//------------------------------// // Ink // Story: Sombra. Saga of Hatred // by HiddenUnderACouch //------------------------------// The interior of the town hall reminded Sombra of the noble mansions, much to his distaste. Merely standing in the main hall beside a pile of bags packed to the brim with his stuff made him feel sick. The pomposity and overzealous loyalty to fashion was such a big change to the simple design of any building in Granitza, it felt like he was dragged away into a different realm altogether. While the hall wasn’t too big, it tried to compensate for that with a staggering amount of furniture, each piece probably made by the finest craftponies of the Unicorn Kingdom. The walls were covered with curtains of red and black, and those parts that were revealed would house a claw-shaped sconce holding a candle. There was a rug on the floor that felt rough and harsh like wild grass. Larissa was standing nearby, looking at the pompous interior with a rather amused expression. “Quite a change of scenery, if I do say so myself. Much more appealing to the eye, don’t you think?” “Not to mine, definitely,” Sombra replied, averting his sight from Larissa, who tittered at his disgruntled reply. “Just don’t tell Crumbled Paper. He has already made a fool of himself, we don’t want him to realize his taste for décor is rather poor as well.” She signalled Sombra to pick up his bags and follow her. Grunting, he followed her orders and they continued onward, deeper down the hall and towards a flight of stairs leading to the upper level. “It seems there are only the ground level and this upper floor. Where are we going to stay, I wonder?” Larissa hummed under her nose while looking around. “If Radiant makes me sleep in some dirty storeroom… Ooh my, will he regret ever being born!” “I’m pretty sure this place doesn’t have a dirty storeroom. Not if compared to the rest of the town,” Sombra remarked sarcastically, completely ignoring his surroundings. Climbing the stairs with the bags weighing him down proved to be challenging enough to forget about the hall’s beauty. “Where are we heading, anyway?” “To Crumbled Paper’s office, of course,” Larissa replied. “Radiant should be there. I’ll inform him of your purpose around me, take care of some paperwork and then we’ll head off to rest.” “Then why the Abyss am I carrying my stuff for? Can’t I just leave it somewhere and get it later?” “I never said you couldn’t do that.” Larissa smiled amicably as Sombra turned crimson. “You look so cute when you’re angry.” Sombra wanted to reply with some kind of insult, but bottled up his anger and just swallowed nervously. As much of a bitch Larissa was, she was his only hope for survival in his current situation. Angering her would be as good as slicing his own throat. After ascending to the upper floor, Larissa led Sombra through the door into the mayor’s office. Immediately upon entering, Sombra’s nostrils were filled with a thick aroma of tobacco. Not the filthy, throat-tearing stuff he used to smoke, but legit, expensive tobacco. It was ripping into his eyes, making them water. Without a single window and only a few candles burning under the ceiling to light the path, Sombra could barely make out the silhouettes of Crumbled Paper and a pony he presumed to be Lord Radiant. “I thought I made it very clear that we do not want to be interrupted!” Crumbled Paper growled ferociously, turning around, and immediately turned ash-pale upon seeing Larissa. “Oh… my sincerest apologies, Inquisitor.” “No-no, no need to apologize. I hate to interrupt tender moments between you and Radiant. If you’re really that busy, we shall leave.” Larissa bowed her head mockingly as Paper turned a shade of ripe red. “There w-w-was nothing…” His expression changed to that of rage once he spotted Sombra. “What is this peasant doing here?! Who let him in here?! Guards! Gua—” He was interrupted by a harsh slap right across the face. “Let’s make it easier for me: you talk when I say you may,” Larissa grumbled, shaking her hoof as if she just touched something nasty. “I have neither the time nor the patience to slap you every time you need to shut up… So, where was I? Lord Radiant, I hope you remember our last conversation?” Sombra peered through the smoke and finally saw its source: an old, decrepit pony sitting at a table with a tobacco pipe in his mouth. His eyes were dim and muddy. His coat along with his mane was almost completely white. Flesh was hanging on his bones like sackcloth; legs were thin and shaky, ready to break from any pressure. Was this their supposed Lord? “Yes… I most definitely… do.” Radiant spoke slowly, puffing out smoke even while speaking. “You were saying something about… a bodyguard?” “Indeed. So, after a little while, I have decided that this young soldier will be my personal bodyguard throughout my entire stay in your… ehem… most exquisite town,” Larissa said. The eldritch pony peered at Sombra with his dim eyes. Sombra made