The chariot set down lightly, the castle well in view. The soft noise of the city could be heard from most directions away from the edge of the city. Twilight stepped off of it with a nod towards the pullers. "Thank you." With a raised hoof, she pointed out the castle. "Here we are. The Princess requested we make our way to her as soon as possible, but if you haven't eaten?"
Sonata thought back. "We ate just before we totally went to that scary place. I'm OK." She looked to Lex for his view.
His response was a curt nod, already focusing on the meeting they were about to have. It idly occurred to him that this was the second time today that he was going to confront a mare that was unpleasantly disposed towards him while also being far more powerful. And just like the last meeting, failure could not be countenanced, not when there was so much at stake.
With that thought in mind, he looked at Sonata, remembering her idea from before. He wasn't sure about the efficacy of it, but his last attempt to negotiate with Celestia directly had failed spectacularly. That and he suddenly found himself wanting to demonstrate how he felt about his new girlfriend.
Turning to Twilight, Lex spoke. "Before we go in, I'm going to cast a spell so that only Sonata will hear my words. She'll speak for me once we're in there, as my spokespony."
Twilight raised no particular objection, but Sonata looked surprised. "You can do that?" Then it struck her again. "You want to do that?" She approached him and wrapped her forelegs around his withers, suddenly hugging him tightly with an obvious delight. "I won't let you down. We'll get around that big fat flank in no time."
"Hey!" objected Twilight then. "She enjoys her cake, but she's not fat."
Lex ignored Twilight, putting a foreleg around Sonata in return. "It's a mutually beneficial merger of talents," he murmured, echoing the words she had used earlier.
Twilight rolled her eyes with a little snort. "When you're ready?" She gestured forward and took a few steps before looking over her shoulder to see when the other two were coming.
Willow wandered the streets of Ponyville. She got plenty of curious looks, and some of them shied away, but most were just curious. The air was clear, with no sign of even fledgling industry in the small town. There were stalls, but they offered locally grown food and fare, and none of them were shouting or screaming. They just sat there with a smile and seemed to get enough business to get them by.
Willow found the train station, and even got a chance to see a train pull in, and then roll away. It didn't ride on a bed of lightning, but it seemed to go faster than the train she knew. She hoped it was safer for not flying, considering her recent luck with them. As she turned to finish her tour, a pony stood in her way. He smiled at her. "Excuse me miss. I can't help but notice you look a little out of place." He had a brown coat of fur, with darker brown mane and tail, blue eyes, and an hourglass for a brand of destiny. "May I be of any assistance?" The ponies of this world were remarkably-inoffensive looking. They were so round and cute and lacked any of the hard edges a real creature should have.
"I'm new to Ponyville," she confessed. "I'm taking in the sights, as it were. This seems like a charming place."
He bobbed his head. "Oh, it is, most certainly..." When she looked away, he pulled out an odd device and pointed it at her. She lashed out a paw, knocking it free of his mouth. "Whoa whoa! It's perfectly harmless, I assure you ma'am."
Willow scowled at the pony. "I don't appreciate having strange things pointed at me. I haven't lived this long by assuming. What is that?"
He moved over to reclaim the device and tucked it away. "Oh, nothing, just a little toy really. I really should be going, but nice meeting you, miss..."
"Longtail."
"Miss Longtail, a true delight." He dipped his head, then fled away. Thankfully no other ponies tried any funny moves on her, except a certain pink pony, but that's another story.
Stepping back from Sonata, Lex chanted a few words and pointed a hoof at Sonata. There was no visible effect, but he seemed satisfied. "With this, we'll clearly hear each other when we whisper, even if we're not right next to each other. You can still speak normally, and the spell won't transmit that. Otherwise, it's just whispering, and can still be overheard."
Sonata bobbed her head, then moved to follow Twilight. "We're ready. There's no way she's going to win today."
Twilight perked an ear. "You're not going to fight with Celestia. You aren't going to 'win' or lose'."
Sonata shook her head at Twilight. "Of course you wouldn't, like, get it Twilight. This is a fight, just without flashy magic and swords and things, and we will win it." She smiled lightly. "Together." She shot Lex a warm look before proceeding.
It took him a moment to catch up, Sonata's words having caught him by surprise. He had known her feelings ever since Kara had coaxed Sonata into admitting them, and he had suspected even before that, but it was only upon hearing her just now that he fully appreciated what that meant.
She was on his side.
It was the simplest, most obvious thought in the world, but it was powerful enough that it had momentarily stopped him in his tracks. The idea that he had somepony that would wholeheartedly support him, that would willingly - even eagerly - help him carry his burdens and fight his battles, was so monumental that it felt like the entire world had just shaken.
