130 - Stars in Her Eyes
“Honestly! The nerve of that guy!”
“Drafty…”
“I mean, really! After everything Lex has done for us, after risking his life to save ours again and again and again, now some pony-come-lately – who wasn’t here for any of it! – is getting in his face and questioning his judgment?!”
“I get it. Really, I do,” started Cloudbank, filling her voice with a calm that she didn’t feel. “But try to think about this from his point of view. All he knows is that Lex is a scary-looking unicorn with powerful magic that went off with his friend for a little while and then came back with her injured and scared. It’s understandable that he’d get a little hot under the collar.” Especially at that part about her being thrown in a cage. She knew better than to say that last part out loud, though. Ever since whatshisname’s squabble with Lex, Drafty had been angrier than Cloudbank had ever seen her, and it was upsetting to watch…and not just because she didn’t like the sight of her girlfriend being so agitated.
“No!” snapped Drafty, rounding on Cloudbank with a frown. “It’s not understandable! He didn’t know anything about what happened, and yet he immediately acted like Lex was in the wrong!”
“That’s because Lex didn’t explain what happened.”
“He didn’t have a chance! He hadn’t finished speaking when that, that…thug started giving him a hard time. And after Lex took them in, too!” Although nopony had said anything when the newcomers had been brought in a few hours ago, word had quietly gotten around about how they’d tried to attack the shelter, and how Lex had casually defeated them. Everypony had gotten a chuckle out of it, but otherwise had overlooked the transgression, being willing to give the new ponies the benefit of the doubt. The only reason we found out about it at all was because the other ponies that were there couldn’t resist gossiping, Drafty knew. Lex was willing to give them all a second chance instead of prejudicing everypony here about what they’d done. He’s so NOBLE!
“That may be so,” came Cloudbank’s voice, “but Lex should have known to lead with his reasons instead of just declaring-”
“I can’t believe you!” Drafty rounded on the other mare, giving her an upset look. “You’re saying this was Lex’s fault?! That other stallion is the one who’s in the wrong!”
For some reason, Cloudbank suddenly remembered how Drafty had been willing to lay down her life to save Lex’s during the battle on the waterfront. The memory made her let out a slow breath. Calm down, she told herself. For all you know, she’d be this upset if someone badmouthed you instead of Lex. Maybe even more upset. Yet somehow the thought wasn’t convincing. “All I’m saying,” she made herself speak slowly, “is that mistakes were made on both sides.”
Drafty was not appeased. “Both sides my flank!” She glared at Cloudbank, her anger having found a new target. “What is it with you? You’ve been like this ever since we met Lex, even though he’s done more for you than anypony else!”
Cloudbank bristled at that. “Excuse me?”
“He picked you for the most important part of that battle! You got to wield Severance!”
Somehow the fact that Drafty knew the scythe’s name only upset Cloudbank more. “He didn’t pick me, I volunteered! And that scythe didn’t do a thing to stop me when that squid monster made me stab you!”
“Neither of which were Lex’s fault!” retorted Drafty hotly. “And besides, he showed you how to use that new magic so that you could save me! You should be his biggest supporter!”
“He doesn’t need me to do that!” snapped Cloudbank before she could stop herself, thoroughly sick and tired of hearing Drafty talk about how great Lex was. “He’s already got you being his own personal cheerleader! You might as well go put on a pleated skirt and some pompoms to make it official!”
Drafty opened her mouth, then closed it again, giving her a withering look. “You can go straight to Tartarus, Cloudbank.” Without waiting for a reply, she turned and stalked off.
Cloudbank took a half-step after Drafty, ready to call out to her, only to realize she had no idea what to say. Great, just great, she thought bitterly. We haven’t even gone on our first official date yet and we’re already fighting. Turning around, she slunk away to find a good place to go and sulk.
“Trouble in paradise?”
Drafty glanced over at the question, seeing Nosey sitting a few feet away. “…you heard?”
Nosey gave a helpless shrug in response. “This place is all one big room. Even with everypony else talking, it’s hard not to overhear what other people are saying.”
Drafty snorted, not liking that her and Cloudy’s business was public knowledge, but knowing that there wasn’t any helping it. “Must be a dream come true for a reporter, huh?”
“Not really,” answered Nosey lightly. “I mean, maybe it would be under different circumstances, but right now? It’s pretty much all gossip, and that’s not what an ace reporter writes about.”
“Oh.” Drafty trailed off at that, and for a moment the two were silent, Nosey scribbling on a notepad and Drafty staring at the ground. Finally, after what felt like an interminably long sixty seconds, she glanced over at Nosey. “So…any good gossip?”
