Chapter 3
So that’s why they didn’t want to go home.
King Sombra trekked out of the woods shortly behind the mare that had taken him in the night before, looking towards the building in front of him. It was in good repair, yes, brightly painted, all windows intact, and there were no holes in the roof. All in all, an excellent place to house many foals as they grew up.
Aside from the sign at the end of the path leading to the front door. “Brighter Horizons’ Home for Foals.” An orphanage. The squeals of delight and amusement coming from the foals around him became less frequent and more subdued as the group approached the building, growing completely silent as they passed the threshold of the doors.
The clean, checkered, linoleum-tiled floors led forward towards a simple wooden desk. Behind the desk sat a light yellow unicorn with a golden blond mane, with soft, green eyes and a sad smile. Her solemn expression carried an interesting feeling behind it, Sombra reading it as an unspoken, “I love my job, but I wish I didn’t have to do it.” Her smile became somewhat more genuine when she saw Miss Redheart, further morphing into a smirk below mischievous eyes when Sombra entered behind her.
“Good morning, Miss Redheart, Mister Snowflake, and welcome back, children!” She chirped happily, “I see we’re coming back plus-one, eh? Better than minus-one, I suppose.”
“Oh, haw-haw, Horizons. Very funny. I’ll introduce you later,” Redheart replied, rolling her eyes while Sombra rubbed one foreleg across the other sheepishly. “For now, I would like to report that there were no injuries and all foals are, and were for the duration, present and accounted for.”
“Well I would certainly hope so. Snowflake?”
The big white stallion saluted. “Ma’am yes ma’am. No injuries, all foals have returned safely ma’am!”
Miss Horizons giggled. “Why thank you kindly, you big handsome lug, you,” the mare said, eliciting a blush from Snowflake, the big stallion standing with his head high as his face burned red. Miss Horizons lifted her forehooves off the desk and spun around to dismount a chair beyond Sombra’s view. As she stepped into view, Sombra had to hide a blush similar to Snowflake’s – Miss Horizons was an extremely curvaceous mare, her long golden mane and tail seeming to defy gravity, filling an impossible volume. Surely the subject of many of these little colt’s dreams, Sombra thought, desperately trying to keep his eyes from her body. Still though, she lacked… something that he couldn’t quite put his hoof on. He averted his gaze, his eyes instead falling on Nurse Redheart. There – there was that something, that something he couldn’t place. A slight smile graced his lips, but he caught himself before any teeth showed.
“Come along children, let’s get you washed up, into the bathrooms with you!” she said, ushering the horde of foals through a door on the side of the entryway, leading into what Sombra assumed must be the main part of the building. As she walked through behind them, the former emperor noticed a little flick of her head, which seemed to be mare-speak for ‘we need to talk,’ as Miss Redheart immediately followed her. As the door closed, Snowflake released the breath he had been holding, and seemed to deflate a few inches in the process.
“Good job, sport, not a lot of stallions can keep their eyes from wandering as well as you did, first time they see her. Can’t say I approve of your methods, though – I catch you ogling my sister like that again,” he trailed off, and lifted his front legs off the floor. For a moment, Sombra thought it was pure force of will, but the slight buzzing that filled the room, a sound which Sombra quickly identified as the flapping of the hulk’s tiny wings, before his attention was diverted to the insolent whe- large, friendly, but quite intimidating pony invading his personal space and making crushing motions with his forehooves. “Got it, pal?” Sombra squeaked and nodded.
“I can hear you harassing him, Snowflake, and you’d better stop – I don’t mind if he looks at me like you look at Miss Horizons here!” Redheart called through the door. Sombra tried to hold in his laughter as the nearly audible blush covered everything north of Snowflake’s shoulders bright red, but failed, the deep, rolling growl filling the room – and for a moment, Sombra found himself not caring about his distorted voice. He laughed like he hadn’t in thousands of years, at a situation he hadn’t been in in thousands of years. Laughing at the misfortune of a friend. Somepony that Sombra actually considered a friend. Moreover, somepony that considered Sombra a friend. That realization fell upon him like a snowflake, and the rolling laughter began to fade, and he felt something in his heart twinge. A slight burning sensation rose to his eyes and he realized that he was crying. No dramatic, heaving sobs or wails, just… crying.
“Hey man… are you… you alright?” Snowflake’s boisterous voice dropped to a low tone of concern, one hoof moving to rest gently on Sombra’s shoulder. The king smiled and wiped one of his eyes with a hoof. His only reply was (attempting) to throw his hooves around the colossal Pegasus’ neck and hug him. Snowflake started and moved back just a little, then leaned back slightly to return the hug, this time much more tender than the bone-crushing embrace he’d given in the forest.
