Sombra was awoken by Miss Chestnut lightly shaking his shoulder. She had almost fully woken up but was unable to move due to Sombra tightly gripping one of her legs.
“Time to get up Sombra” she whispered to him. It took him a moment to stir from sleep and to let go of her leg. When his eyes adjusted it was the first time he had seen Miss Chestnut not groomed. Her floor length hair, despite being tied up was a matted mess and her thin fur stuck out in every direction. Sombra let out a small mewl as he shifted his stiff legs.
“Where you alright last night? Was it a nightmare or did you just want a cuddle?” she asked while lightly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“mmn, nigh…mer” he croaked out.
“It’s a little early, you sleep a little longer while I get ready, then we’ll go down for breakfast and you can tell me it ok” She said while gently climbing over Sombra to leave the bed. Resting his head down on the pillow he drifted between waking and sleeping, for the half hour it took for her to get ready.
“You there Sombra?” she asked him, nudging his shoulder waking him up. Lifting his head, he looked at her, shook his head and licked his nose. Then he yawned and his face spilt open, showing all his little still rotten teeth.
“I really hope those fall out…right, let’s get you to breakfast” Miss Chestnut told him, she led him back down to the kitchen. Sombra could hear the room next to it with the sounds of the other foals, he could pick out each individual voice.
“I should get your bandages changed as well…you should probably have the yogurt again…should actually call a dentist maybe…might ask that nurse if she knows any…” Miss Chestnut lifted off to herself. While she poked around in the fridge Sombra heard a familiar voice. He trotted out of the kitchen and peaked around the corner to the dining room. Mrs Drops was in there seating the foals, the most recent one to be Hope. The other foals looked at him, they whispered to each other.
“Is that the new one?”
“I think so”
“He’s weird looking”
“Isn’t he one of those giant ponies?”
“Maybe” their hushed whispers continued, Hope turned to see him. She tried to get out of her chair but Mrs Drops sat her down. The yellow mare approached him forcing him to take a step back from the doorway, despite such an assertive manner, she spoke softly. Although with a hint of fear.
“I thinks its best you don’t eat with them for now. Let them get used to you first” she told him, her voice slightly wobbled. He felt a hoof on his leg and Miss Chestnut stood with a bowl in her mouth. He followed her back to the living room where he sat and ate his breakfast again.
“I hope you’ve considered the problems of having him here” he heard Mrs Drops whisper to Miss Chestnut.
“I know you don’t like them Lemon-“
“This has nothing to do with that. Have you considered if a parent sees him and that information gets to the princess?”
“Yes. I have. If I can keep him in his room during visiting hours everything should be alright. Although I do wish I could take him home with me, I just can’t leave him on his own”
“I can tell you’ve already fallen for him”
Sombra finished his breakfast, licking the remains off his lips. He trotted over to Miss Chestnut with the bowl in his mouth. He had regained some of his energy with the food, and his now slightly glistening green eyes only further melted Miss Chestnuts heart.
“Alright, let’s get you to your lessons, you can tell me about that nightmare as well ok” she said as she walked off with him back to the school after putting his bowl in the sink.
After sitting down with her again (this time without Hope, for she was with the others) he did another drawing of his nightmare. But as he now had an image of the monsters face, he drew it. while it was mostly black and grey in his nightmare, something compelled him to the pink, purple and peach crayons. It was only the face he drew, with the twisted smile, widened popping eyes and the shaggy mane. Miss Chestnut stared at it terrified.
“I knew foals can have…concerning imaginations…but…sweet Celestia” she stammered.
“wait…” she stared at the image.
“that’s…she owned you…oh no come here” Miss Chestnut practically ran around the table to pull him into an embrace.
“she was known to treat Umbrum the worst as well” Miss Chestnut almost cried into him as she squeezed him.
“I just wish I had some pony at home to help look after you” she lamented as she let go of him.
“Alright, compose yourself Velvet, let’s get your lesson done shall we, we’ll focus on your speech” she said as she took a deep breath. She sat back down in front of him, giving him his book from yesterday.
“We’ll start by reading out those lines”
Hope and Sombra sat in his room, they hadn’t gotten a chance to talk most of the day. So now they were sitting doodling on scrap papers. Sombra looked over to see Hope had drawn three little ponies with big butterfly wings. One was green, another yellow and another dark blue.
“There my fairy friends. Only I can see them. I based them of different butterflies” Hope said as she coloured in the fairy’s. While Sombra could speak he still wasn’t sure how to respond to many things. so he tilted his head and looked at her with curiosity.
