“So you see, it was really all that buffalo’s fault,” finished Tryout. “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Despite being kept flat on his back by black crystal bindings, Tryout flashed an easygoing grin as he concluded his story. Lex didn’t return the expression, not that Feather Duster had expected him to; she was quite aware that the prince wasn’t given to even mild displays of levity. But she’d have been willing to wager that even the most forgiving of ponies would have had a hard time finding Tryout to be as blameless as he’d made himself sound like…
“Let me see if I understand you correctly,” rumbled Lex, his voice filled with more displeasure than usual. “After the flooding in Vanhoover sent you fleeing to Las Pegasus-”
“It was pure luck that I was on the first boat out,” noted Tryout quickly.
“-you managed to find gainful employment,” continued Lex, ignoring Tryout’s interruption, “as well as room and board, since you were one of the first refugees to arrive in the city-”
“Pulling a cab was hardly gainful,” chuckled Tryout. “I mean, when you’re new to the city you don’t exactly have the streets memorized, you know? You make a couple of wrong turns a few times and suddenly everypony’s complaining that you’re too slow or trying inflate the fare or whatever. It’s like they don’t realize that you’re supposed to relax when you’re in L.P., you know?”
“-and yet you still,” continued Lex, the angry tone in his voice making it clear that he was losing patience for Tryout’s running commentary, “colluded with a dealer in Gladmane’s casino to defraud the place!”
“No, no, that wasn’t it at all. Weren’t you listening?” Clucking his tongue, Tryout shook his head with an exasperated sigh. “Babe, a little help? Tell him he’s got it all wrong.”
But all Feather could do was shake her head, not so much in refusal as in disbelief that her husband couldn’t see that he was digging the hole he’d made for himself even deeper.
As it was, she still couldn’t help but feel a lingering sense of regret that she hadn’t found him during his time in Las Pegasus. After all, she’d been there as well, having been part of Miss Bank’s entourage when she’d sailed there on her yacht. In hindsight, that hadn’t been surprising; with Tall Tale’s port having been inexplicably closed – the truth of which she’d only found out later, after overhearing Sonata recount what she and Lex had gone through there – Las Pegasus had been the only city large enough to accommodate the bulk of the ponies fleeing Vanhoover.
We were so close to each other all that time and didn’t know it. It had been awful, all those nights wondering what had become of her husband and daughter. Knowing that Tryout, at least, had been safe would have eased her troubled mind somewhat. And she would have been able to keep him from getting into trouble…or at least, tried to.
But it was a moot point now. No effort had been made to reunite the ponies who’d been displaced from Vanhoover, nor had any other coordinated response been made to help them. Feather still wasn’t sure if the ponies who ran the city hadn’t known what was happening or simply hadn’t cared, but either way the result had been the same: they’d all been on their own.
If Tryout had possessed an ounce of sense, he would have played that up for Prince Legis now, emphasizing the desperation and helplessness that came from being stranded in a distant city with no support network and no way of knowing what had happened to his family. But he hadn’t done that. Instead, Tryout had done what he’d always done when spinning a yarn: made it sound like a wild adventure.
“Ugh, fine,” moaned her idiot husband, rolling his eyes. “Let me tell it again. See, I’d been going to the Bardigiano Casino for a little while-”
“Where, like an idiot, you gambled away what little disposable income you’d managed to accumulate,” growled Lex, clearly of no mind to listen to the story a second time.
“I was trying to increase my cash on hoof,” corrected Tryout. “Seriously, do you not know that fortunes are won and lost every day in that city? I figured if I just kept playing, eventually I’d have to hit it big, and then I’d have enough bits to settle in somewhere nice until Vanhoover was given the all-clear instead of working my hooves to the bone. That’s something you learn when you live in the world of professional sports,” he added with a smirk, “luck is about perseverance more than chance.”
“Except it wasn’t, since you never actually won anything no matter what game you tried,” sighed Feather.
“Right, see, that’s just it though!” exclaimed Tryout, as though his wife had inadvertently pointed out something important. “I knew there had to be some reason why I kept losing all the time, because that’s not how things normally go for me; eventually I should have broken the streak and raked in the bits. So I’m sitting at the bar, taking advantage of the free peanuts while I’m trying to figure out what I’ve been doing wrong, and I end up striking up a conversation with this buffalo who’s doing the same thing. Except it turns out he works there as a dealer-”
“And the two of you hatched a plot to steal from the casino,” finished Lex, clearly looking to bring the retelling to an abrupt end.
