//------------------------------//
// The Crow And The Dove 
// Story: Dark Arts and Kind Hearts 
// by Boomstick Mick 
//------------------------------//

Starlight Glimmer noted the attitudes of the manse residents she and The King passed by in the dreary corridors. Every head would bow as they offered pleasantries and joyous smiles. Soldiers and guards would offer salutes, their right frontal hooves clapping passionately over their chest plates as they lowered their muzzles, which was accompanied by a resounding 'Hail!' It was a greeting Sombra never failed to return. No matter how many times he was forced to do it, he repeated the gesture with the same dutiful eagerness as if it was his first.


Starlight did not receive the same courtesy, however. The few who would bother to acknowledge her would do so with suspicious looks and disdainful grimaces. It's nice to feel loved she thought as she followed Sombra through a door that brought her to the manse's foyer.


The thick rush that covered the stairs muffled the sounds of their hooves as they descended. Starlight realized that they were approaching the massive double doors that opened to the courtyard. "I thought you were taking me to see Fluttershy."


"I am," said The King. And that was all he said. He had become noticeably less talkative since their meal together. Terse, even.


Starlight Glimmer was growing tired of Sombra's vague responses. She had anticipated that she was being taken to a throne room, or something of the like. Not the frozen barren of fog and snow that was the courtyard, which wound around to the garden where their skirmish had taken place half a year ago.


There were a few maids and servants going about their duties in the area between the precipice of the stairs and the double doors. And, as always, they regarded their king with smiles and greetings and other ass-kisseries with an alacrity that made Starlight Glimmer nauseous.


"Lemmings," she scoffed indignantly under her breath.  


Sombra admonished her with a look of disapproval.


Great, she thought. On top of all the other feats of super equine ability Sombra possessed, he was assumably capable of heightened hearing. That skill no doubt came in handy for detecting seditious plots and treasonous whispers. She would have to cross off 'Inciting a mutiny' from her list of plans on how she would get herself out of the mess in which she had found herself. 


Not that a mutiny, no matter how successful, would do her any good. Sombra was presumably the only one with the knowledge of how to make the anti-potion that would rouse her friends from their otherwise permanent sleep. Every plot she could have devised against him was ultimately dashed by that fact; she was essentially being plowed from every conceivable angle.


The King hooked a hoof around a large iron ring hanging from one of the the doors and gave it a pull. It swooped open on well-oiled hinges, and the cold came rushing in to meet them. Sombra promptly shut the massive slab of oak after Starlight had followed him outside. 


It wasn't until she was looking back from the courtyard when she had realized just how much the manse had expanded. She was no architect, but she could see that it had had several stories added to it. Its length as well had been enhanced to the point where its surrounding gates must have been extended in order to accommodate the swelling property line. 


She had to crane her neck to look up at the rampart connecting the parapets that now lined the roof. It wasn't exactly Canterlot Castle, but it was officially too large to be considered a manse. 


"Do you like my palace?" Sombra asked her. "The battlements were only recently finished. Soon they'll be lined with cannons and others varieties of heavy long distance weaponry."


Starlight Glimmer tore her eyes away from the palace to face King Sombra. "Why would you need those?"


"To destroy siege engines."


"Is that even necessary? Ragtag rogues aren't typically equipped for siegecraft," replied Starlight Glimmer, unable to remember a time when she had heard of a bandit using a trebuchet or a ballista.


stone-faced, Sombra replied with, "I'd rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them."


Starlight pensively stroked the back of her head with a hoof. "Good point, I guess." It pained her to agree with the likes of Sombra, but she had to concede that he had a point. She turned to give the palace one last look before falling in beside The King.  



A pair of guards opened the heavy iron gates for them as they approached. They bowed their heads wordlessly as Sombra and Starlight walked passed them.  


