Learning By Example

Chapters

Everything is Fine
Apology Accepted
A New Teacher
Overwhelming Hate
Slight Improvements
Let's Get Started, Again
Catching Up
Pink Ninjas and Parties
After Party, and the After After Party
Lesson One: Learning How to Hate

Everything is Fine

Dear Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle began for the third time, having twice before failed to start her letter due to her need for near perfect penmanship; it was late, she was without rest for the fifth night in a row, and she was attempting to write quickly through tired eyes. Since returning from the Crystal Empire I have been in a strange mood. While I am glad to have passed my test; I fear, for whatever reason, that a depression has taken hold of me after the downfall of King Sombra. He was evil and needed to be stopped, and I was not in fact directly involved in his destruction; the fact remains that he is no more because of my actions. I have taken the life of one lab rat by mistake, and it is something that I shant ever repeat. Even more so I have been plagued by dreams of a dark void filled with a green haze; how I can distinguish the color of anything in such a place is beyond my guessing save for the fact that it is a dream. I can feel my limbs, and am fully in control of myself in this dark place, but I don't know what I am to do; I am alone with my thoughts. I started practicing magic, to try and eat up time until morning; and was jarred awake but Spike grumpily telling me to "turn out the lights." The spells I had been practicing in my dreams were actually taking shape in the waking world, but were very much subdued. I know this, because had I been performing the spell while touching my bed, my library would've been on fire when I awoke. It is primarily because of this dark, reoccurring dream realm that I write this letter to you. I hope that the information or knowledge of whether or not these things are all related (The fall of Sombra, dream realm, etc...)"

Twilight slumped from her writing desk and slowly walked over to her worried assistant dragon. She floated the letter to him, or rather near him; her lack of adequate sleep the past few nights had frayed both her ability to rationalize and aim with spells. Levitation was all she dared to attempt in such a state, bringing all her projects and research to a grinding halt.

Spike closed the five feet to the letter and tugged it out of Twilight's telekinetic grip and offered her the umpteenbillionth cup of relaxing herbal tea retrieved from the zebra witchdoctor that lived in the Everfree forest outside of Ponyville. Zecora had a thousand-and-one remedies for insomnia. This particular brew was, according to zebra, just short of being a sleep poison, with the side effect being she might not wake up for a few days.

Spike had explained all of this to Twilight earlier; she'd simply smiled and mumbled something about not letting her friends draw on her face while she was unconscious, especially Rainbow Dash.

Spike inhaled deeply and, with a practiced ease, blew a short jet of emerald flame burning away the letter in a magic that would send it to it's one and only intended recipient without fail.

Twilight thanked her number one assistant and brought the cup of tea closer to inhale its scent. By the earthy smell alone she knew it would be bitter. Upon reflection, her favorite tea had been eight tries ago; that brew incorporated a liquid that most certainly wasn't fermented fruits, it was sweet. As Twilight lost herself in her delirium, Spike pushed the floating cup of tea closer to Twilight's pursed lips, before she could empty all it held onto the floor.

Twilight yelped as the concoction finally made contact with her lips and taste buds. It was piping hot, and not just by temperature; some sort of spice quickly filled the weary unicorn's mouth. The brew had the opposite of its intended effect as Twilight's eyes widened in shock; having quickly been put on edge from the surprise.

"Spike!" Twilight shouted hysterically.

When the dragon responded to the call he found that Twilight had sudden gone placid, with a strange smile on her face.

"Yes Twilight, I'm here."

Now Twilight was lucid, or lucid dreaming; she couldn't tell which as the room began to distort around her. Crystals began to appear in her part study part bedroom. Sitting on desk, taking the place of books, and for the time being, even her baby dragon roommate.

Twilight couldn't help but laugh at the thought of her number one assistant being some frat colt, lazing around on the couch as he sometimes did talking with his other roommates about the latest hoofball game. He was a crystal for now, and that is what Twilight found most important in her stupor.

The crystals around her began to glow faintly, before releasing a blinding light all at once. The crystal that had once been Spike continued to talk while Twilight tried to recover from the daze the flash of light brought on. When she could distinguish shapes again, she was back in the throne room of the Crystal Palace. Before her floated a large, cut diamond in the shape of a six point star.

Twilight gazed upon the object with growing familiarity it flashed a brilliant light, blinding her yet again. Her vision cleared much more quickly; this time she hesitantly peered over a raised arm at the star, hoping against hope that it would protect her from being blinded again. She found that her reflexes were not that of the speed of light and was once again blinded.

She was doubly confused by the purpose of the massive gem resembling in no small way her cutie mark; or at least the core of it. She tried to turn from it before lowering her guard again; finding that she couldn't, Twilight muttered some hurtful comment at the seemingly hostile crystal. Her fervent hope was that words enough would cause it to literally fall to pieces over having its feelings hurt. No such luck.

Curiously to her, it hadn't flashed in some time as far as she could tell. It was either waiting for her to look, or had only two flashes in it, either of those options or it was on an erratic timer; which Twilight chose to rule out. To test her theory she peaked over her her shielding arm. It was waiting for her.

Twilight, was granted with this knowledge fractions of a second before the flash came, but this time she found herself unwittingly prepared. With a certain amount of animosity towards the seemingly malevolent object she shot a stream of pure magic at it. Twilight backpedaled in horror at what she did as soon as she was aware of it. The stream of deep purple, dark magic cut through the stars flash striking the crystal and filling it with a blackness of its own. It was far from over, as the dark magic continued to pour from Twilight's horn seeming to feed the crystal. Her vision began to grow hazy as if a black fog suddenly rolled into what she was now convinced was a dreamscape throneroom.

The darkness slowly surrounded her, leaving her to channel more magic into the six point star diamond. She'd returned to the void, and what little company she had this time was slowly fading into the background of the darkness. The star now showed to have a soft glow all its own against the enclosing solitude of Twilight's dream, a glow she was slowly erasing.

Panic now set in as she realized that were this like the time before, then she was truly funneling dark energy at something in her room; she could only pray Spike had the sense to leave the room before he was hurt.

The star vanished from view as the last of it's light was consumed by Twilight's hatefilled magic, and like that the dream ended; with the sound of shattering crystal, and a deep feeling of loss.

Apology Accepted

Twilight was aware of several things, in the first vestiges of consciousness. First and foremost was how wet her entire body was. The next two came at the same time; she was sitting exactly where she had before her waking nightmare took hold of her, and staring at the far wall. The last thing was Spike sprinting into the room at full speed sloshing a bucket of water all over the floor. When Twilight's gaze shifted to the strange sight, Spike came to a sliding halt.

"Are you awake Twilight?" He asked preparing to splash her with the now partially full bucket of likely cold water. Twilight now had one explanation.

"I am, and what are you doing?" Twilight asked shortly.

"Trying to wake you up, Princess Celestia said you shouldn't try to sleep anymore, it's too dangerous; or something like that. She sent a spell scroll that you cast on yourself, it should keep you from feeling the worst of the fatigue for about twenty-four hours. You're supposed to leave for Canterlot first thing in the morning."

Twilight caught only some of what Spike was saying as she scanned the room for any unspeakable horror that may have been released from her dream. When none seemed present she turned back to Spike, who'd finished speaking and was offering her the spell scroll sent by Princess Celestia herself.

"Did I cast any spells while I was out?" Twilight inquired, partially fearful of the answer.

"Your horn was glowing, kinda like when you found the secret staircase in the throne room of the Crystal Palace. That and you were crying, I was getting kind of worried. No spells though." Spike said as he placed the spell scroll on the bridge of Twilight's snout. "You look really tired." He mentioned, motioning towards the scroll.

Twilight grumbled irritably, as she unrolled the scroll. Wondering how she was supposed to cast a spell if she couldn't even manage to drink tea correctly.

Twilight was paralyzed. The scroll had been a trap or trick; which she didn't know for sure, but her first thought was not of her own health. It was instead of what had become of Princess Celestia if she was being forced to send her most faithful student magic runes meant to paralyze a creature when read.

Spike rushed over and hugged Twilight as tightly as he could manage, tears in his eyes.

"Princess Celestia wrote and said that you were better off doing as little as possible until you were with her. She didn't want you teleporting to Canterlot, and said that traveling the distance on your own would be too risky. So we're going to send you to her."

"Rcss Llesta in is o 'e?" Twilight tried to say though moving even her lips was quite impossible.

Spike scratched his head as he downed a potion. The bottle bore the symbol of the sun, it was from Celestia's personal alchemist workshop.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say, yes." As he spoke wisps of green flame shot from his mouth. Twilight was quickly growing uneasy.

"She wants you to know how sorry she is for taking drastic measures like this. There will be many apologies and explanations when you arrive." Spike walked up to his paralyzed friend and poked her hard.

"Can you feel that?" He asked, spitting more flame as he spoke.

No she couldn't feel that, nor could she feel the heat from the flame as it licked her leg. Twilight was liking this situation less and less. She tried to convey all of this to him, but Spike was satisfied with the " 'oo." Which he took to as a no.

He took a few steps back, now waddling more than anything. "It'll be a lot like teleporting I hope." Spike said apologetically before inhaling and exhaling in one swift motion. A huge gout of green dragonfire enveloped Twilight. For an instant becoming her everything, and very existence. Then she was sitting or more accurately floating, yet paralyzed, before a frazzled looking Princess Celestia. She'd been caught upon arrival, in the soft golden glow of her teachers magical grip and was slowly being lowered to the floor, tears filling the corner of her eyes as she looked upon her equally frazzled student.

"Twilight, I know you don't fully understand yet, but I hope you can forgive me for what I've done here. I just never imagined you would pick up on channeling dark magic simply by seeing it. I understand that I was wrong to underestimate you in this regard, and now I need to see that you are safe from such magic's negative influences. I'm going to release you now." Celestia ended her monologue with a quick flare of her horn.

Twilight collapsed into a pile of slightly less stiff unicorn. She did nothing but breath now that her lungs weren't restricted to the barest minimum motion to maintain life. As her breathing normalized Twilight looked up to see Celestia retrieving pillows and a blanket. Twilight felt the tiniest of nudges urging her to lift her body for the pillows. Her muscles ached but she manged to stand long enough for the cushions to slide underneath her before her legs gave out.

She felt miserable and confused, and must've also looked the part as Celestia began to shake with her sobs.

"In centuries I haven't known a pony, unicorn or otherwise, as capable as you." She confessed to her exhausted student. "It didn't even occur to me that you would be able to replicate magic just by seeing it, though you have shown so great a potential in other areas. Now my shortsightedness has put your health in jeopardy."

It broke Twilight's heart to see her mentor and friend such a mess over the mere thought of having hurt her student.

"No Princess," Twilight interrupted feebly, "I'm fine and- Something." Twilight was having increased difficulty with coherent thought.

"Rest Twilight, I will stay by your side and keep you safe. Tomorrow we will speak properly. I will have something of a surprise for you." Though Twilight hadn't finished what she was trying to say, Princess Celestia felt her heart put slightly at ease that the first words from her most faithful student weren't words of spite or bitterness over having been paralyzed via fake letter to be then transported by dragonfire. Indeed she was grateful for apparently instant forgiveness.

Celestia watched as Twilight slept and saw her horn begin to radiate a sickly green light that should not belong to her; at the same time Twilight began to whimper struggle against an unseen force. The alabaster alicorn conjured a small glass orb and placed it in front of Twilight. Immediately the green energy jumped to the glass orb. Twilight's fidgeting ceased immediately.

Celestia lay down next to Twilight for some much needed rest of her own. Twilight was an immediate emergency, but she'd had a persistent problem for the past couple weeks. Celestia fell into an uneasy sleep of her own, cradling Twilight in her arms.

A New Teacher

Twilight Sparkle was jarred awake by something she hadn't quite registered. She scanned the room for the source of disturbance, but found nothing. The smell of charred logs from the fireplace wafted through the room carried by a breeze blowing in from the open doors to a balcony; the light of Celestia's sun spilled part way into the room through the same doors.

Twilight was awake enough then to recognize the sounds of a pony shouting when next it happened. Hearing it again, she was surprised that she hadn't recognized it sooner. Mostly due to the fact that whoever was shouting, was doing so using the Royal Canterlot voice. Her bits were on Luna.

Twilight made her way to the balcony, troubles of the previous night temporarily forgotten in favor of satisfying her curiosity. Princess Celestia's balcony was empty, save for a couple potted plants. Twilight could see her mentor's billowing mane on another balcony that was slightly elevated from where she stood.

"Good morning Princess!" Twilight called waving as though it would have any effect on a turned back. She looked at her raised arm incredulously before putting it back down.

Celestia turned and said something Twilight couldn't make out as a much louder reply of "There's nothing good about it." Overpowered whatever the elder princess tried to say.

"Princess Luna seems happy." Twilight mused under her breath.

Once Celestia finished giving her sister, yet unseen by Twilight, a warning look she said, "Well Twilight I'm glad you're up; come around and meet your new teacher." As she spoke a flicker of mischievousness flitted through Celestia's eyes.

"I'll be right up!" Twilight yelled before unleashing her many times practiced teleportation spell. It was a fairly short distance, Twilight had made farther trips before.

"NO Twilight, don't!" Celestia cried, just before her student disappeared in a sphere of dark energy accompanied by a monstrous growl. Only to reappear on their balcony a moment later in the fetal position.

"So many teeth, walls made of flesh..." Twilight continued to list off some horrid seen as a cruel laughter filled the space of the small balcony.

