Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
River felt like she was going to throw up.
Like a rat in a cage, she’d spent the last several minutes pacing the length of the parlor, too anxious to be able to sit still. Every few seconds she’d found herself compelled to look over at the grandfather clock on the far side of the room, watching as its pendulum swung back and forth, silently counting the seconds. Although it seemed to be working normally, River could have sworn that the timepiece was mocking her, with the minute hoof seeming to jump forward unnaturally fast whenever she looked away from it.
But when ten minutes had come and gone with no sign of Lex, River had felt sweat start to bead on her brow. She knew that he was making her wait on purpose; making someone’s schedule conform to your convenience was one of the more basic ways of showing that you had power over them. But just knowing that did nothing to ease her tension. If anything, it increased it, since she was already hyper-aware of just how much power Lex had over her. Indeed, she could think of very little else.
Of course, the fact that Feather Duster – standing silently on the opposite side of the room – was the very picture of composure didn’t help either.
Neither mare had said anything since they’d entered the parlor, and for River, it was because she hadn’t dared open her mouth. After Lex’s warning, she hadn’t been willing to risk that anything she said to the maid could be taken as an attempt to influence her. Whatever Lex was going to do to her, River felt certain that he’d make it worse if he thought she was going against his orders. And it wasn’t like she had anything she could offer him in exchange for clemency this time, since she’d already pledged everything she owned to him in order to buy her way back into his good graces. Now that she’d brought back the Las Pegasus ponies Lex had wanted, River was keenly aware that she had outlived her usefulness to him.
Perhaps literally so.
That thought was still in the forefront of her mind when the door to the parlor swung open, its handle briefly outlined in roiling purple before Lex strode into the room.
The abrupt entrance made River jump, swallowing a shriek of fright as her eyes locked onto the pony who now held her fate in his hooves, dimly noting that Feather Duster was standing a little straighter as well.
Lex didn’t look at either of them until he’d crossed the parlor, taking a seat in the large chair near the clock. River couldn’t help but note how his eyes had changed back to normal, the green-and-purple glow that they’d had when he’d dismissed her previously having dispersed. She could only hope that was a good sign, swallowing nervously as she waited for him to speak, not daring to so much as sit down without his say-so.
“River,” said Lex at last, uttering her name like it was a dire pronouncement. “Feather Duster has alleged that you ordered her to enter into a conjugal relationship with me, and that when she refused to do so, you threatened her – and, by extension, her daughter Cleansweep, who is now one of my students – in order to force her to comply.” He let the words hang in the air for several seconds before leaning forward, keeping her pinned in place with the weight of his gaze alone. “Is that true?”
The question made River’s heart leap into her throat, and she very nearly lunged at the out that Lex had just given her. If all he had was the testimony of one fainthearted little maid, then surely it wouldn’t be too hard to discredit her. If she painted Feather Duster as being an employee with a grudge, or a habitual liar, or anything else that made her seem untrustworthy, then maybe there was a way out of this without being cursed!
But River had been in politics far too long to give in to such a basic temptation. She knew this particular ploy, having been on the other side of it many times over the years. It was another of the basic rules of wielding power: asking someone a question that you already knew the answer to in order to see if they’d lie. Lex had already doubtlessly verified Feather Duster’s story. River had no idea how he would have done that, but with the magic he wielded it couldn’t have been hard. She had never been interested in advanced spellcasting, apart from the age spell she’d wanted for so long, but she felt absolutely sure that Lex had used his magic to verify the charges against her and set this trap for her now. Which meant that there was only one course of action she could take.
“Yes,” she breathed softly, lowering her eyes in defeat. “Yes, it’s true.”
Out of the corner of her eyes, River saw Feather Duster give her a look of surprise, clearly not having expected her to confess. But she was less concerned with her maid’s reaction than with Lex’s. If her admission of guilt had bought her any goodwill on his part, however, it didn’t show on his face, his usual frown deepening into a dark expression. “Before I pass judgment on you for this,” he rumbled, “I demand your allocution.”
“Wh-what?”
“Tell me why you did this!” he snapped.
“I…I just…!” River tried to find some way to present herself in the best possible light. Some way of explaining why she’d done what she’d done in a way that didn’t make her look petty and selfish. But very few things came to mind, leaving her flailing. “I wanted to show you how much I could give you!” she managed at last. “To offer you anything you wanted!”
But Lex’s expression only darkened further. “And this is what you think I wanted? For you to terrorize one of my little ponies to the point of degrading herself?”
Cringing, her ears folding back, River shook her head helplessly. “You had all those mares hanging off of you!” she pleaded. “I thought you’d like it if I could give you more!”
