113 - Executive Decisions
“What I still can’t figure out is exactly why the elemental bleed moved in the first place.”
“Mm-hmm.” Sonata nodded in response to Nosey’s statement, not really paying attention. Instead, she was focused on the far side of the room, where Lex was talking to Drafty. He’d spent the last half-hour having conversations with various ponies, and she’d been making sure to keep an eye on him, ready to jump in if he got himself into trouble. Amazingly, she hadn’t had to do anything, though that seemed to be because everypony was making allowances for how awkward Lex was.
From what she could see, it was going well; Drafty had a look on her face that could only be called ecstatic, as though she were talking to her favorite celebrity. Which she might be, now, thought Sonata with a smirk.
“I mean, according to Aisle and Cloudbank and everypony else that I’ve talked to so far, Vanhoover was flooded for a week. After that, the water receded. But Lex told us before the battle that it hadn’t closed, and that it wouldn’t until that ‘kraken’ thing was killed or banished.” Nosey hadn’t looked up from her notes, tapping the point of her quill against her lip in thought.
Sonata’s reply was a noncommittal grunt as she continued watching her boyfriend. He had never been able to keep whatever he was feeling from showing on his face, which meant that – with how long she’d known him – he was even easier for her to read than Drafty was. At the moment, he was nervous and awkward, but also optimistic. Something had happened to turn him around on talking to everypony. Although she had no idea what it was, Sonata was glad for it.
“Also, I can’t confirm this, but I think that the water level in the bay has dropped a little bit since then. The water stains on the supports of the remaining piers seem to…Sonata?” Nosey paused as she looked up and saw that her friend was staring across the room with a soft smile. Following her gaze, Nosey followed her gaze, frowning as she saw where it was directed. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“What?”
“Having him schmooze it up with his fangirl like that.”
“Why not? Telling everyone that he’s totes proud of them is a nice thing to do.” That, and he deserved an adoring public for everything he’d done. Maybe it would even make him relax a little more.
“I’m more worried about what she’s telling him.” Nosey’s voice had lowered to a mutter, and Sonata barely heard it. But before she had a chance to respond, she saw Drafty take a half-step forward – closer than was strictly polite – and say something to Lex, her expression changing from starstruck to something slightly naughtier. An instant later, Lex looked thunderstruck, his eyes widening and jaw dropping. Sonata frowned, and was about to cut in when she saw Drafty back off, laughing as she said something that seemed to mollify Lex, his expression immediately changing into one of relief. A moment later he nodded.
That seemed to be the end of the conversation, as Drafty immediately turned and trotted away. Lex glanced around, and upon meeting Sonata’s gaze headed towards her. Because of that he didn’t notice when Drafty looked back in his direction and giggled, half-shielding her face with one wing. Sonata and Nosey both saw the coquettish gesture, however, and the latter gave the former an “I told you so” look.
Refusing to let Nosey’s suspicions get her down, Sonata kept her smile in place as Lex reached them. “Hey! So, how’s it going?”
Lex came perilously close to smiling. “In the last thirty minutes I’ve spoken to nineteen different individuals. So far none of them have displayed an adverse reaction to the dialogue I’ve been using.”
“That’s great!” Sonata beamed. “I totes knew you could do it!” She stepped forward and nuzzled him, grinning as he returned the gesture.
After they’d finished, Lex continued. “I’ll want to go over the results with you in detail later. So far, the phrases ‘you should be proud’ and ‘you did well’ have received the best response rate, but I’m going to want your input on-”
“Whoa, whoa, time out.” Sonata held up her hooves. “Are you saying that you’re, like, using stock lines on everypony?”
Lex cocked his head. “Of course.”
“Nooo…” Sonata’s jubilation was gone in an instant, and she sagged in place. “Lex, you can’t just, like, feed everybody a line! You have to really talk to them!”
He frowned at her, his confusion evident. “I’m attempting to deconstruct the underlying methodologies of social dynamics in these exchanges. Utilizing standardized dialogue is necessary in order to establish a baseline so that the variables can be properly analyzed. I’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t the proper laboratory setting I’d prefer, but that’s not atypical where social engagement is concerned.” He paused, then added. “And the proper term is ‘everypony,’ not ‘everybody.’”
Sonata’s response was to put her face in her hooves and groan.
Nosey, who had been giving Lex the evil eye up until now, finally spoke up. “What were you talking about with Drafty just now?”
Lex shot her a glare, since he wasn’t sure how that was any of her business. Nevertheless, he answered, his eyes turning back to Sonata as he did. “We’re going on a date later.”
