//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Moral or Duty // Story: Redemption's Shadow // by Whooves235 //------------------------------// Ponyville - Blue's House Blue stirred slowly as he felt his eyes softly blinking awake, groaning softly as he turned his head to look at the clock; 3:00 am. He groaned as he stretched out his wings and yawned softly, getting out of the bed he stretched all his joints he would walked over to his armor stand, removed the pieces of his armor and softly strapped them on, getting slightly jolted awake with the cold feel of metal on fur. The stallion going to the mirror as he quickly did his mane correctly so the helmet could fit on, as well as get some personal hygiene out of the way. Quietly opening the door, he walked past the guest bedroom, he used caution as he peeked through the crack of the door, looking to Sombra who was currently passed out cold. The stallion sighed softly as he was thankful he was quiet enough to not wake him. As Blue walked down the stairs he would think to himself for a bit. It had now been three weeks since Sombra began to stay with him, the first day still quite vivid in Blue's head. It was strange, he wasn't expecting things to be this calm or even like the way things have gone. He would quickly go to the fridge and then grab a small snack, as he tossed together a quick sandwich and put it in his mouth as he left the door. Walking through the dead of the night in Ponyville, he would get a good rhythm going with his wings as he took off into the sky. While taking the train to Canterlot was quite a normal thing, Blue was the type of pony who enjoyed taking a long relaxing flight. Even then, he knew it would take a good thirty minutes of flying. So he prepared himself for the semi-long journey to the castle. Canterlot Blue slowly opened the gates to the castle hallway, he recognized it as being one in the west wing of the palace. his station for the night. It was always quite strange being a guard, sometimes you would just stand in the middle of the hallway like some tourist, rather than pacing back and forth, otherwise, it was the opposite. Still he knew he had a job to do, so he had to find a superior in order to report to. And seeing as he was the General he knew that he wasn't about to find one just standing around here. So without further hesitation on the matter he turned in the direction that would take him to the throne room. Knowing that he needed to report to Princess Luna, however what he didn't expect was for her to find him first. Stopping forward travel in time to avoid colliding with her wasn't a possibility at his speed; even if he face-planted into the ground, he still would've ended up slamming into her at full force. So instead he did the one thing that he could do in the available moment and tucked his right legs in to unbalance and tip himself while pushing with his left legs to send himself toppling to the side to avoid her, before tucking into the roll to quickly get back onto his hooves in order to throw her a salute. "Apologies, Your Highness!" Luna returned the salute. "Apology accepted, General, but please be at ease." He nodded and slowly lowered his hoof to the ground again, but continued to remain standing at attention regardless. "I suppose that is better," she sighed, "but that is not important at the moment. Right now I am simply relieved to be seeing you right now. I was getting quite worried." "I don't understand, Your Highness," he admitted. "I suppose that is to be expected. But rest assured I will do my best to explain the situation before us, General" Luna assured him. "It has just been quite a while since we have heard from you. We were beginning to get worried." "I apologize, Your-" Blue's attempt at an apology was silence as Luna gently pressed her right forehoof against his lips and shook her head. "You have no need to apologize for something that is far outside of your control, after all being the guardian for a pony like Sombra is no easy task." She said, smiling softly "However we are happy to see you." Blue would nod softly "Yes ma'am...Sombra has been a lot of work, however I am happy to say that it has been good progress." "We are happy to hear this, Sombra’s not giving you too much trouble I hope.” Luna said, as she began to walk down the hall. Blue shook his head, “Oh no, just a bit stubborn is all." "This is to be expected..." Luna said "He always was stubborn." "Did you know Sombra?...before his turn I mean" Blue asked softly, the stallion now walking beside the Alicorn. Luna looked to the ceiling slightly at the question. The mare takes in the question and thinks carefully of a response. "We did not know Sombra in person no...however we frequented his dreams quite often" Luna said "He has such a fascination with the night, and it was truly a type that I had never seen in a pony before. We spoke in dreams often, and would frequently speak about our interests and lives." "So...you two were friends then?"  "In a way I suppose yes..." Luna said "However even back then we saw glimpses into Sombra's umbrum side...we knew he could be quite stubborn, as when he was making a point he went to quite the lengthy degree to prove it correctly. However...we also saw that he was a pony who truly just wanted ponies to talk to...to keep company..." "Yea...I picked up on the same thing..." Blue said softly. "Tell me...what have you found out about Sombra?" Luna asked. "...with...all due respect Princess, I feel that I shouldn't tell you right now." Blue said. Luna was silent as she observed Blue "And why is that?" "...If I am to have Sombra trust me, I need him to know I won't tell things he tells me to others."  "I see...and prey tell then, how are we to know if everything is going ok then?" Luna asked. "I promise you that if Sombra were to say anything concerning the well-being of the country or my own health, I would find a way to let you know" Blue said. "My job is still to protect the crown and country." "Yes...however I sense there is more" Luna said. "More?" Blue asked, as the two of them reached Luna's room. Luna smiled softly "One of the many reasons I made you my General...is because you have a strong sense of both Morality and Duty...and you are one of the very few who I know can differentiate between when it is the time for one or the other." Luna said, as she gave Blue a soft nod. "Return to Ponyville...I have a feeling your duties will have to continue soon...we will speak again"  "Yes ma'am" Blue said, bowing to her before he began the trek back home, meanwhile Luna looked out the windows to her balcony, she looked into the darkness of the night in thought, watching Blue in the sky as he flew back home.  "Good luck Blue Crest...may the night sky bless you in your quest..." Ponyville - Blue's House Sombra woke up with a tired, dry yawn, groaning in annoyance as he looked to himself in the mirror. He could have almost sworn the mirror cracked, huffing in a foul manner he left his room and went down the stairs to see Blue in the process of making breakfast. "I hope to godess you cooked a good morning meal..." "Good morning to you too..." Blue said, rolling his eyes "I'll get to work on your food soon, I'm just finishing up my own. Unless you'd rather have me put a crystal on the grill." The stallion laughed: "No, why would you heat up crystals? Meat is fine, a steak will work fine. But umbrum aren't dragons.", the stallion rose up slowly and cantered next to the pegasus: "Crystals are more... they're not food per say. They're more like a... container. A box to store your food in. Minerals in the far north have always possessed strong magical qualities of various sorts, depending on the crystal's mineral structure..." Sombra paused as he sat on the soft, lush pillow of Blue's kitchen table, then continued: "Most crystals are capable of housing emotions in them, similar to a bottle holding liquid. Umbrums mainly eat emotions, similar to changelings, though in a different method. Usually we either bottle the emotion from the atmosphere or straight up siphon it from the air, unlike changelings who need to be close to their target and more... sucking-sort of effect? And the emotions we eat are different too." "I see...so in a sense you could have an entire cabinet of crystals which store different emotions" He said, the stallion rubbing his chin as he got the stake out and began to prepare it "That's a very unique magical technique, I don't think I have ever seen it before." "Hmm... sort of. Fear is our preferred emotion to feast on." Sombra leaned to his hoof, and sort of blushed: "... you'd be surprised how long this took me to figure out. I would be lying if I said I don't know what starving feels like. And with no other umbrum to guide me until recently... there's so much I don't know." The stallion continued: "I think crystals were used as food storage for months where there was either long travel and shortage of food, or in preparation to bad months, in a similar way ponies would prepare hay and such for winter." "Well...maybe I could help you with the Crystal Thing. I'm sure I could ask around and try to get some things for you" Blue said smiling as he began to cook the stake "Honestly the more I hear you talk the