112 - Picking through the Pieces
Sonata moved slowly as she dragged an unconscious, but breathing, stallion back to the exit of the train. When they emerged into the evening air, she stopped with surprise. Where she had left the single mare before, there was a small group of five plus one. That one was Lex. Sonata raised a hoof to wave eagerly back and forth before she started to hurry over. The kitten on her back gently pricked her with a claw, "You're forgetting th'pony!" Sonata stopped, snorted, and went back for the stallion.
Soon she had brought him over to the others, but she barely paid him any attention after getting him there. She hopped over another sleeping form to get to Lex, "There you are! What happened? I was so worried you were one of the ones I'd find crushed under something."
At the sight of Sonata, a look of surprise had flashed across Lex's features, one that changed to a look of relief only for a split-second before his features changed into discomfort at her question. "...we can discuss that later. Are there any other survivors?" He glanced over the wreckage, before turning his gaze back to the group gathered around him, who were looking around dazedly. "These were all I was able to get out, but-"
He was cut off as one of his group, a purrsian female, let out a wail. Racing forward, she snatched the kitten of of Sonata's back. "Sunflower!" she sobbed, hugging her child tightly.
"M-Mommy...?" squeaked the kitten, apparently shocked at his mother's miraculous return, before he descended into tears. "Mommy!"
Sonata started with surprise at the feline's approach, but relaxed when the kitten responded, bobbing her head, "That totally coulda gone worse." She waved at the kitten who was paying her little mind, then looked back at the train, "It's not as easy at it looks getting people out. Why are ponies so heavy? Wait here, I'll do one more look." She trotted quickly back to the train and moved alongside it, listening intently for other survivors as she went.
To her surprise, Lex kept pace with her, ignoring her instructions to stay put. They'd gone about halfway down the train when he held out a hoof, stopping her from continuing any further. "This is taking too long, and if there are any survivors we might miss them like this." He paused for a moment, glancing at her before continuing. "I'm going to use my magic. Don't be alarmed."
With that rather unhelpful advice given, Lex closed his eyes for a moment. He didn't chant or gesture, but his horn glowed purple, the light contrasting oddly against its dark red color. When his eyes opened a second later, they were dark green, and purple contrails were sprouting from the corners. Slowly, he turned his gaze over the wreckage. After several seconds, his eyes narrowed, and he pointed to the far end of one of the smashed cars. "There."
Galloping over to it, it was obvious that this was going to be a problem. The twisted metal had collapsed in on itself, and there was no clear way to get in.
Sonata had never seen dark magic before, and its implications largely sailed over her head. She watched with wonder at the display of magic, then dashed forward to where he pointed. She paced back and forth once before she said to herself, "Are you gonna let those ponies die? I thought you were strong, like way strong! Time to show it, get in there and save those people!" She shuddered as her magic went to work and a furious strength flowed through her body.
She worked her hooves into a bend in the metal and started pulling with all her enhanced strength, slowly forcing the crumpled metal up and away. Already abused, the side of the car began to sheer off under the continued pressure as Sonata slowly backed away, dragging much of the side with her as it collapsed, almost crushing her with it. "Ta da!"
Lex raised a brow at Sonata's unexpected show of strength, silently reevaluating her. She was still a vacuous imbecile with little sense of anything beyond herself, but she certainly had her uses. He could have removed the metal on his own, but doing so would have forced him to dip deeply into his magical reserves, and the expenditure would not have been easily replaced.
Stepping into the hole that the sea pony had opened up, Lex looked around for the occupant. They weren't hard to find. In the corner of the wreckage was a red-and-orange wolf, their fur flickering softly in a manner that strongly resembled flames. Moving over to - him? her? - Lex grimaced as he saw the jagged metal shard protruding from the phoenix wolf's stomach. They were unconscious, but clearly still alive, judging from the wet, raspy breathing that was audible as Lex got closer...but it didn't seem that they'd be that way for long.
Cursing under his breath, Lex turned back to Sonata. "This one is critically injured, do you have-" he cut himself off. Of course she didn't have any healing potions. She was still in her swimsuit! Gritting his teeth, Lex considered his options before returning his attention to the sea pony. "Help me with this. If we do this fast, I can save them."
Sonata approached quickly, making a face at the wolf, "That looks bad." With the obvious stated, she moved in with her still-enhanced strength and helped Lex extract the wolf from the tortured metal. The wolf suddenly regained consciousness and began to whimper and squirm, making their aid all the more difficult. Sonata smiled gently, "No time for that, sleep. Everything's going to be totally alright." Her magic settled over the wolf, sending it into a deep slumber.