---
“I can hear you harassing him, Snowflake, and you’d better stop – I don’t mind if he looks at me like you look at Miss Horizons here!” Redheart yelled through the door, as her friend (and boss) giggled into a hoof. The white nursemare shook her heard and chuckled. “So what was it you wanted to talk about?”
Brighter Horizons’ expression sobered up. “Redheart.”
Oh boy.
“What in Celestia’s name were you thinking bringing your coltfriend on the camping trip? And letting him sleep in your tent at the fillies camp no less? I trust you, and you are a dear friend to me, but this is a demonstration of a serious lack of judgment on your part. What were you thinking?” Horizons shook her head emphatically, a few of her golden locks tumbling over her face, obscuring an eye. She blew a puff of air at it once, twice, a third time trying to get it out of her face, and harrumphed as she had to settle on using magic to put it back.
“He’s not my coltfriend! Goodness! I met him last night! He wandered into the camp, hurt, afraid, and quite possibly very sick. I know, this was an enormous breach of protocol, but I just…” Redheart paused for a moment, a exhaling a pained sigh through her nose, “had to help him you know? I’m a nurse by trade and a healer by destiny,” she added, pointing to her cutie mark, “I couldn’t just turn him away. Besides, I wasn’t going to make him sleep outside or with my brother. Neither of those would have helped.”
Horizons’ brought a hoof to the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. “Okay, I understand where you’re coming from. It makes sense. You shouldn’t have done it, but I understand why you did. Goodness, Redheart, you’d bring a Hydra home if it looked like it had stubbed its toe.”
“Oh please, it’s not like he’s some great threat to Equestria or anything like that. He’s just a pony. A mysterious pony with glowing green eyes that trail purple smoke, fangs, can’t talk, is a unicorn who won’t do magic, that literally walked out of the night to meet me… ok fine, I see the problem with that. But he had ample opportunity to do me harm if he had wished, and he… didn’t, and absolutely cowered under the implication that he had.”
“Alright, fine, but if anything backfires, this is on you, ok?” The mare paused, waiting for acknowledgement. Redheart nodded, and she continued. “Well… how was the trip? Everything went according to plan? Your brother seemed pretty confident there were no injuries.”
“Oh yeah, everything went fine. The children thought the Tree of Harmony was absolutely beautiful, and greatly enjoyed spending a day up at the lake. The weather really was beautiful…” Redheart trailed off.
“I’m sensing a ‘but’.”
“It’s just… Tag-a-long. I’m worried about her. She was the one that met Sombra-”
“Sombra?”
“The unicorn. That’s what he said his name was.”
“I thought you said he didn’t talk.”
“He doesn’t. Or tries not to, at least. He scratched his name in the dirt with a stick. Anyways, not the point. Tag-a-long was the one that met Sombra first – and no, that’s not why I’m concerned, either – because she was out alone late at night, just sitting by herself at the fire. She’s been doing that more lately, keeping more and more to herself and spending less time with the other kids. I know she’s been here longer than most others but… I think she’s starting to fear she’ll never get out of here.”
Brighter opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, fillies and colts started streaming back out of the bathrooms and past the two mares. Not wanting to discuss it in front of the children, the two waited until they had all shuffled past into the common area – some grabbing books, others toys, but most just sitting down and talking excitedly as young children often do.
“Snowflake?” Redheart called, “Could you come in here and keep an eye on the kids for a bit?”
“Uh… yeah, sure. Just… just gimme a minute,” the booming voice floated through the door, following by a hiss. “What are you doing? She’s gonna get mad!”
Puzzled, they shared a look, and pushed through the door into the reception hall.
---
Sombra gently pulled away from the hug, and this time Snowflake let go as well. Sitting back to enjoy the warmth of his newfound friendship, the black unicorn looked around the room, taking in his surroundings. He wanted to remember every detail of the moment he made his first new friend. Then his eyes settled on Miss Horizon’s desk – which was, quite frankly, a mess.
I can help with that! I ruled a VERY exact and precise kingdom for a very long time. Perhaps I don’t want to order the execution of the papers that get out of line, though. Odd that I can make humor of that now, though humor is a method of detachment, so they say. Might want to be careful with that. This is something I can’t just forget, but must atone for.
