//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Defender of Justice, King Sombra! // by VashTheStampede //------------------------------// “She was having the foals do differentials?” Redheart asked in disbelief as she and Sombra walked back into Miss Horizons’ place of work, “I didn’t even learn that they existed until I went to college, and the foals there aren’t more than what, eleven or twelve at most?” Sombra nodded, “They did not exist at all when I went to school, and some of the students in her class seemed to be able to do them without much of a problem at all. One little one, named Scootaloo, didn’t even have to try. She just… knew it.” “Oh that filly,” Redheart sighed with a smile, “She’s been in and out of the hospital more in the past three years than most ponies have in their whole lives, and half the time she says it’s because she didn’t think of the math of whatever she was trying to do before she did it. I always thought she was just trying to be funny, it never occurred to me that she was serious.” “Seriously smart, that is,” Sombra replied, chuckling. “I never thought to ask why a little one-room all-grades elementary school was doing almost as well as the big-city elite schools, but if that mare can teach ten-year-olds calculus, that explains a lot.” Sombra and Redheart shared a laugh for a moment, catching each other’s eye, the large stallion blushing at how nice just… being with her felt. It gave him an idea. “Hey, Redheart?” “Yes?” “Are you… are you doing anything tom-” Sombra stopped mid-sentence as Redheart’s head jerked up, her eyes going wide, then changed topics, “Are you alright? Miss Redheart?” The white earth mare screwed her eyes shut and shook her head. “Celestia,” she cursed, “Having somepony else in your head, even for a moment, is so disconcerting. Remember how I said I was on call tonight? Yeah, I just got called in; one of the unicorns at the hospital let me know. So… uh, do you think you can hold down the fort at least until my brother and Miss Horizons get back?” “I’m sorry, ‘hold down the fort’?” Sombra questioned – it was a phrase he genuinely had not heard before, which didn’t surprise him. Language changed with time, it was a miracle ponies even still spoke the same language he knew. “It basically means I need you to run the place for a few hours. Think you’re up for it?” “If I say no, does that change the fact that you need to go to the hospital?” “Not really, no.” “Then yes, I am completely ready to ‘hold down the fort’ as you say.” Redheart laughed. “You’re not at all ready are you?” “Absolutely not.” “Great. I’ll be back as soon as I can. See you later!” “Bye!” Sombra waved as she disappeared out the front door. Oh I am so screwed. --- Sombra ducked a hoofball – or rather, the magically guided projectile ducked him – as he entered the main living area of the orphanage, both to avoid getting hit by it and to avoid popping it with his horn. It was all the chaos of the morning, multiplied by an immense factor. How can a group of ponies so small create this much of a mess in this short of a time? Sombra thought to himself, They cleaned it all up before they left, how could it be so much of a mess so quickly? Sombra cleared his throat quietly. Nothing happened. He tried again, slightly louder this time. Again, no response from the playing foals. How do they DO that? “Umm, excuse me, ponies,” Sombra pleaded, trying to get the attention of the foals, “Everypony… Everypony please…” His voice weakened and trailed off, momentarily at a loss. He sighed, realizing that perhaps verbal force was the only way to solve the situation. “My little ponies!” The great stallion cried, his voice overpowering all other sound in the room. Everypony turned to look at him, more than a couple looking a little startled. Sombra put on his best parenting tone. “Is this how Miss Horizons would want you all to be acting?” “But she lets us!” protested one foal. “I didn’t ask if she lets you,” Sombra admonished the small, light blue Pegasus colt, “I asked if this is how she would want you to be acting.” The little pony looked down at his feet, muttering, “No, I guess not.” “That’s right. Now look, I might be new, and a bit out of sorts with how society is nowadays, but I do not intend to let you walk all over me because of that,” Sombra continued, “I know for a fact that most of you have homework, now that’s something constructive all of you can set yourselves to. I don’t know when Snowflake, Miss Horizons, or Redheart might be back, but I want all of you to have your homework done tonight. None of you working on it in the morning like you were today. If you don’t have homework, you can clean up. I don’t know how you got this room this messy so fast, but it’s unacceptable. I can hardly see the floor. When you finish that, see if any of the younger children need help with their homework. Now, as it’d be unfair of me to just tell you to do this, I will help