Radiant Hope's eyes widened in surprise at Sombra’s sight. Or, at least, his body’s sight. It took her no time at all to realize that, whoever this was, this wasn’t her friend, and it made her tense up in panic. No, terror. What had happened to Sombra? She was certain he was tricking them, that he was still there and he just fooled them, but clearly she was wrong because he wasn’t here. What had they done to him? What had he done to himself?
She took a step back away from… that thing that was inhabiting her friend, once again feeling the urge to run away, this time much stronger than before. She felt her legs shake, the room feeling like it was closing in on her. This had to be a set up. There was no other explanation for why Sombra wasn’t here. They were setting her up for something. It took everything in Hope’s power to not turn and gallop away as fast as she could.
“Is everything alright?” Cadance asked suspiciously while Alex rolled his eyes at the crystal pony in front of him.
“Y-yes,” she stammered out, swallowing nervously, demanding herself not to flee. "I just- I- I didn't expect this." She then looked to the place where her friend was supposed to be, asking, “So you- you’re… trapped inside of Sombra?”
“Yes,” Alex answered flatly.
“Okay…” Hope trailed off, carefully walking up to him. She moved slowly, as though he were a dangerous predator, and then cautiously began to look him over. She felt the four rulers present watching her as she examined what should have been her friend. It didn’t help her fear that she was being set up, but she put that thought out of her head. It didn't make sense. She couldn’t have been set up since they likely didn’t even know she was still around until she showed up in the Crystal Empire. Although it did make more sense why they were so eager to let her see him. She kept a wary eye on them while she examined this… thing in front of her.
She could clearly tell it was Sombra’s body. She’d been around him for years and knew her friend well. She wouldn’t mistake it. As well, she could clearly tell it wasn’t him in his body. It was a feeling she had. She didn’t know how she could tell, she just could. It might have been the aura this creature gave off, but it was concerning to know. What her friend had done, she had no idea. Although, she tried to have faith that Sombra knew what he was doing and had a plan. She hadn’t known him to do things without thinking them through first. He had to have something in mind, that she knew, and she tried to take solace in that fact.
She began to use her magic to examine him. “Well, I can say you’re definitely not him,” she announced after a few minutes, trying to portray calmness. “It looks like you’re all tangled up in there.”
“That is precisely what Fluttershy claims Discord told her," Luna commented.
Hope looked back at the princess with a surprised face. “Discord wasn’t able to do anything?”
“That is correct, At least, so he claims.”
She turned her attention back to Alex. “Well… I can certainly see what I can do…” she told the room, unsure of herself. “Do we know where he came from?”
“He’s not from Equestria. He’s from another world entirely. Neither Discord nor my sister and I were able to locate exactly where from. Fluttershy has told us that Discord sees his origin as being cut off abruptly.”
She once again looked at him, a little more confident in herself. As powerful as her friend was, he wasn’t that powerful. Bringing a being from some other world to inhabit his body was more than likely out of Sombra's range of capabilities. It might not even have been possible at all for anypony to do. It was an utterly ridiculous concept. The only thing going against such a ludicrous theory was the fact that this… being, it wasn’t him.
Maybe. Maybe he was still in there, with some kind of spell manipulating how Sombra's being acts and what he remembers. It might just be that he intentionally changed his own being into something completely different, but it was still him. It was a stretch, but no more of a stretch than being some creature else from another world. Besides, it would explain why Luna said his origin cuts off abruptly and why she felt like he was all tangled up inside himself. Not to mention, Sombra was a master of manipulation and mind control. It would be difficult, but doable to do this to himself and convince everypony else otherwise. She thought she might have had an idea for what to try first.
“When you appeared, what was the first thing you saw?” the mare, Radiant Hope, asked me curiously. She had a face that seemed like she had an idea, and, as far as I could tell, seemed to be thinking about what she could do to help me, which gave me a little bit of confidence. It was more than most other ponies were able to offer up to that point
“Uh, Twilight,” I answered simply.
She put on a harder thinking face, and asked another question. “Was there any delay in between… wherever you came from and you arriving here?”
That was about the fourth time I was asked that question, but I tried to keep myself from rolling my eyes. “No. There wasn’t a delay. It was faster than a blink.”
“That's… interesting. I… I think I might be able to do something.”
“Wait, really?” I asked excitedly, starting to get my hopes up. “You’re really going to be able to do something?”
“I think so,” she told me before she turned around to the other ponies in the room. “But I need you all to promise that you won’t hurt Sombra if he comes back.”
