I walked towards home, amidst the derelict villages surrounding the Crystal Empire's old borders. A pony tossed over my back, half frozen and barely breathing. "Don't die. Pain in the ass if you do." I rubbed the creature's sides, trying to shake some life back into it. "You understand me? ... Of course not."

I walked over a wall, once standing two meters, but now completely turned into a hill by the snow and ice. The town was completely iced over. Crystal spires once standing tall and proud now buried up to the second floor by the endless snow. I drudged on, walking towards a boarded up window I used as a door. The buildings were frozen, but otherwise in perfect state. The structure's crystal and stone standing well against the constant flurry of ice.

I looked around at the howling icy plain, the far off green of the Crystal Empire a mere spot on the horizon. "Stupid." I pulled my mask down and pushed the door open, the soft crunch of snow leaving me, instead replaced by a loud click as my boots knocked against the crystal floor, a few carpets tossed about to keep me from tracking slush dampened the sound. "Alright, come on." I set the pony down, the black creature stirring as I patted it and gave it a swift slap to the cheek. "I said get up!"

"Ah! What!?" The stallions flung his legs out, scratching them loudly against the floor. "Where am I!?"

I shook my head. "Of course, because who needs to speak German?" I coughed once and pointed up. "House."

The stallion looked up at me, frowning hard. His horn was tiny, growing like a sapling through a tree stump. He glared at me, red eyes bright and bitter. "One of you, grand...." He coughed and sputtered some strange black liquid. "You have--"

"Sombra, beast, all same to me." I was rapidly running out of English to use. "You're valuable, to me at most."

Sombra shook his head. "Perhaps not a Luddite, if only a freak." She tried to get on all fours, his body trembling from the effort. "A sorry sight when your kind is free to walk, yet I'm marked despite my expulsion--"

"I don't care." No matter the language, the tone was clear. "We go in spring, soon coming." I walked up to the stallion and picked him up, slinging him over my shoulders and grabbing his hooves to help keep him balanced. "We eat, it is shit, but will keep you alive."

Sombra wiggled in my grasp. "What? What do you think will keep me from leaving, worm!"

I let him go, the loud thud behind me echoing down the hall. I turned to face him, the glassy hallway I'd come into already growing cold from the wind. I watched him writhe on the ground, slowly stepping out and resting a boot against his throat. "I'm big...you're small. Is simple."

Sombra let out a sharp whine as I eased up. "Oh, so you're not here to play the hero. No...I suppose enough of your kind do that as is!"

I fixed my glasses, the frost starting to thaw and leave them steamed. "My kind is dead. Long dead. I think perhaps you don't like human."

Sombra rolled onto his side and propped himself up with his forelegs. "You animals, you come and think--"

I gently pushed him over with my boot. "Still don't give a shit."

Sombra reeled back. "I will see you in chains!"

I shook my head and went back to the boarded up window. "Shut up, ja? Your screaming will wake the dead." I shoved the window closed. "You're a guest, despite the end goal, you are a guest." I made sure it was jammed shut and grabbed the stallion again. "Be glad I don't fuck your mouth...would surly keep you quiet."

Sombra kicked and squirmed as I started off down the perfectly carved building. "What!? I will end your life--"

"Shut up." I carried him down the steps, deep grooves carved by me to give them some grip. "Still a guest, now behave." I sighed loudly. "First guest I have, and he's an asshole."

"You've been speaking a different language, and that's what you choose to say to me--"

"Am I wrong?" I walked down each step, heavy thuds and jangles following as I moved. The smell of wood smoke filtered in as I kept on, past the steps into the first floor, and down into the basement. The warmest room in the house, and stocked with frozen jars and supplies. "Now sit, or lay, or something." I walked across the large square room, over to a fire pit buried in the wall. I tossed the half alive stallion on a pile of decrepit furs, tossing a few over him to try and get some warmth into his body.

Sombra glared at my hands. "Really? Now you show kindness?"

I huffed and finished wrapping him up. "I could have left you, idiot." I finished up with him and turned to a few bits of wood I'd reclaimed from the surrounding buildings. It didn't burn hot immediately, but it could over time. The wood was noisy as I stacked it up. "Hmm, the infamous Sombra, laying in a pile of fur. This is the start to...how you say, pornography."

Sombra shook his head. "Really? Must you be an absolute cretin?"

I tossed a few hollow sounding chunks into the stone firepit. "I've been alone for two months, and the history books speak of you rather...extensively." I laughed and finished up with my impromptu fire. "A teacher, bending a youn--"

Sombra's eyes lit up. "You shut your heathen mouth!" The room shook under the weight of his voice, dust falling from atop shelves and the ceiling. "You don't talk about him."

I licked my lips. "Hmm, the book say you were raped. I suppose is not--"

"The books were written by ponies looking for reasons to explain me. And you, speculating and--"

"So you were close to him...." I took my gloves off, the synthetic material scratching against my jacket. A box of matches found their way into my hand, clattering around inside before finding itself open and presenting. "I understand." I grabbed the match and flicked it on, the heat zapping my fingers to life before being whisked into a pile of kindling. "Sorry."

Sombra's eyes reflected the growing fire as I turned to him. "An apology? After everything you've said--"

"Is a subject I understand. Being targeted as such." I undid my jacket and hung it on a shelf across from the medium sized room. "If I didn't apologize, I'd be mocking every man I'd spent the night with. So...is not for your sake--"

Sombra stared at the fire, leaving me to dress down into something less cumbersome. "So you are a monster, simply not a hypocrite."

