Raven set down her glass of water and began to rustle through her papers again, making sure that everything was in order. Now that she knew how long she could stand to read these before needing to rehydrate, it would be much easier to organize the charges into manageable chunks. A few quick calculations and shuffles later, she found an ideal arrangement, and nodded to the nearest guard to signal that she was ready.
In the time it took him to raise the official trumpet to his lips, the entire crowd had already seen the nod and fallen back into silence. Still, the Royal Guard were never keen to pass up an opportunity to actually earn their paychecks, so the guard took a great lungful of air and gave a might bellow on the trumpet. Raven managed to hold back a smile as Sombra took the full force of the trumpet to the side of his head, which left him stumbling in place for a few minutes.
Out of some misplaced courtesy for the defendant, Raven waited until the former king looked to be back in control of his thought process before continuing.
26. Forcefully disbanding the Crystal Council of Royal Advisors after they allegedly attempted a coup.
27. Cutting a major city off from the Equestrian rail system by means of murdering, selling into slavery, or being excessively rude to everypony who worked at the local rail terminal.
28. Converting the Equestrian Rail Vermilion Line into a channel for slave driving.
29. Buying up the hamlet of Empty Mountain (later known as Rainbow Falls) while acting under a false identity.
30. Perpetuating rumors that any ponies found in the Frozen North would be snatched up by Yakyakistani slave drivers while acting under a false identity.
31. Establishing taco stands that charged prices in great excess of what was deemed acceptable by Equestrian standards at the time while acting under a false identity.
32. Attempting to dissolve the Empty Mountain branch of the Crystal Pony Liberation Front without presenting a valid membership card.
33. Crystallization and scattering of the Empty Mountain branch of the Crystal Pony Liberation Front with clear murderous intent.
34. Selling unlicensed and functionally worthless "blood crystal jewelry" for the market price of snakeskin purses.
35. Selling jewelry in venues that had only obtained licenses to sell food or reasonable approximations thereof.
36. Perpetuating rumors that the Empty Mountain branch of the Crystal Pony Liberation Front was still in operation.
37. Setting up "undercover freedom fighters" within the Crystal Empire as a means of tricking prospective rebels into being sold as slaves.
38. Extensive experimentation with fear magic and its effects on the equine psyche, with no attempts made to restore test subjects to mental stability.
39. Demolishing apartment complexes without a permit.
40. Forcefully dissolving the Imperial Department of Housing with a very large hammer.
41. Using the illusion of luxury provided by owning a house (as opposed to an apartment) to promote complacency.
42. Dissolving a booming job market and thriving economy in favor of factories, sweatshops and construction companies with products and services that only provided direct benefits for the social elite.
43. Refusing to implement any system of worker safety guidelines or compensation for work-related inconveniences, injuries or death.
44. Claiming the contents of the Imperial Treasury as personal funds on a federal form.
45. Making an extensive number of unsafe and inconsiderate renovations to the Imperial Palace.
46. Treating the Imperial Palace as personal property.
47. Implementing a security system explicitly designed to mentally destroy intruders, with no contingencies in place for accidents.
48. Unsanctioned censorship of history textbooks.
49. Binding an enchantment designed to shift an entire empire into inaccessible temporal stasis to a dead horse switch.
50. Reckless endangerment of several hundred thousand innocent lives.
There was not a time in living memory when a riot had broken out in the throne room of Princess Celestia herself. Of course, that was mostly due to there not usually being a large enough crowd in the room for a riot to be feasible, but even so, riots in the presence of the princess were Not Something that Happened. Ponies who saw her as a goddess would rather die than risk her ire, and those who saw only a ruler would still be wary of the possibility of arrest.
Despite all of this, the throne room had devolved into barely-restrained pandemonium by the time Raven went for her next sip of water. The entire palace was probably echoing with cries for blood, and the clouds had transformed into barely-controlled thunderstorms. The barrier spells were creaking and warping beneath the hammering of the nation's hooves, and the pegasi were crashing down on the dome that protected Sombra in a scene that was oddly reminiscent of the Green Wedding.
Raven gave a deep sigh, and spared a glance to her monarch. The princess was somewhere between concern and trying not to laugh, with a hoof held to her mouth in a gesture that could be anything from offended shock to a stifled giggle. Even the Royal Guard, struggling against the press of bodies as they were, seemed to be taking it all in stride. All in all, the riot seemed to be under control. Raven was about to signal the guard to trumpet for order when she happened to meet the gaze of King Sombra.
The broken stallion was still standing there, swaying weakly just as he had when he arrived. He did not seem to be reacting to the riot in any way. The hundreds of ponies swearing their drawn-out and bloody vengeance did nothing to faze him, his ears not even flicking as insults were hurled from left and right. His attention was focused like a laser on one pony, and though the guards continued to correct every sway of his head with a violent yank of the chains, his glare did not waver.
Raven got the distinct impression that she was supposed to be withering under Sombra's glare. The hungry gleam of his corneas, the distilled hatred crackling in his sclera and the harsh incline of his eyebrows all came together to form a very solid image of somepony who would very gladly shatter the entire space-time continuum, simply so that he could spend as much time as possible tearing a pony apart piece by bloody piece.
All eyes were on Sombra. Nopony was sparing so much as a glance for Raven. In a sense, she was alone in a room with Sombra.
She pushed up her glasses and stuck out her tongue at the former tyrant.