Lex awoke in a panic.
Something was smothering him, preventing him from drawing breath even though his lungs felt like they were burning. Unable to see, he confusedly began to struggle, but there was a heavy weight on top of him. He tried to push it off, at least enough to get his face clear, but his aching limbs couldn’t summon any strength, nor was telekinesis effective in his weakened state. The pain in his lungs was unbearable now, and his fear skyrocketed as he dimly realized that he was going to die and he needed to use a spell to escape but they all required chanting and he couldn’t speak because he couldn’t breathe because he couldn’t get air couldn’t get air couldn’t…get…air!
…-urn…-adow…
His consciousness fading, Lex could barely comprehend the sentiment, and for some reason he thought about his horn…what it could do…and then, suddenly, his awareness snapped back with crystal clarity. The pain in his lungs was gone, and it took Lex a moment to realize that was because he didn’t have lungs anymore. Nor did he have a face that could be covered, or limbs that could be pinned down. Nor any sort of physical form at all, having used his dark magic to turn into a shadow.
Lurching backward, Lex found himself looking at a ragged unicorn stallion, his yellow coat marred by bruises. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but the other was opened wide with shock, his jaw slack as he looked between the now-empty bedroll he was standing on and the shadow in front of him. For a moment Lex couldn’t place him, but an instant later he realized that this was the near-hysterical pony that had showed up at the train station that morning, claiming to be Block Party’s second-in-command…Spit Polish. Then Lex’s eyes traveled down to where the stallion’s fore-hooves were planted firmly on a pillow, and the last of his fear and confusion fell away…to be replaced with a towering rage.
“How dare you!” he roared. “HOW DARE YOU!”
Spit Polish started to back away, his face turning pale at the sight of the formless black shadow in front of him, its only visible features being a pair of glowing green eyes whose outer corners sprouted purple contrails. “Y-you’re some kind of monster!” he uttered, fear turning his voice into a squeak. “I knew it! I knew you were-”
That was more than Lex could stand. First this pathetic, cowardly, treacherous pony tried to kill him, and now he dared to impugn him to his face?! With a wordless howl of outrage, Lex conjured a massive stalagmite of black crystals, the pillar of ebon projecting out from the ground at a forty-five degree angle and catching the other stallion directly in the chest, hitting him hard enough to launch him out of the tent with a cry of pain. Lex immediately followed after him, his rage rising with each passing moment.
Outside, the would-be assassin was laying on the ground, doubled over and groaning as he tried to recover from the blow. “DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOU COULD KILL ME?!” screamed Lex as he advanced on him. “I HAVE SLAIN DRAGONS AND TRAFFICKED WITH GODS! WHAT CHANCE DID YOU EVER HAVE?!” Terrified, Spit Polish forced himself to his hooves, trying to run, but he hadn’t gotten more than two steps before Lex made more black crystals sprout from the ground in front of him, these ones short and thin like needles. Unable to stop himself, Spit Polish stepped on them, crying out in pain as they pierced his hooves, causing him to lurch to the side as he fell over, barely avoiding collapsing on the sharp protrusions.
“Get away from me!” he screamed, completely terrified now. Dragging himself across the ground, he fumbled for the peg of a nearby tent, yanking it out of the ground with his telekinesis and holding it up as if it were a weapon, his eyes wide with panic. “I-I’m warning you! I-” But the words died in his throat as the stake suddenly fell to the ground, the aura holding it aloft sputtering and dying as black crystals grew along his horn, disrupting his ability to use magic. “NO!” Wailing in despair, he reached up with his hooves, trying to brush the foreign material off of him, but the crystals refused to be dislodged.
“YOUR PALTRY LITTLE SCHEME FAILED!”
Realizing that he couldn’t use his horn anymore, Spit Polish reached down with his bloody fore-hooves, whimpering in pain as he fumbled for the wooden stake. He knew it was useless, knew that it wouldn’t be enough to save him, but any weapon was better than nothing! He had to come up with a plan, had to figure out some way to escape and-
“YOUR PATHETIC ATTEMPT TO KILL ME FAILED!”
Another black crystal, this one as long and thin as a spear, flew from the green-and-purple-eyed shadow, and before Spit Polish could react it pierced his right foreleg, pinning it to the ground as he screamed in pain. For a moment he couldn’t do anything except thrash, all rational thought swallowed up in a miasma of terror and agony, and it was instinct that made him grip the weapon in his teeth a second later, yanking on it as hard as he could. The pain flared worse, but he didn’t stop, absolutely certain that he was going to be killed if he didn’t run away. A moment later it slid free, and he sobbed as he rolled onto his belly, trying to crawl to safety.
“YOU FAILED!”
