//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: Defender of Justice, King Sombra! // by VashTheStampede //------------------------------// Sombra awoke in a very comfortable position, on his back in the warm sun with a beautiful mare beside him, snuggled against him lovingly. He smiled and debated whether or not he should move, and, for the time being, decided against it. He closed his eyes again and gave Redheart a light squeeze, and the mare moaned lightly in her sleep and nuzzled closer against him. For a few more minutes he lay there quietly, but a small yawn from next to him alerted him to the earth mare waking. He opened his eyes slowly and looked over at her as she started to sit up, watching her stiffen for a moment as she tried to remember where she was, then relax and lay her head down across Sombra’s chest. “Good morning, miss Redheart,” he said quietly. “Thank you for still being here,” she said back, not moving her head to look at him. She had one ear against his chest, enjoying his slow, rhythmic breathing and steady heartbeat. “Of course,” the unicorn spoke once more, the deep reverberations coming from him bringing a smile to the earth pony’s face. “I hope I’m not… overstepping my bounds, but…” Sombra trailed off, and Redheart relented and sat up, looking at him questioningly. “But what?” “I… I know what it feels like to have someone you love disappear without a trace, too,” Sombra refused to meet her gaze, not wanting to see any hurt he may have caused. “It’s fine,” Redheart’s voice was reassuring, soothing, “You aren’t overstepping any bounds at all. What happened was years ago, and I… well, I thought I was mostly over it, but,” she laughed, but not entirely from humor, “here we are, I guess.” “Do you want to talk about it?” “No, no, it’s… I’ve talked about it enough,” this time Redheart was the one refusing to look Sombra in the eyes, “It’s fine, really. Maybe another time.” “Very well, whatever pleases you,” Sombra answered, sitting up. “Do, uh, do you want to talk about it?” Redheart asked tentatively. It felt rude, a little, not agreeing to explain herself and then asking Sombra to share his own private feelings. “I suppose it would only be fair to tell you anyways,” the dark gray pony said, taking a glance at the stream, “It’s been so long… it was before I fell… “I remember waking up one day… no, I should start before then. A long, long time ago, before Luna’s rebellion, before Discord’s imprisonment, I ruled in the Crystal Empire, a bountiful, prosperous city inhabited by both Crystal Ponies and Changelings. I was young, healthy, and fit to rule in every capacity… save one. I lacked a wife; I lacked a successor. My mother continually tried to have me ‘accidentally’ run into the sons and daughters of high nobility, and while those encounters did result in some excellent friends, never did we see any mutual romantic interest. “Then one day, while walking through the city to visit a particularly nice bakery, I first saw her. A beautiful ruby changeling mare with azure eyes and a mane of amethyst. I had not believed in falling in love at first sight, but it has now happened to me twice, so I can hardly deny it. At any rate, her name was Corunda, and she was the daughter of commoners – her father, a changeling carpenter, and her mother a Crystal seamstress. She herself was studying her father’s trade, and, before long, more and more of her furniture was appearing in the halls of my Crystal Castle. My excuses becoming thinner and thinner for spending so much time in her shop, eventually her father took me aside and spoke some sense into me. I finally asked her to dinner, and it became the start of a beautiful relationship. “Some years later, I had asked Corunda to spend her life with me, to become my queen and to bear my progeny. She agreed readily, and I had never been happier. We were pledged to be wed within weeks, when Discord corrupted the youngest of the Six Immortals – Chrysalis. With her fall, she decided to take the changelings with her. I woke up one morning, and where I expected to find the warmth of my lover next to me, instead I found nothing. Dashing from my bed, I found her on the balcony, staring up into the sky as though in a trance. Following her gaze I saw Chrysalis, her body black and tattered, nothing like the pinnacle of beauty she used to be. To my horror, my citizens could do nothing stop their changeling friends and family from entering her hypnotic spell. I will never forget the fear in Corunda’s eyes before I watched them go dull, and her body hardened and became opaque. Insectoid wings sprouted from her back, and no matter how I screamed and yelled or cast magic, I could not break the spell on my citizens, or on my fiancée. I never saw her, nor near two-thirds of my empire, again.” “Wow,” Redheart breathed, unable to come up with any other response for a few moments, “I… I’m sorry.” “Don’t be,” Sombra said with a sad smile, looking at the ground, “I have no feelings for her anymore beyond some memories. If anypony should be sorry, it should be me, for being unable to defend my ponies.” “There was nothing you could have done,” Redheart brought a hoof up under his chin, bringing his eyes to hers. “There could have been something…” “Sombra, what happened was horrible, but there is no shame in loss if you gave everything you could,” she continued, doing her best to reassure the stallion. She could not know, and would never know, the pain of watching so many ponies she cared about be taken from her and be powerless to stop