Favorable Alignment

by Ice Star

Chapter 27: Twilight Sparkle Isn't Real

Sombra:

I stare into the dawn. The sun is only beginning to rise and light the world up. Its golden light only made me want to go back to sleep even more. At my side, Luna glances over the rail, her eyes sharp. She frowns slightly and points to the way we came: roughly southeast but more...

Hmm, Luna was right to wake me - whatever that is it's coming from the north based on the course...

"It's too far away for me to see what it is, but I'm not ruling out your guess of it being an airship."

Next to me, Luna huffs. "I assure you that is an airship, Sombra. My sister must have sent somepony after me after piecing something together."

"Whatever and whoever they are, they're not close enough for me to tell yet. We can deal with them easily once they are in view. How log would you say that will be?" I ask, turning to look at her.

Luna considers this. "We have a lead of about... oh, I'd say a good two hours. Should I increase the Sky Scraper's speed?"

My mind whirs with possible plans. I feel an involuntary, excited flare of my magic starting up within me, and my eyes flash red for a moment, startling Luna.

"No; stop the Sky Scraper's flight entirely."

Luna looks at me with a challenge in her eyes. She's not going to listen to me unless I give her a better answer. "What is it you plan to do?"

I stifle a yawn - she did almost drag me out of bed for this, after all. "You woke me and told me to solve the problem-" I nod over to whoever it may be tailing us "-and try to sense their magic, so that's what I'll do."

While Luna looks somewhat convinced, she still won't move and stubbornly continues to look at me, regarding my every word with a steely calculation that I admire greatly. "How do you plan to do that? You still can't sense their magic."

"I'm going to scry them."

"Without any memento to use in your divining?"

"Yes," I reply simply. "I won't be needing one for what I'm planning. However..."

I nod my head in the direction of the navigator's office. "Would you mind going below deck?"

Luna blinks, her feathers rustling as a small breeze blows by. She gives me a questioning look and arches her brow. "What exactly do you plan on doing?"

"I just don't want you to get burned if something goes wrong."

Luna laughs softly. "Very well, I shall wait there, if you are truly so worried about me."

Does she think that her welfare is a joke to me? I've seen the bouts of anxiety that plague her, and the way she acts. I have good reasons to worry about her. I nuzzle Luna before she moves toward the office's door. She's almost about to do so herself before yelping as I pull her into a hug. Immediately, I am overwhelmed by waves of her magic and want to bury my face in her mane.

"I worry about you a lot."

Luna doesn't deny this in any way and settles into the abrupt embrace. Still, I knew she would probably question something.

"Why?"

Upon asking, I feel her shift somewhat, as if she regretted asking or decided the question wasn't worth words.

"You know why."

Did she just shiver? It felt like it, so for a moment I hug her tighter before I let her go. I bet I was crushing her anyway.

Luna looks at me one last time, but I allow the approaching shape far on the horizon to distract me - or at least give me a good reason to draw my gaze away from her.

When she closes the door, it sounds louder than it really is.

I really do worry when it comes to Luna. She's not telling me something, and it's something important. I need know it before something goes wrong. I know that it eats at her mind. Her magic feels a certain way when it crosses her mind and becomes almost wall-like. I know that she's trying to keep this, whatever it may be, from me.

That hurts. Not as much as when she ran away, but it still hurts. Until I know more, there isn't any way for me to get any information out of her, or anything I can guess. Nothing tactful can be done at this point, and that frustrates me immensely. Any option I see is either aggressive - something I would only express towards an enemy, or some everyday pony who bothers me too much - or brash to the point of being impulsive and foolhardy. It's ridiculous, but I won't pry. I've still kept some things secret from her. I am many things, but I am not a hypocrite. Tartarus, she still doesn't know about the Book; I'm lucky she didn't find it when she was snooping around for my letters to Mac.

