145 - Rising Tension
Block Party was still smiling as Lex, Sonata, and a few other ponies led him towards the train station.
After Lex’s dramatic little speech, he had asked the assembled ponies if there was a secure location nearby where Block Party could be incarcerated. Most, to Block Party’s pleasure, had been too afraid to answer, at least when they were within sight of him, and that had quite obviously irritated Lex thoroughly. He’d looked like he was going to berate them for their fear before Sonata had volunteered to find out, taking a few of the nearby ponies aside to speak to them privately. It hadn’t surprised Block Party when she’d come back a few minutes later with information about the train station, situated at the other side of the camp; he felt reasonably sure now that she was the social butterfly of Lex’s little band.
Still, although the train station was the only building outside of the city proper that wasn’t a tent or a lean-to, the very idea that they thought it could contain him was laughably pathetic. It was almost enough to make Block Party question whether this was the group that had defeated the kraken. Although he’d given them no reason to think that he was anything other than what he appeared to be, he was still almost disappointed at how careless they were being.
Or at least, that’s what they want me to think, he smirked inwardly.
Although they – or rather, that Lex individual; judging from the way he’d been feeding Sonata lines, he was not only the group’s leader, but its tactician as well – was doubtlessly hoping he hadn’t seen through it, Block Party was fully aware of what was happening right now. This entire “prison” nonsense was a ploy; the intent behind it wasn’t so much to hold him, but rather to test his capabilities. He wants to see what countermeasures I take with regards to confinement, and so develop a better sense of what I’m capable of. It was an intelligent move on Lex’s part…but doing so had revealed a limit to his capabilities. After all, defeating such a mundane method of confinement would only reveal so much; Lex would have been far better served to utilize a magical method of keeping him imprisoned…but he hadn’t, which suggested that Lex didn’t have access to any such magic.
Oh, he certainly had some. Sonata’s previous remark about his being able to cure diseases, along with his unusual shadow, had made that clear enough. But exactly what it was remained uncertain. It was likely some sort of divine magic; both his off-colored horn and that barbed wire wrapped around his foreleg looked suspiciously like holy symbols, though for what deity Block Party had no idea. But still, he was most likely a spellcaster of some sort. And that made him dangerous.
Lex would doubtlessly notice the active spell around his so-called “captive” at some point. There was nothing that could be done about that, but since most detection spells only revealed the basic characteristics of a spell’s aura, rather than the details of the spell, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem. But if he grew curious, and managed to disrupt or dispel it…then the time for games would be over.
If that happened then Lex Legis, and anybody who was with him if and when he did that, would have to die.
Lex glanced around the interior of the train station, moving to check the various doors and windows as he locked them with the key ring he’d taken from the earth pony that had been inside the building when they’d arrived.
Said earth pony – a rather beat-up looking stallion with a deep chartreuse coat and a light grey mane and tail, who’d said his name was Spit Polish – was currently speaking to Sonata in the station lobby, his voice somewhere between indignation and whining. “But why is the commander being arrested?! He hasn’t done anything wrong!”
“Um, yeah, he has,” said Sonata, her tone indicating that she couldn’t believe she had to explain this. “Just one look out there makes it totes obvious that this entire place is wrong.”
“That couldn’t be helped!” Spit Polish’s eyes fell on Block Party, who was standing apart from the pair with that same bemused look on his face. “Sir! Tell them! There was no choice! We had to do what we did, for the greater good!” Sonata frowned at that, about to ask why he’d said “we,” but Spit Polish turned back towards her as he realized that Block Party wasn’t going to answer him. “Everypony knows that this situation is bad, but if the commander hadn’t done what he did, it would have been ten times worse! If the quarantine had been broken or the princesses shown up, then all of Equestria could have been infected! Even shutting down trains-”
“Had nothing to do with this so-called quarantine,” answered Lex coldly as he approached the pair.
“That’s not-”
“Shut up,” snapped Lex balefully, causing Spit Polish to quiet down as he saw the other stallion’s eyes suddenly flare green and purple. “This station is far enough from the city that even if you were dumb enough to believe that the outbreak was airborne, there was no risk of infection if the trains came here. That, and everypony in this camp had been here long enough that you had to know that they weren’t going to change into those monsters if they left.” His glare turned towards Block Party as he continued. “You didn’t isolate Vanhoover to try and protect Equestria. You did it to control the flow of information.”
“You’re wrong!” yelled Spit Polish. His voice rose, but it was fear, not anger, that was audible in it. “He just-, we needed ponies here to keep the city isolated! If everyone had left, then there wouldn’t have been anyone to stop those things from getting out!”
“If you think those anemic patrols were enough to stop…” Lex trailed off as he saw Sonata frantically signaling him from behind Spit Polish’s back. Frowning in confusion, gave her a quizzical look, causing her to roll her eyes and head towards the far end of the lobby, glancing at him as she did. Huffing, Lex moved after her, his eyes returning to normal as he did. “What is it?”
