Lex sat bolt upright, his eyes wide with horror at what he’d just been told. “What do-”
But he stopped speaking as he realized that the Night Mare wasn’t there anymore. Neither was the ring of blue fire, nor the full moon overhead. In fact, he’d been standing before, so why was he sitting up now…?
The answer came immediately, supplied by what little he could see of his surroundings. Although only a small amount of ambient light was making its way in, it was enough to let him see that he was inside a small tent, almost identical to the one he’d woken up in the last time he’d unexpectedly lost consciousness. Brushing aside the memory of the injuries he’d inflicted on himself when he’d created food for everypony, Lex lurched to his hooves, ignoring the ripple of pain that went through his body as he kicked off the blanket that had been laid over him. He could hear the distant murmur of overlapping voices, none of them screaming or crying, and that sent desperate hope through him as he lunged for the tent flap. He had to warn everypony that the ghouls were coming!
…or were they?
He slowed to a stop in front of the tent flap, his mind suddenly whirling as he started to doubt the veracity of what he’d been told. Although he’d been certain at the time that his dream had been real, new doubts floated through his mind now. Could that have been some new form of nightmare inflicted by his tulpa? Normally, Lex would have dismissed the possibility out of hoof, since it had never altered its behavior before, but with how strange it had been acting during his fight with Xiriel that was no longer the case. If it could act differently then, why not now?
It’s not impossible, Lex realized anxiously, theories already starting to percolate in his mind. The idea that the spiteful thing in his shadow would torment him with predictions that the ghouls were about to descend on everyone, rather than scenes of intense emotional pain, wasn’t so farfetched. On the contrary, the more he thought about it the more plausible it seemed, and Lex felt his tension starting to ebb. Belatedly realizing that he wasn’t wearing his saddlebags, he glanced around; sure enough, they were lying in a corner of the tent. He grabbed it telekinetically, the auras springing up around the bags and his horn lighting up the interior of the tent as he-
-suddenly froze, the saddlebags suspended in mid-air. Although telekinesis didn’t offer tactile feedback, he could still sense the amount of weight he was lifting, since greater amounts required commensurately greater effort on his part. As such, Lex had been able to immediately recognize that it was taking more exertion than it should have to lift his saddlebags…almost as if they were carrying more weight than they had been before. Turning them over in his mental grip, he opened each bag and removed their contents, extracting Xiriel’s scroll, the five enchanted gemstones…
And a huge ruby.
Lex stared at it grimly, having already guessed that it was the source of the additional weight, before shoving it and the other items back into his saddlebag, donning it before striding outside as quickly as his injured body could move. It wasn’t just a nightmare, he swore silently, his earlier doubts now utterly obliterated. Instead, he started running through various responses to this latest catastrophe, focusing on the logistical and tactical considerations for a number of possible responses. She said that the ghouls will be here in just over an hour. There should be enough daylight left then that we’ll be able to see them coming, so-
But another unpleasant surprise was waiting for Lex as he left his tent: night had already fallen. Slowing his pace at this new revelation, Lex swore the most profane curses he knew as he twisted his head around, trying to find even the slightest bit of light on the horizon, but it was already full dark, with the only illumination coming from the small fires spread throughout the camp. Turning this latest revelation over in his head, Lex suddenly felt a small surge of hope rush through him: if he had slept long enough, then his dark magic should have replenished itself!
But that hope died as soon as it was born, as he turned his thoughts toward his horn’s magic and immediately felt a void where he should have felt power waiting to be tapped. Apparently he had been unconscious long enough for the sun to go down, but not so long that he’d gotten sufficient rest to restore what he’d already expended. It was the worst possible combination of events, and that realization made him gnash his teeth as his anxiety swelled, anger rushing in to drown it a moment later. Gritting his teeth in a silent snarl, Lex stalked toward the medical tent. This is just like what happened with that kraken, he screamed internally, remembering how he’d been similarly out of magic and near-totally incapacitated when the Great Lord of the Deep had attacked. It’s all happening again!
That thought was enough to send him down a quick conceptual analysis of whether or not he could use the same strategy now that had led them to victory then, but it took less than two seconds for him to realize that wasn’t viable. That plan had hinged on everypony fighting a defensive battle so as to let him, Cloudbank, and Severance battle the kraken without interruption, since he’d realized that killing it would send all of the monsters back where they’d come from. But the ghouls had no such weakness; however many there were, each and every one of them would need to be slain in order to put an end to their threat.
Nor would he be able to enlist the ponies here at the camp to fight. Not only were they malnourished and wounded, but he couldn’t conjure weapons and armor for them the way he had for everypony back at the shelter. Even if Sonata could use her magic to enhance everyone, their previous engagement had shown that to have only a limited effect; sending them against the ghouls with nothing but her song to bolster them would doubtlessly result in a huge number of casualties, something which had to be avoided at all costs.
