Case #9: Puppet
Judge Luna
Case #9 – Puppet
Celestia arrived at Ponyville Hospital with a crack of teleportation magic. Nurse Redheart startled, looking up at her in awe. “Your Highness!”
“Unofficial visit,” the alicorn said to the nurse. “Please show me to Rarity’s room. I need to see her.” The Princess watched the medical mare bow, gesture, and then start down a hall. Celestia followed, a snap in her step. She flicked her gaze into each room as she went. Taking the number of patients into her head, just in that hall, she saw almost all of them were unicorns. “Tell me, what has so many unicorns in the hospital tonight?” the Princess asked, playing dumb to get information.
“We’ve had some sort of bug going around,” Nurse Redheart said worriedly. “It’s all unicorns too. Lots of reports of weakness, magical impotency, even fainting spells!”
“I see,” Celestia said gently. “I’ve already sent ponies out to several locations to search for the cause. You needn’t worry too much,” her tone was reassuring, but her eyes were not. She already had her suspicions, and a tummy bug was not at the top of the list.
“Do you think it’s a plague, Princess?” Nurse Redheart lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Of a sort,” Celestia admitted. “We’ll play it by ear for now, my little pony,” she whispered. “I know you can put on a happy face and keep morale up.” She smiled kindly at the nurse, nodding to her cutie mark. “And bless you for it.”
Nurse Redheart blushed, smiling a bit before coming to a stop. “This is it here. She doesn’t have a roommate, but… well it’s a good thing.” She rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
“Why is that?” Celestia asked, craning her neck a little to see into the room.
“The poor thing stays up every night watching TV. I’ve had to sedate her more than once just to get her to sleep a normal eight-hour track,” Nurse Redheart shook her head a bit as she spoke. Celestia’s face darkened a bit. “What’s the matter?”
“You have televisions installed here in the hospital?” the Princess asked, looking around warily.
“Wh… why yes. They’re good entertainment for ponies that are sick in bed and don’t need to be moving much.” Nurse Redheart smiled. “Not everypony likes the book cart, haha.”
“Shut them off,” Princess Celestia said, opening the door the rest of the way with her magic. “Get the hospital’s security staff together, and shut them all off.” It wasn’t a question, it was a command. Nurse Redheart bowed and scurried away. The white alicorn swept into the room, pulling the mint green curtain to one side. The sight before her was ghastly.
Rarity lay splayed on her back in the hospital bed, her mane a complete mess. She had sweat on her brow, and lines on her face. The pale, milky glow of the television Her blanket was tucked up to her chin, and her hooves were hooked over the lip of them. She was trembling weakly, but her eyes were glued to the TV screen with interest.
Now was a good time, before she was noticed. Celestia closed her physical eyes, and reached out with her alicorn might. She could view the world in a number of different ways with her magic. X-ray vision, heat vision, echo-location, magic radar, and many more. The alicorn stared at the room with her magical radars turned on. She gave a start. The twinkling, dust-like movement of a world made of blues and blacks was before her. Little sparkles of bright blue were flowing out of Rarity’s horn and towards the TV. They swirled around the strange box before disappearing into the little power compartment in the side. The power crystal hummed ominously, already a sickly dark blue. The Princess blinked a few times, returning her vision to the physical world. Sweeping into the room, the alicorn slapped the dial to turn the TV off.
“Why, Princess Celestia…!” Rarity said weakly. Her voice was a whispy little croak. “What a nice… a nice surprise…” she had to take separate breaths to finish the sentence. Celestia’s brow knitted with worry. The pale unicorn shifted sorely in her bed, moaning sorely as she turned on her side to rest her face in her pillow. She blinked rapidly, a tear or two escaping her eyes. The bright TV screen had made them ache. “You didn’t have to come all the… the way here to see… me…” the young mare looked like a sagging, half-dead flower when she spoke.
“Rarity,” Celestia came and settled onto her belly next to the hospital bed. “I heard you were feeling badly, so I came to see you. I think Shining Armor and my sister Luna have what you have.”
“Do they?” Rarity said weakly, her breaths reedy and light. “H-how… how terrible…” suddenly her eyes began to roll into her head. The heart monitor attached to her foreleg began to beep shrilly. Celestia startled as alarms started going off all around her.
The door slammed open and a trio of ponies rushed in. “Princess Celestia?!” they stopped to stare.
