Viva la Vida

by Tekkonair

I Used to Roll the Dice

Age of Benevolence

“My liege, the Court is ready to begin the morning hearings.” Juras turned to see one of his guards, an earth pony stallion, standing in the doorway to his study. The king nodded, smiling at the guard.

“Thank you. I will be along momentarily.” He closed the book he was reading, marking his page for later as he stood from his desk, stretching.

“My liege…” The guard started, looking uncertain. “If I may speak freely?” Juras blinked and turned to the guard, frowning in confusion.

“You may. Is something on your mind?”

“I was just wondering; why do you insist on being present for every Court hearing? I know that our neighbouring kingdoms have monarchs that leave much of that to their aides and advisors.” Juras paused, taking a moment to consider the question. At his silence, the guard grew nervous. “I-I didn’t mean any offence, my liege, I was just-"

“It is quite alright.” He smiled at the guard again. “I was just considering my answer.” He turned to look out of his window, his study boasting a wide view over the marble chasm the city overlooked. “You are quite correct; I could leave it in the capable hooves of my advisors. However, I believe that the ponies of my kingdom deserve better. I am their king, and it is my duty to lead them justly and with virtue. Every time I shirk my duties, I fail the kingdom and my ponies. Thus, I make every effort to attend every Court session, for how can I expect my ponies to be more diligent to their duties than I am to mine?” He looked at the guard again and gave a faint smile. “Does that answer your question?”

“Yes, my king. I apologise for asking at all.”

“Not at all, curiosity is no crime.” He chuckled, waving a hoof at the guard. “I appreciate questions like that; they do no harm, and they make me analyse precisely why I perform certain acts.” The guard nodded; relieved he had not offended his king. “What is your name, soldier?”

“Sergeant Ironhoof, my liege.” Ironhoof bowed.

“Ironhoof… You are an insightful pony, Ironhoof. I will be watching your career with interest.” He spared the guard a grin as he donned his robes and crown, trotting into the hallway, Ironhoof close behind him. The hallway, like the rest of the palace, was made of polished marble, the floors carpeted in red with ceremonial suits of armour, framed art and other heirlooms of the crown lining the walls, enchanted chandeliers providing illumination.

“Ah, your Highness.” A pony greeted him down the hallway, a short unicorn mare with tan fur and brown mane and tail.

“Shrewd Eye, good morning.” Shrewd Eye, one of the kingdom’s scriveners, adjusted the papers held in her telekinetic grip as he approached. “What is on the docket for this morning?”

“A few petitions to the treasury for loans for various projects, a charity petition for the victims of the Greenleaf Woods fire, one dispute between trade partners, and, unfortunately, one murder trial.” Juras winced at the last one, taking the papers in his own telekinetic field as they were passed.

“Schedule the murder trial for the end; I may need to deliberate over lunch, and I would rather not have the trial darken the rest of the session.”

“Consider it done.” Shrewd nodded, scribbling something onto a parchment as Juras looked to Ironhoof.

“Sergeant, are you familiar with Court proceedings?”

“I am, your grace.” Ironhoof frowned in confusion.

“Would you like to announce this morning?”

“I… My liege?” His confusion deepened as he blinked.

“One of the duties expected of the Crown Guard is, occasionally, announcing for Court sessions. It is something all prospective members should be capable of.” Ironhoof felt his stomach do a cartwheel as his eyes widened. The king was considering him to be part of the Crown Guard?

“I-I… Me, part of the Crown Guard, my liege?”

“Potentially, if you continue to impress.” He gave a small smirk to Ironhoof. “Well? Would you like to announce this morning?”

“I- Yes, your Highness!” His reply was ever so slightly overeager, squaring his shoulders and puffing out his chest.

“Excellent.” Juras chuckled quietly as the trio walked down the hallway to the Court, Shrewd briefly describing the individual items.

---

“Court is now in session!” King Juras jumped slightly Ironhoof’s shout, having lost himself in thought waiting for the ponies of the Court to assemble and settle. “The first claimant is Baron Quill, petitioning for a Royal loan to fund production of his most recent invention.” Ironhoof looked up from the list held in his hoof, looking to Juras as the king nodded.

“Send him in,” he commanded. The mighty doors to the court were opened and a dignified stallion strode forth. A naturally grey mane, a staple of the Quill line, and a beige coat formed this pony’s colours, whilst he was garbed in a simple, yet elegant, robe. He bowed before the king.

“Your grace.” He greeted the king respectfully.

“Rise, Baron Quill. You are here to petition for a Royal loan, is that correct?” Asked Juras, curious as to what the Baron’s invention was.

