Cloudbank was silently seething as she moved through the streets of Vanhoover at a trot, staying close to the others.
Nopony was talking, but this time it had nothing to do with stealth. Any hope of remaining unnoticed before they reached their destination was gone, thanks to that self-righteous jerk who’d led them into that trap. Now it was just a question of whether or not those monsters would mount another attack before they reached safety.
But at the moment, Cloudbank wasn’t worried about that. Instead, she could feel herself getting angrier and angrier at the pony who was leading them. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been moving, but Cozy had renewed her ten-minute light spell more than once, and during that time he hadn’t said two words to them, and it was beginning to seriously tick her off. No apology for having almost gotten them killed, no asking if they were alright, no nothing! Not to mention how he’d acted during the fight itself; for all his big talk about protecting them, they’d all – save Cozy – gotten hurt during the fight, whereas he was perfectly fine. And that last spell he’d used, the one to summon reinforcements; why hadn’t he done that first instead of last?!
The more she thought about it, the more upset she got. She could see Drafty shooting her worried looks, either out of concern for her or out of worry that she’d upset their wannabe-protector, but she couldn’t bring herself to calm down. Instead, she opened her mouth, unable to remain silent anymore, only for Aisle to start speaking a moment before she could.
“So…what were those things?” he asked, glancing around as though afraid that talking about them would bring them running.
“They were undead,” answered Lex curtly, not bothering to look at him as he spoke.
“They looked like ponies,” added Drafty. She glanced at Cloudbank again as she spoke, apparently relieved that she’d been preempted.
“They were. They’re not anymore.” Lex’s countenance was even more grim than usual as he spoke. “They were ponies when they were alive, but now their corpses have been animated and turned into monsters.”
Cozy spoke up next. “How? I mean, what did that to them?” The words “could that happen to us?” hung in the air, unspoken but clearly understood by all of them.
Lex was silent for a moment before answering. “…I don’t know.”
“Of course not,” muttered Cloudbank, rolling her eyes. Drafty shot her a look that was both warning and pleading at the same time, making her snort in dissatisfaction.
“But we can talk to them, right?” asked Aisle, and his voice was entirely pleading. “We can make them remember that they used to be ponies? That they used to value friendship and…and harmony? In fact…hang on,” he paused as something occurred to him, and then moved in front of Lex, giving him a hopeful look. “Can you change them back to normal?”
Lex gave the other stallion a withering look, as though he felt disgusted that he’d even asked such a stupid question. “There’s no way to reason with those things,” he said, voice dripping with loathing, though whether it was for Aisle or those monsters was unclear. “Whatever it is that transforms somepony into an undead thing warps their mind in the process. They can’t be reasoned with, let alone trusted, and trying will only get you killed. And as far as changing them back goes, that’s not a practical consideration.”
“What does that mean?” snapped Cloudbank, giving him a hard look. Did he actually just suggest that it wasn’t worthwhile to try and save ponies who’d suffered such a horrible fate?! “I thought your whole thing was to try and rescue everypony, so why isn’t it ‘practical’ to try and save them?!”
Her barb apparently got under Lex’s skin, because he came to an immediate halt, causing the rest of the group to stumble to a stop as well. Turning back, he marched up to her until he was right in her face, his lips pulled back in a snarl. “You just don’t get it, do you?” he hissed. “Being undead means that they’re already dead! Changing them back to normal doesn’t just mean snuffing out their animating force, it also means bringing them back to life!”
“Which is impossible,” murmured Drafty dejectedly.
“No, it’s not,” spoke up Cozy, causing all eyes to turn towards her.
The unexpected revelation was enough to momentarily make Cloudbank forget her anger. “Wait, so you’re saying…Cozy, can you bring dead ponies back?!”
“Huh? No!” Looking surprised at the question, Cozy shook her head. “I couldn’t even heal Drafty’s sickness, remember? No, what I meant is that Princess Cadance told us that it was possible when she introduced Lashtada to the Crystal Empire. She told us that if we had enough love for Lashtada in our hearts that we could overcome anything, even death.”
“Maybe she was just being poetic?” offered Drafty.
“No.” Lex shook his head. “Sacerdotal thaumaturgy is capable of resurrection.”
“Sacer-what now?” frowned Cloudbank.
She grit her teeth as he heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes, obviously trying to tell her how stupid he thought she was that she needed to ask. “Sacerdotal thaumaturgy is what you’d call ‘divine magic,’” he explained. “It’s spells that you receive from a deity, typically in exchange for faithful worship.”
“Well, you were going on about Nightmare M-, er, the Night Mare, right?” added Drafty. “And you were saying how powerful she was. Doesn’t that mean that you have resurrection magic?”
Lex frowned. “The Night Mare recognizes my strength, and has given me numerous powers accordingly, but that isn’t one of them. Yet.” He added that last part almost as an afterthought. Cloudbank was about to speak up again, when Lex continued. “But even if I did, my understanding is that such magic has severe limitations. I couldn’t just cast one spell and change every undead pony in Vanhoover back to how they were.”
