314 - Re: Arrangement
“It’s okay, she’s asleep.”
Cadance couldn’t help but smile slightly at the relieved tone in Pillowcase’s voice. Cozy had apparently been unwilling to let go of Pillowcase since he’d been brought back, vacillating between weeping, laughing, and being amorous. It had been easy to see that Pillow was unnerved by her behavior, and although she knew it would be tasteless to say it out loud, Cadance couldn’t help but find it sweet that the pony that had died and come back to life was more worried about his hysterical wife than about what had happened to him. “Are you sure?” she asked softly from where she was standing in the doorway. “I can come back later if you want to rest, too.”
“No, really, it’s okay,” insisted Pillow. From where he was reclining in bed in the dim light of the elaborate guestroom, Cozy curled up by his side with her forelegs wrapped around him, they easily could have been any other couple about to turn in for the evening. But his tone suggested that he wasn’t just being polite, sounding almost eager to talk. “As long as we’re quiet, I think we’ll be fine. She seems really exhausted.”
“Alright,” nodded Cadance. But instead of immediately turning and entering, she glanced behind her. “Are you sure you don’t want to at least see her?”
Standing in the hallway next to Shining Armor, Produce Aisle shook his head, keeping his eyes on the ground as he gave a self-deprecating smile. “Cozy’s been lost since Pillow died. Now that he’s back, I’d only get in the way.”
“Aisle?” called Pillow from within the room, apparently having heard his voice despite how softly they were speaking. “Is that you?”
Cringing, Aisle stepped to the side, trying to make sure he wasn’t in line with the open doorway the princess was occupying. “I should go.”
“Where?” Shining Armor’s tone made it clear the question was rhetorical. “I’m guessing you haven’t exactly made any hotel reservations.”
Aisle squirmed in place, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. “You don’t understand,” he mumbled, lowering his voice even further. “After Pillow died, Cozy and I…we were…”
“Together,” finished Cadance gently. “I know.”
Aisle’s eyes widened, looking like a foal who’d just been caught with their hoof in the cookie jar. “You do? How?”
Cadance smiled again, understanding his surprise. After she’d brought Pillowcase back to life at the train station, they’d split into two groups. While Shining Armor had escorted Aisle, Cozy, Pillowcase, and everypony else to the hospital, she’d taken a detachment of the Royal Guard and brought those ponies who’d all confessed to being responsible for Pillow’s death back to Canterlot Castle, intent on interviewing them to try and figure out exactly what had happened in Vanhoover.
But doing so had been put on hold by a more immediate concern. Vanhoover, Cadance knew, was where Celestia and Luna were currently headed; their sudden departure being what had prompted them to ask Cadance to come to Canterlot in the first place to temporarily fill in for them while they went to check on “a situation of some uncertainty,” as Luna’s letter had described it. That had been mildly concerning at the time, but after what had just happened – seeing one of the missionaries she’d sent to Vanhoover coming back deceased and the other severely traumatized, along with how that unicorn mare with the white picket fence cutie mark had alluded to there being numerous other dead ponies in the city – the thought of her fellow princesses heading there was downright alarming.
To that end, Cadance had rushed to get word to them, writing a hasty letter describing everything that had just happened. Although she knew it would have been far more helpful if she’d gotten all of her facts straight first, she was equally aware that Celestia and Luna might very well arrive at Vanhoover in the time it took her to figure things out. Better that they have at least some idea of what they were heading toward, Cadance knew, than having a detailed report arrive too late. Once it had been completed, she’d instructed one of the pegasus Royal Guard members to take it and fly straight to Ponyville, not stopping until they’d given her letter to Spike. Once the little dragon had it, a single breath would be all it took to send it to Celestia.
