“…and that’s when you two showed up,” finished Sonata grumpily.
Princess Celestia nodded, needing a moment to digest what she’d just been told. There had been complaints about Silhouette before – mostly from other members of the Royal Guard, who had earned his wrath for not being sufficiently reverential toward her sister – but as far as she knew he’d never done anything that had actually endangered somepony else. That he’d go so far now, even after being told that disrupting Lex’s spell could place ponies in harm’s way, was disturbing.
But she’d need to trust that her sister would recognize that and take care of it on her own. Right now, she had other concerns that needed to be attended to, the first of which was calming the pony in front of her. “Sonata, please allow me to apologize for Silhouette’s actions. While he may be devoted to my sister, he’s still a member of the Royal Guard, and I thought he would conduct himself better than that.”
Sonata paused at that, looking at her as if trying to determine if she was being serious or not. A moment later she let out a sigh, apparently convinced that her apology was genuine. “Thanks...but if you really don’t want any more trouble, you’ll get him outta here, pronto.”
Celestia tilted her head at that. “I’m certain that Luna will explain to him why he was in the wrong, and I’ll make sure to speak to the other guards about why they shouldn’t blindly follow orders, even from a superior officer. There won’t be another incident like that again while we’re here.”
“No no no, you don’t get it.” Sonata gestured back at where her boyfriend was still chanting at the glowing form of her sister. “After what that jerk pulled, Lex is totes going to turn him inside out. Trying to hurt other ponies is the fastest way to set him off, especially when one of those ponies is me.” The corners of her lips turned upward at that, either pleased at the thought of Lex being enraged at someone trying to harm her, or at the thought of Silhouette getting what was coming to him. Possibly both.
Celestia licked her lips at that. Sonata’s warning was disheartening, but not entirely surprising. More than that, though, it led into the next thing they needed to talk about. “Sonata, do you remember what my sister and I said back in Canterlot, when we expressed concern about sending Lex Legis here to Vanhoover?”
“Huh?” Sonata looked almost comically confused by the sudden change in topic. “When you said what about what now?”
“Back in Canterlot,” pressed Celestia. “We were negotiating ending Lex’s hostility towards us in exchange for his governing a city. There was a point of concern that Luna and I had. Do you recall it?”
“I guess…gimme a sec…” Celestia did just that, patiently waiting as Sonata tried with visible effort to think back that far. After several seconds of furrowing her brow and tapping a hoof to her head as though trying to physically jar the memories loose, Sonata looked up at her uncertainly. “It was something about his horn, right? You guys were worried because it used to belong to whatshisname…King Bad Guy.”
“King Sombra, yes,” answered Celestia with a gentle smile. The expression hid the mild feeling of relief going through her, now sure that the mare she was talking to wasn’t possessed by the monster that Mihr had warned them about. But that didn’t mean that the threat wasn’t still there, which meant that the next point was to steer the conversation in that direction without giving too much away. “We were concerned because a unicorn’s horn is the focus of their magic. To graft the horn of such an evil pony onto himself, we were worried about what that might do to Lex.”
Sonata’s look of confusion persisted for a moment, before her eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, you mean like in one of those horror movies? Like, the one where the guy loses his leg and has to have the doctor sew a new one on, but it turns out to be the leg of a guy who kicked puppies, and so now the new guy with his leg goes around kicking puppies too?!” Horrified, Sonata looked back toward Lex, clearly afraid that he was about to go on a puppy-kicking rampage. “We have to get that thing off him! No one adores a guy who does stuff like that!” She turned back to Celestia, wild-eyed. “Quick! How did that movie end?! I only heard about it from Adagio, and I can’t remember how the rest of it went!”
“That wasn’t quite what we were afraid Lex would do if some fragment of King Sombra’s spirit were to take possession of him,” noted Celestia, fighting down the urge to giggle.
“Wait, possessed? You mean that’s how that works?” Rather oddly, the thought seemed to calm Sonata down. Letting out a sigh, she held a hoof to her chest, trying to calm her beating heart. “Geez, don’t scare me like that.”
That was enough to make Celestia’s eyes widen just a little, intrigued. “What do you mean?”
Now looking much more relaxed, Sonata waved a hoof back at Lex again. “Trust me, when it comes to monsters that possess ponies, Lex totes stomps all over them. Just a little while ago, there was this creature that-, oops!” Her eyes suddenly widening, Sonata held a hoof over her mouth for several seconds. “I forgot, that’s supposed to be a secret!”
Certain that she this was related to what they’d come here to investigate, Celestia took a step closer to Sonata. “It’s alright, you can tell me.”
But the other mare shook her head, still keeping a hoof in front of her mouth. “I can’t! Lex’d be super mad at me! He said that we needed to keep it a secret until things here weren’t so bad so it wouldn’t make everypony panic when he told them!”
Celestia paused for a fraction of a second, an idea forming in her mind. “Well, now that my sister and I are here, things aren’t so bad anymore.”
“…they aren’t?”