“You mean besides you and Cloudbank fighting?” smirked Nosey. Drafty gave her a wry smile, and Nosey chuckled, flipping a few pages in her notepad. “Well, the big one is that C. Shells and one of her crewmembers, a pegasus stallion named Ocean Spray, are officially together. They’re trying to keep it on the down-low, but the rest of her crew knows them too well to be fooled. Let’s see here.” She flipped another page. “One of the ponies that Lex brought in, a stallion named Piggy Bank, tried to setup an impromptu food-eating contest. Nopony took him up on it, so he just stuffed his face and declared himself the winner.”
Drafty snorted, amused despite herself. “That’s funny. Anything else?”
“Well, there’s a lot of stuff about what’s going on right now, but besides that, there’s, um…”
Trailing off, Nosey glanced at Drafty with an evaluating look, causing the other mare to blink. “What?”
Nosey licked her lips. “Don’t freak out over this, okay?”
Drafty shook her head in confusion. “Freak out over what? Are people saying something about me?”
“No, no. Not about you. It’s just…” She flipped through her notes again, then sighed. “There’s a betting pool going on about Lex and Sonata.”
“A…a betting pool? About those two?” Drafty could only imagine, from the look that Nosey was giving her, that her face reflected how completely baffled she was. “I don’t understand. What are they betting on?”
“Anything. Everything. Apparently one of the nurses started it when she bet a friend, in a bout of nervousness before we went out to battle, that if they lived through this Lex and Sonata would get married the very next day. When that didn’t happen, she went double-or-nothing that they’d at least announce an engagement. Some of the doctors caught wind of that and got in on it, and things spiraled from there. Now there are all sorts of wagers going on. There’s one that the only reason they’re together is because he got her to drink a love potion, another that he’s just stringing her along so he can take advantage of her magic, that sort of thing.”
“That’s awful!” Drafty glared at Nosey, her anger flaring. “Those are terrible things to say about the pony who saved us all! Not to mention dumb! There’s no way those bets will ever be settled!”
Nosey flipped her notebook closed, giving Drafty a level look as she put it away. “I know that, and everypony else knows that too. The ponies placing these bets aren’t being serious, and I’m pretty sure they don’t actually think any of those things. They’re just restless and nervous and those two are a mystery, is all. It’s just a way for them to talk about them.”
Drafty looked at the ground, giving a halfhearted grunt. She knew that Nosey was almost certainly correct, but it still irritated her. “I guess. I just…I really wish they’d say nicer things about him, after everything he’s done.”
Nosey tilted her head a little. “That really bothers you, doesn’t it?” Of course, the answer to that was obvious, but she knew that leading questions like that were a great way to get someone talking.
She was proven right a second later when Drafty nodded, raising her head to look her in the eye again. “Yeah! I mean, I get it. He’s not the easiest pony to talk to, but so what? His actions speak a lot louder than his words.” She paused for a long moment, and Nosey remained silent, sure that there was more to come. After a long moment, Drafty continued. “When I got sick, after one of those undead ponies bit me, I was scared. Like really, really scared. I tried to put on a brave face for Cloudy and the others, but…I kept feeling worse, and we were low on food and had no medicine.” She paused to look over at the medical area then, a mixture of worry and guilt crossing her face. “…and I was sure I was going to die.”
“That must have been terrible.”
“Yeah.” Drafty’s voice was soft as she looked away, remembering those days when she’d been wracked with pain and fear. “And then, all of a sudden, I woke up one day and I wasn’t sick anymore. I felt better than I had in days, and everypony told me that this stallion showed up out of nowhere and used some magic no one had ever heard of to cure me. He didn’t even ask for anything, he just…showed up here, in the worst place in all of Equestria, and saved me.” She returned her gaze to Nosey then, and the look on her face was one of absolute conviction. “He brought us, brought me, a miracle, when we needed it the most and expected it least. And that was just the beginning.”
“For some of us, it began before that,” added Nosey, a small smile on her face as she thought of her forthcoming bestseller. This was at least one sale that was already guaranteed!
Drafty smirked. “Yeah.” She looked over at where Lex had gone out into the wider warehouse with Sonata. “He does all of that for us, he pushes himself so hard and gets hurt and never expects so much as a thank you…and we still have ponies talking badly about him because he doesn’t make small talk.” She finished her last sentence in a disgusted tone of voice.
Wow. She’s got it bad, Nosey knew. She’s come across ponies who were stricken with hero-worship before, usually for the princesses after they’d beaten some villain, but this was easily the worst case she’s ever seen. It needed to be nipped in the bud, before it got out of hoof; the last thing Lex needed was some starry-eyed little filly following him around. Luckily, the solution was obvious: turn Drafty’s attention back to Cloudbank. And Nosey knew just how to do that, thanks to years of building up her mad interviewing skills. “I completely agree.”
Drafty gave her a grateful look. “I thought you might.”
“Yeah, but here’s the thing though. I don’t think you’re going to change anypony’s mind by yelling at them.” Nosey made sure to deliver the rebuke as softly as she could, keeping a gentle smile on her face.
