Deep below Canterlot, ancient and forgotten by all but the guards who watch over it, are the royal dungeons. More than a simple jail, they were carved out of the cliff side during the city's founding, back when Equestria was a wild and lawless place, and such a construction was deemed necessary to keep the peace. These days however the dark corridors and aging cells sit nearly empty, as the last hundred years of Celestia's singular rule had been an age of great peace, which only grew stronger with the rise of the new Princess Triumvirate . Even so during this golden age, every so often a pony commits acts so vile and unspeakable that reformation is deemed impossible, and must be locked up, hidden away from the world above and kept within these ancient walls.
In recent months however these chambers began to hold host to an unusual visitor. The Princess of Friendship herself took regular visits to the dungeons, often enough to walk freely through the corridors as if they were her second home. Under the nose of her fellow Princesses, Twilight had managed to make these forgotten halls into her own secret laboratory where she preformed experiments on the ponies incarcerated within.
Tonight, in pattern of what was quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception, she made her preparations to slip away unnoticed into the dark halls in secret. The experiment she planned called for a prisoner of such depravity, that such a fate would be worthy; to her luck one such pony had recently been caught.
As she walked down the cold dark passageways she repeated to herself, The pony locked up here is a despicable creature. He was imprisoned to pay for his crimes. His life was already over the moment he walked in here. These experiments are necessary to further my knowledge of life and death. Mentally reciting these four facts prepared herself for what was to come, and put her mind at ease over what she was about to do.
In front of one of the many wooden doors down here stood a unicorn and peagus, guarding the cell at attention. A slight grin drew across the pegasus's face at the arrival of the princess, but he snapped back at attention before she got too close.
At first Twilight just stood before them in silence, judging their reaction to her presence. Pleased that they still hold their composure under such odd circumstances, she commanded, "At ease stallions. You two are relieved of duty for tonight." From under her wing she flashed a small bag jingling with bits and added "As per usual, nopony is to know about this."
"As always, your highness" the unicorn said with a sly grin. The two guards then stepped past Twilight, grabbing the bag on their way. The pegasus mumbled something about loyalty to his partner, but Twilight paid it no mind. So long as they remained quiet they were of no concern to her. At this point she only cared about the pony on the other side of that door.
Knowing that she was alone in the dungeon, Twilight slammed open the door, enough to cause the sleeping prisoner to violently awake. The gray stone walls only served to echo the sound around the small room. Once she was sure that she had the prisoner's attention the princess closed the door behind her and approached the bars dividing the room in two.
On the other side of the bars the pegasus took his time getting off his cot, and took an overtly casual stance, leaning half his weight against the wall.
"Well well well, to what do I owe the honor of being visited by the princess?" he said sarcastically, making a clear mockery of the formalities normally held by Canterlot royalty.
Coldly Twilight addressed him, "Arrowwood, you ha-"
"At your service" he interrupted, adding an overly dramatic bow to his routine.
Unamused by this act Twilight sternly continued, "You have been found guilty of theft, rape and arson."
"And jaywalking" he added, cracking another joke at his own expense "I got five whole weeks added on to my sentence for that one." Twilight opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the endless banter of the prisoner. "Yes siree, your courts certainly did not go easy on me. Hell, even I thought I would just get away with banishment, not being locked up in the bowels of the earth for the rest of my life. Plus five weeks."
"Then you know what it means, the fact that you're in here"
"It means I'm not as good of an arsonist, thief, rapist or jaywalker as I thought" Arrowwood answered with a tone of joy which only furthered to mock the princess before him. He sat back down on his cot, resting his back against the wall, and added "The problem with the truly perfect crime is that nopony ever hears about it"
Twilight was losing patience with him. Her many times conducting these experiments had given her a certain joy in intimidating her subjects. However, Arrowwod's almost joyful acceptance of his fate had managed to strip Twilight of the one pleasant thing she found in these ordeals.
Using her magic she picked up the arrogant pony and brought him face to face with her across the bars and said to him, "What it means is you will no longer see the sun, nor moon, nor any sight beyond these four walls. As far as the rest of the world is concerned the pegasus known as Arrowwood is dead. And while you will serve your full sentence as intended, I Intend to put your body to better use than just sitting around"
With that said Twilight's horn began glowing dark purple and the pegasus became encased with a magical aura of the same color. He was hoisted up into the air, his legs held out full spread eagle as Twilight looked him up and down, examining his form. "Uhhh, Princess, what exactly is going on?" He asked, finally taking his situation seriously when trying to make sense of this entirely unexpected invasion of his body.
"An experiment" Twilight explained in a very matter of fact manner, "Testing the effects of localized death while maintaining the life of the pony" As she finished her statement her horn's glow intensified, beginning her prepared spell. The dark magic around Arrowwod's back legs began to seep into his flesh, and the effected areas went limp and pale as the magic took its toll. Arrowwood screamed in pain at the described death of his legs. Quickly, Twilight used her magic to gag her subject, ending his ear-splitting wail. Unfazed by the muffled cries, the princess pulled out a quill and paper and began writing down her observations.