“See to her!” Celestia said urgently.
“I want fifteen magi-jules, two-way, simultaneous!” The leader of the three motioned the other two. They crowded around the bed and Celestia backed up. Their horns lit in unison. “Ready… clear!” Vreeee-BZZAP! Rarity convulsed, a line of spittle escaping her throat and dribbling down her cheek. The alarms continued. “Twenty magi-jules! Again! Clear!” They zapped her again. The poor mare thrashed like she’d been electrocuted.
“Her heart is failing! Magic and brain activity is fluxuating!” One of the assistants shouted, looking over his shoulder at the readouts of the machines. Celestia put a horrified hoof over her mouth. “Any higher and we could hurt her!”
“Twenty-five magi-jules!” commanded the stallion in charge. “If she flat-lines for too long she’ll be brain-damaged! She could die!” They crowded around her again, horns at the ready. “We have to get her started again! CLEAR!” Vreee-BZZAP! Rarity’s mouth went as wide as it could go, and her eyes screwed up in mortal agony. Her legs kicked like a frog in a science lab, hooked up to a battery.
Celestia looked at the TV. Then Rarity. Then the power crystal in its compartment. Then all the remaining pieces clicked into place. The exploding cameras. Luna’s illness. Shining Armor’s bad health. Rarity’s state. “Move, please!” The alicorn used her massive wing to sweep the three of them aside.
“You Majesty?!” they protested as the alicorn’s horn lit in a golden light. They shrank back in awe as she leaned over the dying mare and pressed her horn right up against Rarity’s forehead, at the base of her horn. “No! Not there! You could fry her brain!” the leader of the three medical ponies threw himself forward to stop her.
Celestia gritted her teeth in concentration. She opened her wings like massive, magic-gathering antennae. The TV mounted on the wall exploded, sending shards of glass and plastic everywhere. The power crystal within had blasted apart like a grenade. The white alicorn looked into Rarity’s skull, at the base of her horn, with her magical radar. She saw the carbuncle, and infused it with her solar magic. Rarity’s eyes snapped open and she gave a high shriek of agony. The carbuncle, the gem in a unicorn’s skull at the base of her horn, was the source of her power. Receiving a jumpstart like that was beyond painful— it was like the world was coming apart.
Finally, Celestia pulled away and Rarity went limp. The sickly mare lay there, breathing hard, covered in sweat. She shivered, curling up in a ball. The Princess turned to the three medical ponies.
“She’s… she’s back to normal!” One of them gaped at the wiggling lines on the machine readouts. “Better than when she came in! Amazing!” they turned and looked up at her reverently. “Princess what did you do? That was amazing!”
“I jolted her carbuncle directly.” Princess Celestia whispered, running a massive hoof down Rarity’s back to soothe her. “I want you to inform your staff,” she told them. “Anypony with similar symptoms needs similar treatment and--!”
“Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia!” Nurse Redheart tore into the room, accidently blasting a medicine cart off its wheels and into a nearby wall.
“What’s wrong?” the winded Princess looked up, rising to her hooves at last.
“It’s Princess Luna!” she said, shaking like a leaf as sweat travelled down either side of her face. “I was shutting off TV’s in each room, and I saw her show as I was reaching to turn one off--- she’s dead!” Nurse Redheart cried. “I saw her get assassinated on her own show!”
Celestia gaped. There was a three-second, icy-hot silence. The white alicorn whirled around. That TV was broken. She rushed to the next room, past a comatose stallion with a wrap on his head. She snapped a hoof up and turned on the TV there. The image horrified her. Luna lay limp on the throne in a puddle of silvery blood. “LUNA!”
=-=-=-=
The audience screamed. The Lunar Stallions gaped. The camera crew stared in horror.
Steel Wing stood over the limp Princess Luna, dagger in hoof, dripping silver. Royal lifeblood was dribbling down his front when he turned to face the rest of the room. He stood there with a glass-eyed stare, as though hypnotized and unable to process the world around him. Silver liquid dribbled down the black blade, pattering on the carpet around his hooves.
Luna lay, tongue hanging limply out of her mouth, on her side on the throne. Her blood pooled around her, and was already starting a slow and horrific journey down the stairs of the dais. She shuddered and convulsed a little, her eyes rolled into her head as she lay there dying.