“Indeed your highness.” He nodded behind him and a curious device on a cart was drawn in. The metal object had an array of buttons on the front, with a roll of parchment on the top. “If I may, I present my latest invention, the type-writer. No more will non-unicorns be forced to rely on their mouth to write, one has simply to press the appropriate button on this machine, and the type-writer will write for them. Observe.” Quill turned to the machine and tapped away at the keys. Juras observed with curiosity as the machine punched letters onto the parchment, watching as Quill operated the machine. Soon he was done, and handed a guard the message to hand to the king. Juras allowed himself to smirk as he recognised a portion of the menu from the Gilded Saucer, a café that Juras frequented when on business in the city. He turned his head slightly to hear his financial advisor, Gold Coffer, whisper.

“Such a device will revolutionise the writing industry, and will open opportunities for pegasi and earth ponies.” Juras nodded as he considered his advisor’s words, thinking on his response.

“Impressive work Baron.” Juras smiled at Baron Quill. “I must say I do approve of the concept.”

“It pleases me to hear that, your grace. I am also currently designing a similar machine to this. This new machine would use similar keys to my type-writer,” his horn flared, levitating a few of the keys to demonstrate, individual letters and characters stamped into each key, “but arranged by the operator on a large press. When arranged, the press could produce identical pages, multiple times per minute.” Murmurs went around the Court as everypony considered his words.

“My liege,” whispered the advisor again. “If this concept works as he claims, this will create a massive industry. Books could be created in less than a day!”

“Well, Baron Quill, you have definitely captured the imagination of the Court. How large a loan will you require?”

“Five hundred sovereigns to establish a workshop and commission tools.” Juras frowned slightly as he considered the not insignificant sum. He turned to his advisor, watching him move parts of his abacus and check over scrolls. After a few moments of calculations, he nodded to Juras.

“The treasury can afford it comfortably.” He whispered.

“Thank you, Coffer.” Juras looked to Baron Quill. “Very well Baron, the Crown approves of your petition.” He looked to Ironhoof and nodded.

“The floor is open to the Court!” He declared. “Does the Court have any objections?” Ironhoof waited for a few seconds, but no pony broke the silence. “There are no objections, my liege.”

“The petition is passed.” Juras signed the petition scroll that Shrewd passed him, before levitating it over to Baron Quill. “I am personally very interested in the results of this venture. The Quills have always served Whitefall well, I am certain you will continue that tradition.” Baron Quill bowed his head.

“Thank you, your grace.” He took the scroll in his magic and carefully passed it to his assistant, before bowing once again and leaving the room, taking his invention with him.

---

The following petitions were more routine, requests for loans to expand existing businesses, and one foreign trader requesting permission to reroute his caravans through Whitefall’s territory to avoid bandit camps to the east.

“The next claimant is Sunny Tenderhoof of Greenleaf, petitioning for a Royal grant to the victims of the Greenleaf Woods fire.”

“Send them in.” Juras turned to face the doors as a pegasus mare timidly walked in. The Court gasped, muttering as they saw the burn scars marring her left side, the primaries on that wing still growing back in.

“Thank you for granting me audience, your majesty.” She bowed low, closing her eyes. She carried herself and spoke with determination, but a slight tremor in her voice betrayed her nervousness, and Juras wasn’t sure if her stiffness was due to her injuries, or another sign of her nerves.

“Rise, Tenderhoof of Greenleaf. I had heard about the fire. You are here to petition for a grant for the victims of the fire, correct?”

“Yes, your majesty.” Sunny nodded, swallowing. “We are very fortunate that few ponies lost their lives in the fire, but the fire consumed many homes and injured dozens of ponies. Our town cannot afford to rebuild all the homes that were destroyed in the blaze.”

“Point of order!” A pony in the Court, Duke Fortune, called out.

“The Court recognises Duke Fortune.” Juras looked over at the duke with a raised eyebrow.

“The Duke thanks the Court.” Fortune cleared his throat before proceeding, looking at Sunny. “Greenleaf is primarily a logging settlement, correct?”

“That is correct.”

“And Greenleaf also cuts the lumber for trade and sale?”

“Correct.”

“Then please inform the Court, why does Greenleaf require help with building homes when the town’s primary industry is a building material?”

“The fire destroyed many buildings, including our saw mills. Along with that, the fire claimed our stores of lumber. Without the saw mills, we won’t be able to get the necessary lumber to build homes before the winter.” Juras winced. The winters in the north of his kingdom were bitterly cold.

“Very well. Point rescinded.” Duke Fortune settled back down, bowing towards Juras. Juras nodded in reply, and turned back to Sunny.

