“Nice to see you too Spyglass,” you whisper mindful of the blade held up to your neck. “Is this how you greet all of your friends?”

“Do you treat all of your friends like enemies? Forgive me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that you knowingly led us into a trap,” he looks to Sombra, “and you brought the dead body of our sworn enemy with you.”

“It’s good to know that your eyes still work after bring locked in that cell for so long,” you quip. You swallow nervously, the motion pushing your skin even closer to the sharp edge of the wicked blade he has held in a hoof. A leather strap circles his fetlock allowing him to wield the weapon much like the non-spear using guards from the palace.

“Follow,” he orders coming into your view. His fur is dirtied with mud and splotches of blood. He is keeping one of his eyes closed, as a cut above it is bleeding profusely and blinding him. He shuffles over to one of the dusty tables while keeping the blade close to your neck. Not the most desirable position to be in right now.

He seats himself and pats one of the chairs closest to him. You stiffly sit down and watch as he shudders with heavy breaths for a moment. He composes himself and detaches the blade from his leg, placing it down on the table. “Sorry, just a precaution you know?” His good eye traces your body. “I suppose you weren’t involved with any of the fighting?”

“One dead mage, that’s all.”

A brow rises (at least over his good eye). “A mage? Why are you squabblin’ with those fellas?” he says slipping back into his natural accent.

“Why the fuck do you think I’m wheeling in Sombra’s dead body?” you shout, suddenly very angry with today’s events. Now that you’re out of relative danger things have come crashing down. Sombra is dead, and the only man in power right now will kill you on sight. Why couldn’t things be simple?

“Because Fury killed him?”

“But he wasn’t meant to! The only reason he did that is so that all of you thought he was dead, giving him the opportunity to kill you all.”

Spyglass looks like somebody has just slapped him in the face, as if he hadn’t quite figured out everything yet. “I’m an idiot.” He mumbles collapsing onto the table, “Why did I fall for that…”

A pang of guilt emerges in your mind, he fell for it because of you, and you sold out one of your friends so you could kick back and relax. “You fell for it because of me.”

That catches his attention, his ears perking. He gives out a muffled “How?”

“I rescued from the dungeon, built your trust in me and then kept all friendly with you, when it in reality I couldn’t really care that much about your struggle. When presented with the opportunity, I readily sold you out to a pair of legitimately horrible people.”

Spyglass trots over to the stretcher and looks at Sombra’s still body. “It doesn’t matter much anymore; it’s too late to do anything. He’s dead, and we’re right back to square one with a different fella’ on the throne.” He pokes his side with a hoof and chuckles to himself. “Ah can’t believe it, he’s really dead.”

“Not what you were expecting is it?”

“Nah’. I suppose after all the time and effort we spent trying to do this, the reality wouldn’t live up to expectations.”

“I always thought it was a bad idea. We’re in a vulnerable city and Sombra is really the only guy who knows how to run and protect the place.”

Spyglass retakes his seat, “We were planning on getting some other ponies down here when all of it was said and done to help out, but that ain’t happening now. Lily is dead, Fury got her, and I don’t know much about the people she was talkin’ to.”

“I’m trying to revive him actually. Fury wants to kill me for one reason or another and I’d much prefer we go back to the status quo where I wasn’t in immediate danger of being executed. I need a place to stash his cadaver until I can get everything together.”

“Why the hell would I…” he trails off, “Damn.”

“You owe me. I want to hide his body down in this little cavern of yours.”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this…” he whispers to himself, a frown on his face. With a sigh he nods his head and moves back to the cart. “Let’s get him downstairs then.” With Spyglass’ help you push the cart behind the bar and offload the body. Spy reaches down to the wooden flooring and pulls up some of the boards to reveal a hidden passage. A set of wooden stairs lead into the darkness.

Taking one end each you pull Sombra down, carefully as to not damage his fragile corpse. With any luck you’ll be done by the days end and you won’t have to worry about decomposition. The cavern is eerily silent apart from the occasional dripping of a stalactite somewhere down the way. Spy seems to be on edge.

A few meters from the stairs you decide to leave the stretcher and the body, reasoning that it’s unlikely that Fury will look down here now that the rebels have been wiped out. “What are you going to do now?” you ask the bloodied stallion who is leaning against the cave wall.

“Probably going to head back home, reunite with my folks. It’s been too long since I’ve seen them,” he gives you a bitter smile.

“Did you know who Lily was in contact with for those supplies?” you press. “I’m not entirely convinced this was an Equestrian effort.”

