Since that night where Twilight and Sombra got involved with each other, the two of them kept continuing meeting each other at the next days. Just like Sombra and Twilight had agreed on, they kept their relationship a secret, something they carried out religiously. Although there was a certain suspicion in the air, the simple idea of Twilight and Sombra being together had not yet been conceived by the young alicorn princess’ friends.

When a new day was starting to dawn, Twilight and Sombra were on the latter’s bed, enjoying the moment after another night of love. Twilight had her head rested on Sombra’s shoulder, while caressing his muscled chest. The tyrant king, by his turn, had his foreleg involving the young princess’ shoulders.

“You know one thing, I never thought to come to like making love, mainly with you, Sombra” Twilight confessed.

“Well, fate has always ways to surprise us” Sombra said. “I also never thought come to fell in love with a mare like you, Twilight.”

Sombra stopped as soon he said those words as they had come from his mouth in such fluid way like water. Had those words been said by his manipulative side wanting to have Twilight fallen in love for him just to achieve his evil purposes? Or were said by his more sensitive side, the one that was fighting to know what he really felt for Twilight?

Twilight, listening that, asked, turning to him:

“You’re really in love with me?”

“Well, I…” Sombra stuttered, while trying to think on something to say.

However, he didn’t manage to say nothing else, as Twilight silenced him with an intense kiss. When their lips separated from each other, she said:

“I’m in love with you too, Sombra.”

And, having said that, Twilight hugged him tightly. Those words and that hug made the dark king’s heart to race like it had raced before, while he felt something funny in his stomach. His dark side normally would manifest itself, seeing that his plan was going perfectly well, but, however, for the first time since he remembers, a genuine smile and full of affection appeared on Sombra’s face and he returned Twilight’s hug.

It didn’t last for the sun starting to get in Sombra’s room and illuminate it. Seeing that, Twilight said:

“Well, it seems it is time for me to go. I just wished that we didn’t have to hide our relationship from my friends so we could be always together.”

For a brief moment, that idea seemed so tempted to Sombra that he seriously considered in taking it with open hooves. It was at that moment that his dark and calculating personality took control, remembering him why he accepted Twilight’s suggestion to keep their relationship secret. If her friends got to know about them, his goal would become harder to achieve.

“But you know we can’t risk it. At least, not for now. Now I’m the one to ask you secrecy. Don’t take me wrong, being with you all the time is what I want the most. I just want to know that I’m accepted by everypony, so that nopony tries to separate us.

Twilight nodded with her head and, after she gave him a goodbye kiss to Sombra, stood up and teleported to her room. When she got out, Sombra stood up as well and went to his window, observing the rising sun, something that he really disliked for being a symbol of hope.

He couldn’t stop thinking about what he was feeling for Twilight. It was a feeling that he never had felt for nopony and was just getting bigger for each time he was with Twilight. However, that feeling was something that put him in conflict with his plan that was going just like he had thought it would. For the first time since the first night with Twilight, he asked himself if he wanted to do that.

Later that day, Twilight was reunited with her friends at the thrones room.

“I want to know the reason for you to summon this urgent meeting” Twilight said.

“Oh, I love guessing games!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed excitingly. “Is it too plan a surprise party to Gummy? His half-birthday is coming, after all, and we have to plan things beforehoof. You know how Gummy is very picky…”

“No, Pinkie, that is not the reason!” Rainbow Dash replied sharply, with no patience to hear the pink earth pony’s eccentricities.

“Okay, fine, but don’t come complain if you find a toothless alligator in your bath” Pinkie Pie answered.

“I think the reason is quite obvious” Applejack declared.

Twilight didn’t need to think for more than two seconds to know what she was talking about.

“Really?” she asked. “You summoned this meeting to talk about Sombra?”

“I’m sorry, darling, but it’s just that already passed sometime since he arrived and…” Rarity started.

“And we wanted to know for how much long you’re thinking in keeping that curved-horned cockroach around here!” Rainbow Dash said, cutting what Rarity was trying to say gently.