As she wrote she spoke aloud her musings on her experiment "As expected, the victim feels the pain of having parts of his body killed, despite the lack of living nerve endings in the effected area. Initially that is," she added, looking directly at the pegasus, enjoying the act of explaining to him his suffering. "The following minutes, the following hours, even I don't know what happens over time to the dead limbs. But that's what an experiment is for isn't it?"
*KNOCK*KNOCK* The two of them momentarily froze at the inappropriate timing of the sound. *KNOCK*KNOCK*KNOCK*
With a loud creak, the door slowly opened to the unicorn guard standing awkwardly in its arch, painfully aware of the interruption he caused. Only half looking at him, Twilight let out a sigh and said between her teeth "I thought I made it clear I was not to be disturbed."
"I- I know you did Princess," he stammered as he tried explaining the terribly inappropriate position he put himself in, "But just as we were leaving the dungeon, your dragon came running down here looking for you. He had an urgent message for you, from Discord"
Her hear sank as she heard the news. She dropped the suspended Arrowwood to the ground and took the letter from the guard. Half of her already knew what the letter would say, but still she unrolled the scroll to see it for herself. In a very Discordian manner it contained not writing, but a moving picture of Discord himself complete with sound.
It started off with him lying on the floor of Fluttershy's cottage, literally crying his eyes out muttering random bits of words incomprehensible as a proper sentence. After several painfully long seconds of this he stood up, waist deep in the veritable sea of eyeballs and looked directly out of the scroll and started speaking more properly. "Oh Twilight, it's tragic simply tragic! You know I do my best tending to our dearest Fluttershy but even that wasn't enough. Fluttershy, she's gone. Departed. Away from this world. Gone forever from the land of the living. And I, I,I...." His thought was cut short by more hysterical crying. The message cut out abruptly, leaving Twilight standing silently as she took in the news she just heard.
The guard removed his helmet in respect, trying to find the right words to help ease the situation. Eventually he settled on, "I'm so sorry for your loss Princess. Please, if there's anything I can do for you just ask." He waited there eagerly for an order, something definitive he could do for his troubled princess, but she didn't respond. Not to him or the mad prisoner yelling obscenities at the grieving pony so harsh they themselves would warrant a prison sentence. Instead she ignored them both and without a word pushed her way through the doorway and up the stairs out of the dungeon.
With her mind fixated on her soon travel to the Everfree, she did not consider that the dragon who brought the letter would be waiting for her as she exited the dungeon. She rushed through the door and was immediately hoisted into the air by the arms of her worried friend.
"Oh Twilight, isn't it horrible?" Spike cried as he held his friend close. "Fluttershy's just too innocent to die, it just makes it so much worse"
Not responding to his question she teleported out of his arms and back onto the castle floor. She looked back at the dragon and asked him harshly, "Spike, how did you know to find me here?"
Slightly confused by Twilight's lack of sadness he told her, "I've heard rumors, of you going down to the dungeons at night. I thought nothing of them at first, but when I couldn't find you anywhere else in the castle this was the only place I could think to look"
He reached up to put his arm around her shoulder but was quickly shrugged off, with Twilight still keeping distance between the two. "Look I know these past couple years have been hard on you, they've been hard on me too. But shutting yourself away like this isn't going to make it better."
He paused unsure of what he was saying was making an impact. "You've changed Twilight, and I'm not the only one who's noticed it. You're becoming distant and bitter." He held her hoof with both claws and looked to her "We're worried about you Twilight. Me, the Princesses, everypony in Canterlot we hate seeing you so upset. And we want to help you get through this, just give us a chance"
She threw away Spike's claw and marched away from him towards the balcony. With a painful sting in her tone she demanded "You want to help me Spike? I'm taking a trip to Ponyvile that nopony is to know about. I want you to keep it that way"
"Lying Twilight, what even happened to honesty?"
With her hear hung low the princess turned around and looked down on the dim lit valley below Canterlot. She spread her wings wide preparing to take off and muttered to herself, "She died one year, eight months and sixteen days ago"
Before Spike could get another word in the princess took off into the night.
Luck favored Twilight this night as the clear skies and full moon illuminated the forest below. Even at the high speed she flew in from Canterlot, she could make out the terrain which had become so familiar to her.
She hated lying to anypony, especially those close to her, but never before had she needed to shut Spike away like she did there. The idea that what she was doing needed to be kept a secret was not new to her but only now after lying to Spike did she start questioning the morality of what she'd done.
By the time she landed next to Sombra's cave, her conflicted emotions had brought her to a delicate inner rage. On one hoof she thought so highly of her experiments and the knowledge gained. On the other she grew angry at herself for even believing she could justify what she'd put those ponies through.
But as she entered her way into the cave she tried to shove all those thoughts aside, and focused her attention to the task at hand. I didn't come here to think about Spike or worry about my actions. I came to learn magic, that's it.
In the dimly lit cave she saw her teacher sleeping on his bed of straw. Though she meant to wake him up kindly, in her mentally aggressive state the command "WAKE UP SOMBRA" boomed across the cavern in the Royal Canterlot Voice.
