Starlight had to admit, Lex Legis knew how to make an entrance.
Keeping at the ready as the black mass of shadow floated forward from where the crowd parted, she made herself meet those green-and-purple eyes as they locked onto her, refusing to show any fear. But despite her show of bravado, she tensed her legs, prepared to spring if Lex began to cast a spell. Even that caused a pronounced ache to run through her, but it was one that she could bear now thanks to Sonata’s magic.
Most of his magic requires him to gesticulate and recite special words, Starlight reminded herself, recalling what Sonata had told her previously. But his dark magic can be used with a thought, and his eyes will glow whenever he uses either type of magic…or if he’s upset.
A second later Lex changed back to his pony form, striding forward with steps that were slow and confident, setting those two foals down in front of him. But although the aura around his horn faded away as he did so, his eyes lost none of their luminosity. The sight made a rueful smirk cross Starlight’s lips.
Yeah, definitely upset.
It was with cold dispassion that Lex surveyed the scene before him.
He could feel a mixture of dark emotions swirling within him – bitterness at how Vanhoover’s revival was again under threat, guilt that ponies had been hurt while he wasn’t there to protect them, and rage, an inferno of rage, at the purple unicorn mare standing a little more than a dozen yards away, smirking as though proud of what she had done – but he kept them under control. Succumbing to an outpouring of emotion right now would at best be a pointless waste of energy, and at worst cause him to make mistakes that he couldn’t afford. Not when he was already operating on such a meager reserve of strength.
As it was, the physical toll that enhancing the resurrection spell that the Night Mare had given him was acute in the extreme. Although he’d tried to blunt the worst of it by not engaging in any tasks more demanding than walking for the last few hours, he could still feel a profound lethargy coursing through his limbs now. Each step sent soreness rippling through his legs, and he moved slowly in an attempt to conserve whatever small amount of stamina he could, knowing that he’d likely need it all in the next few minutes.
But there were more important things that needed to be attended to before then.
“Lex, Crunchy’s hurt really bad!” Cleansweep’s voice was shaky as she cradled Fruit Crunch’s head in her lap, the colt’s face a mask of blood. “She…that lady, Starlight Glimmer, she put some sort of spell on me, so I don’t know exactly what happened, but Venin’s gone and I can’t heal him! I think…I think he was protecting me! He was-”
But Lex was already casting, chanting a liturgy to the Night Mare as he made the proper gestures, telekinetically withdrawing a vial of water that he’d imbued with the goddess’s power earlier to complete the spell. He saw the purple unicorn – Starlight Glimmer – tense, and prepared himself for her to try and interrupt his spell, but other than readying herself Starlight took no action. A second later Lex finished his spell, brushing his hoof over the colt’s head…and idly noting the equals sign that now graced Fruit Crunch's flank.
“I’ve used my own healing spell on him,” Lex announced a moment later, Cleansweep quieting down as he did. “I want you to stand watch over him until the doctors get here.” After receiving Thermal Draft’s message, that had been the one stop he’d made prior to heading to the battlefield as fast as he could: he’d rushed to the part of the manor that had been converted into a makeshift hospital – making several ponies shriek with fear as he’d emerged through a wall in shadow-form – and ordered Dr. House Call to send whatever doctors he could spare to the camp immediately.
“I didn’t want to hurt the kid that badly,” called Starlight Glimmer suddenly, her voice as casual as if they were discussing the weather. “But he just wouldn’t stay down, something I’m guessing he learned from you since he said he was your student. So really, what happened to him is your fault. Those other ponies too, since I’m sure they were also following your example.”
The anger that Lex was suppressing flared at that, but he managed to force it back down. “Your sophistry is exceeded only by your audacity in suggesting that you have no responsibility for what’s happened here,” he announced around gritted teeth, looking over the battleground.
But even that action wasn’t idle. The snarl of anger in his voice served to hide a groan of effort as he channeled power through himself and into his circlet. Doing so made him feel as though his organs were burning, but by this point he’d done it often enough that he was able to ignore the sensation, knowing it would recede to tolerable levels in a few seconds. Instead, he called upon the item’s ability to let him see into the magical spectrum as he turned his head to examine the local area.
It took a supreme effort of will for Lex to maintain his self-control at the sight of Aria and Garden Gate lying unconscious in the dirt, to say nothing of Feathercap, Fiddlesticks, and Straightlace. Instead, he forced himself to concentrate on the myriad residual spell auras that crisscrossed his field of view, analyzing them in conjunction with the numerous craters and furrows in the ground, as well as wide field of debris, trying to extract useful data from what he could see of the magic that had been used. That was easier said than done, however, as several of the auras had already decayed past the point of yielding useful information, while others were so dense that they overshadowed lesser ones near them. It was like trying to read a book whose pages had been torn out and scattered about haphazardly.
But not entirely.
There were several auras that were still extant, the active magic glowing keenly to his augmented vision. One was on Fruit Crunch, emanating from the foreign symbol where his cutie mark should have been. At a glance, Lex could tell it was acting as some sort of suppressive, likely reversing the qualities that his original cutie mark enhanced. Aria was similarly afflicted.
