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.
As she tore her knife from the skull of the latest ghoul she’d killed, Fencer took a half-second to wipe the sweat and grime from her face before it could run into her eyes, not wanting to be blinded at a critical moment.
Even that brief respite cost her. Three more ghouls – a unicorn and two earth ponies – were already rushing at her, just the latest in an endless supply of the vicious, snarling monsters. Behind them were two more, hurrying to join the fray, and at the edge of her vision she saw another slip past Severance, the newcomer’s eyes already locked onto her.
Dimly, she realized that they were replenishing their numbers faster than she could kill them, but that thought failed to make her do anything except snort in derision. Six-to-one or sixty-to-one or six hundred-to-one, I don’t care! The only thing that mattered now was ending it, killing as many of these creatures as she could before they finally took her down. At least this way I’ll have done something good before I die.
Rushing at the trio of ghouls charging at her, Fencer leaped into the air just before the closest one reached her. Placing her fore-hooves on the back of its head as it leaned in to bite her, she pushed off of it as she jumped, vaulting over the creature entirely. Even as she did, she spat out her knife, telekinetically grabbing it before it fell more than an inch and flinging it as hard as she could at the leftmost of the two ghouls that were now directly in front of her. The effort made her injured horn ache, but it paid off as the blade flew through the air almost too fast to follow and sank into the knee of the undead pony’s left foreleg, causing it to collapse and veer into the undead pony right next to it, the two of them going down in a tangle of limbs and screeched curses.
Without pausing, Fencer immediately lowered her head to the ground and kicked backward, bucking blindly. Sure enough, she felt her back legs hit something and collapse it inward as a satisfying crunch reached her ears. Even as she pulled her legs back from the ghoul whose skull she’d just crushed, she was already looking toward the pair of undead ponies she’d knocked over, intent on finishing them off before they could get back up. But she didn’t have a chance as the other two ghouls that had been approaching her from behind – the unicorn and the remaining earth pony from the three that had initially charged at her – moved in to attack.
Luckily for her, both ghouls had their voices raised in shrieks of hunger, giving away their positions as they moved in to attack. It was enough warning for Fencer to immediately abandon her plans to go after the fallen ghouls and instead follow through with her buck, turning it into a leap backward as she pushed off the ground with her forelegs. Barely managing to part her back legs enough to plant them on either side of the ghoul whose head she’d just caved in, she followed through with the motion, rearing back so that she was standing upright instead of on all fours.
Her sudden hop backward happened so quickly that the pair of ghouls were unable to compensate in time. Filthy hooves lashed out and hit nothing but empty air as their momentum carried them forward, leaving the two struggling to reposition themselves to deal with the mare that had somehow slipped by them by mere inches a second time. Both snarled, knowing that if they could just catch her, just grab her and drive her to the ground and pummel her into paralysis, they’d finally have their meal!
But Fencer had no intention of allowing them to do so. Still standing on her hind legs, she gave a cry as she raised both of her forelegs high and brought them down as hard as she could on the cranium of the earth pony ghoul on her right, driving its head down…right onto the horn of the unicorn ghoul, having yanked its head around with her telekinesis simultaneously. The horn immediately sank up through the other ghoul’s chin, puncturing the roof of its mouth, and lodging in its brain, making the earth pony ghoul sputter and flail reflexively for a moment before it went still, falling to the ground and pinning its companion under it, the unicorn ghoul thrashing as it tried to free itself.
Not wanting to waste another opportunity, Fencer raised her forelegs again to stomp on the fallen ghoul’s head…only to be bodily tackled by the most recent ghoul to have joined the fight, the thing having rushed past the pair she’d downed with her knife and who were now back on their hooves and following closely behind it. Turning her head away from the teeth which were suddenly right in her face, Fencer grimaced as she hit the ground hard. Fortunately, the undead pony’s emaciated body didn’t give it as much mass as a living pony would have had, but she still grunted with effort as she pressed her forelegs to the thing’s chest, trying to keep it from biting her as she pulled her back legs up and under it.
