WARNING: This chapter deals with the subject matter of mental illness, implied spousal abuse and suicide. Please read at your own discretion.

While the sun shone brightly on the crystalline flowers and the birds sang joyously overhead, Twilight was feeling rather melancholic. During the dinner last night, she learned that Sombra was born as the result of rape and lived with a potentially abusive father and an unloving mother. What was more upsetting, however, was the sheer sadness and vulnerability with which he relayed the information, shedding the skin of a perverted and cruel overlord to reveal a damaged and self-loathing stallion that hid his loneliness and despair behind false bravado and wine. Before he left, Sombra revealed that he wanted her to willingly be his and she got the impression that it was more than just sex. He wants me to love him. Twilight realized. He didn't receive any love growing up and doesn't seem to think he deserves yet he'll still try for it. Another thought then bubbled to the surface: Could I? If not now, then in the future?

The mulberry-colored unicorn sighed, her head swimming with thoughts and questions she had no answers to and decided that a change of scenery would probably help her to think more clearly. She took one last look at the beautiful garden and hesitantly began the short trek back to the castle. Twilight walked the empty halls, exploring door after door, finding a multitude of bare rooms as hollow as the last, lacking any kind of sign that they were ever inhabited. It was beginning to look like a truly dismal place to live, especially if you were a foal. Finally, after a few hours had passed, she was ready to turn around when she found herself in front of the door to Sombra's private bedchambers. This was the only room that she was forbidden to be in and this caused a nagging curiosity to form at the back of her skull. Why wasn't she allowed in there? What was Sombra hiding that was so bad? Again, the mystery surrounding the umbrum annoyed her to no end.

With a pinch of unwillingness, Twilight knocked on the door. "Sombra? Are you in there?" She tried knocking six more times and upon receiving no answer, apprehensively opened the door, her horn blazing and ready to defend her against what laid on the other end. The door creaked open, revealing...the same old room as before. She gradually made her way in, wary of booby traps or magical wards. The walls were a dark crimson with a black trim that lacked any paintings or portraits, again adding to the tragic isolation of the room's inhabitant. A four-poster bed with thin satin drapes stood slightly raised against the back wall, conjuring images of Sombra in the throes of passion with an imperceptible mare and Twilight instantly clamped her eyes shut to rid herself of such images. So far the bedchambers were just that. How disappointing.

A dark green curtain against the south wall drew Twilight's attention as she didn't recall seeing it the last time she was in here. Then again, because of who she was talking to and the location in which they were conversing, she hadn't given the place a good look-see. She approached the curtain, wondering if now was the moment that she should start running but her more intellectual, curiosity-driven side urged her to see what was hidden behind it. The curtain glowed a light raspberry and was tossed aside, revealing a multitiered dais constructed out of transparent crystal quartz. Each row was filled with prismatic crystals, each one a different a color and humming with magical energy.

A black crystal with swirling bits of gray captured her attention, drawing her in close to get a better look at it. She bent down to inspect it, finding what looked to be little images swimming around the inside and she could even make out voices. The tip of her hoof ever so slightly made contact with the crystal's smooth surface and suddenly she found herself falling through pure darkness, landing with a thud onto what looked to be a wooden floor. "Ugh, where am I?" Twilight muttered, her head feeling like a scarf in a washing machine. In front of her, a young gray colt sat on his bed and mashed clay in between his hooves. "Hey kid, where am I?" The colt turned in her direction and she instantly felt her blood run cold. "Sombra?" He lacked the crown and armor as well as the world-weary wrinkles but it was definitely him. Actually, without the hard lines and angled face, he made for a pretty cute colt.

"Mother? Are you feeling alright?"

"Whoa, 'mother?' I don't know what...-"

"Yes Sombra, just the foal kicking is all."

