//------------------------------//
// The King's Justice 
// Story: Dark Arts and Kind Hearts 
// by Boomstick Mick 
//------------------------------//

Sombra's dark throne was unlike anything Starlight Glimmer could have imagined. Many times she had laid her eyes on the fine throne in Cadence's palace, with its iridescent crystals and ivory wrought frame that glittered like mithril in the multicolored shafts of light filtering through the stain glass windows set in the surrounding walls. She had seen Celestia's broad throne, with its luxurious golden frame and its fine red cushioning of silk and satin. When Starlight Glimmer heard the word 'throne,' it would always evoke images of opulent luxury and regal splendor.  


Sombra's throne, however, it was different. It was like something some dark lord straight out of a fantasy novel would be sat upon while barking out commands at his hunched over goblin minions down below. It was not constructed from precious metals nor bedecked with fine rare gemstones, neigh. It was a massive thing, fashioned from a giant block of stone that had been painstakingly chiseled into form and sanded down to a mirror sheen. Scorched blacker than coal and polished with a luster that rivaled the darkest of crystals, it was a great monolith ornate with a fine scarlet tapestry draping down the backrest. But that wasn't the oddest thing about it. Instead of having two thrones to seat The King and Queen respectively, there was only the one. It was broad like a love seat, so that the royal couple could share it. 


Even though there was enough space on the throne to accommodate them both comfortably, Fluttershy seemed content upon sitting as close to her husband as she possibly could. So close in fact that their flanks were touching. She looked more like a love struck filly sitting casually with her schoolyard crush than she looked a proper queen with the way her head was resting against him. What was all the more odd was that King Sombra didn't seem to mind. They were there to preside over their court, and yet, there they sat, looking more like a flirtatious couple at a movie theater than administers of justice.


Starlight watched from the throng of onlookers, the 'witnesses to the king's justice' as they were dubbed, and she saw The King raise a hoof for silence. The numerous conversations all around her died down.


"I would like to thank all in attendance, who have selflessly set aside their schedules in order to bear witness to my justice this day," The King announced before looking to his bride, as if to wordlessly prompt her to add something.


"As always, your dedication to your civic duty is appreciated," The Queen intoned. Her voice was disarmingly sweet and innocent, like a child performing the role of a queen in a play than the genuine article. She might have looked more official if she hadn't been using her husband's shoulder as a headrest.


Ethereal Moon was at their side, her ivory coat a stark contrast to The King's dark throne. Sombra gave his adviser a nod, and when the sign was given to her she cleared her throat and shouted in her high girlish voice, "Salute!" 


All in attendance, including the guards, clapped a hoof over their breasts with uniform synchronization and lowered their heads. Starlight oscillated at the sudden movement all around her. 


Ethereal Moon then shouted, "Pledge!"


In unison, every head raised, their muzzles pointed toward the throne. "Heil to The King and Queen!" The throne room thundered with their collective voices.


Prince Blue Blood was standing next to Starlight. He took up the cry as well, before glancing down at her with a look of mild amusement on that pretty face of his. The puzzled mare could only offer him a shrug and a bemused furrow of her brow in return. She wasn't rehearsed or seasoned in the traditions of Sombra's court, how could she be blamed for not following suit?


Sombra sat back and slid a long sinewy arm around his bride's shoulders. "Madam adviser," The King said, looking more casual than any king in history presiding over his court ever had, "if you would be so kind, let us begin."


Ethereal Moon stepped forward, carrying herself with a proud, dignified look about her. The tiny mare often had to look up in order to meet the eyes of everyone around her, but from the dais, everyone had to look up to meet hers. She probably enjoyed that; being able to look down on others from atop those marble steps must be the highlight of her day.


The adviser cleared her throat as she levitated and unrolled a scroll before her eyes. "First order of business, we have a supplicant, one Mister Evictus. Please step down from the stands and approach the dais, so that The King and Queen may hear your request."


Starlight Glimmer noticed a nervous-looking stallion stepping down from a row of seats at the opposite end of the throne room. He moved slowly as he made for the foot of the dais. The stallion then knelt, bowing his head respectfully. "My liege," he said.


"Rise," The King commanded, and he did. "Now then, Evictus, is it - what is it that you would ask of your king?"


"I... I... Uh...." He swallowed. He was about to speak again, but he instead stalled and cleared his throat. 


Sombra continued to wait patiently for him to speak. Somebody somewhere in the courtroom let out a muffled cough.


"F-forgive me, your grace," Stammered the skittish supplicant. "T-this is my f-first time ever speaking directly to you. I cannot accurately put into words what an honor this is."


"You're among friends here, sir," Fluttershy said, smiling. "What would you have of us?" 