When he awoke his eyes shot open already glowing with magic as his horn flared to life with power. In the blink of an eye a mesh of crystals grew up from the cave floor, surrounding the alicorn, complete with a ring of them pointed threateningly at her neck. As his mind joined his body following the sudden wake up, Sombra lowered his magic and apologized, "Oh, Princess, I wasn't expecting you so late. My apologies for the attack, force of habit you see. I hope you're not hurt"
"No I'm fine" she assured him, before telling him sternly, "Fluttershy is dead. I'm ready for the next stage of training."
"Just like that? No sadness, no despair, no need of any comforting?" the unicorn asked, finding his student's sudden insistence unusual.
"Sorry if I'm rude for wanting to get down to business, but my friends are dying. How much more pressing could things be?" she asked, hoping to put her interaction with Spike behind her and get right to the lesson.
"You've always been rushed by your friends' mortality, but you've never so harsh about it." he explained. "Every time you came you've been saddened by your friend's passing. If there is anything that's troubling you I just don't want you feeling like you have to hide it from me."
Twilight barked back "Everything's fine okay. I just want to learn this spell and be done with it without everypony questioning my every move." She looked away after her sudden outburst, making it more than obvious that she was hiding something.
With a small glimmer of magic Sombra lit the fire pit in the center of the cave. Comfortingly he said to his student, "Twilight I doesn't take a genius to see that there's something troubling you. And not only is it bad for your own self to bottle up these emotions inside of you, it also interferes with your magical ability."
Again Twilight turned her head, wanting to avoid the topic and just get on with why she came here. Approaching the alicorn, Sombra says, "I know it may be hard, but if you can't be open about what's bothering you, it'll never get any better" He held her shoulder with his hoof and said to her "I want to help you Twilight, but I can't if you just push me away"
Sombra, she realized was not like her citizens. Her word was not law with him and she could not just hide behind silence forever. Choosing her words carefully she revealed, "I've done things since we last met. Things I'm sure a lot of other ponies would call bad"
The king sat down by the fire, and gestured for Twilight to join. "Don't be scared my pupil, there's nopony here to judge you. Whatever it is that's made you so aggressive, you can tell me."
She took a seat at his side and mentally prepared herself to actually telling somepony her secret. Uneasy at first she told him what she's done. "It started off innocent enough, I cast spells on birds and other critters to practice dark magic. But as time went on I realized I was not expanding my knowledge in any meaningful way. And in my search to find a place to do this in secret I discovered a dungeon underneath Canterlot hardly anypony knew about. I convinced myself that since the ponies within were guilty prisoners, I could move my experiments on to them, and I did. And as my search for knowledge grew, more than a couple of these experiments became fatal for those involved."
"Hmm, and you regret what you did to those ponies?" Sombra pondered.
Twilight grew dismayed as she confessed, "That's just it, up until tonight I never gave it a second thought to any of it. Buying the castle staff's silence was easy enough, and what I did to those prisoners I could justify. But tonight I had to lie to one of my best friends to keep him from finding out about this double life I've been living. I guess doing that put in perspective how horrible I am for doing these things."
"Twilight, practicing your skills in a slightly, unorthodox manner hardly makes you a bad pony"
"Doesn't it?" She exclaimed, growing cross with herself as she admitted her actions. "I've made ponies suffer for little more than data on a chart. I went behind the backs of everypony I know because I decided that I needed ponies to die. Then I have go back outside and pretend to be the perfect Princess who can do no wrong, when in my heart I know that I made one pony suffer just so another could live."
A long silence held out between the two as neither pony knew what to add to the troubled princess. With each passing second Twilight went from angry to sad as she dwelt on what she'd done. Finally leading her to break down into tears in her own hooves.
"Sunbright killed ponies you know" Sombra eventually said, bringing Twilight out of her sorrow. With the Princess at his attention, he continued his story. "You didn't think I figured out figured out how to turn ponies into living crystal overnight did you? Yes many of the early iterations of the spell were preformed of animals, but at the end of the day I needed to make sure the spell was actually able save ponies' lives. Sometimes it worked out better than others."
"What are you saying Sombra?"
Sombra held Twilight's hooves and looked her in the eyes as he made his point, "What I'm saying is what you were doing, sacrificing one life to save another is not cruel or malicious, it's medicine. And you mustn't measure your work by those who had to suffer, but by all those you are going to save."
"I guess I never thought of it like that" she admitted, wiping the last tear from her eyes.
"It's not your fault. Throughout all of history ponies who dared to dabble with death are often misunderstood. Branded monsters and traitors by the very ponies they are trying to help" Sombra said with a scowl as his own memories returned to him. With a deep breath he collected himself and continued on calmly, "What's important is to not let your doubts get the better of you. Know in your heart that even though what you've done may seem bad, you did it for the right reasons. So long as you believe that, and trust in yourself, it doesn't matter what anypony else says."
With renewed conviction Twilight picked her head up and said aloud, "I have killed ponies. I have used their bodies for experiments so that I might one day keep ponies alive forever" She stood up and with even more confidence declared, "And while my actions may have been less than ideal, I stand by them. Because whether or not anyone agrees, I know that what I did was necessary to save the ponies I love."
