What Follows Hugs

by David Silver

24 - Return of the King

Sombra pointed into the snow, the wind blowing more of the stuff past him by the moment. "This is where I rule."

Quick Stroke stood beside him, casting a doubtful look into the crevice. "A far cry from the crystal towers you once held sway over, m'lord."

Sombra dismissively waved the thought away. "Nonsense. We will inspire awe in those ingrates." He flashed a wicked smile as he circled the tunnel that led to his domain. "They will weep, knowing they will never have a ruler half as competent."

"As you say." Quick faded into shadow. "Let us see what mighty demesne you claim."

They flew into the hole, side-by-side, two forms of darkness with baleful eyes. They arrival was met with alarmed squeaks. Some tsuki fled, but others snapped to attention, giving salutes towards the incoming presences.

Sombra touched the ground, his shadowy form billowing outwards a moment as if scattered by the impact only to draw together powerfully and congeal into his proper form. "I return." He raised a hoof just to lower it. "At ease." The command spoken, the tsuki quickly flopped back to all fours. "Status report?"

One tsuki raised a paw high in the air, waving it about.

"Yes?"

"Who's that, sir?" His eyes were on the formed Quick Stroke. "Is he your brother?" The other tsuki peered curiously. However closely Moondancer had seemed to echo Sombra, she became a distant alien compared to how the two shadow ponies resembled one another.

Quick Stroke took a powerful step forward. "Citizens! I am Lord Sombra's faithful assistant, Quick Stroke. You will call me 'sir', if you wish to avoid my wrath."

Sombra inclined his head towards Quick. "As he speaks. He is no relation of mine. Where is Toby? I require a report."

One of the does dipped her head. "He help Moondancer in prop... um... good eating. Show how good eat."

Sombra blinked at the news. "Good eat? How to cultivate the land better?" The tsuki shook her head. "How better to prepare the food?" She shook her head even faster. "What is 'good eat'?"

She reared up onto her hind legs and pantomimed using a spoon or a fork, shoveling imaginary food in her open snout before snapping it shut and speaking, "That. Is good eat. Less ouchy."

Sombra's brow furrowed. "Where is this class?"

She could feel his irritation and fell back to all fours. She pointed the way. "Left from cooking place, two halls."

Sombra stepped forward, paying the doe no further mind. "We have business to tend to."

"I do wish to see what class your assistant is conducting, and the pony is with him? This is surely something that will prove entertaining, m'lord."

Sombra peeked over his shoulder at his following once-vizier. "We will see, and judge, and correct if need be. Toby is prone to fanciful ideas, but comes to heel when ordered properly."

"He has some fear of you." Quick stepped up beside Sombra. "I just don't feel it's enough. He sees you more as a big brother than a proper monarch high above him."

Sombra grunted, his immediate thought one of revulsion, but it swirled through him. Was being thought of as a big brother so distasteful? He imagined Toby looking up at him with the eyes of a tsuki pup, trying to please him and prove his worth. Perhaps, with the tsuki, being seen as a wise older sibling wasn't a bad thing... "A thought occurs to us."

"Hmm?"

"An emperor can be deposed. A monarch can be replaced." Sombra raised his head high. "A sibling remains until death."

"A curious way of approaching it." Quick Stroke shook his head. "I pray you will not be offended if I prefer to call you my lord, m'lord. You are not my brother, nor would I wish you to be. I never liked him..."

"You have one?" Sombra quirked an ear towards Quick Stroke. "I never heard mention of him."

"I did say I didn't like him." Quick cocked an ear. "I hear a pony, we draw close. Shall we approach discretely, to better see what they are doing?"

"Yes." With agreement, the two faded into darkness and slid along the walls, darting from shadow to shadow until they could easily bear witness to what Toby was up to.

He was seated at a dining hall table. Across from him was Moondancer. Arrayed in a semi-circle were rows of tsuki, staring curiously at the two.

Moondancer pointed at a fork. "What is this?" One of the tsuki raised a paw and she pointed at him with a hoof. The tsuki eagerly proclaimed its title. "Very good. Toby will demonstrate how a good tsuki uses one." Her horn glowed as she picked up a bowl full of greens and set it on the platform in front of Toby. "Proceed."

Toby nodded with all the gravity eating didn't deserve. He reached for a fork and got it into position. It was no smooth slide. He brought his other paw over to help get it just right between his stubby fingers. "There." Moondancer nodded in approval, making Toby smile brightly a moment before he returned to the serious matter of eating.

The class murmured quietly as if comparing notes on how to hold a fork, but they went quiet as Toby brought the fork down to the salad greens. They held their breath collectively, only to let out an enthusiastic cheer as the tines of the fork sank through a few layers of roughage and sank into a plump tomato-like fruit. The cheering only got louder when he lifted it all and it remained there at the end of his fork without a problem.

Toby was blushing as he brought it up to his mouth and carefully placed it onto his tongue before closing his mouth and drawing the fork out, leaving the food behind. The cheering was deafening at his accomplishment.

Moondancer clopped her hooves twice and the cheering died away instantly. "I hope you were watching half as well as you cheered him. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but this is a class, I remind. Now, split into groups of three, and practice. I want you all working with the fork I've placed at each table. Take turns and help each other."