Dusk had bruised the sky a deep purple as The King led her on. The night sentries patrolling the small town, lantern-wielding figures clad in cloak and armor, were making their rounds lighting oil lamps hanging from posts throughout the streets.


The way the cottages and cabins had been constructed along the sides of the cobblestone-paved roads had given the town a rustic aesthetic. The wind rolling off the snow-capped mountains in ghostly wisps whistled pleasantly through the eaves of the abodes' roofs, while columns of grey smoke drifted lazily from their respective chimneys.     


The ponies and creatures of other species that happened to be out and about in the young hours of dusk's transition to twilight regarded their king in a similar fashion to those that lived in the castle, paving the path he strode with compliments and greetings. 


The reception Starlight received varied somewhat. There were those who regarded her with looks of unfamiliarity before they would start whispering to one another. And there were those, who may have been in the know, who cast looks of unease or antipathy down upon her from the windows of their homes. It wouldn't be long before word got out through the town as to who she was and what she had done, and those scornful sneers would undoubtedly be as common as they had been in the palace.  


"They really hate me," Starlight commented, half surprised that charred, blackened holes weren't being burned into her from all the glares.


"You're not hated nearly as much as I am," Sombra offered. "Take that for whatever solace it may bring you."


"You're hated for a damn good reason, I would say," Starlight said defensively. "I, on the other hoof, haven't done anything to your citizens, or subjects, or whatever you call them."


Sombra kept his eyes forward. "You tried to kill their king."


"King of what, genocide?" Starlight said, remembering the corpses back at the keep she and her friends had stumbled upon.


Sombra didn't reply to that. There was just cold, bitter silence. The wind picked up slightly. The snow sloshed and crunched audibly under their hooves as they walked, leaving a trail of hard packed ice between the cracks of the stone-paved road.


Starlight Glimmer chewed at her lip. That perhaps was not the best thing to say to someone who held the lives of her friends in his hooves. "Look, I, uh... I didn't mean that," she insisted, speculating that she may have arrived at Sombra's threshold, where he would be ready to stop dishing out threats and start making good on them.  


Sombra, again, did not reply. He just kept his eyes forward, his face an unreadable mask.


The rows of homesteads and households eventually gave way to a circular plaza. There were fewer buildings out here, namely a blacksmith, a tailor, a couple of small shops, some fruit and vegetable stands, an inn, and a tavern with a big sign above the door that read: 'The Prancing Pegasus.' 


Cheering, laughter, and lively banter emanated from the inside of the tavern, the plaza outside lit with the golden firelight that radiated from its windows.   


"Is this where Fluttershy is?" Starlight Glimmer said incredulously. "A tavern?"


"Aye," Sombra replied.


"I thought you said she was fulfilling her obligations to her people. How is she doing that from a tavern?"


Sombra made for the entrance. "You will see."


Starlight Glimmer had so many questions. More questions than she could count. More than she could put into words. 


"Come," Sombra beckoned her, pushing open the door. "Witness my bride in her regality."


Baffled beyond baffled, Starlight Glimmer followed him inside.


Entering, the first thing that caught her eye was a blue, velvety curtain drawn over what must have been a small stage at the head of the tavern, from which she suspected mummers and singers and performers of other arts could entertain the patrons.


The center of every table was adorned with a lit candle. A chandelier blazed away with hundreds of little flames overhead. All the bodies and fire gave the place some much needed heat. Starlight felt relieved to get out of the cold. The night air was beginning to render the peninsula climate unbearable. 


It didn't take long for Sombra's presence to be noticed. Patrons shot up from their seats to offer a startled bow or salute. Those who were too deep in their cups to notice were sharply nudged or jabbed by their mates, who immediately followed suit when their eyes were conducted to whom it was that darkened the doorway. 


"I'll have none of that this night," The King demanded in a tone that was stern, yet somehow soft. "Go back to your merrymaking. If you must pretend that I am not here in order to do so, then do it."  


And so they did, after a few uneasy moments of exchanging nervous murmurs and glances with one another.