It was the sort of laughter a bully might make after seeing some cruelty upon another. Mirthless, but amused.

Twilight looked around to see that she was no longer in that horrid places between places; she was inches away from swearing off the teleportation spell all together. As horrid as she felt the laughter was quickly distracting her, mostly because it wasn't either of the princesses doing the laughing. All eyes slowly turned to the ash grey colt with a black mane that was currently floating off the edge of the balcony. How Twilight hadn't spotted him was beyond her, but now that she could see him a lump began to form in her throat.

His malicious grin revealed teeth sharper than any equine's teeth had a right to be. His gaze betrayed a depth of knowledge not belonging to his small frame.

"K-king Sombr-Huh?" Twilight managed to stutter out, slightly exasperated.

"He is no king without a kingdom!" Princess Luna declared staring down the floating colt. "In a moment he will be nothing." The lavender unicorn couldn't help but wonder how much of Canterlot was in on Luna's half of the conversation by this point.

Celestia was clearly torn between two pressing issues.

"Are you alright Twilight?" She asked quickly, turning back to her sister before Twilight could nod in the affirmative. The laughter at her expense had somehow made the horrors she'd seen wherever it was she'd teleported to seem much less mentally scarring.

"Luna you are not executing him. We don't do that, and besides that he's defenseless; the whole idea is outright cruel."

"And he's been cruelty on this world since the day she was conceived." The little Sombra reminded Celestia unhelpfully.

"But sister, he has been taunting us all night. We hadn't a moment of peace with him about. Do not try to deny how much of a burden he's been to you as well; we should simply be done with him here and now." Luna's speech was quickly turning to whining and pleading instead of angry shouting.

"At any other time I might be tempted to agree with you, but now I have a use for him." Princess Celestia said evenly, casting a glance at her quiet student.

"Release me, whore." Sombra said petulantly crossing his arms angrily.

Luna grunted in frustration, bring the small unicorn close to look him in the eye before hurling him off the balcony towards the city below.

Twilight was speechless, Luna looked satisfied, and Celestia was less surprised and more annoyed as she took off after the falling colt. In a few wingbeats and a teleportation, Celestia easily caught Sombra before he would've met the tallest buildings of the city.

Twilight sat, still awestruck by the display of both Celestia and Luna. She'd never witnessed such a hatred shared between two the way Luna and the young Sombra seemed to. That coupled with the majestic sight of her teacher, Princess Celestia, taking off with such urgent purpose left her in a surreal state of mind.

"Pointless, but extremely cathartic; We are done with him." Luna stated, walking away like she hadn't tried to murder a pony. "If my sister means to leave him with you little Twilight, I pray for your soul and sanity."

Celestia plopped a fairly ungrateful Sombra on the balcony and made to march inside after her sister, just in time for the doors to be sealed magically.

Celestia huffed loudly, tucked her wings in and turned to her quietly waiting student.

"Twilight?" Celestia said, raising an eyebrow.

Twilight responded with a nod to show she was at least conscious. Whether or not she would comprehend anything said was another matter entirely.

"After Luna's display and the teleporting incident, I don't suppose you're in the mood for many more surprises. In spite of this, I'd like to properly introduce you to your new instructor in dark magic."

"But Luna is inside." Twilight complained, already looking down at a less than happy Sombra; her eyes were growing steadily wider with worry.

"Yes, well her knowledge of such magic is such that she would make a poor teacher. I am very much the same way, but a unique opportunity has presented itself. I hope you understand-"

"But he's evil!" Twilight interrupted. "Look at him, he's just smaller than the last time I saw him."

Sombra produced a throaty growling noise while Twilight made her observations.

"Smaller yes, evil no. Powerless yes, resentful also yes. For all the 'good' you and your friends did by preventing me from retaking the Crystal Throne, I can't say I am all that happy."

"Oh, hush now Sombra; the other day you were telling me how much lighter you felt. You almost managed a smile as well."

Sombra fixed her with his coldest stare, Celestia simply smiled back.

"But-" Twilight attempted.

"No buts, I can't protect you from this any longer. I also cannot guide you through it, he can." Celestia said warmly, she'd been prepared for some resistance.

"Guide her through what, is she going through estrus for the first time or something? I'll admit being banished to the frozen wastes for so long has left me rather-"

"NO!" Twilight shouted, blushing furiously. "I mean, no."

"Well then, what?" He pushed with an impish grin.

"My dear Twilight has been experiencing the night terrors and other such problems that come along with being untrained in the use of dark magic."

"I had to use it, to get to the crystal heart." Twilight explained.

"So it was you then? Well well well, curiosity has damned you hasn't it; did you find an old tome, or some such nonsense?" He chuckled as the information came forth.

"No, I-"

"It was my fault entirely. I showed her dark magic without even considering what she might do with it. That and what she might be required to do with it once I gave her the task of helping the Crystal Empire."

"Fairly clumsy of you to teach her to use dark magic without teaching her how to control it." Sombra agreed, not fulling grasping the meaning of Celestia's words.

"No, I did not teach her. I only channeled dark energies while she watched. Her special talent is magic, I should've known better than to think it wouldn't come so naturally to her."

Sombra's demeanor changed instantly upon hearing of Twilight's inherent talent with magic.

"The student to an alicorn has an actual gift for the use of magic. Fate has conspired against all of your enemies, indeed."

"My Twilight is not a weapon, and you will not treat her as such in any measure; is that understood." Celestia stated coldly.

Twilight couldn't help but notice the sun's light seemed to dim slightly as the being it was attached to spoke.

Sombra backed away slightly, the clopping of his hooves the only sound that seemed to exist as even the wind seemed to grow suddenly silent. Existence paused with baited breath, waiting for the once king's response.

"I will train her in the dark arts, so she may protect herself from it." Sombra said slowly, nodding in agreement with himself once the words came out.

The world, to Twilight's ears, let out a collective sigh of relief and went about its business again.

"Princess?"

"Yes, my dear Twilight?"

"Do I get a say in this?"

Celestia turned so she was facing her student. "I'm only looking out for you, but if you have issues taking lessons from Sombra, I understand."

Something in Celestia's eyes told Twilight that, while she would understand, this was the only help she could or would offer.

"I guess I'm just nervous about getting a new teacher?" Twilight tried to dismiss her objections.

"Everything will be fine." She smiled kindly, before addressing them both.

"Please try to get along. I'll check up on you at dinner, but I have duties to attend to." In a flash of golden light, Twilight was left alone with the young Sombra.

When Twilight clearly wasn't going to be first to break the increasingly awkward silence Sombra said, "Take a lap."

"Wha-"

"No questions just do it."

Twilight was hurled out of her student/teacher comfort zone. "How do I learn if I can't ask questions?" She blurted out before Sombra could repeat his previous rule.

Sombra rubbed his temples firmly before answering. "Not literally 'no questions,' just don't question my orders. What did you want to ask?"

"So I can't ask why I have to take a lap?"

"No, you can't." Sombra confirmed.

"So where then?"

"Around Canterlot, I guess. No magic and be back before lunch."

"It's ten in the morning, I can't even get down from here without teleporting."

"Are you questioning me?"

"No that wasn't a question."

"Eleven-thirty." Sombra said, smiling cruely.

"How do I get down from here?"

"Go through Luna's room, obviously."

Twilight looked at the closed doors, their magical seals having dropped once Celestia was no longer near.

"I can't just barge into her room like that."

"Well you can knock first, but you now have until eleven to make it back to me."

"What!?" Twilight shouted.

"At this point you're going to fail your first lesson, and here I thought you were Celestia's prized student." Sombra watched as Twilight's expression changed from incredulous disbelief to something akin to all consuming terror.

"That's better." He mused to himself while he watched a purple blur charging through the balcony doors, slowing only to open the rooms inner doors to the castle halls.

Overwhelming Hate

Reading in the quite of the library had proven to be too much for Twilight. Two things had been taking up her thoughts whenever she attempted to open a book. The first being how Sombra had treated her during her lessons. Celestia could say he was a better pony now, but Twilight couldn't help but think a blast from the Elements of Harmony would even him out some. He was just as cruel as the stories of his reign suggested he'd once been.

The second, and somewhat larger distraction, was the fact that she now had the capacity to hate living creatures. Sure her closest friends could bug her sometimes, but by the end of the day there was little left unresolved; save for how Pinkie Pie managed to defy the laws of science. As she sat in the library however, the thought of how satisfying it felt to watch Sombra burn kept creeping back into her mind. The idea of her hatred having outlet both thrilled her and horrified her to extremes.

She was conflicted. A conclusion she'd come to after starting to read and failing to finish twenty books. Without the distraction of books her thoughts continued to dwell on the negative side of her day.

Celestia would know just what to say to her. Whatever her words were would make all of Twilight's worries become as nothing; words evidently weren't enough to stave off the effects of dark magic however. Doubt compounded doubt as Twilight wandered the halls of the palace. What else couldn't Celestia do? Evidently she wasn't strong enough to fight off the Changeling Queen and her swarm; nor was she able to deal with Nightmare Moon when her sister returned. Celestia relied on Twilight and her friends to solve most of Equestria's more pressing issues. That was because she no longer had the Elements of Harmony to use, Twilight had to remind herself amid the haze of doubt.

Because she became to weak to use them wield them properly. The not entirely present voice growled, seemingly right in Twilight's ear.

She isn't anymore is she? Twilight agreed with a wicked grin. "Perhaps Equestria needs a pony in charge who can do her job when the time comes?"

"NO!" Twilight shouted, once she realized the thoughts of overthrowing the princesses were entirely her own. "How could you even think such things? You love Celestia, all of Equestria does. What would they think of you when you just took away their beloved leader; because they certainly wouldn't want to follow you would they?!"

For a moment her mind wandered back to having to save Equestria, a task that Celestia herself couldn't do. When all was said and done the most thanks they got was in the form of an award ceremony where medals were given out on the steps of the palace. When the Grand Galloping Gala came around all those ponies were too stuck up to recognize their saviors and treat them with some respect. Again after Discord's short reign nobody seemed to remember that they could be bailing chocolate milk out of their flooded basements were it not for the efforts of her and her friends.

"You there, guard!" Twilight called to a palace guard on patrol.

"Yes Miss Sparkle?" The guardspony answered, turning to face her.

"Why aren't the citizens of Equestria more grateful for me saving their lives no less than three times?" She barked, trotting closer to the guard.

"I- Uh..."

The sound of a whip cracking accompanied the guard being floored. A red line slowly rolled down his muzzle. As Twilight walked by him in a huff, he spotted more of his blood on the end of her tail. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it shocked him.

Twilight barely made it around the corner before she was having second thoughts about not apologizing. She turned her head to look back but her legs kept her moving forward.

"No I'm going to go back and make sure he's okay." Twilight demanded of her body. She stopped but did not turn around. "Please?" She hoped desperately for the disembodied voice to speak and give some validation to her speaking in the first place. She shuddered inwardly when no response came.

"Miss Twilight?" The very same guard she'd whipped on the snout came around the corner. Having heard her clearly combating with herself over his well-being, he chose to follow.

Twilight turned her head, but stood still otherwise.

"Are you alright?" She asked, attempting a full body turn. She merely strained against her legs.

"I'm fine." The guardspony waved a hoof dismissively. "Truth be told I've had worse. Are you alright though."

"Was that a challenge?" Twilight asked threateningly. She turned in place and crouched as if ready to pounce.

"Miss Twilight, what's gotten into you? I've never seen you act like this; well, except for the time you threw a fit about going to bed before you were finished studying."

The rather embarrassing memory of her one and only tantrum while under Princess Celestia's tutelage distracted her for a moment. Her body relaxed, and she went from crouching to laying on her belly; legs spread out as the night played out in her head.

In her defense the second test she would ever take in front of the princess was the next morning, and she felt more studying was needed before that happened. She'd made it clear she wanted access to the library, so when she managed to evade all the guards pursuing her, it was a simple task for them to ambush her at the library. She'd been snout deep in a book by the time they'd all gathered. Twilight had put up a valiant struggle for being just a filly, but the five guards finally overpowered her. This was due in part to one of her flailing limbs that struck a guard right on the tip of his snout; she'd injured another pony, and just like that all the fight had fled from her body.

Panic had been her downfall that night. Celestia was more than understanding towards Twilight's struggle to be prepared for what was really just a couple levitation exercises. Then and now, Twilight realized, she was letting emotion control her body. Not so literally as it was presently, but there was a clear parallel to that night; as well as other strenuous moments in her life.

"Miss Twilight?" The guard tried again.

"I'm sorry." She spoke into the floor.

"It's quite alright. Again though, are you alright?"

"That's the second time I hurt your nose, right? It's Private Westwood isn't it?"

"I"m surprised you remember me miss, it's been some time since we've spoken."

"I was sort of traumatized when I hit you; it's hard to forget a pony you hit." Twilight drew her hoof around in circles, seemingly fascinated by the sound it produced.

"There's clearly something wrong, please tell me is there something I can do to help you?"

"Until last night, I hadn't slept in days. Lack of sleep hasn't ever really posed much of a problem in the past. I can let myself get wrapped up in a project for a couple days and not sleep. When sleep comes easily one thinks nothing of it; it's a terrible feeling when sleep is all you desire, and closing your eyes only takes blocks the light of the world out."

"I don't understand. Do you need me to carry you to a bed?" The guard chanced a few steps closer, as Twilight was beginning to trail off at the end of her sentences.

"Sombra..." Twilight muttered something the guard couldn't make out. He'd heard the name, but nothing else.