She looked back down to Sombra and proudly announced, "Sombra, I think I'm ready to learn that spell now"
Sombra stood up to join her and confirmed with a smile, "That you are my apprentice, that you are"
Under the moonlit sky, the two ponies went to the bird cage. In the short journey from the cave Twilight's mood improved when she was told this would indeed be her final lesson and she would at last have the key to immortality at her control. And Sombra too had a grin on his face. These lessons reminded him of of his old life, as a scholar. Having an eager, relatively young student made him wish he could once again share his knowledge with the rest of the world.
Before the cage he looked to his student and posed a question for her. "Tell me Twilight, what are the driving emotions behind light magic?"
"Happiness, love, and friendship" Twilight answered automatically to the type of question she'd answered hundreds of time under Celestia.
"Then sadness, pain, fear, hate; it's from these negative emotions that dark magic draws its power" he expalined to her.
Though this explanation did not satisfy the alicorn princess. She ponedered each source and asked her teacher back, "Sadness and fear I understand, but hate? Are you saying need to learn to hate in order to use the spell?"
"Not at all" he explained, "However when you are feeling any of those emotions it is important not to ignore them or try to hide them away, but embrace them. Think back to your first lesson, I put you in great pain pushing you to the end of your limits. But once your strength failed you had no choice but to accept that you were in pain, and that pain would give you the power to overcome your own limits. There you had no strength, no control, but importantly no inhibitions. The important thing is to keep a level head, just like with light magic, clarity and concentration are key to mastering magic."
Still struggling to understand the contradiction she asked, "But suffering with a level head, that makes no sense. How can you be rational while acting on such impulsive emotions?"
"That my student is the key to mastering dark magic, understanding the paradox of control inherent in the form. Just as we control or magic by letting it flow free within us, we must embrace these negative emotions. Know and accept that while they will subconsciously drive us to act a certain way, remember that we are still the masters of our will. But I digress" He finished, realizing that while informative, those ideas were not related to the spell she came to learn.
"The spell that I am about to teach you is not the one from my former life, what I have since come to call the crystallizing spell. Though I thought it to be capable of such things, that spell could not keep a pony alive beyond their natural life span. Its purpose was intended on preserving a pony's form, healing them from injury. Only through the tragic backfire and pure luck was it able to keep me alive as you see me today. Unable to fully recreate the accident, I worked from the ground up to create a new, far more advaned spell."
"I tailored your previous lessons in steps to teach you what I believed to be the quickest route to understanding such an advanced technique. First I taught you what dark magic is and how to unlock your own power. Second I taught you to use dark magic by imparting your will upon the world, and let the magic carry out your will. This I am lucky you were able to grasp quickly as it is a more advanced technique necessary to unlock the full potential of dark magic. And third I taught you that conceptual aspects of the world such as life can be manipulated just as easily as the tangible. Here now is where it all comes together."
He reached in to the cage to bring out a robin for demonstration. He magically held it in the air while going over the details of the magic "The execution of this spell can be broken down into three steps. The first is to do just as we did last time, breaking the life. As you are doing so you must simultaneously be piecing the broken bits of life back together. Lastly and where the elegance of the spell comes from, you must enchant the magic itself to preform the previous steps autonomously, forever."
"A recursive spell!" Twilight shouted proudly, both as a means for her to understand, and to show Sombra what she knew. For just a moment she took lead in the lesson, recounting what she knew. "I've read of unicorns in the past trying to create such magic. For centuries scholars have theorized that such spells could be infinitely useful, but found the actual means of creating and casting them to be impossible."
Smiling at the seemingly endless knowledge of his pupil, Sombra clarified, "Impossible because they only tried using light magic. The ability to cast a spell which effects itself is beyond the realm of light magic, as light magic simply interacts with the world as an extension of ourselves. As dark magic follows our will to the best of its abilities, we can will it to manipulate magic itself, as I will now demonstrate."
With the bird in his magical grasp he began casting the spell. Dark red magic seemingly boiled from his horn as the aura surrounding the bird came to life. Pulses of energy surrounded the bird's body, forming bands and arcs of magic highlighting the spell's effect. As the spell completed, the magical arcs seeped into the body in a similar way to the killing spell. Sombra released the bird from his hold, placing it on the stump, then returned to his onlooking student and said, "What I have done is put both the bird's body and life into a constant state of death, which triggers the other part of the spell to repair. The two components are balanced such that the repairs never stop because the bird is always dying."
"The consequence of this state is any part of its body which either by injury or illness, would otherwise perish is kept alive by the magical repairs encompassing it. The end result is this bird is now practically immortal, unkillable to anything short of complete, instantaneous disintegration. Any questions?"
Twilight looked at the bird sitting on the stump, trying to discern any noticeable effects of the spell she could make use of. Much to her surprise the bird was perfect, a real testament she realized to Sombra's mastery over magic. "Kill, heal, recurse" she repeated to herself making sure she understood the steps. She looked up to Sombra, who already had a bird ready for her and said "Alright, I can do this, I have to"
The robin was surrounded by a dark purple glow as Twilight levitated it in front of her, not even realizing her use of dark magic instead of light for such a common task. Like before she seeped the magic into the bird's body, causing it to twitch as it began to die. For the first time, Twilight felt glad she'd practiced on those prisoners as she had, for she could recognize how fast the bird was dying under her spell. As she felt the life of the bird beginning to crack and fall way, she pieced the metaphorical pieces back together, while simultaneously trying to isolate the magic so she could cast the recursive element.
