What a wonderful world

by a touch of sparkles

Chapter 19: From love to soup on face (i dunno)

Sombra had now been at the orphanage for three months. Even so Hope was the only other foal who had warmed up to him. Sombra had also moved into the lessons with the rest of the class and was getting more fluent in Ponish, yet his writing was still rather off. Although he was enjoying his time, he often had horrid nightmares, many of which always had him hunted down by that monster. But there was always Opal there, and often Hope and Miss Chestnut.

Recently however Sombra and the other residents at the orphanage has noticed Miss Chestnut had become very light on her hooves, very smiley and rather cheerful. As all curious foals did, him and the rest of them (albeit a lot less as many were adopted) had hidden themselves around the corner listening to the two mares in the kitchen.

“You know, you’ve been a lot happier recently, something good happen?” Mrs Drops asked.

“Oh, no, nothing in particular” Miss Chestnut responded flustered.

“Come on, your never like this. Somethings changed”

“No, nothing”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing” there was a brief silence.

“You’re in love”

“What. No! why would I be in love?”

“You’re beautiful, you’re caring, you’re affectionate-“

“I literally don’t talk to any pony outside of work”

“You’re in love, I can tell. No pony goes around almost floating and in some daze and distracted if they’re not in love”

“You don’t have to be in love to be like that”

“Oh really then what’s that blue feather in your hair?”

“What feather?”

“That feather”

“Oh this, it probably just fell off a bird and into my hair”

“A we don’t get blue birds around here, B giant wing feathers don’t just fall out mid-flight, C I think you would have noticed a feather that big falling on you”

“Well what if I wanted to keep it?”

“Then you would have put it in your bag and not tied it into your hair ribbons” there was another silence,

“Fine. You got me…don’t look at me like that, I’m not telling you everything about him”

“Oh come on”

“No”

“Fine, I’ll wait, but I’m guessing it’s a blue pegasus so I’ll be keeping my eye out” the foals heard her hoof steps leave the kitchen so they all silently scrambled back to their rooms. Sombra joined Hope in her room again, in which Opal had stayed behind now cuddled up next to the wax burner.

“Do you really think she’s in love?” Hope asked a little excited

“Maybe” Sombra replied.

“I’m pretty sure she is” Hope bounced over to her calendar on the wall. There was a small drawing on one box.

“Whoever it is, she’ll probably be going to the faire with him, it’s like the time for couples to go on dates” Hope was practically bubbling with excitement for reasons Sombra didn’t quite understand, she wasn’t exactly the one in love.

“Faire?” Sombra asked.

“Yeah, basically it’s a giant party which us being happy powers the crystal heart up and stuff. I mostly like the food”

“Ok, that sounds fun”

“Apparently there were some rumours about Amore putting a spell on the heart or something, I just think she was making sure it wasn’t cracked or something” Hope said as she sat down on her bed. Sombra laid down next to her, kicking his legs out to the side to avoid putting any pressure on the still sensitive, but near healed, wounds. His bandages were gone, but there were nasty pitted and patchy scares left behind. Hope was staring at them much more now that they were no longer covered.

“How’d you get those?” she asked, pointing at his new scars.

(“She is too young, leave her unknowing until she grows up and understands that some things are better left silent, she will blab it’s what foals do. Ignorance is bliss”) Opal said to him, his void eyes were stern. A command, not a suggestion. And so Sombra stayed silent, leaving Hope waiting for an answer she wouldn’t get. Realising that made her move onto another topic.

“Didn’t you use to live in the North?” she asked, Sombra glanced over at Opal and received a small nod.

“Yeah” Hope hopped of the bed and trotted to the window. She pointed out.

“So do you have a name for that mountain there?” she asked, Sombra walked over next to her, it was that giant mountain that towered over the rest.

“I don’t think so”

“We call it Mt Everhoof. It’s the tallest mountain in Equestria, then to the west apparently there’s some creatures called yaks, there like pony goats but really hairy, I haven’t met one though” Hope said, she opened her desk with her magic and pulled out a book, its back pages extended out into a map.

“We’re up here” she said, pointing to the top of the map where the mountains were. “Crystal Empire” was labelled within a ring of much smaller mountains. Sombra could see Mt Everhoof was also labelled. He also read the words “Frozen North” on the very top, yet he felt it was too small to be the whole of the North, the Eye wasn’t on their either.

(“we live on uncharted territory, the North is much larger as it spreads to the other side of the planet, they cannot survive the summer of the North, let alone the winter. Even if they fought of the cold. So they never mapped it”) Opal said to him. Sombra looked further down the map, there were many more labels and lines sprawled over the land. They all originated from one place.

