Sonata was at Turbo’s side the instant he touched down, terrified more by how unresponsive the stallion he was carrying looked than by the hideous wounds he’d taken. “Lex! Lex, are you okay?!”
“He’s out cold.” Turbo’s reply wasn’t directed at her, but toward the unicorn in the lab coat that was one of the contingent of doctors rushing onto the battlefield, followed closely by Granola Bar, Funshine, and Slip ‘n’ Slide. “I think he was still awake when I caught him, but he went limp a second later.”
The unicorn, whom Sonata belatedly recognized as House Call, the guy who had treated Lex before, was already unfolding a litter. “Put him down here,” he ordered, his voice clipped as he telekinetically dug through his medical bag, a nurse already hurrying over to assist him.
“Lex, c’mon!” pleaded Sonata, her voice trembling. “C’mon, wake up! You’ve been through worse than this no problem! You can totes shake this off!”
“Breathing appears normal,” murmured the nurse, putting her ear near Lex’s muzzle for a moment before moving it down to his chest. “Heart rate is elevated,” she announced after a moment. “Ten beats every five seconds.”
“Get me blood pressure, and get something on that head wound.” There was no change in House Call’s expression as he peeled back one of Lex’s eyelids, his horn shining with a bright but focused light. “I’ve got abnormal pupil responses. Possible concussion.”
“BP is eighty-six over fifty-eight,” reported the nurse, her voice grim.
“Internal bleeding.” There was a tense note in House Call’s voice now, looking at Sonata and Turbo with a serious expression. “The lacerations on his torso are too small to account for this level of injury. Did he suffer any blunt force abdominal trauma?”
“Any what?!” Sonata almost shrieked the question, not understanding what she was being asked.
“Did he take any bad hits to the chest or stomach?” translated River Bank, hanging back as she watched the procedure with a tense expression.
Sonata shook her head so hard her mane whipped around. “No! I mean, Starlight shot some magic beams at him when he was doing his whole freaky-flicker thing, but those went right through him like he wasn’t even there! And that junk she exploded didn’t look like it hit him that hard, and, and…” She trailed off, not knowing what else to say or how to help.
But she was saved from doing either as Turbo spoke up. “It was us.”
Sonata’s eyes instantly locked onto him. “What do you mean?”
“Lex, he…brought us back to life this morning.” Turbo let out a slow breath, still finding it odd to say that out loud. “We didn’t even know that we’d, you know…died. We just appeared next to Lex in that mansion. But when we did, he looked like he could barely stand, as if he’d just been in a fight and lost.”
“No way,” murmured Sonata. Belatedly recognizing Turbo, putting his being there together with what Aria had been saying about Lex right before Starlight had gotten all up in her face, she could feel a lump rising in her throat. “He was already hurt. When he came out here to stop Starlight, he was already hurt…”
“Yeah.” Glancing over at where his friends were clustered around Garden, Turbo licked his lips. “Listen, I hope he’s okay, but I have to go…” Sonata’s vacant nod was all he needed, and he quickly rushed over to where the one pony he hadn’t reunited with yet – and the one he most wanted to – was being seen to.
For her part, Sonata was barely aware that he’d left. “Is he going to be okay?” she whimpered, her expression clearly begging House Call to say that Lex would be alright.
But all she got was a brief shake of his head. “It’s too soon to tell. We need to get him back to the manor as quickly as possible. We’ve got a working ultrasound there, and we can use it to determine if he’ll need surgery or not.”
“Doctor, what about that filly? The one who has healing powers?” asked River suddenly, nodding at where the Cleansweep was flittering over her friends with a worried look on her face as more doctors tended to them.
For a split-second Sonata felt hope rush through her, only for it to come crashing down a second later. “She can’t! She-, Starlight tried to make her use her power, and she couldn’t! Something about how she needs her snake to do it and it’s gone now!”
“Then we’ll treat everyone using conventional medicine,” pronounced House Call, before issuing more instructions to the nurse. “Tell the staff that if their patients can be moved to bring them back to the manor immediately. We’ll triage once we get there.”
