Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
As they ushered the last of the would-be thieves into the warehouse, Lex looked them over coldly.
While the presence of monsters in Vanhoover had been beyond what he’d anticipated, he’d known before he’d arrived that social order had broken down. With no relief incoming in the days immediately following the flooding, it had been a question of when, not if, the ponies remaining in the city would turn on each other as their situation worsened and their desperation mounted. Encountering thieves and raiders was therefore entirely unsurprising…and easily dealt with.
Subduing the motley group had been pathetically simple. With a thought, black crystals had grown over their knives and other weapons, rendering them unwieldy and useless. That had been enough to rattle the group, and nearly half their number had tried to flee, including their portly leader. A few others had gathered what little courage they possessed and had attempted to tackle him, presumably thinking that they could bludgeon him unconscious with their hooves. Turning into shadow had defeated the latter, and a spell of slowness had easily kept the former from getting very far. After that, he’d created a miniature tornado – the same spell he’d used to subdue Aisle and his companions when he’d first met them – to knock some sense into the few that still had the will to fight. The ones that had kept trying to run or fly away had black crystals grow around their hooves or wings for their trouble, hobbling them. After that, none of them had been able to oppose him any longer.
It had taken Lex a little over thirty seconds and almost no effort to completely defeat fourteen other ponies.
The victory brought him no sense of accomplishment – after fighting dragons, krakens, sahuagin warriors and more, this was too small to deserve to be called a victory – but to his surprise not everypony seemed to feel that way. Scrubby and Band-Aid had cheered after the fight had concluded, with the latter saying how they “shouldn’t have messed with us.” For a moment Lex had felt indignant, since he had been the one that had done all the work. Then he’d remembered what Sonata had been telling him a minute ago, and wondered if he was being uncharitable before deciding to ignore it for now.
Instead, he’d told the two of them to throw the thieves’ crystal-covered weapons into the bay, and the duo had leapt to obey. Some of the defeated ponies had let out a disheartened cry at that, but a sharp glare from him had quieted them down. Then they’d marched them into the warehouse, letting them huddle fearfully in an empty corner while he considered what to do with them.
Apparently he wasn’t the only one wondering about that. “Wh-what’s going to happen to us?” The speaker was the same fat little earth pony that had been barking demands at him two minutes ago. All of his arrogance was gone now, and he was shaking as he spoke, breathing heavily in fright. His companions were all the same, all wearing their terror openly…except for one. The unicorn mare – the one that the fat pony had called Fencer – was staring at him coldly, her face an expressionless mask. She was one of the ones that had tried to fight back, he recalled, only stopping when she had been knocked down.
Turning away from her, Lex glanced behind him. A quick gesture and a word of magic were all it took to cast the spell to carry his whispers to his beloved. “Sonata.”
“What? Oh!” Apparently something had been on her mind, because she gave her head a quick shake before she trotted up by his side. Behind her, Scrubby and Band-Aid were grinning, apparently still thrilled about the brief fight that they’d witnessed. Aisle, however, looked rather perturbed. Perhaps he was upset at how thoroughly he’d been duped? Or was he worried that the captured ponies would be made to suffer for what they’d done? Either way, he didn’t seem inclined to share his thoughts, and Lex wasn’t interested enough to inquire as to them. Instead, he turned his attention back to his captives, whispering to Sonata as he announced their fate.
“Okay! So, this is Lex Legis,” she announced, grinning guilelessly as she held out a hoof to indicate him, “and he’s totes in charge of Vanhoover now. He-”
“Are you kidding?!” blurted the fat little stallion.
“Huh?” Sonata paused, the interruption breaking her warmup. “No, why?”
“I’m Piggy Bank!” he announced. When he saw Lex glance at Sonata, who just shrugged in reply, he continued. “My mom, River Bank, ran this town! That means that I’M supposed to be in charge now!”
Sonata snickered at that, but it was Aisle who spoke up. “The Banks were one of the most prominent families in Vanhoover,” he explained. “Along with the McNeighs and the Hoofingfords, they were pretty much the ones who oversaw everything.”
“Huh, that sounds kinda familiar,” mused Sonata. She put a hoof to her chin for a moment, then apparently gave up and turned to Lex. “Didn’t Twilight say something about the three big families not doing a good job of fixing things here after the flood?”
“Wait, Twilight?” This time it was a pegasus that spoke up, the one that Piggy Bank had called Turbo before. “As in, Princess Twilight Sparkle? You know her?”
