Sumac had the disturbing realisation that he couldn’t remember how much he remembered about his father. Flam was familiar, but strange. They had the same coat colour almost, Sumac was a little paler, and the same green eyes. Even his father’s voice was familiar somehow, even though the last time Sumac had heard it was when he was teeny-tiny.
“Look, I didn’t come here to cause problems, I just stopped by to check up on you,” Flam said in a smooth voice.
Ears perking, Sumac realised that his father also had magic words, and now, Sumac was aware that he was using them. Flam’s smooth words carried with them magical reassurance and Sumac struggled to keep his guard up. Pebble bumped into him as she moved closer and her ears were angled out over her face in an aggressive manner.
“I’m not a bad pony, no matter what you might hear,” Flam continued, “it’s all rumour and hearsay. I was framed, railroaded, I’m just an honest businesspony. I had a chance to be a bad pony when Catrina raided the prison, many joined up with her on the spot and I didn’t. I didn’t like her terms. Flim did though, and so did Belladonna.” Ears drooping, the stallion sighed and looked quite sad.
Sumac didn’t buy it for a second. None of it.
“I understand that you’ve ended up with Trixie.” Flam’s well-practiced sadness vanished in an eyeblink and a strange, pleased smile could now be seen on his face. “Never has there been a better grifter and con artist than Trixie Lulamoon.”
Hearing this made Sumac grit his teeth together.
“For a time, she worked with my brother and I… she dazzled the crowd, kept them distracted, allowing Flim and I to conduct our business—”
“You just got done saying how you’re an honest pony and yet now you are bragging about swindling others,” Pebble deadpanned as her nostrils flared.
“Oh, that… a fool and his money are meant to be parted. No one can fault me for preying upon the irresponsible and the foolish. I can’t snooker those who are aware and prepared. Ponies get conned because they want to be conned, and I provide a service.” Flam offered up a greasy, slippery-looking smile and gave Pebble a wink.
Seething, Sumac wondered how Flam had not been caught, and then remembered that his father was magically gifted. Non-detection and misdirection spells were powerful. The colt came to one gritty conclusion; his father couldn’t leave this graveyard.
“Trixie was the best of us, why, Flim and I, we learned much of our trade from her. She’s the most gifted grifter of our age.” Flam’s eyebrows furrowed and he let out a slow, drawn out chuckle. “And now, from what I understand, she’s got everypony fooled, including that ditz Twilight Sparkle, into thinking that she’s a good pony. Why, Sumac, she’s made good use of you as a prop. Has she been teaching you the trade?”
His father’s laughter ringing in his ears, Sumac boiled over and he could feel himself developing a bad case of bubble-guts. Baring his teeth, he reached out with his magic, and using all of the magical strength he could muster, he lifted up a worn, eroded headstone. It was heavy enough to cause some real pain in his sinuses and the root of his horn, a thin trickle of blood ran down from both of his nostrils almost right away. Rage gave him strength though, and he ignored the pain of magical strain.
Swinging the tombstone, he caught his father a glancing blow alongside his face, sending Flam sprawling over the ground, the headstone connected to Flam’s temple with a meaty, solid sounding whump! The unicorn lay in the dead grass, his legs twitching, his body convulsing. More blood ran down in rivulets from Sumac’s nostrils, the consequences of lifting too much and asking too much of his underdeveloped thaumaturgical system.
“Oh, you little bastard, I’m going to kill you!” Flam cried out in a muffled voice thick from pain. “How dare you do this to me! I have half a mind to take you right now and sell you to Catrina, she’s offering a fortune for you, you wretched little imbecile!”
As Flam started to get up, Sumac hit him again, and this time, it wasn’t a glancing blow. There was a crunch as the hard edge of the headstone connected with the corner of Flam’s jaw and the stallion dropped down in a limp heap, no longer moving at all. Sumac, teeth bared in a bloody rictus of rage, raised the tombstone again and made ready to bring it crashing down upon Flam’s head.
“Sumac, don’t.” Pebble’s voice was flat and held no trace of feeling whatsoever. “If you do it, you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it. Please don’t… I know you’re angry, and you have a right to be, but what you’re about to do is murder.”
The headstone quivered in the air above Flam’s head and Sumac’s whole body shook with the strain of holding it up as blood now flowed in a steady torrent from his nose. Letting out a choked sob, he tossed the headstone away and it landed in the grass less than a foot away from where his vulnerable father lay sprawled out in the grass.