“I bet Princess Twilight and her friends could,” said Cloudbank challengingly. “They restored everypony’s magic after Tirek stole it, so I'm sure they could do this too.” She took a step closer to Lex, and the two of them were practically nose-to-nose as a result. “Maybe instead of running around and trying to do everything by yourself, you should call in the ponies who actually have a track record of saving all of Equestria!”
“Cloudy! Stop it!” yelled Drafty.
But Cloudbank wasn’t listening. Instead, she smirked as she saw the outrage blossom on Lex’s face. Serves you right, she thought spitefully.
“Do you know why Princess Twilight or any of the other alicorns aren’t here?” he growled. “Because their irresponsible, hooves-off style of governance is what allowed things to get this bad in the first place! If they had been actively engaged with helping Vanhoover recover from what happened then the situation never would have degenerated to this level! Meanwhile, I’m the one who’s here actually trying to do something about it!” He roared the last several words at her, his patience having reached the breaking point.
It wasn’t just stress that made him lose his temper, however. Cloudbank’s needling had not only reminded him of his earlier ruminations about how the princesses would never have let Vanhoover get this bad if they’d known about it, but also made him question if he could handle a crisis of this magnitude. If Vanhoover had only needed someone to coordinate a large-scale recovery effort, that was one thing. But the current situation was far worse than mere devastation, as there were multiple groups of monsters attacking what remained of the native population.
And it was becoming increasingly clear that he wasn’t going to be able to handle that on his own.
No matter that he had slaughtered his way through those fish-monsters when they had attacked his ship. No matter that he had destroyed or driven off those undead ponies that had attacked the survivors in his care. Without having more information as to their numbers, their lairs, and their capabilities, he was stuck in a defensive position, reacting to threats rather than proactively eliminating them. And for all the magic he’d invented or acquired, he had only limited methods of gaining that information. All of which led to one conclusion: that he needed help.
But as loath as he was to admit such a thing, even to himself, the subsequent conclusion was a far more untenable one: that the ponies whose help he needed were the princesses. Only they had sufficient magic to simultaneously defend themselves and everypony else while also dealing with the monsters that were overrunning the city. There simply wasn’t anypony else available who had enough magic to make a significant difference.
It wouldn’t have been difficult to arrange, Lex knew. He had a scrying spell that would let him remotely view somepony, and while its efficacy had some variations depending on how well he knew the subject, a single previous face-to-face meeting was more than enough to, in all likelihood, establish a connection. Once he’d done that, it wouldn’t have been impossible to open a line of communication through it, and let them know what was going on. At that point, they would certainly descend on Vanhoover in force.
Of course, such a course of action would be a humiliation of irreducible proportions. If he had to ask for help from the very princesses whom he’d criticized for their ineffectiveness in the past, it would not only make him look like a fool, but it would also seriously undercut the legitimacy of his desire to rule. But at the same time, he knew that not doing so would mean not giving potential survivors the best possible chance of rescue purely to protect his pride, and his code of conduct made it clear that such a thing was completely unacceptable.
There has to be a third option, thought Lex as he continued to glare at Cloudbank, who silently returned his hard stare. If neither choice is acceptable, then reject the underlying premise and come up with a new solution. It was a motto that he’d developed in his youth, and it had always filled him with certitude. But now…now it smacked of desperation.
“Listen,” interjected Aisle nervously. “As, um, interesting as it is watching you guys try to figure out who to blame, maybe we could do this back at the shelter? Because I really don’t think that this is a good place to stop and debate the issue.” Cozy and Drafty nodded silently, the latter giving Cloudbank a disappointed look.
She seemed to notice. “Fine,” she muttered, backing off with a bitter look on her face, eyes locked on the ground. Lex, for his part, simply snorted and turned around to lead the way back to the shelter. They were close now, he could tell.
He had until they made it there to figure out what he was going to do.
Lirtkra looked up as the Cripple flew closer to him, wiping the filth from his last kill off of his trident. Normally he’d have licked the gore off, but this was from one of the walking dead, and so was itkul – too filthy to consume. “What?” he sneered.
“I saw something,” rasped the disgusting creature hoarsely. “A light, moving through the streets nearby.”
Lirtkra didn’t know what a “street” was, but the meaning was clear: their prey was nearby. “It’s about time!” he snapped, but couldn’t keep a leer off his face. The air-breathing spell that Sitkra had placed on him had plenty of time left, he was sure, and he was eager to sink his teeth into warm, bloody meat. "Take us there now!”
The Cripple glared at him, obviously upset by his tone, but moved to obey. It paused long enough to cast another spell, causing Lirtkra to clench his teeth. A moment later its form blurred, becoming smudged and indistinct as it led the way, and the sahuagin warrior snorted in amusement at the cowardly defensive measure. At least its hideousness was less obvious that way. Glancing behind him, Lirtkra saw that Monitor was following them dutifully, skating on the natural oils it secreted.
The hunt was almost over, and very soon the slaughter would begin.