Sombra slowly woke up as the first rays of the sun managed to peek through a crack in the curtains. The dark pony raised his head and yawned wide before throwing the blanket off and slowly climbing out of the bed. He glared at the window.
“And a good morning to you too, Celestia,” he grumbled. Even if he knew the princess was simply doing her duty of raising the sun in the morning, he couldn’t help but feel she sometimes intentionally aimed it at his window.
The former king stretched his body before walking to the bedroom door. When he opened it, the unicorn was reminded why he had soundproofed his room. A powerful wail assaulted his ears the moment the door opened just a little bit.
Sombra poked his head out to take a look in the hallway. He barely missed a blue blur swooping through, coming from one room and entering another. The wail stopped, and he heard a soft voice speak.
“Oh my, you woke up really hungry, didn’t you?”
A maroon-colored head with a white muzzle and a navy blue mane poked out from another room. The mare looked almost mischievously pleased by something.
“I take it you find this situation somewhat amusing, Foxy,” Sombra addressed her.
Foxy looked at him with the most innocent expression she could muster. “Whaat? Me enjoying that Dew now has to tend a baby several times during the night and then right in the morning? I never,” she pretended to sound insulted, but her wide grin betrayed what she was really thinking.
Sombra just rolled his eyes; by now, he was rather used to Foxy’s non-serious responses. Instead of replying, he turned his attention to the door the blue blur had come out of. A dark-gray unicorn with a blonde mane stood half in the doorway. His head had dropped down, the muzzle almost touching the floor. His eyes were closed and he was softly snoring.
“Of course, Private took his turns, too,” Foxy remarked with a giggle.
“Oh, for the love of…” Sombra sighed and walked fully out of his room. Using his magic, he grabbed the smaller unicorn and carried him back into the room Private had been coming from. The former king put the other pony back on the bed, then left the room and closed the door.
When he was back in the hallway, Foxy was poking her head into the innermost room, talking with someone in there. Sombra ignored it and instead walked over to the open room the blue blur had disappeared into. He saw a blue pegasus mare with a candy cane-colored mane and tail in the process of burping a foal.
“Private made a valiant attempt to go after you, but he fell asleep in the doorway. I put him back in bed,” Sombra informed the mare.
“Thank you. I told him to try and sleep in,” Dew Doe said and rose, holding the colt in one leg. The baby babbled, content that his hunger had been satiated and all gasses removed.
“Youngest gets the bathroom first!!”
Sombra looked back and saw Coal, Foxy’s daughter, zip past him; the black filly disappeared down the stairs as her mother raced after the girl.
“You are not the youngest anymore in this house!” Foxy shouted.
“Youngest who don’t need diapers!” Coal declared and there was a slam of a door downstairs.
Makes you wonder who is the younger of the two. Sombra shook his head and stepped out of the way when Dew came walking. Blue Axe, her son, had been placed on her back.
“He didn’t wake you during the night?” she asked as she exited the nursery.
“You know I soundproofed…” Sombra’s response came to an abrupt halt when a blue fuzz of a colt suddenly latched onto his face. The foal’s wings were buzzing and the boy was giggling.
Dew Doe stopped and placed a hoof over her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Sombra was currently in the process of using his magic to pry the boy from his muzzle. When Blue Axe was dislodged, the dark pony returned him to his mother.
“I see his wings have grown strong enough to enable him to leap quite a distance,” the former king grunted, but did lift a hoof to ruffle the boy’s red tuft of a mane.
“Yes, he’ll probably also be flying soon in short bursts,” the mare informed him. She looked at her son. “Blue, we don’t go leaping onto pony’s faces.”
“Still, points for bravery. Not everyone dares to strike so directly at me,” Sombra chortled and leaned his head down slightly so he was closer to eye level with the colt. He got a small blue hoof smacking on top of his muzzle for the trouble.
“Blue Axe,” Dew Doe scolded the boy. “No hitting.”
