The night is dark, and full of terrors.

The Unicorn mare heard voices, neither of which were familiar to her dizzied senses. She breathed heavily and began to slowly try to move, but then realized she was lying on the floor. She rose her head, blinking the dizziness away, and saw a blurred figure a number of hooves away.

“See, she’s awake now, you overdid it.”
Said the feminine voice, pleasant in a way. It was youthful and had a slight rasp to it.

“I did no such thing.”

This new masculine one sounded like a mix of deeply raspy, growling, strong, and with a frightful echoing effect that combined all to send a fresh shudder through Twilight’s body. It was like this voice was used to command and all must obey without question.
The lavender pony swallowed thickly and tried to get up, but found her limbs were fastened to the ground.

Immediately she was wide awake, pulling the restraints as the fear began to return, and soon saw that she was now uncovered, her coat having apparently been taken away and leaving her in her natural state.
Taking a few deep breathes to try and calm herself, Twilight turned her head and her eyes scanned forward.
In moments, she saw what she realized must have been the same terrifying creature she had seen just before she passed out from the shock and fear, but now she could get a clearer look at it.

Said creature was a stallion. An exceptionally large stallion with sharp canine fangs that were just visible below his lip line, and he had a stern and serious face.

His eyes were a combination of acidic green and blood red, the pupils not as thin as they were just a moment ago, and looking like a pair of mirrors that promised to lead the mare into her deepest nightmares if she stared into them for too long.
The stallion was dark and had a pure black mane that was. Or at all styled and instead set loose, flowing to his right side like it was in the currents of an invisible wind that only he could feel the effects of. It was almost like small strands of the mane were breaking off from the source, little ashes of darkness that floated off and rejoined in seconds with the ether.

He was wearing a pair of greaves of his forelegs and, presumably, his hind legs as well, and he wore what looked like a breastplate composed multiple well-forged sheets of metal.
These armor pieces across his noticeably strong body were all gray too, but a lighter tone than his fur which itself was like a type of very dark stone. On his head was a crown, dark colored like the fur with several sharp points.

But that wasn’t what truly caught her eye. It was his horn.
It was the most frightening horn she had ever seen or even imagined. Curved it was, more like a saber than an actual Unicorn’s horn, and the top half was also itself crimson in color. It almost seemed to have a sort of ethereal glow to it, not enough to be considered bright and yet still giving off enough magical light to not be considered dark and lifeless either.

Twilight gulped at the sight, and she quickly realized that this mysterious and frightening stallion in front of her was both annoyed and yet seemingly interested to some degree in her.
He was supporting his head with the back of his left hoof, the other one was not so much resting on as it was GRIPPING the foreleg rest of his chair/seat with visible force.
It was then that the young mare realized that she was in a large room with enough candles and torches to illuminate every corner of it. She realized that just above her was a huge chandelier filled to the brim with candles, candles that seemed to be burning a bit more brightly than they would naturally be unless they were enchanted.
The sheer size of the chair that her ‘host’ was sitting on…. It was more of a throne, and it was an incredibly elaborate construct of metal, but what surprised her the most was that it seemed to be constructed out of SWORDS, or at least the top area above his head looked like an AWFUL lot of sword handles and even some blades!

“He-hello?” She stuttered out, his hard eyes looking like they were piercing through her to her very soul. She had to look away, she just couldn’t look long at him.
“Please don’t ki-“

Twilight was interrupted when a familiar voice came from behind her, walking around her bound form until it came into her view. And now she gasped in surprise as the voice was coming from what seemed to be another pony.
Not only that, but it was the most… unusual? Flamboyant, maybe? Whatever she was, she certainly was a one-of-a-kind Pegasus, that was for sure! Her mane and tail were streaked with all the colors of the rainbow, and her fur was a cyan-type blue.

“How’re ya feeling?” Asked the Pegasus.
“Did we scare ya? We’re kinda sorry about that.”

“Don’t speak for me in this case.” the dark stallion sentenced.

“Don’t mind Sombra, he just watchful over his domain and a bit grumpy because he had to awaken early.”
The Pegasus smiled.

His name is Sombra? The Unicorn thought.

The creature, Sombra, stood from the intimidating throne and slowly walked toward the lavender pony, even his hoof-steps themselves sounding strong and in control somehow.
“I am ‘grumpy’ because she has intruded into our home, Rainbow Dash.” He enunciated each word slowly and deeply.
“My home.”

