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.
Peachy Keen could feel her heart breaking as she looked at Spit Polish.
“You don’t understand!” he had said only a few moments ago. “I was trying to protect everypony!” Those words – his confession that he really had tried to kill that other pony, the one who had given them hope for the first time in weeks – echoed in her ears, replaying over and over. With each remembrance, anger and sadness washed over her, as bad as when she’d lost her parents in those terrible days after the floodwaters had receded.
No, this is worse, she decided. Losing her parents had been awful, but watching her oldest friend slowly turn himself into a monster had been even more horrible to watch. The pony she had grown up with had been funny and kind, always talking about opening his own shoe store one day and rushing to clean up any messy hoofwear that caught his eye. One of her happiest memories had been the time he’d made a set of boots for Sprinkles, her dog, and they’d laughed themselves silly when the beagle had taken one look at them and immediately tried to bury them in the backyard. As recently as six months ago, she’d been teasing him about how it was the nature of boots to always get dirty no matter how often they were cleaned, to which he’d simply laughed and said that was why his talents would always be needed. But now…
“P-Peachy, please…” Laying on his belly few dozen feet in front of her, Spit Polish reached a bloody hoof out towards her, a desperate look on his face. “I did it for you. For you and everypony here. I only wanted-, the only thing I’ve ever wanted is to help-”
“SHUT UP!” she screamed, so loudly that she felt her throat ache. His words tore at her heart, and she couldn’t bear to hear anymore. “I SAID SHUT UP!” She lowered her face to the ground, unable to stop herself from sobbing for a moment, lifting her head only when she’d regained a measure of control over herself. “‘Help’?!” she asked him incredulously. “You want to help?! You just tried to murder somepony!” She pointed at the shadow that other mare had said was Lex. “He came here with doctors and food and was making things better and you tried to kill him! And you say you want to help?!” She felt almost nauseous, as though all the food she’d just eaten was going to come rushing back up, but she didn’t – she couldn’t – stop. “Is this the same help you gave those ponies you threw rocks at when they tried to leave Vanhoover?! The same help you gave those farmers when you stole their food?! What about the help you gave those ponies that made Block Party angry?! Were you helping when you beat them up on his orders?!”
“It was necessary!” Spit Polish’s voice was still begging her to understand. “Desperate times required desperate measures! I didn’t like doing any of those things, but they had to be done!” He waved his injured hoof at the crowd. “If I didn’t help the commander keep discipline here, things would have completely fallen apart, and all of Equestria would have been like this!”
“You’re wrong! Why can’t you see that?!” She wished he’d get angry at her, that he’d scream curses at her and act hateful and cruel like somepony else altogether. That would have been easier than listening to him the way he was now, still recognizably her best friend even as he tried to persuade her that what he’d done was acceptable. “We could have found another way! It didn’t have to be like this!”
“Yes it did!” yelled Spit Polish. “YES IT DID! If there was any other way the commander would have done it! I would have done it, but there wasn’t! We did what we had to do for the good of Equestria, and we weren’t wrong!”
He really believes that… Peachy wanted to scream at him to shut up again, to cover her ears and shake her head and make him stop saying those things, but suddenly she didn’t have the energy. For a moment the world swayed dangerously, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she almost collapsed, a single thought filling her mind then: I can’t do this anymore.
She had been trying to stop Spit Polish from going down this road for a long time. She’d tried many times to reason with him, to tell him that what Block Party was doing was wrong, but he hadn’t listened. She’d tried to comfort him in those increasingly rare moments when he’d admitted to feeling guilty about what he’d done in the other stallion’s service, hoping that she’d be able to persuade him to stop, but it had always been in vain. She’d even offered her own services to Block Party, hoping to replace Spit Polish and so prevent him from having to do anymore awful things. But that plan had failed spectacularly when she hadn’t been able to bring herself to attack ponies trying to leave the city, earning herself a severe beating at Block Party’s hooves. When Spit Polish had found out what happened, she’d briefly hoped that he’d finally see what a monster his “commander” was. But although she’d seen the conflict in her old friend’s eyes, the only thing he’d said to her was “you shouldn’t have made him angry.” It had filled her with shock and disappointment at the time, but that was nothing compared to now.
When she opened her eyes a moment later, her only response to Spit Polish was a mournful look. She wanted to say so many things to him in that moment – that she was sorry she hadn’t been able to save him, that it terrified her that he’d become someone so different from the pony she knew, that it hurt too much for her to keep reaching out to him – but she couldn’t find it within herself to do so. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the freestanding shadow that was Lex Legis. For a brief moment she couldn’t help but appreciate the irony that a pony who looked as unintimidating as Spit Polish would do such grotesque things, while the pony who had changed into such an intimidating form had done so much for them while asking for nothing in return. Maybe that’s what Equestria’s become now, she thought tiredly, though the significance of that was more than she could bring herself to dwell on at the moment.
Instead, she took a single step forward. “Lex Legis,” she called, though she needn’t have bothered, since all eyes were already on her. “My name is Peachy Keen. I’ve known Spit Polish all my life, and I just…I wanted to say-”
“If you’re going to ask me to show him leniency,” interrupted Lex, his eyes narrowing, “then y-”
“No, I’m not.” Peachy shook her head wearily. “I just wanted to say that, whatever you do to him…he deserves it.”
A stricken look crossed Spit Polish’s face at that, but Peachy Keen didn’t see it, turning and walking away. “Peachy!” he called after her, his voice almost a sob. “Peachy, you can’t do this!” He tried to crawl after her, but was barely able to move, dragging himself forward along the ground with his undamaged foreleg. “Peachy, please, don’t! You know me!”
“I used to. I don’t anymore.” Her voice only barely carried to his ears as she walked away, the crowd parting like water before her. “Goodbye, Spit.”
He screamed her name one last time, then, and although she didn’t show any outward sign of having heard it, she knew that the sound would follow her for a very long time.
“Wow…”
Sonata wasn’t sure what else to say as Peachy left, glancing at where the orange mare had disappeared into the crowd before turning her eyes back to Spit Polish. He had buried his face in his forelegs, weeping bitterly. And I thought me and Lex had problems, she grimaced, before turning back to look at her boyfriend. “So, um, what now?”
Lex was silent for a long moment. He wanted to simply curse the wretched pony right there, but as much as he loathed the sight of that pathetic stallion, he couldn’t ignore what he knew was the moral course of action to take in such circumstances. “Use your magic to put him to sleep, and then have the doctors drag him to the medical tent and patch him up. When they’re done, I want him thrown in that cage that we used to transport Garden Gate here. Until then, tell C. Shells to have some of her crew stand guard over him while the doctors patch him up. I won't have him waking up and attacking anypony else before he's imprisoned.”
Sonata blinked at that, tilting her head. “Um, C. Shells isn’t here. She went into Vanhoover with Cloudbank and the others.”
Lex’s eyes widened just slightly, before turning upward, cursing as he noticed the position of the sun. “They weren’t supposed to leave before I had a chance to speak to them again! There were other preparations I wanted to make!”
“Aw, don’t stress out over it,” shrugged Sonata. “They looked super prepared already, plus I used some magic to help them out. And besides, Cloudbank had Severance with her, so I bet they’ll be fine.” She gave him a reassuring smile before singing a brief spell, glancing at the crying Spit Polish as she did. A moment later his weeping trailed off as the tension went out of his body, passing out as her magic took hold. Satisfied, she looked back at Lex, canting her head toward the medical tent. “I’m gonna go fetch those doctors.” She didn’t wait for him to respond before turning and trotting off, humming to herself happily. That all went great! After how bad everything had gone since they’d arrived in the camp, it was about time that things started to turn arou-
“Sonata.”
She paused in mid-trot as she heard him call her name, turning back to glance at him. “What’s up?”
“As soon as the doctors collect this pathetic excuse for a pony, I want you to come to my tent.” He floated closer to her then, his green eyes filled with displeasure. “Spit Polish isn’t the only pony that needs to be punished for what they’ve done.”
She winced at that, biting her lip as she folded her ears back. So much for things turning around.
Nosey watched silently as the crowd began to disperse, talking amongst themselves about what they’d just witnessed. From what she could overhear, virtually all of them were of the opinion that Spit Polish was getting what he deserved. None of them seemed to think that Lex had gone overboard; quite the contrary, the sight of several doctors picking up the defeated stallion and taking him into the medical tent seemed to cement that he wasn’t being unreasonable in his reactions, at least so far.
First the doctors treating everyone here. Then the extravagant banquet this morning. Now this. The atmosphere at the camp was more optimistic than it had been at any time since its founding. For the first time in weeks, the ponies here were daring to believe that their misery was coming to an end, and the despair that had permeated the place was steadily eroding.
That wouldn’t do. That wouldn’t do at all. If this kept up, everything she'd worked for would come undone, and that couldn't be allowed to happen. Fortunately, she knew how to manage the situation. After all, hope was a fickle thing; if it was suddenly snatched away, it could result in a sense of hopelessness even greater than if it had never been there in the first place.
A small smile crossed Nosey’s face as she turned her awareness back towards Cloudbank and the others.
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Still refusing to define the Puppeteer as a seperate entity, so it continues to be just as hidden to the characters?
What a really unfortunate name, especially if he ends up with a couple vegetables.
well there strange things going on.
Nosey is not Nosey so to speak.
Spit Polish i will call him a lemming.
i am starting to wonder when the other show is going to drop.
8589465 Heh, that's a bit of literary sleight of hand. That last section is from the point of view of the character in question, pulling back the metaphorical curtain further and giving us a greater glimpse of what's going on...but since the narration is still presented from their standpoint, there isn't going to be any additional exposition about their nature.
8589566 I've been taking care to slowly reveal things over time, with more and more focus being placed on the remaining threat. Given that we're now getting a glimpse into their desires and motivations, things are moving along quite steadily.
And here I thought Peachy Keen would serve as the lynch pin in pulling Spit Polish back from the brink but any relationship, no matter how deep and meaningful, has its limits. Seeing Peachy abandon Spit feels like something to what could happen to Lex should Sonata fail to steer him in the right direction.
Well, in the sense that Lex does something so monstrous that Sonata would lose faith and abandon him since I can't fathom the idea of someone like Lex behaving like Spit Polish did if he ever ends up fighting someone he can't beat. Lex feels like the type that would try to take his opponent out with him should he know his end is coming. Well, provided he can't pull back and come up with a plan to win like he did with Lirtkra, the Monitor and Aria.
'Nosey's' displeasure at how things are turning for the better for the ponies in the camp. For Block, this would have meant his hold on them would have started to deteriorate but with him gone, that reason is no longer valid. One potential reason to lower the camp's morale is to make them easier to succumb to the ghouls if they come out of the city en masse though given the sorry state of the camp, the camp would have fallen regardless. Of course, with Lex's arrival the result would be different now.
Well, regardless of motivations, I am interested to see how Nosey intends to deal with Cloudbank and the others in Vanhoover. A bunch of ghouls would likely prove no match against Severance in open combat but the ghouls have shown to be quite adept at ambush and scare tactics so far.
8589668 Peachy isn't like Lex and Sonata, or even like Cloudbank and Drafty; she's an ordinary pony, trying to deal with pressure that's far and away beyond what she's equipped to handle. As it stands, she went to great lengths to reach out to Spit Polish, only to fail again and again. This last time was the final straw, and now she's decided that she can't save him, and that further attempts to do so would only hurt her. At this point, she just wants to try and move on, and doesn't have the strength left to try and help someone who doesn't want to be helped.
As for whether or not this was a glimpse of what could happen between Sonata and Lex...well, Sonata herself saw at least some parallel, if only as another pair with a troubled relationship. Hopefully, things will never get that bad, though the fact that they've been through some extremely tough spots so far - include a brief breakup - and are still trying is reason to be hopeful. Of course, given that Lex knows what Sonata did and is apparently about to chastise her puts something of a damper on that.
With regard to Nosey...I'll confess, I was quite nervous writing that last scene. That's because, as Booster Spice noted, this marked the first direct bit of narration regarding her current state, presenting her current outlook and goals unambiguously. In essence, this was something of a partial "reveal," confirming a lot of what had been alluded to before. That seemed appropriate to me, given that previous chapters had successively dropped larger and larger hints about what had happened to her, ending with her recent all-but-admitting (to the readers, at least) that she was responsible for the train not making it through WIndigo Way. Hence, it felt like time to go further...I'm just not sure how that turned out. What do you think?
8589726
Personally, confirming Nosey's current status is all but inevitable given how obvious you made her behave, even with the excuse that she's 'recovering' from Block Party's death. So doing a partial reveal instead of continuing this game of 'Who's the Mastermind!'(Would find it amusing if it's a real thing) could hurt the story.
Of course, with 'Nosey's status confirmed, this indicates that the story is now moving forward for the 'other' side too though unlike Lex, we don't completely know what their goals are aside from keeping the region in a steady decline. Which means one more thing to theorize about until the big reveal.
Though the only idea I have right now is rather cliche as it involves conquering Equestria by undermining its infrastructure from the inside before it invades the nation region by region but that requires the Crown to be blind as bats and slow to react for that to work(Though given how Vanhoover is all but forgotten, this might be viable). Though it would also indicate that 'Nosey' isn't as powerful as she would seem if she needs to do things behind the shadows.
8590405
Problem is...that the Crown being blind as bats and slow to react is EXACTLY the problem. The whole reason that Vanhoover and Tall Tale were as bad as they were was because no one in Canterlot has given a rat's ass about them, and even Cadance's attempt was vastly unprepared for what awaited them. It's pretty much the entire basis of Lex's reasons for doing everything. Also it should be noted that the elemental bleed that caused the whole Vanhoover problem in the first place also wasn't dealt with until Lex did something. It's kinda no wonder he has no respect for Celestia, when she couldn't be bothered to even deal with an effective invasion from another dimension in one of her own cities.
Heck, this is practically canon. I can think of two instances where Celestia actually decided to do something (IE, make someone else handle it) before a bad guy became a major threat (again, in both cases), and not only did the first one (Sombra) only succeed due to a lot of dumb luck, but the second (Tirek), blew up in her face because she trusted the wrong person to deal with it. The rest of the time she usually doesn't (or can't) act until the latest threat is already a threat, and her go to method of dealing things until Twilight came along was to stuff it in a hole and ignore it until she couldn't anymore.
8590405 Some parts of your post confused me. I want to go over this to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.
With regards to Nosey's behavior being obvious, are you referring to this chapter, or her previous quip about "no Way forward" in chapter 171? Or something else altogether? I asked because, prior to that point (if I remember correctly), there was nothing that couldn't potentially have had an alternative explanation. The end of chapter 171 was when we finally received a hint that didn't have any alternative, and leading the way for things being more forthrightly presented here.
See, this is where I'm not sure what you're saying. As this chapter was a "partial reveal," in that it made it obvious that Nosey's the bad guy now, are you saying that this hurt the story?
8590541 You're pretty much exactly correct, though I'll add that it wasn't that no one in Canterlot cared about what happened in Vanhoover per se, but rather a combination of 1) them having bad information, and 2) the Royal Sisters encouraging ponies to work out issues of social conflicts on their own. So when they heard that Vanhoover was having an issue of ponies there fighting (not with violence, but in terms of being angry and disagreeing with each other), they went with their default position of "this is a friendship lesson waiting to happen." Cadance took a slightly more proactive approach, but that was as much about proselytizing as actually helping.
What Lex can't stand about this is that the alicorns have adopted the trappings of a centralized government without actually assuming the responsibilities that go along with it. To his mind, it isn't enough to wait until there's an obvious problem before you do something about it; problems should be preemptively stopped from happening in the first place. To see the princesses do so little - hosting parties, helping with local fundraisers, settling disputes between feuding mayors - when they have so much power and influence strikes him as obscene. To his mind, they should be helping to grow and regulate the economy, creating a strong national defense that will put down threats before they menace the populace, promoting and assisting the formation of infrastructure that will raise and protect the quality of life for the citizenry, and engage with foreign countries to try and advance Equestrian interests (and promote their values) around the world. But instead...they're hosting the Grand Galloping Gala. Again.
To be fair, the Royal Sisters aren't completely unengaged with their country's national issues. We've seen Celestia try to help curb an infestation in Fillydelphia (in season one's Swarm of the Century...even if that infestation apparently wasn't cleaned up until season seven's Daring Done!), she's met with high-ranking members of other countries more than once (delegates from Saddle Arabia in season three's Magic Duel, and the duke and duchess of Maretonia in season four's Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1), and she's taken center stage against some of the threats to Equestria (such as against Chrysalis in season three's A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2).
But overall, these are minor issues compared to some of the wider problems we've seen. There's apparently no taxes (hence why Applejack needs to raise the money to fix the town hall in season two's The Last Roundup), nor are there any social programs that we've ever seen, hence why Sweet Apple Acres' bankruptcy is a recurring plot element in the early seasons (being alluded to in season two's The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, season three's Magical Mystery Cure, and season four's Bats!). While we've seen police (season six's The Gift of the Maud Pie) and other local law enforcement (such as in season five's Appleoosa's Most Wanted), these don't seem to be anything more than very mild-mannered peacekeepers, equipped to deal with nothing worse than accident-prone troublemakers such as Trouble Shoes. The Royal Guard are very clearly unable to handle guarding an empty hallway (season five's Rarity Investigates!), let alone anything as serious as a full-scale invasion (season two's A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 again). Not to mention that dangerous magical relics are apparently sold in stores (season three's Magic Duel again).
Simply put, Lex doesn't so much despite the Royal Sisters for being inept (though they are), but because they don't seem to want to assume the responsibilities that he sees as falling on those who would govern. He cannot and will not forgive them for that.
8590558
Apologies, for that. Let me clear up my muddled wordings(really need to work on that more)
I'm saying that not revealing Nosey's intentions would have hurt the story after how many major hints you've given us after Block's death.
As for Nosey's behavior being obviously being out of place, the first thing that comes to mind is when Aria first found her in that trance like state.(likely checking in on the ponies at Windigo Way or the other side of the circuit) That could have been excused with her recovering from her experience with Block's death. Though at that point, I had assumed that whatever possessed her was simply asserting control over Nosey and nothing else.
Unless that's not what you're asking for?
8590733 Ah, okay. I understand what you meant now.
Thanks for that!
8590541
True, if an entire region could be overlooked then it's just as possible for the Crown to miss the other nearby regions going silent should someone try to conquer the nation without them noticing. I mean Tirek managed to escape Tartarus when Cerberus wandered away from Tartarus in 'It's About Time' in season two so that means that Tirek had been on the loose for quite some time, possibly draining other ponies of their magic until Celestia had her vision of the centaur draining a pony's magic in Canterlot.
While prophetic dreams feel like something cool to have, the fact that it only warned Celestia long after Tirek escaped makes it quite unreliable as a warning system whereas setting up watch posts would have been far more efficient.
Anyways, back to the whole ghoul invasion thing I had set up, it is entirely within reason that the takeover could go entirely unnoticed until either it's too late or someone manages to get away and deliver word directly to the Princesses though I hardly doubt they'll be able to do much since the nation is still recovering from the Elemental Bleeds. But even if that's not the case the most she could do aside from sending Twilight and her friends into the fray(which is probable since some of them have entered and survived the dangers of Everglow) is to marshal the royal guard for battle. I mean, if a bunch of untrained civilians could hold off a large wave of undersea monsters then the guard should be able to at the very least hold the ground against some ghoul for a time while the Mane 6 figure out a plan.
Of course, while the premise is entirely theoretical at this point, I would love it if Lex nipped this problem in the bud and used this to rub their ineptitude to rule the nation in their faces. Then again, Celestia would probably say that since he took care of the problem then there's nothing to worry about which would obviously infuriate Lex to no ends.
I see no typos.
9112490 Excellent.