Living in Equestria

Judge Fink was sweating. He hated sweating unless he was doing what his status in life dictated he should be able to do whenever and however he wanted with the female half of his species... and even then it annoyed him to have to work so hard.

Any moment now, he knew that the royal guards would be at his door and if they caught him, his last chance to get out of this with any hope to live a life on his terms would be over. And it was all because of Whipwind. Somehow, that deranged pegasus had managed to ruin his life even as he sat petrified and motionless in his empty, dark and guarded courtroom.

By all accounts, Judge Rattius Fink ("...the 'i' is silent!" often followed whenever he was forced to say his full name) was a disgusting pegasus. But he was a brilliant pegasus at the same time and it was his unmatched ability to manipulate ponies that had been responsible for his success in life up until today.

He had been born with the unfortunate molted coat of sickly pea green with pale yellow patches around his bulging eyes that had given him the permanent look of being diseased. Being underweight and gaunt his whole life with a horrible under bite, school had been torturous for him... as any smart, scrawny colt in any education system can attest. Fink had suffered greatly at the hooves of his tormentors and the years of unchecked abuse had left him with a chip on his shoulder and a lust for power over those around him.

It was that desire to dictate how others lived that drove him to be a judge in the first place and also showed him just how talented he was at manipulating the stupid ponies around him. He used the weaknesses of others to advance through the law firm he'd joined just out of school and when he'd driven the centuries old reputable organization into the ground with selfish decisions and falsified records, (all things his hooves were clean of, by the way) he was quickly appointed his judge's robe to the surprise of everypony who wasn't already living in fear of him.

Having that love of dominating others didn't come without it's problems, however. The two unfortunate mares he'd convinced to marry him were quick to sail off in the wreckage of the lives they had before they met, taking part of his growing wealth as a payoff not to talk about his personal life. But when word had spread anyways about his violent and manipulative tendencies in bed, he'd turned to escorts to satisfy his ultimate domination fantasies. When those eventually refused to service him... he prayed on the young, naive fillies that lived in the poor fringes of Clousdale and found them to be to his liking. They were easily impressed and dumb as a boulder.

Rattius Fink (the 'i' is silent!) met Whipwind when the judge had heard the disgraced pegasus was quietly shopping around for a buyer to take his defective foal off his hands. It seemed like the perfect plan, Fink would get a young foal to mold to his desires and train her to be the perfect mare. In a rare lapse of judgement, Fink had tried to impress the fading celebrity. Thinking he had found a friend, Fink let his loose lips brag one night in a dark corner of the cider bar after one too many about other illicit activities he'd been involved in... with condemning detail.

But when Whipwind suddenly wanted double the bits for the small orange foal, Fink backed out at the last minute. The already semi-insane Ex-Wonderbolt was angry and had threatened to expose him unless he doctored the legal papers of his brother's estate instead. Fink complied to keep his lecherous activities a secret and from that hated day forward... Whipwind had owned him.

When Fink learned of his captivity for crimes of neglect against his daughter and attempted murder of one of mares who belonged to The Elements of Harmony, Rattius Fink (the 'i' is silent!) quietly celebrated. He later found out that even though he had pending charges down in Ponyville for similar acts of violence, Celestia's deposition as an eye witness of the crimes committed in Cloudsdale all but guaranteed his conviction here and it was decided to process the Cloudsdale charges first.

The day the notice of request for a new judge from Whipwind's attorney landed on the magnificent oak desk in his office, his heart fell. He knew exactly why he'd been requested and understood the message behind it. If Fink didn't do everything in his ability, within the confines of the law or not, to get Whipwind off... the accused pegasus would spill the beans about everything he knew. He was in a losing situation no matter what he did.

He'd had to work fast, interviewing Whipwind's attorney in secret, and the best shot he could come up with was working together to turn the tables on the prosecutor by making Whipwind appear as the victim. Within hours of getting the request and before his signature of acceptance to adjudicate the trial was dry, Fink had issued the arrest warrants for three ponies and the human.

As a long shot to pull at the juror's heartstrings, he'd also thrown in an order for the return of Whipwind's daughter to his junkie wife... but there wasn't a snowball's chance in Tartarus that it would stick. His daughter was now past the benchmark Cutie Mark Consent age and only the puritans of society would agree with that ruling, even if the defective filly had yet to gain hers.

