The next day, Sombra and Hope were waking up late in the day to the sound of knocking at their door. Sunlight was streaming through their window, and just opening their eyes, they could tell it was past noon.
“Ugh… were we supposed to open the court today?” Hope asked as she blinked herself awake.
“I can’t remember,” Sombra yawned. “I believe Alex and I put in for it to be closed today, but I’m not sure. Princess Luna might be here to tell us off because of it… where’s my cape at? And my armor?”
“Your cape and armor? You haven’t worn those things in months. They’ve probably been thrown away by now.”
“Well, I can’t go out without those things. I’m not going to walk around without armor or clothing like a peasant. Alex has kept me from being dressed as the ruler I’m meant to be.”
“Hehe, I’m sure you’ll be fine, what with how handsome and powerful you are. Although you do want to brush your coat. It’s a matted mess.”
“Certainly through no fault of my own,” Sombra retorted, rolling his eyes but giving an amused smile as he quickly nuzzled her.
“Speaking of which though, I have to ask… did Alex, um… you know… is he still asleep?”
Sombra closed his eyes for a moment before answering, “Yes, he’s still asleep. He’s been asleep since Starlight Glimmer cast that spell. It’s a bit of a weird feeling, knowing that somepony else is there in my head, too.”
“It’s been that way for almost two years though, Sombra.”
“Yes, but before one of us was completely suppressed, or else we were gelled together into one being, which was how it was for most of our time. However, now it feels like somepony distinct is there, a separate mind sharing space with me, and it’s a strange feeling. It also feels incredibly sad, which is something I don’t particularly care for. I feel like it might rub off on me if it keeps up.”
“Well, what’s it-”
Hope was interrupted by more knocking, which caused Sombra to grunt as he answered it, coming face to face with Twilight and Starlight again.
“Hello, Alex!” Starlight greeted happily. “Er, I mean Sombra. I hope I didn’t catch you two just waking up.”
“Actually, you did, but it’s fine, I assure you.”
“Are you sure? We can come back later if you want.”
“You’re already here, aren’t you? We might as well get this over with. I have a feeling I know what you’re here for anyway. But first, do you know where my cape and armor are?”
“Um, I don’t know,” Twilight answered. “You might ask Fluttershy or Princess Luna about those things. I haven’t seen you with them on since… well, since we first saw you in the Crystal Empire. But, um, we wanted to talk to you about Alex, if that’s okay.”
“What specifically were you looking to talk about?”
“Oh, well we have a whole bunch of questions!” Starlight broke in excitedly. “But actually, before that, Twilight here had something important to tell you!”
“I do?” The alicorn tilted her head in confusion before remembering, “Oh yeah! We wanted to invite you to dinner tonight. It was gonna be you, Radiant Hope, Starlight and I, and Princess Luna. Oh, and Cadance if she wants to come, and Fluttershy if you want her there.”
The stallion considered it for a moment before replying, “You use the word invite, but I have the suspicion that I don’t have a choice in the matter. I don’t believe you’d let me say no to your invitation.”
“I mean, I guess you technically have a choice, but we’d really like it if you were there…”
“We promise you that it won’t be bad,” Starlight assured him. “You can understand why we're having it. I mean, after all, you are Sombra, but…”
“But we’d really like to have you there,” Twilight finished. “We just want to discuss some things, if that’s okay. Please? It' won't' be bad, I promise.”
Sombra sighed and reluctantly answered, “Fine. As long as Fluttershy’s there. I feel like I know what it’ll be about, so I want her there.”
“That shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not for a few hours, so either Starlight or I should be able to teleport to Ponyville to grab her quickly.”
“But now with that out of the way, what’s it like having another creature inside your head?” Starlight asked enthusiastically. “Would you say Alex is a tulpa? I’m very curious to know. Oh! Maybe you could ask Alex to front for you for a little while! We can see how he likes it so far and talk to him! We can cast the spell for you to get it to happen if you need us to.”
“It’s not a great experience, I don’t know what a tulpa is, I’m not sure he’d want you to do that since he’s still asleep, and no thank you, I don’t want a spell used on me.”
“What does being asleep mean? Can he hear us right now? What does sleeping entail?”
“It means he’s asleep. If there was a bed in my mind to sleep on, he’d be on it. And no, I don’t believe he can hear us, although I’m sure if he were awake he’d be able to. I don’t think he’d particularly like to be awake right now though. He told me before he just wants to sleep for now.”
“Very interesting, very interesting,” Starlight commented as she floated over a piece of paper to write on. “And you were talking to him yesterday, right? You can talk to him in your head, and he can talk to you?”
“Yes, that’s correct. It sounds as though somepony's speaking in my ear when he talks, and I can speak back just through my thoughts.”
“That sounds great! Do you think we could talk to him right now?” Starlight asked. “I know you said he’s sleeping, but I want to see how he’s feeling with the arrangement you two have so far.”
“I can try, but as I said, I don’t think he’d particularly like it.”
“Please? You can tell him it was us if he’s upset.”
Sombra rolled his eyes again, responding, “Let me see.”
