The Star Garden stretched out endlessly before Twilight, a boundless sea of glittering green crystals that caught fire in the sunlight. Instead of her usual sapphire-blue gown, she was clothed in an alabaster-white gown tied off with a transparent sash that waved behind her in the wind like a banner. "Sombra? Where are you?!" She began to panic; the umbrum's absence in her dream world was akin to being shoved into a tight corner. Without provocation, Twilight began trotting across the sea of emerald grass until what seemed to be an hour of walking, she finally spotted an ivory-colored unicorn mare in a flowing white gown, her large crystal-blue eyes full of maternal kindness.

"Lumen Morningstar?"

A soft, mournful smile crossed the mare's face. "I was. And you are Twilight Sparkle. It's nice to meet you."

"How do you know who I am? Are you a ghost?"

Lumen took a few steps forward, her movements seamless and graceful. Twilight noticed that her hooves never actually touched the ground, just barely hovering above it. "Think of me more like a memory, an echo of who I was in life. I've been watching you and my son. I never thought I'd see the day when he'd find love."

Twilight eyed Lumen angrily. "Yeah well, there was no chance that he would've gotten any from you! Sombra was your son and yet you treated him like dirt! You killed yourself in front of him, you and your unborn daughter!"

"Nyx."

"What?"

"That was the name Erebus chose for her. When I first told Sombra the news, he wept with joy. He was so excited at the prospect of being a big brother to little Nicky as he called her."

"Don't you care? Don't you care about him?!"

Lumen sighed, a mournful sound full of pain and regret. "I loved Sombra, more than you could ever know. Despite the constant rape and beatings Erebus put me through, the only thing that gave me any joy was my son."

Twilight raised her forelegs and let them fall to her sides. "Then why? Why did you treat him so badly? He thinks that you never loved him, that you despised him because of his resemblance to his father."

The wind whipped Lumen's ivory mane around her tearful face. "You saw his memory crystal. He plucks each memory from his head and deposits them. However, he doesn't know that some of his memories have been altered, tampered with in order to build up his anger."

"'Altered'? By whom?" Something clicked in Twilight's brain. "Erebus," she hissed.

"Yes. He wanted Sombra to grow up to be just like him, a hate-fueled monster full of rage, lust and malice. What he didn't realize, however, was that I had my little tricks too. I took a piece of myself and embedded it deep within Sombra's subconscious, stoking the flames of decency and ensuring that he never fell too far."

"So why not just tell him that? Why come to me? And for that matter, how am I talking to you?"

Lumen nodded slightly. "There is a darkness that is festering inside of Sombra, a sort of parasite that has latched onto him. It doesn't know that I'm there and must continue to remain ignorant of my presence. It is larger and more powerful than I am and could easily destroy me. It is only through your bond with Sombra that we are even having this discussion. Swear to me that you'll keep me a secret. For now."

Twilight shook her head and gave a rueful sigh. She hated lying to Sombra, especially after he'd been so open and honest with her. Not to mention the fact that this was a monster of a secret, made even worse since it involved his mother. If what Lumen is saying is true, then what choice do I have? What if her presence in Sombra's mind really keeps this darkness at bay? It is okay to lie if it's for the right reasons?

"Alright, I promise not to say anything to Sombra."

Without moving a muscle, Lumen appeared right in front of Twilight and took her hooves into her own. "Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. I couldn't have chosen a better mare to be with my son. You have my blessing." She bowed her head and touched the tip of her horn to the bottom of Twilight's right hoof, imprinting the image of a pink star into the flesh reminiscent of her birthmark. The star glowed and rang with energy until it dissipated into the skin and was gone.

Twilight raised her hoof up to inspect it. "What did you do?"

"Think of it as a memory seal. When the time comes, you'll know what to do with it."

"How will I know? What does it even do?"

As if underwater, Lumen drifted backwards into the air, her mane flowing free in the wind. "Wake up now."

Twilight's eyes flashed open and she sat up in bed, her head swimming with questions as she tried to make sense of her dream. Although talking to her new coltfriend's long-dead mother didn't top any weird dreams list, it was the vividness of the dream that held her interest. She threw the covers over and went to stand up when her eyes drifted to her right hoof. Raising it sole up, she nearly gasped when a pink star imbedded in her central sulcus briefly shimmered before winking out of existence. Okay, scratch that. Definitely the weirdest dream I've ever had.

Over a fruit-based breakfast, Twilight couldn't help but to steal glances at the umbrum seated across from her, the guilt over her new secret threatening to burst forth from her lips. She had spoken to Sombra's mother-his dead mother, she had to remind herself-and had been told that not only was their relationship basically a lie but also he had a darkness parasite inside of him. The want to do the right thing was split between telling Sombra the truth and keeping her oath to Lumen, creating a conflict in Twilight's mind as to her next course of action. I promised Lumen I wouldn't say anything but Sombra deserves to know. Ooh! Why is this so difficult?!

