Shadowy Love

by FinnPony

Chapter 3 (Revised)

Sombra’s eyes shot open, but the intense throbbing in his head forced him to close his eyes again. He started to open his eyes slowly this time, grim thoughts forming in his head as he realised that he was in a cold, wet prison cell made of stone. He looked around in the dim room, and saw that one wall was made of metal bars with a door in the middle of it. Behind those bars stood two unicorn guards. Sombra moved a little to see better around himself. He was lying in the middle of the room, whoever had put him there hadn’t even bothered to lay him on the bed. Not that the bed would have been any more comfortable. It was made of stone. Sombra groaned as he turned his head, making his neck crackle uncomfortably. Other guard noticed it and stepped to lean against the bars.
“You awake?” he asked bluntly. Sombra didn’t bother to answer, and slowly rose up, not giving even a glance at him. The guard grunted and trotted away, leaving other one to stand guard. There was a sound of door opening and closing.

Sombra walked with stiff legs towards the bed and sat down. His head was on fire. He didn’t show it though. He decided to go through it like a stallion. He took a better look at the room he was in. There wasn’t much to add into his earlier observations. There was a filthy looking toilet in the corner. Sombra felt a shudder when he looked at it. He quickly turned his head away from the repulsive sight and noticed something on the opposite wall. A small piece of mirror hung there. He couldn’t understand why there was a mirror in a prison cell. Maybe it was so prisoner could see himself being all alone, every day. Sombra didn’t mind. He liked to be alone.

At that moment he realised that he was in fact still alive. The memory of what had happened who knows how long ago, in the ice cold snow of the frozen north came back to him. Somehow he had avoided being beheaded after he had passed out. Sombra guessed that one certain purple alicorn had something to do with it. He tried to grasp the small mirror with his magic, but felt that something was wrong. He couldn’t feel the magic rushing through his horn, but getting blocked in the half way. He slowly lifted his front hoof and touched his horn. There was something metallic around it. Sombra cursed mentally, and rose up from the bed. He lazily walked over to the mirror and noticed that his predictions were true. Around his horn was a small metal ring that had weird symbols carved into it. It prevented him from using his magic. Sombra let out a small sigh and turned back towards the bed. The guard heard the faint sigh and started to chuckle.
“You ain’t so impressive now huh?” he asked and started to laugh. Sombra gave him absolutely no reply. He would have wanted to tell him how wrong he was, but it wasn’t part of his plan so he kept his mouth shut. As he walked towards the bed, he felt how his legs were hurting. He sat down to the bed and started to notice other sore places too. His chest was on fire like his head, his legs hurt, light hurt his eyes and he had been stripped out of his magic. He was vulnerable as planned in order to get under protection of Twilight Sparkle… And he hated it. He, King Sombra being completely stripped of all his titles and abilities. His right eye started to twitch, but otherwise he was emotionless. It was hard but he managed.

There was sound of door opening and closing again. Then the guard that left couple of minutes ago came back to Sombra’s vision and said with loud voice, “Prisoner against the wall!”
That made a jolt of pain run down Sombra’s throbbing head. He gave a deadpan look at the guard and did nothing to obey his command. The guard seemed angry, and was about to shout commands at him again, but then Sombra heard another more familiar voice saying, “It’s fine commander.”
The guard nodded to someone behind the wall, and soon none other than all four princesses stepped into Sombra’s vision. They walked in front of the bars and stood there, looking at Sombra. Twilight Sparkle stood next to Cadence, who was looking angry and hateful while eyeing at the stallion in the cell. Twilight noticed how Sombra’s appearance had changed a little. His horn was curved like always, and she could see the tip of his fangs from his mouth. Those things had stayed like they had been, but his mane and eyes were different. His black, thick mane flowed down onto his shoulders, not flowing menacingly in a invisible breeze, and his eyes were white like normal pony’s. His red irises were fixated to the wall in front of him. His cutie mark surprised Twilight. It was a crystal like Twilight had though, but it wasn’t black, it was clear blue.

