The Return of A King

by Zarmflamekin

Chapter 7

Twilight waited patiently as she let Rarity process that last bit of news, and she could see her friend was furiously thinking it over, much in a way she had seen her contemplate an unsatisfactory order a day before it needed to ship. Rarity made her way over to the lounging area of the main floor, and Twilight obligingly followed. As they took seats in the two chairs, leaving Spike to begrudgingly take the couch, Rarity spoke.

“Well something is obviously not right.” Twilight wanted to blurt out a ‘duh’, but Rarity continued. “We defiantly have a confirmation that he’s from the Crystal Empire and that he is from the past, perhaps he was forgotten from a registry, or missed, or wiped.”

Twilight could only shake her head. “It can’t be, none of the records had been moved from the archive since Sombra took over. Trust me, I could still hear some of the coughing. As for being missed, if he had been a single foal, maybe, but he has, presumably, siblings. And if that’s the case, with no tampering, I’m sorry to say Rarity, Somber Tones doesn’t exist in the old Empire.”

Rarity frowned. “All right then, Somber doesn’t have any records, but does that really change anything? Are we still getting him up there?”

“Well, yes and no.” Twilight sighed, glad to have passed this bump with relative ease. “On one hoof, we’re still making the trip up. On the other hoof, we’re going for a completely different reason now.”

“And that would be?”

Twilight grimaced. “Jailing for Royal Fraud.”

“Twilight!”

“I’m sorry! But it has to be done! If we let Somber wander about claiming to be royalty of the Crystal Empire from before the suspension, things might start to crack in the Empire. They’re still getting around to seeing other species in the city, and a lot of the older ponies want to see somepony they know ruling the city.”

“But they have to know that’s absurd! Sombra ruled long past any rebellion. Aren’t Shining Armor and Cadence enough?”

“Well, certainly, the Empire loves them whole heartedly, but some of the things they do seem to rub some ponies the wrong way. The first trade arguments between the zebras was ‘not pretty’, as my brother puts it.”

“And so, somepony saying they still think in these old ways would… weaken the Empire?” Rarity tried to rationalize out loud, gaining a somber nod from Twilight. Rarity groaned. “This is why I hate politics. It seems so, so… ridiculous! But at the same time I can see it as a possibility.”

“But that is that, I’m afraid. So, what did you want to tell me?” Twilight asked.

“Not that I really asked, but I got what I needed to know.” Rarity smiled. “Dash did seem a bit disappointed that all we had in form of a plan was talking however.”

“Yeah, that seems like her.” Twilight chuckled. “But isn’t he going to notice you’re gone? You are the pony he knows best right now.”

“He seems to have warmed up to the others just fine, I think I can be out for a bit without him realizing. Especially if he’s learning.” Rarity took up a slight smirk, which in turn garnered a small snort from Spike and a roll of eyes from Twilight.

The three heard a loud gasp from the kitchen doorway. Looking towards what they expected, Pinkie Pie was hovering in the air with eyes wide with surprise.

“How could I have not gotten that?” She asked to nobody as she landed back on the ground with barely a tap. “Quick, Rarity, what’s his favorite book?”

“Um…” Rarity was caught a bit off guard.

“If anything, something from before a thousand years ago Pinkie.” Twilight answered for her.

“Yes! Perfect! Twilight, I need you to make flash cards.” Pinkie said as she hurried to the alicorn’s side.

“What? Why?” Twilight asked with a vain hope of a straight answer.

“Cause they’re not really a normal party thing now are they? And you’re the best pony I know that could make so many in” Pinkie paused to look at her fetlock “Three hours.”

Twilight blinked. It was rather obvious that flash cards were not a normal thing at any Pinkie Party. “Uh, yeah, sure. What do you need?”

“Any and all meet and greet ideas. You write ‘em up, I’ll make as many copies as I can. If we start now, we can have more than enough for everypony.”

Rarity grimaced at this. “Well, is that a really good idea? We just said we don’t want him telling everypony he’s royalty.”

“Pfft, of course, that’s a boring one. No, we go for favorite prank, favorite color combination, favorite instrument, closest friend, secret crush-“

“Okay Pinkie, I get it, let’s get them done. Spike, mind seeing Rarity back to the farm?” Twilight asked with a slight smile. The dragon promptly popped up on the couch at attention.

“I shall do so diligently.” He saluted.

“Okay, okay, great everypony.” Pinkie said, hopping up and down with impatience. “We need to have these done before-“ There was an audible ding from the kitchen. “Muffins!”

Twilight smiled as she headed back upstairs for her spare cards. “I’ll see you two later then.”

“Of course dear.” Rarity nodded as she got up to leave. Spike was already jogging for the front door, bowing slightly as Rarity passed. “Thank you Spike.”

“Not a problem Rarity.” Spike smiled wide as closed the door behind himself. Quickly catching up, the two started heading for Sweet Apple Acres. Not ten seconds passed before Rarity had to ask.

