Lost into Shadow

by Lucidenn

11) Attribute Training: Fear Part II

We fear violence less than our own feelings. Personal, private, solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone else can inflict.
~Jim Morrison

"Yes? Yes please hurry, hurry! I'm so scared we can't get her to stop, she won't wake up!"

"Don't worry Apple Bloom, we'll be there before you can say emergency. I just need you to stay on the line with me so that if anything changes you can let me know, ok?"

"I..., I'll try. My sis is here, do you wanna talk to her?"

"Yes, I'd appreciate that little one, and thank you for being so quick to call, you might just save a life tonight."

"Hello? Is this the hospital?"

"Yes, hello Applejack, what is her condition?"

"Not good dock, her eyes are wide open but she aint seein' nothing, and she hasn't stopped screaming since poor little Apple Bloom heard her. Wait, somethings changed, she's quiet now. Doc hurry over here right now she's started shaking real bad!"

"Hold her down so she can't hurt herself, the ambulance is coming up to the driveway as we speak, have Apple Bloom make sure we have a clear path to her room. There's no time to waste."

"Load her up quickly now quickly! I need a blood plump and IV, she's bleeding badly in her lungs. Body spasms have ceased. Hang in there girl we'll get you to the hospital and get you fixed up."

"Doc, is our neighbor gonna be ok?"

Doctor Stable looked at his patient, a poor yellow and orange mare laying comatose in the ambulance. He could only speculate that the force of her screams was the cause of the bleeding in her lungs, and the reason for the bursting of the blood vessels in her eyes. Though she'd received no other physical wound, his nurses were still treating her for shock. He'd never seen anything like this, and he certainly didn't know if she would ever awake from her now comatose state. But one doesn't simply tell the truth to little fillies.

"I'm sure Carrot Top will be just fine Apple Bloom."

2 hours later, and many meters below the ground.

Sombra walked silently upon the smooth floor of the fear room. She was right there where he'd left her in the middle of the floor. He could tell by her twitching that she was torturing herself with guilt in the dreamworld. Excellent, the best thing he could do now is return to sleep on the first floor so that she'll have the full impact of her actions upon her during training in the morning. Yes, that would be the best course of action. He would need to leave now, there was nothing more for him up here tonight.

He took several more gentle steps, and found himself standing over the purple princess now, instead of heading to the door. There was something he didn't like about the look on her face, and the way she softly spasmed. While he turned over the problem in his head, his body knew already what to do as he gently lowered himself down next to her. Sensing the warmth of another, Twilight subconsciously wiggled closer, until her back was firmly pressed against his side. Snuggled now as close and warm as possible, she let out a last shiver, and fell into a deep sleep.

Sombra, still trying to process this unexpected turn of events, looked down at the mare now so intimately close to him. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about all this, or how he had most certainly not done as he was thinking he should do. He determined it to be a lapse due to his own need for sleep, and was about to stand up when he looked down on her face once more. There was a slight upturn at the corner of her cheek, like the beginnings of a smile. She looked so relaxed and peaceful.

"Hhmph. I suppose that is better." He placed his head down on his forelegs and fell asleep along side her; his neck gently lying across the back of hers as through the night their pulses slowly matched up together.

Several hours later

Twilight gave a slow, satisfying stretch, arcing like a Opalescence awakening from a pleasant nap. Inexplicably she'd managed to have a deep and restful sleep, and oh how warm and good she felt. Still not fully awake she snuggled closer to the source of warmth and comfort fully content and ready to sleep some more when several things hit her at once. First of all, she'd fallen asleep alone in the fear room, which is far from anything remotely comfortable, or warm for that matter. Secondly, what she was snuggled up so closely to was breathing.

"Good morning Princess."

Twilight shot straight up into the air like a rocket.

Chuckling softly to himself Sombra stood up and sauntered toward the main shaft. "Now that you're awake we can have a proper meal before the training continues, join me on in the practice range, now that we're finished with it I've converted it into our dining area."

