King and I - 30

Spyglass’ tail fades into the darkness, presumably for the last time you’ll see him. You don’t know where he’s going, or where the tunnel leads, but you really don’t care. There must be a way for him to get out of the Empire and back home; he did get here after all.

Still smiling you return to the bar floor. Spyglass has left his blade on the table which may come in handy later. Your magic is great and all but it pays to have some options when worse comes to worst. With a sigh you sit back down on one of the chairs, more waiting, just what you need.

Exhaustion has taken you; it’s been a long day with no time to rest. The chair isn’t the best place to sleep, so you walk over to the bar and climb on. It would be much nicer if you had a pillow or something, but you have to make do with what little you have. Seeing an opportunity you close your eyes and drift off into a dreamless, uncomfortable sleep.

---

Three hard knocks rattle the wooden door and jolt you awake. How long were you out for? With a groan you hop down and wince at the feeling of several new aches running down your body. You should have found a bed instead of collapsing on that bar. The door is knocked once again. Ignoring the pain you hobble over to it and open a small peep hole, glancing out of the small opening you see Frost alongside several other mages.

You recognize most of them. Taking a calming breath you open the door and hurry them inside, checking outside to make sure nobody has followed. Some of them seem surprised by your presence; they must have presumed that Frost was telling the truth earlier. It’s crazy how trusting some people can be.

Locking the door with a deadbolt you turn around to see the group standing around awkwardly. They don’t seem to be very sure of themselves. You personally don’t like having to take charge, but it seems these all powerful mages aren’t very good individually. “Sit down, we need to talk.”

They scramble about and procure seats for themselves. They sit around you like schoolchildren. Frost gives you a bemused shrug and grabs a seat himself, sitting down near the back. This is going to be harder than you expected. You consider how much you want to tell them, if you aren’t careful one of them may run back to Fury and blow your whole plan.

By Frost’s word these are the mages who disagreed with Fury’s plan but were threatened into compliance. You aren’t quite as sure as him though, it wouldn’t serve you well to tell them everything before you even know if they’ll help you. Sombra’s body is the most valuable thing you have, and to lose it will doom you.

For now you’ll have to skirt around that issue and find a baseline interest from them all. Clearing your throat to catch their attention, twenty pairs of eyeballs are suddenly on you. This makes you a lot more nervous than you originally expected. Keep it together Rose.

“I suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve arranged this meeting today.”

Your rhetorical question pulls a few answers from them, a few nods and whispers. “Recently, a prominent member of our government and mage union has betrayed our former King, and taken the seat for himself. I don’t need to say this, but this cannot stand.

“Clearly his intent is to simply consolidate the power for himself, a selfish and short sighted goal that will only harm the common pony living here in the Empire. Our words will mean little to nothing now that Fury is sat on the throne, and the average citizen’s word will soon follow. This is the track he’s set us on, but now I desire to derail his plan before he causes unneeded suffering for everypony here.

“I have gathered you here today to ask you a question. Are you going to sit back and allow an in-experienced and power hungry stallion take over the Empire you’ve worked so hard to protect? Frost has picked you out as those who may be the most sympathetic to our plan, and I hope that you are all considering joining us.”

“Or what?” one of the stallions down in front asks confrontationally. Think fast.

“Or I’ll do what I did to the other fool who tried to take me down; I’ll boil you from the inside and watch as your internal organs rupture. Simple.”

Your threat seems to have worked as he backs down and casts an uneasy glance at his friends. You’d prefer not having to use the threat of violence because it makes them less cooperative in the long run, but for now you need to put your hoof down and take charge before they get some funny ideas.

“My plan is simple, with your help I wish to revive the King, and then with his help we can storm the castle and kill the bastard; any questions?”

A small show of hooves follow, some hesitant to raise it lest they incur your wrath. You point to a green unicorn that is seemingly very eager. “How are we going to revive him?” he asks. Several of the others nod in agreement with him.

