//------------------------------// // 364 - Tactical Superiority // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Celestia only barely managed to dodge the spike of black crystal that burst out of the ground, aiming for her horn. Landing awkwardly on her side, she struggled to fight off the dizzying sense of vertigo that swept over her as she rolled back onto her hooves, still reeling from the damage she’d suffered when Lex Legis had knocked her out of the sky. Knowing she couldn’t afford to lose consciousness again, she instead concentrated, her horn glowing as she called upon her alicorn magic to temporarily enhance the earth pony stamina she possessed. Doing so wouldn’t heal her wounds, she knew, but it would at least make them easier to bear for a time. Even as she did so, she kept moving, knowing that to remain still would be the same as asking Lex Legis to target her again. Spreading her wings, Celestia flew parallel to the ground, not bothering to try and gain altitude. It was a wise decision, as another spike of black crystal shot up from the space she’d just vacated, again placed carefully so that – had she not kept moving – it would have struck her horn. Gritting her teeth at the near-miss, Celestia glanced up at the dark spot in the sky that was Lex and returned fire, pouring more alicorn magic into the ray of energy she unleashed toward him. But this time he saw the attack coming, dodging the beam with almost contemptuous ease. Compared to how she was struggling to stay ahead of his attacks, the sight sent a rush of trepidation through her. The battle, Celestia knew, was going badly. Already she could feel herself growing tired. Even after boosting her endurance, the constant use of her magic was heavily taxing her fortitude. Worse, augmenting so many spells had used up a considerable portion of her alicorn magic. While she wasn’t nearing her limit just yet, it had been a long time since she’d used this much of it at once…which made it all the more disconcerting that she had so little to show for it now. All of the early gains that she and Luna had made against Lex Legis had been erased, the wounds they’d managed to inflict on him in the opening exchanges of their fight having been healed by that filly. Fortunately, Luna had managed to uncover the secret behind the magic powers those foals had gained, so that wouldn’t be a problem anymore. A quick glance behind her confirmed that the Royal Guard seemed to be in the last stages of subduing those foals. But even that victory would likely prove costly, since it looked like only about half the guards were able to keep fighting, and those that were still standing when they finished overcoming those children would likely have their hooves full keeping them contained. And that was the good news. Much worse was that, with Luna’s horn being injured and Lex remaining a shadow, there was no way for her sister to meaningfully oppose him any longer. It was a fact that she knew wasn’t lost on Lex Legis, as his malevolent eyes stayed firmly locked on her as he began to chant again. An instant later he finished, and three bolts of pure darkness shot out from the edge of his shadowy body, streaking toward her. Banking sharply to the right, Celestia managed to avoid the first one entirely, but the inertia of her turn left her unable to do that again as the second one streaked toward her. Instead, she rolled over in mid-air, desperately leaning to the side as she did. It was only by sheer luck that she managed to avoid both the dark bolt and the ground, the former shaving a few feathers off of one wing while the tip of the other brushed the earth, but somehow she managed to remain aloft. But now the third one was heading directly for her, and she realized too late that there was no way she could possibly correct her flight path in time to avoid it. Gritting her teeth, there was nothing Celestia could do except brace herself for the impact… And then Luna was there, flying directly into the path of the bolt. Her eyes widening, Celestia didn’t even have a chance to call her sister’s name as Luna took the hit that had been meant for her. The dark bolt struck her on the side of the head, causing her to cry out with pain. But the dark material from Lex’s attack didn’t disperse, instead erupting like water from a balloon, and Celestia saw Luna squeeze one eye shut as the black substance spread over the side of her face. Incredibly, Luna somehow managed to keep flying throughout the ordeal, turning to look at Celestia with her other eye. “Don’t stop, Sister!” she yelled. “Take him out! I’ll cover you!” “What do you m-, Luna, no!” Realizing that Luna intended on using herself as a shield, Celestia immediately protested her sister’s decision. “You can’t!” “We have no choice, Sister! We must defeat Lex Legis, for everypony’s sake!” Turning her one good eye back toward the shadow hanging in the air above them, Luna set her mouth in a firm line. “I couldn’t protect Silhouette, but I can at least protect you!” Celestia knew that her sister was right, but that didn’t make it any easier for her to accept. “Luna…” “I’ll block his magic for as long as I can. Signal me when you need me to move so you can counterattack.” Glancing back at her, Luna managed a small smile. “I love you, Sister.” Celestia’s heart lurched at that last part, hearing the implicit goodbye, but she didn’t have a chance to so much as reply in kind before Luna turned her attention back to their enemy. “LEX LEGIS!” she shouted. “TRAITOR! COWARD! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A PALE IMITATION OF KING SOMBRA, AND YOU’LL MEET THE SAME END THAT HE DID!” Her heart breaking as she heard Lex begin chanting another spell in response to Luna’s taunting, Celestia forced herself to steel her resolve. If Luna was determined to place herself in harm’s way, then there was nothing she could do to stop her. The best way to protect her sister now, Celestia knew, was to finish Lex Legis off as quickly as possible, before he did the same to them. If she couldn’t, then she’d lose Luna a second time. Had he been corporeal, sweat would have been pouring down Lex’s face. Severance was growing increasingly agitated, struggling harder in his telekinetic grasp as its voice resounded in his head, louder than ever. While he was still able to keep hold of it, the effort necessary to do so was growing progressively more taxing, and Lex knew that he couldn’t continue to do so for much longer. Just one shot at her horn! he swore to himself as he tracked Celestia’s movement. That’s all I need, and I’ll be able to deal with Severance without any interruptions! But Celestia, and now