Starfleet Nemesis: MacGrand Ruler · 8:21pm Mar 25th, 2018
For a long time I wanted to include a Macbeth homage in Starfleet Nemesis where Grand Ruler would be confronted with Twilight's ghost and forced to confront his own guilt and his part in her death while his loyal lords and officers look on in bewilderment.
And now that I'm rewriting whole chapters I finally got to do it, as I replaced the gladiators bit in the banquet scene (which was supposed to lead into a subplot, but didn't) and replaced it with this:
There was an almighty crash as the Grand Ruler dropped his cup of wine. It shattered on the table, staining the crisp white tablecloth with a blood-red stain that would be murder to wash out. If it ever washed out. If the stain of the act could ever be removed beyond all knowing.
“Which of you has done this?” the Grand Ruler demanded. “Which of you is responsible?”
“What, gracious majesty?” an officer asked, his voice trembling in the face of the Grand Ruler’s fury, and it took Sunset a moment to realise that he could see Twilight, too! He could see her, and it was upsetting him.
“You…you cannot say I did it,” the Grand Ruler declared, sounding as though he was about to choke. “You cannot shake your gory hooves at me!”
Sunset couldn’t help it, she looked away from Twilight to behold the greater-than-usual pallor of the Grand Ruler’s face, the trembling of his hands, the shaking of his head back and forth, the way his eyes were wide and his voice shook. He was afraid, he was afraid and he was…
Guilty.
I knew it! I knew it! I knew that you had something to do with it!
I swear, no matter what it takes I’ll see you pay for what you’ve done.
Okay, the thing with the table cloth is probably a little over done but come on, it's a white cloth stained with red wine the symbolism is too obvious to ignore.
Please check out chapter 'What an Artist' for more of that and even more bitchy Starla.
GASP! are you giving him....depth???