“You have just as much of an idea as I do, Lily never revealed much about what she did outside of our skirmishes. A lot of the guys were just happy to follow her orders and get things done, but for me it wasn’t enough. There was always something off about the situation. I heard some pretty nasty rumors running up and down those tunnels.”

“Rumors? What like?”

“Well for starters, some of them didn’t think that everything we received from them was above the table. We got our weapons and food and medical supplies, but some of the crates didn’t get opened and dragged off into the commander’s personal quarters.

“Other times new blood came into the caves without so much as an acknowledgment from the commander. We weren’t in the position to ask prying questions about it, but I did wonder how we were sneaking all of these soldiers into the city. They acted pretty weird too and were often distant, keeping in their own little groups.

“One of the troops started some stupid rumor about Changelings running amuck in our ranks, the commander put a stop to that quickly, but that only added more fuel to the fire. I could tell she didn’t trust them; she had one eye on them all the timed to make sure they didn’t get any silly ideas about attacking her.”

Changelings? Not to discount Spyglass but to you this sounds like a load of bullshit. He himself did say it’s a rumor. You can understand Lily’s paranoia given the current state of things, but why would she walk into Fury’s trap like that without any kind of backup plan? Spyglass is giving you the impression that he’s the only one left alive who entered the throne room.

Nothing conclusive by any means, however it appears that the Equestrians were providing some kind of aid to assist in the rebel’s war. Furthermore, why would changelings want to take over the Crystal Empire? It’s more likely that this anonymous benefactor has some kind of previous connection with Lily herself.

“So do you think it was only the Equestrians helping you? Or someone else?”

“Both, we always ended up receiving supplies from somewhere after Lily took charge. I had no idea where they came from but we didn’t complain about the new bedding and medicine. Most of the guys either died or gave up, but I was there early enough to know that this was from before she announced our co-operation with the Equestrians.”

“I thought you worked for their military?”

“I used to, they picked me back up as a correspondent for us back to them and I was happy to help. I didn’t come here with the intent of annexing the place, I just wanted to help relieve these ponies from the weight of his tyranny,” he explains motioning to Sombra’s corpse.

“Replacing one tyrant for another,” you scoff. “What did you expect to happen, for Celestia to ride in on her golden chariot to liberate the ponies from the evil dictator? She doesn’t give a shit! All she wants is an opportunity to come in and annex the place so she can add it to her little kingdom, maybe even install a new ruler to give the illusion that these people have been helped.

“She won’t care if you fail and all die fighting, to her it just pushes back her plan. You’re a number, a strategic asset that she can toss away like yesterday’s garbage when it fancies her!” you shout.

“And you believe that Sombra is any different? A few months ago you hated his damn guts for stealing you away from your old life and putting you in danger! You came into the dungeon for the simple purpose of helping to rescue me, and for what? Are you just going to throw that all away?”

“You’re damn fucking right I’m going to throw it away! I don’t want to be killed thank you very much!” Spyglass is stunned into silence. “We aren’t living in an ideal world; I’m not living in an ideal world; so why the hell are you pretending we are? Fury wants to kill me and you’re here talking big about how you want me to liberate the place.”

“You don’t owe him anything; you could easily just come with me to Equestri-”

“-and get killed by the princesses for being a blood mage.” you cut him off. “The only way I’m getting out of this in one piece is to push things back to how they were. I don’t owe him anything, that’s true, but at the end of the day I’d much rather stay beside the man who doesn’t have a knife pointed at my back.”

Spyglass bites his tongue and turns away, not wanting to meet your gaze. Why did you expect anything else, he’s just like the rest of them. He’s lived a life of relative comfort, basking in the knowledge that if anything goes wrong his precious princess will come to save him. That’s why they failed; they thought that if they stood their ground and waited for good things to come to them, they would.

You know for a fact this isn’t true. Sombra has repeatedly asserted that Celestia had at least some part to play in the eventual extermination of the blood mages. There’s obviously more to it than the simplistic version he gave you, but for now you can assume that her attitude hasn’t changed one bit. On the outside she presents herself as warm and motherly but in reality she’s just as cold and calculating as the rest of them. How can a creature that has lived for thousands of years not be?

“I did so much to get here…” Spyglass whispers, “but now it’s all come apart.”

He turns back, eyes misty. He shakes his head and looks back over to Sombra. “What about all the things I did? I killed people; I did things that I’ll never be able to take back. I should just give up? Go back to how things were, living happily in the desert with my family?”

Cold and callously you reply, “I don’t care. You can appeal to me to validate your mistakes, but it won’t do anything. The only pony who has to forgive you is yourself.