It was a good thing that the two mares had walked ahead of him, because that way neither of them caught the grin that spread across Lex's face before he managed to stifle it. All of a sudden he didn't feel like he should be nervous about facing Celestia. Instead, Celestia should be the one that was nervous about facing them.
Trotting quickly to catch up to Sonata, Lex prepared himself for their battle.
The Crusaders departed from Sugarcube, bellies full of sweets, to find a grinning Rainbow Dash waiting for them outside. "Looking good, guys." She tilted her head at them, noticing Sunflower, but her attention could not be held off of Scootaloo for long. She reached out and prodded the younger pegasus in the shoulder. "Race ya to the clocktower." She took off in a streak, and Scootaloo followed without hesitation.
Rainbow didn't put her all into it, wanting to talk to Scootaloo, and remembering that she was slower when she looked like that. "So, how's it feel, getting the wind under your wings for real?"
Scootaloo veered into Rainbow, almost crashing into her. "It feels great! I've been waiting so long to see you again after I could fly. Now we can practice together and you can show me all your awesome tricks! You shoulda been there, we were doing all kinds of crazy things."
"I can't wait to hear about it," said Rainbow with sincerity, carefully nudging against Scootaloo from the side. "We have a lot to catch up on." Her eyes were on Scootaloo from the side, watching the way she flew. Rainbow appreciated the enthusiasm, but could already see so many little things she could start tutoring Scootaloo about, and she would! She brought her hooves together in a loud clop. "We're just getting started."
Back at Sugarcube, Apple Bloom shrugged. "We shoulda seen that comin' a mile away."
Sweetie Belle giggled and grabbed Sunflower. "Let's go to the clubhouse!"
Apple Bloom wobbled a hoof. "We burnt that down, remember? How 'bout we visit Twi and show her our magic?"
Sweetie Belle frowned. "I think I saw her going off somewhere. Oh! Oh! My sister! I haven't checked in with her."
Settled on a course of action, they headed towards Carousel Boutique.
"Well, look who's come strolling in," came a familiar taunting voice.
"And they still don't have their cutie marks," came a second voice, revealed to be Silver Spoon as she emerged from the crowd. "But they do have another friend, and look at that..."
Diamond Tiara snorted. "He doesn't have one either, whatever he is."
"I'm a purrsian," offered Sunflower as he unslung his mace. "And you're a few more words from getting a clobbering right upside your oversized heads."
The bullies cringed back, not quite brave enough to face a hostile alien species. Sweetie moved between the two and Sunflower. "No! My knight must be a gentlecolt, which means no attacking the weak and defenseless, especially not with a weapon when they don't have one."
Diamond Tiara turned red with a new fury. "Who are you calling weak!?"
Silver Spoon stomped in place, throwing a little tantrum. "I am not defenseless!"
Apple Bloom giggled loudly at Sweetie Belle's insult, which only made them all the more furious. "Besides, they ain't nearly so scary without knives."
Diamond Tiara stomped forward. "You don't scare us. Leave it to a bunch of blank flanks to resort to physical violence to get your way." She reached out and prodded Apple Bloom's slung dagger. "What's with the new look? Is there a fair in town?"
Silver Spoon grinned. "Maybe they want to join the guard? The armor would cover up their huge blank flanks!" They shared a laugh together at their barb.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Whateva. Have fun being a pair of stuck-up noponies." She trotted past them, and her friends followed, leaving the mocking bullies behind.
Twilight, Lex, and Sonata arrived in Celestia's throne room, where both Sun and Moon resided, in the form of Celestia and Luna, watching the group curiously.
Sonata strode up purposefully. "A pleasure to meet you, your majesty. It has come to, like, my attention that there was some misunderstandings before, making everything a total bummer."
Celestia cocked a brow, amused by Sonata's mode of speech. "That is one way to speak it. That one." she pointed to Lex. "He is being corrupted by a very foul shadow of the north, and we worry for his own sake."
Luna nodded. "It is a great pleasure to see him come before us of his own will. Does this mean he has come to his senses and will allow us to help him?"
Sonata shook her head firmly. "He is his own man, and he has ideas, big ideas, but, like, a better way about it this time, promise." She reared up and held her hooves apart a little. "We want a chance to show his ways are good, starting small, and working up as it becomes, like, so obvious that it's working better."
Forcing his enthusiasm down, Lex focused on the situation at hand. Normally he would have snarled at the way the alicorn sisters had referred to him, but now he found it easy to ignore their condescension. Instead he whispered softly, letting the spell carry his words to Sonata's ears. "Remind them that Twilight has read the works that I left her and found merit in them."