“Of course,” I thought. “I should’ve expected this. Why would I ever get my hopes up?” I wasn't surprised that there would be stipulations to helping me. It had been one thing after another up to that point, and I knew it wasn't going to change then.
Still, I waited for the members of royalty’s answer, watching as they glanced at each other. Finally, Cadance said, “We can’t promise that.”
I rolled my eyes hard. Of course, she wasn't able to. I expected that from her. I knew by now that the Princess of Love wasn't very loving.
“Well,” the crystal pony said simply, “I can’t do anything if it means that you might hurt my friend.”
That line caught me off guard. “Wait,” I asked, shocked, “Sombra’s your friend?” Then quickly, my shock became anger, realizing why she was asking for Sombra's safety should he return. “Did you do this to me?”
Radiant Hope looked at me, confused. “No? I wouldn’t do something like that to you.”
“How do I know you didn't?” I demanded. “You just appear out of nowhere and say you can fix me? And you’re Sombra’s friend? Did you put me here to make him look like he reformed? They were planning to kill me twenty times over!”
“I promise,” she told me sympathetically, “I didn’t do this to you. I wouldn’t do anything like this to anypony, especially not if it meant they were going to be hurt, and double especially not at the expense of my friend.”
I stared into her eyes. It seemed like she was telling the truth, and more importantly, unlike most of the other ponies I’d encountered thus far, she was trying to help me. “I’m sorry,” I told her, calming myself down, trying to stop myself from being worked up. “It’s just- I’ve been very stressed out lately. I want you to try and help me.”
“I understand,” she told me, then to the room in general, said, “I just need a promise that Sombra won’t be hurt if he returns.”
I looked at Princess Luna with pleading eyes, watching as she looked up at the ceiling, considering what the mare had asked for. “I can say,” she decided, “that as long as Sombra does not attempt to flee or harm anypony, no harmful action shall be taken against him.”
“Thank you,” the crystal pony said gratefully, picking me up. “Now let me see what I can do.”
Healing ponies was natural for Radiant Hope. It came with her cutie mark. It was almost intuition, how she automatically knew where to go with her magic to help ponies. It was no different with Alex, quickly finding the twisted up area of his being and getting to work. Although, it was quite a mess, and she didn’t think she’d ever seen anything this bad. Still, she tried her best to start doing… something. Untangling him. Luckily, what to do came naturally as she started untying the twisted up area inside her friend.
“Ah… you’re hurting me,” Alex got out, closing his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Radiant Hope said, continuing to work on him. She could feel him start to become untied. “It’s going to hurt while I do this.”
It was less difficult than she was expecting, and she moved her eyes along an invisible string that she could almost see, quickly working to untie him. While she worked, she could sense the ponies behind her, namely Cadance and Shining Armor, tense up as she worked, as if preparing to attack the moment they appeared, despite what they had promised. This caused her to slow down a bit to put some of her focus on the royalty in the room. She made a mental note to prepare to defend him if they turned out to be lying to her, and to get to the Crystal Heart as quickly as possible if need be.
The pain I was feeling seemed like it was getting worse. I didn’t know what she was trying to do, but it was making my whole body ache worse than it already was.
“Is anything even happening?” I complained after some time while the rest of the room kept their eyes on us. “I don’t want to be in pain if it’s for nothing.”
“I’m sure we’re getting somewhere,” she told me, as I watched, and almost felt, her continue to do… something. Something with me specifically, as opposed to this body. It almost felt like I was… coming apart, in some weird way. I tried to take it as a good sign as I kept feeling the pain become steadily worse. “Like I said, you’re all tangled up in Sombra’s body. I’m trying to get you untangled to start with, so I can see what I should do next.”
That didn’t really make that much sense to me, but I thought I could feel her doing something besides making my body hurt, and decided to trust her. Not that there were that many other options available to me.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain, right at the center of my being, and saw the mare’s eyes narrow. I assumed she did something again, because I felt the sharp pain again, and saw her put a scowl on her face.
“Ah- what- ah! What is it?” I asked between bursts of pain.
“It’s… it’s a knot inside of you,” she told me, then grunted right before I felt another stab. “It won’t come untied.”
“What does that- ow! What does that mean? Ah!”
“Well, it means I can’t get you completely untangled,” she told me.
“Okay, so? Does that mean you can’t do… whatever you were going to do next?”
“Well,” she explained, “I was going to have you untied and then see if anything about you changed from there, but since I can’t… ummmm…” I felt more stabs of pain as she tried to untie some knot inside me that I couldn’t see or feel. “Do you think you could try, Princess Luna?” Radiant Hope asked the alicorn.
“I would try, but I cannot see the tangles you and Discord say are inside of him.”
