Doctor Flatline wasn't sure how his day was going. A few days ago, a Zebra and a pegasus filly came to the Ponyville hospital with a behemoth in a cart. By the laws of science and magic, he should be deader than a priests slash pastors sex life. Excluding those who had an eye for foals of course. And by some miracle, he was alive.

They brought in a dentist to check his teeth, and according to her, he was a pure carnivore. That was new? Everything about him screamed that he wasn't a pony, but a different species. Unlike ponies who had iron-based blood, his was platinum-based. His blood was still red, but it had a shiny effect when in the light. His body was more feline-like than equine. He even had two hearts.

But when it came to x-rays and tests, they brought sadness to anypony who saw them. Zecora had sworn the few doctors who were working on him to keep him a secret, as she feared the ponies would attack him for being so different. As he was a carnivore, they saw the logic in that. The stallion, whose name they learned was Sombra, was a tragic case. One of the worst many had seen in their careers.

Sombra had suffered, the scars littering the outside and insides of his body could attest to that. His bones were as hard as iron, due to being broken so often. Doctor Flatline himself was a witness to the stallion's regenerative abilities, causing him and a few others to suspect that if not for that healing factor, Sombra would look a lot worse. Thankfully, the doctors were logical enough to figure out what caused these injuries. Torture.

They didn't know why somepony would harm another. Why would you do such a thing to another? They feared that somepony was targeting predators. One with a disturbed mind. Doctor Flatline was concerned about something else. Hunting down the crazy ponies was the polices job, not his. A few hours ago, a keen-eyed nurse, a lovely miss Redheart, pointed something out to them. His body structure was similar to that fo a thestral. They did not believe her at first, but after having a look themselves, it was clear that she had been correct.

According to his skeleton, there should be wings on his back. Perhaps there used to be at one point? As he was a new species, they didn't know if it was normal or not. Until he joined the land of the awakened, they weren't going to get many answers. It was fascinating though. Scholars already on their way to study him. According to the filly, he was able to turn into a living shadow and was able to resist the poison of a fully grown alpha manticore. Perhaps they could use his blood to cure cancer if the antibodies were that powerful.

Doctor Flatline walked into the patient's room and was met with an open window, and an empty bed. He called Code Rainbow, a code specifically made for Rainbow Dash but was used when other patients escaped their rooms. Why did the unique ones always have to disappear like this?

"I'm not paid enough for this," was all Flatline could say as he walked towards the window.

Sombra couldn't have landed in a worse place. He was in Equestria. If he had appeared somewhere else like the Dragon Lands or Yakyakistan, Sombra wouldn't mind. Instead, he was in hell for the living. He couldn't fight them in his condition. He needed to find somewhere to rest and figure out what to do. He could see the sun witch's castle from where he was, and he was too close. If he tried using magic, she would sense it and come for him.

The stallion bit onto the bandages wrapped around his body, testing them. Sombra knew that he shouldn't take them off, but he didn't trust them. You would be surprised with what you could do with bandages. They were likely enchanted, which was a pain. Speaking of which, he didn't feel any. His entire body was numb, which concerned him. He was always in pain, from agony to minor aches. He did feel itchy as well, but that was something he could easily ignore.

Sombra pondered, trying to decide where he should go, preferably somewhere with no ponies. While a lot probably didn't know who Sombra was, they would be fearful of him. Those afraid of the unknown try to control it or destroy it. Fear can lead to paranoia and paranoia can lead to numerous things. As Sombra was a predator, it made him an outcast when it came to the herbivorous ponies. He could never be accepted. Even the kindest of souls would still be in fear of him.

"Hey!" The stallion nearly jumped out of his fur when he heard a familiar voice. "What're you doing out here? You should be in the hospital with Doctor Flatline!"

"Flatline...?" His medical record must look very shady. He turned around and saw the little orange filly he tried to help. As she was alive, tried was an understatement. "Who are you? And how did you find me so quickly?"

