Shattered Crystal

Chapter Three:

Dreamcatcher and Amora walked slowly through the snow-lined streets of the stallion's mind. Huge white flakes floated down, featherlike and fragile. Amora caught one on her tounge and smiled as she watched it melt.

"I'm glad to see you're making progress, Dreamcatcher," the alicorn said brightly. "There's hardly any wind anymore-- Perhaps you're feeling less distraught?"

Dreamcatcher nodded slowly, orange eyes turned inward. "I must admit, your Majesty, you are a very calming influence. Have I really been asleep the whole day?"

Amora nodded. "I arranged for you to take a day of paid vacation, Dreamcatcher. I apologize for taking that liberty, but I felt it was necesarry. And it has helped, has it not?"

Dreamcatcher shook his head. "There's no need to apologize, Empress. Take what liberties you will; who am I to speak otherwise?"

Amora stopped and caught the stallion's shoulder. Surprised, he stopped and turned to the Alicorn mare. "You are my friend, Dreamcatcher," she said softly. "And besides that, you are a thinking, feeling pony with your own agenda and desires. I should not stand in the way of you reaching those desires, no matter my rank."

Dreamcatcher paused, letting her words sink in. A rare, genuine smile spread slowly across his muzzle. "Thank you, your Majesty."

Amora snorted and shook her head. "Please. Call me Amora; 'Majesty' sounds too formal for a friend."

Dreamcatcher nodded. "A-Amora, then. Okay. Amora."

Amora smiled at the earth-pony. "Well, now that we're friends..." Her eyes narrowed and she suddenly burst past Dreamcatcher in a rush. "Catch me!"

Dreamcatcher stopped a moment, dumbfounded. Then, before he could stop himself, he was racing through the snowy fields, hounding the Crystal Empress like a diamond dog after gems.

"Hey," he panted as Amora spread her wings and rose into the air. "No fair! I can't fly!"

"So be creative," Amora shot back with a laugh.

"Creative, eh?" Dreamcatcher laughed to himself, rolling hooffuls of snow together. "Well, how do you like this, Majesty?"

Amora dodged the first two missles easily. Her teasing reply was cut off, however, as the third caught her square in the left side, causing her wing to fold reflexivley. She landed in a snowdrift in an undignified heap.

Dreamcatcher rushed to her to see if she was alright, but the stony blue glare warned him away. Shaking snow and ice from her mane and coat, Amora frowned haughtily at the stallion. "So that's how you wanna play, huh?" Her expression warmed with competitive fire as she levitated a dozen snowballs in a cloud around her. "I'm up for it if you still are!"

Before Dreamcatcher could reply, he was dodging snowy bullets as they hailed down. "Gah," he yelped. "I give! I surrender!"

Amora set the remaining snowballs down, approaching the stallion apprasingly. "Alright, I accept. What are the terms of your surrender?"

"This," Dreamcatcher shouted as he kicked a pile of snow into Amora's face. To his surprise, the mare burst into laghter. It turned infectious, and soon enough both ponies had collapsed into the snow, giggling.

"Heehee—You know, Dreamcatcher—snerk—you know, you're one of the best friends I've ever had. No one's played with me in the snow like this since Lulu, Tia, and I were all little fillies."

Dreamcatcher nodded. "This is the most fun I've had in years, Amora. Thank you."

A few quiet moments passed, as the two lay in the snow, simply enjoying eachother's company. Then Amora gasped and rolled to her hooves.

Dreamcatcher stood up as well. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Amora shook her head, fear clear in her eyes. "You have to wake up now, Dreamcatcher. Something happened to Sombra."

Dreamcatcher felt his heart clench. "Sombra? What happened?"

Amora shook her head, gnawing on her lower lip. "I—I don't know. But we both have to wake up now."

The dream dissipated so suddenly, neither managed to notice that Dreamcatcher's snows were melting.

***

Dreamcatcher flew out of bed and bolted down the stairs. The panicked stallion nearly ripped the front door off its hinges as he came nose-to-nose with two startled foals. The smaller of the two, a yellow unicorn filly, squeaked and fell on her rump as her companion, an older pegasus colt, backed up in reflex. The colt recovered first.

"Uh, hello sir...? I'm, um, a friend of Sombra's. We both are. And, uh..." The colt stepped forward and turned, revealing Sombra slung over his back. "He looks like he got into a fight, and a bad one at that. Can you call a doctor?"

Without a word, Dreamcatcher snatched his son up and hauled him upstairs.

***

Sombra's eyes fluttered open to see a blurry, blue-gray shape leaning over him. "Ugh... Mom...?"

The shape winced and came more into focus. "Sorry, lad," the mare sighed, "I'm not your Ma. No, you're a ways off from meeting her again yet."

Sombra pulled his head up. "Oh. Hi, Doctor Patch-up. What's going on?"

The splotchy Shirish mare frowned, her loose lilac bun bobbing behind her ears. "You don't remember anything about last night? Your friends said they found you in a quarry."

Sombra moaned softly and wrapped his hooves around his head. "I was really hoping that was all a nightmare when I woke up here. Is... Is Ten-Speed okay?"

The doctor slowly nodded her great white-and-slate-colored head. "Your friend's at the hospital, lad. He's in good hooves, not to worry. He may have some short-term memory loss, but he'll be fine from what my colleagues were saying. Now. As for you."

Sombra peered up at the doctor, worry in his swollen eyes. "... What about me?"

