Sombra slowly opened his eyes and began to look around, he noticed he was in a prison and looked down to see chain rapped around his throat, attached to both sides of the cell he was kept in, he then began to hear foot steps coming closer, they were loud and slow, as if whoever was making their way to him wanted the unicorn King to dread this moment as much as possible and for some unknown reason he did.

The mysterious pony revealed themselves to be Princess Celestia, glaring down at the shadow pony "well Sombra, it looks like you truly were a waste of my time, your reformation failed....you failed and so I have decided to make sure you'll never be a problem again and make you feel the pain you pressed onto others, starting with taking away your freedom"

Sombra chuckled slightly before giving the sun princess a venomous glare "interesting, so the line between good and evil has finally become non existent hmm? So am I going to be your new hoof rest? If yes you may want to get Luna one as well, after all she tends to get jealous of you easily, probably cause of your extreme amount of control, will I be added onto the list of your other failures or have you lost count" Sombra scoffed in a smug tone, feeling pleased with himself.

Celestia growled before stomping a hoof "enough! I've been thinking of what to do with you, and I think I know exactly where to start" Celestia used her magic and Sombra felt his horn begin to glow and his eyes widened before he tried holding his crown in his hooves, trying desperately to keep it on his head, however Celestia forced it off and pulled it to the other side of the bars before placing it down "no one who's went against me has succeeded Sombra, this is why!" Suddenly Celestia stomped down on Sombra's horn, smashing it to pieces.

Sombra's eyes widened as he tried to get out of his chains "NOOOO, Damn you Celestia!! Damn you!!" Sombra tried to use his magic, but it didn't work, he tried again, it still didn't work, with every attempt Celestia merely laughed more at her victory.

<*>

Twilight began walking to Sombra's room with a plate of pancakes for breakfast, but she heard something, it was like a mix of sobs and shouts coming from the Kings room, immediately Twilight took action and rushed into the room "Sombra?!" She asked before her eyes widened, Sombra was on his bed, curled up and holding his crown tightly against his head as his horn sparked repeatedly but clearly did not have enough power to do anything "No! Stop! It's all I have left!! Don't take it away from me!!" He pleaded, tossing and turning in his bed.

Twilight quickly rushed to Sombra's side and began to shake him ruffly "Sombra! Sombra please wake up! It's me Twilight!" She pleaded as she continued shaking him, till suddenly Sombra shot up to his feet, eyes wide as he darted around, he looked up to his crown realising it was still there and then noticed Twilight.

Sombra went quiet for a few moments before commenting "my apologies, did I wake you?" He asked before sitting down on his bed with his head down, quickly wiping away and visible tears on his cheeks.

Twilight shook her head before placing the plate of pancakes in front of the unicorn King. The pancakes were in the shape of crystals, one of the few things Twilight was aware Sombra had an interest in "no, not at all, don't worry Sombra, I just came in to give you your breakfast" she explained with a smile, she didn't want to ask what the nightmare was about, they still didn't really know each other after all, but then Twilight realised that Sombra's little to know magic problem hindered him more than she could imagine, Sombra attempted to use his magic to lift the knife and fork, however didn't even manage to get the cutlery an inch off the plate. Twilight felt bad for the stallion, he was a king who could do almost anything, now he couldn't do the simplest of tasks, it must of stung worse than any defeat imaginable "would you like me to help?" Twilight asked before lifting the knife and fork with her magic.

Sombra sighed in annoyance and turned to her "make any childish comments to me and I'll rip your voice box out" Twilights eyes widened and took a moment to shake the image out of her head before hesitantly beginning, she cut off a piece of a pancake and as Sombra opened his mouth she placed it in."hmm, it's ok" he replied. Instead of complaining that he gave an OK to food she remade multiple times to get correctly she decided to continue, feeding him every last bight till it was gone "never speak of this to anyone, not even me, I would rather not think back on it" he ordered and Twilight nodded with a kind smile.

"Don't worry, I don't think I'd be comfortable with others knowing either, so anyway I thought today we could go into town to meet with some of my friends, is that fine with you?" She asked as she placed the knife and fork back down on the plate and handed Sombra a glass of water, which Sombra quickly gulped it down to get away from this process of Twilight feeding him, even though he knew it would not be the last time unless his magic somehow came back.

"I suppose so, I'm not one for being stuck inside all day, though I'm sure you can imagine that I'd draw lots of attention in a hurry, are you sure this is wise" he asked before getting out of bed and brushing and fixing his mane with a hoof.

Twilight responded with a confident nod "I'm sure it will be fine, Discord was allowed do as he wished within reason, I don't see why you shouldn't, besides ponyvill sees something crazy pretty much every week these days, I don't think this will get them two shaken".