"Twilight? Is something the matter?"

"Huh?" She barely registered Sombra's voice. "No, I'm okay."

"Are you sure? You've been picking at your grapefruit for the past five minutes."

Twilight put down her fork and put on her best fake smile. "Sorry just not hungry I guess."

Sombra shrugged. "Okay then. Anyway, I was wondering if I could teach you a thing or two about dark magic."

"Dark magic?" This got Twilight's attention. "You want to teach me? Why?"

"You already used it without proper training and it can be quite deadly to a novice. The Gateway of Phobetor didn't open itself. The door you used to get to the spire containing the Crystal Heart."

"Oh right, I remember that." Twilight remembered how she used dark magic to activate a door and how she saw a fake version of Princess Celestia telling her that she was no longer her teacher and didn't care what happened to her. It was a terrifying experience. "It has a name?"

Sombra nodded gravely. "It's an ancient umbrum relic that I repurposed into a security system. Whenever an umbrum reached their twelfth year, they were taken to the Gateway and shown their worst fear. After all, how can you hope to inspire fear in others when you haven't confronted your own?" Once again, there was a cold logic to his words and Twilight began to suspect that he wasn't the only one to have thought like that. "I'm impressed that you and Spike came out of it unscathed. It wasn't designed for non-umbrum usage."

"Were you forced to look into it?"

Sombra grew silent and then replied, "I was. At first, there was blackness and it were as though I was standing still and yet...falling at the same time. A figure stepped out of the darkness and at first, I thought it was my father. But then he stepped closer and opened his red eyes at me, a familiar smile crossed his lips before he became a snarling column of smoke. It was me or who I would become."

Twilight found herself chilled to the bone and her heart went out to him. "At that age you were afraid of yourself?"

"The Gateway shows us the thing we fear the most, even if we're not consciously aware of it," Sombra said simply. "Now then, I think we should get started. Even if you don't want to use it, it'll still be good to know how to defend yourself against it."

After finishing her grapefruit, Twilight let Sombra lead her once more through the catacombs and into a large empty room with stuffed archery targets, which were faded and torn from being unused for so long. Sombra had Twilight stand ten feet away from the targets as he stood off to the side. "What differentiates dark magic from 'light magic' is its emphasis on emotions. You have to take all of your fear, all of your anger and expel it, thus cleansing yourself of their influence."

It was certainly a unique way of looking at it, Twilight had to admit. "Is that why you have those memory crystals?"

"Yes. Over time, our memories become distorted," Sombra explained. "So I extracted my memories and placed them in those crystals so I had plenty of anger and pain to help motivate me."

"That's awful! How can you live like that?"

"The pain is what helped me to go on. Now then, focus on the first target."

Deciding not to argue with Sombra, and force any answers out of him while in his moodier moments, Twilight looked at the target and concentrated. She could feel the darkness build up in her as her worst emotions bubbled to the surface. The stress of the late-night study sessions at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the helplessness of being a pawn in Discord's sick little game, the despair of being unable to defeat Sombra, her lust for the Shadow King and her desire to learn about the black arts. Energy crackled around her horn as she threw her head down and a blast of black energy hit the target, shredding a hole right in the center of it. She shuddered at the power coursing through her, both the foreign, bone-chilling terror of it and the white-hot thrill as it spread through her body.

Sombra placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, which was both a congratulatory gesture as well as a comforting one. "Well done, Twilight. Are you alright? How do you feel?"

Gazing up at Sombra through solid green eyes, Twilight felt plumes of purple smoke flow out of the edge of her eyes. "I feel...incredible." She took a deep inhale and released it, an almost orgasmic tremble shaking her body. "I felt awful but then I just let go of everything. The power...is this how you feel all the time?" It was if a small amount of electricity had shot along her spine, heating up her insides and sending a jolt to her privates, teasing them in a way she could've never have accomplished on her own.

"More or less," Sombra said softly, placing both hooves on her shoulders so that they were making eye contact. "But remember, the first rule of learning dark magic is to acknowledge your flaws and inner darkness and then bend them to your will. If you fail to control it, it will control you. Maleficium, or dark magic, is about both freedom from your inhibitions and surrendering yourself to your own pleasures without allowing them to control you. Do you understand?"

Blinking hard, Twilight felt the violet return to her eyes, returning once more to the overly-analytical librarian. She shook her head, the previous high almost forgotten as the heat vanished from her body. "Yes, I understand. Is it...normal...to fear the darkness in you?"

Sombra put a foreleg around her and nodded, a slight smile on his lips. "My dear Twilight, if you didn't fear your darkness, I'd say there was something wrong with you. Fear lets you know of your limits and limits are there to test you. I think that's enough for today."

Author's Notes:

Yep, Lumen Morningstar has a bigger role to play, being almost the Obi-Wan of this story.

Phobetor is the name of the Greek god of nightmares while Nyx is the Greek goddess of the night

So how do you think Twilight will fare learning black magic?