“What?!” The response, thick was outrage, came not from Sonata – her only reaction was to freeze in place, her mouth hanging open as she looked at him in utter shock – but from Nosey. The reporter’s lips were pulled back in a snarl, and behind her glasses her eyes were narrowed dangerously. “You…you agreed…to go on a date…with her?!”
“And Cloudbank,” confirmed Lex. His face once again displayed confusion as his eyes flickered back and forth between the two mares. “She assured me that coordinated dates between couples are a standard social convention.”
“Wait, ‘between couples’?” Sonata blinked, the gears slowly turning in her head. “You mean, you and me going out with her and Cloudbank? Like a double date?”
“I believe that is the term she used, yes.”
Sonata almost collapsed with relief, and a moment later started to snicker, before bursting into full-blown laughter. Lex blinked, giving her a look of incomprehension, and just like on the boat ride to Vanhoover, this only set her off more. It was all she could do not to fall down, drawing looks from the ponies around her.
Nosey’s reaction was far less mirthful. Instead, she looked completely chagrinned, her ears folding back as she cringed with embarrassment. “I, uh, I’m going to go see if I can interview some of those ponies you brought in. They should be almost done with the doctors by now.” She didn’t wait for a response before slinking away, looking miserable.
Lex just looked between the two of them, utterly mystified.
Dinner had been a delicious affair for once.
With the addition of the new ponies to their group, the spell that Lex normally used to create sufficient food and water for everypony was insufficient to meet their needs. Although he could have dipped into his magical reservoirs to retain the spell after casting it and then use it a second time, Lex had opted for a different strategy. Instead, he had channeled additional energy through his body – only a small amount, rather than pushing himself to his limits; he had been quite pleased at how doing so hadn’t even caused a twinge of pain, letting him know that he had fully recovered from the battle – as he cast the spell, boosting its effect.
The results had been dramatic. Not only had the amount of food and drink created been much greater than normal, the quality of it had improved considerably. Rather than bowls of bland gruel and simple cups of plain water, there had been some variety to what had been created. Salads of lettuce, carrots, and celery had appeared alongside dry bread, and there had even been small selections of nuts and cheeses as side dishes. The drinks had still been water, but there had been a fruity flavor to it, as though berries had just been squeezed over them.
Needless to say, after days of eating food with virtually no discernable taste whatsoever, the ponies in the shelter had been ecstatic, particularly the newcomers. In an instant, the party that had been in the planning stages before erupted as everypony dug in, and suddenly there were games being played and songs being sung amidst a series of whooping and hollering. There wasn’t a face that didn’t have a smile on it.
Lex, of course, had been the exception.
Taking some food for himself, he’d exited the shelter almost immediately. While he might have made some small advancements on unraveling the mysteries of social interaction today, that didn’t mean that he enjoyed the cacophonous din or meaningless pastimes that everypony else was engaged in. Far better to return his attention to the task of Vanhoover’s recovery.
Noticing Severance still hovering just outside the shelter where he’d left it before, Lex telekinetically pulled it over to him. As he did so, he heard the weapon’s query about the newcomers in his mind, and shook his head in reply. “No. Even if they do something stupid, they’re outnumbered and outclassed. Sonata could handle them on her own if they become a problem.” The scythe’s response made him frown. “I doubt it was a ruse. I scanned them all for active magic before I brought them into the shelter, and none of them registered anything.” It pressed the point, but Lex only snorted. “I am not going to sanction ponies because of what ‘might’ happen. Just because a negative result is possible does not change the moral dimension of a given action.”
As he heard himself he stopped, his earlier dilemma coming back to him. Now that the last of the immediate crises had passed, he needed to figure out whether or not he should contact the princesses about Vanhoover’s situation. The kraken and its minions might be gone, but the undead ponies would be far more difficult to deal with, since there was no elemental bleed that could cause them all to vanish if a particular one were slain. Which meant that the only option was to destroy each and every one of them…and that wasn’t something he could easily do.
It wasn’t that the undead ponies were particularly strong; from what he’d seen during his brief encounter with them they were only marginally more dangerous, at least to him, than those would-be thieves he’d subdued. But with no way of knowing how many of the creatures there were, and no easy way to track them – even Aria’s detection spell was limited to a few hundred feet, and lasted only a little more than an hour – eliminating them all would be an extremely difficult task.