But Tryout was apparently incapable of taking the hint. “I keep telling you, it wasn’t like that,” he insisted. “We got to talking, and he tells me that Gladmane told him that the other dealers are trying to muscle him out, since they’re all ponies and he’s a buffalo. That they’re deliberately dealing bad cards to the ponies at their tables – not many, but a little bit here and there – so they’d have a higher take at the end of the night, making him look like he’s not pulling in enough to keep up with them. And that’s when I realized why I’d been losing all the time: it was because those other dealers were cheating!”
“A conclusion that’s highly questionable, considering how dubious that story is,” sneered Lex. “River Bank already informed me that news of one employee cheating – this buffalo with whom you’re an accessory – has imperiled the reputation of Gladmane’s establishment. If he knew that there was a conspiracy to engage in similar behavior among several of his employees, why did he take no action besides gossiping about it?”
But Tryout just shrugged the issue off. Or at least he tried to, his bonds making the motion little more than a wriggle. “I’m an athlete, not a detective. Maybe he didn’t care so long as they kept bringing in more bits every night? But either way, I figured that there was a way we could balance the scales, where I got the winnings I was supposed to and my new friend could bring home a bigger take.”
River shook her head again, this time in sadness. “By having him deal you winning cards off the bottom of the deck when you played.”
The disappointment in her voice was lost on him, grinning. “Exactly! Not too often, and not for too much, but enough so that it added up, with the two of us splitting the money afterward. That way, I got the bits I should have been winning all along, and he got to put his half back toward the amount he brought in.”
“Which was by far the stupidest part of your so-called ‘plan.’” At this point, Prince Legis’s eyes were glowing, and Feather Duster couldn’t help but shiver at the sight. Although she’d come to see the noble side of her employer, his anger was still terrifying to witness, and she wasn’t eager to see a repeat of what he’d done to the conference room when he’d heard Sonata moaning without him. “If your accomplice was returning half the amount of money that he arranged for you to win, his revenues would only experience that much more of a shortfall.”
“Well, yeah, but I figured he’d massage the books or something,” replied Tryout casually. “I mean, it’s not like what he did with his half was my problem anyway. I just wanted the winnings I’d been cheated out of.”
“Except it became your problem when your partner in crime identified you to the authorities after his consistent payouts were discovered.” At last Lex stood up, stalking toward where Tryout was bound to the floor. “At which point your escaping arrest with your ill-gotten gains became Gladmane’s problem! And now your presence here when I’m trying to cut a deal with him and his colleagues has made it my problem!”
Once again, Tryout’s confidence deserted him, an anxious look crossing his features as he belatedly realized that his attempt to downplay what had happened hadn’t worked. “Hey, look, I’d give the money back if I could, but it’s all gone now. I had to keep dipping into it for food and lodgings after I left Las Pegasus, which wouldn’t have happened if Gladmane hadn’t made such a big deal out the whole thing that I had to skip town. So really, this is his fault.”
“You’re making it worse, Tryout,” muttered Feather.
“Gimme a break!” groaned the oblivious stallion, before sighing and looking back up at Lex. “Okay, look, how about this? I’ll earn the money to repay Gladmane, okay? There’s a big marathon coming up in a little while over in Rainbow Falls, with a cash prize for the winner. I’m already in training, and with the tips I got from Rainbow Dash the other day-”
“I can assure you,” hissed Lex through gritted teeth, a purple aura surging to life around his horn, “you won’t be competing.”
“Y-Your Highness!” blurted Feather, the words flying past her lips before she realized that she was even speaking. “Please wait!”
To her relief, the prince hesitated…but only barely. The aura remained around his horn, his eyes still shining green and purple as he looked at her sharply. After a moment of silence, Feather realized that he wasn’t going to say anything, instead waiting for her to explain herself. Gulping, she lowered her head, bowing. “I know what Tryout did was wrong,” she murmured, “and I won’t ask you not to punish him for it-”
“Oh come on!” groaned Tryout.
“…but he’s still Cleansweep’s father,” finished Feather. “I don’t want to see her heartbroken because something terrible happened to him.”
“A salient factor which I’ve already taken into account,” replied Lex coldly. “Now be quiet. I have a criminal to punish.”
