As King Diamond Heart had instructed, shields were put up around the top of the tower to prevent any unauthorized ponies from entering it. Even though he and Queen Rin could visit, the two of them carried on ignoring the tower and hoping to forget about the thing that lived up in there.
The only living thing that Sombra saw was the maid Ella Care, who tried to keep him company as much as she could. Apart from her, Sombra never really saw any other ponies up close, but he looked out of his window every day to watch the beautiful Crystal Ponies in the streets of the Empire.
That was really all he could do, but he didn't mind it. He had no idea of his siblings, Lucida and Pluto who had an entire playroom full of toys and books. The view of the entire Empire was enough to keep him happy.
"Are all ponies like that?" Sombra asked one day as he stared out the window at a group of young Crystal Ponies he could see in the distance, sitting at a café.
Ella Care joined him at the window, "Not all of them look like this." she told him, "Only the ponies that are born in the Crystal Empire have the shine."
"Was I born in the Crystal Empire?"
The maid went silent and Sombra got the feeling that he had said something wrong. "Sorry." he said quickly, looking back out the window at the shimmering city-empire.
Every day, the scene changed. Different ponies, different banners decorating the streets and once a year, all the ponies gathered and stalls were put up all over the place. From his tower, Sombra couldn't make out what was being said, but all the ponies seemed happy. As if they were celebrating something right underneath the palace. Sadly, he couldn't see what was going on, but he knew it had to be big and exciting.
Ella Care left shortly afterward to continue her duties, leaving Sombra alone with the view and his thoughts. It had been a year since the strange pony with a beard came to see him. A year since the king told Sombra that he was disgusting. Ella Care told him that 'his father didn't really mean it', but that would imply that the king was his father. The idea was laughable, if Sombra was the king's son, then he was a prince. The king wouldn't keep his son in a tower away from all the ponies!
Sombra had no idea who his father was. Maybe he didn't have one? Is it possible that a pony doesn't have a father? He wasn't sure. He knew that Ella Care was his mother, maybe his father was a servant that was too busy to see him? Maybe everypony in this palace was too busy to see him.
He didn't mind, really. If a pony was busy, he would rather they do their duties instead of wasting their time by seeing him. He had nothing to share with them.
The only things in his tower's room were a mat that he slept on and a wooden stool that Ella Care had smuggled up to his tower in an attempt to make it more comfortable. That was everything he had, yet it was nothing at all. Not that he minded. He didn't know that even the poorest pony in the Empire had more than he did.
He stepped away from the window, having enough of the view for that day. He wanted to practice before Ella Care came back.
One thing he noticed that made him different from the other ponies was the strange thing on his head. After a while, he noticed that he had a weird power that allowed him to move things without touching them. He didn't tell Ella Care because he wasn't sure what she'd think of it, was it normal to be able to move things with your mind?
He concentrated hard on the wooden stool and imagined in lifting up into the air. He stared hard at it for several seconds until he felt a strange feeling in the thing on his head. The stool rose a few centimeters of the ground, a strange purple, black and green aura coming from it.
Careful not to force it to go any higher, Sombra allowed it to fall back to the floor with a loud clatter. He'd learned very quickly that forcing it caused accidents (each time, he'd used his mat to cover up the scorch marks he'd made). He paused for a few moments before concentrating on lifting the chair again.
Get up, eat, stare out the window, practice his strange powers, watch the shining city at midday, reading lessons if his mother Ella Care was able to visit him with a book, eat if she had brought food, watch the sun set and go back to sleep. That was his daily, never-changing routine.
Staring hard at the stool and narrowing his red and green eyes slightly, the young colt willed it to rise again. He had gotten considerably better since the fist time he'd tried it.
What else could he do? He didn't dare try trying something else in case it scared his mother and she told the king and queen. He'd seen the two rulers of the shining place he saw out of his window a few times before. One was a tall, serious-looking deep blue male pony with large wings that seemed to amaze the crowd. The queen was a bright yellow mare with a pearly, spiralled stick coming from her forehead, but it was more beautiful than Sombra's sharp, curved grey one.
There were two younger ponies, too that seemed to be as important as the king and queen. One had wings and the other had both wings and a stick on his head. Sombra wondered if when he got out of the tower, he would be able to play with them.
As his concentration drifted from what he was doing, the stool began to sink before falling to the floor and rolling across the room. Sombra was about to lift it again when the door creaked open.
"What have you been doing?" His mother questioned, peering at the stool. She must have heard it fall.
"Nothing." Sombra lied, "I just knocked it over, that's all."
Ella Care came in fully, carrying a tray on her back. "I just managed to nick something from the kitchen." She explained, "I told them that one of the servants were sick and I had to bring them food." She set down the tray that held a few pieces of stale bread.
"Thanks, mama." Said Sombra, dragging it toward him, "Did you bring a book?"
"Sorry, not today." Ella Care apologised, sitting down opposite him. "I'll try to bring you one tomorrow from the prince and princess's playroom."
The young colt thanked her as she got up to leave. She could barely ever stay long to keep him company as she was needed in the castle. He was proud to think that his mother was such an important pony.
Once she was gone, he scarfed down his meagre meal, set the stool upright again and went to watch the glittering city beneath him once more.