Stage fright was a demon Fluttershy was all too familiar with, Starlight knew. But it had seemed that The Queen had become an expert at counseling others that shared the same fear she had once struggled with, as her soft spoken words seemed to give the stallion some courage. "Uh... Well, you see... It seems that my wife is... She's with foal."


"Oh, congratulations!" The Queen beamed, placing a hoof over her belly to indicate her own pregnancy. "Your baby and mine will be around the same age. I'm thinking they should be good friends."


The stallion named Evictus smiled at that. "I would love nothing more, my queen. You honor me, really you do."


"How far along is your wife?" Fluttershy asked with genuine interest.


"Well, she's just now starting to show, so if I were to guess, I'd say--"


Sombra cleared his throat loudly. When attention was redirected toward him he said, "Yes, congratulations are in order, but surely, you're not here just to tell me that. You're here as a supplicant, are you not? Ask what you will of me, and be quick about it."


"I... yes, your grace. A thousand pardons." Sombra's mild tone seemed to make the stallion nervous all over again. "My wife and I share a modest dwelling. Too modest, if I am to be perfectly honest. I would like to request a loan, so that I may have an extension added to our home."


"A loan?" Sombra said. "How much are you asking?" 


The stallion chewed at his lip before he spoke. "Three hundred, your grace. For resources and labor." 


"I'm guessing by three hundred, you mean in gold?"


"Aye, your grace. For the sake of convenience. Silver or copper equaling the amount of three hundred gold pieces would be too difficult to carry, too hard to keep track of, and too easy to steal." 


"Ethey?" The King prompted.


The adviser was on top of her duties, it had seemed. The moment she had heard the amount the stallion was pleading for she went right to work crunching figures on her trusty clipboard. "I have an interest rate written out, Mister Evictus. Is twenty three percent acceptable to you?"


"Twenty three?" The stallion scratched his head. "Madam adviser, forgive me, but that's a little steep. My wife and I are but humble grocers."


"A thankless profession," The King offered understandingly. "But a necessary one. How does seven and ten sound to you?" 


Ethereal Moon whipped her head around with a look of wide-eyed astonishment on her face. "Sire, the treasury will hardly profit from--" The King cut her off when he gestured for her to be silent, and then there was nothing to be said. 


"Seventeen?" the stallion said thoughtfully. "I was hoping for maybe thirteen?"


"Fife and ten. I'll go no lower. And I should not have to warn you of the consequences of a late payment, Mister Evictus. Such a modest interest rate will come with hefty penalties."


"Fifteen. That's good. Yeah, I think I can work with that." The supplicant bowed his head. "Thank you, your grace."


Sombra gave the adviser a nod. "Make a record for the loan. I'll add my signature to it later." Ethey flashed him a disapproving look to indicate that the interest rate was ill advised, but she did as she was told. The King watched as she stamped a sheet of parchment with a watermark before he returned his attention to the stallion at the bottom of the dais. "Report to the treasury on the morrow to pick up your money and sign the proper documentation for the loan agreement. You are dismissed."


"My liege, thank you." The soon-to-be father's bow was as deep as it was grateful. Sombra nodded in response before he waved for a guard to escort him to his gates outside.


Ethereal Moon looked again at her scroll once they were gone. "Next, we have an accuser and an acusee. The plaintiff claims he was assaulted by the defendant over a game of dice last night, when he refused to honor a bet he had lost. He wishes to press charges. Among the witnesses to the king's justice, there stand several who were verified to be present at the time and place where the crime had occurred." Ethereal Moon then looked up from her scroll. "Testifiers, step forward, if you would please."


Starlight watched as several mares and stallions stepped out of the crowd. A guard directed them to make a parallel cue to the throne's steps.


Sombra frowned. "The accuser and the accused, bring them before me." 


One of The King's guards brought a stallion down from the stands. He seemed to need help walking. His face was a nasty sight to behold, with a broken nose crooked and angled unnaturally, several glaring swollen knots on his head, and an eye that was so black and swollen it was sealed shut. He shambled with a hitch in his gate, whenever his weight was transferred to his bandaged up foreleg.


Starlight Glimmer felt for him, the poor guy. A hospital would have been a better place for him than a court room.


Two sentries of the town guard were bringing in a stallion from the arched entrance at the end of the throne room. He had a grimace on his face, as if he would have rather been anywhere else in the world other than where he was. His forelegs were fettered with chains that were just long enough to allow him to toddle along with awkward jerky paces. 


The injured stallion all covered in welts and bruises and the stallion clad in iron fetters were brought to the foot of the steps and positioned between the testifiers and the throne.


"Now, then..." The King cast a stringent gaze down upon them. "I will have the truth out of both of you. You will both be given a chance to speak. If any one of you speaks without leave or interrupts the other while they're giving testimony, you will be held for contempt of the throne and sentenced to the dungeon for a time no greater or less than twenty four hours. This hearing will then resume after you've learned proper courtroom etiquette. Do you understand what I just told you?"


