(4-2) Fulfilling Requests
It was a few weeks of relative nothingness after Cadance’s trial had concluded that Alex sat on the throne, letting each day pass by without thought, actively working to keep nothing on his mind. He knew Starlight was working on something for him, she told him that she and Twilight were still looking into what could be done for him, and mentioned that she would try and get something written up for him within the next few months. It made him anxious, knowing that he had to wait until somepony else did something for him, and eventually his anxiousness got the best of him.
It was the middle of the day, and both he and Radiant Hope were listening to some noble explain why they needed a loan from the crown for whatever business they were starting up when he suddenly got the urge to do some poking around for personality spells for himself. While the pony was speaking, he got up, stretched his legs and yawned, and spoke to Hope.
“I’m going to be heading to the library,” he told her, interrupting the stallion. “To the archives actually. Make sure he’s taken care of please?”
“Sure,” she responded as she leaned up to nuzzle and kiss him. “Take as long as you need. I’ve got it here.”
With that, she watched him head off before turning back to the pony in front of her and giving him the loan he requested, sitting alone silently for a few minutes after that before the next pony came up to her. It was a bright yellow pony with a coal-black mane, one that was slicked back as though he combed it that way. He was a bit larger than most ponies for a unicorn, almost as large as Big McIntosh in Ponyville was, and had bright blue eyes, almost icy blue. Honestly, to Radiant Hope, he had the classic look of one of the villains of Equestria, the only difference between them and him being that his smile was nice and wide and genuine.
“Princess,” he started as he bowed low to the ground, his muzzle almost touching the floor.
“No need to do that,” Hope explained with a small chuckle. “How can I help you?” she asked.
“Oh, thank you princess!” he started enthusiastically. “I was just wondering if I could visit the Canterlot Archives? I’ve traveled all the way from Fillydelphia just to see them.”
“Fillydelphia?” the mare asked curiously. “Why so far?”
“Oh, it’s always been my dream to explore every library,” he told her, “and the Royal Library should be the best of all, I bet, especially the archives!”
“Hmmm…” Radiant Hope hummed thoughtfully.”I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to, although we will have to get you an escort…”
“Drat,” the stallion thought to himself, keeping the smile on his face despite his frustration. “That’s going to make this more difficult, although I’m sure I could come up with an excuse to look up information about Mount Everhoof and the Bewitching Bell…”
“Can I ask what your name is, sir?” Hope started again as she floated over a quill and paper. “I’ll need to take down your information. And you said you’re from Fillydelphia?”
“Yes. My name is Brimstone,” he told her, causing her to look back up at him curiously. This time he did frown and looked at his hooves embarrassedly, continuing, “I know, it sounds like a villain's name, and you probably think I look the same way, too.”
“I thought no such thing,” Hope lied. “Although I do have to ask how you stumbled across that name.”
“Well, my coat is sulfur colored, and my parents' special talent was making fertilizer, which has the sulfur in it, so they thought, ‘hey, why not name him Brimstone?’”
“I see,” Hope commented as she went back to scratching in his details. “Well, I do have to admit, it’s quite the unique name, but unique names are always the most memorable, so that should make you feel better. Anyway, we can see if we can get you an escort to bring you into the archives within the next few weeks.”
“Wh-what?” he asked, taken aback and stepping backward in surprise. “A few weeks? I… I’m sorry, but I was… hoping I could see them today, if that’s okay…”
“Well, right now, we don’t have anypony available to escort you. Not that you’d intend to, but we always want to make sure that nopony is heading into the restricted sections of the library. You understand, right?”
“Oh, I see…” he said sadly, hanging his head low in an attempt to get her to feel sorry for him and allow him in sooner. “I understand. It’s just- I won’t be here in a few weeks to visit them, but I guess I can always try again next year…”
The mare didn’t take the bait, simply apologizing and asking, “Was there a date in particular you were wanting for next year?”
“Ah, no, any time you can give me would do fine,” Brimstone answered, containing the fury he had at her and himself over the fact that he would have to wait so long.
“Okay, then we’ll just put it for one year from today tentatively, and we’ll be sure to mail out documents for the exact day in a few months, along with who your escort will be,” she told him, quickly writing the information down. Once she was done, she asked, “Was there anything I could do for you, Brimstone?”
“No, that was it. Thank you, princess,” he told her, bowing again, giving a quick scowl to the floor while he had the opportunity.
“It’s no trouble,” she said kindly, giving him a gentle smile as he picked himself back up. “Be sure to enjoy Canterlot while you’re here, and if you ever need anything else, be sure to come back.”
“Thank you, princess,” he responded, smiling back at her and nodding his head low again before he left.
Once he was a safe distance away, he let out a quiet sigh of frustration and allowed himself to stomp his hooves in the grass in front of the castle. A whole year was what he was told. He didn’t want to wait a whole year. Just getting back to Mount Everhoof would take weeks as it stood, not to mention, convincing these ponies to be on his side. This was going to take ages already, and he absolutely did not want to wait a year before being allowed into the archives.
