Onyx read the book in front of him, brown eyes scanning the pages impatiently as they devoured every word which he half-whispered and half-mumbled the under his breath.

Both the sisters were gone, and he wasn't sure where, but they wouldn't come back this time. Clover had long since graduated. But most important of all is that Starswirl was out, and would be so for a long while. Today was the day, who knew when he would ever get another chance to take his freedom. He was thirteen-going-on-fourteen, four and a half years older then when he arrived under the lie of being an apprentice.

The candles in the room flickered, their light wavering as they threatened to die. He couldn't let that happen, it had taken to much of the meager magic Onyx had just to light them, and already he could feel what was left draining away as the spell continued. He just had to hope he could read in the dark.

Onyx gulped slightly, not in fear but in worry. He was never afraid.

He continued to recite the spell written clearly on the page letters thin, neat, and precise as knife strokes. This magic worked best with his anger and hate, as if this and other emotions were the infinite food source needed to perform such powerful spells, unlike the pathetic wisps of arcane magic he had picked up.

He knew it was the right time not just because of these circumstances but because of the cover of the mysterious book he found all those years ago in the library. The cover always had a new title and today it said 'Everything You Ever Wanted' in the same spidery letters that everything else was written in. If that wasn't a sign that today was his lucky day he wasn't sure what was.

After all who could argue with a book that said 'Everything You Ever Wanted'?

Nopony, Onyx thought, nopony at all.

4 years and 11 months earlier (Onyx is 9)

That wizard's a liar.

He never wanted another apprentice, he just wanted to trick somepony into doing a bunch of chores.

Stupid wizard, Onyx thought leaning against a covered shelf. He was in one of Starswirl's disused storerooms of old books. It was incredibly dark since the place was essentially a cellar, the floorboards not even having the decency - at least in Onyx's mind- to give off enough light to let him see his own forehooves and muzzle.

At least it could try to illuminate all the dust motes I know are in here. Onyx slouched against the bookshelf even more trying to pull the very damaged flour sack cloak around him.

Even though he was from the place, which was how he'd come to the Crystal Empire, it was almost unbearably cold here in the valley. At least he was fairly safe from being bonked over the head by a sword hilt. Or from Solara taunting him by calling him a savage and other words - bigger names he didn't know. And the stupid blue one calling him Kawblance when she bothered to speak at all.

Kawblance, Kawblance, Kawblance! He hated it so much. He just wanted to go... go where? He didn't know.

Onyx closed his eyes and pictured mushrooms. He loved mushrooms, they were his favorite food even if they sometimes did weird things to his head. Unlike the place which was always rather clean, and of course shiny, the Magicy Spire was positively full of them.

He was also fed rather poorly here and his weight loss should have been obvious to anypony who even glanced at him, except they never did. Onyx desperately wanted something to eat that wasn't stone-stale rye bread, mushrooms (however much he enjoyed them), birds, and of course that awful three leaf plant that hurt his throat so bad the one time he ate it. Even though the birds were so good.

Wishing for all this food made his stomach hurt even more. Furious and desperate to get his mind off the glory that was edible substances he slammed his head into the bookshelf behind him.

Stupidwizardstupidmushroomsstupidfoodstupidponiesstupidstupidstupid. Stupid everything!

Onyx knew that to one day make everypony suffer he had to get better at this magic sort of thing despite the fact that he had no crystallokinesis...and no mark... and no hope of ever getting one, after all that's why his parents-Stop it!, He told himself, unsure of where these thought came from. He doubted they were his, denied it.

Again he slammed his head against the bookshelf. This time a book fell on his face. A very big book.

Strangely, there wasn't much of a thunk. His face acted as a nice book-muffler much to his chagrin.

Onyx bit his tongue to keep from making any noise because if you have ever had a big, ancient book fall on your face you would know how much it hurts.

After this lovely incident he thought it might be best to remove the book that was balancing on his face.

Onyx discovered the book was as charcoal-colored as he was. It was also glowing a purply-green. The cover simply stated 'Read Me'.

Without a second thought he did.

Onyx swallowed again, his throat was getting sore. He hated feeling pain of any kind, to him pain was always for others. A purple mist was streaming from around the edges of his eyes, and his world had taken on a stronger green tint then when he normally read this book.

He glanced at the spell again, it said it was a species changing spell but the letters were growing a bit blurry and his legs began to shake.

Onyx felt tired but kept on going.

Earth pony. Pegasus. Crystal pony. Siren. Sea pony. There were a few others he didn't know and one was definitely missing - or so he thought - but it didn't matter because it was only the one he focused on that matters:

Unicorn, the most powerful written there and Onyx's means to fuel his greed.

Magic.

Power.

Revenge.

Bloodshed.

Eventually the whole room began to glow, and so did he.

Onyx couldn't even tell if he was laughing, crying, or screaming when the spell slowly burned away his body one atom at a time.

After that he wasn't just Onyx anymore, somepony - something - was created from this spell along with a new body for this new pony, and Onyx was reduced to viewing the world through eyes that were never his, controlling somepony entirely new half the time, and speaking with a voice not his own to carry out dreams that were shared only by him, Onyx, who thought the stranger was the voice when it was he who was the more parasitic.

Although he never says it like that, to him this pony wasn't that at all. The one who would become known as Sombra was just a weapon in the second part of Onyx's life.

Onyx began what he thought was the first day of his real life.

It was a day marked with the blood of Starswirl the Bearded.

Then, with an enormous, violent and almost uncontrolled burst of dark magic there was a chink formed in the wards out of this valley.

To Sombra, this is where he felt his life began: looking out on a blurred world of white from the top of a mountain. It wasn't technically true, his life began two days before, but at the time it was all the truth he needed to know in that moment.

Like eyes, the stars followed these two ponies as they made their way out into the world were so much could begin...

...And so much more could end.