What Follows Hugs

by David Silver

28 - Frozen Diplomacy

Toby landed with enough momentum, he skidded, bumping into the cushioned bed, striking a paw against the stone foundation of it. He held back his cry of pain with clenched teeth, instead straightening himself out and looking over the form on the bed. "What happen?" It was, perhaps, a silly question. He had been told what happened.

Despite that, he looked to the sleeping form of Celene with building concern. "She alright?"

Moondancer shook her head. "I'm not a doctor, but she's going to need to rest. I don't think she's in trouble, besides that."

"Is that dumb dumb?" asked a sleepy female voice, Celene shifting slightly with a pained groan. "Come here, dummy."

Toby looked at her with a blank expression, confusion growing.

"Come here," sher repeated. "Toby, come."

"Oh!" He was quick to move into her reach. "Why not say name?"

Celene shook her head a mere inch, a shaking paw reaching for him. "Come, sleep, shut up."

He slid in beside her, at first on the blanket. She fixed that, snuggling up with him beneath it. "Do it for you," she whispered hoarsely.

Toby wanted to ask why, but her breathing had become smooth and even. She was asleep. He was trapped.

Moondancer put a hoof gently on his shoulder. "This is all more political than I am accustomed to, but your people have made their will quite clear."

"They have?"

"They follow you, Toby." Moondancer shook her head. "You are their ruler. They follow Sombra because you say to."

Toby looked over his shoulder, barely getting a peek at Moondancer. "What happen Celene fur? She look funny."

"She was hurt, proving that point." Moondancer sat on her haunches beside the bed. "Toby, you have to accept your responsibility."

"I accept lot responses." He canted his head a little. "What not doing?"

"I will say it." She put a hoof to her chest. "Since I have the words. You need to know you are their leader. You have to act like you are their leader. Whatever arrangement you have with Sombra, that doesn't negate this point. Either take up the mantle, or decline it, formally. Being half-in won't help a single tsuki."

"Treachery!" Shadow slipped into the room before forming into the shape of a three-legged pony. "I knew I had only to wait for this to become clear."

Toby craned his head, struggling to see the new pony, but there were only a few ponies it could have been, and he recognized the voice. "Quick? What saying? Is something wrong?"

Quick blinked softly at the covered form of Toby. "Even now you astound me with your... simpleness... She plots against Sombra! She has admitted it, plainly."

"Is not what I hear." Toby slowly turned away from Celene, not leaving her grasp as he rotated his body around in a slow roll. "Sombra smarter, I listen Sombra. Tsuki say I smarter. Tsuki listen to me. Is good. Listen more, fight less."

Quick took a slow step forward, his form unsteadily supported on his three remaining legs. "You listen to her, trust her--" His eyes were on Moondancer, glaring at her in the darkness of the bedroom. "--She has handed you the keys to a kingdom, and you will share the throne without hesitation?"

Toby wrinkled his snout. "I not best at king thing. I get better. Sombra know how king, but is not perfect. He get better. We get better." He reached out a paw and waved it about. "All get better. Tsuki not do much for too long. We fix, get better."

The room darkened further as another shape blocked the light from outside. "A noble appeal," spoke Sombra. "She is well?"

Celene grunted as if annoyed at the noise and pulled Toby closer.

Moondancer nodded towards the motion. "I think she will be fine. I've completed my catalog." With a magical pop, a book appeared hovering before her. "I made two copies. I'll take one with me for further examination by others who are more experienced in this line of work." She set the floating book down on a small end-table.

Quick raised a brow at her. "You had time during your machinations?"

Sombra waved him away. "Unlike you, some focus on getting things accomplished. Quick Stroke, I would speak with you."

"You had but request it, m'lord." He bowed as awkwardly as a pony with three legs would entail, his remaining foreleg trembling under the weight it supported alone.

"Follow." Sombra melted into shadow. The book was snatched away with a long thin extension of the gloom, then the entire mass darted out of the door. Quick was a moment behind.

Moondancer watched them go before dipping her head towards Toby. "I should go too."

"Follow?" he asked with a quizzical expression.

"Not with them," she assured gently. "I should go home. I've done what I promised, and your people are ready to climb on their own now."

"Oh..." He felt sadness build rapidly. He had grown used to Moondancer's presence. But his home was not her home. He knew that, even if he would rather it not be true. "Moondancer... you. You... are..." every word he spoke was slow, picked carefully with clear thought on his face. "are... welcome. You... will... visit? us!" He had added the last word, realizing he had forgotten it. "Please. We love you."

Moondancer's snout darkened red before she realized what sort of love was being used. "I love you all too." She pointed to the slumbering tsuki behind Toby. "She loves you a little extra. Be good to her." She turned to go, stepping for the door. "You can visit too, if you have some time between being king. The next time you negotiate a deal with Celestia, be sure to stop by. I look forward to hearing of the wonderful things you accomplish."

Toby watched Moondancer leave, his eyes growing wet. Why couldn't the people he liked just stay with him forever? He mentally answered the question quickly, because they were alive, and had dreams, and goals, and wanted to do things. The very things that made them people he loved so much were exactly why they had to go. They were people, good people.

Good people supported one another, but had to stand firm on their own. He twitched an ear at a soft noise from Celene.

She wouldn't go. Her goal was him. He was starting to understand the idea. It was... good. She would not leave him. He would not leave her. They would be together, even as the world changed around them. He quietly turned to her and returned her hug.

He'd have to teach her not to get into fights though...

---

Sombra gestured towards the other end of a long hall they had arrived in. There, lit in a shaft of light from above, was an ornate-looking box on a raised circular platform. "A gift, Quick. A gift, from my people. They requested that I be the one to present it, and I gladly accepted it."