Shining Armor had arrived almost immediately after that, with Cozy, Pillowcase, and Aisle in tow. “The doctors said that they were all exhausted, with these two,” – he’d indicated Aisle and Cozy then – “needing some food. I figured we could do better for them here than subjecting them to what they’d get in a hospital.” He’d said that last part with that dashing smirk of his, the one that always made her heart flutter, but his eyes told Cadance that wasn’t the only reason he’d brought them back here. Like her, Shining Armor had known Comfy Cozy and Pillowcase before they’d left for Vanhoover, and had been shocked at seeing what had become of them. She had no doubt that he wanted them in the castle with them, where they’d have an easier time watching over the two of them. That Aisle had tagged along – despite how he’d been hanging back from the crystal ponies, as though afraid to approach them – hadn’t surprised Cadance in the slightest. Not after what she’d seen at the train station…
“It was obvious,” she explained, her voice warm. “The way the two of you held each other when you brought Pillowcase before me made it very clear.”
Aisle sputtered for a moment, as though not sure if he should try and deny it or explain what had passed between him and Cozy. But after a second he looked down again, biting his lip. “Pillow doesn’t know,” he said in a tiny voice. “He doesn’t know and he shouldn’t have to hear that. Not after he’s just been brought back.” He looked at the open doorway, a miserable expression on his face. “He’s my friend, and I don’t want to tell him-”
“I already know.”
Aisle gave a yelp, jumping in place as the door swung wider, Pillowcase taking a halting step out. “Aisle, I already know. Cozy told me just now, before she fell asleep.”
The blood drained from Aisle’s face, and he backed away from Pillow as though expecting the other stallion to slug him at any moment. “Pillow, I wasn’t-, I swear to…to Lashtada herself that I wasn’t trying to steal her-”
“Aisle, stop.” There was no malice in Pillow’s voice, the only tone being a soothing one, as though trying to calm a frightened animal. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that. Like you said, we’re friends.”
Ears folding back, Aisle couldn’t look Pillow in the face. “…I didn’t think it’d work…”
Pillow glanced inquisitively at Cadance and Shining Armor, and when the two of them shook their heads in incomprehension he turned his gaze back toward Aisle. “What do you mean?”
Shamefaced, Aisle seemed to shrink in on himself. “I didn’t think that Princess Cadance would really be able to bring you back.” He shuddered as he spoke, as though admitting that made him physically ill. “Cozy was getting worse. The longer we stayed there, the more miserable she got, and the more things fell apart. She started fighting with Lex and Sonata. She tried to walk back to the Crystal Empire. I couldn’t even distract her with…you know…” He fidgeted in place, uncomfortable. “…doing it, anymore, after Lex put a curse on me, and-”
“Wait, someone put a curse on you?” interrupted Shining Armor, his brow furrowing. “An actual curse, like in a fairytale?”
Aisle nodded miserably. “So I couldn’t…perform,” he admitted, sounding as though he couldn’t possibly feel any more humiliated than he did at that moment. “He put one on Cozy too, so that she’d feel phantom pains that copied the pain of anypony near her.”
Everypony gaped at that, with Pillowcase scowling as his surprise immediately turned into anger. “That’s horrible! What kind of pony would do something like that, especially to someone who was already so distraught?!”
“You said this person’s name was Lex?” asked Cadance, worry shooting through her as she glanced at Shining Armor, seeing the same expression on his face. She’d seen the article that the editor of the local paper had brought to her only a few days ago, talking about a unicorn with that name who had borne an eerie resemblance to King Sombra. That he’d apparently defended Tall Tale from a dragon hadn’t made anyone feel any easier, and after much deliberation they’d decided not to run the story. That this Lex person was now in Vanhoover – where there had apparently been numerous deaths, and where he was apparently using curses – was a bad sign, she knew. All of a sudden the “situation of some uncertainty” that Celestia and Luna had gone to investigate seemed much more dire.
Oblivious to all of that, Aisle nodded. “Lex Legis, yes. We…I did something stupid, and we both paid the price for it.”
Walking over to him, Cadance gently wrapped Aisle up in a hug. “I promise you, as soon as I’ve gotten some rest, I’ll call upon Lashtada’s blessing and remove your curses.”
That was enough to make Aisle momentarily forget his self-recrimination, hope blossoming across his face. “You can do that?” A moment later he seemed to remember who he was talking to, his chagrinned look returning. “What am I saying? Of course you can. You can bring the dead back to life. Even Lex couldn’t do that.”