“Is it really that bad Spike? Does he really have to be locked up for something that’s not his fault?”

Spike was a little jolted by the sudden question, but sighed, scratching behind his right ear. “I-It sort of is. I mean, the way they put it, he’s just gonna be under house arrest while they really sort this all out. So, once he gets to the Empire, he’s not gonna be seeing any of it, but at least he’s getting help.”

“He just seems to be doing fine right now.” Rarity wore a slight frown.

“There are a lot of ponies who seem fine Rarity, doesn’t mean they’re all right.” Spike said with a bit of a dower tone as he began kicking a stone along.

“And what do you mean by that exactly Spike?” Rarity asked with a bit of shock to the dragon’s sudden turn of emotion.

“Well, uh, you see, I’ve picked up a hobby of dream writing. You know, things I’m pretty sure I’ll lose after fully waking up and such.”

“Oh yes, I keep a dream journal too.” Rarity smiled as Spike suddenly perked up. His enthusiasm quickly soured, however.

“Yeah, well, Somber seemed to have… well, not a bad dream, but certainly a perplexing one. He was rolling around for a good five minutes trying to remember it this morning. I was able to look it over while Shining Armor and Cadence were still getting the records.” Rarity felt there was something Spike was having a hard time getting out, so let him try to figure it out as they walked. Spike gave a final punt to the stone he was kicking over the first link of the Apple family fence. “Gotta say Rarity, you sure do make an impression.”

Rarity stopped in her tracks and had to blink several times as the comment hit. Spike had inflected both a very nostalgic, and deeply resentful tone in his words. This was very unlike the Spike she had grown to know, this was far too negative of him for her liking.

“Why do you say that, dear?” Rarity asked as she took three steps to catch up to the dragon.

“’Cause you were pretty much the only thing he dreamed of last night.” A horrible flush came across Rarity’s face, and very relieved that Spike was too low to notice as he continued. “The first thing to pop up was you, the first thing to happen was you leading him to an open field which normally represents a wide field of possibilities. That, compounded by the minotaur, zebra’s, gryphon’s, and pegasi running together, showing a very diverse social acceptance. Did you know most ponies only dream of a max of three sentients in positive situations? Then you took him back home to his siblings. He started waking up about there, but from that, he’s got some pretty high hopes on you there.”

“Spike.”

“Yeah Rarity?” Spike stopped as he noticed Rarity had stopped as well.

“Is your hand all right?”

An odd question to be sure. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it-“ Spike began to dismiss the inquiry wave, but noticed three pinpricks of red in his palm, and quickly looked back to see there was a small trail of blood following him. “Um, yeah, I’m fine, it’s nothing.” He said as he quickly put his hand behind his back.

“That’s not nothing Spike!” Rarity berated. “How could you even do that to yourself?” She approached him and grasped his arm with her magic, taking his hand from behind his back, opening up his palm. They weren’t deep, and she had certainly had worse as a foal learning to properly space her threading, but to not even notice? “Has this happened before?”

“Uh, well, no.” Spike said as he found particular interest in a wood knot to his left. Some heat was coming to his cheeks with Rarity be so focused on him, he promptly forgot why he had been in such a stormy mood. “But, growing drake y'know? Must be something new. Gotta remember to look out for those new claws now, huh?” In honesty, he already knew to take care of his claws, he just hadn’t filled them down in a few days.

“Oh I’m sure, hang on one moment. I hope this doesn’t pinch.” Spike was going to ask what wouldn’t pinch, but he was interrupted by a fit of giggles as Rarity applied a multitude of magical prickles over his hand and claws.

“S-Stop it, that tickles!” He managed to get out, which brought a smile to Rarity’s face to see him snap out of his dower mood. But as Rarity prod the hardness of his claws, finding them to be at least a seven on the Mohs scale, she also triggered her fetch spell for her gem shaver, along with helping heal the small claw marks up. As the holes closed up, the shaver arrived, and Rarity began taking it upon herself to file his claws to a smoother edge.

“Rarity, is this really the time for that?” Spike asked as he finally regained his breath control. “Shouldn’t we get to Somber?”

“I’m sure both he and ourselves can spare ten minutes. These are quite a safety hazard you know.” Rarity said without looking up from her work, both enjoying the work ahead of her, and also dreading to think of what Spike really meant about Somber’s dream.

---

Somber in the meantime was currently stuck in a roundabout argument with Rainbow Dash that Fluttershy had decided to duck out of to help Big Mac with some of the more stubborn nails in the impromptu barrel.

“They’re completely redundant!” Somber restated.

“They’re completely necessary!” Dash retorted.

“From every instance you’ve described, in detail mind you, the Wonderbolts are only one of five solutions I could think of off the top of my head, and they’re not even the best one!”