Twilight turned around and saw a unicorn mare sitting in a rocking chair, a hoof going to her swollen belly. Even though this was a stranger, she'd seen this particular mare before in a portrait in Sombra's dining room. It was his mother, Queen Lumen Morningstar and aside from the healing bruise on her cheek, she was every bit as lovely as she was in her portrait. Her coat was as white as freshly fallen snow and her ivory mane tumbled down her shoulders and back, giving her a classy, old cinema beauty look to her. Wait, they can't see me so I must be in the past!

Young Sombra held up a piece of clay, now formed into the shape of a mortar and pestle inside of a heart. "Mother, I made this for you. See, it's a pendant and it's shaped like your cutie mark!"

Lumen nodded, clearly just showing him attention to be polite. "That's nice, Sombra. Very nicely done." Twilight frowned at the display. "That's nice"? He's being so sweet! Show him some real affection! Slowly rising to her hooves, Lumen locked the bedroom door and hummed a somber tune as she made her way to the balcony. "Sombra, could you open the doors for Mother?"

Sombra leapt off of the bed and hurriedly opened the glass doors, making Twilight giggle at how he could take such pride in such a small task. "Are you getting a look at the sky, Mother? It's a lovely day after all."

"Yes Sombra. Lovely."

Wait a minute, is she...? Twilight froze as the mare climbed atop the balcony railing, the wind gently billowing her periwinkle blue dress around her. Young Sombra saw this and trembled. "M-Mother? What are you doing?"

Lumen smiled, though it was void of any kind of warmth. "I'm just getting some fresh air. Mother needs fresh air." She was staring not at her son but past him, her gaze wide and vacant.

"Don't do it! Your son needs you!" Twilight shouted in vain, remembering that they couldn't hear her.

"Mother?"

"I love you..." Lumen whispered absentmindedly before she leaned backwards, her descent seeming to occur in slow-motion.

"MOTHER!"

Twilight felt something hard press down on her shoulder and she was yanked backwards, tumbling across the stone floor and colliding with a wooden writing desk. She shook her head, finding herself once more in Sombra's bedchambers. "What did-...?" She trembled before the fuming gray stallion glaring down at her, twin plumes of purple smoke curling from the edges of his scarlet eyes.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Sombra roared, his fangs bared at her.

"S-Sombra, I'm sorry, I didn't...-"

"I gave you one rule. Just the one and you broke it. I trusted you!" He spun around to inspect the crystals, angrily muttering in a very harsh, guttural language Twilight had never heard before. Her mind was still reeling from the atrocious sight she bore witness to and genuinely felt sorry for what he had to go through. "No! Not that one! Not her!" Sombra faced Twilight once more, his chest heaving with fury. "You weren't supposed to see that one! That's my memory! The last memory I have of my mother!"

"Sombra, please, I'm sorry! It was an accident...-"

"Get out. GET OUT!"

Twilight fled, flying down hallways away from Sombra and his still audible growls, accompanied by the smashing of glass and wood. She didn't stop until she was far enough away and slid halfway down the wall, both physically and emotionally drained. Twilight didn't know which was worse: the sight of Lumen Morningstar's suicide or Sombra's ballistic display at her perceived betrayal of his trust. A memory. That's what he said. I stepped inside one of Sombra's memories. She smacked her face. And the one that I just had to stumble upon was the one where he watched his pregnant mother take a swan dive out of a window. She pulled herself to her hooves when something bright flashed out of the corner of her eye. Staring out of the window, Twilight saw the magical barrier flickering in and out of existence. Now was her chance! I'm sorry Sombra, but it's now or never.

Author's Notes:

Again, I must apologize for writing another dark chapter. This won't be the last one either, I'm afraid so please just bare with me for a little longer!

Like the West Wing scene from Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991), I needed a reason for Twilight to want to escape from Sombra and the memory crystal served as this story's version of the magic rose.

This was painful to write as I myself have experianced firsthand the pitfalls of mental promblems and suicide so please be nice in the comments. Please?