"Beg your pardon, ma'am?"

"Find me Sombra you idiot!" Twilight snapped, picking up her head off the ground to yell properly.

"At once, ma'am!" The guard replied, breaking into a gallop down a hall.

Twilight was alone with her thoughts again and once the guardspony's hoofalls were too distant to hear, the turned on Celestia whose fault this was in the first place.

What sort of teacher exposed their students to dangerous magic without any instruction. Celestia had probably known that her "most faithful student" would figure out dark magic, was too much of a coward to teach it, and was now forcing Twilight to learn from the most horrible pony to ever exist to cover up her mistake. Twilight groaned in further irritation as the thoughts came to her.

"Most faithful student, hah!" Twilight said to the hallway. "Should be 'One and only, and best student.' 'Most faithful student' sounds like I just had to kiss a lot of flank to get the title." When the hallway didn't answer back she yelled "I get zero respect around here!"

"Laying on the floor like that, I can't imagine why." Sombra replied snidely.

"You!" Twilight said rolling over onto her back. It took her a moment to focus in on the pale emerald eyes of her instructor who was looking down on her.

"What've you done to me? Everything is terrible!"

"It is isn't it?" Sombra said, assuming an almost philosophical look.

"Fix me, please." Twilight whined, extending a foreleg weakly.

"Ehhh, you really are terrible. Although I do appreciate the begging; it's almost like I have power over you or something."

"I lack the energy to get up and kick your stupid flank up and down this hallway."

"You would enact violence on another pony? It seems I'm to be hated by all the mares in this palace." He muttered ruefully. "Fine, I suppose I can give you temporary relief."

With that he moved to her left and put a foreleg on either side of her.

"What are you-"

"No talking or I'll take it back, and no eye contact." Sombra grumbled as he wrapped his forelegs around Twilight in something resembling a hug; if said hug was between two warring siblings.

Twilight couldn't see Sombra's face, but she could see his horn begin to glow as he embraced her. As grudgingly as it was done and despite its unwanted source, Twilight found the hug fairly uplifting. Their heartbeats seemed to fall in line with each other and before long Twilight was smiling. Hesitantly she reciprocated the hug. When he did nothing but exhale slightly louder than normal she gave him a squeeze. It was an honest to goodness hug, and it was just what she needed.

"Here's a lesson," Sombra pulled away with perfect timing to prevent the hug from becoming awkward. He stared at Twilight for a moment allowing Twilight to in turn see how his face had changed; he looked as though he'd gone through several trying days without sleep, and was barely staying upright. Weariness and a constant struggle to keep his eyes open betrayed some aspect of the spell he'd cast.

Before Twilight could comment he raised a hoof to interrupt her, "It's an actual lesson, and not just me tormenting you. Dark magic is generated off of negative emotions like hatred, or the emptiness of losing or taking something precious. When your emotions are given free reign over your body, the unwanted dark magic that pools within you begins to well up and spill out. It's easy to suppress the signs of such an overflow for one who has lived with it for years, for others who are new to it they will show symptoms of depression. It is possible to force the negative emotions and subsequent magic onto other beings who will be forced to carry that burden for the originator. In this way the magic will be housed inside a host body and can be drawn upon later. Extracting the magic and leaving the host with the original negative emotions is like stripping an essential part of their soul; they cease to function as a sentient creature." He paused to rub his temples and look at the still prone mare before him.

Twilight nodded to show she was following to some degree.

"I gathered great power but forcing the citizens of the crystal empire by forcing them to generate hate fueled magic. I regret nothing save for the fact that I had to stop before I could perfect a way to leave behind a functioning pony when I took the magic back from them."

"What did you do to me?" Twilight asked quietly during another pause in his lecture.

"You would never willingly force your negative emotions on another being, so I took them. Maybe because I know you lack the focus to get anything done with the state you were in. Or maybe I genuinely felt bad for putting you in such a state to begin with. You've experienced an extreme of using dark magic, and now that you can I want you to reflect upon what you actually felt. We'll have your next lesson tonight. Come find me when you're ready to sleep."

"Alright?"

"Good." Sombra said with a satisfied finality.

"Is that blood on your tail?" He groaned, clearly instantly regretting having brought it up.

"I don't want to talk about it." Twilight said remembering a guard she'd need to apologize to whenever she picked herself up off the floor.

Sombra grunted in apathy, more than willing to drop the subject.

"Thank you for helping me."

"Don't mention it, ever." Sombra said threateningly. With how small he was it was more cute to Twilight than intimidating. She did well to hide that fact while she watched Sombra skulk away down the halls. Whatever he'd done to help her was clearly exhausting as he stumbled more than once during his slow walk.

Author's Note

I'm trying not to rush this story, but I also feel like it may be dragging on a bit. Thoughts if you would be so kind.

Slight Improvements

Twilight found herself in much better spirits following the somewhat awkward moment she and Sombra had shared on the palace floor. Her thoughts were no longer geared towards how much the world owed her, but were now focused on how difficult it was for Sombra to walk after having drawn her negative emotions out and into himself. It was funny to think she owed the once tyrant king any kind of thanks. Saying "thank you" would be enough for now, any overt display of gratitude would have to wait until a time where he went a full twenty-four hours without tormenting her. She managed a sincere laugh at her thoughts on the way to the library. Twilight planned to fill up some time with reading now that she wasn't hating on everything.

At least it was the plan until her stomach rumbled loud enough that a passing guard looked back at her awkwardly. When he looked at her he stiffened nervously. He winced when they made eye contact; he hadn't meant to investigate the sound so obviously. Twilight smiled sheepishly in response, which was wasted on the guard as he was half way down the hall in an instant. The loud clinking of his armor could be heard a fair distance off as he keep a quick pace to put distance between him and a potentially painful situation.

"Great, now all the guards are afraid of me!" Twilight grunted in frustration as she made her way to the kitchen. A few steps later she stopped. How had she known that guard was afraid of her. He seemed a little nervous, maybe he was just shy? But no, something told her it was fear; the same voice that recommended setting Sombra aflame.

"Food!" Twilight groaned once she found the kitchen. The journey through the palace halls had been long and nearly as stressful as the rest of her morning. It hadn't occurred to her just how little she knew about navigating the halls of the palace. As a filly studying under Princess Celestia she was always at her mentor's side, taking many steps for each of her teacher's longer strides to stay roughly in the same place relative to the Princess. She was so enamored with ever piece of wisdom that came from Celestia's lips that she didn't give much notice to her surroundings. As she grew older and spent more time studying independently she was hidden away in her tower full of books; not getting out much to explore the palace halls she took for granted.

When Twilight Sparkle, student to the Goddess of the Sun, flopped onto the kitchen floor the chef, for his part, smiled at her antics. With a sigh, he stopped what he was doing and came to stand above Twilight.

He helped her up with his magic and said, "Lunch was an hour ago Miss Sparkle."

Recognition dawned on Twilight as she looked over the aged, light tan coated unicorn stallion. His vibrant sapphire eyes were a dead giveaway.

"Caeser Salad, right?" Twilight asked with a slight smile.

"I'm surprised you remember me, you were such a young thing the last time you came in here!"

Twilight refrained from hugging the elder stallion for propriety's sake, but she couldn't help but sigh as the multitude of encounters she'd had with him in her younger years. Years ago, in transition between being Celestia's second shadow, and being holed up in a tower, she had many late nights reading in Celestia's personal library. As much as she could Celestia encouraged Twilight to come down for dinner, but at a certain point found it easier to let the young mare have more independence. Unbeknownst to Celestia, Twilight made late night trips to the kitchen to try and grab a bite to eat; where she would always encounter and be caught by Caeser Salad, the head chef.

An insistent growl from her stomach reminded Twilight why she was here.

"Lunch was a while ago."

"I was in the middle of training all morning. Time sort of slipped away from me."

Caeser gave her an understanding smile. "Studious as ever aren't you? I shouldn't have expected you'd grow out of that."

Twilight's cheeks reddened slightly at the comment.

"What would you like then?"

"Anything really, I haven't eaten in almost two days!"

"My my, I thought you were looking rather thin. I hope you're taking care of yourself off in Ponyville"

Sorry dad. Twilight thought to herself. She cracked an half smile at the thought.

"I've had a rough, and mostly sleepless week. I'm feeling a lot better though." She paused for a moment in thought, "Also I'm not that thin." She ended pointedly.

"Most mares consider that a compliment, I meant nothing mean by it."

"They do, don't they?" Twilight mused to herself before muttering "Sorry."

During their short talk the stallion chef was busy preparing "something" and "anything" for Twilight to eat. About the time he dipped several strawberries in chocolate, the hungry mare had to consciously keep her mouth closed to prevent drooling. Caeser never did give her a midnight snack, it was always a meal. Complete with a salad before the main course, and dessert afterwards.

"So uh-" Twilight began, trying to resume their conversation. "How did you know I was in Ponyville?"

"Well, when I realized I hadn't seen you for over a year, I just had to ask Princess Celestia where that sneaky little filly that I'd caught in my kitchen so many times had gotten off to. Imagine my surprise when she tells me her twenty year old student has moved from the palace to study the magic of friendship off in some little town."

"I didn't mean to not say goodbye to everypony who works here, I just didn't." Twilight mumbled, a slight guilt building in her chest.

"I'll tell you it made me feel old to learn that you went off and became a full grown mare." Caeser continued his rant, as he herded Twilight into the dining hall with two trays of food floating behind him.

"I didn't mean-"

"Wasn't your fault dear, and it wasn't the first sign that I was getting on in years." He stared out one of the many windows of the dining hall wistfully, before turning back to Twilight with an earnest smile.

"Now eat up, and get on with your day. I have to go finish preparations to start dinner. I hope you're their on time tonight."

Before Twilight could respond, Caeser was back in the kitchen.

"Hey Caeser! Sun-butt let me have some free time so I thought I'd-" Sombra's youthful voice rang through the dining hall, before it cracked and he stopped to clear his throat loudly.

"Is that food?" He asked as he moved through the dining hall.

From Twilight's position at the table she could only hear Sombra as he was a good deal shorter than the table.

"It is a dining hall; so yeah, there's probably food." Twilight responded dryly.

"Oh, I was hoping to avoid you for a while." Sombra clambered up onto a chair next to Twilight and swiped a chocolate covered strawberry before she could make a protest.

"You brat!" Twilight declared while Sombra made a show of munching on his ill-gotten treat.

"-issh ss good." He said around the food in his mouth.

Twilight moved her plates to the farther side, away from Sombra to prevent any more swiping of her late meal.

"I have an assignment for you!" Sombra blurted out, startling Twilight and casing the fork she was levitating to drop a short distance before being quickly recovered.

"I thought we were done with lessons today." Twilight whined.

Sombra fixed her with a blank stare, and to her credit Twilight lasted forty seconds before she caved.

"What is it?"

"Go to Celestia, and ask ever so nicely if she can give me back my magic."

"How can Princess Celestia have your magic?"

"She doesn't literally have it in a box, I thought you were smarter than that." Sombra said pointedly.

"Princess Celestia won't just give you back your magic though."

"Why not? I'm harmless. Besides which, I do need my own magic to teach you a few things."

"I don't think Princess Celestia is going to buy that." Twilight pointed out.

Sombra let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head.

"How about this then: How would you feel if you had all your magic taken away, right now? Everything from your preschool cantrips all the way up to your admittedly impressive teleportation? It's all gone now, and some other pony is keeping it from you."

Twilight couldn't help but grimace at the prospect. It was enough to prompt Sombra to continue

"That's what I thought. So could you try, out of the goodness of your heart, to help someone in need?"

Something about the thought of the once tyrant king, now a young colt, almost pleading for her help talking to the Princess seemed comical to Twilight. She couldn't help a smug smile as she asked her next question.

"Why can't you talk to her yourself?"

"Easy, if she attacks me I can't defend myself. She's sealed my magic you see."

"She'd never just attack you, though. Princess Celestia isn't like that."

"You don't know her like I do." He explained matter-of- factly.

"How could you?"

"Ever asked yourself why so many major events in Equestrian history happened 1000 years ago?" He raised a skeptical eyebrow, but didn't wait for her response.

"No probably not. The truth of it is they were all related. That is certainly a story for another time though." He sighed before continuing, "The point is, there's a good chance I'll push her too far and then I'll die. She may not do the killing, but she'll find a reason to leave Luna in charge while she's in another country. I'd be grateful if she didn't do that as it wouldn't be quick if Luna got her hooves on me."

"You think Luna would torture you?"

"Moonlight is commonly soothing, sunlight is hot and intense. Both can kill if concentrated enough. And no, I'm not comparing their personalities to the celestial bodies they control, I would probably be killed by sunlight; or moonlight on a full moon."

"They can do that?" Twilight said in disbelief.

"Can? How about have many times before? I must say, the look on your face when you hear something you don't want to believe is amusing."

Twilight wasn't aware she was making a face, but instantly switched to what she hoped was an entirely neutral expression. By Sombra's own, unamused stare, she was probably just making another face at him.

"I'll ask I guess." Her tone said she had many questions for later. She was already formulating a mental list of questions in her head, so she could write them down later; once on paper she could begin formulating follow up questions.

Sombra let out a long sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Twilight did a double take after hearing his gratitude. He seemed not to notice the shock etched in her face.

"I was going to make you do a lap, but now maybe not." He had a half smile as he looked across the table where Twilight's food sat, almost forgotten.

