Editing help done provided by Tony1685
Chapter 33
As Twilight hung from the wall her horn flared off and on again. She’d lost track of how long she’d been attempting to break out of her containment... it seemed like forever.
No matter what she did, her efforts to free herself were apparently vain as the cuffs resisted everything she could throw at them. Not so much as a single fracture or even a scuff had appeared on the ancient bindings.
The freezing cold stone that pressed into her back had already numbed her body and she was shivering violently despite her fur. Worse yet was the fact that she was still upside down, the blood rushing to her head clouding her thoughts and making it hard to stay awake.
She tried again to shake off her drowsiness but this time it won out. Slowly, fighting the entire way, the mare’s eyes began to close and the flickering of her horn died.
Twilight walked into Celestia’s bedchamber and looked at the bed in surprise, there were a pair of thick chains wrapped around the two foremost bedposts. She turned to look at her lover in confusion. Celestia flashed her a small smile.
“What’s the matter Twilight? I thought you wanted a practical magic lesson,” Celestia said, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“I... did... but Tia you know that I’m not into chains...” Twilight replied uncertainly. “And I certainly don’t see how they could be used to teach a practical magic lesson.”
“I’m well aware of your distaste for such things Twilight-” Celestia said as she picked up the smaller mare in her golden aura and placed her on the bed while attaching the chains to her forehooves.“-and in truth I do not enjoy them either. However this exercise will give you a very practical lesson.”
“Oh? And what would that be?” Twilight asked as she tried to pull her forehooves out of the cuffs only to find that Celestia had done a very good job of attaching them.
“The chains are designed to leach and repress magic,” Celestia explained as she walked up to Twilight and began to slowly nuzzle her.
“Okay? So?” the captive mare asked.
“So, this lesson is all about how to escape from bonds that contain your magic,” Celestia told her, a soft smile on her face.
“Alright... how do I do that?” Twilight inquired before Celestia gave her a gentle kiss.
“You must overload them my dear, find the place in their matrix that is weakest and then slowly pump magic into it until the matrix breaks,” Celestia answered once she’d released the mare.
“Okay... I think I can manage that... what’s the catch?” Twilight asked a little breathlessly from the kiss.
“I’ll be distracting you,” Celestia replied with a silky smile.
The mare gulped.
Twilight’s eyes shot open. Of course, it was obvious! Why hadn’t she thought of it before?
The mare pushed back her emotions and her mind began to slowly split as she examined the bonds that held her in place. Her eyes began to glow purple as she took in the design of the cuffs that held her involuntarily to the wall. All in all... she was surprised that they’d managed to contain her for so long, and if the mare wasn’t repressing that part of her brain at the moment then the snarky bit of her would’ve laughed at her.
The spell matrix that was embedded in her cuffs was simple. The only extraordinary part of it was the fact that it was keyed to drain an absolutely massive amount of magic from those within the cuffs. There was one other thing that was interesting about the cuffs; they appeared to be at least a thousand years old. Unfortunately for Sombra, while they were in just as good of condition as they had been when they’d been originally crafted, they were still based on a design that was a thousand years out of date.
Magic theory had come a long way since Sombra had been originally banished, and it showed in her restraints. While they were structurally sound, to Twilight’s eyes, the designs were childishly simple.
With a fresh wave of determination in her heart the mare began to concentrate her magic on two particular points of the first spell matrix. It was going to drain her, but she was Twilight Sparkle, star student of Princess Celestia, the most powerful mortal unicorn alive. She had magic to spare.
Magic leapt out of her horn and into the spell matrix, eroding the simple magic mechanics and causing the rest of the matrix to slowly break apart. As the matrix began to fracture; the draining effect on her magic was reduced as well. Before long the first of the four siphons was utterly obliterated.
Twilight grinned and turned her attention to the next one and began to repeat the process. However, to her surprise, the second matrix had changed from the first time that she’d looked at it. Now instead of their being two weak points there was only one, and it was hidden far better within the matrix than that of the first.
