King and I - 22

You sit near the head of the dining table with the newly introspective Sombra. After declaring his intent to smarten up and move back towards being nice a near simultaneous rumbling from below reminded you that you’ve not eaten for the better half of the day. An unspoken agreement was made and you now find yourself waiting on the catering staff to serve your meal.

The silence is soon broken, not by the presence of the waiter but by the sudden appearance of Fury. Sombra looks confused but remains silent.

“Hello brother.” He greets happily. Sombra looks between the both of you.

“He told me earlier.” You say preempting his question.

“And why would that be?” He asks, leaning back into his seat.

“We were talking about a few issues with one another, and I decided to get it out in the open before anything did it for us.” Fury explains pulling out a seat of his own, sitting opposite you. “Don’t look like that; it isn’t an earth shattering revelation.” He rolls his eyes.

“I’d much prefer it if you kept from spilling all of our secrets to others.” Sombra grumbles.

“There aren’t many secrets left to keep. Although I’ll hold off the last few.”

“Good. What are you here for?”

Before Fury can begin the doors swing open revealing the waiter. He scoots his little chrome cart into the room and carefully lays out both of your plates, along with a small set of cutlery. He looks to Fury, but he shakes his head to dismiss him. Fury waits until he has vacated the room to start again.

“It’s not an easy thing to approach you with. However I deem it something that is becoming increasingly necessary as time goes on. I and Rose have talked about my idea briefly and now I’d like to pitch it to you.” Fury waits for a moment, hoping for some kind of permission. Sombra continues to eat his salad without a word.  Seeing that as a cue to continue he moves on.

“You and I both know of the threat that is boiling up under out hooves at this moment. For all of their appearances and lamentations the rebels could easily push into the palace with proper support and I fear that they have that support as of today.” Sombra’s fork clatters onto the table. He levitates one of the tissues and dabs around the outside of his mouth.

“And you believe that I am in danger?” He says placing it back down. “Why have you involved Rose in this?”

“I’m getting to that brother. I had a flash of brilliance earlier today when considering our position. We already have somepony on the inside of their organization.” He nods to you. “And we’ve been sitting on her the entire time.”

“I haven’t actually done anything for them.” You protest.

“But you did show intent, and that’s all they care about. I can prepare a solution for us, to get rid of them once and for all but first I need more time, and I need to protect you.”

“I don’t need protecting.” Sombra butts in. You have to agree with him, from what little you’ve seen of his magical power it wouldn’t surprise you if he could take out anything they throw at him. “They may be able to contend with my guard, but they will not have the same liberty with me.”

“He has a point.” You say. Sombra seems happy that you agree with him. “But… what about the possibility of falling into open conflict?” His smile and optimism disappear just as quickly as it arrived.

“I think it’s a bit too late for that now.”

“Listen brother, this is only going to get worse, maybe not for you, but for everypony who lives in the empire. This isn’t something we can just ignore anymore. Your presence of the throne threatens to split our collective into two and no family ties or friendships will stop the bloodshed then.” Fury warns, slamming a hoof down onto the table.

“And how do you know that dear brother? That our people would descend into such anarchy over the word of one and another?” He scoffs.

“Because it’s happened before!” He roars in anger. This seems to catch his and your attention. There’s a bit of history you’re missing between these two. “Your damn arrogance would see it happen again because you never learn! How many have to die before you take action, how many? Not even the death of famil-”

“Don’t you dare bring them into this!” Sombra screams back in a ghastly voice. “That was different, and you know it!” The room dies down, a chill working its way under your white fur. They both take deep, heaving breaths before slipping back into their seats, each shooting the other a deadly glare. You need to defuse this situation.

“Sombra!” You hiss like an irritated mother. “We talked about this.”

“But I don’t understand why I should humor this idea.”

“Which you haven’t heard yet.” You add. “At least listen to his plan first, if not for your own sake but for your subjects who are in danger.” He sighs as he looks back to the triumphant Fury. You’re annoyed at the both of them for arguing like a pair of foals but you stay your tongue as Fury begins to explain his plan.

Sombra remains silent the entire time allowing you to finish off your meal without having to answer questions or mediate the two. That was really close, you were lucky to pull them both back into line. Do they always argue like this when you’re not around? For brothers the two seem to have remarkably different personalities and attitudes.

Just as you polish of the last of your forgettable meal Fury finishes and await a response from his stoic brother. It doesn’t seem to be forthcoming so you decide to move things along. “So? What do you think?”

He sighs and looks to one of the stained windows. “I have to admit there is some benefit to your plan. I fail to see how it will protect me, not that I need it of course.”

