Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
“Cozy! Cozy, wait!”
Aisle broke into a run as Cozy refused to slow down, and he quickly circled around in front of her, planting himself directly in her path. “Just hold on a second! Leaving like this-”
“Move, Aisle.”
“-is a terrible idea! The distance from here to the Crystal Empire would take, I don’t know, weeks to cross on hoof! You’d have to go around the mountains and then cross the plains to-”
“I don’t care,” she answered wearily. “I can’t stay here anymore.”
Noticing that they were attracting stares, Aisle lowered his voice, stepping closer to her. “Listen, I know you’re upset about what happened to Cloudbank and Drafty. I am too. But you’re not thinking clearly right now.”
She shook her head, still wearing that haunted expression. “My thoughts are completely clear. I need to go home. I need to be someplace where there’s laughter and singing and hope, rather than here. Here the only things to look forward to are hunger and disasters and bad news, and I can’t take it anymore.” She gave him a pleading look then, silently begging him to understand. “I can’t take it anymore. I was happy before I came here. Now, I feel the same way I did when King Sombra was in power, and it’s horrible!” Her lower lip quivered then, and she rubbed a foreleg across her eyes. “I have to leave, before things get even worse.”
“Cozy…” Seeing her like this was enough to break Aisle’s heart, but that didn’t change the fact that what she was proposing simply wasn’t feasible. “I know how you feel, but you can’t just walk all the way back to the Crystal Empire.” He flailed for a moment, trying to come up with something that would stop her from embarking on such a foolish course of action, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “What about Sonata?”
“What about her?” shrugged Cozy tiredly.
“You said that Lex doesn’t really love her, remember?” Personally, Aisle wasn’t entirely sure about that, but then again he thought it was a bad idea to stick his nose into other ponies’ love-lives to begin with. But that didn’t matter right now. “Would Lashtada want you to walk away before you’ve convinced her?” Silently, he hoped that would never come to pass; he was certain that if Cozy ever managed to talk Sonata into breaking things off with Lex, none of them would escape the ensuing storm unscathed. Keep Cozy from marching off into the wilderness was the more pressing concern, however, and hopefully this would do it.
But it wasn’t to be, as Cozy shook her head again, sagging in place. “I can’t convince her,” she sighed, her eyes vacant. “Maybe I could have before, but now all I’ve done is make her hate me.” Her ears folded back and she seemed to crumple in on herself. “I didn’t want to admit it before, but I’m in over my head. I thought maybe that this was a test from Lashtada, but it’s not…or maybe it is and I’m just not up to the task. I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t do it. The only thing I can do now is go back home and warn Princess Cadance about what’s happening here. Maybe she’ll succeed where I failed.”
“Cozy, you’re not a fail-” But he wasn’t able to finish speaking as she lifted a hoof and gently placed it against his lips, silencing him.
“Will you come back with me?” she asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper, as though it was taking everything she had to continue speaking. “I know we didn’t finish speaking about it before, but…Aisle, I can’t do this without you.” She lowered her hoof from his mouth, looking at him with eyes that were shimmering with another round of tears. “You’re probably right about this being a bad idea. I don’t even…” She trailed off, and for a moment it looked like she was going to break down again, but somehow she summoned the strength to keep going. “I know I’m not strong enough to carry Pillow…to carry his body by myself, and that there’s only so long before…before it’ll start to…” She couldn’t keep speaking then, unable to face the reality that soon, the preservation magic on her husband’s body would wear off and it would start to decay. Instead, she shook her head, pushing past that terrible truth. “That’s why I need your help. Will you come back with me?”
Aisle froze, caught between wanting to do everything he could for her and the knowledge that “everything he could” wouldn’t be enough, not for what she was asking of him. “Cozy, I…”
“Please Aisle. I’ll beg if I have to.”
She actually started to get on her knees then, and that was all Aisle could take, reaching out and stopping her before she could abase herself. “Of course I’ll come with you,” he said hurriedly, blinking as he felt his own eyes starting to water. He’d known she was hurting, but he was starting to realize that he’d underestimated, perhaps severely, just how bad things were for her. It was enough to silently make him wish that Cloudbank and Drafty were here; both pegasi had been more spirited than he was, and had never been afraid to tackle problems head on. If Cozy had told them that she’d wanted to leave, they would have immediately started thinking of ways to try and make it happen, rather than reiterating all the reasons that it couldn’t. The thought sent an ache through his chest, knowing that he’d never see them again now. “How…how about we at least wait until tomorrow morning, okay?” It was already late afternoon, maybe even early evening. One more night would give him some time to think of the best way to proceed.
