Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

232 - Truer Words

For only the second time in her life, Sonata found herself freezing up in front of an audience.

The first time had been back on Earth, when she and her sisters had their gems smashed by Sunset Shimmer and her lame-oh friends. Unable to fuel their magic without them, the three of them hadn’t been able to so much as carry a tune, and had been forced to quit the stage when the audience had turned on them. Though I guess the whole attempted-brainwashing thing didn’t help very much either, she’d admitted to herself later on, after she’d learned what friendship meant.

But now, she found herself hesitating for a different reason. “Um, Lex?” she whispered, her eyes flitting between him and the crowd, where the assembled ponies were starting to fidget and murmur to each other. From what she could tell, they knew that Lex had said something but hadn’t been able to hear what, and their curiosity was rising. “I know I said you should speak from the heart, but maybe something a little-”

“Tell them what I said, Sonata.” The tone in his voice made her flinch, and she had to fight to keep her ears from folding back. The way he sounded now was nothing like his usual self. Normally, Lex spoke like he was giving orders, his words filled with strength and confidence. When he was angry – which happened a lot – he sounded like was overflowing with furious energy that he could barely contain, growling and snarling and even roaring when it was really bad. And in their most sweetest moments together, which so far had only happened a few times, the passion in his voice had taken lost its usual harsh edge and instead changed into something warm and gentle, the sound of which had absolutely made her melt. But now…

Now he just sounded miserable. All she could hear in his words was exhaustion and regret. It was enough to break her heart, but as much as she wanted to give him a great big hug and tell him that it would all be fine, she couldn’t ignore the number of eyes locked onto them. Despite her enthusiasm from less than a minute ago, she hadn’t missed how tough the audience was. If he had her lead with something like “yeah, it was totes my fault those ponies died,” she didn’t want to think about how they’d react. “Are you sure?” she asked, not because she wanted confirmation, but to buy herself an extra few seconds to think.

“Their lives were my responsibility,” he answered dully, still staring over the heads of the ponies in the crowd. “I didn’t have any magic that could save Pillowcase. I didn’t realize what Block Party really was. I wasn’t there when Cloudbank and the others were killed. Those failures, my lack of strength and intuition and determination when they were needed, are why they died.” He turned to look at her then, his gaze as empty as his voice was. “I let them down.”

“That’s not-”

“Just…just tell them, Sonata,” he sighed, breaking eye contact with her as he resumed facing forward.

Biting her lip, Sonata glared at him in frustration and sympathy, forgetting about the crowd for just a moment. Why was it always about what he hadn’t done, and not what he had? She wanted to grab him and shake him and scream at him over and over that a lot more ponies would have died if he hadn't come here until he got it. Forget about half-empty, he could look at a FULL glass and say that it’ll be empty later! But right now…right now she had to figure out what to tell the crowd. For the moment they still looked interested, their eyes still locked onto them as they chattered among themselves, but she knew that once they decided that answers wouldn’t be forthcoming, they’d start to lose interest. And her gut told her that would happen in the next few seconds if she didn’t say something. But what…?

Then she saw some ponies at the edge of the crowd start to wander off, and she knew she was out of time. Opening her mouth, Sonata said the first thing she could think of. “Lex wants me to tell you that it’s his fault that those ponies died,” she announced loudly.

All conversation ceased immediately. The stragglers on the edge of the crowd immediately reversed course, rejoining the others. Swallowing, Sonata kept going. “By now you’ve, um, probably all heard about the ponies that went into Vanhoover yesterday and didn’t come back. Lex,” she canted her head toward him, seeing that he was still standing there like a criminal being condemned, “says that he’s to blame for what happened. That he shouldn’t have sent them there. That he should have been there to save them.”

She’d gotten their attention back, but she could already see their faces hardening as the rumors were confirmed, taking Sonata’s announcement to be a confession that Lex was the bad guy. Okay, okay, keep calm! she thought to herself frantically. They’re still listening! I just have to walk them around to realizing that Lex is a good guy!

“And Pillowcase and Block Party,” whispered Lex. “Don’t tell them about Xiriel, but everypony deserves to know that I failed those other two as well.”