She levitated the plate of chocolate dipped strawberries closer to him, and brought the rest of the meal closer to herself.

He held one of the little deserts in both hooves and considered it carefully. "I could've done that myself-"

"If you had your magic?" Twilight put down her fork, realizing they weren't quite done talking.

"Exactly. Certainly she didn't mean it as a punishment or any kind of torture; it was merely a precaution to see if I would behave. She must've thought my stumbling into doors had something to do with being in the ice for a thousand years. It was just me not having adjusted to life without magic. I may have been a 'monster' as so many have put it, but this sort of thing would be a punishment for only the most deserving. Ponies are born with magic, to take that away is essentially wrong." He finished by making a sound not unlike a mournful, throaty moan before devouring the strawberry in one bite.

Twilight gave him a sympathetic smile.

"I'll finish lunch and go talk to Princess Celestia, alright?"

"Okay." Sombra's response was very subdued, but he managed a smile as well. Twilight got an eyeful of the rows of unnaturally sharp teeth that he still possessed.

The rest of their mealtime conversation was idle chatter, which Twilight found strange to say the least. She learned a few things about the Crystal Empire under Sombra's reign; most of which was extremely disquieting.

Twilight now stood in line for an audience with Princess Celestia. While she was a special case when it came to scheduling her in she'd known better than to try and interrupt the day court with her request. One petitioner had tried to offer his spot in line to one of the saviors of Equestria. Despite her earlier complaining about all the thanks she felt owed, Twilight simply smiled weakly and politely declined. The noble stallion hadn't insisted further.

It wasn't a long wait to the front of the line in any event, the line was surprisingly short.

Twilight waited patiently for the pony before her to finish so she could be let in. The guards posted outside the door both looked at her occasionally. She had time to marvel at the grand opulence of the door to the throne room. It took unicorn magic to operate effectively as there was no simple handle. It instead had an internal locking mechanism. What was clearly a dial built into the door depicted a sun made of gold situated above a full moon made of diamond. As day turned to night they would switch places and the night court would commence. Before Luna's return there was no night court, as Celestia needed some rest. Above all of this was a golden depiction of two alicorns set in a circle. Probably a somewhat redundant symbol representing night and day by Twilight's guess, but they almost seemed to be chasing each other's tails. Twilight couldn't help but giggle at the thought of the royal sisters playing a game of tag. In her mind they were both young fillies Luna playing the aggressor and chasing after her older sisters tail with wild abandon. Celestia let out a shriek of mock terror before taking to the skies. It wasn't long before Twilight noticed both guards openly staring at her in confusion. In the polished metal of the door she could see the goofy smile plastered across her face. It didn't go away easily, but she managed to keep the silly thoughts from showing; instead covering them up with a fervent blush for allowing such a display in the first place.

Twilight's thoughts settled on the door once the guards had gone back to passively ignoring her. Compared to the door, the rest of the entrance hall seemed bland. Sure the plants situated carefully around the room was nice. The decor in general done by Eaquestria's best designers, but within such close proximity to the great door it just seemed pointless. The doors glowed a dull gold and they slowly swung inward. The room beyond was well lit and filled with quiet chatter from more than a few ponies.

The stallion who'd offered Twilight his spot walked out and bowed graciously, wishing her a good day. Twilight looked to the two guards for an okay to go in. She got none, and the doors swung shut.

"Uh?" Twilight intoned slightly impatiently.

"Day court is finished for the day, Princess Celestia has other important matters to attend to. Leave your name with the scheduler and you will be first in line tomorrow." The guard spoke as if Celestia's personal student wasn't directly in front of him.

Twilight was clearly shocked that the guard pony seemed to not recognize her.

"Well I just need to talk to her quickly, I don't know if I'll get to see her again today!" Twilight said pleadingly to both guards.

"We understand your concern, but-"

"But nothing, just open the door or I'll do it myself." Twilight spat. The feelings she'd had earlier in the day were starting to come back, though much less pronounced. It both worried and thrilled Twilight to experience. Given the past couple instances of flaring emotion, it was a pleasant thing to feel in control for once.

The only guard to speak looked at her quizzically. The other seemed to be battling with the best way to warn his partner. Twilight focused solely on the one guard who seemed to be an obstacle.

"I'm waiting." An entirely alien voice came from Twilight's mouth. It carried a bestial growl with it. Her tail began to swish back and forth in agitation.

"For goodness sake just let her in!" The other guard finally cried.

"Please stand down ma'am."

"Wrong." Twilight growled. The guard preventing her audience with the princess disappeared with a monstrous roar; a black pit opened up and swallowed him whole.

The remaining guard swallowed audibly. The couple palace staff that witnessed the confrontation retreated down the hall and hid.

"I'll just open that up for you."

The large doors swung inward and the remaining guard jumped; clearly startled, as he hadn't been the one to do it.

"What is going on out here?" The voice of Princess Celestia echoed through the waiting hall. She had a slightly worried smile as the doors opened, but once her eyes fell on Twilight she looked a genuine frown dominated her visage.

"One of the guards wouldn't let me in to see you so I moved him." Twilight said in a voice not her own.

"What has that wicked pony done to you Twilight?" Celestia exclaimed as her horn began to glow. She seemed to be focusing elsewhere as Twilight responded.

"He gave me a hug earlier, which is why I'm feeling better actually. So I came to ask-"

"You call this better Twilight?!" Celestia voice was nearly panicking as her horn flared a brighter gold. The guard Twilight had removed fell out of thin air screaming at the top of his lungs.

All the ponies who still watched the scene unfold with a morbid fascination cringed when the guard reappeared. Celestia turned to the not screaming guard and told him to take his fellow guard to the doctor. Twilight smirked as he was levitated away, writhing against something unseen.

"We need to talk Twilight." Celestia gave her favored student a sorrowful and appraising look.

"Yeah that's exactly what I said-"

The Sun Goddess drew herself up to her full height, and with the commanding tone of many centuries said, "Twilight."

Twilight simply sat. Her thoughts were suspended and all she could do was pay very close attention to the princess' every word.

"I panicked Twilight, for that I am truly sorry." Celestia paused for a moment, Twilight nodded without a sound.

"For the first time in many centuries I let my emotions lead my decision making, and again I apologize." Another pause, another nod.

"I wanted you to be safe as you were taught how to control such vile magics so they would not instead control you. I thought the palace a controlled place and thought I had secured a more than adequate instructor. I was wrong."

Slowly Twilight's ability to think came back to her and she said, "But I am learning to control it! Slowly, but this is only the first day."

"And he's taught you to send innocent ponies off into an abyss for eternal damnation. I cannot accept that as any kind of improvement. And it's affecting you Twilight, physically!" Celestia declared in frustration.

This was a rare sight to behold, a princess of Equestria looking frazzled and so discomposed. This thought caused Twilight to look around and she realized that they'd somehow moved to Celestia's personal chambers.

"What, how do you mean?" Twilight looked herself over as best she could. She didn't like what she saw. Around her hooves were the same rolling clouds of black smoke, but half the fur on her legs had also changed to an ash grey. The new coloration stopped just at the knee, where black tendril like markings traveled the rest of the way up to a point Twilight couldn't see. The same black markings snaking up her hind end had entangled themselves in her cutiemarks symmetrically as a cutiemark should be. The pink in her mane and tail had once again turned a blood red.

Twilight fainted.

Author's Note

This is pretty long overdue, but it's here now.

Let's Get Started, Again

Whispers. All Twilight Sparkle could hear was whispers. The whispers came in two voices. One was more like a hiss; the other occasionally faltered and wavered with obvious fear. The young mare couldn't hold onto the particulars of the conversation until the hissing voice became a shout momentarily. As jarring as the sudden volume was, Twilight was still barely awake. In the struggle to keep her level of consciousness as high as it was she didn't even consider opening her eyes; her body felt too heavy to be fully awake right now.

"Exactly what have you done to her, explain yourself Sombra." Came the firm voice of none other than Princess Celestia.

Twilight managed to think through what exactly would cause Sombra to have shouted like he had at the Sun Goddess.

"I didn't do this. How could I? I even did what I could to help her earlier today." Sombra's reply was lacking in volume and confidence. It was the voice that hadn't been yelling which meant something... Twilight's thoughts trailed off into the void of unconsciousness again. When her thoughts reemerged she was shocked by the revelation that Celestia had raised her voice.

Twilight remembered Sombra's qualms about speaking with Princess Celstia directly, and it seemed his worst fears were coming true. The strangest part was that he'd done nothing wrong to earn Celestia's anger, he'd been trying to do what he'd set out to. Twilight couldn't help it and he wasn't to blame; she desperately wished she could say that now to save what was left of his quickly diminishing will.

"I leave you in her care for less than a full day and this happens. She nearly killed a guard today, as is he'll likely be committed to an asylum until the trauma has passed. If this isn't your fault then whose is it?" Celestia's anger had leveled out and her tone was now at a deadly calm. With every word she spoke Twilight felt the tension building in the air around her sleeping form. She wanted desperately to be anywhere else.

Sombra's voice was lost to him and he let out a breathless squeak instead of whatever response he'd had.

The sound of rushing air and cracking stone sounded nearer to where Sombra's voice was coming from; this was swiftly followed by a subdued yelp and the cracking of stone flooring.

"I have other duties to attend to Sombra, if she has not been helped by the time I return..." Celestia's voice came out low and dangerous; she let Sombra fill in the details.

"This," he said after a lengthy pause, "this is the Celestia I'd heard so much about. The world whispered to me beneath the ice as you took back Equestria in the quarter century following Luna's banishment. Almost as much blood was spilled by your movement as by Luna's own campaign. Then for centuries the world fell silent." His voice seemed almost antagonistic when he spoke, despite his situation. As soon as he'd finished speaking Sombra gasped for air; or by the sound of things was expelling what was left of the air being crushed from his body.

"Listen to me." Celestia said firmly as the sound of weak gasps and a flailing body started up. "There are few things in all of creation more precious to me than Equestria and its citizens. Twilight's well-being is something I hold above all else aside from my own sun and my sister Luna."

After a short pause where the gasps continued Celestia resumed her confessions, "I hate that I am too weak to help her here; and that I allowed this to happen in the first place. That I have to rely on you just adds insult to a self inflicted injury. I just- I..."

What Twilight heard next was almost enough to force her from her semi-conscious haze. A choked sob followed by a low drawn out wail sent a chill down Twilight's spine. Celestia's despair and frustration over the Twilight's predicament were given tangible force for the duration of her outburst.

Twilight wanted desperately to reach out to say anything to assuage her worries. To tell her mentor it wasn't her fault, that she wasn't to blame. Twilight silenced these thoughts and pondered. Was it Celestia's fault that all this was happening to her? She'd admitted to carelessness by sending Twilight to the Crystal Empire to deflect the coming crisis. Had Celestia been confident in Twilight's capabilities, or in her own teaching being enough to get Twilight through the trial safely?

Twilight was writing a mental list of questions she wanted to ask, and now wanted to be awake so she could. She tried to come out of her comfortable haze finding very quickly that she was trapped. It was no longer by her choice that she simply listened to two beings both centuries older than her talk about things she wasn’t meant to hear. Somewhere in the back of her mind she still hoped that this was all a dream. The rest of her had already accepted the situation for what it was; a reality she’d never wanted to know of.

Quickly there came the sound of shifting bodies and quick hoofsteps against marble flooring. What followed next chilled Twilight to her very core. Celestia uttered an unearthly wail that Twilight didn’t think a creature of such confidence and strength was capable of making. Celestia was crying, and whatever animosity she’d felt for Sombra was again forgotten in favor of wallowing in self-loathing.

“‘When the Sun weeps, where her tears fall the world will be scorched forever.’ You should know better than to be crying.” Sombra said between wheezes as though he’d been crushed moments ago. Though his words made him sound like a scolding mother, his tone was genuinely concerned.

“Quoting ‘Predictions and Prophecies’ Sombra? Amusing. For your information that particular foretelling came true 700 years before the pony who wrote them lived.”

“You are the Goddess of the Sun, I’ve never understood why you chose to rule by peace. Why would a being of such great power use that power to rule one nation? Had you kept with the old ways the only challenge you would face would be the dragons; perhaps Zebrica as well. Their mysticism is- Something else.”

“Listen to you planning for a war that would end all nations. That is not your place Sombra. Yours is to teach now.”

Hoofsteps drew closer to where Twilight struggled at the edges of consciousness.

“This is my fault.” Celestia said with a sniffle, the worst of her miserable frustration seemed to have passed.

“Promise me something, Sombra,” Celestia began, prompting another set of hooves to come up next to her. “promise me you’ll teach her how to control this. I mean no offense, but I don’t want her to end up like you.”

“I can’t make that kind of promise; if what you told me of Twilight is true.”

“What exactly?”

“She is infinitely curious and will pursue knowledge beyond its current limits. I suspect that if I stop teaching her she will go out and learn the deeper secrets of dark magic on her own.”

Celestia let out a small sigh of acknowledgement.

“You don’t want that, and the more I’ve learned about her the less I want her studying such dangerous magic independently. You know as well as I do what she’s capable of as the Element of Magic. Your sister once wielded it to tremendous effect. One of the reasons the dragons signed the Wyrm Peace Pact some years ago.”

“Those were different times, Twilight would have no reason-”

“You know as well as I do that she will come by such knowledge on her own. Until she knows more about and understands dark magic better than even I do; there will be nothing to stop her from breaking the bonds of magic that hold this world together. Until she is so well studied it will consume her. Asking me to help her only temporarily is damning this world.”

