//------------------------------//
// 74 
// Story: My Little Fortress: Dawnpick 
// by Paaaad 
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It is the night of the day after Stiletto's party for Flux. Glaive stands alone in his room. He is exhausted and is looking forward to get some undisturbed sleep. 

Indigo looks around the corridor, but doesn't see anypony following him. He doesn't want to attract attention to himself,  he just wants some answers. He knocks on Glaive's door. 

Glaive is surprised to hear a knock at his door. “Who would be calling at this late hour?” Glaive walks over and opens the door. 

Indigo looks around at the empty corridor, then says. "Hello Glaive. I'd like to talk to you. Can I come in?" 

Glaive looks out at the strange pony, "Oh, hello Indigo. Uh, sure you can come in." Glaive steps out of the doorway and gestures a hoof toward the inside. His room is simple and unadorned. There is a bed, a chair, a cabinet and not much else. Sticking out from under the bed is an large iron strongbox. It is locked, but a key lays nearby. "Just take a seat anywhere." says Glaive.

Indigo looks at Glaive's leg, then looks around, and finds a place to sit. "I want to talk to you about Flux and Stiletto. I want to know what really happened, and why did he get out of prison so easily. If that is alright with you, I mean." 

Having only the one chair, Glaive instead sits on his back legs. "Ah, well, I can tell you about that I guess, but why would you care? Are you a friend of Stiletto, or Flux? I can't recall seeing you with them before?" 

Indigo looks at the chair, then at Glaive, and sits on the floor. He'd rather the wounded pony get a better seat. "Oh, I am no friend of Stiletto. I only know Flux in passing him sometimes. Besides, she wronged me, and I hate to see her get away with anything so easily." says Indigo angrily. Then adds "You look tired, wouldn't you prefer to sit on a chair?" 

"No no, you are the guest here, I insist you take the chair." Glaive continues to sit on the floor. "I am glad to hear that at least one other pony here is no friend of Stiletto. Her lifestyle is cancer on this community, but how has she wronged you?" 

Indigo walks around the room as he speaks with anger, often glancing at Glaive. "Where do I even begin... She doesn't respect our traditions or even common decency. She has several lovers, and there are always, always problems with that. She also corrupted Kat, who used to be my friend, and tried to use her against me. She bewitched Virtue to agree to anything she wants, and think Stiletto is the best of us. She has her underlings taking care of our foals, no doubt planting dangerous ideas in their little heads. She harassed me, and tried to choke me for opposing her. Finally one of her goons broke your leg, and got away with it. I checked the code of laws. The minimum punishment for that is two weeks. But not only did Flux get out after three days, is happened right after Stiletto did something to you in the hospital. They even dared to throw a party to celebrate how little they care about our laws, or even basic decency, and from what I've seen you were forced to attend. That monster deserves exile at best. So, are you still surprised that I want to know, what she did to you, so that Flux walks free, while your leg is in a cast?" 

Glaive listens intently to Indigo's rant. He agreed in general with most of it, but thought the need to tell him what actually happened that day. "I see, well I think I should tell you all the details about what happened between me and Flux." Glaive breathes deeply before continuing, "I was heading over to Falcata's house after work, we are um, involved together...”  

"A white pegasus guard with red hair, she was wounded twice." Nods Indigo. 

Glaive continues, ignoring the interruption. “I heard music coming from the room. At first I thought she was just playing by herself, but then I heard a second instrument, I opened the door and found her and Flux alone together, playing music. Now I wasn't happy to see this, but I trust Falcata, I trust her that nothing inappropriate was going on. I sat next to her as the song finished and we began to talk. He told me that the wonderfully beautiful instrument she's been playing was a recent gift from him. I assumed at this point that Stiletto's ideas had corrupted Flux, and I don't think I was wrong about that. I thought he was trying to seduce her, and while I trusted her not to do anything, I needed to stop it. I wanted to talk to him alone, but Falcata insisted that I say it to him in front of her. I told him that I didn't appreciate him giving her expensive presents, and that we wanted nothing to do with that slut Stiletto's depraved ideas. He got defensive and threatened me if I said anything else about Stiletto. So naturally I did, and he kicked me. He only fractured my leg, it was me suddenly putting all my weight on it that broke it. Then he went to jail, and I to the hospital." 

Indigo just listens on with somber expression. 

"Stiletto found me in the hospital later, she didn't know what had happened yet, but kept asking questions, I told the truth and she got violent. No, she didn't hurt me, but was floating and using illusion magic to appear as if on fire, and spoke to me in a giant booming voice. We yelled back and forth. I thought she was going to kill me, she was shouting that I should be exiled... for my jealousy of all things. I garbed a chair to defend myself, but she crushed it with her magic. Then I took up a knife, and she calmed down and left. She seems to think she won the debate."