Heaving with effort, she kicked out a second later, knocking the ghoul off of her and immediately twisting around to get her hooves back under her. But she hadn’t quite made it when two more ghouls – one of them limping slightly – threw themselves at her. Not gonna make it!
The thought was frustrated, rather than fearful. She’d known when she’d gone out there that she wouldn’t survive going up against so many of those things on her own. But that hadn’t discouraged her; quite the opposite, in fact. After all the terrible things she’d done – getting her father killed when he’d saved her from the first ghouls they’d met, turning herself into a monster as predatory as those things in the name of survival, and then getting Turbo killed in her misguided attempt to atone for her actions – death was what she deserved. All she wanted now was to drag as many of these things down with her as she possibly could.
It was for that reason alone that she concentrated as hard as she could as the pair of ghouls closed in, her horn glowing as a matching aura appeared around the undead ponies. Even with how gaunt their bodies were, she knew she couldn’t stop even one of them; telekinesis was proportional to physical strength, and that had never been her strong suit. But if she could just deflect them a little bit then she might be able to reorient her center of gravity and regain the initiative. It was with that hope, of knocking them slightly off-balance or breaking their momentum, that she telekinetically shoved the ghouls as hard as she could.
Her surprise was complete when she knocked them several dozen feet backward.
It wasn’t a controlled flight by any means, the pair of undead tumbling end over end through the air to go crashing to the ground over sixty feet away from her, leaving Fencer momentarily stupefied. What had just happened? Had she done that? How? Where had that strength come from?
…and how long had there been gemstones flying around her head?
Incredible, thought Lex in amazement. I had no idea it would work this well!
In the minute since he’d empowered the gemstones and transferred them to Garden Gate, she had become a one-mare army, tearing through the ghouls unstoppably while not being hit once. Although Lex knew that some of her heightened combat ability – possibly a significant amount of it – was due to Sonata’s magic (particularly since she had started singing again), it was undeniable that the three gems orbiting her head had augmented Garden Gate on every level by a considerable margin. It was enough that he was starting to have real hope that maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to see this through to the end…if the gems’ increased power lasted that long.
Utilizing the open-ended spell contained in Xiriel’s scroll had, despite all of the potential complications and pitfalls, done exactly what Lex had directed it to do…mostly. In the immediate aftermath of his stating that he wanted sufficient magic to augment the gems, he’d felt a rush of power filling him. It hadn’t been overly much, nor had it eased his injuries in any way; rather, it was like he’d drawn additional energy through the magical channels in his body without straining himself, and had simply been waiting to expend it. But at the same time, he’d immediately known that there hadn’t been enough for all five gems, the energy he’d gained being sufficient to enhance no more than three of them.
That hadn’t troubled him for more than an instant, however. Neither the scarlet and blue sphere, with its embedded knowledge regarding the operation of enchanted objects, nor the clear spindle’s ability to sustain the user without air were particularly helpful under the current circumstances. That made it easy to figure out which of the remaining gems to enhance.
The act of augmenting the gems had been surprisingly easy, enough so that he’d found himself wondering why he’d never thought to do this before. With the magical channels already embedded into the objects, the additional energy he’d fed into them hadn’t needed to be manually directed. While he’d still had to feed it in at a steady rate to avoid overloading the existing enchantments, the entire process had taken barely a few seconds for each gem.
As soon as the process had finished, he’d transferred the gems to Garden Gate, letting her reap their benefits. It had galled him to have to rely on the mare he’d so badly misjudged to save everypony now, but there was no other feasible choice; utilizing the scroll had exacerbated his injuries to the point where he could barely move. Even telekinetically moving the gems over to Garden Gate and releasing them to orbit her had been an act of monumental difficulty, forcing him to move each one individually, rather than all at once. Sonata had volunteered to take them to her, of course, but Lex had forbade it, knowing that she would only have made herself a target in the process. Instead, he’d ordered her to resume her singing, intent on giving Garden every possible advantage.
