//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Defender of Justice, King Sombra! // by VashTheStampede //------------------------------// That night, the party was in full swing. Celestia, unfortunately, had to return to Canterlot – she was a busy pony, after all, and her impromptu trip to Ponyville had gotten her more than a little behind on the day’s meetings and paperwork. Sombra himself felt strange about the whole thing – apart from a small amount of initial fear and anger, Twilight’s other friends had accepted the news fairly readily. Well, that might have been an overstatement – the cyan Pegasus mare was having absolutely none of it, and left immediately. The orange earth pony with the apple cutie mark made a point of avoiding him for the evening, as did the other unicorn – one named Rarity, if Sombra had caught it right. He’d caught a yellow Pegasus staring at him more than once throughout the party, but any time he made eye contact she immediately looked away and hid behind the nearest pony or object. They seem like a spirited bunch, at least. Apart from those in Twilight’s immediate friend group, Ponyville was a town full of nice, if occasionally quirky ponies. Redheart stayed by his side throughout the night, introducing Sombra to each pony who came up to him in turn. An excited green unicorn with a mint-colored mane, a dark gray Pegasus with the most offensive mane styling Sombra had ever seen, a light brown earth pony with a thin southern accent, and many others. All cheerfully introduced themselves, and all wished him the best in his new life here in Ponyville. It was… remarkable how openly friendly they were to a complete stranger, taking his polite, tight-lipped smiles and Redheart’s word as all they needed to accept him as one of their own. Pinkie Pie had, on several occasions, tried to pull, push, or slide Sombra into the center of the room, in a vain attempt to get him to dance. Each time she tried, the enormous gray stallion pushed back and struggled with all his might, shocked at how he could only just barely overpower the much smaller mare. As the night went on, though, he had to admit, the pulsing, pounding “music” the light cream unicorn with the most bizarre two-toned mane was playing was rather catchy, and he found his head bobbing to the beat. Then his hoof started to tap, his tail began to swish – suddenly his whole body was flowing to the beat of the music. He swayed, shimmied, and shook, hooves flying from the ground like a pro. Or so he would have liked to think. The laughter started low, and quickly turned to nearly the entire room guffawing as an extremely old pony attempted to dance to very new music. For the first time since he lost the Empire, Sombra didn’t care what anypony thought of him – because he was having fun. Real, honest, genuine fun, the likes of which he hadn’t known in thousands of years, and he wanted to share it. He took Redheart’s hoof and pulled her towards him. Redheart blushed and tried to pull away, but Sombra pleaded with his eyes, and reluctantly, she followed him to the dance floor. Behind the DJ booth, Vinyl Scratch seemed to have caught on to what was happening. “Hey old man, here’s something more your speed!” Who is that delinquent calling old m- oh, oh yes this is much nicer actually. The high-octane music that Sombra couldn’t even begin to describe switched to something (a bit) more conventional – a piece of classical as played by a solo cello, but with a heavy beat behind it. This was something Sombra actually knew how dance to, and something he could lead a partner in. He took Redheart’s forehooves in his own and lifted her onto her hind legs. “Sombra, please, I don’t know how to dance!” the nurse protested, blushing. Sombra smiled and whispered, “I do.” He started off slow and simple, an easy hoofwork pattern of steps and slides to get Redheart into the rhythm. It took her a few measures – the mare obviously not having held false modesty about not knowing how to dance – but, while she may not have had any prior knowledge, she was a quick learner, and she soon had the basic pattern down. “I’m dancing,” she breathed, looking down at her hooves for a moment, “I can’t believe it, I’m actually dancing!” A devilish smile came to Sombra’s face. “This is hardly dancing, my dear – this is stepping in time. Now that you’ve got the rhythm down, though – now we can dance,” he said, listening as the music began to rise, leading into what the “DJ” unicorn certainly would have called a… was it a flop? Something like that. At any rate – it would be the perfect opportunity for a lift. “Are you ready?” The beat dropped. “Ready for whaaaAA-” Sombra dropped his