"Don't say anything now, they're still waking up."
Twilight walked away slowly as she took Sombra with her so he wouldn't bother. In front of them were the two little foals, just awakened from their, apparently, long sleep. Or so Twilight guessed as they looked around with some confusion in their eyes.
Then she herself approached the small clearing where she had deposited them. Some evening sunlight filtered through the leaves, which had driven away the darkness a bit. They both quickly noticed her presence, and Twilight witnessed the moment when they suddenly froze. She could recognize very well the feeling that was reflected in their eyes.
They were afraid. They were afraid of what they could both do to them.
Twilight sighed, wondering what kind of things had happened for them to be this way.
"We won't do anything to them, we're just here to take them back to their homes, the ponies in the village are very worried about both," Twilight clarified gently, without making any sudden movement. In her mind she was thankful that Sombra didn't get excited either. "You can trust us."
The two colts moved closer to each other, snuggling between them while keeping their eyes fixed on the two older ponies in front of them both. Neither of them moved away as Twilight approached, but they made her sigh slightly when she seemed to see that they weren't ready to talk yet.
With a slight flash of her horn, Twilight levitated one of the blankets inside her backpack. She then placed it around the two little ponies, though they shrank slightly when she did that. They turned their heads to look at each other and at the piece of cloth that covered them, even more puzzled by those two unicorns in front of them.
The older of the two, an orange furred earth colt, was the first to speak.
"A-are you real ponies?"
A slight grimace formed on Twilight's face as she wondered in her mind what they had seen to make them ask that question.
"Yes, we really are." A second later she activated her magic again and let the cloak over her body show only a part of it, where her cutie mark was. "Come, I have a mark just like you."
The colts looked at each other for a moment and nodded. Twilight did the same and let go of her magic, moving closer to them again. Now she would find a way to find out what had happened, if they decided to talk about it and tell her.
"I know this is not the time or place to ask you this..." She began calmly again. "But we need to know what happened when you were both taken away, do you know what or who it could have been?"
Both foals bowed their heads at her words and took several minutes to answer her. Twilight almost thought they weren't going to talk, until the bigger colt opened his mouth. The other little colt just stood there, hugging his friend tightly.
"I don't know, from the moment they took us, everything was dark," he said as he kept his head down. "Others were also taken but we could never see them clearly, I just knew they were there because we could talk to each other, but from one moment to the next..."
Twilight frowned slightly as she heard the colt's voice tremble at the last thing he had said. So in an attempt to be delicate, she asked her question as subtly as possible.
"What happened?"
A sudden, low sob from the younger colt began to be heard, and Twilight couldn't help but stand beside him as she looked at him with a downcast expression. She glanced sideways at the stallion, who was only looking at them with a serious countenance in his. Meanwhile, the older colt continued with a monotone tone of voice.
"From one moment to the next, we didn't hear from them again."
Several seconds of silence, in which Twilight and Sombra looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. She swallowed lightly before speaking again.
"The others?"
The colt shook his head in confirmation. Twilight gave a slight sigh.
"Do any of you think you're willing to tell us everything?"
They immediately denied it.
"Well, that makes it more complicated," Sombra confirmed, and Twilight had to agree.
"We can't force them to talk, but they've told us enough," she said, and moved from her place again. "Besides, we have to find a place to stay."
"Then I suggest you use the method I explained to you to find that place," Sombra said with a clearing of his throat. "For now, it would be our best option."
"Sombra, do you really think it's a good idea to do that now?" she asked as she encouraged the little ponies to climb back onto her back. "Isn't it better to look for a big crack in some ordinary rock wall?"
"I don't think so, princess," he replied simply, and resumed his way to the first landmark. "And with what you're currently carrying, you'd better listen to me."
Sombra could feel Twilight's snort behind him, however she didn't say anything else as she began to follow him. He felt her resignation and he couldn't help but crack a smile satisfied by his most recent imposition.
After all, no one said him that he couldn't have a bit fun.
"This is the place," Sombra whispered as he shifted his gaze across the great space before them.
However, his tone was loud enough for Twilight to pick up on his words. She walked towards him and stopped when she reached his side.