Sonata inclined her head faintly. "Even the well-read and unarguably intelligent Princess Twilight has conceded she, like, sees merit in Lex's ideas, if only they were given a proper bed to grow and become something wonderful for everyone." She smiled brightly.
Celestia turned her gaze onto the suddenly-stiff Twilight. "Is this true?"
They were remarkably "inoffensive-looking."
I suspect that this should be "Whoa whoa!"
They have a lot to catch up "on."
There needs to be a space between "and" and "defenseless."
There are two spaces between "becomes," and like."
The "suddenly-stiff" Twilight.
Yeah, no shit Sweetie. Should have done that before hitting up Sugarcube Corner.
Nice one. Oh, there's a space missing between and & defenseless. (Damn, 20 seconds late on that correction)
Quick Twilight, create a distraction and flee!
6025326 Typos shown the mercy of the solar court.
So, has anyone told Twilight about their time in Kara's realm? If nothing else, it seems like it'd be an interesting anecdote, especially the part where Lex summoned another god.
The Doctor's getting involved in this? Wasn't expecting that...
Silly Sonata. There's no social combat in this system. And while it's nice to see Lex appreciate the power of friendship, he should probably spare a thought for how many ponies Celestia has in her corner.
Bullies aren't quite so frightening after fighting for your life. Or when you know how to mix explosives or sing a high note that can scramble brains.
And... oh dear. Sonata just effectively asked Twilight to critique Lex's work. They could be there for hours...
Also, someone let a typo in the throne room:
"Reside" or "resided".
This story like totally rocks and is on a roll.
6025390 How is this different from last time? At least this time it'll be Twilight going on for hours instead of Lex. Celestia has nopony to blame but herself.
Typo quietly put away.
6025390
She got a preview of the forthcoming Ultimate Intrigue book, which has one.
I see it more as him experiencing the rush of being in love, and with someone who loves him back, for the first time.
But insofar as how many ponies Celestia had in her corner, for the purposes of this "battle" it's just one: Luna. Twilight probably would have helped too, but Lex just tried to dragoon her over to his side. Will it work? I guess we'll see.
o this is going to be good and I am really sure Sonata is going to save the day.
Harts Fire
Sorry for missing a bit, suprise trip to families to watch canned fighters hitting each other with metal weapons.
the trick with Lex and sonata reminds me of the time my GM went with me to a job interview, so he could put my questions into a more human understandable form. For some reason, still didnt get the job. Oh well. Hope Sonatas stats are far better.
For DTSS, thats not even going into a knife fight, its barely a gun fight. With ABs alchemy and other magic casting, thats a grenade and RPG fight.
How comparable, if any, are the levels between general Nightmare, and local Luna, given Luna is gaining divinity powers through folowers, will she have to leave Equus itself and take up general residence if she got too many followers?
The Doctor is just looking round for the sources of the partice emmisions from dimentional travelers. After all, cross reality is far harder than just spaciotemporal.
Those three little words.
Is this True?
We take a break from Applejack this chapter and look in on how the rest of the crew is adjusting to life in Ponyville. Of course, we also see Lex and Sonata settling in for their "battle" with the alicorns. All in all, this chapter seemed like it was shifting to a "setup" phase for what's to come next.
It was interesting to see Willow's attitude as she wandered through the town. One thing I noticed was that her impressions were all impersonal; that is, there was no real sense of what being in Ponyville meant for her, personally. I mention that because - while I may be off on this - I always understood that there was an element of loneliness to Willow's character. She comes across like someone who used to be very romantic, or at least very much in love with her now ex-boyfriend, and is still wearing the scars of his betrayal. While she's obviously reluctant to get into a relationship, her resolution that she's going to stop running away from life seems like it's notably directed towards that particular emotional wound.
However, Equestria isn't exactly the best place to make good on her new vow, for two reasons. The first is that there are no purrsians in this world. The closest that she could find would be griffons, and even then that's a stretch insofar as "racial compatibility" goes. Of course, it's entirely possible that Willow doesn't care about what race a potential mate is, so long as they like each other, but somehow I have a hard time seeing her as being quite that open-minded. I don't think she has anything against the idea - she seems fine with Sunflower having a pony girlfriend - but I don't think she finds it very appealing either.
Perhaps more notable is that, as she noted, the native ponies are less "defined" than those of Everglow. That's likely to be at least somewhat off-putting, simply for how different they look. Willow sees them as being softer, rounder - and therefore, I have to wonder, more child-like? - than the ponies she's used to. While this may be me making unfounded presumptions, I suspect that she prefers strength in a potential mate; not at the expense of kindness, certainly, but at the same time, it's hard to be attracted to somepony else when their best descriptor is "kinda cuddly."
