Sombra and Twilight were currently walking back to the castle while eating hayburgers, it took Twilight a good while to convince him to try one but once he did he seemed to actually enjoy it, Twilight was relieved when he continued eating after the first bite, she didn't want to deal with an angry unicorn ranting about being given misinformation on what is considered good food in this era.

Twilight now finally had someone to share her jokes with as well. Her jokes were always science or magic based since that's her specialty, Sombra surprisingly appreciated her sense of humour and even had some jokes of his own. The two laughed together as they entered the throne room, however their loud laughter died down as they noticed Twilights good friends looking at the two book worms wide eyed. There was Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Apple Jack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Starlight Glimmer, they all appeared equally bewildered as the purple alicorn smiled awkwardly "ohhh heheh, good morning everypony, so I asked you all to come here today- thank you Rainbow Dash- because I want to help King Sombra feel at home here in ponyvill and of course that's not going to work if I'm the only one that's trying, so Sombra if there's anything you want to say to us before we get started now would be the best time" Twilight encouraged as she nudged Sombra slightly.

Sombra jolted out of his surprised state, his mind only focused on trying to theories what all of these ponies, along with the dragon he now spotted in the far left hoof corner of the room were going to do with him in attempts of forcing him into their point of view, however since he was getting the opportunity to speak his mind he figured he might as well use it "very well. Just so you all know the only reason you are all alive is because of my new limitations, limitations never last forever, so enjoy your borrowed time while it lasts, I will not be forced into your land of friendship, I will not allow you to brain wash me into doing so, I am King Sombra of the frozen north! Not Celestia's friendship experiment."

The room went quiet after Sombra's speech, his words sending slow shivers down everyone's spines. Twilight slumped down slightly, she thought Sombra may have actually been kind once you got to know him, but now she realised it was all because of his limitations that were most likely to be temporary, it made her wonder if she had made any progress in the first place, or was it Sombra that was turning her towards seeing him as someone who couldn't possibly be evil any more. What was annoying her more by this is Sombra wasn't even trying to hide any of this, it was as if he was relishing in the idea of killing them all like it's the inevitable.

"So anyway Twilight what was your goal by doing this?" Twilight was taken out of her cage of worries and brought into reality as Sombra spoke, the other ponies all appeared to be whispering to each other, most likely voicing their concerns while Starlight seemed very concerned for Twilight. "Uhh, well I was thinking that you could try getting to know everyone here, all friendships start with strangers after all" Twilight smiled strugglingly "so, who wants to start?" She asked.

All the main six stepped back slightly, however it was Starlight who came forward and held her hoof out to the unicorn King "um, hi, I'm Starlight, Starlight Glimmer, look I know you feel mad at....everyone here and honestly I used to too, I tried to end their friendship and make it so it would never happen, and for a time....I succeeded, but in the end, I didn't get any satisfaction from them falling apart, ending someone else's friendship isn't the right way to go for happiness, trust me" Starlight smiled awkwardly hoping her miniature speech would change anything even though it wasn't exactly 100% accurate to true events.

Sombra simply scoffed however "ending friendship is nothing, the fact that your revenge only drove you to end a relationship between ponies shows that clearly you didn't have much hate for any of them, especially compared to me, I'm disappointed" he mocked and Starlight was left stunned.

"Ooooookay, I'll be right back I'm just gonna go and....think for a bit" she said awkwardly before shuffling away out of the room.

Fluttershy shivered slightly before stepping forward slowly, it felt like an eternity until her hoof reached the floor once again "u-um, hi, I'm Fluttershy and uh-" Sombra stomped his hoof on the floor causing Fluttershy to jump from the fright and hid behind Apple Jack, causing Sombra to laugh at her cowardliness.

Twilight growled in and stepped forward "dammit Sombra! At least try and get along with everypony!" She demanded.

