Despite all of Twilight and co's efforts, Sombra was able to overcome their forces and defeat them all swiftly. Twilight, now powerless, was forced to witness his tyranny and two questions.
It was supposed to be a test, one of monumental weight that decided the future of Equestria. Sending Twilight and her friends to save the Crystal Empire. Celestia had doubts but she thought they were able to step up to the challenge.
But to her worry, she had not received a report or letter for the past two hours. What kind of heinous punishments was Twilight enduring? What vile, disastrous magic was being inflicted upon her?
Would Sombra even keep her alive?
Celestia quivered in the wake of the possible answer that Twilight was unsuccessful in defeating a true villain.
Twilight felt defeated in every conceivable way, her hooves chained, she rattled with the makeshift cage that she was trapped within. Dark crystals as bars with the floor and ceiling made of the same material but smoothed out cleanly. A strange accommodation for the prison as spikes would intentionally have to be sanded out. She sighed as the wheels and sounds of synchronized hooves echoed in the hall. Two soldiers in front and two in back holding their spears.
That note of description had a bad taste in her mouth, the poor ponies were nothing more than slaves to their equipment, something only heinous enough made by the worst kind of creature, Sombra.
Twilight and her friends had made the mistake of not realizing the gravity of their situation, taking the bait and traps one after another to find themselves separated and defeated. She couldn't believe how it all went so smoothly, his mischief and cunning knew no bounds.
Twilight could only slouch against the bars of her new home, she didn't know how long she would receive back-up, the blizzard would be a fog wasteland, strategically speaking Sombra could easily put his soldiers to work in lying within the snow.
Cursing inwards she could only scold herself more for not truly calculating the situation, she let the new victories go to her head, she relied too much on her friends. There was so much she could've changed, so much more to be wary of and overcome. Sighing she let her hair lay loose, tired and defeated, she waited until she met her destination.
The rumbling of the wheels came to a stop, her eyes opening a bit bigger she turned around to lay her eyes on Sombra. Anger and resentment built inside her body as she looked upon her enemy.
With his silver boots, red cape outlined by white fur with black dots, and his makeshift crown. His black hair flowed like flames, flickering against the air while keeping its spark. Eyes of light red with slits of darker shade, his teeth that showed made her flinch at the sight of fangs. His horn's tip was dunked in bright red with darker shades going down before stopping above the half mark. It was as if it was like a weapon in a furnace cooling off the heated metal.
Sombra lay on his throne slouched with his legs hanging loosely, his arms upon the armrests. His eyes were looking out to the hall in some lost search.
The soldiers, unicorns, levitated their spears centimeters over the ground before bringing them down in unison.
Sombra closed and opened his eyes swiftly as the sound echoed across his throne room. Pupils widened before focusing to meet Twilight's gaze, hers was of a fiery rage while his were of surprise.
Sitting upright clumsily he lifted his silver-plated neck to clear his throat upon the new audience. "Twilight, I presume?" An eyebrow cocked as he smiled smugly.
Twilight practically threw her body weight at the crystal bars, ignoring the slightly uncomfortable feeling she barked at him with words. "Sombra! You haven't won yet! Celestia and Luna have already realized the absence of my letters. They'll be crashing down onto the Crystal Empire in hours at most. They'll come and you'll be taken down and destroyed!
Sombra lifted his neck higher, his eyes coldly calculating Twilight with precision that made her swallow her anxiety underneath such intense scrutiny.
"Guards, leave me to the prisoner, I think she requires some" Stopping mid-sentence the ash colored unicorn smiled as he licked his teeth from fang to fang in a slow, methodical motion. His eyes narrowed upon her like a predator about to feast on their meal. "Lessons of her own."
The mindless soldiers turned around to walk the long hall that they had pushed forward with the prisoner. Sombra took a slow step onto the carpet roll that was placed over the stairs, his eyes stayed glued to Twilight. She felt her fear overtake her body as each cold, calculated step he took, led to her making two back.
Before she knew it she backed up against the cage as he was millimeters away from the front of the cage. The sound of the great doors behind them sounded the opening and closing of the entrance to the hall.
Sombra leaned out his head to the right to look behind the cage to find his soldiers gone. Sighing he softened his eyes to Twilight with a smile.
"Would you go out with me?"
The words echoed across Twilight's mind as she was frozen in place, not of fear, but of confusion. Seconds stretched to a minute before she could work her muzzle. "What?"
