Xenia straightened herself out, regaining her composure as she nodded. "Sounds good to me," she said. Then she thought of something. "Oh, I'd better go get one of those pot things you see in cliche witch movies for her to use."

With that, Xenia turned and left the room.

It was then Zecora began to stir. The zebra suddenly sat bolt upright, her head whipping from side to side. Sombra chuckled at the humorous sight, drawing her attention to him.

She immediately got to her hooves, glaring. "Cruel you are, it is true, not to mention rude." This only served to make Sombra burst into an outright laughing fit.

"Hmph, amused you may be, but you act like a little filly."

That shut him up. Eyes boiling with rage, he turned on Zecora. "How dare you insult me!" Ignoring his anger, Zecora asked, "Where is Xenia?"

Sombra was trying to keep himself from freaking out. "None of your damn business! I brought you here for a different reason anyway. You are to tell me why you freaked out when you first saw the girl!"

Zecora snorted and turned away, her head held high. "Answer you I will not, for this news a fool cannot use." The dark unicorn's head just about exploded. Anypony there could have swore they saw flames come out if his ears.

Shadows erupted from under Sombra's hooves, splitting into serpent-like tentacles. Four wrapped around her hooves and lifted her off the ground, while another slid around her neck. Wherever they touched, they burned the zebra's skin, making her cry out in agony.

Yanking her closer, he snarled in her face, "Stop the fucking rhyming, and just tell me what I want to know already damn it!" Zecora tried to answer, but the shadows kept constricting as he talked, and it felt they were melting her throat. As the zebra gagged, Sombra continued to seethe, his anger not just because of the annoying rhymes. There were many other things his brain was bringing up that pissed him off. It was something to tended to happened when he got this furious.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

The shadows instantly vanished as Sombra whipped around, his eyes widening at Xenia, who looked as equally miffed as he had been a second ago.

The human stalked into the room, depositing the cauldron on the floor. "We brought her here to tell us what the hell is up, not kill her! The fuck is wrong with you?"

Sombra huffed and looked at Zecora, who was trying to regain her breathing. "Well, she wouldn't stop rhyming! And she refused to tell me, plus insulted me! Of course I lashed out!"

Xenia sighed and rubbed her temple. "You are so impatient it hurts. You are in serious need of an attitude adjustment." Sombra felt shadows gathering under his hooves again, but attempted to contain himself. "Look, let's just get her fucking talking," he snapped, turning back to Zecora again. "As you've seen, I have little care for bullshit, zebra. Now, tell, or better yet, show us why there is so much fucking dark magic around her!" he commanded, pointing at Xenia.

Zecora paid no attention to him as she limped up to Xenia, her scorched hooves hurting like hell. "How is it you help an enemy, while we set for a rescue mission?" Xenia sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm sorry, Zecora, but he told me a few things about some stuff that's showed up since Discord yanked me from Earth."

Zecora closed her eyes and let her head droop. "Fearful of this time I was. Perhaps answers are indeed in order."

Sombra bobbed his head in satisfaction. "Finally," he muttered, nearly rolling his eyes.

Shooting him a look, Zecora took a couple steps before collapsing. "Huff...huff...nowhere can I go as I am, my hooves too injured they be."

One look at the zebra's hooves had Xenia turning another deadly stare at him. "Great, you fucking idiot. Now how is she supposed to do her mumbo jumbo?"

Zecora, looking deeply offended, was about to speak, but Sombra cut her off. "Well, I could always set up her little fire pit and light the thing, then set up her stuff. Of course, I'd probably have to get the stupid plantlife she needs. You, though, with your size and strength, perhaps..." He gave Zecora a very meaningful look.

The zebra objected at once. "Hurt though I may be, a foal I am not!" Xenia, though, had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, she is only the size of my little sister, and I could still carry her a couple weeks ago. It shouldn't be all that bad. Besides, Zecora," Xenia added before the zebra could protest more, "you can't exactly stand on your own. You said it yourself. Someone has to hold you up while you work on the potion or whatever."

Sombra snapped again, and another shadow tentacle lashed out, hitting Zecora across the side. "Stop being such a stubborn bitch!" he yelled.

The look Xenia gave him just then trumped all other glares he'd seen. It was like Tartarus had decided to make its home in those burning orbs. "You. Stupid. Fucking. Asshole." Each word was loudly pronounced, and it made even Sombra, self-proclaimed Lord of Fear, flinch. He had plenty of experience with rebellious mares, but this human trumped them all. Maybe it was just the way of her race.

Without another word, Xenia left, yelling, "I'm gonna go gather everything Zecora needs, and if I come back to her being injured again, I will let these damn chaos powers burst forth, and things will not end pretty."

Sombra and Zecora stood in awkward, and in Sombra's case, slightly frightened silence. That creature scared him like no other before. And judging from what Sombra had overheard a couple months ago, she wasn't even the scariest of her species. What the hell kinda world was Earth?

"You know, avoided this could have been, if asked politely you had."

