//------------------------------// // Tree Houses and Sanguine Mares // Story: A Mortal Dillema // by Queen Sanguine Dreams //------------------------------// Perhaps this door? I asked myself to distract from the tedium of searching the entire train for our room. Twilight and Spike were following behind me and conversating about what all of us would do as soon as we eventually arrived in Ponyville, several concerns about different ponies being brought up. I didn't know the names of any of Sparkle's friends and with them being peasants in the first place, I didn't care to learn them. The next door slid open on some kind of rail contraption with a small metal wheel and revealed yet another occupied room with oblivious ponies staring out of the window and gawking at the scenery zipping past. Before they could notice my entrance, I closed the door and moved onto the next room. "Do you think that having Sombra walking around in Ponyville is really a good idea?" Spike asked Twilight. The two were whispering, but they always talked loud enough that it was simple to hear them. I don't honestly know why they even bothered to whisper in the first place. "I'm sure it will be fine once I explain everything." Twilight replied full of confidence. "We befriended Discord after all, so why not Sombra?" There's that name again. Discord. I might encounter him during my stay in Ponyville, now that I think about it. If he is a friend to these Ponyville surfs, perhaps there is something I have yet to see. "Yeah, but... I mean it's Sombra. The last time any of us saw him, he was trying to take over all of the Crystal Empire and enslave everypony. All Discord ever did was annoy everypony without making any sense." Spike reasoned. I arrived at another door and offered a silent prayer to whatever force of chance that governed the universe that this would be the door to lead me to my salvation from nudity and uncomfortable company. I slid the door open, and... Wow... A unicorn mare, snow white in coat and with hair a crimson coloration with copper bangs was happily staring out of the window. She was wearing a black aviation jacket that I sincerely hoped was not made from actual leather and copper wire-frame rectangle glasses. She noticed that I was staring at her while standing in the doorway and looked directly at me. For some reason, I wasn't able to move myself away. Her eyes were copper and a fiery orange in coloration and she was also wearing black eye-shadow. My eyes drifted to her cutie-mark at a most inopportune time to witness a smiling copper opera mask on her flank. "Hallo!" She happy cheered. Her accent was strange, but her demeanor was extremely welcoming. "Who ah you?" She asked. I should have just shut the door to continue on my quest to find my clothing, but she was a unicorn and it would be extremely rude of me to rebuff her. She had no idea whom I was and I could easily just make up another persona to interact with her, but there was no harm in being honest for this moment. "I am King Sombra." I introduced myself with a polite bow. "Whom would you be?" She took a moment to hop off of the train car and I noticed a few more details about her appearance. Her mane and tail were plainly styled, just a simple brushing to straighten them out. Her mane came just to neck length and covered her left eye. The mane and tail were also slightly messy in appearance despite the effort to control them. Her face was more angular than round, which lead me to believe her to be of a higher family than the soft and round-faced peasants I had been dealing with. She was average in height so that ruled out the possibility of being true nobility and she carried herself in a relaxed yet purposeful manner. "My name is Sanguine!" She smiled pleasantly, offering a hoof. I debated kissing the hoof, but decided that would be going too far and went for a simple shake. "A pleasure to meet you." At this moment, Twilight and Spike had noticed that I was not in the same hallway as them and came back in a hurry down the hallway to find me. We had just finished our introductions when they arrived. "There you are!" Twilight announced worriedly. She then looked past me to see the pony whom I had just met. "Oh, we're sorry to interrupt your travels, Miss...?" "No worries, Princess Twilight." Sanguine offered warmly. "I am Sanguine." She bowed. "Oh, you don't have to bow!" Sparkle quickly interrupted. "Really, I only recently became a princess and it feels really strange for ponies to do that." She nervously added. "Is that real leather?" Spike asked in slight alarm. Sanguine then looked to her coat in surprise for a moment as if she had just realized what she was wearing. "Oh no," She exclaimed, "I just decided