Journal entry, fifty-six, day of infiltration, thirty.

My initial successes have been stymied somewhat.

Introductions went well, the family accepts me for the most part, and I’ve formed a strangely pleasant relationship with Twilight Sparkle. She is brilliant, powerful, as daft as they come, and has the interpersonal skills of a brick. Still, her enclyopdic knowledge of nearly every topic outside of popular culture has proven valuable.

So far she has saved me from several uncomfortable situations that I nearly walked into due to my incomplete understanding of modernity. True, I did my own research prior to inserting myself into Shining Armor’s home, but it would be impossible to think of everything. Why in Tartarus calling a dragon a wyrm is a slur is beyond me. It was simply what they were called back then, but I digress.

Night Light and Twilight Velvet are excellent hosts if a little lax on their security. You would not believe how many security flaws they have on their manor house. Why, if someone wished to they could rob them blind with minimal effort. I noted all of these vulnerabilities previously, but it bears repeating how lazy ponies of this time period are. Apparently, most homes don't even lock their doors at night.

Its madness.

Regardless, my mission has shown moderate success, most notably with Shining Armor’s friends. It took very little to gain their support, as all I did was start running one of their silly roleplaying games. I did kill them several times, but they have learned well and come to appreciate my ‘iron man’ style of play.

These weekly games have allowed me to learn much about Shining Armor, and incidentally his friend group. Spearhead is not nearly as stupid as he seemed, though not by much. The male struggles with easy-to-learn concepts but excels at anything he shows even a modicum of interest in. I believe he has what the ponies of this time period call, attention deficit disorder.

He is also rather easy on the eyes as well, and as much as I hate to admit it I’ve begun to consider bedding him. With my efforts towards Breaking Shining Armor’s relationship being stymied by Cadance’s hawkish protectiveness, I’ve grown frustrated. The chance to take out these emotions on someone that is at least somewhat appealing has become a tantalizing option.

If nothing else it would be an opportunity to further dig into Shining Armor’s past and win over one of his closest friends. The other one, Knight, has been less than useful in contrast to the more oafish of the pair. He is quiet, withdrawn, and though intelligent, suffers from a rather malignant form of anxiety.

His weakness disgusts me, but it does offer possibilities and pathways of manipulation that may otherwise be closed. I’ve considered getting them both on my side in an effort to drive a wedge between Shining Armor and Cadance using Shining’s friends. But the possibility of backlash would be immense, and would likely spell disaster for plan A entirely.

Shining Armor also seems off put by the entire concept of homosexuality, though he does find me attractive. I’ve seen his lingering glances and subtle looks, but the stallion seems completely unwilling to indulge that part of himself. Perhaps that is it…

Perhaps I could introduce the concept, and find a release for all this aggression at the same time. But how would I

“Yo Crystal! The guys are over!” shouted Shining Armor’s familiar voice.

Sombra paused mid-sentence, his pen lifting from the page as his face scrunched up in anger. He detested being interrupted, but stowed away that tiny bit of anger, pushing it down somewhere deep inside. It took several seconds for Sombra to sort out his emotions, but when he did, he rose from his desk and closed the book sitting atop it.

Slim, with a black cover, and a simple buckle around the middle, it contained recountings of nearly every day since Sombra’s arrival. Though a security risk that if found would ruin him, Sombra was confident it would not fall into the hooves of others. For he had a special way of ensuring that didn't happen, a magical way at that.

His horn lit up, and then a black crystal suddenly grew around the tome, sealing it inside. He clopped a hoof against it and was satisfied when the crystal remained unblemished. Able to be destroyed only by his magic, the crystal was the perfect security device to keep his diary safe.

“Enough dawdling,” Sombra chastised himself.

The unicorn pulled open a drawer and dropped the crystal inside. He then used a quick spell to lock it securely before adding a magical trap that would give anyone who tried to open it a nasty shock. He considered making the effect lethal, but that wouldn't be worth the effort, he decided.

So the male gathered up his campaign notes, and bag of dice, and began to walk over to the door of his room. A sidelong glance stopped him dead in his tracks, the king’s gaze landing on his own slightly warped reflection. The disguise remained identical to the last time he had used it, yet it looked off for some reason.