“Hey, you know what? Just a thought here,” blurted Tryout quickly, a nervous tone filling his voice. “You’ve got all these special servants now that you’re a prince, right? Like, Royal Door Opener or His Highness’ Pencil Sharpener and stuff? I could be one of those! The Royal Sports Master or something like that! I could represent you in all sorts of athletic competitions! I’ve won a whole bunch of medals and awards and certif-”
His ranting was abruptly cut off as the aura around Lex’s horn flared, a matching one springing into being around Tryout. Even as Feather watched, the purple field around her husband began to darken, the coloration deepening until it was a solid black, obscuring him from sight. But he was only hidden from view for a moment, as the opaque aura began to collapse in on itself, passing through Tryout’s bindings as though they didn’t exist until it was covering the struggling stallion like a second skin, the black substance coating him completely.
And then it contracted further, slipping beneath Tryout’s skin and disappearing into him as he gave a sudden, terrified gasp, head twisting as he tried to see what had become of the blackness that had engulfed him only moments before. “Wh-what the…?!”
“That should do,” announced Lex, his voice thick with satisfaction as he returned to his chair, Feather nervously following him. It was only after he sat down that he waved a hoof at Tryout, the black crystal bands around the stallion’s body dissolving into nothing. “You may leave.”
The way he smirked as he said that last part sent shivers down Feather’s spine, making no secret of her nervousness as she looked at her husband. As far as she could see, nothing had changed, and yet His Highness had clearly done something. But what…?
She received her answer a second later as Tryout failed to rise.
It wasn’t for lack of trying on his part. All four of his legs moved, but in an ungainly manner, flopping around as though each limb had fallen asleep. The sight was frightening to witness, and judging from the look on Tryout’s face, even more frightening to experience. “Wh-what’s going on?!” he yelped, staring at his legs with wide eyes. “Why can’t I get up?!”
Lex’s only response was a non-committal grunt, watching as Tryout managed to roll over, flopping onto his belly as he tried to get his legs under him, looking for all the world like a newborn foal trying to figure out how to walk. And amazingly, he seemed to be making progress. Staring at his right foreleg, he slowly lifted it up and placed it on the ground, grimacing as he brought it down a little too hard. Then he repeated the motion with his left foreleg.
He needed more time to work his back legs, but eventually managed to get them into place, his limbs wobbly as he finally stood up…and promptly lost his balance, letting out a pained grunt as he fell backwards into a sitting position. “What’s happening?” His voice came out breathy, as though he were asking himself as much as Lex. “I’m not numb, I’m not dizzy, but everything feels like…like…”
He apparently couldn’t whatever he was experiencing into words, shaking his head as he glanced back at his wings. Slowly, experimentally, he moved one, then the other…but to Feather’s confusion, he didn’t line up their movements. Instead, he began flapping them slightly out of sync with each other, the motion lacking symmetry between them. As a result, he achieved nothing except destabilizing himself, falling onto his side with a grunt.
“What did you do to me?!” he wailed, and this time the question was clearly directed at Lex.
Still wearing his malevolent smirk, the prince deigned to answer. “I muted your sense of proprioception.”
No comprehension shown on Tryout’s face, and Feather Duster couldn’t blame him, having no idea what that was. “My sense of…what?”
“Proprioception,” answered Lex. “Your inherent awareness of the position of your body and its movements. It governs your ability to subconsciously compensate for kinesthetic activity. You’ll still be able to perform coordinated motions, of course, but only with active concentration and deliberate placement for each and every one of your limbs while you do.”
“Wait,” grunted Tryout, looking like he was still trying to understand what he’d been told. “Wait…”
But Lex was already striding toward the door. “Since you’ll need practice to adjust to your condition, I’ll leave you to acquire it.” He paused at the threshold, glancing back at where Feather Duster was still standing by his chair. “Stay here if you wish,” he called back, “but I'll expect you to be in attendance when I reconvene the loan negotiations over dinner tonight.”
“Babe, c'mon,” pleaded Tryout, trying and failing to stand up again. “You can't leave me like this! Tell him to change me back to normal!”
Feather paused, glancing at where Lex was standing in the doorway, awaiting her decision. Then she looked back at where Tryout was looking up at her, silently begging.
The events of the last few days flashed through her mind then. Tryout sending their daughter to go see Rainbow Dash even after she'd just beaten Lex within an inch of his life. Tryout showing up while she was trying to work and accusing her of having an affair. Tryout taking a swing at Lex himself just now.
Tryout demanding use of her body two nights ago, even after she'd told him no.
“I'm sorry,” she murmured, turning and heading toward the door. “As Prince Legis's personal assistant, I need to go help him get ready for the conference. I'll have someone else come check on you.”
Then she turned and followed Lex out of the room.