//------------------------------//
// the dyeing of my hair was a choice I shouldn’t have given to a toddler 
// Story: what do you expect when you let your toddler dye your hair 
// by a touch of sparkles 
//------------------------------//

If there was one thing Sombra was always proud of, it was his appearance. It had changed throughout his life of course, but in terms of dress it had changed rather recently. He had raised the Umbrum finally after a ridiculously long time and created a slowly growing empire deep in the uncharted areas of the North. He had swapped out the iron armour for gold and silver, because its fabulous. His crown had become far more ornate and was decked with rubies and emeralds. All of these changes were partly due to his mother, whom he could finally reunite with, who was rather flamboyant. 

However as he grew one thing became more and more of a problem. His mane. Being an umbrum he had the godawful magical gene that his hair would regrow completely within twenty-four hours of being cut. This would be fine is you only lived for eighty or so years like most ponies. But Umbrums have a five-thousand-year life span. So it could become incredibly long by the time you were an elder. Considering Sombra was only one thousand six hundred and thirty-three years old and it was hanging over his shoulders he had growing concern on how long it’s going to get, let alone what to do with it. But if there were some things he was grateful for it would be that Umbrum hair floated (until it gets incredibly long unfortunately) and that his beard wasn’t being as ridiculous. 

So here was Sombra just looking at himself in the mirror. Slowly braiding his main in various Umbrum styles and weaving in the beads. He heard the bedroom door open and looked behind him in the mirror to see his wife Radiant Hope. On her back was their youngest foal Etéra. 

“You are coming for breakfast right?” She asked him. She was by his side now and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. He was up here for quite some time and he hadn’t realised it was nearly nine o’clock.

“I still have no clue what to do with all of this. I miss when it was only a few inches long” Sombra lamented as he undid one of the braids that he didn’t find good enough.

“Why don’t you ask your mother? She would know something” Hope replied with a smile, which being as beautiful as it was, made him do so.

“You are kidding me. I would be in her room for an unimaginable number of hours as she puts far too many styles in and takes them out promptly as she doesn’t like it or has a different idea”

“Why don’t you dye it?” it was the adorable voice of little Etéra who had suggested it. Sombra looked back at his daughter. She was a pony sized foal. In other words incredibly small for Umbrums. She inherited his dark fur and magic. It was unknown if her eyes would be red or blue, she had inherited the umbrum gene where foals have green eyes and they change in puberty. Her hair though was a stripy mix of blue and black, but it floated and assumably grew like his. 

“You could always cut it off if you don’t like it” Hope told him when he pulled a rather strange face at the idea. She was right though. All he had to do was shave it off and by the morning it would have mostly grown back.

“I suppose so. But I don’t think many colours would work well on me” Sombra stated as he imagined himself with the odd coloured hair he had seen on some ponies. Although he couldn’t deny the fact that he had seen some Umbrum experimenting with their hair in colourful ways. 

“Oh I’m sure Etéra’s got that sorted for you. Haven’t you sweetie?” 

“mmhm” 



The next day came around and Sombra was moderately concerned when Hope shoved him into the bathroom and chucked a bottle of hair bleach at him. So it was safe to say he was concerned about what colour his daughter has picked. But as far as he knew, it was common for dark hair to be bleached before-hoof. So he didn’t know what he was expecting really. 

“May I asked what colour she’s chosen?” he asked with mild to moderate concern.

“She wants it to be a surprise. She also wants to do it herself. Although I didn’t want her touching the bleach, just promise me you won’t let her hurt herself when she uses the dye” Hope told him as she started to prepare the bleach and his hair. 

“You clearly forget the time someone with a grudge against half-breeds tried to drop a chandelier on Mags and I pushed her out of the way and nearly ended up paralysed for it. You think I wouldn’t stop Etéra hurting herself with the dye?” it was a gruesome memory to remember but it certainly said something about his style of being a father.