The whole thing was a sham and broke several procedural laws, but it all hinged on timing. As long as he could get the arrest documents finalized with the four behind bars before Celestia's higher power intervened, (and he knew she would) the facts of their involvement would be admissible in the current case according to Equestrian law, throwing the trial into complete chaos even after the charges were thrown out and most likely winning a mistrial for Whipwind.

It was a tiny loophole that no sane judge would ever use... to do so would ultimately mean banishment from Equestria by the royal authority for subversion when Celestia found out. It was only a matter of time before she did, but Rattius Fink (the 'i' is silent!) would rather face banishment on his terms, living the high life with his amassed wealth in the corrupt lands of the Griffons rather than spending an eternity as a statue in the royal gardens which is where he would end up if Whipwind talked.

Sometimes the game of life demanded sacrifices...

But nothing had gone as planned. Word had reached him that the incompetent officers he'd blackmailed with threats to their families not only managed to fail, but had also admitted they were being manipulated by Fink into serving the warrants to members of The Elements of Harmony who were blatantly under the protection of the royal authority, not to mention completely outside their jurisdiction. Now he was facing both subversion charges and Whipwind's mouth.

He supposed it could have been worse... at least he'd figured right on the new Princess Book Worm down there being completely ineffectual under such a sudden challenge to her authority. It's a shame that things had come to this, he thought. He had been eyeballing that purple librarian as a puppet for quite some time, he was only waiting for the right opportunity but the damn mare was just too innocent.

He had been up all night destroying evidence of his past and now, early morning on the day after the fight at Sugarcube Corner, Fink was ready to leave. He'd just poured the remaining bits from his vault into his bag when the first pounding on his door rang out in the empty hallways of his mansion. His blotchy face shrank in fear before he gathered the overflowing bag of bits and tried to sling it over his flank desperately, spilling its contents noisily over the floor.

Stuffing the pockets of his robe quickly with what he could carry, he took to his wings towards the high windows above him and shoved them open. A brilliant, warm sun greeted his bulging red eyes and mocked him with it's promise of a bright day. He'd gotten only a few wing beats away before a shout below told Fink that he'd been spotted trying to flee. He raced towards the industrial district of Cloudsdale in a desperate hope that he could lose the Canterlot guards pursuing him in the dense buildings and twisting passageways.

Fink was not a fit pegasus and flying fast or for long distances was not something he was accustomed to, especially weighed down with several hundred thousand bits in his pockets. Before he had even cleared the first cooling tower of the weather factory, he was out of breath and could no longer fly. Forced to land on the top edge of the tower, his pale green mane blew up from the hot air billowing out of the yawing black interior of the stack created by the constant lightening below where the furnaces roiled with newly born thunderstorms.

The Canterlot guards were on him in moments, surrounding him with commands to surrender to the royal princess. Fink was scared, but there was one last trick he had up his black robed sleeve to try and get away. A small vial of command potion, bought through illegal trade from the Griffon kingdoms, was secreted there and would allow him control over whoever it broke against. All he needed to do was throw the vial hard enough to break open against a guard's armor and the potion would do the rest.

What Rattius Fink (the 'i' is silent!) did not count on, was Celestia's anger bringing her here personally. No sooner had he pulled his hoof back with the vial ready to fly, she appeared, shimmering in the morning sun and radiating power like a fallen star.

"Rattius Fink!" her voice carried to him loudly in the wind.

"The i is silent!" he snarled back at her automatically.

"You are under arrest for subversion of royal authority. Please.. come peacefully. Don't make this any worse than it needs to be."

He was caught. His red bulging eyes flicked between the princess and the guards who were closing in on him slowly. The only chance he had was to distract the princess with a puppet guard and now was the only chance he'd have. His hoof began it's movement forward, ready to launch the small black vial towards the nearest guard but his hoof never finished it's sweeping arc.

He was struck in the chest by a blast of magic from the princess's horn that paralyzed him. The initial blast didn't hurt at all, but he no longer could keep his perch on the thin lip of the cooling tower without his wings to support him. He suddenly knew with a shock of terror as his weight tipped backwards that this was how he was going to die.

As he fell helplessly into the tower towards the deadly electrical firestorm below, he wasn't surprised that nopony tried to save him. A moment of regret about how he lived his life flashed through his mind before the first agonizing bolts of electricity ripped through his body, ending his life a few long and painful moments later.