//------------------------------// // 125 - The Horn of King Sombra // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// The sound of Lex’s horn hitting the floor seemed incredibly loud, with nopony breathing as it rolled slightly, leaving a thin trail of blood behind it as it came to a stop. He did it. He really did it. Cozy managed to tear her eyes from the gory sight to look back at Lex, slightly shocked that he’d actually gone through with it. She suddenly felt guilty that she’d doubted him, especially after everything that he’d already done to save everypony. Even if he didn’t have any love in his heart, even if he was just doing all of this for himself, his dedication was the real deal. It was enough to make her feel ashamed of herself for not having had more faith in him. “Lex? Are you alright?” He quite clearly wasn’t. Although he’d remained silent as his horn had been severed, she could see him shuddering, his body tensed in pain. Looking at the wound itself, she noticed that Severance had cut exactly at the place where the red had met the grey, leaving none of King Sombra’s horn attached to Lex’s head. The only red there now was the blood flowing from the stump down between his eyes and over his face. A low chuckle drew her eyes over to Fencer, who looked considerably more relaxed and was wearing a triumphant grin. “I have to admit,” she drawled, “I didn’t think you’d go through with it. I was sure that you’d have some sort of scheme or plan or something.” Then her smile shrank, though it didn’t vanish. “Or maybe you still do.” She nodded towards the horn, lying in front of Lex’s hooves. “Kick it over here.” “I’ll take it,” volunteered Cozy quickly. The idea of kicking Lex’s horn seemed too callous; after the sacrifice he’d just made, he deserved the respect of not treating his severed body part as though it were some sort of worthless trinket. But Fencer seemed determined to deny him even that modicum of consideration, shaking her head at Cozy’s suggestion. “No. You stay right there.” For a moment Cozy just looked at her, somehow still able to be aghast at how horrible Fencer was. Then it occurred to her that the other mare was suspicious of her, thinking that her offering to bring Lex’s horn over to her was some sort of ploy. “I’m not going to try anything!” Fencer snorted. “Right, you’re just offering to help out of the goodness of her heart,” she replied sarcastically, before turning her eyes back to Lex. “Kick the horn over to me.” Lex met her gaze evenly, but didn’t respond. Instead, his hoof lashed out, sending his horn skittering across the ground until it rolled against Pillowcase’s unmoving form. Fencer regarded it for a moment, still grinning, and found that she couldn’t resist the urge to gloat. “That’s it? No more dire threats about what you’re going to do to me? No more arrogant offers of leniency or flowery threats about ‘punishments that will become legends for a thousand years’? Come on, let me hear another round of how you’re going to make me pay for everything. Tell me all the awful things you’ll do to me for this.” She paused then, but silence was her only answer, Lex’s face looking like a mask as he stared at her. Fencer snickered at his lack of a reply. “Lose your nerve along with your horn? Well, I don’t care either way.” “I thought you hated it when ponies didn’t care,” shot back Cozy, unable to help herself. She had never hated anyone in her entire life, but Fencer’s rampant cruelty was pushing the limit for what she could stand. “For somepony who can’t take it, you sure like to dish it out.” Fencer’s smile dropped immediately, and she gave Cozy a withering glare, remembering the overwhelming antipathy she’d so recently felt towards the crystal mare. “Shut your mouth, nag,” she spat. “I can still go back on our deal if I feel like it.” But her threat was undercut as she glanced at Lex, then at Severance. “Now, have your flying scythe cut my horn off. And I warn you, if I even think that you’re going to try something, I’ll kill your stallion immediately. No warnings, no threats, no questions. He’ll just be dead, you get me?” Lex’s only response was a grunt, before he looked at Severance. “Give her exactly what she wants.” Fencer frowned at that, looking at the weapon suspiciously. That sounded like a loaded comment, as though there was some sort of hidden meaning that an outside observer such as herself wouldn’t pick up on. But for the life of her, she couldn’t see what that could be. From what little she’d observed of Lex’s scythe, it was clearly some sort of major magic item; that much was obvious from how it could fly around under its own power, a fact made clear by its lack of a visible aura when it moved. Even weirder was how he talked to it like it was alive, a thought that she found unnerving; she knew how to deal with ponies, living or undead, but a scythe? It can’t even talk back. Her uncertainty about its nature was what kept her from trying to bargain for the thing, despite it obviously being a powerful weapon. For all I know he created it, and if I take it with me it will wait until I’m asleep and then kill me to avenge him. Still, as the thing floated over to her, she dipped her head so that her horn – still covered in those ugly black crystals – was parallel to the ground. She also made sure she was leaning forward sufficiently to make it clear that her earlier threat was clear. If this thing tries to kill me, I swear I won’t go alone! Then the blade swung around, and all she could do was grit her teeth and close her eyes and swear that she wouldn’t cry out. The strike was smooth enough that for an instant she didn’t feel anything at all. Then, just as her horn struck the ground beside Lex’s, the agony burst through her, and it was all she could do not to scream, a muted cry emerging from between her clenched