“You’re the last pony who should talk about responsibility!” Starlight’s angry retort drew Lex’s eyes back to her. “Cutie marks are bad enough, but you’ve actually made things worse! Now, not only is everypony here being led away from harmony by their special talents, they’ve got you encouraging them to develop new ones! What kind of pony does that?!”
“The kind that wants to encourage a prosperous and dynamic society,” answered Lex coldly. “That’s one of the core tenets of good governance.”
That answer was embarrassingly simple, of course, but Lex paid it no mind, using the conversation as a cover to inspect Starlight magically. Like when he’d so with Princess Celestia, he could only get a surface-level reading without being able to examine her up close. But what he could see was enough to make his brow furrow.
Starlight had several spells active on her, apparently to defend herself or enhance her battle prowess. More notable was how her equals sign cutie mark didn’t have the same magical signature as Fruit Crunch’s. While Lex couldn’t make out the specifics at this range, it seemed like it was performing the normal function of improving…whatever her personal aptitude was.
But he was less concerned with that than with what he couldn’t see, which was any method by which Starlight Glimmer was heightening her magical capabilities. Because, according to the residual auras that he’d seen, she had apparently done just that. While some of those spells had clearly been Aria’s, that didn’t account for all of them, which left only Starlight. But that made no sense. The level of power those auras suggested wasn’t something that – even with a cutie mark that improved spellcasting – could be achieved with the physical processes involved with Equestrian spellcasting. The only exceptions that Lex had ever seen had been Celestia and Luna, which he’d presumed had been due to some quirk of their nature as alicorns. So how had Starlight achieved similar results?
For a moment Lex’s mind whirled with possible answers. Was it sort of magic item? Conceivably, but unless she was somehow masking it from both casual observation and magical detection, there was no hint of her possessing any such thing. A spell designed to boost other spells? Unlikely, since entropy would invariably result in more power being expended than could be granted to any spell so heightened. Perhaps she had one or more of her followers assisting her somehow? Also dubious, since they seemed to simply be standing watch over the stolen cutie marks, having nothing notable about their magical channels save for the same suppressive equals sign that Fruit Crunch had…except for one.
Hiding behind the others, one of Starlight’s retinue not only had the same suppression effect on them, but had a second active spell effect on them as well. Some sort of enchantment that, unlike the ones on Starlight, was decidedly manipulative in nature. Even more curious was how the pony also had much more developed magical channels in their body than their companions, and the familiar arrangement of them made Lex tilt his head in confusion, trying and get a better look at the pony in question as they peeked out at him-
“SONATA?!”
Lex’s surprise was total as his beloved stepped out from behind the other ponies, wearing a rictus grin as she awkwardly waved at him. “Hi, Lex,” she called weakly. “I’m back.”
Starlight’s smile, by contrast, was one of triumph. “Well, it looks like your girlfriend doesn’t think much of your ‘good governance,’” she announced smugly. “After I explained to her how a society where everyone is equal leads to true harmony, she eagerly embraced our philosophy and gave up her cutie mark! And you can have that too, if you just-”
“No.”
Starlight blinked, her momentum interrupted. “What?”
“No,” repeated Lex, not noticing the black crystals beginning to sprout from the ground around him as his anger soared, straining against his attempts to keep it in check. “I’m no longer interested in hearing about your warped ideology,” he hissed. “You have perpetrated an attack on the ponies of Vanhoover! In doing so you have unlawfully caused multiple injuries, used invasive magic on its residents without their permission, and threatened the public’s welfare! Your only choice now is to either peacefully submit to being incapacitated prior to being sentenced for your crimes…” Slowly opening his saddlebag, Lex telekinetically lifted his enchanted gemstones from them, setting them in orbit around his head one at a time. “Or be forced to!”
“You really think you’re better than everypony else, don’t you?” snorted Starlight, waving a hoof at her followers, causing them to scurry back, dragging a reluctant Sonata with them. “Well, I think it’s time someone showed you that you’re not!” Her horn lighting up, Starlight sent a wolfish grin his way. “Come on! Sonata told me all about what you can do!”
“Is that so?” Finishing with the gems, Lex began to stalk forward, fury erasing any ache he felt then. “And what makes you think that she knows everything about me?!”
With his primary spellcasting disabled, and his divine spells being unsuitable for combat, Lex had known for some time that he’d be in a bad position if another fight broke out. But that knowledge had discouraged him not at all. Combat was just another form of problem-solving, simply requiring that available resources be utilized in such a manner so as to achieve a particular goal. Despite not having access to his strongest magic, Lex knew he still had numerous options available to him, including his dark magic, his remaining store of magic items, and his ability to augment both of those via his personal magical capacity. And so he’d come up with a strategy based around those.
This was part of my plan in case Twilight Sparkle showed up looking for a fight, recalled Lex as his horn flared, remembering the warning that Garden Gate had given him about the youngest princess’s return, as well as his subsequent promise to protect Aria. But it should only take a few minor adjustments to defeat this upstart nag!
Gritting his teeth, Lex bit back a roar of pain as he channeled magic through his body, pushing it to augment a certain ability, feeling it fall into place a second later.
And then he had the pleasure of seeing a look of fear spread across Starlight Glimmer’s face.