Sombra's eyes widened before falling back with his plot to the floor. Raising his hooves to his face he ran through it up to his mane that was no longer flowing.
"Ahhhh, fuck" his body was now slouched, he hid his face in embarrassment, and now flushed he stammered out. "I-I meant to ask something first, fuck fuck fuck."
Twilight, too conflicted about what to exactly focus on, stood there in complete loss.
Moving his hooves away from his face his dark coat was now a full light shade of red as his eyes looked down on the floor as if his hoof was caught in a cookie jar. "I-I mean, would you be able to defeat me?" His eyes flicked to her but only immediately looked to his surroundings in loss. Bringing his hooves up to clap them together in slow intervals, his mouth line was now strained. "L-like as in w-we make a fake fight with fake magic and y-you hit me with a final blow and everyone thinks I'm dead." He flicked back to her, catching his eyesight, he dipped his head a bit low as his shoulders raised in compensation. "I-if you're cool with that, heh, of course." His front hooves clasped at each other in awkwardness. "I uh, meant to ask you that first question after the plan, which now seems super dumb, and like I totally get if you think it's dumb now because I was kind of pushing a lot on you which is now even worse and- I'm gonna stop talking now." rushing his hooves to his mouth he stopped midway through his ramble. Closing his eyes in embarrassment he buried his face in his hooves. Groaning in failure his words muffled within his confinement.
Twilight's mind slowly let the proposed 'plan' soak in her mind. A fake battle of lights and action to make up the fact he died in battle? It wasn't a bad idea but why? What could he gain from this? Was it a trick?
Thoughts and theories marinated in the head of the student of the crown. Here a tyrannical ruler was asking to give a light show to fake his death.
Slowly, drops of words of his first question dripped into her memory...each word like a vague mystery making her question them before all at once his first sentence reeled back in her mind.
Twilight's body stiffened as her face blushed in full force. "WHAT?"
Sombra's body became rigid and his ears flinched back at the volume. "I'm sorry I'm sorry! I know the plan is dumb, I- I barely thought about anything other than making some kind of pretend fight. I mean can you blame me? I got a whole army of-" Stopping mid-sentence he looked to the red-faced Twilight with her slight anger and embarrassment welded into one.
Whether it be the cartoon nonsense of her expression or her beauty, Sombra was captivated by it all the same, shaking his head he took a few moments to clear his thoughts. Lifting his hooves to head level he used the bottom halves to slap his cheeks to take back his focus.
"You- meant the asking out part didn't you?" Forcing a strained smile that was out of clear discomfort he tried to keep a straight face, failing miserably. "It's cool if you don't want to y'know?" Forcing his head to face away from her stare his face felt like it was overheating. Trying to nonchalantly take the reaction with his chin up. "Psh, It's like, no big deal" He awkwardly pulled out a hoof to paw away the air whilst trying to sit a little straighter. He flicked his eyes to her and back to the walls repeatedly.
Twilight's brain frying she opened her mouth to say something, anything. Her voice was caught in her throat at the complete and utter nonsense of the unfolding events that were laid bare to her. Closing her eyes, breathing in and out she looked back to see his crumbling facade, his body was slightly trembling and his muzzle twitching out of sheer desperation.
Her face was slowly recovering from the question... her mind couldn't wrap around the idea that Sombra, the tyrant of the Crystal Empire, would ask her out.
Everything about this scenario gave her no sense of rationality. "W-why?"
His body slouched again, "I uh" Forcing his head to stare at the ground he let his hooves tap the floor in some kind of vain of a rhythm. "Think you're really cute and intelligent. I'd like to learn more about you if you would let me?" He lifted his head to meet Twilight's for that last bit. Sheepishly smiling it reminded her of a school colt trying to ask out a classmate.
Twilight looked at the complete sincerity of the proposal, its honest and vulnerable approach nearly touched her heart. Nearly, she ripped herself from the notion of it all, Sombra of all ponies? Asking her out? Sure she's never had somepony confess to her before or be in any kind of relationship for that matter but- she's not that desperate to believe a lie from a tyrant. "You expect me to believe, you, like me? Sombra, the despot that enslaved an empire and trapped its people in time?"
He folded back his ears and pawed the ground. "Would you believe me if I said I wasn't Sombra?"
"Is this some kind of joke?"
