304 - The Same River Twice
“Uh-uh! No way! Don’t even try it!”
Sonata’s angry exclamation was enough to make Celestia’s eyes widen slightly, glancing between her and River. “Is everything alright?”
River opened her mouth, but this time Sonata beat her to the punch. “Like, no! Everything is not alright!” She glared at River as she spoke. “Ever since he got here, Lex has done everything he possibly can to try and help people! I’ve been right with him the entire time, watching him plan and fight and get really hurt, all to protect everypony! And Miss Prissy Pants here,” she thrust her hoof forward, pointing the older mare accusingly, “is going to slink back now that Lex can’t speak for himself, and say that he’s-”
“Vanhoover’s hero,” interjected River.
“Vanhoover’s hero!” echoed Sonata, her voice still angry. “All because she got what was coming to her when she…she…wait, what?” Blinking as she finally registered what River had said, Sonata gave her a blank look, her confusion evident. “You think he’s a hero?”
“Of course I do!” River made sure to keep her smile in place, shaking her head ruefully at Sonata. “He sheltered and protected my son, after all!”
“I…well, yeah, I guess he did. But when you first got here, you were all-”
“Confused,” interrupted River again, before turning her attention to Princess Celestia. “I only recently got back from Las Pegasus,” she explained. Her smile dropped then, turning her eyes downward as a pained look crossed her face. “It was horrible, being the only member of my family to escape the flooding, not knowing what happened to my husband and our son. I was positively sick with worry the entire time.” She looked up then, her eyes filled with remorse. “When I came back and found out that my husband hadn’t made it, my dearest Mounte…” She choked back a sob, putting a hoof to her face. “I’m so ashamed of how I acted. I took it all out on Lex, saying such horrible things to him. I’m sure he hates me now…”
Princess Celestia moved to stand in front of River then, a sympathetic look on her face. “We all say things we don’t mean sometimes,” she offered gently. “Even I’ve found myself speaking words I’ve come to regret later. But as long as we’re able to recognize what we’ve done, and find the courage to apologize to the ones we’ve hurt, it’s never too late to try and make amends.”
River sniffled, looking up at the princess through watery eyes. “Do…do you really think he’ll forgive me?”
“That’s up to Lex.” Celestia’s reply wasn’t unkind, one wing reaching out to gently turn River’s chin toward Sonata. “But if you want to know if he’ll accept your apology, there’s somepony here who knows him much better than I do.”
“Oh, uh, yeah!” Suddenly finding herself put on the spot, Sonata tried her best to sound convincing. “Lex is just, you know…super forgiving! Heh heh…” One hoof came up to rub the back of her neck, forcing herself to smile as she nodded. She very nearly mentioned that he’d go ahead and get rid of her curse, but managed to catch herself at the last second, belatedly realizing that it might not be the best idea to tell the princess that Lex had done that in the first place. “Yep…super forgiving,” she finished lamely.
Princess Celestia smiled at that, and so did River, though hers was far shakier.
It was all she could do to keep from laughing.
Step one, complete, she thought to herself. With any luck, Lex’s little plaything would be able to get him to lift that curse he’d placed on her. After that, the real work would begin:
The seduction of Lex Legis.
When River had woken up that morning, the first thing she’d done was confirm that it hadn’t been a nightmare; that that horrible stallion had cursed her to be unable to enjoy her wealth. Of course, that hadn’t really needed confirming; that she’d been sleeping naked on the grass had been all the proof she should have needed. Nevertheless, she had to be sure.
After venturing back inside of her manor and immediately feeling like she was about to throw up, River had lurched back outside, depression threatening to consume her the way it had yesterday. She had almost given into it, almost lost herself in another round of tears and self-pity. But something had held her back, preventing despair from overtaking her.
Instead, as the sun had just started to peak over the mountains, she’d found herself wandering toward the river, making sure to avoid Lex’s camp full of vagrants as she made her way to the water’s edge. The sight of the flowing watercourse had brought a thin smile to her lips, remembering how often she’d come here after she’d discovered her destiny. She’d gained her cutie mark the first time she’d ever panned for gold, but she’d come back many times after that, up until she’d finally convinced Mounte to marry her. A proper lady didn’t do such things, but now…
As luck would have it, she’d almost tripped over a makeshift pan. A few minutes of walking along the bank had let her find a skillet with a broken handle near the water’s edge; apparently one of those camp ponies had been trying to clean it when it had broken, leaving it there. The stroke of good fortune had inspired her, and River hadn’t been able to resist sitting down and indulging herself.
It had been a few minutes later, as she’d stared at the sparkling gold flakes shining up at her from the bottom of the broken skillet, that everything had clicked.
Lex’s curse had reduced her to a state of poverty. No matter that she still legally owned a large fortune; if she couldn’t personally enjoy it, then it might as well not have existed. In essence, he had reduced her back to when she’d been a poor filly. He’d made her into “Little” Bit again.