Even so, those advantages appeared to be considerable. From what he could tell, the dusty rose prism was granting Garden Gate some sort of subconscious situational awareness, rather than just some minor insight regarding incoming attacks. Likewise, the sheer physical coordination that she was displaying could only be because of the pale green prism. Normally it would have marginally stabilized her central nervous system in order to improve her physical reactions, but this was an order of magnitude greater, as though it were optimizing all of her body's neuromuscular transmissions. And the orange prism...it normally provided a slight improvement to the recipient's magical control, but the display of telekinetic power she'd just evidenced made it plain that its current effects were no longer "slight" in any regard.
Of course, all of those were temporary effects. The additional energy that was heightening the gemstones would eventually be used up, with the only question being when. Not having had enough time to have done any tests, there was no way Lex could be certain, but it was axiomatic that the more power the gems were displaying now, the faster they'd use it up. Which means they'll likely be depleted after a few minutes, he realized, feeling his enthusiasm dwindle. With how endless the ghouls had been, it was anypony's guess whether the gems would run out before they did.
If that happened, then Garden Gate's chances of outlasting them would fall dramatically, and so would their odds of survival.
Lex augments his magic items and gives them to Garden Gate, turning her into a true force to be reckoned with!
But will it be enough to outlast the ghoul army?
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The action was exquisitely described. I enjoyed the movie that played in my mind.
Suicidal charge, check. Lex giving Fencer Severance to help her fight...eh, can't win them all and 2 out of 3 isn't bad.
Pretty nice touch there when Fencer noticed the gemstones. Honestly, I was wondering how she was fighting so well. At first, I thought she was pulling off all of these feats through adrenaline and force of will.
Still, even with the power boost, Lex's assessment of their duration is a little worrying. While Severance can handle the bulk of the horde, Fencer is now the linchpin to protecting everyone so her death would lead to everyone's else death. Granted, even in their original state, the ioun stones still provide Fencer some enhancements(unless the stones somehow break down afterwards) not to mention the fact that she'll still have the buffs Sonata is giving her.
Putting the powerup's duration, I'm sure Fencer will capitalize on their effects and literally become an army of one to take down as many of the ghouls as possible before the stones give out. It's unlikely she'll be able to take out every ghoul before then but she'll put a decent dent into their numbers while the only thing Lex can do is lay there on the ground and watch...
p.s:
This line bothered me a little since it implies that the stronger a unicorn is physically, then the strength of their telekinesis would increase as well, at least in Equestria. So does that mean the reverse of it is true as well? It's been a while since I read your blog so I'm really rusty on the subject matters you wrote.
Slight improvements in base stats can take you over the scaleing steps between modifier bands? A 0 to +1 increase in base Ability score, can trigger a host of Feats that can only be unlocked at +1 and above Abilities etc? and depend on previous unlocked Feats, Traits, Abilities?
8978645 Thanks! I've discovered that I really enjoy writing action scenes. The pacing, the back-and-forth, the rising tension...I really get a kick out of them.
8978756 Compared to your average pony, Fencer is a powerful fighter. With Sonata's buffing her, she's able to push herself to her limits, and with Sonata's magic together with the enhanced ioun stones from Lex - which are now providing benefits several times greater than what they normally do - she's able to transcend those limits altogether. (Though I should note that Lex is underestimating just how strong Sonata's magic is; while the actual spells she cast only provided some modest benefits, her singing is considerably more powerful, and is granting Fencer an impressive boost unto itself.)
This reminds me that I really need to make another blog post about this, both to showcase Fencer's current stats and to list the actual game mechanics behind the enhancements that Lex and Sonata are granting her at the moment. I've already got one half-written on a related topic, but this needs to be addressed also, given how important I've made it. Now to find the time and energy to actually write the darn thing.
Having said that, the salient question now becomes "how long?" It's not just with regard to the ioun stones either; eventually the spells that Sonata cast will run out (though she can keep up the benefits of her singing as long as she keeps, well...singing, though given that she's actually used this twice now - remember, she stopped singing when Lex used his scroll, and then started up again after he finished - the benefits from that first use are also time-limited). So time is still not on their side, meaning that they're still locked in a contest of attrition. But surely the ghouls' numbers have to run out sometime, right?
