Bottom Of The Ladder

by GeodesicDragon

Tying Up Loose Ends

A week has passed since the confrontation at the mine, and life in Ponyville has returned to some sense of normality. Rockpaw and Slasher have been thrown in jail, and the remaining Diamond Dogs have promised to behave themselves; Xaroneth decided to stick around, and they're terrified that he'll come back and incinerate them if they act up again. But in spite of everything that has happened, or maybe even because of it, you are still facing exile.

Despite what Luna told you about her and Celestia actually having the final say on whether or not you could be kicked out of town, you are still worried that the ponies demanding it have found some kind of loophole which means they don't have to get royal approval.

It's a troubling thought for sure, but you're not thinking about it right now, because today is all about spending time with your two favourite mares. The three of you are sitting on the couch listening to a Daring Do radio play; Vinyl is lying on your lap while you run your fingers through her mane and smile at the occasional giggle that escapes her, while Octavia is polishing her cello.

Haha, 'polishing her cello.'

Damn it, get out of the gutter already.

The three of you are sitting in contented silence, until it is disturbed by a urgent knocking on the front door. You exchange a glance with the girls and then the three of you get up to answer it. As you do, you see a crowd of ponies standing on the street outside the house. Standing at the front of the group are Mayor Mare, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Haywick, Fluttershy and Twilight, all of whom look up at you with neutral expressions on each of their faces.

"I was expecting this," you say. "It was only a matter of time before you showed up, though I'm surprised you didn't come here sooner, given what happened with the Diamond Dogs."

"Yes, about that." Mayor Mare holds up what appears to be a small book. "This is the petition calling for your exile; as you can imagine, there was a time where I would have gladly presented it to you before I had you thrown out of town, never to return."

"'Was' a time?" you ask. "I guess Princess Luna told you that you don't actually have that authority and now you're here to tell me that, instead of exile, you're going to make my life a living hell in the hopes of getting me to leave of my own free will?"

"No, Anonymous," Lyra chips in. "We're here to do this."

The Mayor drops the petition onto the ground; Lyra, Twilight and Haywick then focus magic onto the paper, setting it ablaze and leaving nothing but a smouldering ash pile behind.

"I.. I'm not sure I understand what's going on here," you say warily. "There has to be something else, right?"

Twilight shakes her head. "First of all, I never signed that." she points at the ashes now being carried by the wind into the house; Octavia rolls her eyes and goes inside to get a broom. "As a Princess, I can't get involved in matters such as this." You raise an eyebrow at her and she coughs awkwardly. "Um, right, totally irrelevant now. Anyway, the Mayor has something to say to you."

The Mayor clears her throat. "Anonymous, it goes without saying that, were it not for your extremely unorthodox actions, many of the ponies you see before you today would still be languishing in the Diamond Dog mines. Not only that, the Overseer's plan would have succeeded, and Equestria would have been ravaged by a dragon, causing unimaginable death and destruction. Your heroic actions to save not only your friends, but ponies who had treated you with utter contempt, go above and beyond bravery. For that reason, we would like to offer you our most sincere apologies for our behaviour; furthermore, I formally declare that the demands for your exile have been silenced completely."

You take a moment to process what was just said, but Vinyl manages to do so before you; with a cry of joy, she leaps into your arms and plants a big wet kiss on your lips.

"Did you hear that, Anon?" she asks as she pulls away. "You're a hero! You get to stay here with Octy and I! Isn't that great?!"

"It most certainly is wonderful news, Anonymous!" Octavia says as she dumps the ashes in a metal container next to the outside bin and puts the broom back in the hall cupboard. "I can only imagine the thoughts running through your mind right now."

<DIAL-UP SOUND.MP3>

"Um, Anon?" Vinyl waves a forehoof in front of your face. "Equestria to Anonymous, are you there?" When you still don't respond, she gently bops you on the nose, snapping you back to reality.

"Sorry," you mumble sheepishly. "That is not what I was expecting, but I'll take any win I can get." You nod. "Thank you, everypony."

"If it is a win you seek, Anonymous, then I have one more for you." Ponies gasp and bow as Luna appears from thin air and approaches the house with a smile on her face. "I have some news that you and your two lady friends will be very interested in hearing."

Vinyl suppresses a fangirlish squeal of glee. "What kind of news, Princess Luna?" she asks. "Whatever it is, I bet it can't beat what we've just been told about Nonny being able to stay."

Luna gives her a sly smile in return. "Actually, I believe that it can," she replies. "Anonymous, as one of the rulers of Equestria, it gives me great pleasure to announce that your murder charge has been officially stricken from your record."

"Oh, snap." Vinyl's eyes widen. "That does beat our other news."

"Stricken from my record?" you parrot. "How? Why?"

"I looked into your case, and found that a memory spell used on you during the trial clearly showed that Tech Beat was holding the piece of wood which killed him, but this evidence was not accepted in court," Luna explains. "I did some more digging, and it turns out that the judge who presided over the case had an axe to grind."

