//------------------------------// // Even a King is bound by his... skills // Story: Celestial Bodies // by Davesknd //------------------------------// The armies had entered the snow filled wastes. The white mountain sides disappeared under their slow approach and skies had filled with flying units, like they were locust. There were the Hussaren from Horsetria in their fancy dress uniforms, Parthian archers, from Saddle Arabia, with their simple and mysterious garbs, the knights from Canterlot, proud and staunch and the sky filled with Pegasi and Gryphon Auxilliares, ready to attack. King Sombra grinned on his balcony, as he saw his enemies approaching. The sisters had called in every ally possible. His victory would be so much sweeter, now that the whole world could witness it. “SLAVE!” he yelled with a sadistic glee and his eyes burned evilly, as his scribe-slave approached slowly. “Master?” the crystal pony asked meekly. His hooves were bound by irons and several ink wells and quills were chained to a vice on his neck. He was Sombra’s writing hoof, always ready to put the will of his lord into ink. “The sisters are approaching. Have the army prepared and the gates opened. We shall meet their force on the icy fields. Their blood shall freeze when it hits the ground!” The tyrant king ordered eagerly. It had been too long since he had last felt the hunger of battle. “My master, I am but your humble servant and follow every whim of yours… but I can’t do that.” The scribe answered slowly. “YOU DARE DEFY ME?” Sombra yelled and smashed his hoof down so hard, the crystal of his palace cracked. “No me lord, forgive me! But I can’t prepare the army, because we don’t have a standing army anymore.” The scribe begged pathetically. “WHAT?” Sombra screamed. “You… you ordered the entire Crystal Empire enslaved, my lord!” the scribe explained meekly “Everyone! The stallions, mares, foals, the sick, the wounded, the elderly… basically everyone is either working in the mines or watching the mines.” Sombra scratched his chin for a moment. “Well, then let half of the army come. Certainly the elderly will not need supervision.” “No, but we need them to teach the foals. Since everyone is either a slave or an overseer, we have no middle class to provide teachers, scholars or mentors. The elderly are doing hard labor and teaching the foals who are also doing hard labor. That system takes so long to produce skilled workers, our productivity is so low, we had to disband most of the army and enslave them, just to keep the Crystal Empire from going bankrupt.” Sombra looked down at the smaller stallion in anger. “Why wasn’t I told?” he asked angrily. “You were, master, but you just ordered me to bring you the crystal heart and threaten the ponies into servitude.” The tyrant king let out a laugh. “Oh, I remember that day! Their wails and cries of despair tickled the cockles of my heart.” “And it also halved production, because that completely depressed our overseers, who mostly gave up and began calling in sick. We enslaved them too, but then, we had no more control at all. Now the army is basically in there to keep our slaves from breaking down crying and provides basic health care for the elderly, because otherwise we would completely go down in flames.” The scribe explained. Sombra nodded calmly. Then he turned back to the approaching army. “Master?” “I shall meet our enemy on the field.” He said with an icy cool. “Alone?” “Look, you fool, I am a conqueror and warrior, but you clearly see that I suck as an emperor. If I go out and face them alone, I might go down in history as a great and feared conqueror, who died due to his oversized ego.” “Instead of the sad screw up that you are?” “Exactly. And you are lucky that I am frozen with fear right now, otherwise, I would smite you!”