Now that she's gone, it's safe to express more of my frustration and put it to use. My horn sparks crimson and a whirling, angry aura flares to life on my horn. A momentary pause allows me more time to make sure my plan is fit to be used. This one I can be careful with if I please. I keep my disdainful stare on the horizon, each second passing is a second that these currently anonymous pests get closer, and I allow any extra frustration that I have amassed and is passable enough to work with to flow into my magic. I concentrate all this onto my horn, taking care to keep the bright flames of crimson in check. While I may have an inclination to light various objects and other surroundings on fire, I prefer to do when I'm on solid ground.

And I let all the fire go, watching it spiral up and around the magic filled balloon and into the sky, where it puts the gold of the dawn sky to shame with a steady inferno that only barely appeared to be under my control.

My vision goes black shortly after - but only for a moment. When I can see again, it's through swirls of heat in a red-tinted world that appears to shake in the fire that erupts into the sky. This wasn't just a mere column of flame that burned across the early morning sky. Since my eyes were unable to see what travels on the horizon, I had to create a new eye in order to view what lies before me, and then temporarily transfer my conscious into the eye of fire that floats in the sky.

Before I became a god, this would have been near impossible to do and even now, it can still be exhausting.

Below me, I'm able to glimpse my own comatose form, horn faintly glowing like a candle. The flame upon it having only so much time to live until I'm drawn into my own unconscious mind.

How odd it is to shift my conscious into a new form, and a very restricted, burning one like this. I've never inhabited an extension of myself quite like this. Something about it is so peculiar that it makes me feel... merry? Is that the right word? No, I think 'amused' works will suffice.

The very edges of the fire start to waver in a wind that is not present. While I am not the merry sort, there's something about this form which can focus on so little in such detail that instills a peculiar sense of giddiness in the part of me that will fade until I use this spell again.

Laughter - I think that is what the wavering is, or something like it. Does my form laugh? Is that what this warmth is?

I shift my focus so I gaze solely upon the horizon where those who approach are. They are indeed in an airship, although the name slips by me in this current form as I see only the two mares on deck...

One is a unicorn mare that has a pale coat under all the shades of red I see. Rarity is her name, as I recall Mac telling me on our adventure for the Crystal Heart. She holds a telescope in her left forehoof, which is pressed to her chest as she gazes with a dramatic, horrified look into the distance. At her side is Phobos, which is a small surprise to me.

Next to her, bathed in shades of red is her ali- demigod companion, jaw agape as she stares into the distance.

At me.

Now this... this is going to be interesting.

My form flickers with vindictive amusement before vanishing.

...

There's always something between my enemies and I; usually it's a barrier of the mind. Today has broken a few minor expectations in the very same way that I enjoyed breaking twigs into neat little pieces as a youth with various spells before discarding them once I thought of something better to do, or I decided to burn them.

Two hours later, the barrier between the demigod nuisance and I happened to be a physical one. Their airship pulls closer to ours, which has been turned around to face Purple Eyesore's. The ship of the silly purple pawn floats below ours, and if Luna hadn't stood at the rail to see them, I would have been able to see the Sky Scraper's position in relation to this ship better.

My own head has a faint, dull ache from the scrying spell, but despite that, I still feel adrenaline welling up in me at the possibility of conflict with Purple Eyesore.

Her apparent blind follower, Miss Pretty Petty shouts something to Luna. I don't quite catch her words but her voice has a nice sound to it.

"No!" Luna shouts back, "I have not been harmed - your story is a wrong! You have surely been misled!"

I have a sinking feeling when I realize what Pretty Petty must have said was an accusation that most likely would have...

I finish with a growl that catches Luna's attention. Her eyes a worried for me.

She quickly turns back to the ponies I'm already contemplating deaths for.

Pretty Petty I'll dispose of quickly, unless she directly antagonizes me. For her it will be simple - almost as simple as Purple Eyesore.

"Twilight, Rarity!" Luna shouts again, "Won't you please just let us go? We mean you no harm, I swear upon my honor as a goddess that I speak the truth!"