But so what?
I overcame poverty before, River had realized. I made myself into River Bank, one of the most powerful ponies in all of Vanhoover! If I did it once, I can do it again! A new confidence swelling in her chest, River had dumped the skillet right there and galloped back to her manor, her mind whirling as plans began to take shape.
The first thing was information. Vanhoover today wasn’t the same place she’d grown up in, which meant that everything she thought she knew needed to be reevaluated. To that end, she’d given her staff the day off as soon as she’d gotten back, telling all of them that they were free to go check on their friends and families, so long as they were back by sundown. They’d been shocked at her generosity, but had been quick to capitalize on her offer, thanking her obsequiously as they’d left. Only Trotsworth had refused, the old stallion insisting that his place was there by her side.
The next order of business had been to have Piggy – who by that point had just been waking up, his belly already rumbling – tell her everything he knew about Vanhoover’s current situation, particularly when it came to Lex. Her son had been rather hesitant at first, quite clearly confused by her slovenly appearance and refusal to come inside, let alone that she was eating the simple breakfast of dried oats and sliced carrots that Trotsworth had made her, in contrast to his own extravagant meal of seasoned fruit fritters topped with maple syrup. Fortunately, a sharp word from her had been all it had taken to make him ignore his confusion and tell her what she wanted to know. That was another way Piggy was like his father: he was easy to control.
She’d spent quite a bit of time extracting information from her boy, him stuffing his face all the while, before she’d let him go. After that she’d ruminated for some time, comparing what he’d told her to everything Sonata had said when she’d first led her through the city. But it hadn’t been until the staff had begun to trickle back that she’d finally obtained enough information. As she’d expected, the help were all shameless gossips, and most of them had spent time with the other lowlifes in Lex’s camp, absorbing the news and rumors flying around the place, virtually all of which had been centered on him.
Most of what she’d learned had matched with what Piggy and Sonata had told her. Chief among what she'd confirmed was that Lex was arrogant and domineering, but had the power to back it up. But for all his fearsome persona, he did seem to want to help, working diligently to try and turn Vanhoover’s flagging fortunes around. It was just that he quite clearly intended to do it with force – cementing power around himself – rather than friendship, and woe to anypony or anything that stood in his way, as River had experienced firsthoof.
But as unusual as Lex was, there were other ways in which he was quite a bit more relatable. For instance, he apparently had a ravenous appetite where the opposite sex was concerned. From what River had been able to gather, he’d apparently instigated some sort of tawdry episode with Sonata, her sister, and her best friend all at once! That had been a particularly juicy bit of gossip, as virtually all of her servants had been tittering about how Sonata had thrown a fit about that after it had happened. “But they all spent the next night together,” one maid had confessed with a squeal of embarrassed delight. “And the one after that, too!”
Hubris. Ambition. Lust. All traits that Lex Legis shared with her late husband.
Of course, Mounte had also been weak and stupid whereas Lex was neither of those things. More than that, she was already on his bad side; one conversation gone awry had been enough for him to lay a curse of horrible proportions on her. If she were to call down his wrath a second time, her life might get even worse.
The safe bet, River knew, would be to simply cut her losses. If she took everything she still had – her servants and her son and what was left of her money – it wasn’t inconceivable that she’d be able to set herself up somewhere else. Lex’s curse wouldn’t let her enjoy anything extravagant, and she doubted she’d be able to liberate too much money from the family coffers with the state Vanhoover was in anyway, but it was entirely probable that she’d be able to get enough to arrange for a…tolerable life somewhere else. Maybe she’d even be able to find a wizard who could break Lex’s curse, or perhaps she’d take a side trip to visit one of the princesses in hopes that they’d be able to do it.
But even if she could remove Lex’s curse, she’d never be able to go back to Vanhoover as long as he was there, which meant that her prospects for the future were dim at best. Every other major city (and why would she want to live anywhere else?) had their own high societies, and none of them were eager to see a new competitor join their ranks. Without a substantial fortune to her name or access to Vanhoover’s resources – those being the only things that would let her marry herself or Piggy into the ranks of a new city’s elite – there were no prospects for her to advance in whatever metropolitan area she settled in.
Normally, River preferred safe bets. You knew what you were in for with them, and could plan accordingly. But in this case, the safe bet was a loser. It wasn’t the kind of life she wanted for herself, especially after how hard she’d worked to acquire everything she’d had before Vanhoover had been razed.
