Celestia's sun once again lit up the beautiful village of Ponyville. The sun started to come through the window of bedrooms to wake the villagers up with a warm wave. These rays also entered the room of a certain evil unicorn who was pretending to be repentant to conquer Twilight's trust.

Sombra was sleeping in his bed until the sun decided to wake him up. He opened his eyes and grumbled:

"Only Celestia's stupid morning star to ruin me the delicious dream I was having."

He sat on the bed and stretched, saying:

"I have to admit, this was the best night I've had in ages. Just sleeping in this beautiful bed compensates for the fact of having to assume the repentant role once more."

Sombra got up and put on his armor and cape and left the room. He walked through the halls, taking the path that Twilight had taken to take him to his room. He then heard a noise coming in a room near the thrones room and went over there. He opened the door and saw Spike setting the table for breakfast.

Whenever he saw that little dragon, Sombra remembered his defeat during his return to the Crystal Empire. His desire was to make that sample of dragon to pay for daring to intervene in his attempt to regain the empire that was once his. However, he knew he had to control his obscure desires if he wanted to conquer Twilight's trust. So, he took a deep breath and entered, greeting:

"Good morning, little dragon."

Spike startled when he heard Sombra's voice and, trying to keep as much distance as he could, he replied:

"Good morning... Sombra."

He hastened to do what he was doing to get out of there as soon as possible. Sombra could see the fear that Spike had for him and that made him smile of pleasure. After all, he could taste the effect that his presence had on him.

After he had finished preparing the table for breakfast, Spike began heading for the exit, but Sombra asked:

"Aren't you going to join me?"

The little dragon stopped, freezing.

"After all, I'm the guest and I think it's a little rude not to join a guest for breakfast" Sombra said.

"You're not a guest, Sombra" Twilight said, entering, to Spike's great relief. "You're here to prove that you deserve a chance to prove you've changed."

"Of course, princess" Sombra said cordially, making a slight bow. "But I love having a good talk when I'm eating breakfast. Besides, if I'm going to prove that I've changed, I have to live with other ponies... or, in Spike's case, dragons."

"I keep you company, don't worry" Twilight replied, turning then to Spike. "You can go, I'll teleport your breakfast to your room."

"Thank you, Twilight" Spike whispered. "You just saved my scales."

And, having said that, Spike came out quickly, while Sombra sat at the table. Twilight used her magic to teleport Spike's breakfast to his room. Then, she sat down, occupying the place that was further away from Sombra. She looked at him who returned the look with a slight smile, which made the young alicorn divert hers quickly.

To distract herself from Sombra's presence, Twilight used her magic to put some croissants to her plate. Sombra, trying to also eat, almost used his magic to take some food, but he remembered that supposedly he had his magic blocked. So he had to resort to his hooves to take some food. He turned to Twilight that was using the cutlery with magic to eat her croissants and asked:

"Could I have my magic back? Just to eat, of course."

Twilight looked at him with a stare that gave to him the answer to his question.

"It was just a suggestion to make it more practical" Sombra defended himself.

He then began to eat. Moments later, Twilight asked:

"So, Sombra, what are you going to do today?"

"I don't know, maybe take a walk around the village" he said.

Upon hearing that, Twilight stopped eating and told him:

"I do not suggest you do that. The inhabitants of Ponyville will not react very well to your stay. After all, they know what you did."

"Without wanting to disrespect, princess, but don't you think that walk around the village would show to everypony how I am no longer the same cruel and evil king that I was once?" Sombra asked.

"That hasn't been confirmed yet" Twilight replied. "We only have your word that you've changed."

"So it looks like I have to go back to that isolated room and bore myself to death" Sombra said, making a fake sad face. "I may make a visit to the library. That is... if you don't mind, of course."

Twilight sighed. The library was her holy place, where she could go to escape her problems. With Sombra in there with her, she couldn't relax while reading her beloved books. So she said:

"Okay, you can take a walk by Ponyville, but I'm going with you."

