answer for that."

Twilight raised her head and blinked rapidly in his direction. Sombra let out a slight exhale as he noticed the bright-eyed expression she had at the moment, searching for a satisfying answer that might satiate her innate curiosity.

And although he would not have wanted to admit it at all, in a way he could not help but find it a bit affable.

"Perhaps it's because your own power influences you to a greater extent so that you can feel it," Sombra saw clearly as she began to pay attention to him. "Because although the mist field that surrounds this place causes it to inhibit and absorb our magic, it is not strong enough to allow it to be completely depleted. And you've seen that before, even now you can count on some more of your own magic just like me."

Twilight ended up nodding at his words, completely agreeing as she blew her horn for a moment. Though she let out a sigh anyway as she recalled another thought.

"That probably makes a lot of sense, as it does with everyone here," she said as she looked down, in a whisper he heard. "But since all those creatures have a different magic than we do, it doesn't affect them too much."

"Actually, it is not entirely like that."

Twilight looked up again, her face frowning slightly, looking for an explanation for what he had said.

"What do you mean?"

"That everything on this island is linked in one way or another," Sombra looked her straight in the eye, not turning it away for a second as he said his answer. "Look at it rather as if it were an interconnected system between everything that has magic and everything that does not, and that bond is strengthened by the fact that everyone is native to this place. So, although they are also affected by the barrier, the effect is not as noticeable as it should be, except perhaps for ponies."

She had thought about that before, too.

"Why does it affect them more than anyone else?" She asked as she gently rubbed her hooves.

The stallion took a few seconds to answer. She noticed that he seemed to think about it, though she couldn't help but notice something else.

"Maybe because their magic is weaker and that causes the changes in it to be more noticeable," he ended up making a slight unimportant gesture. "That's actually something I can't answer completely, and I think you know why."

Twilight looked down. She understood him from that part at least, although she frowned at something to which her instinct asked her a bit more explanation.

"You're not entirely sure, or you don't really know that information." It was a simple statement, but she still couldn't help but let out a sigh. "Perhaps, we are not from here and it also affects us. Although if we consider what you said, that the deeper we go the weaker it becomes..." Her gaze shifted and became more expressive as she came to her conclusion. "So that's why the center is the established point of connection to the outside world, because it's the exact place where all the magic is channeled, isn't it?"

Sombra closed his eyes and nodded through it all. He wasn't surprised that she had come to that conclusion, but it still didn't prevent a slight half-smile from forming on his face.

Then his gaze met hers again. And even though she didn't realize what that caused next, in no moment did Twilight fail to notice the deep crimson glow that was seen inside his eyes.

"Just as you said, so you must find it ironic that its power decreases until it almost disappears right in that place, which increases yours accordingly."

She averted her gaze as she tilted her head slightly. The truth was that she had to agree with him on that part.

"A bit, not so much if I can fully understand the mechanism of how it works..." She put a hoof on her chin and then noticed that he seemed to say something else.

"And despite all that there's also the fact that your magic is much more powerful, regardless of whether the barrier is absorbing most of it."

Sombra settled into his place while waiting for her reaction, which was not long in coming.

"I understand," she whispered, though she looked back in his direction when she realized something. "Also, was that a compliment?"

She looked at him suspiciously, but Sombra just didn't seem to make such a big deal out of it.

"Take it as you like."

At what he said, Twilight could only look at him. Only that while he closed his eyes again and seemed ready to continue with a rest that had been interrupted by the event of earlier. She was willing to do that as well, but first she couldn't help but roll her eyes while shaking her head slightly.

That's when she leaned back in place. Her eyes closed and she went to sleep, but on her lips there was still a small smile that lasted until once again, she fell into unconsciousness.

Twilight raised her ears and turned at the call of her name. She opened her wings quickly and in less than a minute she was next to Sombra, under the canopy of a few trees that were beginning to open up to a much wider path. A clearing that would soon be seen.

"What's going on?"

The stallion did not respond at first, only a glance was enough to communicate what he was soon going to say.

"We've already arrived."

Twilight's expression became determined, and it was Twilight that she was now following with her gaze fixed on the road beyond.

"Are we...?"

She looked at him again and waited patiently for him to answer. Sombra ended up making a gesture of confirmation, but instead of saying it in words, he chose to show it to her.

"A place long forsaken," he murmured when they finally came out into the clearing.

An aura of power and antiquity crept within him as his very being fully perceived it. His body resonated and sent a shiver that wasn't entirely pleasant, but that took a turn when he felt how the core of his magic seemed to beat much harder. As if it were aware that there was something that inevitably linked him to that place, interweaving itself tightly as it waited for him to reveal all its secrets.

However, the most satisfying thing to see was her reaction.

Twilight walked slowly as she gaped, still unable to fully internalize what she was seeing. Because in front of her was the most fascinating hidden structure she had been lucky enough to see in her entire life.