That made Sombra snort in amusement. "You do know who I am right? Surely you can't be that dumb." The zebra did not look particularly insulted, she was beginning to think of Sombra as she thought of Discord, a childish being stuffed into a powerful body. He wanted everything his way, just as Discord had. Why he did was an entirely different matter. What happened to make the unicorn so desperate for power and attention?

It was at that moment Xenia returned with wood and a flour sack on her back. "You know, I almost thought I got lost the first time I went looking for the kitchen. Thank God you have so few rooms in this place. Mostly just walls and crystals."

Sombra murmured something under his breath before nodding. "Yeah, that was a thoughtless move on your part," he remarked snidely. Xenia decided to ignore him this time.

Setting down the sack, she arranged the wood and looked at Sombra, who sighed and lit his horn. A red beam blasted into the pieces of what was once a tree. It ignited almost instantly. Picking up the cauldron, Xenia placed it on the fire. Then she paused. "Hey Zecora, don't you make small potions too? Why can't one of those be made, instead of this whole stupid thing over and over again?"

The zebra sighed and shook her head. "True it may be, but potions are not made from air, first a brew must you prepare." Xenia sighed as she dumped the contents of the flour sack, which, obviously, did not actually contain flour, but every herb, spice, and plant she had found around the kitchen. There were also some weird-looking things that may have once belonged to living animals. Xenia did not dare ask Sombra about them.

Putting the ingredients in some semblance of an organized line, she turned back to Zecora. "Alright, I'll just find some way to carry in some water, then we can begin."

Sombra felt a nerve twitch in his eye. "No. I'll just use a water spell and fill the damn thing myself. We have no time for you to be making trips back and forth." He did not answer the question clear on their faces as his horn glowed red. A slurping sound was heard, then splashing, and the cauldron started to fill with a dark, murky water.

Zecora looked at it skeptically. "Trust this I do not, why is it so dark?" The eye twitched again. "Because, I had to transfer it from a muddy pond nearby. What, you think I have the power to create something from nothing?"

Rolling her eyes, Xenia fought the urge to punch them both. "Enough! For God's sake, let's get this stupid thing started already! Since Zecora isn't inclined to tell us a damn thing, we need this brew to be braver than her!"

The zebra shot her a glare as Xenia went to pick her up. She forced herself to her hooves, shaking her head stubbornly. "Carry me you will not, my own four hooves shall I only let me up."

Xenia threw her arms up in defeat as the zebra half dragged herself to the things that had been contained in the flour sack. She was mumbling under her breath, listing things located in front of her that could replace certain other ingredients for the magical reveal potion spell.

After cleverly laying down and swiping her hoof out along the floor, moving the things she picked out, next to the giant pot, she stood back up and stumbled clumsily over. Sitting, she began picking things up in her forehooves and throwing them in.

It took no less than three minutes before the makeshift spell was ready. Picking up a small wooden cooking spoon, which Xenia had also thrown in the sack, she slowly stirred the top of the brown alchemist stew.

Sombra had grown more agitated with every passing second. After the three and a half minute mark, he lost patience again. "Hurry fucking up!" he roared, more shadow tentacles appearing and lashing about randomly. Of course, this did not go well, for it hit both Xenia and Zecora this time. The zebra hissed in pain, but Xenia ground her teeth, nearly biting off her tongue, keeping herself from yelling out. When the sensation passed, she prepared another glare for Sombra, but one look told her that wouldn't help this time.

The king's fur was beginning to darken, and he paced back and forth uneasily, his eyes gaining a red tint. Zecora and Xenia exchanged an alarmed look. "Is it ready?"

The zebra looked at the bubbling liquid and nodded. Wordlessly, she grabbed Xenia's left wrist in her forehoof and jerked her forward. The moment the human's body made contact with the sludge, there was a small flash of purple, and then the brew began to spin. Zecora yanked the hand out as it began forming a murky, undistinguishable shape.

Sombra barged up at that point, almost sinking his teeth into Xenia's wrist as he snapped his jaw shut, having had it drop open as he suddenly realized why he was so frantic. "Come on, come on, show us, damn it! Whatever this human has attracted the attention of is-?

He was cut off as the image cleared. Zecora was the only one who was not surprised, having seen slight glimpses of this creature before. Of course, it puzzled her why the picture was so clear now, it had never been before.

Meanwhile, Xenia could feel the horror and terror of ten years worth of fear hit her all at once. She backed away from the pot, her movements jerky as it all came flooding back. "Oh shit. Oh shit, I remember. I remember what happened all those years ago. What I did. What that did to me. Oh God. I know why I'm here. I know why she's after me. This was not an accident. None of it what."

Xenia was overwhelmed, it felt like the memory was so fresh, she could turn around and see the thing that had made her life a living hell.

That was when she saw her companions' faces. It was like something out of a dream, no, a nightmare. Inch by little inch, Xenia spun herself around, till she was facing the one being she had hoped to never see or hear from again.

Herself.

"Hello," she said, her red, midnight blue, and white eyes gleaming menacingly as she floated above them.

"Oh fucking sweet holy baby Jesus."