them, but at the same time… it wasn’t right for Sombra to be so hard on himself for his failures against a literal goddess. “I know. It’s still… I know,” Sombra said quietly, gently moving Redheart’s hoof away from his chin and looking away. A sudden look of fear came across him. “Redheart, what time is it?” “Huh? I… I uh,” Redheart looked up in the sky, towards the sun, and shielded her eyes with a hoof. “I’d say it’s around eleven thirty, maybe closer to noon even? Why?” “I was supposed to go to work at eleven,” Sombra said worriedly, standing up quickly. “Oh,” Redheart stood up as well, “You should probably get on that.” “Here’s to hoping Miss Horizons doesn’t kill me,” Sombra joked, “I’m very sorry for having left like that this morning. I’ll make sure I let you or Snowflake know if I ever do something like that again, alright?” “Thank you, Sombra.” Sombra nodded acknowledgement, then turned and ran. --- “I’m sorry I’m late!” Sombra cried as he burst through the door. To his surprise, however, Brighter was not waiting behind her desk disapprovingly as he had suspected. Rather, she wasn’t in the room at all. “Brighter? Snowflake? Anypony?” “Oh hey, Sombra, that you?” Snowflake’s voice came out of the living area. Following the source of the voice, Sombra opened the door out of the entryway and found Snowflake pushing a broom across the floor. “Snowflake, I’m sorry I’m la-” “Hey, it’s fine. You were with my sister, right?” “Yeah.” “It’s perfectly fine then. Here, take this and help me,” Snowflake reached over and grabbed a second broom and threw it towards Sombra. Without thinking, some part in the back of Sombra’s mind kicked in in self-defense, to avoid the sudden impact of a broom to his face, and as he threw up his hooves, his horn began to glow in a soft pink aura. The broom stopped in midair, held up by the pale glow. Sombra opened his eyes and yelped, and the aura blinked out suddenly, the broom clattering to the floor in reply. “I… thought you said you couldn’t…” Snowflake trailed off, leaving the rest of the question implied. “I… I don’t know,” Sombra’s voice quivered, “I didn’t think I could do magic anymore, I thought… I thought my soul was too far gone.” “Well, it would seem you were wrong,” Snowflake said matter-of-factly, “Do it again. See if you can, at least.” Sombra swallowed heavily. “I don’t… really want to,” he said, “if that was just a fluke, I don’t want to risk… hurting you or anything else in this room.” “What, if you accidentally cast dark magic, it’s not like it’s gonna get up and attack me, is it?” Sombra answered him with a glare. “Maybe you should go see Miss Sparkle about it later, then?” Snowflake offered. “I think I will, if I get a chance,” Sombra said, picking up the broom with his hooves, staring intently at the object for a few moments, as though it might spring to life again. When it did not, he shrugged, and set to work. “Where’s Brighter?” the unicorn asked. “Where’s everypony, for that matter?” “Oh, they, uh, they went to the park for the day,” Snowflake said, his voice kind of distant, “Brighter kind of spontaneously adopted Tag-a-long this morning, and decided they should all go out to celebrate.” “Oh that’s wonderful!” Sombra said gleefully, “I’m happy for her. Both hers. And you?” Snowflake chuckled. “Eventually. Maybe. I dunno. I could see it happening, but… you know, it’d be a ways off.” “I’m glad,” the darker stallion replied, not really to Snowflake in particular, but close enough that the big Pegasus nodded his gratitude. The pair worked together in amicable silence for a while, before moving on to the bedroom. Sombra continued sweeping the floor and cleaning the carpets with the vacuum cleaner, and Snowflake started to bend down and pull any stray toys or trash out from underneath the beds. “I didn’t have nightmares,” Sombra thought aloud suddenly. “You didn’t have the nightmares last night?” Snowflake asked, voice coming from down below the bed he had himself wedged under, hooves grasping at some toy that was stuck under there. “No, not last night, when I slept with your sister-” Sombra realized his mistake the moment the words left his mouth. The bed jumped as Snowflake accidentally bashed his head against the bottom of it in surprise, and the large, white body began to wiggle and pull back out from beneath it. “No, you see, what I meant was-” Snowflake was up in Sombra’s face now. “Uh, phrasing?” the big black unicorn offered apologetically, shrinking before the intimidating stare of the Pegasus. “I don’t care about the nature of your relationship with my sister,” Snowflake started, “I don’t care if you’re sleeping together after your first date.” “We didn’t-” “I don’t care. I don’t. That’s her choice, that’s a mutual choice between two consenting adults. If you ever, ever dare to disappear in the morning like that again… then I will care. Do you understand me? Redheart means the world to me, and I’ve seen her hurt and hurting before, and I will not see it again.” “Yes, I know,” Sombra replied to his friend, gently pressing on Snowflake’s chest with a hoof, “I know. Let me explain what I meant, what happened, I mean,” he paused as Snowflake backed off a little, “This morning, I woke up very early again, as I have been. I decided to take a walk. Redheart and I parted ways last night and I did not see her again until she found my by the stream this morning. I misspoke. When she came to me this morning, we shared a moment and fell asleep in the grass; given how early it was and how little sleep we both got the previous night, I