“Sombra?… Why are you awake?” Celestia had grown used to the other body of heat in her bed that the lack of his presence disturbed her slumber. Sadly, this wasn’t completely unfamiliar. She knew perfectly well why her husband was awake in the middle of the night.
 
“I saw her again, Tia. She couldn’t even speak this time, but her eyes…” Sombra kept his eyes to the floor. They weren’t really at the floor but at the space above it, the air, seemingly waiting for maybe something from his mind to appear in that space. “Hope…”
 
Celestia knew him well enough to let him have his space, but more than anything she wanted to get close to him, to show him his hurt didn’t need to be felt. “She loved you dearly, Sombra. No one could ever deny that, nor your love for her.” She needed to be careful with her words.
 
“It was all my fault, Tia. She shouldn’t have been there. We shouldn’t have been there. I shouldn’t be here.” The spiral began as it would most nights Sombra had awoken from his own nightmares. Terror, guilt, self-hatred. “You’ve given me too much.”
 
“Hope told you, in those moments, she had no regrets. She had pride in you. I have pride in you. We have love in you.”
 
“I’ll return to bed in a moment, Tia. I apologize for waking you. I just… need a moment.”
 
Celestia nodded, knowing her husband to be honest in these moments. “I love you, Sombra. Hope will never be replaced, in your heart or in mine. I want you to remember that.”
 
For a moment, a smile crossed Sombra’s face. “I love you, Tia. I’ll always remember that.”
 
%%%%~
 
i got an idea of a sad image and then i did this and thought i’d establish a bit more of my headcanon
 
okay so, bluntly, Hope’s dead. She died on their search for the pieces of Princess Amore. I won’t go into the details, but it is part of my headcanon that they were in love. Celestia suffered personally while they went on adventures without her, even with her old love for the good Sombra. She knew this Sombra didn’t know her the way the Mirror Sombra knew her. She got to know and be friends with Hope herself, so at the very least she could be happy for the both of them.
 
i like sad headcanons and making other people sad like im sad so i hope this did the job but im a little sorry if it did but only a little