Patch-up sighed and shrugged into her black saddlebags, her blue eyes weary and half-lidded. "Get plenty of rest, laddie. I don't want you moving from that bed for the next three days, and you're not to leave the house for a week."

"Alright." Part of Sombra was a bit irritated at this medical grounding, but he accepted it. He didn't feel up to moving up and down those stairs anyway.

As Patch-Up opened the door, a feminine voice startled Sombra. "May we come in, Doctor? Is he up to a visitor?"

The doctor mumbled something before stepping aside and letting two ponies enter. Sombra shrank against the pillows. "Gill? Bl—Blossom? What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you aren't dead, you idiot." Blossom's green eyes were narrowed, her frown small and tight. "Running off like that, getting the snot beat out of you... Why even come in the first place?"

Sombra stared at the bed, smothing the taught blankets out with his hooves. "W—well... I, er, that is..."

Gill cut them both off with a raised wing. "You aren't helping anything, Miss," he sighed. "Why don't you go finish that cocoa that nice mare made for us? I'll stay and find out what happened."

Blossom glared daggers at the pegasus, but turned and stalked primly off, growling child's curses all the while. The door slammed in a flare of emerald light.

Gill sighed again and climbed into the doctor's abandoned chair. "So. I guess you know my secret now."

Sombra stared blankly at Gill and cocked his head, wincing at the twinge in his neck. "Uh, no? What secret?"

Gill blinked at Sombra and frowned. "You... Found my hideout. Where I've been living for the last three months? Didn't you notice the bed, and the guitar leaned up against the wall?"

Sombra slowly shook his head. "Nope. I was a bit too busy falling unconsious," he deadpanned.

Gill snorted. "Okay, fine. I'll have to give you that one. But, you still won't tell anyone, will you? If the foal-authorities find out, my Dad'll show up." He winced and shrank a little in his chair. "I really don't want that to happen."

Sombra frowned, wanting to ask what the other colt was so afraid of. Surely his father would be overjoyed to know his son was okay, and want to solve whatever problems still stood between them? "I'll keep your secret," Sombra replied, "on one condition."

Gill raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

Sombra cracked a grin. "You talk to my dad about staying with us. We have the room, and the Princesses know we could use a good set of helping hooves around the place."

Gill stared at his friend a moment, a smile slowly spreading across his muzzle. "Really? I'd like that very much!" He stopped suddenly as a new thought came to him. "Are you certian you have the room, though? Your dad and that mare looked awfully cozy."

Sombra's head began to ache. "What mare?"

Gill shrugged. "Some pink earth-pony. I think she said her name was... Loveline? Something like that, anyway."

Sombra's eyes widened. "Take me down there. Now."

"But the doc said--"

"Now."

"No need for that, Sombra." A pink mare Sombra had never met, walked into the room. Her red-and-white-striped mane was wrapped up between her ears, and her big blue eyes gleamed warmly. A red heart stood out on her hip, flanked by two white wings.

Dreamcatcher followed close behind. "Gill, would you please excuse us? I need to talk to my son about something."

"Uhh..." Gill slid off the chair and sidestepped towards the door. "Sure. Someone's gotta keep Blossom company, right? I'll, uh, just be... Downstairs. In the kitchen. Drinking my cocoa." By this time, Gill had slithered out the door, and now eased it shut, never taking his eyes off the mare.

Dreamcatcher glanced at his guest. "'Loveline?' Is he gone?"

The mare cocked her head to the side, then nodded after a moment. "Yup. He's in the kitchen now, making awkward small-talk with the filly. Can I drop it now?"

Dreamcatcher nodded, and Loveline was enveloped in a flare of white light. When the spots faded from Sombra's eyes, he couldn't believe what he saw. An alicorn princess stood beside his bed, smiling down at him.

"Uh..."

"Hello, Sombra."

"... Hi."

The princess glanced around the room, apparently trying to find a subject. "My name is Amora. Your father's told me a lot about you."

"...Has he now?"

"Yes." Amora was relaxing now, and having an easier time talking. "You know, we were all very worried about you. You showed up pretty badly hurt."

Sombra bunched his pillow up and buried his face in it. "Worry about Ten-Speed. He got hurt worse."

Amora's gaze steeled. "Ten-Speed hurt himself, dear. He and his friend hurt you. Do you see the difference there?"

Sombra glanced sharply up at the mare. "You don't blame me for it? Wait, how do you know what happened?"

Amora reached out and tapped Sombra's muzzle with a hoof. "Of course I don't blame you, silly! Ten-Speed chucked himself down a cliff. How is that your fault? And I'm a Princess. Princesses know things."

"You still shouldn't have snuck out," Dreamcatcher added.

"True," Amora conceded. "That was bad. I, as a Princess, cannot condone sneaking out to costume parties." Then she lifted a hoof to her mouth and added in a stage-whisper: "Sneak-out parties are more fun when you're older, anyway."

"Wha—No they're not!" Dreamcatcher glared at Amora. "Sneak-out parties are never fun! Ever!"

Amora giggled. "Well, Dreamcatcher, it's been fun. Unfortunately, I've gotta go home now. Empire to run, and all that."

Dreamcatcher nodded. "Alright, I understand. Will I see you again soon?"

Amora reached out and hugged Dreamcatcher. "I'll never be gone for long, my friend. Never." The alicorn stepped back, and dissapeared in another flare of light.

Sombra stared at the space the Empress occupied a moment ago. "So... Is she gonna be my new stepmom?"

"What?!" Dreamcatcher stared at his son, shock and embarassment clear on his face. "I don't-- I'm not-- I'm going downstairs!"