348 - Aggressive Agenda
The sense of victory that Lex felt in the aftermath of his encounter with Princess Celestia faded far too quickly for his liking. While he initially couldn’t help but smirk at the memory of how she’d been the one to acquiesce to his framing the scope of their conversation – the part where she’d broken eye contact first and moved out of his way was particularly enjoyable – it took only a few mental replays of what had happened before he came to realize how meaningless such a victory was. After all, he’d ultimately gained nothing of substance from the exchange, meaning that his mental gloating was not only petty, but pointless as well.
That was all nothing more than a warm-up, he decided, less than five minutes after his impromptu discourse with Celestia had ended. The real challenge will be when our formal meeting begins.
The actual parameters of their meeting hadn’t been laid down ahead of time, but Lex still had a fairly good idea of what they would entail. The princesses’ agenda would, he felt confident, revolve around three points. The first would be making sure they had all the information about what had happened here. The second would be their inevitable criticisms of how he’d used dark magic in dispensing justice; Princess Celestia had tipped her hoof when she’d mentioned that in their brief discussion just now. The third would be to reiterate their utterly pathetic offers of assistance by raising awareness of what had happened here throughout Equestria, as though that was all they could do to promote Vanhoover’s welfare.
Lex, of course, had his own agenda. He had no objection to informing the princesses about the full scope of Vanhoover’s woes – save only for the parts that would have informed them about the nature, extent, and (most importantly) limitations of his powers; that information needed to be closely safeguarded, lest it be used against him – since the full extent of the threat to Equestria was something that needed to be stressed in the strongest possible terms. While Lex doubted that it would galvanize Celestia or Luna into action, he was morally compelled to make the attempt. That, and he wanted to make sure they understood just how catastrophic their negligence had been for the ponies here.
No doubt they’ll assuage their consciences by telling themselves that their encouraging the public to contribute to Vanhoover’s restoration is them helping, Lex felt certain. That was utter sophistry, of course, but at least it would do some good for everypony here, and Lex had no intention of refusing it. Quite the opposite, he fully intended on castigating them for not offering to help more; he had no intention of letting them congratulate themselves for offering so little to Vanhoover’s recovery.
I wonder if Cloudbank would be surprised? he wondered, the thought sending a renewed twinge of melancholy through him. Princess Celestia’s mention of his mourning the ponies he hadn’t been able to save, combined with the princesses being here in the first place, was enough to remind him of when he’d first met the mare whom he’d later come to rely on…and whom he’d failed so spectacularly. She’d initially berated him for not calling on the princesses, saying that he’d been foolish for trying to deal with the monsters infesting Vanhoover on his own. The indictment had stung, to the point that he’d later tried to contact Twilight Sparkle despite how much it had injured his pride to do so.
But now he felt no particular shame at accepting Celestia and Luna’s offer to aid Vanhoover’s reconstruction. After all, why would I? It’s not as though I asked them for help. Unsolicited assistance in no way impugned his abilities, and so long as it came without any strings attached then he had no compunctions about utilizing it. But if those two expect me to thank them for their altogether insufficient action in the face of this disaster, they’re going to be disappointed.
The real challenge in this meeting, Lex was certain, wouldn’t be with the alicorns’ feeble offers of support. Nor would it be with regard to telling them precisely what happened here without revealing any of his own weaknesses. No, the problematic area will be their complaints about how I’ve handled criminal justice. That was an area where Lex knew he had to tread extremely carefully.
It was highly unlikely that Celestia and Luna would let his use of curses to punish ponies who had committed serious wrongs go unchallenged. Of all the areas where they were lax, failing to use their authority to levy penalties against injustice was among the most egregious. It took, Lex knew, nothing less than existential threats to Equestria as a whole to make them actually use force to maintain peace and prosperity. Anything less than total disaster saw them merely encouraging others to get along regardless of the nature of the offense in question, and while Lex believed in rehabilitation, the Royal Sisters had taken it to a dangerous extreme. Punishment was needed to make ponies realize the consequences of their actions, which could then be translated into behavior modification.
Fencer, of course, was the prime example of that.
But if Celestia and Luna didn’t accept that line of thinking, and Lex doubted that they would, that would be where things became dangerous. If they demanded that he remove the curse that he’d placed on Spit Polish, he’d have no choice but to refuse, throwing into sharp relief his rejection of their authority. If that happened, it would severely jeopardize his medium- and long-term plans.