As the nurse ran off, Sonata watched her go, her heart giving a lurch as she saw her hurry toward the ponies surrounding Aria. The sight of her sister being wrapped in bandages made her eyes water, and she reflexively started to get up to go toward her, stopping in mid-motion as she realized that it would mean leaving Lex’s side. For a moment she was horribly torn, not knowing what to do, before House Call’s voice broke through her indecision. “Go to her.”
“Wh-what?”
“Your sister. Go see how she’s doing.” Holding one of Lex’s hooves as he took his pulse, House Call didn’t look up at her as he spoke. “I’ll do everything I can for Lex, so go check on her.”
Sniffling, Sonata nodded, getting up and shuffling toward Aria. But she’d barely crossed half the distance to her when a new voice rang out. “My wing!”
Sonata wasn’t the only one who looked up as Rainbow Dash stumbled over from where she’d crashed on the far side of what was left of the train station. She had scuff marks and bruises all over, but nothing that looked serious, save for her left wing, which hung dead at her side. Making no effort to hide her panic at her unresponsive limb, Rainbow’s face was pale as she lurched toward the doctors. “I need help! I can’t feel my wing! I-”
“YOU! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” Sonata immediately turned and started to gallop toward Rainbow Dash, her anguished expression contorting into one of rage.
“Wai-, Sonata?!” Recognizing the other mare from the brief period that they’d traveled together on Everglow, Rainbow Dash’s one good wing gave a flap as she instinctively tried to put some distance between herself and the furious mare rushing toward her. But with her other wing crippled, she succeeded only in unbalancing herself, almost falling over as she held a hoof out. “Sonata, calm down! I know you have a crush on him, but Lex hurt Princess Luna really badly! And not just her! You can’t seriously think-”
“Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUT UUUUUUP!!!” Her voice ragged, Sonata immediately screeched out a series of off-key notes, and a second later Rainbow Dash stiffened, caught in the grip of Sonata’s paralysis spell. “You don’t get to talk to me about Lex! Not after what you did! Not when you don’t know anything about him!”
Stalking right up to the frozen mare, Sonata continued to rant. “I am so sick and tired of everyone always acting like he’s the worst when all he does is try to help! Well guess what?! He’s not the worst!” She leaned in then, putting her face an inch away from Rainbow Dash’s as her voice dropped down to a growl. “I am!”
Another dissonant series of songs heralded another spell, and Rainbow’s eyes immediately grew wet, hot tears spilling down her cheeks a moment later as Sonata smirked evilly. “Feels totes awful, doesn’t it?” she taunted, circling the paralyzed mare. “Like you’re so sad that you just wanna curl up and die? Well, maybe this’ll help.” Another batch of sour notes, and suddenly rainbow’s breathing became irregular, huffing in short bursts as small twitches wracked her unmoving frame. “How’s that?” cooed Sonata, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “I bet if you could move, you’d be laughing so hard you’d fall over. It must be super unpleasant to feel like laughing your head off and crying your heart out at the same time, huh? Like you’re gonna explode from how crazy-intense those feelings are, especially since you can’t even move.”
Leaning in, she put her mouth an inch away from Rainbow Dash’s ear, her voice dropping to a whisper. “What emotion do you want me to throw in the mix next? Maybe you wanna be so angry that you can’t think straight? Or how about becoming so turned on that it’s unbearable? Or maybe scared out of your mind?” Shrugging, she pretended to think about it as she turned and sauntered away from Rainbow Dash for a few paces, before finally turning back and looking her dead in the eye. “I’ve got it!” she exclaimed in a chipper voice, her lips curling upward in another smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Let’s do all of them!”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t answer, but Sonata could see her reaction in her eyes, and it made her grin turn vicious again, savoring how good it felt to punish the pony who’d hurt the guy she loved, suddenly wanting to rub it in even more before she kept going. “This is just the beginning,” she purred. “I’m gonna keep twisting your brains until they turn into mush and leak out of your ears. I-”
“He’s going into cardiac arrest!”
