What a wonderful world

by a touch of sparkles

Chapter 16: Fast learner

Sombra had resided under the bed. He could see all around him, he could see something before it could see him. He could hear the shuffling of hooves outside his room as the other foals got up. He could also hear the two mares waking up others. Then his door opened slowly and he saw a familiar flow of brown hair.

“Sombra? where are you?” Miss Chestnut asked. He watched her hooves walk around the bed. Opening the curtains light flooded into the room, he felt safer yet his legs wouldn’t budge.

“Sombra?” she called out to him again. He watched her front hooves place in front of the bed. One lifted up slightly, before setting down again. They folded down along with her hair piling up and he saw her concerned face appear in the gap.

“What are you doing under the bed sweety?” she said to him softly. He tried to get closer to him yet his legs still wouldn’t move. She slipped a hoof out towards him, stroking his knee softly.

“I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone last night” she told herself. Sombra finally managed to force his legs to pull himself out from under the bed, where he cuddled up into her despite being the same size. She lightly squeezed him while he cowered in her chest.

“let’s get you down to breakfast, then we’ll start your lessons” she told him as she coaxed him to stand up. He followed her out and she led him to a cosy room with a fireplace in it.

“Stay here, I won’t be gone for long” she told him. When she left he looked around. There was large crates labelled “toys” and there was plush seats on the edges of the room. When Miss Chestnut returned with a small bowl and spoon, Hope was trailing her.

“Morning!” Hope practically bounced over to him. Miss Chestnut placed his breakfast down in front of him. He looked at the thick liquid with the fruit scattered in it.

“It’s yogurt! It will be softer for your teeth” Hope told him, she was a little too excited to see him.

“Calm down Hope. Let him eat and then we’ll get to your lessons” She told Hope as she sat on one of the sofa’s and watched them. Sombra sniffed at the food before taking a hesitant lick. It didn’t taste like much, yet his night of being up made him hungry and the fruit added some taste. He ate it without the spoon, not quite understanding it.

“Why don’t you use the spoon? You’re a unicorn so you can use your magic” Hope asked him, taping his horn. He flinched from her tapping which he looked at her confused.

“you know, like this” she demonstrated by igniting her horn and lifting the spoon in sparkles. But Sombra didn’t watch the spoon, he instead stared at her horn. He seen their horns glow before. Amore’s was gold, yet Hope’s was blue. He believed he did have magic. But he rarely saw other umbrum use it. At most he could remember Folwin and Folre using a black fiery version of it.

“You know how to use it right?” she asked him, which he shook his head again.

“You just…erm…I dunno…think about lifting stuff?” she questioned herself. Sombra stared at the spoon, he imagined it floating. Nothing happened. He clenched imaginary muscles in his horn and the ones in his forehead. Nothing happened.

“If your finished we need to get you two to your lessons” Miss Chestnut said, interrupting his third attempts. They both turned to see she had already got up and was about to leave the room. Hope coaxed him to follow, his legs ached but he willed himself through it.

He followed the pair outside briefly before they entered another smaller building. There were many more rooms which where all connected to one corridor. Miss Chestnut took them into a relatively small room with rows of seats. She sat them down opposite her.

“Right, you two just sit here. Hope, I’ll go get your books” She said just before she left the room. Hope turned to him looking less excited.

“She’ll make me do maths, I hate maths” Hope said bluntly as she rested her head on her hoof with a pout. Miss Chestnut quickly returned with some books balancing on her rump. She placed one in front of Hope and her expression dropped even more.

“Whyyy?”

“Because the others are doing maths, so will you” Miss Chestnut told her while sitting down in front of them. She placed another book in front of Sombra.

“I assume you know how to read and write a little bit based of yesterday, I’ll just help you get the hang of our language” she said as she opened his book. Miss Chestnut over the hour taught him how to hold his pencil properly after it being her turn to learn he can’t use magic. Slowly he learnt how to write a few odd words.

“I guess you’re a fast learner, or maybe you’ve been so under stimulated for two hundred years your brains became a sponge” Miss Chestnut joked.

