//------------------------------//
// 221 - Magic Itemizing 
// Story: Lateral Movement 
// by Alzrius 
//------------------------------//

“So, what now?”

Lex barely managed to keep himself from flinching as he heard Nosey’s question. Although the content of her query wasn’t unreasonable unto itself (even if he had already outlined what he thought needed to be done), the reminder that she was idolizing him – wrongfully idolizing him – was unpleasant enough that he very nearly winced. Instead, however, he avoided looking at her as he climbed to his hooves. “Now,” he answered, “we take you to be examined by one of the doctors here. Then I’m going to have Sonata allay whatever concerns the local populace has so that they can begin constructing some defenses.”

A perturbed look crossed Nosey’s face. “Cozy’s magic fixed me right up. If anypony should stop in to see the doctors, it’s you.” She stepped closer to him then, her eyes running over his body. “I know that spell of yours made Xi-, made that monster absorb the damage you’d taken, but you were stumbling on the way back here.”

Lex snorted, waving one hoof in a dismissive gesture. “A combination of mild fatigue and some slight blood loss. I’ve dealt with far worse.” This time he did look at her, wanting it to be as clear as possible that this was not a debate. “The same cannot be said for you, and after what you’ve been through in the last thirty-six hours it would be irresponsible not to have a doctor look at you.” In truth, he doubted that Nosey required medical attention; she was likely correct that Cozy’s healing spell had done as much or more than the doctors could. But there was nothing to lose by being thorough, especially since it was his lack of attention to detail that had allowed her to be possessed for so long in the first place. That, and this managed to assuage his guilt ever so slightly.

“Lex…”

The undercurrent of emotion in Nosey’s voice was obvious even to him, though he couldn’t have identified it to save his life. Instead he turned to regard Sonata, who at some point had fallen over and was still giggling as she idly batted at the orange prism that was now flying in a circle above her head like a halo. But her amusement changed to a whine of disappointment as Lex telekinetically grabbed it, his roiling purple aura arresting the gemstone in mid-flight and yanking it over to him.

“Aww! Can’t I play with it some more?” she pouted, slowly climbing to her hooves.

“Sonata, there’s a serious situation that requires your attention,” sighed Lex, shoving the orange prism into his saddlebag with the others.

“Wait, my attention? For realsies?” Her eyes widening as she realized the implication of what she was saying, Sonata started to make her way over to him, only to sway dangerously as she started to walk. Giving a yelp, she careened into a nearby chair and only just barely managed to keep herself from falling to the ground, holding one hoof to her head with a groan. “Whoa, dizzy!” She blinked her eyes in rapid succession as she carefully stood up again. “I guess you were right to take that thing away. It’s, like, so much fun it’s dangerous!”

Lex made a pained expression as Nosey went to go help Sonata up, unable to help but be slightly exasperated at Sonata’s pronouncement regarding the gemstone she’d used. Apparently his attempt to explain to her that it boosted the user’s magical prowess, albeit by a comparatively modest amount, had gone unheeded. I suppose the fault is my own, sighed Lex internally, for not anticipating her reaction. Even so, he’d need to sit her down and talk to her about what these gems could do later, since he intended on giving one of them to her.

Although Nosey hadn’t needed very long to finish explaining the events of his fight with Xiriel to Sonata, the time she’d taken had been sufficient for Lex to properly identify the function of each of the five gemstones he’d taken from the belier devil. As he’d initially suspected, each of them served to enhance the individual whose head they circled, with their functionality ceasing when they were forced out of their orbit. Likewise, each one provided a different benefit.

The orange prism, as he’d tried to tell Sonata, enhanced the recipient’s magical control. The iridescent spindle, by contrast, allowed its beneficiary to function without needing to breathe, making it the gem that had allowed him to cast a spell and shatter one of Xiriel’s heads despite having a punctured lung at the time. The memory was enough to almost bring a spiteful smile to Lex’s lips, recalling the shock and agony that had run through the devil then. 

Of the five, Lex had decided that the shimmering gem would go to Sonata. Notwithstanding truly extreme circumstances like the fight he’d just concluded, he could simply turn into shadow if he needed to avoid breathing, whereas his girlfriend relied on vocalizations to cast her spells. Although he had no intention of letting her face danger if he could help it, he still wanted her to be prepared, particularly in light of his ability to protect everypony being impugned.

The magic built into the pale green prism, by contrast, was far more subtle than the first two. From what Lex could tell, it was designed to introduce a very slight stabilizing effect throughout the wielder’s central nervous system, increasing its overall efficiency. The practical impact of that was that it increased the recipient’s general competence overall. While the measurable effect on the user was minor, the results were practically universal, increasing mental acuity, bodily reflexes, concentration, eye-hoof coordination, and more. It was enough to leave Lex mildly impressed.

But it was the last two gemstones that were truly fascinating.