“I thought you guys were skilled magic users? Put two and two together, by using a soul binding spell to pull him back into the body.”

Frost pulls you aside for a moment while the mages begin to chatter amongst themselves. “I’m sorry to tell you this now, but it doesn’t seem like a great idea. Sombra’s already done that spell once to bring you here, at least that’s what I think, to do so twice would be extraordinarily dangerous.

“He has a much stronger anchor to this world than you do, there’s the risk that instead of you pulling him back here, that you’ll be pulled out of your body instead.”

You consider his words for a moment, this is the first time you’ve heard of such a thing. An idea strikes you. “That’s why we need to use more people; if there are more of us we’ll have a bigger anchor.”

He nods in understanding. “Ah! So not only will it amplify your power, but it’ll also help mitigate any nasty side effects. I didn’t consider that.”

He steps back and allows you to continue your Q&A session. A lot of the questions are minor and require little to no thought to answer, while some of them are real problems you’re only just now noticing thanks to them pointing them out. A few of them seem unsure about the whole thing. A bit of good natured positive reinforcement is given from their peers and they soon fall in line.

You ask for silence, “So, is everybody here in?” A chorus of ayes follow, “I’m placing a lot of trust in you all with this; we need to take back the Empire before he causes any more damage.”

You pull Frost away from the chatting group, “Is there anything else we need to perform this spell?”

“Not really, although a magical catalyst would be helpful; casting a spell like this can put a lot of strain on the body.”

A magical catalyst? Where have you heard that before? You remember it from your first few days, that's right, Silver wanted you to find one for him.

“…You don’t need, need one, but it would make things a lot easier.”

“We don’t exactly have the luxury of time here Frost. Even if we did where would we find one? If it means sneaking somewhere I don’t want to risk it, we’re on thin ice as it is bringing all of these guys here. If Fury catches wind of this we’re in serious trouble.”

“I know, I know. But I just think we’re pushing our luck with this resurrection idea. We barely have enough ponies to get this done,” he frets. The worry on his face is clear as day, but like you said, you need to get this done fast before somebody finds out that half of the guild is missing.

“Is this really everybody willing to come with you?”

He sighs and looks back to them, “These are the ones who took the hints I dropped. Some of them either support Fury or just didn’t catch my meaning. It’s unlikely that we’ll manage to get many more down here.”

“Then we don’t have much of a choice,” you conclude pulling up the floorboards. It feels kind of redundant now, but you aren’t willing to take chances when your life is on the line. Crawling down the steep wooden steps you spy the stretcher once again. “C’mon, help me bring this back up.”

Using your combined magic you pull the stretcher back up. Flashbacks to moving an old couch flash through your mind and you repress a sudden impulse to shudder. The bar floor grows silent as you remerge with the dead body of the now disposed King. A few whisper swears to themselves in disbelief, never in their lives have they ever considered seeing him in such a state. Others look away in obvious disgust.

You part the crowd and wheel him to the middle. More gasps and exclamations of sadness follow. You roll your eyes; Frost wasn’t lying when he said that these fellows were the ones who liked Sombra.

You turn to Frost, “You’re going to have to guide me, I’ve never done this spell before.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s hard to learn but easy to master. You’re a fast learner right? Just keep yourself focused and we won’t have a problem.

“It’s going to be easy at the start since the two of you already have an innate connection with one another from the original soul-binding. Channel your magic through his body and close your eyes tight.”

With a nod you step up to the plate. The crowd around you becomes silent once more by Frost’s insistence. You need to keep focused and sudden noises will put you off and potentially into the path of danger. Lighting up your horn you take a deep breath and surround his body with your aura. Already you can feel something, you’re not quite sure what, but it’s there in your mind’s eye.

“Now, can you feel his connection to you? You need to strengthen it. Focus your magic on that connection; imagine it as a thin string that you need to turn into a strong rope.”