“Kill that traitorous fucker!” A Lunar Stallion jabbed a hoof forward. Armored ponies boiled out of darkness from every shadow, from behind every column, and even from the ceiling. Luna had doubled up her guards because of her illness, and half of the Lunar Corps was in the throne room to bucking murder Steel Wing. He stared at their oncoming rage and weapons and screaming fury with a blank expression. “Tear his fucking head off!” They pounced on Steel Wing from all directions, biting and stabbing and stomping on him. The pony was lost under the twisting, furious bodies that slammed into him like a ten ton cinderblock. The shriek of armor and weapons was vicious as the audience looked on in sheer terror.
Suddenly a garbling snarl resounded from outside, beyond the throne room. The voice rolled over the room like thunder. Everypony jerked about to see. The black thunderhead just outside the throne’s balcony had reached the railing. A swirling, frothing darkness melted onto the marble floor, filling the room. It covered the marble tiles like a fine mist, bathing the stained-glass windows in inky night. The stars seemed to go out as the throne room was cast into the belly of the unknown storm. Then, the metallic hoof-steps of the unknown approached from the double doors behind everypony. “That’s enough, my puppet. Vacate the throne for me,” He said.
“Yes Master,” grunted a barely-audible Steel Wing from under the pile of bodies and teeth and weapons. There was a rush of strength, and an avalanche of roaring Lunar Stallions. The soldiers tumbled over each other like so many flailing rocks, and a ravaged figure emerged. A mare in the audience screamed a blood-curdling scream and fainted. The pony that emerged from the pile of soldiers was missing half his face, a wing, and most of his armor. His body was tattered with bite-wounds, torn muscle and punctures from many spears. Underneath? Black crystal. Steel Wing was but a fleshy shell for some horrific monstrosity underneath! The abomination stepped smartly over the tangle of Lunar Stallions, stomping whenever one tried to latch onto him. With a perfectly blank expression the bizarre creature mounted the dais and shoved Luna’s limp body off the throne. The alicorn rag-dolled all the way down the stairs, landing in a heap on the floor. Then, Steel Wing turned and stood to one side of the throne.
“Good. Well done.” The voice finally became real when its owner emerged from shadow. A black stallion with flaming eyes and silvery armor. He climbed the stairs slowly, savoring the ascent, and sat right on the throne, right in the pool of Luna’s blood. “For the second time on a throne of blood I greet you, Equestria!” said the black pony, eyes flashing towards the cameras. “I am Sombra, and I am your new king!” he flashed a fang-filled smile. Ponies in the audience gaped at him, cowering in their seats.
“Get him!” The Lunar Stallions untangled themselves at last, and took to the air. Suddenly, thunder without sound. A concussive force blasted the air so hard the fabric of reality shuddered. Soldiers splatted against walls like flies, crumpling down to the marble floor in bloody heaps. The audience cried out as one when their pews were overturned, flinging ponies from their seats. Only the camera crew had been spared.
Sombra chuckled, pawing at his broken horn. “You’ll have to pardon my lack of accuracy. I was dismembered not too long ago, and alicorn magic is foreign to me.” He scowled down at the limp form of Luna as he spoke. “Now then, to business.” He stamped a hoof twice. Black shadows rolled and swirled in all directions, covering the windows and the balcony. Then, with a sound of drawing swords, crystals sprouted from everywhere! Like a nightmarish garden of springing weeds, they covered every opening, every crevice and every surface until the room was sealed. The columns were wrapped in them. The stained-glass windows blasted out as they grew out through the openings. Everything was cast into darkness, ponies panicking and flailing around in the pitch black of it all. Sombra stomped twice once more, lighting a crystal or two on each column. Suddenly the throne room resembled a dark, cultish sort of hideaway where nasty rituals could take place.
Steel Wing looked around, his mouth falling open a little. What was all this?! King Sombra looked over, flicking his eyes at his puppet. It really was difficult, wielding all that alicorn magic all at the same time. He hardened his grip over his golem, and the glassy-eyed expression returned. He’d not programmed that stupid hunk of crystal with real feelings so he could get cold hooves at the last second. He was an animated tool, and he would stay that way.
“Put Luna behind the defendant’s podium, slave,” the black stallion bade his puppet.