Standing back up, he slowly began his walk over to the desk, examining the various objects strewn about on it’s surface – a not insignificant quantity of paperwork, several pens and pencils, a lamp on a skewed angle, among other knick-knacks and a couple photo frames. Two paper baskets (neither labeled) were haphazardly misaligned on the right edge of the desk, a single accidental tap from falling onto the floor and spilling their contents everywhere. A moment’s use of magic could sort the entire thing, but Sombra wasn’t willing to chance it.
“What are you doing?” Snowflake asked, tentative.
Sombra opened his mouth to reply, thought better of it, and instead grabbed a piece of chalk and scribbled on the blackboard behind him.
“Helping,” it read. Or so Snowflake guessed, it was a little difficult to tell with how messy the writing was.
Faust above I’m out of practice, I haven’t hoof-written anything myself for the better part of two millennia.
Turning back to the desk, Sombra grabbed each of the paper baskets and set them down on the floor, to keep them out of the way, and as to prevent any accidental spillage. Next, the pens. Sombra could see four of them scattered about the desk, one of which was apparently missing its cap. He gathered them up and set them to the side, choosing the lamp as the next object of his focus. It was one of those long, skinny things meant for illuminating, well, a desk. The optimal position for it would have been at the back center of the desk, but that would obscure Miss Horizons’ view of the door as ponies entered, so he instead decided to put it in the back left corner. Switching the lamp on and off briefly to assure it still provided adequate, even brightness for the primary work area, Sombra nodded to himself and set to work on the photos and assorted other trinkets. The largest photo was also the oldest, a black and white photo depicting a young unicorn standing in front of two smiling Pegasi. The little filly in the front looked somewhat like Miss Horizons, and Sombra came to the logical conclusion the two Pegasi must be her parents. He set the photo on the back corner of the desk opposite the lamp, with the two smaller photos spaced out beside it so as not to obscure the contents of the larger frame. As far as he could tell, the smaller photos were singular portraits of the parents in the image, and Sombra thought they looked nice flanking the larger family photo.
Just as he sent them down, something grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him away from the desk.
“Sombra! You can’t just do that! You can’t go through another pony’s stuff like that without their permission, even if it is with good intentions,” Snowflake reprimanded, his tone less anger and more… empathetic, almost. Nonetheless, he raised an excellent point. Asking permission to do things was something Sombra had not had to do in a very long time, and the thought hadn’t even occurred to him.
Well, in for a bit, in for a bucket, as they say. I think. Sombra made a slow deliberate nod, and tried to gesture with his hooves as to indicate “I’m already in this deep, there’s no sense in stopping now and trying to re-mess up the desk.”
Somehow, miraculously, Snowflake seemed to (mostly) understand what Sombra was saying, and backed down, if he did still look a little nervous.
Setting back into his work, Sombra decided the next logical step was the pile of paperwork. Thankfully, there only seemed to be one sort of form on the desk at the moment, something labeled “Monthly Evaluations,” which looked to be some form of report card. Sombra smiled when he realized every paper (that was complete, at least) had an “A” in every area – objective things like academics, or personal hygiene, as well as the more abstract ideas of friendliness, or helpfulness. What he could hardly believe, however, was that the papers were not in alphabetical order. Honestly, she seems like a nice pony but how can she get anything done around here without at least alphabetizing?
“Come on Sombra, that much at least is important paperwork, don’t mess with that,” Snowflake urged.
“Snowflake!” Redheart’s voice carried through the door, “Could you come in here and keep an eye on the kids for a bit?”
“Uh… yeah, sure. Just… just gimme a minute,” Snowflake replied, in what was not the most stress-free of voices. Turning back to Sombra, he hissed, perhaps a great deal more loudly than intended. “What are you doing? She’s gonna get mad!”
The double doors pushed open, and Sombra met Miss Horizons’ gaze with the look of a teenage stallion whose parents just caught with his hooves buried in his crotch. Never breaking eye contact, he gently tapped the stack of papers against the desk twice to straighten them, then gently set them down, patting them gingerly as if to say “There, all done,” before slowly stepping away from the desk.
“What in Equestria were you doing?” Brighter began, her voice rising in both pitch and volume as the question went on, “You can’t just mess with another pony’s stuff like that!”
“I tried to tell him that, Ma’am, but he insisted on continuing cleaning anyways!” Snowflake interjected, with an emphasis on the word “cleaning” that made clear the attempt to both keep his own hooves clean while trying to pull Sombra out from underneath the metaphorical bus.