Lex knew full well that the arrangement he’d made with Celestia and Luna, where they agreed to let him rule Vanhoover, was highly ambiguous in its details. That was to be expected, when something as important as a transfer of authority over an entire city was conducted with nothing more than an oral agreement rather than in writing. But that was exactly how the Royal Sisters operated, and Lex fully intended to use it against them. Because while he felt certain that they thought that the agreement was that he administrate Vanhoover under their sponsorship, Lex interpreted the accord they’d reached differently. As far as he was concerned, they’d done nothing less than cede all political jurisdiction over the city in favor of him.
That was a perfectly reasonable interpretation; after all, he’d never rescinded his original declaration of rebellion against them.
But as much as he was certain that Celestia and Luna would have balked at his telling them that they had given Vanhoover completely over to him, it wasn’t something he needed to worry about at the moment. The vagueness of their agreement would keep the alicorns mollified, thinking that he’d accepted their patronage, all while he not only worked to establish an unbreakable political hold over the city, but expanded it to the surrounding environs. Tall Tale was already his, and once he cemented his control over the hamlets to the north and Las Pegasus to the south, then he’d have enough territory, people, capital, and material resources under his rule to be able to formally and unambiguously declare himself king of his own country. Once he did that, it would be too late for Celestia and Luna to do anything.
But if they attempted to pull rank during their meeting and ordered him to remove Spit Polish’s curse, then he’d have to tell them directly that he didn’t recognize their authority, revealing how there hadn’t been a meeting of the minds over their agreement that he rule Vanhoover. Once that happened, Lex knew that Celestia and Luna would begin moving to check his ambitions. The Royal Sisters were indolent and irresponsible, but they wouldn’t do nothing in the face of his actively attempting to carve away part of their country for himself. And while he had no expectations that they’d attack him, there were plenty of other ways for them to frustrate his plans.
The most obvious would be to prevent him from making any inroads into Las Pegasus. Vanhoover’s current state would require a massive influx of bits to repair, far more than could be easily gathered even if economic activity were to resume in full. Worse, he’d already helped himself to what little municipal funds Tall Tale had, and the northern villages were already hurting for cash due to the indirect effects of Vanhoover’s fall. The only way to generate a large sum quickly would be to turn to Las Pegasus – the resort town on Equestria’s southwest coast – and take out a loan from several of the richest and most influential ponies there. Once he did that it would be easy to start leveraging control over the city, since if his government failed then those ponies would never make their money back.
But if Celestia and Luna were to exercise the enormous social influence that they wielded, that would never happen. It would be easy for them to convince everypony of consequence to have no dealings with him, making a loan impossible to obtain and leaving his fledgling government cash-strapped for the foreseeable future. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to recover from a setback like that. Which meant that, somehow, he needed to make sure the issue of cursing ponies didn’t become a point of intransigence during the upcoming meeting.
And for that I need Sonata there to serve as my spokespony. Her easygoing nature and guileless mien meant that, even if she took some liberties with the precise phrasing of his statements, she’d be able to make whatever point he instructed her to in a way that was far more likely to be palatable to others than if he’d attempted to do so himself. In all likelihood, she’d be able to dance around the issue of his cursing ponies in a manner that would somehow mollify the alicorns without making any concessions to them.
But Sonata wasn’t available at the moment, having stormed out when he’d predictably – in hindsight – botched his attempt to resolve his romantic entanglements earlier that morning. Nor had he seen her on his walk through the camp, leaving him with no indication of whether or not she’d be back for the noon appointment with the Royal Sisters. As much as Lex found himself hoping that she’d return in time, he knew he couldn’t count on it. For all he knew, she wouldn’t be coming back at all…
No. He shook his head, forcing that thought away before it could gain traction in his mind. She swore she would never leave me again. That had been a key point of the talk they’d had right after he’d fought off Spit Polish’s attempt to assassinate him, when he and Sonata had resolved one of their not-infrequent fights. She’d sworn that she’d never again break up with him, no matter what happened. Just remembering that made him feel more at ease, even if it didn’t solve the immediate problem…
But that calm was blown away a moment later as Lex came to a dead stop, staring at the sight in front of him.
Severance was right where he’d left it, hovering a few feet off the ground at the western edge of the camp. He’d taken to leaving it there as a precaution, in case the Night Mare had been wrong about the entirety of the ghouls attacking in the horde from a few nights ago. But while there were no body parts scattered around to suggest that the scythe had cut down an undead intruder, it wasn’t alone the way it should have been.
Arranged around it were Fruit Crunch and his friends from last night. The foals were each pressing a hoof to Severance, and Lex could see Fruit Crunch himself saying something. Nor were the children alone, as each had an animal near them; at a glance he could see a wolf, an eagle, a snake…
“She said it was her spirit animal,” continued Feather Duster. “And that it could talk to her but only she could hear it, and how the Night Mare made it for her, or from her, I think?”