Of them, the dusty rose-colored prism was the less notable of the two, though it was still intriguing for what it could do. Its enchantment was defensive in nature, allowing the recipient to better avoid an incoming attack. What made it so interesting, however, was that unlike the pale green prism, the rose-colored one didn’t operate by increasing personal reflexes. In fact, from what Lex could tell it didn’t enhance the user’s body in any capacity. Rather, it somehow made them better able to anticipate the attack before it made contact. Of course, like all of the other gemstones, the overall power that it conferred in this regard was minimal, and using it conferred only a modest degree of protection. But the fact that it seemed to border on being precognitive warranted further study.

It was the final gemstone, however – the scarlet and blue sphere – that had captivated Lex’s interest the most. This particular gem acted as an external support system for cognitive function, boosting overall intellectual ability by channeling greater amounts of magic through the recipient’s brain. Of course, that offered no real benefit to Lex, since he was already doing exactly that thanks to his capacity to store energy within his thoughts. But that had been less important than the fact that, as a function of its serving as a virtual increase in brainpower, the gem actually contained new knowledge!

That realization had made Lex’s blood race, and for a full fifteen seconds everything else – his fatigue, his guilt over Nosey, his frustration with the C. Shells’ crew – had fallen away as he’d carefully examined the gem to determine what information it held. When he’d realized that it involved magic items, Lex’s heart had leapt into his throat, certain that he was finally going to be told the process by which Everglow’s style of magic items could be constructed! But that hope had turned to ashes in his mouth mere seconds later, as he’d scanned the repository of information implanted in the gemstone and found that it was concerned with manipulating magic items, rather than creating them. By itself, that was still useful information, of course...or at least, it would have been if not for the fact that Lex already knew that! 

In Equestria, magic items came in exactly two categories: minor magical trinkets and unique artifacts. The former were responsible for numerous conveniences throughout everyday life, but were only capable of utilizing very small amounts of magical power due to the nature of their construction. Specifically, they were built in such a way as to try and mimic the magical channels found within the bodies of living creatures, drawing in and directing a small amount of ambient magical energy. But those artificial channels were far more fragile than those crafted by nature, however, and even the strongest would break down if forced to handle more than a trickle of energy at a time. The result was that they were good for various appliances and amenities, but little else.

Artifacts, by contrast, utilized a radically different approach to overcome the same problem: they had magical channels built into their very structure, not by ponies but by nature itself. The results were, universally, far more stable than what ponies could produce with artificial magical channels. That meant that, while not alive themselves, such objects were able to produce magical effects of considerable power, oftentimes more so than a living being of comparable size could match, since they had no delicate biology to worry about overloading. But it was extremely hard to deliberately create such things, since it required altering the object’s internal structure without damaging or destroying it…to say nothing of doing so in a way designed to produce a specific effect. The best method known was simply to expose the would-be artifact to areas or instances of powerful magic, and hope that it was suitably altered. Supposedly, Mage Meadowbrook had been a master of that particular technique, but even in Lex’s time she had been such an ancient figure as to be more myth than substance. More discouraging was that, when it worked at all, the resulting artifacts often ended up with unpredictable or even dangerous side effects. Everypony who studied such things knew about the so-called “Alicorn Amulet,” for example, which supposedly granted power on par with the Royal Sisters, but drove the wearer mad.

Lex had studied both techniques as a colt, of course, but after absorbing all of the available knowledge he had quickly lost interest in them in favor of his quest to create a better form of magic. To that end, he’d come up with his method for imbuing pre-cast spells into gemstones, but much like his thaumaturgical spellcasting itself, the initial promise of that technique had not been realized. The spell-imbued gems were ultimately just that, rather than true magic items.

It was only on Everglow that Lex had found what he was looking for. On that world, spellcasters would routinely artificially imbue material items with complex, robust magical channels, allowing them to enchant those items with a considerable degree of magic. All with no side effects or chance of breakdown! Indeed, the natives of Everglow had advanced that technique to such a degree that it had become prosaic to them, and magic items of all sorts were routinely sold as commodities there.

Lex had fallen upon that knowledge hungrily, purchasing several magic items and setting about reverse-engineering them…in vain. For all his vaunted intellect, no matter how many times he’d examined or disassembled a magic item, the knowledge of their construction had eluded him. He’d figured out how to manipulate their functionality; activating, altering, or even enhancing the magical abilities they already possessed came easily to him now, but creating them lay ever beyond his grasp, to his extreme frustration. 

That same frustration had gnawed at him as he’d concluded that the scarlet and blue sphere contained nothing he didn’t already know…though there was a certain degree of spiteful satisfaction in knowing that Xiriel had needed such a thing, likely to use its scroll. But examining that particular magic item would have to come later; written materials, he knew, were far easier to trap than most other magic items.

Instead, he waited for Nosey and Sonata to make their way over to him, the latter mare still wobbling a bit as she leaned on her friend. Sighing, Lex got on Sonata’s other side, helping to prop her up as he led her towards the door. “Now, here’s what I need you to do…”