The four of them gathered around Sombra. He started to squirm, and a few of the invisible bonds snapped.
Starlight clicked her tongue. "Now now, Sombra, don't struggle. We wouldn't want the bonds to get tighter, would we?" With a sweet grin, more bonds came up, binding his feet together. Sombra roared in pain as the bonds drew his hooves closer and closer together while the rest of the ropes cut into his skin.
The other mares laughed at him, and at once gathered into a circle. Sombra, now collapsed onto the floor, looked up at them in wide eyed terror. "Please..." he forced out in a strangled gasp. "Don't... hurt..." The rest of the unicorns chuckled in delight at the first words they had heard him speak.
"Stand up, Sombra," Twilight said curtly. "We don't have all night." Using her magic, Trixie dragged him to his hooves, and he swayed shakily, looking around at them.
"So. Who's first?" Sunset sweetly asked, looking around at her companions.
"Me," Twilight said, stepping forward. "I was, after all, the one who caught him." Without waiting for a response. Twilight stood in front of Sombra, glaring into his red eyes. Green still shone from behind the red, pulsing with magic. Then, Twilight tilted his chin up, and pressed his horn to her own. Sombra let out a scream, but Twilight promptly sealed his lips shut. The horns now touching, Twilight's horn started to glow. Sparking black magic began to flow from Sombra's horn to Twilight's. After a moment, she drew her head back, pulling a last bit of magic from Sombra. She let out a relaxed sigh, daintily stepping back.
"Twilight!" Starlight complained. "You took more than your fair share."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just make sure there's enough left to share between the three of you." With that, she zapped herself off to a couch, her magic looking even brighter than before.
Starlight let out a huff, and stepped up to Sombra. Once again, after touching her horn to his, she sucked out some more magic. Sunset did the same, until only Trixie was left.
"Hey! You did not leave much left for the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie shouted angrily. Sunset and Starlight exchanged an annoyed glance. While nonpony acknowledged it, they all knew Trixie was the least powerful out of the four. Sure, she was better at magic than your average unicorn, but not as good as Twilight, Starlight, or Sunset. None the less, Trixie sucked out the final bit of magic from Sombra, leaving only sparks to fizzle out at the tip of his horn. With a heaving sigh, Sombra collapsed. He was much smaller without his magic, not physically, but with his shoulders hunched and head bowed. His cutie mark was still on the side of his flank, but even that seemed duller than before. Perhaps the most shocking change was his eyes. They no longer glowed green, but were a now a crimson red.
Trixie zapped over to Twilight and the others. She nodded in Sombra's direction. "What're we gonna do about him?" She asked.
Twilight shrugged. "Zap him to the dungeons, will you?"
Trixie nodded, proceeding to zap Sombra to a cavern far below them, where it was dark, dank, and musty.
"Starlight, where were you earlier? Trixie said something about you being in Apploosa?" Sunset asked.
Starlight let out a terrifying laugh. "Ah yes, Apploosa. Charming place, really. I was just in there to look for some unicorns that might be useful to us later on." She sniffed. "But its rather full of only Earth ponies."
"Hmm." Sunset said, now uninterested. Suddenly Twilight yelped.
"It's getting early, I have to go! Celestia will be raising the sun soon, and who knows when my friends will be around. Gotta run!" With that, Twilight zapped herself out of the cavern and back into her castle.
Sunset, Trixie, and Starlight sat in silence for a moment.
"Did she just...?" Trixie started.
"I think she did." Sunset said.
"She zapped herself out of this cavern before even going into the entrance room. She zapped straight past all those magical barriers." Starlight said, musing over the fact. "Our little Twily seems to be getting used to those new alicorn powers more with each passing day."
The three continued to talk for another hour, before bidding each other a good morning and zapping themselves back to home.
Meanwhile, back in the caste, Twilight woke Spike up, hearing her friends already bounding down the halls this early.
"Come on Spike. My friends are here." They both got up, and went down to meet the rest of the elements.