only a small bow and yet that still dealt a huge blow to his self-esteem. “Very well… you may take him in…” Radiant murmured and started coughing. Crumbled immediately fetched a small towel and started wiping his master’s mouth. “But Lord… it’s that scoundrel from the parade! It was he who assaulted me, your loyal servant!” After Radiant had finished coughing up a huge wad of saliva, Paper swiftly cleaned his mouth and threw the towel in the bin. “You know I have no interest in your personal life, Paper. If the Lady Inquisitor wishes to keep this colt at her service, let it be so. I wish not to anger the Inquistion…” Radiant took a deep breath and laid down his pipe. “Now, please, leave this room. I must rest.” “As you command, my Lord,” Paper said, slithering away and escaping the room as fast as possible. “Much obliged, Lord Radiant.” Larissa made some sort of half-nod into Radiant’s direction, then signalled Sombra to follow her out of the office. “Guh… I think I’m going to be sick.” Sombra couldn’t get the image of an old man coughing out a huge ball of Abyss-know-what into a towel. Was that how old age supposed to look like? “I take it you enjoyed your time in there, then.” Larissa meant drily. “Worry not, I plan not to meet Radiant anymore. Since he decided to sleep instead of doing his job, we may safely proceed to our quarters.” “Ye—... Hold on, our quarters? I thought we would sleep in separate rooms!” Sombra glanced at Larissa with irritation and anger, while she replied with a glance full of glee. “Did I? Whoopsie! I may have… sugar coated it a little bit. Silly me!” Larissa put a hoof to her mouth in a fake expression of shock. “But you have to admit: guarding this body is worth losing a bit of your personal space.” Growling under his breath, Sombra tried his best to resist Larissa’s sassy flirtations, as well as not staring at her massive tush. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say.” “Good boy.” Larissa smiled, picking up pace and trotting ahead. With heavy heart, Sombra forced himself into a livelier trot despite the bags weighing him down. *** To Sombra’s surprise, their quarters were located not in the upper levels of the town hall, but below the ground level. One thing Sombra noted about Granitza yet never quite understood was that every house had a cellar — most of them unused and left in shoddy conditions. Here, however, the cellar was used to its full capacity. It was a whole underground floor. One could almost get the impression that the building was ‘growing’ downwards. “Quite a nice place, isn’t it? I really dig the architerture.” Larissa laughed at her own pun. “Make yourself comfortable. We’ve got the whole day for ourselves.” Somehow that last sentence was more unnerving than it had any right to be. Sombra just shook his head clear of any weird thoughts and ventured straight to the bedroom. In architecture, it didn’t deviate from the royal standards of nobility, except a bit damper, being underground, and with a few more scratches on the furniture. However, the thing that disturbed Sombra the most was the fact that there was only one bed — a huge one, meant for two. His eyes fixated at the bed, Sombra walked to the nearby cupboard and dropped his bags near it. “What, no comment about the bed?” Larissa’s resonating voice reached Sombra. He replied with a stifled groan. “Somehow it doesn’t surprise me.” The only way her desire could any more obvious was if she tried to rape him. “Aww, what a shame. I love surprising ponies,” she replied to his irritated groan. “Once you’re ready, meet me in the library. We’ve got things to discuss.” Probably a collection of lewd books she needs to sort out, Sombra thought to himself. After he was done unpacking, he trotted into the library. The instant he entered the room, his nostrils were filled with the smell of old paper. Despite being not too large, the library had accumulated such a huge amount of dust that it was nigh impossible to breathe. Trying to limit his breathing as much as he could, Sombra searched for Larissa and found her blowing dust off of the told tomes. “So many manuscripts… It’s a shame they’re being held here.” She sighed, with a slight touch of sadness in her voice. “I never imagined you’d be a big reader.” Sombra allowed himself a hint of sarcasm, which didn’t move Larissa too much. “I’m not. I just find that our crystallian authors are much more skilled in writing. Be it education or fiction. I mean, have you ever read a Unicornian spell book?” “Ehm, n—” “They’re absolute trash! There’s little to no active spell casting — only worthless sophistry!” Larissa seemed to have slipped into some sort of trance. She just kept ranting. “Damn unicorns and their damn kingdom. Flooded the market with low grade trash.” “If you say so.” Sombra, who had barely managed to finish studying the book on dark magic and that adventure novel the name of which he had forgotten over the years, clearly had no say in the matter. “But