*The princess, the deposed ruler, and his companion sat uneasily in the guard’s barracks just within the gate of the Empire. Lazarus sat quietly before the fireplace, still wrapped in Sombra’s cape, finally finding some modicum of success in warming himself. The two of them sat across from eachother, Cadence apparently trying to stare him into submission as he contemplated her silently.
“So where shall I begin? My reason for being here, Lazarus’s, or perhaps there is something you wish to say?” Sombra suggested.
Cadence, gaze unwavering, replied, “I want to know why you are here.”
The king nodded. “Very well, I suppose it ties well enough into the other questions to answer them. I presume you are familiar with the Centaur, Tirek?”
Cadence finally blinked, confused. “Well… yes, but I hardly see why that’s-”
“Are you aware of the year he began his incursion into Equestrian lands?” She shook her head.
Mildly annoyed, the king sighed. “I had guessed as much. He invaded during my reign. His kind consumes magic in order to gain power, and the Crystal heart emits a great deal even in a placid state. You and I can both feel it, even from the edge of the empire. As far as the badlands to the far south.”
Sombra rose from his chair, and moved to a window. He stared, wistful, outside. “My people, the source of its power, felt love. Felt peaceful. And that would soon bring an end to them, had I… had I not made my pact.”
Cadence seemed doubtful of him, and of her own skepticism. “Your pact? You mean your dark magic?”
Sombra snorted, and gave a short laugh. “Such an impotent term. This was far from your average hidden-in-the-back-of-a-library tome, or some simplistic ritual a foal could perform. This was a form of ancient, volatile magic, from long before even the sisters existed.”
“It was a sacrifice to a powerful deity, nearly forgotten by those who worshiped him. My blood, my body, were given as tribute to him, so that he could give me the power to hide my people, and protect them when the time came.” He turned back to her, casting a cursory glance at Lazarus to ensure he was not too close to the fire. “He gave me the power of fear and nightmares. Illusions and deception. Belial and suffering. It cut the heart’s power off, hiding us from Tirek. I had the ponies excavate Crystals, for lack of the body I had sacrificed, I required a conduit for my power. But it came with a price far worse.”
“I watched my subjects suffer, by my own hoof. It was a necessary pain, yes, but one I wish I never had cause to inflict. And as they lost more of themselves to their nightmares and labor, I did as well. For every day they continued, I lost a part of me, my empathy, my guilt, locked away in my own corpse. Soon the one who ruled them was merely a shadow, a shade, barely a thought, nearly beyond control.”
Cadence seemed surprised by this, but said nothing as he continued.
“And then came the day I felt the border of my Empire be crossed. Even I felt my shade’s terror, it’s only instinct, in coincidence with my own, was to not let the invader come any closer. I’m not entirely certain of my driving motivation - to protect, yes, but was it for my people? Myself? My wealth? My shame?” He looked toward the floor. “I may never know. All I am certain of is that I felt it needed to call upon the deity again, and hide us away forever at the cost of the slightest impulse of control I had left.”
“I had nothing but the crippling guilt as I lay dead on the shrine of my sins. For centuries. Even as I could only watch my own shadow attack the empire yet again, wanting to take back the control it once had… and, well, you know the rest.”
The princess was silent. Sombra was not directly to blame for the atrocities of his reign, but had still set in motion their suffering. His intent was good, but the actions it required were not. It reminded her, depressingly, of her attempts with Isaac.
The king, smirking in spite of his own misery, looked toward Lazarus, who was listening intently. “I am fortunate for the child’s arrival, else I may never have returned to try and…”
He was quiet, momentarily. “... Apologize. To try and compensate for my errors and mistakes, by ensuring their effects do not continue. I will eradicate the results of all that I have done in my misguided efforts. Every book, every spell, every enchantment, and every nightmare… I am going to remove them all. Destroy them. I choose to repent for my sins, however well meaning they were, rather than sulk and beg for forgiveness. And once I have?”
He looked Cadence in the eyes. She could see the utter, harrowing guilt in his, despite the grave scowl he wore. He could see the turmoil of conflicting sentiments in hers, doubt and empathy, and a sincere desire to want to find reason to disbelieve him.
