//------------------------------// // Aftermath and acceptance // Story: Malodorous Development // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Vinyl was entirely unsure of what to say after listening to everything said by Luna. She listened to the ticking clock on the mantle, the mechanical novelty clock with two little mares that came trotting out on their little rails every hour on the other, and bumped snoots as the clock chimed. Tarnish had brought the clock home with him one day, and he had given it to Octavia and Vinyl as a gift not long after Alto had been born. It was ridiculously tacky, and Vinyl loved it beyond what words could say. While the silence persisted, Luna picked up the working prototype and began to examine it. She flipped it over, held it up at different angles, and even touched her horn to it. Vinyl, unsettled, watched with detached interest, wanting to talk about her accomplishments, but struck dumb by her failures. When Vinyl did speak, her own words surprised her, and she had no idea what she was saying even as the words came out of her mouth. “Tarnish will be very upset with me. I don’t know what to do.” “Mister Teapot is your friend and he loves you a great deal. You made a mistake. It isn’t the end of the world.” “No, no… you don’t understand.” Luna waited while examining the olfactograph camera. “I am being charged with over three-hundred counts of disturbing the peace—” “Three-hundred and fourteen,” said Luna in a manner most helpful. Vinyl took a deep breath and continued, “Over one-hundred charges of mayhem—” “One-hundred and thirty-three.” “—and over five-hundred counts of magical maliciousness—” “Five-hundred and eighty-seven.” Vinyl took a moment to chew on her lip before saying, “He’s going to feel inadequate. I mean, he had quite a record. And I just blew past him. Without trying, really. This is gonna be quite a blow to his ego.” A wry smile caused Luna’s pearly whites to come into view and there was a heavy sigh as the Princess of the Night set the olfactory camera down upon the ornate wooden coffee table. Vinyl could see that the princess was studying her, she was clearly thinking, but for the life of her, Vinyl couldn’t deduct what was going through Luna’s mind. Luna’s smile never faltered as she said, “Your apprentice is also being charged as an accomplice. An accessory—” “No!” The opposite of a smile contorted Vinyl’s face and whatever humour she felt about this absurd situation departed like birds headed south for the winter. “You leave Sumac out of this. I’m not even sure why I’m being charged for this, but you leave my apprentice alone. I made a mistake, but I am rather skeptical of how this is criminal action.” “Tell me, Vinyl Scratch”—Luna spoke with her smile still in view—“what sort of containment system do you have in place in your workshop?” Vinyl went to answer, but every breath in her body just sort of slipped out as she deflated. Her spine sagged, her ears drooped, and she knew, she knew that she had no defense whatsoever. It was time to face the music, and she hoped that her apprentice could be saved. “I, uh, well, I don’t exactly have a containment system in my workshop. I meant to get around to it, but, um, well, I—” “It was boring and you procrastinated to the point of criminality?” Luna’s brows furrowed, but her smile remained unchanged. “You put everypony around you at risk, including your apprentice, because you just couldn’t be bothered to deal with boring, trivial, common safety procedures? Tell me, what sort of lesson does this teach Sumac?” Vinyl watched as Luna’s smile vanished, going wherever it was that smiles went when they were no longer wanted or needed. Feeling very small and more than a little foalish, Vinyl squirmed in her chair and thought about her time spent in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She knew better. That was all there was to it. She knew better and yet, she had failed to act responsibly. In complete honesty, she wasn’t even sure of her own reasons. Laziness? Procrastination? The weight of failure settled upon her fragile back and caused her withers to slump. No sense of humour could ease her through this. “How do I make this right?” she asked, unable to look Luna in the eye. “With you dragging Sumac into this, I’m assuming that there is something that you want from me. Something that you want me to do. If I agree to it, will you let Sumac off the hook? Can we negotiate somehow?” “Sumac needs your help,” said Luna in a soft voice, “and this is your chance to help him. A perfect opportunity, if you will.” Everything in Vinyl’s brain collapsed into a disorderly pile. She was certain that it made a sound as it did so, perhaps something like a piano crashing into something, or a wagon full of accordions being sucked into a vicious tornado. Something chaotic and cacophonic. After hearing Luna’s report of everything that had happened, with the slow realisation of just how serious this was, and just how much trouble she was in, Vinyl no longer had the means to cope with the situation. She drew a deep, shuddering breath, and went still. “Your apprentice lives in mortal terror of consequences.” Luna’s words had a sort of drastic finality to them. “He is so scared of consequences that he’s afraid of making honest mistakes. Sumac is developing phobias… conditions that will stunt his growth and his advancement. Deep within his heart, he is starting to believe that the law is unjust, and that it is futile for him, impossible for