King and I - 28

“So, this completely inexperienced mare successfully managed to kill one of the best mages in the world?”

Frost balks for a moment, “Y-yes sir. She was hidden under one of the beds and got Heat with… a heat spell, by the time I had realized what had happened it was too late.”

Fury sighed behind his desk and rapped his hooves against the wood in an impromptu rhythm. “And you’ve killed her, correct?”

“Yes sir.”

“Where is the body?”

“I threw her with the rest of them sir. Why, did you want to keep it?”

“No, no; just curious. You are dismissed.”

With a small bow Frost Snap left with room, the door shutting with a click. Fury sighed once more and sunk into his seat. He isn’t surprised; Sombra did start grooming that mare for a reason. Such a shame that he had to remove her from the picture. On the other hand, it would mean more work for him, something that he doesn’t want.

Fury looks back down to his desk, littered with papers for new laws and changes within the empire. The first priority is building a new palace guard, as of now Fury has been forced to deploy his court mages to ensure that nobody gets any funny ideas. A few have already volunteered and returned to their previous posts, but it isn’t enough.

Furthermore, some of the rebels have managed to escape his clutches leaving him short changed. The original plan was to eliminate their leadership, but somehow they got wise to the idea. Somebody had tipped them off, a rat most likely and a rat that Fury can’t find.

He groans again and covers his eyes with an arm. So much work, so little time. How did his brother do all of this on a daily basis?

A chill seeped under Sombra’s coat, awakening him from his dreamless sleep. Slowly, his memory came back to him, he drank Fury’s potion and then… nothing. He rises up wearily, expecting to find himself inside of the infirmary; instead he is met with the empty corridors of his palace. Wordlessly he stands and looks around.

Where are Rose and the others? Did something go wrong?

He turns and walks down the palace’s winding halls, wondering where to go. The throne room seems like a safe bet. The large double doors loom tall over him, but with his ever present confidence he pushes them open. Only then does he realize that something is awfully wrong.

The world in front of him is fractured and dark. Pieces of rubble and glass floating in a black void, the roof of the normally proud throne room tore away to reveal a never-ending darkness. The throne is still stood there untouched, a still body lying at the base of its staircase.

“Hello?” Sombra says moving forwards, the lump on the ground slowly becoming more recognizable. The prone pony turns over, revealing the face of his long dead brother which cracks into an irritating grin. Sombra stops halfway staring at the spirit who suddenly bursts into laughter.

It echoes off the non-existent walls, elated, goofy guffaws that drill into Sombra’s head and leave him on the threshold of an entirely new headache. “Oh man, he got you good!” he screeched, slapping a hoof against the floor in uncontrollable mirth. Sombra stands and bares it; waiting for the pony he thought he would never see again to calm himself.

After two minutes, his patience was at an end. “Enough!” he commands silencing Silver, “What is the meaning of this?”

Silver stands up, still chuckling occasionally and makes his way to his brother who backs off accordingly. “It seems that your time has come to an end, dear brother. I never thought I’d see the day, what finally did you in? Choking on some food? An assassin maybe? Did you fall down the stairs from holding your head too high?”

Sombra’s lips thinned out into an uncomfortable grimace, ending his jubilation. Despite his status as a ghost, Silver doesn’t wish to incur Sombra’s anger and quiets himself. “Why am I here?”

“You’re dead, and your innate connection to me as a brother has dragged you into my little spirit realm.”

“Dead?”

“Dead, pining for the fjords, fix hooves under, whatever you prefer.” Sombra remains silent as he considers the situation. He always knew he’d die one day, and betrayal isn’t an alien concept to him. “You remember this day don’t you?” Silver asks pointing to the throne.

“Of course I do, how would I forget?”

“Have you now seen your own error?”

“Error? You imply that there was any wrongdoing on my part.”

“Do not play semantics with me! You know what I mean!”

“No, I really don’t, Silver. Please tell me again about how your own actions were the fault of your brother. If my memory serves me correctly, at the time there was but one pony responsible for your little temper tantrum,” Sombra responds unwaveringly.

“That isn’t what Rose thinks.”

“She isn’t relevant.”

“Yes she is; it doesn’t matter what you think, it matters what others do. How does she look upon you now, with admiration or disgust at the stallion who murdered his own brother?” Silver spits.

“You always were a compulsive liar. I think that she would view your claims with the healthy skepticism that they deserve. At the end of the day does it excuse your past actions? You claim murder, when all I saw was the defense of my people.”

“I tried to protect a persecuted grou-”

“You tried to take over the Empire! The Equestrians were knocking down our door, and you were having a temper tantrum about ponies on the other side of the damn continent!” Sombra yells. Silver is taken aback for a moment by his uncharacteristic anger. “You can accuse me of murder all you like, but don’t pretend that I did it for no reason. You posed a threat to the lives of every stallion, mare and foal living in the Empire.”