“I’m done” Hope said as she dropped her pencil, boredom written all over her face. There was a brief quiet as Miss Chestnut marked hers and Sombra continued to copy out the sentences she'd given him.

“Ok, just go over those two”

“…fine” Hope mumbled as she picked up her pencil again. Miss Chestnut looked over to see Sombra had finished his lines.

“Wow, you are fast aren’t you” she commented as she took his book and looked over it.

“Just need to work on your e’s”

RING, RING, RIING

“Break! Come on let’s go!” Hope cheered as she leapt out her seat. She motioned for him to follow her.

“I want to keep Sombra for a little bit, just go wait outside Hope” Miss Chestnut said to her.

“Oh…ok” Hope replied leaving the room. Miss Chestnut turned to face him again.

“So, what happened last night? Why were you under the bed?” she asked him softly. Her eyes had softened much more than usual and she now held his hoof. Yet he didn’t say anything, he didn’t really know how to say anything to be fair. At least in ponish.

“You really aren’t much of a talker are you? Was it a bad dream?” he nodded in response, he believed it was a bad dream anyway. He had had nightmares before but none were as bad as last night.

“Maybe it’s better if you draw it” Miss Chestnut said to neither of them as she rustled through another draw, pulling out a piece of paper and a few crayons. Sombra picked up one of the crayons and started to draw what he saw. Miss Chestnuts face dropped as he drew him, his sire and the strange floating jaw with the golden glow. She was unable to form words as her jaw trembled slightly at the picture.

“I’m…I’m not surprised you were under the bed…Goodness” she rubbed her face, before taking a deep breath.

“I can see if I can stay over for a few nights, that way if you have another you can come get me” she suggested, Sombra lightly nodded in response.

“Alright then, I’ll see what I can do. Now go on outside, Hopes waiting” she told him as he retraced his hoof steps back out through the door. And as she said, Hope was sitting right outside the door.

“What took you so long?” she asked quickly hopping up to her hooves.

“Come on, talk, I know you can” she pleaded wanting something more than a nod. He didn’t know why he couldn’t get words out, he had done it yesterday. All he could let out was a mewl.

RING, RING, RING

“we didn’t even get to play” Hope mumbled as she walked back into the building. Sombra followed her back to their room while the other foals filtered in behind them. they sat back down in their seats for another lesson.

-{+}-

They day had gone by relatively quickly. Sombra didn’t quite know where it went. At least the school half of the day did, now it was just free time. The other foals were in the main room playing. Miss Chestnut had told him its best to keep him as far away from public view, so he was stuck in the bedrooms. But instead of his, he was in Hopes.

Her room was the same as his but flipped around. Although having lived in it for seven years she had a collection of things. The big one being candles. Different colours and scents lined her bedside table. She was currently picking one, glancing between them. she settled on a yellow one which appeared untouched. Striking a match she lit the wick.

“I haven’t tried this one yet” she mentioned as she put out the match after. She trotted back to the door.

“Lemme go get something” she told him as she trotted of down the hall. Sombra sat in the middle of her room, watching the sky change colours through the window. He could just see the peak of a mountain blurred out in the distance. His attention shifted when he smelt the aroma coming from the candle. A fruity one, but it got more pungent.

“I got it” Hope’s voice started him as she appeared in the doorway. There was a flat box floating next to her. She sat down with him and emptied out the contents. There was a folded up board, a small cube and four coloured pieces.

“Snakes and Ladders!” he stared at her blankly.

“…you don’t know it do you…er pick one” she placed the coloured pieces in front of him. He picked the red one, then she took the blue one.

“Place it here then you roll the dice” she said placing her piece at the begging, he did the same, pushing it with his hoof onto the board. Hope picked up the dice and flipped it in her magic. It landed on a six.

“So I move six spaced forward” she said as she floated her piece from one to six.

“your turn” she told Sombra giving him the dice. He picked it up in his hooves then tossed it forwards, landing on a two. He pushed his piece forwards two, there was a shape on it.