“Oh yeah, are you kidding? We-” She stopped abruptly as Lex’s whispers reached her ear. “Um, she and her fellow princesses formally ceded control of Vanhoover to Lex,” she said, enunciating carefully enough to make it obvious that she was repeating what she had been told. “From now on, this city is under his sole authority.”
“But that-” Piggy Bank’s protest was cut off as Lex glared at him, his eyes flaring green and purple. It was enough to make Piggy’s sudden burst of indignant courage vanish, and he quieted down.
Sonata spoke up again as Lex fed her more lines. “Now, as ruler, Lex is in charge of the well-being of everypony in Vanhoover, and that totes includes you guys!” Another warm smile crossed her face as she looked at them. “He totes understands that you’ve had it super hard, and that you might have had to do bad things to survive up ‘til now, but it’s all gonna be okay from now on. So! You guys are now officially part of our group!” She stood up on her hind legs and threw her forelegs wide, as though welcome them into a theme park. “We have food and shelter and supplies, and we’ll totes share. But no more doing bad stuff! From now on you’re all good ponies again, ‘kay?” She fell back down onto all fours as she finished, and gave Lex a smile, proud of the job she’d done turning his boring proclamation into something that sounded warm and welcoming. For his part, Lex fought to keep from rolling his eyes.
The captured ponies seemed nonplussed, staring at the two of them in frank disbelief. They weren’t the only ones, as Scrubby stepped forward. “Hang on, are you sure about this?” He gave Lex an incredulous look. “These guys were ready to kill us and do Celestia-knows-what to everypony else, and you’re just going to welcome them in with open hooves?”
“W-we weren’t going to kill anypony!” spoke up Turbo suddenly. “We just said all of that stuff to make you guys give up without a fight, honest! We were just going to take your food and leave!”
“You say that now,” muttered Band-Aid, looking at Aisle for support.
But the other stallion was shaking his head. “I disagree. I think that letting them in is the right decision.”
“You can’t be serious!” blurted Scrubby. “Aisle, they had knives to our throats!”
“I saw the look on your face, Scrubby,” countered Aisle quietly. “You weren’t in any real danger and you knew it.”
“That was because he was there!” Scrubby pointed at Lex.
“And he’ll be here now.” Aisle still didn’t raise his voice, speaking plainly. “If we throw these ponies out, who’ll be there for them?” When neither answered, he continued. “I know you guys are worried, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried too, but…” He paused, struggling to find the right words. “But being here when it all happened, and after it happened…being scared and hungry and desperate for so long…” He screwed up his face, feeling tears suddenly welling up. “It…there are no good choices, only bad ones. That doesn-, that can’t mean that you’re a bad pony.” For a moment he seemed to want to say more, but then shook his head and looked away, rubbing his hoof across his eyes.
No one seemed to know what to say after that, and after a long moment Lex whispered again. Sonata gave him a sidelong glance, then spoke up. “Listen, why don’t you guys take our new friends to the shelter? I’m, like, sure the doctors will want to check them out. We’ll be along with food in a few minutes.” As she finished, Lex gave her a sharp look. He’d told her to have the others lead the newcomers to the shelter, but he had NOT said anything about staying behind!
The ponies slowly filtered out. Most of them stole glances at Lex and Sonata as they passed them, still uncertain about their sudden good fortune after the one-sided fight they’d been through, but a few mumbled words of thanks. Fencer, her features still as hard as stone, was the last to leave, giving Lex another long stare before she departed. “Geez, she was really giving you the stink eye, wasn’t she?” frowned Sonata. “I bet she’ll be trouble, for realsies.”
“When I accepted the idea of you being my spokespony,” Lex spoke abruptly, “it was with the implicit understanding that you would parse the phrasing of my words, not their meaning. So why are we apparently hanging back here instead of supervising our new ‘friends’ to make sure they seamlessly reintegrate into civilized society?”
Sonata turned so that she was facing him directly. “You said that word before, you know.”
Lex frowned in confusion. “What word?”
“Friends.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Before, back when we were fighting the kraken.” Sonata smiled gently. “Cloudbank had just been sucked into that tornado, and I was saying that we should retreat, and you said, and I quote, ‘I will never give up on my friends.’”
Lex’s eyes widened, a look of disbelief crossing his face. “I said no such thing!”
“Did too.” Her serene expression didn’t change. “Maybe nopony else heard it, but I did. You think of everypony here as your friend, and you should tell them that, because I’d bet this tattoo on my butt-”
“It’s a cutie mark!”