Having said all of that...
This isn't something I've covered in-depth on my blog (either my Wordpress one or here on Fimfiction). In point of fact, the claim that "telekinetic strength is proportional to physical strength" is a bit of rhetorical sleight of hand on my part, and doesn't quite fit with what I've actually written about what unicorns are capable of. So you're not wrong to call me out on that. Allow me to explain my reasoning in greater detail...
In my write-up for unicorns, I've listed them as having a racial -2 penalty to Strength (with a corresponding +2 bonus to Charisma and, if using Pathfinder defaults instead of 3.5, a +2 to Intelligence). Given that the default Strength score is either a 10 or an 11, this means that they can carry 80 lbs. (for Strength 8) to 90 lbs. (for Strength 9) under normal circumstances. Now, notice that I've not only given them the greater mage hand spell (which is from the 3.5 Spell Compendium, p. 136), but had them take it twice. Since that spell allows for up to 40 lbs. to be lifted, that means that being able to use two instances of it at once, they can lift up to 80 lbs...exactly what most unicorns will be able to lift (and almost exactly what most others will be able to move around, to the point where it's not really a notable distinction).
Now, this isn't a perfect match; even leaving aside that some unicorns will have higher Strength scores, this doesn't take into the fact that characters can lift (and stagger around with) or push/drag something weighing several times their maximum carrying capacity. But that last part does seem to agree with what we see in the show; Rarity didn't use her telekinesis to drag "Tom" around in season two's The Return of Harmony, after all. Instead, she carried it around or tried to push it along.
So if unicorn telekinesis is represented in game terms as moving a set weight around, why make the claim that it's proportional to physical strength? Because, again, that's how the show portrays it. Unicorns are shown physically straining when trying to telekinetically lift something that pushes their limits, which suggests that they can't do much more with their telekinesis than they could otherwise (the notable exception here is Twilight in season one's Boast Busters, when she lifts what has to be several tons in order to calm the raging ursa minor; that's a combination of her cutie mark boosting her magic - since magic itself is her special talent - and what I'd ascribe to her subconsciously tapping into an alicorn's ability to augment their magic even further; that latter part is iffy, but acceptable since later seasons start to push the idea that Twilight was destined for great things even before her ascension). In Eclipse terms, that might have been better as an Immunity to needing to touch something to move it (with a constraint - probably a corruption - to limit it to things relatively close by and with line of sight, etc.), but c'est la vie; I'd call this close enough.
Hopefully that makes sense.
8979136
This is why I left mage hand in the trash where it belongs. Unicorns get unseen servant, which can actually do things, and can, with a feat, use their intelligence as strength for grabbing and moving things around within arm's reach.
8978936 Fencer is receiving some bonuses to her ability scores, but that's not why she's suddenly so unstoppable here. Rather, it's because she's receiving bonuses of not-inconsiderable amounts to almost everything - certain ability scores, attack rolls, damage rolls, Armor Class, saving throws, hit points - in addition to a few other augmentations that Lex and Sonata are layering her with. Basically, she's being powered up across the board, to the point where she's simply more than a group of Challenge Rating 1 ghouls can handle.
8979142 I considered going that route also, but in terms of recreating what we see in the show, that has its own problems. Namely, that you can have an unseen servant act on its own, repeating the same task over and over without any input from you for its duration. You could even have it continue to act while you're asleep, or even dead, until its duration runs out if you've set it to repeat. It essentially has an autopilot function, which would be useful for a lot of ponies, but clearly doesn't work that way in Equestria. Its Strength score and level of skill are also too shallow for everyday use by skilled ponies. That's not really a big deal for Ponyfinder though, since it has different design goals than recreating how things work in Equestria, which is what I was trying to do.
To that end, while I think that "Practiced Horn Magic" and "Advanced Horn Magic" work better than unseen servant in terms of mechanics, they have a two-feat tax that I wanted to build in, so I just gave unicorns a stronger version of mage hand (albeit from 3.5) and an immunity to needing to concentrate to use them, and said "good enough."
8979136
It took me a while to refresh my memory of the articles but yeah, I got the basic gist of it. Thanks.