But even that seemed to be more than Cozy could stand, shaking her head again. “No. We have to leave right now.”
Aisle’s brow furrowed at that, but it was in confusion more than frustration. “Why?”
“Because something else might happen!” she yelled, the sudden increase in volume startling Aisle. “Because every minute we stay around Lex is another minute where we’re in danger!” She glanced behind her then, looking sidelong at the train station before giving a shudder, turning back to him. “Vanhoover was bad when Pillow and I first got here, but ever since we met him everything has gotten worse! That little apartment we were all holed up in was awful, but at least we were all together! Now look at us…!”
Glancing around, Aisle realized that they were starting to draw attention again, with several ponies openly looking at the two of them. “Um, Cozy, we should-”
But she wasn’t listening. “Ever since Lex found us, we’ve been less safe, not more!” Her voice leveled off then, but only so that she was speaking normally instead of shouting, her words still easily audible to everypony around them. Cozy herself didn’t seem to realize that, still looking only at Aisle. “Right from the beginning, he’s been leading us into danger. Remember that trap with the dummy lights that he fell for? You almost died, but he came through just fine!”
Scattered murmuring broke out around them at that, making Aisle wince. “That’s true, but-”
“And then he got us attacked again before we ever made it to that warehouse of his! If Cloudbank hadn’t acted when she had, we’d all have been killed by those monsters!”
More voices broke out among the crowd in response to that, and Aisle felt a cold shudder go down his spine. “You know what, maybe we should go right now.” He nodded toward the medical tent. “Let’s head over and get Pillow’s body, and we-”
“And then Pillow! After everything we did…all the carnage he made us go through against those sea creatures, creatures we wouldn’t have faced if he hadn’t taken us to his ‘shelter’ in the first place, he couldn’t even rescue one pony by himself! And now Cloudy and Drafty are dead because of him!” She stepped forward then, wrapping a foreleg around Aisle’s neck and pulling him close as she rested her head against his neck, closing her eyes as she embraced him. “That’s why I don’t want to be here anymore. Being around Lex cost me my husband. He cost me my friends. I don’t want him to cost me you too.”
Aisle wrapped a foreleg around her reflexively, but his eyes were on the crowd of ponies watching them. Most of them looked moved by Cozy’s display, giving her sympathetic looks while others were hugging or pressing against other ponies dear to them. Quite a few were also casting dark looks at the train station, and Aisle could hear an undercurrent of angry muttering going around. This is my fault, he realized with a shudder. I pushed her too far. I should have just told her what she wanted to hear from the beginning and waited for her to calm down. It was with that thought in mind that Aisle chose his next words carefully. “I understand. Let’s get going, okay?”
She nodded, not letting go of him, an Aisle awkwardly guided her forward, shepherding her toward the medical tent, the crowd parting in front of them. Maybe once she saw the practical issues with trying to leave here, particularly with no provisions and no way to transport a dead body, she’d come around. But until then, pushing her to reconsider would probably only make things worse, since she had apparently decided that Lex was the source of all her woes. Maybe then she’d realize that what she was talking about simply wasn’t realistically possible.
But as he listened to the upset voices coming from the crowd, all of them apparently directed toward Lex, Aisle couldn’t help but wonder if maybe they should just leave after all. He somehow doubted that the red-horned unicorn would appreciate how Cozy had apparently just turned everypony against him. Sharing her opinion was one thing; whipping up an angry mob would probably be something else again.
Aria watched the pair of ponies leave, eyes narrowed in consideration.
She’d heard the raised voice, and had gone to investigate out of sheer boredom, since anything was better than sitting around and waiting for Lex to hurry up and fulfill his promise to her. What she’d found had actually been mildly interesting, as that crystal pony had managed to put together an impressive number of half-truths, making Lex sound like the bad guy instead of the person who’d pulled off a one-in-a-million plan to save everypony from the Great Lord of the Deep. She’d have made a decent Siren, she decided, almost able to see the negative emotions pouring off of the assembled ponies.
Of course, her efforts weren’t going to amount to anything, Aria knew. If Lex could defeat her, Monitor, and Lirtkra all on his own, an unruly mob wouldn’t phase him even slightly; quite the opposite, they’d just make themselves into a target for his anger, since he was no doubt still upset about learning that his friends had died. Which means he’s going to want to tear that instigator limb from limb, she was certain. And if I bring the little upstart to him, then I’ll be able to rub it in Sonata’s face just how much more useful I am than her. That, and Lex might get off his butt about fixing her voice. He might still have five more days before his self-imposed deadline arrived, but the waiting was driving her crazy. Anything that could make him go faster was worth a shot, and if it ticked Sonata off in the process, so much the better. The thought made Aria smile, quite pleased with herself.
