//------------------------------//
// Taking Command 
// Story: Dark Arts and Kind Hearts 
// by Boomstick Mick 
//------------------------------//

The long corridor that led to the bedchamber was awash in the tawny glow of the symmetrically set torches that lined the walls. The long carpet that ran along the stony floor was red and soft. Fluttershy liked the feeling of the firm material yielding under the weight of her hooves like a cushy pair of warm house slippers. She was also appreciative of the heat radiating from torches as they lit her way. When she had walked through this hall for the first time with her king, it was so dark and cold, she was just barely able to see her own breath billowing in front of her face. The image of the stone and mortar hallway bathed in the torchlight had an ambiance to it. It was like a vibrant illustration of the interior of a gothic castle. It held an eerie beauty that was to her liking, though she couldn't see herself traversing the hallway alone. Beautiful as it was, it was still creepy.  

"It's funny, isn't it?" Ethey said. "It's almost like something out of a video game. You know what I mean, right? Like, you know how there's always a long hallway you have to go through right before arriving at the final boss? And the final bad guy is always doing something villain-ish, like, playing an organ, or sipping from a glass of wine, or something. What exactly do you think final bosses are doing to entertain themselves while they wait for the protagonist to get to them? I mean, one can only play an organ or sip wine with a menacing look on their face for so long until they get bored."

"I really couldn't say," Fluttershy admitted. "I'm not really into video games."

Ethereal Moon looked at her like she had three heads. "Really?"

"I have a younger brother who plays video games... At least, I think he does. He's one of those kinds of ponies who moves on to a new fad every week." Fluttershy wondered what her brother was doing at that very moment. She didn't want to talk about him, though. She felt that a conversation about her family would only succeed in leading her into a corner of longing and depression. "So, uhm..." She looked down at her long pink hair dragging across the floor as she thought of a topic to distract herself. "You were a stewardess back at the Crystal Castle?"      

Ethey's eye twitched. "I was," she admitted, in a tone one might reply in after being intrusively inquired about a yeast infection.

"If it's a touchy subject, I won't press you."

"No, it's okay. It's just..." She stopped and grimaced down at her hooves. "It's just that, life wasn't so great for me back at the Crystal Castle."

Fluttershy stopped to look back at her. The sudden change in the adviser's demeanor made her curious. "What do you mean?"

Ethey gave a sigh. "I was a stewardess to Princess Cadence. That's all I was for the entirety of my employment under her, and that's all I was ever going to be. I would always drop little hints to let the princess know I was interested in perusing other things whenever a new position would become available: An opening in her council, a position in the treasury department, anything. I wanted more responsibility. I wanted more authority. I felt like I was squandering my talents with mundane tasks like serving Cadence her meals and brushing her hair. You know, things the spoiled little bitch could easily do for herself?"		

The acid in Ethey's statement made Fluttershy flinch. "I'm sensing some animosity."

Ethey took another moment to glower down at the floor, her eyes reflecting an antipathy evoked from the recollection of hundreds of humiliating memories, until, with a sigh and a scowl, she picked herself up and continued her pace. Fluttershy fell in closely beside her to lend her scorned adviser an attentive ear. "She never took anything I said seriously," she vented. "She would always look down at me with that smile of reserved contempt of hers, and speak to me like a child. Sometimes I wonder if she even really knew how old I was. She would always say 'But what would I do without my favorite little stewardess by my side?' or some kinda crap like that. I don't know if she intentionally meant to piss me off with statements like that, but the way she'd always speak to me came off as condescending." A roguish grin began to tug at the corner of her lips. "That's why I made my decision. When Cadence started scouring her castle for a volunteer to serve as Sombra's adviser, I jumped at the opportunity. She had her reservations at first, but I was able to convince her. I won't delude myself into thinking she actually cared about my well being. Her only qualm about the situation came from her fear that offering Sombra one such as myself up for his adviser, who she most likely saw as a little imp fit for nothing more than being a court jester, would have been taken as an insult."

"You weren't scared?" Asked Fluttershy. "I mean, it was Sombra you were coming to work for, after all." 

"Sure, I was a little scared. But I figured that serving as an adviser for Sombra had to be better than wriggling under the hoof of her royal bitchness for the rest of my life."

The queen focused her gaze toward the chamber door that was just coming into view through the shadowy depths of the hall and was surprised by how much ground she and her adviser had covered during their short conversation. She spoke quietly, as if she feared the off chance of her husband being able to hear her gossiping on about him. "You didn't seem scared when I first saw you."   

Ethey shrugged. "I was at first, but..." She halted again. "My queen, do you remember the first thing the king said to me?"

"He asked you your name, didn't he?" Fluttershy was able to recall.