That seemed to remind Aisle of what he’d been talking about before they’d gotten sidetracked, and his eyes briefly flickered up to Pillow’s before returning to the ground once again. “Lex had a lot of magic, but he couldn’t raise the dead, and I guess I thought that no one could. But the thought of you coming back was the only thing keeping Cozy going, so I…I played it up. I told her that the three of us would all start a new life together, that she’d…” He sighed, before making himself continue. “That she’d have two husbands, you and me.” He shook his head sadly. “I told her everything she wanted to hear, because I was afraid of what she’d do if she lost all hope. I didn’t think it would actually happen.”
Everypony was silent in the wake of Aisle’s confession. Because that’s what it is, Cadance knew. A confession. Her eyes moved toward Pillowcase, knowing that what happened next depended on him.
But he seemed to think otherwise, his face having regained its earlier equanimity. “So what are you going to do now that it has?”
Aisle seemed to take the question as a rebuke, cringing again. “I’ll leave,” he answered immediately. “I just need money for the train, and I can go-”
“And what will that do to Cozy?” interrupted Pillowcase. His voice wasn’t harsh, but there was a slight edge there that hadn’t been there before.
Blinking, Aisle finally looked up at Pillow, confusion written all over his face. “Huh? It…it’ll let her go back to her old life. She can go home and it’ll be like it never hap-”
“But it did happen.” Pillowcase took a wobbly step forward, moving closer to Aisle, who tensed up again. “It did happen, and Cozy and you and I have to all deal with that.” He raised a hoof, and Aisle squeezed his eyes shut, expecting a blow to fall. But what happened an instant later wasn’t a punch to the face, but a soft poke to the end of his nose. “That’s why you can’t leave.”
Aisle couldn’t have looked more flabbergasted. “But…but…!”
Pillow smiled slightly as he put his hoof down. “Aisle, think for a second. If Cozy fell apart when I died, what do you think she’ll do when you just vanish without so much as a goodbye? After everything she’s been through, do you really want to do that to her?”
“No, but…we can’t…I mean…we’d have to…that…” With visible effort, Aisle forced out a coherent sentence. “You mean you’re okay with…this?”
Fortunately, he didn’t need to define what “this” was, as Pillowcase heaved a sigh, his smile dimming. “Look, I’m not going to say that I’m jumping for joy over finding out that my wife fell for another stallion while I was…away, but…it’s not like this is completely out of the blue, either. Cozy and I both worship Lashtada, and she…” For the first time, Pillow looked somewhat uncertain, shooting a helpless look at Cadance.
“Lashtada’s religion teaches that love, when it’s mutually shared, should never be denied,” explained Cadance. “Hearts that yearn for each other are meant to come together, even if that yearning is shared with more than one other pony.”
“So it’s not like we weren’t aware of the possibility,” finished Pillow, now sounding rather awkward. “Even if we didn’t think it’d ever really happen.”
“You mean…you're willing to let me and Cozy be…together?” Aisle looked like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
As if in response to that, Pillow made himself resume his earlier calm. “I mean, we should talk about what happens now. All three of us, like grownups. Running away won’t make things better, so let’s all sit down and figure out what will, okay?”
“I…” Pausing for just a moment, Aisle looked at Cadance and Shining Armor in turn, as though asking them for permission. The latter just gave him a smile and a shrug, while the former gave him an encouraging nod. “…okay.” As if dizzy, Aisle let Pillowcase usher him into the guestroom.
Moving aside to let the two stallions pass, Cadance silently let her eyes move over each of them before looking at Cozy, still asleep on the bed. She hadn’t been lying before; it had been obvious from the way that Aisle and Cozy had clung to each other back on the train station that there had been something between them. But even if they hadn’t, Cadance would have known that there was.
Having the power to see the bonds of love people shared – to be able to visually behold it, manifesting in her sight as a brilliant red cord that stretched between them, with the shade, thickness, and brightness all telling her the details of the type of love that they felt – was another of the gifts that Lashtada had given her. Even as the two stallions settled down, Cadance’s eyes traced the cords connecting each of them to Cozy, both glowing pink with romantic affection. The sight made her smile, silently praying to Lashtada that they’d find a way to make things work.