The class broke ranks, forming instead around their own tables. They each had their own bowl of food to try eating from, though some had plates instead. Either way, not a single tsuki was eating directly off the raised platform.

Sombra rose from the ground behind Toby. "You have reversed one of my rulings."

Toby squeaked in surprise, hopping up and coming down facing Sombra. "Sombra! Is good see."

"Yes..." He looked across the many tsuki fumbling with forks. "You trust them?"

Toby looked where Sombra was looking. "They is good tsuki. They want learn. They good tsuki." He bobbed his head firmly before raising a paw. "Class. What first rule of foodeaters?"

A young tsuki waved a paw excitedly until she was called. "Foodeaters for food, not play. Make eating gooder."

Another young tsuki bumped her. "Better."

"Make eating better!" she corrected. "Is like cooking. Use right, is good. Use wrong, is bad."

Toby nodded at her. "See? They learn."

Sombra nodded firmly, jaw tensed a moment before he smiled, fangs partially displayed. "Excellent."

Quick rose up beside him. "Excellent?"

"My people grow more skilled. Should a battle become required, I will be able to trust them with weapons." He sat and watched the class with burning eyes. "They are becoming more than lumbering foals. Excellent. Toby, you are to be praised." Toby lowered his head immediately, allowing Sombra to raise a hoof to rest on it without other prompting. "You are a good tsuki, an exemplar of your species."

Moondancer cleared her throat softly. "I'm glad you approve. We have started another initiative that I am certain you will find quite appealing."

Sombra stepped towards the mare, leaving a happy Toby behind. "And what matter is this? Is this another function of education?"

Moondancer waved down to the entrance of the room. "We have those, but I'm referring to mining. Your people understood that they occasionally found flecks of metal or small unworked jewelry that they performed quite admirably with, but I have begun a class in proper mining theories. They have already begun pulling enough metal free to produce their own cutlery without my direct assistance."

Sombra's smile grew twice as large. "You have proven me wrong, and that is not a thing I say often." He sat and brought his hooves together in applause. "We will make coins of our own that the ponies will pay us for."

"To say nothing of proper armaments," noted Quick, looking over Sombra's shoulder. "Do they just dig it out, or do they have the faintest idea how to smelt the results?"

Moondancer shook her head. "One step at a time. They are eager to mine, and I'm showing them how to do it safely and how to sift out usable ore from more useless rock. I plan to begin smelting classes after we have a good supply of material to work with." She frowned softly. "This reminds..."

Sombra's joyful expression quickly tempered down to a glare. "What is the catch?"

"No catch, just that Toby isn't the only tsuki to show glimmers of magical potential."

Quick slipped around Sombra quickly. "Now you're speaking things of interest. What talent have they shown?"

Moondancer looked over the class a moment before pointing to one of the foals. "You are the teacher until time's up or I return, alright?"

"Yes ma'am!" She hopped up to the front of the class in two broad jumps and took up the stance of watching the others.

"This way." Moondancer led Sombra, Quick, and Toby through the tunnels. She had to pause at a few of the intersections, but she seemed to be getting a better idea of things. Eventually they arrived at the kitchen, where many tsuki worked busily preparing the next meal. "Night Sky?" she called.

A tsuki doe jerked her head around before abandoning what she was cooking to approach the group. "Is good see Moondancer. Is good see Toby." She dipped her head towards Sombra, and spared the time to give Quick an odd look. "What want?"

Quick sneered at her. "I presume we would not be here if you are not the tsuki who displayed magical talent?"

"Yes!" Night smiled brightly. "Have good trick. Want see? Learn from Moondancer." She pointed a paw at the mare. "Is good trick." Without waiting to be asked, she closed her eyes and she began to glow in odd patterns that ran across her furry form. "Have to find... There! Find! Bring!" Her coloration changed subtly before a gathering of light came in along her side and swept up towards a paw. She opened the paw to reveal a crude fork. "See?"

Sombra blinked at the fork. "Did you call the fork from the supplies?"

Night shook her head quickly. "Learn spell from Moondancer. I make fork. I make spoon. I make foodeaters!"

Moondancer nodded as she sat down on her haunches. "I'm fairly sure she will eventually be able to fashion other objects. She will be the first to turn ore into usable objects."

Sombra looked quite pleased. "I expected little upon my return. The status quo would have been sufficient, but you have turned that around."

Quick raised a hoof. "Not so fast. You were brought for a reason. You were to document their primitive culture, have you performed that?"

Moondancer's ears fell. "I started, but became distracted with classes and seeing to the needs of the tsuki. I couldn't deny them... They want to learn, and I can teach."

Sombra snorted with sudden irritation. "That is hardly excuse for slacking in your assigned duties. Resume your documentation." He turned away. "Besides, Toby and the others have learned enough to teach themselves without you for a time."

Author's Note:

This was voted for a bonus chapter for the month by my patrons, so here we are! Sombra returns, and it isn't as bad as it could have been.

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Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Heh, Sombra was practically glowing with praise!
Let's hope the colorful displays of Tsuki magic remain harmonious.
So far so good, Quick Stroke still suspects nothing. Maybe now he's surrounded in the innocence he can get worked on too?
Keep going! ;)

[Booster Spice]

Its going to be as bad as the Enterprise getting caught in that temporal pit. Moondancer started documenting a primative culture and by the time her job is complete, theyll have advanced beyond every other civilisation on the planet.