“I will offer myself for the judgement I have awaited so long.”
Isaac felt restless. Which was unusual, for him, at least. Something in him had been switched on, and he wanted to do something. But what?
He looked about the room. He made his bed. He stacked the papers and pencils neatly. He found and put on his clothes, slightly less stiff than yesterday. But now what? He was too energized to draw. And there wasn’t a great deal else to do in his room. He didn’t have chores, though now he rather wished he did. What else was there to do?
He wandered over to the door, looking up at it contemplatively. Briefly, his mind considered what he did before he came here. When he was happy, and his mother was too. He had toys and games, and things to do - here, he did not. I wonder if it would… if it would be too much to ask the guard…?
No. He could not occupy himself with things he did not deserve. At least, he felt he should not. Not after yesterday. It would be… wrong.
Maybe he could learn, instead? He was intended to be in school as of yesterday. But he could hardly ask the guard to help with that - he did not even know what he was supposed to be learning! - so that brought him back to the question.
What should he do now?
Knock knock.
Startled, he staggered back. He swallowed. “C-come in…?”
The door opened partially, a vaguely familiar face poking around the side. Purple and pink. A horn and wings. Twilight-something. She was there when he woke up… the second time, he thought?
“Hello, Isaac.” She said, with a patient smile, the door opening the rest of the way. “Do you remember me?”
The boy gave a single, tense nod, preoccupied by the rather astounding number of books that the purple alicorn had brought with her, already soaring across the room to be stacked neatly against the wall. Dozing lazily on her back was the dragon from before- Spike, he recalled.
“Cadence and Shining asked for me to come here today to get you started on some lessons,” She explained, already separating a number of books from the piles. “The guards said they’d left on some important business, but they’d be back soon.”
Isaac nodded again uncomfortably. He wasn’t expecting this - why had they felt he need not know? He would have rather like to know his singular sanctuary would be so abruptly invaded…
She lay out six books in front of him, and levitated Spike over onto the bed, still sleeping. Some hero. Isaac thought. He almost snickered, but then he felt guilty for thinking such a thing.
“So, Isaac,” Twilight asked, now sitting on the floor. She was still just barely over his head level, but at least he was not craning his neck. “Which of these subjects would you like to start with?”
He looked down at the books. He couldn’t read any of their titles, they were written in symbols he was unfamiliar with. “Uhm…” he began awkwardly, shifting his weight anxiously from side-to-side. Am I expected to know their language already? I don’t even know if this is English…
The alicorn looked down at the books, back up at him, and back to the books. She slapped her head with a wing and a slight groan. “Oh! My mistake! I should’ve guessed they’d be different languages from yours. Maybe that’s something to start with, then?”
Isaac nodded. That would be a much better plan than meandering through text he couldn’t read.
She asked him to try and explain to her what he knew of writing and reading. She brought out the stack of papers from their first meeting, as well as notes relating to their verbal translation he’d provided at the time.
Isaac resisted a snicker. The number of mistakes was actually pretty silly - she’d made copies and drawn lines to connect the words to different parts of the picture. “These aren’t right. This one is my name,” he pointed, “And this one is ‘Butcher’s’, why did you draw a line to this?” he pointed to ‘the voice from above.’
Twilight, after scribbling down the corrections, replied, “Process of elimination. I had to use guesswork on most of this. So each word has a specific meaning, not each letter?”
Isaac nodded. She sighed, seeming somewhat relieved. “Oh good, that, at least, is the same as Equestrian.”
From there, they went back and forth, discerning letter sounds and word meanings, conjunctions and tenses. It went surprisingly fast, the two languages were more similar than they appeared at first glance - it was essentially a change of font, aside from the new symbols for digraphs and such things. He learned to spell his name in Equestrian - he taught Twilight how to do hers in his language, too. Certainly, he would be no record-breaking speed-reader, but he caught on quickly and took to it as a fish to water.
Things continued like this for some time.
And, for a while, Isaac was quite enjoying himself. He wouldn’t have minded spending all day doing it.
Unfortunately, fate disagreed.