Sonata looked to Lex once the wolf was set down on a relatively flat surface, "Kinda wish that half pony was here, Soft Moon? What do we do?" She surely had no healing ability, and looked to the bleeding patient with increasing worry.
"I can repair the worst of it. Hopefully that will be enough," replied Lex, letting out a slow breath. He was already going to have to answer some uncomfortable questions about how he'd helped the survivors escape anyway. At this point, a few more wouldn't make a difference. Besides, his moral philosophy was clear on this sort of situation; the duty to rescue those that were in imminent danger was absolute.
His dark purple aura lifted a vial filled with a black, viscous substance out of one of his saddlebags - yet another reminder since he'd come to this world to never divest yourself of your possessions if at all possible - and slowly let a drop of it fall onto the wolf's punctured stomach. As it did, Lex lowered his horn to the injured wolf, chanting a soft, liturgical melody.
For a moment, nothing happened, but then the wound started to close with unnatural speed. Unlike the healing that Soft Mane had so often granted, this left angry red scars over the affected area, slowly spreading until the hideous puncture had been completely sealed almost a full minute later. The sleeping wolf shuddered as their breathing became less labored.
Replacing the vial, Lex closed his eyes, and when he opened them the green light and purple contrails were gone. "Let's regroup with the others. I want to see if anypony else is injured before we figure out what to do next."
Sonata watched this with amazement, moving to pick up the wolf by nudging under it and sliding it onto her back, "Are you a priest too? Was that, like, a prayer or something?" She followed after him, full of questions as they went, "What kind of god makes your eyes glow all crazy purple like that? Does that hurt?" Her questions only broke off to throw a compliment, "You did totally good back there."
When they rejoined the group, many of the ponies had gathered into a loose circle, almost instinctively. Those who were most injured were kept towards the center, while the least injured formed on the outside, looking into the darkening evening with growing fear in their eyes.
Lex, who had been glancing at Sonata and biting his lip intermittently on the short walk back, sighed as he tried to figure out what to do next. There were eleven of them altogether, including himself and Sonata. A fairly large group, those numbers would have been reassuring if they had all been proper adventurers. But as ordinary people they simply presented a larger target. Getting them all back safely to civilization wouldn't be easy.
"Everypony listen," he spoke up, drawing all eyes to himself. "It's growing dark, and we don't know where we are. We'll camp here for tonight, and tomorrow we'll follow the train tracks to the next town." He didn't mention that the next town was likely Yi Sheng itself, and that it probably wouldn't be a quick or easy trip, to say nothing of safe. "I have a tent and some food in my pack, and some defenses that I can set up in the meantime. If any of you have magical or martial training, I want to speak with you. Otherwise, try to help those who are wounded. Once we're set up..." he heaved another sigh, briefly closing his eyes before glancing around again, letting his gaze end on Sonata, "...I'll answer any questions you have."
Without waiting for a response, he let his horn glow again as he opened his pack. Even this simple action caused his dark magic to manifest, changing his eyes as he drew out a folded tent - one that was quite clearly larger than the pack it was held in. "I'm going to see to the injured," he stated curtly as he set it down. It was going to be a long evening.
If this had been Equestria, more questions would have flowed. In the world of Everglow, most seemed to assume various things about Lex without terribly dark intent. One thing they shared was a general lack of knowledge of what to do in the dark in the wilderness. One pony pointed at the train, "Why don't we sleep in there for tonight?"
Sonata looked where she was pointing and tilted her head, "We just finished getting out of that."
The pony nodded, "Right, but now that none of us are... trapped... we could use a car as a big tent, for tonight?"
Another pony, a stallion, shuddered, "There are still... people on that train. I won't sleep next to their... dead bodies."
The mood soured palpably as hooves and feet shuffled and eyes went downcast.
Sonata strode around and through the crowd, "Come on everyone! We have to work together. This isn't near the worst. We have each other, at least?" She smiled brightly, "Besides, you got Lex and me, we won't let you get hurt."
The purrsian mother looked at Sonata skeptically, "Who are you?"
Sonata tilted her head, "My name's Sonata, nice to meet you. He's Lex." She pointed off at Lex, who was setting up the tent. "He even knows some healing magic! Like, how awesome is that?"
Ignoring the snatches of conversation around him, Lex finished setting up the tent before looking around. None of the others had approached him so far, meaning that he and Sonata were likely it insofar as any sort of possible defense went. As his eyes swept over the camp, he amended his conclusion...none of the others who could approach him had done so. The phoenix wolf was still unconscious, and there was one other that hadn't done anything so far since he'd arrived, a mare that was reclining.