Purple Eyesore is the one that responds... and she responds with an accusation of mind control...

...that I hurt Luna...

I grit my teeth and purge all the magic swelling up in me, and try not to murder the damned fools by burning every bit of their airship to the ground for what was just said about me.

...and that she will not surrender until Luna is brought home 'safe'.

Luna returns her gaze to me. "We're going to have to fight them."

"Good," I snarl through clenched teeth, the red magic of my godhood flickering across my eyes, "I have a promise to keep."

"Please," Luna says, voice pleading, "Don't-"

"Luna!"

She balks at my shout.

"Don't you ever beg to anypony - especially me - we're equals."

I turn away quickly, growling and run back a few paces, rage heightening my spell-weary senses and returning the energy I had lost, doubling it as well.

Luna's wings flare, her head bowed with solemn disappoint at the actions of Lavender Loudmouth. Tch. As if it could be helped.

She glides with ease, like a bird of prey down to their deck. Sparks already dance on her horn.

I run from the far side of the Sky Scraper, building momentum before launching myself across the rails that form the divide between airships. I shift into shadow mid-leap and reform only when my forehooves touch the opposite deck. My landing doesn't go exactly as intended. Although, I shift back right I only add my full weight after the rest of me is back in the blink of an eye. This causes me to skid across the smooth surface, sliding past Pretty Petty on the soles of my metal boots.

She barely takes notice of me as I slide past - and might I add, looking good while doing so - as Luna catches her attention by landing in front of the unicorn mare. I happily relieve her of Phobos and skid to a stop right in front of a particular purple plague who has a special look of horror just for me.

I giver her a smug, malicious grin in return and spit at her forehooves before I slip the flat of Phobos behind her head with my magic and pull her head closer to mine. We're almost muzzle to muzzle.

"Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?"

...

I blink and allow my eyes to adjust to the near-total darkness. Here, the only light comes from the glowing, translucent crimson smoke that boasts that I'm not using the dark magic somepony foolish would expect me to never put aside.

The effect of dark magic on my eyes isn't a subtle one - draconian eyes and the heavy purple smoke are hard to miss. When Luna asked to see the evolution of my magic and how it changed my eyes, her expression was one of delight. I didn't allow her to get a mirror for the sake of surprises, so she had to describe to me the more physical effects of the magic.

Though my vision picks up a red tint depending on the strength of whatever spell I'm currently performing, my eyes remained free of any coloration outside of what is normal. Although, when she watched me, Luna did tell me she thought she saw my irises deepen in color, but they remained equine. Opaque purple smoke was traded for translucent crimson that flowed slowly, almost as if it was trying to draw attention to my face and eyes instead of the magic itself.

It didn't quite feel natural yet, but the subtler nature of it was one I appreciated. This was all I had to light the darkness around me.

I kicked at the ground below me - it certainly sounded very solid, unlike the void of Everything. Out of the corner of my left eye, I caught the shadows of a titanic bookshelf and the thick volumes waiting on the shelves that continued into the darkness around me. I gave a small chuckle once, feeling quite pleased with myself as I carefully pulled out a volume. The cover was a dark, muted shade that wasn't 'earthy' so much as it was dull. Lifting the thick tome in my crimson aura with ease, I flipped a few smooth, unworn pages, glancing over the wordless surfaces with a slight air of contempt.

"You're not a particularly creative mare, you know."

In the dark, my ears swiveled back to catch a faint echo, while my gaze never left the pages.

"I'm afraid I can't hear you."

Again the echo sounded, but I merely turned another page and watched the clear, sharp movements of a lavender unicorn filly losing whatever scrap of self-control she had left to a magic surge.

"I'll have you know that I've seen more remarkable displays than this - I was created in such an event - but yours is most... odd. This kind of event isn't even too hard to replicate, if you know what you're doing. I very likely could make do with almost any little unicorn foal on the streets of Canterlot if I were to disregard their safety, but the fact that..."

...She wasn't as exhausted as she should have been? She wasn't injured enough?