“Rainbow Dash, I think you should watch your words” Twilight scolded. “I know that you don’t like Somba very much…”

“That’s the understatement of the year” Rainbow Dash commented.

“But that is not a motive to treat him like that” Twilight said. “Sombra is really making an effort to change and he certainly will not be able to do it if you keep attacking him.”

“And I can’t believe that you’re defending him with all that after what that bastard did” Rainbow Dash said. “For somepony that, just like us, didn’t trust slightly on him, you’re very compassionate with Sombra, Twilight.”

For an instant, Twilight was almost telling how much Sombra was changed and, consequently, she would reveal the existing passion between them. Fortunately, she managed to control herself until Applejack said, calmly:

“What Rainbow is trying to say is that we must act carefully. If we give a step longer than the leg, it is very possible that we will let ourselves be tricked, if Sombra is really planning something.”

“Applejack is right, Twilight” Rarity adverted. “It’s not that Sombra’s effort is coming unnoticed, but we can’t forget who he was in the past and what he did.”

“Yeah, enslaving an entire empire is not, without doubt, the best way to be friendly” Pinkie Pie said. “And I know that because I have a lot of friends. You should know that too, Twilight, after all you’re the princess of friendship.”

“I, personally, believe that Sombra is good, deep down, in the same way I believed in Discord” Fluttershy said. “But… I also agree with Applejack, Twilight.”

The young princess of friendship understood her friends’ doubts, but that didn’t make things easier. How would she be able to prove them how much Sombra had changed?

At that moment, the doors of the room opened and Spike got in, bringing a letter.

“Twilight, a letter from Princess Celestia arrived!” he declared.

Sitting on his throne, he gave the letter to Twilight who took it with magic, opening it afterwards and starting to read it:

“Dear Twilight, since it had already passed some time since the last time we saw each other, more precisely since you decided to reform King Sombra. Because of that, I invite you and Sombra to join me and my sister at dinner tonight in order to observe the acquired progress. I await your answer. Yours truly, Princess Celestia.”

“You see?” Rainbow Dash said. “Even Princess Celestia must think that thing as we do. I bet that the reason behind that dinner is to see what that evil cockroach is plotting.

Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but Rainbow Dash was right. Princess Celestia had always showed her disapproval regarding the opportunity to reform Sombra. However, Twilight knew she could take advantage of that to show the progress that Sombra have had done.

“Maybe, but I can’t refuge an invitation like this one” Twilight replied. “Spike, take a note.”

When her dragon assistant took a pen and a parchment, Twilight started to dictate, while Spite wrote:

“Dear Princess Celestia, it is with great pleasure that I accept your invitation to dinner this night. You can also count with Sombra. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. You can sent it, Spike.”

So, after writing the last word, Spike curled the letter and then sent it with a blast of flames.

It didn’t take long for Twilight and Sombra to get on board the Friendship Express to go to Canterlot. Most of the ponies, knowing his reputation and still fearful of him, kept their distance, what caused Twilight and Sombra to get a compartment just for them. Some guards (all loyal to Sombra) had asked Twilight to accompany them, something that was a great idea to the dark unicorn due to the fact of in that way being prepared for any trap Celestia and Luna could set against him. However, the young princess had refused.

“I don’t know about this, Twilight” Sombra said. “You know that I and the alicorn sisters don’t have the best relationship.”

“I know that, but this is the best way to prove how changed you are” Twilight replied.

“Or this is just a way of Celestia and Luna finding the minimal reason to lock me up.”

“I know Princess Celestia well and I know that she can notice a change when she sees it. And I’m certain that Princess Luna is the same. After all, she was already at your place.

“I hope you’re right, Twilight” Sombra said.

Twilight looked around to make sure that they were really alone to give a brief kiss to Sombra, saying then:

“I know I am.”

When the sun was starting to set, the train arrived to Canterlot station. They got out and noticed that the ponies present there on the platform hasted to get away, fearing Sombra. He and Twilight were then approached by guards that escorted them to the castle, where they meet with Celestia and Luna who received them in a cordial, and yet distant, way.

