King and I - 27

Having brick walled Sombra he soon returns to his meditative silence. The other mages shift and cough occasionally, the atmosphere in the room taking a turn for the stuffy. Thankfully, or not in this case, the awkward atmosphere is broken by the door to the outer corridor opening and the scuffling of hooves.

The door opens and a wide purple muzzle pokes around the door frame. “Your majesty,” he speaks addressing Sombra, “Fury has requested that you come to the throne room so we may begin.” Sombra remains still for around half a minute, the courier not daring to speak up again. He rises from his seat abruptly as walks past the quivering stallion. The other mages look to each other and follow suit, filing out of the room in a neat line.

This leaves just you. You have to admit that this room seems a lot less creepy when it’s full of jovial mages. The only sound you can hear is the feint sound of hooves outside of the double pair of doors and that of your own breathing. You scratch the rough wood of the center table and glance around at the banner clad walls.

All you have to do now is wait, and wait you do.

Eventually your boredom gets the better of you and after half an hour of waiting, you arise from the wooden chair and head out into the still hallways. The mage’s room is located fairly far from the throne room, and by consequence far from the action. The corridors are deserted like you’d expected; Warm must have kept the palace staff away.

They should have finished the first phase of the plan by now, Sombra will have been “killed” and wheeled into the infirmary, so now you have to go an revive him. You shuffle under your coat slightly feeling for the cool glass of the antidote tube. With everything you need on you, you set off down towards the infirmary. The route takes you past the throne room, so you have to ensure that you either don’t get spotted, or have a good enough excuse to go past them.

This would have been made a lot easier if they put you by the infirmary in the first place. Hindsight is a bitch.

Nothing of significance occurs until you get closer to the throne room. It is where all of the action is going on after all. It starts of subtly with scratches on the walls and floors, possibly from some kind of bladed weapon. You approach one and feel the groove with your hoof, it’s rough and evidently freshly made as the walls are usually flawless.

Moving on you turn the corner that leads to the throne corridor and stop dead at the sight. The place has been completely demolished, with more of those scratches from before, and black scorch marks indicating the use of some magic. A large bloodstain lies on the surface of the nonabsorbent ground, crimson red and unlikely to dry for some time.

The scent of iron fills the air as you carefully hop over the pool. Drag marks pulls the red carpet into the closed throne room doors, in which you can only imagine what’s currently going on. A devilish idea worms into your head, reminding you of a particular spell Sombra taught you way back when.

Sparking up your horn you reach forwards with your magic and form a connection with the freshly spilled blood. It’s been a while since you’ve practiced this, and some of the details continued to elude you even then, but you have the ability to see what’s going on at least.

Now you need to focus, throne room, throne room. You imagine it in your mind, with its imposing black throne and fantastic view over the empire, the broken chains and the red banners, the steps and the makeshift seating area designed to hold the “noble court.”

Your familiarity with the space allows you to easily form a peeking pool, and with your curiosity still eating away at you, you look down to see a crimson stained rendition of the very same area. The view is placed at the top corner of the room, the back of the throne blocking the view of whoever is seated on it and stood in front of it.

The room is in disarray with a similar amount of battle damage. It’s hard to tell, but darker splotches potentially show a large amount of bloodshed. The view isn’t detailed enough due to your inexperience, but you can make out the general shape of the ponies present.

Several heft long spears above their heads, who must be the rebel soldiers. Two more stand at attention in front of them, Spyglass and Lily? Opposing them stand the mages, wearing their distinctive coats.

Unfortunately your makeshift TV doesn’t come with a built in sound system. The two appear to be shouting at whoever is now seated on the throne, they must be arguing with Fury. Stepping back from the blood stain you decide a different approach is better. With all the stealth you can muster you place a singular ear against the door. It’s muffled, but their definitely shouting about something.

You bite your lip, what should you do? All of Sombra’s guards have been moved away from here after “surrendering” to Fury and Lily. Fury might be waiting on you to burst in with Sombra in tow and help him take them out. Looking between the other end of the corridor and the door you decide it would be better to stick to the plan for now.

You stop yourself from galloping away, still mindful of the armed soldiers just a few meters away from you. Navigating around the blood pool once more you set off for the infirmary. The carnage has been contained solely to the area around the throne room to avoid panicking the civilians down below and to help keep the thing on a tighter leash.

Soon enough you’re jogging (cantering?) down the long empty hallways knowing that nopony else will be here. The infirmary sticks out like a sore thumb, with sterile white doors contrasting the wooden ones used primarily around the palace and that’s before you notice the white backed green cross stapled on the wall beside it.

The lights inside are turned off seemingly to indicate that nobody is inside. In truth this is where Sombra is being kept. You push open the swinging doors and waltz inside, confident that your plan hasn’t been compromised. A small reception area is contained here, with a wooden desk and a seating area. Another set of doors leads to the singular ward within the castle.