you. Does that sound fair?” The looks on their faces said otherwise, but none of the children spoke against it. “Excellent. Come now, let’s get to work.” --- The ponies were somewhat less enthusiastic about carrying out Sombra’s instructions than they had been with Miss Horizons’ that morning, and it showed – it took nearly an hour to get the room cleaned up again. The fact that only three foals were actually helping Sombra as opposed to the group effort of all seventeen in the morning may have also contributed, although more came to help as they finished their homework. Only a couple were still working by the time the room was clean, and, much to Sombra’s delight, the older foals immediately offered their hoof at assisting them. The evening wore on quietly, both to Sombra’s pleasure and the foals’ dismay, at least a little. Most seemed content with watching a movie, or chatting with friends, or reading a book, or whatever quiet, calm activities they chose to fill their time with. Dinner had been a moment of panic for Sombra, as he had absolutely no idea how to cook, but a young unicorn filly named Cream Starter offered her assistance, and the foals soon munched happily on macaroni and cheese. Occasionally a foal made conversation with Sombra himself, but for the most part he sat by the television and watched movies with the children. One in particular, a story about a young colt who became friends with a dragon, caught his attention and warmed his heart. He hadn’t caught the title, but it was a nice movie anyways. Or so he’d figured, as he had fallen asleep part of the way through, under a pile of small children who found the big pony to be a suitable pillow. It was in this position that a returning Brighter Horizons and Snowflake discovered him. “Sombra?” Snowflake asked quietly, prodding the sleeping unicorn with a hoof, trying to wake him without disturbing the foals. Sombra’s rhythmic breathing stuttered and he sniffed as he raised his head, eyes blinking sleepily open before focusing on a confused-looking Pegasus and a rather annoyed looking unicorn. “Good evening, Snowflake,” Sombra said quietly, but with cheer in his voice, before looking to his companion, “Miss Horizons,” he added, his voice dropping to nothing more than a low tone of tolerance. Sombra cracked a smile when she blushed after realizing exactly why he’d addressed her like that. She recovered quickly enough, though, and was none too slow to lay on the interrogation. “Where is Miss Redheart? Who is in charge here? Why is everything so… clean?” Her voice started angry and accusing but slid into confusion as she finished the questions, her face softening. “Well,” Sombra began, with perhaps a bit more sass in his voice than he had intended, “Miss Redheart had to go to the hospital. As she was on call tonight, and originally not planning on having to be here, she needed someone to fill in for her when she was called in. Being the only other adult around, thanks to your mysterious absence, she asked me to watch over the place until either she or you two returned. So I have been two steps from disaster this entire evening. Speaking of which, where were you?” Miss Horizons seemed a little startled as the tables suddenly turned against her, and was unable to muster a reply save a blush and a stutter. Snowflake, on the other hand, seemed to be completely in control of his emotions. “Sombra, I’m terribly sorry about what we put you through,” he began. “I was only teasing, it really was not that bad,” Sombra interjected apologetically, not wanting to cause any undue stress or guilt in his newfound friends. “Be that as it may, I’m sorry. Brighter and I realized something earlier today and, in our moments of excitement and realization, absconded for the evening without any real consideration for the situation it would put you or my sister in. I’m sorry.” “Really, it was no problem at all, Snowflake,” Sombra was beginning to regret the more aggressive verbal stance he had taken earlier, and continued to backpedal, “I am glad you could have some time with Miss Horizons. Though, if I may ask, what exactly were you doing?” Snowflake no longer retained his stoicism, and scratched the back of his head with a hoof, laughing nervously as he broke eye contact with Sombra. Fortunately for him, though, Brighter seemed ready to step up now, even if she too was pointedly avoiding eye contact, and began to speak quietly. “Well, you see… we… kinda… we’ve liked each other for a very long time and neither of us ever realized it before and I might have sort of accidentally confessed to him this morning and everything went better than expected,” Horizons paused and giggled like a schoolfilly, “We were on a date, for lack of a better term, for the evening.” Sombra smiled broadly, glad that the two had found happiness in one another, and opened his mouth to congratulate them, when he was cut off by… which one is that again? “Fiiiiiiiinally,” Tag-a-long