Favorable Alignment

by Ice Star


Chapter 31: She Who Brings the Storm

Sombra:

With a sigh, I closed the book I was reading and placed it on the nightstand in Luna's cabin, which I had been leaning against. It was impossible to miss her stirring when I could feel her magic gradually swell to the usual state it was in when she was awake. I was thankful that there wasn't any damage that had been done to her magic, but before I risked a sigh of relief I made sure to look to her blanket covered form. A dark blue wing rose from the sheets before sinking back again.

I looked away and Luna bolted up, rubbing her head through her flowing mane. I made no noise from my place, sitting on the floor with my back pressed against the nightstand and only my cloak to keep me from being bothered by the knobs of the drawers.

Luna spotted me quickly, as I expected.

"Sombra?"

I didn't look at her or give any sign that I had even heard her, though we both know that I did.

"What happened after...?" When she sees that I won't offer any kind of response, Luna doesn't finish and the cabin is quiet.

All I have to do is be a bit patient.

For her.

"Sombra, why aren't you-"

"There's no point in me replying."

I hear the rustling of blankets but still won't look at her.

"Why not?"

"You don't listen to me."

"Sombra-"

"Be quiet!"

I don't make any effort to apologize for snapping at her because I'm trying to not let her know exactly how angry I am with her actions. I still want her to talk because I needed an excuse to scream at somepony, since that's the only way I know that the stupid creatures can hear me.

I missed hearing her voice too.

I wish I could make up my mind, but sooner or later I'm simply going to-

"Sombra, please talk to me. You don't look well-"

"I don't look well?! Why is that suddenly important? It's not! For once in your life, can't you just worry about yourself and your own health, since you clearly won't be listening to me any longer, even if I were to scream in your face-"

"Could you at least look at me...?"

"NO! No, I won't! I told you because I cared, Luna. I've always cared, and then to show how much you cared, you disobeyed the only order I gave you - one that was meant to protect us both - and got hurt-"

"I don't feel hurt..." she mumbled, voice still confused and sleepy.

"OF COURSE YOU DON'T! I MADE SURE YOU WEREN'T HURT! I HEALED YOU AND THIS IS HOW YOU SHOW ME YOU'RE GRATEFUL - BY NOT LISTENING TO ME! BY MAKING ME WORRY! BY HURTING US BOTH AND TREATING ME LIKE EVERYPONY ELSE DOES!"

As soon as I'm done shouting at the wall, I hear Luna get up and feel her move to the space between the bed pushed against the left wall and make the few steps to walk the distance between the nightstand and the bed. She sits next to me. I can see her mane out of the corner of my eyes, but still refuse to grace her with any sign of attentiveness. It's clear from my posture that I'm not in the mood for any conversations, replies, or anything. Can't she see that I'm going to break something-

Luna slips her forehooves around my neck, loosely at first. I hold back my temper, somewhat puzzled but no less angry with her. She takes this as a sign that I won't snap and risks slowly bringing me closer to her, allowing more than enough time for me to have refused and left...

Through all this anger, part of me wonders what she's doing and lets her go on.

Once I'm within her now-tightened embrace, Luna slips both wings around me and uses one of her forelegs - which are now lazily draped around me - to tap a spot on my back. I flinch slightly, my head turned a little closer to her. I feel Luna plant a few light kisses on my right cheek before using my right wither as a pillow, never saying anything. Once in a while she'll nuzzle my neck - unless I tense up, then she'll give me a much less bone-crushing, tackle-free version of one of her hugs. After a while, she busies herself by taking my right foreleg in her hooves and keeping only one wing around me.

I feel her tracing nondescript swirls in my newly regenerated coat with one of her forehooves, not paying any mind that I'm quietly accepting all this.

Finally, I look over to her and she looks upset as well - probably at my screaming.

"Good morning, Sombra," she murmurs and despite how ashamed she looks, Luna means it.

Though I'm still not in the best of moods, I pull her into a hug and rest my head on her withers again.

"Ten hours."

After a long pause, Luna finally understands what that number means. "That is how long I was out?"

I nod into her coat and she adjusts her wing so I feel like I'm draped in a blanket of feathers.