The sound of House Call’s normally-stoic voice filled with alarm commanded Sonata’s complete attention, her lust for revenge immediately drowning beneath an ocean of fear. “What’s-”
She couldn’t finish the question, her voice failing her at the sight of House Call desperately pressing down on Lex’s chest in quick, firm motions, several other ponies in lab coats rushing over to help him. For a moment she was just as paralyzed as the now-forgotten Rainbow Dash, watching helplessly as the doctors surrounded Lex, cutting off her view of him. That was enough to snap her out of it, and she rushed back toward them at a full gallop, stopping only when River grabbed her before she could hurl herself through the press of ponies. “LEX!”
“Sonata, stop!” yelled River, struggling with all her might to keep the hysterical mare at bay.
But Sonata couldn’t be calmed down, fighting to break out of River’s grasp as she saw someone inject Lex with something, the sight only driving her deeper into hysteria. “Lemme go! LEMME GO! LEX! LEX!”
“I’ve got a pulse!” The sound of House Call’s voice made Sonata gasp, reacting more to his relieved tone than the words themselves. “He’s stabilizing! We need to get him back to the manor now!” He’d picked up one end of the litter in his telekinesis before he’d finished speaking, the nurse from before grabbing the other end as they lifted Lex between them and began to hurry back the way they’d came.
Barely noticing as River released her, Sonata rushed after the doctors, sobbing.
She wasn’t the only one, as Rainbow Dash collapsed a few moment later, laughing and weeping in equal measure as Sonata’s paralysis spell wore off…
“My word, Valet…do you know what this means?”
Gulping nervously, the scrawny stallion nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. I’m sure we can impress upon Miss Bank to return us to Las Pegasus immediately, and then-”
“Are you utterly daft?” scoffed Blueblood, his lip curling with disdain for how foolish his servant was being. “Why would I leave now, when I have the advantage?”
“The…the advantage, Your Highness?”
“Of course!” Smiling with supreme self-satisfaction, Blueblood gestured in the direction that Lex had been carried off. “Did you not see what just happened? For all his boasting, that villain has hooves of clay! One tussle with that loutish mare-”
“That was Rainbow Dash, Your Highness. One of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s closest friends. The former bearer of the Element of Loyalty.”
“Yes, yes, whoever.” Throwing a disdainful glance at where the mare in question was shuddering on the ground like a complete wreck, apparently deeply distraught by whatever Lex’s girl had said to her during their private exchange, Blueblood rolled his eyes. “The point is that one lummox was all it took to put the lie to Lex Legis’s bravado. That means that his bluff has already been called! He’ll never go through with our duel now that his weakness has been exposed! Which means that I need to stay here and insist that he does, leaving him with no choice but to back down and apologize for his rude conduct!” His eyes wandered over to his mangled slipper at that last part, his expression darkening at reminder of Lex’s brazen show of disrespect.
“That’s brilliant, Your Highness!” applauded Pretty Penny.
“An insight worthy of a prince,” added Gladmane.
“You’ve got him right where you want him,” cackled Razzle Dazzle.
The other Las Pegasus ponies were quick to add to the swell of compliments, causing Blueblood’s chest to puff out with pride. “Now, since that cretin is staying in River Bank’s manor, I believe I’ll retire to that dingy little yacht of hers instead for the time being. Its lodgings are subpar, but let it never be said that Prince Blueblood isn’t willing to forego the finer things in pursuit of his duty to Equestria. Now, Valet, I want you and the other servants to form some sort of palanquin out of the cushions that we have and carry me back. All of this unpaved ground is doing terrible things to my delicate hooves.”
Murmuring his assent as he started to gather up the royal pillows, the gangly stallion who served as Prince Blueblood’s primary servant glanced back at Rainbow Dash one more time. She hadn’t moved, save for the tremors that wracked her body, but it was her wing that drew his attention.
Lex Legis had been overwhelmed by Rainbow Dash’s attack, that much was certain. But despite that, he’d still done…something, that had left the mare screaming and falling from the sky, her wing ruined despite not only her reputation as one of the best flyers in all of Equestria, but as part of the team that had defeated the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Tirek. And Lex Legis had been able to take her out, despite how fatigued he’d already looked when Prince Blueblood had issued his ultimatum. And yet now Blueblood was intent on letting Lex Legis rest and recover his strength before pushing this ill-considered duel, clearly thinking that he couldn’t possibly end up in the same shameful state as Rainbow Dash.