Twilight’s world was quickly being turned upside down by these fairly vague revelations. More and more questions rattled around inside her head every time Celestia or Sombra spoke. They both feared her potential for some reason; to her it sounded like she was a living doomsday device.

“Why do you put so much into this one unicorn?” Sombra asked softly.

“She is like us.” Celestia stated, clearly wanting to leave it at that.

“Ancient and likely insane?” Sombra quipped.

“No,” Celestia said with a mirthless laugh. “someday she will be reborn like us. An immortal.”

Twilight felt all her muscles tense at the word “immortal.” Clearly it showed.

“What was that?” Celestia said quickly after Twilight’s sleeping body convulsed. “Can she hear us?”

Sombra was quiet a moment.

“It’s hard to tell. It was much more likely an unpleasant vision, than a response to our conversation. I had my share of them over a millennium.”

“Very well.”

The room was suddenly flooded with the tingle of powerful magic. Briefly it felt to Twilight like the sun was sitting directly above her, bathing her in all of it’s radiance without any of the harshness.

“I am needed elsewhere for a couple days, I am entrusting Twilight to you fully. Do not disappoint me, and don’t make me regret giving you access to your magic.” Celestia warned.

“I hate to disrupt your dramatic exit, but there’s one other thing. It’s about Luna.”

The charging magic diminished in presence very suddenly, leaving the room feeling cold.

“I cannot speak for my sister regarding you, and I will not relay messages to her for you.”

“I couldn’t expect you to do either.”

“Then what?”

Twilight could hear Sombra shift uncomfortably, and could practically feel the grimace on his face.

“The way things ended between us made me feel something I thought I never would ever again. Guilt.”

Celestia let out an audible and likely mocking gasp.

“Hear me out!” Sombra said desperately as though he were embarrassed. Twilight suspected this was exactly the case.

“It wasn’t right or wise that I hurt her the way I did. I’m not sorry for encouraging her to follow her desire. No offense to you of course, but if she wanted the throne it was her right to try and take it.”

“Do you mean to tell me you still have feelings for her?”

“I care about her perhaps, but I have no interest in pursuing a relationship any longer. We’re very clearly poison to the other. Even still, I feel compelled to-” Sombra grunted and cleared his throat loudly, “apologize to her.”

“I may be able to convince her you have something worthwhile to say. She will hear you out if I ask her to; that is, without hostility. You will only have that one chance. I suggest you use it wisely.”

“I- Thank you Princess Celestia. With utmost sincerity, thank you.”

“We’ve all changed, haven’t we?”

Sombra merely sighed in response. With a magical snap and the sound of flame being extinguished, Twilight no longer felt Celestia’s presence.

Sombra let out another, more exhausted sigh before moving up to Twilight’s side.

“Wake up now.” He commanded, “It is over.”

His words reached her through the mental haze, and all at once Twilight felt her body reawaken; she bolted upright and took in a lungful of air before screaming, “Princess!”

She scanned the room frantically for her mentor, the remnants of her dream already seeming to blend into the reality of the waking world.

Twilight’s eyes fell upon Sombra and she choked on a scream as she simultaneously gagged. A roughly hoof sized hole had been punched through his sternum and a twisted foreleg showed signs of a fight he clearly hadn’t won. For as deep as the hole seemed to go, there was no blood coming from it.

“It’s not as bad as it looks.” He grumbled once she’d looked him over.

“What happened?” Twilight near demanded.

“Celestia? Mere minutes ago, don’t you remember that?”

“I- No, wasn’t that a dream?” As Twilight’s conscious mind began to catch up with where she’d been through her foggy thoughts, her eyes grew wider in horror.

“I’m sure you’d be happy to go on thinking your teacher is perfect in every way, but I felt you needed to hear the reality of some things in your life. I used an enchantment to give you hyperawareness without being able to act. Great for when you suspect your advisors are plotting to murder you. Or so I was told, I never had anyone in an advisory position during my rule."

Twilight fell silent and stared at the far wall of the room. She noticed with some surprise that a Sombra sized piece of the marble flooring had been cracked. Celestia had done that, she reinforced to her self. Twilight’s view of her mentor was starting to fall. Celestia was more than capable of violence it seemed, so was she also capable of making mistakes?

Yes. Twilight decided Celestia can and had made a mistake; one that had even put her most faithful student at risk. Twilight could admit to herself that she was actually disappointed in her mentor. Sombra had finished speaking long before Twilight began paying attention again. The constant and impatient prodding at her overly ticklish ribs made her looking down at Sombra. She fought against the foalish bout of giggles that was rising from her chest.

The goofy grin Sombra received was more than enough to get him to stop prodding Twilight’s ribs.

“Er yes- At any rate, I need you up and ready to go within an hour. I can begin your training in earnest now."

Sombra began nudging her out of the bed with his magic, and she responded by scrambling out of the bed. Twilight tumbled out of the bed, but still wound up on all four hooves.

Twilight noticed that her colt sized mentor seemed to walk just a little taller as he directed her towards a balcony.

“Do you recognize this place, Twilight?” Sombra asked once she fell in step behind him.

Twilight scanned the room, wincing once more at the sight of cracked flooring. Sombra didn’t give her time to respond.

“I’m told that this was your room when you lived in the palace. I find it funny that a welp such as yourself lived in better accommodations than the housing of some nobles. Though I will admit you worked harder than most would in such a position.”

Twilight gazed at her room with a new appreciation as she finally began to recognize some of the objects she’d left behind. A candle holder here, a transcription of Zebra writings there. She was surprised to find she owned a collection of perfectly round glass orbs made for helping unicorns hone their levitation, how long had she not needed those?

“Focus, Twilight.” Sombra growled, noticing his words were being ignored again. They’d made it out to the balcony and so he turned to face her.

“Right, right sorry.”

“In the next few days I’ll be acquiring some essential reading for you. You do know how to do that don’t you?”

“Read? I sure do!” Twilight said excitedly. Sombra’s teaching was headed towards familiar territory.

“Please don’t do that. That sort of behaviour grates on my nerves like nothing else in this world.”

“I bet there’s something worse than a pony being enthusiastic about something.”

“Nothing comes to mind.” Sombra shrugged, “At any rate I’ll get those tomes for you and in the meantime I want you to do magical exercises that you don’t think will make you lose control of yourself. Start with basic levitation light spells and such. No teleportation.”

“Right, I can do that.” Twilight nodded curtly.

“And actually practice, get comfortable in your own body again. I don’t want Celestia actually coming down on me.”

Once he'd finished speaking he studied Twilight for a moment, before vanishing in a cloud of smoke. The breeze wafted the small cloud past a startled Twilight and she was reminded of a field of flowers; more specifically roses. Odd as she found the thought she now had a real assignment and intended to do it.

As she lifted progressively heavier objects in the tower she also wrote out a list of questions that Sombra or Celestia needed to answer sooner rather than later.

Author's Note

Sort of a weak chapter I guess, sorry.

Catching Up

An entire week of lessons had left, not just Twilight Sparkle, but the entire palace more than a little on edge. Whether it was because of Sombra's cruel laughter filling the halls at odd hours. An exhausted Twilight moving about the palace grounds reciting dark sounding chants. The fact that Celestia's eternally warm smile had waned a bit and her mood had been dampened by anxiety. It was likely a combination of the three; the fact that Celestia was showing anything but her normal good cheer was likely the most unsettling for the palace staff.

All of these things combined still did not detract from the fact that Twilight was making great strides in her training under Sombra. Two days after her last outburst, Twilight felt more like herself than she had in a long time. She felt in control, could smile genuinely without lapsing into scowls.

"Sparkle!" Sombra's voice boomed from Twilight's left. She jumped away and turned to face him.

"Yes, what was the question?" She asked quickly. Sombra responded with a glare.

"Lost in thought again?"

Twilight considered saying that she just hadn't heard "that last part," but thought better of it, if he hadn't actually been talking and she was caught in a lie punishment would be swift. Not for lying of course, he'd set her straight after the first time he'd caught her lying to him. He admitted to lying to her on several occasions throughout the week, and asked her to try and name of the instances. She couldn't at the time and he'd told her it was because he was an excellent liar, he went on to recommend she become better at lying before trying it on him again

"Uh, yeah I was just thinking about this last week. What were you saying?" She admitted. His gaze softened.

"I was saying this guard has been following us for a while now carrying a letter for you, I then went on to talk about Starswirl the Bearded's research into the power of hatred that aged him terribly. Apparently Celestia had all of his research confiscated and buried it. I learned of this last week when I retrieved that tome. I'm considering having you uncover those works behind the princess' backs. I'm considering it even more now that one of their guards has heard my intentions. No doubt you'll have to buy his silence while you work or you'll fail before the day is out."

Twilight turned carefully to the guard behind them, and gave him what she hoped was a disarming smile. The guard took a few fear-induced steps back. Twilight quickly stopped smiling after being reminded that her study in dark magic though well under control had still been effecting her body in less than subtle ways.

"I wouldn't want to get in your way ma'am." He levitated the sealed scroll through the now slightly wider gap between them, and Twilight took it with her own telekinesis.

"Uh- Thanks." Twilight muttered awkwardly. "If you wouldn't tell Celestia about what he just said I'd appreciate it."

"Of Course Miss Sparkle, wouldn't dream of it." The guard smiled his most sincere smile as he backed away down the hall. At a certain point he about faced and walked briskly away.

"They're all afraid of me." Twilight sighed.

"Cowards, all of them." Sombra stated casually, as if it were common knowledge. "They are less than you, and you have a power at your command they can't even fathom. Joy filled idiots."

"Yeah." Twilight responded looking down at the scroll she had been given. The seal was unbroken.

Unrolling it, she immediately facehoofed. It was from Spike, and memories of wanting to write him a reassuring letter came back to the front of her thoughts. She'd neglected to tell him she was fine and he must've been worrying for an entire week thanks to the oversight.

Twilight almost didn't want to read it because of the good mood she'd maintained for as long as she had. In the end though, she owed him at least an honest reply. Hard to reply to something you haven't read, she figured.

Dear Twilight,

I sent a letter to Princess Celestia to ask about you. She said you were okay, so I sent a second letter for you to read. I was really worried about you this whole time, I thought something bad had happened and Princess Celestia just didn't know how to break the news to me. She told me that you're just studying under some new teacher; she wouldn't say who, told me to ask you. I'm glad you're okay and stuff, don't get me wrong. I was just hoping to hear hear from you before long. Anyways, I told everyone the good news, and by the time you receive this Pinkie Pie has probably packed everyone's things and they're headed to Canterlot now; me included probably.. She was going a bit crazy, more crazy than usual, since nobody had heard from you. She's coming to the palace to throw you a "You're Super Duper not Dead Extravaganza, and You Have a Mysterious Teacher Party!!! She asked that I put extra exclamation points in my letter if I wrote to you about it. I did since I said I would, and I feel like she would know if I didn't. Nobody is mad at you or anything. We were just getting anxious.

With love,

Spike

Twilight stared at the bottom of the parchment for a long while.

"So I think I need to postpone my lessons for a day. I neglected to write any kind of corespondence. Long story short..." Twilight had more to say, but the words died in her throat under the dark glare Sombra was giving her.

"Why exactly is that?" He growled. "I had an important lesson planned for tonight."

"Oh really?" Twilight was honestly interested, which bothered her some. "I mean- That sounds great, but my friends are probably in Canterlot right now. They're coming to see me, because I forgot to tell them I was alright this whole time."

"The ones who were with you during my attempt to retake the Crystal Empire? Those friends?" Sombra shifted uncomfortably as the words left his mouth.

"Yeah, Pinkie is throwing me a party to celebrate me not being dead too. I'm really sorry, but they're important to me."

"Apparently not, since you didn't think to talk to them for two weeks about your well being."

"I know and I feel terrible! I just got caught up in my studies like I used to, before I really had friends. I've learned so much from you and I want to keep going, but can it wait a day. I promise I'll work twice as-" Twilight stopped when Sombra put his hoof up between them.

"You are entirely right Sparkle, it is important that you spend time with your friends. Gods know I could've used more than the one friend I had during my rule. The lesson I had for tonight can be done any night, no trouble there."

Twilight was speechless. Sombra hadn't once been this cooperative when she asked for something, but all of a sudden he was giving her what she'd asked without fuss, and without any "assignments."

"Just let me know when they've left the palace." He said as he turned from her.

"I was going to introduce you to them, though. It's not like they're going to blast you with the Elements of Harmony as soon as they see you." She followed after him when her words failed to halt him.

He let out a growl that was supposed to be threatening, but it was clear to Twilight his heart wasn't in it.

When his warning failed to stop her Sombra stopped and turned to Twilight.

"I'm telling you to enjoy your friends, Twilight. They aren't mine." He said coldly.

"They could be if you gave them a chance. If I tell them you aren't all bad anymore they'll give you a chance. Please?" Twilight pushed. She gave him a gentle smile that widened considerably when let out a weary sigh of resignation.

"Fine, Sparkle, fine. I'll come to that celebration of your continued existence, but don't expect me to stay long."

"You promise?" Twilight prodded rather cheekily.

"Yes, I promise to be there."

"You Pinkie Pie Promise?" Twilight pushed again.

"I refuse a pact I don't know anything about." Sombra said evenly.

"Oh it's not really a magical pact or anything. It's just a special promise my friend Pinkie Pie came up with. Although she has the uncanny ability to know when you're about to break a Pinkie Pie Promise."