No. It was never that.

"...You are by far one of the most unremarkable ponies I have ever seen or heard of, and yet you hold considerable power that has sat latent in you and faded as your imprison your own mind more with each passing day. You do all this without knowing it."

There it is: the faint sound of my name being yelled out by the Purple Pawn. I browse a few more pages and give a disappointed sigh.

"Twilight Sparkle could have been something, if she had bothered to strive to define herself first and foremost. She could have been more."

I allow some of the anger I had been conserving to feed the magic on my horn and the script of madness floats into existence, giving captions and deeper insight to scenes I had already seen a hundred times before.

How? Simple - I possessed her in the Arctic. I stole copies of some of her memories from the millions of worthless things drifting through her head. I saw who she was, what she did, and I learned all the things she thought. Many of them were about me.

With a few of the memories burned into my own mind as copies among those of Onyx, I was able to see the privileged brat that was this waste. However, I never was able to find the mare called Twilight Sparkle, only Lavender Lost Cause.

I saw the purple unicorn turned demigod who needed no constant name as she did whatever she was told.

She practised magic at the suggestion of her parents, and nodded blindly when they suggested trying to get her into the academy. She never once doubted the words of the goddess who hung over her and told her what to study, or where to be. The closest thing she had to a rebellion was refusing to make friends, and that sure went well. I can't say she's made much progress since then. She's been given anything she's ever wanted, and learned only what she was told. She's never struggled or suffered. The closest she's come to either would be the drama that ensued during some of her life in the hamlet of Ponyville. She is so unbearably ignorant and even blindly trusts her family. She adopts every ideal she's been told to and won't even consider being skeptical of anything or anypony around her unless it suddenly doesn't fit into the molds that she has been told to accept.

She obeys and that makes me seethe. If she could prove that anypony she ever met was worth trusting, and wasn't free with the emotions she's been told to be free with then I would hate her less.

Then, I look over her memories of the little time she spent with Luna, and it's clear as I tear past page after page that the only thing she's good for is having the Spark of Magic sit on her head.

She freed Luna and helped her once after that occasion - not in a way I'd deem effective compared to what she could have done, but yes, it was passable. But, she also developed a false love for the Princess of the Night shortly after Luna visited her town, where this mare who has made so little choices lived.

She didn't care a thing about Luna. She didn't take a hint from Luna, and if she claimed that what she felt was love then why wouldn't she have thought of Luna as an individual? That is one of the many reasons I'll never forgive this ignorant scum. She may not have been overtly cruel to Luna, but her charmless and shallow infatuations held a different kind of toxin.

She can't even realize that she's meant to be used, and has been before by those she trusts.

The few choices she has made are all horrible. She possesses no strategy, which makes her easy to overpower and even easier to break under the right circumstances. The creature known as Tirek certainly thought so.

I throw the book down with as much force as I would use to toss a pony and listen to the ruckus. I'm beginning to 'see red' as well, and in a very literal sense. Script continues to float around me, no longer stating what she thought at the exact moment her parents turned to plants, or what kind of cookie her mother baked best. In the place of such trivial things, as all are already known to me, constantly shifting details about the magic I radiate and the proper directions to take in order to travel through these vast mazes of shelves appear. Among them are small lines that roll by quickly letting me know negligible details about where the only other source of magic in this plain is.

I gallop past shelf after shelf of memories and various chronicles of this pathetic, unremarkable life in search of the small mare who is no doubt cowering among the shelves.

...Which was exactly where I found her. She looked at me as she always has - with the same look one gives a monster -before she wipes a few tears away with a forehoof, and then stands up. She does a horrible job of trying to hide that her legs are shaking.

"W-Where am I?"

"We're in your mind. Can't you tell by how boring it is?"

"How?!" she exclaimed, whipping her head in either direction, eyes frantic. I feel her trying to charge up her horn with magic, only to watch her cower as it dies on her horn.