“A-a-and I-I am truly sorry about that, I swe-“ Twilight began.

“SILENCE.”

The poor pony softly yelped and froze on the spot, her mouth shutting instantly. She did not freeze literally, quite fortunately, but she did feel herself get smaller under the other towering entity’s piercing gaze.

“I’m only going to ask you each question once, so pay VERY close attention. Who do you work for?”
He demanded.

“Work for? I-I-I don’t work for anypony! For anyone at all!”

“Then, why are you here? And don’t even think trying to lie to me, or it will be your last act in this world.” The deathly presence promised.
By now, he had reached where the shuddering Twilight was lying, his dark pupils swiftly becoming thinner by the second, and was currently towering over her.

“I… I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“Then why did you?”

“I had no choice!”
Twilight confessed, heart beating at a million miles an hour as she explained herself.

“I was traveling along the road when this sudden massive hurricane-force wind came out of nowhere! I had to get to any kind of shelter I could find, then somehow I came across your castle, I knocked… And I-I was able to get in-“

“How?”

“With….my Magic?”
The young Unicorn squeaked fearfully and innocently. The prismatic Pegasus gasped with wide eyes.

“So that’s how you broke the seal…”
Sombra’s eyes blinked once and slightly wondered, his face letting go of his hostile expression for a second.

“The…seal?”
Twilight inquired, but immediately regretted it as the shadowy stallion returned his gaze to her, his blazing eyes not as hard this time, though.
Twilight thought she could even glimpse something else….was that some kind of hope visible in his eyes?

“Hey Sombra sir, does this mean that-” The Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, began.

“This does not mean anything.” The dark stallion stated, eying the bound mare closely.
“….not yet, at least.”
He then smirked, and the sight of that made a fresh chill run down Twilight’s spine. Her mind raced with the amount of implications that were suggested by the exchange that just happened.
She remembered how isolated the castle was from the outside, how she could not open any of the windows, or even hear the intense wind or the bangs of the tree branches hitting the glass.
This dark and horrifying creature was trapped here.
And if she remotely wanted to stay alive… she may have set it free.

“Your line of thought is reasonable, is it not?”

Twilight gasped and stared in fresh fear up at her captor. He’d been able to read her mind so easily? But she didn’t even see or hear him cast any sort of Spell! Just how astronomically advanced was his Magic compared to hers?! Because every second, it was looking like the ‘gap’ between them was widening to be more equivalent to the distance between Canterlot and Cloudsdale!

Of course, she didn’t think of the possibility that he simply saw the thoughtful look on her face and the realization dawning on her to deduce her thoughts. Maybe he DID have immense telepathic Magic, or maybe he was very observant.
Either way, the result was the same.

“You said you found this place…..just like that?”
Sombra, if he could really read her mind, ignored her current train of thought and instead just questioned aloud.

“Yes, I swear it.”
Twilight didn’t hesitate to respond this time.

The creature smirked again and interchanged a look with the other mare. Twilight followed his gaze and saw the excitement in those pinkish-red eyes.

“You were led here, it seems.”
Sombra stated.

When Twilight turned back to face him, she realized the armor-clad stallion was now again sitting on the throne, having moved with incredible silence despite being larger than most ponies in general and having his hooves uncovered with no muffling.
His pupils were still the same un-equine slits more akin to a number of venomous reptiles, looking less like a pony and more like…..something else.

“So you were on the road….going where, exactly?”
He questioned, his voice having just a bit less of that ghostly growling echo.

“Anywhere, really. I really wasn’t sure.” Twilight confessed.

“Oh?”

“Yes, I promise.”
And she seemed to lose much of her nervousness as she went into her explaining mode.
“I am a Unicorn who, uh… I decided to try my luck at seeking out the fabled Golden Pillars Library. From what I could gather thanks to my research, it would be up here in the more northern climes. I have spent a few weeks traveling and doubt that I am any closer to figuring out the riddles associated with the search itself.”

“I see.”

“But it also depends on who you ask, as that is what I’m told. Yet I also heard from a close friend that part of the lesson during this whole expedition is to prove ourselves. See if we can learn anything worthwhile from the act of helping others while we travel!”

“Really?”
Sombra asked, and Twilight did not miss when his expression darkened ever so slightly. It was clear that he wasn’t buying this story: she was losing any favor she had with him!

“Yes, it’s true. They are sending us out to other villages and cities, so that if help is needed then we’re there for them.”
The young mare claimed, her voice rising ever so slightly as she tried to keep her fear in check.