"My name is Scootaloo. And I found you because I saw walk into the forest." He should have sensed her coming. Though his senses weren't very sharp at the moment, so he would blame whatever poison was within his veins.

"What cruel parents you have." Pony names were getting stranger and stranger. Scootaloo. What in the hell even was that? A breed of chicken?

"Oh! I didn't know you were from Eagleand!" No, he was taught to speak by someone from Eagleand. A friend called Jupiter Ballad, he was a siren in the form of a unicorn. He made sure everyone knew that he wasn't happy about it. "So, you gonna come back to Ponyville?" That was stupid. Not only were their names stupid, but now their town names were stupid. "Is something wrong? A nurse said that you might be feeling unwell because of the morphine or something." He blinked at her. "Oh, it's medicine used to take the pain away."

"I'm not going back. I don't trust ponies. I can tolerate them, but I don't trust them. It's better this way..." Scootaloo was an orphan. She knew how to recognize the signs that somepony was trying to hide their pain. He ticked a lot of boxes on her mental list. "Leave. You shouldn't be in this forest. It's filled with monsters." Monsters weren't born as they were. They had been made that way because of the cruelty of others. Or the drawing of the short straw when it came to the mind. Sombra wished that he did not suffer from the latter.

"Exactly, so let's get moving!" The filly was determined, her wings buzzing like a fly. She nudged him, but he did not budge. "You saved my life, let me save yours! I overheard the doctors saying that you have a lot of problems they want to fix. Broken bones and stuff like that." They probably wanted to cut him open to find out how he ticked. He didn't want to go through that again.

He had to give the filly some credit, as she was very determined. There was a little fire in her grayish purple eyes. The flint and steel that created the spark were not from malice. But it was from concern. What a strange little pony. He watched her wings, seeing that they were far more deformed than he had previously thought. She would never fly, but that didn't seem to bother her.

When he was much younger than her, he remembered having wings. They weren't feathery like hers, but he still remembered what it had been like to have them. Queen Amore removed them because she felt insulted by them. The first time he had ever met his tyrant, and she tore off two of his limbs. He hated her, and he hated that he hadn't been the one to deliver the final blow to her, and he was thankful for it as well.

"Scootaloo, stop. You're going to hurt yourself." She looked up into his dual colored eyes. They were like drops of blood in acid with slit pupils, but he didn't scare her. He looked fascinating to her. He had a black blaze which wasn't very common these days, he had a red sharp horn, cool sideburns and his mane was like a black flame. "While I appreciate your concern, I don't need it. As long as I have somewhere to rest, I can regenerate and heal myself."

"Firstly, cool. Secondly, you can do that at the hospital. If you're staying out here then so am I! I can be just as stubborn as you." he sighed, realizing that she was not going to let this go. The filly sat down, crossing her legs while making a pouty face. It was cuter than either of them would dare to admit.

"Scootaloo, stop being difficult. I won't have the blood of a foal on my hooves, so take your leave." She remained seated. "I'll carry you back to the town if I have to."

"You don't know the way." Damn her and her logic. "You're hurting. You need a doctor."

"What makes you think that?"

"I can see it in your eyes. There's a lot of pain in them." She wasn't as stupid as her name entailed. "If we go back, I'll stay with you, ok?" Here were Sombra's options. He could stay in the town or wander around. Considering his options, maybe he should stay? Not indefinitely, but at least until he could stay on his four hooves. It would be harder for them to come after him, and their bullshit story would fall on deaf ears because they would know the truth.

Perhaps Sombra could turn them on his side? If he did that, then the crystal ponies wouldn't be able to kill them without proving his points that they were the monsters. Not him. At this current moment, the benefits were outweighing the risks. While Sombra would always remain cautious, it was probably safer to be in the lion's den, than their hunting grounds.

"So be it." Scootaloo smiled. Inwardly, she was ecstatic that she managed to break through to him. "Point the way, and I'll carry you." Sombra turned his head and bit onto the scruff of her neck, picking her off the ground. He had done it enough times to know what he was doing. While at first Scootaloo panicked a little, she quickly calmed down. When the filly pointed the way, the stallion began walking, his senses keeping watch for any dangers.