You grasp the connection and feel its effects. A new presence fills your mind, watching you. It is thin and weak, and with your magic you shall thicken it to a point where you can pull him back. Pouring your energy into the nether the presence becomes stronger and you become increasingly aware of his thoughts and emotions, that’s Sombra alright.

“Good. Don’t panic, but the others are now going to use you as the magical conduit we need to pull him through into our world. You’ll feel strange and extremely aware of everything around you, but you must stay focused on that bond.”

He counts down from three. A smell of ozone fills the air as a gallery of horns fills the room with multi-coloured light that penetrates you eye-lids.

Then it hits you.

You gasp as a surge of energy rushes through your body. The bond is momentarily forgotten as everything around you pushes itself into your mind forcefully. It’s difficult to focus on one thing as a cacophony of sensations crashes against you. You feel like you could run a thousand marathons without breaking a sweat, you feel fantastic!

Without even opening your eyes a vivid picture of the bar is delivered to you. Every sight, sound and smell. It’s overwhelming, from the individual sounds of each pony drawing a breath, to the slight scent of perspiration from one of the stallions near the back. You struggle to breath as you throat constricts, keep calm, don’t panic.

You need to keep your mind on one thing; the tether between you and Sombra. The power of every pony in the room flows through you and works to reinforce the connection. “Good! You’re almost there, now reach out and pull him back.”

You tug and pull on it with your mind, feeling no small amount of resistance at the other end.

---

Sombra gasps and jerks forward, his whole body being pulled by an incredibly strong force. It catches the attention of the now humbled Silver, who rolls his eyes and turns away, not wishing to give him the benefit of knowing what is going on. Even in their last meeting they still bite at each other’s throats. Silver had initially had some small hope of bringing Sombra round to his point of view, but it seems Sombra is content with sticking to his story.

Sombra was right, he had bucked up royally but he would never admit that in front of his brothers. What difference does it make anyway? He’s already dead; his body too decayed and damaged to possibly be revived through. Another gasp, Sombra collapses to the floor. He breaths rapidly trying to calm his fraying nerves.

A small favour perhaps, this is the last time they will see each other. “Don’t panic brother; it seems that your guardian angel is here to rescue you.”

“W-what?” he gasps.

“A soul binding spell, I’m sure you’re very familiar with it. She’s done a good job hasn’t she? I thought Fury would have burned your corpse by now. A resourceful one isn’t she? I can only imagine what you’re planning to do with her. Following the path of those before to an untimely end would be a tragic waste of talent.”

“I’m not going to… kill her.”

“Of course you aren’t.” Silver mutters sarcastically. A poignant silence fills the air. “This will be the last time we speak.”

“Were you expecting an apology?”

Silver bites his lip and smiles, shaking his head. “No, not at all.”

And with that, Sombra’s world fell away around him. The horrible sensation of falling at blinding speeds hits him, his stomach rockets up into his chest cavity and leaves him feeling ill. The fractured castle shrinks above him leaving only the black void.

Just as quickly as it started, it ended.

Back up above Silver collapses onto the ground and covers his eyes. No peace to be found in his own world. Even now on reflection he realizes that he would receive no closure from speaking to the stallion that he had backstabbed, his own flesh and blood.  Silver looks to the shattered ceiling, his eyes wet with fresh tears.

The castle fades away into the darkness. The stallion remains motionless. He had always seen this coming; maybe his own short sighted pride had convinced him that he was the better of the two, the one who was fighting for freedom and safety, rather than a selfish compulsion to preserve his own status and life.

His hoof reaches, hoping to grab onto something, anything to protect him. A cool wind flows through the throne room, casting away his fur and body into dust never to be reassembled. He is far too weak to keep himself together any more. A fleeting thought fills his mind, a desire to just have a few more seconds with himself, but his is a realm without mercy or intelligence.

The void closes in around him, and he thinks no more.

---

Your eyes snap open, attentive and sharp. A gasp rises from the dry throat of the King, who sits up and demands for one of the mages to bring him something to drink. You step back as his eyes scan over the crowd, resting on you. Without looking he snatches the drink from a nervous looking mare and drinks deeply, without breaking eye contact.