“I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, and now I recognize them. I’m trying to fix them. Why can’t you do the same? This entire thing was doomed from the start, the only thing you can do is pick up the pieces and get out while you’re still ahead. I’ve lost everything, my home, my family, my friends, you still have those.

“You still have your family waiting for you back home, you have people who care about you and are concerned for your safety. Don’t begin to pretend that you understand what it’s like, you have no idea. You can pack it up, go back to them and they won’t bat an eyebrow at it. All I’m left with is a maid, and a dead body. There’s no going back for me, and I have to cling on to what I have for dear life before I lose it.

“That’s why I’m here, that’s why I’ve defied Fury and dragged his corpse into this tunnel, and that’s why I’m going to match into that throne room and make him suffer like he’s never imagined.”

Spyglass stares at you, his previous sadness all but forgotten under the weight of your rant. It feels good to get it out in the open for once instead of hiding it away. Maybe you didn’t realize before, but you’re really no better than Sombra, a sad, lonely individual who does everything in her power to hurt those close to her. You sold out Spyglass and Lily; you are directly responsible for their deaths. You could have easily put a stop to this, yelled, called out to them and warned them not to fall for it.

But you didn’t.

The two of you, kindred spirits perhaps. A difference in passing opinion, a glance in a different direction, but as heart you are the same. You didn’t wince when you killed a man, and you didn’t wince or cry when you did it again. Here in front of you; a storied veteran of the conflict is on the brink of tears thinking about his actions while you blow him off.

“Rose?” Spyglass asks almost fearfully. “Are you… okay?”

You give him a morbid, sorrowful smile, “I’ve never felt better.” After all, you do deserve this.

An oppressive silence has reigned over the throne room for hours. While normally suspended by the presence of armed guards and the glare of the King, this new silence is brought about solely by the presence of two stallions, bounded by blood, who hate each other for actions that the other consider to be righteous. The fallen, arrogant king and his desperate, frenzied brother; a rare twist of fate that the two should reunite in such a way.

Outwardly Silver was nervous. Despite already being dead, he still fears the fury of his older brother as if his dark magic had any reign over the realm of the spirits. Sombra can do no harm to him, but it does little to calm his nerves. Sombra stews in one corner of the room, his shoulders shaking in silent anger.

“How long will I remain here?” the former Kings asks, jolting Silver from his stupor.

“Your friend has successfully moved your body from the palace and into hiding, good progress for just one mare. She appears to have recruited one of the mages to assist her in attempting to revive you.”

“Appears?”

“My observations aren’t always perfect; I must preserve my power to ensure the longevity of my stay here.”

Sombra huffs, “Maybe you should use all of your power and spare me from your incessant whining.”

Silver doesn’t respond not wanting to give him reason to speak again. He much preferred it when he was silent. “A meeting with some of the other sympathizers reminds me of a certain something,” Silver muses, his eyes glancing to the frustrated King in silent mirth.

“You will do well to not bring up your childish insubordination in front of me; lest I remind you of the consequences of your temper tantrum,” Sombra hisses with sharpened eyes.

“And what would that be brother?”

“The extermination of the ponies you sought to protect, driven out from my fair city, a view supported by your actions; a group of unstable individuals too dangerous to keep within our ranks.” Silver winces but stands strong.

“Brother I-“

“The subsequent invasion and slaughter by the Equestrians, killing far more, the formation of the Equestrian inquisition and the deaths of thousands, both guilty and innocent.”

“I must insis-“

“You do not insist brother, you have no right. Your actions speak for themselves. You levy the blame on me, but there is no fault on my part to be found. I did what I must to protect my people.”

“And so did I!” Silver shouts, his composure cracking.

“Hm. We can all see how that turned out.”

Silver’s objections dies away like a candle in a blizzard; a cold shudder runs up his spine as an empty feeling settles in his stomach. He turns away once more and attempts to calm himself, but the proximity to the stallion he considers a monster is too much for him to steady himself.

“Do not pretend, or hide away from your responsibilities. You are talking to a stallion who witnessed them first hoof. Your indignant wails of persecution and desecration fall upon deaf ears, here there is nopony who can hear you. You pretend that the seeds of life spread beneath your hooves, and that we should all bow to you.

“But all that follows you is the smell of death, a repugnant, horrible smell that you cannot expunge from your fur, from your nostrils, from your mind…” The statement hangs in the air unchallenged as Silver shuts his eyes can curls into a ball, hoping to shrink away so that Sombra’s prying eyes can no longer see him.

Looking down at the pitiful stallion Sombra smiles in contempt, this is the pony he remembers from his youth, “…good to see you brother, it has been a long time since we last spoke.”

Author's Notes:

here it is