Smiling, Ethey nodded, prompting her glasses to slide down her nose. She blushed appreciatively and said, "He didn't expect me to grovel, or tell him how great or terrible he was, or extend his hoof expecting me to peck at it like a lowly chicken desperate for scraps, or make me kiss his ass in any of the ways Cadence had always done. Hell, that pompous little pink mare could barely remember my name half the damn time. Sombra, on the other hoof, not only remembered my name, but he called me by my nick name. It was my first night as his adviser, and he told me that I had done a splendid job. I finally get to work for someone who treats me with the dignity of an equine being. He doesn't just see me as a lackey, or a servant; he treats me like an equal. With dignity and respect. " Ethey pushed her glasses up her muzzle and resumed her pace with a dignified little saunter. "That is why he is my king. Not because he is addressed as such, but because he acts in the noble way a proper king should."

Fluttershy took a moment to digest the adviser's words. She remembered the tear of joy the old soldier had shed back in the foyer, when Sombra restored his meaning of existence to him with a simple kingly decree. "Sombra," she thought aloud, "he really does seem to have others' best interests at heart."

"He does," Ethey agreed. "It's too bad that part was never mentioned in the history books, eh?"

But where does the history end and the fiction begin? Fluttershy thought. Skewed conjecture and slanderous hyperbole was all she had to go on. There was, however, one undisputed fact that she was privy to, and it was that Celestia and Luna themselves were forced to combat him over a thousand years ago, supposedly to end his reign of tyranny. They wouldn't have just pressed an all out assault on him for no reason, she knew.

"Pay attention to everything around you, my queen," Ethey advised. "Look at the servants. Cadence only parted with the portion of her staff that she was sick of looking at. You only need to look at me with my Diminished Age Progression Disorder, or Nevermore with her neurotic tendencies to see that. Just about every servant here has rubbed Cadence the wrong way in one fashion or another. There are even several female servants here who made Cadence's undesirables list for simply looking at Shining Armor in a way that she didn't approve. The princess saw this as an opportunity to rid herself of the misfits she was forced to interact with on a daily basis. Sombra doesn't sneer at us, or belittle us, he embraces us. He's even given us opportunities that would have never been available to us back at the Crystal Empire. It's like..." There was a somber shift in Ethey's tone then, as the two were approaching the chamber door. "It's almost like Sombra understands what it's like to be a freak."

"I don't think you're a freak," Fluttershy insisted.

Ethey chuckled in a way that probably sounded a little more sardonic than she meant. "You're kind for saying so, but, did you listen to the way the guards talked to me back in the main hall? I was called a midget. I was called a garden gnome. I was called a grotesque, fit only to work as a whore who specializes in pleasuring pedophiles and other perverted fetishists. And that's not the worst I've been called, believe me. I've even heard Cadence titter on about me a few times when she thought I was out of earshot. My condition isn't so bad though, not when you realize there are others out there who suffer from the same thing, and are probably treated way worse than I am. But just look at Sombra. Do you honestly think he's ever been treated normal in his life? I don't think there's even a name for the kind of affliction he has."

"Affliction?" 

"What else would you call it?"

Fluttershy had never thought to use that word to describe Sombra's appearance, but, now that she was thinking about it, what else could it be? His eyes. His size. His fangs. The wickedly malformed blood red horn that protruded from his skull like a cruel instrument made for goring. His physical appearance was the most literal depiction of a monster if there ever was one. It wasn't like he got to choose the face he was born with, though. The revelation was opening her mind to a whole new light.  

"This world doesn't take kindly to those who are different." Ethey's eyes disappeared behind a glare that reflected off the surface of her glasses. "It's funny how everyone preaches of acceptance and tolerance, but when you dig deep down in to one's psyche, you find nothing but disdain and contempt for those who don't look the same way you do. I know this better than most. And I'm sure Sombra knows this even better than I do." 

The conversation had reached a point that was a tad bitter for Fluttershy's liking. "I meant it when I told you that I didn't think you were a freak," she insisted. "I meant it then and I mean it now."

"And I believe you," Ethey said. "I only wish that everyone else thought the same way."

"Well, from this point on, nopony is allowed to bully you," the queen clarified, as if it was an official decree. "If anyone so much as thinks about it, they'll have me to answer to."

"That's sweet of you, but I don't think I need your help." The adviser removed her glasses, fogged them up with her breath, and began to rub them in small circular motions against her fir. "No one bullies me anymore, since I'm the adviser. And if they try, they'll have my wit to contend with, and I don't think anyone wants that. My head may be tiny, but It houses a keen intellect, I assure you."  She donned her specs and added, "You know, you're starting to sound more like a queen."

Fluttershy smiled at the compliment. Praise was always such a rare thing for her to receive back home. "You really think so?"

"I know so," Ethey replied. "It won't be long before you're ordering Sombra himself around."

"I doubt that will ever happen."

"I don't know, he seems to take your role as his queen seriously. And it seems to me that you're starting to do the same." Ethey smirked "You're his wife just as much as you are his queen - I'll bet there's all sorts of things you could get him do for you." She leaned forward and added, "Or to you."

