Twilight Sparkle weaves between the corridors of the dungeons that are hidden deep beneath Canterlot, hoping to find a Very Important Prisoner.

She heads towards the cell he was being kept in, and wrenches the door open with immense force, causing the metal to shriek against the stone tiles of the dungeon floor.

There is no trace of Sombra.

That alone is enough to stir panic.

It takes her a moment to cool herself, she reminds herself that she is no ordinary pony and that she could probably figure out a way to track him.

Scrying spells would be the best idea - a cauldron to allow for a view of the other side, and—

Perhaps not, on second thoughts. For accurate scrying, she needs a physical artifact of the stallion in question, something like a hair or discarded keratin shavings from his horn.

Were there any spells used in here?

Her Element is Magic, after all, and she can sense most forms of it fairly easily.

Closing her eyes, she lights her horn, allowing her to see a sparkling trail when she next opens them.

The trail stops at the wall.

Ah, perhaps a teleportation spell?

If he teleported into a crowd or something, then his leftover magical signature would become much harder to track.

Quite frankly, she has no idea how far he can even teleport! Or of his magical ability.

It's entirely possible that a unicorn running on reserves may be able to teleport a long distance if they were used to casting such a spell, but one that was fairly rusty at doing so, running on reserves and managing to teleport miles away?

Implausible.

She knows she wouldn't be able to track him within Canterlot. Try as she might, to increase diversity hires for guards and staff within the castle, the majority of society here is still unicorn in nature.

Surely he couldn't have teleported elsewhere.

Or, Celestia forbid, perform multiple teleports while running on only his reserves.

With this thought in mind, she begins to walk again. This time, outside the cell and back into the tiled halls of the Canterlot Dungeons.

...Her protestors are going to have a field day, and so are the tabloids. It'll be morbidly interesting to see how this plays out, she thinks. There are at least two newspapers that will go down defending her, while most others offer lukewarm reception to her.

The Foal Free Press is one to worry about, as well as the Hag's Nag.

The Hag's Nag was staunchly against her rule, and has remained so since she was brought in to replace both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

The Foal Free Press? Chaotic, often written by students, ten years of age and ready to start senior school, and could swing either way as the fillies and colts write out thesis statements and submit them into the columns.

The younger ones were often influenced by their parents and teachers. As she was, up until she became a Princess and suddenly got a lot more free reign.

Twilight begins to ascend the stairs to go towards Canterlot Castle proper.

Sombra grunts, dragging himself out of the bush and blowing a leaf out of his face.

There's a background sensation of dizziness that he can't seem to shake off, as well as one of unease.

The bush is next to a house, and he can't help but notice that he's trampled some flowers.

At the very least, he had enough dignity to pass out in a bush and not in somebody's flowerbed. Small mercies, were it not for the fact that pet dogs (and pet cats that are unceremoniously let loose in the wilderness with no supervision whatsoever) have probably pissed on this bush.

Alternatively, ponies coming here after a night out on the town.

Probably best not to think about that.

His ears pin back as he looks around, head swivelling from side to side to check if anyone's seen him, before he proceeds to stoop to the lowest level and... bite the flowers off their crooked stems.

He chews on the flowers in his mouth in utter silence.

This sustenance is incredibly meager. The flowers aren't exactly high-quality, he's pretty sure they're wild-grown, the seeds probably got blown near to this spot and this just happened to be where they started sprouting.

(Oh, how he used to love dipping the crystal roses in chocolate and then breaking off a petal, one by one...)

Thinking about food while being absolutely famished is a good idea with no consequences whatsoever, said nobody ever in the entire history of Equestria.

An abrupt cough, and he swallows the chewed mush down. Something didn't taste-feel right about those. He's too hungry-empty to care right now, though, and he looks at the ground for any more.

His eyes narrow into a squint to try and cope with the brightness of the day. Arguably he should have taken the time to wake up slowly and properly adjust. His eyes feel like they're burning-stinging and have the hallmark signs of irritation.

He stares at the broken stems of what once may have been some yellow flowers for a good few seconds, before getting his body to move (feels like lead) and stand up.