I roll my eyes. "Magic," I deadpan, waving one of my forehooves about for effect. She isn't moved by my effort because she's an ungrateful brat.

"Your own magic isn't going to work here, as you've just noticed - at least not in the way it usually would. I doubt you'll figure out much beyond that."

"What do you want with me?" Purple Pawn squeaks.

"Are we really going for cliches here?"

She moves to hide behind a bookshelf, quickly looking at everything around her.

"Are you going to kill me?" Her voice is a shaky whisper.

It doesn't move me. "I was planning on it."

The flatness of my tone seems to scare her the most. The red script around her dances frantically, replacing itself faster than usual before she tries to run away. I knew this was going to happen and I use my own magic - which still works here, of course since I was the one who cast the spell to break in here - and pull her over to me by her tail.

Purple Pawn shivers and even lets out a few sobs in the red that envelopes her, sitting right in front of me like a defeated foal.

"Let me guess, you never thought it would end like this?" How difficult it is to refrain from rolling my eyes when I see her give a dumbfounded nod.

"None of them do, Purple Pawn."

For a few seconds the only sound between us is her choked cries.

"I'm not going to kill you. Not now ,at least."

She almost gets the chance to squeak out an entire syllable before I place a hoof over her mouth.

"There's a few matters I need to discuss with you first."

Even though I would rather kick her face in, I allow Purple Pawn to lower my hoof. "A-And then you'll kill me?"

"I might."

She's close enough to me that I can almost feel her shuddering. Purple bangs fall into her eyes and she lowers her head, a few hot tears rolling down her face. "P-Please tell me you're lying."

"That in itself would be a lie."

"Y-You've lied before."

My left eye twitches slightly. "Only to you," I hiss and resist the urge to kick her again.

The outline of my magic dims on her form and I walk over to a nearby shelf, blinking away the countless scripts that float by until my eyes are free of magic. In the dark, her vision is weaker and she jumps slightly when she realizes that she can get up and sees my outline in the dark.

"Don't run," I say coldly, "or I really will kill you."

Her nod appears almost dizzy to me. I hear her whisper something to herself and the word 'monster' is caught by my ears.

"Just because you can't see me doesn't mean I can't hear you."

She sits down again.

"You're certainly an obedient one."

"Is that why you hate me?"

"Not quite. All of us have obeyed something or somepony at some time. The trick is not to obey blindly, and to know who you are obeying and why. So tell me: why do you obey? Tell me in your own words."

A pause. She certainly wasn't expecting this. "You aren't going to sass me?"

"That's a very relevant answer. Now, if only I had a sticker to give you, and the patience to give you more than three strikes."

"I've already used one?!"

"For once in your life start talking, you little wretch."

I hear her take a deep breath. "I obey and follow what I've been told because I know it's the right thing to do, and that I'm listening to good ponies. I'm being lawful, which is something that helps ponies instead of harms them."

Excuse me while I refrain from falling on my own sword, Purple Pawn. "Have you ever doubted orders?"

"Once or twice, but they were all minor things."

"Have you ever doubted those who tell you what to do? Questioned them or held suspicions of their motivations and actions?"

"No." It's sick how she doesn't even hesitate to answer.

"Why not?"

"Princess Celestia, my family, and my friends - they're all good ponies. They don't do the things that you do..."

"And what is it that I do? Pick your words carefully. You know how I am about that. Oh, and an appeal to the rational side you believe yourself to have, list things that you've witnessed me doing first-hoof. The word of somepony else is irrelevant here."

I can feel her need to protest die as soon as I finish.

"Well, you're evil."

"That's a very strong argument. Why am I evil?"

"You aren't social at all, and your choices revolve around you and you alone. You never listen to anypony-"

"Alright, I'm going to stop you right there. I do, in fact, listen to others. Why do you think I find you so obnoxious? I just don't obey them."

"-you doubt everypony, you're full of yourself-"

"Stopping you again. 'Full of myself'. Yes, I'm certainly egotistical, but tell me this: when was I ever wrong?"