Shining Armor gently rubbed his side against hers. “Should we let them have some alone time?” he asked softly.
As much as she wanted to say yes, Cadance shook her head. “We can’t right now. They’ll have time to work things out later, but right now we need answers about what happened in Vanhoo-”
“Your Majesties.”
The new voice caused Cadance and Shining Armor to glance to their left, where a guard was saluting them, a pair of ponies in railway uniforms bowing behind him. “These two were insisting that they be allowed to speak with you immediately.”
Cocking his head, Shining Armor looked at the pair, an earth stallion and a unicorn mare. “Is everything alright?”
The two slowly stood up. “It’s about Vanhoover,” admitted the stallion, before giving the mare a nudge.
She shot him a dirty look at that, before heaving a sigh as she faced forward again. “I saw something while we were there…”
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Sounds like Cozy has trouble believing that Pillow is back in her life again. And I can sort of see why she fell for Aisle in the first place since he and Pillow share a trait about remaining cool headed in tough situations.
Which made Pillow convincing Aisle to calm down rather amusing. Even if he could have explained better but given the emotional turmoil going in him, it's understandable. At least Cozy wasn't there to exacerbate and exaggerate the situation in Vanhoover.
Still, the question whether Cadence can remove Lex's curse or not is bugging me. Bringing back Pillow back was impressive but that was through channeling Lashtada's powers. And as far as I can tell and recall, Lex's curses are backed up by the Night Mare, a deity with comparatively more power.
So it is a matter of whether Lashtada has gained enough power in Equestria to counter the Night Mare, who still hasn't gained much of a foothold there yet.
Or am I misremembering and/or misinterpreting things?
Also, Cadence seems to be becoming rather reliant on Lashtada, the opposite to Night Mare's dogma on self reliance. Is that a reason why Night Mare didn't want Lex to let Cozy heal him all those chapters ago?
If Cadence doesnt have the Send Message spell, or the next one up, Send Missive? then the next Pegasus messenger to Ponyville, is going to have to come back with a very green Spike? If the girls are still in town, would Twilight realise this, and get him to ride the Dash Express? Or will she keep him in case of information communication and end up with Dash doing the Pegasus messaging service?
The way Cadence is getting even worse information than Celestia and Luna, its like reading about a group of English students going for a quick hike through the Rockies in spring. So much lunchmeat.
And the fact that Lex curses is out.
9395406 Cozy seems like she's in that place of not being able to bring herself to fully trust that everything she went through is really over. For that matter, Aisle seems to be processing some version of that too, since he couldn't really bring himself to accept that the idea that he could still be with Cozy after she got her husband back. They're both, in other words, processing that the unending nightmare that they experienced in Vanhoover is finally over, and that things are actually getting better. That's not really surprising; we saw something similar going on with Fencer, after all. Trauma takes time to fully heal.
With regard to whether or not Cadance can use the power that Lashtada gave her to remove Lex's curses is iffy, particularly since Lex inflicted those curses with his dark magic, which isn't a power that the Night Mare granted him (which reminds me that I need to finish up the second blog post about that). The problem, of course, is that whether or not Cadance can do that is going to be determined by the d20 game rules, which have their own internal consistency which is based around issues of playability rather than first and foremost modeling the "how" of a particular fictional universe. I'd go into more detail, but that'd mean tipping my hand as to precisely what Princess Cadance can do (I've got her stat block written down already, but I'm not ready to post it quite yet), so the mystery will have to remain for now.
As for Princess Cadance relying more on Lashtada than Lex does on the Night Mare, that strikes me as being somewhat normal for how characters who draw a significant portion of their power from a religion tend to be (i.e. most divine spellcasting characters). That isn't necessarily always the case, but if you're making a significant enough investment in your god to where they're willing to make a significant enough investment in you in return by granting you spells and special powers, then it's sort of a fait accompli that religion will be kind of a big deal to you, and so might come up in your daily life on a regular basis. In that regard, the Night Mare is, perhaps, a little different than most deities, as she exemplifies and encourages personal reliance.
