Lex was in a foul mood from the moment he woke up.
His nightmares had been worse than usual, revolving heavily around Sonata abandoning him after he informed her what had happened with Aria. That had been followed by subsequent breakdowns of everything he was trying to achieve, both professionally and personally. While none of those scenarios were particularly new – the disintegration of his relationship with Sonata was one that he experienced quite frequently – the knowledge that a difficult conversation was looming in his immediate future had lent his nightmares vividness beyond what they usually possessed. Nor was that the only reason that Lex had to be upset when he opened his eyes.
The sun was shining in through the windows, and the smell of food was filling the lobby of the train station. Nor were Nosey, Aria, or Sonata next to him, their voices instead coming to him from a short distance away, chatting amicably with a fourth mare whose voice he identified a nanosecond later as River Bank’s. Despite the entire scenario being unexpected, Lex had already figured out what had happened as he sat up, and the knowledge served only to irritate him further, frowning deeply as he looked at where the voices were coming from.
On the other side of the lobby, a large blanket that had been spread out on the floor. All four mares were sitting on it, partaking of various foodstuffs that had been laid out; even as Lex watched, Sonata took a large bite of a piece of bread with some sort of blue spread on it, while Nosey sipped from a bottle of something. Aria was nibbling on a frosted confection of some kind, while River gestured without looking at the maid she’d brought last night – standing silently off to the side, and now clad in a traditional black-and-white outfit (though the skirt seemed a bit short, flashing a glimpse of her cutie mark as she moved) – who immediately trotted forward and shelled a walnut for her, stomping on it just hard enough to break it open without harming the edible part within.
His eyes narrowing at the sight, Lex rose to his hooves, causing Sonata to look over at him. “Hey sleepyhead!” she called cheerily. “Guess what? River brought us a picnic breakfast! Isn’t that nice?” She punctuated her statement with another large bite of her jam-covered bread, getting some of the blue substance on her face. “Ith weawwy gooh!” she cooed.
“We saved some for you,” added Nosey with a timid smile. “There’s bread, blueberry and raspberry jam, yogurt, oat and raisin cereal, t-tarts…” That last one made her stammer, turning red, and Lex could only imagine that she was thinking about last night, though he had no idea why a pastry would have reminded her of that.
Aria, by contrast, looked no different from her usual self, save for the fact that she was a pony now. “There would have been more,” she sneered, glaring at Sonata, “but somebody – oh, excuse me, somepony – just had to eat all the crepes.”
“Huh?” Sonata tilted her head at the accusation, baffled. “What’re you looking at me for? All I had were those really thin pancakes.”
“It’s quite alright,” chuckled River. “I can send Feather here back to my manor for some more. It’ll just take a few minutes to-”
“What do you think you’re doing?!” hissed Lex, baring his teeth as he stalked toward them.
All four mares froze, glancing at each other uncertainly. Even the maid, hanging in the background silently, went rigid at the furious tone in his voice. Sonata, however, recovered a moment later, finishing her jam-covered bread before climbing to her hooves and trotting over to him, all smiles. “Aw, did the bench-bugs bite somepony while they were sleeping?” Leaning in closer, her voice lowered to a whisper. “They totes got Aria! Just look at her neck!”
The comment – audible to all present despite Sonata’s attempt at discretion – made Aria smirk, giving her mane a toss so that her neck was plainly visible. Sure enough, the bite marks he’d left on her last night were still there, causing Lex’s stomach to tighten at the sight. Off to the side Nosey winced, and when Lex glanced at her she gave a pointed look at Sonata before shaking her head a little. Oblivious to what was going on around her, Sonata tried to pull him toward the blanket. “C’mon, you’ll feel, like, a bajillion times better once you’ve eaten something.”
But Lex refused to move. “The ponies in this camp were starving a few days ago!” he seethed, shoving thoughts of last night away in favor of focusing on the travesty that was happening right in front of him. “Our current stockpile of food is limited to the point of rationing, we’ve barely managed to convince the surrounding farms to start coming here to sell their produce again, to say nothing of how difficult it’s been just to procure funds to buy what they are willing to sell, and if we can’t get them a new supply of rainclouds soon there’s going to be a drought throughout the entire region! So what,” he boomed, almost shouting now, “are you idiots doing?!”
Nosey winced, as did Sonata, backing away from him with a guilty look on her face. River bit her lip, shrinking back as though preparing to bolt. But Aria only snorted, and as Lex looked at her, she met his gaze without flinching. “We’re getting what we deserve, that’s what,” she sneered. “Yeah, everyone outside has it rough. Boo-freaking-hoo. We fought a zombie army and they didn’t, so they can stick to the cheap seats until they start working as hard as us.” She followed her statement up by tossing the last bit of her pastry in the air, leaning back and catching it in her mouth an instant later.
Or at least she would have, had Lex not caught it in his telekinesis first, slamming it back down onto the plate in front of her. “You’re entitled to exactly as many privileges as I say you’re entitled to, and nothing else,” he growled darkly. Normally Aria’s blatant defiance of his wishes would have fanned the flames of his anger, but after last night he didn’t dare let her provoke him again. Clamping down on his rage, he turned to the mare that had brought all this here. “River-”
“I was trying to help!” she blurted, rising to her hooves. Licking her lips, she gave him an earnest look. “I know that you’re rationing food here, and I thought that if I could bring a little extra, that would save you whatever portions you were going to use for yourself and everypony here, so that there’d be more to go around for everypony outside.”