Plaintiff and defendant both nodded as they vocalized their agreement. 


The King then began a grueling round of questioning for the both of them. Sombra's irritation became visible when their stories didn't quite intertwine and an impasse was reached. That was when he called upon the testifiers for collaboration.


To Starlight Glimmer's understanding, the defendant and the plaintiff had been gambling over dice, but when the plaintiff lost he accused the defendant of cheating and refused to pay. Threats and oaths were exchanged from both sides before the assailant finally launched himself at his victim and assaulted him. The defendant had apparently gone so far as to break a wooden chair over the dazed stallion's foreleg after he had knocked him off his hooves. That was when a few tavern patrons got involved and restrained the attacker while others ran to call for the town guard.


"I was at the Prancing Pegasus last night," The King said. 


"As was I," put in Fluttershy curiously. "When exactly did this event transpire?"


One of the guards who had escorted the fettered stallion through the throne room cleared his throat before he spoke up. "It happened hours after you both left, my queen. Around midnight, if I recall correctly."


"Were you one of the arresting officers?" Fluttershy asked him.


"I was," confirmed the sentry, who wore the silver armor and indigo cloak emblazoned with the sigil of the town guard. 


"I do not take assault lightly," Sombra finally said. "Nor do I take kindly to a stallion that does not honor his debts." Sombra's gaze settled over the plaintiff. "May I ask how it was that you had stumbled upon the conclusion that your attacker was cheating?" 


The plaintiff rubbed the swell under his eye. "I don't care how lucky a stallion is, my king. No one rolls two sevens three times in a row."


"It's a possibility," The King argued.


"Aye," conceded the plaintiff. "But what conclusion am I to gather from someone who refuses to show me his dice after a hot winning streak?"


"You asked to see the dice, and he refused you?"


The injured stallion nodded. "I refused to pay up until I got a look at his dice. I told him as much, and that's when he started throwing his hooves."


"Suspicious indeed." The King then turned to the defendant with an accusatory scowl. "What do you have to say for yourself? This poor stallion looks as if he was put through the gauntlet. What excuse could you possibly have for committing such an atrocious act of barbarism?"


"They were my lucky dice, my king," the defendant insisted. "I was afraid he would try to steal them from me. I didn't want to resort to violence, but he made me. I was protecting my property is all. Would you prosecute someone for defending themselves against a mugger?"


"Did you just compare me to a mugger?" The plaintiff spat. "Who in bloody tartarus steals a pair of dice?"


"You, mayhaps?" Quipped the defendant. "You envied me for my winning streak that night. You probably thought you could have done for a bit of luck yourself."


"Enough, you two," The King raised a hoof for silence. "Do we have the dice in question?"


"We confiscated his belongings when we made the arrest, my king," announced one of the town guards.


"Good, bring the dice to me. We're going to get down to the bottom of this." 


The guard ascended the dais with a velvet sack cinched with a golden drawstring and presented its contents. Sombra looked down at the dice suspiciously as he rolled them around in his hoof. "I see nothing out of the ordinary," he commented. "Just common dice. Suspicious how this could warrant such savagery."


"Cast them, my king," advised the adviser. "I would like to see these 'lucky dice' in action."


Sombra gave the dice another look before he unceremoniously flung them down the dais. The little cubes tumbled and flipped and spun as they rolled down the steps, before landing with the sevens facing up. "Well now, this appears to be my lucky day," The King mused before he turned his attention to the defendant.


The stallion looked away. Starlight could see how nervous he was becoming. "Just as I said, my lord. They're lucky..."


"I am no petty lord," The King informed him. "I am your king, and you will learn your proper courtesies when addressing me in my court."


"Yes, my lor-- er, sire," the defendant stammered as one of the guards was collecting the dice near the foot of the steps.


"Bring those dice back to me," said The King. "My queen would like to have a roll as well."


"I've never diced before," Fluttershy objected. "I'll just embarrass myself."


"Nothing to it," Ethey said. "You just toss em. Or roll em, throw em, drop em, whatever. It's not like there's any real technique to it."


"I guess I could give it a try." The Queen took the dice from the guard and sent them tumbling along the ground. They landed at Ethereal Moon's hoofs with the sevens facing up. Fluttershy's face lit up when she saw what she had rolled and clapped excitedly. "Oh, this is fun!" 


The adviser adjusted her glasses as she looked down at the perfect sevens gleaming up at her. "Lucky dice, indeed," she said before she decided to try her luck as well. She collected them, rolled them around in her hooves thoroughly, then gave them a toss. And once again, sevens. She looked up at The King, cocking a sceptical eyebrow. "Too lucky, if you'd ask me."


