131 - A Convincing Argument
Sonata glanced at Lex out of her peripheral vision as she led him away from the shelter, heading toward a distant corner of the warehouse.
He either didn’t notice her glance, or was ignoring her. It was hard to tell, given the level of anger that was pouring off of him. His eyes were blazing green and purple, but that happened whenever he was upset. What concerned her more was the way he kept glaring forward unrelentingly, as though completely lost in his wrathful brooding. His every breath was heavy, each step he took struck the ground sharply, and she was sure that if she listened carefully she’d be able to hear the sound of his teeth grinding. Scale of one to ten, I’d say this is an eight on the Lex Legis Rage-O-Meter, she decided.
Finally getting far enough away from the shelter that she felt sure that they’d have some degree of privacy, she stopped and turned to face him. His eyes made contact with hers then, and she didn’t miss the way he tensed, knowing he was expecting her to criticize him. But the last time she’d dragged him away for one of these talks – back when he’d refused to let Cozy heal him after he’d gotten injured so badly – berating him had only backfired. It was just like when we broke up, she knew. Kara even helped me realize that getting up in his face didn’t work, and I forgot and did it anyway. She was determined not to make that same mistake again. Instead, she kept her expression soft and her voice gentle as she spoke. “What happened?” A flicker of surprise crossed his face, and Sonata mentally grinned to herself, knowing that she’d avoided starting a fight. At least for the moment.
Lex recovered his ill-humor an instant later, however. “I ordered that a dangerous criminal be kept in confinement once her injuries were treated, is what happened.” His voice was still defensive, expecting his judgment to be challenged. “And it was the right thing to-”
“That’s, like, not what I meant,” she interrupted, not wanting to let him get caught up in some rant about why his way was the right way. Right now she wanted to focus on other things. “What happened with Fencer after you guys left? Why was her horn cut off?”
He bristled, hearing an accusation in her questions. “That was entirely due to her own actions! She could have spared herself that at any time if she’d heeded my warnings!”
Eight and a half, she decided, and that meant that a different approach was called for. Instead of talking, she stepped closer and nuzzled him.
Again, his anger was momentarily replaced by surprise. “What are you doing?”
She looked him directly in the eyes, a small smile on her face. “It’s me, here. I know you did the right thing. You’re Lex Legis. You always do the right thing.”
For a moment his expression didn’t change, as though he was trying to figure out how to react to her statement of unconditional faith in him. An instant later his ears folded back, and he broke eye contact, looking almost embarrassed by what she’d said. More encouragingly, his eyes changed back to their normal color, the sight of which made Sonata let out a relieved sigh in the privacy of her thoughts. “Tell me what happened,” she urged again.
“…alright,” he muttered. Straightening up, he began to tell her what she wanted to know. For long minutes he spoke, Sonata not interrupting as he told her everything from when they’d left to go search for Pillowcase until they had just returned.
By the time he was finished, Sonata’s eyes were wide. “So your horn grows back? That’s, like, totes amazing! Does the rest of you do that too?”
Lex snorted. “If it did, then I wouldn’t require healing magic or medical treatment when I’m injured.”
“Oh yeah,” blinked Sonata in understanding. Given how often he’d gotten himself hurt, it made sense that he didn’t have any sort of fixing-himself powers. Shaking that thought away, she moved onto the next revelation. “And there’s a bunch of ponies surrounding Vanhoover?”
Lex’s features darkened instantly. Just the thought of other ponies turning on their neighbors the way Fencer had was enough to upset him. “Apparently so.”
Sonata frowned in thought. Lex had told her what Fencer and Cozy had said, but something seemed weird about the whole idea. “Something seems weird about that whole idea,” she said after a moment’s thought.
“Calling it ‘weird’ is a gross understatement. If what those mares said is accurate, then whoever’s organizing this blockade is either hopelessly inept or utterly corrupt.” He didn’t mention that he was growing more and more certain that it was the latter. It was the only explanation that made any kind of sense.