I turned to him with a sour expression. "A monster calling me a monster? Who said what about hypocrite?"

Sombra turned his attention to me. "You think you're funny?"

I pulled over a box, emptied out and soon to be turned into firewood. A quick settle down before the fire and next to Sombra later and I was warmed. "No. I think I'm cold." I held my hands out, letting them gather up what heat they could. The burning sensation was uncomfortable, but far less terrible than the biting cold.

Sombra lowered his head. "Why'd you save me?"

I shook my head. "A way home. You provide a way home." I shrugged. "You are wanted, if found alive. I am wanted, for different reasons. I trade you for me, I go home."

"A thief?"

I shook my head. "A butcher, but not of here. Of far off place."

Sombra turned to me. "A murderer, oh perfection." He looked towards the fire. "I'm willing to concede that we are both monsters then."

"I'm so glad to have your concession. It means a lot to me." I laughed to myself. "Oh god...I'm making jokes to myself to try and keep from going mad." I stopped and rubbed my face. "Oh! Oh! I have use for you." I slapped my knees and stood up. "Where...I did not burn, I hope." I walked up to the shelves that ran along the far right wall, next to the stairs. "Where is, where is, where is...." I rummaged around, grabbing a pot and a can of something. "No-- oh, here it is!" I grabbed a thick hide bound book and looked it over. "Words are unreadable. But, who knows."

Sombra was busy staring at the fire. I walked over and settled back on my box. "Here, read." I tossed the book down to him, slapping it across his hooves. "I cook."

Sombra looked down at the book. "What? Are you--"

I scooted forward and set the jar to thaw. "Entertain me before I look for alternatives." I rubbed my face. "I'm not a good person, nor I think a bad one, but I will not allow myself to lose my mind."

Sombra's eyes traced my hands as I rubbed them together. "You're threatening to rape me?"

"Yes." I bit my finger, trying to get the blood flowing. "And I'm giving you a very easy, very peacful alternative." I looked back to him. "Are you offended?"

Sombra narrowed his eyes. "You're threatening to rape me if I don't read to you. I don't know if I should call you a monster or a special pony."

I shook my head. "Will you just read? You think I'm actually going to touch you...." I laughed into my hand. "Your people are not very attractive to me, and I have no want to be a rapist." I watched the jar blacken with ash. "No want for power, perhaps lust and aggravation, but rape is for the power hungry and mad. Now...read."

Sombra's frown faltered. "So you bluff the henious?"

"Would you have read if I was serious?"

Sombra shook his head. "A modicum of respect, although I'm skeptical that respect is the right word." He carefully reached his hooves out from under the furs to bat at the pages. "Ponies are easily scared when their virginity is threatened. When posed with a life of labor or a life as a concubine, it was much easier to force them to mine."

I felt myself frown. "This is hardly labor--"

"But the idea is the same." He turned to face me. "Already...I can tell you're like me, uncomfortably so." He turned to the fire. "Sex has always been an easy threat. Somehow ponies will face death before they face their pride."

I bit my lip and pulled the half thawed jar away with the pot. "I wouldn't know." I put my gloves back on and forced the jar lid off. "I was never a dictator, or a slaver artist."

Sombra flinched as a load of what looked like pickled fruit plopped into the pot. Lewdly splattering against the base of the black pot. "Hmm. You've--"

"No." I stuck the pot in the fire, the smell of brine filling the air. "I've never had interest in women, and the men I've hunted received no threats as such." I flexed my hand around the pot. "There was no need."

Sombra huffed and looked down to his new book. "Its effective, I'm sorry to say I've faced worse, so you'll have to come up with a new threat."

I licked my lips. "I've heard good things about torture."

Sombra shook his head. "No, no, you end up with a cripple. Threaten families, sexual organs, eyes."

I pulled the pot out, the melted swill gooey and thick. "This smells like pig urine...."

Sombra frowned. "Hmm.... I wouldn't know."

I set the pot down and rubbed my face. "You've talked a lot considering."

Sombra huffed and turned back to the fire. "As have you."

"Being alone, you seek out communication." I frowned hard, enough for me to notice my vision blacken around the tops. "Where were you? I mean...shit, I mean between the return and now."

Sombra sighed and stretched out his leg. "Away, I'm not actually sure where."

"Alone?"

Sombra nodded. "And if not, I'm doubtful I would've been well met."

I scoffed and swung the pot around between us. "Here...to monsters of civil conversation and vast loneliness." I pinched my nose as the fire crackled. "I have enjoyed having someone to talk to...despite the vitriol nature of our arrangement."

Sombra looked into the pot. "You exchanging my crimes to pardon yours? It is a bit heinous." His muzzle crinkled up around the joining of his face. "...I'm not eating that."

I leaned back and grunted. "You have something better?"

Sombra looked around the room. "I'm not sure. Depends on where we are."

I bopped the pot on the ground. "Then until that time, you eat."

"You don't want me to read?" He asked, slowly gaining enough strength to push off his forelegs. "Wasn't it read or be raped?"

I shook my head. "You're not the monster I'd expected. Or perhaps you are, but you hide it well." Now eat, speak, stave off the madness."