“Listen, you’re, like, totes right and all, but I really think you should lay off that guy,” she answered, glancing at Spit Polish, who was saying something to Block Party with a frantic expression.
The suggestion made Lex frown. “He needs to be made aware of the flaws in his arguments. Otherwise I can’t correct his skewed reasoning regarding what’s happened here.”
“And I think that’s great,” nodded Sonata. “For realsies. But maybe you don’t need to do it right now?” She nodded towards Spit Polish. “I mean, he’s getting pretty worked up about it, so maybe it’d be better to let him chew on what you’re saying for a while instead of making him try to choke it all down at once, you know?”
The look Lex gave her was deeply skeptical. “Failures of reasoning should be corrected without delay,” he insisted. “To allow such errors to persist when you know about them is irresponsible at best and dangerous at worst.”
“I know, but…” Sonata took a deep breath, licking her lips as she tried to figure out how to get her boyfriend to understand what she was saying. “When I left my sisters, I wanted to stop losing all the time, but that didn’t mean that I knew anything about friendship. I had to be taught what it meant, and that took me a while to figure out, because it meant that I had to, like, kick everything I knew about dealing with people to the curb.”
“Precisely. You received corrective information, which is what I’m trying to impart here.”
“Yeah, but like I said, it took me a while to figure it out.” She stepped in closer, giving him a gentle smile. “You’ve, like, already taken that guy apart with what you were saying. Let him figure the rest out on his own. I promise it’ll work totes better than trying to make him admit he was wrong right now.”
For a moment Lex thought of arguing, but then remembered that they’d had a conversation like this before. It had been back on Everglow, when she had been insisting that he didn’t need to overthrow Celestia and Luna by force, instead urging him to peacefully negotiate for a smaller piece of the country and go from there. Although he’d vehemently disagreed with her at the time, he’d eventually decided that her views had merit. Maybe…maybe that was the case here as well.
Of course, that wasn’t something he could admit gracefully. Instead, his ears folded back as he gave her a sour look. “You didn’t have to pull me aside to tell me this.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Huh?”
He gestured at her irritably. “My spell is still active. You could have whispered this to me and I’d have heard you.”
“Well, yeah, but I was standing right next to whatshisname. Even if I was whispering, he’d have overheard me.” She smiled slightly, pleased with herself for not making such a dumb mistake.
“In that case, you could have come over here by yourself and whispered to me. You’d have been far enough away from everypony else that no one would have heard what you were saying,” pointed out Lex flatly.
“…oh yeah.” Now it was Sonata’s turn to fold her ears back, reddening slightly.
Holding back the urge to sigh, Lex turned and marched back toward the other ponies in the room. “You,” he started without preamble, looking at Block Party, “will remain confined here until further notice. I’ll see to it that you’re brought necessary food and water. For your own sake, I strongly advise you not to attempt to leave without permission.”
Spit Polish looked ready to protest, but Block Party held out a hoof, instantly quieting his companion. “And what if I need to speak with you, or if something else happens?” he asked, still seeming to be mildly amused by the idea.
Lex frowned, falling silent. A few seconds ticked by, and it was enough that Sonata gave him an awkward look. It wasn’t like that was a tough question, and she’d never known him to space out in the middle of a conversation. “Lex?”
“…I’ll post a guard outside the main entrance. Holler at them through the doors if something happens,” replied Lex at last. The persistent anger in his voice had faded, being replaced with a cool detachment. Abruptly, he turned and headed for the door. “We’re leaving.”
Sonata blinked before moving to hurry after him, but Spit Polish wavered for a moment before firming up. “I’m staying with the commander.”
Lex slowed and came to a stop, before turning around and giving Spit Polish a piercing look, the anger having returned to his face. “No,” he said in a voice as soft as it was threatening, “you’re not.”
Spit Polish quailed, lifting a hoof, but paused then, trying to work up his courage. Fortunately, he was saved from doing so as Block Party pointed at the exit. “Go.”
“Sir?”
“You heard me.”
“Y-yes…” Spit Polish nodded, and although quite clearly reluctant, trotted towards the exit, giving Lex and Sonata a wide berth as he made his way to the doors.
Lex gave Block Party a long look before turning and doing the same, Sonata moving with him. She’d waited until Lex had exited, falling back in with the ponies they’d had wait outside before she couldn’t contain herself anymore. “So, like, what was all that?”
Lex didn’t answer immediately, first locking the door and then ordering one of his retinue to stay there before turning and making his way back across the camp. Sonata stayed at his side, the others following closely behind. It was only after a minute or so had gone by that Lex answered, and although they were right next to each other, he still whispered his reply, letting his spell carry it to her ears. “Just now, before we left, I looked him over for active magical auras.”
“Who? Block Party?” whispered Sonata back. Lex nodded, making her eye widen. “He has a spell on him? What kind?”
“Necromancy.”
“Huh? Techno-whatnow?”
“Necromancy, Sonata,” answered Lex darkly. “Magic that manipulates life and death.”
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Well, this is going to be one hell of a ride.
