The Throne of Lions

Chilling winds cut through the air. Loose frost blanketed the ground around the city of Ponyfell, the capitol of House Sparkle. A lone Alicorn, dressed in a fur cloak, leaning on a polished longsword, stood, looking out over the battlements of the icy castle walls. Lady Twilight Sparkle, daughter of the former King Night Light and Queen Twilight Velvet, watched as the citizens of her town went about their lives.

Her ears perked up as hoofsteps trotted behind her. she turned and noticed a lone sentry, funnily enough named Flash Sentry, trotting up to, and kneeling before her. With a curt nod of her head, he rose to his hooves, shaking.

His lavender and emerald colored armor and helmet gleamed in the scant sunlight. "Lady Sparkle, I have a report from Fort Dawnstar. They have imprisoned a small group of Dashians. Three scouts, a guard, and a spy. What do you wish for them to do with the prisoners?" He coughed into his hoof, wintertime sickness was catching on.

Before she spoke, she brought up a hoof, which Sentry kissed, she smiled slightly, glint in her eye. "Interrogate them for any information they may have, then, I want all but the guard and two of the scouts executed, they shall work in the gem mines." She sheathed her blade. "Am I understood, Sentry?"

Flash shivered, both from the look and the cold, "Y-yes my liege." He bowed once more, before galloping downstairs, and out of the fortress. Twilight sighed, letting out her chilled breath, before descending the stone steps into the warmth of her home. Torches lit up the halls, and guards saluted as she passed. It was about noon, so she headed to the dining room for lunch.

A Pegasus guard opened the grand doors for her, as she walked inside. Her brother, Lord Shining Armor Sparkle, and his wife, her old foalsitter, Lady Cadence, sat together, chatting while they ate their fill of fried rice, Griffonhala wine, toasted hay, and a slab of steak. Most of the other races believed ponies and zebras were only vegetarian, and, while that was true for some, they did eat meat from time to time.

"Hello, brother." Twilight said, smiling, before doing the nursery song and dance with Cadence. Even though Twilight was a full-grown mare, and a ruler, that dance always reminded her she had been a filly, and brought back fond memories from her past. A servant pushed her chair aside, pushing it back into place when she sat down. The cook, a poor half-Terra (Earth) pony, half Threstral (Bat Pony), brought her meal, Prench toast, toasted celery, mutton covered in berry sauce, a goblet of aged Zebralia wine, and a few slices of cheese, which she ate slowly, savoring the delicious taste.

"So, Twilight, how has Ponyfell fared?" Cadence asked, sipping her wine. Her mane was freshly combed, a faux fox-skin cloak covered her icy white and pink armor, her gilded shortswors lay clasped at her side. Shining was dressed in his purple and gold armor, a bear-skin cape flapped in the light breeze. His children, Princess Aurora and Prince Aegis, were back at home.

"The kingdom has been well, Cadence. I have just ordered the execution and imprisonment of a group of Dashian dissadents." The Dashians were a rouge force of Dashites, the name given to members of House Dash, one of the five other allied Houses to House Sparkle. The otheres were House Pie, House Apple, House Flutters, and House Rarity, each ruled over by the other five Bearers of Harmony.

Shining nodded in contentment, taking a bite of his steak. The trio talked as they ate, and, five minutes later, their plates were being carried off, and a platter of freshly boiled creamed treats was placed in their midst. They each took some and began eating their desert, which warmed their bodies.

"So, when are we scheduling the public beheading of my traitorous younger brother, Blueblood?" Cadence asked, a hard look in her eyes. Even though she was the Princess of Love, she could not abide traitors, family or not. Prince Blueblood had aided in the escape of Baron Harkonnen, a member of House Chrysali, and was currently being held in the White Tower, nicknamed "The Chill" by its guards, was an anti-Magister prison, guarded by fierce ice atronachs, sentient ponies created out of magic and glacial ice. The Magisters were powerful mages of all species, located at the Magister Citadel in the north-eastern part of Equestria, one of the few surviving buildings after more than half of the city fell into the Chiron Sea, after the land surronding it collapsed. The only part left unscathed of that part of the once-great city was the Citadel, and that is the reason most of the citizens of Frostfall were suspiscious of any maestors.

Twilight thought it over, chewing on her treat. "Hmm, tomorrow at dusk should do nicely. Let the sunset of the day be the last thing his eyes see as the executioner holds his severed head up. The sunset of the day, and the sunset of his life. The foal dies on the morrow." She smiled coldly.

The three finished their meals not soon after. "Well, Twilight, my wife and I shall retire to the our chambers now. Cadence has been antsy." Shining said, which brought him a blush on the face of and a rib in the side from his wife. "We'll see you later." He hugged his sister, before the two galloped out of the room.

Twilight smirked, before she placed her Element on her head, trotting out of the dining hall. She trotted through hallways, until she came upon the doors of her throne room. Two Sparkleian guards, A zebra and a Changeling, pushed open the double doors. Two groups of citizens were crowded behind barriers on either side of the room, two guards flanked the lone throne.