“Sumac, I’m going to go and get help,” Pebble said, still sounding so very calm. “I don’t think he’s going to wake up soon. Stay here and try to calm down. I’ll be right back with help, I promise.” Pebble paused for a moment, then added, “Thank you for doing the right thing, Sumac…”
As Trixie wiped Sumac’s nose with a clean, dark grey cloth, a worried looking Twilight Sparkle stood nearby, taking in all of the situation. Quite a crowd had arrived, and had Sumac been a little more aware of his surroundings, he might have been surprised by who had shown up. The two most likely to draw the colts interest were Starlight Glimmer and Tarnished Teapot, who gave each other plenty of space.
Confused, a little disoriented, Sumac found himself staring into another pair of green eyes that matched his own—Applejack’s. His vision was fuzzy, even with his glasses on, but he could still make out the worry and the fury on her face. Her touch on his neck was firm, but gentle, and she looked him over as her sides heaved from her heavy breathing.
And then, just like that, Applejack took off with a snarl, launching herself in Flam’s general direction.
Cursing and spitting, spewing ear-burning profanity, Applejack shoved past Starlight Glimmer, pushing the startled mare right out of the way, and she laid into Flam, who was only half conscious. She began pummeling him, kicking him, over and over again in the face, including a few hammering blows onto his already broken jaw.
“You bloodied him, you worthless, no good, good for nothing skinflint!”
Nopony even tried to stop Applejack and Twilight watched with no emotion visible on her face, her mouth pressed into a tight, thin line. Tarnish began cringing with each blow that landed, and he pulled Pebble closer to him, shielding her eyes with her foreleg. Trixie held the cloth over Sumac’s snoot, trying to staunch the flow of blood.
“That’s enough, Jackie.” Big Mac’s command was bellowed and it boomed though the graveyard. The soft spoken stallion moved forward, pushing through the crowd, and he moved to his sister’s side, looking grim and a bit sad. “I done said that’s enough!”
Snarling, her teeth bared, Applejack pulled back her front hoof, going way, way back, and then slugged Flam right in the eye, one final blow for good measure, and then she ignored her brother’s stern grunt of disapproval.
“Sorry ‘bout that, family affairs can get a bit messy,” Big Mac said, his voice now soft again, but it still somehow carried through the crowd. “I’m powerful sorry that y’all had to see that.”
“Flam Apple, you picked the wrong town to come and visit,” Twilight Sparkle said, her voice cold and commanding. “It might have gone better for you to have been caught anywhere else in Equestria, but you came to my kingdom. You have shown yourself to have no redeemable qualities. I once argued for leniency and mercy for you, and you have squandered that away. Now, you’ve threatened to kill your own son from what I’m told, and even worse, you talked of selling him to our enemies. I have no reason to think that Pebble lied to me.”
Sumac could not help but notice that the two ravens were back, he could just barely make them out in his fuzzy, blurred over vision. Choking, unable to sob because of all of the blood and phlegm in his throat, Sumac went limp against Trixie and took comfort in her soft, velvety warmth.
Flam, who lay on the ground in a bloody, broken heap, said nothing in his own defense.
“Even worse, Sumac is now a protected asset of the Crown, and you tampered with his safety, his well being, and his security. This will not be a civil trial, but a tribunal, conducted on the very scene of your transgression against the Crown.”
A murmur went through the crowd and Twilight cleared her throat.
“Tarnished Teapot, as one of my most trusted and devoted subjects, I am appointing you as one of my tribunes. Starlight Glimmer, you as well. Big Mac, for your discretion, your wisdom, and the wise counsel you’ve offered me in the past, I know that you will serve me now—”
“Eeyup.”
“And for the last pick, Lemon Hearts, I know this will trouble you, but I need a pony with a merciful, tender heart and I can’t think of a finer pick than you. Can I count on you?” Twilight turned to face Lemon Hearts, who squirmed as her hooves shuffled in the grass.
“Okay,” Lemon Hearts replied in a squeaky voice.
“There will be no debate of your guilt or innocence, Flam Apple.” Twilight’s voice had a hard, flinty edge to it now, and a faint quaver could be heard by those with the most sensitive ears. “Only a discussion of how much life you have left.”
Several ponies in the crowd gasped.
“I don’t want him killed,” Lemon Hearts said, her voice squeaky and panicked. “As bad as he is, I don’t want him to die, not for this, but I agree that he needs to be punished.”
“He should live and suffer.” Big Mac eyed his sister, and Applejack gave him a nod.
“I agree that he should live.” Starlight turned her head and looked down at Flam, who lay in the grass beside her, squirming in pain as his face swelled into something unrecognisable. “I must say though, what will making him suffer accomplish? I doubt he can be rehabilitated, but should we resort to cruelty?”
