What a wonderful world

by a touch of sparkles

Chapter 22: What was supposed to be a fun day

“Hey…why are you *yawn* in my…bed?” A groggy Hope asked, she had rolled over hours later and realised that Sombra was next to her. Sombra whimpered and held her tighter nearly stopping her breathing.

“Ow” hearing her made Sombra loosen his grasp and he shifted to lay side by side. Her horn lit up as she shifted the candles around on her bedside table. He watched as she pulled one forward, struck a match and lit the three wicks. They burned softly and warmed the room with a gentle glow.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him, Sombra whimpered and pushed his head into her pillow.

“Did you have another nightmare?” Sombra responded by swiftly nodding his head, a tear found its way out of his eye while the smell of lavender entered his nose.

“Please don’t cry” Hope said while pulling Sombra into an awkward hug as he was twice her size. She held him while Sombra cried, remembering what he saw. Part of him felt a slight sense of guilt, he had woken up Hope and started of whatever a crystal faire was badly. There was a knock at the door and it opened slightly. As always Miss Chestnut had come to wake them up. It took her a moment too realise that there were two foals in front of her.

“Are you two alright?”

“I think he had another nightmare”

“Right, you go down for breakfast Hope, I’ll look after Sombra” Miss Chestnut told Hope who left slowly. Sombra looked up at Miss Chestnut who had placed a hoof on his shoulder.

“Let’s get you to your room” she softly said as he pushed himself off Hopes bed. Miss Chestnut wiped away the tears that had rolled down Sombra’s face. He followed her back to his room where he curled back up onto his bed. He calmed down a little more before going through the process of telling her what he saw in his nightmare.

“Ssh, ssh it’s okay, I think that’s your worst one isn’t it?” she asked while soothing him with gentle strokes. Sombra whined as he nodded, the tears had caused his eyes to start stinging and he could swear it felt as if his hind legs were being crushed.

“Let’s get you some breakfast, then as you can’t go to the faire I’ll stay with you and we can play some games to take your mind off it okay?” Miss Chestnut said. They went downstairs to find that the foals were all jumbled at the door. Mrs Drops was scrambling to get them to calm down. All of them had little saddle bags stuffed full of pocket money. There was a stallion Sombra hadn’t seen before but based of the matching rings in Mrs drops and his left ears Sombra assumed he was her husband. Miss Chestnut shoved Sombra behind the corner of the wall and whispered to him to stay hidden.

“Do we have to have half each Velvet?” Mrs Drops asked.

“Yes, well one of them came down with something that’s left them in bed so I will have to stay here”

“Alright then, come on you lot let’s go!” there was a noise of cheers as the foals were taken outside. The door was shut and Miss Chestnut called Sombra out from the corner.

“Sorry about that, I don’t know her husband well enough to trust him” she said to him while taking him to the kitchen to get his breakfast. Hope was just sitting in her chair waiting, and when she saw Sombra she was instantly out of it. She hugged him then booped his nose.

“You feeling better?” she asked him, Sombra shrugged his shoulders before getting on the seat next to hers. Miss Chestnut placed a bowl in front of him which for once didn’t have yogurt in.

“I know you were getting bored of the yogurt, so I’ll try you on cereal. Just eat small amounts at a time and you should be alright” she told him. Sombra stared at the small yellow rings floating in the milk. He picked up his spoon (which he was still struggling to use) and scooped up some cereal. He put it in his mouth and crunched on it lightly. The crunch was a nice change to mush and he got a slight sweetness from it. However it slightly hurt to eat with the rotten molars that were still in his mouth.

“Do you like it?” Miss Chestnut asked him. He swallowed his first spoon of cereal.

“Its…better” Sombra said. There was something he had been craving for years now and that was his Grandams cooking. He would do anything for one of those skewers.

(“Once all your teeth have grown in I’ll take you hunting”) Opal said to him sensing his desire. Sombra kept munching his breakfast while Hope sat and just twiddled her hooves. She appeared almost bored, but her unfocused eyes suggested she was in some daydream. The trio was mostly quite while he ate, it didn’t take him long to finish, however.

“So you two, what do you want to do?” Miss Chestnut asked them.

“I dunno” Hope mumbled, she was slouched over the table with her for legs stretched out in front of her.

“We have the whole craft box to ourselves” Sombra told her, Hopes ears picked up and so did the rest of her. The pair scampered of to the craft room.

“I guess that’s settled” Miss Chestnut quietly laughed.

