//------------------------------//
// 524 - Two Bright Lights 
// Story: Lateral Movement 
// by Alzrius 
//------------------------------//

“Tell me about your fight with Lex again.”

“Why?” snorted Starlight, making no effort to hide her displeasure. “If we wait a few more hours, he’ll apparently be all healed up thanks to that Cloudbank mare. Once he is, you won’t need to worry about what happened when he attacked me; you’ll get to experience it firsthoof.”

The angry response made Twilight sigh, and she didn’t try to stop Starlight as the unicorn stomped over to the railing that surrounded the main deck of the yacht, pointedly turning her back on Twilight as she looked out at where the sun was sinking toward the watery horizon. It was an attitude that she’d taken ever since Twilight had decided to leave River’s manor a few hours ago. But as much as the injured unicorn had pressed her to mount another attack before Lex recovered, Twilight hadn’t been able to bring herself to do so, still certain that she and her friends had been sent here to make peace instead of war.

That C. Shells and her crew hadn’t believed them had hurt, and it hurt all the more for how open they’d initially been. But from what her friends had told her after they’d canvassed the town earlier in the day, Twilight knew she shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, no one else in Vanhoover was willing to believe in them either. 

The ponies who had suffered through Vanhoover’s destruction, her friends had told her before, felt that Equestria’s princesses had abandoned them. And when Celestia and Luna had eventually put in an appearance – less than a month ago, after Lex had already cleared the city of monsters and established his rule – it had only made them look worse. More specifically, it had made them look like they were more concerned with defeating a political rival than helping their subjects.

Or as one irate pony had put it, according to Applejack, “Our dark wizard brought us food and medicine. The princesses didn’t bring us so much as a get-well card.”

That same antipathy apparently extended not only to Twilight herself, but also to her friends, since everyone knew they were as close to her as she was to Celestia and Luna. Rainbow Dash’s misguided attack on Lex, performed right after he’d defeated a mare who was already being popularly referred to as “The Cutie Thief” – among other, less savory descriptions – had only compounded the public’s dislike toward them. And while Twilight couldn’t fault Fluttershy and Soft Mane for wanting to help Starlight Glimmer, she knew that once word got out that they’d rescued her, their dismal public image would be set in stone. No one else would be willing to help them try to change Sonata’s mind about letting them anywhere near Lex.

And now that she knew that Cloudbank – whoever that was – would apparently be able to use healing magic herself once midnight rolled around, Twilight had been forced to face facts. 

Her plan to get into Lex’s good graces by healing his injuries was a failure.

It had been a disheartening realization, but Twilight had done her best not to be discouraged. In a way, this had confirmed what she’d initially suspected. The map had sent the six of them there, but hadn’t said anything about Spike and Soft Mane coming along. By that measure, it made sense that teaching Lex about the magic of friendship wouldn’t rely on Soft Mane’s spellcasting.

And then there was Starlight Glimmer.

The more Twilight thought about it, the more certain she felt that Starlight had an important part to play in their mission here. Somehow, despite her insistence that Lex was an enemy of Equestria, she was the key to helping Lex realize that friendship was more important than rulership. Not to mention the fact that Starlight was apparently in need of friends quite badly, something she didn’t seem to think could happen so long as those friends had cutie marks of their own…

But there had been more immediate issues to contend with. At that moment, with C. Shells having made it clear that there was no more progress to be made at River’s manor, Twilight’s primary concern had been finding a place for her and her friends to fall back and regroup. The train that had brought them there had long since left, so that had been out. Likewise, trying to find lodging in the half-built town was out of the question, especially with Starlight accompanying them. And since teleporting herself and eight other people all the way back to Ponyville, and then back again in the morning, would have put a serious drain on her magic reserves – not a state Twilight wanted to be in if worse came to worst once Lex recovered – that left only one option for where they could sleep tonight.

Blueblood’s yacht.

The snobby prince had been quite surprised when Twilight and her “motley assortment of rapscallions,” as he’d called them – the statement reminding Twilight of how Celestia had once let it slip that Blueblood had taken it upon himself to give Luna lessons in contemporary royal etiquette in the early days after her return, something which had explained a lot about how she’d acted during her first Nightmare Night – but had eventually agreed to let them stay there by virtue of Twilight being royalty herself. Fortunately, Blueblood had made it plain that he intended to stay in his quarters for the next few days and didn’t wish to be disturbed, on account of his preparing an epic poem to commemorate his forthcoming victory when Lex reneged on their duel. And while talk of that particular event had been equal parts amusing and perplexing to consider, Twilight and her friends had simply been grateful that the pompous royal wouldn’t bother them while they settled in and tried to figure out what to do next.

But while her friends had been content to turn in, after Blueblood’s chef had fixed them an early dinner, Twilight had wanted to talk to Starlight some more, starting with the unicorn’s account of what had happened since she’d come to Vanhoover. 

Starlight’s account had been illuminating, in more ways than one. For one thing, it had revealed several tidbits which Twilight hadn’t been aware of, such as how the group of foals that Celestia and Luna had mentioned – the “Night Mare’s Knights” – apparently had gained some magic of their own, or that Lex had used a fearsome-sounding new version of his shadow-form. But the greater insights had been with regard to Starlight herself.

The unicorn’s accounting had disagreed with what her friends had learned from the townsponies, not so much with regard to basic facts, but rather with Starlight’s presentation of them. For one thing, she’d not only presented herself as being completely innocent on every count (“all I wanted to do was help everypony develop real friendships!”), but she’d made everyone else involved in the fighting out to be either willfully malicious or a testament to Lex’s malevolence. That included Aria (“I’m telling you, she attacked first!”) and Garden Gate (“She’s insane, fighting with knives like that!”), the Night Mare’s Knights (“Lex is using child soldiers! What kind of monster does that?!”), Thermal Draft and Cloud Bank (“If I hadn’t noticed what they were about to do, I might not have survived!”), and Sonata (“She betrayed me!”).