She could definitely feel the magic permeated in that place. And since she had been for some time without feeling another powerful source... It was a bit overwhelming.
"I suppose this must be the cave you told me about, so we've spent so much trouble finding it."
And she meant it, it had taken them a long time so that outside of this one they could not see a feet beyond the prevailing darkness without a light to help light the way.
Sombra looked away at the mare next to him. He gave a brief snap of his tongue as he emphasized his next words.
"Now you think it wasn't a good idea for us to stay and look for it? Still, it was a safe haven for the night, I dare say more than any other place."
Twilight didn't answer, just looked away and left his side to return to the two little ones she had left at the entrance of the cavern. Her next words reflected that she had heard him, even if she had said it in a whisper anyway.
"You may not be entirely wrong sometimes..." She looked out for a second, and now she could confirm that night had finally fallen completely over the forest. "Now we'd better wait until the next morning, but that's not my intention at the moment."
"Do you plan to search for the answers yourself, princess?" Sombra approached, his once serious tone becoming much more suspicious. "I hope I don't have to remind you that you're not the only pony with own questions."
"I'm aware of that, but somepony has to stay here to take care of them," she pointed to the foals, who just looked at the two adults with slight bewilderment, but they then looked at each other and decided to do what they knew best: sleep and rest again.
"Excellent, then you can stay here while I go first."
Sombra turned without wasting time and walked in the direction of the depths of the place, but he left his hooves still faster than he could have liked when a particular glow wrapped around his body and stopped him in place. He turned his head back to see the alicorn with her horn lit once more.
"Not so fast." Twilight grunted at the slight effort it took to force her magic to stop him. "Whoever stays here must not only watch over them but also protect them, and you're the only pony who still has enough magic left in reserve in case anything happens."
She couldn't take it anymore, her magic still hadn't recovered enough for her to resist. So she released the barrier that had spread around the unicorn's body in a slight burst.
"So what do you suggest, princess?" Sombra said in an annoyed tone.
Twilight didn't take long to reply, ignoring the way he spoke.
"I suggest you stay here while I go, after all, our issues are similar: we both want to find out what's going on here," Twilight sighed lightly. "But I need you to point me to the safest way I can go."
"Wait a minute, and what makes you think I have to agree with all this?" Sombra said as he gestured with his hoof.
Because of all this Twilight began to rub her forehead gently, she needed to relieve that headache that threatened to grow. And she also needed to find a way to deal with that dark unicorn, the former king of the empire that ran her family in front of her.
"Because you know very well that you must support me and so must I if we want to get out of here, or at least now to find out what happens," Twilight said in a calm voice, although inside she was suppressing the real desire she had for it all to end once and for all. She removed the hoof from her forehead and, this time, turned her gaze to him with a silent plea expressed in her eyes. "I ask you once more as a please, even if you wish afterwards you can go by yourself when I return."
Sombra looked at her for that brief moment when he found himself thinking about her latest offer. However, in the end, he nodded, despite doing so reluctantly.
"Well, in any case make sure you follow the indicated path, I'm not really going to start looking for you if the opposite happens," he replied as he passed by her.
Twilight turned and ignored his comment, just asking to confirm:
"And that would be?..."
Sombra raised both eyebrows in disbelief and pointed with a hoof in the opposite direction of the entrance.
"That one, obviously. Just follow it along its entire length until it opens again. Somehow you should find another big space, that's where your destiny lies, as far as I can remember."
Twilight looked into the dark depths again. Unconsciously, she swallowed again.
"Could I find something?"
"Not that I know of, due to the nature of the magic of this place no forest creature should come and snoop around here."
Twilight nodded slowly, though she didn't feel entirely confident with those words. Not with everything they'd been through lately.
"Well... At least you're sure I won't get lost?" she asked in an attempt to believe what he had said. It was clear that she still couldn't quite do it.
Sombra just gave her a brief glance, then let out a brief snort that sounded in Twilight's ears, offended?
"Don't you trust me, princess?"
Twilight quickly made her position clear as she raised an eyebrow. With a lot of disbelief.
"That was a joking question, wasn't it?" she smiled jokingly and sarcastically. "Because otherwise I would have remember when you earned it."
The unicorn didn't even make an effort to reply, just rolled his eyes and made a slight gesture of annoyed denial.
"No matter which way you go, it will always take you to the same place," he finished saying, then leaned back into place.
Twilight finally nodded her head slightly, but something in her mind clicked when she remembered what the stallion had said earlier.
"Then why did you say a long time ago that you wouldn't look for me if I got lost, knowing that I can't even do it? Would you have been willing?" Twilight gave a slight smirk as she put a hoof on her chin, trying to press him with her question.
But Sombra had no intention of falling for her provocation.
"All I know is that right now I'd like you to just leave," he growled from his place.
"Tsk, you grumpy unicorn."
With that last thought, a roll of her eyes, and a snort, Twilight turned and started walking towards her destination. Sombra watched her leave quietly, but before her small figure could disappear into the darkness, she turned her head and spoke once more.
"I'm just going to remind you to protect them, they've been through a lot."
Sombra shrugged and closed his eyes from his spot, grumbling something under his breath.
"I'm not going to guarantee anything about brats," he replied nonchalantly.
"Fine, but Sombra..."
He opened his eyes when something in her tone made him suspicious, only to frown at the look she was sending him. A look of slight menace.
"You'd better treat them fine in the time I'm away, I'm not answering for myself if I find out otherwise."
And without another word, Twilight turned again and quickly disappeared down the dark path beyond, leaving Sombra with a frown and a strange shudder that ran through his body. It might have been hard for him, but he soon admitted that the mare was acting in ways unknown to him.
After a slight snort to push those thoughts out of his head, Sombra stared for a moment at the entrance to the makeshift shelter and realized what he had suspected when he caught sight of the shadow of something medium sized among the trees.
The creatures of darkness would not enter of its own volition, at least in that sense they were relatively safe.
A sound to the left of his side caused him to stop fixing his gaze from the edge of the forest and turn his head to the pair of new companions they had brought. His face contorted into his typical serious expression as he wondered when those two had woken up.
Both foals seemed much more active than before, but perhaps it was only because they now had the opportunity to see more than just the dark hole they had been stuck in for the past few weeks. But their activity level quickly began to be higher than he first thought, or expected. Which in the end brought with it the rest.
Sombra could only take up his resting position once more, as he tried to ignore the games the two had just begun around the wide entrance to the cave. Yeah, boredom was definitely the main motivation.
The sound of the small pairs of hooves resounded widely on the rock floor, and the light laughter of both was not long in coming. They were foals, and after being so long aware of what might happen to them without another day to rescue them, it was time for the worry to leave them.
Even if that unconsciously bothered the stallion.
Sombra sighed once more from his spot and opened his eyes as he began to notice them at an unreasonable distance from him. Thinking about it, the truth is that he was already regretting that he had listened to the purple alicorn and that he had not been firmer about his decision, although it was no use regretting at that moment.
At one point the two passed close to him, too close for his liking. With an infinitely irritated expression, he had to grit his teeth and terribly restrain himself from turning to shout something when one of them accidentally, or actually not so much, struck him by his tail.
In the end one of the colts stood in front of him, flanked by his brother.
"Uhm... Sir?" he asked somewhat shyly, though he eventually came a bit closer.
"What do you want?" He didn't even bother to take an interest in his question.
The colt recoiled in the face of the older stallion's intimidating presence, though he nevertheless pressed ahead with his goal.
"Huh... Here my friend asks if..."
"We want to know a few things!"
The older colt suddenly jumped in front of the other and completely removed him from his sight. A slightly bright look betrayed his curiosity.
The same look that could only have made the unicorn roll his eyes with a slight sigh.
Oh, he would really say a few things to the princess when she returned, especially the fact that thanks to her he now had to deal with a couple of rambunctious little brats.
The colt didn't wait for him to answer and went on as his desire to know dictated.
"For example, why is his horn curved? And why is it the same color as his eyes?" He placed a hoof on his chin, imitating an expression that could only have been supposed to be thoughtful. "Although I don't judge it, I really like that color."