“Don’t you ‘ma’am’ me right now mister, there’s not a pony in this town, not even Big Macintosh, that you can’t stallion-handle like a foal, you full well could have… could have…” Brighter trailed off as she finally began to process how nicely her desk was arranged now. Papers were neatly stacked, pens aligned neatly, the photos actually placed logically, and the lamp out of the way. It was the cleanest her desk had been in… well, in a very long time.
Sombra sheepishly rubbed a leg, waiting for the reaming to resume again. Redheart looked at her friend, trying to determine what exactly was going on in her mind. Snowflake stood at attention, eyes locked straight at the wall above Miss Horizons’ head. A few more awkward seconds ticked past, and she spoke.
“Look, Sombra. I don’t know whether to be upset or grateful right now. So, I’m going to go with both. Thank you very much for cleaning my desk. Redheart, get him out of here.”
“Yes, Miss Horizons,” Redheart replied, putting a foreleg over Sombra’s shoulder and guiding him to the door. “Come on, let’s go grab something to eat. I’m hungry and I’m willing to bet you’re starving…”
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IT'S ALIVE!!!
5170379 inorite?!
Been a while since I saw this up. Glad to see it back.
I just want to ask, how do people get the freaking MOTIVATION AND PLOT IDEAS TO WRITE A FULL STORY
AND THEN THERES ME WHO CANT HAVE BOTH AT ONE TIME
AND IS BLOODYING HIS DESK IN ANGER.
I was starting to think that you will never update this story.
Huh, that's a unique one.
WHAT'S THIS!? AN UPDATE!?
...I had honestly forgotten this story. TIME TO RE-READ AND CATCH UP!
woa finally, after like eight months, nice to see this story continue
I want to read this but am hesitant... Is this going to actually be a thing or will I need to wait another year and a half for it to update? =\
5170421 In the same boat friend...well except for the bloody bit.
So far this is looking fantastic!!
5170475 Tis a sad world for us.
this story is really good!
Glad to see that you have returned to this one.
LIVE LIVE! DON'T DIE ON ME NOW!
5170421
Just smoke. Mostly of the time i feel like that in life.
new chapter
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good job
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Ooh, this looks good...
5170469
This time I'm DEFINITELY sticking around, at the very least long enough to finish this. With luck, new chapters should be out in a little over a week each time, provided I don't get super bogged down with homework or other real-life stuff.
5170833
Yeah, this fic was started well before Bulk had a canon name. He'll remain Snowflake in this fic, though.
Just when I thought this story would never get updated. Does this story now take place after season 4?
Last time I read this, my sister wasn't married and didn't have a 1 year old.
Stop right there you criminal scum!
Did you went journey to save the world?
affiliatebible.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wise.jpg
Finally an update!
Fair enough.
I'm SO happy that this story updated! Yay!!!
This, I like it. I await the next chapter eagerly.
sombra defender of awesomeness!
Snowlake missed the horizon.
I remember having this story in my Read Later list for six months and thinking it wasn't going to update. Looks like I was wrong, huh?
Oh, and by the way, OH LAWDY IT UPDATED.
Yes!!! You're back
What are the other two?
5195157
The other two are Path of the Starclaw and Suikoden Equestria, the latter of which appears to be on indefinite hiatus (its last update was July of last year).
Update news: Chapter Four is fully written and ready for upload tonight, pending pre-read.
I love the prospective change. Very smooth and nice. Thank you for the new ideas for mine!
There is 'screaming' and then there's 'Reaming'.
Re-organizing a mare's desk?
*Shrugs* I suppose you gotta somewhere on your path to redemption.
5501727
Well, never mind the perhaps sensitive material a orphanage directors desk may have, there is another dilemma.
Females, of any sort, enjoy their privacy. Not sexist, just a fact. Woman don't like people riffling through their things, whatever the reason. And any stallion with a lick of sense knows that.
5532498 Personally, I'd say that goes for 'anyone' really... granted, any guys with brains in their skulls or who aren't seriously impaired, tend to just keep 'anything important' safely out of the possibility of being riffled through like that, though nothing says a gal can't use the same logical solution to avoiding anything important being tampered with.
5697458 Yup. Probably, as per cliche, 'the romantically involved character finds out x isn't who they thought they were, and breaks up over that, and then they get back together, because, story, right?'
Why is sombra a wimp? Like seriously, he is a dark magic user, which is one of the scariest motherfuckers in fiction. So why is he jump at everything that just looks like a threat.
8361061
His scared of becoming a monster again
8361061
please tell me where to find the crossover mentioned in your pic (if it's not possible, then please explain the gist of it, and i shall (attempt) to make it into a fic)