“You landed on a ladder, you go up ladders, so you go to twenty three” it took Sombra a moment to process it, before he just shuffled his piece up the ladder, to what he assumed was twenty three.

“If you land on a snake you go down, that’s about it. You just have to get to a hundred and you win” Hope then took her turn moving forward again, then it was his turn. They kept going, often going up then down. eventually Hope was on nighty six, rolling a four she would get to a hundred and win. However she only moved three, landing on a snake that took her down to twenty six. Sombra looked at her confused, tilting his head slightly.

“I want you to win” she said kindly. It wasn’t too long before Sombra won. Hope smiled and clapped her hooves. But Sombra didn’t feel like he won, she did just give it to him. If he was going to win, he wanted too properly. So he pushed his piece back to the begging, and they played again. By the end of the night they were even after four games.

“Time for bed you two” Mrs Drops said through the door. She surprised Sombra as he still wasn’t quite familiar with her. As he stood up Hope grabbed his leg then pulled him into a cuddle.

“Good night!” she said tiredly as she let him go.

“come on you two, to bed” Miss Drops repeated which Sombra followed her out, leaving Hope to go to bed. Sombra headed back to his own room and climbed into his bed, he preferred having the curtains open as they let a bit of light in. just as he laid his head on the pillow his door opened.

“Oh, you’re already in bed” Miss Chestnut said.

“I’m able to stay over for a couple nights, so if you need me just follow the nightlights down the corridor. My room has the blue one next to it ok” she informed him as she walked in and gave him a light kiss on the head, before leaving and closing the door.

He woke up in the same place, muddy and wet. He could see the trees around him, and that same glow in the distance. Yet he did not trust it this time. He looked around the darkness. He decided to go in the exact opposite direction of the light. He wandered and hid between the trees. He noticed the glowing light was shifting in the same direction as before. He could see just in the glow it was almost equine shaped, but extremely gangly and thin.

He continued a little faster, he still couldn’t hear that well, but he had a feeling it could hear very well. In the distance he could see a small shack, it was slightly hidden by trees. He hurried over to it, yet he attempted to keep his hoof steps quiet. Looking back he could see the figure eating something from the ground.

He finally entered the little shack. It was rattly and withered yet he felt it was more shelter than anywhere else. He cowered inside of it. he pressed his body up against the wall trying to make himself flat. He peeked around, the glow had gotten a little bigger. Every now and again he peaked and he noticed something he hadn’t thought about. It was following his trail. He panicked when he realised it as slowly the glow started to leak into the shack. He pressed his dark body into the equally dark corner.

Long strands of hair started to hand over him, he felt a heavy rotten breath wash over him. He braved a look upwards. A face with a ripped open toothy grin and wide veiny eyes stared at him. He screamed as its jaws opened wide as it bit down into his spine. His body was lifted as he was dropped and grabbed again.

Sombra woke up with cold sweats. Tears dripped down his face as he stared at the ceiling. His body trembled and he could swear his back hurt. Rolling onto his front he contemplated the door as more tears slowly dripped down his face, landing in the soft cotton. It took him a minute to think, he didn’t like the dark, but he could see the faint shimmer of the nightlights. As he got up on shaky legs he didn’t see one teardrop shimmer softly as it landed.

Sombra poked his head out into the corridor. He saw the line of lights which he followed out into the dark. The crystal walls reflected creating unwanted shadows that moved. He came to a t-cross where he looked down one side and saw the little blue light. He pushed open the door next to it, to see a much larger lump in the bed which he assumed was Miss Chestnut. He lightly walked over nuzzling her leg, stirring her from her peaceful sleep.

“wha…oh…Sombra…you okay?” she asked groggily. He nuzzled her again with a whimper. She pulled the blanket aside and shuffled over closer to the wall. Sombra crawled up to her and snuggled into her chest. It was an awkward fit as they were both similar sizes, but Miss Chestnut slowly petted his head as he continued to tremble. She made sure to stay awake until he drifted off again

Comments

[Darksoul85]

I love the chapter you did here it's very touching and gives a new look on him to keep up the good work