Sweetie Belle opened the door to the boutique with her magic with barely a thought. She had grown quite a bit better at using her unicorn magic and only then thought about it with a smile. "Rarity!? I'm back!" She trotted inside with Apple Bloom and Sunflower trailing behind her.
"Back from Manehattan already?" Rarity came trotting out from her design room and stopped, staring at the foals and their kitten friend. "S-Sweetie! Whatever happened to you!?" She rushed to close the distance, snatching Sweetie off the ground and crushing her in a hug. "Are you alright? Does it hurt?"
Sweetie squeaked into the embrace, wriggling around until she didn't have her face buried in her sister's fur. "I'm perfectly fine, sis. Uh, we weren't exactly in Manehattan."
"I should think not!" Rarity gently set Sweetie down and looked from her to the others. "You all look... You didn't! You couldn't have!? Please, tell me you didn't visit that dreadful place!"
Apple Bloom scratched behind her head. "Well, we really shouldn't be lyin', Miss Rarity."
Rarity snorted loudly, "That place is unfit for any proper lady, or gentlecolt..." She tilted her head, looking Sweetie over again. "What is that you're wearing, darling. It looks... exquisite."
Sweetie grinned triumphantly and did a slow turn as she willed her garment to transition through a few styles she had learned by watching Rarity. Rarity's face pinkened as her trained eyes noticed immediately the way the dress showed off her little sister's body provocatively. "Sweetie, my little innocent angel, that dress is astounding, but don't you think, hmm, it's a little forward? Why, you'll attract all the wrong kinds of gentlecolts with it."
Sunflower stepped forward. "Too late, uh, ma'am. She captured my heart long before she found the dress, and now that she has it, I have little, uh, choice, but to do as she commands."
Sweetie tittered at Sunflower's words as Rarity gawked. Rarity put a fetlock over her face as her fainting couch was pulled in from another room and slid into position for her to collapse on.
Apple Bloom tilted her head. "She took that better than ah thought she would."
Sweetie pointed at Sunflower. "I got my own knight, and he's brave and loyal."
Rarity sat up like a bolt as Sweetie said the word 'knight'. She looked at Sunflower in a whole new light, frowning a little. "You aren't going to go crusading and leave your lady friend behind, are you?"
Sunflower's ears wilted under the sudden change in tone. "Uh... no ma'am... I mean... I just want to be with Sweetie Belle."
Rarity gave a gentle smile. "Good... good... Run along, Sweetie. Go say hello to our parents. I have some work to finish up." She slipped off her couch and went off to the kitchen, returning with a tub of ice cream.
Apple Bloom eyed the tub hungrily, but Sweetie ushered her friends out the door and closed it behind them. "What'd ya do that fer? Ah wanted some."
Sweetie shook her head quickly. "She only gets that when she wants to get out a good cry. We should give her space."
Rarity's muffled sobs came through the door and Sunflower winced. "You know your sister really well, but why is she sad? Does she hate me that much?"
Sweetie shook her head. "No, I think it's something else... I mean... she had her own coltfriend that was a knight and he..." She trailed off, putting the pieces together in her head. "He died..."
Apple Bloom made quite a face. "Oh, ow... Do ya need some time with her?"
Sweetie waved a hoof. "She doesn't want company when she's like this."
Sunflower frowned. "I disagree. Sing for her."
"What?"
"Sing for her." He waved a paw at the door. "Sing your feelings, sing her feelings. You're really good at it. You can lift her heart."
Sweetie shuffled nervously a moment before giving a stiff nod and turning back to the door. She wouldn't abandon her sister.
Twilight smiled nervously to the royal sisters. "Er, well, yes. I have read over his theories, and many of them are refreshingly progressive and could ease some of the troubles that parts of Equestria suffer from." She pulled out a copy of the notes and began analyzing them, pointing out with equal fervor their boons and banes and how they might apply. She had fallen entirely into analysis mode, barely breathing as she went through the notes, giving herself no time to think about where she was or who she was reading it to. It took quite some time before she reached the end, lowering the notes down. "Of course, I add the caveat that these reforms would require a skilled bureaucrat and spokespony to ease the political and social unrest that would undoubtedly occur during the transitional period."
