No one has sent either this or Glitterglen to Equestria Daily to my knowledge. The Dwarf Fortress overtones might put them off a bit, hehe.
were you one of the other three to give a dwarfy reply to that "you've been given 90ponies to start a new town in the Wilderness." question they posed a while back?
((The discussion "You are now princess/prince" was on 17-01-2012.
Here is the link. Some people, including me, gave DF related answers. Even more people said something along the lines of "This needs to be made into a game!".))
17th Felsite, 258
(( This happened three days after Flux was released from prison,
in this post. ))
(( It is also one day after the
big party, that wasn't published yet. ))
((It is before Glaive and Falcata wedding and before miscarriage. Also before Jaxler gets arrested. If Stiletto does spend a month in jail, she'll be out on 18th Hematite 258. ))
It is the night of the day after Stiletto's party for Flux. Glaive stands alone in his room. He is exhausted and is looking forward to get some undisturbed sleep.
Indigo looks around the corridor, but doesn't see anypony following him. He doesn't want to attract attention to himself, he just wants some answers. He knocks on Glaive's door.
Glaive is surprised to hear a knock at his door. “Who would be calling at this late hour?” Glaive walks over and opens the door.
Indigo looks around at the empty corridor, then says. "Hello Glaive. I'd like to talk to you. Can I come in?"
Glaive looks out at the strange pony, "Oh, hello Indigo. Uh, sure you can come in." Glaive steps out of the doorway and gestures a hoof toward the inside. His room is simple and unadorned. There is a bed, a chair, a cabinet and not much else. Sticking out from under the bed is an large iron strongbox. It is locked, but a key lays nearby. "Just take a seat anywhere." says Glaive.
Indigo looks at Glaive's leg, then looks around, and finds a place to sit. "I want to talk to you about Flux and Stiletto. I want to know what really happened, and why did he get out of prison so easily. If that is alright with you, I mean."
Having only the one chair, Glaive instead sits on his back legs. "Ah, well, I can tell you about that I guess, but why would you care? Are you a friend of Stiletto, or Flux? I can't recall seeing you with them before?"
Indigo looks at the chair, then at Glaive, and sits on the floor. He'd rather the wounded pony get a better seat. "Oh, I am no friend of Stiletto. I only know Flux in passing him sometimes. Besides, she wronged me, and I hate to see her get away with anything so easily." says Indigo angrily. Then adds "You look tired, wouldn't you prefer to sit on a chair?"
"No no, you are the guest here, I insist you take the chair." Glaive continues to sit on the floor. "I am glad to hear that at least one other pony here is no friend of Stiletto. Her lifestyle is cancer on this community, but how has she wronged you?"
Indigo walks around the room as he speaks with anger, often glancing at Glaive. "Where do I even begin... She doesn't respect our traditions or even common decency. She has several lovers, and there are always,
always problems with that. She also corrupted Kat, who used to be my friend, and tried to use her against me. She bewitched Virtue to agree to anything she wants, and think Stiletto is the best of us. She has her underlings taking care of our foals, no doubt planting dangerous ideas in their little heads. She harassed me, and tried to choke me for opposing her. Finally one of her goons broke your leg, and got away with it. I checked the code of laws. The
minimum punishment for that is two weeks. But not only did Flux get out after three days, is happened right after Stiletto did something to you in the hospital. They even dared to throw a party to celebrate how little they care about our laws, or even basic decency, and from what I've seen you were forced to attend. That monster deserves exile at best. So, are you still surprised that I want to know, what she did to you, so that Flux walks free, while your leg is in a cast?"
Glaive listens intently to Indigo's rant. He agreed in general with most of it, but thought the need to tell him what actually happened that day. "I see, well I think I should tell you all the details about what happened between me and Flux." Glaive breathes deeply before continuing, "I was heading over to Falcata's house after work, we are um, involved together...”
"A white pegasus guard with red hair, she was wounded twice." Nods Indigo.
Glaive continues, ignoring the interruption. “I heard music coming from the room. At first I thought she was just playing by herself, but then I heard a second instrument, I opened the door and found her and Flux alone together, playing music. Now I wasn't happy to see this, but I trust Falcata, I trust her that nothing inappropriate was going on. I sat next to her as the song finished and we began to talk. He told me that the wonderfully beautiful instrument she's been playing was a recent gift from him. I assumed at this point that Stiletto's ideas had corrupted Flux, and I don't think I was wrong about that. I thought he was trying to seduce her, and while I trusted her not to do anything, I needed to stop it. I wanted to talk to him alone, but Falcata insisted that I say it to him in front of her. I told him that I didn't appreciate him giving her expensive presents, and that we wanted nothing to do with that slut Stiletto's depraved ideas. He got defensive and threatened me if I said anything else about Stiletto. So naturally I did, and he kicked me. He only fractured my leg, it was me suddenly putting all my weight on it that broke it. Then he went to jail, and I to the hospital."
