Honesty
Tragedy struck the Apple Family Reunion. In the first time in its history one of the Apples lost their lives on that most joyous of occasions. And a shame to that it would be the host of the party who would be the one to go. But alas it was that Applejack fell ill and finally perished on the day of the reunion.
The death was so sudden and the funeral so soon Twilight was not able to attend. By the time she arrived the deed was done and the farm pony was already six feet underneath the apple orchard. As she stood in front of the headstone which bore her friend's name, her mind was brought back to all the good times the two of them spent together, and of all the things left unsaid.
A group of foals led by Big Macintosh approached the grave. The youngest filly, probably too young to understand what happened, asked "Grampa Macintosh, are we ever gonna Granny Applejack again?"
A tear welled up in his eye as the aged work horse looked for the right words to say. With a trembling lip he mumbled the only word he could muster "Nnnnnnope"
As she was told, Twilight returned to Sombra's cave after somepony had died. She stood outside he cave less hesitant to enter than she had been last time. Her idea of who the king was had changed so much since they had met. While she still was very unsure about if she could trust him, he no longer seemed to be the villain Princess Celestia made him out to be.
She shook her head dispelling these thoughts, as new ones entered her mind. No, he still enslaved the Crystal Empire. Once he teaches me the spell he's done. I'll tell Celestia where he is and he'll pay for what he did.
She entered the cave once more to greet her teacher of dark magic. Much to her surprise he was not there. The fire pit was unlit and the dark corner which normally lay shrouded by his magic was visible, plain as day. She grew worried, that maybe he had been found, that she would not be able to continue training. To learn the spell to save ponies. she thought, trying to shake the idea that she actually cared for that stallion.
"Oh, you're here early" A voice said from behind the princess, making her flinch. "I was wondering when you'd return. Your friends aren't lasting as long as I had thought." he added, showing little sympathy for the grieving princess.
Twilight turned around to confront her teacher and with a huff said "Where were you? I thought you'd stay in this cave."
Smiling, Sombra teased the princess's expectations "What, you think I spend all my time sitting by the fire? I have a life you know, aside from teaching you magic. If you'd spend any time looking around my home you'd see I have a garden in the back."
"Okay, I get it." the princess exclaimed with a slight of guilt "You're more than just a villain in hiding. But what else I know is you have a lesson for me."
The unicorn fully entered the cave and began pacing around the princess. He mused with her "Afraid to talk with the big bad wolf are we? Afraid to find that I may not be as bad as you thought." He then gestured towards the entrance "But if you insist. The next step in your training will begin"
Once the two royals were outside, Sombra again summoned a ball of dark magic to use as demonstration. He gestured his student to sit for his lecture as it would be lengthy. He explained "Dark magic is both more abstract and more physical than light magic. Whereas with light magic acts as an extension of yourself, dark magic is used independently. You do not control dark magic, it uses you to control itself. What we do is impart our will on the magic, which then channels through us to preform what it does. For instance, when you lifted that boulder last time it felt light as a feather with dark magic, because it was not you supporting the weight, rather you willing the rock off the ground."
"Now willing objects to float is child's play. It is as natural in dark as it is in light. The art of dark magic is controlling magic itself." After he spoke he turned to his ball and lit up his horn in a red-black glow which the ball mimicked. Suddenly the ball segmented off into gear-like shapes and fit together around the two, turning and ticking away like some grand machine. In not but a moment the dark forms formed together in spiked bands orbiting around each other, passing in and out of each other's rotations with impeccable precision.
As a final display the magic fell to the ground like it was water and grew up in crystalline structures around the princess. Rather than something scary, the magic formed a crystal gazebo, whose black shards reflected what little sunlight shone through the trees to illuminate the unicorn standing, looking not the least fazed by the spectacle.
