‘Younger than whoever these belonged to.’
Luna instantly materialized three crimson feathers of differing lengths; two of them had yellow tips.
‘They’re phoenix feathers. My sister tells me they’re one from the plume, one from the tail, and one from the base of the wing. Supposedly they’ve been around before we—anypony existed.’
‘Any particular reason why they’re all different? Like, different parts of the body?’
‘Some courtier of Celestia’s brought them to her. I don’t know more than that. He found them in the woods, I imagine.’
Luna offered to give them to him when he was done for the night. ‘A little motivator’ she called it.
Sombra got very close, but didn’t quite achieve perfection in his Twinkle Twinkle Little Star playing, always a bit slow somewhere, occasionally a note off. After forty minutes of frustration, Luna told him to give up for the day.
‘We’re going to be doing something similar again the day after tomorrow, so I don’t want my little student to tire himself out. Not yet anyway!’
‘I can still keep going–’
‘You know how [magic] induced weariness works, Sombra. It creeps up on you, and one day you’re completely exhausted, no warning.’
Truthfully, Sombra had never extended himself enough so that’d happened. Naturally, he gave Luna the benefit of the doubt on this one. Alicorns are Alicorns, and Princesses are Princesses. If they’re one and the same, you should probably trust what they have to say.
‘So how are things at home?’ Luna asked.
They were sitting in garden again, though on the grass instead of the chairs, as per Sombra’s request.
‘Dramatic. Really... not so good.’
‘Is that so? Sorry. Let me know if I can help.’
‘And yourself?’
‘Tia, I mean my sister, says she wants to announce a new celestial holiday, called The Summer Sun Celebration.’
‘That’s... nice.’
What was I supposed to say?
‘Not sure why. Maybe she’s feeling a bit self indulgent, haha.’
Quite suddenly, a crackle of thunder passed through the garden. (And probably the entire palace, judging how close it was!) Luna apologised for her forgetfulness of the weather schedule (‘Forgive me.’) and invited Sombra inside the grand Canterlot palace.
‘Where would you like to go, Sombra?’
‘...As much as I wouldn’t mind touring the palace, it’s late.’
‘Oh it is for you, isn’t it? Sorry again, I’m not being very mindful of you am I?’
‘Really it’s no issue.’
‘I shan’t give reason for my student to spite me!’
‘I don’t spite you.’
‘Now now, would you like a carriage back?’
‘If you’d be so kind.’
When he arrived back home under Luna’s night, he tried to tip the poor chauffeurs, but in true regal fashion, they refused. Whoops. His parents were already asleep, so he didn’t receive any welcome as he opened the door, except for the jangling of keys... it was a lonely sound.
Next day came, breakfast and supper. It seemed Alex still hadn’t told her. I’ll give him one more lesson’s worth ‘till I pounce on him again.
‘Isn’t nice not to have any homework to do anymore?’ Robyn asked.
For as long as Sombra could recall, she’d had this habit of reading the morning newspaper in the evening; she was doing it now.
‘I guess so... never considered it a problem, it was just, there.’
‘Really? I always hated it... But Sombra, don’t you think your father’s been a little off recently?’
I wonder why.
‘Huh?’
‘You don’t think so? He tries very hard not to make eye contact with you.’
‘I haven’t noticed.’
Robyn looked distinctly unconvinced as she said ‘Really?’
‘You know the other day you woke early for the lesson with Luna? ‘Course she’s not up at that time.’
Robyn was intimidatingly quiet. In an effort to escape the confrontation, Sombra promptly declared his early bed time, and cantered straight out of the room. He heard her whisper something on the way out, ‘Liars.’
Sombra was anxious about the escalatingly toxic state of the house; it occurred to him that he could mask his more malicious intentions with it. Why was he pressuring Alex so? Because Robyn would force them if he didn’t and that would be far worse. You better realise if you’re lying to yourself, Sombra. You know I love you so, but I am the easiest of all to fool.
‘I have a terrible power, Som-bra.’ Luna said, strolling about the well kept garden.
Sombra did a ghost impersonation.
‘I...’ Luna struggled forming a sentence, chuckling as Sombra continued.
‘You obviously like my spoooooooky ghost noise, Luna.’
‘You’re very silly.’
‘And you’re a filly for laughing at it!’
‘I was going to say something serious, but I can’t quite face it after that.’
‘Spooky.’
‘Anyway, has the situation at your home improved?’
