"Well, this was remarkably easy," Twilight Sparkle told her friends as she pointed to a purple crystal pony. "There she is, watching him and Cadance."
"Well, of course she's going to be watching them," Rarity said as the group stood a few dozen yards away from her. "We've already discussed that she'd be sympathetic to him. She's likely looking for an opportunity to get to him, and maybe run off with him."
"I knew he was lying!"
"Stop it, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy told her, a bit angry. "Just because she's here doesn't mean Alex is lying. It might be that she brought him here on accident, or maybe even just a coincidence."
"Let's go talk to her and find out!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly. However, before she could make her way over, Twilight stopped her.
"No," she instructed. "You all tell Cadance that we found her. I'll talk to her alone."
Radiant Hope knew that she had to be proactive. Waiting for a chance to get to Sombra alone wasn’t turning out to be a good strategy.
She had to think. What could she do? Not steal the Crystal Heart again. At least, not yet, not with Cadance once again standing directly over him, pausing only to let two other mares talk to him. With the look she had, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if it went missing, or try to at least. She was certain he’d survive, but she didn’t want to have to find him all over again.
While she knew that sitting here was a bad idea, she also knew she couldn’t just walk up to him… could she? Well, maybe. But for that, she’d have to explain who she was and why she wanted to see him, which was a bad plan. Was it? She thought about it, and the more she thought, the more it seemed like an okay plan at the least. After all, she was a student of Celestia’s and Luna’s at one point, and was going to become Princess of the Crystal Empire before her friend caused it to disappear. If she could explain that to them, there’d be no doubt they’d let her see him.
Of course, there was still the problem of getting him out of the Crystal Empire. Even if she was able to see him, she doubted that Cadance or Shining Armor would let down their guard for even a moment. She wouldn’t be able to just take off with him as soon as she saw him, but she was sure that over the course of a few weeks, a moment would present itself. Either way, that was a problem for later. For now, she just needed to get to him, and asking to see him seemed like the best plan at the moment.
The only thing stopping Hope from enacting that plan was the fact that they heard her voice. Twice, in fact. While she knew the chances of them realizing it was her that called out were small, they were still large enough that she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with showing up out of the blue. At least, not without an excuse.
Maybe she could be honest… somewhat. Say that she was trying to bring Sombra back to reform him and he escaped… or not. That was a bad idea. They’d probably just assume that they were working together to take over Equestria, which wouldn’t be ideal. There wasn’t really any other good excuse for her to be there. She was his best friend, and the Crystal Heart went missing that very day. It didn’t take much thinking to put two and two together. If she were just some random pony, it wouldn’t be a problem, but given who she was, they’d be very suspicious. She didn’t think she could get off saying, “that wasn’t me” if they recognized her.
She sighed. It was a conundrum she was in, with no good way forward. He could have just stayed put, but that didn't happen, and now she had to think about what to do from here. She was starting to consider simply risking her voice being recognized when her thinking was interrupted by a voice behind her.
"Radiant Hope?" a mare called. "Is that you?"
She tensed up for a second hearing that, then quickly relaxed, remembering where she was. Ponies obviously knew her and would recognize her. The Crystal Empire might have vanished for a thousand years, but to them, it only felt like a few days.
"Yes, it's me," she called without turning around. She wasn't that concerned if some random pony saw her. All they knew was that she was training under Celestia and Luna, and would possibly become a princess. More importantly, they didn't know that her friend, Sombra, was here.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” the mare said, stepping closer to her. “Is it okay if I talked to you?”
Twilight Sparkle? That name sounded familiar, in a vague way, like she heard it before in passing. She was probably an acquaintance she used to have
“Sure,” she said, turning around. “What is-”
Radiant Hope froze when she saw the purple alicorn standing there. A princess. It was the last pony she expected to see, and knew she'd only talk to her if she was suspicious of her, that suspicion being worsened since she'd been caught watching Sombra. She almost started to run away from her. Almost. But she controlled herself, and pushed that urge down. This particular princess wasn't there when Hope took the Heart. There was no reason to run. Running would just confirm whatever they were thinking about her.
"What is it?" she asked, keeping the nervousness she felt out of her voice.
“Well,” Twilight started, trying to tread carefully, “I was just wondering why you were watching him…” The mare she spoke to remained silent, furrowing her brow, and Twilight continued. “I also wanted to know if you… tried to bring Sombra here."
Hope took note of that word, tried. Her friend had somehow been able to convince them he wasn’t himself, and had done a very good job of it as well. They still doubted him, which is why they sought her out. They likely reasoned that, since Sombra couldn’t tell them anything, they’d try to find her and question her. However, she didn’t know what exactly he’d told them, and needed to know what that was. She had to try to direct the conversation her way.
“That’s not Sombra?” she asked, sounding confused. “Who is he?”
“Um. From what we can tell, that’s some creature named… Alex who’s trapped inside of Sombra’s body.”
That was interesting. She knew this princess was new, due to the fact that Hope didn't know her, but she must have been extremely new to just out and out tell her that. More interesting was the tactic Sombra used, pretending to be somepony else. It was a very difficult excuse to use, seeing as the princesses would quickly be able to tell he was lying. But with how strong he was and his mastery over manipulating minds, she was certain he could make it work.
“Where did you find him?” she asked curiously.
“Um, he was in the castle, in his study when we found him. I was the first one there.”
That wasn’t a surprise. She was expecting him to be there when she was there, which was why she stole the Crystal Heart to begin with. She also expected him to be weaker than he currently was, but obviously that wasn’t the case seeing as he turned up early.
“What happened when you found him?” she asked.
“Well, I went to get Princess Cadance…” Twilight started, trailing off, realizing that Radiant Hope was taking control of the conversation and trying to get information out of her. While she may have been seeking out her help, she didn’t want to reveal too much. She was still wary of her, and it seemed like she intentionally didn’t answer whether or not she brought him here. She would definitely need to keep watch over her and how she interacted with him. Luckily, Cadance, and more than likely Luna as well, would be there with them.
“Ah, I was wondering,” she started again, changing the subject, “since you have a cutie mark in healing, would you be able to help us out with him?”
Hope couldn't believe what she heard, and how unbelievably lucky she was.That was exactly what she wanted to hear. Now, she wouldn’t have to try and convince them to see him, or try to sneak in to talk to him. She could just walk right in and see him. They’d probably still be watching over him, but she could figure that part out later.
"Help out how?"
"As I said, we think some creature else is trapped inside of Sombra's body, and everypony else said they can't help him, so we were wondering if there was anything you could do."
“Well, I can definitely see what I can do,” she said, trying to keep herself from smiling.