“So why didn’t you do it yourself?”
Feather Duster’s question made River blink in confusion, panic having made her nearly forget that the maid was there. “Huh?”
“Why didn’t-” Stopping in mid-sentence, Feather Duster seemed to realize that she’d interrupted, turning back to Lex and bowing. “Forgive me,” she murmured. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
River’s eyes shifted nervously between Lex and the maid, but when the former made a permissive gesture at the latter, Feather Duster turned back to her. “If you wanted to give Master Legis…” she faltered then, looking for the right word. “Female companionship, why didn’t you just do it yourself?”
The accusation in her words was obvious, but River could hear genuine curiosity there as well, and for some reason that made her blood boil. “That’s easy for you to say!” she spat. “You’re still young and beautiful!”
Feather Duster looked taken aback by that. “But…but you’re prettier than I am,” she sputtered.
“Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?! Look at me! I’m OLD!” screamed River, incensed. All of a sudden she couldn’t stop herself, the mounting tension she'd been feeling finally boiling over. “You think that any stallion would want me at my age?! My son is old enough to start thinking about having children of his own! How many stallions do you know who want mares that are old enough to be grandmothers?! Who are starting to wrinkle more with each passing day?! Who are already on the wrong side of forty?!”
She hung her head then, tears of frustration gathering in her eyes. “You don’t know what it’s like, putting on more and more makeup each morning and seeing it do less and less for your looks. Having to work out longer each day just to keep your weight the same. Dreading looking in the mirror when you wake up because there’ll be one more gray hair in your mane than there was yesterday.”
Gritting her teeth, River stifled a sob, wanting to save what was left of her dignity even as years of pent-up venom came flooding out. “I’ve spent my entire life making money so that I wouldn’t have to live in squalor the way I did when I was a filly, and now it’s all useless, because I’m turning into an ugly old nag anyway!”
Feather Duster was gaping, clearly not having expected the torrent of emotion that was coming out of her former employer. For her part, River kept directing her words toward the other mare, finding her an easier outlet for her grievances than Lex. “I tried to get an age spell to make me young again, you know. I went to Canterlot and did everything I could to get one of the wizards that can cast it – and believe me, there aren’t many – make me young again. I even offered to put out for them.” She confessed that last part with a hollow smirk, feeling utterly humiliated. She’d never talked about that to anyone since it happened. “They laughed at me when I did. They made it clear that they weren’t interested in some old nag from the sticks, not when they had a city full of the richest and most influential ponies in Equestria giving them everything they could possibly want in order to keep the age-restoring spells all to themselves. And then…” She gestured in Lex’s direction, not able to continue as her anger suddenly ebbed.
But that was enough for Feather Duster to realize what she was trying to say. “And then Master Legis came along, and you thought that if you ingratiated yourself with him the way the ponies in Canterlot did with their wizards, he’d make you young again.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” sighed River. “And I knew better than to use my withered old flank to do it, especially since he already had beautiful girls hanging off of him.” All of a sudden she didn’t feel frightened anymore. She just felt tired. Tired of being afraid of what Lex was going to do to her. Tired of fighting with the most disobedient servant she’d ever had. Tired of struggling so hard for something that was always just out of reach.
Turning back to Lex, River gave him a look of forlorn resignation. “That’s why I did it.”
With nothing else to say, she waited for him to curse her.
Lex looked at River impassively as he considered everything she’d just told him.
Her rant had been one of unabashed self-pity. Compared to the hardships that the ponies of Vanhoover had been forced to endure – those that had survived – her consternation over the advent of senescence-, no, over the altogether minor cosmetic decline and the social consequences thereof brought on by the advent of senescence, was repugnant. That River had tried to force somepony else to debase herself as part of a scheme to soothe her wounded sense of entitlement was loathsome in the extreme. Without even trying, Lex could think of a dozen curses that would have rubbed her nose in exactly what she feared the most, all of which would have served her right.
And yet, in the wake of his inability to bring Block Party back to life, Lex found himself sickened at the prospect of inflicting further misery on somepony who was already so anguished. No matter that her suffering was shallow and self-absorbed; River was still in a state of acute distress. Having just been faced with somepony whose torment had been so great that he had given up on life itself, Lex couldn’t bring himself to inflict further hardship on someone else. Not when his entire purpose for coming to Vanhoover had been to relieve the ponies of the afflicted city.
But that didn’t mean that River could be forgiven for what she’d done to Feather Duster.
“I’m suspending judgment at this time,” Lex announced without preamble.