“And what do you believe yourself, then?”

Here, she decided to tell them her own name, since she already knew his. It was just common courtesy, after all.
“Twilight, just to let you know. My name is-“

“You try my patience, Twilight. I did not request to know your name.”
His voice was back to that unnatural, omnipresent tone that nearly stopped her heart and made her blood turn to ice. Her breathing became labored again, and she felt the sting of fresh tears at her eyes. It was like this dark shadowy being in the shape of a Unicorn stallion radiated pure fear and malice whenever he wished to.
She had overstepped her boundaries. She’d gotten the SLIGHTEST bit comfortable, and now she could feel him making it perfectly clear what the pecking order was.

He said nothing, but did not act in any way against her either. Twilight was starting to shake again, sweat already starting to mingle in her fur as she shudder, shackled and helpless on the now super-cold floor.
She didn’t fully see when Rainbow turned her head slightly towards Sombra, his own eyes flicked to her as a signal, and then the former turned to their prisoner.

“Twily, what do YOU believe about to all this stuff so far?”

Taking a few daring seconds to catch her breath before answering, Twilight locked her fearful purple eyes with much calmer pink ones. Using the smile of the mare before her and that upbeat, cutely raspy, and chipper voice to ground herself again, she answered.

“I believe that I was sent out, partially, because I was too troublesome.”
And now she sighed.
“I have plenty of skills, I have a lot of power, but…..I keep getting myself into trouble. My parents sent me to a special school to learn Magic better after I did some accidental damage, but that was quite a few years ago and I was kinda stuck dealing with some old mare that I prefer not to remember, and also who does not like foals.”

“And just how old exactly are ya, Twi?”

“I’m 20.”

A snort came from the young Pegasus.
“WAY too old to be a foal, y’know…”

“Hey, ponies like her never liked me, not then and certainly not now. I can say the feeling is completely mutual.”
Twilight instinctively tried to cross her forelegs at least a bit out of habit, but was unable to since she was still bound.

“So, you are a Magic apprentice who is causes all manners of trouble and had set out to look for a legendary lost location while trying to convince your teacher that you are not a waste of time and space?”
The stallion resumed, and his vice was just a little bit less menacing. Not that it did much for Twilight’s struggling nerves.

“Yes. B-but if I may, I wouldn’t say th-th-that I’m j-just a troublemaker. I just have seen to have some r-really bad luck.”
She stuttered, trying more and more fearfully to be respectful and not let herself get too comfortable.

“I can see that.”
Sombra stated as he rose again from his throne and walked -this time, with some actual sound- towards his prisoner.
“What do you think, Rainbow?”

“I think we should keep her. I like the idea of having somepony else to talk to.”
She smiled as she looked at Twilight. For some reason, Twilight knew that she should have been wary of this Pegasus. If she was associated with THAT nightmare, Sombra, then she couldn’t be good news. And yet, the Unicorn found that she actually… liked, seeing her smile.

Sombra himself grunted once deeply and then let out an intimidating chuckle. “Very well then, little miss Twilight. I have… a proposition for you.”
He stood still, with his burning eyes fixed on her intently.

“O-ok. Uh… can you release me, first? I’ll be good, I promise.”
She struggled a bit, but didn’t even budge one of the cuffs in the slightest.

“Not just yet.”

She sighed softly.

“I am capable of adding greatly to your never-ending training. I may not be like you, with a fancy education in all the modern arts or having any sort of monstrously natural talent in all types of usage in the mystic arts, but I still know far more than you would likely believe possible.”
He slowly approached his captive as he spoke in that same regal, fear-inducing way, the shadows moving upward around him slowly like black flames and smoke.

“There is much I can teach you, and you may yet find what it is you are searching for. You also may stay here as well, provided you simply do not disturb my rest. Again.”
He now lowered his head slowly to look into her eyes. Understandably, the shaking little Unicorn mare turned her head away and closed her eyes, desperately not wanting to have to see his face again up close like this.
She could feel her bowels being loosened once more and could only hope against hope that she wouldn’t wet herself again right in front of him. She truly feared… the worst.

“O-o-ok….an-and…w-w-what d-do you w-w-want from me?”

“You have two things that I desire. One of them you may have already performed, but I want you to do it again.”
He now moved his face down to hers so close that she inwardly swore that she could FEEL his frontal fangs grazing just a little on the left cheek of her turned-away face. At this point, she was g wetting drenched in her own sweat, was having trouble breathing at all, and was just about to urinate uncontrollably again.