Indigo just listens on with somber expression.
"Stiletto found me in the hospital later, she didn't know what had happened yet, but kept asking questions, I told the truth and she got violent. No, she didn't hurt me, but was floating and using illusion magic to appear as if on fire, and spoke to me in a giant booming voice. We yelled back and forth. I thought she was going to kill me, she was shouting that I should be exiled... for my jealousy of all things. I garbed a chair to defend myself, but she crushed it with her magic. Then I took up a knife, and she calmed down and left. She seems to think she won the debate."
"It seems that she did." Indigo looks sad. "I see you have a lot to loose in opposing her. I also understand, why you got so worked up with Flux. Musicians are notorious for their infidelity. But how did she get Flux out of prison? Tell me what I need to know before I go talk to Virtue. Oh, and did you press charges against her for that assault in the hospital? Were they dropped? And exiled? You? Really?"
"I never pressed charges against Stiletto, perhaps I should have, but I did not. However, I think you are mistaken, Stiletto didn't get Flux out of jail. She insisted that she be locked up too until his sentence was finished. I requested Flux be released early."
"WHAT? How? Why?" Indigo looks at Glaive with shocked expression until realisation dawns on him. "Falcata. They used your finance against you, is that it? They tried with me and Kat."
"It's difficult to explain. But they didn't use Falcata against me. She just asked me to go talk to Flux, to work out our differences. I was reluctant but agreed. I told him I was sorry for HOW I said those things, and he apologized for hitting me. If he had said the things I said about Stiletto about Falcata, I would have done worse. I told him I'd try to forgive him. And when I was leaving, I stopped by Virtue's office and asked her to have him let out in the morning."
Indigo facetables on that, then groans. "Why would you even want to do that? If you said nothing, they would both stay out of sight for two months. More if you pressed additional charges. You still have a bum leg, what does this kind of forgiveness even give you? Don't you understand crimes must be punished?" Indigo sighs, and looks depressed.
Glaive sighs, "It wasn't an easy decision. More than a small part of me wanted to say nothing, and I'd consider Stiletto being locked up a grace for the town. I'd have her exiled if it was up to me. But Flux, he's a good pony, he's being mislead by Stiletto, but he has a good soul. I don't think having him locked up with her for 2 months would help him."
Indigo sighs again. "She seems to be targeting ponies who are shy and naive first. I hardly know Flux. On the surface he seems alright. But he still broke your leg, and I don't think going free and staying in Stiletto's company is going to improve anything. Besides how can she be locked up
with him? Do we only have one prison cell? Visitors are allowed, but not permanently. It seems that either way she wins, but by staying free she wins more."
Glaive frowns "We do have multiple cells, but Virtue allowed them to share one, and was letting her stay with Flux indefinitely. But perhaps you are right. Maybe it was the wrong move. Maybe I did buck up. Don't think I haven't second and third guessed myself endlessly since then. Stiletto, I think she does think she is winning. She tried to give me a gift during the party, tried to become friends, she said. I refused, telling her we could never be friends, and walking away."
"Yes, she strikes me as very sly, has good manners and all. But underneath she is still a corrupted slut." Indigo frowns. "Refusing her gift is at least something I can respect you for, but I would have broken it on her head then and there and called her for it." He looks at the floor. "Well, maybe... I can try to talk to Virtue and undo some of the damage you've caused, but she is so impressed by Stiletto, that she is unlikely to believe me." He looks at Glaive "Thanks for telling me what happened. Unless you want to talk to me about something else, I'll go now. It is late."
"I would add one more thing. You mentioned before about Stiletto's group looking after the foals. I was, AM, concerned about that as well. That's way I try to help out when I can, teaching them things, and telling them stories meant to teach lessons. If you are worried about them, you should help out too. We likely can't have them banned from helping with the foals, but we can make sure they aren't the only influence." recommends Glaive.
"Foals? I'd rather some decent family be running the kindergarten. I'm not so good with them. I might drop by, but I think a better idea would be to talk about the problem with the parents here." Indigo then adds. "And at least I know now that Stiletto's influence isn't absolute, and there is at least one pony willing to stand against her, beside me."
"I'm glad I'm not alone in this either. But yeah, I'd suggest talking to the parents alone, about leaving their foals with Glyph and Kat. That might help," Glaive yawns, "but it's late now and I've got an early shift in the morning. I should really get some sleep."
Indigo nods. "Goodbye Glaive, I'll see what I can do tomorrow, and talk to you later."