“I bet Princess Twilight and her friends could,” said Cloudbank challengingly. “They restored everypony’s magic after Tirek stole it, so I'm sure they could do this too.” She took a step closer to Lex, and the two of them were practically nose-to-nose as a result. “Maybe instead of running around and trying to do everything by yourself, you should call in the ponies who actually have a track record of saving all of Equestria!”
Sitting down to eat in a quiet corner of the warehouse, Lex mentally winced at the memory of Cloudbank’s outburst. As loathe as he was to admit it, she wasn’t wrong. Although he didn’t know precisely what the princesses were capable of, cleansing a city of a plague of undead ponies sounded like the sort of thing that their magic could do. And while asking for their help would wound his pride severely, that was no excuse for not doing it; if there were other survivors in the city, then he owed it to them to take the course of action that would lead to the quickest resolution. As it was, he knew he should have done this days ago, but had been distracted by curing the ponies that the aboleth had infected. Now he had no more excuses; even talking the decision over with Sonata was pointless now that he had made up his mind.
Sighing as he finished his meal, Lex stood up. At the very least, he wouldn’t contact Celestia or Luna. The very thought of having to admit that he needed the assistance of those arrogant nags was more than he could stomach. Nor had he ever actually met Princess Cadance, and so couldn’t communicate with her via his magic. That left only Twilight Sparkle as the least-unpalatable option.
Although he wanted to curse, to snarl and rant at the cosmic injustice of having to rely on the ponies that he considered to exemplify unreliability, he knew that doing so was beneath him. He could at least keep his composure, even if that didn’t reduce the magnitude of the indignity.
Without further delay, Lex began to gesture and chant.
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Calling in Twiggy's not that bad.
Didn't they date at some point? 
What did I miss there?
I don't see any reason as to why the Alicorns should be able to help like that. Actually eliminating every undead with ease would require a lot more metamagical adjustment than they could provide, even if all four attack at the same time. The only thing they should be able to provide are numbers, which Lex could probably pull from somewhere else too. Further, it is entirely irrelevant how many ponies survive if the sisters are just gonna take it anyway, as them swooping in and saving no matter how many won't increase the number of subjects you get, but set it to 0.
While they aren't connected to a bleed, which means they don't have a leader (the bleed was declared impossible before), it is common in fantasy that undead spawn stonger undead over time. It does beg the question where the undead came from. This isn't 3.5, so you can't spellstitch Create Dread Warrior or something similar, but if they were controlled by a necromancer, Wraiths would've annihilated any survivors long ago regardless of edition. And I don't think any pony in Equestria would be able to use Necromancy, especially on that grand a scale.
8224933 Lex bases his moral right to rule on his ability to keep ponies from dying, so letting some of them die for the sake of building his own power base would be hypocritical.
I think he's hoping they can use the elements of harmony or the rainbow power to blast the city in one fell swoop and either destroy or cure the undead? Undead are the sort of foe that that might actually work on.
Lex got a nice power up with the supplies, and if they thought that was good, the next level, after a couple more bosses, would be good enough for Blueblood, even though he would refuse to say so.
Humans get Feat per level, but is there a combination of Feats Abilities etc that increase spell numbers, casting levels , stackably, or is it just plus one, making the base roll bonuses the greater influence?
8225061
Well, the elements have been pretty single-target so far. On curing undead... No. Since this is based on pathfinder, curing Undead is harder than curing someone from Death itself, which I believe might be out of range for the elements. Alzrius DID break down what they can do, but we don't know if that is still valid. Either way, I'm fairly certain Lex knows that the amount of power needed to revert an Undead back to life is out of range for... pretty much everyone in Equestria. Unless it's Discord, maybe, and then probably with side-effects.
Morals... Eh, I guess? Sure, I can't work with something that's weird and un-logicy either way
EDIT: Let me rephrase that. The elements CAN bring back the dead (5th level spell, their upper limit), but they cannot bring back a creature that used to be Undead.
8224827 Yes they did, and isn't Sonata likely to be wild about that?
Also, who knows what might happen with Kara's blessing in place?
8225159 Boo, the characters don't think about things in meta-game terms!
Also, humans don't get one feat per level; they get a bonus feat at 1st level, and after that they gain the same number of feats as everyone else. Beyond that, well, I'm sure there's some combination of broken feats somewhere that could be used to gain more spellcasting prowess, but I like to think I'm operating at a bit of a higher standard than that.
8225199
8225061
Terrycloth has the right of it: Lex's claims that he should be the one to rule are based on his assertion that he is more proactive about helping ponies. In this case, that means figuring out how to cleanse Vanhoover of its undead plague in the quickest manner possible (and, obviously, without doing anything immoral in the process), and he can't justify not calling the princesses in on that just because it would hurt his pride. To him, it's entirely relevant how many ponies survive - indeed, that's pretty much the most relevant thing - even if they turn away from him because of it.