Which left only one alternative: to ingratiate herself into whatever new order Lex was building here. She’d need to work hard to get into his good graces after what had passed between them, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker. She’d managed to make Mounte fall for her after all. Of course, she doubted that Lex would ever want her that way; he had Sonata (whom the rumors said had a bit of a jealous streak to her) and several other sweet young things around him to satisfy his baser desires. But with her knowledge of financial planning, her experience with local government, and her connections to the elites of Tall Tale and Las Pegasus, she was sure she’d be able to make herself useful to him. And if he did want a more…personal relationship, well…she’d been willing to offer herself to those Canterlot wizards; why not him?
After all, if this worked then the rewards would be just as sweet. She knew now that she’d been wrong in her initial estimations of Lex’s magical capabilities; he was quite clearly a wizard of prodigious strength. If he didn’t know how to use an age spell already, he would at some point, and that would be her best – and likely only – chance at having one used on her. That, and since he intended to sweep away Vanhoover’s old order, she wouldn’t need to worry about the McNeighs or the Hoofingfords undermining her ever again. She’d just need to make sure she stayed useful to Lex, and her position would be secure.
River preferred safe bets, but they weren’t always the best ones. Her last attempt to gamble big had been coming back to Vanhoover before she knew the situation there, and it had blown up in her face. But leaving now would only guarantee that she’d never recover from the bad hoof she’d been dealt. Going double or nothing had the potential to win her back everything she’d lost and more. It was risky, incredibly so, but right now it was the only way to get everything she wanted.
Night had fallen by the time River had made up her mind, and she’d begun heading back toward the camp, preparing to abase herself before Lex. But she’d barely started when there’d been a bright light from that direction, clearly some sort of magic. By the time she’d arrived, she’d spotted Lex casting some sort of spell on a glowing figure even as a fight had broken out between…some members of the Royal Guard and a group of foals? What…?
She’d dimly recognized the maid she’d fired come and pick up one of the foals after it was all over, but that had been secondary to the rush that had filled her when she’d realized why the guards were here. The princesses had come to Vanhoover! River’s eyes had practically lit up, realizing that this was a golden opportunity to ingratiate herself to Lex. After all, if she gave the Royal Sisters a glowing report about what he was doing here, it was sure to get her into his good graces.
And so far, it was going very well indeed.
Now, to move this along, thought River as she wiped her eyes, seemingly consoled by Sonata’s assertion that Lex would forgive her. “I’m so glad. But I want to do more than just apologize, I want to help with everything Lex is doing here.”
She’d thrown that line out as a lure, and she wasn’t disappointed as Princess Celestia spoke up. “Actually, we were about to begin discussing something similar when you joined us, River.”
“Oh?” River tilted her head, not having been aware of that.
Sonata nodded eagerly, clearly glad for the change in topic. “Yeah! I was going to tell her about everything Lex and I have done since we came here!”
“That’s right, I interrupted you, didn’t I?” River looked down, the picture of self-consciousness. “I’m sorry, I’ll let you two get back to your conversation.”
Sonata looked pleased at that, but Princess Celestia immediately jumped in. “Actually, I was hoping you could join us, River. It would be wonderful to hear from both of you about everything that Lex has done for the ponies of Vanhoover.”
A pout crossed Sonata’s lips, but she shrugged. “Fine by me, I guess.”
River, by contrast, smiled widely. “Thank you, Your Highness. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
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WHY
The schemer makes her way back into the story. At least she seems to want to help...ish, rather than just get back she feels she is owed.
Ha. HAHA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHA. Oh is she in for a surprise.
I've heard of ephinanies can be used in stories to turn a villain away from villainy and vice versa, but this is the first time I've read of it causing folks double down on their ways.
Still, seducing Lex? I share James Fire's sentiments on that matter
Granted, she did do the 'smart' thing with gathering intel first before she made her next move but even she has to know the difference between gossip and facts, right?
Either way, her assessment of Lex's potential is rather accurate given his initial desire to keep his soul out of the Night Mare's realm. Bet she'd volunteer in a heartbeat if Lex says he's learned an age spell.
Still, despite her motives, her business savvy would make her an invaluble asset to Lex, especially if she can be sent far away from Vanhoover to do so but that would require her to regain Lex's trust and even with Sonata's endorsement, that's not going to be a walk in the park for River.
Though being able to keep Sonata around instead of sending her away would be really tempting.
This is the best and the worst possible plan. I'll admit, A+ there, I wasn't expecting that at all. River Bank is three times smarter than I give her credit for. Not just coming up with that plan, but being smart enough to swallow her pride and find a new angle.
And of course, once again, the "Blessing" of Lex Legis comes to his aid.
Given Celestias experience with Canterlot nobels, is she well versed in sincere ingratiation?
River Song? Trying to pull a Siren?
Shes going to end up less Adagio, and more Fog.
9341896 Because you can always trust people to be who they are, and this is who River is.
9341900 Is she, though? Remember, she's not planning on seducing him sexually...or at least, not primarily:
She knows that she can't compete with Sonata in terms of physical attraction, though she's not ruling out the possibility. It's just that she knows that her best bet is to tempt Lex in other areas, appealing to his ambition rather than his libido.
