The king sat on his throne, bored. The entire day had been dull and lackluster. No information had been sent back yet. All of the birds that they had received were twittering gibberish. Could the enemies have learned of his plans? Perhaps they used a new form of magic to keep the birds silent. Or maybe... Perhaps a spy...?

The young king rolled his eyes at the thought. There was no possible way a spy of all things could slip through his mist. Only the most trusted of his advisors were given the honor of overhearing plans or helping form them.

A dark blue crystal pony with a light blue mane stepped inside. She was out of uniform, but seemed a bit anxious and jumpy. He'd rather not frighten her on the first day, so he let it slide.

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"Soldiers found another mass of birds 54 measurements north of the eastern boarder."

"How many?"

"We are very unsure, Sir, but a rough estimate is about 20,000."

"We never sent nearly that much!"

"Yes, Sir. I am aware. It is possible that the enemy may have tricked us, or bred the birds. It is even possible that they fed them false information."

"Nonsense. There is bound to be at least one bird in those thousands that has at least one piece of helpful information."

"I suppose, Sir."

The king leaned back against his chair.

"You are dismissed."

The servant walked out of the throne room, as quickly as she had entered.

The hours ticked by, minute by minute, second by second. Today seemed to be lagging on forever. The clock appeared to move even slower by every second. Everything was in a haze. The clouds didn't even appear to move at all...

It was oddly quiet.

Sombra had never remembered such a vast silence before. Not a bird twittered, nor a citizen trot. Where was everyone? Sombra slowly closed his eyelids. He was very tired. He hadn't gotten any sleep in such a long time. He just needed a rest. Just a small one. A quick nap never hurt anyone.

He stretched out and yawned. He then proceeded to very slowly close his eyes and-

Wait.

Something isn't right. The king has been restless lately, but he hasn't been working himself over. 20,000 birds? They sent much more than that. Something isn't right. What was wrong?

He sat up at looked over at the clock. It ticked very slowly. Before Sombra could fully process what was going on, a tremendous urge overtook him, and he laid down. He felt exetremly tired. His heartbeat was slowing down. Its beat was weak. He numbly lifted his head up to see a servant smiling down at him as he died, paralyzed.

~~~

The king bolted upright from his bed. Rain poured from outside. He was in cold sweat and breathing heavily. He calmed himself.

'It's just a bad dream. Nothing to worry about. Perhaps I need to work to get this off my mind.'

Sombra observed his surroundings. He was in his study, where he had fallen asleep studying maps of the north. He would head down to the kitchen and have some coffee to wake him up.

"Good morning, Sir!" A maid cheerfully trotted down the hall, happily singing.

"Good morning to you too, Melanie."

The maid turned around. "Sombra, are you alright? You look awful."

"No," he yawned. "I am fine. I just didn't sleep well last night. No need to worry about me. Carry on."

"If you say so, Sir."

The two walked opposite ways.

Sombra wandered through the palace in a daze. He really was tired. Maybe he needed more sleep after all. He made his way down the halls, until finally facing the kitchen door where he could-

"Morning, Sir!" The palace director greeted him as usual. But what was she doing in the kitchen? She always stayed to her schedule. She never had breakfast this late in the morning.

"Oh, Sombra! You look horrible! Did something happen?"

"No, I'm fine, really."

"Did you get any sleep last night?"

"Well..."

"Sombra! You need your hours of rest. A good ruler cannot function unless he is properly healthy. And a lack of sleep is not healthy. Besides, what are you doing here in the opening hall? The kitchen is that way."

"Oh."

The palace director sighed heavily. "Did you even realize you were in the wrong room? Sombra, you need to get more sleep. After breakfast, go take a nap. And no caffeine."

He rolled his eyes sleepily. "No, I need to get my work done. Still have a meeting with animal com-"

"Your animal communicator is already here."

"There's only one?"

"There is a very bad storm down south that is keeping any of the southern trains from running. They have no way of coming here."

"Of course there is."

"Skip breakfast and go to bed."

He yawned in reply. "But, I'm not tired."

Director rolled her eyes. "Sombra, please. Not in front of our guest."

Sombra perked up. "Guest?"

"Yes. Like I said, at least one of the animal communicators was able to make it. She's a school-mare from Lady Claire's Prestigious
Academy for Young Mares. Her name is Diane."

Sombra looked up to see a shy yellow pegasus looking down at her hooves quietly waiting out their argument.

"My apologies, Miss Diane. I haven't been getting enough sleep lately, which I'm sure you've heard." He nudged the director.

Just then, a maid came by. She tousled with her mane and gasped. "Sombra! You look awful! What happened?"

"He's fine. Just didn't get enough sleep. Could you be a doll, Minty, and show Ms. Diane to her room?"

"Oh, that's fine. Please, come this way."

The two mares left the hall. Director remained quiet until their steps could be no longer heard.

"That Diane is a strange one. No, more like peculiar. She seemed reluctant to enter the building and jumped out at every little thing. I heard she's some noble's daughter."

"The last thing I need is another noble to be on my back. Just treat her nicely and don't make her hate it here."

"Sure thing, Sir. You go on back to bed."

"If you say so."

Sombra lazily walked back to his room. When he got there, he gladly leapt onto the comfort of his bed and slept like a foal.

Author's Note

I wrote this chapter at 11:18 PM. Can ya' tell?
I got home and just randomly felt the inspiration to write this so, here you go.