Walking over to her, Lex noticed her flinch as she saw him approaching. Chalking it up to his eyes, still glowing with dark magic as he put his tools away, Lex looked her over, noting the blood on her clothes. "Are you able to stand?"
She shook her head slowly, "I haven't tried. It feels like there's glass in my legs. I'm not sure if that's better than not feeling them." She made no move to stand, instead sinking in place, "Are you a sorcerer? Is it some kind of... terrible blood that makes your eyes like that?" She shrank as soon as she asked it, "I'm being impolite. You're working so hard for us... Thank you."
It promised to be a long evening.
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Whoops, that should be eleven. Lex (1), the five survivors he rescued (+5), Sonata (+1), the kitten she found (+1), the mare that she found that can't feel her legs (+1), the unconscious stallion (+1), and the phoenix wolf (+1).
5733193 Fixed!
I think you're hitting Sonata's dialog really well now, and I don't think her dialog is particularly easy because it's so dependent on her tone.
5733290 Thanks kindly!
Hmm. Sombra's power alone didn't perform that healing. That was likely devil's blood. Distressing... but it's the best option they have.
Of course, all Sonata knows is that it's pretty darn cool. Not "Fwoosh! Boom!" magic or "Hey, do this" magic, but still, cool.
Also, typo:
Wreckage.
Sonata twisted train? What has she got? 18 strength plus supernatural, song enhancement?
5733589 14 normally(already strong), with a rage spell to bump it to 16, and the train's already damaged badly.
5733464 Fixed! Thanks.
In the previous chapter you said that the kitten was a male.
The "to" is unnecessary.
They were unconscious, but clearly still alive, judging from the wet, raspy breathing...
I suspect you meant "closely resembling tar," but tarry means wait. I suggest you use "viscous" or "glutinous".
The "though" is unnecessary.
looking into or watching
shook (I think she's saying "no" in this context)
5734333 Fixes applied with vengeance!
Great chapter. Some character development and lots of ominous foreshadowing. Either Lex is being paranoid, or he did something while nobody was watching that is even more questionable than the tricks he showed off in this chapter. (I'm going to guess he died and recovered on his own, or something weird like that) The allusion to his "code" suggests that he is a law unto himself, but has at least a utilitarian sense of morality.
Sonata is a fun mix of simplicity and inner strength; a stereotypical ditz would be hyperventilating in these circumstances. So far, she's completely believable, neither slapstick nor suddenly deep, but right in the middle where real people live.
5734366 Great to hear! Sonata is a special challenge. I want to do right by her underutilized character. I always have a soft spot for characters I feel got the short end of the stick(Flim, Flam, Trixie, Sonata, etc)
5734333
This is true, but as an adjective the word "tarry" can mean "of or like tar" (scroll down to the second definition).
5734400 I agree with you regarding Trixie and maybe even Sonata, but Flim and Flam deserve no sympathy in my book.
5734411 It's ambiguous at best. Describing the consistency instead of making a comparison would make the meaning clear.
5734415 Flim and Flam sabotaged themselves. If they had had the patience, the SSCS6k could have made them wealthy in a perfectly legitimate way.
5734415 After the second episode? No, they were made into flat-out villains, except... in their first appearance they had a wondrous device that deserved to revolutionize everything. They offered it at a fair price, and the Apple family drove them to ruin. After that they tried less legal means. They deserve pity, not scorn.
5734400 Sonata being underutilized might make her easier in some ways. She is no longer a biped and she has renounced her evil past, so the only canon aspect to her character is her quirkiness. In that sense, she's halfway to being an OC and most of what I like about her in this story was actually you, not Hasbro.
5734426 You mean after the Apples cheated and were rewarded for it? It was a sad day in which innovation was crushed under the heel of 'tradition' and a mob mentality.
5734419 I disagree that it's ambiguous. One form of reading it is a recognized adjective that perfectly makes sense within the context of the sentence, the other is a verb that makes no sense within that context - which way you read it should therefore be quite clear.
5734439 Yeah, the brothers' machine was the real deal. Until they deliberately deactivated the quality control it was making a high-quality product at high speed. If they had simply purchased apples from the Apples, everybody could have come out ahead.
5734426
5734429 I could have taken or left them after that first episode. After all, they didn't seem particularly interested in revolutionizing anything, and were quite happy to go forward with their money-making plan even though they knew it would have destroyed the Apples' livelihood and cost them their home. True, one could make an argument that that's the way of capitalism in general, but leaving aside any ethical arguments of their business practices, for Equestria - a realm that lionizes harmony, community, and friendship - that's notably craven.
