//------------------------------//
// The Visit  
// Story: Sombra Finds True Love 
// by Book Lover 1994 
//------------------------------//

	Sombra laid down in his hospital bed plotting about how he was going to take over the Crystal Empire once more. 
Those ponies will pay for trying to destroy me. I will get my revenge.
There was a knock at the door of his room. The smart thing is to ignore it, but the polite thing to do is to allow whoever the dolt is to come in. 
“Sigh… come in.”
The same crystal pony guard who was there earlier with the filly princess came in.
“Can I help you soldier?”
“Who are you exactly Mr. Shadow?” he asked. 
“Me? Well I am an average stallion that just so happen to have been in great peril.” He said in mocked elegance. 
The guard wasn’t amused. “For the safety of the princess and the rest of the royal family I must insist that you reveal who you are and what you were doing on the out skirts of the empire.” 
Sombra got up from his bed and began to circle the guard tauntingly. “Leave it to a royal guard to suspect that I a stranger in your empire of being a threat. However you aren’t a real castle guard are you?”
The guard didn’t say a word.
Sombra stopped in front of him. “No definitely not, a trainee perhaps? Now the question is why does it matter who I am or not?”
The colt looked everywhere but at him. “It’s for the empire’s safety.”
Sombra continued to taunt him. “Ah but before you said it was for the safety of the princess.” 
“I did.” The colt confirmed.
Hm... This colt isn’t as dumb as I thought. With his limited magic Sombra proceeded to search the guard mind for his biggest fear.
It isn’t uncommon for a royal guard’s to put up a brave facade in front of other ponies, but every pony has their weakness.
Sombra looked deep inside the colts mind. What he saw was nothing out of the ordinary for a royal guard of the Crystal Empire. They all think the same: Keep the princesses safe and defend Equestria. How boring. And then he found it. The colt was afraid that something bad would happen to the filly princess and or somepony would take her away from him.
“I see, so you’re afraid that somepony harming the princess.” He smirked.
The guard didn’t waver. “All guards are afraid that something bad would to the princesses.”
“We’ll just see.”
Looking through the guard’s mind took a lot out of Sombra. He was still weak from earlier. He needed rest so he went back into his hospital bed and fell asleep.
______________________________________________________________________________  
The next morning Sombra woke up to the purple eyes of the light rose pony watching him. “How do you feel Shadow?”
“Better thank you.” He responded.
The filly smiled. “I’m glad.” She brought up a bouquet of crystal flowers, and held it out to him. “I thought that you might like them.”
“I really don’t care much for flowers.” He began.
The filly’s face fell.
“But thank you anyway.” He finished.
He took the flowers from her with his magic and placed them in a vase by the window sill. 
“Shadow where are you from? I mean you’re not like the other ponies in the Crystal Empire. You look more like me and my family.”
He placed his hoof a top of her head. “What a smart filly you are.  You got all of that just by observing.” 
“Of course I have. I’m very observant. Nothing can get past these purple eyes.” She giggled. 
“To answer your question little princess, I’m from a land not too far from here.” He began. 
“Oh”
“I grew up on the out skirts of the empire alone. I remember there was a lot of snow and ice.” He continued.
“That so sad. I can’t believe that you were abandoned.” Lucina said sympathetically 
He held out a hoof. “It’s fine. I learned to get use to it and I also learned how to use my magic. So I became stronger so nothing stop me.”
“Oh.”
Sombra continued to tell his story with a little bit of lies thrown in, and Lucina hung on to every word. 
“How about you tell me about yourself princess.” 
Lucina blushed. “Um… well I’m the third child of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Both of my siblings have their cutie marks already, and I don’t. I hate my princess lessons.” 
“Is that why you were on the out skirts of the empire the other day.” He inquired. 
She blushed again. “Yeah.”
“I’m glad that you were out there the other day, or else I would have frozen to death.” He smiled.
The filly looked up at him and smiled as well. “I’m glad too. If I never have skipped my class I wouldn’t have had met you.”  
There was knock at the hospital room door and a different guard from last time entered. “Princess it time to go.”
“Ok Emerald Archer, I’m coming.” She said cheerfully. “Bye Shadow. I’ll be back tomorrow if that is ok.”
Sombra smirked. “It’s no trouble at all princess.”
“Shadow you know you don’t have to call me princess all the time. You can just call me Lucina.” She told him.
Lucina saw Sombra’s eyes shift from emerald green to ruby red again when he touched her face. “Perhaps I’m doing out of respect your highness.” 
Lucina was lost in his gaze. “Um… well ok then. I guess I’ll go then, bye Shadow.” 
And with that the young filly princess left the hospital room on her merry way with another guard of the Crystal Empire right behind her.
Sombra gather a lot of information during that little exchange of good byes. The little pony princess was afraid of being over looked and no pony caring about her. There was something else deep down that he couldn’t pinpoint, but he’ll figure it out in due time. 
“Don’t worry princess your time will come and you’ll rise above all the other ponies. One day you’ll rule over them all.”