Glaive shows Indigo out and locks his door. Ready at long last to go to sleep. He reaches down and unlocks the iron box, he takes out a shard of metal and looks at it while offering a prayer to his gods as he has done every night for years. He wraps the shard back up in cloth, and puts it back in its resting place and climbs in bed.
Glaive lies in bed and thinks about what Indigo said, maybe he'd been wrong to have Flux freed, it had felt like the right thing to do at the time, but maybe he was being too forgiving. Maybe he'd messed up. He didn't know what to think any more. Or maybe Indigo was wrong, he hadn't talked to Flux and hadn't seen the regret in his eyes, maybe Glaive was right. He just... didn't know anymore.
After the talk with Glaive, Ingigo's mood improved for the first time in weeks. He slept well that night, and had a lot to do tomorrow.
Next evening, Indigo walks to Virtue's office with determination on his face. He knocks, then enters. “Hello Lady Virtue, I need to talk to you.”
Virtue starts a bit as she sees Indigo's expression. From what she'd seen, he was always a serious pony and if he was upset, she knew it had to be something major. "Indigo? What's the matter?"
“I want to talk to you about Flux. He hurt Glaive. The
minimum punishment for that, even with all kinds of palliations is two weeks. So how come he got out of prison after three days, when it should have been more like three months?”
Her expression shifts curiously for a few moments. "Well... Glaive and Flux talked to each other, and he decided to drop the charges..."
“I know Glaive dropped the charges, I talked to him. But that doesn't mean, nothing happened. Just think what kind of message this tells to ponies here: That Stiletto and her group can ignore our traditions, laws and common decency and get away with it. They even organized a party to
mock the law, and show they can get away with anything. Now Glaive walks around in a cast, and Flux walks free.”
Virtue's mouth hangs agape for a moment. "Mocking the law? I don't think... I mean, I don't think anypony believes that..." She raises an eyebrow cautiously. "...what did you want me to do? Put Flux back in jail?"
“No, I don't recommend imprisoning Flux again. That would show the ponies here that you hesitate or regret your decisions, and it wouldn't be a good thing. However a lesson that nopony is above the law must be taught to them. That day Stiletto went to the hospital, intimidated Glaive and destroyed a chair. Nopony pressed charges against her, and I intend to remedy the situation.”
"Sh-she destroyed that chair?" Virtue's eyes go wide. "Panacea was reluctant to tell me what happened..."
“The hospital suffered no structural damage, and some gypsum and paint was enough to renovate it, the chair was replaced and Glaive was not hurt further, but that doesn't mean she should feel entitled to walk around and intimidate ponies, especially in the hospital. She is guilty of assault, harassment and property damage. I need to look over the code of laws again, before filling the paperwork.”
Virtue is silent for a moment. This was exactly what she didn't need right now. Was everypony going to turn against Stiletto? Was this going to devolve into a feud between her friends and everypony else? She really, really didn't need this... but Indigo had a point, and she did need to be held accountable for what happened. She nods slowly and passes a book to him. "The information you need should be in here..."
“Don't get me wrong, I wish for her to be exiled for all the things she's done, but for now teaching her a small lesson about crime and punishment is the least I can do. Maybe giving her a taste of being held responsible for her actions will calm her down before she really hurts somepony. Mm... a month in prison, and 300 bits for property damage for the hospital sounds like a very moderate punishment, doesn't it? This is the first time she is facing charges after all. Panacea can buy some more supplies with whatever is left after replacing the chair and the renovation.”
Virtue's eyes widen a bit as she hears the word exile. Did he really hate her so? Did... did anypony else feel this strongly about her? Did Glaive? Somepony else she didn't even know about? She rivets her mind back to the conversation at hand with some difficulty. "...Panacea has already replaced the chair and fixed up the damage..."
“Yes, I think a new chair was given to her by Stiletto. Just subtract the value of a chair from 300, so she pays whatever is left.”
"300..." She looks down and thinks for a moment. "I... need to talk to Panacea about this... she might not want to press charges..."
“She doesn't have to. She just has to testify. Or Glaive can. Anypony can press charges. I have less to loose than Panacea or Glaive, and I no longer care if Stiletto's group blames it on me. As long as Stiletto pays for all the damage, and spends a few weeks in jail, the lesson will be taught.”
She chews her lip briefly. "If... if that's what you want to do..."
Indigo gives Virtue a long look in her eyes. “Like I said, laws need upholding. It is one of your duties. It is not pleasant to you, which I find reassuring, but it still needs to be done. Do you think I liked scrubbing the floors, and shovelling manure for the fields? I didn't, but those were my duties, and they needed to be done, so I did.”