But as David intuited, it was their second episode that made me dislike them as characters. Selling snake oil to sick and injured ponies, and then running off with the money after their scheme was brought to light, was a horrible thing to do.
5734452 That was not capitalism. Capitalism is about making money. They would have made heaps of money collaborating with the Apples. Instead, they tried to gain ownership of a farm that they wouldn't know how to run anyway.
5734452 If you do the math, the Apples were in no danger other than their pride and their lack of ability to do the actual math. The morale said it best, she didn't learn anything. If they really hated the (entirely workable) numbers, they could have raised it a few percent and everypony would still win at every angle.
5734461 Only after they were turned down from a fair price.
5734465 They never negotiated a fair price. Their opening offer was the challenge. They could have led right from their demonstration right into an business proposal to the Apples.
If the snake oil episode had been first both episodes would have made more sense.
5734461 It was capitalism - they were trying to maximize their profits, hence why they stuck to their guns about the percentage they offered the Apples even when Applejack told them that it wouldn't be enough to let them (her family) keep the farm.
5734463 How do you figure that the math was on the Apple's side? The Flim Flam Brothers' device would have tripled their output, but the Apples were only offered 25% of the profits, meaning that they'd have been making 75% of their usual take from selling cider - that's clearly less than what they'd normally make, hence why Applejack says that if they took that deal, they'd lose the apple farm.
5734483 The secret to maximizing profits is to actually sell something. They gave away one sample and then botched the whole plan and got nothing. With the entire population of Ponyville waiting for three days to buy several ciders each, they could have had a profit margin smaller than Walmart's and still made a killing.
5734494 The fact that they didn't get a chance to sell anything because their scheme fell apart doesn't mean that it somehow wasn't capitalism. Their plan was still about turning the maximum profit possible, hence why they didn't try to reach a more equitable compromise with the Apples when they balked at Flim and Flam's initial (low-ball) offer.
5734472 You made me pull up the episode. They made their pitch, no outright challenge. Applebloom, being the bright visionary of the future, said 'hell yes!', Granny, vanguard of the past, said 'hell no!', applejack went 'Uhhhh, not sure.'
They gave their offer, 'You give the apples, we give the machine, we split it 75/25!', a sharp ratio you say, but with the majority of Ponyville not getting what they want, this would still result in a net profit for the apples, and nothing stopped them for asking for 65/35, or even 50/50 (which is an amazing rate for a raw resource provider and bad negotiating on the Flim/Flam's part if they took it), which is not a bad rate for only providing the raw material to the end product. They're doing all the work. The Apples would be free to put more work into -the farm- where they should be.
Sorry, but the Apples were just wrong. Start to finish, wrong.
5734502 A pet peeve of mine is when movies/tv represent capitalism as simple short-sighted greed. The Ferengi in Star Trek have the same problem. A little foresight could make everyone rich, but it's always about the underhanded schemes, even when honesty pays better.
5734483 Triple their production before or after they got the rest of the mane six to help, which they don't normally during cider season?
5734514 On who's side? Flim and Flam didn't lie. They didn't even scheme until after their initial offer was refused.
It's a bad episode and should feel bad. :D
5734502 Okay, this is where you lost me:
We saw what the final ratio was comparing what the machine made versus what the Apple family made, and it was a ratio of 3:1. That alone isn't enough for them to turn a profit at only a 25% share.
Also, the rest of Ponyville wouldn't have gotten any more cider than they normally did. What made the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 revolutionary was how quickly it made cider, not how much it made; so the total amount of cider produced wouldn't change. The Apple family ran out of cider on their own not because they couldn't keep up with the demand, but because there wasn't enough apples left to make any more. (Of course, we then saw them get into a competition where tons more cider was made - since this was stated to be during the off-season for apples, I'm presuming that these apples were intended to be used for something else later.)
By that token, nothing was stopping Flim and Flam from offering better terms when Applejack told them that their initial offer would make them homeless. Instead, the brothers went straight to "well, if you won't take our offer, we'll drive you out of business!" That's not exactly the most ethical business sense.
5734400
5734524
Flim and Flam may or may not have been evil, but if they weren't evil they were fools. However, the socio-economic implications of automation in the cider industry are kind of unrelated to the original point, which was:
Sonata is great. Keep up the good work.
5734514 Yeah, it's an economic Prisoner's Dilemma. Sure it makes most sense for everyone to do "pretty well." But if you can stick it to your neighbor in exchange for doing "really well," and you can't help but wonder if they're going to end up doing the same thing to you if you don't make a move first, is it any surprise that things often go the way they do? There's a reason why the market is competitive and not cooperative.
