59 - Repercussions
Line Byline had, in his twenty-five years of working at the Canterlot Chronicle, been to the Royal Castle several dozen times. While most of those had been back when he was a reporter covering visiting foreign dignitaries or holiday celebrations or special events like the Grand Galloping Gala, he’d still had cause to visit the place even after he’d become the paper’s editor-in-chief.
Typically, that had been because Princess Celestia – and, since she’d returned, Princess Luna – had wanted an announcement to be made to all of Equestria, and so relied upon the major newspapers to collaborate in disseminating important stories. There’d been quite a few of those in the last twenty-two months, including the announcement of the Crystal Empire’s return, of the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle, and most recently an address regarding the “elemental bleeds” that had caused so much mayhem.
In those cases, Line had been given the rare treat of interviewing the princesses themselves, though he knew that calling it an “interview” was a bit of a stretch. Rather, it was more like he was working with them to carefully help craft the messages that all of Equestria needed to hear. It was, he knew, his most important job as editor-in-chief of the Chronicle, and he took it extremely seriously. It wasn’t just his way of helping to keep harmony in Equestria, but was why the Chronicle was, in his professional opinion, the single most important newspaper of them all.
Everypony knew that “Where the News Happens” wasn’t just the Chronicle’s tagline, but a statement of literal truth.
That was why, when he had received the summons to come to the Royal Castle a short time ago, Line had hurried right over. He had been expecting something like this, of course; Nosey’s story had been just that monumental. A response from the princesses was only to be expected, though he could scarcely begin to imagine what that response would be.
Unable to help but fidget as he sat in the parlor outside of Princess Luna’s private study, Line practically leapt to his hooves when the steward entered. Raising an eyebrow at Line’s eagerness, the steward let his expression linger just long enough to convey his disapproval before speaking. “The princesses will see you n-“
“Right. Got it,” replied Line brusquely, walking right past the stuffy old unicorn and towards the adjoining doors.
Glowering at the lack of formality, the steward nevertheless trotted in front of Line to head down the adjoining hallway, traveling only a few dozen feet before stopping at another door. Opening it slowly, somehow managing to make even that simple act seem like a ritualistic formality, the steward bowed his head to the ground for a long moment before announcing, “Mister Line Byline, of the Canterlot Chronicle.”
“Thank you,” came the gentle voice from within, making Line’s breath quicken slightly despite how often he’d heard it before. That was Princess Celestia! The fact that he’d heard her from inside her sister’s parlor meant that he was meeting with them both, which confirmed his suspicions that this was a formal visit. Not that he’d expected it to be anything else, but a good reporter never took anything for granted.
Moving forward as the steward stepped out of the way, Line walked into the room, hearing the door close behind him. As soon as he beheld Princess Celestia, he bowed, almost touching his head to the floor. “Your Majesty,” he said reverently, before rising and repeating both the motion and greeting for Princess Luna.
Princess Celestia was smiling as he stood up again, and he could just make out the barest hint of wryness there. “Really, Line, you don’t need to do that every time you visit,” she chided gently.
“You’ve been here often enough, after all,” added Luna.
“It seems wrong not to,” replied Line with the slightest hint of defensiveness in his voice, drawing amused chuckles from both alicorns, which in turn drew a smile from him. This had become something of a game between them, with him refusing to drop that initial pretense of formality and them poking fun at him for it. He’d grown to enjoy the exchange, and he knew that they had too.
With their personal ritual complete, Line walked in, moving to a sofa on the far wall, across from the chairs the princesses were seated in. As he did so, Princess Celestia spoke up. “Would you like some cake? I’m having a slice myself, so please don’t hold back on my account.” She was already lifting said cake, along with several dishes and utensils, in the golden aura of her telekinesis, cutting a piece even as she spoke.
“No thanks,” he responded with a shake of the head. “I’ve been trying to cut back. Now that I’m behind a desk all day, I’ve already had to have my tailor to resize most of my clothes. Any more and I’ll need to just buy my whole wardrobe again in a larger size.”
Nodding gracefully at his refusal, Princess Celestia turned to her sister. “What about you, Luna?”
“Really, sister. You know that I had breakfast just a short time ago.”
“I know,” smiled Celestia, “but I wanted to make the offer anyway.”
Luna rolled her eyes in mock-exasperation. “You’re almost as bad as Line, making gestures when you know you don’t have to.”
“It’s not the gesture that counts,” replied Celestia, even as she continued to telekinetically prepare her dessert, the cake slice floating onto a plate as a fork settled next to it before the entire thing moved to hover in front of her. “It’s the thought behind it.”
Line nodded at the statement, more to himself than them. That was a lesson he’d learned over almost twenty years of marriage, and it had served him well in that time. In fact, that reminded him that their twentieth anniversary was coming up soon. He’d need to get something special prepared… As though she’d heard his thoughts, Princess Luna looked back over at Line. “We haven’t asked yet, how is your family?”