The scenes involving Twilight and the Ursa Minor as well as the one with Rarity and 'Tom' were the ones that came to mind when Fencer brought up the strength of telekinesis in proportion to physical strength.
I applaud you for managing to use game mechanics to explain how those scenes could have worked cause I've spent more than my fair share trying to apply some degree of logic to some of the scenes in the series and giving up in frustration 7 times out of 10,
8979187
Most ponies would only need one at most, and ponies get a free feat anyway (partially to pay for their pony feats).
Quite exciting stuff, but if each ghoul has a 5% chance of hitting her, and each hit has a 5% chance of paralzying her...
We're starting to get into the question of "how many ghouls could there be?" I feel like About 500 have died so far, mostly killed by Severance.
At the end of the day, that's the only really important question. If there are a total of 800 ghouls left, they'll probably make it. If there are like 5,000, probably not. I can't think of any reliable way of estimating, since we don't know the initial population of the city.
8979632
There's a salient detail about this, but it's slightly difficult to present in the context of the story, simply because presenting something not happening is a bit tricky (albeit not impossible). This is one of the things that I'll highlight in the aforementioned blog post I need to write, but simply put Sonata is using her Mystic Artist abilities (Eclipse, pg. 84-91) to grant Greatness to Garden Gate. This grants her a positive level that includes +6 CP for the duration of the Greatness effect, which in this case is being used to buy Action Hero/Stunts (Eclipse pg. 23-24; you may remember Nosey has that same ability), so that Garden Gate can, in turn, spend the action points from that on other abilities as-needed...such as, say, Immunity (Eclipse, p. 34) to paralysis (uncommon/major/major) for 6 CP.
You may want to revise that number upward; from chapter 243: "By his estimate, the ghouls had lost upward of eight hundred of their number, possibly as many as a thousand." And that was two chapters ago!
I've dropped some subtle, game mechanics-related hints here and there...but I suspect that, in this case, they're so subtle as to be incomprehensible to anyone other than myself. For what it's worth, you're right that trying to use estimates based on the population is pretty much impossible. Even if we knew how many ponies lived in Vanhoover, there's still no reliable method for guessing how many of them became ghouls.
8980130 Ohohoh, that changes the game. If this works, Sonata will be the one who saved the day more than anyone (except Severance).
8980433 Well, don't say that before you see what Lex's enhanced ioun stones do.
8980979
Someday you'll have to blog Garden's buffed stats.
Uh... there has never been anything in the show to suggest that. Twilight, before ascension, was fully capable of out-lifting Applejack, despite a) Applejack being an Earth pony, and b) Applejack being Applejack.
As well, Rarity is seen lifting quite a bit in her aura, which, granted, is most cloth and thread, but some of those are not light, and the sheer amount has got to be a not insignificant amount of weight.
And Starlight can lift herself.
9219980
You're not wrong, but here's the problem: the show has never tried to explain how unicorn telekinesis does work, nor has it even bothered to attempt to be self-consistent. Twilight struggling to life a few animals and move them in a pattern? Shown to be exceptionally hard in Magic Duel. But we've also seen her apparently yank the entire Golden Oak Library up out of the ground when she's frustrated (if I recall correctly; I can't seem to find that episode). There's no consistency, so I needed to introduce a rule since the question of "how" came up in this chapter.
That's the thing, though: Twilight isn't a very good example. Even if we discount the idea of her being able to intermittently use alicorn-level abilities as some sort of "momentarily tapping her untapped potential" shtick, there's another thing that needs to be considered. Her cutie mark is magic itself, which means that it gives a boost to her magical abilities. Hence, she's not going to be bound to the same limits as a normal unicorn.
Insofar as I recall, most of this tends to happen during things like the musical montage for "Art of the Dress," which is expressly non-diegetic in nature, and so isn't really the best thing to go on.
Starlight is operating under the same exception as Twilight, in that her cutie mark is expressly granting her increased magical ability, hence why she couldn't get rid of it when she was running her village; she needed it in order to have the power boost to remove other cutie marks.