Slowly, he staggers out of the alleyway he'd slept in.

The town he'd ended up in is bustling with ponies. Ponies that hopefully wouldn't recognize him.

A fresh start to building his own empire, if he used his magic to scare the wits out of all of them and make them into his obedient servants.

He doesn't remember leaning against the wall, but he is now.

Nausea dwells in the pit of his stomach - he assumes it was from the food he was given during his tenure as Sparkle's prisoner.

Although, sitting down does feel like a good idea...

He plonks his hindquarters on the mossy pavement of the alleyway and simply watches as ponies and griffons and even yak pass by, meandering to and from various places.

His eyes have a tendency to follow the creature-being that is closest to him.

Sombra closes his eyes in a silent appreciation for the background noise of the bustling town. It provides a decent amount of comfort, even if he is starving, a little burnt from his emergency teleportation, and with a brutal lack of sleep that was of a decent quality.

If he focuses just right, he can almost remember the hustle and bustle of the Crystal Empire back when Princess Amore-

The sound of something (or someone) crashing above him startles him out of his reverie, and he's quick to stand and bolt the hell out of the alleyway - there's no way he's fit for a fight right now, so flight it is!

He passes by multiple ponies. An orange one, adorned with a cape, glasses, and a frazzled appearance, stubble speckling his chin. A blue one with a cape and no glasses. A purple unicorn with a darker purple mane but their coat colour is a lighter purple than Sparkle's.

All of these idiots aren't worth his time.

Sombra ducks into an alleyway that happens to be in the rough direction of North from the three-pony statue-fountain, puts his back to the wall, and heaves out a sigh.

There's nothing to be done about his current predicament right now other than simply trying to rest and heal.

Sunburst watches a gray blur gallop past him and his group, his ears pricking as he tunes out the conversation that Trixie and Starlight are having. He turns his head to try and follow the direction that the stormcloud-gray blur was heading.

"...That couldn't have been Ditzy, could it?"

"Isn't her name Derpy?" Trixie butts into Sunburst's muttered conversation with himself, poking her nose into things as per usual. "Anyways, I wanted to get your opinion on some fireworks."

"That's a little rude, Trix. She has an eye condition!"

Trixie gives Starlight a confused look at the chiding from her, ears swivelling. "It's what I've heard other people calling her."

"Yeah, but it still feels a little mean, and you don't have to follow what other people think, right? Isn't that what you tell me?"

"Touché, Glim-Glam." Trixie's eyelids lower in a minor expression of annoyance, though, knowing her, she never stayed annoyed at Starlight for too long.

Sunburst tilts his head. Since when did Trixie use nicknames with Starlight?

Back onto the topic, Sunburst opens his mouth: "Ditzy's coat colour is lighter, with a- with a blue undertone, and she doesn't dye her mane."

"Maybe it's one of her kids?" Trixie suggests, looking at Sunburst with an expression of uncertainty.

Starlight shakes her head. "No, Amethyst Star is a light magenta with a darker purple mane in two tones, and Dinky is a grayish purple, blonde mane. Besides, if it were Ditzy, I think she'd be flying."

Trixie cocks her head, mimicking a confused Diamond Dog. "Did you see where they went?" She looks to Sunburst for answers.

"They went in that direc- that way." Sunburst says, pointing North with his hoof.

"Maybe they were just heading home."

"You're probably right." He mutters, defeated, before they move onto the next topic of conversation. "Trixie, you- you mentioned- um, you said something about fireworks, didn't you?"

"Oh, yeah, I wanted to see what you thought of the ones that go boom!"

"All of them go boom, though?"

"Well, yeah, duh, but the really loud ones!"

"I think that as long as you do it away from densely populated areas, it should be fine, and you'll get less noise complaints." Starlight interjects, a placid smile on her face.

"Of course. I, the Great and Powerful and Very Considerate Trixie, will do it on the outskirts of Ponyville."

Sunburst angles himself in a particular direction, trying to figure out where the gray pony went, but it's evidently gone. Damn his ability to get distracted easily.

Author's Note

Did away with Chapter Numbers because I am no good with Roman Numerals, and because I wanted funnier Chapter Names.