The Hope for a Flexible Future (1)

Radiant Hope was on the verge of cracking.

That was more of a personal expectation and thought rather than a genuine comment from the guards assigned to monitor her current situation and make sure to keep track of her behavior. It was clear that she was one of those faithful cultists that was willing to go through great lengths to make sure her ‘friend’ was brought back. The idea of King Sombra being a friend to someone felt more like the basis of a fanfiction rather than a genuine possibility. Genocidal, murderous, tremendously crafty and unwilling to share his seat of power with anyone. He was the purest example of evil being evil... for evil’s sake. So complicated yet not considering how single-tracked his mind and ambition were. I just had to understand why this pony was particularly invested in Sombra.

After waiting for two whole hours for any change in her pattern, I ultimately decided that something very smart and tremendously deceptive had to be done on the matter. First thing first, I requested some of the older stallions in the guards and gave them two single instructions:

1) They will have to keep their act from the moment the one assigned to enter the cell started the scene;

2) They will have to appear as loyal to Sombra as possible by either talking bad about me or even praising the tyrant. They seemed both reluctant on going through the latter, but I offered that they could stick mostly to the former until necessary to secure Radiant Hope’s trust.

The plan was to make her assume that there was a group of Sombra’s faithful servants within the army that was acting in the shadows and making sure they weren’t tracked down by the guards that were loyal to the newest government. Getting her trust should, technically speaking, be easy to acquire through that ruse. While the girl was clever enough to know how to orchestrate a pseudo-coup, she sure didn’t seem to have enough common sense to deny support to her goals despite any hints of suspicions about the legitimacy of her allies. It was a little gamble I was willing to try out to see if we could get her to talk

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Shining Armor asked with a concerned tone and I sighed.

“Possibly. It’s an attempt we can go through without wasting precious time to determine if she is somewhat tied to Sombra and thus a future threat or not.”

The unicorn could merely nod as he knew any violent option would just slim down the chances of getting a full confession out of Radiant. He had been debriefed about the situation, and he understood that time was essential to confirm any other trouble tied to Sombra if it meant taking care of his possible return once and for all. The two guards picked had spent almost two decades through Sombra’s regime, and while strongly opposed to the bastard, they were open to act things out in a way that portrayed them in a positive light to the captive. The process was simple and two hours went smoothly before we were finally alerted of the situation.

The plan had been… mostly a success. The guards had managed to stomach the mission without showing any hints of faking it until the very end when one of them snapped when the unicorn tried to paint the King in such a falsely good light. The old fellow was mortified by the situation and actually offered his resignation for the troublesome reaction, but I decided against punishing someone I had unwillingly punished long enough through that high request. In fact, I decided to give the two a few days off to get that foul experience out of their mind for good. Still, Radiant Hope had spoken and with her words, a bleak circumstance had manifested in the form of something not even Shining Armor was aware about.

The term ‘Umbrum’ was generally mistaken with the term ‘shadow pony’ due to the fact these entities were mostly discovered taking the form of ponies. Once the terminology had reached our ears, the first thing to do was to check what the old Royal Archives had about these beings. Creatures that are able to use magic to a high degree without suffering any self-damage, the only thing that seemed to genuinely work, at least from what reported from centuries-old chronicles, was the Crystal Heart. And while the quickest choice was to just use it to destroy the ‘army’ that Radiant Hope mentioned about, the truth was that it couldn’t be moved without destabilizing the force field that kept monsters of various kinds from storming the capital. Surprisingly enough, this was something that came to be to the Capital and not the rest of the cities all over the empire.

The more I pondered about it, the more the chances of this entire mess being tied to the army of monsters lying dormant underneath the capital started to sound so plausible and to be interested about. Not only because it meant that the destruction of the Umbrum army should theoretically end the ‘bad luck’ surrounding the region. It was hopeful thinking at the time, but when I checked with some magical specialist within the library, I was given confirmation of this possibility. Magic tends to attract dangerous and unpredictable predators either because it is dark or chaotic. And the Everfree Forest was an example of that.