He stood there and considered his options. He could go back later to the Night Court and speak to Princess Luna… although she’d likely just say the same thing. He could also try and sneak into the archives. The way Twilight Sparkle described it in her book, it should be easy enough. But to be fair, she was the Element of Magic, so it should have been easy for her to do… well, anything. It probably wouldn’t be quite as easy for him as it was for her.
He took a breath and turned in the direction of the library, thinking over what should be done before he gasped at the sight of something. Or rather, somepony. He couldn’t believe that he was watching King Sombra off in the distance walking directly towards the library, blinking a few times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
“Hey! Hey, wait!” he yelled as though Alex could hear him, galloping after him for a few seconds before realizing what he was doing and teleporting over to him. The spot he landed in caused Alex to jump back in surprise as Brimstone bumped into him and fell to the ground.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked with a frown as he looked down at the unicorn. For some reason, Brimstone flinched, expecting him to yell and growl at him and turn him into dust. But no, he realized the stallion was only irritated about being bumped into. Still, even a simple look of irritation was a frightening thing to see on him, and it almost caused him to freeze in his place before he remembered that this was the pony he was up against. If he froze in fear now, he wouldn’t be able to get anything done, let alone rule over Equestria.
“I- I’m sorry,” he got out as he brushed himself off and shook his mane. “I didn’t mean to chase after you, but I- I saw you were heading off to the library and was wondering if you would grant me access to the Canterlot Archives?”
“That’s something to see Radiant Hope about,” Alex told him as he let out a sigh and wiped away his annoyance, remembering that he needed to gain the public’s trust. “I’m sure she could set you up with an escort to take you to archives. Have you spoken with her yet?”
“I have,” Brimstone admitted, “but she told me it would be a few weeks before I would get an escort.” Alex opened his mouth to tell him he would simply have to wait until then in that case, but the stallion was cut off with, “I saw you were heading into the library, and was wondering if you would be my escort, please? I'm not going to be in Canterlot in a few weeks, and would really like to see it while I'm here... please?”
The grey-coated stallion opened his mouth again to say no, but sighed instead. He once again remembered that he was trying to earn the public’s favor and stifle their fears and nervousness about him, and becoming irritated and declining to help them when they asked certainly wouldn’t help to do that.
“Yes, I can,” he answered, sounding a bit like he didn’t want to and ignoring the urge to roll his eyes. “Come along.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Brimstone responded excitedly and wearing a genuine smile, happy to see his plans moving forward.
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your*
So is Alex blind that he can't see that Brimstone looks like a villain?
Are you adding idiot ball trope to him?
It's not even racist because this world follows the "obvious and simplicity" rules that the villain looks like one and has a name like one.
Even Radiant sees that and wasn't fooled
Like here.
The ones that use names like that are either villains or talented, special beings.
Sombra,Discord,Chrysalis,Twilight Sparkle,Luna these are the names you can guess that they aren't normal
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Alex can't see because, like was written at the beginning of the chapter,
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no, Alex is just not in the mood to really look closer or give a damn. And as noted hes been told to be nicer to be more publicly open so he relented. In short, being nice actually bite him in the butt
PS: Even if he did notice the suspicious name and appearance. He won't jump the gun and just assume, since he's a victim of being targeted for being in the body of an evil pony he doesn't want to be a hypocrite to be openly suspicious of Brimstone from the get go
Brimstone is hilariously naive and amateur I love him already
Gotta say, I enjoy the irony of Radiant Hope being the one to distrust the villain pretending to be good while Sombra is the one to trust him, considering what happened with Hope trusting the umbrum.
I also like "Radiant hoped", my new favorite character.
Not surprised Radiant trusted him. After all everybody is wary of Alex due to him looking like Sombra. Although Radiant being called "Princess" does bother me. She isn't really anything, just a hanger on that has a one-sided romantic attachment to Alex and doesn't allow him to be free of her.
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Candace looks like the most saccharine heroine in existence but she's incredibly a villain in this fic, and the opposite is true for Alex.
That said, I'm very much enjoying the classic Saturday morning cartoon villain aesthetic Brimstone has got going on.
HOLY CRAP BASKETS! THERE'S A SEQUEL AN NOBODY TOLD ME! HECK YEAH TIME TO READ WHAT I LIKE TO CALL "HEROINE FOR THE BRAIN!"!
How fortunate!
It's too bad the evil trio didn't take that Bell already...
I want to choke the ever loving frick out of this wannabe villain, ever since Tirek was defeated on S4 finale I started to notice the only recurring villains/antagonists are either ones the group has met before or ponies with either sad or just outright weird reasons for villainy, I mean, COZY GLOW, reason for going full on villainess was because she became penpals with Tirek and convinced herself that Friendship is power?! WHAT!?