“A wasted gesture,” pronounced Lex. “I can create more than enough food for the four of us with my magic that we don’t need to partake in our stockpile.”
“Ugh,” groaned Sonata, rolling her eyes. “You mean go back to that gruel and water stuff you make? Like, thanks but no thanks.”
“If you’re going to do that,” added Aria. “You should at least go all-out and create a banquet again.”
“Aria!” yelped Nosey, horrified. “How can you say that?! You know that almost killed him!”
Ignoring the girls, Lex kept his attention on River. “You’re going to give me a full accounting of how much more food you have at your manor,” he ordered, “as well as all other assets at your disposal. I’m giving you until the end of the day-”
“Don’t need it!” announced River, her nervous expression turning into a pleased smile. Another quick nod was all it took to make Feather Duster trot forward, handing River a small folio. “I’ve prepared-”
“Have you eaten any of this?” interrupted Lex, his gaze turning toward Feather Duster.
The pegasus mare froze in place, her eyes going wide. “N-no! I swear!”
“She hasn’t,” added Nosey. “She just stood there and served us the entire time.”
Sonata nodded. “She’s been, like, a really awesome maid! Except she didn’t ask me if I wanted fries with my order.”
Feather Duster blinked at that, giving Sonata a distressed look. “But, but that’s not-”
But she was cut off by Aria’s groan of exasperation. “Don’t bother. She thinks that question’s the mark of good customer service. She once asked the mailman why he didn’t say that when asking people to sign for packages.”
Nosey blinked. “What’s a mailman?”
But Lex had heard enough inanity. “All of you, be quiet!” All conversation immediately ceased, and he turned his attention back to River. “Continue,” he ordered her. Off to his side, Feather Duster slowly crept back toward the wall, still pale from her sudden interrogation.
Trying to regain her equilibrium, River coughed into her hoof. “Er, yes. As I was saying, I’ve prepared a fully itemized statement regarding my available wealth, both liquid and otherwise. I had to make some educated guesses due to the current state of the city, but I believe you’ll find this to be an excellent summary of everything I can help with.” Her smile was firmly back in place by the time she was finished, holding the ledger out toward him.
Lex grunted at that, taking the book in his telekinesis and bringing it over to him. Flipping through the pages, he skimmed them only briefly before closing it again, storing it in a saddlebag. “We’ll go over this in depth later. For now, there’s another issue I want to address.” He glanced out the window as he spoke, judging the time from the angle of the sun. His noon meeting with the princesses was still several hours away from the look of it, but he knew he needed to ask the girls what they’d spoken to the princesses about last night before he moved on to more personal topics. At least that way he’d have the relevant information if he upset one or more of them enough that they stormed off.
Turning to Nosey, he decided to start with her. “After you spoke with Princess Luna last night, you said there was information that I needed to know…”
By the time Nosey, Sonata, and River had finished filling him in, Lex’s eyes were blazing green and purple. Although there had indeed been several salient pieces of information, there was only one in his thoughts at the moment. “Fundraisers and charity drives?!” he snarled. “That’s the extent of what they’re going to do for Vanhoover?! They saw with their own eyes what’s happened here, they had you give them firsthoof accounts of what these ponies have been through, and that’s all the action they’re willing to take?!”
“They also might hold a concert!” cheered Sonata, sitting on her haunches and clapping her fore-hooves together. Grinning, she turned to Aria. “Wouldn’t that be great? I totes bet we could go on tour!”
Aria rolled her eyes, but didn’t have a chance to answer as Lex kept ranting. “There’s no excuse for this level of negligence! If they lack the will to use their authority to step in and command the resources necessary to fix what’s happened here, then they don’t deserve to have any authority at all!” His jaw clenched, Lex found himself returning to his earlier speculation about arresting Celestia and Luna for how depraved they’d become in their dereliction of their duties to their people. It would mean a fight, of course, but the very fact that they’d fight to retain their positions as princesses while refusing to use those mantles for anything other than mere celebrity influence, even after learning what had happened to Vanhoover, was enough to make Lex’s blood boil. I should never have agreed to limit myself to just this city! he raged silently. I should have gone with my original plan and overthrown them!
But that was a mistake that he could rectify now. In just a few hours’ time, he'd have the opportunity to make sure that Equestria wouldn’t have to suffer under Celestia and Luna’s mismanagement any longer. But for now…
“Hey, Lex? You’re making crystals grow all over the place again. You mind knocking that off?”
Sonata’s voice reminded him that there was another topic he needed to deal with. For a moment he considered putting it off, but decided against it. He wanted this done, so he could give his full attention to what was about to happen. Forcing himself to choke down his righteous anger, Lex turned his attention to the others. “River, you may leave. I’ll contact you about utilizing your wealth later. And you,” he glanced at Feather Duster, who flinched in response, “wait outside.”
River nodded, but neither mare said anything, perhaps realizing that in his current mood, the less of his attention they commanded the better. Once they’d exited the lobby, Lex let out a slow breath, readying himself for what was about to happen before turning to the other three. Or rather, to one of them in particular.
“Sonata, I need to talk to you about something that happened last night…”