more fascinated I am with your culture and magic" He said "I wanna know everything I can at this point." Sombra hid a smile behind his hoof and nodded: "...well, this is a welcome change, at least. Anything you'd want to know?" "Actually there is one" He asked "You can turn into a shadow...how does that work? What's it like? Can you still feel things? Like...is your body just gone??" "It's not gone, the shadow is my body. It's actually... well, my actual self. This that you see is a result of a spell that binds my form into that of a... fleshier creature. A modification of that spell I showed you earlier, the lesser shapeshifting. It's, to be honest, not actually a spell, more like a natural ability. It's our food-securing method, shapeshifting, I mean. This, this that I... am, is a modification to fool the spell that imprisons the umbrum in the shadow prison." "So uh...when you had turned into like...a version of me...what was that?" Blue asked, curious as he continued to work on the stake. "Our feeding method, though used in a way it isn't meant to be used." The stallion stood up slowly: "Umbrum are crepuscular, meaning we are most active during dusk and early morning, where there is little light. To cultivate fear, we'd scare ponies with a form they'd find scary, and as ponies don't see color in the dark very well... well, color isn't a terribly important thing. So we remain sort of easy to tell apart from the real deal. Say you were afraid of... dogs." The stallion paused and let his form shift into a large, growling and aggressive dog, still in his usual colors with red eyes and dark fur. The stallion shifted back quickly: "... hhhah... the color doesn't change because it isn't a necessary component." "That's actually really cool" He said "Godess if I had the ability to shape-shift I don't know what I'd do with myself." The stallion blushed a bit and smiled for a moment, then sighed: "... It is somewhat bothersome, I won't lie, that the princess' spell limits even that." Sombra scoffed with slight annoyance. "It is, for comparison... Imagine if your wings were partially bound. You could fly, sort of, but not well enough to make it really useful. With me it has the extra malus of limiting what I can eat." He rubbed his temple with an annoyed sigh, he really shouldn't have complained. What if the Princesses thought this a sinister plot? Or just think him ungrateful? The thought of being sentenced to another 1000 years of icy, soul-tearing and mind-shattering isolation gave a strong shiver down his back."It, it isn't that I'm not happy about this chance! I mean it, it is just... No, no, I should probably just... accept this and..." The stallion seemed to withdraw. "Hay...if you wanna speak your mind you can, I won't judge you Sombra" He said smiling softly as he looked to the Umbrum with reassurance, wanting him to see that he was in a judge-free zone. "It's just... I don't want to be a pony any more than I imagine you wouldn't want to be a... I do not know, a bird? It feels... wrong. Strange. Yes, it would fix so many problems but...", the stallion paused, looking for words."I wouldn't feel like I am... myself? Like I am trapped in a cage. And I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I was more used to my umbrum form over the fleshy form I grew up with." Sombra took a plate from Blue, momentarily observing the steak: "Do you know why I eat meat?" Blue nodded softly, the stallion paying attention to everything being said by the Umbrum and taking in the info "...I uh... I'm not sure to be honest...I didn't want to ask in case it was a sensitive topic" Blue said. "It isn't so much that it is a necessary dietary need in fact, it is practically unnecessary in normal circumstances. I learned it to avoid starvation. Happy, positive, loving Empire in my youth was rather... averse to the dietary needs of something like me, and with nopony -me included- knowing I needed something special to sate me, I ate what I found to work for me, somewhat. Death is a rather harrowing, fearful experience, so the meat still carries traces of the emotion I needed." The stallion paused, remembering moments: "Hay, apples, I could eat a bushel and not feel like I got my fill. I... was used to the feeling of hunger in my youth, despite our caretaker's best efforts. At some point I just... started to hunt, thinking I was somehow even more off than before." Blue nodded softly, he was slowly starting to realize more about Sombra in the ways that would help. He truly was a survivor, not by choice. The stallion huffed as he finished his stake and took it to Sombra and put it on his plate "I understand...but I want you to know now that you are living with me you can ask for whatever you'd like to eat." "... Well, there is a problem with that. Fear is... well, it would require scaring ponies. and I am not sure how to do it without ending up in front of the princesses." Sombra shook his head, worried "Maybe I just need to abandon the thought, Umbrum feed off of negative emotions...I do not know how substituting would make it any better. Positive emotions taste bitter and unpleasant." Sombra took a bite out of his steak, lost in thought. "Right...well still, I will try my best to find something to be good for you" he said "In the meantime we can stick to the stake." Sombra didn't answer, deep in thought as he silently chewed. "... this wasn't hunted." "The meat? Uh...no I believe it's locally sourced from Griffonstone" he said "Equestria doesn't make meat so most of it is from out of the country" Blue said. "It was slaughtered, and I can feel the fear of that... but it wasn't a chase. There's a rather small amount of fear..." "I wasn't aware meat contained fear" Blue said slightly surprised, raising an eyebrow. "It lingers in flesh. Not much, but some amount." "Huh...the more you know..." Blue said, walking over to the fridge to pull out some salad "I'm telling you Sombra, the more you introduce me to this stuff the more fascinated I am with them and you." Sombra chewed, blushing a bit: "I... hm... I am happy you think so. I thought it would be too... strange." "I like Strange" Blue said smiling "I've always loved learning about different things. I get that from one of my guard friends. We grew up as kids together" He said remembering fondly "Ever since I've just always had a fascination with strange and mysterious things" He said looking to Sombra "So far I've loved spending time with you and learning about you." Sombra smiled, surprised: "You remind me of my... a pony I knew. She loved all things weird and strange, saw faeries and thought the shadows spoke to her." Sombra took a moment to remember: "I remember those days so fondly." "She sounds nice" Blue said smiling "I'm happy that you are able to remember those days fondly, having happy memories is always nice." He said, before he heard a knock at the door, tilting his head he walked to the front door and as he opened it the stallion was practically attacked by a rather eager journalist, who spoke a mile a minute.  "Any words you'd want to tell about reforming one of the worst tyrants in history??" The reporter quickly said, Blue stood there for a second looking at the pony dead in the eye....before slamming the door shut. "Fucking great...they tracked me down..." Blue mumbled softly he heard heavy hoofsteps from behind him, and saw Sombra's form, his mane at the same time ethereally moving but also a tangled mess. "So...what exactly is our plan for today?" Sombra said, the stallion would have commented on who was at the door, but Blue looked annoyed and he thought it best to leave that alone. "Well...we could go out to eat at a restaurant if you'd like? I know a few good places in town." "... you mean a tavern? We could..." Sombra's voice faded away for a moment, then continued with a whisper: "...do you think it wise? I do not know if I should really be out and about... might not look good." "You have been living here for three weeks now, and we have gone into town a few times. I'm sure it won't be a big deal" Blue said "I'm your guardian and most ponies here know me, most of the Royal Guards who live in Ponyville are relatively known well across the town. Besides I'm sure it will be good for you to get out of the house." "I could use some fresh air..." The stallion nodded, but also looked a bit worried: "Though... ah, nothing, forget about it." Sombra didn't make a point to remind the pegasus that a pony restaurant would likely be geared towards vegetarian meals, one sorely lacking in fear. Well, maybe his presence would at least give him enough of a reaction to give him something to nibble. Besides, he could just enjoy the company of Blue, and hopefully, at least some wine with it. "Hay.." Blue would reach to Sombras hoof, gently holding it "Don't worry...I won't leave your side..." He said, smiling at him softly. His kind smile, dark cyan eyes looked to him with reassurance. "I'm not very... social, even in the best of days. But, I suppose we can try.", Sombra relented, his shoulders sagged a bit. "Oh... you are paying, right?" "Yea I'll pay don't worry." "Good colt~ I'll see you soon, need to freshen up...feels rather prudent." The stallion smirked, and sauntered off. Leaving Blue to himself.