“Letting him live means putting him back into prison, and we run the risk of him getting out again.” Tarnish’s soft voice somehow carried over the sound of the gathered crowd. “I have a solution that will allow him to live without suffering.”
“Tarnish, I already know what you are about to suggest,” Twilight said to Tarnish, “and I approve.”
Letting heave a weary sigh, Tarnish explained himself. “I can turn him into a tree. I’ve already done it to several ponies who attempted to violate the grove. He won’t suffer, and as far as I know, I am the only one who can turn him back into a pony. I actually tried this on Maud because I needed somepony that I could trust to tell me exactly what it was like. She said it was like going to sleep and dreaming.”
Looking a little disturbed, Lemon Hearts frowned, but she did not object. She looked over at Big Mac, who looked back at her, and the two seemed to be having some silent exchange. At the end of it all, Big Mac nodded, but said nothing, as Applejack kicked the ground with her bloody hoof and muttered with disappointment.
“So, we give him life and mercy.” There was unmistakable relief in Starlight’s voice. Her eyes darted from side to side, as if she was gauging the acceptance of the crowd, and then she added, “Before we do anything, I want the opinion of Sumac Apple on this issue, as he is the one who has been wronged.”
“You’re asking the poor colt to condemn his own father?” Big Mac gave Starlight an incredulous, wide-eyed stare.
Starlight’s ears perked. “He’s the one who laid his father low—”
“He did that in a fit of foalish temper, no doubt.” Big Mac’s voice filled with a soft, unmistakable worry and he looked over at Sumac, who was being cared for by Trixie. “It’s easy to get him riled… I don’t know that we should ask his opinion on this matter.”
“I don’t know,” Starlight replied, “but I think that asking his opinion is important on this issue. This is going to be a pivotal moment in his young life. Having no say over what happens next might leave him bitter, disillusioned, and angry. He needs to feel that he has some say in this matter, as I think it will leave him more trustful of authority in the long run.”
Big Mac snorted, looked thoughtful, and his withers quivered as he lapsed into deep concentration. Beside him, Applejack chewed on her lip, but said nothing. The gathered crowd waited and Tarnish stood with his head cocked off to one side. The big red stallion glanced over at Twilight, as if he was trying to read her opinion on this matter, but she was statuesque.
“Starlight, you make a fine point and I find myself agreeing with you.” Big Mac drew in a deep breath, his sides expanding like a blacksmith’s bellows, and he let out a long, windy sigh through his open mouth. “We should hear what the colt has to say.”
When Lemon Hearts and Tarnish nodded, so did Twilight and she made a gesture to Applejack.
“L’il Mac, you have something to say about this?” Applejack asked. “You look a bit upset. Do you think you can talk? Say a few words?”
In anticipation of Sumac saying something, Trixie pulled away the bloodied cloth that she was using to try and stop the colt’s nosebleed. Sumac was a mess, his face crusted with snot and blood, his eyes were filled with red spiderwebs. Trixie made a few last second swipes with the cloth, trying to wipe away the mess.
The crowd went silent as Sumac drew in a deep breath, and then, his eyes narrowing, Sumac found that he did indeed, have something to say. “I want him dead! Kill him! I want him—mmmph!”
Sumac’s words were cut off by Trixie covering his mouth and silencing him. The colt kicked and struggled, having an apoplectic fit of rage. The bloodied, snot-drenched cloth fell away for a moment and Sumac’s bloody nose, which had been a trickle, was now a torrent. Trixie held the cloth up to his snoot and held it in place, trying to get the bleeding under control.
Ears drooping, Starlight Glimmer looked disappointed, while Big Mac just looked sad. Applejack had a strange look of smug satisfaction upon her face, a worrisome expression indeed. Twilight bowed her head as the two ravens in a nearby tree began to caw and cause a ruckus. Pebble, clinging to her father’s leg, looked shocked and a little disturbed.
“I don’t think Sumac means that.” Lemon Hearts’ voice was a soft whisper that was difficult to hear. “I think he’s having a bit of a tantrum. Sumac can be a bit unreasonable if you say something awful about his mother, and what dutiful son wouldn’t be?”
“Sumac’s opinion has been noted.” Shuffling on her hooves, Twilight turned to face Flam, who lay on the ground groaning in pain, his face now an unrecognisable mess. “Come, let us convoke together as a tribunal and see if we can agree on the sentencing.”
In a nearby tree, the two ravens continued to caw.