Everybody in the room is hanging on his word, waiting for the first order to be given. They find themselves disappointed when he decides to address you instead.

“You are a sight for sore eyes indeed. I was beginning to think that I was going to be imprisoned with that insufferable fool forever,” with a roll of his eyes he rises from the table. Despite your speedy response and resurrection, it’s evident that decay has taken hold of some of his muscle structure as he stumbles to his knees.

Several step forward in concern causing him to wave them off. From his position on the ground he looks up to you. “I’m impressed; truly impressed. I never expected you to be capable of casting such a spell.”

“I wouldn’t be able to do it without that kind of confidence backing me up,” you jab. He looks around, mild bewilderment on his face.

“Where are we?”

“The bar, you know the one right?”

“Why?”

“Fury poisoned you.” Sombra looks at you for a moment searching for some kind of dishonesty. When he doesn’t see it he looks to the stern faces of the mages, who nod along to your answer.

“Of course, I should have known from the very start that he was after my place.”

“We need to take advantage before Fury notices that most of his new court have gone missing,” Frost interrupts. “I’m sorry my liege, but may we continue this line of inquiry at a more convenient time?”

“I suppose there isn’t much time for us to waste. I don’t suppose that you have come up with a plan to retake my throne?”

“Go in and kill him?” one of the mages offers. Sombra rolls his eyes and shakily rises; with the assistance of his mages he takes a seat at one of the tables.

“I’m in no shape to take part in this fight. I must entrust such a responsibility upon all of you. Fury will be amusing himself with some mild curiosity; no doubt, he was never a proactive sort. We have the advantage of surprise. Do any of you happen to be informed about the palace’s tunnel network?”

You look to the bewildered faces of the gathered ponies, who shake their heads and shrug.

“I wasn’t expecting you to, only I know about it. A little secret for the King helps keep me on the throne. We can use it to sneak into the palace, but from there it will be direct combat with whomever he has assembled to assist him.”

“We could free the guards; the idiot is keeping them next to the front entrance,” you recite remembered the bound stallions.

“No, he most likely has them held in magic binds. He’ll know if somepony breaks them, and will send ponies down to investigate.”

“So we use it as a distraction. Draw away his personal guard and add some more numbers to our side.”

Sombra nods approvingly at the idea. “Interesting. With his forces tied up downstairs, a smaller force would be free to assault the throne room and eliminate him. From there you could regroup downstairs and force the rest to surrender. Somepony bring me some parchment.”

A large piece of paper is retrieved from… somewhere and placed onto the table, a quill soon following. With steady strokes he begins to paint a general image of the palace’s floor plan, complete with a set of smaller tunnels that run between rooms. You and Frost peer over his shoulders as he works. Satisfied with his work, he places the quill down and asks the rest to gather round the table.

“Rose, Frost and some others can start here,” he points to the back, outside the palace itself. “There’s a small passage nearby that leads into the downstairs bedrooms. That’s when the rest burst into the lobby and retrieve the nearby prisoners. Fury’s loyalists will come running, so prepare yourselves for combat.

“While they are engaged, Rose’s team will move upstairs and move to the throne room. Facing the doors you must turn left and then right to enter the side corridor. Behind the second pillar is a switch which will give you access to the upper floors network, remember to close it behind you. Several locations have other entries or windows that will let you look for him.

“Finally when you’ve found him, regroup and kill him. It will not be a challenge, especially considering your superior numbers. Once you’ve finished off his forces downstairs, I want the rest of you to watch the stairways to make sure he doesn’t escape.”

“Are you sure about this? Do you really want to kill him?” you ask. “It isn’t something you can't take back.”

Sombra evidently does not wish to answer such a question in front of everybody. He swallows and looks around, everywhere but you. “Yes, I am sure of it. What is one more to the list?”

“Okay... Let’s do it.”