Sombra glared at her "why should I listen to you? I've lost enough, practically everything, I have nothing to gain from any of you and nothing to lose from disobeying your orders and commands, I'm a King! Not a puppet!" And with that Sombra was gone and headed up to his room, it was a bit of a challenge to open his door as he was tired and had very little magic even while wide awake, he had to bring himself to attempting to turn the nob with his mouth till suddenly he realised that a purple aura had begun to surround it, he looked over and saw Twilight who looked kind of...sad. Sombra knew she wanted to say something so he let go of the handle, immediately regretting putting his mouth on it in the first place due to the horrible taste that now cursed his tongue.

Twilight sighed before lowering her head slightly "I'm..sorry for what I said before, I wasn't thinking it's just...I thought we were getting along, like passed the whole giving you information thing and actually becoming friends...then just realising that wasn't true and then seeing that you couldn't connect with my other friends it...it just annoys me that nothing seems to work with you! The only thing I can connect with you on is magic and you don't seem to slightest bit ashamed in what you've done and...urgh this is hard!" She ranted before banging her head against the wall.

Sombra stepped forward and stomped a hoof to get her attention causing her to look up at him "you can't change someone in a day, even if I was to become your friend today I'd still be King Sombra and I wouldn't automatically become good. You are one of the ponies responsible for my demise and now my condition, so if I were you I'd be more patient" Sombra advised before stepping into his room after Twilight helped in opening the door.

Twilight smiled feeling like Sombra's words boosted her confidence whether that was intentional or not "thank you Sombra, by the way Pinky wants to know what things you like, she wants to make a welcome party for you, it's something she does for everypony who comes here, any tips for her?" She asked with slightly pleading eyes.

Sombra thought for a moment "I like crystal, and cake, but no large crowds, I would say meat though I have a feeling that's not an option in this day and age" he replied and Twilight nodded before stepping inside and shutting the door.

"By the way I got some puzzles for you" Twilight took a few board games, word searches, cross words and a deck of cards out of a bag she had with her "they should help you during uneventful days, if you need anymore just ask" Twilight then noticed Sombra trying to get at one of the books on his shelf, the books were tightly packed together, too tight for his hoof of teeth to drag them out, Twilight once again assisted in taking out the book and placing it on Sombra's bed "I'll get in an order for another shelf, sorry I guess I didn't account for the space needed for you to get at the books when planning your room" Twilight apologised awkwardly while Sombra just seemed disappointed "Sombra? Are you ok?" She asked before stepping closer to the unicorn King.

Sombra came out of his thoughts and jolted awake again "hmm? What? Oh yes I'm fine, perhaps the long day has gotten to me, I'll probably be in here for the rest of the night" Twilight raised an eyebrow before trotting to the window and pulling the curtains back to reveal the bright blue sky along with the yellow sun, it was still morning, not even the afternoon, Sombra sighed in defeat before sitting on the edge of the bed "I'd prefer not to talk about personal problems now Sparkle, I'm not ready for those events to take place yet...just know that this whole inability to use magic thing has...really begun to bother me" he reluctantly revealed.

Twilight nodded and sat beside him on the bed "I understand, and I hope you get your magic back soon, as long as you don't try to kill everyone that is, heheh, but right now don't you think it would be useful having others willing to help you?" She asked with a smile, she wasn't going to say friend since she knew Sombra right now definitely didn't want any but if she could get him to put up with her friends then that would be a step in the right direction.

Sombra shrugged slightly "I suppose, that's a fair point, alright then" Sombra said as he stood back up "let's go and surprise your friends".

<*>

The mane 7 and spike were still in the throne room talking about if they should really trust Sombra, it didn't take long until it turned into a full blown argument over if he should stay or not.

"I'm telling you guys no matter what Sombra is bad news! He almost trapped me and Twilight in our own fears for eternity!" Spike argued.