Sombra narrowed his eyes in a quick look of suspicion, before something clicked back inside his head.
Oh, right... He had forgotten that foals could see beyond illusion.
With a last irritated sigh, Sombra mentally cursed his bad luck. Very high in his mind.
Or at least that was until something else interrupted his peace.
***
If Twilight had had to classify the appearance of a possible cavern filled with magical energy, she would have expected to have to say about how some kind of crystal or gem with arcane properties were embedded in its walls, ideal for storing the sufficient amounts of magic that these places used to possess. Perhaps it also had the ability to glow dimly with its own light, like the crystals she had seen on the ceiling of the crystalline lily cave.
But what she actually ended up finding she might have considered as a last resort.
In the first place, she did not even see a single hint of any kind of shining stone on the walls of the road, completely bare as she actually found it. Second, she had to light her horn and draw on the magic she still had left to enlighten herself. And third, that the treasure she ended up finding didn't disappoint her at all.
"Finding a subterranean lake," Twilight muttered to herself as she put a hoof on her chin. "Uhm, it's a bit unusual and even more so when this happens to be the place where the magical energy of the cave is concentrated."
Because it was a wide lake of incredibly crystal clear waters that was waiting for her when she followed the light to the end of the tunnel. The whole cavern remained the same, the only exception being the luminous body of water opening before her eyes.
From her place at the entrance of the tunnel, Twilight closed her eyes and allowed herself to breathe in the fresh air of that incredible place for a moment. After that, her mind cleared a bit more.
She opened them again and calmly lowered the path that led to the shore. During this she dodged the multiple rock formations that poured out of the ground, while its counterparts on the roof stood in motionless indifference.
Twilight paused and leaned in enough to see her own reflection. Her other self returned the same look of confusion that was visible on her face at that moment.
"I'm here now, but what or who am I supposed to ask now? What's the best method?" Twilight asked her own reflection. She cocked her head a bit.
Then something changed.
The reflection on the surface began to blur and ripple, and Twilight could only recoil somewhat surprised by what was happening. But her share of surprises wasn't over yet.
The water droplets on the lake's surface separated into small fragments and floated right in front of Twilight. She watched with a curious expression as it slowly came together, as if it wanted to be part of some final structure. Then she saw the shape of the letters that began to appear little by little. And then the words.
"You always start with the right one to get the answers"
That's what Twilight read after it was fully revealed.
"The one... I guess that's a question," Twilight said without being too surprised by what had just happened.
She organized the thoughts in her head before taking a step forward. She would have to start at the beginning of everything.
"What is this island supposed to be, and why is it cut off from the outside world?"
Twilight waited a few seconds for her answer to form, but the one word she could see only left her more confused.
"Refuge? What do it mean by that?" she asked again.
If that place was a refuge, who was it supposed to protect?
And if so, what would it protect it from? Rather, for her, the place itself was a kind of death trap.
There were so many issues she wanted to express, issues she was currently rambling on, that she hardly noticed when the letters were re-formed.
"The island was created with magic from a long time ago, however, the remnants of it were not lost, it simply changed"
"The remnants of magic..." Twilight whispered to herself.
Suddenly, a question crossed her mind, causing her to open her eyes a bit wider. With a somewhat suspicious look, Twilight asked: "What kind of magic was used to create it?"
The words of her answer formed, but no sooner had Twilight stepped back with a shocked look on her face. She let out a gasp before covering her mouth with a hoof.
"How can that be possible!? How can it be possible that this place has been created with... dark magic?"
Twilight rubbed a hoof on her forehead and raised her head suddenly as something else crossed her mind. Something that had eluded her before.
"Unless..."
Twilight had never had the opportunity to delve into this forbidden branch of magic. Not that she complained about that, either.
Princess Celestia had only taught her one trick, the few books dedicated to it were very well guarded by the princess herself and, if Twilight was honest with herself, she was never really interested in learning it beyond that spell that had left her with a good headache. She could still remember the enormous amount of concentration she had to muster to make the spell work as smoothly as possible.