"Is there anything else you would like to say to me?"

My only answer is to draw her deeper into a hug, so her wing retreats as my hooves wrap around her.

"Will you actually listen to me?"

"I swear that I shall. It was wrong of me to disobey you after all you've done."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Sombra, I'm quite sure you heard me-"

"No I didn't; I wasn't listening." I give Luna a nod to let her know that she can joke along for a short while. She picks up on what this means instantly.

"And here I thought that you liked me for my rebelliousness. Clearly, I was mistaken."

"Clearly," I mumble back, giving her a short kiss on her cheek. "Now, is there anything you wanted to tell me?"

Luna's stomach growls before she can speak.

I release Luna from the hug and give her a flat stare. "You want me to make you breakfast?"

"If you want to-"

"I'd certainly like a coffee, myself. I wouldn't mind making you something."

Luna looks at the floor. "Thank you, Sombra. I accept you offer but... Do you really think I'm confident and brave?"

"Without a doubt," I reply without hesitation, and when she looks unconvinced I go on. "Whenever things are bound to fail the most, you prevail. Every arguably - and most certainly pleasing - insane or unorthodox idea is some utterly brilliant gamble that even impresses me. It's when everything is going to fall apart that you stay together and-"

I pull her back into a hug and notice a faint 'eep' of surprise when she realizes that even though I may not being trying to crush her rib cage - which is what her hugs feel like half the time - I'm still strong in comparison.

"-that has always been something I've loved about you, and I think you should love it about yourself too."

...

In the middle of the deck, Luna adjusts some of the navigation system's levers while humming to herself. The late morning sky was covered by blankets of dull silver clouds, which I didn't care much about right now, although Luna certainly enjoyed them. I caught her casting various quick looks up at the sky. When she sees me silently walking toward her and levitating two plates of food, she gives me a private smile. I'm still not in the mood to return it, which she notes. Without a word between us, I sit down next to her.

Luna looks over at my coffee and a salad I had made by dumping a few things from the remaining items in the ship's enchanted ice-box together. When she appears slightly disturbed by the ruthless precision I use for spearing tomatoes with a fork I opt to just sip coffee instead.

"Are you in the mood to talk?" she asks quietly, as I wordlessly push her breakfast towards her with a forehoof. I couldn't find any plain bread for making her a sandwich so I had to settle for these odd circular pastries that looked something like honeycomb. Luna certainly didn't seem to mind.

"I suppose."

"Is there anything specific you want to talk about?"

I don't manage to eat more than half the salad I made for myself.

I'll give the rest to Fish, I think before poofing the plate to my cabin and scooting closer to Luna.

"Re-evaluating our plans would be good."

"Very well," Luna replies, giving me a brief look of mischief when I can't help but lean my head against her again. Today just feels dull, even if there's plenty of clouds in the sky.

"Twilight Sparkle and Rarity will still be following us, Sombra."

"Mmm."

Luna rolls her eyes - playfully, of course - before wrapping her wing around me once more.

"Are you feeling well?"

"I'm bored," I mutter yawning.

"That's all? Then I shall go on: Rarity and Twilight won't know that they will be following us, but their course will be parallel to ours until we land in Germaneigh."

"Why are we going there?"

"To rest and get any supplies we might need, as well as-"

"Listen in to any news about our disappearances?"

"Yes. I was going to try to meet with Cadance and Shining Armor, who approach from the west as Twilight and Rarity did from the east. They have been given a town in Germaneigh - a coastal village, to be precise - to use as a meet-up point. I want us to stop there and gather any information we can and see if there's anything else we can do."

"Persuading her to be a double agent is my influence, through and through."

Luna laughed, and unlike yesterday she meant it this time.

Laughing at my jokes - it's just another reason that I can't help but enjoy the time I spend around her, and it means more to me than she might realize.

"Sombra," Luna begins hesitantly, "you also mentioned something about a book of dark magic - a book that you came from?"

"The Book."

