//------------------------------//
// II. Hope 
// Story: Sombran Lullaby 
// by voroshilov 
//------------------------------//

"Easy now," the voice of Doctor Glow brought Sombra to, "save your strength as much as you can."

He was in the Crystal Palace, that was certain, in his own bed no less. Doctor Glow, a wizened grey unicorn who had been the foremost physician of the Crystal Empire for as long as Sombra could remember, was at his side, a number of instruments on standby, though none appeared used. 

Sombra breathed in deep, conscious of his surroundings and sudden store of energy. "How long?" Was all he could ask.

"A day," Glow said, "to be more precise, about twenty-three hours." At Sombra's sudden jerk upwards, he held the King down and clarified. "Relax, you must save your strength. Our defensive preparations began the moment the guards saw you. Do not strain yourself to go somewhere you aren't needed."

Sombra pushed his head back, doing his best not to strain himself. Had it been anyone else, he would have laughed and rose, immediately making for the barracks of the guard, but Doctor Glow was a trusted friend and knew more about medicine than anypony he knew. 

"Where are Luna's Companions?" He asked, "those I came with, where are they?"

Glow took a pair of glasses from the trolley next to him, placing them carefully on the top. "Guarding the upper floor of the Palace," he answered, "there are two of them outside the door right now." He pulled a bottle of whiskey from the trolley next, placing it just ahead of and in between the two glasses. 

"Have Celestia's armies been seen?"

Glow gave a single hoarse laugh, before pouring out two half-glasses of whiskey. "A pair of her scouts were sighted at the bottom of the pass, funnily enough by a pair of ours. Aside from that, Celestia's forces are staying well clear." He handed one of the glasses to Sombra, whilst drinking from the other himself.

"Thank you." Sombra took a sip of the brown liquid, savouring its feeling and exceptionally glad that he had given Glow the key to the Palace's alcohol cellar. "What's the situation in the city?"

Glow chuckled hoarsely again, "ponies are taking it as well as they can be expected to. Even children are joining in the building of the defences, they're relishing in being out of school I think." He swirled his whiskey around, then took another sip. "Old folks' homes are clearing out to join the army. There's a sense of," he paused, searching for the word in his glass of whiskey, "determination. Hope, even."

Sombra took a sip. "Do you think they're right?"

"Hmm?" 

"To hope," he clarified, "do you think they're right to hope?"

Glow smiled, but he didn't chuckle. "I'm an old stallion," he said, for the first time since Sombra had met him as a child admitting he wasn't still young, "old enough now to have seen a lot of things. Ponies have hoped for better in far worse conditions."

Sombra nodded. "But," he said, "were they wrong to do so?"

"It's never wrong to hope. Hope isn't something objective. There is a big difference between hoping for success and believing in it."

Sombra took a sip, it was a fiery whiskey, with a nice spice to it. "I don't know if I can do it," he admitted, "I don't know if I can tell them that we can win."

"You don't have to," Glow said, "everypony already knows we can't. Everypony's made their peace with it. You've got the idealistic ones, who see dying for the cause as worth it; the proud ones, who refuse to allow even a thought of surrender; then you've got the old ones, like me, who've already lived so long that it ending now hardly matters. Only thing you have to consider is whether you've made your peace."

Sombra considered saying he had his orders. Truth was, however, that he hadn't made his peace. He hadn't so much as thought about it - especially considering he had hardly had the time since the retreat from the Everfree Forest. What would his peace be? Did it even matter if he didn't make his peace? 

"Your silence tells me you haven't."

Sombra was snapped from his semi-trance. Doctor Glow was observing him intently, glass of whiskey in his hoof held low. He shook his head, unable to say anything else.

"You know," Doctor Glow propositioned as he took a sip from his whiskey, "you could always flee the city."

Sombra shook his head again. "Absolutely not." He took a sip of his whiskey, observing the glass was almost empty. "I could not leave you all here. I had not wanted to come at first, but," he paused, thinking of Emperor Nicholas and deciding that trying to tell Doctor Glow about him would not be a good use of his time, "the Companions demanded it."

Glow chuckled, "I had almost thought they were mute," he said, "must have been their guards' discipline."

Sombra nodded. "I had wanted to spare you all from this..."

Glow interrupted him, "there was no way Celestia would have allowed it," he said, "it was not just you who declared for Luna, but this whole city, together. There would have been retribution one way or another."

"Perhaps I could be offered as prisoner?" Sombra said, thinking aloud more than anything.

Doctor Glow chuckled, "yes. Then Celestia could have your head without a fight before she took all of ours."

Sombra gave a morbid, barking laugh, "so she could." He took a sip of his whiskey, the glass emptying into his mouth. "What a failure."

Glow refilled Sombra's whiskey from the bottle, back to the apparently exact half-glass it had been before he started drinking. "If we had been intolerant of failure, we would never have set about this whole venture. We may be in a predicament now, but we saw our chance and took it - either that or live under Celestia's iron-shod hooves forever."

"At the current rate, we'll be back to where we started in a few days."

"And what does it matter? We have gained nothing, true, but we have also lost nothing. We'll be back to where we started, yes, but then others can take our place in the future and carry on as we did. Whether in one generation or a hundred, somepony is bound to succeed eventually."

"You make a good point," Sombra conceded, taking another sip of his whiskey. The fiery taste was starting to subside, he was getting used to it. "Hopefully everypony's alright with that."

Glow shrugged. "They'll have to be. Besides, I'm sure most ponies will be there to carry on the good fight."

Sombra smiled, as genuinely as he could bring himself to. "True. I wonder how the place will look after I'm gone."

"Already condemned yourself then?"

Sombra took another sip. "I guess so."

Glow rolled his eyes. "As your doctor, it's my duty to remind you that you must continue taking care of your health."

Sombra nodded, staring into his whiskey glass. He closed his eyes, breathing deep to allow the stress to wash off of him. With a determined fire in his eyes he drank the entire glass in one. "I will kill Celestia," he declared, "then I can die."

Doctor Glow raised a hoof, stopping Sombra's rise from the bed. "You will kill Celestia, then you will continue to look after your health."

Sombra gave his doctor a flat look. Before giving his friend a smile and a chuckle, "very well."