to take my last lover out for a night on ze town!" She smiled, making Twilight and Spike very alarmed and nervous. I however, found this hilarious. "Pfft, hahaha!" Now Twilight and Spike were even more disturbed as Sanguine joined in my laughter. "Uh... eheh?" Twilight nervously chuckled, looking sideways at Spike and nudging him to join in. He also forced a laugh of politeness. After Sanguine and I had recovered, she spoke before I could. "King Sombra, you interest me!" "Oh?" I asked with genuine surprise. "How is that?" "Very few ponies would understand my humor in Equestria. Are you from zis country?" She asked with interest, flipping her mane out of her eyes. "I am from the Crystal Empire, actually." "Ah!" She cooed excitedly, "I haff yet to visit that place. Perhaps you could show me around?" She purred with wiggling eyebrows. Sure, I'll show you my Crystal Castle-- wait. What am I doing? I shook my head to clear my train of thought. "Perhaps another time. I am currently traveling with Princess Twilight and her servant to Ponyville." I politely explained. "Oh? Well, it so happens that I too am on my way to Ponyville to tour the new castle there!" She smiled, looking to Twilight. "Would you mind a tour to show the both of us around?" Sanguine then looked to me, quickly raising a single eyebrow to signal the need for a group effort. She then put on her best pouting face and I joined quickly after while looking at Twilight. Being put on the spot so suddenly, Twilight stammered. "I--Ah... Sure!" she buckled quickly. "We just have to find our room again to get King Sombra's clothing and wait until the train stops." "Oh?" Sanguine purred. "The great King Sombra graces us with his unclothed visage, does he?" she placed a hoof on my shoulder. This mare is going to be the death of me. Not a bad death, but still. Twilight and Spike snickered at my blushing discomfort with the situation. "Yes--well, You understand how trains can be." I hastily made an excuse. "Close, noisy, hot and..." She leaned in close to whisper into my ear, "Sweaty?" Oh mercy! My knees nearly buckled at that, So I did my best to slide away from her clutches towards the hallway. "Yes! Well, we really should be going. Busy day!" Sanguine was laughing politely to herself, covering her mouth with a hoof. Oh! She wasn't serious. Whew. Or... was she? I shook my head again and walked down the hallway with haste. "I will see you around, Ja?" She called down the hallway. "Most certainly!" I replied, quickly looking away and desperately redoubling my search for the room. "Snrk." Came from Spike. I turned to look at the both of them, and saw them snickering. "What is it?" I asked grumpily. "Grampa Sombra has a crush!" Spike giggled. "Grr, I am not your grandfather, nor do I have a crush!" I growled, looking away to find our room. "Do you think we should tell him?" Twilight whispered. "Nah, I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually." Spike whispered back. I stopped, and whipped around. "Figure out what?" I clipped with annoyance. "You heard that?" Twilight asked with surprise. "Yes. I've heard every word you've whispered this entire time." Both Sparkle and Spike frowned for a brief moment in surprise. "Yikes, I thought we were being quiet..." Spike mumbled. "You were. My hearing is exceptional." I explained. "Think he's part Bat Pony?" Spike whispered extra quietly to Sparkle with a claw cupped over her ear. "You know, whispering doesn't work if I am standing directly in front of you and can see you whispering." Idiot. "Well, I figured you should know that we passed our room about five minutes ago." Spike said with a straight face, before quickly losing his composure and laughing at my dumbfound expression. "You...But..." "You really didn't notice?" Twilight asked, also giggling. "I..." "Hey Twilight, I think we broke Sombra." Spike laughed, waving a claw across my field of vision. "But... I was so certain..." Twilight then spoke up. "Do you remember the spells you cast in the Crystal Castle for doors?" "Y-yes?" "I placed one on our door so nopony would see it and ask for room service, and then find you there." "But..." "I modified it a little bit, and it turns out it worked perfectly!" "But I made those..." I said sadly, placing a hoof on my chest and staring off into space to contemplate life. "Don't feel bad, Grampa. We'll give you cocoa when we get to the castle!" Spike said cheerfully, nudging me with his stubby shoulder. "My doors..." I looked up quickly, slightly startling them. "You didn't touch my stairs, did you?" I asked with serious tone. Spike and Twilight both groaned in annoyance. "Oohh, Don't even get me started on your stairs." They said in unison before looking at