Sombra gathered them up and inspected them. The tip of his horn twinkled, and then the dice strobed reactively to his magical probe with a harsh crackle of static. "Enchanted!" The King spat the word as if it was a curse.


"They are?" The defendant said stupidly. "I honestly had no idea those dice were hexed. I had just assumed they favored me. I bought them from a traveling gypsy. I mean, look at me, I'm an earth pony, I can't enchant things."


A big burly earth stallion who's cutie mark was a blacksmith's hammer stepped forward from the throng of witnesses. His biceps were as large as cantaloupes and he had a jaw like a cinder block. The deep wrinkles above his scowling brow were as craggy as the side of a mountain. "Bastard!" he bellowed. "You skinned me alive with those cheater's dice of yours!" He looked up at The King and Queen and demanded, "Show him no mercy. When I couldn't pay a bet I had lost to him, he actually proposed that I let him have a go at my sister as payment instead. I ran him off with an axe handle when he did that, the disgusting pig!" He then spat on the ground.


Other demands for recompense were being thrown out, and soon the throne room's walls echoed with the numerous voices of those the defendant had presumably wronged in the past. In a small village everyone was like to know each other, and it had seemed that the shifty gambler had diced with the majority of the court's occupants at one time or another.


A livid mare who was stationed directly behind Starlight Glimmer cried out, "I want back everything you won from me!" She was so close to her, the demand set her ears to ringing.


Another burly earth stallion with a wooden log for a cutie mark stepped up and distinctly shouted, "I'm a woodcutter by trade, and unlike the smith, my axe handle has a stone wedge at the end of it. You better watch your back once you leave the palace, you slimy little worm!"


The witnesses around Starlight Glimmer fed on each other's outrage like a frenzy of sharks with the scent of blood in the water. Threats of violence and other crass forms of retribution were being hurled until a few of them looked like they were ready to charge toward the defendant to throttle him. 


Several guards formed an armored wall between the witnesses and the defendant with flails drawn should the need to protect him arise.


The King finally raised his hoof for order, and when he didn't get it, he slammed his mailed hoof down on the arm of his stone chair. Fluttershy covered her ears as the thunderous impact sent a wave of kinetic force reverberating beneath everyones' hooves. An abrupt silence followed, quick as a sudden death. "The next to speak out of turn will be held in contempt!" Sombra roared, sweeping a commanding hoof out to indicate everyone in attendance. "You will be humble in my court, or you will get humbled, do I make myself clear!"


The mob cowed back with their heads lowered like a pack of chastised puppies. The King nodded to the guards that had rushed to the cheater's defense, and they sheathed ther weapons and dispersed to resume their stations.


Scowling, The King returned his attention to the defendant. "And you, how dare you lie to me, in my palace, in my court, before our people." His voice had become a snarl. "It is a grievous crime to lie to a king, sir. A lesson you shall learn by the time this day is done." He looked at the the plaintiff and inquired, "How much was your bet?"


The bruised and battered stallion glared at his assailant. "Five silver pieces, your majesty."


"Very well," The King said, turning to the defendant. "You will pay the sum of five silver pieces to your victim as recompense, and you will pay the tavern owner an additional silver piece for that stool you broke. And for your assault and your dubious displays of disrespect and dishonesty in my court, you will be shipped off to the mines to spend a moon's turn doing hard labor."


The accused offered an apologetic shrug. "I've naught silver to pay, sire. I'm broke, I swear."


Then how is it that you have money to gamble? Starlight thought.


Sombra was most likely thinking the same thing. His jaw tightened. "Very well," he said calmly. "If you can not pay in silver, you shall pay by way of the lash. Guards, escort this one to the pillory in the plaza square. Six lashes, make it so."


"Wait!" The accused pleaded as two guards seized his fettered forelegs, his voice suddenly high and frantic. "Anything but that! I-I lied. I have silver. Six pieces, yes? I have it! I'll pay, I'll pay!"


Even Fluttershy was starting to become irritated. "Sir!" She shouted, in more of a pleading tone than a demanding one. "Please, you're making this harder on yourself. Just pay the stallion and the tavern owner the silver you owe them and serve your sentence."


"Waste not your pity on this one," The King said, his voice deepening in a growl as he leaned forward in his throne to address the accused. "I can't believe you just lied to me again. I'm going to have to make an honest stallion out of you, I see that now. For your crimes you will pay the sum of five silver pieces to the stallion you attacked, a silver piece to the tavern owner who's property you so wantonly destroyed, and you shall spend the next sixty days doing hard labor in the mines. And for your numerous lies right to my face you will receive eight lashes. And not another word, or I shall have another lash added for every one. Gods and Celestia and all the forces of nature help you if you ever dare to lie to me in my court again. Guards, remove him from my sight."