Unfortuately when she tried to effect the magic, her previous components fell out of sync. The bird's life began to fall apart at an accelerating rate, one she found herself unable to repair. Despite her best efforts the bird died once and for all and fell totally limp in her hold.
As Twilight stood looking down at the bird she found her mind racing with ideas. "Chalk!" she yelled at Sombra, catching him off guard with the seemingly random request.
"Chalk?"
With a powerful blast of dark magic, she blasted the cliff, cleaving off the side revealing a smooth surface, polished and perfect for the princess's use. Another glow of her horn and all the nearby rocks levitated off the ground as she scanned them for one to mark her newly made blackboard. While searching the rocks she explained to Sombra "If I'm going to figure this out I need somewhere to write. Ah HA!" she exclaimed when she found a hunk of limestone suited for her needs. She rushed over to her space and said as she began scribbling down her thoughts, "Now under normal magical concentration the rate of death is..."
Despite many discussions and explanations, the two ponies once again stood facing another dead bird held in the alicorn's magic. Time and time again the princess was unable to successfully cast the spell, despite gaining a considerable understanding of what to do. "Gah! I don't understand, I have the mathemagics calculated exactly" she shouted in frustration.
She teleported over the the cliff face and looked over her calculations. The board, expanded twice since its original creation was covered top to bottom with formulas, constants, and variables detailing every aspect of the spell. As Twilight looked over her work, she became irritated as she realized that even though she was right, she was still not preforming the spell. "Death rates, heal rates, magical flux, it's all here" her voiced cracked as she became further and further confused.
After deep contemplation Sombra muttered woefully "Hmmm, I was afraid of this"
In a flash of light she appeared by his side "Afraid of what?" she asked, worried about what was keeping her from success.
"By all accounts you are preforming each piece of the spell correctly. The killing you already have down, the piecing back together you began to do effortlessly once you figured it out, but it's the third part that's giving you trouble. You know what to do, and how to do it, but you still lack the raw power necessary to stabilize the spell."
"B-but my addition"
"True, trying to use the subject's pain as a source of magic is a clever way to increase the spell's effect as it accelerates, but in the end all it does effectively is add another layer of complexity to try to stabilize" he said, rubbing his chin at the thought.
"But I don't understand Sombra, I've learned everything you know about this spell. Your method, it's history, THIS" she shouted, waving a hoof at her work. "Why isn't it working?"
"Not everything" he said grimly, "I didn't want to say it at first, lest it dissuade you, but it was decades after I initially formatted the spell before I was actually able to cast it. And that was even after half a lifetime of study into the dark arts. Like you I knew what I was doing, but I lacked the raw power necessary to put it all together."
"But I don't understand, if my problem is that I simply don't have enough power, how haven't I noticed it yet?"
"Dark magic is tricky like that you see, because we control it with our will we are never fully aware of our limits. Unlike light magic where the strain of pushing past what we can do exerts itself out the body, in dark magic there is nothing. No pain, but no result. I was hoping that you as an alicorn would have the natural power within you to learn it quick, but it seems I was wrong."
A silence fell between the two as they both came to grips with the implications of what the unicorn had just said. Twilight looked down and asked, "So what now then? You know I don't have years to increase my power Sombra, for all I know I might not even have weeks. Pinkie Pie is old, and if I can't cast this spell to save her..." Her mind trailed off as she realized just how long it's been since she started. Just over two years and most of her friends had already passed away. She sat down on the ground and muttered "If I can't cast this spell to save her then what would have been the point in any of this?"
"Well luckily I'm nothing if not forthinking. As I said, I thought this might happen so I prepared a second option, back in my home. Come" Without another word he turned away and began walking back toward his cave. Trusting in the unicorn's wisdom, Twilight followed him in patient silence.
Shortly lived silence though, for just before the two ponies could see the cave they were brought to attention by a loud call. "Twilight! Twilight where are you?" the alicorn heard coming from up ahead.
"Spike!?" she called back, while running up ahead to meet with the familiar voice of her dragon.
"Spike?" Sombra questioned shortly after, but not quick enough as his student had already rushed over the hill crest.
From the hill above the cave Twilight saw the grown dragon standing out front waiting patiently for her arrival. Worried about his presence she quietly flew down and asked him "What are you doing here Spike, I told you to stay behind."
With a worried tone Spike told her, "You say that to a lot of ponies Twilight. You say to leave you alone, let you be, but I know that isn't like you. So I followed you after you left Canterlot because I want to be there for you, to help get you through whatever it is that's gotten into you."
As much as the princess was touched by the dragon's care, she knew he couldn't be allowed to find out about why she's here. In a hushed tone she whispered to him, "Spike I know you wanted to help but you shouldn't have come, not here"
Not yet caught up with the princess, Sombra called out over the hill, "Twilight, who's there? You know who it was that found my cave?" When he reached to hill top he caught sight of the intruding dragon. He simply stared in confusion at first, but after a few seconds of looking over the intruder it clicked. The purple dragon with green spines, the same one that stole the Crystal Heart away from him all those years ago. "YOU!" he yelled while his horn began to glow bright with magic.
