"I had so much fun today Cadence!" Twilight said happily. "What are we going to do tomorrow?"

Twilight looked over expectantly at her favorite foal-sitter, Cadence, as they both lay on a blanket watching the sun set.

"Well..." Cadence said slowly. "I heard that the circus was coming to town. Would you like to go there?"

Twilight gasped excitedly. "Yesyesyes please can we go?!"

Cadence giggled as she sat up. "Of course we can."

Twilight sat up to. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou." she exclaimed while wrapping Cadence in a tight hug.

Just as she was about to let go of Cadence, Twilight felt something warm falling onto her head and sliding down her face. Reaching a hoof up, she felt a sticky liquid, looking at her hoof she saw that it was red.

"Cadence what is this st..." Twilight asked as she looked up to her foal-sitter. What she saw made her scream and recoil in horror. Cadence had a gaping hole in her chest which gushed with blood, her face was gaunt and sunken in and blood poured form her eyes and mouth.

Twilight screamed again and tried to push away from the creature but was held fast by it.

"You killed me! I loved you like a sister and YOU MURDERED ME!!" Twilight screamed as hard as she could and sat up in bed.

Her breaths came in sort ragged gasps and she was bathed in a cold sweat. Taking several deep breaths, Twilight was able to calm herself down. Her breathing returned to normal as her heart rate slowed. She shivered violently from a sudden chill and pulled the blankets tighter around her body. With her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness, Twilight found that she was lying in a huge bed inside an impressively spacious room.

"Sleep well, my dear?"

Twilight nearly jumped out of the bed with fright.

"GAH!!! Can you stop surprising me like that?!" Twilight said angrily to the darkness.

A quiet chuckle emanated from the darkness. "My apologies." A soft green orb materialized out of the darkness and expanded outwards, casting the entire room in a green glow.

Sombra stood beneath the green wisp and looked at Twilight with quiet concern. "Are you alright?"

Her dream came rushing back to her bringing with them the memories of recent events. She lowered her head as tears sprang from her eyes. "It hurts...it hurts so bad." She wiped tears from her eyes as she looked to him. "How do you do it? How do you deal with the pain?"

Sombra did not answer right away, instead he sat down on the edge of the bed with his back to her. When he finally did speak, gone was his deep confident voice, instead he spoke with incredible sadness.

"When I pulled the Empire into the Abyss it cost me everything. My body, mind, and soul were freely given to make safe my people. The pain was...unbearable. No being, god or mortal was meant to endure so much pain...then it was over. My very being...my existence was torn asunder and cast out into the dark waves of the Abyss to drift aimlessly for an eternity. I was no more, yet something remained, a small spark that took a thousand years to rekindle."

Sombra grew quiet and Twilight had become so enraptured in his tale that she failed to notice that she had crawled forward and covered them both in her blanket.

"What was it?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

He turned his head to haze into her eyes and when he spoke the sadness was gone. "It was Rage." he said with hatred. "Rage at the Alicorn beasts for what they did to my people, MY Empire, Rage at what they drove me to do. With my rage as a torch I navigated the Abyss, collecting my scattered being, all while gleaning knowledge from the Abyss itself. Powerful knowledge that existed before light had ever broke upon any plane of existence."

Sombra's eyes flashed with red energy and Twilight felt heat rise to her face as she stared back.

"Utilizing what I had learned, I called upon the full strength of the Abyss and tore a rift in the very fabric of reality, allowing The Crystal Empire and myself to escape."

His face darkened as he continued. "However the process left me weakened and it took time for my incorporeal form to adjust to this plane of existence. In that time, The Empires return was noticed by the Alicorn beasts and thus they sought to keep it from me." He paused again, his face softened as he gently caressed Twilight's face with his hoof. "But had none of this happened I would never have met you."

Twilight brought her own hoof up to her face to lay it on Sombra's.

"Despite my pain and loss, I was able to save you from a similar fate. Together we will accomplish what I could never do alone."

Twilight became lost in his eyes. "Will you teach me?" she asked quietly.

Sombra leaned in close and gently stroked her hair with his other hoof.

"Yes" he whispered. I will teach you the ways of the Abyss and how to harness your pain and rage into a force more powerful than any this world has ever known."

"Yes!" she whispered fiercely, her face inches away from his own. "I want to become powerful like you, I want to break free and decide my own fate!"

Sombra smiled. "Then together, my dear Twilight, let us break free."

Twilight closed her eyes as their lips met, and for the first time since she could remember she felt true joy.