oh well. I guess the higher-ups should decide what books we should read.” She hummed and turned to Sombra. “Now, puffy cheeks, answer my question: how much do you know about dark magic?” Now that question Sombra definitely didn’t expect. “I… Not much…” Sombra stuttered, skimming through his mind for any memory of dark magic. How long had it been since he last used it? And what it brought him? He would rather never remember. “Not much at all.” “Interesting. You don’t know anything about it, yet your eyes scream otherwise.” Larissa grinned, quickly shifting to Sombra and putting her hoof on his temple, to get a better view of his crimson eyes. “Marvelous… How much energy must have went through you in order to change this much!” Creeped out by Larissa’s commentary, Sombra took a step back. It seemed as though this mare could figure out far more about him that he would like. Noticing Sombra’s worry, Larissa bared her fangs in a smile. “Don’t be so tense. Save it for the night, honey.” Walking slowly, she trotted past Sombra, her tail gently brushing his muzzle. “While hearing the tales of your past would make for an exciting noon, I am not too interested. I only want to know: just how much have you tapped into the dark arts?” “What does this have to do with anything? Even if I did use dark magic before, it shouldn’t impact my ability to protect you.” “Oh, I doubt your capabilities not, my noble knight,” she cooed, and then suddenly Sombra felt a soft touch on his back. “You’re strong, brave and enduring.” Larissa gently slid her hoof along Sombra’s spine, ruffling his mane and knocking off his helmet. “But don’t forget that you’re a unicorn. Right now, you’re an unrefined diamond. But once I’m done polishing you...” She whispered in his ear, her voice creeping into Sombra’s brain like a honey-covered worm. “You want to… to teach me?” Larissa’s intentions began to open up a bit; however it wasn’t making things any easier. In fact, it was making everything much, much more difficult. “That wasn’t part of the deal. You didn’t tell me—” “Did you forget? I like surprises - whether they’re for me, or by me.” Larissa walked past Sombra and sat down in front of him. “If you really expect to know about everything before it happens, then you’ll be pretty disappointed in your life.” “Yeah… I get that…” Sombra wanted to find a reason to decline, to excuse himself and walk away… yet something was telling him that it would not be dangerous. Despite his past experiences, it was only knowledge — before, he was young and stupid. Now, he would be wise enough to let it sink in and never appear. He might be taught dark magic, but it didn’t mean he had to use it. Not after everything he went through. “Very well, then… If you find me so deserving of your spare time, I won’t protest.” “Believe me, you’re more than worthy of my spare time, muffin.” Larissa cooed, trotting deeper into the library. “Let’s take a walk, shall we? I hate just sitting around.” With all the enthusiasm of a corpse, Sombra followed Larissa deeper into the library. The lamps and torches got more and more scarce as they walked forward, forming a rather ominous ambience. Each next shelf of books looked more ancient than the previous one. The mayors of Granitza were really dedicated to collecting and guarding literature, it seemed. “Now this really makes me feel homesick.” Larissa inhaled the stale air and sighed with pleasure. “Oh well. I guess when you’re that long away from home, it’s a given. But nevertheless, shall we begin?” Sombra nodded in reply, and she continued. “It’s an obvious fact that you have used dark magic before, Sombra. I don’t care why and for what reason, just answer me this - what book did you read when you first learned to harness your emotions? What was its name?” “It’s… Scientia Tenebrae, I think.” Somehow, that name was still in his memory after all these years. “Classy. It’s ironic, really. This book is studied at the University of Magic in the capitol, yet it contains barely enough information for a first grade student.” Larissa let out a light giggle. “Then I’ll have to start from the very beginning. Reveal the bones, as they say.” Sombra was left to wonder where that metaphor came from. “Many professors and teachers will tell you that magic is a wonderful alien hailing from another universe, a different dimension beyond our reach or understanding. Priests and preachers will call it the gift of the gods. But they're all senile fools — they're too scared of anything chaotic." Larissa smiled, as her horn was engulfed in conjured flames. "Thus they use magic in a way according to that. Everything must be built out of something — and magic provides us with materials and tools." The air sparked with power as a shape of a big ancient castle appeared in the air. "The mind of an architect is truly a mystery. How could such imagination feel free within such limitations...? Indeed, you can build anything, but if you build it wrongly, it'll crumble." A