The dinner happened very silently, but equally tense. It was like if everypony wanted to say something, but eventually gave up doing it. When they were eating the dessert, Twilight couldn’t hold it anymore and said:

“Okay, enough of this. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, you invited us to dinner with you and, for that, I’m grateful, but don’t you think this silence is ridiculous?”

“Indeed, Twilight Sparkle, this silence is really uncomfortable, but I don’t see any reason to have any conversation with somepony we don’t want to be friends with in any way” Luna replied.

“What Luna means to say, Twilight, is that we organized this dinner to verify the change in Sombra” Celestia said. “And I can indeed detect a slight change on his behavior.”

“That is very kind of you, Celestia” Sombra said, bowing his head in a fake gesture of cortesy.

“You didn’t let me finish” Celestia cut him. “However, like the crystal ponies, we still remember the time of the tyrant who ruled the Crystal Empire with cruelty. Twilight, don’t take this wrongly, but it will be hard to accept Sombra.”

“I understand…” Twilight said.

Seeing Twilight’s sad look before what Celestia had said, Sombra, in an impulse, said to the two alicorn sisters:

“You should have more consideration for Twilight. At least, she has the capability of being a true princess.”

“What did you just said?” Luna asked.

“What you just heard” Sombra replied. “Despite all the mistrust and knowing by experience everything I did, she put everything aside and gave me an opportunity, while you just wanted to see me locked up closely. For that and for all the patience that she has been having with me, Twilight is a better princess, better than you. For that, you should stop not take her seriously.”

Although being worried with Celestia and Luna’s reaction, Twilight couldn’t stop being happy with Sombra’s words. The two alicorn sisters were equally shocked, but then Luna said:

“I… never saw you defending a pony in such honest way.”

“Indeed” Celestia agreed. “Maybe you did have changed, but don’t forget that you’ll have to do more than doing touching speechess. After all, actions are worthier than words.”

When he heard those words coming out from the mouths of his two greatest enemies, Sombra couldn’t stop but drawing a slight smile, although he did the best to not let his dark intensions be shown. However, the way how he came in Twilight’s defense disturbed him.

With the end of the dinner, Twilight and Sombra got out to go to their respective rooms. While they walked, Twilight said:

“That was kind of you, Sombra. Thank you for standing up for me.”

“After everything you did for me and because you are important to me, what did you want me to do?”

After a share of passionate looks between the two of them, Twilight sighed:

“It’s just a shame that we can’t be together this night.”

“That is true” Sombra agreed. “But it’s just for today. Tomorrow, we return to Ponyville and then we can be together again.”

Twilight nodded and the two then took their respective ways to their room. In his room, Sombra couldn’t stop but thinking, for a long time, on his feelings and desires in conflict. On one side, he had at his reach the opportunity to have a superior power capable of allowing him have what he had and even more. However, the passion that he had for Twilight was the anchor that kept him from moving forward.

With his new power, he would be able to capture Twilight and force her to be his concubine, but the idea didn’t please him. Sombra didn’t desire her only physically, but also sentimentally. He didn’t want to have her only to satisfy him, he wanted to love her and be loved by her. However, love and power were two incompatible concepts, what forced ponies to choose one of them. If only existed a way to have both of them. In that way, Sombra wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

At that moment, he felt the presence of a power magic in the castle. That magic didn’t belong to any of the alicorn princesses, but there was no doubt that it was intense. That caught the tyrant king’s curiosity.

At the archive of the castle, a figure involved by a cloth appeared at Star Swirl the Bearded Wing. Creating a source of light with her horn, the figure took out the hood, revealing to be Starlight Glimmer, a pony that had been defeated by Twilight and her friends after creating a village with ponies to whom she took out their Cutie Marks, replacing them with equal signs, and made them follow her philosophy of true friendship. She had pale, light grayish heliotrope coat with a purple and white star with two two-toned blue glimmering streams as Cutie Mark, moderate purple with lighter purple and pale light, grayish aquamarine highlights mane and moderate persian blue eyes.