Quick looked at it with a mixture of scornful doubt and expected attack. "What 'gift' could they possibly offer?" He took a step towards it.

"Are you afraid of them?" asked Sombra with a little smile, enjoying the discomfort on display. "Go on. It is given in good spirit."

"As you say..." He faded to shadow and slipped across the room quickly. As a puddle of gloom, he was not slowed for lack of a leg. He rose beside the box and reached his good hoof for it, feeling it. "Where did they even get the wood? There are no trees down here, m'lord."

"They purchased it," replied Sombra, sounding proud. "They established a trade line without prompting and exchanged goods to secure it, just for this gift."

His horn glowed and the box glowed sympathetically. It folded upwards smoothly on crystal hinges, revealing a smooth interior with a pony's leg, cast in crystal. The roof of the box slammed down as Quick fell backwards. "Is this a sick joke?!"

"Far from it." Sombra walked closer at a sedate pace, in no great hurry.

"They've made a trophy of what I've lost!" He pointed his remaining forehoof at it. "Your people are crueler than I gave them credit for!"

"That is not for them." The box opened under his magic, and the leg hovered free. "It is for you. They wish to replace what they have taken from you."

Quick glared at the hovering leg. "How could they even dream of getting it--"

"--They didn't. They sought out experts elsewhere, and bartered for its construction." He thrust the leg into Quick's chest in a rough giving. "They did it for you, despite your hatred of them. They wish to see you become better."

"That line is becoming a touch over-used, m'lord." He took hold of the leg in his magic and turned it around, looking at it. "It does look far better constructed than I would imagine they would manage. Who did make it then?"

Sombra leaned in, his smile somewhat subdued. "Just a little country of little import..." That grin expanded to cover his face. "The Crystal Empire. And it only gets better from there. Go on, try it."

"Try it?" He eyed the leg before rising up to all three and trying to put it in about the right place. Sombra's magic wrapped around it suddenly and gave it a firm shove. There was a moment of agony, and Quick hissed low and deep, but it passed. He had a new leg, one of glimmering crystal.

He leaned from one side to the other, testing it, then took a few slow steps. "It... responds."

"It took some measure of bartering, considerable wealth..." Sombra sat and brought his forehooves together. "Wealth they had. I have." He turned away from Quick Stroke. "The tsuki have announced themselves to the Crystal Empire, and would you believe the result?"

"I gather from your tone, it goes beyond the replaced limb?" He stepped up beside Sombra, his gait restored with the unnatural limb moving with his desires. "What have they done?"

"They have secured me a visit. It seems we will be playing host to another global leader, one with distant relation to one that had wronged me so long ago... One who would revile me, who worked against me. One who will simmer with fury and be able to do nothing..." He chuckled, a slow sound, savoring the revenge. "Princess Mi Amore Cadanza will come before me, lay herself humble in my demesne. She will behold my glories and properly acknolwedge my right to rule. She will do all this, all the while trembling on the inside, knowing she can do naught else."

Quick was still a moment, the room growing silent before he broke it with a laugh. "I look forward to seeing the subtle play across her face. How well will she hide her disgust?" He suddenly slapped Sombra's back. "I apologize, m'lord. I had doubts, but you have shown me in the wrong entirely. Your people have prepared a mighty and fine gift for us both! Their cleverness runs deeper than ever I would have thought. This bears all the more careful watching, yes..." He jumped forward, landing easily on his legs, new and old. "Yes... They have earned that much. I will approach them anew. I paid the price for my assumption, not again. This new world conceals dangers behind innocent smiles. I will stand beside them and learn from them."

Sombra turned for the door they had entered from. "Lead with kindness, have strength to enforce it. That is the tactic for this age."

"It seems almost obvious in hindsight, but that is the nature of things, is it not, m'lord?" He almost pronked with a building joy at his regained mobility. "We should prepare. The more extravagantly she is greeted, the more humbled she will be to think she once thought ill of us. We should be certain to demonstrate our power along the way."

"Now, I feel, you are getting the idea." He held out a hoof towards his old ally and it was met with a crystal reply, clopping together with the ring of metal on crystal. "Let us go."

Author's Note:

A chapter closes, and a new one opens. Someone's coming for a visit. How will that go?

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Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

We wonder if Sombra is merely wording it that way for Quick or if he really still believes it. Regardless, the shackles definitely look splendid this go around.
Everyone is growing, er, getting better. Soon enough they will be more than good...
Keep going! ;)

[Booster Spice]

Quick can now sneak into a pirate town even easier?

[howard035]

Great turnaround for Quick!

[David Silver]

8767336
Thank you. I really wanted his reformation to strike as true to his character. It was brutal and harsh, just like him. He can learn to be a good pony.

[RadicalDishonesty]

So, catching up, and this attitude from Sombra basically indicates that the term "reformed" is extremely generous, and that his terrible intentions and total lack of contrition to the slavery and oppression he previously wrought on others and, more importantly, the implications of his unchanged motivations would be, remain.

It's begging to have something go wrong for him. If his attitude in this chapter is earnest, then he is pretending to be kind and contrite in order to basically rub his untouchableness and "right to rule" in the faces of people he tried to kill and might still kill and enslave if he thought he could get away with it...

[Shadowshame]

8860705
I wouldn't call it reformed I would more call it extreme malicious compliance as he is doing what the sisters of day and night want and then shoving that in the face of the ones he hates

Though that back story of his from earlier in this story has me wondering who left him isolated and without some of the basic needs to fit with society so badly that he became the villain from before

[David Silver]

9750237
He tried to take over the Crystal Empire, was thrown out, found tsuki, became ruler of them instead!