Shadowy Love

by FinnPony

Chapter 30 part 3

Sombra and Twilight Sparkle were standing side-by-side, facing the three Wendigos. Sombra leaned against the smaller Twilight Sparkle, who did not compline. She bravely held him up and helped him to move. She let out small grunts as Sombra sometimes swayed due his injuries.
        
Sombra used his magic to snatch his sword from the ground, lifting it in front of them. He then lowered his head to whisper right into Twilight’s ear,  “Listen now, Twilight Sparkle. Can you use your magic?”
“Barely,” Twilight answered with a sad pout and looked up at her frozen horn. “It still hurts my horn to cast magic.”
“How much does it hurt?” Sombra asked.
 “A lot,” was Twilight’s blunt answer.
“I see,” Sombra muttered and thought about something. “Then I guess that the offense is up to me. I cannot move properly, so you have to help me. You do what I tell you to do. Do not get in my way when I attack, that way there will be no accidents. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Twilight answered. “I move, you attack.”
“Exactly,” Sombra continued to whisper. “Now there’s three of them, and only two of us. It is more than likely that they all will attack at the same time. If so, we need to work together. I will watch your back, and you will do the same for me.”
“Got it,” Twilight said, feeling the nervousness starting to build up.
“We have to find a gap for our attacks. They have to be quick and precise, but you can leave that to me. Just keep your guard up and focus.”
He held a small pause before saying, “We will be fine.”
Twilight gulped and said, “I hope so…”
Sombra chuckled a little and whispered into her ear, “I will not let anything bad happen to you Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight looked up at him with a small shy smile and she asked, “Really?”
“I cannot promise anything,” Sombra said more seriously, earning a worried look from Twilight. “But I will try.”

With that he nudged himself forward, and Twilight followed. Nervousness was starting to grow in her, and she bit her lower lip. Sombra dragged his sword behind him lazily. He kept making painful faces as he limped forward, but he showed no signs of giving up.

The Wendigo that Sombra had wounded was moving around fearfully, and when Sombra saw it, he started to grin widely. For the first time in so long he knew what he wanted. He wanted to destroy these evil creatures he was facing. They resembled the past he wanted to forget. He wanted to be free. If he and Twilight Sparkle would succeed this day, he would be just that. Free. Free to be with her.

Fuelled by that thought the warrior in Sombra woke up. He lifted his sword to hover in front of him, it’s wide blade facing the closest Wendigo.
He gave it a challenging look and announced loudly, “Let us not waste any more time. We will settle this right now.”
        
As you wish,” the voices said coldly in unison, startling both of them. The Wendigos didn’t give them much time to react, as the first one was already dashing towards them before their sentence was even over.
“Left!” Sombra commanded to a scared Twilight, who obeyed. They turned towards the attacking Windigo just in time for Sombra to swing his sword at the attacking beast. It had to do a quick evasive move. The second Wendigo attacked right after the first one’s attack had failed, and the wounded one flanked Sombra and Twilight.
“I will take the wounded one, you take the other!” Sombra shouted and followed the wounded one’s moves with the tip of his sword.
“How!?” Twilight almost screamed. “I can’t use my magic!”
“You have to!” Sombra shouted as the wounded one attacked him.
        
Twilight whimpered as the other one started it’s attack. She bit her lower lip and cast a shielding spell, hoping that it would work better than her previous spells. The jolt of pain in her head was almost too much for her, but to her relief, her shield held the monster back. It almost seemed like her magic was stronger now that she was so close to Sombra…

Sombra focused onto the wounded Wendigo. As it tried to bash through his defences, Sombra managed to keep it at bay. He knew that he had to wait for the perfect opportunity.

Which he eventually got. He noticed that the Wendigo attacking Twilight was further away now, giving them just enough time to act. He waited until the wounded Wendigo started to attack, before shouting, “Help Twilight Sparkle!”
Twilight moved on reflex, and spun around with her magical shield as Wendigo was about to reach Sombra. The Wendigo neighed as the shield stopped it’s attack, making the monster rise on it’s hind-legs. Sombra smirked and readied his sword.

One swift swing.

One clean kill.

Everything seemed to stop as the Wendigo in front of them fell down to the ground without sound,  in two pieces. There it laid for a short second, before it vanished in a thick cloud of snow, leaving only a frozen figure of the body to the stone floor.
        
“We did it!” Twilight cheered, while Sombra panted heavily.
He stared at the frozen figure of a body on the floor. He had actually done it. He had won part of his dark past, giving way to his new life. Good life.
His thoughts were cut short by the cold voices speaking.