The insinuation reminded Fluttershy of the way her husband propositioned her with a flirtatious flick of his tail as he sauntered away - for the eye of everyone in the foyer to see, no less. It was a memory that seared the tips of her ears a blazing red.

Ethey snickered. "I was just kidding! You gotta loosen up about things like this, my queen," she said before turning around and beginning a leisurely stroll into the gloom of the corridor. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a pumpkin cobbler I stole from Nevermore waiting for me back at my quarters. And that Vampire Hunter P comic I swiped from the library isn't going to fangirl over itself. Have a good night. Oh, what am I saying, of course you will."

Fluttershy reddened as she watched her adviser disappear into the distant twilight of the stony hallway, the rattling of the tiny skull in her ribbon growing fainter by the moment. She turned around and observed the door. It had appeared to have been freshly painted, and the brass ring that served as a handle was scoured of its rust and polished to a perfect sheen that glinted in the torchlight. She looked up and glimpsed an ornate silver dragon's head that was embedded in the door, its eyes shining red like tiny rubies. It was a feature that hadn't been there before, Fluttershy realized. The workers who labored tirelessly to refurbish the house hadn't been slacking on their duties. Every time she returned to this hall there was always something new she noticed. She curled her foreleg around the shiny brass ring of the door and was surprised by how easily it glided open on its freshly oiled hinges. 

The bedchamber glowed in the moonlight that spilled in through the large glass pane. Her husband was laying prone and naked before the fireplace with a book levitated in front of him, one foreleg crossed languidly over the other. His ear twitched at the sound of her entering. He marked the tome with its red ribbon, set it aside, and then his eyes shifted toward her. The furious orange light crackling away in the fireplace behind him obscured his already dark features, his eyes glowing in hauntingly stark contrast like red hot coals blazing in the blackest ether. He then unfolded his long forelegs and approached her, with all the ominous grace of a black lion stalking its prey. "Ah," he said, "my dear lady has finally arrived." As he drew closer, and the rays of moonlight bleeding in through the frozen glass graced his features, Fluttershy was able to see the smile on his face. He circled around her, swishing his black tail in a smooth, soundless motion. The queen felt him unclasp her cape, and the silky material slid down her as easily as water rolling down her back. She felt herself being taken in a firm embrace. His lips brushed her ear, and she heard him say, in a deep, sensual voice, "I saw the fire inside you tonight, my queen. You're quite fearsome when you want to be."  

"Fearsome?" she said. "I didn't want to get involved. I only did what I had to do to make the fighting stop."

"And that's why you are my queen." She felt him nuzzling up against her neck. The sensation gave her a tingle. "There are two kinds of rulers in this world, you must understand. There are those who do as they please, and there are those who do as they must. You, my dear, are the latter. That is a very queenly quality you have." Fluttershy could feel the heat from his breath as he planted gentle kisses up and down her shoulder and neck. "Tell me," he purred, "how does it feel?"

"H-how does what feel?"

"How does it feel to be a queen?" His hooves brushed gently down her sides, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.

The rush of endorphins was beginning to make Fluttershy's head washy. "I don't know," was all she could think to offer. She didn't know if it was her husband or if it was herself she was trying to convince. Deep down she knew it felt good. It felt good to have others listen to her for a change. It felt good to be treated like she mattered. It felt good to be loved, and catered to, and doted over. Everything her husband was doing to her felt good too. It was like the realization that she was no longer afraid opened her mind to the notion of enjoying the affection he showered over her. What did she have to gain by lying to herself? Perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea to just cast her worries and perturbations aside for a while, to just relax and simply let the rush sweep her away. 

Her husband brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, leaned her head back, and kissed her on the lips. It felt good. Kissing him felt good. She could feel herself melting into his embrace as her mind was now finally allowing her body to relax. "I can make you feel like a queen," he whispered intimately into her ear. "Would you like that?"  

"No." Fluttershy's tenuous, little hooves reached up to cup his face. Caught up in the moment, her heart swooning, her head swimming, the adrenaline in her blood rushing, the words seemed to spill out of her mouth faster than she could think them. "I don't want to just feel like a queen. I... I want you to make me feel like your queen."

There was a flicker of surprise in the king's eyes just then. "You have a way with words, little dove." He smiled impishly and said, "If I didn't know any better, I could swear that you just issued me a command."

"Yes," Fluttershy quavered. The experience was surreal, commanding a king. But he was her king to command.  "Take me, and remind me that I am your queen," she said. "I-I command it." That final bit seemed overkill to her, but what could she do? Demanding her king to love and pleasure her had excited her.

Bearing witness to Fluttershy's queenly display of assertiveness in the foyer had ignited her husband's passion for her. And seeing it again in the bedroom had inflamed his desire. The king hummed and narrowed his eyes in a way that almost seemed diabolical. "As you command, my queen."