him to live up to the standards that the law demands. Do I need to explain to you just how dangerous this is?” After letting this sink in for a few seconds, Vinyl shook her head from side to side. “He is slowly convincing himself that he is unable to live by the standards which the law demands, and with each passing day, he wonders and asks himself, what is the point of even trying?” Luna stood as still as a statue, but her mane and tail whipped about, as if blown willy-nilly by an imperceptible wind. “Ponies with no faith in the law live to flaunt it.” Hearing this, Vinyl winced as if she’d been struck. Almost right away, she wondered if she had faith in the law, and a million or so questions formed within her mind. She had doubts about the law, because she had seen with her own eyes how the system had failed. How many times had she justified her own actions, skirting the law while claiming that she was adhering to the spirit of the law? She lived an extraordinarily complex life when it came to law and legal issues. Of course, the law had come down hard upon both her and Tarnish while the two of them were trying to preserve law and order. At this moment, nothing seemed simple, and she feared that she might never sort this out. With everything else in a state of collapse, all she had left was her bravery, which was, by all accounts, a rather conditional thing. She could bravely go into places of exceptional danger, such as Skyreach, but she was also terrified of needles and tended to get weepy when she had to get shots. Vinyl had no problem chasing after monsters to hunt them down, but she bawled like a foal and ran away from the very idea of pain. She wondered if this would hurt. “Okay,” she said in a soft voice, submitting. “What do I do? How do I make this better? How do I commit restitution? I get the feeling that this will be no mere fine.” “Accept without reservation everything that is about to happen.” Turning her head, Luna looked at the clock on the mantle, and her eyebrow arched as she studied its many fine details. “Offer no resistance. Joyfully embrace these consequences when I throw the book at you. There will be a trial—” Vinyl groaned Luna began again, this time with the hint of annoyance in her voice. “There will be a trial and an example will be made of you. This is theatre, plain and simple, but necessary theatre. For Sumac, dreams are not enough. He needs to learn that he has nothing to fear from fair, just consequences. And you will show him. You will cooperate completely, with no hesitation, fear, or doubt. It falls upon you to coax him through this… to carry him through this if necessary.” “And this will somehow convince him that the law is just?” asked Vinyl. “That is my hope,” replied Luna. “By showing him that there is nothing to fear?” Vinyl’s head shook from side to side. “This is going to terrify him. He’s going to be a neurotic mess. I mean, he’s already so high strung. I… I don’t know if I like this. No, Luna, I’m already having second thoughts. Doubts.” There were more protests to be voiced, but Vinyl fell silent as myriad thoughts raced through her mind. Luna was still staring at the clock, and Vinyl couldn’t read her face. Not that Luna’s face was particularly readable most of the time. Like Maud, Luna was a master of deadpan expression. It occured to Vinyl that Luna wouldn’t be wasting her time with this endeavour unless she believed in the outcome. In fact, it could be said that Luna was downright picky when it came to events that she herself became involved in. Luna was a mare with limited time—and for her to deal with this herself… Even though she was doubtful, Vinyl realised that a little bit of faith in the law was in order here. She needed to trust that Luna knew what she was doing. Perhaps, Vinyl thought, this might restore her own shaky faith in the law. That the system was just, was good, and had the better interests of the citizenry in mind. “For Sumac’s sake, I’ll do this.” Vinyl then took a deep breath and added, “And my own, I guess. Getting into hot water is pretty easy, all things considered. You just dip your hoof in and then just sink in just a little at a time. I’ll accept this trial as my restitution.” “Good.” Luna’s terse reply was not cold nor unkind. She turned about and faced Vinyl, revealing eyes that were warm with compassion. “Yet again, you and your apprentice have done something extraordinary. Even in failure, you impress me.” “I just don’t know what went wrong.” Vinyl paused, realising that she had whined, and this set off a whirlwind of complex thoughts as she thought about how her voice was directly connected to both her mind and her emotions—the very thing that had caused so much trouble this day. “I suppose I was a bit careless. Luna, I… I just didn’t want to have to make a whole new spell matrix from scratch. Honest, I thought I was being efficient and clever by repurposing a well-constructed matrix that’s had years of fine-tuning. Never once has it ever occured to me that my voice spell might be dangerous.” “All magic is inherently dangerous,” Luna replied, her voice low, soft, but also firm. “Magics that interface with the mind and the emotions doubly so. Why, I can’t even begin to count the times I’ve had mine own efforts blow up in my face. Once, well, more than once… but recently, it almost cost me dearly. I am still making up for that.” Vinyl’s ears perked, but nothing was said. “You created an autonomous cataloging spell for olfactory input. It operates