“Look at you,” Sombra muttered aloud. “A king a conqueror, a ruler, now nothing more than a house guest and student.”

Sombra sighed. “It's just a vacation, that's all.”

With those rather hollow words rolling around in his head, he trotted out the door, and down the steps. Pausing briefly to glance into Twilight's room, Sombra noticed that the mare was, as usual, nose deep in a book. He gave the other pony no mind and merely continued on, trotting down the many steps to the first floor of the home.

There he passed by the family room, where Night Light sat, newspaper draped over his face, snoring loudly. To the left, in the living room, stood Twilight Velvet, the mare doing some manner of aerobic activity advertised to middle-aged ponies. It was ridiculous and brought a smile to Sombra’s lips though he quickly walked out of sight, pushing the thought from his mind.

Walking through one door, Sombra paused in the narrow hallway, noting that he could hear a lively conversation just beyond. He passed by the coat room and paused, placing an ear against the entrance to the garage.

“So she's still busting your balls over playing with us?” asked Spearhead, the male’s voice lowered slightly.

“Yeah. She thinks it's a dumb board game, and that I should be doing something else,” Shining Armor replied.

“But it's not a board game,” Knight pointed out.

“I keep telling her that but she doesn't get it. She just says it's a game you play on the table, so it's a board game,” Shining Armor exclaimed.

“But wouldn't that make it a tabletop game?” Spearhead muttered, confused.

Shining Armor groaned. “I know right?”

Sombra chuckled to himself, and pulled open the door, stepping inside. “Ahh good, you're all here on time I see,” he greeted.

“It was one time, dude,” Spearhead whined.

“I simply believe in being prompt,” Crystal Throne declared.

“No kidding. I thought you were gonna bite that waiter’s head off the last time we went out for dinner with everyone,” Shining Armor retorted.

Sombra wanted to explode, and insult the stallion but resisted that urge. “I am simply used to my dinner being served promptly, that is all,” Crystal throne stated.

“Anyway,” Knight offered.

Sombra bit back the urge to prove how correct he was and focused on simply sitting down at the table. Which lay directly before him, and occupied a good section of what had been designed to serve as a multi-carriage garage. The family only had one such vehicle, however, and it was parked off to the right, allowing Shining Armor to take over the rest of the area.

There were a few couches, a bookshelf occupied entirely by rule books and games, a fridge stuffed with pop. Posters covered the walls, replica swords and suits of armor copied from favorite books hung next to them or sat on ponyquins nearby. It was dark, lit only by a couple of candles and the lone window on the far wall, but the group could see enough.

The table was illuminated well, and everyone could see the character sheets that sat before them. The ambiance was rather nice, Sombra had to admit, though it reminded him a bit too much like the dungeon of his old castle. Still, it suited Shining Armor, and if Sombra was being honest, it was rather charming in a way.

“Now then,” Crystal Throne began, seating himself at the head of the ratty old table. “Where did we leave off?”

Shining Armor pulled out his notes. “I think we were just about to head into the lost mines of Pendelhaven in search of the stone of eternity.”

“Yeah, we were trying to stop that evil queen of the dragons from going back in time, and killing the king of Vaalia,” Knight added.

“Which is a bit weird though right,” Spearhead muttered, scratching his chin. “I mean, if she went back in time wouldn't she see herself, or would she go back then end up in an alternate reality?”

“Don't think about it too much, you might hurt yourself,” Shining Armor teased.

Spearhead snorted. “I’m just wondering what kind of rules were working with here. Does time travel create paradoxes? What about the grandfather problem? Isn't there a chance that she stops the events that lead to her conception?”

Crystal Throne groaned and ran a hoof down his face. “That's not how time travel works at all.”

“Your pretty smart, why don't you tell us how it works then,” Spearhead offered.

Sombra was about to retort with some manner of insult but chose not to as Spearhead’s tone was oddly complimentary. Not only that but he was looking at Sombra with an expectant look, clearly hoping for an answer to his question. The other two players mirrored his expression, to varying degrees of interest.

“Alright,” Crystal Throne conceded, grabbing one of the miniatures from the table, as well as an extra piece of paper. “Time is a straight line, a constant, and upon it sits everything in existence.”