Sombra said nothing. He had barely felt the smack from the colt. However, he did recognize that Dew didn’t want her son to hit and attack others left and right. The boy was scarcely a month old and already proving a bit rambunctious.
“He’s going to be the terror of the playground if this keeps up,” he simply said with a smirk. It grew wider when Dew just groaned in response.
“It’s the parent curse, I swear,” the mare muttered and made her way to the stairs, this time firmly holding her son so he wouldn’t make another go at Sombra.
Parent curse? The dark pony stood still for a moment as he considered what he had just heard Dew say. He knew all kinds of curses but had never heard about this one before.
Sombra shook his head, making a note to inquire about this later. His gurgling stomach was letting him know it was time for breakfast.
Down in the kitchen Foxy Stripes was already preparing breakfast. Oatmeal, cereal and sandwiches were being gathered up on the table. The mare glanced up when Sombra entered. Her brow slowly rose a bit.
“Uh, why are there blue feathers in your mane?” she asked.
“Courtesy of Blue Axe. He decided my face was a sufficient wrestling challenge,” Sombra responded; using the metallic surface of the teapot as a mirror, he started removing the few feathers sticking out of it.
“Well, he’ll be out of your face in a few days when the rest of us go to the Crystal Empire for Dew and Private’s wedding,” Foxy said while putting the final breakfast item on the table, a plate of pancakes. Again she looked at the former king who was throwing the feathers in the trash.
“But I’ve got to say, you have been pretty chill with our little boy Blue uh… being so aggressive towards you,” she remarked.
“I’m far more impressed with his bravery. He barely reaches my hooves yet willingly tackles me at every opportune moment,” Sombra shrugged and returned back to the breakfast table.
Foxy had to concede to that point and turned her attention also to the table. Both she and Sombra blinked when they saw Private sitting at it, gobbling up the pancakes like there was no tomorrow. The mare smirked, the dark pony just rolled his eyes.
“Hah, knew that would wake him up,” Foxy’s smirk changed into a victorious grin.
They sat down and were soon joined also by Coal. Dew came shortly after with Blue Axe, his diaper changed and the boy all cleaned up. Since the colt had already been fed up in the nursery, he was occupied with a toy while the rest ate.
After breakfast, Sombra went to the living room and lay down on the couch closest to the doorway. It was the only one big enough to fit his large frame. He was considering Foxy’s words earlier. Although he admired the colt’s fierce attitude, the mare had a point. Ever since Blue Axe had started to become more active, the foal seemed quite determined to, for lack of a better term, fight the dark pony.
For the past few days, the colt had grabbed Sombra’s tail, hanging from it in an attempt to wrestle it, tried to gnaw his ears, made rather feeble attempts to subdue his legs, and now, this morning, latched onto the former king’s face.
You would almost think he was familiar with my past history with his parents and is trying to avenge their honor. He smiled at the thought of an infant already understanding such a complex subject.
No, he’s definitely just aggressive. He’s already torn most of the stuffed toys to pieces. Sombra glanced towards the corner where Blue’s playpen had been set up. Not too far, but not too close either, from the fireplace where Private liked to nap on his mat. All the toys in there were made of plastic or other sturdy materials. The parents had by now given up on letting the boy close to anything soft. It seldom lasted long.
He also noted that neither the parents nor Foxy seemed overly surprised that Blue Axe was showing such an aggressive personality. It was almost as if they had anticipated it to a certain extent.
While he mulled over this, Private entered the living room with Blue Axe sitting on his back. The baby pegasus babbled and nattered, clearly having much to say to his father this morning. The unicorn took him straight to the playpen and put him there. The colt immediately grabbed a rattle in his mouth and started running around with it.
“I know your magic knowledge is limited, Private. But do you know what a parent curse is?” Sombra asked. Private was sitting close to the pen and watching his son play.
“Huh? Oh, that’s not an actual curse; it’s more wishful thinking,” Private said and glanced over at the former king.