another and smiling before looking to me. "You didn't harm them, did you? Any tinkering?" I asked suspiciously. "I thought the reverse gravity spell was a nice touch, but otherwise I didn't do anything." She raised a hoof, "I swear on my honor as a Princess." "And I don't want to see another staircase ever again in my life!" Spike added with conviction. "You still mucked with my doors..." I pouted. I had worked extremely hard to contrive a spell matrix for those doors. To see that same spell being used so nonchalantly just... irked me to the very core. Do you realize how difficult it actually is to use mind altering magic, and then enchant a gemstone to automatically cast that spell without fail and never degrade? I doubt it, very cynical voice in my head. Yes I can speak to you if I want! "NEXT STOP, PONYVILLE!" I voice called out through the train car. "PONYVILLE IN FIVE MINUTES!" I looked past the two, spotting a uniformed earth pony walking down the carpetted hallways and checking rooms for sleeping passengers to wake up. I didn't spot anything out of the ordinary down the hallway itself, though he did skip a certain spot without a door... All the other doors were uniform in placement, so why was this one empty? Aha! That must be the room! I grinned widely, knowing where to finally go to enter our room. I moved past Twilight and Spike, ignoring their complaints as I too quickly shoved past them in my eagerness. A few other ponies were already disembarking and leaving their rooms to wait by the exit doors, but I weaved myself through them as well. I eventually came to our room, the door standing plainly as ever now that I had spotted it and never let it leave my sight. "Finally, I can put on my clothes!" I cheered quietly to myself, my voice drowned out by the hubbub of moving ponies and luggage being adjusted. I slid the door to the room closed and locked it, annoying Twilight whom now had to wait outside. I then quickly opened the closet that contained my luggage, and hauled it out into the center of the cramped space. "Now, let's see if everything is where I left it..." I opened the latches with two metallic clicks and lifted the lid to view my glorious set of armor and my wonderful cape of snuggles. Eh, I mean... You know what? This is my mind, I don't have to justify my thoughts to anypony, especially myself. It is my snuggle cape and it makes me feel safe. There, I thought it. Now I don't have to be parted from it, and I have the added benefit of my armor to go along with it. I reached into the case, taking each bit of armoring out carefully and laying it on the carpet in a neat order. I would fiddle around with the chestpiece first, as that would be the simplest to put on. All I have to do is bend my neck, walk forward and-- there we are! I adjusted the straps to hold the armor tightly to my chest and then set about donning the hoof armoring. Hind legs first, so that I could better manipulate them into place with my forehooves as I lacked my magic currently. The entire procedure was going along fairly well considering my crippled, magicless state. "Hey Sombra, the train is gonna leave soon! Let us in!" Spike hollered through the door. I dropped an armored hoof shoe to the floor and stood up. I was missing my forehoof armor but it would be simple enough to put it on later. I opened the door to find Twilight and Spike looking very impatient. "You get everything?" Spike asked. "Just need the forehoof armoring." I replied, pointing to devices. "Alright, that should be good enough." Twilight stated, lifting both myself and the rest of my equipment into the air with her magic. "Not this again!" I complained. "Come on, we have to get off the train before it leaves!" She impatiently explained, using her magic to adjust the straps on my armoring and secure the last parts as well while making our way through the train to the exit door. "Ah, ze king returns!" I heard Sanguine announce with an amused tone. "Normally, I would expect a chauffeur, but I suppose being mare-handled by a Princess is regal enough." She was following directly behind me as the group left the train and stepped off onto the platform. "Sanguine?" I asked. I had expected her to be the first pony off of the train, what with her minimal attire and absence of luggage. "I told you I would be seeing you again, Ja? Though, this must be much sooner than you had imagined." She smiled while tilting her head to the right, making her mane fall away to fully reveal her look of amusement. "Sombra's got a crush~" Spike teased in a whisper. I tried to maneuver in Twilight's grasp, but only succeeded in causing myself to list to the left and spin around lazily. "So, Princess Twilight," Sanguine began, walking