9341939 The way I see it, River experienced a short identity crisis due to Lex's curse. Rather than resolving it by realizing that the trappings of wealth weren't the most important thing, she went in the opposite direction, remembering that she had always needed to fight for what she wanted, and that this was just another struggle. River can't physically battle anyone to save her life, and she doesn't know any magic, but when it comes to social maneuvering, she's very proficient, and now she's getting ready to deploy that against Lex.
In order to do that, she's planning on using everything she's got. Money? Check. Political connections? Check. Her body? If she has to. After all, if she plays this right, she'll be at the forefront of a new political order that's being raised on the ashes of the old one, at least insofar as Vanhoover is concerned. An order that will almost certainly include rewards that far eclipse what she'd have earned if things had stayed the way they were.
River learned her lesson after Lex cursed her, but it wasn't the lesson he intended. Now, she's gearing up for round two, and that involves changing the terms of the confrontation. It'll be interesting to see how this goes for her.
9341982 I'm quite glad to hear you're enjoying this new twist!
Several people commented on how thoroughly River was put in her place when she initially confronted Lex, but that was just the opening bout. Now, she has a much better idea of what sort of pony she's dealing with, and how to approach them. If she can work her way into ruling one of Vanhoover's most powerful families with her words, her actions, and her body, certainly she can do something similar here, right? Even if she can't control Lex the way she could her husband, she could at least make herself valuable to him. That's the plan, at least.
As for Kara's blessing...well, I wonder if that's in play here...
9342131 One has to wonder just how much Celestia believes what River is saying. On the other hoof, we know she looks for the good in everypony, and it's not like she has any reason not to believe River either, so it's unclear.
But you make a good point: in a very real way, River is trying to be a Siren of a different sort. The only question now is if Lex will be swayed by her melody.
9342269
I'll give River props for her drive for success, which will prove invaluable to her even if Lex refuses her 'aid'. Then again, Lex is a practical individual that would see merit in letting River help him.
Even if he misunderstands her sudden subservience just like he did with the ponies suddenly being so 'eager' to carry out his orders after he cursed Fencer several chapters back.
Then again, the only thing he knows about River is that she's a selfish individual who only cares about her own wealth and welfare so he's bound to be suspicious of her.
Still, I can imagine her talk her way into getting Celestia to endorse her helping Lex and Sonata can't say anything against it unless River decides to air Lex's 'dirty laundry' for all to see.
River has made her move, now to see if Lex's queen can counter.
Plutonium
Any LE government worth its salt runs on self-interested social climbers like River. Even an LN government usually attracts a few of them. It sounds like she's planning ahead, gathering information, etc. I think she has a decent chance of succeeding in her plan.
How long before she realizes she could gain additional social capital by converting to the Night Mare's worship?
9342373 That's a very succinct summary of the dynamics at play with River throwing her lot in with Lex!
As you noted, he's likely to be at least somewhat suspicious of her sudden reversal. But at the same time, he knows that he has a history of reading people wrong, the most recent example being when he sentenced Fencer. Not only did he mistake everyone's fear for support, but he also misidentified her genuine contrition as being opportunism. Will that mean that he makes the same mistake now, just in the opposite direction (i.e. thinking that since he was wrong not to believe in Fencer's remorse, he should believe in River's now)? Certainly, River has managed to maneuver Sonata into an awkward position, since it's obvious that Princess Celestia wouldn't approve of cursing somepony.
Moreover, would Lex refuse River's assistance even if he knew the truth about her? She's a criminal in his eyes, but he's already handed down her punishment. Since she does have skills he can use, would he be willing to do so even if he didn't trust her motives? Ideally, he'd handle everything himself, but the one lesson he's been hit with over and over and over and over again since he started his adventure is that he can't do it all on his own, as the most recent debacle where a group of foals stopped Silhouette made clear. So it's uncertain how he'll treat River now.
We'll just have to wait and see.
9342412 That might happen, but even if he does, does that mean that Lex will reject what she can offer him? River might not have magic or might, but she has money and connections. For someone who wants to start their own government, those are valuable things indeed.
9343265
9343816 River's current scheme isn't nearly as hasty or ill-considered as her first one when it comes to Lex. Now that she's offering him honey instead of vinegar, there's a real chance that he might take her up on it. If he's willing to give her authority and an enhanced lifespan, and she's willing to give him money and political assistance, it could very well be a match made in...what, Acheron?
As for River and the Night Mare, I suspect that once she realizes that displays of faith cost her nothing, she'll at least pay the goddess some lip service. Whether she'll ever give anything more is highly speculative, at this point.
9344560
posable but she only want's the power and Lex will put a stop to that.
9344562
exactly