Sombra drew a long line across the page and placed the miniature on it somewhere near the end.

“If someone leaves that point in the timeline they aren't anywhere else in the timeline,” Sombra picked up the miniature and dropped it further down. “There is only one instance of them at any point.”

“But… what,” Knight muttered, scratching his head.

“It's best not to think about it,” Crystal Throne warned. “Time travel is messy, weird, and involves far too much math for anyone’s liking.”

“Blech, math,” Spearhead exclaimed.

“Is that how it really works? I thought time travel was impossible,” Shining Armor declared. “Starswirl wrote that-”

“Starswirl was a blowhard who took credit for discoveries not his own!” Crystal Throne all but shouted, only to cough and sit back down. “Or at least that's what I’ve heard anyway.”

“Right so, back to the game. Where exactly did we leave off?” Knight asked.

“You were about to enter the mines, and had paused outside to rest,” Crystal Throne hastily stated, eager to change the topic.

“Oh yeah. That's where we found that creepy message carved above the entrance. What did it say again?” Spearhead asked, clopping his hoof against the table.

“Beware all who enter here, death waits within,” Shining Armor replied.

“That one kinda got me,” Knight admitted.

“So, what do you do?” Crystal Throne asked.

“We should make a plan, and start looking for traps,” Shining Armor declared.

“Right, and I’ll start preparing some countermeasures for mind magic, since every dungeon Crystal runs have to have some of that,” Spearhead offered.

“It does…” Crystal stopped and frowned. “Carry on.”

“Woah, now that was a plot twist,” Spearhead muttered.

“No kidding,” Shining Armor added while dumping a load of dice into a bag.

“I never would have thought that our guide would have ended up being the big bad of the mines,” Knight remarked.

Sombra drank the compliments in silence, his attention focused mainly on cleaning up the remnants of the game. While he did, he also mentally congratulated himself for remembering such an obscure part of history so well. The dragon queen had, in reality, been where he had acquired the temporal travel spell in the first place.

Though names and events were changed or switched around they were largely playing out real events. No history book spoke of what occurred back then, he had made sure of that, so the chance of discovering his identity was non-existent. Though using such events as fodder for a game may be seen as cheating by some, Sombra thought it was rather fitting.

One last embarrassment for that turncoat of an ally. Sombra thought to himself.

“You alright there, dude?” Spearhead asked.

Sombra blinked, the stallion finding himself alone with the other male, with Shining Armor and Knight having already left. The pair could still be heard in the distance as they walked towards the entrance to the house though it was distant. Upon realizing how limited his company was, Sombra couldn't help but peer a little closer at Spearhead.

The stallion was tall, well built, and quite attractive, with a prominent jaw as well as a decent sense of style. Though not intelligent enough in Sombra’s opinion to serve as a proper partner or advisor, he was suited for another role. One that he would do quite well at considering his toned, generous flanks, and athletic physique.

“Yes, just… thinking,” Crystal Throne murmured.

“Ahh cool, cool,” Spearhead remarked, a blush crossing his face. “So I was uh, kinda wondering what you may be up to this weekend?”

Sombra raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me out?”

“Well uh, maybe?” Spearhead muttered, scratching the back of his neck. “I always knew I was bi, but never really went out with another guy before. Your like, really hot though.”

Sombra made a show of considering the proposal before nodding. “I accept your offer.”

“Woah, really? Aww crap, I didn't think you’d say yes,” Spearhead stammered. “Now I gotta think about what we should do.”

“Well, you have a few days. Meet me here, seven o clock, Saturday,” Crystal Throne stated.

“I promise I won't be late!” Spearhead declared.

“See to it that you are not, and Spearhead,” Crystal Throne continued.

“Uh yeah, dude?” Spearhead muttered.

Sombra reached forward and pulled the other stallion into a sudden kiss.

“Wear that cute ascot,” Crystal Throne whispered huskily.

“Y-yes, sir!” Spearhead stuttered.

Author's Note

This is part of the 12 days of christmas, head over here to keep track of all the cool stuff coming down the pipes. If you want to ensure I can afford to keep doing stuff like this, consider backing me over on Subscribestar or Patreon.