Twilight brought Sombra a small meal. "It's not much, just something I whipped up." She said as Sombra began eating. "I know it's in-between meal times, but the extra bit of food will help you recover magic faster." Twilight added. Sombra didn't take long to finish. It was a rather small meal.

"And I'll need my magic to recover quickly if we plan on confronting your brother and sister-in-law." Sombra said. "Chances are likely we'll have to kill them both." He added.

"I know. But if my friends confront us...I was wondering if by chance you have a brainwashing spell we could use on them." Twilight asked.

"And why pray tell would you not want them dead?" Sombra asked.

"Because if they are brainwashed, then the elements of harmony can be used for our side." Twilight said. "In that regard, it makes more sense to keep them alive then to kill them." She added.

"Makes sense. Still, there has to be a second reason why you would hold them so close to yourself." Sombra said.

"Sombra, I love you with all my heart. But if I can have both you and my friends, then that would make me happy. Plus, unlike my brother and sister-in-law, they most likely have no idea about what happened in canterlot. And if they do, then Celestia told them, which still makes them innocent to me. But my brother and sister-in-law...with one being another Alicorn and the other a former captain of the royal guards, I just see no reason to keep them around." Twilight explained.

"Very well Twilight. Once my magic has recovered enough, I will teach you the brainwashing spell on the off chance your friends find us before we begin our campaign." Sombra said. Twilight smiled.

"Of course my love. Better to be safe then sorry." Twilight said and left the room and into a board room she had prepped in advance for their conquest. "Sombra actually agreed to the brainwashing spell. Nice." Twilight said and crossed that off her small personal list. "With that done, the next step is to wait for Sombra to recover." She said.

Over the next few days, Twilight would always give Sombra a small meal to eat in-between meals during the afternoon times. Meanwhile, Twilight's friends would do their best to locate the duo with no luck so far. And today, Sombra had recovered enough to teach Twilight the brainwashing spell. Since it's a very small power spell, to test it, Sombra suggested Twilight grab a few animals from around the forest. Which she did.

"This should be enough." Sombra said. "First, observe the spell in action." He said and used the spell on a small squirrel. It's eyes soon became a pure green as it stood to attention. "I should mention, depending on the thought put into a brainwashing spell, one can make anyone do any particular thing." Sombra said before demonstrating by using the spell on a different squirrel, only difference was that this one ran up to Sombra before climbing onto his back. "With just a small adjustment, one squirrel is no different then a soldier, while another is now my own personal pet animal." Sombra explained.

"Right. I think i get it. With the right adjustment, I can use this spell to make my friends see what we are doing as the right thing to do." Twilight said. She decided to test this on a fox she had found. Sure enough, he went over to her. "So little fox, tell me: Do you agree that me and Sombra ruling Equestria with an iron hoof is what you want?" Twilight asked the fox to which the fox simply nodded at. "Good. That is all for now." Twilight said and the fox went off into the woods. Twilight repated this with two more animals before she felt like she got the hang of it.

"Such master...with little effort you have already mastered the spell's use the way you need to use it on your friends." Sombra said.

"It's quite easy once I got the hang of it. Now for me to see if I can cast it on multiple creatures at once." Twilight said and turned to the rest of the animals.

"Wait Twilight...not so soon...I haven't taught you..." Sombra tried to say before Twilight suddenly cast the brainwashing spell that she had been casting on the rest of the animals.

"Tell me animals of the forest: Do you agree that Sombra and I ruling Equestria with an iron hoof is what you want?" Twilight asked. All the animals nodded in unison. "Good. You may leave." Twilight said and the animals left.

"Impressive...with very little effort and very little observation, you've already mastered group brainwashing..." Sombra said.

"I already had the building blocks in place. Using the knowledge I had from the multi-target dark spells you've taught me and applying their logic to the brainwashing spell, it was very easy to do." Twlight said. Sombra chuckled.

"And here I was worried you wouldn't be ready to cast a group brainwashing spell. Yet you've mastered it with ease." Sombra said.

"Thank you Sombra." Twilight said, smiling. Already she was looking forward to taking over the Crystal Empire. There's just going to be one small hurdle first...