Starlight gaped as everyone around her smiled and murmured with approval. She was stepping forward to let her objection be heard but Blue Blood extended his foreleg to block her path. When she looked up at him he wordlessly shook his head in a cautioning manner. Feeling helpless, she watched as the procession went on.


"Please, sire, I'll pay!" the accused was wailing as he was being dragged away.


"Yes, you will!" The King promised him. "That's twelve lashes now. Guards, muzzle him, before his mouth does him another disservice."


One of the members of Sombra's town guard drew a length of cord out from under his indigo cloak, and the other locked a heavily muscled foreleg about his neck to keep him still as the string was bound tight about his muzzle. 


The accused was letting out a muffled whine as he was being taken away.


Sombra glared after them until they were gone. He then looked down and seemed to notice the way the plaintiff was rubbing at the throbbing angry welt below his swollen eye. The King closed his eyes, breathed a calming breath, and removed the edge from his voice. "Do your contusions pain you?" 


"A little," the stallion admitted. "What a piece of work that guy is. Cheats at dice, demands that I pay, then gets violent when I don't. Here's hoping the mines sort him out."


The King hummed in agreement. "I'll have a guard escort you to my apothecary. She'll mix a poultice for those bruises. And the doctor should have a look at that leg. Try not to put anymore weight on it than you have to." He looked to another one of his guards and instructed, "Take him to have his wounds treated. Share the burden of his weight if you must; I don't like the way his leg is swelling beneath those bandages."


The palace guard clad all in black armor and crimson cloak placed his hoof over his breast and lowered his head before he gingerly escorted the limping stallion from the throne room. The conversation they shared as they were leaving went along the lines of:


"It's better to walk on three legs than it is to just limp on it."


"I try, but the bouncing motion makes it hurt something awful." 


"That'll change once you have a proper cast to hold it in place. Winter Lilac mixes a brew so potent it will make you forget your leg is even there. Just mind what you say around her. She's got a tongue like a cat o'nine tails, that one."


"And what about the stallion Sombra just sentenced to be flogged?" Starlight muttered. "Will he get any medical attention?"


"He will be cleaned and tended to as well," Blue Blood said, keeping his eyes forward. "Though, I doubt he'll be given anything to dull his pain. His lesson would hardly be effective if he didn't suffer, so Sombra believes."


"Lesson? What lesson could he possibly learn from having the flesh flayed from his back - publicly, no less?"


Blue Blood gave a helpless shrug. "You say that is if you think I'm in favor of it. I'm not, but it's not like I have a say in how Sombra decides to punish his own subjects for their wrong doings. In his defense, he'll treat you humanely, so long as you don't lie to him. Not a fortnight past Sombra sentenced a stallion to hang for killing his neighbor in a spat over some girl. The accused swore up and down that it was an accident. How somebody can 'accidentally' break into a stallion's home and smother him with a pillow was beyond Sombra's reckoning, so he named him a liar as well as a murderer, and he sentenced him to the gallows."


"But Celestia abolished capital punishment almost a hundred years ago."


"Celestia abolished," Blue Blood said, emphasizing his aunt's name to remind Starlight of where she was. "This place, this New Haven, it's not just a different nation. It's like a different world entirely. Some of these citizens of his are former cut throats and ne'er-do-wells. They see the life Sombra is creating for his people, and a lot of them want in on it. I cannot fault them for abandoning the frozen war torn wastes for want of a better life. However, old habits tend to die hard, and King Sombra is nothing if not compelled to cull his citizenry of those who will not abide by his laws." 


Starlight Glimmer would have said something else, but she realized Sombra was looking directly at her. He can hear me, even when I'm whispering, she remembered.


"Next order of business," Ethey suddenly said, stealing The King's attention. "We have a bounty hunter who wishes to collect on his latest catch." Her expression soured when she announced the name, as if just speaking it left a foul taste in her mouth. "Mister Shantae... please approach the dais."


The swaggering bounty hunter dancingly descended from the stand. He was tall and lean, and might have been handsome if a piece of his bottom lip and his left ear wasn't missing. Slung over his chest was a leather harness, and Starlight Glimmer noted the empty sheath secured to his hind leg, where a guard must have confiscated some sort of weapon from him before he entered the throne room. From the way the sheathe angled at the center it was most likely some kind of curved short sword or kukri. His cutie mark was a bullseye. Starlight could only wonder what that implied.   


"Shantae, it is good to see you." The King greeted the stallion as if he was an old friend. "Brought me some gifts, have you?" 


"Dat Ah did, mah king," The bounty hunter sang in the thick cajun drawl of the Equestrian Fire Swamps. He bowed in a very graceful yet flamboyant manner. "Sha, my queen, do da eyes o' poor Shantae' deceive him, or is you gettin' more beautiful every time he sees you?" 