“First of all that injury was a pain in the rump to fix even with healing magic, second maybe turn to shadow next time so it didn’t hurt you, third I know you wouldn’t let her get hurt.” It would sound quite sarcastic if she wasn’t partly laughing and punching him lightly in the shoulder.

And so Hope began to bleach his hair. Apparently they only bought enough for his mane and maybe his beard. She still hadn’t let up what colour it was though. They had to open one of the castle windows halfway through so they didn’t burn their nose hairs out, along with their eyes (even if it didn’t do much the windows are tiny.) But eventually after an excruciatingly tingly and nose burning process Sombra was left with a strange orange yellow which to be fair, didn’t look the worst, but it was certainly off putting to look at.

“Just be glad it didn’t fry. Although to be fair that wouldn’t be so bad for you” Hope joked as they looked in the bathroom mirror. Sombra could tell she was holding back a laugh.

“Is the colour its going any worse than this?” he asked.

“Depends how fragile your masculinity is”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh nothing”



Once again Sombra was walking back into his bathroom, this time Etéra was on his back. She was clutching a few bottles of premixed hair dye in her magic, refusing to let him see them. Sombra was somewhat nervous considering everyone but him had been told what colour his hair would be. Just put it his bodyguards were telling him just how great it’s going to look on him and that he should really consider keeping it that colour just for his daughter.

As he sat down on the floor once again only a few days later, Etéra hopped of his back and onto the floor next to him. She reared up and placed her hooves onto his neck, while using her magic to squeeze the contents of the bottle onto the roots of his mane. She still refused to show him the bottle. 

“At least give me a hint?” he asked, Sombra just really needed to prepare himself for what he’s going to see when he dries his hair off.

“Nope” Etéra merrily said as she smushed more dye into his dirty blond mane. Apparently Hope had told her what to do but being a foal she was messy with it.

“Just a little hint?” 

“Nope” Etéra kept refusing as she worked down his mane. Little hoof prints were painted on the floor when she landed back on all fours. As of which gave Sombra his first hint. They were a pale pink.

Oh Tartarus. 

He had a somewhat bad feeling that he was going somewhere in the shades of red and pink. And considering this was his six-year-old daughter. He was leaning more towards the pink side. He didn’t question it. After all he did ask for it letting his daughter choose. Although he was sure his older kids wouldn’t do anything to different. He simply waited as Etéra slowly worked the pink down his mane, even trying to catch and dye the unstable bits of shadow she was convinced was his hair. He kept a good eye on her though. At one point he whipped a bit off that fell a little too close to her eye. 

“Finished!” Etéra said with glee as she looked at her work. Her little cloven hooves were covered in dye. Sombra stood up and moved over to the mirror. He flipped his hair over and noticed a small patch buy the roots that was uncoloured.

“You missed a bit Te” Sombra said as he pointed to the missed patch. She pulled his head down by grasping his mane in magic, then proceeding to smush some more dye in. then the wait for it to set in started. the shadow struggled to keep his hair afloat. eventually the time ended and it was time to wash it out.

“I’m going to wash this out. And you can wash those hooves off before you put hoof prints everywhere” Sombra told her as he started to run the shower. As Sombra slowly walked over his daughter trotted over and leapt into the tub. She splashed around in the shallow water with all the foalhood innocence she had (even if adults do indulge in splashing, it was still very childish the way she did it). Sombra laughed as he stepped in and helped her wash of the remaining dye that she smeared on her face. 

“Now go dry of. I’ll be out in a bit” Etéra hopped out of the tub as she trotted out of the bathroom. There was a big grin on her face, Sombra new it was to do with his hair. 

He began to scrub the dye out of his hair. His suspicions of the shade of colour were settled when he saw the water come of an almost fluorescent pink. 

Calm down. you are slightly colour blind.

Sombra slowly came to the realisation that the dye was certainly in the very bright pink range. He tried to calm himself from whatever he was feeling. A strange mix of surprise and amusement. He honestly couldn’t wait to see it.