A chill went down Lex’s spine as he remembered what Feather Duster had told him. At the time it had been easy to dismiss her report about her daughter’s new pet as childish antics; after all, there was no way that a group of foals could have managed to make some sort of pact with the Night Mare. He’d done so only because he’d had enough magic to traffic with her directly, and Cloudbank had needed his personal instruction to make a connection to the goddess. Fruit Crunch and his friends had no mentor to give them any such guidance…or so he’d thought.
But now, as he grimly made his way towards Severance, Lex realized that they might have found one on their own.
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as he was certain?
Lex's mind works fast.
Lex's grasp on the situation is scary accurate here though I did raise my brows at the idea of the princesses putting up a blockade(only in name of course since I doubt the Crown would have enough guards to do so) against Lex acquiring Las Pegasus and its' resources. Resources that they all know Vanhoover would need to recover.
While the donation and charity drives could bring some relief to the city, the amount going to the city is uncertain and even if every single pony chips in, it will take a while to reach the amount Lex would require to even start rebuilding so I can see an additional reason why Lex needs the money as soon as possible.
Regardless, looks like Lex has another matter to deal with before his meeting though I dread at how he'll deal with the Knights since neither Sonata or Nosey are here.
addition: How come Celestia didn't question Severance's presence nearby with the foals? I mean, it's daytime and within view of the camp and even if she didn't then surely one of her guards saw the magic floating scythe hovering in the distance. Or did her concern over her vision cause tunnel vision?
Interesting that Lex is contemplating the possibility of his entire plan falling apart, and the idea of changing Spit Polish's punishment to something non-curse related doesn't even occur to him.
He may be too reassured about Sonata's oath, I suppose he hasn't realized that perceived infidelity usually invalidates that sort of promise.
Lex is demanding of himself to always be absolutely right as any thought of being wrong to him leads to total collapse of every method not being wrong he uses?
The fallacy of the perfect ruler dismissing their Jester, thereby showing themselves to be the Greater Fool?
9580525
Doggone it! Typo fixed now.
Indeed. When it comes to his areas of expertise, he can bring the full strength of his prodigious intellect to bear, yielding impressive results. But his areas of weakness are just as notable, frustrating his ability to accomplish his grandiose ideas on his own.
9580922 To be fair, Lex has little need for a foppishly-dressed fool to snipe at him; his shadow already serves a similar purpose much more effectively.
As for him dismissing every method that isn't his own, well...he makes a compelling case for why that would be. He's already made the decision that he needs to rule, and takes it as axiomatic that Celestia and Luna will fight him on that front. So for now all he can do is gather his (political) strength, since he's not ready to challenge them openly yet.
9580626
Any scenario that has him changing his course of action in order to placate Celestia and Luna is anathema to Lex. That would mean submitting to their authority, and he submits to no one, especially when he's already deemed the alicorns to be his inferiors. Lex is willing to change his plans with regard to new information, and he's even willing to accept input from others (though if he determines their input to not meet his standards for usefulness, then he's exceptionally critical of it), but at the end of the day the decision is his alone. Besides, changing his sentence because the Royal Sisters want it changed would potentially mean recognizing their authority, which runs counter to his declaration of rebellion, undercutting the legitimacy of Lex's plans to form his own government.
Of course, if Celestia and Luna offered some sort of concession(s) of their own, that might be different. But Lex doesn't seem to be anticipating that.
That's his ultra-lawful nature, and lack of understanding of intimate relationships, showing through. As far as he's concerned, there are no implicit aspects to such a statement. If a qualifier isn't expressly stated, then as far as he's concerned it doesn't exist.
9580594 Leaving aside Lex's cynical nature regarding how he views the alicorns' likely response to finding out that he's planning to take part of Equestria for his own, it's not so much that they'd prevent Las Pegasus from helping Vanhoover recover. It's that he thinks they'd prevent Las Pegasus from helping him help Vanhoover recover. He's worried about them isolating him, preventing him from making the deals that will ultimately (he's certain) let him draw Las Pegasus into his influence. That doesn't mean that Las Pegasus won't get involved; it just means that whatever charity drives that the princesses encourage will bypass Lex entirely, cutting him out of the picture.
That said, Lex believes (and he may not be wrong) that the princesses are less concerned with how to fund Vanhoover's recovery than they are with the dispositions of everypony involved. After all, surely friendship and cooperation will see the city through, right? Maybe with a song and a montage sequence? That's ultimately what they're most concerned about, whereas Lex takes a far more practical view.
Insofar as why Celestia didn't say anything about the foals being around Severance, that's most likely because she didn't see them in her vision. That doesn't mean that they're not involved, of course, but I have little doubt that Celestia is very wary where the evil artifact she was warned about was concerned.