The next twenty minutes were devoted to small talk, most of which consisted of Line talking about his wife and children, with the princesses asking questions or expressing their happiness at his family’s antics. Eventually, however, he ran out of things to tell, and as Princess Celestia telekinetically put her now-empty plate down, he sat up straighter, sensing that it was time to get down to business.
“So, about why we’ve called you here,” began Princess Celestia. “You’ve probably already guessed what it’s about.”
Line had. “Today’s lead story, right? The one about the hullabaloo in Tall Tale?” His horn began to glow even as he spoke, lifting a notepad and pencil out of the pocket of the vest he always wore.
“Indeed,” affirmed Luna. This time it was her horn that was enveloped in a glowing aura as she lifted a copy of the paper from a small side-table, holding it aloft. “We were hoping that you could answer some questions for us.”
“Questions? For me?” Line blinked, caught off-guard. This wasn’t how it usually went. Usually they’d explain that they needed to make a statement, and they’d go over what needed to be said and why. Then he’d help them craft the details of the message, and once they had everything squared away he’d send copies to the major local papers in Equestria’s largest cities.
“We were very interested in today’s headline, and were hoping that you could tell us more,” explained Princess Celestia.
“Anything from the…I believe the term is ‘cutting-room floor’?” added Luna.
“Oh, um…” slightly flustered at the unexpected turn of events, Line licked his lips thoughtfully, but shook his head after a moment. “I’m sorry, but there’s really nothing that I can add. We ran Nosey’s story pretty much as-is.” He shrugged apologetically, looking between the two sisters as he spoke. “I mean, I did do some basic editing on it, but that was mostly because she likes to use exclamation points a little too much. That and she keeps putting ‘ace reporter’ after her name, no matter how many times I tell her to knock it off. Other than that, nothing else was changed.”
“What about pictures?” pressed Luna. “These two on the front page were most captivating. We would be delighted to see any others you had.”
“Those were all that Nosey sent in. If she has any others, then she’s sitting on them. Knowing her, she’s probably planning a follow-up or two.”
“She’s still in Tall Tale, right?” This time it was Princess Celestia who asked. She waited until Line nodded before continuing. “What can you tell us about her?”
“About Nosey?” Line frowned, not sure why they were asking. “She’s a good reporter, if a bit overeager. She’s the young-and-hungry type, out to make a name for herself, but she has genuinely good instincts, and once she gets a whiff of a story she never lets go, no matter what. She gets more complaints made about her in a week than all of my other reporters do in a month, but she works harder than anypony else, and it shows.” He paused, then quirked a smile. “She reminds me of me back when I was starting out.”
“You sound like you’re thinking of grooming her for your job,” said Celestia, her tone almost motherly.
“Ha!” Line barked a laugh, “In another ten years, maybe!”
In fact, Line knew that Nosey had the potential to hold his job one day, but she had a long way to go before that potential could even start to be realized. She was still at that stage where she thought that the stories she wrote were ultimately all about her; that the two most important words she wrote in any story were her name. There was no thought given to the consequences of her actions, no recognition that her most important job as a reporter wasn’t to simply put stories out there, but to act in service to Equestria. Until she realized that, Line wouldn’t even think about putting her anywhere near his chair.
“One last question,” said Luna, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Have you already distributed copies of this story to other newspapers?”
“Well…of course,” answered Line. “I sent them to the usual suspects. The Crystal Chronicler, the Manehattan Mirror, the Fillydelphia Intelligencer. All of them.”
That was part of the unwritten agreement between all of the major papers. Not just royal announcements, but anything that was deemed a potential major story was freely shared between the major newspapers of each city, with the understanding that the editors-in-chief of those papers would, if they chose to run them, do so without any alterations save for a notation that they came from the original newspaper. That was how important stories could be spread across Equestria’s major population centers.
But then, the princesses knew that, which was what made it so strange that they would ask. It was enough to make Line’s instincts as a reporter flare up. Something was going on here. Frowning again, he glanced between them, tossing out a question of his own. “…should I not have sent the story for distribution?”
“Of course not,” answered Celestia immediately. “We only asked because we weren’t sure if we should send copies of the Chronicle to some ponies we know who would enjoy this story, or if they’d have a chance to see it for themselves in their local papers.”
“Ah,” Line nodded his head. “Yeah, no, don’t worry. A story like this definitely gets passed around to all of the larger newspapers. Anypony who lives anywhere near a city will see this.”
“Very good,” said Luna in apparent satisfaction. The sisters shared a quick glance, and then rose to their hooves. Surprised, Line did the same. But before he could ask anything else, Luna continued. “Well, thank you so much for coming in like this, Line. As always, it was a pleasure to see you again.”
“Wait, that’s it?” he sputtered. “You don’t want to issue a statement about all of this?” He waved a hoof at the newspaper, now returned to the small table Luna had plucked it from.