“Are you willing to talk?” Celestia asked from him, waiting for an answer. Sombra did not move for a while. He kept staring at the wall. The princesses shifted their weight from hoof to hoof when the answer didn’t seem to come.
“What is there to talk about?” Sombra asked with his low, cold voice, not breaking his stare away from the wall.
“We have…” Celestia started and gulped before continuing, “Decided to give you yet another chance, now that you are imprisoned and stripped of your magic.”
“A mistake if you ask me,” Cadence said with venom in her voice. That made Sombra break the stare away from the wall.
He gave Cadence his trademark toothy grin and asked with teasing tone, “Dear Cadence… How is Shining Armor doing?”
Cadence was silent for a while, before turning around and walking away with couple of visible tears in the corner of her eyes. That pleased Sombra and he continued to stare the wall with a proud smile on his face. Twilight’s ears drooped and she started to stare at the floor.
“Did you enjoy thyself?” Luna asked angrily, in which Sombra replied.
“Yes.”
There was a long silence, before Sombra spoke again, “Who do I have to thank for being in here? For being still… alive.”
He knew the answer, but he had to ask it. Celestia and Luna gave a quick glance at Twilight. Sombra saw this from the corner of his eye and suddenly stood up. He slowly made his way towards Twilight, stopping just before the bars. He stared down at her, seeing that she didn’t return his stare.
“Is it you, perhaps?” he asked and leaned closer to the purple alicorn who nodded. He looked at the two sister and saw that they were looking cautious. Sombra then leaned backwards from Twilight and said, “I am grateful miss…”
“Twilight Sparkle,” the mare answered and glanced towards him.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Sombra repeated and then started to walk back towards the bed. He laid down to it and said, “I have nothing else to talk about… For now. I will think about your offer.”
After that he closed his eyes. Princesses stared at him for a moment, and then turned towards the door. Before leaving, Twilight took a last look towards Sombra, and saw for a fraction of second that Sombra was looking at her, before he closed his eyes again.

“We started to hate him even more!” Luna growled as they strolled down a long, torch lit corridor. She was walking with her ears still folded against her head.
Celestia chuckled and said, “You can drop that ‘we’ and ‘thy’ act now sister. There’s nopony here except us.”
Luna sighed before she looked at Twilight, who was surprisingly quiet.
“Is something troubling you Twilight? You are awfully quiet,” Luna stated, making Twilight wince.
She quickly shook her head and said, “I was just in my thoughts”
“I see,” Luna said slowly, making Twilight look at her with strange look.
Twilight narrowed her eyes and asked, “What?”
“Nothing,” Luna said and continued to watch in front of her. After a moment she spoke again, “Why were you defending him Twilight Sparkle?”
“Sister…” Celestia started, but Twilight answered with soft voice.
“I believe that there is good in everypony, no matter how evil they seem.”
There was another silence, before Luna sighed deeply and said quietly, “I wish I could still see the world like you do, Twilight.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
Luna looked at her sister, before answering, “Sometimes ponies are just too corrupted to be healed.”
Twilight frowned and snorted, “I refuse to believe that!”
“And that is why you are a great ruler,” Celestia said, ending their small conversation. She softly touched Twilights side with the tip of her wing. Twilight blushed and muttered something that sounded like thank you. Celestia smiled at her and then looked at Luna.

“I don’t know about you two, but I could use a long bubble bath and a big slice of cake.”

Sombra laid on his bed. He was weak, his limbs were heavy and his stomach hurt. It had taken quite some time before he had realised what the weird feeling was. Hunger. He realised that it was something he hadn’t felt in more than thousand years. Not since… He pushed the thought away and shook his head. He tried to focus on feeling sorry for himself. Of course he didn’t show that he was hungry in any way, no. There were guards on the other side of the bars of his cell. Suddenly his stomach rumbled. He cursed mentally. Luckily the guards outside hadn’t heard and Sombra moved his hoof slowly and as quietly as possible to hold his stomach. The pain was something new, and it was there constantly. He felt like agreeing into Celestia’s terms just for a meal, but then his mind got clearer. He would rather die than dance under her command… But he was hungry. Sombra looked out again. He could ask the guard to bring him something to eat. The idea quickly washed away. Of course Sombra would not do that. He would not beg some dirty peasant to bring him a stalled piece of loaf. It wasn’t worth it. His stomach rumbled again, making him wince. More than anything, it was embarrassing. Sombra felt like shouting. How did he get himself into this situation?

As if on cue, he heard the door opening again. He perked up and looked towards the way where the visitor would be entering his vision. It was just the pony he wanted to see. Twilight Sparkle. What she had with her made Sombra’s eyes go wide and he could feel his mouth starting to water. Twilight was carrying a cup filled with something steaming, probably some kind of a soup, and a slice of bread. He was ready to rush to the door but the urge to keep his calmness managed to kill the thought.

