Indecisiveness
"Lapis?"
"Mmmm..." A pale turquoise pony stirred to life. "Huh?"
"It's morning."
Lapis straightened herself a bit. "What?" She forced herself to her hooves, separating herself from her bedfellow. She was still in the cave that he had led her too, but the fire that kept her warm had petered out. There was next to no light in the cavern, and it was nearly impossible to see anything. There was no visible sky anywhere. "How can you tell?" she asked her friend.
"It gets warmer and damper in this room when the sun is out," he answered her, picking himself up off the floor. Even in the suffocating darkness, Lapis could barely make him out: A large, grey pony he was, with a large, jet-black mane. His eyes were a deep ruby red, and his mouth bore impossibly sharp canines that practically shined, even without light. The most defining part about him, though, was who he was: Sombra. The former tyrannical ruler of the Crystal Empire, Sombra had allegedly given up his ways and shaped himself into a better pony. Only Lapis knew of this new Sombra, however, as he had secluded himself away within a dark, unexplored cave in the deep of the Everfree known as "Tyrant's Cavern" ever since the liberation of the Crystal Empire.
"Oh." Lapis faltered. There was nothing she could think of to say.
Sombra gestured towards a tunnel that led into and out of the cavern. "Come, follow me."
In her early-morning confusion, Lapis could not entirely process the question. "Wh... what? Why?"
Sombra raised an eyebrow. "Don't you need to get home?"
The realization stuck Lapis. Home. She felt like facehoofing at herself. "Of course." She belonged with her fellow ponies in the Crystal Empire, not out in the wilderness.
Sombra sniffed. "Then come along." He turned and stepped into the tunnel. "Let us get you home, without further ado."
Lapis shuddered at the thought of being in this room by herself. She hurriedly headed out after Sombra.
Beside her, Lapis felt Sombra slow from a trot to a walk. Not wanting to separate herself from him, she did the same, grateful for the cool down. She was not an athletic pony, and even the trot from the back room to here had tested her endurance. She pressed herself against Sombra's side, panting.
Lapis caught a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, and her heart trilled. In the one night she had spent in Tyrant's Cavern, she had come to dearly miss the light and heat of the sun on her face, stuck in this dark damp hole in the side of a mountain. She was almost encouraged to speed up to a canter just to make her way outside. Her thrumming heart and knotted stomach both felt as if they were caught in her throat as she and Sombra stepped towards the outside.
It felt like eternity before they were past the cave entrance and under the sunlight. As giddy as she was to escape Tyrant's Cavern, the brightness of the day caught her off-guard, and she had to shield her eyes against the harsh light the sun hit her with. Everything was indistinguishable in its blurriness and Lapis felt as if she had been blinded. Sombra, however, seemed completely unfazed, so Lapis tried to adjust to the harsh change in light and as her vision cleared, she took a look at the world around her.
The Everfree seemed just as intimidating in the day as it did at night. Dank, rotten trees on all sides, and holly green vegetation everywhere. It was as if the place was made to absorb light. Lapis shuddered, pressing herself against Sombra. He glanced down at her for a split second, but other than that didn't take notice.
"The Everfree's a creepy place," Lapis squeaked.
Sombra nodded. "I agree. Even having braved its dangers for months now, it still chills me to the bone." He sighed. "Well, I suppose it's time for you to head home."
Lapis nodded, eager to be rid of this chilly forest. "Of course!"
Sombra averted his eyes from her. "Very well then," he mumbled. He pointed directly in front of them. "Keep walking straight," he ordered, "Until you see the path. Head onto it and go left, and don't stop until you're out of the forest. Timberwolves are almost always asleep around this time, so they won't bother you."
Lapis stared up at him, a sudden confusion bubbling in her chest. "What's with the directions?"
"So you can get home."
Lapis tilted her head. "Aren't you coming with me?"
Sombra stared at her like she'd just transformed into a changeling. "Are you mad?!" he cried.
Lapis only became more helplessly perplexed. "But..." she protested. "...but isn't it better to live with ponies than in a jungle?"
Sombra stared her down for a minute, then relented with a huff. "Of course it is," he agreed. "But you seem to forget: I'm Sombra. The tyrannical formal ruler of the Crystal Empire. If one pony even caught a glimpse of my face, the Crystal Guards would haul me in for me execution. And I do not want to face eternal damnation just yet."
Lapis's ears drooped. "B-but you've changed!" she argued. "You're not the same Sombra! The fact that I'm standing here proves it!"
Sombra shook his head. "Changing who I am in the present doesn't change what I've done in the past," he sighed. "Besides, what makes you think anypony would be willing to hear me out?"
Lapis squared her shoulders. "Then I'll make them hear you!" she shouted in sudden defiance. "Even just one pony protesting against your execution should shock them into listening!"
Sombra rested a hoof on Lapis's shoulder, staring deep into her. "Lapis," he exhaled, "It's you and me versus the Crystal Empire. Who will win? What I've done to those people is the inexcusable work of a monster. I inflicted unthinkable pain and fear onto them—so much that anyone who lived under my rule will live out the rest of their life fearing me. I was an evil pony, Lazuli, and even if I'm not now, you can't erase the past. I have to stay hidden away from the world lest my one chance to redeem myself is ripped from me by those I've wronged.
"Besides," he continued, his look quizzical, "why do you want me to come with you?"