Luna, seemed determined to deny him that chance. The former had managed to stay just barely ahead of every attack he’d thrown at her so far, and the latter was placing herself quite deliberately in the line of fire, shouting provocations as though daring him to attack. But Lex had no intention of firing haphazardly, not when he was already running low on attack spells. Worse, the few he had left either didn’t allow for the level of precision targeting necessary to aim for a specific body part, or were too lethal to use against other ponies. That left him with extremely few options, as well as very little time to decide what to do. Narrowing his eyes, Lex focused intently on the Royal Sisters, trying to formulate a strategy. Celestia was staying just above the ground, clearly wanting to keep him at a distance after how he’d hit her with that concussive force spell before, while Luna was staying above her, continuing to hurl epithets at him. That left Celestia vulnerable to his creating more black crystal stalagmites, but she’d already proven twice now that hitting her with those while she was flying was unlikely to succeed, and doing so from this distance would deplete his remaining stores of dark magic rapidly. Nor was trying to close the distance between them advisable; he could have done it, thanks to his speed-enhancing spell still being in effect, but that would have left him hard-pressed to avoid her energy blasts that she would surely have thrown at him. Even if the damage would be reduced by his currently being incorporeal, the risk was too great. Which means that I need to take them out from here, using my thaumaturgical magic, he decided. But doing so would mean that there’d be no chance of hitting Celestia’s horn by itself. He’d simply need to use his remaining spells to inflict enough damage on her that she lost consciousness, without killing her in the process. All while Luna was in the way, with Celestia counterattacking at the same time, and before he lost his grip on Severance. It was an unworkable set of restrictions, coupled with an unreasonable timeframe, with the cost of failure being unacceptable. It took Lex almost two whole seconds to come up with a plan. Without hesitation, he began chanting and gesturing. Below him, he saw Luna grimace, clearly thinking that she was about to be subject to some sort of powerful magical attack. The sight made Lex smirk, though his shadow-form gave no indication of that, and he finished his spell a moment later. Instantly, two globes of electricity appeared, one each in front of Celestia and Luna. Each of them was five feet in diameter, floating in the air with one directly above the other, both positioned at the perfect height for the alicorns to fly directly into them. The sight made both sisters cry out in alarm, and they broke from their formation in order to avoid them, Luna heading upward as Celestia swung to the left. I knew you’d go that way! thought Lex triumphantly. Sandwiched between her sister and the ground, and going too fast to stop in time, Celestia’s only choices had been to go left or right, and the latter decision would have taken her closer to his position, something she likely thought he was herding her toward. Now, she was flying further away from him, still hugging the ground as he mentally directed the electrical orb to chase after her, idly sending the other one after Luna as well. Neither had any chance of actually catching them; they were too slow for that. But that wasn’t what they were meant to do… But Celestia quite clearly didn’t know that. Instead, she kept ahead of it, gaining enough of a lead on it to turn her head around and fire another huge blast of energy at him. But it didn’t even come close to hitting Lex, who avoided it with minimal effort. I know what you’re doing, he thought with dark satisfaction. That blast hadn’t been intended to hit him. Instead, it had been a distraction… An instant later, Luna passed through his incorporeal body from directly beneath him, surging upward before looking down triumphantly, clearly expecting him to be hit by the very globe of electricity that he’d conjured. But her grin turned into a confused frown a moment later when the orb stopped before it hit him. Idiots, laughed Lex to himself. The spheres’ movements aren’t automatic, it’s because I’m controlling them. But he didn’t bother to brag, instead chanting the words to another spell. Celestia was almost in position now, swinging back around now that she thought that Luna was in trouble. Her flight path was taking her by one of the larger black crystal stalagmites that he’d conjured before. Almost there… A second later he finished his chanting, and Celestia tensed as she flew closer…just as a third electrical orb floated out from behind the stalagmite, directly into her path. Her eyes widening, she darted in the opposite direction, dodging the glowing globe by inches as she managed to pull away from it. Luna screamed a warning then, but Celestia didn't look away from the spell she'd just avoided, undoubtedly thinking that Luna was giving a belated yell about what had just happened. Celestia was thus caught completely by surprise as the tiny tornado Lex had just conjured hit her dead-center. You didn't know that my first spell had conjured three electrical orbs, gloated Lex silently as he watched the small whirlwind reverse Celestia's direction, bowling her right back towards the electrical sphere she'd just dodged. I hid one from sight while you and Luna avoided the other two. But I knew that wouldn't be enough, so while you were helping your sister futilely trying to hit me with my own attack, I cast another spell. You thought it was to summon a third electrical orb, and so you were wary enough to dodge it when it appeared, but you didn't realize that it was to summon that miniature whirlwind. And since your eyes were on the trap you thought you'd avoided, you didn't even see the real one before it hit you. And now... Unable to stop herself in time, Celestia collided with the sphere of electricity. Going rigid as the voltage discharged into her body, her agonized scream rang out across the battlefield. It was only when Lex – easily calculating how much damage was sufficient to incapacitate her – mentally pulled the orb away from her that her wail of pain came to an end. She immediately collapsed, smoke rising from her body...but her chest rose and fell, indicating that he'd calculated correctly. Lex allowed himself the luxury of a laugh at the sight. I win. Ignoring Luna as she screamed her sister's name and raced toward where she'd fallen, Lex turned his attention to Severance. And now for you.