forehooves from his partner’s and placed them on her sides, just under her shoulders, sweeping low in a circle as he lifted her from the ground. To her credit, she didn’t freak out as she left the ground as most might have, though she may have just stiffened in surprise. Her world spun as she felt herself leave the floor, her whole weight resting briefly in Sombra’s hooves, before she found herself once again grounded. The large black stallion twirled and spun, using his own hooves to gently but deftly move Redheart’s own into place on the floor, the white mare barely having time to process each new stance before he moved her to another. She had to admit, though, Sombra was absolutely incredible at this – she felt like a plank, a stiff piece of wood caught in his rhythmic flow. Her world spun again as she realized Sombra had twirled her, and the music had all but faded from her consciousness as every fiber of her being focused on trying to follow the unicorn’s increasingly complex hoofwork. Suddenly everything stopped as the floor slid from beneath her, her hooves barely staying beneath her, forelegs instinctively sliding up around Sombra’s neck to keep from falling over. A strong hoof was behind her back, supporting more of her weight than her own limbs. Sombra’s face was close, perhaps a little too close, his large green eyes staring into her own as both ponies breathed heavily from the exertion – or rather, exertion in Sombra’s case, exhilaration for Redheart. Sombra smiled, and a low, growly chuckle passed his lips. “That is dancing,” he said, standing back upright to rebalance himself, and pulling Redheart back to a bipedal stance. They held the standing position a moment longer, Sombra ready to lead for another dance, before he realized there was no music playing. He let go of his friend and settled back to all fours before looking around him. Every pony in the room was staring at the couple, amazement and awe written across their faces. Even the DJ, her jaw slack, had taken off her glasses to get a clearer look at the partners as they had spun and twirled around the dance floor. Sombra’s smile faded as confusion replaced the joy, and Redheart became Redface as she tried to hide from the onlookers. Then the silence erupted into applause. Dozens of ponies clapped their hooves together or shouted for an encore, cheering and yelling their appreciation for the show they had just received. Sombra’s own jaw began to slide down in disbelief at ponies cheering for him, the excitement on their faces… This is an emotion I haven’t seen directed at me in a very, very long time. It’s a very welcome change. “Pinkie told me he was ten thousand years old,” the young white unicorn exclaimed, grabbing the nearest pony and yelling in their face, “Old ponies can’t dance! Why can he dance? Why can he dance better than I can?” --- The party had picked up again shortly after that, and continued on into the wee hours of the morning. A rather irresponsibly late bedtime, Sombra had thought, but perhaps a little dalliance from a good eight hours could be acceptable, if not healthy, from time to time. Sombra had personally thanked every pony who came as they left, tears in his eyes after the third or fourth pony saying how glad they were that he’d be a part of their community from now on. These ponies were all so genuine, there was no deception or fear in their voices, their hoofshakes, their hugs, their laughter. Even the Elements of Harmony offered their introductions, if they were a little more hesitant than the rest – especially the yellow Pegasus mare, Fluttershy. She’d required a little… encouragement from Twilight, in the fashion of getting pony-handled by the Alicorn’s magic, to properly say goodnight to the former king. He learned the DJ’s name was Vinyl Scratch, a local musician and creator of something called ‘dubstep,’ the blaring, pulsing music Sombra had attempted to dance to earlier in the night. He thanked her especially – she was an unwitting catalyst to one of the greatest moments in his life for thousands of years. Redheart herself had left a little while ago, though Sombra thought he could find her house on his own – it was, after all, flanking the second-tallest building in town, the town hall, which was clearly visible from Twilight’s front door. As the last of the guests filed out of the building, Sombra himself turned to follow, only to be stopped by a cough from Twilight. “Miss Twilight? Do you wish for me to spend another night here?” “No, it’s not that,” she began, quietly. “Look, I… I want to apologize, for earlier, and for last night, and with Pinkie and the Princess… I just…” “It’s ok, Twilight. Your