“Yes Master,” said Steel Wing robotically. Another mare shrieked when his other wing simply broke off, sending feathers everywhere. As it clattered down the steps the skeleton underneath glittered into view. No wonder nopony had ever seen him fly on the show. He was too heavy! Even when Rainbow Dash had tried to approach Luna he’d merely jumped to grab her, not flown. More than one Lunar Stallion cursed himself at the revelation. Whoever heard of a Pegasus that didn’t fly?! Steel Wing waded through Luna’s blood and picked her up around the middle. Walking with unnatural strength in his back legs, he deposited the limp alicorn behind the podium meant for the defense.
“Sit her up, now,” Sombra chuckled. “I can’t see her face.”
“Yes, Master.” The puppet droned, leaning and propping Luna upright. She small and weak was she, her head was barely tall enough to be seen over the podium. When she refused to sit upright, the fake pony set her chin on the podium instead. There she stayed. Steel Wing turned and went back to his post near the throne. He was smeared with her Majesty’s blood.
“Wake up, you dark-hearted bitch!” Sombra snapped, his horn-stub igniting. “It takes more than a sharp piece of metal to kill your kind!” an arching blast of magic snapped across the room like lightning. Luna shrieked, suddenly animated and awake again.
“Ohh! Oh gods!” she clutched at her breast, leaning over herself and pressing hard at her wound. She spattered silvery blood all over the table and marble floor around her. Her hemorrhaging had slowed while her alicorn physiology tried to keep up. Her weakened state had not helped, but even at her lowest the dagger had not slain her. It didn’t stay the white-hot agony, though. She clutched at herself, whimpering in pain and hunching pathetically. The silvery magic of her blood was clotting itself, but not very well. One more serious wound like that, and she really would die.
“Not quite gods, but not quite ponies either. As I’ve proven before,” Sombra smirked, throwing his chest out a bit. The fire around his eyes flared, and he licked his lips.
Luna looked up at him, and shock raced across her pale features. Then fear. Sweet and delicious fear. “Sombra!” she whispered in disbelief, pupils turning into pinpricks.
“Yes. Me.” He said. “Just you and me. The crystal walls will hold Celestia at bay until I’m done with you. They absorb magic, after all,” he gestured around the room. Luna looked around in horror at the fragmented, crystallized room. What had he done to her palace?!
“Y-you…” she tried to rise, but the wound in her breast was too much and she fell to her knees. She coughed rapidly, spattering the table with something sticky.
“You what? Fiend? Madpony? Villain?” he snapped angrily. “No different than you, Princess Luna. You stole a country from me. And now,” he gestured around himself. “We’re going to court for it.”
“You’re mad,” Luna spat, little sparks of defiance in her eyes.
“And you’re a thief! You stole the Crystal Empire from me!” Raw, powerful magic blasted across the room again, like a livewire of lightning. This time he held it so she could savor the pain. Five seconds was an eternity under his fury. Luna’s body convulsed back and forth. Her scream was absolutely heart-wrenching, and it tore at her throat. She hit the ground in a smoking heap. The Princess whimpered, her long legs bicycling wildly. Ponies in the audience hid themselves in the pews, terrified beyond all rational thought. “Now then. I’ve waited a thousand years or so, let’s stop trading clichéd lines.” He lowered his brow. “Slave, begin the proceedings.”
Steel Wing shuddered a little, his eyes flicking around. Then he turned to do his Majesty’s bidding. “Yes, Master.” He droned, walking forward at an even pace. “All rise!” he raised his voice and somehow kept it completely flat. Ponies stayed in the pews, shaking and huddled together like terrified foals. “…all rise!” Steel Wing repeated like a robot. Nopony moved. They were too scared.
“RISE!” Sombra’s roar concussed the room, shaking the foundations of the mountain Canterlot was built on. Ponies yelped, mewling and shivering to their hooves. They couldn’t look up at him, they were so terrified. They had to lean on each other to stay standing, and he could see them shaking like leaves. Good. Fear was a form of respect.
"His Majesty King Sombra, presiding." Steel Wing checked to see Sombra was in the throne, then turned back to the audience. "Be seated." The bailiff gestured lightly and the ponies hid themselves again, barely brave enough to peek over the lips of the pews to watch.
A folder lay on the steps where Sombra had conjured it. Steel Wing picked it up, flicking his crystalline eyes down as he mounted the steps. “Your Majesty, this is case number 00001 in the matter of King Sombra versus Princess Luna. Both parties are present, you may proceed when ready.” His flat tone was soulless. Sombra took the folder and nodded him away. The puppet turned and took up his regular post near the throne. The King smiled, displaying all his fangs as Luna glared up at him.