"I say we should give him a chance, he may be a tyrant but if we can help Discord I'm sure we can help Sombra" Apple joke argued back, at this stage it didn't feel like each of them were talking to one pony in particular, they were just saying things and replying to others at random.

"You're joking right?" Rainbow Dash asked before flying to Apple Jack to look her face to face "Discord still causes a whole lot of trouble around here and is still practically the same, the only difference being he gets along with us, Sombra is pure evil! How are we supposed to fix that's?! Right Starlight?" Everyone turned to Starlight who was just in the corner of the room with her head down.

She then looked up to everyone and gave a slight smile "I think we should give him a chance... I was thinking about what he said and honestly the more I think about it the more he reminds me of myself, no matter how you look at it I enslaved those ponies and I tried to take away everything they knew while making myself superior cause I kept my cutie mark, when Twilight came to me and tried to convince me that what I was doing was wrong I didn't listen, I didn't believe anything beyond my own ambition mattered even if that doomed all of Equestria and then even after accepting you all as friends I didn't understand how friendship worked and instead of trying to help use I...tried to use you all. So if I got a chance I think it's fair that Sombra gets one as well".

Apple Jack nodded "couldn't of said it better myself, thanks Starlight. I think we should help Sombra as well"

Pinkie finally decided to join in the conversation and began hopping around them "I'll give him cake and candy and marshmallows and then we'll be the best friends ever and have a friendship party!!" Pinkie announced enthusiastically, seeming more excited than worried at King Sombra's arrival.

Suddenly they all heard hoof steps coming down the stairs and looked over to Twilight side by side with King Sombra "attention everypony, while yes just a few minutes ago I did state if I had my magic you'd all be dead, that is true, however as you can all see I do not have any of my magic remaining, so I cannot go against any of you, thus I have decided to go with the more logical step in this predicament and I'll become a....acquaintance of you all" Sombra then turned to Pinkie "I've given Twilight the details of the party you wish to prepare for me, I wish you luck" he explained before realising all eyes of confusion were on him "oh for the love of tarturace what now?" He asked with a growl, he was getting frustrated with everyone gawking at him.

This time it was Rarity who stepped forward to explain "well Darling we just weren't expecting this normality out of you, forgive us but we didn't expect you to be so...calm" she awkwardly spoke as a bit of sweat ran down her cheek, she didn't want to imagine what Sombra may be like when angered.

However surprisingly the unicorn King seemed fine with what she said and simply shrugged "that's completely understandable, I doubt Celestia has ever went into detail about my personality and has most likely only given a bare minimum summary on who I am, which I assume is the reason we are having this meeting, am I right in that assumption Twilight?" Sombra asked.

Twilight nodded and stepped forward to explain to everyone what's going on "I thought we could all sit down and just have a talk and I prepared some food as well, I'll be right back" Twilight walked away to the kitchen leaving Sombra with the mane seven along with Spike.

A few moments of awkward silence later and Twilight came back with multiple bags of food and placed them on the table "while I went to hay burger with Sombra I got more for the rest of you" she also had a chair with her and placed it along with all the thrones "heheh, sorry I don't have one for you Sombra, I hope this will do"

Sombra sat down and groaned slightly "I suppose you couldn't do anymore in the short time frame, thank you Twilight" he replied before he began eating and soon after so did everyone else.

<*>

After a while everyone got comfortable and had a somewhat normal conversation, it mostly had to do with how everything worked in the modern day and the main events that have happened, Chrysiles defeat, Discords reformation, the alliance with the Yaks, everything seemed to be going fine till they mentioned Starswirl the bearded.

Sombra paused "Starswirl?.... So he's back now? That was something I didn't expect."

This got everyone's attention, especially Twilights "wait, did you used to know Starswirl?" She asked with curious eyes as she also leaned slightly forward to the unicorn King while everyone else looked on in curiosity.

Sombra seemed to be slightly nervous by this and began thinking of the right words "um, well yes I...did know him, I knew him well, but I would rather not discuss this now if I'm being honest, that stuff is far in the past" he replied before going back to eating his burger.