I decided against striking quickly, finding the entire situation so complicated to solve at once even after consulting with Cadance about the matter. The alicorn was a bit stumped by the chances of being able to destroy the dormant army on her own, especially since her magic was only tied to love and not the Crystal Heart itself. Even synchronizing her with it wouldn’t be enough to replicate that kind of magic on her own. The secondary task of finding where the ‘nest’ was proved successful as we now were aware where precisely the dormant Umbrum were. A day passed brainstorming over what to do about it and I felt a bit confused on what to do about it considering I couldn’t just allow this problem to disappear just like that. I had to find a solution and fast. And it was during the early morning of the next day that something came in the form of a good idea I wasn’t exactly sure could be applied to this case at first.

Breakfast, I was happily finishing my meal when I realized that Silver Song was struggling trying to put the leftover cookies from his share of the breakfast in his little satchel. It was something he had been interested in and, considering how tough it had to be to move things around without pouches, I decided to buy it for him. Tiny, cheap, but incredibly reliable. The real problem at the time was that he couldn’t carefully push the cookies without having some fall on the ground.

“Now, there is another way to do this without making that big of a mess,” I calmly addressed as I decided to help him out. The bat pony colt watched as I calmly picked the little tablecloth he had been using to eat those he wanted with the chocolate milk, pulling the edges up and together and knotting it so that the cookies could all be stored in the pouch without any mess. He looked surprised, but as I did this, I… realized a possible solution. One that I quickly interrogated Shining Armor about.

He looked surprised at the possibility, but he admitted that the idea had its merits when it came to practicability.

“It should work if there are enough unicorns employed but… yes, there should be enough of them in the guards to do this.”

Despite the feasibility of this plan being pretty high, he looked as irritated as I was about a single thing. It was a stupid plan and one of the two should have come up with it way earlier than that point. The idea stemmed from the fact that, since the Umbrum were magic users in most part without any physical boost to them, they could be ‘disabled’ magically-speaking before getting moved and levitated until brought within the appropriate reach of the Crystal Heart needed to start getting them popping. Because, while the main effect of the Heart was to keep them ‘banished’, the real effect that unfolded once brought too close to its range was a non-explosive… explosion. No blast, no shrapnel, it was like seeing many balloons filled with darkness, despair and evil intents suddenly go loudly… puff.

A very strange sight for sure but one that actually brought me up to explore another element that I had failed to grasp about what was known of this very phenomenon. If a normal Umbrum died like that after getting at just a few meters away from the Crystal Heart, then why did Sombra just get disembodied and repelled by it? I tried to make sense of it through what was known of Sombra before his ascension as the ‘King’, but I found nothing about it, possibly because the guy had the past erased to cover face or even hide his true nature. Either way, this matter left me incredibly perplexed and sure that there was a legitimately important reason to it.

And I knew that the only one I could approach with knowledge regarding this was the very individual I had tricked early on to give us the info needed to kill the Umbrum. I was quite certain that it wasn’t going to be easy, and I didn’t expect any truth whatsoever to come out of this any time soon but… trying didn’t cost me anything and I really wanted to know what was up with Sombra and his dark past.

That and understand how the heck she knew of the guy.

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“Why is Sombra different from the common Umbrum?”

My question stole a surprised look out of the angered mare that was Radiant Hope. The young lady was in no shape to attack me, not with chains keeping her close and bound to the wall opposite to the entrance or with the magic-nullifying ring applied to her horn. She was pretty much harmless, and I could tell that she really wanted to have something like laser eyes so she could murder me on the spot. Sadly, wishes are just thoughts without substance in real life without the magic to make those true.

I expected a small response, anything verbal would have fit to start a conversation against her will and hopefully turned and shifted around with words until I had what I came here for. Yet the mare remained quiet and I wondered if she was still pissed for the little deception I applied to her. I stared and she stared back. It was just me, her, and two guards standing behind her cell’s door. I stared at the ceiling, the entire room quite clean compared to how the dungeons once were. While it was far from the ideal prison I had wanted to create, the place was definitely healthier than how I had first encountered it.

