Twilight had confined herself to her room for five days; she was fighting the darkness within her to make it her slave rather than the other way around. She had been receiving food from the hoofmaidens the entire time, and found the white on extremely distracting. There was a knock on her door, “Come in” She said, lighting a candle.
The door cracked open and Mirid poked her head through the crack. “Our lord wants to see you” She said and began to close the door.
“Wait!” Twilight ordered and Mirid stopped, “What does he want me for?” She asked.
Mirid grinned “He wants to teach you another lessen” She said leaving.
Twilight got up and headed to the throne room, but when she got there her master wasn’t there. She turned to the door guards, “Where is lord Sombra at?” She asked.
The guard gave a hesitant bow “Milady he is at gem processing.”
“Where is that?” Twilight asked.
“The guard gestured in the direction of gem processing and Twilight ran out the balcony and took off.
Sombra was checking on the dark red unicorn he had put in charge of gem processing. The unicorn was a ruthless business stallion before Sombra had corrupted him, but now he was just plain ruthless.
Sombra disapproved of his tactics, “You know that if you’re too bad they will rebel against you.” He told the dark red stallion.
“Then once their little rebellion is crushed, I will be worse to them.” The red stallion replied with a cackle.
Sombra rolled his eyes, "Then they will make you a major target and try to quietly kill you." he told the stallion.
"Oh ple..." The red stallion started but was cut off by the lighting down of Twilight in between Sombra and he.
"Master. You called for me?" Twilight said turning towards Sombra.
Sombra smiled, "Why, yes I did. I wanted to teach you a lesson about arrogance." he gave a look at the red stallion. "He thinks he can crush the saves should they rebel, show him how wrong he is." with that Sombra teleported away.
Twilight turned towards the red stallion and grinned. "Your arrogance betrays you" She said before wrapping him in a shadow.
The red stallion was in the control room of gem processing when several crystal guards burst through the doors, "Sir! The slaves are revolting!" one of them shouted as they slammed against the door shutting it.
"How many of the guards are with them?!" The red stallion asked frantically.
"About half of them sir!" One of the guards shouted as a pounding began on the door.
"Fine! You!" he said pointing towards one of the control workers, "activate the distress beacon." He ordered.
The crystal worker gave him a look and then ever so gently pushed the beacon over, "Death to the tyrant" He said and the door gave.
The guards were crushed by the crystal door and the red stallion was mobbed by the former slaves. There hard exteriors were breaking his bones and he shouted in agony. Then the slaves stopped, not mobbing him, they stopped moving. He heard Twilight's voice, "You think you could crush a rebellion, you couldn't even stop this hoofful of slaves from getting in. I pass on my masters wisdom to you, being to harsh will encourage rebellion."
"Good" Sombra's voice echoed, "I see you learned on of the most important lessons you could learn."
"Master?" Twilight voice said now confused.
"I was always watching you this entire time. This was a bit of a test to see if you have learned what you needed to." Sombra's voice explained. "I see you have, sort of. If you weren't in his mind I would consider it a bit over the top."
Twilight felt herself being pulled out of the red stallions mind and she saw her master standing in front of the passed out stallion. He was looking down at the stallion, he made eye contact with his student. "you really did a number on him" he said with an evil grin.
"So I did" Twilight said feeling a little weaker.
"My head" The red stallion groaned. "what hap..."
"I have the hourly report" A bright pink mare interrupted hopping into the room. "Oh high Twilight" she said with a smile and a wave.
"Thank you Pinkie" The red stallion groaned getting up, "You can put it on the desk". She did so and with an unusual smile on her face she hopped out of the room.
Sombra had a look of absolute horror on his face, he had notice the thin slave collar around her neck. "Why was she so happy?" He asked his expression turning to one of anger.
"Oh that mare, her mind broke right in half during an interrogation. The overly happy version of her you just saw likes to go by Pinkie, the other version we call Pinkamena."
"So you let her be happy rather than harnes her insanity into a weapon?" Sombra asked sounding intrigued.
"Well we've been trying...But she won't stop killing and that has no use here." The red stallion justified.
"Transfer her to the palace." Sombra ordered then turned away. "Twilight" He said addressing the dazed mare.
Twilight gave a little shake of the head then said "Yes my master"
Sombra raised an eyebrow, "Return to the palace and tell Mirid to prepare the chamber" he ordered.
"Yes master" She replied and lifted off.
"Only a madder of time" Sombra thought aloud.
"Until what?" the red stallion asked.
"My triumph" Sombra replied still looking at Twilight.
"You mean the mare?" The stallion asked now completely confused.
"Yes, but that wasn't the triumph I was talking about. No I mean when I defeat the Alicorns, then I will be truly triumphant." He started laughing.