The Journals of Silas Sombra

by DreamWings

Entry Six- The Princess and the Rosen

Entry Six.

I can’t believe I missed Rosen’s visit. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen her. They should’ve let me see her. Sombra wouldn’t have hurt her. They didn’t have to worry about that. Rosen’s had to deal with Sombra more times than they have. She’s a pro at making me see sense and fight back against him. Then again, it’s easy to believe that she could. We’ve been best friends forever—Well, okay, not forever, but she’s been my best friend since my first day at the Crystal Kingdom’s school.

I can still remember my first day there. I stood there in front of them all, introducing myself to the class, the teacher stood next to me looking down at me with nervous eyes (she’d been told about my Dad’s death. Alicorn knows by who) and I’d seen her in the crowd. She wasn’t even sat on the front row, but it wouldn’t have mattered where she’d sat she’d have stood out no matter where she was. Her coat was shinier, her hair more relaxed against her cheeks, she smiled constantly, little dimples at the edges of her mouth. She was natural. She didn’t have to do anything to make herself look good, and she wouldn’t want to. She didn’t like to act fancy and put on pretensions. The other foals dulled in comparison to her.

I thought it was just me that felt this way, and I felt guilty. It was wrong of me to look down on my other classmates just because this filly seemed so perfect, even if it was true. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one that felt this way about her. Nopony in the class hated Rosen. As a matter as fact, nopony in the class hated me either—but that doesn’t matter right now. This first day was all about Rosen.

It didn’t take me long to figure out how popular this filly was. Even our teacher, Miss. Heartstrings, was in awe of Rosen. I couldn’t understand it. I mean, I knew that she was pretty—that was obvious from the start, but for a teacher to be in AWE of a student was a new one. Admittedly I’d never been to a school before and all I know of them were from books and stories my parents had told me about their schools growing up, but I knew it was odd. Even odder when I realised that, although everypony seemed to love her, they acted really robotic and unlike themselves around her. No pony acted as polite and well-behaved as the ponies I saw around Rosen. It drove me crazy.

Haha. You should have seen the looks on their faces when I was gorging my face on those crystal berries. You would’ve thought that I was enslaving ponies in each bite I took by the looks of them. Each one of them took dainty bites of their meals, and every one of them always offered their food to Rosen first to see if she liked them. I hadn’t offered any of my lunch. Mr. Ember had packed it especially for me: homemade crystal berry tarts, homemade crystal berry sauce and homemade crystal berry juice—along with the raw crystal berries I’d taken off the bushes near the house. Crystal berries were by far my favourite food by this time. They still are.
I wasn’t even sat near to Rosen when I was eating. I’d made friends with a few of the other foals in the morning and I was telling jokes and laughing—when she came over with her own lunch. She hadn’t accepted any of the other foals’ food. It’s not like her own lunch-bag didn’t have enough as it was.

“Hi,” she said, showing me that big smile that I’d come to love over the years.

“Hi,” I said, through a mouthful of berries. “Howm’d y’doin’?”

“Fine, thanks.” She sat down on the ground next to me. The foal next to me got off of his seat and offered it to her. “No, I’m fine down here, thanks,” she said. He looked upset but sat down again anyway. “Silas, right?” she asked me.

I nodded. My mouth was still full. “Oo?”

“I’m Rosen,” she said. “I like your bag.”

I looked at my lunch-bag, a crystal box that Mrs. Ember had made in her workshop out of a few old books. I swallowed my mouthful of berries.

“Yeah, it’s really nice, isn’t it?” I said.

“Better than mine,” she said. Her bag was just behind her. It was a ginormous, jewel edged bag made of the softest fabric known to the Crystal-Empire. Expensive too.

“It’s horrible,” I said. The ponies around us gasped in shock. Rosen giggled.

“I know, right? My cousin said it was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen.”

“She might need to see a doctor,” I said, with a laugh. She laughed harder.

“Yeah, a witch-doctor,” she said. By the time the foals’ jaws had dropped to the floor.

“I don’t think even she’d be able to help her if she thinks that thing is pretty,” I said. “You want a berry?” I offered her my bag and she took one.

“Mmm... I love Crystal-Berries.”

“Me too.”

We smiled at each other and took a large bite of the berries. Juice dribbled down her face and a foal from the other side of the room walked over with a napkin. She shook her head.

“I can get it off myself.” She licked her lips and sucked on the bottom of her mouth. “So juicy.”

I licked my own lips. “The best thing I’ve ever had. We never had anything like these on the farm.”

“You grew up on a farm?” she asked, accepting another berry from me.

“Yeah, on the mountains. A long way, away from here.”

“What’d you do there?” Rosen had seen a few farms in her life, but she’d never seen what they did on them.

“Oh, you know, the usual stuff: milked the cows, picked the flowers, fed the chickens, sowed the seeds, harvested the grain. We ate everything we grew so had to work hard,” I said.

“Wow, that sounds awesome,” she said. “You should come pick crystal-berries with me and my cousin sometime. It’s fun.”

“Sounds great,” I said. “So your cousin does have some taste then?”

“Oh, Lilac can’t eat crystal-berries. She’s not allowed. Neither am I.” She came closer to me and whispered in my ear. “That doesn’t stop us though.”

“Why aren’t you allowed to eat them?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine anypony being forced to not eat something as beautiful as crystal-berries.

“They’re commoners’ food. We’re only meant to eat proper food.” She laughed. “It might be proper but it’s really boring too. I’d rather have crystal-corn and berries any day.” She swallowed another berry.

“What’s a commoner?” I asked.

The foal with the napkin hissed into my ear. “You are. She’s a royal.”

“What? What’s that mean?”

“Nothing,” Rosen said. She smiled and waved at the foal with the napkin. “I like you Silas, just the way you are. I know Lilac’ll love you too.”

I beamed at her and downed my bottle of juice. I knew what being a royal meant, I just didn’t care about it. Rosen was Rosen, and she knew Silas was Silas. We were best friends forever from that moment.