"Pinkie Pie seems like an odd name for that white unicorn." Sombra mused, as he continued down the hall.

"That's what I was saying, it's not magic. She's an earth pony."

After a derrisive snort of suppressed laughter Sombra said, "So she's an earth pony who has ponies enter into strange promises that she can somehow tell when you're about to break the promise one makes. Then what, she just appears and stops them from breaking it?"

"Uh, well the times I tried to break a Pinkie Pie Promise..." Twilight began.

Sombra raised a brow in slight disbelief.

"Yeah pretty much. I haven't figured out how she does it."

"HA! Very well Sparkle. I'll go along with this little joke of yours. How does one swear a Pinkie Pie Promise?"

Twilight smiled and performed the "incantation" for a Pinkie Pie Promise.

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" She recited gleefully.

Sombra gave her a flat look, but shrugged with a small shake of his head.

"I Pinkie Pie Promise not to headbutt you in the face in the next ten seconds."

"Wait what?"

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Sombra said with a devilish grin.

There followed a moment of silence where Twilight started backing away while Sombra simply stood and looked her right in the eyes.

He suddenly reared his whole body back preparing to deliver a brutal headbutt.

"Hold it right there Mr. Mystery Pony!" A shrill voice shouted from down the hall. Much to Twilight's relief and surprise.

Sombra halted mid motion and dropped back down to all fours a look of bewilderment etched on his face. A pink blur barreled down the hall towards Sombra coming to a stop inches from him. He was suddenly snout to snout with a pair of angry, piercing blue eyes surrounded by the most pink he'd ever seen on one pony.

"Nopony, and I mean nopony, breaks a Pinkie Pie Promise. Even Mystery ponies I've never met before." Pinkie Pie shrieked.

She settled down and studied the shocked stallion for a moment.

"Also don't headbutt Twilight." She added as an afterthought.

"It's a coincidence?" Sombra asked the world in general, more unsure of a situation than Twilight had ever seen him be. Even while being grilled by Celestia he seemed more assured than in this moment.

"I keep telling myself that." Twilight responded wearily.

"TWILIGHT!" Pinkie shouted, seemingly just having realized that her friend was right behind her.

Twilight found herself wrapped in a tight bear-hug before she could even think of a response.

While the air was being crushed out of her lungs Twilight manged to say, "Hi Pinkie I really missed you and I'm sorry I never wrote but now I'm running out of air and I'd like to breath!"

Sombra was still surprised by the pink mare's sudden entrance that he didn't think twice about pulling Pinkie and Twilight apart with magic. Normally he would've just reveled in her temporary pain. He set Twilight down, but continued to hold Pinkie in the air rotating her to face him and inspecting her scalp under her mane.

"Twilight I'm so so happy that you're okay! When Spike told us that he'd fwooshed you to Canterlot like a letter and he hadn't heard from you since I thought there might have been some kind of accident. Like maybe you got turned into an actual letter or something. Then I got Spike to send a letter to Celestia and she said that you were okay so I decided that we'd all come visit you since you were too busy to visit us!" Pinkie started rambling while still upside down.

Twilight gave Sombra a questioning look as he inspected Pinkie Pie's head. He missed the look entirely.

"Who's your Mystery stallion friend, by the way? He keeps scratching me head." Pinkie said to Twilight, then directed her next comment to the pony levitating her. "Try behind my ears they're kind of itchy."

Sombra complied quickly before shrugging. He turned her over, belly to the floor, and dropped her unscerimoniously onto the floor.

"He's uh-"

"Oh is he your stallion friend and you've been busy going on dates here in Canterlot and you couldn't think of a way to introduce him to your friends?!" Pinkie asked excitedly.

Twilight took a moment to contemplate the insinuation.

"Of course not, why would I be interested in Sparkle?" Sombra said irritably.

"Oh no he's not- We're not like that. He's just my teacher. This is King Sombra." Twilight said quickly.

"That meanie-pants from the Crystal Empire who went poof when the Crystal Heart did its thingy?" Pinkie Narrowed her eyes in contemplation, turning her gaze to Sombra.

"Yeah that's the one." Twilight said carefully.

"But he's here now, and not a meanie-pants?"

"Well, he's nicer than before?" Twilight tried. Sombra grunted in mild amusement.

"Hmmmm..." Pinkie intoned, studying him further. She pulled a pipe out of nowhere and started blowing bubbles out of it.

"Okay!" She piped up suddenly.

"Okay?" Twilight repeated unsurely.

"Yeah, as long as he doesn't try to headbutt you any more, or break promises of any kind, or do other meanie-pants things. Okay." She said cheerfully. "Hi my name is Pinkie Pie, and I love meeting new ponies. We met once before but we didn't get to talk so I'm going to treat it as a first time meeting. Which means I have to put together a "Twilight's New Teacher is that King we Stopped from Being Evil, and is Nice(er) Party!" She announced, offering an outstretched hoof.

"I am the once King Sombra of the Crystal Empire. I have gained many names and titles, most of which mortal ears should not hear and others you cannot pronounce. It's nice to meet you I suppose." He shook her hoof confidently despite how unnerved he still seemed by her completely coincidental appearance. He seemed mostly over it, but the ghost of shock was still on his face.

"Neat. I bet I can guess one of your names!"

"Say, Pinkie, where is everyone else?" Twilight asked, realizing that they hadn't come with her pink friend.

"Probably still unpacking Rarity's things at the train station. I would be helping, but somepony was trying to break a Pinkie Promise. Since I'm already here it would be silly to go back, don't you think?"

Sombra fixed Pinkie Pie with an incredulous stare.

"How could you have known that if you didn't even know I existed? Even if you did you would've had to teleport here."

"Mmmm... No I just ran here. Also why wouldn't I know when someone is trying to break a Pinkie Promise, it even has my name in it."

"That doesn't mean-" Sombra was about to explain why the pink mare's statement was stupid when he caught sight of Twilight wide-eyed and shaking her head slowly.

"Logic doesn't work on her." Twilight explained.

"How about "the Mysterious?" Pinkie asked.

"What?" Sombra and Twilight said in unison.

"Is that one of your titles?"

"Yes, I was known by that title once."

"I thought you said this would be hard." Pinkie said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Sparkle I'll be in your tower so I can escape this pink-" He paused to find a word. When none was forthcoming he finished with, "Thing. Let me know when your party starts."