“And what else was I supposed to do? Sit back and allow them to come and kill me, because you would have!”

“Because you never listened to me! I told you to stay away, to keep yourself from it; but you jumped head first into it and blamed me when it went wrong,” Sombra huffs turning away. They both remain silent for several minutes.

Silver decides to break the silence, “Tell me brother, what did you do in the wake of my death?” Sombra stays in defiant silence. “What did you do?” he asks again.

Still not facing him Sombra speaks, “I mourned you, despite everything that you did. I held a funeral for you despite the objections of my council and the ponies you put in danger.”

“And will you do the same for Fury?”

“No. At least you gave me the courtesy of facing me with your problems rather than poisoning me and taking my place. I suppose this was inevitable anyway, I failed to learn my lesson from you, so Fury made sure to make it memorable.”

Sombra turns to face his little brother once more, his face having softened. “I will not demand forgiveness from you, but I hope that you can forgive me for not doing enough to protect you or the others.”

“One day, maybe, but not today.”

A crestfallen Sombra looks to the ground and scowls to himself.

“I suppose I can offer you a piece of advice, seen as though you are going to be here for a while. We can watch what is happening on the ground; Rose is in much distress given recent events, making it very easy to spy on her.”

“What is she trying to do?”

“The smart thing I suppose, taking your body away from the palace and gathering some help. I believe she intends to revive you with a soul binding ritual so you can face down Fury and take back leadership.”

“She’s not skilled enough to do something like that.”

“She has a hard road ahead of her indeed. That isn’t going to stop her from trying.”

---

The small wheels of the mobile stretcher squeak as they roll down the pristine palace floors. Atop it lies the dead body of the former monarch, the one you have to remove from the palace before somebody finds it. Luckily for you with most of the guard disposed of the palace is near enough deserted.

You’ve waited until night to move him. You know for a fact that many of the mages woke up extra early this morning to “prepare” for their master plan. It’s debatable how much planning they actually did given the eventual conclusion. As a direct result many of them have already retired to their chambers for the night.

This means that a skeleton crew is running the place and most likely only guarding essential areas of the castle like the throne room and the personnel quarters where Fury is staying. Despite this your heart still thumps loudly in your chest, if you get caught this could go south very, very fast. Before rounding every corner you take a look first to ensure that nobody is there.

Unfortunately this increases the amount of time it’s taken you. What would normally be a ten minute walk has evolved into an hour long, pants shitting endurance game. You push the thin bed out into the lobby and look over the banister before trying to descend the stairs. There aren’t any guards on the door, but there might be on the outside instead.

There aren’t any ponies out on the streets, Fury made sure of that, you need a new distraction to get them away from the door. You don’t feel like killing anybody else today and you need to preserve your strength for later.

“Rose?”

You nearly jump out of your skin as Frost pokes your side. Biting down on an arm you manage to stifle a scream as the tension that has been building for the last hour is let out like a popped balloon. “Jesus, fuck!” you hiss to yourself. “Never do that again.”

“Sorry, I was just wondering what you’re still doing here.”

“I got paranoid about getting spotted so I made extra sure that nobody could see me,” you explain. “It took me a bit longer to get here. Do you know if there are guards on the door?”

“I can go check for you, you should hide somewhere and I’ll see if I can pull them away for a while.”

You nod and with his help bring the body downstairs. The personal quarters are nearby where Fury is supposedly keeping his hostages. “I’m going into the guard quarters.”

You go left and walk past many, many wooden doors before reaching the end where the dungeon is, it’s been a long time since you’ve been here. You decide to avoid the cold prison and choose one of the rooms instead.

You pick a door at random and open it revealing a very plain room with simple necessities like a bed and a small on suite bathroom. On the ground lies an unconscious pair of guards bound with transparent magical bonds. It would have been a lot simpler if they were made from rope, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to break them; even then they might have some way of keeping tabs on them. For your own safety you decide to leave them be for now. Stepping over them you leave Sombra by the door and sit down on the itchy bed.

A few minutes later you can hear hoof steps coming down the hall. Carefully you poke your head around the doorframe, Frost waving to you from down the way. You drag Sombra out of the room and down to the entrance where Frost is waiting. “I managed to distract them, hurry up before they come back.”

With a nod you thank him for the help and rush out into the empty city. You have a place in mind to go and hide your contraband, somewhere that Fury won’t think of. The districts pass by in a blur as you rush back to the old tavern where you met with Lily and Spyglass just a few days earlier.

You push open the door and reposition yourself behind the stretcher, pushing it into the bar and closing it behind you. In the darkness you remain still for a moment trying to calm your beating heart.

A glint of light flashes in the darkness, the feel of a cold blade on your neck.

“I never thought I’d see you again,” Spyglass whispers.