But that, or something worse, is exactly what will happen if this duel goes forward, he sighed inwardly, already despondent over the temper tantrum that Blueblood would throw when he lost. I suppose the only hope now is for something unexpected to happen before it does. Although unlikely, the effete unicorn clung to that thought as they began to march back toward Vanhoover proper.
An hour later, a train carrying five very worried ponies arrived.
It's always the nice ones...especially when they used to be bad. Rainbow is fortunate that Sonata stopped when she did cause I doubt her mind would have come out of that barrage of magically induced emotions intact though it is safe to say that if any of the girls try anything now, Sonata won't hold back. Though I suppose Twilight might have something that would help mitigate if not nullify Sonata's magic.
As for Blueblood, or rather his servant, the poor guy needs a raise for putting up with the prince's inane and admittedly suicidal demands and the so-called elites of Las Pegasus piling on the ill-deserved praise isn't helping. However, with Lex in a condition that's critical enough for House Call's intervention, I doubt he'll be able to do anything about what happens next, whatever it may be.
Sidenote:Hopefully someone bothered to take Starlight along to the manor or else she'll spin quite the tale for Twilight and the others to hear.
Critical
This time now is
For his breath
Was but a hiss
Prince who is
So stuck up that
If it were to rain
He'd drown in that.
A mare who
Is loyal to fault
And it's shown that she does
Not easily halt.
Nightmare Moon better watch out, Housecall is bringing the dead back to life without special magic, and its not that much more difficult raising from teh ash. Twilights burnt book restoration spell as a basis? After all, the body and brain is information?
How to distract Blueblood for enough days while Cloudy gets Snek back and starts using up all her heal spells, given Dash at least would want Lex to remain crippled and sedated in hospital bed instead of getting back into abusing people? I wonder if Twilight would be able to combine a Time Peek along with Starlights Crystal Prism Prison spell, to make a Stasis Crystal, instead of Petrification?
I dedicate this song to the mane 6 and blue-balls.
10379074 There have been hints dropped throughout the course of this story that Sonata is ready and willing to go to very dark places in order to protect the happiness that she's found with Lex. Whereas her beloved has set up a byzantine system of right and wrong that he adheres to religiously (more so than his actual religion, in fact), Sonata doesn't really understand any of that, nor is she motivated to try (besides knowing that it's important to Lex). If someone looks like they're causing him pain, or coming close to killing him, she has no qualms about giving in to her darker impulses.
In this case, she was fairly easily able to subdue Rainbow Dash because she's strong in an area where Rainbow is weak. That is, combat-oriented types typically have low Will saving throws, and their mental ability scores are quite often fairly low (or at least, not high) as well, both of which are true for Rainbow Dash. Given that she had no special defenses against mind-affecting effects, she was basically wide open against Sonata's magic. So long as Sonata stayed away from the weak points of mind-control magic (e.g. giving suicidal commands to someone in her thrall, trying to force someone she's taken control of to do something against their fundamental character, etc.), Rainbow was no real threat to her.
Regarding Blueblood, you get the impression that his servants are all long-suffering, and probably only stay on out of some mixture of it being their destinies, a sense of duty, and what has to be generous financial compensation (courtesy of Fancy Pants, no doubt). But at some point Blueblood is going to do something that they won't be able to insulate him from...like the fight he's insisting on picking with Lex, despite having just been given a golden opportunity to call the ill-considered duel off. Maybe somepony else will be able to change his mind?
I suspect that Starlight is also going to be taken back to the manor along with the other patients. The doctors that just arrived didn't see the fight (save perhaps for catching a glimpse of the huge flash from Starlight's final attack), and so won't really know to differentiate her from the other unconscious ponies dotting the area.
10379188 If anything, I suspect that Lex will pull through simply because he wouldn't be able to bear letting Blueblood win their duel by default.