“Many years ago, a terrible tyrant hellbent on expanding his territories decided against employing an army that would have done the job without facing troubles like hunger, fatigue and other elements that normally would demoralize normal soldiers. He made a choice to not wake them up, and yet you wanted to.”

“They are not bad ponies. They are misunderstood.”

An opening! I really need to finally make some chit-chat for once and I know how to start this properly.

“Queen Amore was of the same logic when she first encountered them, but sadly, she discovered after a few decades of doing her best to help them proved to her that you can’t help what by all means isn’t meant to be helped,” I argued flatly. “Alas, I’m not here to discuss them. I want to know about Sombra and how do you know so much about him.”

“...”

Nevermind, she is really being a brat right now.

“And please, let’s be honest. You’re being quite a racist by painting every single member of a species as nice just because you have fond memories of the one you’re quite close to,” I shot back, ignoring her glaring. “Sombra isn’t a simple Umbrum, and I’m quite surprised you didn’t notice that.”

…

Despite her bubbling fury remaining entrenched in her mind, curiosity had her blurt out a good input to speak some more with her.

“What?”

“Fifty meters. That’s the killing range that eliminates Umbrum,” I explained as calmly as possible. “Yet Sombra didn’t seem to suffer that.”

“He would feel mortally sick-”

“At a closer reach than fifty meters, which is miraculous in itself considering the implications this phenomenon can lead to,” I interjected firmly. “Hope, quick question: why do you think he didn’t get hurt more beyond being deadly sick?”

Her mouth opened and then closed. “I… I don’t know.”

“Let me ask you another question then. Do you genuinely believe Sombra was a good guy? And why?”

She almost sobered up at the two questions. “W-Well, I know Sombra from childhood and- and he was always shy and yet friendly with me.”

“Truly?”

“Y-Yeah, he was always around to play with me, he never did bad things and- and he was nice. He was my closest friend.”

That sounded really genuine regardless of how naive she was. Despite the possibility of Sombra having been a mere infiltrator, there was no doubt that the fact he resisted so well to the Crystal Heart’s effects could be tied to this very element. What if Sombra was first a good guy that ended up getting pulled into the dark side by his Umbrum side? While looking at the books tied to this species, one thing that came out of it was that there was something of a hive-mind that connected all the Umbrum to their leaders. So there was no reason for me to not doubt the chances of little Sombra getting indoctrinated from early on and made vulnerable for a full dark side take over. It would explain why, despite his clear evil way, the Crystal Heart failed to destroy him altogether.

It didn’t pardon him of the crimes he committed. He was still going to pay for what he did, but this new development added more perspective on the matter as to the chances of him having done these heinous crimes under that kind of influence. I needed to study this more as it definitely added more to the concept that the only reason these big villains came to be was mostly because they were somehow influenced into turning like that by cheaper bastards. With that in mind, I decided to answer her truthfully.

“… I think you’re right.”

There was a brief pause, then the girl frowned at me, expecting me to say anything more or even reveal if I was being dishonest… or not.

“Why? Why now?”

“Because the Heart reacted in a way that disembodied him, but allowed his spirit to remain. Which means that the only reason why he was influenced by the Crystal Heart wasn’t because he was evil, but because his body was susceptible to the effects of that magic.”

…

“And?” The mare pressed with a curious tone, clearly understanding I wasn’t BSing her about it.

“And that means that while he is a good guy, he still got corrupted by the very jerks you were trying to free up. All because you wanted him to be brought back.”

“It’s… not fair,” She shot back. “He didn’t do any of this.”

“He did, but there is an attenuating factor in the form of why he did these that would lessen up his crimes. He would still serve years in jail, but not face execution.”

…

“He should be left free-”

“Not when he hurt so many people with his deeds, Radiant Hope. He caused too much pain, and that can’t be pardoned.”

…

“I… I want to be left alone,” She muttered quietly and I sighed, sharing no further words as I could tell she had a lot to unwrap after this conversation and I had a lot to study about this matter.