‘Not exactly...’
‘Talk to me.’
‘Well as it turns out, I’ve got a terrible power too.’
Sombra didn’t hesitate in telling her, he wanted the catharsis. Luna didn’t say much about it though, apparently she was indifferent and only mildly sympathetic.
Sombra went back to playing the piano again, and on his fourth try he played the tune faultlessly, finally.
‘Not far until there’s less talking for us Som-bra. I might work you quite hard, depending on our progress.’
‘I’ll try my best.’
‘I’m apprehensive for you.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘...Let me show you. I’m going to emulate your aura as best as I can, general negativity included, and push myself as far as I can stand. You know what happens to most unicorns, don’t you?’
‘Yeah, they get a bit dizzy, a headache, migrane even, confusion and fatigue. Haven’t experienced it myself though, pushing it that far is for the duelers. ‘Part from a few times when I was a colt.’
‘Sometimes you get nausea as well.. For alicorns like me and my sister, its much the same, though we take longer to recover, as our sheer magical output is, as you know, is greater than a unicorns.’
‘Are you sure you want to do this then? It really doesn’t sound so pleasant.’
‘If I can lift and lower the moon once a night, I can do similar without harm. Besides, I’m not going to let you take all the risk, Som-bra!’
He felt guilty as Luna’s horn illuminated. Her was brow creased in concentration; standing so rigid Sombra doubted he could move her if he wanted. She took the fastest and least productive route to magical depletion, intensely concentrating on her horn so that while a lot of energy was passing through it, all that was happening was that it gradually being lost. (Or magical diffusion, as it was termed in scientific contexts. The rate of energy lost increased as more energy was passed through the horn, though this was not dependent on how dense the magic was outside of the horn.)
Thirty seconds, and she kept going. Sixty seconds, ninety seconds, two minutes passed, and to Sombra they seemed far longer. Luna gasped, the last of her magic crackled, and she started swaying like a drunk.
‘Balance, Sombra, if you’re there.’
Sombra rushed to her side, let her arm go over his neck and hoped he wouldn’t have to do any more, her arm was heavy enough! Something was weird, though. She looked absolutely terrified.
‘Are you alright? You–’
‘Mm, give me a moment... Wall, guide me to a wall.’
‘You can sit down instead, that might be easier.’
‘Wall.’
With moderate difficulty, Sombra nudged her to the nearest wall, taking care not to push her over entirely. She kept biting her lip, and sweated like she’d flown too close to the sun.
‘That’s better. Keep a hold of me, please.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to call someone?’
‘Shhhh.’
Holding his teachers arm and simply listening to her breathing was strangely alluring. Granted he was concerned for her, but from here the thought of brushing up against her wing or neck wasn’t repulsive to him in the least. Fucking Tartarus, if you carry on you really are going to end up fucking her. Yeah right, in your dreams. You won’t prove Tinker right, never never never.
‘Thank you. I’ll stand now.’
Sombra slid under her outstretched arm.
‘That wasn’t very nice.’
‘You don’t say, Luna!’
‘But not like acute magic exhaustion. Still dizzy, still a headache, but something different too. A distortion of the senses, a vague inexplicable force—as if it had a will.’
Sombra didn’t know what to say, or do. His alarm at Luna’s whimsical decision to take such a risk for him made him unsure if he should be feeling, regardless to what he was actually feeling. He didn’t know what he was feeling. The piano now seemed trivial, as he imagined what could happen to him, but a mere unicorn, meddling in what even Luna struggled with.
‘It was terrifying... I doubt it was as menacing as it seemed. That’s often the case with the unfamiliar.’
‘Is it so easy for you to just copy my aura? Tinker’s father said he’d never seen anything like it.’
‘Easier for me than it is for him, or any Equestrian. I’m fairly confident that, should you exhaust yourself, the results would be similar. I think you’ve been taught that the safest method to conduct a spell for the first time is to allow a miniature version of it get out of control.’
‘The Unicornian Method they call it, yeah. Only the unicorns who had magic-specialised cutiemarks were taught it, but I got shoved in with them too, since I don’t know what mine is.’
Luna cocked her head, unaware of Sombra’s destinyless cutiemark before now. Sombra had forgotten he hadn’t told her. In an effort to mask her surprise, she quickly brought him back out into the garden. Later, when the cleaners made their rounds, they were bewildered by the damp patch on the wall of the piano room.