“But that’s because you can sit here and think! If it hadn’t been for the Wonderbolts, the entirety of Dodge Junction would have been burned to cinders from the lightning!”

“And if Dodge Junction, and everywhere for that matter, were to have lightning rods, that never would be a problem.”

“But rouge storms are never a problem!”

“Apparently they are!”

While the two were hotly debating whether or not one of the most revered teams in Equestria was necessary for its intended purpose, three fillies were sitting a fair way away, contemplating the scene before them.

“Do ya think we should do somthin’?” Applebloom asked from atop a sealed cider barrel.

“Do you want to get in between that?” Sweetie Belle asked from below.

“I kind of want some popcorn.” Scootaloo sighed as she lay belly in the dirt.

The three had cleared the table in what they considered record time, thankfully noticing nothing happening to their flanks, could not be anywhere near coerced into actually cleaning the dishes, which had already happened, twice. No, they waited for Big Mac and Fluttershy to be done taking apart their mess so they could get through with whatever Apple Bloom’s brother had planned afterward.

“And what is this racket on about?” A posh pony with a dragon assistant asked as she came upon the scene.

“He challenged the Wonderbolts.” Apple Bloom said without turning to see the arrival of Rarity. “It’s been like this near on ten minutes.”

“Oh my.” Rarity lifted a hoof to her mouth in concern. She herself did not quite like fighting, but she could also see that there wasn’t a good way to defuse such an argument. Somber surely had a good head on his shoulders, he had shown that already, both from the Dog negotiation and taking his situation relatively well. He was sure to make a good may points in his argument.

“And then there’s their military strength. The Wonderbolts are just glorified scouts!”

Of course, there was then Rainbow Dash’s steadfast stubbornness to turn around any criticism.

“And what kind of plan is there without information? Being a scout is nothing to snort at! I’d like to see you have the same sort of recon time Soarin has.”

“Scrying spells! For crying out loud, even we had those! Nopony in the field, so there are zero casualties.”

“But scrying needs a focus, what good is scrying a rustling bush? You can’t see what’s behind it ‘cause scrying only covers what scryer knows!”

In the pause between Rainbow Dash’s last comment on some rather specific complex magic machinations and Somber’s stunned silence on her having such knowledge, Spike took it upon himself to step in.

“Well, that sounded like a great debate that Somber can think over later. Dash, I’m sure you can stand your pride down for a second and come back to Equestria? That’d be great.” The two blinked and looked down at the drake between them. The crusaders and Rarity also blinked at just how blatantly stupid a move that had been.

“When did you get here Spike?” Somber was finally able to ask, suddenly feeling the heat in his cheeks from arguing drain away.

“We got back in time to see you two about to have a roll in the dirt.” Spike nodded back to Rarity and the crusaders.

Somber was a bit confused however. “When did she leave?” Spike’s fins perked a bit at his tone, not sure it was being possessive or not.

“She came to see how plans were coming along. We’re set to go tomorrow or the day after to start heading up. Of course, tomorrow is Twilight being far too optimistic. I’m pretty sure the party is going to wipe away any energy for tomorrow.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, party? As in a Pinkie Party? When did you meet her?” Dash asked, all thoughts of the argument quickly leaving her head.

“Uh, a short time after 11 I think? Why?” Somber said, a bit concerned at the sudden shift in her mood.

“So she’s not done yet. I could still get there to help.” Rainbow planned as her wings began to flap in anticipation.

“Help yourself to the cake first you mean?” Spike smirked, garnering a glare from the mare.

“What’s with you and AJ? No, with me there, it’ll go ten- no, twenty percent faster.” Dash said as she took to the air. “And then maybe tomorrow won’t be off the table.” She looked down to Somber and gave a genuine smile. “Don’t worry bud, we’ll see you home.” And with that, Rainbow Dash shot off, leaving a prismatic trail behind her.

Now Somber wasn’t sure if he was stunned with the sudden kindness show from a mare he was yelling at not a minute before hoof, or the rainbow that trailed after the appropriately named mare. He didn’t even see Scootaloo walk right up to him.

“Pretty sure awesomest is a word.”

Somber blinked and chuckled. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”

To Be Added To

Author's Note:

I want there to be more to the chapter, but writer's block can't find a way past the argument. Tips and suggestions would not hurt, as I like to keep chapters ~5000 words a piece if not one-shot things, and this is a little over half. Of the three people actually reading this, brainstorms aren't as dangerous as Dash would like to think.

Comments

[Emperor]

Seems like Sombra is playing a pretty long game here.

That said, the show REALLY skimmed over why Cadance and Shining Armor were apparently the best solution to rule the Crystal Empire, and the politics of it (apparently one of the books say something about Cadance being descended from Crystal Ponies). Sure, kid's show and everything, but there's material to be mined there for potential fanfics.

[Starlight Nova]

Why was this cancelled?