Fluttershy giggled. "It's very nice to see you again, Shantae. It has been too long."


The King said, "Your eyes deceive you not, Shantae. She grows ever more beautiful by the second. But enough pleasantries, you've brought me a gift, yes?"


"Dat Ah did. Just ask yer boy, here." The bounty hunter indicated an approaching guard with a bloodstained roughspun sack in his hoof.


"Three heads, your majesty," The guard confirmed. "I've already sent someone to pull their posters from the bounty board."   


Starlight could feel her breakfast shifting in her stomach. Corporal punishment, capitol punishment, and now freelance killers and severed heads... This just keeps getting better.


"Their identities have been confirmed as well," The Guard went on. "One Loki of Foxhelm Harbor. One Cassius of The Winding Hook. And one Jonquel-The-Mad of The Frozen Shore. All high ranking members of the griffon pirates plaguing the eastern coast."


The throne room became a cacophony of hushed exclamations. The Queen's eyes were wide as she brought her hooves up to cover her gaping mouth. Even the guards were trading uneasy looks.


Starlight wasn't sure what to make of the confusion all around her. "Griffon pirates?"   


"Food is a scarce thing to find in this region," Blue Blood explained. "But not to the griffon pirates of the hook. They reave and pillage the villages along the east coast."


"How does that make them any different from the bandits?" Starlight Glimmer asked. "You mention the inland brigands and nobody bats an eye. But talk of these pirates and everyone goes pale."


Blue Blood's face darkened. "Their favorite plunder is Equines."


"For the slave trade, right?"


"No."


"For what, then?"


"You can dub a killer a butcher, but to these griffons the title is quite literal," Blue Blood explained, his eyes shifting uneasily toward her. "Food," he repeated, "is a scarce thing in this region."


Starlight's mouth hung open when she took his meaning.


"Griffons," Blue Blood said. "Half eagle. Half Lion. The last thing they are are vegetarians, if you put some thought to it. The ones you're used to associating with back home have made peace with other life forms and are raised in an environment that shuns the act of hunting. For these ferals, however, everyone and anyone is fair game to them, even each other when they're desperate. It is said that they take their prisoners deep below the decks of their ships, where they slaughter, flay, and cook them."  


Does sanity even exist in this place? Starlight felt a cold chill run along her spine. She had always thought the concept of 'evil' as superficial and abstract, with a few exceptions. Sombra being one of them. But now she was truly starting to wonder. "It's like something out of a horror movie."


"Indeed."


"This is fantastic," The King announced, looking down at the heads from his throne. It was the happiest Starlight Glimmer had ever seen him. "Not many have the stones to go hoof-to-talon with these demons. Bravo to you, sir; you've done fine work."


"Yer gonna make ol' Shantae blush," the swashbuckling earth pony said, smiling through a brown jagged ruin of broken teeth that was his mouth. "Now, if you don't mind, Shantae would like to get paid. Shantae has a long night of boozing and whoring ahead of him."


Starlight Glimmer sighed. It seemed as if the north may have been short on sanity, but there was certainly no scarcity of degenerates.


"You earned the money, it is no concern of mine what you do with it." Sombra looked down to give his adviser a nod. "Madam adviser, write up the stipend. The faster we get him out of here, the faster he can get back to sanitizing the blight from our world."


"Yes, sire." And Ethey immediately went to work. She drew a rectangular book of notes from a compartment in her clipboard, and tore one of the pages free before she began to write on it.


Shantae smiled that ugly, broken smile of his. "Miss Ethey, how's da weather up dere, sha?"


Ethey gave him a look as she worked the pen around on the stipend with her telepathy. "Cloudy with a chance of no means no. How's the view from down there?"


Shantae winked. "Very beautiful."


The adviser pretended to double check her work as her cheeks flushed.


"He hits on her incessantly," Blue Blood explained. "Those two are really quite funny to watch."


"Yikes." Starlight Glimmer couldn't help but pity poor Ethey. "What is he, some kind of lolita fetishist?"


"Ethey can be charming in her own little way," The prince said, frowning, as if remembering every witty insult, quip and sally he had ever suffered at the adviser's hooves. "When she's not acting like a complete bitch." 


Shantae looked shrewdly at the figures scrawled on the stipend after the adviser relinquished it to him. He began to hum thoughtfully. 


"What's the matter?" Ethey said. "That's thirty gold pieces for each head; that's a pretty hefty sum."


"Shantae is thinking he deserves a bonus for all his cunning and bravery." 


"You're not getting another damn copper, you greedy magpie. Ninety gold pieces is more than a vagabond like you could spend in half a year."