He threw his hooves out in protest. "No no, I'm really not Sombra! Listen this is going to sound crazy but I'm actually someone trapped in his body, by the time I got swung into it he had already gotten an army. I kinda had to play along to the whole villain image to make sure his troops wouldn't turn on me."
"So it was still you who got my friends captured?"
Sombra cringed. "Okay I know how that sounds-"
"It sounds like you're still just as bad as Sombra, it sounds like you've still let innocent ponies be trapped and do your bidding as you still reached for total domination. You may say you aren't Sombra but I don't see much of a difference between him and you right now."
His face flashed in hurt and shock. Bringing himself up he puffed out his chest whilst pointing a hoof at her. "I wasn't the one who took them and started mind-controlling them!"
Twilight barked back. "Yet they are still under your control right now."
Sombra opened his mouth to protest only for the words to get caught in his throat. His face melted into guilt as he leaned back. Hooves clutched at his head as he sighed. "Fuuuuck, you got me there." Letting his hooves fall he began to sit up on all fours. "I didn't even-" He paced in a circle as his mind tried to grasp the simple implications that the statement held. "I mean- did I really just not care about-" coming to a stop he shook his head to refocus on Twilight.
"First things first, I need to get you out of that cage." Walking towards the crystal bars he lifted his hoof to touch the ridges, looking at Twilight he gave a weak smile. "You- might want to step back, Sombra has this kind of weird connection with dark magic. Or at least these crystals, so I'm still getting the hang of it." Twilight nodded hesitantly as she backed away. She wasn't expecting him to actually take what she said to heart. He took a slow breath as he closed his eyes.
A shimmer of dark purple light emanated from the small piece he was gripping onto. A light humming began, grunting a bit the sound and glow began to grow. Gritting his teeth Sombra put more force into it, the reaction caused the bar to slowly grow jagged crystals with a grating noise. Opening his eyes he jolted with shock, his breath held in his throat at the sight. Taking a pause for a moment he removed his hoof from the bar as he let himself breathe. The growth stopped as soon as his hoof left the surface, he could only look in horror and fascination at the protrusion.
"What- did I just do-" looking up at his hoof, a sort of heat clung to the bottom. Wisps of amethyst-purple smoke rose before dissipating altogether in moments.
"I think you strengthened the frequency of the crystals, making it more durable." Twilight looked in absolute awe at the new spikes. Putting a hoof on the side of one before she felt a zap from it. Pulling it back she examined her hoof to find nothing wrong with it. "Maybe even created a stronger magical field around it." Her hoof fell to the cage with an echo, the metal rang clear. The noise caught her attention leading her to look at the origin of the noise. Her eyes locked with the metal cuffs that sat around her front hooves, a small reminder of the smaller prison that clung to her. Two sets of chains, one for her two front hooves and one for her hind legs.
"So, I just made things worse." He deadpanned.
Twilight brought her head away from the shackles to meet his eyes as she smiled sheepishly, "It's the thought that counts, right?"
His face soured inwards as his muzzle scrunched up. "Not when it comes to getting someone out of a prison cell."
Twilight wanted to ask why that word kept reappearing in the context of somepony, even if he meant different beings the proper word would be somecreatures. His vocabulary was a lot more modern than what she expected. To add more to the confusing parts of this whole interaction she was finding it hard to believe that she was beginning to have doubt creep into if he really was Sombra.
Sure claiming to be somepony within another pony's body was ludicrous but maybe it wasn't him being a completely different being, maybe it was more of a different state of mind? Luna became Nightmare Moon and the personality differences were leaps apart, her judgment, her empathy, and her sense of right. Princess Luna was corrupted, so maybe Sombra was the same? Maybe this was him being taken out of that corruption?
Twilight looked at the Tryant, he was mumbling to himself as he eyed the crystals, poking them for some kind of connection. This version of Sombra wanted to help, he wasn't arrogant or brash, nor lusting for violence. He was docile, passive, and at least cared to give more of a thought to feelings.
It went against all of what Princess Celestia warned her about.
Yes, being trapped in a body was ridiculous, but maybe it felt like he was trapped in something that wasn't him. Maybe to him, it felt like he wasn't himself and justifying it to be somepony else. Twilight knew she wasn't an expert in any field of science that meddled with the brain, but she heard of repression like this before. A sort of reinforcement against trauma, but if that were true then Sombra, this Sombra wished to be nothing like his counterpart.
Maybe- Twilight could work with that. It made sense to her at least.