After listening to all her unintelligent babble and flimsy accusations I can't resist a smirk when I see her speechless silhouette.

"That's what I thought. An ego big does not a fool make~"

"But-"

"But what, you silly pawn?"

"Everything you do and say, it goes against everything I've been taught! Everything that's right-"

"And because of this I must be wrong?"

"YES!" she cries, pointing a forehoof at me. I have to bite my lip and remind myself that even though that gesture is familiar she's not a crystal pony.

Even though she's speaking lies and...

Fine. I'm fine.

"So, are you saying I should obey what I'm taught, and everything else others tell me?"

"Yes! Are you finally beginning to see this now? Ponies are right - you aren't! You won't be, until you chose to follow the path that ponies like me have: the path of friendship, kindness, and harmony! Can't you just repent for everything you've done, and start to help others by ending your cruelty?"

I shake my head and summon Phobos before appearing at her side, pulling her close by putting Phobos to her throat.

"The first thing I was taught: kill without question."

Lavender Loudmouth lives up to her name by screaming hysterically and begging for her horn to light between shrieks. I press the black blade closer to her neck. She screams louder when she realizes I'm drawing blood.

"The second thing I was taught: abandon all conscious."

"Please, stop! Stop it!"

"Don't you see what I'm doing?" I huff, jerking Phobos into her throat enough to bruise it slightly. She coughs. "I'm only obeying what I was taught without question, so why are you blaming me for doing what I'm told?"

"If you listen to what you're told, you don't question anything. Those who aren't skeptical don't learn. If you look to others to always ask them questions instead of to yourself to seek answers, you are fed lies and discover nothing by accepting what they say without being skeptical. If you extend love, trust, and kindness freely and openly, you waste what should be a reward for those who have earned such a reaction instead of a setting up a standard to spoil and force. Doing so only dulls any meaning those traits would have. Do you really not see how wrong you are? If you never make your own choices, you blend into a group until nothing remains."

"W-What?!" she manages, clearly overstimulated.

I pull her in front of me and look down at her. "All of this and more is why Twilight Sparkle doesn't exist. Instead of denying that you're just another face that will repeat the same old things, make it so."

Her breathing is heavy and the shadows across her cheeks make her face look gaunt. "Who would believe you?"

"A certain pink demigod, and she's still an upbeat, somewhat bothersome twit at times - and I mean that in the best possible way."

Wisteria Weakling pulls away, not realizing that I let her, blinking. "A demigod?"

When I give her a flat stare and refuse to define the unfamiliar term, she latches onto the only other clues I gave: pink and upbeat.

"Cadance... what did you do to Cadance?!" Her gasps are more frantic than before. I can see where her eyes roam. Does she think I can't tell she's trying to escape?

"I befriended her. I know, it's a very horrid crime. I should not even speak the word 'friend' around you, hmm? What kind of evil individual goes around making friends?"

"You..." She tries to look me in the eyes but can't hold my gaze "...Cadance would never befriend somepony as cruel as you! She's caring and loyal - all sorts of things you aren't!"

I let her drone on under the pretense that I'm listening while I begin to work my magic again. The light of my horn lights up the small area around us, and the edges of her mind begin to vanish into shadow for good as I work to pull us out.

"You really haven't rebelled against anything, have you?"

"No!"

"What a pity. It's something I would advise you do in the future."

When she finally notices my magic, sections of the room have burned away like paper does when thrown into fire. The area around the dumb demigod's horn pulses magenta once, an alert that she can do magic once more.

Tears course down her purple face once more; she's blubbing about the 'lies' I told about Mac, and about what wicked stock I am.

I really do wish I had killed this one. I don't care one bit that Mac and her are sisters... but I know Luna would be considerably upset, so I'll let her live for Luna's sake.

And yet, who said I had to leave her mind intact?

...