Shantae flashed her a roguish grin. "Shantae does not want money. Before Shantae stands something far more beautiful dan any shiny metal." 


"Yeah, no," the adviser said flatly.


"Oh, come now, petite. A romantic moonlit dinner for two, eh? A little song, a little dance?"


Sombra cleared his throat in an obtrusive manner. "Mister Shantae, I appreciate the work you've done for me, but mind your place. My adviser is not some lady of the evening to be propositioned in such a way."


The adviser harrumphed in a very haughty fashion. She turned on her heals and ascended the steps to reassume her place by the throne. "Thank you, your grace," she said, throwing the spurned bounty hunter a sassy flick of her tail as she strode away from him.


Shantae gave a defeated yet amiable smile. "Shantae apologizes if he has given offense, your grace. And to da lovely adviser, Shantae would never think of her as anything less dan de classy lady dat she is."


"Mister Shantae, I think you might need a girl to explain this to you," Fluttershy clarified, speaking softly yet firmly. "When you boast of bedding prostitutes, and then turn around and start flirting with the first mare you see in the same breath, it doesn't exactly speak well of your intentions or your assumptions."  


Shantae looked as if he had just had a revelation dropped on him. "Oh, of course!" he laughed an idiotic laugh. "That was insensitive of Shantae." He then beckoned to the adviser with an outstretched hoof. "Shantae apologizes a thousand times over, petite. Come, come and give Shantae a hug. Let him make it all right."


Ethereal Moon slid her glasses up the bridge of her muzzle. "That'd be a hard no." 


"Sir," The King finally broke in, "if we've no other business to discuss, you're dismissed. As always, you can have your stipend honored at the treasury, and you can reclaim your weapons at the gates."


"And I know this might be hard for you," Ethey added, "but try not to commit a blatant act of sexual harassment on your way there. If you make it even half the way I'll be impressed."


"You have Shantae's word, and Shantae is a stallion of his word, my petite fleur," he assured the adviser with a dip and a bow, before he turned and allowed a guard to escort him from the throne room. 


What a strange, strange stallion, Starlight Glimmer observed, watching the bounty hunter stride down the rush with a motion that was half a dance and half a saunter.


The day seemed to drag on and on and on. Starlight had counted seven hearings now, with some being more eventful than others: Sombra had granted a loan to a supplicant, severely punished a cheating, gambling brute. And rewarded a loathsome lout of a bounty hunter for his wetwork. 


He had also pardoned a cutpurse at Fluttershy's urging, as the offender was young and the extent of the money she had stolen didn't exceed a significant value. But Sombra did not let her off without giving her a stringent warning. The tongue lashing the girl had received left her in tears when she was being escorted from the throne room. 


Sombra charged a stallion for vandalism and ordered him to pay a costly fee of forty silver pieces. When the vandal could not pay in currency he was ordered to work for the owner of the property he had destroyed for two moons without pay. He would do so under the watch of a town guard to insure his cooperation.


A youth who was apparently a repeat offender of various misdemeanors was caught stealing a fine sable garment from the town tailor. He was given the choice of being shipped off to the mines or signing up for military service. The mines would have undoubtedly been the shorter sentence, but the youth opted for the latter, as he had informed The King that there was a wealth of opportunities in the military, but in the mines there would be none. Sombra agreed and commended the boy for his choice before having him delivered to a stallion named Clash Steelsong for orientation. 


The seventh and last hearing was a land dispute between two squabbling stallions. They would not stop arguing when Sombra tried to hear them out. They kept insulting each other, and talking over one another, and at one point one of them physically attacked the other. It took a couple harsh smacks with a guard's flail to separate them, and even then their comportments did not improve. Sombra had had enough and sentenced them to the dungeon, where they would remain locked away until they learned to conduct themselves properly in the throne room. 







The day was growing old, and the sun was beginning to dip behind the mountains. Owls and frost bats were stirring in their branches, and ice wargs were leaving their dens. The wind was skirling, and the temperature was dropping. The town guards were turning in their armor and weapons and cloaks at the garrison while the night guard was just beginning to don theirs. Night was gathering, and so their watch had begun.     


Starlight Glimmer had been looking forward to supper. It amazed her how standing around doing nothing in a courtroom all day could build such an appetite.


The truffles were thick, battered, fried, and stuffed with cheese. The dishes of sweet and sour plum sauce that had been served to dip them in sent chills down her spine when the flavor first danced on her tongue. And the cups of fermented honey wine that was served to her was unlike any beverage she had ever tasted. Mead, it was called. She couldn't get enough of the stuff. She was well in to her fourth cup now.