"It seems that she did." Indigo looks sad. "I see you have a lot to loose in opposing her. I also understand, why you got so worked up with Flux. Musicians are notorious for their infidelity. But how did she get Flux out of prison? Tell me what I need to know before I go talk to Virtue. Oh, and did you press charges against her for that assault in the hospital? Were they dropped? And exiled? You? Really?" 

"I never pressed charges against Stiletto, perhaps I should have, but I did not. However, I think you are mistaken, Stiletto didn't get Flux out of jail. She insisted that she be locked up too until his sentence was finished. I requested Flux be released early." 

"WHAT? How? Why?" Indigo looks at Glaive with shocked expression until realization dawns on him. "Falcata. They used your finance against you, is that it? They tried with me and Kat." 

"It's difficult to explain. But they didn't use Falcata against me. She just asked me to go talk to Flux, to work out our differences. I was reluctant but agreed. I told him I was sorry for HOW I said those things, and he apologized for hitting me. If he had said the things I said about Stiletto about Falcata, I would have done worse. I told him I'd try to forgive him. And when I was leaving, I stopped by Virtue's office and asked her to have him let out in the morning." 

Indigo facetables on that, then groans. "Why would you even want to do that? If you said nothing, they would both stay out of sight for two months. More if you pressed additional charges. You still have a bum leg, what does this kind of forgiveness even give you? Don't you understand crimes must be punished?" Indigo sighs, and looks depressed. 

Glaive sighs, "It wasn't an easy decision. More than a small part of me wanted to say nothing, and I'd consider Stiletto being locked up a grace for the town. I'd have her exiled if it was up to me. But Flux, he's a good pony, he's being mislead by Stiletto, but he has a good soul. I don't think having him locked up with her for 2 months would help him." 

Indigo sighs again. "She seems to be targeting ponies who are shy and naive first. I hardly know Flux. On the surface he seems alright. But he still broke your leg, and I don't think going free and staying in Stiletto's company is going to improve anything. Besides how can she be locked up with him? Do we only have one prison cell? Visitors are allowed, but not permanently. It seems that either way she wins, but by staying free she wins more." 

Glaive frowns "We do have multiple cells, but Virtue allowed them to share one, and was letting her stay with Flux indefinitely. But perhaps you are right. Maybe it was the wrong move. Maybe I did buck up. Don't think I haven't second and third guessed myself endlessly since then. Stiletto, I think she does think she is winning. She tried to give me a gift during the party, tried to become friends, she said. I refused, telling her we could never be friends, and walking away." 

"Yes, she strikes me as very sly, has good manners and all. But underneath she is still a corrupted slut." Indigo frowns. "Refusing her gift is at least something I can respect you for, but I would have broken it on her head then and there and called her for it." He looks at the floor. "Well, maybe... I can try to talk to Virtue and undo some of the damage you've caused, but she is so impressed by Stiletto, that she is unlikely to believe me." He looks at Glaive "Thanks for telling me what happened. Unless you want to talk to me about something else, I'll go now. It is late." 

"I would add one more thing. You mentioned before about Stiletto's group looking after the foals. I was, AM, concerned about that as well. That's way I try to help out when I can, teaching them things, and telling them stories meant to teach lessons. If you are worried about them, you should help out too. We likely can't have them banned from helping with the foals, but we can make sure they aren't the only influence." recommends Glaive.

"Foals? I'd rather some decent family be running the kindergarten. I'm not so good with them. I might drop by, but I think a better idea would be to talk about the problem with the parents here." Indigo then adds. "And at least I know now that Stiletto's influence isn't absolute, and there is at least one pony willing to stand against her, beside me." 

"I'm glad I'm not alone in this either. But yeah, I'd suggest talking to the parents alone, about leaving their foals with Glyph and Kat. That might help," Glaive yawns, "but it's late now and I've got an early shift in the morning. I should really get some sleep." 

Indigo nods. "Goodbye Glaive, I'll see what I can do tomorrow, and talk to you later." 

Glaive shows Indigo out and locks his door. Ready at long last to go to sleep. He reaches down and unlocks the iron box, he takes out a shard of metal and looks at it while offering a prayer to his gods as he has done every night for years. He wraps the shard back up in cloth, and puts it back in its resting place and climbs in bed. 

Glaive lies in bed and thinks about what Indigo said, maybe he'd been wrong to have Flux freed, it had felt like the right thing to do at the time, but maybe he was being too forgiving. Maybe he'd messed up. He didn't know what to think any more. Or maybe Indigo was wrong, he hadn't talked to Flux and hadn't seen the regret in his eyes, maybe Glaive was right. He just... didn't know anymore. 

After the talk with Glaive, Indigo's mood improved for the first time in weeks. He slept well that night, and had a lot to do tomorrow.