Spike however, did not give the king time to take another action. Letting go of Twilight, he opened himself up for an attack. With a mighty roar he flew up the hill and charged the unicorn. Throwing his elbow into the rush, he quickly managed to pin his opponent against a nearby tree.
"I thought we saw the last of you at the Crystal Empire. What are you doing here now and what have you done to Twilight? So help me if you hurt one hair on her head, I'll make you wish I'd finished you off for good last time!" As Spike snarled at the king fire began spewing out the sides of his mouth.
With half his face pressed into the side of a tree, and his scarred eye unable to properly look at his assailant he managed to say "Get your claws off of me you overgrown reptile. I'd have half a mind to blast you to kingdom come just to be even."
"Try it you one-eyed bastard." Spike hissed, "One more word out of you and there won't be enough magic in all of Equestria to piece you back together again."
"Stop it, both of you!" Twilight shouted getting the attention of both pony and dragon. "Spike, release Sombra at once" She commanded, eager to keep things from getting out of control.
Taking a moment to process what he just heard, Spike responded, "But Twilight, this is Sombra we're talking about"
"Yes Spike, and he's the reason I'm here. To meet with him on peaceful terms" She said in a factual manner. "Put him down and I can explain everything."
"You heard your Princess," Sombra groaned "Release me, lizard" Reluctantly, Spike obeyed and backed off from the tree, allowing the unicorn back onto his own four hooves. After straitening himself out, he added "And it's KING Sombra to you, beast!"
After giving the stallion one last growl, Spike looked back to Twilight to ask her "What could you possibly discuss peacefully with the likes of him?"
"I have been coming here because he has been secretly teaching me dark magic." Twilight straightforwardly said to her friend, "He taught me what it is, how to use it, all in preparation for teaching me a spell to keep ponies alive forever." Twilight paused for a moment, waiting for Spike to say something. A few moments of silence and Twilight added "I know it may be had to believe, but he's not doing anything evil."
"I don't think that's all he's been teaching you" He admitted, "After you flew off I met up with those prison guards. They told me all about what you do down there. Torturing prisoners, experimenting on living ponies, I did't know what to make of it before, but now it all makes sense"
Twilight gasped in shock at what he said and tried explaining to him, "You say that like I did it for fun. As if studying with Sombra gave me some sick pleasure from seeing others suffer. All I've done since the moment Rarity died was learn to stop the suffering. So the ponies I care about don't have to suffer the pain of death, and I don't have to suffer the pain of losing them."
"Is that what you tell yourself when ponies are begging for mercy?"
Spike's words struck deep. Of everyone she knew, he was the last one she thought would ever talk back to her like that. "Whatever your point is, just say it" she ordered, knowing already her dragon had a much differing opinion on this whole matter.
With a deep breath Spike made his accusation, "Sombra is evil. Since you've started seeing him you've done horrible, despicable things, things you would have never done otherwise. He's not just teaching you magic Twilight, I think he's trying to make you just like him."
His words stung the princess. And though she tried to hid her anger, it showed when she said back, "What are you going to do then? Go back to Canterlot, tell Princess Celstia about all of this? Don't you understand, this isn't about power or Sombra, or some arbitrary definition of good and bad, it's about saving the ones I care about. I've put so much effort into this and now you come and try to take it from me when I'm so close to success?"
"Twilight, please I just want to help you before you do something you'd regret. Don't make me out to be the bad guy" he pleaded, hoping that Twilight would know his good intentions.
She knew Spike was trying to calm her down, but his words only served to make her feel worse about her self. In a fit of self-loathing she lashed back, "Why? Because now I've become the bad guy? Yes, I consider Sombra a friend, and yes maybe I have done some things I'm not too proud of. But for the first time I'm taking my studies my own direction, so sue me if it doesn't fit in with Celestia's arbitrary definitions of right and wrong."
For the second time tonight, she turned her back to her dragon. She knew she was angry, at her best friend of anybody, but despite what she would have done earlier tonight she stood her ground. Spike had come in and questioned her decisions without knowing everything about what was going on.
Spike started to say something before being interrupted by Twilight. With between rapid breaths she commanded him, "If you really want to help me Spike, then help me see this through to the end. Stay by my side as I do what it takes to save our friends. But if all you're going to go is try to hold me back, then don't even bother to be with me at all." She nearly choked as the words came out of her mouth, but managed to hold her tone to finish her sentence.
Something broke in the dragon's mind when he heard this. He fell to his knees before the princess and began crying. "You don't mean that. Y- you can't mean that" he begged, clinging to her legs as his worst fear played out before him.
In the back of her mind Twilight knew that Spike would not stand by her so long as Sombra was a factor. Although it pained her, she confirmed, "I do Spike. I don't care what you do, raid a village, hoard treasure, go be a normal dragon for all I care. But I'm prepared to see this through to the end, with or without you"
"No, not again" Spike whispered confidently. He wiped the tears from his eyes and stood tall from his spot. "I'm not falling for this trick again." Spike looked to Sombra, who was passively watching this exchange, and attacked the unicorn again, holding him down under his great weight.
In between rakes of his claws Spike snapped at the grey pony "I don't know how I ended up at the door in your castle, and I don't care if you're just some kind illusion. If you don't tell me how to free myself from the spell, I will take great pleasure in seeing how much pain an illusion can take."