“Sorrow... “ the voice said sadly. “One of our last brethren… Dead.”
Twilight and Sombra turned towards the two remaining Wendigos, ready to fight. To their surprise the Wendigos were standing further away from them.
The voice took a new, angry tone as it spoke, “Are you happy now, Sombra!?”
“Very,” was his calm answer.
“You are only making our decision easier!” the angry voice shouted, and the other Wendigo stomped it’s front-hooves to the floor. “You just sealed your fate! And hers too!”
“What?” Twilight asked, giving Sombra a confused, slightly worried look.
“Do not mind them,” Sombra said. “Focus.”
Twilight’s worried gaze lingered on him for a second, before she turned to stare at the Wendigos again.
“Sombra,” the calm voice continued again. “Do you remember how we met?”
Sombra didn’t answer.
“Do you remember why we met?” the voice continued. “If not, let me remind you. A pony that you loved was dying, because of the wrongness that you and her had suffered. Do you remember?”
“Don’t listen to them,” Twilight warned Sombra, who was still silent.
“You and Crystal were a victims of injustice, and we saved you, helped you to avenge yourself and her. Do you remember? You said that you would give anything to save her, and all we wanted was to feed.”
A deep frown appeared on Sombra’s face.
“We saved your sister, Sombra,” the voice said. “And what did she do?”
“You shut up!” Twilight shouted at the Wendigos. “He’s not going to listen to you! Right Somb…”
She stopped when she saw how Sombra’s blade was lowered, and his scleras were turning green. Twilight’s ears immediately dropped downwards and she let out a horrified gasp.

“That’s right Sombra,” the voice said and held a dramatic pause before continuing, “She left you. She said that you are a monster. She didn’t love you anymore.”
“Snap out of it Sombra!” Twilight begged as the familiar purple flames started to slip upwards from the corner of Sombra’s eyes. “They are just trying to get into your head! You must fight them like last time!”
“You may have bested one of us, but you know how this will end Sombra. It will be either you or her. What makes you think that Twilight Sparkle will stay with you if it will be her?” the voice asked, making Twilight stare at the Wendigos with her eyes wide and her mouth open.
“First of all, It will never be me, whatever you are talking about! Second, of course I will stay with him!” she shouted at them. “I know that he isn’t a monster!”
“You are a monster, Sombra,” the voice spat. “No matter what she says. She would leave you in a blink of an eye if she would be given the change! If you would be powerful like you used to be, she would be yours forever!”
“No!” Twilight almost screamed in frustration, looking at Sombra, who was motionless. His scleras were now completely green and the purple flames were growing bigger, while his gaze was empty. A disgusted frown was seen on his face. Twilight feared to imagine what kind of thoughts were raging inside of his head.
“So do you want to be left alone once again? Without your powers and your kingdom?” the voice asked. “Or will you take it all? It is your call, and this is your last change. Otherwise you will see another mare that you cared about leave you.”  

Twilight started to feel panic growing inside of her as Sombra’s sword started to lower, and the fact that the Wendigos stated to approach them didn’t help at all. She tried to come up with something to say.
“Sombra…” Twilight said quietly and lifted her other front hoof to Sombra’s cheek, turning his face towards her. Sombra stared at her, but at the same time past her.
Twilight smiled sadly and started, “I know that you aren’t a…”

“Would you leave me?” Somba suddenly asked with a low voice, his eyes suddenly sharp and staring right at her, making Twilight wince. She quickly recovered from her surprise and started right into those red eyes of his.
She smiled and said sternly, “I would never leave you.”
Suddenly a warm smile appeared to Sombra’s lips and he said, “That is all I need to hear.”

With that he stomped his other front-hoof into the stone floor, from where black crystal spike sprouted and headed towards the Wendigos. One was fast enough to react and got out of the harms way. The other one wasn’t so lucky.

A long, sharp spike of black crystal rushed up from the ground beneath it, impaling it right from under it’s ribcage. Three more spikes impaled the foul creature while it let out high-pitched scream of pain.
“You… You killed me!” the angry voice shouted at Sombra, who was grinning madly.
“You… You son of a..!” the angry voice started to shout, but stopped as the impaled Wendigo burst into a cloud of snow, leaving four spikes pointing upwards from the ground. Sombra laughed menacingly, and even Twilight didn’t say anything, she was horrified. Her most powerful magical attacks didn’t even make the Wendigos wince and she could just barely block their attacks, while Sombra’s dark magic could destroy them with ease. She was just staring at the stallion with the blood thirsty grin, thinking what kind of powers Sombra actually had... She just couldn't take her eyes off from him.