It seemed he would offer no explanation, and that was perfectly fine with the princess, she was more than happy to pretend nothing had happened. It made it easier to ignore blush of her cheeks and the furious beating of her heart. Cautiously she sank back to the ground, peeping outside of the cavern before fully leaving it to make certain no more surprises were in store for her that morning. All she found was Sombra waiting for her, and upon seeing her tentatively peeking out, shook his head and dissolved into the transport crystal.

Slowly she approached the node, and stood inches away staring into its depths. Somewhere deep inside a flickr of red and shadow caused Twilight to shiver. She would have to align with fear again to use this crystal, and the very Idea of it made her sick to the core, images of last night still etched in her soul. With a quick leap she let gravity take her down to the first level instead. She would have to face the crystal at some point, but that didn't stop her from avoiding it as much as possible until then.

Breakfast passed by without a spoken word passing between the two of them. Sombra's culinary skills were, rudimentary...at best, but food was food for the simple alicorn. What carried far more importance were the thoughts playing across her neurons, doing there best to bring her back from distraction to face the terror of her failure. Sombra's complete silence only helped to hasten her pulse; any conversation at all would prove a blessed release of the tension inside of her. Instead she found herself taking smaller and smaller bites of the crispy pancake before her, dragging out breakfast the only way left to her.

"Come."

Twilight raised her head from the nibbles left on her plate to the ruby irises of Sombra's eyes. Their hardness was still there, but the edge was gone; resolute and yet somehow welcoming at the same time. In her guilt those eyes held the only forgiveness for her down in the cavern. "Come", he said again, "this time you shall succeed." Nervously, she rose and followed him to the main shaft, and straight to the transport crystal. If it had been up to her, she'd probably have ended up picking at that pancake unto the foreseeable future, so instead she used his strength, his confidence, to put each hoof forward. One by one, and now the crystal could not be ignored any longer, she was standing right in front of it. She knew what she had to do, and she knew that she feared it more than anything else before.

"Speak your fear Princess."

"I feel like I might lose myself. That I'll become a monster, or worse...that I'll find out I already was the monster. Perhaps this was your intent all along, or perhaps it was something dark inside of me that made me come down here with you. Either way, I'm afraid of the pony I might be once I climb out the final level."

"Is the owl a monster? Is the owl evil?"

".....No."

"Then don't let go of the owl."

At this, Twilight looked up from the ground to cock her head at Sombra, considering. It was such a strange thing to say, yet.... Thoughts cleared she turned back to the node and with a deep breath closed her eyes, initiating the connection with her horn. This time she noticed how easily she slipped into the forrest in her mind, and flinched when she discovered the mouse almost immediately. Here goes nothing. This time as she dove down and sundered the mouse with her talons, she opened her eyes at the same time, overlapping reality with the image she held firmly. She felt it, exactly what she needed to within as the shadows melted her flesh and dragged their combined darkness through crystal lattice and back out again. Yes her talons were deep in the flesh of the mouse, but at any moment she could pull them out, she was in control once more.

"Forget not what you came down here for Princess. You came to learn, to understand, so that you could prove to me that your way of life is the right path to take. I have much to teach you, much to show you; and you should know better than anypony that with knowledge and understanding comes change. So do not fear change Twilight, instead remember your purpose, remember why, and then finally understand what change may come."

"How is it that the tyrant of the Crystal Kingdom that has spread terror and death can speak such wisdom as well?"

"Isn't that what you're down here to discover? As we progress however, perhaps you shall come to see no answer is so simple as it seems. For now, it is time to test out your renewed control, today you shall attempt to use the fear spell on none other than myself. Ready yourself Princess, for I am the master of fear, and I will not sit idle while you cast upon me."

Pausing for a slow, deep breath, Twilight strode into the fear room. "What are we waiting for then?"

Meanwhile at the Ponyville Hospital

"We thank you deeply, all of you, for coming here to support Carrot Top. Especially you Apples, because of your swift action she's going to be ok. We've stopped all of the bleeding, and she's heeling quickly. She's still deep in coma, but if you would like you may visit her now, it will be good for her to feel the positive support of friends surrounding her."