Before he could do any damage, Spike was lifted off the unicorn by a purple glow. Twilight brought him back up on his feet and faced him one on one. "I assure you Spike, this in't an illusion, this is real life. And dark magic, Sombra, learning this spell, like it or not it's what I chose to do. And now you have to choose Spike, stay by side and be the friend who will support me, or turn your back on the one pony who is trying keep our loved ones alive."
Recomposing himself after the attack, Sombra stood up and addressed the two, "Perhaps, before you two begin going back and forth about me before my face again you would like my input." With their attention back to him, the king explained to the dragon, "Twilight came to me in her hour of need, begging for me to help her in her struggle. I offered to teach her dark magic and she accepted. Whatever she's does with that knowledge since then has been her prerogative."
"Don't tell me you believe what he's saying is true?" Spike asked, pointing out to him what was clearly false "He's obviously using you, trying to make you just like him"
"I don't know what to believe anymore" Twilight responded, saddened thinking now about everything she'd done.
"Well, here's what I believe," Sombra began, slowly approaching Spike as he spoke. "The young princess here was ever so close to completing her training. I was about to give her the power necessary to successfully cast the spell. When she learns the secrets to immortality perhaps then you will see the fruition of this ordeal."
Twilight looked back up to her dragon, and with tears in her eyes pleaded, "Please Spike just hear him out this one time. For me?"
"If you're sure this will be the end of it, then fine I'll see what he has to say" Spike accepted reluctantly.
Gesturing to his cave Sombra said, "I assure you, with this her training would be complete and the Princess well on her way to save her friend"
Twilight walked into the cave and Spike prepared to follow shortly behind. However before going off he lifted the king by his collar and brought him mere inched from his face. "Don't you think for a second that I'll be so easily fooled as Twilight. Once she learns this spell, this little charade of yours is all over" the dragon taunted, flaring his maw as he spoke.
Showing his own fangs in response Sombra taunted right back, "And if you truly believe you can put an end to my plans as easily as you did last time, you may just be the biggest fool of all"
Sombra's horn and eyes flared to life with dark magic as his body became a mass of black smoke which easily slipped the dragon's grasp. Spike watched with a scowl as the form made it's way into the mouth of the cave. He followed it in, just catching sight of it as it slithered under Twilight's legs and into the pitch black corner at the far end of the cave.
Spike took a place next to Twilight, standing silently on guard in anticipation of whatever their host may have in store.
From within the darkness Sombra's voice rang out through the cave. "As promised, you Twilight Sparkle will soon complete your training and learn the way to grant immortality to any and all you see fit.. With this gift you will have all the power she needs to do whatever your heart desires."
Dramatically Sombra revealed himself from the darkness, keeping whatever it is hidden behind him. With a smile he declared, "Behold your highness, The Alicorn Amulet." He held it high and proud to his guests, both of whom gazed on it with shock and fear. "This is an artifact of my own design. A pony who wears it is bestowed with power beyond imagination, allowing them to preform feats of magic far surpassing their normal capabilities"
"And turn them into an evil power crazed lunatic!" Spike stood up and approached the king, nostrils flaring with smoke as he spoke, "We've seen what this Amulet does to ponies before. One of our friends put it on and went mad with power. She ran Twilight out of town and made the rest of town her slaves!"
With one hand he picked up Sombra by his neck and hoisted him high off the ground. "I knew you were still up to no good. You may have Twilight fooled, but I see right through your game"
Suddenly doubting her trust in her teacher Twilight cried out to him "You said you wouldn't do this Sombra. You said you'd teach me what you know, no tricks."
Trying his best to keep his air of confidence, despite being held up by the throat, Sombra said to her, "You're right. I have taught you and you have learned. You have followed my lessons and learned my spell. Though you can not yet cast it, you have all the knowledge of this spell I can teach you. And now here I am willing to give up my potential power all for you to succeed. The choice is yours, walk away now, just as you could have done at any point, or cast aside your doubts and do what you need to do to save your friend."
"Enough of this!" Spike roared. "I gave you your chance to talk, and all you did was prove me right!"
With a mighty roar Spike threw the king against the wall, cracking the stone foundations. Before Sombra could get back to his feet a mighty torrent of green flame engulfed him, searing the cape off his back and charring his fur. He began to light up his horn with dark magic, but the dragon proved too fast. Spike brought his foot down hard on Sombra's neck, pinning him to the floor and blasted him with another breath of fire.
Pinned against the dragon fire, Sombra lit up his horn to ready an attack. A plume of dark magic spewed forth from his horn and catapulted the dragon across the cave. That didn't hinder the Spike however. He knew he had the advantage up close, and could tell Sombra's attack was meant to put distance between the two. Digging his claws into the stone itself, he crawled across the roof of the cave, catching Sombra, who was still picking himself up onto his hooves, off guard with the aerial attack.
"Stop it you two" Twilight called out, but the two did not hear her. Going back and forth trading magic and fire the two combatants fought fiercer than ever before, both swearing the death of the other.