Twilight wanted to press the subject further however she figured that if Sombra didn't want to talk about it he wasn't going to and if she were to continue asking he would likely retreat to his room.

<*>

About an hour of talking later and everyone went home, Twilight and Spike waved goodbye to their friends while Sombra just kind of waited behind them, though luckily he didn't seem annoyed in any way, just kind of bored and at this point not really bothered. "Sooo, what did you think? That wasn't so bad.... Right?" she asked hoping for good news.

The unicorn King thought for a moment as he tapped his chin with a hoof, still sitting in the chair he was given earlier by Twilight "I suppose that it wasn't bad, your friends aren't as bad as I originally imagined, I can at least tolerate them" Sombra then stood up and turned his head slightly to look at the small purple dragon standing beside Twilight, as Sombra's eyes landed on him the poor dragon could feel many drops of sweat run down his head "as for you" he began with a slight bit more venom in his voice than usual "I believe that we have some unfinished business" Sombra slowly walked towards the small dragon as he pushed Twilight out of the way with his shoulder, he looked down at Spike with stern eyes.

Spike closed his eyes and shielded himself waiting for the unicorn King to enact his vengeance, however it didn't come, nothing seemed to be happening, Spike eventually unshielded his eyes to find Sombra had extended one hoof out to the baby dragon and was now just looking down on him, his look not giving off any emotion "you have proven that you are a brave dragon, even at a young age you have gone far beyond the bravery any other dragon could ever dream, you stood against me when many would turn and run and for that Spike the dragon, you have my respect" Spike looked in aww up at the unicorn King, meanwhile Twilights jaw hung low in complete shock, she was worried she'd need to give Spike an anti Sombra shield or something to stop him from murdering her young friend.

Spike then took Sombra's hoof and smiled "wow, uh, thanks SombrAA-" apparently Sombra didn't seem to take into account his physical might or Spikes small body as when he was shaking the dragons hand he also shook Spikes entire body.

Twilight laughed warmly as she watched the two, Twilight was a big surprised that it took till now for her to realise the sheer size of Sombra, only a bit smaller than Celestia but taller than Luna, on top of that his muscle far surpassed the likes of shining armour and Big Mac, after coming to this realisation she became far more self conscious while looking up at the unicorn King as he walked over to her "so then Twilight, what now? I assume you have plans of sort?" He asked as he began to circle around the thrones of the Twilights good friends.

Twilight thought for a few moments before responding "well I noticed you were trying to read earlier, what if we read together, it could be fun" Twilight asked, she tried to sound as calm as possible but after every second there was a weird ticking in her mind reminding her 'this is King Sombra!!'

The unicorn King turned to her and smirked, he knew she was still afraid, it was obvious 'ponies, always predictable' he thought to himself, though he didn't see anything wrong with the request, he wanted some familiarity in this new strange world and more than likely books was one of the only things that hadn't changed besides the princesses he hated so very much "as you wish Twilight, I could use some quiet time".

<*>

The two sat their for hours, barely a word, Twilight tried to make conversation, while the unicorn King did respond his responses were swift and couldn't really lead into further discussion, watching Sombra almost reminded Twilight on how she used to be, she secluded herself to focus on her studies, she didn't see friendship as being important in anyway, when ponies tried to connect with her she believed they were merely getting in her way, would she go down the path Sombra did? That path of power?

The day ended as the two of them walked up to Sombra's room, as Twilight opened the door with her magic it was almost like Sombra was trying to find a way to open it without using his mouth, thought that would be near impossible, from the outside at least.

As Sombra trotted inside Twilight spoke "you know, I don't know if you will ever change, I don't know if we'll ever become friends, however I know this, I want to help you and I'll do everything I can to help you and maybe...once I can trust you, I could help you get your magic back" Twilight said warmly, however the look she got in response wasn't what she expected.