"Fine, as you wish, princess" Sombra said.

The two then left the castle and began to walk around the village. As Twilight had predicted, the inhabitants of Ponyville, seeing Sombra, just pulled away from him, full of fear. Mothers put their foals behind them, fearing that Sombra could do any harm to them, although Twilight was accompanying the former tyrant king of the Crystal Empire.

"You were right, they really are afraid of me" Sombra said, feeling inside a great pleasure seeing so many terrified looks.

"What did you expect?" Twilight asked. "It's not just for your actions, but it is also because of your dark magic."

Although he felt great pleasure in all that, Sombra concluded that if he wanted to conquer Twilight's trust, first he would have to win the trust of her friends and Ponyville. The question was how he would do that. Then he had an idea. Ponies loved heroes, ponies they could worship. He just needed to become a hero, perhaps saving somepony else, and this would certainly reduce the distrust that everypony had for him.

Looking around, he saw who he would use to accomplish his plan. Fluttershy was flying nearby, leading some of her bird friends that had been in her house.

"That's right," she said. "Don't be afraid. You're getting it."

That was his opportunity. Sombra looked at Twilight and, seeing that she wasn't looking at him, looked around, but nopony was looking. Then, acting as quickly as possible, he accessed to his dark magic, making his horn shine briefly with a dark aura.

Fluttershy flew quietly with her birds, when something strange happened. Its wings were full of cramps, which forced her to stop flapping them.

"But..." she started.

And then she began to fall, starting to scream. Many ponies were shocked to see her fall. Twilight turned and, seeing one of her best friends falling, exclaimed:

"Fluttershy!"

She tried to do something to help, but, before she could do anything, Sombra advanced and ran towards where Fluttershy was falling. Using subtly his magic, Sombra was able to reach the place where Fluttershy was going to fall in time and managed to catch her, much to the amazement of everypony, but especially Twilight, who was literally open-mouthed.

Fluttershy, having closed her eyes when she was falling, opened them, only to find Sombra who asked her:

"Are you okay?"

She almost cried out to the encounter with Sombra, but she restrained herself and simply put herself up, responding coyly:

"Yes..."

"I'm glad of that" Sombra responded.

That's when the crowd started surrounding Sombra, beginning to congratulate him. Although he feel himself disgusted by the [i]good deed[/i] that he had to do, the former king had to admit that having all that attention and admiration made him feel pretty good.

The other Twilight's friends approached her and Applejack asked:

"Twilight, what's goin' on?"

"Yes, and why are there so many ponies reunited?" Rarity asked.

"And why are they congratulating Sombra?" Rainbow Dash asked, who secretly was feeling a twinge of jealousy. "Do they not know who he is?"

"It's not they don't know who he is, Rainbow" Twilight answered, still recovering from what she just saw. "It's because of what he just did."

"An' what did he do, sugarcube?" Applejack asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Of course he saved Fluttershy from a really, really great fall after she had cramps on the wings, thus earning congratulations that he is receiving from our friends of Ponyville."

When they heard that, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack started laughing and the pegasus said:

"Pinkie Pie, you're killing me with your jokes!"

"Yes, darling" Rarity agreed. "If you really want to convince us, you should have gotten something better."

"As if Sombra would save somepony in this life" Applejack said.

"He did it, Applejack" Twilight said.

"He did what, Twi?" Applejack asked.

"Sombra... saved Fluttershy" she said.

"WHAT?!" Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity asked in unison.

"I told you" Pinkie said. "My Pinkie sense doesn't fail. Now, if I may join you… WHAT?!"

"I'm also equally or more shocked than you, but the truth is that and I saw it with my own eyes" Twilight said.

"But... it can't be" Applejack said, not wanting to believe.

"That bastard couldn't have saved somepony" Rainbow Dash said.

"There must be some mistake" Rarity said.

"Unfortunately, there is no mistake" Twilight said. "What if Sombra is telling the truth? What if... he's really changed?"