"We're mighty happy to hear that she's doing better nurse, thank ye kindly."

"Hey where's Twilight? She should be here too."

"Don't worry Rainbow, I know Twilight wouldn't leave a friend in need. She'll be here."

"Oh I'm afraid that's not quite right Fluttershy dear, you see I dropped by her place on the way here to tell her about what happened. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I seem to recall that she couldn't come."

"Oh my, what happened, is she alright?"

"Oh yes, yes, I think Twilight said that it'd be a bad idea to bring Sombra to the hospital, better safe than sorry kind of thing."

"Pony-feathers, I'm not gonna let Sombra get between Twilight and helping out a friend. I say we kick his tail if he causes trouble and get Twilight over here now!"

"Hold your horses now Rainbow, Twilight might be right. What if we can't tell the trouble he causes from natural trouble?"

"Huh?"

"I'm saying, the doc don't know what caused Carrot Top's condition. What if it were some nightmare thingy Sombra did? Now we've got no way of proving nothing, but we can't rule it out either. The farther we keep him away from here, the better."

"For once I must agree with you Applejack, we simply can't take that risk. However Rainbow is also right, we can't let Sombra dictate our actions like this. We'll simply take turns watching Sombra so that Twilight will be free to visit. Besides the poor darling needs a break, we've been of far too little help already the past months."

"Then that settles it! I'm the fastest, so once my turn is done I'll get Twilight sent over here in 10 seconds flat!"

In the fear room

Twilight could't keep this up for much longer. Sombra had kept true to his word and immediately assaulted her with a barrage of illusions. Through keeping the focus of alignment in her mind, she was able to block most of them, and quickly destroy an illusions that got through. The constant barrage however had quickly exhausted her, and made any attempt at countering with her own spell nigh impossible. As the hours stretched by her own sweat began to wear her down with the added weight to her sodden coat. A dark form solidifying to her right suddenly jumped out. With a powerful leap and a roll she evaded the attack and quickly dismantled the illusion before it could fully form. She silently cursed her stupidity, reacting physically to the illusion was just another waste of precious energy.

"So far the only thing you've made me afraid of is that you'll collapse to the floor Princess!"

Twilight gritted her teeth at the taunt, but there was no time to do otherwise, already dark magic was flowing from her horn to dispel the latest volley of illusions. What was it that ponies say? 'The definition of insanity is to repeat an action over and over again expecting different results.' Well, this certainly wasn't working, she'd have to catch Sombra by surprise to have any hope of victory, to do something he would never expect coming. If it were Rainbow or Applejack, they'd probably dash forward and fight him hoof to hoof, but Twilight simply did't have the strength left for that. If only I had more energy. More energy? More, thats it! Let's see what you think of this Sombra!

With a flare of her horn she focused hard on the image of the owl, feeling the alignment like she would dipping her hooves into water. The feeling of the fear-tinted magic saturating the air became palpable. All of the energy was still there, slowly dispersing into the air, but very much usable. Twilight grinned to herself, to disguise her true intentions, she gathered as much energy as possible only during the times her horn glowed to block more illusion spells. Just a little more. There, that was enough! With everything left inside of her she turned the room full of fear magic into a single blast of black magic that struck at Sombra like a geyser shooting from the earth.

Sombra watched as the princess tried to sneak gathering the dark magic, and right on cue she struck out with the whole lot of it hoping to catch him off guard. With the ease of a filter he stripped it all of the fear attribution and returned absorbed it back into his horn. "Nice try Princess, but you'll have to do a lot better than that to...". His words froze upon his tongue, for impossibly, around him a scene was beginning to form of shadows. A diversion. That cheeky mare had just cast the gathered magic to divert his attention as she slipped an illusion spell behind him right as his defenses had slipped.

"I did it! Haha! Now let's see what the 'Master of Fear' is truly afraid of. Is it imprisonment, defeat, death. Is it perhaps even...oh, oh no." The scene forming around them from the shadows was one that Twilight recognized, a memory that she could never forget. All of the figures in the crowd were indistinct, like long forgotten specters, but the house and the burning corpse hanging from the rafter were far too real, far too detailed. She looked away, she couldn't watch this again; instead her gaze found Sombra, who was now standing directly next to the young Sombra of the memory.