Starlight Glimmer watched as a young mare clad in a rough spun apron rushed forward to meet them. She greeted The King with an enthusiasm that bordered on the neurotic. "My king, you honor The Prancing Pegasus with your presence! What can I do for you?"


"A table," Sombra said succinctly. "Preferably with a good view of the stage. And a flagon of your finest ale."


"Of course, your grace." The mare turned and led them toward the table nearest the stage, which a young couple was occupying. "You two," she addressed them, "your king and his guest require this table. Up, up!" 


The couple took one look at Sombra and made no hesitation to abandon their food and cups.


"That will not be necessary," Sombra told them. "There's more than enough room for all of us, I think." He then took a seat and gestured for the couple to do the same, which thrilled them to no end.


"My king, this is such an honor!" said the stallion from across the table.


The King, with a gracious dip of his head, said, "Likewise." 


The young couple traded ecstatic smiles that made them look as if they had been starstruck.


Starlight Glimmer rolled her eyes. She was getting oh so tired of the ass kissing. The ale could not come fast enough.


When the flagon came, and two mugs were set before them, Sombra reached into the folds of his cape and drew a fine red velvet sack that was cinched at the top with a golden drawstring.


The waitress laughed amiably. "Your grace, anything you order is on the house. Please, put your purse away."


Sombra placed eight shining golden coins on the table. Starlight glimpsed them curiously. They were not Equestrian bits. They shimmered brightly with a depiction of what looked like a mongoose adorned in a laurel crown. It had a dead snake limply hanging from its mouth, its chest proudly puffed out, its head turned majestically in a melodramatic pose of triumph. 


"You're running a business, not a charity," Sombra said with a mild temper. "Take it."


"My King. I-I couldn't. It's far too much."


"You can and you will." And with that, The King dismissed her with a curt wave that dictated  their short argument had arrived at its end.


"You... You are too kind, your grace." Lowering her head, the tavern girl nervously swept up the coins and retreated.


"Why do you have a mongoose on your currency?" Starlight Glimmer had to know.


"The Queen's idea," Sombra said as he filled his mug with the thick amber liquid from the flagon. "Puts the damn things on everything nowadays. I had to step in to keep her from using one as our royal sigil."


"A mongoose can be a fearsome creature, my king," offered the stallion across the table.


Then his girlfriend chimed in. "I think they're cute."


The King silenced her with an annoyed glance.


Starlight glimmer took a deep draught from her mug to hide her smirk. She wiped the foam from her mouth and regarded the beer with approval. It had a smooth honeyed, nutty flavor to it that was rather agreeable to her palate. "This is good."


"It is," Sombra agreed. And Starlight Glimmer was inclined to believe him, because he was already refilling his mug. "It's no blood moon, but it'll do."


"Blood moon?" Starlight was beginning to say, but she was suddenly distracted by the sound of a stringed instrument. It was coming from behind the curtain. Her ears twitched as she strained her senses. The instrument in question went from a strident wine to a dull moan, as if its unseen player was testing the strings. Starlight turned to Sombra and asked, "Is there some kind of performance going on tonight?"


The King smiled impishly into his cup as he gave her a curt, "Indeed."


"The curtain," the mare across the table said, then scooted her seat closer to her lover. 


The stallion smiled, placed his arm around her, then relaxed back in his chair. "I wonder what song our queen will be singing for us this week. Crossing hooves for The Bear and The Maiden Mare."


"Do you ever get sick of that silly song?" His girlfriend giggled.


"No, I don't."


Fluttershy can't sing in front of an audience, Starlight reflected. She could sing like no other, that much was true. But the Fluttershy she knew was an utter and absolute coward at her very worst. Excruciatingly awkward and timid at her best.  


Curious, Starlight swiveled around on her seat to face the stage. The curtain was indeed opening. 