The thing to remember here - and I'll admit I might have done a bad job of making this clear - is that Lex doesn't know the full extent of the alicorns' power (let alone their game statistics). I've dropped hints that he learned some of what Twilight and her friends have done, both from what he heard during the time between the return of the Crystal Empire and his being sent to Everglow, and that Twilight told him some more on their brief date in Viljatown, but that's it. So he has incomplete knowledge, at best, which means that he can't rule out the chance that they might have some power that could cleanse the city in a single shot (even if they can't bring every undead pony back to life, they could at least - presumably - destroy all of them and end that threat). After all, as Cloudbank noted, they restored magic to ALL the ponies in Equestria after Tirek's rampage. (And remember, the Elements of Harmony have been returned to the Tree, and the Mane Six now have the "Rainbow Powers" instead, which are near-totally undefined.)
Insofar as the undead go, they can make more of themselves (i.e. those who die of ghoul fever become ghouls), but the presumption that a large number of undead gather stronger undead is a narrative presumption that may or may not be true in a given circumstance, as opposed to being mandated by the game rules. As such, there's no way to say whether or not that's the case here. But still, it is worth noting that the undead weren't related to the elemental bleed, which makes one wonder where they came from...
8224933
Anypony in EQUESTRIA. My current standing theory is that our dear guard captain waiting outside the city isn't from Equestria...
8225199 They've been used for city- or country-wide spells multiple times. Namely, against Discord they also reversed all his chaos magic, and against Tirek they also returned all the magic he stole (and it showed the ponies in Rainbow Power form flying around and doing that, so it doesn't look like it just happened automatically).
Returning undead ponies to life is a stretch, but Harmony *specializes* in that sort of thing, so it might be something they can do even if it's a more powerful D+D effect than they usually go for. They're not D+D magic. D+D magic has to destroy the undead, purify the spirit of the undead taint, and then recreate a new body and fetch the spirit back from the afterlife.
Harmony might be able to skip most of those steps and just purify the negative energy undead unlife back into positive-energy-based life force directly, for example. That might be easier for it than raising the dead, which involves contacting the afterlife, which is something it can't or doesn't do.
... or it might not destroy the undead and just make then sentient undead which are no longer forced to be chaotic evil. That's the other sort of thing it does.
8225567
It is true that the guardspony could be the cause, but that would make me question what he is. This might be my incomplete Pathfinder knowledge peaking out, but I don't know of any undead creature that can spawn more and use Demand. He could be a Necromancer, but that's the thing: A Necromancer wouldn't use Zombie to wipe out a population or make them suffer. Wraiths, Allip and Spectre are far more suited to the task, and anyone capable of using a high-powered spell like Demand on the fly should be able to create these.
8225617
True, but they did it by attacking Discord (reversing his power the instant he turned into stone) and Tirek (after Tirek was beaten, they could distribute the magic they stole back, for which they do not require the elements: We have seen magical transfer performed by ponies before, the same two episodes in fact).
I fail to see how Harmony would specialize in that. In fact, I cannot remember a single instance of Undead in MLP. Harmony seems to specialize in making the wrong things right, as seens with depowering Tirek, warping NMM into Luna and imprisoning Discord's power. The Undead ARE "wrong" things, so I agree that, if they find a singular source of the Undead, they could remove the necromantic effects... But that would just kill the Undead.
See, Undead are not "transformed" ponies in any way, shape or form. Undead are animated corpses. Making them "right" is just turning them back into corpses again. There ARE incorporeal undead... but then the body is likely beyond repair after being abandoned.
Well, Undead are, again, animated corpses. Normally, if you apply positive energy to undead... Well, you get corpses again. There is no pony in there anymore, the soul is already in the afterlife (as D&D and PF lore overlaps in many points, I'd just like to point out the fact that there is an Eberron cult, the "Blood of Vol", that uses this specific argument to justify Undead use), so at most you have a corpse again. If you somehow manage to repair the damage too (which would require Memory of Function/Make Whole or other object manipulating spells)... Well, you might get "something" back. Most sources suggest you get a comatose body (similar to the "Clone" spell). Others say any form of resurrection just "fails", which would, again, just be a corpse.