That might have been the reason for her not reacting quickly enough to block the other Wendigo’s attack.

The impact was hard, and the pair of ponies were separated. Twilight Sparkle landed face first on the floor after a flight of a couple of meters, slid on the floor and finally hit one of the pillars in the hall. The impact made her disoriented, and when she finally got her head clear, she didn’t see Sombra anywhere.

And the last Wendigo was right in front of her.

“You…” it growled with it’s head right in front of Twilight. She felt the same coldness take over her that she had felt earlier that day. She knew what that meant, and she had no way to defend herself now.
“Sombra?” she groaned, trying to locate the dark stallion somewhere, hoping that he was okay. “Where are you!?”
“You are an extraordinary mare, Twilight Sparkle,” the Wendigo said slowly as she was trying to struggle against it’s powers. “You made Sombra kill two of us with your strange powers. It is something that nopony has never done before, and I have to say… I am more than interested about those powers that you possess. Are they something that the alicorn sisters have taught you? Some kind of ancient magic that even we don’t know about?”
Twilight chuckled a little, but it ended into a painful cough as the coldness took more and more of her into it’s tight grip.
“What is so funny Twilight Sparkle?” the Windigo spat.
“It is The Magic of Friendship! Of course you don’t know it!” Twilight laughed with a painful, yet amused grin on her face.
The Wendigo laughed coldly and said, “Magic of Friendship? Let me laugh. You are clearly lying.”

“Guess again!”

Twilight recognized the voice to belong to Sombra, and immediately a spark of hope lit in her heart. Before either she or the Wendigo could react, something flew right past the Wendigos head, cutting some of it’s icy mane, before impaling the pillar that Twilight Sparkle was leaning against. It was Sombra’s crystal blade, that was deep inside the pillar.

Both Twilight and the Wendigo turned to look towards the voice. There they saw Sombra. His scleras were still green and the purple fires were burning from his eyes. Blood was dripping from his muzzle and mouth, down his fangs and finally it dropped to his battered armor, making him look demonic
Ignoring his appearance Twilight screamed in joy, “Sombra! You’re alive!”
“Didn’t I kill you already?” the Wendigo asked annoyedly.
“You tried,” Sombra said and spat blood to the floor.
        
Everypony was quiet for a moment, before the Wendigo bettered it’s pose and spoke, You missed.”
Sombra shrugged and said, “My aim is not what it used to be.”
The Wendigo then sighed and began to speak“What do you win with this? Nothing. You are almost falling apart. I will kill you now, and let’s pretend that if you actually could kill me, you would still…”
“Actually I already killed you,” Sombra cut in with a victorious grin on his face.
The Windigo just laughed and asked, “And how did you do that?”
“Or it was not me actually,” Sombra said, nodding towards Twilight Sparkle. The Windigo turned to look towards the purple alicorn, who had ripped the sword from the pillar and was now holding it in her magical grip. An angry frown appeared on her face and her wings stretched open.

“Magic of Friendship!” she said angrily and thrusted the sword deep into the chest of the Windigo towering over her. It neighed from pain and rose on it’s hind-legs, the sword still sticking in it’s chest. Visible rage burned in it’s cold eyes as it aimed it’s front-hooves towards Twilight. Maybe she should have aimed at it’s neck like Sombra had told her?
“Dammit,” Twilight muttered as those deadly hooves started to approach her with lethal speed. Just before they could hit her in the head, they turned into clouds of white smoke and snow.

“No!” the Windigo managed to shout, before it was gone in the cloud of snow and smoke. The sword dropped to the floor with a loud clank, but after that everything was so very very quiet. She felt how the terrible feeling of coldness started to slowly vanish from her wings and horn as the weird frost melted away.

Twilight felt how the air started to get warmer, and she saw how the dark clouds from above the old castle started to fade away, revealing the starry night-sky. She slowly rose up and stared at the sky. The atmosphere was feeling unreal. There was a small layer of melting snow everywhere, and dust slowly falling towards the floor. She thought that she even heard a bird chirping somewhere nearby. If somepony would have walked into the room at that moment, he or she wouldn’t have guessed that there had been a battle just minutes before.