Sombra glared at her, angrily, he glared at her, as if attempting to shoot daggers directly into her eyes "don't you dare attempt to manipulate me with your words princess" he growled as hi purple mist expanded slightly and his words echoed throughout the room, maybe even the entire castle "I won't be played into your hands via your words, if anyone will find the catalyst that may return my magic it's me! I will not let you trick me into believing you'd help in bringing my dark magic back!" Sombra's growl became a roar near the end of his outburst, pure rage filled his eyes now as he stared down Twilight, as he spoke he backed up Twilight to the back wall of the room, even without his magic King Sombra was a terrifying sight.

Twilight gulped as her back was against the wall, the look in her eye was genuine fear, she was afraid of the King standing before her, however she couldn't back down, if she backed down now she would be giving up on Celestia's mission for her "no way Sombra, I am not taking this from you! I amn't trying to trick you or manipulate you! I am genuinely trying to help you! If you don't want to change fine! However don't you try and insinuate that I am doing this for my own personal gain!!" With that Twilight walked out of the room, she let out a sigh "....I...I'm sorry" Twilight sniffed slightly "I know you don't want to be here...I know you miss your magic....I know you don't trust me... And I don't know if I trust you but..I want to" with that Twilight left as Sombra looked in disbelief, he then went to bed thinking about what the friendship princess just told him.

<*>

Twilight decided to turn in for the night, however she couldn't seem to get herself to fall asleep, as if the thoughts of her fight with Sombra weighed on her mind, was she really in the wrong? She really didn't know, Sombra never trusted anyone so it would make sense that with the alicorn princess he wouldn't take her word at face value especially since last time they met she caused the unicorn kings demise. She just wished that she could show him why she wasn't the enemy right now, no one was the enemy right now, their goal revolved around helping Sombra not stopping him.

Twilights train of thought was interrupted by a knock on her bedroom door however, Twilight groaned before slumping out of bed and trotting to the door, she figured it was Spike after waking up from a bad dream but when she opened the door she was shocked to see Sombra there instead, looking slightly awkward standing there as if he was standing there for a while wondering if he should knock or not "oh um, hey King Sombra heheh" Twilight greeted awkwardly feeling sweat roll down the side of her face, after her last talk with the unicorn King she couldn't imagine what he was here for now.

Sombra let out a low sigh, as if doing something he wasn't used to doing "I..came to apologise" Twilight was left shocked by this and was about to speak again but was cut off by the unicorn King "I accused you of something that wasn't true, I was under the belief that this was some ploy that princess Celestia set you on in order to manipulate me into becoming a slave to canterlot, however from the way you reacted to my accusations it was clear to me that was never your intention. What I said was completely uncalled for and for that I apologise" Sombra then turned around and began his way back to his room.

Twilight however felt that she couldn't just end it there, Sombra, King Sombra himself came to apologise to her, surely that meant something, some kind of progress, there's no way shed waste it now "wait Sombra!" She called out before rushing over to him "look, I know you don't like it here, I know that you are still the tyrant that took over the crystal empire and...I know that if you had your magic I wouldn't be here...however right now we are here, together and if it takes a year or two or even ten years I want to make sure that by the end of it you can be a free pony, you know that...don't you?" Twilight asked with pleading eyes, she wanted the comfort of Sombra at least knowing she wasn't a threat.

Sombra paused and turned away slightly "I don't know anymore Ms Sparkle, my mind reminds me of the offer I was given by Celestia, but my eyes see the unicorn that caused my demise, however I don't believe you are planning anything against me...you are too innocent for something of that sort..goodnight Twilight"

Twilight watched as the unicorn King marched off, the only words able to come out of her mouth were "..goodnight..Sombra" she whispered before heading back to her room.

Thank you all so much for your comments! They were very fun to read and I enjoyed your thoughts on the story so far, I hope you all continue to enjoy! 👍👍