//------------------------------// // 315 - A Vision of Victory // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Weakness. Of all the things about himself that Lex hated, the insufficiency of his own power wasn’t the worst – that particular designation went to his inability to perceive and interpret whatever nonverbal undercurrent of communication accompanied interpersonal interaction, especially since everypony else apparently regarded it as so elemental that it defied easy description – but it was still considerable. He knew that sounded preposterous, of course; with multiple types of powerful magic at his command, Lex knew it wasn’t conceited to say that he far surpassed any of Equestria’s professional wizards. But that wasn’t the standard by which he measured his strength. Rather, he judged his personal power by whether it was sufficient to meet the seemingly endless challenges that he’d encountered since he’d realized that Equestria needed new leadership. By that metric, his overall strength was lacking. Although he’d managed to overcome numerous difficult battles, virtually all of them had been won only by the thinnest of margins…and even then, he’d needed outside assistance. Despite his grudging acceptance of what the Night Mare had told him about utilizing others as extensions of his own strength, it still bothered Lex deeply that he wasn’t strong enough to win without needing anyone else. But right now, letting the girls lead him back to the train station, it wasn’t his own weakness that was at the forefront of Lex’s thoughts. It was Princess Celestia’s. Her magical power is weaker than mine! The thought left him feeling almost giddy, excitement and disbelief causing him to stare blankly into space as he mentally reviewed what he’d just seen. He was vaguely aware that Sonata was asking him if he was alright, but he ignored her, too caught up in this new revelation. Considerably weaker! Logically, he knew that the few seconds’ worth of information he’d gotten about Princess Celestia’s magical capabilities were tentative at best. While his circlet, with its ability to let him see into the magical spectrum enhanced thanks to the additional power he’d poured into it, had let him view the magical channels in the alicorn’s body, it had only been for a few moments at a distance. That was the equivalent of spending a couple of seconds glancing at a newspaper being displayed in a stand across the street; he might be able to read the headline, but that didn’t offer nearly as much information as going over and taking the time to read the entire article would have. But that didn’t mean he’d read the headline wrong. “Hey, Lex, c’mon,” pleaded Sonata, brushing up against him. “You’re worrying me. What’s going on?” “It all makes sense,” he murmured. He wasn’t in the habit of thinking out loud. Rather, the small part of his mind that was paying attention to his surroundings had decided that vocalizing his thoughts was the least-intrusive way of potentially assuaging whatever was bothering Sonata, allowing him to devote the bulk of his thoughts to processing what he’d just learned. “How could I not have realized this before now?” “Realized what?” asked Nosey, taking her place on his other side as they led him toward the station platform. “Is this something about Princess Celestia?” Lex nodded absently. “Equestrian magic is physical, depending entirely on moving energy through the body and externalizing it via the horn. No matter how long she’s lived, or how much practice she’s gotten, or how large she’s grown, there’s only so much power she can use!” That limitation had been why he’d created a new form of magic, one that contained the requisite energy in thoughts rather than in the body. It had been extraordinarily difficult – and it was still imperfect, since compressing the magical energy to the point of where it could be contained within a purely-conceptual matrix was still too difficult for him to accomplish unaided – but it offered potentially limitless advancement, so long as he could conceive of ever more complex theorems and fill them with sufficient power. He’d known that meant that there’d be a point where he could eclipse the alicorns, but he had never dreamed that he’d already reached it… “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, that sounds, like, totes awesome! Now let's get to bed, okay?” Sonata’s voice was patronizing as they guided him toward the station entrance, returning to normal as she looked at Nosey. “I’ll get the door.” “I can do it,” protested the other mare, her horn lighting up. But Sonata was already turning the knob, pushing the door open as she glanced back at her friend. “It’s okay, I-, hey!” From where she’d taken Sonata’s place at Lex’s side, Aria shot her sister a triumphant smirk. “You snooze you lose.” Seeing that Sonata was about to make it clear what she thought of that, Nosey jumped in. “Are you two really going to start fighting again? Do you want to get cursed?” When both of them hesitated, she let out a sigh of relief before giving Lex a nudge. “Lex? Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you really should get some sleep. Noon isn’t that far away.” She glanced eastward, toward the mountains. “I’m not sure, but I think Princess Celestia’s going to raise the sun soon, so you should try to rest now while there’s time.” Lex heard her, but gave only an absentminded grunt of acknowledgment, his thoughts already spiraling off in a new direction. She’ll raise the sun, he echoed silently. That’s what her cutie mark helps her do. That’s ALL it helps her do. That wasn’t surprising, of course. From what he’d been able to see of her body’s magical channels, Lex could estimate that Celestia’s ability to use Equestrian magic was roughly on par with a high-level unicorn wizard in terms of raw energy output, and perhaps somewhat higher with regard to fine control. But there were no wizards, regardless of their power or their control, who could move the sun the way she could. That particular feat was something she could do because her cutie mark was boosting her power, but