But she never thought of its applications beyond the dark and destructive form she had normally known. However, given the great mystery that used to shroud it, perhaps what she had just read was not entirely strange.
That didn't make Twilight completely lessen her skepticism, though. Using dark magic to create instead of destroy?...
She shook her head to clear her head.
"How exactly was it created?"
Twilight counted the seconds as she waited for her answer, but in the end she ended up counting more seconds than she first thought it would take. She repeated her question once more, maybe she hadn't been clear enough before. However, the water droplets remained suspended in front of her.
Twilight let out a slight grunt and tried again, this time with her next question. She really didn't want to think at all about why that question wasn't answered.
"How is it connected to the outside world?" she asked this time.
Twilight hummed lightly as she waited. And as she had imagined, this time it worked.
"Mirror portals... I already imagined it, just like the one Spike, Sombra and I used to get here..." She lowered her head a bit.
"Spike... I really hope he's okay."
Twilight allowed herself to have that worry for a second. Then she regained her composure.
"But..." A new question was presented. "How did the ponies come to habit this place?"
More drops of water from the lake joined the existing ones.
"Some were lost searching for treasure, others escaped from their places of origin, others were brought. They all found their way out of this land, without even looking for it."
"Then it mean most of them came by accident," Twilight murmured. "It's clear to me that this wasn't the only portal..."
And now she was thinking of those poor ponies, caring about them enough to express the question that had just occurred to her.
"Is there a way to get those ponies out of here?"
A simple "no" was all she got for an answer.
"Why not?" She wanted to know, as she wondered why if Spike, Sombra, and she could do it, those ponies couldn't.
Then she read the water words again.
"Their life is linked to this place from the moment they are born"
"By Celestia, I see what that means..." She murmured, lowering her gaze.
Now, however, she had to get to the question that had really brought her to this place.
"What's causing these attacks?"
A new question, Twilight really hoped could be answered as she watched once again how words were formed.
"Where shadows are hidden, dark magic leaves traces that can be detected by its own kind"
Of all the answers she had the opportunity to read, that was probably the one that had left her most confused.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked with an obvious frown on her face. "Dark magic can be tracked with dark magic? But that doesn't make sense right now, it doesn't explain why these attacks are happening."
Again, she was in confusion and that couldn't even give her a clearer answer. However, she forced herself to sigh slowly in an attempt to calm herself, closing her eyes in the process.
But when she opened them again, she was quite surprised to read what was written there.
"Darkness lurks and no one is free from it"
A not-so-pleasant sensation went up her entire spine. Twilight took a step back with a frown on her face as she took a deeper look at those words.
"This... It actually seems more like a warning than a response."
Twilight tried to stay calm. She didn't want to, she really didn't want to think for now about all that those words could mean.
Finally, she let out a faint sigh as she cleared her throat once more and prepared to ask her next and perhaps final question.
Then the earth shook.
Twilight let out a scream.
"And now what's going on?!"
She ended up being frightened by the sudden tremor that shook the place from one moment to the next, even though it wasn't strong enough to make the stones on the roof threaten to fall.
Twilight took a few steps back to steady herself, but when she raised her head again and saw the words that had formed in front of her, even without having asked a conscious question, fear began to run widely through her veins.
"It's not safe anymore."
She didn't stay to ask after that, nor did she watch as the droplets that were suspended in the air returned to its original place. She simply took several steps back and ran back the way she had come.
When she reappeared through the tunnel at the entrance of the cave, she knew that something very strange had happened. The first clue was that only the two foals were there at the time.
Sombra was nowhere to be found.
Twilight frowned in confusion as she walked towards the pair of foals.
"Where's the stallion that was with both?"
"He's gone," said one of the colts. "He said he had something important to check, something that had to do with the earth shaking recently."
"Miss, do you know what happened? Sir unicorn said we should wait for you, now I wonder if you know where he went."
Twilight looked at the colt waiting for her answer, but could only deny.
"I have no idea what that could have been, or where whoever was with you could have gone, but I guess we'll have to find out," she said on her walk outside.
Meanwhile, Twilight made sure in her mind not to let him slip away from a good sermon of hers the next time they met. She definitely wasn't going to leave it at that.