10379518 I...think I understood some of that?
Blueblood seems to be digging in for an extended stay, since he thinks he's figured out that Lex is a terrible fighter who's all talk. Presuming that he continues with that line of thinking, well...for his sake, hopefully he won't. As for whether the Mane Six will try and use this as an opportunity to gain an advantage over Lex, they theoretically could, but at the very least they'd have to deal with everypony else in his corner...even if most of them are incapacitated at the moment also. I suppose it all depends on how decisive they are, considering that the group is split as to whether or not Lex is a villain.
10379541 I suspect he's vain enough to think that song isn't about him.
10380454
my audio stream played that today as i was reading his part and it just fit.
10380450
Given their appearences, I assume Sirens are part Dragon, like Kirins are Dragon/Pony and Hiipogrifs are Bird/Pony, but Birds are also Raptos which are Dragons, so Im wondering if You can get Sirens and Kirins from Dragon crossed with Hippogriffs/Seaponies? Far more biased to the second? Sonata seems the most psychotic apex predator mentality of the three of them. But just lives mentally in candyland almost all teh time, which would go with what I assume is the general behaviour of dragons when theyre not being riled up by a charismatic insane leader?
10380510
Appearances can be deceiving. That's a rather trite expression to be sure, but in general it applies to trying to deconstruct the various MLP races into their component parts just because they seem reminiscent of two or more creatures (notwithstanding that problematic scene where Twilight takes the inherent magic from the magical beasts in Tartarus, and in so doing transforms them into "normal" creatures, in School Raze - Part 2, season eight, episode twenty-six).
I disagree. While at a glance you could posit some basic similarities, I find them to look much more like the mythological hippocampus. That makes sense, since having the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish would make them Equestria's equivalent of mermaids, which dovetails with how the legend Twilight recounted, presumably written down by ponies, in Rainbow Rocks mentioned that the Sirens were "beautiful," which seems to imply they saw equine features in the Sirens.
Now, I personally think that the show's internal presentation has more impact than real-world mythology when it comes to understanding what we see in the show. But given how the show is frustratingly silent on the issue of where the Sirens come from, if there are more of them, and similar information, we don't really have anything to go on there. As it is, I find the mythological component helpful mostly as a point of reference rather than an actual determining factor. It's far more salient, to my mind, to observe Occam's razor and operate under as few assumptions as possible. Since we're given no hint that there are more Sirens beyond the three we know, nor that they're hybrid creatures of some sort, I'm not operating under those presumptions for this story. (The presumptions that this story is operating under, where the Sirens are concerned, is broadly hinted at when Lex theorizes that the Sirens are mutated ponies, and designed a ritual to that effect that gives Aria a pony's body.)
They're not; that's something the fandom made up (I think long before we ever actually saw kirins in the show). Unlike with the Sirens, we're shown flat-out in Sounds of Silence (season eight, episode twenty-three) that the kirin are a distinct race unto themselves (even if we don't actually see any little kirin around, that's still the de facto presumption). There's nothing presented there to suggest that they're a group of hybrids, or even descended from a group of hybrids that somehow bred true.
Okay, now that one is mentioned in the show (in Surf and/or Turf, season eight, episode six), but only in cosmetic terms. Given that we are shown that hippogriffs breed true (albeit as sea ponies for quite a while), since we see more than one generation of them, we can likewise write off the hybrid theory there as well.
In fact, in the entire course of the show, we only ever see one sapient hybrid creature type: mules (though presumably hinnies exist as well, since "Hinny of the Hills" is mentioned as a theater production (being a take off of the real play "Maid of the Mountains") in Rarity Takes Manehattan, season four, episode eight).
Now, in terms of this story, that doesn't mean that such hybrids aren't possible. That's because this story is using the show's canon as a basis, but is adding in various d20 System interactions as a guideline. While hybrids don't seem to be possible between the native creatures of Equestria (and that wider world), the d20 System takes the opposite approach, as there are supplements and options out there for virtually every possible racial hybrid imaginable! That suggests that the high-magic nature of most d20-based worlds is what makes that possible, and might be a transitive trait that people from those realms possess (as Soft Mane's existence tacitly suggests). That flatly violates Mendelian inheritance, but so what? The show already does that with how unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies can interbreed with each other while maintaining distinct physical characteristics. (And it's observable ratio of mares to stallions suggest that it's ignoring Fisher's principle as well.)