“Some parents often say, ‘When you have kids, I hope they behave exactly like you did when you were younger so you know how we felt.’ Most of the time, it’s not serious, it’s more of a joke,” he then added when Sombra raised his brow in confusion.
“Dew Doe certainly didn’t make it sound like a joke,” the dark pony said, but he couldn’t be sure. He was slowly learning that even if ponies sounded irritated, they were just pretending and not as serious as they appeared.
The conversation was interrupted when suddenly Blue Axe leaped from his playpen, wings buzzing madly. The colt landed on the other side and before Private could even react, the boy was already racing off straight to Sombra’s couch.
Private’s jaw had dropped, clearly the unicorn had not expected his son being able to do this while still so young. Then, to confound his father even more, Blue Axe made another leap and, this time, landed on Sombra’s back. From there, the little pegasus dove for the black flowing tail of the dark pony and started wrestling with it.
“Blue Axe!” Private cried, alarmed that Blue Axe again saw fit to go after Sombra. He couldn’t understand the colt’s attitude. He did not behave so aggressively towards the others, at least not so intentionally. The boy was downright snuggly and sweet when with his mother and aunt Foxy. He played reasonably normally for his age with Coal and even his father. Yet, despite only being a month old, he seemed to view Sombra as his personal punching bag.
Private rose to his hooves, intending to go collect the boy. He halted when Sombra gave him a signal to stop. The dark pony looked at the colt, who was still trying to subdue his tail.
“I think it’s time you learn, Blue Axe, that there is a reason my tail and mane move on its own,” Sombra addressed the boy with a slightly tired tone in his voice.
Suddenly and without warning, Blue Axe disappeared into the tail and just as quickly popped out of Sombra’s mane, landing on the dark pony’s back.
Blue Axe blinked in confusion, then quickly looked around. He glared back at Sombra, who was smirking at him. The colt babbled apparently in irritation and rose to charge at Sombra’s head. The former king simply moved his head so the colt ran straight into his dark-flowing mane.
Private could only watch, unsure if he should be alarmed or amused. Blue Axe disappeared into the mane and now popped out of Sombra’s tail and landed on the floor. The colt was really perplexed now and looked around before turning to face the dark pony, babbling in confusion.
“What was that?” Private asked. Sombra hadn’t even activated his horn to do any visible magic.
“Very advanced shadow trick. I’m powerful enough to do it without using my horn; less powerful Dark Ponies would have to make use of their horn,” Sombra chuckled. He was still watching Blue Axe, who was slowly approaching, eyes firmly on the waving shadowy tail of the dark pony.
When Blue Axe was close enough, the colt batted at the tail. When his little hoof touched it, he disappeared and came out of Sombra’s mane, landing on the former king’s back. The boy looked around wide-eyed, then slowly he started smiling. Blue Axe turned around and darted for Sombra’s head, disappeared into the mane and shot out of the tail to the floor.
Dew Doe came around this time into the living room, stopping short at what she was witnessing. Blue Axe was constantly running towards Sombra’s tail or mane, and each time teleported out of either. The mare blinked, then looked at Private before turning her attention to Sombra.
“Is there something the matter, Dew?” Sombra asked, looking amused.
“Since when could your mane and tail do this?” Dew asked the first thing that had honestly popped up in her mind.
“Always. I’ve just never so far been in a situation where this could have been useful,” the dark pony shrugged, glancing back down at Blue Axe, who was making his tenth run through his mane.
“Blue Axe made another run for Sombra’s tail. Sombra decided to, uh, start using his tail and mane to teleport Blue Axe around,” Private explained. Dew Doe rubbed her forehead with a hoof when hearing that.
“Mom is so going to rub it in my face how much Blue is behaving exactly like I did when I was a filly,” the mare muttered.
“Wait, hold on,” Sombra was surprised to hear this. “Are you telling me you were an aggressive child?”