And it was necessary to clarify that the fact of knowing who he was, was of bit use to her.
"Stay here for a moment. I'll try to figure out where it went."
Twilight sighed after that as she walked towards the entrance, but she didn't need to stray too far from that place. Even in the dark, her vision was enough to notice him.
Sombra reappeared from a random path, like a dark silhouette that slowly lightened as he entered the range of Twilight's magical luminosity. With strong steps he walked toward her.
"I suppose it's about time you showed up," she said in a serious tone. "So I'd really appreciate it if you shared the real reason you left, because at least you were able to find something, right?"
Before re-entering, Sombra ran a hoof across his forehead.
"No, I couldn't find anything," he replied in a grunt of slight tiredness. "And as for the other, I had more important problems to solve. In case you didn't notice, the earth shook recently."
"I already knew, but now what I really want you to tell me is why you left them abandoned in that place when I made it very clear that you should take care of them," she growled under her breath.
Sombra clicked his tongue as he took a quick glance behind him.
"I don't think this is the time for that..."
Twilight was ready to reply to his answer, but her mouth closed when she saw the stallion's countenance. A strange expression suddenly appeared on his face, as if he had caught something unpleasant that she couldn't yet notice.
Not another second passed when the shaking repeated.
From the sudden fright, Twilight turned off her magic and took several steps back. She didn't notice the moment when Sombra slipped out of her frontal range of vision and quickly entered the cave.
The foals gave several frightened squeals before Twilight moved up to them and tried to calm them down with a calm voice. It was something that only half worked.
Or so it was until she felt herself being wrapped by a hoof and drawn to the body of the other pony behind her.
"What are you doing?" she demanded as she tried to walk away.
"Just don't talk, and watch," Sombra said, his gaze drawn to a point beyond the trees.
Twilight looked, and if it weren't for the fact that it was dark enough she almost wished she hadn't.
"No, not again"
Again the same threat, again the same multi headed creature. It towered over the tops of the great trees like a dark statue, and even if it was a good distance away, it was not long enough for them to stop hearing its shrieks.
And they knew it was the same because it only had three heads instead of four.
Twilight swallowed.
She couldn't do anything. Her body had become static, completely paralyzed. Sombra was probably thinking of a quick way out of this situation, and the foals... Well, both adults were almost certain that they had passed out.
The course of their thoughts changed when they saw the monster begin to move, in the opposite direction to theirs.
Then they were able to breathe easy.
"Why is it here?" Twilight asked as she watched it walk away. "I know hydras are very hard to kill, but I thought that wouldn't bother us for a while."
"Ignoring the fact that the forest is its home, it regenerates quickly," Twilight gasped after hearing that. "And perhaps it only appears when darkness falls upon this land again," Sombra muttered from his perch.
"That... it makes some sense," Twilight said. "Otherwise our journey would have been much more complicated during the day."
It took a while for Twilight and Sombra to feel confident enough that the danger was gone.
They could only relax a bit more when the sounds of the beast were already heard far enough away that they would not worry about the uncertainty of a sudden attack. In any case, they took steps to do so.
"Somepony's got to keep an eye out," Twilight said as she checked the sleeping foals.
"I'll do it, until I'm sure that thing is completely gone," Sombra said, though he didn't turn his head to look at her from where he stood. "Luckily, this is the perfect place to keep the other creatures at bay at the moment."
"How is that?" she asked, with growing intrigue at his words.
"It's simple, although the energy of this cavern keeps it hidden from most prying eyes, it also serves the function of keeping the monsters away from the forest."
After hearing what Sombra had just told her, Twilight couldn't help but remember the words she had read recently. She was also aware that she hadn't yet had a chance to analyze it thoroughly.
"They are naturally repelled, due in part to the dark magic within," she muttered to herself.
"Anyway, that's not our problem for now."
She nodded in agreement and prepared to settle down with their little companions for another sleepless night. Still, they both agreed to spend the rest of the night in the relative safety of the old cave.
At least they had the comfort of knowing that this place was safe enough to prevent some other creature from deciding to see them as if they were its dinner.