lips. She swayed, and for a moment very nearly pitched forward, only barely stopping herself from falling over and killing her hostage in the process, knowing that if she did Lex would order the scythe to swing again and that this time it would take more than her horn. “To my side, Severance.” Lex’s voice made her open her eyes, just in time to see the scythe retreating to Lex, hovering next to him obediently. He was still looking at her with that same muted expression, despite Fencer having been sure that he’d be smirking at her agony. “Now, step away from Pillowcase,” he ordered coldly. Fencer stood still for a long moment, just to make it obvious that she was defying him, and then lifted her left foreleg, letting the jagged piece of wood she’d been holding against the crystal stallion’s throat to clatter to the ground. If he orders that scythe to come after me now… The thought compelled her to move, and she bent over to grab Lex’s horn in her mouth, picking it up and moving backward, not taking her eyes off of the other two. “Pillow!” As soon as Fencer stepped away from her husband, Cozy raced over to him. “Is he alive?” Lex couldn’t keep the tension out of his voice. If Fencer had deceived them, if Pillowcase was dead… Cozy put her ear down by Pillow’s mouth, and a moment later she let out a strangled gasp of relief. “He’s breathing!” Lex’s own relief was far less pronounced. From the back, the crystal stallion looked entirely motionless, which meant that he was breathing so shallowly that he had to be barely clinging to life. Even as he heard Cozy start to cast a healing spell – one that Lex knew would have little effect, since by now starvation, dehydration, and quite possibly illness would be debilitating her husband more than his wounds – Lex turned his eyes back towards Fencer. Tending to Pillowcase would need to wait. For her part, Fencer had ignored her own crystal-covered horn, backing away to the edge of Severance’s dim light where she had reared up onto her back legs, holding his horn between her forehooves. She looked it over, as though examining it for something, before twisting it around in her grasp so that the bottom of it pointed upward. “The magic of King Sombra,” she whispered, and Lex could hear the awe in her voice, “all mine.” She raised her eyes to his, and gave him another triumphant smile as she raised the horn to her head. “I’m going to put this to better use than you ever did.” And then she pressed the horn against the bloody stump on her head. A second later she took her hooves away…and the horn tumbled to the ground. For a moment she simply stared at it, uncomprehending, and then the blood drained from her face. “No,” she whispered, and now the awe had been replaced with horror. Frantically, she fumbled for it, picking it up and placing it against the base of her severed horn a second time, but the results were no different from the first, with it falling away as soon as she removed her hooves. Lex laughed then, and it was a horrible sound, dark and mirthless. “You won’t be putting it to use at all, you fool.” It felt good to be able to release the contempt that he’d been holding back ever since she’d said that she wanted his horn. The look of fear that she gave him then, eyes wide and face turning pale, felt even better. “This is what happens when you tamper with powers beyond your understanding.” “Why?” Dimly, Fencer realized that she should run, that she needed to get away as quickly as she could, but the full magnitude of what was happening was still dawning on her, and she couldn’t bring herself to do so. Instead, she was overcome with the need to know why this had happened, to understand why the horn that he’d grafted onto himself refused to do the same for her. “Why isn’t it working…?” “I was in the Crystal Empire when King Sombra attacked,” answered Lex, striding forward as he spoke. Fencer moved backwards in fright, leaving his horn on the ground. “I watched as he fought Celestia and Luna, the princesses backing him into a corner until he cursed the entire realm to be locked in stasis for a millennium, snatching a pyrrhic victory from the jaws of defeat.” The memory was a bitter one for him, both because he’d lost his home and his parents for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and because of how the alicorns had allowed Equestria to stagnate over a thousand years. But none of that showed on his face as he kept speaking. “And then I saw the battle continue, as King Sombra threw himself against the shield raised by that new alicorn, Cadance.” By now Lex had reached where his horn lay on the ground, and he stopped to glance down at it. “At one point, he struck the shield so powerfully that his horn broke off in the process, and do you know what happened then?” He looked back at Fencer then, and now it was his turn to grin in triumph. “The severed piece simply became another dark crystal.” Even as he spoke, the horn at his feet suddenly crackled with energy, flashes of purple playing along its length as it darkened, becoming a black crystal a moment later. “And his horn,” continued Lex, his voice rising, “grew back!” His eyes flashed a deep green then, purple contrails sprouting from the corners. The black crystal that had once been his horn was still growing, sprouting more spiky protrusions as it began to spread along the floor before covering the crate walls, moving along the corridor. And on his head a redness grew from the stump of his horn, as bright as blood as it flowed upward. A moment later it stopped, and Lex’s horn was there again, as though it had never been cut. “Losing his horn didn’t break King Sombra’s power!” Lex was roaring now, and his voice left Fencer quaking, able to feel the strength it contained. “You were a fool to think it would break mine! And now,” he hissed, “you will PAY!”