sighed, sounding exasperated, “Literally the only ponies in the entire town that didn’t know how you two felt about each other were you,” she said, pointing to Snowflake, “and you,” swinging her hoof over to Miss Horizons. “There was even a betting pool on how long it would take for you two knuckleheads to make the connection. It’s been what, thirteen months and seventeen days? I think that means Mister Cake won” “No no, it was Miss Punch – Mr. Cake wagered on thirteen months and fifteen days,” corrected a little green Pegasus, “but Miss Punch had her money on thirteen months eighteen days. I hope she buys something nice for Pinchy and doesn’t spend it all on alcohol.” “Children!” Sombra admonished as both Snowflake and Miss Horizons blushed deeply, much to the foals’ amusement, “Please, this is a wonderful moment, not something to be making fun of. I must say, I, for one, was not aware of your mutual feelings either, and I congratulate you on your newfound romance,” Sombra continued, bowing deeply, his formality driving the foals even further into their giggle fits. “Look Sombra I really can’t apologi-” “Really, I truly mean this, it was not a bother in the slightest,” Sombra cut his friend off, putting forth his best smile, “I do not mind a single bit what happened here today. Nothing went wrong, the children listened, everypony got their homework done, and we had a nice, relaxing evening in. Miss Redheart, on the other hoof, might take a bit more apologizing.” “SOMBRA?” “Speaking of whom.” A positively drained-looking Nurse Redheart scuffled into the room, her mane disheveled and heavy black circles hanging under her eyes. She carried herself low, her hooves barely lifting off the ground, and Sombra wondered how on earth the mare didn’t trip over herself. “Hondo Flanks needed another emergency triple-bypass surgery on his coronary artery,” she said with a dead look in her eyes, “The poor stallion hasn't been eating right but I swear his family is going to give him such an earful now… I honestly think Sweetie Belle is going to watch him eat every meal for the rest of his life. That was the most stressful surgery I’ve ever assisted. How were the-” Redheart lost her balance and stumbled on nothing, before a hoof instinctively shot out and caught itself on – “A bit tired there, are we?” Sombra asked, the black unicorn seemingly appearing out of nowhere to catch her. “The foals were fine, the evening went exactly as planned.” “He made us be quiet all night!” “I asked you what Miss Horizons would want you to do and that is what you all chose to do, I had no involvement in it.” “That’s great,” Redheart said, as though to nopony in particular, hyper-conscious of Sombra’s reverberating chest as she leaned against the laughing stallion, but too tired (and perhaps a little too comfortable) to stand herself up again. Sombra still supporting the majority of her weight, her focus shifted back around the room and found her brother and her boss. “Snowflake,” she began in a tone that seemed to be an attempt at reprimanding, but the exhaustion overrode it and it just came out grumpy. “Where on earth were you with my boss all day?” “We… were on a date.” “Oh! So that finally happened,” Redheart’s tone caught everyone off-guard, and her head bounced against Sombra’s neck as the stallion laughed again, “Tag-a-long?” “Yes Miss Redheart?” “How long does that make it and who won the pool?” “Thirteen months, seventeen days. That’d make Miss Berry Punch the winner, Miss.” “Oh good. Well, have a wonderful night you two,” Redheart continued, her momentarily cheerful tone dropping back down to flat tiredness, “I am going home and going to bed.” Her attempt to stand up on her own was foiled by her own body, her legs once again giving out beneath her. Once again, Sombra was there to catch her before she hit the ground. The white mare blushed – both in embarrassment for being so clumsy and at how strong and supporting Sombra’s forelegs felt around her torso. “You are in no condition to walk home by yourself,” Sombra chided playfully, “Come on, I will walk with you, and carry you if need be.” “That won’t be necessary,” Redheart quickly replied, catching the sly smile and suggestively arched eyebrows Brighter had thrown her way, “But… I wouldn’t mind the company,” she shot an annoyed glare as Miss Horizons’ facial expression contorted and the mare dissolved into giggles. Sombra muttered something to her quietly, too quiet for anyone else to hear, a little assurance. “I promise not to tell anypony if you want me to carry you home.” As the pair slipped out the front doors of Brighter’s, Sombra knelt down, and Redheart gingerly climbed onto his back. She let out a small grunt of surprise as he stood back up and sighed in pleasure as she finally had all her weight off her hooves. Summoning the last of her strength, she leaned up and whispered into Sombra’s ear. “Thank you,” she said, and sleep took her.