The sun was out, but the sky was hardly clear.

Clouds of various shapes and sizes littered the space above, and the pony responsible zipped through them. The rainbow Pegasus brought Sombra out for the lesson, and instead made him watch her acrobatics. For several minutes to an hour, the stallion sat, and stopped watching much earlier.

Still moping about his awful mane, Sombra only felt how filthy his fur was. He was only allowed to shower once a day, in the spare bathroom with no kinds of amenities. And no hairbrush meant his bedhead showed the whole day, until saving his shower for the evening.

Rainbow Dash landed with a thud, flat on her hooves and right beside her distracted audience, startling Sombra back into the world. “How was that?” She gasped.

The stallion had no way of telling time at that moment, so he rolled his eyes and grumbled. “It’s still daylight, keep going.”

Rainbow grinned, “Oh yeah, I’m supposed to do something here.” She jumped up and glided in slow circles over Sombra. He watched her for a moment, until he suspected the Pegasus had forgotten. Rainbow flew off into the clouds again, leaving Sombra to watch in confusion.

Wha-?..

It was longer this time, almost two hours. The sun was getting to its place in midday, the Pegasus had disappeared now. Realizing the streaks of colors had ceased, Sombra squinted his eyes at the flight course, trying to catch a glimpse of blue.

What is happening?...

Nothing, not even any guards, he was by himself. The Pegasus had said she did not need any guards, and to their uncertainty let her take the prisoner out into the fields by the castle. Now she herself was gone, and after not saying a word about friendship or anything.

Sombra looked up at the clouds, opening his mouth to say something, but paused. “Rainbow... Dash…?”
He trailed off, barely making his voice heard. He lowered to his knees and rolled onto his side, focus still on the sky. Not long he rested his head on the grass, cool shade from the clouds, he fell asleep in that field.

A few hours later, sun between the clouds and hills, Sombra felt a hoof nudge him awake. He opened one eye to see the blue Pegasus, she grinned in admiration. The stallion raised halfway, staring at her.

“You didn’t run.” Rainbow took some steps, circling the unicorn.

Sombra looked confused, “Was I supposed too?”

She stopped, waving a hoof dismissively. “Heck no, I’d get in so much trouble.”

Sombra noticed the sun, realizing now it was late. “Where were you?” He directed to the Pegasus.

“I… just needed to check something.” She glanced to the side, avoiding eye contact as she sat down in front of Sombra. She met his gaze, looking more professional than the energy drink fueled mare she was earlier. “You really wanna do this whole reform thing.”

Sombra stared, then huffed, resting his head on his hooves. “As if it will help, besides, I would love to be doing anything else.”

Rainbow smiled again, “Well, you had more than enough time to run off.”

Sombra eyed the ground, avoiding to answer.

The Pegasus only nodded slowly, “Either you’re really bad at escaping, or you really wanna do this.”

She was glared at, and she lifted into the air on her wings. “Hey, you got the right idea, just stick to it and you’ll do great.” As she turned to fly back to the clouds, she looked back. “Starlight’s not the kind to give up either.”

As Sombra watched her fly away, he called up to her. “And which one are you?”

She stopped and whipped around.

“Which element?”

“Loyalty!” She called down to him before punching through the cloud platforms.

Loyalty… Sombra laid on the grass once more. I’ve had more testing with that than anything else in my life.

Author's Note

*apologizing for short chapters intensifies*