"Yes, that is what you called it. I was wondering-"

"No. Absolutely not. There's no way I'm going to let you read it after what I've seen it do." I pull away, no longer in the mood to sit idly with Luna and hold her at a distance, my gaze boring into her own. "You didn't listen to me once, and now look where it got you. I can't trust you with the Book because if you don't listen to me then-"

"I don't want to read it, Sombra. I want it to be destroyed, and I think we can do it together, just not today." She looks down at the deck, appearing somewhat dejected.

"Why not?"

Luna takes a deep breath before resuming eye contact. "We aren't ourselves today and..."

I raise an eyebrow and give an impatient roll of my forehoof, motioning for her to continue.

"...There needs to be a storm. Rarity and Twilight are still out there and we need to buy time, or at least blow them off course a bit, no?"

I meet Luna's small, cute smirk with a flat stare. "You want artful destruction."

"Yes."

"And you presumably want me to participate, even if I know nothing of weather magic?"

"That would certainly be correct."

"What kind of storm are we talking? Do I need anything?"

"I was thinking a simple hurricane would do, and no, you don't need anything."

"I have some interesting things stored in my pocket-"

"Really? You didn't have much that I could see."

I smirk at her error. "Do you really think that I would settle for just one pocket realm?"

Luna gasps with excitement, but still repeats that I won't need anything. Still, there's one last question to ask.

"Luna, what's a hurricane?"

...

Luna's roaming gaze is unusually critical as she stands by the navigation system, watching the sky. With each passing moment she appears to fall further into her own thoughts as the light on her horn glows brighter. I stand across from Luna and watch her slip away, until I'm overcome by the urge to get her attention and call out her name. Immediately, her gaze clears and she looks at me, still keeping her horn lit.

"Yes, Sombra? Is something wrong?"

"Am I that dull that you can't allot me a moment of your attention?"

Luna smiles and pokes my cheek with her forehoof, laughing softly when I flinch slightly. "I simply must be careful with this spell. I do not wish to create too big of a storm or a hurricane with weak winds that shall not serve any purpose in aiding us."

"And there's nothing at all I can do?"

"There is one thing..."

I noted Luna's wry smile and responded with the smirk that had become automatic to use around her. "And that would be?"

Thunder rumbled in the distance and Luna's smile widened when she saw me turn my attention towards it.

"Try not to fall off the ship."

...

Gusts of wind barely kept in control blew wildly about the Sky Scraper's deck, bringing onslaught after onslaught of rain as the ship was tossed about in the strong winds of the storm. My hood had blown off and only a quick jerk of my magic was able to ensure that it would stay on. Even if the fabric was already drenched, I wasn't going to be shivering and soaked to the bone by the wind and rain of the hurricane.

The deck was slick with rain and the skies were dark with clouds that swelled and swirled about like thick smoke dense with rain. Without my metal boots and their enchanted soles I had to grip the navigation system in my magic and always remain vigilant as the ship was tossed about with only me to steer it.

Wide-eyed, I watched the skies through numerous gales that bore more rain each time they battered the airship. Like the deck, my eyes and horn glowed with a coating of crimson aura, runes mixing with Luna's divine weather magic and the rain as I tried to focus on where I needed to move the wildly swinging ship next, levitating it when managing levers failed - something few spellcasters would attempt while they stood on a surface.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the dark, quick shape of Luna diving savagely among the raging clouds, some of which she had created herself. She plummeted down past the tumultuous layers of nature's less manageable variety of weather. Behind her, I could make out trails of millions of faint, weak sparks of white-hot magic. When she pulled up, wings extended and breaking past the shifting masses of water and ice crystals like they were less than wet paper.

The sparks ignited in an instant and a wild web of lightning tore across the sky, clawing thunderclouds and creating such a commotion that my ears were left ringing once the spectacle was over and white flashes flickered to a stop, disappearing among the clouds.

Luna arced over to the side, running the tips of her feathers along the clouds' surface. Even from here I could see her smiling excitedly as torrents of rain hit her - she still flew on, undaunted. Stars twinkled faintly behind the clouds that dominated the sky.

Luna - as knowing as she was - caught me staring, and I knew that next few displays of lightning weren't required at all...

...But I loved them, nonetheless.