Sombra'a ears flicked before leaning towards Twilight's voice as he raised his eyes to hers. "What's up?"
As soon as he responded her bewilderment only reinforced, his vocabulary was so laid back, and his tone and presentation were so modern for a unicorn that trapped his kingdom for a thousand years. Taking that notion in the back of her head she continued. "Since crystals are a stabilized shape, I think if you try to pour your magic on one side the distribution of weight should make it uneven causing the rest of the structure to be broken more easily."
Sombra took the idea and rolled it through his mind. "Wow, that's- wow." Looking up to Twilight he smiled brightly. "Should've known Twilight of all people would've figured a way to get out before I even had an idea."
Twilight couldn't help but feel a bit of heat in her face. Clearing her throat she kept talking. "It's mostly because I read up on reports of your- crystals." She dipped her head whilst cringing at that last bit.
Sombra could only give a small laugh, "Yeah, that does sound like you. Good idea too, I know if you went against the real Sombra he would've been toast." He eyed the bars with skepticism. "But if you're right, I need to find an irregular branch."
"Can't you just make one? You've already made a branch."
Sombra shook his head, "Nah," tapping the center bar he clicked his tongue. "I already poured out some magic into that one, building upon it would be more difficult." Frowning he looked back at his hooves. "It's weird, I can feel the crystal try to call out to my aura. It's like some kind of magnetism is pulling my magic to work on it."
Twilight hummed in thought before speaking. "I think I'm sorta understanding what you mean, your magic is fortifying the crystal structure, it's like a bonding agent, it's stabilizing the formation by your magic's strength. But if that's true then making any kind of branch would be too strong to break off." Twilight paused before speaking. "Can't you just try to moderate the magic you put out?"
Sombra shook his head. "This body is way too new for me to even understand how it dispenses magic, let alone know how magic even works. That's not including that these crystals have some weird obsession over my- aura? Energy? I don't know but anytime I move my hoof towards it." He extends a hoof for a moment as it slowly gets closer, his eyes narrow as he yanks it away. "See? Somehow the energy of the crystals have like wisps of magic emanating from them trying to get my hooves to touch them."
Twilight was now slightly worried. "I- didn't see anything..."
Sombra quirked an eyebrow, "Really?" He looked down to his hooves with concentration. "Weird." He whispered.
Twilight mentally noted the strange magic he described, dark magic this advanced wasn't quite explored because of the prime example of Sombra. "So you can't control your magic." She couldn't help but think how coincidental the excuses were at this moment to Sombra not being able to know anything about magic to help her out but she set that aside. For now, it was better to go along and see what kind of opportunities arise from there.
Sombra's eyes widened. "What if we overcharged it, the magic wouldn't have an outlet, it would just keep bouncing around until it breaks."
"That" Twilight paused at the consideration of the notion. "Could work." She was surprised, that kind of tactic would be something along the lines of Rainbow's train of thought.
"Brute forcing it could work, but you'd be burning through a lot of mana, since the crystals are taking your energy to expand we'd be playing by their game. We wouldn't even know how much it could take or even if you'd break it entirely."
Sombra wasn't bothered. "Even if it doesn't shatter, it'll grow huge fast enough to break through the cage and shred through the roof of it."
"Sure it'll work but again, the crystals are the ones with the upper hand, if you don't know its limits then it could react in numerous ways. You're forcing a boulder through a doorway, that energy could blow up disastrously in your muzzle. I mean the energy alone would bring a pony close to death!"
Sombra bit his lower lip as he looked to the ground, his eyes running along the floor in thought before breathing in through his mouth. "Let's do this."
Twilight looked at him like he was crazy. "Sombra, you're about to exert yourself beyond a normal unicorn, I don't know how big of a mana pool you have but if you can't control how much energy you're putting into this then it would be incredibly stupid to just pour out an insane amount of power into a single crystal!"
Shakily exhaling Sombra looked at the crystal bar with determination. "The way I see it, either the guards come back soon to wonder why I haven't done anything and find out I'm a faker OR I break you out and you can save the kingdom."
Twilight couldn't believe how stupid of a risk he was taking. "Sombra, you could be entirely wiped out from this much magic. I mean unconscious or too weak to walk. I know you are resilient but doing this would be-"
"I've already made up my mind, Twilight." Sombra took shaky steps towards the bars, his body was becoming more shaken as he got closer. "I was a coward to not do anything for Sombra's soldiers, I'm not going to make the same mistake with you being held captive."