Leaving aside that a quarantine would be far more effective if it didn’t send potentially-infected ponies back into a danger zone, there were too many operational faults in such a haphazard operation for it to be taken seriously. The complete and utter lack of maritime enforcement, for example. Or the fact that there hadn’t been any pegasus patrols – a necessity when there were still pegasi in the city – that he’d seen every time he’d gone outside. More than that, Fencer had described the containment effort as simply having ponies throw things at anyone trying to leave the city, and Cozy had confirmed her account. But that was the least efficient manner of keeping a population contained; while pegasi might be necessary to deal with pegasi, a fence or other barrier was still the optimal way to imprison those ponies that couldn’t fly. Having ponies stand watch or otherwise patrol a city was just asking for survivors to slip through, especially at night.
And that was just the beginning. There was also the fact that none of the princesses had mentioned anything like this when they’d granted him Vanhoover. All they had mentioned was that a flood had occurred and that in the aftermath the city’s population, including its three most influential families, had succumbed to infighting due to the scope of the disaster. As little as Lex thought of the princesses, he knew that they’d never withhold such pertinent information if they had it…which meant that someone was deliberately feeding them falsehoods about Vanhoover’s situation. Worse, they were also somehow keeping word of what was happening here from reaching the rest of Equestria.
He’d known that, of course; that had been obvious back when he’d first gotten a good look at the city. But while it had been a mystery before, in conjunction with this so-called “blockade” it painted a much darker picture. In fact…
A cold shudder went down Lex’s spine. I never determined how the ghoul infestation started, he realized. Of course, that didn’t mean anything unto itself, but it was self-evident that those monsters weren’t a product of the elemental bleed that he had closed. And their method of propagating their numbers via a disease whose transmission vector was a bite – at least based on what he’d heard so far – meant that they couldn’t have simply generated spontaneously…which meant that someone or something had introduced them to Vanhoover. But there was no Equestrian magic that he’d ever heard of that could create monsters like that. Which meant that something else had to be responsible. And Lex knew from personal experience that undead creatures weren’t unknown on Everglow.
The ghouls. A quarantine that worsens the situation rather than improves it. Disinformation meant to prevent help from arriving. Someone is trying to destroy Vanhoover. The thought was enough to rekindle his anger. No matter how many enemies he destroyed, there was always another one waiting to undo all of his good work! What did he have to do to save this city?!
“Hello?” came Sonata’s voice. “Earth-, er, Equestria to Lex. You there?”
“Hm?” The scope of what he’d realized was enormous enough that he needed a moment to return his focus to Sonata. “What?”
“I said, what are you going to do with Fencer?”
Lex frowned. “Once her horn is restored, I’m going to sentence her for what she’s done. Harshly.”
“Yeah, about that…” Sonata licked her lips, knowing that she needed to phrase this next part very carefully to avoid tripping over any of Lex’s hang-ups. “She, like, totes deserves to be punished for everything she did, no question there. But I’m a little worried about how everybody, sorry, everypony else will react if you’re too harsh.”
Lex’s eyes narrowed, and Sonata winced internally, knowing she was about to get an earful. But before Lex had a chance to get a word out, a harsh whisper intruded on their conversation. “Maybe you should be more worried about what will happen if he’s not harsh enough,” smirked Aria, emerging from a nearby passage to drag herself over to them. “After all, if whatshername’s not spanked hard enough to behave, she might act up again.”
“Hey! Nobody’s talking to you!” snapped Sonata, the sight of her sister being enough to ruin her calm and make her forget proper Equestrian grammar. “Buzz off!”
“You’re the ones who wandered over where I was napping,” replied Aria. “Besides,” she turned to give Lex a playful smirk, “I couldn’t stay quiet when I heard you giving our stallion such bad advice.”
“Excuse me?!” Sonata stalked over to get in Aria’s face. “He’s MY stallion! And since when did you become a big supporter of harsh punishments, Miss They-Cut-My-Throat-And-It’s-Sooooo-Unfair!”
