Chapter 8
“Should we consider this a strike?” Dew Doe grunted, eyeing Private who was rubbing his forehead tiredly. It was now a few minutes since Sombra had left the living room and the two ponies had recovered from the shock of his words.
“Dew, he’s only going to behave to a point. Besides he never pressed for an answer to the personal question, just accepted your response as a confirmation and… he wasn’t wrong…” Private grumbled and dropped his hoof down. He looked at the mare with a solemn look. “It’s because of him I finally got over myself and confessed my love for you and… uh… our first time…”
“Yes, yes I got it,” Dew quickly placed a hoof over his muzzle and managed to produce a smile. She knew all too well that this kind of talk made him uncomfortable. Her stallion was rather adverse to too much physical contact, even with her. However, the mare had over ten years of experience knowing when Private didn’t mind the close proximity of others.
“Besides, I think he was paying us back for shutting him up earlier,” Private then added and rolled his eyes.
“Right, let’s be careful then about that. He’s clearly still willing to push to see where the boundaries are,” Dew Doe nodded, then she frowned a little in concern. “Do you think you will be fine tomorrow? I don’t think I can come home early, Foxy is swamped with work and Coal has final exams before summer.”
Private just nodded, seeing that King Sombra did back down when being threatened with being thrown back into Tartarus had alleviated some of his concerns. The unicorn was curious why the king had been so eager to provide his assistance with his mother, granted with conditions, but still, considering what Rabia was planning...
Something didn’t add up and Private was hoping that he might be able to pry it out of him. Maybe once Sombra had settled in more, he might be more willing to talk. Right now they just needed to get used to him living around here.
They heard the front door open, indicating that Foxy had arrived home. Dew frowned a little as she glanced at the clock on the wall, this was a little early for her sister to be coming home.
“Well the house isn’t burned down,” Foxy remarked, then peeked into the living room. “And you two look alive and not brainwashed and crazy.”
“No, no, we have managed to put a semi-effective leash on him. He’s in his room right now. Coal just came home,” Dew told her. “but why are you home so early?”
Foxy stepped into the entrance of the living room, casually looking back out before facing her sister and Private again. Her expression seemed to suggest she thought the answer was obvious.
“Oh just because the pony who is quickly catching up with Barricade in derailing our lives constantly is right now living in our house, so I asked Sunshine to cover for me while I came over to make sure things were still in order,” Foxy stated with a snort and rolled her eyes.
Private and Dew couldn’t argue with that logic, especially since Dew had done pretty much the same thing. The couple then noticed Sombra appearing behind Foxy. Having removed his armor, cape and crown, though, he seemed in the process of passing by, looking as if he was looking for something. Due to this he walked more silently and Foxy didn’t notice him.
“Okay granted Barricade is no longer doing that and he never went so far as to abduct any of us, the worst he did was scaring us back in Manehattan and steal, while Sombra’s been possessing and abducting Private left and right and now practically invited himself into our house. I’m half expecting that son-of a-manticore to do something equally horrible to all of us before this is all over, despite all the security that’s supposed to be around him,” the maroon pony continued to rant. At this point both Private and Dew were cringing and trying to alert Foxy to who was now standing behind her and looking at her skeptically.
“Well, this is the first time I’ve heard my mother being referred to as a manticore,” Sombra casually remarked, causing Foxy to almost jump her height and quickly turn around, placing a hoof over her rapidly beating heart.
“Well you could of course be referring to my father, but I never knew him, so couldn’t say,” Sombra shrugged and glanced into the living room and at the couple who were trying and failing to look composed, clearly expecting some sort of a storm to happen right now.
“I’m looking for the facilities, I assume that’s also where you keep the bath. I haven’t had a good shower since, well, before I was sent to Tartarus,” he then said simply, explaining why he wasn’t wearing any of his gear.
“It’s in the other direction, past the stairs and yes you are right about that,” Dew told him, straining a little to sound calm. To her relief, Sombra just nodded his thanks and left. When he was gone all three ponies sighed a breath in relief.
“I hope that’s not going to be a habit,” Foxy grumbled and fully entered the living room, getting seated on a chair.
“As much as we dislike him, how about we are more careful about how we talk about him while he is here? Keep in mind, the princesses need him to cooperate and we want to try and keep things relatively normal,” Private suggested. The two pegasi sisters reluctantly nodded in agreement.
“Wait, how couldn’t he know who his father was? Wasn’t his mom a queen? Surely there had to be someone who did the deed with her to sire him,” Foxy asked, confused.
“Dark Pony society, especially the royal court, worked a little differently than we are used to. The ruling Queen was not required to marry, she just selected a suitable candidate to sire her offspring. From what mom and dad told me, it was often a prominent member of the court, preferably distantly related to the royal line somehow,” Private explained, causing both mares to look at him stunned.
“Okay so the guy did probably live in the court. That still doesn’t explain why Sombra didn’t know him, unless he died before he was born or something,” Foxy pointed out.
