It continued like that for years. Every year his dam was breed by stallions removed of their morals. Then Sombra, with worryingly growing expertise, would help her deliver it. Then it was promptly whisked away. While she could never manage full term, it was at most a year for each one. One hundred eighty seven. Rabia and the other mare were surprised she was still going. While the umbrum did lack in biological knowledge they certainly knew it was too far. They felt that the magic Amore had cast on her multiple times had something to do with it.
Sombra sat numb to the scene of his dam being bred. He still didn’t look either way. But this time it seemed different, the stallion seemed to have faint control of himself. His head positioned next to his dams, whispering incredibly silently in her ear.
“Listen. There’s some talk going around about a revolution. We’re waiting until the plan is between all of us. It may take some time but listen for the wyvern howl. That’s when we break free”
“We’re underground. We won’t hear, it’s a castle prison not a basement…whatever those are”
“Someone will want the princess. They find you”
“Fine, I’ll tell the others”
“Oh. And some ponies are with us”
“Really?”
“Yes”
-{+}-
It was a couple years after and for the first time a true sense of hope came to them. It was what they assumed night as they could hear no noise through the door. However the metal clicked and it opened very slowly. A small faint purple pegasus guard with silver eyes slinked through the door. He had a large saddlebag on which was teeming with fruits and veg. Another entered behind him, a green mare with blond hair. She two had a saddlebag, but much less full.
“I’ll spread the food. The one at the bottom, she’s the breeder but her eye worries me more. Watch the foal though”
With a small nod the mare made her way over towards Sombra and his dam, who was already guarding him. When she approached she made an attempt at some botched Umbrull.
“I…huelpae” despite the lack of skill both could make out her offer of help. His dam shifted slightly closer, turning her head to get a good look at the mare. Then slowly she pulled herself over to the bars. The mare reached through and held his dams chin lightly. Turning her head so she could get a good look at the mangled eye.
“ew” the eye had now devolved into a state of puss and coagulated blood. The actual eye had long deflated and collapsed as its fluid leaked out.
“How did you last for…Celestia forbid two hundred years without an infection. In fact you probably have ten by now” she lightly pushed at the bulged inflamed eyelids, pus dribbled and popped. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small cloth and a bottle of liquid.
“wiil hurtee. Ite’s gioodi” both Sombra and his dam didn’t know how “hurt” and “good” fit together, but it didn’t prepare his dam for the stinging pain to shoot through her skull. She hissed at the poor mare who recoiled in fear at the sudden exposure of pointed, rotting teeth.
“sorrrry, sorry I guess that didn’t get across.” She stroked his dam’s cheek softly. The greasy but still dry fur bent and stayed in place. The mare went in again with the cotton, Sombra watched his dam hold a breath. After the light rubbing the mare used another to push out the septic that had made its home, he could throw up if he had a full stomach. However his attention was drawn by the pile of fruit and veg that rolled towards the cell.
The strange food items were colourful. The other umbrum didn’t seem to be bothered but Sombra had never seen such things before. At most back in the recesses of his mind, long forgotten, he could remember some of the smaller one being frozen in ice and carried in leather pouches. While he would much prefer the meats of tribal cooking, his growling untouched stomach forced him to reach through the bars. Pulling the berries, leaving the strange long orange thing and the strange leaves, he gobbled them down relentlessly.
His dams head joined him to eat, except less fussy, while the mare moved on to the other umbrum. Wiping down the burns and cuts left by chains and encounters with the southern monsters in the colosseum. The outside of wounds were lightly cleaned and no bandages were applied. Sombra put it together in his head that these were the helping ponies, they were trying to be discrete to not be noticed by the others. He wondered what was happening on the surface. How many of those ponies were sick and twisted, enjoying them being in pain. Or others that may hate those, the ones that were here now that wanted to help them. He noticed that the guards changed out regularly every fifty years. So he assumed maybe the younger ones were different. When the two left, they spoke.
“Those must be the ones with us then” one stallion said.
“certainly nicer than that princess” another replied
“she’s just dead hide anyway” his dam scowled.
“let’s hope that howl is soon. I can’t stand seeing…that any longer” the first stallion said as he looked into the cell in front of him. From what he was told the umbrum in there was dead. He didn’t know what it meant, his dam simply told him its when something stopped living. Through the bars of that cell he saw a large flower sticking through. Pink tipped black petals spiralled out of a silvery stem.