“You opened the door of my home. If it is now closed again, I want you to open it once more, and this time we will make sure it stays that way.”

Sombra slightly raised his head and began circling around the bound mare, his hoofsteps slow and his flaming eyes no longer fixed on her, yet she could FEEL his gaze somehow still fixed on her. Focused on her every movement.
Twilight felt more afraid by the second about what it could mean to potentially unleash this…stallion….on the world.

“W-what if… what if I said no?”
She made the incredibly terrible mistake of somehow wondering those words out loud, even wrapped with fear as she was.
The dark stallion chuckled deeply, and she trembled heavily and just slightly forced herself to crack open an eye. Through her emerging tears she saw a blurry whip of pure black stream off over her face and towards the wall aimlessly, along with a few others moving over her as well… like worms squirming about in the mud near a carcass, waiting for the birds to leave so that they too may begin their own feast.

“Then I shall take the second part regardless, and you won’t be able to stop me.”
He whispered into her upturned right ear. He was no standing directly over her trapped body, and she truly didn’t know how she hadn’t urinated on herself again by now.

The truth was, she’d already let it all out earlier in the hallway.

“But….what is….”
Twilight swallowed thickly, her breath coming in fast shallow gasps as she felt her death looming over her, his own breath cold against her face.
“…that second thing…?”

“Your. Blood.”

And young Twilight Sparkle finally realized just what kind of monster she was dealing with.
Sombra with one hoof pushed her head upwards and straightened out a bit, and his jaws opened and crunched down onto her soft, vulnerable, sensitive, delicate throat.

Twilight screamed, feeling her lifeblood being forcibly pulled out from her body with unnatural force and her strength fleeing her. Fresh tears of horrified agony and utter despair flooded her heart and mind, coming out her eyes and down her cheeks until she was left too weak to scream anymore or even keep her eyes open.

The monster’s head was large enough in comparison to her own so that his jaws nearly engulfed her entire throat as he held his bloody grip with those knife-like fangs, and the poor little Unicorn felt her body go completely limp as the pain soon started to completely fade as well as her consciousness.
The vampiric stallion swallowed down her life essence deeply yet doing it slowly. He could taste it all like always he’d done to withers.
Her fears, her sources of anger, her hopes, her dreams for her own future, her Magic itself.
It was her very life, so warm, so filling, so ALIVE. So very exquisite indeed.

Finally, just as Twilight has consigned herself to her lonely and hopeless death, Sombra released his living, still breathing prey and looked down at her twitching body as he savored the aftertaste.
Sure, Rainbow Dash had wanted to keep this mare alive, but he’d made the decision himself already before she had even made the request. This particular mare… she was exceptional, she was unusual, she was not commonplace. Not only was she able to break through the divine seal that had bound him here, but now he felt as if he’d just fed on a dozen prime Unicorns, not a single one who had just recently reached adulthood.

With a blink, he magically released the restraints and thus let his charge move forward quickly and take up the limp body in her hooves. The Unicorn’s eyes were glazed over and unseeing, her breathing almost nonexistent.
Rainbow brushed the purple bangs away from the other mare’s forehead and smiled softly at her, choosing not to look at the dark presence beside them both.

“You know I don’t like it when you do that, Lord Sombra.”
She sadly stated. The deadly vampire let out a sound that was between a snort and a growl.
“I am what I am, Dash, and I make no apologies for it.”

Making a daring decision, the Pegasus turned her head to the right and looked up, her pinkish eyes meeting the flaming green and red ones of the dark creature who held her life in is hooves.
“You could have done it just… a bit more gently.”
She bravely insisted. He glared at her for a tense moment before she looked away with a sigh. But his reply was unusually soft, at least for him.
“That’s just how things are. In the end, that WAS as gentle as I can be, or else I would have ripped her head from her shoulders.”
Rainbow resisted the urge to snap her head up to look at him in surprise, and felt him now turn away and head further back into the darkness of his abode.

“I leave her in your care, Dash. Make sure that she is healthy enough to think and talk when I come to speak with her again.”

“…I will do as you wish, my Lord.”
Her respectful response was accompanied by a deep lowering of her head towards him. He said nothing more and soon disappeared.

The Pegasus mare picked up Twilight, bridal style, and started flying away towards her own room.
“I hope you end up choosing wisely, Twi.” She said with a reassuring tone and a sad smile.