“The green one is a…green birdwing! That’s it” she remembered pointing to the left fairy. Its pale green body had short black hair. The wings were large and bright green, but the top wing had a black centre, the smaller had three black dots.
“This one is a blue morpho, she’s the big one” the fairy was a dull brown. She too had black hair but it was much longer with blue streeks. The wings were almost disproportionality large and they were bright blue.
“Then this one’s a monarch, she’s the leader” the last was a golden yellow, its wings were normally sized with elegant black stripes and white spots. Her golden hair was held up in a tight bun and she had a little silver crown.
“I…like…them” Sombra told her slowly, still finding the words unnatural. But even so him speaking made Hope incredibly happy.
“Thanks…you’re the first to like them…the others call me crazy”
“…No?” Sombra said, confused why too she would be.
“They think its silly to have imaginary friends” she said quietly, and then she changed the subject back to her fairy’s.
“when they fly they have a trail of sparkles. Stella, the blue one leaves the most because she has the biggest wings” she told him while adding little blue dots behind the giant wings.
“The green ones Clover and the other is Tulip” Hope continued as she added their sparkles. Sombra’s paper was still empty.
“You gonna draw anything?” she asked him, pushing the crayons towards him. He shrugged his shoulders, he didn’t know what to draw to be fair.
“You want to play with the dominos?”
“…ok” He replied confused to the new word. Hope bounced of and quickly returned with a box. She dumped out the little rectangles covered in dots.
“There’s a proper way to play it, but I like to stand them up and push them over” she said as she lifted each one and stood them on end. Arranging them in waves and lines before pushing the end one over. The satisfying clicks rung in his ears as they tumbled over. She giggled as she lifted them all up again and replacing them in different places. Sombra took one in his mouth and attempted to place it down, however his nose butted into one and the chains toppled over.
“It might be easier if you use your magi- oh wait…you can’t use it” she remembered as she went around re-standing the dominos. Unfortunately they didn’t get much time as Miss Chestnut arrived to put them to bed.
“Come on Hope, lets get you to your room” she asked sweetly. Hope using her magic put the dominos away swiftly, before hugging Sombra again. She then trotted off to bed.
“alright, lets get those bandages changed shall we” she said as she placed the roll, water and ointment down, then sitting with him. She gently lifted his leg and lightly pulled of the now dirty bandage. She lightly dabbed the already healing wounds with the water, causing little stings.
“Sorry, I should probably get you bathed tomorrow, they're healing nicely though” she said as she continued to wipe down his wounds. After applying the ointment she wrapped his leg with the fresh bandage, then moved onto doing his other legs and his neck.
“Alright, good night Sombra. I hope you sleep better tonight, but I’m still here if you need me” Miss chestnut told him. She kissed his check and left him to sleep.
For once Sombra was getting a peaceful sleep. There was no dreams nor nightmares, just sweet sleep. Unfortunately it was about midnight when he was woken up by a bright light. He had a habit of not closing his curtains (of the few times he’d slept in this room) but it was only now did that suddenly become a hindrance.
Groaning and rubbing his eyes as he woke up, he looked through blurry eyes at the white coming from his windows. The light faltered and wavered as the tree branches shifted in the wind. Something was sitting in the tree and as his eyes adjusted he saw a shape withing the glow. Sombra crawled out of bed and wobbly walked over to the window. The light as if on cue faded, revealing a pure white bird.
It had a long, elegant neck and head with deep black eyes. it was perched upon a branch that was hanging from the weight, attempting to sit as close to the window as possible. Its tail, however, was draping down a good few feet, it was just as white as the rest of the birds body, except for the pale blue and gold marking on its face and feathers. Creating little eyes in its tail. The bird took a step closer, testing the narrow branch.
They stared at each other through the glass, the way the bird gazed into his eyes made it seem far too intelligent for what it was. Something compelled Sombra to open the window, which doing so allowed the bird to flutter and clamber in. Landing in front of him the bird looked up at him, its long tail glided across the carpet.
“hey” Sombra said in his own language, it felt so normal on the tongue. The bird almost smiled at him in response. They stood staring at each other for a few seconds, until Sombra’s mind decided it was time for sleep. He didn’t know what quite to do with the bird in his room, but he grabbed a spare pillow and plopped it down at the end of his bed, before tucking in himself.
As he drifted of to sleep he felt a twang like pain in his head, which quickly faded into nothing. As he slept he felt a light weight on his shoulder.