Not so Dark After All

Part 8: Sombra's Waltz

Author's note: The video above is the music in this chapter. 

King Sombra was wandering his castle. All seemed right with it, but he still liked to check. He liked to feel in control, and he felt that this was the best way to do it.

Suddenly, he heard soft piano music emanating from his great hall. He peeked around the corner. 

Luna was dancing. There was a record that Sombra had placed there, and she was playing a wonderful piece. She danced with a feminine, feral grace that only she could achieve. Her dark form spun, flaring her wings around her. She leaped forward and fell, grunting. She looked up and gasped.

"You don't know how to dance, do you?" Sombra asked her.

"Not with a partner, no. Let alone at all." Luna sighed dejectedly. 

He outstretched his hoof. Luna took it reluctantly. "Let me show you." Using his magic, Sombra changed the music to something with a more steady beat. One that was easy to recognize. He loved this piece. It was dark and brooding, and it helped him think.

"Stand on your rear legs," he told Luna. "It's easier to dance with a partner."

Luna hesitated before standing on two legs, like a bipedal. Sombra did so as well. Luna flinched and gasped as he placed one hoof around her waist, pulling her closer to him. He took her other hoof in his. Luna, intent on learning, placed her other hoof over his shoulder. She was shocked by how careful and soft his touch was. 

King Sombra started aback as her eyes widened. She glanced around the room. "Is this alright?" he asked. 

"Y-yes," she stuttered in response. "I've just...never danced with a partner b-before."

"Well, this is how one waltzes, I guess." 

They spun around each other, their eyes wandering around the room. It took Luna a few minutes, but she finally learned the stepping pattern, and followed with Sombra. He smiled as she grinned in her newfound confidence. He flung her away from him, one hoof still connecting them, before pulling hard, bringing her stumbling back into his embrace. He laughed as she blushed, their faces closer than ever. He dipped her, one hoof caught in the small of her back. 

He chuckled softly to himself, spinning her. "You certainly learn quickly."

"So I've been told. If only I could show my sister."

Sombra cast a spell, and ghostly figures appeared around them. They danced and smiled, just like real ponies, and took on color and shape until they looked almost real. 

"Wow, Sombra," Luna said softly. Her eyes still hadn't met his. "This is amazing."

He stared into her face. "Yes, Luna. Yes it is."

Finally, she joined his gaze. Despite his sinister appearance, he had been true and good at heart in a way that Luna could not have ever imagined. She smiled. They danced for what seemed like hours, their eyes never leaving each other. 

Sombra couldn't bring himself to tear away from her. Her graceful elegance. The way she held her head high, always. Her poise. She was perfect in every aspect. Her wings flared open, and her mane flashed as she spun again, reconnecting herself with Sombra's outstretched hoof. He smiled.

Luna gasped as he lowered his face closer to hers. But she pushed him away. "I grow tired now, Sombra," she said. "I'll be retiring."

He retracted his magic, the ghostly forms around them disappearing. "Of...Of course. Good night, Princess."

"Good night, Sombra."

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Luna laid on her bed, quietly thinking to herself. 

She felt bad for abandoning Sombra in the grand hall. She still remembered his heartbroken expression as he watched her walk away. Her eyes darted to and fro. She couldn't help but feel saddened. But for what reason? She sat up, almost angry with herself.

"Wherefore shouldst we feeleth lacking valor f'r the king of darkness?" she thought aloud. "That gent hast nay heart! We shouldn't beest int'racting with that gent, alloweth high-lone dancing! P'rhaps our eyes art deceiving us. His friendliness is nothing but an act to blinking idiot us into trusteth!"

Luna sighed, fading quietly out of her royal Canterlot voice. "No it's not," she said to herself. "I fear it is not an act. Perhaps he actually...feels for me."

Luna looked out her window at the vast cavern around the castle. The dark purple crystals around it glistened in the torch light.

"And I for him."

AWWWWWWWW!