think a nap was understandable. While we slept next to each other, not together, I did not dream at all. And thinking about it, the only other night since my revival I did not have these nightmares was the first night, when I slept next to Redheart in her tent. Which ended similarly with you very upset with me, for entirely understandable reasons.” “Hey, sorry, I’m just… kinda touchy after what happened with the last guy, you know?” “I got that impression, yes,” the former king smiled sadly. “Is there anything I can do to help her with that?” “Just don’t leave her.” --- Brighter Horizons, for her part, was walking on sunshine. She hummed a tune to herself, not really following any song she knew, just happy. The foals were all running around, playing, yelling, and just generally having fun. Tag-a-long had been alternately playing with her friends and running back to her new mother and hugging her. Bless the foal, she had been smiling silly all day. “You’re so lucky, Tag-a-long!” She’d heard them say. “You’ve got Miss Horizons as your actual mom now!” “Yeah, but I must be like, the most unlucky adopted kid ever,” Tag-a-long had replied, her voice oozing sarcasm, “I somehow managed to stay living at the orphanage!” Brighter had laughed so hard she nearly cried at that. This was, quite possibly, the best decision she’d made in a very, very long time. She leaned idly against a tree, watching her foals, and her foal. She giggled once more at the notion – she was finally a mother. Or rather, she was officially, on paper now. Snowflake had tried so very hard to convince her of that; it was the least she could do to agree with him. She wasn’t quite convinced herself, yet, that she had been a mother all this time even before officially adopting Tag-a-long, but perhaps she could understand where he was coming from. She smiled again as Tag-a-long fell and stood back up, laughing like a maniac at her own misfortune. Her attention was finally drawn away from her new daughter by somepony calling her name. Brighter to the source and found Redheart walking towards her unhurriedly, a content smile on her face. “Redheart!” Brighter called in greeting, “How are you?” “Feeling pretty good, actually,” Redheart replied calmly as she got closer to her boss, “I don’t know if Snowflake told you, but Sombra went for a walk this morning, and didn’t tell anyone, and I… I kinda panicked, but I found him by the bridge to the Everfree.” “As a matter of fact, Snowflake did tell me. Did you… you know, explain the situation?” “No, I just… I don’t know, I just don’t want to talk about it,” Redheart looked at the small herd of foals playing around in the grass of the park, “After we slept together-” Brighter raised an eyebrow, “- yeah, yeah, realized it as soon as I said it,” Redheart filled in with a slight blush, “We literally fell asleep together, and had a nice conversation afterwards. That’s why he was late today. It was my fault.” “Oh he was late today was he?” “… Nnnnnnoooooo,” Redheart backpedaled, and quickly changed the subject. “So, what’s new with you?” The yellow unicorn laughed. “Don’t think he’s getting out of that so easy-” “Brighter, please.” “I’m just kidding. He’s probably back at the orphanage, helping Snowflake clean the place. Celestia knows it needed it. Anyways, I, well, I officially became a mother this morning.” “Oh Brighter, that’s fantastic!” Redheart beamed and gave her friend a hug, then tensed up, squeezing her tightly. “Wait, is Snowflake…” Brighter just chuckled and used her magic to pull Redheart’s forelegs off of her. “No, Snowflake is not the father. I’m not pregnant, Redheart, remember the whole infertility thing?” “Oh, right, I’m sorry, I can’t believe I forgot,” Redheart sputtered, embarrassed. It was rather a personal thing Brighter had chosen to share with her, how could she have forgotten? “Don’t worry about it too much,” the green-eyed unicorn replied, “Pregnancy is a pretty natural assumption when somepony says they’re going to be a mom. But no, not for me,” Brighter turned to the crowd and called out. “Sweetie?” The foals erupted into laughter and Redheart heard one voice cut through the din, saying, “Coming, mom.” Redheart saw Tag-a-long walking towards them, and turned back to Brighter, speaking flatly. “You didn’t.” “I did!” Brighter said with a gleeful smile, “I absolutely did.” Tag-a-long walked up to Brighter and nuzzled her leg affectionately. The unicorn mare responded by gently stroking the child’s head with a forehoof. “G’morning miss Redheart,” the filly said cheerfully, “Or rather, afternoon, as the case may be,” she added with a giggle. “Brighter really adopted you, eh?” Redheart asked, bending down to be more on Tag-a-long’s level. “Yep!” “She’s not just telling you to say this?” “Nope!” “Run along now, sweetie,” Brighter told the filly. She nodded in happiness, and ran off to join the other foals again. “Wow, Brighter, you really did it. And this isn’t going to, you know, be hard on you is it?” “I figure I was pretty much paying for all her living expenses already, and she’s so adorable, and she was starting to get afraid that she was never going to get adopted…” “I suppose that’s true. Hey, can you apologize to Sombra for me when you see him? I need to go to the hospital,” Redheart replied, checking the position of the sun again, “My shift starts soon.” “Yeah, of course. See you later, Redheart!” Brighter called after her friend as the white mare trotted away, and turned back to the foals. She smiled and sighed happily. Oh, I’m already used to this.