You push through the second set of doors and enter into the nearly pitch black ward. You feel on the wall for the light switch before you realize that these lights are magic activated. It’s a simple matter of throwing some energy into them, and one by one you light up the room as you walk down it.

The beds are empty as you’d expect. They closely resemble ones you might see on Earth, with artificial bedframes and soft green sheet covers. Small tables are stood next to them, holding vases with simple flowers and some abandoned clipboards. At the very end of the ward on the left you spot one with the green curtains drawn. You’re lucky nobody wandered in here, it’s not exactly inconspicuous.

Making sure that nobody has followed; you lift up the curtain and slip under it. In the shaded area you can see his heavy form lying still on the bed. You cast some more magic into the provided bedside lampshade, revealing the King in full.

You blush as you’re immediately met with the sight of his genitals, as for some god unknown reason the mages have decided to lie him on his back, giving you a full view of his crown jewels. You know that one of them is chuckling to himself about it right now. Pony cock aside, it leaves you with an interesting thought.

He’s unconscious, and isn’t likely to wake up for some time. This is the perfect time to take a closer look at him. Your heart hammers in your chest as you mount the bed and lean into him with a curious eye. Up close he’s different then what you’d built in your mind.

His imposing air still hovers over you, that much remains; but asleep now you can’t help but view him as less than he really is, not as a king but as a regular pony. His muzzle always puzzled you, with black stripes that make him resemble a lion. The wild mane of black hair on his head extends down onto his nose and is formed into a distinct looking pattern with two downwards arrows, perhaps purposefully.

From a distance you thought they were artificial, but his fur actually turns black and flows with his hair, the same with his rather odd looking sideburns. You reach forwards and brush it slightly before retracting it quickly as if it could bite you. He doesn’t stir.

You feel a bit more confident now and turn your attention to his horn. Only now you notice the resemblance between his and yours, a consequence of dark magic; possibly, but it didn’t happen to Silver, and he used blood magic. He was also a ghost, so it begs the question of whether or not that he could have changed his horn while he was projecting himself to you.

You stroke it, unlike your own which is smooth; his feels more along the line of something like unrefined granite. Nicks and scratches pepper it, giving it a well-worn look. If somebody walked in right now, man that would be embarrassing.

Phallic imagery, both real and fake aside, you take a glance at the rest of him. Broad chest, long legs, he’s well built, another thing that contributes to his intimidating aura. You haven’t seen anybody like him yet. And yes, you do catch another peek at his balls, may as well right? If you didn’t lose it already you might feel a twinge of penis envy.

You’ve wasted enough time. You need to get back to Fury right away to make sure everything has gone smoothly. Pulling the antidote from your pocket you smile as you have managed to keep the thing in one piece. Using your magic you ever so carefully pull the cork from the top and place it down on the bedside table.

Your magic splits of and grasps the bottom of Sombra’s jaw. You only need a little force to get his mouth open. It walks a fine line between pulling it open and forcing it open and you’d rather get this done without snapping it. Slowly but surely you pull it open, he doesn’t stir. Ensuring that not a drop is spilt you bring over the antidote and poise it on the bottom of his lip.

You tip it over and begin pouring the solution in his mouth. You have to make a few adjustments with your positioning to stop it from pooling in the bottom of his mouth. After pouring the entire thing out you reach out and tilt his head back so he swallows the rest, job done!

Now all you have to do is to wait for him to wake up. You pull a seat over from one of the neighboring segments and take a load off your hooves. It’s not comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, but the curved plastic contours to your back much better than the straight wooden chairs you’ve been using.  It’s curious to see such a different styled chair when everything else is made from wood. It must be easier to wash down after somepony has used it.

This is taking too long.

Throwing caution to the wind you scramble back onto the bed and touch his chest with a hoof. He’s cold.

Cold?

You retract it and shuffle on the bed nervously. Leaning down you lay one of your ears on his chest where you presume his heart should be, nothing. Are you listening to the right spot? You shift it around, sliding across his chest in a vain attempt to locate his heartbeat. He remains still.

“No.”

You try again, hoping for something, anything to prove you wrong.

“No, please don’t do this, not now…”

Cold skin, you peel away his eye lids to meet cold, hazy eyes.

“You fucking son of a bitch, you motherfucker!” You scream. “You goddamn motherfucker!” you shout, punctuating every word with a punch to the bed. Pure anger seeps through your veins, you can’t think of anything else, any clever solution to bring him back. But you need to do something before Fury gets to you.

The sound of the door opening freezes your blood. “She’s still in here?” You briefly recognize the sound of his voice; it’s one of the mages.