He watched the faces of both mares carefully, despite not being able to decipher their expressions. Feather Duster opened her mouth, only to immediately close it again. River was slower to react, blinking twice before swallowing. “You’re…you’re not going to punish me?” she asked, her voice shaky.
“I’m not going to punish you for now,” explained Lex. “We will revisit the matter of your sentencing after the delegation from Las Pegasus departs.”
River gasped at that, the corners of her lips turning up. “I understand! I promise, I’ll do everything I can to make sure you get the loan you want! I swear, you won’t regret giving me a second chance!”
“I won’t,” agreed Lex, “because I’m not.”
River’s smile froze. “You’re not…what?”
“I’m not giving you a second chance,” clarified Lex. “When the ponies from Las Pegasus have left, you’ll be made to pay for what you’ve done.”
He pointed at Feather Duster, who had been silently watching the exchange, even as he kept his eyes on River. “And when I deliver my sentence, it will be based on her recommendation. Until then, you can experience what it’s like to have your fate be in the hooves of someone who bears you ill will.”
Both mares’ eyes widened at that, with River turning pale. But as far as Lex was concerned, the matter was closed.
“Now, tell me about the ponies you brought from Las Pegasus.”
Lex declares that River's fate will depend on Feather Duster's recommendation, to be determined later! After what River did, that's a fitting judgment unto itself.
In the meantime, it's time to deal with the ponies from Las Pegasus! Unless some other visitors make themselves known before that happens...
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Time for River to sweat, Feather is a much better pony than she is, but I don't think she can even conceive that. Likely Feather will be forgiving, and empathetic, but River doesn't even know what those things are and Lex is making her wait to learn, knowing she can't buy her way out.
All things considered, River got off relatively easy if Lex follows whatever Feather Duster recommends. Still, given how pale River went, she's undoubtedly worried about what the mare she terrorized will think of that's a fitting punishment.
Personally, I can see Feather Duster becoming indecisive of what to do with the responsibility of what to do with River, especially after her emotional outburst. It would be easy to see her forgiving her employer but I'm doubtful that she won't at the very least entertain the thoughts of what she could do to River for what she put her through these past few weeks.
Of course, even if Feather Duster outright forgives her, it does not mean that River will get away scot-free since she did, in Lex's words 'terrorize one of my little ponies' so he'll likely dish out a punishment based on whatever Feather Duster says. Though given how much he's learning from working with people from his girls, it wouldn't be too far out of character if he lets her off, with a few stipulations in place of course.
Though, with the matter set aside for a later date, Lex will need to figure out what to do with Blueblood and those that followed him. Hopefully, the information River has about them all will be useful.
Why did I read that last line in the voice of Evil asking about Fast Breeder Reactors in Time Bandits?
10226250 River, like most people, probably assumes others operate under a mindset similar to the one she herself has. So she'll almost certainly be sweating the idea that Feather Duster will be vindictive toward her now. In fact, that isn't how Feather Duster comes across (though she's not so saintly that she wasn't able to get at least a little satisfaction out of River's comeuppance, when Lex told her to go and wait for his judgment a few chapters back). And of course, River will likely torment herself thinking of all the awful things that Feather Duster could recommend.
All in all, this is quite the nice punishment unto itself.
10226477 I never did see that; heck, I only saw Baron Munchausen once several decades ago.
10226421 I suspect that in River's case, a major aspect of her punishment is going to be not knowing what's going to happen to her. Particularly so given that she'll almost certainly expect Feather Duster to recommend something harsh. It's what River herself would do, after all.
Of course, Lex only wants Feather Duster's recommendation; he didn't give her leave to decide River's punishment on her own. So he's going to have the final say no matter what, which makes it unlikely that River will get away without any sort of punishment at all. As it stands, River's likely to be aware of that, and despite Lex saying otherwise she probably won't be able to help but think that he'll be more inclined to be lenient if she can help him procure a hefty loan from the Las Pegasus ponies. Of course, the fact that he's feeling morose after his failure to resurrect Block Party might help too. Really, anything could happen.
Particularly given how many personalities of note are descending on Vanhoover.
Kind of surprised Lex is punishing her, really. Isn't ordering your subordinate to do a task they don't want to and enforcing it with the threat of punishment what his reign is all about?
10227430 Not really, no. His reign is about having a proactive government that works to promote the general welfare. What River did served no one except herself, and she did it at the expense of somepony else, which runs directly counter to what Lex is trying to achieve.
The judgement delayed
Leaves River dismayed.
And then we move to
Those River brought along the way.
Along with a brat
Who wishes for combat
10230089 Presuming some unexpected guests don't interrupt the proceedings, of course.