Whispering the words to invoke the new magic she’d learned, Aria cast an invisibility spell on herself, followed by a flight spell, and took off after the pair.
Aisle tries to talk Cozy down, but ends up making things worse in the process, while Aria detects an opportunity.
How will this play out?
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Aria taking initiative is never a good thing.
Though to be fair, I don't think anyone else really believes Lex will meet his 5 day deadline to restore her voice.
This will definitely lead to some inter-siren drama, and I love those scenes.
8797929 I don't know, Lex was able to invent a third-level spell in under two days, so he could conceivably accomplish a similar feat with the time he has left, keeping his promise to Aria. It doesn't look too good, though.
Of course, everything's up in the proverbial air until it happens, particularly with Aria herself getting ready to stir up what will undoubtedly be trouble.
Not trying to continually harp on Cozy again...but this mostly proves my theory about her mental gymnastics to blame Lex for everything, even if it wasn't specifically about Xiriel.
8797946 Yeah, if Lex had a wizard study and 5 days downtime he probably could pull it off. I meant that in his current circumstances, it'll be tough. It could definitely be interesting to see how Lex's code makes him choose between breaking a promise and doing less than the utmost to care for the ponies under his rule.
8797875
I am going to write on my iphone for a while : computer hs. So sorry for the drop in quality
I think too that she did not predict everything, but she can at least predict some things as showed in the cartoon.
I think he would be happy to see the princesses apply his plans. As for beating them that way...they implant most of his reform that should give him an edge, but they don't have to force them as much upon the population : any money he rise by tax they can rise a great part of it
through an national charity operation, and make a catastrophe prevention tax (and other tax for other operation) afterward when everyone have an habit.of givong said money. The last years of catastrophes
(Including the very recent elemental imbalences) should have sensibilized them. Hard to beat that.
By the way when i said that other pony succed where she fail, i don't just talk about an ennemy attack, it can be said the same to any problem equestria have. It is why i say Lex, with his reforms would count as one of those if he wasn't so confrontational.
He should be happy though. In the end his reforms will come to pass even if he is not the one who paass them.
By the way, even if he doesn't want to use force, the night mare will push him to do it no?
Lex tells the truth and very few ponies will leave the remains of that cities enviroment alive.
and even fewer will get to whats left of the rest of Equestria after the incursions.
Geez, and here I thought there was no way for Cozy to somehow complicate things more than she has already and Aisle is shouldering the blame for her hysterics. Lex will not be happy when he sees a riled up mob outside the station and neither will Sonata when she learns who turned the camp ponies against Lex.
Still, this is an opportunity for Sonata to shine as Lex's spokespony...well, until Aria comes in with Cozy trussed up like a turkey and possibly a roughed up Aisle who tried to protect her. While Lex would undoubtedly be furious with Aria, I wonder if Lex would even bother wasting time explaining himself with the potential threat of an attack coming for the camp.
Sure, Lex understands his public image also affects Sonata too but that's secondary to the safety of innocent lives. Then again, Lex does have the habit of correcting others when they make mistakes or illogical assumptions.
The logical solution to protect everyone is to abandon the camp and move further away from the city to a more secure location...like the farmstead that one of ponies from Garden Gate's group mentioned. Looks like Cozy might have some more company on her impromptu trip...whether she likes it or not.
8797964 To be fair, what she was saying initially made it clear that she's reached her limit for how much suffering she's able to stand while still keeping sane. It was only when Aisle, rather cluelessly, kept trying to tell her to wait just a little longer that she snapped and started ranting about how everything was Lex's fault. I question whether or not she even really believes what she's saying, but it's becoming increasingly clear that Cozy is no longer able to keep it together in the face of everything that's happened.
8797981 He'll definitely take some additional penalties with regard to spell creation, but it's theoretically not impossible...theoretically.
That said, I suspect that Lex has the concept of "extenuating circumstances" in there somewhere. He might have promised Aria something, but that doesn't mean that it must happen under any and all possible circumstances, regardless of whatever else might happen. That's along the same lines as not treating signed contracts as iron-clad, unbreakable oaths that have to be enacted regardless of hidden clauses or deceptions that were perpetrated with regards to their terms. There's a reason why contract law is a major field.
8798276 I don't know, I'd say that's a touch overwrought.
8797983 I do suspect that Princess Celestia has had at least one other prophetic vision, that being when Nightmare Moon would return, since otherwise it's hard to see how Twilight would have read about how "after a thousand years, the stars will help her escape." But beyond that I'm not seeing much in the way of Princess Celestia knowing the future.