single movement of Larissa's horn and the castle disappeared into nothingness, leaving not even a single trace behind. "And nopony will remember it was there in the first place. This is how our world functions — diverse, yet orderly. Free, yet contained... Except, maybe, one thing." As the magical fire burned brighter and brighter, a magical vortex started forming above them. Sombra looked up, wondering if she was conjuring some kind of spell or it was purely for show. The vortex had dozens of bright dots floating inside it, sometimes turning dimmer and disappearing completely, or exploding in a flash of light. “There’s a thing that stands out in this rather boring, orderly plain: It’s us.” Sombra felt Larissa’s hoof press on his chest. “All of us, ponies. Our souls disturb the natural order of things by merely existing.” The vortex started spinning, mesmerizing Sombra by its complex beauty. Suddenly, huge bursts of black started sprawling from certain dots, staining the vortex with the dim dark colour. “The easel is crafted. The canvas is ready. The only thing left is color. The most chaotic of an artist's tools, don't you think? The colors follow no rules — they mix, they spill, they flow, ever-changing. Our souls are the color, Sombra. From us, the Ink is born!” Larissa smiled, watching Sombra back away in slight shock at the sight of her display. In but a flash, the vortex collapsed on itself, snapping, ripping itself inside and out. The magical fire trembled and swirled, as it descended down, flowing right back into Larissa’s horn. “Unlike arcane energies, the Ink follows no rules. There are no spells, no blueprints. You're not building anything. You're painting the world around you. But you can't paint with dull colors, oh no! How do you paint white canvas with white colors? That is why kindness, courage or generosity will only serve to enhance the true components of the Ink - fear, dismay, hatred! The blacker the color, the more visible it'll be on a clean canvas.” Larissa looked back at Sombra, who was dumbstruck at the display he just witnessed. “The 'spells' you read about in that book — they are but a decoy to lure you into thinking that dark magic is just arcane magic painted black. A miserable lie! Dark magic has no spells, it follows no rules! It comes from us and it therefore is just as volatile, just as unique, and just as limitless in potential.” “The stronger my feelings are… the more powerful I will be?” Sombra muttered, his mind still contemplating the newly discovered information. “You are absolutely correct!” Larissa clapped her hooves in joy. “You learn so fast! Your teacher is proud of you!” “The endless amount of potential that you can bend to your will — is that not the stuff of dreams?” Larissa looked at Sombra with a strange fire in her eyes. “Oh, when you finally realize this potential of yours, you’ll grow up so much, even in your own eyes.” “I don’t that’ll be necessary… I’ve grown up enough, I think.” Sombra took a step back, creeped out by Larissa’s sudden shift of subjects, and found himself stepping into a small puddle of water. “What the—” Before he could say anything else, Sombra sunk underneath the floor, as if the stone had suddenly turned into water. The cold liquid embraced him, wrapped him in its deathly grasp, flowing into his nose, ears and eyes. Confused and lost, Sombra started fighting, desperately waving his legs in order to swim upwards, but the blue abyss was sucking him in faster than he could swim. “Death waits for the slightest lapse in concentration, my darling. You may encounter a drunk, who’s ready to split you open from neck to abdomen for a couple of coins.” Larissa looked down on him as he was sinking. “It may be a wild animal. Or you may just drown — like right now. Feeling grown up right now, eh?” Sombra swam with all his might, cursing everything and its mother with the foulest of curses. What did just happen? Why was he drowning in solid objects? Larissa’s entertained muzzle was enough of an explanation. Fueled with anger and fury, Sombra fought against the stream and pushed himself to the limit, yet to no avail. Soon, his vision became dark and muddy, while his slowing heartbeat was the only thing in his ears. Death had its ghastly hooves wrapped around Sombra’s neck. How could it end like this? Dying a nopony, in some old library, taken by a spell of a mad whore. Maddened by such prospect, Sombra began to panic, his last wits escaping and letting loose the primal fear of death. “Have you ever pulled a worm out of the ground? You look just like one!” Larissa continued to gloat, as her silhouette became blurred. Losing his strength in a desperate struggle, his lungs collapsing from the lack of oxygen, Sombra opened his mouth and breathed in. The illusion vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared. Sombra’s eyes shot open and he found himself on the floor, lying in a rather uncomfortable position, his fur dripping with sweat. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? You look like you’ve seen a gho—” Larissa just barely opened her mouth to spew some more pretentious crap when Sombra rushed straight at her and pinned her against the bookshelf. “You bitch! What did you do to me?!” Reason and logic were left behind in favour of pure rage. “What did you do?!” “Oh, it was nothing. Just a little mind trick.” Despite being nailed against the bookshelf, Sombra’s hoof violently pressing on her throat, Larissa seemed as gleeful as ever. “You seemed a bit bored, and I thought you needed a demonstration.” “Demonstration?! You almost killed me!” Sombra’s indignant shouts only provoked laughter from the Inquisitor. “Oh my, such a big colt and yet he wets himself after a bad dream! Perhaps I ought to change your nappies; is that why you’re so grumpy?” “I’ll gut you!” Sombra bellowed right at her. Larissa didn’t seem fazed in any way. “Somehow, I doubt that will happen.” She smiled and suddenly disappeared, her body turning into black mist and evaporating. Sombra backed off, his heart starting to pound like a war drum. “You didn’t think the illusion was over, right?” Larissa’s disembodied voice reached him. He looked around but saw nopony — it was as though she was speaking right in his head. “What the fuck is going on? Where are you?!” he roared, his eyes darting from corner to corner in vain hope of spotting that slim figure. “This is quite comedic, you know. I could kill you with ease, right here, right now. Me, a weak mare, handling a brute such as you — don’t you find it funny?” “Why don’t you do it, then?!” Larissa turned silent for a moment, and the library went quiet, with only Sombra’s heavy breathing disrupting the silence. The library suddenly started wavering, as if it were but a reflection in the water. The surroundings turned more and more bizarre before fading away completely. After a few moments of standing in complete void, Sombra opened his eyes. Everything was back to normal, it seemed. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Except a very weak, distant sound. Sombra looked around, trying to find its source, but could see only shadows. Larissa was nowhere to be found. “Hey! Larissa!” he shouted. There was no response — either he was still in the illusion, or… he was dead. “Hello?! Anypony here?!” The sound got a little louder, and Sombra finally concluded it to be… crying. Was it a child? It definitely sounded like one. With his only alternative to wander into nowhere, Sombra followed the sound. The closer he got, the louder the crying became and soon it was clear that it was a child. “This isn’t even remotely funny!” Sombra snarled, feeling more and more distressed. “This is not funny!” The sound led Sombra into a dead end. A small filly, her appearance obstructed by darkness, was lying on the floor in the middle of the corridor, in the puddle of incredibly unnerving not-quite-liquid that reminded of tar in which bubbles occasionally popped. No, not bubbles. They were anguished faces. The filly herself occasionally trembled and shivered, as if crying. The longer Sombra stared at her, the more the crying changed into screams of terror and anguish. The shrieking seeped into his brain, enveloping his nerves in pure pain. Sombra gritted his teeth, grabbing his head in feeble attempts to ease his pain. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” he screamed, his head about to explode from the noise. It got more and more loud until Sombra could no longer hear his own thoughts. Suddenly, it all stopped. The screams were silenced and Sombra collapsed on his knees, panting heavily. When he finally gathered enough strength and courage to look up, he saw Larissa, standing where the filly used to be. Her face was, for once, not distorted in a grin, but in concern. “Oh, forgive me. I forgot you’re not familiar with my defenses.” She helped him to his hooves. “The Ink manifests in the most… unsettling of ways, depending on what you feed it with. Next time, just wait for me to come out." “You… you’ve been inside my head, haven’t you?” Sombra spoke slowly, his mind still recovering after the trip. “Inside your head? No, not at all. I only made you see what I wanted you to see.” Larissa smirked. “And before you try to lunge at me again, you weren’t in any real danger.” “But… But I was…” “Drowning? Indeed, you held your breath for quite a long time. But I was in total control. It’s not my first time, fucking with colts like yourself.” She didn’t even look mad, still making double entendres despite what Sombra said to her. “Now, I hope, you understand how crucial it is to utilize every power at your disposal? You’ll never know what will endanger you and those you love in the near future.” “Yeah… I understand…” Sombra nodded. “About what I said… it’s…” “Oh, don’t worry about it! A lot of strange stuff comes out my mouth at the heat of the moment, too. Let’s pretend nothing happened, okay?” Larissa approached