in a similar manner to your voice spell, which also autonomously catalogues words and associated emotions” Luna’s eyes narrowed, her ears eased back, and for a moment, her nostrils flared wide. “The complexity is mind-boggling. For both applications. What you’ve done is beyond impressive. That the spell matrix is both adaptive and… I want to say, self-curating, is amazing.” “I didn’t realise that my olfactograph camera was tapping into emotions,” Vinyl said to Luna. “Makes sense in hindsight though. Well, that first attempt. Look, Luna, I’m real sorry. Sometimes, I’m not the best when it comes to the boring, responsible details. I like getting into the fun stuff right away. The exciting stuff. If I would’ve known—” “Yes, it always comes down to that, doesn’t it?” Luna’s voice held no trace of unkindness, anger, sarcasm, or anything really. Her demeanour was entirely neutral, much to Vinyl’s relief. “The very fact that you dabble in emotion-based magics poses such a risk, such a danger… and yet, your work is not without merit. Do not be discouraged, Vinyl Scratch. A bit more caution is necessary on your part, to be sure, but you must continue your work. Nopony, not even myself, has pushed so far into this unexplored, unknown territory.” “Thank you.” Vinyl felt this was inadequate, so she repeated herself. “Thank you. It means an awful lot to hear you say that after everything that has happened.” “Mistakes happen. With mistakes come consequences.” Luna drew herself into a tall, proud pose, extended one wing, and made a gesture in Vinyl’s direction. “Your apprentice needs to know that he can make the mistakes required for life-improvement. He needs to be made to feel secure about facing consequences. Those are necessary. We cannot have young Sumac turn out like his father.” “That’s his greatest fear,” Vinyl said, almost interrupting, speaking her words even as Luna’s were ending. “I know.” The night-blue alicorn nodded. “But young Sumac has something that his father, Flam Apple, didn’t have. Sumac has those around him that he fears disappointing. He is loved, cherished, he is adored. He has those who will hold him accountable. Young Sumac has Trixie, who is proud of him even during his moments of absolute failure. Lemon Hearts loves him without question, without condition, without reservation. As for Twinkleshine, hers is a fierce and protective love.” Vinyl thought of darker times, when Twinkleshine had gone off to Manehattan to recover Sumac. “Sumac struggles to be good. It is in his nature to be deceptive. To be sneaky. He is a natural born rogue, gifted with grift magic.” Luna sighed, her eyelids appeared heavy, and for a brief moment, her face was weighed down with what appeared to be sorrow. “He struggles with the idea that he has no place in society, but worse, he does so at a time in his life when he doesn’t have the mental maturity to deal with the issue. This, along with his fear of consequences, of the law, this could drive him to dark places. We cannot allow that.” “Well, throw the book at me—” “Oh, I intend to do just that.” Luna’s measured deadpan caused Vinyl’s ears to sink down into her mane. “I must be going. Dim must be returned to the Crystal Empire sooner rather than later. I plucked him away with little warning. Everypony will begin the needless fretting if he is not returned before the sun goes down.” “But the transformation—” “Is very slow,” Luna said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “It isn’t an immediate change.” “But it can’t be reversed, either. Only halted.” Vinyl, with Luna’s gaze fully upon her, decided that it was time to change the subject. “Sumac on the other hoof, can be saved. So what happens now?” “Well, I depart. That is what happens now. In a few days, there will be a legal summons. You and your apprentice will come to Canterlot. There will be a trial. I will be present. Punishment shall be doled out. Something stern, without being too onerous. We want this to be instructional, a means of improvement. Something that will make right this situation, without being so dire, so dreadful that it only adds to his fears. He needs to be made to understand that everything is okay. With future mistakes, I want him to embrace the consequences rather than continue his self-flagellation. I’ve been in his position, and I think we all know what it did to me.” “Wait, Sumac wants to be punished?” Saying this, Vinyl’s ears rose. “Oh, he finds it quite relieving. Well, at times. Sometimes he feels it is unfair. Which is entirely reasonable, given his age. But he shows all of the right signs of being a worthy, accountable adult, when the time comes. We just have to keep nudging him in that direction.” Vinyl had some trouble taking everything in, but had a general idea that everything would be fine. This was why Luna was a princess, and Vinyl was not. Luna clearly had Sumac’s best interests at heart, and Vinyl, even if she didn’t quite understand everything, knew it was best to go along. Luna could see into Sumac’s heart and mind, something that Vinyl wished that she could do. “See you in a few days. Do not let your heart be troubled. Instruct your apprentice.” Vinyl was about to ask Luna what she meant by this, but Luna disappeared. There wasn’t even a burst of light, the flash of illumination that happened when winking. Luna simply ceased to be there, and Vinyl, a clever, intelligent mare, wondered if Luna had actually been here at all. Heaving a heavy sigh, Vinyl wondered what to cook for supper.