Just as I left the cell, I remembered that I had to check on a book I had left by my bed before getting back to my paperwork, and so I calmly made my way to my bedchambers, expecting to find the room empty. And I was proven wrong when I heard a loud noise coming from inside just I turned down the handle of the door to open it.

Blinked, I ventured inside with a frown and a suspicious glance as I eyed right at the only one that was within it. Cinnamon seemed to be in quite the suspicious mood considering the bright red blush on her face. And the fact she had her clothes ditched away on the floor. It felt odd to say she was completely in the nude since she was wearing her standard black socks but… I had good reasons to believe socks didn’t count as an appropriate piece of clothing to cover someone up from the cold. Or for formal situations.

“Cinnamon,” I muttered calmly as a greeting, with the mare taking a moment to realize what I had said.

“O-Oh, your highness… apologies, I was just cleaning and…” She paused, eyeing the dress on the floor. “It got a little hot, so I ditched it. For just the time of getting through the room.”

Considering the view of Ponies regarding this form of nudism, I failed to see the problem. It was a reasonable issue to be able to arrange clothes while having fur to be suffering warmth for. But just as I accepted it as a fair point, I stopped once again, this time closer to the central spot of the room.

“Cinnamon,” I hummed quietly as I paused the moment I spotted some oddities by the bed.

“Uh… yes?” She inquired as nervously as she did before.

“Why are there red petals on the mattress?”

Dozens of red petals, possibly from poor roses that gave their life for this circumstance to unfold, were now littering the bed all over the sheets. It was a clear romantic display I wouldn’t have expected to face out-of-the-blue and through Cinnamon of all… ponies.

“I-I-” The mare paused in her words for a moment, looking around for an excuse and blurting out the best excuse possible. “I-I opened the window for a moment to cool down the room but I had to close it because petals entered inside… yeah.”

“And these petals ended up landing just on my bed. Not beyond it or even in any of the other furniture.”

“...Yes,” Cinnamon replied quietly and I gave her a slow nod. At this point I knew what was going on, but I decided to offer the benefit of the doubt… until I spotted another trouble.

“Cinnamon?”

“...Yes, your highness?” She replied half-whispering as I could taste her embarrassment hitting her even further.

“Why is there a wet spot on my pillow?”

Differently from before, the mare just stiffened up and started to slowly make her way towards the door, ditching the task she had been focusing on for so long.

“I-I- there was a leak?”

“The roof is fine,” I answered flatly, staring at her retreat as Cinnamon picked up speed.

“Uh- Uh, A magical leak, your majesty!”

And soon she was… gone with her dress. Hopefully to a bathroom and not creating any scandalous rumor by letting others see her state of undress coming out of my room. I could only sigh at the circumstance before walking around the bed and inspecting the fun business she left on it. She clearly dry-humped that pillow and the first notion I had about it was to dispose of it so it could be cleaned, but I ended up pausing as I noticed something. Or rather, my nose did. Up until that moment, I was quite certain that there would have been nothing comparing to what I was familiar with human girls when it came to mares but… I actually got a scent off from the pillow that reminded me of a few girls I met. And it was quite ‘sweetish’. It came as a surprise, but not one that drove me to do anything crazy. It was definitely interesting, but I was never the guy to get caught up into curiosity when it came to something as important as sex. And I definitely wasn’t going to grow interest in my maid of all possible people.

I still had to deal with the mere thought that Cinnamon was now, for some reason I hadn’t caught up on until now, sexually interested in me and… I was really unsure how to handle that. Faking denseness and hope she didn’t try to be more daring for the sake of catching my attention, or perhaps I should just be a bit colder in that regard and curb more of that attitude at the risk of ruining the little friendship I had with her. She was such a sweet gal, but I was really at an impasse because of that scene.

And I could tell things were going to get even more worse by the time I faced the situation tied to Apocrita and the proper settlement of her hive within the capital of the Crystal Empire.

Author's Note

AN

The reasoning behind this bold move from Cinnamon will be motivated in the next chapter and… yes, this isn’t dead. Just been having some business to face in the form of Commissions, which I open every two months on Questionable Questing and Furaffinity. The links for my accounts are on the first blog post of my account.