Sombra, looking straight into his eyes. “I will help you protect yourself from such assaults. I am not the only one capable of such things. So, my sweetheart, are you ready to embrace this power? Not just grace it with a look, but use it to its full extent?” For some time, Sombra was just starring right back into her eyes. He didn’t know what he was expecting to find in them. He didn’t know what to expect at all anymore. What did she even hope to gain from this? The clearest and sincerest emotion he could see in her eyes was excitement, eagerness. “I agree.” Sombra sighed, closing his eyes. Larissa was right about one thing — she really had him cornered. Whatever manifestation her dark powers took, it gave her a huge edge over him. And who knew what kind of hardships he would need to go through in his future life? Perhaps, many more of his comrades’ lives could be saved in the next winter when the white alpha would return. “Wonderful! I knew you had it in you.” Larissa smiled, clapping her hooves together. “But we can handle it later. I just remembered I had plenty of errands to run today. You go on ahead and take the rest of the day off. See you in the evening.” “Yeah. Sure. Evening.” Sombra murmured in response. So far, no book in this library caught his interest. Perhaps heading out and meeting with his friends would be the best option. *** The candle flickered slightly when Sombra put the lamp on the cupboard. With a sigh of relief, he crashed into the bed, feeling the soft mattress greet him. It had been so long since he’d slept in a really comfortable bed — those constructs in the barracks hardly qualified. That was about the only benefit of staying in this wretched place. Throughout the entire time he’d spent outside, Sombra could not drive away the thought of coming back here. Perhaps it was the fact that he’d have to share this bed with a madpony or that Crumbled Paper was sleeping just a few floors away from him, tired after slobbering all over his Lord’s ass. Larissa still hadn’t returned from her ‘errands’. Today’s events were still fresh in Sombra’s memory and even the few cups of ale he’d shared with his friends didn’t drown them. She made him fear for his life, and did it so effortlessly. The door suddenly creaked, disturbing Sombra’s concentration. He lazily tore his head away from the pillow to take a look and his heart skipped a beat when he saw Larissa standing in the doorway. “Sorry I took so long,” she drawled, throwing back her hair that obstructed her vision. “Can’t do it faster when you’re dealing with this bad boy.” She swung her tail around before sitting down and hugging it. Whatever errands Larissa had had to do, it involved a huge amount of bathing and hair brushing. “What? Is something wrong with my hair? Oh, come on, don’t tell me I have split ends!” Larissa immediately started checking on her mane and, after a short period of ruffling herself, she turned her sight to Sombra. “Come on, sweetheart, don’t scare me like that.” Smiling playfully, she walked up to the bed, next to Sombra, and put her hoof on his cheek. “You look stunned. Must have been a long time since you’ve seen a real mare.” “I… Gah!” Sombra barely managed to snap out of the hypnosis and pushed her hoof away from his cheek. “I’ve seen mares aplenty, thank you very much.” “Oh, so you’re experienced already.” She had a knack of turning things he said into something she could use. “I’m starting to like you even more.” “Where did you even find the tools for… this?” Sombra asked, genuinely interested. Most mares in Granitza only had the option of splashing some water on themselves in old wooden tubs. “Hehe. You see, tools of torture are not the only things I carry around in my baggage.” Larissa replied with a smile and suddenly yawned. “Oh, I’m beat.” Sombra didn’t even notice how she slid to the other side of the bed and snuck under the blanket. For a moment, it seemed it wouldn’t go any further, but then he felt a gust of warm air on his ear. “Tell me a secret, pumpkin: how many mares have you had before me?” she purred tenderly, her hoof wrapping around his neck. “N-none. I have duties to attend… to.” Sombra gulped, gritting his teeth. Larissa’s hair gave away a sweet smell of honey. It seeped into his nose, shutting down his thoughts. A single breath and he had already forgotten what he wanted to say. “Did I tell you that you’re a bad liar? If I did, excuse me for repeating myself.” Larissa inched a bit closer, leaning on him, her long mane falling on Sombra’s shoulders. “But that doesn’t matter. They don’t matter. Nothing matters. It’s only you, I, and the long night ahead of us.” Sombra closed his eyes so he wouldn’t see that smile, but it didn’t help that much; he could still feel her puffy, soft mane and the warmth of her body. In desperate hope that, like a predator, she would lose interest if he showed no signs of life, he kept absolutely still. However, his eyes shot open when he felt Larissa pushed him down and