Celestia fixed her gaze upon the leaving of Little Shadow as she still considered him to be to her in a sense. A scared grown stallion in a growing ponies body, she still was unsure to why he was still like this to not forgive the past and forget. He was delicate; but yet... still tough emotionally. She didn't even pay attention to the sounds of the guards gasping for air.

Before she could stammer about his actions, insisting he should stay for dinner the tall kingdom doors slammed -- interrupting her quiet thoughts.

Sombra sighed quietly as the streets went dead and foals were pulled back into their mothers grasp as everyponies vision studied the teenagers actions. His armored boots echoed through the streets, beginning to make his way back to the place he called home.

Luna carefully walked towards the entrance of the castle and saw her older sister staring endlessly at the door Sombra stepped out of. She frowned and watched as her sister opened her mouth to speak of him; but nothing seemed to come out. The moon princess adjusted herself in a more relaxed position, "He'll change." She smiled reassuringly towards her sister yet her sister thought otherwise.

Celestia sighed and shook her head, her view was now upon Luna "I don't think he can change, Luna.." she admitted through gritted teeth continuing forth with her words "..If he could then he would've.. I.. simply couldn't help him. But he looks up to you.." she complimented her for the work she tried to do with him as he was a foal, she was more of a mother-like figure than Celestia was to Sombra after the various fights and disagreements.

Princess Luna blinked, her eyelashes fluttering for a mere second as she gathered her words "I understand, sister. I warmed up to him not even a few days later when we brought him in after Cadence found him."

The princesses remained quiet as the guards fled back to their placement in the castle.

-/-

Sombra took his usual path down to the cave but was stopped by a familiar mare with a filly next to her, simply walking on the side of the dirt road. He allowed himself to slow his pace and stare at her, taking in her details of appearance.

She seemed.. too familiar. Her light pink coat and white mane with streaks of a soft shade of a rose color, along with a rose as a cutiemark followed by a golden harp on the side and above the rose was a bright halo. Her appearance and height made her seem like a ordinary teenage mare, matured enough to already have a foal.

The mare nudged her foal but halted once she saw a coal colored stallion staring straight at her, "Uhm. Hello? Do you need something?" She quietly asked to him in a polite manner.

Sombra shifted from the breeze, "My apologizes, I believe you seem like somepony I knew before."

She frowned, "I think you have the wrong pony.."

Sombra squinted his eyes and shook his head, trying to focus on what his mind was telling him "No. You seem.." he blinked figuring out who she was. He awkwardly fixed his posture "You're Rosehope, aren't you?.."

The mare shrugged, her green eyes glimmered in the soft sunlight "I guess. I have a lot of different names, you are?"

He furrowed his brows and stared at the ground "It's.. King." He took in a breath, hesitant to say his formal name "..Sombra. You came into the royal castle when I was smaller." The teen watched her black sabino coated foal hide between her mothers front hooves; he suggested to himself it got around not only to just the rich parts of Equestria.

Rosehope stared at him for the slightest of moments, "Uhm... Yeah I do remember you actually.. weren't you placed under a recarnation spell that failed and turned you into a colt with no memory?... and then raised by the two princesses..I presume?"

Sombra flicked his ears, opening his mouth to protest about the princesses but quickly nodded to respond.

He closed his mouth "...Indeed."

Rosehope gathered herself and let out a sigh, "The elements of harmony swore to find you once you left the castle but it came to a conclusion after constant meetings that you wanted to be left alone."

She lowered her head and smiled down at her filly, her vision focusing back on the patient stallion, "The only pony that seemed to trust you enough was the element of magic, kindness was frightened because of your presence surprisingly enough."

He nodded and turned to leave but was stopped by the soft voice of the mare, "Please come down to my cottage for some tea if you may.." she suggested, only receiving a low grunt from the stallion.

She folded her ears "If you do come.. my cottage is on the left turn, just keep going down the path after you get off the bridge. You should see a few cottages, mine is the very last. We're in ponyville.. nopony will see you though if you go the backways..." With that, Rose carefully resumed her way home.

Sombra patiently waited until she had left, she seemed to leave her annoying filly personality behind and evolve into a more sophisticated character, a shy, cowardly one for that matter if anything.

He eventually left back to his cave and released the camouflage spell, the stallion sighed and took off his boots -- staring down at two pictures from earlier. Slowly, he levitated them out from the metal and unfolded them taking in what he drew as a young colt.

His bitterness got the best of him as he crumbled the paper together and threw them against the wall, they were all judging ponies that would love to rant about him even for a mere minute.

"I lost everything--because of them.." he muttered, rolling the word 'them' off of his tongue like poison. Sombra mused carefully about the royalty, Shining Armor included.

Cadence seemed to stop visiting narcissistic loony sun princess after Sombra stepped in, the elements distanced themselves and Shining armor didn't dare to even hunt him down earlier today, unless he currently is.

It was all confusing. Maybe it was for the better to just stay away from him anyways.