When she landed, her bare hooves hitting the deck and causing the puddles that were scattered across the surface, she was the one who truly looked like she was soaked to the bone. Patches of her coat were ruffled in the storm, water holding her fur at odd angles that made her sleek, silky coat look ridiculously fluffy. She hummed as she shook water out of her feathers, paying no mind to the violent swinging of the Sky Scraper - it might be part of her melody, at least in her mind - and while her mane still flowed, it too, bore signs of being weighed down by some water.

Luna smiled when she saw me, and I let the magic in my eyes dim slightly as she trotted over. Without warning, she planted a kiss on my muzzle; my ears still rung enough for the laughter of hers that followed to sound quieter than it actually was. I offered a thin, but earnest half-smile and returned the gesture and then let her push my damp hood back and fluff my mane so it could dry better in the lessening rain - we were in what she called 'the eye' of the storm now, where it was much calmer, but as soon as we hit rain again a spell to block a majority of the rain might be worth considering since both us will be needed on deck.

I snorted slightly, and rolled my eyes at her silliness - it wasn't unappreciated. Luna picked up on the latter gesture and stuck her tongue out at me briefly and caught a few raindrops. After that, I returned my attention to the navigation system and horizon until Luna promptly stuck her forehoof down the front of my cloak - earning a startled and semi-flustered reaction from me - to retrieve her necklace, which had been stowed in the small front interior pocket and returning it to its place around her neck.

Then, she started laughing softly, holding a hoof to her mouth.

"What's so funny?"

Luna tossed her mane and wrapped as much of my drenched cloak around her as I would let her.

"You, when you're like-" she gestures with a hoof to my fading blush "-this."

"Hmph. I don't think it was that funny."

Luna kisses my cheek lightly. "But I do."

I run a hoof through my mane when I manage to get a second when she isn't so fixated on me. It's definitely going to need a while to dry, I think with a frown.

"Is something wrong?"

"Luna... about yelling at you earlier this morning-"

"You shouldn't blame yourself, Sombra."

"It upset you."

"I am also upset when you're sad, but that does not mean you can never be sad, now does it?"

"Quit being so reasonable all the time, will you?"

Luna turns to me again and gives me the most utterly despicable pout of hers yet. "But you like it when I'm reasonable."

I try to stick my tongue out at her and make that 'bleh' noise she'll sometimes couple with it but only manage something like 'ehh'.

She laughs anyway. "You look like you tasted something dreadful."

"Your cooking?"

I feel a hoof give me one of those camaraderie punches she's so fond of. "Perhaps. But..."

I raise an eyebrow at the sudden seriousness in her tone at the word 'but'. "But what, Luna?"

"I understand why you were angry and why you yelled at me... it's because you care."

I frown. Slightly. "It was, that time," I mutter, gently nudging a wet lock of her mane behind her ear with my forehoof. "But not always. Do you think I care about Purple Pawn just because I yell at her?"

"No. It's just that..." She looks away and I note that the lock I had just repositioned falls into her face again.

"Luna? Are you alrigh-"

"I'm fine, really. Like I was saying, when you yelled at me, I knew you cared and that you were angry..."

I don't respond, giving Luna a level stare to offer some kind of encouragement, as cold as it may be.

"...It made me feel horrible to have somepony I care about like that screaming at me, and it almost reminded me of when we fought at the Empire's fall and..."

"You were scared of me," I mumble, and look down at the gleaming metal levers before me.

"Then, Sombra. I was then - but only a little, as many would have told me that I should have felt so many things toward you then. Even now, they would be things that I could never direct towards you."

"Like?"

Luna, as observant as ever, notes how quiet I sound.

"Hatred. Terror. Emotions like that."

"You were afraid of me, weren't you?"

"Mostly, I was afraid of how alike we were and of how angry you were. You hated me so much and we barely knew one another then, but you were also hurt."

"So then, what's your point?"

"Will you ever yell at me like that again? I don't want you tear yourself up over this, Sombra. It was a reminder and it disturbed me only because it reminded me of how little I used to know about you."

I don't want to say anything since hearing this explained to me - as much as I appreciate her insight - still hurts. It's a dull pain, but it's one I don't want to talk about. Instead, I pull Luna into a hug to shield her from the drizzling rain and whisper the only words that I'll speak for the rest of the night:

"I promise not to."