"Tell me again how you managed to lose a patient that weighs over three hundred pounds?" Doctor Flatline sighed as Doctor Full House limped next to him. He had lost his hind leg in an accident, leaving him with a prosthetic. He made sure everyone knew he was unhappy about it. "Come on, give a good excuse."

"He can turn into a shadow, how's that?" Doctor Full House grumbled, unwilling to admit that it was a good excuse. "He probably didn't know where he was and panicked. While I would say that he couldn't have gotten far, I don't know how fast he can run. The morphine should've slowed him down though."

"He beat manticore poison so I doubt that morphine could bring him down." That was a fair observation. "I just want to know why, and how he had wings, and why they're gone." Many doctors wanted that answer. Why had his wings been removed? The healing of the bones showed that they had been pulled from his body, a discovery that made the few pegasi on staff cringe.

"Is it possible that he is a different species of Alicorn?"

"Nah, they're all girls aren't they?" Doctor Full House looked out of the window, frowning. "I've always wondered that. Why are they all female? Maybe it's like with mantises? They do a dance, fuck, then eat their heads. I would rather a cigarette but to each their own."

Doctor Flatline rolled his eyes. Full House was an odd stallion. He had bright orange eyes, a light grey coat, and a green mane so dark it almost looked black. Full House's cutie mark was a house with a red cross on it. Flatline was beige, had a ginger mane and his eyes were amber. His cutie mark was a straight line with a stethoscope hanging from it. Somehow Full House could make a joke about anything. He didn't care how black the humor got. Flatline respected that in some ways and cringed in others.

Doctor Full House whistled for Flatline to join him. The Earth Pony, and Unicorn both looked outside and saw Sombra standing outside with little Scootaloo in his mouth. That was a surprise.

"He came back?" Flatline said, slightly surprised.

"He's like my cat. He'll disappear until he's hungry, ungrateful git."

Sombra hadn't met a doctor before, not a modern one anyhow. And his first introduction into the profession was an oddly named Unicorn and an Earth Pony who lost his leg. They reminded him of Silver Stream, and Jupiter Ballad. Full House was grumpy and didn't have a filter while Flatline just wanted to get things over with so he could go to bed. As they were similar to his parental figures, he wasn't too nervous around them. Still, they were very determined about keeping him in bed with a needle inside of his hoof. That was cause for concern.

"Sombra, is it?" Doctor Flatline asked. His horn became enveloped in a yellow glow as he lifted a clipboard, a frown on his face. "We have a few questions for you if you don't mind."

"I'm not going to say yes, but I'm not saying no." He didn't want to deal with this. The filly said that he'd be better here, not interrogated. Just keep thinking of the benefits, and this will go along faster. "Ask away."

"While unconscious, we conducted a few tests. The more we knew about your condition, the more we could help you." What kinds of tests? "Have ponies tried to hurt you?"

"I question your occupation if you need to ask that. Along with your poorly chosen name." He was not the first to mention that, and Doctor Full House made sure that he'd never be the last.

There had been cases of disturbed ponies killing and torturing others, one that Doctor Flatline's aunt treated. A mare named Pinkamena Loralei Pie had gone insane. Slaughtering little foals, and then feeding them to the town. His aunt was unlucky enough to treat one of the few survivors. It was a genetic thing, sadly. It was one of the reasons Pinkie Pie had moved to Ponyville. She had the signature pink of The Pie Curse, so she had checked in to the hospital in case it reared its ugly head. Doctor Flatline feared that she could end up like her grandmother, but so far so good.

Anyway, back to Flatline's aunt. The foal had developed PTSD, making things very difficult. According to her, he would have violent flashbacks and was very aggressive to ponies who were trying to help him. His aunt didn't say much, patient confidentiality saw to that. But it made him concerned.

If Sombra had something along the lines of PTSD, how could they treat it? He was a completely different species to them. Therapy for Griffins was fighting with nothing but their bare claws, a prime example that different species healed in different ways.