Awaken Undead isn't in PF and a 6th level spell in D&D. Further, I believe making random objects sentient has always been more of a Discord thing. Still, even if that succeeds, the things you get back are mentally handicapped (a 10 Int at MOST, not even considering the Cha and Wis problems... Which, to be fair, would be close to the canon ponies) and not the ponies they were in life, or at least there is no reason why they would be. Also, Undead aren't forced to be CE, as there are lots of NE Undead (and even some LE IIRC). Their negative energy animation simply takes the joy out of their lives. Theoretically, a strong mind could stay just as nice and kind as it always was, but practically... Well, why would it?
To recap:
Undead have no souls anymore. If the elements cannot bring back souls (which I believe would have been revealed by now), that's that.
Infusing an Undead with positive energy doesn't cure them, it kills them.
Transmutating an Undead into a living creature doesn't actually revive the being. The soul is still in whatever hell it belong.
While the Elements aren't D&D/PF, the Undead are, thus their rules still apply: They are corpses. Nothing more, nothing less.
8230492 Um... I'm not sure where you got the notion that undead were always animated corpses with no connection to their previous inhabitant. Mindless undead are (and they're also neutral, aren't they?), but ghouls aren't mindless.
Sentient undead 'have or are' souls. Since even True Resurrection (which needs no connection to the target) requires the undead to be killed first before you can bring the person back, the implication is clearly that it's the *same* soul, just corrupted.
A lot of incorporeal undead have flavor text that explicitly says they are the soul of a dead person with X evil qualities.
So, most likely, the ghouls are the ponies that died of ghoul fever, corrupted and driven insane by negative energy. Flooding them with positive energy in the D+D style would kill them, but Harmony specializes in purifying darkness and chaos. If anything could do it, it would be that.
8230522
They are ghouls? I was under the assumption that they were zombies (basically plague/apocalypse zombies), which are mindless (but NE. They SHOULD be TN, by how alignment is defined, but then again, so should Devils and Angels... Alignment is weird business) and without connection. If they are ghouls... Well, then they ARE still animated corpses (see virtually everything that spawns or raises undead, including spells), though they do have the soul.
The problem with the ponies being ghouls is that Ghoul Fever requires humanoids, and I doubt that they are humanoids. Primarily because they (appear to) turn into Fey rather than humans when they cross into Everglow. Still... I guess that could be possible, since Equestrian ponies never got an actual type (copyright and stuffs).
I'm still not sure if "purifying Darkness and Chaos" is what they actually do. Tirek didn't seem to have the typical Dark-Magic Eyes, and they still tackled him. Even if they do, I find it arguable that they turn the Undead into ponies rather than corpses for the same reason they turn Discord into stone: There is no indication that they "change" things. Instead, it appears like they remove things (Tirek's magic, Discord's chaotic magic (which was his "animating force") and Luna's Nightmare) they don't like. If they would transform Darkness into Light, Negative into Positive... Then they would've turned Discord into Accord (you know, similar to the comics), because a "rock" doesn't seem very harmonic. As a matter of fact, why would they banish NMM? Banishment shouldn't be in their arsenal at all if their only purpose is to purify.
To make it short:
Assuming they are Ghouls and Ghoul Fever works against ponies, they are still corpses. They now have the soul, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that the body is probably partially decayed now. Healing would still be required either way*.
The elements of harmony changing negative energy into positive is still a stretch, it simply reversing undead is another one.
*Normally, Ghouls do not decay like that, or at least it isn't mentioned. They are just white skinned and skinny. However, in this story, they seem to do, which was one of the reasons why I didn't take them into account. Chapter 79 mentions "rotting wings", Chapter 74 mentions a "rotting hoof". I did, however, forget that they rout and sing at one point, which means they are sentient.
At least we know Lex can provide an instant feast if the need arises. Might be useful in attracting more survivors on favorable notes.
Of course, he probably won't need to if Twilight comes through with some aid though that would likely entail bringing Celestia and Luna into the mix.
Lex being Lex, I expect he'd be angry at any suggestion of bringing Celestia and Luna in to help as well but Twilight can probably talk Lex into it, provided they don't start arguing over Celestia's method of ruling...but I'm getting ahead of myself. On to the next chapter!
8238349 That Lex can create food has long been known, but channeling additional magic into the spell to create more food was always theoretical. I doubt he expected that it would increase the quality of the food quite so much.
As for bringing the princesses in...he'd have the easiest time dealing with Twilight, mostly because they have a history. Even so, I suspect that there'd be some friction between them (mostly because of Lex). Doubtlessly Sonata's social lubricant would be sorely needed.
Another typo free warehouse!
8382775 Woo-hoo!