Starlight started to look over the existing parchments, searching for something that would allow her to take revenge on Twilight for everything she had done to her.

“No… no… no…” she said, while becoming increasingly frustrated as she put aside each parchment that she verified. “But where is it?!”

It was then that she found what she was looking for. A wicked smile appeared on her and she said:

“Yes, this is exactly what I was looking for. Now Twilight Sparkle will pay for everything that she did to me. She took my village from me? Well, I will take her best friends and she will watch it, unable to stop me.”

“You don’t tell me…” a cold voice said.

At that moment, the parchment got involved by a dark aura and then disappeared.

“But… where did it go?!”

“Are you looking for this?” the same voice asked, behind Starlight.

She turned around and found Sombra, holding the parchment with his magic.

“You…” Starlight said. “You are that dark unicorn that Princess Twilight is reforming. What are you doing?”

“The more pertinent question here is: what does a unicorn so talented like you at the middle of night in Star Swirl the Bearded Wing?”

“You don’t have anything to do with that!”

“That’s what we’re going to see” Sombra replied. “For what I heard, you’re trying to take revenge on Twilight. Well, I must tell you that exists others like you out there. But, tell me, how do you pretend to do it?”

He unrolled the parchment and observed it. Then, he noticed that was Star Swirls’ famous spell that allowed the user to travel through time. According to what he remembered about the spell, although it worked, it didn’t last for long and wasn’t strong enough to break through the temporal loop of cause-effect.

“A time traveling spell?” Sombra asked. “Why having so much work invading the castle of Canterlot just to steal a spell so limited like this one?”

“The spell may be limited, but it’s not something that can’t be adjusted” Starlight replied. “ After all, Star Swirl already did the most complicated part. Now, hand over the parchment or I will take it by force.”

And she charged her horn to validate what she had just said.

Sombra looked at Starlight, amused. He could see the great rage that Starlight had for Twilight and how much determined she was to get her revenge. On that aspect, Sombra managed to see a little of himself in her.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t let her ruin his plans just for a petty revenge. His first thought was to kill her, but then he remembered that Starlight’s capabilities could come in handy, mainly with his dilemma. Sure he could turn her into one of his slaves, but her job would be more effective if she did it on her own will. He just had to convince her to work for him.

“Time is such a dangerous thing to be dealt with” Sombra said, while rolling the parchment. “It is much easier to adapt to the situation and try to turn the table on your favor than risking in something so daring as time traveling.”

“Do you really think that you will convince me to give up my revenge?” Starlight asked. “Don’t wast your time, curved horn. Nopony will be able to dissuade me.”

“I’m not trying to make you give up your revenge” Sombra declared. “I’m trying to give you a better plan. Do you really think that I became one of Princess Twilight’s friend just to get a second chance? No… I have a plan of revenge of my own that is already in motion.”

“And why are you telling me that?” Starlight asked. “I don’t have nothing to do with your little problems with Twilight.”

“Oh, you do, when your little plan can prevent me from getting what I want” Sombra replied, in a harsher way, returning then to his calmer voice. “But, if you help me with my plan, we both can get our revenge on the ones who wronged us. Believe me when I say that what I have planned is so much better than creating holes in the timeline.”

Starlight thought for a while on Sombra’s offer and then replied:

“If that plan will really cause to Twilight the greatest suffering than the one she and her friends caused to me, then you can count on me. Just tell me what you want me to do.”

“I already have the spell I need prepared and the moment to give the final blow is coming” Sombra said. “However, certain unexpected… events require some reformulations. And having in count that I may be noticed and, apparently, you have a talent to revise spells…”

“You want me to do it, right?” Starlight completed.

Sombra nodded and then said:

“But I must warn that I will be watchful of you. Don’t you dare to temper the spell out of my indications. Now, tell me, are you up to the challenge?”

“Just tell me what kind of changes you want me to do and you can consider it done.”

That answer made Sombra draw his evil smile, happy to have found the solution to his dilemma of having to choose between power and love.

Next Chapter: Revealed Secret Love Estimated time remaining: 37 Minutes