<*>

Safe to say Twilight was completely wrong, as soon as the two royals stepped out of the castle all eyes turned to them, more specifically all eyes turned to Sombra, he could practically taste the fear as it radiated off of them, a devilish grin forming on the unicorns face as he found this sight very amusing. After staying frozen in fear for a few more moments all the ponies present immediately started to run, leaving Twilight bewildered "told you~" Sombra mocked before he began walking while Twilight rolled her eyes and began trotting along side the unicorn King.

Suddenly a streak came flying towards them, Twilight only managed to get out of the way just in time as Sombra was tackled to the ground, he looked up to see a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane growling aggressively at him "so you've come to take over ponyvill huh?! Not on my watch?!" Rainbow Dash was about to strike the unicorn however she was suddenly caught in Twilight's magic and lifted into the air. Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight and pouted in annoyance "Hey Twilight! What gives?! It's Sombra!" She snapped in annoyance.

Twilight had a stern look on her face as she stepped closer to Rainbow Dash before dropping her back down, causing her to land with a slight thud "I know it's Sombra, I'm...well... I'm looking after him I guess you could say. Celestia asked me to try and reform him, that's why he's here and that's why you shouldn't go attacking him immediately" Twilight explained with an annoyed glare.

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as Sombra stood back up and dusted himself off, before giving the blue Pegasus who seemed to be becoming even more shocked the longer he stood there, he wasn't attacking, he wasn't charging using his magic on her, he didn't even attempt to charge at her "what are you gawking at?" He finally asked with a growl "is it really that hard to understand something simple? I was taken in against my will in order to be 'reformed' by your friend Twilight Sparkle, now if you excuse my I need to try and survive a torturous day filled with a bunch of colourful thick skulled ponies!" And with that Sombra stormed off, not to go to any specific location, he just didn't want Rainbow Dash to continue starring at him as if she was a rabbit in headlights.

Twilight held a hoof to her head and sighed before walking over to Rainbow Dash "look, I want Sombra to at least fit in, he's not like Discord who can find a way to fit in and relax all the time, he hasn't seen anything outside his own empire for over a thousand years, could you please do me a favour and ask for everyone to meet at the castle later, Sombra can't possibly feel like anything but a prisoner if I'm the only one who treats him like a normal pony, so please can you help me out here?" Twilight asked with pleading eyes and a slight smile.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and groaned "...what do you need me to do?" Twilight then whispered something in Rainbow Dashes ear and then rushed off, it was then she realised Sombra managed to get further than she had originally expected.

<*>

Sombra managed to find a relaxing pace to stick with as he explored to largely populated village, however with Sombra's presence the population seemed non existent, everyone he saw simply ran to their homes in fear, while he was with Twilight there was some assurance that perhaps everything was fine, but now there was no one keeping this monster at bay besides a limitation they were all unaware of. Sombra then glanced to the side and saw what appeared to be some kind if a hardware store, due to the thousand year old pony being unaware of modern technology he felt now would be the perfect opportunity to start learning about it and so he walked inside, a small bell above the door making a soft ding as he entered,nsomething else he didn't fully understand and just assumed it was a sort of signal to the workers that a customer has entered or left the establishment, as Sombra looked around he saw many things he had never seen before and couldn't even get his head around, he could guess what everything's purpose was but he couldn't see how they did what they did, he couldn't just take one and proceed to rip it apart to see how it worked, but then Sombra saw something he truly couldn't understand, there was a video projector along with a number of different tapes, at first Sombra assumed this may be a variation of those cameras he saw before where from the box he could understand it took an event out of space time and placed it into a small 2D form however this thing seemed different. On top of that there were the tapes, what were they for, they didn't look like the tape that's made to stick things together and had nothing that would give it that ability, then there was the fact they had strange titles on them, like books but they weren't books, they had no words, and what kind of book would be in a circular shape anyway.

After a few more minutes of inspection King Sombra heard the sound of hooves banging hard and fast against the wooden floor, coming in his direction. Around the corner came Twilight who just managed to stop herself before slamming hard into Sombra, the two were nose to nose and stood rigid too surprised to move. Twilight blushed slightly with embarrassment before stepping back and letting out a deep sigh, until her former demeanour returned "Sombra what are you doing?! You can't just wander off like that, you could and probably have caused a panic all throughout ponyvill!" The friendship princess relaxed before glancing over at what Sombra was originally looking at "wait....what are you doing here? Why would you want to come to a place like this?" She asked curiously.

Sombra pointed to the large number of tapes, his focus still on Twilight "what are these strange circular items for, and what is this weird camera like thing?" He asked not having the right words to fully explain his question since he didn't really understand things such as technology or contraption.