The lively banter in the tavern dwindled to whispers and incoherent murmurs until that too faded to silence.


A blue-eyed mare with a swollen belly stepped forward. An ornate silver crown rested atop her brow, and a blue cape flowed down her sides like twin waterfalls of shimmering satin. To her left was a stallion with a lute, and to her right was a mare with a cello. 


Starlight took a ponderous sip of her ale as she studied them. But then the dawn broke as something registered in her mind. She gagged on her beer in mid swallow, coughing it back up into her mug. "Flutter....shy!" She managed through her violent coughing fit. 


"Starlight?" said Fluttershy from the stage, in a clear voice that was unmistakably hers. "You're awake!"


"I...I am, but... But you. You're.... You're..." Words failed on Starlight as she gawked in disbelief at the bulge in Fluttershy's belly. Her eyes narrowed accusingly toward Sombra. You cad! She wanted to say it. She was certainly thinking it. But the words would not come. 


The King was all smiles. "She's the very vision of beauty, is she not?"


Fluttershy's eyes went to her king, then went to Starlight. It was obvious from her expression that she was nonplussed. Though, after a time, The Queen, resplendent and every bit as regal as The King described, smiled at her prettily.


Starlight Glimmer didn't return the smile, however. She was too captivated by the sight of Fluttershy's bulging belly.


The Queen raised her gaze to address the crowd. "Tonight I was going to sing The Reigns of Castamare. But, we have a special guest in our audience tonight. There is a special song I think she would like to hear." She smiled down at Starlight Glimmer from the stage. "The Crow and The Dove." 


The Queen's announcement elected a chorus of whistles and cheers.


"The Crow and The Dove?" Starlight mused.


Fluttershy turned and nodded to her musicians. Gracefully, the mare with the cello smiled before she deposited her instrument on a nearby rack and took her leave. Not long after she entered the tavern through a side door to join the audience. The lute player left the stage as well, but he returned with a violin.


Starlight Glimmer listened in curiously as the violin started. Slow and forlorn the melody was. And for a while it was the only sound in the tavern.


Poised, Fluttershy waited for her cue, and then she began:


"A young crow lost, bereft of his murder.
Shunned and hated, then berated by those you thought loved you.
Black wings beating against the winter gales, struggling for the strength to go on - to go on.

Tell me brave crow, has your heart frozen over? 
A soul twisted, tangled, and then mangled by the unrelenting storms.

Let me help you brave these foul tempests. Lay yourself bare for me to see.
Embrace me, show me, love me, hold me - make my heart sing.
Ivory wings that soar through skies so clear - they give you the strength to go on - to go on."


The song remained slow with a sweet sort of melancholy.  


Starlight turned to gauge Sombra's reaction. His expression remained an illegible mask. He just sat back in his chair with his eyes closed, as if he wasn't simply listening to the song, but was feeling it. 


Starlight Glimmer wasn't a fool. She was taking the songs meanings, even though there were some parts she didn't quite understand. She would have been lying to herself if she were to deny that the song made her feel something. Indeed she felt sorry for the crow in the song. But when she looked at Sombra, she was hard pressed to feel anything for him but disdain. 


The song drew on about a metaphorical storm, and a dove that longed for her home. But in the end, the two birds who fell in love had braved the harsh gales, and together they set forward to a place where the skies were forever blue and clear, a place where they could live happily ever after. 


The violin playing slowed until it came to a stop, and over the quite of the ceasing melody the final verse was repeated:


"And through clear skies two birds did fly on black and ivory wings.
And through clear skies two birds did fly on black and ivory wings."


Fluttershy bowed her head as gracefully as a pregnant mare could and said to everyone, "Thank you."


The patrons applauded, some of them with tears in their eyes. Near the entrance of the tavern stood a cluster of passers by who decided to stop and listen when they heard the singing.


Sombra, amongst the cheering, stood from his seat and approached the stage. He extended a beckoning hoof toward his bride, who approached him and lowered herself down to give him a long, intimate kiss for all to see.


The cheering of the tavern patrons intensified with a couple 'aww's thrown in.


Seeing them kiss was a shock to Starlight Glimmer's system. She thought about the others laying comatose in the bowels of Sombra's palace, the keep she had found filled with mangled corpses, the innumerable historical accounts of murder and madness. Sombra had done so many horrible, evil, monstrous things... And there Fluttershy was, carrying his child, singing songs about him, kissing him before a cheering throng of sycophantic mouth-breathers like a horny teenager. It was more than she could bear.


She slammed the tavern door behind her at such a force, a sheet of snow fell free from its roof like a miniature avalanche. She didn't know where she was going, she just knew that she needed some fresh air before she did or said something she'd regret. She heard the squeaky hinges of the tavern's door behind her, and she knew she was being pursued.


"How dare you!" Sombra's voice bellowed after her. "You spend all this time pleading with me to see her, then you just walk out on her without saying a word?"


"She's not the Fluttershy I once knew." Starlight Glimmer whirled around to meet him. "The Fluttershy I knew would never love a demon like you!" 


"Then, perhaps you never knew her."


The rancor elicited by Sombra's accusation was a verbal dagger through her chest. Starlight felt a sting in her eyes, and she knew she was crying. She let out a frustrated scream as she whirled around and began to stomp away.


"Pray, where do you think you're going?"


"Tartarus take you!"


"Need I remind you that you are my prisoner?"


Starlight refused to respond. She was done with words. Done with him.


"Cease your retreat!" Sombra demanded. "This is your final warning."


"Make me!" Starlight challenged him in her blind fury, which wasn't the wisest thing to say, she would immediately learn. 


She could hear heavy hooves crushing the snow behind her at a startling pace. Two guards who must have overheard the commotion were flanking her from both sides, but Sombra got to her before they could. She felt a thick, muscular forearm whip around her midsection. The ground fell away from her. The next thing she knew, she was looking up at sky, and then all the air in her lungs was driven out as her back hit the ground.


Gasping, Starlight fought to catch her breath. More sentries from Sombra's night guard came into view as they fell in beside him. She made an attempt to get up, but The King kept her pinned effortlessly under his massive hoof. "I could put my weight on you; that's all it would take," he said, his voice low and dark. 


And Starlight Glimmer knew he would do it. Their eyes met briefly before she finally looked away, sobbing shamefully in her helplessness. She shut her eyes as tightly as she could to keep the tears back, but it was useless. They ran freely down her cheek, intermingling with the snow below her as they fell. 


One of the guards unsheathed a hidden dagger from under his gauntlet. "No need to sully your hooves, your majesty. Give the word, and I'll give her a red smile."


"Stop!" A familiar, high voice commanded.


The guards looked startled.


"You're members of the royal guard, not bullies!" Admonished the voice. "Have you no shame?"


Starlight Glimmer lifted her head. Fluttershy was striding toward them at a furious pace.


"My queen," the guard with the dagger said, "I'm only doing my duty."


"Your duty is to intimidate and harass a defenseless mare? And what's this talk of a red smile? Are you no better than the savages who prey our borders?"


The guard mooned sheepishly at his dagger before he returned it to the hidden compartment beneath his gauntlet. "A thousand apologies, my queen."


"Back to your posts, the lot of you."


"The guards looked to Sombra like children hoping to have their mother's authority circumvented."


Fluttershy grabbed 'Mr. Redsmile' by the rim of his helm and forced his eyes to meet with hers. "Don't look at him, look at me. Return to your post, and not another word, or I'll have payroll give your salaries a red smile!"


The guards traded chagrined looks as they bowed, then they sullenly withdrew like pups with their tails between their legs.


"You're doing it again!" Sombra said. "You're subverting my authority. Need I remind you that I am The King?"