alongside me and placing a hoof onto my side to stop my spin. "How does a Princess of Friendship come across the company of a King?" she smirked sideways at me and then overtook my position to walk alongside Twilight. Spike was walking alongside my right. "I'm starting a reformation program!" She happily explained. "I accept anypony or creature otherwise and help teach lessons in friendship to better Equestria." She was very proud about her role, apparently. "Well, King Sombra seems to be very polite and friendly to me." She winked at me. "Why would he need your help?" Oof, that choice of wording. That was probably going to upset Twilight. "I'm glad you asked!" Twilight replied without missing a beat. "We all know that not everypony is given the same kind of upbringing or opportunity to make friends, and I wanted to give King Sombra the opportunity to have that and offer a better alternative to what he did before." Uh oh. If she says anything about enslaving ponies, then I doubt that Sanguine is going to approve of it. "What did he do before coming to Ponyville?" Sanguine innocently asked. "I mean he was obviously a King, but why the need for 'friendship', as you put it?" "Well..." Twilight replied awkwardly. "Let's just say that his... labor laws weren't always... agreeable to his subjects?" Twilight fumbles; this is the final inning; will she be able to salvage the slip up or is it game over for King Sombra's chances at attaining somepony to spend a night in the bedchambers with? Find out, right now! "Pssh, Labor laws." Sanguine huffed and dismissively waved a hoof. "That is why you carry him around in your magic with a Null-ring on?" Oh, this is interesting. Not many ponies would know about null-rings... "How did you know about the null-ring?" Twilight asked in surprise, stopping suddenly. "Ah, come now, Twilight. Ze subject is focused on you and King Sombra for ze moment, not myself!" she replied with a well meaning smile. "Oh, would you look at the time!" Twilight abruptly announced, her voice full of false surprise. "Looks like we're going to be late if we don't hurry! It was nice meeting you, Sandwich!" "Sanguine." "Yes, that!" Twilight hastily agreed, cantering off quickly with myself and Spike in tow. I was facing towards our back, and saw a look of annoyance on Sanguine's face before she smiled and waved to me, soon trotting off to wherever it was that she was going. Spike looked over his shoulder to find that Sanguine had dissapeared. "That was close." he shuddered. I raised an eyebrow. "That was rude, Spike, not close." I looked with disappointment at Twilight. "Why the hasty retreat?" "Would you want to explain to her why you're wearing a null ring, why you enslaved an entire country and why you can return from the dead?" Probably. "Not at the moment." "Then I decided that we should get you settled in the castle before we do anything. Besides, didn't you want cocoa?" Cocoa... "I'll take that as a yes." While I fantasized about a swimming pool filled with Cocoa, and then discarded the idea as quickly as I had thought of it, due to the thought of cocoa being difficult to wash out of my coat, being warm and none too pleasant to actually swim in, we had traversed through the town without incident. "Is carrying ponies in a magical field normal, here?" I asked, realising how odd it was that not a single pony even looked at us strangely. "Trust me, as far as Ponyville goes, this is tame." Spike assured me. That... might prove interesting, actually. Of course this place is still a peasant mud-hole, but at least it might be an entertaining mud hole. As a side thought, I wonder how long Miss Sanguine will be staying in town... "How far away is your castle from this town?" "It's only a couple minutes. We're actually almost there. If you look up, you'll see the castle." Twilight replied. I did as she suggested, and... why. Why would you have a tree-house castle. I know that Twilight is not the most tactically minded of ponies but... "A treehouse?" I asked incredulously. "You're serious. A treehouse!" I folded my hooves across my chestplate. "I can't believe you had me somewhat excited to see a treehouse castle." I harrumphed. Twilight stopped to look concerned at me. "What's wrong with it?" She then looked to her castle. "Alright, let me list the ways nopony has ever considered a treehouse castle before in the history of history!" Twilight set me down for this, thankfully. "First of all, Not only do you have a Treehouse castle, but one that is made from Crystal." "What's so bad about that?" Spike asked. "Suppose somepony were to start flinging rocks at it with a catapult? Would it not shatter the foundations of your castle to shards of mineral?" "Well... we're