-{+}-

Hope and Sombra had pulled out most of the craft supplies. From the glitter glue to the powder paint that just needed water, they pulled out everything. They had already covered an A3 sheet with hundreds of scruffy doodles with either pencils, crayons, pens or any other thing they could find. They had even drawn stuff with glue, chucked glitter on it and blew away the excess. There was pipe cleaner animals with glued on pompoms and paper springs. There was a complete disregard for waste, which Miss Chestnut had given up on enforcing an hour ago. Opal had also given up on protecting his feathers and now sat with a pompom stuffed in his crown.

“Look! Do you like it?” Hope asked as she propped up her picture. She had painted a squirrel with a single peacock feather for a tail and her fairy Clover was with it.

“Why does it have a feather tail?”

“He just does, do you like it?”

“It’s cute”

“Clover can talk to animals, she’s telling him about pecan pie” she said as she added some more green to clovers wings. Hope was rather good with paints, at least in terms of being able to stay in her outlines, or at least make something that could be identified.

From the other side of the Orphanage they heard the front door open, Miss Chestnut was bought to attention and she swiftly trotted off. She returned a minute later with the same pegasus they had met on the way back from the dentist. Now in better lighting Sombra could match his dark blue fur and feathers to the feather in Miss Chestnuts hair. His hair was a half and half split of white and turquoise.

“…I also got you this, I now you have a bunch of pictures in your draw so I thought you might want to keep them somewhere nicer” the stallion said. Hope and Sombra looked over to see him giving Miss Chestnut a thick book. She looked over at the pair.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I think I know a pair that might get better use out of it than me” she said softly to him.

“No, not at all if it’s this pair” he replied, Miss Chestnut walked over and placed the book on the cleanest spot of the table.

“I think you two might like this” she said, Hope stared at it for a brief moment before getting upper excited.

“It’s a scrapbook! We can put pictures of us in it!” she happily told Sombra before flicking through the blank pages. Those pages were pitch black and the side of the book that opened had a ribbon, which Sombra assumed was to tie it shut, at least he believed he assumed, his mind was foggy. He couldn’t seem to concentrate and his stomach started to ache. The world seemed to wobble beneath his chair and his vision shifted from crisp to blurry.

(“What’s happened? Are you alright?”) Opal asked him, yet his voice was faint and Sombra struggled to hear him. He saw a magenta thing wave in front of his face. He could faintly hear other voices around him. A sudden chill washed over him and he began to shiver violently. He believed he was groaning but everything started to disappear.

He felt movement, like he was being carried. He was placed on something soft, his bed maybe. Something heavy was placed over him, it smelt familiar, like his…sire. His stomach was churning and his muscles whined with every little movement. But it was the cold that overwhelmed everything, piercing through every cell of his body. He couldn’t hear much but he felt whimpers in his throat with stuttered breathing. There was someone petting his forehead gently.

Time didn’t seem to end, he shivered for what felt like days. His stomach so desperately wanted to throw up but there was nothing in it to do so, it just ached painfully. There was someone else petting him now, a little more forceful, but more of an accidental force, just heavy hooved. His mind faded in and out, how much longer would this last?

-{+}-

Last time Sombra checked it was light outside, now it was dark. His chill started to go away and so did everything else. He could see properly at least, he rolled over onto his side to find Hope sitting next to his bed. She appeared to have been crying lightly based of her slightly bloodshot eyes, or he had been out of it for days and she hadn’t gone to bed. With him moving she perked up and ran off shouting for…someone. Hope returned with Miss Chestnut in tow, whose face of concern turned to relief upon seeing him not shivering or whimpering.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked him while holding his hoof. Sombra weakly nodded which apparently wasn’t good enough.

“Are you sure? You still look out of it” she said while using the skin above her hoof to feel his forehead. Sombra reached a hoof out weakly, which Miss Chestnut took hold of and lightly rubbed.

“I think maybe you should rest for a while, if you’re hungry I can get you some food?” she asked him, Sombra only groaned as another pang of pain shot through his stomach. He curled up on himself and resided deeper in his blankets. Miss Chestnut sighed as she gave him s kiss on the forehead.

“Hope, stay with him up to lights out ok, I’ll bring up some food and water for him in case he does want to eat” she said before leaving him with Hope. Sombra laid there as he felt the bed shift as Hope snuggled up next to him.

“When you feel better we’ll decorate that scrapbook” Hope told him, Sombra had forgotten about that scrapbook, she seemed so excited about it. he felt bad, he had ruined her day basically. She couldn’t go to the faire, then he became ill. He hoped he was better tomorrow.