“I heard somepony shouting. Fury wants us to take care of her,” another one says.

“What kind of ‘take care’?” his friend asks.

“Up to us apparently,” he snickers, the sound of his hooves clumsily slapping against the floor. You remain still trying not to make a sound. “I wouldn’t mind taking care of that ass, you know what I mean?”

The other lets out a disdainful, tired sigh, “Why is it always getting tail with you? This mare is dangerous.”

“Dangerously hot, you mean. Don’t be such a buzzkill.”

“You need to be bucking gelded, idiot. Actually, she’ll probably do it for you.”

They both come to a stop, their silhouettes casting a shadow against the curtain. Your breath catches in your throat, you need to hide! As silently as you can you slip down from the bed, and it being the only hiding spot available, slip underneath it.

“Did you see that?” the smarter one asks.

“What?”

“I think she’s still in there,” he whispers.  A magic aura wraps around the curtain and flips it up, revealing a set of blue hooves, and another set of red ones. Red coat… you’ve seen this guy staring at you before; he must be the idiot. Ignoring his friend’s pleas he trots into the room without a care in the world.

“Nope, not a soul other than this dead guy.”

“That dead guy is King Sombra,” the other adds with disdain, “show some respect.”

“What is with you today?” the red one whines.

“As it happens, I’m not in the best of moods today,” he huffs. “Never mind me, where is this mare?”

It’s kill or be killed Rose…

You focus your horn and decide to target the potential rapist first. Targeting a specific part of his body seems to be the best bet. You focus and pour your power into boiling his blood, which begins to take effect almost instantly. The stallion grunts and falls to his behind, clasping the area with both of his hooves.

“What in Tartarus is wrong with you now?”

“I just got really bad heartbur-” he stops, prompting a dash of concern from his partner who steps towards him.

And then the screaming starts; an ear splitting, horrifying scream. Ignoring the horrible act you’re currently committing, you focus on maintaining the spell until he’s dead. He drops to the ground and writhes in agony, bringing him into full view. Even face to face you press on, intensifying the spell to finish the job. His partner is at a loss for what to do.

His face twists in intense pain; he shakes his head wordlessly begging you to stop. You don’t.

“Oh shit, oh buck, oh buck…” the other starts mumbling while backing away.

With a little flourish and a jerk from his fresh corpse the spell ends, leaving one dead mage on the floor of the ward. His eyes are wide and misty, but you don’t feel remorse. He had it coming right? The remaining mage carefully approaches the body, hoping not to incur your wrath upon him. Coming to terms with the situation he scans the ward looking for you.

The remaining mage calms down some as he looks over your victim, “Never liked him anyway.”

A realization, he swings around only to meet the tip of your pointed horn.

“Move, or open your mouth, and I blow your head off.” He nods wordlessly. “Now listen up, you’re going to tell me every little detail about what’s happening, and you’re going to make it snappy. Go!”

“F-Fury wanted to get rid of Sombra because he thought he was dangerous! He slipped some poison into his potion and used it to kill him.”

“The rebels?”

“Probably being dealt with right now.”

So Fury has taken the opportunity to kill Sombra and the rebels, you’re annoyed you didn’t notice it earlier. This entire plan stunk from the moment he introduced these poisons.

“How do I revive him?” you ask turning to look at Sombra’s corpse.

“Revive? What do you mean revive? You can’t just bring somepony back from the dead!” You snarl at him causing him to wince and step back. “Y-You might be able to, but it needs a lot of energy and somepony extremely skilled in blood magic.”

“How?”

“Soulbinding, you use your own spirit as an anchor for his to attach itself to and pull it back into his body. B-but you’ll need a big group of ponies to do something like that, and the binding is permanent.”

So reviving Sombra doesn’t seem to be an option. At least not right now, you’re going to have to handle this yourself. You look at his unmoving body and sigh. The mage clears his throat to catch your attention.

“If I may,” the mage asks, “I would like to assist you in this endeavor.”

“Who are you to do that?”

“Sombra has led us for decades, potentially even longer, but he has never led me wrong. Some of the others are eager to take power for themselves as members of Fury’s new court, but it is something I wish to have no part of. There is no honor in succeeding a leader you have poisoned with your own hoof.”

This could be a trick, but you don’t have much left to lose. You’re probably one of the few ponies in the empire in the position to turn this around. “What’s your name?”

“Frost Snap ma’am,” he bows his head in greeting.

“I have an idea, an extremely risky one that will need your co-operation. As long as you don’t kill me in the process, I think we have a good chance of reviving Sombra and stopping Fury. Can I trust you with this?”

“I’m not the pony to ask that question to,” he says sitting down on the ground.

You don't like it, but... “…Good, here’s what we’re going to do…”