Changeling Trust

by Nightmare Rift

Day 52: Return Home

Styx's POV:
I wake up to a note from Sombra on the nightstand.

Styx,
The girls and I will have returned home by the time you wake. Come home when you want to, I'm sorry for last night, I wasn't thinking straight. I will make dessert tonight for you and the girls out of the crystal berries. I am using a recipe my mother taught me when I was a filly.

Sombra

I decide to just go straight home. Cadence will have the baby soon enough, but best to leave her to rule in peace for right now. No need to stir up more trouble than yesterday. I appear in the living room to see Sombra reading his old journal, and the girls playing hide and seek around the house. As both girls run upstairs I lay on the couch, as Sombra is in the chair. I planned to look at his journal but it seems that I will be unable to until a later date. I curl up into a ball and await any conversation from Sombra.

"Your silent and brooding demeanor suggests that something is indeed wrong. Don't tell me that I am the reason for that."

"And if it is?"

"Then we need to resolve it before the girls catch on to our not talking to each other. As we don't need to involve them in our quarrel."

"Our quarrel? The only time anypony calls an argument between two ponies a quarrel is when it is between lovers. Are you implying that that is what we are?"

"And if I am?" he asks, smirking as he used to when we were being mischievous around the castle.

"Then we need to have a discussion when the girls aren't here. However, we won't be able to for at least the next three days. So, you'll have to hold off for a little while. For now, let's move on and spend time with the girls. Starting with you making dessert while I make dinner. Are you making the Crystal Berry Parfaits you made me when I was a filly?"

"Yes, I assumed that it would be nice for the girls to have something that you had back when you first knew me. So I went with something close to home."

"I'm assuming you took the girls to the market to get everything you needed?"

"Yes, I also thought that you would want to make the Crystal Berry Lasagna, since it is one of your favorite meals we ever made together. So I also got all of the ingredients for that."

"Thank you Sombra. Let's just leave the girls to their game and cook."

We begin cooking our individual meals and of course, Sombra finishes first as it was easier. About thirty minutes later I finish with dinner and Sombra calls the girls down to eat. As I dish out a piece for each of us, I have come to realize that Orla wants Sombra to feed her more than she wants Mystel or I to. Both of the girls dig in eagerly and both, not surprisingly, love it. The nice sweet, flaky layers with berries and honey in between. Mystel helps me clean up dinner while Orla helps Sombra bring dessert to the table. The girls slowly eat their parfaits, commenting on how good they are. I take my first bite and am instantly transported back to a time when he brought me this treat for my birthday back when I turned five. It was a very special day, one of which I wish that I could relive, but I could only do so alone. "Ah-hem."

I focus back into reality to find that Sombra and the girls are done and I have barely touched mine. The girls are falling asleep so I leave my dessert to help get them ready for bed. I lay Orla and Mystel each in their respective beds, telling them goodnight before going back downstairs to finish my dessert.

As I arrive downstairs I realize that Sombra is passed out at the table sleeping. Knowing that this is my chance, I charge my horn and touch it to the ground. Instantly I recreate the scene of my fifth birthday. My adoptive parents and Sombra sitting around me. I sit down at the table and then go back to my vision of Sombra feeding me the parfait. At one point he boops me on the nose so I have to lick it off with my tongue, so I do so. Wait, why is there actually whip cream on my nose? I stop the magic of my horn and blip back to reality. I see Sombra awake and sitting at the table holding my spoon, having just booped me. He sets the spoon down, blushing all the while, before booking it out the front door. I lick the whip cream off my nose and go chasing after him. We arrive in the middle of the town, the fountain. I hide behind a building as he sits down on a bench. "Why am I so stupid!? Why couldn't I have just left her alone? I shouldn't have ruined her daydream, after all I was asleep not mere minutes before. Argh!"

I can't stand him beating himself up like this. I run out from behind the building and straight for him. I stop right next to the bench in front of him. "Sombra, you didn't ruin the daydream, you just surprised me is all."

He looks at me in shock, "But, you looked so happy in the dream and then you stopped as soon I intervened. I shouldn't have done anything!"

"Stop beating yourself up over every little mistake. Everypony in Equestria makes mistakes like this. Even Celestia, Luna, and Starswirl. They just won't admit or try to learn from those mistakes. You can, but what you did wasn't a mistake, it was just a surprise. So, let's go back home and rest."

"Okay, but I promise not to intervene again in something like that."

"It's okay, nothing happened. Besides it was making it even more real for me." I say, and he looks at me as if he is still at fault. I open my mouth to say more but don't. He already has taken the blame, and he doesn't know how to let it go. We walk home in silence, all the while I think about what it must be like for him, never really having somepony to tell him that mistakes are okay, that they are a part of life. Always having to be the picture of perfection, never showing weakness to anypony else. However, there is nothing I can do except let him come to it on his own terms. We reach home, I clean up my dessert and wander to my bed, not telling Sombra goodnight as he has already locked himself in his room. I want to read the journal, but refrain from doing so, as I don't want to upset myself even more.