When the last of Purple Plebeian's mindscape burns away, I stand with Phobos held at my side in one of the plain cabins below deck. I can hear a scuffle of some kind above, and was pleased that I had unknowingly avoided that when teleporting back.

Behind me, I heard the sound of stunned sobbing. I didn't need to guess who it was. I didn't care, either. After summoning a sheath of crimson aura to keep Phobos in until I returned to the Sky Scraper, I look down upon the mess of a demigod on the floor.

There are are few small nicks across her throat, and she is quite shaken but otherwise unharmed. Her face is buried in her forehooves and magenta sparks with all the strength of dust motes flicker in and out of existence around her horn.

I growl softly at the noise she's making and search around the cabin for something that might keep her quiet; I recall seeing something that might do the trick when I first looked about the room.

Almost immediately, I spot what I'm looking for and levitate it over to me. Once it's in my grasp I walk over to Purple Eyesore and crouch in front of her, pulling a few sheets of the papery white cloth out of the box, levitating them with my magic.

"Purple Eyesore, look at me."

Being the unobservant bloke that she is when it comes to anything and everything involving me, and anything else under the sky, she hadn't noticed how close I was to her and lifts her head slightly before trying to scramble away.

I grab her with a forehoof and she's too stunned to teleport, although her horn still tries to weave a glow to rival a candle in her distress. I sense that it is trying to rapidly adjust to the changes in her environment.

"You really aren't worth the trouble, you know," I mutter sternly as I use the disposable cloth to wipe away the tear stains on her face.

"It's absolutely ridiculous how pathetic you are. Instead of being some sort of archmage in training, or anything capable of fighting me, you're just some unskilled kid with a lot of inborn magic, a pair of wings, and all of Celestia's ramblings in your head."

The reply I receive is no more than a blank stare and a faint whimper at my proximity to her.

"Don't you see how silly this is? You ought to go back to your sheltered family and stay in the basement making foil hats for the rest of your days. We both know you aren't going to grow up anytime soon. With the exception of Celestia, the only incredibly bothersome or catastrophic forces of evil I've had to deal with are all brats like you and Onyx, though you're not particularly evil in any traditional sense. You have many toxic ideas, and just like any disease, I don't want them spreading. Just because I hang out with your sister does not mean I'm meant to watch all the world's narrow-minded and juvenile imbeciles."

Purple Eyesore's horn has begun to glow again, but I feel no intentions behind her magic that would make it a proper spell instead of just some imitation of a firefly.

"Sure, you may be one of the greatest wastes of resources and time I've ever had to deal with, but you have no intentions of your own. When you received your lobotomy as a filly, did some quack happen to just stick a cabbage in your empty skull?"

The expression of the wimpy ex-student of Celestia is that of utter confusion, so I take the chance to finally toss all those crumpled pieces of cloth onto the floor for her to clean up later before I stand up and push her over. Her reaction is a squawk once she's pulled from whatever glazed-eye stare she had found herself in.

"Where are you going?"

"You finally bother to speak coherently? Could you perhaps, slip into silence once again for my sake?" I pull Phobos out of its temporary sheath, which disperses and kick the blade over to her. "You could also do me the favor of cutting your tongue out if you have the time. I might actually appreciate it."

"Where are you going?" she repeats.

"To have tea with the princess. Why? Did you not get an invitation?"

"You, King Sombra, are a self-absorbed fool."

Just as I'm about to slam the door and be on my way, the use of that title triggers a reminder. I recall something pleasing: I still have to wipe her memory of this event.

At the thought, I whirl on her. Any pretenses of not wanting to dispatch of this one are gone as I seize her in my magic.

"If only that were true," I snarl staring her straight in the eye, "I may be a narcissist - as if there's anything inherently wrong with that on it's own - but I am not a fool, and I shall never be a fool."

I give her my cruelest smile before dark magic lights my eyes.

"You have the love of so many, you know that? Everypony loves the little twit you are, even though you barely do a thing to earn it. In fact, the love that you are given borders on the misplaced loyalty you hold for those you hold dear."