With regards to political and economic reforms...it's hard to say, but I suspect that Lex is correct that the princesses wouldn't be able to accomplish what he would. Some of that is simply due to intellect; other than Twilight, none of the princesses seem to have much interest or aptitude for the highly theoretical frameworks that he enjoys so much. It's questionable if they'd be able to grasp macroeconomic theories, for example, even if he outright explained them. Twilight, on the other hoof, would eat that part up.
However, I suspect that greater issue is that they likely wouldn't want to implement a lot of them, or rather, wouldn't want to enforce their implementation. The princesses are all very staunch in their laissez-faire model of governance. While they'll meet foreign dignitaries, and step in to help with a local infestation, they don't seem to do very much else besides moving the sun and the moon and dealing with intermittent threats to Equestria. What we don't see is them actively enforcing local laws that individual ponies might not want to comply with. Telling someone "I don't care how you feel about it, you have to pay your taxes, or else," or "I know you're sorry, but selling fake medical remedies has criminal penalties that cannot be waived, even if your victims have forgiven you," simply goes against their nature. They simply refuse to exercise the requisite level of force that goes into implementing proactive governance. Despite it being their right, they don't want to tell anypony what they have to do. They'd much rather that everypony figure that out for themselves; at most, they'd offer a little bit of guidance and advice, but nothing more.
Lex has no such compunctions. He's quite willing to tell everypony what needs to happen in order to promote the general prosperity; while he still sees individual liberties as being important, he recognizes that there are areas where the government must intrude upon those liberties to a certain degree, for the greater good. Despite what I suspect a lot of ponies would think, he's very cognizant of the seriousness that level of responsibility requires, and doesn't seem inclined to use it as a fig leaf to justify any sort of grotesque oppression...but there are still times when his administration would need to step in and tell somepony, "no, this is what's going to happen, and if you don't comply there'll be consequences." Moreover, doing so has the potential to be a good thing, and he would leverage it to its fullest in mobilizing whatever governing apparatus he could construct (the larger the better). The princesses would, in all likelihood, never be able to do this (certainly not to anywhere near his extent), and Lex knows it too, which is why he's confident that he can beat them in this particular area. There's no charity drive that could, over a long period of time, defeat a diverse array of permanent taxes in generating a national income. At some point you have to take the money and punish those who don't give it, pointing out that this is being put to good use for the nation as a whole.
Having said all of that, I question to what degree the Night Mare would demand that Lex use force. Partially because he already would (it simply wouldn't be cruel or unjust) and partially because she strikes me as a deity who views things from a rather Nietzschean perspective in terms of meritocratic rule; if you are able to impose your will over others, then you deserve to. What you do with that is less important.
8799236 Cozy has managed to throw a monkey wrench into things, hasn't she? Of course, there's been a confluence of events that brought things to this point to begin with – Aisle's pushing her to wait, Sonata's not finishing her song to turn everyone's opinion around, Lex carelessly letting it slip that Cloudbank and co. had died, Xiriel's having manipulated public opinion to be suspicious of Lex, etc. – but at this point Cozy might very well have been the proverbial match that ignites the flames. But hey, at least Aria's on the case now.
Now all Lex has to do is prepare for what might be an imminent attack of ghouls, while exhausted and at least partially depleted of magic with no easy way to recover it, while everypony seems to have turned against him. So nothing unusually difficult.
8799691
Well i count twillight among the princesses. And the fic said she would try to implant good ideas she found elswhere. I think that if lex's ideas would get supported by them (or at least part of them since like you said some would be too radical for them) it would be thanks to her.
Concerning the night mare she could send "counselling" to Lex via severance, and use any future follower (bound to be numerous and influencial in Lex'kingdom) to push him to it. I doubt she would approve letting him pass the chance to impose order on the rest of equestria through force)
Oh by the way maybe you missed it but i said the charity would be only temporary before becoming imposed.
8799640
Lex understands the concept, but he seems incapable of applying it to himself. He never accepts any excuses that would lessen the blame on him.
In five days if Aria's voice isn't fixed, at the very least she will hit Lex with a very cruel tirade, and Aria Blaze can do precision damage vs. self esteem like almost no other being around.
If Aria sticks around and becomes a confidante of Lex, she's going to have an unknown ally in the form of the Tulpa. Every day Aria will be all "Lex, everything is terrible, and you're the worst, and everything is your fault because you are fundamentally unlovable." Then when Lex goes to sleep at night, the Tulpa will come into his nightmares and be all "Well, I had some really good material stockpiled, but Aria kind of covered it more eloquently than I could have, so just, y'know, I agree with everything Aria said."