I think a comma should be between 'happened' and 'then'. As well as removing the second 'and'.
I believe the hyphen should be moved one word towards the start. As in 'beat-up looking' rather than 'beat up-looking'.
So, Block Party isn't so much fun after all, is he?
Normally I'd be on Sonata's side...but in this case I think I'm actually with Lex in that it may have been a good idea to get it through Spit's head what an idiot he's been for helping Block Party NOW, before he decides to, or can be talked into, doing something to undermine Lex or generally make the situation worse in an attempt to 'justify' the quarantine group's actions.
I am fairly sure that detect magic would determine what spell is in effect. It is actually fairly detailed in the information it can gather.
Oh no! He must be casting False Life! q:3
8439839
For active magic, it gives the school, with a knowledge check, and a vague notion of the power level. Pathfinder did change it to identify magic items, though.
Fun thought, Block just quietly broke Lex's authority over spit polish by giving him permision to leave.
Spit Polish didn't leave because Lex told him to, but because Block Party told him to.
He would have left either way, but Block stole Lex's authority right out from under him.
Magic to influence minds was bad enough but necromancy? I immediately thought Block was behind the ghoul infestation though I somehow doubt it since that would imply he's from the Everglow, which wouldn't fit in with him knowing about the Princesses and how Equestria works. I've got a couple of theories swirling in my head though it's too early to jump the gun yet.
Also, Block's inner thoughts makes him out to be very perceptive and calculating though with his mention of himself as a captive(unless he was referring to someone else?) in the third person tells me that one of my theories might have something solid to work with.
Block Life And Soul of the Party?
Gives you life and takes your soul?
A guy with a good heart, if you can find where he buried it.
8439676
Isn't it all?
Removing the second "and" would make it read "if when he did that." Likewise...I could go either way on the comma, but in this case I'm going to say no, because there doesn't need to be a pause between the conditional instance ("if that happened") and the result ("then Lex Legis").
Hm, I'm not sure that's right...but I can't confirm either way. In this case, I'm going to go ahead and make the recommended change, since I think your way looks more natural than mine.
Funny how his attitude doesn't match his name, or his cutie mark, isn't it?
8440147 What, no joke about being the half-life of the party?
8439797 This is the sort of thing for which there's no right answer. Sometimes it can be better to wrench someone out of a bad line of thought; other times it's best to give them something to think about and leave them alone while they work through it. It varies so much due to the circumstances, nature of the individual in question, and myriad other factors that there is no single solution that always works.
In Sonata's case, she's quite aware that a very short time ago, Lex refused to let up on another pony and his reputation took a big hit, so she's nervous about him doing it again. Whether or not she's right to do so here remains to be seen.
8439977
8439981
I don't think that this is a question of "breaking" or "stealing" authority, per se. Rather, it was an indication that Spit Polish is still listening to Block Party, and him alone. As far as he (Spit Polish) is concerned, there's still one pony giving the orders, and that's not Lex. But that's just Spit Polish's take on things...so far, Lex has brought a lot of help to ponies that needed it, and arrested the abusive leader in charge, so I'm guessing he has a bit more play with a lot of the other ponies in the camp.
8439839
8439865
Terrycloth has the right of it (with regards to how detect magic works, I mean; I'm not saying whether or not the spell was false life). While detect magic will return a decent amount of information, it won't positively identify a particular spell; that requires more than that particular spell can do.
The Pathfinder version of the spell will (with a successful Spellcraft check) identify the properties of magic items, though, unlike its 3.5 counterpart. But that's more of a change between the Pathfinder and 3.5 versions of Spellcraft than anything else.
8440410
8439865
My bad there.
8440006 Depending on how closely you read the beginning of this chapter, you can catch a few hints about Block Party, though I won't say anymore than that. Well, except to note that his referring to himself as a "captive" was with regards to Lex having arrested him; the sarcasm-quotes around the word was meant to indicate his contempt towards the idea that locking him in the train station could keep him contained.
8440006
It would depend on how long he's been in Equestria. If he's been here since at least when the elemental drifts started, it wouldn't take much to learn the basics of Equestria, like the princesses, and we know he's been around long enough to set himself up in charge of the 'quarantine,' and since there's been no news of this outside of Vanhoover, it implies he's had it set up for a while.
8440410
Yeah, detect magic itself is pretty much only for determining that, yes, there is magic on this item/person, and depending on the caster's skills, what kind of magic. You have to use the more advanced versions like Detect Magic, Greater or the versions of Arcane Sight to actually identify specific spell effects.
8440391
Nah, Id think that wouldve been a bit too hot to handle.
8440475
Now that I look at the chapter again, the evidence of Block being from the Everglow is rather strong, much stronger than 'Fencer' did so your point is pretty strong in that regard. Still, Alzrius could be pulling the wool over our eyes and Block could be something else altogether. Either way, Block will likely prove to be a lot more challenging than Fencer/Garden ever was.
8441248
Fencer was a whiny bitch who found she liked kicking people around. Block Party actually has some sort of plan.