“Hello,” Twilight greeted from the door. Sombra looked at her with his head resting on his folded forelegs, not saying a word. Twilight nervously looked at the ceiling, before signaling a guard to open the door. The guard did so and Twilight stepped into the cell, levitating the cup of soup and the slice of bread next to Sombra. When the smell of the hot soup reached his nostrils, Sombra almost couldn’t restrain himself from just gobbling it all up. Luckily he could, and he took only a small sip from the cup. It was almost like a piece of heaven. Sombra felt the warmth of the soup travelling down to his stomach. He just had to take another sip, before turning towards Twilight. There was a small silence between them, before Twilight decided that it was time to speak.
“So have you made up your mind yet? Have you made your decision?” she asked and carefully watched where she would sit in the floor.
Sombra stared at her for a second, before taking a small sip of soup and answering, “I don’t even know what the proposition is. All I was told is that I will get a second chance.”
A small confusion spread onto Twilight’s face. She frowned and asked, “They didn’t tell you?”
Sombra didn’t answer. He was too busy soaking his slice of bread into the soup and greedily eating it.
“Uhh… So basically,” Twilight started, waiting to get Sombra’s attention. “You are given a chance to be reformed!”
“Reformed?” Sombra almost growled.
Twilight gulped and started to explain, “Yes. You will be taught about the meaning of friendship and then we will find you a place in society.”
“And how exactly will it happen, Twilight Sparkle?” Sombra asked while scooping the rest of his soup with the last piece of bread. Twilight didn’t like how Sombra said her name. The way he said it sounded like he was mocking her.
Twilight didn’t let that bother her too much and she answered, “I will be your teacher and custodian while you are under reforming, so let me handle that.”

It was all Sombra wanted to hear. His plan was proceeding with him doing nothing. Almost too easy... Sombra looked at Twilight, and saw that she was rather tensed. She kept glancing towards everything but him. It was good time for Sombra to check her out. What he saw was just a normal mare with deep purple, striped mane and tail, long eyelashes around violet eyes and well kept coat. Nothing too spectacular.

“Why weren’t you there when the princesses summoned me, Twilight Sparkle?” he suddenly asked, making Twilight wince. She didn’t like how Sombra said her name. The way he said it sounded like it was a m looked at him with surprised look and open mouth.
“Princesses summoned you?” she asked. That made Sombra chuckle. Just like he had predicted. The new princess wasn’t told all the details.
“Like I thought…” he said slowly. “They aren’t telling you everything.”
That made Twilight silent. She stared at the floor and rubbed her front hooves together. Sombra kept talking, "Is it hard to be the youngest?”
Twilight was still silent. She suddenly remembered what Sombra had said when they first time visited him in that cell. Something about Shining Armor's well being? She lifted her gaze back towards Sombra and said quietly, "You know, Shining Armor is my brother."
"Ah..." Sombra said and eyed at the young princess. "I have to say that he fought bravely..."
"Is he alright?" Twilight asked and looked sadly at him. Sombra would have wanted to tell her about all those nightmares he had given to her brother, but decided that it was probably not a good idea.
"Yes. He will recover," Sombra said and Twilight started to stare at the floor again. The conversation didn't go as Sombra hoped, so he changed the subject, “Why did you protect me, Twilight Sparkle?”
That made Twilight look up at him. She didn’t seem so nervous when she said, “I don’t like the idea of killing… And I believe that everypony should have second chance.”
Sombra saw something Twilight Sparkle’s eyes. She clearly believed in what she had just said.
“Even a pony like me?” Sombra asked with sarcastic voice. “The tyrant of Crystal Empire? The ‘slave’ king?”
Twilight stared him in the eyes, before nodding and calmly saying, “Yes.”

Sombra broke his stare from her and looked at the bars. He had planned on accepting the offer from the beginning, as part of his plan, but now he had some kind of a crazy thought about actually accepting it. It was something about that mare... It washed off quickly though, but he still knew he had to accept the offer.

“I accept your offer, Twilight Sparkle.”

“You do?” Twilight asked with surprise clearly visible on her face and her wings twitching a little.
Sombra slowly nodded, before saying, “I might regret it later, so go now.”
Twilight’s jaw was hanging and for a moment she couldn’t do nothing. Sombra became irritated by her staring at him like that, so he pushed the cup to the floor, snapping Twilight out of her trance.
“Oh… heh… I’m happy to hear that,” she said and took the cup into her magical grasp. She then rose up to all fours and walked to the door. The guard quickly opened the door and again locked it after Twilight had gone through. From the other side of the bars she looked at Sombra and said, “I will get you transported to my castle in couple of days at max.”
Sombra nodded. Then Twilight did something strange. She smiled at Sombra before leaving the room. Something nopony had done to him ever since he conquered Crystal Empire. It stirred something inside of him but he pushed it angrily away, cursing how his mind was starting to play against him after his powers were gone. He noticed his chest burning a bit more painfully than before. Sombra lifted his hoof and rubbed his chest.
“Oh what did I get myself into…” he groaned silently and rested his head onto his folded forelegs again.