5734516 That evens out with the fact that Flim and Flam turned off their machine's quality control mechanism. The Apples were still losing before the other Mane cast members helped and before Flim and Flam turned up the juice.
5734539 You mean when the Apple Family specifically distanced themselves from the brothers to whisper, they should have used their telepathy to know when to offer an alternative deal, instead of assuming... pretty rightly, that the Apples weren't interested at all, minus Applebloom.
I went back and checked the episode again. The Apple family filled -1- barrel in the time the brothers did -9-. 1 to 9.
Apples were wrong. Completely wrong. There was not one shred of right about them in that episode.
5734557 It's sort of a rule of business that you don't open a negotiation with your final offer; when Flim and Flam were initially turned down, it would have made far more sense for them to suggest a slightly more equitable split, instead of whispering back that they'd drive them out of business.
I've also reconsidered my earlier arguments, and realized that the entire issue of how much cider the machine can produce makes no sense. There are still only so many apples to devote to cider in the first place. The machine's only improvement is the time and effort needed to make them; it shouldn't be able to increase the amount of cider actually produced. Given that, I'm not sure how the Apple family would be expected to turn a profit at all, since there's no clear direction for them to channel the time and effort that's been freed up into other activities to make up for the lost profit.
EDIT: But like I said, it was that second episode that really soured me on the duo.
5734577 The Apples claim that the only limit to how much cider they produce is the labor intensity that goes into making cider their way. If that statement is true, the machine is complete profit for them. If that statement is false, and the limit is how many apples they have to set aside or what not, then the machine may not be profit for them, but they're kind of huge liars when they said they were trying their best to meet demand.
5734612 Yeah, but clearly that can't be the only limit - there are only so many apples on their farm! They also mention that that profit is supposed to get them through the winter months, which implies that the entire cider sale is them squirreling money away ahead of time (since there are still apples on the trees in that episode). As such, dipping into the remaining apples to make more cider clearly isn't the wisest decision, machine or not, since it subtracts profit from other apple-related sales.
By that logic, making cider must also not be as much of a money-maker as said other apple-related sales. Otherwise, there's no reason for them not to make as much cider as they can with all of their apples all year-round, rather than just saving for winter.
5734645 I don't think apples, and their supply, were ever really a threat to the Apples. Poor management and a lack of business sense? Much more immediate threats.
This is the same person, Applejack, that went to a catered event and tried to sell her apples there. She has plenty of apples everywhere, starting with her head.
5734674 I always presumed that AJ's trying to sell apples at the Gala was a reflection of her desperation, since the issue of her losing the apple farm was a recurring one throughout the series. (Which made it all the more galling that the mayor wanted her to donate her winnings from a competition to repair city hall - she has a family to take care of, mayor. Finding funding for civic resources is your job!)
5734682 Is she actually in danger, or just so out of touch with how money works that, to her, it always feels like she's standing on the edge? Poor Applejack, her parents went away without imparting on her the knowledge of how the farm works, as a business. She knows all the other stuff, but numbers? Well, in her words, she doesn't need that fancy mathematics.
She didn't learn anything.
5734695 To be fair, small farms have never been money-makers, and she's essentially supporting herself and her entire family (while Big Mac doubtlessly pulls his weight - sometimes literally - it's hard to imagine that Apple Bloom and Granny Smith are anything but drains on their finances, all told). Add that in to most agriculture being of questionable value (can't the ponies just eat grass and leaves?), and it's not like she's in a strong financial position to begin with.
5734717 While it could be argued, biologically, they could eat that, it could also be argued humans could get away with eating far less optimally than they do, but that doesn't stop them from shopping for better.
5734733 True, and their society is clearly somewhat affluent, hence why a small town like Ponyville can support the Carousel Boutique, despite clothes being a luxury item, rather than a necessity.
(Rather oddly, it threw me for a loop when Applejack flat-out said that they usually didn't wear clothes. I'd apparently anthropomorphized them to such a degree that that particular fact, despite being plainly evident, was something I'd managed to disregard completely.)
Huh, there's an odd single quotation mark hanging on the end of that sentence for some reason.
6417817 Fixed, re-reading the older ones?
6417944 I am; I'm going back to look for inspiration, and do some brushing up.
Yisheng
5733464 That was most assuredly devil's blood. If he were using unholy water, it would have taken more than a drop. The spell he cast was infernal healing.
There's still the question of where he got a vial of devil's blood in the first place, though.