Before Twilight could respond Sombra had teleported away, leaving behind several wisps of black smoke.

~~~~

It was an half-hour before the rest of Twilight's friends arrived. Greetings similar to Pinkie's were shared, minus any further attempts at crushing Twilight's bones.

Twilight made multiple apologies to her friends and started explaining her situation. The nightmares that had plagued her since the Crystal Empire, the crippling depression, and everything up to who she was currently studying under. The revelation was met with shock from all present; save for Pinkie, who pretended to be shocked just to play along. Twilight avoided the details of her training to spare her friends that much.

Fluttershy seemed to be taking the news fairly poorly. She lowered her head and had started trembeling since the revelation.

Rarity Applejack and Rainbow Dash all seemed surprised, but not all that upset or worried.

Spike just stared off into space, wide-eyed. He shook his head, quickly coming back to reality.

"Are you sure we shouldn't blast him with the Elements, just to be safe. That dude was really evil."

"No Spike, we aren't going to "blast" my teacher with the Elements of Harmony. His actions may be a bit mean spirited at times, but he's not as bad as some of the nobles here in Canterlot." Twilight asserted flatly.

"Hay, if he's nicer than the ponies here in Canterlot he's got my vote." Applejack piped up.

"Even if he does turn out to be evil, I bet we can take him." Rainbow Dash offered.

"If he's willing to actually talk, and in a civil manner, I can give him a chance." Rarity spoke up. She seemed the least sure about this vocally; she'd done a remarkable job hiding any discomfort while remaining silent.

Fluttershy remained quiet, but nodded her agreement with the others' sentiments.

Pinkie Pie... had vanished.

"Uhh... Anyone know what happened to Pinkie?" Twilight asked the group.

Before anyone could answer the not so deafening sound of a canon being discharged a foot away from the gorup filled the hall. As did streamers and confetti of varying colors.

"I'm done setting up the party everypony!" Pinkie cheered, already pushing her party canon down the hall. "Follow me!"

"Pinkie, I thought the celebration was tomorrow. I'm rather tired from travel." Rarity called after the pink mare who'd already disapered around a corner.

"Party time now, sleep later! We need to celebrate how alive Twilight is." Pinkie replied from somewhere out of sight.

"Right." Twilight looked apologetically towards Rarity. "It's for the best, probably. I'm already skipping a day of lessons with Sombra. No telling what he'd do if I took too much time."

Pink Ninjas and Parties

"I don't even." Twilight muttered. She hadn't lost any words, that was all there was to her statement. Pinkie Pie had led them to the Palace's main ballroom, straight into something that easily rivaled the decadence of the Grand Galloping Gala. It wasn't unlike Pinkie to go over the top when setting up a party, but this was considerably more than Twilight or any of her friends had seen the party mare do. If it weren't for the balloons party favors and excessive use of pink in general, Twilight would be a little worried that they were hijacking a pre-existing event. Rarity seemed to have the same suspicion.

"Darling, are you sure this room isn't already taken. This all seems a little- Much?" Rarity tried.

"Welll... There may be a few more ponies coming. I had some help setting up so I figured I'd invite them too. I don't actually know how many are going to come."

"You hired a catering company, for me?" Twilight asked, slightly aghast. "I get you're happy that I'm okay, but you didn't have to spend extra bits on a party for me. You being here would've been enough."

"I didn't spend any bits. That's the best part!" Pinkie cheered popping a frosted cupcake into her mouth.

"There's no way you brought all this food on the train, and while you don't always seem to obey the laws of physics you're pretty respectful of the rules of baking-"

"That's because baking is serious business." Pinkie interrupted.

"So the only way you got this food was somepony had to bake it here in Canterlot. Since we've only been here an hour and I didn't here a bunch of ponies moving this stuff through the halls that means you- Had the palace staff help you?"

"Bingo!"

"So then you invited the cooks to eat their own food." Twilight finished.

"Well I may have invited the guards too, and the maids, and the gardeners. Also the princesses, and Sombra is your plus one. I hope we have enough punch for everyone." Pinkie Pie said to herself.

"The whole palace." Twilight summarized. Looking to see what the rest of her friends thought of this, she noticed that they'd all already wandered off browsing the snacks and refreshments, appreciating the decorations and doing what they usually did at social events. Fluttershy had been wandering towards a corner as Pinkie had begun to make apparent the large guest list. Pinkie Pie caught on and steered her back towards the center of the room.

Twilight felt slightly lost knowing she was the only one bothered by the fact that all the palace staff were going to attend a party to celebrate her being alive. Then again, she supposed, her friends really shouldn't be that bothered by it. She wished they shared some of her anxiety, but they had no reason to; they hadn't spent an entire week making the guard afraid of them.

More than anything she imagined there would be a lot of awkward half-smiles and apologies once the rest of the guests showed up. That was later though, for now she had her best friends here and snacks that needed snacking on.

Joining Pinkie and Fluttershy next to one of the many snack tables.

"When is King Sombra coming?" Fluttershy asked the moment Twilight was in hearing range.

She'd nearly forgotten his promise to be here.

"He promised to show, but he never said when. Or for how long, actually. He'll probably teleport in and back out and say that counts. Which it technically does." Twilight responded with a shrug.

"Do you take me for some kind of coward, Sparkle?" Sombra's voice growled from behind Twilight. That was the only warning any of the three mares got before he materialized silently out of the air.

"Her name is actually Twilight Sparkle. Not just "Sparkle." Pinkie corrected, helpfully.

"Yes pink one," Sombra said with a sigh. "I'm aware of her actual name. She's my student and I will call her what ever I please."

"Okay." Pinkie chirped, "But I'm not your student so my name is Pinkie Pie. Say it with me, Pinkie Pie."

Sombra ignored Pinkie Pie and instead gave Twilight a slightly pleading look.

"Can I talk to you in private, please?"

Twilight nodded silently, slightly concerned that Sombra had opted for a polite request.

Sombra took Twilight to a corner of the large room and turned to her. He was frowning. Not the scowl of a general dissatisfaction he often wore, but an actual frown; the kind one wore when they were upset or were faced with a difficult task.

He paused for a moment and stared off into space. When his eyes focused back on Twilight he said, "The Pink one scares me. If what little you told me of her is true, then I doubt she is wholly equine. That said I don't know what she is, as there is nothing in history that is as you've described her. This scares me, as well as fascinates me."

"I think you're thinking about this too hard. Celestia knows I did for a while after I first met her. I ran every test, both physical and magical, that I possibly could have. They were inconclusive. She's just an earth pony mare. With an exceptionally high metabolism and sweet tooth."

"Maybe you aren't understanding me. The being you've described has never been recorded as existing. The implication of that statement alone should make your ingrained desire for knowledge tingle, and-" The volume of Sombra's voice was steadily increasing, and he seemed more excited with every word.

"Listen very closely to me." Twilight interrupted him, noting how much satisfaction she got out of it, She grabbed him at the shoulders and brought their faces close together. "Every conceivable test, over the course of a couple months. She. Is. A. Normal. Earth. Pony. Accept that and move on, it'll save you many many headaches."

Sombra saw a brief flash of an old tiredness in Twilight's eyes that miraculously helped him to stop thinking about the anomaly known as Pinkie Pie.

"Normal earth pony." Sombra said in acknowledgement. "That's all she is."

"Glad we got that settled. So, can I properly introduce you to my friends now?"

"It couldn't hurt."

Twilight noted that after Sombra's built-up excitement he seemed more approachable. A clam neutral expression, and softer tone of voice. He seemed more relaxed.

"Did you magically modify your brain temporarily so you could enjoy this party?" Twilight took a stab in the dark as she moved back towards the center of the room.

"Believe it or not I didn't get invited to many parties here in the palace. I didn't use magic, I just made it a goal to enjoy the chances I had to come to these sort of things. No reason I can't keep that goal in mind a few centuries later, is there?"

"I guess not. It just seems odd of you to be so close to smiling." Sombra gave her a quizzical look.

"That is to say, you aren't scowling or trying to intimidate every single pony in sight."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"If they aren't afraid of you they ask you for things. You'll learn to appreciate that some day."

"I happen to like interacting with other's." Twilight quipped, now in earshot of most of her friends.

Twilight waved Pinkie Pie over to where she was gathering her friends while going through the best way to introduce her teacher. They'd all said they were more or less okay with his presence on her good word, but she didn't know what to expect from him.

"Okay." Twilight breathed to steady herself. "Girls, this is Sombra. He's been teaching me the magic of hatred, and how to control my emotions. I exposed myself to it when searching for the crystal heart. There were several doors that I could only open by channeling dark magic into them. I told you all of that already. I'd been losing sleep to horrible nightmares ever since, and I guess Spike sent a letter to Celestia about it. I must've been too out of it to notice."

Spike nodded slowly.

"I'm very grateful he did, because it wasn't something I could've handled on my own. Thank you Spike."

"I was just worried about you, Twilight." Spike responded, rushing forward to hug her.

As he pressed his face to her coat she could feel the tears in his eyes staining her coat.

"You couldn't see yourself, but you looked so sick. I thought you were dying! Then you're gone for a whole week and I didn't hear anything from you. I was scared."

Twilight scooped Spike up in her forelegs and hugged him tightly. An horrible knot of guilt was tightening in her chest. She'd gotten so caught up in her own life, she'd forgotten about those in her life who were important to her. Just like she had when she was a filly. At least in the past no harm had come of it.

Looking into the eyes of her friends she saw a similar worry there. It was obvious that Spike had felt it the worst, and why shouldn't he? He'd known Twilight since he was hatched. She was his mother, sister and closest friend.

"I'm sorry." Twilight whispered to Spike. She then looked up to her friends and said again, "I'm sorry."

"I was scared too, Spike." A voice said from a side door.

All eyes turned to see Princess Celestia standing in the doorway, as though waiting to get permission to enter. Once she had spoken she stared walking towards them.

"I am as much to blame for the lack of communication as Twilight is. I wanted to write a letter to assure you that Twilight was in good hooves, and that she was well. I couldn't, though, because I wasn't sure of that myself. Sombra has since the start of Twilight's lessons, helped her immensely. Yet, for all the progress she's made, I was still scared she would lose herself. I am sorry."

"This entire palace is full of misery and self-pity." Sombra spoke up. "I'd recommend that you, Goddess of the Sun, try to smile. Otherwise you may start to need my instruction as well. If I had not so loathed interaction with you I might have seen what a profound effect Twilight's jeopardized well-being was having on you; your clearly stated threats aside." He paused rubbing his chest pointedly. "In that respect I am sorry for making you worry."

"Threats?" Applejack asked, causing several questioning gazes to turn towards Celestia.

Twilight glared warningly at Sombra. She remembered those threats, and didn't

"You'd do well to not ask questions you don't want the answer to." He said, to disarm the situation.

His tone alone was enough to convince Twilight's friends to drop the subject.

"Entirely unrelated, but is that a large, talking, bipedal lizard or a very young dragon?" Sombra asked, indicating a still sniffling Spike.

"He's a baby dragon." Twilight answered carefully.

"Why do you have to call me a baby?" Spike grumbled.

"I called you a 'baby dragon' because you are. I suppose by Equestrian standards you're actually an adult now. Still, calling you an adult dragon is wildly inaccurate. I could come up with something else if you'd like."

"Is it yours?"

"I hatched him and he's lived with me since. I don't own him though, if that's what you're asking." It was the only thing she guessed he could mean since he came from a time where owning another's life wasn't unheard of, and he'd enslaved an entire kingdom besides.

Sombra shot Celestia a questioning look. She gave him no apparent response.

Turning back to Twilight he asked, "Was that all the introduction you were going to give me, Spar- Twilight?"

"I-uh..." Twilight set Spike down as she tried to gather her thoughts again.

"Well spoken." Sombra said teasingly. "I am Sombra, former king of the Crystal Empire. I am now a teacher to Twilight Sparkle and a prisoner of Equestrian royalty. Things could certainly be worse." He finished.

When Sombra was done speaking his horn flared to life and a finely cut diamond chalice filled with a deep red liquid appeared in the air next to him. Introductions out of the way he wandered away from the group to go inspect the decorations as the other's already had.

"Twilight, I'm very happy to see you looking rested and happy again." Celestia said taking a few steps closer.

"Princess. I have a lot of questions for you. I didn't see you all week. If you didn't come to check on me in person because you were scared you'd find I was doing even worse, or whatever your reason was. I forgive you. Believe me when I say, if you can start to smile again you'll make everyone involved in this very happy."

"I-" Celestia's words failed her for a moment. Then she smiled. "Thank you for not being upset with me."

"I could never be." Twilight said, and she meant it. No matter what faults she had learned Princess Celestia had, no matter what mistakes she'd made that resulted in her current situation, it just meant her long time mentor was a pony. Not perfect, but a pony like her and any of her other friends. Just like Twilight's other friends, Celestia may annoy or frustrate her on a rare occaision, but at the end of the day it's something she's willing to accept and even love about the elder mare.

Sombra had asked Twilight what she'd thought of the princess not being perfect. She could give him an answer now.

"Party time!" Pinkie declared, offering Twilight and Celestia a set of party hats and two small plates of snacks.

Celestia let out a small giggle, looking Twilight in the eyes as she took a hat and a plate in her magic. Twilight did the same and from there good cheer began to spread through the room.

A couple hours after Celestia's arrival Luna appeared and whispered something to her elder sister. Celestia excused herself from her conversation with the Elements of Harmony to go lower the sun. She was hardly missed at that point, as, in those two hours the day guard who had switched posts with Luna's batponies had begun to arrive. Word had gotten around that the party was to celebrate the fact that Twilight Sparkle wasn't dead.

This got awkward and uneasy chuckles from most of the guard. Nonetheless almost all the guests mustered the courage to approach Twilight and congratulate her; primarily at Pinkie's insistence. She greeted all who approached her with a disarming smile and an apology for all the frayed nerves she'd caused. Explanations were given and no hard feelings were held. For most at least. There was one member of the royal guard actively avoiding Twilight, the one she'd cast off into the void for getting in her way. Twilight knew she needed to patch things up, but every time she approached he would casually occupy himself with a conversation on the other side of the room. Instead of letting it get her down she decided to put it on a list of things to do and instead enjoyed the party.

She spotted Celestia, relatively alone in a corner of the room, watching the party with a genuine smile. At the same moment Celestia turned and spotted Twilight. A golden glow enveloped the princess's horn and she nodded towards a refreshment table near Twilight. A cup floated half the distance between them in Celestia's magical aura and Twilight took the hint.

She filled two cups from the bowl of pink punch on the table and made her way over to where Celestia sat.

"Thank you, Twilight."

"You're welcome." Twilight responded automatically taking a sip of her drink, "You lowered the sun already?"

"I did, and I traded a few words with Luna. She may come as well as it turns out."

"'May'? I suppose she might not be that comfortable at these sorts of things, yet. Did you convince her to come."

"My urging had nothing to do with her decision. And quite the contrary, she enjoys gatherings like this here at the palace. The only thing stopping her is the fact that Sombra is here."

"Oh." Twilight paused in thought eyeing the contents of her cup.

"It's good to see the guard relaxing. I may have to do something like this for them more often. Perhaps not as extravagant, but in this case I think the expense is justified."

"What happened between them?"

"Hmm?"

"Princess Luna and King Sombra."

"They loved each other once, beyond that I don't think it's my place to say."

"You're very right it isn't." Luna's voice came coldly.

Twilight did a double take to find Luna sitting directly across from her. Luna looked as though she'd settled in with her snacks some time ago, with her own cup of punch and a plate of assorted fruits. Twilight was almost positive Luna had materialized in in her spot.

"I don't know what he may have told you Twilight, but I'm sure it was full of half-truths and omitted facts." Luna stated bitterly. Her eyes scanned the party until the seemed to fix on a certain point. She then began to glare.

"He didn't tell me much. He just said he wanted to apologize to you, and hoped against hope that you would give him just a little of your time to hear him out." Twilight pleaded Sombra's case in his absence.

Luna's gaze softened considerably.

"It's just like I said, Luna." Celestia added.

"Do you think he meant it?"

"He's mean without reason, gets a kick out of other ponies misery, is encouraging me to be a better liar. Whenever your name comes up, though, all that stops. I can tell there's regret there. Even all his practice hiding his emotions doesn't help him when you're on his mind."

"Very well. I may hear him out then." Luna said slowly.

"I'm happy to hear that sister." Celestia nodded in approval, and while Luna's attention was still turned towards the crowd shot Twilight a grateful look.

Luna too, looked happy with Twilight's insight.

"Now let's hope he doesn't make a fool of himself tonight." Luna muttered, a smile crept into her features despite her tone.

"What do you mean?"

"I rarely invited him to Canterlot, because he's an absolute ass when he drinks." Celestia said matter-of-factly. "The only time he came to the palace was at Luna's insistent request."

"Those gatherings were always more entertaining with him present. A little damage to the palace was worth it."

Celestis seemed to want to argue with her sister. Instead she said, "As you said 'let's hope he doesn't make a fool if himself.'"

"Hi princesses, hi Twilight!" Pinkie Pie greeted the three having suddenly inserted herself between them. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything. Twilight, you have got to try some of this punch!" She indicated a bowl sitting on a snack table that she'd apparently dragged over to their corner. How they hadn't heard it coming was beyond any of them. It was a strangely familiar pink concoction.

"Think I already have some of that-Stuff." Twilight's levitating cup shook a couple times.

"It's not just stuff," Pinkie started, "it's my Pink Ninja Punch! You're drinking it and it taste like fruits everything feels fine and then bam! You're already tipsy. That's a fun word, 'tipsy.'"

"There's alcohol in this?" Twilight asked in disbelief.

"Can't taste it, can you? Ninja." Pinkie whispered the last word and backed away slowly. She very noisily pushed the table back to it's spot in the room.

Twilight took a look at her still mostly full cup. She could've sworn there was just over half left the last time she checked.

"Ninja." She could still hear her friend's words

After Party, and the After After Party

"That is the most entertainment I've had in a while." Sombra's voice came from above the water. Twilight had no clue what he was talking about. Also why was everything wet? Also why did she feel so dizzy?

Any further internal questioning was cut off by a sudden and dire need to breath. She struggled for what she prayed was upwards and continued until she felt air touch her snout. Triumph came shortly after when the whole top half of her body broke the surface. She floundered around for a moment as she caught her breath.

Twilight could see she was a ways off the ground. Down below was Sombra his horn glowing and giving her a toothy grin. She then realised shed swam to the top of a hemisphere of water apparently held together by Sombra.

She tried to say something to him about how hard fluid manipulation was. It cane out as an extended "Heyyyy..."

"I'm going to assume by your behaviour that you've never been this drunk before." Sombra spoke up as soon as he was sure Twilight was paying attention.

Was she drunk? She didn't remember drinking much at the party. Just the punch.

Sombra stopped holding the bubble together, letting both Twilight and the water be taken by gravity.

"When was I drinking?" Twilight mumbled as a wave of nausea overcame her. The landing hadn't been too rough, but the sudden change in elevation was severely disorienting.

"When did you stop, you mean? You stole a bottle of wine from me and drank it, yelling something about not stopping until I caught you. I did catch you, but you teleported what was left directly into your stomach. Quite a feat for a drunk."

Twilight didn't remember any of what Sombra said, but the burning in her gut said he probably wasn't lying.

"Why am I out here now?"

"Because you can't hold your drink." He replied, pointing away from where he stood. Twilight looked and saw a large pile of what looked like vomit.

"I felt slightly responsible for you since the wine you stole from me was essentially poison. It was aged longer than I've been alive."

"Oh, oops."

"I would've stopped you, but at first I was fairly curious as to how you'd react to it. It was a slightly sobering realization that it might end up killing you. Your body took care of it luckily enough." He said dismissively. As an afterthought he added, "I recommend you never dance again though. For the sake of Equestria."

Twilight didn't know how to feel about the second part. As far as the almost poisoning went she felt pretty lucky; though she still felt more dizzy than anything else right then, also wet.

"Was it really bad?" She asked going about wringing her mane and tail out.

"The dancing?" He responded wryly. "As Celestia put it, 'At least she's having fun.'"

"Oh. Celestia noticed it too?" Twilight looked at the ground as shame took her.

"The whole room did as a matter of fact. Perhaps I'll make it another one of your lessons." He said teasingly.

Neither Sombra or Twilight, or anyone who happened to be in earshot would've expected the response Twilight gave.

"What makes you so great?!" She shouted, throwing her hooves up in anger.

Had the alcohol not been affecting Twilight so much, she might have seen Sombra fighting back a smile of amusement.

"What 'makes me so great,' is that I have lived several lifetimes beyond anything you can hope to accomplish on your own. I-"

"Yeah well I- hmmm..." Twilight interrupted but immediately lost her thought.

"I bet I have more magical aptitude in my left hind-leg than you do in your whole body."

"Excuse me Twilight, I must've misheard you. You think you're more magically capable than myself?"

"I- Yeah that is what I'm saying." She agreed, nodding eagerly as she shot him a challenging look. A very quiet voice in the back of her mind was telling her this was a mistake. At present she couldn't be bothered to listen to any voice aside from the one that was telling her to show up her teacher. If she lucked out, he might be so impressed that he would stop teaching her.

"Oh I haven't done this in so long." Sombra said menacingly as his horn came to life. "Three of the most complicated spells you know, and a raw display of power. You can do those in any order you please."

A bottle of some dark alcohol flashed into existence nest to him.

"Just so we have the same capacity to recall spells." He explained, before unstopping the bottle and chugging it's contents.

"Isn't that a bit much?" Twilight asked, slightly amazed at how he guzzled the fiery liquid.

"Your ability to hold a coherant conversation is fooling you into thinking you're not that drunk. Trust me Twilight, this is fair."

"You're up first since you're the challenger, by the way."

Twilight searched her brain for the most complicated spell she could think of. At the same time she searched for something to demonstrate on. An idea popped into her head when her eyes passed over the fountain that Sombra had drawn water from. With a slight grunt of effort she began to pull up water and form it into a roughly spherical shape. It occasionally lost it's shape as she lost focus, due to her state of mind.

Sombra waited patiently.

"So if I can just separate the-" Twilight began, just before everything went white.