Of course, her harshest criticism had been reserved for Lex himself, going on at length about how he would ruin Equestria if he wasn’t stopped, which had in turn segued into an impassioned rant about finishing him off before he recovered. And now that Twilight had refused, instead asking her to recount the battle again, Starlight seemed content to sulk, forelegs on the railing as she gazed out at the distant sunset. Twilight watched her for a long moment before going over to join her.

“You know,” she began tentatively, “one of the reasons I asked you to tell me what happened again is because there were some ponies you didn’t mention the first time around.”

That was enough to earn her a glance from Starlight, her expression a mixture of curiosity and irritation. “Like who?”

“Like your friends,” replied Twilight with an easy smile. “The ones you brought with you from your village.”

Starlight’s expression darkened, and for a moment Twilight thought she was going to have another outburst, but after a moment Starlight turned her face back toward the horizon. “I don’t want to talk about those traitors. How do you even know about them?”

“My friends and I asked several ponies in town what happened before we went to River’s manor,” explained Twilight. “A lot of them mentioned that you brought several ponies with you, and that you had a falling out during the fighting. As the Princess of Friendship, I couldn’t help but be a little curious.”

Starlight snorted at that. “There’s nothing to be curious about. They all came to my village because their lives were empty, and I showed them that they were better off without their cutie marks. And my thanks for that was them turning on me when I needed them most.”

“But why did they turn on you?” pressed Twilight. “That’s what I don’t understand. Friends don’t just turn their backs on each other for no reason.”

“Maybe they weren’t really my friends, then!” snapped Starlight, her voice rising as she turned to glare at Twilight. “Maybe they never appreciated what I’d done for them if they abandoned me because of one little-” She stopped abruptly, as if suddenly realizing what she was saying, her expression bitter as she turned back toward the ocean. 

The obvious question hung in the air, but Twilight hesitated to ask it. Starlight’s clenched jaw, heavy breathing, and the slight tremor running through her made it clear that this was an extremely volatile subject for her. But that wasn’t a surprise; having learned how important friendship was, Twilight could only imagine how much it must have hurt Starlight to lose the bonds she’d had with those four ponies, and in the middle of a fight no less. 

After a long moment of silence, Twilight finally spoke up. “Starlight, if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t pry. But I just want you to know that if you ever do feel like talking, I promise I’ll be there to listen, and I won’t judge or lecture you.”

“The only thing I want to talk about is what we’re going to do about that monster that’s taken over Vanhoover!” snapped Starlight, lowering her forelegs from the railing. “But for some reason, that doesn’t seem to be something you’re too concerned about, since you’re fine with just sitting back and letting our best chance to stop him once and for all slip away!” She turned her back on Twilight then, the motion abrupt enough to make it clear she was deliberately snubbing her. “I’ll be in my room. If you feel like talking about something that’s actually important, then I’ll be there to listen,” she sneered, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she walked away.

Despite the overt nastiness, Twilight couldn’t help but feel sad as she watched Starlight leave, knowing that she had to be in a great deal of pain over what had happened. I just have to keep trying, and hope that she’ll open up to me over time. And not just for Starlight’s own sake; for all that she seemingly hated Lex, she was like him in a lot of ways, yet another reason to think that she would have the best chance of reaching him.

Particularly since, if and when Lex recovered, another fight didn’t seem likely.

Starlight’s recounting of her battle had let Twilight pick up on several new bits of information, and had revealed quite a bit about Starlight’s state of mind. But the most notable part of her story, at least when it came to the part where she’d fought Lex, had been what she hadn’t said. So much so, in fact, that Twilight had wanted Starlight to repeat the tale just to be certain. Particularly since the missing factor was also one that had been conspicuously absent when Rainbow Dash had relayed her brief encounter with Lex in the minutes after Starlight’s defeat.

That factor being that, in both altercations, Lex hadn’t used his strongest magic.

From the sound of things, in each fight he’d limited himself almost exclusively to the dark magic of his horn; the magic of isolation, as Princess Celestia had called it. Starlight’s extremely brief mention of him doing something to help that colt, Fruit Crunch, had sounded like it might have been a minor thaumaturgical spell, but the surly unicorn hadn’t given enough details for Twilight to be sure. But aside from that one possible exception, there hadn’t been any mention of the arcane power he’d wielded so freely in prior battles.

Celestia and Luna had both described how Lex had used myriad powerful spells during his fight with them. The article in the newspaper about him slaying that dragon in Tall Tale had included a photograph of him inside some sort of huge, translucent construct. And Twilight herself had seen him cast several spells of not-inconsiderable power during their brief time together back on Everglow. So why hadn’t he used those now?

Twilight had briefly considered the possibility that Lex had held back out of concern for his opponents, since for all his faults he’d been consistent in his concern for the welfare of even the ponies he considered his enemies. But that theory hadn’t fit the data; Celestia and Luna were ponies also, and Lex hadn’t held back when fighting them. Surely, with the princess-level power that Starlight had been throwing around – not to mention his life, as well as Sonata’s, being on the line – Lex would have been more liberal with his spellcasting. But even when Rainbow Dash had been relentlessly pummeling him, he had elected to use a curse rather than an attack spell. Why?

No matter how she approached the question, Twilight could only come up with one answer. It was an answer that raised more than a few additional questions, but if she was right, then it would change everything when it came time to deal with Lex directly. Because right now, for whatever reason, it seemed like the answer wasn’t that Lex hadn’t cast his thaumaturgical spells when fighting Starlight Glimmer and Rainbow Dash.

It was that he couldn’t.