It took all of a week for Sombra to break Twilight, it probably didn’t help that he had used a combination dark magic and hostage tactics to get her to convert. He had taught her little besides the very basics of dark magic seeing how he wanted to test the waters with her.
“Master, what shall I learn today?” Twilight asked her new master.
“My apprentice, today you shall learn how to treat a slave.” He said with just a hint of evil laughter.
“Do I not treat them as though they are the dirt on which I stand?”
“Watch yourself, your letting the darkness take control again.” Sombra said noticing her speech starting to sound like she was a thousand years older. “But to answer your question, yes and no.” he paused.
“What do you mean?” she asked cocking her head.
“Simple, you may only treat them so if they fail you. To torment a slave for no reason would be a waste of you time and energy, and their blood.” he said leading her to the balcony.
“What do you mean by ‘fail’?” She asked stepping onto the balcony.
“Simple, a slave is worth more when it can work, and when it fails to work right you have to correct the behavior. For instance you see those slaves hulling the crystals from the mines to processing…” Twilight looked down and saw three slaves an orange, yellow, and red, there was one mare and two stallions. “They are doing their jobs correctly and thus do not need punishment. That is, all except the yellow one, go down there and ‘correct the behavior’.” he said calmly.
Twilight lifted off with her wings and landed next to the crystal yellow stallion. The stallion jumped back and if it wasn’t for the wagon attaché to his back he would have fallen over. She used her magic to cause a long dark tendril to wrap its way around him, and he screamed bloody murder as his skin started to fracture.
“Twilight!!” Sombra shouted, turning into his shadow form and floating down. “I said to punish him not to kill him” He said returning to his normal form.
“Master?” Twilight got a confused look on her face.
“There is a difference between punishment and killing! If you cannot tell the difference then you are no use to me! I thought you would have been smart enough to see this!” Sombra said with pure anger in his eyes. But then he breathed heavily and eyes closed, trying to calm himself.
Twilight noticed an orange mare looking at her, and felt a little spark rise inside of her. The spark lasted all of three seconds before the darkness of her mind consumed it. The orange mare let out a single tear, “Twi…is that you?”
Twilight just ignored her and turned back to her master as he opened his eyes. “Follow me” he ordered leading her back into the palace. Once they were inside Sombra turned into his shadow form and engulfed Twilight, “You need to learn restraint” he said, his voice echoing, “revealing power above simple superiority is a foolish move, if you break them with just half of your power then you are truly superior”.
“Master?” Twilight was scared now the shadows around her making the small room appear much larger. “Where are we?”
“We've entered your mind apprentice" suddenly a sharp pain shot through her 'body'. "Why are you hurting me Master?"
"I am simply giving you the same treatment you gave that yellow crystal pony. This lesson is to teach you why you don't cause too much pain."
Twilight shrieked from the pain, it was like she was being disintegrated but remained perfectly intact. "Can you feel it...? No I suppose that the pain would cloud your senses. Alas you cannot feel the darkness that clings to you like a parasite. However yours is not a slave like mine. This is why you need to learn this lesson; if you don't learn it then your darkness will consume you entirely."
Twilight was focusing on her pain and trying to control it, so she didn't hear her master’s words. When the pain stopped after what felt like an eternity and she looked at the form of her master standing in front of her. The memory of what he had said rushed to the surface of her brain. "Mast..."
"You will spend the rest of today trying to control the darkness within you." He ordered and the shadows around the two of them faded away to revile the room. Two hoofmaidens walked in the room and helped Twilight to her feet and she stumbled off to her room.
Mirid walked next I her lord, "Milord, is this a smart maneuver? The alicorn princesses won't stand for this and may destroy you this time."
Sombra simply laughed, "I agree, which is why I'm preparing for them this time. The last time they attacked me before I wasn’t ready for them and I’ll be ready." He began to laugh and Mirid joined in. They were so distracted that they didn't notice as a third ‘monster' joined their laughter.