First I need to convince LEX that he’s a good guy! thought Sonata despairingly. “And, um…and he says that it’s his fault that this crystal pony we found died also, and Block Party too, by the way. Even though he totes killed himself,” she finished lamely. Even as the words left her mouth she knew how bad that sounded, both in terms of what she was saying and how she was delivering it, and felt her spirits wither. This isn’t fair! Now everyone else is going to blame Lex just like he’s blaming himself even though he didn’t do anything wrong! The injustice of it all gnawed at her. If only they knew Lex the way she did, they’d know that he was trying his hardest for them! Then they’d definitely love him! They’d definitely…def-…

Suddenly she knew exactly what to say.

Beside her, Lex started to whisper something else, but Sonata wasn’t listening anymore. “And you know what? He’s right. It is all his fault.” She let that hang in the air for a moment, making sure she had everyone’s attention before she continued. “I mean, he’d met Block Party for, what? A couple minutes? He should totes have known what was going on with him, right?” She did her best to keep the sarcasm to a reasonable level as she continued. “And Pillowcase, that crystal pony that we found in the city? I mean, yeah, he was already sick and injured and mostly dead when we found him, but what kind of excuse is that? Just because Lex immediately rushed him to the doctors is no reason to say that he’s not to blame for his dying.”

“Sonata, what are you doing?” whispered Lex, regaining enough of his vigor to give her a look of vexation.

But she ignored him, remembering what Peachy Keen had told her before: sometimes a spokespony’s job was to say what needed to be said, rather than what she was told to say. “And those other five ponies? The ones he asked to go back into Vanhoover? That was so they could find money to buy food for everyone here. You know, so Lex wouldn’t have to keep killing himself to make it out of thin air, the way he did yesterday? Yeah, the doctors were talking about possible organ failure because he’d used so much magic, but nuts to that, he should have gotten right up and marched into Vanhoover on his own, am I right?”

“That’s no excuse!” raged Lex, still whispering his responses to her. “Neither ignorance of salient facts nor insufficient strength acquits the failures of a reigning authority! If anything, they condemn them!”

But even if Sonata had understood what he’d just said, she was sure she wouldn’t have been swayed by it. Instead, she kept speaking to the ponies in front of her, who now looked far less upset than they had a moment ago, glancing at each other and muttering uncertainly. “I won’t even get into all the times he fought dangerous monsters to protect the ponies around him, while the only ponies he ever hurt were the ones who did terrible things in the first place. Clearly, none of that counts for, like, anything.” That seemed to strike a nerve in the crowd, their chattering suddenly gaining in volume, and she wondered how many of them were remembering what happened with Spit Polish yesterday morning.

“Sonata, if you don’t stop right this inst-”

“And you know what the real kicker is? The cherry on top of the chocolate cake? That he’s standing here right now, telling me to tell you that everything is his fault, while he’s getting ready to go out and fight to protect all of you again.” She swept a hoof back behind her, pointing toward Vanhoover. “Right now, all of those ghouls – the undead ponies in Vanhoover – are on their way here. But-, LISTEN TO ME!” She hollered those last three words loudly enough to grab everyone’s attention despite the panic that had immediately broken out at her announcement. “None of them are going to make it here! So long as each of you stays right here, in this exact spot, you’ll be safe! And you know why?” Her hoof swung around to point at Lex then, who had ceased admonishing her and was now giving her a level look. “Because he’s going to beat them all!”

“Are you crazy?!” called a voice from the crowd. “We have to run!”

“He’s going to beat them all!” insisted Sonata. But the crowd was already starting to scatter, and that was all she could stand. After everything he’s done, everything I just said, you STILL won’t believe in him?! She didn’t even look at Lex then, she just started singing, letting her magic wash out over the crowd and into their minds, smothering their fear and forcing them to return their attention back to her. Screw the rules, she thought angrily. If he wants to curse me, he can. I don’t care.

A moment later the mass of ponies had reassembled, staring up at her dazedly as she finished singing. Letting out a breath to steady herself, she picked up where she’d left off a moment ago. “Lex is going to fight the ghouls, and he’s going to win. I’ve seen him defeat dragons and sea monsters, and I’m not the only one. He always has a plan, and he always comes through. So as long as you all stay right here, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

A pregnant pause ensued as she looked out over the legion of ponies. She had suppressed their fear the same way she had for Nosey, and so far it seemed to be working, with everypony looking at each other uncertainly, but not descending into hysterics again. Now let’s just hope this lasts until we’re done with the ghouls.