As the glow of the unicorn's horn faded, the magic returned to a ball in front of the princess. A couple deep breaths from Sombra were the only signs that what he'd done was the least bit strenuous. He composed himself and addressed his awestruck student. "That, Princess, is the power of dark magic. While I do not expect you to do anything the likes of that, I can tech you how to control the magic. So, the first thing I want to see is if you can control anything." He pointed to his ball "As you will"
Twilight stood up and circled the ball once, trying to get an idea of what it was she was working with. It's a big black ball, she finally concluded, not exactly sure what she was expecting. She lit up her horn with purple-pink glow of her dark magic and the ball soon too had the same glow.
She concentrated her mind on the ball, and the mental image of a cube which she wanted to make. She first tried keeping the kind of level-headedness as Sombra did in his demonstration, but despite her focus the ball did not change. She focused harder and harder on the ball, scrunching her face as she tried pouring more and more magic at the orb to do what she wanted. She glanced over to Sombra who looked at the alicorn with a disappointed stare.
Though she did not want to admit it, she did not want to disappoint Sombra so she put her whole body into trying to change that stupid ball. She got up on two legs and pointed her hooves at the ball in some futile effort to have an effect, but alas she collapsed on the ground and the ball floated, unchanged.
Sombra lamented his student's failure. "You certainly have the ability to use dark magic, but as I feared Celestia's extensive training in light magic has sealed your mind from letting go. The idea of controlling magic is so ingrained into your psyche that is the only way you think."
He paced back and forth, mumbling about a way to open the alicorn's mind to work with dark magic. He finally came up with an idea, that just might work. "Perhaps you need to see the source."
Twilight looked puzzled at the idea. "The source? The source of what?"
"My source" Sombra explained, "My first contact with dark magic. I let go, and allowed the darkness into my life. Perhaps if you see for yourself, you will understand." He shuffled back down into his cave to get what he thought would show Twilight the way. He returned with an ornate glass bottle, half full with a milky white liquid.
Twilight knew that potion well, and what she was seeing she thought impossible. It was the same potion she drank when she discovered the Tree of Harmony. "How did you get that" She accused Sombra "I had that potion kept safe"
Sombra chuckled light-heatedly as he said "I am the immortal master of dark magic, able to become one with the shadows. And you think It is beyond me to retrieve a simple glass bottle. I say I feel almost insulted." His tone dropped down to the usual lecturing one. "As it is now this potion will show you Celestia's past, as it is still under the effects of her magic. But when I cast my spell on it." His horn lit up and fired a beam of dark magic at the potion, turning it pure black "It will show you my past. And given my expertise, exactly what I want you to see." He levitated the vial over to the princes and gave a single word "Drink"
She took the vial and held it in front of her face, staring at the black broth which sloshed within. She tilted back the potion and downed the drink. As the effects set in, her eyes shot open and glowed black, as the forest around her disappeared.
The next thing Twilight knew she was in some kind of laboratory. The walls glistened and shimmered like gemstones and the floor was polished to perfection. All around her sat scientific equipment foreign to her, made of crystals. She concluded to herself "Okay, so I'm in the Crystal Empire. But where is-"
"NO NO NO!" a voice behind her shouted in frustration. She spun around to find it's owner, only to see someone she was not expecting. It was certainly not Sombra, if anything it was the opposite of him. This stallion was a crystal unicorn with a coat almost as pale-white as the mane atop his head. "Stupid magic. You can heal hundreds of ponies at once on the battlefield, but saving one lab rat from death by acid is too much for you?" Despite his frustration, his voice rang with a young, melodic sound.
As the rodent drew it's last breath the unicorn floated it down to the garbage can Twilight just noticed reeked of death. He took another rat from the cage next to him to repeat whatever experiment he was attempting. Unfortunately this rat was not as passive as its predecessor and managed to free itself from the unicorn's magic. As it tried to make a getaway it knocked over the vat of acid on the work table, sending it flying at the crystal pony.
He fell over on the ground, writhing in pain, screaming all curses at his luck. The acid made its way eating away at his flesh. He enveloped his body with a red glow as some of the minor wounds began closing. However the healing spell was not strong enough as many of the larger wounds continued to grow.
Twilight could see the main wound in his chest was only widening as now bone was being exposed to the air. It would only be mere seconds until his heart would show. The researcher's eyes shut tight as his magic began to fade from his body.