Lex continued to advance on the prone stallion, his eyes blazing. Rather than satiate his rage, Spit Polish’s descent into hysterics only made him angrier. This miserable little coward had almost killed him?! This mewling excuse for a stallion had actually caused him to panic?! The shame of it was even worse than when he’d needed help after slaying that dragon! “YOU WILL P-”
“Lex! Stop!”
The voice cut through his awareness, and a moment later Sonata interposed herself between him and Spit Polish.
“Get out of my way, Sonata!”
The harsh words made her wince, her ears folding back for just a moment, but she didn’t move. Okay, okay, baby steps. At least he’s not bellowing anymore, she told herself.
After having waved goodbye to Cloudbank and the others as they’d headed off on their bank heist, Sonata hadn’t been sure what to do with herself. She’d eventually wandered back into the camp, deciding to go look at some of the games that had been set up when she’d heard loud voices coming from the direction of the field hospital. Recognizing one of them as Lex’s, she’d immediately set off running, hearing him scream something about…somebody having tried to kill him?!
Sonata had run as fast as she could, but there had already been a crowd forming – the angry words causing a morbid curiosity that managed to exceed their fear, at least for the moment – by the time she made it to where Lex was. She had just pushed past the last few ponies when she saw him, in his shadow-form, pin a vaguely familiar-looking stallion to the ground through his leg with a spear of black crystal, hearing the ponies around her gasp in horror. She had as well, but for different reasons, and hadn’t hesitated before rushing forward to put herself between Lex and the other pony, desperate to try and salvage things before Lex made this into “Garden Gate Part II: The Worsening.”
Now she just had to figure out how to do that.
“Lex, listen to me, you need to stop this! Y-”
“Absolutely not! That wretched, simpering little cur tried to kill me! I will NOT allow that to go unpunished!”
“I know! But…” She was about to tell him that he shouldn’t lash out like this, that even if he wasn’t wrong he was scaring everybody else, but she knew that wouldn’t get through to him. If anything, it would just make him more likely to go ahead with what he was doing. Think! she told herself. Arguing with him doesn’t work, but I need him to stop, so what do I do?! For an instant she floundered…and then, from out of nowhere, an idea popped into her head, going straight to her mouth before she could even stop to think about it. “But I want to help you do it!”
The glowing green eyes narrowed. “You…what?”
Sonata heard the note of confusion in his voice, and instantly seized on it. “Yeah! I totes want a piece of this action! I mean, after all,” she pivoted in place then, so she was facing the crowd, and raised her voice, “this guy just tried to kill the pony who made all that food! Of course he deserves to be punished!” She pointed at Spit Polish as she spoke, ignoring the horrified look he was giving her. He really does look familiar, though…but where would-, wait a minute! All of a sudden she remembered him from the train station that morning, and she felt any inkling of sympathy for the injured stallion vanish. He was working for that guy who let this place become so awful AND he tried to kill Lex? Oh that does it…
Hearing the confused murmuring from the crowd in response to her declaration, Sonata stepped forward. “Every-, um, pony, listen up! I know this is hard to believe, but that big, scary-looking shadow is Lex Legis, the same pony who injured himself making a meal for all of us! He uses a spell to make himself look like that whenever he’s attacked, but he’s still the same pony on the inside!” She could see that it was working, the faces in the crowd starting to look uncertain, as though not sure what to think. Rearing up on her hind legs, she kept going. “I know you all don’t know him very well, but I can tell you that even though he doesn’t show it, no one cares about ponies more than Lex. He’s been here less than twenty-four hours, and he’s already made food, handed out medicine, and locked up the guy who used to run this place! And he’s done it all without asking for so much as a thank you!” She paused for dramatic effect, then pointed at Spit Polish again. “And instead, he gets somepony who used to work for Block Party trying to kill him!”
“N-no!” Grimacing, Spit Polish held a hoof out towards the crowd, his face pleading. “You don’t understand! I was trying to protect everypony!” He looked back at Lex, who hadn’t moved, then at the crowd. “He’s a monster! He’s a monster and we have to get rid of him before he dooms us all! It’s his fault the commander died, and if we don’t act now, we’ll all-”
“Shut up!”
The words didn’t come from Sonata, but from within the crowd. Slowly, the assembled ponies moved aside, and a unicorn mare strode forward. Her colors were the mirror-opposite of Spit Polish’s, having a bright orange coat and a soft yellow mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a pair of peaches connected at the stem, each of which had a twinkle on their skin. Like Spit Polish, there were ugly bruises dotting her body, and as she strode forward she limped, favoring her back left leg. Despite the angry look on her face, there were tears spilling down her cheeks. “Just shut up, Spit!”
Blinking at the newcomer, Sonata looked back at Spit Polish, and couldn’t help but feel surprised by his reaction. The expression on his face was one of complete and utter devastation, his eyes full of hurt and confusion, his mouth hanging open. Even as she watched, he shook his head slightly, as though denying that this was happening. A moment later she heard him utter one word, his voice desperate.
“Peachy…”