More to the point, it suggests that d20 magic can allow for crossbreeding that isn't normally possible in Equestria...
10380573
So Fischers Principle would only give a stanrad non singular ratio, only if extraordinary reproduction occured, such as the female supplied the energetic carrier egg form only, and both or all parts of the requisite gamete came from multiple males? Something about WWZ in one egg I saw? Basis for defining magical hybridisation, given so many commong functions such as discrete cellular structures etc?
10380595 Presuming I'm understanding you correctly, that wouldn't make a difference (at least not for very long). That's because Fisher's principle is an observation about how evolution quickly corrects any imbalance in sex ratios among species that sexually reproduce (hence why it's a principle rather than a law). The actual cellular structure doesn't really factor into it, save tangentially with regards to why certain members of a species might be more inclined to have children of one sex or the other.
As for why that doesn't seem to be the case for ponies, the show's answer seems to be:
quickmeme.com/img/ac/ac0c27270a2fb6a7da5c92d8303a95d556b655bb4d55e54ec7ef75b7c232e0b8.jpg
10380445
I do not foubt
His mental power
For he already passed
An eleventh hour.
10380573
In reguards to pony cross-breeding, I agree that it doesn't seem to be a thing in canon Equestria. Hippogrifs and Kirin are thier own thing, and not pony hybrids. Whether this is a case "can't" or simply "don't" is up in the air. Up until the last two seasons Equestrian ponies were pretty damned racist, even towards other ponies. The only romantic pairing that's even shown (to my knowlege) in canon is Sandbar and Yona, and I don't think the epilogue showed if there were any little yak-ponies from that or not...
Everglow ponies on the other hand can and do interbreed with virtually Everything. Lashtada be praised! (Or possibly scolded )
The only two races I can think of that Everglow ponies specifically cannot breed with are Flutterponies (who, despite appearances, are actually insects), and Steelhearts (who are actually plants riding around in pony-shaped constructs). Both of whom have basically alien systems of reproduction. In terms of this story Lex has always reacted to Everglow ponie's cross breeding with disgust and clearly expressed his belief that it is unnatural. While part of this definitely reflects his Old World views (he comes from Equestria's distant past after all), another part could well reflect his dismay at the difference in biology between the two worlds, because Equestrian ponies just don't work that way. He seems to keep these views largely to himself in Equestria, however, and I suspect when they become public will cause a rift with some of his closest allies (Aria doesn't know for instance that turning her into a pony was a deal-breaker for their romantic relationship).
10381209
With regards to whether or not the different races of Equestria can crossbreed (other than ponies and donkeys) and simply don't, calling that "up in the air" is technically correct, since we're never given any definitive statements either way (and never will be, unless you take any future statements that the comics might make to be canon; but that's another debate altogether). However, absent sufficient evidence to deduce a logically certain conclusion, or even induce a probable answer, we can still make use of abductive reasoning to infer a plausible conclusion. Specifically, by way of the abductive heuristic that I mentioned before: Occam's razor.
Simply put, the presumption that the different races could crossbreed is an affirmative statement (i.e. it asserts that something is true), which necessarily puts the burden of proof on its proponent(s) to demonstrate the veracity of what they're suggesting. But since the show is silent on that issue, the best that can be asserted is that "there's nothing that says they can't," which is essentially suggesting that a lack of evidence of absence favors their position. The problem is that it doesn't, since an argument from ignorance does not rise to the level of asserting anything. In other words, pointing out that there's no reason something can't be true doesn't necessarily mean that it is.
Now, this isn't definitive. That's not surprising, since abductive reasoning by its very nature isn't definitive. But it tells us that the "safest" guideline, in terms of adhering to logic, is to make as few assumptions as possible, so that we don't find ourselves asserting things with no evidence to support them (i.e. "making shit up"). Ergo, we'll say that if the show doesn't showcase something, or even suggest it, then it therefore safest to assume that it doesn't exist. That's Occam's razor in a nutshell.