With a single motion, she crossed the room, cloak trailing behind her, and sat on the velvet cushion. The mare looked at the faces of the petitioners, or observers, smirking, and raised a hoof, beginning her court.

That was when a figure in a dark grey robe, darted out of the throng, serrated daggers raised, and leaped, yelling, "Death to the insurgents! Death to the Sparkles!" The guards readied their halberds in defense of not only thier lives, but the lives of their regent.

The guard on the left jabbed at the assassin with her spear, but she dodged, slicing through the minotaur's arm with the right dagger, opening a large cut, then jabbing the left through her chest. The minotaur fell, blood pooling around him.

The other guard, an Earth Pony, was received a swift buck to the chest, but was able to disarm the mare, knocking her to the ground with his halberd, placing the blade to her neck. He looked up to Lady Sparkle, scowling. "My Lady, what shall we do with this whorsespawn?" He brought the polished blade closer, nicking the assassin's skin, causing her to whimper in pain.

Twilight looked at the mare, no older than herself, with a icy glare, "Let the torture master take care of her." Pinkamena, magically created doppelganger of Lady Pinkie PIe, had been able to weasel every ounce information out of prisoners, either through pain, pleasure, or potion. The guard nodded, dragging the assailant into a side door, and downstairs, where screams could be heard.

"Court is adjourned until everypony who has had a hoof in this plot on my life has been found, and, if need be, executed." She said, as the citizens were rushed out of the throne room, leaving Twilight alone except for a nervous cadre of guards. The only sounds were the howling arctic winds outside, and the faint crackling of the braziers and torches illuminating the room. "You!" She pointed to one of the guards, a jittering reindeer named Antoine, "Stay with Pinkamena and the assassin, report everything you learn to me, my family, or any of my spymasters." Antoine nodded quickly, galloping down the dungeon.

She looked out the window, where Luna was raising the moon from the capitol of Canterlot Landing, capitol city of Equestria. The two were locked in the Fade, a pocket dimension created by Sombra, where they could only contact the waking world through dreams or avatars.

"I bid you all a good night, gentlestallions and mares." Twilight said, yawning slightly as she trotted from the throne room into her grand bedroom. Her adopted little brother, the Draconian, Spike, lay curled up in his small basket, while her daughter slept in her own bed, next to Twilight's. She kissed the two on the cheeks, before removing her cloak, and placing her sword next to her bed. Now naked like everypony, she drew the silk and velvet sheets around her, as sleep overtook her.

----The Crimson Keep, home of Sombra----

"So, my little assassin has failed?" A demonic voice asked, reverberating around the almost empty room.

The spy, a young Changeling, lay prostate on the ground, quivering in fear, the spy next to her, a deer, was curled in the fetal position, to afraid to look.. "Y-yes mi'lord, she was only able to kill a guard, she was captured, and is being interrogated as we s-speak." she said, her tone full of fear and anxiety.

"Thank you for bringing me this news, slave." Sombra said, leaning back on the Iron Throne, constructed of hundreds of razor sharp blades, which proved only a minor annoyance to him at this point. "You shall get your reward." unsheathing his dragonbone blade, Fenrir. "A quick demise." He smiled cruely, as the Changeling try crawling away, but there was no use, as he stepped on her leg with a hoof, holding her down by magic. She let out a scream as the blade descended, leaving a large cut down her chest, she fell silent.

"What a shame." Sombra said sarcastically, as he opened a flaming portal, the body tumbling into an abyss. He turned to the deer, "You, for being oh so loyal to me, by not running away, and for giving me information on their defenses, shall service me, privately of course, in my quarters." He smirked. The deer yelped in surprise, it was everyone of Lord Sombra's servants dreams that he would find them worthy enough to take to bed, and for being alive.

"Come, my little slave, I have need of your..talents." He said, as he pulled her by magic into his bed chambers, a sadistic grin on his face.

Her screams reverberated around the castle, for he had just severed her antlers as they entered the room, before turning into screams of passion.

"No one shall stand against me." He said, staring at the sleeping form of his new conquest. "All shall bow before Sombra, or they shall perish." He stared out his window into the freezing winds, "Especially you, Sparkle...

Twilight awoke with a start, sweat dripping down her forehead. She sat up in bed, crossing the room in one movement. She shivered in the cool air. Even though she had fur, the winds still nipped at her nude body. She threw on a plain looking forest  green robe, and looked out the ice covered window. The far off Crimson Keep was illuminated only by a fire burning on top of the main tower. "He said my name." Twilight said, shuddering from fear. Ever since he found the long lost Aetherium Crown, worn by the First KIng, Grey Mane. The crown gave him vast magical power. He was able to encase all of Canteris in a magic dampening field, activating a trap, designed by a long dead enemy of the Royal Sisters, which disabled their magic. Thus, Sombra was able to imprison them in the Fade. The vampiric tyrant, with eternal youth on his side, ruled with an iron hoof. That had been only a short seven years ago.

Shaking her head, Twilight drew the heavy purple curtains over the windows, bringing the coldness in the room to a moderate level. Taking her robe off and tossing it back into her wardrobe, she once again drew her blanket around her body, and whispered one last phrase before she slept, her's family's motto,

"The Lions are Waking."