“Not at all.” Celestia shook her head before giving Sonata a reassuring smile. “We came here because we were worried, and wanted to do whatever we could to help.” That was true, even if she was leaving out a few pertinent details. “So you see, it’s alright if you tell me about what happened with that creature a little while ago.”
“I dunno…” Sonata bit her lip. “I mean, I don’t want to rub starch in any wounds, but Lex doesn’t really like you guys very much.”
“How about this: I promise that I won’t repeat what you say to anypony else except Luna. That way, there’s no chance that a panic will be caused.”
“I…” Wavering, Sonata glanced back at Lex again, then back at her. “Alright, but only because Kara hasn’t been talking to me lately!”
Not knowing who that was, Celestia simply nodded, smiling warmly. “I understand.”
“Okay, you see my friend Nosey over there? A little while ago, she was possessed by this monster named Cereal…” Over the next several minutes, Sonata relayed everything Lex and Nosey had told her about the monster that had possessed her best friend, and how it had managed to fool them for almost an entire day before Lex had realized what was happening and dragged it out of her, killing it after a brutal battle. “And now Nosey’s all freaked out all the time and clinging to Lex twenty-four-seven even though she knows he’s my boyfriend and I know it’s not really her fault and I feel bad that I keep getting upset about that but Aria keeps saying all three of us should be his girlfriends now,” she finished in a rush.
Celestia’s eyes were wider now, momentarily struggling to process everything she’d just been told. “That’s astonishing...”
“I know, right?! Just because we’ve all been sleeping together, and had a couple of nights where Lex was touching the three of us all over, doesn’t make Nosey and Aria official girlfriends!” Huffing, she lifted a foreleg and looked around for a moment before putting it back down, scowling. “Never a rock to kick when you need one,” she muttered, before sitting.
Celestia barely heard her. “And Lex did that all by himself?”
“Pretty much,” shrugged Sonata. “I mean, we were there, but he was the one who told us to hold still and stay quiet. Then he got started with the petting, and we-”
“Ah, no, that’s not what I meant,” interrupted Celestia, giving her a rather uncomfortable smile. “I mean, Lex defeated that monster completely on his own?”
“Oh, yeah. I mean, I wasn’t there or anything, but that’s what he and Nosey said. Besides, it’s not like he had Severance with him.”
Celestia tilted her head at yet another unfamiliar name. “Who?”
“Lex’s magic scythe thingy,” answered Sonata casually. “He’s around here somewhere. Lex has him on guard duty, I think…are you okay?”
Having gone rigid at the cursory reference to the other major threat that she’d come here to confront, Celestia forced herself to relax. “I’m sorry. You said that Lex has a magic scythe?”
“Uh-huh. His name’s Severance. He’s a pretty cool guy, and he’s helped us out of a jam a bunch of times now. I mean, he wasn’t able to save Cloudbank and her friends when Cereal bumped them off, and he and Lex got into a fight about that, but they’ve totes buried the hammer since then. You want me to go and introduce you?”
For a moment Celestia almost said yes, but caught herself. The item Sonata was describing was clearly the same one that Mihr had told them about, but the easy way she was referring to it – talking about it like it was a reliable friend rather than an engine of devastation – was causing her cognitive dissonance. I need more information, she decided.
Since Lex and Sonata had left Canterlot, Celestia had received only bits and pieces of information about their activities. First had been the article in Line’s newspaper of him using disturbingly powerful magic – including what had to be the dark magic of King Sombra – to slay a dragon outside of Tall Tale. Then there had been the report from Luna about the mare who’d written that article having such a terrifying dream. Now Lex had apparently destroyed the monster that had tormented Nosey, while at the same time becoming friends with the dark artifact that had attacked Mihr’s realm. Viewed together, it all painted an incomprehensible picture; a series of contrasts that made it even harder for her to know what to make of Lex Legis. Fortunately, there was somepony here who could hopefully offer her some greater insight…
Smiling politely, Celestia shook her head. “Actually, I have a better idea. I just realized that I haven’t heard about all of the adventures that you and Lex have had since I last saw you. Since his spell is apparently going to take a few hours, would you mind telling me-”
“Princess Celestia!”
The interruption made both of the turn their heads, following the voice to where a middle-aged earth mare was trotting up to them. Her fuchsia coat was dirty, and her two-toned indigo and cornflower blue mane and tail looked like they were in need of brushing, but the smile on her face gleamed almost as brightly as the river of gold that made up the cutie mark on her flanks. “Princess Celestia!” she beamed, as if she were greeting an old friend. “I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see you again!”
Marching right up to the princess, she gave a deep bow, holding it for only a moment before standing up again. “You probably don’t remember me. River Bank, of the Bank family. We run the financial institutions here in Vanhoover.” Not pausing for breath, she threw the barest glance at Sonata before turning her attention back to the princess. “I was hoping I could borrow a moment of your time.”
“Hang on,” interjected Sonata. “She and I were gonna-”
But River cut her off with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Yes, yes, you'll have a chance for that later. But right now...”
River's grin took on a sharper edge as she spoke next. “I'd like to talk to you about the current state of Vanhoover under Lex Legis's leadership.”