• Published 5th Aug 2016
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Favorable Alignment - Ice Star



Princess Luna disappears from Equestria with hopes of saving the world and is accompanied by the enigmatic Sombra. Meanwhile, Celestia tries to bury secrets as immortal as she is and Cadance must choose her loyalties carefully...

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Chapter 4: The Greatest Weapon

Luna:

As an Alicorn and immortal, I do not have to sleep or eat as a mortal would. I usually to do so anyway, as there can still be negative effects if this were to go on for an unusually long amount of time, although these take longer to appear and are slight compared to what they could be in others. Even though I rarely forgo these things, it's always nice to know that if Sombra does set all the food on fire and dismiss it as an 'accident', I'll still be alright. Since I'm the only one who knows how to steer the ship, I will have to be steering both day and night for a while, or at least until I can teach Sombra how to do something around the Sky Scraper.

He appears to be very inquisitive, seeing how he interacts with things around him. I am not sure what his skill set is, but he did show an interest in the library's books and I imagine that will be a good place to start. While he isn't a liability in any way, I just need him to be able to help out a bit. Hopefully, he has some kind of skill for this, the more unusual the better. If he can do something even mildly strange, like how I can enter dreams while awake, then I shall be thrilled.

And so it was that four days passed without any disturbances. Back in Equestria, Tia raised and lowered the sun, no doubt believing I was using the upcoming days to cool off after what we had discussed and what I had seen. She only assumed, I never told her otherwise; I would not lie. Tia has no idea that I'm already hundreds of miles away. I pause when it is required from directing the airship southward to do the same with the moon before I resume my course towards the lovely land of my most agreeable and practical cousin.

...

While I love the sky, the open ocean merely bores me. It is a fluid and moody mass that quickly goes from calm and hypnotic to stormy and aggressive at a moment's notice, destroying all it comes across. Though to those who traverse, live upon, under, or around it, they know that the ocean holds many surprises and mysteries. It's an adventure just waiting to happen, although it's not one I wish to partake in.

There is no doubt that the ocean deep, it is a fact that none can properly dispute. Onyx is a different matter entirely. He had less depth than a puddle, but somehow he managed to get his hooves on dark magic and... well, I can see the results.

I am not sure, I mused, forehoof still gripping the Sky Scraper's wheel, if that label fits what I see any more.

I turned to stare at a cloud drifting past the port side and habitually combed a forehoof through my mane a couple of times.

Somewhat disappointed with the current environment, I turned back to the wheel, and while I kept my actions in check, my mind was swept up with thoughts of glaciers, mountains ringed in clouds, verdant valleys, endless rivers, bone-dry deserts, and frosty taigas so chilly your teeth could not chatter and your feathers froze. I thought of every rough and vast landscape in all its varied majesty. Swamps and sandbars. Craters and clover fields.

Clover fields far from enchanted forests.

Enchanted forests where, once upon a time, two little fillies lived with their Mother and Father...

...a father who loved to nap in studies and a mother who warned her littlest daughter about Shadows... all but how to tell the difference between their natures. Such is the burden of being a prophet's daughter, I suppose.

One of my hooves reached up to my necklace, where if another pony looked close enough they might see the bluish-purple flicker of smoke behind the white of the moon, where the Tantabus sat dormant within. It was no longer what it had once been now that I had taken the first step in a different direction.

I can still remember when Celestia found our crowns all those years ago, after we led the tribes back and took the first look at our castle home after so long. But while my sister and I returned to our home, as estranged as we were then, what was happening in the north? As Celestia and I returned south with the unified tribes in their exodus from the Arctic, what happened in those brief years before I first laid eyes on Sombra himself? What was left behind in that valley and what is it that I didn't know?

Sombra is a demon; but he's only half of a Shadow. I need not ask who the caster was, it is only everything else that remains unanswered. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration. I did know a bit more, but not about him. I know so little about what happened and while I want to ask him and be as straightforward as possible, I wish to do so tactfully.

If my mother's words have any meaning at all, then any allegiance he has is going to be very polarized, even if I cannot imagine him as such. At least I don't need to imagine him leaning of the Sky Scraper's rail and bringing up everything with an oddly panicked look. When he tried to walk away from the rail, he slid and stumbled before grabbing it again with his forehooves. His face was quite pale, but I must have been so lost in thought I didn't notice he was there, even though he wears those metal boots, which means I should have heard him and-

I should go help him; he looks unusually sick.

After this decision, I teleport over to where he is. Sombra is leaning over the railing again and I put a hoof on his wither when it looked like he was about to fall over now that the Sky Scraper had stopped. He was startled by this, but thankfully had stopped retching.

"Sombra, is this from the ship or something else?"

"The ship," he mumbles.

"I was just making sure," I say, "how are you feeling?"

I have to steady him with my hoof since he certainly seems very dizzy and I'm afraid if he were less focus he would fall right over.

"I-I'm not sure w-was that-" He is not able to finish the rest, but it isn't because of being ill.

"Something that happens to ponies who are merely traveling?"

He is barely able to nod. "I've had it happen when I'm, well, drunk."