I felt a hoof touching me and shaking me awake. I growled and turned over, doing my best to ignore them, but I realized I wasn’t going to be able to when they spoke.
“Huh, you really think you’re a strange otherworldly creature, don’t you?” Sombra half spoke, half asked. “Because you certainly look like one.”
I groggily opened my eyes to look at my limbs, seeing only the dark fur growing from the legs and hooves of the pony I was.
“I’m still this dumb pony,” I responded. “I never was a human, so of course I look like this.
“Hmmm, maybe it was an illusion, because it faded once you looked at yourself. For a moment, you didn’t look like a pony.”
“Whatever. What are you doing waking me up? It definitely hasn’t been three days yet.” Honestly, it only felt like an hour or two since I went to sleep. It felt like I had been woken up in the middle of the night, and I wanted to get back to sleeping.
“Those two ponies said they wanted to talk to you,” he told me, pausing before continuing, “Actually, they said they wanted a dinner with you tonight. They said Luna and Fluttershy would be there.”
“I don’t want to go to dinner,” I told him. “They’re going to have to have dinner without me.”
“Well, that’s something you can tell them when you speak to them,” he responded, flopping onto the bed casually as he pushed me to my hooves. “I’ll be here while you do.”
I huffed in annoyance and rolled my eyes as I took control of our body, noticing Starlight and Twilight staring at me in anticipation.
“Yes?” I asked, clearly conveying my disapproval at being summoned. “What do you want?”
“Wait, is that- are you out right now, Alex?” Starlight asked, taking a step forward. “Is that you?”
“The one and only, unfortunately. Why do you want to talk to me?”
“Oh, we just wanted to know right now how comfortable you are with the arrangement you’re in.”
“You’re asking if- how long has it been? It couldn’t have been three days yet at all.”
“Oh, it hasn’t. It’s been about a day so far.”
“Then why are you asking me now? Also, no, I don’t plan on being available for dinner. You’re going to have to settle for having Sombra there.”
“We weren’t planning on having you there,” Twilight replied. “I mean, no offense, but it was going to be a dinner and discussion about Sombra. I mean, you could be there for part of it if you want, but- wait, did Sombra tell you that you were going to be there? Because we told him it would be for him."
“Of course, it's for him," I sighed. "Of course you didn’t plan on having me there. Of course, he tried to trick me, because Sombra’s a liar.” I rolled my eyes at his pathetically weak attempt, continuing, “Anyway, what did you want to ask me about?”
“Oh! We just wanted to ask you about how you’re feeling, you know, being Sombra’s tulpa and all right now. We just wanna see how you’re feeling so far, being a day in.”
“Why? You can- ugh, can’t this wait until later? I just want to go back to sleep right now. And I don’t know what a tulpa is.”
“That just means that you’re a pony he created, basically anyway,” Twilight answered. “We’ve been doing our research, and I have to say, you-”
“Okay, well," I interrupted, "as much as I appreciate it and as interesting as this is, being out here is making me feel like I’ve been woken up in the middle of the night. Can I go back to sleep, please? I’ll tell you how I feel once this experiment is over, okay?”
“Well… okay. We’ll talk to you then, if that’s no trouble.”
“Thank you,” I replied, closing my eyes and heading back off. I watched as Sombra took control again and grumbled about how I ratted him out before laying in bed again and falling back to sleep.
“I can’t believe you tried to lie, Sombra,” Starlight frowned with disapproval. “Tried to get Alex to take your place at dinner. That’s so low of you.”
“What can I say?” he replied. “I really don’t want to go. I feel like I already know what’s going to happen.” They opened their mouths to ask what he thought, but he broke in before they could ask, “You guys are going to try and punish me even though I haven’t done anything wrong. Well, at least not lately. And the ponies I have wronged in the past deserved it, I can assure you that much.”
“Well, tonight’s dinner would be an excellent time to explain yourself then,” Starlight replied. “Besides, Twilight and I are on your side and are trying to advocate for you. That job becomes harder though when you try to get out of it or lie to other ponies, especially the pony that's the cause of this whole mess in the first place..." She trailed off and quickly tried to backtrack after she realized what she said.
"I mean, not that it's Alex's fault! It's not! I mean, there is a mess because of him, but it's not because of him. It's not his fault. You know what I mean. I'm sorry. Alex, if you can hear me right now, I'm sorry.”
"He can't hear you right now because he's already back to sleep, but I'm sure he appreciates it."
"But yes, you need to go to that dinner," Twilight told him. "Backing out of it isn't really going to look well for you, especially since... well, we'll talk about it more once dinner time comes."
Sombra grumbled to himself, annoyed at the situation and by their logic. It probably wasn’t something he could get out of, and they did say they were on his side. And even if they weren’t, Hope and Fluttershy would be. Although he had to admit, he didn’t care much for Cadance being there.
“Fine,” he finally said after a long while. “I’ll go, and I apologize for trying to get Alex to take my place. But let it be known that I don’t agree with this. Especially not Cadance being there. This whole situation is her fault anyway. I know Alex and Fluttershy will agree with me on that."