I doubt that she'll make a big deal out of it, for Sunflower's sake, but I have to wonder how long it will be before Willow begins to wish she was back home.
Speaking of Sunflower, it was amusing seeing him - and the rest of the CMC - come into contact with the old bullies again. I snickered at Sunflower drawing a weapon on the two in response to their insults. Questions of propriety aside, that's sort of how I can see things going on Everglow. When the entire world is dangerous, and oftentimes your own strength is the only thing between you and a horrible death, you quickly learn to make a show of force whenever anything even suggests that you're weak (which is what ridicule is). Even more amusing was that, even when she was setting him straight, Sweetie Belle still took some shots at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. While the pair may have walked away while sticking to their usual tricks, I doubt they'll be eager to continue taking potshots at the CMC any more...or at least, not as much. Otherwise, they're likely to find some embarrassing spells cast their way in the near future, I bet.
Also, it was sweet to see Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash bond together over flying. Scootaloo must be over the moon that she can finally share this with her "big sister."
Of course, the big development in this chapter was Lex and Sonata facing off against Celestia and Luna! The battle of ideas is joined once again, and this time it seems like it might actually not conclude with physical violence! Of course, that doesn't mean that we know how it will conclude...
Even before they got in there, it started to become clear just how head-over-hooves Lex is for Sonata. The reality of being in love, and having that love be returned, is clearly throwing him for a loop, and I was glad that he was able to get his head together when he finally faced off against the alicorn sisters. As it was, he and Sonata are quite clearly in the "honeymoon" period of their relationship, where everything about it is exciting and romantic. Sonata clearly feels the same, since when he said he'd use her idea, she was clearly overjoyed - there was another aspect to that exchange also, in that Lex did that not because he agreed with the tactic, but because he wanted to make a gesture to Sonata about how he felt about her. Sonata quite clearly picked up on that, and it sent her into a tizzy.
Twilight's rolling her eyes was an amusing counterpoint to all of this; are they a bit too lovey-dovey for her, or is she just jealous, since she and Lex used to date? I can't see Lex and Sonata as being that mushy here, so maybe the latter?
Of course, then we come to the actual debate with the sisters...and much to my surprise, Sonata's idea really seems to be paying off in spades! With Lex's bile being filtered by Sonata's bubbly attitude, there's nothing for the two sisters to take offense at, and they have little choice but to debate on the merits of the topic, which means that things have immediately shifted in Lex's favor. Putting Twilight on the spot was also brilliant, since it forces her to say what she thinks about his ideas - and she's already admitted that she found them to be at least somewhat good - which will carry quite a bit of weight with Celestia and Luna. In other words, Lex and Sonata are already proving to be a powerful team. Is this just the start of what they can accomplish together?
On a related note, once the initial elation of their new-found love wears off, I see Lex as restraining how public his displays of affection are. That he was so openly sweet with Sonata in front of Twilight was surprising. I suspect that once he calms down, he'll be back to his usual self when others are around, but open up to Sonata when they're alone together. Sonata, of course, will be bubbly and open anywhere she goes.
That's for the future though. For now, it remains to be seen if Lex and Sonata can press the advantage. Lex will only temper his ambition so much, and it's still going to be tough into talking the sisters into ceding him any portion of their kingdom, let alone a sizable one. We'll see what happens when they go back and forth further.
6026917 Willow is a bit of a lost soul, but Equestria may be a soothing balm on that hurt of hers. Everything is just as bright, but all the edges are worn down and smooth. The faces have kind smiles with no guile hiding behind them to exploit her. The most offensive pony she ran into was childishly easy to overcome, and came off as almost hilariously inoffensive in the end. It's a safe place, where she can maybe decompress, and explore what it means to be Willow, while still being available to be a mother for Sunflower, which she intends to be.
Sunflower got to see Ponyville, and so far he likes what he sees! The food is delicious, and the fights are winnable without needing medical attention afterwards, woot! His girl's there and her awesome friends. Really, he could get used to being in this place pretty darn fast. Not sure how well he'll fit in Cheerilee's class though...
I can't say too much about Lex without spoilering even myself. I'll let that story unfold as it wants to come tomorrow.
Really? You went there? It doesn't quite match the genre.
already
6029244 Don't be harshing on my reference dropping. Fixed!
And suddenly the CMC learn that, when compared to ghouls, Gnolls, and all sorts of other monsters, a couple of bullies are absolutely powerless and meaningless in the big scheme of things.
6076478 An important lesson, I'd say.
6076517 wow nice doctor whoves easter egg