“So you require a grant for the reconstruction of the sawmills?”

“And to buy lumber from other logging towns to rebuild the homes. It’s doubtful we’ll be able to rebuild the mills and the homes before the winter.”

“How many homes were destroyed in the blaze?”

“Twenty family homes and eighteen communal homes.” Communal homes were common in the north, typically occupied by three or more families. It was a lot cheaper to keep a single large building warm during the winter months.

“A substantial amount of lumber would be required.” The financial advisor whispered to the king. “Without a promise of return, it would be difficult to justify the expense to the treasury.”

“It saves lives, however. I’m willing to deal with the backlash from the treasury.”

“We may be able to provide them the necessary lumber without involving the treasury in a charity case.” Shrewd whispered on his other side.

“You have an idea?” Juras glanced to her, curious.

“I do my liege. A lumber shipment is ready to be transported to the capital for refurbishing and construction of some of our siege engines. However, we’re expecting to increase our compliment of cannons within the next two years. If we accelerated our procurement of the cannons, we could reroute the lumber to Greenleaf without weakening our compliment of artillery.”

“We’d still need to source the steel. Unless we open up a new mine, we won’t be able to produce the metal for the cannons in time.”

“We’re in luck, then. Greenleaf woods have rich iron deposits; we’ve just never had the opportunity to access them before. However, from the reports I’ve received it looks like the fire burnt down many trees on top of one of the deposits. We won’t have any complaints from the lumber guilds if we construct a mine on an already cleared area of land.”

“Good thinking, Shrewd.” Shrewd smiled and bowed her head at the compliment. “Do you think Captain Blast will approve?”

“Captain Boulder Blast has always been protective of his siege engines, but he’s also been complaining for a while now about upgrading the kingdom’s engines, so I doubt he’ll turn down the possibility.”

“Very well.” King Juras turned back to look at Sunny, who was staring back, hopeful and nervous. “Sunny Tenderhoof, I believe we will be able to supply Greenleaf with the lumber it requires, however we will need time to confirm this. We will have an answer for you in tomorrow’s morning session. Is that acceptable?”

“Y-yes of course your majesty!” She bowed low, gratitude clear on her face.

“Excellent, I will ensure you are the first claimant to be seen tomorrow. In the meantime, if you have not already arranged accommodation, my staff will arrange a room in the guest chambers.” Sunny nodded, bowing once again before departing. “Shrewd, take a memo; look into ways to prevent damage from forest fires. There must be a way to prevent these blazes from harming our people.”

“Yes my liege.” Shrewd jotted down the memo on a piece of parchment and tucked it into a ledger at her side.

“The final claimant is the trial of Berry Dasher, accused of the murder of Honey Jewel.” Juras was silent for a moment, before nodding.

“Send them in.” A precession of guards entered the room, leading a purple pegasus stallion in chains. When the prisoner was in position, his shackles were removed and a barrier created around him to prevent escape. “Berry Dasher. You stand accused of the murder of Honey Jewel.” The stallion before the king blinked once, meeting his eyes. “How do you plead?”

“Not guilty, my liege.”

This is going to be a long day. Juras nodded, and motioned for the prosecution to begin.

---

Shortly after noon, Juras sat in his study, massaging his temples as he slowly ate his lunch. That was a nightmare. The trial had been tedious in the extreme thanks to the efforts of the defending party. Even after the defendant’s guilt had been made clear, the defending scribe still endeavoured to, at length, draw upon a seemingly endless list of potentially extenuating circumstances, all of which were only tangentially supported by the evidence and witness statements. Ultimately, it hadn’t been enough to save the stallion from conviction, but it had saved him from the gallows.

Juras had retreated to his chambers immediately after Court adjourned, decompressing in private. We really need a more formalised process for this. Overseeing trials was not one of the primary functions of the Royal Court, however particularly heinous crimes such as murder were very often brought before the Court as local authorities could not necessarily be trusted to act impartially. Perhaps standardised rules and set penalties for specific crimes… Juras tapped his chin as he considered the idea, only to be wrested from his thoughts as somepony knocked at the door to the study. “Enter!” He stood to face his visitor. “Ah, Shrewd.” He smiled, but frowned as he saw her expression. “Is something wrong?”

“My liege… The Kingdom of Ester has just moved troops across the Velmm River, and are claiming the surrounding plains as rightful territory of King Ester.” The silence that followed was deafening as Juras’ mind stalled briefly.

Ester? Our relationship hasn’t been the best as of late but for them to do this… “Summon the war council; we meet in the War Room within the hour!”