Olive strolled through the crystal castle, trying his best to stay out of sight. The empress may have allowed him free roam but her still felt out of place. The sins on his father weight his hooves down.
 
Luckily, his dark non-shimmery coat made sneaking about very easy. He slipped past most of the guards. No one noticed him except for one.
 
“Well well well, look what crawled from the dumps.” A voice called out, scaring Olive to near death. He turned to see princess Skyla glowering at him. Long ingrained habit had him looking away. “It’s the little prince. What are you doing here?”
 
“I-I came to… deliver some flowers.” He stumbled to explain. “I heard Mayflower got sick and - “
 
“Who?” Skyla frowned in confusion.
 
“Mayflower. One of the maids here?” He explained. His eyes desperately trying not to stray toward the mare. He didn’t like looking at other ponies. He always saw too much.
 
“Oh. Just a maid?” She sighed, rolling her eyes. “How boring.”
 
Olive looked up, wanting to defend the nice mare who smiled at him without the fear her parents would have instilled in her. Unfortunately, he ended up looking at Skyla. Like always, she was murky with shades of deep red and sorrowful blues. His heart clenched at how deep the colors were. She must be so hurt… Despite his better judgement, Olive spoke his thoughts.
 
“I-I sorry about your loss.” He stated, his eyes looking a little past her grief to see somepony beyond it. It was too unclear to make it out but her pain was sourced to a pony.
 
“What did you say?” Skyla whispered, glaring dagger at the stallion. Olive flinched, wanting to hide but his mouth moved unbidden.
 
“I’m sure it was terrible, to lose somepony so close to you. Im very sorry for that and wish you could heal.” He said, watching the colors battle it out around her. “Perhaps it would be best if you try to move past it. I’m sure that pony wouldn’t want you to grow up so bitter and-” His speech was interrupted by a hoof to the face. The punch hurled him into the wall. He laid on the ground, letting blood hit the carpet at Skyal towered over him with a dark look in her eye.
 
“Don’t you dare talk like you know anything about me, you little bastard!” She snapped, stomping a hoof in front of his muzzle. He flinched away. “If you ever talk to me again, I will break your horn off and shove it down your throat!” With that, Skyla stomped off, running as her heart raced and tears threatened to fall. Olive remained where he was, cursing his eyes for getting him into trouble again.
 

 
Skyla is a bitter bitch.
 
This really is the best way to describe her. She’s cold, cruel and generally uncaring to others. She hates being around others and prefers to be alone. She may have a friend in Desert Moon but even so, solitude is her preferred solution. However, she was not always alone and though she hates talking about it, said pony has been mentioned before. Somepony she lost.
 
Olive here makes the mistake of mentioning that pony, though he doesn’t mean to. An interesting trait he got from his daddy-o, Sombra is sensing fear and seeing its source. It’s generally why he dislikes looking anypony in the eye (that and his crippling shyness). When he looks at others, their fears and insecurities apear before him like a mist of colors, the opaqueness illustrating how deep the fears run. When he’s drawn in, he’ll unconsciously start talking about what he sees. He can usually hold it back but when the fears run deep, he can’t stop himself from talking, which leads to him getting branded as a stalker or a creep by some.
 
And so, when these two bump into each other, all hell breaks loose.
 
Note: The pic in which this pony is mentioned is this one where Des and Skyla meet for the first time.