"CEASE YOUR FIGHTING THIS INSTANT!" Twilight commanded in the Royal Canterlot Voice, though even that still did not break the battle between the pony and dragon. Collecting her strength, the alicorn conjured a mass of dark magic before her, and flung it between the two fighters. It separated them, and stuck them to opposite wall so the cave, unable to move. She looked back and forth between the two of them several times before scolding the both of them. "That's enough out of both of you. I won't have my two friends tearing each other apart"
"Sombra is the enemy Twilight" Spike pleaded, "Why can't you see he's just trying to turn you against me, against Equestria?"
Again at odds with her oldest friend, Twilight begged him, "Why can't you see everything he's done for me? Ever since I started coming here he's done nothing but help. Not just teaching me magic, he comforted me when I was sad, gave me hope that I had the power to save the ones I love"
Thinking everybody's nerves had calmed enough to not erupt in another fight, she let the two down on the ground. Sombra stayed down, surrounding his body with the light red glow of his healing spell, while Spike stood high, still looking like he would lunge again at any point.
Hoping to keep the peace Twilight went to her dragon and told him "I'm not about to go against Equestria Spike, I'm still Princess and I still care about what that means" She looked to the prone Sombra and said, "But at the same time I'm not just going to abandon him. Like it or not he's still my teacher and my friend"
As Spike looked Twilight up and down he had a terrible realization that brought a tear to his eye. He bent down to look her in the eye and lamented, "You know what I see? I see a pony who is willing to do anything to save her friends. And unfortunately I know that once that pony sets her mind on something there is nothing anybody can do to stop her." He stood up and began walking toward the mouth of the cave.
"Wait!" Twilight called, grabbing the dragon's attention "Where are you going?"
Turning his head around just enough to see the princess Spike said, "I don't know yet, not back to Canterlot at least. This whole dark magic and Sombra situation was bad enough as it is, but now this? It's just too much for me right now. If you're really intent on throwing away everything you've worked for, then fine go ahead. Just don't say I didn't try to stop you." With that he turned and walked out of the cave.
"Spike!" she called out, but it was too late. He was long gone and deep in her heart Twilight knew that it was he that had driven him away.
Twilight looked back to the unicorn, who stood silent during this exchange. Though she did not want to admit it to herself, she felt bad for him, to have been attacked by a dragon because of her. She offered him a hoof up to get him back up on his feet and asked "Are you okay?"
He grinned at the question and with a slight chuckle he said "Your dragon's fast, I'll give him that, but dragon fire tickles compered to being blown to smithereens. And though he seems big in front of us ponies, he is still very young. The full force of his flames did not even melt the stone around me, a simple feat for the mature of his kind."
"I turned him away. He's one of the only friends I have left in this world and I turned him away" She looked back to the king and lamented, "I can't take the Amulet. It may give me the power to save my friends, but I'd be losing everypony else in the process."
"I know you think ill of it's power, but you know you still need it if you want to be able save ponies' lives"
"But this can't be the only way. Please Sombra, tell me there's antoher way that doesn't involve me turning into something I'm not"
He thought about it for a while, considering all he knew about his student's abilities. Defeated he admitted, "Like you said Princess, Pinkie Pie does not have long. Without the Amulet you would fail to master the spell in time. Your friend will die and deep down you'll know that it was all your fault. You'll spend eternity knowing that this was your chance to save her, and you said no."
He levitated the necklace across the room and held it mid air for Twilight to see "Take it with you. Do with it what you will, but I'd rather you have it and not need it than need and not have it." He reached for Twilight's hoof and held it up bewteen the two. In a gentile touch he placed the Alicorn Amulet in her hold and said, "Just don't you forget who you're doing this for. Not me, not Celestia, not even for you, but for your friends. Don't let those you've lost have died in vain"
Twilight stood there, Amulet in hoof, frozen in its gaze. It'd be so simple, she realized, to just drop the thing, and put it all behind her. Yet at the same time she shuddered with the fear that what the former king had said was true; that without it she would be powerless to save Pinkie Pie. The culmination of her all her life, her desires and her fears weighed down on her in this moment, where she knew her choice would send her one of two ways. Either she put on the Amulet and sacrifice everything to save her friend, or she leave it and go her own way and inevitably fail.
Unless there is a third option.
The thought popped in her head, so radical in its inception she considered it further. A third option, one where I keep the Amulet, but not use it? She considered what that would mean to her. She would always live in this moment of confusion, doubt, and fear,
emotions she could use to empower herself.
With a new intensity she looked up to Sombra. She marched right up to him and looked him dead in the eye. "I am keeping this Sombra, but not to wear it, not to give in and follow you, but as a promise. A promise that I can, no I WILL find my own way. You said it yourself, not to let anypony say I am weak. Every day I'll train. Every day I'll look at this Amulet and know it means you don't think I'm good enough. I'll master this spell without your help, because I am more powerful than you can ever imagine."
She tucked the Amulet under her wing to keep and turned back to the entrance of the cave. while walking away she yelled "You told me to embrace my hate, but I'll do far more than that. I'll become more powerful, save Pinkie Pie, and then come back here and show you once and for all why you do not cross an Alicorn Princess."
Just at the opening of the cave, her form silhouetted itself against the early morning sunrise. She turned her head back one last time and declared, "You wanted to give me power Sombra? Next time we meet you will see my power"