straddled him. Before he knew it, he was staring deep into her eyes, her mane flowing down on his chest, her tight black leather corset rubbing against him. Amazing — why was she still wearing it? “You feel tense. Relax, pumpkin. The world is a terrible place, but it’s important to know when to let your guard down.” Her voice was sweet, mellow, welcoming. Sombra felt her tail wrap around his hind leg, tingling in the most sensual of places. He felt his mind being swiped of rebellious thoughts. “I… I need to… I…” Sombra started to lose control over his instincts. At any minute, he could snap, but he no longer felt like it was a bad thing — in fact, quite the opposite. He wanted to lose control. He wanted to give in. He wrapped his hooves around Larissa, pulling her even closer. “Good colt. Keep going.” To seal her victory, she locked lips with Sombra in a kiss, going in aggressively, preventing retreat. Sombra’s mind went hazy and his sight was clouded. His head was empty of thoughts. Her smell, her touch — it was driving him nuts. He had to have her. He was obliged to. The only thing he still felt was something rough and cold rubbing against his chest. The more active Larissa acted, the stronger it felt. Sombra felt his mind going back to him once he focused on this feeling. It was his pendant, that little thing, a piece of his old life that he refused to take off. And now he was glad he did. Carefully, Sombra turned on his side, Larissa landing on the soft bed, and then tried to distance himself away from her, pushing her away. “Huh? What’s the matter?” She opened her eyes, confused after having her prize taken from her. “I just remembered! I didn’t check the perimeter!” Finally, in control of himself, Sombra wrestled his leg out of Larissa’s tail and sprung up from the bed. “I’ve got guard duty! Gotta go!” “Oh, forget about it! Others can handle i—” She moaned with irritation, but Sombra interrupted her. “No-no-no! I’ve got to make sure! Got to check! Later!” Without turning around, he rocketed out of the room away from Larissa. Only when he walked at least a few corridors and descended to the upper levels could he let out a sigh of relief. Too close. That was way too close. For all the promises he made to himself, he’d succumbed to her charms rather easily. With guilt eating away at him, Sombra looked at the small pendant. He had been wearing it for so long, he’d forgotten he even had it. Yet now, it’d saved him from becoming his own libido’s victim. How could he let his guard down like that? Larissa didn’t need dark magic to control him, it seemed. While heading outside for a breath of cold fresh air, Sombra thought about the ways he could prevent this from happening again. Learning to control himself would be a good start. *** The door creaked softly when Sombra gently tried to push it open. The hinges were too rusted to be opened silently, so the only option left was to take it slow and pray that Larissa wouldn't wake up to the noise. If she was asleep at all, that was. It had taken Sombra a while to get a hold of himself. He couldn't recall how long he’d just stood in one place and stared into the cloudy night sky. At first, he didn't want to return at all — he could ask for shelter in the nearby houses. Granitza's residents were always glad to help out a fellow soldier, since most families were somehow tied to the military, but leaving his post was not something Sombra would do. After all, it was his duty to protect the sex-crazed mare. He couldn't leave her unless she ordered it. Treading carefully, Sombra peeked into the room. The dim light of the nightstand’s candle was still shining, but the candle itself was almost burnt down completely. Even a slight gust of random wind would blow it out. Larissa had tucked herself away at the right hand side of the bed, her mane covering the entire pillow. Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, Sombra closed the door behind him and approached. He had to lie down with her again — not a thought he cherished too much. Although, now, Larissa looked so much different — no grins, no insidious expressions. Instead, her mouth formed a light, content smile. At times, she would move, wrapping the blanket around herself, as if trying to protect herself from something, or protecting something with herself. There was something so enchanting in her peaceful, loving expression. An angel asleep, a demon awake, Sombra thought to himself and found himself smiling. What was really running through the head of this weird crazy pony? A mystery he'd not soon uncover, if ever. He wasn't sure if he wanted to, really. The sooner this whole endeavor would end, the better. Erasing the smile from his face, Sombra quietly slipped underneath the blanket and made himself comfortable on the soft mattress. "Sweet dreams," he whispered, mostly to nopony, a bit to himself and a tiny bit for Larissa, and then softly snuffed out the candle, plunging the room into complete darkness.