Lapis was taken for too aback to answer. She couldn't refute anything Sombra had just said. Every single word from his mouth up to his question was the cold, horrible truth, and as much as Lapis wanted to deny it, she was simply unable to. So the shellshocking reality left her unable to speak.
But as Lazuli slowly came to her senses, she asked herself: Why did she want Sombra to go with her? Lapis didn't know how to explain her repulsion towards being away from him, and she needed an answer. What made her want Sombra by her side, his fur against hers, his words meant for her? In these modern times, he was just a pony, just like her, and just like everyone around her. So why did she protest so adamantly against traveling alone?
Lapis knew the answer.
"Because I... because I care about you," she murmured, looking Sombra in the face. "I want you to come with me because I care about you. In just one night, you saved my life twice and brought me to a safe, warm place. And when you look at it in the surface, you'd think that warm place was the room in Tyrant's Cavern with the fire burning.
"But when I think about it, I know it's not that room, Sombra." Lapis ever so slowly reached up to touch Sombra's face. "It's someplace else. And in the one night we've known each other, from looking at the way you handled me so delicately, comforting me every time I was scared, concerning yourself with my contentedness, and making me feel safe, I think I might know where that safe place is.
"I'm not going to deny it, Sombra: I'm timid and I'm unconfident. I live in a world that's too harsh for me, one that I'm scared will beat me into submission. And when we first ran into each other last night, I was absolutely convinced you were going to beat me into submission, too. So 'convinced', in fact, that I submitted immediately just so you would leave out the beating part. But you didn't beat me. Instead, you took me in and brought me into the safest place you could find. And you really did care about keeping me safe, too. Even when we were hundreds of feet apart in a dark cave, you came to me when I called out your name, and when you saw how scared I was, you took me into your hooves and made me feel safe again. You're so gentle to me, Sombra, and in the night I've known this new you, you put me before yourself.
"So, with all this in mind, I've discovered that the safest place you brought me into last night..." Without warning, Lapis threw her hooves around Sombra's shoulders and pulled herself close to him. "...was in your arms." Lapis bravely snuggled into Sombra's chest fur.
Sombra was speechless. Absolutely speechless. In his thousand years that he was alive, living with an addiction-addled mind, he had forgotten his parents and how they had raised him—as such, he knew not what it felt like to be cared about. Everyone he had come into contact with either loathed him or feared him. He spent his life in his own cocoon of isolation, one he had wanted to break out of, but never knew how. Not only was he madly addicted to the mind-numbing power of the crystals, but he was lonely too. To have someone really, truly care for him, and to decide they cared for him so fast, to Sombra felt like some miniature nirvana, a salvation.
And it was overwhelming. Sombra felt his throat tighten as his vision blurred.
Lapis leaned against Sombra, closing her eyes, but she blinked them open as she felt a tiny wet spot grow on her shoulder. "Sombra, is it raining?" she asked.
"N-no, it's not raining," Sombra replied, his voice thick. "The sun..." he sniffed. "The sun's out."
Lapis jerked back in surprise. "Sombra, are you crying?" she gasped. "What's wrong?"
Sombra drew in a shaky breath. "Nothing's wrong," he sobbed, wrapping his hooves around Lapis a little too tightly. "It's just... It's just that I don't remember what it feels like to be loved, o-or to be cared about. I've been so alone my whole life, and for you to say these things after only knowing this version of me for one night..." Sombra couldn't continue. He buried his face into Lapis's neck, tears flowing down his face.
Lapis hurriedly tried to quell her shock and draped her hooves around Sombra. "I understand, Sombra," she murmured into his ear. "I understand."
"Thank you, Lapis," the grey pony whispered, his tears far from drying up.
"No, Sombra. Thank you." Lapis gently gripped Sombra as the former tyrant emptied out his emotions. It took a good while, but Lapis didn't move from her post. She simply let the tears roll, keeping the grey pony steady, letting him stifle his sobs on his own. Finally, as Sombra finally calmed down, he picked himself up, freeing himself of Lapis's embrace. "We've known each other for one single night, but I can safely say that I love you, Lapis," he exhaled.
Lapis wiped the last of his tears from his face. "I love you too, Sombra," she replied. Sombra smiled a real, genuine smile, which Lapis returned.
Then, Sombra brought his face down to Lapis's and kissed the blue pony's lips.
Lapis saw it coming, and kissed right back. She brought her hooves back around Sombra as the two pushed into each other. Sombra's lips were sweet and soft and his kiss spoke with a gentle command, while Lapis's feathery kiss replied with a willing submission. The two of them knew with this tender kiss that not only did their lips make a perfect dovetail, but they themselves fit like a glove. The shy, scared mare and the regretful, unloved outcast.
Finally, the two broke away from the kiss, as they smiled into each other's soulful gazes. Lapis once more nuzzled into Sombra's chest, and Sombra embraced the Crystal Pony, happier than he had ever been in his entire life.
"You know..." Lapis mumbled thoughtfully, her voice slightly muffled by Sombra's fur. "Maybe I don't need to go home just yet. Maybe I can stay around for a day... or two."
Sombra chuckled. "I won't stop you."
Lapis looked up. "Then what are we standing out here for?" she asked. "The Everfree's a scary place filled with wild creatures."
Sombra pulled away from the embrace. "Follow me, then," he guided, stepping into the cave. "You know the drill: Stay next to me."
So Lapis Lazuli followed Sombra into the cave, pressing herself up against his side. He knew the darkness that she didn't, and she stayed pressed against him so she didn't get lost...
...and because she never wanted to be away from him.