The forehooves of Purple Eyesore flail wildly as she struggles against the aura that encases her. "What would you know of love?"

Purple Eyesore screams as I strike her across the face with my forehoof.

"I know more than you!"

Finally, she sees fit to bite her lip when she sees my heaving, angry breaths. I bare my fangs at her and let out a long, low growl.

Dark magic takes over her eyes while the corner of my vision is discolored, a reddish hue tinting the world and stripes of crimson painting their way into the usual purple smoke. I ignore each line of the script that appears, the dozens of constantly rearranging letters popping in and out of my view like bubbles.

I focus solely and letting my anger find its way into my magic and letting Purple Eyesore feel what it's like to have her mind ripped open, even though I already broke it before. I find the memories of our conversations together and all the information she has been given by both Celestia, whom she'll continue to follow blindly, and myself, always to be ignored by her simply because I speak the truth.

Each one is altered, twisted, or removed entirely by me, while she barely holds back a scream. I think of all the times I've been on the receiving end of magic far worse than this, and all the times I've done this to ponies. She gets to experience a slim fraction of the ordeals I've been through, or something like it. This can never be a painless process, regardless of the magic used, and some degree of pain will follow... I just wish that I felt the level of harm she is experiencing a thousand times over instead of what my memories hold.

I don't see her horn light with a soft, clear white, the colors of the rainbow mixed within the wispy aura. I feel the magic that blasts me right through the door, slamming me into the far wall as her last memory has been changed. She starts screaming in terror knowing that I've done something, and the full knowledge that I missed her working magic hits me too.

My screams are far louder than hers. I feel a pain so crippling shoot throughout me, every fibre of my being burning like the sun itself as I try to shift into my shadow form, black dots dancing across my vision.

Author's Note:

Deleted, non-canon fluff scene.

Comments

[Mira Starlight]

Sweet Cadenza, Sombra doesn't like Starbutt too much, does he? I can almost see where he's coming from.

[Ice Star]

7822802 Those two have a hate affair for the ages ever since Tomb of Magic...

[Mira Starlight]

7822830
It truly is legendary. Although, I must confess that it has been a long time since I read Tomb of Magic, and some of the details might have been blurred. Not to worry, for I shall read it again soon!

[Ice Star]

7822837 tl;dr version: They basically drive each other to violence and false accusations.

[NorrisThePony]

Well the anticlimax of the fight / Twilight being treated as completely worthless and unlikable (as opposed to, like, a flawed hero) was pretty annoying, but Sombra makes some good arguments concerning the topic of obedience.

[Kaleido]

the chapter title fills us with apprehension

That hurts. Not as much as when she ran away, but it still hurts. Until I know more, there isn't any way for me to get any information out of her, or anything I can guess. Nothing tactful can be done at this point, and that frustrates me immensely. Any option I see is either aggressive - something I would only express towards an enemy, or some everyday pony who bothers me too much - or brash to the point of being impulsive and foolhardy. It's ridiculous, but I won't pry. I've still kept some things secret from her. I am many things, but I am not a hypocrite. Tartarus, she still doesn't know about the Book; I'm lucky she didn't find it when she was snooping around for my letters to Mac.

he still has the book??
oh dear

I shift my focus so I gaze solely upon the horizon where those who approach are. They are indeed in an airship, although the name slips by me in this current form as I see only the two mares on deck...

aw dang, cadance wasn't the one that caught up
though this was likely inevitable, couldn't have nice things on the journey to the end of the world and all that

She can't even realize that she's meant to be used, and has been before by those she trusts.

oh dear
this is honestly painting twi as kinda tragic, but not just of circumstance but of continued, willful ignorance

uggh
if this doesn't work as a wakeup call, will anything?
god damnit twi

[MayhemMoth]

Well, that meeting went just about as well as I might have expected. And by 'well', I mean horribly. Perhaps even worse than horrible, actually.

Equestrian harmony is not as harmonious as you might think.