"It is normal for ponies to vomit, but usually only when they are ill, or yes, very drunk and I presume that the same goes for you. Do you think that you can walk?"

A shake of his head indicates he clearly does not think so.

...

Sombra was barely able to walk in a straight line. Even in the hall of the Sky Scraper he stumbled around, barely able to keep himself from hitting one of the walls while I briefly explained to him what seasickness was.

"Don't you know any spell to fix this?" he asked, as he collapsed onto a cot in the infirmary and looking positively grumpy while he staring up at the ceiling. Meanwhile, I flip through the pages of a nearby book until I locate the index. There's spells to fix everything in here but seasickness.

I guess nopony counted on there being a passenger without any experience at sea being aboard the navigator's ship over a rescue one, I think as I set the book back on the side table where I had first found it.

"No Sombra, I am afraid I do not. When it came to Celestia and myself, she was always the one to be sick at sea, therefore I had no need of such a spell." I am careful to use Tia's full name around him since he is not close enough to me that I would disclose something to him that might cause even mild embarrassment to my sister.

His expression contorted abruptly, but it wasn't with frustration, he bolted up, looking queasy and looking for the exit again, only to find I had calmly conjured a bucket for him.

Poor fellow, I thought looking away, he barely understands what this is, and now he's confined on a ship with somepony he probably does not care to be around. At least whenever Tia got sick like this she had me around to tease her and cheer her up, but Sombra does not appear the sort who enjoys laughter as a medicine like Tia does.

"It might take a few days, but I think I could try to come up with a spell based on what is in here," I lift the book I had previously placed on a side table nearby. Thankfully, Sombra has ceased using the bucket for now.

"A few days?" he repeats, to which I nod.

"Princess, what am I supposed to do until then?"

My gaze drifts across the room to a small desk in the corner where more misplaced books form a small stack, along with some pens, and a stack of paper that must have been brought down from the office. He must have been locking himself up in that pocket realm of his for the time that I had not seen him to only just be sick, but if he gets as violently sick as I had seen, then there is no way I will be letting this problem escape me and allow him to move back in there for the duration of an important journey. And one I hoped he could be persuaded to contribute to.

"Why not write something?"

"What?"

"Writing, Sombra. Or drawing, you could that too. Can you draw well? I can only manage sketches of fruits and flowers, but practice is the key to improving."

I look back to find him frowning, a slight sadness in his eyes. "...I can't."

"It is alright if you cannot draw, but I imagine that you would at least like to-"

"Princess, I can't."

While I definitely do not enjoy this interruption in the slightest, I will let it slide one time. "It was only a suggestion," I reply tersely, "I imagine that you are quite capable of keeping yourself busy, as reclusive as you are."

"That's not it..."

I remain quiet, silently hoping he will finish with an explanation that we can both work with.

"...I can't write."

"Can you read?"

"Yes."

"But you cannot write at all?"

"Barely. I know how to write my name and a few runes, but I'm not very good at it."

I've forgotten the book that was held in my magic but only Sombra appears slightly startled when it drops. I suppose I shall have to fetch it later.

"May I ask why?"

"I was never taught how... I mean, I was able to teach myself how to read, but-"

"Pardon my interruption, but you taught yourself how to read?"

"Sort of... it's complicated. I didn't understand how to read at first, you know s-since I'm-"

"Sombra, I know that you are a demon."

"I hate saying it though," he growled, although not at me before quickly changing the topic to what it had been, "As I was saying, I don't know how to write and can barely hold a pen right."

"There does not seem to be a problem with your magic."

"Well, part of it is my magic. What little writing I can do, I have to do with a pen in my mouth. I used to have a spell that would allow me to copy letters to make them look like they were written by me, and arrange them on paper but it was very tedious. All I could do was short diary entries at most. It was the one spell I lost upon fitting myself back together and believe me, it can be very inconvenient if I ever wanted to write something that isn't just my name, and in runes no less. I can't even write it in the alphabet you use. Just a few runes and it looks absolutely awful. Anything I write, I usually write with my mouth."

"I could teach you."

Sombra snorts, "Yeah right, now how's that supposed to work?"

"Is cooperation that difficult of a concept for you?"

"Maybe it is."

That poses to be both difficult and understandable, since I am certainly a mare that works well on my own. "It shows, but despite that I will gladly spend a few hours teaching you how to write if that is what you want."

"What about the Sky Scraper?"

"It can wait, bobbing in the air for a while is not going to hurt it."

His brow furrows, "But isn't that more important than me not being able to write my name? The purple one tried miserably to get me to hold a pencil correctly, so why is it that you think this will work?"

"She thought you could not hold a pen, correct?" Is it so much that I just wish for him not to be miserable until I can work out a spell of my own to safely get rid of his seasickness?

"Yes."

"She did not know that you could not write. Are we not going to agree that there is a difference between the two?"

"I-I..." Sombra starts to twist one of the corners of his cloak within his magic before dropping it entirely, still looking quite shocked.

"Sombra? Is something wrong?"

"No, I just... I like your way of thinking."

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