~~~~~~

Twilight woke with a start. She immediately regretted coming back to the waking world. Her everything hurt; it felt as though she had been doing strength training for an entire day while simultaneously allowing someone to hit her hard enough to leave bruises. The worst of it was her head; where a constant throbbing accompanied by what felt like a wound exposed to open air left her feeling disoriented and a little nauseous. The morning sun spilled into her bed chambers and she wanted desperately for the sun to go away for at least the next year. Applying her magic to the curtains to get them to close sent pain lancing through her skull, and she groaned in agony and frustration as the misfired magic caused the curtains to open slightly wider.

Sombra's face came into her vision as she lay paralyzed by pain. She'd never really taken the time to appreciate the designs on her bedroom ceiling, or how badly it needed to be repainted.

"Everything hurts." She tried to say, but her throat was so dry that it came out as more of a croak. She barely even heard it herself. She missed Sombra nodded sagely, and repeated herself.

Sombra recoiled slightly and glared at her. He started speaking very softly; so softly in fact that Twilight wasn't even sure he was making sound at all.

"What?" She asked, once again misjudging the volume she needed to use. Every time she spoke the throbbing in her head doubled, just for the effort of speaking.

Sombra sighed, or at least Twilight thought he did. She didn't hear it, but he made the motion at any rate. He materialized a chalkboard and a piece of blue chalk.

Twilight groaned again. Magic chalkboard meant lessons, for once in her life she didn't want to learn at all.

You've lost most of your hearing, stop shouting. Was hastily scribbled on the chalkboard he presented.

Twilight let out an "Oooh..." of understanding.

"What happened last night?" She asked in what she now approximated was a normal speaking voice.

An eraser also materialized and he quickly removed the previous message. Magic contest. You were drunk. Sombra's chalkboard explained.

"Is that why I'm so much pain?"

Since I expect you've never been hungover: Yes that is the source of your head pain. He paused to erase than write again. I imagine you're likely sore from being launched 30 yards. Your first act was to make an explosion.

"How'd I do that?" She asked as the night up to, but not including the contest came back to her. Her cheeks were glowing red from embarrassment at the memories.

You used very fine magic to do science. Not technically a "magic" contest, but impressive. He erased and wrote again.

Vaporizing water separating molecules and adding fire. You're lucky I...

Her stomach worked itself into a knot as she tried to imagine just how big a reaction she'd caused, and if she'd managed to hurt anyone.

I noticed you hadn't magically protected yourself or you'd just be dead.

"Did I hurt anyone?"

Aside from yourself, no. I warded the area against catastrophic damage. Blast was contained. While Twilight was reading Sombra's head jerked around to look behind him.

He erased and hastily scrawled.

Celestia is coming. Tell her you're alright so I don't get in trouble. Twilight got to see the new message for all of two seconds before the chalkboard, chalk and eraser all disappeared.

Sombra stepped to the side and just as he'd said, Celestia came into Twilight's limited view; right where Sombra had been standing. She looked over Twilight's form, her gaze filled with a motherly intent.

Celestia started speaking.

"I can't hear you." Twilight explained, cutting off whatever Celestia had been saying. From the furrowed brow it was likely either a serious question or an equally serious lecture.

Sombra shook his head as he explained. The chalkboard and chalk came back. Celestia took one look at the small board and shot Sombra a glare. She turned it to him and he cringed. He produced the eraser and offered to her as well. After erasing the message Sombra had forgotten about she wrote her own.

How are you feeling?

How was she feeling? Twilight wasn't exactly sure how to answer that. She didn't want to get Sombra into trouble with Celestia, but at the same time simply talking hurt. Celestia would likely know instantly if she were trying to play down her misery.

At length Twilight swallowed hard and said, "Everything hurts, but my head is the worst of my pain. I don't feel like anything is broken or that I'm dying though."

That's probably the alcohol as much as anything else. It was nice to see you cut loose and have fun. Erasing.

Knowing your limit is important.

Sombra spoke up when he caught a glimpse of what Celestia had written. His words seemed to have the strange effect of making her want to smile and still wanting to be upset with him. She instead gave him a nod and a warning glance.

"It's not his fault, entirely. Like you said I should be careful not to drink too much. Don't be too mad at him." Twilight pleaded a case for Sombra.

Celestia sighed again and her gaze softened. Celestia wrote a short message on the chalkboard.

You live and you learn, I suppose. Get well soon. With that she bent down and gave Twilight a small kiss on the forehead. In a flash of golden light she was gone. Probably to tend to her other duties Twilight guessed.

A glass of water held in Sombra's aura floated into Twilight's vision. He moved closer and raised a questioning eyebrow.

Twilight nodded weakly and the glass was tipped to her lips. It was going to be a slow recovery, Twilight realized as Sombra controlled the rate at which the water left the glass. Very very slow.

Author's Note

I think I'll be able to wrap this story up in a couple chapters. Also I think I'm doing this "slice of life" thing correctly, but I'm not sure. At any rate here's some reading for you. Leave a comment let me know what you think.

Lesson One: Learning How to Hate

Twilight trudged through the halls of the palace, sweat covering every inch of her body. She'd done an entire lap of Canterlot city in under an hour. At one point the guards were called on the suspicion she was a thief. She'd been unable to help stop herself from yelling at the group that stopped her for wasting her precious time. The only thing that saved her from getting arrested is the fact that she was Celestia's student; the very same student who was prone to throwing fits when something fell out of schedule.

The guards plus a couple of near collisions were the only thing Twilight encountered on her trip. Now that the doors to Luna's room were in sight Twilight relaxed some. She realized that despite sweating from head to hoof, she wasn't actually all that tired. No more so than when she'd started her frantic trip.

Before she could enter Luna's room the two guards Twilight chose not to take notice of previously, stepped in front of her.

"Princess Luna said, 'If I am disturbed once more today I am going to bring the moon upon whoever is responsible.'" One of the stallions spoke up.

"But-" Twilight started to say.

A voice in her head whispered, No buts. It prevented her from speaking for a moment before she remembered she still had limited time.

Clock is ticking, Twilight.

"The clock is ticking." Twilight growled at the two guards. They froze.

With an instinct she shouldn't posses, Twilight moved past the two guards and pushed the door open without a second thought.

Luna didn't stir when Twilight entered. There was a strange satisfaction in Twilight's mind that everything had stopped for her, just to make sure she was on time. Sombra would never know, nobody would.

The oh-so-clever unicorn's smile faded when she made it to the balcony to find Sombra wasn't there. In his place was a note that read "If you're reading this then you obviously didn't hear what I said about coming to find me when you got back to the palace. I never said I would be in the same place, learn to plan ahead. Come find me in the dining hall."

Twilight was trembling with rage, she always planned ahead. She hadn't planned for King Sombra not being dead. Her blood turned to ice when the wish for him to simply be dead crossed her mind. It would've been nice if Celestia had just let him fall, but she remembered the smug look on his face; he knew for a fact that Celestia would help him no matter what her sister did.

While lost in thought Twilight was vaguely aware that time had resumed. In the back of her mind the birds chirping clued her in. Regardless she'd had enough of the enormous pain that had been more or less forced upon her.

"Sombra" Twilight bellowed, her magically augmented voice seemed to visibly shake the air around her.

The called pony appeared before Twilight in an instant. His legs bound in shadowy chains, splaying his body out.

A fork with a bit of lettuce clattered to the ground. Sombra stared at it a moment before looking up into the glaring face above him.

"Are you sure you haven't been studying dark magic? I mean really, a perfect binding spell?" Sombra said as casually as possible testing the tightness of the chains holding him.

Now that the object of her frustration was present, Twilight felt a resurgence of animosity. As the feelings welled up anew the chains pulling his legs in four directions grew tauter, threatening to pull all four legs from their sockets.

Sombra acted as though these details eluded him, "How many times did you level half the Palace when you were studying under Celestia?"

Twilight remembered very vividly her entrance exam, and how much of a disaster it had started out to be. After the initial failures, she'd accidentally caused a hatchling Spike to grow about one-hundred times his size. There'd been a hole in the roof, but that was the worst of it as far as destruction went. She'd gotten her cutie mark that day. With a sigh Twilight relaxed, unconsciously freeing Sombra as she did.

"What are you thinking about right now?" Sombra asked, standing up and making sure he was still in one piece.

"The day I got my cutie mark, why?"

"I don't particularly care how you got from my question to that, but I do have something to tell you." He resumed his wicked grin from less than an hour ago.

"What?" Twilight felt certain some sort of revenge was coming swiftly.

"You used magic, so you failed." Sombra said shortly. The look of devastation in the young unicorn's eyes made him chuckle.

"But, I didn't mean to." The once perfect student pleaded.

Sombra gave her words no thought.

"You'll just have to do better and control yourself next time, won't you?"

"You're supposed to teach me how to, and then I fail my first stupid assignment because you have yet to give me any kind of proper lesson. That's not fair!" Twilight was shaking with rage. The lap she'd been forced to do had left her body aching, but such pains were pushed aside and their memory served to feed her mounting anger.

"What?" Twilight said, the feeling of being less real coming over her.

"Did you know you're floating?"

"I am." Twilight looked down to find her hooves were not in fact touching the alabaster balcony. She was instead standing in the air, small black clouds covered her hooves keeping her held aloft.

"I swear you're like a foal who can't control her magic." Sombra spouted as Twilight flailed in an attempt to keep her balance. It was considerably easier when she wasn't aware of the spell effecting her hooves.

"How do I stop this?" She grumped.

"Stop letting emotions run around in your body."

"But I'm not-"

"Which one of us is the teacher?"

"You are." Twilight hated that fact, but Princess Celestia had insisted this was the best way. Twilight would, unfortunately in this case, always defer to the princess's wisdom.

So her "lesson" continued, Sombra would provoke her to varying degrees of anger which would cause an accidental flux of magic from the flustered unicorn. The unintentional spell would in turn prompt more teasing from Sombra. Twilight once read a book on the various teaching methods employed throughout the ages, this wasn't any of them.

"Tell me," Sombra began, ignoring the tension in the air, "What do you hate most right now?"

Sombra Someone or something said. It was the voice Twilight had largely ignored in her head before, but now the named pony seemed to hear it to.

Before he could comment, his body suddenly burst into flames. Twilight looked on in horror as he tried to roll on the flat, marble balcony to little effect.

Once the initial horror drained from her, Twilight conjured a bucket of water and poured it over him. A now damp, ash grey ball laid still on the balcony panting heavily. Twilight's look of horror turned to one of astonishment when she realized that Sombra hadn't actually been burnt by the flames. There were no patches of charred flesh, his coat was left completely untouched by the eldritch fire.

Sombra picked himself up and with a deep breath said, "I think you should be sedated before we continue. I've just realized how much danger this palace and everyone in it is in while you are around." His voice lost its cruel and mocking quality while the shock of being set on fire washed over him.

"I'm sorry?" Twilight said hesitantly. She didn't know if she was exactly sorry for doing something that'd been increasingly justified over the past few hours. "Why aren't you more- Crispy?"

"It was a precaution I took long ago." He grumbled walking past her. "Go report your lessons today to Princess Celestia. I am going to write out a lesson plan and find some incense in case I need to mellow you out. Oh, and if you see Luna later tell her '...Twice.'"

Twilight had no intention of bringing up Sombra anywhere near Princess Luna, especially since it wasn't part of her lesson. Today had been more than a little disjointed to Twilight, and before she could make a comment Sombra had wondered somewhere into the palace. She took a few deep breaths of her own as she teleported to Celestia's balcony to re enter the palace. How Sombra had gotten away with walking back through Luna's room she could only guess at, but Twilight got the feeling she wouldn't be so lucky.

As it had in the past the day court would take up most of Celestia's time, her report would have to wait for a while. So with little to do Twilight made her way to the library to pick where she'd left off before moving to Ponyville.