Everything to put it down in one word was simply complicated, they all seemed to believe that he would reform within the next few months or possibly even a year. Yet through each night, each glimmering ray of sunlight that passed by him, he was never to be reformed from just them.

Sombra stared absently at the cave walls, rolling his shoulders and letting out an irritated sigh, he didn't look back at the crumbled paper and made his way to a shattered mirror.

His sleek dark coat, a perfect shade of grey seemed to grow a darker gradient near his hooves, his mane still flowed a inky black. His self-esteem for his looks never seemed to fail, he was handsome just not the pony to be deemed as 'regular', his mothers words never fled from his mind that he was truly one of a kind ((haha hey that rhymes!)) his curved unnatural horn was still complete, cracks were found along here and there but not enough to worry him. Simply stress and practicing of powerful magic.

Sombra stepped aside from his precise reflection despite the shattered glass that made his looks appear off. He gently picked up a black cloak, levitating it over himself and placing it around him. As much as he would enjoy to stay where he was at and sleep, visiting Rose was more of a better idea he supposed.

The young stallion got everything that was needed, putting his armored boots back on and taking one last glance of himself in the mirror before placing the camouflage spell upon the cave, making his way towards the village.

Ponyville was filled with happy ponies and smiles that were contagious, at least to the citizens living there. He quietly took the path as directed to Roses cottage. Sombra placed his hoof on the door but was quickly greeted by the mare, allowing him in.

He was oddly creeped out how she knew he was there, not even a knock was needed and she opened the door for him. Sombra allowed himself in and took off his cloak.

Rose smiled a genuine smile and stiffened her posture, quickly trotting to the kitchen and carefully grabbing the tea.

Sombra was about to ask her something, raising his hoof but put it down seeing she was gone. He scrunched up his muzzle and sat down on the living room chair.

The mare came back and poured him a cup, as well as her own and placed his cup in front of him "Did everything go well?"

"I beg your pardon?" He questioned, levitating his cup of tea.

Rose chuckled "My bad.. your walk here, everything went okay?"

Sombra took a sip before responding to her question. The tea had a bitter taste but he didn't complain, she seemed to live in slight poverty judging from her home and very little of common things.

He nodded "Everything went well."

Rosehope took a sip of her own tea and smiled more "That's good." It was more of a awkward silence for a minute at most until Sombra broke the silence.

"So, things are quite different here in.." he took a breath, cursing himself mentally for coming here "..things are different here in ponyville I presume? Judging from the expressions and bubbly personality of the ponies here."

The mare awkwardly made her way towards another chair and sat down "Not really I guess.."

Sombra tilted his head, he thought Canterlot was bad with the rich snobs, "How come?" He asked, putting his cup down -- not bothering to take another sip of the horrendous taste.

Rose noticed his distaste of her tea and furrowed her brows, she shrugged in response.

The stallion narrowed his eyes in slight annoyance, "Well there's more than likely something going on if you dislike Ponyville."

The mare chuckled slightly and got up from her chair "It's just the annoying factor of this town, it's never quiet. You must be lucky living out on your--"

Sombra stared at her, cutting her sentence off short.

Rosehope frowned and shyly pawed the rug with her hoof, "There's too many memories here... that's all... I'll give you a brief summary of what happened, okay?"

He nodded, waiting for her to carry on what she was going to say.

Rose folded her ears "My 'special' somepony left me after he found out I was pregnant with Lilly, we were both drunk at the time and I didn't figure out I was pregnant until a while later.. I was so happy when I took the test and it came back positive but he thought otherwise, left me right on the spot and 12 months later I had Lilly. Do I regret her? No. I don't. She's the reason why I'm still holding on." She stared at the ground "..Each hearth's warming she would wish to see her father. She doesn't know about him yet."

Sombra frowned slightly "Oh, I apologize for that.." he sat up more in the chair watching Rose roll her shoulders into a shrug.

"It's fine."

Sombra relaxed his stare and perked his ears, "Do you know anything about me when I had power over the Crystal Empire?"

Rosehope pondered for a moment but looked back at Sombra "I believe so. As a foal I was always told stories about a powerful stallion that rose to the throne in hopes to enslave all ponies and gather the secrets of the greatest magic yet. He believed that the magic was within the crystals to keep the empire alive and keep it powerful, he hoarded all of the crystals to himself.. in hopes to make himself the greatest stallion to ever live."

Sombra gritted his fangs and released the tension, "I don't have any memory of that.."

Rosehope rolled her eyes "Of course. The spell, remember?"

He blinked and felt an awkward rush of heat cross his face "Oh. Ha. Sorry I continue to forget about things, even something such as the spell.."

Rose explained Sombras past as best as her capabilities could; explaining each detail, each screw-up he had and each battle that was recorded between him and royalty...

Author's Note

I apologize for not updating this in quite some time, nor being active within this website as much as I should be

This isn't the best but I've gotten lazy over time so excuse me and take this mustache as my apology gift