For a brief moment he thought about organizing an evacuation instead, knowing that Sonata’s magic – with its ability to hold large numbers of ponies enthralled – would be more suitable for that, but he discarded that idea immediately. He had previously found that idea to be lacking, and that was even truer now; even if he could have gotten such an endeavor organized in an hour, marching at night would only leave them blind while the ghouls picked them off at their leisure. Besides, where would they even go?
But if he couldn’t empower everypony here to fight off the imminent attack, and couldn’t evacuate them out of harm’s way, then what was left? Desperately, he turned over riskier plans, trying to come up with something, anything that would let him protect everypony here. But there was nothing. He couldn’t invent a new spell that would help with only an hour’s worth of time and no research or testing materials, and even if he’d known a magical ritual that could have helped a single hour wouldn’t have been enough time to enact it. And of course, none of the spells he still had prepared were able to affect a large number of beings at once, whether to attack the ghouls or defend the ponies here. But with no other magic at his disposal, he…wait…
Almost at the entrance to the medical tent, Lex stopped, remembering that he did have more magic at his disposal: Xiriel’s scroll! Glancing back at his saddlebag, Lex telekinetically lifted it, holding the scroll case up in front of his eyes. He’d previously decided not to tamper with it any further before he had a chance to carefully examine it for potential traps, but that was a luxury he could no longer afford. Now, with what was likely an army of the undead headed there way, he was going to have to take a chan-
“Sir?” interrupted a familiar voice. Glancing over, Lex found himself almost nose-to-nose with House Call, who looked surprised to see him. “What are you doing out of bed?”
Lex, however, had no interest in getting involved in another debate about his medical status. “Where is Sonata?” he demanded. The scroll would need to wait at least a few minutes; right now he needed to find Sonata, since she was best suited to giving orders on his behalf to a large number of ponies.
Apparently having expected to be blown off, House Call’s sigh seemed almost perfunctory as he canted his head towards the back of the field hospital. “Last I saw, she was helping everypony get ready with that stuff you wanted. The big holes and things.”
Lex didn’t bother with a reply, turning to circle the tent while cursing himself for not thinking to look there first. Apparently he’d gotten used to thinking of the place’s entrance as some sort of de facto meeting point, and although that had cost him barely a minute it was enough to make him berate himself. Every minute counted now! Forcing himself into a trot, Lex ignored the shooting pains that sent through him as he hurried toward where Sonata hopefully was. He could already see several light sources up ahead, knowing from how they were bobbing that they’d been conjured by unicorns, and he could hear what sounded like shovels digging in the dirt. Picking up his pace, he silently wondered if there was any chance that Sonata’s initiative would meet with his expectations. A long ditch. Some berms. Fencing. Caltrops, he silently ran through the list of potential defenses in his head. Maybe if the ghouls weren’t as numerous as he thought, and if everypony had poured on for the fortifications, this would be enough…
But as he approached the working ponies, Lex saw that he’d been wrong to hope for very much. The sight that greeted his eyes was maybe two dozen holes scattered haphazardly around, none of them looking more than three feet deep in the unicorns’ light. Worse, they were narrow, most being a couple of feet wide and about as long. Of course, that wasn’t surprising, given how – contrary to what Lex had thought he’d heard – there wasn’t a shovel in sight. Rather, the ponies doing the digging were using wooden boards, bent metal rods, and even spoons to displace the earth. Nor did the incompetence on display end there. The dirt from the holes was scattered haphazardly rather than being packed into berms, and there were a few piles of loose pieces of wood that Lex could only presume were earmarked to be put to use later, because in their current arrangement they weren’t any sort of effective defense.
The overall state of the western edge of the camp could be summarized in one word, Lex knew: disappointing. It was enough to make him curse his girlfriend’s misguided efforts, but he pushed that thought away, knowing that he should have been there to guide her instead of succumbing to exhaustion. But it was too late to regret that now; now there was nothing to do but react to the situation at hoof.
If everypony couldn’t be bolstered to fighting form nor removed from the battlefield, then the only thing to do was defend them, Lex knew. But with Aria having fled, Cozy and Aisle gone, Cloudbank and the others dead, and Sonata being too precious to him to let fight, that left only left one pony of note to face off against the ghouls: himself. With how useless these “defenses” were, that meant that he’d have nothing but his remaining prepared spells, Severance, and whatever magic was on that scroll to save over a thousand ponies from an unknown, but likely very large, number of ghouls.
He’d just have to hope that would be-, no…he’d just have to make that be enough.