reaction was justified. I made my best attempt on your life, the life of your closest friends, and the lives of every pony in Equestria. Honestly, I would have been more frightened if you weren’t mad – all the more reason Miss Pie unsettles me,” Sombra finished with a chuckle. To his surprise, Twilight laughed a little, too. “Yeah… Pinkie… Pinkie’s a special case. That’s what makes her so… so wonderful though, you know? Everypony is different, everypony is unique, and everypony is wonderful in their own way.” “Except me.” “No! Don’t you ever think that!” Twilight’s apologetic voice was suddenly stern, “You are a wonderful pony, Sombra. You’ve just done some… honestly pretty horrific things in your past. Look at you now, though! You’ve just made at least fifty friends, you danced the hooves off Vinyl Scratch herself, and you’ve sworn off magic because it scares you! You are changing, Sombra. You shouldn’t ever let yourself forget what you’ve done, but… I mean…” Twilight trailed off, finding herself uncharacteristically at a loss for words, for a moment, before finding some. “Don’t ever think you’re unimportant, or not worth it. You are always worth it, even if you don’t feel like it to yourself. At least to somepony else. In this case, that somepony might be our mutual friend Miss Redheart. Go on home, Sombra.” Sombra smiled and nodded, doubting his ability to speak due to the lump rising in his throat. Bowing his head in thanks, he turned and walked out into the night. --- The night was cool and clear, with the bright moon hanging nearly full in the sky. It provided more than enough light to walk back to Redheart’s by, the silvery orb making it extremely easy to locate the town hall. Redheart’s house probably would have proved a bit more difficult to find on it’s own, given that the houses did all look rather similar, but for the light coming through the single round window on the front of her home. He tried the door gently, and the wooden gate swung open lazily. Redheart sat at the kitchen table, asleep, a glass of water in front of her. Her head rocked gently on a single hoof, in time with her steady breathing. She looked so happy, so peaceful, so… Beautiful, Sombra had thought, before he really realized what he was thinking. A soft smile came to his face, and he turned to close the door behind him, trying to slide the lock shut as quietly as possible. Despite his best efforts, a soft, metallic clink that seemed louder than any of the music Vinyl had played echoed through the room. He winced, and turned around, just in time to see Redheart snuffle back to consciousness. Turning to make eye contact with him, a worried frown came to her face. “Oh Sombra, I’m so sorry I left you I shouldn’t have –” “It’s ok, I-” Sombra began, only to stop himself. Something was… off. “Your voice,” Redheart said flatly. Yeah. That’d be it. “My voice,” Sombra echoed, dumbfounded. It’s not growly. It’s… it’s normal. “I… I cannot believe it,” Sombra said, sounding out a few words in his glorious new crystal clear baritone, “It sounds like a normal pony’s voice! It’s wonderful, I could just… I feel like bursting out into song!” Redheart practically teleported across the room and covered his mouth with a hoof. “No singing. We’re not singing. That’s not a thing that’s going to happen. Not at three in the morning while my brother is asleep. Because you will wake him up. And he will try to sing with you. And nopony – I mean nopony – wants that.” Sombra nodded from behind the hoof, noticing how… intense Redheart’s eyebrows had gotten. She took her hoof away and followed it to the floor with her eyes, sighing. “I… I wanted to say I am sorry for pulling you out of your comfort zone, earlier,” Sombra started, “I was just so excited about the dancing, and I… I did not really know who else to try to dance with, and-” “It was fine, really,” Redheart cut in. “I need to get out of my comfort zone more often, to be honest, and, well,” she blushed a little, “it was a lot of fun. Maybe we can… maybe we could do it again sometime?” Sombra found his own cheeks warming a bit, too, at the implication. “I am glad you had fun, and… I think that would be nice, too.” “Glad we agree on that. It’s three am. I have work tomorrow. Let’s go to bed. The couch is actually a futon, I folded it out earlier for you,” Redheart said, a sudden tiredness taking her, “I got some blankets and a pillow out, too. Goodnight, Sombra.” “Goodnight, Miss Redheart. Thank you for everything.” “You’re welcome,” she whispered as she headed up the stairs. Sombra turned, and sure enough, the sofa had been laid out flat and formed into a bed. That is the cleverest thing I think I’ve ever seen.