“It lulls them into a false sense of security and makes them come out of hiding, then we can finish them when they least expect it without throwing ourselves into direct combat…” Fury moans as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “And then when there are no rebels left, they won’t try to kill us anymore!”

Sombra mulls over it for a few minutes, Fury occasionally shooting you a hopeful glance. “Fine.” He grumbles rising from his seat. “You may enact this scheme of yours, but if it doesn’t work…”

“I’ll accept the consequences, I know, I know.” He looks to you, an excited spark in his eyes. “We best get started right away!”
The door clicks shut as Sombra slips away.

---

You sit looking over the worn piece of parchment. It details everything you need to do to pull Fury’s plan off. It sounds easy enough, but you still hesitate in front of the palace door. Is this really what you want to do?

It’d be wonderful if you could point the finger at Sombra and fight him, after all he is a dictator, and dictators are always a bad thing. The question you ask yourself now, is the alternative any better? Who would fill the power vacuum that would be left behind by his displacement? You shift from one hoof to the other. You don’t trust the rebels, and you are just beginning to trust Sombra.

You push it open and head out into the chilly evening air, the guards glance at you for a moment before allowing you to pass without question.  You have to make a decision soon, you can’t just dance between the two forever. The other citizens out and about at this time give you a wide berth probably from a combination of your robe and reputation as a member of Sombra’s personal circle of relationships.

You notice that a few foals point at you and tug on their parent’s leg, asking with childish curiosity who you are and why everypony is avoiding you. Are these people afraid of you? Or are they afraid of what Sombra might do to them if they mess with you? Keep your eyes forward, no need to creep them out by staring.  You take a sudden left down into one of the many decrepit alleys that dot the poor district.

Soon enough a distinct looking building comes into view. An anarchic combination of the traditional crystal architecture you’ve seen and a Tudor style home you’d expect to find in England. Large black, wooden beams runs across its front and sides for seemingly no purpose or reason, one of the few instances of actual windows are crossed with black embedding and a shingled roof draws the eye.

That is one ugly building, you have to admit. It’s a good thing it’s hidden out of sight like this. A rotted wooden sign swings freely in the breeze; a dulled image of a mug of some kind of alcoholic beverage informs all that this is a place to drink away your worries. You open the wooden door and step into the dark tavern.

The interior doesn’t imitate the exterior. Unlike the horrible train wreck outside, the inside makes sure to stick to the wooden aesthetic. The crystal walls are covered by a layer of wooden cladding ensuring that there is no garish contrast between the two. It looks like every generic medieval fantasy rolled into one. Somebody has been here recently, as the tables have all been pushed away from the bar floor and stacked at the sides. Only one remains with four seats.

Remembering the incredibly specific instructions sent to you, you take a seat and wait patiently for your contacts to arrive. The eerie silence does nothing to settle your frayed nerves, why did they have to pick the creepiest place possible? A thought flutters to the front of your mind, is this the tavern Warm used to run?

Before you can put anymore thought into it the sound of creaking wood fills the empty room. You see a green ear poke out from behind the dusty bar, followed by the familiar face of Spyglass. He looks back down and nods to an unseen accomplice who emerges after him, it’s the commander. They both move up to the table and take two of the three spare seats.

“Nice to see you again, Rose.” Spyglass smiles. “I never got the chance to thank you for the help.”

“You don’t need to; it was the right thing to do.” You respond modestly. Lily scoffs and rolls her eyes.

“Yeah right, we were lucky to find somepony in that palace with the balls to do it.” Spyglass nods, but winces slightly as she mentions balls, you don’t want to imagine why.

“Anyway,” you say wanting to move away from the topic, “let’s get on with the reason we’re here.”

“Right, your defector.” Lily nods looking around the bar for a moment. “Where are they?”

“Not here right now, he’ll be arriving soon. He’s a paranoid guy.”

“So he sent you in first?” Spyglass asks seemingly irritated. “Sounds like an asshole to me.”

“He’s a very powerful asshole, for the record. I wouldn’t have arranged this meeting if it wasn’t worth your time.” You tell him. Lily looks to him and raises a brow. He grins sheepishly before lowering himself into his seat. There’s something going on here.

You don’t have time to ask as the door swings open once more to reveal a rather jovial looking Fury. “You’re buckin’ with me.” Spyglass mumbles in disbelief. He looks to Lily who is also frozen in shock. “You’re buckin’ with me!”

Fury walks up with an arrogant flair taking the last seat. “I can assure you that I am indeed, not bucking with you. This is very real.”
Lily shuts her gaping jaw and composes herself. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Neither did I, to be honest.” You joke. “So,” you clap your hooves together, “let’s get down to business.”