She frowned, the cuffs must change depending on the circumstances. Worse, now that she had taken a closer look at them she saw that each of them was linked together by delicate threads of magic. So, it would be more difficult than Twilight had originally thought to escape her bonds. Oh well, she’d always enjoyed challenges.
As she worked on the second cuff’s matrix a part of her mind began to drift back to Sombra’s ‘chat’ with her. He’d obviously overshadowed Star’s spirit and was exerting his influence over the poor colt. Not only that but the type of magic that he’d used to change the foal’s form worried her. Chronomancy was a very... difficult form of magic to reverse. Even Celestia and Luna had trouble with it and depending on how long ago Star’s body had been changed it might even be impossible.
Twilight grit her teeth together at the thought of what she was going to do to that bastard when she was free. The tricky part would be removing his shade from Star’s body and mind as well as soul without damaging the colt.
Unfortunately, neither Celestia nor Luna had ever taught her much of the magic of souls beyond theory and even that was sketchy at best. This was mostly because meddling with souls was one of the most dangerous and possibly deadly forms of magic in existence. Not only that, but there were severe consequences for its misuse. In fact, depending on the offense Twilight had heard that Celestia would have the abuser executed rather than simply banished or petrified.
The second cuff’s matrix broke and Twilight felt an added sense of relief as the drain on her magic decreased yet again. She turned to the third cuff and let out a tiny snarl as she noted the complexity of the matrix. To her magical senses the matrix was a constantly shifting ball of light and color without an obvious weak point anywhere to be seen. This one would take much longer to break.
Sombra sat on his throne of obsidian as he watched the paltry army of the Crystal Empire fight hopelessly against his horde of zombies via a large scrying display. They were putting up a surprisingly good defense, but he knew that with time he would be victorious.
For every one of them that fell, his forces would swell. Even as he watched a slain Crystal pony rose up and turned on his former comrades, death stripping the stallion of memory and loyalty. It wouldn’t be long before they all served him. And when they did, he would use them to reclaim his throne, then have them march on Canterlot itself.
Oh yes, he looked forward to marching into the Canterlot Throne Room with Nightmare Sparkle at his side. The looks of despair on Celestia and Luna’s ordinarily proud faces would only make the event all the sweeter for him. Not only would he take everything that they’d ever worked for as they had to him, but he would do it with the help of the mare they had used to defy him!
First though, he would have to deal with the pink usurper who had claimed his throne as her own. The stallion smirked at the thought, she would be no match for him, nor would her husband. In fact, he was sure that they would be unable to even raise a hoof against him now that they would be fighting their own son.
STOP IT! Star’s voice yelled pitifully from within his head. The stallion paid the voice no mind and instead stabbed at the colt’s soul with another lance of painful magic causing it to subside with a pathetic whimper.
As he lounged on the throne he noticed a surprise on the scrying screen. The Crystal General, Falchion, was leading a counter charge against his army. Sombra remembered the colt, his father had been the leader of the resistance back before the damnable alicorns had banished him. So, when he’d caught the stallion, Sombra had brought the colt to watch his execution.
The look of terror on his face as the crystal that Sombra had forced down his father’s throat began to expand out the sides of his neck had been incredibly satisfying. Now, the stallion was charging heedlessly into the hoard, seemingly out of his mind. Sombra snickered, it would be nice to have that particular stallion as a minion to display to his subjects. The perfect example of what happened if you disobeyed your rightful lord.
Sombra turned away from the spell and a frown crossed his face, Nightmare should’ve returned by now with the human in her thrall. He got up from the throne and started down the hall towards where Nightmare had taken the human. As he neared it he heard a grunt as well as a near silent scream.
The stallion’s eyes widened and he increased his pace towards the door. As he closed the distance with the door it suddenly splintered outward as Nightmare’s host body crashed through it. The bloody cat’s body slammed into Sombra and he was sent tumbling backwards under the weight before he had a chance to throw it off of himself with his telekinesis.
What he saw surprised him. The human, completely naked, was standing in front of him with murder in his eyes. He cracked his neck and a smile crossed his face.
“Okay, one down, one to go.”