“Oh, My mom will eventually tell you stories, and she has the pictures to prove it,” Dew grumbled while walking forward to grab Blue Axe up once he landed on the floor after yet another teleport.
To Dew’s surprise, the colt started whining and complaining, reaching for the floor. The mare tried putting him down again. Blue immediately darted straight for Sombra’s tail with a laugh and started the teleporting game again.
“Oh wow, is Blue playing with Sombra non-violently?” Foxy asked as she arrived in the living room and witnessed the action going on.
“Well, I had to find some way to get him to stop assaulting my tail. Amusing as it was to see such a young foal attempting to attack me, it was starting to get a bit repetitive,” Sombra finally admitted with a shake of his head.
“But you have like a kazillion spells at your disposal to easily prevent him from coming even close to you. Why not just use one of those?” Foxy asked.
“I could have done that, yes,” Sombra agreed with a nod. Then he glanced at Blue Axe who was starting to tire of this game, he was sitting down on the dark pony’s back nattering quietly. “But would that have solved anything or just filled him with resolve to try harder?”
“Wait, hold on,” Private spoke up and started walking closer to the couch. He had been quietly contemplating something while the mares spoke with Sombra. “I think we have been thinking about this all wrong. Blue Axe likes Sombra. He likes playing with him.”
“What?” Foxy arched her brow, and so did Sombra and Dew.
“I was just thinking about it. We have taught Blue not to be rough with the rest of us, always scolding him if he tried hitting any of us or pulling at our tails. But Sombra never does. Yes, we have scolded him if he does it to Sombra, but Sombra doesn’t,” Private pointed out.
“Oh, ooooh, of course. Sombra doesn’t react all that much to Blue’s attacks. Blue is maybe still very young, but foals even this young pick up certain things quickly. We have explained and shown him that it can hurt when he hits or pulls our tails, but Sombra shows no reactions to it. Blue Axe must be thinking, ‘great, somepony I can be rough and tumble’ with.” Foxy slapped her forehead as she realized this. Dew's eyes grew wider as she thought this over and came to the same conclusion.
“And now, Sombra has shown him a new game they can play. I started thinking this because Blue Axe didn’t get angry when he teleported the first time. You know like every time he gets angry if we interrupt his play. He was a little irritated, but didn’t get mad, almost as if he thought he was playing with Sombra the whole time,” Private then added.
“Well, I’m more than happy to provide him with an outlet for his aggressive games. However, I’m also fine with being able to be around him without constantly having my tails, legs or face pounced upon by him,” Sombra said and watched as Blue Axe raised his little legs towards Dew, wanting to be picked up.
Dew Doe obliged her son and walked over to pick him up. As she walked away from the couch, Blue Axe attempted to wave to Sombra. The former king couldn’t help but smile and waved back.
“Oh wow, I think Private was right. And here we were thinking Blue Axe had just decided Sombra was enemy number one who had to be vanquished,” Foxy chuckled and turned around to leave, mentioning something about seeing if Coal was done getting ready for school.
Sombra watched Private and Dew sitting on the floor with their son, letting him down so he could play with his toys. The former king considered what Private had just said and couldn’t help but wonder why Blue had fixated so much on him for such rough play.
For a moment, Sombra grimaced as a thought occurred to him and he activated his horn to access his dark magic more properly. To his relief, it was still fully contained within his body, not subtly spreading out or corrupting the surrounding environment or any pony nearby. The dark pony had started doing this not long after he had retired, but there was always a chance that even he had overlooked something.
Perhaps he feels I’m a more worthy target, that boy seems almost fearless, Sombra rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully as he continued to consider this, once confirming that his dark magic was not affecting anything.
Sombra heard the front door open and close, telling him Foxy and Coal had left the house. Private and Dew were still playing with Blue Axe by the playpen. The former king looked towards the bookshelves and grabbed a book from it using his magic and started to browse through it. The mystery of Blue’s behavior having been adequately solved as far as he was concerned.