Just then his eyes shot open, glowing a bright red, which then darkened as the magical aura matched. An explosion of dark magic erupted from the unicorn's horn and he floated up into the air. His smaller wounds closed in no time at all and even his chest cavity covered over with a new layer of flesh appeared. As his magic toned down and he became aware of his surroundings, he checked himself over, surprised to be alive.
He ran over to the mirror on the wall to look himself in the face. His horn still glowed dark red from the ordeal. In a solemn and intrigued voice he said to himself "What is this magic?"
In time Twilight came to from her vision. The familiar sights and sounds of the Everfree Forrest filled her mind as the image of the gray unicorn came into view. Seeing she could hear him he said "I see something you saw upset you Princess."
She finally took notice of her eyes which had started watering during her vision. She wiped herself of the tears and asked Sombra "I don't get it. You said I would see your past. But who was that in the lab I saw?"
He recalled his own life to answer the question. With a very nostalgic tone he said "That was me. Before I became immortal. Before I had this body you see now. I was a very different pony back then."
He looked at the alicorn and prepared himself for the rest of his lesson. "Have you ever seen a unicorn die a painful death, Princess?" Sombra asked his student. Twilight simply shook her head back at him, not entirely sure what to make of the question. "I wouldn't expect so. It is usually a product of war, something Equestria has not seen in centuries. When a unicorn is dying, and cannot accept it, they will often have magical surges as their bodies perish. And if they have the natural gift, they let loose dark magic. That is what you saw."
He walked towards the floating dark ball while continuing to speak "I was dying, And in my last moments I had a surge of dark energy. It would have been for naught had I not been casting, and continuing to be casting the healing spell. In my weakest moment I had no control, no thoughts, just the will to be healed. My surge picked up on that and empowered my spell."
With one hoof he touched the ball while hammering in his final point. "This is why dark magic is so closely linked with pain and distress. At a pony's lowest moment they have no control over themselves. They can only open their bodies to whatever magic flows within them, and let it out."
Turing back to his student Sombra added "This is why I must train you after you suffer loss. So your mind and body will be open to let dark magic flow within you to reach new levels of power. Now" He said as he gestured at the ball "Show me your power."
Twilight approached the dark orb, not nervously like the last time. Rather she had a new understanding of what it was she was doing. Her horn and eyes lit up with the glow of her own dark magic. She closed her eyes, simply as a way to remove herself from the world around her as she let the magic flow from her horn.
The ball soon to had the pink-purple glow of the alicorn as it began to move. At first its surface rippled like wind on a lake, but quickly began taking a definite shape. It grew eight points at the ends of itself and edges formed connecting them. In no time at all what was floating between the unicorn and the alicorn was no sphere, but a cube.
Twilight laid it down on the grassy ground as she opened her eyes to see what she had done. She nearly squealed with glee seeing the cube she had made. The magic faded from her horn and the cube stayed as it was.
At the sight of this success Sombra's face lit up with a smile of genuine joy. This was slight off-putting for Twilight as she had only seen him smile at his own plots or schemes. With a happy sigh he walked around the cube and put a leg around the alicorn's shoulder. While at first Twilight reared back at the sudden advance, she let it happen, accepting the touch of the king. Sombra said to her "Ever since I discovered dark magic I have been a black sheep in this world. But to see you learning and preforming, I feel rejuvenated to see somepony like me. Train in secret Twilight Sparkle, I will be anxiously awaiting your return."
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Smiling, Sombra teased the princess's expectations "What, you think I spend all my time sitting by the fire? I have a life you know, aside from teaching you magic. If you'd spend any time looking around my home you'd see I have a garden in the back."
OMG! Sombra is starting to make me like, him! The world has ended!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even if he is probably plotting something, I rather enjoy Sombra's attitude (and that includes his earlier sarcasm) towards Twilight in this story.
Author: Suprise Bitches! Sombra's NOT actually a complete asshole! (Or is that just what I want you to think?)