“Have any of you considered that it is none of your business?” Sombra suddenly peaked his head into the living room with a neutral expression but one eyebrow slightly raised. When only met with silence from the three ponies, who had all three jumped in their respective seats at his sudden appearance, the former king departed back towards the bath.
“Sharp ears,” Foxy chuckled nervously. Her sister and Private just nodded in response.
“No! The walls here are just paper thin!” came a distant shout.
“They are not that thin,” Dew whispered, her jaw dropping a bit, then she noticed the look Foxy was giving her.
“Why do you think I moved to another room after the two of you finally got together?” her sister grunted, causing Dew Doe to blush and Private to cringe.
‘Your Highness, you look downtrodden. What is the matter?’
Sombra stepped out of the bathtub after finishing his shower. He found towels in a small closet and picked up one to start drying off. His mind however was in the past after overhearing the discussion about his unknown father.
‘It’s nothing, Captain Vago.’ He heard himself, as a teenager, address the captain of the royal guards back in the empire.
‘My prince, you know you can always talk with me regarding your troubles. I am your tutor in the art of handling weapons, both magical and physical and in many ways I am responsible for your wellbeing on the Queen’s orders.’ The dim yet gentle voice of the captain addressed him.
Were they mother’s orders? Sombra thought as he continued to dry his coat. Due to his size, he was forced to get another towel as the other one quickly became too damp. You were always very kind to me and Ira, captain.
‘It’s mother. She says I should apply myself more,’ his younger self finally reluctantly replied to the captain. Sombra recalled that, had stunned Vago.
‘I-In… what ways? You have highest marks in both magical and physical attacks of any young cadet I have trained for most of my life. Your creativity with magical attacks rivals almost your own mother’ Captain Vago was bewildered. ‘And I know for a fact that your other tutors speak only in praise of you in application to science and magic and other practical knowledge. Your understanding of our laws alone is staggering for someone so young!’
‘I don’t know,’ Sombra remembered saying in frustration. ‘Nothing I do is good enough for her. It’s probably because I’m a son, not a daughter like she wanted.’
The king growled and tossed the second towel away, missing using his magic to dry up. He grabbed a third towel to finish up.
‘Did she say that?’ Sombra recalled the captain’s expression darkening, as if he was getting angry, not at him but at his mother. In his youth he hadn’t paid much attention to it, but now he couldn’t help but wonder.
‘I heard her mutter, ‘I just had to have an emotional colt’ once,’ the king had responded to the question gloomily before starting to walk away. As he did, Sombra had given the captain a brief glance, noting that Vago had a rather uncharacteristic scowl on his face and was looking at a wall as if he was tempted to kick it.
Sombra sighed and got the fourth towel. This was taking much longer than he cared for. He shook his mind from the past for now and just concentrated on finishing. It was done after the sixth towel. Then he grabbed a nearby brush and started to go over his mane and tail with it. When he was finished, the pony grabbed the damp towels and threw them into a nearby laundry basket.
When he walked out of the bathroom, the Dark Pony noticed Private exit the living room and was heading towards the stairs.
“Private,” he addressed the smaller unicorn. Private stopped and looked at him unsure.
“What do you know about Captain Vago of the Empire’s royal guards?” the king asked.
“You probably know more than me, considering you were there when he was alive,” Private started, but figured that was not what Sombra wanted to hear judging from the king’s unimpressed expression.
“Nothing terribly much is known about him from our perspective. He was the Captain of the Royal guards during your mother’s reign, distantly related to your family via a brother of your great great great great grandmother Queen Odio the Sixth. He apparently died around the same time as your mother. The Dark Ponies said he had died trying to defend her from her assassins and he was hailed as a hero. One of the last standing orders known that your sister gave was a memorable statue in his honor. Many theorize that if he had still been alive, the Saddle Arabians would not have been able to invade because he was a considered a fairly cunning battle tactician and strategist and that many of your mother’s victories should be credited to him,” the unicorn then told from what he knew of the late captain. He tilted his head when Sombra snorted in amusement.
“They are not wrong about that,” Sombra said. “And yes I did personally know him. I learned a lot from him myself in terms of battles and strategies. Not everything I know I got from mother as I tried to correct her.”
“Would you agree that he died defending your mother?” Private asked curiously. It was actually a hotly-debated point amongst Dark Pony experts. Again he arched his brow when Sombra started roaring in laughter.
“Defend her? He hated her, the only reason he probably didn’t stick a knife into her throat himself is because he was loyal to the crown,” the king snorted and walked past Private and entered the now empty living room. Sombra walked back to the bookshelf and made a second attempt to find a book he might be interested in reading.
“He hated her?” He heard Private ask, the Dark Pony glanced back and saw that the unicorn stood in the entrance of the living room looking confused.
“Yes. They constantly argued over strategies and he would sigh in exasperation every time she showed up unannounced when training the troops. He couldn’t stand her. The only reason mother kept him around was because she just couldn’t replace him with someone better. She knew it and he knew it,” Sombra explained and turned around. “You don’t remember meeting him?”