only in that specific regard. Of course, that she was otherwise able to match Equestria’s best unicorn wizards – all of whom, Lex knew, had cutie marks related to spellcasting and magic manipulation – was impressive unto itself. Doubtlessly her stature, as well as having the musculature of an earth pony and the wings of a pegasus, played a role in that, since they gave her greater physicality through which to move magical energy. But that’s nowhere near what I’m capable of bringing to bear, he knew, and the thought made his pulse quicken as he took it to its logical conclusion. I could win. If it came down to a fight between myself and them, I could win! It wouldn’t even require assistance from anyone else, the way so many of his recent battles had. At their level of strength, Celestia and Luna – and Lex felt certain that the other princess’s strength was comparable to that of her sister – wouldn’t be overly difficult to defeat. Which meant that if he hadn’t erred on the side of caution all those weeks ago, when he’d openly declared himself in rebellion against Celestia after she’d refused to abdicate on his behalf…if he’d stayed and fought rather than fleeing, certain that he’d be overmatched… I would be the ruler of all Equestria right now! The thought made him stop in his tracks, causing Aria to stumble forward, with Nosey only barely catching herself in time. Not missing her opportunity, Sonata rushed in to fill the spot at his side that Aria had just vacated. “Hah!” Aria glared, but didn’t have a chance to respond before Nosey, rolling her eyes, separated herself from Lex, hopping onto the bench that the four of them had been using as a bed for the last couple of days. “So here’s what I think we should do,” she began as she settled down. “We’re all pretty out of it-” “Some of us more than others,” noted Sonata, giving Lex a nudge and proving her point when he gave only a mild grunt of acknowledgment in reply. “-so it wouldn’t be very useful if we went over everything now. Instead, we’ll get some sleep, and then we can talk about everything that happened tomorrow-” “You mean later today,” interrupted Aria, the petulance returning to her voice. “-before our meeting with the princesses,” concluded Nosey, refusing to let herself become derailed. “Ooh! Ooh!” Sonata’s eyes widened as an idea came to her, raising a hoof in the air and waving it excitedly as she gave Nosey an expectant look. It took the other mare several seconds to realize that her friend was waiting to be called on, as if she was a student in a classroom. “Uh, yes, Sonata?” “Can we have an early lunch before we go meet with them?” asked Sonata, putting her hoof down. Turning her eyes toward Lex, she explained her reasoning. “I know you’re not giving out breakfasts right now, but I really don’t want to miss eating because you got into some big discussion with those two.” “Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” admitted Nosey. “Lex, what do you think?” “I don’t care,” answered Lex honestly. He barely heard Sonata’s whoop of delight or Aria’s sarcastic reply, not even bothering to protest as the girls led him to the bench and began jockeying for position around him. Right now such trivial concerns were the furthest thing from his mind. Lex had long since taken to heart Sonata’s suggestion – back when he had sought her out in the wake of his declaration of rebellion against the princesses – that it was better to achieve his goal in a piecemeal fashion, without resorting to force. That was why he had elected to meet with the alicorns a second time, negotiating for ruling over Vanhoover rather than following through on his earlier vow to forcibly remove them from power. But now he was having second thoughts. It wouldn’t be inappropriate of me to challenge them openly at the meeting tomorrow, he knew. My original declaration of rebellion is still extant, and Vanhoover’s current state is already an illustration of how their leadership has failed. They might even agree, now that they’d had a chance to see just how damaging their incompetence was to their subjects. But if they didn’t…if they refused to stand down… I’d need to have them arrested, and that would precipitate a fight. Of course, their guardponies – and that miserable worm Silhouette – wouldn’t stand by idly while that happened, but Lex wasn’t concerned about them. Severance could…wait… Thoughts of the scythe made Lex realize that even if his magic was stronger than the princesses’, he had barely renewed any of his spells since he’d fought the horde of ghouls. Doing so would require that he spend several hours using the scythe, which he’d be hard-pressed to do between now and noon. More than that, he was still injured and extremely fatigued, not having given himself a chance to rest. Even if he mitigated that by using his dark magic to go into shadow-form, the prospect of expending it and being forced to turn corporeal again in the course of the fight couldn’t be ruled out. It was at that point that Lex realized he was seriously considering fighting the two alicorns. Not knowing what her boyfriend was thinking, Sonata gave him a sleepy smile as she laid her head on his chest. “Night Lex,” she yawned. “Don’t let the bedbugs…no, wait, they’d be bench-bugs now, wouldn’t they?” Pausing as she considered that, Sonata didn’t have a chance to finish her thought as a knock came from the front door of the station, making her blink as she lifted her head. “Huh? Who could that be?” Her question was answered a moment later as a familiar voice came from the other side of the door. “Lex? Sonata? Are you in there?” Aria frowned, lifting her head from Lex’s flank to glare at Sonata as though the unexpected guest was her fault. “Tell whoever it is to buzz off. Some of us need our beauty rest.” “How about I get this one?” Nosey didn’t move from where she was cuddled up against Lex’s back, her horn lighting up as she unlocked the door and pulled it open. A moment later, River Bank stepped inside. “I apologize for the interruption,” she smiled, a pegasus mare following her in. “But we need to talk.”