“Canterlot is where the princesses live, it’s also the capital of Equestria. I want to go there one day but the train tickets are really expensive”

(“It’s also not covered in snow and is above zero on average”) Sombra partly ignored Opal however, as his mind was stuck on “princesses”.

“There’s…multiple princesses?” Sombra asked with fear.

“Yeah there two sisters, Celestia is the princess of the sun and Luna is the princess of the moon”

“Are they both like…her?”

“Who, like Amore? Well, I think Celestia’s more like her, apparently Luna’s hides away a bit more, they also wield the elements of harmony, that’s how they defeated discord anyway” Hope told him, causing so many things to go through Sombra’s head, he could sense the confusion on Opals end as well. If they were all like Amore, did they all murder for entertainment? What was harmonious about that? There was a ringing of bells down the corridor. They joined the foals as they made their way down to tea.

Sombra sat down in his usual spot in front of the fire. He didn’t like sitting with the other foals, he was unsure why, he just didn’t like them. He sat with Miss Chestnut, who indeed had a royal blue feather in her hair, as he ate his bread and soup. It was mostly quiet, until there was a small commotion in the main dining room. There was a small scream and Mrs Drops voice silenced the commotion. Sombra could her the slight sniffles of a filly be taken to the kitchen. Miss Chestnut left Sombra in the living room while she went to do her job. She returned with a whimpering Hope, who was pushing a wet paper towel to her face.

“Go sit down” Miss Chestnut softly said, Hope barely picked up her hooves as she walked over. She flopped down next to Sombra and hid her face in her tail. Swallowing the last of his bread he nuzzled her, he didn’t like it when she cried.

“What happened?” Miss Chestnut asked to her colleague.

“One of the colts, I didn’t see who, they chucked some of their soup at her, fresh stuff out of the pot. She should be ok, I had a look it just got her cheek”

“Ok, you have a better authoritative voice than me, you go sort them out and I will stay with Hope” Miss Chestnut said, she sat down with Hope and Sombra. Hope still whimpered into her tail.

“Hope, I know this is the third time they’ve done this this month ok, but please don’t let it get to your head-“

“B-but I’m d-dirty”

“No you’re not, you don’t have to be shiny to be pretty” Miss Chestnut told her, lifting her chin and brushing her hair from her face.

“How’s your cheek?”

“It h-hurts”

“It is a little red isn’t it, just keep that cold”

“Okay” Hope’s sniffling calmed down, Sombra curved his tail around her and started to nibble at her shoulders. He dragged hair through his rotten teeth, grooming that little patch of thin metallic fur.

“Hey, that tickles” Hope giggled, Sombra kept grooming her shoulder until he accidently bit down on the small gemstone starting to grow out of her skin. His head shot back as his front teeth bent over flat, causing his white gums to bleed silver. While it didn’t hurt like he expected it to, the sensation of the teeth tugging as they were pushed was equally concerning.

“You ok?” Miss Chestnut asked him. Sombra opened his mouth so she could see his teeth.

“…I should really get that dentist sorted, I er can’t just take you in, if you can just leave them be and don’t play with them you should be alright” she said as she prodded his bottom lip. There was another clatter, this time from the kitchen.

“Oh now what” Miss Chestnut complained as she went to see what happened. She met Mrs Drops in the corridor.

“I made them do the dishes”

“Who?”

“Caramel, Prince and Rocky, they admitted to throwing the soup at Hope and I just found a bucket of mud propped up on top of her door, just like they did last week. They’ve also admitted to every other little “prank””

“Have you done anything else? I think this deserves more than doing the dishes”

“Well they have no pudding for a month, they are also banned from the playground for a week”

“Ok good, I need to get Sombra to the dentist so maybe in a day or two you might have to do tea on your own”

“Alright then…have you not got that done already?”

“I’m struggling to find one that’s willing to work with him without directly revealing I have an umbrum in my care, but he’s just bent his teeth backwards so I definitely need to get him in somewhere. Have the others gone upstairs?”

“Yes there in their rooms now”

“Alright, I’ll take this pair up” Miss Chestnut returned and took their bowls away. They followed her and kept in their snickers when they saw the three colts looking miserable as two more bowls and spoons were placed in the water. Hope and Sombra returned to their room for the night, in which Hope wanted to be alone for a little bit, so Sombra let her be.

Comments

[Darksoul85]

Sounds like Sombrero Likes hope

[a touch of sparkles]

11108529
Yes he does, but I wont say in which way, although you've probably already guessed. But a little fact is that actual horses groom each other for affection, I wanted to give a little more horsiness to umbrum, or at least a few different actions to ponies. I actually keep forgetting about Sombra's nick name but I think I know a way to get it in, if I remember.