“Well, it’s not really something you can see exactly… uh, try feeling it with your magic,” she told her.
Luna came up to me, and I felt her magic encompass me as she examined my body for several minutes, before declaring, “I cannot feel what you are describing.”
She put on a thinking face, still staring at me, before asking, “Do you think you could untie the knot?”
I waited a few seconds for somebody to answer her before I realized who she was talking to. “Me?” I asked her back, confused. “How am I supposed to do that?”
"Uh, well… can’t you feel what I’ve been doing?”
“Not really,” I answered. “Other than pain. I think I can feel something happening, I just can’t feel what is happening.”
“Umm… let me try something," she said, concentrating on me again. "Can you feel that?”
“No? I don’t feel you doing anything.”
“I’m running my magic against the thing I’m untying,” she explained. “You can’t feel anything at all?”
“No.”
She stared at the ground for a second, then looked back up at me. “Let me try something else.”
“Oh! That’s cold!” Alex let out, jumping back slightly, startled by the sudden feeling inside of himself.
“You can feel that?” Radiant Hope asked him.
“Yes!”
“Okay, good. So right here-” she told him, making the area she wanted to highlight cold, sending another gasp shiver through him, “-this is where the knot is. Do you think you could try to untie it?”
“I don’t know! I don’t even know how I would try!”
“Well, try using your magic to feel it.”
“I don’t know how to use magic. I don’t even know if I can.”
Radiant Hope stared at what was supposed to be her friend uncomprehendingly. She had a very tough time believing that he couldn’t use magic. Sombra had the ability to use magic, therefore, this creature also had the ability. She wasn't going to belive that he couldn't do it. Or maybe, she didn’t want to believe that he couldn’t use magic. If he couldn’t, she’d be largely confined here while she either tried to untie it herself or taught him how to use magic so he could try. If Luna couldn’t feel what she was feeling, she was sure that Cadance and that other princess wouldn’t be able to. And from what she’d heard, Discord couldn’t do anything to help, or, at the very least, didn’t want to do anything to help.
On a slightly more positive note, she knew that whether he could do magic or not might quickly serve to prove whether Sombra did this to himself or not, and determine whether she should just give up on the whole plan. If he could use magic, and use it easily, it would effectively confirm that this was just a personality issue, and that Sombra was still in there. More importantly, it would largely prove that he had a plan. If this… thing really was from another world, he wouldn’t be able to use magic easily because he wouldn't have learned how to do it. If that was the case, she'd likely just give up on the whole thing and… she didn’t know. Go back to the crystal?
She sighed, and tried to explain to Alex what to do. “Just, umm… concentrate on the knot and… imagine being able to touch it. Like you have an extra appendage you’re able to use to feel it.”
I had no idea how to do what she was asking, but I tried to anyway. Surprisingly, it was much easier than I expected, almost effortless. Before I knew it, I was touching the “knot” she was talking about.
“I found it,” I told her.
“Good,” she said, putting on a smile that seemed genuine. “Now I want you to try and untie it.”
I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I tried. I assumed I was doing something, since every time I made a pulling motion, I felt a stab of pain, although I was uncertain. The room watched me as I winced in pain over and over again, waiting for something to happen. I tried over and over again for several minutes to get it untied, but didn’t know how.
“I can’t do this!” I finally said, starting to get frustrated and letting go of the invisible knot. “I don’t know what I’m doing! If I did, I would’ve done this earlier!”
“Well, uh, with the tangles, I’ve been slipping my magic inside the tied parts a bit and loosening them that way. Except you can probably tell that this knot is really tight. Because of that, I’m not able to loosen it since my magic isn’t strong enough. I figured your- or, Sombra’s- magic would be strong enough to get inside and loosen it at least.”
I thought I understood what she was getting out. The way she was describing it made it seem like it was a shoelace knot, and my magic was a fingernail trying to make its way in and loosen it. I tried working on the knot again with that in mind, once again putting myself in pain, trying my best to do what she said. I once again started wincing at the stabbing pain, more pronounced now that I was doing it the way she was trying to, but nothing was happening. I tried to stay focused on the task, but the pain I was putting myself in was bringing frustration with it. It peaked when I eventually realized that I might have been doing this for nothing. The mare, Radiant Hope, said that this was the first thing she would try, meaning that the knot might become untied and I would still be here, having hurt myself for nothing.
I tried one more time to loosen the knot the way Radiant Hope told me, and when the stab of pain came again, I screamed in frustration, accidentally pulling the knot at tightly as I could in reflex, so tight that the imaginary string it was on broke.