Similar dishes were served to the others who had volunteered to be witnesses to the king's justice that day. She had learned that The King feasted those who attended his court with a free dinner, as a way to express his gratitude. Sitting at The King's high table, looking over the court volunteers and palace staff enjoying their evening meal, it was the first time Starlight Glimmer could recall entertaining the notion that Sombra was generous. Or perhaps that was just the honey wine doing the thinking for her. 


She decided that after she finished her cup she would stick to water, as much as it pained her to do so. The mead was so good. Her head was beginning to swim, and It helped her take her mind off of all the things she had seen and heard in The King's court that day. All the gut-wrenching talk of whippings, hangings, cannibalistic pirates, and freelance killers seemed like a dream to her now that she had a belly full. Not to mention the fact that she now had two days left to choose from one of the decisions Sombra had left her, and the stress of whether or not Fluttershy's plan to free them all would actually work. But, Starlight Glimmer's head was buzzing, and none of that seemed all too critical at the moment. 


She downed the last drop of her fourth cup, set it down, looked at it for a long time, shrugged, and then had Joji pour her a fifth. She knew she would hate herself in the morning, but she had realized there was solace in being drunk, if only for one night. For the first time since she had awakened below Sombra's palace, she wasn't afraid.


"Thanks, kid," she said to the boy, looking at her reflection as it shimmered and rippled upon the surface of that delicious liquid gold in her cup. 


"No problem!" Joji said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. "Can I get you anything else, Miss Starlight? Dessert, perhaps?"


Starlight looked at the ginger pegasus. The boy couldn't have been any older than twelve, or perhaps thirteen. He was blushing a hue redder than his mane, and his smile seemed rather timid if not awkward. It had appeared that the young steward had developed a fancy for her. Or perhaps that was just the mead making her think that. "Some more of those fried stuffed mushroom things would be nice," she finally said, after giving the question some thought. 


Springing to her request with an alacrity that was almost comical, Joji grabbed a large spoon and transferred heaps upon heaps of steaming hot truffles to her plate from an iron serving pot.


"That's enough!" Starlight said, almost laughing. "I don't think I can eat that much."


"Would you like me to take some back?" Joji asked.


"No, it's okay. I'll just try to work with what you gave me here, thank you." She smiled at him in a way she hoped wasn't sending the wrong signals. The last thing she wanted to do was fill the boy's heart and head with false hopes, if her assumption about him was correct.


"Is there anything else I can get you - more mead perhaps?"


Smiling, Starlight lifted her cup and lightly shook the fluid around inside to wordlessly remind him that he had just filled it.


"Boy," said Blue Blood from across the table. He was gesturing at a dish. "Would you mind cutting me a slice of that fig cobbler? I've never had fig cobbler before. I'm intrigued."


Joji frowned at him, as if to say, 'Get it yourself.' But when he looked again at Starlight Glimmer, she tilted her head in The Prince's direction to urge him to do his duty. The serving boy sighed and reluctantly moved on to serve Blue Blood his precious fig cobbler. "Just call me if you need anything," he imparted to her.


Starlight tipped the rim of her fifth cup against her lips, now that she had finally been left alone to drink in peace.


"It could be worse," Blue Blood was saying to Ethereal Moon, as Joji was serving him his cobbler. "You could catch the eye of a lecherous, greedy, morally bereft, mare-hungry pervert." He then pretended to scratch his chin thoughtfully. "Oh, wait, Shantae is literally all those things. Sorry, love."


"Hey, you know what I'm thinking of doing tonight after supper?" Ethey responded. "Visiting the spa."


Blue Blood pretended to ignore that, though he couldn't quite conceal his frown well enough.


"All this incessant bickering," Sombra interjected between bites. "You two should just get married already."


"What, me to Ethey?" Blue Blood chuckled. "Everyone would think I was marrying the flower girl."


The adviser skewered a truffle on her plate, and before she popped it into her mouth she tittered and said, "I'm not a homewrecker, besides. I wouldn't want to get in the way of the intimate relationship you already have with your reflection."


An unbidden laugh broke from Starlight's lips. And when Blue Blood shot her a displeased look from behind the silken handkerchief he was using to wipe his mouth, she realized she truly had drunk too much. It was either that, or she was beginning to show the first stages of madness from all the happenings she had been enduring as of late. But then she realized Fluttershy was laughing, too. Even Sombra got a little mordant chuckle at the prince's expense.


The prince finally sighed and allowed himself a smile. "I'm as modest as they come. It's just, If your reflection was half as beautiful as mine you'd understand."


Ethereal Moon was taking a deep draught from her mug. When she put it down she wiped her mouth and said, "It's half as tall, at least."


There was another gale of laughter from everyone at Sombra's high table. And despite her captive friends sleeping below the palace, despite fluttershy's shaky clandestine plan to rescue them, despite her own captivity, despite the ultimatum she faced, and despite everything in between, Starlight Glimmer was laughing the loudest.