End of Case 9
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Steel Wing=Robot.
So obvious it was easily missed. Shocking.
And Sombra is taking Luna to court for stealing the Crystal Empire? Huh. He does realize that the court of any one kingdom cannot legally make a ruling regarding an international dispute, right?
Called it.
Glad to see you didn't pull a George RR Martin so quick. Glad to see Celestia finally figure out the TVs were the source and really interesting to have a pony-golem.
2803850
It's called a Kangaroo Court. Everything will be twisted to suit his needs.
So it was Sombra...
Oh, the cruel irony. He's suing her!
At last, it is explained why Steel Wing's wings kept dragging all the time! I was wondering about that, but I just assumed that I had missed something... So, he was a puppet all along... I had thought that he was just being possessed...
And now we wait for the next chapter...
Write on,
Legion
Now THIS is the Sombra we were promised.
By the gods she's not dead!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!
Screw you Sombra!!!!!
I KNEW IT, YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME
2803850
Um...you do realize he probably doesn't care, right?
he's using an Awakened Crystal Golem, with an Override spell? That's going to come back to bite him in the ass. probably literally.
Also, I'm REALLY happy to see you make mention of Carbuncles! Not NEARLY enough fics on here do xP
Shit just got real..
We need one of the / greatest attorneies of all time.
Phoenix wright or harvy dent without twofaces influence
iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/d45055__safe_rainbow-dash_animated_reaction-image.gif?1347571904
Win or Lose, Celestia will try and take Sombra to court for attempted murder as well as a list of other charges.
Prime time drama?
Whew, Rarity is ok... oh and Luna's still slive too.
You win the internet
Forgot to finish a sentence here?
I believe the word you're looking for is "infrared". Unless Celestia is faster than a speeding bullet.
fluctuating
Might need to fix that.
Always suspected that the mysterious fellow was Sombra.
Lol, too bad Luna has the power of love on her side. Go go Steel-Wing-turnabout-fair-play secret special attack?
This really did take a pretty sudden turn for the dark. So many Lunar guards going splat, Luna + dagger = Blood everywhere! IT'S IN MY MOUTH!
Alicorn blood tastes like mercury
im pretty sure steel wing is not comming back from this one. unless luna or tia can reanimate the dead. because im pritty sure at this point hes just a zombie. considering how fucked up he is. poor guy.
2804179 why not both?
People always take issue with Sombra's behavior on the show. My headcanon is that his mind was broken when the Sisters defeated him. That, or he went mad from the isolation.
Relevant death metal:
Grand Supreme Blood Court
Damn, and I really got to like Steel Wing.
2805201
Why didn't I think of that
sombra you realize you are not an alicorn thus if you gain a full body you can be easily killed also he has only stopped two alicorns if this is a twilicorn fic she can kill him even if not the element could kill him candace could kill him
2805819 Maybe you won't be such a disappointment, when you're dead!
or, you aren't me.
Why did Tia not know of this (well, my conclusion is she wasnt there, therefore did not know how lund died, therefore could not know that luna wasnt dead)
also, junk just got real
I have a feeling that Aegis Shield's headcanon regarding Luna and Sombra's former romantic relationship is going to come into play.
Why hadn't Celestia teleported into the courtroom immediately? It's held in the Lunar Court of Canterlot Castle, and she should know where that is.
... Season finale of Judge Luna! Don't miss it!
2810293
Yes she knew but i think she didn't occur to her that Sombra knew as well.
I thought things were a bit hoaky when the doctors were "shocking" Rarity, but that turned around when Celestia had to deliver her own dose of medicine. At that point you eskewed most of your techniques for dramatic writing, which results in a campy, inconsequential mood, even when the story doesn't call for it. In that sequence, you're not bothering with cconvincing us that Rarity could get killed off. Just that the operation is improvised, painful, and a result of quick thinking and deduction. Even with those, it doesn't feel like the narrative is trying too hard.
2803920
Yeah, I tinhk they should redo that episode. Or give him his own.
-
Darn. I'm out of chapters for this to read!
2803891 What promise?
Bucking hell no! You killed Steel Wing, he was an awesome pony. He better get resurrected in either this fic or the next.
.... THANK YOU!!!! You could've been obvious and made him Blueblood, but it's not! THANK YOU!!!!!!