Well if you wouldn’t count the obvious signs of battle like black crystal spikes spurting from the floor and one giant spike of similar origins impaling the roof, not to mention dark spots on the walls which were still smoking after the magic projectiles had hit them. Twilight sighed annoyedly. Why did Sombra have to do that? Now the whole interior was ruined…

“Sombra!” Twilight exclaimed as she realized that the dark stallion was nowhere to be seen. She spun around quickly, but did not see him anywhere.
“Where did you go!?” she called, but there was no answer. Twilight scanned her surroundings quickly, before noticing that the front door of the hall was slightly open. She quickly jumped into the air and glided to the door, where she saw a couple of drops of blood on the floor.
“Sombra?” she called from the door, peeking outside. She still didn’t see Sombra anywhere, so she stepped outside.

She then jumped back into the air, and with strong flaps of her wings she gained altitude. She circled around the castle for a good ten minutes, not seeing anything. She started to get worried. Sombra was injured. Who knows what could happen to him in the Everfree Forest.

She decided to expand the search area, which was a good idea. It didn’t take long for Twilight to spot Sombra. He was limping forward on a small road near the edge of the forest at the south end of the castle. Twilight sighed from relief, but started to wonder why he was heading that way. There was nothing of interest there.

Twilight glided towards Sombra, landing next to him with a small thud. Sombra winced at the sound, but when he saw that it was Twilight, he continued to limp onward.
“Where are you going!?” Twilight asked angrily. “You are hurt!”
“I am going to find a place to die,” Sombra answered bluntly, making Twilight confused.
“What?” she asked with almost amused tone in her voice. “Now why in the world would you do that?”
Sombra stopped, turned to look at Twilight with a guilty look in his red eyes. He hesitated for a moment, but then answered to her question, “I betrayed you Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight stared at him for a moment. He was right, but the info that Twilight had gotten that night was saying that he had had some good reasons to do so. She decided to ask about them.
“And why did you do that?” she asked, and Somba frowned. He started to limp forward again.
After a couple of painful steps he answered, “To protect you.”
“See?” Twilight said and trotted next to him. “I’m not going to ask you how you thought you were trying to protect me, but you did it because of that!”
Sombra was quiet, staring at the ground. He then lifted his gaze towards Twilight Sparkle and asked with a serious voice, “Where is The King’s Gem?”
“The Alicorn Amulet?” Twilight asked, and Sombra nodded. Twilight then said, “It is in a safe place for now.”

Sombra was quiet, and continued to limp. Twilight sighed and followed him.
“You know Ponyville is that way,” she noted and pointed to the right way with her wing.
“I already told you that I cannot live with you anymore,” Sombra said angrily. “You cannot live with a monster that almost killed you.”

Twilight groaned annoyedly.
“Why do you always have to be so melodramatic!?” she asked with a loud voice, making Sombra stop. She stomped in front of him and stared right into his eyes before asking “Did you see how the Wendigos stopped when we were hugging?”
“Yes I saw…” Sombra said averting her gaze.
Twilight huffed and then asked, “Do you know what that meant?”
“Of course I know,” Sombra answered awkwardly. “But I do not…”
Twilight cut in with a stern tone in her voice, “That means that there had to be a strong friendship between someponies in that room, and I highly doubt that it wasn’t between you and the Wendigos, and it damn sure wasn’t between me and them!”
“No need to curse Twilight Sparkle,” Sombra commented, but shut his mouth when Twilight snorted angrily.
She then took a couple of deep breaths and then continued, slightly calmer than before, “What I meant is that if there was such a strong bond between us that the Wendigos hesitated to attack us when they had the chance, I can and will forgive you for doing this.”
She then hesitated for a moment before asking, “Do you remember what I said up at the roof?”
“Yes,” Sombra answered a bit awkwardly. “Every word.”
“I meant every one of them,” Twilight quickly said with a warm smile on her lips.

Sombra carefully lifted his eyes to meet with Twilight’s purple ones. He then sighed and said with defeated tone, “Alright Twilight Sparkle… You win this time.”
“I always win,” Twilight chirped, and then made Sombra turn around.
“Let’s go home,” she said to Sombra, who huffed and hung his head a little.
“My home was destroyed a thousand years ago,” he sighed, but then felt a soft wing landing on his back. Sombra looked at the smaller mare walking next to him, and she was wearing a smile that made his heart melt.

“Your home is where my home is,” Twilight said to Sombra, who too began to smile.
“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” Sombra said and lowered his head so that they were in some sort of an hug-resembling pose for a second. Sombra felt how Twilight’s grip was getting tighter, and he started to feel more awkward by the second.
 Sombra pushed Twilight a little backwards, breaking their hug and said, “Don’t get any ideas Twilight Sparkle.”
“Hmph,” Twilight replied, but she was smiling.

Then they continued to walk through the Everfree Forest under the moonlight.