“What? Oh right… it’s gotten a bit muddled,” Private frowned as he tried to recall back to the memories that had been locked away.
“Well it was only briefly. He actually thought I was in the process of breaking in a new companion. He mistook you for a dark pony,” the king told him and smirked. “Probably felt the dark pony ancestry you have.”
“Oh now I remember, vaguely. He was that big dark pony in that heavy armor...looked uh… stern, yeah,” Private hid his hesitation well as his mind slowly managed to produce back a memory of a heavily-armored Dark Pony scrutinizing him and asking Prince Sombra something he hadn’t quite caught and the Prince quickly assuring him about something. “Excuse me.”
Sombra shrugged and turned back to the bookshelf, not noticing Private making a hasty retreat from the living room. Then he heard the front door open and slam shut. The king ignored it, figuring someone had left the building. Scrutinizing the books again, he finally settled on trying a book that was titled, ‘The history of early Fillydelphia.’
Dew and Foxy looked up as Private came in a hurried pace towards them. The sisters had both gone outside to enjoy the afternoon sun before it was time for dinner. The unicorn stopped and took a deep breath.
“Dew, remember when we were in the Dark Pony Empire?” Private asked.
“It’s all getting very vague, but yeah, I suppose?” his marefriend shrugged, wondering why Private was once again bringing that up.
“Do you remember seeing a more heavily-armored Dark Pony than the regular soldiers and guards?” he asked and sighed when Dew shook her head.
“What I recall is Ira dragging me around the palace and then we dined in her private parlor. Then we had that farewell meal with Queen Rabia and yeah, my memory is not the best on that,” the pegasus told him.
“Why are you bringing that up?” Foxy wondered curiously.
“Sombra suddenly asked me when he came out of the shower if I knew anything about Captain Vago. He was the captain of the royal guards during Queen Rabia’s reign,” Private explained and then told them about his exchange with Sombra previously inside the house.
“Okay, that’s uh, nice?” Foxy exchanged confused glances with her sister, still not quite getting how this was suddenly relevant.
“Granted this could be my mind playing tricks on me, but what I remembered when Sombra brought it up was how he had an uncanny resemblance to Sombra, just with a regular unicorn horn instead of the red one,” Private then told them.
“Wait… you’re not saying…” the maroon pegasus lowered her voice, still remembering how sharp Sombra’s hearing had been previously.
Private sat down, glancing at the house, but there was no sign of the dark king listening in and with limited magic, Sombra wouldn’t use that to spy on them, either.
“What I didn’t manage to tell you about the Dark Pony royal courting before Sombra interrupted us, is that once the Queen and her suitor had a child, the suitor had no claim on that child, could not tell others he was the father and he was barred from even acknowledging the foal as his,” Private whispered. Foxy and Dew expressions changed from surprised to disgust.
“That’s awful,” Dew shuddered, then she gasped as if something came to her. “Wait would that pony still live in the court?”
“Yes sure, the Queen might want to use him again,” Private nodded and frowned. “Which she probably did, considering Sombra had a sister.”
“Be it the mother or the father, being denied being allowed to even be a parent to your own children, just because the other parent is the ruling monarch, that’s disgusting,” his marefriend shook her head.
“So you think this Captain Vigo… Vego… uh whatever is Sombra’s father?” Foxy asked.
“There is a strong possibility, if my memory is correct. There is only one pony who truly knows and right now we don’t want to meet her,” Private shrugged and laid down on the grass next to the mares.
“The more I learn about this Rabia, the more and more I agree with you on that,” Dew muttered and crawled closer to lean up against the unicorn.
A loud crash coming from inside the house caused the three ponies to start. They briefly looked startled at each other before quickly jumping to their hooves and rushing back inside. Dew and Private hurried into the living room to investigate, but Foxy halted in the front hall when seeing her daughter at the top of the stairs, looking as surprised as the rest of them.
Inside the living room Dew Doe and Private had screeched to a halt. Dew Doe quickly put a hoof over her mouth to not start laughing. The unicorn stared with an arched brow and deep inside was cackling like a maniac.
King Sombra sat looking very annoyed on the remains of one of their armchairs, having apparently decided to be seated in it instead of the couch. What he hadn’t known, but the rest of the residents did was that although it looked like a comfy-looking chair, it was an old chair and really could only support so much weight for so long. The only ones in the house who really could sit safely in it where Coal or Dew Doe. Private and Foxy tended to avoid it.
So naturally when a pony of Sombra’s size and build sat in it, the chair eventually buckled before crumbling into a pile which the king now still hadn’t risen out of as he tried his best to still have some semblance of dignity amongst the wood and cloth that had previously been furniture.
“Not. One. Word.” King Sombra growled as he slammed the book he had been reading shut, giving the other ponies a stinging glare, already guessing that they were very amused by this.
End Chapter 8