"You are The King," Fluttershy agreed. "But you're behaving like a brute. How many times have you promised me you'd stop acting out of anger?"


Sombra was about to say something, but Fluttershy spoke over him. "More times than you or I can count. Remember the griffon boy?" 


"How many times are you going to bring that up?" Sombra groused. He removed his hoof from Starlight Glimmer's chest to confront her.


Fluttershy's demeanor, however, was unflinching. The only part of her that moved was her head, when she looked up at him. "As many times as it takes for you to understand the lesson you claim to have learned! Honestly, sometimes I feel as if I'm married to a boar."


Sombra was becoming visually irritated. "This is different," he shot back. "I warned her."


"No, you threatened her. I heard the whole thing."


"It was a warning! I worded it as such: Cease your retreat. This. Is. Your. Final. Warning. I wish your hearing was as prevalent as your impertinence."


"It wasn't what you said, it was the way you said it. Can you even hear yourself when you talk? It's no wonder babies cry around you so much."


Starlight Glimmer, the streams of tears already drying into darkened lines on her face, goggled at the spectacle. Fluttershy was bitching out Sombra. She would never have believed it if she wasn't witnessing it for herself.


"You're one to talk about one having more commitment toward their duty. Which reminds me, don't you have some scouting to do with your rangers?" Fluttershy was saying, after the topic of their argument had shifted for what seemed like the hundredth time.


"The rangers know the routes well enough to scout without me for one night."


"So, you're not going with them?"


"I have more pressing matters to attend to." Sombra gestured to Starlight Glimmer.


Fluttershy gave Starlight a thoughtful look. "No, you don't. Keeping our borders safe takes priority over all else."


"And what shall I do with the prisoner who so openly defied and insulted me? Leave her in your charge, so you two can wax nostalgic over tea and scones?"


"I will show her to her quarters in the palace."


Sombra narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "By 'quarters' I'm guessing you mean a suite in the diplomat's wing."


"Is that a problem?"


"She belongs in the dungeon."


"I'd rather her have a comfortable room with a warm hearth and a soft bed," Fluttershy disagreed. 


"I would sooner see her in the dungeon." Sombra was glaring, but there was the slightest hint of acquiescence in his eyes. "No doubt you'd sidestep my orders and have her released without me there to say anything about it."


Fluttershy shook her head, and replied with bold honesty, "I would release her regardless of your ability to say anything about it." 


"Damn you," The King cursed in the form of a defeated sigh. "Do as you will, then. But she's not to leave the palace. And mind what you divulge to her."


Fluttershy smiled at him cutely, and when Starlight Glimmer saw that smile, she regretted her words about her not being the Fluttershy she knew. It was only a half truth, in fact. This new Fluttershy standing before her was a queen in every since of the word. Yet, the sweet mare she knew and loved was still there. She could see it now - in that smile of hers. 


Sombra gave his queen a few more instructions on how she should conduct 'the prisoner,' but the look on Fluttershy's face betrayed that she intended to disregard them. And after that, with an expression of slight annoyance on his face, Sombra turned on his heels and made for the garrison.


"My King," Fluttershy called out to him.


Sombra stopped in his tracks, but he didn't look back her. "What?"  


His queen smiled the sweetest of smiles. "Try not to stay out too late. I already miss you." She looked down and caressed the swell of her belly. "The baby misses you too."


Fluttershy's words seemed to placate him somewhat. The King feigned an irritated sigh. "Aye," he said, keeping his eyes forward. And then he was off.  


Fluttershy smiled assuringly at Starlight as she offered her a hoof. "He'll be in a better mood by the time he gets back. He may even apologize."


Starlight beheld her in wonderment as she accepted the help, and when she was assisted to her hooves, The Queen hugged her fiercely and said, "I missed you so much!"


"I..." A lump began to form in Starlight's throat. "I missed you too," she whispered, a fresh barrage of tears breaking free as she returned the embrace.