“-that they’ll say they feel the same way about you.” She continued as though she hadn’t heard his indignant interruption. “And no, that won’t ruin your tough guy, fearless leader image, Mr. Grouchy Pants.” She winked at him as she threw that last line out there, seeing the sour expression that he’d adopted in regards to her advice. She turned away then, knowing he’d need time to stew over what she’d said. She’d learned the hard way that it was better to let him think about something rather than press him for an immediate concession. And she could tell he was thinking about it, the way he frowned and looked away with narrowed eyes. Smiling, she headed back towards the shelter…then stopped, as she couldn’t resist tossing one last thought over her shoulder before she left.
“Also, seeing you kick all those ponies’ flanks without breaking a sweat like that? Super sexy.”
Lex allows the defeated ponies to join his group unconditionally, with a heartfelt plea from Aisle smoothing over the discontent that causes.
Was that the right choice? Or are things about to get worse in a different way?
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Ho boy... I wonder if there are any other remnants of the three families left alive and waiting to cause problems, however minor? I get the feeling Lex is gonna be wishing he could use Piggy as ghoul bait soon enough. Sounds like a nastier male version of Diamond Tiara.
8211623 It's hard to imagine that everypony that had a stake in Vanhoover's old system is gone. Right now, Lex is bringing relief to a city that desperately needs it, but you have to wonder just how smoothly things will go when he transitions from "savior" to "ruler." Certainly Piggy didn't seem too wild about the idea.
Something about that unicorn mare... do we have an Everglow native in the mix?
Figured he'd allow the would be raiders to join the group, which isn't surprising since he did come here to save everyone. Though what were the chances that a member of Vanhoover's ruling family being part of the raiding party. Wonder if he'll use them in the eventual recovery effort or do away with them due to them being part of the old way of running Vanhoover that left the city in its current state.
Of course, that's provided they actually stay with Lex's group.
Having Aisle vouch for Piggy Bank and his group gave us a glimpse at what he and the others might have done to survive before Lex's arrival, followed by him tearing up was a nice touch. Actually tugged my heartstrings a little.
Fencer, as Sonata mentioned, could be trouble and given how quickly she gave up after simply being knocked down shows she wasn't putting her all into the fight, or that she knew it would be pointless to continue to fight when Lex became a shadow. This shows she's perceptive and her looking at Lex is probably her looking for weaknesses.
While Kiki's theory is sound and most likely to be true, I'm going for something simpler and say she's just a guard who became part of Piggy's group after the disaster or she's working for Block Party's group as a spy though the latter sounds a bit farfetched given the circumstances.
Regardless, I'm interested to see what you'll reveal about her and the new additions to the group in later chapters.
P.s:Sonata teasing Lex was just so fun to read. Mr Grouchy Pants...hehe.
Looks like The Families survived, but just how much spankings will Lex have to dole out to get the kids back in line.
8211782 At this point, Fencer seems to be playing her cards very close to her chest. Hopefully we’ll get more of a read on her as time goes on.
8212152 That is the real question. After all, to paraphrase Karl von Clausewitz, politics is the continuation of war by other means.
8211977 Lex considers himself a practical realist, and would be quick to say that he’ll do what he has to in order to accomplish his goals, but that’s only because he takes it as going without saying that there are moral guidelines in place governing what’s allowable and what’s not. For all that he seems cold and callous, he won’t throw ponies away even if he has no use for them. That doesn’t mean that he’ll respect their wishes, however. As such, what becomes of Piggy is likely to be determined by what Piggy can bring to the metaphorical table...if he throws in with Lex at all, as you noted.
Aisle’s take on the situation was a rebuke to the idea that Scrubby and Band-Aid were unknowingly pushing: that how people react to overwhelming circumstances shows you what sort of people they really are. That might be true, but Aisle was refuting that such a thing was a moral judgment. People who lack the ability to overcome severe hardships, and so have to compromise on their morals and principles in order to survive them, aren’t bad people; weak, perhaps, but not bad. In that regard, he’s pretty clearly speaking from experience.
As for Fencer...yeah, she’s a mystery. At this point there’s no way of knowing what’s going on behind that steely-eyed gaze of hers.
Sonata, meanwhile, continues to act as Lex’s better half. No longer afraid of him at all, and thoroughly smitten (as he is with her), she’s the only one who can relate to him with any ease. Hopefully he’ll realize that she is, once again, offering him good advice.
No typos. It would seem that one last chapter didn't come with Piggy, otherwise we would have a few more in this warehouse.
Based on this story's history, things are about to get worse.
8382738
It's funny how that works, isn't it?