At least I could do that with my horn, not mouth, like those Earth Ponies. “And trust me, you
really don't want the ponies around here to think they can ignore the law without any repercussions.”
Virtue's ears droop and she gives him a weak nod. "You're right, of course..." There had been more than a hoofful of times she wished she hadn't been saddled with the burden of leading anypony, much less nearly a hundred. To be tasked with judging ponies too... she really wanted to just go and hide somewhere, throw down her title and never have to face this again. But that wouldn't accomplish anything, really. She shuffles through a stack of long neglected papers and pulls out the forms. "...you'll need to fill these out..."
They fill the papers. When they are done, Indigo looks at Virtue, seeing her rather broken, and really not wanting to imprison anypony, so he tries to comfort her. “I think I should tell you what I think about your rule in general, you may find that reassuring. Overall you are doing a good job. We have everything we need, are reasonably safe and the steel production is running. I suppose I might offer a few small suggestions if you want to listen to them, but I still think highly of you as our leader. One thing I see as your weakness is that you are trying too hard to please everypony, and accommodate for the weirdest of requests, even at the cost of a few months work for a team of ponies.”
Virtue's face goes through a couple of conflicting expressions. It was good to know that somepony thought she was doing a good job... but with everything else going on she didn't know how much she believed it. And Indigo was probably right on that last part. She had irritated some ponies with Grapple's church, she knew. And they had a point. Who knew who else she'd annoyed by action or inaction? There wasn't any right answer to some questions, and she hated it... still, Indigo was trying to be helpful, she knew. And he had a point. Her face eventually settles on a troubled smile. "Thank you... I understand your concerns. And if you do have any suggestions, I'm always willing to listen."
“Ah, alright then.” Indigo lightens up and presents a long list of suggestions, much like in
this post, as well as some ideas about relocating workshops and stockpiles, to shorten the travel distance and improve efficiency. He also suggests building a chapel dedicated to all the gods popular in Dawnpick and Coupledye, and installing unicorn magic suppressors in at least one prison cell. ((And if the installation is fast enough, guess who is going to be affected by it.)) He ends by "But other than that I admire the work you're doing managing this place."
Virtue listens intently, taking in the suggestions as best she could. Most were quite reasonable and made a lot of sense. She'd do what she could to put as many in effect as she could. The chapel was a good idea. She didn't know if there was anypony here who would be willing to lead services, else she'd have done it years ago, but it might help ease the tensions a bit. And a magical ward in the jail was an excellent idea, even if she dared to dream it wouldn't be needed. "Thank you... those are all very good suggestions, and I think I should be able to start on some of those very soon."
Indigo looks rather happy. "I'm glad, I could help. I'll come see you, when I have anything else to tell you. Goodnight Lady Virtue."
It went much better than expected. Not only did I manage to press charges against Stiletto. Years of observing ponies and workshops and stockpiles, and understanding how it all works together paid off in some suggestions, that will actually improve things. I even managed to lift her mood up by the end of our talk. He turns to leave.
Virtue watches as Indigo leaves, and sinks back into her chair before reluctantly jotting down his suggestions and returning to her paper work with rather less enthusiasm than when he entered. She felt a little better than when the conversation first started, but regardless she felt as if she'd been hit by a bin of blocks from the mason shops. With Indigo gone, she rests her chin on her hooves, blows out a breath and closes her eyes. What would be next? Would this infighting escalate? Would she be sentencing somepony for murder next? She shakes her head and slowly gets back to work, trying to ignore the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach. It would all settle... eventually.
(( Feel free to roleplay this part with Stietto, Partisan, Kat, and whoever else might get involved. ))
((As for the kindergarten, this happens: Glaive sometimes visits the Kindergarten, while Indigo goes there only briefly, and finds it looking innocent on the surface, at least. He still doesn't trust Stiletto's friends, so he talks to some of the parents about Stiletto's debauchery spreading to her friends, possible indoctrination of their foals, and urges them to at least ask their kids about the kindergarden. Even if they aren't taught anything bad directly, they'll still observe Stiletto's group, and think some things are normal, which they aren't. Word about this activity of Indigo spreads, and eventually reaches Kat and Glyph.
The parents react differently to Indigo's concerns. Naginata works with both Kat and Glyph, so she trusts them to a degree. Ocean Breeze obviously trusts Glyph with her kids. Virtue mostly trusts them, although she's growing worried about Stiletto. Detergent, Hickory and Loom think something different. There are some ponies who don't approve of Stiletto's lifestyle. Indigo asks the parents who share his concerns to visit the kindergarten and spend time with the kids when they can. ))
(( This part can also be roleplayed as a scene, or several scenes. ))
Author
Topic: Dawnpick (My Little Fortress) (Read 236282 times)