Sombra could only stare, it was one thing to forcibly relive a memory, but it was another entirely to watch it unfold around you as seemingly real as life. There he was, his father's old boss holding a struggling figure down as he addressed the bloodthirsty mob. But something wasn't right with this memory, the figure was much too large for his precious sister, and the coloring didn't seem right. The mad pony was going to slit somepony else's throat instead. The face of the struggling figure was the final part to finish forming, and Sombra was quite taken back to recognize Twilight as the victim. "Sombra please help me!" she cried. This was his true fear? The one thing he feared most above all others? The silver blade gleamed, greedy for crimson life force, before plunging down quickly.

With a tortured snarl and a flick of his horn Sombra abolished the illusion before steel could violate flesh. The shadows swirled like ink floating in water before disappearing entirely. "Your lesson is over, tomorrow you may begin the next attempt, to align with the attribute of contempt." He growled. Each step resonated with anger as he stormed to the transportation crystal and disappeared into its depths. For the longest time Twilight just sat there, she had not noticed that the victim had been anything other than his sister. Instead, her focus had been consumed by the looks on his face, both past and present self. She felt his pain through sharing the memory, but it somehow hurt in an entirely new way to watch it play across his face instead. The torture in his eyes was identical, both young and old, and so she reasoned that it just served as proof that he was still good deep down. Somehow that reasoning just didn't matter though. She'd now seen first hand what it looks like to have what you most love in the world destroyed before your very eyes, and every instinct she had was screaming for her to run after that poor soul, hold it close, and comfort it, protect it from the pain that she knew was destroying him from the inside.

But she couldn't, that soul was buried long ago under hatred and fear. What comfort could she possibly provide anyways, she could do nothing about his past, and provide no words that he did not already scorn. She stood up and proceeded back to the bottom level to get to bed. Sombra had been right to remind her, this was why she was down here, why she had trusted him with this endeavor at all. The good Sombra was there, is still there, and the more she learned of his experiences, his choices, his powers and their source; the more she learned how to bring his goodness to light.

For his sake she would not ... could not, fail.

Comments

[Moongaze14]

I'm glad for the quick update. I love it when Twilight and Sombra have such romantic moments and it seems that Twilight has become Sombra's most important pony.

[Ahrazell]

Me being the only being of balance Iinequestria, i have tow different opinion other than this is a good book and more please.

Go sambra!

go twilight

Do you two ever shut up!?

[Xaerouzle]

Dear writer, you know what they say: the more time put into a story the fewer comments it has.

[Harmony Charmer]

Poor Twilight! She was NOT expecting Sombra to be snuggled up next to her!

[Lucidenn]

4226110 Indeed, but don't count on him admitting it any time soon

[Tephera]

Cover art... To... much BADASS!!!

Anyway, I was really intruged by your story (Description) and would like you to make more. And if you do.

My eye balls are ready to read. If you know what I mean...

[Lucidenn]

4245391 Thanks! Also that image is now going in my photo library for safe keeping

[Wurd]

Lucidenn, if Twi becomes all evil and shadowy, she will still return to the good side and turn Sombra into a good guy with the power or love?
Or something like that?

[Lucidenn]

4252183 Sorry, wouldn't want to leave any spoilers, the idea is to keep you guys guessing till the end; will Twi become evil? Or will she prevail and bring Sombra back from his own personal darkness? Only time and future chapters can tell ^_^

[Wurd]

4254335 NOOOOOOOO!*dramatic scream to the heavens*

[Wurd]

Wait, so can you tell me this:
Is this the chapter were he starts showing slight romantic-ish affection towards Twily?

[Lucidenn]

4255369 I'll leave that for my readers to determine. Just read between the lines ;)

[Wurd]

4277501 sooo...yes?:3

[annamaggie]

4280836 heheh yup sombras getting all lovy dovy :3

[Vampire king Jonathan]

Ooh that was a dirty rotten trick she pulled