Luna gave a light nod, looking a bit stunned at the information overload. "I... see. And lo, the fates have blessed us with a politician and a spokespony precisely." She waved a dark-purple hoof at Lex and Sonata.
Lex managed to keep his feelings contained as he listened to the Princess of the Night's response, but inside he was roiling with both excitement and indignation. Twilight had given them a speech that was little different than his own - though he disagreed with her points regarding the possible failings of the systems he'd invented - but where he had been utterly rebuffed, she was being welcomed!
Still, that was less important than the fact that they seemed to be receptive, even if they were proving that they were more concerned with who delivered the message rather than what it contained. Now, to press for concessions...
"Tell them that the more territory I can administrate in this manner, the greater the results will be," he whispered. These policies were tailored to take effect at the macro level. He needed a major population center - such as Manehattan or Las Pegasus - in order to make them work...and even then, that was the absolute minimum necessary.
Sonata nodded at what only she could hear. "We would be delighted to showcase these changes. Give us the most troubled city, but it, like, has to be a city, not a little town. These are big changes, and won't really show benefits with just a handful of ponies." She made a broad gesture. "We'll turn it around, and make it, like, a total example for other cities to follow, for the good of every, uh, pony."
Celestia gestured at Lex. "Color me intrigued, but Sombra's horn still worries me. He is and was a creature of shadow. Having a part of him grafted to you is hardly a healthy decision. Will you not let us remove it and restore you to wholeness? What does it give that you covet it so?"
Lex blinked at Celestia's proposition, clearly caught off-guard. He had found Sombra's horn when he had fled from the Crystal Empire just after the tyrant's destruction. That it still had some active magic had made it a curio, but he hadn't given it much thought after picking it up.
That had changed after Tirek's rampage. His own efforts to thwart the beast had failed miserably, and he hadn't been able to stop his magic from being drained. Having already lost his home and his parents, he had descended into near-hysteria at the prospect of losing his magic too, when he remembered that the red horn he'd picked up was still magically-active.
Chopping off his original horn had been the single most painful event of his life, but it had been worth it. Sombra's horn had grafted to the stump of his original one on its own, and he's known instantly that not only had it restored his ability to use magic, but had opened its original owner's dark magic to him as well.
That dark magic had since become the power he used the most, since his primary magic - the restructured spellcasting he'd spent his youth inventing - was still deeply flawed, needing a major external source of magic to recharge. Until he repaired that, he needed to conserve his energies, and other than a few minor resources that let him tap small amounts of those energies without depleting them, that left Sombra's horn as his go-to for using magic outside of dire emergencies.
He couldn't tell that to the alicorns though. Telling them would mean admitting his single greatest weakness to the ones who were still his greatest potential enemies, and that was unthinkable. At the same time, lying was unacceptable as well, which meant that there was little choice but to offer them the truth without revealing too much of it.
"It gives me power, and I will not give that up." Again he let Sonata be the sole recipient of his words. He doubted that there was much that she could do to make that more palatable, but he was willing to let her try.
Sonata did her best with a soft smile. "He, like, would rather keep it. He has it totally under control and it lets him do things he couldn't without it. It's alright." She swayed her tail as she looked at Celestia, but the look back wasn't quite as happy.
Celestia gave a light nod. "I'm certain this is true, to an extent, but we worry for him. It is my responsibility. The shadow that makes up Sombra is an insidious force, that corrupts from within in subtle ways."
Luna raised a hoof. "Our recent explorations have revealed new healing magics. We would be proud, nay, eager to put them to use and care for you while you recover." She locked her eyes directly on Lex. "You wish for us to extend faith in you, but trust is often a road traveled both ways."
Lex felt his stomach tighten at the way things were suddenly turning. He had always pictured this conversation as the alicorns crumbling under the weight of his unassailable reasoning. That they would have conditions of their own had never occurred to him.
"I am not their responsibility!" He hissed the words angrily. "I formally declared myself in rebellion against them, which means that I reject any notion that they have authority over me!"
He wanted to go on, but cut himself off. He had to change the direction this was proceeding in...he had to demand something equally unlikely from them as a counterpoint. If nothing else, that would buy some time to think. "If that's what they want, then I want half of all Equestria, with myself as the supreme ruler, not subordinate to them or anypony else."
