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.