Slavery.
Lex turned the word, in all its myriad implications, over in his mind as he trudged back toward the camp. That he was able to do so in peace was mildly surprising; he’d fully expected Aria to make her opinion on Harrowing Ordeal’s “solution” known to him, loudly and repeatedly, during the trip back. But save for the soft sound of her hooffalls behind him, the former Siren was silent, leaving him to his thoughts.
There was, Lex knew, no reason to take Harrowing Ordeal at his word. The scabrous equinoid had, in the few minutes that he’d known him, shown himself to be utterly untrustworthy. It wasn’t unthinkable that he had been lying – or perhaps omitting pertinent information – when he had said that enslaving the girls would fulfill the Night Mare’s demands while still allowing for a relationship with them. But Lex had to admit that, if it was a lie, it was a compelling one; as Harrowing Ordeal had noted, that course of action not only satisfied all parties’ interests, but it was also perfectly in line with what Lex knew of the Night Mare’s tenets about the relationship between those who ruled and those who were ruled.
In fact, it lined up with her dogma of dominance a little too well, leaving Lex with the uncomfortable notion that the goddess had deliberately engineered this very outcome. For all that he’d done a poor job evangelizing her religion, Lex was aware that the Night Mare saw him as some sort of living embodiment of the virtues – or at least some of the virtues – that she extoled, similar to how he saw her as epitomizing the mindset and disposition necessary to be an effective leader. For him to dominate others to the point of owning them outright, the same way he did his cloak or his circlet, would no doubt bring him further into alignment with that.
But that was a condition that Lex simply couldn’t bring himself to accept. Even if he hadn’t been concerned about demonstrating his legitimacy to rule, that would have been true. Because although the commoditization of people had, at the macro level, numerous benefits – the economic advantages of a workforce that didn’t need to be paid, for just one example, were enormous – it was also hideously immoral.
A foundational aspect of the ethical framework that Lex had devised was the concept of the moral community, a classification whereby a sapient entity was understood as having personhood. That designation entitled all who fell under it to the recognition that they had certain inherent rights. While some of those rights could be abrogated by a legitimate authority, though only under extremely specific situations and in extremely specific ways, others could not be justly violated under any circumstances. One of the latter rights was that, once an individual was recognized as belonging to the moral community, that recognition could not be rescinded…not unless their fundamental mode of existence had undergone such an extreme alteration that they were, for all intents and purposes, a different being altogether. Hence why slaying the ghouls had been acceptable even though killing ponies could never be allowed.
Certain races were automatically part of the moral community. Others, such as the sahuagin, were not, though in theory exceptional individuals could potentially earn that recognition. But whether by circumstance of birth or demonstration of merit, another inviolable right accorded to those who were recognized as people was that they could not be considered property. That was because property was understood to carry a quantifiable economic value – having a price that could be measured in terms of goods, services, and/or currency – that measured its worth, whereas people were necessarily held to be manifestly beyond what any such scale could assess.
Of course, Lex knew what the Night Mare would say to that. To her, the only salient consideration with regards to moral philosophy was that it – like all other aspects of a society – needed to be imposed and enforced by those with the strength to do so in order to function. As far as she was concerned the demonstration of that level of might was sufficient; what it was used for didn’t matter. The orthogonal relationship between her amoral view of rulership and his own morally-righteous take on the issue was, Lex knew, the major point of friction between them…but it was still far better than the irresponsible principles that Equestria’s princesses adhered to. The Night Mare held that his philosophy was, unto itself, no better or worse than anyone else’s; Celestia and Luna, on the other hoof, rejected it outright.
But he had already dealt with the latter two. Now he needed to find a way to deal with the unreasonable demand that the former had placed on him. The wire around his hoof was still growing tighter…
For a brief moment Lex was tempted to try another summoning. It wasn’t implausible to think that calling up another creature from the Night Mare’s realm could yield a new insight into the situation. But after a few seconds’ consideration, Lex discarded that idea. With no mundane gems left to spend in exchange for answers, he’d be forced to trade away one or more of his magic items instead. By itself that wasn’t unacceptable, but in conjunction with how there was no guarantee that a better answer would be received, it began to seem less and less like a good idea, not when he felt sure he’d need those magic items in the future.
But worst of all was the level of risk involved. Another summoning ritual would require another half-hour of precise gestures and chants, and Lex knew full well that it he was in no condition for such a thing, not when he’d tripped over a rock just getting here. That he hadn’t botched the ritual that had called Harrowing Ordeal had been nothing short of astonishing, as well as being the only thing that had saved him from that creature’s perfidy. To make another attempt now would be to do more than merely court disaster. It would all but guarantee it.
Which meant that there was no other alternative but to work with what he had…
Lex continued to brood the entire way back, with Aria remaining uncharacteristically silent the entire time. It was only when they’d made it, not just back to the camp, but all the way to the train station when she finally spoke. “You should get some rest.”