"What do you mean?" you ask. "Why would a judge have anything against someone as suave and awesome as me?"

Luna shakes her head. "His problem was not with you, Anonymous." she points at Vinyl. "It was with her."

"Me?!" Vinyl is shocked. "What the hell?"

"The judge, Swift Gavel, has a son named Chief Counsel, whom he hoped would follow him into the legal business." Luna sighs. "Alas, the young stallion was more interested in 'neglecting his studies' by going to nightclubs every night; your club, Miss Scratch, was his favourite. He spent many an hour there, drinking and dancing with his friends until the wee small hours of the morning, before staggering home and sleeping in until the middle of the afternoon, at which point he would get up and repeat the process."

"How do you know all of this, Princess?" Octavia asks.

"Because I spoke to Swift Gavel earlier today," Luna replies. "He admitted to not allowing the memory spell to be accepted as evidence because he wanted to ruin Vinyl; he despised her and her music for 'ruining his son's life,' and felt that the best way of getting revenge was to go after somepony Vinyl loved and 'take them away from her like she took my son away from me.'"

"Holy crap," you mutter. "So you mean to tell me that the only reason I went to jail was because this asshole held some kind of misguided vendetta against Vinyl for something she had no control over? Jesus Christ, it's not like she was forcing the boy to come to the club every night and party his flank off."

"I am sincerely sorry that this happened, Anonymous," Luna says solemnly. "Needless to say, Swift Gavel has been terminated from his position as a judge with immediate effect; the reason I am here, besides telling you all of this, is to inform you that my sister and I have both agreed to grant you a substantial amount of compensation for what you have had to go through."

You don't even have to think. "I already have everything I could ask for," you reply. "I have a good friend in Octavia, and the love of a great mare, but I think the latter could use some improvement."

Vinyl narrows her eyes at you. "'Improvement?'" she asks. "You'd better not be about to ask the Princess to give me a makeover."

You laugh and shake your head. "No, Vinyl," you reply. "You're perfect just the way you are, but I want to be more than just your boyfriend. So, with that said..." You drop to one knee, eliciting a gasp from everypony present, and take a hold of one of her forehooves before looking directly into her eyes. "What do you say, Scratchie? How do you fancy becoming 'Mrs. Anonymous?'"

Vinyl wells up, overcome with emotion; unable to speak, she opts for nodding feverishly and throwing herself at you to deliver the most intense and passionate kiss you've ever received.

"Yes!" she says as she breaks away, her voice quavering. "Yes, yes, yes, a hundred thousand million times YES!"

You grin and stand up, turning to face Luna. "I think you can figure out what I want now, Princess," you say. "The fancier, the better."

Luna nods. "It shall be done," she replies.

She takes to the skies; the crowd outside the house also departs, leaving you alone with Octavia and Vinyl.

"Oh, congratulations, you two!" Octavia says. "I'm so happy that things have worked out so well for you both!"

"Not quite everything, Octy," Vinyl says, looking at her. "There's still more thing we need to address."

Octavia looks perplexed. "What do you mean?" she queries. "Anon isn't facing exile, and he's no longer labelled as a murderer; as far as I'm aware, there weren't any other loose ends to tie up."

Vinyl walks over to her. "It's only come up recently," she says. "And, as far as I'm concerned, it's it's something that we – the three of us – need to address as soon as possible."

"Vinyl, you're worrying me," Octavia replies. "Anonymous, do you have any idea what she's talking about?"

You shake your head. "Not a clue."

Vinyl laughs. "Oh, come on," she says. "When I said 'recently,' I meant it's literally come up within the last few minutes." You and Octavia share a puzzled glance, to which Vinyl responds by dragging a forehoof down her face. "Ugh, I can see that this is going way over your heads." She sighs. "Octy, I wanted to address the fact that I don't have a Mare of Honour. I was hoping that you, as my best friend, could help me with that."

Octavia's eyes fill with tears as she nods once. "Of course, Vinyl," she replies. "Anything for a friend as dear as you."

"Awesome sauce." Vinyl starts walking back into the house. "Right, I think it's about time we celebrated the engagement, as well as start practising our drunken dances for the big day."

Octavia quickly follows her inside, leaving you alone on the porch; you soon hear the liquor cabinet being opened, followed by a cry of "Not my wine! Anything but the wine!" from Octavia, which forces a chuckle out of you before you head inside and close the door.

Life is good?

Yep, life is good.

Author's Note:

Comments

[Moonlit_Stardust]

Sooooo, any plans to continue this into the married life? It will be interesting to see how it goes considering you just set up another villain in the form of the Judge and possibly his son too! Not to mention all the Ponies that might still hate him!

I can see the name of the story now! “Keep climbing on up”!

[WildFire 24]

Damn that was good loved top of the charts and this sequel

[WildFire 24]

11148263
Possible yeah but I don't see anypony in ponyville still hating him sinds they now know anon did not murder