“That’s different!” snarled Aria. But an instant later she’d recovered her poise, moving over to press herself against Lex – who had been silently watching the exchange up until now, unsure if he should interfere – and nuzzle him before he could move away. “I have total faith in our stallion here, unlike you, since he treated me so well after everything I did.” Aria felt Lex go rigid at the unexpected display of affection, and laughed internally. That’s payback for embarrassing me before. It had taken a little while for her to figure out that him calling her pretty was his way of getting revenge on her for teasing him about wanting her and Sonata both. Now she’d gotten him back for it, but even better…
“YOU GET AWAY FROM HIM RIGHT NOW!” yelled Sonata, rushing over and shoving Aria back. The move had little effect, since Aria’s Siren form contained far more mass than Sonata’s pony body, but she backed off anyway, laughing. Being able to fight with her idiot sister made her feel more normal than she had in a long while. Sonata, meanwhile, continued to rant. “He’s not yours! He’s, like, all mine!”
“Are you sure?” Aria’s smile was mocking. “He was telling me just a little while ago how pretty he thinks I am.”
Sonata whipped her head around to regard Lex. “What?!”
Blinking as his girlfriend suddenly rounded on him, Lex struggled to figure out what was going on and what he was supposed to do about it. “Hold on, that was-”
“And,” interjected Aria, “he’s going to make me a pony, too.” Sonata’s reaction to that little tidbit, turning bright red and tittering with rage, was absolutely priceless. And now to make sure that loverboy takes the fall for me. Knowing she had a few seconds before her airhead sister collected her thoughts, Aria headed back towards the shadowy passages of the warehouse, making sure to give Lex a seductive glance over her shoulder as she left. “If you get tired of her whining, come find me later.” Punctuating her obvious proposition with a wink, she left the pair there, not trusting herself to linger any further before she burst out laughing.
Lex watched her go, trying to make sense of the entire exchange. Frowning in confusion, he turned back to Sonata, only to find that she’d gotten right in his face. “You’re going to make her into a pony?” she hissed.
“I did offer to transmute her body into a proper equine form in order to restore her voice,” he nodded. Hopefully elucidating why he’d made that offer would calm her down.
It didn’t. “And you think she’s pretty too, huh?”
Lex paused, trying to formulate a proper response. What he’d observed of interpersonal interaction, along with second- and third-hoof knowledge he’d gathered over the years, suggested that Sonata was suffering from some sort of envious reaction, likely because she’d misjudged his statement about Aria’s looks as being some sort of qualitative comparison with regards to her own. All he needed to do was let her know that wasn’t the case, and she should calm down. “Anyone would think that. By any conventional standard, she’s quite beautiful.”
The look of fury on Sonata’s face was apocalyptic.
Realizing he wasn’t getting the results he’d hoped for, Lex changed tactics. “Which isn’t to say that your own comeliness is any less than hers.”
“Convince me,” she growled through gritted teeth.
Lex blinked. “Well, the nature of qualitative values is that they defy conventional measurem-”
“No!” She stepped closer, almost nose-to-nose with him now. All of the frustration she’d felt before he’d left to go find Pillowcase had just come roaring back, stronger than ever, and she was tired of it. “Convince me without talking!”
His brow furrowed at the unusual request, before opening his haversack for a quill and scroll. But he’d barely withdrawn them when Sonata, apparently displeased, knocked them away with a snarl. “That’s not what I want either!”
Starting to grow frustrated himself, Lex grit his teeth. “Then what do you want?!”
His answer came when Sonata closed the last of the distance between them. Taken completely by surprised, Lex was practically knocked over as Sonata kissed him aggressively, her tongue slipping into his mouth. Utterly baffled at what was happening, Lex tried to back up and assess the situation, but Sonata moved forward at the same time, and it was enough to cause the two of them to tumble to the ground, Sonata landing on top of him. Even then she didn’t stop, pressing herself against him hungrily. “Convince me,” she demanded again, her voice huskier, and then he knew what she wanted.
He ended up convincing her three times.
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Nosey really screwed up. Kara is good for short term romances but because of her representing the bad side of love, she can not help create a good long term relationship.
Also will anyone ever call lex out on his speciest attitude.
8343297 That's almost certainly true, but there's no way for Nosey to know that. Kara is a goddess of deception, after all.
8343300 I suspect that it will come up at some point.
Three, is the magic number.
I laughed when Lex pulled out the quill and scroll.
Hopefully that will dissolve some of the tension and rage for a while, at least enough for Lex to decide Fencer's punishment in a less heated state and with Sonata's advice, he'll decide one that will have the least repercussion. Though Aria does make a good point, being too lenient might make Fencer or her group act up to challenge Lex again in her place.