not at war with anypony..." Twilight reasoned. "Very well, then how about this. Where is your moat? Your tactically superior position?" I took another look at the castle, and did a double take. I can't believe this... "You have a FRONT DOOR to your castle! No guards, no ramparts, no defensive emplacements!" I was ranting at this point, but this really irked me to witness! "This 'castle' couldn't hold off an army of upset peasants, let alone an army!" "It's the Castle of Friendship?" she offered unconvincingly and with higher pitch in her voice accompanied with an awkward smile. "That structure is as much a castle, as I am a charity worker!" I stomped my armored hoof for emphasis. "Oh yeah? What makes your castle so special?" Spike challenged. Oh, you poor fool. I grinned wickedly, causing him to be slightly unsettled from my sharpened teeth and fangs. "High structure with a commanding view of everything for miles. Multiple guard towers with the ability to rain projectiles and spells from above with little need to defend themselves from their position. Absolutely no cover for an approaching force for the main roads and for the circle around the castle. The ability to see any approaching force days before they arrive, and an enchanted gemstone that prevents any deterioration or damage of the surrounding city, let alone the castle itself which is nigh impregnable. Do I need to remind you of the stairs and the enchanted doors?" I beamed with pride as I finished. "We still defeated you!" Spike shot back. I scoffed. "Please, fighting a fragment of myself would hardly be considered a challenge by any real practitioner of magic. You two probably got trapped by the anti-theft spell!" "Oh look, we've made it to the front door already!" Twilight interjected hastily. "Looks like we'll just have to head on inside and find your room!" "Your castle is going to need serious improvements before I even consider calling it a defensive fortification. Even Canterlot is better defended than this gem heap!" Twilight groaned in annoyance and knocked three times on the door. "What, do you not have the keys to the clubhouse, Sparkle?" I goaded. "Coming!" I heard a voice call from inside. This should be good. I wonder what kind of pony would be a servant to the 'Princess of Friendship'. Perhaps anypony would, considering how adored the Sisters are. I rolled my eyes for my internal dialogue when the door opened. Another mare, a unicorn as well. Light pink coat, purple shaded mane with a stripe of teal or bright greenish blue. Something, whatever. Purple eyes... boring. She's no Sanguine, that is certain. "Twilight! I wasn't expecting you back so soon." The mare said with surprise. "How are you doing, Spike? Did the crystal ponies give you any trouble this time?" "Eh... not so much the ponies as... well..." He stepped aside, pointing to me with his arms as if I were some sort of prize. "Ta-da..." He said nervously. The unicorn then spotted me for the first time while I was brushing off some dirt that had gotten on my cape. Her surprised gasp both slightly startled me, and annoyed me. Great, another pony that is either going to cower in fear, not that I mind, or ask whom I am. "King Sombra!?" She blurted out like a yell mixed with an excited squee. I blinked and looked up towards her. I was not expecting that reaction. "Yes?" I asked cautiously. "Twilight, you have to be serious with me right now. Is this a joke, or a prank or something, or is this really King Sombra?" She asked Twilight with concern. "It's really King Sombra, trust me. We're sure." "Well... I didn't know we were starting a halfway house for... recovering villains? Or are you starting a rehabilitation center for the recently evil?" She snarked. "Something like that, actually." Twilight replied. "It's been a long journey, so we're going to get Sombra settled in. I'll tell you all about it then, okay?" Twilight said tiredly. "Oh! Sure, I'll just... being doing things!" the unicorn shiftily responded, quickly moving away and around a corner. "You keep interesting company, Sparkle." I conceded. "Perhaps my stay in this hole will not be as bad as I imagined..." Well, at least after I had made a few... adjustments in the privacy of my sleeping quarters. I chuckled softly to myself, though I may have overdone it a tad. "Muahahaha!" "Sombra, are you alright?" Spike asked worriedly. "Fine! Perfectly fine!" I waved a hoof in dismissal. "Worry not, small dragon!" I kept my composure, but a few giggles actually escaped my royal mask. "Snrk." "Pfft." "Bahah." "Sombra, seriously." Twilight complained. "Spike, could you just get him some Cocoa? He's having an evil giggle fit." Is that actually a thing? "Hehe, giggle-fit." I giggled.