“That won’t be necessary,” replied Celestia. “We knew about Lex, the unicorn in this article, before he ever left for Vanhoover. He had a few meetings here with us before he left, in fact. We asked you to come here purely because seeing such an incredible story in your newspaper reminded us that it had been a while since we all sat down together, is all.”
“Oh…” Line trailed off, and for a moment silence reigned. Finally taking the hint, Line managed to smile. “Well, I should get going. Thank you for having me, Your Majesties.” He bowed again, though this time it was little more than a dip of the head. By unspoken consent, their usual game was only for greetings; using it for departures as well would have been too much.
He waved as they bid him farewell, and showed himself out. Barely noticing the steely-eyed steward escorting him out of the castle, Line thought back over what had just happened. Over and over again, the details went through his mind, and no matter how he looked at them, they led to one inescapable conclusion.
The princesses had lied to him.
There was simply no other explanation. That they had wanted to see any unedited versions of the story had been suspicious enough, all the more so when they had wanted to know if Nosey was the sort of pony to embellish or even fabricate what she wrote – he had no doubts that was why they’d asked about her. But they had showed their entire hoof when Luna had asked if he had distributed the story to other news outlets, despite having surely known that they had. Which meant that, in all likelihood, something about the story worried them…but what?
The only thing he could think of was that the headline, as sensationalist as it was, might cause an upset in the Crystal Empire. Line knew that the ponies there got squirrelly at the mere mention of King Sombra, after all. But he was sure that the editor-in-chief of the Crystal Chronicler would exercise good judgment about whether or not the story would be too upsetting to run.
Beyond that, there wasn’t a problem that Line could see. For all that Nosey had made this Lex character sound like something out of a comic book, he hadn’t done anything wrong that Line had been able to determine. Quite the contrary, he was clearly a hero, which was why he’d used that word in the headline. His actions didn’t have the elegance of Princess Twilight and her friends, and he didn’t sound anywhere near as pleasant to be around, but Nosey’s article had made it very clear that he wanted to do good.
So why were the princesses upset?
Line was already wondering where he should start digging to get some answers when he shook his head. What was he thinking? These were the princesses he was talking about, here! Whatever they were doing, it was for the good of all Equestria, of that he had no doubt. Trying to find out things they wanted kept secret would be wrong. Trying to publish those secrets would be downright treasonous. He’d just have to let it go, and put his trust in them to do what they thought was best.
Nodding to himself, Line made his way home. It was already dark out, and he was sure his wife and kids were wondering where he was. By the time he reached his front door, he’d managed to convince himself to put that meeting out of his mind and stop prying into the princesses’ business.
Mostly.
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"Why were they so upset?"
Because his plan A was to overthrow the government.
7831168 Strictly speaking, his plan A was to have Celestia and Luna abdicate in favor of him (remember, he petitioned them fervently for that at the end of A Dangerous Sparkle). When they refused, his plan B was to overthrow the government. Right now, he's on his plan C...which is showing potential.
If I recall correctly(which I am uncertain of
), Lex's compromise with the Princesses was that should he successfully govern Vanhoover, then he would receive more territories to govern over. The princesses' plan(as Lex assumed) was for Lex to spend a good chunk of his life trying to set up his method of governing after which he'd pass away, allowing the sisters to return everything to the status quo over time.
However, with the obvious adoration and support of Tall Tale's citizens and the release of the article across Equestria, Lex has a platform he could use in his role as mayor to gather support for his cause, which could easily throw the sisters' plan off course.
7831379
It's not plan C! It's plan I. (Improvise)
7831810 I'm afraid you're misremembering, here. The second meeting Lex had with Celestia (which was also the first time Luna was there), simply had them telling him that Vanhoover was in a bad state, and that the ponies there no longer trusted alicorn rule, so he should go administrate the city. That was all. Lex's assumption was that they had given him such a remote city so that his ambitions would be confined, since there were natural barriers on three sides of Vanhoover, and Tall Tale to the south, essentially keeping any influence he attained contained to that single city and the surrounding environs.
But, as you noted, Lex has now taken over Tall Tale as well, so he's no longer boxed in on that front...
7832074 It's not really that improvised; Lex spent plenty of time with Sonata back on Everglow, debating with her about whether he should go to war against the royal sisters or accept getting less than everything he wanted. He reluctantly chose the latter.
Plan C, if it gets out of hand, is just what happened with The Avengers etc.
The fastest way to defeat an overweaming enemy, is to get it to consume itself from within.
It almostworked the first couple times as well, except for Rainnbows.
Bippedy Boop, this story has been reviewed by the Blunt Reviews Group.
7833088 Woot! Thank you so much for the review!
I'm back to typo destruction, and there are none here. So, guess I'm reading more.
7857206 Always good to hear!
A friendly meeting among friends with messages sent without words.