Drafty lost her smile instantly, and her expression wavered between anger and guilt. “I wasn’t wrong!” she snapped, and Nosey began to prepare herself for having to talk her down. But a moment later guilt won out, and Drafty hung her head again. “…but I guess I was pretty awful to Cloudy, wasn’t I?”
“Yeah, you were,” answered Nosey, her tone lightly teasing to take some of the sting out of it. “But I know a secret that can help you fix things with her.”
Drafty couldn’t help but look up, intrigued despite herself. “Oh yeah?”
Nosey nodded. “You know Sonata and I are close, right? Well, she told me a secret about how she and Lex got together, and I bet it can work for you and Cloudbank too.” Of course, it wasn’t really a secret, since Sonata had apparently been instructed to let everypony know, which meant that Nosey had no trouble letting this little tidbit of information out since she wasn’t really breaking her friend’s trust.
“Tell me.”
“She told me that she and Lex hit quite a few rough patches at the beginning of their relationship, and whenever things got really bad, a love goddess appeared to help her. Apparently, she’ll help anyone who calls out to her with relationship troubles. So all you have to do is ask for her help on patching things up with Cloudbank.”
A doubtful look crossed Drafty’s face. “A love goddess? You mean like Lashtada?”
“I guess,” shrugged Nosey.
“And she’ll help anypony who calls on her?” That part didn’t fit with what she knew. Cozy had been very clear that she’d become a priestess of Lashtada by learning at Princess Cadance’s hooves, and even Cloudy had been instructed by Lex on how to petition "The Night Mare" for magic. But still…if it had worked for Sonata with winning Lex’s heart… “What’s her name?”
Nosey smiled, very pleased with herself. With one stroke, she’d not only kept Drafty from being too focused on Lex, but also helped fix her relationship with Cloudbank. It was a win all around! And to think that all those ponies who’d complained about her over the years had actually suggested that she was a nuisance. This would show them!
“Her name is Kara, and I think she’s just who you need.”
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From giving Fencer information on Sombra's horn to this...The phrase about good intentions paving the road to hell comes to mind with this chapter. Especially since Kara's followers decimated Lashtada's original following and sent her into obscurity in the Everglow.(Or am I remembering stuff wrong again?) I wouldn't put it pass Kara to try that again in Equestria.
The Night Mare won't be pleased by Kara's intrusion and I think she'll let Lex know of this through the barbed bracelet though it will be up to him to decipher the reason behind it.
Someone needs a good paddling in the Pantheon tonight.
8338319 Yeah, but you know she'd enjoy that.
8338093 While it's not technically part of her portfolio, I see Kara as being the goddess of lies and deception, along with shapechangers and love. After all, shapechangers are deceptive by nature, and even love can be blind. So it's entirely within her purview - especially considering that she's Neutral Evil - to lie and trick her way into getting what she wants. Nosey, like so many other ponies (including Sonata), is being duped, and so is playing right into Kara's hooves.
What this means for the other gods isn't determined yet - and strictly speaking, might not be for a while, since Drafty has only just heard the name - but if it goes the way Kara doubtlessly hopes, then this could shift the balance of divine power. After all, Kara does indeed evidence an obsession with Lashtada, and was indirectly responsible for wiping out her followers on Everglow, reducing her to a forgotten deity. As for the Night Mare...that's trickier. She knows that Kara is active on Equestria already, after confronting her in Sonata's dream, and doesn't seem too concerned. I suspect that right now she, and all of the other gods, are more concerned about founding a stable religion than checking their enemies...though how much more concerned is anypony's guess.
8338511
I can only imagine the havoc Kara would create if the changelings were ever brought into her fold. Chrysalis would likely refute her authority but Kara would probably either manipulate the changeling queen to her desire or have her removed through one of Chrysalis own drones.
8338657 I've thought about what would happen if those two got together. I suspect it would be one of those "whoever wins, we lose" scenarios...unless they find a way to work together...
8338659
Now I imagined a scenario where Lex would reluctantly ally himself with the Crystal Empire to ensure that Lashtada is the only love goddess worshiped in Equestria in order to prevent Kara from gaining a foothold though it would only delay it at best given her deceptive nature.
Of course, this scenario would only take place well after he has established his new kingdom.
8338685 An interesting idea, particularly since that would cross alignments more than you'd expect; Kara (Neutral Evil) is quite close to the Night Mare (Lawful Evil) in that regard, whereas Lashtada is True Neutral, and so only one step away from Kara, but two from the Night Mare.
Of course, that would highlight that alignment isn't everything, which is itself a somewhat divisive proposition. That said, Lex is Lawful Neutral anyway.
Well, this cavern is clear.
8388575 I'm glad to see that I'm making far fewer typos than I used to.
So this is how that happened
10692741 Takes on a whole new meaning in light of recent events, doesn't it?