Lex frowned at that, but didn’t argue. The statement struck him as being uncharacteristically sentimental of her, but he was in no position to say that it was bad advice. Not when he’d been forced to conclude the very same thing. At the very least, it would allow him to recover his dark magic, as well as the smattering of divine spells that the Night Mare had granted him.
Even so, Lex glanced around before answering. The eastern sky was only just barely beginning to lighten, indicating that dawn was still a little while off. And while it was difficult to see, Lex felt fairly confident that the dark spot in the harbor was River’s boat. The ponies piloting it had put the anchor down in the harbor rather than docking at night. Given how the waterborne monsters plaguing Vanhoover had been decisively sent back to their own plane, whereas the ghouls were still only presumably exterminated, Lex didn’t blame them for their caution. But it still meant that they wouldn’t be here for a little while. “I agree,” he said at last.
Aria muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like “no kidding,” but Lex didn’t bother to say anything as he dragged himself inside the station.
To his mild relief, Nosey and Sonata hadn’t awoken in his absence, the pair lying exactly where he’d left them. It was with no small sense of bitterness that he slowly climbed back onto the bench – an effort that felt only slightly less difficult than scaling a mountain – and lay back down, doing his best not to disturb either of the slumbering mares. Unless some epiphany came to him when he woke up, this would likely be the last time the four of them would do this.
A moment later he felt Aria settle on top of him, and Lex let out a sigh. He knew his dreams would be as unpleasant as ever, or perhaps even worse, and that his left foreleg would be hurting even more by the time he woke up. But with how tired and hurt and demoralized he felt right now, that was still an improvement.
Closing his eyes, Lex immediately fell asleep.
Two hundred ninety-eight…two hundred ninety-nine…three hundred.
Having counted out five minutes, Aria lifted her head from Lex’s chest, waiting to see if he reacted to her moving. When his breathing didn’t change, she slowly climbed off of him, stepping carefully down off the bench when he continued to show no sign of stirring. She hadn’t thought that he would, with how hard he’d been pushing himself, but she didn’t want to take any chances.
Carefully, she reached out a hoof. “Blondie,” she whispered, poking Nosey lightly. “Wake up.”
It took two more tries before the unicorn mare began to stir. “Nngh…huh? What’s-”
“Shh.” Putting a hoof over Nosey’s lips, Aria shook her head. “Be quiet. You might wake Lex up.”
Blinking, Nosey nodded once, waiting for Aria to withdraw her hoof before sitting up slowly. “What’s going on?” she whispered. “Is everything alright?”
Aria ignored the question. “I need to talk to you. Help me with Sonata.”
Frowning in confusion, Nosey climbed down from the bench and followed Aria as the former Siren went over to her sleeping sister’s side. “What do you…”
But her question fell by the wayside as Aria grabbed Sonata under her forelegs and began to bodily haul her off the bench. “I said help me,” she grunted quietly, nodding toward Sonata’s hind legs.
More confused than ever, Nosey nevertheless did as she was told, grabbing Sonata’s lower half and lifting her up. “Shouldn’t we just wake her up?”
Aria snorted. “She doesn’t wake up easy, and when she does she’s isn’t quiet. Now c’mon, let’s get her outside.”
A minute later the two of them were on the station platform, carrying Sonata away from the door after Nosey gingerly closed it. “Now what?” asked the newsmare.
Giving her a pointed look, Aria abruptly released Sonata, letting her hit the platform with a thud. The impact caused her eyes to open immediately. “Earthquake!” she yelped, limbs flailing and causing Nosey to let her go as well. “Watch out! There’s runaway slinkies and exploding sodas! We-”
“Be quiet!” snarled Aria, getting right in Sonata’s face. “You’re going to wake everyone up!”
“Well yeah!” huffed Sonata, her thrashing legs pausing as she gave Aria an indignant look. “There’s, like, an emergency going on!”
“Sonata, it’s okay,” giggled Nosey. “There’s no earthquake.”
Blinking, Sonata looked around, slowly getting to her hooves. “There isn’t?” She poked the ground suspiciously, waiting for several seconds. “Huh. I could have sworn I felt a big thump before.”
Aria rolled her eyes, looking at Nosey. “Give her another minute or two and she should get around to asking why she’s outside now.”
“Oh that is like, so false,” retorted Sonata automatically. “For your information, I, like…hey, wait a second…” Her sister’s words seemed to reach Sonata’s brain then, her eyes widening and turning her head to and fro as she realized she’d woken up in a place other than where she fell asleep. “Why am I outside now?”
“Aria brought us out here,” answered Nosey, fighting down the urge to laugh.
“Oh.” Sonata blinked, needed a few seconds to digest that. “How come? And come to think of it, how come Lex isn’t out here with us?”
The question was enough to make the last of Nosey’s humor at Sonata’s antics fade, turning to look at Aria. “That’s what I’d like to know.”
“About that.” Aria let out a sigh, sitting down. “I need to tell you two about what just happened…”