9395524
Neither of those are d20 spells. There's animal messenger, but it's not on her spell list. Ditto for whispering wind. She's also not able to use a sending spell (a hint as to her actual game statistics, there), let alone scrying (and even if she could use scrying, the message spell that would potentially let her whisper through it isn't on her spell list either).
Now, with regards to Equestrian magic, Cadance can write a short letter and fold it into a snowflake to send to someone, the way we saw in The Crystalling - Part 1 (season six, episode one), but the gentle way that was floating on the breeze seems to indicate that it takes some time to travel to its intended recipient (presuming that it works by homing in on a person; that it goes to a particular locale is just as - or even more - likely). For Cadance, who wanted to get a message to Celestia and Luna as soon as possible, that wasn't really an option. Which left only Spike.
I'm not sure what you're saying, here.
The evidence suggests that they're not in town, though. Or at least, not all of them. As of the end of The Apple Falls Far From the Tree (this story's immediate predecessor) - and now-cancelled Tarnished Silver and Clouded Diamonds - Pinkie Pie is on Everglow. Likewise, the most recent chapters here confirmed what Book and Stars implied: that Twilight has gone back to Everglow also...which means she almost certainly took Rainbow Dash with her, and likely Applejack too.
Bear in mind, Cadance is sending messages to Spike to deliver for her. That doesn't necessarily mean that Spike is there. Maybe he went with Twilight back to Everglow and Cadance doesn't know? For that matter, does she even know that Twilight is gone?
Presuming she's able to tell Celestia and Luna about what she learns in time, that might affect the upcoming meeting with Lex, though.
9395541 It is, but so far that fact hasn't been transmitted to the Royal Sisters.
...so far.
only one side of the story is always bade.
9396465 It is, especially when it's the side that conforms to what you were already predisposed to believe. Lex, with his use of King Sombra's horn and its magic, was likely to be ill-regarded by the ponies of the Crystal Empire. Somehow I doubt that Coal Hopper's story will inspire Cadance to think better of him.
Thinking about politics. A lot of times, when there is a revolutionary power demanding significant change to the status quo, establishment powers often respond with a compromise that partially satisfies the demands of the agitators, while often moving the needle just enough to drain support for more revolutionary action. In this case, Lex would be the agitator and the Princesses the establishment.
One of Lex's biggest demands to the Princesses before he took Vanhoover was that they actively rule all of the kingdom and not just Canterlot. It feels like Lex is going to get his wish to a certain degree, albeit in an ironic fashion. Celestia and Luna are probably going to start out their active rule phase by creating a Skippy's List of things Lex is not allowed to do, starting with "no curses," and just applying the list to all the other mayors. Lex will be furious in the short term of course, but if with Sonata, and especially Aria around, he should eventually realize the rules are worth it to influence the conduct of governments across Equestria. All he has to do is threaten to do things in Vanhoover that are not currently illegal but that the Princesses would hate, and they will end up banning it across Equestria.
9400009 In point of fact, Lex's original demand to the princesses prior to their agreement that he rule Vanhoover was that they step down in his favor: his long outlining of points was him establishing why they should abdicate the throne to him. After a thousand years of no real advancement in Equestria, Lex has no faith in their ability to change how they've done things, with the possible exception of standing aside so they can witness what he does instead. Likewise, Celestia flat-out denied the entire premise of Lex's theory of governance, saying that what he regarded as a vice was what she regarded as a virtue. No more explanation to it than that, just a clear-cut statement that their views were diametrically opposed.
The compromise is that the Royal Sisters basically agreed to step aside only where Vanhoover was concerned. They didn't want a fight where it could be avoided, and Sonata and Twilight convinced them that Lex really did want to do good. Likewise, Lex's compromise was limiting his ambition to a single city...at least initially. What he really did was change how he intended to go about eventually ruling all of Equestria, since now he's willing to do it slowly, spreading his influence over time instead of just overthrowing the princesses in one fell swoop.
I have to wonder if any further compromises are possible, since Lex doesn't regard the alicorns' authority as being legitimate, and will refuse on principle any acknowledgment that he's subordinate to them. Likewise, they'll almost certainly never agree to bow down to him. So what's left is a tense impasse, with no easy resolution...