Of course, we know that Fencer's is in a fragile state as she faces everything that she's done so any harsh punishment could break her. Turbo might be facing the consequences of his actions when he learned of Pillowcase's condition. He and the rest of the group likely did unspeakable things to others for gain and never looked back because they couldn't afford to.
To learn that someone might not make it because of their actions is probably horrifying and like Fencer, make them think about the others they hurt and wonder if they're still alive or not.
Though this brings up a point I believe I brought up before, what would happen if Lex encounters another group of survivors and they happened to be previous victims of Fencer and her group?
8343558 All good things come in threes.
8343923 Lex is still a long way from understanding his girlfriend, but at least he's enjoying figuring her out.
You're right that this will - hopefully - let him clear his head enough that when he punishes Fencer, he doesn't go overboard. While I doubt that he'll be too lenient, it's much easier to go too hard or too soft than it is to find the happy middle, especially given that Fencer is currently suffering from severe guilt over her actions now that she's realized what they've cost her. It's going to be difficult, but hopefully he can pull it off.
That said, I admit that I don't recall you mentioning the idea of Fencer's group meeting some ponies they've victimized before. It's an interesting idea, though the underlying premise seems like it'll happen eventually; remember, there's an entire blockade of ponies that have been throwing rocks at desperate survivors who just wanted to leave the city. So I imagine that one way or another, that issue will come up.
8344722
) and realized you're right. I was just misremembering one of them.
Looking back at the comments I made(I think wall 'o' texts is a bad habit of mine
Here's the line:
Still, the point is that Lex would have a hard time convincing the remaining ponies in Vanhoover to join him if they were victimized by Fencer and her group though that may depend on how desperate they are upon Lex's arrival(Like Aisle and the others were). Also, I'm almost certain Fencer raided the group that ejected her and her father during the crisis which would likely cause even more conflict down the road for Lex.
You're really making things difficult for Lex...
Oh well, at least he has Sonata by his side.
8344804 No worries, having written so much that you need to go back and check what you've said previously is a problem that I can relate to.
The overall nature of what you're talking about - that the ponies of Vanhoover will have a hard time becoming one community again after they've turned on each other in the wake of the disaster - is definitely going to be an issue going forward (though I'm going to remain mum on exactly how that will manifest). Worse, that's a problem that Lex is singularly ill-equipped to face, though he at least had the good sense to start a relationship with someone who's more capable than him in that particular area. As always, he needs to navigate the challenges of both his personal and professional lives individually in order to succeed at both, since he's chosen a path that's blended the two together.
By the way, I wanted to ask what you thought of Aria in this chapter. I recalled that you had some problems with her and Lex's awkward flirting several chapters back, something I kept in mind when I wrote her here.
8344814
Aria 'flirting' with Lex was amusing and her reasons behind it felt more in tune with her more cynical outlook and her glee at messing with both Lex and Sonata as payback definitely made her feel more like her old self. Alluring and yet dangerous to get too close to, which is fitting given her status as a siren.
On the bright side, she seems to be more comfortable around Lex now, even if it is to mess with him but at least she isn't trying to rock the proverbial boat too much if she only sought to sow some minor discord between Lex and her sister.
8344839 Thanks for that; I asked because there was a subtle idea I was trying to introduce, and I wondered if perhaps I made it so subtle that it was overlooked altogether.
Basically, the idea I wanted to put forward was that Aria might be particularly vulnerable to the blessing that Kara placed on Lex. That's because - like her sister - Aria is a Siren, and thus desperately wants to be adored. Given that, as Sonata noted in chapter 51, Lex has a deep wellspring of passion, the allure of wanting that passion directed at her might be something that Kara's blessing could latch onto, especially when Aria sees her sister enjoying it so much. Of course, she'd go after Lex in a completely different way, since her personality and recent experiences are a far cry from Sonata's.
Basically, it's a plot seed that I may or may not use later on down the line.
This cavern doesn't have any typos, but there is a tent moving quite suspiciously over in the corner. We elected to leave it.
8388579
A wise decision.
Sonata's irreverance, particularly towards her dour boyfriend, is always a treat, isn't it?