The problem with lex is that everything he does is colored by his desire to rule over others. If he was just looking to better equestria just having his reforms used would be enough but it is not. He is not satisfied if he is not at the top of the kingdom he reformed. What is at his core is the very thing that creates tyrants.
8800388 I'm also counting Twilight among the princesses; I think that she would be the most receptive to Lex's ideas, at least in theory, but would – like the other princesses – balk at several aspects of the necessary steps regarding implementation, because it ultimately runs counter to the hooves-off style that her role as Princess of Friendship entails. Twilight, like the others, doesn't strike me as being comfortable telling ponies that certain actions are required of them regardless of how they feel about them, or that some punishments are mandatory regardless of how anypony feels about them. Law enforcement, revenue generation, and market regulation – among many other areas – require that people adhere to the laws and rules laid down, and punish those who do not. Twilight, even if she understands that, doesn't seem likely to me to be able to go along with that.
More than that, I don't see Twilight being happy with the necessary bureaucracy involved with such an undertaking, specifically with regard to how much it would need to be external to herself. Creating a government that can manage that level of activity requires a massive apparatus to be built, in that you'd need to create, staff, and equip a very large number of agencies and departments in order to propagate and enforce the regulations being put out. Twilight enjoys managing data and information, but that's as a pastime; I question if she'd be happy putting together departments that were filled with ponies whose jobs were to fulfill and enforce her directives, rather than spending their time fulfilling their dreams. Remember, Twilight (like the other princesses) doesn't see herself as being better than anypony else; having to create and direct hierarchical organizations where she was giving orders, and possibly punishing offenders, would likely be very uncomfortable for her.
Ironically, this is different for the Night Mare, at least as I see her. To me, the Night Mare's push for ponies to better themselves and take control of the world around them means that she's not going to get very hooves-on in terms of nitpicking with how they impose their will on other people, so long as they do. Her credo of "the strong do as they will, the weak suffer what they must" doesn't really discriminate with regard to what the strong actually then do. The Night Mare might be somewhat impatient with Lex deciding to conquer via prosperity rather than simply casting the princesses down, but I don't see her demanding that he go into Canterlot and slap the princesses around until they submit. I talked about this with Howard035 before, but although she might be a Lawful Evil goddess of tyrants, I don't see her as demanding that her faithful be her slaves. That undercuts her dogma about ponies – or at least some ponies – being masters themselves. While she surely recognizes that other ponies have "slave mentalities," I see her as recognizing that those ponies with "master mentalities" will not bow and scrape to anyone, including her, and wouldn't want them to. Hence, I don't think that she'll tell Lex how to conquer, so long as he conquers.
(Insofar as the charity thing goes, imposing a charity is just a tax by another name. The princesses aren't likely to say "you have to give to this, from now on," which puts that idea to bed.)
8800560 That's a fair point; Lex would likely regard that as being a failure on his part, and does tend to look at failure as being inexcusable, at least when it comes to himself. He demands that he rise to any challenge, regardless of how impractical it may be. To put it another way, he does a good job of showing the bad side of being an overachiever.
As for Aria, and Lex's tulpa...well, they seem to be changing a little, don't you think? I wonder if things will go exactly as you're saying.
8801852 Actually, everything he does is colored by his desire to make up for his social deficiencies, leading him to try and overachieve in other areas as a form of compensation. Of course, that's not a very good plan, but it's the only one he has.
Insofar as ruling over others goes...that's hardly tyranny. Lots of people have authority over others in everyday life, whether it's parents telling their kids what to do, teachers disciplining students, bosses directing their employees, police officers over the general population, and the politicians who make decisions that affect everyone. All of these have limits, of course, but all exemplify that many (if not most) relationships are hierarchical, which means that there's an imbalance of power between the people involved, and so one person has greater influence over the other.
In Lex's case, he wants that degree of influence because he knows that the changes he wants to make cannot, in all likelihood, be adequately managed by the princesses. They've had control of Equestria for millenia, and for the last one thousand years they have advanced it not at all. Even if they could understand what he's proposing (and really only Twilight can do that), they lack the mindset to demand compliance, punish those who won't obey, and make macro-scale decisions about what's best for everypony else. They don't want to do those things, and without that his reforms are toothless, which means that they're a poor fit. So he has to step up, because they won't.
Ambition does not lead to tyranny; selfishness, cruelty, and other immoralities, combined with ambition, does.
Mad cozy would make a good siren. That's interesting.
9218507 That was Aria appreciating how Cozy's able to manipulate public negativity and turn it against someone she doesn't like. The Sirens' modus operandi, in other words.