She turned to look at Lex then, worry and defiance warring inside her at the thought of his reaction, but to her surprise he didn’t look like he was about to explode. Instead, he was giving her an unreadable look, his face neutral. Deciding to chalk that up as a win, Sonata looked back at the crowd of ponies, preparing to wrap things up. “After it’s all over, after he’s gone out there and risked his life to save everyone – again – you all can totes decide for yourselves,” she glanced over at Lex before continuing, wanting him to know that this applied to him too, “what sort of pony Lex Legis is.”

Without another word, she turned and hopped down from her box, heading back around to the far side of the medical tent without waiting for Lex to catch up. As she walked, she thought back over everything she’d just said, and came to a conclusion.

Best. Spokespony. EVER!

Author's Note:

Sonata steps up and delivers a powerful statement in support of Lex!

But will he be able to live up to her expectations and save everyone from the ghouls?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

That's a rather bold statement for Lex to live up to but it seems like Sonata's words got to Lex as well since he's evidently not furious with Sonata over her breaking the no mind control rule. Then again, Lex has been known to hide his emotions under a stoic mask so he could be at the very least upset with Sonata but at least she didn't spill the beans about Xiriel so that's a plus. Though I'm betting he just came up with some idea of how to deal with the ghouls, or at least a framework of one.

Or he's just flummoxed by how much Sonata deviated from what he had intended as well as why she did it.

Still, I wonder if Sonata's enchantment will actually hold out as long as it did with Nosey since it would be bad if they suddenly start panicking in the middle of the ghouls' attacks and scatter, making themselves easier pickings for the horde.

[Booster Spice]

So bad its gone out the other side and become a list to Murphy?

[DDDDDDDDD23]

Lex is the type of person that needs a figure head to lead properly.
He has good ideas about what to do but if he interacts with anyone he is such a douche that they are going to fail.
He is racist, dark magic obsessed, and arrogant beyond belief.
It would be one thing if he wants the princesses to step down for ponies to govern themselves, but what he really wants is to be a tyrant.

[DDDDDDDDD23]

I am only still looking at this story cause I am waiting for someones to knock him off his high horse.

[howard035]

Oh dear. Sonata calms the crowd, but also promises that they basically have to do nothing, that Lex will defeat the ghouls all on his own.

If Lex can find a way to power that limited wish, or the unicorns in the crowd could mass-cast it, could the camp be hit with a mass cloudwalking spell? If some pegasi could bring down enough cloud matter, and start ferrying the non-pegasi up, it might keep the civilians safe long enough for Lex to recover, regain his spells, and go to town on the ghouls. I don't think we've seen a single flying ghoul.

[Alzrius]

8902343 Trying to predict Lex's reaction right now is iffy; he's quite clearly at some sort of personal low point. Although he still seems to have the wherewithal to get mad at Sonata when she deviated from his script, it's hard to say why he didn't seem to be angry when she kept going. He might just have not had the energy to stay angry, or he might have taken something profound away from what she said. Or something else; it's hard to say, though I suspect that we'll find out soon.

As for how long everypony will remain pacified by Sonata's magic...it's hard to say, since we didn't see how long Nosey was affected. But if worse comes to worst, she can probably do it again, right?

[Alzrius]

8902540 So there's a Murphy's Law reference in there, I think?

[Alzrius]

8902806
8902804 I'm glad the story is engaging enough that you want to stick around even if you don't like the main character.

[Alzrius]

8903494 I've previously posited that the spell that lets non-pegasus ponies walk on clouds (which we saw in season one's Sonic Rainboom) is a level one spell, but the problem is that there aren't any clouds for the camp ponies to head to anyway. Lex realized that a little while ago (though for different reasons), which means that strategy isn't viable.

As for the ghouls...I actually tried to avoid the issue of whether pegasus ghouls could fly or not, and never wrote a single instance of a flying ghoul, because I wasn't sure. I eventually decided that they couldn't, because ghouls aren't really a template-based monster (and I'm bending the issue of Equestrian ponies being of the Humanoid type), and so don't have individualized stat blocks. That, and it would have made the issue of them staying in Vanhoover until hunger drove them wild much less believable. So that's my official stance on the issue: pegasus ghouls are ground-bound.

[James Fire]

Well, she did something. Whether it was good or not is anybody's guess.

[Alzrius]

9219859 At least she's confident that she did a good job.