Well, leaving aside questions of bias with regard to how the ponies treated other creatures, it's notable that in virtually every instance of other cultures being shown, they were in some way inferior to Equestria's ponies. In some cases this was one of moral development (e.g. griffons, dragons, etc.) while in others it's largely presented as technological (e.g. yaks, buffalo, etc.). In some (arguably including some of the ones I just listed) it's both. But in virtually every regard, the show goes out of its way to show that the ponies are simply better than other people, which is why season eight opens with Twilight essentially saying that she wants to export Equestrian social values to other cultures, for the sake of those other cultures' moral development. "Colonialism is magic," in other words.
Depending on how deeply you read into it, Spike and Gabby could also have been an interracial couple (although it seems safe to say that Spike and Rarity never really got far enough to be labeled that), albeit one whose relationship was only shown to be in the "dating" phase (and even that might be a stretch).
As for Sandbar and Yona, I've seen some people suggest that the unicorn mare we see leaving the boutique where Yona and Sandbar are living now (during Rarity's portion of "This is Where the Magic Happens" in The Last Problem, season nine, episode twenty-six) was their daughter. I find that difficult to believe, as she not only has no particular yak-ish features, but ponies who are of a different tribe than their parents are very much the exception to pony reproduction, even if we know they're possible. So to suggest that the two of them had a daughter (who also looks suspiciously old compared to other couples' children) that's lacking in one parent's features entirely and is of a different type than her other parent strains my sense of credulity. Rather, I'm of the opinion that she's there to demonstrate that Yona is actually running Rarity's boutique now, since that unicorn mare is leaving while carrying a dress (i.e. she's a satisfied customer).
I was remiss before in not pointing out that there's a truly great product for making hybrid characters in Ponyfinder.
I need to back and double-check that, though I'll note that depending on how widely you look, you can find instances of d20 characters who have crossbred with elementals and undead creatures, so insects and plants shouldn't be that much of an issue.
While this has only been hinted at so far, Lex's disgust toward miscegenation between ponies and other races is largely due to the cultural factors pointed out earlier in this post. That is, Lex took a look at the other cultures of his native world and found them all to be lacking in some way when compared to what ponies have created, and came to the conclusion that there was a reason why ponies had created a civilization better than everyone else's. Then he went to Everglow, saw that the Pony Empire was similarly the furthest that civilization had advanced on that world (even if the presence of dangerous bioforms, interventionist deities, and magical proliferation meant that it hadn't progressed nearly as far in most measurable ways compared to Equestria), and took that to be supporting evidence to his conclusion. Ponies have an inherent factor to them that, writ large, allows them to ascend further as a people than other races (something that their leaders should be helping to cultivate, rather than lie fallow the way Celestia and Luna have done), and hybridizing with other races runs the risk of diluting that. It's the same reason why he won't kill his own kind; there's something valuable in each and every pony that must be preserved, for the (potential) good of their people.
That's a fairly ugly sentiment, to be sure, but the difficult aspect of that is how Equestria seems to hint that he's not (completely) wrong.
It's not so much that he's keeping that view hidden, but rather than he has no real reason to point it out at the moment. Native Equestrian races (again, donkeys and ponies notwithstanding) can't crossbreed, and for that matter most races tend to self-segregate anyway, which is why you don't see many non-ponies in Equestria, so there's no real need for him to raise his views against pony/non-pony relations.
Likewise, since Lex hypothesized that the Sirens are ponies, albeit mutated ones (which seems to be correct, since he examined Sonata and Aria's magical channels compared to Nosey's and found numerous similarities, the most striking of which was how Aria's gem seemed to correspond to Sonata and Nosey's cutie marks), he sees his romance with Aria as a non-issue in that regard. Now, Aria might be upset at the hypothetical prospect that Lex would have been repulsed by seeing her in, say, her human form (he doesn't like to think about how she and Sonata spent a long time being humans), but even then he'd likely move away from that by pointing out that it was a transmutation effect, and not what they "really" are.
Of course, it'll be interesting to see what happens when Soft Mane arrives with the rest of the Mane Six.