Sonata tilted her head, then held up a hoof. "A moment, please." She turned around and closed the distance between herself and Lex, speaking to him directly. "You are not doing that. They're trying to be good people, not attacking you. I'll tell them you're not interested, but you are not rebelling again." She stomped a hoof softly. "We're this close to getting what we came for, let's not drop the ball now. Please believe in me."
"It's not a rebellion if they cede the territory to me willingly," he insisted. "Sonata, they want my horn! Do you know what that means to a unicorn?! Even if they can regenerate my original one, that's still an invasive and crippling assault on my person! Not to mention that they still clearly expect me to be subordinate to them in whatever accord we agree on, which I am not comfortable with!"
He was seething softly. Maybe this entire line of thinking had been a mistake...it was only for Sonata's sake that he didn't call it off right there. "You can refuse them if you want, but they're turning this entire process into what they expect me to give them, instead of the other way around, which is what it's supposed to be!"
Sonata leaned in and stole a quick peck from Lex's cheek before turning back to the royal sisters and returning to her place. "Lex wishes to do what is best for, like, the people of Equestria, but doesn't want his horn, or any other part of him, handled at this time." She raised a hoof to her chin. "To be an innovator, he has to feel like he's not under your hooves, even if you mean it in the, like, nicest possible way."
Twilight frowned at this, but Celestia gave a soft smile. "I understand. Then know this. The offer stands, but I will not force it on you. I think you are a strong and clever unicorn, and do not require the aid of fell creatures like Sombra. You will eventually decide to stand on your own hooves, and I we will lend you our aid to get you there, but only when you feel ready."
Luna clopped her hooves together and a pony scurried forward, spreading out a map of Equestria in the middle of the room. "I actually have a place that may suit perfectly for this demand. This place has been nothing but a pain in our sides, but it could become something great. If you can turn it around, as the Lady Dusk suggests, it will go far to prove your ways have merit."
Lex grit his teeth at Celestia's statement. She had clearly made up her mind that he was some sort of puppet under the influence of his horn, a sentiment that grated on him. But Luna's pronouncement was enough to get him past it as he looked to the map she laid out, waiting for her to continue.
Luna indicated Vanhoover, to the west. "Vanhoover has been rife with unrest since the... incident involving our new contact with the other planes. Ponies are restless and seeking stability. If you can deliver this while building them towards something greater, you would be doing a favor for all of Equestria."
Sonata leaned forward, looking at the city curiously a moment. "Like, what's wrong with it? I mean, you wouldn't be suggesting it if it was an issue you could solve easily yourself." She half-lidded her eyes. "What's the catch, your majesty?"
Luna quirked a bit of a smile. "You're more clever than you appear and sound. The ponies there have lost some faith in the right of alicorns to rule. This troubles not my sister greatly, she would prefer they ruled themselves, but they are hesitant to select a mayor worth half his weight in beans. We will send you both to rule over them, both pure bloods of your own tribes, however exotic your own may be. With no formal ties to our personages known to the world at large, they should accept you, if reluctantly. The rest is your doing."
Lex glanced at Luna, and then her sister, before returning his gaze to the map, turning their offer over in his mind. He was terrible at reading others, but strategic thinking - outside of the realm of interpersonal relations - was a place where he excelled. That same insight went to work before Luna had finished speaking.
He knew that this offer was only being made because it let the alicorn sisters deal with two 'problems' at once. From their point of view, either he and Sonata would pacify an unruly, and potentially dangerous, city before it got out of hoof, or they would fail to bring it under control and thus 'prove' that his methods lacked viability. Either way, they stood to gain something.
But that was fine, because he stood to gain more. Once he had brought the city under his control and restored order and prosperity, he would have the perfect platform from which to show the rest of Equestria why he was more fit to lead. This was exactly the chance he needed.
"They could have saved us all some time and started with this." Just because they'd given him what he wanted did not mean that he was pleased with them; their demand for his horn, and the implication that it had somehow 'tainted' him, was not something he'd easily forgive. "But no matter, this is more than enough."
Sonata quickly chimed, "It's not the most ideal place, but we will make it work." She dipped her head. "Thank you for the opportunity, it will not be, like, wasted and stuff."
Twilight let out a bit of a sigh of breath she didn't realize she was holding. "Let me go over what I know of the situation, this way please, let's get out of their way." She moved to escort the supplicants to the library, where some research could be done.