That's when it hit her, Twilight realised that Sombra in this new world wasn't just in an entirely different environment but was also surrounded by things he couldn't begin to understand, after all he didn't even know what a lamp was or how to use it till Twilight demonstrated it to him. "Well those are tapes, they aren't like sticky tape or anything like that, basically those tapes are able to hold multiple pictures inside of them" Twilight then pointed to the tape recorder "while this is similar to a camera instead of taking pictures it projects them using light to create the image on the tape onto the wall, the pictures on these tapes can even be used to give the illusion of the objects actually moving" Twilight explained.

Sombra took in the information for a few moments before responding "I see, so these have the ability to project events of the past without any sort of magical source or output of magic? It simply runs off some sort of enhancements invented by ponies around the world and now these magnificent creations can be distributed across entire nations so that millions of ponies can experience events from the past as if they are taking place right in front of them but as a spectator and not having to get physically involved, not to mention it would make way as a good secondary option for those who don't have the time or the interest in books, how amazing" Sombra exclaimed, this seemed revolutionary to him, while sounding like the norm to everyone else.

Twilight was left almost giddy by this, no one in her entire life has ever given such an amazingly detailed explanation about the utter importance of video and why it's no important until Sombra came around, it was as if he was an utter genius beyond compare, it almost seemed familiar though she couldn't quite put her hoof on as to why it felt so familiar, oh well it will come to her eventually "well, if you'd like, I could show you all the new things ponies have created in the last thousand years during our tour of ponyvill, what do you think?" Twilight asked with a smile.

Sombra seemed pretty surprised by the offer and smirked slightly. It looked evil, but at this same time it didn't feel evil, as if after being a tyrant for so long Sombra never felt genuinely happy about anything besides hurting others, it was very worrying to think about but at the same time this was a sign that she may have a chance of actually becoming friends with the unicorn King, then his response shocked the young mare "my my Sparkle, could it be you are trying to find ways to have more private time? I didn't think you'd be so bold, but of course I would love to be blessed with your knowledge~" Sombra grinned before walking around and standing beside the princess "shall we?~"

Twilight blushed slightly as her eyes widened "wait what?! No no no no no! I just wanted to help is all!" She defended while Sombra just smirked at her, clearly entertained at her attempts to explain herself "I just thought it would be fun you know and once everyone sees you aren't a threat they may relax more you know?" She chuckled slightly, feeling slightly awkward and embarrassed from what just happened.

And with that the two of them walked out and the tour began, Twilight took Sombra all around ponyvill, making many stops at almost every turn and each time Sombra asked "what's that?" There were many different things Twilight thought Sombra in that time, speakers, microphones, fridges, kettles and more, everything seemed so new to hi, he was like a foal trotting around in a new home, it was kind of nice to watch in a way, but also weird, she couldn't get her mind off the fact that this was STILL Sombra and he is STILL dangerous, but at the same time he was so interesting.

"So once I learned the duplication spell I began to study it more and I found that once I released it all the knowledge my copies had gained I did as well, this allowed me to study 10 times as fast, on top of that it allowed me to experiment with mixing spells together to create even more spells, from there I made a book about all the spells I studied and created over time, this allowed me to meet more magicians and learn new things from them too, of course I made sure to keep some things to myself and then...."
Sombra went on and on and Twilight found every second so fascinating, before she only knew Sombra as the tyrant who enslaved ponies and mastered dark magic, now she saw Sombra as a pure genius, he knew so much and even some spells that according to the history books were only discovered around 100 years ago however Sombra was aware of these spells and new some details that weren't even mentioned.

Eventually Sombra glanced over at Twilight and noticed the giant grin that was on her face, it was almost concerning "um, Twilight, forgive me but I don't think your face is supposed to morph into.....that" he stated, seeming more confused as to how that kind of a smile is even possible.

Twilight finally realised how wide her grin was and finally had mercy on her jaw as she lowered it, blushing slightly "heheh, sorry, I guess I just never had a conversation like this with anyone before, I mean you know just about everything about magic, it's incredible!" She replied giddily "maybe we can teach each other, you can teach me the last and I can teach you the present and maybe even future spells!" She suggested before raising her hoof "what do you think?" She asked, finally calming down.

Sombra shook her hoof gently and smirked, still looking as evil as usual "at first I despised Celestia for this ridiculous decision, but it seems she's put me with someone that's competent" he joked with his toothy grin.

Twilight's eyes widened slightly, she was annoyed for being labelled as just being 'competent' but maybe this was a good thing, she was getting to know Sombra as more than just a tyrant and Sombra was getting to know her as more than just a pony that helped in his most recent defeat. She knew things would get better.

They will get better, right?

Next Chapter: Friendship is challenging Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes