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.
Everypony was quiet as Princess Luna led Silhouette away. A few seconds later, after a moment of quiet conference, Princess Celestia and Sonata headed off in a different direction, the latter pausing to give a worried look back at Lex before she let herself be ushered off. With no other orders, the remaining members of the Royal Guard stood down, moving out of the way to wait for the princesses’ return. For several long moments the tense silence remained, until it was shattered by a jubilant cry.
“We did it!”
Fruit Crunch didn’t even try to moderate joy in his tone, almost giddy as he made his way over to his friends. “How awesome are we?!” he laughed. “We really did save the day!”
“That was the coolest thing ever!” cheered Cleansweep, flying a quick loop-de-loop in excitement. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe we did that! Can you guys believe we did that?!”
“No,” muttered Feathercap dazedly, sinking to the ground as his tension finally started to ebb. “I didn’t think our plans would work.”
“Aw, c’mon,” smiled Fiddlesticks, giving him a friendly nudge. “Those were your plans after all.”
“And they were good ones, too,” added Straightlace. “The way you had a backup plan and a backup backup plan? That was brilliant!”
Feathercap turned red at the praise, an embarrassed smile coming to his lips. “Ah, no. I didn’t really do anything. I just thought that we should use everyone’s ideas together, was all.”
Fiddlesticks shook her head at that, unable to help but admire the little guy’s modesty. When Silhouette and his guards had moved in, clearly intent on disrupting Lex’s spell, the Knights had started arguing about what they should do. She’d wanted to run and get the princesses, while Fruit Crunch had been eager to run right out there and go after Silhouette, and Straightlace and Cleansweep had thought they should try and rescue Lex’s girlfriends (the word in camp being that the blonde mare was his girlfriend now too, for some reason). Feathercap had been the one to turn all that into a real plan of action, adding in him trying to yank Sonata’s gag off if Cleansweep and Straightlace failed. We wouldn’t have been able to do anything if he hadn’t put all the pieces together the way he did, she knew. Who’d have thought he’d be able to do that?
A moment later, her thoughts were echoed aloud by the last pony she would have expected. “Don’t sound so humble, you did a really great job with that!”
Fiddlesticks blinked owlishly, turning her head to look at Fruit Crunch. Had he actually just said something nice?! She wasn’t the only one who was shocked either; Straightlace was open-mouthed, and Feathercap looked nonplussed. Cleansweep, however, was grinning so wide that it had to be making her face ache. “I…I did?” stuttered Feathercap, clearly not sure if the other colt was being serious.
Fruit Crunch nodded, his joyous expression undiminished. “Absolutely! We all did!” He held out a hoof then, the same one that Severance had scarred earlier in the evening. “Night Mare’s Knights forever!” he yelled happily.
“Night Mare’s Knights forever!” echoed Cleansweep, touching her hoof to his. She did so at an angle, rather than meeting it directly, giving an expectant look at the rest of them.
Feathercap was the first one to recover, climbing to his hooves as a shaky grin crossed his lips. “N-Nightmare’s Knights forever,” he offered tentatively, touching a hoof to Cleansweep and Fruit Crunch’s.
The sight sent a warm feeling through Fiddlesticks’ chest, and she couldn’t have stopped smiling even if she wanted to, transferring Tiddlywinks to her back as she went over to clop hooves the others. “Night Mare’s Knights forever.”
Straightlace was smiling too as he reached out to do the same. “Night Mare’s Knights forev-”
“CLEANSWEEP!”
The filly in question had just enough time for her eyes to widen before a pegasus mare swooped out of the air and snatched her into a crushing hug. “Are you alright?!” fretted Feather Duster, turning her daughter every which way to examine her for injuries. “I should have been here sooner but I fainted dead away when I saw you doing something so dangerous! Does it hurt anywhere? Do you need a doctor? I don’t have any bits, but I’m sure we could-”
“Mo-om!” yelled Cleansweep, imbuing the word with two syllables before finally managing to extricate herself from her mother’s grasp. “I’m fine!”
“You should probably be asking those guards if they’re okay, Mrs. Duster,” laughed Fruit Crunch. “The way she tackled them was enough to knock all three of them down! Just boom! Like bowling pins!”
But Feather Duster wasn’t amused by the comparison, glaring at the jovial colt. “And I can guess whose idea it was to make my daughter into a living bowling ball, Fruit Crunch!”
The colt in question wasn’t fazed by the rebuke, however, having received this particular lecture more than once. “Actually-”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” came a new voice. “But if it wasn’t for your daughter and her friends, we might not be here right now. They saved us all.”
Feather Duster and the Knights turned to regard the pony speaking, the former frowning as she did so. “You’re…?”
“Nosey Newsy,” smiled the blonde mare cordially, silently thanking Sonata for using her calming magic on her again before she’d gone off with Princess Celestia. “I’m a reporter for the Canterlot Chronicle. And I have to say, these five are the bravest foals I’ve ever met. If they hadn’t stopped that Silhouette guy, he’d have disrupted Lex’s spell, and that would have caused a disaster for sure. It’s thanks to them that we’re alright.”
Each of the Knights lit up at the praise, with Cleansweep shooting her mother a hopeful look. “You see, Mom? Crunchy didn’t-”
But Feather Duster cut her off before she could finish. “We’ll discuss this later, sweetheart.” Her mother’s tone made Cleansweep wilt, knowing full well that they wouldn’t discuss it later. Oblivious to her daughter’s distress, Feather Duster frowned at Nosey. “Miss Newsy, I apologize for asking something so personal when we’ve just met, but do you have any children?”
The question caught Nosey by surprise, making her blink. “Wh-, me? I-, no. No, I’ve never even-, no.”
“Well,” replied Feather Duster frostily, “if you ever do, then you can lecture me about how I should treat my little girl. But until you know what it’s like to see your only child…your precious baby fling herself into danger…” She choked up, tears gathering in her eyes as her lip quivered.
“Mom…” This time Cleansweep’s voice was a mixture of guilt and exasperation.
Sniffling, Feather Duster fought to keep her composure, wrapping a foreleg around her daughter in a protective hug. But even as she did so, she turned her face to Fruit Crunch, her features darkening. “And as for you, I don’t want you hanging around my daughter anymore.” The colt’s eyes widened at that, and Cleansweep gave an alarmed grunt, straining against her mother’s grasp again, but this time Feather Duster refused to let her go. “You’ve always been a bad influence, but this went way beyond your usual pranks or antics! Until you shape up, I don’t want you anywhere near Cleansweep!” With that, she turned and flapped her wings, flying back toward the camp, her daughter’s wails of protest fading in their wake.
Fruit Crunch watched them go, his jaw slack. “You’ve gotta be kidding me…”
Nosey and Feathercap both seemed at a loss for words. For her part, Fiddlesticks grimaced, feeling unexpectedly sorry for Fruit Crunch. “Look…she probably didn’t mean it.” But it sounded lame even to her.
Thankfully, Straightlace had some words of wisdom to share. “My dad says that when somepony’s upset, sometimes the best thing you can do is give them some time to calm down. I bet that if you go talk to her tomorrow-”
“Ahem.”
The faux-cough, and the masculine voice it belonged to, made Straightlace freeze in place, his eyes widening. A moment later, he turned around. “Dad?!”
Nosey and the other foals turned, seeing a pegasus stallion with the same off-white coat as Straightlace, his plain brown mane and tail looking like a darker reflection of his son’s green hair, and his cutie mark was of a rather drab-looking black bowtie. Frowning behind his mustache, his words were nevertheless gentle as he spoke. “Son, we need to talk.”
“Hold on!” Nosey couldn’t help but take a step forward, aghast that another one of these kids’ parents was going to chastise them for saving everypony! “Your son is a hero! He-”
“Miss Newsy,” interjected the stallion. He smiled, not unkindly, at her obvious surprise that he knew her name. “I overheard everything you said a minute ago while I was talking to the guards,” he said with a nod back at where the golden-clad stallions were standing. “I’m Straight Arrow, Straightlace’s father. I’m grateful that you want to stick up for my son and his friends, but at the same time I have to add that that filly’s mother wasn’t entirely wrong.” He turned his attention back to Straightlace then, giving him a look of mild disappointment. “Son, what were you thinking, attacking members of the Royal Guard?”
“But they were putting everypony in danger!” protested Straightlace. His other friends nodded at that, moving to stand next to him. “You always told me that if we see somepony in trouble, we should try to help!”
But Straight Arrow’s expression didn’t change. “I’ve also told you that fighting is what happens when you’ve run out of good ideas. Instead of tackling those guards, why didn’t you try talking to them?”
Straightlace looked ready to protest, but Nosey beat him to the punch. “We tried talking to them, Sonata and me! It didn’t work! Even if they were willing to listen, that Silhouette guy wasn’t! He cast a silence spell to make sure we couldn’t!”
Straight Arrow gave her that same disappointed look that he’d given his son moments ago, shaking his head sadly. “He did that after your friend used her magic to try and force everyone to do things her way. If she hadn’t escalated the conflict, he might have been more open to listening to what you had to say.”
For a second Nosey couldn’t even come up with a response, flabbergasted. “You can’t be serious!”
“I’m very serious. Ever since the three tribes of ponies came together, we’ve worked to resolve our differences with harmony, not violence. Everything that’s happened since Vanhoover flooded has shown us that we need to work together, not fight amongst ourselves.” He turned his sad gaze back toward Straightlace. “While you all were congratulating each other, I spoke with the members of the Royal Guard. They’ve agreed that since nopony was hurt, and the princesses don’t seem to be upset, they’re not going to charge anyone. But if things had gone even slightly differently, you could very well be a criminal right now, Straightlace. Is that the sort of pony you want to grow up to be?”
Recoiling at how let down his father sounded, Straightlace struggled to come up with an answer. “I…I was just trying to save everypony…”
But he didn’t get a chance to say anything else as Fruit Crunch moved in front of him, glaring at Straight Arrow. “You know what? Nuts to you, pal! Those guys were putting us all in danger, and Straightlace helped us stop them, and the only thing you can do is talk down to him for it?!” He sneered up at the older stallion then. “I don’t know why he quotes you all the time, because you quite clearly don’t know anything. Sometimes getting your hooves dirty is the right thing to do!”
Straight Arrow gave him a look of pity in response. “I’m sorry that you’ve been raised to believe that.” Then, with one last look at his son, he turned and walked away, heading back toward the camp.
A stricken expression spread across Straightlace’s face. “Listen, thanks for saying all that, but I gotta go,” he muttered, before breaking into a gallop. “Dad! Dad, wait up!” But the older stallion didn’t so much as glance back at his son’s pleading, leaving Straightlace running after his father.
Hanging his head, Feathercap’s mournful statement perfectly captured what had become of the formerly-jubilant atmosphere. “So much for forever…”
The Knights' parents throw cold water on their victory, threatening to break up their organization.
Will the foals overcome this new obstacle, or is this as far as their group goes?
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Grief stricken parent interrupt our regular programming. It will be back in a few days.
Welp, seems that I was wrong with the Knights getting away scott free and it seems the Knights have been split up for the time being, permanently if the parents have anything to say about it but with children being children(and if the CMC are anything to go by), I doubt they'll go along without some kicking and screaming(possibly literally)...well, except for Straightlace. They'll probably need to convince him to defy his father.
Still, regardless of the good the Knights did, I gotta side with the parents on this one, when something dangerous happens, I'd want to keep my loved ones as far away from said danger as possible for their own good, even if them heading towards the danger did help. With that in mind, the parents will likely be horrified and outraged if and when they learn that their foals have been intentionally scarring themselves to learn from the scary floating scythe. Even if Fruit Crunch was the only one getting scarred,
Putting that aside, the fact that Luna and Celestia left with Silhouette and Sonata in separate directions is worrisome as it would allow Silhouette to color Luna's views of the event. Of course, I hope you aren't planning to do what the show did in both Over a Barrel and Sounds of Silence. Then again, the princesses have been around for a long time and I doubt they'd butt heads over different viewpoints.
Addendum:I just realized that Fruit Crunch's views on taking action when compared to when he tried to intervene with Block Party's decision to raid the farms. Either Severance's lessons are taking root or it's the demon's conditioning.
This chapter made me annoyed for some reason...
I cant really be mad at the Parents, they just want to protect their children. And seeing their children behaving reckless (no matter how needed such action might be) of course they are gonna be frightened and angry at them.
I cant be mad at the children, They saw someone in trouble and although they would be at a great disadvantage, they still had the courage to face the danger to help those who needed it.
I cant be mad at Nosey or Sonata, They did try to tell the soldiers of the possible danger. And if you see someone who is about to cause pain for not only them self, but possible for everyone else. your self preservationist instinct cant help but be triggered.
I cant even be mad at that fanatic soldier, Soldiers are by definition trained to follow orders. And getting orders directly from a princess is hard to ignore.
I cant be mad at the other camp members...although I feel they could have been more supportive when they saw that they saviors were in trouble.
I can not blame them for wanting to stay out of this confrontation.
So... although it pains me to do so... That only leaves me with one choice... Luna.
Seriously Luna... I know you are an official god and everything... But when you train a soldier (especially of higher rank), then they should also know when NOT to follow an order blindly.
Why does this sum this chapter up
Into a 30 minutes
Congratulations, this one story is now longer than all of LOTR!
The Royal Guard shouldn't HAVE any authority to charge anyone, since the Princesses put Lex in charge of the city, that should place it outside their jurisdiction. Also completely disagree with Straightlace's dad. While I can understand the parental viewpoint of not wanting their kids in danger, as Nosey pointed out, talking had been tried, but Silhouette had shown he was still going to do something that would get people killed regardless. Sometimes, there ISN'T any non-violent solution, especially when the other person isn't willing to listen to reason.
9325544
The thing is, Silhouette wasn't really following orders. He was looking for any excuse to start a fight where he could justify putting Lex down, because in truth he doesn't really have faith in Luna. If he did, he would have trusted in the Sisters' decisions regarding him. Instead, he took it upon himself to 'correct her mistake' by killing Lex himself, because his zealotry won't allow for anyone disagreeing with his (Demi)Goddess, despite what Luna herself might say.
parents never listen.
i am so glade i was not one of them i always allowed my kids to fully explain things.
At least now they have a good idea of which parents to keep an eye on and talk to, because thats a big set up for a couple of extremely criminal mentalities of theyre not careful.
9325484 At least Cleansweep and Straightlace have parents that are alive to fuss over them. You'll notice that the other three didn't have anypony rushing out of the crowd for them.
9326806
While that doesn't necessarily mean they don't have them, given the circumstances...
Still, if that's all the parents can possibly say about what their foals did, they are certainly not the best.
9325500 It's not unexpected that no parent would want their children getting involved in something dangerous. Even if they unequivocally saved the day, it's hard not to wish that they were nowhere near harm and/or didn't have to do anything you disapprove of in order to win. At that point, I suspect that it's unsurprising that Feather Duster and Straight Arrow both took a stance of "I don't ever want you doing anything like this ever again" with regard to their respective children.
As for whether or not the Knights have been permanently disbanded, we'll have to wait and see, but so far the only one who looks like he might need to be talked out of something is Straightlace, who quite clearly idolizes his father. Cleansweep clearly doesn't appreciate her mother butting in (even if she felt guilty over making her cry), and the other three don't seem to have parents anymore. Hopefully, no one will blab about what they've been doing with Severance, though. Fortunately, they seem to have realized that needs to remain a secret a few chapters back. Let's hope they keep it that way.
As for how the princesses interpret what their respective witnesses tell them...well, we'll also have to sit back and see how that goes. However, given that Luna has already accepted SIlhouette's worship in the first place, that might be a bit of a clue right there. But I'll say no more on that for now.
With regard to Fruit Crunch, I suspect that he's thinking more along the lines of "somepony needed to knock Block Party's block off." That is, he's decided that sometimes violence is the answer. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's saying it should be the first answer.
9326810 It's true that the other three's parents might be alive somewhere else; a lot of ponies did make it out of the city.
As for the two parents we did see, I suspect that they're acting from a place of emotion, since they just saw their children fly (literally) into danger when they've already lost quite a lot in the wake of Vanhoover's flooding.
9326819
Dancing around to avoid giving spoilers. I NEED MOAR.
9325544 Your comment made me smile; it's great to hear that everyone was sympathetic in their own way, since I take that as an indication that I was able to make them relatable. I'm aware that Luna is the exception at this point, since there's an open question as to how someone as pleasant as she is - and as smart, since she's certainly no fool - would want somepony like Silhouette as a worshiper. I intend to answer that question fairly soon.
As for Silhouette himself...the previous few chapters drop some hints regarding why he acted the way he did, which largely boil down to religious fanaticism. He'd made a suggestion that he bring Lex to the princesses, rather than them going to him, presumably because he wanted to do something for his goddess. He then decided to follow that through even in the face of a potential disaster, which I suspect he also took as an opportunity to show off (i.e. to suffer for the sake of his faith). Notice that he did have the other guards move everypony back before he tried to disrupt Lex's spell too. That, and he refused to be swayed, quickly moving to counter anyone who stood in his path. Overall, his downfall was being overzealous, more than anything else.
9326821 Oh, there will be. Why, I suspect there'll be another chapter in two days!
9325881 I confess, I didn't watch the entire video to see precisely where the similarity was. Apologies.
9325891 Thanks! Though according to this source, Lateral Movement surpassed that trilogy a while ago. In fact, it's currently closing in on exceeding the word count for Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the Silmarillion combined!
9326184 The issue of whether or not this is really Lex's territory is one that has yet to receive a clear answer. The Royal Sisters basically said "Vanhoover is a disaster; we know you have big plans, so how about going to fix it?" Given that there was no further clarification, let alone written declaration of who now had authority over the region, it's anyone's guess who has supreme authority there now. Lex (who is fully aware of the ambiguity) no doubt holds that it's him; I suspect that Luna and Celestia would see it differently (insomuch as they care about exercising their authority at all). But the Royal Guard? Well, I don't really see them as being very deep thinkers, so my guess is that they're going to assume this is just another part of Equestria until and unless somepony tells them otherwise.
...which might happen soon, after Lex finishes that ritual and gets a chance to react to what Silhouette tried to do.
9326263 It's the nature of parents to try and protect their children, and the nature of children to eventually come to feel smothered by that.
9326450 Honestly, Feather Duster and Straight Arrow don't seem like they'll be major problems for anyone of significance going forward; they're normal parents in an abnormal situation. The same can't be said for some other parents...
Ouch. Straightlace seems fairly insightful. Though he may be overestimating Silhouette's ability to see reason.
What's interesting is, I'm pretty sure Lex heard that whole conversation, it happened right in front of his ritual, and from previous chapters he seems to be able to hear and pay some attention to the wider world, even as he continues the ritual. Will he figure out that Severance is involved in the Night Mare's Knights? We will have to see.
9327416 I think you mean Straight Arrow, Straightlace's dad. But otherwise, yeah, he does seem to be giving Silhouette the benefit of the doubt there. But was he right to say everything that he did to his son?
As for Lex, it seems likely that he heard that, as you noted. If so, then I wonder what his reaction to what happened is? We may find out soon...
9329062
I don't know, I don't have kids anymore than Nosey does!