"What is your species, if you don't mind me asking you?"

Sombra wasn't sure if he should say. He was the only one as far as he knew. The only one that was free anyway. Nopony knew that he was an Umbrum, giving away such valuable information could hurt him later on. It was unwise to give ammunition to someone who had a gun. These ponies wouldn't know what that was, would they? It didn't matter. Abyssinian weaponry should stay in Abyssinia.

"Umbrum." He had relented. Sombra knew that his biology wasn't like theirs, it was likely they'd name him if he didn't give up his species. He wouldn't be called anything else other than Umbrum. He wasn't a pony. He wasn't a unicorn. He was an Umbrum. And damn proud of it! No matter what anypony said. "U.M.B.R.U.M."

"Fascinating." Doctor Flatline wrote the word down, raising a brow. He had never heard of that before. "Is it common for your species to have wings and a horn?"

"I never said I had wings," he said in a low and intimidating tone. Sombra never said that he had wings, how did the Doctor know that? Was this a trap? He needed to bolt. He could jump out of the window and then he'd be able to disappear. The pegasus filly they had taken away wouldn't be able to catch him. He'd be free and would stay far away from ponies. The Empire's influence was here as well. It was everywhere. No matter where he went, he could never escape their gaze.

"It's called an X-ray. We're able to take photos and look at your bones. Your skeletal structure has evidence that you used to have wings. Along with two nasty scars on your shoulders."

Doctor Flatline had seen the signs. Unfortunately for him, he worked with the Apple Family a lot. Applejack was possibly the worst patient he had ever had to work with, along with Rainbow Dash and Thudnerlane. He knew the signs of when somepony was about to bolt. If Sombra had something along the lines of PTSD, then Doctor Flatline would have to choose his words carefully.

"I haven't met another of my species, not since I was born. My mother had wings. I suppose I acquired them from her."

Silver Stream told him about the day a large mare he found inside of a cave. She wasn't a pony but was heavily pregnant. As he was one of the few ponies with a soul anymore, he never told anypony about her. He looked after her until Sombra was born. The very night that she went into labor, the Queen herself came with some guards. They pulled Silver Stream away, then slaughtered her like a pig. The umbilical cord hadn't even been cut when she died with him in her forelegs.

"What happened to her?"

"What do you think?" Sombra snapped, raising his voice sharply. It wasn't a good idea to think about her. It brought too many painful emotions that he didn't want to deal with right now. "She died, just like everyone else. I may as well be an encarnación de la Muerte!" he wanted to make them pay. He wanted to spill their blood, just like they had done to everyone he ever loved. They needed to suffer the same way he had!

Doctor Flatline failed. He was supposed to watch his words, and now he'd gotten his patient into a very emotional state. He was crying, not even bothering to try and hold back his tears. Doctor Flatline didn't know what Sombra had said, but he guessed that it involved death in one form or another. Sombra sounded like he was calling himself an incarnation of death. Doctor Flatline didn't believe that, but Sombra looked like he did.

"I'll give you a few minutes." Doctor Flatline walked out of the room, not even noticing the orange filly who had been watching through a crack in the door.

Scootaloo hadn't seen a stallion cry before. Sombra had every reason to, though. He had wings once, but he lost them. The same being said for his mother and his friends. He had lost everything. When Scootaloo was young, her mother drunk herself to death. Her father was alive but was in prison so he may as well be dead.

Scootaloo did the only thing she thought she could do. She walked into the room, she climbed onto the bed, and she hugged him. And he let her. She could feel both of his hearts pound against his ribcage, the softness of his fur surprising her. It was like she was hugging a kitten. A very big, and very hurt, kitten. She didn't say a word, knowing that they wouldn't be good enough right now. While Scootaloo didn't know what he had gone through, she knew what it was like to hurt.

And he wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

Author's Note

If you enjoyed, thank you. If you have any advice, I'd love to hear it! But be careful, Grammarly is looming over me like a boss from hell.

(Sombra should be voiced by Idris Elba)